#<- this is my weakest point because it has been quite a while since ive played that part of the game | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cottage-babe · 4 years

Text

Burning Scars part IV

Previous | Chapter 4 | Next

Masterlist

I’ve been watching haikyuu and Nishinoya is so cute :(((

This chapter is going to fill in pretty much EVERYTHING related to Y/n’s past. also i feel like this shorter than my other chapters idk

Summary: Y/n, a werewolf from a hidden village, comes across Zuko and Iroh after being exiled. How has fate intertwined the wolf into the avatar's destiny?

*****This chapter takes place on Season 2 Episode 11*****

___

“Thank you,” Y/n said as she accepted the cup of tea from Mushi.

The boys were surprisingly welcoming to her. Lee had begun to ask questions as soon as she came up to them, but his uncle had told him to stop and let her speak. He set up a pot of tea and had now given some to the young teens.

All throughout the wait for the drink, Y/n’s mind was racing. Where does she start? How much does she tell them? The girl desperately wanted to come clean, but her loyalty to her pack deterred her. However, she knew that she had no obligations anymore, so why was she still so stuck on them?

Mushi took the spot next to Lee and quietly sipped his drink. His eyes weren’t on her, but she could feel that his desire for answers was just as strong as Lee’s.

She took a deep breath and started her story.

“So I’m a- uh- werewolf.”

Silence.

The girl knew that she probably should’ve continued from there, but she couldn’t help but wait for their reactions. Or rather, lack thereof.

Y/n didn’t want to look up at their faces. If she did, she knew that their facial expressions would cause her to assume things and she didn’t want to guess their emotions; if they felt something, then they would need to say it.

“Oh, well, we know that much!” The uncle laughed lightly, breaking the obvious tension.

“But Uncle, I thought you said they were only myths; fiction.” Lee questioned.

“What more proof do you need? She’s a living, breathing piece of evidence!”

The teen nodded his head as he thought about that logic. Y/n assumed that it would be hard for him to process; just yesterday he had heard the story and now there she was, telling him that it wasn’t a myth, it was completely real and in front of him.

“So, are you the only one? Or are there more?” Lee thought for a moment. “Wait, no, you mentioned a town before; there’s a whole village of werewolves?!”

I have no obligations toward my pack. I have no obligations toward my pack. I have no obligations toward my pack.

“Yes,” she said confidently. It was about time that she went past her fear of her pack. They could no longer control her, she was her own person who could make her own decisions.

But they’re your family.

Y/n shook the thought out of her head. Family doesn’t treat family that way.

“Don’t ask me where they live or anything, because I won’t speak it.” Y/n succumbed to her guilty side slightly, hoping it would soothe her small feelings of regret.

“We won’t, we promise,” Mushi said while sending a stern stare toward Lee. The boy nodded his head once again.

Lee continued with his questions, though. “Why aren’t you with them then? You came to us two days ago, alone. Did something happen?”

Why does he ask so many questions?

She supposed that if she wanted to maintain their trust, she would have to wipe the slate clean; no more lies and no more hiding. They already knew that her kind existed, so there was no way that she would let them leave her behind.

“In my pack, there’s a rite of passage that we must do when we turn 16...”

___

This was it. The day that everyone in the pack was waiting for.

The L/n children’s Days of Trials.

The morning had started wildly; their mom had helped clean the fur of all five of her “pups” while they watched decorations and food being prepared from afar. The village was quite small and had wooden huts for each family. Each one had a large leaf door that slid close for privacy; they had evolved a lot since their original days. Almost everyone in the pack was helping set up, except for the male Alpha.

That man just so happened to be their father; the exact reason why everyone was making such a big fuss over today. The Alpha’s children were going to be doing their trials to prove their worth to the pack. Some of the other wolves were excited and curious to see how the days would pan out; recently, there had been a spike of children who couldn’t complete the tasks assigned.

However, there were many members who didn’t quite care for the right of passages. Every time the children of their leaders undergo the trials, they pass with flying colors. Never has there been a “royal” family child that didn’t meet the standards that were put up.

Half of the workers around were in their human bodies to put up the decor while the other half were using their wolf’s to carry heavy things. It was a beautiful harmony that Y/n enjoyed on the Days of Trials; no one in the pack was looked down on for using their human skins. People would only use what was convenient.

The five teen’s mother changed down to her human form. Her children copied her actions.

Their mother had long, overgrown hair and lively eyes. She was the kindest mother that the kids could ever dream of having. The wrinkles that surrounded her eyes not only showed age, but her strong, wise experience. She was absolutely perfect.

Mother sighed as she looked at each one of her kids in the eyes.

“I want all of you to know that no matter what happens, I am proud of you,” she smiled so sweetly. “You worked so hard to be here and no amount of trials can take that away.”

Just as she said that, someone called for her aid and she had to leave, but not before leaving a kiss on all five of her kid’s foreheads.

Soon, the siblings were left alone.

“I-I don’t know if I can do this,” Fen spoke while trying to even out his erratic breaths. “It just feels so wrong to lie like this.”

Ayano rubbed Fen’s back to try and calm him. Then, Binu spoke up.

“I hate to agree with him, but he’s kinda right. Mom’s worried about our safety while we’re here with a secure plan? It feels sick to let her be so scared.”

Shong crossed his arms with a glare. “Don’t be dumb, guys. Our plan makes it so we all come out alive. If anything, we’re doing her a favor.”

They’re tall brother spoke some truths. The siblings had devised a scheme a long time ago to ensure that each member completed their tasks efficiently and met the bare minimums.

They’re first task would be to go out and hunt a total of three animals before the sun rose to the center of the sky, signaling noon. Y/n and Binu were the best hunter’s of the family; while Y/n took hiding in the shadows easy, Binu was fast enough to outrun any animal. The two would use their skills to help the other’s catch their prey and make it back before their time ended.

Then, their next task would be working as a group to capture something that belonged to an opposite group (sort of like capture the flag). It was meant to see if the group could work together nicely and form a strategy. Luckily for them, Shong was very smart and him with the combination of Ayano would be able to easily make up a plan for any situation.

Lastly, the five siblings would have to fight head on with each other and gain a total of two wins. They weren’t aware of the line up, but the siblings knew that no matter who went up against who, they would stick to the plan.

If they didn’t, then members of their family could be gone forever.

___

“Ahh, I see,” Mushi said once the girl took a pause in her story to drink her tea, “Your plan didn’t work, then?”

Y/n shook her head softly and spoke quietly. “No, no. It did work. We made it past the first two trials so quickly, we almost broke a record.” A frown slowly set upon her face. “It was just at the third trial that things didn’t go as smoothly...”

___

“I think a congratulations is in order!” Ayano yelled as she held her wooden cup up into the air.

Y/n let out a laugh and grabbed her sister’s arm. “We haven’t even finished everything yet. The last Test is tomorrow, so maybe you should get some sleep.”

Her siblings were, to say the least, drunk.

One of them (at this point, Y/n couldn’t remember who) had stolen some liquor and brought it to the brothers and sisters. They all had a couple drinks, but Y/n and Fen seemed to be the only ones smart enough to remember what tomorrow was.

They had finished the first day of the Trials; they had assumed that it would be the hardest due to the randomness of it, but it had seemed fairly easy.

Many say that the Days of Trials were never meant to be hard, they just weeded out the absolute weakest of a bunch. Y/n wasn’t entirely sure how other’s had failed the tasks, but she didn’t like to think much of it.

There were rumors of what had happened to the werewolves that didn’t pass. Some say that they were forced to live in solitude for the rest of their lives... others say that the pack’s fighters chase them down for fun.

It was a little alarming that not even she, daughter of a family who is ranked so high, knew what happened to those poor wolves.

Ayano clumsily transformed into her wolf skin and whined softly. Y/n sighed before looking at Fen.

“You can take care of the other boys, right?”

He gave her a small salute. “Yup, I got it.”

She was about to help her sister out before Fen began to talk again. Y/n turned around to see Binu on the floor, but Shong was no where to be seen.

“Uhh... you wouldn’t happen to know where Shong is, Y/n?”

The girl groaned in exasperation and dropped her sister onto the floor.

Just as the brother and sister were about to leave their hut to search for him, the man in question pushed his way passed the hanging door and paused when he met their stare.

“Dude, we were about to go look for you.” Fen groaned out, then went to the passed out Binu on the floor. “Help me bring him to our room.”

And with that, the two semi-sober siblings completely ignored Shong’s time of leave, despite knowing that no one else in their pack was awake that late into the night.

The next afternoon, the five of them rushed to a big, open center where the rest of the pack was surrounding. Almost everyone was in their wolf skins, so they copied the actions of their fellow members. It was there that the children learned of the order that they were fighting in.

There would be ten matches: each teen going against each of their siblings. A battle would be won once the victor gets their opponent outside of the circle. This trial was supposed to be the easiest for the five brothers and sisters. Emphasis on supposed.

Their fights went semi-smoothly.

At first, it was hard for the wolves to pretend to fight. They attacked each other like it was their dying wish, but in reality it was all a part of their plan.

Just two wins each, that’s all they needed.

By the time seven matches finished, Binu had already received his two wins; the rest of his fights ended with him losing dramatically as if he were in a play. Shong also had his two wins, but he still had to fight two more rounds and give his opponents the victory.

The eighth battle was between Shong and Fen.

Fen only had one win under his belt, which meant that Shong would need to lose. Y/n knew what her tall brother’s tactic was when he need to lose the fight; he would put on a huge show to demonstrate his strength, then would pretend to make a misstep that costs him the win. It was extremely entertaining for the crowd.

The siblings waited on the outskirts of the circle with the rest of the pack. The wolves around them were howling and barking in excitement. It was going to be such an amazing fight; Fen was seen as a weak asset and it seemed like Shong was going to completely destroy him.

The two sisters shared a look that said exactly what they were both thinking: if only the pack knew what was really going to happen.

And with that, the teen’s father let out a bellowing howl; the signal for the battle to begin.

Shong began his usual wolf dance. He skirted around each of Fen’s attacks and landed soft, teasing blows to his brother’s hide. He would only let Fen hit or bite him every once in a while, his only goal being to feed the crowd’s desire for a difficult fight.

‘Okay, this is it.’ Y/n thought to herself, ‘Right about now, Shong should let Fen win.’

Just as the thought crossed her mind, her tall brother stopped his antics. It was a bit too sudden and the crowed around them let out a confused noise. It seemed as though Shong was... looking at someone.

The girl followed his gaze all the way until it landed on their father. From her position, she couldn’t quite see the silent conversation they were having, but it seemed important.

It was then that Fen struck.

He pounced on his brother and shoved him straight out of the circle.

It was silent for a moment, but eventually the noise flew up and cheered for the weaker sibling. It was a true display of power, even of the two hadn’t planned it.

The look on Shong’s face was indescribable. It was a mixture between sad, angry, happy, and... something else. It was like every contradicting emotion was running through the wolf’s system.

‘Why is he acting like that? This loss isn’t any different from the other ones.’

___

“I should’ve seen what was coming next,” Y/n spoke. “With the way he was acting... I just never expected him to be the one that broke all of us apart.”

___

It was the middle of the ninth match.

Shong was up again, for the final time, but was against Ayano.

Now, their sister wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. There were multiple times that she had fought one of the pack members for bullying a sibling (mainly Fen or Y/n). She wasn’t the strongest or the smartest or the fastest, but she made up for her weaknesses with her quick thinking. Her mind connected dots faster than all of her siblings combined and it’s what made her standout. Ayano’s passion and fast brain made her a threat to some of the strategists that lead beside their father.

The duo’s red eyes glared at each other, circling the edges of the ring while they waited for the other to pounce. In this round, Ayano would receive her final win from her brother and complete her trial.

But why was that look still molded into Shong’s face? He had death in his eyes instead of the playfulness that should’ve existed there. Something’s not right.

Y/n desperately wanted to warn her sister, but if she mentioned anything about their plan, then they would all be banished for treason. It was best to just let it all play out.

Maybe their brother just got really good at acting.

Shong then jumped at Ayano, but the girl dodged it with milliseconds to spare. The brother almost slid out of the circle with the velocity of his jump, but slowed down in time. They both growled at each other.

The same actions repeated itself for the next couple of minutes; one would jump and the other would dodge. It really seemed like they were trying to kill the other, even with Y/n knowing who was supposed to win. It was terrifying.

The brother and sister looked as though they were evenly matched. They predicted the other’s movements like it was their own; they danced as if they had practiced this for hours.

However, the two weren’t the same. Shong was strong and had a everlasting stamina. Ayano didn’t.

The entire crowd could see that Ayano was growing tired. Her movements were turning sluggish and it was taking her longer and longer to dodge any attacks.

Why isn’t Shong letting her win yet?

By now, Shong should’ve done his “misstep” and lost, but he seemed so persistent on his jumps.

Then, as some twisted, sick peice of fate, their brother pounced and Ayano was too exhausted to move out of the way. She let him drag her out of the ring, her body falling limp.

Shong had one, which meant he got three wins; effectively stealing it from Ayano.

That meant that in the last round of Y/n vs Ayano, one sister would be met with the doom of banishment for the rest of their lives.

___

“And so we fought. I let her win. End of story.”

Y/n set down her empty tea cup and looked at the two men in front of her. They were so invested in her story that they had forgotten about their own drinks. Steam and heat no longer rose from the small cups, it instead being a cold, lifeless collection of flavored water.

“Is that- Is she the reason you got hurt?” Lee asked, his voice hoarse from not speaking for a while.

“Uhh, yeah.” She wrung her hands. “Its a rule in my pack: when someone’s banished, they have to have something like that visible on them, so they can never come back. It was only a coincidence that my sister was the one that gave it to me.”

“I am so sorry you had to go through that, Y/n,” Mushi whispered with a frown set on his face. The girl shrugged her shoulders in response.

“I mean, it’s better that it was me and not her. Her navigation skills are subpar, so she would’ve been so lost out here,” she forced a laugh.

Mushi just his head in disbelief while Lee stared at the ground, lost in thought. It made her wonder what was going on in that head of his.

Y/n really hoped that she had made the right decision by telling them the truth. It’s not like anyone would believe these two random travelers if they ever mentioned it. But still, the thought of them telling a town and having her pack torn apart made her shudder.

Lee stood up suddenly.

It surprised the two other people, but they quickly regained their focus as the teen began to speak.

“I think you should stay with us, like for the long run,” he said confidently. “You could help us out a lot, and I think that we could help you.”

“Okay!” She stood up excitedly as well. This was the exact thing that she had been hoping for.

“And, of course, Lee,” Mushi interrupted, “shouldn’t that mean that we tell her the truth about us as well?”

Y/n was almost certain that whatever secret they had couldn’t be as bad as hiding being a werewolf.

The boy puffed out his chest and nodded his head.

“My real name is Prince Zuko and this is my Uncle, General Iroh. We are both from the fire nation.”

Silence.

There were many things running through the girl’s head, but the main one being Oh, so that’s why Mushi yelled out Zuko yesterday!

It took her a moment, but eventually she found something to say.

“You’re a prince? Should I bow or something?”

Le- or- Zuko deflated slightly at her words.

“Is that really all that you have to say?”

Iroh let out a hearty laugh at his nephew’s reaction. He quickly picked up their tea pot and cups while the two teens talked.

“And that ‘fire nation’ stuff, does that have to do with that magic thing you did yesterday?” The girl asked with a tilt of her head. This cause him to shrink even more.

“Y-you mean my bending?”

“Bending? What is tha-”

The girl paused as her ears caught a soft thumping sound; almost identical to the one that awoke her that morning.

Those people must be coming back.

She quickly warned the duo and helped them pack up their things. Just as the noise grew closer and closer, the three of them jumped on their ostrich-horses (in the same positions as they had the day before) and rode out before the group of men could find them again.

Iroh laughed from his horse beside them. “Maybe I should’ve stayed, it was nice to see old friends.”

“Too bad you don’t have any old friends that don’t want to attack you.” Zuko groaned front his seat in front of Y/n.

The three of them were riding pretty fast, so Y/n had her arms gripped around the boy’s torso. He had stiffened at first, but slowly relaxed at her touch.

“Hmm... Old friends that don’t want to attack me...”

___

thanks for sticking w me guys <3

even if you skipped past the memories like i know some do, i appreciate you reading this :)

anyways might actually have some cutesy stuff next chapter so wait till next week to read it <33

Previous | Chapter 4 | Next

Masterlist

Taglist: @bucky-blogs @hopefuloperaangelnerd @simplyfandomish @oddlypointlessescapes @lozzybowe ((bolded couldn’t be tagged))

#zuko #zuko x reader #atla

68 notes · View notes

johannesviii · 3 years

Text

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2020

You know, when I finished my latest list and realised every decade had the same pattern and that we were slowly going towards a series of great years for pop, I didn’t realise how good that year would be.

What’s at the top? Am I boringly predictable because I already said I loved that song all the way back in January 2020? Let’s find out.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will probably be stuff in French somewhere on this post. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

So. Uh. How was your 2020?

Mine was actually surprisingly good, considering. I’m lucky enough to have a job that I can partially do from home, and I was extremely paranoid from the get-go and nobody got sick under this roof so far. Turns out I’m even better at my job from home and I got permission to work from home one day per week even after the health crisis is over! My first name was also finally officially approved and I can’t tell you how happy I feel about that. I almost feel bad to have had such a good year considering the circumstances. I feel like an asshole just because I’m happy, haha.

The only frustrating part was that I was supposed to see Hatari in concert in Paris in early April which, as you can guess, was cancelled. I’m not too mad about it though, since their tour was called “Europe will crumble” and the message saying the tour was cancelled started with “since Europe is actually crumbling due to Covid-19″ and that’s hysterical.

Good or interesting albums that came out in 2020 now, let’s see.

Nightwish released Human/Nature, which was a huge letdown compared to their previous album, but I will relisten to it at some point to make sure I wasn’t just in a bad mood that day.

The Birthday Massacre released Diamonds, which might be their weakest album since their debut, but contained some real gems (I listened to The Last Goodbye on a loop, it floored me. Flashback and Enter are also very good).

The 1975 released Notes On A Conditional Form, and let’s be real, it’s a f█cking mess. You could cut half the tracks and end up with an excellent album, but as it is it’s like, yes, a collection of notes ; however there’s some truely excellent shit on it (see unelligible songs).

Thanks to a friend on a discord server I was exposed to Dorian Electra’s music and I haven’t been quite the same ever since. I’m so happy to be alive to see other enbies making such great music with an insanely good aesthetic surrounding it and asking so many interesting questions about gender. Also the arc the ‘gentleman’ character goes through over the course of the entire tracklist of the 2020 My Agenda album is absolutely hilarious, don’t @ me.

I also discovered 100 Gecs this year. Why are most of you guys saying it’s unlistenable garbage. It’s just as abrasive and over the top as industrial music is, but with none of the edginess or drama. I love it. What the hell. But yeah Tree of Clues was released this year. Good.

Speaking of industrial, in March 2020 Nine Inch Nails were like “hey remember when we released Ghosts I-IV a decade ago entirely for free and how amazing that was? Well we’re all in lockdown and bored as hell so here’s Ghosts V-VI and it’s also free. Enjoy” and I f█cking died instantly. And it’s even better than I-IV. What the hell was that year

Jonsi released Shiver. It’s strange and highly experimental. I’m pretty sure it’s a good thing I was into hyperpop this year, otherwise going from his previous material straight to this album would have been brutal.

Yadda yadda yadda After Hours by the Weeknd good yadda yadda.

I’ve joked about that already but if you had told me in 2019 that 2020 would have fires, a pandemic, riots, monoliths appearing and disappearing, and also a super good Machine Gun Kelly album, guess which part I would have found the most ridiculous. But yeah uh. Tickets to my Downfall good

So uh this year I tried to listen to some hyperpop and liked it a lot, and I also dipped my toes timidly into screamo and listened to Svalbard, who released When I Die this year, and the entire album was a very beautiful, very intricately decorated punch to the face. It sounds like God Is An Astronaut except with a shit ton of yelling. I love it. Open Wound is my favorite track on it.

But no, despite all of this, my album of the year was from a band I had never even heard about before that year, called Spanish Love Songs. The album is titled Brave Faces Everyone and it’s line after line after line of extremely relatable generational angst but yelled with complete sincerity and it’s so propulsive and energetic you can’t help but feel both exhausted and ready to fight the entire universe. I don’t know how it works, but it’s incredible. The entire album is wonderfully brutal, so it’s kind of difficult to pick my favorite songs on it, but Beachfront Property and the title track stand out.

Unelligible songs, now, and there’s, uh, quite a few of them too so I’m also gonna use bullet points. Good lord this post is gonna be long.

First, let me say I have literally no idea why Midnight Sky by Miley Cyrus wasn’t a bigger hit. It’s not on the year-end US top 100 and it feels extremely wrong. Would have made it to #4 on this list otherwise.

I still entertain the vague hope that stuff from Machine Gun Kelly will chart higher in 2021 but I doubt it will happen so I might as well tackle it now and say that Bloody Valentine and especially Forget Me Too are both excellent and that it’s a shame radios aren’t playing them more often.

Heaven by the late Avicii featuring Coldplay should have charted in 2019 and still didn’t chart in 2020 and that’s a real shame.

If the world was a bit less unfair, Lovesick Girls by Blackpink would have been a hit rather than the awful Ice Cream.

One day I will stop complaining about my bafflement concerning the lack of mainstream pop charts success of The 1975. Today is not that day. I just love how they keep making songs about extremely awkward relationships full of weird details, and I haven’t grown tired of that yet. So yeah If You’re Too Shy is about a guy who’s crush is asking him to get naked on Skype in his hotel room and he’s, uh, not too sure about that idea.

And Me & You Together is about a guy who never finds the right moment to tell his best friend he’s in love with her, and he manages to do so at the end and it’s cute as hell. My fave part is “I'm sorry that I'm kinda queer / It's not as weird as it appears / It's 'cause my body doesn't stop me (Stop me) / Oh, it's okay, lots of people think I'm gay / But we're friends, so it's cool, why would it not be?”. Relatable as f█ck.

And now for an international hit that should have been bigger in the US and/or in my country but wasn’t: Head & Heart by Joel Corry and MNEK.

I’ve heard Nos Célébrations by Indochine extremely often on French radio for months now so I was very surprised to see that it didn’t crack the local year-end list. What happened.

I can finally hear the appeal of Bring Me The Horizon. It took me ages. And also Death Stranding. The song Ludens isn’t in the game per say, but it’s among the ones you can pick to broadcast briefly when people drive by your constructions, and long story short it's been living rent-free in my head for months now.

Phew.

It’s time for a round of Honorable Mentions for elligible songs, containing a couple of guilty pleasures, which is saying something considering the kind of shit I put on some of my previous lists.

Ne Reviens Pas (Gradur et Heuss l’Enfoiré) - Heuss is a French artist that kept baffling me while making my lists for the previous years, and I was like “??? ok, that’s it then, I guess I’m getting too old to get what teenagers find funny”. This one worked for me, though. And the music video doesn’t hurt. Really dumb and really fun.

Adore You (Harry Styles) - Perfectly good little pop song, very pleasant to listen to, never outstayed its welcome for me.

Mood (24kGoldn) - This doesn’t sound like a very good relationship, my dude, but that’s still a super pleasant song.

WAP (Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion) - This song is absolutely hilarious and I will hear no argument from any of you.

Control (Zoe Wees) - Was clearly a hit here. Should have been even bigger though. What a powerful but comfy voice. If I had better taste it would be on the list.

Hot Girl Bummer (Blackbear) - I. Uh. Listen. I keep saying I have bad taste and nobody believes me. Do you believe me now. But yeah. “F█ck you, and you, and you~, I hate your friends and they hate me too” is gonna pop in my head every single time someone is being a jerk anywhere near me now. It’s been happening all year already. Someone trashed my documents at work? Someone isn’t wearing a mask in public? That guy has filled his car with rolls of toilet paper? Brain goes “F█ck you, and you, and you~”. Every. Single. Time.

Come & Go (Juice WRLD & Marshmello ) - Damn, that’s a pretty good little song. I’ve seen plenty of people saying it’s ruined by the drop, but may I remind you I’m the person who loves Blue by Eiffel 65 with all my heart. If the song was ramping up consistently until the end instead of ending like that, it would have made the list, definitely.

And now, the actual list. This one actually feels pretty solid, I genuinely like everything on it, there’s no filler here for once.

10 - The Box (Roddy Rich)

US: #3 / FR: #23

Now this is a weird case, because for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why this song was so popular and I was completely neutral about it. Then, one morning in September, my mental jukebox (which always, always puts a song on a loop in my head when I wake up) decided to play it. And I was like oh wow?? I never noticed the atmosphere in that song before? It’s so great. And that hook too. Let’s listen to it.

So yeah, I don’t know what happened. It just clicked one day and everything fell into place, I guess.

9 - Alane (Wes & Robin Shulz)

US: Not on the list / FR: #93

Come on. You can’t do a remake of one of my previous #1 songs and let it chart in 2020. That’s cheating. Even with this subpar drop, I have to put it on the list, now.

I’ve already said my piece about the original, so I’m just going to send you back to my 1997 list.

8 - Kings and Queens (Ava Max)

US: Not on the list / FR: #76

[BBC documentary voice] After Lady Gaga decided to make piano balads and left her musical niche vacant, Ava Max quickly took her place as the top predator pop diva. Even after Lady Gaga was re-introduced to her natural habitat in 2020, she still hasn’t fully recovered in Europe, where Ava Max still reigns supreme on the charts -

(tldr I think it’s hilarious that this isn’t on the US Billboard while Lady Gaga isn’t on the French year-end top 100)

7 - Roses (Saint Jhn & Imanbek)

US: #19 / FR: #3

What an earworm. It doesn’t even bother trying to have an intro or an outro, so it loops almost perfectly. It’s like entering a party that started long before you arrived, and it will go on long after you leave it to go back home. Kind of hypnotic in a way.

And yes, my mental jukebox was very fond of using it to wake me up this year, so this is another song that’s here almost solely because of that.

6 - Physical (Dua Lipa)

US: Not on the list / FR: #69 (hehehe)

“Hey I’m not that old” says the guy who’s definitely a sucker for this kind of retro throwback that was so popular this year. Oh well.

I don’t have anything interesting to say about this one, though. Apart from the fact that everyone seems to have a different fave song on that album. Guess that’s quality for you.

5 - Rain on Me (Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande)

US: #48 / FR: Not on the list

That is far from being Lady Gaga’s best song, but it was a joy to listen to everytime it was on the radio anyway. Also Ariana Grande has surprisingly good chemistry with Gaga! This year was full of strange duets mostly made for commercial reasons, and this one isn’t an exception, but unlike a lot of them, it really, really works.

4 - Dynamite (BTS)

US: #38 / FR: Not on the list

I’m still not 100% sold on k-pop even if a ton of it sounds super good, but come on. Even if some bits of this song (especially the beginning of the second chorus) sound a bit like they were made on autopilot, it still sounds just as happy and fun several months after I first heard it and I never got tired of it. That’s quality. You hear it and you can’t help but tap your feet and smile.

Actually, I’m sure there’s people somewhere that don’t smile when they hear this song. And they must be avoided at all costs.

3 - Godzilla (Eminem ft Juice WRLD)

US: #62 / FR: Not on the list

What are you doing so high on this list, old man. Why are you still here in the year 2020. I thought we left you in the previous decade. Who gave you the right.

I’m gonna tell you who did, and it’s actually Juice WRLD. Because that chorus is incredible, and like a lot of people I’m pissed off because the guy died super young and this shit shouldn’t happen to anybody. No, his early material wasn’t great, but I’m sorry I’m gonna say it again: have you heard this damn chorus? It’s suspenseful and dark, it’s got this lowkey menacing quality, it’s an earworm and a half, and it’s more convincing in like six lines than Eminem’s own flexing is in the entire song.

The beat is extremely good as well, and the flow, obviously, impressive. The weakest link is Eminem’s writing, which is as usual full of puns and weird wordplay, except here a lot of it isn’t great, and that last ultra fast part at the end is technically impressive but it also drives the song up a cliff and stops it dead in its tracks once it’s over. But frankly the lines fly by so fast it’s difficult to be too annoyed by them.

Can I sincerely put this extremely flawed song so high on my list? A better question would be “did I spend hours trying to learn how to sing this shit without choking on my own spit?”. The answer is yes. To both.

2 - Heartless (The Weeknd)

US: #28 / FR: Not on the list

I’ve said it on my 2015 and 2016 lists already, but just for the record I’ll say it again: it took me ages to like The Weeknd, mostly because I found most of his songs fairly boring, or disliked the lyrics, or both. Also I never really liked the general vibe of his “sexy” songs like The Hills, they felt dark but in an unpleasant creepy way. Felt like miserable hedonism, if that makes sense.

So, because I’m a person with extremely consistent and logical tastes, here’s the exact same shit he was making before, except that this time I absolutely adore it.

What is he doing differently that makes the whole After Hours album click for me whereas almost all of his previous material failed to do so? Is it the energy? Is it the reverb? Is it the fact that the narrator sounds properly unhinged and, frankly, scared to be spiralling out of control? Why are the colors so beautiful yet full of anxiety? Why is that bridge so fantastic? How can you make your voice look like a glowstick in the dark?

I give up. I have no clue. At least I’m done talking about-

Oh.

1 - Blinding Lights (The Weeknd)

US: #1 / FR: #1 (listen sometimes something’s just that good, ok)

Surprise. Or not.

Wow, look at that, Johannes has put this year’s number one pop song at number one on their personal playlist. The audacity. The edge. What a hot take.

I discovered that song when it first came out at the end of 2019 and I adored it instantly. And I was so scared it wouldn’t be a hit. Which means I’m a f█cking dumbass considering it ended up breaking all sorts of records in 2020. But what can I say, overplay can be a blessing when you love a song that much.

Like every single song I put at number one on one of my lists, I will draw this one at some point and you will understand how incredibly satisfying it is to listen to a song called Blinding Lights, talking about city lights looking blurry when you’re driving at night, while looking itself like a bunch of blurry city lights passing by super fast. Perfect in every way.

Also it sounds exactly like A-ha, and that never hurts.

See you next year! Pretty sure it will be even better music-wise.

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #eye contact tw

14 notes · View notes

midnightactual · 3 years

Text

Critical Analysis & Tactics IV (CAT-4): Yoruichi vs. Soifon Part A

How strong is Yoruichi? That’s actually a very involved question. I’ve decided to create a series of articles detailing my thoughts on the matter by looking at military incidents and confrontations involving her. This is the fourth, and you may consult the others at your leisure:

CAT-1: The Hollowfication Incident

CAT-2: The Central 46 Trial Breakout

CAT-3: Yoruichi vs. Byakuya

CAT-5: Yoruichi & Soifon vs. Aizen

CAT-6: Yoruichi vs. Yammy

CAT-7: Yoruichi, Kisuke, & Isshin vs. Aizen

CAT-8: Yoruichi & Co. vs. Yhwach

CAT-9: Yoruichi vs. Askin

I’ve obliquely talked about this fight before (here) as it relates to Yoruichi’s disinclination to use her zanpakutō, but not in great detail. It says quite a lot about their respective powers and abilities, but to an even greater extent it reveals the exact nature of their relationship prior to Yoruichi’s departure from the Seireitei. These are all matters which I feel there are points of confusion and misunderstanding on by others. Given that, I’m going to give my own perspective on all these issues.

Since the is a long post, let me as usual put the basic conclusion here up front: this fight wasn’t particularly serious in terms of physical danger, as Yoruichi was hardly trying and Soifon radically underestimated her abilities. This fight is far more about psychology and mutual understanding of one another.

01. I’ve discussed this in the past (here), yet it bears not just repeating but additional emphasis: Yoruichi is at her absolute weakest ever during the Soul Society arc, as she herself alludes to in chapter 119:

She drops Ichigo like a sack of potatoes despite him being injured and slumps against the wall because she’s so winded, and openly comments on the fact that she’s wildly out of shape. It’s abundantly clear that she isn’t performing at anywhere near her previous or future maximum abilities during this arc.

02. Yoruichi’s attire also bears some scrutiny. Notice how she’s dressed above. She has on her stretchy pants, and we know from earlier scenes with Ichigo in chapter 116 that she’s wearing a turtleneck (plus you can see the sleeves poking out of her jacket). Also notice her footwear. All throughout Ichigo’s bankai training, Yoruichi is wearing shoes with integrated greaves. These appear to be flats based on the shoes she wore as a Taichō (and which Soifon still wears as one) but modified to suit her preferences. By the time she fights Soifon, however, her outfit has notably changed, as seen here in chapter 157:

The turtleneck has been replaced by the keisen shōzoku-inspired top, as she later reveals and which even here is evident from the lack of sleeves. The shoes have also been replaced with boots instead (which are capable of dispensing anken). She has cloth wrapped around her arms, and her shins are wrapped in gaiters. She only wears this variation on her outfit when fighting Soifon. (As seen in CAT-6, when she later fights Yammy, she’s wearing an outfit identical to when she trained Ichigo.)

In reality, gaiters largely exist to protect against scratching, puncture, or friction. The wraps on her arms are similar to puttees, and serve a similar function, while the remainder of her scarf functions like a neck gaiter. One might ask why she’d discard hard greaves for soft gaiters, and the answer is that their protective power is actually likely superior.

As noted in CAT-3, in chapter 117, Yoruichi completely halted Byakuya’s release of Senbonzakura using a cloth ribbon, and as noted in CAT-5, in chapter 177, did similar to Aizen. I would suggest that that cloth ribbon is special, and that her arm wraps, gaiters, and neck gaiter are made of the same material. I would also suggest so is her hair wrap, given it repeatedly survives Shunkō, to include her Raiju Senkei form where electrical Kidō is literally running through her hair. What this cloth material is and what its exact properties are remains unknown, but it seems incredibly durable. (Given it appears to be a tan color, it might not be related to the Ginpaku Kazahana no Uzuginu of Byakuya’s scarf, but it could be the same material but processed or treated differently, possibly explaining the immense value of that scarf beyond mere rarity.)

This assertion is supported by the fact that during the actual fight, in chapter 157, Yoruichi both takes and deals several blows to areas protected by these garments, suggesting they were made specifically for fighting with Hakuda:

A question becomes apparent at this point, which is: where did Yoruichi get this stuff? More than likely from the storage depot above the study chamber, which is likely where she also got the first outfit she used for this mission (since she obviously didn’t bring it with her to Soul Society given she came as a cat). In other words, I think it’s very clear that Yoruichi specifically equipped herself to fight against Soifon, knowing she would likely be dealing with Hakuda and might have to use Shunkō and dressing to compensate for her own weakness.

03. Yoruichi and Soifon’s reunion is very telling regarding how truly familiar they are with one another. Here’s how it starts:

I want you to pay attention to how close Yoruichi is before Soifon notices her approach. Part of this is due to Yoruichi’s speed, but remember: she’s not flash stepping at anywhere near her optimum, and would be conserving her energy heading into battle. Part of this is due to Yoruichi’s stealth, but remember: Yoruichi felt Renji’s ambient reiatsu approaching even at a notable distance through solid matter. Soifon doesn’t notice Yoruichi until the very instant before she’s tackled off of Kiyone. (The closing-in panel at top-left suggests the bottom panel is indeed Yoruichi’s own perspective, as she hits Soifon in the very next panel.)

But I want to make a point regarding reiatsu detection before proceeding: Shinigami who are very familiar with each other will naturally detect one another’s reiatsu at distances at which other, more powerful Shinigami won’t. An example of this is Rukia detecting Ichigo’s approach before Byakuya does in chapter 581, presumably due to the nature of Ichigo and Rukia’s bond:

And another example is Yoruichi and Yūshirō detecting one another at a great distance in the Soul King’s Palace in chapter 628, while not noting anyone else on either end, presumably because they’re related:

In other words, people with strong bonds should have a distinct advantage in identifying one another even if one part is moving quickly or attempting to conceal themselves. This suggests that Yoruichi and Soifon do not actually share such a bond, a point which will repeatedly be made over the course of their fight, but especially two pages later back in chapter 153:

Stop and think about their situation. Soifon can see the eyes and skin color of Yoruichi at this range, and likely also feel her reiatsu... and she still doesn’t recognize her. How many dark-skinned, gold-eyed people are there in the Seireitei who wear orange jackets and move quickly and stealthily? It’s worse than the translation here lets on, by the way:

The original Japanese here at the bottom-left is, “何者だ貴様!!” which translates to Romaji as “Nanimonoda kisama!!” Yes, that kisama. The literal translation would be something like, “Who are you, you bastard!!” I think Soifon calling Yoruichi “kisama” is all the proof you need to firmly establish she has no idea who this is, and doesn’t recognize it as Yoruichi until she hears her voice. I also think that reaction panel firmly dispels any idea that Soifon is acting and doing this just to insult Yoruichi, because this is a face of shock:

It’s very obvious that Soifon is surprised by the fact that she’s seeing Yoruichi again, despite all those visual indicators, which is... strange, and perhaps suggests something about Soifon’s powers of observation. Regardless, this can be taken in contrast with the next page, and Yoruichi’s reveal:

Which is surprisingly playful. Yoruichi isn’t stressed at all here, and remains fairly upbeat and comparatively unperturbed for the first section of the fight until Soifon tears the (breakaway?) sleeves off of her uniform. It’s pretty clear that Yoruichi doesn’t go into this fight expecting a hard slog, even if she took precautions with her outfit. Indeed, I would say she expected it to be merely a performance review.

The point remains: Soifon didn’t identify Yoruichi until well after they’d made contact, and past the point when it should’ve been obvious who was accosting her.

04. Starting in chapter 154, we’re treated to repeated scenes presenting Yoruichi and Soifon as equals:

This first panel makes it very clear visually, and that sets the tone for what follows.

It’s also echoed in the way that they trash-talk each other.

And also reflected in the visual framing of their exchanges; these panels are clearly designed to kind of ‘reflect’ one another. Take notice here of Soifon’s further trash-talking: she’s asserting that she was a better warrior than Yoruichi even when Yoruichi was her Taichō! How’s that for confidence? And it should tell you a lot about how Soifon looks back upon Yoruichi’s tenure, which we’ll get into later.

This apparent equity is also reflected in them trading hits. Yoruichi’s injury seems more grievous, given she’s coughing up blood, but Soifon doesn’t seem to regard it as a more notable injury than she herself suffered, nor does it actually impact Yoruichi’s performance any more than Soifon’s does her. (Nor will Soifon’s strikes with Suzumebachi seemingly do anything to slow Yoruichi down as the fight goes on.)

This sense of equity will persist right up until after Soifon reveals her shikai and starts to speed up, at which point she will reveal that she’s been “going easy” on Yoruichi and that (in her mind) they’re not equals.

I think it’s because of this rather thorough visual symbolism (and Yoruichi’s reactions of surprise as Soifon’s performance) that many people walk away with the impression that Soifon and Yoruichi are equal in performance, not just in this fight and this arc, but throughout Bleach. We already know, however, from (01), that that simply isn’t true: Soifon here at her maximum output can only just rival Yoruichi at her weakest.

This is emphasized by the fact that Soifon will go on to fail to score two consecutive hits with Suzumebachi on Yoruichi, and by the fact that we know (from her escape from Byakuya with Ichigo) that Yoruichi isn’t going all out with her flash steps here either. This is not only Yoruichi at her weakest, this is also Yoruichi fighting in a very conservative fashion. And Soifon still can’t take her out despite earnestly trying.

05. The motivations of both parties are rather plainly established. Soifon’s motivations are revealed by the panels above with her, “Which of us... is the better warrior?!” and, “Now do you see? I’m better than you!” remarks. This further emphasized by a panel in chapter 158:

Soifon is obsessed with proving she’s better than Yoruichi, and rubbing Yoruichi’s face in the fact.

Yoruichi, meanwhile, rather obviously turned up to see where Soifon was at in terms of her progression, as chapter 154 alludes to:

Yoruichi is there to see whether Soifon has filled her proverbial shoes. This shouldn’t be surprising as we know from Soifon’s flashbacks in chapter 159 that:

Yoruichi added Soifon to her bodyguard unit in the first place because she “[admired her] skills” and was “expecting great things from [her].”

In other words, Yoruichi showed up to see how Soifon had been getting on in terms of her skills for all this time, and seemed to largely expect a fairly casual encounter (although she was prepared for it to escalate). She wasn’t anticipating Soifon’s mindset and drive to actually try and kill her. Soifon, meanwhile, is resolute in her determination to punish Yoruichi for what she regards as having been abandoned.

Click here for Part B!

#Out Of Character #Long Post #Meta

7 notes · View notes

scattered-irises · 4 years

Text

LONG AWAITED CONCLUSION TO THAT ZEXAL PHILOSOPHICAL CHAT I POSTED A YEAR (or two) AGO

Part i

Basically, the theory is: Tron is a figment of the Arclights’ imagination and it’s actually just Byron going around messing everything up. Tron is a symbol of the corruption of the Arclights.

****

And so, I pose you this question, Phosphorous. What if Tron never existed and was just a metaphorical representation for Byron's hatred and anger? What if the Barian World hadn't done anything to him and instead, just made him an angrier old man? So instead of this creepy, laughing child, we have this creepy man who goes around ruining people's lives for the sake of his revenge.

The child is just something the Arclight brothers made up because they couldn't stand the fact that their father had become like that. But that was why they still followed him. Because he was still their father.

I see your point there. It has plausibility, muses Phosphorous.

The reason why Tron erased their old names was because it was a way for all of them to disassociate their current selves with their past selves. They have changed too much to be considered Byron, Christopher, Thomas and Michael anymore. Christopher has turned extremely cold and calculating compared to his happier, gentle brother attitude when he was younger.

And Thomas...the poor child. He used to be a happy boy that teased his younger sibling but as IV, he masks himself as a happy celebrity loved by all in the world and underneath that mask is a sadistic monster and underneath that mask is a son that just desperately wants his father back and will do anything to get it and underneath that mask is a lonely young man who wishes to be understood.

Arguably, Michael is the one who remains closest to his original self. He's still the beloved younger brother and like when they were younger, still has a close relationship with Thomas. But he's cracked beneath his placid smile and gentle nature. When angered, he lashes out terribly and like Thomas, will do anything, even murder, to achieve his family's goals.

And so, one could argue that Tron is basically just an overall representation that their family has changed for the worse.

“How much autonomy do the brothers have? and how do they relate to others as they attempt to fulfill their families goals?” poses Phosphorous.

Ah, ah. An insightful query, my friend. They are pretty much never seen doing things of their own free will. Even when it seems like they are enjoying themselves (I.E III sneaking into Yuma's house to eat lunch and meet him. It actually was just a scouting mission on his family's next target), their actions are meant to serve ulterior motives. In the end, all of the things they do is in the name of serving the family.

A somewhat random note, Christopher looks at Thomas with contempt. They're basically polar opposites (But not really. Once Christopher gets emotional, he's just as broken and destructive as Thomas).

Thomas has a grudging respect for Christopher because a part of him still recognizes him as his older brother.

Christopher seems to care a bit more for Michael, but when Michael was being tortured, he watched the scene at the insistence of Tron. At the end of it though, he turns away, hinting at a bit of a conscience.

It's Thomas and Michael that are more of a sibling relationship. This is most likely because they have spent all of their lives together while Christopher had been absent for 5 years from their lives. He was gone when Thomas was 12 all the way to when he turned 17 and Michael was 10 and is now 15

Thomas genuinely cares for Michael, going as far as to shout at Tron for treating his brother like that. Christopher immediately silences him.

Michael also returns that gesture, although less because he ended up falling into a coma before we could see more.

“Yet all three are, at least at times, willing participants in Tron's schemes?”

Yes, my fellow thinker. Christopher is the most loyal one. He never questions Tron’s orders. Michael will go with his father in hopes that he will get his family back. He is Tron's favorite because he is a "gentle and obedient child." I find it quite sad how, although Christopher is the most loyal one to the cause, he isn’t the favorite. I suppose it is also because I am the eldest of three, yet am not as favored as the youngest.

“The youngest seems to be favored most of the time,” muses Phosphorous as they look out at the tumultuous Barian sea.

It's Thomas that sometimes goes out of line. He's the strongest of the brothers, but Tron is always saying that he is the weakest. It is most likely the fear of Thomas realizing that he's actually powerful and could turn on Tron. Hence, that is why Tron says he trusts no one.

Phosphorous stands, overlooking the gloomy landscape of crystals.

“So each and every one is then beholden to this idea of what? A happy family? Or just something different than their current state of affairs? Do all the brothers truly share this idea of a return to a happy family? Or do they don't even know that that looks like and just want something to change?”

In short:

Tron: Kill my murderers and I'll become your happy ol' dad again and we can go back to England and do happy British people stuff

Sons: Uh sure okay

Personally, I think they all know to an extent that they're deluding themselves

They're just ambling down this path of lies because the brothers are desperate to have a place to belong to after being separated for so long

But you might have a point that they might not even know what a truly happy family is anymore.

“So it's like they're chasing something that doesn't exist then?”

Exactly. Much like the couple that was running to the end of the rainbow. They are chasing a boat that has already long passed by. After all of the things Tron did to them, I'm sure they all know that they will never be "normal" and "happy" again.

“So under your theory, Tron doesn't truly exist, or at least is highly metaphorical, which makes all of their struggles self-inflicted and their delusions even more deep.”

Quite perceptive of you. Tron does exist, but he's basically Byron but meaner. They merely use the child with the ruined face to cover up the fact that their father has turned into a monster.

"Hey so dad's gone nuts but let's pretend it's a weird little boy who's nuts so it takes a bit of the pain away."

“Ah, so then they could say "Tron" instead of ‘Father.’”

Yes, exactly. They almost never address Tron as father. They only talk of their father in the past tense.

“But then,” proposes Phosphorous, dramatically turning back to me. “Why would they care so much for the new names they received? Or do they not care for them?”

Those names have become a part of their identities. They use it to cope with the fact that they've all gone south personality-wise. Thomas even uses IV as his celebrity name, perhaps as a sign that he does not recognize his celebrity persona as his true self.

Phosphorous takes in a deep breath, the acidic breeze rustling their toga. Their eyes meet mine own with a sharpness that I had always so admired.

“So these new names, they're basically masks, but do they disassociate themselves from their new identities the same way they do with Tron and their Father, or do they still think of themselves as fundamentally themselves, just forced to do things they wouldn't normally do? Though I would assume each brother is affected differently by their mask,” says my friend as they begin to pace.

Ah, they still view Tron as their father (A leader) but deep down they probably don't want to put two and two together. So it's a superficial belief of "We fight for Tron (our father but let’s not think about that.)"

Either that or,

They are fighting for their Father,

who is basically just an idea of a happy family now whilst Tron

represents a bad family.

Onto your second point, the brothers fit into their masks to different extents.

Michael doesn't seem to mind III for they appear to have the same personality, save for III's destructive tendencies.

When Christopher is reunited with his student that he abandoned and is called Christopher, he sadly smiles and says.

"It's been a long time since someone has called me that"

And Thomas probably has an extremely difficult time taking off his mask after wearing it for so long in front of so many people

“So then do their numbered names also represent a bad family? also why do they start at three, like why not 1,2,3 instead of 3,4,5?”

I still don’t understand why it’s 3 4 5 (Nor does anyone else, for that matter.), however, their numbers are probably how Tron sees them. From his scientific background, he probably just sees his son as pieces of useful data he can use to his advantage.

“Hm, the only thing I could think of for the numbers was that Tron was somehow including him and the boys' mother in his count, like their the first two so that's why it starts at three, which is something you probably already thought about,” theorizes Phosphorous futilely.

Perhaps the numbers are used as place holders. They are not Christopher, Thomas and Michael. They are merely placeholders for when Christopher, Thomas and Michael return. When their family is whole again...

“But if the numbers are place-holders then so is the name ‘Tron,’” concludes Phosphorous.

Indeed.

“But I wonder if the brothers associate the numbers with Tron, like the numbers aren't really them, just a means to an end that will be removed when they get their father back, or if they're deluding themselves,” muses my friend.

Yes, the numbers are most likely temporary to them. Christopher is deluding himself.

He knows that he’s Christopher under V’s cold exterior. Same for Thomas and Michael. They are a family of delusions, united under the promise of a better tomorrow that will never arrive.

And so I thank you, for bearing with me.

Without ceremony, Phosphorus walks away from the crystal cliff, leaving me. I stare into the depths of the sea of ill intent and allow the sounds of the waves crashing against the crystal to overtake me. Closing my eyes, I begin to meditate.

Thus we conclude our bout of philosophy and ardent beard stroking.

#zexal #analysis #zexal analysis #long post #Christopher Arclight #Michael Arclight #Thomas Arclight #Byron Arclight #Tron Zexal #Iris thinks hard

13 notes · View notes

druid-for-hire · 5 years

Photo

UNSWAYED PT. IV

(pt. i) (pt. ii) (pt. iii) (pt. v) (epilogue) (askblog)

this update consists of a bit of the trek back to hadestown and the workers’ revolution that lasts the summer until persephone’s return in the fall, and being granted the chance to leave at last--to leave for real.

thank you so so much to all my friends @supercantaloupe, @unholy-boi (who helped write the Riots sect), @damondaunnodyke, & @s-aint-elmo

persephone has left again and sets to repairing the world up Top after the hurricane, now that she’s helped the lovers.

orpheus and eurydice are... on the exodus from the Beyond. it’s a long road--it’s a long walk. takes a week or two.

kampê slinks into the shadows and hides, bitter, among the smokestacks. she hurts and she fears. hades will come for her, she knows, but she knows this place far better than he--that man barely checks up (hence how her grip on the place has gotten out of control), hasn’t been there for all of the rearrangements and updates in centuries. she knows where to hide. he will not find her in her domain. this is her darkness.

the imagery of the Exodus is very much akin to/inspired by the same Exodus of the movie Prince of Egypt. u kno that one?

looks like this, yeah, but like... obviously without the fish, because the walls aren’t made of ocean in this au, they’re just rock

and orpheus and eurydice leading the pack, shadowed looks of determination on their faces

again: this is where Promises (But Sadder) happens

as eurydice takes orpheus back to the main parts of hadestown, she notices too many things: his legs tremble, his hands shake, he breathes just barely too hard and clears his throat and coughs too much; and as they talk about the small things to fill some of the quiet, orpheus asks “what’d you say?” too often

(it’s hearing damage babey!)

of course, no one is spared from the hardships of hadestown. but she... does not like seeing those scars on orpheus

this long walk is also the time they tell each other everything that happened to them since they last saw each other

reminder: orpheus is still weak & kinda sick! and it’s a long walking journey. and everyone’s tired. sometimes they all sit down and camp for the “night” or something.

the beyond’s not been kind to him; he’s pale as a corpse, with sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, looks as dead as he feels

(really, all the other workers from the Beyond don’t look much better)

it’s kind of a spooky sight when they stop for a few hours and he lays down to take a rest. the state he’s in...

and eurydice is a fairly good singer--nowhere near on orpheus’ (former) level, but good, and she probably sings him small tunes here and there just for the two of them, to relax and comfort and what have you

@axolotlbeans: at some point they stop for the “night” and orpheus collapses; eurydice, who’d been singing, gathers him in her arms and says, "Orpheus, you're shivering; is it cold or fear?"

and he interrupts her, burying his face into her neck and softly rasps "Just keep singing" in the smallest, weakest voice

when they arrive. it is... a lot.

the long train of people is... heavily distracting. and they seem to come out of nowhere--a lot of hadestown wasn’t even aware there was a Beyond ‘till orpheus got banished, and then they didn’t know the name or what it was, just that he got banished somewhere. even the foremen turn to see; everyone’s sort of like. uh. what the hell is going on? and work sort of stalls out a little bit

eurydice and orpheus go straight to hades and present their demands to let them go. let them all go. blah blah blah some other stuff it probably sounds fairer than that, i don’t have the brain energy to outline all their demands specifically

by the slightly edited words of my good friend supercanteloupe:

let us go, eurydice demands, and hades just laughs, jailbirds like themselves don’t get their freedom so easily. get back to work, songbird, and don’t let the foreman know you’ve been slacking. and all of the rest of you... you’d better return before you’re made to return.

they go, but they’re not done, not by a long shot.

they don’t go back to work.

orpheus cannot sing, but he is still a poet, and the workers have their voices too

the bristling unrest of Hadestown begins to develop into protests, and the protests turn into riots.

orpheus can craft all the words eurydice needs to say with her spirited and powerful voice, to hit every point to cause uprisings and to stab every point to whittle hades down

hades notices things are beginning to go wrong. machine malfunctions, damaged, outright broken; strikes, sit-ins. rolling blackouts. eurydice and orpheus come back and back, with more and more workers, the ones they led out from the beyond and the ones from the factories and mines, always to demand: let us go.

and hades grows only more calloused and bitter. you failed your test, you don't get second chances. Players who break the rules are banned from play.

and every time they turn back, back to their increased workloads and their stricter overseers and their hope now stretching thin, and their anger growing more

ok back to me writing: but enough pushing, and even the overseers are beginning to turn.

the furies, infamous guardswomen and union busters, are doing their best to do damage control. and they are fierce. they are vicious, nearly (but not quite) as bad as kampê, and there are three of them--but then there are only three of them, and they cannot possibly control every single instance of revolt when the ball gets rolling

eurydice and orpheus are now the leaders of rebellion, and both of them are marked for banishment. they have to run from god-king hades and stay out of the unrelenting sights of the Furies.

(and this also means they can’t work or the foremen still on hades’ side might turn em in. so they catch a break and a nap, finally, jesus christ)

but.

there is trouble (For hades) in the fact that kampê has practically gone missing. no matter how many are sent to the Beyond, now there is no one to stop them from just... making the trip back. sure. it takes a long time. about a week or so of walking, but they just... come back.

hades takes notice. hades visits the Beyond for the first time in so long and tries to find her, to no avail. the Beyond is far changed than when he last saw it and he does not have the time to spend to find her--he cannot step away from his children for more than a few hours, lest something go wrong again. this is just another inconvenience on his long, long list.

@lookoutitsregan: “they're legally allowed to leave after 15 minutes”

orpheus and eurydice will be dealt with by himself, and so they run--avoid him as much as they can, hide under his radar

by the words of unholy-boi: hades will not let go of his empire so easily. the building pressure only makes him clench his fists tighter, bend his back further, push further to his own breaking point (and towards everyone else’s).

he’s more likely to go down screaming that he isn’t, more likely to cling hard and furious to his city, push his workers into the dirt and further lose persephone in the process, the further this goes, the more against him, the more likely he is to furiously, dangerously fight back.

as summer turns late, hadestown doesn’t soften like hades may have had it for persephone in years long since past, hadestown turns from city to warzone

ok back to me again

for the songbirds: there’s the riots and them narrowly escaping hades like all the damn time while he pushes everyone else to their limits

and yet they refuse to be pushed and usurp their foremen as fast as he reinstates things

revolutions usually have unifying symbols of a sort, and the many isolated revolts do eventually coalesce into this all being an outright revolution--a workers’ movement, if you will.

the red carnation. though they don’t have it, they all remember seeing in orpheus’ hand before he was banished--the one solid sliver of the aboveground anyone saw in a long time

@s-aint-elmo: the red carnation becomes their symbol--though they don’t have it, they paint it in hidden alleyways and abandoned factory walls. they have red paper flowers and red cloth tucked into pockets and tool belts

or the red of some banner that waves in the acrid smoke-wind of hadestown’s false air fronts

flowers, painted and made and substituted, are cropping up all over hadestown, and in increasingly more obvious spots. life is blooming in the underground for the first time in so long

OH ALSO, another fun layer of symbolism with the red cloths:

in the staging of actual hadestown, when orpheus sings "and they're gonna bend their branches down and lay their fruit upon the ground; the almond and the apple, the sugar and the maple" the ensemble is on the tables, reaching over eurydice like tree branches in a sort of ^ formation; on "almond" and "apple," the first two layers pull out and dangle white cloth, but on "sugar from the maple," the dude at the top dangles a red one and drops it into eurydice's hands

so there’s that!

also being the bounty of spring above...... rejecting the underworld. some shit like that

in a musical there’d definitely be a sort of revolution song

like uhhh... Why We Build the Wall II. it’s Different this time. it’s not about the circular logic of the wall, it’s about rebelling against the order hades has set for them

There’s so many lines that can be drawn from elsewhere in the musical to be inserted into this

Why do we build the wall, my brothers, my sisters?

He said the wall would bring us peace, the wall would keep out the enemy.

mister hades set us free to work ourselves into the ground. a lot of souls have gotta die to make the underworld go round.

why are we digging out own graves for a living, if we're free tell me why we can't even stand upright?

some sort of rebellion/callback against “who are you to think that you can hold your head up higher than your fellow man?”

i’m gonna count to three, and then i’ll raise my head, singin’, one, two--!

(except they probably finish the count in this one)

also, because i am weak for really great chords being belted out by a big chorus and hearing every voice part slot together, because this is a revolution song with lots of people i think it should have that

everybody 👏knows 👏the 👏walls 👏have 👏ears 👏

thank u supercanteloupe & s-aint-elmo for ur additions on this

the fates’ voices still carry on the wind, hadestown’s false air fronts of stale and acrid air, but orpheus and eurydice have since learned to turn their backs to it

ALSO? Flags

with the revolution coming to span A Really Big Chunk of hadestown, most likely more than half, there’d probably be people putting up flags and banners

i’m just like, inspired by the imagery of the flag raisings in wwii and post-9/11, and also i’m thinking of les mis/french revolution in general not gonna lie

sure, the Furies are union-busters and come after any sign of revolution, but every revolution is a fight against something. there’s always blood spilled, what different is this one?

they can’t be everywhere at once and they’re not like the Fates--they get tired, they’re not omnipresent and omniscient, the people are not powerless

the flag is supposed to attract attention, the point is to be loud

and by god, they are screaming

this is what a steel mill looks like at night. hadestown was sort of already in a hazy blaze, but combo this with a revolution in its midst, with fighting and fire, and... well, it’s a mess

and through all the flames are the carnations blooming, painted and carved on walls and smokestacks and pathways

(it’s very poetic)

(tumblr will kill this post if i link to the source directly, so. photo taken by DragonWolfACe @ deviantart)

hermes still ferries on the train, but the schedule is all out of whack thanks to the strikes and riots turning the systems upside down. he witnesses plenty of the mess that hadestown has fallen into, and the fight the songbirds are fighting

he relays as much news as he can to persephone

(thanks @damondaunnodyke for helping write this bit w/ seph)

persephone... worries

she already snuck underground to help them once and a hurricane ravaged the Top for her absence. the songbirds have escaped, and now have to fight this fight for themselves--she can’t go back down to help them, because she has to bring the summertime to the Top, and she refuses to be the cause of another storm

so she’s stuck aboveground.

and she’s uhh. stressing. drinking. worrying.

everyone can tell there’s something off, but she doesn’t want to dwell on it, insisting that everyone else should just focus on the good times. let me tell ya something that my mama said to me...

she tries to not stress--there’s nothing she can do right now, why worry, you know? unless she wants to get more gray hairs than she’s already got

but during one of those celebrations she almost says “let the poet bless this round!” before catching herself, remembering that she’s... not there

a lot of people give her a glance; why’d she stop?

but she picks herself back up again, only a moment's falter, and just toasts to life and summer

the end of summer.

the revolution rages on. it’s not calmed down--the very opposite, in fact, more ferocious than ever

(and thanks unholy-boi for basically writing this bit for me HBGFHG)

persephone knows something is wrong when the train isn’t early--isn’t on time, but in fact late to pick her up. the summer has stretched on longer than it should, and in some ways, that is just as dangerous as the winter going on for too long

hades has been getting ready to bring her home. it takes browbeating and strongarming to get the trains running, far too late for his liking.

at last the train comes for her, and when it is hermes who offers his hand to bring her onboard, she knows that things in the underworld are bad--an inferno, dangerous if not dire, and she wonders if the songbirds are still alive, or if they’ve gone and the revolution still rages without them

hades aches for his wife, but he dares not step away from hadestown for a moment. he’s become obsessed and absolutely determined to quell, to crush this rebellion

hades is breaking, but refuses to bend, hades has refrains where he refuses to sing but slips into poetry and catches himself halfway through, hades is breaking, he puts in people he believes he can trust and they turn on him out of desperation, hades is running out of places to desperately hold and he is breaking. hadestown is oblivion. hades is wearing a crown that mangled his head.

persephone steps off of the train, and is taken aback by the state hadestown is in

the people feel her breeze in, and it is some relief, but the can’t tell how this will change things. if it’ll make things worse, if it’ll make it better

people ask for her aid; but she’s too busy looking around, trying to find the songbirds (after getting confirmation that they’re still alive) who are still hiding

and she finds them. she sees orpheus and eurydice (orpheus, who hades so clearly saw himself in, and eurydice, who she sees herself in) still fighting, still in love.

she sees hades’ mercilessness to the boy he sees himself in. she sees eurydice’s unending determination (in contrast to her own grown apathy)

and she’s reminded of times before. song or no song.

she decides that this cannot keep going, and hades will keep going farther and farther until he fucking self-destructs at the end of his fall and she wants to catch him before that happens

hades raises his fist against his people, persephone takes his hand and she starts singing. the old song. holding his hand. protecting the people.

la, la la la, la la la

and he realizes what he’s doing, as music swells, as the rest of hadestown, quietly, starts to join her in singing. as her warmth, her natural warmth, surrounds him, and he smells flowers and feels pollen and sunlight, and he--

well, the ice around his heart starts to crack, and the iron starts to melt

she catches him before he breaks

His Kiss, the Riot is... different

more emotionally charged, i think, because of the fight he’s been fighting for so long, so fiercely and ardently. he’s much more emotionally compromised, stressed and strung out and now everything’s been turned on his head

he can’t just let them go, but he can’t make them stay. he definitely cannot make them stay. and if the songbirds leave, they will take almost all of hadestown with them

it’s not like... Hellfire Notre Dame levels of dramatic. it’s still quiet, dark, and brooding, but hades is. more of a mess, really

but he comes to his conclusion all the same

that’s about all i got on this. i just wanted to make a note. i thought it was important

the task is given: they can walk, but eurydice must walk in front, and orpheus must follow behind. she must not turn behind to see if orpheus is following--if he has not collapsed, and she will not be able to hear if he has. if she turns, she may return above, but her lover will return to hadestown.

it’s given to eurydice instead because while she might be harder to instill doubt in, she’s as much susceptible to loneliness as any other. she may have been alone for so long, but she is desperate to not be alone again. and orpheus is still weak--still sick, and she fears he might give out before they reach the top, as much as he assures her he’ll be fine

and if they fail, well, they keep the poet, who was damned to hell anyway--a sentence is stronger than a contract

(Also, this is now Wait For Me III (the first being Orpheus on the way to Hadestown; second being Eurydice trying to find Orpheus; this is the third) and it is HUGE and GRAND, as the climax of the revolution. just as big, if not bigger than the bway version’s

(tho as per usual it’s tinged with sadness because of the circumstances, and the fact that, if this were staged, orpheus would be the only one not singing)

and then... doubt comes in

eurydice walks the path to the surface

hermes' warnings echo in her head, all the same he gave to orpheus in the normal timeline

it's cold

the fates badger her and bleed into her thoughts, systematically unwinding her confidence as she marches on through the dark

one foot after the other, she tells herself

after so long of turning her back to the wind, to the fates, she has learned to keep her head on straight

orpheus is not sturdy, especially now, but he is not so weak to fail on a walk like this--long, but simple, and upon even ground

he is there, she tells herself. he is strong enough to keep up.

his heart is strong enough. it has to be.

hades lied to everyone in the underground--hades lied to make hadestown, she thinks

hades...

just this once--

she chooses to believe he didn't lie to her.

(pt. i) (pt. ii) (pt. iii) (pt. v) (epilogue) (askblog)

bonus:

#unswayed au #hadestown #hadestown au #my art #my work #i'm thinking about naming each parts #like breaking up this story into sections #the first with orpheus' failing is Banishment #the second is Search / Survival a la eurydice looking for him and orpheus trying to last #the third is Exodus #the fourth is Riots #the fifth is......... youll find out later :)

421 notes · View notes

namelessarcher · 5 years

Text

FGO Pokemon AU Part 4

Gilgamesh

Trainer Profile

Type

Inconsistent

Details

Yellow

Specialty: Become #1 in everything, except contests, he’s banned. Desperately wants to become champion, but he doesn’t show that desperation.

About

Just like how in FGO, Gil is the King of Heroes, the man who owns it all - Gilgamesh is also the rich kid. The one who walks around with his smartphone out at all times which also functions as a Pokedex.

So what if you didn’t give one to him? He can probably just make it himself. Sure, the Antoinette Co. may make the best devices, but guess who can do it just as good, and definitely better, him. Himself. On his own!

All of his Pokemon have Perfect IVs and almost perfect natures and traits. We say almost because, honestly, being around Gil has truly influenced them by a lot.

Pokemon Profiles

Psyduck ♂

You may think Psyduck is his weakest pokemon, but you better take that back. This psychic ducky will send you packing your bags to go home because you’ve never seen anything as terrifying as it is when it’s seriously doing its best.

But on a side note, Psyduck is often not very scary and even has the strangest origin story. The first time Gil went off on an adventure with his Ponyta and Vulpix, when they stopped at a nearby river to set up camp for the night, he woke up with a Psyduck knocked out by their fire. Gil was originally going to leave it there, but upon noticing that the duck followed him to the next city and even past it after the gym, Gil ended up taking it under his wing.

Gil was originally very upset about having to keep the Psyduck around, but after seeing Psyduck kick butt - literally - the golden boy decided it was worthwhile to keep the yellow duckling around.

He won’t evolve it mind you. It’ll ruin his team aesthetics.

Electivire ♂

A walking battery pack. That was not the original intent Gil had when he finally managed to evolve his Electabuzz into an Electivire, but he supposes it works out nicely.

Electivire is one of the few pokemon he hatched, few as in like, the only one he hatched. He was given the egg by his dear friend Enkidu, who had gifted it to him thinking that it would “greatly match Gil’s team.”

It was also the last pokemon to join Gil’s team, and quite honestly the one pokemon that takes after Gil the most. He indulges in all of Gil’s stupid ideas and is often the one that is caught first due to his bulky size.

Often charges Gil’s stuff for him when they’re far from town and have no choice but to camp.

Haxorus ♂

Probably one of the only reasonable Pokemon in his team. By reasonable we mean: 1) not charging headfirst into battle, 2) not listening to anyone that Gil doesn’t listen to, 3) not being insufferable, 4) not demanding for the highest quality of food. Though all of that gets thrown out of the window if Ozy’s Garchomp is present. Get that girl away from him or Haxorus will lose his mind and all he can focus on is getting even with the land shark dragon. So, TL;DR - he’s reasonable, but extremely prideful

Rapidash ♂

The noble steed that carries Gil to whatever location he pleases. Or well, nearly any location. Gilgamesh’s Rapidash is annoying - towards Gil. While he does trust and love his owner, he can’t help but think Gil is annoying whenever the golden boy wants to get a ride from it.

But if it’s flaunting off how bright and strong its flames are while Gil is on him as they stride into town, he’ll do it. Rapidash has much confidence in his appearance and his power, despite not being a shiny, his appearance stands out due to the power and heat of its flame.

You say it’s dangerous and I say, yes, yes it is. But don’t worry, as long as Rapidash trusts its trainer everything will be A-Okay. Except for perhaps the few times Rapidash decides to give Gil a semi-harmless spook.

Easily bribed by food. Nero nearly stole his Rapidash from right underneath his nose because of the times she fed the horse some of her homemade poffins.

Ninetales ♂

Gil’s true breadwinner. Gil may be a successful pokemon trainer, but the only reason he wins in Beauty contest is due to his beautiful Ninetales. Who, for a fact, truly is a calmer version of Gil if you could stuff his personality and transpose it onto a Pokemon.

Ninetales has been pampered since the day it was born with all the highest quality foods and fur care possible. Gil cleans and brushes its fur almost as regularly as he combs through his own - and that’s extremely often.

Ninetales doesn’t quite listen to Gil during Pokemon Contests. He has his own vision that he aims to complete. And while Gil may not know what it is, the fox pokemon does his best to match Gil’s commands to flow with its own plans so that they don’t get points docked off. Honestly at this point… we question if it’s Gil who owns Ninetales or the other way around.

Alakazam (Mega Evolves) ♂

My Alakazam? A fool? More likely than you’d think.

Gil’s Alakazam tends to like playing around with all the things he can float, and upon finding out he’s strong enough to use his psychic prowess to lift Gil into the air effortlessly, he’s started doing that to pull his owner away from any unnecessary encounters - such as running into Ozy or Arthur - or even running into Emiya and Artoria.

Alakazam has actually made a spoon for Gil. But Gil hasn’t used it due to fear of actually losing said spoon. While that warms everyone’s heart who hears about it, Alakazam is kind of sad that Gil won’t use it unless they’re eating rations… yes… rations…

#fate/grand order #gilgamesh #headcanon #mod jenn #fgo pokemon au

47 notes · View notes

thekingofwinterblog · 5 years

Text

My hero academia 213 How to Destroy Potential

My hero academia Chapter 213 has to put it bluntely, been controversial to say the least. the only reason its not the most controversial part of this series, is due to the handling of endeavor.

some are okay with it, and thinks it’s got a lot of potential. others just see it as a blatant rethreading of the road that in the end destroyed Both Bleach and Naruto, two series that at their height was the cream of the crop of not only shonen, but the entire manga medium(at least if one goes by sales numbers), but as the story went on, completely fell in over themselves, and abandoned the things fans loved about the series. In the End fans of bleach got so fed up with the series, that it got canceled in the middle of its final fight. one does not get a more humiliating fall than that.

and now, MHA is seemingly going down the same road. that road of course, being powerscaling.

Powerscaling is a very tricky buisiness, as for any series with superpowers, you will at some point have to establish a hierarcy, of who is at the bottom, the middle, and easily the most important one, at the top.

How strong characters can be in a setting, is immensely important, because that one simple question, determines how strong/usefull any character not at the very top can be in the grand scheme of things.

it is also very important to put a ceiling on how strong a character can become, lest the need for characters to always get stronger and stronger, means that they will reach a point where the only thing that matters anymore is brute strength.

naruto at the end of its series, had essentially destroyed itself due to the fact that its main characters were now so powerfull, that literarly everyone else was worthless in comparison.

bleach went the opposite route, with a villain that was so broken and powerfull, that there was no way his defeat was EVER going to be satisfying, and in the end people didnt care anymore, once the end was reached, and it was killed before its time.

In MHA’s case, the road so many people think its going down, is the road, of Naruto, with its protagonist Izuku Midoriya, gaining 6 entierly new powers, which for Many, Many reasons, threatens to break this story across its knee.

Now i will not go into wheter these powers were well foreshadowed. ive seen both arguments, with many being frustrated they come out of nowhere, while some saying its been foreshadowed since chapter 2.

What i want to focus on, are the powers themselves, and the implications they have on Izuku, and the entire rest of the cast.

Izuku midoriya, at the start of the series, obtained the quirk One for All, a quirk passed on through the generations, which seemingly only granted immense superhuman strength, and all that comes with that(speed, power, and to some extent durability).

for the past 200 chapters, we have explored the drawbacks and powers of this quirk. its unmatched sheer power, but also that its a quirk that one needs to master over time, and if the new user isnt given time to adapt to it, it will destroy the users limbs.

and this was not a for show flaw either. over the course of this series, izuku, again and again used the quirk freely in order to overcome his obstacles, and in the end, he damaged his arms with permanent nerve damage, with the promise that if it happened once or twice more, he would suffer full use of his arms.

in order to compensate for this, he did something you almost never see in any series. he completely ditched his original style of fighting in favor of one that had nothing to do with his old one, but allowed him to use his legs instead of his now damaged arms in order to minimize risk of further damage.

izukus entire journey was about achieving control, over a power he already had achieved, and in the end he was forced to completely rework his powers to achieve success.

then, after we got a full sense of what izuku could do at 100% power, izuku would go on to try and fix one of his main weaknesses, his lack of a ranged attack.

and using his own newfound grasp over his powers, and a bit of tech help, izuku did so, developing a quite usefull ranged attack.

Izuku at this point had reached around 20%/30% of his full power potential, and was really starting to come into his own.

then a completely new power emerged, and izuku was told by one of the previous users of one for all, that in no uncertain terms he would develop 6 entierly new quirks, and that this was the real true potenital of One for All.

This reveal completely redefined the entire series, izukus journey, the potential of EVERYONE ELSE, and how things would be going foreward.

Uncertainty---

Now the first defence against those who like the reveal, and doesnt think this makes izuku overpowered, is that we dont know what any of the new quirks are, other than Izuku’s new Black Whip.

and they are right. we dont know what they are. and thats a big problem.

Now whenever Izuku is in a bad spot, there will always be a chance that the stress will kick in and activate a new quirk, and turn the tide of battle.

it doesnt matter if this never, ever happens. the problem is that its something that we now know COULD happen, and thus it decreases any tension out of any fight izuku will ever have between now and when the final quirk is revealed. Thusly, izuku having these quirks have now dealt a mortal blow against any tension his fight may have had.

Now, to be fair, i want to show a case of this kinda trope done right to compare it to. Naruto and ichigos, kyuubi and hollow transformations before either of them mastered their transformations.

the reason why both of these worked, is that while there was always the possibility that they would just go loose and fix whatever was happening(which is exactly what happened in several cases) we the audience had an advantage we do not have with Izuku’s quirks. we knew what both the hollow powers and the kyuubi could do. while there was the obvious question of just how strong either of these could become before the MC just lost all control, we knew and understood what both these forms could do, and what would lead them to emerge.

we do not have this with izuku’s quirks. we dont know what any of them except Black Whip can do. as my buddy Quirkquartz put it, izuku might have a healing quirk thats powerfull enough to fix his arms and all injury ever. thats probably not gonna be the case, but then again, it could be. We DONT know.

how strong izukus quirks end up being is immaterial. as long as we dont know what any of these quirks are, there is always the chance that they will turn out to be something that will completely fix whatever the issue is at the moment.

and all the way from now and until we learn what the final revealed quirk is, that will be a massive problem.

Replacing other now obsolete characters---

One of the most obvious and blatant problems with giving izuku more quirks, is that it makes other characters irrelevant. ill go over the full problems with powerscaling later, but lets focus on the most obvious and blatant problem, as its actually a problem already.

the fact that izukus quirks will probably end up flat out just be other characters powers, just better.

and unlike other concerns about this reveal, this one has actually happened already.

Izuku’s black whip, is essentially the quirk of his fellow classmate Sero, just better in every way. and what that means is that any chance sero ever had of being relevant and unique just died.

One of the biggest problems of powercreep is when the only thing that matters is brute power, and the only thing that matters is who is the most powerfull guy on the team.

that is a legitimate concern of where this might all head, but there is another problem with powercreep when it comes to developing new powers.

flat out making characters obsolete.

what is the point of sero, now that izuku can do what he can do, just better? the answer is that there isnt any. Sero might as well have died, given that any potential he had to be somewhat unique just got destroyed by izuku getting a power which is his, just better.

to illustrate the importance of uniqueness, ill give an example of a character who is the weakest of his entire group, yet has one nitche that only he can do.

Usopp from one piece, is the weakest fighter of the entire strawhat pirates, bar none. yet he is also the sniper of the crew, and when it comes to long range situations, there simply arent anyone in the crew who comes even close to doing what he can do at that range.

this has lead to him being instrumental several times in the manga, saving the day, when no one else could, because even though there are plenty of enemies he just cannot beat, he is still a worthwhile character who can do stuff no one else can do.

Now, with the introduction of Black Whip, we will never see a similar situation for Sero. he’s irrelevant, and to put it bluntly, obsolete.

and there is a genuine fear that this will happen again when other quirks are introduced. whats there to say the next one wont be an explosion power, which is probably more powerfull than bakugous?

Making previous development meaningless---

like the previous point, this one is also a problem thats already happened. namely that the introduction of Black Whip, just made izukus previous development of a ranged attack pointless. maybe once izuku really gets a massive grip of OFA, and his ranged air attack become ridiculously powerfull, it will be relevant again, but at that point, he could just punch like all might and get the same effect.

which brings up the question. if the next devlopment is to master black whip, then what the hell was the point of izuku devloping a ranged attack?

again, there isnt any. ranged wind attack is now flat out overshadowed for its intended purpose, and will now be a niche ability.

Unnecesary Powers and lack of creativity---

And now we get to delve into the subject of the concept of the OP character, and wheter izuku qualifies or not.

one argument ive seen leveled over and over, is that izuku was always going to be overpowered, so giving him extra quirks isnt a problem in the grand scheme of thing. after all, he’s gonna be overpowered either way right?

which raises a question. wheter izuku actually is going to become overpowered or not(a question ill dive into in the next section), did he need more powers? what was wrong with his established set? was simple superhuman strength a power which simply didnt work in the long run?

There is some legitimate critisism on the subject, in that izukus fights for a long time, tended to end the same, unless it was a curbstomp. izuku would simply get angry and hit them really really hard, and often break his body in the process.

and there is some genuine problems there. many pf izukus fights were indeed like that. i would argue however, that this was a problem on Koheis part, rather than an inherited problems with OFA itself.

After all, there are plenty of moments where izuku uses his strength in order to win in other ways than just hitting people directly. izukus first fight with bakugou was won like that, and him saving himself, tsuyu and mineta on the boat was a great combination attack.

The big problem is that kohei has relied on enemies with direct power against izuku far too often.

Overhaul was building up to be a direct counter to that. a physically normal man, with ridiculous powers, that was more than a match for izuku. then he became a punching bag in order to demonstrate how strong izuku is at 100%

Gentle was similar, then at the very end, La Brava revealed her quirk to be one which powered gentle up drasticly, turning their fight into yet another power struggle(though addmitingly one which izuku won withouth destroying himself).

The big problem is that when it comes to izukus fights, kohei has lately relied far too mutch on hard hitters to fight izuku, rather than letting fights like izukus vs gentle or overhaul to reach a logical conclusion. instead coming back to the age old power struggle.

Yet he has proven over the series that he can write better than that, and in my opinion, the big problem is that he simply hasnt when its come to izukus fights.

and, now, lets go over the big subject, the one that defines this debate.

Powerscaling in all its messy glory----

The big, big question that is asked again and again with this devlopment, is, doesnt this make izuku OP as fuck? and often those who like the idea to redirect the question with replies like, and so what? he was always going to be OP, this changes nothing. or the tried and true, lets wait and see how Kohei writes it.

lets begin with the biggest question, was Izuku always going to be OP?

the answer is both Yes and no. he was always going to be OP in that his brute force was never going to be matched, thats true enough, and the entire series has been built upon that premise. however, that doesnt mean that izuku would be able to solve every single problem he would face on his own, nor that he could beat every single enemy he ever faced.

if you actually look at 1-a’s powerset, there is an obvious collection of flat out combat quirks(which makes sense given the entrance exam) but there is also a large variety of powers.

Acid, explosions, fire/ice, lasers, electricity, shadow, sound. these are all direct combat quirks, yet none of them are usefull for direct physical combat.

of the direct physical combat(and nothing else) fighters there are 6; tsuyu, kirishima, ojirou, tenya, shoji and sato.

now, lets look at these in full and see how they compare in potential for one for all.

Tsuyu, has superhuman strenght and agilty and a incredibly long and strong toungue. also has camouflage powers, which OFA does not have anything resembling, and can also climb on walls.

Kirishima, is superhumanly durable to an insane degree. how this compares to OFA durability at both of their heights is unknown, but it could consievably be more durable than a OFA user after kirishima has hammered it as far as it could go.

ojirou, has a tail. OFA is and always will be better.

Tenya, has ridiculously high speed, and at this current stage is FAR faster than izuku, and could possibly grow even faster. how a possible max speed would compare to AFO is unknown, but its completely possible that tenya would be the flash to izukus superman.

Shoji, has transformation powers, which is often used for direct combat but can also be used for other things like scouting by sound, leave behind dropped off body parts for distractions or decoys and probably other usefull things.

and finally sato, who grows superhumanly strong when he consumes sugar. his max strenght seems to be far inferior to izuku already at this stage.

so, out of the entire class, only two members had nothing to bring to the table which OFA could not do better in every way, no question.

does this mean that all of the quirks had the potential to reach OFA’s level? of course not, but that didnt mean they had to be useless.

after all, characters like sero could fill their own niche. oh wait.

the big problem with giving izuku even one more quirk(much less 6) is that suddenly he can do stuff that other characters can do, just much better. and this isnt something we speculate on. its already happened. Black whip is better than seros quirk in every way. the moment izuku gets any grip on black whip, sero serves no point.

which leads to the next point.

one argument against this being a terrible idea for the story as a whole, is that its not likely that izuku will have mastered these quirks right out of the gate. and that is true. it will probably take izuku as long a time to truely master black whip as it took to master his original powers. but that doesnt really matter, in the grand scheme of things. because wheter it takes a week, a month or a year, the end result remains the same. Black Whip will have made sero a completely obsolete character. there simply isnt any way around that.

izuku will make more and more characters obsolete everytime he unlocks another quirk. wheter the next is mineta, jirou, kirishima or even todoroki and bakugou, each time it happens someone will become the new yamcha.

which leads me to the next point. there is no point of any other characters training to be the next number one hero, as this devlopment will have killed any shot todoroki or bakugou ever had of matching up to izuku in any way.

the bakugou/izuku rivalry is effectively over, as there isnt any way bakugou could even hope to measure up to izuku now.

it was a tall order with izuku only having one for all, but idd argue that its impossible now, that he’s got more than OFA.

Hell, even with just black whip, izukus potential is now so wast that it dwarfs any other. BW pretty mcuh removes all the few drawbacks of a fully mastered OFA, namely its lack of range beyond moving wind currents and bursts. izuku could potentially have been left helpless in the air open to counterattacks, even after fully having mastered OFA. with BW, that “pesky”weakness has now been removed.

the simple fact of the matter is that One for ALL was such a powerfull quirk that giving it ANY boost beyond its already established powers, had the severe risk of completely undermining every single other characters. 6 entierly new and probably all very powerfull quirks on top of it?

i simply cannot see any way that will be done well and these powers will benefit the story, even by an author who has done no wrong. and kohei is not one such.

this development is not a sudden sign that kohei is becoming a terrible writer. he’s been fucking up for a while now.

He wasted all the potential of the overhaul arc, which had so much potential, that was flushed down the toilet, and he completely failed to make me(and many, MANY others) feel anything in regards to Endeavors “redemption” arc.

Kohei is capable of writing great stuff still, the festival arc was great, this recent arc has been wonderfull up until pretty recently, and ive loved so much of what has happened over the last year.

But he isnt a writer who makes no mistakes. and quite frankly, im tired of the argument that we should wait and see. i waited and saw during the overhaul arc. it did not have a finale that i particularly loved. i waited and saw during the endeavor arc. and again, i didnt get anything i wanted out of that conclusion, neither endeavor losing an eye, a real confrontation between endeavor and dabi, nor endeavors potential death, which is what i expected and wanted out of that arc.

im tired of waiting and seeing. this is a terrible and quite possibly a point of no return for MHA quality and potential, and im gonna call it out as such.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #chapter 213 #izuku #one for all #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #213 #bnha 213

49 notes · View notes

imnotavampire97 · 5 years

Text

long, but possibly helpful.

ive been through a lot recently and have done a whole lot of thinking about whether or not ill ever be happy. I always tell others “you’re in control of your happiness” and “you’re the only one who can change it”. I know in my heart that is true, but sometimes i really don’t know what makes me happy or what i can do to be happy.

But I know that I truly am in control of my own emotions. I cannot let anyone take away from my energy, my love, my light.

Ive gone through a very rough time in my life. 21 years of nonsense. Yes, there are absolutely beautiful moments in my life, and i am dearly grateful. I enjoy them when they happen, because living in the moment is what it’s all about. I read a quote once somewhere that said, “The past nor the present exist aside from in your mind. The only true moment is now,” or something like that.It stuck with me for so long, and when i’m down and out i think of that. Nothing in the past truly exists anymore, nothing in the future is set in stone.

Even with all this in my mind, my past comes to haunt me all too much and all too often.

I suffer from bipolar type 2, which is pretty much just a mix of anxiety and depression. You can be really happy for a day, a week, months, even. But then one day, one little thing can trigger you into this pit of darkness, where you’re suffocating and you cant get out. It is a major issue that has been in my life for three years now, stemming from a mixture of my father’s actions as a child (and even now), and one of my ex’s and his behavior,

My depression has been a problem since i was 11, probably even before that. I had no friends. My parents argued more than not and it usually ended with a physical fight between my parents. As a child i had no idea what was going on. Yelling and violence were common among our household; I knew no different. I went through a very long period of my life where i was just confused and sad all the time, and i thought it was normal, so sadness was essentially all i knew.

I was a very “obnoxious” child. I was over the top friendly, and just wanted to share my love, innocence, and happiness with everyone. Other kids didn’t like me, I was loud and talked a lot. A time came where I truly felt like if i died, everything would be so much better. For my parents, for the kids at school, even my siblings. I didnt want to live, and i had realized that life goes on without me. I felt dead on the inside. I tried to jump out of a three story window (being 11 i had no idea that if i had jumped, i wouldnt have died, just most likely been severely injured). My dad came into my room to me with a leg out the window. He yelled and yelled, and told me if i wanted to die he could make it happen. He picked me up and i clung to the window frame. After a minute he put me down and went to try and take his own life, Among the tears and the yelling, my mother came in and resolved the situation. I say resolve, but it was just more arguing between her and my father until they finally gave up with one another and my dad left for the night. It was a common reoccurring situation.

My dad wasnt ever there for me emotionally. Nurturing is not in his vocabulary. He would call me names, hit me, yell at me, and blame me for his failing marriage. I know now that none of it was my fault. He was a drug addict for most of his life, and to be quite honest, he still is. I love him and pray for him every day, even though he was awful to me, because at the end of the day he is my father, and i love him, even though he doesnt show that he loves me too.

My exboyfriend is a really long story, but in an nutshell, he was sexually and mentally abusive. I met him through my old roommate, and he and i really hit it off. We traveled all over the state and even got to move to a new state where we tried to start our life. I was 18 and he was 26. I was young, naive, and really just looking for love in the places i never had it. He raped me on multiple occasions, used me for my apartment and my money, cheated on my multiple times, had violent fits of rage, breaking things and hurting himself, and at the end, he ran away to another country with his new girlfriend, Mind you, he left a day after we broke up. He shut down any thought i ever had, made me get rid of my phone and stop talking to people all together except my mom.

It got to a point of me being so isolated, that I had no thoughts in my mind except that the only way out was to take my own life and let myself have some sort of peace. I was curled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth, contemplating how i could do it, when all of a sudden, one thought popped into my head. “Go to the hospital. Ride your bike to the hospital, and tell them you’re a danger to yourself.”

After a moment of thought, i put my shoes on, grabbed my bike, and rode as fast as i could to the nearest hospital.

And that was the best decision I have ever made.

I got counseling, went to therapy for a while, and gained a pretty good handle on my metal state. I started doing things for me, not for anyone else’s happiness.

Since then, I have gone through losing multiple jobs, being homeless, wrecking my ex’s car (a different ex), multiple break ups, and losing all my friends, even ones from 8 years ago. But as of now, I have a decent job, a roof over my head, a wonderful, loving boyfriend who cares for me dearly, a perfect dog, and I am finally beginning to love myself the way i deserve. I am getting myself on track, and i am learning from my mental illness and fixing the problem myself. It may not be now, or soon, but over time i will get there.

There is so much more to my life story that would take forever and a day to type out. The point I am trying to make is, suicide is NEVER the answer. There is someone out there, even if its just the voice in the mist of your mind, cheering you on, loving you, caring about you. I dont know what saved me that day in Colorado, but I am so thankful, so blessed, and so happy that i didnt end it. Tomorrow is a new day. You can do so much in just one day. You whole world can get turned upside down in a good way, or even in a bad way, But its alright! Because theres always a way out. Even if its not clear to you in the moment, it will become clear to you when it needs to. Stay mindful, stay patient. Good things will come your way, I promise. You can’t reach to heaven if you haven’t gone through the worst parts of hell. You really do need that balance between bad and good. You cannot cherish the good the way you need to if you haven’t experienced the bad. Life is one big learning lesson, and the only way to learn is to pay attention and stay strong in the moments where you find yourself the weakest.

Go out and ride a bike with the wind flying in your face, smash some plates on the ground, run as fast as you can until you cant take it anymore, stick your head out the window on a car ride and feel that air, get that adrenaline rush and feel alive. Remind yourself that you ARE ALIVE. You have 86,400 seconds in a day, make every single one count as if it was your last.

2 notes · View notes

theusurpersdog · 6 years

Text

Sansa as the YMBQ Pt. 2 - Everything Cersei Holds Dear

"Queen you shall be," she hissed, "until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold most dear."

- ADWD Cersei II

A major part of Maggy the Frog’s prophecy is that Cersei’s YMBQ has to take what’s important to her. Since Cersei is a narcissistic crazy person, all that Cersei holds most dear is quite short: her kids, Jaime, and power. So who could possibly have taken all this from her? Only one person - Sansa Stark.

Ser Dontos the Fool and Joffrey

Finally Ser Dontos the Red gave it up for a bad job, sat down in the dirt, and removed his plumed helm. “I lose,” he shouted. “Fetch me some wine.”

The king stood. “A cask from the cellars! I‟ll see him drowned in it.”

Sansa heard herself gasp. “No, you can’t!”

- ACoK Sansa I

If not for Sansa, Ser Dontos would have died. The relevance of this? Dontos of course is a catspaw of Littlefinger, who would go on to give Sansa the hairnet that contained the poison to kill Joffrey. And the only reason Sansa was able to attend Joffrey’s wedding (thus poisoning him), instead of being in Highgarden with Willas Tyrell, was because of Ser Dontos:

When she told Ser Dontos that she was going to Highgarden to marry Willas Tyrell, she thought he would be relieved and pleased for her. Instead he had grabbed her arm and said, "You cannot!" in a voice as thick with horror as with wine. "I tell you, these Tyrells are only Lannisters with flowers. I beg of you, forget this folly, give your Florian a kiss, and promise you'll go ahead as we have planned. The night of Joffrey's wedding, that's not so long, wear the silver hair net and do as I told you, and afterward we make our escape."

- ASoS Sansa II

The above quote also shows that Sansa is essential to the Littlefinger/Tyrell murder plot. While anti Sansa posts try and argue that she wasn’t involved enough to count as taking Joffrey from Cersei, the books show a different story. Almost every time we here the story of the Purple Wedding, we’re told Sansa killed Joffrey:

I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs.

- ASoS Arya VIII

The Ghost of High Heart sees Sansa murdering Joffrey, not the Tyrells or Littlefinger

The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window.

- ASoS Arya XIII

(I could write a whole meta on how this foreshadows both R+L=J and Jonsa, but I’ll save that for another post). Again we see that Sansa is responsible for Joffrey’s death. And, most importantly, Cersei views Sansa as the culprit:

She is not dead . . . but before I am done with her, I promise you, she will be singing to the Stranger, begging for his kiss."

- AFfC Cersei IV

Lancel Lannister and Jaime

"Help him," Sansa commanded two of the serving men. One just looked at her and ran, flagon and all. Other servants were leaving the hall as well, but she could not help that. Together, Sansa and the serving man got the wounded knight back on his feet. "Take him to Maester Frenken." Lancel was one of them, yet somehow she still could not bring herself to wish him dead. I am soft and weak and stupid, just as Joffrey says. I should be killing him, not helping him.

- ACoK Sansa VII

During the Battle of the Blackwater, Lancel suffered an almost fatal wound and he would have died if not for Sansa helping him (he almost died anyway). Before this, Lancel had been sleeping with Cersei, unbeknownst to Jaime. In ASoS, Tyrion tells Jaime the truth:

“Cersei is a lying whore, she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know”

- ASoS Tyrion XI

But Jaime doesn’t believe him. Not until Jaime actually speaks with Lancel in AFfC (Jaime IV) does he actually believe Tyrion was telling the truth. Knowing Cersei was sleeping with other people is what causes Jaime to permanently end his relationship with her, and leads to this epic moment:

Jaime read it in the window seat, bathed in the light of that cold white morning. Qyburn's words were terse and to the point, Cersei's fevered and fervent. Come at once, she said. Help me. Save me. I need you now as I have never needed you before. I love you. I love you. I love you. Come at once.

Vyman was hovering by the door, waiting, and Jaime sensed that Peck was watching too. "Does my lord wish to answer?" the maester asked, after a long silence.

A snowflake landed on the letter. As it melted, the ink began to blur. Jaime rolled the parchment up again, as tight as one hand would allow, and handed it to Peck. "No," he said. "Put this in the fire."

- AFfC Jaime VII

Because Sansa spared Lancel (even though he was partly responsible for the death of her father), Jaime abandons Cersei in King’s Landing.

Dontos, Littlefinger, Lancel, and Power

The last thing Cersei has left that she holds dear is power; but at the end of Dance, she has been paraded through the streets of King’s Landing naked and lost the Regency to Kevan Lannister. And how did this happen? It all started with the death of Joffrey, planned by Littlefinger (whose motivation was smuggling Sansa out of King’s Landing) and carried out by Sansa and Ser Dontos (only alive because of Sansa).

Because Tyrion stands accused of Joffrey’s murder, he suffers a psychotic break and kills Tywin. This left House Lannister without a proper leader, and Cersei soon began to fall apart. But things really went off the rails when Cersei had the High Septon killed, and replaced him with the High Sparrow. And why did she want the High Septon dead? Lancel Lannister:

"You confessed your sins to His High Holiness, did you?"

"He prayed for me when I was wounded. He was a good man."

He's a dead man. They rang the bells for him. He wondered if his cousin had any notion what fruit his words had borne.

- AFfC Jaime IV

Obviously Maggy’s prophecy hasn’t been completed yet, because she is still the Queen Mother and Myrcella and Tommen are alive, but so far Sansa has taken most of what Cersei holds dear. Its important to remember that D*ny has had literally nothing to do with anything Cersei has lost, so even if some of these connections to Sansa seem a bit tenuous, even the weakest of her connections are stronger than the best case for D*n’ys involvement.

#Sansa Stark #jonsa #game of thrones #asoiaf #A Song of Ice and Fire #anti targaryen #anti daenerys #Cersei Lannister

330 notes · View notes

lumilasi · 6 years

Photo

So. Originally I meant Adam be my main, but I decided I should go with Azul and Reuben instead, given how many connections they have to the other ocs I and my friend got. They are clearly more of the center of focus.

Also there’s a bio for Azul’s familiar Lasha.

Who is a total hoe.

At first glance anyway, there’s more to him than that actually.

Anyway, character bio;

Name: Azul Samaros

He/him

Height: 177 cm

Human mage

Age: 25

Dark Arts master of the Kingdom of Valencia

personality:

Azul is known to be very quiet, only talking when he legit has things to say. He’s also very blunt and honest, and has a dry sense of humor. He is the type to often take matters into his own hands and act before asking for permission.

He is a highly protective big brother, and while he tends to act like a dick to his lil bro (who acts like a dick back, it’s a bro thing) he loves Reuben dearly and would literally kill anyone who dared to hurt him.

Despite his apparent grumpy nature, Azul is actually far more patient than one would think initially, as it is really hard to make him angry. He can stand his brother’s mishaps and his familiar’s flirty behavior without batting an eyelid for hours.

Important people:

His brother Reuben: https://lumilasi.tumblr.com/post/174471835666/next-oc-done-this-time-its-azul-feisty-lil-bro

His teacher Lionel: https://lumilasi.tumblr.com/post/174634983311/i-was-supposed-to-finish-him-ages-ago-but-had

Alexander (his king, TBA)

Mellina (His Queen, TBA)

Helias (former ruler, Gwendolyn’s brother): https://lumilasi.tumblr.com/post/174053975541/so-ive-been-busy-with-working-on-designs-for

Gwendolyn (his GF of sorts and also an Empress): https://mad-hatter-rici.tumblr.com/post/174081334714/my-best-pal-since-2010-decided-to-create-a-tumblr

His brother’s Djinn and his familiar’s love interest Athem: https://mad-hatter-rici.tumblr.com/post/174755800804/athem-the-djinn-yeah-so-here-is-another-oc-for-the

Familiar Lasha (more info at the end)

Abilities:

Azul is a dark magic mage so he knows a lot about curses and summoning spells, and can perform those as well, not to mention create enchanted objects or poisons. He can also solidify shadows as a weapon.

He has the ability to put a sleeping spell on people, this one is sort of his trademark as he uses it a LOT, whenever he wants his bro or Lasha to shut up, or if he needs someone to rest due to their injuries.

He can also command Lasha as he pleases, though mainly uses the snake’s skills for intelligence gathering and occasional massages. He doesn’t want to use Lasha in battles too much both because the snake demon might go a bit far, and because he honestly is concerned the dumbass would hurt himself badly.

Weaknesses:

His tendency to act before asking for permission can sometimes lead into rather bad results, where he meddles into something he shouldn’t have.

He is terrible at making friends because most find him highly intimidating. He mainly really chats with his brother casually, or his familiar. Overall, he just has the tendency to come off cold and blunt, which might be learned from the way his teacher acted. His habit of not always getting enough sleep and staying up too much is also learned from Lionel, although in his master’s case it was fine, since as a Chesire, he didn’t need as much sleep as Azul does.

He is a skilled mage, but there are always those who are more skilled, such as his teacher, Lionel, and sometimes Azul overestimates his abilities.

Fun Facts

- Azul could be considered Demisexual, as one really needs to gain his trust before he can actually feel attracted to them - something Gwendolyn managed to do. He doesn’t care too much whom he’s romantically involved with, at least when it comes to gender. His current lover just happens to be a woman.

- Azul is pretty kinky and aggressive lover, which Gwendolyn actually enjoys a lot given how feisty she is.

- He sometimes contacts his wandering teacher trough Astral plane if there is more serious matter to discuss

- Azul’s most precious possession is a ritual knife he got from Lionel (the one he can use to contact him) his teacher, and he is highly possessive over this item due to the incredible emotional value it holds. He will get pissy if anyone touches it without his permission, and might either stab, curse or just punch them, or otherwise make their day miserable. The only two people who are allowed to touch it are Reuben and Lasha.

- His nicknames for Lasha are Lash, hoe, Slutnoodle and dumbass.(Lasha has a habit of flirting a lot, and before Reuben found Athem, Lasha also slept around quite a bit)

- He calls his brother either Ruby or Reubie (or dumbass number two)

- He himself is nicknamed “the Blue Demon” by the common folk because he tends to terrify them a lot.

- Azul is one of the very few people Empress Gwendolyn trusts to see the horrid scarring on her back from the demon attack century ago.

- Azul can go on for days without sleep, though usually someone eventually knocks him out when he starts getting ridiculous with it.

- That claw thing on his finger is something he uses to bleed magic essence from things. it is based on Helias’ feathers that have similar ability.

BG story in a nutshell:

Reuben and Azul were orphaned brothers whose home village was destroyed by a rampaging magical fire, which originated from their lunatic of a father trying to enchant Reuben’s elemental powers with a forbidden ritual, and causing the boy’s power to lash out of control. They ended up in Mirthas where they lived up to their late teens, during which time both were trained in their respective magic skills, Azul being trained by Mirthas’ master exorcist Lionel. After Reuben’s mental state got worse due to the nightmares and guilt over what happened back in their home village, Azul and Lionel decided to erase every bit of memory from Reuben’s mind regarding to the incident, portecting his sanity.

During their time in Mirthas, Azul summoned himself a familiar, who freaked Lionel out at first upon realizing he was the same type of demon as the one who’d attacked their Kingdom years ago. However, upon seeing how well Azul connected with the snake, he allowed the boy to keep it. He also managed to develop a bond with the then reclusive Empress of Mirthas, who’d been keeping herself away from public eye due to heavy emotional scarring and shame. Azul’s honest, no nonsense nature helped to ease the troubled Empress’ mind, and she grew fond of the young mage.

Azul ended up in his current Kingdom of Valencia after taking a trip there with his brother and the Empress, who was requested to aid her old friends with something. The two brothers grew fond of the human kingdom and decided to stay, especially after Reuben went and fell in love with their elder prince.

So that’s all about Azul for now

Here’s bits about Lasha

Age: Unknown, but he says he’s at least a couple centuries old

Height: 185 cm

Length (snake form): about 4-5 meters

Demon Type:

He’s what they call “Arthan” which refers to members of the lost kingdom of Arthanos who ended up succumbing into their own magic power and turning into demons. Another name - the one primarily used - is Silver Night Beasts as often they have an element of their body that appears like the night sky and glimmers silvery with “stars”

Personality:

He’s highly flirty, physically affectionate and seductive, coming off as somebody highly confident with their looks and not afraid to use that advantage. Most of the time he acts calm and well-mannered, though he is mischievous too, playing tricks on people (harmless; Azul would get pretty angry if he hurt people without permission) and loves being paid attention to.

That being said, he genuinely cares for his Master and gets highly testy if someone insults Azul or his brother Reuben. As a snake, he can act almost cutesy and silly.

When it comes to his master brother’s Djinn - whom he knows personally from the past - Lasha’s behavior can change drastically and reminds more of how he used to be as human; loud, aggressive, blunt and sarcastic. Athem just seems to know exactly how to push his buttons.

The same time it’s pretty obvious to everyone around them that Lasha still loves him and his blunter attitude is born more out of absolute trust towards Athem and lack of need to control himself and portray himself in a certain manner. basically, he acts a bit more natural with Athem.

He can also be extremely childish and playful around his childhood friend/boyfriend in a manner that resembles what he usually does only in his snake form.

Abilities:

He is IMMENSELY strong physically, able to even damage the most powerful creature types of their world like Nephilins (Gwendolyn and Helias) or White Tigers (Rayna) He can rip humans to shreds with ease, and his claws in human form are so sharp he can cut trough metals and thick rock.

He has four forms he can shift in between; a full human form with legs, a half-human, half-snake naga form with two variations; a “friendly” one where his human upper body looks like how he normally looks in human form, and a “demonic” look where his face turns more demonic with a snake-like jaw, no eyebrows and his hair turns inverted with colors. This form is also MUCH larger than normal, easily towering over people with being near three meters tall (not including the tail part, simply the human body) Last form is the tiny snake which is weakest, but he prefers it outside battles (or making out) as it conserves energy.

Lasha, like other demons of his kindred, has a curse he can inflict upon others; his is called “Euphoria” where he can inject or blow powerful poison on people that drives them to extreme bloodlust, or uncontrollable mad cackles that won’t stop, or other extreme types of hormonal rush or so, to the point they eventually die from too much stress put upon your body.

Lasha can traverse trough shadows like most demons and turn invisible, and see into people’s dreams. He also has a mental link with his master, able to communicate with him wordlessly.

He’s an excellent dancer as well and gives reeeally good massages.

Weaknesses:

Being a bound demon, he is not as powerful as he would be when freed. Like majority of dark beings, light magic is pretty effective against him.

Lasha has a demon-type specific weakness where someone using his original name from his time as a human can basically gain complete control over him, making him lose his autonomy entirely, both body and mind if the name-wielder wishes so. The only being able to override this enslavement is his Deity Belias as he always knows the human identity of his demons. Lucky for Lasha, finding out ones original name isn’t easy.

Unluckily, there is a person in his current life that knows it, though he would never use it against him voluntarily, as he loves Lasha. (Athem)

In his snake form, he is pretty vulnerable and can get badly hurt from just stepping on him.

His past has left him with traumas, and at times he might wake up in a fit of anxiety where he is unable to speak, nor change his form from whatever it is (snake or humanoid) even if he wanted to.

Fun facts:

- Lasha is a lil intimidated by huge ass tall people, because Mirthas’ Kingdom Bear shape-shifter guardian Cain accidentally stepped on him once. it hurt, a lot.

- He has a habit of nuzzling Azul’s hair as a form of innocent affection; it’s a habit he developed during their first year of knowing each other.

- Lasha’s favorite people to flirt with for shits and giggles are Azul and Gwendolyn. His flirting style is very different then though, when compared to the person he actually loves; Lasha can be very well spoken and charming when flirting with peeps he’s not serious about, but with Athem he can be absolutely childish.

- His curse bases on what he felt when he first transformed into a demon; in Lasha’s case he was in the middle of a bloody battle and was enjoying it to a disturbing degree.

- Ironically, he’s actually calmer now as a demon than he was as a human, according to Athem who knew him when he was human

- Lasha’s favorite napping spot in snake form is his master’s shoulders. In human form he sleeps on Azul’s bed as it’s often unoccupied anyway due to Azul’s night-owl habits. He does also like to go and use Athem as a pillow whenever he’s available.

- The ruby pendant he wears in human form is the symbol of his contract with Azul, as it used to belong to Azul originally.

BG story in a nutshell:

Lasha was once a warrior of Arthanos, a lost Kingdom known for its dark magic and powerful warriors. He was one of the “channelers” warriors who could channel their deity’s magic power. Like every Channeler, he was paired with a normal warrior, who happened to be his childhood friend Athem.

Athem had been in love with him since they were kids, and always tried to reign in Lasha’s violent tendencies, though rarely succeeding in it. In turn, Lasha found him an “annoying nag” or “party popping, straight-laced, goody-two-shoes bore with a stick up his ass, and not the good kind.”

Despite his harsh words, Lasha did actually return the feelings aimed at him, he just didn’t want to admit it openly.

It was Athem who was forced to banish Lasha into the dark realm once he transformed, as Lasha almost killed him. The snake didn’t really recall Athem or any of these events up until he appeared back into his new life as a Djinn.

Sometime during his demon years, Lasha was under another master who treated him horribly, thus resulting into his traumas.

The reason why he adores his current master so much is because of his past experience, as Azul is actually decent towards him - aside from the name-calling and smacking his head when he misbehaves - which Lasha is really glad about, as part of him still yearns to be treated like a human and not a monster.

Wow.

Lot of stuff here.

I’ll update this later on likely, right now my brain is emptied out of creative juices after typing all that on the fly

Art and characters (C) Me

8 notes · View notes

why-mr-spook · 6 years

Link

This was posted on AO3 yesterday, but here it is too! A Spirk nightmare, comfort fic.

Air. There is no air.

But there is Spock and Bones, and eventually peace.

Jim woke slowly, disoriented for a moment. It felt as if he was stationary, and the world was the thing coming into view, settling itself around him. His bedroom was a tip, and his feet were cold; his window was hanging open and the old house had never retained any heat anyway. He sat up, feet dangling over the side of his bed but not quite touching the floor. Not yet. He used to not mind being short. When his mom got back from the stars, she always cradled him to her and told him that he’d always be her little baby. If he could stay small for her, she might just hold him forever- stop him from growing up.

Growing up was terrible. He’d realised that a long time ago. Sam had grown up, taller and smarter and stronger. Sam had grown up and he’d left. Left Jim to the empty cans and bitter rages and the cold, cold house. Jim finally slid off his mattress, shivering down to the core of him. It was winter now, without a doubt; another month had come and gone without a word from his mom, and the old wooden floorboards beneath his feet were so cold they hurt. He’d be on Tarsus IV soon, and it would be warmer there. The sky would be brighter, the blankets would be thicker, the food would be better. He’d be free of Frank, if nothing else.

He padded towards the open window, hanging out over the rooftop and letting the cool winds bring tears to his eyes. It was okay. It was all okay. The cold was good- the pain was good. It reminded him he was alive, and that’s what his mom had always said. Bad was good, because bad meant there was good to come. He doubted her sincerity, because his dad dying had been bad and he’d been waiting all his life for the good to follow up. At one point, he would have said that his mom’s brief stints at home had been the good. Maybe he was as selfish as Frank said, but it wasn’t good enough, not anymore. Not for him. Half of him wanted to just follow Sam’s example- right then- bound out of the window and flee into the night. Only he didn’t have that much longer to wait before he was gone, so he’d withstand the bad a little longer. Tarsus would be the good.

Jim leaned out of the window, into the cold, and he inhaled deeply. There - those brisk, unrelenting winds - they brought hope.

Jim sat bolt upright, his head spinning as he tried to take in his quarters and how very far it was from the dusty old farmhouse of his youth. His quarters were warm- warmer than average, in fact, thanks to his Vulcan boyfriend. They’d eventually found a happy compromise- Jim had to sleep mostly nude, which he mostly did anyway, but he could generally enjoy the whole night through without overheating. Well, nightmares aside he could. Reality dawned on him quickly, nausea and dizziness dissipating with the well-practiced circular rubs to his back. He’d woken Spock, it seemed. Of course he did. He always woke Spock- Spock was the lightest sleeper on the Enterprise, lighter even than Jim.

“Ashayam.” A hand rested against his shoulder, asking him to lean back into the touch and let Spock take his weight. Jim resisted. A part of him was still searching for that brilliant, cold wind in the middle of the night. It was about the only part of the dream he could remember. Dream, or memory? He couldn’t remember. There were so many nights between Sam leaving and his departure for Tarsus that he’d spent at that window, daring himself to leave. To run. Hell, on the bad nights, even to just jump and end it all.

“No wind. There’s no air.” He mused, slumping as all the tension in his muscles drained out. “Sorry. What’s the time?”

“It is half past three, Jim.” Spock sounded concerned and tired, and Jim felt terrible for waking him. “You should attempt to return to sleep.” He didn’t bother pointing out that Spock hadn’t included himself in that little suggestion, because it only made him feel worse.

“Yeah.” It had been past midnight before he’d fallen asleep anyway, too wrapped up in Spock and the distractions he presented away from what the rest of the day would bring. “Yeah, I’ll try.” Though he didn’t fancy the chances he’d actually drift off again. If he closed his eyes, he was back in the farmhouse, and maybe Frank was just downstairs drinking and shouting at the TV. Maybe, maybe Jim would hear those awful floorboards – that splintered him any chance they got, so he’d not gone barefoot in that house for a long time – they’d creak, and Frank would be coming upstairs to drag him out of bed, just to have someone to shout at. To be called lazy for sleeping.

Jim lay back down, staring up at the ceiling, until Spock settled beside him, reaching for his hand in the space between them.

“Spock?” Jim rolled onto his side, his gaze tracing his boyfriend’s silhouette in the dark. He couldn’t really make out too much without any light whatsoever, but he could see Spock’s eyes were open still. “Was there ever a time in your life that you felt…” He tried to search for the right word, but the closest had to be, “free?”

“There is a great deal of philosophy and semantics around your statement, Jim-”

“No, I know. I just mean… exhilarated and independent. Like the next choice you make is entirely your own, and you’re yourself and nothing more.” Like the feeling of October winds in your face, and your feet on a crumbling old window ledge, and in that very second being able to just jump. Only, Jim couldn’t tell him that. Not Spock.

Spock was silent for a long moment. “I do not know, Jim.”

Jim turned back to lay flat, averting his gaze back to the ceiling and ignoring the pit of disappointment in his chest. “Okay. Never mind.” He wasn’t sure what he’d wanted Spock to say, anyway. The Enterprise with Jim was probably the furthest thing from free in his whole life. “G’night, Spock.”

“Good night, Jim.”

Jim didn’t fall back to sleep. After a while of trying, he’d let his hand slip from Spock’s, turned onto his side with his back to his boyfriend. He should have just admitted he couldn’t sleep and spent the morning productively, with Spock. But he couldn’t face morning yet, and he didn’t want Spock to worry about him, so he turned over and just pretended. His mind wouldn’t shut down, however hard he tried, but the time was long and slow and it felt like more than three hours before the artificial sunrise commenced and he turned back over, agonised at not having moved for so long. Who was he kidding, Spock probably knew he’d not slept.

“Jim, regarding today. If it would be preferable to you, I can assume your responsibilities. Doctor McCoy has expressed his desire for you to complete your quarterly physical. This may exhaust you enough to sleep the remainder of the day away.”

Jim didn’t doubt that ‘may’ actually translated to a precise percentage that Spock had calculated to Jim’s all too human need for regular sleep, but he’d taken to vague language for some reason recently. Spock meant well, always did. If only it was that simple. If he did go to Bones, there was no guaranteeing that he would sleep peacefully. No, it was safer in the Captain’s chair; quiet and surrounded by people who wouldn’t let him screw up. Not that Bones was a bad influence, but he had a habit of letting Jim get away with things that Uhura would probably slap him for. Hell, Bones was a unique combination of a total hard ass and just the weakest when it came to Jim.

“Thanks, Spock, but no.” He sounded as far from himself as possible to, robotic and gravelly and his throat sort of ached from the night before, but he didn’t regret it for a second. “I’ll be fine. Just… just don’t let me be alone. Okay? I need you with me today.”

“Of course, Jim.”

Jim didn’t think it was all that simple either- Spock would probably have to rearrange lab work and a meeting and, hell all sorts, but he would and he wouldn’t complain. No, that was Jim’s job. To complain and take and never give anything back. He wasn’t entirely sure, great sex aside, why Spock was with him. But then a hand curled around his neck, pulling his head closer to his boyfriend, and Spock pressed a kiss against his head the way Jim did for him if he was ever in sickbay. Jim appreciated it, leaned into the touch, let his hand reach into Spock’s top- not permitting himself to feel an ounce of guilt for it. He wasn’t sick, but the sentiment was more comforting than he’d anticipated it could be.

“I love you, Spock.” He whispered, curling his fingers deeper into the fabric and revelling in the way Spock’s arms enveloped him, wrapping around him easily and holding them close together. Hugs from Spock were… indescribable. Rare unless they were, well, horizontal in bed, and always appreciated. Bones said the only reason he tolerated Jim and Spock’s relationship was that it meant Jim didn’t find his way to his bed anymore, now that he had a Vulcan to cuddle instead. But Jim had barely done that since their Academy days, and he wasn’t exactly touch starved anyway. Despite his childhood, there’d always been someone. He’d never gone too long without companionship, in some sense.

“Taluhk nash-veh k'dular, Jim.” Spock’s fingers drifted past his collar, touching at the skin of his neck so subtly Jim might have forgotten he was a touch telepath. Not that he minded. Spock didn’t have to ask at this point, or it’d make for a pretty difficult relationship. “I am concerned for you, Jim. Your mental turbulence has not been such for 5.34 months.”

“I know. Well, no I didn’t, but I knew it had been a while.” He was actually quite impressed with himself. Although, perhaps that was giving himself too much credit.

“I understand my attempts to dissuade you from active duty will go unheeded, so I must ask that you trust me, Jim. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, at any point, alert me and I will offer my assistance.”

“Yes.” He agreed, before he’d really considered what it meant. “But only if you trust me too. You don’t need to make up excuses to talk to me or check up on me. Just… be there, and I’ll say if I need you.” There was that selfishness again. He didn’t want to know the trouble he was putting Spock to.

“Your health is paramount to my satisfaction, Jim. To delegate some of my duties to remain at your side is not trouble, and nor is your existence.” Another kiss against his hair. “You may use the bathroom first. I will prepare your coffee.”

Spock had learned not to both forcing food on him, not on days like this. Jim wasn’t sure if he’d worked it out from more than one failed attempt, or if Bones had just outright told him not to, but he appreciated it nonetheless. That, and the obvious attempt at consolation. Spock was, really, too sweet to him.

His knees protested when he dropped to them, already too battered and bruised and tight with old cuts and scars. But that didn’t matter- pain was irrelevant – because there was water, right in front of him. He scooped some into his canteen first, before he could allow himself to get distracted, because there were sick kids who needed this more than even he did, and if something went wrong and they couldn’t get back, their deaths would be on him. Only when he was sure all his possessions were strapped securely to him, did he fling himself forward into the flow. God, it was icy cold and he’d probably regret this soon, sopping wet on his trek back to their hiding spot.

But the pounding of his heart, and the rapidly numbing effect on his aching body once the initial shock was over, that was unbeatable. He grinned, despite it all. Despite everything. It had been a relatively good day in terms of food, and now water too. He sank down to his chin, the force of the water daring him to just let go of the rocks around him, let the flow take him away, submerge him, let the water consume him. That’s all it would take- to just uncurl his fingers from around one of the rocks he’d collapsed onto. To let the water wash all the air from his lungs. He wondered if that’s what it would feel like to die in space. To choke and scream, for every cell in his body to cry out for air but to not get any. It sounded horrific, objectively. It had to be quicker than starving though, right? And less painful than watching another kid just give up in the night and fall into their final sleep.

Jim wondered if he’d ever properly sleep again. Even if they made it off Tarsus, could he ever close his eyes and not expect pain to greet him? He ducked his head under the water, his hair whipping around his head. But those kids… the four that remained, waiting for him, obeying his commands, curling against him at night when they were too scared to sleep too. He couldn’t let them down. However much he wanted to just let go and submerge himself, he couldn’t. He broke surface again, gasping in air that tasted stale. But air nonetheless.

“Spock!” He gasped suddenly, sitting up straight. Not in the water, not holding on to rocks and avoiding touching the moss that made him itch for days, but in his chair. The Captain’s chair, no less. He knew that, of course. He was on the Enterprise, and Spock was in front of him, his eyes searching Jim’s rapidly.

“Air- there’s no air.”

There was, and he inhaled it sharply… not Tarsus air, no, but the recycled air was still not fresh enough, not earth. Not cold, unforgiving winds beating at his lungs. The rushing water past his ears was gone as though it had never been there at all. The bridge was unaffected by his waking nightmare, working and talking quietly under the thrum of engines and the ship being so very alive. Only Chekov and Sulu were glancing over their shoulders at him, though trying hard not to be obvious about it. Jim stopped looking, focusing on his Science Officer and the concern in his dark eyes.

“Sorry. Sorry, I’m fine. What time is it?”

“It is 11.55, Captain.” Spock replied dutifully, but he looked the furthest thing from reassured. Jim felt the same, and he swore he could still taste the waters of Tarsus in the back of his throat.

“That’s late enough for lunch, right?” He stood up, shaky for only a moment before he forced himself to get a grip. He’d walked for miles on Tarsus- ran and limped and made himself keep on going through all sorts of injuries and weathers and terrains. He could make it to their quarters. “C’mon Spock. Sulu? You can take the conn for a while right?”

“Yes sir.” Sulu turned briefly, offering him a lazy salute.

Jim tried to smile in return, but he couldn’t quite manage it. There was nothing to worry about, anyway, they were only on course for Starbase nine, and Jim trusted Sulu with the ship more than anyone but Spock and Scotty. At least he could fly the damn thing out of danger, should any occur. Not that any would. He was just a worrier. No, he wasn’t. He was fine, just fine. He hurried into the turbolift, Spock at his heel, and let himself take a deep breath as the doors slid closed.

“Captain, this is the second time today you have complain of an absence of air. I strongly believe you should amend our course for medbay and explain your symptoms to Doctor McCoy.”

“No, I’m fine. Honestly, Spock. I just… I just let my thoughts wander a bit, and that’s not something Bones can fix.” Nor could he just walk into Bones’ office and declare his mouth tasted like the icy waters of a planet he’d not seen since he was a kid, and the taste was sickening. He wanted to wash it away, drink so much bourbon that it was all he could taste for weeks. “Please, can we just… I just need a break.”

He knew the moment that Spock’s resolve broke, and he gave in to Jim’s plea. “Very well.” He acquiesced quietly. “If this occurs again, I will escort you to medbay myself.”

Jim didn’t doubt it. He nodded mutely, stepping out onto the corridor and making his way back to their quarters. It wouldn’t happen again. He wouldn’t let it. He was going to keep his mind so busy it wouldn’t have chance to wander, and then he couldn’t have another weird flashback and he wouldn’t think about the air in his lungs.

Their quarters were just as they’d been earlier that morning. Spock had tidied while he’d been getting ready for the day, so there was nothing to stop them sitting right down at the table and getting some lunch for them both. Only, Jim still wasn’t hungry. Not for food. He wanted to wash that awful taste away- and he knew exactly how.

Spock’s back hit the wall before he had time to utilise that infamous Vulcan strength, and Jim’s mouth was on his neck before he’d uttered his first complaint.

“Jim- it is lunchtime-”

“Exactly! A whole twelve hours since we last fucked.” His hand found its way south, his lips returning to Spock’s pulse point and nibbling, licking, that delectable Vulcan scent. “Twelve hours too long, don’t you think?”

“Jim. I believe you are emotionally compromised and thus to allow you to-“ Spock’s words by no means matched his body's reaction, and despite his Vulcan strength his hands did little more than just rest on Jim’s shoulders, as if telling him he could push back at any moment. “To continue this would be-“

“Much appreciated, thanks sweetheart.” To get that taste out of his mouth; to replace any memory of Tarsus with the sight and sounds of Spock. The way his fingers gripped Jim’s skin, the way he tasted better than anyone Jim had ever fucked before, how he fought back groans and failed desperately under Jim’s ministrations. Maybe it was selfish of Jim, but he knew Spock would do this for him, and he refused to let himself think too hard about it or he’d lose all motivation and stop.

“Great. Don’t think. Just lie back and think of Starfleet.”

The thing about dying was, it sucked. Not just for being alone, separated from the love of his life by glass he couldn’t break if he tried- if he wanted. It was the way breathing got harder, and his cells were on fire and his head went light and his vision blurred, and his lungs begged him to do something and save himself. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t suck in that necessary oxygen. His laboured breaths didn’t seem to be doing anything to alleviate the burning in his veins, and his hand against the glass was so weak it took everything he had to just hold it in place. He couldn’t let it fall – he deserved that much, at least. If his hand slipped down, if he wasn’t strong enough to hold it in place, he truly would be alone as he died. He was scared, too scared to face that. He needed to know Spock was just there, behind the glass, and in another life their hands would be entwined as Jim slipped into his last sleep.

Jim woke, and before he could even breathe in, he threw up. There was nothing he could do to fight the urge- no time to lean over the bed or stagger to the bathroom. He simply sat up and lost the contents of his stomach in a violent, seemingly unending wave of nausea. At some point, Spock appeared at his side, resting a hand against his back and rubbing in small circles until Jim managed to stop, tears streaming down his face as he tried to catch his breath. His stomach and throat were both agonising, and his mouth tasted vile, even despite the water Spock helped him sip slowly.

“A-again. Happened again.” He fumbled around the words, burying his head into his hands as Spock collected the disgusting blankets from his lap and deposited them into the washing. He returned with a replicated tub that Jim honestly didn’t think he’d need now, but accepted anyway. Then a damp towel nudged between his hands, pushing them aside, trailing softly across his mouth and neck.

“Jim, allow me to call for Doctor McCoy.”

Jim nodded morosely, hiding his face again. He couldn’t stop thinking about the things he’d seen. No air. The rushing wind at his childhood bedroom window. The stale, unsatisfying air of Tarsus. The burning failure of his lungs in Engineering. He was going insane, without a doubt this time.

“McCoy here. This better be good.”

“Please report to the Captain’s quarters, Doctor, with a med-kit.”

“Spock? What’s happened?”

“I do not believe the Captain is in immediate danger, Doctor. He has taken ill.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, Spock. On my way.” Bones replied bitterly, and Jim hated himself for causing a fuss. For waking up his friend. Jim was just a little shit who couldn’t cope with his own nightmares. Pretty extraordinary nightmares though they were, it was still positively shameful. He was a grown man. It was cruel that, even now, when they weren’t crammed together in the same room at the Academy, he was still dragged a reluctant Bones from his sleep.

“Jim, you must breathe.” Spock’s hand lay at his back, still, warm and guiding despite being stationary. Jim followed the sensation, the warmth against what otherwise felt unnaturally cold to him. There was an odd, hollow sensation within him. Like all those nightmares – Iowa and Tarsus and death – had drained the very life out of him. It was only Spock’s quiet companionship, his solemn instructions, his skin pressed against Jim’s- no doubt skirting his thoughts or pushing forward calm, or both. Whatever he was attempting, he didn't have enough time for it to work before Bones was there, sweeping into the room as if he owned it.

There was a moment, a brief second, when their eyes met. Bones kneeled before Jim, scanning and barking out responses to Spock’s articulate summary of Jim’s issues thus far, and he looked up and caught Jim’s blank gaze. Bones looked scared for him, and that terrified Jim more than anything else. He squeezed Spock’s wrist a little tighter.

“You need to come into medbay for a scan, Jim. Something is trying to trigger your survival instincts, and I don’t know how or why. This isn’t a panic attack, it’s just an attack. C’mon, Kid, keep breathing –”

Jim couldn’t. His lungs were starving and his cells were burning, but every motion he made to breathe was helpless. His throat had constricted, and Bones was jabbing him with hypos that should have been opening his airways and allowing him to breathe.

“- needs to breathe -.” Bones said, and Jim stopped panicking and started feeling the hazy welcoming sensation of passing out approaching him. “- emergency, I know Spock! Pass me -!” Bones sounded worried, angry, desperate and Jim had a distant urge to take his hand. He wanted Bones to know that he didn’t mind. That he’d welcome the peace, this time. It was completely different. Before, he’d been alone and scared, unable to touch. This time, he was joined by his boyfriend and his best friend, and they held him tightly, and nothing else could touch him through that warmth. He couldn’t feel the ice grip of the end, as he slipped into darkness.

Medbay was better than hospital, Jim secretly thought- even if he’d never dared share that with Bones, lest his ego start to rival Jim’s own. Maybe it was just tribute to how traumatic he’d found his time at hospitals over the years, but there was something about Bones’ sickbay that was less panic-inducing and more calming. It could be put down to just his best friend’s presence, and the familiar gentility of Nurse Chapel and, occasionally, Doctor M’Benga speaking quietly down the ward. There were other factors too, that most people probably wouldn’t pay much attention to. For one, hospitals were often harsh and bright. But sickbay was dim when it could afford to be, restful and mostly quiet. It didn’t smell harsh and clinical either – more like the rest of the ship did, which was a comfort in itself. Jim was most appeased by the company he kept in sickbay. Unlike his previous stints in hospitals, lonely and miserable, he was never alone in sickbay. If not Bones sat beside his bed, gruffly insulting him until he drifted off to sleep like they were back at the academy, it was Spock- of course. Spock, who could occasionally be convinced to at least sit on the bed beside Jim and stroke his hair until he slept. When duty called Spock away, Jim was joined by someone else. His yeoman, occasionally, to play checkers. Other crew members and friends – Nyota, Hikaru, Scotty.

Jim woke slowly, he thought, and then blinked himself into consciousness. He could breathe, he first noticed. There were no wires or oxygen masks or anything horrific like that. It occurred to his, secondly, that he hadn’t dreamed either. There had been no awful nightmare snapping him awake, constricting his throat with panic and bile.

“Welcome back sunshine.” Bones said gruffly, and Jim blinked up at him in confusion. Bones ignored his gaze, focusing instead on the tricorder he was running over him. It was Spock who stepped up to the bed, taking Jim’s hand.

“Ashayam, you look much improved.”

“I feel it.” Jim agreed and, to his surprise, speaking didn’t hurt. He felt rejuvenated inside and out, and put it down to the expertise of his Doctor. “What the hell happened?”

The Doctor and Spock shared an uneasy look, the sort of look that made Jim’s muscles clench in preparation to stand and fight. Bones and Spock didn’t get along and they didn’t work together well – not unless Jim was in real danger. He had been, technically, as far as he could recall – but they should have gone back to normal by now. He was fine, clearly.

“What’s the last thing you remember, Jimmy?” Bones asked, finally meeting Jim’s gaze as he continued to scan him.

“I was – I’d had that nightmare, and Spock called for you, and I couldn’t breathe- I blacked out.”

“Before that, Jim. Recall the events of the last few days, if you can.”

Jim frowned, chewed his lip but nodded steadily. “Okay.” Purely because he was confused, and because he’d never seen Bones and Spock look quite so united in a hopeless sort of worry. “Before that, I’d had another flashback on the bridge. We left the bridge and I- we-” He smirked. “Well, you know. I needed a distraction.” And the faint blush tinging Spock’s high cheekbones now were a delightful reminder of how he’d looked from Jim’s position on the floor. “And I’d had a dream the night before, too, about my childhood bedroom. Why?”

“Before then, Kid?”

Jim stared in confusion, unsure what exactly Bones wanted from him. Spock squeezed his hand, lightly, as if urging him to really think. So Jim did just that, furrowing his brow as he tried to move through the fog of memory to recall fact.

“We’d been planet side on Mylasa, for the geologists.” Finally, an emotion other than concern graced his companion’s faces. Their recognition was no, unfortunately, positive. “Spock was heading the mission- I went down to take a look. We went for a stroll, then went back to the ship.” The haziness around his memories was, frankly, disturbing. He glared defensively. “Are you going to bother explaining what’s going on, yet, or do I have to carry on playing recall?”

“Mylasa was not, as previously believed, uninhabited.” Spock explained quietly. “The lifeforms we encountered on the planet were of superior intelligence to our own, and saw us as an underdeveloped species thriving only from our desire to survive. You were considered a prime example of survival instinct. Your dreams over the last few days have merely been the telepathic influence of the new species, testing your memories of survival.”

“You should have heard these suckers, Kid. They sent a message through to the ship after they’d let you go, said they just wanted to know at what point you’d be happy to stop breathing.” Bones looked livid, and Jim wasn’t quite sure if it was because of the aliens or him. He’d been okay, he remember idly, with dying beside Spock and Bones. It wasn’t his choice, of course. He’d take living with them any day. But if he had to die again, which had seemed the most likely conclusion to whatever he’d gone through the previous night, he wanted to be with the people he loved.

“No, that doesn’t make any sense. They showed me times in my life when I wanted to breathe.” He argued. “My bedroom window- I used to stand at it, even when it was freezing and I could feel the cold in my lungs. And on Tarsus- I came up for air, I didn’t drown myself.” He sounded insane, and his protests were met with the horrified looks of his friends, but he continued. “In the decontamination chamber I wanted to breathe- my cells were burning and I wanted to get to the other side of the glass. And last night- I wanted to breathe- right up until I had both of you with me, when I could stop being scared. Then I didn’t need to anymore.” He gasped in a breath, grateful for the expansion of his own lungs. “It wasn’t survival instinct they were looking for, it was pack instinct.”

“The needs of the many.” Spock murmured, rubbing his thumb gently across the back of Jim’s hand. The movement was repetitive, reassuring, but mostly encouraging. Yes, Spock understood. He and Spock were always on the same wavelength.

“They wanted to see my desire for self-preservation compared to my desire to protect the rest of you.” Jim elaborated. “I didn’t run away from home because I thought Tarsus was going to be better- that was self-preservation, because Sam had already left me. I didn’t drown because I knew I had to get back to the other kids- so that’s both of them. I died in the chamber to save the crew, and that was purely protective.”

“Well I hope they found whatever they were looking for dammit.”

“It’s… it’s over now, right?” Jim asked, and it wasn’t fear in his tone. Trepidation, maybe described it better. But Bones and Spock were there.

“It is over, Ashayam.” Spock confirmed, with the slightest of smiles. Behind him, Bones tampered with his screens. Jim returned the smile and exhaled.

#spirk #ff #mywriting #fic #ao3 link #just because i've linked everything else to my old usename i think #so why not redo this one

2 notes · View notes

ateamforumsfanworks · 4 years

Text

Lancer 103 - The Art of Basic Breaking (Part I)

11-22-2016, 01:43 AM Originally posted by Forum User: LaconicLeaf Last updated: 10-15-2017, 05:02 PM

(Credit: Match-i for this drawing of my character)

__________________________________________________ Table of Contents __________________________________________________ I. Introduction II. Build Suggestion (Pre-7th Slot) III. Build Suggestion (Post-7th Slot) IV. Monsters, Example Monster Sets, and Comparisons V. Lancer Skills (Pre-5th Ring) VI. Lancer Skills (Post-5th Ring) VII. Basic Abilities VIII. Lancer Procs IX. Gameplay (PvE) - aka "How to Break the Basic Attack's Potential Open" X. Weapon Proc and Skill Build Suggestion (PvE) XI. Weapon Proc and Skill Build Suggestion (PvP) XII. Apollo Set Blessing - yes or no? XIII. Event Quests Walkthrough XIV. "This is how you DON'T play Lancers" XVI. Credits XVII. DPS Scaling Data for Lancer Attacks

Previous Guide Archives

Lancer Guide 2.0 (by Vostera) Lancer 101 (by Cobalt)

__________________________________________________ I. Introduction __________________________________________________

Lancers were once extremely overpowered during the pre-4th Ring days.

Forget about

That's right.

Believe it or not, even as a 190 AP (200 with passives) attack, Knight's Blitz once landed swift 2HKOs against the majority of the opposition, while Archers and Mages often got OHKOed. Nearly everyone built Lancers for pure offense, getting as high of an ATK stat as possible with maxed Weapon and Monster slots. The guild crystal didn't give any multipliers to a member's HP, thus KB had barely any counterplay. You could try using Guard, but Lancers can use Savage Sting to bait it, wait it out, and then slam you with KB. With the sheer firepower Lancers had, and how easy and brainless their playstyle seemed, it’s no wonder they were given the moniker, “Cancer Lancer.” When 4th Ring was announced, it was hyped that Lancers would be overpowered, all thanks to Dragon Crush, which has 190 AP and hits 3 targets. Furthermore, KB got its AP increased from 190 to 210 (220 with passives), and people were panicking that Lancers would be God Tier again (they actually were, but everyone switched to Soldier/Mage/Archer due to FoTM status). But as time passed on, Dragon Crush was actually a bad AoE skill, as its animation speed was slow, and Mage's Meteor Rain, a similar AoE but deals multihits like Meteor Strike, was much faster, on the same speed tier as KB and Basic Attack.

As a result, Glass Lancer builds started falling out of favor with higher level caps and crystal caps, the latter finally increasing the HP of guild members in combat. Thus, KB no longer landed 2HKOs, and while this was going on, the original Lancer guide author, Cobalt, ranted about stuff like Amaterasu coming out before Apollo, and "Why Lancers are the weakest class in the game,” on what was arguably the "Lancer Hate Era" (or the "Dark Age of Lancers," kinda like the "Dark Age of Sonic"). Threads suggesting to buff Lancers, and all kinds of random crap, with Lancers being underpowered and everything, were also being thrown about all over the forums. This was the time when Lancers were surrounded with crappy publicity, being kicked out of Event Quest parties for being "useless," and even kicked out of guilds to make room for Soldiers, Mages, or even Archers. But the dark days of 4th Ring have long passed. There were a few uncharted techniques and merits about Lancers which other players, like , were discovering even in 4th Ring, like the sheer single-blow damage of Knight's Blitz being able to pulverize the raw defenses of Soldiers and Clerics, and Break Thrust's proc-bypassing capabilities doing extremely well against defensive walls in PvP. Plus, Reo also shared the "Attack Stance Basic Attack Strategy," which greatly improved the efficiency of Lancers in PvE; use Stings to Break, then Basic Attack to DPS. This was a fighting style Reo never got a chance to use since he used a Cleric/Soldier cost distribution with a few weapons; this actually started my love for the Basic Attack as a timed and true attack skill. In hindsight, Lancers were probably the best class during the pre-5th Ring meta, but not for reasons you'd expect. They can bore through Soldier Frontlines with Break Thrust and Knight's Blitz, with the former ignoring procs (can decimate Clerics), and the latter having sheer firepower that DEF scaling cannot overcome (Mage and Archer attacks were easily tankable with enough raw defenses). Against Meteor Rain Mage Frontlines, if the Lancers used Guard, and a more tanky build, they can withstand their attacks while also being able to instantly burst down each target one at a time. Their Anti-Class, Archers, were non-existent in the Frontline because Soldiers can instantly cleave them with Dual Sword, and Archers can't do much to them back. Eventually, 5th Ring is another time where Lancers are at a strong point. They gain skills which take advantage of Break and turn it into an AP boost, which drastically improves the damage they can dish out. While the AS+Basic strategy is still viable, the new 5th Ring skills yielded a new playstyle for Lancers that is more accessible. This ring also brought about buffs for Double Sting, turn it from a useless cost dump, Heart-proc reliant skill to a Swiss Army Knife with good all-around utility and DPS, while greatly improving Lancer's PvP game with stronger skills like Severe Sting and Cross Assault. Even Break Thrust got some love, with a lower cooldown and added Break bonus to make it usable with Cross Assault to some extent. The 5th Ring release also expressed a "What Could Have Been" dichotomy: Dragon Crush got not only its cooldown timer halved, but also a buffed animation speed too. If that AoE HAD its Basic Attack/KB/Meteor Rain-tier animation speed, we would've had a completely different meta entirely in 4th Ring. Lancers would've been able to decimate Mage Frontlines with coordinated Dragon Crushes, and it would've still been Lancer meta like it was during 3rd Ring. Unlike Meteor Rain, the high base AP of Dragon Crush would've been able to pulverize Soldiers and Clerics; no amount of DEF can reliably reduce the damage Dragon Crush could do. While I may not be the highest GS Lancer, only about 210k as of the time this guide was published, but now 350k and counting, or the highest ATK Lancer, sitting around 75k - 80k (again, when the guide was published); now lingering around 120-135k, at least I understand the game mechanics quite well, and can carry PvE runs with reliable Break uptime, so for those of you out there... I hope you’ll at least learn something new about Lancers after reading this guide.

Why SHOULD You Be A Lancer? (Pros)

+ Fastest attacks in the game

+ Second highest HP in the game, and the gap between a Lancer's HP and Soldier's HP is shorter than between an Archer's HP and a Cleric's/Mage's HP

+ High damage in each and every hit of their attacks, which makes raw DEF investment less effective, and deals great damage even while proc less

+ Adding to the above point, even Soldiers and Clerics take a sizable chunk of damage from Lancer attacks like Cross Assault. Since the latter has the same Max HP as a Mage, and Lancers can flat-out ignore their procs with Break Thrust, they can be considered the "Unofficial Anti-Cleric Class"

+ Absolutely dangerous after a Unison; since everyone freezes while a Unison clash completes, Lancers have the speed advantage. They can outright choose who to kill, since their attacks come out so quickly, if the enemy Clerics use Aid on the wrong player, they may as well kiss one of their teammates goodbye.

+ Anti-Class to Mages, a (former) common frontliner with their AoEs, and the AP damage mitigation further makes Lancers the best class to use against them; any Mage trying to drop rocks on your head will have to be extremely lucky with procs to even lay as much as a scratch on you; even Star Burst, which can potentially one-shot other classes, has a hard time killing you too

+ 5th Ring and ToJ skills are a massive boost to DPS, and allows Lancers to finally take advantage of Break for higher damage

+Negative Pressure can catch people off guard when least expected, can even win Colo games too; a metagame-defining skill that can turn Unison Battles in your favor, or even deny uni by erasing 2 Cheers' worth of meter

+ Can ignore shields and defense procs with Break Thrust (with a few exceptions)

+ Best class to inflict Break with

+ Flexible combo potential with skills, even if said skills don't explicitly have a combo effect with one another (like using Break Thrust with Cross Assault)

+ Break carries teams in quests with Unison upkeep and Defense Penetration, allows for earlier buff Unis, and carries United Offense and other boss content; can even allow people who died in Colo Round 2 without full Uni to have a chance to Uni in Round 3

+ The offensive class who is least likely to die from random monster reflect skills thanks to how Basic Attack doesn’t deal enough damage for a 50% reflect to bounce off lethal damage through Wards (and their animation speeds let them hit confirm BEFORE reflects apply)

+ Best user of the Basic Attack, which scales extremely well with just about every buff in the game due to its low cost and cooldown (you could even use it to humiliate others just by showing off how powerful the default attack is)

+ Thus, Basic Ability replacements are optional, and are more suited for PvP because the Basic Attack is just THAT good by default (although Deadly Blow admittedly comes VERY close to beating Basic Attack)

+ Extremely effective against Soldier Frontlines, as Cross Assault hits harder than Mage's Blood Oath despite Anti-Class, doesn't risk getting Reflect proc-killed, and has high HP to withstand multiple Rage Slashes; Negative Pressure can be a pain to them too, especially when coupled with Dissonance

+ 4th Ring skills (Break Thrust, Double Sting) are still viable in the current meta for their unique properties, unlike the other classes

+ Strong damage floor (All Rings)

Why Should You NOT Be A Lancer? (Cons)

- Low damage ceiling (Pre-5th Ring) when using non-Basic Attack skills

- Useful monsters by stats are generally limited to Fire, Water, and Haste elements; only two of these elements are useful for GvG unis. Farmable utility monster choices are poor (has to use Amaterasu or other off-element monsters for utilities).

- Even with high damage in single blows, Mages and Archers will still outdamage you (though 5th Ring made Lancers actually out-DPS Mages to some extent, or become rather equal to them)

- Apollo Set actually "nerfs" your Break rate due to the Proc Priority System mechanics, makes you more squishy due to sacrificing Main Slots

- Break Thrust has low base power, reliant on procs to deal real damage in PvP

- Null Damage effects (Unisons, Charisma, Null Physical Damage) and Guard still stuff Break Thrust

- Long cooldown times for certain skills; Smash moves from Soldiers out-DPS the Sting moves (until 5th Ring/ToJ)

- While I used to list "Secret XXLs being relevant today" as a "Pro," I'm gonna move them to the Cons because the new ToJ skills have high Break Bonus to the point where it's not really necessary to carry Savage Sting and Double Sting anymore. (Although Secret XXL does work out great if Double Sting is your only attack in PvP for your guild strategy, because Mastery-tier AP and proc rate is amazing)

- “Four Moveslot Syndrome” - Want Attack Stance? Take off EE or Mass Refresh/Balancing. Want Cross Assault? Take off Attack Stance. Want Negative Pressure? Cheer, Guard, or a second attack must go. (and so on)

- Basic Attack replacement weapons take off a high-DPS skill. As mentioned before, they're more suited for PvP, where burst damage is favored with Cleric heals being common. (Only Deadly Blow comes extremely close as a true upgrade)

- Due to having high raw ATK, a “Confused Attack” can potentially OHKO a Lancer or another player if they try using a buff/support skill while Confused (so please, think twice before deciding to EE out of boredom after you finish a quest while confused, or trying to Yolo Refresh)

- The buffs to Cleric's Aid skills for faster casting times actually make them the fastest skills in the game. They go so fast that they will land before a Lancer attack connects.

- Certain Event Quests (Wind Mobius, Eva Collab 1.0) have "Low HP, Low DEF, High Break Tolerance" mobs, which make Break builds less practical

- Death Pierce is useless, and a waste of a 5th Ring attack skill space.

- Anti-Class disadvantage to the current “OP Class” in the game -- Archers. Better hope you’re stacked with Magic Reflection or Magic Damage Down procs, so their Deadly Arabesque won’t OHKO...

Miscellaneous Issues

(4th Ring Issues)

- At one point, Lancers had a history of being stigmatized by others, being the bearer of several misconceptions, such as being called the "worst class," "why be a Lancer when you can play a Mage or Archer and do tons more damage," "if you're building tanky, be a Soldier instead," and what have you. (Thankfully, the vitriol has worn off, although Soldiers are arguably currently at the position where 4th Ring Lancers used to be)

- Many people think Lancers are THE "Damage Dealer class" given the class description, and complained about it on the forums due the description given by the game, using it as a crutch to prove their points (which was true... on like the Lv. 80 cap!)

- Even then, there's still some people who insist in Lancers being intended to be built Glass Cannon as an optimal build; this ill-advised build leaves Lancers with sub-30k MDEF, making them die to even proc less Meteor Rains.

Otherwise... Some player-related cons (it's the PLAYER'S problem, not the class):

- Class Passives encourage equipping Armor and Helm type gear to maximize your GS. However, this leaves you with low MDEF, and a small amount of Anti-Magic procs. (Unless they were all Reflection/Damage Down XLs, but that’s a different story)

- Players bringing the wrong abilities, like Thrusts, Dragon Assault, Dragon Crush, Death Pierce, or CURE (4-digit heals FTL), into Event Quests or Mobius

- In addition to the above point, Lancers who don't bring Attack Stance and just spam Sting, Savage Sting, and Knight's Blitz whenever they're off cooldown (the past equivalent of Severe Sting, Cross Assault, and Death Pierce) are guaranteed to keep asking for Haste at the beginning of a quest; these Lancers also tend to Break the wrong target too, and never use the Basic Attack

- Basic Attack is extremely under appreciated, and some players asked for more replacements for it (like replacing it for Cheer or Guard) when it's already OP as is

- Some players still tend to use Cross Assault incorrectly, oblivious to the fact that it has an AP Bonus damage effect while hitting Broken targets

- Lancers who don't take advantage of Break for their 5th Ring skills, or abuse AP Modifiers with the Basic Attack, will end up being out-DPSed by Soldiers

- While Lancers are least vulnerable to Reflect attacks, there’s still some players who Cross Assault or Knight’s Blitz head-first into a 50% Reflect target, and dying like a Mage or Archer that way

- Noobs thinking it's a great idea to use DRAGON ASSAULT, the absolute WORST move in the game *death glare*

- Complaints about Lancers being useless because they can’t SELF-HEAL unlike the others (by far the absolute MOST common complaint about Lancers)

- 5th Ring Sub Quest is SOLO Only! It’s difficult to beat this quest as a Lancer alone without dying. Thus, I highly recommend building a Cleric as a secondary class to make this Sub Quest a lot easier. Trust me, it pays off in cutting the amount of gems you would spend on reviving if you tried brute forcing your way through otherwise. (Though thankfully, stacking Water defense will help tank these mobs; this Sub Quest came before Elemental Defense was a thing)

Part II >>>

1 note · View note

ciathyzareposts · 4 years

Text

The Black Gate: Be the Change You Want to See

Generally speaking, you probably shouldn’t do what menacing faces tell you to do.

I begin this session on top of a flying carpet outside Castle Britannia, with the ability to go literally anywhere. But as I look over my growing “to do” list, I realize I am just addressing the symptoms of the many problems facing Britannia, not the sources. Centuries earlier, I stopped factional strife and spiritual ennui by undertaking the Quest of the Avatar, but as I reflect on what had happened since then, I realize that Britannia’s apex was not after the conclusion of the quest. In fact, I realize neither Lord British nor anyone else has ever provided me with an example of a problem that they solved with the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Finding the Codex, meanwhile, set in motion the rise of the Shadowlords and the destruction of the gargoyles.

Instead, the moral “golden age” of Britannia happened during the quest, when the thoughts of even average Britannians were alive with the power of virtue. When anyone who demonstrated that virtue could take a rune to the shrine and meditate on it. When the altars still thrummed with power at the bottoms of their dungeons. If you walked into Yew, the City of Justice, the citizens were thinking and talking about justice. The very first person I encountered in Trinsic, a random guard, had something to say about honor. But on this trip, the shrines are overgrown. No one can meditate at them because their talismans are kept in a museum. I don’t think a single person in Britain even mentioned the word “compassion,” nor did anybody in Trinsic talk about honor, except for the mayor, who said that Trinsic was “once the city of honor.” The cities have forgotten their virtues. The people are so wrapped up in what the Avatar accomplished in every other game that they’ve forgotten what made him the Avatar in the first place.

It’s time to return these to where they belong.

I decide that it’s time to correct this problem, city by city, starting with returning the runes to the cities. I will find the person in each city who best embodies the city’s virtue and give him or her the associated rune. Then, my party will visit each shrine, meditate, and clean it up. Finally, we’ll clear out any dungeon infestations that had been allowed to creep up. (And, incidentally, make some money. Half of my “to do” items require money.) It’s time to show Britain what the virtues offer that the Fellowship doesn’t.

In times past, simply visiting the cities in the order of the virtues never failed me before, and such an order lines up well with my desire to see Mariah and Dupre earlier rather than later. Thus, after looting the museum for the eight runes, my party hops back onto the carpet, heading east for Moonglow.

On the way, however, we stop back at Cove. First, I want to give the Rune of Compassion to Nastassia. Second, I want to buy a few reagents from Rudyom. Third, I want to do something material for the kingdom by cleaning up Lock Lake.

Waste of time? Or authentic role-playing?

After accomplishing the first two tasks, the party grabs an empty barrel from the tavern and takes it to the lakeshore. In a few minutes, we’ve filled it with trash, broken bottles, and dead animals. Unfortunately, there’s no way to physically pick up what looks like puddles of vomit around the lake, so the effect isn’t as striking as I hoped. Still, it’s a start. We have to leave half the lake until later, when we all have swamp boots.

During the process of moving around the lake, I discover that there’s a cave entrance north of Cove, guarded by a cyclops. You’d think someone in cove would have mentioned this. The cyclops outside of the cave is non-hostile, but I’m curious, so I have Spark light a torch, and we all enter the caves. We find a rather expansive network of them, wrapping through the mountains to the east and then south of Cove. They are filled with cyclopes, and unlike the one outside, they aren’t happy to see us.

Combat begins.

Thus we engaged in our first successful combats of Ultima VII. Here’s how combat works. When you want to fight someone, you hit “C” and change to “combat mode.” At this point, each character has a certain percent chance of doing one of the following things:

Shouting something like “Die, Knave!!!” and attacking the nearest enemy.

Shouting something like “Die, Knave!!!” and attacking another party member.

Shouting “AIEEEE!” and running away into some far corner, sometimes dropping items on the way.

Shouting something like “I shall have thy blood!” and attacking some far off-screen enemy.

Standing still and doing nothing for no reason.

Standing still and doing nothing because the game inexplicably takes us out of combat mode even though I haven’t hit “C” again.

Now, that’s with the default set of actions. Theoretically, you can use a little button in the lower-left corner of the inventory to direct each character to attack the closest enemy, the strongest enemy, the weakest enemy, or a random enemy, to stand still and defend, to flank, to flee, to protect any other member that you engage with the “halo” icon, or to go “berserk” and never flee, although I don’t know how enemy selection works in that case. You can set the Avatar and only the Avatar for manual control, meaning he’ll attack whoever you double-click on.

Iolo is set here to fire his crossbow at the strongest enemy when combat begins.

Truth be told, combat works a little better than those who lampoon the game like to admit. I jokingly suggested above that the characters might do any of a number of things once combat begins, but usually, they do what they’re supposed to do: attack according to their settings and flee if they’re damaged too much. Flanking admittedly produces some weird results, and characters often have odd interpretations of “strongest,” “weakest,” and “nearest.” Combat is over so fast that some of the fine-tune options like “protect” and “defend” are hard for the AI to follow. But in general it works about as well as Legend or Darklands or any game that has featured real-time-with-pause so far. With the default “strategies,” it’s not a million miles removed from the later Infinity Engine and its various combat scripts.

Part of the reason that combat seems so chaotic is that with eight characters, and their icons quite large, and their insistence on keeping a tight formation, it’s really hard to pick out one character from the mass. You have no visual feedback as to a character’s health, nor is there any summary screen that shows all the characters and their hit points. So if I want to know how Shamino, my fifth character, is doing, I have to hit the “Z” key five times, pulling up everyone else’s stats screens in order, until I finally find Shamino’s.

In fact, the visual chaos is such that it’s hard to tell when a character falls unconscious or dies. To check for a dead character, you literally have to open every “stats” window or every inventory screen, counting them, and noting if you seem to be one short. At that point, you can reload or haul the character to someone who can resurrect him, like Lord British. With Jaana in the party, I get resurrection and other healing services for free, which makes things awful easy–and yet I still typically reload when a character dies. It’s like I feel that a resurrected character is somehow tainted.

A couple of gold nuggets makes all the slaughter worth it.

The worst part about combat in Ultima VII is the room respawn rate. The game essentially resets each room the moment it’s off-screen. My party could have literally killed cyclopes forever. While I like some limited respawning in games in case I have to grind, I also like to think I’m making some progress and that’s pretty hard when you kill a bunch of monsters, walk one screen away, walk back, and there they are alive again.

Our little war against the cyclopes gets us some experience and enough gold nuggets to trade back at the mint for a few hundred gold pieces, so it was worth it. Deep in the caves, we find some magical leggings and a lightning wand. I give the lightning wand to the character with the least experience–in this case, Jaana–and assign her to attack the strongest enemy. In a few hours, I’ll reassess.

Our reward for all that combat.

Late in our explorations of the cyclops caves, we find a little fenced-in area with a chicken. There are a couple of pieces of furniture and stew pots. This makes us feel bad. The cyclopes are clearly semi-civilized creatures who I guess weren’t harming anyone until we wandered in. They did attack us first. You could argue that was because we’d burgled their home, but using that logic, I could never play a dungeon-crawling RPG again.

Nothing that keeps livestock ought to be slaughtered indiscriminately.

We finally made our way out of the caves and back to the carpet. We left Cove. I note that if we had left cove on foot and wanted to avoid the poisonous swamps, we would have had to walk through the cyclops caves anyway, to their eastern exit.

It isn’t long in the air before we cross the mountains east of Cove and come to the city of Vesper. Here, the dock with The Golden Ankh awaits us. Now that we have the magic carpet, the ship is superfluous unless we need to visit an island that doesn’t have enough bare land for the carpet to land. Compared to previous Ultimas, ships here are so large that they’re almost comically awkward and yet still too small to really be considered “ships.” You have to lower the gangplank to board, then double-click on the mast to unfurl the sails and set it into motion. At this point, the characters take their seats.

The Isle of Fire, which I’m supposed to investigate at some point, is literally six moves from the docks. If I had one more ship, I could put them end-to-end like a bridge the way we used to do in Ultima II and IV. Anyway, I don’t have much use for the ship now, but we plunder its hold greedily for food.

We’ll deal with the Forge of Virtue eventually, but not today.

The point of crisscrossing the continent, instead of going in a systematic order, is to investigate new things as we stumble upon them. I suppose we should investigate Vesper. The first building we encounter, just north of the docks, is the home of the trainer, Zaksam. It’s hard to tell if he’s a racist or just a realist. He tells stories of gargoyles robbing and burglarizing human residents and displaying a lot of aggression, and he’s worried that the gargoyles are eventually going to revolt. These fears might be founded, however, if rumors about gargoyles being given silver serpent venom is true. He decries more explicit racists like Blorn, so I don’t know.

More important, Zaksam is a trainer. Training is a tough thing to nail down in Ultima VII without resorting to spoilers. When characters increase in level, they get a certain number of training slots. There are a couple dozen trainers in the game who will increase strength, dexterity, intelligence, magic, or combat ability, or some combination of two or more of these attributes, in exchange for money. Each trainer requires a different number of training slots, between 1 and 3. Complicating things is the fact that combat ability increases on its own when strength and dexterity increase, so if you’re trying to keep a log of who increases what, it’s tough to separate direct gains from incidental gains–but maybe it doesn’t really matter.

Having Sentri provide free training right in front of Zaksam was probably rude.

Sentri, who is in my party and will thus train us for free, requires one slot to increase dexterity by 1 and combat by 1. Since he only requires one slot, I suspect the combat increase is incidental to the dexterity increase. Zaksam requires three slots to increase strength by 1 and combat by 2. A player looking to min-max would, I guess, note all the trainers in the kingdom and then work out the most optimal plan. No one but the Avatar really needs intelligence or magic (and the events of Forge of Virtue override any training he gets from the main game anyway). But combat in the game isn’t that hard anyway. I think when I encounter a trainer, I’m just going to assess my party members, see who would benefit from his particular training, and go for it. For now, though, I don’t have quite enough money so the discussion is all moot. As for Sentri and his free training, I may take advantage of it eventually, but right now every single member of my party has higher dexterity than strength already.

Vesper is a town roiling in conflict between the humans and the gargoyles, who live on opposite sides of an oasis. Copies of the “send the gargoyles back!” flyer from the Britannian Purity League are in practically every human house, and several NPCs openly hand them to me when we talk. A couple of NPCs, such as Yongi the bartender and a local malcontent named Blorn, are openly racist. But even the best of them assume that the gargoyles will eventually revolt and slaughter them in their sleep. The spineless mayor, Auston, is rumored to be planning for such an eventuality.

This is one of the more reasonable NPCs in town

The bartender’s take.

On the gargoyle side, one of them named For-Lem has written a book called Thy Message Received that talks about the hatred and prejudice his people experience. A winged gargoyle named Wis-Sur used to be a wise sage but has retreated into himself in anger and paranoia. He screams at us, but with the right words, we can get him to sell spells and reagents.

That’s no way to run a store.

The Avatar can’t do much about the troubles in town, and I arguably make things worse. As I approach the tavern on the gargoyle side of town, the Guardian’s voice tells me to go in and tell them that I am the Avatar. For some idiotic reason, I do as he says. This enrages the two wingless gargoyles drinking there, Anmanivas and Foranamo. They blame me for all of their problems and attack. The six of us have no trouble killing the two of them. None of the other gargoyles treat us any differently after the attack, but I still feel a bit bad because I’m mostly on the gargoyles’ side.

It would be nice if everyone stopped blaming me for what happened to the gargoyles.

The Britannian Mining Company runs a mineral mine on the north end of town. The overseer is Cador, a Fellowship member married to Yvella. They have a little girl named Catherine. The mine seems to employ only two other workers, a human named Mara and a gargoyle named Lap-Lem. I spend some time exploring the mines and kill some headless pretty deep within. There are two magically-locked doors that I cannot get past, one of which seems to have a chunk of blackrock behind it.

The party charges some headless.

Eldroth runs Eldroth’s Provisions. He has a way of mangling or rendering obvious old proverbs (“Early to bed, early to rise, makes Jack a dully boy”; “The best defense is a good defense”; “The early bird wakes up first.”). He also believes the gargoyles are going to revolt and says the mayor, Auston, is preparing for the inevitability. I don’t buy anything yet, but I note that he sells powder kegs, which have a lot of utility.

The only spark of hope of peace between the races comes in the form of the young girl Catherine. (She recognizes me as the Avatar immediately from pictures in her storybook.) Her mother is concerned about where she goes every day at noon. I follow her and find her in the house of the gargoyle For-Lem. It turns out he is teaching her gargoyle history and legends. He begs me not to tell her parents, and I agree.

To Catch a Gargoyle.

There’s no sign of our old friend Sin’Vraal, who must have died in the past couple of centuries. I leave the town a bit depressed, headed for Moonglow.

Miscellaneous notes:

Every time I start the game, I have to go through the title screens. Something has always seemed “off” to me about the “Lord British presents . . . ” screen. The background isn’t consistent with the style of the rest of the game, but that normally wouldn’t bother me. There’s something else about the color or pattern that makes me uncomfortable. Does anyone else feel it?

Why does Jaana have a hawk?

As with all games where this is true, it annoys me that you can’t see weapon damage values or armor protective values. Armor is somewhat easy to figure out, at least in terms of relative protective value, but the same isn’t true of weapons.

The “Books of Britannia” entry has been updated with To the Death!, The Way of the Swallow, Gargoyle Like Me, Codavar, To Be or not to Be Thy Message Received, and That Beer Needs a Head on It.

Part of For-Lem’s Thy Message Received.

In previous games, where you had to type your keywords, NAME and JOB were useful just to get the conversation started. It was silly for ORIGIN to stick so stubbornly to them in this game, where you just click on keywords. We already made fun of the inanity of JOB when it comes to talking with children, but repeatedly in this game, someone will introduce themselves and then act all puzzled and wounded when you subsequently click on NAME. In a game where so much valuable information is delivered by dialogue, I’m going to click on everything. It would be nice if ORIGIN didn’t deliberately supply keywords that make you feel like a jackass for clicking on them.

One question I never had answered in Vesper: Who owns the Britannian Mining Company?

The watch the Avatar carries incorrectly displays the period between noon and 13:00 as “a.m.”

If there was ever any real truth to the idea that wingless gargoyles are unintelligent, clearly that has changed in 200 years. There really seems to be no difference.

The wingless For-Lem is a scholar of gargoyle history.

Although I didn’t get very far along my master plan this session, I’m happy with what I accomplished. A little conversation, a little exploration, a little combat, and a little wealth acquisition is a better balance than the all-talk entries so far.

Before the next entry, let’s try to come up with a term to describe what I’m doing with the runes and shrines and with cleaning up Cove–silly things that the engine allows but that the game will never recognize.

Time so far: 15 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-black-gate-be-the-change-you-want-to-see/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

0 notes

celestialallstars · 5 years

Text

Episode #3: "Make me look like fucking Doofenshmirtz when I’m trying to be like Maleficent" - Mo

So first off WOOOOO! The vote happened exactly as it was supposed to. I'm hoping that means I'm actually on the pulse of this tribe. I've gradually been getting closer to Jared, and I think he trusts me probably more than I trust him.

Second off, this challenge my god. I hate it, like it's a good challenge but for me... oof. Doing this, it's like I have facial dyslexia or something. Like all of the mouths and eyes start blending together and it just starts to look nuts.

I'm hoping to keep trudging forward, if we somehow pull a win out of this, even better if Cyrena goes to tribal again given it was basically unanimous. Alternatively Orfeo to balance things out. I'm tired though and it's been a long day, so it is now time to sleep.

I’m conflicted because I so badly want to be a bad bitch and create an over the top plan but there’s such a high chance that it will flop and make me look like fucking Doofenshmirtz when I’m trying to be like Maleficent. So I’m going to try to create my own kinda of genius that only applies to me. It sounds stupid but it’ll work. I’m being bold by saying it’ll work cus if I get eliminated I’ll look like a Doofenshmirtz. We’ll see. I’m already making charts to help me see who’s good and who’s not so good at comps. Comparing teammates to eachother and comparing the entire cast to eachother. Wish me luck. (Also I love everyone in this cast.)

So like I have so many mixed feelings about this cast. In terms of talking a lot of them are BORING or LEAVE ME ON READ, and like maybe for some it’s cause I’m not in their tribe but like, some people on my tribe still make me want to hit my head against a rock. So like that’s what I’m feeling.

Also think we’re gonna loose this immunity which I’ve hardly done anything for. So go me.

youtube

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a small update Mitch and I are chatting so that answers that question

"What's going on?" Well I shall tell you Anna Jane exactly what is going on. I need to get back into therapy that's what.

Apparently everyone is stressed about results and then there is me who does not care cause I want bodhi gone cause he legit doesn't talk to me so meh.

ALSO ALISSA FOUND AN IDOL QUEEEN. so we now have an idol between the 3 of us which could come in handy very much later down the road which we love! I have 100% trust in jack and alyssa now, with mo as my number 3 on this tribe. As much as i love tobi personally (hi tobi reading this post season) but like idk something is still off. he hasn't spoken much game to me at the moment so idk where his head is really at..

god help us its results this challenge was hard woo go cyrena!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

we lost by 1 point. oh my god. 1 point. that makes me wanna cry. dear god let this be a simple vote or i will actually start crying

WHY MUST I ALWAYS BE ON THE SHITTY TRIBE WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY IS THERE SOME SICK SATISFACTION OF ME ALWAYS GOING TO TRIBAL????? FUCK

I am SO pumped! I do feel bad for the people on Cyrena, but where it stands now, them going to tribal I feel is best for my game just relationship-wise for me. Still, I can only hope I am making few bonds over on their end while maintaining the ones I have on my tribe and Tuatha as well. I do really hope Mo at least makes it because he helped me this morning when I was getting bummed about all the winner talk. I'm quite optimistic for right now!

I Wrote Alexis Maxwell But I Erased It

Well we won the challenge (BARELY), a bit annoyed that we submitted before I got another chance to take a crack at the photos. I feel like I could've maybe found 1 or 2 more before we submitted. Granted we'd need to have found either 3 more or beaten Orfeo to the punch if we had wanted the reward.

I think so long as Bodhi doesn't go on Cyrena I'm pretty indifferent about them losing. They're the people I talk to the least relatively. Ideally I'd probably want an Alyssa, or Matt boot, but I have no influence so we'll see what happens.

I'm just trying to be social and relatively unimposing right now. It's Day 8, now's not the time to be doing glaringly bold things.

um so we won wooh but still no 2nd idol im sad i want one. um wanted green tribe to go tribal but blue going again i hope bodhi/jack/alyssa leave cuz they dont talk to me ever um ya thatd be cute or maybe tobi cuz hes a snake but maybe he not a snake this time? my stan list atm is jared > zach = rhys > loris = chloe > everyone else. my unstan list is: sharky jack alyssa mitch <3 um yaa hope i can do sth. chris so good gotta always watch out for him jared asked who i wanted to go to f3 with and i said def not chris and he was like oh i wanted chris in end so like hes def a threat also he likes zach so um that needs to stop real quick.

youtube

I think it should be Bodhi or Tobi to go. Am I gonna say anything? Not right now, no. Will I say something later? No clue it depends. But Bodhi isn’t as active as the others and doesn’t participate all that much. Tobi is semi-active but isn’t great at challenges. I remember him being good at challenges so idk if he’s just distracted or not putting that much energy into this. I think a swap is happening after this potentially but if it ain’t it’s still best to vote out the weakest link. It might be me and I might just be super cocky rn but I don’t think it’s me.

hi! yesterday was a monumental day. I tried to mend my social game with those I hadn’t talked much to, which resulted in me having a lengthy conversation with jack, and making me feel a bit more secure in my tribe/in the event of a swap. the people I don’t talk to keep getting voted out which I’m very much a fan of but that’s probably because they were inactive so that trend might not continue :(. also I lied in my last conf I’m now in an alliance with Chris Jared kori and Bryce? I didn’t expect it but i didn’t feel too close with kori so that should help me solidify something there!! :) I’m thriving. don’t call me ANGEL!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

don’t call me ANGEL! (in case of task challenge :p)

So we won the challenge. Again. It’s really nice to be able to just sit back and relax in the game and watch people struggle but I’m really nervous about it because we’re all so kumbaya on the Oreo tribe that I don’t fully know who I can trust just yet. Another piece of tea is the fact that Alyssa has an idol which is great for me because it shows Alyssa trusts me and I can trust her for the time being. However I’m worried about Alyssa because we keep promising each other merge which tells me she won’t want to go to the end with me just yet so I gotta keep her close and we’ll see how much damage we can do but i think I’m thriving bc I actually know where an idol is compared to last time when I had no clue.

so previously on The Adventures of a F*g, i had a small breakdown about the game. i dont know if true, but bryce informed me of an alliance between kori/jared/bryce/loris/chris, and the last two named are super close allies of mine (the closest on my tribe). they like.. didnt tell me shit about it and idk i guess i just feel excluded and it sucks that im in legit 0 (real) alliances. ive been doing good socially i thought and i dont know but i feel like i really sucked.

meanwhile, i sat down with a bag of salt and vinegar lays chips and talked to myself. why was i doing bad? why was i in 0 alliances? why no one like me?

then it hit me... like boom.

i realized that a typical flaw i had this game was caring too much. i pride myself on my ability to read situations (barring paranoia) and i know myself very well. like, i realized that since i was too concerned with doing good and proving myself, i kind of lost the fun of it all and probably come off as fake or forcible to other people. that isn't authentic.

BUT MY EPIPHANY increased even further. how? i dont know!! my brains so fucking big. i just had to be goofy. yes, i want to do good. i really do. but i played once before in this series and got RU pots and 5th. i know i am capable of being a good player and im content with that, and now that im moving into that mindset where this game wont no longer dictate whether im good or bad, im going to start having fun.

i know this isnt about game really but its like... #selfdiscovery

but ya i just wanted to update yalls on that. i won immunity though so im f18 and probs in swap. woo. finna get fucked. anyway, thank u.

and since i want like attention on this post im going to put tags.

#selfdiscovery #justgirlythings #l4l #follow4follow #gay #faggot #0alliances #disney #anime #weeb #lgbt #survivor #bigbrother #celestial

After we won the face morph challenge, it has been pretty slow. I still have a solid group with me Stephen Z and Jared. Kori and Bryce are close, Jared and I are close, Rhys and Jared are close, and Stephen and I are close. Those are the allegiances I know of right now, but things could change. Lucky for the alliance of 5, they all get to stick together. If there is a swap though, I won't hesitate to flip on bryce/rhys/kori if the opportunity presents itself. I am also kind of worried I am not keeping up socially. I have had a busy week, so my availability is limited, but I try to talk to as many people as I can when I am available. If my predicitons are correct, we should expect a swap soon. I'd love to meet up with Michael, Bodhi, Alyssa, Chloe, Drew, and Mo just to name a few. I feel like I have been able to connect well with everyone except Matt H.

So, as per my last confessional we are at tribal. And I'm conflicted. As said before I have an alliance with jack and Alyssa and they are my main 2 at the moment like love them both. We helped Alyssa find the idol and we now have a vote steal which I found. However I am feeling kinda conflicted over this vote. Jack and Alyssa want to get rid of Tobi but I personally want bodhi gone. He doesn't talk to me like at all and like he's not the best at challenges. I wanna keep Tobi as well for like a laugh because I genuinely love him. We all agreed to keep mo thank god but still, a lil conflicted. AGH. I have found a vote steal tho woo. I'm not going to be happy but I'll swallow my pride and just go with the alliance, because I'm not out here trying to make waves and be unloyal at the moment. That's for later LOL

I think there is a relatively high chance that i'm going home here, considering its 1 and a half hours till tribal and people "still haven't heard anything" so i'm assuming that i'm getting the chop here which sucks... I tried pretty hard considering i've been pretty busy and like they're not giving me much to work with here and it feels like im trying to break through a wall. I'm trying to get the target on bodhi but no one is fucking online to even try to talk to about it so i'm at a lost for what to do here... I want to stay but i just don't know how to do that when no one is talking to me... i could just be extremely paranoid and i sound delusional right now but idk something feels off here... its so annoying when I enjoy talking to other tribes more than my own NNNN like i really wish things were different but they're not so i'm just gonna try my best and see what happens

Woo we win again. Im trying to step up socially with my tribe, although who knows how long it's gonna matter bc we're prob swapping tonight. Apparently people were saying mo's name, let's pray it doesn't happen bc he's a good fucking kid.

Well it's been a slow couple of days for me. In game I can't really speak much to anything that may have happened. I feel like Tuatha has had a bit of a kumbaya casual flow going on. Which isn't necessarily bad but it makes it hard for me to know how I'm really doing.

Tobi was messaging me worried it might be him, which admittedly wouldn't be the worst thing given how we ended our last game. I was kindof an ass which I kindof leaned into after essentially throwing that game, but I still wish I'd found a way to end things better with him. While there are others I'd rather see go, his boot is one I can probably accept.

If it isn't him then oof who knows then. So long as it isn't Bodhi from that tribe. Overall I'm feeling ok, but I don't want to get complacent, it's just so early that I really don't know what to make of things. One world still isn't really helping since I'm still struggling to try and make conversation with EVERYONE. I really should consider just narrowing it down to some instead of all.

I’m sure hoping this works out for me if there is a tribe swap like a suspect, I think I’ve built some strong enough connections but without going to tribal it’s just not possible for me to be 100%

I've never been on a tribe with a winning streak I feel like I'm in the upside down hahaha. I'm having a great time and getting to know everybody and not having the stress of tribal is great. Sucks for the other tribes OOP

Nothing much is happening! I am still set up perfectly on my tribe and Bodhi has informed me that either Mo or Matt might be going. That was at the beginning of the round so it could really be anyone. I just hope it isn't Bodhi Alyssa or Mo.

Ok this past round was ok. I just kind of let us lose immunity and then we voted out Tobi. I didn’t want to vote out Tobi but that fucker voted for me so I don’t really care at all fuck him.

So not very much has changed on Tuatha as far as I can tell. My tribe winning the immunity challenge has helped me delay any confrontation between my 2 alliances which is great, as it should theoretically allow me to maintain relationships with all 6 members of the tribe. Still, it's going to keep being important to win immunity or pray for a swap in order to keep these groups from clashing.

Jared and Rhys are still a ? for me. I don't know why/how Rhys was able to convince Kori to invite Jared to the alliance of 5 instead of Mitch, and it worries me that those 2 may have a stronger bond than I immediately suspected. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to deal with that when the time comes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tobi is voted out 5-1. We swap!

#episode #shinebright

0 notes

survivorsuriname · 6 years

Text

Episode 2 - I Spy With My Little Eye

Xenia

People are not talking much. I was the lowest scorer in the previous challenge which is why I want to contribute to the tribe win this time by doing my best.No communication with anyone on the OT.

Kenjie

1down 13 more to go. If we keep on winning i have more chances to make it to the end

Heather

I spy with my little eye my tribes idol already hehe im shook

Emily

Ive been rly busy but the chat seems kinda quiet. Who knows what goes on behind the screen...

Geri

It's sucks I got 1 vote at the last tribal council. I hope we can pull out the win next time :)

Sassy

So, as I'd thought, my huge score in Winterbells was enough to keep my tribe safe. The effort was well worth it as it allowed yesterday to be a very quiet day. I'm really surprised at how quiet everyone is being. Not many people seem like they are really playing the social aspect of the game, which may be to their detriment later on as I continue to forge relationships wherever I can. I wasn't surprised to see Medha go after it was revealed that she abstained from the first challenge. I would have made the same decision. The 3-1-1 vote however did surprise me a little bit as I would have expected it to be a clean 4-1. Perhaps Kasikasima just has more drama on it, or maybe there's just no communication. Anyway, with today's reward challenge, we have to sit somebody out. Nobody directly volunteered, but with Heather saying she will have to abstain from the immunity challenge, it's best that we let her participate today so she can sit tomorrow. It's concerning me that nobody has said "I'll sit out" or something because, to me, it means that nobody on my tribe is paying attention to the game. I'm the only person trying to coordinate things and honestly, if we lose because of this and end up losing immunity because of that advantage, I will not be happy at all. If you're going to sign up for a game, at least fucking look like you're trying.

Jake

I'm sort of employing a strategy of not being too social right now, because I've never played One World so I feel like is someone is talking to everyone they're a really big target. I'm always around so I'm not being inactive, just selective with who I talk to. Blake is my lovely, so he's my closest ally in the game, and depending on how it goes I may have patched things up with Elizabeth. Still worried about Emily, but nothing I can really do about it right now because I don't wanna stick my neck out when I don't need to.

I'm gonna bet a decent bit that we're gonna get second in this challenge, considering Liz just is getting back from camping so she's probably gonna have a bad score. fuck leaving camp i hate this idol twist tbh, i understand it's trying to emulate real survivor going to look for the idol but this would be like Jeff walking up to the beach with a megaphone announcing whenever someone walked off to go looking for it and left sticky notes of everyone who left and when.

Quincy

I’m definitely gonna be targeted for how bad I’m doing in the challenges

Xenia

Darn, we lost!!!

Jake

"Oh boy immunity challenge! 20 Questions!" >I want Kenjie to sit, English isn't his first language >MY TRIBE [12:23 AM] Infinity (Vi): Can I sit out I live under a rock and know absolutely nothing about all 4 cat -right after- [12:23:59 AM] Jake™: I don't wanna say this in public but [12:24:16 AM] Jake™: i kinda think kenjie should sit, english isn't his first language >.> [12:24:22 AM] Infinity (Vi): O shit yeat -back in tribe chat- [12:24:26 AM] Infinity (Vi): Wait [12:24:32 AM] Infinity (Vi): Nvm I’m good [12:25:22 AM] Infinity (Vi): Ignore that I’m a derp -right after- [12:25:04 AM] Xenia H: I can sit this one out then -once again..- [12:25:28 AM] Jake™: hey um [12:25:36 AM] Xenia H: Hey [12:25:38 AM] Jake™: i think you should probably play [12:25:47 AM] Jake™: english isn't kenjies first language so [12:26:21 AM] Xenia H: Okay, I am scared I might not be of much help but I will def do my best. We need to be immune :p -right on cue..- [12:26:41 AM] Xenia H: I am willing to play. Anyone else wants to sit out then??? i sure do love a good old fashioned please kill me

Kenjie

I think im doing good at communicating with each players. Good thing for my advantage.

Seans no one in my tribe wants to go finding idols. I tell geri the clue so that hi can find it and hi will trust me.

Sassy

Another round, another chance at victory. Winning the reward challenge was great, and the way it was won was even better. While I did really well on the challenge, I was not the best this time around, which is good for not looking like a TOTAL competition beast. I managed to show that while I'm good at puzzles, I am by no means the best at them, whereas by killing it on Winterbells, I merely showed that I'm willing to put in the work. The -3 reward for this immunity is HUGE and I'm really happy we won it, but I have a good feeling we might still be alright without it, so long as everyone on my tribe completes the challenge with reasonable scores. As for this immunity challenge, I can very easily shrug off my 6 question result as simply being a guy that enjoys board games a lot and grew up playing many of them, which is only about half true. Grew up playing more card games than board games, generally because they were easier to learn and I have probably the best mind for strategy in my immediate family. I think I'm in an okay place in this game, but it will be interesting to see what happens moving forward. I'm sure there is going to be tribe swaps or even an early merge as a 15 person cast is relatively small. It wouldn't surprise me either to learn about some sort of Redemption Island or other "return to the game" twist that we don't know about yet. I haven't been going for idols, even though we have this clue, but it is something I should probably consider, especially because I might be putting a huge target on my back by doing well at challenges.

So what has been happening? I have no idea bc only Kenjie talks to me and I started talking to Blake a bit. Heather is off in her own world so I have no idea on that side either. Jake has been lowkey hinting to let Kenjie sit out and when I say lowkey he pmed every single person that volunteered to sit and then we backtracked. Whoops. It was funny tho. I'll come back at tribal I guess. Idk we'll see

Xenia

OMG, I thought I was so done. I am the weakest in challenges on my tribe and I will be the first one out if we are ever not safe :/ So glad today was not that day. Phew!!!

Sean

i'm sooo happy that we finally won something i was starting to feel hopeless i think this is good for us to have some unity going forward

Sassy

Are you actually kidding me with this tribe right now? Antoine GAVE UP and Emily couldn't get FACE OFF? I think I might actually be surrounded by dumb. We were given a huge advantage in this challenge and it was absolutely blown by these two, so I think that one of them has to go. While I like Emily and have enjoyed talking to her, she had to abstain from the very first challenge, hasn't really shown any sort of willingness to collaborate during the first reward challenge by not communicating while trying to figure out who should sit, and now she kinda cost us safety by not being able to get Face Off. Antoine is probably the person that I have talked to the least on the tribe, so that concerns me. I don't really know anything about him, I don't know where his head is at really, and that is pretty concerning to me. I'm somewhat disturbed by the fact that he was so willing to just give up on the challenge and essentially send us to tribal council. He had messaged me during the day saying that he was having a hard time and I tried to tell him to just remain calm, go back through everything, and take whatever time he needed, but apparently he's alright with quitting. I'm torn between voting for either of these two individuals. Neither of them have gone looking for an idol, so I feel confident being able to vote for either of them. Ian and I have a pretty good relationship and I think if we can stick together, we'll be able to stay safe. Heather's been a bit on the quieter side lately, but if I can get her on my side, that's the three votes for a majority that I need to be able to keep myself safe for today.

Kenjie

My tribe is keep on winning and it makes me so happy. Im happy also that the othere tribe is loosing each other.

Elizabeth

Okay so this might be super long because it's my first one ever but I was shocked Medha got voted out over me since I was camping last weekend and barely talked to anyone. But I understand completely they went for physical strength and keeping the tribe strong for future challenges. Super glad we won the next challenge so we didn't go on some losing streak until swap. Quincy seems really cool so far from my tribe and Jake n Black from the other tribes are great too.

Ian

So im going in this tribal still undecided as all my tribemates are very quiet and they just suck. Lmao

Like serious i cant wait to for a swap to happen

Blake

So we won again, nothing has really changed from the first time we did so other than I've been talking to Vi a little more, so I think it's a 4-1 against Xenia at this point. I've got pre-game connections (sorta) with Elizabeth because I hosted her in an ORG, so... I'm working on that kinda? Also, the people leaving the camp all the time is funny. I'm not putting that kind of target on my back. I feel safe enough, why jeopardise that?

Antoine

I'm probably going to be voted out but if it's the case then I'll try everything to avoid it.

#episode #stoprapping

0 notes