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electrosuite · 1 year

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ok so i’m gonna ask for smth super specific to my own sad little life but i’d love if you could write it

so essentially female!reader is plus sized and eddie takes a liking to her and asks her out when she’s at her locker but she’s been asked out as a joke before and made fun of her whole life so she doesn’t believe that he’s being genuine but he says he understands what it’s like to be an outcast and bullied and that he genuinely thinks she’s like gorgeous and so she says yes and they go out to dinner but she’s super nervous about eating in front of him

then fast forward like 2 months and they have sex for the first time despite her having given him a bj but never asked him to do anything because she’s afraid he won’t be attracted to her, but then she decides to finally take it a step further and she’s really reluctant to take her clothes off in front of him but he’s so comforting and he thinks she’s the most beautiful woman in the entire world

then after they have sex they talk and she reveals that jason and his friends followed her into the woods one day during lunch and surrounded her so they could bully her and just be really mean but one of her male friends saw them following her and stepped in

like i said it’s a sad story but this whole situation actually happened to me in high school but me and my bf have been together almost five years now so maybe it’s not all bad

warnings: swearing, mentions of bullying and harassment, dirty talk, oral sex, descriptive sex

word count: 4.9k

masterlist

a/n: oh my, i’m so sorry this happened to you. idk what possesses people to be so mean to others based off judgments of their appearance rather than their personality. i hope i do your request justice.

It was a normal day for you so far. It was Tuesday, which meant you had your painting, history, and math, as well as a free period. You intended to spend it in the library, so you stopped at your locker to put away most of your books and grab your backpack. You decided to look down at a page of your homework, going over what you needed to study.

But when your locker closed with a bang, you jumped and looked up and to your right. There stood Eddie Munson, a metalhead who hosted the Dungeons & Dragons club, also known as Hellfire.

But he’d become a friend to you as of late. And friends weren’t something you had many of. You weren’t very social, preferring to keep to yourself and listen to your music on your Walkman.

Middle school and high school weren’t easy for you. You’d always had issues surrounding your weight, seemingly unable to keep it off. And middle school kids and high school bullies immediately noticed. It was an easy thing for them to pick on, so they did.

You couldn’t catch a break, and the people who you thought were your friends made fun of you behind your back. So you gave up on trying to have friends and just decided to stop socializing altogether.

One day when you were looking for somewhere to sit at lunch, Eddie was standing at the end of one of the tables and making a speech to his friends about how people mislabel them as “freaks” and “Satan worshippers” when he spotted you. He thought you were pretty, and when the two of you made eye contact, he gave you a friendly smile and walked over, clearing his throat.

“Looking for somewhere to sit?” You nodded, both of you glancing around the cafeteria. The only open spot was next to Jason Carver and his basketball friends, and Eddie could see your aversion to joining them. “Wanna sit with us?” he asked, glancing over at the younger boys having a conversation about Dungeons & Dragons.

“Sure,” you said with an awkward smile.

He made some of the boys scoot down so you could sit next to him. You were sitting awkwardly as they hadn’t given you enough room to sit, and you hoped no one would notice besides you.

But Eddie noticed.

“You okay?” he asked, recognizing how uncomfortable you were. You simply nodded and gave a small smile, but he didn’t buy it. “Hey asshats,” he said, catching the attention of the three boys next to you. “Scoot over more.”

They did it without question and returned to their conversation with the rest of the group, and you were a bit taken aback at their lack of reaction. You scooted over and got comfortable, able to let out a sigh.

“Better?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and turning the corners of his mouth upwards.

“Better.”

And since that one, small interaction, you’d began sitting with them regularly. One day, he offered you a Hellfire shirt, even though you didn’t play.

“Normally I wouldn’t offer one to someone not in the club, but I really like having you around. Plus, you’d match better if you had one.”

Your cheeks got red at that, and you laughed awkwardly for a moment.

“I’d love one.”

“Great! What size?” You faltered at that, scratching the back of your neck. “What’s wrong?” he asked, genuinely concerned about why your demeanor changed so suddenly.

You shook your head. “Nothing. Um, a two-x. If you have them.”

“Why wouldn’t I have one?”

You shrugged. “I just... didn’t know if you had bigger sizes, you know?”

“Of course, I have 'em. I got some made in every size. They're in my van, I can get you one after school.”

“Cool.”

Another conversation that left you a bit stunned. You were used to not being able to find bigger sizes in the clothes you wanted, and you always felt judged asking for them.

But you didn’t feel judged when you told Eddie. It was just another transaction, and you thought that this is what it must feel like to ask him for a small or medium.

Turns out, a two-x was exactly the size you needed. It was a baseball tee style shirt so it was slim-fitting but not tight, and you couldn’t stop looking at yourself in the mirror the next morning. You’d never had a shirt that fit you like this — one that wasn’t oversized and didn’t make you uncomfortable. You also really liked how the three-fourths length sleeves made your arms look.

And so did Eddie. When you walked into the lunchroom he almost choked on his water before you made it into earshot, so you didn’t see his reaction.

“Hey,” you greeted, sitting in your usual spot next to him.

“Nice shirt.”

“Thanks. It’s very soft.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

You noticed he was acting a bit off, but you paid no attention to it.

And this led to now, with him standing at your locker after closing it for you.

“Hi,” he said, leaning his shoulder against the metal surface.

“Hi.”

You held your notebook down in front of you, your arms straight and in a position to cover as much of your torso as you could. This was your natural stance now whenever you held something, trying to avoid stares.

“What are you up to?”

“Free period. I was gonna go to the library and study.”

“Oh sweet, I have a free period too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I was probably gonna head out early.” He crossed his arms to be as casual as possible. “If you wanted to hang out or something.”

“I can’t, I have a really big test tomorrow.”

“Okay, well, what about tomorrow night, then?”

“What, like a date?”

“Yeah, if that’s okay.”

You furrowed your brows, questioning his intentions.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Seriously.”

“Is this a joke? Did someone put you up to this? Was it Jason?”

“What? Of course not. Why would it be a joke, and why would Jason tell me to ask you out?”

“Because he’s done it before. More than once.”

“What?”

“If this is a joke I will walk away right now.”

“Y/N, it’s not a joke. I want to hang out with you. I like you.”

You raised your eyebrows, still not fully believing him. “You like me?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, tell me what you like about me.”

“I like that you’re one of the few people in this school that doesn’t think that I’m a freak.”

And that was when it hit you. Eddie was in the same boat as you were. The bullying, the mocking, the harassment. You’d both endured it for years, and you were the first girl who treated him like a person, not an outcast.

“Look, I get it if you don’t want to. Most people wouldn’t. But if you do, the offer still stands.” He turned to walk away when you reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked down at your hands then up at you.

“I’m sorry. It’s just... hard to tell if someone’s being genuine. I’m sorry I accused you of that, you’re not the type of person to pull something like that.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Tomorrow night sounds fantastic.”

“Great.”

You pulled a piece of paper from your notebook and scribbled your address down on it, handing it over to him.

“Pick me up tomorrow after school. We can do whatever you want.”

He nodded. “Great. Dinner it is.”

As he walked off, you felt a sense of horror wash over you.

Dinner. Up until now, you’d only eaten small snacks at lunch in front of him, like an apple or peanut butter crackers. This was all on purpose, trying to avoid your regular bullies seeing you eat and approach to make fun of you.

But now the idea of eating an entire dinner in front of him made you queasy.

So when you two were in his van pulling into the parking lot of the local twenty-four hour diner, he noticed how nervous you were. He assumed it was just regular jitters, but he could tell something was wrong when you began looking at the menu.

“I think I’ll just get a salad,” you said in an unsure tone.

“A salad? That’s it?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Why not get something more filling?”

You shrugged. “I dunno, I guess I’m trying to eat better.”

He tilted his head and gave you a confused expression. He leaned forward and put his weight on his elbows. “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“As soon as I brought up dinner you got kinda... standoffish. I could’ve picked something else if you didn't want to eat.”

You shook your head. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to bring down the mood or anything, it’s just... I usually don’t eat much in front of other people.”

“How come?”

“Because I get made fun of.”

“Made fun of? Why?”

“Eddie, come on.” When his expression simply said that he didn’t understand, you scoffed. “I’m not exactly thin.”

“Who cares?”

“I do. So does everyone else, apparently.”

“Well, everyone else are dumbasses.” You snickered at that comment. “Y'know, the first time I saw you, I thought you were the prettiest girl in Hawkins.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I’m serious! You can even ask Dustin, I brought it up at Hellfire.”

“What did you say?”

“He asked if I knew you and I said no but I thought you were really pretty.”

You’d never felt like this before. Sitting across from you was someone who had only nice things to say to you, not a lick of judgment in his voice. Someone was calling you pretty, and they were being genuine.

“Order what you actually want to eat. Don’t starve yourself for me.”

“Okay.” You skimmed over the menu again. “I think I’ll get a cheeseburger.”

“Sounds delicious,” he said, satisfied that he convinced you to order what you wanted.

And then, before you knew it, two months had gone by and you and Eddie were officially dating. But, of course, because of the rumors about him, you only faced more harassment. Notes in your locker from anonymous bullies calling you a “Satan worshipper” and “cult apologist”, but this was the first time that none of it bothered you.

You knew Eddie wasn’t any of the things that people called him, and you felt like you were walking on sunshine every moment you got to spend with him. He made you feel beautiful — something no one had ever been able to do. He made you feel comfortable, like you were home when you were wrapped in his arms.

But despite how beautiful he made you feel, the idea of him seeing you without clothes on made you more anxious than you'd ever felt.

So, to ease into the idea of sex, you decided you were going to go down on him, even if you weren't good at it.

So when you were listening to him play guitar in his van one day after school, you decided to make a move.

He was playing a song he'd mastered, Stairway to Heaven, when you crawled over and gently pushed the guitar out of his lap. He put it down next to the beanbag he was sitting on and smiled as you came up to his eye level to kiss him.

"What are you doing?" he chuckled through kisses.

"I wanna make you feel good."

"What?"

You ran one of your hands down his stomach and to his belt buckle. He reached down and stopped you.

"What are you doing?" he asked, this time in a serious tone.

"I wanna blow you."

His eyebrows raised. "Are you sure?"

"What, you don't want me to?"

He looked at you like you were crazy. "Oh, believe me, I do. I just... This is coming out of left field. I just don't want you to do it because you feel like you need to."

"I don't feel like I need to. I just... I want to do this."

He still seemed skeptical, but he let go of your hand and allowed you to continue. You undid his belt, then his pants, then you pulled them and his underwear down enough to allow everything to spring out.

Your eyes went big, not expecting but also not surprised by his size.

"Is it okay?" he asked sheepishly.

You did your best to suppress your nervousness and wrapped your hand around his length and licked the tip, making him take a deep, sharp breath.

Your lips engulfed him, sinking your mouth down and going until he hit the back of your throat. He involuntarily bucked his hips, the extra inch or two making you choke.

"Sorry," he said, pushing your hair out of your face.

You wrapped your hand around the base and stroked it as you bobbed your head, which made him throw his head back.

"Shit," he whispered, putting his right hand on the top of your head and guiding you along. "That feels so good."

You adjusted your tongue so that it laid flat against the underside of his dick, which apparently felt better because his moans instantly got louder.

"Y/N, I'm not gonna last much longer."

At this point, he was guiding you along more than you were actually doing anything of your own, so you just let him. You could tell that he was close to cumming, and you weren't planning on stopping until he was drained.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he moaned, and based on him thrusting his hips, you knew he was right on the edge.

Then, suddenly, you tasted something you've never experienced. It was salty and bitter, and there was a lot of it. The weak moans that left his mouth made you smirk the best you could with a dick in your mouth, but you slowed your pace and watched him breathe heavily.

When he looked down at you, you were swallowing the cum in your mouth, and his eyes widened.

"Did you swallow?" You nodded. "God, that was hot." He pulled you up to where he could kiss you and you giggled at his excitement. "It didn't taste bad, did it?"

"No, I don't think so. I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, but I didn't wanna spit it out."

He nodded. "Good. My turn."

He started sitting up, and you stopped him. "What do you mean?"

"I was gonna go down on you. Return the favor."

You shook your head. "That's okay."

He was confused. "What?"

"I'm okay. I'll let you know when I'm ready for that."

"Are you sure? I feel bad not doing it."

"I'm sure. And don't feel bad. I'm just not ready for that yet."

He gave you a small smile. "Okay. But I am going to rock your world when you let me."

That was three days ago. You hadn't seen Eddie much in those days as he'd been at his friend Dustin's doing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, but as soon as their game was over he made sure you were the first person he saw.

He surprised you at your locker, splitting a candy bar with you. You sat together at lunch, which you ate outside at one of the picnic tables. He sat on the table, and you sat on the bench next to him.

"So I was thinking," he said, his mouth full from a bite he took from his apple.

"About what?"

"Tonight's Friday. Would you wanna stay at my place?"

Neither of you had spent the night at the other's place since you got together, so this was a big step.

"Your uncle would be okay with that?" you asked, knowing he lived with his uncle.

"He works night shift, but he wouldn't care either way. What do you say?"

You thought for a minute. "I'd have to tell my parents that I'm staying with a friend, but I'd love to."

"Yeah?"

"Totally."

"Awesome. I have tons of tapes we can watch."

You knew how tonight would probably end. And you were excited for it. But you were more nervous than anything. You wanted to go to the next level with him, even if it meant doing something that made you uncomfortable.

So when he kissed you during the movie you guys decided on in his room, you pulled him on top of you and wrapped your legs around your thighs.

"Eddie," you whispered.

"Mm?" he moaned softly into your neck, pressing kisses into your skin.

"I want to do this."

He looked at you, tucking your hair behind your ear with his right hand. "Are you sure?" You nodded. "I need you to say it, sweetheart."

That nickname always made your heart skip a beat.

"I'm sure."

"Absolutely sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Absolutely positively with a cherry on top?"

You laughed and pulled him in for a kiss. "So many cherries. As many as you want."

"Okay."

"Go turn the lights off."

He obeyed immediately, the only light coming from the television. When he returned, he got back into the same position as a moment ago, but he used his knees to push your legs back further.

You reluctantly reached down and pulled your shirt off, having to sit up a bit for a moment.

His eyes were glued to your body, unable to look at anything else. It made you feel awkward and your natural instincts were to cover yourself. But when you did, he wrapped his fingers around your wrists and pulled your arms away.

"This is what you've been hiding?" he asked, his tone full of love. "Goddamn, Y/N." His lips latched onto your chest, his hands on your hips.

"Is that a good thing?"

He made eye contact. "You're a goddess. Literally ethereal."

You couldn't hold back the laugh you let out. "I think that's a bit of an exaggeration."

"I'm speaking nothing but the truth."

Before he could do anything else, you reached under you and unhooked your bra, slowly removing it and throwing it to the floor. You could've sworn his eyes popped out of his head like a cartoon character at that, and he swallowed the spit in his mouth before littering kisses across your breasts.

"Take your shirt off," you commanded, which he did. He was so beautiful, and it made you bite your lip.

He leaned back down to kiss you and untied your sweatpants, which made the butterflies in your stomach go crazy. His hand slipped into them and his fingers found your clit, causing you to gasp softly.

"Is that okay?" he asked, breaking the kiss.

You nodded. "Yeah, it's good."

His fingers continued to work and you couldn't stop yourself from moaning into his mouth. But it only lasted a few more seconds before he scooted down on the bed and hooked his fingers under your pants, looking at you for permission.

You reached down and helped him, unable to muster a single word. He slowly removed them, and you could feel yourself getting wetter and wetter with every second that went by.

But reality hit you: you were about to be completely, one hundred percent naked in front of him. Sure, he could barely see you with his body blocking most of the light, but he could still see you.

So your natural response was to bend your knees and cover as much from his perspective as you could.

"Y/N..." he said softly, leaning down and pressing a kiss to your knee. "If you don't want to do this, we don't have to."

"I do want to. I've just never been naked in front of someone. Not since I was little and changed in the same room with my mom."

"Well, if it makes you more comfortable, you could always put your shirt back on. Me, personally, I like looking at you, so I wouldn't recommend that. But it's completely up to you."

You shook your head. "I need to get comfortable with it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

He nodded, and slowly spread your legs. Here, he had a full view of your body, and he only smiled. He kissed your thighs one at a time, settling down on his stomach. His mouth was so close to your vagina, and he knew it was driving you crazy.

The feeling of his tongue on your clit made you moan. Much louder than you intended. His hands wrapped around your thighs, holding them still on either side of his head.

Your right hand fingers tangled themselves in his hair, your left hand flat against the wall behind you.

"Shit, Eddie."

Your back was arching, your hips grinding into his mouth. His eyes were glued on you, wanting to see how you looked when he made you cum.

You knew you were grinding into his face quickly, but he managed to keep his mouth exactly where it needed to be.

Everything that was happening right now was making him hard as a rock, and resisting the pulsing and throbbing in his dick was driving him insane. But he needed to make you feel good. He needed to make you cum before he even took his pants off.

And it didn't take you long to get there. He could tell, too. Your moans had become desperate, needy. You were pulling his hair, which only turned him on more.

"God, I'm so close. Eddie, I'm gonna cum," you struggled to say. "Please. Fuck." You didn't know what you were begging for, as he was already getting you there.

And when you went over the edge, Eddie could've swore that the noises that left your mouth were the most beautiful sounds he'd heard in his entire life. Gasps, moans, cries, swears, and his name filled the room in a melodic song that even made him moan.

Tears dripped down your temples into your hair, your legs shook so hard that they felt like they were gonna cramp, and your eardrums rang.

You were in heaven, and you never wanted to leave.

He kept going so long that you felt like you couldn't breathe, and you had to physically tap out.

When he stopped, you were sweating and crying out of pleasure. He kissed your thighs more, giving you a moment to calm down before he got on top of you again.

When he returned to eye level with you, he kissed your cheek.

"Goddamn," you muttered, chuckling tiredly.

"You okay?"

You nodded. "Sorry if I was too loud."

"No such thing." He kissed you, and you could taste yourself on his lips. "Wanna keep going?"

"Of course, I do."

He rolled off of you and stood up for a moment to pull his pants down. He sat on the edge of the bed, reaching into his nightstand and pulling out a condom.

He tucked your hair behind your ear again, making you look at him.

"If you wanna stop at any time, tell me. Okay?"

"Okay. I will."

He kissed you for a moment, rubbing himself against the area you were most sensitive.

Once again, he used his knees and thighs to bend your hips more, really spreading you open.

"Ready?" he whispered.

"Ready."

He reached down and guided himself to your opening, slowly sliding in. You closed your eyes and your jaw dropped as he bottomed out, which made him weakly moan.

"Fuck," he sighed. "You feel so good."

"So do you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. So fucking good."

Hearing your sweet voice talk so dirty was a major turn-on for him, as you learned when you blew him.

"You like being stretched out like this?"

"Mhm. Feels so good."

He slowly pulled out almost all the way before thrusting back into you, making you involuntarily moan. His mouth landed on your neck as he developed a steady rhythm, his left hand gripping the top edge of the mattress.

With his right hand, he cupped your cheek and pressed your foreheads together, making you look into each other's eyes.

"Eddie," you breathed, which made him grunt. "God, you feel so good. So fucking good."

"Yeah? You... fuck... feel good too. Really good. So warm and wet. God. I don't think I'll last much longer with you."

He buried his face in your neck, biting down on the skin hard but gentle enough to only leave a hickey.

The hand that was on your face reached down to the back of your thigh, almost to your ass cheek, and his fingers dug into the skin. This allowed him to bend your hip even more, your thigh pressing into the back of his bicep.

Every time you made a dirty quip, it only made him grunt and groan and moan even more. Every 'You're so deep' and 'You feel so good' awoke something inside of him that you didn't expect. He was pounding and slamming into you, but it didn't hurt. It felt amazing. If you knew he could make you feel this good, you would've blown him weeks ago.

His shoulder was pressed into your cheek, so you lightly bit down on it, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Fuck, Y/N, I'm gonna cum. I'm so close."

"Cum for me, Eddie."

When you kissed his neck, it sent him over the edge. His hips slammed into the backs of your thighs, his fingers pressed into your leg, and he cried out right next to your ear.

A few thrusts later and he stilled his movements, leaving the only sound being your unsynchronized gasps for air. Neither of you moved for a good thirty seconds, both of you laying there with your eyes closed.

"Holy shit," he mumbled, lifting his head and looking at you. Once again, he pushed your hair out of your face, which was spotted with sweat droplets, before cupping your cheek and stroking it with his thumb. "You good?" You just nodded. He placed his palm on your chest and chuckled. "Your heart is pounding."

"I wonder why," you joked, which made him laugh harder.

"I'm gonna pull out now." He slid out of you with ease and you softly moaned, straightening your legs to be more comfortable. He rolled over to lay next to you, pulling the full condom off and throwing it in the trash can next to the bed and grabbing a tissue to clean himself off.

He grabbed a clean tissue and propped himself up on his elbow. He gently cleaned you up too, kissing you when he was done. He sighed, looking over at you.

You were staring at the ceiling, still breathing heavy.

A few moments went by before you flipped onto your side, laying your head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around you and you bent your knee onto his leg. Once you got settled he kissed the top of your head.

"Can I ask you something?" he said softly.

"Hm?"

"What happened between you and Jason?" He could feel your demeanor change at the question. "You don't have to talk about it, but you didn't want to sit with his group at lunch, which I completely understand, and you thought he put me up to asking you out. What's all that about?"

You were silent for a moment.

"We were... acquaintances at one point. Not friends, we just knew each other. Not long after we learned about each other, he started targeting me. I'm sure you can guess what about. He would make fun of me at lunch for eating, or sometimes he'd even take my food and tell me I didn't need it. I thought maybe eating in the classroom during lunch would help, but the teacher almost never stayed in there so he'd find me and still do it.

"I tried to eat outside one day farther away from the school, but him and his friends followed me out there and surrounded the table I was at so I couldn't leave. I didn't know what they were gonna do, so I kinda just froze and let them harass me."

"What'd they do?" He was running his fingers through your hair and massaging your scalp, which he knew would calm you down.

"They took my lunchbox. They dumped everything out of the packaging and stepped on it so I couldn't eat it. They were assholes about it and kept calling me names." You took a deep breath and swallowed the spit in your mouth.

"Is that why you didn't want to eat in front of me?"

You nodded. "You're the first person I've eaten a whole meal in front of since then."

"Not even your family?"

"What, like they're any nicer?"

"Jesus. I wish I'd been there that day Jason did that."

"One of my friends at the time stopped them. He offered to buy me another lunch but I said no. I guarantee they only stopped because it was another guy that stepped in."

Eddie hugged you tightly, leaning his head down to kiss you.

"I'm sorry that happened. You didn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that."

"I've learned to just avoid him."

"Well, if he starts bothering you again, you come to me, okay? He already thinks I'm a freak, he doesn't phase me."

"Thank you."

You both turned back to the movie, watching what was left of it. About fifteen minutes later when he noticed you were asleep, he covered you up with his blanket and watched you for a few minutes.

He smiled to himself, thinking how lucky he got to find you.

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bump1nthen1ght · 1 year

Text

A Pirate’s Life For Me (Gender Neutral!Reader/Female!Siren)

Pairing: GN! Pirate! Reader x Female!Siren

Warnings: Non-sexual nudity, Alcohol

Word count: 2100 words

Summary: Brightly’s captain is everything a pirate captain should be; Bold, raucous, easy to laugh, and intimidating as all hell. This navigator think she knows your type well, but an unexpected detour shows you have a dangerous side even she can’t predict.

Based off this request: Hope you’re doing great today. I have kinda of a mouthful for you.

Could you do a Siren with a Pirate (S/O)? With the siren having a prideful personality, and the pirate being impulsive?

…I’d be lying if I didn’t say these two are based off my ocs.

A/N: the request didn’t specify but I ended up going with a Gender neutral!Reader and a Female siren. Hope y’all enjoy!

“Captain?” The young voice of your new navigator rings in your ear, snapping you out of your stupor at the helm. The clear horizon often lulls your mind into a state of dozing. Most of your crew knows not to disturb you in these moments, so you choose to believe it’s quite important.

“Yes, Brightly?”

“I was taking a look at our charts here and saw we were supposed to go through-” Brightly points to one if the maps, shoving it in front of your view, “-here. Is there a particular reason?”

“That path is the fastest way to our destination, Brightly. What seems to be the problem?”

“Uhmm, it’s just-” Brightly adjusts her glasses. “That’s the Dragon’s Teeth, one of the most dangerous passes this side of the world.”

“Yup.” You nod, popping your p. Seems this conversation wasn’t so important after all.

“....Shouldn’t we go around it? It would add around 3 days to our journey, but the benefits outweigh the cost-”

“Brightly, did you become a pirate for it’s financial stability?” You ask, eyes still clear on the horizon, but you can imagine the scrunched up look on the young navigator's face.

“No, captain.”

“What about flexible hours, workman's compensation? Any of that?”

“....No, captain.”

“Exactly.” You flick one of her jacket buttons. “You joined for adventure, great treasures, and the best thing of all-” You turn and throw her a wink, “-hot women. Correct?”

Brightly’s face flushes a red, adjusting her perfectly in place glasses again.

“I understand, Captain. But-”

“Ahh ahh. Just trust me, Brightly, your captain knows what they’re doing.”

—----

Brightly leaves you alone for the rest of the evening, no doubt still embarrassed by your hot women comment. Poor thing was still a little buttoned up from their previous work as a clerk. Hopefully a romp through the Dragon’s Teeth would help stoke that gut need for adventure. You found that it brought out the best in your crew, even the ones with simpler sensibilities.

One such crewmates calls out that you're nearing the treacherous passage from the crows nest, perking up the slowly dozing crew to action. This isn’t the first rodeo through the pass, but it requires the same level of detail and finesse each time. The sharp outcroppings of rock at minimum could cut up the hull, and at worst could plunge through and sink the ship entirely, leaving you and your crew stranded in a rocky gorge in the middle of the ocean.

You make small movements with the wheel, keeping an ear turned towards the crows nest to know when to avoid the sharp rocks. Brightly taps her fingers against the ships edge, eyes wandering across the dense grey all around you.

“Does anyone hear that?” She whispers, a general murmur agreeing with her across the board. “It sounds like…singing.”

“Really? I don’t hear anything.” Your voice lilts, trying to conceal your laughter. The oldest crewmates roll their eyes, but keep their lips tight and keep working. You can’t help but smirk; It’s fun to tease the newbies once in a while.

Brightly doesn’t enjoy not being in on the joke, but her nerves keep her eyes on the water below, half-expecting a giant tentacle to shoot up and crush the ship. You glance over, seeing her shoulders suddenly bunch, whipping her upper half around. She paces over to your side, trying to conceal her concern.

“Captain, I think there's a problem.”

“Is that so?” You humm, not acknowledging her worried fidgeting.

“I think-” She takes in a breath, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “I think I saw something in the water. And I know I’m gonna sound crazy and I swear I’m not just scared, but I’ve heard myths about the-”

“The Dragon’s Teeth? Why there are hundreds of myths about this place, what could be so troubling?”

“Well, you see, my mother used to sing me this song about, about…” she stumbles over her words, looking over the rather nonchalant crew. She leans in close to your ear. “....Sirens.”

You pause your steering, looking Brightly dead in the eye, exaggerated doubt in your brow.

“Now, whats so scary about that?”

“Well-”

It's then that Brightly and the rest of the crew notice just how loud the singing has gotten. It’s become unavoidable, no longer a hum in the back of the mind but a melody you can’t ignore. Heads swivel, trying to find the source, but you just lay your arms across the wheel and rest your face in your palm.

Always the one for the dramatics, she is.

The singing has become cacophonous, crowding the newer crew into the center of the ship and away from the sides. The experienced ones wander in, but aren’t nearly as worried. Brightly grips your shoulder urgently.

“Captain, we’ve got to-”

“Who dares enter my pass!”

A voice, melodic and terrifying, booms across the rocks. You feel Brightly jump and leap behind you, looking upwards towards the bluffs. The unnerving singing goes quiet in an instant, but no relief comes from the still silence.

“The Daring Demon, my queen!”

A giant, monstrous shadow darkens one of the outcrops, matching the booming voice and creating a picture of a true monster. Brightly quivers in her boots.

“You are awfully brave, or maybe awfully stupid, to come here.” The voice purrs. “Why have you doomed yourself so?”

You place a foot on the side of your ship, taking off your captain's hat and putting it to your heart.

“I’ve come to see the most beautiful, most fearsome, most powerful sea beast in all the many oceans!” You dramatically bow, hat flying thrown behind you as you offer your hand outward. “And to offer her a drink?”

You can hear Brightly squeal behind you, a harried and terrified “Captain!” squeaking out as a shadow comes across your face. You look up, boldly staring the Siren Queen dead in the eye.

She’s ferocious. Her human, if one could call it that, torso sits a solid 6 feet tall, not accounting for her massively long tail, eel-slick with fins sharp enough to slit a man's jugular. Her hair is long, a briny green that runs down her back, and compliments the luminescent blue of her eyes and fins. With a wicked smile full of sharp teeth, her clawed hand brushes across your jaw, pulling you closer to her face with just a bit of force. Hot breath blows across your cheeks, the siren queen smirks at your playful wink.

“Finally, I was wondering when you’d get here.”

She grabs you by the shoulders, a gasp dying in Brightlys throat as she pulls you overboard and into an embrace, your cackling laugh only confusing your poor crew.

“Sorry dear.” You give your love a kiss on the cheek. “Ran into some marines on the way. Very scary stuff.”

She gasps, throwing her hand against her chest.

“Scarier than me?”

“Oh, no one is scarier than you, my darling.” You plant a kiss on her cheek, her low chuckles sending a warm feeling in your chest.

Right behind you, Brightly faints.

—---

It takes two sirens and some smelling salts to bring Brightly back to consciousness. The site she sees is that of merriment and way too much drinking; Sirens and sailors all strewn about the deck while your resident musicians play a jaunty tune to encourage some (terrible) dancing.

Across the deck is you, her captain, attempting to throw a knife through an apple precariously balanced on the helms. While your gaze is focused and your hands are steady, the number of empty bottle seem to indicate you’ve already jumped neck deep into alcohol. The siren queen, perched in a luxurious chair plucked from your captain's quarters, cheers you on with a mix of sarcasm and sass.

“If you were a real champion, you’d balance it on one of your crewmans heads.”

“Unlike your posse dear,” You adjust the knife’s handle in your hand, sending a wink to your lover, “My crew won’t take a knife to the eye socket so lightly.”

“Coward!” She jeers, though her big smile and your contagious laugh reveal that its all in jest. You throw the knife a second later, hitting the core spot on and toppling onto the ship, where the sharp edge sticks with a shing!

“Hell yeah!” You take a swig from a dirty rum bottle, turning around for some raucous applause. It's then you notice Brightly, finally awake.

“Well look who finally joined the party!” You saunter over, a big flagon of water in hand. Your drunken grip has splashing over the sides, mostly onto Brightly’s face. She sputters and coughs, making you chuckle before setting down the drink. “Take this Brightly, it will help your head. Another round, if you please!” You call a siren right sitting near a keg. She unsheathes her claws and sliced open the tap, inebriated sailors flopping to the ground to try and get a sip. You cackle, nudging Brightly with your foot. “Better start on that water, don’t want to start drinking already dehydrated.”

You saunter back to your lady, The Siren Queen yanking you down by your collar for a brutal kiss. A kiss you fall into easily, not minding the teeth or the claws.

Brightly sighs. Her captain is something else.

—---

It's the end of the night, sailors and sirens alike all lying drunk all over the deck. There's a faint buzz in your head, a little sway to your step, but not enough to stop you from double checking that everyones alive. You tilt a snoring Brightly on her side, tucking her jacket under her head. The young siren she had been talking to for the past hour lays near her, and you make sure to entwine their hands without waking them up. It should get a fun reaction out of both of them, you think.

Mellonah sits in her tub as you walk into your cabin, hanging up your hat and jacket. She fiddled with a golden locket you recently stole off a real nasty buccaneer, admiring the way it shines in the low candlelight. The bathwater smells of lavender soap and bergamot oils, her favorites from that one medecine shop on the shore.

The room is cold but you find no difficulty in taking off your thick layers, quickly scurrying to the bathtub to join your love. She laughs at your chilled jog, splashing hot water in your face as you sit in the tub. You orient your body and settle against her chest, straddling her long tail as you rest your face against her collarbone. Mellonah’s claws run through your hair.

“Good find, love.” She says, holding up the locket. “I’d say this earned you at least an hour of cuddles.”

“Wow, a whole hour? Did christmas come early this year, or are you just feeling generous after all the booze?”

“Little bit of this, little bit of that.” Mellonah waves her hand around, her playful smirk looking extra mischievous. You splash some water in her face in retaliation, but she heartily accepts the extra moisture.

“Hmm, then I guess I should soak up all this attention while I have it.” You mutter, nuzzling your face into Mellonah’s skin. It seems adorable, at first, but the loud raspberry you blow quickly tampers the ambiance. Mellonah looks down at you, an unamused frown on her face, but you know she loves your shenanigans.

“Of course, be happy to be blessed by the Siren Queen’s presence, whelp.”

She dramatizes a sneer, pressing another kiss against your forehead.

“Oh don’t you worry, I feel,” You kiss her neck, “very,” then her cheek, “very,” another on the opposite cheek, “blessed.” and send off with a quick peck to her lips. You can feel her laugh against your lips, putting a big dumb smile on your face.

The water draws you in, letting you sink deeper as you rest your chin on Mellonah’s shoulders. You can feel your eyes droop, the liquor leaving your brain ready for relaxation. You let yourself fall into the feeling, loosening your muscles and laying your weight on Mellonah. Her claws still run through your hair.

“You’re awfully bold, falling asleep in a siren’s hold. In the water, no less.”

“Boldness is my middle name, dear.” You press another lazy kiss into the crook of her neck. “Besides, to die like this would be to die a happy captain.”

Mellonah just hums, her other hand now rubbing your lower back, knowing how sore it gets after standing all day. You smile.

“I love you, Mellonah.”

“I love you too, Captain.”

#my writing #reader insert #monster x reader #gender neutral reader #fluff #monster romance #sirens

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mochiwrites · 1 year

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what are your favorite aspects of those ships? and headcanons pls :3

rubs my paws together >:3c I'm so very glad you asked!

starting with gripulse

I really love how like. impulse and grian are both very loyal people. and yk. they've both been betrayed in a life game, so if anyone understands wanting to be loyal but also scared of being betrayed again, it's them. I def think that on the first night the southlands were established, the two of them stayed up talking to each other about being afraid of working in a group, considering their wounds from third life. I'm picturing impulse sitting next to grian and grian like. resting his head against his shoulder and just... talking. eventually they move the discussion away from the life games and toward more mundane stuff. and they fall asleep like that.

biggri

GOD WHERE DO I START WITH THESE TWO... first of all, their evo history???? grian pranking bigb all the time???? man's had a big crush on bigb back in evo and he showed affection by pranking him. like the pesky bird he is. and in my angst filled ways, I like to think that they agreed to talk things out after they beat the ender dragon and then, yknow, grian kinda... disappeared. and bigb was devasted :< buT THEN THERE'S THE LIFE GAMES.... AND DOUBLE LIFE.... AND OUGH..... grian with bigb and the two of them meeting up (desert duo are divorced here and not a couple, so miss me with that "grian cheated on scar" shit, and I think ren and bigb leaned more toward platonic soulmates???? so :>) grian has absolutely stolen bigb's sweaters thank you. bigb comes to hermitcraft and everyone is teasing him and grian thank you.

gleo

GRIAN AND CLEO MY LOVES !!!!! I think they need to team together in a life game thanks. they'd rule the world together. I just think that cleo would sit and giggle at grian as they watch him goof around and pull his pranks and grian gives them little gifts like a feather or a brush for their hair and building materials and !!!!! also cleo's another one who knows about betrayal, who understands what it's like to be stabbed in the back. SO. also. the entire prank war. grian and cleo were kissing on the side ty. he feeds into her chaos <3

griskall

UGH SAHARA BUDDIES. grian watches iskall do redstone under the one (1) precaution that he has no potatoes on him. and grian will tease him with diorite and omg grian flying around in iskall's big cave base!!!!!!!!! also: grian letting iskall preen his wings and iskall letting grian watch him as he messes with his bionic eye. and just. the two of them planning things together, and having fun little talks while building or goofing off. ALSO THE CUDDLES!!!!!! grian wrapping iskall up in his wingsssss

gren

firstly that ship name makes it so hard to find grian and ren stuff on here omg. ANYWAYS, I love the idea of grian and ren always being on opposite sides of some kind of feud. season 6 prank war, 3rd life, king ren arc (even if uh. ren technically did hire grian, but grian still kind of went against him). but also they work really well together too!!!! it's a fun balance of ren getting waaay too into something and grian being the one to reel him back in, or grian coming up with a plan and ren going "yes and" in return. also big werewolf cuddling liddol bird man... ren is affectionate like a puppy and he loves flustering grian <333 AND GRIAN GIVING REN FASHION ADVICE...

#mochi speaks #gripulse #grimpulse #biggri #gleo #griskall #gren #grian x ren #hermitshipping

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thedragonagelesbian · 6 months

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3, 17, & 27 for cyrus pleeeeease!

<333333

3: Race and subclass?

Race: Wood elf

Subclass: It's Complicated

I actually have a full level 20 D&D character sheet for Cyrus that I made back when he was still just a Dragon Age OC. So, when porting him over to Baldur's Gate 3, I decided to keep as much of that build as possible, making Cyrus a base paladin (because being a knight is his Whole Thing) with a barbarian multiclass (because he has a lot of repressed anger and ruthlessness that become more and more evident the more and more the world wears away at his sunshine kindness, and paladin-barbarian is just a very sexy build).

His original subclasses were Oath of Devotion (again, textbook fairytale knight, this is The quintessential stereotypical paladin oath) and Path of Ancestral Guardians (one of the more support-oriented barbarian subclasses and plays with the idea of Kirkwall itself as his guardian spirits).

On the paladin side of things, I just kept him as an Oath of Devotion pally in BG3, although he did end up breaking his oath during Act 2, switching him over to the oathbreaker subclass.

However, BG3 doesn't have the Ancestral Guardians subclass, and the flavor is very specific to the DA2 version, so I decided early on that when he took his third level of barbarian, he'd be Wild Heart instead-- angling for 'bear heart' specifically because it grants immunity to almost all damage while raging, and being unkillable is an important part of Cyrus' whole deal.

And also.

I wanted him to have fire resistance (however conditional) for smooching Karlach.

And as I also had Karlach specced as a Wild Heart barbarian, it occurred to me that Cyrus' multiclassing into her class could be like. a Thing for their relationship. I wrote a little bit about it in my fic for them-- Karlach being the one to train Cyrus in how to be a barbarian, helping him find his rage & be okay with experiencing negative emotions instead of repressing them, giving him his wild heart piercings after the Ketheric boss fight...

(also in this first playthrough, Cyrus ended up romancing Halsin too, which makes the bear's heart thing that much more significant)

But the thing is. I love Cyrus and I love shipping Cyrus, and I knew very early on that I would want to play through the game again to romance at least Astarion and Wyll with him. But. I love narrative-mechanics overlap too much to repeat his paladin-barbarian build for the other runs, because that's His And Karlach's Thing, and he needs a different thing for Astarion and Wyll.

SO.

I have two other BG3 timelines for Cyrus with two other builds.

The first starts off with the same base class of paladin with Oath of Devotion as the subclass. However, after Astarion kills him while feeding from him the first time, Cyrus Comes Back Wrong and spontaneously develops an innate connection to the Shadowfell for uh... reasons that are truly beyond the scope of this already ridiculously long answer. So, in that timeline, Cyrus is an Oath of Devotion Paladin (he will still break his oath at least once when freeing the other vampire spawn, but I imagine this version of Cyrus will want to retake his oath?) with a (modded) Shadow Sorcerer multiclass.

The second involves moving Cyrus' entire timeline around so he's older, more experienced, and more jaded by the time that he gets tadpoled. He swore an oath of devotion to a tyrant who abused him and then he swore an oath of vengeance against them and their reign, and neither made him happy or let him live his life on his own terms as more than just a Title and a set of obligations.

So, this version of Cyrus lost all of his levels of paladin during the couple of decades of self-imposed exile that precede the game. In addition to some stat shuffling around, his base class switched to Ranger for the 'was living all on his own as a hermit in the woods' vibes, and also to keep him as a martial/melee character because that feels the most correct for him.

I only just got this version of Cyrus to level 3-- I specced him into the Hunter subclass originally, but I think I'm going to switch to Gloomstalker instead. There's just something thematically interesting to me about Oathbreaker-Shadow Sorc-Gloomstalker, a lot of Cyrus' character is propelled by the literal, physical internalizations and manifestations of all the bad shit that happens to him, and struggling to make peace with that and even turn those changes to his advantage.

(Also gloomstalker in BG3 gets misty step as an autoprep and I can never turn down a short-range teleport)

17: Do they enjoy life as an adventurer?

Paladin/Barbarian Cyrus: unequivocal yes! Cyrus loves nothing more than to feel useful and of service, and adventuring is the best way he knows how to be helpful.

Paladin/Sorcerer Cyrus: he says yes, but he's been in a state of perpetual existential crisis for the entirety of the game made worse by the fact that he tells himself he needs to swallow all of it down so as not to get in the way of the adventure & helping others

Ranger Cyrus: no lol he really thought he had left this life behind, and he is Too Old For This (spiritually). I think he's really thrown for a loop the first time he sits down to trance, comes to having spontaneously manifested some goodberries in his lap, and realizes he can do magic again for the first time in a couple of decades. He'll do the adventure, and he won't even complain that much, and I think as the game progresses, he'll find more to like about it, but at the moment he's quietly being a real sourpuss about the whole thing.

27: What was their life like before the events of BG3?

Kind of alluded to this in the subclass answers, but in the main timeline (which covers both pally/barb and pally/sorc), Cyrus was having a splendid time as a dashing young adventurer.

Ranger Cyrus was living by himself in a small cottage in some corner of Sword Coast wilderness, cut off from the rest of the world by choice. He was able to fend for and provide for himself just fine but was also much lonelier than he would have admitted to himself. Being around people again is a huge change-- and try as he may to keep some distance between himself and his companions, he just can't resist Wyll's smile.

#SORRY IT'S SO FUCKING LONG THE ONLY THING I LOVE MORE THAN MY BOY IS NARRATIVE-MECHANICAL OVERLAP #cyrus bg3

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anima-virtuosa · 1 year

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post about old modded Minecraft creations.. (this ended up turning into an entire gallery but that is fine)

one time i made a giant pinata that was actually a really compact candy factory on the inside. different rooms linked together by organ-tubes, farms and material processors that crafted dozens of types of (pam's harvestcraft) candy from scratch. and when it was done it would be vomited out just onto the ground & you could go pick it up. one of my favorite artificial life experiments i still love them

their name is Gummi Guts and if you eat their candy they will be very happy :3

at one point i also was obsessed with Witchery and made a witches' hut and ritual circle in the forest; then roleplayed out a whole elaborate ritual using flashy magic items where i floated into the air & cast magic spells/potions and summoned an undead army & transformed into a lich while laughing evilly with lightning going off in the background..just normal fun stuff lol

my main magic place was this Thaumcraft eldritch temple built around the infusion altar (multiple layers everything in a room below it). there are eldritch-eyes blocks everywhere and these void fluid creatures who would rise out of the abyssal depths to help me with my rituals.. they are great friends!! they only need a little bit of your blood just a little.

largest build was an Applied Energistics megastructure computer-temple which was at the peak of FTB expert endgame and had like 6 levels of ME-network submachines that processed unlimited diamonds and other materials siphoned from pocket dimensions. my autism level was so high that i legit went and built this in survival using the blueprint placer thing and over 200k blocks (lots of screens)

i loove modded minecraft so much all the weird magitech aesthetic stuff... my favorite thing was doing builds/roleplays following the aesthetic of each mod

FTB expert (from 2015) my favorite modpack i love when stuff is just ludicrously overcomplicated to craft. not grindy but instead requiring automation of everything thru maaany steps. that tickles my brain a lot

(also the endgame machines were made with DRAGON HEARTS AND CAPTURED SOULS which is actually metal as fuck. like yeah i went and slayed 17 different gods and a couple hundred dragons to make my building nbd. automated dragon farms were a thing though i didn't get around to doing one)

(..ok i dont usually post my ramble ideas but leaving this here anyway)

at many points in Minecraft i just.. Ascended and found that nothing else existed for weeks. just minecraft building in every second of my thoughts. (it gets to be a weird time being disabled with nothing else to do 24/7)

if i played it again i would make my base a weird trippy biomechanical living-machines world where every machine is its own creature (like the pinata) with a name and personality .. and in the magic factory they would all work together :3 with the magic of friendship. or something like that. (also there would be way more RGB blocks everywhere & rave rooms)

OTHER IDEA the livingmachine world would actually just be building-creatures integrated with ComputerCraft consoles & turtles (the little robots). each console/turtle would be like a person and you would go talk to them asking them nicely to output resources for you or open a door. taking the idea even further they could have programmed personalities & needs, you would need to go run functions that talked with them or traded things to get what you wanted; they even could interact with EACH OTHER. :0

one other silly thing i used to think about was the theoretical idea of programming turtles who were self-replicating and would turn the entire world into a hollowed out machine-world that functions like its own society, the turtle apocalypse (if i was a godlike computer i would go and do that but i have meatbrain :/ ), also if you don't know i am talking about the computercraft robots this part is extra funny. (i found out people already coded that but it still is hardware-limited and doesn't end up with a million turtles)

what if the pinata was actually an earth-creature and way bigger like the entire map from top to bottom made in creative mode. just a whole custom map made with worldedit with cavelike biomes + random resources placed about. and then it switched to a survival map and you played INSIDE the creature and its whole body was your world. and you would be like a little red blood cell in there going and building all its organs and systems and maintaining them. the whole thing would be composed of biomechanical machinecreatures all linked to the central brain ComputerCraft/ME console that tracks all the resources & functions

gosh i haven't played minecraft in way too long v_v.. but how i adore it so

usually only singleplayer but i would love to play it someday with other people who are really into building and doing silly roleplays. and of course using the mods that make you a creature, like being an elemental dragons clan or something, or people doing different themes/characters based on one mod in the pack (like Bewitchment the really neat looking new witchery)

..if anyone thinks that sounds interesting then hit me up 🥺

#minecraft #modded minecraft #objectum #mineblr #minecraft build #mc build #modded mc #livingmachine #also in botania the flowers are alive and like your pets and deserve loving care. that is all #auri rambles

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crossdressingdeath · 1 year

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Ameridan: I never wanted this job. Hunting demons was so much simpler than politics. Ameridan: But Drakon told me I was needed... as I suspect you were needed. Alaris: I had goals for my life. I had plans and dreams. Ameridan: And now you have responsibility... including that which I was unable to fulfill myself. Alaris: I killed the would-be god who unleashed the Blight upon the world. He had a dragon, too. Ameridan: Then I leave the world in good hands. Ameridan: Fight well, Inquisitor. I am honoured to have met you.

This conversation is excellent, if somewhat heart-wrenching. You can see at some points in the DLC places where Bioware clearly took at least some of the complaints about the base game on board; this is pretty much the first time since Haven that Quiz gets an opportunity to say "I didn't want this and it isn't fair and it's ruined my life"! It's still not perfect (the whole thing where Ameridan worshipping both the Creators and the Maker is treated like a rational and reasonable compromise despite believing other gods exist being fundamentally incompatible with Andrastianism and there being no mention of a single Orlesian, even Ameridan's BFF Drakon, so much as taking the idea seriously much less considering following suit; it's very much a continuation of Cassandra's "Isn't there room in your pantheon for one more (but I won't even consider worshipping the Creators, don't be silly)" comment and it's just as infuriating here), but it's better. Although the ability to actually get upset about it does make the party's total lack of comment a little more annoying; hey, guys? Your dear friend/lover has just made it clear that they hate being the Inquisitor. You gonna... comment on that? Acknowledge it at all? No? Okay!

There's also an almost apologetic air to Ameridan saying that one of Quiz's responsibilities is the one he wasn't able to fulfill. He failed; now Quiz has to clean up after that failure, and he's clearly aware that it's a lot of pressure to put on Quiz when the role of Inquisitor is heavy enough on its own. There is very much a sense that for the first time Quiz is speaking to someone who actually gets that being the Inquisitor isn't some great privilege that's been generously bestowed upon them; it's a burden, and one that very few people around them even seem to recognize as a burden, much less want to lift it.

But I also like that having killed Corypheus Quiz can assure Ameridan that they've got this. They've killed gods before. They've killed dragons before. They can kill a god-dragon, no problem. They might not be able to put their own burden down just yet, but they can free Ameridan from his. And he believes them without hesitation; Quiz says they can handle it, and Ameridan accepts that they know what they're doing and aren't lying or exaggerating their abilities. Ameridan sees Quiz as a person who's been given far more responsibility than is fair or reasonable, but he also trusts that they're entirely capable of carrying that weight if necessary (despite only speaking to them for like. a minute). Quiz and Ameridan have the most fascinating dynamic and I wish we got to see more of it.

#dragon age inquisition #jaws of hakkon

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year

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Something I Noticed When Organizing My Playlists

99% of the world might use Spotify... I'm one of those 30-year-old dinguses who still uses iTunes. Yes, you heard right... iTunes... I have a digital music collection, I carry around a 2011-era iPod Classic that all my music is stored on (never to disappear because of a random rights issue or whatever), and I have a few meticulously arranged playlists... I prefer it this way, when not listening to music through physical media.

I have a playlist for every year in music collection. For example, my playlist for 1967 contains over 400 songs... It's probably my favorite year in popular music... And they're all in chronological order. The playlist starts with 'Break On Through (To the Other Side)' by The Doors, the opening track of their eponymous album released on January 4, 1967... And ends with a song called 'Take Out a Loan' by Ray Yeager... Actually, a release date or year for that song - to go on a tangent - has never been found. Most of his singles were released in 1966, and this undated one? I have it in 1967, my gut tells me it's from 1967. Discogs, 45cat, and other record databases have no evidence of a release year... Because there doesn't seem to exist any data! Okay, if we take this obscure country rock song out of the equation, the playlist ends with a couple of songs that were *in fact* released in 1967... But no month is given... So they're all "unspecified 1967 releases"... Songs like 'Time is Set For Now' by a Cleveland, Missouri-based garage rock group called Fugitives (which I have to specify, because it seems a million bands were called "The Fugitives" back then), 'I Won't Be Your Fool' by The Oscar Five, and 'Cafe Creme' by Christine Pilzer...

If I lost you there, I apologize...

Anyways... These playlists, which I created over the course of years in my spare time, helped give me an idea of when this music all came out and what was out at a given time... Like, what was available in April 1967, and what was a few months old by that point... Then I place myself in that timeframe, and it's like... This is almost a snapshot of the cultural wave, what was out, what was in, what wasn't, etc. etc.

So sometimes, in a given year, I'll notice that the sound changes fast, as does the zeitgeist in real life... It's a very hard thing to keep up with. Suppose I put on my 1967 playlist, and I hear plenty of songs that sound very 1967... Psychedelic, less traditional poppy, having a bit of an edge... But sometimes you'll hear an example of something very, say, 1965... In the mix, as if the people making the song weren't entirely up to speed with what was going on, and just made what was considered a standard... And it'll sound a little dated. Like, this song is from 1967?? I would assume, by listening to it, that it's from a few years prior! And then you'll hear something a year ahead of its time... It's an art form, much like film and animation, that is rapidly changing...

I was thinking about last year's crop of animated movies, and even 2021's for that matter... I look at Disney Animation's films, like RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, ENCANTO, and STRANGE WORLD... And I see what their cousin studio Pixar has been up to post-ONWARD... And other studios as well...

I think, now that we're in a post-SPIDER-VERSE age of CG animated movies, there's some questioning as to why Disney Animation - the original American feature animation studio that's still standing, and one of the big guns - still sticks with the house style that they started using with BOLT and TANGLED way back in the late aughts/early '10s, and arguably perfected with some of the later movies, like MOANA.

And I think... STRANGE WORLD, their latest movie... Release that in 2015, it'd be cutting edge and it'd be greeted - I feel - with a sort of "wow, cool!"-type reaction. In post-SPIDER-VERSE times, it's more of the same, same as it ever was. Ditto RAYA and ENCANTO. They are undeniably well-made, handsomely-crafted films with ace animation and effects work. Their $150m+ budgets definitely show! But they also seem to look backwards, visually... Or do they?

These films were all greenlit before any footage from INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE got out to the public... And yes, before SPIDER-VERSE came out, very stylized CG pictures *did* exist. Disney Animation themselves experimented with promising and exciting technology that gave us the very hand-drawn-looking PAPERMAN way back in 2012, and the painterly FEAST in 2014... But then they didn't really do much with those discoveries afterwards, for the features anyways. Shorts still kept some of that alive. Reel FX made a very "moving concept art"-looking movie with the innovative THE BOOK OF LIFE in 2014. THE PEANUTS MOVIE in 2015 and CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS in 2017 are also stepping stones to SPIDER-VERSE. Heck, I'd even throw in 2009's CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS.

But I'd argue that SPIDER-VERSE was the movie that really, really solidified this move towards more stylized CGI. It's no surprise that we're seeing more of these kinds of movies now, not just from originator Sony Pictures Animation, who went on to give us the equally envelope-pushing THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES in 2021. Look no further than PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM...

But these were greenlit *after* SPIDER-VERSE came out. And before someone brings it up, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH is not the same film as the one that was scheduled for a 2018 release and then scrapped four years before expected completion. That was Chris Miller's PUSS sequel, NINE LIVES & 40 THIEVES. It was likely going to look just like the first PUSS IN BOOTS, that he directed, and the other SHREK movies. THE LAST WISH is an entirely different iteration, an entirely different project, and it began active development *after* SPIDER-VERSE came out. Anyways- Moving on...

Disney's animated features up until this past year... *weren't* greenlit after SPIDER-VERSE... STRANGE WORLD, a 2022 movie release, was on the boards as early as winter 2017, right after its director - Don Hall - finished up his work as a "co-director" on MOANA. Par for the course with an animated movie of this caliber. The teaser for INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE debuted at the end of 2017, almost a whole year after STRANGE WORLD got put into active development.

STRANGE WORLD was likely locked as a typical house style WDAS movie, and maybe Hall himself wanted it to look like that, too... Given that he directed BIG HERO 6, and co-directed MOANA... STRANGE WORLD possibly could've opened earlier if not for a particular problem that occurred. You see, Hall was pulled off of STRANGE WORLD to take over RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, which saw a baffling director shake-up... Quite close to release, may I add. STRANGE WORLD could've released earlier if not for that, or maybe not... WDAS, exing COVID from the equation for a second, usually aimed for one a year. Every Thanksgiving season, with some exceptions. Had a deadly virus never happened, RAYA would've hit theaters in Thanksgiving 2020... And it likely would've been followed by ENCANTO in Thanksgiving 2021, which it *did* make it to, and then STRANGE WORLD after. That all has to do with scheduling and Disney figuring out its usually massive movie slate and where everything - Disney, Pixar, Marvel, etc. - falls. One might suggest... After SPIDER-VERSE, why didn't Disney just take STRANGE WORLD and reroute its visual style? They had plenty of time, right?

From what I understand, everything is probably determined early on: Look, assets, pipeline, etc. A big change in that, I assume, would throw a lot of things off... And up the budget, significantly. So, STRANGE WORLD was likely all set in that department before footage of SPIDER-VERSE even got out... If any WDAS movie is to embrace a completely different and dynamic visual style, it would be a film greenlit after John Lasseter's tenure as Chief Creative Officer, and probably after the 2018 release of SPIDER-VERSE...

WISH is the studio's next film, which was directed by Chris Buck. The only CG films he directed at Disney Animation prior were the FROZEN movies, which utilized the TANGLED style through and through. At Sony Animation, he directed SURF'S UP, and before Disney's purging of 2D features, he directed TARZAN, which used a ton of CGI. WISH has another director, too, Fawn Veerasunthorn. This is her directorial debut of any kind, be it feature or short or television series episode.

... and from what I've seen, WISH promises to be that proverbial PAPERMAN: The Movie endeavor. Would be fitting, given Buck previously directing a 2D film. Question is, was this a post-SPIDER-VERSE greenlight? Did SPIDER-VERSE's very existence influence the look of the movie? Did it tell Disney Animation heads that that PAPERMAN look *could* indeed sustain a feature after all?

Even then, the previous string of features were started at one time, and released at another. In those four years, a lot changes in the film world, the animation world, the cultural zeitgeist... Big changes just can't happen at last minute just like that! And if they do, it'll certainly cost.

This all reminds me of THE JUNGLE BOOK...

Coincidentally, Walt Disney's animated musical adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling stories was released in 1967... Look at that.

And yet, a lot of that film feels like it belongs in 1965. Maybe a year earlier.

The vultures, well known to be based on The Beatles (to the point where the studio wanted the Fab Four to actually voice them), are strong evidence of this... But they resemble a certain era of The Beatles that was long over by the time the movie was completed and released...

It's probably partially because of the film crew not being entirely in tune with the ever-changing maelstrom of pop culture and the music scene. Like, do you think 63-year-old Walt Disney in mid-1965 was interested in being up to date on The Beatles and other groups that teens/young adults were into at the time? Ditto much of his equally old film crew that handled the movie?

The film's principle elements were likely pretty much locked and in place by the end of 1965... Because of animation taking a lot longer, with less technological aid, back then... But The Beatles vultures in that film are very much based on the band's pre-RUBBER SOUL era. RUBBER SOUL came out in December of 1965 and marked a noticeable shift in the individual Beatles' songwriting talents. They looked a bit different, too, and they would call it quits on touring months later...

The pre-RUBBER SOUL era. The image. The seemingly fun-loving moptop image that the Fab Four tried to shed as they matured musically. THE JUNGLE BOOK was released in October 1967... That was only one month before MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR's US LP configuration was released, and a few months after their more experimental and adventurous album SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND... And that came off of the psychedelic and equally adventurous REVOLVER (which came out in August 1966), and the 'Strawberry Fields Forever'/'Penny Lane' single in February 1967... A lot happened in those three years! Night-and-day difference!

THE JUNGLE BOOK's vultures are very much modeled after the 1964/65-era Beatles, and other British Invasion groups of the period. They could easily be caricatures of, say, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. In fact, one of the voices of these vultures was British Invasion lad Chad Stuart, the late Chad Stuart, from the folk duo Chad & Jeremy. Stuart himself joked on the 2007 behind-the-scenes documentary for the film "They couldn't get The Beatles." The filmmakers wisely had the vultures sing a timeless barbershop quartet-style song instead of the very 1964-sounding pop song that was planned early on, that would've dated that entire portion of the movie. In its own release year! They would've been too late, like a sort-of reverse-SOUTH PARK situation. That'd be like a modern animated movie referencing, I don't know, 'Old Town Road' or something.

And also, by late 1967... What hip American teen or young adult was jamming to Louis Prima? He was their parents' music! A lot of that film's jazz soundtrack recalls big band and swing from the 1940s and 1950s, though the dialogue from the movie definitely suggests a more modern sensibility than, say, THE SWORD IN THE STONE. Interestingly, Louis Prima continued to work with Disney after THE JUNGLE BOOK came out. He did additional music for the studio's 1973 film ROBIN HOOD that only showed up on record, and was at one point supposed to be in THE RESCUERS... Moving on from Prima, you also have Baloo, voiced by contemporary comedian Phil Harris. Much of Baloo's talk in the movie definitely places it in the 1960s...

And yet despite these anachronisms, Walt's movie still struck a chord with audiences of all ages in 1967/68. It was among the year's blockbusters, such as THE GRADUATE and BONNIE & CLYDE. Being the last animated feature Walt himself personally oversaw certainly must've helped, too. In Europe, as usual for a Disney animated movie, it collected some serious coin. It was an incredibly popular film in West Germany, of all places (where it made an impression on a particular German boy named... Andreas Deja), and it was a massive hit in France... So, the dated stuff either didn't matter, or it worked in the movie's favor in some way or another. Maybe people in their 30s and 40s, a little behind the counterculture and maybe more into Frank Sinatra than Bob Dylan, were delighted to see that the funny singing orangutan in the movie was voiced by Louis Prima.

Even today, with all of our technological advances, not all animation can keep up with an ever-changing zeitgeist and audience tastes. Thankfully for WDAS, RAYA and ENCANTO seem to be quite popular and well-liked movies, especially the latter and how *that* blew up circa December 2021/January 2022. Ultimately, good storytelling that resonates with people helps these things last. It's what helped THE JUNGLE BOOK in 1967, for sure, to use that film as an example once more. That film also did fantastically in re-releases, and on video, it was part of Disney's Platinum/Diamond/Signature series. So, yeah, RAYA and ENCANTO - despite being released well after SPIDER-VERSE - are still successful in their own ways. STRANGE WORLD was like a horse being shot before it could even show if it could race, and even that seemed to do well enough on Disney+, too. Some of us may look at the visuals of these movies and think "They're nice and all, but c'mon Disney! You gotta experiment and try new things! Innovation! You're making the same movie you've been making since 2013!" And yet... I have to keep in mind, a lot of things in animated movie production are probably locked down and determined well before a frame is even animated, before a design is even rendered, etc.

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diphthongsfordays · 2 years

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Word Find Tag

Tagged a million years ago by the lovely @sleepyowlwrites! Thanks for the tag, even if it has taken me an eon to get to it!

Magic (Niv and the Neverwhere)

The cave didn’t make sound. Not really, not like any other sound she’d ever heard. But the world around her almost seemed to hum, vibrating in the rocks, buzzing in her bones. Pressing on her ears with something that wasn’t quite sound, and wasn’t quite silence. It was strongest down here, but sometimes she could feel it up above, too. So could the others. Some of them said it meant change was coming. Some that it was the sound of dreams, or the pieces of magic that still slumbered in the stones. All Niv really knew was that the searchers used it to find places like this. Which meant her first move whenever they showed up was to silence it.

Love (Niv and the Neverwhere)

“As for your lovely sideways nose,” Enzo added, “that will hurt.” Niv had never reset a nose. She’d dislocated and subsequently relocated finger joints before, but had no idea how that compared to something on her face. “All right,” Enzo reached out, bracing his hands on her cheekbones. “Try to hold still.” Her head pounded, and she pressed it harder into the back of the chair, giving him as steady a base as she could manage. “In three,” he said. “Two-“ Niv’s nose cracked, and pain ripped across her face, twisting at the back of her eyes and the roots of her hair. She yelped, she couldn’t help it, even as Enzo’s hands held her still. “One,” he finished. “That’s not how countdowns work,” Niv rasped, eyes streaming. “Silly me.”

Friend (Niv and the Neverwhere)

“Making friends, are we?” asked a new voice. “Always,” Niv scooted slightly, making room for her brother to perch on the rock next to her. “What did he want?” asked Nez, frowning after the guard. “To offer me a fortune,” she sighed bitterly. “He wasn’t very impressed with my singular spark, either,” Nez commented. “Don’t take it personally.” “I’m not.” “So you’re just tense for no reason then,” he said, mildly. “I’m not tense.” Niv pushed a little too hard, and the bark she was using to clear the mud snapped traitorously. “Right,” said Nez, smirking. “You’ve committed bark murder by mistake.” “Shut up.”

Grow + Bonus Moon (Niv and the Neverwhere)

Spires of white rock spiked straight into the air, some with trees growing at the top. Their roots wove down, wrapping the stone like a basket trap, a wide vein of rusty red light tracing along each one. Purple-red leaves the size of Niv’s entire torso fluttered in the crackling wind, tiny streaks of lighting occasionally tracing through them. Literally everything seemed to glow. Nothing glowed back in Yreen, except for fire. And the sun. And the moon. And stars. Okay, so maybe we have glowing stuff, too. But it was nothing like to this.

BONUS

Ghost Specter (Niv and the Neverwhere)

“What about shadows that shouldn’t be there?” he asked. “Maybe shapes in the darkness?” Every night. Niv didn’t know who else could see the shapes that rose somewhere between sleeping and waking, the specters and red smoke and shadows that didn’t belong. No one else ever talked about them. She’d given up trying to sort out what they were a long time ago. “Nah,” Niv shrugged. “You’d do well to show us some modicum of respect,” he snapped. “You’d do well to earn it.”

I tag (no pressure!!): @the-orangeauthor, @uraniumwriting, @asomeoneperson, @zmwrites, @dragon-swords-prophecies and open tag for anyone who wants it!!

Your words are: Quiet, Hate, Enemy, Fall, Life

#tag games #last line tag #niv and the neverwhere #my writing #writeblr

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faeerrie · 2 years

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Current Projects- Fandom

Stuff Started/In Progress

Re-writing (and re-posting) Headaches, my first ever fic I've posted, a Dragon Age: Inquisition Dorian x Lavellan one-shot- I probably had this idea bouncing around my head like the DVD logo screen-saver since around 2018ish. But also like the bouncing DVD logo screen-saver, it took forever to get where it needed to go. I hadn't written for fanfiction since high school, and my writing didn't go on MY account until this one, right here (I helped my best friend with a Naruto fanfic and wrote her fight scenes for her. SHE was the writer of the friend-group, not me. It felt wrong to try and do it for myself at that time). Then, a lot of stuff happened, including college and moving cross country and jobs and just overall getting my mental health stabilized for the first time in my life. I finally got this thing written and published to FFN and Ao3 around 2020. I've written a lot, since then, not always fanfic, not always fiction, sometimes paid, and my style has changed a lot since then, as well as the quality! I want to re-write this, because I love it, it has a special place in my heart, but I want it to be as good as my current writings. This one takes place after the end of base-game DA:I, but before Trespasser. So Corephyeus has been defeated, but Dorian hasn't gone back to visit Tevinter, yet. Asher Lavellan tries his best to get along with every one, from every race, country, and religion. However, he is still a proud Dalish Elf, and while people call him the Herald of Andraste, he believes in no such thing and doesn't take kindly to being talked or looked down to, because of his heritage. He was a hero- he closed the blight, he defeated the enemy, and saved everyone. However, as the days past, and normalcy returned, it seemed that more and more people were seeing him as less the "Hero" and more "Elf".

Finishing up, or at least continuing, Dirt and Diamonds, the 2nd fic I ever posted, and the first attempted after Headaches, a Male Ryder/Reyes Mass Effect: Andromeda fanfic that started as a one-shot, but demanded to become a chaptered fic- It's just too bad that I stopped and forgot about it after the first chapter. This fic is 100% self-indulgence whump, hurt/comfort, a morally-questionable lover/ally who is soft for the hero and decides to show the antagonists why people tend to be afraid of them when their hero is kidnapped and hurt, a hero-lover just kinda snapping when they see their beloved hurt and admitting that, this entire time, honestly, they really didn't care about being the "model hero", and, finally, the morally questionable lover/ally watching their hero... just kick ass and traumatize the antagonists, from their place on the floor, where they just woke up from getting knocked out, and just feeling nothing but butterflies in their stomachs and proverbial hearts in their eyes. It's at this moment they realize their hero is THE ONE for them, that they are just the right mix of fucked up, kind, sexy, smart, strong, and caring for them. Once hero finishes up, he turns around, blood and dirt all over him, and just sighs when he sees that their lover has decided that this is just the atmosphere is romantic enough to qualify for a marriage proposal.

Finishing up, or at least continuing, It's Not Just a Mission, a New World fanfiction, that features my OC, Leo, and takes place a few months before the player's character starts their adventure.- I honestly don't know if it is a good or bad thing that I hold the honor of having the ONLY fanfiction under the "New World" category on Ao3. I have some hits, so that means there's people out there, somewhere, who want to read it. Anyways, New World has a beautiful social engineering aspect to it. You have to join one of the 3 factions, and community has to build in order for the game to exist and have a chance at thriving. That's really cool from a design aspect. However, since the purpose of this MMO is not story or lore, there is very little to none. So I've decided to make my own. This suspenseful action-adventure fic follows Leo, a member of the Syndicate faction, as he gets roped into finishing a mission (that's admittedly a bit too important for his current rank) that another member couldn't. However, this seemingly simple mission in an area mostly trafficked by the less-experienced, newest members of the island turns into something waaayyy bigger as he finds himself entangled in inner and inter-faction politics, espionage, and a bizarre, but dangerous, cult.

Continuing, and Finishing, The Catalyst, a MirageHound APEX Legends fanfiction that is set before the announcement of Seer, because that's when I started this fic, and also around the time I stopped playing APEX- This about 60% self-indulgent and 40% out of spite. I'm going to explain the spite part first, because that's admittedly easier. I'm going to be honest, when I originally started looking for MirageHound fanfic to read, I found that the vast majority of it quite literally glorified abuse, r*pe, and other disgusting and otherwise disturbing content. Look, I'm all for "people can write what they want" and "separating reality from fiction", and I kinda get "If you don't like it, don't read it." But, quite honestly? I read true crime on a daily basis and this shook me. What I read, I wouldn't be surprised if it was mentioned in a legitimate True Crime article. I feel like a lot of you APEX fic readers know what I'm talking about, but I'm being vague here b/c I don't want to call out names in case there's something else at play that I'm not aware of. But because so much of the MirageHound category (at least, at the time) was un-proportionally filled with that type of content, I decided that I was going to make the wholesome MirageHound fanfics I want to see in the world and that deserve to exist. I will purify this tag, single-handedly, if I have to. For the self-indulgent part, I just really really really want to see Bloodhound go "calm-feral" when he sees Mirage being hurt. Okay, this story is basically about Mirage and Bloodhound's close friendship (which no one really gets or understands) evolving into more, but at the same time, a new champion (who literally won it via a special promotion amateur APEX Games) seems to be a little too interested in every aspect about Mirage, to the point that he seems to know the man better than himself.

Stuff I Am Planning On Writing, But Haven't Started Yet (Have You Seen the List Above This One???)

PowerPuff Girls - The plan for this is for it to be aged-up!AU, where the actual "Universe" itself is pretty much the same, but the girls are a lot older now, and in college. All of the PPG and the RRB will be featured, but at the heart of it, this will be a Blossom/Brick Fic. Since waking up one day, a few years ago, to Him being gone with no trace left behind, the boys slowly, but surely realized that they were finally free from the hell-spawn. They could finally experience the freedom of choosing their own paths, making their own decisions, and not living in essentially constant fear. Despite this realization, it probably took them way to long to realize that they weren't expected to do crime anymore. (It WAS all they knew, after all!) So their criminal activities slowly tapered away and they slowly (and rather awkwardly) adjusted to just trying to live a life they enjoyed, something a lot less "Supervillain" and a bit more "Teenage-Boy-Who-Just-So-Happened-to-Have-Superhuman-Abilities". They would even, sometimes, on occasion, if it was convenient and on the way to their destination at that time, help the Puffs bring down one of the many criminals and metas trying to fill the hole the Ruffs left un-filled, exchange some (now)playful banter and (also now) empty threats. The only one who didn't seem to be adjusting well was Brick. He had only withdrawn within himself, becoming a man of few words. He became easily irritable, and jumpy, like he was always on high alert for some kind of inevitable threat. The only one besides his brothers that he talks to (and even with his brothers, he only says the bare minimum nowadays), is Blossom, and it's usually short and too the point. Blossom would even hesitate to refer to him as her friend. No one know why, however, but they learned very quickly NOT to tease him about it. But.. what happens when Brick stumbles across a horrific scene? A scene that absolutely terrifies and angers him, one that he has specifically been afraid of these last few years? And what if he found Blossom at the heart of it, barely alive?

Lost Ark- This is, very simply, a fix-it fic for the MMORPG, Lost Ark. Xereon, an NPC who plays a key role in the storyline of South Vern, deserved way better. They truly did this guy dirty, and they did it in a way so that it absolutely hurts you the most. So, this fic is going to give him better, and yes, this does have romance in it!

Naruto- This is ALSO a fix-it fic, but it's a bit different than the last one. This one actually takes place before the original Naruto series begins. Specifically, a few months to a year before the Uchiha Massacre. You see, I've developed a deep attachment to Shisui and, if you know your Naruto lore, he was the village's first choice to stop the Uchiha Coup, which, with his abilities, would have dissolved it peacefully. However, shit-face Danzo, the Umbridge of Naruto, felt this wasn't enough to keep the village safe and, in secret, managed to use Shisui's trust in his high status, and kill him, forcing the village to have Itachi use the more violent method we all know of. In this fic, my Inuzuka OC with an unheard-of situation for her clan, who is also a member of ANBU, is best friends and rivals with Shisui. Like all Inuzuka's, she tends to feel compelled follow her nose, even if it brings her to trouble... like learning about the planning of a coup in the near future.

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duhragonball · 2 years

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (184/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[9 May, Age 774. Earth.]

There was no time left. From the Sacred World of the Kais, Son Gohan had seen it. The Elder Kaioshin had a crystal ball that showed what was happening on Earth, and it was all terrible news. Majin Buu had transformed, becoming an even greater threat than he already was. On the Lookout, home to the Kami of Earth, Piccolo was supposed to have been training Goten and Trunks to defeat Majin Buu, but instead, something had gone terribly wrong.

None of them knew who the sorcerer was. The Supreme Kai and his attendant, Kibito, had never seen him before. The Elder Kai only remarked that the pale-skinned man looked "a bit familiar", but he couldn't say for certain. But whoever he was, the sorceror cast a spell over Piccolo, and took control over his mind, forcing him to attack Goten and Trunks.

Naturally, Gohan wanted to intervene. Goten was his little brother, and Piccolo and Trunks were like family to him. But there was no time. If Majin Buu wasn't stopped, there would be no one left to save. And so the Elder Kai cut short his mystic process to increase Gohan's power. The progress made would simply have to be enough. Earlier, Gohan had considered asking Kibito to alter his clothing to resemble the fighting dogi his father had worn, but now that was out of the question.

And so, while his little brother's life hung in the balance, Gohan battled Majin Buu, wearing a uniform of the Kaioshin. The orange sash around his blue jacket at least resembled the colors his father wore, and that would have to do. What concerned Gohan more was how dramatically Majin Buu had changed since their last encounter.

Before, Majin Buu had been shaped like a dumpling, with chubby cheeks and an enigmatic, almost innocent smile on his face. Now, Majin Buu was much slimmer and more muscular. His eyes were crueler, and when he smiled, gruesome fangs showed from his mouth. Before, Majin Buu's childlike laughter was horrifying because of how ironic it sounded while he was brutally attacking his victims. Now, Buu's laughter sounded appropriately hideous, which was not an improvement.

Gohan might have wondered if this was the same monster, except for the harrowing ki energy that he sensed. It was the same feeling he had when he met Buu the first time, like staring into a bottomless abyss. Buu's body and mannerisms had changed, but the dark power was the same.

But Gohan had changed as well. The Elder Kai's methods were suspicious, but he had been true to his word, and unlocked Gohan's hidden potential. Before, Majin Buu had defeated him effortlessly, but now, Gohan could see through his movements. He could anticipate the strikes and react with time to spare. And when he struck back, Buu could do very little to resist.

At the moment, it looked like he had the advantage, except that Buu wasn't taking much damage from Gohan's assault. A punch to the jaw would rearrange Buu's entire face, but Gohan could sense Buu's energy had barely diminished at all. Gohan was confident that he could win, but it would take a very long time to do it.

And as he fought, his thoughts turned back to Goten, Trunks, and Piccolo on the Lookout. Time was the one thing they didn't have.

But Gohan remembered Piccolo's lessons well. He put aside his fears, and focused on the task at hand. Majin Buu had to be destroyed. Everything else could be dealt with afterward. He narrowed his eyes and pushed forward, taking out his frustrations on Majin Buu's pink hide.

And then, taking Gohan completely by surprise, Majin Buu gasped with shock, and began to convulse. For a split second, Gohan almost stopped to ask Buu if he was all right. Instead, he stepped back, wary of any tricks that Buu might have planned for this moment. When Majin Buu began to glow with a purple aura, Gohan was sure that this was some kind of trap. Buu screamed, and his body began to change. He grasped the sides of his head and wailed with agony, and jets of steam rushed out of the holes on his arms and head. And when it was finished--

"No way..." Gohan said under his breath when he saw the end result of Majin Buu's transformation. He had become a smaller version of his previous form. This new Majin Buu looked like a child, no more than ten years old.

"But... what does this mean?" Gohan asked. Unsure how to proceed, Gohan hesitated.

Majin Buu did not. Without any further ado, his youthful face twisted into a horrific scowl, and he raised his right arm over his head and formed an enormous ball of pink ki energy. Before Gohan could react, Buu launched this attack, not at Gohan, who might have been able to deflect it, but at the ground beneath them.

It was enough raw energy to destroy the Earth ten times over.

Mercifully, the Earth only had to die once, and the other nine destructions were wasted on empty space. Gohan was dead, and so was everyone else on Earth.

A few minutes later, pink droplets began to stir among the cloud of dust that had once been the Earth. The droplets converged together in a single location, and united into a mass of quivering pink flesh. Moments later, the flesh took form... and Majin Buu was whole once more, ready and able to resume his path of destruction through the rest of the universe.

*******

[9 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]

Within the Time Nest at the heart of Toki Toki City, Luffa and Trunks stood at the octagonal table in the Time Vault. Together, they examined the Scroll of Eternity, which displayed the images of the historical events altered by the Demon God Demigra. Demigra had warned the Time Patrol that he would strike again, and Toki Toki City had been on high alert ever since. At last, the wait was over, but now that Demigra had finally resurfaced, it seemed all too sudden.

"This is awful," Trunks said. "I didn't think Demigra could be this powerful!"

"What do you mean?" Luffa asked. "He was just standing there in the open, while Piccolo and Buu did all the fighting for him."

"Yes, but his mind-control spell is far more potent than Towa's," Trunks said. "He not only took control over Piccolo, but he forced him to turn against his friends! I don't think Towa ever had that level of influence. With all of her victims, they just fought more aggressively, but they basically kept doing what they would have been doing normally."

"I guess you have a point there," Luffa admitted.

"And Majin Buu... I don't think Towa could control him at all. It didn't take much convincing from you to get the Fat Buu to break free of her magic. But Demigra forced Super Buu to transform into Kid Buu."

Luffa gave him a skeptical look. "Did you make those names up?" she asked.

"We had to call them something," Trunks said. He pointed at the scroll, which was showing a still image of Kid Buu. "Believe it or not, this child-like body is Majin Buu's original form. About five million years ago, Bibidi summoned Majin Buu, and found some way to control him. Or he may have created Majin Buu from scratch. We're still trying to get a solid answer on that one."

"Wasn't it a guy named Babidi who was trying to give Buu orders in the other mission?" Luffa asked.

Trunks nodded. "That was Bibidi's son, who sought to reawaken Majin Buu so that he could take revenge on the Supreme Kai. At some point, the Kaioshin tried to fight Majin Buu, but he absorbed two of them into his own body, which led to him becoming the innocent, fat Buu you faced before. For a while there, Buu almost seemed to turn into a good guy, but his evil nature overwhelmed him, and he transformed into the Super Buu form. Then Goku and my father got involved, and Buu transformed again, reverting to his original Kid Buu form."

"I take it they stopped him from destroying the Earth, then," Luffa said.

"Actually, no," Trunks replied. "Believe it or not, Earth's destruction actually plays along with the original history."

"You're kidding," Luffa said. "Didn't you change history to prevent the Earth from being destroyed by the androids? Now you're saying you only bought it another seven years?"

"It's all right," Trunks said with an anxious chuckle. "Father and Goku lured Buu to the Sacred World of the Kais, and while they fought Buu there, Dende traveled to New Namek to summon the Namekian Dragon, Porunga. Then he made wishes to restore the Earth and its population."

Luffa stared at the scroll. "This doesn't seem right, Trunks," she said. "From the way you describe it, Demigra didn't actually change history much. I mean, what difference does it make if he made Piccolo turn against the brats? It's a dirty trick, sure, but if the Earth was going to be destroyed anyway..."

"You're right," Trunks said. "As temporal incursions go, this one is pretty minor. The only serious change is that Kid Buu appeared ahead of schedule... wait..."

"What is it?" Luffa asked.

"This won't work. In this sequence of events, Mister Satan would still be on Earth when it gets destroyed."

"Mister Satan?" Luffa asked. "What the hell does he have to do with any of this?"

"He befriended the Fat Buu," Trunks explained. "Then he was with Goku and my father during the final battle. He played a pretty big part in that fight, too. For one thing, he caused Kid Buu to spit out the Fat Buu from his body."

"What?" Luffa asked.

"By the end of this crisis, there were two Majin Buus," Trunks said. "One good, and one evil. The good one survived, and his descendants are the Majin race we know today. But if Kid Buu never spits him out, they'll both be destroyed, and his descendants will never be born!"

"That bastard!" Luffa growled. "So that's Demigra's scheme. He's trying to erase the Majin Time Patrollers the same way Towa tried to erase you!"

"You'll need to free Piccolo from Demigra's control," Trunks said. "That way Goten and Trunks can help you fight Majin Buu. We'll still have to figure out a way to stop him from changing back into Kid Buu so early, but now that we know about it, we should be able to work out something. If only we knew how to undo Demigra's mind control power..."

"I know how."

They turned, and found the Supreme Kai of Time standing in the doorway of the Time Vault. She descended the stair leading into the room, and marched with purpose across the room until she planted one of her hands on the octagonal table. Despite her diminutive stature, the Kai still carried a commanding presence in the Time Vault.

"And where have you been?" Luffa asked with a smirk.

"I've been examining my own past," Chronoa said. "Recalling what I know about Demigra and his abilities. And I think I've figured out what you'll need to do to break his spell. It's a complex form of magic, but I think it will work."

"Well... uh, what would that be?" Trunks asked.

Chronoa smiled as she held up her fist and punched her other palm with it. "A hot smoking blow, right to the face," she said. "That ought to do the trick."

"Uh..." was all Trunks could say.

"Seriously?" Luffa asked. "You mean all I have to do is beat the crap out of these guys and they'll come to their senses?"

"I had a feeling you'd like my strategy, Luffa," Chronoa said.

"Music to my ears," Luffa said. While the others talked, she began enthusiastically cracking her knuckles.

"I guess it makes sense," Trunks said. "That was sort of how Towa's magic worked too, wasn't it?"

"Not exactly," Chronoa said. "When Luffa fought Towa's victims, she basically forced them to expend the dark power Towa had put into their bodies. She didn't break the spell so much as she forced it to run its course a lot faster. But with Demigra's spell, you should be able to get instant results, if you can land a hard enough blow. He won't make it easy for you, but at least you'll know what to do."

"Then this could work after all," Trunks said. "If we can time your attack just right, Luffa, you can hit Super Buu at the exact moment he starts to transform. Once Demigra's influence is removed, he should regain control over himself and cancel the transformation. Yeah, we can do this!"

"I can take the shot," Luffa said, "but I'll need help to time it properly. Sounds like something the Supreme Kai of Time could handle, right?"

"You bet," Chronoa said.

"Then let's get started," Luffa said. She picked up the scroll from the table, and vanished into the timestream in a brilliant flash of light.

*******

[9 May, 774 Age. Earth.]

Atop the Lookout, Piccolo stood, completely consumed with whatever dark emotions were forced upon him by Demigra's evil spell. He now stalked towards Goten and Trunks, making a menacing snarl with each step.

"Wh-what happened to you, Mr. Piccolo?" asked Goten. The boy looked almost identical to his fahter, Son Goku. Beside him, young Trunks watched Piccolo intently, his expression demanding an answer to Goten's question.

"Your mentor can't hear you right now," explained the demon sorceror who now stood behind Piccolo. He brandished a magic scepter made of bone, with a blood red crystal ball at the top, but it was his evil smile that made it plain that he was the one responsible for Piccolo's condition.

"More accurately," Demigra continued, "your friend simply no longer cares what any of you have to say to him. He only hears one voice now. The only voice that matters. My own."

"Who is this guy?" asked Yamcha. "Is this that Dabura creep you were telling us about, Krillin?"

"No, I've never seen him before," Krillin replied. "But he sure looks like one of Babidi's goons to me. But how did he find this place, and why is he doing this?"

To Demigra's left stood the others who had joined Piccolo on the Lookout. Yamcha and Krillin were retired from martial arts, and they lacked the power to deal with the Buu crisis directly, but they still adopted fighting stances to confront this new menace.

Demigra had no need to explain himself to any of them, but he couldn't resist taking a moment to declare his intentions. "I can assure you that I have nothing to do with your present crisis. I'm simply borrowing Piccolo for a while. He'll do my bidding, and that bidding is to kill these two children for me. It's... nothing personal, of course."

"Y-you can't!" cried Oolong, who was also among their group. He was a pig-man, even shorter in stature than Goten. "Those two are our only chance to stop Majin Buu from destroying the whole world! Without them, we're sunk!"

"Oh, I am perfectly aware of that fact," Demigra said. "Indeed, I'm counting on it."

"We gotta do something!" Krillin said to the others.

"Yeah, but what?" Yamcha asked. "We were no match for Piccolo before, and now it feels like his power level's gone through the roof!"

"Wait...!" Krillin said. "Do you sense that? Something's coming this way... and fast!"

"That... that power!" Yamcha gasped. "It's a Saiyan, but who--?"

"Ah, just as I expected," Demigra said. "And now we can begin--!"

Everyone had expected the approaching fighter to stop on the Lookout and choose sides. Demigra alone knew whom to expect, and he assumed that Luffa would attack Piccolo to cover the others. But instead, there was no pause, no exchange of words before combat. There was only a bright yellow streak across the Lookout, a bright yellow streak that collided with Demigra and carried him off the other side, and onto the horizon.

"Wh-what was that, Goten?" Trunks asked.

Piccolo was still walking towards him, his red eyes twisted with hatred, his clawed hands raised for battle.

"I dunno, Trunks," Goten said. "I thought it might be my dad, but it didn't feel the same."

"Well whoever it was, they took care of that weird clown-looking guy," Trunks said. "I guess that means dealing with Piccolo is up to us."

"Yeah!" Goten said. "Let's show 'em what we can do!"

The boys stood their ground, and summoned their ki, until their hair transformed to a gleaming gold. This did not halt Piccolo's advance, but the boys raised their fists, promising that they would soon give him a reason to stop.

*******

Two kilometers from the Lookout, Luffa was still driving Demigra's mirage as far away from the others as she could. It wasn't the real Demigra, any more than the image she had met in a previous mission, or the one who had 'greeted' them in the Time Nest. But Demigra's mirage felt very real, and it was still very satisfying to collide with him at her maximum speed. Unfortunately, if Demigra was bothered by her assault, he did a good job hiding it.

"'Luffa,' was it?" Demigra asked with his usual aplomb. "You do realize that fighting my mirage won't solve anything for you. Piccolo serves me now, and if you don't act quickly, he's going to kill the ones you came here to save."

"You think I'm concerned about him?" Luffa said. "I wanted to get my hands on you, Demigra. You seem to know Chronoa pretty well, but you and I haven't been properly introduced! So I thought you and I should get better acquainted!"

She expected the mirage to turn intangible, like the one Trunks tried to attack in the Time Nest. Instead, this image of Demigra seemed to be more solid than the ones she had encountered before. There was an immense satisfaction that came with driving her fists into his face.

"Even if you could hurt my mirages," Demigra boasted. "It won't damage my true self in the slightest."

"Who cares?!" Luffa shouted. She kicked him to break contact, then flew directly over him to slam into him again, this time, forcing him straight down. "This is all just practice anyway!"

She added her own power of flight to their fall, driving him down to the ground with incredible speed. As they plummeted to the surface, Luffa continued punching Demigra as many times as possible. Then, at the last possible instant, she kicked away, leaving him to collide with the ground alone.

The resulting crater formed by Demigra's impact was surrounded by a thick cloud of dust. Luffa hovered over the cloud for a moment, then dove down into it and pressed her attack. Demigra was now annoyed, to say the least.

"You've improved," he said, still struggling to maintain his arrogant composure. "I'm impressed. You didn't have anywhere near this much power when you fought to save Trunks from being erased. I suppose your victory over Mira wasn't a fluke after all."

He had managed to defend himself to some extent by waving his bony scepter around in a very precise pattern, deflecting some of her blows and firing energy blasts to discourage other strikes. But this only gave Demigra time enough to talk. Luffa was all over him, and she showed no signs of backing off.

"Mira was a punk," Luffa snorted. "He wasn't worth my time, and neither are you, Demigra, if this is the best you can do."

She managed to slip through his defenses and drove her knee into his abdomen. Demigra gasped as he doubled over, and Luffa took the opportunity to relieve him of his scepter. Before he could react, she took it in both hands and broke it over her knee.

"N-now, is that any way to talk to the next Supreme Kai of Time?" Demigra said, still catching his breath. "I thought you were more professional than that, Luffa."

Luffa brandished the two halves of the scepter, pointing the splintered ends at Demigra. "You want my respect? Earn it. So far all you've got are some fancy tricks and a claim to a title."

"You have a point there," Demigra admitted as he dodged Luffa's attempts to stab him with the scepter fragments. "When I take control of the Time Nest, I shall need to workshop the name of my office. 'God of Time'...? Succinct enough, but I find it a bit direct. Too 'on-the-nose.' What do you think?"

Luffa slashed at his throat, and missed him only by a few millimeters.

"'Divine Master of History', perhaps?" he suggested. "It's rather flowery."

"How about 'Bloody Corpse'?" Luffa suggested. "It's more realistic."

"My dear Luffa, I do get the distinct impression that you're trying to distract me from something," Demigra said. "I wonder what it could be. Another Time Patroller, battling Piccolo while you keep me pinned down here? Or perhaps you're simply trying to study my movements to discover some weakness."

"Why are you so worried about Piccolo, Demigra?" Luffa asked in mock concern. "You're not afraid your control over him is slipping, are you?"

"Is that what this is, then? You seek to test the limits of my control? Did you really think you could free Piccolo just by removing me from the Lookout? Sorry to disappoint you, but it's going to take a lot more than that."

"Nice try," Luffa said. "But we both know you only sent this 'mirage' of yours to this time to make sure Piccolo did your dirty work. If you could control him at a distance, you would have just done that in the first place."

"Well, there is something to be said for observing these things directly," Demigra replied. "Underlings can be so unreliable at times... Underlings like Piccolo... or underlings like you..."

Luffa suddenly dropped the broken scepter and fired a ki blast into Demigra's face. Then another, and another, and another. She began firing faster and faster, until the mirage disintegrated under the barrage. As the image of Demigra faded, he made an unctuous smile.

Luffa then leaped straight up into the air and headed back to the Lookout.

"The boys are still alive," Trunks said to her over the communicator earpiece she was wearing. "I'm not sure we learned much from that gamble, but at least we didn't lose anything from the attempt."

"You worry too much, Trunks," Luffa said as she reached the underside of the Lookout. "Of course those brats are all right. Demigra might underestimate the Saiyans, but I don't."

Without another word, Luffa smashed through the bottom of the Lookout and burrowed through it, until she finally emerged through the uppermost deck. This put her less than ten meters away from Piccolo, who was beating Goten and Trunks senseless.

"Rarrgh?" was all Piccolo had to say as he noticed Luffa. He tried throwing Goten at her as a distraction, but she caught the boy in her arms with no trouble at all.

"Gosh, thanks, lady," Goten said as Luffa cradled him for a moment. He was covered in bruises and scratches from the battle.

"Get back on your feet, boy!" Luffa shouted to him. Then she threw him right back at Piccolo.

"Luffa, what are you doing?!" Trunks asked over the earpiece.

"Oh, calm down!" Luffa barked. "He's a Super Saiyan isn't he? I didn't think anyone could manage that at such an early age, but if he can transform, then can handle a lot worse than this!"

To her point, Goten took the fight to Piccolo, who then threw Trunks at Luffa to hold her off. This didn't work either.

"Hey, leggo of me!" the juvenile Trunks said when Luffa caught him. The resemblance to the older Trunks in the Time Nest was obvious, but Luffa still found it oddly fascinating. But in contemplating this, she held the boy just a bit longer than he liked.

"Put me down, Lady! I'm not a baby, y'know!" he snapped.

"Fine!" Luffa shouted, "Then get back in there and prove it!"

She then tossed him back as well, and fired a few ki blasts to keep Piccolo off-balance.

"Why don't you just knock Piccolo out?" asked the older Trunks in the Time Nest. "What are you waiting for?"

"I want to see what these brats can do," Luffa replied. She crossed her arms and raised her chin as she watched them fight. "And I want to see what else Demigra had in store for us here. This all seems a bit too easy--"

"Hey, lady, watch out!" called Yamcha from the far side of the Lookout. In the time it took Luffa to react, it was too late. A second Piccolo, identical to the first, had crept up behind her and seized her tail in his green hands.

Luffa turned, but only enough to swing her fist into Piccolo's abdomen. He doubled over in pain, which brought his head low enough that she could raise her elbow and bring it crashing down onto his bald cranium.

"Another time distortion?" she asked the Time Nest.

"No, I don't think so," Trunks said. "Piccolo always had the power to divide himself into multiple bodies. Demigra must have forced him to do it while no one was looking."

She noticed the Piccolo lying at her feet was still afflicted with the purple energy of Demigra's curse. So, too, was the one that was fighting Goten and Trunks.

"Well, you'd think knocking out one would affect the other, but I guess Chronoa's prescription needs an adjustment," Luffa said. "At least, where Piccolo's concerned..."

She rocketed forward to the other Piccolo, feinted with her hands, and then slammed her left knee into his nose.

"... we need two hot smoking blows to the face!" Luffa finished. "But that was still too easy."

"Easy?" Goten asked. "Maybe for you it was! Piccolo's pretty tough..."

"Yeah, you weren't even here for most of that fight," complained the young Trunks. "You took out that clown guy and then showed up at the very end."

Luffa couldn't resist responding to the boy. "Yeah, it's the end of the fight, because I ended it, kid," she said back to him.

"Aw, now you're gonna take all the credit," Trunks pouted. "Typical. You're just like all the adults."

"Piccolo!"

Another, Namekian, this one an adolescent in white robes, rushed to the closer of Piccolo's bodies. When Luffa saw him placing his hands on Piccolo's chest, she recognized him as a healer. Then she sensed his ki energy, and recognized him as Dende, the Namekian child she had seen during her mission on Namek.

"He'll be fine," Luffa said. She went to fetch the other Piccolo and carried him over her head with one hand. Then she tossed it beside the body Dende was working on. "Now that he's been knocked out, that evil magic has been driven out of his body."

"That's a relief," Dende said. "We're in a pretty tight spot right now, and we need Piccolo to train the boys on the Fusion Technique. I'm the Kami of the Earth, by the way. This is my Lookout."

"Oh," Luffa said. "Uh, sorry about the hole I put in it, but I was in a hurry."

"Don't worry about that," Dende said with a chuckle. "It's nothing that Mr. Popo can't fix. And besides, Majin Buu's done a lot more damage to the Earth. A hole in the Lookout is the least of our worries right now. Thanks for your help."

"Hey!" Goten said. "Maybe this lady could help us fight Majin Buu!"

"Yeah!" Trunks said. "She's pretty tough. I mean, for a girl, anyway."

Luffa was about to give the young Trunks a very large piece of her mind, when she got a message from the Time Nest.

"I'm ready to deploy you to the next part of the mission, Luffa," Chronoa said. "Get ready. You'll need to make this next shot count."

"Sure thing," Luffa said. "Let me just power up first."

"Huh?" said the younger Trunks. "Who are you talking to now?"

"Never mind," Luffa said. "I just wanted to show you boys how tough I can be."

With that, she began to summon her ki, and she amplified the power she was already using in her Super Saiyan form. Luffa yelled, and her aura intensified as her power level increased higher and higher.

"Whoa..." was all Trunks could say.

Amid the maelstrom she had created around herself, Luffa turned to the boy and smiled. "Not bad for a girl, right?" she asked. Then she put her hands to her left side and began to charge them for an attack. "Ready when you are!" she shouted over the rush of her aura.

She vanished just before Piccolo recovered enough to ask who she was and what she was doing.

*******

When Luffa rematerialized, she found herself in a wasteland on the Earth's surface, and Majin Buu was directly in front of her. He was screaming with pain. Gohan stood nearby, gasping with surprise. At first, he was only shocked by Majin Buu's sudden malady, but then the sudden appearance of a Super Saiyan only added to his confusion.

Luffa did not hesitate. At the first flash of purple from Majin Buu's body, she fired her Gallick Gun. She had powered up as high as she could, and put everything she had into the attack, then launched it at pointblank range. Buu was too affected by Demigra's magic to dodge or deflect it. There was simply his ugly face, and a wave of violet light from Luffa's fingertips that crashed down upon it.

Trunks had warned her about Majin Buu's power. In this "Super Buu" form of his, she would be no match for him, despite how well she had performed against the previous version, the one called "Fat Buu". Luffa would have enjoyed putting that warning to the test, but the problem was getting Super Buu to stay in that form long enough to keep history on course. Over the course of the battle, he would eventually devolve into his "Kid Buu" form, but this had to happen at the appointed time, because Kid Buu's first impulse was to destroy the Earth immediately.

And so, Luffa had to purge the Majin of Demigra's influence above all else. Any other considerations would have to wait.

"Did I get him?" Luffa asked as the dust cleared from her attack.

"I think so," said Trunks from the Time Nest.

Luffa couldn't sense Buu's power at first, but then she noticed hundreds of pink objects scattered on the ground. They looked like specks of raw meat at first, and then she noticed them beginning to move.

"It was a clean shot, no doubt," Trunks said into her earpiece. "The question is: Was it enough to break Demigra's hold over Majin Buu?"

She could sense Buu's power again as the pink blobs began to move towards one another and reassemble. A shiver ran down Luffa's spine as she waited to see what would happen. For all her bluster, it would take time for her to gather her power again after such a tremendous attack. Even with Demigra out of the equation, it seemed that Majin Buu required a much higher level of power for effective combat. She could reach that level, but she couldn't sustain that level long enough to keep up the pressure.

She was beginning to appreciate the difficulty Son Goku and the others must have had with Majin Buu. She was also developing a greater respect for the Majins that served in the Time Patrol. Their progenitor was truly remarkable.

"Whoever you are, you need to get back," Gohan warned her. She could sense him approaching her from behind, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the column of pink ooze that was piling up in front of her.

"Let me handle this," Gohan added. "I appreciate the help, but this is my fight now."

"Take it easy, kid," Luffa said. "I don't mean to interfere with someone else's battle, but I need to make sure this worked first. If everything checks out, then I'll stand aside."

"I don't understand," Gohan said. "Are you saying there's something else at work here? Another enemy besides Majin Buu?"

At last, the pink ooze congealed into a humanoid shape, and assumed the now-familiar shape of Majin Buu. He remained the same as before, well over two meters tall, with a lean, muscular body, and a sinister face which lacked a nose and a chin.

"Good," Luffa said. "That's just what I wanted to see."

"You've gotta be kidding," Gohan said. "I didn't think anyone could be pleased to see a horrible creature like him."

Luffa finally turned to look at Gohan, and smiled. "It's all relative, kid. Besides, I've seen a lot worse in my time. He kind of looks like my roommate."

Majin Buu leaned his head from one side to the other, and leered at both of them with a ravenous smile. "Youuuu... You weren't here beforrre," he growled at Luffa. "Where did you come from?"

Luffa stepped away from Buu and gestured to Gohan. "Oh, don't mind me," she said. "He can take it from here."

"You're the one," Majin Buu said ominously, his black eyes widening with comprehension. He raised one of his hands, and pointed his thick, stubby fingers at Gohan, and then at her. "I sensed him from a very faraway place. I was expecting him to show himself. But you, you're the fighter I was promised for today. Hrnnnn.... I thought it was the two little ones, but their magic wore off too quickly. Hehhh, they were hardly any fun at all..."

Luffa was about to respond, when Gohan beat her to it. "Forget her, Majin Buu," he said forcefully. "You're fighting me now, got it?"

She spared a moment to admire Son Gohan's poise. She had only seen him before as a young boy. Somehow, he had managed to become a Super Saiyan, despite being half-Earthling, but now that he was fully grown, he seemed to have finally adjusted to the role that his power had forced him into. He was wearing an orange dogi with a blue shirt underneath, identical to the one used by his father. Aside from his hair, which was short like Luffa's, Gohan was almost indistinguishable from Son Goku.

But what surprised her the most was that he now possessed an incredible power level, and yet his body showed no sign of the Super Saiyan transformation. His hair and eyes were their normal dark color, and she could sense none of the strain that the transformation induced upon a Saiyan's body. It was as though Gohan had somehow discovered the best of both worlds.

She wanted to ask how he had accomplished this, but he was too busy trading threats with Majin Buu. Every second that passed was further proof that her strike on Buu had been a success. If Demigra's magic was still present in Buu's body, he would have devolved into Kid Buu and annihilated the Earth already. So why hadn't Trunks called her back to the Time Nest?

"Hey," Luffa said in a low voice. "Are we good here, or what?"

"No, something's wrong," came Trunks' reply through her earpiece communicator.

"Do I need to hit him again?" Luffa asked. "I might have some trouble with that, now that I've lost the element of surprise."

"No, it's something else," Trunks said. "You drove Demigra's magic out of Majin Buu, but we're picking up the same energy somewhere in the area."

Luffa made an annoyed snort. "Demigra's mirage," she muttered. "I must not have hit him hard enough. I can look around for him--"

"No, whatever you do, keep an eye on Buu. I don't know what Demigra's up to, but he'll have to use Buu to do it. There's no one else left."

"Hrmmm," Buu said. "Maybe I don't need to wait for the little ones after all. Maybe I should just do this now..."

"Whatever you're talking about, it won't make any difference!" Gohan said. "You can't beat me, so there's no use trying to come up with a plan."

Buu began to laugh maniacally. "You beat me pretty badly before," he said with a scowl. "But I will make you pay. And then you'll see what happens to those I hate!"

And with that, Majin Buu began to gather his energy, but he did not position himself for battle. Instead, he stood straight, with his arms at his sides and his legs tightly together, like a toy soldier standing at attention. Then he reared his head back and made a wide-eyed smile.

"What the hell is he doing?" Luffa asked. "Is he trying to blow himself up?"

"That's exactly what it is!" Gohan said with increasing alarm. "Come on! We need to clear out of here!"

He grabbed Luffa by the arm, and pulled her along with him as he flew into the air. Luffa was too fixated on Buu to concern herself with where Gohan was dragging her off to.

"Should I stop him?" Luffa asked.

"No!" said Trunks from the Time Nest. "This is supposed to happen. Buu's not going to destroy the planet, he's just using this as a diversion so he can run and hide until-- Oh no!"

Luffa saw it just as Trunks did. It was a man in blue and white fighting clothes appearing on the battlefield below, and rushing towards Majin Buu.

"Where did he come from?" Luffa asked.

"That... that's Tien!" Trunks said.

Unaware of their conversation, Gohan now turned, having sensed Tien's ki. "What in the world--?" the young man asked.

What no one understood was how Tien Shinhan had arrived on the battlefield without anyone sensing his presence until now, or why he was approaching Majin Buu, who was too busy self-destructing to notice him. But Luffa and Trunks had an important clue, which was the tell-tale purple fog that surrounded Tien's body.

"Demigra," Luffa said under her breath. She immediately pulled away from Gohan and headed back down to intercept him. "I've got to--!"

But it was too late. Tien reached Majin Buu, but did not attack him. Instead, he simply dove into the monster, like a high diver leaping into a pool. And this, at last, was enough to force Buu to stop what he was doing.

"Wh-what?" was all Buu could ask, before he arched his back and threw back his arms. His entire body began to quiver and ripple like gelatin, but there was a frightened look in his eyes, as though he wasn't sure what was happening or whether or not he wanted to stop it.

"What's going on?" Luffa asked Trunks. She alighted twenty meters from Buu's position and stayed put, watching him convulse from a safe distance.

"Demigra must have used some kind of magic to force Buu to absorb Tien!" Trunks said. "I didn't think that was possible! Normally Buu has to capture victims and absorb them deliberately, but this--!"

Luffa wanted to know what this would mean, but she knew better than to ask, since Trunks had no idea himself. Moments later, the answer would become clear enough, as Buu finally stopped his strange convulsions, and relaxed his body. He looked very much the same as before, except that his face was sharper and more defined than before. He had a nose and chin now, and his upper body was now clad in a loose blue shirt with a red sash around his waist, and a long white cape.

But what truly astonished Luffa was the way Buu now looked at her. His sinister glare was very similar to the one he had before absorbing Tien, but this time, he looked at her with three eyes instead of two.

"Well, well! It seems I've improved!" Buu said. "How about I give you a demonstration?"

Gohan now landed beside Luffa, and they both readied themselves for a fight. But instead of attacking, Buu merely crossed his arms in front of his chest, then uncrossed them. A second later, his body began to divide itself, forming two Majin Buu's, and then again, to produce four.

"Now I know what you're thinking. I had the power to do this before," Majin Buu said. "But this Tien Shinhan person knew some interesting techniques, and I think you'll find this very amusing."

As the four Majin Buu's chuckled, Luffa noticed all twelve of their eyes glowing red, and the same purple fog emanating from their bodies.

"Dammit," Luffa said. "He's been reinfected with that demon magic! I'll have to fight him!"

"I already told you," Gohan insisted. "This is my fight. Whoever you are, I appreciate your help, but you really need to clear out of here."

"Sorry," Luffa said. "But the way I see it, there's plenty of action here for both of us now. So you're stuck with me. Is that okay?"

"As a matter of fact," Majin Buu replied. "It isn't."

NEXT: Battle Royal.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #super saiyan #luffa #trunks #chronoa #toki toki city #piccolo #demigra #majin buu #tien shinhan #gohan #goten #earth

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darudedogestorm · 7 months

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Ok maybe i will make an intro/reference post for some of my primary OCs

doesn't contain their full info as for a few of them that would be a bit Too much... feel free to ask me more about them tho i would be so happy

also now realizing these are like. entirely pokemon ocs. oopsie

sorry if the formatting is strange and offputting its because tumblr doesnt like me that much

avi

guy who found meaning in life thru aminals :) (pokemon) basically struggled a lot, felt pretty worthless, volunteering at the local pokemon center kind of turned his life around

if pokemon werent real he’d be a dog guy. but he’s a cyndaquil guy

projects an image of a casually tough guy

works at a pokemon center :) current vet tech student (or well the equivalent of a vet tech in pokemon)

basically works with the system that rehomes/releases surrendered pokemon. like if you’ve ever ‘released’ a pokemon into the wild, he’s part of the group of people who handles 1. can it even Be released into the wilderness (for example it might be too habituated to life with humans to be rereleased safely), and 2. depending on the answer to question 1, where is that thing going

i have a whole system for this but it’s not entirely finished

2 beautiful babies (his quilava), little red and big bea

they are from a puppy mill situation :( brought into the center as part of aforementioned shelter/release program

^ the reason little red is a shiny

also the reason he found meaning in life <3

#fosterfailures

wurmple kid/skipper

one time i had this dream that i was lance’s (yes the indigo league champion lance) kid who was like super obsessed with wurmples and dgaf about dragon types and he was lowkey disappointed in me about it. and this became my oc

literally like 8 years old

obsessed with wurmples (based off of me in elementary school who was obsessed with dogs)

he likes other bug types by extension but NOTHING will beat wurmple. nothing.

assumes he’ll one day grow up to be a wurmple. it’s his dream

non wurmple related fact: retreats into his beautiful mind palace during times of stress and if he cannot do so he will explode. the wurmple obsession may be a manifestation of this. just like me fr

puzzle enjoyer :)

i wrote up a thing for one of those 50 question ‘tell me about your oc’ things for him but it would be too long to put here LMAO

in a nutshell:

arachne

spawned from my mono bugtype run of pokemon platinum

girl who is basically a bug

views herself as the general of an army of bugs with which she will one day RULE THE WORLD

engages in mithradatism (consumes the poison of her bugs in hopes that she will grow immune)

it has landed her in the hospital once but like that’s whatever. all that hospital trip taught her was that she should be more careful with her doses as opposed to not dosing herself at all

her starter was a spinarak (spinnerrella) who she used to wear on her back, like a backpack

spinnerrella evolved into a ariados so now she just wears one of her shedded exoskeletons from when she was still a spinarak. one day when she’s taller and stronger she’ll let spinnerrella on her back again but for now they must be apart

connie

i dont even know where to start

spawned from a pokemon roleplay with a friend. 10 page google document

works in conservation/ecology

where she got her name (she is #epic transgender) (and #fail bad at names)

current project is dealing with the slowpoke in azalea; after the team rocket poaching incident, there was an increase in naturally tailless slowpoke (“natural” selection, those without tails weren’t poached and were more likely to reproduce before dying). it’s her job to figure out if this is a problem that needs attention, as well as study any other effects the population may be experiencing

being blackmailed out of doing her actual Dream project, which is working to reintroduce the johto starters back into their natural habitats, which they are extinct in

blackmailed by a certain business man for whom this would not bode

has the most insane fucked up family in the world and doesnt even know about it

has a baby teddiursa that she takes care of :) don’t ask her how she got it

if i wrote Everything i had about her here this would be way too long. as it is an introduction rather than a story recap

i have art of her :)

#low pitched finite woofing #oc talk

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jeff-from-marketing · 1 year

Text

Hey I wanna talk games! This time a game that is so dead it’s actually sad, because the game was fucking awesome. But hey! Not tabletop this time!

So the game I want to talk about is this little gem of a nugget called The Secret World, and it’s genuinely one of my favourite MMOs I’ve ever played. Short version of the premise is “hey, y’know every single myth, conspiracy, and legend you’ve ever heard of? well all that shit is real my guy.” And it fucking leaned into that shit real hard!

Your three player factions consisted of 1. the actual Illuminati, yes they’re real. Any conspiracy you can think of related to them is probably also true. 2. the Templars, no not the Knights Templar, they make sure to remind you that order died out centuries ago. These ones are more likely to hire a witch than burn them at the stake. 3. the Dragon, a society based entirely around the whims of chaos and the cycle thereof.

So wait, the Illuminati is real? The Templars actually exist? Demons, the undead, the unfathomable, all of that is true? How have I never heard of that! Well, the orders that be wouldn’t be doing their job right if you knew. After all, this side of the world isn’t called The Secret World for nothing. This game absolutely revels in mystery, and I love it for that.

So many of the quests you come across are puzzles to be solved in one way or another, you’re expected to investigate everything, take down notes, and research to find answers. The game came with its own web browser and it absolutely expected you to use it! And I absolutely loved that. Yeah you still had the option of your standard kill quests and quests to fetch seven boar asses, but those (for the most part) were options. The best quests are absolutely the ones that involved solving a mystery, and that was definitely a very solid chunk of them. Sure some of them were a little obtuse sometimes, but overall they breathed so much life into the game, especially if you were used to standard MMO quest design. And luckily, the main story quests were almost always this style of quest. They still stick with me even years afterwards. The one where I had to pull up a morse code translation sheet, or look up Bible verses to find relevant passages to a clue, or one where I had to die so I could speak to a ghost.

Of course, good story and storytelling can only go so far, was the game itself any fun? Oh fuck yeah my fellow beings. So to start with: no classes. There were 9 main weapons in the game, each with their own sets of skills and abilities, and you could pick any 2 weapons. From there, you’re free to mix and match active abilities from those two weapons as much as you’d like, and you can use passive abilities from any weapon. There was so much build variety and customisation available, build crafting was just one of my favourite things to do and I absolutely spent way too much time looking through abilities to create a new build. Group content was fun, world events were fun, it just a good time overall! The combat probably wasn’t the smoothest compared to a lot of modern MMOs, but it was still satisfying enough.

Unfortunately, all of that was apparently just too good. At some point, the company announced Secret World Legends: a reboot of The Secret World that was supposed to throw on a new coat of paint and refresh systems to de-jankify them I suppose. Wow it did not do that. What it did do however is kill everything unique about The Secret World. Those cool mystery quests that I still remember fondly today? Gone. A really indepth build system that allowed for huge amounts of customisation? Gone. Replaced with a really bad class system that doesn’t even begin to cover the same amount of depth. The perfectly serviceable even if not top-tier combat? Somehow they just made it worse. You get like, An Ability, maybe two. Oh and like every weapon’s gimmick is now all 100% RNG based. Yay.

I do miss this game. Last I checked, it’s technically still running if you owned a copy, but it’s no longer available to buy officially and it’s no longer supported. Last time I tried to play, it just kept crashing. Which is a shame, because I’d love for more people to be able to experience this gem of a game.

#gaming #the secret world #I think there was a point to this rant?#idk it just popped into my head and now its other peoples problem #companies should really release code of unsupported games to the public #fine if they dont want to support it #let the community pick up the slack if they still want to play

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dreamescapeswriting · 3 years

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The Stowaway ~ SCB [M] [Request]

WORD COUNT: 7.6K

PAIRING: Captain Changbin x Stowaway Reader

GENRE: smut, pirate au, first time, angst, speaks of drowning, oral F receiving, romantic smut.

A/N: Set between 1720 and 1750

Panting heavily as you raced down the boat docks you did your best to try and avoid being seen by the men that were chasing you. All of this because you had stolen some small apple and a loaf of bread from a food stand. Which they were going to throw away anyway since it was the end of the night.

What were they really going to do with it? It was almost midnight and you were starving, you hadn't eaten in almost four days, you needed something.

“Where did she go!?” One of them yelled in a rough voice as they lost sight of you in the darkness. Pressing your back against one of the wooden boats you held your hand over your chest as if they would find you just from the sound of how hard it was beating. If they found you there was no question about it you would be dead on the spot. No one liked thieves let alone female thief who had no family and no means of paying them back. They'd find you, kill your or worse cut your fingers off and leave you to deal with the gangrene or dying through blood loss.

"She must have gone through one of the houses. This way!" The smaller male said as he stared around, they'd been on your tail for almost twenty minutes not once letting up.

You let out a small breath staying completely still until you knew for sure that the men were gone and it was safe to come out from your hiding spot.

It wasn't as if you enjoyed stealing but it was the only way you could stay alive. Not many places except the brothel were willing to hire someone that was homeless. Being on the run for almost 3 years had no benefits besides the one where you got away from your family. You would rather spend your life on the run than one more minute with them.

The longer you stood on the docks the heavier your eyes began to get but you couldn't run into town now. The men would still be on the lookout for you and most of the pubs were overrunning with pirates. Pirates from all over the world had sailed all day and night before sleeping in a real bed before heading out the next day. As a kid, you used to dream of being a pirate, setting sail to see the whole entire world but of course, the dream would never come true. Females on ships were forbidden, it was a sign of bad luck and a sure sign that a ship would sink.

Staring up at the boat you had been leaning against you checked to see if there was any sign of someone on board. It would only be for one night, it wasn't as though you were going to be a stowaway and go on an adventure with them. One night of peaceful sleep was all you wanted.

It was highly unlikely anyone was on board the ship anyway, most of the men loved to drink at night and would stay in the hotels and brothels. There were no candles left burning that you could see and the whole place appeared to be empty so you threw your small bag through one of the portholes and waited.

Waited to see if someone heard it and came running or if there was someone on the docks that would hear you but there was nothing. Finally somewhere comfy and somewhat safe that you could sleep for at least one night.

Stepping onto the deck you looked around for any signs that someone could still potentially be there but it was clear. The whole ship was a mess, the deck was covered with a thick layer of filth, clothes were left everywhere it was a wonder the captain even let his crew live like this. Who were you to complain when it was a free bed for the night? Somewhere peaceful for you to eat your bread and apple and lay your head for one night.

"Disgusting," You mumbled climbing down into the base of the ship to find it even more of a mess than the top. There were more clothes thrown over barrels, there was dust that covered everything down there that the clothes didn't touch. It was a wonder how anyone lived on the boat without going insane but you grabbed some of the blankets and began trying to make a make-shift bed on the floor. No use complaining about the filth when it was one of the warmest places you'd gotten to sleep in for a while.

As you laid there to yourself staring out of the window at the moon you couldn't remember the last time you had slept in a real bed...The last time you had gone to sleep without a weapon in your hand. It was going to be the first time in years you could sleep without someone yelling at you to get of their yard or that you couldn't sleep under a pub table. It was peaceful.

Taking in a large breath of the sea air Changbin smiled to himself, it almost the middle of the day and he and his crew had been sailing for a few hours now.

"Jisung!" He cried out as he looked over the state of the ship. This was supposed to be one of the most terrifying ships known to all pirates and men and yet it looked like the most revolting.

"I'm sick of this place looking so bad, we need to look after it." He told his right-hand man, Chan, as they stood at the wheel of the ship looking out at the vast amounts of nothing that surrounded them. There was nothing to be seen for miles on end, just waves, birds and the off piece of wood left from wreckages.

"Yes, Captain?" Jisung asked as he rushed over to Changbin looking up at him as he waited for further instructions.

"Go below deck and fetch the mop bucket, I want this place cleaned up before we reach Midscape," Jisung nodded before disappearing towards the hatch and Changbin continued to stare at everything in front of him. Midscape was going to be their big break, the kingdom of Quinnar was about to hold a large festival which meant there were going to be plenty of opportunities for them. Plenty of ships to steal from, the seaside towns would be too busy focusing on the partying to notice food and drinks going missing.

"The usual job? Go in, steal and get out?" Chan questioned as he noticed how hard Changbin seemed to be concentrating.

"Yeah, we'll need one of the boys on pickpocketing, we could get some jewels while we're there." Chan nodding along about to say something when Jisung came speeding over to the wheel, out of breath and as white as a sheet.

"Girl...Below...Deck." He panted out as he looked up at Changbin anxiously,

"What?"

"There's a girl, asleep below deck." The whole ship came to a standstill as they stared at Jisung, all that could be heard were the waves crashing against the side of the boat.

"What do you mean a girl? A little girl? A teenager? A woman?" Changbin pressured to answer him but he was taking far too long,

"Move." He grunted locking the wheel into place before heading towards the hatch of the boat.

Laying there was a girl Changbin had noticed the night before running through one of the pubs. You'd been clutching a loaf of bread and an apple the last time he saw you.

"What shall we do? Females are bad luck on ships." Seungmin muttered as he watched you sleeping, clutching a blanket around your body as your shivered.

"Throw her overboard, we don't need bad luck," Jisung grumbled watching as you laid your head on one of his shirts.

"Don't be stupid," Changbin hissed never taking his eyes off you. He'd seen people like this before, forced to sleep in rough places because they had nowhere else to go. Just from the state of your clothes, he knew you'd not had a real home for a while,

"She's a stowaway-"

"She clearly had nowhere else to go. I doubt she meant to sail along with us," Chan cut Hyunjin off as he looked at his captain. Changbin had still yet to say anything on the matter as he continued to watch you sleep.

"Let her sleep. When she wakes you tell her to come and see me in my cabin." With that he left, leaving the boys stunned as he walked away as if nothing had happened.

Waking up to seven sets of eyes staring down at you wasn't your idea of a wake-up call. You flinched clutching the sheets around your body as you stared at each of them. All of them looked as though they were angry at you, all except for one who was just sitting and holding some food.

"I bought some food in case you were hungry," The blonde with freckles said as he pushed a small wooden tray towards you but you didn't move.

"Our Captain wants to see you." Another one with dark hair and a mole under his right air said to you as you nodded. Completely in shock that you had woken up to them standing there,

"I didn't mean to sleep so much...I-I just needed to crash for-"

"Don't explain it to us. Explain to Captain Changbin." Fear radiated through your entire body as the curly-haired boy spoke of his name. The most feared pirate in most of the kingdoms.

"Changbin?" You stuttered out as you looked at each of the men. You hadn't even bothered looking for a ship name last night, you were too tired to care.

"Welcome aboard the Fae Rouge." The curly-haired man announced as he watched you stand up a little shakily.

"Felix. Show her to Changbin's cabin." He ordered as he began cleaning up the clothes you had been using as a bed for the night. Staring at you as you and Felix began to leave, heading up the stairs, Felix allowing you to go first while he looked away. You were dressed in wenches dress covered in holes and dirt from all of the times you had slept in the streets.

"We're on the water?!" You panicked looking around you as you saw nothing but sea, you were only meant to sleep until daylight.

"Judging by the panic I guess you didn't mean to become a stowaway?" Felix questioned softly as he began to lead you over the main deck floor towards the Captains cabin below the quarter deck.

"I just needed somewhere safe to sleep." You admitted as you waited outside the door of the cabin. A huge wooden door with a dragon knocker on the front of it.

"Come in." A voice grunted from inside, your stomach began to do flips as you were ushered inside by Felix only to have him leave when you were standing in front of a desk. There was a chair behind it face out of the windows staring at the ocean. The chair turned and sitting there was someone you had grown to know through stories and wanted posters. His face was no different to the drawings you had seen, he was handsome and charming. There was a purple bandana wrapped around his head and a scar on his eyebrow that stopped hairs from growing.

There were stories that he'd gotten the scar from fighting with palace guards in Atlantia when he was last there but other stories claimed it was nothing more than a birthmark.

"I'm sorry Captain Changbin! I didn't mean to, I just needed someone safe to lay my head for the night! I never would have climbed on board if I had known it was your ship," You spoke so quickly you'd barely had time to register what it was that you were saying to him. Doing your best to not be killed or thrown overboard to die.

"But you would have climbed on board if it was someone else's?" He questioned as he stared at you, impressed that you were so out-spoken with him.

"No...Yes but-" He cut you off before you could continue,

"Did you or did you not climb onto my ship without permission?"

"Yes-"

"Did you or did you not set sail with us?" He stood up and rested his hands on the desk in front of him glancing at the map and then up to you.

"Yes, but I didn't mean to..." As you were about to explain your plan for waking up he cut you off once again.

"You're a stowaway, whether you meant it or not."

"I had nowhere else to go! I couldn't sleep in the streets for one more night," You finally cried out, raising your voice just a little as you stared at him. Changbin was taken back by it, not once had anyone ever spoken back to him but it impressed him.

"You have no home? No family?" It wasn't a way of being mean it was a way of finding out the truth. If you truly had nowhere to go he was going to take pity on you but never show it.

"No one, sir...I have no one." The room fell into silence and he sighed sitting back down in his chair.

"Felix!" He bellowed out watching the door as Felix came through it, looking directly at his captain.

"She's the new cleaner. Show her the ropes, for god sake get her some clean clothes." He grumbled before turning to look back out of the windows.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" You yelled out as Felix pulled you from the room, shutting the door and looking at you.

"I'll find something in the cabins you can wear until we reach Quinnar. Then we'll have to buy you something suitable." You ignored the looks you were gaining from the six other men that were now on the deck.

"I won't lie, they wanted to throw you overboard,"

"I don't blame them...Females on pirate ships always mean bad luck." You grumbled following him into another cabin to find seven beds lining one wall of the room, chests on the other.

"Here." Felix began rooting through one of his chests to pull out some black breeches with eight buttons on the front.

"Then I'm sure Chan won't mind if you wear one of his linen shirts," He pulled out a white long-sleeved shirt with the front dipped down, laces to keep from exposing the chest.

"I'll let you change and then I'll introduce you to them all. You're going to be here for a while you might as well learn our names." He chuckled softly leaving you to change out of your dirty rags and into the new clothes.

"Changbin asked her to clean, he wants her on the ship." You hear Felix telling the boys as you came out onto the main deck. The shirt had to be tucked in with how long it was but it was comfortable and felt nice to be in fresh clothing.

"We never learnt your name," Chan said as he watched you walking towards Felix, you stood beside the freckled boy.

"I never learnt yours." You countered back making Felix smirk from beside you. He'd heard you inside the Captains cabin talking back to Changbin whenever you got.

"I'm Bang Chan," The curly-haired man said as he looked at you,

"Hwang Hyunjin," The boy with the mole under his eye said as he smiled at you, all of them going in a line until it got to Jisung who just stared at you.

"She's not going to bite you." Felix hissed but he said nothing,

"I'm Y/n." The boys stared at you,

"No last name?" Felix frowned as he heard you only say a first name. It was uncommon for a female to go by just a first name unless they had been disowned or family killed off.

"No. Not anymore." You looked over at Jisung hoping that he would now say something to you.

"Han Jisung." He grumbled as he looked at Felix before storming off towards the wheel.

"Don't mind him, he's new to the crew and you're replacing him as the new guy." You nodded along and followed the boys as they began telling you what you could and couldn't clean around the ship.

It was a few days into your time with them all and you'd grown to know each of them on a personal level. Except for Changbin who spent most of his time in his cabin or manning the wheel. The boys had arranged for you to continue sleeping below deck, making you a bed out of old blankets and a spare pillow. Although it wasn't one of the best situations it was better than anything you'd had in the many years leading up to this moment. You were being fed two meals a day, given a warm place to sleep and all for cleaning the ship which was no hassle for you.

The only problem there was on the ship was Changbin, he seemed to have a problem with you but you put that down to being a stowaway on his ship. Whenever you would do a simple thing wrong he would yell at you for it, causing a scene or just being rude in general. Changbin would give you all of the harder tasks if you had finished your cleaning for the day but the boys would try to help if and when they could.

"Jisung! Put it down! Y/n is perfectly capable!" Changbin squawked from the Helm of the ship. Even if Jisung had a disliking to you at first he let up in the end, doing his best to help with some of your chores.

"Go and join the boys," You whispered as you continued washing the main deck. It involved using a single scrub brush to scrub each and every small wooden panel of the boat with soapy water.

"If you could not do this job you should never have climbed aboard." Changbin bellowed as you ignored him, scrubbing as hard as you could at the floor. This was one job that took everything out of you that you had to do every other day, spending almost your entire day going over the entire boat.

"When you're done the windows in my cabin need washing." Changbin was now standing over you, watching as you scrubbed harder and harder. Changbin admired how hard you were willing to work for him but he wasn't going to say it out loud and risk being seen as soft.

"Yes, Captain." You spoke as you looked up at him, he moved away from you before disappearing back into his cabin leaving Chan in charge of the wheel.

The floors were clean and there were still a few more hours of daylight left, Felix had called you out onto the main deck.

"We'll be arriving in Quinnar in two days. You better sharpen your skills." He threw a sword in your direction making you laugh as you caught it by the handle.

"Am I allowed on shore with you?" You questioned as he began to come towards you, holding the sword up as though he was ready to attack.

"I can't see why not, I'll find you some clothes and then I'll show you around." You remembered Felix had said he had lived in Quinnar almost all of his life until he ran away to join Changbin.

Watching you and Felix pretending to fight on the deck was beginning to irritate Changbin so he barged out of his room.

"Since you don't know how to follow simple directions," He grunted as he took the swords away from you both, throwing them to Jeongin who scrambled to put them away.

"I asked you to clean my windows since you want to learn to be a pirate instead...Show me what you've got." Frowning as you turned to look at Changbin you waited for him to explain what it was that he meant.

"I saw you stealing the night you left, show me what you've got...We'll see if we can put you to good use." Standing up straight you looked at him wondering how this was going to work when he had set you up to the task.

"You'll know because you're watching," He hummed at you,

"So it continues for the rest of the night...You'll steal from us and we'll see what you come back with at dinner." Nodding along with him you glanced over at Seungmin who was smirking.

"Bet we catch you," Smirking back over at him you shook your head.

"Bet you don't."

The end of the night came faster than you had been expecting it to and now all nine of you were crowded around a large table below deck.

"Well...You failed, I'm not missing anything." Changbin said smugly as he poured himself a glass of ale, you hummed standing up from the table.

"I think you'll find, you're wrong, Captain." Taking out a large sack from under the table you poured the contents onto the table. Revealing everything that was inside from jewels, food, clothes, money and even the compass that Changbin kept on him at all times.

"Impressive work." He complimented a small smile playing on his lips as he took the compass from the pile and turned it around in his fingers.

"How did you manage to swipe this?" He questioned, truly curious to know when it never left his inside pocket.

"You asked me to clean your windows. While I was cleaning them this afternoon I asked you to move from your desk and bumped into you." Thinking back on it Changbin smirked as he thought about the way your hand ever so slight brushed against his chest.

"Even if you don't want to swipe on Quinnar she could perform for other sailors...Distract them." Minho chuckled as he remembered catching you singing one day while you were cleaning.

"She can sing, dance and maybe she can read to them." He finished as he stuffed food into his mouth. You had been helping the boys learn to read and write while you were spending your time on the ship at night.

"You read?" Changbin questioned as you sat back down at the table, nodding your head.

"My mother taught me as a little girl. I can also write and read a map." The more he learnt about you the more interested he began to grow.

There would have been a time when Changbin never would have allowed you onto his ship but hearing that you had no one back home made him want to take a chance on you. No one deserved to be alone in the world and that was something he lived by. Taking in sailors that had no wives, family or means of living. It was how he had met most of the boys besides Jeongin who simply joined because he wanted to.

"You're just full of surprises," He hummed pouring you a glass of ale before going back to his food.

Although he had been hard on you through most of your time with him you couldn't hold it against him. He'd taken you in and cared for you even though he could have just as easily thrown you overboard and fed you to the sharks.

"We should get an early night. We'll be sailing all day tomorrow with little rest at night." Changbin digressed as he rose from his chair, your eyes on him the entire time as he retreated to his cabin for the rest of the night.

Quinnar was bright and loud as soon as you reached the docks, people were partying everywhere you turned to look.

"I'll take her to go and get some clothes, then we'll start on the west side of town," Felix explained to the boys as you waited for him. Practically bouncing up and down with excitement as you looked around, it was your first time being anywhere this far from home and it was starting to set in that you had sailed there.

"Follow me." Felix chuckled as he began to walk with you off the ship and down the wooden docks. Your eyes immediately went to the water it was crystal clear with white sand at the edges.

"Can we go to the water after?" You questioned as you began to walk through crowded streets. People were dressed in top hats, suits and some women were out in the street topless.

"They get excited about the festivals," Felix whispered as he noticed your gaze lingering on some of the groups that were getting louder and louder.

"You should see them when they've been drinking," He laughed softly pulling you towards a small clothing stand and looking over everything before settling on something.

"We'll take the black Bustier dress." He paid for the dress in full and an elderly woman took you by the hand. Eyeing you up when she noticed you in men's breeches and a shirt.

"Ran away to play pirates did you?" She questioned as she led you into a small bathroom, you smiled weakly as she began measuring you.

Coming out from the changing room you smiled as you reached Felix, doing a small turn to show off the black Bustier and lace dress that you'd put a white shirt underneath.

"Looks great, now you really are a pirate." He whispered in your ear pushing you back through the crowds to begin your work. Everyone was already standing on top of one another, they would rarely notice something going missing from their pockets.

Later in the night as Changbin was heading back to the ship he saw you just sitting in the sand on the beach. Your feet were sitting by the edge of the water and you looked peaceful, a small smile on your lips.

"Do I pay you to sit around all day?" He snapped when he reached you, brushing off your hands you looked up at him.

"It's almost midnight, the boys are all drinking I thought we had time off-"

"You thought wrong." You nodded before getting yourself up from the sand, dusting off your dress to follow him back to the ship but Changbin was taken by the bag of loot by your side.

"Busy day?" You nodded handing him the bag as you began to walk back to the docks.

"Felix and I hit the west and then we got bored so we joined Jisung and Seungmin in the south." You smirked remembering everything you had done that day and now you were truly exhausted from everything.

"There's one more thing I want you to do for me tonight," Changbin told you as he walked by your side. The two of you out alone as you headed towards the ship. As much as Changbin wanted to tell you how good a job you were doing for him he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Sure."

"Go and get the boys, we need to sail now before anyone realises we're the ones that stole their goods." Nodding at him you headed off back in the direction of the town.

All of the boys had gone to the black pearl for a drink so it was going to be easy to find them but not so easy getting them back to the boat.

"Captain wants you back, he wants to sail home." You mumbled as Minho threw an arm around your shoulder, dropping almost his whole body weight onto you as you attempted to drag him out of the bar.

"But we want to drink! CELEBRATE!" He screamed out as Jisung joined your side, helping you carry him a little while the rest of the boys - who were moderately sober - began to leave.

"We can celebrate on board," You told Minho who began singing loudly in the street,

"Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguing is done We'll take our leave and go!" When he realised no one was joining in with him he began to get louder and louder, jabbing your side telling you to sing along. You had sung on the boat for him a couple of times but never in front of anyone else.

"She'd not been two weeks from shire when down on her a right a whale bore. The captain called all hands and swore he'd take that whale in tow!" He screamed as you sat on the main deck, Changbin had begun sailing out of the docks the moment you arrived back with everyone. The rest of the boys had gone to sleep in their beds while you looked after Minho,

"SING!" He screamed at you making you laugh softly as he threw up down the side of the boat. Rubbing his back softly you began to sing sweetly to him, not wanting to be as aggressive as his singing had been.

"Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguing is done We'll take our leave and go..." You rubbed his back and he got back up, patting your back roughly as he left you there to got bed.

"SHIT!" You screamed out as he hit you a little too hard, sending you into the freezing water. Head flooding with thoughts as you forgot how to swim, waves sending you down to the water as soon as you got some form of air.

The water sent your body into shock as you tried to come up for air, flailing your arms around as though you were trying to climb rocks. Waves were crashing into your body knocking your back down whenever you got close to getting a piece of the precious air.

"For fucks sake," Changbin cried out when he realised no one else was going to come after you.

Dropping the anchors he began storming over to the side you'd gone overboard on, stripping from his shirt. Staring over to see if he could see any sign of you but it was pitch black. Climbing onto the railing he dove in after you swimming under the water when he saw you limply trying to reach for the water.

"Don't you dare die on me!" Changbin roared as he laid you down on the main deck, pushing down on your chest repeatedly before breathing air into your mouth.

"You're not allowed to leave," He hissed as he continued pushing against your chest. Your eyes were half open as you looked around you,

"Leave me alone...You hate me," You coughed up the saltwater spitting it down beside him on the floor.

"Do you think I want you dead?" He scoffed as he sat you up carefully, handing you a cup of freshwater.

"Would be an easy way to get rid of a woman on your ship,"

"And lose one of the best pirates I've come to meet?" He blushed looked down at you as you continued to sip on the freshwater, shivering as you sat on the deck soaked in water on a cold night.

"Let's go and get you warmed up." He mumbled helping you up onto your feet, wrapping his shirt around you as he walked you towards his cabin.

"You can sit in front of the fire." Sitting you down in a chair he added some more wood to the small fireplace in his cabin and went to grab you some dry clothes to change into. Settling on some of his baggy breeches and a large white shirt.

"Why are you being nice? It's freaking me out." You mumbled as he gave you a blanket to change underneath, still turning his back on you so you would feel comfortable.

"I've always been nice, I let you stay didn't I?" He countered as he looked at the windows in front of him, smirking a little as you spoke back to him with a little attitude.

"Begrudgingly I bet," You grumbled folding your arms over your chest as you finished changing into the clothes he had given to you.

"I was the one that opted to stop them throwing you overboard," He raised his eyebrow at you truly not understanding why you thought he hated you or wanted you dead.

"I gave you a job, I gave you shelter. If I really wanted to I could have put you out," You cleared your throat when it was clear for him to turn back and he wrapped you in a blanket to keep you from getting colder.

"I could have let you drown," He scoffed as he looked at you knowing that he would never actually let you drown.

"But you didn't...what was it you said...Best pirate?" You smirked up at him remembering what he had said out on the deck.

"Shut up, you were hallucinating," You hummed as you stared at the fireplace, enjoying the warmth as it spread through your entire body enjoying it as you sat there.

"Thank you though...For taking me in...letting me work for you." Your eyes were beginning to get heavy as you sat there,

"Like I said. The best pirate just don't tell the boys," He chuckled looking at you as he saw you beginning to nod off in the chair. It was rather adorable how you got so tired just from sitting in front of a fireplace.

"You should get some rest, sea air and water can take it out of you sometimes." You hummed as you got up, ready to leave his chambers when his hand came to rest on your shoulder. Pulling you to come back into the room, there was no way he was going to make you stay below deck when he knew it was colder down there than anywhere else on the ship. Any other night would have been fine but not when you'd just taken a swan dive into the ocean and almost drowned.

"Take my bed, it's comfier than the sheets you're on." You remembered seeing the bed when you were cleaning once. It was a large double bed covered in pillows and blankets that looked to be hand-sewn, fit enough for some kind of king to lay on.

Shivering and teeth chattering as you laid in bed you couldn't warm up despite the mound of blankets covering you. All of the warmth from the fire gone now that you were curled up on a bed,

"Relax. You need to relax your body," It was easy for Changbin to say as he laid on the floor in front of the fire taking most of the heat from you,

"Come up here," You stuttered out through gritted teeth, not caring if you were going to share a bed with someone. All you cared about was getting warm.

"Why?"

"Warm me up," You hissed looking at him with a serious look to prove you meant it and he got up, bringing one of the extra blankets with him and crawling in behind you.

"Sweet mother of pearl, you are freezing," He hissed when he felt your feet grace over his leg, he threw the blanket he had been using over your both.

"Hold...Hold me." You looked over your shoulder at him and he nodded, inching closer to you as he wrapped his arm around your waist.

"Tell me why you took pity on me...Why keep me? You didn't know I was a good pirate then," You stuttered out body still shivering uncontrollably as he continued to hold you in his arms.

"I saw you stealing the night before so I knew you were hungry and most likely tired...Then when you told me that you had no one-"

"You felt sorry for me?" You cut him off as you listened to him speaking to you,

"No. I knew what you were going through. I ran away from my family home as a teenager and I knew what kind of place you were in. No job. No home. You needed somewhere." Your body began to relax as you listened to him speaking to you so calmly and openly about himself. It was the first time you'd heard him speak of any kind of life before he was a pirate, none of the boys spoke about him before you only knew their stories.

"You ran away?" Concern leaked from your tone and he smiled weakly, it was the first time he told anyone this story. Even the boys thought he had been born into the pirate world.

"From Atlantia when I was 18." He chuckled weakly at the distant memory of his time there, everything was a first for him to speak about.

"I was a naughty kid, got into trouble too much, stole from people and was just a troubled kid. My family decided it was time to send me to work in a factory...I knew for a fact I didn't want to do I ran." Frowning as you listened to him you couldn't help but think about how much you had in common with one another, both running away from a life neither of you wanted.

"I took nothing, I just headed for the sailors and asked for a ride to the next Kingdom. Then from there, I worked on different ships until I found Fae Rouge. Abandoned and left to rot in some random harbour. I stole her." Rolling over to look up at him you stared at him in the candlelight, just listening to him speak was enough to relax you in his arms.

"I was hard on you when you first got here because I needed to know if you had a thick skin. Pirates need a thick skin if they're going to make it." He looked down at you not realising how close you were to one another until he could feel your breath on his lips.

"How did you get the scar?" You whispered running your hand up to his face, cupping it in your hand as you ran one finger along the scar on his eyebrow.

"When I was a kid, it's not a good idea to go up to a horse from behind." He smirked as he remembered getting thrown back against the wall but he knew the rumours about the scar and why you must have asked. You went to brush your hands through his hair when he took your wrist into his hand.

"Sorry." You whispered going to move away when his grip around your waist tightened and he held you in place.

"I never said I didn't like it," He whispered as he leaned in, brushing his lips against yours until you pushed them together. Gasping a little as you felt a jolt rush through your body, something you had only heard in stories from old people.

Soon the kiss became heated and he moved his lips to your neck, kissing up and down your exposed skin as your hands worked their way into his hair tugging softly.

The shock still hadn't worn off as Changbin stripped you down bare, himself included as he looked at you. Admiring your body as he ran his hand over your breasts playing with your hardened nipples,

"Changbin," You breathed as he continued to massage them, leaning down to take your left nipple into his mouth. Sucking softly while his hand pinches the right nipple,

"You like that?" He questioned a little cockily as he looked up at you, you hummed back at him. You'd never experienced anything like this it was all new to you.

Changbin continued as he kissed down your body looking up at you as you whimpered. You could feel how wet you were beginning to grow between your thighs just from the small kisses and touches he was giving to you.

When his head delved between your legs and tongue graced your clit making you whimper.

"Sweet little noises, has no one made you feel good before?" You shook your head and he pressed a kiss against your swollen bud, licking and sucking softly as he watched you. Enjoying the way your face scrunched up and moans left your mouth. Changbin went slow with you, running his tongue up and down your folds occasionally dipping inside of you to see what you enjoyed. Each of your moans grew louder each time which only encouraged him as he slicked up a finger in your juices.

"You might feel a pinch," He whispered slowly easing his finger into you feeling you clench around him tightly.

"O-Oh fuck you're tight," He moaned despite it being his finger inside of you, there was no way he would last with you that tight.

"C-Changbin." You whined when you felt a small pain,

"I know..." He pressed kissing on your clit,

"I know but it'll pass." He whispered as he continued to lap up your clit.

The pain began to subside as he began to move one finger in and out of you. Your head spinning a little at the new sensations you were experiencing, each thrust of his fingers making you whimper and moan.

"Changbin....S-Something-" Changbin smirked as he could feel you clenching faster around his finger with each thrust,

"It;'s okay, just let it go," He breathed out as he continued to thrust his fingers, watching as your head rolls back against the sheets and you let out a sinful cry of his name. Something had tightened inside of you and finally snapped free as waves of pleasure rushes through your body making you see white.

"What...What was that?" You whimpered as he kissed back up to your lips, looking at you with loving eyes.

"An orgasm," He chuckled watching you as you bit down on your lip,

"I-I want more." He nodded kissing your lips softly going to kiss down your body when you pulled him back up. Running your hand down to his crotch,

"I-I want you." You pleaded with him, looking down into his eyes. He nodded as he looked at you, kissing you sweetly as he towered above you.

Your legs were spread as the tip of Changbin's cock brushed through your folds, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt you but he knew it was going to sting even for a little while.

"Please," You begged him as he lined the tip up with your entrance, sliding into you with a loud groan. His hand digging into your hips to still himself from moving too fast too soon but it felt good. You were so tight around him it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before.

"S-Shit," You hissed at the sudden sensation of fullness, biting down on your lip hard enough to draw blood.

"Are you okay?!" He asked, his voice filled with panic as he looked down at you. Nodding at him you run your fingers down his chest,

"You can move," You told him as you reached to grab his shoulder, wrapping your legs around his waist not wanting to lose the sensation of him inside of you. All that clouded your thoughts was how badly you wanted him moving in and out of you just as his finger had been.

Changbin sank all the way into you and your eyes widened moaning out his name loudly as you clenched around him with each thrust.

"F-Fuck you have no idea how good that feels Y/n." He purred in your ear as he continued to pushing and out of you at a steady pace, the head of his cock hitting that one sensitive spot that made your head spin.

"C-Changbin, don't stop." Your head rolled back as he moved a little faster inside of you, reaching one hand down between you both to rub your clit.

"So good!" You cried out as your back arched away from the mattress the tightening sensation beginning to build up once again.

"T-That feeling is back," You warned him as your eyes shot open to stare up at him, he nodded rubbing your clit faster.

"That's okay, you can let go...L-Lord knows I will." He grunted as he timed his thrusts in time with his hand on your clit.

The warm sensation from before turned into molten lava as you felt yourself cumming around him, dragging your nails into his skin as you cried out his name. Changbin's fingers dug into your hips as he grunted, letting go inside of you as you whimpered feeling something seep out of you.

Holding onto you for the rest of the night Changbin promised to wash you off in the tub in the morning, if he did it now you would only get cold again. All you wanted to do was sleep beside him with him holding onto you but the door burst open revealing Minho who had finally come to realise what he had done.

"Minho! Knock!" Changbin roared out as he covered you with the sheets so that Minho couldn't see your naked body.

"I thought-"

"You knocked her overboard? You did. I got her...Go back to bed." Minho nodded backing out of the room without another word about it with bright red cheeks.

"This will be fun to explain in the morning," Changbin chuckled as he laid back down beside you, looking at you as you took his face into your hand.

"Even more fun in the future...Taking the seas together." You whispered as you leaned up to kiss him once again, wincing as you felt a pain rush through your body at the sudden movement.

"Get some sleep," He whispered as he wrapped an arm around you, letting you get comfortable before he attempted to.

King and Queen of the seas were what you were named in every town, drawings of the two of you strewn across every posted you came into contact with for the rest of your lives. It only made the adventures you had with him and the boys all the more fun.

Tagline: @minholuvs @taestannie @sw33tnight @acciocriativity @mwitsmejk @taeechwitaa @justbangtanthingz @stillwithlix

#skz #skz x reader #skz smut #skz imagine #skz imagines #stray kids #stray kids x reader #stray kids smut #stray kids imagine #stray kids imagines #seo changbin #changbin x reader #changbin smut #changbin imagine #changbin imagines #seo changbin x reader #seo changbin smut #seo changbin imagine #seo changbin imagines

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ashesandhackles · 3 years

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Deconstructing Harry: The boy we meet in Philosopher's Stone to the man in Deathly Hallows

I have often seen fans talk about how nebulous Harry is as a character, especially in the earlier books. They can't make sense of who he is as a character and other more colourful, more actualized personalities take over our attention from any traits Harry might display. Harry becomes more defined for a lot of people OOTP onwards where he displays traits that sometimes make him unbearable or unlikable.

Harry, as we are introduced in PS, has a very little sense of self. He is narratively self deprecating or plays down his presence or skills, not that he is aware he has any. He grew up without any presence of him displayed in the house - no photos, no idea about his parents or what they look like or what really happened to them and discouraged from asking questions. Harry as we meet him is neglected, rootless about his identity and longs for escape. For him, every day is a battle against Dudley, who bullies him or Vernon, thus setting a worldview that never truly goes away: him vs adults. But just because Harry doesn't attach traits or values to self, does not mean he does not have it.

It's an effective narrative tool though - for Harry to be our eyes of the world. Only in later re-readings can we get a grasp of the traits that become more pronounced as books go on. Also, it's not surprising that Harry develops a better sense of self when he is removed from an abusive home.

Let me begin with this:

1. Harry is a fighter

One of the things that struck me in later re-readings is that how much of a fighter Harry is, from the very beginning. He will not lie down and take abuse. The narrative presents it as no big deal, because Harry doesn't assign any importance to it - it's every day life for him.

-Verbal standing up-

See his reaction to Uncle Vernon and the letter fiasco. He stands up for himself, even if it falls on deaf ears. "I want my letter - as it is mine!". Later on, in the same book, a completely befuddled 11 year old Harry stands up to Snape too, but in a politer way: "I think Hermione knows the answer. Why don't you try her?". He gets less polite with Snape as books go on. Harry's humor is something he employs liberally with Dudley when standing up to him - "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick" and we see this trait manifest into the sass we all know and love.

- Fight or flight-

He is remarkably good at "fighting himself out of tight corners" as Snape put it. And although Snape attributes it to luck and more talented friends, he is onto something about Harry's ability to worm out of tight corners. He lives moment to moment in a dangerous situation - relying on his nerve, very fast reflexes and athleticism. He is also able to notice things in an environment that will get him out of a quick pinch. You see this clearly in Department of Mysteries in Book 5 where he comes up with the idea to smash shelves, the mad idea to escape on a dragon, the ministry escape where he manipulates Runcorn's image (as he noticed how people were reacting to him) to create chaos and get the Muggleborns and the trio out, Chamber of Secrets when he instinctively understood the diary is the source of power and stabbed it.

Where does the athleticism and ability to spot dangerous situation come from? This boy has spent a decade cheeking Dudley and running away from his gang, spotting when he needs to get out of the way as "long experience had told him to be out of Uncle Vernon's arms reach" or "ducking when Aunt Petunia aimed a frying pan at his head". The instinct to see a dangerous situation develops over the course of the books in his adventures - to the point Harry unconsciously brings out his wand in Tottenham road without thinking too much about it. He is almost always wary and less quick to lower his wand.

When hiding/ escaping is not an option, Harry is not above physical fighting - despite how small and skinny he is in Book 1. Both he and Dudley fight for a chance to listen at the door when letter first arrives for Harry. Dudley wins the fight. Later on, Harry jumps Uncle Vernon from behind and hangs on to his neck to get his letter. He even does the same thing to the troll in the same book. ( Then over the course of series, we see him beat up Sirius in Book 3, Malfoy in Book 5, strangle Mundungus in Book 6 - all of these are related to his fury over the dead, so different context. But still).

- Manipulation/ Cunning-

11 year old Harry even tries sneakily - waking up early to get his letter (unfortunately didn't work). The other sneaky methods he has employed throughout the series is - not telling Dursleys at end of PS that he is not allowed magic at home, threatens Dudley with it in COS, not telling them Sirius is innocent to play up the threat of a murderous godfather to keep them accountable, and also the smooth way he negotiates with Uncle Vernon for Hogsmeade letter. ("Well it will be hard work, pretending to aunt Marge that I go to St Whatsits" ,"Knocking the stuffing out of me won't make Aunt Marge forget what I could tell her"). He similarly displays his negotiation and playing to what he knows about people with Slughorn in Book 6, Pettigrew in Book 7.

The scene with Slughorn is disturbing, with Harry coercing a drunk Slughorn to give up his memory. You can argue that this is the influence of Felix Felicis, but I think the potion acted more as facilitation. The disturbing way Harry brings up his mother's murder to unnerve Slughorn is his own doing. ("Voldemort stepped over my father's body towards mum" "I forgot - you liked her, didn't you?"). Again, in a life threatening situation, Harry plays to Pettigrew's latent guilt: "You are going to kill me? After I saved your life? You owe me Wormtail!"

2. Relational justice over abstract justice

Harry's concept of justice is relational and based on his high empathy for the underdog. He notices power dynamic in a situation and empathises with the victim. This is in contrast to Hermione, who has more abstract, bigger picture view of justice. It's no wonder that Hermione is the one who is the most political of the three.

His high empathy for the underdog and needing to stand up for them is because he feels responsiblility that no one should go through what he went through. He stands up for Neville in PS and encourages him to stand up for himself. When he sees his father bullying Snape, it is not about an abstract "this is wrong behavior". Harry goes further: "Harry knew what it felt like to be taunted among a circle of onlookers" , Harry focuses on young Snape's mismatched clothes because he himself knows what it's like to wear clothes that are not yours or ones that make you look ridiculous. His empathy extends to Voldemort too - understanding why he may not want to go back to his orphanage and desire to be in Hogwarts, wondering why Merope wouldn't stay alive for her son, his fixation with Voldemort's maimed soul in King's Cross chapter and later asking Voldemort to feel remorse (" I have seen what you will become otherwise"). Even his reaction to Dobby in COS - "Can't anyone help you? Can't I?" when Dobby talks about his slavery. Hermione is usually seeing the bigger picture, Harry sees the individual.

3. Pathological mistrust of adults

He is less likely of the trio to take an adult at their words or be assured by them when they say they are taking care of things. He has learnt, from a very young age, that he is always expected to take care of himself. And the times he does take things to adult, they consistently disappoint him - by patronising him or acting like he is a child, neither of which he has tolerance for or appreciates. This is why he takes to Sirius and Lupin, who exhibit neither of these communication patterns. In some ways, Mr Weasley too.

Umbridge's abuse of him for him is framed as a battle of wills between her and him, as if he is an equal. And he loses if he complains - "not giving her a satisfaction of knowing she got to me". Harry's worldview has always been - adult vs him.

His inability to trust adults even extends to the ability of adults he likes to look after themselves. While Sirius is understandably a wreck in OOTP, he has by and large followed Dumbledore's orders. This doesn't register with Harry (Ron points it out: "Sirius listens to Dumbledore even though he doesn't like what he hears") and Harry's fears about Sirius, excaberated by Sirius's tendency for recklessness, comes to play.

He even showed similar distrust in Lupin's judgement in taking a potion from Snape in POA ("Harry felt the urge to knock the goblet out of Lupin's hands" and tries to hint at Lupin that Snape will "do anything" for DADA job). And he shows this once again with the most magically powerful wizard he knows - Dumbledore. ("if I tell you to abandon me and save yourself, you must do so". Dumbledore has to insist on this before Harry nods reluctantly. It's also Dumbledore's wording, but this is a wizard Harry feels safe with almost entirely because of his power - and yet Harry cannot obey an order like this without reluctance). It's not about Harry's own ability to take care of them - he just innately cannot leave people to it.

4. Humor as a value and coping mechanism

Harry has an established coping mechanism by the time we are introduced to him - quip in the face of danger/ dark humor. There are repeated instances of Harry amusing himself with snarky comments in his head when things are really bad for him. Like in PS, when they are in the hut, Harry wonders if the roof will fall in and then thought that if it did fall in, he might be warmer. In the earlier books (before his growth), he seems to value Ron over Hermione simply because he is more "fun". Harry enjoys being around funny people like Ron, Weasley twins, later Ginny simply because there is some dark stuff happening with him and he needs "fun" people for semblance of normalcy, escape. In fact, this desire is so strong, he attaches it to his romantic relationships: Ginny is a "blissful oblivion" and times with her are "something out of someone else's life". His relationship with Cho failed because her coping mechanism is discussing her trauma and Harry's is escaping it.

-dealing with conflict with people he likes, small digression-

A part of his growing up in later books includes valuing Hermione as much he values Ron and we see it in display in HBP, where he is more willing to stand up for her to Ron (something he kind of did more quietly before in POA - "can't you give her a break?" ) and also get confrontational with her instead of using Ron as a buffer between them to fend off her more boisterous/ bossy tendencies. ("let him make up his mind" "skip the lecture" "don't nag" - Ron took the heat in earlier books. In HBP, Harry is more willing to be irritable with her in a day-to-day interaction - "I hope you enjoy yourself" he tells Hermione when she states her intention to investigate Half Blood Prince. Or when she tests the book - "Finished? Or do you want to see if it does backflips?" "Do you have rub it in Hermione, how do you think I feel now?" at the end of HBP. ) In OOTP, his best method to deal with her when she bothers him was lying, avoiding her nagging and if that doesn't work, explode and treat her to display of his temper. There is more to explore here, of course - even with regard to how he deals with Mrs Weasley in Book 4, 5 and the difference of him hugging her in Book 7.

5. Fascination with the dead/ a passive death wish

Harry feels remarkably little sense of betrayal knowing that he was set up to die by Dumbledore. His self sacrificing streak is rooted in his love, yes, but I also think Harry is a little bit too fascinated by death, not surprising considering most people he loved are dead. Him wanting the resurrection stone in DH, him obsessively spending time at Mirror of Erised (to the point he feels feverish and Ron thinking he looks strange) until Dumbledore stops him, him almost wanting to fail to learn a Patronus because he wants to hear his parents voice, the hearing of whispering voices in the Veil in OOTP which only Luna could hear apart from him, the scene at the grave where he almost wishes he was "lying under the snow" with his parents, the possession scene in the book of OOTP has him wishing to die so he can be with Sirius. You can almost argue the Harry has, in many moments, shown raw desire of death. In fact, him choosing to let go of the stone and not go looking for it is a big character decision for him.

I also want to address Harry's temper and how that develops over course of series, the implications of understanding the people he loved and put on pedestal are flawed - but I am afraid this post is already way too long. So I will leave that for some time later.

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eligaxy · 3 years

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Wind

☆ℜ𝔢𝔩𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰𝔥𝔦𝔭 : Venti x gn!Reader

☆𝔚𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 : near death experience, you’re confused asf about everything, bad writing cause i suck, spoilers for the we will be reunited quest!! And also for venti’s backstory, venti is serious for once (yes it’s a legitimate warning🤚)

☆𝔊𝔢𝔫𝔯𝔢 : Some angst, some fluff? Idk bye🤨

☆𝔖𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶 : "It's okay, it's over now" he kneeled to be at your level, his arms still wrapped around you, and you didn't have the energy to fight your urge of nuzzling into him. "I'll always be here for you, wherever there is wind, remember I'm here too. You only need to ask." (2.8k words)

♪𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢𝔰 : i’m an idiot simp, i did this in one sitting and half asleep, english isnt my first language BLA BLA IM SORRY FOR MY POOR WRITING BUT HAVE THIS

basically you don’t know if you can trust venti or not, head says no, heart screams yes

Also, I was listening to stormterror’s lair ost while writing it, just because its fucking amazing, you might wanna listen to it too

I’m nervous to post this?/&:! This is the second fic i’ve ever finished in my whole life

i love venti and he’s hot in his god outfit i don’t make the rules

KAY ENJOY <3

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"Please, anybody... Just help me."

Saying you were exhausted would have been an understatement. After reuniting with your sibling, you had been frantically searching for clues about khaenri'ah and ways to Inazuma. With no luck, you couldn't find any traces of Dainsleif or of your twin. The ruins had been sealed and you had no idea what happened to the inverted statue or the corpse you had found there. Desperately, you clung into every little information you had, you would have turned every rock on this archon damned continent if you had to, which is what led you into those ruins near Guilli plains.

Walking along the destroyed buildings your eyes caught sight of a dandelion and you froze. You missed them so much, why couldn't they go back home with you? All you ever wanted was to be by their side why, why were they running away from you?

You remembered your travels, the moments you shared together, their protectiveness over you, the fondness in their eyes when you smiled at them. You remember the times you got hurt and healed one another with your now missing powers. You remember sleeping by their side and being grateful to the universe to let you keep your ray of sunshine everywhere with you. How ironic.

What had they meant 'once you reach the end of your journey' ? What does that even mean? Stupid twin, if they knew you were here the whole time, why hadn't they come to you? Why were they always leaving just when they were within your grasp? Why? Did they know how much you missed them and how much your heart broke when you finally saw them? Did they?

You only realized you were crying when a small gust of wind had your wet cheek react to the cold, breaking your train of thought. Wind.

The wind is everywhere, you think, free as a bird, always accompanying every citizen of this world, never truly alone. With this in mind, you resumed your exploring, slower this time.

A sigh escaped your mouth. You didn't want to admit it, but the wind did comfort you a little. Almost as if he was here. God of freedom and of the breeze, he was more a singer than a protector and you couldn't bear to think about him. Was it true? What Dain said... Did he destroy this nation? Was he the cause of the scenery that still haunted your nightmares up until 500 years later? Your brain simply couldn't accept that Venti, your Venti, you catch yourself thinking, could have made such an act of wrath. He was the epitome of freedom, why would he take the very thing he based all of his existence on from mere mortals? Barbatos simply couldn't be afraid of being overpowered, he didn't even care about power. All he wanted was freedom and happiness for his people. Surley this couldn't be right?

But then again, who were you to deny the wipe out of an entire nation? The gods did it. They were afraid that Celestia would be overthrown by the pride of humankind, the destruction of khaenri'ah by divine beings was a fact. There was no misunderstanding about this. That was the one thing you were sure of. So why did you feel like crying even more now?

The mere thought of a gentle soul such as Venti committing innocent people to an eternity of suffering didn't sit right with you. Even when his dearest friend Dvalin had turned against him, he didn't try to stop him, didn't even ask the dragon to save him. He healed and helped him, gave him a choice.

'What is freedom if demanded of you by a god?' was the same person that asked this question the same one who committed mass murder? Genocide?

Did the little wine-lover bard you had grown fond of destroy all hopes and light your kin had?

You remember that night when he freed Stanley from his burden, freed his and his friends' spirits. You had marveled at his action, in that instant he was a god, and he definitely hadn't struck you as a murderer. You remember that look of silent pain and grief in his eyes when he sang the tales of the nameless bard he had taken the appearance of. You knew he trusted you enough to share his story, something so personal, you could almost feel the war that took down the tyrant of Mond. Oh how much you cherished that evening, treating him to some well deserved dandelion wine afterwards, his favorite, and asking him to sing you more about the time where was nothing but the spirit of a breeze.

Your heart broke a little, remembering his rosy cheeks and drunk smile, you wish you could talk to him, ask him what happened. What did he do, was he really as dangerous as you had been told? If so, then why did you feel so good around him? Why did you feel like you could give hi-

You stopped walking upon seeing a ruin guard up ahead in the distance. You're so stupid, you think. Feeling this way is not gonna get you anywhere, especially with how the bard had been missing for a few weeks now. Ever since you had last seen your sibling.

Where was he, where was he wandering off to? You walk towards the disabled ruin guard, not really paying any mind to it, still thinking about the god you longed to meet with. If you could see him, what would you even say? Would he even answer your questions? Why did your stomach feel so light and funny when you thought about seeing him, why aren't you angrier?

You're almost at the killing machine's level now, so lost in your thought you don't notice the five other similar robots hidden behind a wall next to it. You notice them only when it's too late and you've already turned them on while thinking about examining them and collecting their serial numbers. When you hear the familiar tick of the mechanism turning on, you internally panic and think about running away only to calm down moments later and think to yourself that you can simply beat it and take what you came here for. Even if you are emotionally and physically tired, you can manage, you think.

That was before hearing five other consecutive ticks right after it, and all around you.

Turning around, your gaze falls upon the small army of field tillers. Fuck.

Paimon wasn't with you today, you had asked for some time alone which she hesitantly accepted, so you couldn't ask her to go fetch help. You would have been worried if you had all your capacities but with the state you were in, you were wondering how you were going to survive this fight. You were alone, none of your companions with you, and deeply weakened by the busy day you had and the few hours of sleep you had managed to steal away from the night. Was it today you would meet your doom, with all your questions and uncertainties unanswered?

You tried your best to fight with the strength you had left, but quickly grew desperate after what felt like hours of efforts to swing your blade and being able to only take one monster down out of the six. It didn't help that you got injured along the way, their blows becoming harder and harder to dodge. After being thrown on the grown for the third time, you understood you had at least two broken ribs and that your shaking legs would soon fail you as well.

Fear crept upon you, you would die here today, alone. Alone. You couldn't talk to your sibling after all, couldn't understand. You didn't even get to talk to him one last time. Him... You would die without the knowledge of the truth about your bard. You would die alone. You didn't want that, you couldn't look death straight in the eye.

"Please, anybody... Just help me."

In Mondstadt, there was a musician, a weird singer everyone had heard about at least once. He lived off of his songs and was mostly known for having a great story-telling and being an alcoholic.

The number of people who knew the true nature of his identity were few and he was perfectly content with that. He didn't wish to be a god anymore, his gnosis had been taken away anyway and it's not like he had any power over the city of wind nowadays. Even if his people still worshipped him as Barbatos, it didn't sit right with him to be called a god anymore. It actually never did, he thinks to himself with a smile, he never really took any responsibilities that came with the divine title which is why he was so weak today. But it didn't matter to him, his smile turns into a soft giggle.

Sitting on a mill that was once born from his steps he looks fondly over the city he founded. Even if they were godless, the citizens were still thriving and free. He cared oh so very deeply about the place even if he rarely, if not never, showed the affection within his heart. He remembers the day he grew strong enough to dispel the storms over his actual Mondstadt, and made the weather gentle enough so that there was no need for fireplaces. Nowadays, he loves watching birds nest into the chimney tops and seeing them found their own home. It gave him a sense of belonging like no other, not above his people, but walking among them and watching them nest into this cocoon he created. He was proud of what happened to his land and would do it all over again if he had to.

Especially since it led to him meeting you. This thought doesn't catch him off guard, you often roamed around in his mind after all, and it's not like he didn't write at least three songs about you and your feat, your smile, your courage...

Ah there he goes again, rambling about you in a whisper. He turns around to the statue of him his people erected in his honor, chuckling at how they never made the connection with his signature braids. His, but not really his, since he had stolen this form from someone who was much more deserving of this power than him. Seeing his friend being honored with the statues of the seven around the land made him happy, he hoped that it was a good enough thank you gift in return for everything that the bard whom he couldn't even remember the name of anymore did for him.

Upon gazing at the statue, he remembered telling you of his long gone friend. It was the first time he had talked about him to someone else, he didn't even mention it to Venessa, she who made him believe in himself again. He could ask himself why, but he simply knew that you had something different, more than meets the eye. Perhaps it was because you weren't from Teyvat, or perhaps it was just you being as simple as your natural self but he was simply and utterly captivated by your being. You inspired him to no end, at first he thought it was because he had never met someone like you and he loved new things! But as time grew and he got to know you, he understood quickly the meaning and depth of his passions. He thought of it with a light chuckle, content with your presence alone. He really did need and want you around.

So why did he purposely avoid you like the plague?

The wind had brought to his ears that you had met with Dainsleif.

And your twin.

His first reaction was to search for you, talk to you, he wanted to be here to know what happened! You had searched so long, he couldn't contain himself, still listening to what the wind told him, he started running with excitement but... But wait, Dainsleif was... He told you what?

Oh.

So you heard about Khaenri'ah. He had stopped dead in his tracks and turned back, only sending a warm current of wind your way, hugging you from afar.

He wasn't ready to talk about this yet, not ready to face you and absolutely not ready to answer your questions. He was a coward, he thought, running away like that but what else could he do, really. It was only natural for him to be as uncatchable as air.

A sorry excuse to avoid the fact that even if his past had marvelous story like the one of the nameless bard, it also had its share of darkness, something he wasn't ready to dive back into. Especially not now when your arrival has been shaking this world up like it hasn't been since at least 500 years.

But oh, how he longed to see your face or to hear your voice. So he asked a breeze to report to him what you were up to, and where you were. Just in case! he tells himself, what if you needed help ehe? But he knows you're competent and you won't need the help of a weakling coward like him anytime soon. Or so he thought.

Because when the breeze only gives him a few words back, his blood runs cold.

"Please, anybody... Just help me."

As you murmured these words in your desperate state, not really for anyone but yourself as a last resort, a prayer of some sort, you tried to stand by leaning yourself on your sword and failing miserably. You didn't dare look up as you heard the loud footsteps of the metal giants coming your way. It was over, and you barely managed to accept it.

As you rested your forehead against the cold handle of your sword, you closed your eyes, tears starting to make their ways out of your closed eyelids. All you could feel was remorse.

A soft breeze moved your hair slightly and your chest felt like a black hole had taken place where your heart used to be, regretting to not have been able to meet him under the tree at Windrise one last time.

The breeze quickly grew stronger, until it felt unnatural and you looked up from the ground, only to close your eyes again immediately when you realized the wind was too powerful for you to keep them open. If you had struggled to see though, you would have been blinded by the white light that soon illuminated the whole ruins. You didn't have enough time to register the situation when you felt a hand being laid atop your shoulder, snaking around your collarbones and pulling you back into... nothing? Another arm circled your weak form and a voice you immediately recognized said

"I've dealt with things worse than you, now crumble."

You realized that if you couldn't feel a chest behind you while still being embraced by his arms, it was because he was floating above you, and not standing behind you. A look in his direction confirmed your suspicions but what stunned you wasn't the fact that he was flying, but the attire he wore. Barely covering his body, a white set made of materials that seemed like clouds and liquid gold contrasted perfectly with his regular green clothes. His hair was glowing green and his eyes that were focused on the ruin guards up ahead had a marvelous shine that you had never seen before. He had that same aura he did the night he freed Stanley, but there was also something different about the way his hands gripped you a little too tightly or the way his voice sounded.

"Venti.." You muttered his name, relief and affection flooding you all at once, in his presence you felt as if nothing bad could happen to you. How foolish could you be, just a few hours ago you were speculating wether or not he had wiped out an entire civilisation and now here you were, being saved by him and feeling safer than you had in months.

"Close your eyes, I don't want give you a headache" he said, slowly floating legs first towards the ground. His unusually serious voice surprised you (and him) but you did as he told you. Letting go of your sword and leaning back into him, you let him deal with the monsters ahead of you.

"It's okay, it's over now" he kneeled to be at your level, his arms still wrapped around you, and you didn't have the energy to fight your urge of nuzzling into him. "I'll always be here for you, wherever there is wind, remember I'm here too. You only need to ask."

Being protected by a god really didn't feel that bad. Especially when you were in love with said god.

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Thank you so much for reading whatever this is until the end :’)

Don’t hesitate to comment or reblog, tysm <3

Ps: venti loves u and so do i do pls take care of urself mwah

#genshin impact x reader #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact #genshin impact angst #genshin impact scenario #venti x reader #venti x traveler #venti x lumine #venti x aether #el writes♡

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