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theabominableblogger · 2 years

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“The Legend of Vox Machina” S1E10-12 Reaction

Hey, you know how I said I knew about the Briarwood Arc? Turns out that was a freaking lie.

AN: I managed to record my reactions to this episode and hopefully I can transcribe what I said into this post.

"Depths of Deceit"

Already I am disappointed with the Amazon description. Great job, Percy. Phenomenal job.

*horrified jaw drop when we transition to the flashback cold open*

*leans back in horror at Percy's torture*

*gasps when the Briarwoods bring Cassandra into the interrogation*

No! Skipping the intro- AGAIN! I wanna get into the episode!

"She's unarmed!" Some inappropriate words there, Keyleth.

"I've been with the Briarwoods for years and I [Cassandra] know next to nothing about their motives." That sounds like a lie.

He's [Percy] like a kid at the doctor's.

*gasps at the fiery cloud surrounding Percy* Ohhhhh geez!

I feel like this Percy already knows [about Orthax]. He already knows.

"As soon as this is over, I will sort it all out." No you will not.

*Percy ties Anna's stump and hand together* Oh that's mean.

Is it [the ziggurat] under the Sun Tree?

*gasps when Percy finds a gun prototype in Ripley's bag*

"You're at the bottom of my list." *snaps appreciatively*

Was she [Ripley] trying to make her own gun? Is she a copycat of Percy? Is she like INTO Percy?!? Just getting a weird vibe off her.

*The citizens overtake the guards at the castle* Ohh that's cool!

"Seeing as we're two... unattached adults-" "No." *wheezes*

I have no idea how this show's gonna end.

"I warned you those vines have thorns." Yeah, Vax, it's called TIMING!

*weirded out by Ripley complementing Percy's intellect*

*Vax ignites his dagger to look at something* What's that? What's thaaat?!?

"Uncle Nathaniel?" *jaw drop*

They're really fighting... Percy's ancestors... this is so dark.

DANG CASS, THAT'S YOUR AUNT!

"Oh Grog, you are so mighty and I [Vax] am so weak." *giggles*

"Well, since you asked so nicely..." That sounds like a Travis saying.

"Well I trust you." "Funny way of showing it sometimes." :(

*The crew reach the acid pit* I don't know what any of this is...

*jaw drops when the sixth name is revealed on the gun*

*gasps when Cassandra closes the door on them*

*Vax slips under the door with the Nat 20 Acrobatics* Ohhh my God!

*gasps when Vax gets charmed again* NOOOO MAH GOD!

*rage quits out of chair* ARE YOU KIDDING ME

*jaw drops during Cassandra's monologue*

"Be a lamb, would you?" *just still in shock*

*throws pencil at laptop, up and walks away* You got to be shittin' me

"Percy, a little help?!?" Percy's not here right now.

Break it [the main pipe]!

"I'M [Grog] GOING IN!" WHAT?!?

*covers mouth in shock when Grog suffers the extra acid damage from the drainage*

"Is Captain Winky still there?" "Still hanging there, buddies." *cracks up*

*imitates Grog going back to get his clothes back on*

*3D camera transition to the Briarwoods and enthralled* OK, all right, magic carpet ride, let's go

"We're spoiled for choice." *truly horrified look*

*head bangs to end credit music*

"Whispers at the Ziggurat"

Is that a stopwatch? Or a compass [that Delilah carries]?

"The Briarwoods must be trying to help him [the Whispered One]." Well they said it was too early, right? So it couldn't have happened.

*leans back for space when Sylas and Delilah start making out* OK, OK, all right. Temple's probably not a great place for... that.

Meanwhile Vax and Cassandra's probably like... *claps awkwardly* "Do we say anything? Do we intervene? Do we have to watch?"

*imitates Grog's impatient finger drumming* That's awesome animation

*jaw drops when Orthax starts influencing Percy*

*horrified gasp when Cassandra pulls down her collar to reveal old vampire bites*

*gasps when Vex tackles Vax off the stairs*

*gasps when Sylas goes after Keyleth*

*gasps when Pike starts flickering out*

*Scanlan gets hit by Delilah's Silence spell* Ooh!

*More Vex and Vax fighting* Let's go guys! Let's go Vax!

*Percy and Cassandra battle* Knock her out! Knock her out!

Oh no, no no no no no no!

*Pike and Sylas battle* How... what- how is this animation so good?

*chuckles at Scanlan's d10 heart eyes at Pike saving his butt*

*Percy points the gun at Cassandra's eye* Oh no no no no no!

*Shot of Sylas going after Cassandra through Percy's glasses* Oh the glasses effect! Oh my God! Yes!

Keyleth! Keyleth! Get your butt up! Please please please!

*gasps when Vax uses Sneak Attack on Vex*

*just completely shocked by everything happening on screen*

"Would-you-stop-hitting me?!?" *gasps*

"My turn." Let's go Pike! LET'S GO PIKE!

*Sylas tries going after Keyleth* Oh no no no no!

"How about you and me [Grog] go for a rematch?" You better take that sword!

"Don't try to seduce me!" What? I'm not trying to-" *wheezes*

*gasps when Grog nails Sylas in the abdomen with his axe* Dude, you better rage!

*Keyleth gathers power from the Sun Tree for the spell Sunbeam* Oh my God!

*jaw drop when Scanlan silences Delilah*

*puts hand on chest in shock during the entire sequence*

"Sylas... I broke the world for us." :0

What's this? What's all this? I'm actually too much in shock to say anything right now. I'm actually losing my voice.

She's trying to bring him back... he's gonna say no!

Nothing's gonna happen, isn't it?

"Move aside!" Percy, oh my God, no nononono!

*Percy tries attacking Delilah* Mmm mmm please don't!

It's not gonna work, right? She said it was too early.

*gasps when Vex nails Delilah in the shoulder with an arrow*

*gasps when Keyleth gets hit with Delilah's spell instead of Vex*

WHAT- is happening? What is happening?!?

Yeah, it didn't work, did it? It didn't work.

*jaw drops when Percy shoots Delilah like six times in the back*

*gasps in horror when Pike flickers out*

NO NO NO you get back in there, you get back in there, I swear to God, get back in there! Get back in there!

*Black spinning orb of death* What is that? What is this? I don't want this!

*flips off screen at end credits* [Expletive] you.

"The Darkness Within"

The final episode I guess! What are we doing?!? I don't know! What are we doing?!?

It's a half hour long... *gasps* What are we doing?!?

*Vex finds an elixir for Keyleth* You just have that on you, OK!

Is that a Globe of Invulnerability? Is that why nothing's working? It's canceling all the magical effects?

*gasps when the De Rolos drag Delilah out of the temple by the arm and hair*

*gasps when Grog finds the sword* Take the sword!

Wait Vax took the care of putting her circlet back on! *takes off glasses and rubs eyes*

"There's no more." Great.

*just utterly sad when Vax kisses Keyleth's hand while crying*

NOO! We don't even have an opening??! Are you kidding me?!? I'm gonna cry because of that!

*gasps* The components!

*angrily gets out of chair and points at screen* VAX YOUKNOWWHATTODO! VAX!

"C'mon, work! Work!" He's not a healer; it won't work! Oh my Godd...

"He denied me. Abandoned me." "I'll gladly send you to him." *quietly* Oh my God...

IS HE SMILING UNDER THAT?!?

"I'll shatter your ankles for my sister Vesper. Your hands belong to Julius. Each de Rolo will have their pound of flesh until I flay the skin from what's left of you." Jesus Christ!

*Orthax knocks Scanlan away* GIT-

"Something has possession of you." "And we are better for it." :O

*gasps when Keyleth wakes up*

"Darling... take off the mask." :O

*takes off glasses and covers mouth in heartbreak when Percy starts crying*

*gasps when Percy manages to put the gun under his chin*

*Orthax reveals himself outside of Percy* WhhhhaaaTt?!?

"She belongs to me!" Jesus, who voices Orthax? Is that Taliesin and somebody else?

AN: I actually face planted on my desk when I found out that it's Matt Mercer

*very confused, shocked laughter when Percy goes through his traumatized mind palace*

Ohhh my God!

Are we gonna see the dinner?

Jesus, this imagery! Oh my God! Who wrote this episode? Just... my love!

"I gave you the means for revenge and you gave me souls to feast upon!" Oh good God!

You better make the rest of this campaign, Amazon, or I swear to God I will find you and kill you

*gasps when Orthax adds the members of Vox Machina to the List*

*THE AMAZING SHOT OF PERCY AND ORTHAX* Jesus Christ! Oh my God! And we're not even halfway through the episode!

*gasps when Percy shoots his own hand*

"Well that was the most [expletive] up thing I've ever seen." *incoherent cries of agreements*

*gasps when Cassandra kills Delilah mid villain monologue*

*gasps when Scanlan yeets the gun into the acid pit*

*very excitedly points at screen and badly raps about Scanlan being right*

Jesus, we're not even done with the episode yet.

*Vox Machina walks through the crowd of rebels* Yeah we gotta go home byyeeeee!

"These people just survived the apocalypse, Scanlan. They don't want your gonorrhea." *absolutely loses it wheezing*

"You are the true heir to Whitestone." "But I betrayed them." Absolutely not. 100 percent, I agree with Cass- she needs to go to a therapist! She needs to go to a therapist for like years!

"We live as long as Whitestone lives." Percy, both of you have trauma!

"I'm... gonna walk away." *wheezes*

*slow jaw drop as someone just sucked into the orb of death*

"It's not dangerous." *very panicked* Yeah haha! No way! No way! We're great!

*definitely notices Keyleth's probable bisexual awakening when Vex puts her hand on the former's shoulder*

That is the happiest I've ever seen Percy this entire show.

God that imagery is gorgeous!

"Our legend shall be told... in song!" Oh no

God Cloudtop looks so pretty!

*snaps appreciatively at Gilmore magically popping his collar for Vax*

Man Gilmore's gonna come in clutch for the next season

*slow jaw drop when Vex's Primeval Awareness goes off*

Oh my God... oh my God...

*utter shock when the Chroma Conclave arrives to wreck shit up*

Nooo...

*actually slaps knees hard enough to bruise from shock when the show ends*

*up and walks away*

When is Season 2?

#purvan's reaction post stolen for the ages #the blogger reacts #the legend of vox machina #tlovm spoilers #*sings* i think i've seen this film before AND I DIDN'T LIKE THE ENDING #someone make a 'and i walk away' montage for me please and thank you

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP

Sirius cradled the book in his hands for a moment, a curiously contemplative look on his face, pretending he couldn't hear James mumbling under his breath, "he got to read about Harry's Championship game last year- can't believe he gets all the good ones."

Sirius, unbelievably, didn't even hesitate as he gave the book a toss back and said, "knock yourself out Prongs."

James caught it with fumbling fingers and was still blinking in shock at his best friend, causing Sirius to smirk all the wider as he shrugged and said, "what, I'm not going to argue the point. You're right, I got a whole Quidditch game where Harry won, you should get the lesser of them with just some stupid World Cup."

James couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at him for the picking, he knew reverse psychology when he heard it, but it wasn't going to work! Sirius had given this up, and he wasn't getting it back!

They joined the throng of people heading into the trail, every camper on premises shouting, singing, and causing the air itself to fill with excitement.

Lily more than agreed. She wasn't even fond of the sport and she held an ever growing smile on her face, all the boys in the room acting like they were on a sugar high they were so excited to be hearing about this. It had certainly been built up enough.

Harry couldn't wipe a smile off his face as they made it through the forest, and wound up in the shadows of the largest stadium Harry had ever seen. It was solid gold and so large he could imagine several whole cathedrals fitting inside. Mr. Weasley noticed the look of awe on Harry's face and happily said it seated a hundred thousand!

"And gets sold out every year," Remus added on, all of them also grinning at the look now back on Harry's face.

They made their way to one of the entrances where a cheerful woman inspected their tickets and informed them they were in prime seats.

"Top Box!" Sirius all but screamed in remembered excitement!

To get to the Top Box, she informed Arthur all he had to do was climb as high as they could go through the stairwell.

Remus once again couldn't help but think 'did everyone in the world know Arthur' but he was too busy laughing that James was half yelling as he read with overflowing enjoyment so he didn't bother.

They hit the stairs, watching as people slowly trickled out around them to their seats, until finally they found their place where only twenty chairs were available. The view was spectacular, perfectly positioned between the two goal posts. The field below was of the brightest green, the stands looked more like dots from this position, and directly across from them was a backboard where advertisements were currently being scrawled across.

Harry's eyes kept getting wider the more he remembered that place, thinking it nearly put the Hogwarts Quidditch field to shame with its massiveness, something he never would have believed possible before this moment.

James and Sirius, having only attended one themselves previously, were flashing grins at each other in remember exuberance of how that match had gone, having always wanted to take their kids one day, and getting to hear this play out through Harry now the closest they'd yet got to that dream, so this was practically wish fulfillment to them!

Remus and Lily had never gone to one, and the immense size and splendor of this spectacle was actually starting to blow their mind.

Harry only watched a few before he began inspecting his own area more closely, as he and his group filled in the first row. Almost directly behind him, he instead spotted a tiny little creature.

Harry did a double take at that, his mind caught off guard by the sudden unexpected visit he thought he was getting from, "Dobby?"

"What?" The others squawked in surprise.

Harry was frowning in puzzled confusion, placing his hand to his temple in agitation as the moment left him, and he was left floundering to explain. "I, I'm not sure. Just, looking around, thought I spotted him." He was still grimacing, so James decided to keep reading to clarify an answer.

Its face was buried in its hands, but it still had large bat like ears and was wearing a tea towel for clothes, all giving Harry a strong remembrance of Dobby.

The fact that Harry thought this twice didn't necessarily mean he was right, he would have thought the same thing twice in a row with his memories being replenished in the style they were. It would definitely be something that needed to be explained if it was Dobby, since they hadn't heard of the little guy for over a year now, in Harry's time.

It glanced up at the name, and the image was ruined as Harry instead found large brown eyes and a squashed button nose.

"Not Dobby then," Sirius stated.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Remus snorted.

"You're welcome, Lieutenant Canis,*" Sirius shot back.

That wasn't Dobby, but it was a house-elf like Dobby had been.

"Had been?" Lily giggled. "You mean is, or was in that instance."

Harry rolled his eyes, he wasn't the one who'd written this down.

Dobby used to be enslaved to the Malfoy family before Harry had tricked them into releasing him. The little one in front of him now squeaked Dobby's name in surprise in an even higher pitch then Dobby's tone, and though it was hard to tell, Harry hazard a guess this one was female. Ron and Hermione looked around in surprise as well, never having met Dobby themselves, but having heard of him through Harry.

"Huh, never realized that before," James muttered randomly, completely unconcerned now that it wasn't Dobby and wanting to get back to the Cup!

Even Mr. Weasley looked around in interest.

"Did you tell him about Dobby?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Not directly," Harry shrugged, "but maybe Ron did, or the voice just got him curious. It did stick out."

Harry apologized for the confusion, but the elf squeaked back that she knew of Dobby.

Lily started humming 'It's a Small World After All' under her breath in surprise, but since this was one of the least strangest or coincidental things that had happened to Harry, she didn't mention it.

She still had her face half buried in her fingers, looking anywhere but at the open space in front of them as she greeted that her name was Winky, then deduced that he was Harry Potter.

"Brilliant deduction skills on this one," Sirius grumbled under his breath, not having appreciated one bit the last elf Harry had to deal with, hoping this one wouldn't have anything at all to do with his pup.

When Harry agreed he was, Winky explained that Dobby spoke of Harry Potter all the time. Harry asked how he was doing, and Winky sighed in disappointment, saying freedom wasn't doing him any favors.

"Has she ever met the Malfoy's," Remus demanded in disgust. "I think she should hold that to herself until otherwise."

Harry asked if he was okay, and Winky explained that his newfound freedom was going to his head. He was looking for a new position, but no one would take him, because he wanted to be paid now.

By the stunned look of the others, it didn't take much for Harry to ascertain, "so that's weird then."

"Absolutely," James nodded, his mind actually derailed, partially enough his tone wasn't as high pitched as Winky's from excitement at least. "Never heard of a thing like that."

"I think it's cute," Lily shrugged, a small frown still on her face at the thought of that elf. "I'd take him up on that offer in a heartbeat."

"Let's hope you're not the only one," Remus shrugged.

Harry glanced at Sirius, who he'd noticed had stayed absent, and couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. Sirius had made it perfectly clear he certainly wasn't fond of elves, what would he think of this? He said nothing though, and Harry was certain if he really cared he would have, so Harry didn't bring it up.

Harry asked why shouldn't he be paid? Winky explained that only a tainted elf would want such a thing, elves took pride in their work and Dobby was shaming their kind by going round like this! If he kept up like he was, he'd wind up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical creatures.

"That would be a first I'm sure," Remus muttered.

Harry was frowning now as he said he was glad to hear Dobby was trying to have some fun, but Winky said back stoutly that house-elves weren't meant to have fun.

Sirius watched Harry and Lily start to look rather confused and upset by this, so he groused, "This one's starting to depress me as much as the last one, can't she just let it go?" with an eye roll. Personally, he didn't hate Dobby as much as he initially had, not after he'd at least tried to save Harry, been abused by the Malfoy's for years, and Harry now considered him a friend. He still wasn't sure what Harry and Lily's big fuss about them were though. This little Winky was acting the way any other elf would.

They do what they're told and that's that. She then explained that though she was terrified of heights, her master had told her to come save his seat, and that's what she was doing.

"Ooh, that's terrible," Lily half cooed, half looked like she was going to start scolding any second. "That wizard couldn't have sent up anyone else, their friend or anything, instead of the elf he knows is afraid of heights."

"He might not know," James offered, "not to many wizards bother to get to know the likes and dislikes of their elves."

"And I doubt she'd inform him," Sirius nodded in agreement.

"It's odd enough to bring your elf to this type of thing," Remus shrugged, looking to break up Lily's agitated face that James hardly sounded more concerned about this then Sirius. "So I'm sure there was some reason." 'Hope the Malfoy's didn't get another one' he privately added in his head, thinking that wouldn't go down well with anyone.

He then looked to James to keep going, which he happily did, thinking they were getting way too worked up over an elf.

Harry was frowning in sorrow now as he asked why her master would do that if he knew she was afraid of heights? Winky explained again that she'd been asked to save a seat, as her master was too busy to come just yet, gesturing slightly to the empty chair beside her.

Harry felt like a tap dancer was running up his spine all of a sudden. Something, there was something right there...his body gave a great shudder of protest at his prolonging on trying to think on this for even a second, and he let lose a great gasp of surprise before he sagged back into the couch and glared balefully around the room in agitation, muttering the usual 'sorry, memories, nothing.'

The other's did not look happy, in fact they were getting pretty concerned at how often Harry was doing that even before he went to school this time, but what could they do?

Winky didn't want to be up here, but she was doing as she was told like a good elf. She gave one last terrified whimper at the edge of their box, then buried her face in her hands again. Harry turned back to talk to his friends, Ron asking if all house-elves acted like that?

Sirius suddenly gasped, and looked likely to fall off the couch, causing the others to jump in concern as he turned a stunned look to Harry and demanded, "I've just realized, you haven't been to the kitchens yet!"

"Err no," Harry said uneasily, still rather concerned by his overreaction.

As were the others apparently as James swatted at him and snapped, "you almost gave me a heart attack! Of course he hasn't you dolt, we would have heard about that."

"But, he's entering his fourth year," Sirius added on, looking from James to Remus and back like they were missing the biggest of pictures. "We could have walked down there blindfolded by then!"

"I'm going to strangle you," Lily told him pleasantly, "and Merlin help me I never thought I'd say this, but James get back to your game before I do."

Sirius was still eyeing Harry like he was truly concerned for his wellbeing at this slip, but James was happy to oblige.

Harry just shrugged back and said that Dobby had been weirder. Ron had lost interest already, and was instead using his omnioculars to people watch the crowd below, exclaiming in excitement when he used his rewind feature to make a man below pick his nose over and over again.

Shattering all the annoyed looks at Sirius for them to begin snickering at Ron. Sirius gave a slight pout, that's what he'd been trying to do, clearly they were being overly sensitive. Though upon reflection, after the past few days they'd had, he supposed it had been just a tad uncalled for.

Hermione was looking through her program, telling how both teams had brought a mascot that would do a small show before the game.

"The Irish always bring leprechauns," Remus quickly told Harry before he could ask.

"Bit of a bore really," Sirius nodded, "you'd think they'd try to break their stereotype."

"I do wonder what the Bulgarians will bring," Lily admitted.

Mr. Weasley had heard and quickly said that's always a fun show, both teams trying to one up each other with something native to their land.

As time kept passing, more people came into their box, and Arthur got up to shake the hand of several very important wizards.

"I really don't think Ron can call his dad's job boring anymore," James muttered, finding Arthur's presence more and more charming as this continued.

Percy kept hopping out of his seat so often he looked like he was trying to sit on a porcupine.

Causing all five of them to start snickering, that wasn't too hard to picture, especially as they could see the twins doing this to him on purpose.

When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered.

"Why's he bowing at them anyways," Lily giggled. "They're not the monarchy."**

"Trying to show off?" Remus offered with a shrug.

Looking thoroughly embarrassed with himself, he fixed his glasses and quickly retook his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry who Fudge greeted like his best friend.

"You become the stupid Boy Who Lived," Harry grumbled, "then he'll butter up to you just fine."

They had met before, and Fudge shook Harry's hand in a fatherly fashion,

James could not get that out without a hard bite to his words, it sounding all the more harsh sense his recent spike of this same feeling towards his own best friend. He didn't need some stranger acting that part as well.

asking how his summer had been, then introducing him to the Bulgarian minister in too loud tones.

"I never understood that," Remus snorted. "Talking loudly does not make them understand you any better."

"Don't ask us," Lily shrugged.

Fudge was trying to get through a language barrier, repeating his full name several times, but it wasn't until the Bulgarian caught sight of Harry's scar that he began babbling in excitement.

Harry was the only one who let out a surprised bit of laughter at that, with a rather hard edge, finding it funny his scar did a better job than the Minister. He did ponder on why he was being so harsh towards the man who hadn't really done anything to him?

Fudge sighed as he said to them that he'd been having to deal with that all day. He really needed Crouch around.

"Is he the only linguistic in the whole ministry?" Sirius snorted.

"I would have thought at least the Minister would bother to learn some for this upcoming game," Remus nodded in agreement, as he would have known he'd be meeting at least a few foreign dignitaries.

Then he noticed his house-elf was saving a seat.

"That's Crouch's elf," Lily grumbled, this not making her feel any better.

"Guess I'm not surprised," Remus shrugged, "his is as old a house as any."

Then he spotted the newcomers, Lucius

James spat out that last word in shock, which quickly turned into a haughty glare. Of course those Malfoy's would have to get the Top Box as well, Harry couldn't go five minutes without having to deal with their pompous arse! He would probably turn all sorts of jealous when he found out the Weasley's were up there with them, and they'd gotten in for free, because Arthur had done a good deed! Teach them a lesson!

There was a bit of grumbling all around from the others, but as all they could do was protest, James slogged on. He wanted to get to the game already, and hopefully ignore the existence of those particular purebloods.

his son Draco, and who must be the wife and mother.

Harry felt a flash of something he didn't quite understand as he first remembered this woman, was that warmth? Not quite as much as he'd felt about learning of Mrs. Weasley, but there was definitely something there... it was gone the moment he caught sight of his godfather.

Sirius' face gave a particularly ugly sneer at the mention of one of his relatives, having never liked Narcissa anymore than her sister Bellatrix. Both had their noses so high in the air it was a wonder they didn't drown in the rain.

She looked very much like Draco, the same platinum blonde hair, and a crinkled up nose suggesting she smelled dung close by.

"I'm sure it's the presence she's forced to live with, herself," Sirius muttered.

Mr. Malfoy greeted the Minister with a familiar handshake, and Fudge was delighted to meet Lucius' family, giving his wife Narcissa a delightful compliment and greeting Draco just as happily. Then Fudge introduced them to the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, whom he couldn't pronounce the name of, then moved on to say he knew they must know the Weasley's.

"Like he knows the bottom of his shoe," Remus grumbled, then he remembered the last time those two had met, and he cracked up laughing at the expense of Malfoy senior again. He quickly filled in the others, at least giving James back a smile as he continued.

It was not a pleasant reunion, as the last time Arthur and Lucius had been in the same room, Arthur had hit him in the face with a book during their fight.

"Which Arthur won, with brilliant irony," Sirius cackled.

"A book on toadstools, can't forget that part," James agreed.

Mr. Malfoy's eyes were cold as ice chips as he asked in the worst of slights how he'd managed to get up here, surely he hadn't sold his house, it would never collect this much money.

Harry ground his teeth together hard in frustration, knowing he couldn't have said anything at the time, but always the most agitated when people made dig's at the Weasley's like that!

Fudge, who wasn't listening,

"Pity that," Lily snapped, "as he was showing his real face right then!"

happily explained to all who were listening that Lucius was up here as his personal guest, as he'd just made a large donation to St. Mungo's.

Remus mimed retching off the side of the couch in revulsion, something they all heartily agreed with. At least it was a good cause, if for the wrong reasons.

Mr. Weasley managed to get out how nice that was of him with a strained smile.

"Sad he can't mean it," James sighed.

Lucius' eyes then landed on Hermione, who flushed at the attention, but glared back defiantly.

"That'a girl," Lily nodded with a proud smile.

Harry knew why Mr. Malfoy would look down on her like that, as Hermione was muggle-born, something that Malfoy as a pureblood

"Pure of a conscience," Sirius muttered.

found a second rate person at best.

"She won't be so second-class when she knocks your son's lights out again," Remus happily smirked.

With the Minister of Magic watching though, no one could say much more as the Malfoy's took their seats. Thankfully Bagman chose that moment to arrive, asking if they were ready to get this show on the road? Fudge agreed they were waiting on him.

James was just thanking his lucky stars this chapter hadn't tried to end right here! All this buildup, and he would have had to try and convince Harry to give up the chapter next!

Bagman pulled out his wand, used the Sonorous spell, which made his voice magnify loud enough every corner of the stadium could hear him announce the start of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!

James was pretty close to sounding like he had the same charm placed on him, making the baby wriggle uncomfortably in Sirius' lap, but then he cooed gently to his godson, which seemed to convince the baby it was all in good fun as he relaxed back into his arms.

The board across from them wiped itself clean one more time, and then sported the score, which currently read at 0 0. Then Bagman began to introduce the Bulgarian mascots, Veela.

"Uhoh," Remus said in a happy little singsong voice.

"That wasn't their brightest idea," Sirius snickered.

"But a plentiful distraction," James cackled with glee.

"What are Veela?" Harry inserted, a puzzled frown on his face, that old agitation never waning where the answer should have been.

Lily chose to explain, "they're human like girls, with a very beautiful exterior used to draw in men, sort of like land sirens. They're not quite so much to look at when they get angry though," she finished with an odd smile.

Harry was still very curious indeed, wondering at that 'human like' part. Were they like Remus, human but with a touch of something else, or like centaurs, a touch of human but mostly something else? He decided to wait it out and see for himself.

Harry began to ask what Veela were, but then he was given the answer by a group of beautiful women dancing onto the field.

Causing all four of them to crack up laughing at Harry's expense, who was now doing his best to detail every inch of the carpet, still unable to hide his bright red face.

They couldn't be fully human though, there was something to graceful about their feet, a little too much perfection in their almost glowing skin, the white hair that fanned behind them without help. Then music began, and Harry hadn't a worry in the world.

"Ah magic," Sirius said with a dreamy look in place.

"He'll do that every time these are mentioned," James snorted, "apparently he met one once when he got dragged on holiday, and it was the best night of his life."

"You're just jealous," Sirius' gray eyes were gleaming as he flashed his teeth in a wide grin at both of his friends.

"Actually, we just don't believe you," Remus shot back.

Sirius looked very much like he was going to argue, but James had already heard this so much he could have quoted both parties, so he kept going loudly over the two.

The longer they danced, the more Harry could not seem to look away, nor did he want to, as he knew that if they ever stopped the world would end.

Lily was now uncontrollably giggling, her fist pressed hard to her mouth as she easily pictured that expression on her poor unwitting son, though he in no way resembled that now. He most certainly remembered that feeling, but was not experiencing it, instead he had switched his attention and was now mentally memorizing the ceiling.

The more elaborate the routine below, Harry began to think that he should do something equally impressive right back.

"This ought to be fun," Remus' grin broadened as he finished matching Sirius' glare and instead tried to poke some fun at Harry, who was still trying to mime a statue of complete disinterest, but mostly failing.

He considered jumping from the box, but would it be good enough?

"Most impressive," James snorted, "as you would break your neck in a spectacular way." He was now more than happy Harry was in a magical box that would not allow that to happen.

Hermione's voice shot through his fog of a brain as she asked what on earth he was doing, standing on the edge like that? Ron was in a similar pose like he was about to jump off a diving board.

Some of the blood rush to his face dulled back down slightly as he realized at least he hadn't been the only one, Ron had clearly been affected by that as well, though this didn't lessen the laughter in the room one jot.

The Veela's were done now anyways, and several angry roars rose from the crowd as they went to take their seats, which Harry of course agreed with, now wondering why he had a shamrock on his shirt. He was of course on Bulgaria's side. Ron, in a similar mind set, was now tearing apart his shamrock hat.

"That's one way to win over a crowd," Remus nodded in agreement.

"Wonder how many of the Irish fell for it," Lily asked, "or do you think they all collectively bought earplugs for this occasion?"

Mr. Weasley took it away before he could do any permanent damage, reminding to let the Irish have their say. Ron clearly wasn't listening, as Hermione tutted at their side.

"Ah don't be too harsh on them," James still managed to keep a happy smirk in place at his own son's expense even as he defended, "most males, and probably some females in the crowd, can't help it."

"Ah magic," Sirius repeated, finally stopping his insistent glare at Remus and instead adopting the expression from earlier, only causing Remus to laugh harder.

Bagman took control again by announcing it was now time for the Irish mascots! At once two green comets came shooting out of nowhere, and collided, causing a rainbow to appear in the sky. Then the comets split apart again, and began circling the entire of the field, little bits of gold raining below them. Mr. Weasley happily exclaimed that they were leprechauns, while people below were scrambling under their seats to collect the Galleons.

"Those should come with warning labels," James snorted, "will disappear, do not pretend otherwise."

"That would ruin the fun," Sirius snickered.

Ron collected his own wealth when they passed over head, shoving a stack full into Harry's hands and telling him that was payback for the Omnioculars, now Harry had to buy him Christmas!

"Uhoh," Remus said in a singsong voice, "looks like Ron hasn't learned that lesson yet."

"Hopefully his dad overhears and tells," Lily shrugged, "or Hermione will tell him, or Merlin Harry will laugh it off when he realizes later."

"Least he's keeping his priorities in line," Sirius snorted.

Once the leprechauns had settled down as well, Bagman began announcing the players of Bulgaria, including; Ivanova, Zograf, Levski, Vulchanov, Volkov, and Krum! Ron began yelling repeatedly that was him, that was the Viktor Krum!

"Thank you Ron," Lily murmured under her breath, "I thought Bagman meant the other Krum."

Once the roar of approval from half of the field died down, Bagman gave the same treatment to the Irish, introducing; Connolly, Ryan, Troy, Mullet, Moran, Quigley, and Lynch! Harry gave a quick zoom in on them, and saw they were all sporting Firebolt's just like Harry's.

Sirius gave a happy little wriggle all over again at that news remembering Harry had received his own, Merlin his godson could probably go out on that field right now and rival those two professionals!

Lastly he announced the referee of the game, an impartial Chair Wizard from Egypt through the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa. Harry spotted the man through his bald head, but a mustache much like Uncle Vernon's.

James was in such a good mood he didn't even care that Harry had mentally brought up those useless slugs!

He carried a silver whistle on a chain around his neck, which he held in one hand as he placed a box down in the center of the field. He kicked it open, and the two bludgers and snitch were released, while Mostafa rose into the air with the Quaffle in hand. Harry only saw the flash of gold from the snitch for the briefest second,

James and Sirius let out surprised whistles, it was a miracle for anyone to catch a glimpse of that thing at the professional level!

then he gave a sharp whistle blast, tossed the Quaffle in the air, and the game began.

"Finally!" All four boys cheered, thinking it was high time they get this part going!

Bagman only had a second to announce each player's name as the Quaffle was passed with such intense speed between the six Chasers.

"Someone needs to take some commentary tips from Jordan," Lily muttered, finding that boy much more fun to listen to then prattling off names.

This was like no other Quidditch game Harry had ever seen before, and he wasn't missing a second as he pressed his Omnioculars so hard to his glasses they were digging into his nose.

"Worth it," Harry breathed, his eyes getting wider every second as memory's washed back over him, the speed and skill of these players making him almost breathless.

He'd never seen such skill on a broom, and Harry chose to slow the action down with his magical binoculars, as the Irish formed together a defense, Harry pressed the play by play option on his Omnioculars which helpfully flashed the message 'Hawkshead Attacking Formation' across his screen. That quickly changed to 'Porskoff Ploy' when Troy made as if to throw the Quaffle, but instead ducked underneath the oncoming Bulgarin Beater.

James could not have sounded any more excited for what he was reading if he tried! The pure bliss of listening to a Quidditch game, the awe on his son's face instead of a painful memory bothering him, it was all he'd been wanting from these books!

The ball passed a few more times, ending with Levski possessing the Quaffle, but then the crowd gave a mighty roar, and Bagman was cheering how Troy ha scored! 10-0 Ireland! Harry yelped in confusion that Levski still had the Quaffle, looking wildly around for the action!

"You're still watching in slow motion," Remus reminded, none of them taking but a moment to catch up and make the connection.

Harry gave a muttered sorry, but James just snorted and waved him off, he wasn't particularly rooting for either side, just getting to read this one truly good thing and watching Harry enjoy it!

He and his two friends still gave a hearty cheer in delight for the score, actually hoping Harry would keep it on slow down. Sure it left him a beat behind, but they adored the extra detail.

Hermione reminded from beside him that if he wasn't going to watch at normal speed, he'd be behind. Down on the field, the Veela were pouting while the leprechauns rose in the air and began laughing in delight. Furious with himself,

"After what Ron did with his slow capture," Sirius snorted, "I think we'll let you off the hook."

Harry spun it back to normal time and again listened and watched as the name game continued shooting from Bagman, results only fifteen minutes later saying 30-0 Ireland.

Lily had not thought it possible, but her husband's voice continued to rise in volume and ecstasy the longer he kept going, the thrill of the game ensuing him with as much energy as if he were out there playing himself.

The Irish crowd were going wild, but the Bulgarians wouldn't let it last long. Finally Ivanova got a goal in, and Arthur advised all of his boys to stuff their fingers in their ears real quick,

Causing all five of them to give another giggle, almost happy the Irish were so clearly winning, as clearly the Bulgarians doing the same would result in a deaf watch.

as the veela started to dance in celebration. Harry screwed up his eyes too;

"Now what good is that going to do you?" Remus snickered. "You'll miss when they stop."

"Better to short time it and keep my head on," Harry shrugged.

but peaked after a second to see the game was resuming. Bagman kept going with the name commentary, but cut himself off in exclamation. Every set of eyes in the stadium began shrieking in delight as Krum and Lynch pelted down, and Harry followed their progress with squinting eyes as he searched himself for what both players must be after, the Snitch. Hermione began screeching in fright that they were going to crash, but she was only half right. Krum pulled out of the dive in the last second, but Lynch plowed into the ground causing groans from the rest of the stadium.

"Oooh," all five of them winced in sympathy for that landing, Lily with a particularly hard wince as she couldn't help picturing that happening to her baby one of these games.

Mr. Weasley tried to call a foul, that Krum had been fainting, but Bagman only called it as a time-out as the mediwizards on hand went out to check on Lynch. Ginny was looking horror stricken as she leaned over the box, but Charlie quickly reassured he would be fine, that was just part of Krum's plan.

"Oh that's brilliant," James chirped, his eyes lighting with understanding.

"He'd make a nice Slytherin," Sirius snorted, finding that a pretty sneaky way of winning.

Harry felt a quiet laugh under his breath, somewhere deep inside him he knew Ginny didn't need anything about Quidditch explained.

Harry rewound the footage and hit play-by-play again, the screen flashing 'Wronski Defensive Feint; Dangerous Seeker Diversion'

"I love how even that warns you it's dangerous," Lily said with an obvious look at Harry, who was trying his best to ignore that look and wipe the eager smile off his face.

as Harry eyed Krum's look of intense concentration while he pulled out. Harry had never seen anything like him, Krum seemed more like he was flying without support he maneuvered so well.

"Best feeling in the world," all three Quidditch players murmured with smirks.

Harry flipped his screen back to normal and was now watching Krum in real time circling above, his eyes narrowed with concentration as he used this unimpeded time to look for the Snitch.

They may have already come to this conclusion, but while Lily and Remus could take a step back and gave appreciate snickers at such a clever diversion, the other three still found it too much like what Malfoy would do to be too impressed.

Not too much time later though, Lynch got back to his feet with praise from his side of the crowd, and mounted his Firebolt again for the game to resume. Only fifteen minutes later, and the Irish Chasers had pulled even farther ahead with the score now being 130-10.

"Wow, they really are superb," Sirius yelped.

"But Krum's clearly the better Seeker," Remus countered.

"I think the twins were dead on with their bet," James nodded in agreement. "It all boils down to if the Irish can pull ahead enough that Krum's capture won't mean anything."

"Lynch could still pull it off," Sirius countered with a calculating look, trying to take what little knowledge he had of the player and say, "one knock out doesn't mean he's done for."

Lily cleared her throat loudly when both Remus and Harry looked likely to jump in, then mutely pointed to the book with an obvious look. James mumbled a bit but agreed.

Bulgaria wasn't taking this lightly, now resorting in much dirtier methods to keep the Quaffle on their side, until finally Mostafa called a foul for excessive use of elbows, cobbing.

"What a little gnat," Sirius managed to get out, still half jittering in place from his own pent up excitement at hearing all of this. He was actually starting to regret giving this chapter up to James, Merlin this was a good time!

The leprechauns responded to that by floating into the air and forming the word's 'HA HA HA' to mock the Veela, who tossed their hair angrily but began dancing in excitement for their team none the less. As one, the Weasley boys and Harry stuffed their fingers into their ears,

Lily's giggling still managed to intensify at that mental image.

but Hermione, who hadn't bothered, was quickly tugging Harry's arm to get his attention, and giggling as she told him to look at the referee.

"Uh-oh," Remus chuckled, not looking particularly upset.

"Am I getting the feeling this is why they were brought along," James snickered, "for some preference from the ref."

"Intentionally or not, they're getting it now," Sirius nodded.

Harry looked down and saw that Mustafa had happened to land right in front of the Veela as they started their dance, and was now behaving strangely by flexing himself and smoothing out his mustache. Bagman sounded quite amused as he scolded they couldn't let that go on.

"He cannot be the only one," Lily nodded, her husband sounded exactly the same way.

Then he told that someone should go slap the referee.

"Now how come whenever I say that, I get told off for being unsportsman?" Sirius pouted, his eyes shining with too much giddy pleasure to really mean it.

A mediwizard was given the job, sprinting across the field with his fingers in his ears, as he kicked Mostafa in the shin.

Causing all five of them to begin laughing all over again, this was a brilliant game in every direction!

Mostafa came back to himself, and began shouting at the Veela. Bagman seemed to understand, as he told the crowd that he seemed to be threatening to take the mascots off the field.

"Ooh, Harry would actually get to be at a first," James practically began shaking with a whole new level of excitement.

The two Bulgarian Beaters seemed to take that personally, as they landed on the ground and began arguing with the referee, who was now pointing at the air and very clearly telling them to get back to the game. The leprechauns were having plenty of fun with this, now forming the words 'HEE HEE HEE.'

"There's a difference between mocking and distracting," Remus snorted.

"I don't see why it's worth arguing the point with him," James raised a brow in surprise. "If they tick him off enough, they'll just earn another foul."

When the argument continued, Mostafa lost his patience, and blew the whistle twice, earning Ireland two more penalties, while the Bulgarians boo'ed their displeasure.

James looked incredibly pleased with himself, while his friends laughed at the old familiar expression he'd always get when he called a play right.

The two Beaters took the hint and went back to the air, where the game was still steadily getting bloodier. Volkov and Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters, no longer seemed to care if their clubs hit Bludger or person.

"This is turning as bloody as your Cup," Lily frowned with worry, each new game she kept hearing about only increasing her feeling she'd rather her son not take this up professionally.

"Hope they got a foul for every one of those," Sirius simply smirked.

When the Bulgarians yet again played another foul, the leprechauns chose a new tactic of turning themselves into a giant hand with only one finger up at the Veela.

"Oh now that can't be allowed," Lily raised a brow in surprise, "there are children present."

"Kids, do not mimic what that leprechaun just did. There, problem solved," James' shoulders were shaking he was still laughing and cheering so much that his shot back to Lily didn't hold much.

The Veela completely lost it, as fire seemed to sprout from their hands and they seemed to grow leathery wings from their back as they began fighting back with the leprechauns in a much more violent way. Harry no longer found them remotely beautiful, as they now resembled birds more than women.

Harry was spluttering in shock that those creatures of fantasy could turn into that! He most definitely understood what his mother meant now!

The others didn't look particularly concerned, on the contrary as Sirius eagerly said, "well, Harry did get a first it seems. As far as I know, the two team mascots have never started brawling before!"

"This is the best day ever," James nodded fervently.

Mr. Weasley happily endowed on his children the life lesson that this was why you never chose for looks.

"Valuable life lesson," Sirius agreed with a wicked grin, "though thankfully I have that and brains."

Lily chucked a pillow at him for that.

Above this, the game was still in full swing, Moran scoring for the Irish yet again. The Irish didn't get as much of a chance as usual to make their cheers heard, as the Ministry was pelting onto the field with wands out to try and get the two mascots under control.

James reading was coming out so breathy from trying to contain all of his laughter and excitement, his reading was nearly as chaotic as the scene he was describing.

Gameplay kept going, with Levski, then Dimitrov with the Quaffle, but then Quigley (Irish Beater) hit a bludger towards Krum, who hadn't a chance to duck and got a face full.

"Youch," Remus yelped in surprise, thinking that at least now he and Lynch were on even grounds having both been clobbered in the face this game.

The crowd gave a collective groan in pity, Krum's nose was clearly broken from any distance, but the whistle didn't ring.

"Was he going after the Snitch," Sirius asked curiously, his attention torn between the two so much it actually was getting hard to keep track. "It didn't say."

"Not directly," Harry shook his head, "so it was a foul."

Mostafa was still distracted by his broomtail being lit with fire from a stray Veela throw.

"That'll do it, yeah," Lily nodded, her eyes steadily going wider in wonder at this mess of a game that all of the boys were endlessly enjoying.

Harry may have been supporting Irish, but he wished someone would notice Krum's plight, he was by far the most fascinating player to watch. Bagman was loudly calling for a time-out as well, and still being ignored, but then Harry suddenly shouted loudest of all to look at Lynch! He was rocketing towards the ground again, and that was no Wronski Feint. Half the crowd was following the same progress, watching as Krum quickly caught up. Harry wondered how he could even see with blood flying across his face,

"Well it seems to have just broken his nose, not his entire skull," Remus said fairly.

"Thank you Professor," Sirius snorted, they'd worked that out for themselves.

Remus flushed in surprise, that old joke not holding nearly the same weight it used to, but Sirius and James were so entangled in their match they hardly seemed to notice what they were saying anymore.

but he seemed to easily draw level with Lynch as Hermione screamed that they were going to crash again! Ron shot back that no they weren't while Harry guessed that Lynch was, and this time Harry was right. Lynch once again got a face full of grass, and was quickly set upon by the Veela.

"Gah!" Lily yelped this time, actually fearing for that poor Seekers safety under that horde.

Charlie was still looking around wildly, calling for where the Snitch had got to, who'd caught it?!

"Because that was the important part," Lily grumbled, her mind still on poor Lynch.

Harry found it first, clutched safely in Krum's hand! His face still as red as his robes from his nose bleed, Krum was soaring through the air, his hand held high and proud in a fist, the tiny flutter of wings barely visible.

"That was bloody brilliant!" James cheered, throwing the book in the air in celebration and bouncing in his spot like it was a trampoline.

Sirius was to busy laughing, holding tight to the baby and still likely to fall off the couch any second, though his expression was remarkably similar.

The other three were only the slightest bit calmer, all laughing with pleasure at the event, though mostly laughing at the other two boys raucous reactions to it all. James seemed to take forever to settle back down and read out the rest, not that he was trying to hard. He would never have believed two days ago he could ever find such a good mood again, and he was terrified the moment he kept going something would come to spoil it. He wanted to hear of nothing else for the rest of these books, and yet he knew full well that wasn't going to happen. It still didn't manage to diminish his smile one bit, so wide it nearly distorted his words as he kept going.

The final score read 170-160 to Ireland, but the majority of the crowd was still lost in confusion, having been watching the spectacle of the two creatures. Slowly though, sound like an engine revving swelled to every corner as the delighted screams of the Irish came through.

"They did it, the twins did it, they won!" Remus laughed, falling back against the couch with his own shot of laughter at that realization.

"Oh, that's going to be so good for them," Lily nodded in absolute agreement, now their mother would have to give them a chance.

"This game could not have been any better in any way, shape, or form," Sirius nodded with absolute certainty.

Bagman was shouting the results for all to hear, that Ireland had won, but Krum had got the snitch!

Harry was laughing hardest of all at Bagman shouting out those exact results, he was so happy for the twins, so happy that his family was enjoying this moment of bliss, like the others hoping this wouldn't end.

Adding on that no one could have seen that coming!

"Well two of them did," James murmured happily, wiping a few watery tears of glee away.

Ron, who was jumping around in pleasure and applauding like mad, still had the sense to ask what Krum had gone and done that for, he knew they were too far behind to have won.

"That's right Ron," Sirius nodded along like a bobble head, "you keep applauding that idiot who recognized defeat with pride."

Harry happily shouted back that Krum had ended the game on his terms, he'd known the Irish Chasers were too good.

"I'm so proud you get it," James added on, tossing an easy arm around his son's shoulders and managing to keep going like that, Harry still snickering along at his side.

Hermione agreed he'd been quite brave,

"Brave is certainly better than grumpy," Lily agreed, her shoulders shaking from her own overdone laughter.

watching Krum's progress as he landed and some mediwizards came to inspect him, having to fight through the still raging battle of Veela vs. Leprechauns.

"So glad that's still not being ignored," Remus managed to stutter out half way intelligibly.

Behind Harry, Fudge and the Bulgarian Minister were shaking hands, then to all of their surprise the man said with a thick accent that his team had fought bravely.

Causing five collective snorts of laughter from the room. Oh yes, clearly this Minister didn't understand a lick of what Fudge had been saying! Which made all previous interactions near gold.

Fudge spluttered in outrage that he could speak English, but had been letting him pantomime everything all day! The Bulgarian just shrugged back, saying it had been funny to watch.

"Can we have him as our minister?" Sirius begged the book, turning huge puppy eyes onto anyone who would say yes. "He's clearly got a sense of humor!"

"I wish," Harry nodded in agreement.

Bagman was still announcing for the crowd that the Irish were coming up to the Top Box to greet their respective Ministers.

James squealed like, well like a Quidditch fan who'd just found out he was meeting the winners of a Quidditch World Cup. They were going into the Top Box, within autograph distance of his son!?

Harry's surroundings were suddenly rendered visible to all below them as every eye zeroed in on the Green clad team shaking hands with Fudge, who still looked rather put out he'd been using sign language all day for nothing.

"Ah learn to laugh man," Remus was doing it enough for both of them as he got that out.

Then Bagman said to give a big round of applause for Bulgaria, as that team entered as well.

James was squirming so much it was hard to keep reading the print, he had to remove his arm from Harry to hold the book better, and even then he sounded deliriously happy.

The crowd below was applauding appreciatively; Harry could see thousands and thousands of Omniocular lenses flashing and winking in their direction.

Harry winced, but for once felt no true feelings of embarrassment, as surely he was not the main focus this time.

Harry got his first face close impression of Krum, who had two black eyes, and was still clutching the Snitch.

"That's his keepsake," Sirius tried to whisper into Harry's ear so as not to get James to stop, but only just barely getting back to his normal tone from all the shouting, so Harry was instead left rubbing at his ear again.

Harry noticed that on the ground he didn't look nearly as nimble, more duck-footed and round-shouldered.

"Who cares," the other three boys said at once.

He and Lynch shook hands, Lynch's eyes strangely unfocused as if he was still getting over that last knockout.

"I can imagine," Lily nodded, her eyes still slightly more round than normal for concern of this stranger for two head injuries in one game. And James had said the Seeker position wasn't that bad!

He was still smiling happily though as he rode on the back of one of his fellow players broom while the Irish team did a lap of victory.

"Well his team kind of won without him, so it's good he's not the focus," Remus snorted.

Bagman finally used the 'Quietus' spell on his voice, it coming out raspier than usual but a pleased smile still on his face as he told them that people would be talking about this game for ages! Then he noticed the twins watching him expectantly, and he uneasily asked the boy's how much he owed their outstretched hands.

Harry felt an odd clench up of his stomach, one that he managed to laugh off with the others in praise for the twin's sudden fortune. Surely that feeling was just backlash from all his happiness of the game.

HPHPHPHP

The longest chapter yet of this book...and yet it was still kind of boring. Sorry about this, but as we all know, things really start picking up next chapter!

*Nickname offered up by Shakira94.

**...British people bow to their monarchy, right? Sorry if they don't, I'll take it out if not...again sorry for the stupid American showing.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #GoF #Marauders #reading the books #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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sparkz21 · 4 years

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“Sarge, with all due respect, I am gonna completely ignore everything you just said.” – Jake Peralta, Season Two, “Hostages” “The English language can not fully capture the depth and complexity of my thoughts, so I’m incorporating emojis into my speech to better express myself. Winky face.” – Gina Linetti, Season One, “Charges and Specs” “Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt.” – Jake Peralta, practically every episode “If I die, turn my tweets into a book.” – Gina Linetti, Season Three, “Halloween III” “Captain Wuntch. Good to see you. But if you’re here, who’s guarding Hades?” – Captain Holt, Season Two, “Chocolate Milk” “Anyone over the age of six celebrating a birthday should go to hell.” – Rosa Diaz, Season Two, “Johnny and Dora” “Captain, turn your greatest weakness into your greatest strength. Like Paris Hilton RE: her sex tape.” – Gina Linetti, Season One, “Sal’s Pizza” “Jake, piece of advice: just give up. It’s the Boyle way. It’s why our family crest is a white flag.” – Charles Boyle, Season Five, “NutriBoom” . . . . . . . . #graphicdesign #graphicart #brooklynninenine #ninenine #jakeparalta #amysantiago #rosadiaz #terryjeffords #charlesboyle #ginalenetti #raymondholt #michealhitchcock #normscully #cheddar #digitalart #tvseries #dontyouforgetaboutme #digitalillustration #digitalartwork #adobeillustrator #illustrator #art #digitalartiest #digitalartwork #digitalarts #digitalartistoninstagram #digitalartistry #digitalgallery #digitalartdesign #dailyfeaturedfavorites #zaa @andysamberg @melissafumero @stephaniebeatriz @terrycrews @andrebraugher @joelotruglio @chelsanity @dirkblocker @joelmckmiller https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKWybVM5zN/?igshid=7k464vtz1ioq

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afictionaladventure16 · 5 years

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One Hell Of A Blind Date (Sebastian Stan x Latina!Reader)

Masterlist

Description: You were Anthony Mackie’s neighbor, so he always invited you over to his parties or hangouts, getting to know his friends and cast members. Anthony decided to take it upon himself to set you up with a cast member that he was really good friends with.

I know, horrible description. But like, I got this idea in the shower, for some reason. I get my best ideas in the shower because why not? Anyway, enjoy!

Warnings: None?

Word count: 2,144

Y/N= Your Name

C/C= Career Choice

*Not my gif, credit goes to the gif owner

Anthony’s parties were something that he tends to invite you too and whenever you had the chance you would go to them. It was how you met some of your closest friends like Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo. Anthony was one of your close friends too, you were also his neighbor and you loved taking care of his kids when he politely asked, you adored his wife. They were like an extended family to you.

Anthony looked around at the crowd in his house, smiling at his friends as he made his way around. He spotted Sebastian looking at something, deep into thought, walking up to Sebastian. Anthony gently placed his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, making him jump, he noticed what Sebastian was staring at you talking to Chris.

Anthony smirked, “maybe instead of just staring at you, you should just go over there and strike a conversation with her,” he suggested. Sebastian had met you before but never really spoke to you, you had always ended up having a conversation with Chris or Mark. But Seb always wanted to have an actual conversation with you, he found you beautiful and just wanted to get to know you better but you always just turned the other way for some reason.

Seb just shooks his head, taking another swig of his drink, “Nah, looks like she’s already got something going on with Evans anyway.”

Anthony rolled his eyes at Seb. Robert came up to Seb, starting a conversation. Anthony thought of this as his chance to go over to you and Chris to be noisy and maybe see if he can change things.

“Come on, Chris, trust me,” Anthony heard you say.

“I don’t know, blind dates are scary,” Chris expressed.

“She doesn’t know anything about you, she’s never seen Captain America, this would be a perfect girl for you! She’s a Disney freak like you, she loves dogs, she- please stop me because I’m running out of ideas,” you said causing Chris to laugh.

“Why don’t I set you up for a blind date,” you heard Anthony say.

You rolled your eyes, “No, hell to the no,” you stated.

“Aw come on, Y/N, why not?”

“Because it’s you, Anthony, I don’t trust you.”

Anthony looked at Chris who just smirked, “I’ll go on my blind date with your friend if you go on a blind date with Anthony’s friend,” Chris said. You gasped, looking at Chris in shock, he was teaming up with Anthony.

You pondered it for a second, “it’ll be a double date, if that makes you feel better, Me and Sheletta and you and my friend,” Anthony suggested.

Knowing that Anthony’s wife was going to be there put you more at ease, “Fine,” you stated, catching Anthony by surprise.

He smirked, “I’ll text you the details,” with that he walked off, you had no idea what you had just gotten yourself into.

A couple of days went by, Anthony had set the date for Friday night, he told you to dress nice. When you suggested to carpool, Anthony said it’d be better off you all just met there, this caught you a bit off guard but you didn’t think anything much of it. You took an uber to the address that Anthony had sent you, the restaurant looked way to fancy for your taste, you felt a bit underdressed with your black skater dress that had thick spaghetti straps. You sighed to yourself texting Anthony real quick, asking where he was at.

A couple minutes went by and he texted back that he was running late, to go ahead and go inside, that the guy he had set you up with was already inside waiting.

You felt so confused, why would you go inside if you didn’t know who your blind date was. You texted Anthony, asking how you would know who it was.

Anthony sent another text back with a winky face emoji, you’ll just know, he texted.

Sighing to herself, you were already tired of waiting outside, not liking the looks you were getting from people passing by. You decided to just walk in, you were instantly greeted, asking who the reservation was under. You quickly informed them that they were already waiting for you, they gave you a small nod and let you walk on into the dining area.

You scanned the room as you walked around, spotting a familiar face, you smiled and walked over to Sebastian, “Sebastian?” He looked up from his phone, his breath was caught at the sight of you, the sight of how gorgeous you looked in that dress.

“Um- uh, Y/N,” He stuttered, he didn’t know why he was suddenly so nervous around you.

“What are you doing here?” You questioned.

Sebastian chuckled, “You’re gonna think this is dumb but I’m actually waiting for Anthony, he set me up on a blind date.”

You looked at Sebastian with widen eyes, you admitted to yourself that you had a small crush on Sebastian a while back, partially why you tried to avoid him to avoid any embarrassment on yourself. “you don’t say,” you mumbled, suddenly feeling nervous. You muttered some words in Spanish that shouldn’t be repeated.

“What about you?”

“I’m waiting for Anthony too.”

“You’re Anthony’s date?”

You laughed, “No! Anthony’s married! I’m your date!” Sebastian facepalmed, he was so nervous that he had forgotten that Anthony was married, “Anthony set us up together,” you sat down on the chair next to Sebastian, “I knew he was up to something.”

Sebastian smiled, this was the most you had ever spoken to him. “No wonder he said,”

“You’ll know when you see them,” you both said in unison, causing you both to erupt in laughter.

“So, how did he drag you into going on a blind date?” You asked.

“Oh you know, Anthony is like a brother and well, he hates seeing me single. Also, he said he may have blackmailed me into it.”

You laughed at the last part, “sounds like him.”

“And you?”

“I was trying to get Evans to go on a blind date with my best friend and well, they both teamed up basically and now I’m here.” Sebastian gleamed at the thought that you were actually trying to help find Evans someone else to date, that must have meant that you weren’t interested in Evans.

“So, did Chris ever go on that date with your friend?”

“They did actually, yesterday and they have a second date today,” you smiled proudly, “I’m a pretty good matchmaker.”

You both talked for a couple more minutes, mostly about Anthony and how you both got played by him.

“That’s like the fifth time the waiter has come by to check up on us,” you stated, “I kind of feel bad for just sitting here, traffic must be pretty bad if they’re this late.”

Sebastian decided to check his phone, letting out a small chuckle at the text message he had received from Anthony. He slid his phone on the table over to you, showing you the message, “Sucker, enjoy your date,” you read aloud. You instantly knew that Anthony had this all played out to ditch you both. “Asshole,” you crossed your arms, you still didn’t feel comfortable in this setting.

Sebastian must have noticed by your body language, “hey, why don’t we just ditch this place?” You quickly agreed, causing Sebastian to grin. You both left the place unnoticed.

“He’s going to get what’s coming to him, Sebastian.”

“Seb,” Sebastian said.

“What?”

“Call me Seb,” he stated, “Sebastian feels too formal.”

You smiled, “Seb,” you said quietly. You both walked down the block for a little bit.

“You know we don’t have to go through with this date,” Sebastian said quietly.

He was starting to let his insecurities get to him, “What if I want to?”

Sebastian looked up at you with a smile, “really?”

You nod, “why do you think I avoid you?”

“I thought it was because you just didn’t like me.”

You shook your head, “I’m just afraid I’ll embarrass myself in front of you.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, “I doubt that.” He then cleared his throat, “Alright so if we’re going to go through with this date then what should we do?”

You grinned as you noticed a familiar diner coming into your view, “come on,” you grabbed Sebastian’s hand, you felt something shock you but you decided not to make a big deal about it. You and Sebastian ran over to the small diner, “I love this place,” you said as Sebastian held the door open for you, you thanked him.

“Booth?” He questioned, you gave him a small nod and followed him to a booth in the corner. “So, why this place?”

You smiled, “my dad used to bring me here when I was younger, whenever I had a bad day, usually to grab an ice cream Sunday or shake.”

“Are you and your dad close?”

“We were,” you said softly as you let out a small sigh, “he passed away a couple of years ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

You shook your head, “it’s alright.”

A waitress came and you both ordered the same thing, a cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate shake.

“Tell me more about yourself, Y/N. I want to get to know this girl, the one that is so afraid to embarrass herself in front of me that she avoided me for months now.”

You laughed, “Well, I work as a C/C and I live in my aunt’s old home, she gave it to me when she passed…” you didn’t know what else to say, you kept catching yourself staring into Sebastian’s blue eyes.

“Oh really? Were you two close?”

You nod, “she was like a grandmother to me, she was much older than my father. There’s actually a treehouse in the backyard from when I was a little girl, I hope one day I’ll get married and my kids can play in that treehouse like I did as a little girl… I don’t know, that sounds dumb now that I say it out loud.”

Seb shook his head, “it doesn’t sound dumb, sounds like someone just knows what she wants.”

“And you, tell me about yourself,” you said as you turned to him. The food then arrived, you both began to eat as Sebastian told you about his move to New York when he was a kid, about Romania and what it was like living there. “There was seriously no bananas?” you questioned.

“No bananas,” Sebastian repeated, “and I’ve always wanted a banana because I saw them on t.v.”

“That’s crazy.”

You both fell silent, taking in each other’s presence, “I really like you, y/n. I’ve had this crush on you for a while now…” You smiled at Sebastian, “And I hope this first date doesn’t end horribly because I would love to take you on a second date.”

“I would love that,” you stated. Sebastian’s eyes lit up, “but let’s finish this date first.”

Throughout the night you talked and ate, ordering dessert as well, you were full but if it meant staying at the diner a little longer and talking to Sebastian, then so be it. Once you both decided it was time to go, Sebastian ordered an Uber for you, you both waited outside, talking a bit more about stories from the past.

“Okay so, how do you say how are you in Spanish?” Sebastian questioned.

“Como estas.”

“Como,” he repeated perfectly, “estas?”

You gave him a nod, “You’re good at this!” you said as you noticed a car with the Uber sign pull up, “that’s probably my uber.” You turned back over to Sebastian, “Thanks for an amazing night, Seb.”

“No problem,” Sebastian said with a smile, you both stood there awkwardly for a second, you hadn’t noticed how close your bodies were. You looked up at him, he was smiling down at you. He gently placed his hand on your chin to lift your face, “is this too soon or…” he trailed off.

You rolled your eyes, your lips brushed his lips softly, long enough to feel his warm breath against your skin. You couldn’t help but think about how soft his lips were, and he couldn’t help but smile. Sebastian placed his hand behind your neck to deepen the kiss, both your lips moving in sync. You let go of the kiss, a little out of breath, “I really should go,” you gestured to your Uber who was probably tired of waiting. Sebastian let out a dry chuckle, “can I at least get your number before you leave?” He said with a wink. You facepalmed as he handed you his phone, you quickly dialed your number and hung up.

“Thanks again, Seb,” you said as you gave Sebastian a kiss on the cheek before getting into your uber. You were right, you didn’t know what you had gotten yourself into but you were okay with that. Anthony was one hell of a matchmaker and you and Sebastian both knew it.

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wldbirds · 4 years

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@shallowprince Timeline + 11 | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 , 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐓

𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑰𝑺 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑵𝑫𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑩𝑬𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑶𝑾 , 𝑹𝑼𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 . he is glinda’s handsome fiance , captain of the guard , though really she supposes the guard has made itself obsolete , thanks to her . elphaba heard the day she flew into emerald city had been that of the pairs engagement ball ; she is not surprised that they are to be married , thinking back to the conversation she had with galinda so many nights ago in shiz . the blonde girl was of course delighted that her best friend could make it in time for the festivities . elphaba is less sure .

“ -- hello . “ they had never be close , not even back at school . she had known him only as galinda’s boyfriend , air-headed winkie prince that danced through life . she sensed at times there was something stirring beneath that fragile surface , but it wasn’t her place to say anything . elphaba had been so preoccupied , with getting used to her new position , and catching up with glinda , she had taken very little notice of fiyero , truth be told . “ i thought glinda had you attending a cake tasting . “

( dr dillamond never gets fired from shiz , the new professor never steps in with the lion cub , and elphaba never discovers dr dillamond caged in the wizard’s chambers . she is convinced by him in wonderful and ends up becoming grand vizier )

#shallowprince

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mysmashplaythroughs · 4 years

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Donkey Kong Playthrough

Fighter: Donkey Kong.

Game: Donkey Kong Country, Wii U Virtual Console (SNES). First released November 21st 1994.

Fighter Bio.

He’s the leader of the bunch, you know him well, he’s finally back, to kick some tail. Donkey Kong is a gorilla (although it might be more correct to say he’s of the Kong species which we’ll go into later) who lives on and is the leader of Donkey Kong Island. He is not the first Donkey Kong as the original DK was the one who fought Mario in the arcade game of the same name, however that Donkey Kong is now an elderly ape known as Cranky Kong. When it comes to the current Donkey Kong’s relation to Cranky Kong it has not always been entirely clear, with DK being called in the past Cranky Kong’s son and more commonly now his Grandson. Compounding this is that the original Donkey Kong had a son called Donkey Kong Jr, who initially was believed to be the current Donkey Kong, but now it’s said that the current DK is actually Jr’s son. As with most Nintendo characters, it’s not entirely important and the main point is that the Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Country onward is the current DK.

Donkey Kong can be a hero, but more often than not is motivated by fairly simple means into action, one of the most common of which is his banana hoard being stolen and him going on a journey to take it back. He is more laid back than the original Donkey Kong, preferring to just laze about eating bananas, however he has inherited Cranky’s temper when it comes to people taking what he wants. In most cases this is justified such as when it comes to his banana hoard or having his Island taken over, but there have been some occasions where he has gone on a rampage for more selfish reasons, such as the new Mini Mario toy he wanted going out of stock, causing him to steal them from the factory. Despite this, he has often been shown to care about his friends and family, and help out others when he feels in the mood such as in various Mario series spin-off games.

He has great strength and despite not being the absolute strongest Kong, is also faster than the few who are more powerful than him such as Chunky Kong. One of his trademark skills is throwing barrels, something Cranky Kong did back during his rivalry with Mario, and something the current Donkey Kong does in various adventures he goes on when he can get his hands on them. Although his ‘nephew’ Diddy Kong and others are much faster, DK can still move pretty well both on land, jumping from platform to platform and swimming in the sea. He’s more intelligent than most animals being able to use tools such as a coconut gun and having his own treehouse, however there are other Kongs who are more industrious than him making him of fairly average intelligence in comparison. He has sometimes been shown able to speak, although it seems more often he can only communicate with other creatures from his island rather than humans such as Mario.

Friends: Donkey Kong’s best friend is Diddy Kong, who at times has been called DK’s nephew, although in other cases a “nephew-wannabe”. Another friend of his also considered his best friend besides Diddy is Funky Kong who despite the last name has no known relation to DK beyond being a friend. Kong seems to be more of a species of ape which the various characters on DK Island belong to than a family name. His implied love interest is Candy Kong although their true relationship remains a mystery. Cranky Kong as stated before is said to be Donkey Kong’s grandfather and as his name implies tends to be grouchy often going on about how much better games were back in his day before all these fancy graphics and gimmicks. Wrinkly Kong is DK’s grandmother who is married to Cranky Kong. She passed away following Donkey Kong Country 3, however she still returns as a ghost to help out the various Kongs from time to time. DK is mostly friendly with the other various Kongs in the series, however he has not often interacted as much with them, with often Diddy being more related to characters such as Swanky Kong. DK has teamed up with Diddy’s girlfriend Dixie Kong recently however, Dixie having saved Donkey Kong in the past when he had been kidnapped a couple of times.

DK also has various animal friends, often referred to as Animal Buddies who he can ride to help him through levels. The most famous and long running of these is Rambi the Rhino. Expresso the Ostrich, Winky the Frog and Enguarde the Swordfish have also let DK ride them in the past to help him in his adventure. Squawks the Parrot is unable to carry DK, but has helped him in other ways such as carrying a torch for him in dark places, delivering messages to him and helping DK spot rare collectables in a level. There are also the various Mario characters DK has interacted with in spin-off Mario games. These include characters such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi and many others. DK has been shown to get along well with most of them, although he has a competitive spirit for many of the sports and other competitions he takes part in. He has also been a helpful character in games such as Mario Party often giving characters bonuses for landing on his spot on the board. Finally, it’s important to mention the character who the original Donkey Kong knew and kidnapped in his feud with Mario, Pauline. The current Donkey Kong has met Pauline a couple of times in the Mario vs Donkey Kong series, and often when he’s gotten upset he’s kidnapped her, however he often is calmed down by her and reconciles with her and Mario in the end, even working together one time to test Mario’s new Mini Mario toys.

Enemies/Rivals: DK’s main enemy is King K Rool, the leader of the Kremlings who has stolen his Banana Hoard multiple times. K Rool has also however managed to kidnap DK a couple of times, often by catching him off-guard, which makes him arguably the most dangerous villain he’s ever faced. Other enemies DK has faced over the years include the instrument themed Tiki Tak Tribe, the Viking Snowmads who took over his island and fairly rare run ins with Bowser in a couple of Mario Spin-off games where he’s playable. DK doesn’t have the same antagonistic relationship with Mario as Cranky Kong once did, however he has been at odds with him before, such as with the previously mentioned Mini Mario toy incident. Often this is due to DK’s temper however and afterwards he will calm down and reconcile with Mario. Finally, in one unusual case, Donkey Kong travelled to various Kingdoms fighting their kings in order to conquer their islands, which brought him into conflict with various Kongs and other large beasts, finally culminating with him battling the evil Cactus King. Following his defeat of the Cactus King he celebrated with the other Kongs which seemed to suggest they had become allies in the end. Personally I prefer to think of the somewhat unusual events of this game as actually being the original Donkey Kong as it would fit his more rage fuelled rampages than the current DK, but there’s no word really on it either way and the game’s too obscure for it to likely be clarified.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Donkey Kong himself has had a few crossovers over the years with other Smash Bros characters. In Mario Kart 8, DK crossed over with Link (his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations), Inklings, Isabelle and some human Animal Crossing Villagers. Samus herself didn’t appear in Tropical Freeze, however her gunship can be seen in the background of Busted Bayou seemingly crash landed in the vines. Metroids also make a cameo appearance underwater in Amiss Abyss, appearing in the background floating up to the surface. Mr Game & Watch similarly to Mario crossed over with DK in the Game & Watch Gallery series, however it seems this version of DK is actually the original aka Cranky Kong, as he was often accompanied in this game by DK Jr rather than Diddy Kong. Mr Game & Watch also appeared in Donkey Kong Country Returns as a cameo in the background of the stage Foggy Fumes hammering a pipe. DK appeared as part of the group in the NES version of Tetris playing instruments, this being the original version of DK also. He was playing the drum alongside Pit, Samus, Link and Mario. DK was in all but the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, first appearing in the first Olympic Winter Games, as such crossing over with Sonic and many characters from his series, often interacting most with other power-based characters such as Knuckles and Vector the Crocodile.

Although I do not want to go into other media too often, Donkey Kong technically appeared in Captain N the Games Master cartoon. In this he was based on the original DK and more like King Kong being a giant angry antagonistic ape. Through this show, DK crossed over with Megaman, Simon Belmont and Pit once again. Perhaps the biggest crossover for DK was his appearance in Punch-out on the Wii as a secret boss. DK would sometimes appear in the audience for matches watching as Little Mac made his way to become the champ. During Little Mac’s Last Stand, a mode where Little Mac will retire from boxing after three losses, he decides to take on the champ himself in the ring, making him the final new opponent faced in the game. The original DK and DK Jr also appeared in the crowd in the arcade Punch-out games. DK appeared in all of the Mario Kart GP arcade games, crossing over with Pac-Man, interestingly their only game crossover despite both being famous for starting as arcade games. Finally, despite a lot of association between the series, DK himself never crossed over with Banjo and Kazooie, although in an early beta version of DK64 there was a shower stall with their faces on it in DK’s Treehouse which was later removed. Whether this would have involved a crossover with the games such as the Stop N Swap features planned for Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie is unknown at this point.

Why this game?

Donkey Kong is known best as a character who is typically one of the most powerful in the games he’s in, including Smash Bros. Over the years he has had various games where he’s been playable, with his own series, Donkey Kong Country. What’s interesting with this series is that in the original three games DK himself was only playable in the very first, having been kidnapped by K Rool in the second and third games. He returned to being playable in DK64 where he was the first of 5 characters that were unlockable in the game being second only to Chunky Kong in strength. After Rareware, the developers of the Donkey Kong Country games and DK64 were sold to Microsoft, Nintendo came out with a new game, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. In this game DK was probably the most violent and powerful he’d been shown in a platformer, with his moves often involving beating his enemies repeatedly with powerful attacks. After this and a long break, the Donkey Kong Country series finally returned in a game called fittingly Donkey Kong Country Returns, a new 2.5D platformer in which DK had to go across his island to reclaim his banana hoard again. This time however, he had to take it back from the Tiki Tak Tribe rather than the Kremlings as in the original series. This game managed to make DK feel more powerful as he did in Jungle Beat but also keep the same platforming style of the original games with one of the most notable features being how the environments DK would travel through would often change based on his actions, with him smashing his way through various locations.

So, with many of the later games focusing more on DK’s power, why did I choose Donkey Kong Country rather than the later games to represent DK? Well, simply put because those games all build off of the foundation Donkey Kong Country set down. Before Donkey Kong Country, DK had only appeared in games where he was an enemy of Mario or in one case a pest exterminator called Stanley. With a remake of the original arcade game on Gameboy having come out within the same year, only a few months before DKC, it’s easy to compare the two to see just how different the original DK was to the one who’s used today. Donkey Kong in this new game was made into a new character from the original, with the original now becoming Cranky Kong, a grouchy old ape past his prime. Donkey Kong Country introduced DK’s new home of DK Island, a new cast who helped him on his adventure along with a new set of enemies in the Kremlings and their leader King K Rool. DK’s design was also changed, one which has stuck pretty much to this day with the odd sort of hairstyle the fur on his head makes. It’s for this reason I feel when looking at DK’s origins, this game is the best place to start, as it was the game that essentially redefined DK into the form he has to this day.

My past with this game.

This game and series as a whole are very important to me and a huge part of my gaming history. This series along with Mario were the games I grew up with, with this and Super Mario Bros 3 I believe being probably the first videogames I ever played. As such, I admit to having a massive nostalgia bias to the series, however, I still to this day feel this is a fantastic game, amongst some of my personal favourite games of all time. This game specifically isn’t my favourite of the series. In comparison to the other two Donkey Kong Country games, this game was shorter with less secrets, such as the secret worlds and secret final bosses the other two games had to offer. However, I definitely wouldn’t pass it up in favour of the other two games and I have enjoyed replaying it many times over the years. One aspect I have fond memories of personally is that this was one of the few games my parents would play with me, with my Dad in particular being a big fan of it. It was probably one of the only games where I had the experience of starting off being far worse at the game than my Father but gradually getting better until finally, I could beat the game, something he’d not been able to do. As such I suppose I could consider this game as sort of a benchmark for me with regards to finally starting to actually finish games. I have other personal memories from my childhood relating to this game, such as only really being able to play when my parents would allow me to set up the SNES as I was around 4-5 years old and having my Cousins over to play the game with me, but I don’t feel going into that much more would really add a lot to this.

With regards to the gameplay itself etc, the game was fairly simple to the point I could play it as my first game, but even now there are definitely a fair few challenges later down the line, granted nothing on the level of other games around at the time and earlier that I’d never played such as Megaman and Castlevania, but definitely parts that I had to play a lot of times to get past. I remember one specific stage I had trouble with to the point that I actually asked my parents if I could phone the Nintendo Helpline. The level in question was Slipslide Ride, a level where there were ropes you would climb, with the purple ones constantly sliding you down and the blue ones constantly sliding you up. The part I got stuck on was where the only option to proceed was to climb up two purple ropes, however trying to climb up wouldn’t work due to the constant slipping with you only at best being able to stay in place. I remember when I managed to get through on the Nintendo Helpline the operator on the other end gave me the solution, which was to jump between the two purple ropes which would let you gradually get higher until you could jump off them onto the platform above. So what’s the moral of the story? Well, I’d say it’s that I’ve always been a stinky cheater even before looking up solutions on the internet was a thing. Although really, I’m only mentioning this because I find it sort of an interesting example of one of the possible ways to get help with games before you could just look up a walkthrough on the internet. Of course, I believe book guides and game magazines were probably around at the time that I could have used, but being a fairly young kid then and not really seeing many other kids beyond my Cousins sometimes meant that I wasn’t really aware of most of these options. I forget now if the Nintendo Helpline was meant to be one for people with actual issues with their systems or games etc or was advertised as a service for help with “game tips” also, either way I was probably one of those kids who would lead to Nintendo’s attempts to put help features into games down the line, i.e. a true hero.

Something not particularly good for the subject of this post, Donkey Kong himself is he tended to be shown up in this game by his new friend Diddy, with his only real advantage being he could defeat a specific enemy Diddy couldn’t. DK could defeat Krusha a muscle-bound Kremling, and could defeat two other enemies Diddy couldn’t as easily, being Klump a Kremling with a hardhat that Diddy had to cartwheel into, and Army an Armadillo who Diddy would have to jump on once to bring him out of his ball form and then jump on again to defeat. DK could defeat both of these enemies with just a single jump. Diddy on the other hand, would move faster and was nimbler with his jumps, although DK could still manage to jump as far as was needed in the game, everyone I knew who played the game would always prefer to keep Diddy in reserve when playing. This brings me onto another aspect that at the time and even now I quite liked about the game, how the Kongs would team up. Instead of playing through stages as either DK or Diddy alone, you would play as one of the Kongs with the other following you. When you got hit by an enemy, the Kong who was hit would run away and you’d take control of the Kong who was following. The Kong who was following you wouldn’t be able to do anything, being more of a ghost really in actual gameplay, just following you along not being affected by enemies or obstacles. This I feel really added to the atmosphere of the game as you didn’t feel as alone as in other games unless you’d lost one of the Kongs, and with DK and Diddy often being on-screen together it helped make them feel more of a duo than other game characters at the time such as Mario and Luigi, who in most of their games then would take turns going through levels on their own rather than together. The game also did a good job of avoiding the screen becoming too cluttered or confusing the Kong you were controlling for the one you weren’t by making the one following have a slightly more faded look, making it easier to focus on the character you were specifically controlling at the time. In order to bring back one of the Kongs you’d lost when you were down to just one you would have to find a DK barrel to break them out of, which you might recognise in Smash as being DK and Diddy’s entrance animation.

Atmosphere is probably why this game has always been so nostalgic to me. I’ve never cared overly much for graphics (although I definitely can appreciate when something looks good) and whilst this game at the time was fairly breath-taking graphically, the music and the art style were probably the bigger aspect of why I loved the game, with me often as a kid enjoying drawing all the different characters and enemies and reading the instruction manual to look at the various artwork in it. The series would get even better from here, but there are a lot of visual aspects unique to this game that stand out even now. Probably one of the most cited examples at the time was in the very first stage where just before you reached the end of it the sun would set and the place would turn from day to night. It’s hard really to describe atmosphere much more as it’s something you get just from playing or seeing the game itself, so I think it’s best to leave it at saying simply I’ve always liked it in this game.

My Smash Playthrough.

As I’ve stated before, this is a game I’ve played through a few times before, and I was looking forward to doing so again. Although this is the second post I’m making, at the time this was probably the fifth game I played roughly. The reason why is that I made this list before Smash Bros Ultimate was announced and gave an order to the fighters, so rather than having DK as fighter 2 I had the characters more often shown in various trailers, such as the first trailer for Smash Wii U with Mario, Link, Kirby and Pikachu as the first ones on my list. It was due to this therefore I was on a roll and moved pretty quickly onto this game seeing as the previous game I’d played for Kirby wasn’t very long or difficult. Replaying this game from what I remember I didn’t run into many problems and it was overall the same fun experience I’ve always found it to be replaying it.

So when it comes to remembering this run again as it was some time ago there aren’t many things that stick out in my mind. Stages I remember having issues with were mostly ones I’ve always found difficult, and I think most people do. One of them, Tanked up Trouble was a level I’d always found irritating as you are on a platform with five lights on it which gradually go out. You have to collect fuel barrels in order to bring the lights back on, and if the lights all go out the platform would fall with you on it. Of course, you also had to stay on the moving platform the whole time or else you would fall off the stage, and enemies would be waiting to block your way requiring you to either avoid them or jump on them if you could all while not losing track of and landing back on the platform. I believe overall I didn’t find this level as difficult as I had in the past, although I definitely had a couple of deaths on it. Probably the hardest level overall was Platform Perils, the final regular level in the game which has you jumping between various small moving platforms. The biggest issue on this stage however was the grey Krushas, exclusive to this stage. These variations of Krusha enemies were strong enough that even DK couldn’t beat them by jumping on them, requiring a barrel to be thrown at them as the only way of defeating them. Due to this, often the stage would require you to carry a barrel on small moving platforms and not drop or accidentally break it before you reached the Krusha who is on another small platform you need to get onto. If you lost the barrel there was no way to defeat the Krusha meaning you’d end up dying and having to try the level again. This level took me many attempts I remember and was probably the biggest challenge I had, but eventually I beat it, leading on to me beating the final bosses not too much longer after.

When replaying this game, I’ll admit there was one negative that stood out to me more now than I remember when playing it as a kid, which is objects in the foreground. I think this is more a problem I’ve found myself than one that many people commonly find, but I’d sometimes find myself getting irritated in stages where there would be decorations in the foreground that go past. I would not find them big enough to actually block the view of gameplay, but moving quickly through a stage and having them go by would on some occasions be something I’d find irritating to look at, with some examples being the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave levels that would appear in the foreground as you went along. Another irritating visual effect I’ve found is the blizzard effect in the snow stages. The point of it of course is to make it more difficult to see, however I would find it somewhat taxing on my eyes at times, and with the stages often requiring either precise jumping on platforms or timing when to blast from one barrel cannon to another it could get very irritating. One improvement I’d say in the virtual console release is the removal of a specific effect in the stage Torchlight Trouble. In this stage you are going through a dark cave and require Squawks the Parrot to follow you with a torchlight so you could see where you’re going. In the original version of the game, every time you’d turn Squawks would turn and shine the torchlight directly at the screen creating a bright flash for a fraction of a second. This would happen every time you turned and I remember finding it could be very irritating, so I was glad to see the Virtual Console release had gotten rid of the flash.

The bosses are fairly average when it comes down to it, and out of the three games in the series probably the least interesting. This isn’t helped by two of them being basically recoloured harder versions of earlier bosses later in the game, although this game was hardly the first to do this. This does get a funny reference in the GBA remake of this game where Cranky Kong will appear to talk with DK after each boss, and on the first recolour boss he appears to basically complain about how lazy the designers are just reusing an earlier boss. Probably one of the few aspects of the remakes I liked. Most of the bosses simply require you to jump on them when you get the chance, with the others requiring you either to simply avoid them and kill the enemies they spawn, or throw barrels at them when they’re not invincible. The bosses consist of larger versions of regular enemies such as the giant beaver Very Gnawty which is a bigger version of the regular Gnawty enemies. The final boss King K Rool however is easily the best boss in the game. He’s fairly challenging and has a lot of fun attacks. I don’t want to spoil too much of the boss fight against him as a lot of it relates to his portrayal in Smash so I will simply say he makes a great conclusion to the game.

The game’s ending isn’t particularly special, but of course personally it holds a lot of nostalgia for me, especially being one of the first ever endings I actually got to in a game. The music for it is a really nice ending track and it has a nice cast call with every character, enemy and boss in the game walking through DK’s Treehouse with their name being displayed below. I tend to like these endings in games as it’s a fun recap of what you’ve gone through in the game. I didn’t 100% (or as this is a Rareware game 101%) the game, mostly as the only real reward is Cranky Kong’s dialogue changes from saying ‘if I’d been playing I’d have found everything’ to congratulating you. Also, I tend to leave some things in the games I’ve been playing through so I have something that if I feel like coming back to the game later down the line I can still do. Overall, despite the few complaints I brought up, this is still an amazing game and one that will always be very important to me personally which I enjoyed playing through again.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Donkey Kong in Smash.

Donkey Kong is another character who doesn’t really have equipment he uses in the game, nor any really customisable aspects. Unlike Mario in Super Mario 64 however, he also doesn’t have a lot of moves he really draws from this game. The only moves he has in Smash Bros that come from this game specifically are his forward roll, which was added in his later Smash Bros appearances, and his Hand Slap move. This move involves DK slapping the ground with his hands, often defeating enemies who are right in front of him when he does it, producing a single banana when they’re defeated and being usable sometimes to find hidden items in the floor. It is fairly difficult to use on enemies not having a very far reach and is fairly slow making it not very useful, especially in comparison to just jumping on or rolling into enemies. Later games such as Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze would make this ability far more powerful and useful, but this is where it originated and as such is what the move in Smash Bros is based on. One final aspect from this game that DK uses in Smash Bros is his ability to lift barrels and move around with them. In Smash Bros DK was one of the only characters in the original game who could lift heavy objects such as barrels and walk around with them. Later games would have other big characters such as Bowser also be able to do this, however DK has another ability unique to him. When grabbing another character, DK can lift them similar to how he lifts heavy objects such as barrels and he can carry them around before throwing them or they escape from his grasp, which is most likely based on his carrying abilities with barrels in this game. The only other thing of note which I mentioned earlier is DK’s stage entrance involves him breaking out of a DK barrel, similarly to how he will be trapped in one when playing as Diddy alone in this game and will have to be broken out of it.

Credits.

Information such as release dates were found through Super Mario Wiki and Donkey Kong Wiki.

Screenshots taken by me using Miiverse.

#Donkey Kong #DK #Donkey Kong Country #Super Smash Bros #SNES #Wii U #Virtual Console #My Smash Playthrough #My Smash Playthroughs

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nemossubmarine · 4 years

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Warhammer 40k: Wrath & Glory RP #24

We finally make it to Elysium in this session, eventually, after much waffling about, as we always do. Let’s see what happened.

We pick up from the warehouse, where Gimlet as ”brother Julius” goes to invite the man Xerxes inside as ”something has gone wrong”. When Xerxes follows Gimlet, Saef knocks him out with a big hammer.

By all appearances Xerxes seems to be a regular citizen of Civitas A. We figure it best to give him over to the officials anyway.

Saef ties Xerxes up in a knot he can’t quite undo, woops?

While Saef goes to find the Sable Swords, Vivek is teleported back to Santa Maria, as he wants nothing to do with any branch of the imperial army.

Gimlet stays behind to watch over Xerxes.

He goes and gets data of Elysium’s location from the ship, as well looking over the lenses that the Red Corsairs used. They appear to be powered by similar methods as the Civitas A metros are.

Gimlet pockets the lenses he has been using.

Saef finds a group of Sable Swords and approaches their sergeant, who turns out to be Carl, the same man Gorm fought alongside of (he is wearing some kind of a Wolf trinket Gorm must have gifted to him).

Saef reports our findings to Carl and takes him to the hangar to check out the scene.

Carl questions why the servitors are dead, and doesn’t quite seem to buy when Saef says they were like that when we found them.

So Saef very nicely brings up Gorm, and hey are you Gorm’s pal too? Gorm’s friends are Carl’s friends too apparently, so the servitor question is dropped.

Carl will be taking over from here, and Saef asks if there’s a chance they might have the ship after it has been looked over, it’s something Captain Pepper would really like to have for herself.

Carl says obviously a Rogue Trader will get whatever she needs, so it is arranged that Carl will call once he is done with the stuff there.

Gimlet and Saef retreat back to the ship. Vivek is in Saef’s room playing card games with Rat, when the dynamic duo returns.

The subject of Vivek’s health comes up, and it is decided it might be best to get Vivek to Eden as he is the only one Vivek will let doctor him.

But how?

Obviously Eden is guarded, so Vivek just can’t waltz in.

There are the lenses of course, and perhaps more specifically the lenses on the bunny Vivek looted.

It’s worth a try? So Saef sticks the lenses onto Vivek, and voila in his place is a bunny plushie.

Saef and Gimlet take the Vivek as bunny and go to Eden’s room. In front of there is a guard who stops them.

Even when Saef says he needs Eden’s medical attention, an entrance is not permitted.

Saef attempts to contact Inpax, but she isn’t picking up her phone.

New plan? Gimlet goes to Tabasco and asks for keys to the surgery next to Eden’s prison.

Tabasco says sure, but whatever for, is Gimlet planning on playing doctor? To which Gimlet says no, to which Tabasco says he plays doctor everyday (winky face?).

Anyway keys are gotten, and through the surgery’s air vent Saef manages to get to talking distance with Eden and lets him know that there would be a bunny coming in that is actually Vivek in need of a medical attention, so just play along, okay?

Eden says alright.

New plan is in action as Saef writes a love letter to Eden (and stuffs the envelope with as many small medical supplies he can think of) and with it and the bunny approaches Eden’s guard again.

This time it’s a different person, so Saef lays out his story, the tech-priest inside has saved his life, and Saef would like to give the letter and the bunny as a thanks and also because he is ”very much in love with him”.

”Okay, that’s weird,” says the guard, but agrees to take the items.

The letter he doesn’t touch but he does have to check the plushie in case it has something inside that’s not supposed to be there.

So he squeezes its middle, trying to see if there’s anything other than stuffing inside. All’s well so the guard takes the gifts to Eden, warning Saef not to get his hopes up.

Vivek stays inside Eden’s room for a few days.

During those days Gimlet invites Saef over to have a little chat, since it’s been a while since they’ve caught up, and Gimlet feels bad that he hasn’t been very open with Saef regarding many things.

Gimlet pulls it back, saying that stuff started “going to Hell” in Limestow.

Gimlet explains to Saef why going to Limestow was hard for him, and he also talks about his missing memories.

Then Gimlet asks how Saef is getting along with Inquisitor Inpax. Saef says they’re in talking terms.

Gimlet admits that he was the one who told Inpax about Saef being a psyker, and is sorry about that.

He warns Saef to be careful around Inpax.

Then he asks if Saef is angry about Gimlet telling her. Saef says ”I guess nothing bad happened”, so he’s cool.

Gimlet still thinks he should have told Saef, and Saef says they’re not talking about every single thing in their lives.

He then adds that he’s not talking about Rat with Gimlet, because Rat’s secrets because they’re not Saef’s to share.

Gimlet asks if she was in the bomb shelter, and Saef says yes.

Gimlet also brings up Lu Yan, as Saef met her in Inpax’s room. Lu Yan’s Gimlet’s friend, and not in the Inquisition, so she’s cool. That’s the first conversation.

Next day, Gimlet pops by and asks about Theo and Saef’s family.

Saef says his family is on the ship and want to do work, and that’s about it.

And as for Theo, Inpax gave permission to fix him, as Kane Bullard had made him servitor illegally.

Saef also mentions that Kane Bullard was arrested with a man who looks like Saef’s gang leader, which is frankly quite confusing.

Gimlet tells Saef to eat healthier. Saef says he’ss buy chocolate flavored protein bars.

Finally after those few days, there’s a delivery to Saef’s room. The guard is there and he has a package that the prisoner has sent back.

Saef thanks the guard and asks if the guard is doing alright.

Apparently the dude is a bit overworked.

The note that Eden has attached to bunny, says that the bunny is currently sleepy, which is to say when Saef takes off the lenses, Vivek is asleep.

He is fixed, but really really bruised. He also is sporting one of Eden’s eyes.

It takes a bit for Vivek to wake, and when he does he seems a bit quiet for a moment.

Gimlet asks what the Hell Eden did to Vivek to make him look like that.

Vivek said, that he was like that when he got to Eden, apparently the squeezing didn’t feel nice, woops.

Vivek says he asked if Eden knew anything about the whole Elysium thing, and Eden knew that Fane employed a Triplex Phall Tech-Priest by the name of H4-4nk.

He also mentioned that Fane’s acolyte made it out alive and Gimlet says yup, that was Tanner. So right, that’s a bit of a personal connection. Not that Vivek would know that.

Carl gets in contact and Gimlet and Saef come to get their ride back. Carl doesn’t have much to report that our heroes didn’t already know. He throws Saef the keys and Gimlet says that Carl’s pretty cool. Saef stumbling and nearly dropping the keys is not.

Saef goes to give Molly the 1/4th of the money. She’s a bit disappointed there isn’t more of it, but she accepts them, and says she’ll be spending this in the tax-free on some jewels.

Our heroes decide that before heading for Elysium they should probably let Cayenne know what’s up, and it’s agreed that Santa Maria should stay a bit farther away but close enough that emergency teleports can be done relatively quickly.

Our heroes use Santa Maria to get closer to Elysium before hopping onto their perma-invisible ride.

Vivek takes the pilot’s seat and getting fixed clearly has helped, as his Mech brain kicks in, and he can calculate where Elysium should be.

In two-ish days they reach the spacehulk, a bunch of ships and space debris smashed together.

Every hole in it is dark, it appears barricaded.

The ship is suggesting an entrance, but Vivek takes the ship to a tunnel on the other bit of the hulk.

Saef’s psyker senses are flaring up the closer they get to the hulk, he can feel the lenses’ energy getting stronger and the lenses begin to glow.

At the end of the tunnel, our heroes find an old entrance that has been barricaded with a steel plate.

Luckily Vivek has a steel cutting tool in his new arm, so he does a small hole and peeks inside.

Inside there is a full-blown city with people and servitors wandering around.

All the people (notably mostly women and children), have the lenses on.

Vivek tells the others what he saw and suggests that the others put the lenses on themselves (Vivek attempts to get Saef to put the bunny lense on Gimlet, but Saef sees through it), while he just can pretend to be a servitor if need be.

Vivek pulls up his hood and loans some kitten-gloves from Saef, disguise complete.

After that the trio gets inside the city. Some people greet them as they pass, saying savior’s blessing, which sounds off.

There’s a factory at the other end of the city that most adults seem to be heading for. The city ends in a metal barricade barricading the rest of the hulk from the city.

Suddenly a woman starts walking towards our heroes, and greets them, with hugs.

Our heroes claim to be messengers from another place. Sectors, it turns out, they are called, and this is sector 14.

The woman is surprised by the beards two of the three wear, as they are not allowed in sector 14.

The woman, named Onelda invites our heroes to her house for a bit of tea. Our heroes agree and off they go.

Onelda’s house is nice though a bit sparsely furnished.

There’s a picture of Onelda’s family, her three kids and her husband.

When Vivek asks about the man, Onelda says he has been Enlightened and send outside as an offering for the Emperor. Cool.

The tea and cookies Onelda offers are bit bland to eat, though only Saef appears to be eating.

Anyway, Onelda has similar kinds of lenses that the Red Corsairs have, so it might be prudent to, uh, get close with her.

So Vivek turns up the charm, which ends up with Onelda suggesting some baby-making (after Saef and Gimlet have left), which Vivek agrees to. (Vivek claims to have two daughters himself)

Onelda invites our heroes to stay over for lunch, as a friend of hers is coming over.

Our heroes think it might be time to leave, but Onelda physically barrs the door and says they should really stay for lunch.

Vivek questions Onelda why she is so insistent, and she reveals that she knows that our heroes are from the outside.

Onelda is part of a rebellious group inside Elysium.

Our heroes decide to stay and get some information out of Onelda.

It appears that ”the savior” Inquisitor Fane, claims that the outside world is overrun by Xenos and the people here are the only ones surviving.

They appear to not realize they are making weapons.

The Savior himself is rarely seen but his right-hand man, someone they call Smith (no doubt the tech-priest) keeps up the factories.

The sectors are guarded by Ultramarines led by someone named Mor’drax (doesn’t sound much of an Ultramarine to be frank).

The Servitors are known as the Enlightened, and most males get made ones by age 21.

Onelda also talks about how her middle child Wes snuck on board one of the out going ships to find his father. Vivek shows Onelda the bunny he looted, and Onelda recognizes it, so Vivek has to deliver the bad news that her son is dead.

Finally Onelda’s friend arrives, she is a woman in her forties by the name of Malika Nitzkowski, the leader of the rebellion.

Apparently the Smith is coming over to sector 14 in few days to inspect the factory and Malika plans on assassinating him.

She and her rebels have smuggled weapon parts from the factory and made swords. So yeah, definitely some fire power would be useful.

Our heroes agree to partake in the rebellion.

Next up, assassinating a tech-priest. Fun!

#nemo roleplays #long post #wag rp #wag rp writeup #campaign tag: the spacehulk of the happy and free

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