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alexandrite-dragoness · 3 months

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My Final Thoughts on Persona 3 Reload :)

Hello all! ^^

I just happened to finish Persona 3 Reload recently and wanted to give my own personal thoughts on it. Of course I won't go into many specific details and make this into an essay, so I'll just put in what I enjoyed, what I didn't like and what I'm looking forward to in a potential DLC.

Also on that note a good chunk of my thoughts will be regarding Strega (Jin and Takaya in particular), since they are personally my favorite villains from the game and I was looking forward to seeing any additional scenes they were given.

So let us begin (this does contain spoilers so be wary)

What I did Enjoy (or Absolutely Loved):

☑ Social Link Episodes (& the Full-On Voice Acting)

First off, I want to express my gratitude for Atlus in taking the time to apply some TLC to the less appreciated characters in P3. This is especially true for Shinjiro, who I felt was the least fleshed out among the rest of SEES (and, you know, for valid reasons). He did have more moments of his own specifically in Persona 3 Portable if you play as the female protagonist, but unfortunately that even had its limit. That also gave us a moment with Mitsuru to explain about her past with Shinjiro and Akihiko, giving us a bit of a flashback which I think is a neat touch! Strega also was given some decent amount of treatment in the remake as well, showing two (or was it three?) exclusive scenes with Jin and Takaya and lifting some of their mysterious past midway through the game rather than shoving all of it to the end (however I do my complaints regarding that still, but I digress).

The additional voice overs for the social links is an incredible touch, it made me even appreciate some of the characters even more (or even starting to like the ones I didn't care about before). Yuko after spending some time with her became one of my favorite SLs in the game, she has such a neat and endearing attitude in her voice and I dig it a lot! Hidetoshi came close to my second fave, when switching from a uptight attitude to some occasions a more softening/somber approach was when I started appreciating him a little more.

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☑ Additional Evening Activities (+Kitchen & Rooftop)

To be honest during my first and early experience in Persona 3 (FES) the evenings were a bit of a drag. There was no part-time jobs during that point (part-times didn't happen until P3P) and there were only two social links that appeared at night. So more often than not I'd be studying away at my desk or kill some time at the mall some other way (and I wasn't enjoying half the time).

Fortunately Reload (for the most part) fixed that issue by giving us the opportunity to hang out with our teammates in the dorm/lounge room in the evenings. This also added a new mechanic to give these team members a gauge/characteristic for battle. During those times too, even if they didn't raise their battle perk at the moment, they may either give you a useful item for battles or raise one of your social stats in the meanwhile.

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☑ QoL Additions (+Theurgy)

Trying to keep this part brief but I do enjoy the additional quality of life content they added to the same, some even adapted from P3P itself (this includes the part time jobs). As much as I enjoyed Theurgy and the perks it came with it, I was hoping they were going to do a "Showtime" gig with the team (having a Akihiko and Shinjiro duo attack would've been awesome ngl), but I'm pretty satisfied with what we have too. Also the fact they gave Fuuka abilities is all I ever wanted!! :D She's now more useful than ever, thank goodness.

Regarding outside-of-battle changes; one of them I noticed is how you were able to revive Chidori. Originally you had to talk to Junpei on four separate days on September just to convince him to visit her in the hospital. In Reload they completely changed it so you just had to buy the white flowers. It's a little more straight-forward and I actually enjoyed that change. One change I was indifferent on was Yukari's SL where, when reversing the arcana, they made the choice more obvious where you would say she is a girl rather than hugging her in hopes to make her feel better. While I wasn't the most thrilled on the change I can see why it was made.

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☑ More Strega >:)

Oh hell yeah!! I was super ecstatic when I saw the new scenes when I played through the game >:D not only was I ready to kick their ass again, but seeing what else is in store regarding their tasks and potential additional backstory.

We already know Chidori got enough screentime as is, so I was looking forward to seeing what Atlus has given to the male duo of the antagonizing group. A lot of them are the same, but some of the others definitely more focused on Takaya when he went to interact with the protagonist. Originally the protagonist never mingled with the villains (in fact it felt mostly ignored in every encountered they had), so when Takaya shows keen interest on the protagonist and how he wields multiple Personas, it gave Takaya his own moment of development as he tries to convince the protagonist to "not throw his gift away" and embrace the Dark Hour as is. Takaya already shows to have no interest or attachment with anyone (rip Jin), but the fact he did end up questioning himself whether or not he was feeling any attachment for the Wild Card, it was indeed a new look on how we see him as a villain.

ALSO BDJKVBJDS THEIR WHOLE FINAL BATTLES WERE WILD!! Jin stabbing himself with those enhancement drugs went raw, and Takaya having an unbelievable Thuergy attack surely took me by surprise!!! This is not without my own complaints for them, ofc...

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☑ T h e B u i l d - u p (& The Cinematic Experience overall)

When first jumping into the game it already gives a creepy-and-almost-horror vibe to the introduction of the game. You finally got off at your stop, making your way to the student dormitory only for the sky to turn green and the puddles of blood to appear all of the sudden. It's a real nice way to showing what the Dark Hour is, without telling you right away what (which makes it even more unnerving).

And then jumping to 3/5 being the final day of the game, the whole entire scene with you laying on Aigis's lap gives you time to get hit in the feels once the android gets to say what she finds in her meaning of life. Love that it was more of a cinematic experience, since I didn't have to click "X" to continue any sort of dialogue and therefore get to sit back and relax and watch everything happening. And the dialogue choices you choose... damn, the layout for that does a lot with the timing given too. I really enjoyed the ending a lot more than the original for sure, and seeing the cast running up the stairs to find you was such a great addition (That's how it went for the 2014 P3 movie as well).

Regarding the Social Links:

Another note I've taken is with the addition of voice acting, talking to everyone on the 4th day of March adds a lot more emotion to their dialogues, as you get to find out what some of them wanted to do with their life after school. The little details they added definitely adds a whole layer of accomplishment and knowing what you did to save the world was very much worth it, and being able to secure all your friends' futures. I love that emotional feeling when I went to talk all the SLs I maxed :')

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now unto...

My If's and But's:

⍉ The Voice Cast

I gotta admit: Since the start of my playthrough I wasn't a huge fan of few of the voice cast for certain characters (Akihiko and Ikutsuki were some of the big ones). Some of those however did grow on me, and I started to appreciate them more the farther I got into the game. Junpei and Mitsuru in my opinion were perfect on their own 👌 no complaints with them. Fuuka is also perfect, gives me Fluttershy vibes LOL. Yukari and Aigis took only a little time to get used to and I think they're almost perfect for their roles as well. Aleks Le as the protagonist was also a great choice!

Akihiko in particular took me a lot longer in getting used to- I've always thought Liam O Brian was perfect as the original VA for Akihiko. After some time getting used to it, he started to grow on me. Same for Takaya too, as I wasn't so sure what I thought of him at first but his evil laughs surely did him justice. Speaking of Justice- Ken also took some getting used to, since at first he didn't exactly sound like a kid to me at the start (there's a difference between sounding like a kid, or sounding like a woman trying to sound like a kid).

The ones I'm more 'eh' about is Ikutsuki and Jin. Ikutsuki sounds a bit too mature for my liking, as his lighthearted jokes doesn't match with his voice at all to me. And while Jin did sound like his snarky self in the Strega introduction and while facing off against SEES... he also has a shift of tone in other scenes?? It was a weird mix to me when I first notice it, I wasn't sure what that was about (could be me being very particular about it as a Jin fan myself). Best guess is he chooses to drop his act when he's around Takaya, revealing how he actually talks (also can we talk about the fact that Jin actually shows care for Chidori?? Like? This is amazing on so many levels??)

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⍉ Some Dialogue Changes

It was to be expected that the Reloaded script isn't going to be 1:1 ratio with the original (especially if it's a little outdated and out of touch), but I can't help but some difference in dialogue that I feel is odd or seen as unnecessary.

One of the first things I noticed is how much they toned down some of Yukari's dialogues in regards to her attitude. I get that some of her lines can come off as rude or maybe even uncalled for, but I feel like that adds a bit to her character. To only soften her up makes some of her conflicts with the other characters not as... compelling.

Another irk I had was when they have Akihiko say random outbursts of "What?" or "What was that?", which I don't recall hearing him say that many times- Huh? Oh, you thought I would be complaining about the protein mentions lol. Tho tbf the random 'protein' lines was indeed a bit much, but it wasn't as over the top as some hardcore fans put it as. It was tolerable, at worst, but it was the random 'what' lines he had that threw me off the most.

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⍉ No FeMC:

Now I'm not really down about the lack of FeMC in the game, since Reload is supposed to go off of the original games to start with. As much as I would love a female protagonist in Reload, I can live without one. Chances are, who knows, maybe there will be a potential DLC content with her in the future? Could be a long stretch.

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What I feel the Game Lacked (or no likey):

☒ The Iconic Animated Cutscene (Specifically: MC's Awakening)

Now this game isn't without some flaws, that's for sure!

When we got to the cutscene at the rooftop when Yukari and the protagonist were about to face the Magician Arcana boss, I thought the awakening scene would've been 2D animated- just how it was for the original (the P3 movie did this scene extremely well; in fact my favorite so far). While the cutscene we were given wasn't bad at all (I'm not trying to say it is), but I feel like giving that same scene the 2D Anime treatment would've looked a lot better! The animators could really push for some dynamic angles or animation movements that would've sold to be more epic than it being in 3D.

I would definitely understand if they wanted to balance out between doing two-dimensional and doing three-dimensional throughout the entire game, but in my personally bias the 2D animated scenes have a unique charm to their looks and I almost always prefer that over the typical in-game scenes (after all I did feel like there wasn't many 2D animated scenes throughout).

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☒ The Change of the Heart Items

Now this is more of a personal nitpick for me, playing FES as my first P3 game (techically I started Portable first, but then I fully switched over to FES), but I missed the original heart items I'd get by leveling up my Personas. From what I recall: The heart items you'd get would be accessories you'd give to your teammates that can indeed block certain elemental attacks. It was extremely useful to block certain weaknesses my team would have and it helped out pretty well. Speaking of, are they still in the game? Mhe, I may have to go through my NG+ to see if they do exist, cuz chances are I must've missed it.

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And now for my final nitpick...

☒ Lack of Jin/other Strega content (& his development in Reload)

Now personally, I like Jin.

Actually that's a lie: I love Jin! Both design-wise and as a character! So you can expect me to go off on why I believed Atlus wasted their potential to build his character up based on very little development he received from the games. First off: You only ever see him around Takaya 99% of the time (only time by himself is at the top of Tartarus, tho that's different given he's there for Takaya's wish). Second of all: Atlus really made it sound like they'd do Strega some good by giving them their much needed backstory that they lacked since the existence of P3. But instead, most of that effort went to Takaya, leaving Jin in the dust once more.

While I did feel I put my expectations a little too high for them to work with Jin on that matter, I believe it would've done some good if they chose to flesh him out as an actual character, starting by seeing him outside the Dark Hour and on his own typing away on his laptop or something...

And while I did mention already that Jin did show actual concern for Chidori in the game (that I'm very much happy about), I felt that quickly went away as soon as the two went to 'rescue' Chidori from the hospital (and Jin's "hurry up already" doesn't really help with that either). And when Chidori gave her life up for Junpei during that scene, Jin... didn't really show much reaction at all, which was very much a downer.

Meanwhile I also relaized they cut back on some of Jin's usual battle animations during the fight, which was extremely disappointing. So there was no backflips, no breakdancing out of a Knock Down, none of that. And he doesn't even toss his grenade in his walk cycle anymore (perhaps that was for the best if he's out in public). And after beating Jin at the top of Tartarus and leaving him behind with a bunch of Shadows that just appeared (now this is just me), they didn't even bother making an animation of him pulling out a grenade or whatever. Just a cut in at the team running off and hearing an explosion after that, leaving it to you to use your imagination how it went. I also realized Fuuka didn't turn her head to look at Jin before leaving off-screen, which is a shame too.

So yeah, tldr; real lack of effort put into Jin as he gets the short end of the stick like usual.

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Conclusion: What I'm Looking Forward to...

Now with my praises and rants out of the way, I do have some hopes for any later content Atlus may give for Reload in the upcoming future. Specifically any DLCs they may make, since I feel it has been hinted at (or rumored?) there will be new content in the future.

One of my hopes is for The Answer DLC. Given we've already taken a look at the Senpai Trio's past already in Reload and Aigis, after losing her beloved leader, would be going through a rough patch of phase of existential crisis. And the original Answer had some problems, as it became somewhat controversial within the fandom (particularly with Yukari). At this point it would give Atlus a good opportunity to fix some of the issues within the game (especially regarding the bosses and battles, like jesus christ!) and flesh it out better. And after playing through the game and seeing subtle hints that Aigis would be given future development post-Journey, I have no doubt The Answer will come out in a timely manner.

My other hope (which is more of a self-indulgent request, but whatev), if possible, that after expressing my issues and concerns with villains already, Atlus may take up the opportunity to create an exclusive Strega DLC! For that to be happening can indeed be very unlikely (I know), but if there's ever a possibility that they can perhaps take inspiration or rip a page out of the Shadow Cry novel that is about Strega, it would definitely help flesh them out and show what their routines are like day-to-day. They can even make it a short and cheap type of content, I wouldn't care, I'll take whatever they would have!

On that note: Some more Strega merch would be nice...

Anyways, thanks to anyone who took the time to read this (this took me a couple hours to write up), and have a good rest of your day :)

#persona 3 reload #thoughts #and prayers lol #strega

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self-loving-vampire · 1 year

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I have previously commented on how Wizardry 7 is more enjoyable if you are masochistic. Well, what I encountered tonight serves as an incredible example of what I mean.

It is a boss called the Shadow Guardian.

To even reach this boss, you have to fall down a hole (which deals damage to you) to end up in a small area populated only by annoying monsters with relatively low XP values and no loot. Once you have ended up here, there is no way out until you kill the boss. No way to go back to town, get more consumables, or upgrade gear.

But this isn't too bad by itself. The real issue is the actual capabilities of the boss. Let's count them.

1- It is undead and therefore immune to around half of your spells.

2- Besides this, it also has extremely high elemental resistances. Even if you try to use simple offensive spells it will just be unaffected by them nearly all of the time.

3- Every turn, it will blink out for a while and then blink back in before attacking. While it is out, it cannot be targeted by physical attacks and magical attacks will just miss entirely. As a result, it has a good chance of negating about half of your attacks on every turn, on top of just having a high dodge rate.

4- It can cast Asphyxiation, which deals no damage but has a high chance of dealing instant death to the whole party. You can counter this by casting Air Pocket on the first round of the fight but even that is not entirely effective. If it casts this, there is a good chance someone will die.

While death can be fixed in this game, doing so causes a permanent loss of vitality and effectively ages them by a year.

5- It summons persistent clouds of poison gas that deal damage and poison to the whole party. Poison in this game has no upper limit to its duration so if you get poisoned enough that is functionally the same as death. There are spells that "cure" poison but they really only seem to decrease the duration, which would be insufficient even if you only had to cure one person rather than the whole party. If it casts this you pretty much already lost.

6- It can cast Lifesteal, dealing something between 600 and 900 damage and healing itself... This is a game where your characters will probably have between 30 and 100 HP by this point. Even your tankiest character is automatically dead if it does this.

7- It also has normal touch attacks that deal just a bit of damage, in the 10s or so... But it also inflicts the deadly paralysis debuff...

And also it has a high chance of permanently turning the target to into stone. Let's see what the manual says about that.

So... It carries the same permanent damage as death and might in fact be worse.

Literally anything it can do during its turn is reload-worthy if it goes off, and at the same time you can't meaningfully hurt it beyond just hoping that your melee characters will manage to hit it for damage in the single digits maybe thrice a round if you get lucky (and probably less than that).

I didn't struggle very much with Dark Souls or Elden Ring, but I acknowledge the strength of this adversary. I will not give up.

#long post

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cyverrieee · 2 years

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Scenario: You left your device to meet someone unexpected

[ Sentimental Genshin x GN! ]

Characters: [ Albedo , Venti , Ayato ]

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— Albedo

You had some free time to grind or rather play genshin again, you havent been playing it as much due to the fact that you were busy with school and life itself– it was anything but pleasing. You pressed at your character screen to notice that– you had albedo? You stopped playing genshin once the Eula and Albedo rerun banners came out and somehow this shocked you, but you werent complaining. You really wanted Albedo once you started playing genshin, and having him unwillingly sit in your character screen for months on end is already enough for you to enjoy your life. BUT somethings gotta come to an end right? School was about to start and you opened Zoom right away, the class became boring so you boot up genshin to find that you were in dragonspine, weird... You lasted logged off in Inazuma? But maybe its a glitch...? Maybe.. once you touched your curser in the window of genshin, it crashed immediately. Out of shocked your tried to reload in genshin once more but it was not responding, out if your luck you waited for your classes to be done so you can fixed your device.. on the other side of your screen that you didnt knew, was albedo. When he first saw what you REALLY look like, he was shock to see such a good looking person controlling the Traveller, ever since then; he always has the goal to see you infront of him, but then he realizes that hes the only know who knew about this. When albedo tried to gather information about the real you, all the npcs were saying their coded voicelines, which made albedo realized hes the only one who is actually sentimental about this. He realized that you havent been online for much in a veryyy long time, he started to wonder if you forgot about him. Once he felt the world change he knew you were back. Albedo opened a map that was the same as yours and marked your location, he teleported by a way point you unlocked, he saw you walking around doing random things like; bunny hopping, randomly attacking, sitting around and doing nothing. He finds it strange but it was you, and he hypothesize you were bored.

So when you logged out he took this opportunity to take your character and bring them to dragonspine! It took some time but it was completly tiring, but for you? He is willing to do anything for you. Once he left like you wer logging in back again, he accidentally made your game crash for too much exploading and stuff since he was doing an experiment to go and see you.

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— Ayato

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You just started playing genshin again, and downloaded it ! Excited to play it again after MONTHS of not doing so. You had to delete genshin due to storage problems and you were sad about it but you had to do it. You noticed that you were in the kamisato estate, and since when did you have inazuma unlocked anyways? Maybe your siblings played in your account without knowing.. but that didnt matter! You already watch the inazuma archin quest on youtube, so you already know whats going on. You went to your map and saw that you already have the whole inazuma nation unlocked when you were dead, kinda surprising but you werent questioning it as much. You deicded to roam around the kamisato estate until, You found Ayaka and Ayato talking, well it was more like they were just standing there. You just took out your camera and took a picture then left, i dont think you were supposed to go there right now. So you ran out of there.

In the corner of Ayato's eye; he saw you, well mostly the Traveller not literally you though. When you were gone, he decided to do your commissions and other necessities that you do! He even bought you this thing called "Welking" he didnt knew what it was but he faintly heard you talking to someone about having welling every once and a while so he granted those wishes. He will grant you anything for you to see you smile or be happy, seeing you sad made his whole life crumble into pieces of glass, but of course he wishes that didnt happen. For the past months that you've been gone, he decided to make a plan about meeting you; but he doesnt have a clue. Every once and a while he sees you literally going out of existence, he always wonder how but maybe once he meets you he'll know!

_________________

— Venti

_________________

Venti heard alot about you by the winds, saying how he was very cute and adorable. Hes still wondering what you mean by you simp for him, but still he still loves you!

Recently you havent been going to mondstadt for a while, you only gonto mondstadt for commisions and supplies. But since that time he never actually saw you, and he's waiting for you to come home. Until he felt the air change, he got out of the tavern and went to your location.

Once you literally turned around he hugged you. But in your screen, it crashed. While Venti was hugging you; he notice you werent moving until he realized that you just POOF out of existence again, maybe something happened? Its a guess! But mostly he doesnt know; maybe you dont like hugs.. huuuuh..

Venti saw your face once, he was flabbergasted when he saw you. You were like celestia itself in his eyes, but he couldnt reach out to you..

But maybe .. one day he will see you! But for now, he has to see the traveller but its okay if youre the one controlling them! He doesnt mind if you are in it. He just needs you for his life to be complete!

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A/n: OMG I FINALLY FINISHED THIS YAAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYS SORRY IF ITS SHORT I WANTED TO DO 8 CHARACTERS BUT I GOT LAZY SO HERE I AM

#genshin venti #genshin x y/n #akix impact #akix's lil stars #ayato x y/n #venti x y/n #albedo x y/n

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pentition · 1 year

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Pen tried teaching me how to space punch and new he's following me everywhere like a lost puppy. Love this bug tbh.

I'm so jealous people are getting that bug. I got the bug where he just gets stuck standing in the tournament ring post-fighty tournament. Him, his partner and their opponents were like that for days and I was like. Lol, this is weird.

So I tried seeing if taking him on a date would help and nope. But I got jumpscared when I sat down at the booth for food and Pen's disembodied voice spoke to me. :')

It fixed itself when I saved and exited the game and hopped back in. It was just hilarious. He went from standing in the tournament ring then after the date to standing out by those trees Burgess waters all the time until I reloaded.

I wish I had your bug. I bet I'd get so many more screencaps for this blog that way, lmao.

Lost puppy Pen is a hilarious thought, though.

#pen

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rippedshadow · 2 years

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Man it fucking sucks to read through Triggerbrand, the new gunslinger way from PF2e’s Impossible Lands, and realize that 1) Combination weapons fucking suck holy shit 2) The most exciting part of this gunslinger way is getting a feat GUNSLIGNER ALREADY HAD 2 levels sooner 3) The Way by itself otherwise fails to actually fix combination weapons, and the reload is overly restricted by forcing you to move TOWARDS the enemy 4) The 9th and 15th level deeds are both bafflingly underwhelming and do not actually seem that worth it at all 5) I hate the interact action I hate the interact action I hate the interact action I hate- Honestly I could probably make Triggerbrand much less maddening by making its special reload just be “Do any of the following in any order a Step in any direction you otherwise could, Interact to change weapon mode, interact to reload”. Then change level 9 to like, shit I dunno man, make it something like a combination weapon mode swap+get 1/2 level THP until your next turn, we all know this Way exists to be Thancred. Level 15 deed should just be Triggerbrand Blitz and delete the once per minute and “are fatigued after use” parts, because it’s just “Drifter’s Wake but worse” for some reason??? Then give it a new level 14 feat. I don’t really care what honestly You could make it a defensive stance or something. You could then go fix Triggerbrand AND Drifter by making Dual-Weapon Reload a passive effect instead of a new action, and making Sword and Pistol cause reloading and changing a combination weapon’s mode to ALSO not provoke reactions

#pf2e #pathfinder 2nd edition #gunslinger #triggerbrand

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tsugihagichimera · 11 months

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finished DA:I DLC today and I'm still thinking so hard about it

Overall a really really good game that was enjoyable to play and made me very excited for DA:DW

Characters 9.5/10 awesome I kiss almost everyone

Story 7.5/10 DLC made it good

Gameplay 8/10 challenging but not too much. loved the customizable weapons and armor and focus abilities in particular

Area design 7/10 beautiful and interesting open world areas. some places were hard to navigate bc the inquistor's jump/walk physics are a little jiggly. THANK YOU FOR TELEPORTS FROM ANYWHERE

QA 3/10 enormous bugs that made me nervous a lot

Replayability YES playing as a male mage Dalish elf was an extreme flavor in terms of both lore and political standing and I want to replay so bad someday. gonna be hard not to romance Dorian though my wifey

More disorganized thoughts below

I'm glad I never played DA until this year because I would've died waiting for the sequel ... I had so much fun and I want more so bad.

Despite all the glaring bugs (AND THERE ARE A TON OF THEM) the game itself was super duper fun. I think the strongest improvement from the previous DA installments was the characters--maybe it's because I came off of DA2 liking nobody in particular besides Varric (maybe Aveline too tho she hated my rebellion choices all the time), but to me DA:I had the most fleshed out and likable characters. I think the extra scenes you can view for each person added a whole lot to the experience, and they always had interesting things to say, and the interactions felt so organic and charming! I couldn't help but cry near the end when Cassandra started getting all soft on me 😭 and Dorian was the sweetest lover ever like. the way he was so tsun with his words but whenever my inquisitor did something amazing he'd look at him like "that's my man 🥺" so sweet. THE WAY I WAS LIKE "DORIAN I LOVE YOU" BEFORE THE LAST FIGHT AND HE WAS LIKE "YOU BASTARD I KNEW YOUD BREAK MY HEART" I WAS SO DISTRAUGHT!!! IF I DIED AND LEFT DORIAN ALONE I WOULD RIOT ON BIO.WARE PERSONALLY

ugh anyway amazing and lovable characters and drastically improved romances aside, the battle system felt much better to me!! I chose knight enchanter mage for my inquisitor and managed to find a really comfy setup that was challenging but not overly so, not like in the earlier games in the series, where I had to constantly switch the difficulty back to easy. DLC was sufficiently difficult too but not impossible even if I didn't do every single quest beforehand

what else. the area maps were stunning I could tell they really took the repetitive map note from DA2 and went all out with it. I had a fun time with every single map too and they had different challenges and cool puzzles, and I loved that it was open world but contained so I didn't feel like I was always getting lost and overwhelmed. In particular, I remember just looking out at emprise du leon like oooohh... colors .... the stark red lyrium against the white snow was so lovely and unsettling

a few things I didn't like were the amount of OVERTLY BAD BUGS like I know it's a huge and complex game and like classic Bio.Ware blah blah blah but I managed to get a side quest prompt stuck on my screen from the Orlais court mission all the way until the ending lmaooo. a couple times I had to reload bc my character was stuck in some weird half-tactical camera view and couldn't move anywhere. among other big bugs

I liked the story too ngl, main story was quite simplistic but the trespasser DLC made up for it greatly. I sincerely hope they at least kept the writers for Dread Wolf because I would love for the dialogue and character quality to be similar...

also for the love of god please do more bug fixes for DA4 I know it's. it's hard but. please </3

#meekaygaming

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christiangrest · 1 year

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A Colt on a Mission…

Sadly I have never owned a Colt rifle of any sort until recently. The last couple of years however, I had it in my mind to start working on a project to put together a sort of 20” AR-15(M16) military clone of some sort. Many folks my age served in the military or remember the footage coming from over seas during our conflicts in the sands post 911. Our military small arms got to see some real action as well as some hard use. These small arms were primarily manufactured by Colt and FN. Of course everyone can point out the Colt M4 rifle. It was a 14.5” carbine with a stock with an adjustable length of pull, a flat top receiver and a barrel with cuts for a grenade launcher. The other main rifle that was fielded was the M16A4 variant. This was a 20” M16 with a flat top upper receiver. Soldiers were issued either a carry handle with iron sights or a Trijicon ACOG 4x32 optic. These 20” rifles had a standard A2 fixed buttstock assembly, rifle length gas system, A2 fixed front sight post and the standard A2 flash hider. The handguards were either the standard round handguards, but many were outfitted with the Knight’s Armament Company M5 RAS quad rail setup in order to mount accessories such as lights, laser designators, vertical grip etc…

I’ve always had a fascination with the M16A4 rifle, so I was faced with a few different options. Brownells sells both the FN Collector series rifle that comes setup exactly like most of those issued but they’re not in stock too often and cost a premium. The second option was to purchase all of the individual parts to assemble one myself. Typically this is the option I take when working on a project, but it’s somewhat hard to find 20” barrels with the A2 front sight post. Another option presented itself, how about a Colt 20” AR-15A4? Brownells just happened to have some of these in stock and they were on sale for a nice price of $899. It doesn’t come with the KAC M5 RAS, vertical grip or rear sight like the FN Collector Series rifle does, but it’s also half the price. I quickly snatched one of these rifles up and received it within a few days.

Upon receiving the rifle, it’s a sound foundation for what I’m trying to accomplish. Finally, my very first Colt rifle. Have never owned one in the past, but it’s perfect for what I’m after. 20” 1:7 twist chrome lined barrel should last a very long time and give acceptable accuracy. It’s got most of the Colt markings as the pre-CZ Colts had, although laser engraving has taken over for the older roll marking system. When it’s all said and done, I’ll be putting more money into the rifle to complete my M16A4 project, but I thoroughly enjoy piecing together pieces needed and also the satisfaction of installing those items. Luckily I already have a Trijicon ACOG sitting there waiting for a home. I’ll of course be picking up the M5 RAS and appropriate backup sight. It’s on a mission to look just like what our military has been using in the past.

#brownells #brownellsinc #bureauofpropaganda #m16 #colt #m16a4

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adamjagger · 1 year

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Holosun ls321r

Alright guys so this week’s product that I talk about is going to be the holosun ls321r. This is one of the more affordable infrared laser devices on the market. I got mine from brownells for a great deal, which I’ll leave links down below to where you can find it.

First off this is going to be a first impressions/what comes with it type of post. I am still waiting for a certain PVS 14 to be back in stock so all of the visual reference I have is just through the SiOnyx Aurora camera.

First off, it does come in a case, very similar to what you would see from Eotech. Which is nice if you intend on taking the device off for storage or anything like that. I don’t plan on doing it so for me it just becomes another case that I have a giant stack of it does come with a remote tape switch that isn’t the best of quality but if you’re working on a budget, it will work just fine for you. It also comes with the instruction manual a battery, the typical Torx wrench, and some other miscellaneous items.

First impression is the build quality seems really good on it. It seems like a very solid device. The overall form factor of it is kind of the only negative thing I have to say about it. This is one of the taller infrared devices on the market, but with it being taller, it’s also a lot narrower, which is nice for clearing lights, or any other attachments you may have on the sides .

The controls are very easy to use on this. It does have a nice textured fire button on top with a nice positive click. You can also double tap the fire button to have constant on. The selection switch is also pretty easy to use the windage and elevation adjustments are also nice and easy to use. They have a nice bridge around them to protect them and you can also easily mark your zero on those. The battery cap is surprisingly nice threads, and very easily, the spring, and all that is attached nicely. It does have a rubber tether to keep the cap attached. One of my favorite things about this device is the adjustment for the illuminator is on the rear of the device rather than the front like a lot of other ones are. I think overall that is just a way better solution. That way you’re not messing around at the muzzle end of the rifle and also you can adjust it a lot easier with her being on the back without having to move the rifles position a whole lot.

As for the tape switch that I am using, it is a unity hot button with a crane style plug. Initially when I first got it, I was not able to get the unity switch to plug into the device. After a quick search online, I found out that the terminals on the unity Are just a little bit taller than what the holosun receptacle is. Luckily, that is a extremely quick and easy fix. All you have to do is take a pair of pliers and very lightly squeeze the terminals on the unity switch and then test fit it and just do that until it works I barely had to do this, but once I did, the unity switch clicked right in.

Overall, the infrared illuminator could use a little bit more power. I think the laser itself is great that’s very easy to see but I just wish the illuminator had a little bit more throw to it. I did use the visible laser to zero the device on my rifle and it’s pretty easy to pick up at distance , but it’s hard to find it initially. That could be due to the fact that I got a red version which is about $60 cheaper than the green laser version but I only intended on using the visible laser just to zero the device since the visible laser in the infrared laser are co aligned.

Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with this device. I’m excited to get to use it under true night vision and I’m sure I’ll have a full length review on it once I get to do that. I do plan on picking up more of the products from holosun. Brownell‘s does carry pretty much all of them so if you are interested again, I’ll leave a link down below. You can go check that out other than that. I’ve been very happy with this device and hope that by the time a full review is done on it but I’m still happy with it.

Happy shooting

Adam Jagger gun blog #22 2-11-23

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binniesthighs · 3 years

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call me babydoll | reader x chan

a/n: ahhhhh holy holy heck this chapter is SO DAMN EXCITING hehehe I had sosososo much writing and doing all the research!! please let me know if there is anything factual/cultural that I need to fix! I tried the best I could although I most def am not an expert in Egyptian culture so I appreciate it a lot :) hehe i hope ya have fun reading this chapter teehee oh! also I love hearing what you thought of it too! :D

Four

Pairing: self insert, female reader x bang chan

Genre: action, mystery and suspense, fluff, smut, angst

Tags: (of this part) bodyguard au, secret agent au, royal au, moderndayprince!chan, secretagent!reader, secretagent!jeongin, secretagent!jisung, collegestudent!seungmin, royal!minho, skz side characters, adventure and mystery, action and peril, plot driven, running out of time, slow-ish burn, growing feelings, sexual tension, explicit language, several mentions of food and alcohol as well as getting tipsy/drunk that good, good making out, suggestive themes

CWs: mentions of guns, mentions of knives, themes of jealousy (expressed by the reader)

Word count: 7.5k

Parts

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE

“Well, we’re in Cairo alright.”

Two tugged the amazed young stow-away-student, Seungmin, by the hand of his backpack to keep him from running into one of the palm tree planters decorating the terminal. The young man had nearly slept the whole flight due to the length as well as the exasperation that he had just been through. While his eyes were still darkened from his nap, his glossy pupils still wondered all around him.

“I take it back. I’m so glad that I almost died so I could end up here with you guys.”

Jeongin slapped him from the backside of his head. “Never be thankful for almost dying. Life is a lot more fucking fragile than you think. This isn’t just some joyride--”

“--Ease up F.” You interrupted your partner as you shouldered your bag. The kid had already been through enough already: he didn’t need accosting on top of it all.

The dashing prince sighed out and stretched his arms. “Ahhhh Cairo. It’s been a while; too long actually.”

The airport was humid: the kind of sticky warmth that dripped down your neck in a matter of seconds to then get caught above your lip. It wasn’t much help to the anxiety that already had seeped into your veins. The closer you got to a gun the more comfortable you would be. You and the other two guards created a formation around the prince with two in the front and the other in the flank. While each of you were dressed in regular street clothes, your responsibility of his detail still hung over your head with a severe air.

Chan threw his arm over the young student with an obscene grin. His hair had become a little disheveled from the plane seat and his hoodie, but he didn’t appear to mind. Seeing him so normal was somewhat of an odd change to your previous unbreakable impression of him.

“Seungmin my friend, you’ve never lived until you’ve been to Cairo. I’ve never seen another place so enriched in history in my whole life...it puts my kingdom to shame. It’s almost like...you can just feel the time here: hundreds of thousands of years...beauty, art, food, industry...I’ve got a thing or two to learn.”

Seungmin nodded at the prince’s grandiose gestures in the terminal with an enamored smile. “I can’t wait to see it!”

Your partner put a firm hand on the prince’s back to guide him to the baggage claim. “We won’t be here for long, so, don’t get too excited. We’ve come here for one reason and we shouldn’t dally otherwise.”

The young boy appeared to frown, and Two bit his lip with a little chuckle. “Way to crush the kids dreams F.”

“You know the mission, J.” Jeongin gritted his teeth with the words. “Everything is set, there will be a car waiting for us in the garage, and at the hotel we’ll have anything we need.”

Prince Chan lulled his head back with heels clicking on the flooring. Rogue strands of his hair hung over his sunglasses where he threw a look back at you while pulling them down.

“Don’t forget our little deal Bee? We’ll have time for a little pleasure.”

The white haired agent rolled his eyes with gusto then adjusted the royal’s glasses over his face. “We’ve still got to be careful, you Highness. We never know where they could have eyes.”

“I know where I’ve got mine...” He turned back once more to throw his cockiness in your general direction.

“Listen to F, your Highness...if you want to live.”

“Oooo. Feisty as ever, Bee. I love it when you bite back.” Chan turned to his new pet, Seungmin, “She’s really something isn’t she?”

The young man nodded, but not necessarily because he agreed, but it just seemed like it better to agree with a prince than to disagree with him.

The air appeared to turn even thicker in the summery and arid city and your group approached the parking lot half shaded. Outside of the cement lot, iridescent waves of heat wiggled on the horizon, and further, the astonishing urban sprawl of Cairo, and just over it, the stretch of the Nile and Giza. Palms and other varieties of plants spotted the landscape and above it all, a perfectly crystal blue sky streaked with thin clouds. Had the circumstances been different, you really would have wished to have been there for pleasure.

“This one. Right here.” Jeongin announced upon spotting the black armored sedan. It wasn’t the most inconspicuous vehicle, but you were prioritizing safety over aesthetics. Your partner touched his index fingerprint to the car door’s invisible panel, and it flashed blue just as the lock had at the safehouse with the ticking clock insignia.

Two whipped his head around to make one last check of the surroundings before taking off his sunglasses and reddened eye. “Get in. Both of you.” He urged the prince and the student. He popped the drivers side open to find a different pair of glasses in the storage compartment: gold framed aviators.

“Huh,” He said happily while putting them on. “This is more my style.” He rummaged around a bit more to find a new pair of black framed glasses there too. “Fox! Think fast!” He threw them over to your partner who sighed out with relief.

“Thank god.”

The trunk opened with a mechanical sounding creek, and you lifted up the trunk bed to find your whole arsenal: Heckler & Koch MP5′s submachines, Remington 870 shotguns, and Glocks complete with thigh holsters. Among the pile of metal, various knives and other weapons were held in foam holders.

“They’ve got knives back there?” Two asked while pulling the rearview mirror to see.

“Oh yeah. What? You more of a knife guy?” You teased while looping your thigh holster over your cargo pants. It fit just right.

The illusive man popped his gum with a shiny smile. “‘Don’t ever have to reload them...that’s what I’m saying.”

“Thank you Carroll.” Jeongin sighed upon seeing the thick laptop among the weapons. “Finally I can do some real work. That kid’s damn Chromebook was killing me. I nearly short circuited it trying to connect to our network.”

“You what?!” Seungmin was suddenly much more interested.

“Dont worry yourself too much, its still fine.”

“Are there cameras in here?” You quickly asked your partner.

“Agency should’ve fried them a long time ago. Why?”

From the trunk bed you sized up the Glock to feel its weight and how cool it settled into your sweating hand. You unloaded the magazine to see that it had already been filled.

“Carroll. She really is too kind to us.” You slid the magazine back in then, pulled back the slider to lock it once more, catching Chan’s adoring glance.

“Something interesting pretty boy?”

The prince appeared to shiver a little, but brushed it off sighing, “Oh, nothing.”

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

Either it was Carroll or the King, but someone had spared no expense on the young prince. The sun set upon the sparking Nile where you had arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza.

Anything for His Royal Highness The Prince.

The towering and gleaming building was a sight to behold in and of itself. It was nestled right into the riverside anchored with several leisurely sailboats bopping in the evening breeze. As day crept into night, the city grew with a swell of lights washing as far as you could see. Extensive bridges and roadways glowed with headlights and every building appeared to be illuminated along with more boats strolling down the river in a rainbow of colors and music.

The prince craned his head as close to the window as he could and rubbed together his hands excitedly. He looked from you to your partners, finally making a disapproving scoff.

“Come on. You’re not just a little excited to be here?”

“We’re here on business, how many times do we have to explain?” Jeongin typed away at his computer from the front seat.

“Bee?” He looked back to you with a hopeful little glint to his eye.

“Like Fox said...tomorrow is our appointment with White Rabbit, then we’re on the first flight back home for you.”

The young prince frowned, but this quickly faded once he had seen the golden brass doors to the magnificent hotel. Seeing the state that the four of you were in, it was a bit comical that you had rolled up to a place such as this. Immediately a valet and bellhop jogged up to the car wearing perfectly pressed uniforms and spotless shined shoes. Little did they know you had no belongings to your name...the rest was waiting in your suite: the royal kind.

Seungmin cranked his neck to take in the scale of the building in all of it’s regal glory and let out an airy laugh his with his backpack straps snapped tight.

“Holy shit.” He exclaimed with a giant smile

Two rose a “no thank you” hand to the valet, and asked him where the garage was in perfect Arabic. The gesture surprised you...as many things did with that man. Jeongin gave a little nod in appreciation to the bellhop and expressed with his own broken version of Arabic that you group had no luggage. The young man was confused, but still gladly took the bills that Jeongin had slipped into his hand for the inconvenience.

“We’re staying here?” Seungmin wondered while he followed you in.

“When you travel with The Prince, it comes with some perks.” Chan tore off his glasses with a particularly prideful grin.

“I feel like I need to pay for just...breathing in here.”

Indeed, it was a luxurious and grand place. The atrium was patterned with various plush lounge chairs and benches and the path was made of emerald green marble tiles with swirling designs of beige loops. Thick, round columns also supported the ceilings in the lobby, and crystal glass chandeliers sparkled. On several tables, massive floral arrangements had been freshly placed, and you wondered how much the hotel must've paid for them to look that good just to have them replaced the next day.

A couple formalities were exchanged with the worker at the front desk, and soon the keycards to the royal suite were placed into your hands. Seungmin held his piece of plastic as if it were a gold bar in his hands whereas Chan shoved it right into his front pocket.

“Everything that we should need should be up in the room.” You told the group who were too distracted to hear what you had just said.

Just before you had entered the elevator, a tug at your sleeve stopped you in your tracks. Jeongin pulled you back, nodding at Two to go with the others up first.

“Remember what we talked about before?” He muttered in the hollow and stone corridor. “About the prince?”

“I need to stay beside him?”

Your partner nodded with a furrowing brow. “We’re out in the open here, it’s a big city...anyone could be watching us. No distractions, no messing around, no anything. We see White Rabbit and we leave. Hell, I’m even inclined to make sure he doesn’t leave the room...”

“Jeongin...” You squeezed your partner’s shoulder which felt stringy and tense under your fingertips. “I got it. Trust me. He won’t leave my sight. I promise.”

“..Okay.” He said with a nervous brush to his hair, then he pressed the elevator button with his knuckle.

“You...okay?”

The young man appeared to snap out of a trance. “What? ...Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? I’m keeping it together fine. It’s just...there’s a lot riding on this mission. I don’t...”

The gold and reflective elevator dinged to the ground floor.

“We can’t disappoint Carroll with this one. There’s too much riding on it...I can’t disappoint Carroll.”

You invited your partner into the marbled and mirrored interior of the small space.

“Don’t worry, we won’t.”

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

Even without the help of his royal helpers, Chan managed to clean himself up nice...provided, only the finest clothes had been sent for him to wear. While they weren’t the usual designer labels that he was used to, it was clear that they had been picked out from the finest markets and boutiques in the area. Chan, as he always was, was a prince to the full extent of the word. After a shower and some perfume to his chest, he was the same man that you had been introduced to.

A loose linen shirt swayed from his frame with little regard for the usage of buttons. He wore slacks that had been pressed made of a kind of fabric that you had never seen before, but looked airy and comfortable. As always, there was a small assortment of shoes for him to choose from as well. He picked brown leather loafers, then tucked up his sleeves to reveal his arms; scratched as they were, but still strong and spiderwebbed with thick veins.

Arrangements had been made for you to share one of the bedrooms with him--as much as you had fought it at first. Chan was thrilled with the idea, and gladly let you settle into his room with your small assortment of sidepieces and modest set of clothes by regulation of The Agency. While it had mostly been denim button downs and several kinds of functional trousers, they had sent an evening gown.

The silky white fabric was not unlike the dress that had worn for the gala, but it appeared to be even more sultry once you held it to your frame. The thin spaghetti straps barely held to your shoulders and the back dipped nearly halfway down your back.

Knowing the man that you had an appointment with, you figured the dress would make it just a little bit easier to talk to him. Along with it, there was a matching set of diamond earrings and a necklace that glinted with the same sheen of the sea.

“You’ll look gorgeous in that.” Chan said while slipping on a wristwatch. “I’m sure that it will suit you perfectly.”

The wooden bedside nightstand creaked when you put your holster and Glock in with a matching matte black knife. You had to be careful with that one, as it had nearly cut your finger upon inspection earlier.

“Hm. I think the both of us know that you’d prefer it on these lovely marble floors rather than on me. Correct?”

The confident prince strode across the room in the dim lighting of a couple lamps with stained glass shades. Outside of the balcony attached to your room, the sheer curtains blew in the night air and distorted the city lights across the river. Further, Cairo Tower surged with a pink light wrapping around the length were the cylinder pierced the sky.

“Maybe.” He tutted, then crinkled the king-sized bed where he sat. The prince’s disposition was alluring, there was no denying. He tiled his head to inspect you further, jaw clenching with a sharp angle and a testing glare to his brown pupils. The man smiled slightly while rubbing his index and ring finger down the sleeve of your considerably less scratchy blouse.

“I hope that during our time here Bee, I’ll get to know you a little better. I’m...really looking forward to our drink later. I made reservations for us.”

“Reservations? When did you do that?”

“Oh. When you were showering.” He smirked at his sneaky plans unbeknownst to you.

“If you think that I’m letting you go anywhere else besides this hotel--”

“--Bee?” The young royal grew quieter, softer, careful even. His hand cascaded from your arm down to your waist where he tentatively went to grab at your hip and squeeze lightly there.

While your first reaction was to swat him away, your second crept up on you unexpectedly, and swelled with a kind of confused euphoria feeling the pressure of him on your body. You let his hand linger there, thumb pressed into your hipbone.

“You don’t need that dress to be beautiful.”

His words snapped you back; sickly sweet, and sticky in your chest. You cast his hand off of you.

“You’re crossing the line, your Highness. Don’t...don’t touch me again.”

The royal sighed as he rose, then inspected his face in the sizeable mirror. Each of his cuts and scars had been skillfully covered with makeup the best he could manage.

“Bee, I’d cross multiple lines for you. I thought you knew?”

“THIS BED IS FUCKIN’ AMAZING!!” Seungmin called from the opposite of the suite.

The prince smiled, then followed you to the door.

“I’ve already got enough on my hands, your Highness. I ask that you not distract me.”

“Distract you?”

As soon as you had said it, regret bit at the tips of your ears. You couldn’t meet his teasing glances, but rather slid one of your more discrete sidepieces into your crossbody bag--as if guns as such could be such a thing.

“I-I...I’ll sleep on the couch.” You then resolved out loud, however the prince chuckled at your sudden break.

“As you wish Bee.”

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

“I think that this is the best meal that I’ve ever eaten in my entire life!!”

Seungmin kicked his legs under the table to the embarrassed glances of both Jeongin and Chan. Before you, the prince had ordered a variety of both cold and hot mezzah dishes with a couple main entrees for you to share. While he was the only one to drink, he indulged in the most expensive wine that the hotel had to offer. Granted, everything would be paid for in cash from The Agency, however the Prince swore up and down that anyone could order anything that they wanted and that The Agency would be paid back in full. You and your partners ate modestly, however the young student didn’t hold back. As the boy shoved his face, it appeared to make the prince happy to see him eating so well.

You were still an odd group, and garnered curious glances from other restaurant guests. While they were only glances in passing, they still didn’t make you feel any better. You had already drawn enough attention to yourself with you being an odd mix of foreigners who each held themselves differently. You could sense that you partner felt it too while he sipped at his seasonal soup with eyes up to scan the room as he did so.

Chan threw his arm behind your chair to take in the rest of the room: perfectly decorated with jade green chandeliers and perfectly symmetrical wallpaper and furnishings. It was as if he felt somehow content with your strange little group; like he was the ringleader of it all or some king of the round table. For a moment, he paused to watch the way that the boats passed by on the river from the window nearest to him and sighed. Knowing him, he was probably enjoying running for his life in this way.

Two cleared his throat and unbuttoned his fashionable suit jacket as the waiters came to clear the table for dessert.

“So. What are the specs for tomorrow?”

Jeongin fiddled with his glasses, then dabbed away at the corners of his mouth. “He’s invited us to come around 11pm. He wants us to dress up too--as I’m sure you’ve all seen the clothes that have been provided for us. He apparently loves his formalities, but, anything to make him feel more comfortable I suppose. His men will meet us in the front and take us to him, then we try our best not to fuck it up.”

“--Which we won’t.” You soothed your partner.

Seungmin perked up, “I’m coming too?”

“How else are we going to look after ya, kid?” Two ruffled up the young man’s hair.

“W-wait. Didn’t you say that it’s a club? Will they even let me in? I’m not like, 21 yet? I mean, I will be in a couple months--”

“--Ahhh you’re so cute.” Chan beamed. “If you’re rolling with us that doesn’t matter.”

Seungmin blushed and played with the condensation of his water glass. “Oh.”

Your partner shifted in his seat. “Speaking of. Considering that you’re “one of us” now. We need to discuss something important with you. Your identity.” He looked over to you to finish the rest of the speech that had been pushed off for just a bit too long.

“Your name...is your most valuable asset. It’s the only thing about yourself that you can keep for yourself. No one else should know it besides you...and, well, us. If they know your name, they know your family, they know where you live, where you go to school, even that girl that you had a crush on in the fourth grade. Got it?”

Seungmin gulped dry with blown out eyes. “I-I think that I understand.”

“What do you want us to call you from now on?”

He paused, considering towards the ceiling. ”Well...if you’re B, and he’s F...and he’s J...I could be S? Simple enough right?”

“S it is then.”

The waiters arrived with every dessert possible: chocolate cake, Crème Brule, fruit cheesecake garnished with mint, as well as traditional desserts like Om Ali and Mehalabiya--a type of milk pudding dressed with delicate, pink, edible flowers.

Seungmin--now dubbed S--made happy little eating sounds while he tried a little bit of everything.

“Thank you.” You finally spoke to the prince, who now smelled strongly of Lotus and Jasmine.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind treating my friends.”

The word hung in the air, and you didn’t quite know what to do with it.

Friends.

“Where is this reservation that you mentioned?”

He took a swing from his crystal glass with finesse. “Hm. That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Jeongin told me that I need to keep an eye on you, you know that? It would be best if we didn’t leave the hotel at all--”

“--But what would be the fun in that?” The prince nearly pouted.

From the others side of the table, Two in his aviators brushed off his lap before standing. “I’m going to get some sleep, if that’s alright with you? I’m feeling pretty jetlagged and I want to be prepared for tomorrow. Excuse me.”

The slender man bowed to you at the table, then even deeper to the prince.

“What was that about?” Jeongin muttered while he poked at the thin caramel layer of his French dessert.

“Actually, I think I want to head to bed too, I’m stuffed.” Seungmin rubbed his belly in his contentment. “Also...I think I might have homework due...heh. I don’t know...I’ve got to figure out all these all these time differences and stuff.” He pushed in his chair then gave the prince a deep bow. “Thank you, your Highness.”

“My pleasure.” Chan said with a tiny bow back. “Rest up, kid.”

With the empty holes at the table, the silence was deafening.

“And then there were three.” Jeongin yawned. “Bee? Wanna do some laps in the morning? I saw that they had a pool? Wanna see if you can beat my record...again?”

“Psh. I was coming off that biochemical cocktail the last time we tired. You had an advantage.”

“Then you’ll beat me? Hm! I look forward to that.” Your adorable partner flashed the first smile that you’d seen in a couple days. You missed it, you realized.

“Sleep tight Bee. Goodnight your Highness.”

“Thank you Fox.” The prince mirrored his warm smile.

Knives and forks clinked on china in the dining room, and music softly payed the soundtrack of the evening. A low hum filled the space where the tourists and patrons chatted among themselves. It was peaceful and normal amidst everything that had been pricking your skin and plaguing worry over your mind. The prince merely sighed, sparking eyes reflecting the candles dying out on the table.

“And now it’s just the two of us.”

“Seems like it.”

“Can I whisk you away now?”

“Whisk? Who said that I would allow any whisking?”

“Come on...Bee. Just this one time? I promise to be on my best behavior.”

You laughed out incredulously at the comment. “You out of all people can’t promise something like that.”

“I guess you’re right about that. But...still, I won’t try to make a scene or anything.”

The royal placed his napkin on the table with his knife and fork respectfully tilted off the edge of his plate.

“Follow me?”

Chan held out his hand. It was pink with heat and scraped a little from the glass that had pierced the fragile flesh. In some way, you had felt a twinge of guilt seeing the small injury knowing that you couldn’t have protected him well enough then. You allowed him to lace your fingers with yours, and felt the rough cuts of his scars in your palm.

You had promised to yourself that he would never know such pain again.

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

“Annnd...this is it!”

You had taken all of twenty paces outside of the hotel when Chan gestured with open arms to the riverfront. Just at the riverbank, a steamboat was anchored with open doors for hotel guests to enter. The massive, multideck, white steamboat shone like the moon peaking at the ocean’s horizon. Each of the semi-circle windows were lined with white lights and from the inside, the delightful sound of laugher and live music spilled out to the glossy water of the Nile.

“W-what is this?”

“Well…it’s a dinner cruise but I just signed us up for the bar part. Are you...surprised? I thought that it must be pretty safe considering that we’re on the water and no one can drive up and shoot at us.”

“I mean...it’s a bit closed off, but nothing that I can’t handle.”

The prince held out his arm for you to lead the way, then took your hand to help you watch your step down the stairs. Chan provided his name to the conductor in elegant sounding Arabic, leaving you shocked.

“Y-you speak Arabic too?”

Chan chuckled once more, taking your hand in his to bring you down the creaking wood deck with swinging with lanterns above your heads.

“As a royal and diplomat, it’s best for me to know how to communicate if I might need to.”

“I must say your Highness, I am definitely impressed.”

“What? You thought I was just another pretty face?” The charming prince escorted you to a room within the steamboat that was lined with red velvet carpets and small bar tables with tea candles and water lilies floating in a shallow dish. He pulled out your chair before his own, then settled with hands folded in his lap. “I’m trained in hand-to-hand too, although I could use a refresher; that was so long ago, back when I went to school.”

“Hand-to-hand? Well! You really are full of surprises.”

The prince appeared smug and faintly amused by the compliment as he crossed his legs under the table and leaned in with his dizzying floral scent.

The waitress appeared and Chan flexed his language skills once more while he ordered a Hemmingway Daiquiri for himself and a French 75 for you. Somewhere off in the distance or perhaps a different part of the boat, louder and more excitable music played along with the echoing claps of those who listened along. Here, it was much quieter, and the loud sound was replaced with a jazz song that you had heard before--likely from your more formative years.

“It’s a beautiful night.” Chan began, “Thank you for agreeing to do this with me. I know that I’ve been a bit forward, but, I appreciate you entertaining me.”

“If I had said no, what would’ve happened then?”

“Well, maybe I would’ve dropped it, but...knowing you...I don’t think that I would’ve given up easily.”

The waitress returned with the drinks on a silver platter: his grapefruit pink and yours the color of a lemon drop.

The royal rose his glass for you to clink with yours, “To...adventures.”

“To adventures.”

With a resounding sound, the glasses met, and you watched the way that the shimmering liquid ripped across the prince’s nose.

The two of you sat for several moments more, saying nothing, but sipping and soaking in the night breeze and the humidity that made your whole body feel blanketed with a sense of calm. You had felt this way before back at the safe house, and it snuck up on you once more. Simply exisiting with the prince provided you with a sense of solace that had long since faded from your life. The sense of responsibility that you felt for the man was noticeable, but you couldn’t help but notice how he provided for you the same sense of safety that you did for him.

Perhaps it was the loneliness of the job and the solitude that came along with it. Was that you craved to be touched? Listened to? Admired? You had distanced yourself from irrational things such as love and other feelings of attachment. In your line of work, people died often, and you had to move on just as fast as their lives had been taken from them. You supposed that you had become unfeeling at this point...but this prince, so full of himself and focused on the material...there was something about him that reminded you how to feel.

“Bee? What are you thinking about?” He asked carefully.

“Oh...nothing.”

“You looked kind of lost here.”

“Was I?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah...yeah. I’m fine. Maybe the drink is just...getting to me.”

“Just one drink?” Chan giggled a bit, “I didn’t take you for being a lightweight Bee. I thought that they gave you like, drinking lessons or something back at that agency of yours.”

“I’m fine. I shouldn’t have more than one drink anyway.”

The prince nodded, understanding. “So, what will you tell me about yourself? Is there anything that you’re allowed to tell me? Or...will you always be this mysterious, beautiful, enigma?”

“Me? Enigmatic? Ha! Hardly.”

“Well? What then?” The prince sucked at the lime garnishing his glass. “Since I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your real name, I’d love it if you could tell me something.”

Over the stereo, the muted trumpet played along with the twang of thick upright bass strings,

“I suppose I could tell you how...” Chan leaned in, “I didn’t want to join The Agency. At first.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“It felt like a bit of a last resort and anything that is a last resort is something that can’t come easy.”

Chan titled his head as if to say, I’m listening.

“Life...fucking sucks sometimes. Sometimes...you’re left...living with your sleazy uncle with a letter addressed to you post mortem telling you to carry on the family name if you want to feel some connection to the parents that you never knew.”

The royal cast his eyes down, “I-I’m so sorry.”

“The Agency has been everything I’ve known since I was a teenager. This life...it’s everything. I think in a way I feel obligated to it...since it was what took my parents from me...I owe it to them to do a job that they spent so much energy on so that it wasn’t in vain.”

You stopped, realizing the weight of your words in the air and how they cut like the blade of the knife that you kept tucked in your waistband sheathed in a leather cover. Once the sharp metal was taken from it’s confines, there was nothing to protect those from the damage it could do.

“Bee...I don’t know what to say besides I’m sorry. That’s terrible. I can’t imagine what it must be like to loose your parents and have been thrown into this life...no one deserves that.”

“Its okay.” You sighed. “I did it to myself. Now, it’s of no concern. I can take care of my own, and I have a new family. I try not to look back.”

As he had done numerous times before that night, Chan’s hand reached out for yours under the table, brushing up against the white cloth.

“I can’t say how much I appreciate you enough for what you do; risking your life for me...I owe you everything Bee.” The prince softened, rubbing his thumb against the back of your hand.

The chug of the steamboat hissed softly behind you in that back bar room, and just through the windows, you could see the stars dotting the sky just as they did in any corner of the world. They were a reminder that while some things changed, others didn’t.

The echo of footsteps on the deck clicked, causing you to turn a careful glance back to the direction of the sound. The man who entered was dressed in a casual cotton button up and navy slacks. On the white of his breast, he wore a pin holding the symbol of a crest.

“Lee Minho?” Chan gasped.

“Your Highness!” The handsome man bowed immediately with a startled little smile.

The friendly prince stood immediately upon seeing the other royal to shake his hand. “What a coincidence that we meet again!”

Lee Minho shied with a polite smile while fiddling with his hair that looked to be masterfully styled. “Must be...fated. Or something like that.”

“Are you alright? Last I saw you was at the shooting at the gala. I’m so glad to see that you’re safe. You didn’t get injured I hope?”

This close, Lee Minho had oddly cat-like eyes that were as intense as they were alluring. He was just as you had remembered him to be--put together and polished like a true royal, dastardly handsome with all the right curves to his body, and just enough mystery to him to pique the interest of anyone who had sensed his air--just as the prince had.

“What are you doing in Cairo?” Chan asked, gesturing for the stranger to pull up a chair.

Lee Minho swatted away the question with an annoyed cringe. “Royal stuff, you know how it goes. Everyone is always trying to poke their noses in places where they shouldn’t be...unless they’re looking to get themselves killed. That's why they send me. I’m dispensable.”

“Oh, I’d hardly say that.”

In seconds the prince’s entire body had shifted towards the direction of the other man, and hung onto each of his words as if they were a siren song.

“When you’re not as high up in the ranks as you are your Highness, royalty starts to feel more like servitude than a legitimate position.”

“So, where are you poking your nose?”

Lee Minho’s eyes nervously flicked to you, and Chan realized that he had skipped right over introductions.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce the two of you. Minho, this is Bee, my--”

“--I’m a member of his detail.” You spoke for him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you formally Lee Minho. I recall seeing you at the gala.”

Minho bowed slightly, “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”

It was obvious that you had made the man uncomfortable, just as you had liked it to be. While you could see what the prince had seen in him, you had the disposition to be much less trusting than his Highness.

“Which royals are employing you? I’d love to know! It’s always exciting for me to learn about who is plotting what. The royal drama keeps me really entertained.”

Minho sat up straighter, then waved a hand for the waitress to come scuttling over.

“Some of my family members. You wouldn’t know them, we’re all dreadfully insignificant to be honest. They heard all this business about those men with the red crests and they’re starting to get scared. After they targeted...you, they’re wondering which royal family might be next...if any. I’m here to find out who they are, their whereabouts, anything else.”

“Wow! That’s actually what we--”

“--And where are you planning on getting this information if I may ask?” You hushed the prince’s loose lips as quickly as you could.

Minho leaned in over the flickering candle to lower his tone, “I heard that there’s an informant here in the city who might now something about this group. They’ve been popping up on national news too as of late. I’m looking to talk to him tomorrow evening. Luckily, I was able to make an appointment but it was no small feat. I had to bribe him to high hell to get him to speak with me.”

“Hm. Sounds familiar.” You mumbled.

Chan’s eyes widened, then he looked back to you to ask for permission. You gave him a nod.

“It seems like we’re here for a common purpose my friend.” The prince leaned in to bridge the gap between them, his hand notably reaching to rest on the other man’s thigh below the table’s surface. “We’re seeking similar information and I think we might be speaking of the same informant.”

“But your Highness, isn’t it dangerous it you to do something like this?”

“Not when I’ve got her around.” Chan threw a sly grin to you across the table. “I’m well protected. And you? Where’s your detail?”

“I’m afraid that I’m out here alone. Like I said, when you’re as low in the ranks as I am...”

“What? That’s terrible!! They aren’t even protecting their own? Bee!!”

“Yes, your Highness?” You already knew where this was going.

“Let’s bring Minho along with us tomorrow! We know that there’s safety in numbers--”

“Your Highness, in case you haven’t noticed, our hands are already a bit full...”

“I can fend for myself.” Lee Minho suddenly piped. “Travelling alone, I’ve picked up a few things about protecting myself. You don’t have to protect me, but, I appreciate the offer.”

“Nonsense! You should come with us! I would feel more comfortable if you did rather than went by yourself.”

Lee Minho gave the royal a smile in his thanks, it was pure and a little adorable you had considered...but that was likely the champagne going to your head.

“Really? I appreciate it, your Highness.”

While you were distanced, you nearly could’ve sworn that the prince had squeezed the other’s leg reassuringly, and you were willing to bet he had rubbed it with his thumb too just as he had done to you.

After long, the waitress returned with Lee Minho’s drink, and the two men chatted like old college buddies while you slipped away at your drink in an attempt to make it last as long as you could. While Chan did try to engage you in conversation, it would never last for long until he would become puppy-eyed over the stranger again. In the end, you wondered if the tipsy prince would’ve also confessed to this man if he had one too many drinks.

The table bumped with their jovial and restless legs, and you could only imagine what wandering hands sought to discover.

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

The hotel was quiet save for the click of heels on the marble floors from ladies who had just gotten off the steamboat and clung to their husbands in their drunken stupor. They cackled in the empty and golden lobby, then pressed hasty kisses into the stuttering mouths of their husbands who’s mouths then smeared with hot pick lipstick. Chan giggled at the sight while he tripped over his own feet too.

“Ahhhh. Being in love is so cute.” He adored them once you had entered the elevator.

“You’re not going to throw up on me, are you?”

The prince hiccupped, then shook his head. “Unlike you I know how to hold my liquor. I’m fine. Just a bit sleepy I think. Must be the jet lag.”

The tones for each floor beeped in the compartment, and Chan lulled his head back and forth.

“So. Lee Minho huh?” You said, not even able to help yourself. The alcohol had brought you a bit of an edge...so you thought.

“Lee. Minho.” He sighed out dreamily. “What do you think of him?”

“I think I can’t trust anyone as long as I haven’t ran at least three background checks on them.”

“Awww, Bee, you’re so thoughtful of me.”

In the empty hallway, the prince with squinting eyes leaned against the doorframe to the royal suite, reaching out to brush up against your blouse once more. You let him, excusing his drunken state. After he did so, his eyes hazed over with something much different, while he looked exhausted, it was laced with something else: something much more longing.

“Bee...fuck, I really want to kiss you again.”

“Hm. That’s ripe coming from you who was just viciously flirting with Lee Minho.”

You could see his head spinning in his dilated pupils. “What?”

The door clicked open and you less than gracefully lead the prince through the dark to your shared bedroom.

“B-Bee, what are you talking about?”

You scoffed, “I’m not blind, you know.”

“A-are you...jealous?”

“W-what? Fuck no. I’m just...you can’t just...toss people around thinking that they’ll all bend to you.”

Chan sat at the edge of the bed and rubbed at his temples when you turned one of the lamps on.

“I-I was doing that?”

You tore a pillow from the bed as well as the throw blanket at the end. “I’m sleeping on the couch. Good evening, your Highness.”

“Wait! Bee!” The young prince stumbled after you, stubbing his toe against the bedpost in the process. “Ah-FUCK!” He grunted.

“What?” You growled back to him, half shrouded in the darkness of the suite living room.

The royal stumbled out, eyes blank and backlit from the bedroom. While you couldn’t see him fully, you later could assume that there was something in him terribly torn and ripped in that moment that made little sense to him, as it did to you to.

Arms reached out, bodies softly illuminated by the lights of the city, and the prince leaned himself fully into you, pressing bitter tasting lips to yours with a heat and desire that only seemed amplified the breather he had gotten. While he tasted of lime and grapefruits, with a twinge of alcohol. He was just as addictive as any vice. You wanted to feel him. As infuriating as he was, and oblivious, your abhorrence to him was just as strong as your attraction.

“Mm, Bee--” He moaned directly into your mouth while shuffling both of you back to the bedroom.

The prince’s trembling breath floated from his mouth to yours where he used both of his large hands to pull your face closer to his. You knew that in some way, there must have been something ingenuine about the whole scenario, but you didn’t care too much, not when kissing him felt like something. Maybe he had kissed you out of pity, or because he really had wanted to kiss you. You broke for seconds before both of your tangled limbs hit the bed.

“Before...you said that you wouldn’t kiss me.”

“I didn’t make any promises...but, how come...you said that you wouldn’t hesitate...? But you kissed ba--”

You silenced the prince’s words with your own heated kisses that made little sense, only that kissing him as such felt good. You straddled the man while his hungry fingers traced all the way down your back. The prince’s hips sunk into the cushiony mattress, and you screwed him down even harder into it with your own heated hips grinding into him with as much pressure as you could muster.

“This is what you want, right?” You pulled at his lip with your teeth to hear him groan from it.

“Is it...what you want?” Chan got out between more kisses.

You could blame it on loneliness or lack of touch all that you wanted, but it wasn’t even close.

“Wait. Wait.” Chan suddenly interjected.

“What? What is it?”

The prince looked up at you, that haze in his eyes now fading to something much different that wasn’t covered in the lust that he held before.

“Bee...I-I don’t know if I want it to happen this way. It feels...it’s not...”

“Not what?”

He brushed his hand upward now to caress your face, lingering on the side of the peach fuzz on your cheek. “You deserve better than whatever the hell this is.”

“Oh, so when I finally want to fuck you, you’re saying it isn’t right?”

“I’m saying, I’m drunk, it’s late, clearly there’s something that’s upsetting you, and I want to know what it is before we do anything else. Tell me, what’s wrong?”

It might’ve been Lee fucking Minho, or it might’ve been something else much stickier for you to admit, but seeing the prince like this, it was too much. He was gorgeous under you, practically angelic looking.

“I-I’m...complicating things.” You whispered out, and the prince softened even further.

“That’s what it is? Bee, I told that you don’t have to worry about--”

“--Yes. Yes I do...your Highness. I-I can’t feel...”

“Bee--let’s just talk about--”

The prince might’ve said more, but his words faded into murmurs once you closed his door behind you, then crawled onto the couch in Jeongin and Seungmin’s room, locking their door too.

~🌹~

Bunch of (Ro)ses!

@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @eunaeiekim @lunarskzzz

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justletmeplayminecraft · 4 years

Text

xisuma doesn’t smooth over a server glitch fast enough. the others have to save him from the consequences.

in this fic, i play loosely with minecraft mechanics to create angst. very loosely. don’t think too much about ‘em. you can also date how long i’ve spent on this by the projects they’re working on.

featuring: being an admin gives you a connection to the server, xisuma has a less than stellar day, angst/comfort, zed is an ender hybrid, false & tango are minor admins, getting stuck in blocks is not a fun experience, the hermits care a lot about each other.

warnings: sensory deprivation, starvation, suffocation, its a death loop babyyy, a fair amount of panic, fighting code, glitches, helplessness, it’s pretty whumpy before the comfort. let me know if something’s missing here.

also on ao3. link in replies.

Xisuma sighs as the sun beats down on him. It's barely let up, even on the outskirts of the jungle. He enjoys the brief stints in the shadow of the giant quartz walls. Even then, waves of heat come off them. All of the structures in his base are a heat trap. Clearing out several layers of dirt and stone is a necessity he should've left for another day. With a click, he tugs his helmet off his head. The humidity outside is worse than his filtered air. He tucks the helmet under his arm, pushing sweat slicked hair from his face.

He's made good progress levelling this arena space. He leaves his helmet on his bed and heads to the temporary storage chests. They're filling up quickly, he notices, as he starts emptying his inventory into them. Except, something's broken. The stacks of blocks aren't all moving. He tries a few times before sighing, ruffling his hair. When he turns to the area he's been mining, it's still empty. It's been a long time since they've had desync this bad. He's not even sure when it started.

Stepping gently across the stone, he can feel the heat rising from them. He'll rollback the world and then he'll relax by Keralis's river. The farm is delightfully cool. Anything will be better than this oppressive heat.

He's almost reached his bed when something takes hold in his chest and pulls.

He stumbles forward with a gasp. Of course, the server decides to fix itself this time. He forces his feet forward, trying to reach his helmet so he can smooth things over. He only makes it two steps until his eyes are forced shut as the server reloads. For a split second, all he feels is the chill of the void as chunks reload around him.

He opens his eyes to darkness. It feels like he's suspended in space, unable to move. There's a suffocating pressure around him. Though it's with shallow breaths, he can still breathe. Did something go wrong? He blinks hard. All of his limbs are accounted for, he's certainly present. Even when he's working in the void there are still particles around him. His attempt to raise his arm fails, finding it impossible to open his back up admin panel. His helmet is- where even is his helmet?

His breath hitches, a feeling of panic escaping his controlled calm. He feels like he can't breathe. He can't move. He's trapped in his own body.

What's happening?

[MumboJumbo] anybody else just experience some major desync?

[Keralis1] Oh, is that what that was?

[Zedaph] I had nearly finished my redstone! All of that work, gone!

[FalseSymmetry] didn't you notice you weren't actually... losing anything from your inventory?

[Tango] he was probably too caught up in his supposed mastery

[FalseSymmetry] everybody okay though?

[Grian] all good here!

[Zedaph] Only my pride's wounded.

False looks down at the bedrock layer at her base. Like half an hour spent placing glass, all gone to waste. She groans, closing her chat as it pings away. Sure, she can rib Zedaph, but that doesn't change the fact she just did the exact same thing. She kicks off the sidewalk, gliding to the bedrock layer. She can feel the cold of the void float up with specks of grey.

"Good going, False," she murmurs. Some patches of glass survived. It's almost worse, that's going to be so much less satisfying to fill in. She takes her goggles off, tugging her hair loose to tie it in a low ponytail. Usually Xisuma gives them a warning before the server resets like that. It always messes up her hair, leaves it floaty and static.

She adjusts her goggles on her head, opening the player menu. Xisuma's currently online. She checks chat. He hasn't said anything. She considers it strange, but it's not unusual. Maybe he's been at a farm and isn't AFKing. She types out a private message, sending it across to him.

[FalseSymmetry to Xisuma] hey x, server blipped, might need to check it when you get back.

She'll see if he returns her message. She's got glass to place.

Iskall looks through his in-progress sorting system with a frown. It's broken somewhere. The stupid server reload has glitched it out and he can't find how. He's checked the redstone, he's checked the hoppers and he's checked the chests! Which means it's glitched. Either Xisuma reloads the chunk for him, or he's going to have to tear it down.

Actually, he'll probably have to tear it down anyway. Reloading the chunk will only roll it back.

At least he's not the only person who's redstone has been ruined. The thought brings some comfort. If he has to be miserable, somebody else should be too. He opens his communicator, checking who's around at the moment. That might take his mind off it.

He notices that Xisuma's online. Their admin has been quiet in chat since the reload. Maybe there's something going on behind the scenes he's having to sort out. He'll reach out to Mumbo and Grian, but first, he sends a message X's way.

[iskall85 to Xisuma] hey is everything alright? nothing broke?

[iskall85 to Xisuma] don't forget you can reach out to us if you need help.

He has no idea how much time has passed. Usually he's connected intrinsically to the server. It helps him keep track of the world, dig out any errors or mishaps - sometimes before his suit alerts him. It's essential for his job in order to keep things running smoothly. The server is always there, at the edges of his consciousness.

In this nothing, he can't even keep track of his internal clock. Perhaps it's his own panic, but the code he tries to reach out to feels fuzzy. It feels like it's glitching, sending shooting pains through his head if he focuses too hard. He couldn't take a guess how long he's been trapped. His breathing still comes too fast and shallow, ignoring his attempts to calm down.

He's completely helpless here. And he doesn't even know where here is.

Tango stares up at the stars on his ceiling. He checks his inventory again, counting aloud. He flicks it off with a frown. Yeah, he's definitely missing some. It's not a massive deal, Impulse will be happy to help out. But if he's having problems then some of the other hermits might be. Perhaps they fell and despawned in the reload. Either way.

"Tangoooooo!" The cry is accompanied by several rockets, something hitting the ground and the sound of damage. He chuckles, stepping away as Zed soars over the edge, stumbling forward with a flutter of his elytra. Tango straightens him up with his free hand.

"No, I'm not doing your redstone for you." Zedaph gasps, dusting off his jeans. He bounces up with a grin.

"You really think I'd come all this way for that?" Zed questions.

"So why have you come all the way here?"

"I'm bored," Zed replies. "And it still stings too much to do my redstone again." Tango laughs, opening up his chat. Xisuma's online, though Tango doesn't expect an immediate response.

"How do you feel about some wither grinding?" He types a message to Xisuma, Zedaph attempting to peer over his shoulder.

"Mmm, I don't see why not."

[Tango to Xisuma] Hey, seem to have lost some stars when the server reset

[Tango to Xisuma] might wanna check nothing important got eaten.

"Right, let's go."

Keralis hums, staring at the plot he was about to start building on. The area has been a bit... Funny. He'll break and replace a block, only to have it switch again. He might have to work on another area until it sorts itself out. His attempts at working here started after the reload, so he doesn't know if that caused it. He's not been able to spot Xisuma nearby either. He's been online, but Keralis hasn't spotted him in chat for a while.

He sighs as he watches the last blocks he placed switch back as if nothing happened. Crossing his arms, he examines the area. He wonders how big this is. Definitely more than one chunk. His new house is going to have to wait. He was excited to show Xisuma around, too.

With a glance at the sky, he realises it's late afternoon. He yawns, stretching his back out. Perhaps it'll be best to settle in his office and work on some future designs. He'll drop a message in chat first, in case this is affecting anyone else. It might give him an excuse to hunt down Shishwamy. He always feels guilty bothering him about things. Their admin takes far too much responsibility on his shoulders. They’re all adults. Keralis wishes he’d ask for help sometimes.

[Keralis1] Has anyone else been having glitchy blocks?

[iskall85] some of my redstone is broken but it's no biggie

[Tango] lost some of my nether stars with the reload but it's been fine since.

[FalseSymmetry] been placing glass without any problems since the reset

[MumboJumbo] I haven't had any problems either.

[Keralis1] A bunch of chunks around our bases are glitching

[Keralis1] but it seems like Shishwamy is busy :(

[Grian] well it looks like he just went afk

[iskall85] that answers that lol

His mind is becoming blurry. It's hard to focus on... Anything. He can't tell if it's because he's struggling to breathe, or something further, tugging him down and away. He tries to fight against it but there's nothing he can do to stay present. He can't hear anything, barely even his shallow breaths. He can only feel the consistent pressure on every inch of his body, the wet tears on his cheeks. He tries pulling on every one of his senses, but nothing comes up.

He slips under.

False empties the last of this glass stack, stepping back at a job well done. She smiles, rubbing her aching hands. It's nice to finally work on this part of her base. Even better now it's not going to pick itself up. At least she hopes so. She'll be right annoyed if it happens again. Something's been tingling at the back of her head, though. She wonders if it's because of the reset.

She looks up at the late afternoon sky. That's enough work for today. As she stretches, she can feel each and every ache in her body. She brushes away her hair, already falling loose. Maybe she'll have something nice for dinner. Some steak, potatoes and pumpkin pie. If she has pumpkin, of course. Xisuma was planning to build a pumpkin farm, wasn't he? His traditional pumpkin and melon combination. She chuckles to herself as she pulls out her rockets.

No matter how things change from season to season, there will always be things that don't. Hermits might come and go, but they'll always be her family.

She launches up, shooting through the water barrier. It's fast enough it doesn't stick. She lands gracefully, making her way to the kitchen. She hopes this nudging in her head doesn't get worse. She just wants to enjoy a nice meal. That's all.

"Well, I think we have a plan," Grian declares, grinning from his perch. His legs are crossed, hands resting in his lap.

"I mean, we didn't exactly need a plan to fix our redstone," Mumbo replies, slouched in his chair the way he only ever does in front of them. Iskall chuckles, resting his hands behind his head. They've really helped take his mind off the broken redstone. Mumbo had a similar problem, so tomorrow they'll meet up again and attempt some fixes.

"Always helps," Iskall says, shrugging. "Especially when one of us spends so much time in the Nether depths, now." Grian laughs, his legs kicking.

"Hey, I'm doing good work out there!" Mumbo yawns, looking between them.

"Well I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted."

"Food then sleep?" Grian suggests. Iskall nods. It's been a long day.

It's dark as Zedaph and Tango return from The End. Zedaph yawns, running a hand through his hair, messing it up. Tango rubs the side of his own hair. Something's been bothering him, but he can't tell what. Like there's something just not... Right. Zedaph is chatting beside him, a bounce in his step. It's like he doesn't feel it at all.

"Do you want to have dinner together?" Zed asks, twirling his sword by his side. They've repaired their tools, done everything properly. It's been a hard day's work, but they've achieved a lot, even with the setback.

"Yeah, dinner sounds good." He looks at the night sky, squinting his eyes. Zedaph tilts his head at him. The purple eyes are concerned, particles floating up in his worry.

"Tango, are you okay? You seem... Off." Tango sighs, waving Zedaph's worry away.

"Something's nagging me. It's not a big deal." Zedaph's still frowning, but the particles die down.

"Let's just get you something to eat, yeah?" Tango nods, leaning into Zedaph when he squeezes his shoulder.

"Sounds good to me."

Keralis watches the night sky overhead. He's sat in the doorway to his office, a blanket around his shoulders. The stars are always a beautiful sight. It's the perfect way to relax after such a, hm, busy day. Not busy in a conventional sense, no, but still busy. His specially commissioned noteblock song plays in the background, a perfect accompaniment in the peaceful night. He thinks it's strange how the stars always seem the same no matter what world they're in. Maybe he should ask Xisuma about it in the future.

He pops up his screens open. Xisuma is still afk. He misses seeing his neighbour out and about. Xisuma often spends time at his farms, it's nothing new. But Keralis enjoys saying hello to him! Especially after missing well... Years of his life. He tries not to think about that.

With a sigh, he lies against the doorway. Time for bed soon. He laughs at the sound of Bubbles' voice in his head. His communicator beeps and he glances over to it.

Huh. That's interesting.

Xisuma is thrown into full consciousness. His stomach is still cramping with phantom hunger. He opens his eyes and finds...

Black.

No, no, he died. He died. Why has he respawned here? He chokes on his sob, realising no air is entering his lungs. His cheeks are still wet with tears, more leaking out as he gasps at nothing. His lungs burn, unable to take the shallow breaths he needs to. Would it even help? He wants to curl up, clutch at the growing pain in his chest. But he can't move an inch. Heaviness sinks into his limbs and head.

He wakes again in the same place. He doesn't know if he wants to scream or cry. There's not enough air for him to scream, anyway.

[Xisuma starved to death]

[MumboJumbo] X?? mate?

[Tango] X?

[FalseSymmetry] do we need to get your stuff?

[Keralis1] I'm by his base.

[Tango] he's not afk anymore

[Grian] x???????

[iskall85] maybe he's getting his stuff rn

[Keralis1] Shishwammmmyyyyyyy

[MumboJumbo] starving isn't a nice way to go

[Zedaph] It really isn't.

[Xisuma suffocated]

[iskall85] oh no

[FalseSymmetry] x???? im going over

[Keralis1] so am i

[Tango] this isn't right, this really isn't right

[Xisuma suffocated]

[Grian] what's going on???

False shimmies back into her elytra, reaching for the one jacket potato that finished cooking. So much for having a sit-down meal. She rubs her head, pushing away the fear that has something to do with this. Her communicator continues beeping as she grabs her rockets. She runs to the entrance, kicking off and launching into the air.

"We should go and help," Iskall decides, already picking up his armour.

"Thought you'd never say." Mumbo straps his elytra on, grabbing a spare shulker box and an ender chest. Grian nods with a seriousness that doesn't fit on his face.

"Let's go."

"We're going?" Zed asks. He's already stuffing food into his mouth. Tango rubs his temples, nodding. He takes the elytra that's thrusted into his hand.

"Yeah. We're definitely going." He watches the particles floating off Zed in waves, glowing the same purple as his pupils. Tango presses his eyes shut against another spike of pain as their communicators beep. "C'mon."

Keralis scrabbles until he balances on the tower roof. He's searched each one and not found X anywhere. Tapping his foot, he meddles with his communicator to turn some settings on. He has no minor admin powers - that he has to leave to False and Tango - but he can at least try this.

"Ah-hah!" He grins as hitboxes light up beneath him, hopefully a better clue where his currently red coloured friend may be. He scans the towers closely, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. There are a few mobs, especially as night sets in. Then he sees Xisuma's new build.

He has to take a step back at the sight. The chunks look- a mess. The outline of the blocks are overlapped or flickering. It hurts to look at. Blocks aren't meant to highlight like that. He glides across the treetops. It not only covers the area he was trying to work earlier but spreads into Xisuma's current build. Yeah that's- that's bad. That's not good. His communicator has continued to beep with messages as he searched. He goes to read it, and spots different colours in the mess. The red of an eyeline. He stands on his toes, leaning off the leaves. The outline flickers in and out, accompanied by a beep.

He thinks he's found X.

[Xisuma suffocated]

[Keralis1] he's in his new build!

[Keralis1] I think I can see him in the ground

[Keralis1] it is very very broken

[FalseSymmetry] tango? you on your way?

[Tango] as we speak

[Tango] been a long time since we've had to use these powers

[FalseSymmetry] not long enough

Tango and Zedaph are the first to land by Keralis's side. They kick up loose powder from the road, taking in the massive structure in front of them. Tango's shoulders raise, cringing at the sight.

"That's definitely broken," he agrees, his eyes twisting as they focus.

"And Xisuma's in the middle of it?" Zedaph looks at Keralis. He nods, usually big eyes sharply focused. He points beyond the walls.

"You can just see his name tag. I think the glitched blocks have got him stuck. I tried to build there earlier but nothing would stay." Tango presses his lips together in thought as False lands. They nod to each other in acknowledgement.

"How long does it take until the blocks pop back?"

Keralis hums, tapping his chin before answering, "About ten seconds, I think."

"That's not going to be enough time to reach him," Zed says. "Can't you just teleport him?" He looks at Tango and False. Tango opens his console menu, typing something in. Zed can tell the answer before Tango says it.

"What ideas do we have?" Keralis asks. "We can't just leave him there!"

"Of course not!" Tango replies, sounding shocked at the suggestion. "We just- need a plan." False nods.

"We're not as powerful as X," she explains, "Together we should be able to roll back these chunks but- I have no idea what that would mean for Xisuma. We don't really work with player code." She brushes her hair back. The conversation is paused as the trio of Grian, Iskall and Mumbo land beside them. The three slot in, listening as they're caught up.

"There has to be something that's making him spawn there." Iskall points out, his hand held towards the structure. False searches through the control panel, whilst Keralis and Tango simply examine the messed up blocks.

"He has a bed in there," Tango answers. False taps where Xisuma's spawn is tied to on her screen.

"Since the blocks are glitched, it must mean the bed isn't like... Registering them. Since they don't fully exist." She thinks about it carefully, putting the pieces together as she explains.

"So if we break the bed, he'll respawn at the world spawn?" Grian suggests.

"But how do we get down there?" Mumbo turns to look. It's pretty far down in the ground. They'd have to move quick to get near where Xisuma is.

"There's a few of us." Iskall waves at the gathered group. "I say with enough TNT and manpower, we could do it."

"Wait-" Zedaph holds his hand up, "-Get me close enough and I can teleport in there, get the bed. Less blocks to destroy."

"Zed." Tango turns to him, glaring at the blond. "That's a stupid idea, don't you get how dangerous that is-"

"Xisuma is stuck in a death loop, Tango!" Zed cuts in, raising his voice. The others fall silent, not sure how to handle this exchange. "Sure, I might die a bit! That's nothing compared to what Xisuma's currently experiencing."

"TNT will destroy a fair amount, but it already puts us on a time limit," Grian adds, a sideways agreement.

"I'm willing to do it. Either we reach the bed, or I teleport in." Zed says it with finality. The others don't argue. False checks his spawn point. Zedaph will respawn back in his cave, safe and sound. Even if it goes wrong, it'll be recoverable.

"We need to be ready to roll back the chunks," False says, focusing on Tango. "If I have this headache for much longer I'm going to go insane." Tango smiles tiredly.

"Fine. Let's try this." He shrugs. "I don't think we have a better idea."

"Well, come on! Let's go!" Keralis claps, placing an ender chest. Tango sighs, typing in a command.

"I think I'm allowed this time," he says, a stack of TNT appearing in his hand.

"And other times?" Grian asks. Even through the teasing, they can hear the fear in his voice.

"Don't push it."

There's noises. He blinks his eyes open into the unending darkness. He tries to focus past his burning chest and the weight of his body. There's... Definitely noises up above him. It sounds like explosions. The space he's stuck in shakes slightly. After another lapse, he gasps back to life in the same position. He wants to scream, tell somebody he's down here. This opportunity might not come again.

Then he feels a sharp stab of pain. Something is there, near him. Everything hurts and he still can't breathe. For a moment, he thinks he hears the trill of an Enderman. His tired mind can't figure out how as he runs out of air.

He wakes up to a chill. He slightly opens his eyes, spotting yellow sand as he falls, blacking out.

[Xisuma suffocated]

[Zedaph suffocated]

[Grian] have we done it?

[Keralis1] he's at worldspawn! got him!

[iskall85] YES!!!

[Zedaph] Oh thank goodness I don't want to do that again

[World reloaded]

[Tango] Z, you okay?

[Zedaph] I'm good. Bring my stuff? I'm going to worldspawn

[FalseSymmetry] will do

"Keralis!" Zedaph's elytra beats as he lands, feet digging into the sand. "Is he okay?" Keralis nods. Xisuma's head is resting in his lap. The admin's eyes are closed as he breathes slowly. His expression is relaxed. It's a good sight to see. The spawn island is lit up well, but Keralis keeps his eye on the surrounding oceans.

"He's sleeping," Keralis says, messing with strands of brown hair. "I don't think I'm strong enough to move him on my own." Zedaph drops onto the sand next to them, crossing his legs. There are still bright particles floating off him, his eyes fully purple. "What about you, Zee?" Zedaph seems to notice Keralis's focus, ducking away to hide his eyes.

"Um, not the best. That kind of sucked. But, it worked, and that's what matters!"

"Make sure you look after yourself, too," Keralis tells him. "Fighting the server's code isn't easy." Zedaph laughs, resting on his hands.

"Can say that again. Forgot we have anti-enderman griefing." Keralis cringes, realising why Zed looks so much like he might collapse. It'll pass, but it's never fun to go against programming like that. The architech trio arrives next. All of them look relieved to see the three on the island.

"Oh, Zedaph, I have your stuff." Mumbo starts emptying it out, the few things Zedaph couldn't fit in an ender chest. Zedaph smiles, tugging his helmet on and feeling a lot more comfortable. He tries not to meet anybody's eyes.

"Tango and False will be on their way. They're just checking everything's good," Grian tells them, hands moving quickly as he talks.

"Should we try moving X somewhere safer?" Iskall suggests. "The shopping district isn't that far."

"If you're willing to boat him." Keralis is firm. "I don't want him dropped in the ocean."

"I swear nothing will happen to him under our watch." Grian puts his hand on his heart. Iskall and Mumbo nod in agreement.

"It'll be the safest boat journey on the server." Iskall's hands are on his hips. Keralis tilts his head up.

"Look into my eyes and nothing but my eyes, if anything happens to my Shishwamy, I will not hold back." The architechs look suitably threatened.

"Can I boat with someone?" Zedaph asks. "I nearly crashed so many times flying over here."

"Hop in the back of mine!" Iskall calls, placing one in the water. Grian plucks Xisuma into his arms, carrying him to the edge of the water. He sets the admin in the boat before climbing in himself. Keralis checks him over before nodding and allowing Grian to keep him.

"I've told the others to meet us there," Mumbo says. "I'm going to fly across and see where's best to bunker down. I think we could all use some sleep."

Zedaph looks at the moon hanging overhead, "Yeah, I think we could."

[MumboJumbo] we're heading to the shopping district.

[FalseSymmetry] thats a good plan

[MumboJumbo] any idea who's shop we could stay in?

[FalseSymmetry] my dimension shop is pretty empty

[FalseSymmetry] plenty of room for some beds. pretty warm.

[Tango] we'll get it set up for you

[MumboJumbo] ok. ill protect the others

[Keralis1] so will I.

The first thing Xisuma picks up on is the talking. He stays still, trying to tell if his brain is playing tricks on him after so long in the nothing. His body is like a rock. He's barely able to move. His lungs still ache and it takes some conscious effort to continue breathing. He blinks his eyes open, wincing at bright lights. Light. There's light. He rolls forward, a sob leaving his lips before he can catch it.

"Xisuma, hey, hey." The voice is soft, casting a shadow over him. Xisuma forces his eyes open now the worst of the brightness is blocked out. Keralis is crouching in front of the bed. His fingers gently brush across Xisuma's cheek. For once, Xisuma doesn't feel the dried tears that had become his constant. "You're okay, you're safe. We got you." Xisuma takes a shaking breath in, squeezing his arms to feel the pressure of his own touch.

"Do you want your helmet?" He flits to look at False. The mere sight of his helmet is overwhelming. He reaches out and wraps it close to his chest. Keralis laughs gently, scratching through Xisuma's hair. The admin sighs, his eyes slipping closed once more.

"There you go." He can hear the smile in Keralis's voice. "We've got you, right here." The sound of movement. Cracking his eyes open reveals False sitting in front of the bed, weaving her hand into Xisuma's. He squeezes it gently.

"You're in my shop, in the shopping district," she tells him. "It's past midnight. You're completely safe here. We've got things sorted, there's nothing you need to worry about." A tear slips from his eye. Keralis wipes it away.

"What happened?" He can't make his voice louder than a whisper, and even that hurts.

"Something went wrong with the world reload," False tells him. He can trust her not to sugarcoat things. "We all had a few bugs, but the chunks around you glitched out badly. Created a bunch of like... Invisible blocks, but they were visible, if you get what I mean? They weren't fully there. Ugh, Tango's better at all this technical stuff." Xisuma tries to peer around for him, but the light still hurts if he looks for too long.

"You were stuck in a bunch of them," Keralis finishes. "We didn't realise until you starved and got stuck in a death loop. I'm really sorry, Xisuma."

"We broke your bed to get you out. Well, Zedaph did. The others got him close enough then Tango and I fixed the area. It's all sorted." Xisuma forces his sluggish brain to put the pieces together. He didn't dream up that enderman sound. That was-

"He's over there, sleeping. Tango's with him." Keralis points at a bed nearby. Tango's back blocks any sight of their part Ender friend, but Xisuma can see purple particles floating into the air. A concerning amount of them.

"What did Zed do?" He asks, the vice around his lungs tightening in concern.

"Um," Keralis answers, False looking at him. "He mentioned fighting the anti-enderman griefing code? So I think he picked the bed up." Xisuma's stomach drops. He tries to push himself up but collapses onto his back again.

"Hey, X, careful," False warns. Her voice is stern but Xisuma shakes his head.

"No- I-" He shuts his eyes, fighting off disorientation. "The server's going to keep fighting him. I've got to reset it." False helps him sit up, but she still watches him with concern. He picks up his helmet, pulling it on and relaxing slightly as all the displays flicker to life. Now when he looks at Zedaph he can see the extent of the damage. His very code seems to be fighting itself. "Help me up?"

False gets an arm around his chest. He ends up leaning his weight against her to stand, his legs shaking. She's firm, grip only tightening to accommodate his need. Keralis hovers nearby, ready to jump in if he has to. They take slow steps across the room. Xisuma strains to see under the light, but the tint of his helmet helps. He can see the architechs sat nearby, watching without any attempt at discretion.

Tango looks up as they approach. Xisuma can see the resignation on his face.

"This isn't going to fix itself, is it?" He asks. His hand in clasped tightly in Zedaph's, whose usually bright expression is twisted in pain. His skin is all too pale, black freckles spreading into larger patches across his face. He doesn't open his eyes, not even as Tango moves so Xisuma can sit down. The grip on each other's hand remains tight.

"I need to reset the code that's attacking him," Xisuma explains. His words have a tired slur he can't quite hide. "I'm gonna write an exception, I can't believe I haven't already just- not right now. Don't wanna do it wrong."

"Xisuma, it's okay." Tango smiles, pinched but genuine. "I'm sorry you need to do this." Xisuma shakes his head.

"It's nobody's fault," False says, "Do what you need to do, X. Then you're going back to bed." Keralis hums in agreement. Xisuma laughs softly as the command screens in his helmet boot up.

He zones out the others around him, leaning on Keralis's shoulder when his friend perches beside him. He scrolls through information as he brings up Zedaph's data on one screen. With one eye on it, he unlocks the data packs, searching through them. He gives voice instructions with his microphone muted to the outside world. Finding the pack he needs, he disables it and checks Zedaph's data. It looks like his code is straightening out again. Thank goodness. He makes sure all activity is deactivated before he turns the pack back on.

"That should do it," he mumbles, before realising his microphone is still off. He reactivates it before repeating himself.

"Maybe you should teach us a bit more sometime," False squeezes his shoulder, helping him up. Xisuma slings his arm over False with a nod. That would be good.

"Thank you, X." Tango smiles. He rubs his thumb across Zedaph's hand. The ender hybrid has relaxed, face slack. It looks like he's properly sleeping now. Xisuma can finally rest.

"Come on. Don't you fall asleep here, I don't want to carry you across." Xisuma hums, too tired to commit to any words. Before he knows it, he's sitting down on the comfortable bed again.

"Shishwam, lemme get your helmet." Xisuma nods, tilting his head up so Keralis can unlatch it and bring it off. His head rolls onto his shoulder the moment it's gone. Keralis giggles, ruffling his hair. "Come on, sleepy time." False lies him down, his helmet tucked safely in his arms. Keralis's hand slips into his. Xisuma shuts his eyes, before blinking them open again.

"Stay?" He asks, too tired to worry about being needy. He doesn't want to be alone in that darkness again.

"Of course," False replies.

"We're not going anywhere," Keralis adds. Xisuma smiles at them both, eyes slipping closed. The darkness is manageable with his friends by his side.

"Don't you dare wake them up," False hisses, watching as Grian and Iskall play with redstone. The morning sun is beginning to shine through the cracks in the windows. She's exhausted, having only caught a quick nap. Keralis is asleep next to Xisuma, sitting on the floor with his head resting on the bed. Tango's slid into bed beside Zedaph, holding him close to his chest. Mumbo's dead to the world across the room.

"We won't!" Grian calls, trying to figure out the game he could make out of this mechanic. Iskall has a Statues book open, an armour stand sat in front of a piston.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if the two people who have done this with armour stands were helping," Iskall points out, flicking through the pages.

"We're fine, it's part of the adventure!" Grian watches as the piston shoots the armour stand across the room. False smiles, leaning back against the bed. Some of the other hermits have been coming online with the early morning. Thankfully, they don't seem to know about everything that went down yesterday. It's best things are quiet for Xisuma whilst he rests. She's sure he’ll tell them about it. She'll make sure he does.

As the sun grows higher with the dawn, she dozes off again. Grian is yawning, him and Iskall only catching a few hours of sleep. He's still buzzing with activity. He'll crash later, easy enough.

It's to this quiet atmosphere that Xisuma wakes up. Iskall and Grian are still experimenting. Grian’s laughter rings out as the armour stand bounces in the air. The beat of the piston is monotonous, but they're nearly falling over each other at the sight. Xisuma watches with a soft smile, eyes barely opened.

"It we got one on top, do you think it would-" Grian holds his hand up, demonstrating an armour stand shaking up and down aggressively. Iskall chuckles, shaking his head.

"It's only the morning, we don't need to break physics yet."

"It's for science," Grian protests. He sounds breathless, half-delirious with his need for sleep.

"Please don't make me do work," Xisuma whispers, all too aware of the sleeping hermits around him. Grian perks up, Iskall turning to him with a grin.

"'Suma!" Iskall calls. Xisuma smiles at both of them, making no attempt to move. He's comfortable here and he doesn't want to wake his friends.

"Exy-Suma!" Grian slides across, leaving a gap from the sleeping hermits. Iskall stands by his side, resting his hand on Grian's shoulder. "How are you feeling?" Xisuma wraps his arm tighter around his helmet.

"Not the best, my friend," he answers honestly. "But I'm certainly better than before."

"Well, we'll just have to make that even better then." Grian is committed to the cause now. He's going to make Xisuma's day.

"You don't have to rush back into things," Iskall says, offering a smile. "I'm sure we can handle ourselves today."

"I don't think I'm getting out of this bed anytime soon." Xisuma looks down at Keralis, dark hair brushing Xisuma's chest plate. False is asleep slouched in the chair beside him. Even without being able to see the other occupants of the room, he can still tell they're sleeping. "Feels a bit weird not going for a jog at this time, though."

"I'm sure your legs won't wither away after one morning, X," Iskall jokes. "Be lazy like the rest of us." Grian grins.

"We could always play some mini-games later, too!" Xisuma laughs, stretching as much as he can without shifting Keralis. He's beginning to regret sleeping in his armour, but it's too late now.

The three chat with each other, Xisuma offering advice now he's awake. They're gradually building up a system to launch the armour stand across the room. Sure, they'll have to clean it all up later, but it passes the time and it makes them laugh. Hearing Xisuma laughing is good for all three of them, despite the roughness reminding them of last night's ordeal. It's safe to say that nobody envies Xisuma's experience.

The three jump at a strange, shrill noise, until the realisation kicks in. Zed is sitting up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Hair is falling into his face, ruffled from sleep. Tango remains slumped against him. He even rolls into the warmth Zedaph leaves behind. It takes a few seconds until the hybrid notices his audience. Zedaph jumps, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh, hi, sorry! Forgot I wasn't alone." His eyes are glowing brightly in the morning light. He looks down at the arm lazily clinging to his waist. "This oaf is used to it."

"No, no, you're okay," Xisuma tells him. False is stirring beside him, blinking to life, but Keralis remains out. "How are you feeling?" Zedaph taps his chin, resting his finger on his lip.

"Pretty well-rested, actually." Then his attention turns to Xisuma. "What about you? I should be asking you that question!" Xisuma laughs, flexing his fingers against his helmet.

"I'm okay. Taking it easy." He tilts his head towards Grian and Iskall. "Whether I like it or not, it seems."

"Too right," False agrees, yawning. "T'others can handle admin duties for today. You're ours."

"Is that a threat?"

"We can make it one!" Iskall tells him, his voice a lot more cheerful than the implication of his words. "We just need a good leash-"

"Oh absolutely not! Don't you dare!" Keralis pokes his head up next to him, trying to tune into the conversation. Zedaph laughs from across the room. He's tugging a bleary Tango to rest on his shoulder so he can wrap the blanket around them both.

"Oh come on, X, it'll be fun!" Grian wraps his arms around Iskall's shoulders. Xisuma shakes his head.

"You two are terrible. Absolutely terrible. Goodness me."

"I'm sure X will agree to take a day off willingly," False says, sounding far too threatening as she rubs sleep from her eyes.

"I already agreed. No leash required!"

"Why are we talking about leashes?" Keralis finally asks, looking more confused than anything. They break down into laughter.

[Grian] hello everyone

[iskall85] HALLO!

[iskall85] we are stealing your admin for the day!

[Grian] yeah he's ours.

[falsesymmetry] x had a rough night so he's having a day off

[falsesymmetry] so if any admins besides tango, x and i could step up please?

[cubfan135] yeah I'm on it.

[joehillssays] of course, and send our well wishes to our dear admin!

[Xisuma] your dear admin thanks you :-)

[Xisuma] please try not to break anything

[Etho] have a fun day lol

[joehillssays] don't make us lock you out of your screens, x!

[Keralis1] Nothing will get past us.

[iskall85] he's been suitably threatened.

[Renthedog] Should uh... We be concerned?

[Grian] about x-i-sooma finally getting a break?

[falsesymmetry] he's in safe hands. promise.

"Should we get this day started?" Tango asks. Grian is about to answer, only to yawn. He covers his mouth, face turning red.

"Another hour of sleep first?" False suggests. They look around the room, everyone in varying states of awareness.

"It never hurt anyone." Iskall shoves Mumbo over, fitting into bed beside him. "See y'all in an hour." Keralis smiles at Xisuma. He bumps their heads together.

"You deserve a break without being traumatised first, you know that Shishwamy?" He checks. Xisuma laughs, pressing their foreheads together.

"Yeah, I know." He leans back. "And I think I've got some good friends to remind me." False pats his back, getting comfortable enough to doze off again.

"And don't you forget it." Xisuma looks around the room. The architechs are fighting over the bed, Tango and Zedaph curled back up on theirs. He smiles, the fear from last night already on its way to being a distant memory.

"Don't think I can."

#hermitcraft #xisuma #falsesymmetry #keralis #grian #iskall85 #tangotek #zedaph #feel like mumbo's role is too minor to tag him lmao #my writing #this fic took so loooong #but i wanted to get it done #more brain space for my other projects

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hailbop1701 · 3 years

Text

Chapter Four: Damn Kids...

Chapter four is here guys! I'm so happy you're enjoying the story because I've been having a lot of fun writing it! I want to say thank you again to @dw-writes for being an amazing beta! You are freakin' awesome and I love you.

-H❤🖖

Hollow Castle Masterlist

The trek to medical was a long one. They were no longer in easy territory; Reaper couldn’t help but compare it to one of those old games he played as a kid. Shaking his head, John led the team through the halls at a snail’s pace. The corridors went from decorated and vibrant to the stark clean white of a medical facility.

‘Well, I suppose they were clean at one point in time,’ John thought with a tired sigh.

Chekov, who had managed to keep up with John’s fast pace, looked up from his PADD. The kid blanched at what was in front of them. Wrinkling his nose, John and his finer sense of smell could definitely confirm that the walls were covered in blood and feces. Not to mention the bits and pieces of people that had been discarded and left behind to rot.

Chekov swallowed thickly, looking green around the gills. John was impressed; the first time he had ever seen anything like this he threw up. Twice. Though that was two lifetimes ago.

Pausing, John nudged Chekov gently. “Breathe through your mouth,” he advised and the boy did just that. Tilting his head to the side, John looked over his shoulder to check on the others,

“Jesus,” Lawrence muttered, covering his nose and mouth with a gloved hand.

Bitar sidled up next to him, eyeing the mess ahead of them with a slight grimace on her face. “I think God left this place a long time ago, Gabe,” she whispered with a shake of her head.

“Damn,” Jim whispered from John’s left, his eyes wide, his face growing pale. Pressing his lips together, Jim cleared his throat. “We, uh, getting closer to the signal, Pavel?” he asked quietly.

The young Russian nodded, gripping the PADD tightly in his hands.

John moved forward, making sure to keep only a couple of feet ahead of the group, far enough to take the brunt of an oncoming attack, and close enough to run back if he really needed to. He gave each room they came across a quick check. Poking his head into what looked to be an empty exam room, John stopped short. Frowning he stepped further into the room with his weapon raised.

“Bones?”

John grunted, his eyes narrowing as he spotted the trail of blood dripping down from a ventilation shaft. He twitched ever so slightly as Jim moved into the room cautiously. “What do you got?” he asked quietly.

Reaper moved around the exam table. Kneeling down, he pulled a knife from his boot.

A gagging noise erupted from behind him. “What the hell - what is that?” Jim groaned, turning away from the bloody mess on the floor.

John took the knife and moved around the bits of what used to be the remains of a human torso. Open and practically cleaned out, upon closer inspection, John noticed something odd. Leaning closer, he saw bloody footprints leading from the body and up the wall where they disappeared into the vent. They were small, almost childlike. His stomach dropped, ‘oh I’m not liking this at all.’ he thought, grinding his teeth. Standing abruptly, John grabbed Kirk’s arm and led him out of the room,

“Human torso. Fresh, we need to go,” He growled out, sending Kirk stumbling forward into a bewildered away team. His inner “Red Alert” system had been going off throughout this entire disaster, and it had just gotten louder. He was kicking himself. He’d figured that his raised hackles were due to the situation but no. That wasn’t it at all. They were being watched, hunted. Cursing under his breath, John looked over at Jim, who had a concerned and questioning gaze. Pressing his lips into a line, John urged everyone onward. “We’re being watched,” he whispered to Beckworth and Kirk. Both men tensed at his words. “We need to keep moving.” he barked, raising his rifle again.

They moved quickly and quietly down the corridor leaving bloody boot prints in their wake.

Three rights and a left turn later, John skidded to a stop. Low growls and the smell of death made him freeze at the corner. Holding up a fist letting the others know to stop, John, without saying a word, looked back and tapped his ear, then pointed to the corridor they needed to go down.

Beckworth nodded then gave a silent order to his two subordinates, “Cover the rear.”

Peering around the corner, John spotted half a dozen infected. They were in a sleeping state, standing on their feet like horses, hibernating until a fresh meal caught their attention. Frowning, John bit the inside of his cheek. His mind churned, trying to come up with the best way to deal with the block in their path without the others coming to harm or alerting every demon and its mother to their location.

Reaper let out a frustrated huff. He glanced over his shoulder at Jim and scowled, showing the captain his displeasure.

Kirk grimaced and mouthed, “That bad?”

John looked back at the milling group of demons, then back at Jim. The look he gave his friend was clear: “I can do it but it’s gonna cause problems.”

He beckoned Beckworth over and let the security officer take a peek at what was around the corner. Henry looked at John with almost startled eyes. “And you’ve dealt with these before?” he asked, voice barely above a hissed whisper.

John shrugged. “Sort of. These are a new breed and made up of several different species. Some will be more difficult than others.” His murmured explanation made both Beckworth and Kirk wince. Reaper chewed on the inside of his cheek again, his mind made up.

Beckworth looked at him with a glint in his eyes. “You have a plan?” he asked. John shrugged, “I figured I’d do what Jim does. Wing it and hope it works. Hunker down in there,” he whispered, jerking his head in the direction of a door closest to them in the crowded hall.

Jim gave him a teasing glare before his face became serious. “You’re not going to seriously fight those things on your own, are you?” the captain hissed and Reaper gave Kirk a raised eyebrow that clearly said, “Yes and there is nothing you can do about it.”

Jim set his jaw and his mind raced as he tried to think of other options but there weren’t any. Cursing, Kirk looked down the corridor again and then at John. “Damnit fine. Don’t die or I’m gonna be pissed,” he growled while pointing an accusing finger at his friend.

Reaper gave a short nod. He looked over at the rest of the group who had been silent but were aware of the new plan. Taking a deep breath, John let Jim settle behind him, ready to lead the group into the cover of what looked to be a large supply room.

Taking a deep breath, John pulled a grenade from his belt. Pressing down on the button, he heard a faint beep and hum. Waiting for a breath, he tossed the grenade into the center of the small horde. Holding Jim back, John ducked his head just as the grenade went off. The ‘boom’ rang in his ears as it shook the walls around them.

“Move!” he shouted as he rounded the corner with his rifle raised. The demons, or what was left of them screamed and howled at John with rage. Without missing a beat he fired. The lower demons fell in bursts. The two knights roared and raced forward, ready to tear Reaper apart. He was ready for them.

Fixing his stance, John took a deep breath. His first thought was, ‘Fuck this is gonna hurt,’ his second was, ‘God I hope these guys were human.’

No such luck.

One barreled right into him like a linebacker. John’s breath wheezed out of him like air from a balloon. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the monster who sent him flying was green. Orion.

‘Fucking fantastic.’

Reaper collided with the supply room door with a painful bang, his beloved rifle sent flying. Pushing the pain away, John, in one motion, shot to his feet and pulled his handgun from its holster. Firing three shots, he managed to make the turned Orion stumble back in surprise. This gave him time to clock the other knight - who was currently trying to pull a pipe from the bloodied corridor wall - and decide his best course of action.

The Orion roared at him, sending spit flying in all directions. He was pissed. Rolling his eyes, John pivoted and kicked out. His boot made contact with the Hell Knight’s knee, causing the monster to fall to the ground. In one swift movement, John grabbed the creature by the neck and gave a firm twist. There was a sickening crack and the demon fell; its head was no longer connected to its spine. But, being as paranoid as he was, Reaper expertly reloaded his handgun and put two in the demon below him. One in the head, and one in the heart. The action was illogical as Spock would point out, but it made him feel better.

He didn’t relax though; the fight was far from over. John turned and raised his arm just as the second Hell Knight brought down a large water pipe Yelling out in pain, John felt his arm break. Though, he was just thankful it wasn’t his head that broke instead. Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Looking closely at the Hell Knight, John knew this fight was going to be harder. This one had intelligence.

“Ah fuck me!” he growled upon seeing the “Section 31” badge stuck to the monster’s rotting flesh.

John gritted his teeth as he pushed back with force. The demon stumbled back and raised his weapon again. Rolling out of the way, John tucked his injured arm against his chest, he could already feel the bone knit itself back together. It was always an unusual sensation, as if his whole arm had gone to sleep but without it going numb. If fucking hurt like a bitch.

Panting, John glared at the demon before him. “Come on asshole, let’s get this over with,” he snarled, his hand slowly inching toward his belt. The ex-agent roared, raising his pipe again, then swung hard aiming for John’s legs.

Yelping, Reaper dove out of the way of the oncoming blow. He landed gracelessly on his back. Quickly, he twisted to his side, narrowly missing a fatal blow from Hell Knight above him. Startled muffled screams and a boom made Reaper momentarily freeze.

“BONES!” Jim Kirk’s scream made time come to a standstill.

Jumping to his feet, John barreled into the demon, sending them both crashing into the corridor wall. Pulling another SD grenade from his belt, John quickly pressed down on the button and shoved it into the demon’s rotting chest. Pushing away, John dove for the supply room door, where his crew was in danger.

A deafening boom and a burning heat licked his back, but he didn’t even feel the burn or the blood that coated him. He needed to get to them before the worst could happen.

----------oOo----------

Jim barreled into the dark supply room with Chekov right on his ass. Beckworth, Bitar, and Lawrence practically shoved them forward before sealing the door behind them. Jim squinted into the darkness, his antique gun raised only halfway.

“Nothing should get through that door,” Bitar said with a relieved sigh.

A loud bang echoed through the room as something big hit the door they had just come through, followed by a slew of muffled cursing. Chekov let out a soft chuckle and Jim had to smile a little.

“No matter what, it’s the same ol’ Bones,” he sighed with a shake of his head.

“Gabe, check the room. Lila, check for supplies,” Beckworth ordered and the two redshirts immediately moved out.

Jim raised his gun the rest of the way and followed the young security Ensign further into the room. This caused Beckworth to sigh in exasperation, no matter what he did the captain will always be beside his men. Not behind.

“I got the right. Gabe, you go left,” Kirk whispered.

The young man nodded, and swallowed hard, unable to speak. He was so damn scared. Taking a deep steadying breath, Gabriel Lawrence moved into the dark.

He wouldn’t say that he was the best in security. His mother was a high-ranking security officer back in her day, and she had high expectations for him. She was older when he was born. Her end goal wasn’t to raise children, she simply wanted to continue on with a big legacy. And Gabe refused to let his mother down. So, he went to the academy and entered the security track. if Gabe were to really choose what to do with his life, he would have been a chef. He loved to cook, he loved to make people happy with his cooking. He wanted to drop out and tell his mother what he really wanted to do, who he wanted to be; but they had gotten word that he was assigned to the Enterprise and she was so proud.

The Fleet’s flagship.

He didn’t have the heart or the courage to turn it down. So, he went. And there he was, walking through a dark supply room on a taken-over starbase with monsters from Hell. “This is just great Gabe, wonderful life choices,” he muttered to himself. A clang and shuffle made him stop short in his tracks.

Turning, he strained his ears, “Hello?” he called out, bending at the waist he kept his phaser up. He peeked and peered through the crowded shelves of the supply room only to see nothing at all. Another clamor made him stop and quickly twist around; shadows danced around him, skittering in and out between the shelves.

Cautiously moving forward, Gabe called out one more time, “Hello, is anyone there?” the sound of crying reached his ears. ‘Sounds like a kid,’ he thought as he rushed forward.

Sitting there in a small pool of light was a small child curled in on themself, shaking like a leaf, facing a blood-stained wall.

Moving closer, Gabe reached out a gentle hand. “Hey kiddo it’s okay you’re going to be-” he choked on his words as the little boy turned around.

Lawrence has never seen anything like that before. Yelping, he scrambled back, falling onto his ass. The little boy in front of him looked dead: skin gray and rotting; his once brown eyes dull and oozing dark blood. The boy gave a raspy giggle and a leery bloody smile. It all made the hairs on Gabe’s body stand on end. He raised his phaser at the boy with shaking hands. But the dead child in front of him wasn’t what made his blood freeze.

It was the sound of low growls and snickering coming from behind him. Slowly turning around, he saw them all. Small, hunched, bloody, and ready for a fresh meal. Gabe knew right at that moment that he was never going to make it off Genesis. ‘Hope I made you proud momma,’

Later when it was all said and done Jim Kirk stopped to talk to Admiral Lawrence, she responded to his question, “Were you proud?”

Her answer was and would always be, “I was proud of him no matter what he did. That boy was more than just a legacy, he was my whole world. And I regret every day that I didn’t tell him that enough.”

Jim refused to tell her how he died. How much he screamed, and how afraid he was. All Kirk would say was that, “Gabe was an amazing security officer, and that he saved them all from dying the same way he did.”

Kirk would sometimes flashback to that moment. He would remember Gabe's screams of pain and terror but before he could run to help him, a blast knocked him off his feet. Phaser overload.

“BONES!”

Tags:

Everything: @thottiewithashotgun, @lauraaan182, @writerdee1701, @stileslover13-blog, @cowenby2, @bluesclues-1234, @sayuri9908

Hollow Castle: @chook007, @lauranthalasah

#star trek aos #doom 2005 #doom!trek #leonard bones mccoy #leonard mccoy #john grimm is leonard mccoy #leonard mccoy is john grimm #john grimm #john reaper grimm #james t kirk #jim kirk #pavel chekov #redshirts #reaper!bones #hailey the queen of typos #hollow castle #The Four Horsmen Series #a moment of silence #for the fallen

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