#the worst kind of type to deal with alongside ground

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Let me enjoy this fleeting moment to be happy over the Champion Stadium that I’ve always been waiting for, and jamming over the extremely sick music, before I cry and weep over the Master Mode next week.

In this post I took notes of things that I noticed through the fight. I used this warm-up session of Hoenn CS to understand the mechanics and gimmicks of each stages. Which is why I stalled some of the fights to post sync, and by some I meant Sidney and Glacia’s stages...the rest of the fight were over too quickly I regretted it.

Sidney set up Go Viral 9 Thunder Wave before he sync, and he had Furious Brain. Similar to Grimsley’s stage...I think Bug-weak Grimsley also had paralysis too. Taking him down before he did that is required unless I have something to counter his Paralysis, like dodging it with Fly, or Status Immunity passives. Which makes the already tight time to finish the fight even tighter. Also maybe my Diantha is not a great choice here. All that said, I LOVE SIDNEY SOOO MUCH!! Not only he hard-carried my team through Dark-weak stages, his Japanese and English VA are amazing (bravo ProZD), he went to 5/5 way before I even got a second copy of Masked Royal, his nuke is very easy to set up and very strong, and his theme is so damn cool, my favorite among the four! Sidney certainly stood out to me more after Pokemas, knowing that he’s actually a very chill guy despite his appearance made you think otherwise...is amazing. Love this dude. And even though he probably won’t get a chance to shine (because Dark-weak Phoebe has Sentry Entry x2), I still have the utmost pleasure in battling him...so far, anyway.

Glacia set up Hail before she sync, and Hail activates a myriad of defensive, healing, and possibly offensive (?) passives. Getting rid of her hail as soon as possible is mandatory to end the match quickly. I also noted through Absol’s notes that she had Master Healer 2 for her Draining Kiss, but she hadn’t used that through the match...probably post-sync after she used her Trainer Move? Either way, she needed to be taken down fast before she recovers too much HP for the team to catch up. I think the usual SS Morty/Anni N/SS Red might work here, because the team has so much offensive pressure. Well, let’s see how the real fight goes when that time comes...

Drake set Rain upon entry, activating a whole host of offensive passives related to Rain, including Raging Rain 5. Also he has Acute Senses 4, status change is mandatory to get through the fight.. So, I think this stage is made with SS Ethan in mind, or SS Serena. Which are Master Fairs. God damn it. That said, Zinnia and Rayquaza might also be able to defeat him since she took advantage of any weather condition, but she needs someone to apply status changes--preferably trap, according to the tips. I used BP Zinnia here because she is miles easier to use, but I think Zinnia and Rayquaza is much better because I have SC Lillie to take hits. I don’t think Hilbert can take much offensive pressure boosted with rain passives. Seems like Drake and his companions also prefer using special moves? Hard to say, he was spamming special moves but I took him down two turns before he sync...I regretted it, really.

Phoebe buffs both defenses upon entry, and she also will buff her Attack before sync with her Trainer Move. Because of the parameter I’ve chosen, Phoebe was spamming special moves, though she also did physical occasionally. Because I have Halloween Caitlin with Adrenaline 1, the fight is guaranteed to end pre-sync, especially with Masked Royal’s help to constantly debuff attack and defenses, for Halloween Morty’s nuke. I think Halloween Morty is still the right choice for this stage. Which is great, Phoebe and Morty are fellow ghost type specialists who have abilities to see things that normal people can’t see, and Morty has something to say to Phoebe if you team him up with her, so they’re friends alongside Allister! I’m sure Morty is happy to have a match against or alongside Phoebe. Also, I think I can forego Ghost Zone for Masked Royal’s help to set up Morty’s nuke, though it depends on how consistent the debuffs are, and how Master Mode fight goes. When push comes to shove, I can always change his build to Burn-only nuke (which is more defensive because he has Sync Regen in this build) and use SSR Cynthia to help out with Ghost Zone and powerful Shadow Force.

Steven’s stage...uh, I honestly don’t know. I haven’t seen anything special from him other than spamming strong moves and buffs Accuracy by +2 upon entry, but maybe that’s because SS Serena quickly defeated him before he did anything crazy. However, according to Absol’s notes, Steven has Toughen Up 9 and Tighten Up 9, and he has Endure, possibly from his trainer move just like the real OG Steven. So from this information, he has a chance to likely stall out the match for far too long because he constantly buffs himself, and he has Endure to boot, which is kinda bad except for those lucky souls who have SS Giovanni and Maxie. If the combined offensive pressure isn’t enough, Steven might be able to last long enough to apply Endure and sync, which makes the fight harder, and he also spam strong moves like Iron Head and Hammer Arm, which is especially bad if the fight goes longer. And Ground is pretty scarce as a type too, so...needless to say, I’m not looking forward to face Steven in Master Mode.

#personal #pokemon masters #i sense a real bad time incoming next week... #especially because next week is wallace and his weakness is poison #the worst kind of type to deal with alongside ground #so let me enjoy and relish this fleeting moment of happiness and joy #before i start dreading over this #thank you pokemas for the jamming remixes of hoenn elite four themes #i always love hoenn elite four themes it has special place in my heart #my childhood self listening to the emerald version of it for the first time was amazed #and feel so pumped #and when i listened to it again in alpha sapphire...the nostalgia #so happy for hoenn champion stadium #(and i also worry for hoenn champion stadium)

[leggerefiore]

Yandere submas boys got my heart thumping! Can we get Mafia! Boys headcannons or even fic if you like! Any content you make amazes me, the way you write them makes them come to life (kinda scary but I'm totally into it). Thank you!

▲Subway Bosses Mafia AU HCs▽

cw: prostitution, torture, criminal activity, murder, trafficking mentions, all kinds of lovely things, sort of dark, please take caution

● They somehow manage to both juggle their criminal undertaking while also maintaining a public transport system. It truthfully is a sight to behold until you realise said transport system is being used in their underground activities. It's terribly gloomy when an uninvolved party wanders into the unused, private parts of the subway and meets with a grizzly sight.

● Ingo handles more of the negotiating involved with other syndicates. He's a smooth talker and tough compromise. There are many times a competing leader leaves his office losing more than he'll gain, yet believing the opposite. Most new recruits are also examined by him personally. He's particular, and not any wannabe gangster can join his organisation. They're blindfolded and sat in his office if they're being 'recommended' by a member. There's no forewarning to this, so all they know is a feared crime boss is chatting with them about their preferred pokemon type. It's a terrifying experience.

● They'll be sent on a basic testing mission or be released if Ingo deems them unworthy. Of course, if they saw something they shouldn't have, then they'll have their life threatened casually. Usually, that alone is enough to keep them quiet, but should it not then… Ingo is willing to provide evidence for his actions. There is little kindness provided by him. People who pass are initiated into the syndicate into smaller groups. Everyone has their place, and not all of them are necessarily under him. No one enjoys being placed under Emmet. Ingo deals with the contraband distribution and hits. These things are easily organised by him in between his paperwork for both the subway and the organisation.

● Rarely, he handles these things himself. Often it's for training a new recruit and seeing how they handle themselves, but sometimes it's because he doesn't trust his underlings to do it for him. Many enemies of the gang met their end by Ingo's hand personally. A blade shoved into their heart from behind, not a single step heard in approach. He doesn't prefer firearms, they are much too loud and obnoxious for his tastes. (Like his talking voice isn't actually a yell.) It's personal, and he tells them what they did to wrong him as he twists the blade for more damage before removing it entirely. The twin walks away as the person lies dying on the ground, desperately trying to stop the waterfall of blood.

○ Emmet handles the more uncomfortable side of things… Actions are what he does best, so trafficking of any sort falls onto him alongside torture. Ingo is polite enough to kill his prey immediately, Emmet prefers to watch the squirm under his heel. His smile haunts many nightmares of those who dared to slight the organisation. People who meet with him rarely return in one piece, be it mentally or physically. He's brutal and silent. A word is never spoken, all I preformed with a large grin splitting his face.

○ Torture is along and arduous and usually only reserved for the worst of the worst toward his group. This doesn't mean he's kind to others, he's just as bad. He engages in both physical and mental torture. The physical is gruesome and bloody. Limbs will be lost, slices are most painful with surgical precision. He loves to sight of blood, it quickly becomes an addiction. The psychological abuse they face is arguably worse, the white room torture. A form a sensory deprivation so intense, only being within it for a few hours are being placed within the room. Emmet loves to hear their cries and pleas. (Ingo acknowledges how bad his brother has gotten, but refuses to acutely stop him.)

○ Trafficking unfortunately includes human. Emmet has a specific category of underlings known as 'maids'. These are unfortunate people put through prostitution and trained to kill opponents through the moment of weakness it provides. The younger twin also engages in organ trafficking, and there is an entire sterile facility dedicated to it. They do have high-end clients, after all. If Emmet had decided to end your life by his hand, please consider taking your own instead. There is nothing worse than the way a spider may play with its prey. The more gruesome, gory side is Emmet's speciality. This is why no one wants to be in his division.

● Both are terrifyingly good at holding their normal personas as they interact with normal people as Subway Bosses. Most people don't have a clue about the absolutely horrid things the brothers are engaged it, and the few that do know to keep their mouth shut. Trainers battle them, unaware of the fact that they killed a man that very same afternoon. You would think someone would go mad from the aggressive, sudden shift in realities, but they adore it. A temporary respite from their grizzly duties to have a faux sense of normalcy.

○ Nimbasa police are under their command, so it's useless to attempt help from authorities. It's disappointing how many have gone to them only to end up worse than when they started. Tattling never ends well. (When they have been sent on a training test mission by that strange criminal, their mind immediately rushed to how they were going to alert the police to such things happening within the subway. The cops nodded at their claim when they rushed in the station and took them into an interview room. Finally, they were safe from that hell. Blood turned glacial within veins as a man wearing a mask sat down across from him. His coat so similar to the one currently haunting the depths of their thoughts.)

● Elesa is a member, too. The highest rank of admin allowed and basically a third boss sporadically. She prefers not to handle Emmet's side of things, yet will add expertise for what the maids should wear for any given event. The model helps Ingo with negotiating and connection building, usually. She can give out orders, so when she tells someone to do something, they immediately do it. No one wants to gain her displeasure, as the twins will make sure you know to respect her as you would them.

○ They never wanted to involve themselves in the organisation, yet a desperate moment found itself forcing them into it. The previous boss was a terrifying, brutal man who taught them everything they needed to know. The man knew from the very second his eyes met the nervous teenagers who dreamed of being conductors that they could do so much more after he passed. They needed funds gravely in order to afford living in the city. Working at the station didn't pay as much as they needed, and eventually the organisation found them. Emmet was who agreed first after seeing his brother's ribs peak out from lack of proper meals. Ingo soon followed, only to protect his brother. The boss was happy to view them as sons of his own.

● So, when they decided to usurp him by end his life, he couldn't be more proud. The timid, mild-mannered boys he took under his wing has finally achieved the sense of ruthlessness needed to send his gang to the highest of heights. The brothers truly did, too. Perhaps there was a lingering kinship to the man who had ruined their lives to actually grant his wish. The few who remained from the previous boss's reign certainly believed so. Moments in which they exude pure and utter cruelty remind them dearly of the departed man.

#ingo.ima #emmet.ima #mafia au #i have an idea for another fic but idk when ill have the time to write it

[sugar-petals]

Can u introduce yuzuru to us the caro way?👀

so you want to know about the one and only. ♡😌

yuzuru hanyū (25) of sendai, japan: the most beautiful ice prince with a heart of gold.

….an artist clearly not of this world, he’s been sent to us from another realm. 19 world records, two olympics won, dubbed the greatest figure skater of all time. and the most precious bean on top of that.

but let’s start from the beginning, shall we ♥︎

so, want to spot yuzu on the ice? use this checklist. slender silhouette, an even slimmer waist, feather-like outfits (he sketches those himself; the fandom lovingly calls him swanyu), soft blushy face. he has great androgyny.

outside of performances, you see him either with a deer’s gaze or the brightest, biggest eye smile. also, he’s usually found sitting with his wife: 

which is the ice 😄 these two are together forever. you can discern yuzu from a mile away by how he treats his working ground. 

there is a purity to him. you’d not guess that this is one of the most ardent athletes if you didn’t see what’s around his neck after competitions. the guy’s cuteness is as compelling as his skating technique.

look for it: yuzu’s face is super suave and rosy up close, even after his most energetic performances. some men are handsome, others pretty, he is both. 

even acoustically, he’s hard to miss. applause is all around, and he’s highly expressive. if you see a crying young man getting the high score, that’s yuzuru hanyu. you’ve not seen more beautiful happy tears.

and score reactions, anyway:

so, aye loves, the rumors are true. a cutie-pie off the ice, animated, a real unabashed meme — yuzu is easy-going, talkative. cheery, cheeky, one of a kind. his facial expressions are a league of their own.

if you thought this is the sort of guy who watches cat videos, you are correct 😄

yuz-uwu hanyu, everybody:

his undoubtedly feline behaviour is often unexpected, it stands out with its adorableness, too. a sweetheart par excellence. 

and, how else could it be: vice versa, the big beast on the rink. he’s cutesy, dorky, very well-spoken in daily life, but when it comes to skating, his seriousness escalates. you blink once and suddenly hanyu is a bedazzling, strutting lion :’D his performances stun with confident elegance.

he becomes full of ardor, drama, and focus. you’d never suspect so much fire burns in him. a showman and ambition icon, hands down. 

his skating is dynamic, perfected, and emotional. if you want to see art and the extra mile, tune in when hanyu competes.

the downside is; more light, more shadow. it leaves him crawling on the ice afterwards. yuzu performs so hard, it’s worrying.

he delivers it all. you won’t believe it:

this guy is an asthmatic.

the symptoms aren’t as bad as they used to be, but there are still regular attacks. he said that he’ll never take it as an excuse and often recalls how he started skating because of it. he’s a badass, extremely inspiring. yuzuru defies all limits, including gravity. his jumps have legendary status. 

off the rink, you guessed it: he turns into a wholly different person. 

it all dissolves completely when he’s dorking around again. 

don’t let it deceive you, he’s the no other option than first place type. he could not be any more decorated with titles, he achieved the grand slam in all competitions as of 2020. and still, king of sportsmanship hanyu is respectful and smiley towards all colleagues and never lets anyone feel left out. especially when it comes to his juniors (e.g. yuma kagiyama, 16, below) which says a lot about him.

he bows in every direction before an audience, too. lower than a 90° angle, even. this is more polite than any existing formality in japan.

talk about audience: i introduced fellow japanese skater shoma uno last week, who’s more uncomfortable with social contact and aggression. yuzu, extrovert he is: the exact opposite. he withers away with no people and competition. he’s befriended rivals, had crises over not having someone who could challenge him. when a competitor retires, he’s the one crying in their arms (e.g. with team mate and bff javier fernandez from spain below).

beside his competitive spirit and princely wow factor, hanyu is popular for his winnie pooh tissue box that he caresses, squeezes, and carries everywhere. he loves good luck charms & rituals, pooh is the most important one.

fans throw pooh plushies on the ice after his performances because of it. since it’s gotten so intense, yuzu recently started cleaning them up himself on top of the flower girls for the upcoming skater who could get delayed otherwise. (more about what happens with the piles of plushies later.)

so, the burning question is. 

what made yuzuru hanyu emerge so outstanding an entertainer? how does someone causing so much uproar become like that? it’s not just what kind of appearance he was given, although he really looks his part to a T. you don’t have to be an insider to see it right away.

like literally to a fault. and you can tell the way his blades sound on the ice is different. it’s soft even if he does the most hardcore quadruple jumps. i think it’s because his drive to do this is a higher one, hanyu has an altered relationship with the ice. where his devotion comes from has a more severe reason so, massive trigger warning. 

this is no exaggeration: yuzuru is considered a hero to the japanese. a survivor of the earthquake 2011, he narrowly escaped the collapsing rink in his hometown on that very day. he’s often talked about how the ice shattered underneath his feet and it was the moment that defined his life forever. he could have been dead by the age of 16. his motivation has been set ever since. this man is compelled by something bigger, that’s why you hear it and you feel it. he wants to skate not just for himself but others and seize every day. 

much of his copious charity work — that’s where all the pooh plushies go — went to mend the consequences of the tsunami ever since, he’s looked upon as a great hope in japan. the minister gave him the people’s honor award in 2018. 

now you know why yuzuru has such a fanbase and treats the ice as sacred, you see it in every gesture. his manners are without a single flaw, he helps staff repair the ice after performances. 

you might think it’s odd, but he honors the ground. he’s invested in the integrity of it. that’s why he’s the best skater. it’s gratitude and the will to live fully.

he hates to fall on the ice, he hates to damage it. alongside his feathery weight, that’s why the sound he makes while gliding along is so tender. 

i think that’s also why hanyu’s signature element is the ina bauer. it doesn’t rely on brutal force, instead this element slides across the rink like a swan. yeah, oh my god.

it’s his most well-known dramatic move. the way he surrenders into it. 

hanyu’s back arch and perfect split allow him to do elements no other male skaters can. his biellmann spin, for instance. i know, it’s ridiculous.

and those are just two elements of dozens and dozens. hanyu is a kinetic wizard. i highly rec this record-breaking delivery of his olympic program. in front of his home crowd! he’s just… mind-boggling. i live for his smiles here.

exceptional skater, exceptional mentor: it’s time we look at another puzzle piece that made yuzu the way he is. the masterful brian orser is hanyu’s beloved coach. missing gold by just one mistake at the olympics 1988, brian is now committed to give others what he couldn’t have— successfully so.

orser took the ice prince to gold twice, this hasn’t happened in 66 years. brian is the nicest and most supportive pooh carrier and yuzu’s utmost rock. hanyu’s talent rests safely in these hands.

he gets strict about punctuality lmao! but other than that, his guidance is gentle. canadian he is, brian’s courteousness mixes well with yuzu’s politeness. their bond is strong. as. hell. 

brian picked up yuzu from rock bottom several times. most fateful being hanyu’s accident with a fellow skater during competition warm-ups nov 2014. they collided at a high speed, it was unspeakably nasty. yuzu got knocked out for half a minute and had grave breathing problems but still decided to skate on with what later turned out as an almost-concussion. brian was the most worried ice dad in the world that day.

yuzu cried and crouched and bled like mad and my heart has been broken ever since. i hope he never suffers like that again. promise me you don’t search up the video, it’s a harrowing watch like a stab to the chest. sadly enough, hanyu’s body has still been a notorious wreck, esp. ankle issues regularly give him a hard time 😔

it hurts like a bitch with every jump landing but he takes meds and still manages to win, god knows how. sometimes even with crutches on the podium. at his worst, he’s still the best, it’s a tragedy.

he’s been recovering, or always is, but he pushes himself through injuries. his ambition and perfectionism are boundless. the cause is more important to him than his well-being. this is not an easy guy to stan once you see how he sacrifices and self-destructs. so, it’s good someone protects him. 

mostly from himself because nobody has profoundly surpassed hanyu. he has let himself no choice than to contest himself. not even health, only age can stop yuzu. i think that brian understands this ‘curse of a genius’ effect. his mere presence can make hanyu say these rare words:

his two other coaches contribute to that. tracy wilson (left) has proven to understand his playful side the best while ghislain briand (right) helps yuzuru deal with his fears. so you got 3 people taking care of the golden boy. brian once said: “he is very sheltered” and you can see it’s true.

yuzu eased into learning english and communicates well with his coaches. like with everything, he studies hard and often forces himself to speak during interviews to practice. his skills are astounding. his speaking voice is also very soothing, very amicably low and high alike. yuzu is highly intelligent. he always says something eloquent and interesting.

now, privately, hanyu is very much like you’d expect someone so devoted to skating would be like. he doesn’t go out, has no social media, can’t eat nor sleep very well. no cameras allowed during practice. it figures he is attached to winnie pooh, think about it. in the cartoon, pooh is someone who sleeps, eats, and engages with friends plenty. 

these are the things hanyu can’t do, doesn’t have time/energy/incentive for. he is barred from balance in life but can at least admire this little carefree plushie for it. especially because pooh represents eating lots while yuzuru doesn’t have a good relationship with food (he says it doesn’t go well with jumps etc.), hanyu lives vicariously through him. 

what’s more, you have to see how he throws himself onto others and never wants to let go, yuzuru is extremely cuddly. 

to the degree that mere social customs can’t meet how much he really needs. so, what else can he resort to, he loves mascots and plushies. it’s how the tale goes in japan generally, tough work ethic, high responsibility, high pressure, so people turn to cute fluffy things.

he always fondles pooh’s head, even pretends he’s come to life so he has someone to snuggle with. i think that his isolated lifestyle doesn’t help. so, he gets his affection at least there, you can see how happy it makes him. and again: he does this all for charity.

that’s why fellow skaters are so important to hanyu. it really brings out his social spirit and comforts him best, it’s so wholesome. i’ve not seen someone react so relieved to being embraced, like he’s not been touched for months. skating this, skating that. at the end of the day, hanyu wants love.

as he once said, what motivates him is to express himself in the first place. hanyu is a romantic. it’s written all over him. it reflects in his music choices, his elegant motion, how he designs his outfits:

… and how thoughtfully he talks about marriage. he has big plans for starting a family and coaching after he retires. i won’t be the only one squeezing lucky charm pooh in my imagination so it turns out well for him. please make this heart of gold heal and see all his wishes come true ♡🐻

#thank you for attending this talk ❄️⛸ #i need a moment this was emotional #figure skating #yuzuru hanyu #brian orser #anon #cub mail 🐅 #long post #team japan

[zuffer-weird-girl]

Hey, Could you do a overhaul scenario Dedicated to the song "Kiss it all better" By he is we?

ANGST 😈 *maniacal laugh*

Tartarus was such a cold and cruel place... Of course it had to be that way, it imprisioned the worst and most dangerous villains of all Japan on there.

One of those prisoners had the once young leader of the Shie Hassaikai, his villain name was once Overhaul, the same of his own quirk... but his actual name was Chisaki. Chisaki Kai.

He sits in his cell

and he lays on his bed.

Sorrow and emptiness enveloping his entire body and mind as the events pass through his head, like a torturous flashback he was obligated to watch over and over again.

They didn't know why he did all of that... they just told and assumed he was a heartless and some type of bastard monster... but no. He had his reasons for all of he had done. The bullets... the experiments... all of them had purpose.

Not only to give Pops his gratitude, bring the Shie Hassakai back to their glory days... no. It had another reason... one that was permanent craved on his heart and soul to remind him of how useless he was on that night of years ago...

Shakily breathing out, the memories of a distant past started to overtake the recent events... but yet, he thought those were the most painful ones...

~~~~~~~

"Ouch!" He snapped his head from the book he was reading to see his lover hissing, clenching her wrist with her other hand as she muttered some curse words.

He sighed out loud and got up from his seat, marking the page where he had stopped to grab the first kit aid nearby as he got back to the kitchen isle where she was located.

"Third time only this week." He said in false annoyance as she pouted with puppy dog eyes at him, those beautiful (E/c)'s eyes he came to love. He rolled his eyes while muttering to her to hand him the sliced finger.

"You're so clusmy... 19 years already, and can't even cut something without cutting yourself along with it." he commented nonchantly as he ignored her wincing when he applied some disinfectant on the injury before wrapping it up with a band aid.

"Yet you love me for it!" He deadpanned at her before rolling his amber eyes again, closing the first kit aid before arching a eyebrow when his girlfriend fake coughed at him to catch his attention.

She extended her wrapped up finger with shyness yet playfulness on her eyes as she whispered the words for only him to hear, ones he had nostalgia of and still cringed a bit.

"Kiss it better?"

"... no. Grow up." He muttered and cringed a bit when she grabbed onto his sleeve and stared at him with kicked puppy eyes again. He groaned at that and picked her hand on his gloved one, lowering his mask with a 'I despise you sometimes', before lightly kissing the area where he had just wrapped up.

The smile she gaved to him was what gave him happines, a feeling that he was always deprived of when she wasn't around....

~~~~~~~~~~~

He blinked up at the ceiling at remembering that one scene... he always used to complain when you sliced your finger accidentaly on a paper or cutting something... now, oh what he would do to do that again... Kissing slightly your injury again...

Feel you again...

The love of his life was you. No doubts... he had this feeling that you were The one ever since he was a child... and he lost it...

~~~~~~~

"Chisaki-kun?" A girly and childish voice echoed in the air, interrupting his muttering and sniffling before he looked up in both annoyance and shock.

"What do you want?" He hissed while looking at the opposed direction of where the girl was taking a seat next to him.

"I heard you got into a fight again..." she muttered with her hands on her lap before taking the courage to look up at him again "Are you okay?"

He looked at her with dead eyes while arching an eyebrow, the bandage on his left cheek evident while she cringed a bit.

"Right, stupid question... does it still hurt?" You asked in innocence while he scoffed, waiting for Pops to get out of that room as he talked with the principal and teacher.

He jerked a bit away when you touched his cheek, glaring at you as a warning for not touching again.

"It does..." you said sadly with furrowed eyebrows as he muttered for you to leave him alone... yet you didn't, noticing how he tightened his jaw as his eyes were slowly turning to pink instead of white...

You poked your fingers together before snapping them when an idea popped into your head.

"Can I try something? It maybe will get better a bit..."

He doubted that, the pain was bearable... but the one on his chest wasn't...

Though, when he felt the pair of your lips touching his cheek, right on the injury wrapped up, he felt all the cold on the room being replaced by a warm feeling... a rather good type of warm.

He looked at you as if you had grew three head while covering the place where you had kissed it... he felt his face burning up at not only by your action but also by that smile you gave him.

"I kissed it to make it all better." You said before you let out a chuckle "it's not very efficient but it does help a bit sometimes... so? Did it help?"

He didn't even blinked as his expression of shock was still permanent on his face... he couldn't even answer you since Pops had gotten out right on the moment his lips had moved to speak again...

"We talk tommorow then, bye Chisaki!" You waved at him when he looked a bit back while walking alongsides Pops...

He touched the place again, still finding weird the warmth that it brought to him...

'Kiss it all better' huh?

~~~~~~~~

He took a sharp breath as he remembered taht inep memroy in specific... metal arms and hands coming to covers his face as the most painful moment of his life started to replay all over it again.

The motivitation to him to have started to give it a end to those heroes.... the one day where he became that cruel and cold monster that everyone told that he was...

~~~~~~~~

An night out... he never was once a fan of those, but he couldn't help but attend to your wishes once or twice... after all, you were special to him. Dearest to his called cold heart.

"Such a great place Kai!" You chirped happily as you both walked side by side towards his newest car "But you know you didn't had to spend all of that on me you know?"

That little pout on your lips was just so adorable... it showed him how innocent, pure and a bit of a brat that you were. His loved one.

"Nonsense." He scoffed as he adjusted his black mask on his face "If you kept insisting like that over at least 2 weeks to go out, then the least I could do was to afford a place where it has their dignity."

Your giggles echoed on the empty street as the lights of the streets iluminated your path to his car.

He took slowly your hand on his covered one, thumb brushing over your palm as he didn't mind it to look at your smile to prevent a blush to spot him.

Just in the moment he went to take his car keys, his ears caught some suspecting sounds on the near alleyway. Arching his eyebrow at it he brought you close to the car muttering for you to stay back as he took a couple of steps to catch a glimpse of what was that.

Your giggles made him deadpan when he noticed what was exactly making the sound... a stray cat on the dumpster.

"Never expected that you would get protective of me due to a cat Kai."

"Shut your mouth." He growled before you widened your eyes at him... he didn't got why exactly that until he heard a 'click' right on the back of his head.

"Hands on the air yakusa thug where I can see them." A young man with a cape said arrogantly as he rolled his eyes but still complied...

He wasn't on the mood to deal with that kind of bullshit.

"S-Sir what's going on?" You asked shakily as another gun was aimed right to you after by the same guy.

"Shut it. Both of you are from some yakusa am I right? You two are coming with me!"

"Says the motive and we might think about it." Chisaki rolled his eyes before giving the guy a cold glare "We didn't do anything for this incopentent."

"I SAID NOT TO MOVE!" He clicked the gun and Chisaki still took a couple of steps to stand in front of you.

"K-Kai..." you whined silently while gripping on his black tshirt... he could sense it and see it how scared you were, and that pained him to no ends. He couldn't get on a fight with a hero, and he still didn't know one hundred per cent the anatomy of the human kind, so he had to be careful with his choices to not prejudice neither the Shie Hassaikai neither his lover.

"Listen." He growled "Whatever you gave as a excuse to scout us, it won't work without a motive or a proof. So let us go."

"You yakusas are always the same. Arrogant little pieces of shits with your dirty sluts to make you company!" His amber eyes grew dark at the man's words as he shoved hsi sleeves up.

"Do not insult my girlfriend in front of me you disgusting fucking piece of-" you quickly got what the young hero was trying to do, anger Chisaki to the point of attacking him to shoot him with a fucked up excuse of "self-defence"

"KAI WAIT-!" you pulled on his right arm to get him out of the way before the young hero shooted with closed eyes and trembling hand on you instead of Chisaki.

Both mens widened their eyes as the young hero dropped both of his guns and stared in horror of what he had just done while Chisaki shouted out for your name as he grabbed your body before it could collide to the ground.

Your breath was becoming quicker and shorter as Kai stared at where the bullet hat pierced your skin.

The man ran and that infuriated Chisaki to no ends.

"COWARD!" He shouted after the hero "GET BACK HERE-!" he moved a bit but you winced in pain... the warmth of your body was slowly fading away as he felt himself start to panick.

"K-Kai..." tears rolled down your cheeks as he ripped his sleeves in a effort to stuck the blood before grabbing his phone.

"Is alright. I'm calling back up. Be strong a bit for me (Y/n). Please." He dialogued the numbers but the call didn't last since Kurono wasn't answering for some reason. "DAMMIT KURONO!"

"K-Kai..." you breathed out before coughing a bit of blood as rain drops started to fall from teh sky "I-I-Im... n-not ready to... to g-go..."

"Stop talking nonsense!" He shouted while holding tight on you "You're gonna be alright..." his hand carresed your hair in a effort to comfort both of you "You're with me, everthing is going to turn out just fine... is my fault this, I take responsibility-"

"I-Is not... your fault l-love..."

"It is!" He shouted in anger as he got a message from his childhood friend apologizing for not picking it up, sending himself a message to help him.

"... Kai... you couldn't k-know that he w-was..." you coughed as more blood spilled out as he scolded you to stop talking...

"Kai... I-I..." with the little strenght you had, you gripped on the collar of his shirt to catch his attention, serious golden eyes now filled with tears that were mixed with the rain drops "I... can I-I have one... one last t-thing..?"

"Is not going to be the last..." he whispered but still was ready to attend your wish anyway...

"... kiss.. it... all b-better...." you were fading out of consciousness constantly but he managed to catch that, ripping the mask out of his face as he grabbed your face in his hands and crashed his lips on yours... your tongue weakly interlocked with his before your head dropped in a faint smile at him as your eyes closed slowly.

"No! Don't! DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES ON ME NOW (Y/N)! NOT NOW! DO NOT DARE TO-!" a disgusting sob caught on his throat made him lower down his voice pathetically as you rested your head on his chest.

"I'm... ready... no..w." he shook you a bit as he pleaded to god, to you, to anyone to not do this to him as he kneeled on the wet and dirty ground of the street...

Your hands and body were so cold now... his anger and sadness build up on him so much that with along with a loud thunder he clinged your body to his as his nails dig on your skin, screaming a bloody shout at the sky as the rain intensified.

When his throat was throbbing he had taken a pause to breath, your dead body still on his arms as a light of a car iluminated him from behind as he breathed in and out..

"Chisaki!" The voice of Pops echoed along with the rain that hitted the grounds... but Kai's attention wasn't on either of them... no.

The car's light iluminated the weapon that that hero used to kill his lover.

His gaze was murderous yet avoid of any life as he got up and carrying his girlfriend in bridal style... not caring for once on his life at how dirty he was with your blood and not even daring to explain to Pops whem the old man gasped at the sign of the dead body on his arms.

"Chisaki..." the elder muttered as Kai handed it to Kurono, which was driving the car, your dead body before making his way to crouch down on the ground, eyes not even blinking as he grabbed the gun and load it.

"... I will be back..." he muttered darkly before slowly walking on the path that hero had taken to run.

~~~~~~~

Years had passed since them and nobody ever discovered what had happened with that spefic hero... asides from him.

He tortured the son of a bitch. And when he was satisfied with the guy's suffering, he released him from the chains and gave him a chance to run for his life ... before shooting without any pity in the man's back. Overhauling the body without remorse or caring that if screwed up or not, since at that time he did not have that much of knowledge.

He felt his eyes grow heavier and heavier as the minutes grew by as one last memory helped him to ease his sadness... even for just a bit.

~~~~~~~~~

A choked and shocked gasp caught his attention when he was passing by the halls of his home... Taking a glimpse of the living room he saw you breathing in and out as some quiet sobs manifested.

He made his way and sitted besides you quietly with furrowed eyebrows but still monotonous eyes as you sniffled once or twice before noticing his presence.

"Nightmare?" He asked with an arched eyebrow as you nodded sadly. He sighed with a hand on his neck before he took the courage to mutter "Whatever it was, it's a irrational fear."

"Why is that?" You sniffled before you yelped at the flip on your forehead.

"Because if I'm with you, nothing neither no one is ever going to harm you idiot... understood?" You blushed at his words but soon nodded with a smile that left him feeling all warm again as he scoffed.

Just when he was about to lift up, he tensed when you grabbed his hand with puppy eyes looking up at him.

"Stay with me? Until I fall asleep again?" You asked shyly and sweetly... and he couldn't bring himself to even complain as he slowly took his seat on the couch again... allowing you to lay your head on his shoulder as he awkwardly wrapped one arm around you with a sigh.

Your breath soon slowed down, indicating him that you fell soundly asleep again... giving him the chance to smile and to take off his mask to place a sweet and warm kiss on your lips without your knowledge...

~~~~~~~

One lonely tear rolled down from his eye as he repeated the words to himself as the exaustion took over his soul and body.

"Stay with me until I fall asleep..."

#overhaul imagine #overhaul chisaki kai #overhaul x reader #overhaul #kai chisaki #chisaki kai x reader #chisaki kai #bnha writings #bnha chisaki #bnha villains x reader #bnha x reader #my writings #zuffer writings

[blukwolf]

AFO!Izuku

Alright so I was watching a... comic? (Yes, watching, as in watching it in yt) idk about Izuku having AFO and accidentally stealing Bakugou's quirk which led to the Midoriya's leaving Japan and going overseas with Hisashi, who happened to be All For One, so this idea came to me as a different take on Vigilante borderline Villain Deku.

(sorry for every mistake you may see here, english is not my native language)

AU in which AFO is Izuku's dad and Izuku inherited AFO, thus leading to him taking quirks from his peers when he was a child because he didn't know how to 'turn it off', which then led to him not having a lot of friends because the rest of the kids were afraid he might try to steal their quirks indefinitely. He went overseas with his family to try and 'forget' about what happened and maybe get a better hand at controlling Liability, his quirk.

Once he's back in Japan, after AFO v AM fight (the first one) news broke out about The Greatest Villain™ having a heir somewhere around the world (which the people would be confused about, but not the villains, THEY KNOW about the Lord of the Underground, they've heard the rumours, so) so word spreads about Izuku without no one knowing is about him exactly, but Bakugou Remembers, he never forgot about 'the Deku who steals quirks' which would be really difficult to evade, given the fact that Katsuki is the powerhouse he is in canon and pretty much everyone hates him, fears him or fawns over.

With this in mind, Izuku knows there's no way for him to become a Hero, not if he wants to be recognized as All For One's son, so his best route to achieve his dream is by doing it out of the law, being a Vigilante.

By this point either way his view of the Hero Society is more wide open, HE KNOWS the difficults of having a quirk that doesn't fit society's standards, HE KNOWS how hard it is to be viewed as the "bad one" for something you didn't have control over, HE KNOWS people would judge you based on literal bullshit if they can, so he doesn't risk it, he can't risk it for his mom, for the safety and the love Inko needs after "losing" his husband.

(they both are very aware of who Hisashi was and Inko is heartbroken, so Izuku doesn't want to make it harder for her by going out on full display on UA by wanting something that doesn't belongs to him)

This leads to him wanting desperately a change, to go out an Do Something for those like him, for those who are ignored by the ones who only wish more recognition, for those who, like him, were casted aside as "liabilities" for the Society.

He wants to be an All Might of sorts, but a little more... Discreet. Without the big announcement, the smile, the 'bunny ears'. He takes more after Eraserhead.

So, he becomes 'Reprise', a vigilante (criminal for those Good Ones™) who goes 'berserk' at night, beating up all types of Real Criminals, going from drug dealers to genuine Villains, freeing neighborhood after neighborhood and doing what some pros are supposed to do.

He takes the quirks of those who he despises, those who he thinks are the worst of the worst. With them, he doesn't hold back, he ambushes them, takes them off guard and takes their quirks as soon as he can.

It's a little bit like Stain, without the murder and the intensity, but he does share a bit of his ideals, mostly when it cames down to the 'True Heroes' and all that jazz.

News start to spread about the new 'villain' going around beating others just for fun, which leads to other villains wanting to prove themselves by conquering the 'Mad V', thus leading to those same villains ending up without a quirk and a wake up call.

(He's not directly involved with UA and the stuff happening to Class 1A, just briefly jumping in to stop Stain and saving Iida's life (IIDA'S LIFE, unfortunately that doesn't change the fact that Iida's entire life/career changed after that, the Hero Killer achieving his goal of damaging him forever))

With word on the street about a new vigilante doing 'God's Work' and defeating Villain after villain, the rumours make their way into UA halls and the police force, alerting Tsukauchi and Nedzu, which eventually leads to Bakugou knowing about it and having his suspicions.

(Neither Bakugou nor Izuku have encountered each other since the day Izuku left for America, so that)

Now about his appearance, he doesn't have the typical Gucci Eyebags for having insomnia, no. He does have the Gucci Eyebags for going around beating villains so late at night.

He IS a bit different regarding his looks, he DOES has his messy hair, but with an undercut (bc only God knows how much I love Undercut!Izuku), and tends to wear normal clothes. In short, he's not far from Canon Izuku but he's definitely different.

He's not the sad depressed snarky Izuku we love to see in fanfics, no. He's more compossed, polite, kind, but he is a loner, tends to stay in the corner of the room to try and get a hang of his surroundings. He's that kind of anime guy who is serious, has a few friends/classmates that he's friendly with, and mostly evades spotlight. He's not depressed, he's angry at the world for being unfair and angry at himself for allowing the world to hurt him.

That changes when he is Reprise. He becomes this violent vigilante who wants to make a change, who goes out at night to pick fights and steal quirks and do what the Pros don't. He's snarky, sarcastic, rude, he talks back and throws insults around the street as if nothing. He's not afraid of getting injured, he welcomes the pain as a reminder, a reminder that he's doing something and that Something is making other people feel safe and protected.

The Night is Still Young tends to be his catchphrase.

He actually goes with a therapist.

He continues writing his notebooks about quirks and pros, and even villains. He has a whole pack of them with all the quirks he has taken, how they function and how to improve them.

He goes to a well-known high school for Geniuses and Prodigies with interests in sports, maths, sciencies and the like, even those who want to make a living in the support drpartment goes there.

He thinks his fort is his Mind.

((I don't think I have to point it out, but his meeting with All Might & the Sludge Villain doesn't happen in this au.))

(Shigaraki is well aware of his existence, he doesn't know it's Izuku until Reprise tries to ambush him. Shigaraki's thrilled with the rumours about a heir of AFO running around ruining business, so he would obviously want to meet him at some point and maybe try and recruit him, convince him to join his Father's side.)

His first real, face-to-face encounter with Katsuki and the rest of Class 1A (some of them at least) happens during Kamino.

Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Uraraka and Tsuyu are the ones who rescue him SOMEHOW, i'm not going into details because I can't think of them right now, but THEY saved Bakugou.

It's when the news about a creature created by the LOV broke out that he found out about his dad's survival. So he tries to gain information by breaking in the police's archives (thanks to a friend of his who happened to be a hacker) which led to him finding out about the upcoming raid at the LOV base, but he's Izuku, he KNOWS his dad, he KNOWS the type of man Hisashi is.

So, while the League of Villains location is there, he doesn't goes there. He makes an investigation of his own, finding clues, proof, following people. Using common sense, he finds the Warehouse where his dad is supposed to be.

Only, he doesn't makes it that far. He's scouting the area of Kamino, walking around aimlessly, praying that the raid goes well so the Pros can leave it there and continue pursuing fame so he can go to that same Warehouse and confront his dad and maybe throw a few punches and cry a few tears when all Hell breaks loose.

There's a thunderous tremor around him and the screens lights up and there's All Might, in all his glory (he's not a hardcore fan anymore btw) standing in front of a terrifying villain, and suddenly Izuku is very, very scared.

And so, he watches. His heart is in his throat, ready to be thrown up as his Dad fights against the man he used to look up to. He watches as All Might buries All For One into the ground like an unused toy, and he's a mess, he's crying alongside the other people, but he cries for his dad, for the man that he loved so much, and there's this feeling of bitterness in the pit of his stomach that he wants to ignore so desperately.

So he turns around and starts walking again. He remembers his dad, working with him and helping him to control his quirk, giving him the best hugs of the world, cheering him up when he was feeling like a waste of space. He remembers the loving husband and father that Hisashi used to be and he's feeling really miserable when he stops abruptly and looks up to find Bakugou just a couple of meters ahead of him.

The rest of the rescue squad is there, too. They're looking from Bakugou to Izuku really puzzled because the firecracker they know is eerily silent and this boy is just there, face blank with just a little bit of puffiness in his eyes.

So Bakugou, a witness to all the madness from that night in Kamino, with pent up frustration and anger, goes completely blank with emotions and calls him Deku, demands for answers to questions such as 'the hell are u doin here?' 'are you with them?' 'are you playing hero again, uh, fucking Deku?'

And Deku's just there, overwhelmed by grief, because he lost his dad in what he suspects is national television, and he knows his mom is probably at home, probably saw everything. He knows Inko is just as heartbroken as he is, and that hurts like hell because it's his Mom, his everything, the one person that holds importance in his heart that he has left.

And seeing Bakugou at that exact moment, it's too much, he's emotionally incapable to deal with him of all people at that very moment. So he just. Can't.

He looks at Bakugou, he looks at him, and says "you haven't changed anything, Kacchan" and Izuku completely ignores him, keeps walking as if nothing happened, as if it isn't a blonde pomeranian screaming after him to 'stop looking down at him, you fucking freak'.

(when he makes it home he tells his mom he was in Kamino when everything happened, and Inko starts crying real hard, and Izuku too, and everything is a mess)

After his Dad's defeat, he starts attacking Pros, mercilessly and ruthlessly, but only those who deserves it, those who he thinks have failed at doing their jobs of protecting people.

Tsukauchi is desperate to capture him, wanting to bring an end to the 'Heir of the Underground' as people, mainly villains, are calling him after AFO is brought down and the similarities between AFO and Reprise are pointed out. He knows that if he leaves him on the loose for too long, there's no turning back, Tsukauchi knows what's on the line for him and is afraid FOR Izuku, knows he can become a target later on, or he can take over his Dad's Empire and be worst.

He doesn't know is Izuku, and even if Bakugou is having a crisis over Reprise and everything going on around him (because of course is Deku, it's always been Deku) he can't go and tell them, he doesn't has proof, only memories from when he was a kid and a very obvious dislike of Midoriya Izuku.

So Bakugou buries Izuku and Reprise to the back of his mind and concentrates in his own shit, the internships and the provisional license and that jazz.

(I always saw a lot of hc about how everything changed for class 1A without Deku there. So I'm taking this too and a few others things. Can't remember where I saw them tbh but all credits to their rightful owners)

Not all of them, Class 1A that is, got their license, just a few lucky ones, but a great deal of them failed. They aren't that motivated nor are That strong. USJ changed them, showed them a truth they weren't expecting this early, and losing Iida just reminded them that.

Overhaul Arc it's the same, except that, in the middle of the battle against him, when Mirio was fighting Chisaki and protecting Eri, Reprise showed up and took Overhaul's quirk right after he shoot Mirio.

(Mirio, who had Permeability. Mirio, who had One For All. He loses both of his quirks.)

At this point, and with overhaul newly added to his collection with a few others, Izuku is mostly invincible. The chaotic vigilante he used to be becomes fierce, a force to be reckoned with, so when Tsukauchi hears about Reprise getting overhaul, he warns ALL of the Pros to be careful at encountering him.

The Hero Comission WARNS EVERY AGENCY that, in case of coming face to face with Reprise, they have to flee inmediately or suffer the consequences, which are losing their quirks and having to step down from being pros.

It becomes a really bad situation, with fear striking every Pro present, much more so after losing the Symbol of Peace, which leads to a vulnerability in those afraid of losing everything and leaving unprotected a few places, or outright giving up the title of Pro.

Everything comes down to the fateful meeting of Shigaraki and Izuku.

Shigaraki knows there's malice in Reprise, he knows he felt that pain too when All For One was captured, that's why he's going against Pros now, and he plans to use every ounce of that pain to bring him by his side.

Liability (Reprise) of Lorde was a huge inspiration tbh

#bnha #bnha deku #bnha au #mha vigilantes #bnha vigilantes #vigilante deku #villain deku #all for one #deku has a quirk #deku has all for one quirk #midoriya izuku #all might #reprise au #bnha headcanons #a what if deku had all for one quirk au #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #bnha uraraka

[badacts]

Dick and Jason Dick and Jason Dick and Jason Dick and Jason Dick and Jason Dick and Ja

this is pretty ridiculous, but so are dick and jason, so

also the premise of this is admittedly a little grim, but also it’s the two-dudes-and-a-baby trope ft. dick grayson: no idea about babies

Shooter versus pre-Christmas shoppers in an East Side mall. Civilian only, no masks. It’s a bloodbath, and Dick’s only here in time for the cleanup.

“O,” he says on the way down to ground level, “Send whoever’s free and whatever supplies they’ve got. I’m going to start triaging.”

The part of being a bat that goes without saying is that they’re also, when required, first responders. It’s not the first time he’s ever worked alongside GCPD during a mass casualty, and it won’t be the last.

It’s also the part of the job that gets the closest to turning his stomach. The screaming and the crying and the systematic first identifications of who needs help and who they’re too late for - it’s awful.

He gets to work anyway. 

The paramedics from the first ambulance on the scene take charge, arranging the transport of the worst-off victims and coordinating the further arrivals. Dick does as he’s ordered and works on stabilising some of the seriously wounded, working to keep them from going critical. He goes through his supply of wound dressings quick, nodding his thanks when an EMT shoves another pile onto him on her way past.

He’s not the only mask out: it’s a busy night in Gotham, but he catches sight of Batgirl across the roiling crowd as well as the shadow of Cass’s silhouette against the rolling blue-red-blue lights. The flash of a more vivid red in the corner of his eye makes him think, Red Robin, but it’s not the right colour, and definitely not the right shape for Tim. Jason, the sleeves of his jacket rolled up over his forearms and wearing latex gloves, is putting a pressure bandage on a teenager’s upper arm.

“Hi, Nightwing,” an unfamiliar voice says in a familiar I’m-here-to-take-over tone. “Hi ma’am. You’re up for a ride in the next taxi.”

His patient is most of the way unconscious, but she blinks at this in vague acknowledgment. She’s avoided a bullet, but broken her leg badly enough in the crush of the fleeing crowd to show bone. 

“There’s the leg, and I suspect some kind of crush injury to the abdomen,” Dick supplies, moving to make room for the stretcher. “I think she got trampled. Not very responsive either.”

“Any drugs on board?” The EMT asks, hands moving deftly.

“I don’t carry any.” And if he did, he would have used it all up about five victims ago.

“That explains a lot about you,” the EMT says. "We’ve got another two buses here to take the last of the seriously injured over to General, and backup from the GCPD. If you want to move onto patching the walking wounded, go ahead. Anyone who’s good with some disinfectant and a bandaid can head over to talk with the cops.”

Dick nods and gives the woman a last squeeze to her forearm before he clears out of the way. The walking wounded are congregated on the other side of the street, but he doesn’t go in that direction - his priority is still helping, but it’s amazing how even injured people get curious when faced by a Gotham vigilante in the flesh. That’s really not the way he wants to have his identity outed.

Instead, he heads over to Jason’s side where he’s handing off his own patient for transport, their thigh strapped tight with pressure dressings. Jason, standing and snapping his gloves off, says, “Old man.”

“Hood,” Dick says, but he’s thinking Little Wing because he always is when it’s the two of them. They’re drawing looks now even in the dim streetlights - probably Jason, all six-two of him topped with that stupid shiny helmet. “You sticking around?”

“If I -” Jason says, and then breaks off. At the same time as Jason’s head tilts, Dick hears it: a quiet crying, just barely audible in the din.

Dick’s ears are good, but Jason has to have the advantage of auditory enhancement in his hood because he zones in on the noise like a hunting dog. “I think that’s-”

There’s an alley with an access door at the end of it illuminated with a shitty fluorescent branching off the street. It’s otherwise dark as any other Gotham alley, crowded with dumpsters. It takes Dick a moment to pick the odd thing out - a crumpled figure hidden amidst the trash cans.

He makes it to their side first, finding a glaze-eyed young woman clasping something to her chest. The cognitive dissonance of her silence and the now-louder crying catches him out, but Jason catches on quick.

“-a baby,” he finishes, taking a knee on the woman’s other side. He moves as though to slip the bundle from her arms, but her arms tighten even as she hisses in reaction.

“It’s okay,” Dick says to her, “We’re here to help you both. What’s your name?”

She seems to come around a little, eyes flicking between the two of them. She stays quiet for a long moment, and then rasps, “Uh, Mira. You’re Nightwing.”

“Hi, Mira,” Dick says. “Are you hurt?”

“Oh, uh, my shoulder,” she says, and then her eyelids flutter like she’s about to pass out. Dick takes her pulse from her throat and finds it comfortingly strong.

“And your baby?” Dick asks. The bundle certainly sounds lively enough at this distance, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hurt.

“She’s okay,” Mira says, like she’s reassuring herself. “She’s okay. Can you?” 

Which is how Dick finds himself accepting an armful of bawling baby from a wincing, bleeding woman in an alley. “Oh. Okay. Sure.”

Meanwhile, Jason focusses on peeling Mira’s jacket away to reveal a nasty gunshot to the shoulder, high enough that it’s probably mostly missed her right lung but low enough to avoid rebounding off her scapula and bouncing around in her chest cavity. Non-vital, but bleeding badly. 

Mira watches Jason take out a patch dressing and seal it over the wound. She puffs, “I thought…you were…a bad guy.”

“I’m flexible,” Jason replies distractedly, taking out a roll of gauze and wrapping it tight around the shoulder for good measure. “You’re lucky. Little surgery, little hospital stay, you’ll be right as rain.”

That’s no guarantee - she could have more serious injuries than it seems, could get a secondary infection, could drop dead of a thousand different complications or unfair turns of fate in the next hour. However, Dick knows Jason isn’t the type to lie to anyone for comfort. If he’s saying it, he believes it.

Mira’s eyes bulge. “I can’t go…to hospital!”

“Sugar, the one benefit of living in Gotham is the rich folks like to pay hospital bills to assuage their guilt or whatever. Take advantage of that,” Jason advises, and then says to Dick, “Move.”

Dick steps to the side automatically, still holding his squealing burden. “What?”

“No, move. Babies like to move.”

“Oh.” Stiff-armed and feeling like the clumsiest man on earth, Dick sort of…sways. “Like this?”

“Oh my days, Nightwing,” Jason says, in the precise tone he’d usually say ‘Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Dick’. Apparently, he doesn’t deem that language appropriate for the baby. Or maybe Mira.

“I can’t,” Mira interrupts, “I can’t go. They - They’ll take her.”

Jason stiffens a touch in his crouch. Dick says, “Who?”

“The cops,” Mira gasps. “The - CPS. They’ll take her. I won’t get her back.” Her teeth are chattering - shock. 

“You got hurt,” Dick says, attempting a bounce on his toes. He feels a bit like he’s holding a small angry tiger. “This is Gotham. That happens.”

“No, you,” she says, and then closes her eyes and shakes.

Jason reaches across her body and takes her arm. For a moment Dick is dumbstruck, thinking he’s about to watch his little brother comfort someone who isn’t under the age of 15 or his family, but Jason is just turning her arm over to the light. The crook of her elbow is scarred up with pink-white marks.

Mira opens her eyes and stares up at Jason. For a long moment they’re caught in a tableau, her dead-eyed and patient, him silent and judgmental as an old saint.

Voice low, Jason asks, “You using?”

She shakes her head slowly, not breaking her gaze. “Not - not since before her.”

Dick says, more to Jason than her, “That won’t matter. At worst, the baby will spend a few days in respite-”

“Shut up,” Jason replies, and then says to Mira, “If you don’t go to hospital, you’re going to lose her anyway. Except it’ll be because you’re dead.”

“You think I…don’t know that?” she hisses back. “I don’t got family. Her dad’s a deadbeat. It’s just me and her.” The phrase I can’t lose her hovers, unspoken but clear as day in the set of her jaw.

Jason stands. Dick isn’t sure what he’s expecting, but it’s certainly not for Jay to walk to him and lift the baby out of his arms. He holds her the other way around from Dick, head to his shoulder and legs towards his belt, hand cupped careful over the back of her skull. He looks not only more capable than Dick with her, but more capable than anyone Dick knows.

“You got kids?” Mira rasps at him.

Jason laughs. “Christ no.” In his arms, the baby is quieting down, snuffling instead of screaming. She’s a red-faced scrap of humanity, no more than a few months old as far as Dick can tell. Sweet, in any other circumstance.

“Are you nursing or bottle-feeding?” Jason asks without looking up from her.

Dick makes a noise like a squeaky toy that’s been stepped. Thankfully neither of the others seem to notice. Mira says, “Bottle. I don’t - I don’t got the meat on my bones to feed her, I reckon.”

“I’ll do you a deal, then,” Jason says, and he reaches to the back of his neck and flicks the release on his helmet. It hisses slightly as he pops it off, leaving the domino on but exposing the clean human lines of his face. The move turns him from one of Crime Alley’s most fearsome denizens into a young man with truly terrible helmet hair. “You go to the hospital and let them fix you up. I’ve got a friend who fosters who’ll look after her until you get out, no questions asked.”

Mira stares at him for a long moment, and then carefully - and inadvisably - levers herself off of the asphalt to her feet. Then she says, “You do it.”

Jason’s face creases. “What? No. Definitely not.”

“You’re good with her,” Mira says. 

“I ain’t a babysitter.” It’s only partly belied by the ease with which he’s handling the baby.

“I don’t know your friend. I know you.”

“No.” Red Hood is Gotham’s third most stubborn person, behind their younger brothers. That’s infused in the single syllable. 

Mira sways, swallows. “Please.”

Jason looks at her for a long moment. Dick can’t really make out his expression under the domino, but doesn’t need to in order to know that it’s Jay’s particular brand of piercing consideration. Dick used to think he’d learned it from Bruce, but now that they’re both older he’s inclined to think it predates the Bat.

Then Jason sighs, and very obviously rolls his eyes. “Jesus, fine. On your freakin’ head be it, though.”

Mira’s eyes close as she lets out a relieved sigh. The swaying is more obvious now. Dick wraps an arm around her waist the split-second before her knees give out, swinging her up into his arms.

“I should give you my number,” Mira says into Dick’s collarbone. 

“You think I can’t find you?” Jason replies, disparaging. “I’m the Red Hood.”

“Let’s get her a ride out of here,” Dick suggests, before it can devolve further. Mira’s outlook is getting bleaker by the minute - they don’t really have time for her to change her mind now, and he knows if she does Jason will happily continue talking in circles until she makes a decision. 

The scene in the street is much the same, even though it feels like they’ve been in the alley for a thousand years. Dick takes her to one of the ambulances parked up on the corner, sending people scattering out of his way. 

“Her name’s Rachel,” Mira says faintly. “You’ll help him, right?”

“Sure,” Dick replies, and then to the waiting EMT as he deposits Mira straight onto her gurney, “Got another one for you. Gunshot to the shoulder.”

“Got it,” comes the brisk reply. Dick hovers for a second when he should be getting out of here, caught in the grip of uncertainty.

The subject of that uncertainty is currently being zipped into the front of Jason’s body armour. “Good thing she’s so little. Toddler would be a tight fit.” 

“Yeah, it’s great,” Dick mutters, noting the careful arm Jason curls around his chest to keep her steady. He’s got his helmet back on, at least. “Go.”

“Going,” Jason says, and melts away into the crowd like a guy his size definitely should not be able to do.

“Did he have a baby?” The EMT asks tentatively.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dick replies.

*

Dick catches up with Jason a couple of rooflines over. He’s not exactly moving as fast as he usually does. “Where’s your helmet?”

“Stashed it,” Jason replies easily. “It’s like a target. That isn’t the look I’m going for right now.”

Huh. Dick says, “Let’s take her to GCPD.”

Jason looks at him like he’s lost his mind. “What?”

“Social workers? People who know about babies? This ringing any bells?”

“Dick, I just promised not to do that.”

Dick sputters. “I didn’t think you were serious!”

“As death,” Jason replies, and smirks when Dick frowns at him. “Besides, didn’t you used to be a cop? They didn’t teach you anything about little kids?”

“Cops don’t arrest babies.” He can sense Jason’s judgment. “I only dealt with the ones old enough to talk.”

“Right,” Jason snickers, as though Dick’s somehow the weird one here. “C’mon. I’ve got somewhere.”

“I’m not coming with you.” Dick has better things to do. Also, he doesn’t want to. Jason might make him hold the baby again.

“You promised to help.”

“I didn’t pinky swear,” Dick grumbles, but he follows along anyway. After a couple of minutes of quiet he adds, “The care workers - they’re good people.”

“Lots of ‘em, sure,” Jason agrees. “I’d still have slept on cardboard in a back alley ten times over if it meant keeping myself out of the system, though.”

Dick doesn’t have much to say to that. His unfortunate childhood aside, he had his parents, and then he had Bruce, and then he was a legal adult. He never faced the threat of state care, or homelessness.

They touch down on the fire escape of an apartment building that Dick recognises but hasn’t been into. Jason one-handedly disarms what looks like a taser trap and then lets them in through the window, folding himself gingerly to get inside without squashing his cargo.

She lets out a little cry as Jason sheds his jacket and takes her out, little fists bunched and pulled tight to her chest. Jason says, “She’s cold. Grab the blanket off my bed.”

“Do you speak baby?” Dick asks, perturbed by the thought. 

Jason dumps off his domino, probably to give Dick the full force of his eyeroll. “Blanket, big bird.”

The blanket in question is a pretty quilt in shades of indigo, splayed across the unmade bed. Dick picks it up and brings it back out to the lounge, offering it to Jason.

“Good,” Jason says, wrapping her in it. “Sit down.”

“Huh?” Dick asks, though he does it anyway. The next thing he knows, the bundled grizzling baby is in his lap. “No!”

“Yes,” Jason growls, like he’ll pin Dick to the couch if necessary. “I need to make her some food. You just sit there and hold her up until I’m done.”

“Can’t she just lie on the couch?” Dick asks. She’s even smaller pillowed on his thighs, not much longer than a foot by the looks. 

“No.” Jason’s already in the kitchen, his voice half lost over clattering.

“Fine,” Dick says, more to the baby - Rachel - than to Jason. “Do you really keep baby food around?”

“Just formula and bottles,” Jason replies. “And some diapers.”

“Just in case you find a lost baby?”

“No. Because sometimes people need that shit, and they’re more likely to take it from the back of my pantry than if I offer to buy it for them.” More rustling. “Also, my neighbour’s a single mom. Sometimes I watch her kids.”

“Who’s your friend? The one who fosters?”

“Mind your own business, Grayson. I’ve just got to sterilise this bottle.”

Dick has a sudden mental image of Jason firing up an autoclave in the kitchen. He looks down at Rachel, who’s looking back at him. She has her fingers in her mouth. “How long do you think Mira will be in hospital?” 

“A few days, at least.”

“You’re going to look after this kid for days?”

Jason laughs. “Jesus, Dick, it’s not like it’s hard. She’s little. All they do is eat and sleep and make dirty diapers at this age.“

Now Dick’s imagining Red Hood patrolling with Rachel in one of those baby backpacks. Maybe one made of kevlar, though. “What about work?”

“A few days off never killed anyone,” Jason replies. “I’ll catch up on my shows.”

“His shows,” Dick mutters to Rachel. “Hey, you can’t eat yourself. Stop that.” He gently pulls her fingers away from her mouth, wincing a little at the slimy texture. Rachel, unperturbed, tries to put Dick’s finger in her mouth instead. Her eyes are huge and very blue, her hair fair and tufty where the blanket has ruffled it up.

“Here,” Jason says, waving a bottle in front of Dick’s nose. “She might want it warm, but try this first.”

“Oh, I can’t-” Dick manages to get out before Jason literally pushes the bottle into his baby-drool hand. “I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“She does, though,” Jason points out. “Relax, Dickie. Here.”

He twists Dick’s arm until the bottle is inverted and in the range of Rachel’s mouth. Dick notices that her concentration has shifted onto the bottle, her little mouth open like a baby bird. “Keep it tilted up so she doesn’t suck in too much air.”

She latches on and sucks. Dick, surprised, says, “Holy shit, look at that.”

Jason chuckles. “You got it. Now just let her do the work.”

Dick watches her guzzle the bottle. “She’s kinda cute. You know, when she’s not screaming.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re now enjoying one of the two tolerable parts of a baby at this age - eating and sleeping. The only times when they’re not crying.”

“You can’t find it that intolerable.” After all, no one’s making Jason babysit enough that he’s clearly more than just competent. 

“I got depths,” Jason replies with a shrug, as though Dick didn’t realise that. “Bottle up, pal. Seriously, you haven’t heard screaming until your neighbour wakes you up at 3AM to take a turn with a colicky baby.”

“Remind me to never, ever have kids,” Dick mutters. In his lap, Rachel has already almost drained the bottle. She’s slowed right down, her eyes nearly rolling in her head as she struggles to keep them open. “I think she’s tired.”

“Good. Now, put her up on your shoulder and rub her back a little.”

“Really?” Dick asks, awkwardly maneuvering her up his chest. She stretches a little when he makes circles on her teeny back. “Wait, isn’t this the part when babies-”

Rachel hiccups a little, and Dick feels a trace of wetness along the seam of his uniform around his neck. He sighs.

“Well,” Jason says, biting back a laugh. “Here, let me.” He lifts her away, easy as pie. “I’ll deal with the diaper situation. You get a clean shirt.”

“You’re too kind,” Dick says, and actually means it, “But you should know that I’m going to get you for that later.”

#dc #dick grayson #jason todd #red hood #nightwing #and a baby #my fic #prompts #batfam #batboys #Anonymous #i've been writing this for 8000 years #tumblr ate my read more hope i fixed it lmao

[0poole]

The Best and Worst parts of past Pokemon games

I’ve watched ShayMay’s 7-hour analysis on Omega Ruby and as you’d expect it’s getting me to think about what are actually the best and worst parts of Pokemon in the past. I’m still glad he literally goes through the entire game going into both the good and the bad of the game, and I’m basically only bringing it up because of the sheer amount of effort put into it. Obviously the video was made before Sun and Moon came out so thankfully some of his quandaries have been solved, but still it’s interesting to see the on and off of certain things throughout the series. Most of the time it gets better as time goes on, but still, it feels like you could get an amazing Pokemon game just by piecing together the features of past games (even if you’d definitely need a few additions to get it perfect, if that’s even possible). 

To be honest I really am slowly falling out of favor with Sword and Shield, and it kind of makes me hope that Gamefreak can still get better. Even though the games sold like hotcakes, hopefully they have the heart to realize a ton of people didn’t really like the direction, even though it still isn’t “bad,” just worse than it feels like it should be. Even though bad direction can’t be remedied by other things, the fact that they are a multi-billion dollar franchise really makes it feel like they could afford to make it better, especially when past games did do what people wanted...

Since it’s the most relevant...

DLC/”Enhanced” Versions:

I will genuinely take DLC over “enhanced” versions any day. Even though you’d think a lot could be improved between the base versions and enhanced ones, that’s usually not the case. The only ones that truly changed the game were Black and White 2, since they were treated more like sequels. Even golden games like Platinum didn’t divert much, even if it is an objectively better version than Diamond and Pearl. Considering the games are now going to be a solid 60$ each, it would be even crazier to expect someone to buy the base and enhanced versions. Only paying 30$ for multiple expansions (at least two, could be more) with the content of said expansions being put out as a free update otherwise is a much better deal. The only people this hurts are the types who reasonably wait for the inevitable enhanced version and only buy that instead, since it’s always better, even if only a little. As far as I know, however, Pokemon is one of the only game franchises that releases enhanced versions of games soon after their release (as in, not years later when technology advances and they can profit off nostalgia), so really they’re just becoming more normal by doing this. 

Of course there’s the argument that there shouldn’t be any DLC or “enhanced” versions, and all the content of the game should be included in the base game. It would obviously be preferable to not pay for it, but as is painfully obvious, even the richest groups can still be money hungry. Considering they’re inevitably going to make one or the other, DLC is going to be the better choice overall because it’s much more expandable. You rarely got to see a substantial amount of content added on in the enhanced versions. If they made us pay 30$ for the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra separately, that would be crazy. But, since it’s 30$ for both, they could easily insert more bits alongside the rest of the Expansion Pass, maybe allowing them to carry a game for multiple years under less resources on their part compared to trying to make a whole new game. That way, maybe they can devote even more resources to future generations and remakes. That’s all just speculation though. I’m kind of impatient, writing all this before the day it releases and when we get more info for the future, so basically just take this as my opinion the whole time before the DLC came out.

Honestly, though, I almost always fall into the camp of gamers completely misrepresenting the concept of DLC, saying they just cut off some of the content and made you pay extra for it. A few bad apples really soured the bunch in this case, because, even though Sword and Shield did feel kind of lacking in some places, saying the Isle of Armor or Crown Tundra would’ve been a seamless part of the game no matter what is just obviously wrong. The games felt “complete” in the sense that it is all they wanted it to be, and it has a clear start and end. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s unfinished. Again, obviously it would be better if it was free/included already, but that’s just a given. 

In a similar vein…

Remakes:

Basically, I love the usual formula for remakes. I actually really liked ORAS, and I feel like it improved on so much, making me actually like Hoenn as a region. Even though I played them closer to when they game out, RSE feel like a slog compared to modern stuff, especially with the lack of the physical/special split. I can definitely feel some nostalgia for the originals still, but 90% of the time I go back to those games looking for nostalgia, getting bored by the time I get to Rustburo, and turning it off. As mentioned by Shaymay, there’s still a ton wrong with it, but I’d much rather play them all the way through compared to the originals. I do still want to force myself through them eventually, though.

Heartgold and Soulsilver are widely considered to be the best games in the whole franchise, so I don’t have to say much. I’m not a Johto nut so I’m not the best at selling it, but I will say it feels so much more colorful and polished visually than the rest of Gen 4. 

Firered and Leafgreen have the same problems that make me dislike RSE, but Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee are the strange cases that make the future so uncertain. I liked them for what they were, but I swear God if they do that one more time it’s going to make the fanbase erupt. The Let’s Go formula worked for Kanto because a lot of the people playing Go are people who knew the original games but not the newer ones, making Let’s Go a good entry point with mostly familiar territory and slightly dumbed down gameplay. It may work again if they do a Let’s Go in Johto, but if they do it for Sinnoh, since it’s the next one on the chopping block, it’s going to fall insanely flat. Barely anyone who only loves Go also seriously wants to play through Sinnoh. There’s little nostalgia there, and the nostalgia with Sinnoh resides in everyone else who loves the games as they are/as they originally were. Plus, people say they’re some of the hardest games, so dumbing them down ruins part of the appeal more. Since remakes pretty much entirely profit off of nostalgia (and partially from people wanting to experience a region without the limitations of its origins) they really need to just, you know, remake the game. Same deal as any Pokemon game, just with better (if you’d call it that) graphics and modern sensibilities. Considering all remakes (IMO) look better than their originals, I don’t think we have to worry an insane amount about them looking as iffy as SwSh. I don’t think they look THAT bad already, but I definitely think they’re some of the ugliest in the series. 

I will say that I do still want remakes to happen. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, and I love seeing graphically enhanced versions of past regions. Also, my favorite region is up next, so I really just want to see what happens. I’m a shill so it can’t make me hate the originals more. Or, you know, maybe that just makes me a normal, reasonable person...

Graphics:

Obviously we just want texture quality, model quality, etc. But, I think there’s something to be talked about with the overall art style.

I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda into the chibi-esque models of X/Y and ORAS. It did feel like it trivialized the more serious characters, like the villains and major legendaries, as they looked too cute, so it’s probably for the best if we stick to “normal” proportions. It felt weird when I first saw Sun and Moon, but I got used to it. I always wanted to make my character look as cute as possible so the chibi style helped with that, but I have gotten some good results from Sword and Shield. 

For character customization (if it even counts as “graphics”) I think Sword and Shield really hit the nail on the head. I’m kinda biased, because Moon and Ultra Moon had a really shitty shade of purple as their designated “purple” clothing, and SwSh really got my favorite shade of it right. I do think it’s great to have one style of clothing under different, generally standardized colors. But, I definitely think we need more body types. Like, one of the main reasons I play as a girl in games like this is that the boy character doesn’t even look like me anyway, so there’s really no good reason to play either. Even if it’s just one separate character option for each gender, like a Skinny male/”Round” male/Skinny female/”Round” female I’d be fine. Obviously I’d want some character sliders at some point, like pretty much every other game with character customization does, but I can settle for one more generation. The alts could even be more shoehorned rivals like in X/Y, so they basically have the design cut out for them.

One weird graphical thing I want brought back is the little circular platform your Pokemon lands on in a battle. For some reason, I really liked that. It does make the battle feel more in tune with the overall environment without it, but sometimes the battle fields look really bland and flat without it. I’d at least want the floor to be designed in a way to look like there are devoted spots for each Pokemon to stand on, even if it’s not a separate thing like in X/Y. It just feels more satisfying. Not really a big deal though, since I’ve been able to ignore it for this long.

The big thing is animations. I am getting extremely tired of the X/Y models. That’s 3 generations so far that use them, and some of them aren’t even good. I’ll never hesitate to drive this point into the ground, but I really wish Pokemon like Xatu, Charizard, Dragonite, and Salamence are permanently floating/flying in air. If it isn’t obvious, this is the way it is because of Sky Battles in X/Y, since they didn’t want to do extra work for the Pokemon permanently suspended in air. The problem is that those four Pokemon (and probably many others) really don’t feel like they are supposed to be in the air 24/7. According to their official art and sprites, they’re all on the ground. Xatu especially was made to look super tall and stout with its geometric wings flatly put on his torso, like the totem pole it’s supposed to be. In the air, it basically just hovers with his wings out, and for some reason it looks like there’s a large gust of wind keeping it afloat. It looks really weird. Salamence is also in the same boat, since its wings are so weird and not wing-like that making it constantly fly just looks so unnatural. Mega Salamence was at least designed to look like it’s supposed to be flying, but normal Salamence really should just rest on the ground. He’s too fat to be permanently lifted by his weird wings. Charizard and Dragonite aren’t as severe, since both are clearly shown to be otherwise super capable of flight, but they do feel better on their feet. I remember watching TyranitarTube’s series on one of the Extreme Randomizer hacks of the game, and in there somehow they made a Dragonite use it’s Amie/Refresh animation of sitting still on its feet in battle. It seriously felt so much better to look at, instead of this giant, poofy dragon being carried by its comically small wings. Basically, the way you should tell whether to keep them on the ground is based on the official art/sprites. That is the way the designers intended them to be depicted, so that’s the way they should be. Some exceptions that I’m actually fine with are pretty much all the regional birds, except Unfezant. They all look pretty decent flying, since flying’s basically all they do… Even Swellow, who has the same strange gust of wind as Xatu, feels more fitting like that because it seems so much more aerodynamic. 

Apart from that, I just wish they were at least a little different. I’m not super against the muted colors they have compared to the sprites, but I wouldn’t be against more saturation. Considering how much work was put into all the different animations of the battles, Refresh, and both walking AND running animations, I unfortunately don’t think they’re going to change any time soon unless they explicitly say they’re going to change them for quality improvement. I would say the Pokemon from Gen 6 up are still pretty fine, since they were more meant for 3D.

As for battles, one of my favorite Pokemon games is, in fact, Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii. Not only was it super Sinnoh-focused, but it had multiple body types (even if I still look like none of them) with character customization for all, and great graphics for the time. People always look to it after citing the lacking Double Kick animation from SwSh, saying how animated the models were and how they liked the Pokemon actually running up to their target when using a physical attack. I will say that the model quality for a lot of them were still kind of iffy, and that some of the animations were a little too much. Specifically Pidgeotto, who was on one of the rental cards, was super energetic so as to seem a bit crazy, and felt a bit low-poly for the otherwise high quality of the environments and humans. However, going back to such a formula would be extremely welcome. I’m totally fine with the Pokemon not running up to their targets, but I wouldn’t be mad to see it put in, especially since the walking and running animations are already in the game. They would need to be balanced in terms of speed, though, since some of the animations in PBR felt really, really slow with that animation in there. Plus, some moves just need speed, like Quick Attack. 

In terms of the move animations themselves, I do think some of the water effects in PBR felt too realistic compared to the rest of everything. Also, people say Double Kick looked bad in SwSh (like it ever looked good), but a hell of a lot of Fighting type animations in PBR were literally just the Pokemon walking up to their target, smacking them with nondescript flashes, and that’s it. So many of them could hardly be pieced apart depending on whether they were kicks, punches, or whatever. It would’ve been better either way if they put the physical move attack animation in for Double Kick, but PBR has its fair share of shitty move animations too. Moves like Seismic Toss looked fucking insane though, and I loved it. Seismic Toss specifically is the true test of move animation quality. 

Also, it’s kinda irrelevant to anything, but I could totally get down with the Announcer from PBR returning for major battles like Gym battles or League battles. He was so much fun, even if a bit repetitive. All you need for that is a setting to turn him off, and bam. He’s a true classic.

More generally, though, I think Sword and Shield is a seriously mixed bag of graphical quality. I give the SwSh haters a lot of flack, but the one thing I 100% agree with is the texture of the trees from the Wild Area. They are god awful, even if it was in a game a decade ago. I seriously don’t know how they messed that up, since you can download better bark textures for free on the internet. Surely someone at Gamefreak could’ve done better there. If this was just a random tree in the background of some random route, then who cares, right? But no, this is practically every single tree in the Wild Area, the biggest selling point for the region and the game, where you would always spend the most time. You see so many of these trees everywhere, and they look horrible. I also hate the look of the berry trees, since they don’t seem to use the same lighting effects as everything else (just a guess though), but even apart from that the batch of lighter leaves on top of the bottom ones just looks so artificial. It looks as if they dumped a sphere of leaves on top of another sphere of leaves, like it was ice cream. Maybe some trees in the real world look like that, but sometimes it’s an artist’s job to take what sucks about reality to make it better for fiction. 

On the other hand, I think locations like Motostoke look genuinely amazing. The brick textures are pretty good (compared to the tree), and all the colors and shapes of the place look really good. Also, when they go into full-on cutscene mode, the models, scenery, and everything else really shine. Obviously I’m not the king of all visual media, but it’s just weird to see that. It’s hard to compare to past games, because everything else was either 2D or on the 3DS, which wasn’t as powerful. Even though the Wii is definitely less powerful than the Switch, it doesn’t really count since there’s infinitely less content to worry about in PBR. Much more of the work could’ve gone into the graphics. Really, there doesn’t feel like there’s any excuse unless crunching is involved on the business side of things, which I really hope isn’t an issue for their sake. I would honestly love to see them announce that they’re taking a year or two off to devote themselves fully to a new generation, instead of trying to keep a yearly schedule. Something something Miyamoto quote something something.

Stylistically, it’s also a mixed bag, but at least this time it’s all just subjective. It feels like a lot of the game is meant to be somewhat blobbed together in some ways, like its a painting meant to be looked at from afar. It feels like there aren’t major outlines for things. Specifically with the Pokemon, they don’t have that outline they’ve had for the 2 generations before. It’s never been a big deal, and I really hate how low quality the outline made the models feel, so I don’t really know which style I want. Even though it’s still decent, I feel like most 3D models made to have a super notable outline on them look a little funky sometimes with it, so I don’t know if I want that, but without it they just don’t feel as solid. I really just don’t know there. 

Music:

It feels like, even if a franchise is kinda iffy, the music is still consistently top tier. Like, no one thinks Sonic games have objectively bad music, even if they don’t like it. If they do, they’re just wrong. Pokemon’s the same, so thankfully this isn’t a test of which past game had the highest quality music. I do think the Wild Battle theme in SwSh does feel like it has a weird melody, but that is super outclassed by universally acclaimed bangers like the Slumbering Weald, and the battle themes of Marnie, Bede, Oleana, and the Battle Tower. Those aren’t just the best the generation has to offer, they’re seriously amazing themes. 

Back in Gen 7, we have the Kahuna Battle, all themes of Team Skull and the Aether Foundation, Lillie’s theme, the Ultra Beasts (which might be more contentious but I like it) and Hau’oli City at night. In Gen 6, I at least liked the themes of Laverre City, Team Flare, and ESPECIALLY the Xerneas/Yveltal battle theme. Don’t even get me started about Pokemon Battle Revolution. I could go on and on, but I at least want to spotlight ORAS here because they knocked it out of the park with Archie and Maxie’s battle theme. It was the perfect drop, because the intro felt super muted and boring, and I was afraid they completely snubbed it, but the drop completely blew me away, and absolutely perfected the theme with the crazy trumpets Hoenn is known for. Also, Zinnia’s theme is amazing, as well as many other themes that are just improvements over the originals. The one thing I’m semi-iffy on is the Regi theme, an amazing theme for my favorite trio, but I never think anyone really makes it feel as lumbering and deep as it should, considering what it’s supposed to represent. The beat is arranged as it should, but it never feels punchy enough for me. 

I’m really just praising the music here. Frankly, I see no reason to think the music is getting any worse.

Difficulty/EXP Share:

They’re basically the same thing, at least according to Gamefreak.

I always keep the EXP share on, but I do think that making it a permanent addition to the game was a major mistake. As explained in Shaymay’s video, it actually increases the overall experience you gain in battle, at least before. That seems absurd to make a permanent addition (although they likely changed it in SwSh because of that). I honestly just use it because I’m not into a challenge in games, but it should definitely be optional, if for no other reason than to be a bootleg difficulty slider. However, What about the difference between the Gen 6+ version and previous versions?

I think it’s easy. Make it like pre-Gen 6, but give you multiple shares. So, if you want to train up two underleveled Pokemon, make it so you don’t have to swap it between them. That way, if you really want to just spread the EXP thin, you can give one to everyone you have, and that’s that. Also, I think it should perfectly split the EXP, not adding anything onto it. If everyone on your team has one and you get 120 EXP, that’s 20 EXP for everyone. Of course, I do actually love the mechanic of being able to switch the share holder in to give them a disproportionately larger amount of EXP compared to everyone else. It just doubles the effectiveness of switch training, and makes it better for when you want to train them up but specifically not the higher level Pokemon you’re using to fight.

Some part of me wants to keep my precious easy mode in, but then I realize… Just make actual difficulty differences. Just give us a choice. Even if it’s just a “How well do you know the Pokemon world?” with a “I know all about it/I’m a bit unsure” text box in the beginning. In the harder variant, tutorials will be skipped automatically, trainers will have higher AI, and better teams. However, I don’t think higher levels is a perfect foil, because that can just be beat with grinding, and grinding is boring. Also, I’d have to guess the main reason why Gamefreak didn’t do this in the first place is that trading Pokemon would differ a bit between difficulties with different level curves, although apart from it just sounding like a bad thing I’m struggling to think of a genuine reason why it is. But, for the sake of playing, grinding sucks. It’s not fun, and I honestly think you shouldn’t just bump up levels and call it difficulty, because you don’t actually need skill to beat a higher level, just a better level and maybe RNG. But, if you actually had to effectively train a team of more than six, with Pokemon you swap out depending on your opponent, you would actually need to think of how you play the game. I think the main reason Pokemon games are so easy is that you can basically choose whatever you want and do almost whatever and still win. Some fights, as far as my playstyle goes, are still decently challenging because I just choose what Pokemon I like and not as much what’s good (unless something genuinely just sucks), and those battles, even though I would probably get annoyed at losing over and over, feel so much more rewarding to beat. And, of course, that’s only like a few major fights. I’ve never had any real trouble with trainers. I only think I’ve had a bit of trouble with the elite trainers in Let’s Go because I always try to use my lowest level Pokemon first to level them up, and keep my team at completely even levels. If I always just switched in the foil to my opponent, which I inevitably had, I would almost never lose a single Pokemon, mostly because of the “switch” battle setting.

But of course that begs the question of Pokemon being balanced for children and inexperienced players. I know way too much about this game, so obviously it’s a piece of cake for me no matter what, and what I want is supposedly what would frustrate everyone else. But… again, just put in the choice. People can choose whether they want to be challenged, or if they just want to play Pokemon, and if they choose wrong that’s on them, not anyone else. They could just reset the game and try again on an easier difficulty. It’s crazy to have to vouch for this, since it’s a staple in pretty much every other game in existence. Even in my casual state, I want to play a harder Pokemon. I want to test myself. Online competition is a bit much for me, but the AI is too little. Even in me replaying Pearl right now, I’m trying to use weirder and weaker Pokemon than I usually use for difficulty, and even that game was mostly a cakewalk. I’m only stuck at the Elite Four because I was somehow super underleveled. In the generation where I experience the AI switching out the most, they still just do that at random and keep in certain Pokemon that get completely walled by what I have out, only for me to stall them to death. AI definitely should switch out (and I honestly can’t remember it happening once since Gen 5, if even then) so if anything, just give them a more solid switching ability. Considering we have the opportunity to switch in whatever we want when they are about to send out something, they really need to take advantage of the power of switching.

Gyms are a big piece of difficulty that falls apart 90% of the time. The gym puzzles are rarely hard, with only a few notable exceptions requiring major thought, like the Circhester, Snowbelle, Snowpoint, and Sootopolis gyms. See a pattern? Why the heck to Ice types/themes get the worst resistances yet the best gym puzzles? Otherwise, if you’re not just fighting trainers (which you were going to do anyway) you’re bashing your head against a wall until something sticks. The Trials of SM/USUM were universally a joke, and were it not for the Totem fight they would’ve actually made me mad by how easy they are, considering they had the opportunity to revamp the whole system and knock it out of the park.

As for the Gym Leader, assuming we have to stick with the idea that they can only use one type still, they really have to cover their bases. Like, a Water gym leader would really have to have Flying type moves or Pokemon to counteract the easy Grass weakness, or something. You can’t get to the top with just one single type and nothing else. I do kind of think a master with no specific type speciality should only be reserved for the Champion, since it makes them more special, and because it seems like any old trainer can become one if they beat the last one, meaning it’s illogical for too many of them to have one special type. I can appreciate the choice philosophies of the Gyms like Raihan and Volkner, and Flint of the Elite Four, where they do specialize in one type, but they have a lot of different Pokemon involved who only have moves of that type. It still feels consistent, but also more varied. Also, I love the 1v2 dynamic of Totem fight. Not only does it blatantly put you at a disadvantage, but since the battles aren’t explicitly type based, they can put together some seriously unique strategies, like the Sunny Day Castform partner to the Totem Lurantis. It’s literally the most basic plan you can formulate, but it sure as hell made that one of the hardest early boss fights in the series, at least for me. It was pretty good stuff. Too bad other bosses like the Ultra Necrozma fight was just kind of cheap, with a +1 to all stats and super high level… Better than nothing though.

Versions:

I get that it’s a staple of the franchise, but I really hate version exclusives/differences. They’re just dumb. Specifically the differences of Black 2 and White 2 pissed me off the most, because guess what? They did have difficulty options! But… they were version exclusive. Like White Kyurem more than Black Kyurem? Or, maybe Reuniclus is your favorite Pokemon? (not bitter) Well, too bad. You’re only allowed the expressly easier mode of the game, which you only unlock after beating it normally????? That’s just stupid. I’d sort of be okay with it if you unlocked easy mode after normal mode, then unlocking hard mode after beating easy mode (like how I thought it was before I looked it up), but limiting stuff like that is just ridiculous. I mean, it’s dumb to have to unlock an easy mode after beating the normal game to begin with. I’m honestly considering trying to beat easy mode without evolving any Pokemon though. Self-imposed difficulty is fun sometimes, but yeah…

Also, the differences of Sun and Moon also are dumb. Like playing in the day, but like Lunala more? Maybe Purple is your all-time favorite color and you want to wear it? Well, too bad. Go ahead and flip your 3DS’s internal clock around, messing up all other time based games you play. It’s a gimmick that transcends Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and Dynamax.

Now, there’s a completely new problem: Some people bought the wrong expansion pass for their game. Because there were two versions, people literally just wasted money on absolutely nothing. To be fair, those people are blind idiots, but still. I really just want one version. Please.

The whole semi-in-grouping that happens when the version exclusive Pokemon are first revealed is kinda fun, but 90% of the time people have to settle for a few Pokemon they like and a few they don’t. For example, I bought Sword specifically because I like Zacian more, and the legendaries would be much harder to come by than other version exclusives. In the meanwhile, I preferred practically every other version exclusive over Sword’s, including but not limited to my boy Reuniclus. I don’t use old Pokemon in newer generations anyway, but it still sucks to have to choose like that.

It was obviously meant to give people much more to look for, since they physically can’t get some Pokemon, and have them interact with others to get them. The only problem is that we just have the Internet now. It doesn’t help to just ask someone online for a trade for a version exclusive. It’s just an extra stepping stone that really isn’t that fun to deal with.

I was originally going to say that the games/console cost more so less people would buy them, but considering SwSh absolutely knocked it out of the park, overselling even the highest selling games from the past, that’s clearly not an issue. My sister even bought Let’s Go Pikachu after buying Let’s Go Eevee for herself, since we both initially got Eevee. Thankfully she seems relatively into buying the games now, so we can coordinate and get different versions. That’s how I was able to complete my Pokedex for the first time in Sword (although obviously there’s less Pokemon to find). I think she even bought a separate Sword version for herself too… Is this what the average consumer is like?

Honestly all of this is just sort of subjective because really it’s not a big deal, but it would be so much less of a deal and make the games much more perfect and reasonable story wise if they just used one version. For example, Circhester is clearly an Ice-themed location, but in Sword you face a Rock gym leader, instead of the Ice one. And, the opposite is true in Stow-on-side, because Sword has the more logical gym with the boxing gloves punching you around and the tough city that feels as Fighting as Fighting could be without being a literal dojo. But, in Shield you face some Ghost kid. To be fair, I do like that version exclusivity is bleeding into some of the characters too, so if there is to be version exclusives at all let there be version exclusive characters, but it would just feel so much better to have it all sorted into one place. Also, to consider past installments, Ho-oh is clearly more important to the overall plot of the world than Lugia is, as shown by Ho-oh always being an important, mystical lore figure in the Anime and such, while Lugia is just like “Wow, there’s Lugia! So powerful!” Thankfully the plot didn’t entirely revolve around them, but it could’ve if they just focused on Ho-oh. 

Story:

Pokemon has definitely had its fair share of dumb stories, which is excusable because it’s not actually the focus of the game, but it doesn’t hurt to have.

You obviously can’t talk story without talking about Black and White. Also, you really can’t talk a Pokemon story without talking about the evil Team in each game, because they’re basically the entire motor for plot. Still, though, Team Plasma is easily the best Team in the franchise for story purposes. The biggest thing is that they seem like the most reasonable team, making them seem like people who are just so into their ideals that it looks like a cult. Also, in B2W2, they actually split up into the friendly division of Plasma, where they actually carry out their goals of wanting Pokemon to be happy and free, while Neo-Plasma does all the Team Rocket-level shenanigans that mess everything up. Not only is it just reasonable, but it answers a question that comes with the overall concept of the franchise: How can Pokemon want to battle for the sake of humans, etc? It doesn’t make sense, and naturally someone in the world would take that to the extreme when they realized it. It also makes sense why the grunts are so hellbent on wreaking havoc around Unova, because they are each led to truly believe what they are doing is right for the world. Other villains like Archie and Cyrus are just like “humans are bad, let’s destroy them” which is like a lite version of this idea, but it feels almost too supervillain-y to take seriously, and the grunts just feel like henchmen. Plasma feels just real enough, with somewhat level-headed people like N making it seem like they’re almost not crazy. 

People always say Team Rocket is the best, but even though their motives are so simple enough so as to seem real and good story-wise, they do feel like they don’t really add anything to the overall idea of Pokemon. At the time it was just “Pokemon are strong so bad people can use strong Pokemon for bad” which makes sense, but really doesn’t feel like it extends beyond that. Don’t get me wrong, I would say they’re objectively second best (because subjectively Galactic is my #1) but I do think Plasma is better.

Since they’re the most recent, Team Yell is the most nothing out of this list. That only makes them second worst, above Team Flare, who felt like they were trying to do something big but fell flat. Team Yell as the resident “evil Team” feels weird, because they do almost nothing. They are only similar to Skull on the surface, that being all rough-and-tumble teenager types, as underneath them being a toxic fanbase is somewhat interesting, but they, again… just felt like nothing. The plot wasn’t even close by to them, like with Skull was, being tied in with the Aether Foundation. They’re just there to be goons and go away. At least they did lead to the first Dark type gym leader, but again… their leader is a Gym leader. We would’ve seen him no matter what he did, so it feels less interesting. I do want the Team to actually do something.

The problem is that, since Plasma already did good, how do you do something that’s original but still good? To be honest, I want it to involve Foundations, like a morally good alternative archetype to the evil Team. Our first run-in with a Foundation was led astray by a crazy leader, but it seems like they’re still good overall, so I at least want to see more of them. Maybe instead of the Team searching for world domination by using the box legendary, maybe you and the Foundation have to search for the box legendary so they can help you defeat the Team, who may or may not have the third/another legendary on their side, and you have to prove yourself to it to get it to trust you. Sort of like Sword and Shield, but more involved. Zacian and Zamazenta just sort of appear when things go bad, and that’s it. You just hear stories about them before that. That’s at least better structure-wise, although the motives and themes would still have to be dealt with. There are so many possibilities there it’s hard to choose. 

One thing, though: I definitely believe that Pokemon was never even close to an open world game, and people thinking the new games are too linear compared to the old ones just have rose tinted glasses on. Kanto had bad crossing over, where you’d sometimes find yourself severely overleveled when interacting with a story event, and beyond that all other games were pretty linear too, with only a few slight special, optional areas that aren’t involved with the plot. Of course, I still think the game would benefit from being open world. Some games don’t have to be open world, and that makes them feel sort of empty, but Pokemon as an idea is exactly perfect for that. They were toying with the idea a bit with the Wild Area, and I do think if they really went crazy with that idea it could be fun. Everyone always wants to compare it to Breath of the Wild, but I do love how seamless everything is in that game. Even with the enemies popping up out of the grass/flying down from the air/just romping in a set area like Pokemon would. Gym leaders could just use different teams based on how many badges you have, like how they imply it works in that Pokemon Origins series. Then, you might be able to scale up the Pokemon you can find too that way, like with the Wild Area. BotW’s story was very light, but if you just either use a quest system/map markers you can still manage a decent story in an open world. Plus, Pokemon has a ton of side quests anyways, like all the ghost quests they always seem to put in. You can literally “get” the quest, get distracted, and completely forget you were even doing any sort of quest because they don’t remind you in any way. Side quests could even get you extra doses of EXP for your team, giving them a use.

The Gimmick:

I don’t want every generation to have a gimmick. Ideas are severely limited in that front, and when everyone’s special, no one is. 

Mega Evolution was kinda cool, as it improved on old Pokemon without making them another part of an evolutionary chain. Also, it lets some Pokemon get different forms with entirely different strategies to them (even if they’re version exclusive…) But, as someone who plays Pokemon for the monster designs themselves, I actually kinda don’t like it. No, not because Mega designs are bad, but because they completely trump the designs they evolve from. For example, Mawile isn’t just “Mawile” anymore. It’s more of a “Not-mega Mawile.” It feels so much less complete now that it has a form on top of it that isn’t permanent. Same goes for starters like Sceptile, who feels kind of boring compared to its Mega. It always sucks when a Pokemon you like evolves into something you don’t like (Popplio for me) and you have to deal with the fact that, even if you like a Pokemon, you aren’t supposed to keep it like that, and it’s brought down because of it. I mean, I guess this is all just personal. Obviously it’s easy to like an early evolution, but it feels so much better to like a final evolution. Since Megas are both temporary in battle, not available outside of battle, and limited to the very late game usually, liking a Mega feels kinda pointless for in-game purposes, where you interact with your Pokemon the most. Plus, for Pokemon like Mawile, you’re using an “incomplete” Pokemon for as long as you don’t have the right Mega stone. It’s obviously fine when all your other Pokemon are incomplete as well, but yeah… Just kinda sucks sometimes. Plus, anything achieved by Mega Evolutions could just as easily be achieved by normal evolutions. The only issue is Pokemon like Beedrill not being able to evolve again, and Pokemon like the starters or legendaries who are already too good to get another stage. I feel like weak, 3rd stage Pokemon like Beedrill deserve that kind of treatment the most, but no one else. If they can evolve normally, evolve them normally, and if they’re already too good, just let them be.

Then there’s Z-moves, which solves one problem of Mega-Evolution: All Pokemon can get involved. No matter what, your Pokemon can unleash super cool but sometimes questionably named moves. And, apart from new animations, the special Z-moves aren’t so insanely preferable to the normal ones. It’s cool, but if every Pokemon gets to use them, it kinda gets old after a while. Also, it’s a one-time use, so if you fuck it up it’s wasted. It’s definitely not perfect, but I will say I love the special Z-move animations, mainly because it’s not just Pokemon doing stock animations for a quick little attack. They animated that Pokemon specifically for this attack, which is basically a cutscene, and it always looks better. It is a bit strange, though, that even though Z-moves are seemingly named after Zygarde, it doesn’t even get a special Z-move of its own. That dude really got the shaft when it comes to 3rd legend attention...

Now we have Dynamax and Gigantamax. I just want to say that, when it first was revealed that you can turn your Pokemon into Kaiju I was extremely hyped. More hyped than I had any right to be. Considering nothing else, Dynamax definitely is the winner in terms of visual concept. Not only does it just look cool, but I love how Gym stadiums are designed specifically to accommodate them. It’s a nice touch of worldbuilding (even though it’s basically necessary). Unfortunately… It’s easily the Jack of all trades, master of none in terms of gameplay. It’s like Mega Evolution in how you change the appearance and power of your Pokemon, and it’s like Z-moves because they have super powerful moves with special effects. Sounds alright I guess, but I really just wish they kept the previous two gimmicks instead of just making a new one that checks them both off. Also, Gigantamax actually annoys me. They try to make it seem like your Pokemon changes, but the vast majority of them either look worse or hardly change at all. Specifically, Copperaja looks like an absolute joke, even though normal Copperaja is one of my favorites of the region. But, ones like Hatterene, Corviknight, Garbodor, and Grimmsnarl hardly look any different at all. Even Appultun and Flapple have the exact same Gigantamax. Who cares? Even their moves have almost exactly the same animations as their type’s counterparts, with a slightly different particle effect. It’s so much less interesting than they make it seem, and it has all the problems of liking Megas over their base, but worse, since they’re more temporary and only allowed in certain areas. Plus, Gigantamax isn’t even a thing possible with all members of a single species. Obviously now they’re introducing a way to change that, but at that point why not just do it Mega style? It’s not even that much better, but there’s so much more work in it. It’s like less rare shinies. It did bring about a decent event in the games, those being the Max Raid Battles, which both have good rewards and good challenge to them. I don’t have friends so they suck for me, but with friends it looks awesome.

I feel like the worst part is that they probably are just going to retcon these gimmicks in the future, like they did with the Pokedex. It makes sense, but each thing was made to be such a massive deal in their respective regions, it feels lame that they’re just gone now. 

But, oh my god. You have no idea. Regional Variants are the best thing to happen to Pokemon since, I dunno, whatever. They’re amazing, and something that should never leave the franchise ever. Like a Kantonian form more than an Alolan form? Sure. It’s still there with all its power, it just has a different style in this region. That is not only biologically logical, but it brings back interest in a Pokemon without outclassing the classics. Plus, now it feels like every single Pokemon has a possibility to shine that is both permanent and preserving of the original. I just can’t get enough of it. Then Sword and Shield introduced the idea of Regional Evolutions, which can be both plain evolutions and split evolutions from the normal form like with Cofagrigus and Runerigus, meaning the possibilities are endless. Then, even further, regional LEGENDARIES. It doesn’t make sense lore-wise but who cares, the new birds look awesome as all hell and I actually like them now. It’s so perfect, I don’t want anything more than this in future games. I would kill for some Sinnoh variants of post-gen 4 Pokemon in the remakes. Hell, I hope Sinnoh gets revamped with a ton of different options across the later generations so it feels significantly different from the originals. 

As for things like Primal Reversion, I honestly don’t even know. It’s even less significant than Gigantamax, but since it has more interesting lore I’m sort of fine with it. I do hope they use it for other legends too, especially since Palkia and Dialga are just asking for it, with their respective orbs, and Dialga already having the “Primal” title elsewhere. And yes, I know he’s called “Dark Dialga” in Japanese. 

If I may be so bold, I think a neat gimmick that can be both unique, interesting, and completely alter the strategies of battle, would be some sort of temporary type inversion. That is, everything going out of and coming into the inverted Pokemon will have reverse effectiveness. It’s like the fringe little Inverse battle you can go through in X/Y, but turned into a mechanic that’s inserted into normal battles. Visually, it would give the Pokemon a negative look, as in inverting their colors and shading. I don’t see how this could single out certain Pokemon in a special way, like with a form change or anything, but maybe there could be one specific Pokemon that has an ability that does something special when it inverts. Maybe items could be made for a special use too. I was sort of half-using it for a fan region I’m half-devoted to that will likely not be a full fledged idea, but I do like it.

Roadblocks/HMs:

I’m entirely fine with the way things are now, where you just get the HMs as key items you use whenever you want, but I can sympathize with the small contingent of people who like using their Pokemon to traverse the world, instead of anything else. I definitely think anyone who prefers HMs beyond that reason is an absolute lunatic, but I think there is some sort of a point to be made, and I think a combo of Let's Go and Sun and Moon have the answer. It is so much more fun to ride your Pokemon around than it is to get a bike (and put on some seriously ugly clothing, mind you), and I think Let's Go with giving you the option to ride your Pokemon instead of using a bike is seriously fun. I used a Rapidash almost exclusively for that purpose in my run of that game. Who the hell wouldn’t want to ride a Rapidash, assuming you weren’t going to catch fire? Plus, it’s YOUR Rapidash. Ride Pokemon in Sun and Moon were still pretty good, because they served functions you wouldn’t normally expect from HMs, like Tauros being both your bike replacement and Rock Smash, while Stoutland is a dowsing rod. It does get a bit weird when you “ride” a Machamp just so it can push rocks for you, but it’s better than forcing you to teach one of your team members a normal type move at the very end of the game since you absolutely need it to move on, and having to keep it until you can fly back to the move deleter. Honestly, if you could just delete HMs on the fly, they would be so much more acceptable. Still would be worse than what we have now tho.

Basically, I think Pokemon should have inherent HM abilities in them. That is, every single Tauros you catch can smash rocks, and every single Machamp you catch can push rocks. Each Pokemon would either be capable or incapable of a task, and you only need that species to go through it. That way, you’re both using your own Pokemon, while also not limiting their moves. It also makes it easy to tell why birds like Starly shouldn’t be able to carry you and fly you around, while birds like Staraptor can. I also think any road blocks using Rock Smash or Cut should be entirely optional, and for secrets only. In order to make Fly a limited option, maybe only fully evolved Fly-logical Pokemon can use it, so you can’t just fly somewhere in the early game. But, another thing: if you can fly early, so what? It’s not like you get extra options, you only can go back to places you’ve already been to. Even though it doesn’t make sense logically, it’s a very fair piece of game design that really doesn’t have a super obvious reason why it’s limited to the middle few gyms. If you have a strong bird that can pick you up, you obviously worked enough to get some convenience. 

But then, what would be a roadblock to keep you from going too far? A horde of dancing men? Honestly, that’s just one of those things fixed by my open world idea. Maybe some areas can be super strong so as to tell you that you shouldn’t be there, and maybe implement the idea of the Wild Area where you can’t catch the strong-looking Pokemon, but apart from that make most of the world scale up with you. Surely some areas would be slightly higher leveled then the rest, though, for the sake of variety. The Wild area does get a bit stale when literally everything you encounter is exactly lvl 60. Obviously there could be some pointless story-focused roadblocks that only clear when you progress, because that is how it is in real life. You can’t just walk into some business’ office unless you have business there. Of course, you can’t exactly walk into random strangers’ houses either, but still. 

I do want to praise ORAS again because the Soar feature with the Latis was extremely cool. It was like Ride Pokemon but using the objectively coolest possible HM to control. If they sort of nerfed the Fly mechanic and made it so you did have to ride your Pokemon and fly them there like the Latis I wouldn't mind that at all. Although, surely some other people would...

Other Bits:

- I still think that, even though having every Pokemon in the game would be great, I think if it can improve the game elsewhere I wouldn’t mind them saving some space. The problem is that Sword and Shield really wasn’t the best way to suggest it would vastly improve anything. I’ve gone on ad nauseam elsewhere about that so bleh

- I love seeing Pokemon in the overworld. I do think it would benefit from the Let’s Go treatment, where you can at least see if a Pokemon is shiny or not. Either way, it gives them so much more personality, like how some charge head-first at you while some walk up and casually examine you.

- I don’t really care too much about Pokemon following you to be honest. It would obviously be preferred over the alternative, but I’m not gonna riot if it doesn’t happen. It did give a lot of personality I didn’t expect in Lets Go, like Bellsprout being so darn speedy.

- I could probably make a whole nother giant rant about the overall designs of Pokemon but needless to say I’m fine with it overall. I do sort of wish they’d do something else with the starters though, since I haven’t genuinely loved a starter since Gen 4. Honestly Chesnaught was pretty close, but I still get the urge to replace him with something more interesting. Outside of them, though, I think things are going good. Some are duds, but some are bangers like Corvinight, Grimmsnarl, Hatterene, Frosmoth, and a bunch of others which I could easily list but this is supposed to be succinct comments so

- There definitely has to be some sort of endgame content, but everyone already knows that. Seriously though, what if the colosseums from PBR become the replacement Battle Frontier? That would be dope. Although the normal Battle Frontier would be fine too, I guess…

- PBR PBR PBR. PBR is great for it’s realistic sizes of Pokemon. If you’re going to use full-size models of humans, the Pokemon should match. Or, at least make it a little more true to reality. Yes, Wailord is too damn small.

#Pokemon #sword #shield #rant #rambling #dlc #isle of armor #opinions #it seriously took me 5 hours straight to write all this #ideas

[hecohansen31]

Relationship Headcanon Alphabet:

Werewolf! Ivar+Human! Reader+Upir! Roman Godfrey:

(A/N): So... since nobody wanted to send me letters for the relationship headcanon thing... I low key took it upon myself to create something, and as always I hope you like’ll like it!

Also sorry for the annoying spam about this pairing but since I will be out for a week, and won’t be able to write I wanted to be able to write something more for them so that you’ll have a bit of reading material in the following days, without me...

Also if you want to send an ask, about the “Relationship Headcanon Alphabet” please do... I will try to write it either on my phone or as soon as I come home (it doesn’t have to be about this pairing, but also about Michael Langdon, Duncan Shepherd and Jim Mason, bonus if you send asks about my verse, such as... pro biker! Jim, vampire! Michael, Michael+Reader+Succubus).

Thank you for the attention and now here comes a bit of nonsense...

WARNINGS: Mention of Sex (there is a literal letter for kinks, so... be aware children!).

 ·         A for Arguments - How often do you two argue? Who apologises first? How do they make up? etc 

 I honestly feel like most of the arguments would be at the start of their relationship, between the boys and then you would be dragged into them, mostly because they are always about whether you have paid enough attention equally to both (which is impossible in most of the cases).

 Some of them can be pretty explosive, seeing the two assholes you have to deal with but I feel like it would be this way only at first, mostly because they would need to work out their issues, alongside marking their territory (you), since they are two extremely possessive creatures, but in the end they would try their best in order to make you happy, knowing that your politic is: both or nothing.

 The only fight you started was when you discovered three months into the relationship that they were supernatural being and hadn’t told you nothing about it, mostly due to the fact that they didn’t want to scare you; you actually ended up being scared a bit, but you were more enraged because you couldn’t help but feel like the problem of this was that they hadn’t trusted you enough with their secrets.

 It was solved with those two being for a few days away from you, with you not answering their phone calls (whereas they explode in each other’s and in your face, you are more the meditative type) (you have to be, with those two children) and you reasoned that if they hadn’t hurt you till that moment, there was nothing to fear, and you just wanted their side of the story.

 But honestly… most of the time the thing would end up in passionate sex… not that you minded.

·         B for Bedtime Routine - Do they prefer to be the big spoon or little spoon? Favourite sleeping position? etc 

I feel like the problem with sleeping position is mostly Ivar’s legs: sometimes they hurt very much and are extremely sensitive, so you can’t all sleep together (at first Roman was extremely happy because more alone time with you, but he low key misses the furnace of warmth the blue-eyed werewolf is).

 And even when you sleep together, you have to be careful with him (although he hates making you both worry) so he is the first one who usually settle down onto the bed so he can choose the position and space (Roman thinks he is just overexaggerating sometimes the pain so he can he be the king of the bed) and then Roman settle in a way that can fit his tall frame and finally you end up between the two, sometimes with their arms threaded somehow around your body but also just simply sharing the same pillow as them, or just facing one of the two.

 Also I personally thing that Ivar wouldn’t mind being the small spoon, if you are without Roman in bed for one night, mostly because it is a comfortable position and he low key has a thing for the simplest of affection (we stan a touch-starved boy), although he would never admit it and straight up threatened Roman when he caught him into that position.

 (You honestly love that position because you can tease the hell out of him).

Roman, when instead, you sleep alone with him, prefer to have you with his head on his chest, because he also loves the skin on skin contact, alongside the fact that if you are smaller than him, it ignites his size kink, but also he can make you listen to his heartbeat, which he knows you found comforting, alongside protecting you and shielding you.

 (The real reason why you are always in the middle, is usually so that they can face the door, in case something happens during the night; so it’s safer than you, they might fight on so many things but when it comes to your safety they are strangely calm about it).

·         C for Cook - Do they cook? Can they cook? What type of food do they like to cook for their partner? 

Ivar can, since not only he kind of have to run an hotel, but also he was a momma’s boy, alongside spending a lot of time with her, he learned a thing or two: he certainly is no French chief, but he could survive without take-away easily, alongside the fact that whenever he wants to he can cook you quite a dinner (this is mostly reserved for your special nights… he expresses a lot of his emotions with more actions than with words, and also… he wants you well-fed…).

 Roman can’t in the slightest, since not only he is a spoiled brat, but he tends to forget things (you are still surprised that the “Shiny Moon” hasn’t burned down…) so usually for him it’s take-away or expensive restaurants; honestly as a upir he has strange tates and is appetite for food doesn’t match the one for blood… so he could honestly also not eat for days, but when he has a partner (I honestly think that if you had even the slightest eating disorder, they would be stuffing you with food) (again… your safety comes first) he makes sure that they share their meals together.

 Whether it’s Chinese take-aways or expensive meals from an Italian restaurant, he honestly feels hungrier if his partner is eating with him (even more if you are wearing only lingerie or the expensive dress, he bought you days ago).

 I honestly feel like they would both replenish their partners with either sweets or expensive food, mostly trying to take care and understand their partner’s favorites meals.

·         D for DIY - Do they like to make gifts for their partner? Are they good at general DIY around the house? Do they enjoy doing it? 

Ivar does it, I low key headcanon that he has a pendant for it, mostly because in the show he is clearly very creative and able beyond measure in things such as projecting and creating hand-made objects, so I feel like he would take great pride into DIY your own gifts, both because it is a bit of a possessive way of letting others know that you are his, but also it is a way of mixing his creativeness with your personality.

 Again Roman is not the best with practical tasks, and is honestly very envious of Ivar’s DIY and ideas for your gifts, because (as I will say later) he prefer to get you things in shop (expensive things most of the time) and although he knows that you appreciate them, he still feel like they are greatly anonymous if confronted with Ivar’s.

 And this often puts him a bit off, although he is constantly showering you with gifts; but then you once caught him trying to do origamis, and asked him to teach you, ending up actually developing a common ground that permits him to teach you something manual and for you to pass time with him.

·         E for Effort - How much effort do they put into their relationship?

A LOT!

 Both of them are very VERY into this relationship, mostly because they haven’t still killed each other, demonstrating that they actually want this to work it out, although sometimes they headbutt on the silliest of themes.

 At first, you honestly took it VERY VERY easy, such as you are more fuckbuddies than actually in a relationship but a few months and a few discoveries changed it all, and now you are literally stuck into this (happily stuck into this, although you have to literally sedate riots during dinner and alleviate threats over breakfast).

·         F for First Date - Where do you go on your first date? How does it go etc?

I honestly don’t want to go into too much details, because I want to write a cute fanfic about this, but it was on Saint Valentine’s Day (corny, much…) and you had had the worst week ever, hence forgetting it all about the boys (you were still in the “fuckbuddies” mentality, whereas for the boys it was already more…) (Ivar basically saw you and was ready to get on his knees and propose). You didn’t do it with the intention to hurt them, but you were hurting too much and the thought of sorting what your mess of a relationship with them was… was too hard.

 You literally woke up the following day to somebody basically headbanging against your door and it was your idiots, who were scared shitless something had happened.

 (Also, it was Saint Valentine’s Day, so they had to be two romantic idiots).

 It was the first time you actually settled your relationship status, and when you felt a little bit better went out the night, at an expensive restaurant (also you got dicked down, but that is another story…).

·         G for Gifts - What kind of gifts do they gift their partner? What kind of gifts do they receive? Etc

As previously stated, Ivar is the more thoughtful over his gifts.

 Not that Roman isn’t, but whereas Roman is the type to be like “you want it, I got it”, Ivar is more the type to watch your interests and ideas carefully, observing yourself and priding himself in being a perfect detective of people’s personality, getting you very unique pieces, mostly handcrafted by him (usually it’s little wooden statuettes, for example one carved as a wolf after you discovered about them, which you treasure, but he is also great at creating bracelets and jewelry in general).

 (Also his intuition isn’t always right and sometimes you got thing that maybe didn’t match your style and you weren’t able to wear, still you treasure them, because you know that they were made with love and with you in your mind).

 (Also, Ivar has a straight up tacky taste in underwear and such, so he avoids those things, mostly because once he got you ass-less panties and your reaction wasn’t definitely pleased).

 (Roman has still a recording of the entire thing).

 Roman is more materialistic: as I said, “you want it, I got it”, which means everything from your favorite foreign sweets, to elegant designer dresses that you can use also just to stand in your room, eating take-away with him.

 He likes spoiling you, so his gifts doesn’t have a proper date, they just rain on you because maybe he saw that you were overworking yourself and needed a reward or he saw it and thought of you (his taste in lingerie is pretty different from Ivar’s, thank God); also he literally will do anything to get you what you want (I mean his mother got an amusement park shut for him and Letha… think about what the upir could do…) and he isn’t afraid of breaking a few rules to get you to smile brightly for him.

 They aren’t used to receiving gifts, so they literally cherish THE HELL out of anything you get them, and you try to match their presents, although you clearly don’t have their resources and sometimes you ask the other’s help for the gift and; they are always doing it begrudgingly, but you saw them exchanging gifts on Christmas and couldn’t help but spy their little smiles, showing they had reached a somehow mutual respect.

·         H for Honeymoon - Where do they go on Honeymoon? Details on the honeymoon etc.

Another thing that would probably set arguments between the two because they have different ideas about it is “honeymoon” (or more generically your vacations).

 Ivar wants to go to colder places, mostly place where his heritage and culture is shared, which usually means that it is a very unusual vacation in silent places broken off from the world and probably projecting long walks and camping (which you don’t think would be comfortable for the werewolf, but you wouldn’t want to disrupt his lovely shining eyes).

  Roman is the opposite: he went on vacation to Maui in the series, so I feel like his ideal vacation would be beach, warm weather, relax and in a perfect and expensive resort, with people bringing him anything he needed with just a snap of his fingers.

 He wants to relax and not walk around place where your bones freeze off and risk hypothermia.

 (He is also worried for Ivar’s legs, but won’t admit it).

 So they end up fighting fiercely, till you get your own voice and remember that they hadn’t even asked your opinion, which get them to feel guilty and let you decide, trusting your judgement (and trying to corrupt you with sexual favors, not gonna lie) so you try to mitigate the two boys’ ideas.  

·         I for Intimacy - What do like they like? Where do they like to be intimate? Are they experienced etc? 

Roman is definitely experienced we all know and has no trouble with sexuality, being extremely sensual and not minding it in the slightest; he could take you everywhere (the fact that they are both a bit of exhibitionist doesn’t help): his bed, the kitchen counter, in the bathroom, in the back of his bar…

 He doesn’t have in the slightest a problem with it, and when you two are down to do the dirty he has two moods, which mostly depends on how well fed he is and how his day went, which are teasing and controlling or animalistic and tough.

 He never leaves control to you (unless you either take it or beg really prettily for it) and sometimes he can also dom Ivar, who instead is more insecure and shy about his sexuality.

 Before you he actually didn’t know his… you-know-what could work, and during your first times he was only around for the foreplay, preferring to sit back and wait for Roman to finish you off, which got you a bit displeased since you wanted to feel them both (also at the same time).

 But Ivar strangely ran off and wouldn’t answer your questions in the slightest preferring to do anything else and distracting you with kisses and other types of touches, in which he is extremely good, let me tell you…

 You soon discovered of his little insecurity and got Roman to leave you alone for a night, to actually experience the entire thing alone so he could feel more comfortable without Roman’s shadow looming over him; at first he was uncomfortable and protested, but with a few kisses you managed to get him to relax under your touches and discovered that his “little problem” wasn’t a problem in the slightest…

From there… it was game over for you.

 I actually think that he is more genuine than Roman as in, Roman can be teasing and wears a façade during sex (mostly during your first months of fooling around) whereas Ivar has a way of expressing his love through sex so it is extremely emotional and most importantly very possessive (sex doesn’t finish for you till you are all marked).

 He is a bit of a fighter for control with Roman but due to his insecurity for his inexperience he follows the man’s orders, if he feels like it…

 They can go from nights where you would be fucked against the first free surface for the entire night (mostly after Ivar turns and Roman gets thirsty) to nights where they take their time, worshipping you till you breach the edge for multiple times.

·         J for Jealously - How jealous are they? How often do they get jealous? How they react? Etc

The funny thing between this territorial males is that they are always at each other’s throats but when someone flirts with you also jokingly (yeah I am talking about you Hvitserk) they are plotting between themselves how to kill the bastard and ditch the body in the nearest lake.

 Ivar is the more jealous one, mostly because he got stabbed in the back, alongside his constant insecurities so he constantly feels the need to be reassured (Aslaugh babying him again didn’t help in that department) and to mark you up; he is very animalistic, which comes from the fact that his jealousy tends to show up mostly when he is surrounded by his fellow werewolves: he sees the way they look at you, the prettiest thing in the universe, and basically growls at them back.

 Roman is more classy: he is the type that if he sees a man flirting with you (a man who isn’t Ivar, he is low key chill with Ivar’s flirting… because he knows that although it makes you laugh it is terrible) he will come onto you, kissing you affectionately, your hand will be immediately entwinned with his and sometimes if you drag him away from the crowd to make him cool off, he will lovingly slap you ass.

 (Ivar has taken the bad habit of doing the same, just less… discreetly).

 They are very jealous but trust you extremely.

 They just don’t trust men around you.

 (And on your part… sometimes it is nice to see them getting jealous just to see them team up).

·         K for Kink - Do they have any particular kinks?

I am pretty sure that as soon as your relationship will be a stable one, “blood play” would be brought into the mix, but only after a very long discourse with you about its risks and how to prevent them, they want you to be the safest possible, and if you feel even slightly uncomfortable about it they will stop.

 (Also, it isn’t only about your blood, but also theirs).

 Roman also avoids feeding himself from you, mostly because you are “divinely delicious” and he doesn’t want to become too greedy and hurt you and is secretly thankful that Ivar is with him when they attempt this.

 Ivar on his part likes making a mess and cleaning it with his tongue.

 Also I honestly feel like since they are both predators they would love nothing more than to stalk you around the house in an attempt of “adult hide-and-seek”, in which… if they get you, you have to get dicked down right then and then; it’s the thrill of the hunt and you, yourself have a tendency to love their shiny eyes, excited by the run.

 They would also share an exhibitionist kinks, although Ivar might take a bit… but as soon as he gets into it, it is his way to get back to those who didn’t believe he was “man enough” (one time, the first time you stayed with him after the full moon, he took you so harshly and greedily that he made you scream of pleasure high enough that no brothers of his or clients at the hotel could look you into the eyes, the following morning, and he just sat onto his chair at breakfast, smirking proudly).

 (You decked him with a spoon).

 Roman is also a huge lover of teasing you and edging you, alongside bondage (Ivar is still learning, and he honestly prefer feeling you moving against him, it makes him feel again a ferocious predator stopping and catching his prey).

 Ivar likes instead overstimulating you, he has a fascination with the way you are when you finally cum and he likes to replay it till you literally pass out.

(Guys if you have more kinks, please let me know!).

·         L for Long Distance - How do they cope with Long Distance? How they prefer to keep in contact? Etc

At the start, and for at least a good year, they are in a long distance relationship, since they have their own bar and hotel, whereas you have your job in your city, and although it is shitty you don’t feel like changing it and they respect it (although you knew that you could just move in with them and wouldn’t have to lift a finger).

 It is a bit tough the more into the relationship that you become, mostly if you can’t visit them for a weekend and they can’t manage to visit you (alongside the fact that your house is very small and that they had to sleep on the sofa and floor when they come over) (You still got dicked down on your small bed, and are still not sure how you managed to avoid to break it).

 It is tough, but they can’t stop thinking for a single minute that it isn’t worth it and you think the same.

·         M for Marriage - Do they want to get married? Their wedding etc. 

I don’t think that these three would never have a traditional marriage, although Ivar is actually a very traditional guy and would insist on seeing you in white and give you the fairytale like wedding you deserve, whereas Roman doesn’t care about these things in the slightest (look at his parents) and he honestly doesn’t want to add you to the Godfrey line knowing it would make you an easy target.

 They settle on a nice ceremony with the people they love and understand their dynamics on the beach with you in a short white dress, smiling gently with your bouquet of flowers, pronouncing your vows shyly, and professing your love for the two men.

·         N for Night’s Out - Where do they take their partner on nights out? How often do nights out happen?

The fact that Roman literally owns a club, comes handy a lot of times, such as on your nights out, although Ivar is a pretty tame guy; it is usually only you and Roman dancing, Ivar feels uncomfortable but he doesn’t mind coming with you, as long as he gets his booth and beer and maybe later a lap-dance from you (that’s also the reason why you are happy that Roman is the owner of the bed, or else you wouldn’t be able to do half the things you do on that booth).

 Sometimes still Roman enjoys showing his two lovers off, so expensive restaurants are his go-to, mostly if you have been overworking yourself, or need to celebrate something, and although the entire thing is nice… half of the time it ends with you teasing the two boys or Ivar getting annoyed and teasing you.

 Roman literally always mumbles about how he can’t take you two anywhere.

·         O for Often - How often do you see each other? How many times a week? Etc

If possible: each weekend.

 At the start of the relationship, when it was a fuckbuddy situation you usually would be passing the weekend with them and then go back, but as soon as feelings started getting involved the weekend wasn’t enough, mostly if there were some in which you would end up having to work extra or have other activities, hence they sometimes come over to your city (when permitted, and I mean… they are both the bosses of themselves).

 They won’t come over or want you over also if Roman is being extremely thirsty or Ivar has gone through a bad moon, in most of those cases they help out each other… and send you photos about it all…

·         P for Public Displays of Affection - Do they like PDA? Do they have boundaries etc. 

Roman doesn’t have boundaries, in the slightest, but he is a bit of a gentleman so he will put his hand on your thigh and probably move it up from there to tease you, but he only when he knows you won’t get caught or that if you will, you won’t mind it; but outside of it he is more a fan of holding hands and hands on your lower back, mostly if he is guiding you through crowds.

 He likes kissing you and don’t mind doing it in front of everyone, whereas Ivar is more shy on the entire concept, mostly showing his affection towards you with his family, where he feels more comfortable expressing his emotions, which means that he will kiss the hell out of you at family dinners (Sigurd once complained about it and you straight up slipped, nonchalantly an hand down Ivar’s pants in front of him) but he won’t dare more, mostly if his mother or father are there.

 Outside of family, he doesn’t mind hand holding and other softer ways of affection, he will constantly have his hands on you but not in a pressuring way and avoids kisses on the mouth, although if made extremely jealous, other than bringing you to the first bathroom to show you who you belong to, he will bite your neck or kiss on it possessively, never breaking eye-contact with whoever is bothering you.

·         Q for Quiet - Why do they get quiet? How does their partner solve it?

With Ivar, him being quiet is not always a tragic thing, most of the time it just means that he is overthinking things and just thinking and you need to just take him in your arms and ask him what is wrong; if it’s about his legs, he might be secretive about it, but you learned the signs and will already know and will confront him about it gently, trying to reassure him or straight up get him the medicine.

 Sometimes it’s just a relaxing moment between you.

 Whereas with Roman is silence is painful: he knows that yeah you hate being insulted, but the cutting silence he can create is honestly annoying and usually both you and Ivar tremble under the heaviness of it, whether it is your fault or not.

 In these cases, it’s better to wait for Roman to be ready to speak, supporting him in your own way.

·         R for Reunion - How they like to reunite with their partner? 

At first, I am not going to lie and I have to admit that is it sex, mostly because they tried to be normal people and ask around questions, but they just feel uncomfortable about it, since it mostly seems awkward and not genuine, so sex spoke louder for them and after they felt more comfortable talking as if they had to get used to their bodies again, before their brain could.

 Now it is more normal and they usually hug for a few hours and cuddle, mostly if it is been so so long, alongside eating together or doing things together to feel harmony again and touches are always  involved.

 (And obviously… sex).

·         S for Surprise - Do they like surprises? What kind of surprises do they like to get etc? 

Ivar and you probably not, since Roman can be pretty tempestuous and you should be scared of what that man’s mind can conjure, alongside the fact that since you are both two “busy” people (not that Roman isn’t, but he can literally skip entire days of job delaying the control to somebody) you are not into Roman’s surprise.

 (Usually because they are embarrassing expression of his love, at two A.M. out of your window).

 (Ivar got a serenade, yeah).

 But sometimes you try to surprise Roman (who is constantly “YoU wOn’T bE aBlE tO sUrPrIsE mE”) and you actually get him quite good, most of the time, which either involves surprise sex or improvised lunch into his office at the club.

 Roman really appreciates it, although he has to say that “I knew it all about it”.

 (Sure, Jan…).

·         T for Texts - How often do they text? How do they react when they receive texts from their partner? 

Since it is a LDR… texts are extremely necessary (alongside dick pics) (… AKA Roman’s).

 At first, they were sillier and they literally have a group chat, which changes names each day, since Roman and Ivar are two petty assholes (but you solved the thing with the name “the queen and her two subjects”).

 As I was saying… at first IT WAS A LOOOOT SILLIER (and Ivar had to understand actually how to do so many things, which explains the lesser dick pics) from memes to strange gifs, but you were happy they came because they did help you with your day and relaxing.

 As soon as you get together, as in… you move in together, it starts to be a little bit more domestic it is used for things such as… grocery lists, intelligent quirks and finally… still dick pics…

·         U for Unity - How well do they work with their partner? Do they make a good team? 

Strangely they do.

 Which isn’t something you were ready to bet on at first, mostly due to the fact that they are constantly at each other’s throat, which isn’t something that normal couple usually have (not that you are normal in the slightest…).

 But strangely each of your personality compliments each other, alongside you acting as the final glue of the relationship: Ivar is serious and insecure, but he can also be a strong rock to lean onto, alongside the fact that him being bluntly honest makes him a good conversationalist and opinion.

 Roman is the humor of the relationship, alongside the tough one and the one that you run to for anything, knowing he will take care of it: he is a nurturer, but he actually ends up having some issues on himself, mostly because he always ends up being a bit of a spoiled brat: but don’t worry, you and Ivar are there to help him through it all.

 Finally, both the boys are a grounding presence for you, alongside helping you in each way and form, they can because they somehow treasure each moment they spend together.

·         V for Vacation - Favourite vacation spot to take their partner? 

I think this was previously answered so I will say something very quick: Ivar is more a fun of colder places and walk in the nature (not gonna lie, but he would totally buy Greenland instead of Trump..), meanwhile Roman is the type of person who would love nothing more than a good trip under a sunny sky in an expensive resort (such as an island in Pacific Ocean).

·         W for When -  At what point do they move into together? What kind of place? Etc

After a year, mostly because there are so many things that need to be taken care for and you honestly thought that it would end up being a disaster, so you ended up quitting your job but kept your apartment but you slowly set in a routine, whereas you were expecting those two to be at each other’s throat…

 … but they seemed fine and during the first period they didn’t have too much time on their hand, actually, mostly they went to sleep tired organizing each of the new things she had brought with her.

 In the end, they were peacefully, mostly; they still had their territorial fights, but they could handle them better, now that they were all together.

 The house is small, meaning smaller than Ivar and Roman wanted, but you insisted in the fact that they didn’t spend too much money, mostly because you didn’t want them to spend too much money on you, and so settled for a nice house (also you wanted to maybe move into another city, as soon as things get better and you get used to each other’s personality); it isn’t small, and it has everything you might need in the last model, but it is comfortable and doesn’t feel empty.

 But most importantly you decorated it all together, so it’s home.

·         X for X-ray - What is their favourite body part on their partner? 

Non-sexual: Ivar loves your lips, he just love the way they pursue into a smile, into a pout, open due to surprise and lay kisses all over him.

Sexual: Your hips (I honestly took this a bit from the historical Vikings and era in which they lived, where things such as “big hips” meant fertility), he has extreme fun grabbing them and pushing his fingers into them till they leave bruises (also if you are a bit on the chubbier side… he literally loves it and will lose himself into them, getting EXTREMELY distracted) (… also if you are ticklish… you are done, it’s game over, baby).

 Non-sexual: Roman loves your neck, yeah it might be a bi of a vampire fixation, but he actually likes the structure of it: if it is small and thin, he can’t help but feel like it is so so elegant and pretty, meanwhile if it is bigger and more important, he can’t help but feel like he just has royalty in front of him. Also he can leave his pretty mark in full view.

Sexual: I honestly think it would be either your thighs or legs, since he likes the way they grip him, alongside being extremely sexy in each way and shape and form, alongside the fact that he can’t resist you in thigh-highs.

 Also, I feel like they would love equally your breasts and ass (although this one might be favored, a bit).

·         Y for you - A random headcanon about your relationship. 

Although both you and Ivar are well aware that Roman is a upir, you always make some very sassy and stupid humor about him being a vampire and constantly calling him that.

 You even went as far as to suggest that he dressed up as a vampire for Halloween.

 It is safe to say that you and Ivar got more than a few fang bites from him, that night.

·         Z for Zoom - Zoom into the future, what does your future look like? 

I honestly think that future would be extremely relative for them: they try to live by the present, mostly because they are supernatural creatures, meaning they will outlive her, and probably… in better conditions than her (although Roman could shed his immortality and “upir” condition, but you don’t want him to do that).

 Children is a problematic issues, mostly because, you have your own opinion (I personally would want children but feel free to fill here with whatever you want), Roman doesn’t want them (this is in a AU, in which Nadia doesn’t exist, sorry), Ivar does, although he is burned by Freydis experience and is unsure that he would be able to raise a children with also Roman.

 He can share you because you are your own person and he knows that somehow you and him belong with Roman, but to discover that the child was his, he didn’t know if he could be partial to that.

 You would probably take a lot of time before you would even try to make plans for further than the next day.

 If eventually accidents did happen, I honestly feel like both the boys would stop overthinking at least for the entire pregnancy, not wanting nothing to happen to the baby (if you decide to keep it), mostly because the child is half-supernatural so it might hurt her a bit, and be tough, mostly if it is a upir (how well did that turn out for Lena…) and then they would be too affectionate to it to even not consider it their sons.

 You would then transfer to your ideal place: a little house in the suburbs, maybe away in the countryside, but not too far away from the city.

 You would have a heavily life, and they would never be bothered by your aging, it would just made them discover more and more they love, and you gifted them life, a dynasty.

 It is an happy future life.

@walkxthexmoon and @hexqueensupreme

#roman godfrey #ivar #supernatural AU #hemlock grove #hg #vikings #hemlock grove imagine #vikings imagine #roman godfrey reader #ivar reader #roman godfrey x reader #ivar x reader #roman godfrey fem reader #roman godfrey x fem! reader #ivar x fem! reader #ivar fem reader #ivar imagine #roman godfrey imagine

[dariodanoite]

catch of the day | margot & dario

TIMING: before the fish rain ended. PARTIES: @boogaloomagoo and @dariodanoite SUMMARY: dario and margot make their best attempts at catching sky fish. met with...limited success.

Dario had brought the trash bag. He wasn’t entirely sure why the girl from online who he’d been mentally referring to as ‘wood woman’ since realizing he hadn’t gotten her name had insisted on a net. You didn’t need a net to catch fish that were already on the ground. Dario had sent her another message just some ten minutes ago, alerting her of a fish rain he’d heard of that was happening in the streets of downtown before rushing over here himself. After all- fish were good and these fish were free. Now he waited for her to show, staying just outside the radius of the falling fish to avoid getting pelted by them. At least these ones didn’t seem to be the enormous bluefin tuna another girl had mentioned falling from the sky. Getting hit by a 200 pound tuna, even if they did taste delicious. But he was growing restless, having the irrational fear that someone else might be getting all the good fish while he waited here for the girl to show up. At least he knew what she roughly looked like from ‘creeping’ her profile. That was a term he’d just recently learned, but it was proving to come in quite handy. Seeing her approaching from a distance, he raised a single, lazy arm to signal her over, not having a name to call out.

Margot wasn’t exactly sure why this random guy on the internet seemed so intent on cooking his fish on a wooden plank, but honestly, she couldn’t find the will in her to judge him. After all, she herself had gone through cravings so insatiable that until she did finally carry out in fulfilling it, everything else seemed fairly inconsequential by measure. Maybe he was just super into getting his seafood on? Either way, their little arrangement seemed harmless enough, though she still donned her swampers and raincoat after receiving his message. And getting both large fishing nets from the backyard’s shed. Seriously, a trash bag? That would help in carrying them back, she supposed, but, it didn’t seem terribly sanitary. Then again, it had been a while since she had gone fishing, but she still felt the need to bring an ice chest alongside the nets. She didn’t take long getting downtown and, true to the other’s word, fish were already flopping on the streets and cascading from the heavens. Seriously, did no one else find this completely disturbing? Ah, well. At this point it almost seemed close to normal. Blue eyes flitted across the expanse of road before eyeing someone who was waving in her general direction and - yep, he fit the one, grainy picture she had seen of him. She flapped a hand back, having it hooked around the arm of the two nets she’d hauled along before quickening her step towards him. “Yo,” She greeted, plopping the ice chest down between them and motioning to his trash bag. “Go ahead and line it with that. It’ll be a lot easier to carry.”

As the girl grew closer, Dario’s generally stoic expression turned into the beginnings of a frown. What the hell was she wearing? It looked like she was getting ready to go jump in puddles in the middle of a hurricane. Was fish catching really all that serious? And why was everything so...yellow? “You look like a duck,” he said nonchalantly, a simple observation that perhaps wasn’t the most cordial of greetings. But it was the first thing that had popped into his head. His skepticism only grew as she asked him to put the trash bag over the net. What was the point of that? Why not just pick the fish up, and plop them right into the bag? “Is the trash bag not fine by itself?” he asked stubbornly, not yet realizing they were on different pages. And what was this ice chest? He’d never been regular fishing or sky fishing before, not having had a reason to in the past. Well- at least not while he was human. He had vague memories of catching and eating fish while stuck as a jaguar, but those were fleeting, as he still had trouble recalling exactly what had happened for much of those thirteen years. “We should get over there soon, though. I don’t want someone to get all the good fish, first.” Perhaps he was overestimating just how many people would be out ‘fishing’ on this day.

Margot’s brow furrowed, lips parted in utter speechless shock. A duck? The first words out of his mouth were that she looked like a freak-fracking duck. Well, this was definitely gonna get off to a wonderful start, wasn’t it? “Hey, I look prepared,” She promptly corrected him after finding her voice, shaking her head with a light scoff. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be bed-ridden again just because I didn’t wear the appropriate gear,” Seriously, did people just not hear about the news? At least the parts that were potentially life-threatening. No, they probably just read the gossip portion, sports or entertainment and called it a day. She rolled her eyes at the thought, before being brought to attention by his question. “It’s a start. And not in here, in here,” She tapped the top of the ice chest before opening it up and, if he allowed, taking the bag from his hands. If not, she’d simply extend one of the nets out to him. “Okay, then let’s get going,” Though she highly doubted anyone else was going to be desperate for fish at this point - if anything, she thought everyone would be fairly sick of the very idea of seafood. He actually picked a decent time to do this. “Were you looking for a specific kind of fish, or just the biggest one you can find?”

“Yes, you look like a prepared duck,” he insisted, the very beginnings of a tease entering his voice to overcome his often monotone words. Dario was still getting used to this whole...speaking thing again. At the mention of her being bed-ridden, he glanced down to her ankles, once again affronted by the footwear she’d chosen. “Is it okay to catch fish with your ankle?” he asked, not entirely thinking it’d be the best idea to go traversing through a storm of scales when an ankle might give way on you. But...he really wanted to catch some fish. Dario was hungry, and he was getting rather tired of the same old chicken flavored ramen day in and day out. In contrast to her apparent readiness to get the catch of the day, Dario had thrown on a random t-shirt, jeans, and the sole pair of sneakers he currently owned. It would have to do. His frown deepened as she took his bag, wondering what he was meant to put his fish in now. “And I get a net now, yes?” He held out an expecting hand. “Unless I’m just meant to catch them bare-handed.” As for types of fish. “I’ll go for anything that doesn’t look too squished. But the other girl also told me to catch only the live ones.”

The deadpan Margot fixed him with could have withered even the brightest of flowers. “Oh yeah, that’s much better,” Well, she would much rather be a prepared duck than an impaled cool… looking person. Which was what she assumed was the alternative to her own attire, although she rarely ever cared about what she wore. If it was practical, comfortable and easy to maneuver in, then it was in her closet. And even that wasn’t terribly big to begin with. Already, she had noticed that he had a rather distinct accent when he spoke, though she couldn’t place the origin right off the bat. Perhaps she would ask him about it later. For now, she tilted her leg a bit to the side, a small wince resulting from the angle. If she had actually just sprained it, she would have been fine. Having serrated jaws sink into it was an entirely different story, however. “Yeah, it’ll be alright. If it gets sore, I’ll just let you handle the bulk of it. Sound fair?” At his request, she snorted lightly before placing the pole into his hand. “Duh. That’s why I brought two. It’ll be super easy to catch them with these,” Wait, too squished? Why would they be… Oh, no. “Uh, you’re also not going to pick any up off the ground, so that won’t be a problem… right?” The blonde appeared distinctly appalled that he would even suggest doing such a thing. Using a fish that had already hit the ground sounded like the worst possible idea ever. No, they were going to do this properly - with a net, and some seriously coordinated catching from the heavens. Just like… some version of Mother Nature intended. In some universe. Sure.

She was pricklier than he’d anticipated from their online meeting, but so far- it was amusing to watch her face crinkle up when she made her funny little expressions. “Thank you, I thought so too,” Dario quipped back, apparently undeterred by her stern looks. At this point in his life, self preservation wasn’t exactly a primary instinct. But his frown returned as she tested her leg, not entirely sure whether or not to approve of it. “Yes, I’m familiar with the whole- man does all the work while needy girl benefits.” It was yet another poke of fun, though he was curious to see if she’d only get more prickly the more he pushed. Nevertheless, he’d try his best to be aware of her ankle and how it was faring. However he was pleased as she handed him a net, feeling just a bit more prepared, and like he now had an official job. “Why wouldn’t I pick them up off the ground?” he asked casually, heading towards where the fish were falling, the strange slapping of them against the ground growing louder. Not entirely waiting for his answer he simply said, “Let’s go,” his senses being overtaken by even more fish smell as one sloshed onto the ground next to his foot.

The urge to stick her tongue out towards him was so very pressing, but Margot resisted it in favor of rolling her eyes to the opened heavens. So he was a wisenheimer, eh? Just her luck. Her father had always warned her about those types of people, though, so she felt fairly equipped to deal with any shenanigans he might throw her way. And though she bristled at his comment pertaining to gender roles, she simply snorted and smirked. “Obviously. What else would men be good for if not taking care of the one’s doing the real heavy lifting?” She quipped with a tap to her forehead. “And, I can’t believe I have to actually explain this but, you seriously don’t see a problem with picking up ground fish? I’m already skeptical about eating one of these things, the least we could do is get one that hasn’t been flopping all over the dirty road,” Granted, had they been ‘sky fishing’ in the forest, she wouldn’t have been so adamant. Not that she made a habit of eating off of the forest floor, but man-made pavement and cement just had such a generally… gross feel to it. Chewed gum, shoe marks, people spitting all over the place. She shivered just thinking about it. “It’s a lot safer to get it straight from the sky. And… I can’t believe I actually just said that, but, it’s out there,” Walking beside him, she held the pole a bit against her side, net opened and waiting. It didn’t take long for one to fall into the netting, and though she stumbled a bit, she didn’t fall. “Oh, sweet! I think it’s a rainbow trout,” 

The corners of Dario’s lips tipped upwards in the slightest grin, perhaps a little amused that she seemed so ready to combat his every claim with one of her own. But then he gave her a lingering once over, summoning as much of a judgemental look as he could before continuing to tease. “I don’t think you could lift all that much.” Not exactly an eloquent reply, but he thought it got the point across when it came to ruffling her duck feathers. As far as the street fish went...he still didn’t see a problem. “We clean them after. And we’re not going to eat the scales.” Right? He’d never prepared fish but- he’d never eaten a fish that was still fully intact. Jaguar moments exempt. “I don’t think that’s right,” he said succinctly, obviously not convinced on the whole ‘sky fish are better’ concept. It sounded like much more work to try and pluck one out of the air. At least she didn’t fall over when she caught the fish, though. He looked into her net at the fish, recognizing it from it’s pattern rather than her words. “Yes- I know that fish. They taste pretty good.” Not to be outdone, he proceeded to use his own method of ‘fishing’, bending at the waist to pluck a nice looking fish from the ground that was still flopping about. “Look- I caught one too,” he said smugly as he plopped the thing into his own net. 

That little...! Margot tried not to appear phased, but the corners of her mouth tightened just a tad, giving into a small pout at his judgement about her appearance. Oh, if only he knew. "Looks can be deceiving," Was all she gave back in response, deciding that for the time being he wasn’t worth getting any more agitated or going in depth about just why he was incorrect. “Okay, but it’s still kind of… I don’t know, shifty to eat the ones already on the ground. I might settle for if it just landed on the ground, but then you can’t even be too sure…” Was she likely being too anal about the whole process? Maybe so. Did it really even matter considering they were talking about potentially eating fish that had rained down from the sky? Perhaps. In the end it could have all been futile and already signed her death warrant the moment she agreed to help him catch fish in the first place. But it didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world after she had talked to some of her co-workers, who had claimed to have eaten some earlier in the week and found nothing awry. Still, she would always have her doubts. If nothing else remained about her, those would withstand the test of trial and time. “It is. And that was super easy, too-- Oh, come on!” She huffed, narrowing her eyes up towards him before shaking her head. “Fine, you eat what you catch, and I’ll eat what I catch. And we’ll see who winds up with a belly ache,”

“Sure they can, Ducky.” Dario had decided to make that stick, perhaps only because he thought it amusing how it seemed to make her expression a little more scrunchy. But he simply rolled his eyes at her continued attempts to have him not eat the ground fish. “I am pretty sure that you’re just being paranoid. Scaredy cat.” He’d never entirely liked that phrase. Cats weren’t scared. They were fierce and regal. Unless it was one of the cats that didn’t like him. Those cats could eat it. “Won’t even eat ground fish,” he finished in a mumble, still apparently finding too much fun in his teasing. This time, he nearly almost chuckled as her outrage was voiced, somewhat surprised such passion could come from the girl in front of him. “That sounds like a good deal. I’ll take that deal.” Then he was bending over again, choosing the most questionable fish he could find, and picking it from the asphalt to toss it into her net. “Oh, look. You caught another. You’re pretty good at this. Must be the hat.”

Okay, was there anything this guy wasn’t going to call her? At this point, Margot simply rolled with the nickname, piping up with a gleeful, “Yep, yep yep!” And not caring if the reference whizzed over his head or not. The Land Before Time was a treasure. “Oh, sure, I’m a scaredy cat for not wanting to get food poisoning... Ignoramus,” There, see? Two could play at this game of name calling, and one could use big, fancy words, too! Obviously superior and sure of herself, Margot continued to angle her net in order to catch another, smaller fish from the sky. This one she wasn’t sure of, but the moment she bent over the opening to examine it further, she gasped as he tossed a fish into her net. “What the heckie?!” Did he seriously just do that? Oh, he was so done for-- Growling, she reached into the net, pulling out the disgusting, contemptible ground fish out by it’s tail and, without hesitation, tossed it in the general direction of the other’s face. “I don’t want your gross ground fish, jerkwad!”

The reference, indeed, entirely missed Dario. However his uncertainty seemed to be rather effective when it came to making him be quiet. Though, perhaps the strange thing was he hadn’t even had a problem with being quiet until this moment. At least, not since turning back into a human. The word ‘Ignoramus’ proved to be no better, and it took him a second longer to make a connection between the word he was pretty sure she’d made-up to the word ignorant. “No,” he insisted. “I’m very smart, thank you.” Not exactly a scathing response, but giving any sort of flak back was enough for him, as well as proving that he could figure out her silly names. When the fish hit him smack in the face he was actually grinning, perhaps for one of the first times in...well he wasn’t sure how long. How could he not, though? She was simply too hilarious of a picture. But that smile was quickly wiped away, replaced by disgust and fish slime as he recoiled and cursed. “Merda!” He didn’t mind the smell. It was the texture that got him. “Jerkwad?!” he simply repeated before taking his own fish out of his net, and chucking it towards her face. “Now who’s the jerkwad?”

“Hah!” Margot pumped a triumphant fist into the air, elated that her aim had been spot on in smacking him with the sea creature. Normally, her father would have chastised this sort of childish behavior, and in the back of her head she wondered if maybe this was taking things a step too far. But those thoughts were quickly wiped away as she saw him reach into his net, and she dropped her own to raise both arms in order to protect her face. However, she was a second too late, and the slippery sting hit her cheek, causing her to shiver and recoil. “Ugh!” All thoughts of catching any more fish virtually forgotten, she grabbed two fish with each hand, hurling one at him and not caring where it hit - so long as it smacked him somewhere. “It’s still you!” She retorted scornfully, tossing the other fish at him as well. 

Dario nearly growled as she took pride in her triumph, not at all pleased with having been apparently bested by the all yellow girl. It was utterly ridiculous that someone who looked like an oversized duck could get the jump on him. But all that was fixed by the sweet satisfaction of seeing his own fish meet its mark, and his grin was back in full force, along with an actual laugh. Once again, it was wiped away as soon as it had been wrought, as he warned her with a raised hand before she struck, “Don’t you dare-” It was all for not. Again he was covered in fish and slime, and a sound of pure frustration and vengeance was brought from his lipe. “No! It’s you! You’re the jerkward!” In a move he thought to be rather inventive, he took his now empty net, and tried to hook it over the top of her to catch her in it. “Now who is gross fish?!”

Okay, this was actually starting to become annoying. Margot, though displeased with how wet she had become through getting thoroughly whumped in the face with a fish and touching so many that had been on the ground, still found herself smirking as he was nailed again. The momentary triumph fled from her features at his next comeback, however, and she made a maneuver to duck below and off to the side. Skidding a bit as her knees hit the pavement, she ignored the sting in favor of taking another, smaller fish in her hand. She leapt up as best as her ankle would allow and surged towards him. With his hands preoccupied by hanging onto the net, she hoped he wouldn’t have time to stop her from shoving the still wiggling fish down his shirt. “Pretty sure it’s you, fish boy,”

Damn it, the net had missed. Whatever, he’d go back for another for another swipe the next chance he got. Dario wasn’t sure what to make of her practically launching herself at him, but didn’t have any reaction other than standing there in surprise, and by the time he realized what was happening it was too late. Another sound of utter disgust later, and he was reflexively trying to wrap his arms around her, and lift her feet from the ground. If she couldn’t move, she couldn’t shove fish down his shirt, right? His words still held something of their teasing element, but the air of frustration was also prominent in them. “Ducky, if you wanted to get into my shirt that badly- you only needed to ask.”

At this point, there were more than a handful of people observing the two fighting amongst the fallen and still cascading fish. Probably just as flabbergasted as Margot was when it came to how this whole scuffle even started, but that really didn’t matter to her at the moment. Right now, they were fighting, and that meant she needed to focus on winning. Everything else came secondary. A very child-like ‘Hah-hah!’ sing-songed past her lips and straight into his face, the blonde revelling in watching his expression curl into displeasure. But the moment she felt a pair of rather muscled arms wrap around her, and begin to raise her up from the ground, she uttered a shocked squeak and began to writhe in his grip in earnest. After a few seconds of this, she locked eyes with him, putting as much fury and ice into her gaze as possible before practically growling out, “Put me down. Now,”

Dario was blissfully unaware of those watching the show, or perhaps it was simply that he didn’t care. Perhaps in his past life, he would have minded. But now what did it matter? The only person’s opinion he had to consider anymore was his own. There wasn’t anyone else, particularly. As he tightened his grip on her, he rested most of her weight against his body, not seeing how else he’d be able to maintain this for an extended amount of time. Vengeance was sweet as he smirked at her reaction, looking like the cat who had caught the canary. Which she might as well be when dressed the way she was. “No,” he replied succinctly, stubbornly. He wasn’t about to give up his success and let her through another fish now his shirt or something.

When it came to close contact with others, Margot typically held off on it for as long as possible. Brushing against someone on accident was an unavoidable occurrence, but as for purposeful gestures such as handshakes and even high fives? Those were reserved for a very few, something to be cultivated over time. Even going in to shove the fish down his shirt was a gutsy move, and one she normally wouldn’t have carried out had she been in her right mind. But with judgement clouded by seeking to gain the upper hand, she had placed herself in a terribly uncomfortable situation, and was now paying the price for not using her common sense. Her discomfort only heightened as his grip became tighter, and Oh, if someone could burn a hole through steel solely by glaring at it… Well, she had a trick or two up her sleeve as well. Though he had her at a disadvantage height wise, his tactic also left him vulnerable in a couple of areas. The thought of spitting in his face crossed her mind, but it was fleeting and soon replaced by another manner in which she could get him to release her. Smoothing out her furious features, she simply shrugged in his grip. “Fine, your loss,” Without another word, she reared her right leg as far back as it would go before delivering a swift kick with the toe of her boot - directly against his shin. 

Dario, perhaps opposite of Margot, was generally quite a touchy person. It was simply the culture he’d been raised in, as well as the family. And in addition to all that- the warmth of another person was something of another little reminder to tell him that he was alive. As he continued to grip onto her, he took in her expression, trying to figure out if she was still simply angry, or if this was actually uncomfortable. As he was pondering this, and whether or not to set her back down to see if that helped, it seemed the woman made his decision for him. Pain. His shin suddenly burst out in a sharp pain that made him instinctively want to get whatever was causing that pain  as far away from him as soon as possible. So he dropped her none too gracefully, not entirely thinking about how she may or may not land. “Foda-se!” And then he took off in rapid Portuguse, far too distressed to deal with anything but his mother tongue. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” His words found him clinging to where she’d kicked him, his hand rubbing over the spot in a soothing motion.

Thank goodness Margot still had one ankle that wasn’t totally out of commission. And had rough housed enough with her father to know where to hit someone where it hurt. Judging by the words he yelped - likely an expletive of some sort in whatever language he was currently speaking - that had definitely hurt like a bitch. But, as with even the best laid plans, or haphazardly tossed ones, she had miscalculated just how high off of the ground she was. When he finally released her, she attempted to ready herself for the impact, but her bad ankle hit at an awkward enough angle that she crumpled, falling back flat on her backside. “Agh! Son of a bitch, cock-sucking-- fuck, my ass!” She groaned in both annoyance and pain, keeping both hands placed behind her in order to keep herself upright. The pain from her ankle spread up the length of the entire leg, and when she tried to put even a bit of pressure on it, she winced and swore under her breath once again. Strings of blonde locks were plastered to her damp face, and through them she glared up at the male with pure loathing. “You’re such a fuck-head!!”

At first, Dario felt the sweet and glorious feeling of vindication rush through him as she cursed, glad that he might have at least gotten a smidge of revenge in return for her little stunt. Reflexively he quipped back, “Well I do love a lady who knows what she likes and wants.” But the words came out as more of a sneer than anything else. His frown turned a bit deeper as she seemed to struggle, uncertain if she was faking or not. What if she simply wanted to get him close to kick him again? “Why are you sitting there? Aren’t you going to get up?” Again, his brow furrowed in disapproval, and perhaps some confusion this time. Was ‘fuckhead’ an insult that had sprouted up since he’d been gone? 

Where did he get the gal-- Who did he think he was-- Ugh. UGH. Margot could feel herself getting worked up again, the ache and that sneer of his sending her blood boiling - but the sensation didn’t last very long. The pain emanating from her ankle was winning out over any urge she had to somehow one-up him, focusing all her attention on how she was going to maneuver on it now. After scooting herself into a sitting position, she felt a sting on her hands and, upon raising them to her face, cringed. They were skidded, a few beads of blood beginning to seep out of the slivers lacing her palms. Wonderful. Rolling her eyes, she tentatively placed both hands atop her thighs and shook her head. “What do you care? Just… just leave me alone,” 

Dario watched her carefully, still trying to figure out if this was some sort of ruse or not. He was vaguely aware of some memories while he’d been a jaguar that included animals acting hurt to get the better of him- but...well the girl wasn’t an animal, was she? At least- not in the traditional sense of the word. His nose twitched for a moment as he smelled the blood in the air, a flash of guilt going through him for the slightest moment. “You’re hurt,” was his simple answer, not a question, and more of a statement than anything. He hasn’t wanted to hurt her. She’s just been so insufferable. “You can’t walk home like that- you can’t walk anywhere like that.” He’s most likely have to help her which was….not the most appealing to him at the moment. But- she looked much more innocent on the ground, unable to move. 

The blonde’s features scrunched up in further irritation as he stated the obvious, fingers curling into the fabric of her dark jeans. “No shit,” Margot refused to look at him, choosing to glare at his shoes through her slightly tousled hair. He was so stupid. People were stupid. It was a mistake to think that just because someone seemed personable that they wouldn’t wind up being trouble in person. Why had she even agreed to help him in the first place? It seemed like the nice thing to do. Well, now it resulted in a throbbing ankle and scraped up palms. And now he was acting concerned? She huffed out a decidedly humorless laugh - more of a scoff if anything. “I’ll figure something out. Why are you still standing there, you don’t… have to feel sorry for me. Or are you just gloating because you ‘won’?” It seemed likely, however the venom that had previously been in her voice was replaced by an exhaustion. The fire had burned out, and now there was nothing but wisps of smoke, not enough to carry her anger any further, and so it simply faded into exasperation. 

Dario didn’t bother to resist the roll of his eyes when she spoke again, apparently unable to not be annoyed by her even now. Perhaps he could have left her here on the ground, but...he supposed she hadn’t needed to say yes to come and help him try and catch fish in the first place. Why had she agreed to it? Beyond that- he could practically hear his mother’s displeasure at how ungentlemanley he was being. Most likely she was rolling in her- ah- he didn’t know if she had a grave. The sting of that was far too sharp to linger on, Dario not particularly being a fan of processing emotions as of late. For now, he pushed that realization down, though it had strangely softened his expression. “I don’t feel sorry for you.” Though he did still feel that bit of guilt. Now that her claws had seemingly retracted, it was easier to swallow a portion of his pride. Now she just seemed...alright- perhaps he felt a little sorry for her. “Come-“ he said with little explanation, reaching out once more to try and lift her from her spot on the ground. “You can’t live there.”

Then why does it feel like you do? But Margot wouldn’t dare ask that question, knowing she likely wouldn’t care for the answer. She wasn’t one to garner pity from anyone, at least intentionally. Having people look at you in that way, the one where you could just sense a ‘Poor dear’ on the tips of their tongues. It almost made her sick. Even glancing up at his outstretched hand caused her to frown, staring at it as if a viper would materialize from his palm and strike her. But of all her options - hobbling home, crawling home, calling her dad - this one seemed the least likely to wind up putting her in more distress than she already was. Plus, she considered it would make them even for all of this… mess. Sighing, she grabbed onto his hand, wincing slightly at the sting of contact against her skin. “You don’t know that,” 

It was mostly the guilt that had Dario reaching out, though was also, perhaps, the beginnings of remembering an age old human tradition re-emerging. Helping your fellow human. Not that he was any sort of bleeding heart, but he couldn’t just leave her there- no matter how annoying she might be. Gripping her hand lightly, he moved forwards to try and wedge another hand beneath the pocket of her arm, to help him bring her to her feet. This time, it was rather obvious to see which of her ankles was the problem one, and he did his best to avoid jostling it. An arm went around her to try and help with steadying, though it wasn’t heavy against her. Despite it all, his eyes crinkled again at the corners, glad to see that some of her determination to be difficult was still present. Though- wouldn’t he be better off if it wasn’t? “Maybe I do know it,” he answered childishly.

Margot utilized his grip in helping her stand upright, although she still remained wary of his intentions. Any minute now she could see herself landing right back onto her butt due to his carelessness - which definitely wouldn’t bode well for him, so, maybe he was actually attempting to be a decent person. Maybe. “Or maybe you just have to pretend that you know everything to be even more annoying…” She murmured under her breath, trying to lift as much pressure off of her bad ankle as possible. It felt a little odd, using someone she barely even knew or recognized for support, but, they were well past the point of being awkward about it. This was for function, not comfort’s sake. “Wait--” Her expression bunched up as if mentally warring with herself, before she sighed and waved a hand in the direction of the still flopping ground fish. “Pick one up and put it in the ice chest. I can hold the nets,” 

Dario didn’t entirely understand what it was about her annoyance that amused him so much, at least when she wasn’t throwing fish at him. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself from feeding into it. “I never said I know everything. Just that you cannot live there on the ground.” He’d been readying to head out to...wherever he needed to take her when she caused him to pause, and a half-smirk began to form. This time his tease was barely perceptible, not wanting her to go back on her words after she’d said them. “You want me to...take one of the ground fish?” Still, a moment later he was releasing her as carefully as he could to consider the fish that were still flopping around. He chose one that had fallen most recently, and didn’t look too dirty or anything of that sort before plopping it into the ice chest. Once he’d straightened, he looked her over, lingering on her ankle. “Can you walk?”

The blonde could practically feel the smugness emanating from him, and had half a mind to insist that he forget the whole affair entirely. But then that would mean they hurried out here, fought each other and got herself injured for absolutely nothing. At least this way they would be coming away from the situation with something for all the trouble. Even if it was ground fish. “Yeah, yeah, don’t - don’t rub it in,” She mumbled, attempting to balance her weight on her good ankle while he retrieved a fish. At the mention of it, another throb of pain went through it, and she winced when even a bit of pressure was put onto it. “... I’m not sure. Hop on one foot, maybe, but walking’s gonna be slow going,” 

Dario abided by her request for the time being, happy enough that’d they’d at least gotten one fish after all this trouble. But he wasn’t sure how to get everything back now, Margot’s hurt ankle that he felt at least partially responsible for complicating things. He hummed for a moment, looking around at everything. “Would you be able to carry the ice chest and the nets? And then I would carry you with them.” It shouldn’t be too bad, right? She seemed just a bit taller than average girls. 

… Was he serious? Margot’s lips formed a thin line as she pondered the offer, needing a moment to process it fully. Wow, deja vu had never felt so, incredibly, absolutely infuriating before this very moment. “Fine,” She ground out, before she could over-think the matter and stop herself from accepting the much needed help. There was absolutely no other way they were going to make it back without more physical pain; so she would settle for a blow to her pride. Without waiting, she grabbed the chest, nets, and held them in front of her before motioning for him to go ahead and get on with it.

Dario only just managed not to roll his eyes. He was offering help, and this girl was going to be snippy about it? Honestly- was there a more ungrateful person on the entire planet? But, whatever. He wasn’t about to let her walk home in this state, despite his current opinion. Once she seemed ready to go, he bent and carefully lifted her in his arms, one arm under her knees, and the other cradling her back. He shifted her weight a couple of times, finding the position that was most comfortable before asking. “Where to, then?” As if he were a taxi service. Again, he realized he still didn’t know her name, and figured now was as good a time as ever to ask. “What’s your name, anyway? Have to know what to put on the death certificate if you don’t make it with that ankle of your’s.”

Once in the position that felt far too familiar for her liking, Margot attempted to relax herself as much as possible. The ice chest rested in her lap, the nets atop and turned so they wouldn’t smack him in the face as he walked. Though the image of it happening brought the beginnings of a smile to her features. “Start down the street here, then make a left at that lamp post,” She motioned a bit further down with her free hand. After promptly rolling her eyes heavenward at his… attempt of a joke, she contemplated giving him a fake name just to mess with him further. “Don’t joke about that - some people have actually died because of a sprained ankle,” She paused, gnawing on the inside of her cheek a bit before finally mumbling, “Margot,”

Dario followed her directions carefully, still rather miffed that they’d only gotten one fish. Still- at least they weren’t going home empty-handed. Though...he seriously doubted the girl would want to cook the fish with him now after their entire debacle. Besides, did he even wanna cook it with her, anymore? But then, who would get the fish? Maybe she should have it. He barely knew how to cook it, anyway. Damn it. He’d really wanted to figure out the fish thing. Oh, well. “Oh- I’m sure,” he simply replied blandly, not looking to start another fight at the moment. “Margot,” he said after a moment, trying her name out. Then he gave a musing hum, as if deciding whether or not to give his own name in return. “Dario,” he offered gruffly, and just like that, the fish rain had come to a stop as soon as it had started

#chatzy #catch of the day #ch:margot #wickedswriting

[justimajin]

His First Love ⟨Part 7⟩

➸ Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

➸ Genre: ANGST, Fluff, Future Smut

↳ Vampire AU, Reincarnation AU

➸ Words: 6.6k

➸ Warnings: heavy angst, character death, violence

➸ Summary: Each night, its the same dream; drenching tears, specks of blood and a heart torn in half. Each night, you wake up trembling and filled with the fear of how crystal-clear the nightmares were, more and more endless questions ready to spur from you. The biggest question however, was always left unanswered - who was the man that never ceased the opportunity to appear in them?

➸ Moodboard Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8(M)

“Killed someone?” You question, crouching down to Yoongi’s level when he refuses to make eye contact with you.

“Yoongi, how…?” You’re unsure on how to approach him about this, but it did stir up inside your head at one point, essentially how true the old man’s words even were and if there was any validity behind them.

Yoongi lets out a deep sigh, knowing in the back of his mind that he couldn’t keep this from you but terrified of the results that would ensure after telling you about the incident. He finally turns around to face you, looking into your eyes with broken shards and unhealed scars from the past.

“It was when I first met another human being…”

Yoongi runs as he continues to hear more shrieks and screams surrounding him. The angry, resentful faces of human beings bury themselves in his memory and he knows he won’t be accepted among them, that he’ll always be feared and scared of.

He finds himself utterly isolated from the rest of humanity, left to deal with the aching darkness forming inside his eternal burning heart from the only emotion he had learned to associate with the human race – hatred. He ventures out into the depths of the forest, finally being able to gain the peace and quiet he once needed among the bursts of noise in the village and vows to never come into contact with a single human being again.

That vow however, only lasted until he found a small boy stumbling into the forest; his innocent eyes spurring endless streams of tears and his fragile hands shaking in the cold.

Yoongi does not care.

He doesn’t care when he passes by a window to witness the boy’s lost and confused eyes, he doesn’t care when he plays a new piece and is reminded of the boy’s aching harsh sobs through the snowy winter and he sure doesn’t care when he’s feeding on an animal only for the boy to follow him and the trail of blood he leaves.

Yoongi does not care. Yoongi does not care when he opens the door to his home for the boy, letting him rest and recuperate from the tedious sniffles and annoying coughs he persistently present when Yoongi tries to play.

After all, it was only until the boy got better so Yoongi could be left in his quiet and peaceful home once again.

But the boy’s eyes begin to grow wider, curiosity seeping in and filling them. The curiosity continues to grow when the boy pops his head by one day when Yoongi is playing a soothing tone, the boy coming up to his precious piano and striking up a key.

The boy’s eyes flash with amazement and look at Yoongi like he’s some type of magical creature, enticed by his greatness.

Yoongi does not care. Even when the corners of his lips slowly begin to curve as time passes.

***

The boy bunches up a portion of Yoongi’s coat to not get lost as Yoongi walks through the falling snow, a soft crunching sound being heard as he walks towards the village. The boy appears significantly better – flushed cheeks and sweet smiles radiating out of him as Yoongi leads him out of the forest. Yoongi ushers the young boy to go forward, to which he takes small, tiny steps towards the warmth the village provides.

He walks closer to the village and Yoongi watches afar with a bittersweet smile, turning around when the boy has walked far enough and heads back into his own home within the forest.

A small sound is heard, a hiccup.

Yoongi raises an eyebrow, looking back in the direction of the boy to see his face completely drenched in tears and his small legs running towards him, grasping onto a bundle of his coat while sobbing. Yoongi attempts to separate from the boy once again, but only for him to persist and push closer towards Yoongi.

Yoongi lets out a soft chuckle.

As they walk back to the forest, Yoongi lets the boy hold onto his hand for the first time.

***

“Are you human?” He questions, the innocence of the boy converging into the gentleness of a young man, but the sprit of the young boy still resides inside him.

Yoongi shakes his head, ushering for the boy to play another note, “I’m not.”

“Are you like an angel then?” The boy questions and Yoongi chuckles, out of all words to use an angel isn’t the best way to describe him. He plays along however.

“Sort of. I’ll always protect you.” He simply states, but the boy’s eyes gloss over and soon Yoongi is being tugged into a hug as he scolds the boy for not practicing hard enough.

***

It all came true.

His worst nightmare, his biggest fear, the secret that was to be kept hidden no matter what the costs.

But Yoongi, was so, so thirsty. He knew it would only take a couple of minutes, a quick and fast job that had to be done.

The horrified look on the boy’s face doesn’t disappear as Yoongi kneels down on the young deer and deprives it of its blood to quench his own thirst. He feels utterly disgusted under the boy’s scared gaze and instantly Yoongi loses everything, with a snap of his fingers.

“Y-You’re a v-vampire?” The boy stutters out, pointing towards Yoongi all too similarly like the human’s once did. Yoongi gets up to explain somehow, but blood drips from his elongated fangs and the boy lets out a shrilling scream.

“Stop! Don’t come near me!!” He cries out, running in the opposite direction. Yoongi runs after him, not wanting to be turned away from the person he loved the most.

“Get away from me you blood sucking monster!” Yoongi’s eyes widen when he’s met with a long wooden log, aimed straight for his head. He pulls up his hands in defense, long nails piercing threw the wood and shredding it into pieces.

Yoongi slowly opens his eyes, only to witness the boy lying on the ground, eyes blown out and a long wooden stake pierced right through his heart. A pool of blood stains through the white snow and Yoongi covers his nose from the overwhelming stench, hands shaking in fear. He falls to the ground, pulling out the stake to which more blood flows out, covering Yoongi’s hands.

“No…” Yoongi whispers, cupping the boy’s precious face in his hands. “No, it can’t be…” Small tears begin to pool in the corner of his eyes, drops landing on the boy’s face.

“NO!” Yoongi cries out, the memories of the trembling innocent boy growing into a kind young man flashing through his eyes and the final image of him sitting in the blood of the person he had finally allowed himself to let into the cold chambers of his heart.

He had killed an innocent human being, his human.

He was a monster.

The villagers were right, he was to be feared of.

The thoughts pour into Yoongi’s mind at an alarming rate, pulling at his mind as he screams in agony of his realization of who he truly was. He runs away from the boy’s corpse, leaving his body to decay in the fallen snow and dried blood as he runs from the fear, the fear of himself.

“At that point, death wasn’t enough of a punishment for me.” Yoongi explains and you sniffle, tears streaming down your face from his recollection. 

He continues, “After that, more villagers came after me, in search of the human boy. They eventually found his dead corpse and declared me as the true monster I am, so I reacted by scaring them all away.”

“You aren’t a monster…” You whisper, wiping the tears that had fallen from your eyes. “You were trying to protect yourself, you never meant to kill him.”

“I was distraught, that I had murdered the first person I had ever allowed myself get close to.” Yoongi states, “I just became alone after that, my hatred towards humans…and myself just increasing.”

You slowly move your hand towards his, pushing back his black sleeve to grant you the access to grasp his hand. Yoongi flinches when your hand makes contact with his, looking down in shock to see you hold his hand so easily in yours when he himself, had hesitated several times to do so. He looks up at you and is appalled to see the tender gaze you hold in your eyes.

“Yoongi, if anything, your past shows that you are capable of loving humans, the villagers are wrong.” You hold his hand tighter in yours, “The boy was right Yoongi, you are like an angel.” 

Yoongi’s eyes waver, wondering how you managed to always bring him back up even when the weight of his past mistake drags him down and lock him inside a cage full of guilt and regret. He wonders how you were the sole key to that locked cage, dusting it off from the years that had passed by and holding your hand out to him, similar to how the young boy once did. He wonders if they will ever be a life he can live, out of his cage and walking alongside you in the snow.

You soon bring him back to the house and Yoongi cheeks tinge with a light shade of pink when you don’t let go of his hand, slowly trailing after you. The bitter cold bites back when Yoongi notices you shivering.

“It’s always been so cold here…” He sighs, wishing he could make it sunny for you to feel the warmth again.

“It’s warm in the village,” You reassure him, an idea surfacing inside your mind, “Why don’t you come with me one day?”

Yoongi immediately widens his eyes, “To the village?” You nod.

“It’s warmer there, the sun is always shining. There’s always some shops set up to look around and explore. I could even show you where I live and we could drop by my father’s blacksmith shop.” You say with excitement dwelling in your voice from the prospective suggestion.

It’s strange, the idea that would have just simply presented Yoongi shock and fear initially if he went by himself, brings him an odd pleasant satisfaction with the ability to go by your side, experiencing the things you love alongside you. It almost seems like by becoming his key, you could introduce him into a better world, one full of dreams, hopes and aspirations while riding him of the old torn one he was currently living in.

“That sounds….nice…” Yoongi’s voice comes out small and feeble, like a child accepting to play with someone else for the first time.

“I don’t know if you can bring the piano though.” You lightly joke, but Yoongi squeezes your hand in response.

“This is enough.” He whispers, giving you a gentle smile and soon your cheeks share the same colour as his own, unknown to you that it wasn’t because of the chilling cold you were in.

You walk back to the house but Yoongi ushers you to meet him in the piano room you two would always spend your time in, to which you tilt your head in confusion at since it was usually at this time you went home.

However you oblige when Yoongi looks at you with expectant eyes and follow him hand in hand as he leads you towards his grand marble piano. He gestures for you to sit right beside him instead of on a separate chair, taking up the entire space on the piano bench.

You’re just about to ask him the purpose for coming back here, but Yoongi begins to play and instantly the words are stolen from you.

The tune starts off as slow and steady, Yoongi carefully pressing the keys as his eyebrows furrow with concentration and his fingers tense in the grasping of the notes. Its almost like he’s being cautious with the notes he wants to play, eliciting a calm yet focused chime with each note. The soothing sound wants to lull you into a sleep, but the sombre undertone keeps you awake, tugging you in with how repressed the music sounds.

The music then begins to uplift, emitting a hopeful vibe with a rapid increase in the speed of Yoongi fingers. He slowly restores a more fluid tone, the dark undertone disappearing completely. However, soon the beat drops again with his speed significantly reduced, a light tap of the key being heard instead.

Suddenly the upbeat tone is back, in a manner without warning when Yoongi suddenly begins to move his fingers so incredibly fast that they practically glide alongside the fine marble of the keys. The tempo picks up similar to your own heart beat, a melody filled with intensity shining threw the initial slow pace of the music. You begin to feel everything at once – the weight of the sounds, the deep pitches he uses, the progressive and piercing notes plunging you farther and farther into it. Nothing else ceases to exist anymore in that single moment, only Yoongi and his piano remaining in front of you in the dim light.

A sweet melody is soon heard through your ears and a soft humming accompanies it, following it through every step before it abruptly stops. Your eyes-only flicker when Yoongi reaches up and removes the unconscious fallen tears that stream from your entranced state to which you look at him with eyes filled with amazement and shock.

“W-what?” You breathe in, not realizing that you had unknowingly held in your breath as you listened, “What was that?”

“First Love.” Yoongi says, wiping the rest of your tears before moving closer to you and caresses your cheek in his palm, “A song that was made from my feelings and your thoughts.”

Your eyes immediately widen in disbelief, “M-my thoughts?”

Yoongi places an all-too familiar leather-bound notebook in your hands, filled with the long hours spent of writing out sounds and tunes in the time you spent at the stream. You clutch onto the notebook, bewilderment spreading upon your face.

“You said you didn’t have it…” You whisper and Yoongi lets out a small sigh in defeat.

“I had to be careful you know, make sure you weren’t faking all this,” He grasps your hand in his own, “faking what we have now.” He inches closer towards you, your lips barely touching his as he looks at you with tender eyes, secretly asking for the agreement to move forward. You slightly nod before he presses his lips onto yours carefully, testing the waters as he waits to fully dive in.

When he feels you reciprocate against him does he grow bolder, caressing you as he tastes the soft, gentle sweetness you radiate towards him. He nips at your bottom lip, small edges of his fangs sliding alongside when he wraps his arms around you to bring you closer. He softly trails down to your neck, leaving fluttering kisses as he goes.

“I also had to make sure,” He breathes out, “that you wouldn’t kill me.”

“Kill you?” You ask when he softly caresses your neck.

“It’s a rare case to have a girl find me with a bag of swords in her hands, watching me play from the corner of my eye.” You feel him smile from you neck and you let out a small giggle from the memory.

“I was simply observing…” You retort as Yoongi chuckles.

“Hmm, sure you were.” He continues to press kisses alongside your neck and you wonder as to why he tends to linger there.

“Yoongi?” You quietly whisper, only for him to deeply inhale.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

It flows out so easily, but Yoongi sharply inhales before he lifts his head and his eyes lock on your own, flickering in disbelief. The words tinge him in an odd way, but he welcomes the feeling with open arms when he gently holds your hands.

“I love you too.” He whispers, pulling you forward so he could place his lips on yours once again.

Walking back to the village, you read through the notebook Yoongi has returned to you, with additional markings made on the sounds you had created. You find out he had written First Love in the back of the book for you to have your own copy of it. Smiling to yourself when your eyes follow along with the melody, you discover he had engraved both your names at the end – as the true composers for the song.

Once you reach your home, you quickly set the book aside back into your bag when you see a large crowd swarming around your front door. The display immediately alarms you, and you hastily increase speed, seeing your father’s face set in a stern look while your brother paces back and forth nervously in front of the man they were talking to.

Your eyes widen when in fact, the man before them stands with an abundance of jewels decorating his clothes, his stance being the uttermost perfect and men accompanying him with swords in there hands.

The Crown Prince.

His gaze immediately shifts to you when you stumble beside your father’s side, right next to your brother and his concerned filled eyes. It alarms you when the Prince doesn’t move his unwavering firm stare upon you and your father suddenly shifts for you to stand behind him.

“I cannot agree to this, my Prince.” Your father says with clenched fists and your eyes flicker, wondering if you had ever seen your father present such an aggressive tone.

The Prince only chuckles in response, “Surely you jest, after all I usually get what ever I want.” He trails his eyes on you again and you shiver, goosebumps rising on your skin.

“You are betrothed my Prince.” Your father simply states.

“I was betrothed.” The Prince smirks and your eyes widen, scanning the crowd abruptly before your eyes land onto hers and you bite your lip at the circumstances your fates were intertwining in.  

Suran lets out harsh sobs in the corner of the crowd, her hand covering her mouth to hush and silence them down. But you can see it so clearly in her eyes, displaying the truth that was coming from your reality and screaming at you for becoming its victim amongst snatching away her hopes.

She was still deeply in love with him.

But he wants-

“I will not allow you to marry my daughter, Prince.” Your eyes flicker in fear when you hear the words from your father, the severity of them becoming very easily shown to you.

The Prince wants to marry you.

You couldn’t say yes. It wasn’t even a hard choice to make. You couldn’t hurt your dear friend like that, not by marrying the person that meant everything to her.

Your grasp on your book tightens.

And you couldn’t leave the person that meant everything to you.

Yoongi…

You mentally whisper his name, but this time it’s filled with desperation and tinged with fright, for the future you were being pushed into.

The Prince simply smiles; a smile mixed with mischievous eyes and a knowing gaze, before he calls out to his men to leave and you’re left perplexed at the sudden departure. The crowd surrounding you also departs upon the Prince leaving, for they no longer had a view of their precious ruler.

You instead are met with Suran still standing in the same spot, eyes filled with tears and her form shaking like her entire world had been taken away from her. The guilt sinks too heavily on you, as you walk towards her and let her clutch onto you while her sobs echo through the night, whispering out apologies that couldn’t bring her beloved fiancé back.

“You need to leave.” Your father’s firm voice greets your ears and you’re startled as to why he would suggest for you to do such a thing.

“Leave?” You ask confused and he lets out a sigh.

“Y/N, you know there’s no stopping the Prince. He’ll come back, and you need to leave before he can find you.” You’re about to speak out, but you decide he was right. The Prince never stopped until he had what he wanted.

“But where will I…” You trail off, knowing exactly where you can go but unsure if you should mention it.

“Go to the forest. He’ll protect you.” Suran states, her tears dried up but the pain still being too evident on her delicate features.

Your eyes widen when you see your father and your brother nod in agreement, the place you had been disappearing towards for days being known to them this whole entire time.

“Just make sure to come back…when this is all over.” Your brother’s voice peeks through in a quiet sincerity and you smile, intertwining your pinky with his as a promise of return. The smile soon fades however, when you begin to pack up some bags to take with you. Giving your family a wholesome hug as you head out, you’re determined as ever to escape from the Prince’s clutches.

Yoongi frowns when he sees the weather outside – gloomy grey clouds swirling around in the sky with a deep mist overshadowing them, the once white forest being tainted with the color and its glow slowly fading out. It seems unnatural to him, oddly enough when he knows he himself is the most unnatural thing he’s seen in his long lifetime. He steps outside to further investigate, leaving his piano behind as the weather continues to elicit a mixture of concern and confusion from him.

He’s instead met with the very person that brings less tension to his shoulders and lets him release a relieved sigh, but the addition of terrified eyes and two heavy bags only brings him more concern.

“Y/N?” Yoongi whispers, walking closer to you and surprised to see you look so defeated, as if you had already lost a battle before it even started. You drop the bags and clutch onto him, desperately clinging onto the person who you couldn’t even imagine getting separated from.

“Y/N what happened?” Yoongi questions, fear striking inside him when he hears a sob escape from you.

“I needed to leave,” You let out, “The Prince wanted me to marry him.”

Yoongi’s heart sinks at the thought, losing you in a war against the man who had more control over the nation that Yoongi could ever have, the man who would only let out a smile when he watches Yoongi crumble from the loss of you.

However, something in Yoongi’s eyes flicker at the news of your pending marriage and he looks at you in utter fear.

“Y/N…” Yoongi whispers, holding your hands in his own trembling ones, for he knew what was going to come.

“Yoongi?” Your eyebrows furrow when Yoongi looks completely terrified – eyes blown out and form shaking, but you don’t comprehend or follow along as to why.

“Y/N, y-you need to leave.” Yoongi sputters out, breath quickening as you feel a tinge of pain from him wanting to separate from you.

“Yoongi but why-“

“I think it would be just fine if she remains here.” A low voice grunts out, leaving chills all over your skin. You slowly turn around, hands trembling similarly to Yoongi’s, only to be face to face with the sole man that wanted your hand in marriage.

“Y/N. Run.” Yoongi firmly says, staring at you and squeezing your hand before he launches himself at the Prince. Instantly, you’re surrounded by a group of soldiers and you’re trapped – but a hand reaches out to you.

Your younger brother.

He’s completely covered in blood and tears, holding onto your hand like it’s the last thing he has left in the world and it shatters you when you do find out the truth.

“F-father’s dead?” Your brother sniffles and nods, before taking you into the depths of Yoongi’s home as protection from the sight of the soldiers.

“T-they a-attacked our home.” You sit down with him as he violently trembles in your arms, “T-they were looking for you, b-but father tried to p-protect me from them and t-they, t-they….” His sentence is abruptly cut off when more tears spill from him and you pull him closer to you as he sobs into your shirt, tears of your own spilling from you.

The front door is instantly ripped off, splinters of wood flying off. You clutch onto your brother’s shirt until he’s snatched away from you and thrown against the wall; a solider wrapping a rope around his hands. You’re just about to fight against them to release your brother until one of them tackles you onto the ground and fear strikes into your heart at the dark grin radiating from the Prince’s mouth.

Yoongi.

Your eyes flicker towards the door and you whimper when the Prince and his soldiers lead you and your brother out of the house, letting you fall into the white snow. You cough out blood when you make hard impact with the floor, raising your eyes to interlock with Yoongi’s and you’ve never wanted to so desperately erase the pain he holds in his own eyes.

His fangs are protruded out and he’s completely covered in his own blood, clutching onto the cold snow for dear life. His eyes appear exhausted, losing strength in them as time passes with each breath he lets out, but his eyes meet yours and you can see the hope spark in them once again, mixed with the rage when his eyes follow the dripping of the blood from your mouth. He lets out a growl, but then flinches in pain and clutches onto his stomach.

“Yoongi!” You cry out, crawling towards him as the snow is stained with more red from blood seeping out of the new wound on your thigh. You eventually reach him, straining against the pain of the distance between you before Yoongi reaches out and interlaces your hands, giving it a soft squeeze.

“My my, it seems you have truly tamed the beast.” The Prince’s voice breaks through with a light chuckle and you glare at him.

“Beast?” The word enrages you, but you’re only met with more sick laughter from the Prince’s part.

“Of course he’s a beast,” He walks over and grabs a fistful of Yoongi’s hair, to which Yoongi growls in pain at, “Just look at him, he’s strong enough to kill anyone…even my own men.” The Prince jabs at Yoongi’s fangs and Yoongi flinches.

“Stop that!” You shout, “Why does his strength even matter to you?” You were already started to get annoyed from the Prince’s teasing, demanding answers from him.

The playfulness in the Prince’s eyes disappear as he moves forward to you with eyes now filled with frightening greed laced in the bitter darkness he was consumed in. “It matters because my soldiers couldn’t get passed him when I wanted to invade the village to expand my kingdom.”

“It only takes a true beast to do something like that.” He looks at Yoongi with utter disgust but your heart only overflows with more respect for Yoongi himself.

“You were protecting them…the villagers…even after they shunned you out.” You whisper and Yoongi gives you a faint smile, caressing your hand softly in his.

“But why should such a filthy beast like yourself be granted with immortality?” The Prince pulls at Yoongi hair and he lets out a cry, “While I watch myself die as you live on?”

“Immortality? That’s what you want?” You scoff at the foolish desire the Prince wants.

“It seems like you need to learn the lesson between life and death, sweet Y/N.” He abruptly gets up and you’re relieved when Yoongi slumps down, sweat plastered on his forehead from the Prince’s aggression towards him.

However, the Prince grabs a sword from one of his soldiers and walks away, leaving you confused.

Your eyes immediately widen.

No…

Your brother’s tear-filled eyes look at you in complete fear, shaking his head when the Prince circles around him.

No…No…No…NO NO!!

Your heart hammers in your chest when you let out a piercing scream, attempting to run towards the Prince to stop him but your leg gives out and you fall onto the hard ground. Your brother’s last breath is heard as the sword plunges straight into his heart, the light flickering in his eyes before it completely fades out with every drop of blood that drips from the striking wound.

His body slumps onto the ground and you crawl towards him, tears flooding your eyes.

He was gone.

“No…” You whisper, “please no, open your eyes,” You hold his soft cheeks, “Come on buddy, open your eyes for me, o-open t-them p-please…” You clutch onto his body for dear life, his silent heart beat only greeting you back as a response. You let out harsh controllable sobs when you know you won’t hear his playful teasing voice, or see the sparkle in his eyes, or the way he had protected you when he found out the Prince was coming after you.

The Prince.

The pain, the loss of someone you had always treasured turns into burning, searing anger all too quickly; the rage targeting the only person who had caused all this for you.

The Prince only retaliates by smiling at your brother’s corpse, “I merely just showed you the consequences of death dear Y/N, once something is gone, it is gone forever.”

You’re going to kill him.

You reach out for the bloodied sword in your brother’s heart, taking it out and grasping in your hands, being prepared to replace and spray the Prince’s blood all over it instead.

But a small, weak voice stops you.

“S-stop this.” It speaks out and you’re surprised to see Suran emerging from the village to be looking directly at the Prince.

“This,” Her hands shake as she gestures to everything, “All this isn’t you.”

The Prince simply glares at her for intruding, but he then flashes her a pleasant smile.

“What do you know about what I’m like?”

“I do know, don’t pretend you don’t know either. I know you’ve changed after the King’s health began to decay and you were worried for days before his passing, I know you don’t want to live the same fate as him and leave so much behind, I know, I know you’re hurting on the inside.” He flinches slightly and looks away when Suran cups his face in her hands, his eyebrows furrowed in pain. She moves his face towards her own and leans against him.

“Please stop all this.” She whispers, and you’re surprised to watch the Prince falter so easily in her presence, almost like he had forgotten about everything going on around him. It sparks hope within you, that Suran’s love for her Prince will be enough to stop his madness, but when she lets out a gasp, you know you’re far too wrong about him.

The sword pierces through her stomach and she looks at her beloved Prince with tears streaming down her eyes, trying to capture his face for the very last time before she collapses onto the ground. Her blood seeps towards the Prince’s feet and he stands in it with a dark, motionless expression as he drops the coated with blood sword beside her corpse and turns to you.

It was at that moment, you realized mercy wasn’t a word that existed for the Prince.

His eyes are completely empty, void of any emotion before his eyes flicker to you and Yoongi impaled on the ground. Letting out a loud grunt, he stomps over to you and pulls you away from Yoongi, snarling as he blames you.

“You,” He says, “If you had only agreed to marry me so I could unlock the secrets of immortality, if only you didn’t run away could she have survived.” He tugs out your hair and you harshly bite your lip at the pain right when Yoongi pushes the Prince away from you.

He lets out a cough of blood, before shielding you with his body from the Prince. “Stay away from her.” His fangs elongate out and his hands mimic those of claws as if he’s challenging the Prince not to go further towards you.

The Prince mutters the words so quietly, but instantly chaos ensures with them, “Kill him.”

The soldiers grab for Yoongi but he turns around, swiftly picking you up as he uses his speed to his own advantage. One of them hits him in the shoulder and he winces in pain when more blood seeps out from his wounds, but his hold on you only grips tighter when he’s determined to get you out of the Prince’s grasps.

He wasn’t prepared to lose someone important to him again.

He accelerates his running as much as he can, eyes flickering when they finally land onto his destination.

The village.

He runs towards it, towards the place he had long abandoned ages ago and was shunned out from, the place that was only filled with memories of suffering and pain, the place he never wanted to go back to ever again.

But he can finally see it.

The image distorts and Yoongi see’s a new one, one filled with memories of you and his beloved piano, memories that only consisted of the two of you where it didn’t matter what he was, but only who he was. He sees himself living in the village surrounded by its warmth alongside you, meeting your family for the first time, entering a world where he didn’t feel like everyone was against him.

He sees it, and tears begin to pool at his eyes when he sees how beautiful the world would be like when you’re by his side.

“Y/N, Y/N look. We’re almost there.” He whispers and you’re eyes flicker towards the light, being entranced by its pull alongside him.

Yoongi quickly puts you down when you reach the entry point for the village and he’s about to move forward, his hand in yours. He looks back at you and smiles, squeezing your hand.

For the very last time.

Blood splatters on the white, frosted snow when the sword slices through your chest and you look at Yoongi with furrowed eyebrows, before you collapse onto the ground with Yoongi violently yelling.

“Y/N!” He says, clutching onto you before you fall but the wound is too deep and severe as blood continues to trickle down. You desperately hold onto him with bloody hands when the light begins to flicker and the darkness is trying to drag you away from him, not wanting to let go. Tears escape from Yoongi when he sees you attempting to cling onto him and he brings you closer.

He knows.

He knows its too late.

But watching you leave, was what made it even worse.

“Y/N...” He whispers and his voice cracks, the disbelief being present when he cradles you in his hands and your weak hands clutch back onto him.

“Yoongi…” Your voice comes out so softly and quietly that Yoongi doesn’t even feel the slip of tears that fall from his eyes onto your cheek. You reach out your hand to wipe them away, but Yoongi simply grasps onto your hand and places it on his face. He silently weeps as he watches the life, slowly drain out of you.

“Yoongi?” You whisper, and he opens his tear-filled eyes to look into yours.

“I’m sorry…” Yoongi furrows his eyebrows at your apology.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you to the village.” You whisper and Yoongi presses his lips against yours.

“W-we can still go, we can Y/N, y-you just need to get up and come with me.” He clutches you in his hands as more of your blood stains his hands.

“Yoongi…” You whisper in acknowledgement of what reality was going to become, but he persists.

“I’ll play First Love for you, I’ll play with you in the snow again, I’ll meet, meet your f-family…” Yoongi sharply inhales and breaks down, shaking with you in his arms.

“Yoongi,” You bring his face to look at you and gently smile, “My first love,” You whisper quietly, “I love you.” It’s the last thing you say, before your body slumps against his and your remaining breath escapes your lungs. Yoongi cries out and holds onto you for dear life, for you were gone forever and he couldn’t do anything to save you.

He had failed once again.

“Please…” He whispers, pressing you against him in a silent prayer. “Please come back to me….”

“She just had to come between all this…” The Prince scoffs, watching the scene before him in amusement and hot rage boils out of Yoongi. He gently sets you down and gets up, darkness swirling heavily in his eyes before walking up and striking his hand right into the Prince’s chest, holding the Prince’s beating heart in his own hands.

The Prince looks up at him in shock, “You don’t deserve to have this.” Yoongi simply states, before his closes his fist around the Prince’s heart, instantly killing him. Yoongi pulls out his bloodied hand and flicks the remains of the Prince’s blood onto the snow. He watches the scene before him, the corpses of the soldiers and your brother, Suran, the Prince and finally you all being left in the remains of the bloodied snow.

The vicious cycle reappears when he gazes at your form, crouching down next to it.

If only he hadn’t fallen in love with you…

If only you had stayed away…

If only…

Tears resurface as the regret begins to eat away and consume Yoongi throughout his essence, wishing he had something – the ability to reverse time, the ability to change how things had ended, the ability to write his own happy ending for once.

You begin to glow.

At first Yoongi believes something is wrong, terribly searching around for an answer as to what was happening. But he soon realizes you glow the same colour as the forest, the forest you always met up with him in.

What was going on?

Yoongi holds your hand and instantly something flashes through his mind, its blurry and unclear but Yoongi sees something and he wonders if somehow his wish had been granted to him.

He sees you, you appear to look different – sporting shorter hair and a darker presence, looking restless as you poke your small nose through a book filled with dates and let out a yawn. You furrow your brows when you write down the very words on a piece of paper with a question mark next it, causing Yoongi to let out a gasp.

First Love?

Yoongi knows, he just knows, that this wasn’t then end.

You were going to come back, and he was going to find you again.

Because for once, he was in control of his own fate.

#yoongi fanfic #bts yoongi fanfic #yoongi fluff #yoongi angst #yoongi smut #bts yoongi #min yoongi #min suga #bts suga #bts suga fanfic #suga fanfic #bts vampire au #bts reincarnation au #yoongi vampire au #yoongi reincarnation au #bts fanfic #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #bts #bangtan #bts scenarios #bts imagines #justimajin

[momisablessing-blog]

7 Habits to Be a Good Mom for Your Little Ones

There might be affiliate hyperlinks on this web page, which means we get a small commission of something you purchase. As an amazon partner we earn from qualifying purchases. Please do your personal studies before making any on line buy. Check: https://mymothersday2020.com/ it is 4 am someplace inside the international…

maybe you're pacing the ground with a fussy toddler? Perhaps you're sitting in a rocking chair breast or bottle feeding? Or are you extensive wide awake because your little one has taken over the sacred sleep area that when belonged to you and your partner? We have all been there. We're mothers. The way to be a better mother. 7 crucial hints on a way to be a good mother... And nonetheless enjoy your personal lifestyles. You can discover ways to be a great mother, a better mom, a satisfied mother, without losing your thoughts. But are we exact moms? If you have to ask the question, you may have doubts. But right here’s the good information…

you can discover ways to be a very good mom. Everybody can. In this text, i am going to offer seven approaches to be an awesome mom… a higher mother… a glad mother. A few i've provide you with by myself. A few i have borrowed from different moms. A few i have researched. ​

what you'll learn [show]

life before being a mother you aren't alone. Whether or not you're modern day to motherhood or had been at it for a while now, one element is real… you have been a girl first. An unbiased, unmarried girl who had no person to answer to. No one's life become in your palms on a day by day basis. You went on dates. You took the time to do your hair and make-up. You went to the health club often. You had a terrific task. You had first-rate friends. You binge-watched tv dramas. You had a existence! But in some unspecified time in the future, you probably made a totally aware selection to turn out to be a mom. And with that, you took in this massive duty. You vowed to preserve your toddler secure. You vowed to love them. You vowed to cherish them. What could likely pass wrong? Take into account that time before you were a mother? Lots. And after nearly 8 years and 4 youngsters, i experience i have got a few correct advice to offer for dealing with this experience referred to as motherhood… and it starts now. I'm able to teach you a way to be an excellent mom… or at the least feel like one. Allow's get began. Habit #1: forget as a minimum half of what your mother taught you did i simply say that? Did i just inform you to push aside the recommendation your mother has undoubtedly tried to offer? Yes. Yes, i did. Now let me clarify. Your mother is a grandmother now. And this is a completely extraordinary ballgame. She's protected all of the bases, literally, when it comes to elevating a infant. You have been that child. However your infant is specific. And no person knows your child higher than you. Duration. Exclamation point! Instances exchange. Your grandmother raised your mom in a completely exclusive world than she raised you. The identical holds actual for elevating your toddler. The fifties brought us to the likes of donna reed. Lucille ball. Barbara billingsley from depart it to beaver. The mothers on those shows have been continually dressed to the nines. Constantly had their hair performed. Dinner changed into on the desk at the identical time each night. They continually smiled. No mom smiles that a good deal. It's kind of scary

there's no ebook on motherhood that could come up with all the answers. And it is good enough. It's ordinary. Consider me. When you have been a toddler, you possibly performed outdoor until dark and disappeared with community pals for hours on give up. Such things as attention deficit disorder and autism weren't mainstream troubles. Pediatricians weren't diagnosing lots of youngsters every 12 months with celiac disease, nut allergies, or lactose intolerance. These problems are very actual and very extreme … these days. How may want to our moms possibly relate? However here's the element… they'll try. Due to the fact they love us, our personal moms will:

upload their 2-cents on the problem. Try extremely hard to attract a correlation between your toddler and you. Key terms like, “you had been the identical manner” or “you probably did the identical aspect” will come up. Lots. Offer tales about a pal's grandchild this is going through the precise equal component. Argue with you to seek a second opinion on certain topics. Attempt to shed a few new light on the subject that perhaps even the professionals have not even figured out but. As i stated, they may strive. And you will be grateful. However being a great mom is essentially reliant on following your instincts. Observe your instincts! Concentrate to the alarms going off on your head pay attention what your child is pronouncing. Observe how your infant is behaving in numerous conditions. Train your self. Be worried. Stand your floor. By no means be afraid to say “thank you, but no thank you” for your mother for her opinion. However always keep an open thoughts. In the end, you turned out good enough. Right? Her advice may just spark some thing interior you that you unnoticed, which could often show up when you're too near a scenario. On the give up of the day, however, the task is yours. You have got this! Addiction #2: use social media as a form of remedy allow's be sincere…

except your process prohibits it, otherwise you live underneath a rock, chances are you've got at least one social media account. Why wouldn't you? Those social media presents top notch avenues for:

sharing news and photographs with own family and pals. Reconnecting with lengthy lost pals. Obtaining facts and pointers. Networking. Organizing occasions. Meeting new people. Stepping into a heated argument about politics or religion. Discussing the brand new traits. Therapy remedy? Yes, therapy. Hear me out. Learn how to be the first-rate mother by means of the usage of social media as a form of therapy. Make social media your ally in motherhood. Capture all the good, the bad, the unpleasant moments. If you're like maximum mothers, you publish limitless pictures of your children doing adorable things. And also you need to. But it is incredibly fake advertising and marketing. Isn't always it? No toddler is glad all the time. And you can't be a glad mother all the time. No matter what the images display, my kids are not:

continuously hugging their siblings. Always volunteering to proportion their toys without a combat. Waking up from their each day nap within the exceptional mood whenever. Waving and smiling at strangers. Sitting contently in a buying cart at the same time as i stroll through the grocery store at a leisurely pace. Laughing all day. Are yours? I'd guess money they're now not. So i'm laying down the gauntlet. Here and now. And a better option to social media is to participate in a single (or a few) of these 88 a laugh sports on your youngsters. These fun activities are a notable way to preserve your children entertained. Alert: motherhood mission! Anything type of day it is you are having, take images of all of it. Regardless of their temper or yours, snatch your telephone or digital camera and capture your toddler:

once they first awaken inside the morning. Ingesting breakfast. Lavatory training. Getting dressed for faculty. Heading out the door. Gambling with a pal. Food buying with you. Coming domestic. Naptime. Time for supper. Bath time. Bedtime. Now post them. The coolest, the horrific and the unsightly. Crying infant picture no toddler or mom is happy all of the time. However seize and treasure those moments. Not handiest will you deliver your followers a glimpse into your “each day”… but you'll examine these images and snicker, cry, smile. Take all of it in. Your children are this age as soon as. You'll not get at the moment again, for better or worse. Time flies. Cling on to those moments. They're the war-scars of motherhood. Embody them. Now breathe. The remarks you get hold of will in all likelihood be extra than simply smiley faces or thumbs up. You may see fewer little tears or mouth open emojis… and greater actual words. Mothers will unite. They'll remark. Lend guide. Percentage their personal tales and pictures. Be inspired! You are not alone. You may experience higher about yourself. A weight will be lifted. Here is what my photograph from the day past could have seemed like:

our three and 4-12 months-olds dozing in-among my husband and me, kicking my face and decrease returned almost continuously from 5-6 am. Our 3 year vintage throwing his water cup and pouring a bowl of yogurt on his head. Our three-yr vintage telling us he didn't should cross poop, then hiding behind a sofa to accomplish that in his diaper. Our 6-year-antique daughter screaming as i tried to sweep her hair before school. Reputedly i'm the worst ever at this. Our 7-12 months-old arguing over the blouse we picked for him to put on to highschool, ensuing in a brief trade earlier than running out the door. Our 3 12 months vintage hitting his sister within the head with a barbie due to the fact he desired to be the mermaid. The 3-yr vintage's tantrum within the grocery save over a cookie i wouldn't allow him have, observed with the aid of a comfort prize of gum to hold him quiet. Eyes have been on me. Said three-year-old falling asleep in the car while on a experience alongside the waterfront. He gave the look of a little angel, slept for 2 hours. Victory! One child wanted fowl for dinner. One desired handiest french fries. No takers on broccoli. Water cups were thrown. One 6-year-vintage yelling at me for in no way making what she likes. They play so pleasant together inside the bath. The laughter warms my heart. Betime bargaining begins. Just one greater show? One greater e-book? Will, you lay with me? The day ends with quiet cuddles with my 7-year-vintage…who's growing too rapid. I will miss these moments. Believe me…

if you made it thru the day, you possess the good traits it takes to be a higher mother. A happy mother. A terrific mom. You will be adequate. Dependancy #three: form a tribe i'm going to credit my expensive pal, kat, for this tip. It's based at the vintage adage of “it takes a village” to raise a infant… and it virtually does. Nowadays, that village is called a tribe. Only some people are willing to assist each other out every time they can. We have got your returned. Currently, i've 3 youngsters antique sufficient to participate in extracurricular sports. Things like taekwondo, soccer, dance, art, piano, scouts. Our calendar has some thing on it every single day of the week… however sometimes we bypass an afternoon or two. Don't choose me. If it weren't for my tribe… i would likely must bypass greater than that. What? Deprive my baby of some thing he or she may additionally excel at? Sorry, however sure. I'm able to simplest achieve this a lot. I'm now not perfect. The tribe gathers weekly to assist every different out – on the whole with carpooling and babysitting. Playdates are an advantage. One much less child to manipulate, even for just a little whilst, can make a mother sense like she's received the chore lottery. Ahh… i see a further load of laundry in your future. Or possibly a quiet shopping trip to buy new denims in peace. Fortunate you! Whilst thinking about forming your personal tribe… start with one easy query. Who do i trust with my children? My tribe consists of:

a handful of close buddies own family pals 1-3 “mothers helpers” or babysitters a small social community of like-minded mothers these humans may be known as upon, now and again on very short notice, that will help you out. Think of them as nine-1-1 responders for “momergencies”. See what i did there? You don't ought to do it all alone. With a bit of luck, you have a spouse or great other who's palms-on. That really takes a number of the burden off. Or maybe you're a unmarried mom… who i'm able to now forestall to applaud. Being a unmarried mother is one of the toughest matters all of us ever signed up for. You deserve all the reward inside the global! And you also deserve a tribe maybe extra than each person else. There is no shame in inquiring for help. Surround your self with the pleasant… and you'll be at your fine in your children. Habit #4: socialize like a child what if i were to inform you there has been a way on the way to be a terrific mom and nevertheless get your weekly exercising in, explore your inventive aspect, volunteer for a neighborhood charity, listen to live music, see a film, rock climb,  enjoy a cup of coffee and proper communication with grown-ups? And what if i were to inform you this could all be accomplished along with your kids in tow? Might you trust me? You must trust me. Proper mom creed. Preserve this in mind when times together with your kids get difficult precise mother creed one of the first-class methods to be a better mom is to have a few flexibility on your day. And one of the high-quality approaches to be an amazing mother is to incorporate a laugh sports for you and your infant into each and each day… even though only for an hour or . The household stuff can wait. Existence is short. Youth is fast! Pencil in time along with your child, just as you'll a purchaser assembly or cooking dinner. And if you actually need to make the maximum out of that hour, time table something you may each enjoy. Concentrate to your inner baby! There are such a lot of “mommy and me” sports at our disposal these days, it would be a shame not to attempt them out. Adventure is waiting! There's something for absolutely everyone and every age. You simply want to find them. Start through turning to the web. Here's a terrific listing of ideas put together by way of author, melina gerosa bellows, 21 approaches to revel in being a mother. Or maybe you need to study something new. Here are a number of my favored matters:

1. Go to a trampoline park or roller skating rink you'll burn lots of calories… and your children will tire themselves out! It's a win-win! Simply go away your inhibitions at the door. 2. Take a look at out a paint your own pottery or canvas region a number of these places have unique “mommy and me” or “infant time” every day, in which you would possibly meet other moms. Even though they don't offer this, all of them have open studio hours, where you could cross at your leisure and unleash your internal artist. Discover ways to be a good mom and a way to balance being a spouse and mother on this manual. Discover “mommy and me” activities for your vicinity and revel in the day! Three. Volunteer together with your baby visit dosomething. Org or  mommypoppins. Com and notice which kid-pleasant activities hobby you. If you have an older baby, speak your options, making them experience liable for their time. Instilling precise traits in our children at an early age will maximum in reality bring about them becoming altruistic and empathetic adults. Our international wishes more suitable humans. 4. Concentrate to tune inside the park as the weather receives hotter, many towns offer outdoor song. The nice element? It is normally unfastened. Those circle of relatives-friendly concert events are a super way to expose your child to tune other than kidz bop or the wiggles.

​now not that there is something incorrect with those… i surely quite like the wiggles. But variety is the spice of existence, and a well-rounded toddler is an thrilling one. Now not to mention, you may just get to relive your glory days as a unmarried woman belting out some 80s or 90s classics together with your girlfriends. 5. Find a pressure-in or out of doors movie venue hop within the automobile with the circle of relatives and cross. Whilst the power-ins may be a bit tough to return by way of nowadays, less expensive (now and again unfastened) out of doors films are popping up like daisies all over the us of a… particularly in the course of the summer time. Similarly to the plain attraction of looking a movie from the comfort of your very own automobile, or on a seashore, your kids are allowed to talk! In truth, it is expected. And bonus: you do not must worry approximately crouching down low when heading out for one among probably numerous lavatory breaks. 6. Locate an indoor rock climbing gym the benefits to be had from mountaineering have it rapid becoming a famous activity, for each adults and children alike. The power conditioning, especially for the top frame, is unprecedented for some thing so a laugh. And then you have the mental thing, pushing your self past your limits till you attain the top. It's a splendid lesson in in no way giving up… for each you and your youngsters. In case you do not have tons of time to investigate, or are not sure what you'd be into precisely, contemplate joining a neighborhood “mothers group”. They normally have new member conferences at least as soon as a month, which might be regularly just casual get-togethers over coffee, where they go over their listing of activities. Whether or not you join or not, you are bound to get a few fresh thoughts and maybe even make a chum or . Suppose tribe! An energetic and nicely-rounded mother makes a glad mother. A glad mother is a great mom. And happiness is contagious. Allow your youngsters see you satisfied. Dependancy #5: positioned a few personal time at the agenda humorous mother's day cool animated film mother mother exact mother proper mom #mom #motherhood #goodmother #habits #selfhelp #selfcare #parenting #figure #parents #quotes #funny this turned into always one in every of my favourite cartoons… because it's genuine. Motherhood is a 24/7 task. There aren't any ill days, no holiday days, no extra time pay, no lunch breaks. It's miles a exertions of love. And it can be thankless. As supportive as your partner or childless pals may try to be in relation to your daily habitual… they can by no means genuinely recognize till they enjoy it. And to be honest, the bond among a mom and her toddler does not examine to that of a father and baby. It simply would not. Ask yourself…

while my child is sick, who do they want? While my baby has a nightmare, who do they run to? When my child is hungry, who do they ask to lead them to something while my infant can't discover their preferred shirt, who knows where to appearance? Possibilities are, your answer to all of those questions is “mother”. Unless you aren't around, the answer is “mother”. It is the fact. As i grew older and became a mother for the primary time, it hit me… dads are type of like alternative teachers. While mom is not available (which is sort of never), they're a great alternative! They may be succesful and charming. They may be truely fun and lenient. They have got this… if they ought to. Till mom comes again. Now…

one in all two things goes via your head at this very moment. I've bowled over and offended you… so that you're going to forestall reading i have given you a terrific snort… and you feel just a wee bit responsible for it my money is on #2. Don't get me incorrect…

i like my husband. He's an brilliant father and really concerned with the kids. My children adore their father. He makes them sense safe and they appreciate him. Discover ways to be an excellent mother and how to be an excellent dad and mom. Dads are form of like alternative instructors. They may be certainly a laugh and lenient. They've got this… if they ought to. Till mother comes lower back. In truth, i'm regularly jealous that he gets to do more of the amusing matters with them. He receives to return home from work and roll round at the ground with our sons, play dolls with our daughters, instruct their soccer group…. He is achieved with work for the day and is all about them. It is exquisite. Virtually. The laughter in the house whilst my husband gets home is track to my ears… and makes doing my “task” a touch less difficult. Nonetheless, i wouldn't mind switching locations from time to time. Would you? In the end, being a great mother approach that you are by no means definitely “off the clock”. You still need to get dinner on the desk, pick up toys, do the dishes, fold one extra load of laundry… all earlier than putting them to mattress. It is laborious. You're exhausted. You deserve a break. And you shouldn't sense responsible for inquiring for one. Flip in your partner, your companion, your mother, a pal, a neighbor… your tribe. Ask them to watch the children for a couple of hours so you can try out a yoga class, have dinner with a chum, walk across the mall and window shop, move for a motorbike ride, take a sleep. Or simply sit down on a park bench and play sweet crush. It doesn't remember what you do, simply go. A part of getting to know the way to be an amazing mother is knowing that you want a smash. A brief break from your kids doesn't suggest you like them any much less. In truth, it is due to the fact you love them that you need a smash. Run! I'm critical. Perhaps you want to head for a run? You could laugh. That became funny. You want to recharge your batteries. Go into your head and close the whole lot off for just some time. Or as a minimum attempt to. Taking care of your thoughts and frame will make you a better mom. Mediation and relaxation are first rate ways to retain recognition and center your self. It enables placed matters into perspective. If you're uncertain of the way to do that, or simply leery, try any such great apps you could get to your smartphone. They may be positive to help you get into the proper kingdom of mind. Mental clarity ends in making better choices. It is as simple as that. And exercising is tested to raise your temper, fight infection, and improve sleep… among other matters. The endorphins will preserve you going for hours! In case you do not accept as true with me, take a look at this out… however come again! We are almost finished here. The advantages of mediation and workout will depart your feeling organized for anything motherhood throws your way that day. I assure it. Plus, you will be a happier mother whilst you go back domestic… and this is something your children (and partner) will admire. Habit #6: time table a “date night” before the youngsters… there has been courtship. Swooning. Past due night time conversations. Quiet food in fancy eating places. This was dating. You loved it. In truth, you cherished it so much that you met a person to have a infant with. And if you have been fortunate sufficient to really marry that man or woman, the children are a reminder of that love each and every day. But here's the twist. You need to sustain that love. Striking onto the reminiscence of love and a laugh times collectively is not enough. You want to certainly display your spouse, each day, which you love him. You loved him first. Every so often it is easy to get stuck up within the beautiful chaos this is raising children. But you can not wander away in it. You loved him first. You still love him. Research have shown that kids raised in a domestic with two loving parents advantage appreciably from this. A few of the many advantages of developing up in a two-figure family, your kids may have a better chance of forming successful relationships in their own at some point of their life… each for my part and professionally. Part of getting to know the way to be a terrific mother is showing your children that they have  loving mother and father. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up within the stunning chaos this is elevating kids. You need to clearly show your spouse, every day, that you love him. Moves communicate louder than words. Kids, specially younger ones, are more likely to bear in mind “snapshots” from their early adolescence than phrases. If they see you and your partner being affectionate and worrying towards one another, they may deliver that with them. They may feel safe and loved because of the way you have interaction with every different. Display them which you are excellent buddies. Now inform them that you're going on a playdate with each different. Kids can relate. Begin slow:

placed one “date night time” in keeping with month at the calendar, however do at least 3 months at a time so that you're not inclined to bypass it the next month (if you can pull off two times a month… you move, woman!). Relaxed a babysitter for all of those nights proper away

take turns making plans the date together with your spouse, leave a laugh recommendations or clues to make it a surprise

do no longer check your cellphone on the date, set it to do no longer disturb. Only the babysitter wishes to recognise in which you're in case of emergency and might name the actual venue if want be. Do one spontaneous issue on the date

do no longer communicate approximately the youngsters as soon as the date has commenced. If you feel the urge, speak them within the vehicle or uber earlier than you get to wherein you are going. Reminisce. The point of date night is to recall why it's miles you fell in love… and to test in with each other so that the affection does not wander off within the aggravating daily. The youngsters will nevertheless be there whilst you get domestic. Dependancy #7: it's ok to have a bad “mother” day you are the first teacher your baby has. Lead by using instance. You can not always succeed, but do your exceptional to:

in no way argue with a cherished one in the front of the youngsters. Communicate in your children like you'll an person (is reasonably). Be affectionate. Yell constructively. Never go to mattress disillusioned. Spend a few minutes unwinding every night. There are days while you may succeed in doing all of this stuff. There are days you will not. Similar to a terrible “hair” day, you will have bad “mom” days… and it is good enough. Do not beat your self up. Nobody is ideal. Mother overwhelm quote awful day does not  identical a awful mom sensible phrases to do not forget whilst motherhood receives difficult just like a awful “hair” day, you will have terrible “mom” days… and it's ok. However we will all aspire to be “flawlessly imperfect”. This essentially approach spotting while you're wrong and doing all of your best to accurate it. Positive, you could bicker together with your accomplice in the front of the kids. But, there's usually a manner to hold it friendly and productive. In our residence, if my husband and that i are caught having a silly argument, we make it a factor to give an explanation for to our kids why each of us is upset and draw a assessment to some thing they can relate to. Here's an instance…

me: “mommy is aggravated at daddy due to the fact he left me with one square of lavatory paper rather than converting the roll.”

husband: “daddy failed to need to waste the bathroom paper.”

me: “consider your brother drank a big glass of orange juice and handiest left sufficient so that it will have one sip. Might you be dissatisfied?”

toddler: “sure”. Me: “but you will forgive him due to the fact he didn't understand how an awful lot become left. He became simply filling his glass up due to the fact he was thirsty. He wasn't looking to be suggest.”

this easy speak, comparing what we have been dissatisfied about to some thing our toddler can recognize, is a good way to let them know that mommy and daddy will be high-quality. The whole lot is excellent. Regardless of how rough a day has been, you can in no way hug and kiss your baby too much. Real presentations of love lead to well-rounded youngsters with more shallowness. According to an editorial from figure co., affection can cross a whole lot in addition than yelling when seeking to get through in your child. Plus, it simply plain feels suitable. There may be a time and vicinity for the whole lot. And there will be instances you'll need to yell at your toddler… when hugs just may not do. Newsflash! Yelling does not make you a bad mother. The use of demeaning language does. A part of learning how to be a great mother is understanding that yelling does no longer make you a awful mom. There could be times you are going to should yell at your child. That does not make you a terrible mom. But the use of demeaning language does. Phrases can harm. They may be also harder to forget about, that's why you need to pick them carefully while scolding a infant. Glaringly, if your little one is about to run into the street, you must yell first! Then hug them. Once you've got all calmed down, provide an explanation for to them that there are very critical effects available from strolling into the street. What if a vehicle have been coming? In case your infant smacks any other child within the face, it is perfectly appropriate to raise your voice and say, “no!” then possibly put them in “time out” – whether or not that be a chair or a corner, their room, and so on…. However, if your toddler throws his food at the ground throughout dinner, this can not warrant yelling as a whole lot as a stern appearance and, “no greater food for you this night.”

risk! In case you threaten your child with a punishment… be organized to commit to that punishment if they don't heed your warning. Sticking through your words is a huge play in the motherhood game. You do not want your youngsters now not to take you severely whilst the time comes. Empty threats may want to actually backfire, mainly as they get older. You may lose credibility after which probably become frustrated. Frustration can cause pronouncing belongings you don't imply. Tread gently. Whether or not you're yelling, or just threatening punishment, there's a manner to be positive about it. Each time i've yelled at my youngsters, i made a factor to go returned as soon as i'm calm and give an explanation for to them why i used to be so upset and lost my mood. There may be technique in your madness. When scolding a infant, d​​​​o use phrases and terms like:

no! Forestall! Why did you do this? Do not do this! What are you doing? How ought to you? What had been you questioning? Don't use words and phrases like:

that became stupid! You are stupid! Are you an idiot? I cannot stand you! I'm so tired of you! You are the worst! You may be questioning that you'd by no means say these things to a baby, however rage can be a elaborate issue. Do not maintain your emotions bottled up! Think about the sound a tea kettle makes while the water is beginning to boil. Imagine that is you preserving in your anger, your blood stress rising. Feelings can sneak up on you. So make it a factor to talk your feelings constructively before it receives to the point where you are saying some thing you regret. Learn how to be a happy mom and a way to be an awesome mom. Do no longer maintain your emotions bottled up! Feelings can sneak up on you. By no means go to mattress angry! One of the maximum important matters you can do to turn a terrible day round is to make amends earlier than bed. Make their bedroom a “no negativity area”. Talk flippantly and undoubtedly together with your infant. Toughen one true component that came about to you, or something exceptional that they did, at some point of the day. Locate the silver lining in a difficult day. Smother them with hugs and kisses, wish them candy dreams. Inform them you adore them. Usually. Then take a stroll in your favourite room inside the residence, have a seat, and unwind. Perhaps which means beginning a book you have been trying to finish. Maybe it is having a tumbler of wine and a chunk of chocolate along with your husband. Maybe it is checking your fb web page. Maybe it's catching up on a display you've had dvr'd for weeks. Anything you want to do to relaxation, mirror and recharge. Tomorrow is some other day. Giving a proper good-bye to this one earlier than mattress will result in a higher night's sleep… and a higher night time's sleep will make you a better mom. A glad mother. A terrific mother. A mom who wakes up inside the morning with a smile on her face, confident she's prepared to tackle the day! You have got this! However earlier than i go away you…

mark my words: you already know the way to be a good mom! A massive part of it's miles following your instincts. And, of route, loving your infant unconditionally facilitates. However in case you keep those 7 habits tucked away on your brain, you may be armed with all which you need to stand something comes. Afterall… motherhood, like existence, is unpredictable. What works for you one day, may not the following. Routines exchange, people exchange, conditions trade. Just roll with it! Consider in yourself. Make use of the net sources available to you. Ask for assist. Make time for a touch a laugh. Make time for yourself. Reward your self. Make time for romance. Allow your self off the hook whilst matters don’t pass as deliberate. Motherhood is an experience in contrast to any other. And even as you chose this route… realize that it also selected you. The sooner you permit your self to accept the best with the bad, the sooner you may start to sense like a better mom. The minute you let pass of any negativity or guilt, you will become a satisfied mom. Realize your limitations. Permit your self to be human, fallible. Study from every day. This is the way to be a good mother. What do you believe you studied it takes to be a great mother? ​so what are your thoughts at the conduct had to be an excellent mother? Do you accept as true with this listing, or disagree? What are your favorite conduct of motherhood?

#mom

[kirinda-ondo]

So I have some thoughts and feelings about Vishnal Rune Factory

I am aware that approximately two other people besides me care about this, but literally when has it ever stopped me from rambling at length

So basically, I love Vishnal from Rune Factory 4. Like, a lot. I never commit to anyone in farm sims but boy howdy, he managed to hit literally all the criteria I have to be considered a Favorite Character™. He did it so well, in fact, he’s earned a spot alongside characters like Cobalt or Lydia. But like those characters, while there are people who like him, I feel as though he doesn’t get enough credit. The complaints I’ve seen tend to be that he’s boring and that he has the worst proposal event. Hell, one of the first few results from googling him is a thread asking if he’s supposed to be a joke character. While I can see where this sentiment might come from, I’d like to explain the appeal in a lot of the things people find fault in him for (at least for me), and maybe offer a bit of a different perspective, I guess.

If I had to guess where a lot of these problems that people have with him come from, it’s probably the fact that he doesn’t have a lot of lore behind him. To be honest, Vishnal doesn’t really have a whole lot of plot significance. He doesn’t have any direct connection to the capitol of Norad like Arthur or Kiel (via his sister Forte), he’s got nothing to do with the Sechs empire like Doug, and he’s not a guardian like Dylas and Leon. Vishnal, despite working in a castle and serving Ventuswill (who we shall henceforth refer to as Venti), a literal dragon god, is an everyman by comparison. He’s just a guy trying to do his job the best he can.

Similarly, he also doesn’t have a whole lot of mystery or drama behind him either. With pretty much every other bachelor, there’s usually some kind of dark secret from their past that comes up and has to be dealt with, either through the main plot or through their proposal events. To just give you an idea of the kind of things we’re dealing with here, let’s do a rundown.

Doug’s entire tribe was killed by Sechs soldiers, but the empire fed him propaganda to make him believe that Venti was responsible so that he would work undercover for them in order to kill her and take the Rune Spheres.

Arthur was an illegitimate child of Norad’s king and believes that his mother hated him so much she had to take off her glasses so that she didn’t have to look at him, causing him to have severe trust issues (as well as a glasses fetish? Have fun with that, Freud).

Kiel (and by extension, his sister) is trapped in a well-meaning, but incredibly fucked up family dynamic that forced him to be incredibly sheltered while Forte took on the duties of a knight in a heavily male dominated society to protect him. However, since both of their parents are dead, they have no idea that they’re allowed to free themselves and become their own people.

Dylas sacrificed himself to become a guardian, fusing with a monster in order to act as a living life support to help keep Venti alive, but when he’s finally free, he’s hundreds of years into the future, where everything he knows is gone. It’s also implied that before he became a guardian, he was suicidal.

Leon, like Dylas, also sacrificed himself to become a guardian and was flung far into the future. However, he also has the added guilt of believing he left his childhood friend to live the rest of her life emotionally stunted because when he was younger, he made a promise to marry her if she stopped crying so much, but didn’t take it seriously as she did, and couldn’t have kept it even if he did.

Meanwhile, Vishnal has had an utterly average life. In order to help people, he wanted to become a doctor like his father, but felt he wasn’t smart enough, so when he met a butler named Sebastian, he was so impressed he decided to become a butler himself. Though he was worried his father wouldn’t approve of this way of helping people, he was ultimately supportive, helping him train and, through a friend’s connections, getting him to Selphia to work under Volkanon.

Vishnal is basically Clark from Connecticut in terms of how average he is by comparison. However, I wouldn’t say this is a bad thing. Even dealing with one of these traumatic backstories is a lot, let alone trying to harem them all (and don’t even get me started on the main plot’s drama). A lot of the resolutions to these character arcs are followed up by a proposal, and maybe it’s just my age and personal experiences (or the fact that I’m aroace), but when that happens, I don’t get the feeling of “YES, TAKE ME NOW!” I just think “…You literally just found out the thing that’s been screwing you up your entire life was a giant misunderstanding. I get that you’re happy but like, maybe take some time to sort yourself out? See a therapist maybe???”

But Vishnal, for all of his faults (of which there are many and I will get to that later), generally has his shit together. I respect that and find it a breath of fresh air compared to the cavalcade of angst in everyone else’s lives. Not to say that he doesn’t have any problems at all, because then that would be boring, but they tend to be more focused in the present, and are a bit more grounded in reality and less… spectacular. But like I said, we’ll get to that.

What he lacks in terms of dramatic backstory, he makes up for in personality. He’s very… intense, to put it mildly. While not completely hyper, he’s very high energy and it doesn’t take much to get him psyched up. He’s the type of person to put at least 110% effort in everything he does, and nearly everything he does goes towards his goal of becoming the world’s best butler. Unfortunately, as a result, he’s considered one-note. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say he doesn’t talk about butler things all the time, because he absolutely does, but for me, as someone who also tends to get super into things and talk about them endlessly (hence this entire ramble), I find him pretty endearing, if not a tad relatable in that regard. However, for all his single-mindedness, he is still a decently multifaceted character.

Probably the most important thing to note here is that he is a very good person, like “too good for this sinful earth” kind of good. He has a natural drive to help others and doesn’t have a mean word to say about anyone (though even he engages in the ultimate Selphian pastime of Teasing Doug™ on occasion). He’s also honest to a fault. It’s incredibly easy to tell if he’s trying to cover something up because he’s usually pretty much an open book and wears his heart on his sleeve. He seems to expect others to be the same way, as he has a bad habit of taking what people say at face value even if they’ve repeatedly shown not to be trustworthy. This often leads him to be the butt of many a joke or the victim of scams. Other times, lighthearted teasing falls flat as he takes it seriously and winds up getting his feelings hurt. But ever the optimist, he doesn’t let setbacks get him down for long.

He very much believes in the power of hard work overcoming any obstacle, and it seems in his mind, literally anything is possible if you train hard enough, and he’s constantly trying to prepare himself to master every possible scenario, from protecting important secrets by staying silent to becoming invincible to the common cold by constantly being soaked with water. It generally winds up doing him more harm than good, and even Doug worries about him a little bit because Vishnal will do pretty much anything if you tell him it’s special training (though this does not even remotely stop Doug from having a field day with it). Were this not a very “anime” kind of game, it would honestly be amazing if he hadn’t died from any of his training attempts.

Though it may come across as though he has no idea what is actually possible for a human to achieve, he actually seems to have quite a few hangups about his own limitations. He has a massive perfectionist complex and is incredibly hard on himself. He tends to beat himself up quite a bit when he makes mistakes (I mean the man looks utterly devastated every time he screws up lunch) and outright warns the player (who we shall henceforth refer to as Frey) that he may cause her trouble. However, he’s not quite as terrible as he might imply. While he is gullible and very much a klutz, he’s got a wide variety of skills and knowledge he rarely gives himself credit for. For instance, he’s not exactly street smart by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s well-read to a degree that he can actually read things from Arthur’s library (which says a lot because Arthur is a colossal nerd), and he’s knowledgeable on a number of subjects from farming to geography. On the lake date (when it’s not summer), you have the option to ask him more about the kind of training he would do, and he rattles off a list of insane skills (I.e. making tea so good as to become its own singularity…singularitea, if you will) like it’s no big deal. Mind you, given what someone like Volkanon is capable of, that may just be par for the course as far as butlers go in this universe, but for your average person, that’s honestly impressive, if not a bit terrifying.

His confidence (or lack thereof), however, tends to reflect in the quality of his work. In a small example, every so often, he offers Frey his attempt at curry rice. It’s hot garbage, but if she tells him it’s good, he admits he wasn’t very confident in it. However, we see in his prerequisite event (which is a much more overt example) that when he’s more confident in himself, he’s not only able to make actual food, but is downright hypercompetent in his job. For context, he is conned into buying an overpriced statue that, according to blacksmith and Professional Vishnal Scammer™ Bado, will allegedly make him an expert overnight. Wholly believing in this thing, he’s suddenly amazing… until he accidentally knocks it over and breaks it. Utterly devastated and unconvinced that his improved performance came from within, he’s suddenly infinitely worse than he was when he started. Things of course balance themselves out, but we come away realizing that if he had as much self-confidence as he did pure determination, he could easily reach a point where he’d be absolutely unstoppable.

We also see this lack of confidence manifest itself in regards to Frey. If she pursues a relationship, we get quite a bit of evidence that he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. Before he formally asks her out, he lists all the things he does wrong; all the ways he’s a novice, essentially warning her of what she may have to deal with. However, if Frey’s conquered the RNG and made it this far, then it’s safe to say that she’s prepared to take the risk. On the airship date, he outright says once he becomes an expert, he’ll finally be the perfect man for her. Even during his own damn proposal event, he tells her he’s unreliable. This is incredibly far from the case, as even if he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, he’s doing everything he can to make this work. He works himself even harder to maximize his time with her, he buys (phony) charms from Bado to keep them together, he asks other bachelors for advice (as poor is it may be at times), he literally asks the entire town for date spot reviews, as well as just straight up reading up on how to be the best possible boyfriend.

Eventually, should the RNG gods be smiling, this brings us to the proposal event. Now, one might imagine that this event might follow the thread we’ve been building up here into him learning maybe not to beat himself up so much or becoming a little more self-confident, but no. While this sort of thing happens for a number of other bachelors/bachelorettes, where their prerequisite events foreshadow what’s to come in their proposal events, that isn’t quite the case here. While that development does occur to a degree, it’s a bit more subtle and is not really the focus of this event.

His proposal event instead mainly forces him to consider his priorities. So for some context, a butler judge has come, and if Vishnal does well, he may finally earn his first star and be one step closer to being the ultimate butler. In fact, his abilities are already recognized as worthy of the title, but there’s just once teensy little problem. You see, in butlerdom, your master and your partner being one in the same is a bit of a taboo. Dating your boss creates a whole host of problems, after all; not just for you, but your reputation. And so this is where the conundrum comes in. We already know he’s incredibly dedicated to this career choice to the point that if he doesn’t succeed, he will literally die trying, but he’s now just as dedicated to Frey. Being that this is a proposal event though, you pretty much already know how this is going to end, but just hear me out.

This is currently the biggest decision he’s ever made in his life, and is essentially the emotional equivalent of having to choose between losing your right hand or your left. He obviously doesn’t want to throw away years of hard work, but he’s also not the type to just leave someone behind in pursuit of his own interests. Frey ultimately saves him from waffling back and forth about it forever by breaking things off so he can pursue his dreams, but literally no one is happy with this. Even the judge feels bad and he’s the one who started it. But with this little problem out of the way, Vishnal is free to accept his new rank. Except he doesn’t. After a dramatic, heartfelt speech pointing out that this actually puts him in a better position to serve Frey, and how reputations shouldn’t matter more than protecting the person you’re entrusted to, he whisks her away and proposes. Before she can properly answer though, he’s called back to the castle. In the end, the judge is moved by his dedication, and so Vishnal can now have his cake and eat it too. Short, sweet, and to the point.

It’s probably about half the length of the other bachelors’ events, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. It’s actually a pretty nice contrast between the other proposals. Leon, Arthur, and Kiel have the common thread of having to sort out baggage from their past before they decide to marry. Doug and Dylas, while their events are more lighthearted, are a bit more focused on a lack of communication and resulting misunderstandings that come from trying to surprise Frey with a ring. However, because Vishnal’s life isn’t a veritable conga line of angst and trauma, his obstacle to marriage is entirely in the present, and because he’s so open about his feelings, he and Frey actually have a chance to sit down and discuss where to go from here, so there’s no communication issues. Plus, his situation, while a bit dramatically handled because anime, is actually kind of relatable. Having to choose between a career and a relationship is a situation that happens to a pretty good number of people, and it’s rarely an easy decision. It’s a logical conflict for such a work focused character.

While it doesn’t really overtly follow up on the initial thread that seemed to have been laid out of him learning to be more confident in himself, the transition is definitely there, at least in regards to Frey. It’s just not quite as spelled out in events. Even in his proposal, he’s still self-deprecating, but it’s a far cry from the absolute list of faults he gave initially asking her out. Not to mention, it absolutely takes a whole lot of courage to one, choose love over your life’s dream, and two, to do it in the incredibly dramatic and utterly obliterating manner that he did. The relationship also changes some post-marriage. Post-marriage Vishnal is a much different beast than pre-marriage Vishnal. As we’ve discussed, in the dating phase, he’s a lot less sure of how boyfriend things work, and resorts to asking others for advice and outright studying. Now that he’s married, he’s less reliant on others and is much more forward. He actually tends to be the one to initiate romantic gestures, from goodnight kisses to using his own sappy lines as opposed to borrowing them from Leon, among other things. Truly a far cry from the days where he would agonize over whether or not to even hold Frey’s hand. Sadly, while date dialogue doesn’t really change (with the exception of the room date, where he literally states he’s past being shy and awkward), there’s definitely a more visible shift in the focus of his other dialogue from being even good enough for Frey to being more protective. Jury’s still out on how much this development has affected his work performance, as there’s no real new mentions of it after the fact (though after marriage he is finally capable of making edible curry rice…sometimes!), but at least some degree of his self-esteem is improving.

So basically, to summarize, Vishnal isn’t a bad character. He’s just handled differently than the other bachelors. He’s a bit more grounded in reality as far as his backstory and conflicts are concerned. His development also tends to happen outside of his events rather than being the feature, making it a bit more subtle, and thus a bit harder to spot from a glance, but it’s there. For as much fun as he is as a character, I admit he’s definitely very tame compared to the other bachelor options, even despite the localizers’ attempts to make him spicier, so he’s not for everyone. I can see why others might prefer someone a little more exciting or mysterious, like Leon (who seems to be like, god tier as far as RF4 bachelors go), but I hope I’ve at least adequately explained why Vishnal might be appealing to some and has more merit than just a joke character. After all, vanilla is a flavor too, and plenty of people like that.

Anyhoo, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#kateh rambles #i know readmores don't usually work on mobile so like RIP to your dash i guess #long post #kateh's rf4 tag

[knightofwalpvrgis]

Here’s my much more controversial take on the nature of Harry Potter criticism (hatred), and how it’s come to affect the Fantastic Beasts series.

As I’ve said, I noticed something particularly forced about the nature of the negativity surrounding FB1 back in 2016 - forced hit-pieces that criticize the film but apparently barely comprehended it...regurgitations of the plot not accurately depicting the film at all, showing a lack of attention and active listening among certain audience members. It was insulting, and people kept on looking for excuses to consider the film a disappointment despite the good reviews from the audience and fans, and the good box office performance, not to mention the esteemed accolades from the Academy and BAFTA.

The criticism for FB2 seems motivated by personal feelings based on certain plot points, the same lack of active listening and a determination to blame the film for your lack of superficial enjoyment or comprehension, and determined negativity in the face of completely unwarranted controversy and a bro-y, anti-intelligent rejection of the complexity and thematic maturity of the story. And the latter part is something Harry Potter has always struggled with.

People don’t like dark, thoughtful films in the US. Everything either has to have tons of action and/or tons of humor. Blockbuster four-quadrants even in the eyes of critics, “shouldn’t take themselves too seriously”...and when they do, that’s grounds for panning? For vicious insults? And insinuations that, in fact, it isn’t the film that’s too cerebral for them. It’s the audience that is too cerebral for the film.

But dare you express this sentiment, and you’re simply met with exclamations of “pretentiousness!” and arrogance...which is, of course, ironic and hypocritical.

My point is, I don’t want to see Rowling sell out. Of course there’s allowed to be difference in opinion and we should consider the flaws of every piece, but the Fantastic Beasts films arrived with a seething, unwarranted, determined underbelly of hatred to begin with, and that makes it hard to stomach some of the “criticism” it’s faced and consider it legitimate or professional. Alongside the usual absurd, meaningless imputations of “greed” (yes, every film is essentially a “cash grab”...stop using that buzzword guys, it means nothing) the biggest, most ridiculous criticism I see comes from people who really don’t want to let their condescension of this series go. They still want to treat it like it’s a lighthearted kids series despite that fact that 1) it’s not 2) it hasn’t been for kids in quite a while, for the majority of its run, and has always been quite dark and 3) Fantastic Beasts 1, to prove this, played to an audience of 65% over 25 year olds. FB2 played to an audience of nearly 70% over 25 year olds. And there’s minimal marketing to kids, yet people keep acting like it’s a franchise for kids.

That box office breakdown? The Nicholas Barber and Dani Di Placido reviews who’s entire critique revolves around “it’s too dark for a kids film!”, that go back to Harry Potter era when, film after film, people complained in reviews that it “was darker than any children’s film had the right to be”...the Dana Schwartz tweets and articles that indicate the perfect problem that these types of audiences face as the Fantastic Beasts series progresses...there are adults at the center of these films. They’re actually dark. They’re not child friendly. They’re hardly even marketed as a family film and they play at the box office like adult blockbusters, and in a sense, they are adult fantasies, and that sensibility stretches back to the Harry Potter series.

People like Dana Schwartz LOVE to write articles about how “Harry Potter is only good for small-scale escapism”, and this, in my opinion, is indicative of the problem facing audiences now...they’re forced to realize that in their determination to believe Harry Potter is lighthearted and for kids, they’ve ignored the fact that it is neither lighthearted NOR appropriate for young children. It was a series for teens and this new series is an extension from that original audience. Audiences have spent so long being enchanted by the Harry Potter series for very superficial reasons that have almost nothing to do with the characters or the plot. But they won’t ever admit to that. In their determination to see HP as cozy and quaint and child-friendly, they’ve mentally edited out, censored, and sanitized everything that makes the original series dark and adult...creating a warped, rose-tinted, shallow, conflict-less version of the original story that barely resembles the story. It resembles the version of the story that’s most friendly to their belief that it’s for kids. But, AGAIN, it’s not.

And so we get these warped, confused reactions to the Fantastic Beasts series full of people who are incapable of following a novelistic plot like they did while “reading” (but mostly only watching, and not fully comprehending) the original series. Expectations going into these movies are for lighthearted and kid-friendly content that these films don’t deliver...because Rowling doesn’t write lighthearted and kid-friendly content, for the most part. You have a maddening variety of reactions that mostly consist of: people who selectively attend to the few bits and sequences of lightheartedness and mild humor to keep that rose-tinted, child-friendly view in tact, coming out with a vastly incomplete and inadequate understanding of the plot. Then you have the same people who insist the film is “tonally jumbled” because they expected lightheartedness, and instead got thematic heaviness, darkness, violence, and melancholy, which interferes with their expectations and wants. Then you have the people that complain that the series is “too grimdark”. And because of the thematic riskiness and adult nature of the material, you have people attacking Rowling for being “problematic”, viciously attempting to outsmart her and make her look stupid, and arrogant, inaccurate interpretations of her stories to try to fit a pre-determined criticism.

All in all, I cringe at the idea of the GA and certain critics forcing something like Rowling’s Wizarding World into the space of WB’s new DC franchise. These stories have such depth, detail, and intelligence that people refuse to acknowledge and credit them with, and frankly, Rowling deserves way better than that. I think Rowling should pull this brand away and keep it in literature. Do the theme parks even need to stay open? Force people to read a book. Call off the merchandising, the video games, the films, just write books. Write Fantastic Beasts as a novel series and don’t even allow WB or anyone else to adapt it into films, because the blockbuster GA and the armchair critics should be forced to form another pathway in their brains, and actually invest in a novel. Instead of distracting themselves with silly excuses and endeavors, and reasons to characterize Harry Potter and further Rowling stories as blockbuster schlop along the lines of a superhero series.

To the silly, condescending assholes saying this franchise takes itself too seriously: it’s a series based off of Rowling’s experiences with death, poverty, depression, and abuse, and all of her written works deal with analogues and themes that she feels passionately about. She’s not a corporate filmmaker like George Lucas. And she shouldn’t put up with the abuse, the ignorance, the determined hatred, and the condescension for one second. This is an urban fantasy story about WW2. I suppose Rowling was mistaken for thinking that an audience that still believes her work to be for kids would ever stomach that.

TLDR; I’m aware of the main criticism regarding the film and it’s plot, but my issue came from the over-inflated negativity that’s come at this film for a rather small reason. Because even negative reviewers of the film said that the film was well made. And so my issue lies here: The film, in terms of direction, cinematography, design, acting, score, theme, and world-building has been praised consistently by esteemed critics. And yet we’re calling the film “the worst film of the year”, wishing the franchise ruin, and determinedly construing BO numbers negatively and giving it bad publicity for reasons like 1) “I hate Johnny Depp/J.K. Rowling/David Yates” 2) “I don’t like that the story went this way and did this with these characters” 3) “it was boring/convoluted/too plot-heavy” 4) “it’s too dark”

One of the most egregious RT certified examples:

“The film acted as a kind of reverse-Mirror of Erised - showing me exactly everything that I didn’t want”

-The Mary Sue

These aren’t objective criticisms. Since when do personal expectations and feelings about the direction of the narrative constitute as objective film criticism to decide the word-of-mouth and general publicity surrounding a film?! Even when most concede the film is well made, it’s still being trashed by some, even by the same people who concede this, because...it’s boring and “too much happens”? There are MANY films that are worse made that have just as overstuffed and convoluted a plot that haven’t gotten the bad publicity that this film has because of nothing but franchise good-will.

My stipulation is that a vocal minority of people are being melodramatic and over-inflating their negative reviews because of personal feelings regarding the story and “canon”, just as some are trying to find excuses to avoid crediting the story with the maturity it deserves to be credited with, in the face of an even darker and more aggressively political film.

Does Rowling’s voice, her themes, and her style need emphasizing? I’d encourage people to read everything she’s written to realize that Rowling is not a dewy-eyed, lighthearted woman, if Harry Potter wasn’t dark enough to display that to begin with: in her writing, Rowling is obsessed with exploring themes of death, life, trauma, political corruption, and bigotry. She’s fascinated by the facets of life that are mundane and often ugly, outcasted, or weird. And she loves subversion, twists on tones, archetypes, and genres. She often ruminates, in all of her work, on the dark underbelly of society and human nature, and focuses on our tendency for irrational and despicable violence, self-hatred, discrimination, corruption and power-lust, sadomasochism, murder, torture, rape, you name it. It’s a recurring theme. Harry sacrifices himself to death after the murder, maiming, and torture of his loved ones at the hands of incredibly sadistic and depraved fascist villains who aren’t above killing and harming children, to protect his compatriots and loved ones. Kyrstal Weedon kills herself with her mother’s drugs after being raped by her mother’s drug dealer and tangentially causing the death of her brother after running away from her drug dealing prostitute mother to conceive a child with a teenage boy. Cormoran Strike investigates crimes pertaining to all manner of human evils, including authors that ruminate on pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia, people with amputation fetishes, sexual attraction to murder and abuse, and the Fantastic Beasts series has started a running theme of infant murder and death, vicious abuse, and morally gray acts of violence, some of it righteous and vengeful. Can you think of the last film that killed a baby (or two) in any way? The only film I can think of is the Hard R Darren Aronofsky Thriller, Mother! “But Harry Potter is so lighthearted and fun!”

People need to stop so violently and inaccurately mischaracterizing Rowling’s work as lighthearted simply because they have nostalgic attachment to some of the superficial elements of her original series. Unfortunately, some people don’t like Harry Potter for the story and that’s why they don’t see it as the often dark, horrific, complex, and melancholic story that it ultimately is. And that surface-level plane of attachment can’t sustain any sort of long term interest in further Wizarding World stories, unfortunately. That is why the Fantastic Beasts stories are being treated the way they are. Your superficial, childish interest in only Hogwarts Houses and Quidditch isn’t very substantive, and can’t sustain your interest in something that’s incredibly plot heavy! Rowling is known for giving the reader more. That’s why her books are known for being very long. And that’s why the only major criticism this film is dealing with is - “the story is too convoluted and overstuffed”.

#fantastic beasts #harry potter #fantastic beasts and where to find them #newt scamander #newtina #grindelwald #crimes of grindelwald #fbawtft #fbtcog

[bigskydreaming]

fhalkfhaklfhlkak i hate this

TW really truly literally ruined the word ‘spark’ for me. Like the whole damn word. I hear it now and I’m like, NOPE, like...idk, some people who cringe when they hear the word moist or panties. Apologies to anyone who hates those words and cringed, i dont actually know if thats a thing or if like, I just have weird friends. Probably just the latter.

But anyways, Im just like...lmfao. Its so visceral too? Like I have this one original project, Waveriders, that I’ve been fiddling with off and on in the background of other projects for awhile, might have talked about it on here, idk, I don’t keep track. 

Basically its a far future sci-fi novel/setting for linked shorter works set on a gas giant that was settled by humans who figured that they can’t possibly be stepping on anyone’s toes there, its a freaking gas giant, hello, no one’s home, right? They literally have to make their own ground by using technology to form anti-gravity wells in the habitable zone of the atmosphere and like, make floating cities and then these kind of buoys scattered across the planet that create these electromagnetic currents that flow in specific ‘routes’ between the cities, and people travel between them in these flying ships that use magnetized hulls and solar sails to ride these currents, and blah blah blah, yada yada yada, bc like, why would I resist an opportunity to have floating cities and sky pirates and ancient cyborg machine dragons? Doesn’t make sense. 

Anyway, so couple thousand years after settling this planet, and by then for Plotty Reasons there are people who have what’s called waveriding abilities, like they can ‘hack’ certain wavelengths or types of energy and manipulate them in various ways, but only one kind of energy per person, and they each have their own little names and niches. 

So, y’know, basically just like ATLA, except for like, its energy powers and there are cyborg machine dragons and floating cities and sky pirates, obvsly. Plus areas of totally fucked up gravity called the badlands that are all like, criminal underworld metropolis because normal people are like lol nope, we like it when up is up and down is down, all of this is very just...nope. And also because shocking and totally unexpected plot twist, they were totally wrong about the planet being uninhabited just cuz it didn’t have Earth type ground...like, so in addition and on top of and in conjunction with all of the above and whatnot, there are these beings called Chaos Angels, that are basically like sentient quantum waveforms that can take any shape or appearance, but just, have no physical substance and yet are really good at faking that they’re not totally there when they fuck with humans, which they do a lot, because well. Why not, y’know?

But other than that, its exactly like ATLA. I’m a derivative hack. I disgust myself, truly I do.

BUT the point of this particular synaptic misfire aka ADHD ramble, is that so, okay, these different types of not!benders are all called waveriders as an overall umbrella term, but with ten different subsets of this in total, right? So people who can ‘hack’ light and manipulate it in various ways are called brightriders, and people who are tuned into soundwaves are called echo-riders, and some can manipulate the more electricity-skewed side of the electromagnetic spectrum and those are shockriders and the ones who skew more to the magnetic side are steelriders but I’m probably gonna change that because it sounds like a porno? Yeah no, just saw it outside of my notes for the first time and can confirm, definitely sounds like a porno so they’re not gonna be called steel-riders, but they will be called something steel-rider-esque. You get it.

And then there are the five weird ones that people aren’t totally quite sure how their waveriding shticks work because the kinds of energy they hack aren’t like....the kinds that work in the same way as the others with their easily discernible and patternistic wavelengths, and scientists and scholars are always arguing like but skyriders aren’t even in the same FIELD as the other waverider types because gravity isn’t even an actual ENERGY, just because we talk about gravity waves doesn’t mean they’re remotely the same thing as lightwaves, they make no SENSE, and I’m just like hahaha, I am your god, fictional scientists. Fucking deal with it. Plus it does make sense, you just don’t know the Secret Rules and Logistics that I do, pfft. 

Anyway, so the other types are boomriders who hack kinetic energy and skyriders of course obviously manipulate gravity, and then the last three are really weird, and super rare and thus don’t really have set names and just have lots of nicknames and are often just thought to be rumors. So those are the bio-riders who manipulate chemical energy though it often gets mistakenly referred to or just handwaved as being ‘life energy’ as though that’s a thing, ugh future way advanced people are so dumb sometimes, honestly. But so they can manipulate biological processes in various ways and do things with healing and also hurting, and basically just don’t piss one off ever. Like. You’ll die. And then there’s the psi-riders, who are essentially psychics and hack brainwaves, and I’m not at all bitter that I lack the balls to just go for broke and call them ghost riders like I want to, because ghost riders obviously sounds way cooler?? But also, Marvel would definitely sue?? Because they’re just, like that. 

And like, the last of the Weird Ones are the ones so super rare and also so hard to actually....tell if someone actually IS one, that most people think they don’t actually even exist and are just an unsubstantiated like, theoretical idea some scientist had once while high and then just, never shut up about so eventually the idea caught on. And those are the quantum-riders, or luck-riders, basically they theoretically manipulate quantum wavelengths in ways that are almost impossible to identify, like theoretically they wouldn’t even know they were doing it? Anyway, so lots of times, what are actually quantum-riders are just jealously thought to be like, really fucking lucky assholes. Even though the way their powers work really don’t have anything to do with luck or even probability, specifically, like that’s a simplistic approximation and its more like they manipulate possibilities but also shut up me, nobody cares.

ANYWAY, people who can count and who actually bothered to would probably notice by now like the funky little geniuses they are that all of those still only adds up to nine. And that’s because of the last one, the one that SHOULD go up in the brightrider, shockrider, notpornIswear!steel-rider hierarchy or taxidermy or whatever the fuck. And these are the ones who manipulate what’s essentially thermal energy, or more accurately the microwave-skewing side of the ultraviolet spectrum whereas brightriders are just the ones who skew more to the infrared side of it.

And the long and short of all of this Unnecessary-ness and the source of my fit of pique and ensuing ramble-palooza....is that ORIGINALLY, they were SUPPOSED to be called sparkriders.

But OBVIOUSLY I can’t call them that anymore, because like. I tried, and I was like ugh you drama queen slash whiny pissbaby, it was just a shitty teen supernatural show and SPARK WAS NEVER EVEN CANON, do not let THEM win and ruin a perfectly good classification name! But I did. I did let it ruin them, and its. Well. Its a problem, because I kept thinking up ways to kill off the sparkrider characters for absolutely no reason at all instead of like....thinking up ways to make the plot do what it was outlined to do in their parts of the story.

This may come like, way out of left field, and just SHOCK and STUN and BEWILDER some of you, like....no way, srsly? But yeah, true story, among my many canon mental neuroses like ADHD, PTSD, magical depression hour and super fun anxiety like....there is a tiny possibility (aka actual diagnosis) that while I don’t talk about this much, or ever really, I do have a smidge of ye old OCD? Its not like, a big thing and doesn’t really affect my daily routines and that’s pretty much why I never usually bring it up or list it alongside the rest of the crap on my neurodivergence resumé or whatever, because like, there’s already WAY too many misconceptions out there about what OCD actually is and what constitutes it, and tons of people are always jokingly but also thinking they’re kinda half serious, like ‘oh I’m so OCD about this and this and that’ and its like. LOL. Are you though? You sure?

Anyway, but point being, the way mine manifests for me is like...not actually a problem? Like, I don’t actually have any REAL complaints about it at all, just half-assed little fits of pique ones like this, which is the other part of why I never bring it up, because too often ppl just can’t fathom that OCD or even any kind of neurodivergence can be...WANTED, or a good thing, and lololol, that’s ableism, folks. But its true, I don’t actually mind mine at all, even if it occasionally makes things frustrating, when I get stuck like I am now. But the flip side of it is....its actually a pretty huge part of my creativity and just the way my mind works in general....like, what people accredit to me being particularly insightful about character analysis or drawing connections or stuff like that in meta or fics or my novels or worldbuilding...that’s what it is. That’s my OCD in action. 

My brain like...REQUIRES that I find patterns in....pretty much everything. Even day to day mundane stuff too, though like I said, its mild enough there that it doesn’t fuck with my routines too much, but like, I have to order things into nice, neat patterns and groupings. And if there aren’t any that are immediately obvious, I kinda pretty much HAVE to dig deeper until I find some on a slightly deeper level, something beneath the surface or first glance, and keep going until I find something.....or worst case scenario, I have to like....add stuff and embellish and fill in gaps with my own ‘content’ until I have the rough edges rounded off into something that CAN be stacked neatly atop some other part of the story or whatever it is I’m focusing on? And the obsessive-compulsive part for me is like, lol, I gotta find it SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW. 

My brain literally won’t shut off or grudgingly accept being diverted to a different subject until I’ve made some kind of pattern or flowchart or classification system. It will literally keep me up for hours, going over the same things over and over from every angle until I find SOME way to....reassemble or restructure it in some nice, neat little order of some type. I mean that’s basically what it is. My brain insists on me forming some semblance of order out of any glimpse I have of what I would otherwise term creative chaos. And it won’t give up until it gets what it wants, which when you throw in my ADHD and how often I’ll get derailed off on slight tangents but with my OCD then sooner or later forcing me back to the original focus, rinse and repeat ad nauseam....like. LOL. I learned to operate on very little sleep from a pretty young age by necessity, its just...my brain, dudes. Its just like that.

But the perks are like, I pretty much think this is WHY I’m so creative....because my brain, for as long as I can remember, has always just kinda....forced me to be? Also probably has a lot to do with well...eh, I don’t need to talk about that right now. Whatever. Anyway, point being, so....I do like the end results very much so, and for all its....Why Must You Be Like This eccentricities, I’m quite attached to my brain and would not be very likely to agree to a trade even were one possible. I mean don’t get me wrong, I could do without the PTSD and anxiety, if we’re just, like....talking some pruning shears or whatever, but the actual creative machinery, I’m keeping. Ultimately it just means I really fucking like patterns and finding patterns or making patterns where previously there were none, or at least none that were easy to spot.

But ugh, man, these are the rare times when I’m like omg, just call it a day, we don’t ACTUALLY have to come up with the perfect replacement name for that one relatively small and insignificant detail of a much larger story that isn’t even in the Top Ten list of my main priorities at the moment. And my asshole of a brain is just like....yeah no, we gotta. You know the rules dude, you decided it was official, that name didn’t work anymore and was never gonna, so now we gotta find a replacement or else things will be UNEVEN?? The pattern will be...missing a piece? There will be CHAOS AND ANARCHY IN THE STREETS THAT RUNNETH OVER WITH BLOOD? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT??

And so I’m like....literally sitting here googling synonyms for spark because I’m just like that sometimes, lmfao. Oh and of course its gotta be a GOOD replacement, naturally. I can’t just shoehorn in a somewhat acceptable substitute that in the back of my mind I’m expecting to only be temporary, until I come up with something better. See, because my brain will KNOW, and it will NOT be okay with that, because that is CHEATING. And my brain, apparently, has strong feelings about cheating, which is weird and fairly unexpected of me, IMO.

Anyway, kudos to anyone who actually read through that instead of scrolling, I honestly have zero idea why I felt like sharing it, I just did and thus I did. *shrugs* 

[zuffer-weird-girl]

"We're going."

"We're not going."

You were on this for at least half an hour and wouldn't back down until Kai agreed on going. It was the first time Kaito had accepted on participating on something related to the school and you wouldn't miss it even if it meant your life on the line!

Although... your husband had other thoughts about the issue.

"Those things are usually on a crowded area, a place that surely will be closes and avoided of much lights and let me remind you of the worst, sick people brushing over or touching us and our son. They might even infect us with some unknown illnes that we aren't aware of."

You groaned before burring your face on your hands as he still stared at you nonchantly.

"Kai.." you sighed before looking at him with a frow "Is Kaito's first school play. Our son's first school play... you didn't saw the look that he gave to me when he asked if we both were coming. He wants both os us there Kai, please..." you pleaded as his eyebrows twitched a hit before he sighed, dropping his head on his hand as he layed the weight on the table which both of you were talking.

"You know how I despise crowded areas."

"I'm sorry..." you sighed, lifting yourself up from the chair and starting making your way out "I'm going to explain it to h-" he prevented you of getting away with grabbing your wrist and pushing you to his lap.

"I didn't say it I wasn't coming." He said nonchantly, scoffing at how your eyes lit up much like a child would before you hugged him and pressed I numerous kisses on his face "Stop that, you're acting like a brat, and did you even washed your hands and brush your teeth?" He said in false annoyance, never on his life he would admit that this kind of a attention was very much welcomed after so many years.

"You're married with me! Deal with it!" You pressed one last kiss on his cheek before lowering his mask down to cover his lips with yours "And yes, I did all of those my myshophobic."

He groaned in relief, the vibrations sending shivers through your body before licking your plumpy lips.

You suddenly left his lap and he glared at you before you patted yourself and coughed, showing with your finger at the entrance which just had entered your son.

Cockblock eversince the uterus this little sh-

"Done your homework sweetie?" You asked while the boy nodded and went towards you to ask silenty with his serious to place him on your lap, which you quickly obliged.

He sighed before picking the paper that him and his wife were discussing just mere seconds ago and catching Kaito's attention with a bit of snap of fingers.

"This is something you want to do?" He asked with an eyebrow and Kaito nodded nonchantly.

"Is about Robin hood, and I like the story."

He sighed again. If it was THAT important for his wife and son he had no other options...

"Me and your mother are going, reserve good seats at least." He said in sarcasm the last sentence as he smirked a bit at the way Kaito's eyes lighten up in joy, looking at both him and you with a small smile.

"Whoose character you're going to be honey? I'm curious!" Kaito smirked and shrugged at the question.

"Is a secret."

"... I am not fond of secrets." He arched an annoyed eyebrow at how his wife and son giggled at his nonchalant and serious words.

Why were they laughing? It was true. And they knew it.

~

"Trafic is awfull. We just give him that excuse." He said while adjusting his tie and walking in a hurry as you followed a bit after him.

"Sure, a seven years old boy can't know the motive of why we truly got late was because that his father couldn't keep it on his pants." You whispered and smirked at how the pale man's skin had turned a bit pink after that statement.

"In my defense you look well on that outfit." He muttered and you couldn't help but giggle at his excuse.

"Why thank you~" you cooed while he rolled his eyes at you with a scoff before guiding you through the halls.

Just the moment you two entered a elder woman startled scream reached you guys ears.

"CHISAKI WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" You and your husband interlocked gazes before simply sighing and walking towards the voice of the teacher.

"Apologies but you can't take either of these seats." Kaito said nonchantly before making the spikes of the chair dissapear as the woman still tried to catch her breath after being lost with that scare.

"Chisaki! You can't do that with other people! Especially elders, didn't your parents reached you manners?!"

"Probably not since he is from the yakusa." A boy mumbled and Kaito sended him a dirty and murderous look.

"Say that again. Say it."

"Chisaki." The teacher grabbed his attention again "Why did you do that? We taught you all to not use your quirks, especially with that."

"Look." He pointed at the chair that had two papers writen 'occupied' while never breaking eye contact with the teacher "I reserved for my parents and I saw that lady was going to take the paper away and sit on there."

The woman looked ashame for a second before getting out, passing by you two and muttering an apology.

Your son spotted you two, green clothes and a cute hat on his head as he did a small wave and returned it back.

"... aw! He got the character Robin hood to interpret!" You gaped at your son cuteness and already took out the camera from your purse that Pops told you to use it, since he sadly wasn't able to go in the school play.

Your husband looked at you with a arched eyebrow look before sighing out loud and taking his seat alongsides you and waving his hand at the teacher to start that thing before he lost interest.

He was forced to have a certain type of talk with his son... but he couldn't deny it that he was proud. The kid had developed a lot on his quirk and could control a bit better than he did before...

But he still scolded Kaito. He was obligated to wash his hands at least tree times for touching that filthy ground, not even speaking about the showers the poor kid had to have.

#overhaul x reader #overhaul scenario #fanfic overhaul #overhaul #chisaki kai imagine scenario #kai chisaki x reader #chisaki kai x reader #kai chisaki #chisaki kai #bnha au #bnha oc #kaito chisaki #kaito baby boi #kaito #bnha imagine #bnha x reader #bnha characters #bnha villains #bnha #my writing #zufer writings

[lunaraen]

Can I request a fic where Ivor notices Radar overworking and babys him like he does f!Jesse and the rest of the New Order when they overwork? Because if Ivor is their father/uncle figure, then he’s gotta be Radar’s grandpa/greatuncle figure.

Some people live to breathe inflowing seas of anxiety, gasping for relief that never comes, to feel thepressure of what has been and what might be and, worst, what might never happenpushing down on them, to run on the burning coals of deadlines and expectationsand the fear of having so much to do while being surrounded by people who careso much. Radar is one of these people.

He’s also a teensy bit sleepdeprived, not that he really cares about that, and it makes him a little poeticand reflective. Probably a little too much.

Radar may as well be best friendswith his stress, because it’s something that’s been with him for nearly all ofhis life, especially recently. He might not be able to rely on his body to lastas long as he would like without food, or water, or sleep, but the stress willalways be there and will always push him to do everything and anything.

It’s a constant borne of hisanxiety, or one that conveniently arrived alongside it and decided to stayforever, and it pushes him to do things every other part of his body screams athim to not do or to push off for the sake of basic care.

(The issue here is that he knowsJesse felt the same pressures, because Radar was brought on to alleviate all ofthem and also dragged Jesse away from work to have her actually take care ofherself multiple times. It’s harder to do with himself, especially becauseJesse’s everything he is and more.

It’s easier for Radar to tellJesse she deserves a break than it is for him to think the same of himself. Hisjob was to worry for her, but worrying for himself seems to just add to hisworkload.)

Not that Radar would neglectvisible items of basic care, like showers or laundry or combing his hair,because his stress likes to scream at him about those things at odd hours ofthe day and he knows hygiene is extremely important, especially if being neatmakes it so people don’t worry about him.

And if he looks overall neatwhile maybe a little disheveled on a personal level, well, he’s a leader. Theydo that.

Radar’s fairly certain he looksthe right amount of leader busy without looking like he’s running on no sleepand little food, but it’s also a good thing that he’s fairly certain no oneelse can see him as he walks down the hall, arms full of way too muchpaperwork.

He’s also walking by a giant,gorgeous window, but it’s high enough up that he gets to see far more of theoutside world than they do him.

Like all the houses safely withinthe walls, all the colorful, winding buildings and busy roads filled withmilling, busy people. Busy people all under his protection, along with theirhomes, their jobs, their friends, their animals, and everything else they careabout.

So every one of them’s countingon him, at least a little, to not only do his best but the best they expect andmore.

If this is what Jesse saw all thetime, it explains a lot.

And makes Radar acutely aware ofhow much nicer running away on adventures with an awesome pirate girlfriendwould be than having to deal with any more of this.

For all of Jesse’saccomplishments, none make him more jealous.

Except that he’d need an awesomepirate girlfriend to do the same, or a girlfriend at all because that sort ofbreak just sounds nice in general, never mind how nice a break in generalsounds right now, and Radar finds himself counting the people walking bybecause if he doesn’t figure out how to both ground and distract himself he’sgoing to lose his mind.

While he’s counting peoplewalking by and trying to figure out how in the world he’s going to find himselfa conveniently awesome pirate friend to save him, though, he’s not paying thebest attention to what or who’s ahead of him.

This is a problem because he’sstill walking and still trying to physically balance his workload.

(Mentally balancing it hasn’tworked out near as well for him so far.)

Slamming into another walkingperson helps get his attention, and Radar can’t help but be relieved that thetowering pile of work stays in his hands even as his fingers twitch, curlingtighter around the pile as his shoulders hunch.

His glasses nearly slide off ofwhere they’d been precariously sitting at the edge of his nose, and it givesRadar one more thing to take care of as he tries to compose himself.

“Jack, I didn’t…”Radar’s apology, while well-crafted to be the right amount of nervous to showthat he really is sorry without showing just how stressed he is, falls slightlyshort as he realizes he’s never seen Jack carrying so many vials, and that thereason for that might be because it’s Ivor who’s holding the thankfully corked,glowing potions. “Oh. I-Ivor. Ivor, not… I’m sorry. I didn’t see youthere.”

Well, that could’ve ended poorly.

Radar glances past the stillswaying papers and files and down at the ground by their feet. The carpet seemsentirely untouched, in the sense that neither of them dropped anything and thatno part of it seems to be smoking or burned.

His shoulders relax, and he’ssure his smile is one of his better ones if only because of that, at leastuntil he sees Ivor’s frown as he looks back up. He’s not uneasy so much asconfused, but there’s something sharp, something critical, to Ivor’s gaze thathas Radar swallow whatever other apologies he was going to give.

“…when’s the last time youslept?”

“Oh.” Radar blinks,attempting to push his glasses back up before realizing they’re already asclose to his face as they can be without the bridge uncomfortably digging intohis nose. “Oh, um… Monday, I think.”

Ivor’s gaze goes from harboringsomething sharp underneath to being nothing but sharp, intense as his voicegets closer to an exasperated growl.

As it turns out, Radar’s made atiny error in being honest.

“It is Monday.”

Radar thinks he can understandwhy he mistook Ivor for Jack at first, beyond that Jack’s been helping outaround the temple a lot too and that Radar appreciates both of their guidance.

He and Ivor have similarexpressions when they’re concerned or suspicious, and it sparks an identicalform of guilt. That look, the one Ivor has right now, is made of the same sortof worry that’s coupled with too much cunning aimed at someone who should maybebe dead at this point.

“Already?” Somethingbeyond stress begins to shriek at Radar as Ivor’s eyes narrow. He thinks itmight be self-preservation. “I mean still? Boy, it’s been a longday.”

The smile he gives is big andsloppy and not at all genuine looking, but Radar’s also carrying a stack ofpaperwork and has an awful lot to get to.

Most people would probably excusea weak smile for that, but Ivor doesn’t seem the type.

“It’s not even noon.”Radar bites back a yelp as Ivor takes a small step closer, head held high, eyesnarrowed, and shoulders set. “Pleasetell me you haven’t somehow been awake for an entire week.”

“…no?” Oh, he’s sodead. “Does passing out for a couple of minutes count as sleep?”

Rationally, Radar knows Ivorlikes jokes, and he’s heard Ivor make a couple of his own. Rationally, however,he also knows that Ivor scowling as his posture goes rigid means he’s notamused and may mean that Radar should be a little more concerned for his ownwellbeing.

“Do you have anymeetings?”

As someone who’s been carefullyconstructing nearly every part of his existence lately, from his appearance tohis words, Radar recognizes the pause before the question as the warning thatit is.

These words aren’t cold, or evensharp, but they’re measured and unnaturally even in a way Ivor’s almost neverused with him before.

It makes them their own kind ofscary.

It’s an uncommon reminder toothat Ivor has been many people before this, long before Radar met him, and thatone of those people nearly brought the world to an end.

“Not really. I just need tofinish putting away and sending off all these papers.”

“Good. My lab.” Radardoesn’t argue, but he doesn’t immediately agree either and that seems to sitabout as well with Ivor. “Now.”

Radar’s position as the Hero inResidence of Beacontown, or overworked glorified mayor, means he probablydoesn’t have to listen. Ivor’s more of a friend and someone he deeply respects,but still someone he can ignore.

Not that he wants to push theOrder’s healer to force him on medical leave or kill him.

His stress might wail about losttime and wasted opportunities as Radar follows right beside Ivor, but thedesire to live politely tells it to shut up, sending it to instead slowly hunchRadar’s shoulders as they move onto what might be his doom.

The trip to Ivor’s lab is asswift as it can be without Radar having papers blow or slip away on him, thoughthat point seems mostly moot as Ivor sets his potions down, grabs the stackfrom Radar’s hands without warning, and places it on his own desk as soon asthey enter the room.

Radar’s protest that he stillneeds to have those filed away is killed by the internal reminder that he’dlike to walk away from this in one piece, which has seemed to join his stressin bunching his shoulders up.

“I’ll have someone move these toyour desk later. Or, if you’d rather, you can do it after you wake up.” Ivordoesn’t look up from the bubbling cauldron at the fire as he points to a cot tucked intothe corner of the room, the blanket as neatly tucked as it can be onto a cotand the pillow looking fluffy in a way that’s far too tempting.

Ivor’s lab is large, everypolished counter lined with some sort of cage, or case, or selection of glowingvials.

A few even hold odd plantsRadar’s never seen before, even though he knows he was in here a few daysago.  They’re as varied in color and sizeas the number of content specimen, the cot beside and below a particularlygnarled, leafy plant that he hopes won’t strangle him as he sits down.

It’s hardly the first time Radar’sbeen here, even in a week, and still he finds it hard not to stop and stare.

The glow of potions mixessurprisingly well with the glow of the fireplace, the latter dimmed somewhat bythe slowly smoking cauldron, the inky mixture inside tinged purple and almostseeming to shine as it swirls about.

Radar’s eyelids already feelheavier and while this is his fault, he can’t help but feel a little betrayedby his own exhausted body.

Ivor seems to take the pause tomean something different.

“You may take the bed, ifyou prefer, but I have work to attend to and as I clearly can’t trust you to get the sleep you need on your own,you’ll be staying where you can rest and I can keep an eye on you.”

Radar’s grateful that Ivor takesbreaks from attempting to get the past Order members together for adventures,and even more so that he takes the breaks here and decides to still care aboutsomeone like Radar when he’s probably exhausted and wishing he was adventuringwith Harper instead. Or sleeping. They’re both experts at each.

He could never forget how amazingthis all is, or how lucky Radar himself has been.

The thing with Radar is that italmost feels like he’s been handed the world’s best set of hand-me-downs, wheresaid hand-me-downs are entirely aware of the serious overall downgrade. Jesse’sfriends are his friends, which is incredible given that many of them have beenhis idols for nearly as long as he’s been around, and while they’re allwonderfully nice and funny and understanding, he can’t help but wonder how theyfeel.

They all like Jesse getting abreak, but that doesn’t change that Radar’s hardly a good replacement forJesse. Being a leader is one thing, and he think he’s honestly doing alright,even if it means he hasn’t been eating more than the occasional snack bar orsleeping at all, but Jesse’s an even better friend.

And Radar isn’t exactly Jesse. Hehas the stress down, and the desire to help people, but doesn’t have theexperience or a wide network of friends made firsthand.

Even the friends he made whileadventuring with Jesse are still at least partly Jesse’s friends, if not moreso hers than his.

That feels ungrateful too.

He wants to prove himself, but ithardly feels like an accomplishment, to have driven himself to the brink whileLukas is out of town dealing with basic but important portal network diplomacy.It doesn’t say good things about his reliability or independence.

His awareness is also lacking,seeing as how it takes Ivor all but shoving a cold bottle into his hands forhim to realize he’s standing there.

The frosty, pitch black potion isfamiliar in a way the sparkly sludge in the cauldron isn’t, but Ivor takes careto still explain at length what getting it means as Radar uncorks it.

(The cork nearly falls to theground, but it doesn’t and by Notch that shouldn’t be an accomplishment.)

“This is not a safety net.It is a last resort that I hope you’ll never have to use again.” It’s asleeping potion, one of Ivor’s more basic, and it’s been a while since Radar’sheard Ivor talk about one so seriously. “It’s one I hope I never have toforce you to use again and one I’m sure you’ll never push yourself to having touse ever again. You may sleep here whenever you want, but you may not allowyourself to rely on this again.”

He knows plenty about potiondependencies, from the overall warning of don’tand common horror stories involving the friend of a friend of a friend’s friendwho ruined their life to actual experience with potion use and the rush theytend to give people. Even just as a guaranteed, Radar can understand the appealof being able to instantly fall asleep or even not need sleep with the use ofonly one tiny vial.

It was a struggle sometimes tonot use them to help Jesse actually rest, and Radar can also understand theconcern.

(There’s a big difference too,between Ivor spiking the hot chocolate he makes with sleeping potions afterlong days so the others will sleep well and Radar drinking a sterile, carefullycontained, pure dose of potion. The need to do it to rest not because ofnightmares but because of stress and stupidity probably also changes things abit, and no matter the reason Radar does appreciate the warning.)

“Ivor, I’ve used potionsbefore. You can trust me.” Ivor takes the smile and meant to be moreencouraging than they are words the way Radar takes cough medicine, and Ivor’sgrimaces are far more impressive.

“Frankly, I’m not sure Ido.”

Radar wishes he was good enoughto not flinch at the fair criticism, but he’s drawing in on himself before hecan even try to correct it, arms wrapped around his middle as he tries not tofeel horribly sick. There’s a moment’s pause before Ivor sighs, resting a handon Radar’s shoulder.

“That was… poorly worded.I trust you as a leader and as a competent individual, but I’m concerned foryour health. Such little sleep under such pressure isn’t healthy, and I can’timagine you’ve been doing a much better job with eating. Your body will starthurting you if you don’t eat, and if you’re injured… I don’t want to risk it.A healing potion does a dead person no good.”

Radar isn’t sure what to say tothat, so he doesn’t. His head stays low and he tries his best not to breathetoo deep or too quickly as his eyes burn.

He hates drowning in silences ofhis own making.

Ivor squeezes his shoulder gentlybefore letting go, his voice softer as he crouches to look Radar in the eye.

“You’re intelligent,compassionate, and as dependable a leader as Jesse. You’re also your own person,with your own needs.” Ivor lightly prods his chest, Radar nearly swayingat the unexpected poke. “Like the need to sleep. Or eat. Don’t do thisagain, and don’t you dare take that to mean ‘don’t let me catch you again’. Foryour sake and mine, take care of yourself, or I swear there will berepercussions.”

“I will, I promise.” Ivor huffs,but Radar raising his hands in defeat gets a smile out of him. There’s a nodthat means for his own good he’d better mean it before Ivor turns back towhatever he’s working on this time. “Good night, Ivor.”

The potion goes down quickly, icyto the taste and making the world feel a little bit lighter while his bodyfeels almost too heavy with sleep it hasn’t yet gotten to move. Still, Radarcorks the bottle and sets it down gently under the cot, because broken glassand spilled potions are never fun.

Then Radar settles himself underthe blankets as he lies down, and what happens after that is either animmediate fall to sleep or the ungraceful crashing of his head onto the pillow.

Both work fine, and the tug tofinally sleep is aided well by the soft chittering of secure creatures, thebubbling of elixirs, and the knowledge that Ivor would probably bite the headoff of anyone who’d want to force Radar awake to work more, Radar included.

#My Stuff #fanfiction #mcsm #minecraft story mode #anon