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ballorawan740 · 3 years

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SCP Scenarios: When they accidentally kill you

Requested by: okokok121 + @RitaRoseFromBBB

(Ok, I know you did ask for the doctors + Mikell and Strelnikov, but I've decided to add the SCPs in here if that's alright with you. And also, sorry if I didn't capture Strelnikov's attitude well as I'm not as familiar with him compared to Mikell, yet again I'm not familiar with Jack Bright's family other than TJ and 321)

Sorry if it wasn't up to your standards. I just felt that some of these characters weren't the type to kill the reader, even if it wasn't intentional.

WARNING: Slight Angst

Dr Simon Glass

Simon wouldn't be the one to accidentally kill you himself, but it's more of the situation he put you in without realising the full extent of the consequences. He was just busy writing his patients' reports, and you just strolled in his office to check upon him. Simon stopped what he was doing and smiled with you as you both ate your food in his ever so clean office. As you were about to leave, Glass requested you to deliver something to Jack Bright in which you did. You and Jack were close friends (not so surprising since you're both equally as mad as each other) so if Simon wanted to know where he is or if he needed to give him something, he would go to you first. You managed to deliver the parcel to Bright in 682's containment cell and you both laughed before you returned. Unfortunately, 682 was having a rough day due to being a subject to Bright's test (I would be too tbh) which caused him to become more aggressive than usual and attacked 3 researchers. One of them being you as 682 dragged you down to the acid bath with him and Jack rushed to save you. Bright wasn't able to and he had to fulfil;l his duty to tell Simon Glass that you passed as 682 had killed you during a test. Needless to say, Glass was forced to take time off with Bright due to this event and he became more distant for months to come. Bright had to keep it together just so Simon wouldn't have to lose the shred of sanity he had in him.

Dr Jack Bright

You and Bright were doing some tests on one of the more dangerous SCPs (no, it's not that giant mf lizard of that warrior killing machine) in which your job was to handle these creatures while Jack was doing all the lab stuff. The SCP you both were conducting your research on was ●●|●●●●●|●●|● (SCP 2521 - We're getting ripped tonight, RIP my friends) and you were doing all sorts of things which resulted in you summoning this creature out of the blue by accident. Bright had to drag you out away from the creature and you just stood there observing its behaviour until it noticed you. Jack Bright had to take you on the run yet again (cuz you do be stoopid and stubborn so all yall wanna do is stare at something that's gonna kill ya. JUST RUN BIATCH!!!) but the SCP managed to catch up with you both and snatched you before Bright could even get help. Jack was astonished and deeply depressed since the incident and was left increasingly agitated after every walking day and even Glass couldn't get him out of his shell. He would pretend that everything's fine, but deep down, everyone knows that he's not (that's a whole ass mood right there buddy). Bright was extremely guilty for making you research 2521 and tried to summon it again, but all other scientists stopped it.

Dr Alto Clef

Clef was just doing his job, managing all the Keter class SCPs with ease and without hesitation. You know this from first-hand experience on your very first day on the job 3 years ago and Clef took an interest in you so he took you under his wing. So on this mission, he's on, he wanted to take you with him so you went along (not like you'd say no to this madman anyways right?). It was a breach on one of the sites with a sh- ton of Keter class SCPs and your jobs were to exterminate/neutralise them and save all the other researchers in which your team did do well and were still alive. You on the other hand were killed in action by SCP 939 (NOW WHICH ONE OF YOU IDIOTS RELEASED MY PETS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?!). Clef wasn't able to save you on time, but he managed to kill 2 of those SCPs. When he got back, he hid in his office and was depressed for 23.3 weeks and when he managed to drag himself out, he was bawling his eyes out. He deeply regretted taking you on a mission with him and swore an oath that if he were to ever take another person under his wing (probs in like 50 years), he would do anything in his power to not take them on a life-threatening mission.

Dr Benjamin Kondraki

You were out with Kondraki, just laying on the grass like you normally do as you just watched Kondraki take photographs of various and random stuff. Not long later, you asked him if he could teach you how to become such an avid photographer like him, so he did. However, little did you and Kondraki know that his butterfly friends felt danger lurking around the area you were in and quickly transformed into a threatening SCP to defend you both. Lurking around the woods were uncontained 939s running loose on the ground in which the booterflies attacked it. One of the red lizards was ready to pounce onto Kondraki to which you ran and pushed him out of the way (BAD DOGGO ))),:<). Luckily he was unharmed, but you, on the other hand, was heavily injured so Kondraki rushed you back to the foundation's medic. You died there shortly after and Kondraki blamed himself for getting you hurt on a harmless visit to the woods for some photographs. Bright and Clef begged Glass to do some psychological evaluation on Kondraki despite him telling them that he needs some time alone before he could do such things.

O5 Council Mikell Bright

When you're with Mikell, he would be his true self, being honest and relaxed since you're his most trusted partner. Moreover, he would tell you everything about what the O5 Council has been doing and their top secrets and you would always keep your lips sealed. The other members are wary of this at first but soon warm up to you since you're one of the most trusted individuals. Being with the cowboy is quite entertaining and you'll be quite protected being with him, so most of the time, you get free reign over the foundation, however, you still had to obey the rules as you weren't exactly a member of the O5 council and that would also help you from making people think you're sus for being treated so differently. That day was one of the days where your freedom got the better of you as you were on a mission with Mikell and he was about to aim at the target until you pushed him out of the way from danger. He quickly gained his composure and tried to shoot the anomaly behind you which he missed and shot you instead. Mikell was in shock and tried to get the medics, but by the time they arrived, you've already passed. Jack had to check up on his brother regularly to see how he's doing and to make sure he doesn't fall off the edge, reminding him that you wouldn't want to see him this way.

Agent Dmitri Arkadeyevich Strelnikov

As an agent, Strelnikov's life and his closest friends and relatives would be on the line. He wouldn't know when, where or how he would die and is in constant fear of losing everyone around him, especially you. One time, he took you on a mission with him since you were trained under him and he felt that you were ready to go onto your first-ever mission (well too bad, it's your last mission since y'all just suck at your jobs and this poor man has to drag you up from hell and y'all just fall back in) and so you guys went and attempted to gain information and track down some SCPs. Dmitri had to save you a few times since you didn't heed his advice and looked behind your back and that one time he left you on your own, you were murdered by a ruthless group from one of the GOIs. This, of course, deeply saddened agent Strelnikov as he was washed away by the guilt he had from leaving you to stand by your own 2 feet. You were a bright and gentle person who always looked up to him, always eager to learn and never want to fail him. These traits are what drew you to him and he was hoping to have you on his team permanently, however, that dream was long gone (just like your non-existent brain cells trying to keep your life together so y'all don't do stupid things) as you were snatched away from him in an instant. He wrote the report once he went back to the foundation and locked himself up for so long the doctors had to get him out (like your guardians whenever you don't wake up in the mornings).

Extras:

SCP 073 (Cain)

You and Cain were strolling around site 17 until a containment breach happened. Cain had to drag you by your arm since you froze (like a deer in headlights XD) and didn't react to anything since you were afraid. Luckily you did manage to get your senses back together and ran with him. Not long later, a Keter class SCP came charging at you and in a panic, Cain pushed you aside without a glance which caused another SCP to kill you since you were blocking the way. He looked over to you to see that you were wounded, lifted you up, and found a medic. Cain blamed himself for not looking carefully and had he done that, you wouldn't be dying. By the time the medic and you both arrived, you were already at the brink of death and when 343 finally arrived, you were long gone. 343 had to calm 073 down from trying to seek revenge once again but he can't due to the overwhelming guilt he had on him. 343 managed to ease his mind a bit which caused him to blackout. The researchers had to put him under their watchlist to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid (like you when you're studying for your important exams).

SCP 076 (Abel)

It was a normal day for you and Abel to hang around until this one mf guard angered Abel to which caused a containment breach. He went on a rampage (you do be here like Hercules! Hercules! XD) in which you had to try and calm him down. By the time you went to the main part of the facility, you saw many of the D-classes and researchers beheaded (like the previous queens in- never mind). When you had found Abel attempting to slaughter a guy, you jumped in front of the victim and by the time Abel realised that you were there, his sword cut you open in half (KO! 10 points to Gryffindor). He was overwhelmed with guilt and anxiety about him killing you by accident and returned to his box as demanded by the MTF members. The scientists noticed a change in Abel's behaviour and never questioned it. Those who knew what had happened never mentioned it in fear of another breach and left him be.

SCP 999 (Tickle Monster)

It was an ideal Saturday night at the foundation. You and our adorable 999 was wandering around the facility minding your own business until some madman came charging into the foundation. The alarm for the breach went on and everyone was confused since there weren't any dangerous SCPs on the loose. As it turns out, it was an intruder from one of the other GOIs trying to kidnap some of the SCPs. You and 999 just so happened to be in the exact same spot as the intruder and was holding a weapon of some sort. Realising what's happening, 999 pushed you out of the way just as the intruder fired her weapon which missed you both. One of the agents caught up with both of you and tried to shoot the intruder but ended up shooting you just as you got up which killed you. 999 never greeted any visitors in his cell ever again for quite some time and the researchers attempted to bribe him but failed.

SCP 682 (Hard to Destroy Reptile)

You were requested to take part in a test with 682 and another Keter class SCP in a test room and your job was to make sure 682 weren't allowed to lash out at the researchers because of this test. However, this certain Keter class SCP has decided that it wants to attack you in which 682 shoved you aside to protect you. The researchers ran in to save you but the other SCP managed to pounce on you and suffocated you to the brink of death. 682 was about to take a chonki bite out of that SCP but instead, he bit you instead, killing you instantly. He regretted every decision he has ever made and never attacked the foundation staff for months.

SCP 049 (Plague Doctor)

This doctor was just minding his own business until some dumbass researchers rushed into his room like some fanboys trying to get their noona's signatures. 049 was entertained by this remark but was soon agitated as they disturbed his work and wouldn't leave him alone. So, 049 used his lethal touch on some of the researchers as the rest ran. Luckily, they ran into you, so you managed to calm down the angri bird doctor. Unfortunately, that didn't go as planned as he had mistaken you as one of the other fanboys and stabbed you right into your heart. As soon as he had realised what he's done, he rushed you into his cell and performed surgery on you. Mid-surgery, he soon realised that you were losing too much blood and died right then and there. He mourned for quite some time as the other researchers were severely punished as it had led to your death which could've been avoided.

SCP 035 (Possessive Mask)

Like the other SCPs mentioned in the list, there was a test that resulted in your death. 035 was instructed to change to another human as the black goo was secreted from the mask and so he obeyed as you were slouching by the corner of the test room. Except for this time, it is being worn by a taller and more muscular man who was a wanted man due to his former job as a mercenary. As the researchers watched intently, the mask soon felt slightly overpowered but was resolved quickly due to his evergrowing abilities and experience in possessing those who come near it or is wearing the mask. The mask spoke of the discomfort of being overpowered to which the researchers took note of this statement and watched. You were somewhat concerned to you went closer to your beloved partner to check up on him. However, upon coming closer to 035, he switched his usual persona to the man wearing it, becoming more aggressive and unable to control this body, killing the first person he sees, which was you. This stunned the researchers as the guards tried to pry him off you. When they managed to get him off, you were no longer breathing. In the next interview with 035, he displayed extreme guilt and sadness of his inability to possess the man well enough to control him fully and made a request for him to be left alone for a while.

SCP 096 (Shy Guy)

You both met up during the breach a few steps away from 096's cell. He was wandering around to find you while covering his elongated face. All the other researchers were outside trying their best to stay calm and deal with this massive breach until they just saw 096 walking about looking for someone. It instantly clicked in their mind and offered to look for you as long as he goes back to his cell afterwards to which he agreed. Upon finding you, another SCP was attempting to attack you but was soon neutralised by the other MTFs. 096 managed to push you away beforehand but his throw was so strong that you died on the impact when you fell to the ground (you really did get yeeted lmao). As 096 and the others ran towards you to make sure you were ok, you had stopped breathing and 096 screamed in sadness which flooded the whole field. As he was contained back to his cell, they noticed a small detail about 096 which was him wailing every now and again about your death.

SCP 105 (Iris)

You and Iris were just strolling down site 17 to meet with Cain and Dr James Dantensen. Once you've arrived at the agreed location within site 17, you guys were just catching up with old times and sharing your memories and stories about your everyday lives. However, this jolly moment only lasted for so long as someone had breached the containment to target you as you were close to a lot of the SCPs, especially the humanoid ones. As you, along with the others, ran to safety, the enemy caught up with you and threatened you for your knowledge of the SCPs. Iris finally caught up with you just in time to see the commotion and shoved you out of the way. Cain managed to shield you from another guy who attempted to shoot you in which Iris retaliates by throwing a knife back, but instead, injured you instead. She ran over and screamed as you slowly blacked out. Cain had to carry you over as Dantensen was calling the medics and you barely managed to survive. During your days in the hospital, the suspect managed to suffocate you which alarmed everyone. During the days that followed, Iris had been seeking out revenge as Cain tried to make her stay calm and think more rationally.

SCP 106 (Old Man)

It was another day spending some time in 106's pocket dimension as you relaxed with him. You both talked about your past experiences and the obstacles you both had overcome. Once you both were done relaxing (aka never you lazy catto so get up and do something useful for once cuz I don't wanna see yall get screamed at by your family and non-existent friends (jk jk i hope they're treating you well)), 106 took you back to his containment cell and just sat there as the researchers looked at you both blankly. 096 caused a containment breach which, of course, freed you both from 106's cell and you made a run for it (RUN FOREST RUN!). As you and 096 came into contact, 106 tried to put himself between the both of you, knowing what 096 was capable of. Unfortunately, this resulted in 106 being attacked and you died from looking at his face (wear a damn mask 096, you're in the middle of a pandemic). Saddened by the news, 106 seek revenge but was briefly neutralised and shipped to another facility so it wouldn't cause another breach due to his rage.

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hamliet · 3 years

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Dabi’s Missing Heart

So I’ve been seeing two main responses to Dabi’s character as portrayed in BNHA 292, both of which I feel touch on a very surface understanding of his character and role in the story despite seeming like opposite takes.

Take #1:

Dabi is an unfeeling monster created to show the redeemability of Shigaraki and Enji in contrast with his true eeeevil villainy! He will never be redeemed!

Take #2:

Dabi is a sweet softy who did nothing wrong! He will never be redeemed because of this chapter which is so out-of-character!

Note how they both have the same endpoint. I’m not actually gonna address the redemption question much because I can’t fathom what this panel foreshadows if not Touya’s salvation (alive):

I’m not looking to debate this either; I’m just putting it here because I know it’ll come up if I don’t.

Instead, I wanna address Dabi’s character. He’s my favorite, and I’ve been asked a few different times whether I enjoy him as a villain or as an uwu poor baby, and my answer is always both.

Dabi is a villain. This chapter’s rampage is, in my opinion, not remotely out of character for him. But neither is it the summation of his character, and he surely is not meant to make Enji look good by comparison.

So, who is Dabi?

Dabi is kind of a flaming jerk, and that’s why I like him. He’s an abuse victim who gets to be angry and crass and sharp. He pushes people away because he doesn’t want to open up to them and get burned (heh). He’s just like Shouto in that, except with a dose of murder.

Believe it or not, this is a very realistic response to abuse, and very common too. It’s good to see that representation. If the writing was indeed just “he’s bad get rid of him,” well, that would of course be a terrible representation. But seeing a mean victim get redeemed? Now that’s some good sh*t I’m here for.

If you want a sweethearted, misunderstood soft victim, there is one in MHA, and that’s Shigaraki. Dabi is not these things, but that does not mean he’s not a victim or that he’s somehow an unfeeling monster.

You see, Shigaraki is a heart character. Dabi’s the mind. (Heart and mind characters are a literary pattern that is utilized in literature across the globe; it’s not an eastern/western cultural thing. It has its roots in alchemy.) The problem is that you can’t have a heart without a mind nor a mind without a heart. If you lack one, you’re missing half the picture, and you won’t accomplish anything.

We see this with Shigaraki in his quest to look for ideals, something to believe in, purpose to justify/enable acting on his feelings/emotions.

Dabi, in contrast, has conviction and ideals, but eschews any kind of personal connection and care.

So, both Shigaraki and Dabi struggle to unite heart and mind--but they need to do precisely this.

It’s not a coincidence that Shigaraki expressly envisions both Dabi and Himiko when musing on what his purpose is.

Yet Shigaraki is able to unite more easily with Himiko as opposed to Dabi because Himiko is also a heart character. She claims to be motivated by extreme empathy that warps around to become a lack thereof (wanting to be who she loves).

Shigaraki’s motivations are basically revenge for hero society not saving him--which encompasses both a deep internal and external (societal) need for empathy and a need for better ideals. Shigaraki needs Himiko and Dabi. They’re a trio, and all of them need each other to grow. But Himiko, being similarly driven expressly by emotions, is easier for Shigaraki to understand and work with.

The irony is that Dabi is actually a very, very emotional character as well. But what he does (as is typical for a mind character) is repress them, compartmentalize, dissociate. He constantly pushes people away, yet admits privately, to himself, that he’s primarily (and paradoxically) motivated by family. This is emotional, yet Dabi claims he “overthought” and, according to other translations, “snapped” can be actually be read as “went crazy” as a result over overthinking (note: both are mind allusions).

Dabi repressing who he is--Todoroki Touya--is symbolic of him repressing his emotional side, because again, family and emotions are tied together for his character. Now his identity is acknowledged, and Dabi claims to be losing his mind (again), claims that he can’t feel, and yet is completely consumed by emotions. Like, does anyone think he’s being methodical and calculating this chapter?

It’s not just negative emotions (rage, hate) that drive Dabi in response to his family. His seeking belonging and emotional connection is present even in a chapter where he tries to murder two members of his family and laughs off the risk to the life of another.

See, Dabi first asked Shouto to validate his pain:

But like, given the circumstances, of course Shouto doesn’t really respond well. How Shouto responds is this:

Shouto’s words are triggering. And keep in mind I am not blaming Shouto: he’s in shock and he’s a kid. I’m merely trying to explain how it likely comes across to Dabi.

You’re crazy. Your feelings don’t matter. You don’t really care about Natsuo! You’re a villain and that’s ALL you are. Not a brother or abuse survivor. Just a villain.

So, uh, yeah, Dabi then retreats back to being unable to feel, dissociating as has always been his coping mechanism. But that’s not all: Dabi’s been repressing for so long that of course he’s gonna go a little insane in response to the dismissal of everything he’s trying to point out. Why wouldn’t he? His family dismissed his pain back then and now again, and so, without that heart, without those emotions, principle is all Dabi has. This has been present since long before Stain’s ideology came into his life:

Now, he answers this question of existence through Stain’s ideology. Purpose is all he has, and to him, Shouto and Best Jeanist are dismissing that too. Why are they dismissing it? Best Jeanist dismisses him for an ideal: the overall good of hero society. Shouto has a mixture of this ideal and also like, genuine shock and pain.

Back to Dabi. Dabi’s summation of himself and his purpose is incorrect and harmful to himself and others. I’m not excusing him or justifying, just explaining. It’s a tragic reflection of what Endeavor raised both Touya and Shouto to be (and thereby ironic that BJ uses an ideal to dismiss him):

Instead of being raised to be the symbol of hero society--as Endeavor intended--he exists to destroy it. The root is the same: Dabi assumes he exists for hero society, as a tool. He dehumanizes himself, hence why his quirk physically harms him (which also fits his almost religious zeal for Stain’s ideology). But it is not all Dabi is. He’s not a tool, he’s a person, but to acknowledge he’s a person involves acknowledging his heart/emotional desires, and that gets to my next point.

Dabi’s not a reliable narrator about himself. At all. I’ve written about Dabi and dissociation before. So let’s look at Dabi’s devotion to his ideals, the ideals he puts above people and claims he only cares about... because there are moments where Dabi goes against those ideals.

For one example, Dabi’s gone against those ideals when he’s allowed his personal need for revenge (an emotional/heart motivation) to overcome his longterm plan. Like, he was fully about to get himself killed here, even though that would likely mean no one would know the corruption of the Todoroki family and hero society, just for the chance to prove to his father that he hurt him.

In addition, I’ve talked before about how Dabi’s the only character in the entire damn manga to comment that maybe using child soldiers is not okay. While it’s not explicitly stated, it’s reasonable to conclude that Dabi considers the abuse of children in hero training a sin of hero society that ought to be purged (hence, part of his ideals).

That said, I have also pointed out that Dabi has gone after children in the past when it benefits his mission (Bakugou would like a word). So let’s look at four examples of Dabi and his principles concerning kids--since, after all, he claims to be motivated by heroes who hurt kids.

Firstly, Dabi’s “save the cat” when he spared Aoyama.

Why did he spare Aoyama? We can only speculate, but it seems quite likely there are two reasons: 1) hurting Aoyama would not add anything to his overall goal of downing hero society, and 2) a terrified, cowering kid might just have been a teeny bit familiar to Dabi. Here, his ideals--destroying hero society--either take a backseat to a reflection of his personal pain (and)/or his ideal of not abusing kids directly contradicted his ideal of bringing down hero society. But the important part is that in this instance, Dabi chose mercy and the goal of bringing down hero society was jeopardized as a result.

So then why did he attack Tokoyami, Nejire, and Shouto this arc? Well, Dabi does things he knows are wrong for the sake of accomplishing his overall purpose. He does things he knows hurt himself for this purpose. This isn’t new. If he can’t be acknowledged, can’t exist as a person with emotions, then he at least will ensure he still has a purpose.

In addition, let’s look at what sets Dabi off in all of these instances. (Again, this isn’t me saying “well actually Dabi’s justified.” He’s not. I’m just pointing to what’s in the text to explain the machinations beyond “bad guy do bad.”)

Dabi tries to reason with Tokoyami, pointing out that Twice was doing essentially what Tokoyami is doing: trying to save his friend(s), but Tokoyami doesn’t listen (also again: not me saying Tokoyami should have listened--realistically, in this situation, it makes sense Tokoyami trusted his mentor!)

Only after his reasoning was rejected did Dabi go to flames mode. He could have just let Tokoyami save Hawks, but instead he really wanted to kill Hawks and that overrode his other principles. Was this just because of his furthering his goal--killing the #2 hero would help destroy hero society--or because of a sense of personal revenge for Twice? That’s open for interpretation (in my opinion, it’s likely a mixture, because again, it tends to intertwine more than Dabi likes to think it does). His principles and/or emotions are brushed aside, and Dabi Does Not Like That.

Dabi does this again with Shouto this chapter, asking him where he stands on their family issues, and gets brushed aside, and then Shouto goes into his rage mode and Dabi responds. Again, not saying Shouto is rational here or that he should side with Dabi’s murderous plan, but like, his words really don’t come across well to Dabi.

Dabi going after Shouto after explaining things, asking Shouto for help, and then having his pain dismissed is pretty much a repeat of Tokoyami. When Dabi’s pain is dismissed, he says fine, let’s aim for the highest principle possible: making Stain’s will a reality, and damn any emotional ties.

Dabi’s obsession with ideals, you might say, is a smokescreen to cover his own pain. Far from feeling nothing, he feels very deeply. (I promise I’m getting to Nejire.)

So what does this indicate? Well, that Dabi does have a heart and a conscience. But when he lets his heart act, when his heart reaches out, he gets burned. His heart jeopardizes his overall purpose, so he most often dissociates himself from it. But by pretending he doesn’t have a heart, he dehumanizes himself, and he projects that dehumanization onto others (see: seeing Shouto as an extension of Endeavor, when that’s actually the precise image Shouto is trying to shed).

It’s not a coincidence that Shigaraki has been unconscious during the entire confrontation with Endeavor, nor is it a coincidence that Himiko has been MIA. But, Shigaraki wakes up a bit this chapter not only when hearing Dabi spout about how hero society needs to burn, an ideal/the thing Shigaraki lacks, and through a less important but still-ideal-driven character in Spinner asking him to accomplish his supposed ideal of destruction, but when Dabi saves Shigaraki and Spinner.

Dabi doesn’t burn Nejire for lols (not that this makes it better because it doesn’t) or even for ideals. He burns her to save Shigaraki and Spinner, because they are his links to full humanity right now.

(Again, this is also dissociation and projection: Endeavor did this! No, Dabi, you did. You’re perpetuating violence against kids rather than stopping it.)

But anyways, when Dabi calls upon heart, Shigaraki wakes. He lends Gigantomachia and thereby Dabi and the league power.

Dabi can only grow and actually accomplish anything related to his ideals (fixing hero society) through accepting a heart--even though that will likely mean some painful surgery to shift his ideals to accommodate said heart, because pure ideals don’t leave much room for humanity. He needs to feel to actually change anything, because right now he’s just making things worse (hence, the need for saving and redemption).

I know the League aren’t the protagonists of the serIes, but their complaints aren’t exactly incorrect either (if anything they’re almost a little too valid). But through growing together, Dabi, Shigaraki, and Himiko might actually be able to accomplish something, and get themselves in a place where they can be reached and saved by Shouto, Deku, and Ochaco. Because to be saved, the kids will have to acknowledge the villains’ pain and complaints, and do something about it.

#bnha 292 #bnha meta #mha 292 #mha meta #dabi #todoroki shouto #todoroki touya #todoroki enji #hado nejire #toga himiko #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #best jeanist #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha theory #mha theory #league of villains #spinner

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chemicalpink · 3 years

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대취타 (DAECHWITA) | EMPEROR!YOONGI X READER | FINAL

Pairing: Emperor!Yoongi x Assassin!Reader

Words: 3.5k

Genre: Emperor AU, Historical AU (kinda), smut, angsty

Warnings: mentions of death, mentions of historical public execution, oral sex (male receiving), lowkey breath play, unprotected sex

A/N: FINALLY IT’S HERE. I hope you enjoy, I had a hard time trying to make this not seem lame so here it is! please let me know what you think!

Summary: You used to be an assassin, got caught and works at the palace as a servant up until you are escorted to the main palace, either to meet your inevitable destiny or for a change of plans.

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4

Forehead resting against your own as you found yourselves panting, him sliding out as your spasming cunt dripped with both of your releases onto the floor, placing one more soft kiss on your lips with his eyes closed “Marry me”

You almost sat up with a start. Suddenly the world was bright and hazy. Yoongi had opened his eyes and they were digging like daggers into yours, an unusual look on him. You looked at the emperor apologetically before turning your gaze to the end of the room where there was a pile of books, silently detangling yourself from him.

The silence was deafening.

Then again, who in their right mind proposed marriage while having their cock buried deep inside some assassin turned royal slave. All the same, Min Yoongi wasn’t exactly known for having a right mind. But it wasn’t just the fact that he had proposed seemingly out of the blue, more than it was everything that came with it. The words seemed to tangle themselves inside your brain as you hear him say them over and over again. That he couldn’t think of himself marrying some woman that was inferior to him in mind and spirit. That he had wanted to marry to someone he loved. To think that Min Yoongi had proposed you marriage not in the heat of the moment but fully conscious of his actions would not only mean that he was in it for the great sexual escaped you two regularly went on, but because due to some fucked up mindset the royal had, he believed he could love you.

Yoongi reached for your hand in an attempt to get your attention, face soft with post orgasmic bliss as he repeated the ill fated words “Marry me, Y/N”

You snapped out of his hold. “Yoongi I don’t think you understand the situation”

“What is it then, please do enlighten me, Y/N cause from what I understand is me asking for your hand in marriage, twice now” he blinks a few times, looking at you expectantly, crossing his arms like a petulant child

“FUCKING READ THE ROOM MIN YOONGI ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND”

“Well I’m not, but you seem to be”

“I’m a fucking assassin, my hands? they will forever be tainted red” you look down at your hands and the blond man comes near to hold both of them inside his

“Y/N I couldn’t care less about that, it’s not like I’m a saint either”

“You just don’t understand”

“Then help me out” somehow his ever consistent and aloof tone gave you more chills thana you could’ve imagined if he were to raise his voice at you “Y/N I’m serious with my proposal, the sex is amazing, but you’ve proven to be an excellent addition not only to my court, but to my life”

You are shaking, voice trembling and just above a mere whisper “I was the one that killed your mother on that freezing December night”

He freezes in place.

He seemed oddly composed for someone who had just been told the responsible of his mother's death was none other than the woman he thought he wanted to marry

You remember how a few years ago, he had gone on a killing rampage, exposing heads outside his palace as if they were homemade decorations, swearing to find the person responsible for his mother’s death and get revenge. It had been months of bloodbath. Some had considered the emperor’s son to have gone completely out of his mind.

You storm off. Not before accepting the responsibility of your actions, perhaps Yoongi had also been a good addition to your life “I’m fine with you deciding to execute me for my crimes, I understand whatever sentence is best fitted for me, your majesty” for the first time since you had arrived at the palace, you don’t dare to look him in the ye, opting to follow court protocol and bow deeply before taking your leave, attempting to detangle yourself from your messed up robes and even more messed up string of thoughts.

The following days to that conversation were a blur and for the most part, uneventful, the emperor had opted not to gravitate your way unless strictly necessary, oddly enough, the air wasn’t awkward at all, it was as if nothing had ever happened between the two of you in the first place. Yoongi had retreated to being an aloof ruler, along with regular trips to meet his once very occupied and spoiled rotten concubines, all the while you were kept apart from. Sometimes, you would receive jobs outside the palace and were expected to fulfill them according to instructions. More times than not, you were left wondering if you would make it back to the palace or if it was one hell of an excuse to execute you.

Hearing approaching footsteps, you couldn’t help but hide the best that you could behind one of the hostel’s walls. Hooded and well muffled with the cape, as you did your best to camouflage yourself into the shadows and become a mere wisp of darkness. A maid from the hostel trudged to the open window and closed it, grumbling. Lightning illuminated the landing. You took a deep breath and reviewed the plans that you had so painstakingly memorized throughout the three days you had been guarding that building on the outskirts of the kingdom. Five doors on each side. The target’s bedroom was behind the third one on the left.

Stealthy as a specter, you walked down the landing. You pushed the target's bedroom door, which opened with an almost imperceptible squeak; waiting for another thunder to rumble to close it carefully. A second flash of lightning illuminated the two figures sleeping on the canopy bed. Young Hee must not have been over thirty-five. His son, small and beautiful, slept soundly in his arms.

“I’m not murdering a poor kid’s mother”

“So you’ve gone soft”

“No I haven’t gone soft” “What could a poor merchant woman have done to you for her to deserve such an end to her life”

He sits down on his throne “You didn’t even hesitate when killing my mother, though”

“Yoongi I-” he turns his head to you, a sharp gaze following your every move, as if he was a predator waiting for the precise moment his prey took a wrong turn to jump on them. You turn your gaze to the floor immediately “Your Majesty”

“Listen Y/N- I’m a very busy man, so I’ll make it easier for you” he stood up from where he was sitting, and although you weren’t looking directly at him, you could hear him move around the room until you were able to see him stop right in front of you, a hand you were so familiar with once caresses your cheek as he grabs your chin and forces you to look at him face to face “It’s either her life, or your life. Easy choice, Y/N”

You can feel your heart wanting to burst out of your ribcage at that exact moment, finally understanding the importance behind such a horrifying task, the mirroring in the situation. And the choice was as simple as it could get. “Kill me instead”

You could see the rage inside his eyes, even as he stood still for a few second, steady as ever, unfaltering as he called over one of the palace’s servants to get him the royal seal, the infamous red ink that decorated the skin of those in line to be executed by the royal himself, an utmost sign of rage, of personally wronging the monarch. A sense of longing crossed his gaze for half a second as he locked eyes with you before he took your wrist in his hand and stamped the cold ink on it; you couldn’t keep your body from reacting to the action, whether it was having him touching you again, the almost imperceptible stuttering of his movements when he did so, or the knowledge that you’d have to face an execution, making you shake lightly as adrenaline filled your veins.

Preparations were something the emperor certainly didn’t scattered in, back when he became known as the cold hearted borderline psychopath he had a vaste fame of, ikt was mostly do to the whole antiques that surrounded his personal executions, the way that they seemed to mimic a kingdom’s festivity was almost breathtaking, were it not for the fact that the main entertainment of the day would be having you publicly executed. You had been waiting for that night for a whole week. Sitting in the wooden corridor nestled to one side of the golden dome of Min Yoongi’s personal library, remembering how the last time you had been there, things were so different from how they were now, where the emperor had asked you to marry you in the worst way possible and you had confessed the greatest murder of the dynasty; you let yourself be carried away by the music that rose through the amphitheater. With your legs dangling under the railing, you leaned forward and rested your cheek on your crossed arms. One could almost swear the palace was preparing for a wedding, if the way you were constantly dressed up and down during the week, the way the palace’s servants were constantly bustling around the building to ensure the greatest quality for the evening, the greatest night for the kingdom. The execution of the Empress’ murderer.

“You seem oddly calm for someone who's about to be executed” Jungkook mentions as he approaches where you were currently hanging out, a few minutes to spare before a small group of designated maids were to call you to get you ready for the night.

You look up at him tiredly, without separating your head from where it was laying, catching him taking a seat by your side in the most infantile way you had ever seen the royal guard do, shrugging to no one in particular, you add “You know, accountability and stuff”

“Oh and she grew a moral compass during her time here” if he was expecting a bickering comeback, the way you used to do back when he was designated to look after you, he was certainly not getting anything other than be met by an extended silence that seemed to rise the tension and seriousness of the whole interaction between the two “Why are you letting this happen to you?”

“What are you talking about” this time, you do turn to face him, confused as to where he was expecting the conversation to go.

“You didn’t kill his mother”

“I did”

He huffed out air, sounding a bit exasperated at your response; you could have even sworn you saw him roll his eyes faintly “No you didn’t, you were a mere 15 year old” there was a bit of laughter behind his sentence before he regained his composure and went back to his former self from a few minutes ago, looking at your face quizzically as if there was something hidden in there that held the answer to his question “So why are you doing this”

You try and miserably fail to convey a nonchalant look on your face as memories of your time with the emperor fill your mind, not just the carnal ones, but those where you would watch him work for his place in the royal hierarchy, the soft sides around the rough edges that were publicly hidden on purpose, turning away from the guard you say softly “Yoongi’s a great man”

“Okay sure, he could do with a more...tame temperament, but what does that have anything to do with you chopping your own head off”

You try your best to ignore the way your heart seems to physically ache at the thought behind the answer; you almost don’t get enough strength from within to mutter “I’m hoping to get him some closure, be an even better ruler”

“That’s- definitely not how it’s supposed to work Y/N” Jungkook says incredulously

“I was technically part of the killing so, it’s all the same”

He huffs before going to stand up, dusting off his uniform and already facing away from you, before you can hear him call for you one last time “Yoongi’s in his room, you know, he was looking for you a few hours ago, in case that information helps in any way”

So perhaps you were naive for thinking that he would answer his door, he would have no reason to do so, especially given the circumstances, if it were you, opening the door to the person that had confessed of murdering your mother, and having them come up at your room, you wouldn’t even need to think it once to decide not to further interact with them, but Jungkook had said Yoongi had been looking for you before, so the chance of him wanting to see you alive one last time were there. Unless you were reading it all wrong. You turned your back on the huge wooden door you had come to know as the emperor’s bedroom a few months back, resigned, when you heard the creaking of a door opening and a calm steady voice.

“So you’re going to just knock on my door and run away the same way you entered my life and are now leaving it forever?” his frozen tone still having an effect on your body as you turned to face him properly for the first time in what seemed like an eternity “Came to discuss a bargain for your life?”

“Not at all” you lock eyes with him when approaching him, until you were practically inside the room, his judgemental gaze still on you “I wanted to say my goodbyes properly, your majesty”

“Then don’t waste my time and come in already, Y/N”

The royal wasted no time in cornering you against the door, face so close to yours you could feel his breath on your skin, the tip of his nose nuzzling the side of your face and you knew him enough to know he had his eyes closed to keep his composure as he talked “I’m going to miss you like a fucking mad man”

It felt like falling back into routine, the way he kissed you, down to your neck up to your collarbone, pushing past the robes that covered your skin, in preparation for the ritual, his hands roaming freely in a familiar way, grabbing all the right places as he draws little sounds from your throat, all while he worked the both of you to where his bed was placed, although he was giving your body and pleasure a decent amount of attention, you couldn’t brush off the fact that he irradiated an angry aura, words left unspoken as he got his anger out by pleasuring both of you. Maybe himself more than you, as he removes himself from caressing your body as he usually did and positioned himself above you, his member laying flat on your already expecting tongue,as soon as you realised what his intentions were when he started undressing himself, his hips thrusting a few times in an experimental manner, soon enough finding a pace at the same time as you bobbed your head up to capture as much of his length as you could inside your mouth, your hands captured under Yoongi’s weight, unable to help you work him further, the way you’d done before.

You feel him start to thrust further into your throat at one particular kitten lick of yours to the tip of his cock, your head starting to hang from the edge of the mattress you two were on as he picked up the pace, his cock filling you up all the way until it hit the back of your throat a few times, you trying to whine around him, only further encouraging him to take a handful of your hair and push you further against him, your gag reflex taking the best of you as he held you there, nose close to his navel, deep grunts ripped from his lips, the air leaving your lungs and becoming slightly light headed after a few seconds of you tapping his thigh in a motion to let him know to let you breathe, at which Yoongi locked eyes with you, a mix of anger and longing in his yes as he thrusts a few more times as saliva started dripping from your mouth, tears decorating your pink stained cheeks before he removed himself from you, giving you a few seconds to gain air before he repositioned both of you. A deafening silence taking over both of you, as you were still catching your breath and he positioned his cock at your entrance, his tip, wet with your saliva, playing with your folds for a few seconds, as you take a sharp intake of air when he enters you and immediately sets a slow deep pace. You can feel his member filling you up perfectly, mind racing with flashbacks to all those other nights before where the emperor and you shared endless nights all over the palace.

The knowledge that this would be the last time creeping up in the back of your mind. You feel an unfamiliar wetness hit your neck where Yoongi was kissing your skin, rolling down as you identified it as tears, as he was still passionately thrusting into you.

“I don’t want to lose you” his voice barely above a whisper, trying to conceal the way his chest was tightened with sadness

“You have to let me go, Yoongi” one of your hands comes up to caress his locks as he pushes up to stare at your face, anger long gone and replaced with utter sadness before one last thrust has him filling you up with his seed, warmth enveloping you, a soft whimper leaving your lips as his cock leaves your cunt, a briskly wind coming from the window causing your body to shiver for a second at the loss of body heat on top of you.

“I guess this was it then” his cold and unnerved facade was on again, making the cold shivers in your body that much worse as you watched him adjust his clothes and walk out of the room, leaving you to dress yourself and ultimately face your fated destiny at the end of the day.

The palace’s front plaza is filled to the brim with spectators as the news got out that the Emperor was finally getting revenge for his mother’s killing, people from the kingdom and even some people from neighbouring ones all lined up in the outer sides of the fire marks that decorated the space to illuminate the middle path where you were placed in the end of it to walk your way up, two unknown guards on each side of you as each grabbed your elbows to push you forward, the rope certainly leaving marks on your skin as it was wrapped tightly around your wrists.

You could only catch a glimpse of Yoongi’s blond hair, wrapped in his infamous black and golden hanbok, drums roaring in unison, people screaming as you watched him take the sword from the swordsman that had prepared the ritual beforehand, as someone wrapped a cloth around your eyes and you were promptly pushed forward, legs buckling every few seconds as you came to realise what you were about to face, it hadn’t been clear before, mere seconds away, finally falling to your knees, head bowed down in resignation as you could barely hear the sharp sword cutting the air around you, gasps from the crowd filling the air along with the constant sound of the drums around you. You could only hope your death would bring much needed peace to the monarch and his kingdom. Your heart seemed to want to burst out of your chest, if anything, Yoongi was known for being an espectacular swordsman, which hopefully made the whole execution that much easier. You could hear cheers and a metal cutting the air before your body fell limp to the ground.

But your consciousness never left, the drums couldn’t be heard anymore, cheers were replaced with confusion as a pair of hands helped you up to your knees, fumbling with the cloth around your eyes to come face to face with Min Yoongi kneeling before you, a subtle smile on his face as one of his hands caressed your cheek before helping you up beside him.

“I’m sure you all must be confused right now” he announced to his subjects “This woman right here, has got more courage in her than anyone that has ever worked for me, any of us, for that matter. Which is why I’m asking once again, publicly, for the first time, for her hand in marriage” he turned to face you, as you were still dazed by the whole ordeal, his hand in yours being the only thing holding you down “Marry me, Y/N”

#kwritersworldnet #thebtswritersclub #bangtanarmynet #hyunglinenetwork #networkbangtan #bangtanuniversity #yoongi smut #bts smut #bts imagines #min yoongi imagine #yoongi fanfic #min yoongi smut #bts fanfics #bts fanfic #yoongi fic #yoongi scenario #bts scenarios

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

Text

8 Anti LO Asks

1. It doesn’t really make sense for a long term comic such as LO to have such a drastic change in the artstyle, and even more you can’t really call it an improvement when all the interesting parts of the art style are now gone and all that it is now it’s just some basic same-face and body art style with barely any backgrounds. RS is incredibly talented for illustrative artwork and it’s really a shame she’s not doing that anymore and instead has left it to her team, with leaving them very messy sketches. The artstyle in the beginning had life and glamour and now it’s just very dull and boring. That’s not an improvement

2. I genuinely can’t think of any man in LO that’s even half way decent. Poseidon maybe? Hephaestus? Those are the only two I can manage, meanwhile the rest are either Rachel purposely ruining them because of her own biases (Zeus, Apollo, Thanatos to an extent) or are “good” men who are just creeps who disrespect all the women around them and are super creepy and obsessed over a literal teenager who acts like a child (Hades, Ares, Hermee, Eros, etc). The women aren’t much better either.

3. About Perse making Hades childish: (this is no way defending him, just some speculation, and tbh I doubt that RS has thought this through haha) I wonder if he becomes a horny teenager around her because she’s a goddess of fertility? Would that have any affect on him? Doesn’t excuse his creepy ass behavior, but could explain it a bit, I guess?

4. Okay so I'll be honest I dont really see any reason to 'simp' over Any of the LO characters?

Also, not to start sh*t, but - I think part of the reason why some of the LO fandom does not like Zeus (and perhaps gives Hera more leeway - at least in terms of cheating) is because:

Mythologically Zeus is a known cheater / rapist (Io for example, or Semele)

They see Hera cheating a Zeus as okay (its not) because he's been known to cheat on her in the past / fans see Hera cheating on Zeus with Hades as 'justified revenge' for what he's (Zeus) put her through

I'll be honest I dont really see Zeus (or Hades for that matter) as good rulers because

Despite other deities (like Eros) doing 'acts of wrath' - they get away with it because they often have someone to back them up (like Aphrodite offering to sleep with Zeus to get her son out of trouble) - but the one time Persephone does something wrong (an act of wrath) - Zeus wants to give her the Prometheus treatment - mainly so he can feel like an in control king whos subjects respect him

The reason this sound so odd is because of RS writing choices. Zeus is a grade A d*ck who is willing to destroy a 'young girls promising career' because she made 1 mistake that one time. But at the same time the act of wrath is framed oddly because Demeter doesn't want her daughter to get in trouble so she covers it up (its like the equivalent of hiding a murder from the cops).

Zeus wanting to Prometheus Kore seems overly harsh because she is a Child. (Well a teenager) - so it adds to the "Zeus is a d*ck" card, because she doesnt have the life experience to "get away with" stuff like the other deities because she is young AND sheltered.

Like again, the whole concept of Human Laws applying to Gods is so confusing:

Would Zeus have been this harsh if Demeter had simply come forward in the first place about Persephone's murder rampage? Why did she blackmail / get other deities involved to cover it up? Is Zeus THAT much of a d*ck in Demeters eyes that she knows he would harshly punish a child for something "she didnt mean to do" (killed mortals based on a feeling?)

Why is there a motherf*cking trial in the first place? Do All the other deities get the right to a fair trial or is this a special case? (Like can any deity just offer to sleep with Zeus and he'll let them off the hook?). If the other deities had commited the same crime would the trial / punishment be the same or does Zeus just have a rage boner because he was lied to? If thats the case then why are the other deities taking Persephones side during the trial? (Ares I can maybe understand cause hes the God of War and stuff but everyone else is taking Perse's side because their either her personal friend or family member (Hecate, Hermes, Demeter, Hades etc).

Why are there certain laws like "Zeus cant get to Persephone because she has clemency in the underworld" but other deities - including Leto, Demeter and others (like Perse's nymph family) can just stroll into Hades house? Why is Hermes still on house arrest? Why are Hades + Persephone throwing a house party when shes on trial for scythe crimes??!!!

Why are the gods bound by such petty squabbles?

The way RS set up the governing "laws" in universe just doesnt make a whole lotta sense. Also, sorry this got ramblely.

5. Tbh i don’t think that Hades acting differently when he’s with Persephone is a bad thing, as a concept. But there are many issues with this such as the fact that Persephone is barely legal and Hades act like an actual child around her. Obviously when you’re with someone they are going to act different than they do when they are at work. The problem is that Hades essentially goes from the “cold-scary king” to a 17 year old hormonal boy when he’s with Persephone. And him making out with her in a middle of a store or them golfing with diamonds or him making out with Persephone again in front of his workplace is not exactly acceptable behaviour from a king. If Hades acts all lovey-dovey with Persephone when their at their home together it’s different, but when they’re at a public place they can’t really do that. I would say that he has to keep a status about him but from what we’ve seen all the citizens of the underworld hate him and don’t respect him at all, from yelling at him to actually fighting with him, so idk how much status there is actually attached to him

6. I swear, the majority of the “cute” HxP moments in LO just seem like a single father dealing with his hyperactive 8 year old over the supposed future intimidating rulers who Rachel is obsessed about talking and drawing their sex life. Is it really that hard to depict Persephone even acting like a smart teenager at the very least, as opposed to an airhead grade schooler? It doesn’t scream cute to me, it seems more like a father/daughter relationship. It’s just weird.

7. i mean, i have a LO oc who's persephone's brother (fertility god) between demeter and zeus. dude got thrown into tartyrus to cover up the affair and now serves cronus. he was the god of summer, and my reasoning was demeter's seasons/harvest + summer thunderstorms. wrote a whole minific i will never post about him and persephone realizing everyone around them are assholes and healing together. so the mistress-of-zeus oc isnt that weird.

8. I’m not a Zeus stan by any means, but I do find him one of the most interesting characters, and one that RS has, in her attempts to make him be the worst ever to make Hades look better, actually way more interesting and compelling than the majority of the cast. He doesn’t lie or whine to the audience he’s some good person like Hades when he’s not, he owns that he’s a dick and doesn’t bullshit the audience into thinking he’s someone he’s not. RS tries to show us he’s a “bad” king, yet we see no proof it beyond what, he wants to uphold the law P broke and doesnt kiss Hades’ butt? That’s not a bad king, it’s a good one that he doesn’t let family ties or lust cloud his judgement, unlike Hades or Hera, for example. I don’t condone his cheating either, but it’s not fair to hate him for it, but love it that Hades cheated on Minthe so he could get into a teenager’s skirt and praise Hera for sleeping with her brother in law while punishing Zeus’ mistresses because she’s being a fake “loyal” wife. Just because he’s a deeply flawed, even a bad person doesn’t make him a bad character. Hades and Hera and even Persephone are awful people who do worse than Zeus, yet they’re loved and praised for it, all while being written with the depth of a puddle.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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headoverjojo · 4 years

Note

Hey can I request a scenario where all of La Squadra survived to Bruno's gang but s/o (who is like a sibling figure), and then one day they discovered that she/he is in fact still alive but held captive by another gang, this gang saved her but instead of healing her they were keeping her in a comatose state (or artificial coma). Then the squad went to save them. Feel free to ignore if it's too specific or what so ever!

Hello there, honey :3 Ooooh I loved this request so much!! I hope you’ll like it! I had so much fun writing it :3

La Squadra di Esecuzione finds out that their sibling-like teammate is alive but kept in a comatose state by a rival gang and they go to rescue them

(Under the cut for length, blood, murders, and so on!)

Risotto and his men always thought that seeing the Boss’ demise would have been sweet. And it had been, all in all. They never felt such a satisfaction, a pleasure like that. Seeing the fear and the panic in his eyes, when Gold Experience Requiem nullified without any effort King Crimson’s power, had been… sublime. And that kid, Giorno… he was a good boy. And he had showed more than once to be a born leader. With some assistance, support and time to learn, he would have become the greatest leader of the whole Italian criminal world, Risotto thought.

It would have been absolutely perfect, if all his teammates were there. Gelato, Sorbetto… G/N. Sorbetto and Gelato’s deaths were still painful wounds, but, now that the Boss, Cioccolata and Secco, the very people who had planned and acted to kill them, were dead, it was more… bearable. It still stung, like an old wound never completely healed, but it was way more bearable. Now that they have been avenged, they could rest in peace. But G/N…

They hadn’t even found their body.

Bucciarati and his kids didn’t know what happened to them, as no one of them ever faced G/N. They had been intercepted before they could even try to stop Bucciarati and kidnap Trish; just later, when the Squadra finally faced Cioccolata and Secco, they found out that the two were responsible of their death too.

None of the Squadra members held back, when they finally had the chance to give them the final blow.

And still… the body was nowhere to be found. They had searched everywhere, in every corner, in every dark alley. They had scoured every centimeter of the drainages, they had interrogated every informator they still had. And they hadn’t find even a trace of them. The new Don had helped them, of course, but not even him and Passione’s great resources could do anything. G/N just seemed… to be vanished in thin air.

Nevertheless, they never gave up. They all loved G/N, they loved them fiercely. They had been the glue that even in the darkest times had kept together the group. They had been always here for every single one of them: they were the one who always calmed down Sorbetto and Gelato when they had a fight, leading them to forgive each other; they were the one who, when Risotto was feeling down, usually around his cousin’s death anniversary, sat down with him, with two glasses of liquor, to make a toast in his cousin’s honour, and to listen to his stories about him. They were here when Prosciutto had panic attacks due to all the anxiety and responsibilities that weighed on his heart and when Pesci needed few words of encouragement. They always listened actively to Melone’s happy ramblings about the last news on a scientific magazine, and they always helped Illuso to perfectly organize his archives in the mirror world, chatting with him. G/N was the only one able to calm down Ghiaccio when he was deep in one of his furious rampages, and the only one who saw Formaggio without his usual cocky and smug facade.

And now they were gone.

The Squadra, however, wanted to honor them one last time, to give them a proper burial. They wanted them to have a place where G/N could rest in peace and where they could go to pay their respects. G/N deserved this. But, without a body, they couldn’t do it.

Their hunt had been frustrating and useless until a cold December day, more or less eight months later. That day, when they made their usual weekly round of interrogations, one of their informators shared something interesting.

“There are rumors, you know… about the Artiglios. I’ve heard they keep captive someone… I’ve asked about it, of course, and you know how persuasive I can be, yeah, do you remember when- the man stopped, when he saw Prosciutto’s jaw tightening. It wasn’t a good sign… maybe it was better to go straight to the point. An irritated Prosciutto wasn’t good, he knew it too well. -Anyway, I’ve offered this dude a couple of drinks, you know, the strong ones, and oh boy he started to sing like a nightingale. He said they had found this person and that they were barely alive. They thought they were a poor soul and, well, they decided to heal them, hoping they would have been useful to them. And well… when they finally cleaned their face from all that blood, they recognized them. It was your teammate, you know, G/N, the one who seems to be vanished. They have them, as far as I know, but honestly I don’t know if your G/N is fine, if they chose to stay with that gang or what. Maybe they died. I don’t know, the guy fell on the waitress’ tits and the barman kicked him out. I would have done the same, if you want to know that, absolutely.” Prosciutto grimaced, disgusted. Still… those infos had ignited again a sparkle of hope in his heart. Maybe they finally had a track to follow…

“And does your dude have a name?” the hitman asked, with a silky voice. The man gulped, shivering. He really didn’t want to be in that poor man’s shoes…

“Antonello Nocera, but he’s known as Svelto. Don’t ask me why, someone says it’s because he’s as fast as a water snake when he has to run from the cops, someone else because, well… he’s not really skilled in bed. Whatever. You can find him at the Torre Nera, drinking until he forgets who he is. I advise you to get there before he’s too far in his dreamy world.” the little smelly man tipped his hat to Prosciutto, before disappearing in the dark alley, careful not to be spotted by anyone. Prosciutto sighed, fishing a little hand mirror from his pocket. Illuso was there, and he knew that, through his mirrors, the whole squad had listened to the news.

“Get him to the HQ, Prosciutto. He’ll sing like a nightingale for us too.” Illuso said, with a malicious grin. Prosciutto nodded, closing the hand mirror with a little snap, and marched toward the infamous bar.

He really wanted to hear Antonello Nocera sing as loud as he could.

Antonello Nocera, or Svelto, was even more a coward than what they thought. Risotto didn’t even had to make him spit razors; a small blade piercing his forearm had been more than enough to make him cry and confess everything he knew.

And so, the team found out that their G/N, their beloved G/N, was alive. They were, in fact, kept captive, and this lift from their heart a weight they didn’t even realised was there. They hadn’t abandoned them… they had been forced to do it. And their teammates would have brought them back, at any cost.

The plan was simple: enter, kill whoever was on their path, take G/N and go back to the HQ. If the Artiglio gang was lead by a wise leader, they wouldn’t have tried to stop them or to get their revenge. If not… they would have tasted the rage of the whole hitman team.

The night of G/N’s rescue was even colder than the prior days. Even Ghiaccio, who usually bear the cold like it was nothing, was freezing. The team waited until the patrol was at the other side of the building, an unimpressive grey block of concrete, to break in.

Formaggio, who was already inside thanks to Little Feet, opened for them the door. While they were entering, Melone noticed, in a corner, a couple of bodies, but no blood; Formaggio knew how to kill discreetly, when he wanted to. They silently run from room to room, dismissing everyone they met: Ghiaccio froze to death a guard who was coming in their direction; The Grateful Dead silenced forever the men in the surveillance room, and Pesci literally teared a guard’s heart from his own chest with his Beach Boy. Illuso tricked a small group of potential dangerous obstacles in the mirror world, and a single motion of Risotto’s hand made appear on five guards macabre bloody smiles on their throats. The Artiglio gang had abducted one of their team; they would have shown no mercy.

Finally, they made their way to the last room. It was mostly dark, and the only little light came from few medical machinery that surrounded a hospital bed. Their heart skipped a beat when they saw, under the thin light grey cover and many small tubes, G/N. Their body was worn and weak, they… they seemed a corpse. And, when they called them, when G/N didn’t even flinch when Formaggio screamed their name and Ghiaccio shook them, the group of men really thought it was, by now, too late. However, Melone, showing more authority than in the past few years, silenced them all. He went near their bed, studying the data on the machinery and their condition with sharp eyes. Then, he checked the IVs and grimaced, understanding what was happening to them.

“So, Melone? What’s this? Are they fine?” Pesci frantically asked, anxious. Melone nodded, after studying also their medical records, sighing.

“They’re in an induced coma. There aren’t brain damages… The Artiglios just kept them asleep with a cocktail of benzodiazepines and remifentanil. Maybe they wanted to use them as bait or as informator… I honestly don’t know and I don’t care. We have to carry them out.” he said and, when he noticed that Formaggio was already going to tear out the IV needles from their arm, he immediately stopped him.

“No! It has to be done slowly, or they’ll suffer permanent damages! We have to carry them out with the IVs. At the HQ I’ll start the awakening procedures.” he ordered, with a harsh and professional tone. With some careful maneuvers, the whole group managed to carry G/N and all the IVs out of the room. Risotto and Pesci, the strongest ones, carried G/N with incredible care, and Melone carried the IVs; Formaggio and Illuso opened the way, and Ghiaccio and Prosciutto closed the group. They didn’t meet any other obstacles and, once they were out of the building, Risotto turned to Formaggio and Ghiaccio, with an unmistakable look in his eyes.

Burn everything down.

The two stayed back, while the rest of the group carried G/N to their headquarters, surrounded and protected by the darkness. When they were near their HQ, that same darkness was lightened by high and huge flames bloomed behind them, right where the enemy gang’s headquarters were. Formaggio and Ghiaccio had accomplished their work.

Now… now they just had to wake G/N up, and everything would have been ok.

This time, for real.

99 notes · View notes

moniquill · 4 years

Text

I’m going to talk about Greedfall. Fight me.

So recently Greedfall was on 70% off on Steam, and I bought it.

I did so fully in the knowledge that this game is a garbage fire. I knew from the moment I saw the trailers back in August 2019, and I made some posts about it:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187141616836/greedfall-comes-out-next-month-on-the-10th-get-so

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187185773016/no-i-will-not-absolve-you-geek-friend

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187213116466/i-think-youve-fundamentally-misunderstood-the

And reblogged people saying more and better things:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187152585746/dalishious-untilthisdreamisgone-akedhi

A particularly large FUCK YOU to Darkfreya, who said this in the comments:

“ I will definitely buy this and hope it does well. We need more games like this. The fact that is a game about colonization does not bother me at all. Your character is neutral (and probably desperate trying search for a cure to a disease that is killing your people) Who you side with is your choice, and I seriously doubt siding with colonizers is seen as being the “good” choice.”

But there’s a valid argument to be made that you can’t REALLY criticize a game just based on trailers and synopses and lets plays and all that. You need to PLAY it, to play it all the way through and get the CONTEXT of the STORY.

So strap in chucklefucks, I did that. All spoilers, no repentance.

Note: I am writing this reaction on the fly as I play. I have had no spoilers except what’s in the promotional material. This isn’t so much a game review as an admonition of bullshit; I will be focusing on the main questline; the things that the game forces you to do to progress the story. I’ll also follow native-specific sidequests.

I am De Sardet, a man or woman who is the cousin of the new governor of The Congregations’ colony on Teer Fradee. I have an unexplained green birthmark on my face. My first quest item is saying goodbye to my mother, the Princess De Sardet, who has the mysterious and fatal illness that’s plaguing the land - the malichor.

There is no mention whatsoever of my father at this time.

In Serene, I futz about doing minor sidequests, meeting my first two companions (Kurt and Vasco), and levelling up by looting boxes and murdering bandits. I get to witness the ravages of the malichor; the streets are full of dead and dying people, there're corpse wagons and bonfires, generally looks like a good time.

I meet with the two representatives of the Not!European nations that The Congregation is a neutral ally to both of. One is Theleme, the super religious spanish inquisition types who dress in Cromwell-era English and French clothing. The other is The Bridge Alliance, who are all about science and technology and seem vaguely middle east to north african flavored - they wear turbans and kaftans, their architecture has domes and minarets, etc. Each representative gives me a quest with MORAL DILEMMAS! Do I deliver the heretics to the guard for arrest, or allow them to escape? Do I do the same for the charlatan alchemist? If I listen to them, they’re all totally innocent, but letting them go is bad for my reputation with the diplomats. Except that I can lie. So yeah… this is pretty much a ‘Do you BE EVIL because you can, or do you act benevolent at absolutely no expense to yourself?’ choice.

As I’m getting on the boat to head to Teer Fradee, I am railroaded into my first boss fight! This bursts out of the side of an adjacent ship:

All I know about it is that it was brought back from Teer Fradee, and that ‘it was supposed to be out for days’ - presumably it’s drugged. It’s visibly injured. I see it take another bad hit from a falling mast in the pre-battle cutscene.

I have no choice but to kill it.

I beat it into submission (with magic, because that's what I spec’d into) and then get a cutscene where it’s helpless and desperately scrambling away from me, gazing at me with intelligent, desperate eyes.

I dispassionately shoot it in the head.

I am hailed as a hero.

Like seriously here’s the video (not mine, just pulled from youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQfIHBIJiAU

We cutscene across the ocean, Vasco gets real serious with some shorebirds, and we arrive at Teer Fradee.

On the steps of the governor’s palace, I have my first encounter with a native - Siora, daughter of a chieftain, who is here to seek an audience with the governor. She speaks to me in the native tongue, presuming that I will understand. She has a facial marking similar to my own. I use my political clout to get her into the palace. When we meet my cousin the governor, he goes on and on about how similar Siora and I look; as if we could be related.

This is the first clue, in the story, that I - De Sardet - have native ancestry. There is no avenue for me to explore this at this time.

Siora wants us to be allies to her clan in their hostilities with the Bridge Alliance. I’m sent to speak with Mal Bladnid - the chieftain, her mom.

I’d like to mention at this time that the designers clearly went out of their way to NOT invoke NDN visual tropes with regards to be people of Teer Fradee - No beads, braids, and buckskins, no flute and drum music. They have an irish/celtic/norse/pagan vibe, as I read it. They have a ‘what even is that’ accent. They also wear a ton of different styles of face paint, the significance of which are never explained.

The game at large seems to assign characters without regard to phenotype - any person of any faction may be european/black/asian in appearance. There are about a dozen faces in the entire game, endlessly recycled. It comes off as :FINGERS IN EARS, SHOUTING “WE DON’T SEE RACE!!!”:

At the first opportunity to talk to Siora back at my legate pad in New Serene, I can ask Siora if she really thought I was a Native. She says that yeah, she did, because I look like one, and she’s never seen a foreigner who’s an on ol menawi - she doesn’t tell me what that means, and I don’t have an option to ask.

Following the main quest line and going to see Siora’s mom, I learn that she’s already taken off to fight a battle. We catch up at the tail end of the battle, hundreds of people on both sides are dead. I meet Siora’s sister, and I can talk her down from a roaring rampage of revenge. We find out that their mom’s been taken. We spend some time optionally looking for and healing survivors - you can also just let them die. Save them, and you gain a reputation boost with the natives. Then we explore the ruins, which are continental in style, and learn about the legend of super doom battle of old vs wave of colonizers the first - the native people made a pact with the land which raised guardians, and in exchange certain people become ol menawi. What this means is not explained at this time, other than it’s a pact with the land and why the native people have magic.

At this point I diverge from the main quest to find out what happened to Siora’s mom; we go to the Bridge Alliance camp and find that she died on the way there. We have to argue/finagle/blackmail the captain of the outpost into allowing us to take her body.

Upon returning to Siora’s village, we find that her mother’s remains have been delivered, but new complication: there are missionaries from Theleme insisting that they had an agreement with queen Bladnid - the village would convert to Not!Christianity and in exchange Teleme would aid them against the Bridge Alliance. If they agree to this, they’ll have to bury Bladvid according to Theleme religious standards. Siora thinks this is bullshit, we must investigate. It is unclear how I’m supposed to pursue this.

I return to Constantin and report on the ancient ruins where the battle took place. He tells me to go see Lady Morange, who tells me to go check out some other ruins near some mines. This continues the Ancient Mystery questline.

I proceed to San Mateus (which is also where I need to go for main questline things regarding talking to the Theleme leaders on the island)

Entering the city for the first time thrusts me into a cutscene so fucking upsetting that I had to put the game away for a while and come back later. Upon entering the main square, I see a priest strangling a native man, while a creature not unlike the one I was forced to fight back in the first boss battle is being burned alive. The priest is demanding that the native man denounce his gods. He then strangles him to death. I am given no opportunity to intervene. Afterward, when I’m able to talk to the priest, I can declare myself as a believer or not - I can answer yes or no, or attempt charisma to weasel out of the question. If I fail charisma I have to answer yes or no. If I declare that I’m not a believer, we have a fight scene. I am not allowed to kill this man; the fight ends as soon as he’s incapacitated. He wanders off, declaring that he won’t forget this and that I’ll have to fight him again later.

THE BURNED CORPSE OF THE TREE-BEING REMAINS IN THE SAN MATEUS SQUARE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

In the palace I meet Petrus, after talking to the Mother Cardinal, Petrus becomes one of my companions. The Mother Cardinal asks me to investigate a native village that she believes is worshipping a demon. Yeah sure I’ll get right on that.

I proceed to Hikmet to talk about their science team’s work on the Malichor, and learn that the natives are very antagonistic toward their people. A soldier interrupts the conversation to tell us that an outpost has been routed in a native attack. I’m asked to assemble a team to investigate a science party that’s gone missing.

I return to Constantin to tell him about meeting the governors; he tells me to proceed with all the questlines I’ve opened and whines about how his parents never loved him. Worth noting at this time that Constantin appears not at all well. He’s pale and has dark circles under his eyes. He claims to be fine, just nauseated.

My main questline threads are now:

An Ancient Mystery

Scholars in the Expedition

Demonicial Cult

I choose to follow the cult one first, because Native involvement.

I proceed to Tir Dob, and meet with the investigators. The leader is frustrated because the natives don’t want to talk to her, and she’s convinced that there’s deep evil afoot. When I talk to the villagers, they dismiss me and tell me it’s not my business. Which, I mean, fair!

Notably, one woman asks about my mark/status an on ol manawi. When I say I’m not bound to anything/I didn’t do anything to bind myself, she tells me that one of my parents must have been a doneigad. I have no opportunity to pursue this.

There is no story-continuing option for me to leave it, or to pursue a path of gaining the villagers’ trust. I am required, by the game’s narrative, to spy on a villager. I break into his house and look at his things; I comment on how terrifying his fresco is and how morbid his altar and how horrible his mask. Siora points out that the mask is just worn to intimidate enemies in battle. It’s identical to the warthog spirit mask I can buy at any number of native merchants and wear. Petrus says that there’s obviously demon worship going on.

I tell sister Ephesia, and she sends me to follow the villager on his journey into a secret place in the forest. He disappears into a sacred grotto. I commune with a tree and experience a narrative, then have to solve a very obvious puzzle to enter the grotto - to invade a sacred place that I am obviously not welcome in. There is no option to refuse to do this that forwards the story. In the grotto I witness a ceremony that’s presented, through cinematography and music, to be SO TERRIFYING AND OBVIOUSLY EVIL because there’s… a small amount of bloodletting? A glowing tree spirit speaks at the end of the ritual and all participants triumphantly shout.

Siora, if in the party, says that the rituals of her tribe aren’t so scary, cementing that the game feels that this ritual is intrinsically horrifying in some way.

We go to ask the chief of the village about what we spied on, and she explains that it’s a ritual to evoke the strength of warriors and invoke a blessing against the Theleme investigators. She tells us that the voice we heard one one of the many faces of nature, and that if we proceed to another location and perform a ritual, we may hear from another face of nature - but that we might not be happy with the results.

We proceed to Vedvilvie, where we meet Aged Hermit. He tells us that a detachment of Bridge Alliance soldiers was here a long time ago, and gives us information about where to find their camp. We explore the swamp, looking at assorted corpses and ruined tents and ancient frescoes, then talk to Aged Hermit again, who tells us about a ritual to summon the earth.

We perform the ritual, and are thrust into a boss battle with Nadaig Vedemen. There is literally no choice but to kill her. The Aged Hermit rebukes us for having done so, calling us murderers and monsters. Gotta say, I absolutely agree with him. Siora tells him to calm down, that we were only defending ourselves. She explains to me that he knew her before she became a Nadaig - that Nadaig are Doneigada who’ve called upon the power of the island to the point of physical transformation. That it will happen to her and to me, eventually. That’s what on ol menawi and the mark means.

There is no opportunity for me, as a player, to avoid killing the Nadaig.

We return to Tir Dob and confront Derdre about sending us into a death trap; she had hoped the Nadaig would kill us. We now know secrets that no one outside the clan has ever known. She asks us not to tell.

I proceed to the Bridge Alliance Scholars’ camp and find they’ve been captured by locals, who want to trade them for prisoners that the Alliance has previously taken. We run into some locals who give us important information about where the prisoners are being held, because they feel it would be better if the prisoners were gone. We meet Aphra, who joins the party and leads us to where prisoners are being held. Two options here - guns blazing bloodbath, or ghost sneak mission where we bust the prisoners out undetected and harm no one. I choose the ghost option. Regardless, upon bringing the rescued scholars back to camp I’m confronted by three natives who I have to fight with. Once defeated, I have the option to either spare their lives or finish them off. Only Siora argues that I should let them live. I do.

We return to Hikmet and talk to the governor. This opens the Search for Panacea questline. Aphra is now a permanent possible companion.

Aphra’s personal quest: More required spying on the natives. Siora greatly disapproves. I have no option to shut this shit down, to tell her ‘No, we are not doing that.’ We spy on the elders, who are having a meditative session where they listen to the voice of en on mil frichtimen. They catch us spying and call us down, chastise us, and then invite us to watch the rest. Aphra makes comments about how ‘it’s almost like they really can hear a voice on the wind; must be delusion-level faith!’ She then says she has to mull this over and to talk about it later.

We proceed to the ruins that Lady Morange mentioned; two of the three required fetch items are in the general vicinity of a Nadaig. It is possible, through sneaking, to reach them without having to fight the Nadaig, so I do that. We find that the people who built the ruins were…. DUN DUN DUN…. From the congregation! We used to be EVIL! Like we’re totally not now!

We report to Constantin, who is looking even more sickly. He tells us to investigate this history with the Nauts and laments more about his daddy issues. He also says that I look too much like a native for it to be a coincidence which, at this point, fucking DUH. This opens the The Prince’s Secret questline.

Meanwhile, on the quest for panacea, I head back to the village where I freed the Alliance prisoners to talk to the chief. There’s several dialog options, since I didn’t go bloodbath when rescuing the prisoners, but there’s also a spying option. One way or another, I gain the information that I need to go to the village of Vigshadir in Frasoneigad to find the Tierna harch cadachtas. Siora knows how to get there.

Upon arriving, I’m told that this is one of the holiest sites on the island and I’m not welcome. Alas, I can’t continue the story while respecting that answer - I can insist forcefully or I can gain the villagers’ trust with a couple of fetch quests. Either way, I end up learning where the Tierna harch cadachtas can be found. I disturb her taking a nap with some salamanders. She’s not at all happy to see me, even when Siora speaks on my behalf. She sicks her salamanders on me and takes off; I have to kill them. I then follow her up a path to a root door that requires an offering to unlock. Siora suggests that it’s a seed; we go back to the village and talk her bodyguard into letting us into her house to poke around. I should mention that there’s a bunch of lootable stuff in her house, and the game doesn’t punish me in any way for taking it. I find the correct seed and we proceed through the root door to a maze that Siora says is SUPER SACRED. Nevertheless, I’m forced to kill a bunch of animals on my way through. I tried sneaking several times; due to bottlenecking, the animals always become hostile. Toward the end of the path, we also come upon an instantly hostile native man, who I am also forced to kill.

We come out on the other side of the maze in Credgwen, just in time to witness the tierna running from and being gunned down by an Alliance solider. Cradling a bullet wound to her abdomen, the soldier is poised to execute her with a pisol shot to the head when Nadaig Fresamen appears and throws him ass over head. The Tierna then tells Nadaig Fresamen to attack us, and I’m once again in a mandatory boss battle where I am forced by the narrative to kill a Nadaig. Once again it ends in a cutscene where I shoot the Nadaig in the head. I think maybe the game designers think this looks badass, instead of coldly sociopathic? The Tierna is visibly distraught, screaming and crying at what we’ve done. She’s about to attack us when she’s shot in the back by the Alliance Soldier, who then says a bunch of Evily McEvil things, then tries to fight us. Upon besting him, I get to either kill or spare him.

I kill the shit out of him.

We bring the very very wounded tierna back to her village, where she wakes up and tries to kill me (Siora calling her off). She explains that the panacea she made is to treat islanders who’ve escaped captivity from the Alliance; those who are captured are gruesomely tortured in the name of science. She suggests that the malichor might be a curse from En on mil frichtimen.

We take this news to Constantin. It is now super duper obvious that he is very sick.

Siora tells us who we need to talk to about En on mil frichtimen, Constantin tells us to do that.

I’m level 16 now.

I hop back to the other main questline, grabbing Petrus and Vasco to go to San Matheus and investigate the Nauts’ problems there. Go to talk to Bishop Domitius but am pulled into a cutscene where Mother Cornelia asks me to get back some sacred tablets that she thinks were stolen by island natives. Yeah, lady, I’ll get right on that. I talk to Bishop Domitius, who accuses the Nauts of being the origin of the malichor. I go to the docs to investigate the rumors. Long story short, the Nauts are fine and I shut down the Inquisition’s investigation of them. When I get back to my residence, there’s a letter asking me to come see some natives at the embassy. Because Native rep[resentation and Native storylines are pretty much all I care about in this game, I pause everything else to pursue that, bringing Siora and Petrus.

I meet with them in the woods, where they’re camped out with the body of an inquisitor they killed. Petrus greatly disapproves. We get some keys and a letter from them, learn that there’s a camp that Native captives are being brought to, and go to investigate the inquisitor’s house for more details. We rummage through his house, find another letter detailing the camp and a chest in the order headquarters. We also find a key to said chest. On our way out, we’re confronted by a bunch of ordo luminus thugs. I have the option to get Petus to talk them down, so I do.

We go back to the place where the natives are holed up and find we’ve been followed by inquisitors. Talk talk fight; we kill them. The natives thank us and say they’ll report this to queen Derdre. I’m now level 17.

I head back to Admiral Cabral to tell her about shutting down the Naut investigation. She tells me that the Nauts discovered the island 200 years ago, the congregation tried to colonize, a few bad apple lords got all tyrannical, and both the natives and thier own workers rebelled against them. The colony was destroyed and only a few survivors made it out. The princes of the congregation swept it all under the rug in humiliation. Then she drops the bomb that I’ve been waiting for the whole game: I am the product of a later Congregation expedition. I’m the child of a Native and was born on a Naut ship. So yeah, I’ve been playing as a stolen child divorced from my native culture this whole time. I’m just gonna leave this link here:

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/14/20913408/us-stole-thousands-of-native-american-children

I immediately go to demand answers from Constantin.

This is a major act shift; things I find out in the next string of cutscenes:

Constantin has the malichor and is totally dying.

Kurt comes in to warn us about a coup d’etat that’s in the works - the coin guard plants to take out all three governors and seize control of the island. Apparently if you haven’t followed his personal questline about abuse within the coin guard ranks, he betrays you at this time. I’ve been doing the companion quests all along but not commenting on ones that don’t involve natives.

After putting down the coup d’etat, I go back to Constantin to rally. We’re now in Act Two, and my main quests are as follows:

The Suffering of Constantin, where I have three leads - San Matheus, Hikmet, and Native.

The Trial of the Waters, where I need to go speak to Glendan.

So I head to Wenshaveye to talk to the healer there. The village is having problems with missionaries and with abruptly and violently aggressive tenlens - animals that are usually docile. The aggressive tenlen attacks started right about the same time the missionaries showed up. Hmm.

There’s an interlude here where I come upon a bunch of merchants fighting a Nadaig and for a brilliant moment I thought I could kill the merchants and save the Nadaig but no. It’s instantly hostile to me and I have to kill it. The killing of Nadaig in this game is treated as a neutral action, like killing wild animals.

So yeah turns out the missionaries brought a vicious white tenlen, holed it up in a cave, it was riling up the others, it killed two village kids who went into the woods to canoodle. I shut all that down, kicked the missionaries out, and was able to bring the healer to Constantin. Plot thread resolved! Let’s go see Glendan.

I can’t get in to see the council without having a seal proving that I’m the chosen representative of a current council member. Fetch quest time - literally I just have to go back and talk to Cadasach, the healer, and he hands me the seal I need. I presume it’s more involved if I’d chosen one of the other healing paths.

I talk to Glendan, he tells me I need to complete the trial of the waters, a new questline opens. Also, the next part of Siora’s questline - promises set in stone - opens. I drop everything and follow that because I’m kind of in love with Siora.

We head to her village and talk to the missionaries, they send us to go see the stone that the agreement was engraved on, we get there and fight a bunch of enemies, the stone is destroyed and we can’t read it. Time to go see the engraver, Caradeg. We get to his house to find it absolutely destroyed. The only clue is a stone bearing the mark of the Dunncas’ clan. So we head to Vigyigidaw. Dunncas tells us that they exiled Caradeg because he wanted to make war on the settlers. Have fun, bootlicker. On my way out of the village I’m snagged by a guy with a side quest; he wants me to get some settlers to stop preventing the clan from going into a sacred glade to replant trees that the settler clear cut. See sidequests for details on that.

Before doing Trial of the Waters, I decide to go check up on Eden and Father Iustinius, bringing Siora and Petrus.

Stolen tablets, lots of talk about how primitive and naive the natives are and how those who aren’t converted are obviously worshiping demons and that’s who must have stolen the tablets.

Siora comments that this place is horrifying, and wonders how the people could have tolerated the priests building continental-style buildings over the top of their village.

We go to talk to the theologians, then to Ler. Because I’m not awesome at Charisma, I’m left with no option except to threaten and bully my way into him giving me the name of an old woman, mother of one of the warriors who left the village. I lose re with both the natives at large and Siora personally. The old woman tells us where to find the exiles, and gives us hints on how to avoid traps and sneak in unseen. She implores us not to hurt her son.

We head for the exiles’ camp. I choose the option where I sneak in and don’t murder everyone, and the old woman meets us as we’re leaving and thanks us for that, saying she’s going to try and talk her son into finding a new clan. We head back to Eden.

They thank us for the tablets, are excited to set out a new expedition, the game tells me to wait 24 hours for the results. So I have to hike my ass to out camp, sleep 24 hours, and haul back to where I just was to find out that a party that went into the swamp ran afoul of…. something.

Siora points out that the survivor was obviously bitten by a poisonous swamp creature and that a local healer probably knows the remedy. We go talk to Ler again.

Ler tells us that the village doneigad is one of the exiles, but that the old woman we talked to earlier knows plants well. I’m pretty sure that if we’d murdered her son to death in the previous quest, she’d refuse to help us. Because we didn’t, she makes us a potion. The wounded guy wakes up and begs us to go and rescue his dumbass loser friends, so of course I do.

We’re going back to Vedvilvie, because of course we are.

We arrive at the camp, listen to both the ordo luminous guy and the research sister whine about how the other is mean/incompetant, and go to investigate the dig sites. We find a dude with a caved in skull who was clearly struck from behind with a mace, a guy who was killed to death by lewolans (big lizards), and a poor chump was was obviously stabbed to death before being fed to lewolans. Siora says it’s pretty clear that Mr Inquisition orchestrated this to frame the research lady. I agree. We go to confront him. Choices: Take a bribe and side with him, tell him to leave the expedition, expose his bullshit to everyone.

The ‘correct’ choice in the game is not to reveal his crimes before everyone, but to banish him. Because [Centrist.jpeg goes here]

We follow the path of San Matheus, come up against a nadaig magamen, murder it to death, and enter a cavern. Long story short, Saint Mat totally became a doneigad. He saw on en mil frichtimen as an extension of the concept of light and prayed to him. Also I found a bitchin’ set of holy armor. I put it on Petrus.

Theleme’s gonna be big mad. We head back to Eugenia to tell her, are confronted by Virgil and the Inquisition. He wants to destroy the relics and evidence that Sait Mat converted to the faith of the island, we kill him to death and go tattle to Mommy Cardinal. I push her to make the decision to reveal the truth to the masses, and to visit the cave herself.

Theleme is not, in fact, big mad.

Anyway, returning to the main questline.

So there’s two options through the cave of testing, bloodbath or sneak. I chose sneak. Touch a basin, have a vision, solve a very easy puzzle - just like the tree one from earlier.

There’s a Nadiag waiting, and the command prompt I have for it after solving the puzzle is ‘Tame’... yanno, like one does with an animal. Because indigenous people are fauna. Fucking gross.

I see a fresco depicting a spirit of the volcano. I go to talk to Glendan. He sends me to find the high king, who is missing. I need to see the rest of the high council: Derdre, Dunncas, Ullan. Guess it’s time to finally deal with the Ullan plotline. See side quests for details.

When I head back to Hikmet, I get a whole string of cutscenes because it’s been a while since I’ve been there - including one where I follow up with the islander rebellion. The governor asks me to parlay with the leaders of the rebellion, where I find out that the on ol menawi who the alliance have been kidnapping from villages have been taken to laboratories for experiments - where they have been tortured and killed. This lines up with all earlier accusations, and with that Hikmet dude who was trying to murder the tierna and me - he said they were going to dissect her. So yeah. I go to thier main camp, and fucking surprise, I was followed by Alliance soldiers who promptly stark attacking. I have two choices: fight alongside the natives or put an end to the rebellion. I, of course, fight on Team Native. I then proceed back to Hikmet to ask What The Entire Fuck, Sir? He denies knowing anything about natives being captured; he assures me that this lab is a medical research center. I declare that I”m gonna take a look at it myself.

I grab Aphra for this, and in the process agree to continue her personal questline. We ask the young apprentices about how to get into the Cave of Knowledge, which, I cannot state enough, IS A SACRED PLACE CLOSED TO OUTSIDERS. Only people who are becoming doneigad are supposed to go there. The narrative makes me. This happening, over and over, gives lie to the premise that the game allows you to make good or evil moral choices - that you can DECIDE to be a good guy or a bad guy. You can’t. You can either choose to violate the sacred spaces of the indigenous people or -not play this game-. There is no ‘Sit Aphra down and tell her that it is implicitly wrong to do this’ option.

So we go to the cave, it has a seed gate, we find some brigands who’ve murdered a native, they’re planning to dynamite thier way into the cave, we can talk them inot leaving or murder them to death, guess which one I chose just guess. We get the seed and enter the cave.

In the cave, we examine several frescoes; one depicts a ritual where, in a circle, someone is pouring blood on a stone in the presence of a Nadaig. Another depicts the same figure, but now marked as an on ol menawi. We then hear people coming and are prompted to hide, because being caught here would sure lose us the trust of the natives. Which we do not deserve at all, after this. The game prompts me to spy on the young people, which I do, listening in on thier conversation. When we leave the cave, Aphra says that clearly we need to spy on a whole, actual ritual. The game teases me with ‘accept’ or ‘refuse’, but the choice are actually ‘start the time now, or later’ - the story doesn’t allow me to ACTUALLY refuse. We show up, and Dunncas actually gives us permission to watch if we don’t interfere.

After the ritual, Alliance soldiers show up. We kill them to death. The chiefs thanks us for having been there. Aphra says we should look into Dr. Asili. So off to the lab we go.

I’m pretty sure, narratively, that I’m supposed to have stealthed my way through this. However, after seeing a pit of burning bodies and people in cages right as I entered, I just bloodbathed my way through. Also arrested the apprentices and killed the fuck out of Asili. Fun fact: Asili gave Constantin the malichor! Also me, but I’m resistant, since native and on ol menawi.

I return to talk to Constantin about the sanctuary and the Hikmet problem and everything and find that he’s gone on a journey with the doneigad healer and things have gone wrong. I set out after him. I follow combat signs and talk to Aiden in wenshaveye, then head to the alliance outpost. We catch up with a badly wounded and unconscious survivor, get him a potion, and then have to wait 24 hours. This is a repeated feature of the game an annoying as hell, because the only way to wait is to return to camp. When he’s awake he describes the attack; animals controlled by some kind of native sorcerer and fire and explosions. A native grabbed Constantin and ran off with him. We continue the investigation - I go to talk to Daren. Daren says that they weren’t behind the attack - no one would ever attack Catasach. Catasach is, btw, super dead. I examine the body. He was killed by something than can wield magma. Good times. Daren tells us there’s a ritual by which a doneigad can see the last moments of his life - only tierna can perform it. Good thing we saved her earlier…. From danger that we put her in….

So we head off to see tierna, and she readily agrees because I avenged her earlier. Pretty sure it would have taken more convincing if I’d let the dude who shot her live. One fetch quest to get spell components later, we’re able to perform the ritual.

Vinbarr did it.

I go to question Derdre, Ullan, or Duncas. The latter two have the best opinion of me, so I hit up Dunncas first. Dunncas tells me to go to Wennshavar. Folks there give me some backstory, tell me to find Cera at the cave of knowledge.

We come upon alliance folks torturing a native woman, presumably Cera. This bitch has a whole ass villian speech. I’m pretty sure she’s one of the people I saved with Aphra’s science team? Could just be a recycled face though. We run down to interrupt. Aphra wants to reason with her, Siora wants to kill her. Yep, it’s the science team I saved. I have several options here; fight them, use intuition to remind them I saved them, threaten them, or let Aphra speak. I choose to let Aphra speak more because I want to hear what she says than anything.

Aphra shames her and reminds her that they left Asili together because of his cruelty. She whines that Aphra knows she’s not REALLY like that, and stomps off like an angry toddler. No fight. Cera thanks us for saving her, leads us to the cave, and opens it for us.

Inside the cave we find a fresh new fresco; it shows Vinbarr going to talk to the spirit of the mountain. He’s gone to join En on mil frichtimen. We see another fresco depicting a nadaig meneimen - the bird/mountain form. Vinnbar’s gonna turn into one. We look at some other murals, I let slip that I’m looking for Constantin, Cera peaces out and seals us in the cave because she thinks we’re looking for Vinnbar on a vengeance quest. We find another way out. The path is now laden with traps because she doesn’t want to be followed. Sorry, Cera, that no one informed you that I am a protagonist and thus no one can prevail against me.

We go to the mountain passage depicted in the fresco, go through a cave maze, and find the mountain trail to the sanctuary. We meet up with Cera, who forces us to fight her. We snag a seed from her body after killing her and her folks to death. Which the game offered no way out of doing. Now we have both seeds and can open the sanctuary. We scamper through some scenic vista and arrive to find Vinnbar burying Constantin with rocks using telekinesis. He says the on en mil frichtimen told him constantine is the bringer of doomtimes. Now we have to have a boss fight. Partway through, he transforms into a nadaig. We continue fighting andf kill him to death.

I sure do murder a lot of nadaig in this game.

We return Constantin to New Serene and I’m pretty sure this is the break into act 3… Catasach made Constantin on ol menawi and he is stoked about it. He has branch antlers and pointy teeth and yellow eyes and feels great. I am concerned.

Time to go talk to Glendan again.

I lose three rep with the natives over, yanno, having murdered their high king to death. I now have to go and talk to the three potential high kings and gain the support of one of them - Derdre, Dunncas, or Ullan. Of those three, Dunncas is the only one who hasn’t tried to murder me or betrayed my trust so… off to Dunncas. His agenda is balance and healing. He easily agrees to let me see en on mil frichtimen if he’s chosen, and tells me how to make sure that he is - if I get a spectacular ancient crown from the grave of the high king that became the first guardian. He expresses distaste for using such a method. Siora is also worried about me making a decision that will impact all of her people. Gotta say that I agree, I have absolutely no place being involved in this decision at all - let’s see if the narrative lets me opt out of meddling! I go to see the other two candidates and hear out their agendas, out of fairness.

Ullan’s agenda is peace and alliance with the colonizers. He also readily agrees to help me.

Derdre wants to repel the colonists and take back the island. She says she’ll let me see en on mil frichtimen only if I rally Eseld/Siora’s tribe and join in the attack on the Ordo Luminous camp. Which, morally, I am absolutely all for. However, it seems like the game is heavily leaning on Dunncas as ‘the right choice’.

But yeah, fuck it, I’m backing Derdre all day long. Lets fuck up some Spanish Inquisition!

I have the option to inform the mother cardinal of the coming attack. Why the entire fuck would I do that?

So I destroy the fuck out of the camp and murder a bunch of inquiition torturers and free the surviving prisoners and gather evidence of war crimes. Then I go to mommy cardinal, who is big mad (Theleme -2 rep) that I didn’t tell her first. Boo. Fucking. Hoo.

Having done that, no there is no way to proceed in the questline without retrieving the crown, which involved murdering a Nadaig Magamen. I get the crown, and Derdre meets me there and rebukes me for entering a sacred place, trying to take the crown and throw the election, as an outsider. She is 100% correct. I give her the crown.

I wait two days and then go see en on mil frichtimen, who tells me that the malichor is the result of how the continental people treat their land. I’d like to pause here and talk about the role of Magical Natives in Green Aesop stories. Let’s review some tropes:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloserToEarth

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InHarmonyWithNature

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNativeAmerican

This some some colors of the wind / Avatar’s blue cat people bullshit, the idea that indigenous people are implicitly and intrinsically more -one with the earth- and that ‘modern civilization’ has lost this, to their detriment, and can only heal through <s>cultural appropriation</s> learning and adopting deep earthy truths known by indigenous people. The point of this in the story is to tell a Green Aesop - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop - it sets a paradeigm of indigenous people being the noblest of noble savages - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleSavage - of indigenous people as a simpler, greener form of humanity. It’s othering. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, check out my post about woo: https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/32577796262/the-following-is-a-post-about-woo

This particular brand of othering of indigenous people directly and personally fucked me up, as an indigenous person, when I was a kid. That could be why I have a personal grudge against it.

Moving along.

en on mil frichtimen alo tells me that Constantin is the bringer of doom times, and that Catasach essentially stole power from the island to keep him alive. I need to put a stop to his endless bitter hateful hunger. So yeah, that’s a thing. I go check up on my dear cousin.

When I show up, emissaries from the alliance and theleme are there begging Constantin for troops and also me; they’re suffering horrible attacks on their outposts and people. They’re blaming the natives. I mean, to be fair I did just crown queen Derdre Kill ‘Em All so….just saying. But moving on, I talk to Constantin about the sanctuary. He...doesn’t react well to the warnings about himself. When I ask him about his body with the island, it sure does seem like he got high on apotheosis and wants another hit. He doesn’t believe that the malichor on the continent is the fault of the continentals.

My main quest lines are now

The attack on San Matheus

The attack on Hikmet

And honestly fuck both those places because both of them were running torture camps but whatever, I guess I’m off to investigate.

Mommy Cardinal over in San Mateus wants me to hit up an outpost that’s being attacked relentlessly by wild animals. Speculation is that ‘island demons’ are controlling them.

Governor Burhan says the same thing’s happening to his folks.

Upon checking it out, the islanders are also being attacked; the animals are attacking indiscriminately, and while having that conversation a guy bursts in to say the guardian of the village (a nadaig glendemen) has turned on his people. So we kill it to death in a boss fight and it’s revealed that the corrupted nadaig was causing the animals to be killrabid. Now that it’s dead, the animals are back to normal.

Samesies over near San Matheus.

A human must be responsible, the creatures wouldn’t be so coordinated otherwise.

Is it my cousin? I bet it’s my cousin.

We go talk to Constantin.

He says ‘ha ha ha nothing to worry about….peace out, my adorable cousin!’ and takes off to parts unknown. I shake down his guards, but all they can tell me is that he’s going north outside the city. I rummage through his papers, and find his journal. Yeeeeah he’s super high on apotheosis and wants to become a god. Like, supplant and replace on en mil frichtimen. And he’s off to ‘get rid of’ some natives in Cwenvar who saw him the other night and might denounce his actions. I’m gonna have to take out my cousin by the end of this game and it will be a tearjerker cutscene. Calling it now.

We head to Cwenvar to talk to the natives. They show me how to spy on Constantin. We follow him to a sacred grove, where he’s clearly gone cuckoo bananas. He’s commanding a corrupted nadaig, which he tells to hold us back - but not kill me. SO we kill the nadaig, and then have a chat with on en mil frichtamen, who confirms that Constantin is trying to gain godhood by murdering god and taking his power. Yanno, as one does. In a cutscene, I list all the people who will totally help me against Constantin. This includes… pretty much everyone, because I’ve diplomatted my way through the game and everyone likes me. Time to go rally armies.

It’s worth noting at this time that on en mil frichtamen calls me ‘flesh of my earth’ and earliet called me ‘the child that was stolen’ - there’s a very ‘YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE’ vibe here, implying that I’m only able to succeed at this task because I’m native by blood - I’m not REALLY a continental and thus a Tainted Person made of Endless Greed. It is my native-ness and my bond to on en mil frichtamen, passed down from my donegiad parent, that allows me to be the hero of this game.

I want you, dear reader, to stop and think about the gross racial implications of that.

Moving forward: We go to ask Dunncas for help in how to break Constantin’s links to the land. He gives me seeds to place at the base of the stone Constantin has erected, to topple them. I have to fight a corrupted Nadaig each time. At this interval Siora points out how wise and attuned to en on mil frichtimen Dunncas is, and I express regret at not choosing him to be high king. TOO SUBTLE, GAME.

So yeah, couple of tedious boss fights.

Having broken his links and gathered my allies, it’s time for the endgame. We go back to the sacred grove where I talked to en on mil frichtimen, I get a series of heartwarming cutscenes with my companions and allies as I ascend to Constantine’s heart stronghold.

I reach Constantin. I have to fight a big bad ultra nadaig, which Constantin tells not to kill me.

He has a long cutscene in which he pleads his case, asking me to bond with him and rule together. I can either bond with him and join him in godhood, which is implied to doom all of humanity to eventually succumb to the malichor because no land can ever be healed now, or I can kill him and save the world like a big damned hero.

Then Mr. deCourcillion narrates the epilogue, where I get to hear about the consequences of all my decisions through the game. My decision to crown Derdre results in forcible decolonization of the island and healing thereof, but the old world nations are plunged into war and the malichor gets worse there. Am I supposed to feel bad? I don’t!

In the ‘best’ ending, Magical Native Healers travel to the continent and teach the sad tained continentals how to live in harmony with nature and heal their lands.

Here, have an every possible ending video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUByGfNXgY

Know what weirds me out as an actual indigenous person? Learning that I’m a stolen child way back in Act 1 never resulted in a quest where I in any way question or explore my real ancestry. I never try to find out what clan my real mother was from or if I have any living relatives. I never look into why the Congregation abducted my mother and why I was raised by Princess De Sardet. The game just feels that this is unimportant. The important thing was that I have Magical Native Blood.

So yeah. That’s the game.

In studying the fandom presence of this game, roughly no one is interrogating the fuckedness of the premise or narrative. The active fandom seems to be mostly people who want to bang Vasco, people who think Constantin is a sad wooby who deserved better (including a lot of people who chose the ‘bad’ ending because they wub himb) and people who want to bang Constantin and justify it because he and De Sardet aren’t REALLY cousins… and people who are just here for The Aesthetic. Fun fact there are exactly 12 F/F fics on a03 set in this universe.

Here, have some examples, all from https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/GREEDFALL and https://archiveofourown.org/tags/GreedFall%20(Video%20Game)/works

https://destiny-rahl.tumblr.com/post/616743783790460928/constantin-de-sardet-my-beloved-otp-this

https://swiveldiscourse.tumblr.com/post/615782041344147456/not-sure-who-needs-to-hear-this-but-this-game

https://totallyamoral.tumblr.com/post/615651870535532545

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766497/chapters/49345631

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676554/chapters/49106921

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20747450

Lots of people compared this game to Dragon Age: Inquisition when it first came out because the gameplay looks similar. But here’s the thing… the first time I finished DA:I, I immediately wanted to turn around and play it again, as a different character, as someone who made different decisions and followed a different romance and brought different companions with me on quests to see their different reactions.

I do not want that with Greedfall.

My first thought upon fisnishing was ‘Oh thank fuck, I’ve seen this to fruition, I don’t have to play this anymore.’

That is not how I should feel at the end of a game.

I feel tired and broken and hurt and used, much like I felt after reading Sister Raven.

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/165881710831/so-today-i-read-a-book-called-sister-raven

Native-specific sidequests of note:

In An Aspiring Merchant, you meet a native merchant in New Serene who’s trying to set up shop; because he doesn’t have the correct paperwork and didn’t follow the bureaucratic process, his stuff keeps getting confiscated. I do not have any opportunity to explore why his lack of paperwork gets his stuff repeatedly confiscated, rather than just getting him sent home.

While I’m getting the paperwork for him, his cousin arrives with a shipment of goods. The guards confiscate the goods again, and arrest the cousin. I go to investigate, and find that cousin threw some punches when the guards once again confiscated all of the goods, and was arrested for disorderly conduct. Ok. So I proceed to the jail and find that he has been sent to fight -to the death- in the arena?! When the prison guard says ‘Hey, it wasn’t me, I was just following orders’ I’m not given an opportunity to ask who’s giving the orders or pursue the miscarriage of justice. I head to the Arena. Despite being a Legate, one of the highest governing offices of the colony, I have no option to put a stop to these shenanigans. I can’t just spring him, or pay bail; I am required to fight beside him to secure his freedom.

Completing this quest opens the Ullan/Vignamri questline.

Ullan wants to trade with Hikmet, Hikmet wants us to secure the roads, we visit another chieftain, he agrees to a meeting, Ullan shows up and shanks him, I shout at Ullan about how that was bad to do, Ullan thanks me for giving him the opportunity.

In Logging Expedition, I follow up on the quest hook about settlers clear cutting a glade that I got in vigyigidaw. Standoff between the natives and the settlers, natives want to plant trees, settlers won’t let them. Three settler woodcutters died recently - after investigation there was a conspiracy to poison them by an elder in vigyigidaw - my character refers to this as an act of vengeance by a hateful old man. Despite having literally just had it explained to us that it was supposed to be an object lesson in why not to clearcut the forest - the meat would have been fine if it had been prepared with a particular (possibly now extinct?) berry.

So we pop all the way down to the congregation colony to ask Mr. Courcillon how to diplomacy this ‘property disagreement’. He tells us to go to the basement archives and then see Lady Morange. Just from a gameplay perspective, this - like many sidequests - is fucking tedious. Just running from one place to another, grabbing a few lines of dialog in each place, with no player decision or engagement. This is a poorly designed game. So we hash out the contract, which was created back where neither side had any understanding of the other side’s ideas of what land ownership means. Manhattan was bought for 60 guilders worth of glass beads, etc etc. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12657/was-manhattan-really-bought-24

We have to prosecute the old man for murder if we want a new land deal signed. To prosecute the old man, we have to go stop a mining operation. It’s just one thing after another, and all of it boring and tedious. I had to stop in the middle of this questline and put the game down not because it was upsetting, but because it was -boring-. I hope that the readers appreciate the work I’m putting into making a detailed critique of this garbage fire.

#Greedfall #NDN stuff #Indigenously Angry #Clusterfuck #NDN #Colonialism: The Game

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a-student-out-of-time · 3 years

Text

Twisted Sister Arc Review Part 1

Hi guys I’m the Anon who does the reviews around here…guess you could call me the Review Anon? Wonder what the lore behind me would be…anyway that doesn’t matter! Point is, I have an Arc to review and Jesus is this a big one. So big that A) I’m doing submissions (with permission from the Mod of course) and B) I’m splitting the review into 3 parts. Heavy Arcs are Heavy and a LOT of stuff happens here so let’s get right into it!

So, the parts of the Twisted Sister Arc are first the Massacre, second is the Mindwipe and third is the Prison Break. Last one doesn’t start with M but I’m not doing rhyming here, but that’s enough time wasting let’s get right into it~

Massacre

Easily the darkest part of the Arc but given the Arc is basically Kanade being a Slasher Killer here, what do you expect? While Danganronpa is a franchise about murder, and we had serial killers in it both canon and fanon the nature of the Killing Game means that a full-blooded mass killing akin to many slasher films hasn’t really occurred in the franchise before. This makes Kanade’s bloody rampage here even more disturbing, as while we have had mass killings before, see Mukuro’s rampage through Giboua Middle School in Killer Killer, those are established as backstory drops for the characters, we never actually see one being carried out in action. And going back to that massacre, Mukuro only did it because Junko thought her sister’s killer intent might have slipped and it’s to prove to her she is still a killer, but here Kanade is killing for cold blooded revenge. And she doesn’t just kill a bunch of randoms as she brutally murders Iroha, Peko, Akane, Nekomaru, Sonia and Kokoro very brutally and very effectively. I knew something was up given that the entire school went into lockdown and all the fighters from Class 77-B were geared to fight Kanade to the death, and Kanade is such a pansy of a fighter that Sonia beat the living shit out of here, and Syo was taken down by the QC, and we all know how terrifying Syo is. But once the bodies started to drop, I knew that the first time that Hajime would reset on purpose was coming up and there were so many questions. Who set Kanade up for this? Someone had to be helping her…. but who and why? Juu could have let her out but he couldn’t have supplied Kanade with her tools and intel (more on that later) so it has to be someone else.

Within the darkness of this timeline there is of course your heroes. There are those like Peko who got a lucky shot on Kanade which set a chain line of events leading to Kanade’s death, Mikako who made Kanade’s injuries worse and Kokoro who stabbed Kanade in the eye. But those small victories led to total loses as even if Peko didn’t die, she would be crippled for life and moreover she failed to protect her classmates from Kanade’s wrath, and Mikako lost her mother, just as she started to finally connect with her. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned two names yet, and that’s because they deserve their own paragraphs, I am of course referring to Nikei and Hibiki.

I’m gonna start with the next person who attacks Kanade and that is of course our Journalist boy here. To say this day has been terrible to him would be a massive understatement as one minute he is suffering an energy crash from downing one too many Red Bulls and having lewd thoughts, to running faster than if he happened to be in Mexico (Seriously, if you happen to be a journalist just don’t go to Mexico) to Hope’s Peak and thanks to Ankle Effects, arriving alongside Hajime to a bloodbath. There’s his constant refusal to accept that Iroha is killed, even though we as the audience knew that given Iroha tried to stop Kanade as soon as she arrived at Hope’s Peak and that Kanade was seen by Sonia and co chopping up security guards, the likelihood of her survival was next to none. This carries on from the conversation Nikei had with Yoruko in the previous Arc where he still believes he is dangerous and that he doesn’t see the other Voids as friends or equals, but rather he took the role as leader because he wanted to have power for once in his life, something he alluded to in the Void Theatre during Chapter 5. However, his reaction to Iroha’s unknown safety, and eventually the truth that Kanade really did butcher the poor painter, proves otherwise. While Nikei’s relationship with his fellow Voids canonically won’t get revealed until LINIQ decides to get around to doing the Onmake mode, in which one of the stories in that is going to be about Void pre Mikado- with someone, most likely Nikei, being the POV character, here the fact his first thoughts upon finding out his ‘little sister’ is dead is to disregard the no-killing rule and just beat Kanade to death, proves that he does care about his fellow Voids, but is in several layers of denial. Out of all the Voids, Nikei is easily the most guarded and paranoid of the lot, and while the others have loosened up around Hajime and co, Nikei still has a lot of inner demons he has to deal with before he could truly open up to the rest of the QC. And Kanade chopping his right hand off, doesn’t help matters though I do give Nikei credit that unlike in the OG timeline, where upon his right hand been blown up by his exploding gun, he just broke down crying, here, he tries to carry on the fight regardless, or he would have had the other person I need to talk about didn’t show up. This is pretty important to establish that while most of the Voids now are pretty far removed from their canon selves and are unlikely to regress back in that, Nikei is still closely tied with his bastard canon self and more work needs to be done for him to detach from that.

But moving on from someone who needs to get some work done, let’s move onto someone who has seen the natural conclusion of their character development, Hibiki! Ever since Hajime and Chiaki rescued Hibiki from her twisted sister (*rim shot*) back in July, she has been making a ton of progress, firstly coming to terms with what Kanade did and her true nature, developing friendly healthy relationships with Class 77-B, the QC and of course a romantic relationship with Hajime. It seemed kind of cliché for Hibiki to fall for Hajime but then again a) Danganronpa can be cliché at times and B) As a Danganronpa Protagonist Hajime cannot turn off his swag. Then there is her officially joining the QC, learning how to fight and being a complete and utter badarse and a caring lover when needed as she confronted Hajime back when he died the second time. We all knew it was only a matter of time when Hibiki had to confront her sister and when Kanade broke into the school, we saw fully, how much Hibiki has grown in the past 3 months. The old Hibiki would have curled up in a corner terrified, crying and probably going into the Puppet State. Here though, Hibiki’s FIRST THOUGHTS upon finding out that Kanade is more dangerous now is to done some armour and get some weapons, and face her sister head on with no hesitation. All without going into the Puppet State at least once, which probably means that its more or less gone now. Kanade tried to talk her sister out of fighting her, but Hikibi isn’t buying Kanade’s insurance anymore and a fight breaks out. If this ever gets animated or becomes a visual novel, I would love to see the Hibiki vs Kanade fight animated as its brilliant, its epic and it’s just so satisfying to see Kanade getting the living snot beaten out of her. You could argue that Nikei’s mauling of Kanade was like that but there, Nikei was more or less in grief due to Iroha’s death and the whole thing was as painful to watch as the final fight in Captain America: Civil War, not saying what because spoilers ahoy. Here though is a glorious battle, as Hibiki gets to deliver justice onto her demonic sister and it is SO SO satisfying, given that a reset happens shortly afterwards.

And sadly, with that, we come to easily the weakest part of not only this part of the arc, but the arc overall, Yasuke’s multiverse theory. It could be written better, and even the Mod agrees that the way it was presented shouldn’t have been the way it worse, that having Umeko throw some ideas at Hajime and him coming to the conclusion that they might have been living in a multiverse be better narrative then Yasuke be like ‘Oh hey I am suddenly an expert on Time Travel now’. It would make Hajime breaking his no kill rule that much more impactful as he doesn’t have the excuses of not only Nikei’s who was currently going through a mental breakdown, and in the current plot where Yasuke more or less planted the seed of doubt in Hajime’s mind. Yasuke still has a role to play in this arc but during the Massacre timeline, I feel like he could have been removed entirely from the plot and not only would it have made no difference, but then most readers wouldn’t be complaining about it as much as Yasuke being a general A-hole wouldn’t tick them off. I’m not saying ‘THIS IS AS BAD AS ONCOMING STORM’ as that Arc was just a giant clusterfuck of a mess, and aside from this one part, the arc is very strong overall, but I will give criticism when due. I’m not mentioning my thoughts on Yasuke as a whole here because he’s more relevant in other parts of the Arc. However, Hajime killing Kanade and himself at the same time is brilliant and seeing Kanade begging for her life as Hajime throws her out of the window is so satisfying given not only all the crap she has been dealing up until that point, but also because in SDAR2, she was 100% fulfilled with the events at that point and given it was HIBIKI who was begging for her life then, let’s just say karma is a bigger bitch then Kanade is.

And that concludes the Massacre part of the Arc as Hajime kills himself and Kanade at the same time and he goes back to just before Nikei started to have indecent thoughts. No time to look at the 3rd page of the national newspapers’ boy, we got a serial killer to stop! And with that I’m stopping here as the Massacre part is finished. But this review is far from over, this is just here because otherwise my, the Mod’s and everyone else’s brains won’t be able to process all of this. Stay tuned for part 2 when we cover Kanade’s capture, a scrum debate among the QC and a bold move by the Mod which I do wish will come up more! Until then, Adios! - Review Anon

//Part 1 of 3

//Finally get to submit these

#mod talks #a student out of time #submission #review-anon

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suffering-and-happy-about-it · 4 years

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Silver for Monsters... (Geralt x fem!Witcher, Part 1.)

Description: The Butcher of Blaviken has a long and famous past, thanks to his friend Jaskier. Yet, neither of those dies easily and it still lurks behind Geralt like a shadow after all those years. History, neither unfriendly relationships, doesn't die easily.

Part summary: A lonely witchress in the woods can mean only one thing - a monster is lurking through the woods and a contract has been pinned up on a local village's board.

Warnings: A bit of gore, magic, Witchress, a werewolf being a bich, Sigimund Dijkstra appeareaing in a mention (if you do not know who Dijkstra is, look him up, he honestly is one of my fav Witcher game characters).

A/N: This one is purely based on my wish to see at least one female witcher, but knowing that the trial of grass doesn't allow that. Because boy? They would tear Geralt’s ass in half.

Word count: 4.4 K

Tagging: (tell me and I will add you :)) @osgon-azure @davnwillcome

Master list: H E R E

Many of you know me. You’ve seen my face, heard my name, or my tales - maybe you even threw your rotten vegetables at me for what I know. It doesn’t matter to me. Such details aren't important in my stories. But no matter how you might hate me - the poet, the bard, the most beautiful man you'd ever seen -, you love my tales.

Indeed, my name is Julian Alfred Pankratz. But when you'd meet me, I would introduce myself as Jaskier or Dandelion. And my most famous tales are going hand in hand with my friend, the legend, Geralt of Rivia. He is the man coming from Kaedwen, the coldest Northern Kingdom, born and raised at Kaer Morhen, the notorious School of the Wolf. And I have already written tales, ballads, and books about him.

You heard many stories and legends about this man - about the romance of his with the mightiest sorceress Yennefer of Vengenberg, the story of how he was bound to the Cintran princess Cirilla by destiny, about how he had outwitted the Wild Hunt itself. Yet I have one more for you. Sit down, have a pint of ale or a cup of wine, and hear my telling of how... Not one, but two witchers traveled day and night to reach the Redenian mountains and how they discovered a horrifying monster there. But have in mind that one of them was a woman.

Our story begins on one stormy night in the Mire West amidst the rampage of the Nightmare...

The place around you was completely dark and lifeless, only sounds of wind howling and grass dancing in it along with heavy rain could be heard. The moon just started slowly rising in the sky, but it was too cloudy up there. That could be a slight problem in your perfect plan. How were you supposed to lure a werewolf out of its lair if there won't be a full moon? These bitches came out of the lair only under those specific circumstances - moon shining on the ground, nonstop.

The lamb meat filled with cursed oil was neatly prepared in the middle of a road and your silver sword was ready as well, laying on your thighs as you were meditating to pass the time somehow - you let the potions in your vascular system starting to work, making an extremely dangerous weapon out of your very own body. You used Cat potion, so your eyes could perfectly see in the night and a Blizzard potion, shorting the time of reactions and sharpening reflexes to the monster's attacks.

A low chuckle came out of your lips. Meditations were never your strength - Vesemir was always bitching you down for whispering to the others while they sat on their knees, and tried to completely leave their body with their minds. You learned how to pretend to meditate, just to shut Vesemir up, but you accomplished the state only a few times. More than meditating, you were in a light sleep while you still could bring your body to sit at least a bit straight.

You had the suspicion that Vesemir knew that the whole time, but he never said anything since you at least shut up and didn't disturb the other kids who were brought to the School of the Wolf in Kaedwen to become witchers and witchresses.

The memories you had bonding to that place weren't all happy, but not all of them were bad. There was a lot of pain you had to endure, yes, but you had some fun in the process. And you still had a witcher family you could always count on - your best pal Lambert and a grumpy brother Eskel, there was Leo, your baby boy, and Vesemir, who was something like your father. There was Coën too, but unfortunately, he was far gone. And then, there was... Well... There was also him.

The greatest fucker... You meant to say the greatest of your kind - the legendary White Wolf, a man called Geralt of Rivia. It wasn't that you exactly hated him, no, you could count on him and his help when you met him on the road just as he could count on you, but you two never really got along in the first place. You never gave him a chance to start a friendship. And to say the least, he was outshining all of you, always getting the best contracts and money. And you weren't even talking about the fame he got in the process.

On the bright side, Geralt was a source of your motivation to become better and better - you both passed the trail of grasses, finishing it in better shape than all of the other kids that were trained on Kaer Morhen. You were already special - while three males out of ten survived, only one female out of fifty survived the trial. But that just wasn't enough of you, was it? You had better reflexes, reactions, senses, and you could cast the signs better than the other two girls who passed the trial. Even though that, it was too risky to send you on additional trials and Vesemir told you a million times.

For an unknown reason, there was a high rivalry between you and Geralt since the day you met for the first time. And when you heard that he's going to endure some more experiments, you demanded them as well, no matter the costs. You didn't care if it costs you your life, you wanted to be the best.

Vesemir and Lambert tried to change your mind for months, but you weren't planning on letting Geralt win the game. You went through another five mutations under the supervision of druids residing in Kaer Morhen, the fourth almost killing you in the process.

For the first time during a trial, you screamed in pain the whole time as you felt the serums and potions crawling through your skin and veins. When you got up, your skin tone almost matched alabaster, melanin almost completely disappearing out of your body, your hair was completely white and your eyes were no longer only golden - they were glowing. When Geralt walked out of the second chamber, he looked the same. But he has done something you would never expect - he asked you about your well-being and if you want to stop the trials. But you just chuckled and left him in the hall.

Lambert was enough of a friend to you. He was quite a normal witcher with a good sense of humor. You could drink and laugh evenings away with your witcher brother and never be bothered with thoughts about the incoming morning. He saved your life many times before and you knew, that the last time wasn't exactly the last. To repay him, you saved his ass from the revenge of former lust subjects, pretending to be his girlfriend and being extremely mad at him.

With Eskel, you had a more reserved relationship, since he was more of a reserved person - he didn't exactly make friendships, he was just a person you could count on any time you needed to. But you got along at the end of the day.

A sharp howling threw you out of your thoughts about your witcher brothers. Both your eyelids flew open, showing the golden, glowing eyes with a cat-like iris shape underneath. The werewolf was set to go on a hunt - and so were you. You opened up the last bottle with your teeth, drinking the potion in one swing, making your blood hazardous for the monster.

After that, you slowly walked to the path where your trap was laid, finding the creature sniffing it. It was rather cautious with it, wanting to eat it, but not quite trusting it. Werewolves were huge beasts with fur, every one of them growing to the height of two meters and more after the transformation.

They might be looking skinny, but their strength was almost overshadowing yours for good. Hunting a werewolf all alone? What were you thinking? That was exactly what was happening since Geralt wielded the tiara of the best witcher in the world. Shitty contracts for a laughable amount of coin. But work was work - humans, monsters, animals, it didn't exactly mean anything to you. You came, did the job and left, always repeating and never breaking the circle. Although to stay true to the codex of Kaer Morhen, you never killed an innocent being - monster, neither a human. If they proved their innocence, you let them go, taking the money anyway.

But this werewolf, boy, wasn't he something different? This bitch was off the chains, suffocating, hunting, and eating alive at least thirteen girls just this year alone. And you couldn't wait to get your dirty little hands on its throat and chop his fucking head off. You hated motherfuckers. And he sure was one.

"This is a nice, cute attempt to poison me, witcher!" - The werewolf rose his head and looked around, showing you its ugly face, which was half-wolf and half-human. Its claws were strong, which could cause trouble as well - he could scratch you without hurting himself, not tasting your blood. God damn it. - "But I ain't no idiot! I know ya poisoned it! Come out! Face the mighty Nightmare of Mire West!"

So it was an intelligent one. That was a bonus point - you knew that murdering him will cause you way more enjoyment than killing a normal beast would. It was probably only a human when there wasn't a full moon, living in their small, stinky cage, all alone in the wilderness. But if the man changed into such a beast which was able to stalk and murder young gals in such gruesome ways, you knew that your sword was the right thing to put end to his ruling over Mire West.

"I like me an intelligent foe." - You growled in a cruel voice, adding a burst of short, dark laughter at the end. You confused the werewolf a bit - he wasn't able to track where you were at the moment. There was no visible movement in the bushes, your voice seemed to come out of a few different directions at one time and your footsteps didn't break a single branch on the ground, making you almost impossible to track based on sounds in the slowly ending heavy rain. - "Feels better when I slice their throats. They beg like little girls to let them live - but you know something about that, don't you? You enjoy murdering girls and letting them beg, don't you?"

The beast was moving its muzzle quickly as he tried to sniff you. The wet air made it almost impossible. The time was ticking too fast - soon, you knew that the air will clean up and starts to transmit your scent. This needed to be done quickly.

"Are ya a woman, witcher? Ye a witchress? I like women, did ya hear that?" - Werewolf tested the waters, seeing a bush next to his right move. He didn't know that it was an animal coming through here, thinking it was you hiding in the bushes. In the next moment, the monster roared with a raw, animalish growl as it attacked the bush. - “I like to snap their necks and taste their meat, I like their voices begging me to stop, the scent of their hair and the skin. Come here, to my claws, don't try to play with me.”

The werewolf then turned around, his completely darkened eyes were scanning the surroundings in search of you. He kneeled a bit, grunting like a pig as spit was dripping out of his mouth full of sharp teeth.

“You atone to all of those murders? You don't even try to clean your name, try to tell me that you are innocent? I might let you go.” - You knew that this fucker isn't innocent but you needed more time to look around the meadow, now seeing every small detail in it thanks to the Cat potion. You planned various attacks, different scenarios, trying to imagine him overpowering you. What would you do then?

“I know that ya been sniffing around Velen for a while now, crawling through sewers like a rat, looking at every shit I made. I know ya heard stories about the Nightmare of Mire West. Ya a witchress, ya know how to recognize a werewolf in comparison to a different monster.” - The werewolf laughed and crawled on all fours, bearing more similarity to a wolf than a human at the moment. His laughter was similar to a hyena.

Then you jumped out of your hideout and cut him with your sword smeared with a cursed oil. The werewolf wasn't expecting you, so you hit your spot, but not in the range you planned on. The beast roared, sounding like a swine, catching its leg as it watched the blood dripping from the cut.

“Look at ya!” - It laughed, its teeth showing again. Your eyes were jumping on various spots on its body - from its lower paws dugs into the muddy ground as he was charging for a jump. - “Ya look like a cat, ya hair white, ya smug arrogant. Come to me.”

You jumped at the same time the werewolf did, but you turned around and swung your sword towards it, hitting it into its ribs. Sword fights were always like a dancing lesson - male witchers preferred different fighting styles, sometimes heavier and more aggressive than you could ever archive. You could move quicker than them, yet your hits were lighter. You danced on the toes of your feet, the top of your sword carefully drawing eight again and again. Your hits were maybe lighter than male witchers’, but you were able to hit the spot more often with clean cuts.

“Ya can move, I need to say. A second cut on my body.” - The beast growled, suddenly spinning the other way, its claws hitting your stomach. The hit made you fall, he hit exactly the liver and stomach, which could hurt like hell. Yet it was not a hit that would stop a witchress.

You made a rollover your shoulders, stopping on your feet. While you stood up, the werewolf almost scratched your face. That was a no-no. Witchers and witchresses maybe were known for long, dark pink cuts and huge scars over their faces, but you knew that a pretty face always means a half of the deal sealed. Thanking all the Gods and angels out there, Blizzard made you able to get out of its way.

Again, you swung your sword to meet its stomach, but again, it jumped at you in a matter of seconds, aiming for your neck. Its claws tore apart your chainmail armor, cutting your skin. But you didn't move a single inch away, no, you held its arm with a firm grip, looking the beast in the eyes.

First, it didn't know why are you looking at it the way you did, pressing the arm on your stomach, letting the blood drip directly on it. Soon, it felt how the skin is burning as the acid was slowly decomposing it. It was looking you in your cat eyes and saw your lips slowly turning to a violent smile.

Next second, it pushed you away, whining like a little puppy, licking the acid off. But it didn't know that it will only make the matters worse.

“What now? Don't you want to taste my blood and meat? Don't you want to sniff me and hear me beg for my life? Are you backing off?” - You rolled the sword in your palm and prepared into the fighting position again. - “The fun has just started, you pussy.”

With a quick move, you made the gesture of Igni sign, sending fire its way, then throwing a Moon Dust bomb at it. The bomb blew up, springling small pieces of silver everywhere its range was. The werewolf was now screaming like a child - it was burned by the Igni sign, silver was burning its skin alive, he was cut - so the silver got into its vascular system and that was perfect torture in your opinion. It tried to run away into the safety of its cave, but it was just to try to lure you in - in the small space of a cavern could be its brutal strength fatal for you.

It was time to use the Aard sign. You were quick, almost violent with it, pushing the werewolf next to the cave entrance. It bumped its head onto a sharp rock, blood was dripping out of that bruise pretty quickly. That was a moment he might start to believe that you were there to truly kill him like a swine. Indeed, you were there for that.

When it laid on its back, it started howling at the moon - that was a tactic used by a werewolf when the things got out of their control. They tried to call for help from wolves living in the woods. But you only laughed as you walked to him, preparing for one last final blow, still holding the place on your stomach where it hit you.

"Ye going to die, Witchress, why is ya laughing?" - The beast growled out with visible and hearable problems, which made your smile bigger.

"Because I killed every pack in the radius of ten kilometers, you dumb shit. I sold the furs and meat for a fair coin, even got something to brew potions from. A valuable deal." - You laughed and swung your sword one last time - piercing its chest with it. After that, as you heard it choking on its blood and scream awfully, you sat next to it into the mud.

It was maybe just a short fight, but it made you cast two signs and to move at an incredibly fast pace. And the hit into your stomach was almost precise, hurting like a living fuck. The fight took its cost in the form of incredible tiredness. Also, the potions were still circling through your body, drawing energy out of it. You thanked Gods that you had the idea to track down and eliminate all the packs in the area. The contract could've turned out much differently than it did in the end.

You waited a while, the rain started to fall from the sky again, before cutting the beast's head off. You used an old dwarven axe for that since it was durable and almost unbreakable.

Not an hour after that, your camp was packed up and you were ready to leave the woods, riding horseback to the city again. The werewolf's head was pinned on your saddle to be seen by any bandit. You weren't in a mood for jokes, you didn't want to mess around with some lousy bandit just to be dirty from their blood.

You changed into a fresh shirt and made a hairstyle so tight that not even the smallest baby hair had the chance to fly in front of your face.

It was a while after three o'clock in the early morning when you knocked on the contractor's door - his name was Stjepan, male about thirty years old with a wife and two small daughters. That was the main reason why he wanted the werewolf dead. He was also a local innkeeper, so you at least had a hope that you will sleep in an actual bed instead of the woodland full of bugs and branches poking your ass and back.

"Who the hell is knocking my damn door at night?!" - You heard his angry yell just seconds before he opened up the door. You stood there, soaked from the rain, only in trousers and shirt, holding the head in the level of his eyes. He yelled and threw up just centimeters from your shoes, but you kept the straight face.

"Monster's dead. I want my money." - You growled, throwing the head in. You could hear the small girls and woman yelling, but you didn't care at all. Stjepan disappeared for a small moment, appearing after a while with a small sack of gold.

"Now leave and never come back, ya filthy creature. I can see the devil in ya eyes. I will pray for ya soul." - Stjepan hissed at you, trying to close the door, but your arm stopped it. Stjepan tried to shut it one more time, but your arm didn't even move out of the wood.

Geralt would've most likely just shook his head and leave the man - but you were a lot of things, pussy not being on your list.

Witchers, since they were males, had enhanced strength of the strongest human men. Since you were a woman, you were as strong as a really strong man - those who had almost two meters, one hundred kilograms, and muscles all over their body. When Stjepan realized that he isn't able to close the door, he opened it once again, your hand finally leaving it.

"This is less than we agreed on. I want my money." - You hissed back at the man, stepping into his house. Oh, you would give anything just to see him spraying holy water on the spot where you were standing.

"I don't have more, now fuck off!" - Stjepan yelled and tried to push you out of his door, but he was pushed back as soon as his palm touched your shoulder. Some wall pushed him back so hard, that he stumbled and fell right on his ass.

"Stjepan, Stjepan, Stjepan... Do you remember when your sweet little girls asked me why I have two swords?" - Your eyes slowly looked through the opened door, last drops of Cat potions still making your night vision sharp. These two girls were sitting on the bed and hugged their dolls extremely tight, both of them shaking, hoping you can't see them.

But you could. And Stjepan's wife was standing next to the stove, holding a pan as if it could do any harm to you. With your stare still on the children, you slowly walked through their lovely, little house.

"Ya told them that the long, elegant, silver one with the runes is for monsters." - Stjepan stuttered out and covered the door with his laying body so you would have a harder time getting to the room.

"And that the other one is for even worse monsters." - You told him and kneeled in front of him, tugging the sword from the leather strap on your back. The steel was making cold notice as you tugged it even slower. - "Monsters called humans. The worst of them all."

"Ye a witchress!" - Stjepan's wife yelled at you, raising the pan to her hip, ready to hit you. - "Ya meant to help and protect folk! Not to kill 'em!"

You would never hurt these children. They were just children, for fuck's sake - their life hasn't even started and anyone, let alone a monster hunter like, had the right to hurt them and end their life. No witcher nor witchress had the right to take an innocent person's life.

But you weren't playing clean games, oh boy, you weren't. When you had to be dirty, you planned to be dirty as hell. You needed to keep your face straight if you wanted to scare that dick off.

"You better give me my money or I swear that I will kidnap your children and make them witchresses. After all, that's what witchers do when people refuse to pay their debts." - You hissed, walking over Stjepan directly to the bed, almost dragging the two girls out.

Just seconds before you touched them, Stjepan threw another sack to your feet, crawling in front of his small girls. - "Now go! Leave the fucking town and never come back! Fuck off!"

You straightened up and looked at the two small girls which slowly disappeared in the darkness as Cat finally stopped working. Only after that, you finally left their room. - "Pleasure doing businesses with you, Stjepan." - You added with a sour, ironic tone and walked off into the night.

Well, your plan with sleeping at his inn didn't exactly work out. At least you had the money he promised, even if you had to scare a few little kids. You walked to your horse, gently smoothing its forehead. Well, the only thing you could do was to ride to another city so you could find another job.

Well, that was the plan, until a man came across you. He was dressed up in a long cloak, covered in the darkness, almost sneaking up on you. You chuckled from shoving the money into on me of the bags on the saddle, not looking at the person. They must've known that you know about them the whole time.

"I won't give you a single coin, don't even bother asking me." - Your mumbling could be heard in the cold, silent night.

"Oh, I don't need your money, witchress. I want to speak to ya." - The person said, putting an envelope into the saddle looking you in the eyes. First, you checked the person to see if they mean any harm - it was a short man, pretty underweight, his arms looked very weak. He couldn't attack you if his mind was bright - he would die after one of your blows. - "Not me, pretty lady, but a friend of mine. Told me to say hi once I find ye."

With that, the caped person turned on their heels and disappeared into the darkness again. You watched him quietly for a second before you couldn't see him - then you looked at the envelope and grinned when you recognized the seal. That old, ugly bastard, Sigi Reuven.

Or, as the others knew, Sigismund Dijkstra. One of the most dangerous spies on the whole Continent. And that old son of a bitch wanted to talk to you.

#the witcher #no geralt here #for now #gimme a few parts #but here #have a werewolf #sigismund dijkstra #the witcher netflix #geralt of rivia #geralt z rivie #geralt z rivii #a witchress #the continent #the world of the witcher #andrzej sapkowski

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lycanomancy · 4 years

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BL3, but Ava is Lilith’s apprentice

Continuation of this post.

This took me three hours, and I know it isn’t the best. I tried to follow along with the story as it is in-game, only changing Ava’s initial involvement and moving some parts. Certain aspects were kept, no matter how controversial they are. See also: Ava becoming the commander.

Also, my cat, Peanut, climbed up on my demanding attention, and while I was loving on her, Butter, my other cat, sat on the keyboard. He deleted half of the post, typed in a paragraph of keyboard smash, and almost discarded it.

Lilith doesn’t lose her powers on Pandora

You go to Lectra City to find Naoko Katagawa (she should have been plot-relevant, ok?) to get Maliwan’s intel on the Vault Key fragments instead of Gigamind existing

Proof of Wife is now a part of the main story.

You find Ava in the prison where Bloodshine is. Lilith sees her on your echo and tells you to go see why there’s, like, a literal child in a jail cell.

Ava is an orphan because of the war. She got arrested for stealing around Lectra City. Ava does her whole ‘VHfangirl’ thing and asks you to let her out, and offers to help you get Bloodshine out, too. She breaks out Bloodshine, the quest goes as normal. Naoko turns herself in to Atlas to A: get away from Maliwan and B: help take down Maliwan.

Ava tries to go her own way, but Lilith, knowing she wants to be a vault hunter and worried about a little girl in the middle of a warzone infested with a murderous cult, offers to let her tag along. Ava gets ecstatic and overjoyed, quickly shoves it down and plays it cool.

Ava has been added to PC Box 1

Aboard Sanctuary, Ava fangirls over Lilith

Naoko’s info takes you to Athenas. Ava asks if she can come. The vault hunters are worried about child endangerment, but Lilith lets her go with you

“If she survived Maliwan on Promethea, she’ll survive Maliwan on Athenas.”

Ava wanders off and you lose her.

Meet up with Maya, she takes you to the library on Athenas to get her book. The library is on a different map (Athenas has multiple locations now). The book is gone. You find dead Maliwan soldiers that have wounds caused by Ava’s gun. You call her.

“Oh yeah, their dusty a** library wasn’t even locked! Everything in there is junk, but I found this weird looking one that has gold in it.”

Now you have to go find Ava to get Maya’s book. Maya is not amused at her library being robbed.

Traunt taunts her over the echo, implying he killed her parents. Ava forgets about the book and goes after him. She gets captured, obviously, and you have to save her. Maya makes the comparison.

“Jeez, Lilith. She’s almost as bad as you.”

“Why do you think I like her?”

Back on Sanctuary, Lilith gently asks her about her deal with Maliwan, and Ava snaps at her and gets defensive.

Maya and Krieg help you with Skywell, like they should have in the cut content. They don’t destroy the Zanara

When Zero jumps in to save Rhys from Katagawa, instead of fighting, Katagawa grabs Rhys and the Vault Key fragment and fast-travels to the Zanara.

Naoko gives you the co-ords for the Zanara, and Lilith teleports the Vault Hunters and Zero aboard the yacht. Ava comes along because she wants revenge against Katagawa.

Ava and Zero go off to bust electronic shit to get doors and force-fields open for you. Once you kill Katagawa, Ava spits on him. You save Rhys and get the fragment.

You and Ava loot the Zanara 2 minutes before it explodes due to the damage she and Zero did. Like General Knoxx’s Armory.

Vault time! Ava is told to stay with Tannis while Maya, Lilith, and the Vault Hunters go kill the Rampager.

...Only she shows up.

Lilith tells you and Maya to go loot while she tells Ava why what she did was risky and why orders are there to protect her. Not yelling or mad, just calm explanation.

Twins show up.

Ava eggs Lilith on to fight Tyreen. Lilith engages in magic-slap-fight with Tyreen.

Ava gets grabbed by Tyreen, Lilith teleports behind and grabs Troy in retalation

Troy does the leech-thing, but before he can kill Lilith, Maya and the Vault Hunters charge out of the Vault guns blazing. Maya Phaselocks Troy, and throws him away from Lilith and into Tyreen to free Ava. Lilith is out-cold from losing her powers. Troy teleports himself and Tyreen away.

No blame game this time. Ava feels bad and guilty for causing Lilith to lose her powers and almost die, but has trouble showing it and apologizing

Maya scolds Ava for leaving Tannis and tries to make her take responsibility, and you can tell she does want to, but pride and defensiveness get in the way and she storms off. Lilith tells Maya to go easy on her.

“Lilith, you can go easy on her, but her enemies won’t.”

Ava doesn’t have a part on Eden-6 or during Carnivora, because Carnivora has been cut. Tannis isn’t a Siren.

Instead of Troy Phaselocking you in Jakobs Manor, Aurelia is there and freezes you place and leaves you and Troy.

Head back to the Sanctuary after Graveward, Athenas is being destroyed by COV teleported in by Troy. You and Maya go to Athenas to save it and hopefully stop Troy. It’s a trap. COV ambush you, and in the middle of the fight, Troy captures Maya.

The Twins use Maya to Phaselock and charge Elpis. Krieg goes ballistic. When you and Krieg confront him in the Great Vault, it isn’t Tyreen he’s leeching off of to fight you - it’s Maya. When you kill Troy, Maya is injured, but fine.

Tyreen comes down to absorb Troy, and gets Lilith’s powers from him. Maya saves everyone from Tyreen’s rubble/explosion with Phaselock

Nekrotefayo time

Lilith and Ava talk about Typhon being the Twins’ dad. Lilith asks Ava about her family (The player should know by now that she’s orphaned but Lilith doesn’t) and instead of being defensive, Ava says they were killed by Maliwan at the start of the war.

Instead of her backstory being presented as a joke and making Ava look worse, she has a moment of vulnerability because she wanted to open up, rather than it being told against her wishes.

Lilith asks what they were like. Ava pauses and implies that they were neglectful and didn’t pay attention to her, and shows introspection as to why she hates authority and rules.

“Hard to do what you’re told when you’re never told to do anything. Or talked to at all.”

The Vault Hunters chime in. FL4K says something about psychology and childhood traumas in humans, Zane relates to her with his brothers/bandit family, Moze says her family was the same, too busy with being in the Vladof Military, and Amara talks about how her family disowned her.

Ava comes down to the Machine to help clear COV. When Tyreen shows up, instead of engaging, she hides in the shadows. When she grabs Lilith, Ava sneaks up and shoots her point-blank in the back with Typhon’s shotgun. Tyreen tries to leech her, but Ava almost takes off her head with it, and Tyreen has to retreat. Typhon doesn’t die.

Story continues as normal

When Lilith stops Elpis, she dies for good. And Ava gets her powers.Lilith doesn’t tell Ava that Sanctuary is hers, but Tannis and Ellie both agree that if Lilith felt like Ava was worthy of her powers, she’s worthy of being Commander. “

#long post #ava the apprentice #lilith the siren #maya the siren #borderlands 3 #tyreen calypso #troy calypso #Ava being commander is stupid- but this is still bl3 #ava just has a different mentor

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Top New Fantasy Books July 2020

The Book of Dragons: An Anthology by Jonathan Strahan

Type: Anthology Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: July 7

Den of Geek says: I’m always looking for a good book about dragons, and this incredible list of authors promises adventurous and unique stories. Anne Leckie, Zen Cho, Seanan Maguire, J.Y. Yang, Patricia A McKillip, Brooke Bolander … it’s an astounding, literary-flavored list of people qualified to write cool creatures.

Publisher’s summary: Here there be dragons . . .

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.

Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.

Buy The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan on Amazon

Or What You Will by Joe Walton

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 7

Den of Geek says: Jo Walton is a writer’s writer, highly praised but still generally skating under the radar. I found her 2014 My Real Children to not nearly live up to its very high concept, but she’s one of those authors with technical prowess who is at least worth checking out for context for women’s science fiction. The metafiction plot sounds fun.

Publisher’s summary: He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god.

But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. He has played a part in most of those novels, and in the recesses of her mind, Sylvia has conversed with him for years.

But Sylvia won’t live forever, any more than any human does. And he’s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he.

Now Sylvia is starting a new novel, a fantasy for adult readers, set in Thalia, the Florence-resembling imaginary city that was the setting for a successful YA trilogy she published decades before. Of course he’s got a part in it. But he also has a notion. He thinks he knows how he and Sylvia can step off the wheel of mortality altogether. All he has to do is convince her.

Buy Or What You Will by Jo Walton on Amazon

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

Type: Graphic Novel Publisher: First Second Release date: July 14

Den of Geek says: The Adventure Zone is a wildly popular humorous fantasy podcast. It’s part of the big 2010s wave of Dungeons & Dragons coming back into the geek space. Especially for someone who might not want to listen to hundreds of episodes of a podcast, the illustrated version does a good job of smoothing out the story into a graphic novel format without removing the goofy chaos of the original podcast.

Publisher’s summary: START YOUR ENGINES, friends, Clint McElroy and sons Griffin, Justin, and Travis hit the road again with Taako, Magnus and Merle, the beloved agents of chaos from the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novels illustrated by Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins and The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited.

Our boys have gone full-time at the Bureau of Balance, and their next assignment is a real thorny one: apprehending The Raven, a master thief who’s tapped into the power of a Grand Relic to ransack the city of Goldcliff. Local life-saver Lieutenant Hurley pulls them out of the woods, only to throw them headlong into the world of battle wagon racing, Goldcliff’s favorite high-stakes low-legality sport and The Raven’s chosen battlefield. Will the boys and Hurley be able to reclaim the Relic and pull The Raven back from the brink, or will they get lost in the weeds?

Based on the beloved blockbuster podcast where three brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG in real time, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal has it all: blossoming new friendships, pining for outlaw lovers, and a rollicking race you can root for!

Buy The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

The post Top New Fantasy Books in August 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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msjr0119 · 4 years

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Marshgate Prison

Part 3- Riot

NEW SERIES: At Marshgate Prison, New York City- Riley Brooks begins a new job as a Prison guard. The inmates and guards who work there have kept many secrets hiden. Will she become involved in these secrets? How will she react to the common riots that constantly take place in the rough prison?

Warnings: Violence, swearing

Tags: @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @drakesensworld @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bbrandy2002 @butindeed @bascmve01 @drakewalker04 @pedudley @captain-kingliamsqueen @duchessemersynwalker @insideamirage @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @kozabaji @texaskitten30 @ibldw-main @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @dangerouseggseagleartisan @gnatbrain @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @addictedtodrakefanfic @angi15h @liamxs-world @rafasgirl23415 @notoriouscs @yukinagato2012 @dcbbw @qammh-blog @nz1091 @beardedoafdonutwagon @cordonianroyalty

*****

Madeline cowered in her cell, pulling the thin blanket over her head- she regretted how she had treat Olivia in the past. Hoping her father would bail her out with his money- if not she needed to keep her head low. She was a daddy’s girl- she didn’t belong here. Her and Neville did one mistake- a mistake that began to become an addiction, not knowing when to stop. They were money greedy, she had considered asking for a transfer to another prison. Looking at her disfigured face, she wanted to inform the guards and the warden what had happened- to escape and prevent anymore abuse. But if she ‘grassed’ would Olivia potentially kill her next time?

“Good morning Princess.” Olivia smirked, as she barged her way into Madeleine’s cell. Laughing hysterically at the woman attempting to hide. Hana mimicked Olivia.

“Olivia please leave me alone. I won’t be here long.”

“Oh what happened last night, that was just the beginning. Right Hana?”

“Of course.” Hana confirmed whilst smirking.

“I... I don’t want any trouble. I’m sorry for what happened in the past.” Pulling Madeleine off the bed, forcing her against the cold wall- Olivia’s eyes widened showing anger.

“I used to be a sweet girl, with people who respected me. Then I turned into psycho maddy. Don’t you just love revenge?”

“Olivia! Hana! Out now!” Riley screamed.

“Watch ya back Maddy.” Riley motioned for the other guards to assist Madeleine to the medical room- she would deal with Olivia and Hana.

*****

“Ladies, sit down and calm down.” Hana immediately sat down listening to Riley’s stern tone of voice- Olivia remained stood folding her arms. Or don’t, Riley muttered to herself.

“Olivia, what is the issue between you and the newbie?”

“Would you believe it if I say she bullied me at school?” Explaining this was hard for Olivia, she never liked to be shown as a weak person- but with all the shit from Madeleine made her a stronger person- a person who learnt to defend herself.

“Hana could you please return to the wing, I need some serious words with Olivia alone.” Olivia nodded to Hana, gesturing for her leave before returning her gaze on Riley. Softly smiling at the guard, Hana felt jealously burning inside of her. Leaving the room in a huff, she felt paranoid.

“Olivia, don’t get yourself into more trouble. She won’t be here for long- just stick with your group. I’ve got your back.”

“Oh I wonder why that is? So I keep your little secret? How good is Walker in bed?” Riley felt a blush creep up on her, her heart began to flutter at the very mention of his name.

“We are in this together, so I know you wouldn’t spill my secret because if you did you’d be risking losing your liaisons with Liam. Drake is amazing in every single way- I won’t go into detail.”

“Good job too.”

“Well you did ask.”

“I didn’t expect you to answer and become all flustered.”

“Talking about becoming flustered, Miss Nevrakis- may I escort you to somewhere private to meet your Prince Charming?”

“About time! I like you- but I won’t ever admit that to anyone.”

******

Hana knocked on the cell door, hoping the inmate known as Crazy Cazza would allow her to enter. Most people were scared of Cazza, she too was in for murdering her husband after he left her for his PA who was young enough to be his daughter.

“Whatcha want? Who is it?” Looking behind her, Hana knew no one was watching her. Entering the cell she gulped.

“Lee whatcha want?”

“I... I need a knife or a weapon of some sort.”

“May I ask why?”

“I think I’m going to lose Olivia- she smiled at the new guard like there’s something going on between the two of them.”

“Honey, you do know the queen bitch is using you- she’s fucking Liam. Everyone knows that. And from what I’ve heard, the new guard has her eyes on someone else. Don’t worry about it.”

“Please. I just need a knife. It’s not just the guard- the new inmate has history with Liv- if I scare Madeleine or hurt her Olivia has justice from all those years ago.” Cazza rolled her eyes back, if it wasn’t inmates begging her for drugs being smuggled in, it was for weapons.

“Lee, Don’t tell anyone where you got it from and we have a deal.” Pulling her mattress up, she opened the slit that hid all her counterfeit items.

*****

Riley escorted Olivia to the empty cell, where Liam was waiting. They knew they were pushed for time- as it was dinner time shortly. Riley felt jealous in a way that it wasn’t her and Drake.

Riley heard the alarms ringing and the panic echo throughout, she knew Liam would berate her for disturbing his time with Olivia. Knowing it wasn’t a false alarm, she forced the door open- hoping to remove the image she had just created in her mind. Closing her eyes with her hand, she hoped that she wasn’t the next victim of Olivia Nevrakis.

“Liam- alarms. This is an emergency. I’ll make it up to the both of you- I promise, but Olivia you need to return to your cell immediately!”

Both Liam and Riley ran into the dining area, witnessing Hana laying into Madeleine. Most of the inmates were cheering her on, encouraging Hana to give them more entertainment. Riley interfered, attempting to drag Hana off Madeleine, but she was too strong.

“Hana, please leave her alone. Come with me. Please.”

“Get your hands off me.”

“Liam I need back up!” Liam pushed Riley out of the way, explaining that he will deal with Hana. He demanded that Riley and the other guards escorted all the inmates to their cells immediately and to lock them all in for everyone’s safety. Riley nodded, riots and violence happened when they least expected them to. Drake walked into the commotion- immediately scrutinising the room for Riley after witnessing what was happening. Seeing her escort prisoners away from the scene- he could tell she was struggling with the other guards. Heading over to her, he spoke to the inmates.

“We need to go back to our cells, the guards need to protect us. They are risking their lives.” The inmates grunted, but finally agreed to return to their cells, Riley smiled at her knight in shining armour who seemed to have cast a hypnotising spell on them all.

“Thank you Walker. Could you return to your cell also.”

“Yes ma’am... I may need assistance getting there though.” He whispered in her ear. Riley had asked the guards to assist Liam, and the other inmates to their cells.

Knocking on Drakes cell, he pulled her in abruptly, before forcing his lips on hers.

“I’ve missed you so much. What’s happening?”

“Hana’s beating the shit out of the new inmate. I need to go. I’ve missed you too.” Kissing him on the lips- she didn’t want to leave him, he didn’t want her to leave either.

“Follow me.”

“Where are we going? I’m on duty.”

“Trust me.” Drake snuck her out of the cell, and walked down the hallway.

“What is this place?”

“It’s a secret tunnel... apparently years ago some inmates built it and kept it a secret until they got caught. I used to come here all the time when I needed to think. If you’re having a bad day- you know about this place now, you can come here to chill or get a bit of quiet time.”

“How do you know about it?”

“Liam.” Rolling her eyes back, she should have known- the dodgy guard.

“We will have to meet here tomorrow... Drake I need to go and see what the situation is like...”

“Stay safe, don’t put yourself in any danger.” Hugging him tightly, she knew she wouldn’t put herself in danger- one day he was going to be released and they could see each other in the open.

“I won’t I promise. I’ve got a lifetime with you- I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Riley left the tunnel, Drake decided to wait a while before leaving himself- remaining keeping their relationship under wraps.

*****

Riley ran back to the room, seeing Liam passed out on the floor- the guards all fighting with inmates. Rushing immediately to Liam, she shouted for medical assistance even though her voice wasn’t heard. Checking his airways, there was a slight pulse. Before she could do anything else- she felt a presence behind her.

“Riley get up!” Turning around, she saw Hana holding a knife.

“Hana put the knife down. Please.”

“It’s not intended for you- don’t worry Riley. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Just lay it on the floor, and no one will get hurt.” Reaching for her baton, she couldn’t feel it. Shit, I’ve got no self defence weapons. Riley scrutinised the room, all the other guards were busy- leaving her alone with Hana with no support. One option was to reach over for Liam’s baton- but if Hana was on a full rampage she would be risking her life reaching over.

“I didn’t mean to do it... I wanted to prove to Olivia that I was worth something. I wanted to stab Madeleine to scare her- for Olivia to have that slight bit of justice.”

Before Riley could respond, an inmate barged past Hana forcing her into Riley- both falling to the floor next to Liam- Hana stood up shaking, seeing blood on her hands.

“Riley... I’m so sorry....” A guard ran over, handcuffing Hana, before demanding for back up. Another guard down! We need back up urgently! She’s been stabbed!

Drake arrived back in the room, hearing screaming- wondering what had gone off. Pushing his way through the crowd, his heart sank as he saw Riley laying on the floor, her hands holding her stomach- her beautiful skin now painted in a red glossy liquid, her own blood.

“Someone get some help now!” Drake pleaded, the guards stood frozen explaining that help was on its way. Liam also injured due to the unexpected attack due to the riot broke Drakes heart. The only two decent people in the prison, the only two people who spoke to him as if he wasn’t a piece of shit on the back of their shoes- were laying on the ground lifeless.

“Riley you need to survive... open those beautiful eyes... please....” Cupping her cheeks, he couldn’t lose her- not now. He had found someone who understood him, someone who possibly could love him. Slowly fluttering her eyes open, he saw the tear creep out of the corner of her eye.

“D-Drake....” She barely said, using potentially her last breath to say his name. Keeping pressure on her stomach, he needed her to stay strong.

“I’m here, I’m coming to with you- whether they stop me or not. I’ll break out, just so I can be with you.”

“No.... you.... can’t.... Bartie...”

“Riley you mean so much to me as well as Bartie. Don’t you dare leave me.” Using all the strength she had, she pulled him down- placing a longing kiss on his lips.

“Love you Walker.” The paramedics arrived, quickly rushing Riley and Liam out of the room. Drake forced the guards off him, falling to the floor- he was surrounded by tears he never thought he would ever shed.

*****

Drake couldn’t eat, or even think straight- hoping that both Liam and Riley were okay. Regretting being stuck in here, he needed to phone Maxwell or Savannah demanding that they go to the hospital for him to put his mind at rest. Closing his eyes, he saw Riley’s face- her beautiful smile, then the flashbacks of her in pain. There was a knock at the door bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Walker. I believe that you haven’t had anything to eat.”

“I don’t feel hungry sir. I’m fine.” Constantine looked down at him, the guards had informed him of what he had done and how Riley reacted.

“Can I sit?” Drake nodded, the warden never left his office- usually insisted that other people do his ‘dirty’ work for him.

“So I’ve gathered that you was having a relationship with Miss Brooks. Am I correct?”

“No Sir. I like her, she was very professional. She wouldn’t risk her job. It was all my doing.” Love you Walker those words kept going through his mind on a loop- if she died those were the last words she spoke to him. Not wanting to get her into trouble he had hoped that Constantine would believe him.

“Drake, I may stay in the shadows- but people talk. I am going to the hospital- Liam is fine, just mild concussion he’s awake. I have arranged for two guards to assist you visit Miss Brooks. I shouldn’t allow for this to happen, but you saved her life. Get dressed.” Saved her life, she’s alive.

“Thank you Sir.”

*****

Arriving at the hospital, Drake was nervous- it didn’t help that he was chained up to one of the guards.

“Mr Rhys, the minor surgery went well. She is very tired. But she is fine. We are keeping an eye on her observations.”

“Thank you. I hope you don’t mind that I have brought an inmate to visit. This is Drake Walker- he immediately assisted Miss Brooks after the incident happened.”

“Of course not. Mr Walker, you prevented anymore bleeding- which could have become fatal. I’ll leave you all alone.”

Constantine knew Drake wasn’t a danger, asking the guards to take the chains off him- he knew that Drake would be grateful for a few moments alone with Riley.

“When we get back to Marshgate, I need to discuss something important with you. For the mean time, take this opportunity to spent time with her. We will be waiting outside.”

Turning to Riley, she looked peaceful. Once everything had calmed down, he had wanted to see Hana- potentially kill her for causing all of what happened. Holding her hand, he kissed it hoping to warm her up.

“Riley, I don’t know if you can hear me or not- but I’m here. I told you I’d break out- but I didn’t need to. The warden brought me here. I’m so relieved that you are okay, I don’t know if you meant what you said to me. I know it’s early, and I would never believe in love at first sight. But you are the only person who has understood me, wanted me. I love you Riley Brooks.” Drake wasn’t sure how long he stayed there holding her hand, watching his tears fall onto her. The guards came into the room, and put the chain back on- Liam had been discharged and was waiting for him outside with Constantine.

Drake heard them both whispering, wondering what they were discussing? He had paranoid thoughts- knowing it was about him. Once they arrived back at Marshgate they escorted Drake to the wardens office. Liam began to speak.

“How are you doing Drake?”

“I’m fine, how about you? You’ve got a nasty bump there.” Liam rubbed his head, then shrugged his shoulders- he knew it was nothing compared to what Riley had gone through.

“This is nothing, so I’ve heard that you saved Riley’s life. We are all grateful for that, as is the hospital.” Liam looked over at Constantine smiling.

“I’d have done it for anyone Liam.”

“Are you sure?” He winked at him. “Anyway, you have some visitors.” Liam gestured for the guards to allow them to enter.

“Sav? Max?” Constantine cleared his throat, as Savannah and Maxwell looked bewildered for the reasoning behind them being here.

“Walker, you were due to be released- but you ended up in hospital due to defending Miss Brooks. Now due to that you would have had to serve your full sentence due to you getting yourself involved. After today’s situation- you saved the life of one of my guards. I’m going to berate her when she is discharged- she should have knocked the knife out of the inmates hands rather talk her down....she didn’t have any self defence weapons on her and I need to know why- maybe she could have prevented her injuries...” Liam shook his head, knowing they were going to be there potentially all night if Constantine continued to not get straight to the point.

“Drake, what the warden is trying to say ... is that you are a free man. For your heroic efforts- you can leave Marshgate with your sister once we have done the paperwork.”

#theroyalromance #choices trr #drakewalker #riley brooks #maxwell beaumont #olivia nevrakis #hanalee #liam rhys #drake x riley #trr au marshgate

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scarletta-ec · 4 years

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Original Sin Story: Re_Crime

CHAPTER FIVE: THE ESCAPE OF THE WITCH SALMHOFER

Scene 1

Meta dreams of running away from orange flames, and an endlessly black, warped figure standing among them, shining, dead eyes. She has to keep running— for she is a fugitive.

Scene 2

Meta is in a bad mood that morning— not just because of the dream, but because she’s being woken early by a pounding at her door and angry shouting. It’s Raisa Netsuma. She ends up busting in the door before Meta can get up.

Raisa has burn scars all over her body including her face, from Eve’s lightning strike earlier. She and her people are refugees from Jakoku, and she leads the White Army in the southwest of Levianta. She is also one of Apocalypse’s top brass. Meta worries deeply about her— she thinks she’s too passionate and too wild in battle for her own good. In person, Raisa spoke little, but in a fight she had earned the title of a fiend. It was Pale’s idea she join, hearing of her prowess, and Meta originally agreed because it added the entire White Army and the Second Regiment to their forces, coming to know her better as they lived together in Merrigod.

Meta is distracted from Raisa's upset ranting by staring at her mouth scars, which are not covered with a mask like they usually are.

Raisa is visibly in pain since a lot of her facial muscles are stiff, and her skin sensitive, but is too upset to stop yelling. She hadn't even waited for Meta to get out of bed, having climbed onto it. Meta thinks her hair looks even whiter against her reddened skin.

Raisa says that their base in the north has fallen.

The security forces have become the Royal Capital Army, and are cracking down on Apocalypse— an organization which seeks to disrupt as much of the world’s order as it can, just because they think that’s how things should be, thinking things like laws and such are foolish. Meta is one such person.

She has tried hard to forget her past. She was an orphan, grew up alone, and hated everything in the world. Her life only gained meaning in her eyes after she turned twenty.

She wandered the streets of Levianta, living off of what she stole from vendors and unlocked homes. Whenever she was caught, she would always manage to charm them and be let off with a warning. She didn’t know it at the time, thinking it was because she was a pitiful child, but this had been a result of her Gilles Inheritor powers, which she had no idea how to use, manifesting without her direct control.

She was sometimes allowed into homes and invited to stay as long as she liked, though she never did stay long. Watching the family dynamic around her somehow only made her even lonelier. So when people came to her with their arms open, she always chose to run.

One day, Meta found herself in the midst of chaos, with lots of bodies and fire and destruction around, but she did not run. Not even when she was surrounded by armed men, and one of them (Pale) approaches her with a knife in one hand and a person by the hair in the other. Recognizing her as a Ghoul Child and fellow HER, he offers her the knife, which she accepts.

With his encouragement, she kills the hostage with the knife.

This was her first murder. And she finally felt at home.

She and Pale have committed a great many crimes together at this point. Gammon is the new head of the senate, and is the reason why the royal capital army is pursuing them so fiercely. They’re having trouble fighting them off— in addition to their skill, neither Meta nor Raisa’s powers or magic can breach their bulky armor. They have to come up with a battle plan for here on out.

Meta zones back in and embraces Raisa in bed. When Raisa stops speaking, she lets go and orders Raisa to go retake the northern base, or at least stymie the soldiers there. She’ll send the rest of the former White Army and half of her Red Devotees to give her aid. Raisa, still teary, points out this’ll leave them short-handed to the west, but Meta says they should leave that to the “baron”, Yegor.

Raisa awkwardly runs off the bed. Meta gets dressed, and then thinks she’ll head over to see Pale, her “darling”.

Scene 3

Meta changes into her favorite clothes, and then goes to Pale’s room. She can hear him talking with a woman in there, and then sees a scantily clad Milky laying on the bedsheets, next to Pale who is under them, when she opens the door. Milky greets her politely, and then leaves to go to her own room. Meta goes inside to see Pale is smoking in bed.

He asks if she’s okay, and she shakes her head at the notion that she has anything against "that girl". No matter who Pale sleeps with or loves, she’ll love him still. And she believes he will always come back to her— her powers don’t work on him, so she is certain that they really do love each other.

She wryly asks if he's okay with Raisa, to which he says it's not his business.

Pale has a unique physiology. He has to absorb magical power from another person periodically, or else he’ll lose his youthfulness. His preferred way of doing this is by sleeping with them, with women, specifically. Meta’s magic is not enough alone to sustain him, great though it is. The other person’s magic replenishes once he's done, though the initial drain exhausts the person being fed on.

Meta notices a black box on the nightstand. It is a music box with a winding key that Pale is taking apart. Apparently he’s not very good at reassembling it, though he's disassembling it for the practice.

Meta tells Pale about their base falling, the two speculating that they might have a traitor in their ranks.

Meta worries about Raisa— she's been rampaging worse than ever before. Meta thinks she may be taking out her anger on everyone, including the Royal Army, as the woman who might have been queen that she was trying to get revenge on (Eve) for her injuries is missing.

Pale asks if Meta is implying Raisa is the traitor, or a liability. Meta flusteredly jumps to her defense, insisting it must be someone else.

Pale decides to head north. His “older brother” told him to lay low, but Seth hasn’t contacted him in a long time— thus, they think he might be dead, in which case, there's no need to hide anymore. He tells Meta to go west, to enlist Yegor’s aid in suppressing the forest of Held.

Meta would like to go with him, but knows he wouldn’t like her to go against his wishes. They kiss and part ways.

Scene 4

Yegor is the baron, as suspected. He is cruel and brutal despite having once been the head of a religious temple, having already crushed the villages living in the forest’s eastern half by the time Meta arrives there. Though curiously enough, despite the buildings being in ruins, she can’t see any corpses around. She figures he must have cleaned up the corpses, wondering why for a moment. The place has a fog rolling over it.

Yegor is the “Black Baron”, his army is called “The Black Army”.

One of Meta’s devotees tells her they found some survivors. He takes her to an area before a trauben field to the west of the village. It’s a green haired woman, covered in blood and crouched down, cradling a half-conscious man with blue hair, surrounded by devotees. She’s crying about her missing children— Cecil and Vell.

Meta thinks she’s stupid, figuring that the woman should be grateful she’s alive, and that she can just make more children, that is, if Meta allows her to live. She’s about to order her men to kill the woman when she realizes her men have collapsed, foaming at the mouth. She realizes that the fog is actually poison.

Meta is almost as bewildered to find both she and the woman seem unaffected, noting she can't tell with the man in her arms as he was already out of it.

Meta hears Raisa's hoarse shrieking as the fog grows too thick to see anything. The couple seems to have vanished.

Meta is confused because Raisa shouldn't be here, meanwhile Raisa can only scream about "treason".

Raisa's words are slurring, indicating she may not be immune, protected from complete incapacitation only by her mask to cover her scars.

By the light of the moon, Meta sees figures approaching her from the fog, all wearing masks. They clasp one of her wrists in chains.

The meaningless shrieking crescendos as a sudden impact around her waist brings Meta to ground as a bright red flash explodes, and everything turns black.

Scene 5

Meta is in a dark, inhumane, cold jail cell. She tells the girl in front of the window that she wants a jacket or hot food or something, but no dice. It’s not mealtime yet and they have nothing else for her to put on. There are no men in this jail, so she can’t use her powers to escape.

Upon being asked, the girl introduces herself as Elluka Chirclatia (Zellana’s younger sister). She is a young looking teen. Meta threatens her, expecting her to cry, but Elluka calmly states that she’s more powerful than Meta is, and, in fact, now that her sister is gone, Elluka is the strongest person there.

She reveals Meta is not in an actual prison— she is in Lighwatch temple. Elluka is a virgin priestess there. This is a very special jail cell in the temple designed for someone of Meta’s magical talents. The walls and the ceiling are covered in anti-magic runes— meant to weaken and negate magical power or spells.

They hear footsteps, and Elluka declares it must be the head of the temple— in other words, Yegor Asayev, who has long black hair and thin, black facial hair. Meta accuses him of being the traitor— he claims that Apocalypse merely disappointed him. He abandoned his post believing them to be patriotic warriors, but defected when he realized they were just thugs. Meta accuses him of merely wanting to satisfy his cruel urges. Yegor doesn’t deny or confirm this— merely saying that unlike them, he wants to live a long life.

He tells her (and Yegor really does give the impression that he might enjoy making people suffer) that Pale has been captured, and is in Welvya prison. Raisa wasn't captured— but she was killed immediately after her attempt to protect Meta. That means that Apocalypse has essentially been beheaded.

Yegor isn't sure how Raisa managed to catch wind of his betrayal soon enough to arrive there at that time, and wonders if he may have a traitor of his own.

Yegor mocks Meta and Raisa a little more and tells her to wait for her execution like an adult. He claims to have been divinely pardoned for his crimes— Meta thinks it’s a mix of his family connections and his reward for selling out Apocalypse. He leaves.

Meta is nearly in tears, of both grief and rage. She's shaking in her seat, which rattles the chains.

Meanwhile poor Elluka has been watching this whole thing from the sidelines. She notes that while Meta is a bad person, so too is Yegor. Meta advises Elluka to leave this place as soon as she is able to. Elluka says she’ll think on it, and then leaves the room.

Scene 6

Meta is moved to a new room, similar to the old one except that there is a smooth white chair in the middle. The legs are affixed to the floor, and it has several leather straps on it. Meta figures this is the execution chair.

The executioner (who has his face covered) tells her to sit down, and she does. She tries to think of a way out of this, but the executioner tells her that her Gilles power won’t work on him— she quickly recognizes his voice as sounding like Pale. And when he takes off the cloth covering his face, she quickly realizes that it’s Seth (he was thinking of messing with her by pretending to be Pale, but decided not to at the last second).

Seth remarks that they haven’t seen each other since she tried to kill him at Merrigod (which he thinks Pale ordered her to do, though she denies it). Not that he holds any ill will for that. Pale has apparently been growing more and more rebellious towards Seth. He insists that he is not their enemy, even if he isn’t really on their side.

He says that he came here to help her. His plan is to have her “killed” to get her out of the capital— Gammon decided that all criminal corpses are to be taken to an installation outside of the city. Meta jokes that he’ll revive her as a zombie, to which Seth nods— seemingly to freak her out, as when she objects he goes into his real plan.

It skips their discussion of that. Seth reminds her that the condition for him saving her is that she participate in his experiments at his research facility, and hands her a glass bottle. There is a map to the facility rolled inside.

He starts affixing the straps to her arms, legs, stomach, and head. She asks if this’ll hurt— Seth says he wouldn’t know, as he’s never been executed before.

He throws the switch. She’s electrocuted, and then falls unconscious.

Scene 7

After the execution, Meta’s body is taken inside a casket to the installation as planned. Right after it leaves the temple, Yegor and the priestesses all say a prayer for her. A tearful Elluka is the only one who notices Yegor smiling a little as he makes his prayer.

Meta awakes in the coffin in the installation. She gets the lid open and climbs out, amazed that she’s alive. Seth regulated the electricity so that it would only temporarily disrupt her heart. She takes out the map, though of course has no intention of keeping her promise. She’s about to tear up the map when she sees a message in there from Seth.

He has Pale. And if she doesn’t show up, he’ll kill him. She runs across the cold stone to the institute.

Scene 8

Ever since Gammon’s coup, the twelve capitals have been in an uneasy governmental state. The 12 senators are supposed to be the heads of each family that governs the 12 cities— but Gammon has shuffled them all out, including his father. Fearing too much backlash, Gammon selected sons of the same families instead of getting new family lines altogether. Making the new senate SIGNIFICANTLY younger, in their twenties.

Gammon also made public the matter of Gavriil brainwashing the queen, promising to bring the senate back to something that serves the queen rather than using her. The prophecy of destruction also becomes common knowledge, and to help ease the unrest, Gammon appoints Seth in charge of a new Project Ma.

Seth is explaining this to Meta in the royal research institute. He has since hired on a great deal more researchers, though they are actually political informants, there to make sure she doesn’t run away. This is several months in— she’s already pregnant, and showing.

Meta asks if she’ll be made queen, but Seth says not this time (though she will get a higher status and various rewards). Apparently he had to do it this way because otherwise the Senate wouldn’t have given him permission to have her birth the Twins of God. They talk a bit about the politics of this a little. As a note, Seth marks the time of destruction as being “ten-odd” years away, so probably no more than a year has passed since Adam and Eve disappeared.

Seth says that Gammon isn’t like the other politicians, though— he faced the queen and came into contact with the “truth” though Seth doesn’t know what that was exactly, and as such he is legitimately desperate to avert the country’s destruction. This is part of why he accepted a criminal as the potential mother.

Since becoming pregnant Meta has been living hidden away in the institute. They don’t want the public to know that she’s the mother. She considers her situation a little, like that they might just kill her when they don’t need her anymore. She can reasonably assess that the government isn’t a monolith— Seth, whether ordered by Gammon or acting on his own, wouldn’t have had to go to such measures to break her out of jail if Yegor was in on the plan. So while Seth may promise to keep her safe, there’s no guarantee the others will. She also just doesn’t trust him.

She asks (as she has many times without being told yes) if she can see Pale. Today, Seth agrees. He explains that Pale had not been able to sustain himself without taking magic from people, and as such he wasn’t likely to live much longer— so he had him swap into a more sustainable body. He calls someone into the room, a boy. This is Pale.

Meta is really confused, so Pale explains. He is a Ghoul Child— an artificially created being, comparing it to Meta’s children, saying that they are different only in that his mother was a glass vessel instead of a human being. Meta has to agree with that, she was not impregnated by sex but by a procedure, after all. Ghoul Children were the fruits of Seth’s research on the Next Queen Project as Horus.

Pale notes that he started having the issue with needing magic once he became an adult, though he’s better off than the other Ghoul Child made alongside him, who was little more than an empty shell. They ended up transferring his soul from his degrading body into the empty shell to save him. However, it took some time, which is why Seth couldn’t have them meet until now.

Pale knew this from the beginning, and it is why he ordered Meta to try to kill Seth— he wanted to become the “true” one by killing the original. Meta is moved by sympathy for Pale and goes to hug him. Pale asks Seth if they can be alone for a little bit, and Seth agrees because he’s not a monster, come on.

After hugging a little while, Pale tells her they should escape together— he can live as he is now, so there’s no need for Seth to keep him alive. They can’t flee while Meta is pregnant, so he figures he’ll do something after the babies are born. He wants to restart Apocalypse with her, and Milky if they can afford to find her.

He’s living at Seth’s house right now, under the guise of being his nephew. Figuring the conversation is over, Seth enters to fetch Pale, taking him away. Meta sees Pale as nothing more than arms and legs connected to Seth’s fingers by thin strings.

Scene 9

Several months pass, and the babies are born. They are immediately put into a life support system. The “baby room” is in the institute, with the twins inside two large glass tubes, that run from halfway up the tower to the ground floor, full of fluid. Gammon is looking at them with Seth.

Like normal premature babies, Meta's babies weren’t able to breath well after being born, but they’ve recovered now, the tubes are a precaution. Gammon wants to have them taken to Alicegrad soon, so they can be made into the receptacles for Levia and Behemo’s souls.

Gammon explains that Alice herself will do this using the “Swap Technique”. He claims she is the only person in Levianta who knows how to do it, and that supposedly all of the queens through Levianta’s history have had this power. Their ability to receive revelations is, according to him, a result of temporarily allowing the gods’ spirits into their bodies.

Seth doesn’t let on that he already knows all about it, because he can do something similar.

Gammon has been wearing his hair differently, setting his ponytail low instead of high. He's been smiling more often, too.

Seth also thinks that this is all quite unlike Gammon, being much more knowledgeable than he would have thought. He thinks maybe someone has swapped their soul into his body. Whether Gammon is still in there or not is something Seth can't tell.

The day after next, Hansel and Gretel’s birth is told to the public, and the new Evillious calendar is made to mark their birth date.

Scene 10

Four days later, at night, Meta is looking at the babies and thinking to herself how cute they are, despite the fact that she never had an interest in kids before now. She’s not happy though that they aren’t her and Pale’s kids, she can’t even hold them, and that they’re going to be taken away to be used as vessels for gods tomorrow.

Looking upon them, it triggers memories of her past. Gretel’s eyes are open, and she is reaching for her mother inside the glass. Meta puts her hand over hers on the glass, and then has a flashback.

Scene 11

It’s her dream from the beginning of the chapter, running from orange flames with a figure in the middle. She has to keep running. When she glances back, she sees Seth Twiright.

Scene 12

Meta's reminiscing is interrupted. She can hear screaming, shouting, and gunshots. Realizing it’s Pale at work, she dives inside the tanks, taking the babies with her as she shatters the tubes. The remnants of Apocalypse are wreaking havoc. Pale calls to her from a window in the hallway, bidding her to leave the building through it.

He objects to her taking the children along, saying they’ll only get in the way, but she refuses to leave them behind. She realizes his current body is too small to run with babies in his arms, so she carries them both herself.

She thinks about her birth, her early childhood, that time she hated so much. Seth declared her a failure, and, fearing being put in refrigeration like her “brother”, escaped from him during the same attack Adam disappeared in. She knows it’s selfish, but she doesn’t want the babies to suffer as she has. She doesn’t want them to be the toys of gods.

Scene 13

Meta and Pale are running through a foggy new moon night. They think that they’re safe— but Pale suddenly trips and falls, starting to lose consciousness. Meta remembers what happened in the forest, and realizes the fog is the same poison as before.

Seth approaches (wearing a full-face mask), wondering why it’s not affecting her babies. He says the fog was a sort of byproduct of producing Venom— it won’t kill anyone, but they’ll be put to sleep for a few days. Seth already knew the fog likely wouldn't affect Meta, but he's certain the babies wouldn't be inheritors like her. He wonders if a god could be interfering.

Pale urges Meta to leave him behind and run south to escape the country— he knows Seth won’t kill him; Seth confirms, saying basically he’s too good at being evil to kill. Meta says she’ll wait for Pale in the forest, and runs off. Seth tries to follow her, but Pale grabs his leg and she gets away.

Seth kicks him to get him to let go. He won’t kill Pale, but he does plan to “reset” him.

Scene 14

Meta is running away, referencing the last part of the song.

Meta’s part ends in her declaring that she’s a fugitive.

#infoedit #ec #evillious chronicles #meta salmhofer #original sin story #story #fanfic #seth twiright #Pale Noel #Raisa Netsuma #yegor asayev #elluka chirclatia

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ardenttheories · 5 years

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On Princes and Knights

There is a significant connection, within the comic, between our canon Knights and Princes - certain parallels that intrinsically intertwine and affect both parties. As an in the works theory, and something I cooked up while wandering around the house, I’m tentatively suggesting that the best way to handle a Prince is to provide him with a Knight, and the best way to heal a Knight is to have him work on a Prince.

In Homestuck, we see two significant Knight-Prince matchups; Dirk and Dave, and Karkat and Eridan. There is a lot more focus on Dirk and Dave, and thus we will start with them and focus primarily on their connections, but there is something to be said about the latter pair as well - predominantly “what if”s, but evidenced ones.

It has always been of my opinion that Princes must be surrounded by people in order to grow. It is when they are isolated or alone - such as during the Epilogues, when Dirk actively isolates himself prior to losing his shit; or during Act 5, when Feferi not only dumps Eridan (who otherwise has no-one else he is close to), but refuses to be his friend - that their negative attributes come to the fore. These moments of isolation are all it takes for the Prince to fall into the trap of his Class, and lose himself to the destructive nature of it.

When surrounded by people, it becomes easier for Princes to remember why they can’t blindly destroy. They can’t justify “a means to an end” when they can actively recognise that their efforts would seriously hurt the people they love. Consider Dirk’s development from the puppetmaster to an active team member; he openly talks about his friends, what he thinks (in a positive way) of them, and how good they are as people more and more throughout this transition. He wants to avoid destruction as much as possible for fear of the harm he’ll cause to them - of the harm he was causing when he wasn’t keeping himself in check.

A Prince without this backup starts to lose his sense of connection. He might, to some degree, start to lose his sense of reality on a personal level; like we see in the Epilogues, after his isolation Dirk has no qualms of spearheading the narrative and driving it towards his own goals. He sees them as people he loves, yes, but they lose their humanity to him. He no longer worries about stepping over the boundaries, even to the degree of completely ruining Jake’s character for the sake of petty revenge, and tries to force Dave to kiss Karkat before he leaves. This is not the work of a man who recognises the people around him as real, living things.

However, I think there might be more to it than that. Princes need people around them to tether them down to reality and remind them what they hold back for, yes - but I think they might also need a Knight to hammer the point home.

This is where we come to Dirk and Dave.

Dirk and Dave share Aspect themes. Dirk is the Alternate Universe self of Bro; this is a Time-related phenomenon as well as a Space-related one, and essentially makes Dirk a “younger” Bro - a Bro back in Time. Likewise, the connection of them being brothers (or, more aptly, father and son) provides the Heart-based connection between the two. While it certainly leans into the realm of literal Blood, the fact that Bro is, in essence, a splinter of Dirk, stands more prominent - as well as Dave’s more Heart-aligned disposition (how much more emotional he tends to be, how romance plays a significant part in his life/development).

This connection becomes more apparent when the two of them have their rooftop talk. When Dave talks to Dirk, it’s about what Bro did, and thus what he went through. This is a conversation that heals them both.

Dirk’s constant struggle throughout Homestuck is the inevitability of his destructive nature. His splinters, what they say about him, his actions, whether or not he’s a good person, and how he can do good if he’s so obviously bad. Talking to Dave about Bro shows him exactly what the extent of his negative nature is; an abusive man bridled with Rage and toxic masculinity that is completely blind to the harm he causes for the benefits that wait at the end. He even admits that it’s refreshing to be presented all of his flaws so critically, and it gives him the chance to reflect on that in a healthy way.

It also provides Dirk with the opportunity to actively say “wow, that’s really fucking bad, and you never should have gone through that”. To admit that Alpha Dave was an inspiration to him, and that he’s glad he had that inspiration, but that there’s a disconnect from the people they were that is good for them. That they don’t need to be those people now, and it’s for the better. That he’s glad he was told all of this by Dave - someone he has a good relationship with, and who he connects to good things.

This moment gives Dirk the worse-case scenario. It shows him what he could become without him actually becoming it - and it gives him the resolve to never, ever become what Bro became. It gives him the chance to work this through with someone he deeply cares about - someone who’s always played an important role in his life and upbringing - in a way that he admits lets him do it healthily, properly, without the self deprecation.

In turn, it gives Dave a chance to work through everything he’s never truly spoken about to the person it most relates to. It’s his way of accusing Bro without actually accusing him; of facing his abuser without being in danger; of telling him it was fucked up and being validated for saying it.

It also provides Dave with the confirmation that he doesn’t need to be some grand hero to be worth something. Alpha Dave was a hero, was grand, was cool - but the takeaway from that conversation is that Dave is just as good, if not better, than Alpha Dave to Dirk. That he’s real in a way Alpha Dave was not, and that, despite everything he’s been through, he’s come out the other side significantly stronger than anyone would have ever thought. That, to at least one version of Bro, he’s worth something more.

This conversation is vital to their character arcs. It shows Dirk slipping into the role of the Realised Prince, and Dave into the role of the Realise Knight.

I thus posit that every Prince must have an associative Knight, and that part of their growth is the acceptance of themselves through one another.

It’s no coincidence that the Knight and Prince happen to be in the perfect position to help one another, imbued with the Aspect of the other. Dirk is exactly what Dave needs to heal as a person, and Dave is exactly what Dirk needs to reject his future potential. Had this conversation not taken place, with them in these exact circumstances - and with them holding such specific Classpects - Dave may never have gotten closure, and Dirk may not have become so self-aware. After all, it’s their specific connection as alternate universe brothers and Dave’s specific Heart-based struggles that make this work so well.

Knights face trials and tribulations at the hands of highly destructive forces - forces that their Princes represent. Knights also have a duty to Protect their Aspect - which influences the Prince significantly.

What we see here, then, is a Knight standing up against the representative of the thing that caused him to pull up his facade, and a Prince being protected from the concept he struggles with most.

This intrinsic connection is deeply important. If we assume that Knights and Princes are made to reflect one another, then a Prince will almost always represent that which the Knight fears most, and the Knight will represent everything the Prince needs to accept.

(Again, using Dirk and Dave, that means their Classpects and situations were specifically engineered by SBURB to ensure that Dirk, as a Prince of Heart, held the potential to be the destructive force that Bro was in order for Dave to safely stand up against the memory of Bro, and that Dave, as a Knight of Time, was able to show Dirk that his various selves are not predictions of the future)

This is thus where we turn to Karkat and Eridan.

Eridan is a representative to everything that Karkat is fearful of, and has suffered because of; blood, the hemospectrum, and specifically, murderous highbloods in positions of power (especially those that are steadfastly against progression).

In return, Karkat within the comic acts as a last Hope to Eridan. Their interactions, though brief, often come down to the same thing; Karkat helps Eridan feel Hope in the ways that everyone else neglects, and remains a single, strong bond post-Feferi that even he refuses to destroy (Karkat is, after all, the only troll that Eridan doesn’t kill during his “rampage”, despite him being frozen in fear the entire time).

Karkat is exactly what Eridan needed to be a better troll. Eridan suffered a severe disconnect between his true self and his outer self, and while that chimes true with Heart, a lot of the reason behind his disconnect was because of his inability to Bond with people.

His Hope had previously been destroyed by his friends laughing at his Belief, and he never truly recovered from it to form the sorts of Bonds he needed to become a Realised Prince. Arguably, he may never have had those Bonds to begin with - and instead of trying to form Bonds that could become useful to him and his understanding of the real world, he isolated himself among his theatrics and Historical dramas in an attempt to become something he thought would command respect.

Standing as a facsimile of the old ways of Alternia, Eridan would have been safe for Karkat to stand up against in order to fully transition into his Realised state. Likewise, being both a lowblood and a mutant, Karkat would have been in a perfect position to challenge Eridan’s views and help him regain his Hope - as well as more than capable of teaching Eridan how to form new Bonds.

Part of the reason this never comes into fruition is the Failed nature of their session. None of them except for Vriska manage to attain God Tier, and they don’t fully grow by the time they initially finish the game. There was simply no chance for them to viably reach this point, as much of this growth occurs within the Meteor; either Eridan would have had to live much longer than he did, or this development would have had to happen within their session - and thus, the session would have had to have lasted longer. Or maybe Hussie should have just focused on it in more detail.

Much like Dave and Dirk, Eridan and Karkat likewise share Aspect themes. Hope is as prevalent in Karkat as Blood is within Eridan. The things they represent perfectly reflect one another - and may actually be why, when I first read the comic, I thought they were going to become moirails. This Prince/Knight combination has a natural coexistence that seems akin to moirailegence, and may even be engineered this way by SBURB to ensure that there is some way for a Knight to stand up and a Prince to step down that is beneficial (and healthy) for both, as well as natural (as in, not forced by a Sylph).

And, on a lesser note, since this came to mind: Latula, as a Knight of Mind, would have been the perfect foil to Kurloz as a Prince of Rage. Someone who is specifically brainwashed alongside someone whose Classpect focuses entirely on the protection of the Mind? Had more come out of them, I can definitely imagine Latula being able to help Kurloz slip away from that harmful mindset (and his assistance to Lord English), while Kurloz would provide her with the Rage-based determination to reveal her true self.

In essence, since this came out weirdly wordy and pretentious,

Our canon Knights and Princes have an odd Aspect connection that makes them perfect for helping one another. Their circumstances reflect perfectly what the other needs to grow - the force that the Knight struggles against, and the concept the Prince needs to understand/accept - in a safe and healthy way. Their connection is likely facilitated by SBURB, and specific Knight/Prince Classpects are likely assigned in such a way that a Knight and a Prince will always be able to help one another.

Whether or not they do, or are able to, help one another is entirely up to the session itself, but nonetheless it seems always present as an option.

#ardenttheories #sburbtheories #knight class #prince class #long post//#homestuck #character analysis #classpect analysis

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spyder-m · 4 years

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Cloti Fall Festival, Day Five: Ghosts of Idols

Summary: AU. In the wake of the Nibleheim incident, Cloud and Zack are not captured by Hojo. Instead, they are celebrated as heroes for defeating Sephiroth and Cloud is promoted to First Class. When Shinra receives word of Avalanche's bombing mission, Cloud is tasked with guarding the Sector 5 Reactor. Cloud meets a familiar face among Avalanche's ranks; someone he thought perished in Nibleheim's fires. A loved one he must now face as an enemy.

A/N: I couldn’t come up with anything I liked for lanterns, but had what I thought was a pretty cool idea for an AU spin on the original game. Feel like there’s potential for a multi-chaptered story here... Shame I’m no good at actually regularly updating full-length stories.

The title also comes from lyrics to the Thrice song, “Where Idols Once Stood”, for those of you playing at home.

Ao3 / FF.net

“Congratulations; First Class Soldier Strife,” President Shinra’s gravelly voice broke, his mouth twisting at Cloud in a smile barring too many teeth.

Not privy to the formalities of the ceremony, Cloud wasn't exactly sure how to respond.

He recognised that President Shinra was his boss, and a powerful, influential figure he would need to treat respectfully. Still, he couldn’t help but feel jaded by the entire ceremony. How a man, who Cloud wasn’t even sure had known his name before, was suddenly happy to bask in the presence of the famed, hero of the day.

His conflicted feelings for the President aside, Cloud gripped the man's hand firmly, his head dipping an awkward bow.

The Soldier uniform clung to the newly formed muscle lining his arms and chest; forged from the years of training and bolstered by his recent graduation to Mako injections. Yet, it somehow felt ill-fitting.

The President's hand clasped Cloud’s shoulder, shifting his stance towards the thongs of press before them; cameras flickering in blinding flashes. The reporters' questions blurred together in a flurry of incomprehensible voices, crackling in his ears like thunder.

Cloud winced, still adjusting to the powerful senses the Mako had imbued him with.

It was too hard to focus on what they were saying, let alone form a coherent answer, when even the touch of their fingers against their camera’s flashes seemed to ring as loudly as a hail of bullets.

Having grown up shy and reserved, Cloud hadn't considered the spotlight being Soldier would shine upon his life. His hand rose, unsure, as he acknowledged the press.

This should have been the proudest moment of his life. Yet, their praise, the adulation he had always sought after, now felt empty.

At seventeen, Cloud had become one of the youngest to ever reach the height of Soldier’s elite; younger than even Zack or Sephiroth had been. When, just weeks ago, he'd been nothing more than a grunt resigned to a life of perpetual failure.

The Great Sephiroth, now branded a traitor and murderer, had been killed at his hands, in the midst of a rampage in Nibleheim.

Cloud, though only an infantryman, had survived a seemingly fatal wound; pierced clean through by Masamune’s blade. He had managed to overpower Sephiroth, pushing him into a vat of Mako beneath the platform, killing him.

Such feats were unheard of and in the realm of superhuman. The higher-ups in Shinra realised that there was no way such raw potential could be kept dormant. They needed to harness and nourish it.

So, for succeeding where even Zack; a First Class; had failed and sparing any further casualties, Cloud had been swiftly promoted. He had finally managed to catch the role that alluded him.

Still, there was an absence, a sense of loss that weighed upon Cloud as he remained conscious of all that had been taken from him in the process.

He was no longer the same fresh-faced, young man full of dreams and aspirations. The incident in Nibleheim had exposed him to the horrible reality of war that had been glorified to him from a young age, and the shady nature of the company he worked under.

His hometown had been destroyed, his mother killed in the ensuing fire; his idol, the man he once considered a hero, twisted unrecognisably into a cruel, sadistic monster; Tifa… He hadn't received word of her condition after carrying her to safety. He didn't even know if she had managed to survive.

The final pieces of his dream, his life’s goal, had all been ripped away and now everything felt incomplete.

He would never have the chance to return home, could never bask in the vindication of showing the town that had shunned him the man he had become. His mother wouldn’t be there to welcome him back, to gush over how she proud she was. He could never earn the respect of Mr Lockhart, showing him the result of his years of hard work.

He could no longer become someone worthy of Tifa.

Celebrating seemed meaningless now that he could no longer honour the promises he had made.

As if sensing the despair weighing upon him, the only remaining presence in Cloud's life he could stand, the only person he could trust, put his arm around him.

Cloud glanced up, the flurry of doubt swimming through his head alleviated by Zack's soft, reassuring smile.

His friends normal, sunny disposition was restrained, recognising the gravity and weight the day carried. The sheen of his eyes dulled, sadness and sympathy lingering in his gaze.

It was comforting, a reminder that Cloud wasn't completely alone in all of this.

“You did it, buddy. I knew you would.”

Cloud smiled. It was ill-fitting, much like his uniform.

As a coping mechanism, Cloud pushed himself deeper into his work; now the one constant in his life that remained.

He was determined now, more than ever, to be the best Soldier had ever known; if for no reason other than to shatter the once great reputation of Sephiroth.

He would ensure that the honour, the pride that had once been attached to Sephiroth’s name would be erased forever. For, the man he had left the world as, the horrific, things he had done, was no longer deserving of such a legacy.

Following the tragedy in Nibleheim, Cloud; for his accomplishments; was already being presented as the new poster child for Shinra; the Silver Elite seemingly forgotten. Though, his name was still written in many company records, Shinra did not actively acknowledge it, wanting to swiftly sweep the massacre under the rug, not wanting to get caught up in such a scandal.

Cloud had heard that Shinra had even gone so far as to completely rebuild the town; filling it with actors to pose as Nibleheim residents.

Should word get out of the tragedy, the town would stand as direct proof against it. The only people who knew the truth were buried amidst the rubble under the newly constructed houses and markers.

Although, that wasn't entirely true.

Both he and Zack survived, that had witnessed the massacre with their own eyes. Perhaps that was Shinra had been treating them so well, why Cloud had been suddenly promoted. They hoped that they could compel them into remaining silent.

Although, it might not have been necessary.

Even if they came out with the truth, chances are that no one would believe them. Nibleheim had been so remote, so far from Midgar. The likelihood that anyone in the city knew of the names and faces, the lives that had inhabited that place, was minuscule.

The thought made Cloud sick to his stomach, a painful reminder of everything he had lost. The very idea of someone living in his home; or, an exact replica of it; pretending as though nothing had happened. Pretending that his mother, Tifa, Mr Lockhart, none of them had ever even been alive.

Cloud couldn’t help but see the act as an unconscious admission of guilt on the part of the Shinra, that they’d had a small hand in the massacre.

Though it didn’t excuse his actions, Cloud was beginning to suspect Sephiroth had gone on the rampage after suffering some kind of mental breakdown.

Zack had confessed overhearing Sephiroth muttering the library of the Shinra Mansion. Talking about being born from Jenova, the calamity that fell from the sky.

Thinking about it, Cloud felt it was possible that Sephiroth’s mental state had deteriorated following the deaths of his two closest friends, Angeal and Genesis; not to mention the atrocities he’d been exposed to over the course of the Wutai War.

For this to have gone undiagnosed and untreated by the company, eventually manifesting in the worst possible way, they bore some responsibility.

In the wake of such tragedy, questions were often raised about whether or it was fair to bury the memory of such controversial figures completely. About whether they could still be recognised for the good they’d done and what they’d achieved while they were alive.

Considering the hero status Sephiroth had attained in his time, Cloud was certain this conversation would inevitably come up.

For that reason, Cloud resolved to quash any thought of celebrating Sephiroth’s accomplishments by shattering them all.

Cloud didn’t want anyone to have a reason to speak of Sephiroth anymore.

That would be his revenge, his means of avenging his mother, Tifa, Nibleheim.

Perhaps, that way, he could find some semblance of closure.

Where Cloud had once been ridiculed for his short stature and lithe frame, there was now a palpable aura surrounded him, one that commanded respect.

It was difficult not to notice as he walked the halls of Shinra HQ, the subtle glances and whispers that would follow in his wake. His reputation proceeded him; the man who had managed to defeat Sephiroth.

The infantrymen who were once his cohorts looked at him differently.

Should he stop to speak with one of them, they would stammer in response, struggling to maintain eye contact. Though normally modest and reserved, Cloud couldn’t help but revel in the satisfaction and stroke his ego felt whenever they shrunk in his presence.

The glare of his eerie, glowing eyes would often punctuate an order, sending them scurrying frantically in all directions.

"Cloud."

Cloud's pace slowed, knowing by the call of his name, that there was only be one person who would approach him.

Over their time in Soldier, Zack had gotten to know him closely and knew there was nothing about him to fear. He had been someone who, despite holding a higher position, had never treated him as inferior, but recognised and believed in his strength all along.

Now, that day had come, and they were equals in rank.

"Come on," Zack called with a wave. "We need to get going. Heidegger just called an emergency meeting."

“Ah, Soldier 1st Class Strife. Glad that you could make it.”

“What’s going on?” Cloud asked as he stood at attention amongst the other Soldiers.

“We’ve received word that Avalanche is planning another attack on one of our Reactors. However, at this stage, we haven’t been able to determine which one."

Avalanche. Their name had been cropping up more and more recently; a group of vigilantes, enviro-terrorists who had set their sights on Shinra. Cloud had heard rumblings of their protests, the accusations they levelled at the company. How they were draining the planet’s lifeforce to power cities and towns.

It was a damaging blow to his already waning faith in Shinra.

Still, Cloud couldn't agree with their methods; planting bombs in Mako reactors across the city and cutting off the power, hoping to stop the draining of the planet's energy. They were too many innocent people being caught in the crossfire.

Shinra might have been corrupt, but there were genuinely good people working for the company; people like Zack, like the infantrymen he had been friends with. They would have to fight in the line of duty, in some cases even, die.

They didn't deserve to have their lives taken from them.

The planet was suffering under Shinra, but what about the pain of those who were killed in the explosions? The pain of those who had to continue living through the tragedy of having lost their children, the parents, their friends, partners, co-workers? It was a pain Cloud had become all too familiar with; one he didn't want to see others have to suffer through.

As far as Cloud was concerned, Avalance were no better than Sephiroth.

"Therefore, as a countermeasure, I want one of you stationed at each Reactor,” Heidegger instructed. “These people are dangerous terrorists, so don't hesitate to use lethal force. Let Avalanche serve as a martyr to any other sewer rats out there who might be thinking of following their example."

It never occurred to Cloud that Shinra's Mako Reactors had all been built to the exact same dimensions.

As he walked through Sector 5, approaching the building, he was shaken by each eerie detail that flooded back. How, much like the reconstruction of Nibleheim, it was startingly, precisely familiar, carrying a distinct memory and reminder of that night.

It awoke the flood of panic that had surged through his veins, the hot, viscous streaks of blood spilt upon that same staircase. His thoughts, somehow, became more visceral, than what he had lived through.

His heart lurched in his chest as he recounted passing Zack and Tifa's prone bodies, lying motionless of the stairs. He could feel his hand shaking against the handle of his sword, much like it had as he stood before Sephiroth, certain that he was going to die. The white-hot burn of Sephiroth’s blade searing in two different places as it cut clean through his flesh.

Exhaling in a cold-sweat, Cloud buckled to one knee at the entrance.

"Sir?" The voice of the infantryman crouched beside Cloud, pulled him from his reverie. His words, the touch of his hand against his shoulder, offering Cloud something to focus on.

"Are you alright?"

"I- I'm fine," Cloud lied.

Even with masks obscuring their faces and no way to clearly read their expressions, Cloud could sense the doubt radiating through the fleeting glances they shared.

Before they had the chance to pry, alarms began to blare from inside the reactor.

The infantrymen turned towards him expectantly, awaiting his command.

Standing back to his feet, Cloud readied Hardedge.

"Alright. On my signal, move in." Cloud instructed.

"Right."

Cloud heard Avalance before he had a chance to see them; a product of a Soldier's Mako-enhanced senses.

It was the clatter of the rifle along the ground that gave them away. The sound of a bullet misfiring and ricocheting off the wall, the guard grunting in pain before seemingly slumping to the floor, unconscious.

Cloud slid to a stop at the entrance of the reactor, catching sight of a young woman taking down one of the guards with a series of powerful strikes.

Despite himself, Cloud was impressed by the sheer speed and technique she demonstrated. He'd been under the impression that Avalanche were a group of ordinary, frustration citizens; finding strength in numbers and piecing together a militia from what they had on hand.

Yet, this woman fought with the skill of a trained, highly dangerous fighter.

Still, Cloud felt no cause for concern. It would take more than hand to hand skills for her to stand against a member of Soldier. Though, he took solace in knowing that their fight would not be so unfairly balanced.

Despite company orders, Cloud did not feel comfortable using force on random citizens and had hoped he could detain the protestors peacefully.

Sensing his presence behind her, however, the woman turned towards him, her fists raised and stance wide, ready to strike. Their eyes locked from opposite ends of the room, immediately honing in one another.

Cloud's forehead burnt as he, once more, was struck by that haunting flash of recognition.

It was a moment that had played out in Cloud’s head countless times.

A vision that only grew more vivid with each iteration.

With time and the hardships that had plagued his young life, Cloud had realised that the romantic imaginings of his young mind were unlikely to accurately reflect reality.

Yet, he could never have guessed how far they would stray, how opposite to his hopes and dreams things would actually unfold.

Her eyes, through enhanced Mako vision, were brighter, much more vibrant and closer to red than he could remember. They looked older, no longer wide and innocent.

Though, perhaps the most startling difference was how those same breath-taking, ruby eyes now pinned him down, not with admiration, but heart-wrenching rage.

As the pieces slid into place, his voice broke in a tremor.

“T… Tifa?”

“Cloud?”

"The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies." – Unknown

#cloti #cloti fall festival 2019 #thank you cloti #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #ffvii #final fantasy vii #fanfiction

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ice-cream-nekogirl · 4 years

Text

Amy Martinez (Character Sheet TV Tropes Style) P-T

Pals With Jesus: She contacted the demoness Lilith and practically worships her as a deity, and Lilith acts as a guardian spirit to Amy at times during times of need.

On a sadder note, Amy’s also quite chummy with Shachath, The Dark Angel who acts as a kindly grim reaper as Shachath offers Amy comforting words and reassurance even as she’s contemplating suicide since Shachath comes to her whenever she senses it.

Inverted with her friendship with Michael, the Anti-Christ. As Amy and Mallory prevent the original Apocalypse timeline, instead of killing him, Amy and Mallory decide to spare him a cruel upbringing and instead take him to the coven and teach him how to use his powers for good and embrace his human side. Michael still has his dark impulses but with Amy and Mallory’s influence, he becomes an ally to the witches and grew to love Amy and Mallory.

Pay Evil Unto Evil: Due to her upbringing with the witches, Amy staunchly believes in getting revenge on people who have wronged her or her friends as she helped Zoe murder Spalding, stabbed the Axeman to death with her sisters, and attempted to kill Muscular for getting Midoriya horribly injured and intending to kill Kota.

She also tortured pedophiles, rapists and domestic abusers when she was 13 years old.

Amy threatens to stab Endeavor (a man who abused his wife and children) in the eye should he ever do anything to hurt Todoroki or his family ever again.

Perky Goth: While she doesn’t seem gothic, she is still a witch with many gothic interests and has a generally peppy and upbeat attitude.

Person of Mass Destruction: When angered, Amy’s magic spirals out of control, but she does this freely and almost always leaves mayhem and bedlam in her wake as she can tear down fake buildings in a rage and destroyed most of the interior of UA, including the cafeteria, gymnasium and training grounds.

Pet The Dog: See above her Kick The Dog moments in where she apologizes for every instance and also has several other of these moments to show that she’s capable of kindness:

Every moment she has with Shinsou as she looks after him, comforts him when he’s sad and constantly reassures him during his lowest points.

When Iida is upset for going after Stain himself, Amy actually comforts him and says that she doesn’t blame him for letting his feelings get the better of him and says that she actually respects him for it more.

Even when she was in a bloodthirsty rage, Amy does nothing to harm any of her classmates or the other students and instead gets them out of the way of her rampage and makes them fall asleep to spare them any trauma or physical pain.

She fixes the All-Might figure Midoriya got for her and apologized to him with a baked cake as the two of them made up and Amy hugged him as the two of them broke down crying.

Upon returning to UA after her giant meltdown, she gives everyone a very formal apology, especially the ones whose feelings she hurt and then takes them on a vacation to New Orleans so they could have a good time and visit America while letting them have money to use for souvenirs.

She buys Eri several different dolls and a dollhouse for Christmas and said that she changed her mind and told Santa to give her all her gifts because she’s on the ‘Nice’ list. And later just about every other instance where she does something nice for Eri whether it’s introducing her to Mallory (due to them sharing a similar power), letting her take Dakota out for rides, teaching her how to sing or teaching her how to bake along with Satou.

She asked Mallory to fix the ashes of the cat plush Aizawa gave her and kept it after it was fixed, then apologized to her teacher by buying him a cat-styled mug.

She tells Aoyama that she thinks he has the best fashion sense in the class and says he’s a good guy and going to be a really cool hero when they graduate.

She apologizes to Fuyumi, gives her a fancy gift basket and tells her that she thinks she’s done a good job taking care of the Todoroki family.

Despite continuously calling him boring, Amy throws Ojiro a birthday party and refrains from insulting him for the entire day and even buys him several presents.

She also takes care of the entirety of Class 1-A during Quirk Flu season due to her, Madison, Cordelia and the other witches being naturally immune and nurses them all back to health, including Midoriya and Aizawa, whom she was still kind of angry with.

Like with Shinsou, every moment she has with Ashlen as she is genuinely nice to her, genuinely likes her, looks out for her and goes out of her way to make sure that her new friend is happy. And when she thinks Ashlen won’t like something she does, she quickly stops herself because she doesn’t want to upset her friend.

She comforts Tokoyami when he expresses his regret for rejecting Ashlen’s feelings for him and laments that she moved on with Shinsou, and Amy reassures him that Ashlen will still always love him even if she’s not together with him.

The Pigpen: Downplayed, while Amy seems clean on the outside, hygiene isn’t her biggest priority as she says that she doesn’t use deodorant despite complaining that she has BO, doesn’t shave her pits unless she feels like it, nor does she shave her legs either.

Shinsou: You smell like way too much perfume and body cream.

Amy: Yeah! It was the only way to block out my pits.

Shinsou: There is natural deodorant you know?

Amy: Oh yeah I know, so why don’t you use it? I can smell you from here.

Shinsou: Hey. We’re talking about your BO here.

Ping Pong Naivete: At times, Amy acts like a child, other times, she acts like an adult. She clearly knows how anatomy and sex works and knows more about adult subjects than a normal 17 year old probably should know, but at the same time she has moments where it shows that she’s still a 17 year old girl who DOESN’T know all about sex. As she brought her entire class vibrators for Christmas under the belief that they were ‘body massagers’ even when Shinsou kept telling her that they were vibrators. She also initially thought lube was body cream, and had no idea that their purpose is for sex and masturbation.

Pink Means Feminine: While she’s not stereotypically feminine, Amy often wears pink in her apparel unless it’s her Hero Costume.

Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite only standing at 5’0 as one of the shortest in the Hero Course, her magic and variety of powers make her one of the strongest and most feared students in the class.

Platonic Life Partners: With Shinsou, whose been her best friend since childhood. They trust each other and rely on each other like a brother and sister and always support one another, although some of their classmates pressured them into going on a date when they thought they liked each other more than friends do. However, Amy and Shinsou realized that while they love each other, the thought of being together disgusts each other and acknowledge each other as nothing more than dear friends.

Shinsou: Amy... I wanted to tell you something I should have told you a long time ago. You and I have known each other forever, we’re best friends right? Well... I’ve realized something ever since you’ve been gone. Every person has someone in their life, someone that they know they can’t live without. And that person is someone who steals a bounce-house for you on your birthday because you desperately wanted one. That person is someone who sneaks you out of class when you get food poisoning and washes the vomit out of your face and your hair. That person is someone who picks you up and feeds you soda and ice cream when you’re just so miserable you need to drown it in everything that can’t possibly be healthy. Amy... that person is you, and I love you. But... I’m not in love with you.

Amy: (touched) Hitoshi... (warmly smiles) I love you too, but I’m not in love with you either.

Shinsou: (smiles) Want to go watch Game of Thrones?

Amy: Every damn day dude.

She and Kaminari also have a friendship built on platonic affection as they are very close, playfully flirt with each other, get along very well akin to a brother and sister, can rely on each other and call each other their ‘favorite people’.

Plucky Girl: Amy is very spirited, brave-hearted and despite the trials and tribulations she’s gone through, nothing stops her from fighting and defending what she believes in.

Positive Friend Influence: When she’s not being a Toxic Friend Influence, she’s this for Shinsou, Madison, Ashlen and Todoroki.

She can get Shinsou out of his shell and get him to act sillier around her and loosen him up.

She brings out Madison’s Hidden Heart of Gold as she starts becoming kinder to her classmates.

As Ashlen enters UA, Amy helps the somewhat shy and modest girl with her confidence issues and teaches her how to embrace and awaken a newfound wild side.

And she also gets Todoroki out of his shell by making him smile and laugh at her free-spirited humor.

The Power Of Hate: Sentio Compassios is fueled by Amy’s emotions, her stronger ones at that matter, especially hatred. In fact, Amy’s Sentio Compassios reaches one of it’s strongest states based on the more anger, hatred and resentment she feels, which is what allows her to fight against even stronger heroes and bring them down to their knees. In fact, thinking about her feelings of abandonment, jealousy towards Eri and heartbreak from Midoriya rejecting her confession is what brings Sentio Compassios to a giant, scarlet-red form that she uses to overpower the pro-heroes and defeat Midoriya.

The Power Of Love: On the other hand, Sentio Compassios is also fueled by her love, an equally powerful emotion that Amy feels strongly. Because Amy wants to get better and no longer be hateful, she resolves to do what she wanted to do in the beginning, fight for love. And Amy’s more tender emotions such as happiness, bittersweetness and protectiveness are what fuel Sentio Compassios to a giant, pink form that is built entirely of her feelings of love for her friends and family. Thinking about her coven, her best friends Ashlen and Shinsou, as well as Bakugo and other dear friends like Midoriya, Todoroki and Kaminari bring Sentio Compassios to it’s zenith.

Amy: Yes... humans are hateful creatures, but they can love too. I know that because the people I love are humans, and they remind me that I’m human too. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but they still love me, that’s why I’m fighting. Because I believe in love.

Powers Do The Fighting: Amy is a long-range fighter who mainly relies on her telekinesis to punch, smash and shred everything and anybody around her all the while she just stands by and watches. And when she learns how to use Sentio Compassios, she also starts using it to create attacks and beams out of emotional energy/aura, and is learning how to create clones of her opponents.

Power Trio: She becomes one with Shinsou and Ashlen, her best and closest friends. Although before Ashlen, she was also something like this with Shinsou and Madison. And between her witch sisters, she’s either this with Madison and Mallory, or Mallory and Coco.

Pride: Amy has a LOT of pride and it shows in how she shows off her powers and goes on and on about how cool her heritage is. However, her pride is also showcased when she conceals all of her problems from her friends because she’s too embarrassed to admit that she has a lot of issues and refuses to be judged or criticized as she takes both VERY harshly due to her pride.

Prone To Tears: Downplayed. Despite her attitude, Amy’s very emotional and sensitive as she gets easily upset when she’s yelled at or if someone is mad at her, and is also easily touched by tender moments or hearing someone’s sad or happy memories, although she can hold it together when she has to even if she’s on the verge of tears.

Protagonist-Centered Morality: Amy has a bad habit of having this mind-set as she doesn’t think even the worst things, she does are wrong just so long as she does them for reasons she believes are right even when she chides others for doing the same if they’re for reasons she doesn’t like. Might be justified given the environment she grew up in where several of her sisters including one of her caretakers have murdered and betrayed each other but had no choice but to tolerate one another for the sake of surviving due to having a common enemy in the witch hunters. However, she IS trying to break out of this now that she’s attending UA to be a hero, albeit Amy does still prioritize only people she knows above others which makes it a bit difficult, especially during the Shie Hassakai arc as she chews out Midoriya for being deadest on and reckless enough to rescue someone he just met and doesn’t even know well since it cost someone’s life and someone’s power.

Psychic Nosebleed: When Amy utilizes way too much of her telekinesis or the rest of her powers all at the same time for far too long she gets nosebleeds along with horrific headaches that force her to recharge.

Psychotic Smirk/Slasher Smile: VERY fond of pulling off some wicked grins, especially when she gets the drop on someone or whenever she tricks them.

Pungeon Master: Amy LOVES puns and cracks one almost every day in class, much to Bakugo’s immense aggravation.

Reality Ensues: She’s one of the many troubled individuals Midoriya comes across, and when he experiences just how emotionally disturbed she is due to her Dark and Troubled Past, he attempts to console and reason with her but ultimately fails and only succeeds in angering her even further and widening the distance between them as an incensed Amy chides him by saying that he’s being more patronizing than helpful and that he can’t save everyone from their traumas and that’s she’s not like the others that he saved. While their relationship does get better, Midoriya is crestfallen to know that he couldn’t get through to Amy and that he ultimately won’t be able to do the same for everyone.

Amy: I’m not like the other troubled souls you rescued Deku. I’m not some sad, broken thing waiting for you to rescue me. You can’t save everyone just by being nice and saying nice things that they were waiting so long to hear… stupid.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: The wild, impulsive and hyperactive Red Oni to the calm, rational Ashlen and Shinsou’s Blue Oni as well as to Midoriya’s Blue Oni during their trip to New Orleans.

Relationship Revolving Door: Played for Laughs (often) when it comes to her and Bakugo. Since they’re very love-hate, they’ve broken up and gotten back together a LOT, with Bakugo outright listing how many times Amy has dumped him (7) and how many times he’s broken up with her (6).

The Resenter: Amy’s capable of being spiteful and can hold a grudge, as she becomes resentful of Midoriya momentarily when he accidentally spurns her feelings for him. She also grows to strongly resent Eri because she received the care and affection from the pro-heroes of her society while Amy was neglected of that and given to a completely different society and forced to abandon her former life and friends. As a result, Amy also grew resentful towards Aizawa because while he offered Amy comfort, he wasn’t willing to take care of her the way he currently does for Eri. Needless to say, Amy was VERY hostile towards the three of them for a while and refused to be among them as she left the dorms two months because she “couldn’t stand looking at their faces”.

Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Angry at the pro-heroes for abandoning her and hurt by Midoriya’s impatience with her, once the Culture Festival is over, Amy can’t hold back her fury and attacks everything and everybody she felt wronged and abandoned by.

The Runaway: She leaves UA after her rampage and goes on a bender with Madison, forcing Shinsou, Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki and Iida to go and find her. After 2 days, they find her, but while she returns home, she quits UA and leaves the dorms to lock herself away in her mansion for two months.

Sad Clown: Amy’s one of the funniest girls in the Hero Course, but she acts that way to hide the fact that she’s still very depressed, immensely insecure and miserable underneath the razzing, pranking and jokes are just to mask it all.

Sadist: Amy is a bit TOO eager to murder and torture and laughs when she does so. On a lighter side, she’s also a bit too into messing with her classmates as she frequently laughs when they’re embarrassed or agitated as she once took a twisted delight in disorganizing Iida’s entire room in front of him while she had him tied up. However, Amy does NOT enjoy it when her classmates are genuinely hurt or distressed by rumors or by things that were supposed to be private.

Sanity Slippage: It began when her parents were killed and she fell into a heavy depression, which only worsened upon being forced to move to New Orleans, as the events that forced her to experience personal betrayals, bloodshed and cruel torture inflicted on innocent people, bad relationships, watching new family and friends die broke her remaining sanity as she becomes the giggling, gleefully manic lunatic we know today.

Her sanity takes a toll for the worst after she gets herself kidnapped by the League of Villains as Shigaraki further feeds upon her insecurities and fears of being abandoned by society, and when realizing that the heroes COULD have taken care of her and NOT shipped her off to America, she becomes MUCH more unhinged and harder to reason with as she starts lashing out at everything and everybody around her, including her teacher, who she personally attacks without warning. However, she’s partially aware of it and leaves the dorms for 2 months as a means to spare her classmates from her wrath should she snap and get angry.

Sanity Strengthening: Even when she supposedly was already insane in the beginning, she seems relatively stable among her friends and closest sisters, and upon returning to Japan and reuniting with Shinsou, while making new friends and even finding love in Bakugo slowly stabilized her into becoming somewhat more level-headed and thoughtful enough to cool down from her previous meltdowns and reflect from them..

Her sanity also greatly improves upon meeting Ashlen, while she’s still wild and free-spirited, she’s much less unstable and even acts more like a normal person due to her friendship with her and also becomes kinder to others with Ashlen making sure she doesn’t go completely out of control and allowing Amy to reflect on her actions and think before acting.

Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Her friends with Shinsou. Full stop. And then of course this can be said for her friendships with both Midoriya and Todoroki.

Serial Killer: She’s killed fifteen people to date, all of them were evil of course, but still.

Seven Deadly Sins: She seems to have and commit every single one as being with the witches has encouraged her to do as she pleases and embraces the fact that she’s a sinner.

Envy: Amy has shown intense and often irrational resentful and jealous behavior towards people she feels attached to such as Shinsou, Ashlen, Bakugo, Aizawa and Midoriya, and isn’t above deliberately taking their attention away from others by shifting negative attention to herself if for the sake of having their attention.

Gluttony: Among her voracious appetite and tendency to binge-eat, Amy excessively uses her powers and over indulges in hedonism whenever she feels like it.

Greed: Amy displays a selfish attitude by keeping things to herself and isn’t above using her powers against others or her own friends if it means getting something she wants.

Lust: Amy has no shame in showing off her perverted side by making lewd and vulgar comments to her friends or about her friends, frequently gets into heated make-outs with Bakugo and was the first to initiate taking their relationship to the next level.

Pride: Tends to see herself and her fellow witch sisters as superior to humans with quirks because she and the witches can use more than one power.

Sloth: Amy doesn’t enjoy working or putting a lot of effort into her academics or chores as she has her classmates do the work, and even when she does help out she relies primarily on her telekinesis rather than actually doing work by herself.

Wrath: She is partially defined by her unpredictable, vicious temper built from pent-up rage towards the world that she gladly lashes out towards regardless of who’s in the vicinity.

Shameless Fanservice Girl: Subverted as none of her moments are for fanservice even though she has the lack of shame for it. Her lack of shame stems from the fact that she only thinks her chubby body is comical than sexual.

Shipper on Deck: She loves to pair her friends off with each other, as she cheerfully encourages Kaminari to just try and make moves on Jirou already, much to his great embarrassment. She also thinks Ojiro is perfect with Hagakure since she’s ‘fun’ and he’s ‘no fun at all’. Also, while she started to like Uraraka, she still would rather her not be with Midoriya, and instead thinks she would be cuter with Iida as she states it’s like Cinderellla where the poor girl goes off with the ‘tight-ass rich boy’. And she tells Shinsou that she thinks Tsuyu and Midoriya would be a cute couple.

She also believes that there’s ‘something’ going on between Cordelia and Aizawa, or at least there’s a torch being held for one another.

And when her new best friend Ashlen enters UA, she’s ecstatic when she hears of her crush on Tokoyami and vigorously tells her to go for it. And she’s saddened when he rejects her, but then gladly starts to ship her with Shinsou the moment she senses that he has a crush on her. As they get together, Amy remains their biggest shipper and calls them ‘The Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’ of 2-A.

Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Damien was one of her first crushes because she was under the impression that he was a kind-hearted individual until he showed his true colors later on and she eventually dumped him when he didn’t get any better. And upon returning to Japan, Midoriya was the one she truly first crushed on, but after an argument her feelings for him quickly dissipated, although they do remain good friends as Amy still has love for him that’s more platonic rather than romantic.

Finally, she started going out with Bakugo when she realized that despite his attitude, she ultimately fell for him because of his devotion to being a hero and turning down the League of Villains offer to join them. Additionally, her feelings for him grew when she started seeing a gentler side to him when he actually listened to her.

Skilled, but Naive: Subverted to Aizawa’s horror when he realizes that unlike Yaoyorozu, while Amy does get overwhelmed during some situations that she’s able to quickly come to a faster solution: murder and fighting dirty. Which ultimately has to do with the fact that while Amy’s still a young girl of only 16-17 and still isn’t really mature, she’s seen enough horrors in her life to know when and how to fight back, even if it means hurting others.

Amy: (to Aizawa) Heh... you’re the stupid one if you think that I’m stupid like that.

The Slacker: At times, as stated up above in Sloth, Amy would rather use her telekinesis to do all the work for her rather than actually getting up to use her own two hands. Her laziness is further exemplified in where she shirks chores by either using Concilium to get someone else to do it for her or acting like she can’t do it. And during days when she could be training Amy would rather just watch Netflix and TV, listen to music, eat sweets and drink soda and lie down on the couch.

Slap Slap Kiss: Her and Bakugo are this completely when they get together, Amy even slaps him after their first kiss, only to pull him in to kiss him even more.

Smarter Than You Look: Amy only seems like an oblivious goofball, but she’s actually extremely sly and clever as she knows how to manipulate her opponents, take them by surprise and make them fall into traps. Not to mention, she’s brilliant when it comes to covering up her tracks to go undetected.

Soap-Box Sadie: Amy’s the most politically active student of the Hero Course, frequently does and participates in protests, preaches feminism and body positivity, as well as for the environment, animal-poaching and nature preservation.

Spoiled Brat: Because of how childish and petulant she is, Amy tends to come across as this which shows as Cordelia and her witch sisters, especially Madison, dote on her and let her have whatever she wants as a means of making up for exposing her to terrible things. Doesn’t help that even her best friend Shinsou tends to enable her and merely tells everyone to simply do what SHE wants as a means to avoid her getting mad. And when Amy doesn’t get what she wants she’s throws fits and tantrums and frequently mouths off to more responsible figures such as Iida or Aizawa when they assert their authority. In fact, she’s so spoiled by her coven that all she has to do is threaten to tell Cordelia on Aizawa to get him to buckle to her demands. However, Amy can and WILL stow this attitude when she realizes that she’s going to cross a line and CAN behave and take an order from Aizawa and Cordelia when it becomes clear to her that they think she’s acting like a brat.

Spoiled Sweet: On the other hand, Amy has no problem sharing the wealth she has from Fiona with her friends and happily spends a lot of money for parties to throw for her friends and buys them expensive gifts including concert tickets and trips around the world. Also, she has no problems with donating to good causes such as for Breast Cancer Awareness, Battered Women’s Shelters, LGBT Youth and for Environmental Conservation.

Stepford Smiler: She’s both the Depressed type and the Unstable type. Amy smiles to hide her sadness, especially following her parent’s death, but after her experiences with New Orleans, her grins and simpers are to mask her extremely fragile sanity. However, lately her smiles have been used more to hide her depression from her friends.

The Stool Pigeon: Of the Petty variant. After Aizawa angers her, Amy starts threatening to tell Cordelia on him for whatever he does that she dislikes and because Cordelia is very protective of Amy, and is the strongest witch in the world who can effortlessly destroy him literally and figuratively, he almost always buckles in fear of her.

She’s also the main pot-stirrer in her class as she and Madison have a penchant for gossip as she tattled on Ojiro by telling Hagakure that he has a bit of a crush on her. Then told Iida what Kaminari and Mineta were planning on doing during the girl’s slumber party, which resulted in them getting suspension for a week.

She also provided dirt on Tokoyami for her and Shinsou to gossip about when she sensed jealousy from the latter.

Amy also says that she likes to eavesdrop on her other classmates such as Iida, Jirou and Kirishima so she can gossip about them with Madison.

Straw Feminist: Amy is a feminist at the core, although sometimes she can go a little too far with her feminism if she’s properly provoked as she has her moments where she thinks boys are the problem in school, and rather harshly tells Midoriya that Eri “needs a woman in her life” when he’s acting too much like a dad. She also once held a protest at UA when Mineta was getting way too out of control and resorted to kicking him and Kaminari in the groins for being ‘disgusting’ rather than correct what they were doing wrong. She does try to correct this however by being less judgmental and hypocritical.

Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Downplayed between her and Shinsou, as Shinsou’s more physically powerful, but Amy’s numerous powers and magic easily make her stronger than he is while Shinsou tends to be more strategic and tactful. Same thing whenever she’s paired with Midoriya.

Supernatural Gold Eyes: Her light-brown eyes sometimes take on an amber hue which go in tune with her mystical abilities.

Superpower Lottery: She gained her powers quite early for a witch as most witches usually gain their powers at the age of 16-17, but Amy gained her powers when she was only 9 years old and has grown increasingly proficient with them as she manifested 6 of the 7 wonders and her own unique power that manifested from her father’s quirk.

Mind Over Matter: Telekinesis and Psychic Powers. Her most utilized power as she shows nearly advanced mastery in this as she can use it as an aura to physically attack her opponents, as well as to toss them around like ragdolls and also uses this to toss objects at others during battle as she used Todoroki’s own ice against him by taking sharpened icicles to make it rain on him.

Mind Manipulation: Concilium. Much like Shinsou’s Brainwashing, Amy can manipulate and control people into doing things for her or by making them forget everything they witnessed or heard. But unlike Brainwashing, Amy can make her victims remain conscious and doesn’t need to speak to have them fall under her control. Stronger individuals can resist her commands, but usually suffer pain as Amy fries up their brains when they try.

Playing With Fire: Pyrokinesis. Uses fire as an offense attack, and also to taunt Todoroki into using his own fire abilities during their fight at the Sports Festival.

Teleportation. Amy uses this to great effect in combat to dodge attacks from opponents quickly or to surprise attack them.

To Hell And Back: Decensum. She can cross into the afterlife and other planes, and while she doesn’t use this power often, she’s capable of it.

Seers: Divination. Amy couldn’t show off her capability in the test of the 7 wonders due to being unable to perform Vitalum Vitalis but Amy is capable of deriving knowledge about something or someone outside of the use of the physical senses as she can also sense ‘bad juju’ in the vicinity as she felt off before the USJ incident and at the Training Camp. Amy also can use this ability in scrying to spy on others through the use of water, mirrors and crystal balls.

The Empath. A stronger form of Divination and Amy’s unique power she gained from her father. It allows her to feel the emotions of others around her, while also being able to see their previous or past memories. Amy uses this to great effect as she can sense her friends’ presence and also can use her emotions to strengthen herself or create attacks from her emotions.

Spell Construction. Like many witches, Amy can practice spells and has shown to be able to come up with her own spells, curses, jinxes and all as she used a spell to induce explosions or put someone to sleep.

Potion-Brewing Mechanic. Amy loves to make potions and has made several of them that are used to either heal, improve moods and libido, or to seriously harm and mess up someone’s body.

Super Strength: Sort of. Her physical strength is not innate as Amy is learning how to use her telekinesis to make her punches and kicks stronger without having to actually gain muscle. Also, she can give others super strength too with her telekinesis by adding telekinetic energy to their punches and kicks.

Sweet Tooth: She’s very much into sweets as she just loves chocolate, cookies, ice cream and soda. This often gets exploited by her friends and classmates, as Shinsou and Ashlen have discovered that all they have to do to get her to do something is offer to buy her something sweet and Amy happily does it.

Teens Are Short: She’s only 5′0 and quite small compared to the adult characters, including Cordelia who stands at 5′7 in heels.

Temporarily A Villain: After the culture festival, she goes through a complete meltdown and loses any sense of being reasoned with. Afterwards, she manipulates Aizawa and attacks him, lashes out at other teachers, and knocks them out and puts her classmates under a sleeping spell so she can go around the school and destroy some property out of anger, and finally, beats Midoriya when he tries to subdue her. It’s all in the span of a single day, but she’s slowly brought back down to earth by Shinsou, Cordelia and All-Might.

The Three Faces of Eve: She’s the “Child” to Ashlen’s “Mother” and Madison’s “Seductress”.

She was also the “Child” to Cordelia’s “Mother” and Fiona’s “Seductress”.

Then Let Me Be Evil: Hero Society doesn’t have the best view of witches, which is why Amy’s mother had to suppress her powers because she was devoted to protecting her daughter and the innocent people of Japan. However, Amy only realizes this when the pro-heroes, despite being capable of caring and protecting her, refuse and instead send her to America to be with her own kind. This newfound knowledge is what ultimately makes her snap when she realizes that Hero Society will only see her as wicked and unstable, and so she ensures to live up to that when she attacks UA.

This is For Emphasis, Bitch!: Very fond of adding ‘bitch’ to the end of her sentences whenever taunting someone.

Amy: Don’t underestimate me bitch, I’m a fucking witch!

Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She’s a 5’0 witch, but also one of the more intimidating students of the Hero Course with even her own classmates being too afraid to provoke her.

Toilet Humor: Befitting her immature sense of humor, Amy is very amused by jokes that have to do with bodily functions, fart jokes in particular as she often makes these jokes at Iida simply to embarrass him in class.

Token Evil Teammate: Of the Hero Course students, Amy’s the most self-serving and arguably the least heroic one, and is often made to play the villain in some of the training scenarios, a role she’s all too happy to play. But unlike most other examples, she’s really not that bad, just selfish and prone to being aggressive.

Token Witch: Of UA overall as well as one of the few known witches in Japan attending a school for heroes.

Tomboy and Girly Girl: While neither she or Ashlen are the conventional Girly Girls and Tomboys, Amy serves more as the Girly Girl to Ashlen’s Tomboy as Amy wears traditionally more feminine apparel such as dresses, skirts, colorful stockings and Mary Jane shoes as well as other chic and glamorous clothing and many of which are black and pink, takes more pride in her appearance, fawns and fangirls over cute boys, enjoys chick flicks, dressing like a princess, going shopping and taking selfies. However, ironically Amy is the one who is much more vulgar, violent and Ax Crazy.

Took a Level in Jerkass: Amy wasn’t the nicest girl in the beginning but just when she was becoming kinder to her classmates, then the Kamino Ward arc and it made Amy feel patronized by her classmates when they express their concern for her. And then she gets even more incensed after the Shie Hassaikai arc when Eri comes into the picture and earns care and adoption from the pro-heroes, something Amy never received after she lost her parents as she was merely shipped off to America and forced to be cut off from her former friends and family friends. This new information makes her go berserk to the point of lashing out at her classmates and her teachers as she flies into an ultra-tantrum and becomes hostile to others and even fights with and harms Midoriya and Aizawa when they attempt to talk her down and she even leaves the dorms and UA for a while because she couldn’t deal with talking to anyone other than Shinsou. Thankfully, she does slowly get better.

Took a Level in Kindness: After her fight with Midoriya, Amy reflects more on her actions and instead opts to behave for the sake of Shinsou and her witch sisters. Although she does soften up by being around Bakugo, Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido and Sero, as well as Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, and Amy does eventually apologize to the people she’s hurt. She takes a bigger level in her second year when her new best friend Ashlen transfers to UA and Amy decides to be less of an angry person and acts like an even kinder, compassionate person to her classmates and teachers.

Town Girls: She’s the Femme, Madison’s the Butch and Ashlen’s Neither.

Toxic Friend Influence: Although a good friend to Shinsou, she enables his worse habits and brings out his bitchier side which includes them both relentlessly insulting and pranking Ojiro simply because they both find him boring. And vice-versa, Shinsou’s a good friend to her too, but never tells her the honest truth, enables her bad behavior and would rather just comfort her and make sure she’s happy.

Trademark Favorite Food: Amy has many favorite foods but she LOVES Spaghetti and often cooks it at home because it’s really the only thing she’s good at cooking.

Amy’s favorite pizza place is Pizza Hut, as she even takes Shinsou and Ashlen to the place on their first outing as friends as she ate a majority of the buffet while Ashlen and Shinsou watched with slight horror and amusement.

She also LOVES Dr. Pepper, Oreos and cookies. She loves these things so much, all Shinsou has to do is present her one of these treats to get her to do something she doesn’t want to do or to make her feel better when she’s sad.

Amy: (whining) But I don’t wanna clean... that requires moving... look at my arms... look at my arms Hitoshi, they’re not moving, they’re just not...

Shinsou: (exasperated) I’ll buy you cookies.

Amy: (gets up with more energy) I can move again!

Tragic Hero: Ultimately, Amy’s own worst enemy is herself. For all that she’s been hurt, betrayed and abandoned by others, her anger issues, instability, self-hatred, selfishness and insecurities are what always lead to self-sabotage and relapsing which risk her any chances of getting better. As shown when she attacks UA, believing she was doing it to prove a point about the hypocrisy of the pro-heroes, when in actuality she did it because she thought it would make her feel better. She leaves the school shortly out of both guilt and lingering resentment towards the heroes and Midoriya. While she does return, it’s only because she couldn’t abandon Shinsou or her new friends, not because she felt obligated to return to the ‘good side’ nor did she end up resolving any of her issues.

Trauma Conga Line: She goes through a lot in so little time. First, she’s bullied by her peers for supposedly being quirkless, and when she finds out it’s because she’s a witch with multiple powers, she’s ecstatic but that all dissipates fast when witch hunters infiltrate Japan and kill her entire family in front of her. While the pro-heroes rescue her, they then give her over to a coven of witches in New Orleans because they didn’t want to try raising a girl with unstable powers under the excuse that they didn’t want her allies (The Shinsou family) to be put at risk. And then at New Orleans, she has to watch some of her new friends get killed, assaulted, betrayed all within the span of two months. She gets hunted by witch hunters again, participates in a fight with another tribe of witches, getting surrounded by reanimated corpses, murdering the butler, freeing a serial killer’s ghost and lastly, she finds out that one of her new guardians wanted to kill her and everybody else in the coven. Then she loses two sisters she was closest too. It’s no wonder that she went insane afterwards.

Tres Amigos!: With Shinsou and Ashlen of course.

Troll: She’s this incarnate. Everything she does is just to get a reaction out of people, but especially Bakugo, Iida and Aizawa. She’s ESPECIALLY this to Shigaraki when she and Bakugo are captured by the League of Villains and despite being threatened with death, Amy continues to taunt him.

Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Even before she moved to New Orleans she wanted her parent’s murderers to be punished by death and this only worsened upon going to Robichaux with the other witches as she helped Zoe, Queenie and Nan torture Spalding, killed zombies with a shovel a bit too eagerly, partook in the plan to convince Fiona to kill herself for the coven and stabbed the Axe-Man to death with her sisters. All at the age of 11. And she implies that when she was around 12-13 that she also murdered several other people, granted they were mostly rapists, pedophiles and abusers but she also states that she lured them in with her childish looks and tortured them before killing them.

True Companions: She’s a true, blue friend to Shinsou and vice-versa, and they become this with Ashlen as they’re a very close-knit trio of friends who are ride or die. And hilariously enough Amy tends to act as the “child” while Shinsou is the “dad” and Ashlen is the “mom”.

Amy is also very close and affectionate with her coven, especially Zoe, Madison, Queenie and Misty, as well as her classmates such as Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo, Kirishima and Kaminari.

Tsundere: Even after she and Bakugo get on better terms and start a relationship Amy is still snippy towards him as he’s the one who pushes her buttons the most even if she’s a tad bit silly about it. However, for all that they argue and fight, Amy is still in love with him as she is well aware that he’s an asshole, yet she still loves him and gives him plenty of affection, hugs and kisses even as she says how much she’s annoyed by him.

She’s also one towards Eri as she claims to not care for the girl but after she (mostly) loses her dislike of her she proves her so-called lack of care by giving her toys, candy and singing lessons.

Similarly, she’s also this to her classmates that she’s not always kindest to such as Iida, Midoriya and Ojiro as she insults them frequently but still does express her care for them nonetheless.

Twitchy Eye: When greatly angered and about to lose what’s left of her remaining sanity, Amy’s eye starts to twitch, which is a sign for others around her to take cover,

Two Girls and A Guy: In the first year, Amy was often with Madison and Shinsou, also dubbed ‘The Bitch Friends’. But in second year, she and Shinsou become a trio with Ashlen and become ‘The Zombie Trio’.

Two Guys and A Girl: She tends to take this dynamic whenever she’s with Shinsou and Kaminari.

#amy martinez #bnha oc #mha ocs #my hero academia oc #boku no hero academia #ahs #ahs coven #american horror story #american horror story coven #original character #tv tropes

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