#and yet despite all that how he still retains so much of a sense of himself and who he is
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Arthur Morgan has been training to fight Dutch during his whole arc and doesn't even realize it, as all of the antagonists he fought against, all represent an aspect of Dutch:
-Colm O'Driscoll: Colm O'Driscoll is an outlaw who cares only about causing chaos and destruction, with no sense of idealism or loyalty towards his men, seeing them only as expendable numbers, focusing only on the quantity aspect instead of quality. He rules his gang with a cultistic mix of fear and adoration ("He's..uh..uh.. wh-when he talks to you nicely is like the sun is shining, and when he is mad at you, it's like the devil's gonna be upon you"). This parallels how Dutch would behave during Chapter 6, leaving Arthur and John to die and regarding the rest of the gang as expendable numbers and leads them with a cultistic mix of adoration and fear.
-Leviticus Cornwall: Leviticus Cornwall is an industrialist who, despite his delusions of gentlemanliness and eloquence, he robs, kills and destroys everything on his path, showing utter lack of concern about the destruction he leaves on his wake ("Business doesn't give a damn about feelings."). He is also obsessed with getting more power and will betray the law he claims to uphold so he can get what he desires. This reflects how Dutch threw away the ideals he cherished so much the moment pressure started mounting him at the drop of a hat, but also that despite dressing elegantly and speaking eloquently, he is a criminal hiding under a mask of sophistication.
-Andrew Milton: Andrew Milton is a Pinkerton agent determined to make his vision of the world a reality, starting out with a noble intention (which is up to interpretation), which is to clean up the West, yet ends up descending more into savagery and uncivilization, yet retains a sliver of honor. This mirrors how Dutch started out wanting to build an utopia using brutal and relentless methods, yet ends up descending more and more into insanity, dying a violent death.
-Tavish Gray and Catherine Braithwaite: Tavish Gray and Catherine Braithwaite are the heads of the Gray and Braithwaite families, who despite the times advancing, they still remain stuck in the past, wallowing about the "good ol' days" where they could hurt and kill with impunity. This is a parallel how Dutch refused to stop being an outlaw and had no intention of retiring at all.
-Angelo Bronte: As already explained in my earlier post, Angelo Bronte is a mobster who rules Saint Denis as a king, who has both the police and mafia serving as his knights. Similar to Cornwall and Colm, Bronte is not only supported by society, but is also a criminal who has no delusions about the nature of his business, treating others as dirt and manipulating them into doing what he wants. He also takes orphans into his thrall in order for them to serve him as criminals. This parallels how Dutch treats the gang at heart, with a compassionate way, but in the most condescending and arrogant way possible, but also how he adopted Arthur and John, grooming them into becoming his personal weapons.
-Alberto Fussar: Alberto Fussar is the dictator of Guarma, who he rules as its ruthless autocrat, claiming to work for the glory of Guarma, yet being utterly uncaring and apathetic towards the people inside it, working them to death and outright importing slaves for him to use as workforce in order to satisfy his own endless greed. When his right hand man, Levi Simon, was shot, he left him to die and only cared about saving himself and his pride. Fussar is also ruthlessly intolerant of any viewpoint other than his own. This parallels with how Dutch rules the gang, as the title of the mission "A Kind and Benevolent Despot" can be also applied to Dutch as well, as he gaslights on numerous times the members of the gang the moment they start questioning him and is willing to kill them himself.
-Henry Favours: Henry Favours is a colonel in the US Army who after an undistinguished career, hatches a plot to "reclaim" his "lost glory" by manipulating the Wapiti into war, eventually becoming one of its casualties, while being regarded as an incompetent moron. This is a reflection of how Dutch manipulated the indians in order to both make his escape and to cause chaos and his delusional belief about being a mastermind, yet having in reality an abysmal track record.
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I saw this and spouted a couple of thousand words.
Summary: You’re the person in control of Jackson’s alcohol production and distribution.
You’ve been trying not to crush on Joel Miller, and having some time away to focus on producing some drinks for the winter dance in 2038 gives you some much needed time apart.
Until you see his beautifully outgrown hair…
Word count: 2.1k
Rating: Mature (just for swearing and drinking)
Tags: Jackson!Joel, Fluff, Angst with a happy ending, Romance, First Kiss
Joel Miller’s hair was going to be the death of you.
As the person with control over the alcohol distribution in Jackson, you were one of the only people allowed in Joel’s small circle of trust. Years ago when he’d joined the community with his sort-of daughter, he sought you out. You, who’d grown up working in your families distillery Before. You who were strong-willed enough to manage the most popular non-essential resource in town, and the arguments that came along with it. Joel, however, was ever the Southern gentleman.
“Excuse me ma’am, sorry to bother ya, but my brother, Tommy…he said you’re the lady I need to come to to barter for more than my assigned ration of whiskey?”
Despite his size, he seemed small in that moment. Nervous. Perhaps even shy?
“Tommy knows better than to call me a lady, ain’t ever been one of those. But he’s right about how I got the hookup. I got a distillery system set up here, raided the Jackson Hole Still Works south of here a few years back for the equipment, but production is still limited. How much you looking for?”
He stood before you, rubbing the back of his neck and pointedly avoiding contact with your eyes. You figured out later that it was lucky on your end he did that, as your usually steely will had a kryptonite in his baby brown eyes.
“Double the ration amount ongoing? I ain’t got nothing physical to trade yet, but I’ll be a full-time patroller soon if ya need somethin’. Or I’m good with my hands”
You smirked and giggled at him then, secretly knowing what he meant (Tommy had been raving on around town about his brothers contracting skills the months he’d been gone in preparation for his return), but you loved messing with guys. And watching his sun-kissed cheeks redden slightly as he realised what he’d said sent a small thrill of power down your spine.
“I…I meant buildin’. Woodwork and shit, can figure my way around a pipe too if need be. I just…” he trailed off.
That was the moment you think it all started, this stupid schoolgirl crush on a 50 odd year old man. Seeing him try not to be vulnerable with a stranger, in a strange town, in a shit world. So you take pity on him.
“Glass bottles. People are suppose to return them, but accidents happen and we have less and less all the time. They’re also heavy so patrollers don’t like to carry them back, but thats usually the currency I have with the others. Lets say average one bottle a patrol, and I get you on retainer for repairs or building work I need, and you got a deal” you stated confidently, stepping closer and held a hand out to seal the deal. Little would you know, this moment would become your undoing.
For years, you two circled around each other, waltzing around the energy you emitted. He’d come to the small distillery you ran out of an old restaurant every week, with a few precious glass bottles, and had a small stilted conversation as you updated your logs with the exchange. You learned he had a dry sense of humour like yours, that you could make the corners of his lips turn upward with a bit of town gossip, and that he’d set up a woodworking room in his house when Ellie move out to the garage. The last one came along with the first of many gifts he started giving you. Tiny little creatures he’d began whittling after the endless downtime of town living had started grating on him. On the house he’d say every time you offered a bottle of beer in exchange, giving you lip on not understanding the concept of a gift.
For years, you danced. You knew Joel didn’t feel anything like that towards you, he’d been very clear about that. A couple of years back, Tommy set him up on a date with the lady who ran the greenhouse - Esther you think? She wasn’t one for drinking so you had no clue about her really - and Joel spent a good portion of your weekly chat groaning on about the upcoming thing. You bantered back like always, but tiny pinpricks hit your heart at how adamant he was about not needing a partner like that. And honestly, it’s not something you’d ever wanted either, especially after losing Talia sometime before Joel even joined Jackson. You thought you’d had your one love, and the pain of losing another had you bat off any attention with your wit and sass, sticking to harmless flirting. But Joel had somehow nudged his way in. You resolved to start building the walls back up.
It had been easier recently. With the winter being so harsh, socialising as a town had reduced, and the council were worried about morale. Ergo - The Winter Dance.
Social events were regular in Jackson, but the council were determined to go all out with this one, wanting to coax as many residents out and having fun as possible. So for the first time, they wanted a full open bar. Usually there was a limit to keep the town from running totally dry, but some sweet talking from Maria and a promise of another raid of Jackson Hole Still Works had you agreeing to overproduce for a month before the dance to create enough supply. This meaning you and a few trusted ‘employees’ were basically living at your makeshift distillery, no time for any sort-of flirting with a certain bearded Texan.
What this also meant was that after a whole month of not laying eyes on the man, you were not prepared for the fact that he’d somehow decided to grow his hair out a bit for the winter. So when you enter the Church where the dance is being held, and you see the man leaning against the makeshift bar, you’re not prepared at all, and with the exhaustion reducing your self control, the walls came tumbling down.
Thankfully, he didn’t spot you as you entered or you knew your face would have given you away, so focussed on something in the crowd. Your eyes followed what he was looking at, and a small smile upturned the corners of your lips. Out on the dance floor was your old lover's sister Dina (who you also thought of as a sister), with her arms around Joel's now grown kid, Ellie. You hadn’t spoken much to Dina recently, after her turning 18 and joining the full-time patrol team keeping her busy, but after her on-off with Jesse the past few years, you were just glad she seemed to be moving on.
You were so focussed on the young girls, you hadn’t realised you had company.
“So you are alive. Still not used to trustin’ people, so I’m mighty glad to see ya hear tonight to prove ‘em right”
Fuck. That stupid goddamn Texan drawl. You had enough self-restraint to not look over to him, knowing that either his baby brown eyes or the new hair growth so perfect for running your hands through would be your undoing.
“Well, the Council thought it would be good for the town if everyone could get white girl wasted, so who am I to deny that request?”
You heard him snort gently next to you. The next few seconds passed in agonising silence (for you at least) before the man consuming your soul made a sound.
“So does she partake in her own goods?”
You whip your head round to look at him, confusion masked on your face, forgetting about the incandescent curls you were about to see.
He’s attuned to your facial expressions by now.
“I mean, can I get you a drink?” he mumbles, gesturing weakly to the bar in the corner where all your hard work for the past month resides.
If you had to stand there any longer, you knew you wouldn’t be able to resist grabbing those goddamn curls, so without warning, your legs took off, striding you fast and efficiently towards your goal - some fucking liquid courage.
Jeff - one of the bartenders who drew the short straw to work the dance - knew you well enough to have a double whiskey neat, ready for you to slam back the moment you were close enough.
“So you ain’t a nurse your drink kind of gal, good to know”
The fucking Texan drawl had followed you. Of course, he had longer (and so sexy and thick) legs that’d easily keep up with your small stature.
You shoved your glass back toward Jeff, before taking a deep breath and steeling your resolve as you looked back to Joel. Fuck he looks so fucking hot. You can do this, it’s just one night.
“I’ve just spent the past month pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into all this. Think I deserve to drink it however I please thank you!”
Phew. Not awful. Not as witty as you might usually be, but given the fucking hair situation, you were doing your goddamn best,
The heat emanating off him as he scooched closer to you wasn’t helping though.
“Well, I’m grateful for your effort ma’am, this is a mighty fine batch you made”
You couldn’t help but smile at that. With resources slimmer as the years go by, the quality of the alcohol you distilled varied. Joel was always an honest judge, something you’d grown to respect over the years. You knew his words were true, and fuck if it didn’t worsen your resolve.
But he wasn’t interested in you like that - in anyone. So you used the remainder of your self-control to change the subject.
“Didn’t peg you to be a community event attendee Miller, thought this was all a bunch of communist bullshit last I heard?”
He snorted a bit louder this time, somehow still ridiculously attractive.
“I was threatened from multiple angles. Ellie and Tommy together could arguably be more formidable than FEDRA when it comes to forcing me to do shit I don’t wanna do”
Inwardly, you sighed. It was nice that Joel had people who cared about him like this of course, but it just reminded you of what you didn’t have. Dina checked in occasionally, feeling a bit responsible for the woman her sister loved, and although you were friendly with most of Jackson given your role, no one cared enough about your wellbeing to force you to do something you didn’t want to do but would be good for you. Totally your fault of course, you didn’t let many people close enough for that. Still…it ached.
“Woah, hey there girlie, you with me? You started drinkin’ before you got here maybe?”
Fuck. SHIT. You got stuck in your head, and now your stupid hot crush was having to guide you gently out of the church as you slowly came back to your senses.
It was only once you’d turned a corner and were alone with him that you returned fully to your body - realising his large, calloused hand was gently gripping your upper arm.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry Joel, that hasn’t happened in a really long time. I think I’m just tired, with all the extra work and all-”
He quickly interrupted you by turning to face you head on.
“Girlie, you don’t gotta apologise, it’s kinda nice to see you be a bit human for once”
And as you looked up at his face, you saw the softest and kindest expression you’d ever seen on the survivors face, some of his previously slicked back curls popping out in the cold, forming a slightly wild halo to frame him. He was the most beautiful creature you’d ever seen, and you physically couldn’t stop yourself from stepping into his space, and reaching up a hand to gently run through his curls.
Those baby brown eyes widened slightly in shock, but otherwise he didn’t move for what felt like eternity as your fingers were buried and surrounded by his brown and grey locks, pushing through them reverently.
Slowly, one of his hands found your waist and gently tugged you forward as his other hand found your cheek, his thumb caressing your cheek. You were totally aware of your body, every feeling, but you no longer had control. And as his head tilted down to meet yours, his lips grazing on yours, you never wanted control of your body again if it meant depriving you of this feeling. You could feel him moving out of pure instinct like yourself, and despite it just being a kiss, you realised deep in your gut, that this was the start of something physically and spiritually breathtaking
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Wish Granted AU: The 7 Teens 👥👥👥🌟
This one was both the most fun and hardest one to do. At first I hated the idea of 7 friends in general cause its canon that the directors added them later in the story and they wanted to just have a free reference without actually doing something. But the more I thought about it, the more I could see that they were accidentally given a good opportunity to create a new batch of loveable characters. So many creative ideas with it! Even the original concept shows that they had more thought and personality to them!
And they actually did have some personality in the deleted scenes, both during the distraction plan and the dungeon scenes, they felt more like characters than the final film. They had Seven Dwarves without actually acting like the Seven Dwarves, like how....???
Sorry to say, they did nothing in the movie. (yeah, I watched Wish, it was lame. Moving on.) One thing I want to achieve here is they'll be a mix between the Dwarves and the Mane 6. I swear this makes sense. 😅 Also one big difference here is that instead of being friends with them from the start, Asha meets each teen one by one when she and Star enter Rosas. A few of them even know Flazino, but not on a super personal level, just that he's seemingly loyal to Magnifico and Amaya. The teens know each other pretty well since they all work around the same place, but having them work together to start a revolution and defeat an evil will cement them as friends with each other and Asha and Star.
So let's give a quick rundown on each one. The more the story evolves, this page will be updated for additional backgrounds or changes to them.
Dhalia: Combination of Twilight/Doc. She's still a baker in this in version, and her wish is to become the greatest baker in the kingdom. (I actually didn't know this was something canon to the movie until later, it just something I came up with by coincidence!) She's incredibly loyal to the king and queen (with a bit of a crush on Magnifico) and willing to do anything for the kingdom. And...let's just say her role in the story will be bigger than some other rewrites or even the film itself.
Simon: Combination of Big Macintosh/Sleepy. While he still retains his sleepiness, its a result of losing his wish. He was actually strong, outgoing and jovial before then. Now he just doesn't have any ambition to do anything aside from his daily tasks. His wish was to become a royal knight and protect the kingdom.
Gabo: Combination of Rainbow Dash/Grumpy. He's incredibly loyal, but he hides it behind his rudeness. He's been duped so many times that he doesn't trust people anymore, especially when finding out he's right about the king being no good. His wish he's keeping secret, but it'll be revealed somewhere in the story.
Bazeema: Combination of Fluttershy/Bashful. Still keeping her kindness and ability to sneak up on people from the movie, Bazeema adores nature and especially animals. She gets along with just about all the animals in the forest, the royal horses and even the birds. She LOVES when Star turns into animals, since he's the entire animal kingdom rolled into one! The only animal she's never succeeded with was Sabor. He's just too much like his owners to get along with. 😂 Her wish is to provide a safe haven where all the animals would be safe and recover together if hurt.
Dario: Combination of Pinkie Pie/Dopey. Now I know you're thinking why not have the Pinkie inspiration for Hal? Well, I wanted her to be a bit more of a grounded type of funny instead of zany. Since Dario is based on Dopey, he provides a lot of awkward yet endearing humor. Sometimes he tries too hard, but he means well. He always manages to make Star laugh though! His wish is to bring laughter to Rosas, as he's one of the few who notices not everyone is exactly happy there.
Safi: Combination of Rarity/Sneezy. Despite Safi's allergies, he loves animals and is a bit shy around Bazeema whenever he helps tend to the garden or animals around Rosas. He might have like a hundred allergies, but he's always generous when it comes to helping his kingdom. Even though the King and Queen don't appreciate it. 😅(I'm also playing with an idea of Safi x Bazeema. Not entirely sure. I just kinda....got a small vibe of that from watching the movie. Maybe it was just me.) His wish is to get rid of his allergies so he can carry on a conversation without sneezing. Yeah, that's it! 😂😂
Hal: Combination of Applejack/Happy. Bit of a rougher gal in this one. She, a hard worker, but has a great sense of humor. She even helps be a test audience for Dario when it comes to his jokes, which eventually leads them to become a duo. Hal feels pretty content, so she hasn't really thought about a wish to give.
At one point later in the story when all of them do come together, I got an idea for their battle cry or team signal being "Heigh, Ho!". I still can't believe they didn't even use that in the movie.
Oh and there is still a traitor in this story, but...its not who you think it is. That's all I can say without spoilers. So you'll have to figure it out as it goes along.
And there you go, that's gonna be it for the characters now! The only one that may get one is Flazino, but it would be later down the line if I did to avoid spoilers. So now, the first test chapter is coming next! It'll include the "Welcome to Rosas" song, but with a twist! And my bestie @signed-sapphire is gonna help me with it, so stay tuned! 😉
@wings-of-sapphire @oh-shtars @chillwildwave @flicklikesstuff @annymation @tumblingdownthefoxden @emillyverse @mythartist21 @kstarsarts @kenihewa
#rascal entertainments#wish 2023#wish au#wish granted#wish granted au#wish concept art#wish reimagined#wish rewrite#wish movie#disney wish#The seven teens#disney#Disney wish#Wish fandom#wish disney
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I have soooo many thoughts about the Scott Pilgrim anime.
Unfortunately none of my friends have watched it yet so I'm quietly going insane. Fortunately Tumblr exists! So I get to scream into the void and rave about this gem!!
Going in, I felt the pacing for the first episode felt way too fast?? Was really disappointed because it seemed we skipped too many steps forward to the big fight? Then OHHH boy suddenly it made perfect sense.
Scott, btw, has immaculate rizz. Can't believe it worked.
I was on the fence whether or not that was different good or different bad, but the second episode kept me in. Third episode all but confirmed I wasn't jumping ship at any point
I absolutely ADORE how the other characters in Scott and Ramona's lives get a lot more love. Though we got some hints that the league wasn't all that bad in previous adaptations (well, mainly just the one ex), the anime really fleshes them out and shows hey!! They have their own side of the story!!
About Ramona: I'm glad they made it more believable that she's actually in lesbians with Scott. They switched their positions and instead showed her being the one to go completely gaga over him for the entire show, something the rest of the cast consistently point out makes zero sense!! Total dumbass move on her part. They're perfect for each other god
I know I praise the show for fleshing out characters, but I guess the price for that is some important figures get pushed to the background. I guess being an adaptation it assumes the viewer will have read and watched both the graphic novels and the movie and wouldn't need to know more about these characters? Honestly not too affected by that actually
That being said, the anime doesn't require you to immerse yourself in the preceding comic/movie. People new to the series will still have a blast!! But your viewing experience would be vastly enhanced if you actually did read and watch them because they go well hand-in-hand
The game and the movie had amazing soundtracks, so it's no surprise that the anime would deliver on that front as well (but I might just be a bit biased just because of the mortal kombat theme in the finale)
But actually surprising, is the voice cast was very good?? I knew going in the cast from the film was gonna be the English voice casts, but I was a bit skeptical because live-action actors don't always do a good job doing VA work (LOOKING AT YOU CRISPRAT). There was never a moment where they came off as awkward.
Despite some very glaring changes, the show retains pretty much the same story beats and themes as the book, but with an additional focus on Ramona's own tendency to run away from her problems. The finale still ends with them wanting and trying to be better for each other, but this time everyone gets a happy ending!! So I think that kinda makes it better than everything that came before it
My dad talked about how amazing he thought the Scott Pilgrim movie was and I'm gonna take SO MUCH JOY knowing he'll be seething by the first episode alone. This shit is so gay. Absolute 🔥
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One of Many Mornings
Despite her best efforts, Merit still fears that Gale will sacrifice himself upon reaching Moonrise. She does her best to convince him otherwise.
(Takes place in Act 2, immediately post-Weave scene)
~~~
For the briefest of moments, time did not exist.
All Merit knew was the comforting nothingness of dreamless sleep, her body slowly growing heavy as she drifted back into waking life. As if washing ashore after a sea at storm. One moment she was as weightless as a star strung up in the night sky, glittering with the predawn, and the next she was a stone bound by gravity, warm and earthen yet still somehow other, now nestled safely upon the beach as the dawn threatened.
And yet the change did not startle her, time slowly slipping back into place as if the veil were being draped gently back over her waking eyes, her consciousness yet again housed within the body she had for so long called her own. Her eyes fluttered open to find the sky full of stars just as it had been back on the edge of the ravine, a tapestry of Gale’s making, only after a few more moments she realized she was instead staring up at the canopy of Gale’s tent, never once realizing that he had the heavens embroidered into the fabric of his shelter all this time. And that’s when she realized that she wasn’t some smoothed stone settled safely on a shore and instead wrapped warmly in Gale’s arms, his lips meeting the side of her neck as she awakened further.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said quietly, his breath teasing the hair on the nape of her neck. A pleasant chill ran the length of her spine. His voice was warm and honey-like against her ear as he wrapped his arms more snugly around her from behind, his body cradling hers as she instinctively eased herself back into him, two pieces falling into place.
“And… I wanted to talk to you about our night together.”
Merit sighed and smiled, blinking against the dark canopy of blue above her as she drank in the moment and tried to retain the night in its entirety. It was almost as if the entire thing had been both a dream as well as a previous life, both lucid and otherworldly, and simply beyond words. Her limbs tingled at the memory, her heart warm. She could steep in the thought of it forever, but instead she turned to look Gale in the eye, surprised to find his gaze unsure. His grip on her did not waver, their bodies still close, but his dark eyes traveled her face, both as if tracing her features and committing them to memory as well as searching for some sign of unspoken dissent.
“I hope it meant as much to you as it did to me,” he said softly, his dark eyes wide and intent and so full of forlorn longing that Merit’s heart ached at the sight of him.
“Last night was-” she began, her voice both feeling and sounding alien to her as she spoke, suddenly unable to continue as if the thought ended there. Only it didn’t - the feeling extended beyond herself and into eternity, only any notions her mind had to describe the sensation simply paled in comparison to the aftermath of her very essence intertwining with Gale’s. It was beyond merely physical sensation, careening far into a realm she knew nothing of how to possibly put into words yet also desperately wanted to return to. They’d bonded, body and soul, their thoughts and feelings mingling with one another unsure of where one ended and the other began, in the end enmeshing into something forever altered and entirely other.
Merit’s chest brimmed with a feeling she’d never felt before, yet she somehow knew it also felt like home - not one she’d never visited until now but one she instantly knew was always meant to be hers, a home both inhabited in and shared with Gale. And yet she had no vocabulary to voice it, nothing to label it with and no such way to convey the all-consuming sense of something both akin to completion and yearning that now subtly threatened to burst from the confines of her ribcage as it sought to extend the very edges of even herself.
Unsure of how else to describe it, she placed a careful hand on what she spied of Gale’s scar peeking from beneath the collar of his tunic - just as he had urged her to do so when he first revealed the origins of his condition to her, and just as she had placed her careful fingers over his bruised collarbone when she’d first kissed him, testing the waters and wondering if despite her want that she’d somehow doomed them both. She knew it wasn’t necessary, but the gesture felt right somehow, and the feeling as Gale shuddered pleasantly beneath her touch as he watched her acted as both proof and promise of that sureness. And with another deliberate thought, Merit urged her mind to connect with his, and within the moment their minds were as one.
She bit her lip as her eyes traveled from the naked contour of Gale’s collarbone up towards his tender gaze, their sentiments and sensations mingling as one again, as if this was truly to be their shared intended existence, both reliving the night and everything that followed, every feeling echoing in one and then the other, as if both asserting then confirming each notion - shared now, yes, but as if the sentiment had been shared already, mirrored in each of them and then amplified in the multiplicity of it, pleased to find their feelings not just reciprocated but in duplicate.
It was almost as if she were nervous, her entire being a live wire as she steeped in the feeling. And unlike the weightlessness of the night before, Merit relished the warmth of Gale’s skin beneath her palm and the way his other hand raked at the small of her back as he inched their bodies closer. For all the wonders experienced the night before, she liked this, too. Almost moreso. He eventually rested his forehead against hers, the calm of his breath against her cheek a serene reassurance of everything she felt and everything she sensed equally in him. If her body hummed the night previously or even in the moments after waking, her limbs were certainly abuzz now, prickling with a certain promise that felt as safe as a roaring fire and a feather bed.
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before,” she admitted in a hallowed whisper, her hand finally retreating from the hollow base of Gale’s neck to thread through his hair as she held him close. Gale’s breath caught in his throat. One hand remained at her waist while the other reached up to cup her jaw, his thumb tracing the outline of her cheekbone as he beamed quietly back at her. She trembled pleasantly beneath his touch, not wanting the moment to end while simultaneously desiring even more of it.
“Neither have I,” Gale replied, almost breathless. His gaze was more intent on hers than she ever remembered it being, his irises as wide and dark as the night itself yet just as luminous, a certain affection in his gaze that was unmistakable yet unprecedented somehow. “And despite everything that’s befallen us and everything yet unresolved, what I feel for you somehow outweighs all of it. Almost as if-”
Before he could continue, Merit pressed her lips to his, pleased to feel him sigh against her. He was delectably warm and welcoming, an errant sound emitting from the back of his throat as he surrendered to her kiss in a way that made Merit shiver, only wanting him more. He tasted of cool earth and raw honey - real and sweet and present. She thought of the night before, as if what had transpired and was shared between them was both only a second prior but also an eon ago, aching for a closeness she wasn’t sure she could ever manage, whether corporeal or incorporeal. But the feel of him against her now soothed her: the taste of his kiss, the weight of him beside her, the warmth of his hands on her skin.
Merit continued to kiss Gale with urgency, the feeling swelling within her chest until it was almost too much to bear. Finally, she pulled away slowly, only to look upon him as if it might be the last time. She knew it wasn’t but there was an unexplainable pull in the depths of her, a worry rooted in Gale’s words the night before. Her eyes traced his features as she continued to run her fingers through his hair, cradling his face in her hands as if she were committing all of him to memory - by sight and by touch, wondering if she had time to relish in all the rest.
“I’m sorry,” Merit pleaded, still holding him close.
“For what?” Gale asked with a breathy laugh, his eyes full of want as he tried to read her expression.
“You were going to say something,” Merit said, hungry to kiss him again and never stop.
Gale’s mouth opened as if he were about to answer, but instead he pulled Merit to him and kissed her again, a somber desperation overcoming him that matched the sudden anguish that coursed through Merit now. He parted his lips against hers this time and drank her in. Merit sighed as Gale’s tongue gently probed hers, his other hand pulling her to him in a way that she thought their bodies might fuse as they had the night previously. Merit obliged and followed the lead of his kiss, waves of affection lapping at every part of her, equally wanting to enjoy the moment while simultaneously starving for more of him.
“Everything I feel for you, with you-” Gale continued, pulling away from the kiss only to breathe, brushing his nose against hers, “-feels as if it’s the most paramount concern in all the world,” panting his words with every exhale before kissing her once more. “The rest only pales in comparison.”
He said this as if it were both a plea and an apology, even if the sound of it only made Merit radiate with a pleasant, inner warmth she wanted to let consume her whole.
Merit could only whimper against his mouth, overcome with a sentiment that possessed her so entirely that she did not know what to do with it, the feel of it overwhelming her in an instant. Merit never wanted to be kissing Gale more than she did now, her lips aching for him each time they parted, a wave of want possessing her whenever she felt him sigh or gasp against her, a part of her feeling that if they stopped now that she might never get to kiss him again. Her chest felt as if she were about to dive off a steep cliff and into an unfathomable abyss, only the gaping maw of the unknown within her felt sweet and shivering. Her hands gently clawed at the warmth of his skin as she kissed him still, inspiring a mirrored moan from the depths of Gale’s throat.
Gale’s hands then slipped beneath the hem of her shirt, the folds of fabric almost alien to her after their night together in the Weave. And yet the sensation of Gale’s fingers gracing her skin beneath it with practiced pause made her tremble in a way that only intensified her already insatiable need for him to be closer. She ran one hand through his hair as she kissed him, pleased to feel how solid he was, how utterly real, while her other hand ran along the contour of his collarbone, relishing in the shape of him and how his body fit against hers before tugging on the lace of Gale’s collar before the thread came loose.
With a sudden stillness, Gale gripped her waist and gently but forcibly pinned her beneath him, pulling away from her lips as he kissed her cheek and then the upturn of her jaw before eventually draping kisses down the length of her neck. Merit sighed again, a low moan escaping from her throat just as Gale muttered a spell against her skin and within the span of a moment, the tent was silent except for their rapid breaths and the silk of their voices lacing each and every sigh. Merit’s hands reached for Gale’s neck, guiding his lips back to hers, her fingers eventually spiriting down the back of his nightshirt as he pressed himself against her once more. Gale shuddered pleasantly and urged her closer in a way that made the core of her grow warm and wanting.
One of Gale’s hands moved up towards her face, threading his fingers through her hair as he angled her face sweetly against his, while his other hand gripped her hipbone with a firm authority that made her go weak in the knees.The feel of his tongue gently interlacing with hers sent another chill through her that felt sweet yet insatiated, each of them ever hungry for more. She ached to feel more of him, and closer somehow.
Merit’s hands moved from the now-open collar of Gale’s shirt to insistently tugging at the back of the fabric as they continued kissing, growing more and more breathless with each passing moment. Gale was the first to finally pause. He pulled away, panting, and looked upon her with a heavy-lidded gaze that instantly set Merit’s heart aflame. He bit down on his bottom lip, his chest heavy with labored breathing as his eyes flickered across her face, drinking in the sight of her as he eventually obliged. Within a moment’s time, his shirt was discarded and he pressed his lips again to hers, his hands instantly reaching for the slip of Merit’s skin beneath her own nightclothes as he lightly urged her shirt off as well.
Merit didn’t pull out of the kiss. Instead she raised her hands in silent yet ever so willing surrender, allowing Gale to pull her top off over her shoulders. Their skin was endlessly warm where they touched in the aftermath, the tent growing hot as they continued kissing, the warmth of their breath further heating the air between them. Memories of the night before flooded Merit’s mind - the sensation of Gale’s soul against hers, sentiment mingling with unearthly sensation - and yet there was something about being here with him, now, that felt even more intimate yet also only more sacred for what transpired in the Weave. She ran her hands along his chest as he kissed her, delighted to feel him shudder pleasantly at her touch, wondering what other new magic she might yet discover between them.
“I want to feel you,” she found herself saying, as if possessed. She spoke her words into another kiss pressed to Gale’s mouth. He smiled in response, his lips curled into a smirk as he kissed her still, pressing his hips against hers again in a way that made Merit melt. Gale didn’t say anything at first, his hands only traveled beneath the waist of her trousers in a gentle but urgent plea to slip them off, a gesture Merit mirrored on him in kind.
“And I want to feel you,” Gale echoed as they obliged each other’s shared pleas. Merit relished everywhere their skin now met, the waning night touching the rest, pulling him closer to her as she delighted in how warm he felt against her in light of the chill. “All of you.”
It was all it took for Merit to obey, as if she wasn’t already eager, savoring the feeling of Gale being this close, his hands roaming her every curve like an intrepid explorer as her own fingers traced every outline of him that she had not yet seen and committed it all to memory. It was strange, almost, having opened herself completely to his soul earlier only to feel even the mildest of trepidations at being this exposed in close proximity. As if there were some flaw forgotten that would change his mind or stay his hand. But Gale only kissed her more deeply, retreating only to drape kisses across her chest and over her shoulders, his hands carefully but emphatically pulling her closer as she felt his earthly want against her as if in insistent plea that the night never end. And she did not want it to.
The solidity of him felt almost like a novelty - not just after their long night entwined in the Weave, but after weeks of yearning for him to be closer, of soaking in each moment their elbows brushed against one another’s or their hands touched, their fingers lingering against one another’s in a solemn attempt to draw out their time together and make it last forever. Even each of their earlier kisses before this felt so chaste in comparison. But now, the heat of their skin searing sentiment into flesh, Merit knew that whatever entanglements she’d had in the years before this were nothing in correlation to the wealth of feeling she felt for Gale - now or ever. Gale fit against her in a way that was endlessly perfect, as if their equal but unfinished parts were always meant to complete the other.
A part of her mind opened up then - the feeling of Gale’s thoughts brushing against hers like the soft brush of hands reaching for the same thing and relishing in the not-so-accidental closeness. In that moment she knew he wondered the same just as they broached the precipice of the same conclusion, the thought echoing in both their minds, a voice in unison: so this is love.
Merit had been in love before but never had it returned like this, nor had she ever felt it so deeply. And the currents of its depth coursed through her as she kissed Gale and urged him closer; closer than skin on skin, closer than shared breath and sighing in concert. She meant what she’d said before - she wanted to feel him, yet not only as she had in the Weave but every part of him, anchoring him to the here and now in a sudden plea that he remain in the land of the living. Because as sudden as the depth of her feeling was, so was the notion that it could all soon be over should he choose to heed destiny’s cruel call.
As if in response to her inner turmoil, Gale quelled her worries with a kiss deeper than she’d ever known, his lips threading with hers as if they were forever meant to be pressed to one another, and his tongue lacing with hers so gently yet so sweetly that she felt her entire body shiver in response yet in the sort of way that she knew she never wanted to be parted from him ever again, savoring the feeling of his warmth mingling with hers as his hands drew her even closer. Then, with the slightest and most endearing trepidity, one of Gale’s hands eased its way between her legs. He sighed and smiled against her mouth as he felt her want, and she leaned into his touch, yearning for more which he was all too happy to oblige.
Gale lilted out of their kiss, smiling and out of breath as he tentatively slipped two fingers inside her, eliciting a gasp from the depths of Merit’s throat. A shiver coursed through her at the feel of him, smiling against his mouth as he readjusted and kissed her again, reaching for the length of him with a careful hand. Her gentle touch only encouraged his desire, feeling the length of him harden further against her palm as she carefully caressed and stroked, their panting breaths in concert as they fell into an unspoken but understood synchronicity. It felt both like a plea as well as an invitation, both their question and answer the same as they exhaled deliciously in unison. Gale pulled out of the kiss only far enough to gauge Merit’s expression, his eyelashes fluttering heavy-lidded against her cheek as he drank her in and eventually paused, retreating his hand and relieving her own before carefully guiding himself between her legs and without another moment’s hesitation, made them one again.
It was both foreign and familiar after exploring the furthest depths of each other’s souls, and yet the feeling of Gale inside her sent Merit to another plane entirely. Pleasure coursed through her as he thrust once, twice, and deepest on the third dive, his breath even but harrowed as one of his hands reached up to cradle her jaw and bring her mouth closer to his upon which to kiss. His mouth was pleading but tender against hers, his hips moving against Merit’s with a hungry yet tamed tenacity that enraptured her completely. All she could do was lean into his kiss and urge her hips in harmony with his, yearning to feel more of him and deeply so.
Merit parted her legs ever so much more and invited Gale even more deeply inside her, at first caressing his chest as he breathed heavily against her before latching onto him as if for dear life. All she knew is that she wanted him to be impossibly closer, almost as close as they’d been entwined in the Weave but more corporeally so, yearning to feel his heat and savoring each taste of his lips upon hers. Gale’s other hand hooked behind her lower back, angling her against him in a way that instantly made her see stars and she wondered whether they were still connected via tadpole or whether they’d simply committed themselves to eternally being on the same page that some things simply no longer needed to be said.
Wave after wave of euphoric ardor flooded her as Gale urged himself inside her again and again, alternating between kissing Merit desperately and pulling away only far enough to tenderly watch her gaze on his, his nose brushing against hers as his eyes glazed over with an unspoken but quiet rapture as he reveled in the feel of her, looking as if his eyes might roll back at any moment at the blissful feel of her beneath him. But Gale’s eyes remained intent on her, the depth of his affection clear in his unwavering gaze as he breathlessly thrust his want inside her, careful but indulgent, and kissed her deeply again.
As all encompassing as their time spent in the Weave was, Merit felt overwhelmed with sensation even more now on the receiving end of Gale’s love in the earnestness of his kiss, at his insistence at the velvety core of her, and in the way one of his hands threaded his fingers through hers, pinning her further to the ground beneath the bedroll they lay upon, reminding her again of the earth and its fleeting pleasures, hoping against hope that this wouldn’t be the last night she would spend with him while solemnly insisting that it wouldn’t be.
A knot of mounting satiation threatened her nerve endings, her body succumbing to the sweeter sensation of Gale urging himself inside her, the feel of his hardening want both pleasing and teasing her in a way that she both wanted to see it through as well as have it last forever. Powerless against it and desperate besides, eager to feel completion despite her heart’s hungrier desires, Merit clung to Gale even more despairingly, again thinking of what might happen come morning when this was all over, as if him separating himself from her would also act as his death sentence.
Overcome with a sudden heartbroken agony, Merit kissed Gale harder than she ever had before, threading her free hand through his hair and savoring the feel of him against her, inside her. He lilted again from her kiss, panting deliciously against her ear as he grew impossibly hard. Merit felt herself cascade from the precarious precipice of euphoria and over the edge of it, the sensation of Gale inside her suddenly slick and sweeter than before as a breathless whimper escaped her lips. Merit pulled him to her as Gale delved even deeper inside her, an errant moan escaping the depths of his throat as she felt him bottom out entirely and tremble within her, pulling out as he pressed yet another harrowed kiss to her mouth. He kissed her still even as he’d exited, smiling and laughing a hollow laugh against her kiss-swollen lips before eventually dismounting and laying beside her, completely breathless.
The moment that followed was a bit like waking from a dream, overcome with a sudden lack that what she felt now was familiar but as if it were only half-remembered. Merit’s limbs hummed with a sweet excess of energy, just as they had in the aftermath of the night before. And as similar as the sensation was, the feel of it was quite different. Her skin was suddenly cold without Gale atop her, her skin prickling with goosebumps as her sweatslick skin adjusted to the cool of the night air.
Merit glanced outside through the sliver of the tent’s mostly-closed flap; it was still early, or late depending on how she wanted to look at it. Even if some might consider it early morning, she preferred to think of it as an extension of the night before, wishing that morning might never come.
She turned, smiling softly, and watched as Gale not-so-silently caught his breath beside her, his body still close yet not close enough for her liking. He eyed her almost bashfully though unable to hide a satisfied smile, a look Merit recognized from the first time they kissed. There was an unspoken apology in his wordless gaze just as there had been then, one that meekly said out of practice.
She rolled over onto her side and inched herself closer to him, propping herself up carefully upon Gale’s chest, one hand slowly tracing his collarbone while her other hand brushed his now slightly damp hair from his forehead. Gale reached for her waist, his fingers carefully tracing absent swirls across her lower back. She shivered pleasantly and pressed her lips to his mouth, smiling as she felt Gale hum pleasantly into her lazy kiss. She had meant for it to be quick, a fleeting but earnest don’t worry to drown out his doubt, but soon her kiss grew ravenous and softly so, turning from a forgiving thing into a pleading one, not that there was anything Gale needed to be absolved of. There was no need to impress her, especially after last night, and she wanted to believe there was still time for further practice. Still panting slightly, Gale’s breath caught in the back of his throat as his lips reciprocated her unspoken adjuration, sending Merit into a whole other world of want.
She wanted to press her palm to the crest of Gale’s collarbone again, to tether their minds once more and make him know just exactly how she felt. Yet part of her sensed that he already knew.
Before she could get too lost in the feeling despite wanting it to never end, Merit pulled away only slightly, her lips still brushing against Gale’s as she whispered more earnestly than she’d ever uttered anything, “I love you.”
Gale froze, a look of almost heartbroken disbelief overcoming him at the sound of it. As if the last night wasn’t quite enough to convince him, as if telling him she was also in love with him in the meadow wasn’t quite enough either, as if every stolen glance and every shared skip of a heartbeat wasn’t quite enough from the start, as if opening her mind to him upon waking wasn’t quite enough though it came oh, so close. And yet it was this simple declaration that finally quelled his unyielding uncertainty, the realization of it dawning in his eyes as Gale looked at Merit with more affection than she knew what to do with.
Before she could do anything, Gale kissed her again with an unmatched zeal that left her breathless, pulling her atop him as he kissed her more ardently than anyone ever had. This kept happening - their every act of expressed affection somehow superseding the last, each one sending her heart soaring to some new inner height she never before thought possible. Her unbound hair surrounded them as if veiling their kiss from the world and creating an entirely other one within it, and for the moment she wanted this moment to extend into forever, neverending.
Just as Merit settled atop Gale, her hands running along the pleasing edges of his sternum, relishing feel the quickening of his breath beneath his heaving chest, Gale rolled her back over onto the ground beside him but this time the side opposite, urging their bodies together until they were utterly skin to skin.
Finally pulling out of the kiss, Gale exhaled, “I love you,” as he instead kissed the corner of her mouth and then her temple, uttering “I love you,” again as he kissed the underside of her ear where her jaw met her neck, planting more careful kisses down the slope of her neck until he met her shoulder, his lips brushing lightly against her skin there as his hand gently squeezed her upper arm, next kissing the length of her collarbone and saying “I love you, I love you, I love you,” before finally returning to look her in the eye and stilling so completely that Merit thought the moment had truly frozen in time.
“Were that this night might never end,” he said again, whispersoft, his fingers softly tracing the edges of her face. Merit leaned into his touch, abruptly overcome with a certainty she hadn’t had before.
“There will be other nights,” she said. “I promise.”
Promise. It was as much a promise to him as it was for herself, instantly afraid of what the world might look like if her words were somehow false, even if a seed in the pit of her stomach insisted that they weren’t.
“I want to believe you,” he resigned after the pause. “I want to believe that we’ll find another way. But-” Gale tore his eyes away from her gaze as he caressed Merit’s hair away from her face, memorizing the outline of her as if this truly might be their one and only night together. “How can you be so sure?”
Merit returned the gesture, studying him not because she wanted to believe this might be her last chance to do so but because she wanted to capture everything about this moment, about this night and the ever encroaching morning, as if crystalizing it in a bead of amber for all eternity. It felt important because it was the start of something, not the end of it. If only she could convince him as much as she was slowly convincing herself.
“Because you still owe me a proper tour of your tower,” she pleaded earnestly with an easy, small smile. “And Waterdeep, too. I’ll even buy you a drink at the Yawning Portal. My treat.”
Gale smiled sadly at her but let her continue, his eyes flitting between her gaze and her mouth as he continued to caress her hair.
Merit ran her fingers along the now-cold of his exposed chest, pausing once she reached the base of his throat, her thumb tracing his scar with sudden trepidation. She stilled. A wash of panic rose within her as she looked from Gale’s tender gaze down to the ghost of the orb, again reminded of Gale’s intentions the night previous. She wasn’t sure if her mind were linked with his, but all she could think of, the word and the want coming in waves, was stay, stay, stay.
Gale’s other hand reached up and anchored her there, his fingers half-lacing with hers while his thumb ran across the back of her hand. Merit pressed her palm with a soft firmness against him, as if she might quell the orb by sheer force of will alone. Stay with me, she thought, the sentiment steeping into every pore of her. Just stay. Please.
“But we’ll probably end up in Baldur’s Gate first,” she continued instead, “So I’ll show you around of course, and you’ll need to come ‘round the bakery since Fable’s pastries are, to put it mildly, out of this world. And I'd know, because you've taken me there now.”
Just as Gale wanted her to meet Tara, Merit couldn’t imagine a world in which Gale wouldn’t meet her older sister, her best friend and the person she missed most, wondering whether Fable thought her sister was dead, or worse: had abandoned the family. The thought clawed at her insides but she pushed past it, soaking in all of Gale’s expression as she continued, “Not to mention you’re finally getting the hang of chords, and we still haven’t committed one of your poems to song. I have just the melody, too, and we’ll-”
Now it was Gale’s turn to interrupt her with a kiss, one that was so tender yet all-eclipsing that the words poised on her tongue dissolved in an instant, gone as soon as she closed her eyes and breathed him in. Gale’s hand threaded through her hair until his palm cradled the back of her head, angling her face against his as he deepened his kiss and eclipsed her thoughts completely.
Gale finally pulled away, about to launch into an earnest apology but Merit found herself speaking instead, her grip on him pleading and hungry and almost out of her control.
“And because…” she continued, still answering his question from before, her heart gripped with a sudden weight she couldn’t shake, “Where else will all of what I feel for you go if you’re gone?”
Gale's mouth hung quietly open, his gaze forlorn as he read her expression and took her words in. After everything, Merit felt the most naked now, unendingly vulnerable and eternally anxious in the wake of her accidental but heartfelt confession. The truth of it hung between them but left a lump in her throat she couldn’t will away. So instead she committed all of Gale to memory - the look of him, the feel of him, the taste of him - desperately hoping that none of it would fade with time even if she knew it was the way of things.
In what had only been a moment, hanging like a bead in a thread of unending time, Gale rested his forehead against Merit’s, the weight of him against her reassuring, and the closeness of him even more so. He eased into a small, somber smile, but one that radiated with a warmth that could rival the sun as well as the physical sensation of their skin touching now.
“I am far beyond fortunate to have you,” his voice was whispersoft but steadfast as he ran a gentle thumb across the hollow of Merit’s cheek. “Even the power of the Weave is mundane compared to the way you make me feel.”
Merit’s chest felt cavernous at this confession, her skin prickling at the very thought of it. Especially knowing how much it meant.
“I do not presume to know what we might find once we storm Moonrise,” Gale continued. “But if there is any hope of defeating this, it is by your side. If I have learned anything in all my years of living, it is that with you-” he paused, emotion welling in his throat as he looked deeply into her eyes, his voice laced with hushed amazement, “With you perhaps anything is possible.”
A flicker of thought and feeling coursed through Merit’s mind in an instant, a sudden sense of desperation overcome instead by the impossible depth of Gale’s affection. She felt his mind again, then; lighter, hopeful, and smoother around the edges, death no longer looming so close.
And then she heard it: the soft chime of birdsong, the call of early morning. An unusual though welcome sound in a place like this. Or perhaps she'd only imagined it in the wake of the impending dawn. It broke her out of her reverie as well as quelled the miniature universe in which only she and Gale occupied, time slowly eclipsing their borrowed eternity. Either Gale’s spell had only just broken or, if they were lucky, it was merely the very cusp of dawn. The edge of another day.
As much as she wanted to linger here in night never-ending, time beckoned.
“There will be other mornings,” Gale said as if reading her mind before pressing his lips to her cheek, lingering there as he kissed her once, twice, and three times before finally saying, “Brighter ones, with you. I promise.”
#gale x tav#gale x oc#bg3#gale dekarios#gale of waterdeep#tags tags tags idfk#I finished it and posted it don't look at me lol#happy valentine's day#lmao#my writing
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How does Athena foil Apollo?
oh in so many ways… Love that you picked her.
(Granted Athena herself, like all the gods who aren't Apollo, has had a relatively low amount of screentime in the rrverse so far, but I believe there's enough to paint a pretty complete picture if you read between the lines, and take into account what other characters - mainly Apollo and her children - say/imply of her. So.)
Athena is Zeus's favorite, I would argue even above Artemis, because she's the only one out of all the gods who never feels the need to resort to going behind his back in the course of the three pentalogies. She's the only member of the Olympian council that we know he actively seeks the advice of.
Apollo on the other hand, is possibly the least favored of Zeus' progeny in the present day. In Apollo’s own words, Zeus “hasn’t trusted [Apollo] for millennia”. By the time we meet him, Apollo has been left by his father barely any room to maneuver even within his own domains, as demonstrated by the fact that he can’t even independently choose to cede the reins of the sun chariot to anyone that Zeus might not approve of. He is the one Zeus immediately points to when he needs a scapegoat. He gets hit with a punishment so harsh it's quite literally a miracle he survived, to the point that we find ourselves wondering, in the end, if he was actually meant to.
But it wasn't always like this. Once upon a time Apollo too enjoyed Zeus' favor. He and Athena both used to be Zeus' main enforcers and right hand people. We still see evidence of this in the kind of relationship they seem to have.
Athena is the only one of Apollo’s family members whose counsel he explicitly wishes he could ask during his trials, as opposed to his wishing for material help from most of everybody else. She is the only one of the gods to openly speak against Apollo’s punishment, right in front of Zeus too. She words her disapproval carefully enough that she retains plausible deniability, but just barely. And she alone bets on Apollo’s survival in Hermes’ pool. In that last council scene, she and Apollo are able to silently communicate with just a glance. It’s clear that they share some deep camaraderie, an old well established ease with each other that the recent distance between them has not diminished.
We’re never given the full explanation, but it’s not hard to figure out how their paths must have diverged. It’s not even hard to figure out why. Apollo’s ruled by his heart, while Athena can’t fathom following anything but her brain. As Apollo started more and more chafing under their father's rules, more and more refusing compliance, Athena clearly made the opposite choice. Nowadays they play opposite roles: the beautiful fool and the dutiful lieutenant. Everything about the way Apollo chooses to present himself is a middle finger to his father, whereas Athena is the staunchest of Zeus loyalists.
And yet it looks like they still have a lot of respect for each other. Which isn’t surprising because they have some significant similarities despite their very different characters. Firstly: they share a similar sense of responsibility. It’s undeniable that Athena takes their job very seriously, and much as it may seem that Apollo has the opposite attitude on the surface, we know, having reached the end of TOA, that that was never the truth. Secondly, they are both extremely intelligent and acutely aware of it. They both expect to be the smartest person in the room at any given time. And they are right except of course for when they are wrong bc their intelligence most definitely does not prevent them from being also incredibly dumb.
You may be wondering how can I so confidently make this latter assertion, since we never get a peek into Athena’s head, but I think Annabeth saying that the first lesson Athena’s kids must learn is that “mom is always right and don’t you ever dare suggest otherwise” backs me up here.
On this note, it’s interesting to observe that Athena’s children and Apollo’s children both display a strikingly unusual amount of faith/confidence in their divine parents, compared to… basically all the other demigods.
Annabeth won’t ever stop singing Athena’s praises/boasting about being her daughter, even as she makes comments like the one I cited above. And Will famously stood in front of the army that was about to raze CHB to the ground in Apollo’s name and called bullshit on the idea that his father would ever approve of such a thing with enough conviction that the matter was considered settled and nobody even for a second thought of doubting Apollo afterwards.
And yet “dad is always right” is very obviously not an idea that has ever entered the mind of any of Apollo’s children. They show absolutely no reverence, let alone fear, toward their father. Will doesn’t hesitate to legit SCOLD Apollo in front of the whole camp in THO. The loyalty that Apollo’s children have toward their father is nothing like that of the Athena kids toward their mother. In this too it seems like Athena has chosen to stick to the path traced by Zeus, while Apollo has rejected it.
But their divisions aren’t irreconcilable, and that little secret nod she gives Apollo at the end of TON proves it. Remember when I said Athena is the only one out of all the gods who never feels the need to resort to doing stuff behind Zeus’ back? That changes here. For the very first time, we see her take initiative without her father’s knowledge or consent.
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Project Zomboid (Rook Hunt)
Thank you for 1000 followers! Hope you enjoy the Horror Event!
NOTE: I only write for female reader but everyone is welcome to read it!
Horror Event Masterlist
Requested by the lovely @zozomind (hello again!)
Rook sighs longingly, missing his lover.
It’s been about a week or so since they both woke up in this world, and this is the first time they’ve been apart ever since that day. It had been a bit of a struggle for Rook to get used to not using any magic, but out of most NRC students, he’s one of the few who have sharpened skills outside magic control and athletics. (Y/N), his beautiful muse, had helped him with the transition, both from magic to magicless and from Twisted Wonderland to this world.
“I think this is the world inside a game I played long ago,” she had confessed that first night as they slept inside a tightly shut room, the footsteps of the undead their lullaby. “I know it sounds odd, but that’s the impression I had. Well, it’s not like it matters, at the end of the day, our objective is still to survive.”
Her tale was outlandish, but the blonde huntsman knows better than to discard possibilities, and the way her eyes lighten in recognition every now and then proves that her theory might have some merit.
Rook isn’t one for apocalyptic fantasies, despite recognizing the beauty they have, so he’s glad that his lover carries a lot of information in her beautiful brain. It had taken no time for him to settle, and today he’s proud to say that their progress is beyond impressive. His hunting skills adapted beautifully, and even now they sharpen as he takes his bow and aims an arrow at a zombie’s head.
“Bows are great weapons for zombie apocalypses,” she tells him when he finds one inside a random house. “They’re ranged and silent, and arrows are much easier to craft than bullets. If it’s you, I know you won’t miss. Remember to aim for the head.”
Oh, his beloved girlfriend is so incredibly gorgeous when she smiles at him and bestows on him her knowledge! She had told him it all, all ways zombies could possibly work and how to figure out what type of zombies they’d be facing.
Zombies in this world have a terrifyingly good hearing, and some will be attracted even to the smallest noise. Those that still have eyes are also very much capable of distinguishing a living being. Their sense of smell, however, seems to be terribly lacking, and their rotting flesh is incapable of feeling even the most excruciating pain. (Y/N) had thanked her God for that, saying that zombies with a sense of smell were the worst and she did not want to cover herself in guts and blood just to be safe.
Another good thing is that they are what she calls “shamblers”: zombies that are silent walkers and retain their human-like appearance for longer. Moreover, they’re not in a world with mutated zombies, like lickers or even the molded. He has zero idea what they are, but he chuckles when he remembers how she made him promise to not face any zombie out of the ordinary before he left for this expedition.
Ah, there’s a hammer in the hands of this corpse, poor thing. At least they’ll go knowing their weapon will help others.
Rook leaving for this expedition is a subject they kept on disagreeing even as he put his feet out of the door of their “base”, as she calls it. The house had long been properly barricaded, and together they fix whatever they can to make sure their every need is met until they figure out a way to return home. Yet, the pace they do things would greatly increase if one were to be in the house at all times while the other goes out for supplies runs and hunting for clues on why they’re here and how to leave.
“But it’d be safer if we were together!” she insisted, handing him a bag with things he might need on the journey. The way she still takes care of him despite not agreeing with his choices warms his heart. She’s just so beautiful. “What if something happens? You’ll be all alone and I won’t ever know!”
“My dear,” he had answered then, taking her hands in his and kissing them tenderly, cherishing the blush that rises to her cheeks despite the age of their relationship, “There is simply not one thing in all worlds that will keep me from coming back to you. If it is proven that it’s too dangerous to be alone, then we will return to how we were. I promise you.”
He had then pressed their lips together before stepping out of the house, chuckling at the grumbling under her breath that reached his good ears.
Oh, how he misses his beloved gem, his breathtaking muse, his most cherished. He can’t wait to go home—he can already see it in the distance—and greet her with a kiss that will hopefully steal her breath away as much as her mere presence steals his. He’ll show her the fruits of his travels, the last two days he spent alone under the skies and away from her resplendence, and ask her for a kiss at every new item, knowing they can’t deny each other. He’ll take off his clothes and clean himself so they can share a moment together in the kitchen, make and eat dinner, and then share another one in the living room, bodies intertwined in comfort on the couch. He’ll kiss her once and twice and thrice and how many times it takes for her smile to make the stars blush in defeated awe, and then he’ll kiss her more to make sure those pesky stars know she is all Rook’s, and he is not a selfless man.
He’ll throw his bag on the floor and rush to the busted front door just in time to hear her scream from the bedroom.
#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland x reader#twst imagines#twst x reader#x fem reader#rook hunt x reader#rook hunt#horror event 2022
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Os, what is Bunny and Bliss sister dynamics
Taken from my Writeup at PowerofFive.carrd.co
A Bunny reborn thanks to the combined efforts of Professor Utonium and Sapna using the scrap left behind when the original Bunny destabilized.
She is an entirely new Bunny, and while not retaining the same memories as the original Bunny she has much of the same personality.
While Buttercup can be considered the strongest, Bunny is the sturdiest thanks to enhanced endurance. She can take most blows that could send the other girls flying. Adversely, Bunny has a hard time being gentle, not knowing her strength and size.
She's very much neurodivergent. Often misinterpreting directions and being more visually and auditorily sensitive than the other girls. Focusing on odd details others might miss. Naive, yet stubborn. She will try her best to get something done even if she doesn't understand how. She's obsessed with animals of all kinds and the media surrounding them, especially bunnies.
Her unique powers include Enhanced Endurance, Sense Focusing, and Identifying Animal Calls.
Bliss was the Professor's first reasonably successful attempt at creating the perfect little girl. However it took a very careful (accidental) amount of each ingredient to get the girls we know. As such, Bliss was terribly unstable and prone to painful bouts of explosive and devastating energy, unable to control her powers.
Professor Utonium refused to give up on one of his own children. Putting Bliss into statis with the hopes that he would be able to perfect the formula of Chemical X and make Bliss stable.This wouldn't be until Bliss was in her teenage years.
After Bunny was reborn, Professor Utonium revealed Bliss to the girls. Using what he had learned from Bunny to help give Bliss the proper dosage of Chemical X to finally stabilize her powers. This has worked for the most part, but Bliss still has moments of instability with her powers.
She's also going to therapy to aid her in her own emotional instability and issues from being in stasis for so long (Something the Professor regrets terribly)Bliss' powers are heavily tied to her emotions.
Thanks to the retribution of the proper Chemical X through her body, destabilization only occurs when she feels intense emotions. These usually come in the form of fear and anxiety. Inversely she is at her strongest when she feels emotions such as intense love and joy. Able to utilize the raw energy into a more powerful form which turns her hair a bright white with a golden outline.
Being a teenager causes her to deal with mood swings and self-doubt. At her best, Bliss is a ray of sunshine, and at her worst she completely recluses. She's also a bit socially awkward due to all those years spent in stasis. She tries hard to fit in and feel accepted amongst her peers. Intelligent, but a tad naive. She has a lot of catching up to do.
Despite all this, Bliss wants to be the best superhero she can be, and her family is doing whatever they can to support her.
Bliss finds comfort in music, and has a beautiful singing voice to boot. Though she's sheepish about others watching her sing.
Her unique powers include Emotion Empowerment, Energy Projection, and Enhanced Singing Ability.
I hope this is what you were looking for, otherwise you're gonna need to explain what you mean by "Sister dynamics"
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Give us pls more lore about urielllll it's really interesting that he censors things, like what other shady stuff does he do? Or how does he feel about the drama around him?
uriel is REALLY interesting, given his position - he actually knows everything that happens, as in. his books contain all of the whole of history and he isn't just a conduit, he consciously remembers all of it. this is limited to events, so he doesn't know people's thoughts, emotions, or motivations, but no action can be hidden from uriel so he's actually heaven's biggest secret keeper. he is generally quite trustworthy, as he really isn't a talker because if he had any interest in gossip it would be disastrous, but this also means uriel has near total control of the narrative. his books are considered the Truth, the fount of supreme and complete knowledge of all of god's word, but they are in fact edited and censored. truthfully, much of this censorship comes from god himself - he had uriel strike out much about hell's creation as well as its current status, but uriel retains that information as he is god's ultimate "backup". like. he knows hell is alive, he knows what became of lucifer, and he knows all the horrors generally shielded from angelic eyes, all information that was edited in his actual records (also much rewriting of lucifer's words and arguments that led up to the war, to serve god's narrative) uriel is heavily burdened by this, riddled with anxiety and strained near to breaking point as a general rule, but one would never know looking at him - he's very quiet, always sitting by a brightly sunny window with each hand dutifully writing his illuminated manuscripts. the pages are beautiful, gilded in gold and silver with inks of every color and illustrations that seem to come to him in a trance, pages turning constantly in a flurry of all the events of the world. he can carry a conversation despite it, but his words are usually slow and phrased almost always as proverbs or wisdom. however....god isn't the only editor of his books.
the thing is, god stopped fact-checking uriel's work a LONG time ago, secure in the fact that uriel has never caused any trouble and he could always use uriel himself as a comparison since his memories contain the truth of reality. so uriel is given total control over his writings, writings he is so dedicated to he has never slept, working ceaselessly ever since receiving his first book. a model angel really. this trust has allowed uriel to edit in the same ways god does but for his own reasons - it doesn't occur often, but he does have need of it on occasion. in general, he usually uses it to prop up the archangels, making gabriel, michael, and raphael appear as flawless characters throughout history, or at the very least softening any wrongs. largely, this is through his wording and it's actually difficult to notice the discrepancies for anyone else who reads the account, even if they are aware of the event itself. (i also like to think he absolutely has covered for gabriel, writing over his visits to hell and his socializing with sinners to contain completely fabricated events.) uriel is considered entirely impartial by a majority of those in heaven, so whatever is written must be truth. it's sad in some sense, as very few around him even know he has emotions, instead viewing him almost as a computer merely copying words onto paper...but it allows him to get away with this at the very least.
however, once god disappears, uriel's constant stream of knowledge is brutally cut off and suddenly he's left in the world alone, hands finally still for the first time in eons. the final sentence sits on the final page of his final book. "God has departed." the world crashes in around him, all he has carried, all he has known, suffocating him in an instant and yet more than that he is panicked by the lack he now feels. time hasn't stopped, the world continues around him, yet now he only knows what he sees right in front of him. he is frozen in the shock, finding himself soon swarmed by multitudes of angels desperate to see what he has written because surely uriel will know, surely his book will contain the answers they need. the other archangels part the crowd and michael reads from his book, but it offers no solace. uriel has nothing to tell them, and for the first time in his existence, he feels like a failure to them. he is meant to know of every event and contain a recording any can look back to so nothing is left unknown, but for this he can provide no answer. for me, uriel sort of heralds the end of heaven as it once was, for soon afterward he closes an unfinished book and that sign is taken as an ill omen by all the choirs. he will write no more. it isn't long before he falls into his "meditation", the fire of the holy spirit entirely faded from his being and heaven is left without its record (those wishing to form the council begin in earnest now, as they know uriel is no longer watching, and i believe they also encourage michael in his idea to seek out god to really rid them of the only archangel they believe remains to pose a threat...BUT I DIGRESS)
FINALLY, when uriel wakes up, he is obviously still left without his ever-present knowing, but the knowledge he retains is most helpful in reestablishing some order and answering the questions that remain. it becomes apparent that this burden has strained him far more than any of them understood, and it also brings unpleasant truths to them....but that blame doesn't really fall on him. he's currently a bit of a nervous wreck, but journaling helps him redirect that energy at least in part, and he actually is one of the first to bond again with michael, in no small part because they both feel as though their time has passed. he still finds himself dropping off unexpectedly into sleep, but raphael tells him it's likely due to how much he didn't for the majority of his existence.
#uriel at this point is really brain full head empty#didn't expect to uhhhhh talk SO much about but i actually love him a whole lot despite being the one i talk about the least#but like. that's how uriel is. he's a very background player yet who is profoundly important in heaven#i think he and metatron would have similar feelings after god disappears honestly#like neither of them can carry on their task at all without him so it's....a weird place to be#cake answers#uriel#rise and fall au
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Not much happened plotwise in this episode but it still managed to be jam-packed and I'm still processing it all. Jojo is really digging into an examination of class interaction in this story: who creates, maintains and mans the boundaries between socioeconomic classes; and what happens when those boundaries are crossed? In this episode, Neung manoeuvres and manipulates to manifest the outcomes he desires, while Palm is caught between Chanon's ideas of propriety and Neung's desire for somebody to treat him like an actual human being.
The nominative determinism of a boy named Neungdiao being so utterly isolated isn't subtle at all but it is effective. Neung is so LONELY. The image of him sitting alone at that massive dining table says it all. He is desperate to connect with someone, anyone, to have a friend and confidante, but there is nobody he can trust...except Palm. Because Palm isn't trying to get close to him, in fact he's doing everything he can to maintain 'appropriate' distance. The more Palm resists becoming his friend, the more Neung trusts him, and the more desperately Neung wants his friendship. He's desperate enough to push past Chanon's clear and stated discomfort with the boundary being crossed and neatly paint him into a corner. Since Palm and Chanon won't accede to his requests, Neung contrives to have Thanya unknowingly make them orders. Neung intends this at least in part as kindness; he knows that being able to use the pool for example will make Palm happy. But the line between kind and patronising can be very fine indeed.
On the one hand, you understand why Chanon wants to maintain a clear line between 'us' and 'them', to protect himself and his son. Another way the class boundary is maintained is shown through Aunt Nid, who makes more food than any one person could eat, despite Neung not wanting that at all. The servants have their own rules and expectations for the people they serve, they in some ways dictate how their 'masters' should live, and that gives them a certain power, a certain pride. It takes a sublimation of your pride to serve people, and that pride has to manifest somewhere else. For Chanon, how he maintains his pride is to be a loyal and devoted retainer who is grateful for his place and does his job well. He doesn't want Palm to get ideas above his station, to become accustomed to a life somebody else has given to him, because if something has been given, it can easily be taken away. Somehow the less you have, the more you have to lose.
Palm has been told and continues to be told in no uncertain terms by Chanon that his job is to protect and look after Neung, but from a respectful distance, with a clear boundary between them. Neung is his charge, not his peer, and definitely not his friend. You don't eat together, because eating together creates camaraderie. You don't use what's theirs, you don't even ask, and even if they give you permission you smile and say thank you and never do it. Because it's one thing to serve and another thing to scavenge, one thing to accept work and entirely another to accept charity.
On some level, Palm understands what his father says. But he is charmed by Neung despite himself, not by what Neung has but by who he is. As he reminds Neung (and the audience) later in the episode, Palm's eyes are always on Neung. He sees the truth of what Neung's life is like, the loneliness, the isolation, the cruelty of others toward him yes, but also the kindness and joy that sit inside him, his inherent sense of fairness, of right and wrong. He likes Neung (I really don't think in a consciously romantic sense yet), and despite his incessant khraps he is starting to relax around him. Him shifting from khun nhu to Khun Neung is a concession to Neung's desire to build a familiarity and comfort between them, a compromise.
Stray Bullets
Pond's performance this ep was a bit wobbly. So much of Palm at this stage is internal, and his instinct is to go showy with that rather than subtle. Don't get me wrong, he's good but Phuwin is steamrolling him a little bit this ep.
The conversation between Chopper and Ben gave me a frisson of excitement. Perth and Chimon are pretty well-matched on talent and can definitely go toe-to-toe in a scene. The dance they were dancing around Chopper's obvious monster crush was fun, more of that please.
So Ben and Mackie are friends? Interesting...
Right now I suspect everybody except Neung and Palm of being involved in Piphop's death and any subsequent plotting.
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reminding myself of things I liked in twin peaks the return because I'm disheartened by the ending
gordon's more realistic/modern depiction of hearing aids. Especially the turning up and down depending on the situation. It makes more sense that he's finally able to not be shouting constantly. Unrelated but the way he shouts to hear himself in all canon reminds me of my grandma who does that sometimes.
Diane's "fuck you (name)". I can just imagine her passive aggression in the office when she worked there but having a soft spot for coop. (Even if I don't care much for the romance also they're very sweet together for the brief like. Two scenes where they're actually okay together)
sonny-jim. he's like maybe one of the most understanding about his dad's disability tbh
Cooper's love for coffee still showing through the amnesia via reaching out for coffee with both hands and slurping as quickly as possible. I think I've done it with chocolate milk before :')
Matthew Lillard's performance
The mafia(?) Mobster (?) Brothers who despite their intro and the fact they plan to kill Dougie are like. Just nice guys ???
Hawk and Margaret's interactions. Especially The Last One which made me tear up. like. God these two were good friends.
Ed and Norma finally otp fr 🥰🥰🥰
Bobby being well adjusted but still kinda goofy. (No acknowledgement that he killed a guy but he's in law enforcement? I haven't read all the supplementary material yet )
GOD. Ben Horne being the long suffering well adjusted dude. It's such a contrast to his scheming in the original series. He's just Normal but also still retains his personality? Idk how to explain it. I always liked him in a villain way and it's nice to see his redemption just ended up with. Normal? I guess. Idk how to make it make sense.
JERRY BEING A WEED BUSINESS MAN
JERRY GETTING LOST IN THE WOODS WHILE HIGH
Mr. C/ Evil Coop was so amazing. I hated him and loved him. I do wish there were more hints of the insanity from the Hows Annie scene but the arm wrestling scene where he's like "this position is more comfortable don't you think.?" Is such a good scene.
Frank Truman's patience. "no this is his brother, Frank."
The scene with Andy and Lucy buying the seat for their study is such fucking domestic love I've ever scene. It reminded me of my parents like 10 years ago.
The way that the original music was used very carefully because this show is more quiet in terms of background music that it's like oh god.
Bobby's reaction to seeing Lauras evidence all over the table because 1. It's a contrast to his reaction at the funeral which was mostly anger 2. How else would you react to seeing all the literal evidence from you hs girlfriends murder case ?
Norma and Shellys relationship
Shelly getting on the front of that car. Milf moments. (Oh god saying that-)
Despite what follows after; Coopers triumphet return....(the return.?) Is great.
Anyway there's lots of stuff I liked despite things. Feel free to add your own likes in a reblog cause I missed tons of things obvs :)
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My New Boss Is Goofy Episode 6 Review - The Path To Moving On
THEY HELD HANDS? THEY BECAME ROOMMATES? Last time I checked, this isn’t a BL anime, yet this has progressed as much as what you’d see in one! I just ate lunch and this strawberry pocky I’m eating as a snack can’t alleviate this mushy and sweet feeling. I can’t believe what just happened. There has been so much progression with Momose and Shirosaki’s relationship, Momose and Kinjou’s friendship and Momose as a character!
All Momose wants is to move on from his trauma. Unlike Kinjou who is able to move on from an abusive boss, Momose still cannot. He even starts dreaming about his ex-boss to the point that it makes him even more anxious than before. On top of that, he ruined his old phone, so when he got a new one, he eventually gets a call from his previous boss that makes him even more tense. Fortunately, Shirosaki is here to save the day as he reassures and even comforts Momose about his trauma. This eventually leads Momose to gain the courage to move on once and for all. Momose shows that trauma just doesn’t go away in an instance. It still lingers when you least expect it. Moving on can be hard, especially for a timid person like him, but you need to take a step forward in order to heal.
Gosh, abusive bosses are the worst. There are two different types shown in this episode. We got the strict, high-expectation boss that Kinjou had to deal with and the overall terrible and abusive one that Momose had to deal with. While Kinjou manages to retain an affable relationship with his former boss, Momose doesn’t have that pleasure. The fact that Kurono, Momose’s ex-boss, threatened to go over to his house just screams abuse! Dude, this man needs to get a restraining order! If not, then he needs to go to jail! Though, regarding Haijima, Kinjou’s former boss, why do I get this weird feeling that he had feelings for Kinjou?
I’m glad that Shirosaki exists in Momose’s life. The way he’s an airhead, but still very attentive towards his younger subordinate shows the prime example of why kind bosses are needed in the workforce. The way Shirosaki held Momose’s hand without a care in the world shows how caring he is. He isn’t embarrassed to show public affection. I think the way he told the story about how his phone cracked during Momose’s first day at work and how he decided against getting a new one as it reminded him of Momose and how he hopes that his scars will heal one day made me feel a mushy inside. Seriously, I am convinced Shirosaki has special feelings for Momose and the same with Momose. It’s practically a confession at this point. I’m also glad that Shirosaki stood up for Momose by defending and praising him highly. I’m Team Shirosaki all the way!
Momose and Kinjou’s friendship strengthens in this episode. Similarly to Shirosaki, Kinjou has a special power to be attentive towards people, noticeable with how he handles Aoyama. That was why he brought Momose to the lounge room at work and even invited him over to lunch. I feel like Kinjou could sense Momose’s anxiety, which was why he reached out to him. I also like that, despite having similar pasts of getting abused in their former workplaces, how they handle it differs. Kinjou becomes carefree and rather happy with his newfound freedom, but Momose is still closed off and has a hard time coming out of his shell despite enjoying the work and spending time with his new manager. I do like the effort Kinjou brings to cheer Momose up. I like that he even shows him his social media account and tells a bit about himself like little anecdotes about the people, exes and his boss on his IG feed; yes, Kinjou did have an ex-boyfriend. What he said in Episode 4 wasn’t a joke.
I’m finally glad that Momose is finally stepping up and actively going to heal his scars going forth. I hope that his new life with Shirosaki and Hakutou will finally be that closure he needs to step away from the shadows of his past. Also, I want to make a shoutout to the MVP of this episode, the taxi driver. Thanks for being supportive! Anyways, what are your thoughts about this episode? Did it make you go as crazy as I did?
#atarashii joushi wa do tennen#my new boss is goofy#Kentaro momose#aigou kinjou#Yusei shirosaki#Mitsuo aoyama#hakutou#review#anime#anime review#ecargmura#arum journal
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@scarletooyoroi from here
Ah, what a peculiar method of training the other is undergoing. After having spent the last 500 years nailed to the same place, Neka knew he wouldn't be able to sit still long enough to accomplish such a feat. That and, despite appearances, he's hardly at peace with himself, so without cheating via his powers, he has no idea how long he'd be able to stay up.
"You'll find that I have much vitality hidden under the surface, and as time goes on, that will only increase in potency." More than one would expect from the mere natural aging of a kitsune, anyway; despite being freed from the domain he spent the last half millennium in, Neka still bears the residual curses he'd absorbed from back then. In due time, he'll be able to purify the rest on his own, but as it stands he still has a ways to go to finish in that endeavor.
"But you are correct. My resilience isn't something the average person can achieve, though as a loyal retainer of the previous Electro Archon, I held myself to a higher standard, not resting on my laurels. And it is my service to her that drives me to be so generous to you and the young miss. The Yashiro Commission was the only one to at least try to question Ei's destructive decrees, after all." Not that Neka trusts the Commissioner himself as far as he can throw the man, but he has a better track record than the other two, them being in prison and all. He's withholding one key detail, however; Ayaka very much reminds him of the late Makoto in many ways, and that may be in some part influencing his behavior.
"Also, let me clarify one of your prior points. I did actively fight during the Cataclysm, and that was before I even had all my tails. I dispatched rifthounds beyond count, and even worked to purify the land of the misfortune and curses that afflicted it. If you wish to see just what power such tribulations nurture, then who am I to deny that request?"
"I certainly welcome such an opportunity with you, but I'll agree on the singular condition that you accept that I will indeed hold back. Not like I'll take it easy on you out of some sense of arrogance, but I am not lying when I claim to be the second strongest being in Inazuma after Ei herself. And yes, that includes the shogun puppet as well."
Holding out his left hand, a crimson sword materialized within it in a swirl of inky blackness. A closer look, however, will reveal that despite the intricate markings on the flat edges, neither the blades nor the tip actually appear to be sharp.
"I suppose if I'm testing your endurance, you'll want me to make the first move, correct?" The kitsune points up into the air with his right hand, all all nine tails follow suit. At the point at which all ten 'beams' converge, an Eye-of-the-Storm-sized ball of ice forms. He's not going to do anything with it yet, but this is more an opportunity to show just what level of power Thoma can expect.
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"Radio Static" chapter 3 is now out :)
Summary: "Something was missing, and it consumed nearly every thought he had. Yet, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it might be."
Chapter Word Count: 1,391
Links: ff.net | neocities
Also available under the cut:
He was missing something. He had known this for about as long as he could remember; which, granted, wasn’t very long, but it felt to him as though it had already been an eternity.
Ingo had done his best to make a life for himself in a land that he knew was not his own. It was difficult, with how painfully obvious it was to himself and everyone around him that he was not meant to be there. Still, he had managed to carve a place for himself. His hands had wound up scraped and bloodied in the process, but he hadn’t had much choice.
But, even so, even with how hard he had worked just for that, it wasn’t enough. He was still restless, feeling lost and aimless. Every second felt so completely wrong, but in ways he couldn’t put a name to.
Besides that, something more was missing, something other than the obvious. Something larger, something inside of him. He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but it was like he was missing one of his senses. He knew that wasn’t true, though - he could see, hear, do everything just fine. And yet, oftentimes it felt like there was meant to be something more there, like he should be hearing, seeing, feeling something else, something more.
It was strange, and he hadn’t a clue what it could possibly mean or be.
It had actually been bothering him for quite a while. At first, he hadn’t exactly been in a state to worry about much other than the pain he was feeling, the confusion of the entire situation, and whether or not he’d see another day.
He had appeared in this place out of seemingly nowhere, badly injured and with no clue of who he was or where he had come from. All searches for someone who knew anything about him at all came up fruitless; that, combined with his state of dress and many of his mannerisms seemed to point to the idea that he was not of this land.
With all of that in mind, it was no wonder he hadn’t noticed this… absence, at first. He’d not retained a single memory of his home, himself, anything - of course he’d feel strange, or as though something was missing. This specific yet blurry lack of something had seemed, to him, completely normal, and he had paid it no mind.
And yet, even from the beginning, it had felt different. As time went on, it made itself harder and harder to ignore. As he got used to his amnesia and all of the longing and strangeness that went with it, this lack continued to distinguish itself, until he could no longer dismiss it as just another part of the things he had forgotten.
It felt more real than anything else he had forgotten, almost like it was still there with him, but he just couldn’t reach it. It was still just an idea, but somehow felt less abstract of a concept than simple memory. This was something that was a part of him, something that he felt he should have carried with him. Yet, it was gone, along with almost every sign or clue of his prior life. It was like a piece was missing from his side.
Despite how busy he’d gotten since becoming Sneasler’s Warden, he still often had so much time on his lonesome to just think and think and think (and believe him, he’d tried to ensure that wouldn’t happen. He’d wanted to keep himself busy, always having something to do, just to distract himself from all of it. It was, sadly, to no avail; even if he were hard at work every single second of the day, none of it would be enough to keep away the thoughts of all that he could have forgotten, all that he must have left behind).
He couldn’t help but fixate on it; it was the most specific feeling that he had, the only one that differed enough to possibly give him a real clue of what it was, and, perhaps, who he was.
No matter how many times he told himself to just stop thinking about it, that there was nothing to be done, he just kept worrying about it, wondering what it could be, what it could possibly be…
At first, once it was obvious that he had lost something much greater than just memory, it had been easy enough to dismiss it as having simply to do with how he was likely in a much different environment than he had been before. He had wondered, in the brief time he had truly believed it, just how different his true home had to be that he felt so thoroughly wrong just being here. Deep down, though, he’d always known it wasn’t the truth.
He just hadn’t a clue of what it could possibly be. It felt tangible, physical, but he knew that wasn’t quite right. Perhaps it was less something to do with himself, but rather, someone or something he was used to having by his side. Still, he couldn’t recall a single detail of what or who that could possibly be, so it held as much weight as any other theory.
Still, despite all of his wondering and worrying, he had responsibilities to fulfill. He couldn’t afford to constantly lose himself in thought; he had to carry on.
Sneasler’s first litter under his watch would be hatching soon. The excitement that he could barely contain felt familiar, in a way. Perhaps, wherever he was from, he had been Warden to another. Maybe that was why Sneasler had chosen him, even with his lack of memory.
She cried happily at the scratch he gave behind her ear before sitting down to start a fire. The wind whistled outside as a storm kicked up, and he was suddenly glad he had chosen to go in when he had. Certainly, he was better suited for the cold than he had been in his first days in Hisui, yet he couldn’t help but be reminded of that first storm he’d gotten caught in…
Suddenly, his hopeless, fruitless wondering about his past seemed much more appealing. Sneasler seemed to notice his turmoil, nudging the back of his hand. Ah. He hadn’t started it yet.
As the striker he held came down and sparks burst forth, he couldn’t help but wonder why all of these skills he used to survive came so unnaturally to him. Surely, wherever he had come from, he had needed them there as well? Or was he simply inept, even in his homeland?
He couldn’t help but feel that it was meant to be… easier, somehow. Maybe he came from another settlement, like one of the villages, far away from here. Somehow, that felt wrong, but not entirely so.
He watched as the flames danced to life, and warmed his hands. Sneasler purred beside him at the warmth. He glanced over at her and chuckled as he saw the way her whiskers were still singed from when she’d leaned just a little too close to it. That had seemed almost familiar, too, but as soon as he had recognized the feeling, he had been unable to pin its source down.
He sighed, and leaned back against the wall. These thoughts always seemed to have a way of creeping up on him, even in the moments he felt most at home…
He’d considered asking someone, anyone, if the feelings he had seemed at all familiar. He had the distinct feeling, however, that even if he were able to find the words to make it sound comprehensible to anyone else (already unlikely, considering he couldn’t even understand it himself), they would have no clue, and only think him even stranger than they already did.
He just felt so… stuck. Something was missing, and he felt as though he’d never be whole without it. But how could he ever feel whole again if he couldn’t even figure out what it was that he was missing?
He resigned himself to another restless night of worrying in circles.
The next day, when he traveled to the Pearl Clan settlement, he heard whispers of a child, fallen from the sky; it seemed they appeared just as strangely and suddenly as he had.
He wondered…
#finally here!! sorry this one's so late. posting on saturdays is jst more convinient#hey look at me putting out a chapter at a reasonable hour. who would have thought?#sorry it's so short hopefully the chapter itself makes up for it#txt#fic#radio static au#submas#subway master ingo#subway boss ingo#pkmn#fanfiction
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182 Days of TPN - Day 180
Chapter 180: "Your Everything"
I can understand how the demon god says he can't kill Emma or any of her family due to the promise she just made, but what if he physically wasn't capable of doing so regardless? Sure, right after the reveal He mentions how He "doesn't intend to" which gives the implication that He could, but what if, despite all the power He has to change the space around him, people's fate and whatever else, He's actually harmless? It would be kinda a letdown if we spent all that time worrying for our girl's life for nothing, but I'd still be grateful. It would make some sense as to why he has the other demons harvest food for him instead of obtaining it Himself, aside from the fact he's a literal god who's well respected by them.
Let the real pain begin! Maaann, it sucks that we've come this far into the story and watched these precious kids endure such hardships and yet once they all achieve their goal, the stress and drama just keeps on coming! At the end of the day, I can appreciate the high stakes of the reward and how greatly it effects Emma and her family, but that blank look on her face always breaks me.
Demon god may take Emma's memories but I'm about to take Him out with a good whack to the head courtesy of Barbara's spiked bat.
We know Emma cares way more about her family than herself, so hearing that they can all safely cross over to the human world and be free is obviously the best kind of news she can hear, but damn honey, that sad smile makes me wanna cry.
Like Ayshe, it's a shame that Alex is introduced to us so late in the story because there's a whole lot more I wanna learn about him aside from what he tells Emma and what we can deduce from the photos he has hanging up on his wall. There's no possible way he could've been introduced earlier in the story, since arriving in the human world was the shared dream of all the cattle children, but I wish this arc lasted longer so we could've at least seen more of his growing relationship with Emma.
Aahh, she's trying so very hard to remember anything about her life. I hate seeing her look so defeated. Whenever our Emma felt lost or down in the past, she would have her family around to help her or even resort to that famous optimism of hers to get her mind back on track, but she's really got nothing right now. Yeah she eventually gets to a point where she feels better about her situation as we see her spend more time with Alex in this new life during this chapter, but such sad expressions don't look good on our normally cheerful leader.
As much as I love how Emma kept all the photos Ray once gave her this entire time, I hate how they've become completely distorted by the price of the reward. Demon god just keeps landing more critical hits on my heart. I do have to wonder if the WM pen still works at all or not though. Her and Alex had to be a little curious about a pen that doesn't work like an actual pen. But yeah, seeing a young teenager with a gun that size is definitely a red flag. Luckily Alex finally learns from Emma's family the reason why she had it in offscene026 (which isn't an extra page from the manga but can't recall where it's from exactly), along with all the other odd and impressive skills she retained because she was one of the cattle children, but until then the poor man believed she was an escaped child solider or secret agent, which doesn't seem too farfetched considering everything else that's happened in the story.
I'll never get used to seeing Emma without her ID. That 63194 is iconic damn it, whether on her neck or in song form! But bless Alex for being such a kind gentleman and practically adopting Emma without question. Undoubtedly one of the best parents of the series and quite literally the only one that's safe from any possible death threats (the one perk to being introduced so late I suppose). I also love all the patterns he has on his clothes and around the house.
Although I love the jacket she wears at the end of this chapter and the next, along with the outfit that's briefly shown at the start of the epilogue which gives me serious GP outfit vibes, Emma looks real good wearing all these cute patterns. I'm assuming these clothes once belonged to Alex's daughter and it's sweet he shares them with Emma.
I think I rambled on a little bit with this idea back during ch101 about the necklace and because of it resembling the dragon's eye (that's supposedly capable of seeing through everything), it managed to nullify the consequences of the reward, which is why Emma was capable of seeing her family in her dreams and eventually cause her to reunite with them by being sorta sentient in a way since it slipped off her neck.. somehow. Anyway, not really relevant to any of that, but the larger blanket on her bed always reminded me of a giraffe pattern which obviously suits our girl so well.
Having all her most important people call out to her and not remember a single soul, including herself, ugh.. I wish to lay down and sob.
As if the whole memory loss situation didn't already upset me enough already, let's add Emma crying in her sleep to the list.
I'm slow in realizing this, but this is probably the same church that was shown in Alex's photos.
Loneliness truly is a horrible feeling, but at least they can comfort each other. While I'm certain both of them would love to reconnect with their respective families again, having one person by your side is a whole lot better than no one at all.
As long as you keep your family and friends in your heart, they'll always be with you, so While Alex doesn't necessarily need to stay in one place to remember them, I understand that being around a familiar place where he shared countless memories with them would allow him to remember everyone easier. It's sweet of him to still be concerned of Emma's family a month later despite her having trouble thinking about them in the first place.
I get annoyed at myself whenever I say I'm gonna do something then forget the exact thing I planned to do just minutes after, so I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for Emma to remember nothing of her previous life. Well, I everything that doesn't directly relate to her family or the demon world anyways, such as firing a gun, her athleticism and all her habits, but to hell with the demon god. This reward is still so cruel.
Mhhhmm her optimism has slowly but surely been returning to her as well, just not in the way we would've wanted/expected. Even though I would love for her to remain hopeful that she could meet or remember her family someday, I'm proud of her that she decides not to dwell on her losses anymore and begins living a happier life.
The absolute joy I felt upon seeing Ray, Gilda and Phil being so close to finally finding our girl.. aaahh it just makes you wanna jump into the panel and shout at them to TURN THE HELL AROUND.
Favorite panel/moment:
I got this far and realized I actually chosen three different scenes, so.. I'm gonna cheat. Of course, I love this quick dream scenario of what Emma's life could've looked like had she arrived in the human world alongside her entire family without any compensation, as her number is still visible on her neck here. I also just really love everyone's different outfits! And I'm once again only noticing now that the patterns on Emma's shorts and the hood part of her shirt match the pattern that Alex had on his original jacket.
Remember way back at the end of ch1 when Emma declares that she wouldn't cry anymore? Yeah, well, obviously this Emma doesn't recall that promise to herself and proceeds to let out an impressive amount of tears while shattering my heart in the process. Aahhh, this is another moment I'm glad that was never animated because hearing all that emotion in her voice would surely make me cry along with her. And I praised the anime's use of a sunrise during the end of their interpretation of the ch122-123 balcony scene, so even though this chapter came first, I do enjoy how the rising sun has sorta become a symbol that restores Emma's optimism because it's shortly after this breakdown that she starts to act like her old self again.
Lastly, Alex giving Emma a head pat. I desperately wished this would've caused her to remember all the head pats Ray gave her in the past, or at the very least spark some kind of deja vu feeling, but alas, we weren't that lucky.
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Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Axl's MMZ Redesign
Make sure to look at the picture descriptions for each of these! They contain more information about the designs and I put them in like this to make the blog post less bloated than it already is.
Fun fact, I did redesign Axl into a MMZ character one and a half years prior to that "life-changing" Halloween art. I didn't know anything about the series yet aside from some basic concepts and I didn't understand its style much yet, but I still wanted to go an do that.
Well, you can certainly say I tried. His character was also altered, with him becoming a pacifistic hermit that lives with a real dog in a forest (it doesn't make much sense but 14 year-old me thought differently at the time). However, you can probably see some design quirks already that ultimately got used again in his look for Chapter: AXL, a scar over the right eye and shorts with suspenders in particular. There's actually a reason for this choice of clothing though since I did see something like this in his original MMX design, and I thought it could make the design more "fresh" while staying true to what was before (even if it does look a little goofy).
Then, a year and almost a half later, I came up with the idea of making a MMZ Halloween Axl drawing as a follow-up to the MMX Halloween Axl one I did a year prior (I will probably post it on Halloween this year on my random blog). This resulted in me coming up with a redesign for Axl, starting from a clean slate.
Something curious that I've noticed while looking into the design of Zero here was that... his silhouette was mostly the same. Despite the entire body overcoming changes, you could still recognize that it was Zero thanks to the hair and the shape of the helmet, mimicking what came before through the silhouette itself. That also was the design philosophy that Keiji Inafune persued and the only advice he gave to the designing team when they were trying to design Axl for X7, and that's... a really great tip to character design/redesign as a whole.
I was trying to follow the 'memorable silhouette' tip while remaking Axl for MMZ universe, but unfortunately I wasn't able to change his helmet much without losing the silhouette so I left it mostly as-is. Some parts of his armor do look strange (like boots for example) or too similar to what came before (the shoulderpads), the wings pack (or whatever it's called) looks really different and blocky, and the jets on his feet are a bit weird too, but I still think I did a good job reimagining this design, to the point of not changing it much in the next revisions.
I was trying to make Axl look sharper and more mature than before. I gave him a serious look, a few new scars (one on the left cheek as a reference to Grey and another over the right side of the face as a reference to Red), a blind right eye and a jacket with high collar (that doesn't close all the way because of the chest crystal). Shorts on suspenders still remained, though... which still kinda makes sense because he was supposed to still be young here, plus they help greatly with retaining the same "silhouette" as before. In addition, they actually have a functionality - Axl keeps his scythe folded behind the back and suspenders keep them safely in one place.
Oh, and yeah, this time Axl was supposed to become a grim reaper much like Red. I saw this as fitting, like he was following his old friend's footsteps, and eventually I realized it would be a great melee/middle-range weapon for him.
However, once I decided to make a full-blown game concept out of "What if Axl was in MMZ?", I chose to redesign him, to make him more in-line with the official designs (You can judge how close I came to that as I am still not sure if I am good at imitating them).
For the longest time, I thought that I perfected his design, but eventually as I started to fool around with the sprite arting, I realized that it was difficult for me to translate all of his details into a sprite while dealing with color and size limitations (which resulted in me never finishing that sprite too *chuckle*). I ended up going around all of the characters I had and giving them redesigns if needed, removing the unnessesary details (or adding on new stuff for some that needed them to fit in better). Axl was one of them... a-a-a-and I never remade his character art. Fortunately, I still have the promo art I did a few months ago and he had that design here.
And actually, there was one more redesign in July I did for the visual novel adaptation of Chapter: AXL (which I decided to put on hiatus for now because doing all that alone would stagnate the main project badly). It just removed the scar on his left cheek. I just thought that it wasn't necessary for now (maybe he will get it back during the story, who knows).
#fanfic#fanproject#megamanzero#mmz#megaman#megamanfanproject#rockman#megamanaxl#mmaxl#axl#ChAZ#Chapter: AXL
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