#Don’t expect them all to look as fabulous as Warriors does | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shadyteacup · 3 years

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Hi I recently started reading your work and I absolutely love it! Could I please request a chuuya x reader with him comforting his s/o after going threw a hard time bc her school friend of so many years has been treating her so bad to the point where she breaks the friendship up between them and she's just really sad bc of it? I've been going threw a few hard times with mines and I suffer from so many problems mostly mental some physical. This just feels good to yet it off my chest! Sorry if this request is too extreme...

Hey love! I want you to know that you deserve love, and don't deserve to have such toxic people in your life.. your mental an physical health comes first. Pls cut off such toxic people from your life, you deserve happiness!

Nakahara Chuuya x fem! Reader

Warnings: strong language, degradation, self doubt.. angst at first then comfort.

Word count: 1216

My Brave Warrior

"What do you mean?"

You asked, placing your mug of coffee on the table. You were invited to a reunion party, and all your school friends were going to attend. You were excited for it. Chhuya had bought you a pretty dress, one that he said made you look gorgeous. You had recently gotten in touch with your best friend from school. After graduating, you both had lost touch. Reconnecting with her felt so nice. She seemed much different than what you remembered her to be, but she was still your friend.

"You know what I mean. Look, I'm your closest friend. I have been since school. You gotta trust me on this, that outfit looks trash on you. Besides, it's not even your color. That color looks much prettier on me, considering my skintone and figure."

You both were planning what to wear to the party. She was trying to dissuade you from wearing the dress. Her words hurt you more than you'd like to admit. But that's what friends do, right? Friends give you an honest opinion and help you make the right decision, right? Then why are you feeling hurt?

You sigh, tears forming in your eyes.

"What's wrong with my skintone? Besides, our skintones are almost the same."

She didn't miss a moment to reply.

"Then it's your body shape. It's too bulgy and too flat at all the wrong places. Mine's perfect for that dress, since it really accentuates my curves."

"You haven't even worn it yet! Besides, it's my dress."

Was the dress really bad for you? But Chuuya seemed to like the way it looked on you.

"So? We're best friends. What's yours is equally mine! Besides, I don't even need to try it on to know that it'll suit me. The color's gorgeous and goes well with my eyes."

You try to keep your tears in. Was your body really not perfect? Is that dress too good for you?

"Then how about you lend me your pearl dress. That way we both would have something pretty to wear."

You suggested. The pearl dress your friend owns might suit you. It even matches your aesthetic.

"No, love. It's just.. it'll look too much on you, you know? Like, it suits me so well. I don't about you."

Why was she being such a bitch to you? She had been degrading you ever since you two got in touch again. Why does she hate you so much?

"I think it'll suit me."

"No, it won't, sweetheart. Trust me."

You exhaled with your mouth, trying to keep your tears in.

"Why are you doing this?"

You ask, your voice trembling.

"To make you look good for the party, duh! I don't want you to wear something out of your league and make a fool of yourself."

You clenched your fists.

"I mean, why are you being so mean? I think that dress looks very good on me. The color suits me, and my figure is perfect for it. Your pearl dress suits me too."

"Are you dumb? What do you think I've been screaming for the past hour?! You don't look good in that dress! Give it to me to wear!"

You were taken aback by the bitterness in her tone. Does she even care about you? Or is this all about the bloody dress?

"No! My boyfriend gifted it to me, and he thinks I look good in it. There's no way I'm going to give it to you! You don't even care about me! All you care about is getting your hands on that dress!"

She chuckled bitterly.

"Why are you being such a bitch?! It doesn't suit you! And yeah, maybe I do want that dress for myself. So what?! I know it'll look fabulous on me! If you wear it, you'll destroy the whole vibe of it!"

That's when it clicked. She wasn't your friend at all. She was just someone you used to know. This person on the phone is a selfish individual who doesn't give two fucks about you.

" You know what, I'm done."

You say, your tone low and dangerous.

"Excuse me? What do you mean?"

"I mean we're done. Over. This thing we had, this friendship or whatever, it's over."

She scoffed.

"Oh my God, why are you like this?! I'm just trying to help you! Don't you understand that?!"

"Shut the fuck up. And goodbye."

You cut the call and slam your phone on the table. Sobs forced their way out of you as you held your face in your palms, leaning against the table. You hadn't expected her to be like this. You both were so close as teenagers! You used to practically live at each other's houses. You both shared so many memories and secrets. You had just ended a deep friendship. But then again, maybe it had ended a long time ago. What you ended right now was a toxic relationship, one that would've drained you further.

But what if she really was trying to help? Did you make a mistake? Should you call her and apologize?

No. She was being mean to you. She deserved it.

Right?

You didn't hear Chuuya when he came into the room, and only felt his presence when he hugged you from behind.

"Chuu... I-"

He kissed your hair, hugging you tighter.

"Shh, I know. I heard it all."

He turned you around to hug you properly. You snuggled into him, sniffing against his chest.

He threaded his fingers through your hair, soothing you.

"Before you start doubting yourself, I want you to know that what you did was right. You got rid of a toxic person. That's an amazing decision."

"But what if she was actually trying to help me?"

Chuuya chuckled.

"I only heard one side of the conversation, but it was enough for me to guess that the person on the other end is a menace."

He tilted your face to lock eyes with you, and cupped your cheek.

"You are beautiful. Everything about you is perfect. That dress looks ethereal on you. Nobody could carry it as elegantly as you do."

He pecked your nose.

"I love you. People around you love you too. You are worth all that love, and you deserve to have good hearted souls around you. You don't deserve such toxic relationships. What you did was brave, and I'm so proud of you. Cutting off someone that isn't good for you may seem like the obvious choice, but it's a really hard step to take."

He smiled at you.

"And you did that. You were brave and you did what was necessary for your own mental health. I love you for being so brave."

He leaned down to press his forehead against yours.

"You are my brave warrior, and no one, not even you, can say otherwise. Stop thinking back on your decision, because it was the right thing to do."

You looked at him in awe. You hadn't even explained what you were feeling to him, and yet he understood you perfectly. He had just answered all your doubts and insecurities. He was an angel. You were so glad to have him.

"I love you, chuuya."

He kissed you.

"I love you too, muffin."

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tlatollotl · 3 years

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Finding the tomb of an ancient king full of golden artifacts, weapons and elaborate clothing seems like any archaeologist’s fantasy. But searching for them, Gino Caspari can tell you, is incredibly tedious.

Dr. Caspari, a research archaeologist with the Swiss National Science Foundation, studies the ancient Scythians, a nomadic culture whose horse-riding warriors terrorized the plains of Asia 3,000 years ago. The tombs of Scythian royalty contained much of the fabulous wealth they had looted from their neighbors. From the moment the bodies were interred, these tombs were popular targets for robbers; Dr. Caspari estimates that more than 90 percent of them have been destroyed.

He suspects that thousands of tombs are spread across the Eurasian steppes, which extend for millions of square miles. He had spent hours mapping burials using Google Earth images of territory in what is now Russia, Mongolia and Western China’s Xinjiang province. “It’s essentially a stupid task,” Dr. Caspari said. “And that’s not what a well-educated scholar should be doing.”

As it turned out, a neighbor of Dr. Caspari’s in the International House, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, had a solution. The neighbor, Pablo Crespo, at the time a graduate student in economics at City University of New York who was working with artificial intelligence to estimate volatility in commodity prices, told Dr. Caspari that what he needed was a convolutional neural network to search his satellite images for him. The two bonded over a shared academic philosophy, of making their work openly available for the benefit of the greater scholarly community, and a love of heavy metal music. Over beers in the International House bar, they began a collaboration that put them at the forefront of a new type of archaeological analysis.

A convolutional neural network, or C.N.N., is a type of artificial intelligence that is designed to analyze information that can be processed as a grid; it is especially well suited to analyzing photographs and other images. The network sees an image as a grid of pixels. The C.N.N. that Dr. Crespo designed starts by giving each pixel a rating based on how red it is, then another for green and for blue. After rating each pixel according to a variety of additional parameters, the network begins to analyze small groups of pixels, then successively larger ones, looking for matches or near-matches to the data it has been trained to spot.

Working in their spare time, the two researchers ran 1,212 satellite images through the network for months, asking it to look for circular stone tombs and to overlook other circular, tomblike things such as piles of construction debris and irrigation ponds.

At first they worked with images that spanned roughly 2,000 square miles. They used three-quarters of the imagery to train the network to understand what a Scythian tomb looks like, correcting the system when it missed a known tomb or highlighted a nonexistent one. They used the rest of the imagery to test the system. The network correctly identified known tombs 98 percent of the time.

Creating the network was simple, Dr. Crespo said. He wrote it in less than a month using the programming language Python and at no cost, not including the price of the beers. Dr. Caspari hopes that their creation will give archaeologists a way to find new tombs and to identify important sites so that they can be protected from looters.

Other convolutional neural networks are beginning to automate a variety of repetitive tasks that are usually foisted on to graduate students. And they are opening new windows on to the past. Some of the jobs that these networks are inheriting include classifying pottery fragments, locating shipwrecks in sonar images and finding human bones that are for sale, illegally, on the internet.

“Netflix is using this kind of technique to show you recommendations,” Dr. Crespo, now a senior data scientist for Etsy, said. “Why shouldn’t we use it for something like saving human history?”

Gabriele Gattiglia and Francesca Anichini, both archaeologists at the University of Pisa in Italy, excavate Roman Empire-era sites, which entails analyzing thousands of broken bits of pottery. In Roman culture nearly every type of container, including cooking vessels and the amphoras used for shipping goods around the Mediterranean, was made of clay, so pottery analysis is essential for understanding Roman life.

The task involves comparing pottery sherds to pictures in printed catalogs. Dr. Gattiglia and Dr. Anichini estimate that only 20 percent of their time is spent excavating sites; the rest is spent analyzing pottery, a job for which they are not paid. “We started dreaming about some magic tool to recognize pottery on an excavation,” Dr. Gattiglia said.

That dream became the ArchAIDE project, a digital tool that will allow archaeologists to photograph a piece of pottery in the field and have it identified by convolutional neural networks. The project, which received financing from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, now involves researchers from across Europe, as well as a team of computer scientists from Tel Aviv University in Israel who designed the C.N.N.s.

The project involved digitizing many of the paper catalogs and using them to train a neural network to recognize different types of pottery vessels. A second network was trained to recognize the profiles of pottery sherds. So far, ArchAIDE can identify only a few specific pottery types, but as more researchers add their collections to the database the number of types is expected to grow.

“I dream of a catalog of all types of ceramics,” Dr. Anichini said. “I don’t know if it is possible to complete in this lifetime.”

Saving time is one of the biggest advantages of using convolutional neural networks. In marine archaeology, ship time is expensive, and divers cannot spend too much time underwater without risking serious pressure-related injuries. Chris Clark, an engineer at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., is addressing both problems by using an underwater robot to make sonar scans of the seafloor, then using a convolutional neural network to search the images for shipwrecks and other sites. In recent years he has been working with Timmy Gambin, an archaeologist at the University of Malta, to search the floor of the Mediterranean Sea around the island of Malta.

Their system got off to a rough start: On one of its first voyages, they ran their robot into a shipwreck and had to send a diver down to retrieve it. Things improved from there. In 2017, the network identified what turned out to be the wreck of a World War II-era dive bomber off the coast of Malta. Dr. Clark and Dr. Gambin are now working on another site that was identified by the network, but did not want to discuss the details until the research has gone through peer-review.

Shawn Graham, a professor of digital humanities at Carleton University in Ottawa, uses a convolutional neural network called Inception 3.0, designed by Google, to search the internet for images related to the buying and selling of human bones. The United States and many other countries have laws requiring that human bones held in museum collections be returned to their descendants. But there are also bones being held by people who have skirted these laws. Dr. Graham said he had even seen online videos of people digging up graves to feed this market.

“These folks who are being bought and sold never consented to this,” Dr. Graham said. “This does continued violence to the communities from which these ancestors have been removed. As archaeologists, we should be trying to stop this.”

He made some alterations to Inception 3.0 so that it could recognize photographs of human bones. The system had already been trained to recognize objects in millions of photographs, but none of those objects were bones; he has since trained his version on more than 80,000 images of human bones. He is now working with a group called Countering Crime Online, which is using neural networks to track down images related to the illegal ivory trade and sex trafficking.

Dr. Crespo and Dr. Caspari said that the social sciences and humanities could benefit by incorporating the tools of information technology into their work. Their convolutional neural network was easy to use and freely available for anyone to modify to suit their own research needs. In the end, they said, scientific advances come down to two things.

“Innovation really happens at the intersections of established fields,” Dr. Caspari said. Dr. Crespo added: “Have a beer with your neighbor every once in a while.”

#archaeology #artificial intelligence #neural networks

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edyacouky · 3 years

Text

What an Alpha is

Can be read on AO3

***

Jason has realized quickly that what he want, what he is, isn’t normal. He has realized that before his research for his biological mom. Sometimes, he thought that Bruce and Alfred were family and they loved him. Sometimes he remembered what a great liar they were, all his future depended on them. Sometimes he remembered hos he loved Willis, how he loves Catherine and forgiven Sheila. No matter how much he loved them, he never trusted them with all his soul and heart. Finally he takes his secret on his grave.

Literally.

But now he feels better. Sort of.

Many things happen since his resurrection. But the only person knowing Jason’s secret is Essence.

Jason can’t really explain why. Essence has the same secondary gender as Jason, who is an alpha. She is raised by a culture different from Jason but with cliché about gender too.

When Jason let Essence know, he didn’t expect her to understand or being accepted. But she was.

As much Jason was relieved then, he is still scared that someone knows the true.

Many things happen since Essence.

Now Jason is happily in a relationship with Roy, an omega.

Jason is truly happy, more that he can remembered. And Roy must be too since he didn’t dumped him, yet.

Sex is good too. Jason makes sure of that. Doing like every intercourse may be the last one. Like he fears they could be. And since Roy initiate many time, Jason must succeed. But the true, like his fears, never disappears.

He does his best to fight the thought that harass him, but sometimes he lost.

This time is one of them.

Roy isn’t at home. He shouldn’t come back for a few days. So Jason thinks he is sage enough to succumb. He puts the box that he hides in one of his room walls. He cuts the security while his heart is beating cray. He can’t believe he will finally do it. It’s been months, almost a year.

There is his collection of sex toy in the box.

No fake cunt or anything else alpha are traditionalism portray use it.

There is dildo from different size, color and brand with different option.

Jason almost throw himself on the biggest Bad Dragon he has, then he stops when he see the dildo he brought one time on a space mission. Jason still doesn’t know who invent it and how it works, but this things is wild enough that it provokes Jason’s rut every time, no matter where on his cycle he is.

He had to take a deep breath. It’s been almost a year since he had the audacity to even fingered himself. He has to play soft, at least at first.

His eyes fall on a smaller and less crazy dildo. Its shape make him of Roy’s dick.

Thinking of his mate, guilt submerge him. He hates hide a part of him to Roy, even if it’s just a kinky part of him.

But his biological father’s voice, his old friend's, even Bruce’s friend’s voices remind him that he is abnormal.

An alpha who loves takes it in his ass, he is not a real alpha, neither can be a good mate.

And Jason want to be good, especially for Roy. It’s not like he want Roy to have a different secondary gender or change his.

He imagine Roy fucking him with his dick, how they can play together with a double penetration dildo.

Fuck all this asshole voices, but mostly fuck him.

Horniest is stronger that shame and he takes the smaller dildo.

Once he will have calmed the urge he could become again a good mate for Roy

***

Roy come back much earlier than he expected from his mission. Not that he is disappointed by that, quite the contrary. He missed Jason so much.

He realizes once in the front door that he didn’t warn Jason like he wanted. He can only hope that his mate will be at home.

All the tiredness he feels flies away when he smell sex. No other smell that his mate, so he is absolutely turn on.

“Jaybird.” He sing song while approaching the room

What he sees is so marvelous that he doesn’t believe it at first.

He won’t going to lie, he sometimes imagine fucking Jason. Who could blame him? But Jason never seems interested and Roy didn’t want him to feel pressure to do anything.

But now!

Now that he saw Jason ridding a really monstrous dildo, one of his hand gripping hard the headbed, surrounded by used dildo on their bed, the most illogical part of his omega brain whispers:

“Damn, I want carry his children.”

Not gonna happen if he does the fucking. He just can’t help but always have this though when he is really horny.

Without getting the time to think, Roy join Jason on their bed.

“Jaybird.” He whispers in his ears before kissing him deeply and caressing his fabulous thigh

Jason shivers but kiss him back with abandonment

At first.

As suddenly as unreal everything has been for Roy since he comes back, Jason pushes him violently, making him fall out the bed.

Roy realizes that the fact that Jason wanted alone sex time doesn’t mean that Roy can join him without making sure Jason want him to.

But before he could apologies, the room reek of fear and anger.

The look on Jason’s face freezes Roy.

The betrayal, the terror, the hate.

Roy was hoping fucking Jason, but it seems he fuck it.

“I…

-Get out!”Jason yells using his deep alpha voice

Jason never use it on people he loves, because he knows how you can feel miserable and afraid, even if it may be illogically, when this voice is used.

And damn! Roy feels miserable.

Jason deserves the world, and Roy want to give it to him.

Roy crawls to the bed, to Jason, showing him his neck with pitiful moans. He need to apologies.

But Jason pushes him again, repeat his order with more strength and baring his teeth.

Roy have to admit that he has to back off if he really want things to cool off.

He really, really doesn’t like that but submit.

Carefully he leaves the room and starts pacing in their living room.

He repeats his apologies in his head.

He keep questioning why Jason react so violently.

It’s happened before that Roy or Jason had an alone time and the other want to join. A simply “No” was always enough.

He realizes that he never saw this sex toy before, never Jason shares any interest to play with his hole.

He repeats his apologies in his head.

He start questioning if Jason is attracted by omega. Did he accept this relationship because Kory was part of it at first? Did he keep it because deep down he is afraid of being alone? Or did Roy do or say something that makes Jason thinks he can’t share it with Roy?

He realizes he is waiting for Jason for too long when his stomach starts asking to be fulling.

Roy isn't surprised when he realizes that Jason run away. He is disappointed and terrified.

He hopes that their relationship isn’t over.

***

When Bruce walks in front of Jason’s old room door, he is not surprised when he smells his son’s odor.

Until he remembers that Jason’s smell changed drastically after … everything that happen after Ethiopia.

And he doesn’t smell only the faint old smell of his son, but also loud new Jason’s smell.

He frowns.

He doesn’t remember a time where Jason sleep in here since …

The rare time Jason sleep in the Manor, they open him a new room.

He opens carefully the door.

Jason is hiding, Bruce doesn't know how else describe it, under his sheet. His hairs aren’t visible.

“Jason?” He says quietly

He miss calling him Jaylad, but it feels wrong for now.

Jason groans but doesn’t move.

“Are you ok, Jason?

-I am here. What do you think, Greatest Detective in the World?

-That something really awful must happen to you if you came to your childhood den to have comfort.”

Jason scoff.

“I am here because no one will search me here.”

That’s still hurt to realize that one of his pups doesn’t feel safe in the Manor, that Jason is right when he say no one will search him here.

But worry hits him when he realizes that something awful happen.

“What happen?

-Like you care.

-I do! Jason, tell me what happen.

-Why? So you can make it all about yourself.

-What if I promise to shut up while you will take?”

Jason’s head perk up and he glares at Bruce, judging him.

“I shouldn’t have been resurrected.”

First shot and Jason aims directly to the heart.

Bruce wants to argue with Jason, yells at him for daring saying it.

But he recognizes this light in Jason’s eyes. He test him.

Bruce takes a deep breath, keeps his scent has calming and safe as possible.

“Why do you think that?

-Because it’s true. Jason says with vulnerability. I’m not a good alpha.”

Bruce frowns, doesn’t understand why Jason may think that. Jason never seems like the kind of people who care about what a second gender should be.

And Jason is a good alpha. He is protective of people he considers part of his pack, he is fearless warrior, he is a good provider. He is always more than happy to help and cook for everyone.

“You are a good person, Jason. Bruce tries hoping he doesn’t make Jason angry. So of course you’re a good alpha.

-You don’t understand.” Jason grumble and hide again

Bruce groans and rolls his eyes. And society think that omega are the moody one.

“I can’t understand if you don’t explain it to me.” Bruce argues

Per chance he promised to shut up. Jason will avoid the Manor again for at least a few weeks and Alfred will be super pissed at him.

There is a long silence where Bruce expect Jason too suddenly leave, even punches him. But finally Jason sit down and with spite simply says:

“You can’t be more ashamed of me and I am not your child anymore any way.”

Bruce immediately want to argue. Jason should talk to him because he feels safe and loved, not because their relationship is so bad that he have nothing to lose.

“I am a fucking faggot.” Jason drops

Bruce frowns. It is not a word Jason use and he does that now to qualify himself.

“Why did you say that?

-Because it’s true. I can’t be with Roy now that he knows.

-I don’t think that you cheated on him. And I was sure that you loved Ollies’s omega. So … what happen?”

Jason mumble something, his face tunrs red.

“Do you cheat on him?

-No! Of course no! I will never do that!

-Aren’t you in love with him? Do you want to be in relationship with an alpha?

-No! Jeez, Bruce, you have no idea how much I love him! He will break up with me anyway.”

Bruce tries to pick up the piece together but the clues don’t help him understand the situation.

“Roy will break up with you because you are not straight?

-Yes! An alpha that like take it in his ass, is not a real alpha, he is not a good mate!”

Bruce blinks rapidly. Like … what?

“Everyone knows that! Jason tries to defend himself

-Well everyone is stupid.”

Jason groans and get up.

“I don’t know what I was thinking, coming here.

-Jason please wait …

-No. I need to talk to Roy. Sooner the better. See you next time B.”

And just like that Jason leaves.

And just like that Bruce feels he let him down once again.

***

Jason doesn’t really know what he expect when he come back to his home.

Maybe Roy take this things and leave, blocking his phone number. Jason will understand if he does. But it’s not Roy’s style do to that.

“Roy.” He call hims

He doesn’t see him in the living room nor the kitchen.

Blushing he goes to their bedroom. Roy has tidy up his sex toy. Knowing that Roy clean them and put them back in their box is so embarrassing. Bu he doesn’t know if he could have endure seeing them spread out and dirty on his bed.

After looking in the bathroom, Jason is sure that Roy isn’t here, but his things are still there.

In desperation, Jason sit on the couch playing with his phone. He should apologies for using his alpha voices and running away, but what if Roy had blocked his phone number?

Damn, why can’t he have more self control?

He start thinking where could be Roy and who he should call if Roy really block him.

Suddenly the front door open and Roy appears.

“Yeah thanks. I already went there. Tell me if you …”

Roy finally see Jason and smile at him.

“No forget what I told you. It’s ok now. Yeah, I will call you later.”

Without letting Jason time to apologies, Roy sit down on the couch next to him.

“You came back. And only after a few hours.

-Yeah, I start getting better at that.”

There is a silence where neither of them don’t know what to say.

“I am sorry.”

Jason frowns and argues:

“You have nothing to apologies for…

-Of course! I should ask you if I can join you and not assume…

-Roy….please stop...It’s not for that I freak out…

-Is not?”

Jason shakes his head and takes a deep breath.

“I am the one you should apologies. I shouldn't use the alpha voice. It was a shitty thing to do and I am sorry.

-Honestly I was more surprised. I really freak you out didn’t I?

-No...I mean...sort of. But it’s not an excuse and I am sorry.

-What do you mean by “sort of”?”

Jason tuck his sleeve and bit his tongue.

“I never want you to see me like that.

-Like that?

-I really love you and want to be a good mate to you. I am sorry I disappointed you.

-Disappointed me? Hold on. Can we rewind?”

Roy stand up and start to pace trying to understand what’s going on since he came back from the mission.

“Ok so first thing first, did I like that you used you alpha voice? No, but I am not disappointed in you. And why shouldn’t I think that you aren’t a good mate?

-You saw what I did! I am a freak, you can tell it!

-What you did?”

Roy rethink what he saw in the room. The only thing he was disappointed it’s how it ended. He really feels blessed to have saw Jason so debauched playing with himself like that.

“The sex toy, Roy! Jason yells impatient blushing furiously. I put it in my ass!

-Oh yeah, that was really hot.

-What?

-I mean I would have loved participate of course. I am on board with that too. But I won’t be disappointed if you like doing it alone or only with alpha or male beta. You respect my limit, I will respect yours.

-You are not disgusted?

-Wow! How did we go to disappointed to disgusted? No I am neither of them.

-Really?

-Really.”

Jason feel like he can finally breath. When Roy sit down against him again, Jason kiss him tenderly. He start crying too, but he feels too much joy and relief.

“Are you alright?

-Yeah I’m good. I just … I just open about it only with one person, I was always so afraid to be see as less alpha. Thank you Roy.

-I love you Jason. I won’t think less of you because of that. But I still have some question.”

Jason sight but smile.

“Shoot.”

Roy takes Jason’s hand in his and look at him even if Jason avoid his eyes.

“Do you love omega? Roy finally ask

-Is that a trick to ask me if I love you?

-Maybe. Sort of. Do you?”

Jason finally look at him with so much sorrow, it provokes Roy a twinge.

“I do. Jason caress tenderly Roy’s cheek. More than any word or act can prove you.”

Damn Roy fall in love with Jason everyday.

They kiss slowly, tenderly. Things aren’t always easy but they are so happy they have found each other.

“I am sorry I make you doubt that.

-I am just glad we clear it up.”

They kiss again.

“Do you have anymore question?

-Well I have one more question in mind. Roy says playfully. Next you play with your dildo - you have a really impressive collection if I can say it -…

-Asshole.

-Can I participate or … at least watch it?”

Jason close his eyes and bites his lips but smiles.

His cheeks turn beautifully red.

“I really love the idea of you being a really active participant.

-But…?

-I had sex with just one alpha before and I never do more with anyone less. So I want it but … Can we take it slowly?

-Of course we can, baby.

-I may freak out again.

-You may. But it’s not a big deal. You are here for me, I am here for you. We are partner in every sense of the word.

-Love you.

-Love you too.

-By the way, who did you warn about my running away?

-Artemis and Bizarro.

-You realize they will kick my ass?

-Don’t worry my alpha. I will protect you.”

The end.

#DC comics #jayroy #Jason Todd #roy harper

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sassybirdmanandhisangstywife · 3 years

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Surprise surprise, I have another chapter. And this may come as a shock to you, but this chapter does NOT end with Diaval passing out. Look I know it was cliche, but he was gonna pass out anyway, it felt like the best ending. But hopefully there won’t be any more of that, for this fic at least. Instead, you get this poor bird running around going grey and not being able to relax for even a second. I feel so bad I’ve wronged my birdboi. Oh well, what happens happens. Hope you enjoy the flashback! Also, does anyone know how to attach my other chapters to the new ones I post, without reblogging? You know, the little numbers at the bottom where if you click on them they show that chapter? 1 for 1, 2 for 2, etc. I’d really like to do that, as it would make finding the full fic much easier. Thanks, I hope you like reading this!

Chapter 4

I leave her side for 5 minutes.....

I woke up slowly, well rested but somehow more exhausted then ever. Always a fun feeling. Looking around with half open eyes, I noticed no one was in my sight line. And I mean no one. No fairies flittering through the grass, no waterbollergs having me wake up to a mud covered face, nothing. I don’t think any part of The Moors has ever been this silent. So naturally, I felt immediately cautious. Maybe it was just that having humans in The Moors was such a sight that everyone had gone to see them, I reasoned, exiting the healing pools. That seemed........like I was coming up with an excuse to desperately keep the probable reality of an attack or betrayal from my brain. Fabulous. Can’t even get five minutes of peace around here. Walking from the pools, I began to search for anything (or anyone) that could give me answers to whatever the hell was going on. How I wished I could turn into a raven ri- HUH!?

I cawed loudly as I frantically flapped my wings. I was a-a RAVEN! How!? Was Mistress around? Why was she hiding from me??? I frantically circled the area, searching for Mistress, or anyone who could’ve transformed me. After a short while, and expending a large amount of my newfound energy, I had a quite worrying realization. I did it. I transformed myself. Shit. Shit shit SHIT!

Which is quite the confusing thought. How am I, a mere raven, able to shift my form all of a sudden? Allow me to explain........

19 years ago.......

“Mistress?” I asked, bandaging her wounds with my newest healing tincture.

“What is it Diaval?” She responded, wincing at the pain she was trying to hide.

“Is there any way you could allow me to shift myself?”

Mistress became still as the stone ruins all around us. Suddenly whipping her head around (and most likely regretting that move as soon as it was made), she snapped

“And why on earth would you ever need that power? Do you plan to leave in the near future?”

I was appalled at this statement.

“What!? NO! I merely meant that if we were to suffer from an attack this severe again, and I was in raven form, you might not survive.”

“Do you truly think me to be so weak?” Mistress asked, an edge to her voice, and murder in her eyes.

I sighed.

I loved my Mistress, probably more than I should, but this defensiveness was getting quite old.

“No Mistress.” I said tiredly. “But in instances like today, the humans surprised us. We didn’t expect them to be able to get over the thorn walls, let alone past Balthazar and his warriors. They snuck past those, and all our other, defenses, and sprung themselves on us when we were distracted. And since they got the drop on us, they had the chance to get enough iron on you to render you incapable of using the amount of magic it takes to transform me. If I were in raven form, or most forms other than human at that, you might not have survived. Luckily I was human, and we’re both able to fully recover because of that, but we can’t always rely on that form being available in situations like this. We should have a- what’s the word? Not-success safety?”

“A fail safe?” Mistress asked, eyebrows raised.

“Yes! That.” I said, gesturing towards Mistress. “A fail safe. A way for me to turn human at will. Not always, but in crises such as today.”

Mistress appeared thoughtful, hopefully pondering my idea. Not that I expected her to take my thoughts into account, but a raven can hope. By the time I finished bandaging her various injuries, moving on to my own, she still hadn’t given a response. It was worrying, for multiple reasons.

I decided to risk it.

“Mistress?” I asked, lightly touching her shoulder. She jerked back, seemingly jumping out of her thoughts.

“What?”

I just looked at her.

“Um, what did you think of my idea?”

Mistress’ eyes widened ever so slightly, a move I’d learned not to mention, as she was not one to deliberately show her emotions.

“Oh, yes, that.” She replied, gathering her thoughts. “I think it sounds like a..........somewhat reasonable idea, to an extent.”

Oh great.

“To what extent Mistress?”

“Although I admit there are times when I am....overpowered, they are rare occasions. If a battle does not escalate to the level of danger that could threaten my life, you will be unable to shift. If any situation somehow manages to be life threatening to myself, then you can shift into whatever you want, as many times as you wish.”

I exhaled deeply. That wasn’t as bad as I thought it w-

“-But it must be me who determines whether the situation is life threatening or not.” She finished.

Brilliant. It’s as if she threw my idea out altogether. Mistress is a prideful creature, more so then most, and it will come as a true shock if she ever admits her life is in danger, let alone that she needs saving.

Well, at least I tried.

“Whatever you say Mistress” I said, turning back to my wounds.

Present day......

Oh ravens. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all. How long have I been out for something like this to happen? The magic Mistress used should only have left me unconscious for as long as I needed healing, and my injuries weren’t as severe as to need more than a day’s rest. Did the humans betray us? It doesn’t seem that unreasonable, but the humans, or at least the royal guard, seemed to accept Aurora’s leadership, regardless of how different her opinions were from her father’s......HER FATHER!

I shook myself off. No, that was impossible, Mistress killed him herself. He couldn’t fake his death in front of her, nor would he want to. His mind is too far gone for that.

But if it’s not Stephan, what could possibly have gone so wrong? And how was I to figure that out in time to save her?

An idea sparked in my brain.

Well, I guess it’s time to go back to old habits. Let’s go world, I’ll take it all on.

My Mistress, and secret love, is in danger.

#maleficent #diaval #balthazar #this poor man #i’m sorry #why did i do this #i feel bad now #pining #he just needs a hug #so does she

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heathenarmyimagines · 4 years

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Title: The Alliance

Summary: Ivar takes his betrothed to meet a very special person before they depart.

Pairing: Ivar x Reader

Taglist: @ubbesgirl, @shewolf2000, @tis-itheapplepie, @atequila, @demoncrypt1066, @greennightspider, @badbitsh13, @fireismysaftey, @minarawr, @laketaj24, @hvitserksgirl, @blahblahcookiesdoma, @fabulous-peasent, @sforsammmmmi, @minmiin1d, @courtrae89, @letsloveimagines, @tomarisela, @titty-teetee, @beyond-the-ashes@elenawrit, @mblaqgi, @whenimaunicorn, @chuflisworld, @mystruggledlife, @moose-squirrel-asstiel, @syreni-dea, @trashqueenbitch, @alykatv, @mbaku-babygirl, @perfectus-in-morte, @beyond-the-ashes, @neeadinghugs, @readsalot73, @triumphantreturnofpies, @anarchy-is-coming, @tephi101, @alicedopey, @ivarslittlebadgirl, @jtrstp, @nejijjeoroo, @charlylama, @ivartheblessed, @captstefanbrandt, @fabulouschrissi, @ivarsrideordie, @3x5gurl, @the-writer-appreciation-blog, @lolabee9, @captainfoxy22, @young-ugly-god, @im5ftbutmythroat66, @bribyyy, @irishhiggins, @cadetomlinson, @keclleon101, @slutforragnarssons, @ltkeke, @meeeeeeeeeps, @lille-kanin, @opalscarab, @ssraven7, @ivarandersen, @concretewaywardangel, @funmadnessandbadassvikings, @sharon-is-tired, @cadetomlinson, @mystruggledlife, @chuflisworld, @justmarissa97, @lol-haha-joke, @weirdly-randomly-awesome, @inlovewithmakeupcomicsanim, @idonthavehusbandsihavelovers, @alexa040004, @buckythetinman , @burntmythroatskullingmytea,@jorunnravenslayer, @two-unbeatable-beaters, @buffy-the-vampire-blogger, @arses21434, @ltkeke, @captainfoxy22, @chinduda @letsshamelessqueen-m @my-soul-is-the-moon @we-are-transcendent

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

A/N: I know, I took FOREVER to post this but at last here it is in all its non-proofread glory. I hope you all enjoy it.

His father had once told him about this ridiculous Christian thing called a miracle when he was a child, it was a word he used when describing his washing up back on Kattegat shores.

Something that is not possible.

While he did truly hate the entirety of the Christian religion and those who believed in it, Ivar didn’t know any other words to describe how he had gotten a ship ready so soon.

It was almost purely a coincidence that out of a small fleet of ships that had been used to raid in England last year one hadn’t yet been completely stripped down. So Ivar hired a large group of young able bodied men and a single experienced old timer to lead them in preparing the boat.

Of course the ship being partially prepared already didn’t mean that there was not still a lot of work to be done. They still needed rations of food, ale and drinkable water for those on board to make it to Tunisia without starving. There was also a need for even more essential things like oars, a new sail, blankets, ravens and ropes.

All these things kept Ivar in a constant state of annoyance and stress, none of which was helped by the fact that he hadn’t had much time spent with his betrothed.

While he himself was very occupied with preparing for the journey, Princess (Y/N) was preparing for the arrival.

Going over details with Ragnar and hand picking the warriors she wanted to journey back with them, as well as teaching everyone her language.

It had already been discussed during first meal that she would teach Ivar privately on the journey so that he wouldn’t have to take time away from his preparations.

At last tonight the ship was fully stocked and prepared to make the journey to Africa. Ivar felt such a sense of relief in this moment that it was only second to the feeling of winning (Y/N)’s hand in marriage.

He was so exhausted he nearly fainted on the docks.

But he managed to pull himself the rest of the way to his chamber and was surprised to find (Y/N) sitting in his bed.

‘Ah, a pleasant surprise.’ he said as he pulled himself up onto the mattress next to her.

‘Sorry to intrude, I just needed a minute away from everyone, it feels as if I haven’t had a moment to myself since the feast.’ she said.

‘I understand, I am glad you find comfort in my chambers, since we will be sharing it rather soon.’ Ivar sighed as he laid down.

‘Tired?’

‘Exhausted, I’m honestly wishing we could just skip the weddings and just be married at this point.’ he yawned.

‘Really?’ (Y/N) asked as she laid down beside him.

Ivar was surprised by this, a small part of him had expected that now that he was here that she would leave.

‘Yes, of course I cannot wait to meet your family, I just wish the boat was easier to prepare, or at least less tiresome.’

‘I understand, Sven seemed stressed when he had to prepare for the journey to bring us here. I wish I could bring you some comfort.’

‘You already are, just being here.’

‘Do you really find my company so comfortable? No nervousness?’ she asked, turning onto her side to face him a bit better.

‘Why should I be nervous?’ Ivar countered.

‘Lots of reasons, you will soon be on a boat for the first time in your life to meet the family of the woman you will be marrying.’ she said.

‘I have wanted to be on a boat on my way to new places since I was a boy, it is only now that I have the opportunity. If anything I am thankful to you, and despite how tired I am from preparing for it, I am excited for the journey.’ Ivar said softly.

‘I am nervous.’ the princess confessed.

‘Why? I cannot imagine a woman as amazing as you being nervous.’ Ivar replied as he sat up.

‘You are the first man other than my father to be in my life, and he wasn’t in it long enough. I have never felt anything for a man, but I feel something for you Ivar. Something I have never felt before and sometimes it scares me, I think that I will not be a good enough wife to you.’ she confessed.

‘I know you will be a great wife, Freya will guide you to be the best wife in all of Midgard.’

‘Who is Freya?’

‘Freya is Odin’s wife, the goddess of fertility...and a few other things involved in marriage.’ Ivar explained.

‘Other things?’ the princess asked in confusion as she sat up and began removing her rings from her fingers.

Ivar watched almost in a trance as she reached behind her back began to undo the laces of her dress.

‘She is also the Goddess of things like war and death.’ he said, mouth going dry as the princess began comfortably removing her dress and skirts.

‘Does war and death naturally go along with marriage?’ (Y/N) asked as she finally removed the last of her skirts.

‘No...but she is also associated with beauty, lust...and sex.’

‘Sex? I imagine that is a large part of a healthy marriage. Just another reason to feel nervous I suppose.’ she said as she got back in the bed.

‘Sorry if my disrobing made you uncomfortable, I was becoming a bit warm. May I help you out of your clothes as well...My Love?’

‘My Love?’ Ivar asked, deciding not to answer her request to undress him.

‘My mother used to call my father her Love, when I was a girl I couldn’t wait to say that to someone, but then I began training and it took over my mind to the point that I forgot about my silly little dream.’ she said as she began tugging at Ivar’s tunic.

It seemed she had taken his silence as compliance and decided to just go ahead and undress him, and Ivar was too stunned to fight it. So he raised his arms and let her pull the material over his head.

‘I used to listen to my parents call each other all sorts of things, very rarely anything nice.’ Ivar said quietly as he began to become self conscious.

(Y/N) was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and her naked body was a blessing to behold, and he knew she would never find such a beauty in his broken bones.

‘I noticed, I always knew that all marriages were not out of love, but all the ones I have seen normally have a bit more...respect between them. I imagine a lot of anger has been between your mother and father, I’m sure they each have reasons.’ she said as she stood in front of him

‘They have plenty of reasons, they share them quite often, I’m sure you will find out once we are officially married. They will grow tired of acting civil quite quickly once they no longer need to impress you. Pretty soon my mother will be complaining drunkenly to you while my father seethes.’ he tried to joke to mask the way he flinched when she went to remove his pants.

The princess saw his tenseness and stilled her motions.

‘I want to see them Ivar...I want to see you. I am to be your wife and you are to be my husband. You belong to me just as I belong to you, please let me see you.’ she asked.

‘You are kind...and naive. I can look at you and see that you have never felt disgust; true and complete disgust, the kind that makes you want to turn away so that when your stomach lurches you don’t have to worry about adding your sick to an already unpleasant sight. I do not want you to feel such a thing for me yet.’

‘I would never find you disgusting, you are the man who bested me in combat. What about you could be disgusting? Your strength, your character?’

‘My legs, more than once I’ve seen women look away from me in favor of my brothers.’ Ivar said.

‘I have never favored your brothers, not to say I do not like them. They are not attractive to me physically, but your spirit....I’ve never seen anything so beautiful and magnificent.’ (Y/N) said holding Ivar’s face gently in her hands.

‘You are only saying that, and I appreciate it, but I assure you once we reach Tunisia you can pick any man you like to come back with us. To satisfy your needs that I never could.’ Ivar replied sadly as he tried to turn away.

‘No man, no matter if his skin was as black as war paint and his dreadlocks flowed down his back like rain, could ever have a spirit as great as you.’ she swore, keeping her hold firm on him, making him meet her eyes.

She tried to make her sincerity pour out of her brown eyes, so that her intended could be assured that he had no reason to feel insecure. She felt no disgust toward him and she had no desire to lay with any man other than the one she was to be married to.

Ivar did not look away this time, instead he just looked at her, searching for any of the signs that she was lying. Her eyes didn’t shift, her eyebrows didn’t twitch and her face didn’t tense up...she was telling the truth.

She really didn’t find him repulsive, and that was a reality that he was almost unprepared to accept.

‘May I undress you...my Love?’ she asked again.

‘Yes.’ he said so quietly that even he barely heard it.

She unlaced his trousers, slowly so that if Ivar truly wished for her to stop he could let her know. Despite how he was gripping tightly at the furs on his bed, he did not push her hands away and easily raised his hips so that she could pull them down.

Once the pants had been removed she stood and took in the sight before her, Ivar’s legs looked truly broken...practically tortured.

‘In Tunisia we have so much gold that if we really wanted we could boast being one of the wealthiest kingdoms in all of Africa, but we don’t. In all honesty...we don’t value it at this point, obviously we know everyone else does but do you know what we truly value?’ the princess asked as she kneeled before Ivar just as she had when she proposed the Matrimonial Fight.

‘We value this.’ she said running her fingers over one of the many scars over Ivar’s right leg.

‘Scars, we cherish them. They show what a person has been through; how they have lived and how hard they have fought to keep living. Some warriors wear scars to show how many kills they have made and how many battles they have fought. I believe the Great and Many Spirits gave you the scars in advance because you are destined to see many victories.’ the princess began.

‘We bleed our people, a scar will show their loyalty and their endurance. I was born into a royal bloodline, so other than minor scrapes from training I have had no scars...until these.’

(Y/N) ran her hand over the scar where he cut her chest when she had proposed the fight, then the one on her shoulder that claimed her as his bride to be.

‘These scars were given to me by you, do you know what that means Prince Ivar of Kattegat?’

Not trusting himself to speak without his voice shaking, Ivar shook his head.

‘It means that I am fated by the Spirits to endure you, no matter what you do I will be at your side. You can not scare me away Ivar, you can’t push me into the arms of another. You are mine to endure, just as I am yours...My Love.’

If her words weren’t enough to move him to tears then her leaning down to place a kiss on the scar she had been touching certainly was.

He tried to cover his quivering lip, but he couldn’t stop his sob from escaping his mouth.

(Y/N) moved to sit on the bed and wordlessly pulled Ivar into her arms, and without hesitation he accepted the affection.

He cried into her naked chest for what felt like an eternity but had really only been about thirty minutes, not that Ivar could be blamed for this; he had fallen asleep.

The princess carefully laid back and pulled the furs over the two of them, seeing as the fire was dwindling.

As Ivar slept in her arms she thought of how she had found herself here; she had been so desperate for some peace and quiet. Between teaching Derja to so many people with different learning styles and your servants chattering about how excited they were to return home the princess needed a break.

So she devised a plan to get away; a simple plan that consisted of simply telling different people different things. Telling the servants to go to her chambers to sleep while she teaches the royal family and then telling the royals she was going to rest. Then she thought as to where she should go now that she was alone, at first she considered taking up one of the empty chambers but did not want to make unnecessary work for the slaves.

For a while she just silently moved around the long halls until she spotted Ivar’s thrall leaving a room carrying a basket of sheets. Assuming that the room was Ivar’s and the sheets had already been changed she snuck into the room while no one was in the hall.

Ivar’s room was very obviously his, and it even showed more of who he was than he probably realized.

Most of the furniture was placed very closely to the bed so that he wouldn’t have to crawl as much, unlike the other rooms where everything was spread out to fill the space. There was an almost infinite amount of scratches and dents in the wood works of the room as well as the furniture from years of Ivar throwing weapons around during his many anger spells.

The room was empty and full and beautifully scarred just like Ivar, in an odd way just being in this room put the princess’s mind at ease.

She knew that at some point Ivar would come back to his chamber and they would obviously address her being here, but she did not know that it would lead to this. Ivar sleeping in her arms, not that she minded at all.

In fact she soon joined Ivar in the land of peaceful slumber; in her dream she was chasing after a large beast through the fields of Tunisia to turn into the most magnificent fur for her husband, in his Ivar was fighting in a great battle, standing strong and whole and at his side he saw his princess fighting alongside of him.

Both of them would have been happy to stay in their dreams forever, but of course it was not meant to be.

Trya entered the room an hour before the sun was set to rise, just as she always did with her shield and a small pebble. And as usual she threw the pebble from the door toward the bed and held up the shield.

However, on this morning, there were more daggers thrown her way than normal.

Cautiously she lowered the shield to see her master was not alone in his bed, the African princess was also there.

Both royals were, as far as she could tell, undressed.

Trya...good morning.’ Ivar greeted as he sleepily stretched and yawned.

‘Good morning Prince Ivar, Princess (Y/N).’

‘Good morning, I hate to trouble you, but could you fetch my servants from my chambers and have them bring me a courtesy robe, so that I can leave you to your own morning chores.’ she requested politely as she covered herself with the furs.

‘Of course, right away your highness.’ Trya bowed before she left, leaving Ivar and the princess alone.

‘Well this will be our last day in Kattegat before we board the ship, there will be quite a feast tonight.’ Ivar said.

He had no intention of speaking on their emotional conversation last night, or the fact that they had just been in a very obviously compromising position.

‘I have been told, Leena and Kya are so excited that they get to help prepare a traditional African meal. I am more excited to go home and see my family, I’m sure they are worried, I was not meant to stay this long.’ (Y/N) said.

‘Really?’ he asked, to which the princess nodded.

‘When Sven proposed the marriage I agreed to only one week, if only to meet the man I might marry. It’s been a month, so I can’t imagine what my mother must think is keeping me here.’

‘I hope she doesn’t assume we are keeping you against your will.’ he said.

‘No one knows what the mind of a worried mother is capable of coming up with.’ the woman sighed.

The door opened and in walked the one of the Tunisian servants holding a white robe made of fine silk folded over her arm.

‘Princess, Ivar Prince.’ she greeted as best she could in Norse.

‘Prince Ivar.’ (Y/N) corrected as she got out of the bed.

This time Ivar didn’t look away, he had seen all of her last night, and it didn’t feel like he was doing anything wrong now. She had consciously let him see her full beauty last night, and she would also be his wife, there was no reason for him to feel guilty for looking at her.

However, none of that changed how breathtaking he found her to be.

The princess was dressed and politely left to get dressed for the first meal of the day, leaving Trya to dress Ivar.

As usual the room was silent as she helped him into his trousers but this morning the silence seemed pregnant.

‘You have something you wish to say Trya?’

‘No Prince Ivar...just that I am happy for you, in all my years serving you I have never seen you like this. So...happy.’ the thrall commented as she put on his boots.

Ivar thought about it and he realized that she was right. In the months since the Tunisians had arrived he had found himself generally in a good mood. He was no longer waking up to do nothing but crawl through the markets to watch the people live regular lives with working legs.

Now he had important things to do, he had a princess to make his wife and a boat to board; he had real duties.

‘Thank you Trya, I hope my good mood lasts while we are on the ship.’

Soon Ivar made his way to the high table, taking his time to look around and trying to memorize all the little things he never paid attention to.

Tomorrow would be the last day he would see these things before he boarded the ship to go to Tunisia. From how everyone has been speaking of the feast that would be held tonight, he imagined he’d be far too drunk to pay much attention then.

‘Brother.’ Ubbe greeted as Ivar crawled into his seat.

Ivar grunted tiredly in response, taking notice that (Y/N) had not yet made it to the high table.

He also realized his mother was at the table quietly eating her meal without looking up at anyone, seeming as if she had no idea her entire family was even there.

It was the first time Ivar had seen his mother since he told her that no matter what he would be going on this journey.

Aslaug hadn’t really spoken to anyone really, not even just to fight with Ragnar; which was truly odd. Her silence was clearly her way of showing her disapproval of this entire journey, and it pained Ivar not to be speaking with her.

‘Mother, will you be joining us on the journey? I made accommodations for you.’ he said.

Of course he received no reply.

‘Her mood aside it is nice to see you and the princess are already getting along so well.’ Ragnar said.

Hvitserk and Sigurd snickered as they ate their meals.

‘What are you talking about?’ the youngest asked.

‘Don’t be shy brother, you two are to be wed, no one can blame you for not being able to wait. I doubt any of us could if we were so lucky.’ Ubbe said.

‘The thralls saw the princess leaving your room in a courtesy robe, good for you brother.’ he continued.

‘It has only just happened, how do you all know already?’ Ivar asked in pure confusion.

‘Forget all that, we want to hear about it.’ Hvitserk said eagerly.

‘Quickly before she gets here.’ Sigurd urged.

‘There is nothing to tell, we just slept. She wanted a moment alone so she went into my chamber, when I came in we spoke then fell asleep.’ he explained.

‘He is being truthful.’ the princess said as she entered the Great Hall with her usual party in tow and took her place.

‘Good morning princess, may I apologize for my sons' crudeness.’ Ragnar said.

‘No need King Ragnar, the one thing that spreads faster than illness is gossip. And they, as his brothers have the right to be curious.’ she smiled politely.

The princess looked to the queen and sighed, seeing there was no point in trying to have a pleasant exchange.

‘What will you all be doing today, checking over our luggage?’ Aslaug asked, surprising everyone.

‘Our luggage?’ Ivar asked.

‘That is what I said, I guess if my entire family insists on drowning we might as well do it together. So that I can be smug when we all arrive in Valhalla.’ she said snidely.

Ragnar rolled his eyes at his wife's dramatics.

‘I see must apologize again for my family.’ he sighed.

‘And again there is no need, she has every right to be upset, in all honesty I imagine my own mother will be far worse to deal with and I will be doing a lot of apologizing in Tunisia.’ she said.

‘And there will be no need.’ Ragnar lightheartedly mocked the princess's voice.

From anyone else (Y/N) was sure she’d be offended, but something about King Ragnar was oddly charming.

‘Why don’t you all go enjoy your last day in Kattegat. Say your goodbyes.’ Ragnar suggested.

‘Yes, go through the markets and see how many gifts you will get this time princess.’ Sigurd said.

‘Ah! Speaking of gifts, I have something for Ivar, the blacksmith gave it to me for you. He said he wanted to give it to you after the fight but it wasn’t ready.’ (Y/N) said before wordlessly looking over to one of her servants.

The girl nodded and left to retrieve the gift and while they all waited for her to return they gave their guesses for what they thought the gift was.

More than likely it was probably a set of daggers or some new welding tools that he was thinking about.

At last the servant came back but she certainly wasn’t holding daggers or tools.

‘What is this?’ Ivar asked as she approached him.

‘Crutches, he said he had been working on the design for a long time, and he wanted to give it to you as an engagement present.’ the princess said as Ivar was handed his new gift.

Ivar looked over the craftsmanship and sure enough he could tell that a great deal of effort had been put into each one.

They were made of bronze, with oak wood handles that had very finely sanded as to not cause splinters and at the bottom there were sharp spikes that he assumed were meant to root into the dirt, but he also figured if he needed to he could use them as a weapon.

‘Amazing.’ he said as he inspected them.

‘Try them out Ivar.’ Aslaug smiled.

The first smile anyone has seen on her face since the Matrimonial Fight, it seemed no amount of her anger could compare to her love for Ivar.

Ivar pushed his seat away from the table before firmly planting the first crutch, making sure the spike was stabbed into the wooden floor before doing the same with the second crutch.

Once he was fairly certain that the crutches wouldn’t slide he began to pull himself up.

This was the closest to standing he had ever been in his entire life, he was obviously not at his full height but he had never stood this high before.

‘Do they feel alright Ivar?’ Ubbe asked.

‘Excellent brother.’ Ivar answered excitedly.

‘Try walking.’ Sigurd said, an underline of malice in his voice.

‘Sigurd.’ Aslaug said in warning, sending her third son a look only a mother was capable of making.

‘No, he is right, crutches are made to help men walk, not just stand around like trees.’ Ivar said, returning his brother’s look.

Ivar straightened up his position a bit more and very cautiously moved the right crutch a few inches in front of him before he used the strength of his arms to pull his top half forward; his legs dragging behind him.

He looked very focused as he did this a few more times until he seemed to get the hang of it, he stood a bit taller as he moved about the room, smiling with an almost childlike glee.

‘I take it you are pleased with this gift Ivar.’ the princess asked.

‘Of course I am, this is the first time I’ve ever seen things from this height, I didn’t even know I was this tall.’ he replied happily.

‘Still the shortest out of us.’ Hvitserk teased in good fun.

‘And you’re still the dumbest.’ Ivar returned in kind as he moved back to his seat and sat down.

‘Never mind all of this, tonight will be our last night in Kattegat before we all board the ship and sail off to Tunisia.’ Ragnar said.

The princess noticed a small, barely there, look of distaste in his eyes as he looked at the crutches at Ivar’s side.

‘It is and I would like to at last spend some time with my fiance.’ Ivar said smiling at (Y/N).

‘Why not spend the day with your beloved brothers?’ Ubbe joked.

‘I see you all too much for my liking, besides, she is better looking.’

The rest of the meal was full of joyful banter between Ivar and his brothers, every so often the princess would join in. Overall everyone, with the exception of Queen Aslaug, was in good spirits and anxiously waiting for the feast.

Eventually everyone began to go their own ways; the queen leaving wordlessly as Ubbe and Hvitserk began to speak of all the women they planned to see.

Ubbe, Hvitserk and Sigurd left to see who could bed the most women before morning, leaving Ivar, the princess and Ragnar at the table.

‘Well now that we have a bit of peace, what do you actually have planned for today?’ the king asked.

‘I want to take her to meet Floki, it has already been too long since I’ve seen him. Between my engagement and his preparing to set sail with Bjorn we haven’t had the time to visit.’ Ivar answered as he grabbed his crutches and pulled himself up.

Again (Y/N) noticed a look of distaste come over Ragnar’s face as he looked at Ivar stabling himself; and again she decided not to say anything.

‘Come Princess, let us start our last Viking outing.’ the prince invited.

(Y/N) stood and her servants bid her farewell before heading to the kitchens to prepare tonight’s feasts, and Bintu went to follow behind her princess when she was stopped.

‘Bintu, it is our last day in this country before we return home, don’t you want to spend it doing something you enjoy?’ the princess asked.

‘I enjoy keeping you safe.’

‘I can think of another person you’d rather spend your time with.’

Bintu was visibly flustered as she looked around for a second to see if anyone else had heard (Y/N)’s teases.

‘Hush now, there is nothing else for me to do...with anyone.’ she said quickly, hoping no one would be able to translate it fully.

‘Then go on and enjoy a day of peace alone, see what else this country has to enjoy...I want you to have fun today.’

Bintu looked ready to argue some more but her princess would not let her.

‘I’m just going to keep teasing until you go, and you know it.’

‘All these years later and you still exhaust me just as you did as a child.’ she sighed in defeat as she left.

‘What did you say to her?’ Ivar asked.

‘Nothing she wasn’t hoping I’d say; trust me she will be enjoying her day with a mutual friend of ours.’ (Y/N) smiled.

‘Sven.’ Ivar and Ragnar grinned.

It was true that despite Bintu’s determination to keep her activities with the old man a secret Sven was proudly boasting their affairs to anyone who would listen.

‘Go on now you two, I will busy myself elsewhere. Ivar, be sure to send Floki and Helga my love.’ Ragnar said.

Finally Ivar and (Y/N) made their way out onto the markets and they were met with an almost immediate silence.

It would seem everyone was in shock to see Ivar’s face without having to lower their heads.

‘Come this way, to the stables.’ Ivar said, trying to ignore all the attention on him as he led the princess through the separating crowd.

‘Why must we go there?’

‘Floki doesn’t live in Kattegat, even if my legs worked it would still take days to get there on foot.’

‘Is your friend a recluse?’

‘Of course not, he is just…’ Ivar paused to find a word to describe the man that helped raise him.

‘He is just Floki, there is really no other way to describe that old man. He prefers to be in the company of the Gods over other humans, you will know when you meet him and meeting him is something no one ever forgets.’ he settles.

The princess hummed in response.

‘I believe I have heard of the name Floki...is he a man of power?’

‘Floki seeks no point in power, he feels he hasn’t the mind for it. In his eyes the Gods made him to follow; to follow their will and the men they favored.’

‘If not a man of power who is he? Who is he to your people and to you.’

Ivar laughed as the two of them reached the stable and he gave a boy direction to set up a cart to carry them to Floki’s estate.

‘Floki helped to raise me...whenever my parents fought which as you’ve seen to be often, mother would take me to Floki because she didn’t want me to be as my father.’

‘Why? King Ragnar seems to be a very good man.’

‘He is; the greatest and most famous man in our country, but he is not a conventional Viking. He has questioned and even denied his own belief in the Gods, befriended and protected Christians. Even now under his tunic he bears the cross of a Priest named Athelstan, the first Chritian he’d ever spoken to.’ Ivar explained.

The princess took a minute to process this information as she and Ivar were helped into the cart.

‘This tells me who he is to you, but it doesn’t tell me who this man is to your people.’

‘Floki is our boat builder, his ship took Ragnar to England for the very first time, every man who calls himself a builder has consulted with Floki. His craftsmanship is only second to the dwarves. The Gods gave him the ability to pick the best trees and the foresight to know exactly how to build a boat that could cut through water like a knife though fresh bread.’ he answered.

‘So he is the man who created those ships, I must say I’m excited to meet him. My people… we see many visitors and wanderers; and a great many just jump on ships to far away places, but we have no way to travel independently. The boats we will receive in this alliance could change our way of living.’ (Y/N) said.

‘And the gold we will receive from your country will help us fund raids and wars that have long been fated.’

As they spoke the cart carried them out of Kattegat and the princess looked at this new scenery in wonder. There were so many trees here, and the earth was so moist compared to the almost desert-like village she lived in.

‘I wish we had known about the abundance of trees you had here, I imagine we will be trading some of our gold for wood.’ she said absentmindedly.

‘Do you not have trees in your country?’ Ivar asked in mild disbelief.

‘Of course we do, just not many, not enough to build anything.’

At last the cart stopped and the thrall helped them get off safely, making sure not to be too rough while sitting down the most feared prince in all of Kattegat.

‘Thank you for delivering us safely, take this as a token of my grace. Please be sure that the horse is rested while we visit.’ the princess said as she handed the thrall a golden ring from her finger.

‘Princess I can not possibly-’

‘Take it, you won’t find too many charitable royals boy.’

With swift reflexes Princess (Y/N) threw her dagger at the sudden voice that came from behind her.

The dagger landed at the feet of an old man; he stood more than six foot but was lightly leaning against an even taller walking stick. his eyes were lined with charcoal and his bald had was covered in faded tattoos.

His very presence made the princess feel as if she, a royal princess of a rich kingdom, was no more than a child hiding behind the huts of Tunisia once more.

‘Whew! I see this one does not take kindly to surprises.’ the man chuckled madly.

‘You can't fault her for defending herself, you are quite a horrid sight to a young woman.’ Ivar said with a glare.

‘That may be true, how many daggers has she thrown at your crippled arse?’ the old man snapped back in response.

(Y/N)’s eyes were nearly out of her head, she had never heard Ivar speak so rudely to anyone, nor had anyone ever been so disrespectful to a royal in her presence.

Before she could voice her dissatisfaction Ivar and the old man began to laugh wildly.

The old man threw aside his stick and moved towards Ivar and wrapped his arms around him.

‘Floki!’ Ivar said cheerfully.

‘Ivar the Boneless.’ the man smiled as he let go of the prince.

‘I want you to meet someone very special, Floki; this is (Y/N) Princess of Tunisia. She is to be my wife.’ Ivar said proudly.

‘I know who she is, some gossip of Kattegat can still reach this old boat builder’s ears. I hear she gave you one hel of fight.’ Floki said.

‘She did, but I would be disappointed if she hadn’t, I wanted her to meet you before we depart for Africa.’

‘I’m glad for it Ivar, let me get a better look at her.’

The old man placed his hands on her shoulders and held her in place and just looked down at her.

Floki really was a very tall man, even though she could tell he was slouching and not at full height he was still stood almost a head over her.

His eyes were lined thickly with coal, but nothing could hide the age on the man’s face, it was obvious to the princess that this man had lived a hard life and known much loss and great sadness.

‘I can see she has the same sight as me… she is reading me just as I’m reading her. What do you see princesses?’ he asked.

‘I see that you wear coal on your eyes to hide the sadness in them, your scalp is tattooed, something that I’m sure pained you, but it was far from your truest pain. You are old, and a great many heartbreaks can be gained in a long life lived hard.’ she answered.

Floki smiled and closed his eyes as he let out a sigh.

‘What do you see in me, Floki?’ the princess asked in return.

‘I see that you have been raised to keep face in front of people, but you are more than a princess; you thirst for blood. You want to fight on the battlefield for glory, but you have never seen it. You are naive to how horrid it is and you know it...but still you want it.’ Floki guessed.

She was shocked to have what she considered to be her deepest desire exposed by a stranger.

‘I do, but if the spirits are kind to my people I will never see the reality of war.’ she said once she regained her composure.

‘She will either be the best thing that happened to you Ivar, or she will be the end of everything. Only time will tell which one.’ he said gravely as he looked between the young royals.

A pregnant silence filled the atmosphere and for a moment neither Ivar or (Y/N) knew what to say, thankfully Floki laughed.

‘Come on, Helga is going to want to send you off to another country ten pounds heavier.’ the man said as he dragged Ivar off toward the small house.

(Y/N) picked up Ivar’s crutches and Floki’s walking stick before she followed behind the two Norsemen and thought to herself that Ivar was right.

She would never forget meeting this man.

#the alliance #vikings imagine #ivar the boneless #ivar x reader #Ubbe Lothbrok #hvitserk lothbrok #sigurd snake in the eye #aslaug #Ragnar Lothbrok #floki the boat builder #vikings

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dragongirl642 · 4 years

Text

Dreadwing x shy human reader x Skyquake (TFP)

Author note:

Requested on Wattpad.

Keeping fairly canon so expect some angst and hurt/comfort. Only change is Skyquake survived long enough to have a room and possessions aboard the Nemesis, (about a three weeks), and meet reader…before engaging the Autobots in battle and dying.

(y/n) = your name (first name)

(l/n) = last name

(h/c) = hair colour

(e/c) = eye colour

(m/f) = male/female (pick your presenting pronoun based on how your feeling right now)

(she/he/they) or (her/his/their) = pick your descriptor.

Breem = 8.3 minutes

---------------------------Start---------------------------------

Heavy thumps echo through the Nemesis’ corridors as its leader returns to the bridge. Drones hurriedly stumble out of his way or risk accidentally angering an already volatile Cybertronian.

As the green glow of a portal closes in the wake of the warlord’s departure. Three Cybertronian mechs linger in the bay. The Nemesis’ Second-in-command Starscream, Third-in-command Soundwave, and newcomer, Dreadwing.

Following his master’s pedesteps, Soundwave, silent as always, drifts away from the other two towards the bridge. The remaining two mechs stare at each-other, one with disdain, and the other with blank uninterest.

Starscream eyes Dreadwing and sighs, “follow me. Your quarters are this way”, he waves (fabulously) for Dreadwing to follow him and begins to walk down the corridor.

A few corridors later, accompanied by the echoing click of pedes, the jetformer struts to a stop and sneers. He gestures to the nearest door. “You should be grateful Lord Megatron saw fit to bequeath you Skyquake’s possessions, Dreadwing.”

The mech in question merely hums and proceeds to enter. Starscream doesn’t appear impressed with this reaction, or lack thereof, and sniffs haughtily before continuing down the corridor.

Inside is a set of officer’s quarters. It is clear the previous owner did not have much time to get settled in. It’s sparse, no personal possessions in sight bar the one abandoned datapad lying on the shelf to the side.

Another door on the other side of the room opens when Dreadwing approaches. He peers inside to see a fitted washer and waste-disposal facility.

The second door in the other corner of the room, also opens when approached. Dreadwing steps into a blank berthroom. This room reveals more signs of life than the others. A few scratches on the surface of the berth suggest someone had recently recharged there.

“Skyquake?”

Dreadwing turns at the small voice. Eyes narrowing as he spots the small fleshy peering around one of the legs of the berth. Upon meeting his gaze, their eyes widen, and they duck behind it.

Swiftly, Dreadwing crosses the berth room and reaches down to grab the human before they can escape. Squirming in his grip they whimper and claw at his digits in vain.

“What are you doing in my brother’s room?”

The human stops their attempted escape at his rumbling statement. Sudden understanding dawning on their face as they take in his similar frame. “Brother?”

Dreadwing lifts them higher as he studies their form. Optics rove over the (h/c) strands covering the human’s head. He noted their oddly coloured plating that seemed to offer no protection bar hiding their fragile protoform from sight.

(She/he/They) wiggle in his grasp, craning (her/his/their) neck as if striving to see over his shoulder. “Where is he?”

{Flashback:

Upon being awoken, the spiked Cybertronian showed disdain at following the orders of the Decepticon Leader (former Second-in-Command) Starscream. He didn’t have long to voice his displeasure before the Autobots arrived. A fight ensued.

In the wake of the departure of the Autobots and their human ally, the spiked Cybertronian looks around his surroundings with a curious awe. The clack of dislodged rock catches his attention. A scan of the surroundings reveals a lifeform crouched in a nook.

Skyquake crouches and attempts to grab the being. Digits scrape against the cliff-face as the lifeform crawls further into the crevice. Unable to reach his quarry, the mech opts to crouch before the crevice and peer inside. “What are you?”

The smaller being presses back into the rock, trying to will themselves to phase through the cliff and out of sight. “I’m a human.”

Skyquake blinks, mild shock evident on his faceplate upon discovering the smaller being can talk. “A human? Do you have a name?”

“Um…I’m (y/n)…(l/n).”

“Will you be a worthy battle opponent (Y/n).” It’s more of a statement than a question, prompting the human to shake their head vigorously.

“No…I won’t…”, they look around in panic, “I don’t know how to fight!”

Skyquake hums in contemplation. He analyses their form and moves back to stand. “You may come out I will not harm you. It would not be honourable.”

He retreats two steps and waits. Optics supposedly lazily surveying the surroundings. His patience is rewarded when (Y/n) crawls out from the crevice, clambering to stand on unsteady legs. Heart beating a mile-a-minute, they regard the giant in-front of them. They drag a bag behind them, and hastily shove the rectangular object cradled in their arms into its confines. “Um, I’d like to go home,” they glance at the sky where the others had left, “I’ll just leave, I won’t tell anyone I saw you.”

The mech feels a surge of unfamiliar protectiveness rising in his spark, the smaller being reminding him of a sparkling, unsteady as they find their pedes in their protoform. This is quickly stamped down by his limited knowledge of the Decepticon’s position on this planet.

Skyquake hums in contemplation, “I…I do not believe I can allow that.”

(Y/n) gasps and immediately turns to crawl back into the crevice, but Skyquake scoops them up in a servo before they can. They wriggle in his grasp and blink back tears, “Please, you said…”

He gently squeezes, the threatening pressure causing them to squeak and fall into silence; turning his servo to examine them, they watch him wide-eyed. “You are no warrior,” he transforms, a cacophony of whirring gears surrounds the human being tossed into his jet-form’s cockpit, “…but you may be one day.”

Skyquake ignores the human’s protests as he soars upwards, heading for the Nemesis.

* * *

Over two days, the human’s appeals for release had turned to sullen silence, had turned to tears, had turned to barely whispered pleas. The only interaction they had been brave enough to initiate with Skyquake, was to ask to be taken to the toilet, after an awkward explanation, the mech had set up a mini-facility in the washer-room.

Now soft gasping breaths flutter from the chest of the human lying prone on the berth-side table. Skyquake looks up from his spot on the end of the berth.

“Human?” No answer. He moves forward and gently prods them with a digit. “Human!”

They groan and grasp their head, pushing themselves up to their knees. A pallid sheen coats (her/his/their) skin, despite the blush inflaming their cheeks. (Y/n) blinks drearily and gulps, the air searing their sandpaper throat. They wince, the sudden motion upsetting their stomach, which they promptly empty onto the table. (Y/n) crawls away from the puddle of bile before promptly collapsing again.

The mech leaps back, a look of disgust flashing across his faceplate. This slowly switches to concern when (Y/n) collapses and stops moving. “Human!”

They weakly blink but otherwise don’t answer.

“(Y/n)!”

The room seems to grow cold, a chill creeping down Skyquake’s spinal struts. He turns and leaves the room.

* * *

Pede-steps echoing through the corridor of the Nemesis as Skyquake purposefully strides to the communications centre. The domain of Soundwave.

Monitor stations line the walls, the only source of illumination, throwing strange shadows across the floor. The personal drone assistants of the communications officer check the screens and input or highlight important information for Soundwave’s perusal. In the centre of the room, within a raised station of glimmering desks and hovering screens, stands the mech himself; tentacles latched on to the console in-front of him.

All information that passes through the Nemesis, passes before the optics of Soundwave.

The ever silent mech doesn’t turn when Skyquake storms into the room. Nor when he growls at a nearby drone who approaches to ask if he can help him. He only inclines his helm slightly to the side when Skyquake stomps to his side and leans into his peripheral vision.

“I require your help.”

A further imperceptible shift of Soundwave’s frame lets the mech know he has his attention.

“I have a…pet. I do not know how to care for it, and it seems to be…”

“Dying.”

Skyquake’s optics widen at the recorded reply coming from Soundwave.

“The…human…is dying.” Soundwave turns to face Skyquake, disconnecting one of his tentacles from the console as he does; he raises it and the end sparks menacingly. “What is the…human’s…purpose?”

If he were human, Skyquake would be sweating. The TIC is immobile, stance calm and open, or at least it seems to be.

Skyquake cools his face into a blank expression. “I was holding it for study, of the planet’s indigenous species.”

Soundwave tilts his helm and one of the monitors suddenly changes, human security camera feeds and literature flash across the screen.

Skyquake eyes it warily. “I was told the Autobots have human allies. I wanted to…to study a live one for weaknesses,” he tries a ruthful smile, “I’ve found one so far. I just need to keep it alive to find more.”

Soundwave doesn’t move. But the screen suddenly switches, files in Cybertronian and English flash side-by-side. A datapad pops out of a slot in the side of the console. The raised tentacle stops sparking and swiftly snakes down to extract the datapad. Soundwave slowly waves it in-front of Skyquake, who hesitantly takes it.

“Your report will be…expected.”

Skyquake nods and takes a step back out of Soundwave’s zone. He nods and turns to leave. He fights down the urge to run and forces his pede-steps to remain even as he walks out.

In the communications centre, a drone brings a blank datapad to Soundwave and inserts it in the empty slot. They silently return to their station and Soundwave returns to his work, pulling up two small windows in the corner of the screen, a near-unconscious human front-and-centre in one, and a quick-marching mech in the other.

Skyquake thunders into the Nemesis supply warehouse. Optics scanning the datapads screen intently. The two drones on door duty scampering out the way. “Water…fuel…heat…”

Another drone squares his shoulder-plates and cautiously approaches. “Can I help you Sir.”

Skyquake takes one look at the towering shelves and the dark shadows hiding probably labyrinthine series of storage units, decides it isn’t worth searching himself, and begins to scrutinise the drone. They shift uncomfortable under his gaze.

“I require what this planet calls dihydrogen monoxide, sodium chloride, sheets, and…fuel! No! Food…human food.”

The drone jolts in shock. “Um…sir, that’s…we don’t…”

“It’s for a report,” Skyquake growls, “…for Soundwave.”

The TICs name is all it takes for the drones to snap into action. “We have some ice stored you can take. Uh…uh we can see about acquiring the human fuel…I mean food, for you.”

One of the other drones’ sprints into the storage units, emerging a breem later with two storage cubes in hand. Mist rising from the cold unit in their servos. Another follows, digits full of a variety of folded sheets and canvas covers.

Skyquake accepts both with a slow tilt of his helm. “I will return tomorrow.” There’s promise in his tone and violence in his optics. The drones shakily nod and snap to salute, a motion which is lost on the mech who is already striding out.

The berth-room door can’t slide open fast enough for Skyquake, his shoulder-plates catching on the metal. He thunders in, dumping his collection on the berth. He glances at (Y/n), they haven’t moved, they don’t even acknowledge his entry.

Skyquake quickly fetches a blade and bowl from the main room in his quarters. He opens the storage cube and shaves a chunk of ice into the bowl. The click of gears accompanies one of his servos switching to cannon form. It hums as it powers up, the air beginning to waver hypnotically above it.

He holds the bowl above his cannon, optics zeroing in on the mist rising from the frozen liquid. The bowl begins to heat up in his servos, a red glow starts to eliminate from the metal. Optics hardening against the pain, Skyquake doesn’t lower it, he just watches the droplets begin to form from the icy surface. The ice slowly sinks into the bowl as it melts.

Once it’s gone, he swirls the bowl and transforms his cannon back. Digits streaked with energon burn marks. He places the bowl near the human and scuffs his servos together to remove some of the blackened dust. Once his digits have cooled, he nudges the human, they groan and weakly fight against him.

Skyquake carefully props (Y/n) up and brings the bowl close to their face. “Human! Wake up! You need to drink.” The water sloshes over the lip of the bowl, some gets in their mouth, most soaks their clothes. They gargle and fight, but drink all the same, greedily, water dripping down their chin. Primal survival instinct kicking into high gear. Skyquake pulls the bowl away too quickly for (Y/n), they grab for it, but he moves it back to the berth.

Opening the second cube, he pinches some of the salt and places it in (Y/n)’s lap. “Eat this. Not too much, just a…” he trails of when (Y/n) licks the chunk of salt and promptly spits it out. He sighs and kneels, resting his servos on the table either side of the human. “Please (Y/n), if you don’t replace your frame’s salt levels, it will reject the water.”

Bleary eyes blink up at him. “Why?” (Y/n)’s voice croaks softly, mouth dry as they force themselves to chew a small bit of salt. “Why keep me alive?”

His spark heavy in his chest, Skyquake grabs the water bowl again. “When I told you, I would not hurt you and that you may one day be a warrior.” He slowly raises the bowl for (Y/n) to drink again. “I truly intended for you to see that day.”

* * *

“Tell me about human culture.”

(Y/n) sits up, sheet falling from around their shoulders. The berth-room is dark, but they can see the glow of Skyquake’s optics hovering over the berth.

“Now? There’s a…there’s a lot of cultures.”

A low hum emanates from the mech’s frame. “Then tell me what you would need in your daily life.”

“Well,” the human snuggles back into their pile of blankets, “Food and water. Toilet access. All things I have here.”

The mech ex-vents heavily, baring his denta in exasperation. “That’s not…what I meant.”

“Well, I liked to read. Mostly fiction, like the fairy tales in my bag. I also liked…” they sigh, “…singing. My mum knew the best lullabies.”

“Show me?”

“Um…show you?”

Skyquake’s optics flicker in the dark. “The lullabies.”

“They’re not really something I can show, I’d have to…have to sing.”

“Why don’t you…sing?”

(Y/n) shakes their head, aware Skyquake can sense the motion in the dark, even if he can’t see them. “Um…how about I tell you about fairy tales instead?”

“Very well.”

For the next few hours, (Y/n) talks until the words run out. It’s uncertain whether it’s from fear of the Cybertronian, or nostalgia at the memories, that keeps their voice going. Tales weave through the air. Their voice slowly lowers, until it’s a whisper, until it stops. Light snores begin to fill the berth-room.

“Rest well little one.”

* * *

“Human!”

A startled “eep” follows the human-in-question’s ducking out of sight.

Skyquake growls as he enters the berthroom, and the human jumps back into sight, recognising the warning.

“Why did I encounter Starscream panicking over small monsters attacking his pedes and infesting the vents.”

(Y/n) immediately hides their face in their hands, fighting to stifle the grin that breaks out on their face as they remember Starscream’s startled face and feminine shrieking.

A warning growl emanates from Skyquake towering overhead.

Tremors wracking their body, the human (m/f) gulps for air. “I…I…” they breath and count to ten. Finally calming enough to speak they flap the blanket around their shoulders. “Another one of you came in here, so I ran into the vents. I was looking for you…”

“What happened?”

“I had my blanket over my head, and when I tried to cross the corridor Starscream was there and…and I just climbed over his pedes to get to the other side. He started shrieking and…I may have hit him…with this.” They hold up a twisted but sturdy piece of discarded plating.

Silence meets this confession. Tension claws its way down (Y/n)’s spine, and twists in the air.

A startlingly loud grumble cracks the silence. The human jolting in shock as Skyquake begins to shake. Deep chuckles, like the growl of an engine, steadily surging from beneath his chestplate. Skyquake, still chuckling, brings all his focus down to bare on the human; the first smile they had seen him give, blooming brilliantly on his faceplate.

“You may make a mighty warrior yet (Y/n).”

* * *

The swish of the door sliding open accompanies Skyquake’s entrance. It only just manages to cover the startled gasp from the human sat among the two cubes under the table. His derma twitches as he notices their eyes following the cubes in his servos.

He places his load on the floor and lowers himself to kneel. He opens the tops and places them on their side, nodding to (Y/n) to come forward. The (m/f) does so, crawling out from their pile of blankets to look inside the new cubes.

The shadowy depths of the first, gives way to boxes of groceries, barrels of water, and cans of food, most likely taken from a delivery truck ambushed on the road.

The second, reveals piles and piles of clothing, acquired in much the same way as the food. Sealed bags of mass-produced t-shirts, jeans, skirts, dresses, and lingerie.

The mech watches as his human pulls a bag out, splits it, and reaches into the pile of fabric and pulls out a pair of jeans. It is a luxury item compared to the ripped, fading, mud-stained pair they wore.

“I thought you would appreciate more human necessities.” As he says this, Skyquake draws a small bundle from within his chassis, barely the size of one of his digits, placing it beside (Y/n). The (m/f) leans back and looks at the bundle in confusion. Reaching over, they flip the corner of the sheet away. A small datapad, the size of an average pc monitor, sits nestled among the rags. Its screen flares to life, the home screen containing icons that wouldn’t look strange on a human computer: a book, a globe, a CD, and a phone symbol.

Upon tapping one the CD icon, a music player appears on the screen. Tapping back out and on the book, reveals a library of human, and some translated Cybertronian, literature. “This is…” (Y/n) gazes up at Skyquake in thankful confusion, “…is this a datapad? For me?”

Skyquake stands. “The human communication device symbol will allow you to contact me.”

The doors swish as the mech exits, and softly thump as they close.

* * *

“Little one?”

(Y/n) looks up from their spot near the head of the berth. Bookmarking their spot and placing the book of fairy tales to their side. Skyquake steps closer and kneels, making sure to push (Y/n)’s supplies under the table so he doesn’t crush them, laying a fist on the surface beside them. Opening his digits reveals a small tablet with a handle.

“For you.”

(Y/n) slowly takes the gift and feels its surface.

“Careful!”

They quickly drop the object at their feet when Skyquake suddenly stops them. Scooting away from the object on all fours. “What is it?”

A low rumble sounds from beneath Skyquake’s chest-plate. (Y/n)’s look of surprise slowly morphing to annoyance. Placing a digit on the berth, he swivels the gift around. “Hold the handle and point away from your face.”

(Y/n) returns to their previous position and cautiously grasps the handle, lifting the (surprisingly heavy) object and pointing it forward. Thumb finds catch and presses, causing the tablet part to split and leap forward into the shape of a blade. Glowing plasma racing along the edges. The gift now resembled a mythical sword from one of (Y/n)’s fairy tales.

(E/c) eyes trace the edges and their fatal glow, while hands shift to a more comfortable grip on the moulded handle. “It’s…comfortable.”

“I had it shaped to fit you.”

(Y/n)’s eyes widen as they snap the catch to retract the blade. “Is this for…” they slowly lower the sword and sighs, “is this for me to…to fight you.”

The mech’s optics widen surprise, a strange feeling of guilt welling in his spark. “No, this is…for you to defend yourself. From the others if they try to stop us.”

Confusion fills (Y/n)’s eyes and wells up, spilling forth. “What do…”

“I am being sent to slay the Autobots as a test of my skill and loyalty. I must leave now but when I return, I will return you to your people.”

A watery smile blooms on (Y/n)’s face and (he/she/they) pull(s) the datapad into their lap. “Thank you Skyquake.”

The mech hums, keeping his voice calm despite the sudden skip of his spark. His servo twitches with the urge to hold a digit to (Y/n)’s cheek, to feel (his/her/their) warmth and know they are alive.

“It is the honourable thing to do.”

End flashback}

“You knew Skyquake?”

(Y/n) looks back at Dreadwing, “Um…yes.”

The mech scans the rest of the berthroom. Optics alighting on the open storage cubes turned on their side under the table. Sheets and human supplies spilling from the recesses. Dreadwing vents, the human’s scent drifts around the room, testament to how long they’d been staying there. “How long have you been living here?”

“After Skyquake didn’t come back, I started rationing. It’s been about a month…. I think.”

Dreadwing narrows his optics and places them on the floor. Kneeling to look under the table, his optics trace the ladder of twisted cables hanging down the back of the table and the open vent leading in the direction of the washer facility. A low hum flows from his chassis as he stands. “Skyquake was caring for you…why?”

“Well he was, until…” (Y/n) chokes, tears beginning to well up and spill from their eyes. They sit among the blankets and wrap their arms around their knees. “He was supposed to come back…he promised.” The (m/f) breaks down in tears, not-caring anymore for the hulking Cybertronian above them.

He watches as they release their grief, mourning the loss of their only friend aboard the Nemesis, mourning the other half of his spark. The shadow of his own grief rises above him, threatening to spill. Dreadwing was a mech who preferred to release his own emotions in private. But watching their tears, he feels heat rise to his faceplate and his optics burn with pressure. For a moment there is anger, that something so fragile could outlive someone as strong as Skyquake. But a wave of understanding follows because it was Skyquake’s care that ensured their survival.

His sense of loyalty to the Decepticons wars with the sounds clawing their way out from (Y/n)’s body sound; so close to spark-break, that Dreadwing can neither force himself to leave, nor attempt some sort of comfort. So instead he opts to sit in silence, cross-pede’d on the floor, back-struts to them. The lubricant running down his faceplate his only support.

---------------------------------------Time-skip-------------------------------------

Dreadwing cannot bear himself to lie down or remain in the berth-room, the shade of his twin’s presence hanging over the room like a cloud.

The human had passed out, dead-to-the-world, curled up in the mountain of rags tumbling from a storage cube. If he listens carefully, the mech convinces himself he can almost hear their heartbeat in the other room.

He lies on the table, having set up a temporary recharge station and power’s down his optics. His recharge is filled with swirling scenes, he sees his twin and the human fulfilling the memories (Y/n) had described for him. He hears voices in the dark, the human’s voice weaving foreign music through his processor.

----------------------------------------Time-skip----------------------------------------

“What was he like?”

Dreadwing looks down in surprise, not having expected the human to suddenly appear from the vent at his feet.

“Before coming to earth, I mean.”

His optics soften as he regards the fidgeting human from his position sat at the table. Considering whether to answer them or continue reading his latest debriefing, a sudden surge of nostalgia wins out and he leans down, offering them a servo. They climb on and he lifts them up to the table, pushing the datapad he was perusing out the way. He rests his helm in a servo and hums. “You wish to know about our life before coming to earth.”

(Y/n) interrupts, “and maybe, if possible…before the war?”

The mech powers down his optics briefly, before focusing on (his/her/their) shining eyes intently watching him.

“Where do I begin…”

-------------------------------------Time-skip-----------------------------------

“Dreadwing, where are you going?”

The spiked Cybertronian turns and salutes the Decepticon Warlord as he enters the Ground-bridge control centre. The few drones manning the stations also snapping to attention.

“I was…going to scout the Autobots last known location.”

Megatron squints. “Really now.” He stalks forward. “This would have nothing to do with the human Skyquake was keeping.”

The sharp vent is all the evidence he needs.

“Soundwave informed me of its existence and survival. Tell me,” he bares his denta, “what are you planning to do with it?”

Dreadwing straightens his spinal struts as he pulls himself even more to attention. Rehearsed words flowing calmly from his derma. “It is a distraction…but it would be dishonourable of me to offline something Skyquake cared for. So, I will continue to care for it, as a pet of sorts.”

Megatron looks to the side, where Soundwave silently slinks from the shadows. His visor lights up with a security feed, the image of what appears to be the human’s feet poking out from the storage cube as they sleep, appears on the monitor. A fence has been constructed around the table, creating a cage, like one you would keep a hamster in. The feed cuts of and Soundwave tilts his helm slightly.

“Very well Dreadwing, report to me when you return.” With those words, the Warlord turns and leaves.

Dreadwing waits a moment, but when soundwave doesn’t follow their leader, he instead opts for a tactical retreat. Walking towards a drone, he requests a Ground-bridge to the last recorded location of their enemies and proceeds to walk through.

His last glimpse of the Nemesis being the reflection swirling in the TICs visor.

---------------------------------Timeskip--------------------------------

The sun sits just past the brow of the horizon as Dreadwing lands in the shadow of a butte overlooking Jasper Nevada. (Y/n) tumbling from his cockpit to his servos as he transforms.

“Is that it? Your home?”

The human blinks back tears in the dying light of the sun. “Yes.”

“Do you have your provisions?”

(Y/n) hefts the backpack they are carrying, the same they had when taken by Skyquake. Their personal possessions as well as some snack bars and bottles of water jangle and slosh within. (He/She/They) nod(s).

“When it gets dark, I will accompany you to…” he stops, the distant sound of approaching engines interrupting him. A scan of the horizon reveals its source. “Autobots,” he hisses.

He holds the human closer to his spark and steps further into the shadow. Another scan reveals the distance to be traversable by (Y/n) in two hours, which coincidently is the time they have till true nightfall.

Swiftly kneeling, he places them on the ground. Servos cupped around their body, as if to savour their heat. “It would go against my duty to allow you to fall into Autobot hands. You must walk from here.”

He does not move or pull away, waiting as (Y/n) performs a very human gesture, a kiss to the digit closest to them. Resting their own hand on his, as if afraid to pull away.

“Thank you Dreadwing.”

The Decepticon stands, “I will lead them away.”

(Y/n) nods and turns, not wanting to watch but listening as he transforms, clothes writhing in the downdraft he creates as he soars away overhead. They begin the trek to the town, even as he fires upon the Autobots, causing them to U-turn to chase him down.

They force their feet to carry them further, even as he fights to keep his path steady…having left the final part of his spark behind.

“Goodbye.”

#tfp #transformers prime #dreadwing #skyquake #fanfic

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jackdawyt · 4 years

Video

youtube

I am beyond privileged to share my very Early Access impressions of The Waylanders, thanks to the developers at Gato Studio who gave me an early key.

The Waylanders is a party-based RPG set in the Celtic and Medieval eras, inspired by classics like Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’ve only played the first 10 hours of this game, and I’ve fallen for it. It’s very apparent that the developers of The Waylanders love Dragon Age. And so, to anyone who loves Dragon Age, will love The Waylanders.

I’ve played prologue and the very few early hours of the game which are in early access, meaning there’s plenty of work that needs to be done and nothing in the game is final. However, I was able to get an amazing feel for what the finished game will look like, and believe me when I say, this is the Dragon Age successor we’re all looking for.

Character

Upon starting the game, you’re taken to a very recognizable character creator, clearly inspired by Dragon Age: Origins. You can choose between a male/female body, four races, six classes, and then an origin story based on each of those choices.

The races in Waylanders are rather distinct, as opposed to traditional DND races like elves, humans and dwarves. Here we have the choice between human, werewolf, mourian and semi-fomorian.

The classes are rather straight forward, each of them have unique weapons, abilities and features. As an example, Rangers have the Pets feature which allows them to have animal companions, and Sorcerers can teleport using their specific magic feature.

You can customise your character with a few hairstyles, facial types, different skin tones, eye, hair and facial hair colours.

You can then apply more points into your statistics based on your race and class. And the final aspect of customisation is your identity, where you choose your name, pronouns and voice.

The voice is just for grunting noises in combat, I believe the game follows a silent protagonist so you can make up your own voice.

After making those final decisions, you’re given a cute lore character summary, backing up each choose you’ve made for your PC. Now your adventure can begin.

Story

The story is told through a plentiful of cutscenes and long dialogue interactions, of course, just what Dragon Age fans love. I found each of them engaging and I was hooked from the start really.

I’ve played the prologue twice, and a few blocked out side quests that are still in very early alpha. The story starts with the Spanish Celtic tribes arriving at Ireland to meet and convey a union with their gods. However, things don’t go according to plan, as you can imagine.

What’s fascinating about The Waylanders compared to Dragon Age for example, is that the lore is steeped in Irish and Spanish folk lore. We discover many legends like ‘The Tuatha Dé Danann’. Which means ‘the tribe of the gods’ in Old Gaelic. It’s exciting lore that actually exists in some of the real world’s sub-cultures today.

The setting of the game is based in medieval Galicia, which is in Spain. The developers are actually from Spain, the stories they’re telling throughout The Waylanders are tales each of them has grown up with.

I won’t say much more on the main story, other than the protagonist has a mystery that reminds me of Kingdoms Of Amular Reckoning. Of course, another stellar RPG that takes pinches from Dragon Age: Origins.

The plot seems to surround a lot of time travel themes, going forward and back in time, with many choices and consequences taking effect from your decisions.

As a whole, the writing is excellent. And that’s expected due to the fact that Chris Avellone, best known for writing Fallout: New Vegas, took the helm. Alongside with him, Ex-Telltale's Emily Grace Book who’s the fabulous Narrative Lead.

Not to mention Mike Laidlaw aided to team with his creative vison to “create a high-level narrative and to structure the game and the story.”

And if that’s not enough, Dragon Age veteran Inon Zur composed the soundtrack of The Waylanders too, which is just beautiful.

I want to share more about the main characters. So far, they’re compelling, even in just the first hour, I found myself latching onto each of them, with their many different personalities.

In my opinion, the dialogue holds the game up, I found myself engaging in every single conversation I could, interacting with every character. I’d say my favourite character so far is Nazhedja. Naz for short.

She’s very intriguing! Being a mourian, she’s immortal, though she composes herself as a charming and relatable individual.

The voice cast is amazing and familiar with the likes of Simon Templeman, known for playing Loghain in Dragon Age taking the role of the Celtic Druid Amergin. Personally, as a Brit, I fell in love with hearing so many of my countries’ varying accents.

And apparently there will absolutely be romance in the game, however, it’s not in the alpha stages. But we can all look forward to that!

Gameplay

The Waylanders gameplay centres on building up the narrative, there’s an emphasis on interactive conversations. You’ll spend a fair amount of time asking questions and getting to know each of the characters in this world, building bonds and shaping the story.

The game has a linear feel to it, however, once the prologue is done, you can explore many of the hub areas. Very much like Dragon Age: Origins. The world is lush to explore, and the art style is fantastic. It has a cartoony feel to it.

While exploring the stunning areas, you can switch the camera’s placement for a more isometric feel, or stick to a more third person feel, whatever suits your playstyle. This is an amazing quality of life feature, that I think other games like this need to adopt.

There’s a huge codex, which updates frequently after conversations. It’s a wonderful touch, I spent plenty of time reading each of the characters and their backstories.

Combat

The combat is rough around the edges and it can be hard to properly aim and target your opponents. Too often I’d cast a spell at an offensive enemy, and I’d accidently click and switch to my warrior companion who’s bashing the same enemy in the face.

You can have up to five party companions at a time. And there are these grouped up attacks you can do as a squad called formations. You band together and attack. It works like a charm.

The combat does feel very identical to Dragon Age: Origins, even down to the animations of fighting and how long it takes to fire a spell, or shoot an arrow from a bow.

One of the developers gave me a few console commands for my stream, and I was able to see what animal pets we could have, I was very surprised with the amount of animal companions you can have. There’s even a dragon!

Each of the classes prove to be very unique, in my two playthroughs, I played as a Sourcer and a Rogue. I loved the individual features each class provides whether it’s a passive or an actual ability, each class have dynamic ways to stand out. And of course, if you’re undecided which class to play, Waylanders is a party-based RPG, you’ll always have a companion with a different class you can switch to and play as.

Summary

In summary, judging the early hours of The Waylanders, the game has very reminiscent systems and gameplay that anyone who’s played Dragon Age will find themselves familiar with. However, the game has proven itself to be original with its engaging story, intriguing characters and unique lore.

Of course, the game is in its early access alpha stages, and there are plenty of bugs and things that need further improvement. But I can see the heart and passion that has gone behind this game, and that’s what I’ve grown to like about this game.

I’d say to anyone who’s a huge fan of Dragon Age: Origins, why not go and give The Waylanders a shot. The game launches on Steam’s Early Access store on June 16th, support this game as it grows throughout development, and releases as an epic Dragon Age successor.

#The Waylanders #The Waylanders Early Access #The Waylanders Gameplay #Studio Gato #Dragon Age #Dragon Age: Origins #RPG #New RPG #lore #early access

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thesparkinthefire · 4 years

Text

Ghost - Pedro Pascal x Reader, part 2

A/N: I finally, finally finished this. Wuhu! Part two of the Ghost series (that is turning into a three piece) is here for your entertainment. The musical mentioned later on is called Six and I am referring to the character of Katherine Howard, in case anyone is interested. I tried not to let the musical-nerd take over but I don’t know if that worked. I also wrote a bit about The Mandalorian and will just assume everyone who likes Pedro has already seen that, haha.

Word count: 3,729

Paaring: Pedro Pascal x musical!Reader

Trigger Warning: anxiety, age gap hinted, someone cried a bit

part one

“If there's anything left I can do to convince myself it could be true it's up to me, to suspend my disbeliefs.” - Suspend my disbeliefs, the Ghost cast album

You were nervous. More than that. Your confidence had gone missing two days ago and you started asking yourself why you had even accepted the role in the first place. You were portraying Molly. Molly. The female leading role of a musical based on a movie that everyone had seen. What made you think that it was a good idea in the first place?

Of course you and Oscar, who was playing Sam, had been practising for weeks but the premiere was only two days away. Two day. You had been staring at the script in front of you for ten minutes now. What was the line? This morning, when you had done your first run through you had remembered it but now it was gone – erased from your memory and you couldn't stop asking yourself how you were suppose to remember anything once you were on stage. No, you thought to yourself. Now was not the right time to panic. You just had to go through the whole scene and the line would come to you. Okay, breath. What was the scene?

Molly and Karl were sitting in a restaurant, talking about how she had information about Sam's murder. Sam, as a ghost, was standing beside them. While she was trying to convince Karl to believe what the fortune-teller had said. Suspend My Disbelieves was playing in the background. Molly was telling him the things the psychist had told her – the photo they took in an empty bus, the starfish in Montego Bay – and that Sam knew who killed him. Karl protests and Molly tells him, that she had a name and address and that Sam wants her to go to the police. “The police? Jesus, Molly,” says Karl. “What are you gonna tell them?” Sam talks in the background and Molly-... What does Molly say? Fuck.

It was gone. The line was gone, fucking vanished. You would never be able to do the whole show even though that was what you started with. Acting in a movie was so different to performing in a musical. When shooting a movie you had multiple takes to get a scene right – sometime you would even go back at a later point and rework it, when the writers changed a dialogue or something just wasn't right about it. But when you were doing a musical you normally only had about a month of rehearsals with the cast, before that you learned the songs on your own and had your vocals prepared for the assemble to join you. And then you rehearsed. And rehearsed and rehearsed. But there was no rewind once the show started. No one was gonna yell “Cut!” and ask you to do it again. The audience was right in front of you and they expected nothing less than you doing your job without any mistakes.

Musicals had always been your passion. You had been in music-focused classes in school giving you two extra music lessons a week and joined the school's choir as soon as you were allowed to. You had been taking dancing classes since you were a child. Playing theatre in the long summer holidays and visiting theatre camps. You had been growing up wanting to be a musical actress and your dream had become true when you joined a West End production in London. Your first role was in the assemble, the next was a side character and the next a main. People saw you had potential and they never regretted giving you a chance. Then you had the offer to play the female leading role in a teen-romance movie – before that you had never through about filming movies but you gave it a try and hell. It felt like a dream when they called you to tell you, that the statistics had been going through the roof. From one day to another your life changed completely. That was when you stopped playing theatre and musicals. You moved to California, after you had been offered a role in a promising movie series and then got the part in The Mandalorian. And met Pedro.

You grew up with Star Wars. Your whole childhood had been Star Wars themed – from birthday parties to the prequels in cinema to The Clone Wars series to reading literally every book out there. If there was anything you loved as much as you loved musicals it was Star Wars. You remembered your dad calling you “Padawan” when you were building birdhouses when you were ten years old. You remember presenting a Star Wars book in school. You even did your final oral exam in Spanish about Star Wars just because it was the only thing you could possible focus on other than musicals. So when you had the chance to be part of that universe you took it. Nothing could have kept you from doing it. You knew you would accept it before you even knew what the part would exactly be. When you met John and Dave – who were producing and writing The Mandalorian – you were shaking. You were so nervous that you felt like you were about to shit your pants at any minute, you chugged a whole glass of water during the meeting and just couldn't stop shaking. That's how excited you were. And it didn't get better when they told you about what they had planned for your character.

Aurine Jaxx – your character – was set to become something like the girlfriend to Din Djarin. Not really a girlfriend, because his life and story line was focused about The Child but you were introduced to show even more how much he struggled in between being a Mandalorian warrior and wanting to retire and just be human. You loved Pedro Pascal and how he portrayed Din. Of course you had seen the first season of the show. That scene in the last episode when the droid took his helmet off? Those were the only two minutes when your saw his face all season but the acting in this was fabulous. Messed up hair, trembling lips, shiny eyes – you were able to see how afraid of dying he was, even though it was something he had been confronted with every day of his life since he was a child. You were over the moon to be able to work with him.

Din met the fiance of Aurine in a dubious bar. He asked him to return his soon-to-be wife to him after she had ran away. Din, in need of a job after breaking with the guild, accepted and met her. But soon he found out that she was running from him, not because she was afraid to commit to a life with him, but because he was mistreating her, cheating on her and even threatening to physically hurt her. So Din took her with him instead of bringing her back to the fiance and she stayed. They grew closer and closer and he started trusting her more than anyone.

The scene you were the most nervous for was kissing him. Of course acting with someone who wore a helmet all the time wasn't easy but the kissing scene was way harder. It was set to be at night-time, The Child sleeping in the ship while Din and Aurine sat outside by a small campfire in the middle of nowhere. You had to close your eyes and he placed his hand above them just to be sure you wouldn't be able to look. You remember his hands being cold, contrasting the warm breath in your skin. His lips ghosted over yours, before he kissed you. He was so gentle and shy about it, while you moved a hand into his hair and pulled him closer. Soft lips on yours while his fingers painted feather-light touches on your cheek. Watching the scene back was sending shivers down your spine. Kissing Pedro Pascal wasn't something you ever thought you would. He was such a talented actor that you were almost sure he wasn't acting in that scene, that he had really been nervous to kiss you. Maybe you were hoping for it. But obviously that wasn't the case. He was a brilliant actor.

And now you were here. Back at playing musicals, what you had started with, and you never felt so insecure in your whole life. Confidence was the key to a good stage presence and you had lost it all. So when you got a text from Pedro you basically lost it. All he sent was “How are you doing? Haven't heard from you all day.” but it made you tear up immediately. Without sparing a second thought you asked him, if he wanted to come over because you were about to freak out. “Be there in 15.”

Pedro had a talent for calming your nerves – he had proven that a few times during your time together at press-tour for The Mandalorian. Interviews made you nervous especially if they were live or in front of a huge audience. You were always afraid you might say something the fans wouldn't be pleased with or even accidentally spoiling the show. He made sure you drank enough throughout the day, got enough rest, and always had some sweets for you before an interview to push your blood sugar and stop your hands from shaking. His touch was calming and comforting but made your heart race at the same time. In a good way. Saying, you didn't like being close to him, would be lying. He held your hand at crowded places, had an arm over the backrest of your seat during interviews and sometimes even cuddled with you in cold planes. You have had a few movie nights over the weeks you have been touring, because the hype for the second season was enormous, and they always ended the same: Watching maybe half of the movie before one of you fell asleep. You have been falling asleep on his shoulder and woken up to the beat of his heart.

So it was no surprise to you, that he showed up at your door with a bar of chocolate and two beer. “Do you think alcohol is the thing I need right now?”

“Alcohol calms one's nerves,” he answered with a smile, handing you the beer and the chocolate, after you had let him inside. “You said you were freaking out and I guessed it was because of the premiere, so I brought you something to help you calm a bit.”

“But alcohol is not the best thing for your voice.”

“It is not?”

“Not for your singing voice,” you confirmed, dropping onto the sofa. You put your head back and closed your eyes. You shouldn't be bitching around – you had asked him to come over. “Sorry, I am just stressed. I keep forgetting that one line I have right before the break and the thought that that might happen on stage, in front of the audience, scares me.”

Pedro sat down beside you, gaze wandering over you. “I get that but you are gonna be okay. You are a great actress and do musicals just as well.”

“You have never seen me perform a musical.”

“Internet,” he admitted, causing you to open your eyes and tilting your head into his direction. “Don't look at me like that, you have watched my former projects too. You have basically seen me naked.”

“Well, that's because your projects were big and highly advertised – unlike the small musicals I took part in. You can only watch them because of illegal uploads on YouTube.” Oh, some of those YouTube videos had the potential to drive him mad.

The musical you had gotten a leading role in was about girl power and women realizing, that they should work together and hype each other instead of comparing one another. He loved that message, really, but what he loved more was you. And that little of a costume you were wearing. You were basically in nothing more than tights, a bodysuit and a see-through skirt on stage. Maybe it was fate that no videos of your solo song were online – the song was rather sexy and Pedro didn't know if he would have been able to handle seeing you in that costume, singing about men wanting you.

“I like to do my research on the people I work with.”

You couldn't fight the smile forming on your lips. “I should have done a deep dive into my brain before I accepted the role. Seriously, I don't think I can do it. I might just pass out right before the curtain opens.”

“You will do great,” he assured you.

“I won't.” You got up to get a bottle opener from your kitchen. “I can't even remember that one line.”

“Let me help.” You sat back down, handed Pedro the opener after you had opened you own beer and took a sip. “Which scene are we talking about?” He had the script in his hands already. Oscar and you had him over for practise a few times, so he knew most of the scenes you shared.

“The one where Molly first tells Karl that Sam had been murdered. I know that Sam says something like “Jesus, Molly, what are you gonna tell them?” and then I am suppose to say something but I can't remember it at all. I have been going through the scene a million times now – talking it through, acting through it, but nothing helps.”

“No wonder you don't remember what you are suppose to say.” He laughed quietly and you really didn't know what on earth was funny about that. “You are singing.”

“I am-” All of a sudden the line was back in your head as if it had never been gone. Of course! “Suspend my disbelieves.” Pedro nodded. “Oh, thank god, I am not going crazy!”

“You are gonna have the music on stage that will remind you, that you have to sing – don't worry.”

“That is the problem, you know? I used to not be this worried when it came to musicals. I used to be so confident in what I am doing but it is all gone now. When did that happen?”

“You just haven't performed in front of an audience for a long time. That happens to me too when I go back from cinema and TV to theatre.” You had almost forgotten about that. On one hand you would love to see him in a play, but that would mean he would stay in his home in New York, while you were Los Angeles based right now. You didn't even think about the possibility about him moving back to the opposite side of the country once all deals and meetings for his next projects were done. He had stayed in his LA apartment ever since you met him, except for the time between Christmas and the new year. How were you suppose to survive here without him? “Do you want to sing one of the songs? Music always seems to calms you.”

The question hit you out of the blue but he was right. You had a playlist full of songs that soothed you and you had used it more than once since the rehearsals had started. “Y-yeahr,” you answered, nodded, and moved over to your piano. “Can I sing a sad song?”

“You mean Without You? I haven't heard you sing that one yet.” Of course he had listened to the original cast record. Why haven't you thought about that? Yes, he had heard some songs of the production you were working on, but mainly the ones you shared with Oscar. And there wouldn't be an album for your cast.

“Okay, I will try to do that.”

“You will be great.” His words made your heart skip a beat. How was he able to smooth you with such a simple sentence?

“But you gotta stay behind me – I don't like seeing people stare at me when I sing.”

“Says you, the musical actress?” He had to hold back a laugh.

“Performing on stage in front of an audience of hundreds is something else than performing for one person in my living room.”

“Okay, I'll give you that. Go ahead.” Pedro moved to stand behind you, the beer still in his hand. You sat everything up and took a deep breath before you started the song. It was probably the most emotional moment of the whole show, besides the final. Molly was mourning Sam with that song, expressing the pain of losing him and how she tried to deal with it. Performing it in the play was hard, because you were on the edge of crying for real most of the times. Of course you had lost people close to you in your young life already, but part of the song also reminded you of Pedro and how hopeless your love for him was. He probably saw himself as a mentor of your, I not even a father figure. But you couldn't stop seeing him in front of your inner eyes among the line “Every place I wanna be, I wanna see you there.” You wanted him by your side. You wanted him to be your date for the premiere and the after show party. You didn't want him to go back to New York, you wanted him to stay with you in LA. You wanted him to hold you when times were as stressful as they were right now. You wanted him to kiss you, to wrap his arms around you and to tell you, that no matter what happened, he would be by your side. And you wanted him to mean it. To feel the same. To love you. God, you wished he would love you.

By the end of the song your heart was aching. It was hurting and you were glad, that he didn't say a word for a minute. You could just pretend that you were in your role and he would understand that the song made you sad, because it made Molly sad. But just as you were about to crack a lame joke about it, you heard a sniff. And it didn't come from you. “Are you-” You turned around to see Pedro having his back turned to you, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Are you crying?”

“No.” His voice was shaking. Slowly he turned back facing you, lips curled to a small smile. “Absolutely not.” His eyes were a little red and shiny. He was crying.

“Oh god, I am sorry.” You stood up and went to hug him.

“Just proves what a great actress you are.” He returned it. You closed your eyes, leaned your head against him and took a quiet but deep breath. Was it selfish? Maybe. But perhaps you needed the comfort just as much as he did. Just in a different way. Feeling his warm body against your own. His hair tickled your ear. God, he smelled good. Something you had always liked about him. You couldn't define it, but it was good. Everything about him was good. And you regretted nothing more, than that you had never asked him out, never had made a move on him.

Taglist: @longitud-de-onda

#Ronja writes #Ghost #Pedro Pascal x reader #pedro pascal #Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal #narcos #The mandalorian #triple frontier #game of thrones #star wars the clone wars #I still don't know how to tag

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odatodeath · 3 years

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a personal look at every oda nobunaga that I’ve seen so far... in as few words as possible. hopefully. (i failed)

Not a ranking or anything, and I’m not judging any actors, just the ‘character’ of nobunaga as he is portrayed. Any version of him that’s around long enough to have a general idea of who he is will be included.

This is also basically my way of archiving every Nobunaga I’ve seen so far.

what I need to watch or finish watching: Nobunaga: King of Zipangu, Hideyoshi (Taiga), Gunshi Kanbei, Tenchijin, Samurai Commando: Mission 1549, Nobunaga Moyu, Goemon, Three Nobunagas, Kunitori Monogatari

I’ll add onto this list as I go through more stuff with Nobunaga in it.

Kagemusha: Stole the show. Partly because Nobu is already outstanding compared to other conservative samurai (like ieyasu or shingen’s men,) and partly because his actor sold it that well. A bit of a spitfire.

Honnoji Hotel: Grew jaded over time, but empathetic and means well. Him being outstanding comes from his ambition. I just love this Nobu.

Nobunaga no Hitsugi: This is a kind, serious, focused Nobu. May or may not be based on how Gyuichi idolised him.

Katen no Shiro: A cool Nobu that knows what he’s doing despite still acting odd in comparison to his peers and having outrageous expectations. he listens when someone tells him something, and regardless of his reaction in the moment, he makes sure it turns out well.

Onna Nobunaga: Despite it being boringly written, this Nobunaga is played well. A no-bullshit type, jaded immediately, but everything regarding this Nobu and romance is meh.

The Kiyosu Conference: We don’t see much of him, but he’s played for goofs and I appreciate just how far they went to find someone that looks so absurdly like Nobunaga’s post-death portraits. Portrayed as tough, but dies quickly.

Toshiie to Matsu: Harsh, but playful and considerate. He cares deeply about his men and uses the sort of ‘tough love’ idea to whip them into shape. Headstrong.

Go: Himetachi no Sengoku: Now this Nobu.. is one of my favourites. For only appearing in a few episodes, we saw glimpses of an extremely complex character. He’s tough on people who annoy him or do things he thinks are illogical, but when faced with a character who tells him like it is (like he SEEKS from everyone else,) he laments his life. Keen on personal honour. Loves his family.

Sanadamaru: We really don’t see much of him, but he’s one of the Nobu who are always one step ahead, but has a real temper. When he gets angry, he is very angry.

Onna Joshu Naotora: This Nobunaga either intentionally or unintentionally strives to be the epitome of something inhuman. Rarely emotes (except in the case of handsome men.. and bread?) and uses “staring for long periods of time” to add to his intimidation factor. Again, I’m not sure whether he’s intentionally being scary or if it’s just a side effect of him being... him. This one’s the most ��unhinged’.

Kirin ga Kuru: This Nobunaga is one of the more soft and playful ones, but he’s intense when he steps up to the role of it. He really wanted to make his parents proud of him, and was shunned by his family more with every attempt. Now that they’re all out of the picture, he has nothing else to distract him from bigger goals. Since this taiga is still ongoing, I’ve yet to see how he ends-up.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Koei has a good way of adapting the same person/character differently multiple times. In Nobunaga’s Ambition, Nobunaga starts out as the aloof fool we’re all aware of, but abruptly after Masahide’s death, he shapes up to take over the country. Very driven... no surprise, since the game is about... his ambition.

Samurai Warriors: He varies somewhat from game to game, but he typically always has a “good” sense of humour... that no one else really understands. He doesn’t take life seriously, but takes death seriously instead. Stoic and serious for the most part, but he always has wisdom to share and will find things to laugh at.

Sengoku BASARA: Demon King Nobunaga. Written to embody that title. He doesn’t find any particular joy in killing or torturing (like Mitsuhide,) he just does it when he thinks it’s necessary for his goals. Still, like Samurai Warriors Nobu.. he sure does have a “good” sense of humour; in that he’ll find something to laugh about because it makes him cool. no problems here. He has a warped perspective on the ideals most Nobunaga have: he wants to end war... by destroying everything.

Gakuen BASARA: I’m calling it separate because I think the idea of Nobunaga as a “strict headmaster” is .. an interesting character idea. Honestly, he’s not all that strict. All the kids in his school are just morons, and he JUST SO HAPPENS to respond to it and their death threats by blowing them up, I guess. But he is deeply protective over his school (not so much the kids) almost caring about it like it’s a living thing and wanting to uphold its rules.

Pokemon Conquest: Acts cold and menacing and doesn’t explain himself clearly enough, which is why his sister leaves him and starts a revolt in the first place. He is so infatuated with talking like the riddler, or something. JUST BE CLEAR, mAN!! But, in the end of the game, one particular all-seeing eye assures him that it knows he has good intentions, and he’s allowed to remain. Was a fun kid.

Onimusha: He’s your typical satan-y hammy villain, and becomes a blob of meat in the end. He’s one step ahead,

Nioh/Nioh 2: Unlike other Koei adaptations of young Nobu, Nioh 2′s version of young Nobu is similar to their older Nobu. They’re both amused by small things but have a strong sense of pride and won’t do anything they don’t already want to do themselves.

Nobunaga Concerto: The actual!Nobu in Nobunaga concerto is a more reserved nobunaga, no doubt thanks to him assuming the role of Akechi Mitsuhide, under a headscarf. Saburo, the guy who takes actual!Nobu’s place, is a “typical goofy japanese teen”, but when placed in serious situations, he lives up to his role as a warlord and takes control.

Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga: This Nobunaga, while played for laughs, has a pretty clear character. When something annoys him, it’s very obvious. When he likes something, it’s very obvious. Otherwise, he’s perceptive and fun type. His stubbornness can get in the way of that, though.

Nobunaga no Shinobi: This Nobunaga is portrayed as more a neutral-good type, which isn’t a surprise considering he’s one of the main characters, and the actual main character happens to be his ninja who he treats almost like his kid. He’s serious most of the time, VERY protective of his sister and wife, quite respectful, and because it’s a humorous show, he can be plenty funny in a deadpan way. When he gets angry, he either explodes or goes into a depressed state where he acts/thinks cruelly.

Nobunaga no Chef: Similar to Nobunaga no Shinobi, this Nobunaga lashes out and acts cruel when angry. It’s more emphasised in this series, though, because he is consistently portrayed as more of a neutral character who acts harshly and seems uncaring on the outside. Buried under his fabulous clothes, however, he has a heart that knows exactly what it wants, and he never intends to do harm to innocents.

That one Toyota Ad Series: Actually, I love this Nobu. I can’t speak Japanese and I haven’t seen the ads translated, but the vibe of this Nobunaga is just great. The premise is that he and Hideyoshi are reborn in modern times, and as you’d expect when a warlord suddenly no longer has to wage war: he’s just chill. A badass type, but he’s prone to being surprised by everything new the world offers him (or when meeting old friends). Also he takes care of baby Masamune. Love him.

#( tento - ooc )#Oda Nobunaga #sengoku jidai #samurai

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laureviewer · 4 years

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Dragons Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age—A Review

WARNING: (not full) spoilers below.

‘We did it darliiiings!’

That’s what I cried, a-la the Great Sylvando, once I finished this game. 112 hours in, and all the way through it showed no signs of slowing. Which, for a shameless JRPG-lover like myself, is exactly what I want in a game. Hours and hours of combat, exploration through stunning scenery, empathetic and deep characters and, most importantly, a completely immersive and entertaining story that I can’t wait to see the climax—but, crucially, I can.

The Chosen One

The story begins in Erdrea, where monsters have invaded the fantastical world—why, we’re not quite sure. All we know, as the infant protagonist, is that we are found washed up on the riverbank by a kindly old man named Chalky, who takes us to his village and gives us to our adoptive mother, Amber.

And, guess what? He’s the Chosen One—the Luminary. You’d have thought our hero would have realised something was different about him with the presence of a very specific birthmark tattooed on the back of his hand, but he and his childhood friend Gemma do come from a sheltered town with very little knowledge of the outside world, after all. True to form for a lot of adventure games, he’s the only one who can save the world. After finding this out in a coming-of-age ceremony a few years later, Amber tells him to go to King Carnelian of Heliodor, who is sure to help him understand what all this means. Right?

If our silent protagonist could talk, this is where he would be screaming, ‘I’m not the Darkspawn!’ as King Carnelian throws him in the dungeon. But thank Yggdrasil he did, or we wouldn’t meet our first companion in our band of loveable misfits.

The Power of Friendship

I’m still unsure why, after so many hours of gameplay, why Erik endears himself the most to me, but he does. Sure, he’s the first one you meet, and you team up to escape the dungeon (running from a giant dragon along the way!), but he’s also a dishonest thief. Throughout the game, you never quite know if he’s in it for himself or to help you save the world. I’ve concluded that he’s actually doing it for you, and your budding bromance…or, at least, that’s my own head cannon. He’s misunderstood. His cutting sarcasm is welcome in a story of overly keen optimists (see: Sylvando). And he’s who the hero seems to look at whenever there’s a sweet, sentimental moment in the story, cementing their true friendship.

Or, maybe it’s because Akira Toriyama drew these characters, and his colourful hair and spunky attitude remind me of my childhood DBZ crush, Trunks. Either way, I’m Team Erik, with his knife-wielding, quick-thinking style of fighting, all the way. My only gripe is that his damage wasn’t that great for me until endgame, unfortunately.

Even though we don’t meet Sylvando until later, it seems that my mind demands he be the next to discuss—much like Sylvando demands much of the attention within the game. We first meet him at the circus, where he is a beloved performer. His quest is to make the people of the world smile—a noble endeavour in a world where the Dark One is coming to rid the world of happiness for good. He is the absolute epitome of flamboyance: he calls your band of companions ‘darlings’; he has a half-naked ship captain with bulging muscles and a pink face mask called Dave, of all things; and he even leads a peacock-feathered parade at a certain point in the game, which the hero must cheerily join in, feathers and sassy sway absolutely necessary.

And yet, he doesn’t simply function as comic relief. He is brave, charming, sympathetic, and quite often the heart of the group. He is always the one to ask if a character is okay, or if they need help, and has conviction that only Henrik, our resident knight in shining armour, would rival. Plus, he’s fantastic with a whip (because of course he is) and has some fabulous healing moves that have saved me more than once in a tough fight. The group would be nothing without Sylvando—and he absolutely knows it!

Veronica & Serena serve as our other characters who are bound by destiny. They are Keepers, born to protect aid the Luminary on his quest. As twins, you’d expect them to look the same…but, after an encounter with monsters, Veronica was turned into a child, and is stuck that way. As an offensive mage who hates being treated like a child, she serves as the brash one of the group, quick to anger, much like her fiery spells.

Serena, on the other hand, serves as the yin to Veronica’s yang. She is temperate and always willing to help, if somewhat hapless. The primary healer of the group, she excels in restorative and defensive magic, and has a harp to while away the less hopeful days. As a pair, these two are steadfast, loyal, and…to be honest, aren’t much more interesting than that, unless Veronica is being goaded into an argument.

Until the later game, anyway. I won’t spoil that here, but will just say I underestimated both their spell casting abilities and their importance in the story.

You know how the hero is the Chosen One, the Luminary and the absolute saviour of the world? Well, he also happens to be a Prince of Dundrasil. Had the fates been kinder, he might have been brought up in a huge castle, with loving royal family around to raise and guide him.

Rab, a fierce, playful and wise old man (with a banging Scottish accent) is ready to heal, attack with offensive magic, and guide our hero around the expansive world. And, as we find out after defeating him and his sexy companion in a battle competition in Octagonia (see: Jade), he is also grandfather to our hero, and thus a Lord of Dundrasil himself. He may seem old, but not only does he have royal blood, but he is a capable spell-caster and martial artist, making it apparent that he is one of the most capable companions in the game. If I were to ask anyone for advice, knowing that he would neither mince his words nor omit anything important, I would go to Rab.

You know what any game directed at kids needs? That’s right, a sexy warrior princess that you can stick in a bunny costume for most of the game. Even if you choose not to do that, her combat outfit doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

Thankfully, Jade isn’t just eye-candy. She has far more going for her. She’s a Princess of Heliodor, the hero’s childhood companion who lost him as a baby. She just wants to find him, her younger brother figure (sadly), and help him fulfil his destiny. Plus, as a battle and spear fighter, she has some of the strongest moves in the game—albeit mostly from her sexy, love-based moves such as ‘Hip Thrust’ and ‘Sexy Beam’, only comparable with Sylvando’s equally as sexy and flamboyant ‘Lashings of Love’ and ‘That’s Amore’ moves. She’s a badass bitch who takes no crap from lovestruck men or monsters.

Though, she has her very own Princess Leia moment, where she is captured by a horrific, giant, evil and ugly monster and made to wear a sexy outfit (hey, there’s that bunny girl outfit again). It is heavily implied she has been under his mind control, and that he’s been having his ‘wicked way’ with her. Good thing she comes out of it with sexy vampire powers, isn’t it?

HEAVY SPOILERS NOW. I warn you, don’t go any further if you care about that kind of thing.

Our final companion is one who doesn’t show up until late game. Sir Henrik, a Knight of Heliodor, is the hero we all need. He defends his ruler to the last (which, spoiler alert, nearly ended up being his fatal flaw), is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of all, and defends the weak: a true knight, with chivalry, bravery, and total care for all others. It’s a shame he hated the hero for the first half of the game, really.

But do I care about that? No, I care that his greatsword abilities make him an absolute tank. On a one-on-one fight, I needed him front and centre of every battle just for his incredible damage output. Against multiple enemies, he is less useful, but with his supplementary healing and defence skills, he isn’t just an attacker, but a true defender of the people to the last.

Calm it with the Combat

My god, this game has a lot of battles. While that’s expected for a turn-based JRPG, and there were a lot, unlike others such as Pokémon, you can choose which battles to avoid as the figures traverse the overworld. This is useful in such a slow-burning game, and also helps you find the monsters you want—again, a definite improvement on the way Pokémon works, as it saves you having to fight hundreds of creatures you don’t want to find the ones with the best EXP.

A notable exception to this is when you have to find and defeat a rare monster for a quest, which don’t traverse the overworld. This means you have to fight potentially hundreds of more common monsters to find the one you want, which can be frustrating, especially as it is all done on chance and not on how many you have defeated. While you can increase your chances with various items or equipment, it still adds a frustrating amount of time to an already long game.

Another vague annoyance is how much harder the game gets post-game. I actually did not have an issue with this, as a friend told me how to farm the elusive and high-EXP metal slimes using a particular Hero-Erik-Jade Pep Power and so I could use this ability throughout post-game. However, for those not in the know, the potentially grinding at the end of the game may put some people off finishing an already saturated game.

What I loved about the combat was how it kept getting harder and harder. I never worried about over-levelling (as said above, I was more worried about being under levelled) and that meant I could do what I do best: do all side-quests before the end of the main story. In other JRPGs, the completionist in me has always made me want to do all side-quests, but this has meant the final boss has been underwhelming and easier than it should be.

The variation of powers and attacks was also really interesting. You can spec into different forms of fighting for each character—I went for Swords with the hero, Whips for Sylvando, Boomerangs with Erik (after using Daggers for most of the game), Heavy Wands for Rab and Veronica, Wands for Serena, Spears for Jade, and Greatswords for Henrik—and this makes all the combinations of them in the party very cool. I normally just controlled the hero during the fights and let the others fight wisely, unless there was a specific quest to fulfil or a particularly hard boss. Not only did this speed up combat, but it also helped me to learn which of their moves were the most effective against which monsters automatically and quickly, which was easier than picking moves and trying them out myself. It’s easy, with enough gold, to respec if you like, and this I’m sure could make the game fee different every time if you wanted to play with different specs.

Pep powers were also a lot of fun. While it was sometimes annoying waiting for some or all of the characters to pep up and therefore use these moves that combine different characters’ moves for ‘Ultimate’ attacks, they provided fun cutscenes and made the battles more interesting. Plus, they reminded me a lot of DBZ moves, especially the epic ones with the hero and Rab!

Top tip: you can swap out characters and they will keep their pepped-up status. I wish I’d known about that a lot earlier!

The monster designs are great, as per usual Akira Toriyama style. There are lots of different kinds, from slimes, to mechs, to really weird ones like the kissy lip monster and the Bongo Drongos. The bosses are also amazing. Just all the character designs, from human to monster, to anything else. I see a lot of DBZ in all of them, which is fantastic.

You know what? Here’s some pictures. You’re welcome.

Mini Games & Challenges: Hey, I actually want to do these!

I often have issues with mini games, as sometimes they are so different from the main game that I just don’t want to spend time playing them. Gwent in another of my favourite games, The Witcher 3 is a good example: I never really learnt the rules, which I’m sure would have helped, but it was so detached from the main game I just didn’t care. Plus, it had no effect on the story or game at large, so what was the point?

In DQ11, sure, you don’t need to rack up 500,000 casino tokens in poker or the slots to buy better gear. You don’t have to finish first in all five Gallopolis horse races. Forging items isn’t totally needed to advance the game. It’s not necessary to win all five rounds of the Wheel of Harma in a certain number of moves (though this is much more like the rest of the game than the other mini games). But I did all of these, and it was great fun. It’s what’s helped make the game such a time suck (especially the casino) but I never felt like they were a chore.

Apart from the crossbow bullseyes. I did none of them as apparently I only noticed about three out of however many there are. They can suck my Sword of Light.

What’s a good JRPG without me questioning the point of life after it’s over?

JRPGs do it best—fight me.

The story of DQ11 is immersive, interesting, intricate and, at times, incredibly heart-breaking. Following the hero and his friends for over 100 hours really means you get to dive into their adventure, and more so, their relationships. You truly believe why they have chosen to follow each other into danger, to protect each other as well as the world. Sure, he’s the Luminary, so Serena & Veronica, the Luminary’s guides, at least have a reason to follow him to the end. The fact he’s the Luminary at may mean the characters have more faith in him than they would anyone else without lightning powers. But, even without that, you get the impression that they trust him for his innocent and yet resolute determination to do the right thing, whatever the cost.

The NPCs in the game also provide variety and are a lot of fun. There’s a lovesick mermaid, a brilliantly incompetent prince, two brothers in Laguna di Gondolia who are trying to sell the same things to you for different prices, and Silvando’s Smile Brigade, to name just a few. Their backstories, personalities and current stories all bring life to a game already chock full of it, and makes even simple fetch quests interesting and well worth doing, if you value a good story like I do. These little touches explain why the game clocks in at well over 100+ hours, but at the same time gives true justification to why that is. It’s the difference between a boring game, and one I loved to turn on and just relax of an evening. I might not have done all that much in three hours, but I still enjoyed every minute.

With everything considered, I will remember DQ11 fondly as one of my favourite JRPGs to date. The storyline, characters, combat and score are all fantastic and makes me wish I played the older games. Thank you, Dragon Quest, for giving me 112 hours of fun.

#game review #dragon quest 11 #dragon quest xi #dq11 #dqxi #games #gaming #review

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mst3kproject · 4 years

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Iron Warrior

Why yes, there is a fourth Ator movie! Technically, this is the third Ator movie. Whereas Ator, the Fighting Eagle, The Blade Master (aka Cave Dwellers) and Quest for the Mighty Sword were all made by Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D’Amato), Iron Warrior was made by Alfonso Brescia (aka Al Bradley). Massaccessi supposedly hated it because it wasn’t true to his vision for Ator or something. Myself, I was kind of intrigued. What would a different take on Ator be like?

Well, I don’t know how he managed, but Alfonso Brescia pulled it off. He made an Ator movie that makes even less sense than the other Ator movies.

The evil sorceress Phaedra used to rule this land, but then some fellow witches (I’m gonna call them Bellerians) banished her into darkness and installed a puppet king. Eighteen years later, however, Phaedra’s sentence is up and she has returned, with a legion of skull-faced minions and an indestructible cyborg named Drogar. They kill the king and kidnap his heir, Princess Gianna. The Bellerians therefore call upon Ator to rescue her, which he does, and then the Bellerian Leader tells them they must go on a quest to retrieve the only thing that can defeat Phaedra and free Drogar, who is also Ator’s brother, from her clutches – the Golden Chest of the Ages! With that in hand, they head back to be crowned King and Queen of wherever this is, only to learn too late that Phaedra replaced the real Golden Chest with a fake!

According to the end credits, ‘script continuity’ was the job of somebody named Mirella Gamacchio. I can only assume she was drunk as shit the entire time, because this movie is nothing but a series of “wait… what just happened?” moments.

There’s a bit where Phaedra decides to kill Ator before he can rescue Gianna. She can’t just Thanos-snap him out of existence because the Bellerians have taken that power away from her, so she takes the form of a beautiful woman, lets him rescue her from random thugs, sleeps with him, locks him in a cabin, and burns the cabin down. That seems like an over-complicated plan, somehow. Also, Ator escapes by hiding under a wet bear rug.

To kill the king, Drogar telekinetically makes all the decorative weapons mounted on a wall fly into him and run him through. Then Phaedra replaces the dead king and the kidnapped princess with imposters who look nothing like them and nobody at court seems to notice. Later, Ator fights Drogar in the same weapons-adorned room and I kept waiting for the psychic stabbing thing to happen again, but it doesn’t. Instead, Ator and Drogar throw spears at each other and keep catching them. Finally Drogar throws two spears at once, and Ator catches one while Gianna pops up out of absolutely nowhere to catch the other, despite never having the slightest hint she was able to do something like that!

Later later, Gianna gets kidnapped by the skull-faced minions and thrown into a dungeon where her father is hanging in a doorway, with the spears still through him but apparently still alive. He begs her for help, and then she suddenly reappears in Ator’s arms wearing a green dress instead of the red one she’s had on so far. This is one of several occasions on which I was absolutely sure that the ‘Gianna’ we were seeing was going to turn out to be Phaedra in disguise, and in this instance I was especially certain about it because green is Phaedra’s colour. I was wrong. Even at the climax, when I was absolutely convinced the whole thing had to be a trick, the woman who looks like Gianna was always the real Gianna. I think.

After Phaedra gets the chest, Ator and Gianna are halfway through their coronation ceremony when suddenly Ator’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Sand Nazis, and Gianna’s dangling off a cliff with Phaedra sitting there mocking her. How did that happen? Phaedra tells her that life is an illusion, which for a moment left me wondering if anything in this movie really happened? Perhaps the whole bit when Gianna was in the green dress was just some kind of dream? I have no idea. Anyway, Ator beats up the Sand Nazis and then goes and shoves a torch down Phaedra’s throat, which turns out to be her weakness for some reason. Where did that come from? I dunno. Then he has just concluded that Gianna must have fallen and died when he hears her calling him, and goes to untie her from where she’s sitting on a rock. They embrace and Gianna smiles in an evil kind of way, but as far as I can tell it’s still the real Gianna because we next see Phaedra captured by the Bellerians again! They sentence her to something else and then giggle in delight because Ator and Gianna have fallen in love.

I don’t know why Ator was worried about Gianna falling to her death anyway, because there are several points in this movie in which one or both of the couple plummet into a bottomless abyss only to wake up completely unharmed. This is slightly plausible when they leap off a cliff into the water, but what about when they fall from a rope bridge into a deep canyon and wake up lying on rocks in a cave? Are they indestructible?

Drogar is supposedly indestructible, which means the moment when Ator is forced to run him through is one I expected to be another trick. After all, the same thing happened earlier and Drogar just collapsed into a pile of clothes like Obi-Wan Kenobi. No, this time he’s actually dead, and Ator takes his helmet off and finds another Miles O’Keefe underneath. I think we’re supposed to assume that Phaedra discarded Drogar because she no longer needed him? I’m sure it’s supposed to be a tragic moment when Ator has to kill his brother, but Ator didn’t seem particularly reluctant to do so. I also think the helmet removal is supposed to remind us of Luke Skywalker’s little vision quest moment in Empire Strikes Back when he found his own face under Darth Vader’s mask, but I cannot suggest a reason why other than ‘the writer thought that was neat’.

What is even with the Ator-has-a-brother thing? Wasn’t Ator raised by stick merchants in Solachek along with a sister he eventually married? Fuck it, I’m gonna assume Ator is like Maciste, and his backstory resets with every movie. The way the movie works out, the ‘brothers’ thing is never important anyway. It’s treated as if it’s going to be – we know the revelation is coming from the opening scene and we’re teased with it a few times along the way, but when it actually arrives it has no effect on the plot whatsoever!

So yes, Iron Warrior tries to make you feel many things, but the only one you actually feel at the end of the movie is intense confusion. The characters never have any personality so you can’t get invested in them or their relationships. Elisabeth Kaza as Phaedra is having a fabulous time hamming up the evil, but everybody else has their Very Serious Movie faces on and mostly just looks bored. The special effects are basic at best, and the music sounds like an early 2000’s PC game loading.

Costumes and hair are bizarre. Ator has traded his mile-high meringue hairdo for a tight braid that makes him look weirdly like Alicia Vikander on the Tomb Raider poster. Gianna has a hairdo that looks like a centurion’s helmet and wanders around the wilderness in a filmy red dress with her nipples visible right through it. The leader of the Bellerians dresses like a budget Queen Amidala. Like previous Ator films (or Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell), there is no sense of any attempt to build a consistent world. They just threw together a bunch of stuff that looked cool.

The movie was shot on the Maltese island of Gozo, and makes the place look like it’s made entirely of barren rocks. There are lots of neat formations and forbidding cliffs, and it’s all very spectacular. Unfortunately, it’s also very obvious that we’re seeing the same neat rock formations and forbidding cliffs over and over again.

As far as analyzing the movie… I don’t think I can do that. There’s not really enough substance there to analyze. The closest Iron Warrior comes to doing anything meaningful is when it tries to use a furry toy ball as a symbol of the bond between brothers. When we meet Ator and Drogar as children, they’re chucking this tribble at each other through some ruins, and it reappears a couple of times in attempts at foreshadowing. The problem is that there is no bond between Ator and Drogar, and the fact that they’re brothers is, as I said, ultimately unimportant.

The impression I get from this movie is that it was written by somebody who had no idea how to tell a story. The writers, Steven Luotto and Alfonso Brescia, have clearly seen movies (they’ve definitely seen the original Star Wars trilogy) and know that they have things like attractive stars, special effects, stunning revelations, and dream sequences, but they don’t know how to put those together into a plot, or what purposes they should serve within one. The result is completely incoherent. To my own astonishment I totally understand why Massaccesi hates this movie. Ator, the Fighting Eagle and The Blade Master might have been made up on the fly, but they still made more sense than this!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #iron warrior #80s

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atamascolily · 4 years

Text

Lily liveblogs: “Resistance Reborn,” part four

When we last left off, Finn and Poe and friends were about to go to a birthday party for one of Maz's smugger friends who has the list macguffin they're after. Please note they're not actually crashing this party for once - Maz got them actual invitations, lol.

Meanwhile, Bratt the Brat comes back to the office and beats Yama to a pulp, only to be taken aback when his superiors commend her for her loyalty in reporting Monti's theft. But he's offered a chance to prove his loyalty if he can fix the mess, even though he's still in denial about Yama and Monti's true allegiances because he’s a sexist asshole.

The party is awesome - ocean and fish and rich people and smugglers, with the First Order providing security (??). Poe and Finn eat a bunch of sea-themed canapes and banter. It's delightful and I want entire fics of this instead of, like, three pages. They had to bring presents, and one of the other members of Poe's team got the gifts, so it's a surprise to him too when the birthday girl opens it, but it's a dwarf lylek, a spiky hermit-crab/praying mantis creature that stays small "as long as you don't feed it flesh".

The guest of honor is delighted because--who would have guessed?--she used to be an entomologist! I love her, and I'm kinda sad she's a throwaway character, because she's a member of the Collective, the Corellian techie version of antifa, which sounds wayyyy more interesting than the actual book.

(I was also hoping that the lylek would start devouring canapes when the First Order inevitably breaks up the party and the shooting starts, only for the lylek to get HUGE and start going after stormtroopers... but alas, no, that doesn't happen either. DON'T TEASE ME LIKE THAT, OKAY??)

There's an auction to get the list macguffin as a fundraiser for the Collective and Poe is trying to figure out what the trick is because they're rapidly running out of cash. CorSec breaks up the party in the name of the First Order, which is weird because I thought the FO was providing security, but whatever.

Wedge, Norra, Snap, and Tasa Nasz, the ex-Imperial badass, go to the shipyards to steal ships for the Resistance. There's a Baleen-class freighter, and I love it. They run into Yama Dee, badly injured from Bratt's beating, and we learn that Yama is 15, so Bratt isn't just an abusive asshole, he's a child abuser, ughhh. Our heroes are rightly incensed and vow to help Yama, who is uniquely positioned to give them what they need.

Leia and Rey are sitting around on Ryloth, when... Rey has a bad feeling seconds before the First Order starts taking over (for totally unrelated reasons) and the Resistance forces have to GTFO.

Back at the party, the birthday girl is devastated because her husband was shot in front of her, so she agrees to give Poe the list macguffin for revenge (it's hidden in her jewelry in the form of a snake, which is a nice touch). They jump into a pool to escape the FO, and Finn hauls them out. Poe is afraid she's lost the necklace, but it turns out to come when called, which everyone agrees is awesome.

Bratt attacks the FO officer accusing him of treason and runs back to his office to track down information about Monti the Traitor--only to find Wedge and company with Yama and the escaped prisoners (including Leia's old political friend). Yama confronts Bratt, who denies everything, and Yama is appalled when she realizes she's parrotting his exact same arguments, that she is becoming the same as her abuser.

They fight, only to be interrupted by Teza, who is unsympathetic when she learns Bratt is the one who beat Yama in the first place. She tells Bratt he has a choice: either let Yama continue the beatdown, or she shoots him. Bratt is aghast at the idea of letting Yama beat him, so Teza shoots him and he bleeds out on the floor in astonishment while everyone else walks out. Leia's senatorial friend tries to offer him a hand up, but Bratt bats it away and dies alone and confused.

(Please note that the main reason the ex-Imperial comes along seems to be so she can be the agent of divine justice without our "good" heroes having to get their hands dirty. For all that ST fans like to talk about "edginess" and "grey Jedi" and "moral complexity" in TLJ, this is still Star Wars and our heroes don't shoot (usually) shoot people at point-blank range and leave them to die even when they're assholes.)

Wedge and company meet up with Poe and company, who have lost their own ship, so they steal a FO shuttle and escape with the prisoners and the full list. Since Ryloth is no longer safe, Poe makes a deal with the Collective for a safe haven in exchange for the rest of their credits.

Leia and her old friend have a tearful reunion. Poe makes an inspiring speech about scattering to the winds to become the spark that will burn the FO down. I don't know how much sense that makes in terms of strategy and tactics, but everybody is impressed. Poe has overcome all his angst about Crait and is happy to be--in charge? Second in command? I have no idea how the chain of command even works right now.

Wedge and Norra leave to do their own stuff; Snap wants to go with them, but Poe won't let him. Finn says he's coming with Poe, and that's Rey's cue to show up.

"Where are we going?" Both men turned to find Rey, looking expectant.

Finn grinned. "I didn't want to ask."

Rey grinned back. "You didn't have to."

The two friends laughed, leaning in to touch shoulders in acknowledgment. Rey looked at Poe, eyes narrowed as if unsure. "You don't mind?"

Poe pressed a hand to his heart, giving Rey a small bow. "I'm honored."

She flushed, pleased as he'd hoped she would be.

This is great, and I love it, but this doesn't have as much emotional resonance as it could have because THIS IS LITERALLY THE SECOND TIME IN THIS BOOK THAT ALL THREE OF THEM HAVE BEEN IN THE SAME ROOM WITH EACH OTHER AND REY AND POE HAVE SPOKEN TO EACH OTHER and so it feels like... it wasn't really earned??

Leia is smiling at the three of them in satisfaction because "the Resistance is in good hands" and "she's got us".

Poe slung an arm around Finn's shoulders and pulled Rey in close on the opposite side.

"That's right, Poe said. She's got us.

"Now let's go and save the galaxy."

Again, this is all A++ good, but I don't feel like any of this has been earned. At all. Like, does Poe know anything about why Leia believes in Rey, what Rey can do? They're just all friends now because of Finn even though Poe and Rey barely know each other?? Is he this affectionate with everyone?? I don't mind this closeness, but... it would have been nice to have more of this earlier so it doesn't feel so out of the blue and forced.

Also, what did this book accomplish? So the Resistance has some ships now. It has a few more fighters, they freed a bunch of influential prisoners from the New Republic that the First Order had taken into custody, and they have a list of current and future targets to warn. And they're not dead yet, so that's good.

But Leia and Rey barely got to do anything in this book, Rose is barely there at all, and Finn is only tangentially involved at the end. Most of the plot features Poe, Wedge, and occasionally other characters like Bratt, Snap, and Dross Squadron.

So despite the marketing, which makes it sound like this is an All-Resistance Adventure featuring our main trio, I would say Poe is the protagonist, because he's the only one with a character arc: moving from depressed and angsty over the failed mutiny at Crait to letting go of his failures and moving on to be a leader. There's also a smaller arc with Wedge moving from retired warrior and active farmer back to warrior again, but it's much less nuanced.

Outside of that, though, the book feels like it's tugging in too many direction and not going anywhere near the ones I find most interesting. There are lots of characters I'm expected to care about who are not in the films, and little in the narrative itself makes me want to. (The only reason I know about Leia's friend, for instance, is because I read a summary of Bloodline on Wookieepeedia.) It feels like Disney made a very deliberate decision to make all the plotlines 100% more convoluted and confusing than they needed to be, just so you'd read/buy all the supplementary material, and that is a... choice, I guess. But it makes me grumpy.

Honestly, if I wasn't writing a ST fix-it fic, I wouldn't have bothered with this. I found Resistance Reborn to be adequate, but mostly unexceptional, and occasionally frustrating. The few really delightful bits are when major movie characters are together in the same room, but that is weirdly and woefully rare, and I honestly do not understand what the story group/Disney was thinking here in not making those the meat of the book.

Question: who is Disney's target audience for this book? I'm honestly not sure, and I'm not sure they know, either, and I think this book demonstrates that. Which is... really weird for a billion-dollar corporation intent on milking every last cent out of the franchise, that's all. I don't get it.

TL;DR:

The Good:

Stormpilot feels (brotp or otp depending on your preferred ship)

the Collective (Corellian techie antifa)

Poe’s fabulous hair

fancy dress party heist

Wedge’s garden and space chickens

barely any mention of Kylo Ren whatsoever

The Meh:

loads and loads of characters that are not in the movies and therefore hard to keep track of or care

macguffin plot macguffin

cooler plot threads and story ideas are teased and never followed up on (in this book, at least)

The WTF:

movie characters barely interact with each other

assuming they have a role at all

does any of this matter?

feels like filler

#star wars #WHY DISNEY WHY #tlj fix-it #lily liveblogs #resistance reborn

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thewarriorandtheking · 5 years

Text

Temptation

For Prompt 12 of the 52-Week Writing Challenge:

“You’re a hot ticket, my friend.”

This one came together pretty fast...I have been planning to write a story about The Warrior and The King’s wedding with her family...I had the idea one of the guests would catch Thorin’s eye and they would have a row about it, because weddings always involve some kind of drama ;-)

52-Week Challenge MasterList

********************************************

Thorin Oakenshield was enjoying a pipe alone in the garden when out of the corner of his eye he saw a sweep of auburn hair and long bare legs. This woman could start a war, Thorin thought to himself as she turned and started to walk toward him. She was wearing a spectacular necklace of fire opals and smaller green stones, it was the first thing Thorin noticed but the rest of her was just as mesmerizing. Her figure was full and voluptuous, her skin flawlessly white, her hair falling in loose curls past her waist, the crimson dress she wore had a deeply cut neckline and was so short Thorin was amazed it actually covered her. It wasn’t until she stopped in front of him Thorin realized she was short for a Dorsai, even in six-inch heels she was shorter than he, and she had the most amazing light green eyes. The kind of eyes you could lose yourself in.

“You are staring,” she said, her tone was amused.

Thorin nodded. “I have a more than passing interest in gemstones, my lady,” he said, carefully keeping his eyes on her face. “That is the most spectacular fire opal I have ever seen.”

She put a hand on her necklace, tracing the edges of the large gem at the center, then looked up at him through her lashes. “Is that the only thing that interests you?”

“I don’t believe we have met,” Thorin replied formally. “I am Thorin Oakenshield.”

“I am Siann Sinclair, of House Sinclair.” She looked Thorin up and down appraisingly. “I am here for your wedding tomorrow.”

“You are Lady Sinclair?” Thorin was surprised, he had expected a much older woman. She looked barely out of her twenties. The fact she was a Sinclair did explain her appearance. Some of the Dorsai clans were very conservative, with strict rules about courtship and behavior, the Grahams were notorious traditionalists. The Sinclairs were the exact opposite, conforming more to Exotic norms. He remembered mention of Lady Sinclair had resulted in some eye-rolling from the Graham women, now he knew why.

She smiled at him. “I am the daughter. My mother died a few years ago, so I get the title.” She reached up and unclasped her necklace, placing it in his hand. Her fingers lingered, tracing the edges of his hand. Thorin felt a thrill run up his back. “Here, I know you will want a closer look.”

“Thank you,” Thorin replied. He put away his pipe and turned his attention to the stone, which was indeed fabulous. At the same time he set his mind to quell his growing arousal. Thorin loved his wife but that did not make him immune to the charms of a beautiful woman. He felt an almost uncontrollable urge to stroke the side of her neck, to feel if her skin was as soft as it looked. This woman was so different from his wife, all soft curves and sex. Kaylea Wolf was stunningly beautiful in a different way, statuesque, graceful and reserved - at least in public.

Siann had stepped back and was looking him up and down appraisingly. “So, you are the one they call Erebor. You are quite the hot ticket, you know,” she said. “I think I am quite jealous of General Wolf.”

Thorin smiled and offered her the necklace back, instead she turned around and swept her hair aside so he could fasten it. Since he couldn’t think of a polite way to refuse, Thorin placed it around her neck. His fingers touched her skin as he worked the clasp, her skin was soft as velvet. She turned around with a smile.

“Have any plans for this evening, Erebor?” She leaned in very close, her skin smelled of roses, her lips the color of polished rubies. “You can’t tell me you are not curious.” Thorin took a step back, he was really far more aroused than he wanted to be.

“I will admit to curiosity, my lady. I am just not interested,” Thorin smiled slightly. “I am a happily married man.”

“Not until tomorrow,” Siann replied. “You have one more night of freedom before you become a Graham.”

Thorin shook his head. “The wedding tomorrow is for Kaylea’s family, we were married in my country many years ago.”

“That’s too bad,” she said, green eyes flashing in amusement. Idly she plucked a leaf from the vine near her head and broke off the thin stem. Not taking her eyes from Thorin’s she put the stem in her mouth, then after a moment pulled it out. She took hold of his hand and dropped it in his palm, the stem was now tied in a knot. Thorin stared at it, his mind racing down avenues it really shouldn’t. “I can promise you a night to remember,” she breathed softly. Before Thorin could step back she pressed his hand against her thigh, then started drawing it up under her dress. Her silky skin was warm under his touch. She leaned against him, ruby lips parted slightly. The scent of her was intoxicating, Thorin willed himself to pull his hand back but instead found himself sliding his other hand around her waist to draw her closer. Suddenly he doubled over from a piercing pain in his ankle. He looked down to see Vuko biting his leg.

Siann quickly stepped back, looking shocked. “I thought that was your wolf! Does it always bite you like that?”

Thorin reached down to grab his ankle; Vuko had bitten deep and he was bleeding. “I can’t imagine what got into her,” he said, grimacing. “If you will excuse me, I need to bind this. I wish you a very good evening, my lady.”

Motioning Vuko to follow him Thorin strode away from temptation as fast as he could, his sock soaked with blood. Donal Graham and the others were still inside celebrating, he hurried to rejoin them hoping Lady Sinclair would not follow. Apparently it was a Dorsai tradition to take the groom out drinking the night before the wedding and Thorin had just stepped out for a smoke, it was not a common vice on Dorsai and not tolerated indoors. He had not expected to encounter such a vision; he shook his head to clear it. That woman must have been using designer pheromones, there was no way he should have lost control like that. What would have happened if Vuko had not intervened? He had been very close to kissing her, that was bad enough but it certainly would not have gone further. Or would it?

Thorin paused just outside the doors to look down at his wolf gratefully. Vuko was wearing a reproachful look, he could sense she felt she had done the right thing, but was still worried he might be angry.

“That is the second time you have saved me from myself, Miss,” he said, ruffling her ears. “Perhaps I do need a wolf after all.”

Read the complete adventures of The Warrior and The King on AO3 & FanFiction, links on my homepage or search for akdogdriver. Books I & II also on Wattpad.

@sdavid09 @soradragon @fizzyxcustard

#tale teller's 52 week writing challenge #writing challenge #fanfic #thorin and oc #thorin fanfiction #writing is my passion

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overlord-imagines · 5 years

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can I get some headcannonons for demiurge and Ainz's wedding? They're my favorite couple at the moment.

Yes, you may!!! Ahhh! Their relationship is so precious, I’m swooning. I may have gone overboard with this… and demiurge may be a LITTLe out of character……. oops.

They had been dating for a year now, and rumors and questions of when Ainz will finally have a spouse and an heir and becoming so frequent that they even managed to reach the lord of death himself.

It’s gotten so bad that he even heard the other floor guardians muttering about it.

Ainz finally decided enough is enough. With the help of Pandora, he sorted through his massive amounts of the treasury to ‘The Rings of Matrimony’

They were ultra rare event rings that the guild spent some time on collecting, they were only for appearances but being the completionists that were Ainz Ooal Gown… they just couldn’t NOT get them.

And to propose, Ainz took the time to specially craft a gorgeous golden ring. With flawless diamonds as accents and a gorgeous ruby as the main centerpiece.

(Image is of a Claudine Vintage Engagement ring, found on Diamondere website.)

Ainz, being the complete closet nerd that he is, spends days on end planning the perfect proposal. And if he were being completely honest keeping it hidden from the rest of the guardians had to be the hardest thing he’s ever done in his life.

And he’s done a lot of shit as ruler of Nazarick.

He’s fairly sure Albedo already knows, being the one besides Demiurge who spends so much time with him. He’s also fairly sure that somewhere deep inside of her she’s plotting the demon’s murder… but at the same time, he’s noticed her being oddly quiet about it.

He eventually confronts her about it, due to the looks she gives him from time to time and confesses to helping her lord keep it a secret from Demiurge.

She has to resist every fiber of her being that screams at her to tackle him and claim him right then and there as he praises and thanks her for helping him.

Soon Sebas knows as well, being directed by Ainz to construct a beautiful moonlit dinner for him and his soon to be fiance. The maids arrange the dinner, setting it up in the breathtaking gardens of the 6th floor. Accenting the area with fairy lights, and making sure everything is more than absolutely perfect for the supreme being.

The night it actually happens, Ainz’s passive ability kicks in at least 15 times before he even can gather the nerve to propose. But when he does… oh boy.

Demiurge is shell shocked when his supreme being- the one he devoted his everything to, the one who reigns above all, his creator and his lover- presents himself on one knee.

The demon cannot even react, to seeing his beloved in such a state before Ainz pulls out the beautifully gilded box and opens it revealing the engagement ring Ainz had carefully put so much love into.

“Demiurge, my love…” A slight green aura surrounds him for a brief moment. “Will you do me the great honor, and stay by my side for the rest of my eternal life? To rule Nazarick by my side.

Demiurge’s heart stopped, he couldn’t breathe and when he realized that he had to his breaths came out fast. The poor boy began hyperventilating.

Sooner than Ainz could tell his lover to calm himself, to take it easy, Demiurge has already fallen out of the elegantly cushioned chair to the grassy floor below.

Tears well in his eyes as he clasps the hands of the glorious one before him and lowers himself far lower than Ainz has put himself, the demon’s head almost touching the floor.

“Please… do not lower yourself for a servant such as I.”

“But you are more than just a servant… Demiurge.” Ainz carefully brings Demiurge’s head up to look him in the eyes. “You are the love of my life, so please… will you marry me?”

A series of sobbing ‘yes’s poured from his mouth, kissing Ainz everywhere he could reach. And eagerly donned the ring.

That same night word of the wedding spread like wildfire, unknowing to Ainz, Aura and Mare had been spying from afar. Demiurge simply chose not to comment on it.

The wedding takes place a week later, the preparations took no time at all considering the weight of the event.

Albedo, of course, was in charge of the planning. And with the imput of Ainz she made sure that this wedding would be the grandest event this world had ever known.

If she couldn’t be head wife to her beloved, she would at least assure her place as the one to birth his heir

(Image found on Pinterest Just imagine this but with more gold and a lot more extravagant… that’s how extra they went.)

Mare grew all of the floral accessories personally, making sure every single flower and leaf was absolutely flawless. He spent hours on end making sure of this, sometimes even worrying his sister with the amount of effort he put in this.

Aura helped Mare with Demiurge’s bouquet, after growing the flora needed the two presented the beautifully tied piece. He couldn’t be prouder.

The furniture was each handcrafted by the best woodworkers of Nazarick, each chair lined with beautiful white satin silk.

Cocytus arranged their finest warriors to act as decoration for the event as well, each individual soldier was done in priceless gilded armor to appeal to the radiance that is their ruler.

Pandora worked behind the scenes and was actually assistant to Albedo. He handled the finances, and all the supplies needed for this luxorious event. He was also there as emotional support for Ainz, as the poor lich was constantly concerned about the scale of his own wedding. He wasn’t one to show off, but the two guardians were having none of it, only the best for their lord.

Shalltear helped with the attire of both grooms. Being the only one with the expansive wardrobe, the vampire made sure that the wedding attire was both fabulous and fitting for beings such as themselves. She actually designed it all herself, with the best cloth workers of Nazarick bringing her piece to life.

Cocytus was also there as support for Demiurge, being the man who expresses himself with action rather than words he made an excellant listener as Demiurge rambled on and on about everything going on. As well as giving out nuggets of wisdom.

“Supreme beings make no errors of judgement, our Lord has chosen you for a reason. Do not doubt him now, when you have not before.”

On the day of the wedding, the weather was absolutely perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. And not a single cloud in the sky. This was to be expected of course, the maids would not allow such a thing as a cloud ruin such a momentus day.

Ainz asked that Pandora’s Actor be his best man. For Demiurge, he asked that Cocytus be his.

Aura and Mare were the flower children, throwing petals accross the carpet for Demiurge to walk along.

Ainz wore a stunning white tux, gilded in gold and lace with a transparent cape fluttering behind him.

Demiurge wore something similar but his highlighting his own features. His outfit being accented with beautiful diamonds and gold of its own.

The hundreds of seats were filled with the denizans of Nazarick, an unsettling sight to some… but absolutely stunning to Ainz. To see the entirety of his treasure present before him, made him want to cry.

Trust me when I say that if Ainz could cry right now he would be sobbing.

Upon request Sebas is their pastor, he just seems to fit the role perfectly. And it’s an honor to Ainz’s own close friend Lord Touch Me.

I do not exaggerate when I say EVERYONE in nazarick that day cried… Even Sebas. Their vows absolutely shook everyone.

“Demiurge�� I never thought, that in all my years of existence, I would ever deserve someone such as yourself. I felt lost, when my precious comrades had left this Nazarick… I feared that the place in my heart that they had left empty would never be filled. But when you’re with me… I feel whole.”

Everyone is surprised to see that Demiurge hasn’t compeltely broken down yet and the devastation that is his tail hasn’t been released yet. Though they could barely see them through their own tears.

Everyone is just so emotional.

“Lord Ainz, never in my lifetime would I ever have thought I would get the honor to wed you. I do not deserve such a radiant and generous being such as yourself. To acquire the intimate love of a supreme being had been unfathomable to me… but to be here today and to see how you could ever love someone as lowly as me- no amount of words could describe how I feel for you. I swear to you, Ainz Ooal Gown, Lord Momonga. I will give you everything this world has to offer, my entire being included, just to ever amount to what you give to me.”

Ainz is so flustered, his husband is too extra for his poor little neet heart to handle.

The party after is certainly something to remember, even though he can’t eat and most of the denizens of Nazarick don’t even need to the maids worked endlessly to produce such a fantastic feast for all of Nazarick to enjoy.

Oh my god when Ainz tells Demiurge of the tradition to throw his bouquet.

Albedo and Shalltear and seething, glaring at each other fighting over who gets to marry Lord Ainz next.

Demiurge accidentally throws it too hard, and from their fighting both miss the bouquet as it flies over their heads and lands in Mare’s arms.

Both of them look murderous, scarily calm as they both ask Mare for the flowers.

HE REFUSES!!!!!!!

“B-But… I wanna m-m-marry Ainz-sama some… some day too….”

AINZ IS CHOKING

DEMIURGE IS TRYING NOT TO LAUGH

THE TWO FEMALE GUARDIANS ARE SpeaCHLESS!!!

Ainz ends up having to teach Aura and Mare about marriage, giving them a quick parent talk.

In the end, it’s still undecided. Mare still not wanting to give it up and Aura not letting him, after all, he caught it fair and square.

The two slow dance, it’s so romantic. Everyone is partnered up with somebody.

Even Cocytus is out there dancing with Entoma.

To be honest the party is fantastic and is certainly the gossip of Nazarick for the next couple of months.

Ainz couldn’t feel more in love than he does with Demiurge, the two act a whole lot more lovey-dovey.

They keep up their professional appearances still, but when around allies will playfully call each other pet names.

Mostly demiurge, Ainz is just so shy… actually exclusively demiurge. Ainz is too flustered and too introverted for his own good.

“As you request, my love.”

Also Demiurge, to Ainz’s bewilderment, seems to still condone the idea of multiple spouses… Albedo isn’t keeping this fact a secret either.

Please, someone, help Papa Bones.

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devinclaire · 5 years

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You're Invited to a Sexy Garden Party: New Moon in Taurus Horoscopes

Usually the Taurus New Moon is when we slow down after we’ve set fire to things during Aries season. However this year there’s a lot of lightening energy happening in Taurus, so now instead of lighting matches as we did during Aries season, you’re throwing lightening bolts during Taurus season, and instead of the energy shifting to a slower pace, it’s only ramping up.

Nevertheless Taurus is still the sign of lounging in paradise. Speaking of frenetic energy, it’s especially the revolutionaries who need this rest and replenish to go back into the fight. This New Moon see yourself as the sexy warrior you are (because, what’s sexier than championing the most beautiful thing-justice?), and that you’re invited to a fabulous garden party. Twinkling lights are strung through the trees, delectable food is served on fine China plates, you’ve put down your shield to wear a frilly frock, and you’re ready to chat with the other party goers about their current journeys toward freedom.

Be careful, sharing such radical ideas under the stars can lead to emblazzoned hearts and the desire to pleasure and comfort. Enjoy what you get yourself into!

On to the horoscopes! Don’t forget to read your Sun sign and your Rising sign.

Aries- The Taurus New Moon is about radical new ways of acquiring wealth and taking your concept of self-worth into new directions. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to come up with a fiery new idea (if you do great, but you can also get this idea from closer to home). Have you been meaning to learn more about the ins and outs of your bank account, what it means to grow good credit, and financial literacy in general? Now is the time. Self care for you may not look like lounging at the spa as your favorite Taurus Moon friend loves to do. It does look like a way in which you connect with the earth. Maybe a good hike through the back country, or down a path by a body of water is exactly what you crave.

Taurus- Happy New Moon birthday! There have been so many surprises leading up to your birthday season you don’t even know what to do with yourself. See this New Moon as a new beginning where you have gotten your footing and are accepting of the fact that there are going to be big changes for you over the course of this year, and the next 8 years too. A huge restructuring is happening around your philosophies. Something you once fully believed in no longer makes sense. Do a New Moon birthday ritual to set yourself on the course of this journey toward your new Truth. With the energy that currently surrounds you, things might be looking a little gray one day, and with some small tweaking, lightening strikes, and you find you’re in a whole new reality.

Gemini- On the outside you’re your usual cheerful self, yet little do others know on your spiritual side mystical things are brewing. You’re getting flashes of intuition like nobody’s business. You have a sense of the outcome of a situation before it even happens. This is a great New Moon to do a ritual around starting a new spiritual practice around manifestation. Oftentimes you’re not quite sure what you want, you’re curious about everything! This New Moon, you know exactly what you want and how achieving this will make you feel. Conjure away.

Cancer- This is a very fated New Moon for you. You’ve been tasked with a lot of responsibility lately, It might feel overwhelming, but know it’s coming at you for a reason. This year will be one you’ll remember as the one when everything changed. This fated New Moon is about the whimsy and magic of what you want, not what you should do, or what your family or friends want for you, no it’s about what strikes your fancy. For your New Moon ritual go outside and wish on a star, have it be something you’re really passionate about, the universe is listening.

Leo- Something is dawning in your career. Look for where lightening is striking and when thunder rumbles, the storm of abundance is on it’s way. Don’t be afraid to get strategic about it, mark you calendar, and make a list of what needs to get done, prepare as if you’re already crazy successful with this endeavor. For other signs, the New Moon in Taurus lets the bud blossom before it’s picked for its big day bouquet, with it’s positioning in your chart and the added zap of Uranium energy just know that it’s a little different for you- you’re not waiting for a summer bouquet, right now for this New Moon, when it rains, it pours.

Virgo- It doesn’t take much to make you feel like you’ve left the world behind you and that you’re in a foreign land. Some friends need to book international flights, and while you’re all about that, and the energy is with you if you plan to do so, a good spa day will transport you as well. Once you’re refreshed you’re ready to mingle the a soiree that holds ideas in the highest honor. This is the time of year when others come to you with plans and stories that they want you to collaborate on. With this waxing Moon it’s a nice to to say “Yes” to anything that sparks you’re fancy over the next two weeks.

Libra- If anyone likes being invited to a party, it’s you. You’ve been working on yourself and you’re ready to show-out. Last Moon cycle you were developing your most committed relationships. Now that it’s the Taurus Moon cycle you’re focussing on what calls to your soul, and what excites your soul is pure pleasure. This season is all about honoring your pleasure points. This may involve sneaking back to the main house at the garden party and getting to know this person you’ve recently committed to better behind closed doors while the party goes on.

Scorpio- Big changes are taking place in your romantic life, and with other very close relationships. People are coming in and out of your life at the speed of ligtening. This is fine though, recently you find it easier to express your opinions and desires in relatable terms to those who sometimes feel uncomforatble with your deepness. Little do they know you’re just making room for your desires by spending less time with, and energy on them to get what you truly want. At this point you really don’t have time to humour any smallness. When thinking about creating new relationships and/or stronger bonds, go toward someone and activites that make you feel free.

Sagittarius- The way you nurture yourself everyday is your focus this Taurus Moon cycle. Remember, if you’re not experiencing pleasure and sensuality on the daily you wilt. You need the luxurious things in life to keep you energized as you go on your life quest. This Moon cycle in particular is tied to preparing for a changing of tides in your life. You’re starting a new quest that serves your pleasure. You might hestitate because it feels frivolous. Know that if it feels like a fluffy confection that it’s a step down the right path, this is destiny.

Capricorn- Lately things haven’t been especially easy with the deluge of energy coming at you from the abyss. It’s like the ghost of 10,000 past lives rose up to chase you into what you’re truly meant to do this lifetime, never letting you go back to the land of demons. Necessary, but not necessarliy fun. Well, here’s the Taurus New Moon happeing in your House of friends, fun, and creativity. While you sip Champange at the garden party please consider what great work of art is lying in your subconcious waiting to break free through your heart. All this suffering and growth you’ve recently dealt with needs to be expressed in an artistic way. It will let you process and let others know they’re not alone.

Aquarius- Usually you like to be the social butterfly of the party, but at this gathering you’re going to find a nice vine covered bench and get cozy on one of it’s cushions. A natural leader, others will flock to you. You’re a homebody this Moon cycle. Little do others know, it’s truly where you find the most comfort. If you’ve been having home troubles in terms of buying a home, rent, home repair expect it to remedy over the next two weeks. You’ve gotten used to the lightening energy that seems to be coming right from under your feet. Choose to ride the electricity out with ease, and remember it’s all for your favor.

Pisces- This Taurus New Moon provides the soil needed for you to plant your dreams and sprinkle them with water. This is the first step toward something big. Just remember that big things are made up of many small steps. This step is power charged to position you to go in the right direction, don’t let this opportunity pass. This is a great time to write down your ideas and communicate them with your community. The key is to get the word out whether it’s through lyrics, poetry, a novel, or a blog post. They’ve been waiting for something from you and now here’s a lovely energy to present it.

#aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #aquarius #pisces #horoscopes #horoscope #taurusseason #taurusnewmoon

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