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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

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Warning: This post contains spoilers for Loki episode 5.

The penultimate episode of Loki introduced several new variations on its titular mischief-maker — including Jack Veal's Kid Loki, Deobia Oparei's Boastful Loki, and Tom Hiddleston's ill-fated President Loki. But of all these new faces, perhaps the most memorable was Richard E. Grant's aptly-named Classic Loki — an older, world-weary version of the Asgardian god we know and love.

Decked out in the familiar green-and-yellow suit from the comics, Grant's Loki is older and perhaps a bit wiser than his younger counterparts. Years of isolation have left him disillusioned and lonely, missing his brother Thor, but that spark of mischief is still buried deep underneath — and he ultimately sacrifices himself to help Loki (Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) escape the Void.

It's a delightful showcase for the 64-year-old Grant, who says he's thrilled to be able to carve out his own chaotic corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ahead of the series finale this week, EW caught up with Grant to break down his big sacrifice — as well as his newfound friendship with Owen Wilson and his pitch for a Loki spin-off series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To start, I have to ask about your costar: How was working with Alligator Loki?

RICHARD E. GRANT: Alligator Loki was fantastic because in reality, he was three stuffed sofa cushions that had been sewn roughly together to react to. [Laughs] The fact that I was the only person that could understand what he was saying was just fantastic. I think it's the perfect segue into having Classic Old Loki and Alligator Loki as a sub-series to go to next.

So it's safe to say that you would be willing to reprise this character down the line?

If I had a muscle suit, most certainly. I was denied that. I saw the costume design, and I was very familiar with Jack Kirby's original illustrations from the '60s, so I thought, "Ah, this guy's got muscles!" As I had been born without any, I was finally going to get in a muscle suit. I got to Atlanta [to begin filming], and they said, "There's no muscle suit! You're just wearing this!" I said, "But I look like Kermit the Frog!" They said, "Nope, you're not having a muscle suit." So I was very, very upset about that. [Laughs] Short-changed!

I was going to ask about your first impression when you first put on the costume!

That's what I asked: Where are the muscles? Where are the Stallone/Schwarzeneggers here? Because they're missing! This is what people will expect! This was in the costume drawing, and they're not here, and I don't have them! I was very upset.

When they first asked you to join the show, what was that initial pitch like?

I had known Tom Hiddleston socially for some years, and we'd always joked that we could feasibly play father and son because of our vague physical similarities and hairlines, certainly. So when I got this offer at the beginning of last year, before COVID, I thought, "Alright, this is that moment that I had hoped would come at some point." I thought I would play his father, but I'm playing a variant of him. So that's how that came about. I was thrilled.

Tom has been playing his version of Loki for a decade now. Did you get any guidance from him, or have any conversations with him that you found particularly helpful?

He is a walking Loki-pedia, so he was very, very informative about the whole etymology and the history of the Norse gods and Loki. He's also brilliant at imitating people. He goes on chat shows and imitates famous actors absolutely to the letter. I don't have that talent. So when I read the script of episode 5 that I was offered, I saw that [this older version of Loki] described himself in his backstory of being the god of outcasts — rather than the god of mischief, which is so absolutely embedded in Tom's interpretation of the role. So I thought, well, [if he's] the god of outcasts and is somebody who's been isolated for years and living on these planets and is willing to betray himself by going back and being arrested by the TVA and making the ultimate sacrifice, offering himself up to Asgard, I thought, well, this is somebody who is more in the twilight zone of his life, as am I. As opposed to a young man, who's full of mischief still.

So, I thought that was a way into interpreting this character, rather than trying to do — and something I couldn't possibly succeed at doing — a pale imitation of Tom Hiddleston.

I'd imagine that would be tricky, but it would also be a fun challenge: You're basically sharing scenes with all these different versions of the same character.

Exactly right. And I love the fact that he was the one person who could communicate with the alligator. I love that.

So would you now consider yourself fluent in alligator?

Indeed. I am the Doctor Dolittle of the Marvel universe when it comes to speaking to alligators. I speak alligator fluently. Put that in the contract of when I'm doing a series as Classic Old Loki, with muscles and the alligator. It'll have subtitles, so the audience can hear what the alligator is saying, and everyone else is saying, "What is he saying? What is he talking about?" That'll be the way.

I also wanted to ask about your big finale, where we see your Loki conjure Asgard. What do you remember most about filming that final moment?

Huge wind machines, blue screen in every direction, and following a camera on a crane that was maneuvering around the ceiling of the studio, and then swooping down. I was having to shout at it, and then finally laugh in the face of my own immolation. So it was a great thing to do, with these huge air turbine wind machines that were blowing four tons of air at me from every direction. It was exhilarating.

Did you have any practical elements around you at all, or did you have to imagine and conjure it all yourself?

Most of it you had to imagine. The actual landscape that you walked on was real grass and this sort of rocky landscape, but all the other elements — all the ships and all that stuff — was put in afterwards. We didn't see any of that.

The Loki palace that looked like a sort of bowling alley, that was all for real. Everything that you see in that scene was actually built and practical.

Was it chaotic to film in the bowling alley with all those different versions of Loki, bickering and bantering?

Because there was so much action involved, it was paint-dryingly slow, because action takes much longer to do than five pages of dialogue. I prefer talking, as I'm not exactly an action man, as you can see. [Laughs]

Was there anything about joining the Marvel universe that you weren't expecting or that really surprised you?

I didn't expect to find true love with Owen Wilson. We're having a surrogate baby together in October.

Oh, congratulations!

He was just so hilarious to work with. He's just one of the greatest characters I've ever met. He is so open and curious and amenable, with this sort of dry sense of humor. There seemed to be no divide between Owen Wilson acting his part and then just being Owen Wilson. I don't know if he was scamming me, but he was an absolute delight. I loved him.

Was there a particularly memorable day on set with him?

Yes, when we conceived our twins. [Laughs] No, my daughter encouraged me to post this thing on Twitter and Instagram, where he said, "Richard, I'm going to give you some acting advice. Put your camera on." I said, "Yes, okay!" I owe him for that because it got like 640,000 views already in a few days, which on my Instagram feed is off the chart. It's nothing for Beyoncé, but for mine, I'm pretty gobsmacked.

#Richard E. Grant #Classic Loki #Alligator Loki #agent mobius #mobius m mobius #tom hiddleston #interview

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nopefun · 3 years

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Interview #495: Quince Pan

q: Give a short introduction of yourself: a: I am Quince Pan, a documentary photographer born in 2000, currently based in Singapore. I am now waiting to enter university to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

q: What is your series "JBM" about? What was the process of making the series? a: “JBM”, my family’s abbreviation of “Jalan Bukit Merah”, is a documentary photo project centred on my maternal grandmother, Lau Giok Niu, her cultural heritage and her HDB flat where I spent my childhood under her care. It is my first exhibited series and also my first serious long-term documentary project.

In 2015, I followed my grandmother to visit her hometown in Fengwei, Quangang District, Quanzhou City, Fujian, China. Bringing my camera along on the trip, I noticed that instead of shooting purely for fun or beauty, I would include certain objects (for example, a calendar on the wall) in my frames because they had historical significance. I submitted those Fengwei photos as my portfolio for the 2016 Noise Art Mentorship (Photography and Moving Images). I got selected, and my mentor, Jean Qingwen Loo, urged me to pursue a project which I could speak authentically about. Through her criticism, I learnt to further prioritise meaning over style. My grandmother and my childhood were topics close to my heart, especially as she cared for me during my childhood and gave me the gift of the 头北 Thâu-pak dialect, a unique variant of Hokkien from the Quangang District. Eventually, “JBM” was born as my mentorship capstone, and was exhibited at the “Between Home and Home” Noise Art Mentorship Showcase at Objectifs in 2017. I haven’t stopped shooting; that’s why it’s an ongoing long-term project!

“JBM” contains a range of visual styles, ranging from photojournalistic fly-on-the-wall documentations of heated family discussions and visits by distant relatives from China to more tender images of sunlight at the void deck where my late grandfather’s wake was held in 2006. Rituals and festivities are anthropologically significant, so I pay particular attention to Chinese New Year, the Qing Ming Festival and the Winter Solstice, which my family celebrates. I also look at how other photographers document their families: Bob Lee, Nicky Loh, Bernice Wong, Brian Teo and Nancy Borowick.

More broadly, “JBM'' extends beyond photography and is a family history project. Since 2013, I have been researching the Quangang district, 头北 Thâu-pak dialect and my grandmother’s clan. I discovered that other descendants from her clan established an ancestral temple in Singapore, which initially stood on Craig Road but is now housed in a flat in Telok Blangah. I already did some fieldwork, interviews and preliminary documentation, which led to an article I published in April 2021 in Daojia: Revista Eletrônica de Taoismo e Cultura Chinesa. Maybe I will explore this in greater depth in future photo projects!

q: How did you get into photography? a: When I was around seven years old, I loved to play with my father’s Fujifilm compact. As a young student, I hadn’t heard of terms such as “light painting”, “Dutch angle” and “rule of thirds”, but those were the techniques I subconsciously used in my photographs.

I entered the Noise Art Mentorship, as previously mentioned. During the school holidays, I worked as a media intern at Logue and as an assistant at Objectifs for the “Passing Time” exhibition and book by Lui Hock Seng. Through these work experiences, I learnt so much from Jean Loo, Yang Huiwen, Ryan Chua, Lim Mingrui and Chris Yap: news angles, editorial writing, scanning and touching up negatives and slides, colour management for print, liaising with clients and issuing invoices, among other skills. As part of the Noise Art Mentorship, I was given a copy of “+50” by the PLATFORM collective, which opened my eyes to diverse approaches within the documentary genre. I started to regularly attend talks at Objectifs and DECK, where I got to know people in the local photography scene, particularly in the documentary tradition.

q: You also do videography. How do you see it in relation to your photography? a: Videography requires a different way of seeing and thinking compared to photography, because video has additional temporal and auditory dimensions. With photography, I don’t have to think about how long I want a scene to be, what foley and B-roll I want to overlay, or have a storyboard in my head before heading out to shoot. In that sense, photography is more reactive to and receptive of situational contingencies because it requires less pre-planning.

Also, photography can be a solitary endeavour, but it is quite difficult to make films alone, and the schoolmates I used to make films with have since embarked on separate paths in life. However, photography and videography share the same basics as visual media: composition and sequencing.

Fundamentally, I see myself as a documentarian, and this applies to any medium I work in, be it photography or videography, or even writing. The end goal is to record and share history by telling stories from lesser-known perspectives. Thus, the topics of my video projects are similar to the topics of my photo projects; sometimes I do both side by side! The films I made were all documentary shorts of places which do not exist anymore, such as the Hup Lee coffee shop at 114 Jalan Besar and the old Sembawang Hot Spring before NParks took over the site from MINDEF and redeveloped it.

Currently, I am working as a videographer for Sing Lit Station’s poetry.sg archive. Thankfully, this job can be done solo!

q: What or who is inspiring you right now? a: Bob Lee, for being an amazing father and spreading hope and joy to others through his images. Alex and Rebecca Webb, for pairing literature with photography. Tom Brenner, for approaching photojournalism like street photography. Sim Chi Yin, for her international achievements and being both an academic and a practitioner. Brian Teo, for being an eminent contemporary. Last but not least, Kevin WY Lee’s advice, “CPR: Craft, Point, Rigour”, which I try to benchmark my work against.

q: Upcoming projects or ideas? a: Nothing concrete on my mind so far. I am just going to see where life takes me and what topics life makes me want to explore or talk about.

q: Any music to recommend? a: First and foremost, my fight song: “倔强 Stubborn” by Mayday. A close second, Queen’s 1986 “Under Pressure” live performance at Wembley is a transformative experience. The catchy “他夏了夏天 He Summered Summer” by Sodagreen brings out the grandeur in the mundane. “Silhouette” by KANA-BOON and “Everybody’s Changing” by Keane remind me of the fragility of life and time. I also like The Fray, Kings of Leon, Last Dinosaurs, Stephanie Sun, Tanya Chua, and the Taiwanese indie band DSPS.

his website.

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#Quince Pan #nope fun #photographer interview #singaporean photographer #photo documentary

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palbabor-writes · 3 years

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oh my god! your writing is amazingggg. may i please have a creepy! shiggy, dabi or hawks whichever one is easier for you where they really like the reader so they do yk normal creepy stuff like stealing her underwear and humping her bed and one day they get caught and they thought she’d be disgusted but she’s lowkey into it and she’s just super sweet and praising and a HUGE SERVICE TOP. I think they just need some good pussy 😔 if you decide to do this then THANK YOUUUU

｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ you’re too nice nonnie & tysm. i’m glad you’re here!

warnings: general degeneracy, masterbation, handjobs, SMUT, panty sniffin’

You make a point to leave your room unlocked.

Oh, you’ll switch it up, every so often, just so he has something to work for, but you prefer to pressure him with a time crunch instead of a locked door. It’s always so much fun. You make a show of dashing up the steps, feet thudding heavily on the warped wood. Then, right when you’re on the threshold, gosh, how could you be so daft, so thoughtless! You’d left your supplies downstairs, again! You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached to your shoulders. Silly, silly, silly.

The display does what you need it to, namely, giving him the chance to slink away. He’s always whisper quiet when he creeps into your space, it’s a miracle you’d caught him. But, even super-villains find themselves on the back foot sometimes, and boy, was he clumsy about this.

It wasn’t like him. That was the slip up. No, his one, original, mistake was a simple one.

He’d left evidence of his arousal, of his lewd, heated, heart thudding, want. It was tacky, sticky, absolutely dripping with the milky residue of him. He’d tried to bury it deep, pressing it down into the bowels of your hamper, likely praying that it would remain hidden and you wouldn’t question it further when you did stumble upon it, hopefully weeks later.

You didn’t like to leave your hamper open and you certainly never, ever, left it beside your bed. It had been another long day and, at first, you’d only given it a swift glance, replaying the events of the night before. Maybe you’d lugged it over, too tired to pace the small distance? You had been in a rush. It was plausible.

Kicking your boots to the floor, you raise a hand to lower the lid of your plastic hamper when you spot the cascade of clothing. Again, it’s a tiny, tiny, fragment, but he should know better. It’s your job to notice the small, the obscure. Retcon is your bread and butter and this is too much, too tempting to ignore.

Fingers follow the hollowed space his arm has left behind and you hit the panties, seconds later. They’re warm, wet, and you clutch them into your palm and pull.

Fuck.

The lace is soaking. Fresh lines of cum run in thick rivulets, falling down your upturned hand and along your wrist, dribbling onto your bare feet. For a moment, you can’t seem to process the image that’s before you, your mind whirring through the possibilities, the faces. Who...no...which one of them did this?

The next morning, you’re quiet. It’s not unnatural. After all, it’s freaking 7 am, no one at the bar is talking. As you sip on your chilled, canned, coffee, your eyes carefully size up the men who are lounged around you.

Shigaraki is perusing a newspaper, the pallid hand of father obscuring his face, but you can still catch sight of the red glint of his eyes. He looks bored. He hadn’t even looked up when you walked in, his back bowed and head down, engrossed in his search.

Dabi is perched on one of the dilapidated couches, his long legs curled under him, flicking a bashed lighter, open and closed, open and closed. Like Shigaraki, he hadn’t lifted his gaze to you at first. He had, however, answered a question. Just the one, when you’d asked him if he had found any newbies, any potential recruits. He’d snarked his reply, his cerulean irises latching onto you with a cruel sharpness. No was his answer and you hadn’t pressed for any further elaboration.

Compress was shuffling a deck of cards. Spinner was ticking through his phone. Twice was chittering with Toga. Nothing was out of the ordinary. You finish your breakfast and tell them that you’re heading out.

No one replies.

******

Unsurprisingly, it happened again.

It’s a different pair of panties but the glisten of the cum is the same. So is the lowered placement, the bevel of the clothes, and the position of the hamper. However, it’s a little more calculated this time around. The lid is closed and there are no traces of his entry, no cuts or nicks on the door handle or key hole, no scattering of your things, no dip on your bed. There’s nothing.

Alright. Two can play at this game.

The hamper is moved, strategically maneuvered into the bathroom that your room holds. You’re careful to leave the lid propped. It looks haphazard, but it takes a precise click of the plastic to lock it into that position. You’ll be able to tell if it’s been moved.

You tug your panties out of your dresser and count them, noting the colors, patterns, the imperfections in the lace. If you’re going to do this, you need to know what you’re working with. The inventory must be precise, each variant recognized and tallied.

Every day, it’s a rinse and repeat process. Yank the flutter of fabrics out, spread them across your sheets and count. It’s tedious, bordering on annoying, but you wanna know. It’s like an itch. It sits right where you can’t reach and it tickles at the back of your mind. Besides, you’ve always liked a good puzzle. Although, this isn’t quite what you had in mind, you’ll take it and you’ll solve it, if it’s the last thing you do.

Two days after you start this mind-numbing task, four pairs go missing.

******

It’s late when you stumble back into the hideout, padding past the darkened bar and up the steps. The mission, despite its lower ranking, and pay, you think bitterly, had taken almost three days. Thankfully, the information you’d gleaned was worth it, but you’re exhausted. You’re wiping a sleepy hand across your face when you notice your door.

It’s ajar.

Instinctually, you fall to your haunches, tip toeing toward the crack, eyes narrowed, fingers curled into fists. The room is pitch black but there’s something, no, someone, in there. You can make out their outline. It’s a jagged cut that sits upon your bed and you can hear the tiny hitches and groans that they’re gasping out.

As your eyes adjust, you can see more. Your knees fall to the floor, digging into the wood and you steady yourself against the wall, eyes wide. He’s propped along your pillows and his hand is working over himself, using the friction of another pair of your panties to rub himself to completion. You can’t make out the exact shape of his cock but from the rapid fire tugs of his fist you can tell it’s long. It must be thick too, since he needs to adjust his pulls toward the tip.

He’s quiet, but you can still hear the catches and moans he’s making. Your name slips out too and the utterance makes your mouth go dry. So that’s who it is. Well, wonders never cease.

In the months that you’d known him, he hasn’t paid you much mind. Even through the haze of this strange obsession, he hasn’t altered his day to day routine, hasn’t broken character, hasn’t spoken to you unless the situation absolutely called for it.

Damn. It’s too much, it’s way, way...no. No. It’s not that it’s too much, you think, mesmerized by the sight that’s splayed across your sheets. It’s nowhere near enough.

You want to march in there, yank your soiled panties off his dick and hear what kind of noises he would make for you then. Would he shove you off, or would he welcome your notice? Either way, he’s too close now.

His hips have started to rut upwards, unable to resist the rhythm he’s created. The moans have drifted into hisses and his back arches when he cums, those familiar ropes of white splashing across the pastel of your lace. He’s careful to catch the drops, pinching the end of his cock and shuddering at the overstimulation. As he sits up, you cautiously rise, unsteady on your wobbling legs.

You’re halfway down the stairs when your door shuts. His footsteps recede down the hallway and you can hear him as he thuds into his own space, the click of his lock reverberating in your ears.

******

Thus, the game of cat and mouse continues.

Outwardly, neither of you reveal your hand, keeping your cards close to the chest, out of each others line of sight. Your door locks, unlocks, and you keep losing more panties. You’ve marked the one that will make the difference. It’s your new, favorite, pair. You haven’t worn them yet, but they’re a lush item, expensive, luxuriant, an excess that you don’t usually allow yourself. You’d purchased them the day after you’d finally caught sight of him. You couldn’t help it.

Most people, you reason, would be horrified by this situation, but not you. Oh no, you’re so turned on you can barely sleep. You start to masterbate in the early evening, when you know the others are moving around, your fingers trailing past your dampened curls, a careful fingernail pricking along your clit. You’ve even left your door open, cracked, welcoming the attention of anyone passing by. Once, you could have sworn you’d heard him. The whisper of that gasp, imagined or not, had bowled you over, your thighs clamping around your wrist, your cunt pulsing around nothing, hungry, slathering, desperate for more.

You want to just toss those panties on your bed and provoke the interaction. Goddamnit, how much longer is he gonna make you wait?

******

Not even 24 hours later, they’re gone.

He’s getting reckless, too. Your hamper is knocked over, the dresser drawer that holds your underwear is a crumpled mess, and he’s deliberately left a vacant hole where the panties used to lay. It’s screaming for your attention and you can feel your heartbeat thrumming against your breast.

Finally.

The next mission you’re assigned is easy, too easy. It’s mid-afternoon and there’s no reason for you to be back this early. Well, that’s an oversimplification. There is a perfectly excellent reason for you to be back, you’re just hoping the sliver of intel that was dropped for you will pay off.

Apparently, while the rest of you were out pounding the pavement, he’s elected to stay behind. He had something he needed to take care of.

“It sounded important,” Toga informed you, her voice lilting, rising with that sharp toothed smile of hers.

“Why are you telling me this,” you’d asked her, biting your lip and crossing your legs, soothing the throb that’s pricking in your core.

“He just told me to tell you, didn’t ask him anything more. You know how he is. He can be, prickly,” Toga winks, popping her head to the side, bouncing her golden locks.

“Alright,” you reply, adding a mask of disdain and disinterest to your performance. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

Lies, lies.

So many fucking lies, but he must know that you realize, that you know. Why else enlist Toga? He hated having to lay things out. No, he must know, he has to.

The bar is empty and the upper floors are deathly still.

Your door is sensibly shut but you can make out his jerks, his gasps, and those choked whimpers that echo past the flimsy wood. Your hand catches against the knob and you take one, last, steadying breath.

Here we go.

When you swing the door open he startles upward, his white hair curtaining the flush of his cheeks. Those vermillion irises land on you and he vaults away, nearly tumbling off the side of your bed. His pants are still bunched around his thighs, so that hinders him from making a true getaway. As he’s fumbling with the dark material, you don’t miss the shake of his hands and the spread of that lovely blush.

Oh, this is too perfect.

Before he can finish tucking himself back in his pants, you’re dashing across the top of your bed, ignoring the discarded panties, ignoring the dark glare that he gives you, ignoring everything but that heated bulge that’s giving him so much trouble.

Impatient, your fingers curl around his wrists and you use the millisecond of surprise that your swift action has gifted you. With a low gasp, he falls forward, his knees sinking into the softness of your mattress. One hand lowers to brace himself, but he’s careful to keep a finger arched away, preserving the permanence of your bed. Before he can get his bearings, you’re pressing him onto his back, straddling his lean hips and lowering those dark pants back down.

His cock, badly concealed by the upper line of his boxers, springs out, curving proudly toward his muscled stomach. For his part, Shigaraki squirms under you, his scarred lip set in a forbidding scowl. His deadly hands lower to yours, but you ignore his unspoken threat, knocking his trembling digits away. Your fingers lace around his cock, squeezing at the heft of him, stroking up the spidery veins and grooves until he’s dropping his defiant head back against your sheets.

“Wh-what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growls, his raspy voice halting over the question.

“Who? Me?” you laugh, tugging a few more gasps from his shaking lips. There’s a pale strand of precum that’s leaking from his tip and you brush your thumb over it, gathering it against the pad and using it to ease your motions. His hips buck up and he shoves himself into your fist, a long string of curses slipping through his clenched teeth.

“I don’t think you get to ask that, dear leader,” you tease, leaning over his prone form. You’re glad he’s forgone wearing that creepy hand. It hadn’t even come into your calculations of how all of this would go. “No, not with the way you’ve been behaving.”

“I-I didn’t...fuck–”

“What? Didn’t think I’d find out?”

“You’re not supposed to be here. I sent you on that– ah– that mission for a reason,” Shigaraki bites out, shifting away from your close inspection. You smile at his discomfort and cup your free hand around his chin, yanking him back to you, forcing him to look up.

“That’s too bad, cus’ I finished early. Looks like I’m just that good, huh?”

He’s seething up at you, his eyes gleaming in the low light of your room, but he’s not making any attempts to leave. He may want to, but it seems his body has other plans. His cock is swelling as you pick up your tempo, your fingers clenching and releasing as you go, edging him along.

“You ever fucked a girl?” you ask, leaning back to admire the tense enjoyment of the man under you. The muscles of his stomach, coil and writhe, flexing each time you hit his tip and relaxing as you make the swift pass back down.

“N-no,” he moans, jerking his hips up, silently demanding that you pick up the pace.

“Did you want to?” you whisper, lowering to his face again, letting your soft lips trace along his temple. His skin is rough, but you like the contrast. Shigaraki seems to enjoy it too, his eyes slipping behind his eyelids as he turns toward you. When he doesn’t answer, you slow the hand that’s passing over the strain of his length. Shigaraki hisses at the shift and his eyes pop open again. They burn as they blaze up at you, clearly echoing his displeasure.

“Asked you a question,” you scold. He’s quiet for a long breath, but, after a few tense seconds, he lowers his eyes and nods, his jaw tight. “Should I take that as a yes?”

“I want you to fuck me,” Shigaraki grumbles, flashing a quick glare your way. “Was that clear enough for you?”

“Yes, sir,” you reply, one delicate eyebrow arching at his disgruntled expression.

“Don’t fucking call me that,” he huffs, grimacing as you lift your hand from him, freeing yourself to yank your shirt off.

“What do you want me to call you?” you ask, unbuttoning your jeans and easing them down the curve of your hips.

“My fucking name.”

“Shigaraki?”

“No. Tomura,” he replies, his voice falling into that deep rasp again. He’s watching you closely and you grin down at his frank assessment.

“Alright, Tomura,” you begin, testing out the unfamiliar acknowledgement. “Let’s make this good for you, hmm? What are you wanting to try first?”

He’s silent and you can hear the grinding of his teeth. “What’s better for you?”

Oh. Well, that’s not a question you were expecting. “For me? Uh, I guess I prefer to be on top. Let’s me control things and–”

“So do that,” he shrugs, finally peeling those dark pants off his long legs. He leaves his shirt on, but it doesn’t matter, if you’re riding him it’s not like you can’t tuck your hands under the tattered fabric.

“After acting like such a creep, you’re being pretty nonchalant about all of this,” your fingers wander along his sides and he shudders again, his neck bowing off the bedding.

“You’re one to fucking talk. Think I didn’t know what you were doing?”

“Ha! Well, well. No wonder you took my bait so easily. When did you figure me out?”

“That night you sat outside your door and watched me,” his hands raise to your hips and he urges you to hurry up, grunting when your dripping cunt traces over his tip. “Then you left your fucking door open. Not just once, either, no, you did it for days. It was a whole fucking week of that shit. Didn’t even need to steal a pair of your slutty little panties to smell you then. You reeked. I could smell you from my room.”

You laugh, helping him to press up and he glides into you, stretching you, radiating a satisfying ache along the slippery heat of your walls. His legs lift and his hands fall from your hips. Once you’re fully seated, your pelvis flush with his, you give him a few gulping breaths.

“Ahh, fuck, oh– fucking damn it. Ohh, this feels nice. God, you feel so fucking good,” he mumbles, his voice falling into a hysterical edge. You bite your lip and raise up on your knees, making sure you grip him tightly as you go. Another mantra of obscenities drop from his lips and his feet brace against the bed, his hips rutting blindly as you begin that slow lift and lower.

“How’s that?” you query, moaning when he returns those broad hands to your hips. His reply is a sharp thrust and you’re tipped forward, forced to sprawl over him, fingers digging for purchase in his dark shirt. He grunts at the weight of you but he keeps his pace up, using the bed as leverage.

You’re so close to him and you can’t help but reach for his face, suddenly desperate to feel his lips against yours. He doesn’t fight your hold, but he does let out a long groan when you tentatively kiss him. It’s slow at first and you’re very conscious of those dangerous hands of his. They’re still braced against your hips, but the four digits are starting to dig into your skin, sinking into the vulnerable dips until you’re whining.

He’s unsure, so you help him along.

You suck and nip at him, teasing him until he’s raising his head for more. Finally, one of those powerful hands detaches from your waist and he snatches at the back of your neck, insisting that you let him explore you further. After a time, you need air more than you need his lips, so you shake yourself free, pulling away and grinding your hips down as he ruts into you again.

“Not bad,” you tell him, grinning when he swipes his tongue over his swollen lips, his eyes lifting to peer up at you curiously. “Want me to take it up a notch?”

“No,” he replies sharply. “I like this.”

You snort at his blunt response and give him what he’s asked for. You keep the drags of your lifts slow, enjoying how he throbs and swells inside you. Each time you rise, you roll your hips and he sighs at every minor clench that your pussy does. After a time, you can’t ignore the pulsations of your impatient clit, so your fingers trail downward, delicately rolling and grinding against the bud.

Tomura tilts his head at this and his hazy vermillion snags your attention. “Does...does that feel good?”

For a second, you’re unsure what he means, but when his hand ghosts over yours, you realize. “Mmhm,” you gasp, giving yourself a quicker tweak, delighting in the widening of his eyes when your cunt flushes another wave of arousal around him. It slicks between your thighs and pools around his pelvis, gleaming against the dark curls that rest there.

“Lemme try,” he demands, batting your hand away and replacing your fingers with his own. He’s clumsy and he’s not expecting it to be that slippery, but he’s a quick study and he watches your face expectantly each time he tries something different.

“Y-you’re doing so good, Tomura,” you praise, lingering on his name, pleased that he reacts so positively to it. “Just a little bit...oh fuck...yeah, right there is perfect.”

You’re not being facetious either, he’s honestly killing you with those earnest looks and careful prods. Each time you gasp, he presses just a fraction more, testing out his new skills and expanding on them. As a reward, you keep the positive reinforcement coming, calling out his name as you fuck him into you, loving how he keeps pulsating and groaning each time you sink down.

A thin misting of sweat is beading over both of you, but you ignore the heat, too close to care that you’re starting to falter a bit in your rhythm. Tomura is panting also, losing some of that focus as he races toward his own release.

“Harder, ride me fucking harder, (Y/N),” he commands. The sight of him gasping and groaning out your name gives you an idea. You acquiesce to his demand but as you start those quick pumps your fingers reach behind you, searching for something that you think he’ll like even more.

Ah-ha!

It’s an older pair, not as frilly as the one’s you’d saved for him, but you’ve been wearing them all day, so that scent he was complaining about should be nice and ripe. His eyes have winced shut, so the flop of your lace panties startles him. He tenses for a second, but once he notices what you’ve given him a wicked smirk curls his lips. Instantly, his hand leaves your clit and he presses the fabric to his face, huffing heavily against the crotch.

“You fucking tease,” he groans, his tongue tracing along the seams, lapping at the thin residue that you’ve undoubtedly left behind. “Ahhh, yes. I think I would have rather had you sit on my face, but this will work, for now.”

The threat in his voice makes you shiver and you rock forward as you lower, snagging the sharp edge of his pelvis against your clit. Tomura takes in another deep breath at the sensation, his hand still holding your saliva filled panties to his lips. Just a little bit more. Your fingers tweak and pull, rolling the way you need. The heavy sting of Tomura’s cock is helping too and your pussy greedily begins to tighten around him, earning you a sputtered groan from the man beneath you.

“D-do that again,” he sighs, shifting your panties down his face so he can watch you. Obediently, you flick at your clit again and that stimulation, plus the heady knowledge that Tomura is watching, memorizing every move you make, hurtles you over the edge and you can’t help but slump forward as your orgasm crashes over you. Tomura lets out a guttural moan, flinging your panties away and yanking you to his parted lips. His kiss is frantic, nonsensical, more bites and slurps than any kind of caress, but you fall into his arms, overwrought and too turned on to think.

Once he’s had his fill of your lips, he resumes that steady pounding, his powerful hips canting into you, peppering you with jagged thrusts that leave you gasping.

“What’s the matter?” he taunts, his voice a wild rasp in your ear. “Can’t take anymore? Am I too much for you?”

You don’t trust yourself to reply, already seconds away from another shuddering release. All it takes is the feeling of him swelling and the heat of his cum to reduce you to a gasping mess again. This time, a thin line of drool escapes your lips. Delighted, Tomura snags his hand in your hair, tugging until you’re hovering over him. Gluttonously, he laps at your lips, sucking until you’re not sure who’s making the bigger slob of themselves.

When he’s finished, he rolls you off of him, splaying you out on the bed. As the world falls back into focus, you catch sight of him, leering over you, his white hair cascading around the two of you.

“I don’t think I’m done yet,” he grins, one hand cupping under your jaw. “Besides, you could have given me this weeks ago. I think you owe me a few back payments. Don’t cha’ think?”

notes: ahaha. this is basically a full fledged fic. whoops.

did i have anyone wondering if i was gonna pick Tomura or Dabi?

#asks #answered asks #pal muses #on why she can't write small #it's not hard #except when it is #tomura shigaraki #shigaraki tomura #dabi #touya todoroki #todoroki touya #bnha smut #drabble #kinda?#i refuse to do a word count

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crowcryptid · 2 years

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2nd play through of infinite is done, skulls grabbed this time.

My opinion is still: I enjoy

Incoherent typing and Spoilers under the read more.

No organization you’re getting pure stream of mind ramblings here

But the feeling of “that’s it? That was everything?” Is still there. And yes I know it’s because a huge chunk of the game was cut. I just hope the dlc stuff is substantial chunks of story. I’d rather wait longer and get a decent chunk vs being drip fed new stuff

Definitely had more fun playing it this time around cause it wasn’t on legendary and I wasn’t fighting for my goddamn life at every moment

Was chillin on easy mode and ripping through it all.

Anyway uh yeah I don’t really have much bad to say about it. I did enjoy :]

Things I wish we had gotten:

to see literally any other character besides the main cast. Alive. I get they wanted to keep it simple and not confuse new people but I’d have liked to see any friendly faces besides the marines and gotten to fight alongside them. But I get it, you’re mostly alone and everyone is gone I know. I know.

I’m just sayin. It could have been something as simple as a squad of ODSTs spawning at FOBs. Just someone other than the marines lol. Not that I don’t like them! I always protect my marines and give them power weapons. I just want more buddies! They don’t even have to be named buddies. I will name them myself

Terminals! Not a single terminal here. Sad times.

More weapons! I want a carbine! I want a saw! Gimme the beam rifle! Also fuck it bring back the flamethrower who give a shid why not. I don’t care if it sucks it would be fun

Also I think there should have been vehicle variants like the weapon variants. And just buff the vehicles in general. They all felt weak except for the scorpion and a fully decked out razorback. Also bring back the hornet I miss you king. 2 rocket marines on the side. The wasp could never. Hornet forever.

More stuff I didn’t like:

1) doesn’t feel like you do.. enough. And by that I mean yes you save the day etc but it’s just missing something. Like the story didn’t move enough. Too much setting up. But knowing we are getting dlc story puts me at ease I suppose. I’m waiting so patiently. :)

2) ok so. I do like the weapon. But I felt like the reveal that she was “cortana” was like. Not a reveal? I mean I didn’t think she was exactly the same. I thought she was just a new ai made from the halsey brains blue team got in SoR. I thought it was more of a “they’re like sisters” kind of deal but whatever. Not really a complaint I just thought it was a little weird. I was just like. Uh well. Ok

3) spartan killers were a bit disappointing. Specifically jega. You weren’t supposed to die king. I was going to fix you <3 I really was hoping he would actually be hunting you during the campaign and maybe you do a small fight vs him before he runs off.

4) needs more biomes! Weather! More varied areas! I want snow! Desert! Beaches!

Stuff I did like: mr pilot i would die for you and I’m glad Chief agrees

Also chiefs energy in this game.. oh it’s good. That’s my guy right there. He’s not ok. But he keeps going. I do think they went a little too much on the one liners. Like yes I get that’s kind of his deal But it’s different in 2/3 cause he barely talks in those so it’s allowed lol. But other than that I think it’s a happy middle ground between the more talkative 4 Chief and nearly silent bungie era. And can we please talk about how he completely avoids personal questions the entire time. Sweety. What IS wrong with you. Are you okay? No. Ur not. Also I really like how he is with the pilot. It was nice. They hug :] I smiled like an idiot both times I saw it. Also there’s a few moments where he speaks so softly and i screaming and yelling and hollering- if you played it u know what I’m talking about it’s when he and the weapon are going through the data near the end of the game

Anyway I can keep going but I am incomprehensible and yelling and I love my giant green metal husband but I think he needs to rest for real. The fight is being finished since 2007

Maybe I will change my blog title. It’s been that since like. 2016? 2017? But if I do change it. Later. Ce

#halo #halo infinite #if you read this I’m sorry this is how thoughts appear in my head #i can type whatever and however I want you can’t stop me #as for now. no third play through planned. maybe when co-op comes out.

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visual-explorxtion · 3 years

Text

Scarlet Letter [Chris Redfield x Reader] - One Shot (NSFW)

Summary: In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, your captain, Chris, leads your team to find the research of the latest virus. But, the operation was unsuccessful. 6 months later, you meet him again.

A/N: Coming out of my cage, and I’ve been doing just fine🙃 I’ve shat this out of my ass unfiltered brain and have little to none expectations. Was suppose to be around 2k words but somehow shat out 4k instead. So, please expect nothing but 5 am bad writings🥲

Warning: Explicit content, like, hardcore explicit content if you haven’t catch the drift from the title by now.

Word Count: 4.4k

The scent in the atmosphere reeks of damp and saltiness- stiffening the senses in your nostril. The flooring beneath your heavy boots sways left and right as the hollow hallways creaked and groaned travelling further down the extent. The repetitive flashings of door to door is already making you sick in this dusky labyrinth. It's been 30 minutes since you set foot in this abandoned ship.

Your mission objective: to retrieve documentation and possible samples of the new variant strain of the virus. As easy as a retrieval mission may sound, the location of this requisition is also a motile laboratory. Admittedly, this is a dexterous way to cover any signs of your tracks– especially if what you are making concerns the wellbeing of the world and stirring another biohazardous warfare. But, to you, the work of fighting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is not the most ideal place in the world.

Cautiously trekking through the vessel, you've reached an intersection with hallways splitting into three different directions. A sturdy arm extends in midair, bringing your group to a halt. You all listen attentively, a few faint footsteps and unnatural growling swirls in the air but you can't quite pinpoint its exact location. The limb drops from your vision, instead it turns to face you all. The man's face is ragged, not only from exhaustion but also from the things he has seen through time. And yet, the amber burning in his eyes remains gleaming with hope. Chris Redfield, the captain of this retrieval mission, and your sole mentor since you've been recruited by the BSAA.

Chris glanced over you all once then began to sign with his hands. He splits your group into pairs; one team going left side, your group to the right and himself pushing forward. You all nod in agreement and move out to each direction of the crossroad respectively. Weapons engaged in position, lagging a few steps behind your teammate and check your watch. 0327 hour. Well...for you, time is of the essence.

In search of any signs of evidence but nothing seems to resemble what you were sent out to find. Corpses laid dormant in several rooms, blood tarnished the metallic floor deck but it seems to be running dry on the outer edge. Meaning they've died for a good few hours ago, but you don't see any signs of struggle. No stab or gun wounds, nor were they hit by any blunt instruments. Just blood oozing out, like the body itself is rejecting the vital fluid and pushing it out of the pores. Just the sight of this is rippling a chill down your spine. If this is the new strain of the virus, then you need to speed up your search for the documents, with evidence like this proves its value.

Another two steps along, you both reached a door unlike the rest of the ones you've seen. This one appears to be more sturdy and with an electronic keypad built into it. A room with a lock tells you that things that are usually classified or kept away from the prying eyes are often kept in a locked room. Maybe this mission wouldn't be so difficult after all.

Your partner carefully grabs a hold on the door handle and swiftly gives it a twist. To both of your surprises, it was unlocked. But that leaves a pit in your stomach as you know things generally don't work so easily. You nod and he pushed it open. The room is dimly lit and the beacon attached to your gun isn't doing any better. From what little light sources you both have, you can just barely make it out that you are situated in a conference room. A long, clear glass table sits tightly in the middle of the suite, with a few cabinets on either side and a laptop oddly placed at the far end of the desk.

"There. You go see if you can find any information. I'll stand guard"

They nod, speed away towards his objective and begin its continuous tapping on the keyboard. You took several glances at them impatiently before returning to inspect your surroundings for any imminent danger. But in return, they left out a hefty breath and shook their head.

"Dead end. Can't find anything on here." they sigh.

"Go look through the cabinets. There must be something." you tip your head towards the cabinet as you respond. Peering at your watch again. 0335h. Time is running out.

As soon as their back is turned away in your direction– immediately slamming the door shut and the electronic keypad emitted a small beep with its activation. You frowned and took three shots until the electronic part fizzled and the light darkens. They tugged at the door in frustration, but it wouldn't budge. As they look up to the smug grin on your face, fist clenched and pounding as hard as they could but the door stays deadlocked. You shook your head slowly, seeing the confused look on his face as you reached into your back pouch. In your hand, a palm-sized device– caught in red and blue wires, roughly composed with a digital face sitting just on top showing the number 30 on it. The blood on their face drained as they realised what you were holding.

"I sincerely hope you can make it out alive before this reaches 0." you smile, pressing a button and leaving the device on the floor. You turn and leave them effortlessly lashing out at the door.

***

Every twist and turn of a corner, you toss a bomb as you make your way back to the crossroad, heading to the direction where Chris set off. You wonder just how much he knows about this virus, or better yet, if he had any idea of your true intentions. Nevertheless, you won't let him compromise your only mission.

In your peripheral vision, you see Chris just up ahead. You ran to him breathlessly, staggering a step or two before reaching him.

"Captain! Are you alright? I heard gunshots." you gulped.

"I'm okay. What happened to the others?"

"We got separated in the middle of our search, then I heard gunshots so I went to inspect. Have you found what we are looking for yet?"

He nodded. "Yes. It seems that the new strain of the virus is worse than we think. I'll radio the rest of the team and get HQ to pick us up."

Chris walks off just a few steps, clutching the SD card for a closer inspection. Your shoulder shifts slightly and your hand gradually reaching for the back pocket and grasp for something. As he turns to press onto his in-ear radio, you plunge a cylindrical tube into his neck and dosed him. Arm sideswipes towards you, making you tumble back but catching yourself gracefully landing on your own two feet. Chris falters on his knees, just barely managing to pull out the syringe from his artery with the SD card spinning out of his grasp.

"What did you do to me?" He managed to push out a few words.

You stare at your feet where the SD card sits shyly just next to it. Picking it up delicately with your fingers and sigh.

"You know...I went through so much trouble just for this tiny thing." you wave the chip about as you make your way around the room. "But, no thanks to you...Captain." you smiled.

Chris sinking lower towards the ground as his muscles shake uncontrollably to keep himself upright. You stroll and position yourself in front of him, meeting him eye to eye.

"Hm. Somehow, I thought you might be smarter than this. All these...role-playing...serving under you." Force grabbing his chin and you inspect his face once more. "Did you enjoy yourself? Honestly, I had fun. But, all good things must come to an end." you whispered in his ear and drew your lips gently onto his. The warm sensation fills you for a split second before parting yourself from it.

Chris's face remains expressionless from the side effect of the drug, but you see a slight hint of awe in his eyes. Now, this is getting even more humorous to you. Glancing at your watch once more, 0400h. You stand, shoving the document chip in your pocket and letting your hand rest there as you lean against the window sill.

"Oh, Captain," you hear the distant pairs of footsteps gaining closer to your direction. "I'd wish we had more time." You smirk, just as the rest of the team surrounds you, gun in hand pointing in your direction and creating a barrier between you and Chris Redfield. Lifting up your left hand, hoping to prove your innocence but really, what good would that do?

You took an exaggerated breath and rolled your eyes, any minute now. As the team inches closer and closer towards you, out of the blue, a deafening 'BOOM' went off and shook the room. Without missing a beat comes another one.

"I believe that's my cue." Before they could react, the flash grenade releases out of your hand and a shock of light hits. Blinded by the flash, they fall prone and helpless to your defence. You took a few steps back, and with a charged run, you leapt out of the window and swan dive into the cold, pitless ocean to the muffled sound of explosions.

***

6 months you've been on the run and back to working independently. News about you spread quickly as you soon become a wanted criminal by the BSAA, but you also received more work thanks to the flamboyant advertisement.

Unwinding at a corner cafe in the middle of Paris, the sun shines just enough to be blocked out by your lavish sun hat while flicking through the top news pages. 'Increasing number of outbreak cases in several countries' seems like this is just the beginning of your newly found virus, and more importantly, turning a new leaf for your career.

Sipping a glass of '82 Lafite, breathing in your surroundings and admiring the view. Observing. The bustling street of passersby, the wind waking of emerald green trees and the leisurely patrons sitting around and behind you in this cafe. Sooner or later, this place will be a shitshow and overthrown by the hands of human-induced monsters.

You slipped a couple of bills and grabbed your lighter off the table before sauntering away before somebody did recognize you, not the first time you've had a run-in with an agent or somebody just wanting that bounty on top of your pretty little head. In this neverending cat and mouse game, there's only one winner, but you're not going to be the one that gets caught.

Wandering aimlessly down the streets to the sound of mild chatter and heels clicking against the cobblestones. Strolling at a comfortable pace and casually tipping your sun hat to adjust to the warmth of the sun, you abruptly stopped.

"I believe it is a criminal offence to publically stalk somebody. Or, did you forget that already?" you tease. Looking from behind, he stood there, dressed in black from head to toe. A perfect contrast to your floral white one-piece. "Captain... Well, I guess it would be best to call you Chris now." you faintly smiled.

Chris did not answer right away. He loomed, with that familiar upright frame but even more of a worn-out look on his face than the last moment you saw him. His cheeks concave a little, his stubbles have grown out to almost form a full beard and the light behind his eyes has diminished to blackened ash. It pains you to see him like this.

"I'm here to take you back," he ordered.

"And, what good would that do?" you paused, picking out your cigarette case from one of your pockets, a row of orange and white strips arranged neatly one next to the other. You drew one out and let it sit comfortably in between your slender fingers, out of your other pocket, a gold plated zippo and with a flick the cigarette sparked.

"Taking me back so you can get your ass praised? I'd suggest you go back and be a good little captain before the world goes up in flames." pressing the narrow stick against your lips and taking a deep drag, the warmth swirls and fills your lungs all the way with a slight tingle. The smoke rolls out in between your mouth and veils your face as Chris watches intently.

"I'm not here to turn you in," he spoke firmly and his eyes never left yours.

"Oh! Interest..." you gawked. Taking another long breath in. The ember burns away more and more like the distance between you and him. Drawing you closer until there is no distance left.

***

Mind hazed in red, you stumble backwards into your apartment, hands still entangled between each other's embrace and the passionate kisses. With each touch, your senses grow more numb, filled with nothing but lust.

You made an attempt at kicking off your heels and successfully discarded one side but your frustration did not go unnoticed. He grabs the back of your knee in one swift motion, fingers gently run along the underside and tug your heel off to the corner of the room. Skimming the edge of your sun hat, with a flick of the wrist it comes off and lands somewhere. You broke off his sultry kiss, gasping for air, face flushed in rose as his face mirror's yours. The colour of his eyes now burns as brightly as you can remember– like amber melted and infused to become a part of him. Its beauty encapsulated in the door to his soul. Tempting and mesmerizing.

Chris kept a hold of his gaze on your mouth– now red and puffy from excessively sucking on it. He leans closer once more, hoping to feel the sensation of you again, but you stopped him with the slightest touch of your index finger. The pad of your finger grazes tenderly along his lower lip, you could feel the vertical creases engraved across the top. Irritated, he parted his lips just enough for him to taste you, drawing in and softly nibbling on your skin with his canine, salivating down the palm of your hand. You snap your finger back and he growls, impatient for his desire.

Snatching a fist full shirt, you lead him through the hallway and enter a cosier area. Nothing in the room speaks personality; a cream wooden drawer, soft brown desk by the window, an unkempt double bed situated in the middle and a full body mirror with a sheet draped over it. You gave a shove and he collapsed onto the bed with a grunt. Spreading his legs wide open with a kick as he props himself up on his elbow.

Hands and knees crawling towards the prone stud and stopping until you both are face to face. His eyes scanning every part of you, searching for the slightest change of your emotion– a change that might sway your mind, rejecting him. You both lock eyes for a moment– trying to sense what goes on in their mind– his eyes flicker from your left vision to your right, taking all of your facial features in, memorising them. You leaned in close, just shy of an inch away, hovering just above his mouth, feeling his presence. He attempts to lean in closer but you withdraw a little as his voice comes out quiet with a plea.

Giving him one last glance over, you parted your lips for him as his tongue enters per your invite. Compassionate and needy, his kiss became more demanding as if trying to devour you all at once, marking you as his own. His teeth nibble and softly sucking on your bottom lip, it becomes even more puff up and a few droplets of blood oozes out as he licks them away, tending for your wounds. Hands entangled onto each other clothing, tearing them off of each other's bodies with any difficulty and tosses aside.

Chris's palms roam freely from your shoulder blades and slither down, taking in two handfuls of your ass and flipping you on your backside whilst he towers you on top. His mouth leaves you with a feverish haze, running his tongue over the length of your jawline and tasting every section of your luscious chest and working a trail of kisses down your abdomen. A firm grip shift to your thighs– almost spilling out– as he parts your legs wide opening, welcoming him to take a mouthful of you. You gasped when he took you in, hands helplessly reaching for the sheets, he drinks you in and teases you playfully by grazing you with his teeth and sucking on the spot. His burning hot tongue runs down your length, protruding your entrance several times before slithering back up top again.

Deep marks imprinted on your lower lip, stifling any noise that threatens to escape your throat, but that soon was broken free by your beloved captain. A hiss slipped, reverberating in your eardrums, as two rigid fingers explored your walls which made you tense up from this unfamiliar feeling. The continuous prodding made you twist and squirm even more so, as the pace quickens, the heat in your belly grew with the flaming desire, burning you over the edge and tightening around him. Gently, he retrieves his hand as he looks down at them, spreading his fingers apart. The white silken fluid cascades down the length of his forearm– gleaming with the scent of you– he runs his tongue along his limb, tasting every ounce of you without missing a drop.

Breathlessly, you watch him attentively playing with your discharge, still strung around his long, harsh fingers, lustfully smearing it across your pillow lips before nudging them into your mouth, giving you a taste of yourself. A bitterness intertwined with a hint of saltiness of his digits, his hand caresses your cheek as his mouth crashes back down onto your, feeling the heat of his rising through to you. Tongue twirls on top of one another, a lick of his canine and piercing his lower lip until he grunts in pain, antagonizing his pleasure and taking back your dominance.

You smirk at the brilliance of your work, blood trickles down the corner of his mouth as he swipes away with a flick of his thumb. The annoyance painted on his face made you even giddier, but his desire for control will make you wish you never had triggered something within him. Chris gave a rough tug, sliding you closer to his peaked length, gripping your hip so mean, bruises are bound to surface the next day. He positioned himself just barely touching your opening, loosely slipping up and down tormenting your craving for him to insert his dick deep within. Taking this as a challenge, your legs wrapped and locked around his waist, seizing the means of his movement but forward. A fiery breath scatters across the dip of your neck, creating goosebumps around the area, now covered by the moisture of his saliva.

He gazes at you, cocking one-side of his eyebrow, leaving you in confusion about his ulterior motives. In your new confoundment, his teeth sink deep into the curvature of your delicate skin as he plunges all the way to the hilt. You scream, can't decide whether it's from the pain of his chomp, or him stretching and filling your abdomen to the brim. Muscles twitch in discomfort, the size of this thing is tearing your physicality and sanity apart, all thoughts scattered from your brain, only white noise occupies your mind. Subconsciously, you wiggle out of his grasp, but only for him to throw your legs over his broad shoulders, slamming back down his length, hitting all your sensitive spots again. Your back arches from the force of his retaliation and your sweet moan echoes around the room.

His hip stirs with each thrust he takes and earns a moan in return, rearranging and moulding your internal organs into the shape of his. Subtly moving across your stomach, a hand tracing every curve of your midriff and stopping just below your belly button, lingering over your skin for a few moments before putting a light pressure where a thin wall of muscles separates his cock. Your head threw back in ecstasy and toes digging deep into the mattress, hands desperately grasp for his arms for strength as you scream out his name. Bedpost banging against the wall with each bit of momentum that caused the silk sheet to fall, exposing the full-length mirror just facing you. The animalistic position that presents before your eyes startles you and makes you turn away out of embarrassment. He constrains your jaw and twists you back into view.

"Watch it," he commands. “Look at how I’m fucking you senselessly.”

You witness the part where you and he connect, devouring his member inch by inch, feeling all the ridges and veins brushing over and over your sensitive spot, pushing you closer to the edge. Nails delving deeper into his flesh, creating new scars mixed with his old bullet wounds, you inhale a sharp breath as you unravel onto him the second time, clenching rhythmically to your descend. As the waves of pleasure crash before you, Chris slowly subsides his movement to let you adjust to your coming down, your vision returning to his face that’s filled with compassion.

Stamina quickly replenishes and before he could react, your leg hooks around his knees and pulls, he tumbles backwards, landing abruptly onto the mattress with a slight jolt. You flipped your position with ease, riding on top with his body heat still connected deep within. He seemed impressed by your skilled manoeuvre as he got handsy with your ass again, groping the rounded meat a handful of times before bringing his hand up and slapped it. The pain made you welp and clenches him tighter which earned a raspy moan slipping out of his lips.

Hip rolled against his hard length– prodding further into you– earning you another erotic hiss from his pent-up breath. In this position, your insides are being stretched wider between pleasure and pain. Your hands made their way to his chest for support as you began sliding back out, and all at once, dropping all the way down. He groans, the combined movement is wearing him down as you can feel his dick pulsing rapidly to indicate that he is on the verge. Your arm reaches backwards, a finger trailing up along his inner thigh, teasing the shape of his bulge and drawing circles around it. To his surprise, you grasp the base of his shaft, restricting his means of climax. Chris fists the sheets and growls in disapproval.

"Not so fast." you giggled.

Twisting and fighting as his loaded passion is met by the pain you've conflicted on him, which brushed your ego to see him act like this. Your little captain, patriotic and stone-faced on the battlefield, now falls weak under you– pleading for a sweet release. You comply, quickening up your pace, rolling your hips in between the intervals of riding, you positioned yourself at an angle, letting the head stroke your delicate spot harder. The repetitive motion numbs your mind, waves of bliss building up again in your abdomen as the slapping sound resonate louder around the room.

Blood rushing up to your head, with the white noise filling up your ears and thoughts once more, your body spasmed as you came, eyes seeing stars from the immense heat. You release the grasp of his dick as he cries out and injects you with his thick load– thrusting intensely with each discharge. His cum fills you to the brim, spilling down your thighs still freshly warm. You scoop up a little until it covers the tip of your finger and traces it along with your tongue before swallowing– salty with a minor chewy texture.

Your legs eventually gave out, still twitching from the aftermath, you flopped on top of the now exhausted Chris. Both gasping desperately for air, you listened closely to the pounding of his heart until it subsides to a normal beat. How very strange, being alive.

You put an abrupt stop to your internal thoughts so you don't ruin a good moment, considering this might be the first and last you get to do this with him. Pushing yourself off him, you lay silently with his arm tucked under your head, you sigh, seeing him fastly sound asleep. Thumb softly caress his cheek and faintly tracing the bags under his eyes, a slight pang hits you, recalling your own mistakes that lead him to this. Your eyelids grew heavier– struggling to keep yourself awake– you kissed him once more and whispered before succumbing to the darkness.

“I’d wish we had more time.”

***

Arm in search of the body next to him, but the cold emptiness is left in his presence. Eyes shot wide open, the room still shrouded in blackness with the pale moonlight seeping in. Chris sat up, trying to put the puzzle pieces together, remembering where he is. He scans the room, looking for a hint of you, but you were nowhere to be found. He sighs, picking up his undergarment off the floor and trudging out of the bedroom. The rest of the house is dim, but the moonlight gives him comfort and company at this moment, he knew you were already gone.

Taking a closer inspection around, he never noticed the simple furniture placed around the apartment that already occupies the space when you arrived. The lack of liveliness proves that you weren't going to stay for long. Of course, Chris was one of the reasons. Recollecting his items of clothing around the house piece by piece, he spots a red note sitting on the edge of the counter. A symbolic fragment that's surrounded by the monochromatic landscape. He reads to himself and shakes his head, skimming the bottom of the note where your initials are printed on. Hesitantly, he pockets the notes as he exits the place, leaving him with the final message:

"See you around. x"

#I forgot how to write fics #this is a literal mess to me #all I can say is that I was hoping to put this out on Valentine’s Day #but I just forgot how to write :/#idk bon appetite #chris x reader #chris redfield #resident evil #re fanfic #yo it’s been too damn long and I don’t know how to write smut #re fanfiction #⭐️.doc

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kellbellsparkles · 3 years

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Chapter 1 of my new Ratchet and Clank fanfic I call "Family". Clank and Rivet have built in mini Dimensionators so they can travel freely only between the two dimensions.

In the present day, Ratchet and Clank hopped over to Rivet and Kit's dimension to explore their version of Veldin. The night was bright with bustling buildings and night goers looking for a good time.

"This is seriously Veldin?" Ratchet remarked in awe. "I mean, I haven't been back to mine in a long time, but it's always had this open, dusty frontier field; the kind of dusty where kids could stand by tumbleweeds and look cool with their toothpicks and cowboy hats."

"You can thank my Nefarious for that," Rivet said. "It's the one thing that everybody can't just let go of."

"It makes sense if it is all they have ever known," Clank said.

"Along with being able to document history as he saw fit," Kit added.

"Do you know who will be in charge of the new era, Rivet?" Clank asked.

"I haven't bothered paying attention to all that," she replied while shrugging. "I'm all about the here and now." She beamed suddenly. "And here we are now!"

They arrived at a tent in between two buildings with purple neon lights. On the flaps was a sign decorated with a martini glass and four rectangles resembling cards.

"Pretty ironic to be coming to a fortune telling booth with bar," Ratchet said.

"Hey," Rivet said defensively. "Jarmin has never given a fortune that didn't come true. You want to know if you're gonna win the lottery too, right?"

"Now that I think about it," Clank said. "Receiving a fortune is much like playing the lottery. We pick any card from the fortune teller's hand or from the top of their deck depending on their dealing preference--"

"The door isn't opening itself, Bolts," Rivet cut in. She swung the flaps open. "Come on!"

The crew entered the tent. Inside was space to have a fully functioning bar. At the center were four place mats and a deck of cards. The owner, Jarmin, was a fongoid.

"Party of four today?" He asked.

"Yup," Rivet said. As she reached for her wallet, Jarmin raised his hand.

"It's on the house for your great service for ending the now former emperor Nefarious," he said.

"Really??" Rivet squealed. "I love you, man! I'll take a kick some sass with a drop of smash gin!"

"How about the rest of you?" Jarmin offered.

"Nah," Ratchet said, shaking his head. "I'm still new to this world."

"I do not drink," Clank added.

"Obviously," Rivet retorted.

"That is actually not correct," Kit said. "Robots can enjoy variants and equivalents of food and drink."

"But it's not like you NEED it. You and Clank don't use the bathroom."

Clank blinked curiously.

"I was not aware I needed to," he said.

"You don't," Ratchet assured. Clank tilted his head.

"Do I want to?"

"No." He patted his head gently, his eyes showing concern. He turned to Rivet, desperate to change the subject.

"So who gets the first card?"

Rivet put her hand behind Kit and ushered her forward.

"It's all you, Kitty," she said with confidence.

"Me?" Kit croaked. "But why? And why Kitty?"

"You'll get used to it. Now draw a card."

Kit shakily reached for the deck. Hesitating, she drew her arm back and looked down at the floor.

"What if it's a bad fortune?" she said with a frightened tone.

"Kitty, Kitty," Rivet said in a consoling tone. "If you get a bad fortune, all you gotta do is get it done and over with and then you'll have good things in life immediately after. Isn't that right, Jarmin?"

"It's what brings people back," he cheered as he brought Rivet her drink. "Here you are, honey." Rivet gave him a wink, a smile, and a pointed finger snap in response. Kit took a deep breath.

"Okay," she said. "I am going to do it." Her legs trembled as she took small steps towards the card deck.

"We're right behind you, Kit," Ratchet said gently.

Hearing her friend's belief in her, she stood firmly and nodded. She stood directly in front of the deck and placed her hand on the top card.

"Please do not be death or causing death," she whispered as she closed her eyes. With all her courage, she grabbed a card and held it in the air in a dramatic fashion. She stayed in the pose for a good few seconds.

"What does it say?" Clank asked.

"Oh no," Kit moaned. "Is it blank?"

"We can't see," Ratchet said. "You need to turn it around and show us."

Kit turned her whole body around with her eyes still closed.

"You need to see it yourself, too, silly goose," Rivet chuckled.

"Oh," Kit said, embarrassed. She opened her eyes and brought the card down to her level. She turned it over to see what it showed.

"Do you like what you see?" Rivet asked with a smooth grin.

"I think so," Kit responded. "It's a heart."

"The heart card means you'll be unconditionally loved for all time," Jarmin chimed.

"Awwww," Ratchet cooed. "You see, Kit?"

Kit's metal lips quivered. She burst into sobs and ran into Ratchet's arms.

"What did I do to deserve iiiiiiiiit?" she wailed.

"Of course you deserve it," Ratchet said happily, patting her back. "You're wonderful."

"My turn!" Rivet shouted, scrambling towards the deck with her drink in her hand. "Let's keep the good vibes going!" She drew the card swiftly as she took a sip. Once she took a look, her eyes gaped in horror. She spat the contents of her drink onto the card.

"Aw no!" she hollered. "No, no, NO!! Absolutely not!" She made an attempt to draw another card.

"Ah, ah, ah," Jarmin said sternly. "Only one card per customer, and you'll have to pay for the next visit."

"Dammit, Jarmin!" Rivet cried. "You can't do this to me!!"

"What's wrong, Rivet?" Ratchet asked with worried. Rivet slammed the card in front of her crew; they leaned in for a closer look.

"It looks like a stork carrying something in a white cloth," Kit said.

"I have heard of this phenomenon," Clank said. He clapped his hands cheerfully. "How exciting. You are being given a baby."

"There's nothing exciting about it!!" Rivet exclaimed angrily. "Babies are the leeches of society: they get in the way of a good night's sleep, having fun, and they poop something extraterrestrial!! And when they get older, they destroy everything they set their sights on and speak their own babbly language we only nod and pretend to understand!!"

"On the contrary," Jarmin interjected. "The stork card doesn't mean you'll have a baby. At least not right away. It mostly means that you'll make a great mother one day."

"But I don't want to be a mom," Rivet whined. "Why do women have to be engineered to be birth machines?"

"What is a birth machine?" Clank asked innocently. The room grew silent; Rivet stared at Clank, completely dumbfounded.

"Are you serious?" she snapped light. Kit stood in front of her, desperately waving her arms in the air to gesture silence.

"I-It's where the stork picks up the baby to be delivered," Ratchet stammered nervously.

"Oh my," Clank gasped. "So babies do come from genetic modifying pods. The little kids from the playground were right!"

"Yup!" Ratchet squeaked. "Kids sure are smarter than we give them credit for!" Rivet rolled her eyes.

"Overprotective much?" she said under her breath.

"I guess it's my turn now!" Ratchet exclaimed, desperate to draw the focus back to the cards again. He drew his card; he looked it over from top to bottom.

"Huh," he said, his brows furrowing in confusion. "What's this mean?" On his card was a lock box with something inside writing to get out.

"That's the trap card," Jarmin responded. "It means something is trapping you or you will be trapped by something." Ratchet's face fell.

"Oh," he said softly, his ears drooping slightly. "I feel a little attacked there."

"It will be alright, Ratchet," Clank said suddenly, coming to his rescue with a hand hold. "These cards do not have a time limit, and ultimately, we will have good fortune. We will all be here for one another." Ratchet sighed and gave a soft smile.

"Thanks, pal," he said.

"As always, Ratchet," Clank replied. He lightly skipped to the deck of cards. "Now, let us see what my fortune is." He drew a card from the deck. He turned it over and glanced with great intrigue.

"Oooooo," he said, eyes wide with wonder. However, Kit's eyes were filled with great fear as she held her hands over her mouth to conceal a yell. Rivet froze mid sip of her drink. Jarmin shuddered and bowed his head, doing a prayer motion with his hands. Ratchet was unaware of his surroundings and continued to be drawn by his friend's curiosity.

"It's blank," he said.

"It appears so," Clank replied. "This must mean there are an infinite amount of possibilities for me; so many unknowns."

"Wow, pal!" Ratchet beamed. "I think you and Kit are the big lottery winners tonight!" He stood up and stretched. "I'm ready to head back if you are." Clank trotted to Ratchet and hopped onto his back.

"Thank you again, Rivet and Kit," Clank said. I never could have imagined us acting as conduits for transporting between our dimensions without your suggestion."

As they left the tent, all Rivet, Kit, and Jarmin could do was watch them with sinking feelings in their stomachs.

"Are we really just going to let them be?" Kit shakily questioned.

"It could be what Clank said about being left up to interpretation," Rivet nervously suggested. "Right, Jarmin?"

"The fortunes depicted in the cards have always come true," he said grimly. "Orvus, have mercy." Rivet and Kit looked at each other with great uncertainty and dread.

#ratchet and clank #ratchet and clank rift apart

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livefromphilly · 3 years

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The Good and The Bad, 02.20.21 - 03.27.21

None of this shit is amazing or especially significant.

I tried to take a “nap” and fell asleep sleep so I ended up losing my Duolingo streak. I’d made it up to 434 days. It kinda sucks because I was close to 500 days and I really wanted to hit that milestone. It also stinks to realize that the streak was mostly just that: a thing I did daily to maintain the streak more than actually learn any Spanish. I mean, I certainly know more than I did 400-some days ago but I’m not sure if I could read through a book for toddlers let alone convey any meaningful information to anyone aside from asking for another beer and figuring out where the bathrooms are. I started over. It’s been 14 days.

It's unsurprising but still incredibly sad when widespread racist rhetoric leads to violence.

Embiid took a nasty fall because he dunked too hard and injured his knee. It’s thankfully not as serious as it could have been and he is estimated to be out two to three weeks. Still, it was some scary shit that made what should have been a fun blowout win into something nobody enjoyed.

I think the honeymoon period with my and my GX7 has ended. I still dig the reach for size ratio but I wish the quality of the camera’s sensor and the 45-150mm lens were better. It’s honestly making me consider getting an APS-C camera even though I know that kinda defeats the purpose of just having something small and cheap for shooting distant things.

I have a ton of CDs and it’s going to be a pain in the ass finding a shelving solution for them.

My parents and sister have all gotten both their vaccine shots. I got my first one and am scheduled to get my second one on April 4th. Luckily none of us had side effects (“so far” in my case) because I know a fair amount of people amount of people who felt pretty sick afterwards. Anyway, one step closer assuming all these new variants don’t mess things up.

I got out with my drone two weeks ago and flew it a ton. I mainly wanted to get a pic of the new Joe Frazier mural but ended up bouncing around the city. I’ve been really enjoying taking video with it, although I don’t like editing video much so I haven’t done anything with that as of yet.

I’ve been eating vegetarian for the past few weeks. I mostly did it because Chris Paul said it helped him a lot in terms of making him feel healthier. So far I haven’t noticed anything like that but I plan to keep on it. Interestingly, I haven’t missed meat as much as I thought I would. I’ve had some cheese on things but cut down on that a lot since me and lactose don’t really get along anyway.

With the weather getting nicer and nicer I’m really excited to move. We’re gonna have a deck and even though I’m not much of an outside person I’m looking forward to sitting out there and drinking beers this summer.

This will be my last weekend in the apartment I’ve lived in since 2010. It’s been home.

#The Good and The Bad

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Twisted Fate the Card Master build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Never lost a fair game, or played one.

Twisted Fate is one of the oldest champions in the game and despite never being extensively changed he’s always found his way in and out of the meta. A very simple kit makes him a great champion for skill expression among pros.

There isn’t much reason for this build other than “I thought it would be cool.” Twisted Fate has always been a champ that I wanted to learn and while doing some brainstorming I felt it would be fun to try to make him in 5e!

GOALS

It's all in the cards - Throwing cards aren’t the most practical choice of weapon, but they’re Tobias’ weapon of choice. By the way did you know that Twisted Fate’s real name is Tobias?

Shinin' gold - Twisted Fate’s iconic ability is to pick a card for either more damage, an AoE burst, or a stun. We’ll be taking all of them.

No fightin' destiny - It wouldn’t be Twisted Fate without the ability to teleport behind you. Nothing personnel, kid.

RACE

The people of the Serpentine River are human, and henceforth Twisted Fate’s a Variant Human with some card skills. You can increase two skills by 1: choose Dexterity and Intelligence for card reading and slight of hand. And for your skill you have to persuade people to sit at the table after all, so take Persuasion.

As for your Feat take the Observant feat to watch the cards: increase your Intelligence further and watch for any cheats at the table. And for your language there are no doubt a lot of sea creatures that speak Aquan in Bilgewater, so pick Primordial to speak to them and any other elementals.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Jack be nimble and Jack be quick, since you need mobility to survive in Bilgewater.

14; INTELLIGENCE - Poker is a game of smarts as well as luck, and while lady luck is smiling you also need your own skills.

13; CHARISMA - Not as high as I’d like but we need other skills more, and 13 is still more than enough to charm I’m sure.

12; WISDOM - Wisdom is tied to both Perception and Insight which you need to watch the cards.

10; CONSTITUTION - A little lower than I’d like (feel free to swap the 12 in WIS for this) but Twisted Fate’s hardly a tank.

8; STRENGTH - Again: Twisted Fate’s hardly a tank and it’s up to Malcolm to do the heavy lifting. (Oh god now I need to do a Graves build...)

BACKGROUND

Fun fact: Twisted Fate is a Gambler, which is a background in Acquisitions Incorporated. You get proficiency in Deception and Insight (not Slight of Hand, for some reason?!), one language (pick your poison), and one gaming set (which will of course be a Playing Card Set.)

Your feature is Never Tell Me the Odds, letting you scout out tables to swindle or more rough pirates who won’t take kindly to being scammed.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

Starting off as an Artificer because I really like this class and we need both their saving throw proficiencies and their skill proficiencies for Slight of Hand and Perception at the table. You also get an Artisan’s Tool of your choice and I’d pick whatever since it really doesn’t matter.

As an Artificer you have Magical Tinkering which lets you do a bunch of fancy tricks to your cards. You touch a tiny non-magical object and can make it shine light, play a message, let out a smell or a sound, or change in visual appearance. Read over the ability to see everything you can do but the effect lasts indefinitely but you can only have a number of these active equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can touch an object you Tinkered with to end the property early but if you try to make a new one the oldest effect ends.

You also get access to Spellcasting as an Artificer. You get two cantrips from the Artificer list: Guidance will give you some luck with the cards and Acid Splash will let you throw out a red card for some AoE damage.

Artificer’s are a prepared spellcaster, meaning you can swap out your spells for others on the Artificer list at the end of a Long Rest. Regardless these spells will be suggestions for the most in-character spells to take: Detect Magic and Identify are both good to make sure no one’s cheating at the table, and Disguise Self is useful to hide in a crowd if needed.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can Infuse Items to create a variety of magic items. As I say whenever I make an Artificer build I’d suggest picking Artificer Infusions that help your party but with only two levels we won’t be getting many.

The Returning Weapon infusion is the main one we’re here for. It lets you turn a thrown weapon magical and will cause it to return to your hand immediately after throwing it. Playing cards aren’t a “weapon” but a Dagger is pretty close, and it’s the only Finesse Thrown weapon you can take.

An Enhanced Arcane Focus is better if you want to go straight for spells. You don’t have any spell attacks yet but...

Is Graves asking you to look over his gun? Well pass him a Repeating Shot weapon so he doesn’t have to waste as much time reloading.

Fun fact: as an Artificer you can recreate common magic items from Xanathar’s Guide. Feel free to craft yourself some Loaded Dice with the Charlatan’s Die.

You can only make two of your infusions, and since one will be more-or-less permanently locked into Returning Weapon I’d choose your other option wisely.

You also get another spell: the Sanctuary spell will force any enemies that attack you to make a Wisdom save or be forced to attack someone else, which can be good in case they get pissed off when you swindle them. The effect does go away as soon as you attack though.

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 1

Now that we’ve got our cards it’s time to stack the deck. Level 1 Fighters can choose a Fighting Style and the Thrown Weapon Fighting style from the Class Feature Variants UA is perfect for a card-slinger.

IF UA ISN’T ALLOWED see if they count Archery for thrown weapons. If not I’d probably opt for Dueling so if you get into a melee fight you won’t be completely defenseless.

You also get a Refillable Potion with Second Wind, letting you regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level once per short or long rest.

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 2

Level 2 Fighters can use their Stacked Deck to Action Surge, letting them take one additional action on their turn once per short or long rest. The cool thing about Action Surge as a spellcaster is that you can use the extra action to cast a spell and then attack or do something else, but you can only cast one leveled spell per turn. Why am I telling you this when most of your spells are utility-based? No particular reason.

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 3

Level 3 Fighters can choose their Martial Archetype and Battle Masters are great at card tricks. I assume because you’re throwing a knife not a playing card. Regardless Battle Masters are Students of War, letting them gain proficiency in one Artisan’s Tool of their choice. Again pick whatever or see if your DM can let you take a Gaming Set instead.

But more notably you Combat Superiority die. You have four superiority dice, which are d8s and regain any expended dice when you finish a short or long rest. You can use your Superiority die to do a variety of Maneuvers:

Trip Attack will be your golden ace in the hole. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack you can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. You add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. (8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier btw.) On a failed save, you knock the target prone. Note that knocking a target prone will make it harder to hit them with ranged attacks but it will make it easier for melee characters to hit them, and also slow them down for a moment.

If you’re fine with your stunned target moving then Distracting Strike will give your allies an opening to attack with Advantage, and also let you add the Superiority die to the damage.

Disarming Strike isn’t something TF can do in the Fields of Justice but it’s very in-flavor to knock the weapon out of an enemy’s hand (with a Strength save) and do some more damage.

LEVEL 6 - FIGHTER 4

That uneven Charisma score is annoying me, and you can’t be a silver-tongued swindler without the Silver-Tongued Feat from the Feats for Skills UA. Your Charisma score increases by 1 and you get Expertise in the Deception skill since you already had proficiency in it to begin with.

IF UA ISN’T ALLOWED feel free to grab the Prodigy Feat instead for Expertise in Deception (or Slight of Hand) and some more skills. This won’t increase your Charisma however so you’ll have to find another way to even out your ability scores.

In addition when you take the Attack action you can replace one attack with an attempt to deceive a humanoid you can see within 30 feet of you as long as they can also see and hear you. Make a Deception check contested by the target’s Insight: if you succeed your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from the target and your attack rolls against it have advantage; both benefits last until the end of your next turn or until you use this ability on a different target. If your check fails, the target can’t be deceived by you in this way for 1 hour.

You do only have one attack currently but with Action Surge this will let you have Advantage on that attack and any attack on your next turn. And speaking of extra attacks...

LEVEL 7 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters can get value out of that silver tongue with an Extra Attack. This means that by replacing one attack with a Deception check you can get Advantage on three attacks over two turns, or up to five attacks if you Action Surge.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 1

Now that we’ve got our deck it’s time to du-du-du-du-du for a date with Destiny. As a level 1 Wizard you get access to Spellcasting with 3 cantrips and 6 spells known. For your cantrips Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion will allow you to do some more card tricks and Friends will let you con your way through life with ease. As for your spells...

Color Spray will let you toss out a whole deck of cards, blinding your opponents with blues and reds.

Distort Value is good for any con, allowing you to make an item seem more valuble.

Ice Knife can be red, since it’ll explode in an AoE and chill your opponents. (But not slow them.)

Jim’s Magic Missile will let you throw out three cards that do considerably more Force damage than a regular Magic Missile.

Protection from Evil and Good can be good help for your partner in crime.

And Tenser’s Floating Disk will be helpful to haul all that loot.

You also get Arcane Recovery, letting you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level rounded up.

LEVEL 9 - WIZARD 2

Now you’re probably wondering what Wizard Twisted Fate would be right? You’re thinking obviously Divination, or maybe Illusion? Perhaps even Enchantment to further the con?

Nope; Conjuration baby! Put bluntly Twisted Fate conjures cards into his hand, which you can do with Minor Conjuration. You spend an action to conjure up an inanimate object that’s no more than 3 feet cubed and weighs no more than 10 pounds. The object must look like a non-magical object you’ve seen before and is visibly magical, radiating dim light out to 5 feet, and it lasts for 1 hour unless it takes damage or you use this feature again, so you can only have one fake card at a time. There’s a lot of really funky stuff you can do with this and it’s up to your creativity to make it shine!

For your spells of choice Magic Missile is a far more accurate blue card, and Feather Fall can help you make sure you don’t lose your hat.

LEVEL 10 - WIZARD 3

3rd level Wizards can learn second level spells like Jim’s Glowing Card Coin to distract the table while you make your getaway and Darkvision, to help with the fact that your pitiful human eyes can’t see in the dark.

LEVEL 11 - WIZARD 4

At 4th level you get an Ability Score Improvement: increase your Dexterity for more precise card throws and an easier time avoiding damage.

You also learn another Cantrip: seeing as we’re still a pitiful human who can’t see in the dark the Light spell will let you light up a golden card to illuminate the path ahead.

You also learn two spells: Hold Person will let you Paralyze (not stun!) a target for your teammates to beat them down and Misty Step to pickup Flash.

LEVEL 12 - WIZARD 5

5th level Wizards can prepare third level spells like Melf’s Minute Meteors for a whole pack of red cards! As an action you create six floating red cards around your person and as a bonus action you can shoot one or two of them up to 120 feet away. Each creature within 5 feet of the point where the card explodes must make a Dexterity saving throw or 2d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Alternatively if Malcom is looking for you grab the Nondectection spell to make hiding just a little bit easier when he doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve.

LEVEL 13 - WIZARD 6

6th level Conjuration Wizards get Benign Transposition, allowing them to use an action to Flash up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space they can see. You can also instead choose a space within range that is occupied by a Small or Medium creature and swap places with them if they’re willing. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest or you cast a conjuration spell of 1st level or higher. Remember that this does take your action, meaning that you most likely can’t cast spells or attack after using this, but it’s still an insanely good utility.

You also learn more spells and I think everyone knows what Fireball is; full-AP red card go boom. If you’re looking for someone to give a date with Destiny then Clairvoyance will let you create a sensor in a familiar location to either see or hear what’s going on within.

LEVEL 14 - WIZARD 7

7th level Wizards get access to 4th level spells, which is what we were looking for with Dimension Door. As an action you teleport up to 500 feet away to a location you can either visualize or describe. You can bring objects that you can carry and also bring one willing creature of your size or smaller who is carrying gear up to its carrying capacity. This spell actually pairs very well with Clairvoyance that we got last level because you can use that spell to peek into an area so you can visualize it for Dimension Door.

For your second spell? Eh; how about you jump back to third level for Counterspell? You’ve gotta protect the gang after all. And remember that as a Wizard your spell list is only restricted by what spell scrolls you can find.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 6

Now that we’ve finally made out date with Destiny it’s time to learn some more card tricks. 6th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement and we’re going to want to cap our Dexterity for sharper cards and thicker leather chaps.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Battle Masters get one more Superiority Die and two more Maneuvers: Maneuvering Attack is great to set up an ambush, letting your jungler use their reaction to speed up at your command. Precision Attack helps if your opponent is building armor, letting you add your Superiority Die to your accuracy.

You can also spend one minute to Know Your Enemy. For every minute your study your enemy you can learn if any of the creature’s following stats are equal, superior, or inferior to you:

Strength score

Dexterity score

Constitution score

Armor Class

Current hit points

Total class levels (if any)

Fighter class levels (if any)

Considering that you have levels in Wizard this can be very useful to determine what saving throws to go for when you start the fight! Is their Dexterity equal to yours? Maybe don’t hit them with the DEX save. Is their AC high? Maybe do hit them with the DEX save.

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighter? Lady luck is smiling! Take the Lucky feat for an Ace up your sleeve when the going gets tough.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Fighters get Indomitable, letting them reroll a failed Saving Throw once per Long Rest. Consider it a bit of Serpentine luck helping you when you really need it, so use it wisely; preferably on something you actually have a chance of rolling well on your save for?

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Battle Masters get Improved Combat Superiority dice, turning them into d10s. You also get two more Manuevers and we’ll be jumping over to the Class Feature Variants UA for Silver Tongue, letting you add your Superiority die to any Deception or Persuasion check you make. The Snipe meanwhile will let you sneak a card into your combo, allowing you to spend your Bonus Action to make a ranged weapon attack with the Superiority die, adding the dice to the damage if you hit. This can be a good way to sneak a bit more damage in if you teleport behind a squishy carry.

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 11

Our capstone is the 11th level of Fighter for a third Extra Attack, letting you attack three times per round or six times with Action Surge. If you activated Silver Tongued this equals a total of 5 attacks with Advantage over the course of two turns, or 8 attacks with Advantage if you use Action Surge! With that many cards in the deck someone’s going to have to fold.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Lady luck is smilin' - You have an immense amount of utility with magic and maneuvers to help you both in and out of combat; tons of mobility with Conjuration spells and a good bit of roleplay utility with some strong skills, a great passive perception, and Roguish proficiencies.

Cheater's just a fancy word for winner - If your DM allows you to use the Silver-Tongued feat then you’ll be making almost all your attacks with Advantage, allowing you to maximize your maneuvers. And +14 Deception is great for RP in its own right.

I never bluff - Despite having several abilities that only come back after a Long Rest you’re quite capable of surviving on just Short Rests and Refillable Potions. With Arcane Recovery giving you back up to 4 levels worth in spell slots, Benign Transposition coming back whenever you use a Conjuration spell, and all your Fighter abilities coming back on a Short rest you can keep trucking on even after a bad teamfight.

CONS

Nobody touches the hat - Wizard levels plus a 0 in Constitution results in about a hundred health. Invest in some Ruby Crystals (Amulet of Health) when you can or else you’re just a Power Word: Kill away from death.

All or nothin' - Throwing knives honestly aren’t that practical as a ranged weapon. If you don’t mind not having a melee backup try making a Repeating (Cross)bow instead.

Only a fool plays the hand he's dealt - The biggest truth however is that the 2 levels in Artificer really doesn’t do much for you. All you get is a bunch of spells you could’ve gotten from Wizard and the Returning Dagger. If you have a reliable way to get some throwing cards (either from a DM or an allied Artificer giving you a more reliable ranged weapon) I’d suggest splitting those two Artificer levels among Fighter and Wizard for more Ability Score Improvements and a 20 in Intelligence.

But you can work well alone and with a crew. You’re the ace in the hole for any party, even a party of 1. Keep your cards close to your chest and play what you need at the right time. Just be sure to know when to put down your cards and pull out the big guns.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

#DnD 5e #dnd #dnd build #dnd fighter #dnd wizard #League of Legends #League of Legends Twisted Fate #never lost a fair game #or played one

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luchibelle-throughthecosmere · 4 years

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RoW: chapter 18

We start the chapter with small talk about the other members of Bridge Four, reminding us that Rock left to the Peaks and stating once more that Teft is awesome. And then... THE FOURTH BRIDGE FINALLY ARRIVED TO URITHIRU. 🥳🥳

Here we go, this will be long... VERY LONG. Lots of Laral, Lirin, Hesina, emojis and letters in bold. No one will analyse this chapter as deeply as I just did, you were warned.

Kaladin alighted on the deck, returning the salutes from the Windrunners left to guard the ship. “I’m sorry the trip took so long,” he told the gathering refugees. “At least it’s given us plenty of time to get things ready for you.”

All those chapters with Kaladin being depressed made me think he was doing nothing but he killed himself to make the place as comfortable as possible for his parents and neighbours. 😱😱 Kaladin is so precious.

Once they get off the space ship Kaladin starts the tour and won't stop talking for the rest of the chapter. No grumping. He was a kid on a candy shop. 🍬🍭 I had never heard him speak so many words in so little time.

His parents ducked under the obstruction. They’d left Kaladin’s brother with Laral’s children and their governess.

Laral's children, the unthinkable has happenned. 😭 They tried to warn me but it didn't make it hurt any less.

She seemed to be recovering from the loss of her husband, though Kaladin thought he knew her well enough to see through the front.

💔 Kaladin can deny it as much as he wants to but even after years of separation he still has a deep connection to Laral and worries about her a lot. 💕

When he was young, Kal didn't always understood her. Laral was always more mature and they weren't in sync. The time lapse has changed that and now I believe Kaladin would be able to understand her in a deeper level and (hopefully) comprehend why she was forced to side with the Roshones. 💏

It will be fun to watch how they interact without Tien, Laral was lowkey jealous of him because he was the only one who could make him feel better when he was going through a bad times, specially during the the Wip. 🌧💧 In recent years, Shallan and the Kholins have tried to do that for him and it would be nice to see how Laral reacts. *prays* If only she was given enough page time to trully explore that.

On another note, now that Kaladin is Highmarshall, does he surpass Laral in rank?

“It is spectacular,” his mother said. “Though I’m a little more stunned to hear you referring to Brightness Navani Kholin by her first name. Isn’t she queen of this tower?”

First, the Kholins have kind of become his family so he is allowed to do that (also, they are family since Aeshudan and Hesina are related). 🤷‍♀️ And second, Navani "Queen of the Tower" Kholin. We approve.

Behold Lirin talking about strata with Shallan. And get ready for a bunch of witty jokes between Hesina and Shallan. 🙈🙉🙊 THEY NEED TO INTERACT ASAP.

Let's skip the metals discussion for another time or else this post will never end.

... Hesina said. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works. In any case, maybe we should let Kal show us on to the prepared rooms. He’s obviously excited.”

“How can you tell?” Syl asked. “I don’t think he ever gets excited. Not even when I tell him I have a fun surprise for him.”

You can tell by how much he is babbling about Urithiru and the Kholins.

Boots count: 1 👢 (@/Artists on tumblr, we need a rat in a boot) 👨‍🎨👩‍🎨

Watching Lirin obsess. Hearing Hesina trying to get him to pay attention to the people around him. The fond way Lirin took the jokes, playing into them by being comically stern.

They love each other a lot. It's so refreshing to see that, a mature couple. Navani and Kholin are mature but they haven't been together in a relationship for as long as Kaladin's parents have. 😍 They are the paragon of love, nothing has made them grow apart, only stronger together.

Part of him wished he could simply be their little boy again—wished they didn’t have to intersect with his current life, where they would undoubtedly start hearing of the things he’d endured and done. The things that eventually had broken him.

So he didn't tell them. 😠😡🤬 Storms, storms, storms!

Laral will get that corner room, which is the largest, with a private balcony.

Of course.

“What’s at the top?” Lirin asked.

“Meeting rooms for the Radiants,” Kaladin said. “There’s nothing on the very top—just a flat roof. The view is great though. I’ll show it to you sometime.”

How about a lashing/flying trip? This would be a perfect opportunity to deepen their bond and show Lirin what being a Windrunner trully means for Kaladin.

Their rooms speak so much about them (and how well Kaladin knows them and how much he loves them).

Hesina was always an intelligent woman, stocking her with books 📚 will allow her to learn new things and make good use of her wisdom.

Oroden, child of peace, has toys 🧸 chosen by Syl. What kind of toys did she choose? 🐭 She shouldn't be trusted after the rat incident.

And Lirin, who is overwhelmed with emotion, won the lottery because he was reassured of his utility, has more instruments than he ever imagined and Kaladin will be joining him again. He just won 💎x1000 diamond broams.

“They say they’ve found a way to infect people with a weak, easily overcome version of a disease—which leaves them immune for life to more harsh variants.”

That's a vaccine, in case you were wondering.

AND FINALLY... Kaladin as a surgeon? 🙊🙉🙈

🎶 *suspense music* 🎶

This was one of my predictions, so it's good to see it happenning. Now, as happy as I am that Kaladin will get a change at being a surgeon, let's be cautious about it. He has a second chance at it but it doesn't guarantee that "Lirin was always right", Kaladin has changed a lot and maybe he can't be a surgeon anymore. Let's celebrate with caution.

#rhythm of war #rhythm of war spoilers #row spoilers #spoilers #cosmere #stormlight archive #the stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #chapter 18 #kaladin stormblessed #laral roshone #lirin #lirin stormblessed #hesina #hesina stormblessed

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tokupedia · 5 years

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Halloween 2019 costume ideas: Power Rangers pt. 2

Jason Bischoff’s Beast Morpher Rangers

Jason Bischoff was the former global marketing guy for Hasbro and is an artist.

He is a genuine fan of tokusatsu (mentioned Kamen Rider on his Twitter and his love of Ex-Aid and several Heisei Rider shows) and it shows. In his final months with Hasbro, he and a buddy of his named Micheal O’ Hare came up with art for concepts of new Rangers not original to the Go-Busters source material.

The first is a Green Ranger based on the Frog Buddyroid from the Go-Busters Summer Film, “what if she had a Ranger companion”? The next is a gray Polar Bear Ranger and an Orange female scorpion Ranger based on Jason’s viewings of Kyuranger and Sasori Orange.

A Bat Ranger based on Blaze, a “what if the bad guy reformed and got a new suit” kind of thing. (though given its Batman’s 80th, you could also use it as an excuse to go around saying in a gravely voice “I’m Bat-Ranger!”)

Lastly, a Magenta Sea Urchin Ranger and Hammerhead Beast Bot for you and a buddy to dress up as.

X-Men/Power Rangers Amalgam

A while ago at the Edmonton Expo in Alberta, Canada, Jason David Frank discovered a cosplay that had to be seen to be believed. A Canadian fan mixed the White Ranger with Wolverine. Mr. JDF then posted this to instagram

Now, this isn’t the first time that X-Men and Power Rangers have crossed paths as both shared the Fox Kids block on Saturday Mornings in the 1990s and a SDCC gatefold variant cover paid tribute to X-Men #1. Not to mention MMPR’s comic rights were once with Marvel and the whole Marvel/Super Sentai connection. The idea of X-Men Rangers is an interesting one, why not complete it?

Cyclops Red, Jubilee Yellow, Beast Blue, Pink Phoenix (if considering season 2 MMPR), Gambit Black and Rouge Green. As an alternative to Wolvie, Storm can be the White Ranger or added as the 7th Ranger team member of any color you choose. Add a Professor Z (a tube head in a hover wheelchair or a blue bald guy) and you have the complete set! Or go wild and make a Brotherhood of Mutants version of a Ranger Team!

Lord “Zackkon”

Submitted for your approval, one Zachary Taylor, a virtuous teen who was offered a deal with the devil to be something greater, but refused. What if the youth, resentful of the choice of his team’s leadership, accepted the path that Rita Repulsa offered?

I envision a Black Ranger who fuses his power first with the Dragon Coin, but then with powers of Green and Black Rangers after him. The core idea is to combine the Mastodon motif with a Dragon in a way that aesthetically looks good.

Remi, the Orange Solar Ranger

(Ari’s Legacy Wars Bio confirms it!)

Last year, I pitched to the fandom to option dressing up as newest kid on the block, Ari aka the (Purple) Solar Ranger. This year, I’m submitting her life partner and love Remi who became the most recent addition to the Solar Rangers and another of a growing number of representatives of LGBTQ+ heroes. For those looking to cosplay with the person they love or for a fun cosmic night of Halloween, here is a Ranger couple that we hope to see more of in the future.

A Morphing Master

The Morphing Masters are the mysterious all powerful beings who protected the Morphin Grid and dedicated their lives to studying it. The Boom! Studios comics dedicated some time to explaining them a bit more in Beyond the Grid, including a new look.

Why be a mere three dimensional linear being on All Hallow’s Eve or at a con when you can wear a look that says “I am a supreme being beyond your trivialities and I look fabulous doing it.”

Warbunny

Aka my new favorite Power Rangers monster. Warbunny is a ‘roided up anthropomorphic rabbit whom, if his Conan inspired garb hasn’t telegraphed, talks like a certain former Governator and wields a large Warhammer that fires energy blasts. Cosplayers who do Warcraft costumes and other fantasy cosplay might gravitate towards this one since it parodies Arnie and Conan.

The Soul Era MMPR Rangers

In the comics, we learn there was a ill fated team in 1969 which fought Psycho Green. Pitch: What if there were a MMPR Rangers team 5 years later in 1975, the year Gorenger was created? The era of disco and soul, big cars, afro hair kung fu movies and Watergate. The challenge I present is combining the Gorenger suits with the MMPR suits.

Disco collar capes, platform heel variants of the boots, flashy brighter neon colors with glitter and woodgrain on the weapons because products in the 1970s had woodgrain even if it didn’t make any aesthetic sense to do so. Civilian forms would be based on 1970s fashion, at least one Ranger should have a real or fake Burt Reynolds-sized mustache and/or afro for period accuracy.

Dark Super Megaforce Yellow

For Ranger fans who wanna let out their inner bad girl, I present another Dark Ranger redesign of a Power Ranger from Battle For the Grid. The Gokaiger suit decked out in black and pants and a gold trim “coat” is just so good, really makes the yellow pop and looks more “piratey” than the standard suit. As you can see you can opt for an all black undershirt and yellow gloves or vice versa.

A new standard Lord Drakkon created for evil Rangers is that unlike their heroic counterparts, all of them have blood red visors instead of the standard black tint. (This also recently extends to Sentai, but we’ll get to that later.)

Houou Ranger (Chun-Li ver.)

While Ryu got to play Power Ranger, the devs of Legacy Wars decided to let none of the other characters participate in the fun. Many fans who love and respect Chun-Li were naturally outraged that she got shafted and began speculating what kind of Blue Ranger she would be. There was artistic debate as to what motif she would have with most gravitating towards a tiger, a peacock or her totem of fighting style, the crane.

I on the other hand think if Ryu lifted a Dairanger’s name for his Ranger form, it only makes sense the developers would do the same for Chun Li and give her a Chinese Phoenix motif.

The common consensus all fans share is that such a form has parts of Miss Li’s costume as part of her Ranger outfit much like with Ryu Ranger with his boxing gloves, bandanna and black belt. Whatever you choose, you are sure to be a knockout!

Supersonic Green

The first Green gone bad chronologically in the comics, Trek was a bitter Xybiran who got sick of being benched while his team went on missions and soon that bitterness turned into hate as he empathically read the feelings of his teammates about him. He murdered his entire team and then pledged allegiance to Dark Specter to become Psycho Green.

The Fiveman team these Supersonic Rangers are based on never had a sixth ranger, since sixth Rangers were not really a thing until Zyuranger. This bring up one conundrum for this Ranger in terms of those wishing to design a full costume...what exactly is Trek’s helmet motif?

For those who have never seen Fiveman, the theme was about types of school education each Ranger was part of. Red was a science teacher, Blue was a physical education teacher, Black was a language teacher, Pink was a math teacher and Yellow was a music teacher.

I suppose a history book on the helmet for social studies would be appropriate as would be an apple or money symbols for home economics. It should be noted if one commits to making a helmet, the Fiveman/Supersonic Ranger helmet visors each have lines running through them to signify their numerical designation (Red has 1, Blue has 2 etc.) so Green would have six.

That’s all I’ve got!

Happy Halloween Ranger Nation!

#power rangers #halloween #costumes #cosplay #costume ideas #comics #video games

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the-jellicle-duelist · 5 years

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Ryan’s Top 10* Video Games of 2019

I don’t write blog posts but it’s time for Video Game Top 10 Lists for 2019 and I have no where good to put it! So congrats tumblr you get it. I’ll also tweet about it but in a much smaller scale. Anyways if you don’t care that’s fine! But if you do! It’s under that read more baby!!

*there’s always more than 10

First, some honorable mentions.

Dragon Quest 1

Dragon Quest 1 is the oldest JRPG (I won’t check if this is true) and I finally got around to it this year when it come out on Switch. The nice thing about Dragon Quest 1 is that it is masterful in its simplicity: you are one person. You fight one monster at a time. You go to one town at a time (mostly). You are on one quest (again, mostly). There’s only a few handfuls of anything like weapons, items, spells, monsters. They all work really well in concert with each other, and the package as a whole is this cozy, comfy less than 20 hour JRPG experience that I really enjoyed.

Best MMO I Refused to Get Addicted to in 2019

Final Fantasy XIV

I sure did hear a lot about Final Fantasy XIV this year. From podcasts to people just talking about it on twitter it seemed to be in the cultural zeitgeist this year. I downloaded the client and put about 15 hours into the base game. If I would have had the right combination of time/money/depression at that time I know I would have gotten deep into it. I’m fine that I didn’t, I think. But the potential was there.

Okay list time here we go:

10. Baba is You

Baba is You is this a coding game? You’re manipulating verbs that are represented by blocks, and pushing them next to noun blocks, to make the objects in the world do things, so that you can get Baba to touch the win object, usually a key. It’s great fun! It got really difficult around the third world and I had to put it down but boy did I like messing around. There were several wonderful “YOOOOO” type moments, and the puzzles when you solved them were great for making you feel very cool and smart.

9. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is From Software doing From Software shit in a way I wanted to like way more but ultimately it’s Here on this list. I liked Sekiro fine but it didn’t click with me like Dark Souls 3 or Bloodborne has in the past. The best parts of Sekiro for me were nailing difficult and tight blocking windows, which gave me an absolute rush every single time. I only got to what I assume was about half way through the game, so I don’t know if this changes later, but for a From game where the bosses were for the most part A Person, the boss encounters were interesting and varied. Also the world design was stunning.

8. Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Builders 2 rules, first off. I wanted to put it higher on this list but I think it fell short because it was so heavily iterative and didn’t do a whole lot to progress itself from the first game. But, there were several quality of life improvements, and there was a big cool area to build in that was permanent and part of the story. I think if they added some more cool things, and made the dialogue not be such a slog to get through, this could have been way higher up on this list.

7. Kingdom Hearts 3

God, Kingdom Hearts 3. I was convinced for about 7 years that KH3 would not only never come out, but it would keep getting bad handheld games until I died. But they finally did it, they made the thing. It felt like a PS3 game which is the wildest thing. (It probably was a PS3 game for a while). It was very fun to play mechanically; the part of KH that was always pretty good was the action RPG stuff. The story is bad tho! The reasons you go to the different world’s is the thinnest it’s ever been, and there’s almost no real lore until the last two hours where you get all of it at once. KH3 was clunky, but I still liked swinging the keyblade and shooting fireballs.

6. Judgment

Shout outs to Judgment: I own it. I never played it. It is number 6 on my list. This probably says more about how I felt overall about games this year than it does about Judgment. Judgment comes from the Yakuza studio, and by all accounts it was so close to that vein, that I am confident and comfortable putting it at this number 6 spot without having ever launching the game. I have second hand accounts that it slaps, and will do for me everything Yakuza does for me, which is fine. I just ran out of time.

5. MiSTer FPGA

I love MiSTer. Wow do I love MiSTer. It’s got everything: old games, tinkering, assembling parts. If you are unaware of the MiSTer device, it’s a custom FPGA board with add-on boards, that developers have written Cores for classic consoles that all run in this FPGA environment. As opposed to emulators, an FPGA as I understand it is mimicking real hardware and then running games ontop of it. It’s a great device, and plays the things it plays (NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, loads of Arcade games,and more) really well. I have really enjoyed playing games on it, and tinkering with it this year. I spent a lot of my time this year with it.

4. Slay the Spire

This is where the list starts to get Real. Wow does Slay the Spire rule! Holy shit. Rogue like, deck building, choice making, hard as fuck, big time strategy, unique characters. It’s really got everything. And it’s dense. This was absolutely my “just one more X” game this year. I put hundreds of hours into it. The way all of the cards interact with each other, the way you can really craft so many kinds of specific decks in each character, in each run, really worked for me. The ever-growing engines you could make, and the way that, even if you have a not great deck, it never feels bad. It’s one of the few rogue likes where you feel like when you’ve lost it’s your fault in a good way. It’s tuned to feel good no matter what. It’s tuned to feel tense. God Slay the Spire rules. And there’s a new character on the way? fuck.

3. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

I loved coming back to Monster Hunter so bad y’all don’t even know. They added a ton, so many good monsters that I love to fight. Tigrex? yes. Zinogre? Yes. Velkhana? YES. The variant monsters are great, too. I just love Monster Hunter World so much. The clutch claw rips ass. This game is so good, and chunky, and feels good to play. I really mastered the bow this time around, but I started off with Hammer again because I will always have a torrent love affair with Hammer. Clutch Claw Grab with the Hammer is the best feeling you can get from video games.

2. Pokemon Sword/Sheild

Good Pokemon games! They’re good! It was nice to go through all the motions of a new pokemon game this year: rumors, leaks, having a reaction to all the starters and their evolutions, getting my hands on it, catching them all. It’s just a good Pokemon game. It’s not the best one (Black and White still got that crown) but it’s good. And I like a majority of the new designs. I like how they culled the dex to a nice, satisfying but manageable number. Anyone who’s mad please fuck off.

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING. Anyone who follows me on twitter, you know. God where do I start. So, I played all the way through Three Houses six times. I did two runs of Golden Deer, two of Black Eagles, one Blue Lions, and one Church of Seiros. I love all of my students. This game hit hard for me for a few reasons: they did Fire Emblem again, but its bigger and there’s more moving parts. More need for spreadsheets, which is stuff that I eat up. Yum yum good. Adding an overworld even in the scope that was as small as, the Monastery School, to this Fire Emblem was a BIG risk because they have been down this road before, and have not really nailed it. But I think with Three Houses they struck a really good balance, and it never overwhelmed me. They took a big page out of Persona’s book here which did wonders for me. You have this big map and it LOOKS scary, but in reality with fast travel and the limited number of actual activities/quests, you can do everything you want very quickly.

The thing that shined that brightest was the characters. I love them all, even the ones that aren’t cool, and even the ones that are Bad. I love all my kids. I have a lot I could say about how having all of these story routes, with their inconsistencies and their only slightly subtle variations bummed me out, but I did think if you take a macro look at the plot, this is one of the only well-written Fire Emblems ever. There was like, magic and dragons and things like this, but the thing that worked for me was their commitment to keeping the story grounded in the people that were in it? It was a story about three lands, vying for power in their own ways, and the actions/consequences that would follow. They really leaned in to the human part of it. It was not as much Kingdoms doing Politics, it was people doing things, and I think that worked for me.

Honestly the weakest parts of FE:3H was the Fire Emblem parts. The classes are just okay, and they took out a lot of the limitations of weapons/magic and so it was really a class change system about skills mastery, which I think they didn’t hit a home run here, but it was fine. And I liked doing it, clearly. The maps were a little samey in, especially in the first Part of the game.

All of this said, FE:3H slaps so much fat juicy ass and it is absolutely my game of the year for 2019.

#video games #top 10 #top 10 video games 2019 #dragon quest #final fantasy xiv #baba is you #sekiro #dragon quest builders 2 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #judgment #mister fpga #slay the spire #monster hunter world #monster hunter world iceborne #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #fire emblem three houses

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cryptrat · 5 years

Text

Clone decks are cool and fun.

In this post, I will be discussing my motivations for playing clones and then discussing the specific cards which I feel best fit these motivations. Even if clones themselves are not your cup of tea, please read the first part about why I am drawn to them. Those motivations may resonate with you and each has a category of cards beyond clones which are attractive for deck building at large.

Magic at its core is a vehicle we use to enjoy ourselves. There are many routes to enjoyment but that is the goal. In our time using this vehicle there is a huge swath of nuanced factors affecting our decisions both in-game and deck building. Mana bases, consistency, personal interests both temporary and long-term, the local meta, the community at large, individual deck constraints, philosophical goals, power level targets, budget and more. It is hard to encapsulate everything at once and so we often develop general heuristics. As everyone’s experience and constraints are different, your mileage may vary and your own heuristics may lead you to a different place. That’s fine. Do what makes you happy, preferably with like-minded players.

With that said, let’s begin with reasons why I favor clones.

As a general note: I will be drawing from my experience with a clone-themed deck as opposed to a deck with a couple clones in it. Individually, a clone is able to fill these motivations on a card level, but a deck that is structured around ~6 clones will play fundamentally different, feeling more free to use them as they’re drawn. Additionally, I will only be focusing on clones that have the option of copying opponents’ spells. For reference, here is my bant clones list, though absent is the context and commentary including philosophical reasons for specific card decisions.

Motivation: Significantly Increased Replayability

Among the decks I’ve built, some of them just don’t have the replay value since they boil down to doing the same thing every game. The worst of these offenders was a Jund deck that had almost no interesting or enjoyable plays and was just a tutor recurring chain to set up a Necrotic Ooze combo. The deck built from scraps after it was significantly more interesting and while it had a systemic problem, the deck I built from the premise I found has continued into being one of my favorite and longest-lasting decks.

Clones have the capacity to be anything, making each game capable of playing out in different ways that are unpredictable at deck-building time. Every game. Every opponent. Every new deck they build is another experience to sample from, making the deck a different experience from one game to the next. Other parts of my philosophy may augment my plays and deck-building to enhance this aspect, but the themselves clones are what makes much of it possible.

Further, I’ve been happy to discover that the deck provides that same added variety across longer expanses of time. As new sets are released and people brew with the cool new cards, clones give you the option to sample them without having made any changes to the deck. I first noticed this when copying the newly printed Panharmonicon from one deck which happened to synergize with what I was doing.

Other cards in this space, leveraging the variability of opponents to increase replayability. A short list of examples include Animate Dead, Mind Control, and Praetor’s Grasp, all of which have variants themselves. My philosophical heuristics suggest playing clones instead of mind control effects due how bad it feels to have something taken compared to the validating feeling of having something worth copying: the table has more net positive vibes with a clone than a theft.

The deck persisting across time and staying fresh despite minimal changes also makes the deck cost efficient when looking at it through the lens of money spent vs time played. Short-lived decks, while possibly cheaper, wouldn’t necessarily fare as well on this metric. This leads into the next point:

Motivation: Accessible Power on a Budget

Certain specific clones are more expensive than others, but as a group, clones tend to be fairly inexpensive, especially so when compared to things you can copy with them. Their ability to become powerful cards on a budget makes them cost effective sources of power. You’re able to copy the strongest threats available, possibly ones outside of your budget, often getting a discount on mana in addition to that monetary savings. If you have spare budget as a result, that can be spent improving other aspects of your deck.

This premise of this category is large enough for its own series, which many people already make content for. The general pattern I’ve found is that any time a card doubles the effect of another card or whenever something moves cards between zones in any direction (hand, library, graveyard, battlefield), it will tend to scale the more effectively with your available card pool than those that don’t. These zone-moving cards tend to be the ultimate sources of budget power as a result and have the power to open up plays. Tutors, card flow, recursion and removal are the biggest categories, but in this case, flicker effects and clones double up on enters the battlefield triggers.

Motivation: Scaling up to Powered Decks

This typically goes hand-in-hand with the previous point, having cards which scale to the power level of opposing players is important for helping to smoothen out the rough variance of power level disparity that a table can have. A clone is able to approximate the power level of an Avacyn or Consecrated Sphinx, should an opponent deploy one. Clones inherently lack the synergistic context of the cards being played in their home decks (which may lead other opponents to leave yours on the table while destroying the original, especially if your deck is weaker than the home deck), but even so, you can reach upward when playing against more threatening decks, where other creatures while definitely still solid, may fail to scale.

This is especially important given my philosophical constraints on certain kinds of power level and play experience, allowing me to play things like Seedborn Muse and Eternal Witness, but only when someone else at the table already decided to do so.

Another end of my philosophical framework is that clones are generally less oppressive than non-variable creatures against decks weaker than yours since they don’t have an inherent proactive use outside of creatures that already exist. Ultimately this is comes down to the deck that they’re played in and whether they have a baseline synergy with other cards in the deck.

Motivation: Scaling from Early to Late Game

Clones are the epitome of flexibility so harping on it a third time should not be a surprise. Here, I’m focusing on the ability of a clone card to have variable utility in the different stages of a single game. I’ll use one game as a concrete example:

In one game, I played a couple of clones early as copies of Solemn Simulacrum to develop my mana base. Later on, I was able to recur those clones and reset them as copies of Angel of Serenity to take over the board and press for damage in the air.

The scaling of utility over time is something only a small percentage of cards have, but it’s a core feature of cards I find appealing in commander. This is perhaps a fundamental feature of my favorite cards. In limited, this category often manifests as mana sinks, but commander has the wider card pool so it will show up in a wider variety of forms than might initially be obvious.

Kiora’s Follower is my preferred example for the sake of simplicity. On turn 2 you can play it to act like a signet by untapping a land. Later on, you draw Sol Ring or a Simic Growth Chamber, so it starts to produce two mana instead of one. Later still, you find Enclave Cryptologist and suddenly the Follower is tapping to draw cards or give your big voltron vigilance. Most harmoniously, this pattern works regardless of whether you draw Kiora’s Follower first or if you top deck it later when those other pieces are already in play. Compare that to the signet it was replacing when you top deck it and the power scaling becomes immediately clear. Even something like Sylvan Reclamation fits this category: finding a land in your starting hand and being a powerful removal spell when drawn or recurred later.

This category of cards produces the best game play, because they fight the inherent problem of card games has: You cannot control the order in which you draw the pieces. By scaling in power at each point in the game, it doesn’t matter when you draw the pieces and the pieces will tend to just be stronger overall as the game progress. This category probably also deserves its own series if for no other reason to find and list the rare times cards cleanly have this play pattern.

Now that I have discussed reasons why clones are desirable for play, I will discuss a handful of clones which I find most favorable for deck building and then discuss related cards that play well with clones, especially when clones are a noticeable percentage of deck space.

[ Clever Impersonator ]

Obviously starting here because it can copy anything. This lets you try whatever new card is played. It has the most flexibility which also lets it stay relevant when playing against decks that are heavily non-creature based. Often there will be an enchantment or artifact you can get value out of so it should never be dead. I suspect this most often gets played with the intention of doubling a crucial combo piece, but even there, it has the opportunity to make cool copies in the moment.

[ Phyrexian Metamorph ]

This is in a similar space since it can also copy artifacts. Costing less allows it to often approximate a mana rock on turn three which reduces the number of games when it’s dead in your hand early on. Being an artifact makes it a little bit easier to destroy, recur, and reset as something more useful as the game progresses. Being an artifact also makes it generally synergistic when included in certain decks as it is.

[ Stunt Double ]

Having flash lets you trigger enter the battlefield effects at the moment when they’re needed, approximating a flicker effect. It also provides you with a surprise blocker, or on end step, a surprise threat with pseudohaste. The flash really is a substantial upgrade since it can provide inherent card advantage due to the timing of its play. On top of that, players will have already committed some of their resources to other plays and not have as much of an opportunity to react to what you do with a copy they hadn’t anticipated.

[ Phantasmal Image ]

Two mana for a copy is an excellent rate. It most likely won’t survive to be a threat on its own and can’t be flickered but copying a trigger for two is a very solid rate depending on the effect you’re getting. Being a creature makes it significantly easier to recur than the spell variations. The cost reduction typically pairs well with recursion effects since you’ll be able to play it during the same turn more easily than the other clones, which tend to cost four or more.

[ Gigantoplasm ]

This clone is underrated. The X ability solves a fundamental problem of clones: their lack of being a reliable, proactive threat. This can come in as a Reclamation Sage to handle a threat and then morph to a 10/10 later in the game without the need for a flicker effect or a better clone target. The nuances of cloning clones allow this option onto further clones of it (though each of them will need the X activation paid to achieve this benefit; it’s worth learning the gritty details in this case).

[ Body Double ]

This is the only blue way to recur creatures that have died. Being a Rise from the Grave in creature form also allows it to feed off opposing graveyards, typically giving you more options than a normal clone, and often better options since the strongest creatures usually eat removal first. As with Clever Impersonator, having a different play pattern is important. If your deck has a high percentage of generic clones, a heavy enchantment deck won’t give you many options for things to copy, as an example.

[ Faerie Artisans ]

While not strictly in the space of clones, this does make copies of opponents creatures and can be a fun minigame to play. It does play well with the flicker effects that clones already like, since the faerie will become a new object and unlinked from the now permanent token that it has created.

[ Sculpting Steel ]

Hitting artifacts typically makes this the most narrow, though as with Phyrexian Metamorph, it usually can be a mana rock in the worst case. Playing WITH metamorph and the artisans also provides the opportunity of to copy artifact versions of creatures that the other two copy.

[ Mimic Vat ]

This also is not a clone strictly speaking, but like clones, it does tap into the same sort of space. It plays best with ETB triggers, but I’m also highlighting it here since, in addition to playing in the clone space, it is a soft way to disrupt graveyard decks. Separate sections of my philosophy makes me decline hard graveyard disruption like Rest in Peace. While Mimic Vat is softer than something like Rakdos Charm, it thematic to a clone deck and the welcomed incidental disruption does not cost thematic deck space to include (hitting yet another philosophical note).

[ Rite of Replication ]

This is the only spell version of clones I am going to bring up. I generally don’t like these since they require a target and are therefore susceptible to being countered outright if their telegraphed target is destroyed. That makes them far too risky for my tastes in a deck where copying my own creatures is an expected and eventual outcome. Rite of Replication however does have the added benefit of scaling into the late game by providing four extra copies once you hit nine mana. For a clone deck that has trouble finishing the game due to a chunk of creatures having variable utility and power, the instant army this provides, is worth considering. I don’t have a list that includes it yet, but Archaeomancer or Eternal Witness would likely need to appear in the list since recurring spells is comparatively difficult to recurring creatures.

Now that I’ve discussed the clones I favor most, I want to discuss cards that pair well with a deck running several of them. This is fairly straight forward but I’m going to include it for the sake of completion.

Enter the Battlefield Abilities

This category is the critical part of your deck’s core since the clones and these have the same synergy pieces and everything points back to this. The effects you have that are worth copying need to be impactful enough to spend a clone doing, but also varied enough that you have meaningful options. The options are what lets you access their power.

Harmonic Sliver is my favorite example since it’s a Reclamation Sage that is even more effective when cloned: the first clone will destroy an additional two permanents and the second clone will destroy three more on top. This gives a clone deck in these colors the ability to leverage them against decks that are heavily artifact or enchantment focused without devoting too much space to narrow removal of that type (further highlighting the power in the flexibility of clones).

Of special note here are triggers that have a lot of flexibility themselves, allowing you to chain the flexibility of a clone into the added flexibility of your trigger options. Diluvian Primoridal as an example, turns a clone into a variety of spells, potentially ones that aren’t in your colors. Chancellor of the Spires has a similar pattern, but does not exile the spell, allowing repeated clones to perform the same action.

Flicker Effects

Ghostly Flicker on a clone will allow that clone to become something new. It will also trigger enters the battlefield effects again, either on the clone or on the original source of the trigger. Often these sorts of effects can be most useful at responding to critical opposing plays or for protecting a crucial piece from removal. Ghostly Flicker and other versions of the effect that hit multiple creatures can also act as a value engine when an effect like Archaeomancer can recur it in addition to whatever else it’s doing.

Creature Recursion

The clones themselves are creatures, the easiest card type to recur. Several cards in white and black can return them to other zones, allowing you to get additional uses out of them, and due to their flexibility and scaling, this means that when you get a clone back, it can be something else based on the current state of the game.

Recursion generally is something I’m very high on since I also play a lot of looters to fix my draws and the combination of recursion and looting means I always have what I need in the moment. Creature recursion generally has the same sort of pattern as flickering, both resetting creatures and also triggering enters the battlefield effects.

Angel of Serenity is one of my favorite clone targets, hitting all of these points at once. It can deal with threats, it can recur clones, and it’s a chunky flying body, effectively allowing clones to chain and maintain a solid board state while disrupting opponents.

Did I miss any of your favorite clone cards? What are your favorite creatures to clone or cards to play together with clones?

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orokinarchives · 5 years

Text

Operation: Hostile Mergers

(Jovian Concord hype image)

Operation

On Wednesday (22 May 2019), the event began with the release of Update 25.0 and was set to run until 03 June. Upon logging in, a new mission was available on Jupiter, labelled "Operation: Hostile Mergers Mission 1". This update also contained the Jupiter Gas City tileset rework, and the Amalgam enemies found within.

Mechanics and Missions

The new node on Jupiter, Operation: Hostile Mergers Mission 1, was a Disruption mission on the remastered Gas City tileset. The Tenno had to complete one round of Disruption, and then were given the opportunity to extract. Upon completing the mission, a second node was unlocked on Jupiter, where the Tenno had to complete two rounds of Disruption. Completing the second mission unlocked a third mission with three rounds of Disruption. Completing the third mission unlocked a final node, labelled "Operation: Hostile Mergers Endurance", where the Tenno participated in Disruption for as long as they could.

During Disruption missions, the Tenno would drop into the Gas City and have to hack a door to proceed. Ordis and Alad V would send transmissions throughout the mission. Some of Alad V's transmissions were distinct from his usual ones, spoken in a lower tone of voice and with a darker camera view, and a camera angle high above his head. These transmissions were mostly addressed to an individual called CT, and not intended for the Tenno.

Ordis: "Ordis is detecting Sentient waveforms, Operator. Strange interlink. Splattered in Corpus crosstalk. Bypass that console so we might get a better understanding…."

Alad V: "Oh no! You've caught me! Me and my little partnership! Where's that Lotus when you need her? Now, sniff-sniff, Betrayers. See if you can find the cheese."

(upon hacking door) Ordis: "Outgoing communications cipher…. Not much of a trick for Ordis, is it? Oh, how scandalous! Alad's system has a back door! Shall we… listen in?"

Alad V (to CT): "Ah, more test subjects have arrived. Right on schedule. CT, prepare my Amalgams for further… evolution. I've baited the traps."

Ordis: "These conduits are the source of those Sentient waveforms. This may be worthwhile if we can find the key component… but it does seem a tad convenient, doesn't it?"

Beyond the door, the Tenno could find four terminals of Sentient design. Vapos Corpus enemies would begin to spawn in high numbers, accompanied by occasional Amalgams. Upon death, these Amalgams dropped keys that would activate the terminals.

(upon picking up first key, variant) Alad V: "Almost there, you clever vermin! But what to do next? Can you feel that coming rush? That cocktail of unflinching violence and pseudo-random rewards? Mm, good for business."

(upon picking up first key, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Showtime, CT. Inform our Partners another trial has begun. Prep interference routines. Bait and wait… it's time for Alad V to get back on the corporate map, yes!"

Inserting the keys into the conduit terminals would trigger a 2-minute countdown, and trigger either a boon or a hazard for the Tenno, which would last for the duration of the conduit activation. In addition, a Demolyst would spawn somewhere on the map, and immediately head towards the active conduit. This Demolyst was essentially an improved Amalgam unit that periodically pulsed a nullifier field. If it was able to reach the conduit, it would charge up for roughly 3 seconds before detonating, destroying itself and the conduit. If it was killed before it could detonate, the conduit would be considered safe and the countdown would end.

If the conduit was projecting a hazard and was destroyed, the hazard would persist for the rest of the round. If the conduit was projecting a boon and was defended, the boon would persist for the rest of the round. In all other outcomes, the condition ended once the conduit was no longer active.

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "In battle, advantage goes to the one most willing to die. And my Demolysts, Tenno? Well, they aren't just willing… they want it."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "As a man with everything to lose, I make a point of employing the opposite. Release the Demolyst!"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "Feeling a bit… out of sorts, Tenno? Noticing any… performance problems with that metal seashell of yours?"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "I've taken my knocks in the past, but, Tenno, you seem a bit sluggish, a bit spent. Are you sure you want to continue?"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "Disciples, remember your vows. Increase profits, and decrease… Tenno!"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "Demolyst! Target the Conduit… and claim your glory!"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V: "Demolyst! Light your fuse!

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, time for a Demolyst."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT… they've accessed a Conduit. [sigh] Deploy a Demolyst!"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Conduit activated! CT, send in a Demolyst."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "They're preoccupied! Now, CT, the Demolyst!"

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Relentless, even when they're spinning on the spit. CT, signal the supply decks. We're going to need additional 'volunteers' for conversion."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "This has gone far enough. CT, cycle the interference routines. We need to knock these freaks down a notch."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, permute the next interference routines. They had better work this time."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Bait followed by battery followed by bait. I'm getting bored. CT, let's salt our interference routines and dispatch the next Amalgams, yes."

(upon activating conduit, variant) Alad V (to CT): "I need to cut my losses, quick. CT, dispatch updated interference routines… and, uh… lower the room temperature, could you?"

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "What… what if we make the Tenno more of a threat… really see what these Amalgams can do?"

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Let's flip the script, and see what these Amalgams can do."

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, invert the algorithm. Give them a little false hope."

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, the model is getting a bit predictable. A little morale boost might be good for conditioning, yes."

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Let the Betrayers have a little fun while we crunch the numbers."

(upon activating conduit with a boon, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Give the Betrayers a little hope, and we'll sink the hook deeper."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V: "Don't be discouraged! Failure has made you what you are… a failure."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V: "Betrayers, frustrated yet? Get used to it."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V: "Will you try again? Will you give me another reason to laugh?"

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V: "A pity… you could have used that. Hmm, but I'm bad at sharing, you know."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V: "This week on Nightwave: Tenno lose big, give up on life! Details at the next cycle."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Finally. Some investments take longer to earn out."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V (to CT): "These disciples finally show some merit. Credit where credit is due: I am an excellent leader."

(when a conduit is destroyed, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, fast-track these disciples for promotion… I mean, conversion, of course."

(upon defending conduit) Ordis: "Scans indicate these conduits are connected to a massive stockpile of resources. Just how long is the Operator planning to fight for?"

(upon defending conduit) Ordis: "Operator, the stockpile of tech and resources connected to these conduits seems beyond Alad's means. Where did he get all this?"

(upon defending conduit) Alad V: "Good! Keep it up. Every single bit-stream of this carnage only makes me richer."

(upon defending conduit) Alad V: "Thank you for your generous brutality and violence! My Amalgams have never been better!"

(upon defending conduit) Alad V: "The smart move would be walk away while you still can. Consequences aren't your strong suit, are they?"

(upon defending conduit) Alad V: "Ready for more, Betrayers? I have to admire your greed! Sure! Let's go again!"

(upon defending conduit) Alad V: "Oh, are you still floating there? Like a twit tetrapod, oblivious to the rising heat."

(upon defending conduit) Alad V (to CT): "Steady… steady now, follow the plan. Trials make data, data is sold, Amalgams evolve… Tenno die. And I won't have to beg for mercy from the Partners."

(upon defending conduit) Alad V (to CT): "Useless disciples! CT, is it so hard to get good help these days? The sooner they're all Amalgams, the better."

(upon defending conduit) Alad V (to CT): "CT, rescan the comm channels. I can't shake the feeling that someone's listening in. The Board? Our Partners? I don't know."

Hidden in an out-of-the-way room could be found a datamass. This datamass could be inserted into an active conduit that was projecting a hazard in order to cancel the hazard.

(upon finding conduit failsafe) Ordis: "Some kind of failsafe? If placed in a conduit, it will cancel the running interference routines. Use it wisely, Operator; there's only one!"

After all four conduits had either been defended or destroyed, the round was completed and another round would begin shortly (unless all four terminals were destroyed, whereupon the mission promptly failed).

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "The data's good, at least. Worth more than a few trinkets to our business partners, yes."

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "CT, integrate this for the next generational cycle. We need to recoup… aggressively."

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Unfortunately. But this is how evolution works. One generation closer to an Amalgam they just can't kill."

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Wasteful, but failure teaches faster. Our Partners will be pleased."

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "I thought you were better than this! You're making me look bad in front of my new business associates."

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Another weakness revealed and removed. Who knew these violent prongs would be so good at science!

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "I don't like this. Inventory as bait was a mistake. What do I do now?"

(during a round, variant) Alad V (to CT): "This is getting out of hand."

(upon completing a round) Alad V: "Take your trinkets. A small price to pay for a superior product."

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "Impressive! Ordis is just fluttering with anticipation! What will the Operator—murder—find next?"

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "Ordis thinks Alad will miss this."

(upon completing a round) Alad V (to CT): "More losses. More debt. How am I going to explain this to that… that thing?"

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "Excellent find. Might the Operator now consider returning to the warm embrace of the Orbiter?"

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "For how much longer will the Operator play along with Alad's twisted game?"

(upon completing a round) Alad V (to CT): "What did they get? This is spiralling on us. I'm hemorrhaging inventory."

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "Ordis will add this to the pile."

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "May Ordis suggest extraction? Nothing Alad has is worth your life."

(upon completing a round) Ordis: "Ordis knows the Operator has the wisdom to choose comfort and safety over material gain. Ordis… is right, is he not?"

(upon completing a round) Alad V (to CT): "CT, transfer more disciples and begin conversion at once. We're deep in the red now."

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Is that all you're good for?"

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Stay awhile… stay… forever!"

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "We're just getting reacquainted. Don't leave the party just yet!"

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Smell that? Newly evolved Amalgams, fresh from the oven! Want a taste?"

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "You could have so much more…."

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "You're greedy, Tenno, very greedy. It's an inspiration to us all."

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Don't leave, Betrayer! Think of all the science we could be doing…."

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Impressive performance, Betrayer. But, if you don't mind, we're going to change things up."

(waiting for next round, variant) Alad V: "Keep testing me, Betrayers. And I'll keep testing you."

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "The next Amalgam cycle will show you what it means to be on the bleeding edge."

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "Destroy them, my Amalgams!"

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "We have unfinished business. Shall we?"

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "So… feeling better, Tenno? I can fix that."

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "Another roll, Betrayers? I think your number's bound to come up."

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "I told my Partners you were insatiable… but even I'm impressed!"

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "Let's see if that shiny Tenno luck holds."

(when next round starts, variant) Alad V: "I see. Another round? Good to see my greed wearing off on you!"

(when extracting, variant) Alad V (to CT): "It's not an ideal outcome. I just hope it's enough to appease that flying freak [sigh]."

(when extracting, variant) Alad V (to CT): "They'll be back. And my Amalgams will be waiting."

(when extracting, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Costly. CT, send combat results to our Partners, but… omit our losses.

(upon failing, variant) Alad V (to CT): "This… this is how we do it. CT, prepare the revised Amalgam routines for the next production cycle."

(upon failing, variant) Alad V (to CT): "That should keep the Partners happy. Or, at least, less… un-happy. [sigh]"

(upon failing, variant) Alad V (to CT): "Disciples performing well. Perhaps I should start a profit-sharing program? [snickers] No."

(upon failing, variant) Alad V: "Game over! You lose… but take comfort in what that means: that I win! [laughs]"

(upon failing, variant) Alad V: "You got greedy, Tenno. Best leave that to a professional."

(upon failing, variant) Alad V: "Thank you, Tenno. By your thick-headed violent demonstration, my new Partner Amalgams are ready for full production!"

Rewards

After completing the first mission, the Tenno received an inbox message from the Lotus containing an Operation: Hostile Mergers badge.

Inbox message: Success!

You went above and beyond the call of duty today, Tenno. The skill you displayed will inspire your fellow warriors.

—The Lotus

After completing the second and third missions, the Tenno received identical inbox messages containing an Operation: Hostile Mergers sigil and an Aura Forma, respectively.

If the Tenno achieved a score of 1000 on the Endurance mission, they would receive an inbox message from the Lotus containing a Spectra Vandal. If the Tenno achieved a score of 4000 on the Endurance mission, they would receive an inbox message from the Lotus containing a Glaxion Vandal. These inbox messages were identical to the messages received before. Both Endurance goals could be completed on the same run.

The founding warlord of each clan received an inbox message from Ordis with a trophy based on the clan's level of participation in the event.

Inbox message: HOSTILE MERGERS: Maximum Disruption

Operators,

[clan] inflicted maximum disruption to Alad V's Amalgam laboratory. In doing so, you robbed him of resources and strained relations with his Sentient partners.

Ordis has taken the liberty of commissioning this statue. Surely it will become the focal point of whatever room you place it in.

Your loyal Cephalon, Ordis

[Navigation: Hub → Events → Operation: Hostile Mergers]

#warframe #events #lore #alad v #ct #natah #corpus #sentients #gas city #jupiter #disruption #hostile mergers #orokin archives

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