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anneapocalypse · 2 years

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Dragon Age: Warden's Fall and Redemption

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 06/09/20.

So there's a lot of Dragon Age media, and apparently where fannish obsession is taking me at the moment is finding and consuming all of it.

So let's talk about those miniseries.

Wait, there are miniseries? Yes, two of them, both apparently considered so insignificant to the canon that the fan wiki doesn't even have a category for them alongside Games, Novels, and Comics. I was aware of the existence of Redemption, but had never heard of Warden's Fall.

Let's watch 'em!

Dragon Age: Warden's Fall

(Watch it here)

Warden's Fall is a 30-minute miniseries created by Machinima.com back when Machinima was a relevant name in geek culture. (For more on the rise and fall of Machinima.com, see this video from the Fallen Titans series by Quinton Reviews.) It's made in the Dragon Age: Origins engine and released in 2010 as a promotion for the Awakening expansion. Basically, it's a 30-minute cutscene. Now I love Origins to death, but I think it's safe to say that its aesthetic hasn't aged super well and the in-game lighting is particularly bad. I found 30 minutes of Origins cutscene a little difficult to watch, though that might just be me, or the video quality. (As an example of how bad the lighting is, for most of this miniseries I was struggling to figure out if a particular character was suffering from darkspawn corruption or if it was just shadows on his face.)

Warden's Fall follows Kristoff—remember him? The dead Grey Warden from the Blackmarsh whose body gets possessed by Justice for the remainder of the DLC? Yeah, that Kristoff, but like, alive. What story thinly exists in this miniseries basically establishes that poor Kristoff just wants to return home to his family, but alas, he cannot because the darkspawn are not retreating into the Deep Roads as they should following the defeat of the Archdemon, and he must figure out why. The Mother is namedropped by a human agent who is evidently working for her, which I don't think ever actually comes up in Awakening.

A humorous note from the wiki:

Kristoff makes Bartholomew look at his crest, which is implied to be a Grey Warden heraldry, a griffon. However, Kristoff is not wearing Grey Warden armour and thus the crest on his chest is not that of a Grey Warden.

lol.

Anyway, I think that this would be a reasonably intriguing teaser for the Awakening DLC if you hadn't played it yet and knew nothing about it, which was after all its purpose. After the fact, it doesn't tell you a whole lot we don't already know. It might still be worth watching if you've got 30 minutes and you really want to see Kristoff be sad and run around Amaranthine for a while. No great loss to skip.

Dragon Age: Redemption

(Watch it here)

Otherwise known as "the one with the Felicia Day elf." Redemption is, I think, a bit more well known than Warden's Fall. It's a six-part live-action miniseries written by and starring Felicia Day, and released in 2011 to promote the Mark of the Assassin DLC for Dragon Age II. (Jesus Christ those dates are a painful reminder of how rushed DA2 was.)

Redemption isn't very good, which feels mean to say, because when I'm watching I'm it, I don't feel like I'm watching a piece of official canon material; I feel like I'm watching a fan project, with low-budget special effects and a bunch of people running around in cosplays of varying quality.

I wasn't super tuned into the fandom when this was coming out but I'm sure people gave Felicia Day hate over this because every visible woman in geek culture gets hate and I don't want to contribute to that. I don't even dislike Day as a voice actor—I think she's great as Veronica in Fallout: New Vegas though I don't know much of her work beyond that. And if Redemption were just a fan project cooked up by Day and friends and produced for YouTube I would probably find it kind of cute and charming if not particularly to my interest. Hell, it's certainly more watchable than that Nuka Break series.

But this isn't a fan project—it's supposed to be canon, and it does not work as that.

It is not easy to capture the tone and feel of a video game in live action, particular fantasy or sci fi settings with very specific aesthetics. The Halo series pulls off a live-action installment incredibly well with Forward Unto Dawn, effectively capturing the look, feel, and general tone of the Halo universe. But Forward Unto Dawn had the budget to make that happen, which Redemption clearly did not.

It's not just the fact that, for example, Day's elf ears look very obviously fake. Again, if this were cosplay I would say it looked pretty cool, especially the Saarebas played by Doug freaking Jones. But then you have things like the absolutely minimal effort at even approaching the in-game aesthetic of the Dalish elves. The young First character is wearing like… a black sheet? The Keeper has some sort of (probably temporary) swirly tattoos on her face that don't actually look like any of the established vallaslin. Totally fine for a fan putting together a cosplay with whatever they have lying around! Does not work for a series that's supposed to be canon. The Aravels look pretty cool, so maybe all the budget went there.

The actors also seem to mispronounce several in-universe words. Elven pronunciations vary across the games so I'm willing to let those slide, but everyone saying "Saarebas" as "Sara-bis" was weird.

The plot is also weird, with Tallis's target a renegade Saarebas trying to use an elven artifact, the Mask of Fen'Harel, to tear open the Veil because reasons. It's weirdly proto-Inquisition? It's also really funny: an elf who's trying to be a qunari chasing a qunari who's trying to use elven magic. There's also a templar and a Dalish kid and a Nevarran mercenary so Tallis has people around to quip at. Also, she kisses the templar at one point. I will say this, it's a fairly diverse cast! Love to see it.

One of the most out-of-place elements is just Tallis herself. Tallis is a qunari elf trying to earn back her position as Tallis (a Qunari title which the miniseries tells us means "to solve" and which I suspect was made up specifically for Day's character). She is Whedon levels of quippy, always with a snappy comeback or one-liner or flirtatious comment, in that way that sort of feels like the writer (who is, in this case, also the actor) is rubbing her cleverness in the faces of all the other characters and also the audience.

Visually, Tallis's costume design just stands out glaringly in this universe. Now just as a costume, detached from the universe, Tallis's look is fine. The colors work together, the top is cute, Day certainly looks cute in it. But it does not fit the style of the setting. Even in Dragon Age II, where we're starting to see that shift away from skirted armor and toward pants for everyone (culminating in what I will call the Inquisitor Skinny Jeans), Tallis's style doesn't mesh. It's basically low-rise jeans, boots, and a tank top. The tank top is green and swirly so it looks elfy, and there's a bunch of belts and straps and leather bits, but the overall silhouette is just undeniably modern, and specifically, 2010. It just does not work.

And this carries over into an official DLC. (Which I have played once and remember very little of, so I am not judging Tallis by that DLC, only as she is in the miniseries.)

This feels mean. I feel like I'm picking apart someone's beloved self-insert OC, and, well, I suspect that's exactly what I'm doing—but only because Bioware decided to make her OC canon. I support all of our special, sparkly, quippy, quirky, overpowered OCs! My own included! But there is a difference between what fans do for fun and what works in canon, and there is a reason that when we say a piece of canon media feels like fanfiction it is usually not complimentary.

It is very obvious that Day and everyone involved put a lot of love into this production and had fun doing it. But it's also obvious that Bioware dropped this project in her lap without the budget and oversight it would have needed to feel canon-compliant and nevertheless tried to present it as canon. And I don't feel like they actually did anyone any favors with that, including Day herself.

You know what I do like about Tallis? I like her concept on a high level: a viddathari elf trying to devote herself to the Qun and struggling with it, gaining status and then losing it due to multiple infractions, finding safety in the rigidity of the Qun in theory but in practice consistently failing to mold her personality into the shape the Qun demands. That's interesting! And it fits within the universe as elven viddathari are already a thing and that struggle for one not raised under the Qun to conform to it is one I'd love to see explored. In theory.

In interviews Felicia Day said that she "wanted to bring a modern sensibility to a fantasy character in a fantasy world," and that… just explains so much about what happened here. I think Tallis is a good character at the conceptual level, and could have worked well in-universe if not for that need to make her cool and quirky and well. Modern.

Basically... Redemption should not be canon. And I think if you're going to watch it, it is best enjoyed as a fan project lovingly made by someone who just wanted to dress up as her elf OC and run around in the woods. Lots of us can relate to that! From that angle, there is a certain charm to it.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion: Both of the Dragon Age web series are eminently skippable. Warden's Fall adds little to the established universe but fits within it; Redemption is best viewed as though it is not meant to.

#dragon age warden's fall #dragon age redemption #dragon age kristoff #dragon age tallis #dragon age origins awakening #dragon age 2 #dragon age meta #crosspost #anne does dragon age #blunders of thedas

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popsicletheduck · 2 years

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Hi hello I would like to hear more about Ash and Mosca pls. Whatever comes to mind, I'm listening, my brain is just very soup rn so i don't have Smart Questions unfortunately

hi hello, I took this as full permission to just go off so. fair warning, this got long.

so before we really get going, I feel some physical descriptions are probably necessary at this point, because I know I've posted my own art of Mosca before, but yknow. it gets lost, and I'm still learning to draw Ash so.

Mosca is a 5'11" deep green tiefling in black armor and rough travel clothes who constantly wears a black face mask and black leather gloves. They also now have a pet raven, Quoth, who constantly rides around on their shoulder. Their vibe is explicitly very goth (their character design drew inspiration from Bloodborne) and very secretive- the only part of them that remains uncovered is their eyes and the top of their head, and canonically that's mostly because it's hard to find headwear that fits when you have four horns (as well as for a complicated and angsty backstory reason). Ash is a 7'4" qunari, from Dragon Age. If one is unfamiliar with Dragon Age but familiar with D&D, think goliath but with hair and horns and without the tattoos (mechanically Ash is a reflavored goliath). If one is unfamiliar with D&D, think very tall, often very buff, grey skinned people with horns. Ash has most likely never worn a shirt in his life and isn't about to start now. He is very buff, very strong, has a bunch of javelins strapped to his back, and now runs around with a massive, tusked, black-purple cat big enough for him to ride named Moonstone (to be clear, he did not name it Moonstone, Moonstone came to us pre-named, Moonstone's nickname is Katari, which means "one who brings death"). Essentially- their vibes overlap to some degree, as they're both martial wanderers, but they are also very different looking people.

Now, there are many different stories I could tell about the two of them: how they came to be friends in the first place (aka the one sided enemies to friends speedrun), some of the bumps along the road, their recent argument and how that was resolved in a scene so sweet that I nearly cried. Or I could talk about their parallels and divisions: magic, language, home, community and trust, relations to personhood. But I think today I'll tell you one of my favorite stories from the campaign so far: the moment Mosca realized how much they cared about Ash, and what came after. (cw for dissociation and discussions of death. also technically vore? but not in a sexy way. someone gets eaten but it's a bad time all around)

So our party's job at the time was to head to a bunch of different locations we'd been given and close portals to the Abyss there. The problem with portals to the Abyss is that, yknow, demons come out of them. So we were headed up into the mountains to deal with a portal and there were a lot of demons there. Many things happened on our way up, but this story really gets going when we reach the portal and meet our final boss: a two story tall mass of muscle and thick grey skin with six limbs and four eyes and a too-big mouth lined with many teeth- an udaak. Some more plot happens, that's also not the point of this story. Eventually we all end up in combat with this thing. Mosca and Ash rush in so they can both melee. And then things go very, very wrong. Because while Mosca is watching, the udaak grabs and then swallows Ash.

Now it's not that Mosca didn't realize they cared about Ash before this. They did! They'd already said, "If it was anyone else I don't know if I'd give a shit, but I don't want you to be scared of me" (a story for another time). They'd already taken their mask off around him twice! But there is knowing, and there is Knowing. The absolute, overwhelming panic of that moment, facing the death of someone they care deeply about for the first time since the death of their father, a loss that affected them so deeply they nearly lost both their mind and their life... they realize some things. But before they can do a damned thing, one of their party members hits the udaak with a spell strong enough that it, uh. It vomits up Ash. Who come back screaming. Hurt as all hell, but alive and screaming.

And not quite in his right mind. Mosca has to get him to stop stabbing the corpse of the udaak even after it's dead, at which point he just collapses. Conscious, but not aware. Dissociating. And Mosca doesn't know what to do, they're not good at this sort of thing, they've been on their own for four years and the last six months of that they never saw another living person at all. They don't know what to do besides sit with him and hope that means something. Until, eventually, they get an idea.

See, Ash speaks Common, but it's not his first language- that would be Qunlat. He's still significantly more comfortable speaking Qunlat than Common and often struggles with expressing himself in Common, but no one else in the party speaks Qunlat. But Mosca has a spell that allows them to speak and understand any language for a short period of time. So Mosca casts the spell to speak and understand Qunlat, and just... talks. Stories from their time wandering, nothing too painful for them, a lot of killing undead in weird and violent ways, but they just talk. And that is the first time Ash has heard anyone speak his mother tongue in probably at least a year, a language he will likely never hear another native speaker speak, since going home would be a death sentence for him. And eventually, that grounds him, pulls him back.

The next morning, he calls Mosca kadan for the first time. Three days later, Mosca asks what that means and finds it means "where the heart lies". Later that day, they ask Ash to teach them Qunlat for real.

#battle bros #mosca #multiversal shenanigans #aaaaaaaaa i love them so muuuuch #sorry this got very long!#i could talk about them forever #and probably will tbh #thank u for asking!!! <3 <3 <3 #very much made my day #i hope the story was at least somewhat interesting!

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thebooktopus · 2 years

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Day Thirty: Occlumency

Love Found by @peachpety E // 7K // Drarry

🪙 the scene in the astronomy tier from book 6, expertly retold. gives Harry and Draco the underage romance they deserved, including Draco taking over Harry's Occlumency lessons. SO good: "The coin in Harry’s pocket suddenly warms. Harry bites the inside of his mouth to stop a threatening grin. Projected into his mind in a cloud of lavender grey, he receives images of Draco’s last motivational lesson. He sees himself in vivid color pinned to the mattress while Draco tries to break through his Occlumency by distracting him with his wicked mouth and velvet tongue."

Licurici by @lou-isfake E // 133K // Draco/Harry/Charlie

❤️ “And instead of anger or jealousy or bitterness, he saw something like respect in that recognition. Understanding, the same way Charlie could understand him; he knew the feeling of wanting Harry too much, and being completely vulnerable to it. He knew the ache and terror of watching Harry dangle on the precipice of life and death, and being powerless to stop it. And maybe that was what he saw in Malfoy, and what Malfoy saw in him, and maybe that was just what loving Harry felt like: Helpless.”

Thoughts below the cut because I’m going to gush. Like, a lot.

I'm not going to say that this fic was fun to read, because it wasn't. It was hard to read a lot of the time, but it also warmed my cold, dead heart and left me feeling effervescent, like I could float away with happiness when it was over. I laughed, I cried. There were so many times that I felt like I'd just been flayed open, a roller coaster of emotions just coursing through me. I feel bereft that I finished it and am already plotting a re-read.

I straight up embarrassed myself gushed all over the comments section of this fic while reading it, which is kind of out of character for me - I typically hold everything in until the end and leave a long one. But I think it's a good show of how much I truly enjoyed reading this that I felt like I couldn't wait, like there were too many good things to say and I didn't want to forget.

This felt like such an honest and believable love story. It was full of so many ups and downs, big emotions and discussions (or lack thereof). Lou captured the essence and difficulties of loving more than one person so beautifully, rendered it with such care. They expertly wrote these relationships - how different they were, how loving one person can look so different from loving another. You'll find yourself falling in love with Harry and Draco and Charlie right alongside them.

Things that were done well and I could go on about forever: dragons, magical lore, world building, OCs that you will fall in love with, the entire Weasley family, the entire Weasley family's individual reactions to Draco, smut, threesomes, Narcissa Malfoy and her empathy and her love for Draco, Lucius not present but still someone you would murder with your bare hands, dancing in kitchens, cuddling, pet names.

I don't know if this has made any sense but I guess the bottom line here is: go read this fic. Wait until you have time - you'll need it, it's a behemoth and you won't want to put it down once you've started.

For more info on my New Year's Rec-olutions for January, check out this post. Tomorrow's tag (last day!) will be "Obsession."

#booktopus fic recs #new year's rec olutions #drarry #drarry fic #fic rec #draco x harry x charlie #charlie weasley #rare pair poly

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marisol993 · 3 years

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For some time now I've seen, over and over again, that the Qunari in the Dragon Age Universe are apparently some kind of racist caricature of black people, muslims and other types of poc's, bipoc's, minorities, ....

From a personal perspective I never saw them as such, but since a personal view of things isn't very objective and can be skewed by ones life-experiances I was completely willing to admit, that I might have been wrong about that and had an opportunity to learn something new here.

The more I thought about it and critically examined this statement though, the less I agreed with any of it. Especially since a lot of arguments in favor of this view seemed to boil down to "this person of [insert relevant minority here] said so". I.e. another "personal viewpoint".

So let's get into a critical analysis of the Qunari and why I think that they are so very far removed from any kind of "minorty" (from a western point of view) coding that you couldn't even see it with the power of the Hubble and James Webb space-telescopes combined:

First of all, who are the Qunari? The Qunari are tall, medium to heavily built, horned (or unhorned, if you only played Origins) humanoids, that come in varying shades of grey skin, with whiteish hair. They are more intensly sexually dimorphic than the Dwarves, Elves and Humans of Thedas, with the males being sometimes nearly twice as wide (especially in the shoulders) and much more muscled than the females. They call themselves the Qunari as they are followers of the Qun (their guide to life and society), though the word is more of an umbrella-term, since anybody of any race is called a Qunari if they "convert" to the teachings of the Qun.

Here's a picture:

At this point some people might already remark, that the Qunari are very obviously "black-coded" since apparently nowadays any deviation from natural, real-life human skintones automatically has to mean, that the fantasy-race in question is meant to reflect black or brown people (even if they are green or bright purple), unless you literally give them a complete and utterly snow-white skintone. If that is the argument you want to go with, I would like to redirect your eyes to the picture above, as it already disproves this. As it is shown there (and in the DA:I Character-Creator), the Qunari can come in a complete spectrum of skintones (from very light grey to nearly ebony), just like all the different races of Thedas (even the dwarves for some reason, which doesn't make much sense for a race that lived underground for most of their history, but what can you do..). This basically means, that yes there are dark-skinned (or "black") Qunari, but there are also those that could be better described as "light-skinned", so the coding-qualifier goes away.

Then there are the people, who might want to say, that because they are tall and "burly", together with the unnatural skintone makes them "black-coded" which is something I never really understood, since the tallest people in the world by ethnicity are the Dutch and if you look at heights in correlation with body-weight the Russians take first place. Both countries not really know for their large populations of darkskinned-humanoids. Another coding-qualifier that goes away.

And then there are the people (who I would seriously suggest should maybe review their own "racial" views, if "black and brown people" is the first thing they think about when it comes to this), who say, that they are a stereotype of the "savages and natives", which is something that is actively contradicted in canon. One of the most prominent traits of the Qunari is that they are efficiant to a T, use every resorce at the disposal to it's maximum (including their people) and that they are more technically and scientifically advanced than many other race in Thedas (except maybe the dwarves) . This is shown through their mastery of gunpowder (which they call gaatlok) and the fact that they can use chemicals and drugs to literally warp the mind of people without needing magic. They are in no way presented as "savage" and if they are named such, it's usually by people who they are actively at war with, who want to insult them. They are also not "natives" of Thedas. Even their so called "homeland" in Thedas, which is called Par Vollen, was colonised by them, when they landed at it's shores in 6:30 Steel-Age and started converting the original population of Tevinter humans and elves, with whom they have been at war with ever since. Let me say that again: The Qunari are active colonisers and at war with the Tevinter-Imperium, who's people are the original population of the land. Not exactly a typical "native or black" stereotype in western media.

So who do I think the Qunari are actually modeled after?

Well let's summarise:

The Qunari came from across the ocean in their ships filled with cannons and guns, to colonise the land and convert the native population towards their beliefs. They are currently fighting a war against the Tevinter-Imperium, an old and powerful empire, that engages in widespread slavery and practices blood-magic by sacrificing said slaves, sometimes also to one of their many gods.

(If you can't guess who I think they are supposed to be modeled after by now, I would recommend to maybe picking up a 7th-grade history textbook again)

Yes, you can make a very strong case for the Qunari actually being these guys:

The Conquistadors (heck, if you cross out a few letters you can even anagram the word "Qunari" out of the word Conquistador). Who also came from across the sea with ships, cannons and guns to colonise the land (south- and middle-america) and convert the native population (to christianity) and fought an ancient and powerful empire with slaves and blood-sacrifices (the Aztec-Kingdoms).

So after pissing of one half of tumblr with that, let's start with the other half by talking about the apparent "muslim-coding" and how I disagree with that too.

Let's start with a rough definition of what a muslim is and how I think that that alone shows how the Qunari are in no way coded to be them:

I would define a muslim as somebody who is an active member of the religion of Islam. Islam is defined by it's holybook (the Qur'An), which was revealed to the prophet Muhammad by an all-knowing and omnipresent abrahamic god.

This in and of itself basically already disqualifies the Qunari from being "muslim-coded" since first and foremost the Qunari are not a religion. They do not have a god and they don't pray to any, the Qun is not a "holy-book" and Ashkaari Koslun (the guy who wrote it) was not a prophet, who wrote down the word of god, but a philosopher who basically crafted a "guide to life and society" with his works.

If you really wanted to find something that is slightly "muslim-coded" in the world of Thedas, you might actually have more luck with the chantry-stuff, since they do have a prophet (Andraste) who could talk to god (the Maker), they have a holy book based of her teachings (the Chant of Light) and they believe that the whole world should follow those teachings, so god will return to them (singing the Chant from all four corners of the world). They even have their own flavour of jihadist religious warfare with the Exhalted Marches (though all in all I do think that the Chantry can be better viewed as a take on christian religions since the split between the Imperial Chantry and the original one is similar to the split of the (western) christian church into catholics and protestants).

So what do I think is a better representation for the Qun in the real world?

Well lets look at it in the simplest way possible that the canon gives us:

The Qun is a guide for the life of the Qunari (the people of the Qun) that ecompasses everything from laws, legislative guides, too how society should be struktured and how everyone has to fit into and function in that society, from the most mundane and simplest tasks and jobs to it's highest administrative bodies. Everyone in this society is evaluated, so that they can be put into a position that is best suited to them and their skill-sets. There they will then each work according to their abilities and each be provided for according to their needs (see what I did there). Yes, the Qun can in my opinion be best described as a take on an authoritarian-socialist guide to life, written by somebody with a similar philosophie as Karl Marx.

So all in all, I don't think that the Qunari are in any way black-, brown-, bipoc- or muslim-coded, but a fantasy take on the Conquistadors, if instead of a bible they had all carried around "A Guide to Life, Luck and Community, written by Karl Marx (during one of his more productive weekends)", visually represented by giant Minotaur-People of many colours.

Also I find this obsession with finding every and any kind of reflexion of our real world in some random fantasy setting, by people who are most of the time actively looking to get offended by at least something and mostly every- and anything, quite contrived most of the time and that the day people on tumblr learned the word "codeing" a significant part of the internets critical-thinking skills and will just shrivelled up and died.

Thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #qunari #the qun #thedas #tevinter imperium

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dearest-kibble · 3 years

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WELLL GANG IT TOOK FOR FUCKIN EVER BUT HEY HERE IT IS ABOUT 7,000 WORDS OF KAGEYAMA. THANK YOU ALL FOR STICKING WITH ME IT REALLY MEANS A LOT THAT Y’ALL WERE STILL HERE EVEN THOUGH I WAS TAKING FOREVER LIKE HOLY FUCK MAN I APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH FOR THIS AND HOPE IT’S ALRIGHT!!

tw: noncon dacryphilia breathplay(choking) kidnapping general shady-ness very blink and you’ll miss religious symbolism. Abuse

“Don’t mess this up Kageyama.” You wake up in an old building, seven men stand above you, head to toe in suits. And you distinctly remember reading something someday, about how the yakuza always cover their body. And about how the yakuza have a hand in human trafficking.

“Damn Kageyama, we don’t do any of that Oikawa-Gumi shit here!” The Man who's speaking is shirtless and his hair is buzzed short. He’s got a red dragon winding up his stomach and a red koi on his sternum.

“So many women were brought to Oikawa I just thought-” The man - Kageyama you assume - has black hair and blue eyes. You think he’s staring at you.

“You thought? I find that hard to believe.” A guy with glasses (do yakuza wear glasses?) sniffs and turns his nose at Kageyama. “I thought you only thought about being Oyabun.”

“Shittykawa is a liar and you all know it!”

“Still more honorable than a guy who deserted his family and has a samurai tattoo!” A considerably smaller redhead speaks up with a defiant voice.

“They betrayed me!!” His attention (if it was on you, is not anymore.) shifts as Kageyama raises his voice, flails his hands a little and starts to pace.

“Kageyama, be quiet!” A man behind you talks. The man with blue eyes immediately stops talking, the man with glasses and blonde hair laughs.

“All of you shut up!” A louder voice bounces off the walls, all five men stop talking and look to the man behind you. He’s got brown hair, short, militant and an angry-looking scowl on his face. The man next to him has silver hair, but you don’t think it’s from age. A chorus of “sorry Oyabun” echoes through the room, large, dark and empty.

“Kageyama, you will not mess this up.” Intense coal eyes stare into blue.

“No Oyabun, I will not.”

“Good because she’s under your care.” You almost expect the man with brown hair to offer you a smile, it’s the silver haired one who does.

“What?!” You turn around quickly as the voice sounds much closer than you remember it being. “I’m-” The man takes a few seconds looking at his fingers. (His left pinky is a stub) Before continuing. “Oikawa never had me do anything like that. Girls just talked to me.”

“Girls talked to you!?” A newer person, short, standing next to the shirtless one - has an energetic voice. “Why’d you ever leave?”

“Because Oikawa treats his family like shit!” And like that, the talking erupts into furious voices trying to get a word in edgewise until once more, the two behind you speak up.

“Everyone shut up!”

Once again they all fall silent.

“Kageyama, get her where she needs to go. You know what to do right?”

“Yes Oyabun.”

“Good.” His gaze is away from you, glaring at someone else as silence splits the room.

“C’mon.” He makes a show of not looking at you when he gruffly gestures for you to move to his side. Try as you might to seem calm, your joints are cold and stiff as you march to his left.

“Don’t cause a fuss okay?” He sends a sharp glare your way.

“She’s terrified Kageyama, you don’t need to scare her more.” The man with silver hair looks at you more apologetically than you’d thought a yakuza could. But as his hands rest on his hips you can see the gun holstered on his side. You look away quickly after smiling quickly.

“Yeah! Be nicer to her!” Kageyama shrugs off what the redhead says and walks towards the singular door and opens it to walk through. It leads to an empty, grey hallway - chilled and complete with flickering light. About fifteen paces ahead, there's a flight of stairs with the much-needed railing that rusts and peels in the flickering, damp hallway. There's the faint sound of city pop coming from the top of the stairs, through a bleak door with peeling paint. There are no other places of entry or exit, simply the one large, looming, decrepit door at the top of steep steps. Still begrudgingly silent, Kageyama starts up the stairs, feet falling hard on each step like drops of a guillotine. You follow numbly after him. What other choice is there really? Go back to the room with so many others? Die in a hallway while muffled music plays from a door? Your legs ache by the time you stand near the door. It’s not a high climb. Kageyama opens the door and you expect to hear nails on a chalkboard but are greeted by the soft melody of plastic love and the smell of cigarettes. The beeps of slot machines punctuate loud cheers and disappointments around a roulette table, the thwap of cards hitting the table and laughter at a bar does little to distract from the fact that Kageyama who had barely looked at you before — (Was it on purpose?) — was staring directly at you. Pressing a hand to your face, you feel a drop of wetness on your cheek. A tear. You wipe it quickly and Kageyama turns away slowly. Eyes lingering a second after he turns his head.

“You’re slow, move quicker!” You nod in his direction though he’s already moving ahead again. The casino is loud and boisterous and though you’re sure it’s actually an illegal gambling den, many well known wealthies sit around a roulette table with a man in a suit, typical of a yakuza.

“You want a drink?” You expect it to come from a sleazy, older man wearing an old baggy suit, not the man who’s been leading you through this mess of tables and smoke and glitz. It’s fine, there are so many people around you.

“Why are you offering me a drink?” He’s turned to face you, still not smiling but eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion.

“O-Oikawa said to offer women drinks. I-” Oikawa? He might not be so bad. Still, a yakuza who didn’t run with the good kind any more so-

“No thanks.” The confusion displayed earlier on his face, deepens into a frown that forms on his lips and lines that appear in between his brows.

“What, why?” He’s actually confused somehow.

“I don’t know you, you’re a yakuza - you might drug my drink - the list could go on?”

“I'm not going to drug you" He sounds angry and mutters "Just trying to be nice, fuck." And you've stopped for only one moment but the sleazy men you thought would hound you start to crowd, either unknowing or uncaring that you are in the custody of organized crime.

"Pretty lady want a drink? Got a margarita with your name on it." It's unsurprisingly a man with cigarettes' smoke on his breath and intoxication in his step. You note he's already holding the drink in question.

"No thank you-" You begin to answer, in a politely exasperated tone that you think is quite amicable for someone whose arm is practically around your waist.

"Listen - she's with me, alright?" Kageyama doesn't stop there, despite that in your opinion, he should. "She's mine." The words send a pang of anxiety straight through your spine and into your brain before they reach your feet and as they itch to step away into a crowd, another man speaks up someone much less intoxicated, still - with a drink in hand.

"She in trouble with the Daichi-Gumi then?" They're much more informed. And Kageyama nods to the asker.

"Guess he's still got his Oikawa roots then, huh?" And that doesn't make any sense at all because he's nothing like the man you talked to and who gave you a handsome wink and made small conversation.

"Don't compare me to that bastard." And instead of the usual anger, you think it's a note of exhaustion in his voice. And the conversation ends right there, "mine" being a forgotten word in the mix of much more confusing sentences. It's relatively peaceful after that, the scowl on your captors face scaring many others away. You continue down the luxurious gambling hall and into much quieter corridors with soft sounds passing through doors as you walk down a carpeted hallway, well lit and warmer. Once again, Kageyama opens a door and walks through. For a long, fleeting, whirlwind of a moment, you are alone before remembering that if you walk out without Kageyama, you run the risk of having a yakuza family hunting for you. Hell, they'd hunt your family, you've heard about what they do to screamers. Twisted fingers, bloody stomachs and scarred backs - missing eyes if the they’re lucky. You step through the open door and into the room. It's low-lit, casting a pleasant glow on the furniture.

Kageyama is already sitting down on an expensive - looking sofa no —loveseat. He picks up a remote from the side armrest and turns on a TV installed into the wall. Loud moans and the sound of flesh on flesh boom from the speakers before he switches to the sounds of shoes squeaking as they run across a floor. He pulls a nail clipper from his pocket to trim already short fingernails. There's a large bed with lights hanging above it on one side of the room, a wardrobe - open - full of thin clothing you wouldn't be caught dead in outside of your house. There's a small table, a bottle of wine and two glasses on mahogany wood, next to a singular unlit candle. Though the sound is gone you can’t help but linger on the moans that came from the TV and how Kageyama has led you into a room with such a large bed and a shower that has no door and is only walled with glass. You forcibly relax your jaw just before you speak.

"I'm here to-" You gulp down air, trying not to look at the silk sheeted bed. "Pay a debt."

"Yeah dumbass, what else would you be here for?" If he doesn't bring up any other possibility, neither will you.

"How?" The way that he instantly looks at you, blue eyes ever intense when he speaks makes your stomach flip unpleasantly. You know exactly how. He’s led you to this room, what else could he be expecting?

"Daichi put me in charge of you, you'll do what I say." Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"I'm not going to do what you tell me. I'll work off my debt in this casino, but I'm not doing everything you tell me to do!” Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. He blinks at you, brow once again furrowed in confusion. He puts his nail clippers down on the arm of his seat, and stands, taking off his jacket in the process. You knew it - you fucking knew it.

You shuffle backwards as quickly as possible, spine hitting the round doorknob.

You can’t go any further.

Kageyama creeps forwards, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal raging water delicately inked into the toned muscle of his right forearm, chrysanthemum petals drifting downstream from a skull at his shoulder. Down his left, where his elbow meets his forearm stands a samurai, maple leaves falling gently from the mouth of a black koi that flounders to appear just over the edge of his shoulder. On the front of his chest there is only a solitary demon - red and standing amongst black clouds which dig deep - over his nipples as the Oni stands on the cool blue with its fiery feet. He walks over to you, shirt off and tugging at his belt. With a decorated arm, he sets the white shirt on your head, careful not to touch you. What flees from your lips is a very audible sigh expressing your relief that he doesn’t seem to want to violate you.

“I’m going to take a shower. Put that away for me.” You don’t even attempt to retort as you quickly move it off your head and turn away from wherever Kageyama sounded like he was. You conveniently face towards the wardrobe and walking towards it, you notice all the clothing you had neglected to think about. Short schoolgirl uniforms, a pair of fluffy handcuffs, all sorts of exposing clothing that you think for the second time, you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in. You push sets of clothing aside to find an empty hanger, not finding one, you kneel down to check the bottom of the cabinet. You find a box full of something, flat squares that are easily torn, and one empty hanger with a leather suit that probably went on it beforehand. You instinctually turn at the sound of water hitting the tiled shower. He’s standing still, body naked through the glass and quickly you avert your eyes from him. The loud crash of falling water on the tile makes you turn, despite your knowledge of where it comes from. You can see Kageyama’s naked back through the clear glass, koi and cherry blossoms disappearing in rapidly forming fog that covers the rest of his body. Watching the glass fog with the softening sound of water on tile in the dim light of the room, a dry sob of relief releases from your throat. He isn’t going to do anything. It’s just one large scare tactic. With the realization that Kageyama is just going to unorthodox lengths to make sure you don’t run, your knees buckle and you crumple to the floor, back stable against the side of the wardrobe - and you let the tears fall.

Each bone, muscle and thought eases with the knowledge that this yakuza is just taking a shower. He’s still the good kind of yakuza - Oikawa taught him well. He just happens to be a little strange. While he showers, your face is bathed with your own free tears. Your hands cup your cheeks and you smile softly into your palms, feeling so much steadier as your breathing returns to its normal steady in and out. Picking yourself up from the carpeted floor and feeling you back crack you bring yourself in front of the TV watching as people toss a volleyball into the air. It’s awfully methodical as they toss it to each side over and over, you almost forget about the pitter-patter of water behind you. You don’t even notice as it stops and the man comes out to watch you watching the game. You barely hear the zipper on his pants - just dismissing it as some sound from the game. It’s not until he’s directly behind the couch and he asks you a question that you remember where you are.

“Where’d you put my shirt?” You turn and tilt your head to look at his dripping hair, wet pants and wetter jacket.

“It’s in the closet.”

“What?”

“It’s the only place to put a shirt.” He grumbles at your words but it’s not hostile.

“You have the bed, that’s where I normally put my stuff.” You glance at the bed again and then back to him.

“Who doesn’t use a closet?”

“Next time you’re going to put it on the bed. No point in using that shitty closet - can’t find anything in there,”

“Hopefully there won’t be a next time.” His eyes squint face lowering to yours. He blinks twice before his blues widen.

“Have you… been crying?” Your eyes must still be puffy red.

“No?” His nose is just a hairs’ width away from yours.

“You better not be lying. Lying to your Oyabun has serious consequences.” Abruptly he stands up. “And you’re mine now. You can’t lie to me.” His hair bobs as he nods and removes his dripping suit jacket. Once again the black koi surfaces across the spanse of his muscular back.

“I’m…” You shouldn’t be asking, but he must mean this in some other way, right? “Yours?”

“Daichi told me to watch you,” He says dumbly. Well, If that’s all he means, it shouldn’t be bad. You’re going to ignore how his head turns slightly to look and that the lights that glint off his eyes menacingly. “You're part of the family now. My family” A slimy feeling crawls up your back at his words, not for the first time.

“What does that mean?”

“Talking back to your Oyabun has consequences.” It hangs over your head, his words and your next ones clashing in your mind before deciding on,

“Same can be said for thinking you’re Oyabun.” It’s a much less dangerous thing to say, now that you know you’re safe and he’s just a strange person.

“I will be Oyabun, and you’re part of my family. You already have to do what I say.” He’s scared you enough, he’s not going to do anything and you’re not even sure he can with patrons of the gambling den so near. You take a breath and steady yourself though you aren’t even nervous and without thinking-

“I’m not some part of your fucking yakuza family!” Your palm makes harsh contact on his cheek. He was just trying to scare you earlier. You turn aside as he stands still as a leaf in water. Clasping your hands together you wait trying not to think about the fact that you just slapped a yakuza. He turns slowly, wide eyes a lighter blue than you had originally thought.

“Do it again.” A large hand rubs at his red cheek. “Please?” Kageyama cocks his head to the side, hand still over his red cheek. You’re rooted to the ground, standing still, you're not going to move even if he said he wants you to hit him again.

“If you won’t do it, I will.” He removes his hand from his cheek, and makes a fist before stopping. “You had an open palm.” All four fingers of his left hand splay open as he inches towards you with confident steps. “It felt so nice to be touched by someone again.” Eyes like the Starry Night glare down while his face holds the least unsettling smile you’ve seen from him. You can’t do anything against a member of the yakuza, and the important thing about the yakuza floods back into your mind: the man with silver hair had a gun, why shouldn’t he?. You stand still as a statue, you will not flinch, you will not cry. He’s right in front of you, and you stare defiantly into his eyes as he stares right back. There is nothing to say and both of you are waiting for the first blow.

It lands.

Hard, right on your cheek and the sting is so much but so little compared to the gun that could’ve put a hole in your head. Your head is pushed to the side by force before you snap it back to look into his eyes.

“It doesn’t feel the same…” He mutters the words. “Maybe if you-”

“I’m not going to do anything you want me to.”

“Fine. I’ll try again.” And the hand connects with your cheek once again. If the first stung, the second was like a stab. Cold and sharp and the feeling staying much longer than you’d hope. Kageyama looks at you, whose face is still utterly defiant and pointed towards him. Though the red welt on your cheek is far more noticeable, he seems to be looking at your eyes.

“Shit.” It’s a quiet utterance, but he sounds mildly put out. “It’s not gonna work unless you touch me.”

“No.”

“Either you touch me and I figure out why I get this weird pit around you. Or,” And he seems to have to think for a second about his phrasing. You think you hear a ‘can’t blow her brains out.’ “Or I give you to Oikawa.”

“Oikawa?” And you know this is a bad idea, you’re standing up to a Yakuza for fucks sake. “Oikawa just gets people to pay their protection tax. Hell, he’d clear my debt.”

“He’s the guy who has the top joint of my pinky, you don’t wanna be given to him, trust me.”

“Oikawa has a soft spot for women, he’d clear my debt and let me go.”

“He had me bring in any woman I found.” Oh. “A lot of them lived where he used to spend a lot of time. Called them prostitutes?” Oh no. “I think Oikawa would be happy to see you. Suga always says to try and make things better between our families.” He’s not going to get to you like this, you’ve seen Oikawa around - talked to him. The most harm he’d ever cause is when someone harassed a woman. Knowing this yakuza, he’s probably trying to scare you again.

“You’re lying. Oikawa helps women on the streets. I heard he even set up a safe house!” Oikawa would never do anything like what Kageyama said he would. He wouldn't!

“He called it a brothel.” He wouldn’t he wouldn’t. Oikawa always said to go to him if you needed help - he did.

“Oikawa wouldn’t do that! Not to me, not to anyone!” He wouldn’t he wouldn’t he wouldn’t.

“Shut up!” Deep unexplored, ocean blue eyes churn as the yell falls upon your ears..

“Oikawa wouldn’t do that! He’s kind and he’s helpful!” You’re advancing so much closer to him, letting your guard fall.

“You’ll shut the fuck up if you know what’s good for you.” His hand is gathering in a fist again, skin straining against his rapidly whitening knuckles

“No I won’t! Because Oikawa would only ever take care of a woman and treat her much better! You’re making up blatant lies to ma-” The blow lands hard on your stomach, and you stumble back on shaky feet, tripping over themselves as you try to stay upright.

“He called your “Safehouse” a brothel. He kept women there, they smiled after enough time. I won’t fucking hesitate to give you to him too.” You fall over as he speaks, air being beat from your lungs as you fall flat on your back. Even while you’re gasping for breath he continues.

“The guys call it a horrible, shitty place and I don’t wanna send you to Oikawa, he’s a shitheel. But you’ve gotta fucking learn to listen - and Oikawa always made sure they did.” But Oikawa wouldn’t - he told you that you were safe with him and his people, that they were the good kind of yakuza.

“He’s not like that.” It sounds hollow to the both of you.

“Just listen to me dammit!” His large hand is tangled in your hair, threatening to beat your head into the floor. “I’m trying not to send-” The agonizing feeling of hairs being pulled from your scalp forces you to blink back tears. You yell at him again anyway.

“You just wanna see me as a prostitute!” And your voice doesn’t break but you can feel the tug of your vocal chords pulling on your eyes.

“Maybe.” It’s strange that his eyebrows furrow at your words but his grip on your hair tightens. “I wouldn’t have to threaten if you listen and touch me.”

“I shouldn’t have to if I don’t want to!” The wet tears that might’ve shed earlier are replaced with dry anger.

“It doesn’t matter what you want. Your Oyabun told you, that should be enough.” He yanks your head up by your hair, a few strands ripping right out of your scalp with a sharp pain. “Touch me.” The pain is splitting in your head, on your cheeks, in the breath that you're still trying to regain. “I said, touch me!” And he drops you. Weight held up by Kageyama comes crashing down onto the carpeted floor and you with it. He growls, sound deep in his throat as he makes another threat.

“Fuck, I’ll even give you to the Ushijimas’ to use as target practice if you aren’t obedient. How’d you like to be shot full of holes? That better than touching me?” The words come out in a harsh jumble, spilling from his mouth like a bitter wine. “Do it. Touch me before I stop being nice and kill you myself.” This time it's a kick to your back. “Then someone from your precious family will pay your debt.”

“How do you-”

“I make it a point to know my future family members.” He gives you an uncomfortable smile, mouth curling up as eyes don’t shift from their stoic glare. He steps even closer, hand rising once again to make you flinch but it doesn’t stop rising as he squeezes your neck harshly. “C’mon, get my hands off your neck! Pry me off of you!”

“N..” Air is fleeing your collapsing lungs, “O” It takes all the willpower in your body to fight against the muscles in your shoulders that want to lift your arm and the tendons that control your fingers to curl around his wrist and tug. Kageyama snarls as he frees your throat. His hands reach behind him and he must have a gun. He’s threatened to shoot. His hand moves so slowly, fingers curling around something behind his back. The black of his suit jacket reflects the all too bright light, cheers and beeps of the slots muffled by thick walls. The blunt pain throbbing in your face, on your stomach. The sharp intakes of breath sending stabs of pain to your lungs and the man with dark black hair and dark blue eyes keeps his hand behind his back, his left hand tugging on his suit jacket. He’s getting the gun, it’s in the back of his pants. You feel the familiar, cold prick of tears at the back of your eyes, that only intensifies as you he squats down and you flinch softly.

“C’mon,” His hand is still behind his back “Touch me.” You don’t want to die. You don’t want anyone to bear your debt. You suck in a deep breath, heavy weight forming in your chest as you reach out your hand towards his face. He inhales a tight breath, cheek twitching as your palm inches closer and closer. When just a finger finally grazes his cheek he flinches away from it and the weight inside you gets heavier. You didn’t do what he wanted.

You fucked it up.

You clamp your eyes shut. Slowly - what’ll he do if you move too quickly - you begin to drag your fingers from his cheek, rough with the smallest starts of stubble. He raises his hand with four fingers to keep yours on his cheek, trapping your palm against his clammy hand and rough chin. He exhales a shaky breath, his black-blue eyes closing and head nuzzling into your hand.

Softly feeding from the hand that bit.

“Thank you,” Your eyes are wide open as you stare at his features seeming so soft in comparison to his sharp, metallic anger. He murmurs softly into your palm. “It feels... nice when you touch me.” It’s such a stark contrast from the roaring, growling man threatening to force you into prostitution. The Kageyama who’s in front of you is smiling gently while his hand - though chilled and rough - is gentle against the back of your hand. It’s too much, one blink and tears start to fall. A hiccup erupts from your mouth which you shut as soon as he pokes an eye open. Whimpers based in the bottom of your sore throat start to strain against your closed mouth. His smile widens, growing into that uncomfortable smirk with lips stretched too thin.

“Fuck, you’re such a pretty crier, y’know that?” Kageyama groans the words staring at your face, still in the palm of your hand. “It makes me hard.” As if to emphasize his point, he jerks your hand downward, to the bulge in his suit pants.

“I - Kageyama I’m here to pay off a debt,”

“Yeah, you are.” He grinds his clothed hard-on into your palm. “You’re here to do whatever I tell you to. And I said-” The back of his hand brushes against your palm as it reaches to pull at the zipper of his pants. The grip around your wrist tightens as he drags your hand down. “Touch me.” and slowly your fingers curl around the length that was pulled from his pants.

“Good girl.” He snarls the words as his fingers ghost over your clothed sex, thin panties doing little to dull the strangely gentle caress of his four fingers. He pushes the fabric aside quickly and though you’re completely dry, shoves a finger into your tight cunny.

“Haven’t touched… anyone,” He groans as your hand stays deathly still on his cock. “Like this.” He thrusts his finger into you again. Beads of precum drip from his cock onto the back of your hand.

“Stop… please,” He smiles at your watery eyes. “It doesn’t feel good…” It feels like someone breaking your trust. How could you have trusted a yakuza?

“I’ll make it feel good.” He was going to leave you alone. He was going to leave you alone. A fat tear rolls down your face. Kageyama’s lips curl into another smirk as he pumps his fingers just a little faster.

“Is this what Oikawa meant when he said I’d have trouble ‘fingering’?” He says it to himself more than to you. “Cause I don’t think I’m having much trouble.” He wasn’t going to do anything. A small scream falls from your mouth as you think — you did this to yourself. You slapped him and now… Your hold on his cock tightens. You wish you could say it was in anger rather than for the sparks flying through your body. “Stop closing your eyes.” He huffs. “Makes it seem like you’re not enjoying it.”

You aren’t. You aren’t fucking enjoying it. The way he stares at you, leering at your misty eyes and dripping nose. The way he’s got his fingers stuffed inside you. The way he has your hand wrapped around his dick. It’s much easier to think this is some dream. To pretend your breath isn’t quickening or this is just some fucked up fantasy you’d never want to be real. But it is. And the gasp you let out when you feel your pussy clench - that’s real too.

“Sounds like you do. Feels like you do. Tightening around my fingers like that?” He chuckles darkly to himself before barking, “Dumb whore! Move your hand!” Immediately you release your grip on his cock.

“Not like that.” He glares at you and uses his free hand to grab your wrist once more. Harshly, he tugs it to his mouth and spits onto your palm. “Stroke my cock.” Once more, he shoves your hand down, saliva dripping from your palm to the couch and his bare legs. He hisses at the feeling of your hand, moans as you pump your fist. “Keep doing that.” You nod, mouth parting to gasp only for tears to fall in.

“Holy shit.” His fingers curl inside you, his cock twitches harshly in your hand. His arms woven with ink, flex as his right hand curls into a fist slowly unclenching - rising. All too late, do you notice his fingers lacing themselves around your neck pushing you down, down into the cushions. You can still breathe, he’s not meaning to choke you yet. Your head is still, and that is enough, his face inching ever closer, blue eyes blown wide - mouth parting just so slightly. His face growing closer with each second that makes your brain tick with dread.

“So fuckin pretty….” He sighs quietly. “Bet your tears even taste good.” His mouth presses to yours. He wastes no time shoving his tongue inside. It’s sloppy - like you’d’ve expected, salty saliva spilling from the corners of your lips as he drags his long, rough fingers slowly from your cunt. You whine through spit and sob as the feeling of fullness is taken from you. (though you’ve felt empty this whole time) Your hips roll on their own, grazing against his knuckle. Your cunt weeps at one final touch before you're stuck humping nothing.

“You're wet enough right?” Breathless, he pulls away from your mouth, lips pink, swollen and parted, his cheeks flushed a dark shade of cherry. He looks from your eyes to his fingers to the hand around your neck. “You better be after all that crying. My pathetic little crybaby, so wet for my cock.”

You wish you could spit in his face, wish you could scream. But all that can escape your lips are soft moans, little whines at the loss of his fingers. “Please” dances on the tip of your tongue, pirouetting its way through your teeth and tapping at your lips.

“God…” His cock pokes at your entrance. “You’re so warm…” It’s hard to ignore as he presses in, pushing against your walls so firmly, warmth making your hips roll to meet his cock as it buries deeper inside you. Your hand had been moved a long time ago - or just recently, it’s hard to tell, hard to remember. Or have you already forgotten? Still coated in spit and precum, it rests on his chest, over one of his many tattoos, you slide it upwards to his shoulder. Watching as the spit leaves a trail over his body. Pretending like it’s just water. Your eyes gloss over the forced extravagance of your prison. The ceiling is in between - the sky. Some say heaven. And your sullied hand raises to pull for the sky. When was the last time you’d seen the moon. Surely only hours ago. A rough thrust and something loud echoes in the room. You can barely hear it over the dry crust on your hand. Reaching for the above as your beaten body is defiled. For a second you can feel it, the clouds of the sky.

The sky disappears too as you’re dragged back down to earth by long fingers that squeeze more harshly at your neck. Suddenly only the constricting of his fingers on your windpipe and your pussy on his fat cock are present in your mind. Pleasure and fear hazing together in your mind to create nothing more than blank sight in your eyes and sparks running from your legs to your brain. Your hands continue to tighten around his wrist, pulling harshly as he continues to squeeze and squeeze at your throat.

“You gonna cum?” He continues, picking up his pace and pushing you further into the sofa. You try to shake your head, despite the tightening in your stomach,

“No Kagey-” He looks up from where he’d been pounding into your sloppy cunt, cock shoved right against your cervix, throbbing hashly while he raises his other hand to give a harsh slap to your cheek.

“What do you call me?”

“O-o” You can barely breath and the cock inside of you is so hot. The stinging against your cheek feels so good in the fog of shallow breath and fullness that you can’t help but moan at - when he adjusts his angle and turns you around, pushing your face into the cushions and ass in the air.

“Oyabun,” You can’t help the way your voice breaks as you sob and Kageyama once again starts to move.

“Fuck I feel powerful when you cry.” If only every word didn’t make you wail even louder.

“That’s a good girl, keep crying.” You shove your face further into the cushions, tears soaking into the fabric.

“Please,” You don’t sound like yourself. You already sound broken and halfway gone. “Just cum.” Anything — fucking anything to just end this.

Kageyama just groans behind you as the nauseating pleasure continues. Balls slapping against your clit, friction building slowly as you moan through every thrust unable to keep from feeling every tiny twitch of his cock, every vein sliding against the walls of your cunt.

“Fuck fuck fuck! I want you—” He lets out a loud shaky breath as years of frustration paint your walls.

Breathing heavily with his hands planted firmly on your hips bruisingly tight, he holds you against him. Even fuller than before — with your womb filled with his cum. His hold on your hips releases so gently before he puts a hand on your ass, rubbing it softly, stopping occasionally to squeeze lightly at the flesh. You whimper softly, “Please, no more.” He ignores you, or perhaps he didn’t hear, coming off of his first orgasm. His hands find your hips once more, far gentler than before as he speaks with labored breath.

“Everyone better’ve heard you moaning.” Slowly he begins to pull out, inch after painful inch slowly exiting your sore cunt. He slaps you again, right on your ass. You’re too sore, too used to the point of breakage to cry at the pain (or is it pleasure?) “I’m your Oyabun, they better know that.” The zip of his pants coincides with the cheering for a point in the game that’s still playing. He sits next to your fucked out body on the sofa, and rubs one hand over the still sensitive part of your ass before quickly running his hand over your spine, shoulder blades and neck, settling in your hair. His fingers stay there, nails grazing gently against your scalp. His fingers linger for a minute before he pulls your body up and into his side, propping your head against his shoulder. You stare blankly ahead, eyes glazed with tears and cum dripping from your abused pussy onto the sofa. He wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you as close as he can, both of you breathing heavily. Kageyama seems to recover his breath quicker than you, as his slows and steadies — head falling against your crown with tiny, quiet snores coming from his chest. Half clothed, sore and exhausted you breath in the smell of the room, barely registering the feeling of cum dripping from your cunt. Hardly noticeable with the sound of snores and the feel of a body pressed against yours. Fat, raindropped tears roll down your cheeks. And instead of your wish to pull away, to leave this room — you cannot. What would happen to your family, to you? Would the man who beat you really let you pull away from him even in his sleep?

No.

So you settle into his side, raise a hand to rest over his tattoos and wait. Eyes wide open.

---

He wakes up about thirty minutes later - pats your head - dresses and runs out of the door without a word. You're too catatonic, still on the couch, still watching men play volleyball on the television. You watch him leave, tension held in your shoulders melting — unlike the candle on the table. Realistically, it's probably thirty minutes that he’s out of the room but it feels like only a few seconds. Time flies when you're having fun. He returns with a bottle of water and a bowl of something that smells wonderfully of spices and cooked pork. He sets both water and bowl on the glass coffee table. He’s gotten one spoon and he sits next to you on the sofa, pulling your legs onto his lap, jerkily giving a message to your thighs that only serves to renew tension in your body. He continues for a few seconds, delicate hands hardened with callouses knead into the flesh before abruptly stopping and leaning forward. He picks up the bowl and lifts the spoon, a small drop of liquid spills.

“I don’t know your favorite yet so I got you mine.” He waits, watching your lips tremble. Your jaw falls and even if you were to speak, you're not allowed to. He shoves the spoon in and waits for your mouth to close. He sits there for a minute. He’s staring at you again and instead of wiping a tear from your cheek, closes your mouth with a delicate touch. You begin to chew slowly, staring straight ahead of you. The sound of volleyball fills your ears and Kageyama doesn’t speak for ten whole minutes, only feeding you curry and closing your mouth when you cannot. It’s peaceful. Even as you're naked and Kageyama is shirtless again. He takes his time making you finish your meal. Only watching set after set of volleyball on the screen.

“You like volleyball?” The hand that has settled back onto your thigh rests softly - so different to the way he was beating you before - moves to where your neck meets your shoulder. “My grandfather was a coach.” One more bite and you’re done. “I think he was gonna teach me before he died.” The match on the screen ends, shifting to commentary and Kageyama opens the bottle of water. “Let me know what you like to eat, okay? I’ll make sure to get it next time.” He brings the bottle to your lips without any sudden movements and steady hands, and with his other he takes your chin and holds you in the most gentle grip you’ve ever felt. He rubs the bottom of your jaw line, easing your mouth open once more and presses his lips softly to your temple before tilting the water back.

“You’re such a pretty crier,” He pulls the bottle away and kisses the corner of your mouth, the slight stubble on his cheek grazing against your cheek. “When I’m Oyabun, I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of, okay?” He sets the plastic water bottle down and pushes your legs from his lap. He rises from the cushions only to sink between your thighs. “Just do what you’re told and I won’t have to do - this -” He presses two fingers onto the forming bruise at your stomach. “again.” He parts your sore legs.

“So will you be my good little crybaby?”

#tw noncon #yakuza!au #yakuza!haikyuu #kageyama tobio x reader #kageyama tobio #yandere kageyama #yandere kageyama tobio #yandere haikyuu #yandere haikyuu x reader #yakuza AU #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu kageyama #yandere kageyama tobio x reader

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minisception · 3 years

Text

2021 Summer Painting Challenge: Retrospective

Summer has come to an end, and with it Warboss Tae's 2021 Summer Painting Challenge. That was... a lot of painting, most of which has been collected above. Huge thanks go out to Tae - if you haven't checked out his youtube channel you can do so HERE, as well as to all of the other participants. There were a lot of cool projects, and you can see them all on Tae's discord HERE.

My main goal in participating was to get together a fully painted starter army together. Despite some stumbles along the way I'm happy to say I met that goal, with a small but playable Soulblight Gravelord core units of 20 skeletons, 20 zombies, and 10 dire wolves, a couple elite unit options in the Blood-born and Vargskyr, plus a selection of hero options including a Vampire Lord that I'm quite proud of plus a couple necromancers, not to mention the named character options from Cursed City and the Underworlds Warbands.

Speaking of underworlds, I now have three fully painted warbands to play against my roommate in that game. And I made some progress on the long overdue Ravenguard commission, so that's cool.

More importantly, for the first time since I came up with this paint scheme way back when the Oldhammer Fantasy 8th edition Vamp Counts book was released, I finally have enough painted models to put them all together and have a feel for the overall effect, and yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

I definitely learned a few things along the way - though as per usual it mostly came from mistakes. Looking at what I learned/screwed up month by month...

JUNE

Pledged - Cursed City, 3 Underworlds Warbands, 4 Sidequests Completed - Everything, though the Sidequests got extra time

June was the only month where I actually met my pledge, despite it being the most ambitious of the pledges by a fair bit. But the pace I set was absolutely unsustainable and I was already crashing by the end. In the future I'll have to set a more realistic pace.

Other things I learned: Don't use your good brush for washes (RIP my favorite brush), you can wash a wet palette in the dishwasher, but only if you take it out before the dry cycle (RIP my palette). I also think I went a bit too excessive on the greens. I want the army overall to be darker so the greens pop more, so moving forward I'm using more black cloth, reserving green cloth for detail bits, and details like gravestones and rope that I painted ghosty greens on the June models are greys and browns after.

On a more positive note, I really liked how the black armor with green highlights turned out on the Crimson Court, and have decided to make that the distinctive feature of vampire models in my army going forward. The process is a pain, and I will eventually have to go back and re-paint the dragon lord's armor to match, but it's worth it.

JULY

Pledged: 10 Zombies, 10 Dire Wolves, Rhino Completed: 10 Zombies, Rhino

I was already crashing hard when July started and ended up spending most of my free time in the early part of the month playing video games. I though I had balanced this out by aiming for a reduced pledge and not committing to daily updates, but a smaller pledge than June was still way too more than I could sustainably handle, and without the daily updates I ended up letting my break run on way too long, plus I was stuck out of town for a week. But while I may have failed my pledge, I still got 10 nice looking zombies done, plus the commission rhino, which is a lot for me, and I was really on a roll going into August.

The main thing I learned is that regular posting does a lot to keep me engaged with the hobby, and that's something I'd like to try to continue after the challenge is done.

AUGUST

Pledged: 10 Skeletons, 5 Blood Knights, 1 piece of terrain Finished: 10 Skeletons, July's Dire Wolves, June's Sidequests

I honestly should have known better that to pledge so much with so much leftover work to do, including the sidequest tutorials that I still needed in order to confirm my project from back in June, but I was on a high and on a roll at the end of July, and I let my ambitions get away from me. And I knew almost immediately that I had made a mistake, just assembling the Blood Knights I could tell that each one of them was going to require more work than most of the heroes I've painted.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the most important thing I learned. The most important thing was that Army Painter brand black primer is SUPER grainy, to the point of obscuring some of the surface texture and details of the models I sprayed it on, which tragically includes the Blood Knights. They weren't quite as badly done by as the poor skeletons, but on such a cool and important unit it's still a bit disheartening.

On a positive note, I learned from the dire wolves that hexwraith flame can be used in my paint scheme to punch up saturation a bit & add a bit of slimy green gore effect that I quite like. At some point I'll have to go back and use it to punch up the zombies & maybe the zombie dragon a bit.

So where do I go from here?

I'm going to be out of town till the middle of next week, but when I do get back I want to keep up the monthly goals with regular update posts. Maybe not every day, but a few times a week at least. But I don't want this to be my only hobby, either. I got games to play, and now that hectic summer vacation schedules have calmed down I've got a family D&D campaign to start running again. Plus some other stuff to work on. So I'm going to try to keep future commitments more manageable. One unit per month sounds about right.

I need to make some more progress on the Raven Guard commission, and I want to save October for something spooky and undead, so for September I think the one unit will be a Raven Guard landspeeder.

I'd also like to actually get to the local store to try to get a game or two in with my newly painted models. If I do, I'll be sure to take some pictures and report back to you on how badly I get thrashed.

#warhammer #age of sigmar #2021 summer painting challenge #soulblight gravelords #vampire counts

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waokevale · 4 years

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Slight panic attack,

Porcelain Face - Chapter 5

WARNING: Lilo&Stitch 2 spoilers (If you haven't watched it before)

-"So how about we go inside? Have you ever been to a porcelain store before, paper-boy?"

The guy in grey apron asked as the three of them walked into the warehouse of the shop.

-"Nope, and if you want to talk to me with a nickname it's actually cardboard boy." Virgil replied.

-"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, what's your name by the way?" The guy asked, a little nervously from the awkwardness of this conversation so far.

-"Its Virgil" The cardboard boy replied.

-"That's a lovely name you got there kiddo! I'm Patton! I'm the son of the owner of this store, cool right?" The guy so-called Patton said in a cheerful tone.

-"Yeah, yeah. Skip it, that's amazing that you guys finally know each other now but haven't we brought Vee here for a reason???" Ethan rolled his eyes.

-"Ooooh! Yeah! Explanations!" Patton finally replied.

-"Not ALL of the explanations, Pat." - the porcelain boy raised his voice a little with stress and worry.

The older one nodded quickly.

-"Soo.....Do you want to know about your mask?"

Virgil and Ethan both looked questionably at him.

Virgil's expression on his cardboard face obviously said that he indeed wanted to know more about it and the other boy was just waiting for the bomb to explode.

-"Well...I know it's magic but I don't know exactly where it came from, hehe...." Patton laughed nervously, scratching his cheek.

Ethan facepalmed his head then, Virgil though looked pretty confused and disappointed.

-"Guess we're staying here for the rest of the school time...right?" Virgil said, wanting to change the subject, what's the point of asking questions anyway if they won't tell you the answers.

-"Oh no no no! You're not staying in THIS place.

It's only for fixing Dee over here." he said pointing at the porcelain boy

"How about going to the cafe?" Patton suggested getting a glare from the porcelain boy for the nickname that was used in front of Virgil again.

-"You change your mind pretty quickly."the cardboard boy said.

-"Not wanting to be rude of course."

-"Nah, you're not.

He's just like this confused mom friend even if he declares himself a dad" Ethan simply said making the usually bubbly person huff in annoyance before smiling again and saying:

-"Welp, I may act like that sometimes but I do not have a feminine face like you, dear cousin." The older boy smirked as the younger one with heterochromia gasped offended.

-"That's not my fault! Let's just go to the cafe!"

Virgil giggled at their funny relationship, they got along pretty well.

It was a shame for him to be honest to not have any cousins or siblings....It felt so...lonely.

After they appeared at their destination Patton asked the boys what they wanted to get, since he was the one to buy the stuff.

Virgil wanted to deny but he looked at Ethan instead remembering he didn't eat.

Apparently Ethan forgot for a second as well before getting "angry" again.

-"I can't- You bastard! How dare you Patton?! Right in my face?" The porcelain boy exclaimed as both of them knew what he was talking about, they both laughed.

-"Your loss. Virgil will get your food then!" Patton simply said as Ethan crossed his arms, pretty pissed off at his miserable non-human being.

-"No, no I don't-"

Virgil tried explaining as Patton gasped before heading closer to the boy and whispering:

-"Please don't tell me you don't eat too."

-"No, it's just I don't want to inpose, please-" Virgil tried saying but Patton kept nagging him until he finally sighed in defeat and agreed.

As Patton went to buy the food and drinks there for a moment was silence between the two of the other boys until Ethan finally spoke up.

-"Sooo...You're really not ashamed of me being...you know?" He asked as the other boy shook his head pretty fast it could even fall of his neck.

-"No! Of course not! You're wonderful!" He tried defending the other who smiled softly at him.

-"Are you busy tonight?" The porcelain boy asked.

-"N-no? Why do you ask?" Virgil said.

-"Then I'm inviting you over! You can finally meet my queer-platonic mums!" He said exitedly before flushing in embarrassment for saying it out loud."

-"R-Really? They won't mind?" Virgil asked again, a little more shy this time but still with hope in his voice.

-"No, but there is another problem with them that you need to just ignore..."

-"What???" Virgil became a ball of confusion at this moment.

-"They ugh....Think we are a couple? How do you say it....They...ship us?"

-"What???? And why would I be a bout-" Virgil asked with an inside joke.

-"Well, it's not exactly a bout...."

-"I know what it means, dummy. I'm just playing with you to make it sound less awkward."

-"Well, that didn't help-" As Ethan was in his mid sentence he got cut off by Patton who just came back with the food."

-"DA FOOD IS HERE!" Patton happily exclaimed.

With that sentence The boy in vitligo did some hand gestures to Patton, probably the sign language as the boy in glasses glared at him and used the sign gestures back.

Ethan: "F-U-C-K O-F-F P-A-T"

Patton:"L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E"

-"What were you saying????" Virgil asked but instead of answering Ethan took the muffin from Patton's plate who clearly yelled at him as he shoved it in Virgil's face.

Unfortunately it didn't go through his mask as it was intended to.

Instead it made Virgil very uncomfortable.

-"Guess it broke, huh?" Ethan said.

-"I'll eat it later you idiot! Don't shove it in my mouth here if I can't eat it!" Now Virgil was really pissed at the other boy who now tried to apologize to him the best he could.

And it finally worked.

-"How about we go to Dee's house?" Patton suggested.

-"I already asked him that before, he agreed."

-"Yey!" Patton replied still as happy as ever.

-"But I need to get my things first-" Virgil said worriedly.

-"Oh right!" The both of them said in unison.

As Patton drove him off to his house to get his things.

His parents weren't home as usual....

After 10 bare minutes of packing he came back and popped in the car next to apparently Dee.

-"Why aren't you sitting next to Patton in the front sit?" Virgil asked curiously for why the other boy was sitting here when there was an empty sit in the front.

-"He knows why." Patton exclaimed rolling his eyes as Ethan stuck his tongue out at him.

-"Okay then..." The cardboard boy awkwardly replied.

After 10 minutes of driving or so, because Patton couldn't drive faster that 50mph.

[Ethan always woke up pretty early and run 5 km like it was nothing]

When they finally arrived Ethan went to knock on the door as he said:

"Mom C! Mamma D! I'm brought Pat and Virgil home!"

-"Pfff..Mom C, Mamma D?" Virgil said

-"Shut up" Ethan replied as two woman in the age of 30 or close came to the door.

One had light curly hair dyed the color red and as the author would describe African eyes as they were green with a big patch of hazel in the middle.

She also appeared to have a lot of freckles on her face.

She as well as Patton wore an apron but not for painting though as for cooking.

The other one looked more tomboy like, one could say.

She had pretty short but not too short dirty blonde hair, torquise eyes and a literal face of a duck.

She wore a black hoodie and stripped shirt under it, also having trainers and ripped jeans.

-"How's our not-born-from-either-of-us gay son doing?" They both said in unison as he sighed, Patton though giggled and Virgil just rolled his cardboard eyes playfully.

-"Ooooh! Is this your boyfriend you've been talking about?" Mamma D (Dominique) said.

-WHA-NO! HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND MOM!"

Ethan yelled, his face being the color of a tomato at least.

-"Not yet" Mom C (Caroline) said looking at a wall and winking to it.

[She breaks da fourth wall]

-"God..." Dee whined tiredly.

-"Auntie Caroline and Dominique are funny aren't they?" Patton exclaimed.

-"Um....." Virgil was almost silent, as he as well as Dee blushed madly.

-"Anyways, we are going to my room, what's for dinner?" Dee asked, not caring that he himself didn't eat, since the other two on the other hand did.

-"Mac n Cheese!" Dominique yelled.

-"Mmmm, my favorite!" Patton happily cheered.

-"God, I wish I could eat....It always looks so good..." The porcelain boy mumbled not expecting the comforting pat on the back from his hooded friend in the mask.

-"It's fine, though. I'm used to this torture." The boy exclaimed this time louder.

There was a moment of silence before Ethan asked both of them:

-"Hey guys, what do you want to play?" He said pointing at a giant stock of board and video games.

-"Jenga!" Patton exclaimed

-"Monopoly..?" Virgil said unsurely.

-"Virgie NOOOO I don't want to lose you!" Ethan whined holding the paperboy's hands with the pleading yet fake sadness on his face pretending to be dramatic again making the smaller one giggle.

-"Aww you guys are cute." Patton said, adoring the other two who flushed and moved away a few inches.

After some time of playing board games like dungeons and dragons, Jenga, Uno and Hot Patt-tato they were loosing up for a movie.

-"Oh, oh! Let's watch Bolt!" Patton yelled exitedly.

-"I'd rather watch Jungle Book, It's more classic." Dee criticized

-"What about...Lilo & Stitch?" Virgil suggested, still pretty shy though.

-"which part? I have all four, plus the series." Dee exclaimed.

-"Um....Maybe the second one?" Virgil said.

-"Okay then..."

When the dinner was finally ready they all stopped the movie to eat, except Ethan who didn't want to wait for them here and later getting teased on by Dominique and Caroline, Dee left, offended and flustered, then Virgil and finally Patton.

They got to the part in which Stitch couldn't control himself anymore and screwed stuff up, him and Lilo had a fight and later on Lilo went to play a role without him as he was even more broken.

This scene made them all sob, but not as much as when Stitch was put into the fixing machine as everyone thought it was too late for him.

Now they all fully cried. What was the most surprising was that it wasn't Patton who cried the most at the scene but Virgil.

Both Ethan and Patton tried to comfort him after watching the part.

Though there was happy ending so nothing really bad then..

-"Virgie, why did you pick a movie which would make you cry so much?" Ethan asked worriedly.

-"I just...wanted to see this part again...For some reason.."

-"Okay then..." The boy in vitligo signed.

-"Oh! Son, it was very nice to meet you and I'd be glad to adopt you as my own." Patton said with a loving stare at the masked boy.

-"Ummm....What?" Virgil asked, pretty confused now.

-"Shh..You're my baby now."

-"...Eth?" Virgil tried asking for help but none came since Ethan just gave the "shrug it off" motion.

After some time of eating snacks and talking, the porcelain boy checked the hour.

-"Oh shit we should probably go to sleep, guys."

-"Language, Dee." Patton rolled his eyes tiredly.

-"But it's only 2 AM in the morning?" Virgil asked as the other two gave him an unbelieving stare which made him regret saying this out loud.

-"Bed. Now" both of them said at the same time.

-"Nooooo" Virgil whined as he was being pulled by them to bed.

-"But my Tumblr-" he tried defending himself but for no use.

-"It won't fly away. Now sleep!" Ethan said in a worrying yet stern voice.

-"Um...I sort of have problems with that."

-"Shouldn't you put your mask away first? It's probably hurting your face no-" Patton asked yet being cut off by the younger boy in the cardboard mask.

-"NO!" Virgil yelled but put his hands to his mouth and gasped at his sudden outburst.

-"I'm so sorry, I- I didn't mean to-" he cried as Ethan came closer to him.

-"It's not your fault, it happens sometimes to every one of us.

Now do you want me to sing you a song? Maybe it will help you sleep, I don't know...."

The smaller boy nodded without any hesitation even to his own surprise making Ethan chuckle a little as he began to sing Welcome to Wonderland by Anson Seabra.

Which actually worked as his wonderful siren like voice lulled the cardboard boy to sleep.

They both then fell asleep on the porcelain boy's bed as Patton just signed, peacefully this time and went to the living room.

-"VIRGIL WAKE UP, WE OVERSLEPT!" The voice broke the amazing silence as the boy in the bed hissed lazily not caring.

-"Virgil please, we need to go! Or I'm taking your mask off." Ethan fake-threatend.

Virgil then suddenly flicked from the bed "energized as ever"

Or rather anxious as ever.

As they both sat in the car and run as fast as they could to the classroom...

And there was a new student.

#ts patton #ts virgil #ts deceit #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides au #patton sanders #virgil sanders #deceit sanders #sympathetic deceit #sympathetic virgil

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hessa-and-oh · 5 years

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Reviews on the GOT Finale

I remember watching the show at the age of 13 and immediately falling in love with its uniqueness, its elaborate pattern in music, costumes and visuals.

I cannot praise the actors, executive producers and crew enough for their tremendous effort and their many sleepless nights to bring this epic series to a close.

I pray to all The Seven that the blessings and fortune in this world will befall them. That the actors that we have come to idolize will forge ahead in their career and dominate in the entertainment field.

Down to business on the Finale.

The episode rewards us will characters we haven't seen in a long while like Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn and a prince of Dorne.

After the horrors of the last episode, everyone seems to be recovering fast and that is very progressive.

We saw a couple of our favourite characters smiling and feeling very elevated with their new status.

On the matter of each character ending, personally I choose to not wholly accept it because I'd like to think its D&D's ending.

I could be wrong. GRRM may want this ending too, who knows?

For TV show fans, I think the entire episode is for us to reforge, because at this point everything up to episode five becomes fairly obvious and predictable.

Okay, now I wanna get brutal.

I think the episode is hilarious, I couldn't take anything seriously. From start to finish, everything that happens is in denial of logic and buildup.

Dany, the newly created Stalin/Hitler gives a speech in two different languages to an army of foreigners about liberation absent thought of the liberated being in attendance.

Then, Greyworm is elevated.

Jon is tired of it all.

Beneath the castle, Tyrion finds his dead siblings and then he gives the best teary performance in the entire season. His heart is immediately filled with disgust for Dany. So he decides to publicly throw away his hand of queen pin. Then, he is immediately arrested.

Arya appears out of nowhere, to be beside Jon to remind him what he must do.

Then, there's the unnecessarily long scene of Tyrion and Jon beating about the bush. Both of them ridiculously forgetting the option of banishment since Jon was conflicted over killing the love of his life.

Then, Dany proceeds to become possessed by an unscrupulous entity. Because she kinda forgot that she is MOTHER OF DRAGONS first before anything. She decides to pitch a warped idea of liberation that involves more killing; killing more children and the innocent.

And because there's this trojan virus in her system, she refuses to walk among the streets as she usually does when she conquers a city.

She refuses to see the horror Jon was describing to her because she's afraid of dead bodies maybe.

Knowing fully well Jon has been rejecting her affections, she decides to try again ignoring the fact that Jon is armed. So he stabs her.

Dany couldn't even get her final words out before she gave up the ghost.

Drogon, senses his mother's end proceeds to find her corpse, frighten Jon, burn the Iron Throne and then fly away with her body for unknown reasons.

I know, lots of people weren't convinced or open to the idea of their relationship because it was either rushed or because of their blood ties, but by the gods did they deserved to bear the same fate.

If one lives, the other lives. If one dies, the other dies. Because, these two are the glutinous substance of the entire story.

They were like each other's poison, you know.

Anyways, as a Jonerys shipper I had hoped that Jon would suggest a life of exile together. But Nah! That would be too sweet of an ending right?

Then the Dragon Pit meeting was a piss poor attempt at amusement. Personally, I wasn't amused. What about you?

Edmure's still an idiot, Robin is still ignorant, Davos is still a mediator. Basically, everyone is as themselves except Bran.

When Tyrion offers him the kingship role, Bran smiles for the first time in three or four seasons. And that makes me think that Bran has some sinister plot going on.

Please watch Ideas of Ice and Fire's Ep. Review for more.

Sansa doesn't want to be part of the patriarchy so she whips up a funny reason for independence. Long live the Queen in the North!

Hurrah!

I'm a Sansa fan too but you do realize what she's done. Her actions further alienates The North from Westeros. If its a separate kingdom like Bran's six kingdoms, what is the modus operandi of appointing the next leader?

Is it the same as the six united kingdoms?

If not, The North has just created a future problem of succession because I can imagine that Sansa will want to keep The North in the Stark family.

Please explain to me, Sansa staunch stans, how different is this from what Dany initially had in mind before her descent to madness?

Away from that now, we have Jon's departure.

The regency was built by the Targaryens, so the entire kingdom decides to disregard that and send Jon, the only surviving member of House Targaryen to the wall to live out his days as a bachelor.

I know Jon's family name is a curse, but hells why would you do that to a war hero, a man loved by thousands?

By the way, who the hell is Grey worm to refuse the Lords of Westeros Jon's freedom?

Anyways, one good thing out of all these misery is that Jon gets to fly his hair again and that's really cute. Very symbolic of his fall from grace to grass.

Personally, I wasn't moved by Sansa's farewell to Jon because it is what she's wants all along, to not be contested.

His moment with Arya was beautiful and very convincing. As for Bran, I'm surprised that they didn't even hug.

Jon kneels because he is always the eager follower, as if leadership is some kind of disease.

Back to Square One

Jon goes right back to where he bloody started, with the wildlings.

He is reunited with Ghost and that's super cute.

Then, he and the wildlings decide to journey beyond the wall because by nature the wildlings are roamers.

The Council of Clowns.

Tyrion is the hand again for the 3rd time. He acts out that joke he used to when his father and sister were alive, with sitting arrangements. It wasn't funny in my opinion.

Then to add salt to the injury, we have Bronn as the Lord of HighGarden, Warden of the Reach and Master of Coin. I wonder whose CV he tended, to win himself these positions.

Davos is master of ships. Brienne is the Lady of the Kings guard and Samwell Tarly is the Grand Maester despite the fact that he is a drop-out.

The rules of The Citadel still apply about being unmarried you know, so Gilly's baby will be born a bastard until legitimized by Bran the Broken.

And lastly, Gilly remains his paramour.

Podrick is a member of the Kings Guard because he has mortgaged his co*k to Brienne and the realm, unless the rules have changed concerning kings guard celibacy.

Davos and Bronn bicker a little bit. It kinda parallels Varys and LF.

So, there are other people missing from the council, so Tyrion suggests he has candidates already.

It would be interesting to know who they are because Tyrion has repeatedly said he is an "excellent judge of character."

Bran and Drogon

The new King Bran is worried sick for Drogon and asks about his whereabouts because he wants to adopt him?(maybe).

The Unsullied and The Dothraki

Grey worm decides to take the entire unsullied army to Naath for suicidal reasons. Maybe he hasn't heard of the butterfly sickness.

Then, the Dothraki remain because they are now a peace loving bunch and don't want to see Vaes Dothrak.

Arya

What can I say? At least she explores on her own ship, captaining her own crew. Its a great ending then?

All in All

Everyone in Westeros that hasn't sacrificed as much Jon and Daenerys or even faced one tenth of the emotional struggles, tribulations and hardships gets a good life.

Wow! What a perfect ending!

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aetherschreiber · 5 years

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Adventures of a GM Noob: Lost Tales of Ixalis - Session Zero

So, I have GMed games before. But honestly, I wasn't any good at it and none of what I did before is worth mentioning. For all intents and purposes, I am a GMing noob. But getting further into table-top RP gaming of late has really sparked my interest in it. It can be a very interesting method of story telling and a great way to exercise creativity in many ways from writing to improv to crafting.

I recently decided to jump in and try my hand at GMing, now that I have a better handle on how it's done. I've been watching how others do it and I've learned a lot about the showmanship of it and ways to bring your players into the moment. And I wanted to see how good I am at using what I've learned.

To that end, I started a game with a group of friends in a home-brew world called Ixalis.

It's not the first time I've engaged in world-building. I had previously made a fictional world - Lathuria - for a short story series I had dreamed up in high school, called Spellweavers. But I never really got around to doing much with it. During college, I recycled those notes into an impromptu game session for one of my failed GMing attempts, using the 2nd edition BESM system, a group called the Fellowship of the Ever-Falling Troll. The problem was that in changing it over to a gaming setting, I was far too ambitious. I defined the world a little too much, with too many pre-determined events and NPCs who were in charge of the world. It was too much for even me to keep track of, let alone my players. It became a frustrating endeavor and eventually the game just petered out due to a lack of interest. I got super gun-shy about GMing after that.

So, when I set out to create Ixalis, I decided to keep it a little more bare-bones. I was also using 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, which sort of has its own mythos surrounding it, so I needed to make sure the world fit the system. To that end, I fiddled around with an online map generator, [here](https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/), until I found an interesting landmass and then tweaked it for my purposes. I gave a vague description of the realms therein and a few named landmarks based on what the map generator had spit out. A tweaked listing of player character races and a listing of the world's gods and their relations to one another rounded out the important bits. I had to establish a few events in the timeline, just to have some sort of story to start with. But those events were hundreds of years apart, leaving plenty of space for the players to define their own societies and pasts.

Which brings me to the biggest, overlying philosophy I am taking in my approach to GMing this time around; it's not just my world. I want this world to belong as much to my players as it does to me. So far that seems to have paid off, as my players have already added some unique touches I never would have thought of to the world.

The campaign started this past Saturday with an episode zero, of sorts. They all came with the basics of a character, some with a backstory already detailed and others who fleshed them out in discussions with the group. We ended up with an interesting group of characters. Some of them don't know it yet, but their backstories run into each other based on some of the things we discussed.

First, we have Corwin, a human, shield-based fighter. From the young country of Auricia, he is a retired war hero from its war of independence from the Thesalian Empire. He has been brought back into service, of his own volition, to seek out missing members of the legion he once commanded.

Kiran is a human monk of the order of the goddess Tilthani. However, he has been recently receiving visions and direction from the goddess Freydis, of the Fellheim pantheon. He has spent most of his life traveling alone in the wilderness and is therefore rather socially awkward and naive.

Aekthul is a human warlock with a mysterious patron that he's not entirely comfortable with. He recently stumbled into a chamber in the ancient monument of Stone Reach and acquired a pendant that he cannot seem to get rid of, despite throwing away every day. Recently, his powers have manifested themselves in the form of a sword; one he had originally seen in Stone Reach, but left behind.

Following Aekthul covertly is a firbolg cleric of the graves domain known only The Caretaker. She was until recently one of two members of an ancient order of the goddess Talessi tasked with watching over the ancient Stone Reach. Since Aekthul encountered his patron there, she has been following and monitoring him, worried for the implications his powers mean for the monument in her charge.

Elsie Dracona is a young human rogue with sticky fingers and a penchant for finding trouble. She grew up as a milk-maid on the outskirts of the city of Drolyn. When she fell upon particularly hard times, she turned chicken-thief in order to survive. This angered the lord of the manor and she fled north, without really having a plan.

Finally, there is Tordek, a dwarf cleric of Halvdan Hammerfist. Oddly, he seems to be familiar with all the other members of the group, even though none of them know of him at all. Mysteriously, he has mentioned that the members of the group are meant to come together to do great things and has pushed a few members of the group toward doing so. Tordek is intended to be a recurring guest character who will pop up every now and then to be played by a player who can't be there all that often. We have cooked up a great reason for this, in canon, and I really look forward to collaborating with his player to add a story element that is not often seen in fantasy. More on that as the story develops.

The entire group is not yet together, though they are all heading toward the small town of Bent Bridge for their own reasons.

On the road, a very hungry Elsie encounters Corwin who promptly takes her under his wing. Together, they head to a roadside tavern for a mid-day bite to eat. There, they find Tordek who is in the process of getting into a bar-room brawl with some locals. While Elsie dodges the fight and orders up food and drink from the terrified bar-keep, Corwin jumps in to Tordek's aid. All the while, Tordek acts as though he knows Corwin, making references to past adventures they have had but about which Corwin has no memory. When all is finished and the locals are all unconscious the three of them talk over meals. Tordek insists that Elsie and Corwin are meant to travel together and are meant to meet up with three others, whose descriptions he gives and tells them they will find in Bent Bridge. He then takes his leave and mysteriously vanishes into the woods. Corwin dismisses the whole thing as the delusions of a mad dwarf and he and Elsie continue on to Bent Bridge.

Meanwhile, Aekthul encounters Kiran. Neither one is really sure what to make of the other, but that doesn't matter when a pair of grey ooze attack them on the road. The Caretaker breaks her covert observation of Aekthul and comes to their aid. Afterward, the three of them continue on their communally awkward way to Bent Bridge. There, they come to the Field and Feather Inn, a inn and tavern owned by the halfling couple Marbald and Yandell Gammidge. There, they have a meal and then Kiran and Aekthul get a room together to cut costs and the Caretaker finds a place to camp on the outskirts of the nearby woods.

Tomorrow is the celebration of New Year's day of the year anno draconis metallum 1000, commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the defeat of Tiamat by Bahamut.

All in all, this was a fairly successful session, despite pulling out a couple of adventures on the fly based on what had come to the table. It was perhaps a little slow to get started, while we all worked out how things came together, but that's what a Session Zero is for. I also raised them to level 2, mostly because I hate the instability of characters at level 1, so the encounters were also just a little something to justify that.

There are some things I know I need to work on. Some of my descriptions of the fights, particularly the one with the oozes, got very repetitive. We also did only "theater of the mind" for the encounters rather than miniatures, but I intend to use minis in the future. I'm looking forward to using the collection of minis I have and Corwin's player, @FortiutousBob on Twitter, also has an extensive collection (he GM's the Saturday night game I play in opposite this one).

All in all, I'm pretty pumped about this going forward.

#dnd #dnd 5e #dungeons and dragons #rpg #Ixalis #LostTales #Lost Tales

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