#it occurred to me after the fact I could have also reversed this and had julie pulling luke and reggie out of the game
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Is this okay? It's more than okay.
Peterpatterlina?
The humidity had reached a point where it was impossible for Julie to determine how much she was actually sweating from the near endless trekking through this jungle. All she really wanted was to sit down and rest. However after learning this place had literal carnivorous flowers that wouldn’t hesitate to eat her and the incident with spiders she didn’t dare stop and risk getting left behind.
Not that she thought Reggie and Luke would purposefully leave her behind. But she was already trailing behind. Only getting further behind with every trip and stumble, not yet as adept at traversing the terrain as the other two.
How long had they been trapped here? They looked to be about her age.
She yelped as her foot caught on yet another root, stumbling forward, her wandering thoughts flying out of her head as the ground quickly grew closer.
An arm around her waist stopped her, and pulled her back against a warm body. A quick glance told her she was in Luke’s arms.
“You ok?” Reggie asked, face full of concern as he stepped closer into her space, all but trapping her between him and Luke. His hands hovered as his gaze drifted over her.
“Yeah, yeah fine.” She said, trying to hide out of breath she was and a little glad the heat would hide the blush burning along her cheeks. “How much more are we going to walk?”
“Not much farther now.” Luke said, releasing his grip and staying behind her as Reggie led the way.
Julie followed along hoping she wouldn’t have to try and remember how she got here in the first place, since everything looked the same to her. Eventually Reggie stopped at a large tree in a particularly barren portion of jungle and began climbing up a set of tangled up vines.
Julie's eyes traced up the vines to what must be their home, little more than a dilapidated ruin of a treehouse. At least from down here that’s what it looked like.
Thankfully, Luke didn’t need much reassurance that she could handle climbing up what essentially amounted to a rope ladder without any assistance. Further grateful that he kept his snickering and any further offers of assistance to himself. Despite how much she struggled she was going to do this herself. Besides she did not want to find out what compromising position she’d end up in if she couldn’t do this herself.
Only compromising positions quickly became her only thought as she entered the treehouse and realized how much smaller it was than she guessed. Definitely smaller than her bedroom back home, as she squeezed herself into a corner to try and stay out of the way, as Luke and Reggie moved about the space.
“Sorry it’s not much.” Reggie said with a shrug, as he glanced around.
“Really it’s just the bed, if you can even call it that.” Luke added, with a sheepish nod toward the assorted fabrics and piles of what Julie had to assume were leaves that took up a good portion of the floor.
“Is this okay?”
“It’s more than okay.” She said, unsure what she even would have done if they hadn’t come along. Certain she very much owed these two her life a hundred times over by now with all the ways she could have wound up dead. “Definitely better than ending up dead or eaten alive, anyway.”
She grimaced as her forced laugh did nothing to try and turn her phrase into a joke. If anything Luke and Reggie’s faces crumpled even more and it broke what tenuous grip Julie had on powering through her situation. She hadn’t even realized how close she had been to crying so focused on following Luke and Reggie to some sort of shelter.
They quickly wrapped her up in a hug, whispering apologies against her hair as her crying only grew worse. They didn’t say it out loud but she could hear it in the finality of their tones. They all were as good as dead in their current situation, trapped in a jungle with no way of getting out or contacting home.
All they were doing now was prolonging the inevitable on the slim hope someone else could pull them free.
Julie’s grip tightened on their arms as she willed those nefarious thoughts out of her mind. Luke and Reggie had survived this long, however long it had been, she could too.
She would cling to that small hope of rescue for as long as she could just as tightly as her nails dug into their arms.
#. . .this somehow turned into a sort of Jumanji AU??#This might be another slightly spite fueled AU…because I can never forgive Jumanji Welcome to the jungle for how tame it made that jungle#rukebox#peterpatterlina#it occurred to me after the fact I could have also reversed this and had julie pulling luke and reggie out of the game#or reggie and julie pulling luke out of the game#OMG could you imagine!?#Everyone thought Luke Patterson ran away from home but really he got stuck in Jumanji . . .an altered Jumanji that freezes time in a way#I could go on for a while
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a fact about me is that i was an early bloomer who hit puberty in elementary school and was immediately, obnoxiously horny in ways that were uncomfortable for everyone because no one is prepared for an elementary schooler with b cups and a deep fascination with movies where people get tied up. another fact is that because i was considered smart for my age in the ways that mattered, i just accepted all this as a single package, the many ways that i was not really a child the way other children were children but was instead a miniature adult. i was technically a child, but not really, as far as i was concerned. it also did not occur to me until around high school that i was fat, because i instead considered myself to be sturdy, to be buff, to be built like a tank.
so somewhere around middle school i am noticing the ways in which i am Not Like Other Girls, the ways in which i am not what society says a girl is and the ways that things marketed to girls do not appeal to me. i don't know how other girls dealt with this, but i very rationally decided that i was only technically a girl, in the way that i was only technically a child. so i looked at the things that did appeal to me, and that i did enjoy, and reverse engineered my demographic to decide that on a practical and functional level i was a middle-aged man. i had also gotten really hornily into wolverine because of the first x-men movie, and ended up reading a lot of comics, so as you can imagine the comic book version of wolverine who is short and built like a tank and older than he looks despite being for all intents and purposes a middle aged man really had some appeal to me.
there are idiots who say shit about how tomboys would be considered trans these days or whatever, but i can assure you that was not what was happening here. by middle school i already had to special order bras and i was fine with that because of the many weird fetishes i was developing, none of which can be blamed on the internet because i hadn't found that shit yet and also to this day you would have a hard time finding anything similar to the things i wrote in my secret notebook and immediately destroyed. the fact that i was technically a girl was vital to all this. media where there was a big reveal that some cool dude had been a hot chick the whole time was my shit. weird feral beast people who turned out to be hot women once they took a bath? fuck yes. i would never have cut my hair because that would have ruined my chances to take off a helmet and reveal that i had girl hair. at no point did i think i was anything but a girl, it was just that i was functionally a middle-aged man, who was a girl.
what this means is that i still liked all the things i already liked, such as leather jackets and comic books and anime and old stand-up comedy, but i also did extensive research on the other things i felt i should like according to the demographic i had assigned myself. i watched vh1's 'i love the 70s' with the air of someone trying to hide their amnesia, even though my parents were children in the 70s. i got into the beatles. i tried to get into cars for a while before accepting that i only liked the vintage car aesthetic and couldn't be fucked to know actual car facts. i wore nothing but cargo shorts and aloha shirts for a while, which didn't really stand out that much because it was middle school. i bought a fedora and became a libertarian atheist. i made plans to buy a motorcycle (i could not ride a bike).
i gave up on it after a while because quite frankly my titty situation meant there was never really going to be a big reveal that i'd been a girl the whole time. it was pretty obvious even with the cargo shorts. also the older of a teen i was, the more likely it felt that i could maybe get laid, except i could tell that was never going to happen as long as i kept wearing cargo shorts. it took longer to give up the fedora because it was leather and i wore it with my leather jacket and fingerless gloves, which i convinced myself worked a lot better after i'd gone full high school goth. i lived in the desert so you can imagine how well that worked out for me, smell-wise.
anyway that's how my female socialization went, i don't think it was particularly successful tbqh
#original#the funniest part to me is the vh1 thing#i watched so much vh1 while inexplicably behaving as if i was already familiar with everything i was seeing
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Can you give your take on this? Because for the life of me I can’t comprehend why lily started dating James right after the worst memory.
Like yeah you’re upset and rightfully fair too, but I feel like she sorta had a liking for James way before the whole thing with sev, like she must’ve thought he’s amusing or something, and I kinda feel like severus might have seen it too, but of course that’s just my thinking.
Correction: She didn’t actually date James right after SWM, she began dating him in 7th year, which was around 2 years after SWM occurred. I don’t think she could be that cruel to date James right after he did something that awful to Snape lol.
I do think she was at least attracted to James during SWM, JKR herself has even confirmed that Lils somewhat fancied James during that period (“You’re a woman, you know what I mean!” no.. no I don’t, JKR 🤨). Her behaviour with James in SWM was concerning as hell, her best friend was legitimately on the ground after just having been choked with soapsuds and her first reaction was to not even glance at him and automatically start bickering with James and talking about his broomstick and his “stupid hair.” 💀 like Lily ily but.. wtf are you doing??
But to be fair to Lils, when she dated James, she genuinely thought he had changed and became a better person. She wouldn’t have dated him if he was still bullying Snape and other people, she would’ve still been attracted to him like she was in SWM, but she wouldn’t have actually gone out with him. However, my issue with that is the fact that she was willing to go out with him AFTER she saw that he SA’d and bullied her (at the time) best friend for YEARS. Lames shippers like to say “oh but she and Snape weren’t friends anymore!! She didn’t ‘owe him anything!’” but like.. at the time, Snape was her best friend of 7 years, and James (knowing that they were friends) had no issue blatantly torturing him and publicly exposing him and then blackmailed Lily (not Snape, but Lily herself) into going out with him. This isn’t an issue about Snape or them not being friends anymore or whatever, it’s the fact that James—at least at one point of his life—had literally zero issue hurting the person Lily cared about and blackmailing her and threatening to hex her. The fact that he was even capable of SA, choking someone with soapsuds, immobilising them, relentlessly bullying them for years, all while knowing that they were someone Lily cared about, should have sent her running for the HILLS. All of that is putting aside that he also had no problem blackmailing Lily and then threatening to hex her when she wanted to defend her friend (“?? wtf girl? How dare you try to help out your friend after I just SA’d them and blackmailed you?? You better not make me hex you too 😠”).
And to make things worse…… what did James even do to change?? Stop bullying people?? Wow so incredible of him! That’s definitely going to reverse the damage of the people he did all that shit to! We should all applaud him for doing the absolute bare minimum!! I should definitely look past him assaulting my now-ex-best-friend-but-who-was-still-someone-I-cared-about-and-respected-at-one-point-in-my-life for 6 whole years, even though he never actually apologised to my now-ex-best-friend… which… would’ve been the proof that he actually changed… Oh who cares? I’m definitely going to date him anyway!
Like, I don’t even care if I wasn’t friends with that person anymore, the fact that YOU had no problem assaulting that person and making their life miserable for YEARS even though you know how much I care about them and then trying to force me into going out with you would be enough for me to not want to go out with you. Simply knowing that you were capable of doing such atrocious things to ANY human being is horrifying. That isn’t even regarding that he showed no hard evidence of changing, merely stopping the bullying does nothing to heal the victim of what you put them through. Like, if I went out and killed a bunch of people, and I suddenly decide to stop killing people, does that mean I’m not guilty of murder?
So, I don’t hate Lily, but I’m definitely not fond of her character. All her scenes show her being pretty unpleasant and she ended up marrying JAMES of all people, so yeah I’m definitely not going to think very highly of her intelligence level…
Anyway, that’s my take. I’m sorry for how long this got, but your ask really triggered something in me that’s been waiting to rant about this 💀
#anti lily evans#sure#anti jily#ughhh it’s been too long since i’ve used these tags#low-key miss it ngl#anti lily potter#tw: mention of sa#anti james potter#anti lily evans potter#severus snape#pro snape#pro severus snape#harry potter#hp#ask#asks
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My high school AP art history teacher once stated that ancient Egyptian art looks largely “the same” because the religion didn’t change until Akhenaten created a monotheistic religion, only then do we see naturalism emerge in art a la Queen Nefertiti’s bust. At this point I’m aware that this is a bad take, but I was wondering if you might be able to unpack it a bit more. Reading about how ancient Egypt spanned a six thousand year period makes me feel like it couldn’t be possible for there to only be one stylistic evolution in their art, or that there were no religious movements besides the one Akhenaten led.
Yeah, that's a trash take. Unpacking it a 'bit' more is quite an undertaking, especially since I'm being asked to unpack 6000 years of artistic changes. There are more changes than just the Amarna period, as well as there being more than one religious change.
First off, I'm going to paraphrase this post by @rudjedet on art, with her express permission, because frankly I do not have the spoons to fully address artistic change over 6000 years in any meaningful way. It's a lot to ask of someone outside of an actual research project. So, with that being said, be prepared for this to get long because this is a long question with a lot to unpack. All images will have their id in alt text.
So, art. It changes quite a bit, but the changes happen over centuries, rather than defined blocks in time for 'styles', and they're really not that noticeable to the untrained eye. The Egyptians also strived to keep their art style the same way On Purpose, which I feel I've talked about a lot over the past few days, but we've circled back to it again. To talk about art I'm going to borrow Sonja's use of statuary for examples.
The Ancient Egyptians always portrayed themselves as an ideal. What that ideal was did change over time - in the Old Kingdom, it was a man in the prime of his life, strong and fit. See for example this statue of Menkaure:
All Egyptians in their art and their tombs sought to present themselves this way, as this is how they would appear in the Afterlife and also because art is imbued with Heka meaning that you don't want to show yourself looking out of shape or that could come true. For Menkhaure, this is supposed to reflect his strong leadership and virility. Remember, Egyptian art is about image propaganda. This is why it largely tends to follow certain trends that people mistake for being 'static'.
This propagandistic projection was still largely the case in the Middle Kingdom/early Twelfth Dynasty (so when Senwosret I ruled), but it did shift to a portrayal of the king as a man with a care-worn face and big ears, to indicate that he was very concerned with the well-being of his subjects. This was largely due to the fact that there had been famine, and the people of Egypt had suffered. So, what better way of showing you care is to reflect that in the statuary.
This is a head of a statue of Senwosret III, and you can see that while he still looks like a fit ruler, still youthful, he has considerable lines in his face and around his mouth, bags underneath his eyes, and even a wrinkle in his forehead. This is meant to display his worry and concern for Egypt. His ears are large and sticking out, which we’re relatively certain wasn’t a portrayal of reality, but as stated above was a way to indicate a predisposition to listen to both the gods, and his subjects. Senwosret II also does this, but going further back you can see the statuary of Senwosret I is all smiles. This change occurs over less than 100 years, and then after this period changes back to the above style. Tomb art in this period, while remaining the same aesthetically, moves from fully carved to painted, as colour beings to be introduced to more private spaces.
Towards the New Kingdom we see a reversal towards the strong and fit archetype, but with far more of an emphasis on youthful facial appearances. See, for example, this statue of Thutmose I:
(Fun thing: the number of times I see this statue but people have labelled it as Hatshepsut because it's a little more feminine in the face is a very large number).
Round, plump cheeks that display an extremely youthful look. He looks like he’s barely out of puberty when he's likely a grown man at this point. Again, it's propaganda. He's projecting the image he wants people to see, and the image Kings want people to see in Egypt really doesn't change all that much.
Then the Amarna Period happens. And… well you already know about that. Akhenaten seems to break all molds for Egypt, pushing religion, the capital city, foreign relations, and even art all out the window in a very short amount of time.
But it's definitely hyperbole to say he did this out of the blue. I definitely need to point out here that new changes to the art style were already happening under his father, Amenhotep III, and grandfather, Thutmose IV, at least, but the changes there are still relatively subtle. Religion is also changing at this time, but I'll get to that in a bit.
You can see it well in this sculpted head of Amenhotep III, though:
A slightly elongated face, very pronounced lips, almond-shaped, large eyes. If you didn't know, most of you would probably automatically assume this was a piece from the Amarna period. Akhenaten then, almost overnight, just went all-in with this:
The biggest differences between this and the head of Amenhotep III, you’ll see, aren’t so much in the face, but in the body. Akhenaten has round hips and a soft belly, instead of the rock hard musculature that previous kings had themselves portrayed with. It would be inaccurate to use the term “more realistic”, as some people are wont to do, because it implies that Akhenaten truly looked exactly like that and by all accounts it is rather unlike Egyptians to not, in some way, show a perfected version of a thing or person. But it is probably true that a lot of Egyptian rulers had a “good life” belly on them in real life. In fact, it's common throughout all periods to have at least one statue of yourself with fat rolls as it demonstrates wealth and prosperity i.e. the ability to have enough food.
Then we move into the post-Amarna period, and while there we see a return to the more stylised portrayals of pre-Amarna art, the belly and a more subtle version of the fat rolls remain. You can see it in this statue of the Treasurer Maya (on the right, his wife Merit is sat next to him):
Even after this period, when you tend to get Late Period kings trying to replicate older periods and not quite getting the proportions right, the art still evolves and changes. It's just that the overall aesthetic, remains pretty much the same. As I said before this is a deliberate action on the part of the Egyptians. They wanted it to remain the same due to their obsession with archaism and keeping Egypt in it's Golden Age (the Old Kingdom). What you see as static, isn't really at all, but you've got to know the difference between the time periods in order to see the often subtle differences.
As for religion, and I'm going to wrap this up pretty quickly because we don't need anything near the length of what we have above, there are multiple changes but they occur across centuries so they don't have the same dramatic shift as the Amarna period did. Since Ancient Egypt had a pantheon of gods, there was always a 'chief deity' who sat above the rest of them as they were favoured by the priests. In the very early periods this was the goddess Neith, over time she faded out as the popularity of Osiris rose and he became the chief deity. After a few centuries you can see this change to Amun, and his priests became very powerful. During the reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, you can see them focusing more on the Aten as the chief deity, but because Egypt had grown significantly by this point the priesthood of Amun was in direct opposition to the King. What Akhenaten did when he caused upheaval makes more sense in this context, especially since it was largely the High Priests of Amun that he was targeting. Once Akhenaten was gone, the priests restored Amun as chief god and that never really changed. Other gods became popular, but they did not oust Amun as head of the pantheon. But as I said, these changes were largely incremental rather than the huge change Akhenaten implemented. They took so long to happen that they wouldn't have been truly visible to the people living through them. There weren't religious movements because religion was the purview of the King and the Priests. Main pantheon worship was supposed to be done by the king alone, but in reality this was delegated to priests. The general public did not enter the temples unless it was festival time and even then they were restricted in the parts they could access. The reason there were no religious movements is because it was the purview of the state rather than its people to perform most of the religious rites, and if the state is in control of something it's very unlikely to change unless they can see that change as one that is expedient for them. After the Amarna period there were some small changes in the way people chose to worship their gods, but the state religion did not change. Like with art, it is this way because the Egyptians wanted it to be so. Also there are only 5 million people in Ancient Egypt. Why change what works?
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Ok, finally I can sit down and write this!! XD
Ahhh, what a chapter! Lots of new info, a new routine is starting to set in, and we had a bit of a surprise there at the end!!
So first off, we have that slow testing of the waters that is now a little more hopeful and I love it! So much of this chapter had me smiling widely and made my heart melt at so many points!
Like, first of all how the hunter teases the boys for "showing off" hehe! And it got me thinking! Because it never quite occurred to me how much they must have been holding back physically! Obviously they were careful not to exhibit any obviously demonic features, but the fact is that they never really went beyond what an animatronic their size should have been capable of. Always kept at a speed that seemed possible for their form when y/n was paying attention. never did anything that seemed far out of their reach. And when those things must have been so easy if they could have just done it, I bet it got at least a bit tiring hiding what comes naturally for them. It must be so freeing to be able to truly be themselves now! And of course, if they get the chance to show off a little in order to impress their heart haha!
And Oh. My gosh. The moment when Moon was startled by the crossbow! It caught my attention because aside from losing y/n (physically or metaphorically), the boys have not really shown fear. They themselves admit it's not something they tend to feel. They're always on the lookout and not easily taken by surprise, but they could have encountered at least a couple hunters before the one in the cornfield. They know what happens during an exorcism so there must be some instinctual fear when it comes to a hunter's weapons. But even more than that, I wonder if this is similar to y/n's fear of them growing bored and deciding to kill them in the future. But the boys may have imagined worse scenarios in which the hunter decides they actually are a danger and decides to take them by surprise, an attack when they least expect it. Even if they don't truly believe something like that will happen (and they could likely tell because of the heartbeat), the thoughts might have lingered and the sound of the unhooked crossbow put them on edge. (And in some way, that does confirm to y/n that they do consider them a strong person. They have seen them slay other cryptids, after all. So just what would it look like if the hunter, unhindered by the panic and the trauma that came from a demonic encountered, decided to play the long game to hunt them)
But then! Then when y/n realizes what exactly is happening they use the same words that Eclipse used to calm them!! And God if that isn’t such a neat little reversal of the dynamic so far. A promise that despite being someone that could hurt them the must, they will not. And it’s also a way to show the boys they accept their earlier reassurances. Trust is barely building, but Eclipse has repeated “You are safe” as basically a plea. To give them a chance. To beg y/n not to reject them. To try and not to be the source of their distress. And now the hunter is sincerely using those words back. As an apology and a promise. As reassurance. It’s like a direct response to the times the boys said it and I love it so much!
And ooooo we get a conversation about the doppelgänger! Oh I can just imagine now, what their point of view must have been a couple of chapters ago. Before the reveal, the cryptid’s words were just an inconceivable (at least when in denial) lie and its dying scream just a way to hurt and mock them. But then it turned into a reality. How close the expression it mimicked must have looked to reality. The brief chase through the gully an eternity as every hope they had of this working out fine seemed to be disintegrating. And even when the worst had passed, the next whole day they just had no certainty that they would be allowed to stay at all. None of them are happy that the doppelgänger was right about how the reveal would go, but as y/n affirms, that was then and now is now. At the very least, it’s yet another way in which the hunter can see Sun and Moon’s more complex being.
(sidenote: Moon then not even shifting when y/n handles the holy water!! He believes them! They’re safe and the water in the in their heart’s hands presents no more danger to them than the unloaded crossbow! That’s just giving me so many feelings! ;w; )
Oh ho! We also get some more info about the sacred rules! I have some theories about Paahlott but at this point they’re pretty vague for what we know XD I have to wonder how she was able to summon them and why they all agreed to the sacred rules. Maybe their views were all already aligned with what she proposed, since other demons like Shoh seem to hold no fondness for the innocence of children. The defenders of the sacred rules at least seem to rather enjoy and care for the little ones on their own accord, rather than just protecting them with indifference! Lots to think about! Oh and also, it’s so sweet how the boys talk about their family and how they are already considering who would love y/n immediately. It’s such a needed pinch of domesticity sprinkled over the wild last couple of days!
I am also so here for the reflections the hunter makes as they see their true form once again! Knowing that there is good to be witnessed among cryptids, but also knowing that means the sadism is so much worse from those that chose it. Because now it’s not a belief that cryptids are merely mindless and driven by instinct like animals. Some might be, but demons certainly aren’t. So it gives much more significance to both acts of kindness and malice.
And ooooooh that vow and the saltshaker comes up again! In the very next sense in fact! I’m just trying to think of what possible scenarios the hunter might find themselves in to consider breaking the vow. Maybe during an attack the only way to protect themselves would be a salt circle. Maybe, there would be no likely way to perform an exorcism without affecting the boys so y/n keeps them at bay and tries to do it themselves so that they can save Vanessa without risk of losing the boys, even if it places the hunter at great risk themselves. Hmmmm!
And DFKGHSKLÑ the almost kiss though!! Boys please! XD I know they are very eager but gotta slow down a bit there kjdhgfjh And it’s a bit funny but it makes a lot of sense y/n isn’t ready yet, because, even with all the demonic cryptid situation, they have very literally spent a lot of time alone before they met the boys. I bet they didn’t really try for a serious relationship after the incident of their past, and with the animatronic friend it probably didn’t cross their mind as a possibility so far (maybe it would have eventually, but it wasn’t happening soon XD) Now everything is out in the open, Sun and Moon basically confessed to them right after the reveal and the realization that they already have been living together and know and care for each other so much is hitting them in the face all of a sudden! It’s familiar but new, just like everything about the situation, so I can’t blame them for panicking a little haha! Like, that’s a whole kiss!
But aaaahhh then it leads to such a show of trust! ;o; Eclipse says “You are scared” and so the hunter does what absolutely shows that’s not the case. This is the heart eating demon. The one that caused them nightmares after they saw him destroying the rake and consuming its heart. And they show them. They might not realize it, just meaning to get them to listen more closely and tell them that it’s excitement, not fear, but it’s still very much placing all the sharp bits of this demon so close to them. The sharp grin right up to their chest. And knowing fully that they will not be harmed. The boys will not try to rip their heart out. They are allowed close. Closer than anyone else. Because the hunter wants and trusts them to be.
But ough then the pain of knowing what happened to Henry! ;O; He thought he was dealing with Bonnie! No doubt the others had spoken about him! So there must not be actual info about him in the book. I wonder if it was written before the cornfield demon found him. Or if maybe in the book there is research that could be helpful, although it could be misleading if it was lying all along. And oof, of course, that would bring back some doubts. The fate of Henry’s daughter was decided because he trusted the wrong demon. Who’s to say another couldn’t do the same? And ah, it aches but it’s actually a good instinct for y/n to keep it in mind. They are deciding to trust, but not blindly. They already did that and it brought a lot of pain, even if it also brought a lot of good. Now they are considering all the evidence, which tells them the boys are sincere, but they won’t let themselves fall into denial. That’s something their heart probably couldn’t take if they ended up being wrong after all.
And then we continue with Vanessa! Oh these GPS marks have me so intrigued. Is she asking for help and the demon interfering? Is the demon setting a trap? What in the world does it mean! Hmmmm. Aaaah, I’m so worried about her! Not only is she suffering a lot, but what Eclipse said about exorcisms doesn’t bode well for her. As a hunter she must have a lot of strength and will to live, but it must be very tough to remain strong after the sheer amount of time she has been possessed. She must be incredibly tired D: Hhhhhhh knowing how Deep Dreams ends reassures me a little but oooough I can’t help but think it would be just as likely a scenario that she doesn’t make it. And how sad it would be. For y/n, who has been fretting over her, having to do what they must to vanish the demon, but in doing so sealing their friend’s fate. AAAAA the suspense!
But that’s just something you are great at, Naff! You always keep us on our toes! X3
And talking about keeping us on our toes! Oh I just knew those three strangers were not just gonna be passingly mentioned but I didn’t expect FEI to suddenly decide they were actually gonna do something about this! I have so many questions about this organization. Surely, if they are affiliated to the Pizzaplex and knew of both the demon and the vessel (maybe even the makers of the vessel), then it wouldn’t have taken so long to confirm right? The hunters certainly knew what to look for. So why? Were they using y/n as a test for the boys? Were they expecting the demon to kill them and when that didn’t happen they sent someone to take care of it? Just what is their deal?
And oh my gosh when I say that as soon as the female hunter started talking I immediately thought of Cafaro XD And then I gasped and pointed at her name when it came up gñklfjhsgñhj Like hello! Glad to see you! Time to get punched again! Okay bye! You are so lucky that in this life y/n is not a vigilante ready to stab your heart, but a very kind, life-treasuring soul! (Though they do both have a knife when fighting her which is a fun coincidence XD)
(side note (wow only 2 sidenotes this comment kdfhjg) : also very interested in that seal! I know y/n threw it to the ground, but maybe if they find out what it is, it could be used to force the demon into a vessel different then Vanessa, if they can lure it out! Then use that to exorcize it!)
Ok, ok, last thing I wanted to comment on was Singh! Aaahhh it was a bit bittersweet hearing him talk. The fact that he was so genuine about it. He so desperately wanted to save y/n and was trying to be reassuring. Like, he doesn’t blame them from the start. And even if he doesn’t listen, he pays attention. He notices the hand on y/n’s shoulder and assumes it means they are not free to speak. But also he does not miss the way in which Sun is protective of them, although he doesn’t stop to consider it as the others keep pressing the matter. Then when he is holding the hunter, he keeps trying to tell them that they don’t have to be scared anymore! Because they might be resisting out of the fear of retaliation from the demon! Or just because they’re confused because of the possession! And then, when he’s the only one conscious, and he sees them getting away he pleads with the demon! To just let them go and not hurt them. That they don’t have to do this! And wow, of course that would resonate with y/n. We hear similar words in the vampire episode. The hunter wanted to free someone else from their perceived suffering. Pleading to let them help. Help them stop them from hurting others. It’s pure kindness. If it was hatred or fear he might have let them just go without bringing attention to himself and risk the demon’s wrath. But he chose what he had as a last attempt of what he thought was the right thing to do.
And then, when there is no reason for the cryptid to pretend, he hears them ask their question. And he doesn’t know the meaning of it. This is another reality that will accompany the hunter if they let Eclipse stay. Allowing this means losing their source of income (even if they are already well off), and the organization that facilitates their job. What they have been all this time will become 10 times harder. So the boys ask again if they are sure. And y/n does not hesitate. And Singh’s world has been tilted. He might soon deny what he heard as a trick, but the doubt has probably been planted! He’ll be left to think about it all. Three hunters faced off against a demon and though the demon won, none of them are dead after all.
I… got a lot of feelings for this side character that reminds us slightly of the hunter huh? kfdjhglskdjfg
But well, that’s all I have for now! Awesome chapter like always, Naff! I am so, so excited for what comes next and I just know it’s gonna have me clutching my heart! <3
Chaotik, I've been rereading this over and over and I'm not normal about your thoughts at all aldsfjalsdfasfd
Oh yeah, the boys get to behave more like themselves now that Y/N knows! It's a weight off of their shoulders and one less stress to worry about. Also, Y/N likes it!
"So just what would it look like if the hunter, unhindered by the panic and the trauma that came from a demonic encountered, decided to play the long game to hunt them)" <<< The boys have seen Y/N slay cryptids, monsters, and it would break their non-existent heart to see Y/N with that set look, committed to the hunt, focused on them.
AHH YESSS! I'm so happy you took note of how much that means to the boys to hear Y/N say "You're safe." It's such a fundamental moment because, yeah, that's exactly what the boys said to them, but now, it's from them. They mean it. It's true. They're all safe!!!
The doppelganger was a ghost haunting Eclipse for all that time, but now that the worst has passed and Y/N affirms that it might have gotten one little detail right, it never told them about this. About things being okay. And they are okay ♥
Oh ho, I'm glad you like Paahlott and the little lore drops! You're right that the demonic cryptids who agreed to the sacred rules already held affection for little ones. It was for their kindness that Paahlott summoned them. Likewise, Eclipse always had a tender spot for children, and the sacred rules were a simple thing to bind themselves to.
Yes, some cryptids have sentient were others are more mindless/animal-like, but demonic cryptids are a special case, and noting that they can choose good and evil (relatively for cryptids) is another blow for Y/N and their past trauma. The cornfield demon really is a special kind of cruel, but to balance that out, there's Eclipse, who's a very special kind of caring.
I am eyeing your theories on the vow and saltshaker so hard rn hehehe
Ahahah, yup, this is very new for Y/N, and sudden. There's a reason Y/N was pretty obvious to a robot kissing their injuries better. Y/N wanted to show their own love and trust and very real, reciprocated feelings. Y/N is feeling a lot, but it's not fear for their dear friend.
"That’s something their heart probably couldn’t take if they ended up being wrong after all." <<< Keep that in your back pocket for later :)
Ahhhh, thank you, babe! I know I've been teasing Vanessa for so long now, but we're gonna see her soon. Real soon.
About F.E.I.—They knew Y/N was traveling with a demonic cryptid for a long time. Another thing about F.E.I. is that they don't tell their employees everything. That's why the three hunters were so concerned/angry about Y/N.
Ahahha, I love your reaction to Cafaro! She's a fan-favorite (very punchable alsdjflasdf)
Oh ho, that's the last time that seal appears hehe
Ah, babe, I'm so happy you like Singh! He was really important to write for this scene. A lot of cryptid hunters are in Y/N's same boat of experiencing cryptid-related trauma, and most do it for good reasons, even Cafaro and Rowe despite their rough demeanor in that situation. They're people. Good people. Singh was truly concerned for Y/N and to hear that maybe Y/N isn't in danger after all, around a demonic cryptid, changed everything.
There are going to be consequences with F.E.I., unfortunately, but Y/N has chosen Eclipse.
Ahhh, thank you, babe! I always look forward to your comments! They bring me so much joy! ♥
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Everything Has Changed - Chapter 11
Previous Chapter
Chapter Song Inspiration: "Seven Nation Army" - Stevie Howie
Chapter Warnings: Idiots talking about their feelings.
Spotify Playlist: Here
Author Notes: thank you all so much for reading, reblogging, liking, and commenting on this fic (and the first one)! if you are interested in supporting me in other ways, I have a Ko-Fi link <3
i also have a discord server! it was created to coincide with my twitch channel but you do NOT need to follow/subscribe/watch my twitch streams to come hang out with us <3 we talk a lot about bg3 and share memes and fics.
Chapter 11: Talkin' to Myself at Night
The night of what she’d started referring to as “the incident” in her mind, Fallon didn’t sleep. Her mind was too busy. It was one thing to imagine her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend kissing, or imagine herself as the middle portion of a vampire and sorcerer sandwich, but it was another entirely for those fantasies to become a reality. Add in the fact that “the incident” in question occurred without her consent, and Fallon was left feeling truly unsure of how she felt, or if coming to some sort of arrangement with Astarion and Gale was something she even wanted anymore.
Fallon felt betrayed, and not just by Astarion. Gale swore that he never wanted to hurt Fallon again, and it took him less than a month to break that promise. Not only that, but once upon a time, Gale told Fallon that he was only interested in monogamous relationships. Fallon also knew that if the situation were reversed, and she were the one kissing Astarion without Gale’s consent, that Gale probably would have broken up with her on the spot upon catching them. The hypocrisy was rampant, and the hole in her heart that began to fill after rekindling her friendship with Gale was leaking again because of it. All of the reasons Fallon told herself that she couldn’t open her heart to Gale again (beyond the sexual relationship with Gale and Astarion she’d already fantasized about) were completely validated less than twenty-four hours after she’d even realized it was something she might want.
Then there was Astarion: the man who’d seen how fragile her heart was, glued the pieces Gale broke back together, promised to take care with it, and then promptly dropped it on the ground to shatter at the first opportunity. When she first met Astarion, he’d been all honeyed words of affirmation with a perfectly crafted persona to entice Fallon and the rest of their companions into trusting him as a method of survival. Was that still all she was to the vampire? A means to an end to ensure he survived another day? Had Astarion been playing the long con this whole time, and Fallon fell for it? Deep down, Fallon knew this wasn’t true; that Astarion loved her fiercely and genuinely. However, the logical part of her that knew this was currently being completely overpowered by her insecurities and anxieties, both of which were screaming at her for being stupid enough to trust that Astarion would keep his promise.
It all hurt, and the thing Fallon hated the most was that the person she would normally go to when she was hurting was the source of her pain. She thought about using her sending stone to contact Shadowheart, or Karlach, but Fallon could hear her friends’ voices in her mind already.
Shadowheart would tell her to go home– to go back to Baldur’s Gate and leave the vampire and the sorcerer to suffer the consequences of their actions and reflect on what they lost simply because they forgot to use their brains. “If they’re stupid enough to make that mistake, then they deserve each other, and certainly do not deserve you.”
Karlach, on the other hand, would probably jump straight to murder. Murder wasn’t usually Karlach’s go-to method of solving problems. Unless, of course, someone she cared about got hurt. With how happy-go-lucky Karlach was most of the time, it was easy to forget that the tiefling-turned-illithid once served in Zariel’s army, and that she killed a lot of people on Zariel’s behalf. “Say the word, soldier, and I’ll meet you in Waterdeep, sneak up on them in an alley, and make their deaths look like an accident.”
The solutions her friends would likely offer Fallon were not actually reasonable, or helpful, because they were just different forms of taking the easy way out, of running away from her problems. In the end it wouldn’t solve anything, and the person that was most likely to suffer most would still be Fallon. After all, how she felt about Astarion hadn’t suddenly changed in the wake of everything. How she’d started to feel about Gale again hadn’t gone away. Walking away from the two halves of her heart would do nothing but break her further.
At the end of the day, Fallon wanted to give Gale and Astarion the benefit of the doubt. She wanted to believe that “the incident” had been as unexpected and unplanned as they said it was. She wanted to believe that Astarion and Gale actually cared as deeply for her as they claimed.
Most importantly, she wanted them , and at the end of a sleepless night into a restless morning, that was where Fallon’s mind landed. The men who claimed to love her so deeply would get a chance to prove their love, but she would make them work for it. There would be no glossing over their infidelity and jumping right into a conversation about what being “together” as a threesome would look like. No, she fully intended to make the vampire and the sorcerer squirm, and to sit with the consequences of their actions for a while; to make them see earning her forgiveness was not as simple as saying “Sorry, it was an accident, we love you!”
Fallon slipped out of the inn in Daggerford as soon as she was certain the shops were open, and purchased her own tent, as she had no intention of sharing one with Astarion for the next three days while they made the final leg of their journey to Waterdeep. Fallon knew herself, and having Astarion that close would increase the opportunity for her to have a moment of weakness, to fold too soon.
When she returned to the inn with her new tent slung over her shoulder in a bag, Astarion and Gale were in the tavern, where the latter was eating breakfast. Astarion noticed her enter the tavern first, and he nudged Gale, nodding in Fallon’s direction. Gale looked at Fallon hopefully as she made her way towards the table. Fallon did not sit down as she observed the two men. They both looked tired, and Fallon did not even feel bad about the fact that knowing they slept like shit too brought her a little bit of joy.
“I’ve decided I’ll be sleeping in my own tent for the next couple of days.” She explained, acknowledging the bag over her shoulder. Astarion’s eyes flickered sadly as he realized they were not forgiven yet, and that his actions would cost him more than a single night without Fallon in his arms.
“What you did, what it means…Quite honestly, just looking at the two of you hurts. You don’t get to treat me like that and expect me to carry on like nothing happened, even if the idea of the three of us being an “us” is something I want to talk about. I refuse,” Fallon’s voice was cold, and she could feel her throat threatening to close up as tears welled in the corners of her eyes. Gods dammit, she was not going to cry in the middle of the fucking tavern. She furiously blinked back her tears, averting her gaze from Astarion and Gale since looking at them was just making it worse. “I need more time. When I’m ready to talk, I’ll come to you. Be ready to leave in an hour.” She did not stick around to see them silently nod their heads as they agreed to her terms, or the way that they guiltily looked at each other because they made her cry (again).
Fallon did not speak to Gale or Astarion unless absolutely necessary for the next three days. In fact, a passerby would have assumed that somebody had cast a Silencing spell over their group, with how quiet their journey from Daggerford to Waterdeep was. Fallon’s silent treatment made Gale and Astarion hesitant to even speak to each other in her presence, and while Fallon hadn'tt asked them to do that, if they wanted to deprive themselves of verbal communication until she was ready to speak to them both as some form of self-punishment, she also wasn't going to correct them.
At night, after she retired to her tent for the evening, Fallon often heard them talking to each other in hushed tones as she drifted off to sleep. Each conversation was entirely about her, how terrible they felt for hurting her so badly that she was still ignoring them, and when they thought she would speak to them again.
“I didn’t think it was possible for her to be quiet for this long,” Gale muttered to Astarion on the eve of the third day. “How much longer do you believe this will last?”
“I’m not sure, but if she didn’t deign to speak to us for another fortnight, would you blame her? I consider us lucky that she’s even considering speaking to us again at all,” Astarion countered, sighing heavily, and Fallon smiled softly to herself as she listened. “We’ll reach Waterdeep tomorrow, so maybe she’ll be ready to talk once we get to your tower?”
“I hope so,” Gale said wistfully. “Speaking of which, I got a hold of Tara. Everything should be ready when we arrive.”
“Excellent. Gods, I hope this works. I wouldn’t blame Fallon for ignoring us for another fortnight if she wished, but that doesn’t mean I want her to. I didn’t realize it was possible to miss someone you see every day.”
Though Fallon could have guessed that Astarion missed her (probably Gale, too) by the way they looked at her whenever she’d grant either of them any brief acknowledgement in the last three days, it was still nice to hear the vampire say it out loud. Giving Astarion and Gale the silent treatment had been harder for Fallon than she thought it would be, because every time she acknowledged them, the hopeful look on their faces, the optimistic thought that, perhaps, the worst of her hurt and anger might be over, nearly broke her resolve. Not speaking to them unless absolutely necessary had also made Fallon miss them , too. By the time they rode through the city entrance to Waterdeep, the deepest parts of the hurt Fallon felt because of their actions had passed. The pain wasn’t completely gone, but the idea of talking to Gale and Astarion about it didn’t reduce her to tears anymore. That was Fallon’s internal sign that she was ready for this conversation, and perhaps, to begin down the path to forgiveness.
The City of Splendours was just as beautiful as the name would suggest, and Fallon was actually starting to think that Gale had somehow managed to undersell his hometown. She couldn’t help but watch Gale’s face as he took in the city as they passed through the streets. Fallon couldn’t remember the last time she saw Gale look so happy. In fact, Fallon wasn’t entirely sure she’d ever seen Gale as happy as he was in that moment.
Gale looked back at Fallon, still beaming as they rode beside each other. “If you’ll allow me to take the lead, I will escort us to my tower.” She nodded, pulling back on her horse’s reins slightly so Gale could pass, and even that small acknowledgement made Gale’s smile so much brighter. Of course, finding Gale’s tower wouldn’t have exactly been difficult even if she and Astarion had been on their own. The ornate tower was centrally located, and arguably one of the tallest buildings she could see. To her surprise, there were people waiting to take their horses to a nearby stable when they arrived, and a small bit of sadness filled Fallon as she kissed her own horse’s nose for the final time, at least until they returned. It wasn’t like the horses could go through the portal to Asha with them, and no matter how long they remained in Waterdeep, Fallon had a feeling they’d mostly walk.
The quiet filling the air as Fallon, Gale, and Astarion entered the landing level of Gale’s tower was a different kind of silence to the one they’d been sitting in for the last several days. Fallon and Astarion were in too much awe to speak, and Gale was just so happy to be home that he looked like he was trying not to cry. “It’s beautiful, Gale.” Fallon said softly as they ascended the stairs to the next level, where Tara was waiting for them in the sitting room.
“Mr. Dekarios! It is so lovely to see you sir, you’re looking much better than you were the last time I saw you– even if you still haven’t shaved that horrid thing on your face. Nice to see you both again, too.” Tara greeted them.
“Hi Tara.” Fallon giggled, not able to help herself. She remembered Gale lamenting about how much the tressym hated his long hair and scruffy face, but Gale liked it, so it stayed. Fallon liked it, too, so she was glad that Gale’s companion hadn’t managed to bully him into getting rid of it.
Gale sighed, but the smile on his face never faded as he shook his head at Tara. “It’s lovely to see you as well, Tara. I’ve missed you,” he squatted down so he could scratch beneath the tressym’s chin. When he stood again, he clapped his hands together. “Is everything in order?”
Tara hopped onto the back of the sofa. “Everything is in order and still on schedule,” she confirmed, and Fallon looked back and forth between Gale and Astarion with a curious look on her face. “Is what in order?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Tara was referring to whatever plan Astarion and Gale concocted to get back in her good graces, but there was a schedule?
Astarion removed his facial covering now that they were indoors again, and he gave her a sly look in reply. “You’ll find out soon enough, darling, but I’m afraid you’ll need to remain in the dark just a bit longer.”
Gale’s look matched Astarion’s, and suddenly Fallon found herself regretting putting the two of them in a situation to conspire against her. “Indeed. On that note, I’m afraid we have to kick you out for a bit,” Fallon frowned as Gale continued. “Not to worry, though! Tara has agreed to act as your guide while you explore the city”
Fallon opened her mouth to argue– she’d really been looking forward to just taking a bath and mentally preparing herself for the conversation she intended to have with the vampire and the sorcerer standing before her; but before she could say anything, Astarion cut her off as he reached into his pocket for a small satchel that had the telltale jingle of coin inside, offering it to her. “I realize we’ve not given you much of a reason to trust us recently, but I promise you won’t regret it. Please.” His eyes were soft and pleading, the closest to a puppy-eyed expression Fallon had ever seen Astarion make. Gale was already rubbing off on him.
If they really went this far out of their way to plan something for her, the least she could do is play along. Fallon let out a resigned sigh and nodded. “Lead the way, Tara.” She gestured to the door and relief washed over Gale and Astarion’s faces, the latter looked like he’d kiss Fallon if she let him. The tressym hopped down from the back of the sofa and made her way towards the door. “This way, miss Fallon.” Fallon nodded in goodbye to Astarion and Gale, smiling softly at them, and she followed Tara out.
Once back outside the tower, Tara hopped up onto Fallon’s shoulder, causing the elf to let out a noise of surprise. “Forgive me, miss Fallon, it’s just easier to travel like this– I fear you’d lose me rather quickly otherwise. Our first stop isn’t far.”
“First stop?” Fallon asked warily.
“Oh yes, this is a multiple-stop outing, miss Fallon. Astarion and Mr. Dekarios gave me explicit instructions.”
“Why am I suddenly nervous?” Fallon mused as she weaved through the streets of Waterdeep, Not a single passerby seemed to be surprised to see a tressym sitting on her shoulder, which meant things like this were just…normal here. She followed Tara’s instructions as she took in her surroundings.
Fallon didn’t know why it surprised her so much, but their first stop was a bookshop. She should have known, since this was an outing at least half-planned by Gale Dekarios. The shop was quiet, with only around twenty or so other patrons milling about and browsing books. “Hello, Norbert!” Tara greeted someone as they entered. The halfling sitting on a high top stool behind the counter looked up from his book, and as soon as he saw Fallon and Tara, his face brightened. “Ah, Tara! I was wondering when you’d be by. Let me go grab your order.”
The halfling slid from his stool and disappeared into the back of his shop. “Tara, did Gale send me out with you to run his errands?” She laughed.
“Technically, yes, but also no. We’re not here for an order for Mr. Dekarios.”
Confusion etched across Fallon’s features. “Are we running your errands?”
“Goodness, I thought Mr. Dekarios said you were a bright woman,” the tressym chastised, and Fallon frowned. “He placed an order for you, dear.”
Fallon’s face immediately softened, and her heart swelled in her chest. Of course Gale would use books as a means of re-gaining favor with someone. The halfling returned with a small stack of books in his hands, and Fallon immediately recognized the book on the bottom of the stack just from its spine. She waited patiently for the halfling to set the books on his counter before touching them. “Here you are, all present and accounted for.”
Fallon reached for the books and began scanning the titles– the first three were all romance novels, but the last book in the stack made Fallon gasp. It was a first edition copy of the book about the boy wizard. How had Gale managed to find this? The book was printed almost twenty years ago. Fallon carefully opened it, and a folded piece of parchment slipped out, fluttering to the floor. Tara jumped onto the counter as Fallon bent down to retrieve it, and she realized it was a note, addressed to her. Fallon unfolded the parchment and recognized the neat, precise script with which it was written.
“ Dearest Fallon,
As you know, when we met, one of the first things that drew me to you was our shared love of literature. Once upon a time I recommended three romance novels to you, and promised to procure copies for you after we saved the world. These are a bit delayed on delivery, seeing as we saved the world two years ago at this point, but I do hope you enjoy them all the same. I’d planned on taking you to this shop to purchase copies for you once we arrived in Waterdeep anyway and then, well, you know what happened.
You’ve obviously read the last one in the stack, but you mentioned Astarion has been hogging your copy, so I had Norbert find another for you. Admittedly, I was quite surprised when he told me that he had a first edition copy in his stockroom! What a treasure, indeed, just like its new owner.
I realize that it might seem like I am trying to buy your forgiveness, but I can assure you that is not the case. I would have bought them for you anyway, because you deserve to start doing things you enjoy again, after spending so long sacrificing yourself and your needs for the greater good. Though I do look forward to (hopefully) hearing your thoughts on the romance books once you’ve finished them. They’re quite riveting.
Yours,
Gale”
Fallon’s smile grew wider and wider as she read Gale’s not. The sorcerer might not have been trying to buy her forgiveness, but it was definitely helping. “Thank you, Norbert. These are lovely. I can’t wait to read them.”
The halfling beamed at her. “Enjoy! Gale has excellent taste, so I doubt you’ll be disappointed.”
Tara jumped back onto Fallon’s shoulder. “Tara, do we have time for me to browse for a bit, to see if I find anything else I might like?”
“We do! Mr. Dekarios had a feeling you might want to browse,” Tara confirmed, and Fallon smiled. “He said to tell you to pick out whatever you’d like, and Norbert will put it on his tab.”
Of course Gale had a tab at his local bookshop, Fallon was not even surprised. She spent the next half-hour browsing the shelves and managed to limit herself to two additional books. After all, Gale already bought her four and she didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of his kindness (and his desire to get back on her good side). With her books stashed in her bag of holding, Fallon exited the shop and looked around. “Where to next, Tara?”
The next shop they visited was a dress shop, and Fallon did not even need to ask which man instructed Tara to bring her here. Just as Norbert had, the elven woman running the shop recognized Tara, and she immediately greeted them both with a bright smile as she pulled a note out of a drawer on her side of the counter. Once again, the note was addressed to Fallon and was written in a familiar, elegant script.
“Fallon, my love,
I believe I still owe you a new dress after ruining yours at the Winter Solstice. The shop has your measurements, and I told them what colors you prefer, so they hopefully pulled a few things already. I look forward to seeing whichever breathtaking option you choose.
I love you.
xx,
Astarion”
Even the notes they’d each written for her were entirely in character. Gale’s verbosity extended even to paper, while Astarion was right to the point, and each note left Fallon’s heart stuttering in her chest. Sure enough, as Fallon pocketed the note from Astarion, the shopkeeper had walked across the shop to a small rack of dresses separate from everything else. Fallon smiled at the assortment of dark blue, burgundy, and black dresses that hung there. “Tara, I don’t suppose you know if there’s a specific occasion I should be shopping for, or if I’m simply just to choose any dress that suits my fancy?”
“I’ve been instructed to tell you that there are plans this evening for which you might want to have a new dress but, and I quote, 'she could show up wearing rags off the floor of the Elfsong Tavern and she’d still look beautiful, so it doesn’t matter.' ”
Fallon snorted with laughter. Even Tara’s delivery of the instructions sounded like Astarion. “Well alright then.”
There was a stool next to the rack of clothing, and Tara jumped onto it and sat down. “While I am not privy to all of the details, Mr. Dekarios alluded to the…transgressions he and Astarion committed together. As a result, he and Astarion are now both desperate to prove how much they care for you, and are equally as desperate to earn your forgiveness,”
“Well that’s certainly one way of putting it.” Fallon hummed as she began to examine the dresses on the rack before her with intent.
“So, miss Fallon, if I may make one tiny suggestion? One female to another?” There was a mischievous tone in Tara’s voice that piqued Fallon’s curiosity, and she tore her gaze from the dresses to look at the tressym.
“Let’s hear it.” Fallon agreed.
“Make them crawl.”
Chapter List
#bg3#baldur's gate 3#gale#gale dekarios#gale of waterdeep#astarion#female tav#bg3 fanfic#gale x tav#astarion x tav#bloodweave#bloodweave x tav#astarion x gale x tav#bg3 fan fic#bg3 fanfiction#bg3 fan fiction#bg3 fic
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It's honestly so baffling to me that in the same volume that Hazel (who killed Mistral huntsmen with Tyrian, staged a coup against Haven, brutalised Oscar - a literal child) gets a redemptive sacrifice and paternal relationship with Emerald, but Ironwood (with a similar dynamic with Winter) is left to die with Atlas because the writers wanted to make him a cartoon villain. It's just so why.
You know, if I thought RT was doing this deliberately--in the sense of carefully planning out their work to achieve a specific and subtle goal--I'd be impressed by how often characters' worst actions happen off screen, or are otherwise ignored by the story until they're (almost) forgotten.
So, Hazel. We know he killed all those huntsmen; countless murders that caused a ripple effect decimating an entire kingdom's defenses. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the casual RWBY fan went, "Huh?" if I brought up that point. Because Qrow searching desperately for his colleagues occurred three volumes ago, Hazel's actions were revealed in an incredibly short conversation, and absolutely nothing has ever come of this heinous crime. For us his guilt is a significant factor in judging how the narrative treats him because we discuss the show as a community and, in doing so, frequently highlight and analyze aspects of the story RWBY has left behind. But for other fans, Hazel is "just" the antagonist who fell for Salem's manipulation. RWBY emphasizes his anger towards Ozpin--an anger the story never explicitly says isn't justified--and in doing so sets up a sympathetic response to his brutalization of a child. Hazel never would have done that if Salem hadn't gotten to him! Or if Oscar wasn't conflated with evil Ozpin! So it's "fine" that Hazel did all this because he was just on his journey of redemption. Hmm? He also indiscriminately murdered countless innocents off screen? Oh yeah, I forgot that... eh, who cares. The story certainly doesn't.
Same with Emerald. Post-Volume 3 the focus is entirely on her emotional state, painting her as someone easy to sympathize with and, therefore, more of a victim than villain: her talk with Mercury, trailing after Cinder for attention, fiercely defending her, and eventually the horrible, 'Don't lose now that I'm a good guy' speech that, again, serves to make Emerald likable and downplay her actions in one fell swoop. Anyone who's defended their disappointment in her arc has likely had a, "You do remember that she decimated Beacon, orchestrated Penny's death, and was absolutely out to murder our heroes, right?" moment.
Now, compare all this to Ironwood whose villainy is emphasized over his humanity. We see clear as day his murder, his torture threats, his random and absurd bomb plan--nothing is shuffled off screen and the sympathetic aspects of his emotional state are severely downplayed, especially after Volume 7. In a reversal, RWDE fans are reminding others about the good stuff: him saving Weiss, leaning heavily against the wall, Yang's arm, turning his weapon away from Qrow, trusting the group immediately, basic consequences of PTSD, etc.--things that the narrative did not carry through his fall. We don't get any moments where the group remembers and fights for Ironwood's 6+ season humanity in the way that, say, Oscar vouches for Emerald's, backed up by Ren seeing her in a pretty color. Indeed, both these characters have moments with Ironwood too, but Oscar condemns an impossible choice as equal to Salem's villainy and Ren cares only for the presumed logic of Ironwood's plan, not the fact that he's an ally they're choosing to oppose rather than compromise. (I will maintain until the END OF TIME that they could have just let Atlas go and focused on fighting Salem/getting the rest out via another evacuation plan. Team RWBY slashed holes in the small number of life boats when they could have let them set sail and then turned their sights on building a raft/fixing the hole in the ship ANYWAY). No one is using a semblance on Ironwood to go, 'He does care! I can see it! We just need to find a way to nurture that' and, you know, trusting that there's an inherent Goodness there that's worth fighting for. That Goodness apparently exists in the villains who have been trying to kill them since day one, but not the established ally who is Absolutely Going Through It.
This 'I believe in him' role that should have gone to Winter if, again, the story didn't kick all those aspects under the curtain and pretend they never existed. His status as her instructor, potential father figure, the devotion, even her choice to take on the Maiden powers at his request, all of it is overshadowed by Weiss' nonsensical implications that Winter has been groomed and her eventual, inevitable turn back to the good side. Winter went from being devoted to Ironwood, to indifferently watching him kill a man, to screaming that everything bad that's happened is his fault and she's going to do her best to kill him now. Most fans tend to remember only what the show is currently highlighting and boy, does the show work hard to highlight only the actions that serve a character's final destination. Putting aside the fandom trend of rewriting good actions to fit our conclusion ('Well, since Ironwood was a bad guy he must have been manipulating Yang by sending her that arm') I don't think a good portion of the fandom remembers, or really thinks about the canonical scenes that RWBY later wants to pretend never happened. Things like Hazel's murders, Emerald's "It's almost sad," Winter starting an actual fight to defend Ironwood/Atlas' honor, and Ironwood dropping to his knees to welcome Ozpin are all treated as small potatoes compared to, well, where we've ended up with. And when the show works that hard to say, "Pay no attention to the war crimes behind the curtain. Behold! The Great and Powerful Redemption Arc!" it's no surprise that so many would nod along, reassured that this is the one, correct way of interpreting the show.
So... yeah. Same, anon. To me it's baffling that characters with these similarities would be treated so differently. Or, rather, that one character whose villainy lasted all of a couple hours would be treated as so undeserving of redemption compared to the years long villain who was never a hero in the first place. Either way, to me and to you it makes no sense, but I think that's in part because we're looking at the whole of RWBY and spotting those similarities in the first place. For so many others it's just random pieces that they think create a complete puzzle: 'You mean the DICTATOR and the guy who SACRIFICED himself?? Uh yeah, they're totally the same /s.' Sure, when put like that it sounds absurd, but that's because you're ignoring half the actual puzzle. You've jammed two pieces together that don't quite fit and proclaimed the end result is a flower. We're on the floor picking up the discarded pieces that have been gathering dust and going, "Huh, actually with these it look more like a very dense and complicated forest."
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I had the experience recently of showing up outside the room of an interdepartmental seminar at my university and having one of the other attendees (a boomer-age woman professor) also waiting outside the room (we were picking up refreshments served there) look at me with her eyes going wide and say, "Ah, you're the only male!" I stood there with a deer-in-the-headlights expression (trying to see if I could glance into the actual room to see if it was indeed all women, which it turned out I could not). Another woman standing with us said something lightly teasing about the fact that I was just standing there awkwardly with no response.
There were two things flashing through my mind while I was freezing up. One was an actual fearful thought of wait, am I not supposed to be here? After all, there are seminars (I don't know about interdepartmental, but certainly in my arena of mathematics) just for women on the advancement of women in academia. I hadn't read the description of this week's meeting of this weekly seminar very carefully -- could it be just for women (or non-men)? I don't think it would occur to these women who were staring at me that this is the kind of kneejerk idea that might enter a man's head in reaction to a wide-eyed "You're the only male!" comment.
The second thing was how if the genders were reversed, I'm pretty sure this would immediately be branded a pretty significant microaggression of some sort.
As it happened, I don't know if this points to some relevant correlation, but this was a weekly meeting that was more for a discussion group on teaching practices, and this particular week's topic was on giving good writing prompts (a thing that I and most other math instructors don't do, but I suppose most instructors in the humanities do). The room was indeed full of all women apart from me at the start of the seminar, but eventually another guy did walk in late. At other meetings I went to, there were always some other men although I suppose (although I hadn't consciously noticed this) men are the minority.
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... Screw it. Yes, I'm starting a new multi-part fanfic right before episode 10. 🤪
In this version of events, Jake disappeared right before the end of whatever happens without a trace. It is now 5 years later. MC has moved on (?).
Unrecognisable Part 1
⚠️ This fanfic has strong language usage.
⚠️ This fanfic features a**hole!Jake.
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“I wish I found the Man Without a Face instead.”
I never thought I'd ever say those words, but as they say, “expect the unexpected.” They also say, “never meet your heroes.” For good reason too.
Where to begin? I'm sure you know the story about Hannah Donfort. Who doesn't by now? It was all over the news and social media. Not a story I enjoyed repeating. Thankfully only a few people knew I was even involved as my name was left out of the news. And of the people I did tell, many claimed I lied for the attention. As if I wanted to be associated with that nightmare? No, thank you.
The only thing that kept me sane was my memories of the people I met along the way, especially HIM. Not many people are aware that the #IAmJake trend and the events surrounding Hannah Donfort were actually connected. Not even the conspiracy theorists were able to make that connection. I suppose it was good in a way - good for HIM. I wouldn’t be able to tell you because before it was even over he disappeared without a trace. Yes, like the Avatar, only he wasn't encased in ice.
To make matters worse, all of our history with him was gone. Even the photo he had sent to Lily and the backup she had saved. As it turned out the photo contained a trojan, which meant he could get to it on any device. Of course the one personal item he volunteered had strings attached. If it wasn’t for the fact Lily had printed a hard copy of the photo, we wouldn't had anything to go on, but even then, it wasn't enough. It’s not like you could identify him from an old photo of his mother. It's not like I could hack into the world’s most sophisticated international facial recognition software and search for matches.
Honestly though, I was pissed, no livid with how he disappeared. At first I was optimistic he would return, but as the days and weeks passed without a word, it was clear it was never going to happen. And as bad as it sounds, there were times I wished he was either dead or captured. The sting of him leaving wouldn't hurt so much then. Something told me he wasn't though. Somehow I knew he got what he wanted and was now in the wind. After a while, I had a friend of mine so a sweep of my computer and phone. Both had so many backdoors open for the right hacker to walk right through any time he felt like it. I was so disgusted with the gall of him. I immediately got a new phone and computer, and didn't touch my old accounts ever again. An absolute fresh slate. No more prying whenever you felt like, Jake. He would have to reach out to me the old-fashioned way.
So when I received the coded email from an unknown sender five years after he disappeared, you could imagine my surprise. I suppose an average person would have deleted it or marked it as spam. I just knew there was something about it though. I looked up all sorts of ciphers and encryptions. I ran it through online parsers. Surely if it was intended for me it wouldn't require too much deciphering, right? What I understood about the highest level of encryptions was they required a key to interpret the information, but I didn't receive anything else so I was baffled for days. Then I remembered that scavenger hunt he had sent me and Lily on, and that dumb phrase he kept repeating.
“You are the key.”
I tried my first name. I tried my last name. I tried them together, I tried them in reverse. I threw in my date of birth for kicks. Nothing. I nearly gave up, but then I saw a video on my feed mention how identity theft can occur from just having your social security number.
Bingo.
The parser confirmed that the decryption worked and returned to me two decimal numbers. At least I had watched enough mystery shows and played enough games to immediately recognise them as GPS coordinates, so you can stop shouting at the page now. (Who hasn't yelled at TV shows for spending more than a second working that out?)
And that is how I ended up at that abandoned building in a faraway city of a country I had never been to before. Then thing is, no one knew I had gone overseas. It wasn't so much of an issue with my work or my family. However, lying to my boyfriend was the hardest. He sincerely thought I was visiting my sick aunt. How was I to explain this to him? That I was chasing down a clue that may or may not lead to this guy I once had feelings for. I figured I'd work out an explanation afterwards. For now, I didn't want the interference, I just wanted to be able to focus on following the clue. I had to admit, as I pryed the boards off a broken window with a disused pipe I had found, I was beginning to have doubts about my interpretation of the message, but what else could it have been?
Even though it was the middle of the day outside, the old office building was dark as little light got past the boards. I had to use my phone to illuminate the hallways as I walked through them. There was only four stories, but when you don’t know what or who you were going to be finding, it felt like a never-ending labyrinth. Still, I carried on while trying to work out the best excuse to give the police if they had found me first and arrested me for trespass. They could speak English, right?
As I entered one of the offices on the third floor, my phone was suddenly knocked out of my hand. Before I could react, I was slammed face first into the wall painfully. Someone grabbed my hand and twisted my arm painfully against my back. Then I heard the click of a gun's safety being disengaged before the muzzle was shoved against my head.
“What the fuck are you doing here!?” a male voice grunted with an European accent.
My mind raced. Had I gotten the message wrong? Was I not the intended recipient? But it was my social security number that was the key! No, it had to have been for me.
“I-I followed the GPS coordinates in the email!” I stammered.
“What email!?” he pressured.
“Can we do this without the gun?” I pleaded.
“No! Answer the fucking question!” he snapped.
“I received an encrypted email from an unknown sender. All it contained though were GPS coordinates for this building!” I explained. “Please, you’re hurting me!”
“I’m hurting you? I'm hurting you?” he stressed. “Fuck! It’s people like you that keep the Nigerian prince scam going! You blindly following that email is going to get me killed! I should just shoot you and leave your body for them to find! Teach them to fuck with me!”
“I don’t understand!” I started to tear up. “You didn’t send me the email?”
“NO!” he yelled. His voice echoed off the walls. “At what point in entering this building did it seem like I wanted guests!?”
He pulled the gun away and shot my phone lying on the floor. The gun had a silencer on it, but the sound of the phone shattering still caused me to jump.
“Now what do I do with you?” he purred. “Do I leave you in the dumpster out the back? Or should I hang your body in the foyer?”
“Please...” I sobbed. “It was just a misunderstanding, ok? I thought you were someone else!”
“Yes, I know. You thought I was... what name did I use again? Oh, that’s right. You thought I was Jake,” he laughed.
My blood ran cold, “Jake?”
He spun me around and slammed me back against the wall. I started to cry out in pain when he smashed his lips against mine. I was in so much shock that all I could do was stare into his icy cold eyes that peered out from underneath his hood. He readjusted his face mask to cover the lower half again.
“What’s wrong? Was that not how you imagined our first kiss?” he chuckled.
I immediately slapped him across the face. “You can’t be...” I mumbled.
“Oh, but I am,” he sneered. “I am Jake!”
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˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
Hi, my name is rachii. just your average ADHD ridden young woman who loves video games and tons of other things!
Read more under the cut! ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎
:3
(ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ.ﾟ 𝒫ℯ𝓇𝓈ℴ𝓃𝒶𝓁 (ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ.ﾟ
My brother and I were born prematurely, so I have developmental issues, like a horrible math disability, ADHD, vision impairment, and processing issues. Growing up, I didn't really connect with other girls my age, because I had different interests, and in turn was bullied when I was a child and in high school, so that severely damaged my self esteem into adulthood.
I thought everything would be fine, and that I could make friends, and yes, I do have friends online, and I've endured various harassment over shipping throughout the years. I do try to keep to myself and do as I wish, but I ended up getting bullied/witch hunted just last year ( 2023 ) on an RP site where I had roleplayed as my version of Volo from Pokemon Legends Arceus.
This annoying clique decided that I was a threat and a pedophile when all I did was roleplay canon Volokari ( Volo x Akari) with another person. And they said they had evidence against me, but in character RPs don't count as concrete evidence. And then, they started telling people new to the verse to block/report my profile, and to stay away from me.
All I ever wanted was to RP in a place without judgement, but I couldn't even do that. And the worst part? There was a user who ran in their circles and I never knew. Before all of this drama occurred, we RPed together and were pretty chill, but apparently she lied, and said she was never my friend. That betrayal hurt.
So yeah, after going through what I did, I’m obviously gonna have trust issues.
( More on the full story in another post I'm working on.)
More personal stuff!
As for my personality, I'm soft and quiet and sometimes I'm very weird bc of my ADHD, but I usually am very cheerful and a sweet person who just wants attention, but at the same time, is scared of opening up due to past negative experiences. I'm also incredibly very sensitive, and cry easily in some situations.
𝙼𝚢 𝙵𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝙲𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚜
Volo from Pokemon Legends Arceus
Izaya Orihara from Durarara!!!
Master Chief from Halo
The Doom Slayer from DOOM
Samuel Hayden from Doom (2016)
Super Sonico from Nitro+ ( I love putting her in horrible situations with other men from various media lmao )
Jed Olsen | Danny Johnson | Ghostface from Dead by Daylight
N from Pokemon
Ryomen Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen
2B from Nier Automata
9S from Nier Automata
Lucoa from Miss Koyashi's Dragon Maid
Johan Liebert from Monster
( I have more crushes, but those are the ones I can pull off the top of my head.)
𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴/𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴
˚₊‧꒰ა❤︎໒꒱ ‧₊ Video games! I like any game that catches my interest, but some of my favs are Pokemon, Animal Crossing, DOOM, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo, KinitoPET, Nier Automata/Replicant
Some of my fav mobile games are NIKKE Goddess of Victory, Reverse:1999, and Tears of Themis
˚₊‧꒰ა❤︎໒꒱ ‧₊ Watching various media online, as well as anime.
˚₊‧꒰ა❤︎໒꒱ ‧₊ Roleplaying, although I'm highly selective about who I RP with due to negative experiences.
˚₊‧꒰ა❤︎໒꒱ ‧₊ Writing fanfiction. Even though I'm doing my best to get back into it, and not focus on what others do and not compare myself to others.
˚₊‧꒰ა❤︎໒꒱ ‧₊ I love creating character aesthetics and aesthetics of all kinds, especially vaporwave.
𝙸𝚗 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐
This post is for proshippers, and anyone who advocates for anything in fiction, no matter how dark or taboo. This post is NOT for antis or minors. Stay a respectable distance away please!
Some more small facts about myself before closing
I vocally stimm a lot, and meow and hum!
I have no issue with skimpily dressed women in video games.
I'm not the most sexual of people, but I do enjoy dirty talking on occasion about what I'm into. ( Although, I'm more interested in fictional characters going at it, than talking about myself sexually.)
I LOVE sweets, like cheesecake, ice cream, and cake. Also cheese pizza is the best!
I am attracted to 2D girls in media, but am straight in reality.
I am the only one who enjoys horror in my family.
Anyway, I'm not sure how to close this out, but feel free to interact with this post and message me if you'd like my discord!
#introductory post#intro post#video games#horror#pokemon#roleplay#anime#proshipper#proshippers please interact#proshipper safe#proshippers are valid#darkship#aesthetics#proshippers are welcome#proship positivity#anti harassment#antis dni#antis are hypocrites#antis stay away#facts about me#proshipping
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Chapter Nineteen [No.031]: Chokehold
Pairing: RE5 Albert Wesker x GN!Cannibal Reader
Summary: round 4, Anyone?
Warnings: Smut again. Minors DNI.
The Devil’s Teeth
Read on AO3 [ X ]
You woke up, feeling the effects of Wesker’s conquest on your body really coming into effect, the soreness being felt in multiple places as you stretched awake.
“Mmm, fuck.” You whispered
“Round four already, pet?”
You heard Wesker’s deep morning voice, forcing you to open your eyes to a squint. He looked like he had just woken up as well, his hair falling out of place, pieces of it hanging in front of his face. You gave him a sleepy grin and laid your head back down on his chest.
“Give me a few more minutes - then maybe.” You replied
He chuckled at your response, gentle rubbing circles on your back.
“Eager as ever.” He said, “How do you feel about your new “little friends” now?”
You thought back to what had occurred the night before, the sensation that was equivalent to multiple squid's tentacles caressing your body - lovingly? That was your best guess at what it was doing, considering who it was attached to. It was weird to think that a virus that created a parasitic “other” creature inside of him could love you, but that was the situation you’d found yourself in.
“Odd.” You stated
“Considering how you looked last night, that’s not what I would have used to describe it.” He countered
You rolled your eyes at him.
“It’s odd because I wasn't expecting - well, what they did. I’m no longer afraid of them, but it still doesn’t make them any less odd. Is this really what Spencer was wanting out of all of this? Tentacles?”
Wesker chuckled at your response.
“Not necessarily like this, but Uroburos is my creation, with his inspiration. Meanwhile Las Plagas is being used to keep everyone else off our trail as Uroboros enters its final stages of completion.”
You look up at him, curious as to what he meant by that.
“Final stages?”
He smiled a mischievous grin. One that was dangerous.
“Let’s just say dearheart, that the world will become one for both of us to live in, together, without needing to just be for survival.”
You looked up at Wesker, a painful expression at his words. He knew what you wished for, what you wanted, but after knowing what happened to you, after seeing what happened to Jill, you were truly unsure of this conquest.
“And what if that word becomes insufferable? Worse than it is now?”
Wesker looked at you as if you had wounded him, a subtle scowl crossing his facel. You knew he had taken offense to that. You reached your hand up towards his face, gently caressing his cheek. He didn't move away or into it, instead he watched you intently.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just thinking about what I need to survive. Right now, there’s plenty of humans, plenty of animals for me to choose from to feast on. If Uroboros does infect everyone, does succeed - my pickings will be slim.” You explained
Wesker seemed to soften at that, a look on his face seemingly realizing that he didn't actually consider that fact - which was odd of him, but at least you brought it up.
“But, if Uroboros doesn’t create the world that you want, one that is best suited for us. If it creates a world that is completely inhabitable for everyone - including us - would you be able to reverse it? Would you be able to undo everything, somehow turn back time? Or would you be scrambling to try and find an answer when it was already too late?”
Wesker got really quiet, his body became very still as you spoke, as he listened to you. You knew it was bold of you to say it, especially now with the successful take of Uroboros to him. But they were genuine questions you wanted answers to, genuine care within each word you spoke. He was typically one to consider everything, every path - would he also have considered this as well? Or was the dead man's dream affecting him this much? Was his circumstances now - the Uroboros- messing with his brain? Was he no longer thinking clearly as he had before?
He nodded at your concerns, his hand leaving your back, caressing the back of your head, gently. He gave you a reassuring smile.
“I’m thankful for your concern about it all, dearheart, but rest assured, every avenue has been considered to make sure this is perfect. And I do mean - everything. I told you I would take care of you and I still mean that now.”
You looked up at him, softening a bit now at his words, but still curious as to how. But you knew better than to press the situation at this moment. You could take a look at his research later, now that you know a bit more about it.
Wesker craned his head down, and kissed the top of your head. You smiled, and laid your head back down on him, gently rubbing circles on him with your fingers. You felt his hand go down the length of your back, his fingertips gently gliding down, before his hand found a place on your hip, squeezing on the skin that was there. You chuckled, letting out a relieved sigh. You began to drag your hand down his chest, over every dip and curve of the front of his body, before finally finding your desired destination between his legs.
You gently ran your fingertips over the length of his cock, feeling it react to your touch, a gentle sigh leaving him along with each caress. You smiled, placing a kiss on his chest as you moved your hand down lower, down the base. Your hand found its place over his balls, gently fondling him, the pad of your finger rubbing circles on the area behind it. You could feel him staring down at you with a smug grin on his face.
“Trying to start something again?” He asked
You chuckled, “I just want to make you feel good right now.”
He leaned his head back with a sigh of relief. “Then please, continue.”
You smiled at his approval of your actions. You stopped and reached over him to grab that oh so special lube he’d concocted, pouring a small amount of it in your hand. You knew your hand would be extra sensitive after this and you would need to be careful what you touched when this was all done, but it was a price you’d be willing to pay for getting a reaction out of him.
You moved your hand back down under the sheets, slathering it on the length of him, making sure it coated every part of him. You felt him tense up slightly before relaxing into your touch, the hiss that turned into a groan. You smiled at the reaction - you were going to enjoy doing this.
You gently squeezed hold of his cock in your hand, doing slow, varied strokes, making sure to lightly glide your thumb along the length, circling it over the tip. You felt the moan reverberate through his chest, reaching your lips as you continued to drag your kisses over his skin, treating him like a god in this moment.
“Don’t stop, dearheart.” You heard him whisper.
“I don’t intend you.” You replied, squeezing him again.
You continued to please him, going at a painfully slow pace. You relished in every groan, every moan, every sigh and whisper that left him. You liked having him like last night, but you also like having him like this - turning the hardened stone figure into a soft, mailable man once again. It was moments like this that reminded you of the past, way back in Raccoon City, on mornings like this, where the only thing that mattered was just the two of you and gentle, soft touches that the two of you could give.
Before life had turned out like it had. Before circumstances took over. But you still had a softness for him, in a way that you would have for no one else. So you continued to treat him like this, a gentle reminder of how much you cared about him, how much you loved him.
And that’s really what it came down to in the end for you - love. You never thought it would all accumulate into this in the end, but you knew you did. It was why you stayed with him, why you spoke your mind in the quiet, why you put your life on the line for him. It wasn’t just out of obligation. You truly loved him and would be willing to dive back into danger for him, no matter the cost. And somewhere along that line, you knew he would do just the same.
You felt Wesker’s hand squeezing harder on your hip, his body tensing more. His other hand reached out for the bottle of lube as well, before reaching in between your legs taking you in his hand as well. You looked up at him in pleasant surprise, but you enjoyed it nonetheless, wanting to enjoy the worship he was adoring on your body.
You slid up closer to his face, peering into his eyes as you both played with each other, bringing pleasure to the other, drawing out the desperation, the urges, the needs, and the cravings. You watched as his eyes glowed down at you, painting you in a warm red and yellow glow, as if the sun were peering through the stained glass of the most holiest of places.
They say that the body is a temple, that it should be given tender love and care. But what about the body of a devil, of the battered, the broken, the infected? Was that same love and care only spared for those intact, and not those with crumbling walls?
But you knew the answer to that, the truth.
And yet, Wesker still walked in through your doors, no matter how broken and rotting the wood of the walls, no matter if the pews and altars were destroyed. He knew how to take you, how to make a home of you, how to worship you within the confines of this body, touching every part - not to restore, but to care for you and love you as you were.
It was more than you ever expected, a kindness you never thought you would be spared in this life.
Who knew the man made of stone could be so good with his hands.
You both were falling into line with each other, every movement, every glance, every desperate and breathy moans. You leaned your head against him, and Wesker’s lips quickly made their way for your neck, kissing the soft skin, biting into you, drinking your blood. You enjoyed the sensation of his teeth in your skin, a comfortable pain that pulled at you as he groaned into you. It forced you to squeeze his cock harder in your hand, the pace being set at one you knew he liked. He had enjoyed it so much that it didn’t take much longer for him to unravel for you, cuming in your hands as he moaned against your skin, the blood dripping down your shoulder as he did so. You reveled in it, in the sensation of his tongue licking up what was lost down your body.
And then you began to feel that odd sensation again, those tentacles.
You looked down in between you both, seeing them burst from his right arm again, searching out for you, caressing your body once again. Some began to work their way up your body, while others wrapped around your legs, searching for a whole new destination.
“Wes - ngh! Fuck!”
You couldn’t help but moan as they slipped inside of you, stroking you from inside, pounding into you. It was a totally different sensation than you were used to, the way they moved inside of you. They were fucking you as he continued to play with you. You looked up into Wesker’s eyes again and he laid his forehead on yours, keeping eye contact the entire time.
“Come on dearheart, be good for me and cum for me.” He whispered
You felt your breath catch in your throat at his words, his praise, his request. He smiled at you, drawing you in, coercing you.
“You look so good like this. You feel so heavenly.”
Fucking hell.
You knew he could see the effects his words were having on you, so he continued to drown you in all the pretty words, all the worship, until you couldn’t take it any more - every sensation was heightened for you, your thirst driving you mad. You bit down on your lip again, eyes rolling back at the taste of blood, as your body began to shake from the stimulation. You groaned as you finally came for him, feeling yourself lose control. You held onto him tightly still, as if he were an anchor through the waves of pleasure running through your body. He continued to whisper his praises to you.
“That’s right dearheart, just like that.”
You found yourself falling into him more, overcome with the waves that hit you as his hands and the Uroboros continued to overstimulate you, forcing another orgasm out of you with time. You were putty in his hands, molded and shaped, formed into exactly what he wanted you to be in this moment.
His lovely little pet, his dearheart, the broken sanctuary he loved to exist in.
When you finally came down from it all, he placed a kiss on your forehead, forcing the Uroboros to leave you, back into the home of his own body. You felt the wash of relief as you leaned your head back against his chest again, a position you would have liked to stay in forever. But you knew you couldn’t, you knew there was a long day ahead of you both.
“Just five more minutes like this, please?” You asked
He chuckled.
“Five more minutes.”
Chapter Eighteen: Nocturnal Me
Chapter Twenty: God Complex
#resident evil fic#resident evil fanfiction#the devils teeth#series: the devils teeth#wesker x you#wesker x reader#albert wesker x reader#albert wesker x you#resident evil x you#resident evil x reader
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Branching out into book reviews...
Just finished Age of Ash (Kithamar Trilogy) by Daniel Abraham. Abraham is the author of the Dagger and the Coin series, as well as one half of the Expanse pen-name.
I had mixed feelings about the Dagger and the Coin series, despite liking it enough to finish all six books. There were many elements I thought were well done, and the character work was mostly excellent (one or two glaring exceptions in the cast), but the negative elements were weighted heavily enough that they brought the whole thing down for me. Some truly eye-rollingly cliche character beats, and most damningly for me, despite it being a series about "the Coin", Abraham does not understand economic history. Baru Cormorant this ain't.
That is all to say, I liked Age of Ash much better. The conceit is that two impoverished girls become embroiled in a high political intrigue plot reaching the highest echelons of the city after the murder of one girl's brother. It improves on pretty much every element I disliked in the prior series.
The two main protagonists are well drawn and believable. Alys spends much of the book in the role of antagonist to pure cinnamon roll Sammish, and Abraham here excels as usual in putting you in the head of someone behaving poorly. It's a believable and compelling portrayal of someone in the throes of grief, and the distorted thinking that can cause. And for all I jest, Sammish also comes out as a fairly rounded character. She is my favourite though.
The world of Kithamar the city balances lush (but occasionally overdone) prose with an apparent new-found understanding of how economies work. It's one of the better portrayals of how a 'low end' of town could function. Longhill comes through as a place with a real living culture, and significantly, a place with actual economic function. We follow Sammish as she strings together the various small jobs she can access, and it feels like a believable portrayal of paycheck to paycheck living.
In terms of the main plot, I was initially intrigued by reviews I'd read that complained of a nearly incomprehensible cloak and dagger plot occurring offscreen that was impossible for the reader to understand or follow. This sounded great - I love Harrow the Ninth! Unfortunately (fortunately?) I have to report that these reviewers may just be stupid. I love a convoluted cloak and dagger plot, but the intrigue here is fairly straight forward, presumably to account for the fact we are seeing it through the eyes of characters on the periphery. The factions emerge fairly early and there aren't really any great reversals or reveals. This is fine for its part - it's less about wallowing in the intrigue and more about the personal/interpersonal for Alys and Sammish.
You may have noticed that the other series I've mentioned so far have been in the 'lesbian space atrocities' genre, and that's not just because they are the only referents I know how to reference (though that is also true). Age of Ash may not exactly be in the neighbourhood of lesbian space atrocities, but it's... a neighbour to the neighbourhood. If only because it's far less ambitious than is characteristic. Sammish is in love with her friend, a hopeless puppy love that leads her to act in ways she knows to be foolish (relatable). In an interesting variation, Sammish does not get the girl - she realises she can do better than that specific girl. (Which, she can.) The emotional throughline of the book is partly a coming of age for Sammish: gaining confidence and letting go of her youthful dreams for the future when they no longer serve her.
Overall, would recommend, and I'll likely read the sequels, but not revolutionary.
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Day 2 - Family
@ringsofpowervalentinesweek
Galadriel sighed as she ate a light breakfast of toast. The War of Wrath had finally ended, but she could not rest now. There were refugees to house, borders to be redrawn, and watches to be set. Galadriel had been offered a few weeks’ leave, of course; her company having only arrived back in Mithlond the previous afternoon; but she was hesitant to take it.
There was also the matter of their… guest. Elrond had become quite dear to her since he’d joined Galadriel’s regiment a few years before and when she had discovered he had nowhere to go but the inn, she was quick to offer her own home. Celeborn had returned some weeks before and secured it for them.
Elrond was grown, but only just, and he was in a land he did not know. It would be far too easy for him to become hopelessly lost in the winding streets of Mithlond. He too would wish to refuse leave in order to begin reparations, despite the fact that he needed rest more than most.
As Galadriel deliberated this, Celeborn entered the kitchen with Elrond not far behind. Celeborn sat next to his wife and plucked a piece of toast from her plate. She swatted at his hand playfully, but did not actually protest. Before them, Elrond shifted from foot to foot awkwardly.
At last, he spoke. “Galadriel, Celeborn, could one of you perhaps point me to the nearest well?”
Celeborn’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I could, I suppose, though I cannot imagine what business you might have there.”
It was Elrond’s turn to be confused. “I mean to get water for the household… Unless you have someone to do that for you in so great a settlement as this?”
All of a sudden, it occurred to Galadriel. Elrond had never been to a city before! The Havens of Sirion, while filled with many elves and men, was only a rough refugee settlement. Even in its latest years, it was populated mostly by simple, wooden houses. No one had given a thought to the luxury of indoor plumbing.
After that, Elrond had told her that he moved from place to place with the Fëanorians in their encampments until he’d been sent to Gil-Galad. Galadriel knew from long and hard experience that war camps did not have running water.
Elrond probably didn’t know! A spark of mischief entered her eyes. “Do you see that basin, cut into the countertop there?”
Elrond looked behind him. “Yes? What of it?”
Galadriel looked at Celeborn who was nearly as confused as Elrond. “There are two knobs above it. Turn one.”
Elrond eyed her suspiciously, but did as he was bid. He turned the right hand knob and sprang back with a cry. His eyes were wide as saucers as he watched the steady stream of water falling from the faucet. So awestruck was his face, that Galadriel could no longer hold back her laughter.
Celeborn, who now understood the joke, just rolled his eyes fondly. "Do you know what that is?" he asked Elrond.
Elrond nodded without looking at him as he approached the tap. "Yes, I have heard tell of streams that run in the walls of a home, but I had thought those were fictional tales, told to children. Much like faeries or unicorns or floors that float up and down buildings!"
Celeborn laughed. Through their Bond, he said to Galadriel "We must take him to the center of the city and show him a lift."
Elrond continued to examine the faucet, turning the knobs this way and that, his analytical mind already hard at work reverse engineering the plumbing. "So I take it there is a pipe in the wall that brings the water from the river. Is the water drinkable? And how is it pressurized?"
Celeborn answered his questions to the best of his ability and, out of nowhere, a thought struck Galadriel. Was this what it would be like to have a child of their own? To watch wonder-filled eyes discover the most mundane of things for the first time? To be revered as the wisest of all people for remembering things learned long ago?
She and Celeborn had discussed the notion of a child a few times, many years ago. But given the heavy shadow of Morgoth and the constant fighting with only short reprieves, it had never been more than a distant fantasy. Now, Morgoth was gone. The world was tired of war and ready for new life.
For the first time in her life, she wanted a child. The desire grew in her heart until it threatened to consume her. She had been a daughter, a sister, a leader, a long-lost niece, a wife, a warrior, a commander, and now she wanted to be a mother.
Yes, she would take her leave, she thought. Children did not make themselves, after all.
#galadriel#celeborn#elrond peredhel#rings of power#the silmarillion#lord of the rings#tropvalentinesweek2023#war of wrath#elrond is a hick
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Hey pcos, fuck you!!!
Starting this blog (and a tiktok) to document my pcos journey. So here's the beginning, for those who are interested or also struggling:
In eighth grade (2012ish), I woke up for school like normal. Took a shower, did my makeup, etc. After I got up from sitting down, a stabbing pain radiated from my left lower abdomen. I told my mom I feel sick, and laid down. My mom is a nurse, so her immediate thought as I pointed to my right side was that my appendix had ruptured. Every bump we went over in the car had me crying out in pain. She hauled ass to the emergency room.
The doctors also originally thought my appendix had ruptured. Until they did an ultrasound.
I had 3 cysts on one ovary, 4 on the other. One, about 5cm, had ruptured, which is what was causing my pain. It took them 8 hours to figure this out.
At my follow up doctors appointment with my pediatrician, he told my mom I can't possibly have pcos because I don't have hairy nipples. I remember this conversation vividly. This was also the day I got on birth control. Apparently, it could help stop new cysts from forming.
I recieved no education and no diagnosis.
Years later, senior year of high school, debilitating periods were second nature to me. Throwing up, and then passing out on the bathroom floor were regular occurances. That was IF I got my period. Even with the placebo week on birth control, I still had very irregular periods. I just kept being told that it's normal. Switching birth controls. I ended up on depo Provera.
I originally attributed my 80 lb weight gain to the depo. So I switched back to the pill. Lost 0 weight. I eventually found a nurse practitioner who actually listened to me, ran blood work, and diagnosed me with pcos. This doctor has since left my state, so I am once again without anyone who will listen. Searching for a new one as we speak.
I remember being SO angry, because this was something I could've been diagnosed with in 8th grade. The painful periods, the cysts, the weight gain, all might've been able to be prevented if that original doctor knew what he was talking about. I was able to get my medical records about that day. They KNEW. And yet they didn't diagnose me, because my nipples weren't hairy.
Fun fact: you don't need to be showing signs of hirsutism (excessive hair growth) to have pcos. But that doctor didn't care or didn't take the time to research.
So now, I'm 25.
I've been on and off metformin, diagnosed pre-diabetic. I work out, daily, and do not lose weight. 800 calorie diets do not work for me. I've learned that this is very common for those with pcos. I am no longer on birth control. I was able to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy, which resulted in my daughter.
However, I still struggle. The biggest struggle I have is the fatigue, and painful periods. It got worse after having a baby. I was able to go from 250 lbs (post pregnancy) to now about 190ish. I am not certain what the exact number is, because I've given up on the scale (that bitch). I have not lost any weight in the months since then. I think breastfeeding benefited my weight loss more than anything.
The depression and anxiety have also been debilitating. Once again, all things that could've been prevented. I wonder how much different my life could've been if I'd learned about this in 8th grade.
I've also been diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder. Caused by dieting or starving too much. I am currently recovering from that, and am now many months binge free. Did you know that if you have pcos, you're far more likely to have an eating disorder? I had no idea.
Well, tomorrow I'm beginning my PCOS journey. I had a 90 minute appointment with a dietician who specializes in pcos. And I'm going to share all that info with you.
I'm tired of finding website after website, promising free help with pcos but then "Hey, spend $300 if you actually want any info"
I pledge here and now that if this works, if I'm able to reverse my symptoms, I will NEVER sell the information. And shame on those who have.
My end goal here is to help people like me, who have struggled for years with no help.
My tiktok is active, search pcos.uno.reverse. The first video will be posted tomorrow (6/20).
Tomorrow, my life changes for the better. Follow along with me.
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Treasure Vaults ‘Neath the Bounty
Solveig couldn’t remember the last time she had fought through a dangerous cavern without the fate of the world at stake; the last time she truly remembered feeling like the adventurer she had set out to be. But, fighting through the VAST treasure vaults of Alzadaal had truly been one of them - despite the spinning and nausea THAT brought with it. She’d been invigorated and excited - simply an adventurer doing adventurer things with her friends. Even Vrtra showing up, under the guise of his simulacrum - Varshahn - had not dampened her spirits. Nor the revelation that the Vaults held a natural portal to the doomed Thirteenth shard, though that DID earn a raised eyebrow from her. While Urianger and Shtola had come along based on rumours that SOMETHING existed down here, Solveig wasn’t sure any of them expected THAT. But - it wasn’t world ending and, for the retired Warrior of Light, that was what mattered. It also gave her a new mission - reuniting Vrtra with his lost sibling. Simple, easy, exciting.
When she turned around to make her way out was when things ground to an unexpected halt. She hadn’t FULLY registered what she was seeing but the voice that had started accompanying her since Elpis noticed it right away.
“My mark.”
Solveig’s eyes stopped their roaming and reversed back over what she had just glanced at. There, amongst the beautiful scrollwork in the archway, was the mark of Azem.
“I’ve never been here.”
“Vrtra, do you know how that,” Solveig’s arm lifted and pointed towards the mark. “Came to be here?”
The small form of Varshahn moved to stand beside her while the others that accompanied her followed her arm up and stared.
“The Mark of Azem, I believe,” Urianger commented.
“Indeed,” Y’shtola replied. “Though, how it came to be….? These vaults did not exist during her time.”
“I know not who this Azem is,” Varshahn started. “And, as you can imagine, the break-ins to the Vault have never made it this far.” Solveig eyed the mark and smiled very slightly. No break-ins that he was aware of didn’t mean she couldn’t think of at least one person who could’ve done it and remained undetected - should they have chosen. In fact, that very person had even told her she should come here.
“Has anyone ever gotten close?” she asked instead.
“Only two have ever made it pass the second guardian. One died shortly after of their wounds. One was never accounted for. There was never a body found - but no tampering had occurred either.” Solveig noted the exchanged looks between Shtola, Raha, and Urianger. They understood also.
“Raha? Do you think you can get me up there?” Solveig looked over to the Miqo’te with her head tilted and his eyes widened.
“I mean…I could certainly try. Though, I must admit, I am..rather on the short side. Perhaps Ser Estinien or Urianger would be better suited to lifting you up…? Not that I’m saying I COULDN’T…” The man in front of her blushed a bit and she blinked before quietly sighing out a laugh.
“Raha. Float.”
“....OH!” The man’s face flushed a deeper red at the reminder that he had a useful tool just for this type of situation. “Of course!” He heard very quiet chuckling behind him from Y’shtola and one of his ears twitched slightly, but otherwise, he paid it no mind. A few moments passed as he focused on the needed aether and then, slowly, Solveig began floating into the air. G’raha gently guided her up and closer to the mark of Azem that loomed in the archway above them.
As she got closer to the mark on the archway she noted that it didn’t appear to have been chiseled in - the lines were too smooth and perfect. They were also deeply carved into the stone. Whoever had done it wanted to make sure it lasted. She cautiously reached out a hand and ran it over its surface. Almost immediately her vision swam and she could feel the same light headed feeling taking over whenever she had an Echo flashback.
He floated in front of her, all in black, white hair to his shoulders. While there was some differences she could TELL that this was Hades; Emet-Selch. Though, based on appearances, it was definitely before he became Solus zos Galvus - Emperor of Garlemald. He floated there, just in front of the symbol, his hand out-stretched and the faint glow of purple magic dissipating around his hand.
So, she thought. He carved it with magic. But to what end?
She remembered, before he and ‘Daeus had disappeared, that he had mentioned something about how he had taken being the bearer of Azem’s stone seriously. Maybe it was a way to mark that he had traveled and been to far off places and adventures?
“I don’t know who you are, or how you got this far without me knowing…” Solveig blinked at the voice and watched as the man’s body turned in the air and his head swiveled to regard her - his own eyes widening just barely.
“How…do you…” Emet-Selch stared at her, his mouth slightly agape, before he shook his head and raised his hand up. She could see that he was getting ready to do something and prepared for whatever it was. This marked the second time he had noticed her in an Echo flashback - the first being in Elpis when she had witnessed a scene between him, ‘Daeus, and Soteria. He hadn’t gotten a chance to interact with her at that time as he had been otherwise occupied. Her face reddened a bit at that particular moment. But, whatever the snap he was about to do was meant to entail…never happened as her focus jolted back to the present and he was gone from her sight and lost to the past. She was left staring back at the mark of Azem and collecting her thoughts.
“Raha,” she called out. “Please lower me.”
Mixed emotions and feelings coursed through her. Sadness for the man that had been there, sadness for what he had lost, sadness because she had wanted more time, but gladness that he had had those moments of clarity and purpose. Moments that had clearly meant something to him.
#ffxiv endwalker#ffxivwol#ffxiv headcanon#ffxivhades#ffxiv emet selch#ffxivwolemet#ffxiv screenshots#ffxivgpose
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Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S3E11 “The Hunted”
There's probably a better screenshot to use here, but this looks so hilariously awkward that I refuse to use anything else.
THE PREMISE
While reviewing Angosia III as a potential candidate to enter the Federation, Captain Picard is approached by Prime Minister Nayrok (played by James Cromwell in his finest pornstache), who asks for help with an escaped convict from their penal colony on Lunar V. The Enterprise locates the convict's stolen ship, but they lose it after it disappears behind an asteroid.
A lot of complicated cat-and-mouse stuff ensues. They find that the convict had positioned his ship over a planet's magnetic poles to avoid detection, they lock a tractor beam on him, he fails to ram his shuttle into the ship, Picard almost has his shuttle beamed aboard (which apparently they can do?) and finally beams him aboard from his escape pod. This is just to show how clever the escaped convict is. They throw him in the brig, Nayrok informs them that the convict is named Roga Danar (played by Jeff McCarthy) and that he's prone to extreme bouts of violence. However, Counsellor Troi meets with Danar and finds it unlikely that he could be so violent.
MY REVIEW
I feel like this episode is sold a bit short by the "Enterprise tracks down an escaped convict" premise. That begins with Danar himself, who shows no signs of being the dangerous psychopath Nayrok described from his escape. In fact, he seems like a completely normal guy, right down to Troi being unable to read any aggression from him.
The plot thickens when Data discovers that Lunar V is a military base instead of a penal colony, with Danar himself being a decorated war hero who by his own admission was comfortable and provided for there, aside from being unable to leave.
After Troi's next theory of psychological damage is also debunked, she asks Dr Crusher to examine Danar, and she finds that he was not only psychologically and genetically modified, but this was done by his own government to make him the perfect soldier. The only problem was that they became a liability after the war, becoming provoked into extreme violence by something as minor as an argument. Instead of reversing their programming, the government simply exiled them all to Lunar V, even the ones like Danar who hadn't done anything wrong.
Sure, fuck 'em. I mean, they only won the war and secured your nation's way of life. No big deal.
...It occurred to me after writing that line that this episode was probably made with some kind of social commentary in mind.
Nayrok of course disputes this, claiming that the soldiers were merely "struggling to readjust" to normal life , and that they were moved to a "colony" on Lunar V which only had security measures added after some of the "colonists" like Danar started acting out. Picard is having precisely none of this, and Nayrok conveniently dodges his questions about whether the relocation was consensual or if they even tried to reverse the soldiers' programming.
Speaking of programming, we get a nice scene between Danar and Data where they reflect that they are both programmed.
Danar: My improved reflexes have allowed me to kill eighty-four times. And my improved memory allows me to remember each of those eighty-four faces. Can you imagine what that feels like?
Data: I am incapable of any feeling.
Danar: Well, then I envy you.
Although pretty much the entire crew (and the audience) sympathises with Danar, Picard tells him that they still have to return him to Angosian custody. Danar understands, thanks Picard for being upfront with him, and informs them that he'll try to escape at every opportunity.
He then proves this when they try to beam him over to the Angosian transport vessel, and he somehow manages to break out of the transport beam scrambling his body into atoms.
Anyway, when the smoke clears Danar is gone and a phaser is missing. Because Danar's programming prevents the sensors from reading his life signs (some technobabble shit, it's not important), Picard puts the ship on high alert, cutting off power to the transporters and turbolifts.
Now, I know what you might be thinking - Picard sympathises with this guy, so why is he trying to stop him from escaping? Well, that's because he knows Danar is a sly motherfucker who most likely doesn't have the best of intentions for the Angosian government. As much as he understands why Danar is angry, he’s still dangerous.
This has to be the only time I’ve ever seen a Jeffries tube big enough to walk in.
Like in the opening cat-and-mouse sequence, Danar's cunning and resourcefulness is on full display here as he baits the security team into thinking he's in a turbolift and steals a security officer's combadge to bypass the forcefields.
Long story and cool action sequence short, Danar beams over to the Angosian transport ship that had come to pick him up and takes its crew hostage. The Enterprise's external sensors were disabled by Danar's sabotage, so they have no way to track him.
When they get their systems back online, Nayrok hails them and says that Danar has organised a mass breakout from Lunar V and is currently storming the capital city. Picard, Troi, Worf and Data beam down, but tell Nayrok that they have no intention of helping him avoid responsibility for his actions.
It's here that the true extent of the government's shittiness is revealed: they knew the risks the programming posed but did it anyway, and never made any serious effort to cure the soldiers. Besides, they might need them for another war in the future.
Okay, this was definitely supposed to be social commentary.
Before the crew can unload on him, Danar and his men break into the building, ready to take revenge on the government that threw them under the bus and turned their backs on them. Nayrok predictably tries to weasel his way out of it, but Danar dismisses him - it's not enough to shove them into a cosy settlement and forget about them. They want their lives back.
Nayrok is understandably getting desperate at this point, and turns to Picard for help. But Picard informs them that because of that pesky old Prime Directive, they're obligated to do precisely jack.
"In your own words, this is not our affair. We cannot interfere in the natural course of your society's development. And I'd say it's going to develop significantly in the next few minutes."
Plus Picard says that if the Angosian government survives the night, then the Federation will assist them in reconditioning the veterans back into society. Everybody wins!
Hey, don't feel too sorry for Nayrok. His ancestor invented the warp core, after all.
7.5/10 - A real hidden gem.
#star trek#star trek review#star trek tng review#star trek tng#star trek the next generation#the next generation#captain picard#uss enterprise#jean luc picard#will riker#geordi la forge#star trek data#star trek worf#deanna troi#wesley crusher#beverly crusher#miles o'brien
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