#it was a bit fast paced like riiiight at the end. the very very end | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fae-fucker · 3 years

Text

Review: Death Wind by Tara Grayce

Essie should be planning her happily ever after, not planning a war. Although they once were enemies, the humans of Escarland and the elves of Tarenhiel have allied to fight the trolls from the far north. But alliances are tricky things even in the best of times, and with Farrendel, the elves’ foremost warrior and Essie’s husband, captured by the trolls, the circumstances appear dire indeed. But Essie won’t give up, and she will make her two peoples work together to fight this war if it’s the last thing she does. One way or another, she will get Farrendel back, no matter what it takes.

Gonna be honest, didn't expect much given my lukewarm reaction to the previous two books, but this one? This one actually held my attention for genuine reasons rather than just being a light read. Because the plot involves a lot of conflict (arguably the biggest conflict possible, war), the pacing is steady, and two of the three POV characters are mostly suffering and/or being tortured, there's actually tension for once. It's a welcome change, and proves that the author is very much capable of writing it but just chooses not to in favor of boring and conflict-free family interactions.

With Melantha introduced as a POV character, we're offered a pretty buckwild concept for this series: a character that makes mistakes and has to live with the consequences. I actually found myself liking Melantha, not because I thought she was a compelling character (she wasn't) or because I felt bad for her (I didn't), but because she had what Essie didn't: flaws. There's even a point in the book where Melantha thinks about how much she dislikes Essie because Essie is so sugary perfect and everything Melantha wishes she could be, and I think it's supposed to show us how bitter and insecure Melantha is? Except she's 100% correct, Essie is literally too perfect to be a real person and I just sat there going "yeah, you're right, and don't feel bad for being shitty because literally nobody can actually be like Essie."

However, Melantha suffers from Stupid Bitch Syndrome, which doesn't exactly make for a good protagonist/POV character. She's not intended to be dumb, the book expects us to think she was simply misguided and bitter and not, like, a complete idiot who should've known better. But her instant remorse feels less like character development and more like her suddenly realizing she’s actually a huge idiot who fell for the enemy’s nonsense, which she is. She's supposed to be an older elf, a grown woman, yet she makes such an obvious mistake and immediately regrets it and folds like a wet blanket the moment shit hits the fan. It's honestly a bit pathetic. The only reason I preferred her over Essie was because she introduced some much-needed depth to the character roster, but that depth was still about the size of a teacup, compared to Farrendel's thimble and Essie's singular water molecule. Her relationship with the troll prince was actually ... interesting? It was all mostly unspoken, which I think made it stronger than the overly telegraphed thing Essie and Farrendel have going on, and I’m sure it’ll be flattened out and become boring in the next book, so enjoy this potential before it’s wasted.

Farrendel spends the entire book being tortured and thinking about how he's being tortured. I can't blame him, but it doesn't make for good reading. I honestly think his POV could've been left out altogether and it wouldn't have changed much. Melantha is already there with him letting the reader know he’s suffering, we don’t need two POVs telling us the same thing. Oh uh, except for the part where he ... puts his magic in a soul-bond pocket. I'd mark this as spoilers but it's literally on the cover. I guess if his POV was removed then we'd never know how Essie learned to blast his power in battle at that one convenient moment, but it barely affects the plot afterward so um, yeah. I'm having a hard time justifying his POV at all. I'm still not over that part btw, how Farrendel just ... makes a "mental fist" (no, really), grabs his magic in one and his soul bond with Essie in the other and just puts them together like he's connecting two cables to an adapter. And he knew to do this ... how? It's not like we've seen him experiment with his magic before, in fact he's been shown to hate it and only use it when necessary, but apparently this tortured and exhausted man has the presence of mind to try something as vague and theoretical as ... putting his magic in a soul pocket. He spends a few pages going “I wonder if I can do this” and then it works on the first try. He does consider whether it’ll hurt Essie and decides not to try it, but as I said, he does it soon after anyway so like ... I don’t think it’s supposed to be funny or show how little of a shit he gives about Essie, but that’s sort of the implication and I thought it was funny as hell.

Anyway, the magic pocket is about as much worldbuilding/lore as we get from this series entry, aside from the trolls having their own political intricacies and tensions, which I’m assuming the next book will expand upon. The writing itself in this book was pretty bad at times. The repetition of certain words and names was really glaring in some parts and felt amateurish. Take a shot every time the word “magic” appears and you’ll be in the grave before the book ends. Prince Rharreth and King Charvod are almost always referred to with their full titles and names for some reason? A few editing rounds would’ve helped this a lot, methinks.

The plot is mostly moved along in Essie’s POV, which is slightly less insufferable than usual because she’s the one observing the movement of the two armies and there are actually action scenes in there that, while don’t exactly made me worried about her (there’s no way this perfect idiot will ever die), still provided some tension. But it’s honestly not much, the “war” lasted two entire weeks (and that’s including the strategy, logistics, and mobilizing) and with how fast the armies travel and how little resistance they face (and how Deus Ex Farrendel-d the final battle was, the guy is apparently full of godlike destructive power despite being starved and tortured, go off king), it all felt very unrealistic and easy. Like, we have two armies marching in the middle of a mountain chain during magical snow storms, all while being regularly assaulted by the defending army, and they still get there no problem, without a single mention of soldiers struggling not to die of exposure. Aight. I guess these elves and humans are just very resistant to the cold, for some reason.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason it goes over so fast in-universe is because the author wanted Farrendel to be horribly tortured throughout his captivity, but also knew that if that lasts too long, the damage will be too severe to easily resolve in the next book. But instead of easing off the hardcore torture, because then we’d lose out on that drama and those High Stakes, she decided to speed up the whole war thing, because hey, who cares about that, anyway? We just want Farrendel back, right? Riiiight? Better hurry up guys! Don’t want Farrendel to be too tortured to fix with some strawberry-flavored medicine and vague counseling in the next book!

So yeah, the plot moves on speedily, but at what cost? Mainly depth. Again. And once again, Essie suffers the most from being a bland caricature of a person and dragging the whole thing down. The author’s GR bio says she writes “spunky and tough” leading ladies, and I guess having no other things in your brain except sparkly kitten gifs is a certain kind of toughness in an “immovable object” sort of way, but “spunk” implies a of counter-culture edge that sweet widdle Essie simply does not have.

There was one small section where Essie felt bad over how the human and elven warriors were going to die, how many mothers and sisters and daughters would suffer just so she didn’t have to, but then we don’t find out the death count, the casualties are never even mentioned, and Essie moves on from this without even a single thought questioning the morality of a monarchy or her own position of power. Now, I get that that’s not the focus of this series, but it just adds to how Essie’s worries are always surface-level and never justified by the plot, how she never has to do any introspection and is never allowed to not always be annoyingly positive. Whenever she even begins to think something negative, she instantly, almost compulsively changes trajectory and just decides not to worry about it, and then it never comes up again anyway. This would’ve been like, an interesting take on toxic positivity and how Essie represses her own emotions, but no, the book never goes there, she’s just that perfect and wee and optimistic, even during a war and when her husband’s being tortured to near-death. It’s kind of insulting to read, honestly.

Oh yeah, that’s another thing that annoyed me. Even when she loses Farrendel, she takes it surprisingly well and focuses mostly on keeping a positive attitude for his sake, so he doesn’t feel her sadness through their “heart bond.” I never really felt her loss, her love for him, when she so easily could just decide not to feel bad “for his sake.” I want her to feel bad, I want her to miss him and to ache at his absence and to fear for what they’re doing to him. But no. That would just upset him more and hurt him more. So Essie doesn’t get to experience any negative feelings because it might upset her husband. Essie doesn’t get angry and determined to fight, she just keeps being her cheery little Stepford Wife self because being nice will keep everyone’s spirits up and make them hope and fight harder to preserve that hope!! :)

It just comes off as really flat and moralistic yet dishonest at the same time, because nobody would fucking react like this IRL. Essie might be a good person in-universe, but she drags the entire series down just by being perfect, cheery, and never, ever challenged or even allowed to challenge anything herself. Essie isn’t allowed to have any negative feelings because it might affect her husband, and yet we’re supposed to find this empowering somehow? We’re supposed to believe she’s spunky and confident and a sweet little firecracker of a redhead?

Eugh.

At least Melantha is an idiot, I guess. One whole female character gets to have a flaw, and she’s the almost-villain who needs to be fixed with love.

Idk man. The sexism in this series is like a constant undercurrent that grows stronger with each installment as our “understanding” of this world expands. All of Essie’s brothers, including the king, are at the front lines because they are manly men “have to” be there, while the women who aren’t Essie or Jalissa stay behind to be mothers and caretakers. It’s never expanded upon and just sort of accepted as part of both human and elven society and the narrative treats it like this obvious thing that even Essie doesn’t really bother noting how unfair and/or weird it is. There’s not even a single comment on it. Essie is in the war not because she can fight but because Farrendel needs her, and Jalissa is there because ... Um. Because ... she. Uh. She needs to be there when they confront Melantha? She’s Farrendel’s sister? Idk. Jalissa’s main point in this series so far seems to be the ship tease between her and Edmund that feels awkward and one-sided as fuck.

So yeah. The pacing and plot flowed along really well, but the characters and the writing and worldbuilding are all just really undercooked, which, at three books into the series, feels more glaring than ever.

But hey, at least it was a quick read!

#book review #elven alliance #death wind

1 note · View note

lord-explosion-baku · 5 years

Text

Demon Lord!Bakugou x reader

Warnings: swearing, violence, suggestive themes, my lame attempts at humor

A/N: I know it’s not wise to write in two perspectives but I did it anyways. It’s easy to follow if you know that Bakugou refers to himself as Bakugou in his perspective while he’s disguised as ‘Katsuki.’ I had to really condence this to make it all fit in one post too so it’s probably a little fast paced and the ending is very rushed but we can blame that 100 text block rule. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ what can you do? Also Bakugou is pretty OOC. Very chatty and a bit of a flirt. It’s fine.

“Could really use my mage right about now!!” You bellowed over the swarm ugly ass dark gnolls, slicing through two at a time. Killing them was easy enough but you’d gotten cocky and let your guard down, allowing yourself to take more than a few blows. That wouldn’t have mattered much if you weren’t about to face the demon lord himself.

Standing up by his throne Lord Bakugou watched you move through his army, relishing the clanking of weapons against weapons. He was very curious about the little mercenary running through his army. You had gotten the farthest to getting to him out of any other questers in maybe one hundred years even though your fighting skills were decent at best. It was amusing really. He’d witness many much stronger heroes meet their fall in his throne room but you seemed to be getting by easily with luck alone. But that luck was about to turn for the worse.

“She’s out!” Kaminari, your bard, was kneeling next to Mina, your mage, lightly tapping in her face. Mina was always getting too close for battle like a damned fool.

“Then can you heal me?!” You screamed while a gnoll came at you with their poison tipped spear.

“My lute broke!” Kaminari called back.

You narrowly dodged the attack from the gnoll. “How do you break your lute!!!!” An arrow shot through the gnoll’s head and you gave a thumbs up to your mute elven ranger, Todoroki. Even if your other guild members were sometimes idiots, you could always depend on Todoroki.

You caught your breath, finally making it up to the head of the throne room. You glared at the demon lord through your bulky helmet. He looked just like the legends said he would. Hair the color of the ashes of enemies incinerated, eyes that only turn a deeper crimson for every drop of blood he sheds, markings on his pale white body that told you there was no better place for him than the pits of hell (no offense to Mina who was a very nice tiefling.) This was going to be your most satisfying kill yet.

Lord Bakugou tilted his head at you. “You expect me to get offed by a pipsqueak like you?”

You took off your helmet and threw it down his stairs, counting the metal clanks as it danced down each step. You could see better without it anyways. Your hand slid across your broadsword, swiping the excess gnoll goo off and on to the floor. You might’ve been a ‘pipsqueak’ compared to the all terrible Demon Lord Bakugou but you were a pipsqueak with a sword.

Bakugou gulped, eyes widening only slightly. Oh shit… you began running at him… they’re hot. Bakugou conjured up his own broadsword to rival yours. The sound of metal on metal excited him. He had to admit that you weren’t as terrible as he first thought you were. He blocked a hefty attack, holding your sword against his own, only to get a better look at your focused face. You clenched your teeth while scowling up at him and Bakugou and a warm sensation flooded his entire body. You were… something else.

Distracted, Lord Bakugou let his guard down. With the borrowed strength from a Dragonborn named Eijirou, you slammed down on his weapon, knocking it the the floor! You spun around, lifting your now red glowing broadsword up and swing down with all of your might! But the demon lord caught it… with one hand… He smirked, sliding his hand along the side of your blade. “It’s a cute sword,” he purred before bright orange sparks ignited from his hands. Your blade shattered to pieces. “But not as cute as you.”

Your mouth fell open. “H-huh?”

To your dismay, he put his hand in your forehead. “Sleep well, gorgeous,” he commanded, “I’ve got big plans for you.”

Fire! It felt like your forehead was on fire! You wanted to panic but your eyelids grew heavy and your knees started wobble. You used your last bit of strength to force yourself back rather than falling into the arms of your enemy.

Different, more familiar arms wrapped around your torso and the last thing you remember hearing was, “Oi! Where do you think you’re goin’ with my bride!”

Five days had passed since you were shamefully defeated by the demon lord. It took five days for you to grow your hair out to cover the demon’s mark on your forehead, it took five days for you to craft a stronger weapon, and it took five days for you and your guild to settle down and finally show yourselves to the public (currently a town full of mice-breeds) only to have backhanded words of encouragement from their people. “Don’t worry about it too much,” they all seemed to say in the same high squeaky voices, scratching at their rounded ears, “even strong guilds couldn’t beat the demon lord! You guys are lucky you made it out alive!” And you had to smile and pretend like their food portions weren’t too damn small.

It was on the very fifth day that a young man in a dark robe, decked out in jewelry, kicked open the doors of the saloon you were staying in and marched up to your guild’s table. “Hey!” Instantly you grabbed Kaminari’s dirk, an impulsive reflex but a good one to have with boisterous and possibly violent strangers. The blonde narrowed his eyes on your weapon. “I wanna join your shitty guild!”

“No.” Another reflex. It was something you learned from Todoroki. If you have to think about it, don’t trust it. Besides, you all were doing fine on your own.

“Wait! Now, hang on Y/N,” Mina pushed you. “Let’s hear him out! We don’t know who he is or how far he has come to find us!”

You rolled your eyes. She was always so up for making new friends. Her naivety would be endearing if it didn’t almost get her killed about a dozen times. Tieflings. “Exactly,” you whispered back. “We don’t know who he is, he came out of nowhere to this mouse town to find us?? I don’t think so. He didn’t even give us his name!”

“I’ve got a name! It’s… Kat...suki.”

The party blinked at him. You shrugged. “Just ‘Katsuki’?”

The man crossed his arms. “Is that a problem?”

“Maybe. We don’t have a great history with guys who have only one name.”

“That’s riiiight!” Mina chirped. “There was Slomar who stole all of our horses, Finick who kidnapped Kaminari, Cher who wanted to steal our youthful essences… But Grognor the Great wasn’t half bad! He helped us get that sky ship! But then it was taken over by that one cleric guy… Jocombi! Another singular named villain!”

“And Grognor the Great wasn’t a singularly named villain!” Kaminari chimed in, “He was ‘Grognor the Great!’ That’s sort of like a full name, right?”

“Well then,” Katsuki smirked. Your narrowed your eyes on his lips. You’ve… seen that before. “You can call me Katsuki the Best.”

You scoffed, “the best at what exactly?”

“Everything,” he put his hand on the table and leaned in close to you, “you want me to show you?”

You coughed to hide an embarrassed squeak. Was he suggesting something? You leaned away from him and looked to Todoroki. He signed, ‘I don’t trust him.’

‘You think I do? I say take him to the woods and leave him there. Our party is full.’

Katsuki cleared his throat. ‘I know fucking sign language… assholes.’ “As well as draconic, elvish, dwarvish, abyssal, orcish, gnoll, gnomish, and my yeti is a little weak but I just have to touch up on it. So if you want to have your little secret conversations in, I don’t know, Druid, then have at it. Your party isn’t full by the way. I’ve heard about your run in with the demon lord and it looks like you guys could use some more combat fighters.” You opened your mouth to interject but he put his ringed index finger up before you could speak, “you can’t do it all with one shitty mercenary unless you plan on going at it with looks alone,”-looks alone? The hell did that mean?- “you’d need someone to fall back on, someone with skills like mine. I can lead you guys to victory.”

You already had someone to fall back on, literally. Todoroki had been there to catch you and usher you out before you faced an uncertain fate. But… the stranger before you was right. Everyone else in your party worked with range and after many battles, your arms often felt sore from pulling everyone else’s weight… or pulling the weight of someone else that should’ve been there. Your guild members were getting stronger every day but you did need someone else. “Alright,” you finally said, “if you say that you’re the best-,”

“-at everything,” Katsuki’s grin widened.

“At everything, whatever, then prove it. Gather your things, boys. We’re gonna go fight some orcs.”

Leaves cracked under your boots while Kaminari played his new lute, livening up the cool and crisp forest. Todoroki was by your side having a heated conversation with you through his hands. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with this new ‘arrogant pile of gold,’ and he was very upset that you decided to give him a chance. You trusted Todoroki’s judgement above everyone else but you were a little blinded by your defeat of the demon lord. You had to take him down. You had something to prove, if not to the town of mice then for yourself.

Mina skipped to the other side of you. “Am I the only one who thought that the demon lord was kinda fine? In that, I don’t know, ‘fuck me raw’ kinda way?”

A deep blush formed on your cheeks. The demon lord had hit on you… and why? To throw you off your game? He didn’t really need to do that since he completely destroyed your weapon with his bare hands! But then… why didn’t he just kill you? And he wasn’t ‘fine,’ he was terrible!

Lord Bakugou walked in the back, ignoring any attempts at conversation from the annoying looking yellow haired bard. He was there for you and you alone but he couldn’t help but feel a hopeful thrill after hearing what the pink raccoon-looking teafling girl said.

“Well, he won’t be so hot with my broadsword plunged into his belly!” You said, dramatically throwing your sword in the air.

Bakugou grinned. So you thought he was hot. Good to know. He heated up at the thought of you coming to fight him again. He wanted to know exactly how fast he could make you submit to him. You seemed like the type that would fight until there was absolutely nothing else to do but accept your fate. He loved that.

That half n’ half elf ranger shot Bakugou a look and he frowned back. That guy was going to be a nuisance for him. He already stole you away from him even after Bakugou left his mark on you. How… disrespectful. He’d have to figure out a way to get rid of him.

Todoroki halted, throwing his arm in front of you. He signed, saying that the orcs were about fifty meters out and that he was going to climb high to get a better look. You instructed the others to get in the right formation, Mina in the back, Kaminari behind you, and you at the front.

You turned to Katsuki, “where’s your weapon?”

He raised an eyebrow at you. “Don’t have one. Can I borrow yours?”

“What?” Oh that arrogant pile of gold!!! How could he claim to be the best and then not bring his own weapons to a quest?!

“Juuust kidding!” He picked up a lengthy tree branch off the ground. “This’ll do.” Bakugou watched your face comfort from frustration to confusion to downright repulsion. He thought it was incredibly endearing. He couldn’t wait to see what kind of face you’d make after seeing him take down every last orc single handedly.

“You have got to be kidding m-!!!” You were cut off by Katsuki’s fingers pressed against your mouth. Your face flushed when he subtly caressed your bottom lip.

“Yeah, you want the orcs to find us out with that loud mouth of yours? I’m guessing stealth isn’t your strongest suit…” he leveled his head with yours, “or do you just like attention, pipsqueak?”

Pipsqueak… the only other person to call you that was the-

Before you can finish your thought, Katsuki grabbed your waist and pivoted around, moving right before an arrow flew through the air. It brushed too closely to Kaminari before detonating off a far away oak tree.

“Shit, they’ve got bomb arrows!” Kaminari said, strumming furiously on his lute.

“Hey,” You said to Kaminari, swiping Katsuki’s hand away from your side, “have you been working on the ‘slow time spell’ song at all?”

“Uhhhh. Not really.”

Idiot. “Okay, well we’ve gotta stay away from those arrows and avoid using fire so we don’t accidentally set any of them off while we’re close. Mina, are you comfortable with astral projecting? Orcs are stupid so maybe you can knock a barrel over or something, spook them, and have them firing those arrows too close to them?”

Katsuki shook his head and began walking forward, spinning his tree branch in his hand. Another arrow flew through the air and exploded right in front of him! a giant orange cloud of smoke and flame enveloped his body and you gasped at the sight. You almost felt bad. Sure, he was cocky but you didn’t actually think he was delusional. You made a mental note to mourn ‘Katsuki the Best’ properly.

Laughter erupted from behind the wall of flame followed by more explosions and the gurgled screams of the orc. You rushed forward through the smoke, coughing as it filled you lungs and sting your eyes. You could hardly make out his lean figure swiftly moving through the orc camp, beating them one by one with his then on fire tree branch.

In a matter of seconds, Katsuki had killed all five orcs. That usually took your party maybe fifteen minutes! Todoroki found a place by your side, giving Katsuki the same dissatisfied glare you were.

He grinned at you, wiping off orcish blood off his face. “I’ll take my thanks in the form of high praise or a date with our renowned guild leader.”

Though you were blushing furiously, you and Todoroki scoffed, walking past the all too hyped up stranger to the orc’s chest that sat in the middle of the camp. You kicked it open while Kaminari and Mina rushed to Katsuki.

“That was AMAZING!!!” “You took all of them out with a tree branch?? My man!!!”

There wasn’t a whole lot to find in the chest. Some health potions, apples, arrows which you handed off to Todoroki, a crystal necklace that might fetch a high prince of Mina didn’t immediately snatch it out of your hand, a distinctly magical looking metal collar, and gold. You filled the gold up in one of your pouches and tossed it to Kaminari, keeping the collar to yourself.

“Oi! I killed them all! Shouldn’t that chest be mine?”

You turned to Katsuki and eyed him up and down. You kept a pensive silence before saying, “we split our finds up equally amongst our guild. Kaminari, our treasurer keeps our gold for when we need it. Todoroki gets the arrows unless we have anyone else who needs them. If you want, you can carry the health potions but that usually stays with Kaminari, again, for when we need them.” You tossed him an apple. “You want to help us defeat the demon lord Bakugou?”

“If that means I get to join your guild then, yes. You losers need me.”

Ignoring him, you unsheathed Kaminari’s dirk and reached out to Katsuki. “Your hand,” you demanded.

His eyes narrowed on your weapon. “Why?”

“This is how we swear ourselves into the guild. It’s not a permanent bond and you can leave whenever you want but this is how we know we can,” you turned your head to the skeptical Todoroki, “trust you.”

“We’ve all done it!” Mina said, waving her scarred palm at Katsuki. “It only hurts for like a second!”

To demonstrate, you slid the dirk across the palm of your hand, wincing slightly at the pain. Katsuki gave you his hand. You placed the tip of the dirk on his palm and pressed down harder than you expected you had to. His blood was… blue… that wasn't too weird. A lot of different kinds of people had different colored blood. Mina’s was green. You clasped your hand into Katsuki’s and immediately your forehead started to burn. You flexed your jaw, trying to ignore was felt like someone else was cutting into your skin. A drop of purple blood, yours mixed with Katsuki’s, fell to the floor.

Bakugou was content to see the mark on your forehead light up when your blood touched his. It had to be burning you but you showed no sign of it. You tried so hard to act tough. It was adorable. Little did you know, blond bonding was a small portion of what happened with ceremonial demon weddings. Bakugou was very content with this happy coincidence.

You let out a relieved sigh when it was over and the pain went away. “Now,” You said, bringing the dirk up to Katsuki’s chin, “what the hell are you?”

It was late at the saloon and everyone of your guild members, besides Todoroki who only needed four hours of sleep, had gone to bed. You got little to no answers from your new and strangely powerful guild member, Katsuki, other than flirty remarks such as, “I can be anything you want me to be.” You didn’t really know how to take it. People didn’t flirt with you, at least you didn’t think so and this guy waltzes into your life and just says whatever come to mind??! The audacity. However, you did think you were being a little too rough with him. He promised he would help bring the demon lord down and he hadn’t actually done anything to harm you or your guild members… yet.

You had your hand pressed onto the knob to the room he was staying in. You should apologize. Or explain yourself. Something. You turned the knob and cracked the door open only to have a gasp leave your mouth.

It was Katsuki but it wasn’t Katsuki. His skin was much paler and his ash blonde hair was now an ash gray. Red eyes found yours and you shrunk back. Holy fucking shit.

You ran back to your room and made it to the sink, quickly splashing water into your face. That had to be some sort of trick of the dim lights, right? Noo, that smirk! And he called you ‘pipsqueak’! He was there! The demon lord Bakugou! What kind of game was he trying to play?! You left your sword propped next your bed. You turned to get it but-

“GODS!” You screamed at Katsuki- no- Lord Bakugou who was sitting on your bed with your sword in hand.

He had a smug grin on which you wished your could smack away but you were nothing without your sword. “So,” he said, standing up, “you’ve caught me.” He took several steps towards you and you grabbed a candle holder for defense.

You swung it around desperately to maybe come off as threatening. “Stay the hell away from me!”

“Stay away from my betrothed? I don’t know if I can…” he moved so fast, fast enough to knock you back into the wall without you being able to get a hit in. His arms caged you in. “I’m glad I didn’t have to keep up that disguise for too long but I was really hoping you’d be able to figure me out earlier. Oh well. We’ll just have to work on your perception skills. I’m great at that. For example I can feel your blood rushing. You must be so excited to see me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” you were absolutely terrified. But you had something. The collar, you didn’t know what it was for but you did sense a lot of magic radiating off of it. You reached into your satchel and as quickly as you could clamped it around Bakugou’s neck.

Green light radiated off the collar. He scowled down and you took the opportunity to push him off of you. You ran to pick up your sword but Bakugou called it to him. It moved against the wood floor and into his hand. He didn’t look too happy about the collar around his neck.

“Do you know what this does?” He pointed to the contraption. You didn’t but you weren’t about to let him know that. “I see. I see, so what? I want to make you my bride and you want to make me your slave?” Slave? Not really. It dawned on you. The collar around his neck was an artifact. Lampoon’s Slave Collar: whoever wears it has to yield every command the person who put it on them. You did not want that!! You wanted to kill him!!

“Uhhhh, this is... a misunderstanding!” You backed up against the bed. A stupid move.

He pushed you back and climbed on top of you, that smug grin, that was only getting more terrible the more you saw it was plastered on his face. “Noooo I get it,” heat radiated off his face and it didn’t help the nervous flutter in your stomach. “So what’s my first command, master? I did tell you that I was the best at everything didn’t I?”

“Uhhhh huuuuuh,” you haven’t had a man that close to you in a very very long time. What the hell were you supposed to do?!

“Hmm? You want me to maybe take the reigns? I don’t really have a problem with that.” He pulled your legs so you were lodged up against him. A nervous squeak escaped your throat.

Just then, there was a knock at the door and Todoroki walked in, holding drinks. He bared his teeth at the scene set before him. How on earth were you going to explain yourself?

Tags for EVERYTHING (closed): @yandere-inamorata @miitaart @dessiedawnwritesfanfiction @wickedlewicked @chickennuggetsarequestionable @nevermorelanore @kpanime @ayeputita @captain-sin-allmight-queen @diisasterbii @iceformer @meganofmars @colagirl5 @colorbookshd @grimmjadeskye @sm0kingcrack @sarcastictextstuck @zellllyyyy @psionicsnow @mynahx3 @andie-in-tumblland @iamthe-leaf @midnightfeline666 @bungou-stray-alies-tales-of-aly -of-aly @rubyred-imagines -28 @kattariapenn @heypartypeps @quirktaker @thecryingsombra @smbody-stole-mycar-radio @ghost-of-todoroki @geektastic84 @personoffangirlingandtears @glixeo @rubycubix @mekakushi-dan-01-kido

#bnha x reader #bnha imagine #bnha #bnha reader insert #reader insert #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #bakugou x reader #bnha fantasy au #bnha au #bakugo katsuki x reader #katsuki x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #demon lord!bakugou #demon lord!bakugou x reader

2K notes · View notes

dragon-fics · 4 years

Text

S&H: Ch. 18 Holiday Season

Chapter summary: It’s winter time, so you know what that means....

Notes, Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7, Ch. 8, Ch. 9, Ch. 10, Ch. 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 14, Ch. 15, Ch. 16, Ch. 17, Ch. 18, Ch. 19, Ch. 20, Ch. 21, Ch. 22, Ch. 23, Ch. 24, Ch. 25, Ch. 26, Ch. 27

“Well, the holiday comes from over a thousand years ago when dragons helped most of Roania survive a great famine. Hence the reason it’s called the Feast of Generosity,” Zion explained. He had got Molten to come back over to Roania, just two weeks before his Christmas exams started, to have him join in on the end-of-November Roanian celebration.

“And even after the war, you still celebrate it?” Molten asked as he walked down the stairs to the castle’s dining room. He had dressed up in a black suit and white shirt, though he felt bad for wearing jeans to the feast, seeing as it was so important to his boyfriend and his people.

“Yes,” Zion replied bluntly, unsure of why Molten asked such a question. “Just because we blamed Wyrmia for starting the war—whether or not it was an accident—doesn’t mean we forget about how Wyrmia aided us in the past.”

Molten lifted his chin understandingly. “Riiiight,” he said, accepting that this holiday meant a lot to the people of Roania.

He tugged on the jacket of his suit. “Do I look acceptable?” He asked Zion. Zion took a quick scan of his outfit—he wore a red tailcoat jacket, white shirt, neckerchief and suit trousers. Very formal.

“Eh... Yeah, pretty much.” He stopped by the doors to the dining room. “Ready to join us in this Roanian feast?” He asked, reaching for the handle on the door.

Molten fixed his hair in the reflection of the chequered tiles beneath him.

“You look fine,” Zion insisted. He fixed his jacket a bit and pecked him on the lips. “I promise.”

Molten paused and looked down at Zion. “All right,” he drew in a breath, “I’m ready.”

*-*-*-*

“Just remember, you wanted to see how Wyrmia celebrated Christmas,” Molten said, pulling up outside his parents’ home.

“I still don’t see why I have to wear this though,” Zion complained, pulling down his navy Christmas jumper to inspect it, with its centrepiece white snowman with a red hat and buttons sewn on as, and falling snow in the background.

“It’s part of our tradition,” Molten said. “And it’s for a bit of fun.”

“You say that because you have a reindeer on yours with a bright red pompom. It’s cute... That and you’re used to it,” Zion said, mimicking a posture of a child told that had to do something they didn’t want to.

Molten shook his head. “And I thought I was a big child,” he muttered. “At least help me carry in the presents.”

Zion nodded.

*-*-*-*

“You’re such a sore loser,” Molten said as Zion pouted, having lost another game of table hockey to Molten.

Zion stood on the other side, his arms folded and head high. “Am not.”

Blaze laughed, the sound echoed through warm the basement. Molten placed his puck on the table and walked over to the pool table, taking a sip from his bottle of beer.

“Yeah, yeah.” Molten sat down on one beanbag in front of the old TV, hooked up a Wii console and his Xbox console which he’d brought over. Blaze and CJ had finished a round of Mario Kart.

“Ready to face the champ of this game, CJ?” Called Firestrike, already taking Molten’s spot at the table.

CJ sighed dramatically. “I suppose.”

“Good luck,” Blaze said, handing Molten the other controller.

Zion moved in beside them.

“You’re on,” Molten said, starting up his character.

Gaming with Zion was an interesting experience. He was good but violent; even in a game like Mario Kart. Both of them were determined to win the races they chose. Eventually Molten had to let him win, so they could get down to dinner.

“Ha!” Zion shouted, jumping to his feet. Molten stifled a laugh.

“All right, I admit it, you’re good.”

“You know it, Flarescales.” Molten chuckled and got to his feet, just as Jasmine called them for dinner.

*-*-*-*

“And here he is when he joined secondary school,” Jasmine said, showing the picture of Molten’s first year class to Zion. He was about twelve, maybe thirteen. His fringe wasn’t as long and his build wasn’t as strong. Actually, he was nowhere near as fit as he was now. He was a plump boy, chubby all over. Zion wondered why he had never seen pictures of Molten when he was young. This was the first time he had seen Molten when he was young. Was he embarrassed about it?

It had been a few hours since the Christmas dinner. They had filled the room with music, laughter and the festive spirit all afternoon. The sun was fading now and the Christmas tree shone brightly, lots of gifts still waiting to be unwrapped.

Molten was at the sink, elbow high in suds as he washed the pots and dishes that had been used in the making of the festive meal. Blaze stood beside him, drying said dishes when Molten had finished with them.

“I think Mam is showing him the photo album,” he said, rubbing down the glass tray they had cooked the roast potatoes in.

“Which one?” Asked Molten, lifting out a small pot, not taking his eyes off his work.

“Yours.”

Molten paused for a moment. “Right,” he said, trying to lighten his mood with some humour. “Well, there’s nothing I can hide now, right?” He said, trying to laugh.

Blaze saw his mood drop. Usually, he would have ignored it and moved on with his chore, but he didn’t. After all, he was trying to reinvent himself. With both his siblings now dating their chosen ones, he needed to lure his own. He looked to his damp tea towel, so what better way to lighter his brother’s mood that with a bit of playtime.

He whipped Molten with the tea towel, dampening his light blue shirt. Molten paused, looking at his brother slowly, before hitting him with a mass of suds.

“You’re in for it now, you little prick,” he threatened under his breath. Blaze lifted his arms to shield his eyes from the suds. He hit Molten again with the damp cloth. Molten grabbed another tea towel from the counter and wet it in the water. He whipped Blaze across the chest with it.

“Hey! Mine’s not that wet!” He protested. He dipped his towel into the sink and whipped Molten back. they exchanged wet blows for a few minutes.

“Boys. Boys!” Their dam called. “I’d like to those dishes done soon.” She warned.

Molten sighed, a smile firm on his face, and placed his towel back on the counter. He and Blaze continued their chore. It was another while before they finished, but when they did, they treated themselves to another beer.

And then it was time for presents.

It was a quick ceremony of thank you’s and opening gifts. Within minutes, they covered the carpeted floor of the living room with torn Christmas wrapping paper. Zion sat on the armrest of the couch, leaning against Molten as he unwrapped what his family had given him; thinking about taking a few back home—if he could get his hands on them.

Soon after, most of the family disappeared to their rooms to experiment with the new gadgets. They left Molten and Zion in the living room. He cleaned up the beer bottle and cups strewn around the room. As he was putting some cups in the dishwasher, his favourite Christmas song came on the stereo, Christmas Stuff. he swung his shoulders to the beat and closed up the dishwasher.

Zion opened his mouth to tell him there was more to go into the machine, but Molten took the mugs from him and took his hands in his.

“What are you—?” He was cut off by Molten singing.

"I wanna do Christmas stuff Just like we used to do when we were all little kids and Santa brought toys for me and you."

He spun Zion around and he danced with him at a fast pace. Zion recognised it as a jive, from his ballroom lessons as a teenager.

"I wanna build a snowman Find a tree and hang some lights Wanna get some mistletoe Make it Christmas eve every night Wanna present that no three or four Hang some holly on your door And throw little snow on the ground Just to make it right."

Zion smiled as Molten sang along with their dance. They never lost their rhythm, they just kept going and Molten’s voice was as smooth as ever.

"I wanna do Christmas stuff with you Maybe if we put cookies and milk You’ll never know We just might hear someone say ‘Ho Ho Ho’!"

Molten spun him around again and started the last chorus.

"I wanna do Christmas stuff Just like we used to do When we were all little kids and Santa Brought toys for me and you I wanna believe that just believing is Enough to make every dream come true I wanna do Christmas stuff with you Yeah, I wanna do Christmas stuff with you Yeah, I wanna do Christmas stuff With you."

Molten pulled Zion in close, smiling.

“I love you, Molten,” Zion said, leaning up towards him.

Molten smiled. “I love you, too, Zion.” He pecked him on the lips, getting a kiss in return. “Merry Christmas.”

#Scales and Hooves

0 notes

thehonestreader · 5 years

Photo

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard

Rating: B-

Aeduan has always thought himself a monster. What else could a Bloodwitch possibly be? He’s only ever done things for his father’s cause, to gain the money or the influence that was needed. But no money, no contract is binding him to Iseult or the little Earthwitch Owl as they travel to the Carawen Monastery. So why is he doing it? What is it about Iseult that makes him feel the way he does? Meanwhile, the Twenty Year truce has ended, and both Nubrevna and Marstok prepare for the coming war. In Nubrevna, Vivia faces the reality that her country is just not ready to withstand siege. And with her father plotting behind her back and claiming her hard work as his own, she knows that a war from without may not be her only worry. In Marstok, Safi finds herself at the side of the Empress, Vaness, working as her personal Truthwitch. But the one thing Safi wants, the only thing she’s wanted for so long, is to be back with Iseult. Yet fate seems to be keeping them apart. The Raider King’s shadow looms larger, and no empire might be able to stand against him. And as long as he’s a threat, as long as Vaness needs her, Safi can do nothing to reunite with her Thread-Sister.

These covers are so bad. These books deserve better.

As much as I enjoyed this and as fast as I read it, I still have to say that, overall, this book is once again just a bunch of filler. I know this is all leading up to something huge, but like I said in my review for Windwitch, this series can’t be endless books of filler before the last one. Sure, there’s tiny bits of progression. The plot kind of moves along, albeit at a snail’s pace. There’s definitely more character building in this one, which I love. I feel this series has finally stepped away from the cliche cringy aspects I hated in the first one; that’s always a plus. Then Aeduan and Iseult...love them. So some good good parts, some bad bad parts.

The shining star of this book is its characters and everything we get to learn about them. I’m always happy to learn more about people like Vivia or Vaness, these character who have been mentioned in bad terms but then finally seeing who they truly are and what drives them. Take Vivia for example, a character that in book one you’re supposed to hate, and then showing that she’s not the person Merik makes her out to be. I love stuff like that. These characters are at their best. I get a sense of who they really are, and that’s the best thing you can do as an author.

At first, I wasn’t a fan of all the POVs. I think there’s a total of six of them, and at the very beginning I couldn’t understand why there were so many. It didn’t make much sense to me to see the same situation from one person’s perspective and then the other person’s. But then once everyone gets split up I was like, “Oooohhh, riiiight.” It should have been very obvious to me and it just...wasn’t. Some POVs are only there for a few pages, at most, which seems like a waste. I wish these characters’ actions had been included here in the main books just so I could very clearly follow everything that’s happening. But this way of handling the story makes me sense another novella in the works. I don’t know how I feel about it.

Speaking of novellas, I’m a little bummed that this book so heavily relies on the things that happened it Sightwitch. Personally, I know I would have been very lost and confused as this book goes on if I hadn’t read it. I don’t think of novellas as main parts of a series. They’re side stories, there to create a better vision of the author’s world or to get more insight into a character. They’re not really meant to be vital to the whole story. But the fact that basically Sightwitch serves as book number three hear bugs me. If you never read it then you would have no idea about Ryber and her Sightwitch sisters, no idea what the mountain is, no idea about the Paladins or the Rook King. These are going to be HUGE plot points later on. They kind of already are. And pushing all that off into a novella is pretty shitty in my opinion.

This series is also determined to put my memory to the test. A test, I’d like to point out, that I am failing miserably. I need some recaps to be worked into the story. It doesn’t have to be much, and it doesn’t have to be obvious, but I can’t remember every single detail and character that has popped up in the last three books, and I need reminders sometimes. Even a quick, “This is whoever, and this is a sentence or two quickly over viewing a past event.” That’s it. That’s good enough for me. And I know I can’t be the only person who struggled with this while they were reading.

I’m still interested in this series. I want to know what’s going to happen, where all of this is leading. I want answers to all the questions the author has created. The whole thing with Aeduan and his parents is a huge mystery I want solved. So I’m going to stick around for the next book. We’ll just have to go from there.

-Review by C.M.

#bloodwitch #susan dennard #fantasy #the witchlands #teen #fiction #ya #young adult #book review #b

0 notes