#literally freaking out because this doesn’t feel like Daemon at all to me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lady-phasma · 1 month

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A willing pawn

Daemon Targaryen x fem! Dornish!reader

A huge thank you to @zaldritzosrose for this amazing board. You read my mind and I don't know how you did it! An equal thank you to @black-dread for providing the missing puzzle piece to make this fic work.

Warnings: 18+ MDNI, smut, hurt/comfort if you squint, little bit of size kink, use of an infantilizing pet name (because Uncle Daddy Daemon), flimsy plot, creampie (and I truly did not plan what was going to happen there, Daemon just does whatever he wants in my brain, cheeky bastard)

Summary: You had a mission in the Stepstones, but he wasn’t as fearsome, this prince, as you had been led to believe. I’m not sure about my soft!Daemon but here he is. 4k words

The encampment was dark, lit only by dying fires. This night had been chosen because it would be moonless. Your soft-soled shoes were silent on the rocky earth as you crept between tents. You had planned your path at sunset, marking in your memory where the prince’s tent stood. As the orange light had faded from the sky, your stomach had begun to knot and twist with anxiety.

Could you really follow through with this? You knew you were able but were you capable of such a thing. The circumstances didn’t offer you any choice in the matter. Prince Qoren Martell wanted to avoid the costs of war, in gold and lives. His war counsel thought of every possible measure they could take to win this war, including involving House Yronwood. You were a cog in a larger plan and there was nothing you could do to stop it.

You ducked around another tent and tiptoed to the edge of the large royal tent. This is as far as you had gotten in your strategy. From this point forward you could only hope for luck, as stealth wouldn’t matter when faced with the prince’s guards. You were sent here with the barest of plans and what little plan there was, was foolish. You listened for movement inside the tent and heard none. As you neared the front you expected a half-dozen guards but saw only two. You held your breath.

You couldn’t walk right up to the tent and demand to be let in. Sneaking in seemed to be impossible, but if you could, what next. Your heart pounded in your ears. Godsdamn it, you thought. You let out a shaky breath and slunk back into the shadows. When you turned around you almost walked face-first into a giant wall of armor.

The guard almost threw you into the tent but did not relinquish his grip on your elbow. You grunted and jerked your arm away from him as you stumbled into the large room. You caught your balance and stood up straight. The ground was covered in rugs. A table laden with maps and documents stood in the center. Next to it sat the Prince.

“We found this creeping about outside, your highness,” the guard grumbled.

Prince Daemon lounged in his chair, legs outstretched, crossed at the ankles. He was peeling a pear, paused mid-knife-stroke, and looked up from under his brows. They raised slightly, seemingly amused, but he didn’t bother to lift his head. He resumed his peeling.

“Leave us,” he commanded without looking up. You heard the guard’s armor as he left but didn’t take your eyes from the prince.

“What terrible deed have you been sent to do child?” He didn’t look at you, only sliced a bit of pear and popped it in his mouth. When you didn’t respond he brushed aside papers to make space on the table and laid down the knife and pear. He wiped his hands on a napkin, dropped it next to them, and stood up. Finally, he looked at you. He finished chewing, swallowed, and wiped one corner of his mouth with his thumb.

He strode toward you, sucking the pear juice off his thumb and assessing you. Much of your face was covered by your hood, stay strands of dark hair were visible but your features were cast in shadow. He dipped his head slightly and looked closely, standing only a few paces in front of you. His silver hair swung loose from his shoulder. The violet of his eyes was unnerving. You squared your shoulders.

“I am no child,” you replied, leaving off the honorific. He was no prince of yours.

“Is that so?” Daemon reached for your hood and flicked it back from your head. The only hint of surprise he allowed to show was a brief widening of his eyes. You were well aware the effect your father’s blue eyes had when set against the sienna skin you got from your mother. You narrowed your icy eyes at him.

“I’m gown enough to make it this far into your camp, am I not?” Daemon chuckled and flipped his hair back over his shoulder. He clasped his hands behind his back and smiled at you.

“I suppose so… but you did get caught, little one.”

Your cheeks flamed and you wanted to strike him but the smile on his face caught you off guard. Had he just winked at you? You were too frustrated to think and that wink made your blood boil. This was not going at all how you had expected when the guard snatched you up. Daemon didn’t so much as blink when you moved your hands from inside your cloak to push your hood back further. He was amused with you. The handle of your dagger glinted in the candlelight and caught his eye.

“So you were sent here to assassinate me?” He smiled that infernal smile. “Would you say it is going well?”

“Time will tell,” you answered through gritted teeth. Then he laughed at you, actually laughed. You clenched your hands into fists at your sides.

He took a step toward you and you tensed. You hadn’t the faintest idea what this man would do. You had only heard the rumors and propaganda in Dorne. When he reached out, you tried to take a step back from him.

“Uh-uh,” he commanded quietly. Then his hand dipped into your cloak and before you could move to stop him, he snatched your dagger out of your belt. He spun it lazily around, watching it dance in the light.

“This might have done the trick,” he spoke to the blade, not to you. “But I imagine someone with more experience should have been entrusted with it.” His eyes flicked back to your face. “Though, perhaps there were none as fierce as you.”

With absolutely no thought in your mind, you lunged forward and tried to grab the weapon from him. He deftly moved it out of your reach and grabbed your wrist with his other hand.

“As I said: fierce,” he quipped. You tugged your arm against his grasp to no avail.

“But I must!” You almost snarled at him. His expression wasn’t surprise but interest. He let you go and turned to lay your weapon on the table. When he faced you again a small smile was set on his mouth.

“Must you?” He raised an eyebrow. “If a child assassin has been sent to slay me, Dorne must be desperate indeed.”

“I am not a child! I am a woman grown, of 20 years!” You had no idea why this infuriated you but the prince knew that it did. He grinned again.

“Pardon me, my Lady. I should have said a ‘small’ assassin,” he mocked you. It was somehow kind. You were taken aback by his jest, by his demeanor. You hadn’t taken the time to pause and evaluate Prince Daemon. You had only been concerned with the ramifications of your failure.

Now that you looked, you saw a man not much older than yourself. A man who moved with experience in battle, with an ease not unlike your own. Graceful, even. Then he did the most unexpected thing. He extended his hand, offering you to sit in the chair opposite his. You had come here to threaten his life and now he was treating you like a guest! You gawped.

Before you could decide what to make of the situation, Daemon slid down into his chair and stretched his legs out again, completely unwary of you. He glanced at you one more time as he reached for his unfinished pear. You were too shocked to do anything other than sit. You closed your mouth and sat down across from him. You slipped your cloak off of your shoulders as you sat. Your common clothes weren’t uncomfortable but you weren’t used to them. You tried to adjust them as you sat but instantly became more frustrated. Daemon’s eyes on you didn’t help to easy your new-found insecurity. You were meant to have been unseen.

“Who sent you?” The blunt nature of his question startled you.

“And why should I tell you?” you retorted. You were behaving as if you were at home entertaining men you had grown up with. This was madness.

“I believe I am owed an explanation as it was my life you were planning to take. Also, what else is there to do?” He popped a slice of pear in his mouth. His eyes didn’t leave yours. “Let’s start with your name, shall we?”

You hesitated, but he was right: what else was there to do. You could sit in silence until he decided to have you executed. You could try to run from the tent only to be caught and executed sooner. So you told him your name and your house name.

“Very good,” he tossed the knife and pear back on the table. “What did Martell threaten? What predicament did he put you in?”

Your eyes widened. Was Prince Martell’s reputation so tainted, so sullied, outside Dorne?

“Not him,” you spoke quietly. “Though I suppose, ultimately, he knows. We are not a political house but we have wealth that is necessary for Dorne to succeed.” Your eyes flicked down from his at the last word. You weren’t sure why but you felt ashamed for being in this position, had all along if you thought about it.

“So if not the prince himself…” Daemon paused, waiting for your answer.

“His war counsel,” you replied. “They have many strategies in play, I’m sure, but one is to ‘motivate’ certain houses to bring the war to an early end. I have no knowledge of the other plans. I only know that my father was threatened. Whatever that threat was, it was powerful enough for him to send his youngest daughter to the Stepstones.”

There it was. You had spilled it out to the enemy in a gush and felt like vomiting or crying or fleeing. You looked up from your lap. Daemon was studying you. Once again he surprised you. Perhaps you expected him to mock you but the kindness on his face somehow made your situation more real. You bit your lip to stop the tears. You would not cry. You were angry and frightened and when the prince had called you a child it made those feelings more real.

“What choice did you have?” He sounded almost compassionate. This couldn’t be the petty tyrant you were warned against, who would rape, or torture, or kill you if you were caught. “You came all this way on an errand not of your choosing and meant to go through with it. That’s more than a little honorable, don’t you agree?”

You had no idea. You were confused and overwhelmed and angry. You had never been a zealot, but you had been more sure of your mission when the target was evil or cruel. Perhaps he was at times, but not now.

“I suppose so,” you muttered, trying to look anywhere but at him.

“Well what do I do with you now?” He leaned forward in his chair. “I can’t set you free. Yet I don’t want another prisoner. And you don’t want to return home as a failure. I can see that. I could keep you as a hostage and demand gold for your safe return. Would that keep your honor intact?”

You blushed, not just from his nearness but from the fact that he could see your thoughts so clearly on your face. You and your family would be dishonored if you returned unsuccessful. It would also be unfavorable to the prince to appear compassionate to would-be assassins.

“It would,” you answered. “But I do not think the ransom would be paid.”

“No? Not for a young woman as fierce and cunning as yourself? Not for someone so precious?”

Your eyes flicked up to his at this curious word. You watched him, suspicious, as he slid out of his chair and knelt in front of you.

“I think you’re quite frightened of either choice: being sent home or being held here. I don’t want you to be frightened. Maybe the Crone had a purpose for bringing you here.”

You felt your breath catch. He looked so sincere. He was intoxicating but you believed him. You didn’t want to feel relief at the prospect of no longer sneaking, hiding, being a stowaway, but you did. Almost instantly, you imagined a hot bath, a dress and not these rags, and food that wasn’t brown. Then something else flashed in your mind and the heat returned to your face.

Daemon slowly reached out to you and stroked the side of your face. He skimmed a lock of your hair with his fingers, watching it catch the light. Its deep brown shown with hints of gold. You studied him closely. When he turned his gaze back to you, your heart pounded in your chest. His eyes searched yours as he cupped your cheek in his palm.

“Gevie,” he whispered. You thought it was High Valyrian but you weren’t sure. Your lips parted almost involuntarily as you looked up at him. He leaned toward you, silver hair cascading off his shoulders. You felt his lips on yours and closed your eyes.

His hand holding your face felt safe. His lips were warm and tasted of pear. You dared not move. You were overwhelmed and confused. However, there twisted in your belly some need, some desire for him. Your chest ached with the delicious feeling of being safe. You didn’t question how this was possible so far away from home and with your “enemy” no less. So you kissed him back.

Daemon slid his other hand to frame your face. His kiss wasn’t rough, but it was deep. You had kissed men before, you were experienced in the most basic of ways. You realized now that all the men before had not kissed you, they didn’t see you. They saw a Yronwood daughter or practice for their marriage beds. You had made those choices willingly. You weren’t concerned with being married for political reasons and had enjoyed your freedom. Until now. In this moment, you felt… precious.

Tentatively, you raised a hand to him, your fingertips grazed his jaw and neck, and came to rest on his chest. He slid his hands from your cheeks as he broke the kiss. As if waiting for your permission, Daemon rested his hands on your upper arms. You kissed him in answer. His arms swept around you and scooped you up as he stood. Your head spun but you steadied yourself by putting your hands on the back of his neck.

Daemon sat you on his bed and smoothed your hair back from your face. He stepped back and pulled his shirt over his head. He dropped it on the floor as he leaned down to kiss you. You made room for him on the bed, drawing him toward you with your kisses. He knelt between your legs, kissed your neck, and slid a hand under your shirt. You arched your back, pressing into his palm.

He brushed the underside of your breasts with the tips of his fingers and his other hand glided up your ribs. He pushed your shirt up above your breasts, fixated on your hardened nipples. His hair slid over your chest as he took one nipple in his mouth. He propped himself up on one hand and cupped your breast with the other. You moaned and writhed under him. You instinctively ran your fingers through his hair and held him against you. Daemon groaned and the sound vibrated from your chest to your core. When he pulled away you realized you had been grinding against his leg and flushed. He smiled down at you.

Wordlessly, he guided you to raise your arms so he could remove your shirt. Then he began to unlace your breeches. You watched his muscles move as he slid your pants off. You lifted your hips and giggled a little when you plopped back down on the bed as he tugged them off your legs. You weren’t shy but the action was awkward and you were quite exposed now. He tossed the breeches on the floor and smoothed a hand up your thigh. He stared, rapt, at the dark hair between your legs, so different from the silver of his own.

You bit your lip as you looked from his face, down his chest, and to the evidence of his arousal. His breeches looked uncomfortably tight now. His hands absently stroked your legs and your lower belly but paused as you sat up. You held him between your legs. When you kissed his stomach he hissed in air through his teeth. Your hands grazed over his hips and to the laces in the front of his pants. You let your fingertips glide over the shape of his erection before undoing the knot. You kissed seemingly every inch of his stomach then looked up at him as your hand dipped inside. His face was curtained by his hair as he looked down at you. You smiled as you stroked him.

Daemon moved his hands from your legs, smoothed over your hair, and then gently pressed your shoulders back. You laid down, already missing the feeling of him in your hands, but the sight of him between your legs was almost as pleasant. He leaned over you, kissing your forehead gently, then your lips, and pressed his forehead against yours.

You gasped as his fingers slid between the lips of your cunt. He licked his lips and continued to explore your wetness. Stroking, searching, learning. He circled your opening, your clit, and back again. One finger slid in easily and he grinned. You lifted your mouth to his as you lifted your hips to his hand. He slid in a second finger.

“You are so tight, little one,” he grinned down at you. You rocked your hips against his hand and moaned in reply. You placed one hand on his arm, pulling him deeper into you. With the other you smoothed his hair behind his ear and trailed your fingers down his jaw. You drug your fingertips over his lips. His eyes were dark as he watched you pleasure yourself on his hand.

“More, Daemon, please,” you moaned, saying his name for the first time. Hearing his name come from your lips pleased him immensely.

“Say it again,” he breathed as he curled his fingers inside you.

“Daemon, please.”

Slowly and with a tinge of disappointment on his face, he pulled his fingers from you. He was enjoying the sight of you but couldn’t wait any longer. He freed his cock from his breeches. Then he slid his hands up your thighs to your lower back. As he sat back he guided you onto his lap. The transition was clumsy at first, legs bumping and twisting. You both smiled as you held onto his shoulders. When you knelt over him you rubbed your clit against his cock. You rested your lips against his forehead as you rocked your lips. You moved your mouth nearer to his ear and murmured his name.

Daemon lifted your ass and placed you above his cock. With one hand between you, he guided himself into you. You sank down onto him slowly, watching his face. He clenched his jaw tight. You felt his hand move back to your ass. He let you set the pace, let you move against him. You pulled up and then sank down again, taking all of him. The moan that came from your lips was lewd and deep. You clutched at his neck, the back of his head, fingers entwined in his hair. He groaned but did not move to meet your hips. You rocked back, then forward, finding your rhythm.

He kissed your chest and breasts. His hands stroked your ass and lower back, constantly moving. You leaned forward slightly and pressed yourself against him. At this angle he wasn’t as deep in you, but you found friction against his stomach. You ground your hips into him, almost, but not quite able to get what you needed.

“Seven hells,” he panted against you. His hips had begun to move in time with yours. Your fingers twisted tighter in his hair and you tried to find that much-needed angle again. When he realized what you needed he slid a hand between you. You threw your head back as his fingers circled your clit. You sped up, fucking him hard. He kept pace with you, circling and pressing his fingers against you. You couldn’t keep a steady rhythm. You felt him brace your lower back with his hand and pull you closer to him, steadying you, supporting you. You felt your climax tug at your core and sank further onto his cock with each stroke.

“Come for me,” Daemon whispered into your neck. You did. You cried his name, clinched your fists in his hair, and buried your face against his head. You sank all the way down onto him, thighs resting on his as you shook. Your cunt spasmed around his cock but he didn’t stop moving his fingers. He pressed into you with his hips, rocking under you, and bringing forth tiny gasps from you. You lips found his and you panted into his mouth. Tiny sounds mingled with his name flew out of your mouth with every movement of his fingers.

When you thought the overstimulation might be too much he moved his hand from between you. He slid his hand under your arm and pulled you down onto him by your shoulder. A new wave of pleasure crashed into you as he spilled into you. His hips stilled, holding his cock deep inside you. He came panting and moaning your name.

You wanted to sink all of your weight onto him. It took too much effort to support yourself on your aching knees. Neither of you wanted to move yet, though both of you needed to. You released your hands from his hair. You kissed him and smoothed his hair back from his face.

You smiled at him as you rose shakily from his lap. He helped you as much as he could, but your legs were numb and your head was empty. You all but fell back onto the pillows. He watched you grind your hips against the air as the last of your climax left you. His eyes were locked on his seed sliding out of you. He leaned forward, his legs shaking as well. You watched him through half-closed eyes and settled yourself on the bed. His fingers slid through his cum and you twitched as he grazed your throbbing clit. He looked into your blue eyes as he gathered more of it on his fingers. You smiled seductively as he leaned over you and raised his fingers to your lips.

You opened your mouth, your eyes never leaving his, and he painted your tongue with his seed. You closed your lips around his fingers and let him feel you swallow. He slid his fingers out and surprised you by kissing you deeply, tasting himself in your mouth.

You moaned into the kiss and wrapped your legs around his waist. You playfully pulled his weight on top of you. He let you but also guided you both to lay on your sides. Your legs intertwined and you were a tangle of limbs for a moment. Then you buried your face into his chest and breathed in deeply. You sighed as he smoothed your hair and rested his chin on the top of your head. You were quite small in his arms. Daemon breathed deeply as he stroked down your back, your buttocks, and up again. You curled against him, one hand between you, the other resting on his hip.

“I have you now, little one,” he murmured against the top of your head.

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bohemian-nights · 3 months

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do you (personally) think show baela&rhaena even like daemon?

It’s clear that baela still feels a sense of loyalty to him given by the letter she wrote to him in ep8, but I personally think that loyalty is just bc he’s her ‘father.’ what do you think? 🤔

😬For all his faults(I know a deadbeat when I see one. Daemon is a deadbeat. No ifs ands or buts about it. Anyone who doesn’t think he’s a deadbeat probably feels that the dad has to be completely MIA to be considered one when that isn’t always the case) Baela seems to admire her dad a great deal. It’s not just that she is in constant, but you also have that deleted scene where she tells Rhaenys she wants to fight and be like her, her mother, and her father.

The fact that she’s ranking Daemon up there with her mother and her grandmother(the true father who stepped up) says a lot. I’m sure she feels some level of resentment for how he treated her mother, but With her, it definitely goes beyond plain loyalty.

Rhaena is a bit trickier because she has had all of two lines as a teenager, but it’s obvious that when she was a child she felt severely neglected by him and wished to do whatever she could to make him notice her. I doubt that anything has changed in the past six years to rectify the situation. Scratch that, nothing has changed in the past six years because of anything had Daemon would call out Rhaenyra for treating his daughter like Cinderella.

If that’s not enough for some people, I’ll let y’all in. Do you see Rhaena’s hair? Do you see how it’s been the same for years on end? Black girls do not wear our hair in the same style for years on end let alone a couple of months. You know what causes that? Depression and neglect.

You saw how she perked up when those wild dragons were mentioned. The poor girl is in desperate need of attention, love, and affection. She still wants to be noticed by him. she’ll grow out of it(when she becomes a lady of house Hightower 😏), but for now she just wants him to be her dad.

Now, to be honest, the show is probably never going to address these issues. At most we might get Daemon saying goodbye to Baela, but Daemon apologizing to Rhaena? Nope. Rhaena expressing to Daemon that she wants to be seen by him? I doubt it.

All we’ll get is what we got last season because this show would rather pretend like Daemon didn’t have any children with Laena(and I’m not getting into that, but the showrunners clearly have a bias towards certain people). I’ll eat crow if I’m wrong, but I doubt I will be.

How I don’t hate Daemon is a freaking miracle cause this man is just 🙃 He literally does not pay attention to his children. Well the girls at least, but that’s okay. According to the dummies, Daemon only loves his children by the love of his life(who he choked out) Valyrian Karen. The girls aren’t Missy Anne’s so why should he pay any attention to them 👍🏽

Which brings me to how on God’s green earth anyone can say or think that Nettles will be Daemmon’s child. Dameon doesn’t pay attention to his legitimate fully Valyrian daughters why the hell would he pay attention to Nettles? She’s definitely not Rhaenyra’s child. She’s not even fully Valyrian. Why would he be rolling out the red carpet for her🙃 Make it make sense.

#bnasks #bnask #baela targaryen #daemon targaryen #rhaena targaryen

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themonotonysyndrome · 3 years

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REDACTED verse - A special night

Prompt: Any Fandom | Any Characters/Pairings | Ordering a sweet treat to be delivered to the other person at home/work

Word Count: 2,136

Author/Team: LadyMonotone

Fandom/Original: Redacted ASMR (Gavin/Freelancer. Vincent Solaire/Lovely)

Rating: T

Triggers: NA

Summary: Having an Incubus boyfriend comes with many perks. The Freelancer and Lovely really should have seen it coming.

ConCrit: Y

Well, I guess this can be a sequel to my previous oneshot, REDACTED verse - Those that stood above the rest. I really wanted to write the Freelancer and Lovely interacting after their first, proper meeting so this oneshot suddenly comes to mind!

Exam week is the bane of every student, everywhere — even for the magical ones.

An uneasy atmosphere lingers around D.A.M.N as the current semester hurl the students into an intense week of revisions, study groups, and extra classes; all for the upcoming exams.

The seniors are frantically cramming for their final papers and projects under the watchful eyes of the lecturers. The Freelancer doesn't envy them one bit when they caught a Sonal Energetic screamed into his backpack for a solid ten minutes.

His scream shakes the student lounge, and the windows shattered.

Once he got that out of his system, he focused back towards his textbook, expressionless. The rest of the students around the Energetic hardly bat an eye over what just happened.

On that day, the Freelancer learned to avoid a large group of seniors until the exam week blows over.

"The tension alone in that lounge could make a Serenity Daemon hide underneath a bed." The Freelancer narrates their experience to Lovely. The two of them are currently having their own study session over at the Freelancer's apartment.

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and yet here they are - flipping through textbooks, reviewing and swapping notes and downing cans of coffee and Red Bulls from as early as 9 AM. "Even the janitor wasn't fazed by it. He just snapped his fingers, and the windows were good as new!"

That night after their proper introduction, Lovely and the Freelancer had become quite good friends, much to Vincent's annoyance and Gavin's pleased smirk when the Freelancer told him that Lovely would be coming over for their study session.

"Aww, look you, Deviant. Arranging a little study date with that friend of yours," Gavin teased during breakfast this morning. They both woke up early to prepare meals that could last the Freelancer and Lovely throughout the whole day. When his Deviant absentmindedly replied, "Uh-huh" as they were busy chopping the vegetables, Gavin couldn't help but plant a fond kiss on top of their head. "Anyway, I'll be popping into Aria for a bit today. A few of my, ah, older brothers and sisters called for a meeting. Can I trust that you two won't be having too much fun without me?"

The Freelancer stopped chopping to gave their boyfriend a deadpan stare. "Gavin, we'll be studying." They explained. "Our first paper is literally next week. So I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but there won't be any fucking happening." They then stop themselves. They suddenly recalled something. "I don't want to be on that Solaire Prince's hit list too."

Gavin just cooed at their disgruntled partner, as if the genuine possibility that the both of them being shred to pieces by Lovely's possessive boyfriend amused him.

Nonetheless, Gavin pulled his weight to ensure there was enough food and comfortable pillows and blankets in their shared apartment so that his Deviant and the Electro Energetic would be comfortable for their revisions.

An hour before Lovely arrived, Gavin kissed the Freelancer goodbye and Rifted into his home dimension.

And now we're back in the present.

"I think those students around that guy were his classmates," Lovely commented. They take a quick sip of the lemonade that Gavin prepared to refresh their parched throat. Even in a simple pair of slacks, baggy t-shit, and hair pulled up in a bun, they still look as breathtaking as ever. "They reacted as if it was like a regular Tuesday for them. It's so crazy to think that we'll be seniors like them soon."

The Freelancer pours more lemonade into their glass from the pitcher beside them. Their books, notebooks and snacks are spread all over the dining table. A large and fluffy pillow is propped behind the Freelancer so they can lean back on their chair comfortably. "Urgh, mood. I can already imagine the coursework we'll be forced to do in our final semester." They groan. Their brain is fried from all the information and notes they've been reviewing since this morning. On top of that, the thought that they will be getting even more work once they hit their senior year is starting to freak them out.

Seeing the Freelancer is having an internal crisis, Lovely quickly glance at the time on their phone and decides, "OK, I think we seriously need a break. You look like you're going to pull a stunt similar to that Sonal Energetic, and I don't think your boyfriend appreciates coming back to a half-destroyed apartment."

"Gavin can fix the apartment with his magic, don't worry." The Freelancer is quick to assure Lovely. "He did that after he and Vega trashed the place anyway."

"Uh, what? Who's Vega?"

The Freelancer snapped their attention back to Lovely once they realised the name that they accidentally dropped. "N-Nothing! I didn't s-say anything!" They laugh awkwardly, doing their best to brush off Lovely's concerned expression. "Anyway, break! Yeah! That's a good idea! Are you hungry? We can watch something on Youtube and eat in the living room. You're OK with that?"

Lovely gingerly nods; it's best not to comment or ask about this Vega person since the name alone made their friend jumpy. They push their chair back, stretch their stiff spine, and get up to help set the plates and cutleries while the Freelancer heats the lunch they made in the morning.

They then move to the living room with a tray of food and drinks, where the couch and coffee table are surrounded by pillows and blankets thrown around messily.

"You play video games, right?" The Freelancer asked after Lovely settle down on the couch with a blanket over their lap. "Do you want to watch a playthrough or something?"

"Sure! Do you and Gavin play video games too?"

"Gavin does, though he usually only plays those dating sim games for girls. It's a guilty pleasure of his."

"Oh, Otome Games? My respect for your boyfriend just levelled up. Has he ever played Hatoful Boyfriend?"

"Uh... I don't remember he ever mentioned that title. What is it about?"

"We're watching a playthrough of that game. Right now. You can watch it with me, but you can't tell Gavin anything, OK? I promise you're going to love his reactions."

Lovely's eyes light up with glee and grin widely as the Freelancer switch on the Smart TV. When thumbnails of pigeons with pink hearts in the background pop up on the screen, they immediately throw an incredulous look at the Energetic.

"That top playlist is good to watch. Come on, sit beside me." Lovely pats on the empty spot on the couch beside them, unperturbed at the look the Freelancer is giving them. "I think you're going to like Okosan."

The Freelancer press play on the first video and kick back on the couch with the Energetic. What's better than having a break after a long study session? Hanging out with a friend with some good food while watching a crazy romance video game about pigeons!

However, when the fourth video starts to play, the doorbell rings.

"Uh... are you expecting someone?" Lovely asks curiously; their head is tilting towards the door. Their plate of eggplant pasta and buttered abalones are polished on their lap. The Freelancer internally preened when they enthusiastically complimented on theirs and Gavin's cooking skills.

Anyway, the Freelancer moves their empty tray onto the coffee table and flip over the blanket to get up. "Not really. Gavin said he'll be coming back home at night." They explain and went towards the door when the doorbell ring once more.

A delivery man greets the Freelancer with a stoic face, an armful of flower bouquet, and a thick, rectangular item wrapped in hot red packaging.

"I, uh, think you got the wrong address?" They said, confused to hell and back.

The delivery man blinks, unfaze at the Freelancer's greeting. "Good afternoon. Delivery for..." He pauses to read the card attached to the bouquet. "Deviant? We received a request from Gavin to arrange a flower bouquet and some... special chocolates. He also left a message for you: My Deviant has been working so hard lately~ So I got you something to... help you relax. PS: give some of the special chocolates to that gorgeous friend of yours and their boyfriend."

The Freelancer could only gape when the delivery man finished reciting Gavin's message. From the living room, Lovely is also doing an excellent mimicking of a goldfish. Their stunned expression made the man sigh tiredly. "Look, I'm not going to judge your... bedroom activities. Just take the packages already. I still have more stops to deliver."

"O-Oh my god! I'm really, really sorry about my boyfriend!" The Freelancer finally snaps out of it and stammers an apology. Their face is bright red. They hurriedly accept the flowers and package, shoot a quick thank you and slams the door shut.

Lovely watches as the Freelancer stares into the bouquet with a mixed feeling, something between fondness and extreme embarrassment, before they scream into the large sunflowers.

They patiently wait for the Freelancer to get it out of their system before Lovely delicately asks, "So, uh, does Gavin do these sort of things often?"

"No. This is the first time ever." The Freelancer replies. Their voice is muffled because the flowers are still pressed onto their face. "That's what I get for dating an Incubus, I supposed..."

"Aww, don't be embarrassed, dude! I think it's super sweet how much Gavin loves you. Flowers and chocolates? Boy got some serious game; might even give Vincent a run for his money, and you should've seen how we first met."

The Freelancer peeks through the petals and is relieved to find that Lovely wasn't put off by Gavin's forward nature. In fact, they are very accepting of the Freelancer and Gavin's relationship.

Feeling the warmth on their cheeks slowly disappearing, the Freelancer made their way back to the couch. The rectangular package is tossed onto the couch, and the bouquet is on the coffee table. The Freelancer figured they could put the fresh flowers in a water-filled vase later.

"The guy said that Gavin sent you some chocolates?" Lovely reiterate as the Freelancer began to untie the ribbon and unwraps the box.

"Special chocolates, and knowing Gavin, I kinda have an idea of what kind of chocolates they are." They admit and make quick work of tearing the paper wrappings.

Apparently, Gavin ordered two types of chocolates for his Deviant. One box holds a fancy gourmet assortment of salted almonds dipped in rich Belgium chocolate, double chocolate raspberry truffles, vanilla pieces powdered with light matcha and some white praliné hearts.

Lovely whistle, impressed over the spread. "Your boyfriend really went all out for you!"

The box below it contains rows of heart-shaped chocolates, but the short message written on the card of said box proves it's anything but ordinary treats.

'These are homemade chocolates made by one of my close associates. She's a Succubus, by the way, and renowned for her aphrodisiac desserts. You can try some first if your Energetic friend doesn't mind being a voyeur.'

The Freelancer promptly throws away the card and cues them, and Lovely shrieking in embarrassment. Neither of them expects the second batch of chocolates.

"These are sexy chocolates? Like, legit aphrodisiac chocolates made with magic!? Oh my god, I didn't know they were a thing!"

"I didn't either! I was expecting sex toys below the chocolates!"

"Wait - didn't Gavin wants to give these to Vincent and me!? Dude, does he has a thing for Vincent? Because at this point, I should tell you: he noticed that Gavin was purposely riling us up when they first met, and he's been thinking that your boyfriend is out to get him. But, uh, not in the sexy way, but I'm thinking otherwise now. And if that's the case, then you can warn that Incubus to be ready and catch these hands."

The Freelancer groans and hides their face in their hands. "OK, you know what? I'm going to put the special chocolates in the fridge, and then we'll continue watching a few more videos from the playthrough and get back to studying."

"... You're in denial."

"I'm just trying to keep whatever sanity I have left. It's been a crazy year."

"Urgh, tell me about it."

That night, at Lovely's and Vincent's apartment:

"Vincent, baby? I'm back. Look what I got!"

"Welcome home, Lovely. Dinner's ready if you're hungry. Hmm? What's that?"

"It's homemade aphrodisiac chocolates made by a Succubus. Gavin and the Freelancer gave some to us."

"...I'm gonna punch that Incubus in his smug ass face."

"...Does that mean you don't want them in the bedroom tonight?"

"OK, I'll punch him tomorrow. C'mere, Lovely. I've missed you."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

#redacted asmr #fanfic #they/them pronouns #gender neutral s/o #freelancer (listener)#lovely (listener)#gavin #vincent solaire

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secret-engima · 4 years

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spideypoolalways

Does Regis ever ask how Titus has papers for the boys? Whats Cor or Clarus' PoV of this? What are some things (fluff or humor) that the boys get up to? Because I can see them getting adopted into the Ulric Clan because of shenanigans and Nyx going 'Yes, these are my people' since LCs just remind me of Ulrics with magic. And how do the Galatians take to the nephew of the Nif Chancellor and clone of the Crown Prince? Since I'm imagining that Titus told some of them and the

spideypoolalways

rest are guessing anyway. And does everyone assume that Noctis and Nox's magics resonated since they're kinda sorta close to each other/are the same person? How does Regis take the news that the only reason that Noctis got healed is because Nox pretty much felt everything Noctis did? /Both/ of his sons were basically attacked by a daemon and he only knew about one of them at the time and didn't do anything to calm or reassure Nox? (Clarus: Only because you didn't know

spideypoolalways

About him, Regis. Regis: Thats no excuse, Clarus.) Does Iris get to be a Shield or did Nox latch onto Axis or one of his kids? Does Acastus find Prompting and drop him off with Noct/Cor? Does Nox hang out with Noct, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prom all the time or does the memories act up enough to make him feel weird about it? How does Regis take his brother and son's Sick Days? What about Dissidia? The 3 youngest Royals getting snatched and the group watching on Crystal

spideypoolalways

Vision? Dad Titus/Regis freaking out over their kids having been summoned to a death match? And how exactly does Titus see the boys? Sons, brothers, cousins? Oooh, more Trauma. Noct, Nox and Acastus w/others playing and end up in the Crystal room. Cue the boys lighting up, maybe passing out because the magic hits their young system really hard (its why Royals aren't supposed to be Presented until 18) and everyone freaks out, and news makes it to Regis and Titus that they

spideypoolalways

Are in the infirmary and the gist of what happened via panicked guards and rush there immediately and are jumped by panicked kids talking and crying about what happened. I didn't realize I had so many questions. But now I need to know. 👀👀 Please!🙏

spideypoolalways

Oh! Just remembered a little more! Does anyone pick up on the people/places that he shouldn't know? Do they assume that Nox got some of it from Noct, like with the Marelith? Or are they assuming LC/ Oracle DNA mix?

Me: Yes, Regis asks about the papers and Titus doesn’t OUTRIGHT admit he did an illegal but he does grudgingly explain that he needed papers in case the NIfs came looking and he ... knows ... a few people who can help ... “recreate” papers for refugees who lost theirs in whatever fire or tragedy drove them from their homes.

Regis mulls over that for ten long seconds then blatantly pretends he never heard it in the first place. Those “people” likely saved the life of his son and half-brother, he can let it slide this once.

I need Nyx Ulric to adopt these two now JUST so Nyx can tease that he’s related to Captain (then later when he learns that they’re Lucis Caelums he can quietly die in a corner because OH NO HE’S RELATED TO THE KING). Not sure how or when Nyx adopts them, but he absolutely does.

It probably happens when he's just a wee bit sloshed. Not enough to be incoherent or insincere, but enough that he doesn’t feel any fear offering to adopt the pair while babysitting them because Captain had to work late and Nyx is off the combat roster until his ankle heals. Once he’s sober he is a Panic™, but Captain takes it surprisingly well and Nox loves his new braid. Acastus just looks Amused™.

Lib slaps Nyx over the head because IDIOT THINK THIS STUFF THROUGH then gives him another drink because TWO MORE ULRICS. It’s a good thing Nyx is an Ulric Keeper in this AU, because he can teach them most of the Ulric Clan stories and dances and make them proper Ulrics.

Acastus loves introducing himself as Acastus Ulric Drautos, both because it’s fancy like “Lucis Caelum” is and also because it made both Titus and Nyx spit their coffee the first time they hear it.

The Galahdians ... have mixed feelings at first. But the predominant one is that it doesn’t matter that this kid is clearly related to the Chancellor (at first they all think the Chancellor bedded Captain’s Aunt, since they don’t know about the LC blood, and that’s why he looks like Ardyn) because Captain has clearly staked a claim on him. Galahd (in my HCs) is a Very Adoption Heavy culture and big on judging people by their current family rather than any previous blood ties, so ... mostly the Chancellor thing gets intensely ignored. Acastus isn’t an Izunia, he’s a Drautos (and then later an Ulric). So they will treat him as such.

But in private there is some debate on exactly what happened, for the Chancellor to vanish around the time his ... relation (son? They mostly assume son), shows up in Drautos’s care.

No few number of them think Titus stumbled on Ardyn with the two kids and killed the Chancellor to save them.

For Nox ... the Lucis Caelum blood is basically impossible to hide. This boy LOOKS like a literal carbon copy of the Prince but younger and he’s young so his control over his magic is ... not. Not that good. Especially not when there’s so mUCH of it.

All of Galahd listened to the Glaive who was on babysitting duty when Nox had a rare tantrum and skewered the wall with ghostly blades and all privately, immediately agree to Never Tell Anyone. Ever.

Well. To be fair, they do debate whether they have a duty to tell Regis, but again the Adoption Culture comes into play and they decide it’s up to Titus to spill that secret. A few Glaives do ask Titus about it (Titus nearly has a heart attack because SINCE WHEN DID THEY KNOW) and when they ask if they know who the mother was, Titus looks very grim and very, very quiet for a long time, then admits:

There is no mother. There never was.

They stare at him in confusion until Acastus, lurking nearby with too-sharp eyes, gives a smile that could cut and says brittlely that “amazing things that can be done with science these days you know. Truly amazing. Why, get a blood sample and a tank of the right solutions and you could probably grow anything you wanted”.

The Glaives are Horrified™. So is the rest of Little Galahd when it gets around and then is made a Clan Secret by all the Clans unanimously. The secret never leaves the borders of their little slum.

Also yes, people assume that Noctis’s and Nox’s magic resonated because Nox is a clone and it freaks them out.

Regis is Such A Guilt when he finds out how Acastus knew about Noctis’s injury. No it doesn’t matter that he DIDN’T KNOW NOX EXISTED. One of his son’s (his FIVE YEAR OLD son) was suffering. Was screaming in agony and terror and Regis didn’t do a THING about it and no amount of logic can make that better.

Nox latches onto Axis’s triplets in this AU so while Iris will be best friends with him, his Shield, Hand, and Sword are actually all made up of Axis’s three kids. Axis is a BIT of an internal Scream when Nox is at the age people start making noises about him building a Retinue and taking Iris as his Shield and Nox goes, “NO. I have a Shield already! A Hand and Sword too!” And stuff spirals out to reveal Axis as Clarus’s kid (Clarus takes it much better than Axis thought he would, tho Axis didn’t expect to see Lord Amicitia go deathly pale and sit down hard in the nearest chair).

Honestly Iris might be the future love interest in this AU you never know. It would be hilarious if nothing else.

Bold of you to assume Acastus didn’t find Prompto early and bring him home to NOX because “Look Beloved Nibling I Found You A Friend!”. Prompto is a confusion because Nox is like- 4 at the time. But Prompto likes babysitting and playing with Nox and hearing Acastus’s stories and Titus just kinda- sighs his way through the playdates until he realizes that Prompto has been staying in his house for about two weeks with no sign of the parents.

Titus, after much snooping later, sitting at the kitchen table of Grandma Ostium quietly pulling his hair out: HOW DO YOU ADOPT A THIRD CHILD. DOES IT COUNT AS KIDNAPPING IF THEY COME OVER AND STAY WITH YOU FOREVER AND THE LEGAL PARENTS NEVER NOTICE. ACASTUS WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME.

Acastus: I regret nothing. Do you want me to fake Prompto’s death? I’m sure there’s enough Prompto’s out there that nobody will notice if you gain a nephew called Prompto Drautos.

Titus, holding his face in his hands while Grandma Ostium laughs at him in the corner: NO, ACASTUS. DO NOT FAKE THE DEATH OF THE CHILD. How do you even know how to do that? Nevermind I don’t want to know.

Roughly a year later when Everything Gets Revealed, Titus and Cor: *intense staring contest over Smol Blond Child*

Cor: You don��t know where he-

Titus, growling like a cranky Behemoth that might very well bite off someone’s head: He’s a Niflheim created clone. I know.

Cor: ....

Titus: He's been living in my house for a year. I’ve seen the barcode. It’s not like I wasn’t raising one already.

Cor: His legal parents-

Titus: Is me. The Argentums were emotionally neglectful and didn’t even notice when he hadn’t come home for a week and a half.

Cor: *guilty angry silence*

Titus: ...Kid could use an uncle. If you want to man up and be part of his life.

(hgfhg this is post is getting long Imma try to speed through the last questions a bit)

Yes, Nox hangs out with the Chocobros when he can because he adores them (especially Brother Prompto and Team Mom Iggy) but he also has his own friend group in the Little Galahd community so it doesn’t strike anyone as odd really. Nox is a naturally loving child for all he’s shy and Iggy and Gladio are Noctis’s friends and Prompto is his adopted brother (and later Noctis’s best friend).

Regis does Not take the Sick Days well. It makes him alarmed and angry because Lucis Caelums aren’t supposed to get sick days from their own magic and it speaks of BAD THINGS that both of the presumably experimented on and tortured LCs have them.

I’m going to have to come back to Dissidia another time (someone remind me) because this post is too long to ramble here but it would be- it would be Great. Honestly. It would either be the 3 littlest, just Acastus, or just Acastus and REGIS for some brotherly bonding and any of them would be Great and Chaotic. Crystal-o-vision absolutely happens.

The Crystal Room is under 24 hour guard so I don’t think the kids could wander in by accident, plus Acastus would actively avoid the area because of his Trauma.

Now Acastus being presented when he turns 18 on the other hand... >:))))))

Short Version: Much shouting, much alarm, much angst from Regis and Titus and everyone and also the first Sick Day Acastus has had since he turned 17 and by far one of the worst he’s ever had in his (second) life.

I might to a longer version later but not right now.

For Nox’s oddities and odd knowledge they kind of assume both? At first they think it’s just him resonating with Noctis so deeply that there’s a transfer (cue angst from Regis because what is going to happen to Nox when Noctis fulfills his destiny as Chosen King???) but then when Nox starts knowing stuff Noctis doesn’t/can’t know, they start to wonder if the scientists ... Tampered with his DNA. If they got their hands on Noctis’s, which should have been impossible, then it’s not all that out there they got their hands on Oracle DNA.

Sylva is ... very alarmed and very confused when Regis secretly contacts her on a secure encrypted line to ask if there were any ... symptoms to look for in an Oracle child. Because- yes there were but WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

Regis: they wouldn’t happen to be *lists very specific things*

Sylva: ....Have you seen any Messengers nearby lately.

Regis: Carbuncle, a black puppy that disappears into thin air, and a bird woman who can summon wind storms. She calls herself Garuda.

Sylva, having a minor crisis behind her Queenly Facade: I am Very Sure I only have two children so please explain this. Right Now.

Regis: Well............. NiflheimclonedmysonandIthinkmixeditwiththednaofyouoryourdaughterandhehasseerpowersandImayormaynotbepanickingrightnowpleasehelpme.

Sylva, slowly running that over in her mind and figuring out what Regis just said:...

W H A T.

XD Honestly Niflheim might invade Tenebrae only to find the royal family gone because Sylva coincidentally packed her backs and took her and her children on a secret trip to Lucis to have a look at Nox, then since they’re there when Niflheim invades and a spy gets word on what just happened Sylva and Co just- stay there. Oracle Mom Death averted.

Also they absolutely think that it’s Luna’s DNA they used to make Nox because of how instantly Nox gloms onto Luna like a limpet- JUST like he did with Noctis and Regis, and how Luna gets this dazed look in her eyes as their magic tangles and she whispers, “I ... I know you. I know you, don’t I Little Prince? I met you in a dream.” Luna starts crying softly as she pets Nox’s hair and when Sylva asks in alarm why she’s crying, Luna blinks and whispers, “Because he was crying in the dream, and I couldn’t comfort him.”

Acastus lurks in the shadows, watching it all with ... very mixed feelings.

Oracles. He could have gone his entire second life without meeting anymore Oracles. Aera she looks so much like you is that what our daughter would have looked like and oh astrals I KILLED her. I killed the girl with your eyes and your smile and laughed about it later.

#Secret Engima Rambles #Sweet Sixteen verse #Nox verse #long post

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doubled-helix · 6 years

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book thoughts: the hearts we sold (spoilers)

the hearts we sold, emily lloyd-jones

(disclaimer: all of this is my opinion because i decided it’s better for my own writing to reflect upon books i read (thanks college profs). in fact, i’m not even putting it in the main tags so no one should be reading this except future me anyways)

overarching conflict: all books should have one of these. usually it’s to defeat the big bad, which doesn’t quite fit this novel since there wasn’t one defined big bad. i mean, there were the burrowers, which were pretty creepy, but i’m personally fond of the classic puppetmaster villain, who pulls the strings and monologues and bemoans the state of the world or whatnot. think the mage in carry on or luke/kronos in the pjo series. call me old-fashioned.

my prof told us that books, especially sci-fi/fantasy ones, should have a looming threat that’s constantly hanging over the heroes even as they defeat or are defeated by many smaller threats. like harry facing quirrel, tom riddle/the basilisk, the dementors/sirius black/peter pettigrew (the “one true baddie” was a bit more vague in thisone) - all the while knowing that voldemort’s the final boss.

in this book, i guess you could say the final big void was the ultimate baddie, but considering neither our main gal nor us knew about this until three quarters of the way through the book, it wasn’t exactly a looming threat, even as the characters did close many smaller voids (the in-between threats books have - the ones between the exposition and climax). i say a bit more about this later, but i think the lack of a dominant big bad may be one of the reasons the book felt stagnant for a good portion of the first half. this, combined with the lack of strong motive dee had - well. it certainly slowed things down.

things that didn’t work: 1. the “team”: i’m a sucker for a tight-knit group of people who’d kill to protect each other, who poke fun and laugh and joke around à la avatar the last airbender. i’m even more of a sucker for found families, also like avatar the last airbender. but this book’s “team” absolutely did not work for me, and the most probable cause i can think of is that the author just didn’t let us spend enough time with them.

the main dude james had been with cal and cora for almost two years, and i got none of that from the way he talked about them. in fact, main gal dee actually says that she’s glad james and her have a closer bond than the other two - which, sure, romance, i get it, but if you want to make a dream team you can’t throw half of its members into the wind.

when cal died, that evoked nothing in me as a reader because i cared about him as much as dee did, and she maybe shared 20 lines total with the guy. similarly, she barely interacted with cora, who was supposed to be the leader, but other than the author telling us that she was the “leader,” there was nothing showing her fulfilling that role. i absolutely hate saying this because it’s the most cliche advice one can offer but “show not tell.” if you want to show a fall from grace, from cool and collected cora to frantic and panicking cora, you gotta show us the grace first.

riley: don’t get me wrong, i fucking love riley, but she didn’t show up until 70% of the way through the book. and there was a sort of insta-friendship between her, james, and dee. at one point towards the end, she says something like “if we die tonight, i’m glad i met you two” which would be very nice if they hadn’t met 20 pages ago. (i feel like i should note, a few weeks did pass world-wise, but that really doesn’t do much for the reader, who didn’t get to feel any of that time)

it would have been fantastic to have riley with us from the very beginning. her relationship with james and dee felt like it actually had the potential to blossom into that dream team/found family thing. cal and cora felt like they had their own separate lives, which is fantastic in reality because no one should spend all their time with a single group of people, but the thing about stories in my experience is that to be effective, everything - every interaction or desire or situation - should be Too Much.

also, riley seemed a little too cool with everything that was happening. it took dee at least a few weeks to accept the whole voids and homunculus and world-ending thing, but riley was like “fantastic, let’s do this, i can blow things up” which was a bit sudden.

cora: i mentioned already how she was the “leader” but didn’t really do anything to show that, but also - i felt like we were supposed to feel sorry for her, or at least understand her motives, but i got absolutely none of that. she killed cal, who i didn’t feel much for, but it was still fairly unforgivable, and she never had an act of redemption. i’ll talk about this later, but i feel like james’s sacrifice at the end should have been hers. she wanted “everyone to live,” that was her motive. sacrificing herself would have been the loop to close her character arc, instead of her just dropping out of the story completely. and speaking of motive...

2. the motive: oh boy, i don’t even think i have authority to talk about this because “motive” is a biggie. they have entire writing courses dedicated to character motives. i read a post a while back that said something to the like of “every character should want something and should want it to the point of obsession.”

going on my avatar the last airbender comparison (that show’s story is literally my baseline for everything else i read or watch), every character in that show wants something desperately. aang’s is easy - he wants to learn the other three elements and save the world. katara, at least in the first season, is completely focused on mastering waterbending. zuko - capture the avatar, regain his honor (and this one’s definitely an obsession). my point is, if your characters don’t want something desperately, there is no story.

now applying that to this story is a bit tricky because the premise is that these people did want something strongly, strong enough to sell their hearts for it. dee wanted money for boarding school, wanted to get out of her awful home situation. and the daemon gives it to her - the first thing, at least. and then for at least 100 pages, it was like she was just being pulled along with anything that happened, without any intense desire of her own. i felt this most strongly when she was out collecting rocks with james. i understand it was a bonding scene, etc. but goddamn. rocks? it just felt a bit shoehorned in, like there needed to be a good reason for the two to start hanging out that was at least semi-work related.

for a moment, i thought dee’s motive would become trying to break out of the deal, to join cora and end it all - it certainly seemed like she was freaked out enough to do it. but something magical healing romance-esque happened and afterwards, she seemed cool with accepting that she had no other choice. i understand she wasn’t a voluntary hero, but it still feels a bit stale when the savior of humankind is doing it not even to save her own skin or that of her friends, but out of sheer obligation. (however, i will give it to her, there was a nice little scene on the bus towards the end where dee was people-watching, and the part at the very end where she said that she did believe that people were inherently good, what a great development from beginning of the book dee)

things that kinda worked 1. the romance: okay, i understand that “kinda worked” doesn’t sound like the most glowing review for a romance, but from me, it’s practically a declaration of adoration. more often than not, romance in young adult novels just do not work for me, whether because it’s instalove or some love triangle’s at play or the premise is just problematic. but this one? ehhh, i can’t say i hate it.

james, thank god, is not the dark, angsty, “why are you even speaking to me” male love interest (four, i’m describing four from divergent) that i feel like i see too much. he’s funny, a bit dorky, super big on consent, and basically a sweetheart. the author obviously took some care in building up their relationship a bit before taking it to a romance - though in the process, i think she had to give up a lot of development dee could have had with cora and cal.

their little fairy tale research road trip was actually one of my favorite parts of the book (i’ll talk about this more later). i did, however, groan every time dee became hyperfocused about the oh-so-scandalous fact of being in a car with a boy, sleeping in the same hotel room as a boy, blah blah with a boy. and i facepalmed quite a bit at the extended hesitancy dee had about calling james her boyfriend. i understand why she hesitated (trust issues, negative body image), but it doesn’t mean i have to like it. which leads me to this next thing.

2. character’s response to abuse: let me preface this by saying that i absolutely despise child abuse as a plot device. this is a personal opinion, i’m not going to get on any high horse and preach about moral quandaries. 90% of the time, i just don’t like it. a lot of this is because i feel most of the time, the character never gets to confront their abuse - never gets the chance to recognize “oh, what happened to me wasn’t right, and a lot of the negative thoughts i have about myself stem from this abuse, and i should not let it define me.” and more often than i like in ya novels, especially for female victims of child abuse, it’s their male love interest who runs in and beats up their abuser/yells at them about how they were a horrible person, which really doesn’t grant the victim any catharsis at all, and i hate how often that is portrayed as “romantic” or a good way to deal with abusers.

this book, well. let me just say that dee finally standing up to her father about his alcoholism and telling her parents that when THEY finally decided to change, they knew where to find her - that was some good shit. there was a bit when james came running in that i covered my face and went “oh no, here it goes” but to my pleasant surprise, all he did was support dee and didn’t try to insert himself into the situation at all, which was, you know, fantastic. and gremma casually pulling a fire ax out of her purse in front of dee’s parents? lesbian solidarity.

the thing i disliked the most would have to be dee’s image of herself due to the abuse. i understand you don’t need to overcome trauma solo, but i do wish that she could have realized that she didn’t need to be thin or that she wasn’t broken without james telling her so. also, there was that one line where she tried to minimize her abuse - which i know is a common thing for victims of abuse but once again, i don’t have to like it - and james had to talk her out of it that made me groan. i just generally dont think dealing with the effects of abuse should be anywhere near romance, let alone hand in hand like so many books like to treat it.

3. the sacrifice: i pride myself on not being easily surprised by books anymore, but i did not expect james to die. and i definitely felt something when that package of harry potter books and dee’s picture and the ct scan of the brain tumor arrived in the penultimate chapter. and i hate to be that person, but...

james got his heart back before the final void opened. he could have not been there, like cora. which means the daemon would have still needed him. why didn’t he just sell his heart once more in exchange for the daemon removing his tumor? sure, this way, i have no idea how they would have gotten out of the manual timer thing - then again, who knows if they would have been so targeted if james had not been carrying the heart into the void in the first place, but i still think the sacrifice should have belonged to cora, who definitely required some sort of redemption act if we wanted her to matter to the story in any way. it could’ve been a nice scene - a “i couldn’t save cal but hell if i’m going to let you two die” act of closure. really, i keep going back to my grievance over how utterly insignifigant cal and cora felt to the story, especially compared to riley, who only jumped in near the end.

things that worked 1. diversity: can i get a fucking hell yeah?? i’m so goddamn happy that more and more ya novels are recognizing that the world isn’t full of beautiful white straight people. our main gal dee is half-latino, we have a badass lesbian lady who carries axes in her purse, a fucking awesome trans girl who blows shit up (the fact that she doesn’t show up until near the end is a travesty), and our latter two ladies have a cute as hell romance that i wish we saw more of. side character romance is always more awesome because it doesn’t have the kind of baggage that really kills the vibe of main character romances.

just - diversity.

2. the research road trip scenes: okay, this is very specific. but i’ve watched far too much supernatural for it to be healthy, and james and dee’s little road trip where they ate bad diner food and spent time at the library reading about old fairy tales and old gods and speculated about angels - i just got such a strong supernatural feeling from it. more specifically, the parts where they have no idea what monster they’re hunting and are flipping through old books to figure it out. it had some really calming good vibes, i loved all the speculation and discussion of how people in the past processed magic. no fancy analysis here, it just really resonated with me.

final rating: 3 out of 5 stars

note: it would have been 2.5, but the ending surprising me and making me Feel Things really bumped it up. also, writing this ridiculously long review made me feel more invested and charitable.

#book thoughts #helix reads

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micronecro · 7 years

Text

Just remembered I am PRETTY SURE I deleted that time I whined about KHR fic problems, here are my greatest Whines. Incessent Bitching: Greatest Hits.

Everything Wrong With KHR Fic

“Sawada Iemitsu’s writing is the most nuanced in this series and the failure to engage in his character in an interesting way or acknowledge his canon character traits at all has burned me so badly I find myself unwilling to read KHR fic at all at this point. The fact he’s a highly competent manipulator who excels at subterfuge and lying - like any good criminal - is his defining character trait, and the character assassination this fandom gleefully perpetrates is baffling”

“Iemitsu’s fuckups concerning Tsuna are 110% because he can’t emotionally connect with Tsuna, and the Rainbow arc spends a significant amount of time actually addressing why this means he can’t teach Tsuna anything with any level of competency. The father-son relationship interferes his attempts in ways it didn’t when he drove Gokudera to pick himself up or instructed Basil as a subordinate"

“Tsuna’s original personality is fun to change but he IS interesting by himself, and his overt willingness to accept he’s a loser and average teen selfishness is compelling, did you know I’ve literally never read a single KHR fic that mentions his canon personality, Why Is That HMMMMMMMMMMMM"

“Yamamoto is a fully cognisant actual person with desires and motivations who is highly aware of the circumstances he’s in, he’s just an overly-competitive brat who legitimately thinks he can Win At Mafia (win condition: right hand man)”

“Hibari is a smug brat with a childlike sense of entitlement who waxes romantic poetry about dead bodies because he thinks it makes him sound intimidating and awesome. He spends approximately 80% of his screentime smiling. Not like, bloodlust smile, he’s just in a good mood. Hibari isn’t Sasuke, he’s generally having a good time as long as there’s no threat to his authority, he just refuses to actually communicate the fact he likes things”

“Hibari is fond of, in order: Kusakabe, Reborn, a brief period where he starts respecting everyone WHILE hating them (especially Dino, the Varia, Tsuna), Yamamoto (period where this happens is never made clear - he just states out of nowhere that Yamamoto is a guy worth trusting and respecting. Thanks Hibari), TYL Irie, and Tsuna (again at an unspecified period). The trend is overwhelmingly ‘competent, honourable people who back up their creeds at all costs’”

“Hibari doesn’t call everybody ‘herbivore’. That’s just a classification he uses, and he generally uses it like you’d use the word ‘coward’. He's got completely normal nicknames for people like Gokudera, Yamamoto, Reborn, Dino Xanxus, etc etc etc. He does not and never has used ‘omnivore’ or ‘carnivore’ because if he respects someone enough to laud them for their resolve and bravery of course he’s going to use their fucking name”

“Rokudou Mukuro’s family was being shot in the streets, children included! Mukuro was under constant threat of death even before the experimentation started, the fact the entire family was about to be wiped out is WHY they experimented on their own - it was death or FORCING the other families to stop killing them.”

“Mukuro was never in the Vindicare before he got out; he explicitly went to prison, there are mugshots, they killed wardens, and at least 3 of their cohorts are serial killers, not mafia personalities. Why would he be in Vindicare to begin with? He had only killed his own families at this point, based on how the Vongola reported on it, and that doesn’t seem to be too egregious in the Vindice’s eyes, based on how they don’t respond to Daemon doing the exact same fucking thing”

“Was Mukuro himself even in prison? Like, the kid, by himself? He possessed Lancia, who was the fake Mukuro, so????"

“Mukuro isn’t a Vongola Guardian, Chrome is. He hates the mafia and while he trusts Tsuna as an individual, he has no interest in being part of the system. Mukuro is an outside ally, like Dino, just linked tightly to Chrome. Making Mukuro a guardian is character assassination”

“Making Nana or Kyouko ‘scary’ is boring and misogynistic. Female characters can be interesting without them being violent and emasculating the male characters for giggles”

“Nana is really, really normal. She’s a sly tease that tries to push Tsuna around when he slacks off or acts irresponsibly. She grumps about his awful personality and makes him do things she thinks will help him build character. She thinks making Tsuna freak out is funny. She is a ridiculously average mom”

“Reborn is somewhere between 45 and 60 years old. He’s an old dude. He acts like an old dude. He’s a grandpappy”

“Reborn is explicitly abusive when the story starts, and he’s stated to be friendly and respectful towards Iemitsu, but explicitly supportive when the story ends, and directly fucks with Iemitsu and undoes his abuse as it happens, and NO ONE EVER ADDRESSES THIS”

“Byakuran turned good for Yuni and he’s obsessed with Yuni specifically. She saved his multidimensional soul. Why would he ever latch onto Tsuna instead of Yuni”

“Kurokawa Hana is an airheaded girly boy-crazy teenager, not a needly, spiteful junior detective. She avoids stuff she thinks is weird and tries not to think of things that don’t mesh with her expectations. I don’t actually have a problem with fics that ignore this fact but like...without a reason to make her different, it’s very much fanon”

“Bianchi is really really really intimate with girls and prides herself in connecting with them as a friend and authority figure; she isn’t just, Reborn-thirsty 24/7”

“Most people get this but I get the feeling they only get it because they like Reborn and don’t want him to be a pedophile: Bianchi’s concept of their ‘romantic past’ is them doing jobs together. Their tryst is a fiction she invented. Reborn is humouring her to avoid the trouble of dealing with her volatile attitude. He does this a lot and tries to impart this attitude onto Tsuna constantly”

“Ryouhei isn’t a hyper guy that says ‘EXTREME’ literally every sentence, he’s just determined, and really overly concerned with the personal lives of downtrodden peers. He’s an inherently caring older brother figure. He harasses Hibari because he’s worried about how lonely he is, and in TYL, he continues to harass Hibari because he’s not a part of the major group, caring for the kids while he does so. He has the most right-hand-man-esque role out of all of the TYL characters in the Future arc because of how intrinsic engaging with people is to his personality, forming alliances and having meetings with other families. His ‘EXTREME’ is just something he says to imply he’s excited, but has a limited vocabulary to communicate it”

“Bel gravitated towards bothering Mammon while they worked together, and the only reason Bel is so prickly with Fran is because Fran replaced Mammon and they dynamic has switched”

feel free to join with your own I love complaining it’s what I live for

#txt it #khr meta

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winterune · 7 years

Text

Thoughts on Final Fantasy XV

Finished after over 100 hours gameplay lol

I usually play around 80 hours for Final Fantasy games yet I finish FF15 at 100 hours.

I have a lot of issues with the game, but overall I think Final Fantasy 15 is a good game with a half-baked story. If you exclude the story, you can really enjoy the game as what it is--an adventure game where all you do is explore the world, finish side quests, and clear dungeons. In that aspect, Final Fantasy 15 is a really good game. Combined with extraordinary visuals and great music, you can really, really enjoy the game.

You get to ride your car, you get to explore with your chocobos (I personally prefer riding your chocobo because they’re a lot more fun to control than your car, especially if you feed them curiel greens, since you don’t really do anything with your car accept accelerate and break and turn right or left or around and you’re not really free with your car).

You get to camp or just sleep at inns (or hotels/motels) and see what they do at night (whether they’re only talking, eating, chatting, or playing their King’s Knight game on their phones or sleeping against your chocobo or just playing around).

You get to see the photos Prompto took every time you camp or stay at inns and choose which ones to save.

You get to hunt--and this is my favorite thing to do. Hunting. Go to the tipster in each rest area (the person at the diner) and you get to go on hunts. And they’re super fun. And they’re your main source of leveling up.

You get to go on side quests. They’re fun at first, until they become repetitive and boring. My favorite side quests are Wiz’s because at least his varies from quest to quest. Vyv’s is also quite fun and he gives you lots of money (seriously!) in return. Lestallum is filled with nonsensical quests--it’s okay if you go to one place, kill monsters, and retrieve the cargo, but there are side quests where you literally just go to one place, retrieve some items and then go back.

Or you can just walk around and gather treasures and items and fight monsters.

But most of all, you get to visit all kinds of dungeons! They’re really awesome by the way. I am not disappointed! My favorite one is the one in Vesperpool. Costlemark is also really cool but filled with all kinds of nasties and I hate it (3 Red Giants and 1 Nagarani--seriously?!?!)

But Final Fantasy isn’t Final Fantasy without its story. So let’s talk about the story. (Beware of spoilers)

I’ve watched Kingsglaive and Brotherhood: Final Fantasy 15, but even having watched those I still feel FF15′s story is not yet complete. At least, the one we’re presented with. All I can say about the story is that: it’s short, and it focuses on Noctis’s journey, nothing more.

We have this cast of characters, but we don’t get to know any of them, not even the main characters, and I think not even Noctis. No one gets enough--or even any--development. We were never told why Nifflheim wants the crystal. We were never told why Ardyn is with Nifflheim. We were never explained why Noctis is the chosen king, from when people knew. We were never given character backgrounds of Luna, Ravus, Ignis, Gladio, Prompto, or even the Emperor himself. Heck! The Emperor only appeared briefly and then what? He became a daemon? And remember how Noctis was on a wheelchair at the beginning of Kingsglaive? Why was he in a wheelchair? Why did they go to Tenebrae?

Why why why?

There are cosmogonies, but they’re scattered and I only got the whole picture by reading the wikia. The explanation of the fall of Nifflheim is also scattered around the facility in chapter 13--the name of which I forgot. They should’ve made some kind of archive or codex like in FF13 so we can go back to them to read them again.

Luna--though I’ve seen her in Kingsglaive and she appeared briefly in Brotherhood and we were shown glimpses of her past with Noctis in the game, I just don’t see why we should care about her. Because she didn’t appear very much in the game and when she finally appears, she dies. Just like that. It should’ve been emotional. It could’ve been emotional, if only they had told us more about her relationship with Noctis and her role in his life and why we should care! I was spoiled about her death and I had hoped it would impact me the way Aerith’s death impacted me (I was also spoiled abour her death but even as I played FF7 and saw Aerith died, it freaking hurt! Because I love her so much and I know what she means to the whole party! And that battle with Jenova with her theme as the background--GOD!!!)

Ravus--a villain throughout Kingsglaive and most of FF15 that turns out to be a spy. WHAT?!?!?!? What the hell happened?! That’s not how you write a story! Seriously! Do you think you can get off easily by giving us this villain-of-sort who only appeared as a boss briefly in the beginning and never appearing again except in the middle before everything went to hell and then what? He died? And we only know that he was actually a good guy from his letters to Luna scattered around his body? And we don’t see Noctis’s reaction at all! I mean, Noctis knew Ravus. Why was there no reaction seeing Ravus dead or realizing that he was never really a bad guy?

Emperor--he should’ve been a boss! Seriously! The leader of an empire that had conquered most of the world and had invaded Lucis and killed its king and stolen its crystal and then what? He died off-screen and turned in a daemon? And we actually saw his clothes in that circular room and why don’t Noctis and his friends realize they’re the emperor’s clothes? Why don’t they ask anything? Why don’t they react? And when they kill that daemon that seemed to be the Emperor, why don’t they react?? He killed Noctis’s father, for God’s sake! ... Okay, he may not have killed Regis, but he still invaded Insomnia and he still stole the Crystal. Noctis never knew who killed his father in the end, did he? Or how his father died.

Ardyn--I knew he’d be a great character since the beginning. I knew he’d be the final boss--he just have that final boss aura. And he’s really great. But then again, he still lacks back story. But... I can forgive him. At least he was given a back story. I still have a question, but yeah okay... And the final boss fight wasn’t really difficult.

Noctis and co--not going to say much, but since this story is about their journey, I still feel like they only touch the surface of their personalities. We get to know them better through Brotherhood, yes, but still... I still feel like their bond is just... that. Not many development there either. And not that many development on Noctis either. He just... becomes better. We don’t really see how he became better. Unlike Tidus. FF10 is also a coming-of-age story and I care a lot more for Tidus than I do for Noctis. Heck! I cried when he disappeared.

Other characters--no comment. Only that... Cor should’ve gotten more role. Like, what the hell is he even there for?!

The ending--was frustrated at first when I first watched it with my brother, because, again, it’s just ends like that. I felt like there was no real conclusion. Ardyn dies. Everyone dies. The Light returns. The end. But after finishing the game by myself, it doesn’t feel so frustrating anymore.

So, what I want to say is, the story is really short. A lot of things left unsaid. A lot of things happen off-screen. A lot of things cut. Not enough character development. No world-building whatsoever. We get to explore, yes, but we don’t get to explore everything. We only get to explore Lucis and a part of Altissia. We don’t get to explore anything after Altissia. They should’ve let us explore Tenebrae, Nifflheim, and Insomnia. Great premise, great background, great concept, poor execution. The bright side is the exploration is really cool and fun and the battles are great, so yes it’s a good game with a half-baked story (and now they’re going to release DLCs. Like, you should’ve released them inside the game instead of as DLCs -_-).

I’d give it a 7 out of 10 because though the exploring was fun and enjoyable, the story kind of frustrates me. I like the game. It’s good. It’s okay. It just could’ve been much better. There were many awesome scenes/moments too, but that’s it. It’s cool. Nothing more.

Side note: prefer the Japanese dub over the English dub. The English dub just sounds flat. Not all of them are bad but most of them are. Most lack the emotion the Japanese dubbers have. And the translations too--it’s like they try too hard. And for some reason I don’t really like how the game logo turns out to be Luna when it was originally a goddess. Wonder what Nojima’s original story was like... not that we’d get to know how it would turn out if they had followed Nojima’s story instead of rewriting it.

#final fantasy #final fantasy xv #musings #ff musings #reviews #game reviews

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secret-engima · 4 years

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*snicker* Sorry, I just - had the mental image of the Nox!taur 'verse combined with your soulmates 'verse. And I just - had the mental image of Cor and secret!female!Ardyn switching places on Switch day - long before they actually *meet* in person. So here is Cor, utterly flabbergasted because he's long thought he was one of the few /without/ a soulmate, suddenly blinking awake on Switch day in an entirely different place and body and - are those wings. Are those scales. (cont)

hamelin-born said: (cont) He has a soulmate, and his soulmate is an /unknown dragon-taur?!/ His soulmate is a *Lucis Caelum?!* Meanwhile, Ardyn is - actually flawlessly pretending to be Cor and /getting away with it because 1) She actually learned about Switch Day and the existence of soulmates in time to anticipate this, and 2) Ardyn used to use illusions to assume other's identities for /fun/ (and blackmail purposes), she's /used/ to tricking others into believing she's someone else. (cont)

hamelin-born said: (cont) Ardyn's main worry is for her darling nibling - but they made all the preparations they could, just in case, and she knows that Nox can take care of himself. (Nox is. Currently being fed Good Food by Libertus, who immediately recognized that the person in Nyx's body Was Not Nyx, and is both welcoming him to the family and gently interrogating him. Meanwhile, Nyx is - literally in the middle of the wilderness, miles from everyone else, FREAKING OUT at the dragon-taur body she's in.)

hamelin-born said: Cont: It's later assumed by EVERYONE that a mixture of Lucis Caelum Magic, Niflheimr Magitek Science, and Astral Bleepery are to blame for the soulmates never switching until they were all well over 15.

Me: Can I just say I love this idea with every fiber of my being? Like- hgfdhgf. Not going to make it part of Nox!Taur canon but this is HYSTERICAL. Imma ramble on this because this is great.

Do you know what would make it BETTER? If neither of them had any clue it was going to happen. Ardyn just- woke up in the wrong body, looked around, and decided she had no idea what was going on but she was gonna ROLL WITH IT and is flawlessly pulling it off because she’s he master at addlibing. She picks up from some of the things mentioned as she goes about Cor’s day that 1. Apparently the switching thing is normal? 2. Apparently no one expects Cor to be switched because he never has and people assume that means his “soulmate” is dead or never existed. 3. That soulmates are a thing. Interesting.

Wait how is her darling nephew going to deal with this? Also this means Cor the Immortal is in HER body right now. Oh dear.

Cor meanwhile is Not A Happy Camper. He just- where is he. What’s going on. He SWITCHED? He has A SOULMATE AT HIS AGE (remember, switches only happen when the youngest member turns fifteen so Cor at first thinks his soulmate must be. Devastatingly young). Then he gets a good look at his soulmate’s body and internally Freaks Out. He has a dragon for a soulmate, there is ANOTHER LUCIS CAELUM RUNNING AROUND. Further, the caelum is STARVING TO DEATH. Cor can barely stand to haul this body to Hammerhead from the hunger pangs and dizziness and by the astrals what has his soulmate been doing to get into this state? (Answer: nothing, this is Ardyn’s normal state, she just literally doesn’t notice because compared to sharing a suit with thousands of screaming daemons the pain of hunger doesn’t even register as pain). Cor is further alarmed when he hauls the body to Hammerhead and Cid GREETS what he clearly thinks is the owner of the body, (ARDYN??? HIS SOULMATE IS ARDYN? IT BETTER NOT BE THE ARDYN HE’S THINKING OF) And Cor kinda gives the game away by yelling “YOU KNOW WHO OWNS THIS BODY?” And Cid blinks and goes “You’re her soulmate?” Then he squints because clearly Ardyn’s soulmate knows Cid too, takes in the posture and the scowl and goes “COR?”

In the middle of a private meeting between Regis, Clarus, Titus, and “Cor”, Regis’s phone rings. A quick check proves it to be Cid’s number and he answers because Cid never calls without very good reason. Listens with slowly widening eyes to whatever is being said, then lowers the phone to stare sternly at “Cor”, “I believe,” Regis says slowly as he turns the phone to speaker, “It’s for you.”

Ardyn is highly amused to hear her own voice trying to screech deeply as Cor yells at his soulmate over being half starved and also his soulmate and if you are causing his king any grief, soulmate or NOT he’s going to kill you.

Regis, Clarus, and Titus watch in minor horror as the person they were sure was just a slightly broodier Cor (which is normal considering what day it is) relaxes and smirks, body posture loose and totally different, “Me? My dear Cor,” purrs the person in Cor’s frame, “I’ve been causing no trouble at all! I even filed all your paperwork for you. No one has been inconvenienced in the slightest, have you, Your Majesty?” A bright smile that is eerie on Cor’s face and Regis stiffens. Then Ardyn flicks her soulmate’s lion tail and muses aloud, “I will admit to being confused over all of this however, this has never happened to me before.”

“Ah blame Mors,” Cid says over the line after shushing an irate Cor, “an’ the Nifs. They probably screwed with the soul bond or something.”

“Fair assumption,” muses Cor’s soulmate before smiling and bowing to Regis and Clarus with a dramatic, “Well, since Cor has given the game away, I suppose I should introduce myself. Ardyn Izunia, honored to make your acquantence.”

Dead. Horrified. Silence. Then over the line Cor starts swearing a blue streak.

Titus feels his Doom™ approaching. His boss is not only apparently FEMALE, she is COR’S SOULMATE. HIS SECRET BOSS AND THE MARSHAL ARE SOULMATES. HE’S DOOMED.

Turning to Nyx:

Nyx is … Nyx is not handling this well. She was expecting her Switch day to happen sometime soon, because there’s an average age range for soulmates and she’s creeping toward the longer end but not that badly. She was expecting a switch … she was NOT expecting to wake up alone, in the middle of nowhere, hungry and ACHING in her lower back where her taur half started, like a fire pounding in time to her heartbeat and making it exhausting just to stand up. Six, Six her soulmate must have just turned fifteen, a fifteen year old was out in the wildness, clearly INJURED and hungry-. She twists around to look at the injury, praying that doesn’t make it worse, and comes face to face with WINGS. Twitching, blue-scaled dragon wings.

Her soulmate is a dragontaur. Her soulmate is an injured, fifteen year old dragontaur in the middle of who knows where with no help or guardian in SIGHT-.

Six. Six this was bad. Who did she have to kill for this when she got back-.

“Nox? You okay?” Nyx whirls at the approach of the familiar voice, stumbles then rights herself clumsily (note to self, dragontaurs did NOT move the same way coeurltaurs did) and is both relieved and angry to see Axis cautiously trotting over.

“You KNOW who this is?” Nyx demands angrily, “Curse it, Axis, why didn’t you TELL anyone there was another Lucis Caelum running around?”

Axis freezes, several expressions cross his face, “Oh. I guess Nox turned fifteen recently,” he says aloud slowly, “You are?”

“Nyx. And the moment I’m back I am TELLING Luche and Tredd about this.”

Axis blanches, then sighs, “Yeah, I probably deserve that, come on, let’s get you to a Haven to figure this out.”

Nyx pauses, “I’m not sure I should be walking, he’s hurt.”

Axis whirls around in alarm, but after hearing Nyx’s description of the pain and a quick check under the shirt, Axis just shakes his head and looks … grim, “I knew he was always downplaying it.”

“…Axis?”

“You’re not feeling a wound. Those are just Nox’s scars. He kept saying they didn’t hurt anymore, but I always thought he was just acclimated to the pain.”

Nyx gapes for several seconds, already feeling fury building in her frame, wings mantling out without her control before she hisses, “Axis. Axis I literally feel like I’ve been mauled by a coeurl within the last week, HOW IS ANYONE ACCLIMATED TO THAT?”

Axis’s unhappy, protective look grows deeper, “By being stuck with it since childhood without proper medication or help. Now come on, you can’t fight in that body.”

Nyx follows, and suddenly doesn’t think the sick, twisting feeling in this body’s stomach is just hunger.

Turning to Nox!

Nox doesn’t realize the switch for a WHILE.

Mostly because he is dead to the world asleep.

He got switched to a body that doesn’t have anywhere near the level of aches and pains his has what did you expect but for him to conk out from relief?

It is that prolonged sleep that clues Libertus in that Nyx has finally had her first Switch, because yeah Nyx sleeps in sometimes, who doesn’t, but sleeping in until noon with no signs of stirring? Nyx hasn’t even done that when in the hospital unless she was drugged six ways from Sunday. So Libertus and Crowe carefully unlock Nyx’s apartment and scoot inside to wait anxiously in the living room/kitchenette of the tiny apartment. If Nyx IS just sleeping in somehow, she won’t care, and if it’s the new soulmate … Libertus is protective. He knows soulmates are supposed to be your ultimate match and partner, but he’s seen enough to know that sometimes … things just don’t work out. He isn’t going to let Nyx’s body get hurt because some stranger woke up and reacted badly to being a soulmate to a Kingsglaive.

When Nox finally wakes up, he registers his strange surroundings and FREAKS. Promptly falls over because coeurl legs rather than the dragon limbs he’s finally used to. Crowe and Libertus run in just in time to witness Nox having a panic attack. Libertus thinks that’s … an overreaction until after calming Nox down and listening to his confused, freaked out questions, they realize that whoever this is, he is SOMEHOW totally oblivious to how soulmates work.

Nox gets bundled into the living area with Crowe sitting on not-his-back while Libertus feeds him All the Good Food and explains the soulmate thing.

Soulmate.

This is a soulmate world. A taur soulmate world where soulmates find each other by SWAPPING BODIES for two days of the year.

Bahamut. Bahamut where are you Nox waNtS a ReFUnD-

Libertus asks some gentle questions and yeah it becomes immediately clear that Nyx’s soulmate was … not taken care of as a child. Or possibly ever.

Libertus wants to kill someone.

The soulmate, who’s name is Nox apparently, admits to having an- a relative he calls “Uncle”, and when Libertus and Crowe gently tell Nox that his soulmate is a Kingsglaive named Nyx … Nox bursts into tears. He can’t help it, he’s freaked out and stressed and this isn’t his body so his control is shot and that name is the name of the person who saw his father DIE in the other timeline-.

Crowe and Lib exchange looks, dreading having to tell Nyx her soulmate is an anti-refugee or something, when Nox struggles his tears under control and wobbly asks to borrow a phone. Libertus cautiously hands him one and Nox dials a number, but instead of the mysterious “Uncle”, Nox holds the phone to his ear and when the other end picks up asks with a cracking voice, “Axis? This is … this is Nox. Um … I don’t suppose you found … my body? Because apparently I’m not in it for the day? You did? Oh…. Okay. Okay good. …No. No I’m not … I’m just … this is a shock. No. No one told me about this, Uncle never said a word and it’s not like-. Yeah. Umm… yeah hang on,” Nox holds out the phone to Libertus (who is currently wondering what the odds are that the “Axis” Nox just called isn’t one Axis Arra who is about to be in so much trouble) and Libertus takes it.

On the phone is a teen voice, male, not Axis, “Lib, tell me my soulmate is okay.”

“Nyx. He’s … okay. This entire thing freaked him out pretty bad. You with someone right now?”

“Yeah. Axis Arra. Turns out SOMEONE didn’t feel the need to inform the Clans he’d adopted a DRAGONTAUR last year.”

Libertus rears back, stomping his hooves in shock, “A WHAT.”

“You heard me the first time.”

“By the Six.”

Nyx takes a deep breath on the line and Libertus settles immediately, “What. What else is there. Nyx, talk to me.”

Nyx’s tone, even in a foreign body, is the most fragile and angry he’s heard it in a long time, “I am in … a lot of pain right now Lib. Like-. Would willingly check myself into a hospital for the good painkillers level of pain. And according to Axis? This is NORMAL.”

And Libertus thinks of how his first clue to the Switch was Nox sleeping half the Switch day away. Thinks of how exhausting it is to suddenly not be in pain anymore. Thinks of a lone dragontaur with only a mysterious “Uncle” to care for him yet not tell him about soulmates, of a stray that Axis would feel wasn’t SAFE to be known as an Arra or introduced to the Clans-.

He takes a deep breath to keep from snarling. As it is, his rear hoof stomps with a sharp sound that makes Crowe look worried, “You and Axis haul your tails back here as fast as you can. We can … talk about this when you get back.”

“Right. But for the record? I’m never letting my soulmate out of Little Galahd without an escort again. And I’m going to be cashing in my med insurance BIG time.”

Libertus stares down at the body of his best friend, currently inhabited by one frazzled, shaking, probably abused dragontaur teen, and exhales slowly, “Once this gets out? You’re gonna have the entire Glaive pitching in. And the Ostium Clan.”

“Thanks, Big Guy.” Nyx hangs up and Libertus pockets the phone, only telling a nervous Nox that Nyx and Axis are going to make their way to Insomnia, because the only way to stop the switches is to meet face to face. Nox looks relieved and scared all in one and Libertus shares a look with Crowe.

Yeah. They’re never letting Nyx’s soulmate out of their sight again.

#SE asks #hamelin-born asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Nox verse #Nox!Taur verse #soulmate au

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