#of supposedly upgrading them
Note
ur post about struggling to give Achilles a decent rank up is why so many recent rank ups are just np batteries. Is it lazy? Yes. Does it work when you can’t think of anything else? Also yes?
You could make his invul skill permanent unless the attacker has an invul pierce ability maybe? Considering how in legend it couldn’t be removed until his heel was shot? Idk tho, good luck!
Funnily enough I got this RIGHT as I finished formatting his rank up I managed to figure out! And funnily enough, a form of pierce IS involved! Turns out the solution was to think not about what Achilles can do, but what those associated with him can do. That can be your hint for which of his skills got the rank up.
And yeah, it's pretty obvious they give batteries because it's a universally good thing. It means that no matter how much they powercreep or flip the meta on its head, it's still a good effect that has benefits. It's literally impossible for a servant to not benefit from a battery no matter what their effects are or how inherently good their NP gain is. That's why even Melt, with her literally best in the entire game NP gain, STILL got a freaking battery rank up.
But that's exactly why I hate giving them. Melt didn't need a battery in any way shape or form. It just makes an already absurdly good unit marginally even better. There's so much lore and flavor and unique ideas they could have given her, especially since the rank up went to the only skill of hers that didn't have a unique gimmick...but nah, just slap a battery on it and call it a day, even though in high tier content it wouldn't even do much for her since a battery's usefulness is directly connected to how bad their NP gain typically is, and once again Melt has like the best in the freaking game.
I would literally rather give all three skills of someone boring marginal number changes only rank ups, than give them one rank up that just slaps on a battery with no further thought put into it beyond "NP Gauge good"
#also hint: No i dont mean Hektor or Penth or even Paris#tbh the biggest issue though is that giving him a specific weakness would be something of a faux pa#if you look at my rank ups you'll notice I go overboard justifying whenever I give a demerit#and thats bc in general it would rightfully be seen as bad design to give a character a weakness that otherwise didnt exist in the process#of supposedly upgrading them#see that Mordred one for a prime example of what I mean#what with the whole lower berserker multiplier thing#so I would have to really tip toe around things to work his heel into his skillset#fgo#fgo meta#hypothetical rank ups#never thought i'd get an ask#fate achilles#dont play gachas kids
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Minecraft 1.20 thoughts:
The highlight is, of course, the cherry blossom grove biome and cherry trees. The cherry wood just looks SO GOOD with everything. I've made so many builds incorporating it already and it's so easy to work into a color scheme. Cherry wood. Hhhhhnnnnghh. Such a delicious shade of pink. I want to eat it.
Also really excited about the bamboo wood set, it looks amazing and adds a lot of functionality to bamboo.
Feeling pretty positively about the armor trims, though I wish there were more where the decorative material was more dominant in the color scheme.
Trail ruins and archaeology: Mixed feelings. I think archaeology is a fun mechanic, I like exploring the trail ruins, but they really, really turn inventory management into an absolute nightmare.
There are many different varieties of pottery sherds, I think at least 20. Sherds of different types do not stack. There are 4 armor trims that can be dropped by suspicious gravel in trail ruins. Trims of different types do not stack. The trail ruin structures themselves include many different varieties of terracotta and glazed terracotta, (at least 6 different colors of each) and—you guessed it!—each type stacks separately.
Additionally, suspicious gravel in trail ruins may drop any of several colors of candle (I have found red, purple, green, brown, and blue candles) and any of several colors of glass pane. The process of digging the ruin out will fill your inventory with at least 6 stacks of gravel as well as a lot of dirt, coarse dirt, cobblestone, and flint.
To top it all off, unless you want to enchant your brush with Unbreaking, you will need to carry multiple brushes because the brush breaks before the ruin is fully cleared.
Even with multiple shulker boxes clearing a ruin fully in one trip is impossible. What were the devs even thinking??? Are we expected to throw away the candles and other "junk" drops and ignore the glazed terracotta, mud bricks, and other tedious-to-obtain blocks in the structure itself?
This update shares with 1.19 the bizarre attribute of the devs supposedly being very focused on the player experience, while seemingly not noticing key parts of the player experience. The new mechanics and features in both have some incredibly fun and engaging elements to them but also some glaring problems.
I'm pretty much just indifferent to the clay pots? They would be more fun if they incorporated some basic colored patterns and/or actually could be used for something.
Changes to sign editing, and hanging signs are both fantastic.
The "Netherite Upgrade" is shit and I'm not sorry to say it.
Like...netherite is already so incredibly tedious and difficult to obtain that it's almost not worth bothering with. 4 ancient debris is needed to craft a single netherite ingot. You need 16 ancient debris to upgrade a full diamond armor set to netherite, and 8 more if you want to upgrade a sword and one pickaxe. If you don't have Mending on all of them, basically go fuck yourself, because from that point you will need multiple netherite ingots to repair a piece of equipment in the same way you would need multiple diamonds to repair diamond equipment. All of this for a set of equipment that will be fucking gone if you die and can't recover it.
And yet the devs have decided to??? fucking...add a generic, painfully uncharismatic new item to provide another barrier to obtaining netherite gear? because it's too easy or something???
I haven't broken into the other new additions very much, but I will try to obtain a sniffer egg soon...
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First Sight
Paring: Gojo x f.reader (op) arranged marriage
Warnings: nsfw, death, toxic family, perverted virgin Gojo
Words:10k
Summary: Your fiancé never wanted to be alone. He fell in love with you at first sight. you loved him. You were the strongest. And everything is always thrown on the shoulders of the strongest.
When blue eyes met (e/c) eyes, he felt his heart beat louder.
It's not about what he just saw.
Maybe a little...
You were beautiful. Your kimono fit your body very well. colors. He liked it.
The first meeting, the first seeing of another person is always a look at appearance.
However, he too was staring at the cursed energy.
Yours was so mysterious. There was so much. Less than his, but much more than his disciples.
But your energy was soft as water. At the same time tough.
The water may be soft. But also tough. The water cuts through the rocks, destroys them.
That's why he certainly couldn't say that you're a woman who has nothing but softness in her life.
He wasn't happy when his parents, grandparents and uncles told him that he was going to meet his fiancée today.
He's never even known a woman like (y/n) (l/n).
He hasn't heard much about the family (l/n).
Your family doesn't even reveal what your innate technique is.
But apparently you were born with it.
With developed technique. Not like your Father, who imbues the water with cursed energy and can send a wave at his opponent.
No wonder the streams of water in your estate are surrounded by cursed energy...
What you were born with is far more powerful than making a wave for a surfer.
That's why it's a secret.
Because supposedly no one can so your technique.
Or rather, no one can get close to you while you're using this.
Because every time someone has had it in the past, bystanders have died, accidentally.
People consider this technique to be monster power.
Because no sorcerer could do that. Not that way.
Your technique rips people's flesh apart to give you weapons.
Or your technique allows you to make a man into a puppet on strings.
As a sorcerer, you're supposed to protect people, not use them as weapons.
You are absolutely forbidden to use an upgrade of this technique.
You are only allowed to use water manipulation.
Avoiding something that is lethal to people.
You've been banned from all the elders. From all the superiors of the Jujutsu world.
You can't use your strongest weapon.
Because it's too dangerous for people around you.
Therefore, no one can know about your secret technique enhancement.
They were something your family had been fighting for centuries.
Even if you were often mistaken for the Kamo family.
But now that has changed.
Now you are a family whose technique is forbidden and secret.
You can only use it in emergencies when you know death is certain. Your death.
Then you get permission to use a secret technique, even at the cost of other people's lives.
For them it is only death.
It doesn't have to be that way.
You can only take a little strength from people.
Besides, the only place you'd be powerless to the desert.
There's no water there.
But you never go on missions in dry lands.
Because the elders know your weaknesses.
That's why you never became stronger than Gojo Satoru. And you never will.
Because using techniques, your energy drains very quickly.
Because in order to lift water, you must surround each drop of water with cursed energy. Every atom. All H2O molecules that are in a given tank.
And that drains your energy very quickly. Because the more water you want to use, the more energy you lose.
However, once you can control a given number of gallons of water, you can use it without wasting your energy until the entire envelope of your energy on the water is broken.
That's why you always have a bottle of water with you that is already covered with energy. To use this in case of emergency.
You were classified as special grade last year. However, you are in last place when it comes to strength ranking.
This is because, according to sorcerers, you should be able to control hectoliters of water without any problems, and also not waste energy.
However, those were the limitations of your technique.
But using water from the life of other creatures or plants, you get the ability to absorb their energy.
But taking water away from plants and animals is death for them.
That's why you can't do it.
If only curses had a body, it would be so much easier for you.
That's why you know your secret technique would be more effective against a curse user.
However, you've never met anyone like that.
And from birth, when all the water from the flower was seen flowing to you, you were forbidden to use it because the family had trouble with it.
This part of the technique was to be eliminated.
It was secret and forbidden.
And also your parents wanted you to father a son with a very strong man who would be able to exorcise this "monster power" from your family. Because such a fight was considered shameful. Even if it was so powerful.
They wanted your son to have your technique as well as his father's technique.
They clearly tell you that you are to have a son.
Frankly, you don't care about ruling your clan since you'd never have a vote anyway. As a woman...
You'd rather marry someone who won't take orders as much and also has emotions and feelings of her own. And then merge your clans.
Your husband will be the head of the clan, but maybe he will listen to you too?
You hoped so.
Because you didn't know when, but you already had a fiancé for a month, whose name you won't know until a month before the wedding!
You didn't want to be like this!
Once again, your parents with the elders chose something that suits them, not you!
The first time you saw a tall figure in a yukata walk into your house's meeting room, you thought you were being told to marry an old man...
White hair?
Only later did you see that some of them had fair hair that could be mistaken for the gray hair of an old man.
Especially since there was only one old man among them. The elder of their family.
The white-haired one you saw was really young. At least that's what he looked like.
Like someone young.
You were afraid they'd give you an old man or a kid.
You didn't know many sorcerers because your parents took away your childhood. That's why you haven't had any contact with people your age.
But when you heard the name Gojo, something in you lit up.
It's right that your parents wanted the best sorcerer for you as a husband.
To get rid of the taint of this technique that has been reborn in you.
Better you give birth to all your children with their father's technique than with your damn shit.
That day you were supposed to find out that your husband is Gojo Satoru. Your fiancé and husband in a month.
You are to be an incubator for him. That was your role.
You are to be the person who will rid your family of this curse, passed down as a forbidden Jujutsu technique.
With all your skills, you were as strong as he was.
Without it, or rather forgetting to have the ability to take life's weapons for you, you were weaker.
You didn't want to follow the rules they gave you.
you don't want it.
Nobody would like to be forced to do that.
You don't like your secret technique because you hurt your mother when you were little.
It is very powerful but also dangerous.
You don't want it, but you got it. So you don't want to lose it.
Because you know that at some point in your life you will need this secret, cruel power that your ancestors gave you.
"This is (y/n) (l/n). Satoru, she will be your wife."
"I didn't know I'd ever proposed to anyone..." he said ignorantly as he sat on a cushion in front of a low table. In front of you.
He seemed very unhappy.
Just like you.
Nobody wants to get married out of necessity.
However, your husband is quite handsome... or rather your fiancé...
You hope he won't be the complete boor like your ex was...
You looked at him, suddenly connecting your eyes with each other.
It was the first sight.
You saw his eyes sparkle like a child seeing a magic trick.
Behind his black sunglasses were shining blue eyes that didn't want you to break your first eye contact.
You know what this man is capable of. A sorcerer who single-handedly could destroy the world...
Someone without whom the world may fall.
That's why they want to keep him on their side at all costs.
Even though he doesn't listen to anyone anyway and has his own morals.
But you felt like he was looking at you like a child. A man with an inner child. Full of hurt and pain.
His childhood was probably as terrible as yours. Or even worse.
"Your wedding is in a month's time." Your smile said with a small smile. "You have this month to get to know each other. Gojo-san insisted."
"I don't want my son to marry someone unfaithful and insufficient. If you ever hear of any betrayal, please let me know. My son will not get anything lower quality."
"Nobody wants to hear your complaints. Old man..." groaned the younger Gojo.
"Satoru –."
"I hate being controlled. And what you're doing pisses me off so much..."
His clan feared him.
He could do anything. All. The strongest sorcerer alive.
An anomaly that cannot be killed...
He was very much against this marriage.
However, his family is very good at playing on his psyche and feelings.
He didn't want to be lonely anymore, and that's what his family told him.
Because of him, all will stray from their paths and die alone.
And it will all be his fault.
They were perfectly able to choose the words to hit his aching heart.
Reminding him only of the suffering he caused someone. And then his death...
The person he loved inside was left alone...
Because of his family, he felt as if his psyche was returning to the moment when it all happened.
Everything hurt so much, it was as if the painful lava in his psyche had never hardened. Only as if it was still overflowing, burning him from the inside out.
So did your family who used your skills to get ahead. But they also kept you from managing them.
Because as a woman you have no right.
They insulted you. They humiliated you. They said that your mother's illness was your fault... that it was because of you, because you hurt her years ago. It was accidental.
Besides, it wasn't your fault she got cancer...
She's in treatment.... So most likely everything will be fine. But that doesn't stop others in your family from insulting you and saying it's all your fault.
Suddenly he got up. You didn't know what he was doing, but you continued to stare at him as well as he kept making eye contact with you.
"I don't expect your permission. And I won't wait for it because it's my life."
Suddenly, he offered you his hand, standing next to you as you knelt on your pillow.
Despite the coldness of his words, you felt the warmth of his eyes.
When he still wanted so much to leave the impressions of the first eye contact.
Could you really have a different life?
Without your family controlling you?
Not that they want so much to bring you down to being soldiers who fight against curses, but only listen to them.
You grabbed his outstretched hand, and then he pulled you up.
Still holding your hand, he started walking towards the exit.
Since you have no choice anyway, you can at least not listen to how much they want to use you.
"Why did we leave here?" you asked suddenly. "Sir -."
"Satoru." He said smiling kindly at you.
"Satoru-san. My name is (y/n) (l/n). We–"
"It bothers you too, doesn't it?"
"Hmm?"
"That they're using us." He said sitting on a fairly high wall that stood in the garden.
"Satoru-san, why did we come out here so suddenly?"
"Would you rather sit there?" He asked, resting his hands on the stones of the wall. "Oh. Sorry."
He suddenly jumped and walked over to you.
Putting his hands on your waist, he suddenly lifted you up with a short sound like a humming.
He sat you down on the wall, making sure you didn't fall.
Only then did he jump in, sitting down next to you.
"Would you like to go on a date with me tonight?"
"A date?"
"You've never been?"
"I was... But–."
"You hate me because I'm going to be your forced husband, right?"
"I do not hate you. I don't know you... Satoru-san..."
Suddenly he took your hands in both of his.
"Then let's get to know each other."
You saw the same sparkle in his eyes that you had seen since the beginning of this meeting.
Those were the eyes of a man who had fallen in love.
The eyes of a man who is happy.
....
"Oh fuck..." he muttered, covering his mouth with his hand.
He saw his ears and cheeks turn slightly red.
His rectangular glasses on his nose matched nicely with the classic suit he was wearing. White shirt, dark blue jacket and trousers. Black shoes.
In his hand was a bouquet of flowers.
It looked like he couldn't decide what he should choose because the bouquet was big and had a lot of different colors and flowers.
But it was really well composed.
"What's wrong?" You asked as he stood there and looked at you intently.
You clenched your hands gently on your red dress.
He thought he was going to faint when he saw you.
You looked so beautiful.
Your dress was chosen by your mother.
Juicy red color.
To make you look attractive to your fiancé.
Because maybe if he doesn't want you, maybe he'll at least like your body, they thought.
They didn't know that already he was deeply in love with you, and nothing could keep him away from you.
He already fell in love with you even more during your first conversation.
However, he didn't want your relationship to blossom very quickly.
What if he gets attached to you and you leave because of him? What if he ruins everything again?
What if he makes you lonely?
What if all your hurts are his fault and he loses the person he loved again?
You were supposed to be his first girlfriend.
Because he couldn't trust anyone. That's why he needed a very long time to see if anyone was able to give him time.
Nobody could give it to him.
He needed time to accept who he had become. You need time for someone to accept him.
It may be strange, but he had no one close to him.
He didn't want anyone to play with his feelings.
He didn't want his family to hit him with threats that they would do something to his loved one.
He wanted to be alone.
He didn't want anyone to hurt him or his loved one.
But his virgin mind just couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful you looked in that dress.
Who would have thought that a virgin like him, who learned to cum very late using toys, would look at a woman who would be with him for the rest of his life. You will be his wife.
You will always be with him...
And he won't leave you as long as you accept him...
He doesn't want you to be lonely because of him...
He doesn't want you hurt.
Not now that he's in love with you!
You've been dating for so long.
He was getting more and more open, but it still wasn't what it could have been.
Every time he got closer, someone was dying. Someone was leaving him.
His best friend.
His mother...
She left him with his father, who does everything to ensure the well-being of the clan. Not to leave him in power, so that he can't do something that won't please his superiors.
A father knows his son's weaknesses...
He takes advantage of his weaknesses.
Satoru hates being alone. He hates being the strongest alone... Because the partner they were the strongest with was taken away from him.
And his father, despite being afraid of his own son, used his pain and wounded heart to control him.
So that he can't rule the clan like he should.
It kept traumatizing him. Cause it will never go away.
He didn't want anyone by his side if it meant he would never lose someone he loved again...
He's a little more serious on dates. He doesn't laugh the way you saw him at the school where he teaches.
You felt bad that he probably didn't trust you enough to show you his true side.
He is careful.
And how many times have you heard about how carefree and playful he is.
That he doesn't listen to anyone. That he can turn anything into a joke.
That he doesn't take anything seriously because there's nothing he can't do.
But there was one thing only love could fix.
He was lonely. And he was afraid of loneliness. He didn't want to be lonely.
And he was afraid of the loss that might be his fault.
This is why...
That's why he didn't show this page to anyone.
The hurt side that will never come out of him.
The side of his soul that always hurts.
The side of the soul and heart that will never grow up and will still remain that hurt teenager who experienced as much pain as few adult people.
Nobody knew what he felt. Nobody could understand.
And because he was the strongest, everyone could blame everything on him. Because he should have taken better care of the people who were supposed to stay with him.
The real one is very childish, sometimes scary. Everyone knows his true side. Everyone who has known him for years.
His students know his laid-back, grown-up side.
His friends from school know him from both sides. A free adult, as well as a wounded teenager on whose shoulders the responsibility for the whole world was pushed.
You haven't met any of these sites...
Not completely.
Your wedding is next week...
You hoped you at least wouldn't be so formal to each other.
But what if that's what he wants?
Maybe he just wants you to be a married couple on paper?
Maybe that's what he means...
Maybe there's never going to be anything like a real wife and husband between you two?
However, you at least wanted to try to make him show you what he wants...
You grabbed his cheeks as you sat at his house sipping your favorite drinks while watching a random movie.
Everything was so official.
You prefer that he tell you what kind of marriage he wants from you.
You go on missions together, you help him out so you can spend time together when you get back.
You've been wanting to meet him all month.
But he wouldn't let you go any deeper into his feelings.
He still looks at you with those eyes full of love.
But he doesn't tell you that it is.
You fell in love with him... Yes...
But you don't want to think that you're in love with him and he doesn't want your love marriage.
Maybe he just wants to do your duty, impregnate you, and just raise your children?
You are able to accept it.
Or at least you were able to when you first met...
Now, you can't think that's all he wants.
You don't want him to leave you like this.
Is this the second time someone has betrayed your feelings?
You wanted his arms to hug you and hold you for the rest of your life.
You wanted to help him be the strongest. You will take all these negative emotions from him, and give him everything he can replace so as not to be sad and tired.
You want him to pour out his negative emotions on you, and you will trade it for love. Making negative emotions completely disappear from his life...
But you can't give it to him if he doesn't want it...
Your energy with him is like a calm stream of water. So soft.
You are able to support him.
But you don't know if he wants support.
You're still hoping because his eyes are still on you like that first shight.
"Satoru..." You groaned as you sat down very close to him, your hands on his cheeks. "We'll be married next month..."
"I know." He said looking at you carefully.
"...What do you want our marriage to look like?" you asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You want me to just bear you children? Want me to be your sex partner? You want me to be your housewife? You want us to live our lives as we always do, knowing each other, and just be officially married? Do you want us to be married but live as before?"
He looked at you with questioning eyes.
He never seemed to be interested in your relationship.
As if he didn't show love.
That's why you never asked if he wanted a real marriage.
Because since he only cared about your feelings and didn't show or talk about his at all, he doesn't care about love...
At least you thought so.
He has pleased you for as long as you can remember. But you want him to make that decision now.
Before, he always did everything to make you fall in love with him, which is why he pleased you at all costs. When you truly love him, you will never leave him alone.
You said his name so sweet...
"Do you want us to be separated of our own free will? Would you like to live without me? As a married couple only on papers? Would you like to be alone?"
When you said that, he looked at you with wide eyes.
Oh, no no! He didn't want to be alone! He never wanted to!
That he had to be alone was not his choice!
He put his hands on yours as his eyes looked at you sadly.
"I don't wanna be alone... I don't wanna be without you... I don't wanna be like this...
"Satoru...?"
You saw small tears in his eyes as he smiled.
He was annoying at times, but he was never selfish as they called him.
Because according to people who want to destroy him from the inside out, it's his selfishness that makes everyone suffer...
But he didn't want to be selfish for you...
He did everything to make you happy
So for once, let him be selfish... and do what he wants.
"(y/n)... I don't want you to leave me alone... I want you to be my wife... A true relationship... Because I love you... I don't want you to run away from me..." he said more quietly.
On his lips still a smile that said only that he can connect his sides.
The side of the real him and the side of the wounded.
He smiled with furrowed brows, and looked at your face.
He couldn't read anything from your face...
He might have scared you, which can only mean he'll be alone again...
"I know arranged marriage sucks. I know it's impossible to love someone in such a short time. And I understand that I'm not someone who has been able to win your heart."
"Shut up you idiot!"
His eyes looked very surprised at those words.
You couldn't say he was hurt very much, but there was definitely something about those words that hurt him.
"Don't talk so much..."
You groaned suddenly, and pulled his neck down, causing him to bend over. So that you can put your lips on his, joining you in your first kiss.
And his eyes sparkled like they did when he first saw you.
He fell in love with the first sight.
The ceremony wasn't what you wanted it to be...
It was boring and serious.
Not like the weddings of people who have normal lives.
Plus, a tradition your grandmother wants to carry on.
You must be a virgin so your husband can take your virginity.
Who would have expected that of the two of you, you would take his virginity?
"Wait... You've never been with a woman?"
"I dated sometimes, but never had a girlfriend." He said straight away, as if he wasn't ashamed.
He was shameless because from the week you know about his feelings and he knows about yours everything has changed.
You know he hasn't shown his true self to you before.
Now you know him more.
As other people call it.
Arrogant, doesn't take much seriously.
Shameless...
He walked around you in his underwear and didn't care.
He came into the bathroom when you wanted to take a bath.
And all this happened one week before an important wedding.
Now you are married.
For several hours.
You didn't expect this.
"We're supposed to have sex now, right? Because your grandmother won't let you rest." He said taking off his shirt with a smile.
"W-We don't have to if you don't want to." You said blushing. Especially seeing his muscular torso.
"Someone said I don't want to? The only question is do you want to... After that, we're supposed to show your grandmother a sheet that has a blood stain on it? Isn't that too old-fashioned?"
"There is... But Satoru...
"Do not worry about me. I learned a lot. Besides, I won't cum right after I get inside your pussy like you probably think." He crossed his arms over his chest..
"It's not that... I'm just not... a Virgin..." You said softly.
Will he react like his father?
Doubt his father would approve...
"And?"
"You're not mad?" you asked.
"Why would I?"
"I had an ex who would kill me if I wasn't a virgin. And he took my virginity. And he also left me because he got bored of me."
"Whenever he shows up and tries to do something to you, I'll kill him." He winked at you. "If he's a total asshole."
"He is. He started texting me when he found out I was getting married."
"Can I kill the bastard?" he asked with a smile hiding his murderous intent.
"He got suspended as a sorcerer anyway, and almost became a curse user because he got pissed off by the thighs he was supposed to save. Only he didn't give a shit about a mission, left a curse, and beat one guy to death."
He remembered something about the words "curse user"
However, it showed what an asshole your ex was. Because even Suguru didn't kill back people because he was annoyed by their behavior.
Suguru killed them all because he was acting to do something about how sorcerers are treated.
"Let's get off the subject of your ex. I don't think any guy wants to hear about his woman's ex."
"Fine."
"We were talking about sex... Shall I undress you or will you undress yourself?" He smiled.
"How can you say such a thing even as a virgin?! Satoru!"
"You yourself said I'm shameless~."
"But! You should be blushing, not me..."
"I've been watching too much porn to be ashamed of, baby. Besides, I'm not a virgin without experience, so I can't cum right after you touch me. You're going to have to put in some effort because I have a late ejaculation~."
You covered your face with your hand.
This is supposed to be a virgin guy who's never had a woman in bed before?
"I have toys in a cardboard box if you're wondering how life has been over the years. If I hadn't come, my balls would have exploded!"
"Shut up! I don't want to hear about your toys!"
Suddenly he appeared in front of you.
"So instead of a toy, let me fuck your sweet pussy. I know you're so much better than some silicone." He said into your ear.
His dirty words sent sparks to your core.
He doesn't act like a virgin...
But he sure is.
Especially when he took off his pants and threw it still on the floor.
A clean, pale cock hung between his thighs.
Closely trimmed, short pubic hair above its base.
"Join whenever you want~. If you don't want me to undress you~. only you know... If you want to save your clothes, tell me because I'm horny for a real pussy I can go in~." He licked his lips, giving you a cocky smirk.
I reached into your shirt involuntarily, and stared at his tall, muscular and sexy body.
"Besides, I have to take my wife's virginity~."
"I am not a virgin."
"My dick is probably bigger than your ex's."
You looked at his crotch out of curiosity.
In fact... It was hard for you to admit it, but Satoru's penis was a little bigger than your ex's. And Satoru wasn't even hard yet!
"You won't do anything to make blood appear." You pointed your finger at him and then looked at the water bottle in the corner of the room.
He knew your technique was water manipulation. And he also knew a thing or two about you having a secret, forbidden technique.
He was curious what it was...
But first he really wanted to get inside your warm pussy. To feel you stretching around him. Feel the heat he never felt.
Hear you moan under it.
He was sick of hearing the moaning sounds from adult movies...
The longer he knew you, the more he wondered what your voice would sound like when you moaned his name while he fucked you.
"Somehow we'll make sure there's a bloodstain~."
You looked at him scared.
"What do you mean?"
"You have such sweet, soft thighs, don't you? I want to squeeze and bite them~."
"My grandmother will kill me... Wouldn't it be better if I cut my arm? A few drops on the sheet and you're done."
"They won't smell blood on the sheets. It's disgusting... I won't let you play with the knife."
"Then what -."
"I want to mark you."
You saw his eyes darken with lust.
You couldn't help but look down as his cock hardened, slowly coming to attention, pulling away from his body.
"But you're curious if my dick is bigger, right?"
He suddenly placed his hands on your face, pulling you into a kiss.
His cock rubbing against your clothes as you stood in front of him fully clothed.
"You'll find out when you let me touch that pussy~."
He suddenly sat up on the bed, looking at you with a slight blush on his cheeks, but still smiling.
You grabbed your clothes, taking off your shirt.
And you saw his breath catch in his throat for a moment.
You turned your back on him, showing yourself unhooking your bra, and suddenly dropped your top underwear to the floor.
You immediately saw your nipples harden.
And then, wanting to tease him, you grabbed your pants and, bending down, pulled it down along with your panties.
Showing him a perfect view of your ass.
His cock twitched.
He was hard so fast.
The atmosphere of sex worked on him.
He wanted you to come over now and sit on his cock.
But he also wanted some foreplay.
He smiled, and with a pink face, he got up and quickly walked over to you while you were still flexing.
He leaned down and placed a kiss on your buttock, slapping the other one lightly.
Causing you to let out a soft moan.
The cute voice that made him so very hard...
"Satoru..." you moaned placing your hand on his forearm as he wrapped his arms around your hips.
He suddenly lifted you by your hips, causing your back to arch as he held your hips up.
You were practically hanging in his arms.
And he suddenly put his mouth on your thighs. Before he dived between them, meeting your pussy with his lips.
Your ass still visible to him when his mouth was between your thighs.
And he held your thighs so that you were with his face as he stood.
His muscles flexed hard to hold your weight in that position.
So that you don't fall, and also that you constantly give him the pleasure of putting his tongue between your folds.
It was better than he thought.
As your torso hung down as he held only your thighs and hips, you saw his cock stand upright, its tip furiously red and its veins throbbing.
That big cock was begging to be licked on that hot, hard shaft.
And suddenly he walked over to the bed with you, gently placing you on your stomach.
He leaned down and kissed your lower back before slapping your ass.
"So soft" he thought, pressing his fingers into the soft flesh of your buttock.
You suddenly turned around and held his hair and kissed him.
"Toru..."
Smiling, he lowered himself, shoving his face between your thighs.
Where he abused your clitoris and entrance.
Still thinking it's so much better than a fake pussy.
So soft and warm. This taste...
The trembling reactions of your body.
Even if he had no experience, his chaotic movements were so good... It wasn't coordinated in your body. But even the way he did everything with ignorance was so enjoyable.
As you drifted away, letting him please you, you suddenly felt a sharp stab in your thigh.
You stood up quickly, and saw his teeth sinking hard into your soft flesh.
You grimaced, purring as his tongue reappeared inside your walls, slithering over your sensitive spots.
A tiny trickle of blood dripped onto the white sheet.
"We're done with your virginity." He laughed as he lifted your thigh and showed strong teeth marks, which made blood where the fangs had been.
As the drops splashed onto the sheet, he licked it off, cleaning your thigh.
And then he started biting your skin again with a smile.
You giggled as you felt his lips pressing against your skin.
And without warning, he put his fingers inside you.
Pulling you quite deep.
You knew his fingers were longer than yours and also quite thick.
But that was good about you.
He stretched you with two fingers the way you stretched with three.
You jerked your hips wanting more. But you didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
So, lifting your hips, you moved so that his fingers were pulled from your walls.
His face flushed as he wrapped his juice-covered fingers around his shaft, stroking himself.
You turned to him, sticking your ass out for him. Pushing your hips into his.
Causing its length to rub against your thighs.
His hands played with your buttocks.
He loved your ass and thighs so much?
He leaned down and pulled your head to the side.
He kissed you as he guided his tip into your hole.
Inserting the tip into you gently, then began to push deeper and deeper.
Until finally his hips meet yours. he was panting. His hips twitched with pleasure. Your scorching walls greedily sucked him in.
That's why he was pushing his hips into yours to feel more of that feeling.
His balls moved to your clitoris, sliding over the slippery bump.
"I don't want to stop.... More.... Longer..." he moaned as he started to bang his hips against yours.
...
"Wait a minute... I want more... Give me a minute... I'm going to be hard... I'll just calm down..." he said choking as his soft cock lay against your stomach, the last drops of cum oozing out of the tip.
He really liked it.
Also, he was no ordinary virgin...
He came later than you...
But he wanted even more.
As he sat on the bed, calming his breathing, you sat next to him, resting your head smiling against his chest.
"Do you know about my family's forbidden secret technique?" You asked suddenly.
"Why are you asking now? I want to have sex with you and you're talking about technique?" he laughed, kissing your head.
"Because I'm going to show you something that can perfectly show what this secret technique is all about."
"Wait... you got it?"
"Yeah..."
"What is this? You're so strong... It's because of that?"
"I can't use it because it kills. But I can show you something innocently."
Your hand moved to his crotch, and you placed your fingertips on the vein protruding from his lower abdomen.
You placed your fingers on its base.
And suddenly you used a technique.
To innocently show him what your technique is all about.
"The human body is made up mostly of water... Ordinary water, blood, any fluid in the body. My family's ancestors learned to control the water coming from the human body. To direct the blood which is liquid tissue. That's why they were mistaken for Kamo. However, my family controls the water. So over the blood. Out of body. in the body. Belonging to me or someone else. Stop circulation, burst the body from the inside out. Withdrawal of fluids from the body causing death. A secret technique no one can know about."
He suddenly felt his blood flow change, and looked to see that your fingers were now resting on his completely hard erection.
"Your secret technique is to make guys get erections?" he laughed. "I thought you just got naked in front of me and I was horny."
"I'm serious..."
"Hey, I know." he said and suddenly kissed the side of your head.
"You didn't have to show it to me... But it... It was really innocent to show it to me... Almost..."
"I wanted to show you so you don't get scared when you see it... After all... Someday something may happen that will force me to use this..."
"Don't worry. I am the strongest. I've seen worse things. And you are my wife. You are wonderful in every way. And I don't want anything to ever happen to you."
...
"We go on missions together, we live in the same house. We live together. That means we're a couple, right? Why are you asking if we're a couple? I'm your wife." You said, laughing softly.
He really liked to hear you say you love him.
But it was a little different...
He sounded so sad.
He asked you to tell him that you are with him.
That you're not going to leave. That you love him.
That you are together.
"I love you. I'll be home soon. I'm on my way back." You said with a small smile.
"I'm home now. I'll wait for you..." he said calmly.
You heard his voice soft.
"See you." you said with a small smile.
Anyway, you think your husband needs home warmth today. And you give it to him.
Maybe you will spend a nice evening?
You want to give him something nice. He always works so hard after all.
And now he still seemed very depressed.
You asked Nitta to drive you home faster.
She of course agreed.
Grabbing the doorknob of your house, you entered, taking off your shoes and top.
It was always warm in the house, so you didn't even need a hoodie.
"Satoru! I'm back!" you screamed.
Most of the time, when you came home later than he did, he would attack you and keep hugging you.
Without end. He was laughing and smiling as he wouldn't let go, teasing you.
But now he was gone.
Maybe he fell asleep?
Was he so tired?
You went to your bedroom to see that the bed was simple. There's no one on the mattress. Nobody sleeps there.
You walked down the stairs looking into the living room. Also no one.
Then the kitchen. Satoru wasn't looting the fridge for a cake.
He wasn't in the bathroom either.
He was nowhere to be seen.
In any room you have at home.
He couldn't be outside because it was so late.
Until sometimes you regret that you have to go on such missions that make you come back so late at night.
You really don't want to go there and leave Satoru at home alone.
You didn't even get the chance to have a proper honeymoon...
Would you like to give him something like this someday...
After all, since you're together, you don't spend that much time on missions.
You have more time for yourself. You work together, so your moments are a bit more.
But Satoru deserves a marriage where he has more time.
More love.
He doesn't have long moments during which he can rest.
It just isn't there.
Such is the fate of being the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer.
However, you did everything so that you could carry this burden together.
You called him. But his phone was ringing in the bedroom.
The device was on the nightstand.
Which means he's at home because he'd never leave without his phone because a lot of people call him.
"Satoru?"
You called again, hoping maybe he was here.
You start to worry about him more and more.
Until suddenly I heard a knocking in the attic.
You went there quickly, opening the door to see a room lit only by the moon.
And by the window, white hair that was very visible in the moonlight.
"Satoru?"
Before you could approach him, you saw his shoulders tremble slightly.
The object that hit you when you heard it was an old telephone (?).
The display was on.
Do you remember having a similar one when you were a teenager?
Is this his old phone?
Did he still keep it here?
This room has a lot of stuff lying around here.
The attic was like a storage room for you.
But it could also be used as an extra bedroom. That's why there was a futon next to the window that you sometimes used to spend time here.
You watched a movie in the dark, you slept here, you had sex.
But you've never seen Satoru here alone before...
Also, something's not right here...
You walked over to him and placed your hand on his shoulder.
"Satoru, are you okay?"
You saw and felt his shoulders jump harder.
Like he has the hiccups.
"Toru..."
You knelt next to him.
His hands were clenched in the fabric of the futon as he knelt with his back to you.
And when you were kneeling next to him, you only saw how the tears on his cheeks glistened from the light that fell on him through the window.
"What happened?" he asked quickly, and placed his hands on his cheeks.
He closed his eyes.
"Satoru... What happened?"
His eyes were closed as tears flowed.
His jaw clenched. Brows furrowed.
"Satoru?"
"Will you leave me too?" he murmured very quietly. "It's all my fault, isn't it?"
"Satoru... Calm down..." you said pressing his head into your chest. "I'm here... I'm not going anywhere..."
He wrapped his arms around your body, hugging you.
"What happened?" You asked after a while.
"...Everyone shows me that everyone who is important to me is leaving because of me... They love to torment me so much... They tell me it's all my fault... and that the people who are with me will leave anyway because I'm the strongest and I must be alone... Because I will destroy everything anyway... I don't have the strength to listen to this... I don't want to be alone... I don't want to lose you... If this is how it's supposed to be, I don't want to be the strongest!"
You patted his head reassuringly.
You looked at the open phone on the floor, an old picture of him and his friend, right?
His friend...
The person who left but everyone blames Satoru...
"It's not your fault... You don't have to be alone. I am with you. I am not going anywhere. I understand what you are going through with your family... Don't listen to them... You're the head of the clan. You are the strongest. You will never be alone. I'll never leave you. I will always be with you. Since the first time we met, I haven't left you, and I'm not going to leave you... I'll help you be the strongest."
He looked at you with tears in his eyes.
He's really just a kid who couldn't live like a kid. He being an adult reenacts his childhood.
He lost so much too quickly. He watched his loved ones die too quickly.
His family dumps too much on him.
He reminds him of every mistake.
Just like when they were little... And his mother was dying.
"You are to be the strongest! Then why can't you even save your mother?! She died because of you! You can't do anything! You can try as much as you want, but you will always be alone! Because by your strength you bring death to people... That's why you will always be lonely. And everyone who is next to you will leave."
That night, your husband fell asleep in your arms.
Stroking his face gently, all you could think about was that he was the last person who could deserve such a life.
Nobody deserves to be lonely.
Especially him, who has been doing everything to keep people safe for years, sacrificing what he may need...
People like him need the protection of others.
Or at least an assurance that someone will be with them.
Someone to help them with things he doesn't have the strength to do.
Satoru may be the most powerful man alive, but he also needs support.
He doesn't need help fighting.
But his family exploits his weaknesses. The hole in his psyche.
Nothing can break him. But when the blade hits that one point, how can it be avoided?
How can you stop a man who wants to rip your skin off, and he's aiming for a cut on your body?
It's easier to tear the flesh when you pull the wound.
His family does.
It rips his psyche by pulling at the holes that have been created in him.
They cannot win against him in a fight. So they hit something that hurts even more.
Into the heart.
You didn't want to move that night. You just lay next to him on a very soft and large futon, letting him cuddle up to you.
"I will protect you from them." You said as you stared into his peaceful sleep next to you.
"We had a hard time getting you here. Were you busy?" said his father, setting a cup of tea next to you
"None of your business. I won't take extra missions. That's why we spend time at home."
"You are a Jujutsu sorcerer. The head of our clan. That's why you should ride as many missions as you can."
"I'm not going to do everything for others."
"Why doesn't anyone in your family go on missions other than Satoru? Nobody but him does anything. Plus, you're forcing him to bend his hours." You said sharply.
"As my son's wife, you shouldn't be talking. I am talking with him. And you're here as his partner. The rules of etiquette say you should keep quiet until you are asked to speak."
"You really think you can lecture my wife? An old man who can't see beyond his own nose." Satoru growled at him.
"Son, you're getting arrogant with your elders. And also... Don't you think you're being too selfish?"
You glared at the older Gojo.
"You don't want to go on missions because you don't want to? What are people supposed to say when you say it and they die? Their relatives. They are left alone, at the mercy of fate. And then death comes after them."
You felt what he was getting at.
But when you were about to say something, he slammed his mug on the table, causing the glass to shatter.
The tea began to spill.
"You're not trying to save more and more people. You're not trying to take any more missions. You're not trying to keep them alive. If you tried, you could save everyone. Everyone you've always wanted to save. If you'd kept trying instead of just once, HE would still be alive."
You felt his energy change.
His father was now stabbing him in the bleeding wound.
A flaming knife.
That he was putting so much pressure on your husband pissed you off.
Your husband's only weakness... His best friend he lost...
You fill some of that void for him, but you'll never be him.
Even though he loves you, you are not Geto Suguru.
But even so, you fill that void in part, making it never grow. As long as you are there.
"How dare you say that to Him..." you growled, the tea on the table suddenly rising.
With your emotions, the water has become hard. So the streak of water that was in front of his father was sharp.
"Someone who is so selfish can't be head of the clan. Commands are not obeyed. Plus, he can't teach his own wife that women have a place, and they don't interfere when men are talking."
"He will not be your puppet! Is this how sorcerers fight?! Taking advantage of man's only weakness?! How can a father tear apart his own son's psyche?! It's not his fault! He can't save everyone! He is only one and none of you help him!
"So why does he still have the last name Gojo?"
You widened your eyes when you heard that.
"If he can't, why is his last name Gojo? Why is he the strongest? His power is deserved because he comes from our family."
"He is to rule you. He is to know what is good. What is good for you. What is good for him."
You moved your hand.
You wanted so much to catch the connection of your technique with his blood right now, and wring his neck with his own body.
But... You don't want to be the monster that the users of this technique think are...
If anyone finds out, you'll be a sorcerer monster.
"Just try to do anything to my Satoru and I won't stop myself from killing every wretched member of this clan!"
The tea in front of him flew past his cheek quickly, brushing against his wrinkled skin. Then it flowed into the teapot which the maid was holding.
As the elder's skin began to drip blood, you suddenly disappeared.
You showed up at the Jujutsu school's ground.
It wasn't until later that you realized it was Satoru who transferred you.
"You didn't have to do that..."
You looked into his slightly sad eyes and reached up to kiss him.
"I promised I would protect you from them." You said with a smile. And only then did you notice that your eyes were small tears.
"Sensei! Shall we start training?!"
You looked back to see a group of people walking towards you.
"If you feel like it now.” Your husband said. Suddenly he was smiling.
"We're leaving later, so now." Said the girl who was standing next to the pink haired one.
"wait a minute! I'll be right back." He said clapping his hands.
"Where are you going?" you asked.
The students looked at you.
"I need to get something from the office."
"Can I train them? Just a minute."
He smiled seeing your eyes.
"Let's start training!" He said cheerfully. "Welcome your new trainer, Gojo (y/n)!"
"Gojo?"
"My wife!"
...
You didn't know that teenagers would like your technique so much.
Especially the few who got hit by the water tentacles because they were hot and the water was cool.
They avoided it.
And the longer it was, the more they wanted to be helped by the cool water bands.
Until at the end you created a large but flat drop of water for them to use as a swimming pool.
Satoru didn't come for half an hour.
But he did give you the message that the Principal wants to kill him.
But there was something wrong...
You felt a familiar energy.
That's why you glanced at the pavement to see a familiar rather tall figure.
You stood up as the man approached you.
Could this day get any worse?
"I didn't expect to see you with children. (y/n). Especially since the first children you were supposed to teach would be mine."
you snorted.
The teenagers looked at you.
They didn't know this man.
Nothing unusual. Nobody would work with a sorcerer who was suspended for murder.
"What do you want?"
"Can't I say hello to my ex-girlfriend? Besides, I wanted to visit you. Especially since you didn't invite me to your wedding." he laughed.
Your face hasn't changed. You continued to stare at him with hostility.
"Guys, we go. I'm buying you dinner." You said to the kids behind you, and waited for them to come out of the water to dissipate your energy so that the drop would melt.
They got things together quickly.
You started walking away, walking alongside Maki and Kugisaki.
But he suddenly grabbed your arm.
"You won't invite me?"
You weren't the only one who felt he was acting hostile.
The girl's exercise stick was placed against his forehead.
People like him need to be exterminated.
Especially since he reminded the girl of one of her family.
"Should I be afraid of some kid's stick?" He laughed.
Suddenly, the stick moved at dizzying speed, hitting his side hard. Causing him to curl up in pain.
"Let's go." you said to them.
You followed them, but his hand gripped your ankle as he knelt on one knee, one hand on his side.
You kicked his arm but he quickly got up and grabbed your arms.
"I know those eyes!" He said delighted. "That's how you looked at me when you beat me when you broke up with me!"
You kneed him in the stomach, but he didn't move away.
He grabbed your jaw.
Borrowing water from the grass and earth beneath you, thick ropes of water appeared around his legs.
"I'm your boyfriend. You were supposed to live with me, remember? So don't be stupid and come back to me. Or I will kill your husband. Come back to me and I won't tell everyone that you are descended from a sorcerer monster and have inherited this secret technique. Unless you want everyone to be afraid of you. Make everyone hate you."
Your hand trembled.
"Come on. Do it, and show that your technique is not as innocent as water. Show that you can kill a man by dissolving his body through blood. Show how bloody your technique is. I'm sure your little disciples will forgive you. You didn't kill me in front of them. come on. Do it. Show that we fit together. Kill when something pissed you off."
His wrist was caught by a hand.
"Let go."
You looked at Itadori who was standing next to him and was squeezing his wrist very painfully.
"You're sending kids after me because you can't fight alone? Show them what you really can do. And then we'll be together again, won't we?"
Suddenly, his body was thrown to the ground with great force.
Causing him to cough.
"You stupid brat!" He groaned as he sat on the grass.
"I won't let someone I don't even know hurt (y/n)-san! If she doesn't want you to approach her, then don't!"
"Itadori-kun..."
He smiled slightly at you.
"You think you can beat a grade 1 sorcerer, brat?!"
"I can. I think so. (Y/n)-san is as strong as Gojo-sensei. But even I would win against someone like you. Attacking a woman is not something you can do with impunity."
You heard Kugisaki's soft cheer as he said it.
"Yeah... Especially when it's my woman."
You looked at a very tall man who appeared behind your ex.
Before he could turn around, you saw your husband's hand stick out, and his two fingers point towards the forest.
And as suddenly as he appeared, the man in front of him was thrown into the trees, giving him the perfect passage to you.
"Well said Yuji-kun!" He smiled at his student.
"Sensei!" His eyes glittered.
"Next time that asshole shows up here, don't hesitate to kick his ass. He is walking a very thin line. One move too far and he's a curse user. I won't hesitate to kill him the second time I see him." He placed his fingers on your cheek. With a dark smile.
"What he did?" asked his red-haired student.
"He's always been an asshole. Until finally his stupidity went through the ceiling. And because he got pissed, he killed people on a mission. And the elders thought it was an accident during the fight." You said.
"Satoru..."
"I said I won't hesitate to kill him the second time I meet him..." he said wiping the blood from his cheek.
In his hand was your ex's head. Blood dripping from his head and face.
"He wanted to kill me. He wanted to follow you. He wanted you." He said low. "He told me about a secret technique you have, even though I already know it..."
His clean hand brushed his hair to the side.
"The only thing that wanted to take you away from me. That's the shit." He lifted his head higher. His bloodied body sliding across the floor.
You had to quickly scrub the floor of the blood...
"I was very upset that he touched you... I have to admit it. I never thought I'd have to kill him. But I don't give a shit. People who want me to be lonely will end up like this. You are all I have left for me. Don't run away from me, okay? Don't leave me alone... I did it for you."
You smiled slightly at him.
"I will not run away. Thank you."
You walked over to him, hugging his chest. His clean clothes, not stained with blood thanks to the infinity on his body.
You release yourself from anything that can separate you.
You protect each other.
Long black hair flowed with the movement of the man who stood in front of the kneeling Satoru.
You knew the features of this face from the pictures Satoru had.
Your water snakes disintegrated as soon as they touched this man.
"I appreciate your attempts. Child of the Water Manipulation Technique." He suddenly smiled. "Or rather... Child of the Secret Blood Technique of the family (l/n)."
You widened eyes and took a step back.
Curses have no body...
And you no longer have water from the tanks on your belt...
"(y/n)...! Run!"
You looked at your husband's face as he looked at you.
Screaming for you to run away?
You were supposed to protect each other...
"You'd be so much more powerful if you used the blood technique. Relying only on water, you can't do anything. Killing in a second, using the human body as a fighting toy. Isn't that more powerful than wasting energy attacking with water that can be dispersed? The blood in the body is closed in a single circuit." He took a few steps towards you. "You can kill me with a flick of your finger."
he whispered.
you felt it. You felt like you could move his blood into his heart and then burst him from the inside out.
But...
Satoru looked at you with such hope...
He made Satoru kneel.... It's unforgivable!
It's awful. A man like him cannot be humiliated.
He wanted you to run away.
Suddenly, the black-haired man felt a tightness in his heart. He couldn't feel his legs or arms. But he was still standing. As blood rushed to one spot in his body. To burst his heart.
"(y/n)!"
"Don't listen to your husband. Become like him. Like your ancestor. Become a sorcerer monster who used the blood technique to kill anyone who was nearby. Kill the heart of your husband who believes that you are not like your families. Show that, just like them, you will do anything for power and victory."
Your hand was lowered as you fell to your knees exhausted.
You didn't see the smile of the man in front of you.
"Prison Realm, Gate."
He pointed at you, and then a piece of the passage stuck to you. And you were pushed into your husband's body.
"I'll see you in the new world. Two of the strongest sorcerers."
"Sorry..."
"What matters is that you're okay."
"I don't want to be a monster..."
"(y/n) calm down. Nothing happened. What matters is that you are whole..."
"Satoru... I'm so tired..."
"Huh?"
He suddenly grabbed you as you lay down with your eyes closed on him. He was sitting in one place.
"Hey... What's going on? Honey..."
"I don't feel any energy..."
"I don't feel the cursed energy either... We're locked in here..."
"I don't feel any energy in my body at all..."
He widened his eyes.
Your technique is water.
Your energy is like water.
By taking away your cursed energy, you are like a man in a desert without water.
Even though you're not dying of thirst, you're so tired. You want to go to sleep. You want relief..
"Don't fall asleep, please don't leave me here..." he moaned.
"Can I at least get some sleep?"
"And if you don't wake up... (y/n)!"
"I'm still here. I'm not leaving you. I'll only sleep for a moment."
...
"How long does she sleep?"
"Since we were locked up in the prison Realm. She fell asleep there."
"She should wake up soon. Thanks to her being with you, at least she's alive. If only she had been locked up there, she would certainly not have been cared for when she got out. Anyway, she's just sleeping. So don't cry anymore, Gojo."
...
"How can I not cry when I thought I was alone again?"
....
When you open your eyes, he was lying next to you in bed.
"Good morning Baby."
You were hugged by him as soon as you looked at him.
He started kissing and hugging you.
Even if I didn't know what it was about.
"You finally woke up..."
"How much have I been sleeping.... Toru..."
He looked at you with a childish smile.
"Soon..."
He wasn't telling you the truth because for you, that time was like a while. But he didn't know if it was minutes or hours. Or days.
That's why it was soon.
You lay on his shoulder while he was nestled in your hair, sometimes kissing your forehead.
They all came to you.
Lots of people who you don't know...
But they were still nice.
"How do you feel?"
"Very good." you said to your husband when he asked.
Then he hugged you again.
Then you looked at the people around you.
"Where's Kugisaki?" You asked calmly.
Nobody answered you.
you understood...
"And Megumi?"
You looked at Satoru who was looking at you seriously.
"Honey... I'd like to ask you for help... To get Megumi back..."
"To get back?"
"We must destroy Sukuna to get him back..."
Suddenly he turned around.
"It doesn't make sense... I won't put you at risk." he said looking at you with the same eyes you've seen before.
The ones you saw when he killed your ex.
Caring but dark.
You got up and cupped his cheeks.
"You protect me, I protect you. It's been that way since first sight, and it will be. Even if we may die. If so, we will die together. Neither of us will be lonely."
#jujutsu kaisen#jjk#gojo x reader#gojo x y/n#gojo satoru#jujustu kaisen#jjk x you#jjk x reader#gojo#gojo fanfic#gojo saturo#gojo smut#gojo satoru x reader#gojo x you#jujutsu kaisen x reader
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Apple Merchant [BOTW!Link x Isekai!Reader] (Part 3)
The house does not make a home, but a home can make a man.
The trash pile has grown again. It's spilling out of the bin.
Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Alternate Extras: Embrace
Masterlist
TW: Choosing not to display warnings. Read at your own discretion.
Disclaimer: Don't own The Legend of Zelda franchise.
---
The house is bigger than you remember it being from the game. For one, there's a sectioned off washroom hidden partially under the loft stairs and a full kitchen area in the left rear of the house. The ceiling is also ridiculously high for a one story (technically two) house, but you let that detail slide. It's to your- Link's, benefit, after all.
Another thing, upgrades are not offered automatically here. Though that should've been obvious in hindsight and you're a bit embarrassed to admit it'd slipped your mind. Most people would decorate and furnish their own homes with either their old furniture or newly bought.
That's what the many, many shops the game never had reason to show were for, after all.
Therein led to your current dilemma.
Practicality or comfort? The large thin rug with dark patterns, or a smaller plush one with elegant designs embroidered at the edges? Red covers? Blue, white, gray? All of them perhaps? Maybe just three?
Does Link prefer cast iron or the wok? Steel forks or maybe chop sticks? A full set of pots and pans, or just two or three good ones for repeated use? Which set of knives? The specialty set or a general use one?
Should the loft have a rug too? Should you get both? Should you get three? What about the washroom?
Towels? A vase...
Dumb idea. No vases.
Should there be two beds? When Link frees Zelda from the castle, surely the poor woman won't be made to live there in that festering monster's nest of a ruin. And having been trapped there for a century as the world outside moved forward (after having been royalty nonetheless), would she even know how to live on her own?
Would it be presumptuous of you to already set up for her arrival before Link even properly remembered who she was? You didn't want to make Link feel obligated to fufill your assumptions like that. He already had so much on his shoulders. He didn't need you to add more.
So, only one bed. Sheets?
"Jus' get them all, ya cluckin' mother cucco." Adino snapped waspishly, thin brows pulled down into a severe looking glare. His arms were crossed as he leaned against the wall closest to the 'Odds and Ends' shop's door, pointedly.
You barely spared him a glance, used to his attitude after having known him for nearly three years. And honestly, it was all for show anyway. Adino loved shopping with you, but the spiteful little shit would never admit it. Even under pain of death.
'Jus' making sure the walkin' rupee bag doesn't fall dead to an ill fated breeze.' He'd snark if ever questioned why he was following you around on his days off.
Lies, of course. The truth is he's lonely. So very lonely and too hurt yet to reach out to anyone else for companionship.
The man he'd called father for 14 years of his short life suddenly throws him out of the only home he'd known with barely the clothes on his back. All after finding out his recently departed wife had been having affairs. And the kicker, the bastard claims he supposedly doesn't even know if Adino's his or not (despite them having the exact same eyes and brows).
It'd been convenient though, you'd give him that. Just washed his hands of the situation entirely. Started fresh with a new wife and got rid of the unnaturally (Adino had parroted coldly, like a curse and a confession breathed in the same breath) effeminate son that may or may not be his.
No stings attached. Just living comfortably on his late wife's family property and shacking up with her younger sister.
And that abandoned son running, running, running across Hyrule. Until he dropped right outside of Hateno, quiet and hurting and nearly driven mad with hateful, writhing loathing.
You pull yourself from those thoughts. It's not your business. Adino may have shared that information with you during his mandatory background check, but that doesn't mean it's any of your business.
Even if the boy is living with you, and has been for the last three years.
(Even if you already ruined that man's fletching business. Even if you never told Adino why that man'd taken a very long walk off a very tall cliff.
Even if Adino knew and left flowers on your desk every year on that day ever since.)
"I'll take them all. As well as the rugs, towels and curtains, please. Oh. And that tapestry. Yes. The one with the apples."
Adino snorted, rolling his eyes, and you smiled. A merchant's got to advertise wherever possible, after all.
The older, greying woman behind the counter nodded, glancing over to two younger women (her granddaughters, twins and five years orphaned. turned 17 last Fall) waiting unobtrusively near the back of the shop. They didn't need any more instruction than that, swiftly gathering your choices and folding them into neatly wrapped bundles.
You swear this family had to have some sheikah blood in them somewhere. Even if they had pitch black hair and the darkest grey eyes you've ever seen. They were just too quiet and efficient to be normal Hyrulians. (And were little known for their discretion above all else.)
You tipped the women for thier help. They thanked you with a quiet tilt of their perfectly kept heads, before returning to their preferred corner in the far back.
You didn't bother to barter with this woman. You paid full price for everything, and then tipped her too.
Four gold rupees. And a note, which she took with a nod and a knowing glint in her eyes.
(Because they were known for their discretion, and you appreciated that more than anything.
You knew she understood the flowers you left on her desk every year on the same day.
And you knew she'd understand this too.)
You left, but not before catching one of the twins (the one with the blue head cloth and lip rouge) staring longingly after Adino's back as he marched from the store in a dramatic huff. Her sister hiding a probable grin behind her red painted hand.
'Interesting. But not my problem.'
---
Link looked up the curved path to Hateno's guarded gate as he sheathed his guardian sword, the black mist of two hopelessly mangled bodies blowing away in the strong mountainside winds. Further back still was the semi-conscious groan of a young woman surrounded by fallen mushrooms.
Link ignored her slowly rising form, having checked her vitals earlier before being ambushed by a pair of bokoblins. He knew she'd be fine, and honestly, if she was sneaking around monster infested forests for mushrooms (Link could still hear the snorting of the beasts further past the treeline) then she must be able to take a hit or two and come out okay.
She must have had the same thoughts because she merely dusted herself off, picked up her fallen produce and made for the trees once more. Barely sparing Link a backwards wave before disappearing into the thick underbrush.
Link blinked after her. And sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
So. That happened.
Link let it roll off his back easily enough. He had more important issues to deal with. Such as was it appropriate for him to just show up at your (and now his) doorstep fresh from the road and smelling every bit of it.
He discreetly sniffed under his arm and grimaced.
Surely you'd understand. You and him were connected after all, and you knew his name and knew he'd be coming to Hateno. A little roadside reek shouldn't be a big surprise.
Yet. He couldn't shake the self-consciousness. The irrational fear that you'd look at him and expect more than what you got.
Like that old man who was actually a dead person. Like that Impa woman, and everyone in that little village she lived in.
For how quickly he'd steamrolled through the untamed wilds of Hyrule just to meet you, he was oddly reluctant to continue now that he was at your metaphoric (and soon literal) doorstep.
He glanced down at himself, taking himself in with a critical eye.
The Sheikah armor he wore (it had been under 10,000 rupees, he checked) was covered in dust, grim and the unflattering stains of sweat, dried bloody drool (from that unfortunate incident with the bokoblin horse), grass and meat grease. His hair was so filthy it was nearly brown despite that equally unfortunate incident with the octorok having put him in the water several times (strong inconsistent winds make aiming bows hard, he'd discovered).
Hopefully you wouldn't be disgusted. He hoped you understood that he wasn't- well-
He wasn't who he used to be. Apparently.
"Link." A flat voice called out, and Link nearly jumped to attention at the unexpected interruption. He nearly reached for his sword too, before he stopped himself.
When Link looked up and met dark gray eyes, his heart started to tightened.
'Is that you, AM?' His eyes asked earnestly, wide and round with quiet searching. For recognition. For understanding. For anything at all.
Instead he got a slow, dispassionate blink and confusion as the woman spoke into the silence between them. "AM instructed me to lead you home, Master Link."
Link pointed to himself. "Master?" He rasped out quietly, voice rough and unpleasant even to his own ears. Nothing to say for the pain it caused at the base of his throat.
Without missing a beat the young woman nodded once, the blue bandana holding her dark hair back catching slightly in the wind. Blue painted lips barely moving as she said. "Yes. I will explain more once we arrive at your home."
Link nodded, still uncertain but trusting enough of this strange woman who knew the name (Alis? Nickname? Title, perhaps?) of his sheikah slate partner.
Tomorrow, he would be given a small journal detailing many of the dangers and wonders of this beautiful, wild world he now lived in. And he wouldn't be so trusting anymore.
And he'd have bananas, apparently. So many bananas.
But that's for tomorrow. Today?
Today was the first time he walked across the old, but sturdy footbridge. The first time he glanced over at the shrine glowing faintly to his left, peeking from behind a small cluster of buildings.
It was the first day he stood on the threshold of his (and your) new home. The first time since awakening he felt the beginning of heartbreak as he realized you were not there to greet him. That you would not be living with him. Ever.
('For now,' He thought in quiet defiance.)
And the first time since he opened his eyes in that dark, eerily glowing shrine he felt loved. When his eyes adjusted to the darker light of the house and found a home waiting for him.
Not just an empty building with four walls and a bed, but a rug with pretty dark patterns under a heavy wooden table. A bowl of apples at its center, with thick candles at either side. An intricately sewn tablecloth just slightly hanging over the sides in delicate little weaves.
He felt loved when he walked around the front room, boot-heavy steps thumping softly on polished hardwood floors, slowly taking in the space (the blue woman waiting patiently at the door). The small wooden sculptures upon carefully arranged tables, cute and quirky banners and tapestries brightening up the dimly lit room (one was slightly lower than the rest, another was slightly off-center, and Link felt warm at the imperfections). Sunflowers, a bird, a rock formation, an apple tree, a cat with a bell.
A sword and shield rack. Two armor stands. A few weapon's plaque hanging above them.
The food in the kitchen pantry. Completely unnecessary, but for the way it made Link feel. The way it made his throat tighten and itch. The thought that this was put here because it was meant to be his home.
And so much more. So many things he couldn't even remember the uses for. So many bits and pieces that slot together into the jumbled mess that is a home. It was more than he had the heart to acknowledge without weeping.
Noticing his brewing turmoil, the blue woman spoke. "Perhaps a bath and bed before we speak of business. AM said you may be tired when you arrived."
Link nodded, unwilling to speak and risk his voice breaking entirely. Instead he allowed himself to be led to the washroom, holding back tears when he found bottles of sweet smelling soaps and hair cleansers on a small table beside a stool above a drain. A tub beside it all, shaped like a bowl but with a drain at the bottom and a water spout at the rim.
He looked to the blue woman, overwhelmed and dazed by the strength of his emotions.
Something in her softened at his lost expression. "Let me bath you, Master Link." She said, keeping her voice even, though her dark eyes were gentle. "Just until you learn how to do it yourself."
Link nodded. Quiet and trusting in his vulnerability.
She helped him undress. She made him sit on the stool as she gathered what she needed.
Her hands were so, so gentle as they brought a warm, wet towel over his dirtied, battered skin.
He nearly fell into a doze twice as she washed his hair three times until the suds came off white. He was only minimally aware of the strong (deceptively strong) hands that helped him into the tub. He nearly slumped into the side of the bowl, body completely lax within the warm, welcoming water.
He opened his eyes from one blink to the next and blankets (thick and soft, smelling of fresh soaps and linen) were being drawn over his shoulders. The pillow beneath him gave under the weight of his head, as did the mattress he laid upon.
Every part of him felt warm and soft and safe. He smelt like flowers and sweet nuts, his skin felt clean and supple under the tender caress of his nightclothes. The further dimming lights eased him further down into slumber.
"Rest well, Master Link. I will guard you as you sleep."
Link couldn't even bring himself to respond, lost as he was to the call to nothingness.
He was lost not long after.
"One day." The blue woman said softly, sitting beside the unconscious man with an amused smile. "I will teach you to identify sleeping oils before they reach you. But not tonight. For tonight you sleep. Tomorrow, you will learn to be wary."
She wiped her delicate finger tips across his relaxed forehead, a slight sheen left in their wake.
"Sweet dreams, Courageous One."
---
Link,
I apologize that I could not be there to greet you properly. However, after careful consideration I decided it would be safest for our paths to remain separate at this time.
Herein this text, you will find all relevant information I've amassed over the years regarding our world and the dangers within it. Including, but not limited to, the continued threat of the Yiga clan.
May you never have to make use of the less savory of this knowledge.
Yours truly,
AM
---
To the shadows I return.
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Is that really JuanaFlippa?
Based on everything we know right now, the answer is "no"
What's more likely is that this is a Binary Monster pretending to be JuanaFlippa.
On a meta level, we know the admins of dead QSMP Eggs said they won't reprise their roles, but it's no fun to base lore analysis on meta alone, so here's a lore explanation for my reasoning:
First, and perhaps the most obvious explaination: JuanaFlippa never had cracks in her shell. She died long before the event where all the Eggs got kidnapped and were returned with cracked shells, yet this "JuanaFlippa" had cracks. What's interesting to note here is that during the Election Dinner when the fake Chayanne and Tallulah tried to trick Phil, he immediately pointed out that they didn't have cracks in their shell while the real Chayanne and Tallulah did. Perhaps the imposter was trying to overcompensate for their previous mistake by adding cracks to JuanaFlippa's shell not realizing that she never had them in the first place.
The reason why I specifically say this is a Binary Monster is because of the signs she left:
We've already seen the Binary Monster(s) try to replicate regular non-binary writing before when Etoiles encountered the fake Dapper and fake Tallulah (the book he showed Forever pictured below):
"My Dapper me na name" —> "My name is Dapper"
We know the Codes are constantly evolving and learning, so naturally their writing is getting better too (though we can clearly see 1s and 0s and other errors in "Flippa's" signs despite this).
But what's the Code's motivation in doing this?
In the past, we saw the Code(s) mimic Eggs because they wanted to attack and kill Presidential candidates— but that's a pretty recent development. Remember: before the elections, they were attacking the Eggs (though they also attacked Maximus and Cellbit at one point). The motivations of the Binary Monster(s) has always been unclear, and there's a lot of potential roads we could go down while theorizing, but in the interest of keeping this as relevant to the current discussion as possible, I'll focus on just one:
We have strong evidence to believe that the Binary Monster didn't want Islanders to stay on the island. It kept attacking the Eggs and leaving behind signs that said "Last Warning," strongly implying that it was trying to chase them away.
HOWEVER: shortly before the elections, QSMPGlobal tweeted an image of the Binary Monster above the Federation building.
[ Note: I thought I had this photo saved, but I didn't. I've been scrolling through their media tab for 5 minutes and Twitter crashed, so I'll have to add this photo later. It’s very late and I am so so tired. ]
This is the first time the Federation acknowledged the existence of the Binary Monster, and afterward, it said Islanders wouldn't need to worry about it attacking them. Why would the Federation suddenly acknowledge this physical embodiment of a mistake, an error, on their (supposedly) perfect Island?
The answer? The Federation took control of the Binary Monster. Why else would they suddenly deem it "not a threat"?
We could clearly see the Binary Monster deteriorating over time during the election arc. It looked shabbier and shabbier as time went on during the election arc. Something was clearly wrong with it (perhaps whatever the Federation was doing to control it hurt the Code in some way? Maybe the Federation experimented on it and made their own Binary Monsters?) But I digress-
The next time we see the Binary Monster after the Election ends is on Tazercraft's recent stream this week. Not only does it have a new upgrade (the strange OP sword Cellbit + Etoiles saw records of), it also ignores Richarlyson and opts to take a swing at Pac and Mike instead.
Now here's where things get really weird.
Earlier this week, we also saw the Binary Monster on Etoiles' stream. It didn't attack him, and instead leads him to a sharestone, which teleported him to a portal. He's given this image, then is kicked from the QSMP with the message: "The Nether Awaits."
So what does this have to do with JuanaFlippa?
...Well, that's the question, isn't it?
This is where things start getting murkier. I want to draw our attention to two specific things Flippa said before she left:
"It's not safe out there for me."
"Please keep this a secret."
The Binary Monster has already proven time and time again it's a force to be reckoned with. Why would it need to hide? Is it so that it can get closer to Charlie? (And if so, why? To mimic him? To get information?) I think a likelier answer is that the Binary Monster is trying to hide from the Federation itself.
Perhaps whatever the Federation did to shackle it— whether they experimented on it or copied it or whatever— left it damaged and weak. Or perhaps it isn't damaged at all; it just needs to lay low and needs someone else to do its dirty work for it (like sending Etoiles on a quest to find that strange shield in the Nether).
Unfortunately, a lot of this amounts to speculation because we simply don't have enough information yet. (It's also very very very late for me, so this analysis is purely driven by sleep-deprived madness and love for QSMP lore and JuanaFlippa).
Whatever's going on, we need to be very careful and think carefully about this being's motivations. Like Cellbit said: "Eyes always open."
Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts in the tags or comments or whatever, it's always fun hearing what people think of my analysis posts. You can find other analysis posts in my QSMP Info and QSMP talk tag.
#QSMP#JuanaFlippa#Slimecicle#Binary Monster#Code Monster#i talk#qsmp talk#QSMP Info#Anyways. Bedtime#I'm so frickin sick because of how sleep-deprived I am but I will NOT have the motivation to do an analysis writeup later#QSMP analysis
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Hi! I have been reading you for a long time and would like to ask you something for the first time… The last message flow to the Lethal Company from the Nutcracker was WILDLY SWEET, however, it hurt me from the bracken that was shot through the lytic…. May I ask the bracken and the reader where the bracken constantly goes behind the reader's back…. JUST TO HUG! Someone from the team warns about the danger and the bracken gently takes the reader in his arms to his lair for even bigger hugs!
Bruh you have no idea how soft i am for brackens hfghhs (when I first started playing LC, they were ALWAYS killing me...but now they just like to pop out and scurry away when I look at them, so I consider us to be pretty chill)
Anyways woe Bracken fluff be upon ye <3
.....
Of all the creatures you've encountered during your time with the Company, Brackens were certainly the most complicated.
Even though there's been countless documents and reports of employees scanning, studying, and dying to these aliens...they were still seldom understood. The data on the terminal said so.
There was one in particular who had such a unique behavior pattern that remained a mystery to you.
And he lived on Experimentation, which was supposedly the "safest" moon to land on and gather scrap from.
Most of the time, however, that was a load of bullshit...as you and your crew had many encounters with aggressive lifeforms such as hoarding bugs, Thumpers, spiders, and turrets that were placed in the most inconvenient spots...
Hell, even an Earth Leviathan showed up and nearly consumed your entire ship.
As of right now, though, you were on-track to making the third profit quota's deadline. So a trip to Experimentation was an order, as you could grab minimal loot and still gain enough leftover money to buy some much-needed ship upgrades and tools.
Or maybe new suits or jack o'lanterns.
None of you were good at managing your budget.
But during this trip, you were less focused on getting loot and more eager to see....a certain someone.
Hopefully, he hasn't forgotten about you or mistook you for another random employee.
While two of your coworkers headed into the facility's main entrance and one stayed behind on the ship, you ascended the stairs leading up to the fire exit--armed with nothing but a flashlight and a walkie-talkie.
[Nearby activity detected!]
"Oh come on...can you be anymore vague?" You huffed, slightly annoyed that your scanner displayed the message before you could even touch the damn door.
"Activity" was awfully broad and could mean literally anything was waiting for you on the other side..
It could be a bunker spider or snare flea waiting to drop down on you and catch you by surprise.
It could be a Hygrodere spreading itself all over the floor, anticipating you setting one foot into it before drowning in its slimy body.
It could even be a simple turret ready to turn you into swiss cheese.
However, there's the possibility that it could also be the one entity here who didn't wanna give you a painful death, and you hoped to god you were right.
So you took a leap of faith and entered.
Surprisingly no danger was immediately present, although you did find a lot of good loot inside the room and smiled. "Oh sweet!" You grabbed the rubber ducky and Rubik's cube in the nearest corner, pocketing them. "This should set us way above-"
"Something's behind you!"
"Huh-?!"
All of the sudden, a pair of large arms wrapped around you from behind, pulling you back and causing your oxygen tanks to be pressed against the creature's chest-
Wait.
You only knew one Bracken that did that, and you couldn't help but laugh. "Oh my gosh, you scared me! You know you can't keep doing that!"
"Krrrrrr.." The entity purred softly, nuzzling his face against your neck as its leaves rustled with happiness.
With a chuckle, you patted his arm affectionately. "I've missed you, too, buddy. I told you I'd be back."
Knowing it was this Bracken, you felt safer than ever. He had a habit of greeting you this way: by sneaking up behind you like the rest of his species typically did, and attacking you.....not by snapping your neck like a twig, but by embracing and nuzzling you.
Of course, nobody in your crew believed that you've got a dangerous alien predator on Experimentation who always waited for you. Who loved you like a dog and would kill a Thumper for you.
If only they could meet him...but then again, he was shy.
"Don't tell me it's that damn Bracken again...did you tame it or something?"
The staticky voice of your coworker over the walkie-talkie startled the poor Bracken out of the hug, as it dropped you and flared its leaves out, wondering where they were.
"Relax, we're cool." You huffed, annoyed that they spooked your friend. "I gotta conserve my battery so...signal me when it gets close to midnight."
"....fine. Just don't die. Over and out."
After switching off the device, you turned back to him and smiled apologetically. "Don't worry. They're far away, so they won't bother us." You removed your helmet for the moment.
He nodded in understanding, crouching down to get a better look at your human features.
For some reason he never minded prolonged eye contact with you--and that was a good thing....otherwise, you would've been dead a long time ago.
You smiled and patted the top of his head, before he suddenly sprung up and scooped you up into his arms, lifting you completely off the ground. "Woah! Hey! Where are we going?" You asked as he carried you out of the room, taking you somewhere further within the facility.
Considering the Bracken knew his way around, you weren't too concerned with getting lost.
On your way to this unknown destination, you spotted a hoarding bug skittering down the hallway, eyeing the brass bell attached to your belt.....only to freeze as the leafy entity glared at it.
Luckily it understood the appropriate time to make eye contact with a Bracken, as it eventually looked away from him and decided to leave for another part of the facility.
It seems most of the creatures were knew who was the alpha.
'Man, whoever's tracking me must be so confused right now..' You thought to yourself as he continued walking.
Eventually you both arrived at a place many employees dubbed the "Bracken Room": a large open illuminated space with yellowish walls that looked out of place in the facility.
After setting you down on the floor, you looked at the Bracken with confusion, wondering why he decided to bring you here....until he brought you into another hug, wanting to sit down and have you in his lap.
You just smiled and wrapped your arms around him, giggling as he tucked his head underneath your chin, wanting to listen to the sound of a human's heartbeat.
Now you understood.
All he wanted was to take you to a quiet, safe place away from all the other monsters and employees. A place where he could have you to himself...at least for a couple more hours, anyways.
You knew the ship wasn't leaving anytime soon, so you didn't mind keeping him company.
While other Brackens are among the top three reasons employees hated their job...this one made you love it.
You feel so lucky, you'll consider buying a lottery ticket if you ever returned to Earth.
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My Morph primer
Since X-Men 97 is drawing in a lot of new fans with varied levels of experience with the original animated series or the comics, I figured I could give a write-up of who Morph is, where they come from, and why you don’t see them in any of the movies or other media. This is also an excuse for me to write about an obsessive fave, seriously, they are all over my blog. I'm not necessarily an "authority," but I've watched TAS and read the comics, which are the basis for this write-up.
Who is Morph?
"Wolverine! Fall back!"
Morph is a shapeshifting mutant who was added to the X-Men team in the original X-Men: The Animated Series as a redshirt/sacrificial lamb, to be killed off For Real in order to show that the stakes are really high. Originally it was actually going to be Thunderbird, a short-lived X-Man who died in the comics just a few issues after he was introduced, and has remained dead for decades. But creators realized that killing off the only Native American character on a mostly white team was a bad look, and went with Morph instead. Morph proved surprisingly popular with (mostly child) viewers, and was brought back in the 2nd season as a result. Morph in TAS was originally presented as male using male pronouns, but I’m gonna use they/them for the character since they are nonbinary in X-Men 97.
(Btw, even Morph's TAS costume shows their redshirt nature, as they are basically wearing a variant of the standard X-Men uniform that different groups have worn, with the Original Five (Angel, Jean, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman) and the New Mutants all wearing something similar. There was a time in the 90's when all the X-Men were wearing this uniform to try to give them a team look, but thankfully that didn't last, the individualized looks are much better. Morph's amazing disappearing reappearing jacket are the only personalized touch in their uniform, and I hope X-Men 97 gives them a costume upgrade after everyone gets used to the new look.)
Morph doesn’t appear in many episodes of TAS, but here are the definitive ones:
Season 1:
Night of the Sentinels Parts 1 and 2: Morph seems to be an established part of the team, a wise-cracking shapeshifter who is so naively overconfident about their mission that they’ve practically got a target painted on their back. When the mission goes wrong, Morph pushes Wolverine out of the way of Sentinel lasers, and gets blasted all to hell. Morph’s supposed death (which was meant at the time to be a real death) is sensed by both Jean and Xavier. Cyclops orders a retreat because the team is getting their asses kicked, abandoning both the (dead) Morph and (alive but injured) Beast, who spends the rest of the season in jail. Morph is quickly forgotten as a character, BUT the impact of their death is felt throughout the season. We get Wolverine yelling “This one’s for you, Morph!” while slicing up a Sentinel, and Cyclops in the finale insisting, “I’m not leaving anyone behind! Not this time!”
Season 2:
Till Death Do Us Part, Parts 1 and 2: Morph returns as a villain, but a sympathetic, brainwashed villain under the control of season Big Bad Mr. Sinister. Sinister is an evil scientist who likes to fuck around with mutant genetics and is especially obsessed with getting Scott and Jean to fuck, because their child will supposedly be an extremely genetically superior mutant. After Morph’s “death,” they were taken by Sinister, who revived them and implanted a control device into Morph’s brain that he uses to literally torture Morph into compliance. Morph seems to have a kind of split personality, which Sinister exacerbates and encourages, shifting between a haggard-looking Evil Morph who wants revenge on the X-Men for abandoning them and cracks jokes while attacking the team, and a normal-looking Good Morph, who doesn’t want to hurt their friends, and is generally scared and confused and having a Bad Time. If you are wondering about Morph turning into that version of themselves with dark circles around their eyes in X-Men 97 “Fire Made Flesh,” it was a reference back to this:
Evil Morph lookin' reeeeeaal creepy.
Morph uses their shape-shifting trickery to fake marry Scott and Jean (as the priest), impersonate Xavier and turn the team against each other, until Wolverine identifies them by scent. The team then chases Morph to Sinister’s lair, where he’s captured a honey-mooning Scott and Jean. Morph has been struggling with the brainwashing the entire time, and breaks free long enough to attack Sinister, then runs off away from everyone.
Whatever It Takes: Wolverine, who has declared the Morph is “the only one who could ever make him laugh,” chases Morph down to Brazil in an attempt to drag them back to the team. Morph, still fighting their dark side and flipping back and forth between the two personalities, taunts Wolverine in Jean’s form, fights him, and eventually gains enough control to tell Logan to back off. (“I have to get through this by myself!”)
Fighting your friend in an abandoned mine shaft, a totally normal thing to do.
Wolverine reluctantly lets them go. This the B-plot, the main plot of the episode features Storm and Rogue confronting the Shadow King in Africa, and is also really good.
Reunion Parts 1 and 2: Morph leaves a message for Wolverine stating that he wants to return to the team, in what seems like an obvious set-up for a trap. Wolverine, Jean and Cyclops go to retrieve them, and find that yes, it is a trap. Morph attmpts to warn the group to leave, but they are jumped by Sinister and the Nasty Boys, and the fight ends with Jean being taken, and Morph (still struggling against Sinister’s control), going semi-willingly. The whole team winds up at Sinister’s base in the Savage Land and there are a lot of good character moments, like Gambit telling Rogue he loves her. Morph spends the whole time still fighting against the brainwashing, but throws it off completely at the end (with Xavier’s help) and turns on Sinister, helping Scott and Jean defeat him. Morph is then Put on a Bus to Muir Island so that the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the character but could hold them in reserve to use later. Xavier comments that he can remove Sinister’s mind-control chip from Morph’s brain, but that “removing the psychic damage will take longer.” So the answer to “Where’s Morph?” in later seasons will always be “Recovering on Muir Island, probably hanging out with Moira and Banshee.”
If you are a Morph fan, Season 2 is THE Morph season, they get a great character arc that fleshes them out, and establishes their close relationship with Wolverine. I’m glad they didn’t toss out Morph in X-Men 97, both because I like the character, and because Morph’s entire arc in Season 2 was about their struggle to come back to the team, and constantly reaffirms that Morph is one of them, and that they belong with the X-Men. Also, I know Tumblr love an angsty, suffering blorbo, and good God does Morph suffer in Season 2.
(Someone is having a Bad Time).
Season 4:
Courage: After getting only a couple of non-speaking background cameos in Season 3, this is Morph’s comeback episode in Season 4. Morph believes that they are fully recovered and ready to rejoin the X-Men, while both Moira and Xavier seem to think they are not ready, and warn them to slow down a little. Morph tries to jump back into their old role, makes jokes, and goes on a mission with Wolverine, but is clearly still dealing with PTSD and completely freezes up when Sentinels attack the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Morph is left at the mansion while the X-Men go to rescue Xavier, but follows them anyway, and manages to play an instrumental role in stopping the Sentinels and saving Xavier. Despite this, Morph decides that they are not ready to return and cannot be relied upon in battle (because the writers didn’t want to deal with using the character on the team), and goes back to Muir Island. It’s a standard “character fucks up at the start of the episode but saves the day in the end” superhero cartoon story, and I was a little disappointed that the episode focused entirely on Morph’s “near death trauma” from the Sentinels and not the much worse “brainwashed and tortured by Sinister to the point of developing a second personality” issue. The closest we get to addressing that is Morph pointedly walking up to Cyclops with “Scott…been a long time….” which sounds like a way of saying “We’re cool now, bro, I promise I won’t try to kill you.” Still, we get some great Morph and Wolverine moments, and Morph kicks a lot of ass at the end. After Morph spends most of the series either dead or suffering, I don’t mind an episode where they get to kick ass. This episode also establishes that Morph was suffering from serious nightmares for awhile, so consider that a canon excuse to put that in your angsty fanfic.
(Morph also gets a non-speaking cameo in Beyond Good and Evil Part 1, sitting next to Jubilee at Scott and Jean’s second wedding. I think it’s sweet that they were invited, but can also imagine Scott putting them in the front row just to ensure that there are no more “fake priest” shenanigans. “Let’s put Morph where I can see him….just in case.”)
Season 5:
Graduation Day: After Xavier is attacked, Morph returns to help calm mutants world-wide by impersonating Xavier and making a public call for peace. Morph doesn’t do much in the episode, but they get an individualized goodbye from Xavier while he is addressing the team one by one, and it is clear at the end that Morph is officially back with the team. In other words, the writers could give Morph a happy ending of coming back since the show was ending and they didn’t have to deal with it going forward. Thankfully, the X-Men 97 writers were happy to pick up that ball and continue running with it, and I love what they’ve done with Morph so far!
Were there shippy vibes between Morph and Wolverine in the original series?
I dunno friend, watch “Whatever it Takes,” and “Courage,” and you tell me. Morph shifting into Jean to taunt Wolverine definitely gives me vibes of “There’s something going on there.”
Is Morph in the comics?
(Note – I’m using he/him for all comics versions of Morph because those versions all apparently ID as male.)
The answer is yes, sort of.
Changeling:
Morph was loosely based on an obscure, long dead shape-shifting mutant from the X-Men’s original 60’s run. Changeling was a villain with a tacky costume who acted very much like a standard 60’s comic book villain, associated with a terrorist group called Factor Three. Look at this fucking dude:
At the end of the Factor Three arc, it turns out that Factor Three’s leader, Mutant Master, is an alien who wants to destroy ALL life on Earth to make way for his own people, and the mutants in the group turn on him and help the X-Men. Changeling is the first one to question Mutant Master’s motives, and that’s probably the only interesting thing he does in the whole story. Several issues later, Xavier supposedly dies while helping defeat a villain named Grotesk and save the world. This story is retconned near the end of the run, when Xavier is revealed to be alive, and explains that the dead “Xavier” was actually Changeling. Changeling had discovered that he was terminally ill, and came to Xavier seeking redemption. Xavier asked Changeling to temporarily take his place as Xavier while he shut himself up in the basement to prepare to stop an alien invasion (and no, the X-Men were not informed of this, besides Jean, and yes, that is really fucked up). So Changeling became a reformed villain and honorary X-Man who went out in a heroic sacrifice, and was almost never mentioned again. (Even now Changeling appears to still be dead in the comics, even though the current storyline has allowed ALL the dead mutants to come back. Even Thunderbird is back.)
Changeling was greatly reworked to become Morph, totally changing his personality and origins. The only similarities are the shapeshifting powers and physical appearance. You can see how this guy:
Became this not-actually-a-guy:
Or even this version:
X-Men 97 Morph got a real glow-up to their human form.
Of course, they also share the trait of being a sacrificial lamb plot device, and X-Men TAS creators were originally going to call the character “Changeling,” but changed the name to Morph because DC’s Beast Boy was called Changeling at the time.
Age of Apocalypse Morph:
In the 90’s, there was a cross-over event over all the X-Books called the Age of Apocalypse, in which a time-traveller (Xavier’s son Legion, long story) murdered Xavier in the past before Xavier formed the X-Men, and created a dystopian alternate reality in which Apocalypse had taken over and Magneto led the X-Men. This was a kind of what-if event that let writers have fun with switching up character relationships, turning good guys bad and bad guys good, and of course, killing a lot of characters off. The event only lasted about four issues before it was all undone and we returned to the main Marvel universe, so they could really go wild. In the AoA book Astonishing X-Men, Magneto’s team includes a character called Morph, a versatile shapeshifter with a pasty white made-of-clay look, and a jovial, upbeat personality that is clearly based on TAS Morph. (This change to character design is where X-Men 97 Morph’s white, featureless appearance comes from).
Just a silly little guy!
AoA Morph is also stated in the book to have been formerly Changeling, before undergoing a name-change and attitude adjustment, making him an AU variant. He explains to Sunfire at one point that he never takes anything seriously because fuck it, he’s probably gonna die anyway, he may as well die with a smile on his face. AoA Morph is pretty cool, he does great shapeshifting tricks, and has some depth and heart beneath the obnoxious jokes.
Exiles Morph:
After Age of Apocalypse, the fan-favorite character Blink (like Morph, another alternate version of a short-lived character in the main comics timeline) gets pulled out of the AoA timeline and placed on a team of time-displaced X-Men. This team, all coming from alternate realities and including some other minor neglected characters (like versions of Thunderbird and Mimic), is tasked with hopping through realities, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap will be their leap home. The team also includes a version of Morph, who is so similar to AoA Morph that Blink mistakes him initially for her old teammate. This is another AU variant of Changeling who was never Changeling, but instead was recruited into the New Mutants (a bit of an age retcon for the character, as 60’s Changeling seemed much older, while Exiles Morph is clearly much younger.) Exiles Morph was a popular hero in his reality, served as both an X-Man and an Avenger, and is an incredibly powerful shapeshifter. He also winds up being a long-running mainstay of the Exiles team, so this is really the book to read for Morph content. Exiles also fleshes out the character’s past, stating that he was born as a shapeshifting blob with X-gene already activated, and only assumed a human appearance to fit in with peers. He also lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his obnoxious jokey personality was partially a reaction to that, an attempt to both cheer up and get some attention from his grieving father. Exiles Morph is a great character, my only complaint is that he is a bit of a sex pest, constantly making “jokes” that border on sexual harassment of his female teammates. I don’t think he’s meant to actually be a creep, he never actually does anything, and when the teammate he has a crush on reveals that she is a lesbian, he steps back and acts as a supportive friend. I think Exiles Morph just suffers from late 90’s early 2000 writing where the funny jokey character has to be all “LOL, Boobies!” all the time, just so we know he’s straight. (Funny, given how not-straight X-Men 97 Morph seems to be.)
The Other Morph: Benjamin Deeds:
Brian Michael Bendis, in his Uncanny X-Men run, introduced a new character named Benjamin Deeds who could shapeshift, and looked suspiciously similar to a teenage version of Changeling/TAS Morph. His personality was different, though (more of a sulky teen trying to deal with being a mutant than a funny guy), and the nature of his powers is different. Benjamin has what is described as “chameleon-like” shapeshifting, taking on the physical characteristics of people when he gets close to them rather than fully shifting forms. He also exudes a chemical that makes people automatically like and trust him. Emma suggests the codename “Morph,” and although Benjamin doesn’t like it, it becomes his official codename going forward. I don’t think Ben actually has any real connection to Changeling or TAS Morph, he seems more like a legacy character or winking homage, like Pyro II (Simon Lasker, who inexplicably has the same powers and looks almost exactly like original Pyro, St. John Alledyce). He’s fun character and a cute lil’ guy, though.
There are people who call TAS Morph an “original character” completely invented for the cartoon, and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong. Morph is VERY different from Changeling, But to me, it makes the most sense to consider TAS Morph another AU variant of Changeling, given all the influence back and forth between the comics and the cartoon. Morph was based on Changeling, and Morph’s popularity led to AU versions of Changeling in the comics with TAS Morph’s personality literally named “Morph,” and now X-Men 97 Morph has been redesigned to match AoA/Exiles Morph’s appearance. They are variations of the same person. And it’s not exactly the first time that a comics character has been drastically reworked in an adaptation – I’m looking at you, First Class Mystique and Evolution’s “Lance Alvers.” I wonder if people would still be calling Morph an “original character” if they’d kept the name “Changeling,” since keeping the name seems to be all it takes at times. Still, TAS Morph is kind of right on the border between OC and “adapted from the comics,” and even I tend to include them in groups of “created for the cartoon” characters like Firestar, Spyke and X-23.
Why is Morph tagged as “Kevin Sydney/Sidney”?
Because that is the character’s name, more or less. TAS Morph didn’t have a “real name” in 92, because Changeling didn’t (similarly, Rogue also didn’t have a real name because the character hadn’t been given one in the comics.) In Age of Apocalypse, characters called Morph “Sydney” or “Syd,” and Morph even referred to himself that way in a thought-balloons, but the Exiles writer apparently decided, “Nah, it’s a last name,” and officially named Morph “Kevin Sydney.” The name stuck, and the 2004 Marvel “Book of the Dead” gave Changeling that name in the entry on him. Morph’s name has never been given in the cartoon, but it’s probably safe to assume that their official “human name” is Kevin Sydney, just like TAS Rogue is probably Anna Marie (her official name in the comics.) Interestingly, even in Exiles, the book where the name originated, Morph always goes by “Morph” and never “Kevin.” Maybe Home Alone ruined the name for him. I tend to use the Kevin Sydney tags on Tumblr and A03 to differentiate from other uses of the “morph” tag. In particular, Tumblr has a lot of body modification fetish posts tagged as “morph,” and no offense to the fetishists, you all keep doing what you are doing, but that’s not the content I’m looking for. I’m sure the fetish people are probably a bit annoyed at their own tag filling up with an X-Men character, but hey, it’s their name.
How old is Morph? How long were they with the team and when did they join? Is the featureless white face their “real form”? What’s their history with Wolverine?
I don’t have answers here because we don’t know. There’s a lot we don’t know about TAS Morph, and the origins of their comics counterparts don’t really translate well into cartoon continuity. Like I can’t imagine TAS Morph ever having been a willing member of Factor Three.
Personally, I tend to assume that Morph was with the team for awhile before their “death,” given that they have an established “old friend” relationship with Wolverine and know the team extremely well. I also tend to assume that TAS Morph is a similar age to the other young adults on the team like Scott and Jean. They sometimes look older in the original series, because they were based on Changeling (who also looks older), but the voice acting and general personality of the character seem younger, plus Wolverine calls them “kid”a couple of times. And it seems like their “human form” may not be their “real face” anyway, given that they’ve now defaulted to the white blank-face look. The white blank-face look IS the real form for Exiles (and presumably AoA) Morph, so the same is probably true for TAS Morph and Changeling. But this is all just my own headcanon and speculation, based on what I’ve seen in the original cartoon and the comics. You are all free to come up with your own headcanons fleshing out the character, I’ve already seen great stuff in fanfic out there!
Edit: Actually, I thought of a bit more:
How does Morph shift their clothing? Does Morph even wear clothes? How can they create accessories like Psylocke's swords?
Honestly, I dunno, this is Rule of Cool and Morph as a vehicle for character cameos in affect here. I will say that, in the comics, many characters with shapeshifter-type powers, like Wolfsbane, wear costumes made of unstable molecules that shift with their bodies, the same may be true of Morph. Exiles Morph, when commenting on his female teammates' skimpy costumes, at one point jokes that he "wears even less," so he may just be literally making clothing out of his own body. Although I would think that would get cold, or painful with no protection against the elements.
I assume that Morph does form accessories like Psylocke's swords out of their own body, which also presumably means they can't drop them. I wonder if it would hurt Morph if one of the swords broke? Exile Morph regularly turns his own body into accessories that he can hold (but not separate from his form), so presumably X-Men 97 Morph is doing the same. This is a step-up from TAS Morph, who never did that. Exiles Morph seems to be able to turn their body into whatever they want.
Does Morph copy the powers of other mutants?
Morph seems to be able to mimic only the physical-based powers of other mutants, under the shapeshifter logic of changing their body to give themselves larger muscles, claws, etc. So Angel's wings, but not Cyclops' eye beams. Nightcrawler's tail but not teleportation. In X-Men 97, Morph takes a couple of shots from X-Cutioner after shifting into Colossus, so apparently they can do the whole metal skin thing. But in TAS, when Morph turns into Wolverine, their claws are not adamantium and Wolverine easily slices through them.
I would add that Exiles Morph is also extremely durable, and can literally be ripped to pieces and shapeshift himself back together. This doesn't seem to be the case of "died from Sentinel lasers" TAS Morph, but maybe they just aren't there with their power levels yet. Exiles Morph IS especially susceptible to burns or laser blasts, and almost dies when Hyperion hits him with a beam at close range.
That’s it, hopefully this is helpful for people completely new to the character who got into X-Men 97. Mostly I just love writing about Morph. I encourage you to go back and watch the original series, or at least the Morph episodes. It’s a good show, if a bit 90’s corny, and will let you fully appreciate X-Men 97 (which has been, so far, an absolute banger of a series). Presumably we’ll see more character development of Morph as the show continues, which will maybe answer some of these questions.
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dont want to make two posts so im putting them both in one (totk thoughts ... uh oh i cannot shut up)
anyone else find raurus arm .. WEIRD? like, judging how the rings on the fingers are literally MADE for absorbing someones elses ability just adds to rauru and the lot of the sonau feeling .. off- what do you mean you wear a bracelet made for incorporating swears of fealty from others and gaining their abilities while they gain nothing?? and then rauru doesnt even seem to make use of that (which i guess is in line with .. the ghost copies links gets going away if the actual sage is there- SO WHATS THE POINT THEN???) though thats a bit more unclear since ..... we dont get to see ANYTHING from the last battle, all standing around with dirt tm texture on them 5 times and then they throw their weapons (weird.... use your damn ability) so zelda can use her new important time power .... once .... to make them fly backwards again and rauru does one thing :/
another thing, funny how the enigma stones are supposedly enhancing whatever powers someone already had, bc other than ganondorf none really gain anything, they act like they achieved some new power level (and suddendly know how to do it as soon as they have the stone) but then its just a silent ghost copy of themselves and they gain ... nothing but some jewelry, i find that a little .. underwhelming? and strange bc why does gan get a nuclear power upgrade and they print a bad copy of themselves and its treated like the same thing (i know its gan and he kinda deserves to get more out of it but do you know what i mean?)
cant help but also feel like its not even .. related to their own ability, like at all, istn it supped to enhance THEIR power, what does a ghost copy have to do with water magic? (wouldnt that more be sth of the shiekah/yiga .. creating copies of yourself?) if anything its something for link to gain .. i guess? or raurus arm i suppose? wouldnt it have been great if they all had a weaker version of the ability at the start and AFTER they gain the stone it gets upgraded, or its like it now is and after the they get their stone its stronger, like maybe rijus is as normal but then when she has the stone it charges faster and doesnt get canceled if she gets knocked over (assuming the way to control the ability stays the same ... which i wouldnt want bc that is so bad to control even if you change it like this) and giving link access to it is just PART of the stones power and not literally all it is
AND THEN ... you cant even argue that it doubles their fighting power bc now theres two of each bc .... the copies ... go away when the actual sage is there .......................................... so its really just a hamfisted way to give you their power ... and its not really giving you their power its giving you a copy of them which is just clunky and unnecessary, you want the theme to be connection (lol where) so you give the player soulless silent ghosts to accompany you ...? not even the real deal? (i know that would be harder to do bc they are all important ppl in their own region and turning them off would be be strange- but them having to teleport around isnt an argument bc they also do that in their dungeon- hello yuno i didnt know you can fall from the sky at will- and all that wouldnt be a problem with my next suggestion
wouldnt it be even MORE of a connection if it worked more like in botw? giving YOU a literal part of their ability, their soul even, and their abilities are now so much a part of you that you cant sever them, its integrated into your moveset, no silent ghosts to run after, your friends are part of you, ACTUAL YOU and not part of an ancient kings arm bracelet rings
#ganondoodles talks#zelda#ganondoodles rants#totk#totk critical#like really#whats more of a connection#putting a silent staring ghost of your friend into a ring of an arm that doesnt even belong to you#or getting granted a piece of your friends very soul infusing you with a part of their power#i get its suppoed to be well its raurus arm on link so its a conenction to link blah blah#but thats the only argument against that imo#and i might find a workaround for that too
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okay i just got into f1 at the end of the last season. Can you explain some things to me- a hesitant Mclaren fan??
Basically why is the team so good this year and if Zak has proven the success of rookies, why don’t more teams follow suit? i’m so curious and also i wanna know everything abt Oscar and his war with Alpine?? Is Zak the team principle? why is he always there if not??
This one isn’t abt Mclaren and even tho i know it’s controversial i still don’t really understand but; What exactly happened in Abu Dhabi 2021??
alright so i typed up this whole thing once and then tumblr deleted it so now you’re getting the shorter and more annoyed version, apologies
here we go, more drama this time mclaren edition
zak brown is the ceo of mclaren racing. some ceos are also team principals (horner, i think toto?) but he is not. he’s also not an Owner i don’t think. but basically he’s the ceo of all branches of mclaren racing including f1, formula e, indycar, super e and esports. admittedly, he is a more involved team ceo. like he appears regularly on their social media pages and at the races and on the pit wall and all that, but he’s not the team principal. that’s andrea stella. andrea is in charge of the f1 team, zak is in charge of all the mclaren teams.
teams need three things to do well, good drivers, good car and good team. supposedly this year mclaren has all three.
lando and oscar get along and have proven they are both good drivers. they are on the younger side (lando is 24 and oscar is 22) and i think they’re the youngest driver pairing on the grid, but they have both proven they can do the job. they are also willing to work together, as in, none of them threw a fit if one had to pass the other and also they’re in it for the team first, personal success second. which is key. you can’t have your drivers feuding cause then they do stupid shit (ie nico rosberg and lewis hamilton)
oscar and lando have both driven the car at this point and they said it went well. but most people say the first test goes well. however, they started shit last year and then made upgrades to get better so the general hope this year is that they will start good and get better. i think lando said in one of his interviews that he was something along the lines of cautiously optimistic (he doesn’t like to say he’s confident because then it looks bad if they suck) but we will know more about the car at pre season testing this coming week.
as for rookies. not everyone signs them cause they’re a risk. and if you’re a big team with an good name and reputation then you might not want to risk it. this past year there were three rookies. nyck devries who failed to score a single point at alpha tauri and was swapped out mid season for daniel ricciardo. logan sargent who scored only one point and it was because two people in front of his dnfd. admittedly he was in a williams, but his teammate manages to score 20 something points so. and then oscar, who i think finished with 80 something points ans a few podiums. oscar was in the better car so he naturally did better, but also he still could have flopped tremendously. and that’s why a lot of the bigger teams like to have the new guys proven themselves first in a shit car cause then if they’re in a good car they’ll really do well. signing a rookie tho is a risk, as it’s been a rare occasion for them to win anything or even podium in their first season. and that’s not great if you’re trying to win a title.
when lando was signed to mclaren he had already been involved with the team for a few years. he was in f3 in 2017 when mclaren noticed him and then made him a test and reserve driver in 2018. now some people (haters) point out that Oh Lando Was A Pay Driver until he was in f1. (meaning, his dad is a millionaire and he basically backed him his whole racing career. so he didn’t have to get sponsors because he had his dad. this is basically what lance stroll does) but when he got into f1 he said he didn’t want to do that anymore because he doesn’t think that that’s what you should do in f1. some people think he only got his seat cause of this, but objectively, mclaren noticed his good performance, not the money part and in any case, his dad doesn’t sponsor him anymore. in any case tho, he had already driven mclaren cars in tests prior to getting his seat in 2019. he was also quite young. 18. but he also had a decent rookie year (not quite as good as oscar but also the car was more shit then than it was this past year).
the oscar piastri alpine drama is basically that he was alpines test and reserve driver for 2022, exactly like how lando was for mclaren. alpine was losing fernando alonso for 2023 cause he was going to aston martin and they were like oh this is fantastic we can sign oscar now and give him an f1 seat. oscar had been in the alpine drivers academy for a few years when he was in the junior leagues (which basically means that they sunk a lot of money into his career). however, aparently alpine announced that oscar was driving for them in 2023 before he had signed his contract. and oscar didn’t appreciate this.
mclaren had unexpectedly an open seat after daniel ricciardos contract was terminated early and i guess oscar had been in contract talks with them. because he tweeted this:
which is nothing short of iconic. then alpine tried and failed to sue him for 4M USD. he dodged a bullet by going to mclaren.
and then abu dhabi 2021. without getting into it too much cause that’s insane lewis hamilton and max verstappen went into the race with the same amount of points. it was the last race of the year so whoever won that race was going to win the world championship title. there a lot that happened at that race that was weird but among the weirdest thing was that towards the end of the race there was a yellow flag, and a safety car. which means that all the cars got close to eachotjer again. now, hamilton had a comfortable lead over max at this point because there were five lapped cars between them. basically, those five cars were a lap behind hamilton and verstappen. sometimes on safety cars they allow the lapped cars to unlap themselves (go around the safety car and back to the back of the grid so they’re in the correct order). and for some reason. they allowed only the five lapped cars between hamilton and verstappen to unlap themselves (which is weird and unfair) and thus verstappen ended up winning. the whole race was bonkers and batshit tho and i would highly reccomend watching that drive to survive episode because they actually show the bonkersness pretty well.
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as much as i love stardew valley i really don't like the emphasis it places on marriage and kids. it's just something about the way that you HAVE to add a nursery to your house in order to complete the house upgrade achievement (and of course you need all achievements to achieve 100% completion), the way having kids is an achievement in itself. the way that when your spouse asks you if you want to have kids your options are "yes" and "not now". i'm genuinely really thankful for the option to turn your kids into doves. the way the DAY after you become best friends with someone single you get a letter in the mail telling you how to ask someone out, the way there's ANOTHER achievement for dating ten people (well. it's really for reaching a ten-heart friendship level with like eight people but there are only so many people you can do that with without dating them). the way the mayor says at your wedding ceremony that "from this day onward, [name] is going to be just as much a part of the community as anyone else" implying that you weren't a part of the community until you got married. the way the eight heart events are supposed to just be you becoming best friends with that person but at least three people's events involve them secretly being in love with you during that supposedly platonic cutscene. i personally love getting married in stardew valley but not everybody wants that and the pressure the game puts on you to settle down and have a nice little family with 2.5 kids kind of puts a damper on the fun.
#stardew valley#please don't take this as a denouncement of the game#or a criticism of anyone who loves the starting a family part of the game.#like i said i love this game! i've been playing it pretty much nonstop the past few days#and it was a great distraction for me some years ago during a turbulent time of my life#i just can't help being very aware of its flaws. and it has many!#and this is just one that's been bothering me for a while.
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New Game?
So recently I was scrolling Twitter’s dying remains and found out that Kirby character “discourse” exists (which is just hilarious to me…how can you look at these adorable friends and decide you need to use them to start arguments).
And while I was laughing, I was reminded of something that I did find weird about the Magolor Epilogue: the idea that it’s supposedly Magolor’s ‘redemption arc’. Even in the game, one of the pause screen descriptions mentions something about ‘atonement’...
But I dunno, maybe it was an error of localization, maybe it’s just my bad sense of humor, but nothing that Magolor says in the game mode gives me the impression that he’s the slightest bit sorry about anything he’s done. ^^;;; Like, that little ‘sad sigh’ that we all saw in the trailer and used to extrapolate the tone of ME (which turned out to be hilariously inaccurate) was pretty much it. After that, he’s just like “screw this, I’m getting my powers back” and that sets the mood for the rest of the game. Determined, resilient, triumphant…those were the vibes I got from Magolor Epilogue. ‘Apologetic’ or even just ‘regretful’ was not among them. XD
The little dialogue blurbs he does when he’s upgrading his Magical Skills (you can read them here) were what really convinced me-- they’re 100% Magolor’s usual cute, funny, conceited self; if you read through them without knowing the plot of Magolor Epilogue I don’t think you could figure out that this character is supposed to be at his lowest point. ^^;; He’s still making world-domination jokes, even! THIS LITTLE--
…I hope I don’t sound angry; I actually find it really, really funny and fitting for the character; personally I wouldn’t have it any other way. XD But yeah, I’m not seeing a redemption arc here. The whole time I was just thinking “THIS BOY DIDN’T LEARN A DAMN THING” over and over as I watched…he hardly seems to feel sorry for himself, let alone for what he almost did to Pop Star. Essentially, it would not feel out of character at all for him to just go back to being a villain.
In fact, I have to wonder…if he didn’t go through another dimensional rift at the end of the game mode…if he destroyed the Master Crown and was just stuck in interdimensional purgatory, left to figure out what to do with his life…would he consider it his second chance? Like, maybe he’d realize he never needed the Master Crown…his little anti-hero’s journey taught him that he has the potential to become an evil overlord all by himself~
#i think he could#he seems like a very talented person; I believe in him#kirby#gijinka#magolor#magolor epilogue
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do you think Rocket could've used more "tech genius" moments in the movies? For someone supposedly smarter than Stark, it's not actually really shown..
love your fics btw AAAH
yayyyy! i love asks of any variety and it’s been a while since i’ve gotten one so thank you for this! ♡ unfortunately that means you’re getting a novel ( ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)*.ﾟ I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts if you wanna share! and also thank you for saying something so nice about my fics. im so glad you’ve enjoyed them!
and i'm turning this into
headcanon 18 ˚₊‧✶
a standard disclaimer: i am highly biased in the fact that i am like “every scene should have 100% more rocket, even scenes that are already rocket”
but i think two things are going on here
the first is that i think as a general audience, we read tony’s genius more easily than rocket’s (and yes this is a cultural indictment). tony spends a long time making a pretty iron suit with his bruce-wayne-money and some cool weird holographic touchscreens in a shiny lab, and people pick up on that more easily than rocket scavenging parts from the milano to make a bunch of bombs and a moon-killing firearm in five minutes (tantamount to less than a second of actual screen time) because it’s quick and grimy and he just keeps them in a dirty box. audiences are classist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and im making this assertion because we do it all the time with real-life geniuses too
this relates to my second point which is that i think that “tech genius moments” probably don’t play well with a general audience when there are “too many” of them, and that in the main trilogy the writers relied on a lot of narrative cues that the audience was meant to pick up (but didn’t, or didn’t in quite the same way that they did with tony because again — pretty shiny lab vs dirty box) & we’re supposed to use those to attribute intuitive technological, strategic, and piloting genius to rocket
let’s break it down! (because im up early && work doesn’t start for another hour)
in volume one, when rocket breaks everyone out of the Kyln im pretty sure we’re meant to read that as a sequence establishing him as the tech & strategic mastermind of the group. i think that is meant to be confirmed in the sequence where in like five minutes he’s salvaged a ton of parts from the milano to make his box-o-bombs & the hadron enforcer, which is the weapon that makes the end of volume one possible, having been used to knock out ronan initially and to break the stone from the cosmi-rod or universal weapon or whatever. (keep in mind he repaired the hadron enforcer within moments of crashing the warbird into the dark aster, crashing the aster into a planet, losing his best friend, getting tossed around by the cosmi-rod, AND having only the resources available to him on a crash-site/battlefield. i do wish we’d gotten more of THIS sequence but like i guess we had to make time to watch chris pratt dance. whatever; i guess i get it from a cinematic standpoint — a classic “it was your story all along but the studio wanted us to focus on starlord” situation)
in volume two, every tech advancement the team has is directly or indirectly credited to rocket. the aero rigs being the main one, i think? but there’s also the mines in the berhert forests with the yondu clan, a conflict where one lil guy almost beat a hoarde of ravagers all by his lonesome due to his strategic genius (and i suspect still would have if not for the unexpected addition of nebula). we also have the dialogue with quill where he asserts that he’s a piloting genius. and rocket’s genius is once again the main reason they win the fight — his ability to create the battery-bomb in like twenty seconds or less.
in volume three, we see him invent gravity boots, we’re meant to attribute the creation of the bowie and presumably the entire speaker system threading knowhere to him (im not sure but possibly also the ocular cannon and some other other knowhere shit??). he’s responsible for all nebula’s upgrades (⸝⸝o̴̶̷᷄‸o̴̶̷̥᷅⸝⸝) which are FANCY. and even though he’s just a babby, we see him solving complex equations, resolving problems the high evolutionary struggled with, crafting a key out of stolen odds-and-ends, and piloting a spacecraft he’s probably never even seen before.. additionally the gravity boots circle back around and are key in his overcoming the high evolutionary (through a combo of tech skill & strategic genius)
i think, narratively speaking, this is a solid amount of “genius establishment” with the time we had, imo. if we made the movies longer to add in more genius moments, i would not complain, though!
THAT SAID. look infinity war and endgame treated our boy so badly. SO badly. i feel certain that given five minutes in Nidavellir he could’ve figured out another way to get that forge up and running. I think we see rocket with the science bros working on the gauntlet (a dynamic i would quite have enjoyed more if) and working on… maybe he’s prepping the benatar for the time heist? I can’t remember, but it’s when he gives stark the classic “you’re only a genius on earth” line. but iw/endgame didn’t give a fuck about the guardians (i get it, i get it, it was the send-off for the og avengers, whatever) so it’s a lot of weak shit and i do wish we had more things establishing him as the true brains of that outfit lol
ANYWAY that’s all my thoughts!! thanks for this really fun ask!!!
#rfh asks#rocket raccoon#guardians of the galaxy#gotg rocket#gotg#mcu#dae thinks too much#rfh headcanons
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Collection of observations so far on Pokémon Legends: Z-A
It'd be reasonable to assume that PLZA is going to be based around the same time period as Haussmann's renovation of Paris, a major public works initiative focused on city modernization (by the day's standards). This included taking down a lot of medieval neighborhoods and replacing them with avenues, squares, and parks, as well as installing extensive water-based features such as sewers, aqueducts, and (of course) fountains. Haussmann was eventually dismissed bc he was being way too extravagant with spending (along with other political stuff etc etc), but the modern-day layout of central Paris still directly echoes his designs.
The renovation period lasted from 1853-1870, which would put PLZA in roughly the same timeframe as PLA; the Meiji Restoration (also called the Meiji Renovation, ironically) began in 1868.
However, the aesthetics they've chosen for the announcement trailer are giving me pause. Though the drafting/sketching portion certainly has an old-timey feel to it, the use of a holographic, wireframe style to show the city feels markedly futuristic. In addition, one of the humans we see (the woman sitting at a table next to a Klefki) appears to be using a smartphone. Whether or not we're gonna have another Arc Phone situation has yet to be seen.
This could just be a way of expressing "here's what Lumiose is PLANNED to look like far in the future, and this game is going to be focused on building towards that future." As there was a "Not actual gameplay footage" disclaimer at the beginning there, we can assume that nothing shown in the trailer is necessarily going to appear in-game – tho I'd imagine at least some of the models are going to be utilized (two birds, one stone).
With how Pokémon has played around with ancient/futuristic dichotomies (Unova, Paldea) and time travel (Alola, Hisui, and…many others tbh) in the past, though, it'd be interesting if PLZA wound up being a futuristic isekai to complement the distant-past adventure of PLA.
All that said, if PLZA is set in the past: We are all but certainly going to see young (or at least younger) AZ.
Very interested in this logo! Presumably it's comparable to that of the Galaxy Team, though unlike that one, it doesn't share much resemblance to the logo of its region's future evil team (Team Flare). The most similar organization logo we've seen thus far would be that of the Aether Foundation.
The only theory I have at present is that it could potentially be related to Diancie, which was first introduced in Kalos. The logo could be a stylized version of the incomplete ring & glittering gem around its neck.
Adjacent to that: I get the feeling that the Anistar City Sundial is going to have some level of importance to the plot. In XY, the Sundial allows the player to upgrade their Mega Ring + locate more Mega Stones throughout the region. As the Mega Evolution symbol was prominently displayed at the end of the presentation, we may get to learn some more about it and its origins – especially that bit about how it supposedly descended from space.
Other assorted notes:
We may get to see Camphrier Town – or, at least, Shabboneau Castle – during its heyday!
The A in PLZA's logo shares a similar construction to the marking on Xerneas' chest. It also has a plantlike pattern on it, which would connect to Xerneas' ability to induce life/growth…or it could be interpreted as a veinlike pattern, which would connect to Yveltal's design. It could also be completely unrelated to the Aura Trio lmao
I want to see Emmet so bad. Put both of those muppets in situations. Also I want double battles back please I'm begging and pleading stop making me fight 3+ enemies with only one Pokémon on my side–
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because I’m dumb about these things could you possibly explain the mark stone situation in very simple terms? Apparently this isn’t the first time it’s happened but I still don’t get what “it” is and why it’s pissing people off?
oh man, i am not good at explaining these things. and you are not dumb! cap stuff is so convoluted and complex
before continuing on, pls know that there is definitely hater energy imbued in this post
during the season a team cannot have a combined salary of more than $83.5 million. for the playoffs, however, there is no salary cap.
if a player is injured and goes on LTIR (long term injured reserve) it frees up $$$ for teams to make other roster moves (like trading or bringing up players from the AHL to temporarily fill his spot)
for the past three seasons, the kn*ghts captain m*rk st*ne has gone on LTIR before the trade deadline. this freed up $$$ for them to add a top player to their roster, that they would then be able to keep if st*ne got healthy for playoffs (bc there is no salary cap during playoffs.) in 2022, kn*ghts missed the playoffs so it ultimately didn't matter. in 2023, st*ne was injured through game 82, and returned for game 1 of the playoffs a week or so later. this year, he went out before the trade deadline again, they upgraded their roster w a few players, and as of a couple days ago st*ne has been cleared for skating. it's assumed that he will again miss game 82 with injury and yet miraculously be healed for the playoffs.
ANYWAY
this is a loophole that all teams Can lie their way into using. AND, in a sport where people are often pressured to play through injuries, it is good that players go on IR when they are hurt. what bothers me and other people is that these players are supposedly too hurt to play by the last game of the season (when the salary cap exists) but conveniently able/allowed to play days later when the cap disappears
this isnt st*nes fault, and he has had to deal with some obviously very real, difficult injuries. it's just that IN MY EYES there are rules that need to b changed
i hope this made some sense. feel free to dm me if you'd like any further rage-colored clarification
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Is Amity a Good Person?
This is not if she's a well written character. A judgement of that is a part of this but the bigger point is just: Is Amity a 'good' person? Does she appear to actually care about others? Does she choose selflessness over selfishness? Etc. etc.
And part of this is going to be subjective. To some people, not being mean is enough to make someone nice. Other people will ask for a bit more, especially out of a fictional character. Hell, you can even see it with most fictional parties. The lancer character who is meant to contrast against the hero is usually a pretty dickish person but you might still call them good because even if they're cursing while doing it, they are still putting their life at risk in order to save a town or the like. Meanwhile, you probably wouldn't call Vegeta a nice person, even by the time of Dragon Ball Super because he is still mostly selfish, even once he's explicitly no longer trying t get stronger regardless of the consequences to others.
So what does Amity do that is actually nice?
...
........
Oh, were you expecting me to start listing things she does? Because I have bad news for you.
See, one hang up I have with going "Amity always wanted to be a good person and so even if she loses her drive, motivation, etc. she gains the personality of a good person," is that Amity doesn't do fucking anything to earn that. She isn't unpleasant. After S1, she isn't trying to murder people or actively bullying people but like... Cool, you upgraded from Mega Bitch to Background character. Why do you claim that's a new personality instead of the death of one?
Because being a 'good person' is actually more complicated than just not being an asshole. Being nice to your friends? Of course you're nice to your friends. You care about them (put a pin in it). Noticing when your partner is in pain and wanting to help them? You supposedly love that person, much like why you might be nice to family, so OF COURSE, you put in a little extra effort.
A good person, at least in a narrative, doesn't need the excuse. They help because it is the right thing to do and then their personality dictates how they go about doing so. Maybe they write wiki pages to share their knowledge in a free way so people can benefit from it. Maybe they help out at a soup kitchen because it gives them a chance to be more directly kind and they have the time for it. Or maybe it's just that when they see someone who is potentially having problems, they risk whatever it may lead to be asking this complete stranger if they're okay.
Amity doesn't do this. In fact, as far as actually giving a shit about anyone other than Luz, she's AWFUL at it. Hunter is her kindest moment to a theoretical stranger in the series but it is still characterized by her being suspicious, judgemental and not giving him a chance until the dude is suicidal and has drawn a dozen parallels between them. Even then, she does it as part of mimicking Luz, at least with the joke she immediately makes of how 'this always works for Luz'. Then you have poor fucking Willow. This is a girl that Amity abused, especially for her powerlessness and helplessness, for YEARS. Amity even knows explicitly why Willow should hate her. What her crimes are. But... Then 'good person' Amity, showing 'care' for her friend, treats her as powerless after having thought she didn't need to do shit to be allowed to come to Willow for advice (Labyrinth Runner and Falls and Follies respectively). That is TOTALLY someone who always just wanted to be a good person and is dedicating themselves to that instead of any of their old dreams and desires.
The only person or thing she puts any effort into post S1 is Luz. She doesn't care about anyone else besides that. Belittle Eda for not focusing on taking of Luz in a tangible way during Eclipse Lake? Check. Feel justified to give marching orders to literally everyone in the house just because she's Luz's girlfriend during that same episode? Check. Including Willow, who she has done NOTHING to make up for at this point? Check. Hell, even further: Not give a fuck about stopping Boscha while Luz could just step out of the splash zone around Willow during Winging it Like Witches? OF COURSE NOT. She only gets involved once Boscha's only focus is going to be on Luz.
That. Is not. A good person. Not if the only people who matter are those she deems are worthy of mattering. Changing from actively crushing those other people to just being entirely indifferent to them and their plights is not as a big of a deal as you all seem to think it is, not for it to become the only defining trait of a character's personalities and motivations.
Are they evil? Bad? No. But anything beyond nice is giving such a character a LOT of credit. A rogue isn't Robin Hood just because they only steal from the rich. If they're still lining only their pockets and the pockets of their friends with their thievery, they're still selfish and self centered, they just have code. That's called Lawful Neutral, or Lawful Evil, in D&D for a reason. Not any form of good.
======+++++======
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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AFK Journey review by a beta tester
AFK Journey came out yesterday and I see it getting quite a lot of attention so I figured I'd at least put this out there so that people don't go into it expecting something it's not.
I have been in the testing of this game and continued to provide feedback all the way from the alpha test back in the fall of 2021 and through all the beta testing that started in April or May last year. I have also been aiding in making lore-focused streams about AFK Arena for over a year and seeing as AFK Journey is supposed to be set in the same world, this will be relevant later. I have also been contracted to make officially-backed videos about AFK journey – a deal I left for a number of reasons, not least of all the reasons I have for writing this post. Now with credentials out of the way, let's get to the actual review.
The visuals take your breath away
Let's start with something positive – this game is gorgeous. Farlight Studios have outdone themselves yet again and after the vibrant and futuristic world of Dislyte, their take on Esperia is surprisingly tame, in a good way. The colors are soft and lovely, the models look amazing, and the customization screen of the main character is awesome! The characters look great and move in a smooth fluid fashion. Ult animations, idle animations, and the overall feel of the characters as well as the skins added into the game thus far are all nice and fit into the wider world well, not to mention look wonderful and clean, a lot of effort and skill went into making them. Sadly, if we ignore the skins and ult animations, this has been the case since the alpha without any major changes.
Gameplay could be improved upon
I will be up-front about this, I don't care about gameplay all that much. However, I have to say, the game is not open-world, despite claiming to be so. If you venture off the paths, you get stuck on fences, stuck on bushes, stuck on rocks, or just prevented by an invisible wall. There is no swimming, no climbing, no gliding, or most other things we came to associate with open-world games. The vertical gameplay is a plus to be sure and you get to pick characters to follow you around without having to use them in battles which makes the exploration more fun. The overworld puzzles are creative and fun too! The real issue comes with... everything else. At the start, fights in the overworld are easy. However, they will scale up way faster than you can level and you will soon be adding an additional roadblock to the list: enemies. The combat itself is creative but requires attention as the autoplay function is usually wonky at best and outright damaging to your party at worst. AFK Journey is not living up to its AFK title either. One thing I found really annoying was the story progression not being tied to the AFK rewards. You have to grind a separate set of battles to increase the AFK rewards you receive. The AFK rewards and story also still cap each other so you won't be able to progress in one without progressing in the other.
Outside of the main story, the game offers multiple game modes. If you don't enjoy PvP, be warned that the game puts great emphasis on doing your PvP arena every day and being good at it if you want to build any good characters. The game also has a labyrinth mode which tracks your health across multiple battles and allows you to gain upgrades as you go. This mode is somewhere between AFK Arena's and Dislyte's in terms of fun. It is more varied than AFK Arena's which makes it more fun and less repetitive, however, you have a limited number of characters you can bring in which severely limits how varied your gameplay experience might be. It was also recently nerfed to the ground and now poses little to no challenge. Honor Duel is another PvP mode in which you buy upgrades and then fight randomly generated players with supposedly the same level of upgrades as you. If you can claim eight victories before three losses, you win the run. However, the factions and characters are currently so imbalanced that depending on your luck, you may not win a single battle in a run or you might breeze through all of them without any effort.
The gacha element is pretty much non-existent. If you scrounge up enough resources to pull, you likely won't get anything much. You'll be relying on hand-outs of pulls and PvP shops to build your characters. AFK Journey should not be called a gacha game. It is, at best, a game with rare gacha elements.
Co-op is a lie
While AFK Journey does have a cooperative mode, in the form of connected guild dungeons, it is not really what it advertises to be either. All your guildmates can separately whale on some enemies together and depending on how you do, you will receive rewards that are generous compared to what the rest of the game offers. You can lend your friends your characters but they'll be the ones fighting with them, not you. The most social aspect of the game is seeing other players around the map and spending your friend points to buy different animations to perform at each other. The chat function is also pretty bad, though not as terrible as it is in AFK Arena.
The guilds and friends to add also don't work cross-server. So if you have a friend on another server, you won't be able to see them or talk to them or enjoy even the limited interactions that are actually in the game.
The story is disappointing at best and nobody knows the world
You may have noticed I've been avoiding talking about the story of a story-focused game. This is where the biggest disappointment lies. Let me preface this by saying, the story didn't always use to be this way. It used to be actually really really good back in the alpha and even at the start of the beta. However, in the last three months, the game underwent five or six complete rewrites of the main story, each worse than the last. As things stand right now, there is no nuance in protagonists or villains, there is a literal diarrhea conversation (like an actual conversation, several scenes long) for no reason, most of the story could be summarized on one page and the rest is pointless bickering that makes every other character utterly unlikable. The main character is an amnesiac going by the title of "Magister Merlin" despite the fact that Merlin from Arthurian myths, whom this is clearly based on, is an existing character in the world of Esperia.
In terms of lore, AFK Journey is not even close to what it promised. It promised to be a game set in the world of AFK Arena – a world with surprisingly rich and interesting lore that has been built up over the years. Unfortunately, it is very much not that. Not only are important world events treated as nonexistent, not only does the writing erase character relationships and dynamics, but the writers couldn't have even been bothered to learn the basics of the world they're working with. Factions get swapped around randomly for no reason, and important factional politics have been flipped on their heads. An organization that is supposed to be an outcast is now the ruling class, the timeline is all over the place, and even the names of things are not only inconsistent with AFK Arena but also inconsistent with Journey's world itself. The loading screen already breaks the world by telling you magic didn't exist until the "Fall of the gods" which is supposed to have happened recently, yet the entire time you will be running around ruins of magical civilizations from ages long past.
Speaking of the gods, there are characters who straight-up don't know what a celestial is. If you know anything about Esperia's lore, you know how important religion is to its history and how jealously the gods guard their authority. The thought of someone having completely no idea of what they were is strange, to say the least. The game also invents new gods instead of using preexisting ones with the same function and even disregards events relating to the gods that changed the course of Esperian history – such as the death of Esperia's primary goddess Dura. In fact, AFK Journey doesn't even consider Dura important enough to have a model. Once again, this is the primary goddess of this world. As for the characters brought over from AFK Arena, they have been butchered beyond recognition. The warlord of an entire country who slew countless enemies is now a pacifist whose only interest lies in spicy food, a hard-working girl who, for the sake of her family, developed her skills until she was recognized by the stars and became the fulfillment of a prophecy is now an angry Mary-sue who was always perfect and didn't actually need to work for anything – and gets offended if you suggest otherwise, the list goes on.
The sound design is refreshingly good – for the most part
As a game with voices, we have to talk about those first. The voices, for the most part, are alright. None of them really stands out as particularly amazing, though I do like a few of them more than the others. I like Fay's voice quite a bit. Sadly, none of the characters from AFK Arena is voiced by the same person anymore, and in most cases, it is a massive downgrade. And that isn't talking about the worst offender of all – Valen, one of the main characters you'll have to listen to the whole time. Valen used to have a voice that fit his character – suave and kind of bold and full of life. Now he sounds like he's still going through puberty, and he's a whiny crybaby at that.
The sound design outside of the voice acting is great. Once again, this is a very strong point for the game. The music and background noises are great and even the menu sounds are not disruptive in the least. If anything, they feel natural to the world.
PC client could as well not exist at all
This is coming from second-hand knowledge as I have played AFK Journey on phone but so far the reviews I've seen appear to be as follows: Game lags when walking, freezes when trying to talk to NPCs, and is prone to crashing. Mobile devices perform better for AFK Journey than PCs do.
The mystery of translation
Back in January, the only publicly admitted localizer has been fired from the project. About a week and a half ago (around 10 days before the game's launch), the official Discord posted an application form looking for translators for the game. Apparently, the game has several translations already out at this moment, but none of them particularly good. Some are even so bad it's sort of funny. In a really... pathetic sad way. It probably doesn't help that they're still looking for translators as we speak.
In conclusion...
I wish I could recommend AFK Journey, I really do. I've been excited about this game ever since its announcement and I've been providing as much feedback as I could throughout both alpha and beta. The organization has been awful and the game suffers for it. Internal changes happened a few months back and since then, everything about the game just fell apart. Even things that were good before got ruined and now all that remains is pretty visuals and nice music with nothing else worth paying attention to. It is a major letdown when it could've been incredible. The game is nothing it was advertised as – it is not an open-world game, it is not a gacha, and it is most certainly not set in the world of AFK Arena.
I hope the people who decide to play it can still find some fun in it regardless.
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