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avocado-frog · 11 months

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notes on wip drafts because it's been about a year since I've been posting here and because i have not posted real writing stuff in ages and because i'm awesome and i can do whatever i want

really long watch out

Draft 1- -Characters: Leo, Cass, Marcy, Kai, Addy -Leo + Cass are twins, Marcy is their adoptive sister from France, Addy was their adoptive sister from Ireland, Kai was Leo's friend from school -Written in first person POV -The twins were 14, Kai was 13, Marcy was 12, Addy was 11 -Written sometime late 2019 on Wattpad -Written during my ninja turtles era, each character loosely based on one of the turtles + April (Leo as Leonardo, Cass as Donatello, Addy as Michelangelo, Marcy -Leo's full name really is just Leo and no last name -Leo gets a wolverine claw sort of thing that is also a flamethrower -Leo gets in a fight with Marcy over a board game, runs off, gets stolen right out of the woods for Plot Purposes, goes missing for like six months, the other kids get exactly one chapter of looking for her, and then there's three chapters of Mind Control Leo -The end of the first draft was between my ninja turtles hyperfixation and my tangled the series hyperfixation and I know this because I had a song chapter of crossing the line between the twins

Draft 2- -Characters: Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy -Written in first person POV -Written a month or two after the first draft -Mostly the same plot but Leo is taken to a cabin instead of a warehouse -Didn't last very long, because it was really only Leo and writing a story with only one character is sort of hard

Draft 3- -Characters: Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy -Leo and Kai were romantically involved (ew) -First person POV -Same ages as the other two -Kai follows Leo before she gets kidnapped, somehow they end up in Canada -First establishes the setting in Maine -Leo burns down the cabin with a match (the kids don't have magic yet) -Kai and Leo spend way too much time trying to get from Canada to Maine -Like they go to Mexico for some reason -I remember writing the last chapter during online history class with the Worst Teacher Ever in seventh grade so I had to have been like 13-14/mid 2021 because I started going half online half offline sometime in April

Draft 4- -Characters: Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy, Ryan, Sam, Elliot -Written when I started getting into DuckTales. Hence the triplets -They're seven years old -Created so that Leo + Kai have more stakes -They save the triplets but at the cost of me losing motivation after that

Draft 5- -Characters: Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy, Ryan, Sam, Elliot -But I got attached to their characters so I kept them -It changed to third person POV -Leo's full name is Leonidas for fucking no reason -Kai is no longer part of the main plot and no longer a love interest because I didn't like writing it -The triplet's backstory is that they're the kids of the people that have stolen Leo, but that their mother died when they were like two -So now they're locked in a basement and so is Leo -Elliot's completely blind -Leo once again saves the kids but has a villain arc in the process -Proceeds to kidnap Cass with a stolen car, builds a robot army, gets blown up -Brief redemption arc follows after Leo goes to jail for a bit

Draft 6- -Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy, Ryan, Sam, Elliot, Logan (Lily, Dylan, and Jaxon are there, but they aren't named) -The longest one I have -Written a little while after draft five, because I wanted to give Leo some friends in jail -Leo breaks out of jail with the other kids, but Logan is the only named one -And he has a wildly different name but I'm not going to tell you what it was -The first time I decided to give the twins magic. Since the other three were side characters and horribly underdeveloped they didn't get anything. Leo gets decay and fire, Cass gets healing and plants -Logan goes back to jail but Leo doesn't. Logan's magic involves metal and ice -First lab concept, but the kids are in prison

Draft 6's sequel -Some Prophecy Bullshit -The kids have to go find Logan (he's sixteen or something) -They get him out of jail, he steals a school bus -I can't remember much, I abandoned it when I couldn't figure out what to do with the prophecy bullshit. Something about portals

Draft 6's third book -Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy, Ryan, Sam, Elliot, Logan, Lily, Jaxon, Dylan -Lasted like three chapters -I wrote it while I was figuring out what to do with the sequel -But Jaxon, Lily, and Dylan show up -Jaxon and Dylan were 12 and 11, and Lily was 13 (twins are still 14) -Lily was Leo's new romantic interest (this is why Leo is canonically bi) -Jaxon and Dylan were placeholder names -I can't remember whether Dylan was always deaf or not, I deleted the thing -Written in 2021

Draft 7- -Leo, Cass, Kai, Marcy, Addy, Ryan, Sam, Elliot, Logan, Lily, Dylan, Jaxon -A rewrite of draft 6, but meets the other kids + Logan -Leo overthrows the government with them

Draft 8- -Instead of going to jail, Leo meets them because she gets jumped in an alley by Jaxon and Logan makes him leave her alone -Her villain arc includes them now -Concept that Leo can't be burned because of her fire magic -The triplets are adopted by Kai's family, they get a larger role

Draft 9- -Logan is a little nicer now, he lets Leo stay with her, and does not like her family -He's got beef with seven-year-olds -Not many changes, I just wanted to write it again -The lab is introduced but I didn't really have any ideas for it -I posted this one

Draft 9's sequel- -Sort of like draft 6's sequel, wanted to try again -Characters with a villain arc in draft 9/the sequel: Leo, Jaxon, Lily, Dylan, Logan, Elliot, Cass, Ryan -Characters without a villain arc in draft 9/the sequel: Kai, Marcy, Sam, Addy -The earliest version of forget-me-not chapter 17 (Ryan gets pushed into a lake and nearly drowns) here it's he falls into a lake while the kids are trying to learn to water raft (in both versions, he's alone with Jaxon) -Elliot, the blind seven-year-old child, gets a villain arc -I remember this specifically because Leo has a line like "can't we just pick him up and put him somewhere else??" -I know for a fact that Dylan is deaf here -Because I still have this version -For some reason, Sam has a snake -Leo's afraid of snakes and Marcy is afraid of ducks -or something?? -Written June 2021

Draft 10- -The whole story is completely scrapped -Written in December 2021 -With six months between drafts nine and ten, I decided to redo a lot of plot stuff -Logan is aged up to eighteen, Dylan remains eleven, Jaxon remains twelve, and Lily is thirteen. The triplets are aged up to ten. The twins are fourteen still -Logan is aged up because he buys a house -Triplet's backstory is changed. Their names are briefly changed to Adrian, Emile, and Ethan -Logan's sister, Jasmine, is created for the first time, just to be immediately killed -One of the closest to canon -Part one is Leo, part two is Jaxon, part three is Elliot -Leo runs away after learning the truth about her parents (they're really her parents here) (whatever the truth is is not expanded on because I never got farther than an outline) and meets Jaxon, because they're both in the middle of robbing a gas station -Cass does not join Leo in meeting them -The first time it was set in 2018-2019 -The first time I allowed myself to use swears The outline since I have it (but it's the tldr version) 1- Leo is a drug dealer (?? girl-) 2- The twins fight, Addy gives Leo a clue about their parents (how does she know) (never expanded on) 3- The twin's birthday, Kai's POV, he's roped into the situation by Cass 4- Leo runs away, steals a car, and meets Jaxon while they're robbing a gas station 5- Jaxon and Leo officially meet, during a storm, Jaxon breaks into her hotel room because he's figured out that she's magic 6- Jaxon and Leo get a Subway sandwich, and Jaxon bullies Logan into letting Leo live with them 7- Lily and Leo set up Leo's room 8- Leo and Dylan go to the store, Dylan sees their parents + gets upset over it. Leo + Dylan bonding hours 9- Leo and Jaxon go to the lab 10- They meet Ryan and Sam. Sam's been poisoned, Ryan doesn't know the antidote. Since the twist is that Leo made the drugs used on them, she knows what to do. Jaxon gets Elliot 11- Logan lets the triplets live with them 12- Jaxon tries to set up Lily and Leo 13- The Christmas chapter (an actual line from the outline: "Leo doesn't respond because she's too gay and ice skating with her girlfriend") 14- A lot like forget me not where Elliot overhears that the twins are his sisters and he gets upset, but this time, since the twins are not related to them, he overhears that Leo made the drugs used on him 15- Jaxon's backstory. No elaboration in the outline I was just supposed to hope for the best 16- Ryan is only now learning sign language for Dylan, Lily talks to Elliot with throwing knives, Logan + Sam bonding hours 17- Another version- ironically chapter seventeen- where Jaxon is the only one around when Ryan gets pushed into a lake. This time he lands himself in the hospital for trying to save him because he can't swim 18- The kids find out that Jax is brain damaged 19- Logan convinces Leo to text Cass (she has not talked to Cass since chapter two) 20- The kids go to Maine for a week. Cass, Kai, Marcy, and Addy are all really weirded out by Leo's character development which is honestly really fair 21- Elliot + Cass talk hours 22- The kids go to a carnival 23- Sam apologizes for What He Did (not elaborated on) and Elliot goes bonkers mode 24- Elliot meets "Lucas" who tells him that Lily can help 25- Lily Knows Something (not elaborated on) that apparently has to do with their mother's death for some reason. Not a clue how Lily should know, she's about as detached from their backstory as one could get 26- I had only written "figure it out from here" and since forget me not is based on this outline (with a lot of changes) it's probably the reason I forgot to make a canon outline for chapter 26 27- Triplet backstory 28- Ryan sees Elliot talking to himself in the mirror 29- Elliot learns to use his magic properly 30- The triplets fight 31- Elliot dies

Draft 10 sequel -Lasted one chapter but it was alright -Elliot's dead but some weird infection bullshit happens (plot of Dahlia) -Like a zombie apocalypse -Also Leo's thing with classic novels is established -Leo has a Frankenstein motif the whole time -All I remember is that Leo became some weird demon thing and tried to kill Jaxon over it

Draft 11- -Final canon forget-me-not -Written about a year ago (I know this because I made the outline a day before my last day of school to see if I could finish by the end of summer) (I could not) -I cut Addy out because I didn't like her -Logan was aged to 22, the twins to 16, Kai and Lily to 15, Jaxon to 14, Dylan remained 11, and the triplets remained 10 -I struggled for a while before outlining to come up with a title, it was going to be different nursery rhymes, and then different songs, and then random synonyms for fire, before I decided I liked flowers -So each character was given a flower -Instead of coming up with names for titles, I attached dates so that I could stress myself out with a timeline 👍

Some other extra things: -Jaxon had tourettes but I forgot -Leo was trans but now Jaxon is -I had a version that was like 500 words long where Ryan just goes on a stab people spree -Elliot had cataracts for a minute -The triplet's mother's name was Amelia for a long time

#there might be more but i deleted a lot of things and im basing most of it off of memory #thinking about how i only started writing four years ago #like that feels weird #i like randomly finding stuff related to earlier drafts though. like i made the character playlists way before forget me not #and it's weird to listen to Logan's and find the edgiest fucking song and be like What the Fuck #i also like going through the ones with the kid's villain arcs like they would NEVER #(leo would THRIVE with a villain arc and so would jax and elliot)#writing #isaac says things related to his writing again #original work

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mrsseverussnape · 3 years

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Love Is You - chapter 2

a/n: I made some new additions to the chapter while reading it. Wattpad, AO3 and Tumblr versions will be all different than each other😅 Whenever i read it before posting it on somewhere, i cannot stop myself and add new stuffs…

Ps: Severus is making an appearance in this chapter and we will see him more and more with each chapter😏

Also i am linking Sirius x Scar relationship post here, you can learn about their backstory😌

Scarlett has spent the night at her own house, of course she didn’t want to go back to their family house and even how much she needed a company tonight, she couldn’t go to her parents either since she didn’t know how to tell them what happened tonight.. Scarlett couldn't sleep even for a second; the moment she closed her eyes the bedroom scene appeared in her mind non-stop. So she decided to go to work early, there was no point in trying to sleep. She fixed herself as much as possible and headed to the Ministry of Magic. She went to the Minister of Magic's room directly, as the deputy minister she had to acquaint him about the conferences in Paris.

"Good morning sir."

"Good morning Scarlett. I wasn't expecting you that early. Have a seat please."

The Minister Dorian Blackwood poured some tea for themselves and opened a biscuit jar while she was sitting. They talked about Paris conferences for almost half an hour. The Minister has noticed that something was off with Scarlett since he knew her since she was little. But he decided to stay silent, if she wanted to talk she would.

"Before i leave, i need to tell you one more thing Dorian."

"Sure, i am listening."

Scarlett was scratching her hands and biting down on her lip. She was having second thoughts but she believed she had to do that. "I…I want to resign..."

Dorian raised his eyebrows in surprise, that was something he wasn’t expecting at all. "May i ask why? Because i see you as the next minister and i know you want that too, Scarlett. That was our plan."

"I do, i still do want that but i just can't work here anymore." She took a deep breathe, she continued to talk but her voice was shaking. "I don't know how to explain this at all but yesterday i found out something including a third party and i and Sirius are no longer in good terms. I don't want to come across with someone here and that someone is not Sirius..." Couple of tears escaped and ran down on her cheeks.

"Oh my dear girl...” Dorian walked up to her and rubbed her back to ease her pain a bit. Scarlett was like a daughter to him and he cared about her dearly. “I guess i understand the situation... but i don't want you to resign. Maybe we can do something else."

"What is that?" Scarlett looked at him questioningly.

"I am guessing that someone is not as important as you here so...I can do it right now."

She shook her head. "No not fire her, that won't be fair. It is my personal problem, Dorian."

"Okay whatever you want but just let me know if you change your mind, i can do anything for my lovely deputy minister. But i really want you to stay Scarlett, i don’t think you thought about that decision very clearly."

"I thank you for your kindness and for everything Dory but i don't think i will be in a good state of mind for a while. I don't even want to stay in London. Please accept my resign." Scarlett was almost begging at this point. The minister thought for a while then nodded slowly.

"I can't force you Scarlett, it is your decision in the end. But i am really upset about it, i will miss my partner in crime” Dorian gave her a sad smile. “Give me a week to arrange some stuff then you can fully resign. And you don’t have to come here this week, i will take care of it myself and promise me you will take care of yourself."

She nodded. "Thank you for your understanding, i am not happy about it either but that will be the best for everyone i guess... I cannot promise but i will try..."

Then she left the room before crying her eyes out, this was way harder than she thought. Then she went to the law department to arrange the divorce papers, this was even harder than the resign talk for her. It was hell of a day and she just wanted it to finish already. After the work, she went to their house to get some of her stuff since she didn’t have much in her house because it hasn’t been used for over 20 years. Unfortunately for Scarlett, Sirius has left the work early and he was at home. When he heard the door, he rushed to the doorway it had to be Scarlett.

"I knew you will be back Scarlett!" Sirius cheered with happiness, though he was looking rough. Apparently he didn’t have good night either.

"I didn't come here to stay, i will take some clothes then leave. I will be moving out as soon as possible." Scarlett said sternly without looking at him.

Before he could say anything else, she started to go upstairs where their bedroom was. Sirius followed her immediately like a puppy. She didn't want to enter the room after what she has seen yesterday but she had to, so she took a deep breath and started to pack a bag, avoiding looking at their bed.

"Scar, baby, we can talk and solve this, please."

She let out a laugh angrily. "We can solve it huh? You cheated on me right here, in OUR bed and now you are waiting for me to forget everything!? You have no idea how hard it is for me to be in this room right now. We are done, understand!? You will get the divorce papers in couple of days."

She took her suitcase and got out of the room as fast as possible. "I will take the rest of my stuff later."

"Scarlett..." he called out her name and held her hand before she could walk out the outside door.

She stood there for a second then turned to look at him for the first time today. The tears were collected in his moon coloured eyes, ah how much she loved his eyes. She has never seen him looking so sad, he was always the cheerful one with a grin on his lips. Seeing him like this gave her pain, she was very angry with him but the love she had for him wouldn’t disappear in a day. Then without a second thought she pressed her lips against his softly. It was a quick kiss, but it was full of mixed emotions. Then she pulled away and mumbled a "Goodbye." before she apparated and left Sirius there crying silently.

2 days have passed since Scarlett moved out and still she haven't talked to her kids or her parents about what's going on between her and Sirius. The twins were 21 years old so they could understand the situation, but she still didn't know how to tell them about it at all like their marriage was going great and in one night everything went upside down. Leonidas was working in New York and she didn't want to tell him through a letter, this would leave him with so many questions. He would probably come to London for Christmas, so Scarlett decided to wait till then. But Carina was working at Hogwarts and Scarlett got ready to go there, she didn’t want to lie to Carina through letters acting all was well. 2 hours later Scarlett was wandering around the castle, she hasn’t been there since she graduated. She didn't know where Carina's room was exactly, so she decided to go to the potions classroom since Carina was Professor Snape's assistant. She wasn’t ready to enter that class at all and that was why she avoided coming to Hogwarts for years but right now this was such a small problem beside the other things. Scarlett knocked on the class's door and heard the deep voice she knew very well saying "Come in." Severus Snape was ready to scold the person who interrupted their study but when he saw who it was, he stood there in shock, he couldn’t say a single word.

"Mum!?" Carina asked in surprise, she wasn’t expecting her at all.

"May i talk to my daughter privately, it is important." Scarlett requested but she was not looking at him directly.

Severus didn’t talk for couple of seconds then nodded lightly. "Yes. i will finish rest of the potion by myself Carina, you can leave."

Carina nodded and rushed to her mum. "Is everything okay mum?" She asked while they were leaving the class. Carina noticed she wasn’t looking any good, she wasn’t even wearing her signature red lipstick that she always do and that was concerning.

Carina escorted her to her chambers but she has started to panic, her mum’s silence wasn’t helping the situation at all.

"Mum could you please tell me what happened? Are my grandparents okay?"

"They are fine." Scarlett sat on the bed and motioned Carina to sit next to her. Scarlett's eyes have already filled with tears.

"Mummy? Are you alright?" Carina held her hand softy.

Scarlett shook her head as no, she was squeezing Carina’s hand to gain some power. "Carina, i and your dad... are having a divorce..." end of the sentence she was crying her eyes out.

"W-WHAT!? What happened mum!? I saw you two like 10 days ago and you were totally fine. What's that now?" She was in pure shock and couldn’t know how to act.

"We were... we were good at least that's what i thought... But apparently, we weren't because when i turned back from Paris, i found him..." she started to sob uncontrollably at this point, saying it out loud made it worse for her. "cheating..."

"Did you say cheating!? Daddy was cheating!?" This sentence was something that Carina has never imagined hearing in her life.

Scarlett just nodded; she was unable to talk.

Carina hugged her mum tightly "Shhh mummy, everything will be fine, we will get through it..."

She was trying to calm her mum down, but she was devastated herself too. Carina has always wanted a relationship like her parents had. They were the most in love couple she has ever seen in her life. But she just heard that her dad has cheated on her mum after all those years even they weren’t having any problems. Carina had no idea what to expect for the near future right now but she knew that she will be her mum’s side no matter what.

Taglist:

@snapefiction @lizlil @elizabeth-baelish @misselsbells06 @mais-e @lunnybunny12 @anfre109 @entirelymesmerising @wolvesofwinter13

@mrssnivellussnape i am tagging you too since you seemed interested but i can remove you if you’d like 😊

If you wanna be on my taglist, let me know!

#fanfiction #fanfic #sirius black #sirius black x oc #sirius black angst #sirius black fanfiction #severus snape #severus snape x oc #fanfiction moodboard #moodboard #angst #cheating #divorce #writing #hp fanfic #mrsseverussnapefanfic #mrs.severussnape #love is you

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winryofresembool · 3 years

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Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapter 6 (aka final ch)

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface. (Coffee shop AU!)

a/n: Woop, finally it's time to finish this fic! It took way longer than I anticipated but hey, I'm still pretty happy I did it.

Thank you once again everyone who has supported me both here and on ao3, and special thanks goes to @caldez for the headcanons because without you this fic wouldn't exist!

Once more, I hope you guys enjoy, and please leave a comment if you like this! And keep your eyes open for a twlitf update soon enough because I am continuing to work on it again tomorrow! I've missed that universe a lot.

Words: 1700+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: some slight *ahem* implications (just implications though)

previous chapter / AO3

...

A few weeks later, Leo was leaning against the familiar counter again while he was watching Calypso work. For once he didn’t interrupt her, instead quietly waiting for her to stop her work for the day so he could tell her what he had in his mind. Well, not entirely quietly; his fingers were tapping impatiently against the smooth surface, and eventually Calypso decided that she needed to ask him to stop because she could see some of the other customers giving him dirty looks. Not that she could call him a customer anymore; after the day when Leo had finally revealed his name and she had asked him out, they had been on several dates and things were going pretty well between them.

At first Calypso had been worried that she had been too fast in her decision to ask him out, but after a while she had realized that Leo’s company was exactly what she needed. Not because she /needed/ to have a boyfriend, but because his company made her happy. They could talk about anything and everything between the earth and sky, they had a lot of fun even when they were bickering about whether blueberry cake was better than strawberry cake - which wasn’t a feeling she had known in the past - and most importantly, they understood each other. Both were loners who had some bad experiences with people who were important to them and both were trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. And despite the mischievous surface, Calypso already knew that Leo was someone she could trust to keep his word. She could see it from for example the way he interacted with his work ‘family’ (Calypso had caught Leo calling Georgie his sister the other day when she had quickly dropped by at the garage), how dedicated he was in achieving his goals and how he still showed up at the coffee shop almost every day despite being busy.

“Leonidas,” Calypso had managed to make Leo confess his full first name and now she used it every time she wanted to chastise him. “You may be my boyfriend now…” The b-word made Leo grin widely. “... But I’m still going to have to ask you to try to be quieter because some of our customers don’t like the drumming.”

“Sunshine, not the Leonidas! That’s so cruel,” Leo fake complained. “I was just deep in my thoughts and you know I can’t help it with my random movements while I’m thinking…”

“Fine, then,” Calypso gave in. “What were you thinking?”

“How shiny your hair looks in this light…” Leo said with a low voice.

“Leo… please leave that talk to my off hours,” Calypso scolded him but couldn’t help but blush a bit.

“Okay, Coffee Princess,” he said but suddenly got more serious. “Listen, I do have some actual news for you. I just don’t want to tell it right now that you’re working.”

Calypso checked the clock. “Then you’re going to have to wait maybe 15 more minutes because I still need to take care of a few things once we have closed.”

“No problem. I can wait because Patience is my middle name,” Leo claimed.

“Leonidas Patience Valdez?” Calypso eyed him suspiciously. “Soon you’ll tell me that actually your name is Theophrastus Bombastus or something like that.”

That gave Leo a new idea. “Ooh, should we start a new game? Guess my middle name?” he asked enthusiastically.

“No,” Calypso said immediately. “I think we’ve had enough name games for a while. But maybe some other time.” Her mouth twitched a bit as she said that.

“Oh, alright,” Leo hid his disappointment quickly. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be waiting for you outside once you’re done.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And hey, just to be clear: I wouldn’t care even if your name really was Bad Boy Supreme. You’re still my weird but pretty great boyfriend.” Calypso smiled at him before he raised from his spot and waved her a goodbye.

... A bit later, Calypso joined Leo by a car he had recently obtained. It wasn’t the newest or fanciest but Leo had worked hard to make it function and even Jo had admitted he had done a great job with it. After getting the car Leo had taken a habit to drop Calypso to her apartment after her workshift so they had some extra time to talk - and more - which in Calypso’s opinion was a pretty sweet gesture, even if the make out sessions inside the small car sometimes got a little uncomfortable.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” Calypso asked when she was fastening her seatbelt.

“What… what would you say about working at Waystation?” Leo wanted to know, looking at the road instead of her.

“Huh? Cars aren’t exactly my area of expertise,” Calypso noted, wondering where he was going with his question.

“No, I don’t mean the car side,” he responded, shaking his head a little. “You do know that Emmie has a flower shop in the building as well, right? The thing is, she is getting closer to her retirement and an extra hand wouldn’t hurt her. I know you like gardening, and who knows, you might learn a thing or two from her. She knows a /lot/, trust me. You’ve told me you don’t really like it at the coffee shop so when I heard her talking about hiring someone to Jo… I was like, I gotta let Calie know about this.”

“So… did you already tell her I could be interested?” Calypso asked.

“No, because I didn’t know how you would feel about it. I think it’s better if you contact her personally; Emmie isn’t the kind of person who hires someone just because she happens to be her employee’s girlfriend,” Leo stated, and based on the earlier stories Calypso had heard of her, she could easily imagine that he was right.

“Yeah. That makes sense.” Calypso nodded. “I wouldn’t want to be hired for that reason anyway.”

“You already have a lot of experience in customer service and you’re interested in flowers and stuff so I feel like you could have a good chance,” Leo said, glancing at her briefly. “I mean… if you want to, of course! I don’t know for sure…”

“I’d love to!” Calypso exclaimed before Leo had time to finish his sentence. “At this point anything beats making a thousand cups of coffee per day. And, well, I suppose getting to see a certain someone during the breaks would be an added bonus,” she added sneakily. “I will make sure to contact her soon. Thanks for letting me know!”

“You’re welcome,” Leo replied. “I’ll have my thumbs up for you, babe.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t quite all, though,” Leo said after a while. “I’ve told you about my friend Piper, right? Well, she sings in a band and she knows a lot of people who play and study music as well… They have a gig nearby tomorrow evening and as it happens, I’m not working then so if you happen to have time… would you like to go and see them? And maybe we can meet with Piper and the others afterwards? I just thought, you once said you had enjoyed singing and playing but you had to stop… Well, maybe this could be your chance to get reacquainted with music. She could probably give you some tips too.”

“Do you think she would be OK with it? I mean, helping me out?” Calypso inquired.

“Oh, for sure!” Leo reassured her. “To be honest, she has been quite curious about you ever since I told her I have a girlfriend - it’s almost like she doesn’t actually believe I have one - so I bet she’d be excited to meet you.”

“Um, there’s one small thing, though…” Calypso noted. “You know Reyna, my coworker? From what I’ve gathered, she used to have a major crush on a guy named Jason, who coincidentally is now dating a girl named Piper. And I’m quite sure we are talking about the same Piper now because it’s not that common a name. Maybe I should ask Reyna first how she feels about me hanging out with her before I promise anything...”

“Ouch… Yeah, maybe you should. I don’t wanna cause issues between you and your friend.” Leo agreed.

“But hey, thanks for asking.” Calypso briefly lowered her left hand on Leo’s right one that was resting on the gear stick. “I’d like to meet your friends at some point, for sure. And I’ve never been to a concert so I would definitely love to see one!”

“You’ve never been to a concert?” Leo asked, looking surprised.

“No,” Calypso shrugged. “That was another one of those things that was a waste of time according to my father. But hey, there’s no one to stop me now!”

“That’s my girl. And I can promise that if you decide to go, you would have a decent company too.” Leo grinned at her.

“Hmmm… I still need to be convinced about that…” Calypso teased him. She wondered when she had become someone who flirts and jokes but she assumed that was the effect of the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’.

“Oh, I will convince you, alright,” Leo promised. Calypso couldn’t help but blush when she thought about the implications behind his words.

“OK, as long as we make it to my place first.”

A comfortable silence fell between the couple as Calypso took in everything they had just discussed. The more she thought about it, the more clearly she saw what she wanted to do with her future. She’d save money at a place that she was quite positive she would prefer over the coffee shop, hopefully find a way to get reacquainted with music - maybe with Piper’s help, maybe some other way - and eventually start studying whatever she felt passionate about. Maybe certain things would take a while to happen, but she was on the right path, and why would she have to rush anywhere when she had people like Leo by her side?

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #trials of apollo #my fics

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lilyisfrozen · 3 years

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Update #5, 9/10

Just some info on what’s coming next from me!

Haunted: Chapter 22 is posted but I haven’t started on 23. Giving myself a day or so before starting on it. I have, however, finished plotting out the sequence of events between now and the final chapter! We are at 22/31, an exciting milestone! I can’t believe I’ve come this far, I think I really will manage to finish it! This may bring my ability to finish a fic into question, but this will be the first complete fanfic I’ll actually finish. Its just everyone being so nice and supportive that’s pushed me to keep going. I’m gonna say now that what I have planned for the final arc in the story is going to be wild. Can’t wait!

Sweet Dreams: Serious headway has been made! I’m at least 1/3 of the way through it, which is daunting but exciting at the same time. I decided not to compromise on the length. This may end up being my longest one shot, but I am unafraid! I’ll just work on it whenever I feel up to it and post it when I’m eventually done. I’m very excited for this one, its been fun writing so far.

Lovesick: A yandere!Giyu fic! Yaaayyy! I’ve finally decided what I want to do for a Giyu fic. Its in early development, but I have a solid idea of where I want to go from here. I do think I’ll post this and Sweet Dreams the same night, that could be fun! Will I write a yandere fic for all the Hashira…maybe. I’d like to do a Mitsuri and Sanemi fic too, but I’ll get to those later. I’ve got lots of ideas and would like to tackle a few at a time (as I write an update about a ton of shit I’ve got planned).

Music to My Ears: Kyojuro as a musician! I am a musician myself and think this could turn into a beautiful fic. I do plan on making this the “normal” update amongst the brain rot I have planned 😂 It could end up easily 10k words if I take it and run too far, I’ll try and think of something that’ll keep the word count down. While I throughly enjoy writing long fics, I gotta give myself a break once in a while! I miss the days I managed to keep them short…but I’m happy with how well the long ones turn out. What to do, what to do…

Daddy Kyo Pt5: I have a series called Daddy Kyojuro on AO3, which is just a collection of one shots that can be read individually or as one long overarching plot. I have some ideas for the next part of it, but it’ll be while before I get around to writing it.

Dragalia Leonidas Request: I think I’ll start looking into this request. I was asked maybe a month ago if I’d be willing to write one and I said yes, though there’s lots of projects I need to get through before I get to it. Well, I think I’ve got some ideas working so I’m closer to starting it.

As you all can see, um, its a lot! 😂 This week I managed to finish three projects! I posted Mine, Wedding, and Haunted Ch22, so its been a busy week. I wouldn’t be surprised if I only manage to gat around to one update next week as I’m beginning to feel the school stress slowly seeping in. But I’m glad to be going back to college. I’m never taking it for granted again. Anyways, enjoy~!

#fanfiction #fanficition writer #fanfic update #demon slayer fanfic #demon slayer smut #demon slayer #miscellaneous fandoms #lots of projects #too many ideas #too many thoughts #I blame the shower #its my most creative space #rengoku kyōjurō #rengoku kyojuro fanfic #smut

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seb-owns-these-tatas · 4 years

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Witcher of the Night (Chapter 17)

THIS IS MODERN ERA READER WHO WOKE UP IN THE DIMENSION OF THE WITCHER.

UPDATES FOR WITCHER OF THE NIGHT WILL BE PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY NOW IN MY TIME (GMT +8)

CHAPTER 16.1

WOTN MASTERLIST

Characters: Geralt of Rivia x small!Naive!Reader

Summary: You couldn't save everyone and it was a decision to sacrifice yourself for the betterment of a family you've began to hold dear. Your existence in the continent continues to confuse everyone, including you and Geralt himself.

Warnings: Blood? Poor Jaskier. Cusses. Implied rape from fuckin' assholes. No more glitters and rainbows. Bloedzuiger from the games? Gifs of Geralt with jet black eyes? I mean..why? shouldn’t it not be a warning? Heh.

Words: 5.9k

A/N: Anybody missed me?! Heehee! Now, I fookin miss Geralt and Midget together. Damn it. *sits in a corner and cries* I can’t believe I’ve surpassed my own curse where I only reach up to 5 chapters then keep a story unfinished due to lack of inspo and will. 😭😂 (Update has been earlier due to my uncle’s birthday tomorrow and I might not be able to use my laptop. Hehehe) We’re in the middle of the whole fic, bb’s. This is where everything’s going to happen now. Probably might earn some temple scratching somehow. Hehehe.

TAGLIST IS STILL OPEN FOR THIS ONE! Heehee! Don’t forget to REBLOG, COMMENT OR GIVE FEEDBACK IF YOU DID LOVE THIS CHAPTER! IT’LL MAKE ME SMILE! Sorry for the grammatical errors and such because English isn’t my mother tongue! PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK AFTER READING, BB!

Disclaimer: PNG’s and pictures used in edits are not mine even the GIF’s too. However, the edits and this fanfic is definitely from moi. (Credits to bi-jaskier and others who deserves credit for the gifs)

MY WORKS ARE NOT NOT NOT NOT NOOOOOOT TO BE POSTED ON ANY OTHER WEBSITES. My official username in Wattpad is “TATATHEPOTATO” and that’s the only other site I have for writing aside from Tumblr. Thank you, Tater tots!

7 BILLION PEOPLE IN EARTH. YOUR DIMENSION. There was a myth that seven people might look exactly like you out of the billion that were born. Though, being identical was a once in a blue moon circumstance that held no support or proof that it happened.

Twins even had their own genetic differences, their DNA's were not even the same or even mutually identical to one another.

But, you were transported into another dimension that you didn't know about and based on their conversation and how you've perceived from what they were saying is that you have already been in their hands when it never even happened from the start.

They sounded like they've already seen you somewhere when they haven't at all.

Chevaliers circled around you with their swords sheathed from where it rightfully belongs. They've had a malicious glint in their eyes, dangerous and full of spite. Disgust even included in their humanized souls---if they were even still human. They were looking as if you were an oddball. Judgemental to the fullest; vaguely telling that you were considered as a freak for being the witcher's woman.

Forest green eyes scanned yours, listless but an anomalous situation from the group of uncharitable gallants who seemed to have similar odious characteristics. This cavalier stood out rather than the rest because his eyes held sympathy and not hostility. He was gracile, the same body built as Jaskier. But, wearing no armor just like the vampire you loathed the most. Other than a brown doublet which matches his chocolate colored hair.

He crouched before you, thoroughly scrutinizing your face under his gaze; finding something distinctive or common with the lass that they have captured three days ago, "Wasn't she the one we captured, Ty? That thief named Savia?" his tone held curiosity and astonishment when he saw the exact same face of the woman.

There was no differences except from the aura he could feel. You had her face, voice and body structure. Entirely the same for his wits to disfunction from what he has witnessed.

The scrubbing echo of gravel, dirt and leather made you turn your head to where it was. Tybalt. The fucking vampire who stabbed you on the hip and tried to sell those women away. He was there, right in front of you; grinning like a mad man like he has caught a mouse in the cage, entirely anticipating this moment to capture you once again with purposes you didn't know yet.

Kolby was nowhere to be found. After trying to protect you from the hands of Tybalt, your Hirikka was pushed back by the vampire and his strength, making you screech as Kolby loudly whimpered and growled when he'd stumbled; his back flat from the far distance before skedaddling off through the woods. The simple escape back to where he belonged pinched a your heart because he had already been a part of what made you happy with your stay in their dimension.

You didn't expect his leave to be so early; in the midst of being captured by the hands of real life monsters.

If people were scared of monsters in this world you were currently in, then they should think twice because the cruel form of life in every damn world was the humanity it thrives in; continuing to become cruel, vicious, evil and cunning because people lived to strive more with greed surging through their veins as their own demons try to conquer.

Humanity was everyone's main enemy and not their monsters.

Tybalt gave you a subtle tilt of his head, his grin utterly sinister; those teeth of his never showing the fangs that you have seen back at the marketplace when he was trying to provoke Geralt as he was butchering off his knightly minions.

The break of dawn was coming to a start. Peachy orange glow of the sun hiding began to rest beneath the mountains and clouds that looked the same back in earth. Its glow have made everything more frightening while you were surrounded by a bunch of armored men and a vampire who obviously had strength and skills to kill you in a blink of an eye.

Geralt never scared you because his heart was good. No doubt about that because he had offer you his house from the first day you've met, even treating your wounds and saving you from an Alghoul who wanted to eat your insides. But, Tybalt was different. He didn't appear to be like a person to trust even the slightest except if you were a princess in the castle.

He had his hands on his hips, eyes digging to examine your face. The way he stood held power and cruelty as he clicked his tongue, "S'not the feisty one. I know this maiden's scent. She's the real one, aren't ye', you wench?"

Tybalt abruptly crouched down in front of you, his fingers speedily grabbing onto your roots and turning them in an aching posture that had you growling, teeth barred from the feral reaction. The wrinkles of his nose shown when he defiled your space, abrasing the column of your neck that ignited an intense shiver from the disgust as you cowered away and struggled against his hold.

You've heard Jaskier's footing come to a stand, his doublet spilled with his own blood. Hair all wild and facial expression livid for their sudden visit. The golden, sharp dagger tightened around his fist as he marched heavy steps towards the higher vampire.

But, his assault came to a stop when one cavalier shielded him before he could have Tybalt within reach, strongly punching him in the gut that made him stumble to the ground in less than a second. Jaskier sputtered out droplets of blood, a pointed sword punctuating the tip on his jugular.

Jaskier's pained moans made you snarl right back at the queen's right hand man which made him instinctively tut, "But, the fragrance has a distinctive scent to it now---I don't even know what's runnin' inside the mind of this whore anymore," Pause. Tybalt huffed, scoffing with a grin as he interrogated, "---What did the witcher do to ye'?"

You could feel his terrible breath on your face. His hold unwavering from the resolute strength that he had when you lowly grated through clenched teeth, your eyes screaming elfish because of how you were trying to dillydally in hopes of seeing a white haired witcher to come running towards you with his horse. But, considering how he was probably out to hunt a monster, he was probably busy and distracted. So, expecting the worst was better than awaiting for a moment that will never come.

"Me." you fooled around despite being in the vampire's hold, "---He's doing me. I've waited for the time to say that if someone ever asks me what my lover does---so, worth it, Leonidas."

From your foolish response, Tybalt sneered before nodding off towards the paladins who surrounded both you and Jaskier; sharing an understanding to do what is needed and before you could even turn your head back to check on Jaskier, they were already beating him down to pulp. You've heard more grunts from the twink of a toubadour which made your eyesight go foggy from being hopeless and such a waste to live in their world where you had no magic to keep everyone out of danger, "No! Don't hurt him!" you shrieked out loud, the gallants never ceasing despite of your pleads.

More blood dripped out of the side of Jaskier's lip as he took another strong blow on the gut; making his body jerk that laid from the outstretched land of the meadow. You've uttered one loud scream to catch their attention, noticing the other gallant that you noticed to be standing on a corner was just watching everything unfold like he didn't want to be involved with their horseshit.

"I swear to God, he's a weakling! Stop!---please, stop! You'll have your witcher! I'll give you your witcher just stop!"

With one signal of his head, the cavaliers stopped their battering. Jaskier feebly straightened his limbs over the short grass, coughing out more blood from their corporal punishments, grumbling out a grouse from your choice of words in which you described him with, "Shit. Rat. I've stabbed three knights in the neck for you."

If Jaskier didn't acknowledge that fact and the risk which he has given to keep you alive, you wouldn't have noticed three dead bodies laying on the farthest end of the meadow where the forest began to meet its field.

You've harshly turned your head back to Tybalt, wanting to spit on his face for being one of the best imbecile in their world but decided against it to not irritate him further until Geralt was around. His eyes were livid, staring back at you and in your peripheral vision, you've seen the back door of your house slightly ajar, a slip of a pair of the prettiest blue eyes hidden behind the hatch that made you swallow from the consternation of Cirilla being found and taken with you.

If one person was needed for capture, it should be you; not the princess. If one was to leave their world, it must be you because you didn't belong to their dimension from the start.

One cavalier took his mask off, shaking his head for his black, medium length hair to fall down his neck as he curiously crouched beside you and Tybalt. Features telling you that he was stupefied from what he was seeing with his fixated gaze on your face, "There's a whole lotta' crazy we got here in the continent! The Butcher of Blaviken created bloodbath for this maiden?"

Though, astonishment isn't the only sensation he was feeling when you've felt his fingers graze upon the lines of your ear; seeming to be bawdy and suggestive from the sudden touch and you couldn't help but wrest away from his reach. Howbeit, Tybalt's hand that was yanking on your head made it difficult to.

"Though, this harlot is less feisty than the other! I would rather much have her for tonight,"

The knight's sentence was sheared off when he was strongly pushed by the shoulder from the vampire; his fingers pulling away from outlining your lips with his fingers as he fell on his ass flat on the ground. You've been pulled by the hair to stand, making you pant harsh breaths from how painful it was feeling. Hands were trying to wrench his fingers from your head but his hold was too tight for you to tweak away.

"Ingrith wants her untouched just like the other," Tybalt droned as he pulled you close to him, seeming to be tall as Geralt. His height being an advantage over your small form as he dragged you anywhere he wanted. The knight who was pushed to the ground grunted from how he was assaulted, scowling from Tybalt's shoving as he cackled in a shady manner when he heard the latter set boundaries from their current captive.

"Ye' know ye' shouldn't fuck with a witcher's tart, Allard."

"I would! The weccan' wouldn't mind, does he?" the disgusting cavalier brought his feet to a stand, dusting the grass from his flat derriere as he looked back at Tybalt with a slight tilt of his head; the longer his gaze holds, it turns even more disgusting as he looked like he was undressing you with those dark hues of his, they were the type of stomach-churning that can make you sick in no time, "Oh, she's probably a fuckin' freak like him, lad." the latter stated as a matter of fact, smirking in between his words as he nonchalantly continued.

"---Where's the freak?"

They were making your blood boil by how you could hear they were treating him. Has it been always like this in his world? ergo, he was living a life where people see him ghostly rather than a gifted human as he was seen in your eyes. You couldn't help but sarcastically giggle from their rude speech, "He has a name and it's Geralt. Don't disrespect him like that when you're actually the real freak, Edward." pause. "---You fuckers are worse than any other human." before you can even think twice, spit drizzled on Tybalt's face when you've fumed and barked back, "---More evil than the devil himself and I pray for each and one of you to go to fucking hell,"

"The devil don't exist here, ye' foolish cunt!"

Without any delay or second thoughts, a deafening sound of a slap has rumbled; it was a saddle-sore, the strong smack lingering longer on your cheek as excruciating as it can get. He probably used a little bit of his inhumane strength because of how you've descended down the ground; the side of your head hitting as your whole body fell. Your palms flat on the terra firma, receiving bruises on the edge of your lips because of how you've nosedived in it.

"Rat---!" Jaskier shouted from the background before you've heard the gallants haul him down to kick his face hard.

The asshole squat down to where you were stumbled down, his face showing no pity from what he'd done; slapping you on the face like you deserve it from being all talk and no help, "I suppose ye' don't know where he is. Fair enough then! Let's give er' a lil' bit of a chase---" pause. "---He must try and serve his purpose to the land of Kaedwen other than being a freak of a mutant and slaughtering monsters for coins,”

You spat out the metallic taste of your blood that went inside your mouth, shifting your eyes to where he was bent. You've placed your fingers on your side, gesturing towards the princess who seemed to be shaking and panicking from inside the house, seeing silver clasped around her hands as she was contemplating how to defend you both from the gallants. She had the sword that her and Geralt uses whenever they were trying to train; the weapon which has been in your hands as well.

But, you subtly gestured for her to stand down and hide. It won't be such a nice sight if she did want to help.

"You sound like the castle's loyal pet. Hilarious."

The whole scenario was a fight or flight, and the logical part of your brain screams to cooperate with what they wanted before anything ends up more badly than it can ever get. You lifted yourself off the ground, sitting on the floor while you give Tybalt the death glare as he grinned because he knew the action he did was a trigger for you to comply.

"Where's the other girl?" he chuckled, watching your fists tightened to your sides when you were on your feet. A bloody, deep gash on your cheek when some stone has scratched it and also from Tybalt's whack.

"Don't even think about it, you asshole." you immediately hissed when you knew he was talking about Cirilla. The latter also stood on his feet, tall and confident that his plans were going on the right path today.

"What? She yer' daughter? aren't ye' a child?"

"I'm no child, you fucker! Stop dissing my height like this!---and yes. My daughter. She's my daughter, so don't even think about it!"

Surprisingly, there was no tears seen in your face. They didn't deserve your tears. These people needed to rot in hell, you mindlessly thought to yourself and irritatingly bit on the insides of your cheeks which slightly drew blood from how angered you were. Peering up at the man who was giving you an obvious snicker because he could read that you were succumbing from how they've caught you in hindsight and in a weak position.

The lion cub of Cintra stood behind the doorway, crying her eyes out from how impotent she was because of how everyone wanted her to stay back. Cirilla knows she could help but people who surrounded her wanted not to use her powers as she has yet to learn and control. Hence, she couldn't do anything but watch another person in her life be in a snare or better yet, drown to die in this person's own blood.

So far, hearing those words hurt her heart because she couldn't do anything when you were unconditionally risking your life for her not to be involved because that's what it's supposed to be.

To you, she was being treated more than she can ever expect; the title of a daughter that she didn't knew she missed to need, a mother despite of being not connected through bloodline. But, a woman who would care for her well-being just like how her grandparents did loved her.

Consider herself lucky even though how unfortunate her life began. She received a father and a mother that will risk everything just for her to be safe and she knew she was crying right now because she cared for you; she was concerned like how a daughter would.

Your jaw tightened because you wanted to bash their skulls over and over again until they were dead. They probably was from how you've intellectually murdered them inside your mind since the moment they arrived. You irately peered up at Tybalt, your forehead tightly creased, mouth in a tight frown as you gave him a death stare.

"You want Geralt of Rivia right? then, take me. He'll come after if you take me, just don't kill Jaskier and my daughter."

Jaskier hurriedly shook his head and audibly muttered out his negations to himself from what you had in mind. You were surrendering yourself to them. The bard promised to the witcher not leave your side as much as he would do, but his family was prevailed over the count of cavaliers who came; thinking Geralt was probably there to fight with. But, no. The opposed held a number and Jaskier wasn't mutated nor skilled to know any form of magic for defense.

He knew today will be a loss and after hearing your next words, the humble toubadour knew that you've risked your life again for the betterment of their kingdom and theirs.

"Tell Geralt I seriously need some saving---and I promise this will be the last time I'm needing him again," you forced a smile, looking at the bard with your vermillion all drenched in claret red liquid while trying to send off the meaning that you would be okay while you were away with them.

Nevertheless, he never heard the fast, anxious beating of your heart for what will welcome you to wherever they decide to put you in.

Rough hands shoved you forward, making you look away from Jaskier as you began to take grudging steps to where Tybalt's horse awaits, the image of your smile falling was the last that Jaskier can remember before you left, "---Also, tell him I have a very important secret to say so he better hurry up!"

Scattered skeletons were buried beneath the dank ground of the gloomy swamps. Nightfall has taken its course when Geralt arrived; surprising to say that he arrived earlier than he expected to. Some trees were dead while the others have been cut-off by their limbs from inexplainable reasons. From monsters who probably lived in the area and based on how the moon aligned, it was already midnight; close to morning.

The witcher was wounded. Abnormally drained and in fatigue from using his little spells to slaughter the Bloedzuiger; his arm, back and torso currently in pain due to its acidic blood that splattered him, slightly ruining the body of his armor and the under shirt he wore.

Geralt has used Aard and Igni to fight off the beast and his energy spiked low to the point that he could sleep standing on the ground. But, the idea of his family alone made him push the plan aside because his family was more important than his life.

The latter even took a faster route to arrive and slaughter the beast earlier than his estimated days.

He was just beyond drained and parched tonight.

Long, begrudging sighs left his lips. His hair was sticking all over, eyes still black from the potion he drank, clothes all wet from being shoved under the water and a face too grubby that also held burnt patches that will surely heal in no time. Though, some will probably earn him a scar or two. He was stalking towards his horse, his silver sword that was used for monsters on one hand when the witcher has heard a tiny step of footing that broke a twig, making him slightly turn his head to the quiet noise he heard.

This intruder took more cautious steps closer and he wanted to curse out loud for all the interruptions that made his life more complicated than it already is.

Human. Geralt knew it was human. This person even had a scent to it. She was a woman who had a strong floral fragrance; rose and earthy.

"You shouldn't be here," he lackadaisically declared to no one in particular as he sighed for the hundredth time this day. Heedful of the woman hiding behind a dead tree as he strolled to where Roach waited, ignoring her as he strolled.

Thus, the woman was strong enough to acknowledge a witcher in his full form as she decided to walk towards him, talking in pure fascination to have seen one in the flesh.

"A Witcher. I've heard tales of your kind. Though, I’ve heard new wicked bavardage from town that this particular beast has slayed my own kind for the sake of saving one. Wouldn’t it be wiser to choose the lesser evil or the greater good?" she scoffed before continuing, “---aren’t you quite miserly to have done such thing by killing less or maybe more than a dozen and salvaging yours?”

Geralt dropped the loot that he has ransacked from the monster, dropping them inside his leather bag with a scowl. This woman's tone of voice perking his ears that made him cease his packing.

"You were never just a mere epic," she sarcastically laughed in spite. The timbre of her voice thoroughly distinctive and familiar for Geralt to be incorrect. He gave her a sharp side-eye, his eyes jet black when his mind went in befuddlement after recognizing a face that he managed to memorize since the moment that this certain woman came in his life.

"You're the witcher they're finding. The butcher! You were the reason I was taken! Feckin' Geralt of Rivia, aye!"

She was you.

A face that always keeps his mind going in haywires. Features that can be considered as a strong weakness for the witcher because of how he'd easily let his guard down with just a glimpse of a face that could ruin his resistance over having another woman be prone of peril in his dangerous, hindering life.

Even only hours of being away from you; half a day to be precised. With just by seeing her face tempted him to reach out for what he longed for; to touch the face of the woman who'd felt deep sensations for him---accepting of what he actually was with no judgement in her mind. The ache and worry in his chest was not helping how he yearned to never leave you alone in the first place.

He couldn't help but take a step close to the woman who also had the same height as you. His obsidian eyes staring straight into her soul like he'd seen the devil and he was happy to worship; jaw tight as his lips came with a lour.

Geralt looked utterly monstrous for a person who wasn't used to seeing his kind.

"Midget?"

The woman instinctively took a step back despite of how she was running her mouth a while ago; fear shutting her confidence that she could confront him for bothering a life she also dreaded to live in. Her eyes filled with horror and disgust in which Geralt clearly has seen without the use of his doubled up heightened senses.

She was not his tiny mortal. This woman in front of him was beyond different. The real you wouldn't look at him in sheer revulsion; no profound emotion in those eyes that he was used to seeing.

She had her brows in a tight twist, sending him a nasty glare that got him humming out in distaste from an attitude he wasn't use to seeing with a face like yours, "I'm not a fucking midget! What a shitty name you've got me! Doesn't sound too nice to hear too! Ya' fuckin' brought me ill-fate!"

Geralt was quick to turn around his heel. Brooding once again from the bafflement that got him thinking again. Why did you have a person who looked exactly like you in their world?

"You're not her." he stated as a matter of fact, sounding confident with his assumptions because the witcher knows he is right. Geralt walked over to his horse, huffing out a breath off his nose from sheer displeasure as he heard the woman jogging to where he wanted to go.

"Apparently not. You're mistaking me with another unfortunate little lady then!"

"Who are you?" Geralt didn't bother to give her a glance no matter how he wanted to relieve the longingness to see your face; to know that you were safe in their home with Jaskier and Cirilla, hoping that everybody was protected and safe from anyone.

But, this woman with him was not you. He needed to remember that.

She tightly crossed her arms on her chest, eyeing the brooding man as sharply as the woman could with her maroon colored cloak strapped around her shoulders, the hood off when she'd arrived to have seen him, "The name's Savia, witcher."

"Why are you here?" he timidly grumbled, his silver sword in a scabbard after the fight. Roach neighed aloud, huffing out a breath when Savia was an arm close to her, acting like she didn't like her.

Geralt couldn't help but raise a brow from his horse's sudden actions, bringing up a hand to shush her with his fingers brushing along her mane.

Savia can't help but take a cautious step back at that; his horse's reaction making her feel unwelcome and unwanted by the pair. Though, her blabber mouth couldn't help but run on and on, being all chatty when she was in the verge of being chased down by gallants. Savia knew she could outrun them like she wasn't even being pursued from the start because she has been doing this for years; stealing lots of valuable things then never being found after as she can always escape from the brutal hands of lords, inn keepers, and a whole lotta' more.

"I've escaped! Stolen goods from the castle? Their riches? Serves them right for keeping me in prison! Oh! I could steal yer' coins too, if you want. But, now I shan't retrieve them after telling all my plans! I'm no fool! I'm a skilled thief. Sounds professional, isn't it?"

She couldn't help but giggle, utterly blowing with the wind from the occupation she had; confident regardless of how unseemly her job was to live. Though, Geralt didn't give any negative reactions because he was the last person to judge someone who had an indecent job just to live in their world.

He kills and hunts monsters for a living. It doesn't sound too appealing for a normal human, correct? Hence, he wasn't in the position to criticize a thief especially when this poacher looks entirely like you.

"---I've killed some knights out there just to escape, ye' know? Maybe a bunch! Ye’ can still count em with your fingers!" the witcher ceased ferreting around in his bag when he'd finally given her his attention. The color of his eyes subsiding and turning back to its normal hue. Gold in the middle of the night like star light illuminating her gloom and it made Savia stare at him in awe because of how he typically looked like without the potion and all.

Well, hearing the gossips about him from the women in the brothels and men who shared their wicked tales were really true because the witcher who stood before her right now was a complete knockout who had a terrifying shadow he left behind.

Savia couldn't help but pout her lips inquisitively, catching sight of his amber heavily examining her face with a gist of feeling that she couldn't recognize because of how she has never receive nor experienced the look of love. But, the woman was sure he was only blinded by the fact that the face she had held whatever he holds dear; a person he had in mind that he swore to protect, desire and care for.

Savia has never seen a witcher look considerate and warmhearted. The opposite of what people claimed his kind to be. He was the butcher of Blaviken. Perhaps, she have been a witness of his character changing with one simple cast of a face he claimed to be important.

She knew that midget was too significant to him when his face turned back to normal, stretched in a way that has him looking anxious, bothered and utterly worried from the words he heard.

"I'm wondering how I've been involved by a witcher I never seen or met. They were weird! Got me bruises because I never knew where you were and I couldn't tell where ye' live!" pause. Savia's lips emitted an awkward scoff, "---Those fucking gallants did a number on me for days that I have been imprisoned. They were thinking you would go and save me---oh, shiver me timbers! No obsidian--golden eyed witcher would save me from my demise!"

Geralt torpidly blinked back at her, his forehead tightly creasing; trying to deliberate what was happening. His thoughts immediately skipping to bad ideas and outcomes because of the fact that you had someone looking like yourself.

"They were shitty and off one's rocker! Especially that sorceress because she wanted to cast me under her spell, trying to get me examined because I didn't belong to their world---wondering if I had some sort of magic in me for her to possess. She was batshite crazy!"

He couldn't help but irritatingly shut his eyes, mutely giving himself a talk while he kept his mouth shut; not risking to be heard nor is this woman close enough for her to know what's inside his thoughts. Geralt chose to stay silent, breathing down long heavy inhales and exhales from the drawbacks that suddenly occurred.

Here was destiny starting again.

Savia loudly huffed before him, raising a cocky brow when she hadn't heard that deep, gravelly voice that sounded unfamiliar from the ones she has always been hearing, "Are witcha's always this silent? I've been doing all the talking! It's like you're a mute!"

The Witcher heard footfalls coming from a distance. Two gallants. It was only a pair for now and if the woman didn't took her flight before the entire horsemen arrives, she would be taken again and be behind bars in the fortress of Kaedwen.

Would he save the thief who made everything more complicated by looking exactly like you? Creating a mishap by stealing jewelry from the queen?

Everything he thought about would result in an intense migraine because Geralt know you'll be accused of a crime that was never done by his midget. Therefore, taking you in for captive would end up being like hitting two birds in one stone; they get to have him running off to where the castle is and also have the accused thief who didn't need no convincing because of how Savia showed up in their lives; ruining yours.

"Fuck. Why did you need to show up now and complicate things---even had to fucking steal ornaments from the queen with a face who is utmost valuable to me."

The frustrated question was sent to Savia who stepped back from the latter; his teeth suddenly barred and feral, sharply staring down at her. Totally irritated by what she'd done. Geralt heard metal being dragged out of its scabbard and it took him one turn of his head to be welcomed by two knights who was ready to pounce on him by seeing what he was.

One of his monikers slipped out of their tongues with such disgust and a hitch of their breath. There was no use for killing cavaliers tonight because this woman hardly have been involved in his life, yet he would still save because of having a weakness that seemed unfair for her to have.

Geralt raised his hand towards the taller knight who opened its mouth to shout at his fellow horsemen who held their torches from a far distance when suddenly a string of glowing, white line shot through his head; casting Axii for the men to take despite of how the witcher was feeling low with his energy that has been used prior to hours before they arrived.

It was a simple magical sign where it compromises hypnotic effect; it can be used to calm down people or animals, manipulate their minds or be used to hex enemies. A triangular white symbol surrounded the string of line which paved its way towards their heads; passing through both as they were momentarily stunned, acting as if they were puppets and Geralt had the strings.

Thus, after a while; Savia was astonished to see both armored men attacking each other like they were in a battleground and they were both forgotten.

Yet, it wouldn't last long.

"Witcher! What did you feckin’ do?!" she squeaked, heart beat racing from the adrenaline rush.

Geralt had not taken a second before jumping on his horse, gripping onto her reigns and pulling to turn her around, quickly nudging her to gallop towards the path back to where he could go home.

He needed to come back home. The heavy and worried feeling inside his chest wasn't just the result of overthinking. Geralt knows that there was something happening now and it wasn't good. He needed to know if you were safe, all in complete set of limbs when he sees you, if ever he could even get to again because the dreaded feeling was rising higher in such a toxic amount that would make him blame himself when you're gone.

Geralt couldn't even think straight for even contemplating about the idea that you were gone and out of his reach.

"Leave before they actually kill you. It can only last for seconds due to the energy left in me,"

He'd run off before Savia can even acknowledge his kindness. The Butcher of Blaviken has helped her escape. He wasn't a murderer nor did he hurt her.

"Geralt of Rivia, right?!" she yelled out to no one in particular after watching Geralt leave with his horse. The simple yell has caught the attention of more gallants, seeing the flames of their torches walking their way through the forest and through the swamps that got her zipping her mouth shut. Those two hypnotized gallants falling on the swamps behind her from beating each other to death.

Savia couldn't help but hum in interest, whisper-yelling her next words as if the witcher can hear her amongst his troubled heart.

"---Thank you for letting me escape! you're helpful after all!"

Geralt please axii my puxii LMAO. FEEDBACKS ARE SO MUCH APPRECIATED! (Strikethough over the tags mean I couldn’t find your blog, bb’s.)

Taglist for WOTN: @alyxkbrl @himarisolace @barkingbullfrog @ayamenimthiriel @hellodevilslittlesister @vania-marie @spookypeachx @grungelovebug @fangirl-inthe-us @nympeth @amirahiddleston @gabethelobster @dreaming-about-starfleet @uncoolcloudyhead @melaninstylezz @psychosupernaturalhero @missjenniferb @dance-dreamer @marvelousell @kingniazx @angelias134 @tapismyforte @chook007 @covid-donotenter @deadlydemon @cheesecakeisapie @angelofthor @carrieannewaywardson, @plantingmum @stuckupstucky, @shesthelastjedi, @a--1--1--3, @gutfucks, @raynosaurus-rex, @britty443,

Overall witcher taglist: @pizza-eater-i-ate-the-pizza, @crazybutconfidentaf

General taglist for Henry Cavill: @agniavateira, @iloveyouyen, @rahdaleigh, @silverkitten547

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talpup · 3 years

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Summary: Yami Sukehiro just wanted to join the Magic Knights and make his mentor proud. He knew there would be trails. He knew trouble would come his way. Knew he would be faced with discrimination for being a foreigner and a peasant. What he didn’t know. Didn’t expect. Was that literal Chaos would come his way. That he and his mentor’s sister would be at the center of world ending trouble. Or that he would fall in love with his mentor’s sister and face more than discrimination; but the jealously of Nozel Silva who loved the same woman he did.

Please remember this fic is rated mature and has warnings of violence, abuse, sexual tension, eventual sexual behavior, and other possible triggers. For a full list of story tags please check the fics AO3 (link to that at the top of my tumblrs homepage).

Sorry about the late update. It was a super busy weekend, and my three big chronic illness bad's are still making me pay the price. Anyway, here you all go. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 96

It was near midnight. All the Captain's were tired, irritable, and on edge. They were meeting because Yami and Teris had never checked-in this evening when Jax had explicitly ordered his Vice Captain's to do so before lights out.

The Black Bulls Captain focused his glare on his fist which rested on the table as questions were asked, hypothesis given, and ideas about what to do were put forth. He blamed himself for Yami and Teris’ disappearance, certain that the Agents of Chaos had taken them.

Having reported to Greywright before this meeting was called, Jax had encouraged the Commander to question the supposed traitor Flic about Yami and Teris’ disappearance. But, Greywright had told him it would do no good. During his interrogation of Flic yesterday afternoon, Greywright had learned that the man knew nothing of the details concerning Alowishus’ plans. Jax would've liked some time alone with Flic anyway. Not to question the man; but simply to beat one of the Agents of Chaos, even if that person was no longer aligned with them.

“I question keeping up the search. Especially this late at night. We went out this morning looking for two Vice Captains and instead of finding them, we lost two more.” Jamie said.

“You sound scared.” Win taunted.

“I’m concerned for the safety of my squad. For all our squads.” Jamie said.

“We’re Magic Knights. We don’t abandon anyone, least of all our own.” Kess said, fiercely.

“I’m not saying we give up.” Jamie told, thinking Pyter would’ve understood if he were still Captain of the Silver Eagles.

“You’ve always been a selfish ass. I doubt you’d want to continue even if it was your own Vice Captain missing.” Mereoleona fumed.

“We don’t even know who took them or why. Blindly searching has done nothing but thinned our resources and wear our Magic Knights to exhaustion, and it’s only been a day.” Danise said.

Whilf nodded in agreement. “There has to a better way to go about this.”

“Better then searching for four Magic Knights Vice Captain’s?” Mereoleona stormed in challenge of the Purple Orcas Captain.

“No one’s saying that. But fumbling around hoping to stumble upon something isn’t working.” Breigha said.

Mereoleona could hardly argue with her friend. During her own futile search this afternoon she had wanted to torch the four kingdoms until whoever took her brother returned him, begging for mercy. She’d fry the fools and then pummel Fuegoleon for letting himself be taken.

“Do we even have an idea if they were taken because they’re all Magic Knights, or three of them royal?” Win asked.

“I’m guessing none of the families have received any word or demands?” Danise tendered. The Coral Peacocks Captain looked from Mereoleona to Julius. She glanced at Kess figuring as Nozel’s Captain she would've been in contact with Nathyn Silva or at least a representative from the royal house.

Julius rapped his knuckles on the tabletop with a silent curse. Just like last year, and two months ago during the Spade Kingdom mess, he had forgotten to send message to Fyntch about Teris being taken. When he had finally gotten around to writing Fyntch last year he hadn’t mentioned that Teris had been taken; simply saying he was sure Fyntch had seen the beam that lit up the sky the morning of the Summer Solstice and assuring him that he and Teris were okay. As for the happening with the Spade Kingdoms Magic Scientist Rayla, he hadn’t bothered sending Fyntch message and told Teris as much so she wouldn’t mention it to their brother.

Having met with Lord Leonidas himself and spoken with House Silva’s representative, Jorah said. “Neither the Silva’s or Vermillion’s have reported receiving demands or word of admission and intent.”

Jamie scoffed, thinking that the Silva’s and Vermillion’s were too proud to admit to it if they had. The two royal houses likely had their own people looking into things and would handle the matter privately if they came across anything.

Whilf looked at the Wizard Kings Advisor. “Has Magic Investigations unearthed anything of use?”

Ellara shook her head sadly at the Purple Orcas Captain. “My people have been out all day checking in with their sources and questioning people searching for some kind of lead. We haven’t given up. But as yet, they have discovered nothing that would tell us who took the Vice Captain's or why.” She looked at Julius, Mereoleona, Jax, and Kess. “I’m sorry.”

Julius and Jax stared at the Wizard Kings Advisor, both thinking Ellara was far from sorry but would be.

96.2

Yami noticed how Calen stuck close by them as he and Teris were made to walk through the portal. Given that Teris had once broken through Calen’s negating magic the first time she had light traveled, it was justifiable that they were concerned.

“Leon! Nozel!” Teris rushed forward only to be grabbed by a cloaked figure.

Yami punched the Agent of Chaos not seeing or caring if the person was a man or woman. He pulled Teris out of their grasp, holding her to him.

“Peace, Livia.” Calen told the woman as Alowishus stepped through the gateway.

Livia stood down and tenderly touched her face.

Hands bound above his head, hanging from a tree branch, Fuegoleon’s eyes blinked slowly open.

Tied and swaying beside the Crimson Lion, Nozel croaked, barely able to lift his head. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“Didn’t have much of a choice.” Yami said, looking them over.

Nozel took in a slow, shallow, shuddering breath; grimacing at the pain the small movement brought.

Teris tried once more to step to them, but Yami held her firm least someone attempt to stop her again.

Teris trembled in Yami’s arms, a fearful rage building. Nozel and Fuegoleon were alive but they were a battered, bloody mess. And that was only the injuries she could see. They had been in the Agents of Chaos’ custody for little more than twenty-four hours. Who knew what those monsters had done to them.

One eye swollen shut. The other, vision tinted red by blood. Nozel told Yami. “First chance you get, you get her out of here.”

Teris shook her head, angry worried tears blurring her sight. Though she had no idea how they were going to manage it, she promised Nozel and Fuegoleon. “No matter what it takes. We’re going to get you out of this.”

“I’m glad you said that; because you hold the way to freedom for your Intended and your cousin. The path to seeing them live through this is a simple one.” Alowishus said, stepping toward her and Yami.

Teris turned to face him. “Let them go and I’ll do it.”

“Teris... No--” Fuegoleon’s lips moved, sound barely coming out. His voice faltered, weakly coughing up blood.

Yami uttered a stream of curses, his grip on Teris tightening. He scowled at Alowishus and the surrounding Agents of Chaos in the low, flickering firelight of Piper’s magic. He would kill every single one of them even if it took his entire life to hunt down every member of Alowishus’ followers.

“That’s not how this goes.” Alowishus told Teris. “Your friends go free only after you and Yami do as I say. Play difficult and we will continue harming them until you do or they die; whichever comes first. But I warn you. They proved difficult themselves, refusing to answer the simplest questions. It’s left them in bad shape. I doubt they’d be able to survive much more.”

Fuegoleon’s eyes slowly lifted, too weak to rise his heavy head. He wanted to tell Teris not to listen. He would rather die than have his cousin agree to whatever these people wanted. But no matter hard he tried, his brain couldn’t make his chapped bleeding lips form the words.

Yami didn’t need a better look at Fuegoleon and Nozel to know Alowishus was telling the truth. It was clear they had been tortured and were in really rough shape. Nozel’s head lolled. Though it was difficult to tell if the man was unconscious or not.

“What do you want?” Yami asked.

“To get to the treasure vault of a labyrinth.” Alowishus said.

“What? You and your people so lacking that you need us for such a simple task.” Yami mocked.

“This isn’t any labyrinth, Yami. The contents of the vault are meant for you and Teris. Destined for the two of you to find and receive.” Alowishus told.

“Labyrinth 297,353.” Teris breathed.

Alowishus smiled. “I see you’ve heard of it.”

Yami looked at Teris in question.

Teris stared back, both surprised and not that Yami didn’t remember. “He wants us to collect the Future of Chaos.”

“Not just the two of you.” Alowishus said, keen ears hearing Teris’ whisper. “I will be going down with you to also receive the page.”

Yami turned to the man. “The History of Chaos has been nothing but a curse. Like hell I’m going to the labyrinth that has the Future of Chaos. I’d rather see those two die.”

“As you wish.” Alowishus’ eyes slid to the Mage that stood beside Nozel and gave a slight nod.

Nozel’s body tensed and began to squirm. Hanging from his arms, he began to swing. His muscles spasmed at the pain. Teeth pressed together trying to hold back the cry that bubbled in his throat.

Yami couldn’t see any outward wounds being made. But when blood began to come from Nozel’s ears, nose, eyes, and mouth, he barked. “Stop!”

Alowishus tilted his head at Yami, not yet giving the signal for the Mage to cease. “Agree.”

Yami glared.

Nozel began to scream.

Voice caught in fear and horror, Teris’ trembled, knuckles white as she clutched onto Yami’s upper arms.

“We’ll do it. We’ll go.” Yami broke.

Alowishus smiled. “Excellent.”

The signal was given and the Mage stopped.

Alowishus held a beckoning hand out to Teris. “Come here.”

Yami’s arm tightened around Teris’ waist. But he hadn’t needed to worry, she didn’t even try to move.

“It appears you require another lesson in how this goes.” Alowishus turned to the Mage and told. “Don’t be so gentle this time.”

Whatever the man was doing, he did it to both Nozel and Fuegoleon. Both their bodies seized. The Crimson Lion and Silver Eagle crying out. Teris tired to take a step toward Alowishus but Yami held her in place. She squirmed in his arms, pushing at his chest; but Yami refused to release her.

Teris looked up Yami at single tear rolling from its bank and down her cheek. “Please.”

Yami shook his head even as his hold slowly released. Teris stepped away him. He made to follow but was barred by someones arm. They didn’t dare touch him, but it was enough to stay his steps.

Teris was more than halfway to him when Alowishus gave his man a nod.

Teris’ steps ceased. Her head started to turn to look over her shoulder at Fuegoleon and Nozel when suddenly Alowishus was right in front of her. His hand clasped her jaw, fingers digging into her cheeks as he turned her to face him.

The next thing Teris knew, Alowishus was kissing her. No. It wasn’t really a kiss. Though that didn’t make it any less unnerving or make her stop trying to push away. It was more like the way a mother bird feeds her young. Only in this case, Alowishus was forcing a thick, vaporous substance down her throat.

Yami broke the arm barring his way and rushed forward. He was tackled and held down by three men. A cloak of mana flickered around Yami like a sputtering candle flame, present one moment and gone the next.

Calen ground his teeth. His magic fighting to negate Yami’s.

Mana skin blinking in and out of existence, Yami threw one of the men holding him into another that was coming to assist. He got to his feet and tossed a second against a tree trunk ten meters away,

“Stand back.” Slade told the third that was still trying to hold Yami back from their Master. The Rope Mage created a glowing rope. It wrapped around Yami, binding him tight.

Yami fell to the ground. He pulled and struggled against the magical binds, yelling curses and threats.

Alowishus released Teris and staggered back. Misandre was there to help steady her Master.

Teris fell to her knees. Sputtering, she coughed up dense black smoke. Her eyes watered, at the burning cold that seeped through her body into her very soul.

“What the hell did you do to her! I’ll kill you!” Yami roared, the magical ropes breaking nearly as fast as Slade could create them.

“I merely replenished her mana stores. You should thank me. In her depleted state she wouldn’t have survived receiving the Future of Chaos, let alone whatever dangers we might cross down there.” Alowishus looked down at Teris who was on all fours choking up thick black puffs. “Your system is adjusting to foreign mana. It’s not a perfect exchange, but you’ll be fine.”

Yami snarled. His fighting didn’t let up, even as Teris’ coughing eased.

“Let him go to her.” Alowishus ordered.

As soon as Slade’s magic released, Yami was on his feet. He rushed to Teris, sliding to his knees to stop beside her. His arm wrapped around her jerking shoulders as she continued to sputter.

“You alright?” Yami asked, pushing her hair back from her face.

Teris nodded, still wheezing. She wiped the stale taste of Alowishus off her mouth and spit, wisps of black mana escaping her mouth and nose like smoke. She pushed up to her knees, a shaking hand gripping Yami’s arm for balance. “Leon? Nozel?”

Yami glanced over at the still bound men. Neither Nozel or Fuegoleon moved. Their breathing so shallow Yami couldn’t see the rise and fall of their chests. Through his sense of their Ki, he was able to pick up on their faint breaths and weakened heartbeats.

“Still breathing.” It was the only thing Yami could say.

Alowishus turned away. “Let’s go. The new moon rises. We must be in the vault by its peak.”

“What’s a moonless night have to do with it?” Teris rasped, Yami helping her to her feet.

Alowishus turned back her. Rather than answer, he told. “Yami’s power might be on the rise. But he has still faced a small down trend as the Summer Solstice has neared. Your power, though lessening, will continue to grow slightly until the morning of the solstice.”

Yami looked at Teris seeing her frown at the unanswered question. He could see her mind working, trying to figure out the answer on her own.

“Before we head out. Turn around and look at your beloved friends.” Alowishus ordered.

Despite not wanting to do anything the man told her to, Teris couldn’t resist. She turned.

Yami stood in her way, wide shoulders and towering frame blocking her view. He gave her a slight shake of his head.

Teris stared up at him.

“Move and let her see them, Yami. You both should know the stakes any further disobedience will have.” Alowishus told.

“She doesn’t need to see them.” Yami said, eyes lifting to the man that called himself Death.

Alowishus stared back. For a moment it looked as if he would insist. With a sigh, he allowed. “Very well. You’ve seen the state of them, Yami. You know what testing me would mean. I doubt you want to be the cause of their deaths.”

Teris balked at that. She tried to step to the side, but Yami moved with her.

“So protective.” Alowishus smirked. Looking at Teris, he told. “It’s probably for the best. A sight like that will stay with you long after they’ve recovered, or died.”

“Leave her alone.” Yami growled.

Alowishus looked down at Teris. “Just so long as you’re aware. Timeis of the essence for the both of us. Your cousin won’t last more than two hours at most. Your Intended not lasting much longer after that. And that’s only if you behave and don’t kill them yourselves by having me set Nexis back to work on them.”

Yami glared at Alowishus. “We won’t try anything. Let’s just get on with it.”

“For the Prince’s sake I hope that’s true. I will be carrying a charm. If I activate it, Nexis continues his work until I deactivate it. If I’m injured, it activates immediately. If I am rendered unconscious, it activates immediately. As unlikely as such a happening is, if I am killed...” Alowishus smiled at the change in Yami’s eyes at the prospect.

“Let me guess. The charm activates.” Yami said.

“No. The charm crumbles to dust. As does the connecting ones left in the hands of my followers. If that happens, not only will the Silva and Vermillion heirs be instantly killed. But the Agents watching Captain's Julius and Jax, as well a the rest of your friends from afar, will spring into action killing them before they even realize there’s a threat.” Alowishus said.

“But you’ll be dead.” Yami said, as if the rest didn’t matter.

Alowishus gave a tight smile. “Only for a time. You cannot kill Death”

“Pretty sure if I removed your head you’ll die.” Yami said.

“I’ve heard that before. Sadly, only one such commenter was still around to see how wrong they were.” Alowishus sighed tiredly and raised a guiding arm. “Shall we?”

Taking Teris’ hand, Yami stepped after Alowishus. They walked for some time through the dark forest with only the dim glow of the accompanying Agents of Chaos’ grimoires to light the way.

While the mana Alowishus gave Teris might've bolstered her magics reserves. It didn’t do much to help against physical exhaustion. Seeing her start to lag, Yami looked ahead to Alowishus. “Didn’t you say time was of the essence? Why are we tripping through a moonless forest?”

“Misandre will see us inside the labyrinth, but first we must find it.” Alowishus said. Pausing his steps to stare at something in his hand.

“What do you got there?” Yami asked.

“Directions. Of a sort.” Alowishus looked over his shoulder at Yami. “Come have a look if you’d like.”

Yami slowly released Teris’ hand. He glared at the surrounding Agents of Chaos in warning. Grateful for the breather, Teris didn’t move to follow him.

Alowishus watched Yami as he stepped beside him and looked at what he held in his open palm.

Yami scowled. “Are those bones?”

“Finger bones to be precise. They’re from the maker of the labyrinth and are pointing us to the labyrinths entrance.” Alowishus smirked at Yami. “You see? I do my part to make things as easy and painless as I can for the two you. When we reach the area, Misandre will portal the three of us in. Once down there, we’ll make our way to the vault and the three of us will enter and receive the Future of Chaos.”

Yami raised a brow. “The three of us?” He scratched the back of his neck. “I might not have the brains Teris does. But I remember the paper sniffers at Investigations saying Yurist’s prophecy said the ones who found the History of Chaos would find its future. Seeing as you weren’t there when we got the first page of Chaos. I don’t see how you expect to get your hands on the second.”

Alowishus’ eyes darkened. “I’ve forgotten more about Yurist and his prophecy’s than the sum knowledge of the four kingdoms libraries and scholars combined. When it comes to such things, you must be careful, Yami. Yes, the prophecy says the two that find the History of Chaos will also find the Future of Chaos. But the key word there is find. Not receive.”

Yami looked at the man thinking that if the keyword was ‘find’ then Alowishus was still somehow wrong and in for a disappointment; because he and Teris weren’t finding anything, they were being led. Giving one last look at the bones that moved like a compass, Yami stepped back to Teris.

They walked a bit more until Alowishus stopped once again.

“Misandre. Here. Three hundred and seven meters down.” Alowishus glanced at Yami and Teris seeing they too had picked up on the numbers. He and his people still hadn’t learned the full meaning of Yami being a third seventh son; and as much as he wanted to question Yami further on it, now wasn’t the time.

Calen stepped to his Master, his concern evident. He remembered last years long lingering injury Alowishus had suffered from his battle with Julius Nova, and Yami and Teris’ combined attack.

“They know the stakes, and won’t try anything.” Alowishus soothed Calen. He looked at Yami and Teris. “Will you.”

Yami’s left hand rested on his katana’s hilt. “I suppose you’ll just have to trust us. Just like we’re having to trust you about not killing the royals, and letting us all go.”

Calen glared at Yami. “If you harm the Master. I’ll do more than kill your friends. I’ll find this Land of the Rising Sun and end every single member of the Sukehiro line.”

“Good luck with that.” Yami said, sure there had to be a family that went by Sukehiro in his homeland; unfortunately for Calen’s plans, it wasn’t Yami’s family.

Misandre opened up a portal. Alowishus gave the Spatial Mage a nod as he passed through. That’s when Yami saw the woman’s hands. Hands he’d recognize anywhere given the amount of times they had hit him and tried to crush his neck.

Yami pulled his katana from its sheath. “Those don’t belong to you!”

“Yami, don’t!” Teris grabbed his arm, not seeing how his eyes had flicked black for a fraction of a second.

Snarling at the woman wearing Bronn’s hands, Yami sheathed his katana. “I’ll soon see those off you and where they belong.”

96.2.2

“Teris. Give us some light.” Alowishus said from somewhere in the dark space.

Teris’ hand twitched tempted to light up the direction Spade’s voice sounded from and fry him. Her grip on Yami’s arm tightened, grateful they had stepped through the portal together.

Slowly, she lit up the area. The three blinked, their eyes adjusting.

Looking about the space, Alowishus told. “To use your terminology, the labyrinth isn’t active. With it not open and visible to the surface we will have to deal with the dark. But it also means that most of the beasts and traps will be in hibernation. Still, be on guard. The creatures that reside in places like this are more powerful during the new moon.”

“Which leads me to ask again. Why a moonless night?” Teris questioned.

Alowishus tilted his head. “The vault is this way.”

Senses alert to danger even if he didn’t appear to be, Yami commented almost conversationally. “I suppose we should be thankful that Bronn was such a good Spatial Mage. Without his hands, that woman probably would’ve deposited us between bedrock.”

“Noticed that did you?” Alowishus smiled, leading the way.

“Gotta admit, I half expected her to try and smack me upside the head.” Yami said.

“Parts taken carry a residual portion of a persons magic, not a remnant of the persons character.” Alowishus said.

“Why take Bronn’s hands at all? Were Erskin’s a little too chewed up by Saber Wolves? Or were the hands of your dead follower too painful to see?” Teris asked.

“When you have lived as long as I; such feelings of friendship, love, even hate all but fade away. I’m not so old that I’m incapable of affecting such emotions for the sake of others. But, just between the three of us. I feel little to nothing. Well, until the two of you showed up.” Alowishus stopped and turned to to face them. “You two have done much more than give me the means to reach my aims. You have made me feel again. First excitement. Then awe. I have long since forgotten what hope felt like. But I believe I may have begun to feel a bit of that as well.”

Teris’ brows furrowed. “Just how old are you?”

Alowishus wagged a finger at her. “A proper bred young royal like you should know it’s impolite to ask.”

“Just how old are you?” Yami questioned.

Alowishus smirked and turned away. “Come. Time runs short.”

Though they didn’t come upon any traps. They did happen upon two beasts. Just as Alowishus had said, the creatures were more difficult to subdue than expected. Finally they reached a large cavernous chamber with a set of towering double doors that looked near identical to the ones that had housed the History of Chaos.

“Our time together is almost over.” Alowishus said, as if saddened by the fact.

“You’ll keep your word and let us go.” Yami prompted.

“Of course. I’m a man of my word. After this, you and Teris are free to go. Until I next require you that is.”

“Nozel and Fuegoleon?” Teris questioned.

“Your beloved cousin and your Intended will be set free as well.” Alowishus said.

“Last time we faced a vault containing something having to do with Yurist and Chaos the doors snapped shut behind us and didn’t reopen till someone from the outside did so.” Yami said.

“That won’t be an issue.” Alowishus said.

“Why? Got a tracking charm on you that you’ll leave where you’re standing so the Spatial Mage with Bronn’s hands can portal here and open the doors when we’re done?” Yami asked.

“Clever. But no.” Alowishus told.

“Then what’s your plan for getting us out of there?” Teris questioned.

“Me.” Alowishus said.

“You?” Teris stared.

Alowishus’ expression darkened. “Even if you don’t trust me. Trust that I don’t want to be in that vault room any longer than necessary.”

Alowishus turned and looked at the vault doors. Excited as he was to once again see and this time receive the Future of Chaos, he wondered if his grandfather’s work would have him. And if added to his grimoire, what, if anything, the page of Chaos would show him.

96.3

Nozel’s eyes slowly opened. Even with the pain, thirst, hunger, and fatigue muddling his senses; he could feel a swell of mana not too far from where they were.

Guilt washed over him. Not just for Teris agreeing to whatever Alowishus wanted for his and Fuegoleon’s sake; but for the terrible state the Crimson Lion was in.

During their questioning, the Agents of Chaos had taken to torturing the other in effort to get them to comply. The tactic had worked a lot quicker on Fuegoleon, who had caved, reluctantly answering their questions. Nozel’s will to protect Teris and ability to tune things out had seen him hold out longer. Their tormentors cutting into Fuegoleon’s flesh and magically tearing at his insides as Alowishus calmly waited for Nozel to answer.

Much as he wanted to, Nozel couldn’t fully lay the blame of this on Yami. Not when he and Fuegoleon were being used to make Teris comply with Alowishus Spade’s wishes. Not when even he had broke for Fuegoleon’s sake and answered the mans questions. He tried to recall what those questions had been but currently couldn’t.

His still good eye, the other swollen shut, turned in the direction of the swelling mana. The direction Alowishus had taken Teris and Yami in. He hoped Teris was alright, and silently swore he’d kill Yami if the man let anything happen to her.

Still unconscious, Fuegoleon’s shallow breath rattled in his chest. The Crimson Lion was fading. Yami and Teris needed to hurry.

96.4

Yami’s head snapped up, sensing a rise in Alowishus’ mana.

Teris turned to the man as well, tone accusatory. “The peak of the new moon has a similar effect as the solstice does for us.”

“Not the peak of the new moon. The moment right before. When it is at its darkest. The height of the moons death, if you will.” Alowishus gestured to the closed vault doors. “After you.”

“Never been in a labyrinth where the vault doors didn’t open. Do we just bust in?” Yami asked.

Teris shook her head. “There’s magic holding the doors closed. If we try to force it, the reaction could be similar to our magic when it clashes.”

Yami looked up. “Under three hundred some odd meters of earth and stone. I don’t like our chances of surviving that.”

Teris turned to Alowishus. “The labyrinth’s not active. There is no way we can open the vault doors.”

“You disappoint me. Unless you’re hoping I’m that stupid.”

Teris’ mouth opened, but Alowishus continued on.

“I assure you. I didn’t go through all this trouble without being certain there was a way to open a sleeping labyrinths vault room.”

“Then do it.” Teris said.

“Now that does make me certain you know better. Did you forget the rules regarding your friends up top? Think you could see me dead by tricking me and light travel to them before my followers kill them?” Alowishus’ eyes darkened. “Open it up.”

“The mana you gave me— I doubt it’ll recognize it as mine.” Teris said.

“Then we will just have to hope your system was able to assimilate enough of it for the labyrinth to recognize it is you.” Alowishus said.

“What’s that?” Yami asked, looking between them.

Frowning at Alowishus, Teris explained. “If what Yurist wrote is true. Then our mana should be able to open the doors.”

“So why can’t he do that?” Yami asked.

Teris stepped before the doors. “Shall we.”

Yami scowled. “I asked you a question.”

“Leon and Nozel don’t have much time.” Teris told.

Yami stared a moment. Something was off. He didn’t like how Teris didn’t answer him. How she wouldn’t even look at him, staring straight at the door. But she was right. Braid Face and Lion Cub were in bad shape. They didn’t have much time.

Heaving a sigh, Yami tilted his head side to side, stretching his neck. “How much mana are we giving to open up this thing?”

Teris swallowed, nervously. “As much as it needs in order to recognize us as us.”

Yami did the same as Teris and placed his palm on the door. He slowly loosened his hold on his mana. Even a couple paces from Teris and in direct contact with the object he was letting his mana seep into, it was a struggle to keep it from veering to connect with hers.

A pressure beneath his hand built as if something other than the door was stretching out, making contact with him. It apparently approved, as it stopped taking in his mana forcing Yami to pull back on the eased harness of it least his lose control and his mana connect with Teris’.

Yami turned to Teris surprised she wasn’t done as she had started before him. He stepped to her. A prickle of foreboding tickling the back of his neck. “Teris?”

Watching Teris with interest, Alowishus warned. “I wouldn’t touch her.”

Yami spun to the man, temper and worry rising. “What’s happening?”

“It’s trying to decide if it’s really her.” Alowishus said.

“What do you mean, if it’s her? Of course it’s her.”

“Did you forget? I gave her a portion of my mana.” Alowishus said.

Yami’s muscles tensed, concern tipping into fear. His jaw clenched, understanding what Teris and Alowishus had been talking about. Understanding why she had avoided answering and had refused to look at him.

“I’m confidant her system has been able to assimilate enough of my mana and make it her own by now.” Alowishus eased.

“Bastard! I’ll kill you!” Yami stepped toward Alowishus, katana cloaked in darkness.

“Do you really wish to be the death of Teris’ beloved friends when you are so close to seeing them and yourselves go free? Or was this your secret plan all along? To lash out at me and get her Intended out of the way. Permanently.”

Katana raised to send a slash of darkness, Yami paused.

Alowishus lifted a shoulder, smirking. “I can’t say I blame you. You face enough trails with me and my plans as it is. It would undoubtedly be a relief not to have to deal with the mess of having to fight in order to make Teris yours. You know I could just activate the charm. We could finish up here and return to the top. It’ll simply appear to Teris as if they succumbed to their injuries. It will be our secret. She need never know.”

Yami glared. The cloak of darkness disappeared from his blade. “No.”

“I could send message for only Nozel to be put down.” Alowishus tempted. “Fuegoleon, if he still lives, isn’t the problem after all.”

“I said, no.” Yami growled. He sheathed his katana.

Teris fell to her knees.

Yami turned back and knelt beside her. “I got you. You alright?”

“Yeah.” Teris breathed.

Yami brushed her hair back noting how pale and feverish she was. “When we get outta here you and I are gonna talk about the chance you took without telling me.”

“Had to—for Nozel and Leon.” Teris panted, trembling hand wiping her sweat drenched brow.

Looking down at them, Alowishus felt a pang of disappointment that Yami hadn’t taken him up on his offer. Maybe it was merely because Death had helped create Darkness; but there was something about Yami that made him want to win the young man over.

Alowishus stepped in front of the opening vault doors. “Up. We still got our prize to receive.”

Ignoring the man, Yami asked Teris. “Can you stand?”

Still out of breath, Teris merely nodded.

Yami hooked her arm around his neck and wrapped his arm around her waist. Easily bearing most of her weight, he lifted her to her feet with him as he stood. “Let’s get this over with.”

They stepped into the vault with Alowishus. Yami and Teris looked at each other, puzzled when they weren’t congratulated by the same Crazy Happy Killer Voice that had greeted them when they received the History of Chaos.

If the labyrinths were created by the same person. Even if that person wasn’t Yurist himself. Then surely things would be similar. The doors and interior of the vault were almost identical.

At least this vault didn’t have bodies in various stages of decay, Teris morbidly thought.

Alowishus seemed to realize something was wrong as well. Mana flaring, the Master of the Agents of Chaos released a roar of fury. The chamber they were in shook around them. Dirt and stone raining down.

Yami held Teris tight, creating a shielding cocoon of blackness. “Get us out of here!”

Teris would’ve done so but for one thing. Her concern for Nozel and Fuegoleon’s lives. Alowishus still held that charm.

“Now!” Yami gritted, dark cocoon straining against the weight of the crumbling labyrinth.

Teris light traveled them to where they had last seen Fuegoleon and Nozel.

“Get away from them!” Alowishus ordered his people when they made to move against Yami and Teris.

Teris spun around. Yami’s shield dropped,

Teris’ hand lifted on instinct. She sent out a burst of incinerating light only for it to dim and slow as soon as if left her. Slowed as it was, it was still faster than most magical attacks.

Caught by surprised, Alowishus didn’t get a chance to move. The attack struck him in the chest. There was a moment of stillness as everyone stared.

Alowishus and Teris blinked at one another. They both knew he had been undefended and her direct hit should have instantly killed him.

Rage still consuming him, Alowishus counted this as one thing going his way this night. “It would seem your system hasn’t assimilated enough of my mana for it to harm me. Better luck next time.” He saw Yami reach for his katana and ordered. “Misandre. Quickly now.”

Alowishus didn’t wait around long enough to see if Misandre was able to portal his followers out in time. Breaking apart, he disintegrated into the earth.

Katana cloaking in darkness even as he unsheathed it from its scabbard, Yami sent out a several dark slashes. He cursed, knowing before they cut down the trees beyond that he was too slow. Alowishus and the Agents of Chaos were gone.

Yami turned to Fuegoleon and Nozel. With a swipe of his blade, he cut the Silver Eagle and Crimson Lion free. Hoping Alowishus' foreign mana wouldn’t adversely effect her light traveling Fuegoleon and Nozel, Teris took the four of them to Healers Hall.

96.5

Alowishus’ anger had barely calmed. Storming into his private office, he slammed the door behind him and made for the shelf behind his desk, picking up his father's skull.

“Your lied!” Alowishus roared, gripping the skull in both hands.

“I told you, your efforts would be futile.” A voice resonated in his head.

Alowishus shook the skull, not hearing the dead mans words. “The Future of Chaos was not there!”

“The Future of Chaos is not for you.” The voice of the skull sounded in his mind.

“I had a plan to work around that. It was faultless.” Alowishus snapped.

“Apparently not.” The voice said.

“You placed grandfathers work back inside labyrinth 297,353 after you retrieved it, putting special protections in place to keep me out.” Alowishus said.

“You mean after I took back what you stole?” The voice of Erin Spade questioned.

Alowishus snarled, grip tightening. “I had it in my grasp and you took it. Stole it.”

“You stole it first.”

Alowishus slammedthe skull down and turned away. He had barely been able to delve into the unfathomable knowledge that was the Future of Chaos before his father had ripped it from his grasp. He had been sure his father had placed the page back in labyrinth 297,353 for Yami and Teris to eventually find; certainthat his father had merely set barriers to block his re-entrance, since he had been unable to enter again until tonight.

“You placed grandfathers work back inside labyrinth 297,353 after you retrieved it.” Alowishus said, again.

“Did I?” His father's voice sounded in his mind.

“You moved the Future of Chaos to another location!”

“You moved it first when you stole it.”

“You changed the future Yurist saw. You ruined Yami and Teris’ destiny to have the Future of Chaos.” Alowishus accused.

“More thanlikely, I kept theprophecy concerning the Future of Chaosin tact. While my father’s prophetic words could often be unclear. That one sentencewas quite clear. Findand receive. It could hardly be said those twofound the labyrinth, what with you setting upon them and forcing them to bend to yourwill and go down there. I have full confidence that Yami and Teris will find and receive my father’s final work, if they haven’t already.”

“What do you mean haven’t already?” Alowishus demanded.

“Destiny canonly be bent to your will so far before it snapsback to its own designs, Fin.”

Alowishus sneered at beingcalledby his first life's name. “I will have my way, Old Man. Yami and Teris will help me awaken Chaos and see to a finalend. I will get what I have worked sevenexistencesfor.”

“Good luck doing it without the Future of Chaos.” The voice taunted.

“You are useless and more infuriating every time I speak to you. I should ground your bones to dust and forget you ever lived.”

“I wish you would.” The skull of Erin Spade said.

“That would bring you too much joy. Finally finding your rest after all these years. No. You will not rest until I have my way.” Picking up the skull, Alowishus set it back on the shelf. “Till the death of the next moon, Old Man. Know that I won’t enjoy the three nights of your company anymore than you will mine.”

Comments are VERY MUCH appreciated and really make my day. Thank you to those who have left hearts. And a special THANK YOU to those who have recently commented or re-blogged. It really means a lot.

Next chapter snippet:

“He’s ill.” Jax said.

“How ill?” Marx asked.

“Deathly.” Yami rumbled.

#yami sukehiro #nozel silva #fuegoleon vermillion #julius novachrono #mereoleona vermillion #black clover #light in the darkness

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hannie-snyd · 3 years

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A SHITTY GAME OF THRONES INSPIRED FAN FICTION

Chapter 1 | Hollister Vitalis

(That could have been written twenty years ago and no one would have known the difference... basically the Walmart version of Game of Thrones)

My wife and I had been fighting non stop about the fact that I was an assassin for King Leonidas Aurelius, because with assassination came so many unknowns for our children. For her children. She only considered them my children when it was convenient for her. She only considered me her husband when it was convenient for her. We were in an arranged marriage and the two of us had a rivalry and a hatred like no other. It was perfect when no one would talk to me about this. It was perfect when no one would pay attention to my wife. I knew that she was a selfish and cold hearted woman who only married me when her father required me to. I knew that was the way this marriage happened. I was very ashamed. I was very thoughtful of these people; I was very thoughtful of the people in my country who were in marriages that they loved.

My brother-in-law the king was the exact opposite of me with the exact opposite wife that I did. I was not jealous that he was married to my wife’s sister, but I was quite jealous that my brother-in-law The King had more love in his life than me when it was supposed to be the other way around. Seriously. That was the way things were supposed to be.

Things were not supposed to be like this. They were not supposed to be argumentative. I did not wan them to be argumentative. I just thought that they would be better if I was apart from my wife, and they were. They were a lot better when I did not have to talk to my wife, but I knew that honor was the most important thing to us. Honor was the most important thing to me. I knew that Leonidas shared my opinion on this. He very much did, because when he was starting to feel mentally ill, he had told me that he wanted to continue the line of succession by him. He was going to be able to if his son married my daughter, but the first thing that he did was make me an assassin. The first thing he did five years ago was to tell me that I needed to kill people for him. Trust me, it worked. It worked so well for the two of us and I loved being able to kill people for the good of Riggs. Riggs needed some good in it and this was the exact way that things like this were supposed to happen. I looked back at my wife as she started to run her mouth again.

“I do not want you to go to the king. I know that you think Mahaelia will allow you to have more power in this marriage with Landon, but I do not trust Leonidas. I never have, and I do not want him near my daughter. I do not want my daughter to be one of the people who Landon has a relationship with. I know this is about honor, and-”

“It is about honor,” I turned towards her. She should have known that by now. She should have known that this was all about honor for me and the only thing I wanted to do was leave. The only thing I wanted to do since she would scream at me and belittle me was leave. “This is all about honoring the King, and if I do not get to do that, then I do not get to do anything.” I looked up at her and she made a face. Griseldi was one of the women who never wanted to get married. That was the reason why she hated this marriage. She told me a long time ago that it was not me. It was not myself who she hated, but she hated the fact that her father was trying to get more power and therefore made me marry her. My mother was of agreement. I did not blame her. Now we had seven children together. “I need to keep our family safe. My family safe.” I turned away from her towards the fire.

I needed to save the King, Leonidas Aurelius, from death and the only way that I could do that was to be the one to hold his hand. I did not want to hold his hand. I knew that his wife was better than mine. She was a whole world better than mine, but she was also too soft and sweet for him. Perhaps he should have gotten Griseldi and I should have gotten Grenelda, but that would mess up everything. I needed to save him from being recognized as mentally ill and the things that he did were good for the kingdom. Because of him, we were not in a war with the other evil countries outside of Riggs. Because of him, we were not in a war with the people who we thought were so evil. He and I had to fight in this war. So did Griseldi and Grenelda. That was how we met. I looked back at her when she cleared her throat. Her hands were on her hips and she narrowed her eyes.

“Your family? This is my family as much as it is yours. Just because I don’t want them does not mean that they are any less mine. I birthed them. I birthed Mahaelia, so if you want to think about how horrible of a mother I am then you can ask her.” She did not even want our youngest daughter to be with us. She did not even breastfeed her, but that was not the only way she treated them poorly. I could not stand this woman, and when I could, she would do something that would make me feel horrible about not annulling her from my marriage. I did not want to divorce her; if I did, I would never forgive myself. I did believe in divorce, but only for some of the reasons that the Gods would have allowed me to be believe in. I wanted to be a little bit more cautious of this.

I knew that she birthed them. I also knew that I was the only one that made them feel like they belonged in this family. I was the only one who made them feel like she was a mother at all. Mahaelia knew that her mother did not care about her. She knew that her mother did not want to take care of her, and that was the thing that hurt the most. My children did not even want to be part of their mother’s life. The babies would not feel the pain, but I knew that the three or maybe even four oldest children would know what happened. They would know how badly they were hated by their mother. I knew that the baby was going to know the most. I knew that some of my children knew I was an assassin, though, and I was not ashamed.

We both had things in this world that we wished we did not have to do. We both had things in this marriage that we wished we did not have to do. I knew that our seven children would know that their mother hated them. I knew, though, that Mahaelia would probably like this marriage that I had been preparing and arranging for her. I had been arranging this marriage for her and when I did, I wanted this to be the thing that she remembered. I wanted her marriage to be successful. Not only was she married to the prince of Riggs, but they got along very well. I knew that one of the reasons why my marriage with Griseldi was not that successful was that she and I were not familiar with one another. I knew that Mahaelia was younger than Landon, though.

“I know that you birthed them, but you cannot treat them like they are the spawns of darkness. They are children. Your daughter will be taken care of. I know this because I will be there. I know that you will not miss her, and I do not expect you to miss her. I do not expect you to think that anything I am doing is right.”

She did not reach across the bed to touch my hand. She would not allow for physical contact unless it was time for her to want another child. She would pray about this constantly, and I would have to perform if she wanted me to, but most of the time I did not. I knew that she had a lot of things on her mind right now. She never agreed with me being an assassin. She never agreed with me being friends with Leonidas Aurelius. I looked back at her and she smirked at me as if this was a joke. Was this funny to her? Was any of this funny to her? I looked back at her when the two of us laughed. It was not about the same thing.

Even though she was evil, she was the most attractive woman I could have ever met. Even though she was evil, she was the most honest woman I could have ever met. I knew that she had a lot of flaws. I would have traded those flaws for someone else. I just looked at her face and I knew she was going to follow me.

“Are you going to follow me to the castle? You don’t have to. I will keep her safe. I will keep your heir from dying.” I was packing my things in trunks and these trunks were full of my things. I had to make sure that Mahaelia was going to be able to fit her things in these trunks. As the second most powerful man in all of Riggs, I had a job to do. Well, I had two jobs to do. I had to protect the King from death, and I had to make sure that my daughter and his son got married. He had not actually disclosed that it would be Landon.

It might have been one of his cousins’ children or one of his cousins. I did not know what to expect out of the King. He and I had spent a lot of time talking about the arranged marriage. He had even paid for her dowry, but I did not know what this would be like. I did not know what this would be for. I did not know what this marriage would bring for her. Hopefully, it would bring her happiness unlike my own marriage. I looked back at her when she nodded.

“I want to make sure that my heir is cared for and I want to make sure that my heir is safe. I want to make sure that she is not marrying for hatred like the two of us.” She looked back up at me and she walked away from me when I packed the last thing in her trunk. “I will follow her. I will follow you, but not because I love you or her. I just want to make sure that your honor does not lead to my lack of honor being destroyed.”

#chapter one #first chapter #fanfiction #game of thrones fanfiction #grrm fan fiction #a song of ice and fire #full story on wattpad #wattpad novel

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buttsonthebeach · 5 years

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For the director’s commentary thing: The entire Ch 15 of Reckoning. The juxtaposition during Solas’ lead up to having to go back to the roll of Fen’Harel got me so emotional. The contrast between hating/loving the power and detachment that comes with what much be done. I’d love to know more about what you feel his thought process would be after the events, the temptation of just existing neutrally after unleashing so much hell on these asshats. It’s awesome, please give me more!

AHH yes this is a good one!! Thank you for this ask! Commentary below the cut!

I do have to start with Ellana, because rereading this opening had me laughing:

Ellana was certain that war was mostly paperwork.

Paperwork, and a worry that gnawed its way into her bones. A burrowing insect like the kind that destroyed aravels and trees. Tiny and unstoppable and devastating.

If her time as Inquisitor started to convince her of these things, her time as High Commander of Enasan only solidified it.

(High Commander was a stupid title, and she hated it, but she also understood its political necessity. She outranked all of the field commanders, but while her role was primarily political, she was not royalty. Enasan was a republic. She'd lobbied to be called regent, but was overruled.

"Regent makes it sound like you are waiting for something," Arlanal pointed out. "Like you are waiting to step aside."

I am , Ellana thought.)

But while her time as Inquisitor had at least featured long stretches in the field, where she could loose her frustration and fear through her arrows, this war had been nothing but talk for her. Aside from that initial foray to the mountain pass where the first true battle of the war took place, she had not been in the field for more than an hour or so at a time. And even those forays were spent at a distance from the fighting, watching through a spyglass. And they were blisteringly quick visits. Ellana never thought she would dislike the Crossroads, but she hated how quickly she would go from her office in the capital to some outpost or fortification or battlefield. At least when she was Inquisitor she had the leisure of those long rides, or hikes, just her and her companions, where she could shed as many of the layers of her title as she dared.

Now there was no reprieve.

This whole fic was an exercise in “how far can I push my characters out of their element” in a lot of ways, and I think this is probably one of the clearest moments where you see that for poor Ellana. I also have to say that her internal commentary on the title High Commander is a direct nod to me figuring out what her title would be, since President sounds far too modern, but it still couldn’t be a title associated with royalty. I started with “Commander in Chief” and then worked back to something that sounded more fantastical.

(Also, poor Ellana, trying to wriggle her way out of every title she has ever been given. That’s why I bring it back in the epilogue, and say that the titles Mamae, vhenan, Hahren Ellana, and Mamaela are the only ones she truly accepts)

Once I established the idea of paperwork, of how different this war was from the other wars Ellana fought in, how helpless she feels, I could keep coming back to that idea to build up the sense of tension within her, as I did right before she blows up at Solas:

She’d flung the paper but it was not an arrow. It did not fly straight and true. It did not give her the physical release of her bow. The physical release that had been lost to her for two decades and more. The sense that she could fight. That she could pick up a weapon and do something about the dangers that surrounded good people, people who did not deserve it. That she could protect people.

Now all she had was another stupid title, and paperwork.

Then I had to make sure that she was so tunnel-visioned on all of those issues that she wasn’t paying attention to any of Solas’s more subtle cues that he is also suffering under their personal helplessness. Ellana is usually very attuned to the emotions of other people, and Solas by this point is usually far more open with her, so it was interesting to write those short little exchanges where she comes in, vents, and he only has two or three words for her, and she isn’t thinking straight enough to understand why that is. It was so important to me to show that even a good marriage, even one that has lasted a long time, still has failures in communication.

I’m also following a very typical writer’s trick that I learned in my upper level fiction class in college, which is to do things in threes to get maximum impact, which is why we get three snippets of Ellana venting and frustrated and Solas seemingly unaffected before we hit the scene where she finally loses her temper:

Solas snorted. “Would you be served by my anger?”

She wanted to strangle him.

“At least I would not feel alone in my anger if you seemed to feel - something!”

But as she said the words, she turned, and saw his face, and it was the face of the man she loved. And it was raw with pain and rage.

“I would think that you, of all people, would know not to accuse me of having no feelings just because I am hiding them.” His words had an edge she hadn’t heard in - gods, in years.

She was a fool. A temperamental fool, no better than the squabbling youth who’d been hauled before her Keeper for picking fights with other youths who picked on her for the darkness of her skin.

Ellana’s temper is something we see less and less of as she gets older in the series, and it was also important to me to point out that as she is subjected to this immense pressure and helplessness, she’s going to start resorting to behaviors she used in the past, even as far back as her childhood.

I also did my best to show that Solas is cracking here through how I wrote his dialogue - he ordinarily speaks very smoothly, in long, well-thought out sentences, but here I broke up his thoughts frequently, showing his agitation:

“You hand me papers like the one you handed me tonight,” he did not look at her as he said it, but she winced at his choice of words. As she always was, she was embarrassed by her loss of temper already. “And I see the number of the People we lost, and I think of how many I could have saved with a single spell. I am not all that I once was, but I am not helpless, and yet this war has made me feel only that. And yet none of this is your problem, and so I should bear it, and see this through - but - vhenan - if we lose this war - if we lose our daughter - while I sat by and did nothing -”

He’d turned back to face her as he said the last of those words, and there was no mask at all anymore. There was only her bondmate, as sad and lost and angry as she was. Her frustration with him loosened more. She was not as alone as she thought. Solas did not have the paperwork (the fucking paperwork ) or the responsibilities she did. But he carried the same helplessness. They were together in that. She stepped close to him, and pulled him down, and kissed him hard.

"Let's go," she said when they parted. "And let's stop being helpless."

And at the end of the section we get one more repetition of paperwork as the symbol of everything Ellana hates - I didn’t count, but I think that is also the third one, tying back in to that rule of threes - and oh my god I just realized that I themed this entire chapter around the word helpless as well which ties directly back to The World Turned Upside Down and Ellana’s role as Eliza. Wow. I didn’t even realize I was doing that.

As far as the next scene goes, where we switch to Solas’s POV, I was drawing on two main things - the idea of Solas as a weapon, which it seems like he was to Mythal, and which Ellana is now seeing him as, and the scene from 300 where Gorgo sends Leonidas to Thermopylae with the words “come back with your shield, or on it.” I always loved that scene because you can see the love in their eyes, but neither of them can acknowledge it physically or verbally, because they are political leaders, and because it’s not actually what Leonidas needs in that moment. He needs to be treated like another Spartan.

That’s how we got to this line:

“Come back to me,” she said, her voice quiet but her tone firm as steel. “That’s an order, Dread Wolf.”

And Solas, smart cookie that he is, does not miss what she really means here:

For more than twenty years now he had been the peacemaker, the partner, the father, the scholar. But Ellana had not called him vhenan, or even Solas , as he left. Ashara was not there to call him Papae . No. Ellana had called him Dread Wolf. And that was who he would be today. He would again where the mask of Fen’Harel, He Who Hunts Alone, the Bringer of Nightmares. Because that was what his people needed of him once again.

It felt better than he wanted to admit.

In terms of tension building, we get several more instances of the rule of three here - first with three times that the altar to Mythal has mattered in this series: Flemeth showing up in DA:I, shattering the last of Ellana’s faith in the gods, Solas and Flemeth meeting at the end of DA:I, and then Solas and Ellana meeting there during Body of Knowledge when she has considered leaving him. Then we get another repetition of three with one of my favorite headcanons/pieces of Solas meta, which is that Solas’s life is shaped by three women in this series: Mythal, Ellana, and Ashara.

Then we get three repetitions of the phrase “Go. Hunt. It is time for justice,” with the final repetition catching even Solas off guard, as he says he thinks the last word might actually have been vengeance. That ties into a great piece of meta we’ve heard about Mythal - that while she did once represent justice, she may have been corrupted over the millennia into vengeance.

I relied on all three of those repetitions, each of which is also somehow related to three, to build and then release the tension of Solas finally arriving at Shalasan and unleashing hell. Of course, we’re also relying on several things I’ve set up throughout the fic and even back into the previous fic - like how Solas knows it is not really Mythal within him, just as it is not really Falon’Din within Ashara - but on a sentence level, those were the tools I relied on to make that scene happen.

I also have to shout out my two deliberate Hamilton references here, for fun: “You cannot be everywhere at once, Dread Wolf” and “Why are you telling me this?”. I am a sucker for sneaking them in everywhere :)

Oh man, I missed the second part of what you asked! In terms of his thought process after, I think Ashara is the thing that immediately grounds him and reminds him he can’t give into this side of himself totally. That’s why it was important to me that she is the first person who goes and sees him, that he leans on her just as much as she leans on him in that moment. He can risk the rest of the world seeing him as a monster, but he can’t risk his daughter seeing him that way, so he always has to come back.

Thank you for the ask!!! it was such fun to go back through that chapter.

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quillreflections · 4 years

Text

Title: How The Mighty Fall

Chapter: 2

Series: Bakugan New Vestroia

Pairing: multiple boys/reader

"Ability card, activate! Alpha Blaster!"

As you load the card into your gauntlet, Leonidas rears his head back, gathering energy in his sharp-toothed maw. As he does so, his G-power climbs; when he roars, launching the sparkling energy beam, the force sends you and Baron both skidding backwards several feet. The beam pierces Nemus, reverting the other Bakugan to its sphere form. The battle was over.

After picking up Nemus, Baron stands silently; it looks like he's just staring at the ground, but you can't see his eyes.

You step forward hesitantly. "Baron? Hey, don't worry about it-"

"Miss [Name], that was incredible!" Baron's head shoots up; his sparkling eyes meet yours and, as you step closer, he grabs your hands in his much larger ones. "You're a complete master of Haos Bakugan! Please teach me to be like you!"

You blush from the intensity of both his compliments and his gaze. "Baron- it's just a difference in experience. I've had a few years to gather strong cards and plan strategies. I'm not that great, I've just been doing it longer."

He nods, listening intently; from the direction of the mobile headquarters, someone begins snarking.

"You gonna let go of her, Baron, or are the two of you married now?"

Baron drops your hands as quickly as if he'd been in pain. Shun slinks out of the cab, where he'd been monitoring and analyzing your practice battles. "Baron, you get shaken too easily. The main things you need to work on are focus and adaptability."

You blankly nod along as Shun instructs the younger brawler at your side. Your gaze begins to wander.

The small Resistance group had taken a break from crossing the Vestroia desert; the sand and rock formations seemed to stretch out into eternity, and it was getting difficult to believe you were any closer to Alpha City. For the past several days, you'd all been discussing and bickering on how to approach the situation- a break to blow off some steam in battle was well-needed.

". . . are you listening?"

"Hey, Vestroia to [Name]!"

Their voices snap you out of your daze, and you smile sheepishly at your friends. Shun frowns down at you, but it doesn't reach his eyes- he's very used to your behavior.

"Sorry, I was thinking. One more time?"

Shun turns to walk back to the mobile headquarters, motioning for you and Baron to follow him out of the smothering heat. "I was saying, [Name]- you're getting incredibly predictable."

"And what, Dan using only Drago isn't?"

Baron snorts, but Shun silences him with a glance. As you all step into the cab, Baron scrambles off to his room, but you and Shun take a seat. He continues.

"We're lucky the Vexos haven't seen you in action yet; if you don't change up your style, they'll be able to steamroll you in an instant."

You sigh. Curled up on your shoulder, Leonidas hums thoughtfully. Shun studies you both closely.

"Mira, Ace and I have been going over schematics." He turns in his seat, pressing a button on the dashboard to project the map of Alpha City for you to see. "Once we infiltrate the city, we'll more than likely have to split up. I'm-" he hesitates, "I worry about leaving you to your own devices. I know full well you can take care of yourself for a bit, but the Vexos are. . . different." He stares intently at the floor.

You smile at him through the glowing map sphere. "I appreciate the concern, Shun- if it would make you more comfortable, Leo and I can always hold down the fort here."

Shun cocked his head to the side, his dark hair brushing against his chin, gears clearly turning behind his deep brown eyes. "We'll have to make that choice when we get there."

☆☆☆

The chilled air flows through the slit window, rustling your hair and displacing the smoke in your lungs. You take a deep breath.

The kitchen is a bit small for the amount of people you've gotta feed; it's also very obviously never used. The fridge was nearly empty except for some instant meals and what looked like vegetables. The cabinets were equally bare- you'd had to scrape all sorts of things together just to feed your ragtag group tonight. How could these people live like this?! You'd have to raid a grocery store when you got to Alpha City.

You switch off the stove and move the pan to the back burner, stirring a few more times to make sure the sauce didn't burn. With a sigh, you shove the window open the rest of the way, airing out the tiny room and wondering how likely it was that the smoke would give away the Resistance's location.

The door slides open without warning. Mira cautiously steps in; she looks out of place in her pristine uniform, her eyes watering at the scent of spices in the air.

"Heya! Dinner's almost ready!" You chirp at her, dipping a spoon into the pot of rice to check how well it's cooked.

Mira smiles a bit awkwardly at you. "It smells good! I didn't even know we had anything back here." She hesitantly leans against one ofthe few empty spots on the counter.

You flit about the cramped room for several more minutes, chopping the ends of the alien veggies, hoping that whatever this meat is will go well with everything. Mira's eyes follow your every move.

Eventually you can set your cooking utensils down. Stove off. Dinner is ready. Outside, the sun has set, and unfamiliar constellations have faded into view. You turn to face Mira.

"So, something I can help you with?"

She blinks as if coming out of a trance, averting her gaze from yours. "[Name], I just wanted to. . ." she pauses, searching for the right words. ". . . how did you handle all those years ago?"

You tilt your head, thinking, giving her a bit more time. She continues awkwardly. "I've never had to lead before; I know I'm doing the right thing, but I don't know if I'm doing it the right way. So, girl to girl, how did you-" her eyes are pleading.

You take a moment before responding.

"Well- first off, we had conviction. It looks like y'all already have that part down." You nod towards the door, knowing Ace and Baron are in their rooms. "Like, yeah, teamwork is vital and all, but it was our conviction that held us together to begin with. Y'know the Brawlers crashed with each other almost as much as with Naga and his cronies?" Mira frowns in disbelief. "In the end, though, we all deeply believed in the same thing. The teamwork fell into place because of that."

Mira nods, clearly taking mental notes. You grab a hand towel and absently begin to clean the countertop as you reminisce aloud.

"It wasn't too difficult for me, sticking around, because Dan and I have known each other a long time. But. . . it was when he finally matured enough to listen to everyone, not just me. That's when I knew we'd be okay."

You examine her again with a smile as you turn to get dishes from the cabinets. "I guess what I'm saying is, the best way to handle this would be to lean on your team. Don't try to carry the world on your own, yeah?"

Mira nods curtly. It's faint, but you're sure there's a bit of a blush on her tanned face. "Thanks, [Name]."

She won't meet your eyes.

☆☆☆

Several days later, the entirety of the Resistance- all seven of you- had arranged in the cab, some of you watching the overwhelming plant life pass your windows, others grimly focused on the 3D map, eyeing the approaching target.

Mira swiveled in her seat to face everyone. "Alright, Brawlers. We're almost to Alpha City, the location of the first dimension controller." She nods in the direction of your Ventus brawler. "Shun has found a way in. Mobile Vestal cities are domed, both for protection and ease of transport. It may be different from what humans are used to, so stay close."

From his position in the pilot's seat, Ace aggressively hits buttons and flips switches, parking the rolling machine among a grove and turning to Mira.

"We're ready."

#how the mighty fall #bakugan #new vestroia

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written-by-ti · 6 years

Text

Chapter 1 (Present day)

A glowing red gaze stared intently at a clock. The pendulum swung back and forth, making a soft tic tic tic rhythm. The beast that was staring at the clock, began to sway his head back and forth in sync with the pendulum. Slowly the hands moved, coming closer and closer the next hour.

The beast had fluffy fur at the top to his chest, a stone blue and beckoned to be touched and petted (despite the creature hating to be touched.) Beneath the thick blue fur was shorter black fur. It was slick and well kept. He had razor sharp claws that could retract, but it seemed he always had them out. And his head resembled a skull almost, a orange hue to it, upon closer inspection, the 'mask' had fuzz on it, velvet to the touch. And on top, the beast had two antlers that were black. And finally, the beast had a long bushy tail, coming in dark and light colors.

“Florence? FLORENCE where are you!?” A female voice yelled. Florence was too entranced by the clock that he didn't answer. In the door way, a small woman in black robes came wandering in. “There you are, I have been looking everywhere for you! Why the library?” she questioned the beast.

Finally Florence tore his attention away from the hypnotizing clock and looked to the girl. She seemed pretty ordinary, wasn't even a reaper. Florence has never seen her, and assumed she was the offspring of a reaper and a humanoid. She didn't have that reaper scent.

“What is it?” he asked, his crimson gaze staring at the girl. He turned his head back to the clock for a second while he waited for a reply, then looked back at her.

“One of the elites want you. His name was Zek, I think. Said something about your next assignment,” the nameless girl answered finally. “That is all.” She spun around on her heels and left the room

Zek... Zek... he didn't find the name familiar. He sighed and then got up, turning away from the clock and headed out of the room. The outside was quite different to other worlds. The Realm had a blood red sky, and then black clouds, the night time is a indigo. As for the moon and sun, the sun was pure white, the moon was pure black (when clouds were around, it was hard to see. Nor did it emit light, just darkness.)

When Florence reached outside, he stretched his limbs, and then he grew in size. Going from a rather large human height, to a towering one, one that was nearly the size of a one story building.

“I hate shrinking. Damn the rules and not just buying bigger houses. But nooo that's against the rules because small ones couldn't get bigger!” Florence complained under his breath as he went down the path. He was the only person there in the area. The Realm was endless. Which made finding this Zek character nearly impossible if he wasn't an elite.

Florence knew he could just go to the castle in the valley and find him. He was going to do just that. He held out his paws and blinked, a pole began to materialize into his clutches, then a blade at the end. It had a black and red pattern, like most reapers had with their scythe. And with it, Florence slashed the air in front of him, tearing open a portal to the castle. He quickly stepped through, entering him in a beautiful green valley. Reds, blues, yellows, purples complimented the green, a variety of flowers.

All reapers could make portals, and some hybrids if they were lucky. Florence was glad he was a death reaper, but at times, he wasn't happy. All deaths were forced into the job, if they refused, their life would be within a dungeon until they changed their mind. Florence hated that system, it was cruel, and it made death reapers have no freedom really. Now they had to hit this crazy high number of souls to retire and do whatever they wished.

The reaper headed down the neat path and to the gates. The castle was huge, and he envied the elites that lived in the castle. It was fit to their favors. He wouldn't even need to shrink to enter.

He gently nudged the gate open and stepped through. This place always seemed dull, nothing much happened as he could see. Everything just talked and did paper work. Being an elite was borning he had concluded long ago.

The behemoth entered the castle and went to the small desk. There was a bored looking fluffy serpent at the desk. But when she saw Florence, she tried to get busy.

“How can I help you?” she asked in a rather high pitched voice. Florence almost laughed, she kind of sounded like a squeak toy talking.

“I am here to see Zek? About my next orders?” Florence said. It's been quite a few years since he's been on a new order. It'd keep him busy. He did wonder who would be on his team, would it be just him? A solo mission? Or maybe a squad? All he knew is that he hoped for a solo. His last team wasn't exactly great. He picked up all their slack (more souls for him) and had one team member constantly try to fight him. He had a feeling he wanted to show off in front of the only girl on the team, and Florence was seniority and one of the stronger Death Reapers.

“One moment please,” the serpent suddenly squeaked, causing Florence to snort and then cough. The lady gave him a glare and made a call. Then she began squeaking away into the phone. Florence clamped his mouth shut, but laughter left his nose. He didn't know why it was so funny, but it just was. He imagined picking her up and squeezing her to make her squeak.

“Pfffft,” he wheezed out and then got a hold of himself. Luckily, the girl was too busy on the phone to hear him fail at containing his laughter (or so he hoped.)

She placed away the phone and looked up at him, “He will be right with you. Please take a seat over there,” she said, nodding to the wait area.

“Okay Miss Squeaks,” Florence replied and just realized what he called her. He made a bee line for the waiting room, hearing hissing behind him. He felt horrible for calling her that. But he couldn't help it.

What he loved about the seating area, is they had a variety of chairs. Your average reaper didn't go over fifteen feet. And the smallest didn't go under four feet. So they had different sized chairs in the castle, some for the biggest, some for the smallest. He sat down in one of the large chairs and melted into the cushion.

His gaze flicked up the the TV screen, showing some cartoon. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was some little kid battling a demon. That's what he made out.

Around an hour of watching the weird show, someone of a medium size came out. Florence saw him out of the corner of his eyes and looked at him. It was a canine like beast with a horn on his nose, then two on his head.

“Are you Florence?” the large dog asked.

“Yeah that's me,” he replied. The reaper leaned in a little towards the dog man. He couldn't place on what type he was (then again, there was an unlimited amount of breeds when there were so many dimensions.) He wanted to say, hell hound.

“I am Zek. I will tell you where you will be going for your next duty. You will be working with three others,” he said and then motioned for Florence to follow.

He hopped off the couch and went after Zek, going to a giant office. The dog moved the chair out of the way and motioned for the behemoth to take a seat on the floor, which Florence did. The canine went on the other side and sat down on his own chair.

“You will be working on Earth Dimension D-Z-888. It's not your normal Earth, they have beings like us, animal like ones, and even dragons. The world is bigger than the average Earth, so you have a total of four in a group, including you. You four are in charge of Japan and Asia as left overs,” Zek informed the beast.

Florence nodded his massive head, indicating that he had listened. He knew what the left overs meant, it would mean other reapers would be there. And some could get nasty when you took their 'souls.'

“Who are my team?” Florence inquired.

“All large. There is Iris, she will be your leader. Her element is Surroundings. Then you have Leonidas, his element is actually opposite of yours! His is light. And lastly, we have Noche, her element is cosmos. Those are the three you will be with.”

Iris, he knew her. He saw her sometimes out in a flower shop when she was at home base. She seemed nice, not the annoying boss types. And if the rumors are correct, she once almost became an elite, but she didn't want to. Not only that, her element was highly dangerous to mortals. She would have made a great wipe out team (when a world killed a reaper, they would wipe out the race that was responsible.)

Leonidas... he never heard of him (he assumed it was a him) but Noche was another one he's heard of, however never saw. She was another powerful reaper, and even had the ability to grant people who weren't reapers, wishes with her ability 'wish upon a star.' But from what he also heard, she only used it on dying souls.

“Alright, I've heard about two of them, but not Leonidas. May I hear about him?” Florence questioned, leaning forward a little bit. His tail sweeping the floor behind him.

“Ah yes, one moment.” Zek spun around on his chair and slide over to a file cabinet. He picked out a folder and placed it on the desk, then rolled back and faced it. He opened it and scanned through the printed paper. Florence caught a glance of his picture, but only for a moment. It seemed this guy had a skull for a head with horns. With pink and purple fur.

“Leonidas is one that likes to take order. He takes his job seriously but is hot headed. He is lazy when he has his time off and plays... video games and looks at... may-mays on the internet? I don't know what that is...” he cleared his throat an continued, “He will send any hero to heaven, even if they've killed people. And will send any villain to hell. He plans to become a hero when he retires. That's the brief summary you have,” the canine finished and closed the folder.

Great, a hot headed guy who likes to take charge. He hoped that Iris would put him in his place if he acted up.

“What can I do if I don't get along with any of them? I mean, like fight? The last time I had one of my team mates constantly try to start something with me,” Florence shared with a frown. He didn't want THAT to happen again.

“You gotta suck it up. Just don't kill your team mate if you can kill them. It's life, you're not going to get along with every co worker,” Zek replied and looked at a few papers on his desk.

Florence bit his tongue, he was about to snap, but he decided against it. It wasn't worth it. His kept his temper in check, stood up, and left without a goodbye.

When a reaper was issued an order, it would have to be done within the week. Then he forgot to ask what time frame this Earth was. He's visited Earths that were in the prehistoric times, and then others that were futuristic, with hover cars and robots doing everything for them. Guess he would find out soon enough.

Florence opened up a portal and headed through, coming to a house that was a bit taller than him. The beast grumbled under his breath and shrank, then entered the house. He went straight to his room, and tore open a small portal. Then began cramming it full of stuff. Pocket dimensions were good for storing things. Able to grab it at any time.

He then went to his bed, taking out a small owl plush. It was gray and brown with a white face and belly. And the eyes would follow you. It was the only plush that he was found with. He didn't know if his mother or father left it with him before abandoning him (or maybe getting killed) but he cherished it.

“Well lil guy, ready to see a whole new world with me?” he asked the doll with a smile. He then gave it a snug hug and threw himself onto the bed. His tail sagging over the edge. Florence pulled up the blankets, and then fell to sleep nearly instantly.

Around three hours passed and Florence was back awake. He sat upright, the plush tumbling off of his chest, and he rubbed at his eyes. He looked around and saw he sky was changing to a brown. The sign it was time for night, or time for morning. He got up, grabbing the owl and putting it into the pocket dimension, and then closed it up.

Florence left his house and attuned his mental messaging to the Earth he was going for. The only other ones who would be on it, were his team mates. It was a way to communicate without talking, and from miles and miles away. He tested it by saying a quick hello, he was met by silence. Guess no one came here yet, he thought to himself.

The death manifested his scythe and tore open a portal again. When he opened it, he was thinking Japan. He'd wind up anywhere in Japan, but if he was lucky, he'd be outside of a place. But just in case, he activated his cloak and stepped through, venturing into Japan.

#chapter 1 #a deaths life

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gunnerpalace · 6 years

Text

Chen Guo x Ye Xiu Headcanons

(The manhua version of Chen Guo has the superior haircut, honestly.)

Some Possible Ship Contractions: CG/YX / YX/CG / YXCG / CGYX / GuoXiu / XiuGuo Some Possible Ship Nicknames: Coals in the Dark / One Winter's Night / Happy Ever After

I wrote this up with the copious help and input of @synoshian (Lies)!

I find Ye Xiu and Chen Guo interesting because that have a sort of tsundere thing going on with their sparks of annoyance—almost all of that comes from Chen Guo's end, because Ye Xiu is normally cool as a cucumber, but it's still there. Ye Xiu seems to be the person who most reliably pisses Chen Guo off, while at the same time never making her terminally angry or upset—meanwhile, he still inspires her to dare to dream and achieve. I've long felt that ships are kinda like planets in terms of how they work in that they need continuing sparks of interest to keep them hot and active; I feel these two definitely have that. (Chen Guo being flustered with and annoyed by Ye Xiu is rather cute too, as is the gradual fall of one of her idols into being a mere mortal.)

Even so, there's a certain respect between them. Although their "specialties" are very different (Ye Xiu’s skill at Glory, and Chen Guo’s skill at business and generally being an adult), they acknowledge each other as being good at what they do, if mostly tacitly. Chen Guo is also one of the relatively few people who really matches Ye Xiu in terms of having a love for Glory—as he put it to Sun Xiang in Chapter 1, she likes the game, and "treat[s] everything as glory and not boasting." The way in which she does so is different, but equally passionate.

There's also kind of an interesting... not necessarily tension, but dynamic, with Ye Xiu having a romantic life partner with whom he shares everything but the field of battle (since Ye Xiu's combat partner is always going to be Su Mucheng). This is especially neat (and sort of offset) since Chen Guo is herself a Su Mucheng fangirl (and they become best friends).

Likewise, there are some interesting expansion possibilities for how their ship evolves. After Ye Xiu eventually retires because of age, he can stay on as coach for Happy while Chen Guo stays as manager, or the two of them can diversify into other matters, or both. (Given Ye Xiu said to Ye Qiu that “This is why my dream will end at an early age. When that time comes, I’ll naturally come back because that place will forever be my home. And at my age, there’s still time for me to make a turn around at life,” it might be imagined he’s at least entertained ideas of moving away from the scene, if not leaving it entirely.)

As to their dynamics, they're complimentary. Although (at the start) Ye Xiu is 25, and Chen Guo is 27, she often acts younger than him because of how spirited she is, whereas he comes across as more mature in interpersonal matters. Conversely, she's far more adept at actually being a responsible adult than he is, given his monomaniacal focus on Glory. They have a certain comedic element to them.

You can imagine, in no particular order:

Chen Guo making dinner reservations somewhere that's upscale but not ridiculously fancy, and not minding that Ye Xiu doesn't dress up much even if she herself has. She'd get mad at anyone who called him out on it, but then would also finally get mad at him for not caring about it.

Ye Xiu taunting someone with something like "Wow, you really like to harp on about my shamelessness, don't you? Are you perhaps my girlfriend in disguise?" Everyone is confused, and Chen Guo has something else to be angry about.

Ye Xiu makes an obscure comment about her to the chat on QQ, like:

"Do you guys at Tyranny need a new manager? My girlfriend has the market cornered on being tyrannical."

Su Mucheng is instantly like, "I'm gonna tell Guo Guo."

"Mucheng, no," Ye Xiu says.

And she replies, "I'm gonna!"

"MUCHENG," Ye Xiu continues.

"Hehe... RIP," she counters.

(Or he mocks the fact that she's perennially a noob at Glory and not even at a good level of in-game skill, despite constantly encountering Gods, All-Stars, and pros.)

Soon enough, everyone reaches the conclusion that Ye Xiu is hella whipped and fears nothing but his girlfriend.

Su Mucheng leaves transcriptions of conversations she's overheard in the group chat.

Chen Guo often rats out weird or embarrassing things Ye Xiu has done to Su Mucheng and Tang Rou to get back at him, but does so strategically.

Even though Chen Guo is only two years older than Ye Xiu, he's constantly acting like she's a cougar. (I think the term for this is jiědì liàn, 姐弟恋?)

"You tempted my young and pure self... how do you feel about that, hm?" Ye Xiu questions.

"WHAT 'YOUNG AND PURE'?!" Chen Guo roars.

"I wandered into this internet cafe alone and adrift, only to be seduced by this wily woman."

"YOU SEDUCED ME!"

"She used me to deliver drinks, you know!" he continues, ignoring her. "She kept me in her house and fed me, I was practically a live-in slave."

"I PAID YOU A SALARY! (And I still do, asshole!!!)"

They probably seduced each other.

I sort of imagine them falling into each other’s company very early on, in her residence at Happy Internet Cafe. Chen Guo runs into Ye Xiu after he’s gotten out of the shower one day, and he occasionally walks in on her in her underwear. Relatively quickly they kind of settle into not caring what the other sees and it’s not rare for them to be eating or catching a bit of TV in their sleeping clothes or whatever. That combined with the little acts of kindness means one night, Ye Xiu’s covering Chen Guo with a blanket on the couch, and she grasps his wrist and looks at him in that way, and one thing leads to another.

They’re rather even in amorousness in bed; they’ll take roles sometimes, but they’re fluid about who leads and who follows.

Ye Xiu likes to please, though, and Chen Guo in turn isn’t selfish either.

Neither of them are really sappy with the other outside of pillow talk or certain private moments, so their flirting is usually just this (passive-)aggressive mess.

They mostly emotionally communicate with little touches and eye contact, and rather easily transition between them depending on their distance from one another.

They’re often touching each other’s hands if they’re not using them for anything, even if they’re not actually holding hands. Chen Guo remains fascinated by Ye Xiu’s hands, and he rather likes hers too.

Their Chen Guo's swats have a wide variety of tones, from being rebukes to being playful, and when nobody's watching Ye Xiu will sometimes lightly slap or pat her butt, earning a twinkling glare or criticism mouthed around a subtle smile.

Anytime something really big goes down, they absolutely do the equivalent of the Leonidas and Gorgo look exchange just before the "THIS. IS. SPARTA!" scene.

If they got together while still at Happy Internet Cafe, the other staff find they miss their antics at mealtimes.

Ye Xiu goes home to face the music after retiring, with Chen Guo in tow, and his parents see this beauty and are just confused. It turns out he's a CCP Princeling or the son of a PLA general officer or whatever, and she's confused too. Finally they're just like:

"Thank you for taking care of our foolish, wayward son!"

Chen Guo immediately panics and thinks, Shit, shit, shit, I'm the one who helped him be wayward!

Meanwhile, Ye Xiu is just like, "She owns her own business, you know!"

Chen Guo has to physically restrain herself from slapping him upside the head.

Ye Xiu leaves PC maintenance and repair to Chen Guo and always gets kind of lost at anything more complex than updating drivers. She rapidly comes to adopt a “don’t mess with anything” policy.

Chen Guo does her best to get Ye Xiu to quit smoking through both carrot and stick methods.

Until she manages to succeed, she will absolutely shove mints in his mouth before kissing him, even if he wasn’t immediately smoking previously.

Ye Xiu’s not really overtly sweet, but he remembers important dates and does more than go through the motions.

Anyway, I’ll leave this off here! If anyone wants to add on their own, feel free!

#Ye Xiu #Chen Guo #Quan Zhi Gao Shou #QZGS #The King's Avatar #TKA

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avocado-frog · 2 months

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Happy STS! Today I have a riddle: what comes first? The title or the story? 🤭 To expand, I'd love to hear the creation order of one (or several) of your stories. Did you think of characters first? Plot? World? What was the final piece?

Hello happy STS

So I've been using the same group of characters (give or take a few, some were cut and some were added) since I was. like. thirteen years old. So I've had the same characters in my head for nearly four years now. I think I've posted about the different versions before but I'll do it again since it's been a while.

If we're thinkin about the FIRST first version I ever wrote, I'm pretty sure I made the characters first, then the plot, and then the world, but all I really remember was writing a character sheet on rapidtables notepad and then making the characters on the sims 4. I don't have anything for this version saved anywhere. It was like I wrote 8 chapters, did nothing with it, and then deleted it forever. From what I remember though: -Draft 1 was just referred to as "untitled writing" because I couldn't be bothered to find a title -Leo was created first, then Cass, then Kai, then Marcy, then a secret fifth character (i think her name was addison or something) -Addison was the twins' sister, as was Marcy. Kai was just their neighbor that Leo didn't really like -It was written in 1st person POV -The twins were 14, Kai was 13, Marcy was 12, and Addison was 11 -No last names for anyone -Leo gets in a fight with Marcy over a board game, runs off, gets stolen right out of the woods for Plot Purposes, goes missing for like six months, the other kids get exactly one chapter of looking for her, and then there's three chapters of Mind Control Leo. This is also the longest we ever canonically see Leo's real parents in any version ever -It was DUMB. I did not like it -So I stopped writing it -Leo did get this sick wolverine claw flamethrower (exactly what it sounds like) -No magic

Draft two was written a few months after draft one, when I decided I wanted to write a different version. It still didn't have a title and it was still first person pov. It didn't last very long because the only character it involved was Leo (there was a few chapters of sideplot for the other kids) but it was a little hard to write a whole novel with only one character

So for draft three, I decided to throw Kai in with her. I'm fairly sure I drew his name out of a hat when I decided. I remember writing the last chapter during online history class with the Worst Teacher Ever in seventh grade so I had to have been like 13-14/mid 2021 because I started going half online half offline sometime in April -Kai follows Leo before she gets kidnapped, somehow they end up in Canada -First establishes the setting in Maine since I figured it was close enough to Canada -Leo burns down the cabin with a match (the kids don't have magic yet) -Kai and Leo spend way too much time trying to get from Canada to Maine -Like they go to Mexico for some reason

I actually finished that one though!! That is the most screen time Kai will ever get. rip. Draft four was when I made the triplets, who were in fact seven years old. I cannot stress how SEVEN they were. what the hell why were they actually babies. This one was so that Kai and Leo had more stakes but it was done at the cost of me immediately losing motivation

I kept the triplets though. Here are my notes for draft five: -It changed to third person POV -Leo's full name is Leonidas for fucking no reason (this ends up being a joke in the final version, in a scene where Jaxon is trying to guess her full name and Leo goes "no one has ever been named that" thought i'd mention it) -Kai is no longer part of the main plot and no longer a love interest because I didn't like writing it -The triplet's backstory is that they're the kids of the people that have stolen Leo, but that their mother died when they were like two -So now they're locked in a basement and so is Leo -Elliot's completely blind -Leo once again saves the kids but has a villain arc in the process -Proceeds to kidnap Cass with a stolen car, builds a robot army, gets blown up (?) -Brief redemption arc follows after Leo goes to jail for a bit

Draft six is the longest one I had before the final one, with an entire sequel and three whole chapters of a third one. This one gives us Logan (here he is !!) except evil Logan. Leo needed some friends in jail or something I don't remember -Logan's name wasn't Logan but the real name was so embarrassing that I'm choosing not to disclose it -First draft with magic. But only for the twins. Leo had fire magic and some thing where she could like. disintegrate people or something. Cass's was still healing + plant magic -Logan goes back to jail 💥💥 he had ice magic + able to control metal. which now that i think about it why did they put him in a jail full of metal then. what

Draft six's sequel was when I went full worldbuilding mode and made up an entire ass prophecy that I don't remember and don't want to have to think about. Not many notes on this. Logan was still the oldest (still only like sixteen though) and he drives a school bus. I gave up because I couldn't figure out what to do. Something with portals?

Draft six book three only lasted a few chapters, BUT we finally get Jaxon, Dylan, and Lily. Jaxon was twelve or thirteen (and his name was supposed to be a placeholder), Lily was fourteen or fifteen, and Dylan was eleven and is the only character whose age has never been adjusted. Their name was supposed to be a placeholder too. I can't remember if they were always written as deaf or not. I was writing this one while I tried to figure out what to do with the sequel. Lily was Leo's new love interest (why Leo is canonically bisexual in the final version)

Draft seven was a rewrite of draft six that featured Jaxon, Dylan, and Lily. They overthrow the government with Leo

Draft eight was another rewrite. Leo meets them instead of going to Actual Prison at age fourteen. I do a bit of worldbuilding with the magic again and give the other kids something to do. Lily could control time for a while, Jaxon had electricity, and I didn't know what to do with Dylan yet. The triplets are the twins' cousins + are adopted by Kai's family

Draft nine was funny (another rewrite of draft six) because I got to make Logan a BIT closer to his final version, but he still has beef with actual seven year old children. I got the concept ideas for the lab here which I know for a fact because Jaxon and Leo broke into it in one chapter to find files or something. Jaxon got to have explosives

The sequel for draft nine was when I finally got the idea for the sequel for draft six. I actually didn't delete this version and I still have it somewhere. Characters who get a villain arc in draft nine/draft nine the sequel: Leo, Jaxon, Lily, Dylan, Logan, Elliot, Cass, Ryan Characters who DON'T get a villain arc in draft nine/draft nine the sequel: Kai, Marcy, Sam, Addison -The earliest version of forget-me-not chapter 17 (Ryan gets pushed into a lake and nearly drowns) here it's he falls into a lake while the kids are trying to learn to water raft (in both versions, he's alone with Jaxon) -Elliot, the blind seven-year-old child, gets a villain arc -I remember this specifically because Leo has a line like "can't we just pick him up and put him somewhere else??" -For some reason, Sam has a snake -Leo's afraid of snakes and Marcy is afraid of ducks -or something?? -anyways that's canon because I think it's fucking hysterical

Draft ten I completely scrapped everything forever and started over. Nothing was saved in the fire except for the draft nine sequel and a couple of extra small things I had in my misc writing pile. I still have the outline for this one but tldr Logan gets aged up to eighteen, and the triplets are ten now. Ryan's name is briefly changed to Adrian, Sam's is briefly Emile, and Elliot's is briefly Ethan (but it was also changed to Cecil and Lucas for a bit as well) Logan's sister Jasmine is introduced and is killed off immediately Leo runs away after learning the truth about her parents (they're really her parents here) (whatever the truth is is not expanded on because I never got farther than an outline) and meets Jaxon, because they're both in the middle of robbing a gas station Cass does not join Leo in meeting them The first time I allowed myself to use swears Elliot actually literally dies The closest to canon final draft

Draft ten had a sequel but the sequel was one 8k chapter long + was the early plot of dahlia. -Elliot's dead but some weird infection bullshit happens -Like a zombie apocalypse -Leo has a Frankenstein motif the whole time -All I remember is that Leo became some weird demon thing and tried to kill Jaxon over it -The other thing I remember is that it was genuinely REALLY funny

So then draft eleven is the final final version which I outlined after watching over the garden wall in the Spring and wanted to see if I could start and finish writing a book before the end of summer. I in fact couldn't, and it didn't finish until sometime that winter -I cut Addison out because I didn't like her -Logan was aged to 22, the twins to 16, Kai and Lily to 15, Jaxon to 14, Dylan remained 11, and the triplets remained 10 -Instead of coming up with names for titles, I attached dates so that I could stress myself out with a timeline The title is finally made!!! I don't remember what made me go with a flower theme, I think I had read a book that had something similar. I gave each of the characters a flower as well

SO. sorry for always writing essays for sts asks lol. The story definitely came before the title to answer your riddle

#sts ask #thanks for the ask!!!!!#isaac says things related to his writing again #wip: forget me not

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gallifreyandemigoddess · 7 years

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Things I loved about The Dark Prophecy:

Once again, it starts with Apollo hating his humanity, something that I believe won’t change in some time, he was born a god, after all. Though I fervently believe that he is learning from his time as a mortal.

Through the whole book, we are able to read some of his most selfish comments, which is to be expected, since he had always been portrayed as a selfish, self-centered god. However, we’re able to see his selfless and kind side, too.

Example:

From:

“...It went against the very nature of being Apollo. I should always be the most obvious, brilliant source of light in the world. If you had to search for me, something was wrong.”

And: “I tried to contain my bitterness. Soldiers and sailors were all very well, but if your city’s biggest monument is not Apollo, I’m sorry, you’re doing something wrong.”

To:

“You rescued me.” Then I added two words that never came easily to a god: “Thank you.”

And:

“When I was a god, I would’ve been delighted to leave the mortal heroes to fend for themselves. I would’ve made popcorn and watched the bloodbath from a distance on Mount Olympus, or simply caught the highlight reel later. But as Lester, I felt obligated to defend these people....I wanted to be here for them.”

And:

“Their eyes were so full of concern- concern for me- that I had to swallow back a lump in my throat. Six weeks we had been traveling together. Most of that time, I had fervently wished I could be anywhere else, with anyone else. But with the exception of my sister, had I ever shared so many experiences with anyone? I realized, gods help me, that I was going to miss these two.”

These are some of the parts I loved the most about the book:

The Waystation. It’s nice to know of more demigod safe-spaces, more so when they’re under the loving care of Emmie and Josephine:

“We’ve saved a lot of demigods and other outcasts- raised them at the Waystation, let them go to school and have a more or less normal childhood, then sent them out into the world as adults with the skills they needed to survive.”

It’s different from both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, where, no matter how much they protect you and care for you, it could never be as normal and comforting as being raised in a “normal” loving environment.

The relationship between Apollo and Calypso: They hate each other, that much is perfectly clear...

“Lo!” I said. “I arrived at Camp Half-Blood as Lester Papadopoulos!”

“A pathetic mortal!” Calypso chorused. “Most worthless of teens!”

“-...her evil stepfather had poisoned her mind!”

“Poison!” Calypso cried. “Like the breath of Lester Papadopoulos, most worthless of teens!”

“Lo!” I shouted. “From the Oracle of Dodona we received a prophecy- a limerick most terrible!”

“Terrible!” Calypso chorused. “Like the skills of Lester, most worthless of teens!”

Though as the chapters progress, it appears that it’s more of a mutual disagreement than actual hatred. Apollo realizes how unfair their punishment on her was, and starts to feel like his own treatment towards her is unfair:

“Just yesterday, I had toyed with the idea of leaving Calypso behind to the blemmyae when she was wounded. I’d like to say that it wasn’t a serious thought, but it had been, however briefly. Now Calypso refused to leave Meg, whom she barely knew. It was almost enough to make me question whether I was a good person...”

And, in the end, they become friends. They still have much path to cover and much to discuss, but I believe they’re on good terms now.

Calypso and Leo:

One of the many topics vastly discussed after Blood of Olympus was how short and forced their relationship seemed. However, in The Dark Prophecy, we caught a glimpse of the reality they’re living on:

They’re trying to discover who they are together, as a couple and as friends. We see their multiple fights and their disagreements, and I believe it’s a very good thing! They’re exploring the possibilities of their relationship!

We see Calypso missing her island, we see her missing her powers, but most than anything else, we can see that Calypso and Leo truly love one another, and that they’re trying. It feels real, their problems, which only makes it better. It was to be expected that they’d be fighting and having problems, since they hadn’t talked much back on her island before he was forced to leave. They’re testing the waters, as Calypso explained.

They’re trying to build a good future for each other, they’re even going to enter school together. I like how their relationship improved, I like that Rick portrayed and fixed the mess that was their relationship by the end of BoO.

I also loved that Leo keeps calling her mamacita, and that Leo’s full name is actually Leonidas.

In general, everything about Emmie and Josephine was pure perfection.

They were hunters of Artemis, hunters who fell in love with one another and decided to choose each other over immortality. Their love was beautifully portrayed, and the fact that they adopted a daughter was even more precious for me and for everyone in the LGBT community.

I like that, on a similar topic, we had more explanation about the Hunters of Artemis and their rules:

“All romance is off-limits. My sister is quite unreasonable in that regard. The mission of the Hunters is to live without romantic distractions of any kind.”

It makes more sense that the Hunters only being prohibited the company of men, as was stated by the Titan’s Curse. I like that Rick fixed that, too.

AND ARTEMIS BEING COMPASSIONATE AND LETTING THEM LEAVE HER GROUP WITHOUT PUNISHING THEM, GODS BLESS HER SOUL.

Also, Zeus forbidding Artemis from interfering with Apollo makes me so angry, but I didn't expect anything less than that coming from him. It was good, though, that Artemis sent her Hunters to help Apollo discretely, just like when Apollo helped Percy and co. with rescuing Artemis and Annabeth.

Apollo being thirsty as fuck:

Apollo having the hots for Tall, Dark & Handsome Jamie.

Apollo being a fluttering mess when talking to him, then feeling away as soon as he heard Jamie had a girlfriend.

Apollo canonically having fantasies involving Thalia: “Thalia Grace climbed up behind me on the elephant- which fulfilled a daydream I’d once had about the pretty Hunter, though I hadn’t imagined it happening quite this way.”

Apollo canonically doing all sort of stuff to get Britomartis’ attention. To get a “kiss” and a “cute date” from her. (We all know that he wanted more than just a date and a kiss, but alas, this is a “children’s book”)

Apollo and Commodus:

I’m aware that Commodus is evil, and I don’t like him as a character, but honestly, his relationship with Apollo killed me unlike any other relationship ever had. More specially, this:

“Overhead, a white silk canopy billowed in the gentle breeze. Inn one corner, a musician sat discretely serenading us with his lyre. Under our feet spread the finest rugs from the eastern provinces. Between our two couches, a table was spread with an afternoon snack of roast boar, pheasant, salmon, and fruit spilling from gold solid cornucopia.

I was amusing myself by throwing grapes at Commodus’ mouth. Of course, I never missed unless I wanted to, but it was fun to watch the fruit bounce off Commodus’ nose.

“You are terrible,” He teased me.

And you are perfect, I thought, but merely smiled.”

And:

“I didn’t mean to laugh at the expense of his distant wife, but part of me was pleased when he talked badly about her. I wanted all his attention for myself.”

And, of course:

“Commodus looked at me, panic in his eyes.

“Go,” I said, as calmly as I could, forcing down my misgivings. “You will always have my blessings. You will do fine.”

But I already suspected what would happen: the young man I knew and loved was about to be consumed by the emperor he would become.

He rose and kissed me one last time. Then he left the tent- walking, as Romans would say, into the mouth of the wolf.

“Apollo,” Calypso nudged my arm.

“Don’t go!” I pleaded. Then my past life burned away. “

Never forget this hear-wrenching part:

“As I often did for him after our workout sessions, I filled his great marble bath with streaming rose-scented water. I helped him out of his soiled tunic and eased him into the tub. For a moment, he relaxed and closed his eyes.

I recalled how he looked sleeping besides me when we were teens. I remembered his easy laugh as we raced through the woods, and the way his face scrunched up adorably when I bounced grapes off his nose.

I sponged away the spittle and blood from his beard. I gently washed his face. Then I closed my hands around his neck. “I’m sorry.”

I pushed his head underwater and began to squeeze. Commodus was strong. Even in his weakened state, he thrashed and fought. In had to channel my godly might to keep him submerged, and, in doing so, I must’ve revealed my true nature to him.

He went still, his blue eyes wide with surprise and betrayal. He could not speak, but he mouthed the words: You. Blessed. Me.

The accusation forced a sob from my throat. The day his father died, I had promised Commodus: You will always have my blessings, Now I was ending his reign. I was interfering in mortal affairs- not just to save lives, or to save Rome, but because I could not stand to see my beautiful Commodus die by anyone else’s hands.

I hunched over him, crying, my hands around his throat, until the bathwater cooled.

Britomartis was wrong. I didn’t fear water. I simply couldn’t look at the surface of any pool without imagining Commodus’ face, stung with betrayal, staring up at me.”

Rick Riordan has a talent of portraying gods and their actions unlike anyone else.

Apollo loved Commodus, he loved him deeply and wholeheartedly, but he couldn’t see anyone else killing his beloved Commodus. He killed him, for he could not stand the way the young man he loved had destroyed himself, turning into a murderous, evil emperor.

For me, Apollo has always been a complex god.

He said so himself in the first book, when he called his arrogance a pretense, when he mentioned he was a guilt-ridden, miserable god. He has never been good at love, for some reason, all of his lovers end tragically in one way or another, some by his own hand (Cassandra, Commodus, etc). It weighs him down more than he admitted when he was a god. As a mortal, he is more connected to his emotions, and is unable to put his usual facade of coolness and of arrogance.

Everything he has done, every sin he has committed, weighs him down:

“I imagined Trophonius’ head transposed on his body- my son’s agonized voice crying to the heavens, Take me instead! Save him, Father, please!

This blended with the face of Commodus, staring at me, wounded and betrayed as his carotid pulse hammered against my hands. You. Blessed. Me.

I sobbed and hugged the commode- the only thing that wasn’t spinning. Was there anyone I hadn’t betrayed and disappointed? Any relationship I hadn’t destroyed?

And, since we’re talking about Apollo and his change, I’d like to mention his relationship with Meg.

In the beginning, he could not stand her. Then by the end of the first book, he cared for her. Now, on this second book, the feeling grows and morphs into something so profound and so beautiful that I do not have words for it.

“No! She was- she was trying to protect me.” I choked on the words. “She is my friend. Take me instead!”

And also:

“She is precious to you,” Said the Oracle. “Would you give your life in exchange for hers?”

I had trouble processing that question. Give up my life? At any point in my four thousand years of existence, my answer would’ve been an emphatic No! Are you crazy? One should never give up on one’s life. One’s life is important! The whole point of my quests in the mortal world, finding and securing all these ancient Oracles, was to regain immorality so I wouldn’t have to ponder such awful questions!

And yet... I thought of Emmie and Josephine renouncing immortality for each other. I thought of Calypso giving up her home, her powers, and eternal life for a chance to roam the world, experience love, and possibly enjoy the wonders of high school in Indiana.

“Yes,” I found myself saying. “Yes, I would die for Meg McCaffrey.”

And lastly but not least important:

When Apollo shared Meg’s curse, slipping into her mind and trying to save her: “I would share this burden with her, even if it kills me.”

What saved us what a simultaneous thought: Meg/Apollo needs me.

There we had Apollo, someone that, supposedly, only cared about himself, risking his life, his human life, to save his little but beloved friend from madness and darkness.

It’s a beautiful moment, more so for those of us that adore Apollo since before the PJO books. It’s a beautiful character development from the fuckboy we saw in Titan’s Curse; it’s a beautiful character development from the god that we met in the first TOA book, the god that could only feel annoyance towards Meg.

“Let the girl go,” I whimpered through the pain. “Kill me and let her go.”

I surprised myself. These were not the last words I had planned. In the event of my death, I’d been hoping to have time to compose a ballad of my glorious deeds- a very long ballad. Yet here I was, at the end of my life, pleading not for myself, but for Meg McCaffrey.”

The mention of other gods through the book:

Apparently, gods have a weekly game night in Mount Olympus where Athena loves to gloat about her Scrabble scores.

AND THIS SAVAGE LINES: (AKA: my cute, dorky ex-god being dorky as fuck)

“Ever since my famous battle with Python, I’ve had a phobia of scaly reptilian creatures. (Especially if you include my stepmother, Hera. BOOM!)

“I’ve always found spiders fascinating creatures, despite what Athena thinks. If you ask me, she’s just jealous of their beautiful faces. BOOM!”

This important, yet short part:

Leto knelt at Zeus’ side, her hands clasped in prayer. Her bronze arms glowed against her white sundress. Her long golden hair zigzagged down her back in an elaborate ladder weave.

“Please, my lord!” She implored. “He is your son. He has learned his lesson!”

“Not yet,” Zeus rumbled. “His real test is yet to come.”

I laughed and waved. “Hi, mom! Hi, dad!”

There we have a glimpse of Leto being concerned over Apollo’s fate and we see that she cares. Zeus is, as always, being shady as fuck, and Apollo is super cute while hallucinating and being under the effect of the waters of Mnemosyne and Lethe.

Apollo realizes how hard some demigods have it:

From:

“I’m new to these heroic-quest business. Shouldn’t there be a reward at the end? Not just more deadly quests?”

“Nope,” Leo said. “This is pretty standard.”

My sweet, innocent Lester seems to forget that when he was Apollo, as a god, he never cared much for the quests he made demigods go through.

“I wondered if demigods ever felt the need to restrain themselves when facing ungrateful gods like this. No. Surely not. I was special and different. And I deserved better treatment.”

Had Percy Jackson been there, he would’ve written a gigantic thesis statement with a power-point presentation about how wrong Apollo was.

Also, this part:

“I knelt next to him- a boy of about sixteen, my mortal age. I felt no pulse. I didn’t know whose side he had fought on, but that didn’t matter. Either way, his death had gone to waste. I had begun to think that perhaps demigod lives were not as disposable as we gods liked to believe.”

Finally, at the moment of war, Apollo realizes how easy it is for a mortal to die. And most times, demigods die because of the gods.

The part where they find out Georgina might be Apollo’s daughter:

The whole scene, though the most painful part was when Emmie asked if it was payback for having renounced to his gift of immortality:

“I hadn’t known I could feel any worse, until I did. I really hate that about the mortal heart. It seems to have an infinite capacity of getting heavier.

“Dear Emmie,” I said. “I would never. Even on my worse days, when I’m destroying nations with plague arrows or putting together set lists for Kidz Bop compilations, I would never take revenge in such a way...”

That shows that he was a good god, even if he murdered and punished people, he had some kind of morality. He knew where his boundaries went: like when he mentioned that he flirted with the Hunters, but that he would never dare to go any further than that.

Had it been Zeus, he would’ve raped them already; and canonically, on mythology, I’ve never read about any case of Apollo raping anyone.

Also, I really liked that Rick added certain parts that showed that our actions, as mortals, are what define us and that, once we take one wrong decision, we cannot pray for better things when it is us that fuck things up.

I’ve heard so many people complain that their prayers were never answered, that their God never helped them. They don’t seem to realize that God cannot help us if we don’t help ourselves first.

It’s shown here:

“Don’t blame me for you robbing the king’s treasury!” I snarled. “You are here because you messed up.”

“I prayed to you!”

“Well, perhaps you didn’t pray for the right thing at the right time!” I yelled. “Pray for wisdom before you do something stupid! Don’t pray for me to bail you out after you follow your worst instincts!”

Apollo’s son, Trophonius, made wrong choices all his life, and when it came back to him, he wanted his father to miraculously save him. It doesn’t work like that, God/gods cannot help if we try to make them fix our whole lives.

The way they temporarily defeated Commodus. (I found extremely pretty the way Apollo’s real form was revealed) (Finally we had an explanation as to why gods’ real forms are deadly to mortals: they’re pure light.)

The second chance Apollo gave Lityerses. “Everything alive deserves a chance to grow.

Lityerses sobbing when Emmie said he could be part of their family.

All the “lit” jokes. And the commode ones too.

“The two bumped fists as if they hadn’t spent the last few days talking about how much they wanted to kill each other. They would’ve made fine Olympian gods.”

Little Georgina’s words to Apollo. How he told her he was there for her if she wanted to talk. How he was concerned about her, even if he was not sure if she was his daughter.

“You’ve built something good here, Hemithea.” I said. “Commodus could not destroy it. You’ll restore what you’ve lost. I envy you.”

Everywhere he goes, Apollo seems to crave home. Not Olympus. Home, as in: a place where he’d feel loved and safe. In the 1st book, he wanted to stay in Camp with his children, now there, he admits that he craved the lovely home, the safe environment that they created at the Waystation.

“It all felt so homey and cozy, I wanted to volunteer to wash dishes if it meant getting to stay another day.”

Apollo trying to fix what he did to Agamethus by offering to go to the Underworld once he became a god again, to ask Hades to send him to Elysium.

“Never underestimate the healing power of music.”

Lit staying in the Waystation.

Apollo mentioning that he believed in second chances, and that he could understand Lit since they had things in common- being attractive being one of those things.

Apollo’s talking arrow only speaking bad Shakespearean English.

“Being productive. Urgh.” Same, Apollo, same.

The whole choo-choo scene, I don’t now why but I really really loved that part.

The fact that WE MIGHT GET TO SEE REYNA, FRANK AND HAZEL ON THE NEXT BOOK.

GROVER UNDERWOOD IS FINALLY BACK. MY SON, MY BABY, MY FAVORITE ENCHILADA LOVER SATYR. HE WILL BE BACK.

I must’ve missed many points, but this was already very long. In general, I really loved The Dark Prophecy, and I recommend everyone to read it as soon as they can! It is honestly so, so good. As good as the first one, I cannot wait for The Burning Maze!

#trials of apollo #toa #apollo #lester papadopoulos #the dark prophecy #leo valdez #calypso #josephine and emmie #meg mccaffrey #grover underwood #my thoughts #book #the trials of apollo #pjo #hoh #percy jackson #heroes of olympus

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

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The next update for DL has a whole bunch of extremely interesting stuff going on in it, and I have a whole bunch of thoughts about it, lol.

This is gonna get long so I’ll put it under a cut.

The skill share system is the huge deal that I have the most thoughts on, so I’ll save that for last and talk about the rest of the version update, and other upcoming content first.

Even aside from the version update stuff, we got an official announcement for the chapter 13 interlude that’ll come out in a few days. It didn’t exactly say much, but it does show that the Agito bosses are apparently going to show up in it. We knew already that they’ll show up in chapter 14, so this is probably just to set up for that, but it’s still exciting. At the moment they’re all kinda boring as characters, so I hope them actually being part of the main story will make them more interesting.

Nothing’s been said about it yet, but I’m also still thinking that the gala will start at the same time, since I think it’ll be right when the current event ends. The current banner’s going to go until the end of the month, but there’s still gonna be a week between the current event ending and the next one starting, so I think we’ll get the gala to fill that gap, and the new event will just have it’s own banner to go with it once the gala ends.

I’m also still in the camp of wanting the new gala unit to be Leif. I’ve already got nearly 450 summons saved up for him, so I have a lot of expectations riding on this, lol. If it ends up being Leonidas or something I might just straight up skip the entire gala out of spite. I already skipped Gala Mars, so skipping Gala Leonidas would be pretty easy at this point, if it comes to that.

Even though part of why I don’t want Gala Leonidas to be a thing is because I think he’d just be another flame sword, but it’s more about how he looks like he’d be another DPS-oriented flame sword, like all the other ones we have. I actually want Gala Leif to be a flame sword, but I specifically want him to be a support-oriented flame sword, so he’d fill a different role than the other flame swords we have. Flame really needs more variety with it’s support units, and I’m still a bit wary that the skill share system will lead to healers like H-Lowen getting shunned, so getting a flame sword who can substitute for him would be nice.

Anyway, we found out from the version update post that around the middle of next month we’ll see the first Onslaught Event, which seems to be the solo-focused event type they teased at earlier. I’m assuming it’s the one they mentioned that’s separate to defensive events like the FEH stuff. I think it’ll probably be a reworked version of the Coliseum from the FEH2 event, which I think would be really fun. Mostly I’m curious to see if it ends up being the type of event that gives us a free character, since that’s always nice.

On that sort of note, I’m still really hoping the upcoming new raid event at the end of the month is a new wind element one. We desperately need another one if only so that we don’t have to deal with Astral Valfarre this often, lol.

As for the version update itself, I’m really interested to see how the new royal regimen endeavors pan out. Mostly because it might give me an influx of wyrmite and summon vouchers in time for the gala. At the very least it looks like a massively expanded version of the jumpstart endeavors, and from what little we’ve seen of it, it’ll at least give a tenfold voucher and a 5-star adventurer voucher. But since the 5-star voucher seems to be the reward for completing 54 endeavors, there might be a whole bunch of other rewards too.

I’m at least hoping all the rewards will apply retroactively so veterans like me don’t miss out on stuff, but they said that people who’ve already started the game can obtain the rewards, so I hope that means everyone can.

Aside from the skill share thing, there’s also other big balance changes that’ll be done in this update, like AI adventurers taking less damage, HDT opening blasts getting nerfed, various changes to different weapon combos, and so on. It’ll all depend on exactly how the numbers pan out, but this could at least make it WAY easier to solo HDTs, and maybe also the Agito bosses.

I’m glad that they’re addressing the fact that HDT opening blasts are an overly punishing and outdated mechanic that can already be shut down with certain characters. Some people won’t like the change, but anything that makes those fights more plausible to solo would be great. In particular I’ve never even touched HZD since I’ve never really had a reason to, but I still want to get the shadow fafnir facility, and HZD himself as a dragon, so it’d be nice to be able to grind it solo.

Since they’re universally going to lower the damage AI characters take, I think it’ll have an impact on basically every fight in the game, so that might changes things up a lot. Especially with the later levels of Mercurial Gauntlet where part of the challenge is being able to do enough damage to kill him without making yourself too fragile to survive.

I think the weapon combo changes aren’t really going to impact anyone’s damage output much, and will be more of an aesthetic sort of change in the long run, but I feel iffy about them removing the jump animation from axe combos, since I’m so used to charging my force strike mid-jump to save time. But removing the jump animation from sword and dagger combos will make those weapon types way more convenient to play.

The real star of the show here is the skill share feature though, lol. I’m still skeptical about how much of an impact it’ll have in the long run since it all depends on how many limits they put in place for it, but it’s still exciting, and I have a lot of speculation about it.

Firstly, one thing I haven’t seen discussed is the implication that not only will different skills have different ‘costs’, different characters might have different caps on how many skill points worth of skills they can equip. They shows that Euden has a cap of 10, but some characters might have a lower or higher cap, and I think that might really dictate a lot of how this actually works out in the end. The way I hope it works is that stronger units have a smaller cap so they have more limitations on what skills they can equip, while weaker units have a higher cap, so they have more freedom to equip two really good skills.

Just as a fairly severe example, if we assume that all buff skills have a cost of 6 like Elly’s S1 does, maybe super overpowered units like Gala Cleo will have a cap of 5, so they’re straight up unable to equip any buff skills, and might even only have room for one skill to begin with. Just as an example of how to balance it so that the already powerful units can’t just equip two really powerful additional skills to get even stronger. And on the other hand, maybe weaker units could have a cap of 12 or so, which means they could equip two 6-point buff skills, which could be a real game-changer, and let those units enter the meta.

That’s basically the main reason why I don’t think it’s a good idea to get too carried away with trying to work out the numbers for if you gave Gala Cleo two buff skills or whatever, since they might intentionally shut down those situations from the start.

They’ve also said that some skills won’t be available to equip at all, which will probably apply to really unique and potentially broken skills like Grace’s S1, which would obviously be way too game-breaking if you paired it with heal skills. Going by the image they posted, I think they might only let you equip a character’s first skill, and not their second, which would eliminate a lot of possibilities. But it’d make sense to just do a blanket ban on equipping S2s, since those tend to be where the really unique mechanics and buffs go. For example, Hawk and Nefaria’s S2s that alter their force-strikes, Gala Luca’s S2 that gives a huge crit damage buff, Chelsea/V-Addis/Natalie’s S2s that lower their health and give them big buffs, etc etc.

If we assume that all S2s, and Grace’s S1, will be banned, I think the other banned skills would probably be skills that inflict defense debuffs, or major status effects like bog. Those are the other types of skills I can think of that could be way too powerful if used in the right way.

It’s interesting to note, though, that aside from the cost system, there doesn’t seem to be major restrictions in what types of skills you can equip. Like, it doesn’t seem to be restricted by element or weapon type, and Euden at least has access to damaging skills, buffs, and heals. There’s also a few examples we can see from the teaser image of skills that inflict ‘regular’ status effects, like Luca and Joe’s S1s. One really notable example is that Ranzal’s S1 is also available, and if we can use the mana spiral version of it, then that means that you can have convenient access to a buff dispel move, since it’s one of the few moves that had dispel in it that’s not tied to the adventurer’s ability.

The teaser image also gives us an idea of what costs different types of skills will have, which has some interesting implications. Most skills seem to hover around 4-5 points, which makes sense if we assume that 10 is gonna be the average limit, but the ones that are lower or higher than that stand out. We have Ranzal, Cleo, Cibella, and Zardin with skills that have a cost of 3, while Elly and Joe’s skills have a cost of 6. I can see why Elly’s skill has a high cost since it’s a universal team strength buff, but it’s interesting that Joe’s skill has a high cost as well, since it’s just an attacking skill that inflicts burn. It makes me wonder if skills that inflict burn/paralysis/poison/frostbite will have a high cost, probably to make it hard or impossible to equip two at once, but I don’t think it’d be a big deal to equip two of them at once, since if anything it’s a bad thing to have too many sources of status afflictions. Luca’s skill also has a slightly lower cost of 5, which makes me wonder why it’s different to Joe’s. I assume it just implies that story characters will have a lower cost for their skills, to make them easier to equip. Which also makes sense if you look at how Ranzal’s S1 has a cost of 3 compared to other damaging skills in the image having a cost of 5, and Cleo’s S1 having a cost of 3 compared to other heals that have a cost of 4 or 5.

Just as a side-note, I took a look at the wiki to remind myself what Laxi’s S1 does, since hers will also be available even if it wasn’t shown in this image, and lmao I forgot that it’s literally one of the worst damaging skills in the entire game. It’s base damage mods are insanely low, and if you can’t use S2 skills at all, then you won’t even be able to make use of the fact that it does double the amount of hits while her S2 is active. Which reminds me that there might be a lot of units who’s skills just aren’t worth using because they’re buffed by their second skills, on top of all of the adventurers who have abilities that add effects to their S1, like how you need to have Gala Cleo’s abilities to be able to use her force strike buff zone after using her S1.

In general I think that the only skills anyone will want to use in the first place will be buffs and heals, with damaging skills only being worth it if they do something unique like dispelling buffs, or inflicting a debuff or status effect. A team strength buff would have way more impact on overall team DPS than a single damaging skill in general, but maybe I’m just forgetting some uniquely powerful S1 someone has that isn’t reliant on one of their abilities or their S2.

I’m kinda worried that the meta will shift even more towards 4DPS comps that have at least one unit with a heal. It wouldn’t really change things much from how they are now, but it might push H-Lowen out of the flame meta, which would suck. At least his HP increase effect is on his S2, so he’ll probably still have that going for him, but still.

Realistically this would probably lead more towards the sort of thing we see in the wind meta with Tobias/Noelle/DY-Xainfried using Freyja and acting as a substitute healer of sorts, but for all elements, and without relying on dragon skills. So it’s be more along the lines of the ‘healer role’ being diversified, but it still probably means that most staff units will be shunned because the only thing they do is heal, so they’d probably be invalidated by a buffer who brings at least one heal skill.

I’m hoping that, on the flip-side, this will also lead to healers being able to bring buff skills, and thus leading them to effectively doing the same thing as buffers who bring heal skills. For example, if H-Lowen used Emma’s S1, and Emma used H-Lowen’s S1, then the only difference between them would be their S2s, and even those are fairly similar, since Emma has a team defense buff, and H-Lowen has a heal mixed with an HP buff. So they’d do slightly different things, but be similar enough that, hopefully, healers like H-Lowen could do both buffing and healing without just being shunned by the meta.

Most buffers have buff time passives going for them, which probably makes them better, but hopefully not to the degree that they just invalidate healers entirely.

Depending on how this plays out, it could lead to some really interesting possibilities with having characters focus on different things depending on what skills they have equipped. Like if you wanted to make Heinwald into more of a healer, or more of a DPS unit.

One thing to keep in mind is that staff units also have really high SP gain per attack, which might mean that they could get buff skills off substantially faster than a regular buff unit, which could at least make up for not having a buff time passive. But we’ll see if they do anything to adjust SP costs for skills to take that into account.

Even if heal skills get left to dedicated support units like Tobias, DPS units will probably still end up equipping buff skills since they should be more powerful than a damaging skill, so I can’t help but wonder just how drastically it’s going to impact the game if you have four units with access to team strength buffs, lol. I feel like that might just skyrocket the potential team DPS you can achieve, which might really trivialize certain fights in co-op. Which may or may not be a good thing.

And THEN there’s the whole topic of how on top of you needing to 50MC a unit and get them to level 80, you need to use a new type of item to actually make a skill available to be equipped, and it looks like that type of item will just be given out through events and through the shop [which probably refers to real money packs]. So basically I think everyone should just brace themselves for only being able to afford to unlock one or two skills per element. I don’t really think that’s a huge deal though, since you only have the two skill share slots to work with in the first place. Elly’s S1 is also non-elemental and immediately available to use, so everyone will have access to one good buff skill, and Cleo’s heal is also going to be immediately available if you need a heal skill. Ranzal’s S1 is also gonna be free, if you need the buff dispel from it. So there’s already some pretty good options to work with without needing to spend any resources.

In general the main skills people will want to unlock would be their element’s strength buffer if they don’t go for Elly’s S1, a defense buff, and a heal. And since defense buffs and heals aren’t element-locked, you can just use someone like Pipple or Patia in any element for their defense buffs, and someone like OG Cleo for heals. In terms of raw healing power I think the top units would probably be N-Aeleen and S-Verica, and H-Lowen provides both a heal and a defense buff. There’s also Grace but I’m almost certain her S1 will be automatically banned.

There’s various units who have team strength buffs on their S1s via skill shift mechanics, but I don’t think those would be worth using just for the strength buffs. You’d be better off just using a regular buff.

Strength and defense debuffs have a lot of potential to be worth using, especially in raid content, but for that exact reason I think some/all of those types of skills might also be banned.

There’s also the question of if it’ll be worth replacing an Agito weapon skill with a shared skill, which might also be a bit of a problem, but unless you need the alternating defensive buffs from them, I think a team strength buff would be better than even the shadow Agito weapon’s self-only attack rate buff.

Anyway this was far too many words to write about an entire game mechanic that we have vague and incomplete information about, lmao.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #did I spend way too long writing this? yes. do I have anything better to do with my time? not really :)

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