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sugarfluffandallthatgoodstuff · 2 years

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You're not a machine

Hawks x overworked!overwhelmed!reader

You were a med school student, but not just any regular old student you were an honors student well on her way to being valedictorian.

And that while remarkable came with it's own disadvantages.

mainly group projects.

which you were now scrambling to finish.

You were sitting in your apartment alone while you frantically typed away at your laptop with your research and other project materials on the 2 gaming monitors on either side of you with the laptop in the center.

You had been sitting at your computer for 5 days only getting up for more coffee, quick bathroom breaks, or refilling the mini fridge next to you.

It was currently 1:30AM and you were typing with speeds that would make the flash look like a snail by comparison when all of a sudden you heard tapping on your window a few feet to your left. But you didn't do anything simply brushing it off as the wind blowing a tree around.

but then the tapping started again in a specific rhythm to the tune of "promise of the rainbow" by Stephen Melillo.

YOUR POV

wait...

there's no way

there's no way that's coincidental

so I got up slowly crouched and walked to my kitchen and grabbed a knife then slowly made my way to the window.

I peeked through the curtain to see...

HAWKS?!?!?

WHAT WAS HE DOING HERE AT THIS TIME

Then I remembered he comes over at weird times sometimes for some injuries to get patched up and I thought that's what he must have been here for.

I opened the curtain and shyly waved at him and he silently gestured for me to open the window for him to come in. I held up one finger and walked out of view and wrote a message on the piece of paper.

I walked back to the window and held up the note which said:

"My computer and instrument set up is right under the window, but I can let you in through the door?"

he nodded and held up a thumbs up. then I threw the knife back into the kitchen no longer needing it.

I opened the door and IMMEDIATELY he started chatting with me

"hey I'm sorry I'm stopped by so late but I um... kind of... um... got stabbed..."

I immediately went into rapid-fire damage control

"How deep is it? where did you get stabbed? what were you stabbed with? are you entirely able to move things still?..."

"Woah Woah Woah one thing at a time babybird no need to be on edge. and to answer your millions of questions, bout 2 inches, side, small dagger, can move fine but it still hurts badly. but holy crap you look... as nicely as I can say...wired... are you ok?"

"I'm fine just a tad busy but let's get that wound of yours treated"

I walk him to the bathroom and have him remove his shirt so I can treat his stab wound. luckily he didn't remove the knife.

I handed him a thick rolled-up washcloth for him to bite on while I remove the knife.

"ok babe I'm going to remove it now feel free to bite down on the washcloth and scream if needed because this WILL hurt like a bitch. I apologize in advance"

I took the knife out quickly but safely and threw it on the counter

and holy crap that was one weird-looking knife.

I gave him a kiss as a reward and let him know I was going to go measure the blade.

"ok honey I'm gonna go get the tape measure and some more materials to further patch this up. I'll be right back you're doing great ok."

I went to grab the supplies and suddenly felt really lightheaded and tired but I needed to push through because of the amount of work I had left as well his wounds left to treat.

I then got back to the bathroom eyes starting to droop slightly as I slowly lost energy

"Ok I'm back let's measure this blade so I can determine how deep the wound is and if you need stitches"

"Ok sounds good"

I measured the blade and it was a whopping 2.5 inches.

"well fuck"

"what happened?!"

"sadly you're going to need stitches but it shouldn't take too long."

"fine"

*time skip to after the stitches*

"ok so you should get those removed in a couple of weeks I hope you getting home won't be an issue"

"hey would you maybe mind if I... stayed the night?"

"oh um... sure I guess I didn't really prepare for guests because I've been so busy but you can take the guest room I guess. Just be sure to let me know if you need anything at all I will be in the living room working."

"Unrelated question but how long have you been working?"

"not sure but it doesn't matter because the work isn't done yet and it needs to be finished so I don't let anyone down."

he got off the counter and started making his way to the guest room to I assume get ready for bed so I went back to my desk to continued on the grind to finally be done with this monstrosity of a project.

one problem though

the room started to spin

I almost made it to my desk before blacking out and collapsing to the floor.

HAWKS POV

I was changing into one of the shirts I left here just incase this kind of thing ever happened when I heard a loud thump coming from... I think the living room?

so I rushed in there to see Y/N lying on the floor near her illuminated computer convulsing

I had to think on my feet and try to remember what she said about what to do in this situation so I just ran over to her, picked her up and laid her down on the couch anxiously waiting for her to wake up but first I checked to see if she was conscious

"Y/N can you hear me? are you ok?!?!?"

YOUR POV

I felt myself being torn in and out of consciousness to slightly hear my loving boyfriend trying to talk to me

"Y/N babe what happened?!"

"did I finish my work?"

"huh?"

"I said did I manage to finish my work?"

"uhh I found you lying on the ground away from your computer so imma assume no"

"damn it"

"damn it what?"

"I didn't finish. fuck I knew I should have drank that 5th can of bang."

"Y/N that's not good. how long have you been awake?"

"I think 6 days now but the project is more important especially because my group needed more help. and they needed a lot more help than I realized."

"Y/N I think that's them taking advantage of you. and also 6 FUCKING DAYS NO WONDER YOU PASSED OUT! you know what that's it you're going to bed."

"B-but I need to finish my-"

"no buts you're going to bed no arguments"

"hawks please let go of me so I can finally finish this"

"I can't believe I'm going to have to do this but you leave me no choice"

"what are you ta-"

suddenly my arms are pinned above my head and he discharges some of his feathers to restrain my wrists as his fingers scribble fanaticly across my tummy

"waiHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAIT NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO PLEAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHESE NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO"

"sorry babybird but you need a break and I'm gonna make sure you get it and forget about your work. gotta make it so you can't hurt yourself right? what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you self destruct in front of me?"

" PLEAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHESE STOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOP I'HIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHILL DOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHANY THIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHING"

"ok ok but you have to promise you'll go to bed and I'll snuggle with you to make sure you rest. besides think of all the times you helped me and everyone around you. it's not fair that you give everything of yourself to the world and refuse help in return. So you are not going to do anything for the next few days and I'll be right here next to you."

he had stopped the onslaught of tickles and looked down at me with a soft smile as he carried me to bed and took care of me and made sure I ate and when I was finally asleep he sent a less than pleasant email to my professor telling them to fail all the other people for not contributing and for an extra week.

soon enough I was wrapped in his wings snuggling into his chest sound asleep.

the end

#ticklish!reader #overworked!reader #ler!hawks #lee!reader #plz take care of yourselves #overwhelmed!reader

62 notes · View notes

fleetingfigures · 3 years

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Mitigation made Manifest - A Scholar Analysis

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first part of my analysis series! Today we're going to be taking a look at the titular Scholar job, as well as delve into how it works, what it excels at, what it comes short on, and how well it is designed!

In an effort to keep everything organized, I'll section off this post into 4 main portions. If you're on a computer, you can use ctrl+f (or command+f if you're on a mac) to search for the following headings:

[ Basics ] [ How Scholar Works ] [ Gameplay, Tips and Design ] [ Final Evaluation ]

With that out of the way, let us begin!

[ Basics ]

Before we dive into Scholar, I believe I must go over a few things, the first being the issue of Scholar’s origin. Scholar, and by extension, its sibling, Summoner, have a unique system wherein they originate from the same base class, Arcanist, and also share each others’ levels (i.e if you level Summoner to 71, your Scholar will also be 71). As per most jobs, many of the base class’ actions translate to its advanced jobs, but the issue comes in its respective role - Arcanist is a magical dps. For Summoner, this is a fine transition as they share this role, but for Scholar, it is a tad awkward. At no point in your time as an arcanist are you ever really taught how healing in FFXIV functions, nor is it ever your ‘job’. The only real healer you can even start the game with is Conjurer, and beyond that, if you want to pick up a healer on the side without a level skip, only Astrologian and Conjurer are healers right out of the gate. As such, It’s hard to recommend Scholar as someone’s first healer as its levelling experience does not translate to how healers are played effectively.

Though, on this topic of effective healer play, I also feel the need to describe XIV’s healing design. At its core, a healer’s job is to obviously keep the party, and most importantly their tank, from dying. But, this is where some issues arise. In higher-end content, a healer is expected to also carry their weight in terms of DPS, and should have comparable RDPS (Damage taking into account buffs/debuffs applied) to that of a party’s tanks. This brings me to the focus of XIV’s healer philosophy: One is to balance the healing they must do with the damage they output. Spending all of your MP on healing is forsaking your duty to at least deal some damage, and only doing damage will obviously cause your party to die. Healing is essentially a game of ‘how low can I go?’, and as you gain more experience and comfort in the role, you can push that threshold lower and lower.

As for more general terms to be aware of, I shall make a small list!

DPS/ADPS/RDPS: Damage per second/Actual damage per second/Raid-contributing damage per second. These are terms used mostly by raiders to quantify how much damage is contributed. For classes that have buffs and debuffs, their DPS/ADPS do not accurately show their true damage, but their RDPS takes into account the bonus damage their buffs and debuffs have granted. Slidecasting: A term describing the leniency that cast times are given in this game because of server connection. For all spells, you do not have to be sitting through their entire cast bar, as they can instead be cut short so that one can still move while in the last bit of their cast. When one can slidecast a spell is dependent upon the cast time of the spell and the spell speed of the individual. HoT/DoT: Heal over time, Damage over time. GCD/OGCD: Global Cooldown/Off-Global Cooldown. Spells and weaponskills operate off of something called a ‘GCD’. A GCD is essentially a lockout until you can cast your next spell/weaponskill. For spells, as they have a cast time equivalent to their GCD, you can cast another right after you finish the first. By default, this GCD is 2.5 seconds for every class, and is reduced by abilities and skill/spell speed. But for weaponskills/spells that are classified as instant, that GCD lockout can instead be used to move or to use OGCD’s, namely abilities, that aren’t constricted by the GCD. The use of OGCD’s during a GCD lockout is called... Weaving: Using OGCD’s during a GCD lockout. Using just one in this timeframe is referred to as a single weave, and using two is referred to as a double weave. For SCH, you want most weaves to be double weaves. Ghosting: The bane of all arcanist-based classes. Unfortunately due to the AI of pets in this game, there is a delay between when you input an action and when your pet performs it, and a general delay in all pet actions if you are moving and they have to catch up. Sometimes when inputting abilities too quickly or using a demi-summon as actions are queued (like Summon Bahamut, Phoenix Trance and Summon Seraph), the queued action will either be delayed or never go off, but will still go on cooldown. Hence the term ‘ghosting’.

[ How Scholar Works ]

Now with the basics made clear, we can get to the actual meat of this analysis! In FFXIV, there are two denominations of healers: Shielding and Pure. Scholar falls into the prior classification as most of its kit is themed around the prevention of damage. Adloquium and Succor, for example, heal less than White Mage’s Cure II and Medica II, but apply a shield equivalent to 125% of the health restored. As such, Scholar is less of a reactive healer, but more of a proactive one; they set up their resources in advance so that the fight flows with less chaos. Scholar’s base kit is as follows:

Ruin/Broil I, II, and III: Your standard damage spell for a healer. Cast this when you’re not healing. Bio/Bio II/Biolysis: Your standard DoT spell for a healer, ticks 10 times over 30 seconds. Make sure to always have this on the enemy, that is unless the enemy is about to go away, or will die in 15 seconds or less. if this spell sticks to a target for more than 15 seconds, then it technically has outdamaged 1 broil, thus making it a theoretical gain! Physick: The basic heal for a healer; heals for about 400 potency. Once you get to a higher level, you should realistically never touch this heal again. Adloquium (Lvl 30): Scholar’s ‘big single target heal’; heals for 300 potency while erecting a shield equivalent to 125% of the healing done (technically 675 potency in total). Shields generated by this are denoted by the ‘Galvanize’ buff. If this crits, bonus shields will be added as another buff called ‘Catalyze’. This shield does not stack with itself, Succor, Seraphic Veil, or Nocturnal AST’s shields. Succor (Lvl 35): Scholar’s AoE heal; heals for 180 potency and erects a shield equivalent to 125% of the healing done (technically 405 potency in total). Shields generated by this are denoted by the ‘Galvanize’ buff. Like Adlo, it does not stack with what was listed above. Ruin II (Lvl 38): An instant cast version of ruin. It’s potency upgrades as you level, capping at 200 at level 72. This spell is mostly used to weave OGCD’s, or to just generally move while not missing too many casts. Art of War (Lvl 46): Your standard AoE spell for a healer. Deals 160 potency to all enemies in 5 yalms and is instant. Unlike Holy, this spell is a DPS gain on 2 targets or more. Deployment Tactics (Lvl 56): As an OGCD, spreads the target’s Galvanize buff to all nearby allies within 10 yalms. Does not spread Catalyze. Emergency Tactics (Lvl 58): Transforms the shields from Adlo and Succor into a flat heal. Useful in a pinch, hence its name, and gives Scholar a chance at outputting fat heals. Chain Stratagem (Lvl 66): Where Scholar’s RDPS comes from. Applies a debuff to a target that increases the chance they receive critical hits from all allies hitting it by 10% for 15 seconds. Multiple of these cannot be applied to the same boss, and will overlap. Keep in mind its 120 second cooldown as it is crucial to getting better at Scholar! Recitation (Lvl 74): Your next Succor, Adloquium, Excogitation, or Indomitability will always crit. In the case of Succor and Adlo, they will also not cast mana. In the case of Excog and Indom, they will not require an aetherflow stack. Mostly used to cast excog/indom through a double weave, and is immensely useful to make healing easier. 90 second cooldown.

To build off of my last point of resources, it’s high time to introduce two of Scholar’s best friends: Eos and Selene! Eos and Selene, as per SCH’s Arcanist base, are the pets for this job. Unlike carbuncles and egis, they do not deal damage, but instead use their actions to heal, and are crucial to Scholar’s gameplay. Also like the other pets, their action potencies scale differently as opposed to the player’s. For example, Eos/Selene’s Whispering Dawn skill has a listed regen potency of 120, meanwhile WHM’s Medica II regen has a listed potency of 100. One would think that Whispering Dawn would tick for more than Medica II, but through my testing, it is only about 86.8% as effective (due to number variation in FFXIV, this percentage is subject to change). The factor in which pet scaling affects your fairy’s heal is about 64%. With that little disclaimer out of the way, the Faeries’ kits are as follows:

Embrace (Lvl 1): A 150 (96 with pet scaling) potency single-target heal. This is what your fairy will do with its free time. Whispering Dawn (Lvl 20): A 120 potency regen over 21 seconds (537 potency heal in total with pet-scaling). Due to FFXIV’s server ticks, HoT’s and DoT’s hit every 3 seconds, and as such, WD translates to about 840 potency (in terms of your pet’s scaling that is). This ability is activated by the player as an OGCD. Fey Illumination (Lvl 40): A buff that reduces magic damage taken by all allies in range by 5% and increases their healing received by 10%. Lasts 20 seconds. Dissipation (Lvl 60): Munch on your Fairy to gain 3 aetherflow charges and +20% healing magic. This does NOT AFFECT THE POTENCY OF YOUR OGCD HEALING. Your fairy will automatically respawn after the 30 second duration. Aetherpact & Fey Union (Lvl 70): Designate an ally as an OGCD to form a tether between them and your fairy. Your Fairy gauge will then deplete by 10 every 3 seconds to apply a 400 potency (256 potency with pet scaling) heal. This tether will break after the target is 15 yalms away, if you cancel it by using aetherpact again, or if you use another fairy skill. Fey Blessing (Lvl 76): As an OGCD, spend 10 Fairy Gauge to have your Fairy perform an aoe heal of 350 potency (224 potency with pet scaling). Summon Seraph (Lvl 80): As an OGCD, replace your fairy with Seraph. Embrace now becomes Seraphic Veil, a 200 potency (128 potency heal with pet scaling) heal + shield. Consolation (Lvl 80): Essentially Fey Blessing, but only available during Seraph. Heals for 300 potency (192 potency with pet scaling), and shields for the same amount. Has 2 charges per every Seraph summon, and the shield stacks with your own shields as well as a nocturnal Astro’s shields.

Now that those are out of the way, you must be thinking, “The fuck is fairy gauge and aetherflow?” Well, I’m glad you asked, as they’re both intrinsically tied to each other! Starting at level 70, every time you spend an aetherflow stack, you gain 10 fairy gauge, pretty simple, yea? As for aetherflow itself, every 60 seconds you can cast the skill named, well, Aetherflow, to gain 3 stacks of it and recover 1000 MP. These Aetherflow stacks can be used on the following OGCD abilities:

Lustrate (Lvl 45): A 600 potency heal. Very straightforward, and often not used because of the value of the other options. Energy Drain (Lvl 45): A 100 potency damaging OGCD. If you don’t need to heal, and you don’t think you need to heal for a bit, this is your go-to aetherflow dump. Also, if you’re attempting parses on Scholar, have fun using all your aetherflow on this. Sacred Soil (Lvl 50): Create a bubble that reduces damage taken by all allies inside by 10% for 15 seconds. At level 78 this upgrades to offer a 100 potency heal (500 potency heal in total). Only costing 1 aetherflow gauge, having a 30 second cooldown, and lasting 15 seconds, this skill is INCREDIBLY GOOD, especially after the level 78 upgrade. Indomitability (Lvl 52): A 400 potency AoE heal. Straightforward, but very effective because of its numbers. Excogitation (Lvl 62): An 800 potency heal that triggers when the target falls under 50% HP, or if its 45 second duration ends. While it feels awkward to use for beginners, its usefulness is immeasurable. It is technically a higher potency version of Lustrate, with a slight cooldown and delay, but fills a more ‘fire-forget’ niche. Very useful inside of all settings but remember, it will not proc if the target will outright die to the damage before it triggers (i.e if a tank takes a tankbuster at 51% health, and the hit does 60%, excog will not proc.)

[ Gameplay, Tips and Design ]

Scholar, as I have stated, fills the role of a preemptive healer, especially with all of the mitigation present in its kit, as well as the existence of Excog. As such, this job sees a greater increase in effectiveness as you yourself learn a fight compared to a pure healer such as WHM/Diurnal AST. If you know when the party/raid-wide damage is coming, and you prepare accordingly with... Say, A sacred soil and a succor, that is a good chunk of damage you or your co-healer won’t have to heal, thus affording both of you more time to deal damage. Inside of higher end content, like savage raids, having said mitigation is both invaluable for progressing through fights, as well as streamlining and perfecting them. For a while, because of that fact, SCH was the unofficial ‘king’ of healers for a very long time, especially considering there used to be a lot more damage inside of SCH’s kit (rest in peace almost everything that made it unique lol). The start of Shadowbringers was when SCH was finally taken off of its throne, not by AST like many would think (also because it took quite the hit), but by WHM of all things. Thankfully through a series of buffs since 5.0, SCH would begin to see themselves slowly climb back and situate in a comfortable position, but while Scholar is in a good spot now, that does not mean it’s perfect.

Scholar’s ability to heal pure HP is a bit lacking, especially so when dealing with attacks that place the party or specific players at 1 hp. SCH’s find themselves having to use multiple resources in trying to recover that lost HP, often losing much more damage uptime in comparison to WHM or AST (Which is why the ideal healing composition involves 1 pure healer and 1 shield healer). This usage of multiple resources also makes SCH a fair bit more punishing to inexperienced healers than AST or WHM. With the HP recovery of fairies being nerfed in Shadowbringers, much more of the agency is placed back upon the player, who in turn must pay attention to everything that the class has to offer. Obviously not all content is going to necessitate OPTIMAL PLAY, but with all the moving parts present within its kit, Scholar demands a bit more attention to be paid towards it and its skills.

Outside of a learning curve and lack of pure healing, Scholars are punished heavily for dying. Not only must they spend a GCD in resummoning their fairy, all fairy gauge and aetherflow stacks are also lost on death, and if aetherflow was on cooldown at the time, A SCH is going to not have a majority of their kit for awhile on top of having reduced healing due to weakness/brink of death. This once again lends itself to Scholar being less beginner-friendly as opposed to the other healers, even with the existence of freebie heals from your fairy.

Hell, speaking about fairies, therein lies an issue itself - Scholar being a pet class. Conceptually it’s awesome, but with how FFXIV handles pets/demi-summons and their AI, it’s also quite the hassle. Like I mentioned above, ghosting is a problem when it comes to pet classes, and if you don’t properly adjust around it, some of your cooldowns can simply just go poof. Weaving both Whispering Dawn and Fey Illumination in the same double weave will cause the one that’s cast later to cast quite a bit later. On top of that, if you’re moving while you’re weaving them, there’s a chance you’ll have to wait for the fairy to catch up to you to finally cast them (which is why placing your fairy pre-battle is very useful). And as a general rule of thumb, never use summon seraph right after you use Whispering Dawn or Fey Illumination. Wait until after you see the buff apply on everyone as using Seraph will cancel the queued action.

With all that being said, however Scholar is still highly effective in what it does, it just requires a bit of experience. While I can’t offer tutorials on every fight, there are a few general tips I can give for aspiring scholars out there!

[ Tips ]

(General Advice + Combos)

Double weaving on Scholar is rather straightforward, but if you're using Ruin II to do so after your Broil, it will be a technical DPS loss if you do not use an energy drain within the weave window! Broil III has a potency of 290, Ruin II has a potency of 200, and Energy Drain has a potency of 100. In weaving without the use of energy drain, you will lose 90 potency in comparison to if you were to cast another Broil III. Using Energy Drain will add another 100 potency, thus gaining you 10 potency overall. Of course you shouldn't always dump an aetherflow on energy drain when you're weaving, but it is something to keep in mind when you are aiming to do more damage!

- Healing Combos -

[Single Target] If you are AoE'ing, replace ruin II/Biolysis with Art of War!

[AoE Mitigation] (Shield + 5% magic damage mitigation + 10% all damage mitigation)

[Panic AoE Healing] (1029 potency AoE Healing) As a bonus little tip in regards to this, remember Scholar's AoE healing spell/ability priority! The above combo is when you cannot afford time for a regen, but if you can, follow this list. 1. Whispering Dawn (if you can afford time for the regen) 2. Fey Blessing 3. Sacred Soil (if you can afford time for the regen) 4. Indomitability 5. Succor + Emergency Tactics 6. Succor

Scholars luckily have a wonderful mobility tool in Ruin II which allows them to position easily, though at the cost of DPS. However, this loss is minimal compared to its cohorts, wherein WHM either has to clip their Dia or use a lily, and AST either has to use Lightspeed, or slowly shuffle over with Malefics. This makes Scholar a bit easier to navigate when learning fights! Don't be afraid to use Ruin II if you're looking to push for a clear or learn a mechanic better, as a dead scholar is worse than one that is losing dps.

A crucial part of Scholar's kit is actually Chain Stratagem. While it loses much of its usefulness in public groups, or those who do not exactly care for proper rotations, when you can coordinate buffs and opening combos, it provides a large boost in DPS for the whole party. Typically, the ideal time to use Chain Stratagem is upon your 4th GCD, and everytime it comes off cooldown after, but this can change depending on your group. Here is an example 4th GCD Chain opener.

(Dungeons)

While AoE’ing mob packs, you can keep your focus target on the tank. It will make it much easier to heal them in a pinch.

Sacred Soil is essentially a free 15 second long cooldown for the tank, that ALSO heals at level 78 and above. It’s very, very useful.

Using Excog and adlo between pulls will allow you to spend more time AoE’ing mobs

Don’t forget about your fairy skills, especially fey union. Lazy mode is using fey union after whispering dawn, fey illumination and sacred soil and then proceeding to press art of war until the cows come home.

(Trials/Raid)

Recitation + Excog on your main tank pre-pull. Many use recitation+Adlo and then spread the shield with deployment tactics, but you don’t need to use recitation for that! Catalyze is the bonus shielding a crit adlo creates, and cannot be spread. Therefore save your recitation for a free excog and use a normal adlo+deployment tactics afterwards.

Please, please, PLEASE, if you are in a static or raid environment, make sure you allies stand in Sacred Soil when they can. It makes all of your lives easier.

Pre-placing your fairy in the center of the arena is a good habit to get in, but if you need your fairy AoE’s while you’re away from the center, make sure to press heel on your fairy hotbar to make it follow you again.

[Design]

Outside of all that, there is a collection of miscellaneous things that I do want to prattle off in relation to this category, mostly being some design choices and ideas I had for the class going forward. So, let’s begin!

Why does Fey Blessing not become Consolation when you have Seraph out? They are essentially the same thing, and you CAN’T EVEN USE FEY BLESSING WHEN YOU HAVE SERAPH OUT. WHY IS FEY BLESSING AND CONSOLATION SEPARATE BUTTONS. ANSWER ME SQUARE ENIX, TELL ME WHY.

There should be another way to dump Fairy gauge. It would make the system a bit more interactive (A lot like how lilies got an AoE version as well as Afflatus misery with SHB).

We should be able to cancel fey union in the middle of a cast. Breaking the tether does not have an animation nor any animation lockout, and in my eyes is technically not an OGCD. With this change, cancelling fey union can be done on the fly and not require a weave so as to not lose uptime.

The delay upon shield application is a tad annoying, especially so in the use of deployment tactics. Sometimes, if you cast too late, the boss’ Aoe will eat the heal, but not the shield. And in the case of the latter, if you use deployment tactics too quickly, you’ll spread nothing.

Bring back fairy uniqueness ;-;

[ Final Evaluation ]

Now comes time for my final grading.

Going forward with these Class Analyses, I will grade the class upon a set of categories unique to their role (DPS, Tank, Healer). As such, in my grading of Scholar, I will judge it based on the following categories, on a scale of F-S:

Damage (Personal) - The damage they bring to the table by themselves. Damage (Raid setting) - The damage they bring based upon their RDPS potential Accessibility - How easy is it to pick up and play? Mitigation - How well can they prevent damage? Healing - How well can they heal damage? Fun - Well, is it fun? Fantasy fulfillment - Does it fit the class aesthetics/lore?

Damage (Personal) [7] - While not as powerful alone as White Mage, Scholar is not entirely dependent upon team mates for damage like Astrologian.

Damage (Raid Setting) [8] - The addition of chain stratagem to Scholar’s already decent damage takes that one extra step beyond.

Accessibility [4] - Starts as a DPS in Arcanist, has many unique functions and is punished heavily if they die in the middle of a battle.

Mitigation [10] - They’re the originator of shield healers, and definitely keep the crown. Sacred soil is always going to be ridiculous.

Healing [6.5] - Scholar’s pure healing is a bit lacking, but with Square’s fight design, any healer should be able to make it through a fight. Therefore, I cannot rate Scholar all too low in this category.

Fun [7.5, almost 8] - Keeps you engaged, but lacks the pizzazz of Astro and the oomph of White Mage. Still a fun class at the end of the day, though!

Fantasy Fulfillment [9] - As tactical geniuses in the lore, the feel of Scholar gameplay fits that ideal! Through your mitigation, pre-planned abilities, and setting up of fairy abilities, you definitely feel like a tactician controlling the flow of battle, though it does falter a bit with a lot of their old options being removed in SHB.

[ End ]

And with that, we are done with this analysis! As for my personal conjecture with Scholar, it’s one of my mains, and used to be my go to raid healer, that is until my static needed a bit more upfront healing for e12s prog awhile back. If you were to look at my FFlogs, you’d probably see an absolute deluge of WHM parses since it’s uhh... Kinda technically my new healer main, but I still love SCH I swear! Another thing that made me switch from SCH to WHM was the inclusion of a DRK in our static. The ability to instantly remove Walking Dead with one button is so much easier than blowing cooldowns on both healers. Though, technically, from a savage perspective, the highest damage team setup is SCH + AST (Mostly because boosting teammate damage will always do more than just being good yourself, especially this late in the tier).

Anywho... This is the REAL end of the analysis. Hope you enjoyed and if you have any suggestions, questions or things to address, just comment and let me know!

Yabi, out~

#ffxiv #ooc #guide #Scholar #Class Analyses

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kristinee · 4 years

Text

New Girl (Pt.2)

Pairing: JJ Maybank x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, weed

Word Count: 1.4K

Summary: It was about time for you to go and hang out with the Pogues, it was so nice to be invited and even if you were excited to be around them all, you couldn’t keep your eye off of one.

A/N: I couldn’t be more happy that the first part was so well received. I hope you guys enjoy this as well :)

You woke up this morning more excited than ever. It was your time to make an amazing first impression with some pretty cool people. Although you had just met yesterday there was some kind of comfort you felt with them that you didn’t quite have before with your other friends...To be fair, those other friends treated you poorly, you were left out of most things they did until they needed you. Whether it be to give them a ride on a beer run or use your house for parties while your dad worked nights trying to make ends meet. It wasn’t entirely your best judgement but it got them to hang out with you, maybe there wasn’t a need for you to miss home.

Anyway that wasn’t what today was about. The phrase went through your head about a billion times but you had to keep reminding yourself that this was a fresh start. And to have a good start you needed a cute outfit to do it in. Even if it wasn’t a big deal it was the little things that mattered right now so you put something on and went to the kitchen to search for leftovers or something to eat for breakfast but instead found your dad cooking.”You seem to be pretty perky.” you said in a goofy tone, mocking what he said to you yesterday. “Well I thought I’d cook up one of my famous breakfasts for our first real morning out here.” He motioned his hand to the window while holding his spatula. “And I see I’m not the only one excited, you're already dressed to go out.” You laughed as you reached across the counter to grab a piece of bacon. “Just remember to clean up the deck before you leave and I’ll consider letting you come home after dark.”

It was a tempting offer so you decided to go for it, it'd buy you some time at John B’s to possibly talk to JJ. You know you just met but what would a little harmless flirting do.

A few hours go by of cleaning and watching TV with your dad when you hear a knock at the door. “I’ll get it.” You stand up from the couch to open the door, you’re greeted by the group of five. Kiara standing in front with a styrofoam container. “This is for your dad from my dad. He insisted on sending over some fine Outer Banks cuisine to the new residents.” She handed it to you and you set it on the counter before giving your dad a hug goodbye.

You walked out your front door to see an old van parked in the driveway. “So is the Mystery Machine (A/N: you get it because the van and scooby doo and mystery solving, okay that was the whole joke, back to the story) of The Cut?” they laughed at the reference you made as JJ held open the door for everyone to hop in. “Ladies first” which you assumed was the same plot he had as yesterday as the boat but you didn’t mind as much this time. You took a seat on the floor next to Pope and chatted with him while you took a short ride to John B’s. “So do you guys usually do this everyday?” you decided to ask him since he seemed to be quiet but observant. “Well John B lives on his own, JJ’s dad could care less, Kie is supposed to be a kook but she doesn’t really listen to her parents, Sarah has kind of persuaded hers into thinking she’s perfect, and they basically steal me from my house everyday so I guess it's just kind of become routine.” It was a straightforward answer for sure.

Walking into the house was an experience for sure. It seemed to be the perfect place for any teens to hang out. Even if it was a tad messy there wasn’t anyone there telling you what to do so you’d take what you can get. Hopefully this is where you’d be spending your summer from now on. You texted your dad to let him know you were safe.

“And welcome to your home for today, the fridge is mostly empty except maybe a couple beers, and the bathroom is to the left.” You looked around as John B spoke to get more of a feel for the place. “Soooo what do you guys usually do for fun around here?” You walked through the small house to look at the backyard to see JJ already pulling out a pre-roll, putting it to his lips. There was something about this that had you memorized. “Oh so that’s what you do around here. I’ve actually never smoked before.” You had laughed at the end of your statement because you had forever been surrounded by people who did it but never bothered to try it although it piqued your interest. “Would you mind if I tried taking a hit?” JJ’s blue eyes shifted to look at you and back at the blunt. “You gotta slow down Y/N. You have to let me school you in the art of a perfect inhale.” You sat next to him on the porch swing, your body turned towards him as he began his lesson of the day. “So of course you pick it up, like so. Wrap your lips around the tip.” As he looked at you, he winked at his own innuendo. “And then you gotta take a nice breath in, not too long or else you’ll cough up a lung.” He paused for a few seconds and took it from his lips. “It’s a little hard to talk with smoke in your mouth but I recommend taking in a bit of extra air just to really soak in this lovely substance.” His eyes were watering a little from the burn until he exhaled a large cloud. You decided to take in less since it was the first time. You weren’t sure where this impulse came from but you were enjoying it as you exhaled, with only a couple coughs.

Kiara came back out on the porch with a couple drinks “Wow, she’s a natural.” her hand reaching out to yours so she could get her fair share of the high. “I mean my friends always did it when I was around and I think I know why.” You felt more relaxed than you had been in a while.

Little time had passed before John proposed the idea of you guys go on the boat so you could swim and drink out on the water. “Hey Kiara, do you think I could borrow a bikini? I didn’t bring one with me.” You felt a little weird asking her since you had just met but you were lucky she practically lived here and kept a bag of extra clothes. You decided on a really nice maroon bikini she admitted she didn’t really want anymore. You put it on under your clothes and gathered with the others on the boat.

They had already cracked open drinks and turned on music, I guess they just lived an eternal spring break here.

Everyone else was already ready to swim and you were the only one who had clothes on so you decided to follow suit with everyone else. You took off the outfit you had, feeling a little self conscious until you saw JJ looking “Hey Kiara, this looks better on Y/N than it did you.” He awaited his punishment and plugged his nose before she shoved him in the water. “Shouldn’t have said it. No offense Y/N” Pope spoke up, you could tell he liked Kie...The night went on with the little party and swimming like planned and of course a little more progress with JJ and you eventually got a text from your dad telling you that he had a long day so he’d be going to sleep early so he’d count on you to be home at a reasonable time. It was never something he’d said before. It had always been a “be home before dark scenario” hmm.

It was about time for everyone to go so you dropped off Kie and Pope and went to the figure eight to drop Sarah off until John B said something “You know I think I’m just gonna go with Sarah, you wouldn’t mind just dropping the boat off and staying at my house after you drop on Y/N right?” JJ looked at John B, then you, at Sarah, back at you and then John B. “Uhh yeah that's fine man. I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll make sure to get our new little friend here gets home” He smiled at you. If anything could possibly make the night any better. This would be it.

Ahhh Part 2. I’m debating on whether the next part should be 2.5 or just 3. As always, give me feedback. I hope you're all safe and healthy. I didn’t edit take much time to edit but I hope it is still up to your expectations <3

Let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist and request. I write for all characters. Fluff or smut so just let me know

Tags: @k-k0129 @treestarrrrrrrr

#obx #outerbanks #outer banks netflix #outerbanksedit #outerbanks imagine #jj maybank #jj maybank x reader #johnb #sarah cameron #kiara carrera #pope heyward #jj maybank smut #john b routledge #topper thornton #jj obx #rafe cameron #outer banks smut #my writing

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doberbutts · 4 years

Text

Okay so this is going to get long and more than a little bit tmi but it’s a post summing up some strides I’ve made regarding my own transgender journey and I wanted a place to talk about it and maybe help some BabyTrans figure themselves out along the way so I’m putting it under the cut but it’ll go here >:V

Anyway long story short my insurance settlement from my car accident finally figured itself out and I found myself suddenly $30k richer and immediately spent about $10k of that digging myself out of a very deep debt hole I’ve been wallowing in for a while so now I have some actual financial stability plus have some money to throw at some things that would probably make my life a bit better.

And since I have the money to throw at some things, I bought myself a few new binders and also a packer. Binders because my old one was literally disintegrating- part of that is my fault, washing binders in an industrial machine on high heat plus throwing it in the dryer means your binder falls apart faster than it should. Remember I’m from the very end of Ye Olden Days of transmasc products, which means previously most binders lasted a year at most. My binder made it 2.5 years before giving up and becoming a sports bra instead. I’ve learned from my mistakes and treat my binder(s) much more gently now, plus I have more than one so I can rotate them out and not wear the same binder 8-12 hours daily for 2.5 years and kill it doing exactly the same shit.

For reference sake, I’m 5′10′’, 180lbs, 36C bust, and fit a XL from gc2b. Which is who I bought both my previous binder and my current set from. They are low cost, lightweight, well made, and LGBT-owned and operated which makes me super into buying from them instead of some of the other companies offering something similar.

Being that I am biracial and finding something my skintone is always somewhat... interesting... I followed the internet’s suggestion and went with PeeCock for the packer. I’d bought a zip binder from them a few years ago and actually found that to be the most comfortable binder I’ve ever used in the history of ever, but I will say the durability of zip binders is low compared to pull-over binders in my experience, as the zipper exploded one day when I bent down to pick up a small dropped item. I’d had the binder and was rotating its use with my pullover gc2b for about 6 months when this happened, and was in public when I went from flat chested to big uncontained tiddies in the span of seconds. Not great. I’ve been told that probably means it was a little too small for me, but PeeCock is a company based in Singapore, and their sizes like most East Asian clothing do run quite a bit small (I was a XXL in PeeCock sizes when I wore a size L gc2b binder) so there’s not really a lot of wiggle room for me to go up in size. Additionally their sizing taps out at XXXL so anyone who’s bigger than me in the chest/torso is a bit out of luck for their binders. A shame, because that zip binder was so comfortable I fell asleep in it forgetting I even had it on more than once.

Anyway. Since I did like that binder even though we had the wardrobe mishap, and the internet had pretty good reviews on the PeeCock packers because they are multifunctional and actually make correct skin tones for black dudes, I got one. Since money wasn’t an issue I did get the most recent model which was not cheap (~$300) and so far I like it a lot. I got so used to wearing it that when I take it off to clean it, it actually really bothers me. The weight of it is... comforting, in a way.

HOWEVER I did see a bunch of reviews about how I would be super likely to pee on myself the first time using it and then used it and went “wow I don’t have any idea what you guys are talking about this is easy” aaaaand... then peed on myself by accident. Gotta control your stream or things are going to overflow and you’re going to be really sad. And wet. And stinky. Thankfully I had the forethought to practice at home before actually doing this at work/public restrooms but be warned. Being that this is my first one I can’t say if this is common with all packers however I told several of my transmasc friends that do pack and use STP about this experience and they all assured me they did the exact same thing on and off for the first couple weeks and most of them do not have the same brand. We’ve yet to have a repeat at least?

Plus there’s a little attachment rod so I can use it for sexy times with the boyf and also feel what I’m doing to him so there’s that too. 10/10 A+ experience would recommend. The packaging warns you to be careful how you pack because of the way the silicone works, and your partner cannot be on top or ride you, so keep that in mind if you’re considering it. Cleaning is pretty straightforward however and packing feels correct and natural as long as you follow a few rules:

I’ve discovered that whatever size you consider a perfect fit? Unless you like really relaxed fit for your pants, you’ll need to go a size up. I wear tighter clothing and usually skinny jeans at that, and my exact perfect size has been 34/32 for some time now. When packing I need to go up to 36/32 because otherwise wow that crotch is way too tight. I can’t sit down in one of my pairs of jeans and I’m legit sad about it. I also can’t have anything in the pockets of a different pair of jeans or else I have the same tight crotch problem. I went up a size in underwear and that was more comfortable, so I ordered new pants from online and I’ll see if that helps as much as I’m expecting it too.

Speaking of underwear, ymmv, but I genuinely did not expect this. Jockstraps? Super comfy, super durable, and super convenient. Additionally unlike boxers or even briefs, I don’t need a special packing-specific design to be comfortable in one. I never wore one before and honestly this doesn’t even feel like wearing underwear. They’re really just a banana hammock anyway so that’s probably a large part of it, but honestly I would definitely recommend trying them if you haven’t yet. I do have a few pairs of packing briefs and boxers, as well as normal briefs and boxers, and I’ve been alternating between the various types of undies to see which ones I prefer, but I already know my decision so I bought several because I can. One word of advice, though... if your pants ride down understand that your entire butt will be out. I don’t wear low rise pants because they draw too much attention to my waistline and make me super dysphoric, but those that do, watch out.

Jockmail is highly rated and multiple transmasc websites recommend them for packing and I can absolutely see why. Usually the waistband of my underwear irritates my skin and so I was dubious because Jockmail stuff- being that it’s for athletic wear- has a minimum waistband of about 2in... but it’s actually more comfortable and less irritating, rather than the other way around. They also have briefs, boxers (more like short shorts), and boxer briefs, which I also have of the same brand, but... not as comfy. Once again Jockmail is a Hong Kong company so like all East Asian clothes, they run small. I’m a M in most men’s clothing sizes... I am XXL in Jockmail. I also had purchased a brief harness from PeeCock (goes by inches for waist) as well. (Also where I discovered you need to go a size up- I bought a 34in waist brief from PeeCock and it’s a tad tight. I bought a 36in waist brief from Jockmail and it’s perfect. I have been buying 34in waist things for the past few years now- I didn’t suddenly gain 2 inches at the waist, I did suddenly gain a need for a deeper crotch)

If you look down your body from above it will be super obvious that there is a dick there and you will go “oh god I look like I have an erection”. I have been reliably informed that it is actually not true and if you pack correctly a bulge will be there but not so obvious that it looks like you have a raging hardon the whole time. Better to look in the mirror, rather than down your tummy.

(Additionally I voiced my doubts to my boyf who immediately reminded me that most people don’t spend their time staring at someone’s crotch and as long as I wasn’t constantly messing with mine, no one was likely to notice even if I did have an obnoxiously obvious bulge. He then gave me some tips on how to let it hang if I wanted a “natural” look, and when we walked around while I had it on he made sure to check in on my mental health. He’s cute y’all.)

Some (cis) guys will have a specific leg they like to let things hang against. Some switch it up. Some are okay with it hanging straight down provided there’s not a lot of squish happening. Find what feel comfortable and needs the least amount of adjustment for you, and then stick with that. For me, I’ve found straight down or off to the left feels better- a friend of mine prefers off to the right, another straight down only, etc. Also can depend on the size- some (cis) guys I know are a bit smaller down below and are more comfortable with straight down than those with larger weiners.

If you pack you probably need to shave. I was very uncomfortable until I shaved. Now I feel much better packing. So trim that jungle or else you might feel a pinch every few minutes when a hair gets pulled.

And there you have me this morning before I got dressed. As you can see, both fit very nicely. I’m not particularly happy with my stomach or feminine hip set but eh, I cover those with layers and no one bats an eye.

At this point it’s figuring out the whole hormones thing, yelling at my insurance to cover certain surgeries, and... fixing some minor details with my wardrobe... and I’m feeling way more confident than I was a few years ago.

Anyway if anyone has questions feel free to hit me up

#text post #shut up jazi

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howtodisassembleyourdeviant · 4 years

Text

Be My Garden of Eden Ch.3

I kinda screwed up. I didn't realize it, but I ended the last chapter too early, so this is more like ch. 2.5, but I'll just post it as it's own and call it good. I'm still new to Tumblr, and I have to use my phone, so if the format keeps changing or I do weird things, it's because I don't know what the f*ck I'm doing. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!!!

.....

He didn't want to disturb you, so he left, moving to the couch. Turning on the tv, he flipped through the channels, ensuring the volume was low. A cooking show popped up and he paused. An older woman promoting independence from androids giving step by step instructions on how to make crepes. He watched with rapt attention, the end result looks quite beautiful. It seemed simple enough.

An idea occurred to him. He moved to the kitchen, forming a list of ingredients he would need. He was... Giddy. He had never cooked before. It wasn't a program required for a sex android, particularly one from such a low-grade shack as Mimosa. He was happy to discover you were fully stocked, quickly finding all the items and tools he would require.

You awoke the next morning, a jarring sound waking you. Jumping up, you almost ran out without a top on, rushing to throw on your robe.

"Connor? Are you alright?" You looked around the living room, seeing no sign of the android. Hearing another banging sound, you rounded to the kitchen, peeking inside.

"Wow." You gaped. Your kitchen was an absolute mess. What looked like pancake batter was splattered everywhere, a large puddle on the floor, and from the skidmark in it, you'd guess the sound that woke you up was Connor falling. You could see the scorchmark around one of the burners, baking soda adding to the mess on the floor and counters. Good to know you could have burned to death in your sleep. The pan in question lay abandoned in the sink, doused in the white powder and still smoking a bit.

Connor stood by the stove, just as messy as your kitchen, batter all down the right side of his jeans. Guilt made him look far too much like a kicked puppy, head down with his doe-eyes staring up at you through his long lashes. Next to him was a plate of crepes, in various states, some looked undercooked, while others were completely burnt. The best looking ones were on a separate plate, topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

"I'm sorry, I promise I'll-"

"Looks tasty," you giggled. His eyes shifted up, "did you make it for me?" You gestured to the plate.

"Uh, y-yes, I did," stammering, he handed you the plate.

"Thank you," you grabbed a fork and moved to the small breakfast nook. He watched with bated breath as you took your first bite. He relaxed when you hummed happily.

"This is really good, thank you, Con!" You really were surprised, considering the mess. His cheeks tinted a light shade of blue. Was he... Is that how androids blush? It looks absolutely adorable on him.

"I'm happy you enjoy it," he beamed, solidifying his puppy appearance in your mind. If he had a tail, it'd be wagging. You're not sure what you're enjoying more, the food or the sight of the delighted android. It's definitely a great way to wake up in the morning.

You couldn't help but wonder if this is how couples felt in the company of their lover, but you quickly stopped that train of thought. He's not staying. You can't afford for him to stay, and even if you could, he would go to Canada to start a new life. Without you. Still, it's nice to dream.

You ate while he cleaned the mess. you offered to take over from there, since he did cook for you, but he adamantly denied. Letting you clean would completely undo what he was trying to do. Not to mention, he was certain that, at your height, you would not be able to reach the splatters on the roof. You laughed when you noticed. How did he even manage that?

"You might want to clean yourself up as well," you jested, trying not to laugh at how the crepe mix kept dripping from his hair onto anything he was cleaning. he glanced down at himself, seeming to have just noticed how filthy he was, grimacing. The showers at the club were more identical to high-pressure decontamination chambers and lately it's been bothering his synthetic skin. He tries not to be in there any longer than necessary, but this might take longer to remove. When he just stood there, you sighed.

"Come on, there's still a couple hours left," you dragged him to the shower, "just leave your clothes outside the door. Hope you don't mind my girly soaps," you chuckled as you shut the door.

He stood, baffled for a moment, before he scanned the bathroom. He often wondered if the other androids felt the need to scan a room every time they entered one, or if it was none of their concern. Still, he took in the multicolored bottles of various bathroom supplies, noting nothing of significance.

He began to strip, realizing he could see himself in the mirror. He looked over his body, seeing the many imperfections along his skin. They were healed as well as they could be, but there were still marks, synthetic skin raised in a similar way to scar tissue, but tinted in a way that hid them well, at least, until they were touched. The most recent one, a strike to his hip, was still healing, the white chassis visible. Tentatively, he touched it, flinching away from his own fingers as a jolt of unpleasant tingles shot out from the wound. Pain. Why could he feel pain? He tore his attention away from it, pushing his fear away. He can't think about it now. It was too… real. He can't make it real.

Connor turned his attention to his face, bringing up the memory of your painting. He looked similar to the man, but where the man's eyes held a sense of serenity, his own looked empty, devoid of something. How could you see anything in such a vacant stare?

Looking at himself, he finds, is ruining the illusion. He was making things real when all he wants to do is pretend that this was his life. That there was no outside world. No Club Mimosa. No humans using him as a sex toy. No owner beating him. Just him and you, watching cartoons. He turned away from the mirror.

Just him and you.

When he exited the shower, smelling wholly of you, something he quite enjoyed, he realized he had no clothes. You had taken them to be washed after he left them outside of the bathroom. He tried knocking on the door, but you didn't answer. You were a modest person, so he figured you would not appreciate him walking out naked. He took a towel, noting its small size, and wrapped it around his waist before walking out. After a quick search, he found you rummaging around your closet.

"Y/n?" You jumped.

"Shit! I didn't hear you…" your voice trailed off as you twirled to look at him, coming face to face with six-foot of dripping android, muscular chest bare for the world to see. Your cheeks flared and your mouth suddenly felt parched. You turned away, returning to your search. Connor would be lying if he said he didn't like how flustered you looked.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," your voice was a tad jittery.

After a moment, you called "Ah-Haa!" Holding up a large pair of sweatpants, far too large for yourself.

"Some of my last roommate's clothes were thrown in one of my moving boxes. They should fit you, at least until your clothes are done in the wash." You tossed him the sweats and a sweater you had already placed on the side, finally emerging from the closet. "You go ahead and get dressed, I gotta make a phone call." He nodded, watching as your cheeks flushed again while you made your exit.

The material was soft on his skin, and he didn't feel constricted as he had in his android labeled clothes. The sweater was quite large on him, but he liked it, how it hung off him, burying him in its softness. The odd stripes on it were rather jarring, but the individual pigments are pleasant.

"…later on tonight. Thanks." You hung up the phone. "Well, I can't afford another night, but you don't have to go running off once your clothes are done." He smiled. Just a little longer. He doesn't have to break the illusion just yet.

"Thank you," it was all he could think to say, but it didn't come anywhere close to how much he truly appreciated what you were doing for him.

"It's no problem. I wish I could offer you better," the last sentence was said under your breath as you looked away, towards the window. "Wanna see the fish? I forgot to feed them yesterday, so they must be quite hungry."

He wanted to tell you how much this time with you meant to him. Every moment cherished. If he had to suffer a thousand beatings just to get one more minute with you, it would be worth it. You made him feel different. You made him feel…

Alive.

But, even as the words burned his tongue in their desperation to leave his lips, he only smiled, following you to the backyard.

The afternoon was spent enjoying the early autumn sun, watching the brightly colored fish, dashing to their meal, or simply floating along, letting the food come to them. There were even a couple of turtles, sunning themselves on the rocks. It was tranquil, like a dream.

And like all dreams, he had to wake up sometime.

The setting sun marked his time to leave, exchanging the comfort of your sweater for his stiff android uniform. You gave him a pouch of thirium, figuring he could find a way to hide it, before hugging him. You held on so tightly, hands clinging to him harder than the last time. He held on for as long as he could before breaking away, feeling an ache in his chest.

#connor x reader #rk800 connor reader #connor reader #connor fanfiction #dbh #witchjules #am i doing it right?#detroit become human #rk800 reader #dbh au

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valerie · 3 years

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iPhone 12 Pro Max - impressions

New Post has been published on https://kiari.com/2020/11/iphone-12-pro-max-impressions/

iPhone 12 Pro Max - impressions

Yes, I have a new phone! At this writing, I’ve had it for about a week and boy, do I have some things to say about it.

First off, I LOVE IT. Second, it’s MASSIVE. Third, it’s expensive. Fourth, the PHOTOS ARE AMAZING. Fifth, read on for my regular person, non-expert review.

IPHONE 12 PRO MAX REVIEW

Specs on mine model: iPhone 12 Pro Max color: Pacific Blue storage: 512 GB

more info: https://www.apple.com/iphone-12-pro/specs/

iPhone 12 Pro Max, just opened

first impressions After rocking the smaller iPhone XS, it’s been a little strange going back to a larger phone. The 12 Pro Max is the biggest iPhone ever made and it’s taking me a bit of time to adjust. But oh, I’m adjusting. I waited the whole day on Friday the 13th for my phone to arrive and I was not disappointed.

I ordered the 512 GB Pacific Blue version and it’s GORGEOUS. Oh, and MASSIVE. The screen is so easy on the eyes and I’m finding that I don’t need my readers as much while using the phone (yes, getting old sucks). The phone is very responsive and my apps work as they should, maybe (probably) with a tad more zip.

I still had my XS on hand so I was able to basically clone my apps and many of my settings to the new phone. So I have a phone that is new and fast but also familiar with the placement of the apps and such. I’ll probably change things around when I’ve figured out more stuff but for now, having the familiar layout makes it easier to compare to the older phone.

camera I was TEMPTED by the iPhone 12 Pro but I wanted the best camera and the larger display. When the phones were announced, I told myself I could wait wait even as people I knew were buying the iPhone 12 Pro. I watched the tech reviews and asked myself if it was necessary to buy the biggest (and consequently most expensive phone). For me, the answer was yes. And I am very glad I waited.

The camera takes AMAZING photos. Coming from the XS, there’s a substantial leap when it comes to the camera and photo quality. The XS takes fantastic pictures but the 12 Pro Max shots are rather glorious. I really dig the ultra wide and the 2.5x zoom, which I did not have on the XS. It bums me a little that I didn’t have this phone when we went camping but I’ll get over it.

1.0 zoom

0.5x ultra wide zoom

2.5 x zoom

portrait mode, main camera

portrait mode, main camera 2.5x

battery I am going to try not to stress out about the battery, as I have in the past. I’m the kind who likes it at 100% for as long as possible but I know that’s not healthy for the phone. Or so I’ve read. I think I’ll just charge it here and there during the work day but not to take it to 100%. (Though it doesn’t look like I could take it to 100% if I wanted by plugging in to the computer. I think charging that way must be super slow.) Ideally, I wouldn’t charge it and maybe I can get myself trained to not micromanage the battery life. We shall see.

So far I went through one work day without charging it but the rest of the time, I’ve charged it for a couple of hours after lunch.

other stuff With my previous phone, I used an Otterbox case with a Popsocket on the back. I loved the convenience of that Popsocket but right now, I am just rocking an ESR case. After watching a scratch test, I went ahead and installed the screen protector that came with my case. So far, so good! But I do miss the Popsocket just a bit. I’m thinking of getting the Otterbox case with the Popsocket integrated into it. There’s a clear case so I can still show off the pretty Pacific Blue of my phone. For now, I think I’ll save the money and just use my ESR case and see how it goes without the Popsocket.

my phone in the ESR case… for now…

The Pro Max is a 5G enabled phone but good luck finding 5G! At this rate, 5G in your device is more about future proofing than actual practical use. That said, I did see that 5G on my phone when we were in Walnut Creek, coincidentally at the Apple Store. The speeds were all right, nothing too fancy. LTE works fast enough right now and unless you live in those cities that have actual 5G and your carrier has it enabled, I wouldn’t recommend buying a phone just because of 5G.

The Pro Max is expensive, especially in the configuration I purchased, but if you play your cards right (have a device to trade, find a deal), you can figure out a way to buy it. Is the extra money worth the bigger screen and better camera? For me, yes, absolutely. For you? Maybe not. But here’s some advice I heard from somewhere– when it’s time to buy a phone (or whatever device), buy the best one you can buy. To me, this means the newest and best equipped for my needs. I can justify the cost but maybe you can’t and that is cool. To each their own.

the iPhone 12 line up

I’ve held the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Mini and those two phones are pretty sweet. I love that there are so many choices in the iPhone line up and if you like iPhones, you can have whatever size you want. You really can’t go wrong with any of the iPhone 12 lineup (unless of course you just don’t like iPhones).

the iPhone 12 Mini does fit rather nicely in the hand

I should mention that I was also very seriously tempted by both the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G. I was especially tempted by the Galaxy Z Fold2 5G after touching it at Best Buy. I really would have loved that phone but I think the technology and hardware are still too new for me to plunk down so much money. Maybe in two or three years, I will consider a switch back to Android. Then again, maybe in two or three years, Apple will have tried their hand at foldables.

parting words The iPhone 12 Pro Max is a huge phone and not for the faint of heart. If I didn’t care so much for having the best camera– however a small improvement over the next model– I would have probably gotten the iPhone 12 Pro. The 12 Pro Max is not for everyone but it’s definitely for me. I’m actually glad to be back on a large phone but I need to re-learn how to hold it so that I don’t drop it. So far, so good. (Fingers crossed!)

I can’t say I’ll miss the iPhone XS but I will say that we made some great memories. It was a great phone, the one I called “Your Grace.” We had great adventures, exchanged messages with lovely people, and took so many pictures and videos. Maybe I’ll miss the smaller feel of the device?

Thanks for the memories, iPhone XS

I recommend the iPhone 12 Pro Max if you like larger phones and iOS in general. For me, the phone is a definite upgrade from the XS so if you have that phone or older, the iPhone 12 line is certainly one to consider if you’re thinking of upgrading. The camera is amazing and the OS is zippy

Now I will post a few too many photos to show off the loveliness of the camera of the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Can’t go wrong with Guinness…

portrait mode in the evening – WEAR YOUR MASK!

loving that ultra wide

stuff on my desk

autumn colors, using that ultra wide…

If you’d like to read my other regular person, non-expert reviews, you can find them as follows:

iPhone 5 review – https://kiari.com/2012/09/iphone-5-first-impressions/ iPhone 6 Plus review – https://kiari.com/2015/02/do-you-think-its-easy/ (bits and pieces) iPhone 7 Plus review – https://kiari.com/2017/03/twitl-week-ten-iphone-7-plus/ iPhone XS review – https://kiari.com/2018/10/twitl-week-forty-two-rockin-the-iphone-xs/

#iphone #tech freak chick

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inkofamethyst · 3 years

Text

October 24, 2020

Is it wrong for me to try to rationalize why I haven’t had a significant other by the age of nineteen? Like, am I doing more harm than good to myself? Or is this s neutral/positive coping mechanism of some sort? Like, in general, I think I’m pretty secure with the fact that I’ve never had a boyfriend, but I don’t know if it’s because I’ve rationalized the reason to myself by putting myself down or if it’s because I am simply content with my romantic timeline.

Hhhhhh So I haven’t bought the black wool skirt quite yet and that’s because the waist is measured to be 26″. Now, my optimal waist measurement is 26.5-27″ (13.25-13.5″ flat), and I’m not sure if a 26″ waist would end up being too small. Now, I could get luck again like I did with the brown skirt, and this one could fit just fine, but there’s no guarantee it will. Now, I do have a sewing machine, and I’ve even been thinking that 29.5″ was a bit too long in length for me liking, so I could probably alter the waist size by cutting a ~2.5″ strip of fabric off the bottom, cutting the length from that strip that I’d need for the waistband, seam-ripping off the original waistband then adding my new waistband slightly lower on the skirt (it looks like a circle skirt in the (you guessed it) one picture provided) which should give me a tad bit more room. I’ll probably use hook and eye closures on it (possibly from the original waistband) after I sew it all up. that plan sounds solid, doesn’t it? I suppose I’ll have to be careful if there’s a zipper involved.

And you know what? If it turns out that I do have to tear into the skirt a bit, why don’t I just add some pockets while I’m at it, you know? Decisions, decisions. I’ll see what the seams look like first. I do think I’ll buy it tonight though. My three week no-personal-shopping thing was over October 21, but I hadn’t planned anything to buy on that day, so by this point I’m nearing halfway through my next set of three weeks.

Speaking of wool garments, I’m thinking of selling those wool pants I got on Depop last month. I don’t feel comfortably trying to repair all the holes in them, and the insides are slightly itchy despite having a lining. I’ll probably sell them on Poshmark and uhhh well, I’ll likely upcharge on them. I bought them for ~$16, so I think I’ll sell them for ~$25 or so. Besides, the folks on Poshmark expect to pay a little bit more than they probably should. Or maybe I’ll just throw the pants out. I’m not completely sure yet.

Life hack: Stay in your room all day without getting something to eat and your mom will be worried ad will being you a chicken patty with kiwi and chips (no bread tho lol). yes i know this is unhealthy but i literally did not get hungry today and also my sleep schedule is WACKY TO THE MAX so that could be screwing with my eating schedule too lol

Sidenote: okay listen, I may not be overjoyed with my 86% on my orgo exam, but like,,, for nearly three weeks all i did was go to study sessions. I hardly watched a single lecture until the day of the exam and I still got a B on the exam???? Thas pretty good ngl

I’ve again been putting paragraphs into this entry periodically throughout the day. New developments before I start the late night grind:

1. My family was actually concerned about me not eating today and like,,, my mom kinda has a good point. What happens when I’m living on my own with no one to fix food for me? I think at that point I’d probably have some takeout places on call, but I’d also like to think that I’d do some meal prepping for the week, you know? Fixing a pack of rice noodles on a Sunday night and going through them with fruits and things that I’ve mostly prepared throughout the week and things like that maybe?

2. I’ve joined a listserv for museum and boy oh boy will it come in handy for this whole journey of mine. I think the ultimate goal would be to get an internship or some volunteer work at a natural history museum this summer (or possibly winter), but we’ll see what’s offered.

3. Bought the skirt!! Mercari is an interesting platform! They mandate shipment within 3 days and have given me a $20 off my next in-app purchase (that I have to use by next week which is kinda unfortunate since I wasn’t planning on making another clothing purchase until November 13 but hey I’ll take $20 off and just use that as my next purchase) which was real nice of them ^.^ I’ll probably use it to buy a vintage-y dress or skirt or something, possibly cotton or linen, but we’ll see and I’ll keep y’all updated! I hadn’t planned on this becoming a buying/selling platform that I’d use very often, but I’ll have to see what they have to offer!

Today I’m thankful that I’m really good at going quickly through schoolwork when I need to. I only wish I could go as quickly when I wanted to (you know, sticking to the schedule I’d set out for myself and such). But hey! At least I finished watching all of my orgo lectures for the week (...at the expense of my anth lectures, but those tend to be pretty interesting in general so I’m not too pressed).

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a-third-attempt · 4 years

Text

Raising Bell (pt. 1)

* * *

Defamation, Libel. 8 cts: First Presbyterian, Chittenden County &c. (see Appendix C)

* * *

“We’ve got her”, I said.

“Jason. I’ve told you a million times not to barge in here after— Who?”

The boss’s desk is big, but he makes it look small. Tall and fat, he always wears a dark brown coat that somehow makes him an even more imposing presence. You'd never catch him during working hours without a cigar in his mouth, and even then you’d never catch him for more than a couple seconds at a time. He wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, but the only reason this operation was still in the black was because that man worked around the clock to make it go. At the moment he was busy with paperwork, a task that he never started until 7:00 at the earliest, because “the real work goes on when the sun is up, kid!”

“Dorothy,” I said.

“Dorothy McAdams?”

“Dorothy McAdams.”

His eyebrows raise and he offers a breathless “Dorothy McAdams...” in reply. “How the hell did you manage that?”

“She came to town because of her brother, and the word on the street is that she’s sticking around for a year or two. Besides that,” I smile broadly, “I suppose it’s just to your credit for hiring such a charming talent agent, that got her to call you back before St. Anthony.”

He grunts. That was a little too showy for any other day, but with Dorothy in my pocket he’d damn well better cut me some slack.

“How much did it cost me?”

“Well, sir...”

“Snap it out Jason, I haven’t got all night.”

“Sorry, sir. Salary isn’t worth writing home about, double what the other four-in-handers get. And no signing bonus, just a condition.” I pause. He removes the cigar from his mouth and waves it in a circle, annoyed that I'm talking so slow. “We have to take on a kid named Timothy Courtson.”

“Who the hell is Timothy Courtson?”

“Does it matter?” I say, confidently.

“It might,” he snaps back. I guess he's right. Could be an arsonist, he always says. That sure would be bad for business, you know. I glance down at the file in my hand, and swallow hard.

“It doesn’t.”

“He any good?”

I’m sure the millisecond of silence was answer enough, but I answered him. “He can play C and D4.”

He puts the cigar back in his mouth and smirks. “So, no.”

“Positively dire, sir. But it’s no bonus with the kid; 2.5 without.” A second of silence is all it takes to get the words spilling out of my mouth. I spent too much money on her and if I lost the cash back… “Look, we just double up Karen and shift down the bass. The kid can sound like a dying cat and nobody’s going to know the difference down there. Garrett can teach him to mart properly and he’ll get the rest in the extra lessons from Tanya.”

He waves away my explanation. “Yeah, yeah, Jason. You made the right call. Good work.”

I bow my head, and take the opportunity to collect myself, knowing that the goodwill won’t last long. “There— sorry, there’s another thing. Louis told me to give you this.”

I hold the file out to him, and he recoils. “Does it look like I've got the time to read this thing?”

“Please, boss. It's important.”

He snatches the file in one hand, and with the other he grabs a pair of comically undersized glasses. Plopping them on his nose, he opens it and starts reading. It takes about three seconds for the color to drain from his face and his mouth to twist into a bitter scowl.

“What the SAM HELL is this, Jason?” I shrug. Could have been worse, if we're being honest.

“Just a list of notes that Louis kept when he had her, and everything he could find about her past behavior.”

He starts to shout at me again, but thinks better of it and rubs his temples. “Jesus Christ.”

“Language.” It’s instinct, but I know it’s a bad idea from the instant the word comes out of my mouth.

“Jesus Christ have mercy on this woman’s soul,” he snaps back. “But judging by this rap sheet, there’s not much chance of that.”

“She’s a genius. Every genius has some quirks.”

“Hell with quirks, Jason. This is a problem.”

The words hang silently in the smokey air of his office. He tosses the folder to the side and turns away from me, looking out the window at the view of nothing, just a few yellow streetlamps and the broad side of the next concrete building.

“You still want her, though, right?”

He’s quiet, still facing away from me, but there’s no hesitation. “Yes.”

“We’ll just have to keep a tighter leash than Louis did.”

“Take your good-for-nothing file and get out of here,” he grunts softly, and I oblige. As frightening as Boss can be when he’s a swirling rage, I know he’s much scarier when he gets that quiet.

* * *

A/N: As usual, you can see the entire writing process below the break.

==========

Second Draft

See savefile-1 for suggested edits. I don’t think we need to do a full rewrite of this, but if you get inspired, this would be the draft to do it. I think the original was pretty inspired, though, and it went though a lot of revision with all the retellings.

* * *

Okay, I’m just going to let this one go through on the second draft. It’s fine and I’m too drunk to do real edits. Maybe if I can stay sober for a whole night I’ll make it work, but fuck Coronavirus, amirite?

==========

First Thoughts

Okay, let’s do the first person thing.

What does Jason notice in their narration? They notice Boss, first and foremost. Boss is tempermental and demanding, so this is a survival mechanism. And with such sensitive information that he’s bringing, he needs to be hypervigilant.

What does he miss? Emotions, for anyone except Boss— and even then, only as they’re written in his face and serve as tells toward his behavior in the immediate future, or things that he does(n’t) want to hear.

Also, it’s not that he misses it, but he’s not going to wax too poetic about the office; he works there, and he works long hours too.

From all these outbursts, especially with Boss— forgivable because of the situation, but not ideal— we can tell that Jason doesn’t have much impulse control. Even though I don’t like the ‘not even for’ line, this characterization might not quite come through without it. Play around.

Dropping the F bomb feels just a little off. It's not about the “Language” outbust (that's part of what makes the joke); it's just that Boss is someone who commands enough respect that they don’t have to lash out to get what they want. And yes, this McAdams’ rap sheet is pretty wild but it just seems like he would say it a tad more eloquently.

You should probably, at some point, actually draft this rap sheet. For the extended version I can easily see each chapter starting with an item from the sheet, when the chapter is about shenanigans in that regard.

If we’re going to call this Chap 1 instead of Prologue, I could easily see the line item here being:

Defamation, Libel. 8 cts: First Presbyterian, Chittenden County &c. (see Appendix C)

I mean obviously I’m making this citation style up wholesale, which is okay because the real citations are in the appendix, duhhhhh. Also obviously I don’t need it to be Chittenden County, Vermont; but wherever it is, is presumably where Louis runs his empire.

==========

First Draft (written over multiple sessions)

“We’ve got her”, I said.

“Jason I’ve told you a million times not to barge in here with— Who?”

[Exposition]

“Dorothy,” I said.

“Dorothy McAdams?”

“Dorothy McAdams.”

His eyebrows raise and he offers a breathless “Dorothy McAdams...” in reply. He looks up at nothing in particular, visions of fame and fortune surely filling his head. “How the hell did you manage that?”

He grunts. That was a little too showy for any other day, but with Dorothy in my pocket he’d damn well better cut me some slack.

“How much did it cost me?”

“Well, sir...”

“Snap it out Jason, I haven’t got all night.”

“Not even for Dorothy McAdams?” Probably shouldn’t have said that; my wit got the better of me. He glares.

“No.”

“Sorry, sir. Salary isn’t worth writing home about, double what the other 4-in-handers get. And no signing bonus, just a condition.” I pause. He removes the cigar from his mouth with his hand, that he then waves in a circle, annoyed at my slowness. “We have to take on a kid named Timothy Courtson.”

“Who the hell is Timothy Courtson?”

“Does it matter?” I say, knowingly.

“It might,” he snaps back. I guess he’s right. He always is.

“It doesn’t.”

“He any good?”

I’m sure the millisecond of silence was answer enough, but he’s clearly not in the mood for games. “He can play C and D4.”

He puts the cigar back in his mouth and smirks. “So, no.”

“Positively dire, sir. But it’s either 0 bucks with the kid, or 2.5 without.” He doesn’t answer, and my words start spilling out. “Look, we just double up Karen and shift down the bass. The kid can sound like a cat on meth and nobody’s going to know the difference down there. Garrett can teach him to mart properly and he’ll get the rest in the extra lessons from Tanya.”

He waves away my explanation. “Yeah, yeah, Jason. You made the right call. Good work.”

I swallow, knowing that the goodwill won’t last long. “There—there’s another thing. Louis told me to give you this.”

I pass over the file. He grabs a pair of comically undersized glasses, glaring sarcastically at me. Putting them on, he opens it and starts reading. It takes about three seconds for the color to drain from his face and his mouth to twist into a bitter scowl.

“What the SAM HELL is this, Jason?”

“Just a list of notes that Louis kept when he had her, and everything he could find about her past behavior.”

He starts to shout at me again, but thinks better of it and rubs his temples. “Jesus Christ.”

“Language.” It’s instinct, but I know it’s a bad idea from the instant I say it.

“Jesus Christ have mercy on this woman’s soul,” he snaps back. “But judging by this rap sheet, there’s not much chance of that.”

“She’s a genius. Every genius has some quirks.”

“These aren’t some fucking quirks, Jason.”

“You still want her, though, right?”

He’s quiet, but there’s no hesitation. “Yes.”

“We’ll just have to keep a tighter leash than Louis did.”

“Get the hell out of here,” he grunts softly, and I oblige. As frightening as Boss can be when he’s a swirling rage, I know he’s much scarier when he gets that quiet.

==========

Who needs Brainstorming or Freewriting?

What actually is happening here is that I wrote this almost four months ago so the writing process looks a lot different than I’m trying to do now. But I really wanted to get this polished up a bit, so I committed to posting it soon.

#bells #handbells #music #handbell choir #noir #i think?#cornering the handbell noir market #fiction #prompt response #from a real life friend #the pt. 1 in the title is what we call... aspirational #still not really in the mood to do longform fiction #but this absolutely needs a continuation #not sure about the title #i really want it to just be like the name of the church #or one of those cheesy band names #'Dorothy and the Carillons'#i have literally no idea how long it took to write this #it's been on and off for like four months

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wolfpawn · 5 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Shy Chapter 10

Previous Chapter

Chapter Summary - Tom and Paige go to aunt Geraldine's party together and Tom realises more and more how much he enjoys her company.

Tag, @wolfsmom1 @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer @standing-onthe-edge

anyone else who wishes to be added to the tags, just ask :)

Paige sat beside Tom at the table feeling incredibly out of place.

She was at the family get together that Diana and Sarah had badgered her into going to for aunt Geraldine. She had been introduced to a lot of Tom’s family who all seemed like lovely people in their own ways for the most part and who seemed to think her nice also, not that it actually mattered.

Beside her, Tom felt incredibly guilty. Part of him hated this arrangement, the other part hated how much he liked it. Paige was, by far, the best female company he had experienced outside of a work setting in a very long time. She seemed to almost be treating it as a chance to enjoy speaking to him and getting to know him. They loved a lot of the same things and everything she was not knowledgeable in, she asked him considerable amounts of questions on said topics, listening intently as he explained tennis and other such matters, committing the information to memory as she did so. He didn’t want to cease being in the company of this woman, she was fun and intelligent and time never lagged in her company, but behind it all, he knew she was a tad lost also. “I’m sorry for my Uncle George.” He stated when they were sitting alone.

“How in the name of fuck is a man that rude related to your mother? She’s like, the nicest sort of person and he is a total ass-hat.”

“Every family has its black sheep.” Tom shrugged. He had asked his mother that question as a youth and that had been her response. “Don’t mind him.”

“Your family are lovely people, Tom. You are very lucky.”

“We were always close, thankfully, my Mum always spent summers with her siblings when we were growing up so we were able to grow up together with our cousins.”

“You’re lucky. Dad never got on well with his brother. Terry didn’t have Dad’s work ethic and then thought it only fair for Dad to give him a big job in the company when he made it. It brought a lot of animosity into the family, so we never got this.” She smiled politely as Sarah looked over at them.

“Thank you, for this. For everything.” Tom waved over at his sister as well. “I know you agreed to this too but I still feel you are getting the worse end of the bargain.”

“I am still wondering why I agreed to it if I’m honest. I don’t need money, I don’t want fame…”

“So why do it?” Tom asked curiously.

Paige looked at him for a moment before answering. “I am not sure. Do you ever get sick of people making comments about your love life, how your choices are something of comment to them?”

“Very much so, yes.”

“I guess part of me wanted a break from that, another part of me just likes having a similar mind to converse with.” Tom glanced at her. “It is the utmost pleasure to speak with you, Tom. You are the greatest of company.”

“Ms Winters, I can honestly say that the feeling is mutual. I have not enjoyed myself so much at a family event in so long as I can remember.” He brought her hand to his lips and gently pressed it to them.

For a moment, Paige forgot this was a charade, that Tom was merely acting so to convince his family he was a man in love, not one in a false relationship simply because it benefitted the show he was in. She supposed the reason Derek had never been inclined to do such things was because it was a fairytale romance, real relationships were not as romantic. She simply smiled and tried to play the part back.

“I never spoke to you regarding that radio interview you did.” Paige studied Tom’s face, having truly thought he would not be overly interested in such a thing. “You quoted me, and took a few questions that were less than appropriate that I feel I should apologise for.”

“What, no. You never did anything to warrant apologising to me for. She asked those inappropriate questions, not you.”

“I’m the reason why she asked them.” Tom drove them back to the hotel they would be staying in for the weekend for the party. They took a double room so as not to arouse suspicion. Thankfully, there were two large beds in the room for them to use, so to not allow for too many odd situations. “Regarding Taylor…” His head fell in shame. “I don’t know why I did it if I’m honest. She stated she and Harris broke off a few weeks prior, we got talking and she was a lovely and flirtatious woman and, dare I say it, I felt wanted and attractive because of her, she has an allure and I fell for it. I thought, maybe, just maybe I was worth that...but I just made an utter fool of myself, and to add salt to the wound, I said nothing nasty, I was respectful, and I get made into nothing more than a song and a way to sell t-shirts.” His hands twisted on the steering wheel, turning them white. “I made such a fucking fool of myself. I have not been able to put myself out there since and honestly, I don’t know when or how I will get back to doing that. I am not ready to yet and this...thing we are doing...Do you know how you said earlier about it being a break from the comments and questions?” Paige nodded silently. “It is the buffer from all of that for me too. The only issue is...I…” He ceased what he was about to say. How she was everything he was looking for but hadn’t been able to find before. How she was incredible, intelligent, fun, funny, alluring, eloquent and everything he could want, but that he was too messed up from his busy lifestyle to know how to deal with it. He said nothing about that and instead forced a small smile onto his face instead, “I find you the greatest company, I fear I will have to contemplate Oxford women from now on.”

Paige, who had no idea of his previously thought statement, and who thought his trepidation was based solely on trying to get her to react to his comment, laughed. “You prick.” She slapped his arm playfully. “It’s a good thing you’re good looking, Mr Hiddleston, or you’d get no one to endure you otherwise.”

“You think I am good looking?”

“Well, I don’t go to bed with people who look like utter rubbish bag contents. Derek was a lot of terrible things, bad looking was not one of them.” She sighed. “I thought I was lucky a good looking guy to pay attention to me...I paid for that.”

“So that’s another of your rules now, help no one, avoid good looking men?” Tom guessed.

“The old mantra ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is’ is very much alive and well.”

“You think good looking men being interested in you is ‘too good to be true’?”

“I have little reason to believe anything to the contrary.”

Tom wanted to rubbish her statement regarding holding onto past experiences, but he knew it was a tad hypocritical of him to do so. He knew he was similar, though, in many ways, they were different. He just needed the right sort of woman, she needed to avoid a particular type of man, appearance irrelevant. “Not all good looking men are wankers.”

“Not all women are money-obsessed cunts either.” She countered. “I was always curious as to why you were single.” Tom’s brow furrowed. “Sophie spoke about this incredible man, one of her husband’s closest friends, kind, caring, a gentleman, with plans to show his kids The Jungle Book, who treated every woman around him with respect and her always saying he was single and how it was a shame. And of course, I have met you in passing before, and I always felt that she was right, you were lovely, but you not being with someone did startle me somewhat, after all, there is no way someone that nice is single, you surely would have a queue around the neighbourhood of women who would give their left arm for you, but it makes sense, considering.” Tom didn’t know how to respond to that. “Funny, how you do nothing wrong other than give yourself over to someone and yet you are the one fucked up and punished for it after.”

As Tom readied for bed that night at the hotel, he contemplated what Paige had said and realised there was a lot of truth to it. They did nothing wrong in their respective relationships, they had been the ones to do the work, yet they were the ones left scarred by it all and it wasn’t fair. He thought about what he felt constituted a good foundation for a relationship and realised the similarity of interests, compatibility of character and contentment of self were very much staples in his view, and when he thought of them, he thought of only one person with them.

When he opened the door to the bedroom from the bathroom, he looked at Paige on her bed, glasses on her nose, her book in her hand. He thought of her comments regarding Pride and Prejudice on the show she had been on, her analysis of the piece was so much more than the romance of it, but the historical significance also. She read more than the words, she read their meaning. She was incredible...if only he had the balls to do something regarding it.

After a moment or so of him staring at her, she glanced up at him from her book. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes…” He cleared his throat. “Yes, I was just thinking. What is that book about?”

She smiled slightly and looked at the front cover. “Haven’t you heard of it?”

“I have seen it is doing well and that it is supposed to be good but I have not had a chance to look too much into it.”

“I love it. I love questioning us as a species and his thoughts are so interesting. I honestly love to read this sort of thing. It’s just a historian’s analysis of our species over the last 2.5 million years, it goes into so much detail about the different branches of the homo species, our development of mind and knowledge, everything. You really need to read it.” She extended it out to him.

Tom took it and read the back cover. “It does look interesting.”

“Read it, I swear, you will not regret it.”

“If it is about all humans, why is it called Sapiens, that is just one branch?”

“There is no Sapiens without the other humans that so very much, through evolution, breeding and even competition, created our branch of humans.” She explained excitedly.

Tom had to remind himself that this was not a real relationship, where, away from people, he could not kiss her and show her in a sexual manner how alluring and attractive her intelligence and love of learning were. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her, but instead, he forced himself to remain still and simply appreciate what he could of her as she went through a synopsis of the book with him.

#Once Bitten Twice Shy #chapter 10 #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fic

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daddyzarc · 5 years

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But wait. What about Don Thousand? He's a barian too. AND cleraly a predator.(Although, you could argue that's because he was originally an Astral being). But what about Fearsome Four? They have mouths too in their barian forms.(Although, Kaninja and Semimaru's mouths are that of the insects they are based on.) So not all barians are innocent. Only the Seven Emperors.

(you asked for this anon ~ love Dyzarc)

I apologize for not delving into Don Thousand in my previous analysis, but in my experience, I was strictly taught that my papers should get to the point with the arguments being clear and concise. This includes omitting irrelevant information that adds nothing to the thesis. Don Thousand is certainly an interesting case in the Barians (and I’ll gladly talk about him this time) but originally, he didn’t fit into the analysis. Every point I wanted to cover was better done using the Seven Emperors — the acid sea, the predator, carapaces, molting, ect — and throwing Don Thousand into the mix would have bloated up the analysis with redundant data. Furthermore, if I wanted to talk about Don Thousand, the analysis would end being twice as long. And I’m sure none of you want to read that.

However, anonwhoshouldrevealthemselfsowecanmeetbehindadarkallyway, I take the full blame of overlooking the Fearsome Foursome as you will take the full blame of allowing Dyzarc to do this. This particular group of feral Barians are a very unique case in Barian Biology since, well, look at these ugly fuckeroos

And since they differ from the Seven Emperors to a high degree, I will certainly go in-depth on these Barians.

DISCLAIMER: If you didn’t read the previous post, please feel free to do so. I’ll expand and refer to certain points in there, so you might be scared confused if you don’t. Also, I will not be primarily addressing their incapability or capability to vore. Everything I mentioned previously continues to hold true for the most part, and it can be applied to all five of the unaddressed Barians. However, there are some abnormalities present that I wish to discuss (Chironex and Mr. Heartland, for example). This post will mainly be explaining their anatomy and so-forth rather than focus on why they absolutely cannot vore. Furthermore, these Barians do function a tad bit differently than the other ones, and I’ll talk more about this later. There will be a section at the bottom that focuses on the vore issue since I KNOW that’s what you folks are here for, but other than a sprinkle of discussion (mostly in relationship to their predator) throughout the passage, it will be vore-free.

Forthemostpart so let us begin

Zarc N’ Pals Installment 1, Detour 1 GO!

So now that I am given the opportunity to talk about Don Thousand, I’ll fucking talk about Don Thousand. I have a lot to say about Donny, so if you only wanna see my discussion on the Fearsome Foursome, move your cursor to the scrollbar and pull down because you won’t see the end of this for miles.

Don Thousand is the Gustave of Barians. He is HUGE. An absolute unit. I’m not even joking.

These are some standard-sized Barians:

This is Don Thousand:

Ho-leey shit

So Don Thousand…

Don Thousand is one of the most mysterious Barians mostly attributed to his large size. Since sightings of Don Thousand are far and few between, there is actually an on-going debate in the Barianologist community centered around his true height. Here are some assumed height based on previous encounters:

Smol Don, approximately 10ft or 3m tall, larger than a standard Barian but not by much:

Tol Don, approximately 40ft or 12 m tall much larger than the standard Barian:

Big Boi Massive Don, approximately 150ft or 45m tall, outed as a hoax at the moment but possible if Don Thousand is given more time to grow:

So far, the most agreed-upon and plausible size for Don is the “tol” variant for a number of reason. First off, the few people that encountered this Barian noted that he was much larger than the average Barian, but not towering by hundreds of feet tall. (plz for the love of god, imply square-cubed law doesnt apply for my sake im so tired) Secondly, despite not having consistent sightings of Don Thousand, there have been evidence of his carapaces, or the outer coverings:

Depending on when and where the carapaces were discarded, along with the usage of other trace evidence, such as tracks on the sand or cleared pathways among the crystal forests, safe estimates could be made about his size.

Okay, but why is there even a debate on the size of a Barian? Especially if he is so large, shouldn’t it be a lot easier to spot him than the other, much smaller Barians?

Yes, Don Thousand is huge, but it is incredibly important to consider the type of environment he lives in. Earth is covered in cities and civilization, as well as satellites that keeps in eye on Earth’s surface. There are eyes everywhere, human or otherwise. If you plop a creature as large as Don Thousand onto Earth, he will be detected in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, Barian World is barren. The only thing on it is the vast acid sea, large crystalline structures, deserts, caves, and clumps of the dwindling Barian population. Not a lot of equipment is readily available to find Don Thousand either. He could be hidden within the acid sea or burrowed deep underground in molt. He could also be hidden in the fields of crystal trees, which are still large enough to hide a Barian his size, or buried under a layer on sand in the desert. Not to mention that Barians could grow, although rare, Don Thousand’s actual size could be changing as we speak. He may as well be a big boi massive since the last sighting. Unless we constantly send expeditions onto the hostile environment, Don Thousand will remain forever elusive and cryptic.

There is also a plethora of other factors that make this more complicated. His size, again, contributes to this. Going back to my previous analysis where I mentioned that Barians grow or repair using molts (in this case, the rock cycle), molting is a process where its usage and speed depend on the size of the molting creature. Look back to the hermit crab, who I relate the Barians to often, for the size disparities.

Like Barians, hermit crabs have large and small sizes as well, which isn’t strange for most arthropods. A mature hermit crab could be much smaller than another mature but older hermit crab. In the case of the Barians, a Barian like Nasch is mature but he isn’t large like Don Thousand. This isn’t to say that Nasch can’t grow large like Don Thousand, and he might as well in the future, but Don Thousand went through hundreds of molt cycles before he reached that size. He may continue to grow until his size becomes a major deterrent to his survival.

What makes this hard for us is that molting tends to be a process that gets longer the larger the creature is. For example, hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus) average molting times relative to their size in inches:

Micro/Teeny: Less than 1.0″ - 1 week

Small: 1.5″ - 3 weeks

Medium: 2.5″ - 6 weeks

Large: 3.0″ - 8 weeks

Jumbo: Greater than 3.0″ - 16 weeks

As you can see, the larger the crab gets, the more time it takes to complete a molt. Now if we consider that a Barian undergoes a similar process, ie the larger Barians take much longer to complete the rock cycle, it isn’t hard to believe that Don Thousand could take decades, perhaps centuries to molt. Which, may I remind you, is a very long time in the eyes of a dragon. It is easy to understand why Don Thousand is seldom seen or studied. But assuming that he stays above ground between molts (which means he stays above the crust for three times as long as he stays under), there should be a long period of time where he can be easily found, right?

This is where things get a little muddied. Due to his massive girth and thick, rocky shell, Don Thousand can stay submerged in the Sea of Ill Intent for a much longer period than a regular Barian (their shell could still be dissolved, yet the thickness relates to how long they can stay). This means that even if he finishes molting, he can remain hidden within the acid for an indisputable amount of time.

So all of this discussion about his size… What does this have to do with his ability to vore?…

Why plenty, in fact.

In nature there are certain animals that have natural predators when they are small/young (sally lightfoot crabs, elephants, rhinoceros, alligators, ect.) but as they grow larger and larger, they slowly lose that disadvantage. And guess which Barian is the biggest one around — yup, Donny K

By nature, Don Thousand is just an absurdly large prey creature.

His size alone is a deterrent against predators that want to challenge such a massive beast (except astrol). Even if an Astral Being, or many Astral Beings, attempt to harm him, he can easily swat them off since he is so big. And as previously mentioned, he can stay within the Sea of Ill Intent to avoid the deadly predators if he really don’t want to be bothered. To summarize, Don Thousand is highly undesirable prey who is much more trouble than he’s worth.

Understanding this, the other Barians do not follow in Don Thousand’s footstep for a couple of reason:

1) Consistent shape and size means they don’t need to constantly get new carapaces. Every time a Barian makes a drastic change to their body, they must find or create new carapaces that will fit their new form, either by carving a completely new piece or altering their old one. Unless they prepared it before going underground to molt, the Barian will be without carapaces (which protects them from predators) for an unreasonable amount of time, increasing their chances of being killed.

2) Cost of maintaining a body that large is very high. We do not know what fuels a Barian, but the cost of making/transporting energy through a lengthy body, moving high-density limbs, and molting is very high for such a large Barian. If they expend all the energy inside their core without replenishing it somehow (solar power?), they might die of exhaustion.

3) Molting is dangerous but necessary to an extent. It consumes a lot of energy to dig down, melt, reform, rack-build, harden, and dig up, and this process is only harder as the Barian grows bigger. They can also face other dangers in mid-molt, such as being uplifted or disturbed by another Barian, and as the longer they have to stay underground, the chances of being disturbed only increases. For arthropods, interruptions during molt could be fatal or leave them deformed until their next molt. For Barians, molting should only be deployed if they need to repair their shell or work on their rack to ascend in their pecking order. Larger size is not a necessity nor is it worth it most of the time.

The large size is useful as a defense mechanism and trait for the pecking order, yet overcoming the threshold to reach that size is difficult and more trouble than it’s worth, especially since most Barians already have an adequate defense mechanism. Don Thousand is one of the few, perhaps only, Barian that chose to go the “larger size” route. This is made possible for one very critical reason — where he chooses to molt. It is difficult to pinpoint this incredible fact, but Don Thousand molts under the Sea of Ill Intent.

The image below shows a crack on the seafloor, exposing a hotspot that Barians could use to burrow into and molt.

And the most conclusive evidence that Don Thousand specifically molts around here:

See that thing at the bottom of this hole? That is one of Don Thousand’s carapaces, located under the ocean, hidden in a whirlpool of acid and lava. Most Barians leave their carapaces close to them while they molt, usually several kilometers above the melting point to preserve it or prevent its destruction. The fact that a Don Thousand carapace can be found under the sea strongly suggests that Don Thousand is located very closely to this spot, several kilometers deep into the ground.

Doing this solves some of the issues stated above:

1) Consistent shape and size means they don’t need to constantly get new carapaces. With Don Thousand’s size, he is able to stay in the acid for a long time without feeling substantial damage to his vital organs. Since the acid will protect him from being attacked while he is carapace-less (not that he has to worry about that), he is given plenty of time to make new ones before he needs/wants to emerge.

2) Cost of maintaining a body that large is very high. The cost of maintaining the body is still high. However, I believe that the effect is mitigated since Don Thousand may be a Barian with a lot of energy to begin with. His core energy (or rate of photosynthesis) may be unnaturally higher than the rest of the Barians, thus he is able to grow large to begin with. Furthermore, Don Thousand doesn’t need to worry about predators at that size. He wastes little energy dealing with them (fleeing, defending, fighting, ect.) and this is the trade-off he chooses.

3) Molting is dangerous but necessary to an extent. The acid sea deters offensive Barians and Astral Beings from harassing him while he is molting, unless they want to venture far and deep into the ocean, risking their life in the process. Uplifting will also only bring him in contact with the acid, where he can promptly dig back down. This is much safer in comparison to being exposed to predators on land.

^The above ends up creating a simple positive feedback loop where his large size prevents the acid from harming him, allowing him to molt into a larger size, which in turn protects him from the acid even more.

(Smaller Barians have a hard time breaking into this loop.)

Taking into account that his massive size will quite easily place him on top of any pecking order based on that alone, where exactly does Don Thousand fit? I’ll get into the idea of “Barian Colonies” in my discussion of the Fearsome Foursome later, but adding Don Thousand into a pecking order isn’t as simple as it seems. Actually, it is really simple, but there are some factors that complicate the issue.

Due to his large size and the circumstance of his molting, Don Thousand seldom spends any time with the other Barians. If he isn’t in molt, he most likely spends his time within the sea. It takes a lot of energy to move around and if there isn’t an urgent need to emerge from the acid, he will stay submerged until the next molt (the only reason I can think of as to why he would emerge would be to photosynthesize, if Barians do that, or maybe harass the local Barian population). This means that Don Thousand is severed from the Barian pecking orders for the most part, but I assure you that if he does show up, he could effortlessly establish himself into the society for more than just his ginormous girth.

So this brief overview covers a couple of things about Don Thousand that is, in my opinion, highly fascinating. Although it isn’t clear yet, Don Thousand’s rocky shell and carapace borrow certain unique elements from the other Barians. Examples of shared defense mechanisms include:

”SWISH” mechanism* —> Scritch, Erazor, Mr. Heartland (FF)

Talons capped with carapace —> Scritch, Mr. Heartland (FF)

Insignia* —> Unique to Seven Emperor Barians (SE)

Center eyeball —> Mr. Heartland (FF)

This tells us a couple of things. Either the smaller Barians adopt traits from Don Thousand and incorporate it into their own body plan… OR Don Thousand incorporated some of the best defense mechanism of the smaller Barians into his form, thus increasing his overall fitness by being the best of the best, drastically reducing any chance he has of being killed. The implications of this is that Don Thousand doesn’t belong to one Barian group but to many Barian groups, and he reigns over all of them whenever he emerges from the ocean. Think of Don Thousand as a “God of the Barians” if you will. He will always be at the top of the pecking order (although the presence of an Insignia* suggests that he is closest to the Seven Emperor Barians).

*Further explanation in latter half

Final Consensus: Despite being as intimidating as a predator, Don Thousand is still a prey Barian who utilizes his large size and in-common traits to avoid predation. He’s just very large.

heyyo fearsome fucksome time mothertruckers

Moving on from the God that is Don Thousand, let’s examine the Fearsome Foursome.

I know what you want to hear. “Dyzarc! What the fuck are you doing. Where in the world does the Fearsome Foursome fit into the Barian pecking order?? Does Nasch get dethroned by these buggy barbarian bozos?”

To begin, upon looking at the two groups below:

I do not believe it is logical to integrate the Fearsome Foursome into the Seven Emperors pecking order.

Why?

Simply put, these Barians groups do not belong together. Barians are similar to orca pods on Earth.

^^Example of different orca types due to regional differences. The same concept applies to Barians, but they show more severe variation due to the differences in their environments as well as natural variation as a direct result of unique rack-building and inconsistent molting environments. Different cultures also mean that the groups are not exactly equal to each other*

*This is not to say one group is inferior or superior to the other, but they are built for different purposes and thus are not comparable

To be frank, the Seven Emperor Barians are actually very easy to distinguish from other groups by examining their physical appearance alone. The most concrete evidence of a Seven Emperor Barian is to look on their chest for a distinctive carapace, an Insignia, seen here:

SIDE-NOTE: Another Barian with an Insignia is Don Thousand. This provides further evidence that he may be a part of the Seven Emperor colony or allude to the idea that Don Thousand is truly the “Barian God” that presides over every Barian colony, thus adopting the customs and traits of each group (Ex. Wings and Needle (swish) of the Fearsome Foursome) in order to better his survival rate.

Habitat and behavior also plays a major role in separating the groups, which applies more to the Fearsome Foursome due to their unique circumstance, but to simplify the topic, a general rule of thumb is:

Insignia = SE

No Insignia = Not SE

The Fearsome Foursome Barians all lack an Insignia and therefore should not be included within the Seven Emperor pecking order. Instead, they have their own pecking order established, which relies on different traits than the ones of the Seven Emperor Barians.

Of course, a difference in body structure doesn’t inherently discern a Fearsome Foursome Barian from a Seven Emperor Barian, but these physical characteristics (just look at them and you can see that something is amok) tells us that the Fearsome Foursome Barians are reacting to something that Seven Emperor Barians are not. However, since their body plans stem from the presence of Astral Beings, a rather uniform factor all things considered, this tells us that the Fearsome Foursome Barians are tailoring their form in response to the Astral Beings specifically.

But how could this happen? A Barian is a Barian is a Barian. Shouldn’t they all be a single entity/rely on the same mechanisms since they live on the same planet?

It isn’t completely clear what truly distinguishes a Fearsome Foursome Barian to a Seven Emperors Barian (and any other colonies) aside from the Insignia or why the Barians separate themselves into colonies — although it could be due to a high territorial drive, since Barians need a lot space to molt, and the more populated the group, the harder it is to find a good spot to repair and regrow their form; creating colonies is a good way to ensure good molting locations or a safer place to live — but the best place to look is:

A) Where they live and What is the end goal of their body plan. These two are not mutually exclusive to each other.

(Note: SE has more territory due to being a larger colony than the FF; larger colony = more space required for molting)

For the Seven Emperors, their habitat range is located here:

Along with residing in the enclosed forest, the biggest takeaway from this is that the Seven Emperor Barians live very close to the Sea of Ill Intent. As previously discussed, the acid sea allows for the Barians to effectively retreat into the acid from a pursuing predator. Once in the acid, they are generally safe from harm and it is highly unlikely that they will get killed. For the Seven Emperors, since they reside very close to the Sea of Ill Intent, when they are in danger, they can easily flee into the acid to protect themselves. As long as they do not wander too far from the sea, their primary defense mechanism is the Sea of Ill Intent.

This also supports how Don Thousand, a Barian who frequents the Sea of Ill Intent, has an Insignia that belongs to the Seven Emperors on his chest. Since Don Thousand and the Seven Emperors live in the same general area, by being in close proximity alone, Don Thousand is most integrated into the Seven Emperors colony and uses the Insignia (which does little for protection; used more for aesthetic/pecking order) for no other discernible reason than to just have it.

Now note where the Fearsome Foursome live:

They are not near the sea. They live further inland within the crystal pillar forests or at the edge of the great Barian Desert, therefore they do not have a go-to “safe-zone” to retreat to if they are attacked. Their defense mechanism comes from whatever ingenious way they designed their bodies to protect themselves. I will cover these mechanisms later.

(Think of these as the differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. Different species, yet they are very closely related. The discussion of these two species is intriguing on its own, but what I want to get across is that bonobos are less aggressive than chimpanzees. This is mainly due to the environment they evolved in, where the bonobos’ ancestors came from a place of “paradise” or abundance in food while the chimpanzees’ ancestor came from a place of scarcity. To survive in the hostile and tough environment, the chimpanzees became more aggressive/ingenious, as in they have territorial fights, engage in hunting activities, and use tools to find food.)

The analogy above can be used to describe why the Fearsome Foursome are so different compared to Seven Emperors.

For the Seven Emperors, the end goal is to create a body for placement in the pecking order. They use a rack system to establish pecking order (which is more for aesthetic when compared to the utter shit the FF put onto their bodies). Although they can use the racks to protect themselves, the usage of a huge rack shows that they devote valuable resources (or have resources to spare) to make themselves more aesthetically pleasing. In a sense, the Seven Emperors are living in a more calm, less hostile environment.

For the Fearsome Foursome, the end goal of their body plan is to make anything worthwhile in terms of defense to make up for the lack of Sea of Ill Intent. Most of their molting energy is devoted into creating a body that will protect them from a gruesome death, which means they have less resources for rack-building. In a sense, the Fearsome Foursome are living in the more hostile environment.

Now that we covered why the groups are different, let’s examine what these differences are starting with a commonly shared trait among the Fearsome Foursome.

Aside from living in the same range, the clearest answer that links this diverse cast of Barians (Scritch, Chironex, Mr. Heartland, and Erazor) into the same category would be their usage of an elaborate Defense Mechanism. The Seven Emperors have a rocky shell and carapaces as their defenses against Astral Beings, and so do the Fearsome Foursome. Yet, the Fearsome Foursome Barian include those basic characteristics with the addition of something else. This could be seen in the carapaces alone.

Even when excluding the Duel Disks, notice how heavily fortified the Fearsome Foursome Barians are compared to that of the Seven Emperors Barians. The Seven Emperors usually have smaller, one-sided pieces covering their shoulders or torso while the Fearsome Foursome’s carapaces tend to wrap around their entire body and more. This is one example to show the difference in defense mechanism between the two groups, but obviously the Fearsome Foursome goes further with this concept.

So back in the Don Thousand breakdown, I mentioned something called the SWISH. Swishing is a type of defense mechanism.

To “swish”, one will need a frontal protection and a dorsal protection. In the case of the Fearsome Foursome, they use a frontal needle and dorsal wings. Barians are extremely heavy and do not require food to survive, so it is very unlikely that the needle belongs to a mouth piece and the wing pieces aid with flight (so far, there has been no accounts of True Barians in flight). Therefore, the wings and needles serve another purpose.

Okay. So how does SWISH work?

(Simulation; no Astral Beings were harmed in the video above)

Standing for SWord/needle and SHield/wings as well as the noises it makes when a Barian starts flapping or stabbing (use your imagination) and found in ¾ of the Fearsome Foursome Barians + Don Thousand, this is a basic but effective defense mechanism witnessed mainly in the vulnerable Fearsome Foursome Barians. The wings on the back provide backside protection. The Barian can also rapidly flap the wing pieces in order to shake off any Astral Being latching onto its backside. If the Astral Being tries to attack the Barian from the front, it must deal with a piercing needle constantly jabbing at it. This means that if an Astral Being wants to access the Barians’ core at all — which is located at the center of their chest — they must deal with the swish. Compared to the defense mechanism of the Seven Emperors, this is a very elaborate gimmick.

And speaking of elaborate gimmicks, I am going to focus heavily on Scritch and Chironex’s gimmicks for two reasons: they both have fascinating defenses, and Erazor and Mr. Heartland main defense strategy is “cover in spikes and carapaces” along with the swish mechanism. Overall, they are far less complex than Scritch and Chironex.

(Also I am a duper lazy dragon and feel like this torture is long enough and I really dont want to stare at barian heartland and erazor for another 2 hours.)

Let’s first look at Scritch, who is my new adopted son btw. Scritch is one of the most intriguing Barians out of this group, and this isn’t my personal preference towards him playing a role into this. Despite not being the most complex Barian, he certainly employs an interesting tactic (if my theories are correct).

Taking a glance at his coloration reveals a couple things about his mechanism, especially if we compare him to some similar species found on Earth.

This banded coloration is a product of a variety of things, such as the Barian utilizing disruptive coloration or warning colors. In this case, the Barian environment consist mainly of shades of reds, thus the disruptive coloration may not be very useful to this Barian. But what is useful? Warning colors. This is a commonly-used tactic in animals with brightly colored or flashy skin, such as poison dart frogs. The bright and striking bands on Scritch will make this Barian an easy target to spot and kill in the reddish tint of the planet, yet it could also be a signal to the predators that he is “not a good meal to eat”.

On one hand, the colors could be nothing more than a bluff, and it wouldn’t be too surprising if Scritch used the colors as a facade to scare off predators. But I think otherwise. If it was a bluff, Scritch wouldn’t have survive this long against bold or unaware Astral Beings, nor will his facade last if enough predators keep pestering him. My theory, and it is only a theory with no other evidence to back it up other than logic maybe, is that Scritch has pockets of some Alkali metals (pure sodium, for example) located in parts of his body like behind the mask carapace or within the bright red claws. For those unaware, Alkali metals are highly reactive to water, which is what the Astral Beings are made of, and can explode if they make contact with it. If an Astral Being attacks him, he can deploy the metals, harm the Astral Being, then skedaddle away while the predator is disorganized.

This could heavily damage the Barian in the process, but since they could always molt: temporary losing a limb > death. The banded coloration on his body signals to the Astral Beings to back off or else they’ll eat a face-full of sodium. This is only a theory however, and I cannot prove it unless we throw water at Scritch to see if he can explode. Which I absolutely cannot legally do because the Fearsome Foursome Barians are critically endangered (some problem with an invasive species, but the less we talk bout those three hooligans, the better) and I should not make Scritch explode.

Lastly, let us discuss a Barian who most likely won’t explode if water touches him.

Chironex is another Barian with the presence of a fully-mechanical mouth. As with the other Fearsome Foursome Barians, Chironex doesn’t follow the body plan of a Seven Emperor. His body is covered mostly in thick carapaces, which is similar to the other Fearsome Foursome members. However, his physical appearance is drastically different than the other Fearsome Foursome Barians as well, such as the lack of protective wing pieces and needle-nose for effective swishing. At first glance, it’s difficult to tell where this one belongs. Based on his physiology, he doesn’t look anything like Fearsome Foursome or a Seven Emperor. He could’ve belonged to his own colony altogether.

This is a case where the similarities goes beyond their physical appearance. Take Canis lupus familiaris, for example, where the physical differences among each breed can look drastically different from one another yet they still fall under the same species (for dogs, they are considered the same species since most breeds can produce viable offspring if mated and they still have an exceedingly similar genome).

Like a breed of dog, Chironex is a Fearsome Foursome. Chironex lives within the boundary of the Fearsome Foursome range, interacts with the other Fearsome Foursome Barians, and his behavioral patterns follows that of a Fearsome Foursome. He also has a valuable place in the Fearsome Foursome pecking order. Despite not looking like one, Chironex is most certainly a Fearsome Foursome.

So knowing that, about his gimmick…

Chironex has a gimmick alright. And boy is it a gimmick. I want you to look at this image.

Note what the carapaces cover and what lies underneath the carapaces.

Now here’s our high-quality artist rendition of Chironex without his thick carapaces:

And here he is standing next to an Astral Being for comparison:

Notice something peculiar about this situation?

As you can see, the base form of Chironex (aka a Chironex without the layers of carapa—naked, i mean hes utterly nude) looks strikingly similar to the form of an Astral Being. Very smooth with a bluish tint, and a mouth, which is an extremely important body part on an Astral Being. And it is absolutely no coincident that Chironex looks like an Astral Being.

It is completely deliberate because Chironex uses a very advance form camouflage — mimicry. Not only does his defense mechanism involve mimicking another species but he is mimicking his predator species. This means his facade has to be very convincing if he wants to survive. Impressively enough, the behavior of this Barian also changes in order to aid his survival, such as his fascination with water and so-forth. Furthermore, Chironex’s base form has a very “jellyfish” feel to it. This is noteworthy because jellyfishes are comprised of 95% water, give or take, and basing himself around jellyfishes add more layers onto his mimicry.

The change in behavior coupled with well-done mimicry is one of the most elaborate defense mechanism in the natural world, so Chironex obviously has a good place in the Fearsome Foursome pecking order.

*In my opinion, I find the idea of exploding Scritches to be a lot more interesting than mimicry but y’kno how it is.

Here is the pecking order of the Fearsome Foursome:

And here is the pecking order of the Fearsome Foursome + Seven Emperors + Don K. for those curious on how the Barians compare to each other (if they had to beat each other up or sumthin idk)

And here’s the pecking order based on what I think the pecking order should be. No bias or anything, just based on logical progression

OKAY. If you’re still reading this, congrats! I love you.

We are on the final topic of this discussion. The VOREeee. Or are all Barians innocent or are only the Seven Emperors innocent?

Let’s look at the candidates for this:

Seven Emperors - Previously discussed

Scritch and Erazor - SAFE*

Don Thousand - SAFEish**

Chironex and Mr. Heartland - UNSAFE feel free to vore with em you sick fucks i know i will***

* Scritch and Erazor lack a visible mouth like the rest of the Seven Emperors, so they do fall under the “innocent” Barians.

**Don Thousand is a strange case due to one specific scene.

Right here, Don Thousand’s lowest eyeball turns into a gaping hole and proceeds to inhale Vector into it. This is clearly vore in some sense of the way, which I will not deny. HOWEVER, this opens the door to the concept of eye vore (not strange considering that anal vore, navel vore, cock vore, you-name-it exists) and since all the Barians have eyeballs, or what appears like functioning eyeballs, they are all capable of performing eye vore. wtf i didnt think of that and I do not know what to do with that information except say go nuts.

***With Chironex, I am willing to let him off the hook since he is involved in the act of mimicry, so the mouth could be false. This doesn’t let him off the hook for vore, of course, but my explanation is that the mouth is non-functional because it is the sole result of a mimicking disguise.

With Mr. Heartland…

uh his mouth is a…

oh god jesus chrisus hold up,, let me check my notes

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hermannsthumb · 5 years

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Do you think Newt has issues about touch too? Like, Hermann had a pretty cold upbringing and may not have had too many (if any) intimate relationships so his issues make sense. But I can imagine Newton "will sleep with anyone who will have him" Geizler mistaking physical contact for actual affection and taking A LONG TIME to realize that people are just using him for sex because they know he's desperate for attention. Can you imagine how that would screw with his mind?

i shared this ask in a gc because it made me SAD and like three people were like NEWT/HERMANN FIRST MEETING GOING BADLY BC OF THIS so. like. i hope youre happy for the conflict-in-a-hallmark-romcom ficlet youve wrought

Everything with Hermann went spectacular, frankly, more spectacularly than Newt could’ve ever hoped for. That he imagined. He imagined a lot of things--he imagined Hermann as an uptight asshole who’d turn his nose up at everything Newt did, he imagined weirding Hermann out in the first ten seconds (he talks too fast, talks too much, has a tendency to shout and interrupt when he gets excited, and boy, does Hermann get him excited), he imagined an awkward silence over coffee for forty minutes as they made polite small talk until one of them found a way to excuse himself. He imagined Hermann inviting him up to his hotel room. He imagined that one a lot.

None of those things happen. And that’s okay, frankly--it’s very, very okay. Hermann is amazing, Hermann is awkward, Hermann is funny, Hermann has a smile that makes Newt’s knees turn to jelly and he snorts when he really laughs and he twists his glasses chain in embarrassment when Newt compliments him too much, and Hermann is beautiful, Hermann is--not that Newt didn’t already know it--the love of his life, 100%, no questions.

Newt wants to drop to one knee right here in this coffee shop and ask Hermann to hyphenate their last names and adopt cats or 2.5 babies or whatever the fuck Hermann wants with him.

He doesn’t, but they do decide to go to dinner. Hermann’s treat.

“I insist,” he says over Newt’s protesting, and his toothy smile turns mischievous (and Newt’s heart twists and flips and God, he loves Hermann). “I informed my father about my meeting a very important colleague this weekend--purely to discuss business, of course--and he insisted on covering my expenses. I believe he’s under the impression you’re going to write us a check, or something along those lines.”

“I wonder why he thinks that,” Newt says, grinning back. He’s hardly touched his iced coffee (that’s how absorbed he is by Hermann), just keeps playing with the straw.

“I may have implied you’re a tad bit more prestigious,” Hermann says. “And richer. And older. Regardless, it was the only way he’d’ve let me set aside our work for longer than an hour to meet you. If I’d told him that you’re--well.” He colors, and takes a comically long sip of coffee.

“That I’m what?” Newt’s grin widens.

“We’re not exactly colleagues, are we?” Hermann says.

They’re not. They swap work, criticism, praise, suggest improvements and offer encouragements, but none of that can make up for the fact that Hermann’s very first letter to Newt was little more than fanmail, and that Newt’s reply was little more than the same, and that their current correspondence consists of personal anecdotes three-fourths of the time. Newt’s far more likely to ask after Hermann’s day than he is his latest project. “We’re not,” Newt agrees.

“Dinner?” Hermann repeats, almost shyly, and Newt nods.

There’s a restaurant across the street from Newt’s hotel, and dinner goes even better than coffee. It goes really well. So well that Newt gets bold and invites Hermann up to his hotel room for drinks--on him, from the overpriced minibar, because if Hermann covers their overpriced dinner it’s only fair that Newt cover something, too, and Hermann (flushed pink and a little--adorably--giddy from his single glass of red wine) nods happily and accepts.

On the elevator ride up, with Hermann on his arm talking at length about how amazing Newt’s latest article was, Newt mulls it all over. Newt really likes Hermann. (Newt is head-over-heels in love with Hermann.) Newt’s liked people before Hermann, but no one’s ever liked Newt as much as he’s liked them. (Newt is a spectacularly bad judge of character.) There’s no way for Newt to be sure that Hermann is also head-over-heels in love with Newt. Hermann laughs at his jokes, doesn’t he? Is Hermann not practically draped over Newt right now? He bought Newt dinner, he’s coming up to Newt’s hotel room (how could he not know what Newt meant by drinks), he keeps touching Newt, keeps smiling at Newt, keeps telling Newt how brilliant and intelligent he is and how much he admires his work. We’re not exactly colleagues.

“You have a balcony,” Hermann says in mild delight when Newt shows him in, and Newt’s not sure what he was going to say next (maybe ask if they could sit out on it, maybe if Newt would mind him using it to take a smoke break eventually, Newt’s really gotta get him out of that habit) because he shoves Hermann against the door and starts kissing him.

And Hermann clings to his jacket with one hand and kisses back.

When Newt pulls away, panting, Hermann’s smile (open-mouthed and wide and toothy) is so bright it almost aches to look at. “Oh, Newton,” Hermann says, in quiet wonder. “I’d always hoped--”

Score, Newt thinks, and he cuts Hermann off for a second time that night and goes back in, kissing harder, more insistently, shoving his tongue in Hermann’s mouth and running his hands up and down Hermann’s chest. Hermann’s sexy as hell under all those frumpy layers, Newt’s positive of it, probably got nice pecs--Newt bites down hard enough on Hermann’s lip to draw blood, and Hermann yelps a little and tightens his grip--and biceps that are just begging to be admired by someone like Newt. “Newton,” Hermann gasps when Newt switches to biting and sucking down his neck, “Newton, darling, wait--”

(No, Newt thinks, I can’t wait, we can’t wait, if we stop you’re going to realize you don’t actually want me and I’ll be alone--)

“Newton,” Hermann says, more firmly, and Newt realizes that Hermann means it so he immediately backs off. He’s made a mess of Hermann already: dorky haircut mussed, glasses fogged up, blazer askew, bitemarks purpling up his neck, pupils blown wide and dark and obscuring the warm, pretty brown of his eyes. It’s really hot. (Newt wants Hermann so bad, so, so bad, and he’s sure Hermann wants him, so why did Hermann want him to stop?) “Don’t you think we’re moving rather fast?”

All of Newt’s relationships move like this, and Newt entertains--briefly--the fact that Hermann isn’t like Newt’s other relationships, but the panic from earlier settles in (if they wait, if they don’t move fast, Hermann will realize he doesn’t want Newt) and is joined by a fresh new panic (Hermann doesn’t love Newt like that, Newt is scaring Hermann off with his feelings). Newt crooks his fingers through Hermann’s belt loops and forces himself to smile. “It’ll be fun,” he says, with equally forced casualness. Nothing serious. Nothing groundbreaking. As far as Hermann’s concerned, it doesn’t have to mean anything at all.

Something shifts in Hermann’s expression. “Fun?” he echoes.

“We don’t have to make a whole big deal out of it,” Newt says, still so casual. “We can just--”

It’s the wrong thing to say. The catastrophically wrong thing to say. Hermann shuts down entirely, places his hand on Newt’s chest and pushes him away, gathers up his discarded cane. “I see,” he says, icily. “Well. Thank you for your time, Newton.”

“Wait,” Newt says, panic rising fast in his chest, suffocating him, because this isn’t what was supposed to happen (he was supposed to marry Hermann), but he should’ve expected it, really, he screws up everything. He grabs at Hermann’s sleeve. “Wait. Hermann--”

“And thank you for clarifying just exactly what I mean to you,” Hermann continues, wrenching his arm away. “Enjoy the rest of the conference.”

He storms out.

He doesn’t answer Newt’s texts that night.

#newmann #maria's fanfiction tag #but its fine because they make up and get married after they drift thanks!#Anonymous

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amora-recs · 5 years

Text

pull out thy twig┊na jaemin┊final

des: “pull out thy twig, your majesty.”

“I’m sorry, what?” jaemin laughed, the twinkle in his eyes shining brighter than ever.

word count: 2.5 k

It's been a month since his meeting with the beautiful knight. It was already summer. Funny how easy it was for Jaemin to cheer up. After his meeting with ___ he would be lying if he said he didn't think about her all the time. Never in his life did he think he would be so captivated by a knight. Every day, he wondered and asked himself questions such as 'Does she like white roses?' or 'Why is she a knight?'. His mind was filled with her, and he was enjoying every single minute of it. He was so immersed by her, he forgot to worry about himself. Things settled down in the castle and soon he even apologised to his father! Alastair was surprised, to say the least. He wasn't one to believe in love at first sight, but she changed his mind, awakening the hopeless romantic inside of him. Maybe having her as his queen wouldn't be so bad. Oh god, how much he'd love for that to happen. He was so busy thinking about her, he even forgot about the banquet!

"So for what exactly am I getting dressed up, again?" he asked Tasha, one of his maids, as she was buttoning his last piece of clothing.

"T-The party before your coronation, Your Highness?" upon hearing her words, his face dropped. That was happening today?! Just how fast time flew by.

"Oh." was all he could say. His eyebrows furrowed, the thought of meeting those smug rascals leaving a sour taste in his mouth. He remembered the list his father showed him earlier. All those people were coming to the party. And along those people, she would be there too. Or at least he hoped so. Before leaving his room, Jaemin took a deep breath, ready yet uneasy to go. The possibility of meeting her again made him open the large wooden doors by himself with a big smile, walking confidently towards the ballroom. If he wanted to impress his father and his friends, a little bit of cockiness was a must.

The party was bigger than he imagined. He knew his coronation was a big thing, but he didn't know it was that big of an event! Soft classical music was played by the orchestra, accompanying the dimmed lighting of the room nicely. Polished silverware was placed at the long rectangle tables, butlers and maids ready to serve the guests. Some were dancing, some were gossiping, and some were eating, but one thing was certain. Everyone was surprised to see Na Jaemin. Anyone could tell he was the crown prince, and if his clothes haven't given it away, his face sure did. Girls and boys would sway left and right as soon he greeted them, some even fainted. His smile was his most attractive feature after all. Very unfortunate she wasn't there to see it. As soon as he was next to his father, everything seemed to stop. The king was about to make an announcement. After grabbing his son by the shoulder, Alastair said, "My son, the heir to the throne of Ophegia, has arrived!" everyone was cheering, overjoyed to finally see the soon-to-be king. Only he didn't feel good. 'What's the point of looking this good if she isn't going to see me anyway?' he asked himself, still searching for her in the immense crowd.

"I couldn't be prouder of Jaemin, already taking the throne from this old man! That is the reason I wanted to invite absolutely all of you here, so you can share this wholesome feeling along with me and give my son all the support and encouragement he needs," he said before punching Jaemin's shoulder lightly. "Now please, enjoy yourselves to your hearts' content and let tomorrow as beautiful as today!" there wasn't a single person in the room to not clap and shout, more than happy to celebrate. All of a sudden, the room felt stuffy. People were congratulating him left and right, but it was all background noise to him, walking around in hopes of finding his darling. His dark eyes scanned the room as many times as he could, he asked men and women around if they knew anything about you, but he got no answer.

His heart dropped, a moody pout taking over his features as he leaned against one of the white walls, chewing on his apple mindlessly. What a waste of his time that was. Maybe if he sneaked out, he would be able to go to the rose maze again. Either way, he would die to get out of there. He could hear all the gossip, be it good or bad. It was nothing new really, but Jaemin still couldn't help his fists from clenching at the hideous words some used to describe his father. Only he (and his brother) could do that."Are you really going to keep sulking in the corner like that?" upon hearing that certain voice he felt himself smirk.

"Must you be so aggressive, Renjun?" he asked, as Renjun kept dragging him around. For such a short lad, he sure was strong.

"Of course!" Renjun said, smiling brightly towards everyone they passed, "That's my job as your cousin!" both laughed this time. It's been a long time, probably years since they have last seen each other.

Both seemed to have changed in their own ways, yet, "You're still short." Jaemin pointed out, in an attempt to tease his cousin.

"Very funny. I'll have you acknowledge you're talking with the new king of Zaphebet," he cleared his throat, desperately trying to distract the other boy's attention from his burning cheeks. With an oh so graceful bow and a cheeky grin, Jaemin paid his respects towards the new king.

"Cool story bro," he continued, making Renjun roll his eyes, "Where's Donghyuck anyway?"

He knew where he was as soon as his brother pointed towards the middle of the dancefloor, needing only a few seconds to spot him dancing with two girls at once. Completely scandalous! Though it was good to know that much hasn't changed about him. "A party animal through and through I see."

"Quite the ladies' man now too!" Renjun added, waving at him as soon as they made eye contact. Donghyuck didn't fail to make them laugh by giving them a very seductive wink. Things were silent shortly after that. Renjun wasn't the one to initiate conversations very often, that much Jaemin knew, so nothing felt awkward. It was more natural than ever. The sweet smell of honeybuns filled his nostrils, tapping his foot along the slow calming rhythm of the melody. He wondered what his ___ was doing. If she wasn't here, where was she? Was she having fun? Was she fine? A long sigh escaped his lips, smiling to himself like a little kid. He was so fascinated with her, he didn't even notice Renjun leaving. Before he could fully embrace the mood, he was so rudely interrupted by his father and judging by the look on his face, he wouldn't like what's about to happen.

"What do you want now?" he asked, not ready to leave his fantasy land. Unphased by his son's act, Alastair guided him towards a group of people. A group of people dancing.

"As you know, you'll need to find yourself a betrothed sooner or later." oh no. "I say sooner, so these lovely ladies over here would be more than happy to dance with you." he continued, winking at him. Not only was he supposed to become the king, but he also supposed to get married now?! What about ___?! No way in hell this was going to happen. Why couldn't he have control over this? No way was he not having the girl of his dreams, no sir! Just how much time would he need to make amends with that? He was not going to find out. Without wasting another second, he pushed his dad away, telling him exactly the same words as last month:

"I don't want to." and with that, he left the ballroom in a hurry, excusing himself over and over again until he was outside that damned castle. He was not going to sit around and let his dad control every aspect of his life. He wasn't sure whether or not he loves his dear knight, but he was for sure not going to spend any other second in there. There was only one place where he could go, and no one was going to stop him. At that point, he knew the road leading towards the maze with his eyes closed. But what could he do? That was his little paradise, his little haven in hiding.

It looked even more radiant at night. It was as if the roses were there for that exact reason: to shine brightly in the moonlight. He wasn't sure why, but he knew something was about to happen. Though, was he ready for it? Right by the entrance stood her, in all of her glory. This time, her hair was let down, the rebel strands now braided nicely together with a few flowers. Her shoulders were exposed as her pale blue dress didn't have any straps, also exposing a good part of her back. She seemed so small and delicate in that dress it was too much to handle for the poor lad. The ruffles around her whole abdomen, tied with a belt of embroidering flowers, flowed down nicely, complimenting the lace at the bottom. She was absolutely breath-taking. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. It's not like he wanted to anyway. The literal embodiment of beauty was standing right in front of him, there was no way he'd even dare blink in front of her.

"Do I look weird, Your Highness?" her timid voice was a nice contrast to the confidence she reeked of last time. Her cheeks were puffy and red, her entrancing eyes looking around awkwardly.

"God, no," he boldly walked towards her, kissing her hand again, this time lingering there just a tad longer, "You look sumptuous, my young lady." only after hearing his last words she finally exhaled, slackening up her shoulders.

"Thank Goodness! Everyone kept staring at me, I thought there's something wrong my dress." she trailed off.

"___, they were staring because you're too beautiful, dear." he smiled, placing a few locks behind her ear, making her face ten shades redder, "Don't worry about such things." she laughed, taking his hand away from her face gently.

"You're being too kind... may I ask you what are you doing out here, sir?" one of her hands went on her hip, raising one of her eyebrows at him. "Shouldn't you be enjoying the party? It's thrown for you after all."

Jaemin couldn't help but flinch when he heard her question, remembering why he was there in first place. Where was he even supposed to start from? What would she think of him after hearing what's on his mind? "It's a long story..." he admitted, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed.

"We have plenty of time," she grinned as she guided him towards the interior of the maze, ready to hear what's gotten the young prince so preoccupied.

"So that was it?" she asked sitting down on the grass beside Jaemin. They finally reached the centre, and with the end of the maze came an end to his story. Her eyes were looking directly at him, making him more conscious than ever.

"I guess... I don't really know how to explain it." he sighed, looking up at the stars. "It doesn't feel right for me to become king. I'm the second born, inexperienced and dumb." he laughed at himself, glancing at her from time to time. "All I know are flowers. I can't see myself not being surrounded by them, studying them, enjoying them. It's not me."

"But you can become king and also enjoy looking at flowers, right?"

"No, my father made sure that I clearly understood why not." he hoped he didn't sound too pathetic in front of her. She wasn't smiling anymore, nor was she judging him. She was just listening, processing things over. And he was glad for that. Although he was too embarrassed to look at her. He just hoped he didn't completely wreck his chances.

"So, His Highness is just a nerd who likes flowers." the truth hurt. In a good way sometimes, making him laugh at the retort.

"Couldn't agree more."

After his reply, she stood up, dusting off her dress carefully, and offered him a hand, which he gladly took. Not even five minutes passed and the next thing he knew, he was being pushed into the corner with a twig. Before he could what was going on, this happened:

"Pull out thy twig, Your Majesty."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jaemin laughed, the twinkle in his eyes shining brighter than ever. Did she just confront him to a twig duel? How was he supposed to respond to that? He didn't know what was going on, but he knew he was going to have fun. Another oddly painful poke made him find a twig of his own and accept her challenge. "Careful, brave knight! I am a master in the fine art of twig fighting!"

"Try me!" she yelled back, going in for another jab. He forgot how much fun playing like that was. It was as if he re-lived a memory, his senses messing around with his head, reacting to everything happening faster than he intended, earning him victory in the end. No one ended up in the corner, but instead, he ended up on top of her, both of their swords broken and their clothes dirty with grass and mud... not that it mattered anymore anyway.

"What was that?" he asked in between laughs.

It took her a whole minute before she could finally answer, considering just how much she was giggling, "My attempt to make His Highness feel better! That's what friends are for right?" at that moment, he froze.

"I'm your friend?" he asked, pointing a finger towards himself after allowing her to si.

"Well, you are now!" she answered him as she stood up. "Although, my dear friend, I'm afraid I have to go now. Who knows what time it is."

His heart felt full. She didn't seem to mind just how late it was, and he himself wasn't either. Who cares if someone sees them, right? The toothy grin on her face was complimented perfectly by the conveniently placed mud on her cheeks, making he himself smile at his crafty work. It was nice, being with her like this. All dirty and tired. Who knew all he needed as a stick fight with the right person? It made him realise maybe things aren't so bad. Maybe it actually wasn't the end of the world – as long as she was there with him, that is. As his friend, girlfriend or wife, it didn't matter anymore. He was just happy she existed. And if you couldn't tell by his smile, his gaze would give it away in seconds. As king, he hoped for more summer days like this.

"Hey, ___?" Jaemin called after her, making the girl turn around, "Thank you."

⇠ ✻

#nct dream #nct reactions #na jaemin #kpopworksnet #thekpopnetwork #ot7 dream #nct #artistic #royalty au #medieval au #flowers #prince jaemin #what a nerd

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