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lostgirlmuseum · 9 months

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The Signal

Made this using images from Pinterest ^ Word Count: 6.1k

Pairing: Bucky x f!reader

Summary: You and Bucky get separated from the team after an unfortunate mishap, of which Bucky blames you. Except you’re not at fault! You thought… you aren’t too sure anymore.

A/N: Thank you all so much for all of the positivity on my first fic, I am actually BLOWN AWAY. You are all so kind!! I actually started writing this all the way back in February of 2022, but seeing the response gave me the motivation to finally finish it.

Warnings: Nothing absolutely horrible, just a bit of angst and fluff(?), plus a little gaslighting and violence.

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“Everything is going to be okay. We’re fine. Everything is fine. Everything–” She repeated the mantra over and over again, not quite believing it.

“Will you shut up?” Bucky growled.

Only an hour prior had both of them been sneaking through a dense forest and scoping out a running ex-HYDRA base deep in the frozen woods. Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Sam, and Y/N were used to missions like this, except this one required a higher level of subtlety and a successful sneak attack was critical. Their intel informed them that the base was rigged to blow if any unrecognized technology was detected, including any disturbances in the radio waves. Because of this, they all turned off their communications signals once they approached the range of the base. At least, they were supposed to.

“I’m just trying to keep myself from freaking out.” She grumbled, slightly trailing behind Bucky as they crunched through the brittle layer of snow.

“Why? You should be freaking out. You should very much be freaking out right now. Considering we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no connection to anyone who can help, and I’m stuck with you.” He recognized he was being cruel, but he didn’t have the strength to stop.

“It wasn’t my fault!”

“The sooner you stop lying to yourself, the better.” Bucky responded without even looking over his shoulder. He hadn’t looked at her for the majority of their trek to the nearest safe house since they got separated from the rest of the group by the explosion.

“This is not my damn fault! I turned off my signal, just like Steve told us to.” She struggled to keep up with him, but she wouldn’t tell him that. She couldn’t show him any weakness–he’d just use it against her.

“Except you didn’t!”

“How are you so sure it was me? There were five of us!” She awkwardly jogged to get a bit ahead of him, and turned around to face him as she walked backward. “What makes you think it wasn’t you?”

“Please, like I would ever be so careless.” His gaze remained on the terrain ahead, and it looked like the trees of the woods were starting to thin out, signaling an exit soon.

“And I would?”

“Yes! Yes, you would. I knew from the start it was a bad idea to take you along. You can’t even follow simple instructions like turning off a signal.” He managed to pass her again, leaving her to struggle to stay next to him. He saw out of the corner of his eye her pointing a finger at him.

“I’m trying really hard not to take your attitude personally. You’ve been acting like a dick for the past week, but I’m sick of it.”

“Whatever you say, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Sweetheart?” He finally glanced at her.

“Yes.”

“Why? Is it reserved for Steve?” Bucky’s eyes quickly returned to the path in front of him.

“What are you on about?” Genuine confusion laced her voice, but her question went unanswered as they reached a block in their path.

“Y’know your genius safe house plan?” Bucky gestured to the map balled up in her hand, the thing they had been using to guide them to safety. “Well, looks like we’re here.”

“This can’t be right,” she shook her head, quickly unfolding the map, “maybe we got turned around.”

“Just look up.”

She followed Bucky’s gaze to the sky, at which she finally realized the ridiculousness of their situation. They were stranded at the bottom of a steep cliff, which looked to stand nearly a hundred feet in the sky.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Because who the fuck puts a safe house on top of a cliff? “There’s got to be an elevator or something, there’s no way we’re expected to climb this.”

They both scanned the base of the cliff, looking for any indication of a secret passage to the top. She ran her hand along the jagged rock and ice, and bit her bottom lip as she concentrated on the wall, eventually spotting a thick rope among a couple vines.

“Shit.”

Her voice gained Bucky’s attention, and he looked over to see her holding not one, but two ropes, each attached to a relatively large weaved basket. It wasn’t quite big enough for the two of them, but one person could definitely fit.

“After you,” he mocked, gesturing to the basket that was meant to work as a (sketchy as hell) pulley system.

Instead of answering, she merely pointed to the inside of the damp basket. Bucky peered his head over to see the bottom had completely fallen apart, leaving a gaping hole where a person would supposedly stand.

“Looks like we’re climbing.” Bucky sighed.

“I can’t–”

“Afraid of heights?” He snapped.

“No, but–”

“Good. Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

He grabbed a knife from his belt and efficiently cut both sides of the rope from the basket. She watched, dumbfounded, as he took one rope and tied it around his waist. Then, he gave the rope a hard tug, and satisfied by the lack of give, turned to his belt and grabbed three more knives. He grabbed duct tape out of his tac pants, and expertly taped one knife to the bottom of each shoe. Finally, he tossed her the duct tape, knowing she already had her own knives. She watched both impressed and annoyed as he firmly stuck his feet as best he could into the ice and rock of the cliff, and used the other knives in his hands as leverage.

He made it about ten feet up before glancing back down to see she hadn’t moved.

“Are you coming or what?” The impatience of his voice stung almost as much as the cold did her nose.

She looked at him, then the rope, and then the knives attached to her legs, before making a move. Unlike Bucky, her combat boots came equipped with hidden spikes that could be used for climbing (although she had never used them for such activity, and normally used them as a treat when fighting, basking in the pride of catching her enemies off guard with a swift kick and metal spike to the face, groin, etc). She adjusted the spikes to be poking out of the toe of her boots, and tried not to think as she grabbed the second rope and knotted it around her waist.

Ignoring her left hand, she grabbed only one knife opposed to Bucky’s two, and stabbed it into the ice. She cautiously looked down at her feet as she began her climb, and looked back up at her hand as she found purchase a foot above her head. Already exhausted from the fighting and explosion earlier, she winced at the tension in her right arm as she pulled herself up.

At the slow pace she was going, Bucky was already 15 feet in the air by the time she was 3 feet off the ground.

Bucky looked down to see her far behind, and raised an eyebrow when he saw her climbing with only one hand.

“You’re supposed to use both hands, you know?” He mocked.

She rolled her eyes, but said nothing, as she let her left hand join her right hand on the handle of the knife protruding from the rock. Bucky noticed her silent grimace as she successfully pulled herself up to the next level. He continued to watch as she stiffly removed her right foot from the wall and placed it above her left foot, before once again grabbing the single knife with both her hands and pulling for a second before letting out an agonizing cry.

Out of curiosity more than frustration, he called down.

“What’s going on down there?”

She briefly looked up at him before looking back at the ground, “I can’t climb.”

“Missed the training day on it?”

His sarcasm went unappreciated as she growled.

“My wrist is broken, asshole.”

Her wrist is broken, and she’s climbing? What is she thinking?

“And you’re still trying to climb? You should’ve told me.”

“I fucking tried telling you! But everytime I try to say something, you interrupt me! Constantly! Besides, what’s the point in telling you if you’re just going to brush it off?”

Bucky swiftly removed the knives in his hands from the cliff, and held onto his rope, before half-hopping and half-climbing down the wall to the ground.

“Bucky, just go,” she sighed, “I’ll figure something else out. I’m not going to be a burden on you.”

She said it in part because, yes, she didn’t want to burden him, but also because she didn’t want to hear his whiny complaints.

He ignored her protests and gently reached for her left hand, inspecting the incredibly swollen wrist. He winced at her soft whimper. He let go and simply looked at her.

“Hop down.”

She didn’t like that he was ordering her around, but his voice was void of any emotion, and out of curiosity and self preservation skills, she obeyed.

“C’mon.” Bucky turned around so his back faced her.

After a couple moments of silence, he looked over his shoulder to see her face twisted in confusion.

“C’mon now, just get on.” He repeated, squatting down a bit more. “You’re going to have to hold on tight.”

Ignoring the absurdity of the situation, she did her best to climb onto his back, at which point he gently grabbed her non-injured arm and wrapped it around his neck to encourage her to not be afraid to cling to him.

After what likely was about twenty minutes of climbing in utter silence, minus the whipping of the cool wind, Bucky made the mistake of looking down. The good news was that they were almost at the top–probably about a quarter of the climb left. The bad news was that meant that they had already climbed about 75 feet, and despite Bucky’s fearless persona, he was not fearless.

“Fuck.” He whispered.

“What’s wrong?” She rested her chin on his right shoulder.

“Nothing… I just didn’t realize how high up we were.” He grimaced the moment he said it. He’d shown weakness. He’d given her ammo. “Gonna make fun of me now?” He started to shake just a little, and prayed that she would assume it was because of the cold and not his anxiety…even though it had been cold for the entirety of the climb.

“No.” She stated.

His head started to spin from the memories. He tried to push through it, but all he could think about was the first time he was this high up. It was as cold as this too. He felt as his left arm subconsciously twitched.

The first time I was this high up, I still had two human arms.

A sweet voice interrupted his thoughts.

“I think I can see the compound from here.”

It was a stupid joke, but he couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“You know, I’m pretty scared of the ocean.” She continued.

He didn’t respond, unsure of where she was going with this. He continued to pull themselves up.

“Just deep water in general scares me. My brother always made fun of me for it.”

Don’t look down, Bucky. Don’t look–

“One time when I was like–fifteen? I think? My family took a trip to this really big lake. We got on one of those pontoon boats and went out into the water.”

He was glad that she was so close to him, otherwise the whipping of the wind would’ve been too loud to hear her calming voice.

“My brother thought he was really funny, and told me to look over the edge of the boat while we were still in motion.”

He tried to grunt to indicate he was listening, but no noise came out.

“He pushed me right as my dad started speeding up. I fell in, and freaked out. Especially as I watched the boat leave me behind.”

He continued to listen to her and focused on her voice, and the vibrations. Her tone was casual, but he couldn’t help but sense she was telling him a secret.

“Luckily, my mom saw what happened, and got my dad to turn around.” She chuckled. “He claimed he was trying to help me get over my fear. But I got my revenge later that day, so it was fine.”

“What’d you do?” Bucky finally spoke up.

“Well, he’s afraid of peanut butter.” She tried to shrug, despite having one arm around his neck and the other hanging limply.

“Do you mean allergic?”

“No, I mean afraid. The stuff freaks him out. He won’t go near it. He’s weird like that.” She sighed in remembrance, and continued.

“So once we got back to the house I grabbed some peanut butter, and slathered it into his hair when he wasn’t looking.”

Bucky looked up again and was surprised to see how close they were to the top. When did that happen?

“He screamed so loud–it was hilarious.” She smiled. “He ran to take a shower, flailing around and being dramatic. ‘Mom! She put peanut butter in my hair! My hair! Mommy, get it out!’”

Worried that Bucky was judging her, she quickly added,

“He was seventeen at the time, by the way.”

Still no answer.

“I don’t think he’s forgiven me yet.” She whispered more to herself than Bucky, but he still nodded as he grabbed at the top of the cliff.

“We’re here.” Bucky didn’t mean for his voice to come across gruff, but the cold wasn’t helping his throat.

“Thank you for carrying me.” She smiled once she had both feet on the ground. It didn’t reach her eyes, but he could still tell she meant it.

Slightly embarrassed, Bucky attempted to grumble out a ‘Thank you for distracting me,’ but he wasn’t sure she heard it.

Come on, you can do better than that Barnes. Just apologize to her, he thought.

“Listen, I know I’ve been acting like a–”

Bucky’s words were cut off by a mysterious and sudden mangled…shriek?

“Oh my God, Bucky.” She patted his arm to get him to turn around.

He obliged, and his eyes became saucers when he saw what had made the noise.

At the top of the cliff was a partially snowy but also grassy plateau, inhabited by a herd of roaming goats. So, so many goats.

“Look at all the goats!” She gasped.

Right as she had said it, one goat had snuck up to them and started biting at Bucky’s prosthetic.

“Get off,” he quelled his shock and grumbled as he shook the animal off of his hand.

“Aw, it likes you.” She giggled, falling to her knees to pet the goat—more like ‘goats’, plural, because the animals seemed to multiply, and fast.

“Let’s get inside. We need to fix that wrist.”

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Beside the disturbingly large population of goats, and the absurd location of the safe house, the house itself was fine. Well, it was shaped more like a barn, but it was decorated like a house. After coaxing Y/N away from the “adorable” (her words, not Bucky’s) goats, and inside, Bucky led Y/N to the forest green rug where he had started a fire in the fireplace.

When he finished briefly looking around, Bucky grabbed some ice that had frozen outside the barn and wrapped it in a cloth from the kitchen. With her permission, Bucky carefully placed the ice pack where he saw the most bruising around her wrist.

“So,” Bucky had settled himself across from her, so they could face each other as they talked. He couldn’t help the pang of sadness he felt as she stood up and backed away to sit on the couch.

She wouldn’t move away if I were Steve, he thought, staring into the fire. They’d probably cuddle up together like they do on the couch during movie nights at the tower.

Y/N didn’t want to move away from Bucky, especially now that he was being amicable again. But the heat from the flames was melting the ice that cradled her wrist, and she didn’t want to add ‘soggy’ to her list of problems.

“So?” She asked, noticing Bucky never finished his thought.

“I’m just thinking about the logistics of this. There’s a high possibility we could be stuck here anywhere from a week to a month. Your signal was fried in the blast too, right?”

She nodded, and released her right hand from holding the ice, letting it balance on her wrist, as she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her signal. Definitely fried.

He pulled out his own signal from where he had kept it in his pants pocket, and showed her how it was crushed. “Well, without our signals, our team can’t track us. We just have to hope that they’ll figure out that we made it to a safe house, and that they don’t check this one last. Because I’m pretty sure there are at least two more safehouses dedicated to the vicinity of the Hydra base, right?”

She nodded. “We got unlucky with this one.”

“First thing we need to worry about,” he raised his eyebrows, trying to gain her attention, “is food. I looked at the kitchen pretty quickly and there’s not that much stuff stocked. A couple cans of beans, and such. Not nearly enough for how long we’re going to be here though. So unless we want to climb back down again, and see if we can find any food anywhere…”

She squinted and tilted her head as if she was a confused puppy.

“We’re going to have to kill a goat.” He finished.

Her eyes went comically wide. “I am not letting you kill Cheetoh!”

Bucky shook his head, exasperated, “You’ve already named them?”

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The longer they were there, the worse the winds got. But that didn’t stop Bucky from hearing the strange overlap of whipping winds, leading him to lean into the noise from his spot on the couch.

“Do you hear that?” Bucky nudged her.

“It sounds like the wind got a lot worse,” She nodded.

“No, something’s off.”

At Bucky’s concern, Y/N got up off the couch and beat him to the doors. She looked at Bucky, who stood directly behind her, before pushing hard to get the sliding door to budge. Instantly the biting cold attacked them again, and she had to place her right arm over her forehead to keep her hair from whipping into her eyes. Everything outside seemed to be an array of grays, until she was able to spot a shadowy figure emerge from the settling fog. A person appeared, as well as a helicopter.

“Sam?” She called, hoping her voice carried far enough to be heard above the wind.

“Y/N! Bucky! Thank god you guys are okay,” Sam called back, and was quickly met by Y/N who had run the rest of the distance to meet him. Bucky was shortly behind.

“I’ve never been so happy to see your face, Sam.” She giggled, setting her right hand appreciatively on his shoulder.

Quickly spotting Steve exiting the chopper, Bucky hid a scowl as he watched Y/N light up and bound over to the bundled up blond, while calling, “Steve!” He wished he had looked away before seeing her pull him in for a hug.

Wanting to distance himself from the interaction, Bucky stood by Sam.

“How did you find us so fast?” Bucky shook his head, and raised his voice, as the wind started to pick up again.

“My signal, man.” Sam yelled back, despite being three feet apart.

“What?” Bucky wondered if he heard him right.

Sam reached into the left pocket of Bucky’s under jacket, and pulled out a small familiar looking device.

Bucky felt a punch to the gut as he suddenly remembered.

The group had just landed the quinjet deep into the forest. They couldn’t land too close to the base and risk setting off alarms, so they settled for a three mile hike away. Bucky and Sam were meant to approach from the north side, while Steve, Natasha, and Y/N planned to approach from the south side, so the group split off after the jet to take opposite round-a-bout paths. It was about two miles left to go when Sam started complaining.

“Dude, does this thing actually fit in your ear?” Sam gestured to the communications device in his hand. “Because it keeps falling out. It’s getting on my nerves.”

Bucky gave a short grunt, which Sam translated to a ‘yes, it does fit in my ear.’

“I can’t,” Sam finally huffed, “I give up. I don’t have any pockets, can you hold this so I don’t lose it?”

Simply wishing for Sam to shut up, he obliged, and shoved the tiny device into his pocket for safe keeping. Neither of them thought to turn it off first, because in their minds, and past experiences, it always stays turned on in the field. Excluding the moments when people turn them off in acts of defiance.

About a mile later, both men heard a small rustling to their right. In hindsight, it was probably just a rabbit, but Sam suggested he go check it out, just in case. That’s what led to the two splitting up, but Bucky wasn’t worried. He knew that if there was a problem, Sam would’ve made it clear immediately. He also knew that Sam knew his way to the base all on his own.

Bucky arrived at his location at the same time that Steve’s voice buzzed in his ear. At this point, the extra signal was long forgotten.

“We’re in position.” Steve’s voice rattled.

“10-4.” Bucky responded.

“Alright, going dark now. Turn off your comms, let’s go.”

Steve’s voice was followed by the soft beep of Bucky’s signal as he turned it off.

He didn’t realize Sam’s signal was still active in his pocket.

“It was just bad luck dude, don’t feel too bad. I should’ve turned it off before I gave it to you, and I shouldn’t have assumed you’d turn it off yourself.” Sam tried to hide his pity with a half-smile.

“I–I was the leak?” Bucky whispered right as the wind started to calm again. He stared at the small device as Sam hid it in the pocket of his own coat. If only Sam had worn that on the way to the base.

“Yeah,” Sam said at a normal level now that the noise had nearly ceased, “but everyone’s safe now, that’s all that matters.” Sam reassuringly pat Bucky’s shoulder twice before looking back at Steve helping Y/N into the chopper.

Bucky let out a short hum, and focused on the ground. He wanted to crush that stupid little signal. He hated the way it made his chest feel tight, and his heart heavy with guilt.

Sam’s voice interrupted Bucky’s thoughts.

“Those are a lot of goats, man.”

Before Bucky could respond, Steve appeared in front of them.

“Hey Buck,” Steve smiled, pulling him in for a quick hug, “I’m glad we found you so fast. Are you injured at all?” Steve pulled back to examine Bucky’s form.

“No, I’m fine,” Bucky swiftly assured, before feeling the throbbing of guilt consume him again, “but Y/N’s wrist is broken.”

“Don’t worry, I know. I already told her I’d take her straight to medical once we get back. Speaking of, we should get going.”

“Right.”

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Three hours later, the group made it back to New York. As the ramp lowered, Bucky quietly pulled Steve aside.

“I can walk Y/N to med.” He nodded to where she was sitting, staring off into space.

“You sure?” Steve struggled to hide the surprise in his voice.

“Yeah.” Bucky nodded.

“Okay.”

Bucky gave his friend a firm pat on the shoulder before sauntering toward Y/N, who remained in her seat.

“Come on, Y/N.” He held out his right hand, offering her to take it.

“Huh?” She blinked twice, and stared up at him, eyebrows scrunched.

“I’m walking you to med.”

“Oh. Okay.” She paused for a moment before standing up. “So much for being stuck for months.”

“Yeah, I guess that calculation was a bit off.”

“I’m just glad we’re back home. And that you didn’t need to kill any goats.”

“I was going to leave Cheetoh alone.”

“I don’t know if I believe you.”

The rest of their walk was relatively short, but silent, until they reached the doors of Dr. Cho. Bucky didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, as Dr. Cho was given a heads up to Y/N’s injury, and already whisked her away.

Bucky rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet for a minute, until he decided it would be uncomfortable for all parties involved if he stayed. He knew she’d be alright, he convinced himself, so there was no need to be in the way.

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A couple of the Avengers found themselves mentally recovering in the lounge, waiting for Y/N to get out of her evaluation.

“She’ll probably be out for two months. Broken wrist and all that.” Steve relayed, taking a seat on the couch.

“Two months?” Sam repeated, looking up from his bag of chips.

“I think she’s pretty bummed, so try not to mention it.”

As if on cue, Y/N entered the room.

“Hey guys,” she smiled, waving with the arm that wasn’t in a cast.

“Hey Hon. How’s the wrist?”

“Really, Tony?” Natasha glared at him.

“What?” He feigned innocence, throwing his hands in the air.

“It’s fine guys. It doesn’t hurt that bad, I’m more embarrassed than anything.”

“Embarrassed by what? I think that cast makes you look tough.” Sam added, doing his best to cheer others up as always. “And hey, you and Bucky can be twins now.”

“Yeah, kinda. Look at that Buck!” She lifted her left arm in the direction of Bucky, who had been silently brooding in the corner. The bulk could be seen under the fabric of her hoodie, but she felt the need to emphasize the point by taking the pullover off.

She first tried tugging the sleeve off her cast, but it was a bit too snug. After a couple more moments of failing, she switched tactics to just pulling off the hoodie from over her head, but that got her stuck in an awkward position too.

After a second too long of borderline uncomfortable silence and shuffling, Steve spoke up.

“Do you want help with that?”

“Nope, I got it. Just gimme- a second…”

Somehow she had gotten the garment twisted around her right arm and upper body.

“Hon, just let us-” Tony started, but was quickly cut off.

“You know what? It’s suddenly cold again. There’s a weird draft over here.” Y/N quickly tugged the hoodie back down and gave a weary smile. “I’m going to go to my room.”

She ran off before anyone could offer an opinion. Unsurprisingly, Steve was the first to speak.

“I’m going to go check on her.”

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A soft knock came to her door.

“Come in.”

“Hey, Y/N.” Steve gave a sympathetic smile as he gently closed the door behind him.

“Hi Steve, what’s up?” She looked fine, but he could hear the strain in her voice.

“Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” He stood in front of where she sat at the edge of the bed.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just got a little frustrated, it’s no big deal.” She shrugged it off, avoiding his eye line.

“It’s okay to feel frustrated.”

“I know. I shouldn’t though. It’s my fault, anyways.”

“How so?”

She cast her gaze to the floor and swept a hand through her hair.

“Well, I think the whole reason we were ambushed was because of me.”

“What? Why would you say that?”

She took a deep breath.

“After Bucky and I got stranded after the attack, I was sure it wasn’t my fault. But then he started saying things, and they were mean… but he was also right. I started second guessing myself, and I thought about it. I mean, out of all of us, I’m the newest. And I was so sure that I turned my signal off…but now I don’t know. I can’t remember. And if it really is my fault they found us, then it’s my fault that fight happened, and it’s my own doing that this—” she pointed to her cast, “happened. I just feel stupid.”

“You weren’t the leak, Y/N.”

“What?”

“It was an accident. Bucky was carrying an extra signal, and no one thought to turn it off.”

“Bucky?” She looked bewildered, shaking her head at this fact.

“Yes.”

“Does he know?”

“Um…I’m not sure. I didn’t tell him. We never had a proper briefing after the chaos derailed our schedule when we got back.”

“I have to go find him.” Her shock turned to a quiet determination of which Steve decided not to push her on.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still want your hoodie off?”

“Yes please.”

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“Buck, wait up!”

Bucky slowed his jog around the track to a stop when he heard her voice.

“Y/N?”

“Hey.” She gave him a sweet smile once she caught up, one he felt undeserving of.

“Is there something you need?”

“No. I just had to tell you something.”

“I’m listening.” He nodded, crossing his arms. He didn’t mean it in a defensive way, it just happened.

“First of all, you should know it’s not your fault.”

“What?”

“I just found out how we got ambushed, and I figured I should tell you.”

“Oh.” He fought the urge to look away.

“Sam gave you his signal, right? But it was never turned off. It was just an accident. But I needed to tell you, because I know you’re going to blame yourself when they tell everyone at the briefing.” Her concerned tone and eyes met him for the briefest second before he wiped his hands down his face.

“I feel like an asshole.”

“No, please don’t.” She softly touched his elbow.

“I’m going to be honest Y/N, I thought you were going to take it a lot worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you found out that it was me. I was worried you were going to get really mad.”

“Wait, you already knew?”

“Yeah? Sam told me right when he found us…I thought you knew I knew, isn’t that why you just told me all that?”

“I thought you didn’t know. I wanted to be the one to tell you before the briefing, to tell you not to worry about it, because I knew you’d take it hard. But–but you already knew?”

Bucky just stared, jaw dropped at a loss for words.

“And–” She scoffed, “—and you didn’t tell me?!”

“Y/N, I-”

“Don’t ‘Y/N’, me! You—you, jerk! I can’t believe you knew all this time that you were the leak, and after belittling me and convincing me it was my fault, you didn’t tell me the truth!” She laughed in disbelief. “You selfish, cold-hearted, dickhead!”

He wasn’t sure what to say, but it didn’t matter, because she kept going.

“I’m stuck off missions for the next two months with a broken wrist, and you let me think it was my own doing! You made me feel like an idiot!”

“I was going to tell you—”

“When? After I was already told at the meeting? I can’t believe you!” She turned around briefly as if she couldn’t even face him, but quickly turned back. “To think I felt bad for you when I found out it was you who got us ambushed!”

With each insult she managed to get a little closer to him. So close, in fact, that Bucky was struggling to even comprehend what she was saying anymore. All he could think of was how close he was to her, how his hands were just itching to grab her waist. His head was nearly empty when he finally did carefully grab her and pull her closer to him. She paused her rampage to look up into his adoring eyes at his sudden movement.

“Bucky?” She whispered, a swirl of confusion and intrigue.

He replied by placing his lips gently on hers, feeling the warmth of her touch. She reciprocated, kissing him back for a couple seconds before bringing her hands to his chest to furiously push him away, followed by a swift slap to the face.

“Jeez-” The sudden change from bliss to reality was shocking.

“I can’t believe you James!” She yelled, her flustered look from both the kiss and her rage. “I can’t believe you just kissed me! I have a right to be angry, fuck you for thinking you can shut me up by locking my lips!”

‘Shit, I messed up,” he starts to think, about to spew apologies, when he gets cut off by her grasping his hoodie in her hand and pulling him back in for another kiss. The moment his shock subsides and he sinks back into the waves of her kiss, he’s just as abruptly taken from it, head dizzy as she parts from him just to slap him across the cheek again.

“Ow! What was that for?” He brings his hand to the sting. He’s so dazed and confused, a hurricane of thoughts and emotions all fighting for his attention.

“You make me so mad! I’m fuming right now! You are so selfish—”

She cuts herself off, pulling him in for another kiss, one that he’s still not prepared for. His frustration rising at her antics, he brings both hands to either side of her face and holds her steadily against him, resulting in their first kiss that lasted longer than five seconds. When he finally feels her about to let go for breath, he lets his lips leave hers, and continues to cradle her head, their foreheads resting against each other as they both gasp for breath.

“You’re not going to slap me again, are you?” He carefully asks, looking into her eyes.

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“No.”

He laughs and slowly lets go of her.

“You okay?”

After a few seconds of silence, she responds with hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’ve already given you enough reason to hate me, I was sure that if you found out I was the leak, you’d finally hate me for good.”

“I don’t hate you Bucky. I always figured you kind of hated me. Lately you’ve been acting kind of like-”

“A dick, I know,” he nods. “And I’m sorry for that. Really, I am. It’s just-” Bucky’s voice seizes as she sees him look intensely at her mouth.

“It’s what?”

“Can I please kiss you again?”

She slowly nods, and allows Bucky to kiss her for the fourth time. It was fucking heaven to him. Regardless, he abruptly pulls back when a thought crosses his mind.

“Shit, what about Steve?”

“What about Steve?”

“Don’t you like each other?”

She couldn’t help but think his concern was cute, the way he acted like he was talking about middle school crushes.

“Bucky, no,” she laughs, “Steve and I have just always been really good friends. You know, when people are nice to each other, and they like to hang around each other?”

“I just always thought that-”

“Never. He’s my friend. And I can guarantee you he feels the same as me.”

She lets him process the information, watching him nod to himself as if taking it in.

“Oh.”

“Are you jealous?” She smirks, giving him a flirty shove.

His cheeks go pink as he starts to stutter.

“Jea- jealous? No, not jealous. Just-”

Was he jealous? Was it emasculating to admit it? It doesn’t matter, he doesn’t care, he’s sick of lying.

“Okay, maybe I was a little bit jealous.” He mumbled, drawing his attention to a pebble on the ground that he was toeing. “So, you do like me, right?”

She lifts his chin upwards and gives him the softest, sweetest, slowest peck.

“Does that answer your question?” She flutters.

“I think so. But the slapping earlier was a bit confusing.” He teased.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright, it was well deserved.”

“No, I still shouldn’t have hit you.” She said with certainty. “But I am still a little bit upset that you didn’t tell me.”

“Doll, I know I should’ve told you that you weren’t the leak. I wish–”

“No,” she shakes her head, “I’m upset you never told me how you felt about me. Instead you acted-”

“Like a dick, I know–”

“No, I was going to say like a child. But yeah, a dick, too.”

They just stood together for that moment, appreciating the start of something new. New, and beautiful, with a lot less animosity, and a lot more kisses.

A/N: If you’ve made it this far, thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope you liked it. If you feel like it, please lemme know your thoughts! I hope you have a peaceful day/night 💕

#bucky x f!reader #bucky barnes x reader #Bucky fic #bucky fanfic #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #bucky angst #bucky barnes fanfiction

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lizard-queen-izzy · 3 months

Text

' "What do you mean you've never kissed anyone before?" Tim's voice cut through the air as they walked back to their desks from the canteen. Jon's hands flew up to attempt to cover his mouth.

"Good lord! Keep your voice down, Tim." His face was already thoroughly flushed. And if he folded into himself anymore, Tim was sure he'd be laying on the ground. Tim tried to stifle a laugh before throwing his arm around Jon's shoulders.

"Firstly, no one's listening to us. Second, it's not that bad. I'm just surprised is all, guy like you? Didn't you say you had an ex girlfriend?"

"I do. It just, never came up while we were together, I suppose. Probably part of why we're not anymore." His voice trailed of at the end. They were treading into personal territory, getting too close. So Tim redirected.

"Well! It's not a requirement, but it's fun for some people. I think anyone who wants should try it, at least once." They were almost back to the offices now, which meant almost back to working and Jon shutting down this conversation. Suddenly Tim felt the pull of resistance on his arm from Jon stopping. He looked down to see Jon deep in thought. He took a second to watch him. The way he twiddle his fingers while he was running through possibilities. The way he let his hair fall slightly into his eyes because he wasn't paying attention to it. The way his mouth twitched, almost like he was starting to mouth out his thoughts but not quite making it there. He was cute, Tim knew that. He tried not to think it, tried not to let himself get too attached. But he couldn't help it. He was starting to get equally lost in thought staring at Jon when Jon's next words snapped him clean out of it.

"Would you be interested in kissing me?" The words came out so easy, there was a slight cloud of uncertainty in his eyes but his face was set with determination. He was serious.

"Seriously?" Tim couldn't help himself, he had to be sure.

"I mean, obviously you don't have to. I suppose I shouldn't just assume. I think I remember you saying you like men, though I acknowledge that doesn't automatically mean you'll kiss any man. I just thought-"

"Jon! Jon. You're spiraling." He placed his hands on his shoulders, and Jon's focus re-centered to Tim's face. He was flushed, and he looked embarrassed again. God, he was cute.

"Sorry."

"No need to apologize!! I do like men, and I would like to kiss you. But not in the hallway right after lunch." He kept the tone of his voice light and playful, to try and keep Jon calm. It seemed to be working. "How about we go back to work for now, and at the end of the day, we can circle back. Yeah? Gives you time to make sure you wanna do this, and gives me time to find some mints." That time he earned a half laugh from Jon, and he knew he'd started to calm back down.

"OK, that sounds reasonable."

...

Jon had been staring at Tim for the last few hours. Every so often, Tim would feel eyes on him and when he turned to find the source, Jon would be turning back around or looking back down at his desk. Tim couldn't say he wasn't also aware of what he'd promised Jon earlier in the day. He'd scheduled a kiss with him like it was an appointment, but at the time it was the only thing that made sense. He didn't regret it, but he was starting to worry Jon was having second thoughts. '

_______

Have this very rough, first draft/stream of consciousness beginnings of a small fic thing. I wrote this this morning while waiting for my friend to pick me up to go pick up my book from Barnes and Nobel. And I can expand it into a proper thing but I need motivation.

This blurb is not related to the Multi-chap thing I'm planning, that is getting properly planned and mapped out and will take a Bit.

This is a Research Days first kiss thing, btw

#the magnus archives #tma #jon sims #jonathan sims #tim stoker #timothy stoker #jonsims/timstoker #jontim #ficlet #draft

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andromeda-nova-writing · 10 months

Text

Late Nights Under the Stars

Fem!Reader

Summary: Two-night owls flirt under the stars before heading to bed to get some sleep.

Words: 711

AN: I haven’t posted a fic since July 2021. uhhhh crochet took over me a bit. But I swear I’ve been writing in the background. I’ve been trying to write a fic for this man since he was announced as a real character and not just an npc.

"How long have you been sitting out here?"

Y/N turned her head around looking behind herself to see Ayato standing behind her. He was already dressed for bed. It felt like a first. Usually, Y/N was asking Ayato how long he had been sitting at his desk.

"I couldn't sleep. I just felt too warm and cramped up in the room. I've just been staring at the sky trying to map out the stars. I think the only thing I've been able to map is where the moon is."

Ayato smiled, shaking his head. He sat next to Y/N on the stairs of the Kamisato Estate. "Has it helped to clear your mind?"

"A little bit. I think it reminded me how small we are in the grand scheme of everything. With all the stars in the sky you know there are probably planets circling those stars." Y/N was focused on the sky once again. "I mean just think about it. We can't be alone in the universe since there's Lumine. I just wonder how many worlds there are out there."

"So in other words, it has not helped you clear your mind."

"Yeah." Y/N laid her head against Ayato’s shoulder.

Ayato put an arm around her, pulling her close. "It's good I came out here. I think you would have started an existential crisis in Thoma."

"Just Thoma? Not Ayaka?"

"Yes. Ayaka would have dragged you back inside already the moment you started rambling."

Y/N laughed. "Oh, would she now?"

"She's forced me to rest more times than the stars you've been counting. You can only protest her so much." Ayato spoke from experience yet proud of her behavior.

"So what would she do if she found us out here?"

"Maybe say I'm being a bad influence on you."

"I don't think you are being a bad influence. I've always been a night owl. I'd still be doing this even without you here. I think whoever I ended up with would have to deal with me being like this."

Ayato laughed. "You make it sound like it's a burden."

"I didn't mean to make it sound like a burden. I'm just tired. I can't word right at the moment."

"Let's get you to bed then. As much as I love all sides of you. I don't think the world is ready for such poetry of 'Can't word right'. You might be considered a genius and then how would I be able to see you then?" Ayato stood up and held a hand out.

Y/N took his hand helping her get off the seat of the stairs. "I'd run away every night, crawl next to you in bed and tell you how much of a nuisance it is to have the world consider you a genius."

Ayato didn't let go of her hand as they walked to the front door of the estate. "And what if you were sent off to another country?"

"I would make them think I'm so lovesick that they would ship me back home. And when I set foot back in Inazuma I would tell them they fell for my trap. Cause I do my best thinking with you."

"Sounds convincing to me." Ayato opened up the door to the estate letting Y/N walk in before himself. He closed the door behind him making sure it was locked before continuing on to their shared room.

"Perfect. Even though I don't think anyone would mistake me for a genius it's good to have a plan in place."

"Not sure. You're already planning ahead for theatricals. Exactly what a genius would do."

Y/N laughed. "Of course, you would know that. Must you forget, my only talents have been anything but traditional book smarts? I was made for the arts."

"Still requires some sort of brains. Even then it's easy to tell you were made for the arts when you look like someone brought a wood carving to life."

"And you say I need sleep. I think you're trying to romance me all over again."

"And if I am?"

"Then I feel bad for whoever overhears you flirt because I'm not stopping you." Y/N had planted a kiss on his cheek before heading towards their bedroom.

“I would hope not.”

#kamisato ayato #ayato #genshin impact #kamisato ayato x reader #ayato x reader #oh look a fic

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velidewrites · 11 months

Text

When a neighbouring kingdom of Scythia begs for aid in the impending war, Prince Lucien is forced into a marriage with its princess.

He doesn't expect to fall for her handmaiden instead.

Pairing: Elain x Lucien

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, blood and injury; Eventual smut

Tags: Alternate Universe, Forbidden Romance, Angst, Pining, Forced Proximity, and everything else that makes two characters Go Insane, Complete disregard of the canon world map, More Tags on AO3

Chapter 1 || Fic Masterlist || AO3

Chapter III

Lucien had not seen Elain in two days, and he was slowly starting to go out of his mind.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d been avoiding him—how else could he explain catching all but one glimpse of her in all this time? They were quite literally sharing a home, with her and Vassa’s quarters only a floor below his own—a painful reminder of how close she truly was despite how far away she seemed.

At times, in the dead of the night, Lucien swore he could hear her heart, beating rhythmically through the stone. It was unlikely, of course, the more plausible explanation being his mind playing tricks on him again—the same way it had when he’d dreamt of their wedding—and yet, the idea of her heart lulling him to sleep was comforting enough that he’d let his imagination run wild.

Where had she gone? Lucien knew she had to have been shadowing Vassa around the palace, constantly at the princess’s disposal whenever her assistance as handmaiden was required. And yet, he’d only seen her once, hurrying down the hallway leading to Vassa’s chambers the other evening, a tea tray laying shakily in her hands. Whenever Lucien would meet with his betrothed—their discussions almost exclusively accompanied by his mother, now—Elain simply vanished, as if she’d made it a deliberate effort to keep out of his sight. He could tell she was around somewhere, though—watching, listening as the two royals prepared for their imminent marriage. He wondered what went on in her head then—if she found herself distracted thinking about him as much as he did thinking about her.

It was a dangerous path he should not have allowed his mind to wander on, but Lucien simply couldn’t help it anymore. Their chance meeting in the gardens seemed to have changed everything, so much so that Lucien swore he could hear Jurian’s voice in his head sometimes, mocking him for falling so pathetically after all but one conversation. He felt pathetic himself, truly. Elain was beautiful—the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen—but Lucien had been surrounded by beauty his entire life. It was the light in her doe-like eyes, the kindness in her words, the warmth of her skin sinking into his, that made him lose all his senses but one.

He wanted to touch her again.

Just a brush of his fingers over hers—so small and discreet he could probably pass it off as an accident to the average onlooker. He seemed to come alive under her smoothness, over that warmth, and he could no longer deny he needed to feel it again.

So Lucien did something entirely selfish—he made sure that for today’s meeting with the Princess, the handmaiden had no choice but to come along.

If she didn’t speak to him—if she perhaps regretted the conversation they’d had in the gardens—he would keep away. It would drive him mindless, to be sure, but there was a very real chance that Elain had little interest in him—that there was someone else, waiting for her back home in Scythia. He only needed to see her, really—to make sure that whatever he felt, it was entirely unreciprocated. If it was, he would learn to live with it. Maybe, after a while, he would even forget, consumed by the kingdom and taking his father’s place.

But if it wasn’t—if Elain did feel something for him—Lucien would be completely, utterly fucked.

“What?”

Lucien blinked, then turned toward the sound. “What?” he parroted.

Jurian’s dark brows knitted over his eyes. “You just ‘fuck’ out of nowhere.”

Gods.

“Stop spying on me, Jurian.”

The General raised a defensive hand. “Apologies, Your Highness,” he drawled, a shadow of a smirk curling his full lips. “Tell the voices in your head I said hello.”

“Very funny,” Lucien huffed, “I don’t—what is it?” he paused, his own brows furrowing as Jurian’s gaze fixed somewhere behind him—apparently no longer part of this conversation, his brown eyes wide.

“Fuck,” Jurian swore under his breath.

Lucien smirked at that, a snide comment already waiting in the back of his tongue, and he turned again to follow his stare. “What is—”

Lucien stilled.

Fuck, indeed.

He watched as two women entered through the open stable doors, their steps followed by a golden trail of sunlight. Lucien understood, now—realised that inviting the Princess horse riding was a very, very bad idea.

Elain looked like she’d been crafted by the very Gods themselves—sent down to earth to taunt him with her beauty. Somehow, each time that he saw her, he found that his mind underestimated just how breathtaking she truly was. She’d tied her hair up today, golden-brown locks half-braided and cascading down her back. Like Vassa, Elain hadn’t opted for a regular riding gown, but a lilac tunic and tight-fitted, cream-coloured trousers that highlighted the curves if her hips, swaying slightly with every step.

Lucien was going to go out of his mind.

He could only gape as they approached, finally reaching where he and Jurian waited with the horses, already neighing quietly in excitement for the journey.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed—but Jurian cleared his throat, which could only mean Lucien needed to think of something clever to say, and now.

“You…” he started before realising his gaze was still on Elain’s. Forcing himself to tear his eyes off her shining stare, he looked to Vassa. “You look very beautiful. Your Highness.”

Vassa nodded, brushing an invisible piece of lint off her jacket, the dark turquoise offsetting her hair nicely. “Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself,” she added—a pleasantry, if Lucien had to guess, since her eyes had already drifted to the horses behind him.

Perhaps that was why he asked, “Have you done much riding in the past?”

That seemed to catch the Princess’s attention. She looked at him again, something like a smile curling the corner of her lips. “Oh, yes. We’re horse people—in Scythia. I have been riding since I was no more than six, I believe.”

“Impressive,” Lucien praised. “Shall we, then?”

“We shall,” Vassa agreed, already making way toward the proud, chestnut stallion as Jurian wordlessly handed her the leash.

After a moment of hesitation, Lucien followed to her side, offering a hand as she moved to mount the saddle.

“I’ve got this, Your Highness,” Vassa said without looking back. “But thank you.”

Beside them, Jurian snorted—then quickly muttered an apology as Lucien shot him a look.

He turned to Elain then, hoping—praying—that this would be his chance to steal a word or two—to made sure that, at the very least, he hadn’t offended her, or displeased her somehow. If she accepted his hand, it would be all he needed. It would be all he’d ever be able to get.

But Elain was already sitting atop her own horse, her hand tight around the rein as she promptly looked out to the open doors.

“Where to?” Jurian asked.

Vassa was looking at Lucien when she answered, “I’ve always wanted to explore your forests—Scythia, you see, has more of a hillside landscape.”

Lucien opened his mouth, but Jurian had already cut in, “Forgive me, Princess,” he said, and Lucien frowned at his friend’s omission of her formal address, “But anything outside palace grounds is strictly off-limits. Security measures, I’m afraid.”

Vassa waved a hand. “I hardly think we need those for something as mundane as horse riding. The forests are a short ride away.”

“Those measures have been put in place for your safety,” Jurian pressed, an edge to his voice that made Vassa look at him at last.

“Well, then, if it’s my safety that concerns you, I can assure you I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” She turned to Lucien, something like urgency in her tone as she commanded, “Let’s go, then. I grow tired of waiting.”

And with that, she and Elain moved out of the stables.

Finally seated in his own saddle, Lucien leaned toward the General. “Insufferable, isn’t she?” he teased.

Jurian only grunted.

“You catch up to her,” his friend said, his hard stare not leaving the Princess’s back for a second. “I am not going to entertain this.”

Lucien glanced at Elain, hoping he wasn’t being too obvious as he countered, “You’re supposed to be the one watching her.”

Jurian’s jaw tightened. “Who do you think she should be riding with, her guard or her betrothed?” he asked, and Lucien could have sworn there was a bitterness to his tone he couldn’t quite discern.

There was no time for this now—and Jurian was right, anyway.

Lucien caught up to Vassa quickly. “Your Highness,” he called—to no effect. Gods, had Jurian riled her up this badly? “Vassa,” he pressed and, mercifully, she half-turned to him at that.“You have to forgive my General’s brashness, but he does have a point.” He hesitated. “I’ve…heard of the attacks on your life—back in your kingdom. Those truly determined to end your life will not be stopped by something as simple as our kingdoms’ shared border.”

Quiet fell, and the two of them passed through the gates, leaving the palace grounds and moving onto the path leading to the forest behind in a steady pace. He already began to prepare himself for a silent ride, with Vassa clearly not in a particularly chatty mood—when was she ever?—when she finally answered.

“I know,” she said, then sighed. “Truth be told, Lucien, this is the first time I’ve left the palace—any palace—in weeks.” Her lips thinned. “I only wish to taste whatever’s left of my freedom before…”

Oh.

“I see,” Lucien said, because he truly did see. Deep down, she looked at their imminent marriage the way he had—a life planned out for her for the sake of the life of others. Duty over happiness.

So Lucien said, if only to lighten the mood, “If it helps, I can promise you I do not have any plans whatsoever to keep you in the palace after we are married.”

She laughed at that, a sound that clearly said, As if you could stop me. “I realise this union is not personally convenient for you either, you know,” she started carefully. “But…I want you to know it is no more than a political one. You’re…free to do whatever you wish when we do not appear together.”

Lucien hummed, the meaning of her words sinking into him at last. “You mean whomever I wish.”

Vassa snorted. “Well, your reputation does precede you, emissary.”

“Glad to hear it,” he rolled his eyes, but he was smiling now. So she could joke around, after all. “You don’t need to worry about such things, though.”

Vassa angled her head. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “This marriage may not be what I want, but I do take it seriously, Vassa. I would never let my…discontentment be a stain on your honour, in private or not.”

Her blue eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t?”

“I like to think I was raised better than that,” Lucien said, because it was true. He’d spent his entire life praying to the Gods to bless him with what his parents shared—and if he wasn’t going to be granted their kind of love, the least he could do was offer the respect the King and Queen had always shown one another.

“I see,” Vassa said simply.

“I’d like to say I expect a similar approach from my future Queen,” Lucien teased again, “but something tells me you’re not one who takes well to being told what to do.”

It was Vassa’s turn to roll her eyes now. “I don’t think—”

Vassa’s words were cut off as an arrow swooshed past her head—and missed by an inch.

Somewhere behind them, Elain screamed.

“Get down!” Jurian roared, the sound of his heavy boots hitting the ground following swiftly.

Lucien whipped back, catching a glimpse of a sword being pulled out of its sheath before everything finally registered—they were under attack.

It was like match lighting in his head—a fire illuminating the darkness. He was no longer the Prince, no longer Lucien, even, but a warrior, unparalleled in his skill to everyone but the General at his side. They’d fought enough battles together for their minds to sync as one, for orders and strategies to flow between them wordlessly like a melody etched into their hearts.

Lucien jumped off his horse a second before four assassins appeared at the forests edge, previously shielded by the tall, roughened trees. He used that time to scan for a royal sigil, for any flag or emblem of sorts adorning their armour, their weapons—he looked for the Vanserra’s sharp-eyed hawk, its wings spread proudly over a red background. But Lucien found nothing.

There was a flash of similar concern from Jurian before they attacked.

“Protect the Princess!” Jurian shouted, but there wasn’t any time left to get Vassa—and Elain—to safety. Two men had already lunged at Lucien, the last line of defence to where Vassa sat, frozen and wide-eyed on her horse. She didn’t carry a weapon—had never been taught how to use one—and the rage at the injustice now flickered in her bright, blazing eyes.

Lucien would make quick work of them—Jurian would, too.

He gripped the hilt of his sword tighter in his hand, the silvery steel catching a glimpse of the midday sun. And when the assassin reached him at last, his own two daggers ready and aimed for his neck, Lucien plunged it into his heart.

There was a loud squelch as he pulled the sword out of his body, and the assassin fell with a thud, his blood already staining the mossy earth. He wasn’t dead, not yet, but incapacitated enough that it gave Lucien enough time to whirl to the other—the archer waiting closer to the trees, his bow already drawn, a long arrow pointed at Vassa.

He was too far to leave Lucien any hope, any time for combat—so, without thinking, he pulled the knife strapped to his thigh and aimed for the head.

Lucien was never particularly skilled in dagger throwing, so he allowed himself a split second of satisfaction as the intruder, too, dropped to the ground with a choked gasp. He turned to Jurian, then, anticipating a similar scene to enter his sight—only to find him half-bleeding and fighting.

Lucien ran for his friend, silently cursing himself for allowing him and Elain to stray so far behind, fighting the panic that had already begun to rise through his chest and clench his lungs tight. The assassin Jurian was fighting was a lot more impressive in his skill, blocking Jurian’s blows with ease as the General grew sloppier, his right arm dripping red.

It was then that Lucien realised the fourth assassin was nowhere in sight.

And neither was Elain.

Lucien turned just in time to find her galloping towards Vassa, screaming something to her in a language he didn’t understand. He understood her intentions well enough, though.

“You would risk your life for her in such a way?” he’d asked her a few days before.

“Of course I would.”

The masked warrior appeared as though out of nowhere, moving so quietly that the smooth sound of his arrow being drawn was the only implication of his presence. Jumping less than six feet from Elain’s grey horse, he blocked it from its path, and directed the weapon at its head.

Lucien pivoted, nearly slipping on the dampened earth, the next dagger already in his hand.

The stallion’s dark eyes widened at the attacker, and, startled, it reared up with a loud neigh.

“Elain—!”

It was too late.

The reins she gripped so tightly snapped, and Elain fell on her back.

“ELAIN!” Lucien screamed, the sound prompting the assassin to whirl back on his feet as his hand moved to the quiver strapped to his back.

Lucien would be damned before he let him reach it.

The assassin fell to his knees with a strained gargle, and that was that.

A stunned, terrifying silence fell over the forest before Vassa broke into tears.

“Oh, Gods, Elain—”

“Lucien, is she—”

Lucien lunged again.

Jurian reached him in an instant, his own opponent discarded a few feet away, and gripped the horse’s shredded reins, pacifying the animal as Lucien fell to Elain’s side.

“Breathe,” he whispered because he wasn’t sure what he’d do if she didn’t.

He waited a second.

Then another.

And then Elain breathed.

“Thank the Gods.”

He slipped his arms underneath her knees, under the back of her neck, so gently that he had to keep his hands from shaking.

“She’s alive—unconscious,” he said, turning to Jurian and Vassa. “I’m taking her back to the palace.” A look at Jurian. “See if any of them survived.”

Jurian nodded, his expression grim. If one of the assassins did, they would be taken in for…questioning.

Perhaps Lucien would do it himself.

He looked at Elain then—at her pale face, still twisted in horror, at the small cut across her cheek.

The healers would help her—they had to.

Without another word, Lucien placed her atop his horse and rode back to the palace.

***

Elain was in agony.

“Be still,” a familiar voice ordered, familiar enough that her eyes shot open.

The first thing she saw was a bright, golden light, flickering lightly over the sandstone walls. Candlelight, she realised, which meant that the sun must have already set well behind the horizon. Just how long had she slept?

She hadn’t slept, she suddenly realised. She…

Oh.

“What—” the word came out as a hoarse groan. Gods.Vassa might have been her friend, but falling off the horse in front of the Princess was still embarrassing enough.

But then Elain remembered why she’d fallen, and her body jolted up.

It was the wrong thing to do.

Elain bit back a scream as white-hot sensation flashed before her eyes. Her back—she’d injured her back, and badly. It felt like her spine was being stretched and pulled on, the blood throbbing so hard under her skin that she could feel it swelling in her palm as she reached to brush her lower back.

Vassa’s steady hands settled on her shoulders, and she gently guided her down. “Try not to move. The healer says it’ll be at least two days before you can stand up.”

Her voice shook slightly as she spoke, and Elain slowly placed her hand atop hers. “Your Highness—”

“Don’t even start.” Her blue eyes lined with silver. “This…this is all my fault.”

Elain hissed. “That’s not—”

“Yes,” Vassa pressed. “It is. Elain, you were in danger because of me. They could have killed you because of me, and my ignorance—I am so, so sorry.”

Elain squeezed her friend’s hand with all the strength she could gather. “There is no need for apologies,” she said, and meant it. “My life is in your hands, Princess.”

Vassa looked as though she was going to protest, so Elain added quickly, “I did not see Rask’s royal sigil.” And she looked—in the brief time she was given to take in her surroundings, she searched for their enemy’s presence and found none. “Who did this?”

“We’re working on it,” a low, quiet voice reached her from across the room, and Elain flinched. She did not notice his presence at all—how long had he been standing there? Watching?

Prince Lucien took a step forward, and she tried to move upwards again—injured or not, she was still bound by protocol. Perhaps she couldn’t curtsy now, but a simple bow—

A ripple of pain passed through her again, and a stifled gasp escaped her throat. Lucien’s russet eyes widened in alarm. “Gods, Elain, please—don’t. Just…” He swallowed hard, something pained in his expression as he kept his gaze on her. “Please, just rest.”

She couldn’t look away—not when, after days of forcing herself to avoid him, she was finally given a moment of reprieve.

She knew it was for the better good—for both of them. There was a pull toward him she felt at all times, no matter how hard she tried to stay away—a pull dangerous enough that she didn’t dare to cross paths with him again as she navigated the palace. Even in meetings, where her presence as handmaiden was required, she would fade into shadows—into the most secluded corners of the rooms, far enough to not see just how painfully beautiful Lucien was, but close enough to listen to his honeyed voice.

His voice as he spoke of the wedding. To Vassa. To her Princess—her best friend.

Her best friend who was now clearing her throat quietly. “I must go check on my security,” she said, rising to her feet from the edge of Elain’s bed. Elain frowned—as far as she remembered, the only security that had gone riding with them was…

“Is the General inured?” she asked, daring another glance at Lucien.

His handsome features strained. “He’ll be alright.”

“His arm was nearly sliced in half,” Vassa said, a bite to her tone that made Elain’s brows furrow. The Princess composed herself quickly, though, concern replacing the strange look in her eyes as she met Elain’s gaze again. “Will you be alright, Elain?”

“Of course.”

And with that, Vassa left the room, the sound of her hurried steps echoing through the corridor neighbouring the quarters.

Leaving her and Lucien…alone.

“Are you…” she started, looking over his body—he was still wearing his riding gear, though stained now and bloodied.

“I’m fine.” His voice strained as he took another step forward. “Elain—why did you do it?”

Was that what was bothering him?

“How can you even ask me that?” It hadn’t been the first time Elain was in danger—she was handmaiden, yes, but only a few truly understood what her role truly meant.

She wasn’t a servant—but a protector.

And today, she’d almost failed.

Lucien did not seem appeased. “How could you just—you’d almost thrown your body in line of Vassa’s.” Something flared in his gaze—not annoyance, not anger, but…

Panic.

“You could have died,” he finished, his chest falling with a heavy breath.

“This is my duty, Lucien,” Elain said, doing her best to ignore the way his entire body stilled. “To Vassa, to my people—I’m sure you, of all people, understand.”

After all, he had a duty to Vassa himself.

The silence that fell was almost palpable, and she wondered if she’d gone too far—if she’d gotten too comfortable in lecturing the Prince, if she’d somehow implied—

“Yes,” Lucien said then, breaking her line of thought. “I do.”

Elain nodded, a sudden wave of heaviness crashing over her as her body cried out once more. She blinked slowly, but the golden light seemed to melt before her eyes until she could no longer tell if it was the candles looking down at her, or Lucien’s russet eyes.

“Rest, Elain,” a soft, sad voice reached her. “Rest.”

So she did.

Taglist (let me know if you'd like to be added!): @asnowfern @areyoudreaminof @readercacau @fieldofdaisiies @melting-houses-of-gold @octobers-veryown @selesera @addicted-to-nothing @wilde-knight @emily-gsh @thelovelymadone @corcracrow @darling-archeron @kingofsummer93 @panicatthenightcourt @vulpes-fennec @suilamhainsposts @7thdove

Note: If you see your name on the taglist but didn't get the notification, it means your tumblr settings are set to disable your blog from being tagged by non-mutuals! This can be changed in your blog settings :)

#elucien au #elucien #pro elucien #elucien fic #elucien fanfiction #elain x lucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #acotar fic #acotar #my writing

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gynandromorph · 9 months

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You like rainworld :o !? I recently got into the game and i am struggling as the monk. How far have you gotten? Do you have any tips?

oh yeah, i'm not a diehard fan making fan content, but the procedurally generated animation has honestly been formative for me (as formative as something can be for someone in their later 20s). my friend recommended it to me in 2019, so that is when i picked it up. i've even referenced rain world with a lookalike game in a side comic about sugar:

the game that i was working on earlier this year also had a similar tunnel crawling mechanic inspired in large part by rain world. they are obviously way above any level i'll ever be with programming, but they did easily evade the wall i hit by making the tunnels straight lines instead of lumpy diagonals.

i've beaten rain world once as the survivor -- didn't like where they spawn the hunter, so i never progressed very far (it doesn't help that i'm mostly a "play games with friends" type of person and once the novelty of a game wears off i have very little motivation to play it solo). i was doing another run with the survivor where i transport all of the colored pearls to Moon, but i set it aside to work on idletry. i also started a run as the gourmand and the explodey one i can't remember the name of, but for similar reasons, i haven't picked it up again. it's really a game i only like to play with a large block of time because i know it will take a long time to make progress even if i'm playing well and rarely die due to the convoluted map. i REALLY want to be able to play as the axolotl, though, which requires you to beat the game more times to unlock.

i'm no expert at the game by any means (as a reference, my first run of the game took 11 hours and had 155 cycles), but i'm not uncertain about if i could complete a run or not anymore... my tips would be don't play it on console, keep jumping when you're running from something, look up an advanced movement tutorial because the amount of minute controls you have at your disposal that are never explained to you is disgusting, learn how to kill lizards with a single rubbish + a spear and you'll become infinitely more confident, befriending lizards is worth more than befriending scavengers (but don't piss off the scavengers), and learn to love death because it's most of your run. there really are some cycles that are just unfair, as the whole game is unfair, and i felt better when i would sometimes kill myself intentionally if i, say, had an axolotl spawn directly above the exit to my burrow and camp there until the rain came, rather than trying to get around it. just left me in a better mood

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anacat195 · 9 months

Text

Some additional snapshots of my time with Palia so far.

- Hodari mentioning how Najuma’s mother had a fiery temper/hair. Me (a redhead): So what I’m hearing is you like redheads….

- A pro tip: you do not always need other people for flow trees. It’s polite to call them out, but sometimes it’s a super small tree and with the iron axe you can outpace the healing yourself. It will only give like 2-3 flow wood though.

- The devs mentioned a few times that you do not have to engage with all of the mechanics if you don’t want to and there are built in ways to work around requirements. I personally feel this is misleading because there is a main story quest that requires you to turn in rare fish/bugs/etc. And there are several skills you have to level up to be able to get those things. I am just now at the point where I can grow the bait needed to get those last rare fish. And at least from what I’ve seen on the requests you can only request items that you’ve already obtained once.

- Speaking of requests there is a quest that asks you to fulfill five player requests. Since so many people are joining and we’re all hitting these early quests, I try to use my request slots for easy things other players can give to meet that quest requirement. Just a thing to consider in the spirit of community playing.

- I love Kenyatta and Nai’o’s little fling they got going on. It’s cute. I had considered doing all of the romances just to see all the storylines, but I kind of don’t want to break them up. Maybe I’ll leave them alone until I’m in the mood to cause some drama.

- The furniture building is the most frustrating part for me so far. Chair is pictured with a cute cushion. Build it. No cushion. Bookcase is pictured filled with books and has little drawers on the bottom. Build it. No books, no drawers. 🤬 I’m losing my mind. I feel like I’m wasting resources building things because they don’t look like the picture.

- I do also sometimes find hunting frustrating but that’s because I like to set up my shot slowly more like a sniper and most people are running all over the map treating it like an fps game and spooking all the sernuks. I just try to move to the less traveled areas when that happens; it’s just a difference in play style. Though there was one person doing that who I swear followed me all over the Kilima map once.

- I am once again asking for romanceable Hodari. Let me open this man up to the terrifying vulnerability of loving someone again. It would even make in-game sense to lock it behind max friendship. I’d be fine with it! Hell, lock it behind max friendship with his daughter too. That’s how much I want it. (I also would not turn up my nose at an opportunity to romance Sifuu. I love a buff lady.)

#palia

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maryellencarter · 3 months

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have started a new playthrough of breath of the wild with the intention of practicing the combat techniques, which i am quite bad at. (look, shield surfing and flurry rushes both require using three of the control inputs at once, i know i have ten fingers but i was never very good at playing chords on the piano either)

i don't know how far i'll get on any of these goals, but i'm also sort of vaguely considering:

* 100% run? have never finished one. there's at least one korok (near the akkala tech lab, uphill boulder golf with a lynel in the middle of the course) that i'm genuinely just not sure i can complete. i want to do this part glitchless if at all, so no seed duping allowed.

* clear all enemies no blood moon run? this is technically possible, although the timing to get the blood moon shrine to spawn without actually respawning enemies is quite tricky. there's a save-reload exploit that lets you delay the blood moon for a full cycle at a time, which would be pretty necessary for some of the night quests to be completable. my main interest in trying this is to force me to actually fight more enemies (and therefore get better at the combat) rather than rely totally on sneaking around and avoiding them. also to make weapons rarer and therefore more valuable/exciting to find, because in a normal playthrough i usually get overloaded on high tier weapons pretty quickly, especially once i get woodland tower with the respawning royal claymore. it's not actually possible to completely clear the map, because there will always be random spawns, like nighttime stalkoblins, or yiga after you defeat master kohga, but i feel like it'd be pretty entertaining to just be waltzing around past enemy camps you cleared and having them continue to have been cleared.

* all chests run? this would not be a true 100% objective because i have no interest at all in the glitching required to get "impossible" chests. perhaps "poke my nose into every nook and cranny" run would be more accurate -- there are so many tiny hidden things in BotW that even people who've spent thousands of hours in the game have never seen. this kind of goes hand in hand with the no blood moon run, because i'll definitely run out of hero's path time long before i finish any such playthrough, so the main way to tell if i've already been somewhere (other than my own memory, which *is* pretty good for BotW locations because the geology is so realistic it feels like an actual landscape and sticks in my memory the same way) will be if i already killed off the enemies there.

* no guides run. at least until like 99% completion or so. i've been playing pokemon violet with a collectibles map constantly open, which is about the only way i can enjoy that game because the geology/geography is just impossible for me, and i have played BotW the same way on other saves, but... hyrule feels, idk, homey enough? it already lives in my bones enough that i can, and want to, run around it like a real place and get to know every corner. like i did with my childhood hometown, and have not had the spoons to do irl since. i'll definitely make a great deal of use of the sheikah sensor (i've done all shrines before -- on the switch lite, which is a *trip* for motion controls shrines) and any other detection things like the korok mask, any ingame method i'm granted to find the collectibles.

* no amiibo run? this is more practicality because i left my botw amiibos at leia's. but also they always feel a little game-breaky, not even so much with the exclusive drops as just with the extra resources you get early -- i don't even remember most of the places you can find safflina in the game, just because i always get so much from zelda amiibos if i'm scanning them daily, for instance.

i'm playing on my switch lite again because the regular size switch really kills my hands in handheld mode. my beat-the-game save is also on the switch lite and i didn't want to overwrite it so i made a secondary profile. so far i have done the magnesis shrine (failed deeply at using the metal boxes in the shrine to bop the guardian on the head, which will kill it if you do it right but you have to either use motion controls to fling it down or get the guardian to stand under the box while you drop it from a great height) and almost shot king rhoam for a squirrel because he was wandering around in the forest (as the old hermit, of course) and i didn't know he could spawn there if you dick around long enough before completing the plateau. so i'm already discovering things! ^_^

(the main issue with attempting a no blood moon run is that i am absent minded and usually fail to notice it's a blood moon night until it drops the cutscene on me. that will probably be the major obstacle there. i don't expect to run completely out of weapons -- at minimum i can always get more yiga gear, champion gear, and once i have the master sword it recharges. i've never attempted trial of the sword, idk if i will? certainly not until i'm much more confident with my combat techniques)

one of my favorite things about playing video games is that there's always an intended way for you to solve whatever puzzle is presented to you. in games where the intended way is the only possible way, i get pretty frustrated, because i do not have the 30+ years of gaming history knowledge that most games assume -- i got my first controller in 2021 (for PC, so as to decide if i even wanted to get my first console, the switch, which i also did in 2021). but botw is so committed to the open-world creativity thing that there are usually a bunch of different ways to solve the puzzles -- for instance, there are many "stand on this switch and the door opens, now find something to put on the switch and hold it down so you can go through the door" puzzles, and there's always something provided like a barrel or a chest to put on the switch, but on many of them you can also use the stasis rune or 1-3 campfires (which are weirdly heavy) to hold the switch down. so it feels... idk how to articulate this... when i know i *can* just use stasis or a campfire, it's more fun and less frustrating to try to figure out what the game devs were thinking, what the intended method is and especially how they signposted it. (i have watched so many botw streams just trying to get a feel for how the devs handle signposting, because i don't have much of that assumed gaming background -- mainly mass effect trilogy, which handled signposting and loot placement extremely differently in each game -- and i'm not naturally very observant. leia says i'm high INT/low WIS, and that definitely applies to my irl perception score too :P another reason to try for an all chests type of run. getting in the habit of Perceiving things more)

(mass effect 1 is why i even bought botw though. i absolutely love the open world aspects of dicking around on the uncharted planets, except when i trip over thresher maws, so i was like "people are calling this the best open world game ever? i will Investigate" and they were correct)

(also i am very impressed that moldugas are not thresher maws. so damn many things copy dune and have their desert sand burrowing giant enemy be sandworms, complete with the blue tongues, which i always think of as thresher maws because i encountered those way before dune. moldugas are completely unlike thresher maws except for the burrowing and popping up at you. i genuinely can't figure out if there's any rl critter they're supposed to resemble, but by god they're not fucking sandworms)

#jt plays botw

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professorspork · 6 months

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debated with myself whether to ask about a happy scene in order to spare myself the agony but: since it has haunted me unceasingly since the first time i read it i would love to hear the commentary on the scene in newsbees where adam. well i can't say cuts off because that happens later but. destroys yang's arm? i consider myself to have a pretty high tolerance for dark/disturbing stuff in fiction but that scene made me feel physically ill (positive? as in insanely well written) so i would love to hear what went into writing it because it is a fucking Achievement. (i have not picked out a smaller passage but if you want to pick a specific section to talk about go crazy)

well first of all thank you for the incredible compliment, gosh

and second of all-- to talk about the genesis of this scene we actually have to rewind the clock pretty much all the way back, because it wasn't entirely clear to me how all this would work for uh... a really good percentage of the drafting process, tbh

[warning for squeamish readers this will eventually get... a little intense bc I'm describing some very violent shit under the read more]

figuring out how Adam would fit into the basic framework of the Newsies film plot was a major hurdle in my planning process before I could actually start writing the fic. Blake and Yang don't map perfectly onto David and Jack, they're sort of constantly swapping who carries which beats, but Jack's on the run because he knows the cops will give him back to Snyder, the warden of the juvenile hall. Jack has systemic issues that ultimately have systemic solutions, resolved by the dismantling of The Refuge as an institution. so in the very earliest versions, when I was figuring out my antagonistic forces, I considered all sorts of ways for Clover to be chasing Blake, too, or for Adam to somehow be manipulating the Atlesian carceral state as a way to get Blake on the run.

one of the reasons I thought I had to use the cops was because I wanted to capture the visceral fear that happens in Newsies when the police break up the union's rally. I wish there were a youtube clip I could link to, but the basic outline is that Jack, having been outed by Snyder as a ~runaway outlaw~ to the chief of police, is slated to talk on stage at this massive rally of all the striking newsies. The cops surround the concert hall, and then storm in as Jack's speaking. Jack's friends try to help him get away, but it's chaos. there are mounted officers inside the lobby, and that terrifying moment-- a horse rearing up and the desperate scramble to get out of the way of its falling hooves-- is the true kernel of what ultimately became the Yang's arm scene. the violence of it is so distinctive and outsized to the situation, and felt true to both source materials in a way I was eager to keep.

so the stomp was kind of there from the beginning, because Newsies gave it to me... though it took me a while to realize it. I knew I didn't want Adam to have a sword, because that felt like it broke the world and was a little too cartoon-y. that meant I had to choose between Adam cutting her arm some other way (cleaner, but requires a lot more context to pull off in terms of what he'd have access to), or issuing such a catastrophic injury that amputation was the only option (much more achievable no matter how I wrote the scene, and brutal). I read up a lot about like, what does and does not constitute an irreparable break, and the bones in Yang's arm being crushed was the most "this is inarguable, they'd just do it" solution. the idea of Adam warning Blake resisting just makes the boot come down harder was something that I'd already had floating around my notes, and so the idea of using that as a parallel and him saying it again while actually stomping down was just... once I had the thought, I knew I had to.

figuring out how that scene would work took a lot more doing, though. as you'll notice, newsbees doesn't actually have a rally scene; the people Blake and Yang are talking to are the press, not their fellow strikers. for a long time, the rally was going to be played much more straight, and I was going to use that moment for Adam to out Blake as a Faunus and insinuate her as a member of the White Fang (something something "great job darling, you fooled them" "what the fuck are you talking about??? he's lying!" sort of thing) and there would be some kind of reveal about the crowd being filled with White Fang plants. I got.... really far into the draft, before I let go of that being the shape of the scene. it really wasn't until I reached the part after Blake and Yang's arrest and the gang had to come up with a plan that it all finally fell together organically, based on this idea of "Ruby should talk to the press" being the script that goes sideways.

so once I had the venue, it all kind of came together. the pieces fell into place; I knew I needed to blow up the Schnee garage to cause damage to the property that wouldn't threaten any of the cast in the manor, and to get Ilia access to a getaway car. having Adam hit Yang to start the scene then laid out the players on the board the way I'd wanted them (Blake surrounded, Yang largely incapacitated).

and as for the actual writing of the scene itself... the vast majority of what's published was the very first draft, which I wrote in one feverish sitting just trying to get my own, like, revulsion at Adam's actions down on the page. Blake's anxiety manifests as nausea often throughout the story, and this was always intended to show why--he's just absolutely stomach-turning, in the things he's willing to do and say. I tend to be adjective- and adverb-heavy in my writing even at the best of times, but I really tried to maximalize my descriptive language to always land back on violence, here: it's not just that he's menacing, it's not just that Blake is scared out of her mind, it's that he's purposefully doing everything he can to make this hurt (physically, emotionally, mentally) as much as possible and they both know it. it's why one stomp was never going to be enough for him; it's why he goes out of his way to make Blake parrot that it's her fault, which immediately back-fills in all the millions of times the reader knows he must have done that throughout their relationship. in his head, this is Blake's punishment for defying him: look what you made me do, this wouldn't have happened if you'd just behaved. and for a punishment to stick, Blake has to FEEL it.

which: the cruelty here, just like in the show, is that this is a pivotal moment in Yang's life and it doesn't get to be about her. Adam's not hurting Yang to hurt Yang; he's doing it to hurt Blake. Yang's just a prop, and useful or important to him only as a way of showing there's no part of Blake, nothing she holds precious, that she can protect from him. he hurts Yang for the same reason he'd punch a wall next to Blake's head, or tear pages out of her diary and break her pencils or something. he doesn't see Yang as a person. he doesn't see Yang AT ALL. he's making eye contact with Blake, talking to Blake, putting pressure on Blake the entire time he's doing this. the only time he addresses Yang, period, is to reveal that Blake used to be in the White Fang and hid it from her-- which, again, was a dig to make Blake feel like shit. he couldn't care less what that meant for Yang.

which, you know, is exactly what Blake was afraid of and knew would happen and was trying desperately to avoid :)

#newsbees au #fic what i wrote

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i-can-even-burn-salad · 5 months

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Halls of Torment

[ID: The name of the game, Halls of Torment, in big, red letters next to a sword fighter and a person with a bow, surrounded by a horde of undead monsters. End ID]

A while ago, I couldn't scroll 5 min on reddit without coming across Vampire Survivors. Luckily, I really don't like vampires, so I blissfully ignored it, until the day I found this one instead. Now the problem is, I really do like Diablo, and that's how I lost several weeks of my life.

I mean, it's obviously not Diablo. But the artstyle reminds me of Diablo II, which was one of my first video games, with the isometric graphics and character select and flashy spells and big health bubble.

[ID: Main screen of the game, with the Halls of Torment logo above 9 characters standing around a large campfire. Text below reads Choose a hero! The rest of the area is blacked out. End ID]

I don't usually play roguelikes/lites, so I can't compare much, but the game consists of 30 min runs (+ menu time, + final boss) through procedurally generated maps with waves of monsters to be defeated.

When you start out, you are a warrior and have nothing, and the amount of different upgrades you can unlock is a bit overwhelming. There are:

New classes

New maps

Stat boosts

Items

Abilities

Traits

Potions

Everything is tied to achievements, and most of it has to be paid with gold. Beat a certain boss, unlock the next character or map. Deal a certain amount of damage with an ability, unlock a new upgrade for that ability.

Find and save the wellkeeper, and you unlock the ability to send the gear you find up one at a time, where you can purchase it with gold. Find and save the alchemist, then gather potion ingredients and then retrieve (and purchase) bottles to unlock potions that allow you to reroll traits, abilities, and gear, or to remove traits from the selection from this run, or even apply them twice.

[ID: Level up screen, showing a selection of 4 different traits that will increase movement speed, crit chance, area or block strength. Next to it is a box with several different potion options. End ID]

Does it have some annoyances? Sure. The randomness of the abilities and traits can be a pain when hunting for certain achievements — one is to inflict 100k slow stacks, for which I wanted two certain abilities and their upgrades. If I don't get them that run, tough luck, 30 min wasted.

The game is in early access, so things still change regularly, and your overpowered favorite item might get a nerf, or the requirements for an achievement you almost reached change. For a while, I also had some crashes with some of the new skills, annoyingly after 20 min of a run, but those were quickly fixed.

[ID: The game screen, with the left side showing a round health bubble and a blue experience bar, and the right side showing all active abilities, blessings, the agony IV (4) rank, as well as gold, monsters slain, and remaining time. In the middle, the map is basically covered in monsters, with many bright red debuff effects over their heads, as well as fire, and floating damage numbers. End ID]

The effects can be a bit much. You have pretty much every variant of flashing, blinking, glowing, moving lights. Luckily, a lot of the effects can be turned off, and a lot of the abilities you don't have to use ever again once you unlock their achievement.

There is a demo available, but the worst offenders are pretty late unlocks. One item, for example, is a pair of boots that charge while moving and then send out a circular shockwave.

[ID: The item stash, showing the equipped gear of the Sorceress, with 4 fields for loadouts below, and all available items to the right. They're sorted in categories of helmets, amulets, rings, armor, boots and gloves. A note below reads: You can buy new items from the Wellkeeper, once you've retrieved them through the well. End ID]

The maps aren't spectacular, but visually very different, and two of them have fun gimmicks. Some of the quests/unlocks require specialized builds, some brute force, and you can always farm more gold to unlock all items. One thing I love, there isn't only one valid build. I was able to kick ass on pretty much every class.

Watching my weakling warrior grow from dying in 5 min to standing still killing everything on screen with his hands tied behind his back was very satisfying. So far, I got 70 hours out of this, and the last level isn't even out yet. I played all of them on the steam deck, which it fully supports, even if the text is a bit small, and the overcrowded effect mess severely affects the performance.

Best 5 Euro I've ever spent.

#salad-games #Halls of Torment

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nonegenderleftpain · 1 year

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this is maybe very hopeful, but i still find it in me to send an ask, hoping for the best... i hope to not waste too much of your time with this

as someone who is possibly thinking of converting to Judaism, what is the first step?

i know, i should look for a rabbi, for a group, for just... something. to connect me to the culture, but i grew up in an incredibly sheltered household, in a small town, christian, and i still dont have solid income to look out for them far and wide... honestly, I'm kind of afraid that if i dont end up going through with the conversion, I'll just feel guilty for wasting people's time for my own personal gain (as opposed to...... their gain? yeah. its impossible to tell wether that one makes sense)

im pretty sure i have met exactly one Jewish person IRL and that's not a stretch.

so, basically, when im asking for the first step here, what i really mean is, how do i know where the stairs are?

and i dont have a super philosophical reason as to why i even think of converting in the first place. i guess i just need a place where my first crime won't be my humanity.

So I've sat on this all day trying to figure out how to be elegant. I'm in a fair bit of pain today, so elegance is kind of beyond me - I'll settle for helpful.

Anon, I grew up in a really similar situation to you. I grew up in one of the few Catholic towns in my very protestant area. It was a tiny farm town, only on the map for gambling, and I lived in an incredibly sheltered home. I couldn't be on the internet unsupervised, and my parents turned it off at 10pm, until the day I left home. I never had time to form a community, was not allowed to ask questions, and struggled with constant feelings of fear and crushing oppression by a church I no longer believed in.

When I was in highschool, I discovered LaVeyan Satanism, got my hands on the satanic bible, and converted, largely hiding it for years. I didn't meet a Jew until I left for college, and was so anti-Gd that we never really spoke (Not due to antisemitism - any engagement with religion triggered religious trauma history, so I couldn't be around ANYONE openly practicing any religion. It was a very stressful time, and I carry a lot of guilt for not engaging with her more.)

I didn't have any big philosophical reasons for seeking Judaism, either, at first. I had had a very spiritual experience in the Cherokee Nation with a family friend who invited us, and I was actually considering moving there and taking part in their religious practices as much as they would allow me to, as a white person. My family friend was a religious leader there and was willing to accept me and bring me in, but it never panned out. I have been seeking that same spiritual connection for years, but I didn't really know it until I found it again.

I first started learning about Judaism when I just. Kept running into Jews in my life. Online, in community spaces, through my advocacy work. And I asked myself "what is so important about this?" and picked up the book To Life! by Rabbi Harold Kushner. Immediately, I was enthralled, and I have not stopped being amazed and overjoyed with what I've found.

For me, the first step to really learning more was reaching out to my local Reform congregation. I'm not sure if you're thinking of converting Reform or not, but I'd suggest starting there, because I've found it's been very easy to find my footing as a queer person with a fraught religious background. The Union for Reform Judaism - the largest North American movement of Reform Jews - offers Intro to Judaism classes once a semester (many congregations require these courses for conversion). The classes lay out the very basics of Jewish values, history, and practices. They're usually taught by local rabbis - my course this semester on Jewish history has two classes with each of the four Reform rabbis in my city. This is a great way to get to know the rabbis, see how they teach, and see who you click with. It will also allow you to interact with other folks that are new to Judaism - Jews that want to learn more about their heritage and practices, prospective converts, friends and family members of practicing Jews, and sometimes just people interested in theology!

Once you find a rabbi that you click with, you'll want to reach out to them and set up a meeting (I meet personally with my rabbi on Zoom, because transportation is difficult for me as a disabled person). During that meeting, you can tell the rabbi your story, your level of interest, and answer some of their questions, as well. My Rabbi asked me why I chose Judaism as opposed to something else, and really dug into my resolve, because I came to him expressing my desire to convert. This is pretty normal - antisemitism is on the rise in the US and around the world, so they want to make sure you understand what you're taking on by seeking Judaism.

Here's the thing about Judaism - it is not something you can do alone. Judaism is a tribe and a people, not just a religion. I do not say this to dissuade you. If anything, I want to encourage you. No one is going to be upset with you if you come, participate with sincerity and earnestness, and then decide that it's not for you. You will not be wasting anyone's time by asking questions and learning things.

I also grew up Christian. We were taught that asking questions is a sign of a lack of faith. That we must follow and believe and never question Gd. I am here to tell you that that is the complete opposite of what Judaism not just expects, but requires. Israel means "to struggle with Gd." It is our job as Jews to struggle with the Torah and what it asks of us. To question it and interpret it and find out how to do good in the world. To disagree. This is not a religion of blind faith, and it is not a people that will silence your questions.

So I suppose the concise answer to your question is more of a checklist:

Research your local synagogues. See if you can attend one of their services online. See if you like the rabbi, like the way they talk and the things they say and the way they interpret the texts. See if you like the cantor, and if the way they chant helps you with your connection to the service or detracts from it. Take notes of any questions or concerns you have, so you can bring it to the rabbi.

Contact your local rabbi. If there is more than one congregation where you live, choose which seems most approachable for you to start with. On their congregation's website, there should be an email form that will take you to them, or to whomever runs their site, who will be able to put you in contact.

Set up a meeting with your rabbi. If you can go in person, that's great, but if you get anxious easily, Zoom can be really helpful. I recently even got my rabbi to join Discord. Bring them your questions. Tell them why you're there. Answer their questions honestly, and don't be afraid to tell them you're nervous. I promise you're not the first prospective convert they've spoken to.

Try to get into an Intro to Judaism class. You can ask questions about all different sects of Judaism, even if you're taking classes with the URJ, and a good rabbi will be able to give you cursory answers and resources to find more information. If Reform doesn't work for you, I'm sure that the other sects of Judaism have their own classes you can take. As a convert, I have not had to pay for my classes, and I think that's a national thing

Attend services. Don't be afraid to not know what's going on. Don't be concerned that you don't know Hebrew. Don't worry about them thinking you don't belong there. I still haven't formalized my conversion (I haven't been able to schedule my beit din), but my congregation considers me a member, and recently formalized my membership in our organization. They consider me a Jew, as much as I consider myself one. I am part of their family, even though I'm very new and know almost nothing.

And most importantly:

6. Keep reading. There are lifetimes of Jewish literature, information, and text out there. Jews keep extensive and detailed records of everything. When a Jew has an opinion, they write a book. And every Jew has opinions. I'm happy to give book recommendations, but this post has gone on far too long.

I know it's not a simple answer - there really isn't one. Conversion looks different for everyone, and takes different amounts of time for everyone. So does practice. I don't keep kosher but I give blessings over what I eat, even if it doesn't follow kashrut, because the blessing and gratitude is what is holy for me (and because I have dietary issues). I haven't hung mezuzot because I can't afford them, but I wear kippot because the visual reminder of the cultural and historical throughline of our people matters to me. I don't know Yiddish or much Hebrew, but I learn and ask questions and am enjoying immersing myself in a culture and ritual that I didn't know I needed.

I hope this is at all helpful. If you need or want personal help with any of these steps, please, please send me a DM and I will help you. I know it can be nervewracking to talk about religion, especially as an ex-Christian. I promise that my inbox is a safe space to discuss it. You're among friends, and I know your struggle.

Stay well, and may Hashem bless your journey, wherever it leads.

#jewish stuff #jumblr #lovely anon #the ask and the answer but not the book #jewish #jew by choice #jewish convert #i mean this please dm me if you see this nonnie #i'd love to help

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guideoftime · 6 months

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▴ — @sapientiiae

It took only a second for the Princess of Hyrule’s world to shatter in the same way the Triforce of Wisdom had. Everything they had worked so hard to achieve, fleeting, because the one thing she’d been born to do in this world was bear the Triforce of Wisdom and protect Hyrule. And she’d failed. They had underestimated Cia and her powers, thinking with enough allies at their side she would fall as easily as the army she commanded. How sorely mistaken they were. With the assistance of the Great Fairy, they’d been able to take down Volga much easier, leaving Cia alone to be dealt with. The Hyrulean Forces held control over the Sanctums, and they’d truly believed they would leave victorious, but it had all gone downhill from there. Cia’s dark magic was far more powerful than they’d been prepared for — even Impa, a Sheikah, had been taken aback. Once the sorceress split herself into four, they knew they were outnumbered. It was a fierce battle, one that cost Zelda her Triforce, and it had taken everything Link had left just to get the two of them out alive. Back at camp, their army did what it could to recoup and device a new plan, one that wouldn’t require the Triforce of Wisdom, as impossible as that may seem. “Princess—“ Reviewing the map of Hyrule, Zelda was surprised when Impa had suddenly stormed into her tent, a look of alarm on her face. “There’s a Sheikah—“ That statement alone seemed impossible. Though the Princess knew a lot of the Sheikah race, their presence in Hyrule was nearly non-existent, only slowly repopulating their tribe after the Great Hyrulean Civil War. In all her years, the only Sheikah she’d ever met was Impa, so where had this other Sheikah come from? “Where? Bring me to them!” She moves from around the display that held her map, rushing to exit out of her tent when Impa suddenly reached forward, grasping her wrist to pull her back. “Princess! There is—I should warn you. This Sheikah has something, but you won’t believe it until you see it for yourself.” The statement sounded borderline ominous, pushing the Forces’ leader to exit her tent and investigate that much faster.

They–they failed.

It’s not a feeling Sheik is used to. Failure at that level, watching everyone he fought so hard for die, watching–things just crumble around him. Sheik had been all that survived, all that lived, and he had grabbed the Master Sword and ran. Not his bravest moment, not something he had been proud of, but he had no other answer in what to do. No choice but to run. And there, in the Temple of Time, he had begged the sword for an answer. For help. For–anything. To keep whatever part of the Triforce it could from Ganondorf, to save their world, to reset time–it didn’t matter what it did, he just wanted help.

Waking up in another war to fight that wasn’t his own–was mind numbing, confusing. He finds Impa and his heart stops–then there’s the Hero and things just continue to rapidly get out of control. Sheik fought because he had no choice, he fought because the other answer was to collapse, he fought because Impa asked him to.

Then they ended up in front of whatever this “bad guy” apparently was and Sheik–something was drastically wrong with him.

The Triforce was Princess Zelda’s, it was not his to bear. A shadow, a being of darkness, a void doesn’t possess the Triforce. He has to be dreaming, this has to be a nightmare. Some place the Goddesses put him because he failed them and failed the hero and Princess Zelda. It’s horrible, the fact they’re playing with him again. Twisting him into whatever little pawn that they needed him to be. To fit their narrative.

He leaves them for a bit after that, panic and runs. The Hero chases him while Impa goes off to search and find Princess Zelda. There’s talk about time gates, talk about different dimensions, different portals, and it’s confusing. He feels like he’s losing his mind and he hates it.

He feels like he’s snapping.

Link, because of course that was his name, is who ends up dragging him to Princess Zelda. Under orders, he’s sure, but also out of concern. They’re dripping wet from the rain, Sheik’s headwrap had fallen off and was stashed in the Hero’s bag. He tugs him inside the tent, out of the storm, and pushes him gently in the direction of the Princess of whatever nightmare he is living. She looks like his Zelda, but different too. Firmer. Fircerer.

“Your Highness, this is Sheik.” Link greeted, squeezing his shoulder briefly before moving off to the side. Sheik blinks numbly at the both of them, his head spinning far to much. He takes a shaky breath and then moves closer.

How does he get out of this nightmare?

#sapientiiae #▴ — path / guide of time #// long post

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rzevi-tia-ffxiv · 11 days

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Crossings and Double-Crossings

The occasional jarring motion of the transport. The air as it moved past the cabin. The sound of the various fabrics others around him were wearing, or even the materials the transport was made of - during meditation he often allowed himself to focus on any of those sounds to stay present…especially before a mission. Few actions allowed him to focus quite as well.

Or normally would, if a monotone voice wasn’t there to interrupt and draw his attention away from his focus.

“...and the last known location of the relic we’re after is within the innermost chambers of the ruins. You’ve been given the most updated map, but that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been changes to the locale since this map was produced…are you listening, mister Tia?”

Back straight, shoulders stiff, eyes closed - R’zevi could have passed for a statue rather than a living breathing being sitting across from the grouchy-looking midlander who had been droning on for no less than an hour about the location, the relic, the requirements of the state of the relic when it was returned and all the other details of the assignment he had been given. And he’d been attentively listening to every word, as he always did.

It wasn’t his first go-round.

An easy exhale left him, as did the tension in his shoulders as he opened his eyes, one corner of his mouth quirking up into an easy half grin. “I was - quite mindfully. And since I’ve reviewed the map several times, like you asked me to do, I’m pretty well informed about what the ruins are supposed to look like. But as you mentioned about eleven different times during your little presentation - you have no guarantee that they’re actually going to still look like that.”

“I didn’t mention-”

“You did.” He rolled his shoulders, his ears flattening against his head as he stood, taking a moment to roll his shoulders as he gathered his supplies and stepped off of the transport, glancing out into the Thavnairian wilderness. “Now, I’ll expect that you’ll have my payment and transport prepared as agreed upon once I find this relic for your employer.”

“If. We’ll be back here in twelve hours - good luck, mister Tia.” With a wave of the man’s hand, the transport started up again and was on its way, leaving the Miqo’te man to his own devices - and that didn’t stop him from rolling his eyes as he shifted his bag on his shoulder.

“Jackass.”

With a shake of his head pulled the map from his back and turned his attention to the task at hand. He had twelve hours to find whatever it was that was inside these ‘hidden’ ruins that had magically been found in the last year, and if he wanted to get paid…and he wanted to get paid…then that meant he needed to get to it. Especially since things seemed a little too out in the open to be hidden and unless he was completely off base…he knelt tracing what appeared to be the outline of a shoe…it didn’t seem like he was the only one out here.

He slipped the map back into his bag, checking to make sure he had his weapons moving forward – cautious, but steady, his steps slowing as he was ever mindful of his surroundings especially as the entrance to the ruins came into view.

There could have been a plethora of things this far out from a variety of animals and fiends to even hunters or worse, poachers. The locales knew the area far better than most as this far into the terrain, he could have run into just about anyone.

What was more, what if the tracks were left intentionally?

There was little else to give way that a presence had been within the area or at about what time. Many of the pathways split off or even looked untouched just a few feet outside of the entrance to this old hole in the wall. At first, it looked to be a bit of a worn shaft, perhaps a place for coring out parts of the earth for mining. The scope of the inside walls had not been without rouch carvings and markings, some in Eorzean, some to be an entirely different language that might not have been easily discerned save for a few scratches here and there – likely codes or names of the few halls that stretched inward through the dark covering of the ruins.

Not too far in from the main path, particles of light danced their way through the thick darkness within – easy enough for one to get lost without a torch or any source of proper light. Upon following the illumination, it would eventually bring R’zevi out into the sunlight once more. Ivy and moss scattered the various parts of the circular-like structure, what would have been the cave ceiling and canopy of the ruins had long since crumbled away and there was a gaping mouth that seemed to stretch high, reaching for the clouds above.

An impossible feat to try and scale this size of a mountain or rock without proper climbing gear. Much of the flora and fauna within blossomed and fortified much of the walls and the pillars within the space that remained standing save for the couple that had chips and pieces missing due to some of the collapse.

Overgrown, the sound of the birds outside trickled in and it was easy to sense that for some living creatures, this had become a haven, a little hidden ecosystem all on its own, even with the small swampy water in a ditch nearby that had already seen its fair share of immaculate growth with the way tadpoles and frogs chirped nearby. A system shielded from the outside world.

A place one could easily get lost in, wrapped up into, and perhaps find some safety and solace.

In the center of the room nestled right in the middle of the large, ivy-covered pillars was a stone dias, and upon that was a pedestal. Dusty, partly corroded though perhaps the very thing R’zevi had come all this way for.

Suspicion teased the edges of R’zevi’s consciousness; why would his employer be paying him as much as they were for a relic that was this easy to obtain? His eyes narrowed as his gaze scanned the idyllic setting, ears turning towards the sounds of the birds and then towards the chirping frogs - they didn’t seem bothered by his presence or all that on edge, maybe he was being hypervigilant.

In another time, another mindset, he would’ve loved to simply explore, to spend a day, to meditate and see what such a locale had to offer - but now was not the time for that and so he pressed onward, one careful step after another, his training as a hunter in the desert taking precedent as he eased forward towards the center platform, that item that was his ticket out of playing errand boy to an yet another entitled noble.

He let his guard drop for the briefest of moments as he reached the center of the room, believing himself to be safe, head tilting as he assessed what lay in the middle of the platform. “…let’s see what all the fuss was about, hm?”

And safe he was, nothing seemed amiss save for the empty reliquary that sat along the open mouth of the long, rectangular pedestal before R’zevi when he happened upon it. Latch open and whatever device that had been used to seal it closed had been broken – the fragmented runes that were now splintered along the dias below him were symbolic of someone’s mastercraft. Someone had been here before him and that someone certainly had taken their precious time cracking the runic code placed upon the entrapment.

With how untouched most of the location looked, it begged the question of what might have happened had the breaking of the rune failed.

A keen lavender gaze spied from beyond a thicket of overgrown ivy, hair dark as coal and soundless as the Keeper stepped forward. She had laid in wait, surely he had made it within the center room sooner than she anticipated but she had the upper hand at current standing at the pillar’s edge an effortless position in comparison to the Seeker below, iron tip ready to snipe through the air within a hair of a second.

Her pack that was slung over her shoulder held heavy at the small of her back as deeply and safely nestled within was her prize, “Look at the rabbit I caught.” she smirked, voice cool toned but there was a sliver of mirth within the lilt, “I wouldn’t turn around – you might get yer eye poked out. Would be a shame – or your brains painting the ground. Yanno! Whichever way the wind blows in here.”

Fuck. “Not blowing much of any direction, is it?”

Not even the frogs had given the slightest hint that someone was there, the little bastards. So much for being able to rely on nature.

R’zevi’s ears flattened against his head, his eyes scanning the area as he quickly tried to determine a safe spot he could realistically access and pinpoint the location of the source of the voice. He wouldn’t be able to find or grab whatever they’d nabbed if he was dead.

“And that’d be a shame, really - I’ve been told they’re very pretty eyes. Got me booted out of my tribe because the others were jealous of ‘em. Could come down and have a look for yourself instead of threatening to poke ‘em out. Promise I don’t bite - unless you’re into that sort of thing…”

“Don't give a shit.” the woman responded swiftly, “For someone being a cunt hair from death, you run your mouth a lot.”

“Don’t I just –…we talkin’ a straight cunt hair or the curly type?” he trailed off, his response half-hearted as his ice blue eyes scanned the vicinity. He needed to keep the voice talking so he could get a better idea of where to move to though his follow-up comment elicited nothing but silence for the time being. He was at a disadvantage and that was painfully obvious, but it wasn’t insurmountable, he just had to get his damn footing.

She certainly wasn't in front of him or at his peripherals, that much was clear but it might have taken him far longer than expected to track that nugget of information.

“The note there, inside.” She spoke again, “ – pick it up and read it.” the belts at her hip jostled and she felt the tug of the piece jingle at her frame.

His ears perked up at the sound of the jingle thinking that might be enough to help him get a decent idea of where the owner of this mystery voice was…before he paused in more than mild irritation. Now she was giving him orders?

Fine. He could comply. Maliciously.

“Alright, mystery woman.” He took several steps up towards the note inside, as she’d indicated, looking for any reflective surface on the way in - anything that might give him a chance to catch a glimpse of his ‘opponent’ before stopping in front of the aforementioned letter.

He took his time, tail lazily swinging from side to side behind him as he hummed to himself, fingers tapping the edge of the paper as he appeared to be engrossed in the contents of what was written…but neglected to share it out loud.

Hook, line, and sinker.

It was long enough of a distraction for the woman to lift her elbow and jostle the leathers behind her and up she went from the harness tied to her – likely not alone and in the process of being hoisted up from the pillar and through the opening crags of the cave above, she chuckled, “Have fun with your companion! You have about 10 seconds! Have some fun for me while you’re at it.”

A hand reached down into the pit where Delain took it all too eagerly with a chuckle and she had been helped out into the beating sun overhead. The stone beneath her feet and even R’zevi’s came to a rumble – something was waking up.

His head snapped up, barely catching a glimpse of the mystery woman as she was pulled from the chamber.

“Gods damn it.” He would have had to be completely oblivious to miss the rumble or to miss the fact that he was alone now in the chamber outside of whatever it was that was causing the ground to shake, and he wasn’t about to wait around to find out exactly what that was. No…he was far more interested in catching up with whoever it was who had the item he was here to find - and who had so far made him out to be a damn fool, which meant getting the hell out of this room and navigating to the top of the ruins unscathed.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” He pulled one of the firearms from its holster as he scrambled down from the platform - the speed he’d developed during all those years training as a monk had to come in handy at some point, right? - and over towards the nearest corridor that looked like it led up and out of the chamber just as the rumbling reached a fever pitch. He did not want to be in the room when it stopped, besides - he had a Keeper to catch and he’d be damned if he’d let her get away.

Perhaps a bit too easy in the grand scheme of things. The ground came to life and earth and bedrock split open as an amalgamation of stone, moss, and ragged particles rose in the form of a golem, the heavy pounding fists hammering down along the path R’zevi had made for, the thunderous crash of stone on stone collided with one another as the cave started to collapse and crumble around them. The heavy maw of the creature roared and the sound echoed throughout the structure as the vibrations only added to the weight of what was transpiring through the ruins.

He stumbled, the ground shuddering and trying to give way under his feet -- the only thing keeping him upright being the balance he’d spent so many years working towards, perfecting.

‘At least it had proven to be good for something, damn it! ‘

He turned, firing a pair of shots towards the mass of rock lumbering towards him in an attempt to distract it, slow it…anything but there was no avail as bullets from a pistol did very little against solid rock that was bulldozing it’s way towards him. Muttering another curse under his breath, he holstered the weapon and turned focusing on picking up his sprint.

One fist after another the pounds caught up to the Miqo’te, the golem lumbered down the pathways after him, and what doorways it could not fit through it merely blasted its way through with a massive swing from its rock-laden fists. Debris and shattered bits of earth and rock soared towards the Miqo’te who had been fleeing for his life, likely no bullets would have stopped the mass.

‘Shit!’

He ducked, barely managing to dodge as a particularly large rock went soaring past his head before skidding, gripping the edge of a nearby wall and all but slinging himself around a corner as he shifted directions, yelling skyward. “You know, if you wanted to play there sure as hell were other ways to fucking do that! Swear to fuck when I catch your ass…if I make it out of here..! Damn it!”

A second and third rock soared in his direction – each one he rolled out of the way of just in time before clamoring up a nearby wall, hopping back and forth between two, narrowly avoiding projectiles along the way, cursing under his breath the whole time. It was as he was doing this that he thought he spotted a way out…maybe, and started in that direction – a rock grazing his shoulder in the process.

“Mother fucker! Cut that shit out, will you?! I don’t have the thing you were watching!!”

Watching? It didn’t have eyes though surprisingly it didn’t have any issue finding out R’zevi’s location. Whether it was instinct, movement, sound, or the surrounding rock around the Miqo’te it was as good of a guess as anyone’s in the moment though there had been far more cursing and yelling than problem-solving or thinking.

The rope snapped and the brunette was pushed off from the side of the hill as the rumbles had continued below the pair. Red hair, tall and striking green eyes – the fellow Miqo’te she had been with that pulled her from the hole below lofted the heavy pouch within his grasp as he loomed over her.

Delain winced, hand at her ribcage where she had taken a blow from the rocks below. No way this guy just two-timed her! “Jax, stop fucking around. This isn’t fucking funny.”

“Perhaps not for you, this was too much of a cash-in to pass up. Fine by me if you die out here, I’ll take my claim the moment I get back.” he hopped twice from his perch, found her bow, and shouldered it along with the leather pouch that contained the relic within, “Fun tricks you play and it favors me in the end. See you around kid, or not, whichever.”

“You can’t leave me here to fucking die JAX WE’VE DONE THIS FOR YEARS TOGETHER! We were partners!”

“I have something worth millions of gil in my pocket that says otherwise, sweetheart. You’ve been a huge help.” a boyish grin, handsome even as he placed his hands together and bowed in her direction before turning to run off.

The ground below her rumbled again which only exacerbated the pain in her side. Finally, she hoisted herself along her elbow and palm trying to readjust her weight and find some footing. Still, it was far too much to hope for when the ground beneath her shifted violently and in a cloud of dust and debris the ruins and cave in which everything had been interconnected began to collapse and the Keeper woman had been swallowed whole by the Thavnarian particles.

R’zevi paused in his frantic scrambling to get away from the golem that had been in constant pursuit, feeling the ground shift yet again.

What now??

Anything that could go wrong had, and the Seeker at the very least had the good sense to find some sense of shelter, curling up and bracing, hearing the stomping of the golem as it passed by for only a moment as everything collapsed around him.

Curled up as he had been, he managed to negate a majority of the collapse, sputtering as he pulling himself up out of the water he’d splashed down into. He blinked, eyes adjusting as he wiped water away from his face, and dragged himself up to the bank, trying to figure out just where the fuck he was.

The shaking had stopped, and he didn’t hear the golem…so that was something, but his belongings were soaked, which meant his map was useless.

“…come on Zevi, think…” he took a moment, shaking off his clothes as his eyes narrowed towards a form not terribly far off in the distance, apparently also swallowed by the collapse.

A cacophony of coughs rang out and the sound of slow-falling rocks tumbled forth as the female Miqo’te hauled herself out of the gunk and rubble. The tumble of pebbles and shards piercing into palms and knees as she cried out and dragged herself from the mess that pinned her.

In hindsight, it was her own damn fault for the shit she and Jax pulled but how was she to know that she would have been two-timed?

“Useless shite…” Delain hissed and she wobbled to her feet, patting herself down to check for her daggers. At least she had those despite Jax thinking he left her entirely unarmed. What was more? – she was wounded.

She hadn’t forgotten about the sharp pain in her ribs – oh no – every breath was keen to remind her quickly just how much she was paying for her misdeeds now. A day's walk, maybe two would have gotten her easily to the next small settlement, surely they’d have necessities there to tide her over.

The small water skin to her side is what she searched for only to find part of it hanging from her belt, the bottom half likely ripped apart in the collapse. Muttering something under her breath in huntspeak she yanked the piece from her waist and tossed it to the dirt.

To hells with this place already.

“Looked like a nasty tumble. Take it that friend of yours didn’t hang around to help you out, huh?”

R’zevi slowly moved in the direction of the ��mystery woman’, ears turned in her direction as his gaze critically assessed her - she’d already gotten the jump on him once today, he’d prefer not to let it happen again if he could help it.

“So since we’re both stuck here, you got a name, or would you prefer to continue to go by ‘mystery woman’? I’m R’zevi, for the sake of a fair exchange.”

He didn’t reach for his weapon yet, simply approaching slowly and cautiously, keeping a careful eye on her - he pulled an extra waterskin from his bag and tossed it over towards her as he noticed her torn one being tossed aside.

The moment he approached the dagger at her side within the fastest reach had been pulled and the blade was side-pointed in his direction, Delain’s lavender gaze pinned to him in caution. There was danger within her circle, that much was obvious.

She was silent for a long few moments as she ticked her gaze to the waterskin briefly, ‘How convenient.” she huffed and she made no attempt to give her name nor to reach for the waterskin. There was no time to stop and chat, not that she cared to. There were bigger things to worry about.

Like getting to a settlement, any settlement and to get patched up and be on her way. To find her relic, the very same she had worked hard to guide herself and Jax towards.

That little shit wouldn’t have had a chance if she had not been with him – lucky him for using her trust in him against her.

Delain rolled her eyes and the dagger dropped to her side, this R’zevi talked far too much for her to think of anything else other than a medic for the time being. Her boots scuffed and she began to walk away, the dry dust of the ruin remains and arid ground kicking up lightly in her wake.

An irritated chuckle left him as he gathered up the ignored waterskin, slipping it back into his bag once more before turning to jog up ahead of her, hold his hands out to try and pause her progress and get her attention for a moment.

It wasn’t that he was concerned - the woman had just sent him scampering for his life with nary a care in the fucking world about it - but he didn’t feel right about just letting her wander off injured as she was.

“Look, mystery woman. You don’t like me, I don’t like you. But since we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere with each other would it not be beneficial to wander together until we get somewhere to find transit and then we can go our separate ways? I pull any tricks, you stab me. You pull any tricks, I shoot you. Win-win, no? Or would you prefer to take on whatever you find out there on your own after that tumble you took?”

Delain stopped walking as this man was oddly persistent – still talking a lot. She simply stared at him as he spoke and there was an exacerbated sigh that left her, “I’ve been in worse situations before, I’d take my chances alone. Before long something is going to come along and snatch you up.” She paused again briefly and loomed forward, “Because you talk too damn much.”

R’zevi’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t the one wandering around injured, but sure - he was the one who was going to be snatched up.

Feeling charitable wasn’t something within her wheelhouse but having the extra body wouldn’t have gone amiss. She sighed again and motioned for the semi-covered path, “Fuckin’ come on then.” she muttered. He needed her more than she needed him it seemed, by the sounds of it the lad had absolutely no idea where they were, whereas Delain….well, she had a pretty good idea having been in the general area before.

One ear flattened against the top of his head, his tail giving an agitated flick as he stepped to the side and motioned forward as if to say ‘after you’ falling in step beside her. His gaze rested on her for a brief moment before shifting to their surroundings. How the hell was one supposed to communicate with a stranger if one didn’t talk - but if she didn’t want him to talk, then that was fine. He wouldn’t talk - he’d just focus on taking in the details of the area and being mindful of their surroundings…just in case he ever had to return to the gods-forsaken area.

Collab writing with @lavender-fields-xiv

#stories #r'zevi #delain #collaborative writing

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princess-of-the-corner · 4 months

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Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix Recap: Hollow Bastion (Battle of the Thousand)

After the post-Demyx cutscene, you are taken to the pause menu.

This reveals that Goofy’s been removed from the party, and that all of the items, armor, and accessories that were equipped to “the departed party member” have been returned to your inventory.

What follows this?

A reverse boss rush of sorts in the Ravine Trail, where Sora teams up with the residents of Hollow Bastion to fight off waves of Heartless.

First up is Yuffie. She is not a party member, instead an invincible NPC who attacks with her Shurikens and Ninja skills.

When the last Heartless falls, Yuffie departs as the invisible barriers drop.

When Sora progresses to the next section of the trail, two more barriers are raised to box him in as Leon provides his aid against the Heartless. He attacks with his Gunblade, fighting more or less identically to how he did in KH1, except he pulls the trigger and activates his Gunblade’s super form IMMEDIATELY.

Further down the trail, Tifa comes to the rescue, rushing forward and taking out a couple of Heartless during the spawning animation. As the “monk” of Final Fantasy VII, she fights unarmed. One of her more powerful attacks has her throwing a punch that produces a shockwave. She can also perform sweeping kicks to hit all Heartless around her.

Once the last one falls, Sora comes close to the base of the trail, where he is once again ambushed, and Cloud comes to the rescue by diving in from above and creating a shockwave that knocks all the Heartless away.

He fights with his Composite Sword from Advent Children, but his fighting style is otherwise identical to KH1, minus anything that would require the use of his now-missing wing.

Continuing on leads to the Crystal Fissure, a small cave lined with massive, glowing crystals, where Sora finally catches up with Mickey and Donald.

“Are you okay?” the King asks as Sora pauses to catch his breath.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but…” his voice trails off.

“Oh, Goofy…” Donald mourns as he and Mickey hang their heads in sorrow.

“Hey fellas!” Goofy hollers.

“Goofy!” Sora, Donald, and Mickey call out in joy.

Goofy runs up to them.

“You know, that really hurt,” he declares as he rubs his forehead.

“Aw, Goofy!” Mickey declares as he jumps up and glomps his friend.

“Gawrsh, Yer Majesty, I get bumped on the head all the time,” Goofy reminds him.

Sora chuckles as Donald sighs.

Donald then marches right up to Goofy. As soon as Goofy puts the King down, he WHACKS the Captain of the Guard’s leg with his staff, prompting Goofy to yelp and hop around while clutching his leg.

“That hurt, too,” Goofy remarks.

“Don’t you ever do that again!” Donald shouts.

Sora lets out a sigh of relief, but the happy music fades out as he looks out the mouth of the cave, towards the Great Maw, and Villains’ Vale beyond it.

Sora receives the Cure Element, upgrading Cure into Cura.

Additionally, Goofy has rejoined the party, requiring you to re-equip all his armor, accessories, and items.

Also, you have to reassign all his AP to re-equip all his abilities, since that was ALSO dequipped for some reason!

In the Manga, Goofy’s “death” was handled differently. Instead of being merely hit in the head by a rock, he shoved King Mickey out of the way of a rockslide, and was seemingly crushed to death, only his hat left behind in the two-page spread showing everyone’s reactions.

Plus, as he didn’t JUST get a Max HP boost in the Manga, the interface didn’t spoil his survival.

Ahem, regardless, this Save Point is you LAST CHANCE to settle your affairs in Agrabah, Halloween Town, and the Pride Lands. If you’ve not handled that, do so NOW! You will thank me later!

Additionally, the Large Chests here contain a Torn Page and the Great Maw Map.

You can also talk to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy here as they’re all NPC’s.

Continuing into the Great Maw kicks off the climax of this little “episode” of Hollow Bastion’s story.

The King leads Sora, Donald, and Goofy as they charge into the Great Maw, only to find that all the Heartless are paused.

“Hey!” Goofy shouts and points to a cliff overlooking the Great Maw, where the Unknown, Xemnas, emerges from a Corridor of Darkness and lowers his hood. He reveals a face very similar to Ansem’s, just with lighter skin (in this game at least), and shorter (yet still long) and spikier hair.

“It’s the guy who’s NOT Ansem!” Donald shouts.

“You mean it’s his Nobody!” Goofy corrects.

“The Leader of Organization XIII…” Sora comments.

Realization dawns on the King’s face.

“Wait a second,” he remarks, “Now I know!”

Fade to black as the flashback begins.

“Wise Ansem,” Mickey opened, “I’m here to seek your advice.”

Ansem’s study was far neater and tidier in the past than it is in the present.

Aside from the fact that portrait on the wall was of the REAL Ansem, those broken jars all held a bunch of cartoony hearts.

Ansem himself held a stick of sea-salt ice cream while sitting at his desk.

“I’m glad we have the opportunity to speak like this, my friend,” Ansem replied, “I’m intrigued by your hypothesis… and I’m finding it difficult to stave off the urge to test it.

“Still, I’m concerned about the stability of the worlds.”

“Yep, that’s what worries me too,” King Mickey admitted.

“The doors that appeared,” Ansem remarked, “The place the Heartless seek.

“I fear my research may have brought this upon us…”

Someone knocked on the door, and the false Ansem entered and bowed respectfully.

“Master Ansem,” he opened, “Regarding the experiment I presented the other day…

“With your permission, I’d like to proceed –

“I forbid it!” Ansem shouted, “Forget this talk of doors, and the heart of all worlds. That place must not be defiled!”

“But Master Ansem!” the fake Ansem protested, “I’ve been thinking…”

Ansem shook his head.

“Xehanort…” he opened, “Those thoughts are best forgotten.”

The fake Ansem, Xehanort, clenched his fists, but quickly regained his composer and bowed before leaving.

Though not without one more grunt of frustration.

End flashback, as “Showdown at Hollow Bastion” starts playing.

“Now I remember!” the King declares as the camera zooms in on Xehanort’s Nobody, “Xehanort! Ansem’s apprentice!”

The Organization’s leader merely grins in response.

“The leader of Organization XIII is Xehanort’s Nobody!” the King declares as the camera cuts to him and SDG. He summons his Keyblade and rushes Xemnas.

“Let’s go!” Sora declares, before the Heartless army surrounds him, Donald, and Goofy.

Sora summons the Kingdom Key as Donald and Goofy brandish their own default weapons.

The camera spins around our trio and zooms out to reveal just how MANY Heartless have surrounded them.

“Move it!” Sora shouts at the Heartless.

“We can’t let Xehanort get away!” Donald declares.

“Right!”

Sora shares a glance with Donald and Goofy, and the trio takes off, each one taking on a third of the army on their own.

Welcome, to the boss battle that was at the center of this game’s marketing: The Battle of 1000 Heartless.

Here, Sora fights 1000 Heartless on his own.

While the promotional materials had 2 Behemoths and a dozen Wyverns as part of the army Sora would be fighting, here, only Armored Knights and Survey Robots are present.

As Sora is alone, he only has access to Limit Form, and the Crowd Clearing Reaction Commands these Heartless offer.

Any Heartless who isn’t currently participating in the battle will be rendered as a 2D sprite to save on space.

In spite of what the cutscene will have you believe, Sora is not locked into only using the Kingdom Key, he only wields the Kingdom Key because the cutscene was pre-rendered to avoid melting the PS2’s Kingdom Hearts II was originally made to run on.

There’s a counter in the upper right corner of the screen that tallies up how many Heartless you’ve beaten, going up by one for every Heartless that falls.

If using Limit Form, remember that it has the MP Rage Ability, so getting hurt on purpose before MP runs out and then healing back up with a Limit is an option.

Additionally, all of the Heartless have less HP and lower stats than their standard counterparts do, meaning that they’ll fall even quicker than in a normal battle while dealing less damage.

The point of this fight isn’t to be challenging, it’s to make the player feel powerful.

(Also, the music that plays here is called “Sinister Shadows”. It plays a couple more times in the game, but this is its most famous use.)

Once you’ve defeated the last one, you’ll see that there were indeed 1000 Heartless that Sora just killed.

Winning this battle earns Sora the Guard Break Ability (ground combo finisher that activates if Sora is fighting a single enemy, or by default if Explosion isn’t equipped. Sora unleashes a powerful, guard-piercing attack).

After the battle, Sora rushes through the Great Maw to reach the Dark Depths, the outcropping that’s closest to Villain’s Vale.

He poses for a moment to catch his breath.

Donald and Goofy run up behind him.

“Where’s the King?” Sora asks.

Donald and Goofy look around.

“There he is!” Donald declares as the King takes down an Armored Knight.

“C’mon!” Sora declares as the screen fades to black and the Battle of 1000 Heartless’ theme fades out.

The camera fades back into reveal Mickey confronting the Organization’s leader, who isn’t even acknowledging him.

“Your Majesty!” Donald quacks as Sora, him, and Goofy run up to the King.

Mickey turns back to the Nobody.

“Xehanort!” he shouts.

“How long has it been since I abandoned that name…” the leader of Organization XIII comments.

“Out with it, Nobody!” Sora snaps, “Where’s Kairi? Where’s Riku?”

“I know nothing of any Kairi,” the Organization’s leader answers, “As for Riku…” he finally turns to acknowledge them, “Perhaps you should ask your king.”

Sora curiously shoots a glance at the Mickey.

“Stop!” the King shouts as he charges Xehanort’s Nobody.

Xemnas disappears into a Corridor of Darkness and the King dives after him.

The Corridor closes before SDG can follow.

“He’s gone…” Sora laments, before falling to the ground.

He bangs a fist on the ground until Goofy places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Sora, Goofy,” Donald opens. Whatever he’s about to say next is cut off by the realization that there are no more Heartless around Villain’s Vale.

“What’s goin’ on?” Goofy questions.

“Way to fall right into their trap,” Axel answers.

SDG run up to him and brandish their weapons.

“C’mon, it’s a set-up by Organization XIII,” Axel continues, “Xemnas is using you to destroy the Heartless – that’s his big master plan.”

“Xemnas?” Donald questions, having not seen the pre-Demyx flashback that reveals Xehanort’s real name or the name of his Nobody that Final Mix added, even though both had far better reveals here.

“The guy you just saw,” Axel answers, “He’s their leader.

“Got it memorized? X-E-M, N-A-S.”

“Organization XIII wants to get rid of the Heartless?” Goofy questions.

“Man, you’re slow,” Axel replies, “Every Heartless slain with that Keyblade releases a captive heart. That is what the Organization is after.”

“So what are those guys gonna do with the hearts?” Donald asks.

“I’m not telling,” Axel taunts.

“Tell us!” Donald demands.

“You… you’re the one who kidnapped Kairi!” Sora realizes.

“Bingo,” Axel replies, “The name’s Axel. Got it memorized?”

“Where is Kairi?”

Axel actually looks guilty for the first time.

“Please, just tell me!” Sora begs.

“Look, about Kairi…” Axel begins, “I’m sorry.”

“Axel!” Saïx shouts as he emerges from a Corridor of Darkness.

Axel sees the writing on the wall and flees through his own.

Saïx keeps Sora from chasing.

“We’ll ensure he receives the maximum punishment,” the Nobody promises as Axel’s Corridor closes.

“I don’t care about any of that,” Sora declares, “Just let me into the realm of darkness, okay?”

“If it’s Kairi you’re worried about, don’t,” Saïx orders, “We’re taking very good care of her.”

“Take me to her,” Sora asks.

“Is she that important to you?” Saïx questions.

“Yeah,” Sora admits, “More than anything.”

“Show me how important.”

Sora, desperate, bows before Saïx. Not just any bow, either, but the dogeza position specifically. In Japanese culture, this bow is reserved for when you ROYALLY fuck up, as it’s basically heaping great amounts of shame on yourself and saying you’re equal in value to literal garbage.

“Please…”

“So, you really do care for her,” Saïx remarks, “In that case – the answer’s no.”

Sora leaps to his feet.

“You rotten…!”

“Are you angry?” Saïx asks, “Do you hate me?

“Then take that rage, and direct it at the Heartless.”

He snaps his fingers, summoning four armored knights.

“Pitiful Heartless,” he remarks, “mindlessly collecting hearts.

“And yet they know not the true power of what they hold.

“The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free, until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts.

“And when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist.”

“What in the world do you think your prattling on about?” Maleficent questions as she teleports in, “Kingdom Hearts belongs to me!

“The heart of all kingdoms, the heart of all that lives.

“A dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must be MY dominion!”

“Maleficent, no!” Sora calls out, “No more Heartless!”

“I do not take orders from you!” Maleficent scoffs, before summoning more Heartless around Saïx.

“Fool…” Saïx scoffs, before snapping his fingers, calling in Dusks to destroy the Heartless Maleficent summoned. The Dusks then turn their attention TO Sora.

Suddenly, Maleficent teleports in between Sora and the Nobodies, before summoning a wall of green fire behind herself to keep the Nobodies from reaching Sora.

“While I keep these creatures at bay, you devise a way to vanquish them – forever!” Maleficent orders.

“Maleficent!”

The Dusks dogpile onto her.

“Do not misunderstand me,” Maleficent continues, “I shall have my revenge on you yet.”

More Dusks pile onto Maleficent, forcing her to the ground.

“Maleficent!” Sora shouts.

“Leave! Now!” Maleficent orders.

“I don’t take orders from you!” Sora replies, before attempting to charge in.

“Sora, c’mon!” Donald interrupts as he grabs his hand.

“But… What about…”

The green flames die down.

“Now then,” Saïx remarks, “Where did we leave off?”

He snaps his fingers, and the Dusks vanish through Corridors of Darkness, Maleficent seemingly vanishing with them.

With them out of the way, there’s now room for a group of Emblem Heartless to Corridor in and surround our Junior Heroes.

“Which side are you guys on anyway?” Sora asks.

“The Heartless ally with whoever’s the strongest,” Saïx answers. With a wave of his hand, two of the Heartless lunge forward, and are cut down by Sora’s Keyblade.

The hearts they release float up into the air, prompting a smile from Saïx.

“Yes Sora!” he praises, “Extract more hearts!”

Saïx departs through a Corridor of Darkness.

The two hearts Sora freed are wrapped in darkness and spirited away, collected by the Organizations.

“No!” Sora realizes as the Heartless tighten their circle around SDG, “The hearts!”

Sora, Donald, and Goofy are forced on the defensive as the Heartless close in on them.

Fade to black.

“Maybe everything we’ve done… Maybe it was all for nothing.

“What am I supposed to do if I can’t use the Keyblade!?”

“Imbeciles!” Maleficent snaps, “You can’t be trusted to do anything!”

“Huh?” Sora remarks as a bright light begins to shine.

You now receive Secret Ansem Report 1:

My efforts these many years have come to fruition, with the world I govern having become a paradise worthy of being called “Radiant Garden.”

Nurtured by the pure water that is the source of life, fragrant flowers bloom in abundance, and the people face each day with hopeful smiles.

But where there is light, darkness also lurks. As noted in my earlier reports, I must solve the mystery of this “darkness of the heart.” This paradise depends on it.

I shall perform an experiment to probe the depths of a person’s heart. One of my own apprentices, Xehanort, has volunteered to be a subject.

The young man has served me ever since I nursed him back from death’s door some years ago.

He had lost all his memories at the time, but later showed remarkable intellectual curiosity and readily absorbed my teachings, gaining deep wisdom. Any mental immaturity is surely due to his young age.

If I explore Xehanort’s heart with psychological tests, I may be able to recall the past locked away within. My apprentice Even has also shown great interest in Xehanort’s memories.

But is he really the right subject? Xehanort does indeed exhibit extraordinary talents…

Too extraordinary…

Perhaps they are even superhuman.

And now, we cut to Leon and Cloud, who are reacting to the massive ray of light from clear on the other side of the giant crevasse.

“Sora! Donald! Goofy!” Leon calls out.

“Relax,” Cloud tells him, “Those three aren’t going down that easily.”

Cloud turns and walks back to the town.

“The Keyblade’s chosen one…” he remarks, “He’s a lucky one.”

A beam of light shoots out of the ray and into the sky.

“See you soon,” Leon remarks as he looks up at the beam.

The Battle of Hollow Bastion is over.

Evil may have triumphed, but the world was saved regardless.

Cue Final Mix exclusive cutscene, wherein Saïx returns to Where Nothing Gathers, where Xemnas, II, Xaldin, and X have already gathered.

“Sora knows the truth now,” he notes, “The more Heartless that he defeats, the closer he is to becoming our perfect puppet.

“This new knowledge will make him harder to control.”

“What does it matter, really?” II asks, “Whatever his circumstances, Sora has never been able to help himself from saving people from the Heartless. It’s what his pure little heart wants.”

“There–” X declares as throws and catches two dice, “the dice have been cast. Things are in motion. He can’t stop this.”

“Nothing is set in stone,” Xaldin reminds him, “If the dice aren’t in your favor, you will share Demyx’s fate.”

“The fun is in not knowing, isn’t it?” X replies, “What is the point of betting on something if you already know the outcome?”

“Are you sure that defeating him won’t derail the Organization’s plan?” II asks.

“If he is to die so easily,” Xemnas states, “he is of no use to us.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” Xaldin states, “It’s not in my nature to hold back.”

Fade to black as we return to content from the vanilla game.

On the Gummi Ship, Sora remarks about how help comes from unexpected places sometimes.

Donald agrees.

Flashback to how exactly SDG got out of that pickle.

We get Sora’s despair as SDG are so boxed in by the Heartless that they don’t even have move to walk, followed by Maleficent’s irritation that our Junior Heroes didn’t bolt when she giftwrapped a perfect escape route for them.

A Corridor of Darkness opens beneath their feet, and the trio falls right in.

Fade to black.

The camera pans down to Sora laying face-down in a pitch-black void. He regains consciousness and pushes himself to his feet, looking around until he sees Donald and Goofy walking up to him.

“What’s this place?” Goofy asked.

“This must be the Realm of Darkness!” Sora realizes.

He shouts into the void, calling out to Kairi and Riku.

No response.

Donald and Goofy look around, and Donald spots a man in a black coat holding a box.

“Who’s there?” Donald shouts.

The man in the coat Corridors away, leaving the box in midair.

When the camera cuts to a new angle, it’s on the ground at Donald’s feet, without having moved at all.

“What’s this?” Donald questions as he picks up and inspects the box.

“Are you sure you wanna open…” Goofy’s caution is interrupted by Donald opening the box, finding a stick of sea-salt ice cream and a photograph of Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette posing in front of the Old Mansion, “that?”

Donald takes the photo out of the box and hands it to Sora.

“Gawrsh, it’s the gang from Twilight Town,” Goofy remarks, “There’s Hayner, Pence, Olette… and uh, uhm…”

“Roxas,” Sora completes.

“You know him?” Donald asks.

“No…” Sora answers, “The name just popped into my head… This is Roxas.”

“Are you sure you wanna eat…” Goofy’s caution is cut off by Donald biting into the ice cream, “that?”

Donald flinches.

“Salty… no… Sweet!”

The ice cream glows and floats into the air, producing the gateway for this space SDG have found themselves in, producing the bright light Leon and Cloud saw.

“Not yet!” Sora protests, “I gotta look for Kairi!”

Fade to black as we cut back to the Gummi Ship.

The Ice Cream and Picture are added to your Key Items.

With that, the darkness covering Hollow Bastion is gone!

Goofy wonders if the photo and ice cream are a clue.

And if they are, who left it for them to find.

Sora suggests it might’ve been Riku.

Donald remarks that they’re “almost there”, and Sora asks what they should do if the Heartless are back, since he can’t use his Keyblade without helping the Organization.

Goofy reminds him that they kinda HAVE to use the Keyblade, because the alternative is letting the Heartless eat people.

There are new episodes added to the Land of Dragons, Beast’s Castle, Olympus Coliseum, and Port Royal.

Agrabah, Halloween Town, and the Pride Lands have vanished and won’t return until you clear all the new episodes.

Additionally, the Battle Levels in all available worlds have been raised, thanks to the Organization flooding the worlds with stronger Heartless.

Neoshadows and Nobodies will now start to appear as regular enemies. (Don’t worry though, the Neoshadows in this game are nowhere NEAR as difficult as the Neoshadows in KH1 were.)

For now though, lets head back to Hollow Bastion.

Going back to the Postern will reveal the Gullwings are present as NPC’s.

If you talk to Rikku, you’ll see she’s being herself.

If you talk to Payne, she’ll tell Rikku to stop singing.

If you talk to Yuna, you get one more cutscene (which I thought you couldn’t get until later).

“Liars!” she accuses.

“Wha-” Sora remarks.

“Leon doesn’t have any treasure!” Rikku complains.

“And we fought for you guys,” Payne deadpans.

“Donald…?” Goofy prompts.

“Well, I had to tell them something!” Donald weakly defends.

“I don’t see how we’re going to work this out,” Yuna explains.

The Gullwings discuss amongst themselves.

“We’re just going to take YOUR treasure,” Yuna decides.

“But we don’t have anything!” Sora protests.

“You sure?” Payne presses.

“Hmm… let’s take a look!” Rikku states as she inspects Sora.

She then checks out Donald.

“Ooh!” she remarks as she inspects Goofy.

She whispers about her findings in Yuna’s ear.

“Okay, we’ve decided!” Yuna declares, “The Gullwings are taking all your items!”

“You gotta be kidding me!” Sora protests.

“Oh, foofie,” Yuna remarks.

“This stinks!” Rikku complains.

“So not cool…” Payne comments.

“Look, sorry we tricked you,” Sora apologizes, “but…”

“Forget about it,” Payne interrupts, “Leon told us the whole story. He said your journey’s been pretty rough.”

“So it wouldn’t really be right to take your things,” Yuna explains.

“We’ll root for you!” Rikku promises, “Here, this is from us!”

She summons a large treasure chest.

“Bye! Good luck on your journey!” Yuna bids, before the Gullwings strike their version of the Charlie’s Angles pose and sparkle away, having done their job of promoting Final Fantasy X-2’s then-recent release.

The Treasure Chest Rikku summoned holds the Gull Wing Keyblade (+2 Attack, +3 Magic, Experience Boost: doubles experience earned from defeating enemies when below 50% HP).

And with that, all that’s currently left to do in Hollow Bastion is putting that Torn Page back in Pooh’s Book.

See you then!

(Credit to KH Wiki and Mudarrow, as always.)

GOD THE PLOT

Axel being questionable as FUCK honey please!

Fuckin Xehanort I know enough about this binch and also that everyone’s fcuking Xehanort at some point

tbh maybe it lasts longer in-game compared to the recap but I feel like Goofy’s ‘death’ should’ve lasted a touch longer ya know?

#submission

4 notes · View notes

superpixie42 · 11 months

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Look What I Found

You ever find something and have absolutely zero recollection about why you have it? Well that's the world doc I just found - it's all snippets from some event prompts and I have no idea what one so...if anyone remembers please let me know. I don't remember putting them on tumblr before and they aren't up on AO3 so hopfully they are as new to y'all as they are to me.

I'm going to clean these up and add them to AO3 in the next few days but enjoy this messy Tumblr post for now.

Prompts Are: Direction, Mental Health, Childhood, and Sacrifice.

Direction

Kagura’s soul was the wind. She was quick, confident, brash, and unyielding. She was everywhere and saw everything. She was the answer to riddles and her will would be answered to.

And, currently, she was completely lost.

She’d finally convinced Sesshomaru to join her, and together they would take down Naraku and seek vengeance against those who helped him rise to power: Kikyou, Kagome, and Inuyasha.

But as they walked deeper into the dense forest, Kagura’s confidence in her plan wavered. Soaring through the skies, she could see for miles, mapping her movements between mountains and streams. Now she was navigating between individual trees and rocks with no idea how far they had traveled. Even tracking the sun was more difficult under the thick green canopy. She had to completely rely on Sesshomaru to guide her, and she wasn’t sure she could do that. It had been a long time since she’d trusted anyone. But Naraku was watching the skies, and surfacing would ruin this one chance she had to free herself.

She took a calming breath, the sting at the hole in her chest where her heart used to be refocusing her. She had to trust him, she didn’t have any other choice.

Kagura was many things, but what she needed to be was patient. So patient she would be.

Sacrifice

Sango wasn’t sure she wanted to be a mother.

Her own had died giving birth to Kohaku, and that death had taken her years to grieve and process. Instead, as eldest, she chose to focus on demon slayer training and learning how to run her village. She might not have children of her own, but she could be a motherly head woman for her people when the time came.

But life has a habit of not going according to plan.

Sometimes that’s horrific.

Other times it’s a blessing.

Carrying her twins had been an experience unlike anything Sango had ever encountered. She’d been tired before, she’d been wounded, she’d been frustrated, she’d been scared– but never like this. As she sat nursing her daughters for what felt like the hundredth time that day, looking out the window and watching the other women of Musashi chasing after not just two but four or five or, heaven forbid, six children she couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel that would make her want to ever go through this all again.

Yet she did. Eventually.

But also intentionally, willingly, and gladly.

Just the once more.

And now, as she watched her son blatantly steal yet another piece of fish from her plate to fill the wind tunnel in his stomach, she simply rolled her eyes and pretended not to notice his “sneaky” little hand groping around her bowl.

Sango had always been told that parenting was about sacrifice. And while it was - less sleep, less alone time, less resources, less space, less time to focus on anything that required more than forty-five minutes of dedicated brain power- it didn’t mean sacrificing herself.

She was still Sango.

She was still a leader, still a slayer, still found time for Kirara, and Miroku, and Shippo. Sure it looked different now, but so did she. And if today’s biggest sacrifice was losing a few extra pieces of fish (and a few hours sleep) in exchange for seeing the satisfied smile on her son’s face as he rushed to share his pilfered snack with his conspirators, then she would do it every day.

Childhood

When Kagome announced she was pregnant, Inuyasha went through a violent series of emotions very quickly. There was shock, there was elation, then there was a bone deep dread, swiftly followed by fear and a need to join his wife in the bushes to throw-up.

But by the time his son– his son– finally arrived he felt more prepared than he thought he would. They had a basket, they had diapers, they had blankets and furs and chew toys durable enough for hanyou teeth. He’d even “baby proofed” as Kagome put it: sanding down the corners of the table to avoid pointed edges; getting all new smooth, clean mats for the floor; even rebuilding the doorframe so they would be harder for a baby to slide.

He was also prepared for threats outside the home. Mirroku had ofuda’d every inch of the village. They went on daily patrols and - even though he would never tell Kagome- he’d scent marked every other tree in a three mile radius. He’d even bullied Sesshomaru into making more regular appearances.

With all this prepping little baby Yuya was snugger than a bug in a rug. And thanks to extensive prep time with Sango’s children, Inuyasha was at least mostly ready to deal with the crying, the diaper rash, and the lack of sleep Kagome was going to suffer while breastfeeding.

So how come nobody fucking told him during all this the kid was going to actively try and kill himself at every available opportunity?

Before he was even crawling Yuya seemed to find everything and try to pop it directly into his mouth. He scratched his face, punched himself in a place Inuyasha was very sure he didn’t want to be punched, and pulled his own hair when he was mad.

Then there was crawling.

How was this a good idea from an evolutionary standpoint? Kagome told him about how humans and animals adapted to their environment to ensure survival. So why did baby humans allow their tiny baby heads to take such a beating as they bellyflopped their way directly towards the active fire pit!? Why did baby arms fail at holding them up but their hands could grip a knife that was unwatched for a single blink? Yuya couldn’t stand, but he could roll directly into the river while they washed laundry?

So he decided if the baby didn’t adapt then he would. More toddler proofing. Or, more accurately, more failure.

The new bathtub he built? Apparently actually a climbing gym.

The bed he made? More like a crash pad for swinging from the ceiling.

And he didn’t even want to think about the garden with its hoes and its stakes and the fence and the dirt and the snakes and just… everything.

As Inuyasha spent yet another night on sentry duty, watching over Yuya and making sure the newest collection of scrapes and bruises cleared (he healed faster than his mother, but definitely not as quickly or as completely as his father) he couldn’t shake the gnawing feeling in his belly that he should be doing… something. He wasn’t sure what, but something more to keep his son safe. He didn’t want to lock him in the house all day - not that that would help anyway - but Inuyasha had been so focused on outside forces hurting his child, he never really considered how unintentionally self destructive a lanky, super strong, super fast, absolute moron child could be.

But even after - or maybe especially after - taking a major fumble from a tree during the eight seconds it took Inuyasha to turn and answer a question Yuya had still smiled. Still laughed. Still ran immediately back to the same damn tree and tried again. ¿

Maybe that was the point, though, wasn’t it?

Maybe he couldn’t keep his not-so-little-baby-boy safe from everything, or even himself, but he could keep him happy. Could keep him trying again. Could help him laugh even as his mom smeared that horrible smelling goop all over the broken skin.

And then tomorrow Inuyasha would check to make sure he was healed and they’d go break something else.

Mental Health

There are some things you never really get over.

The older she got, the more Shiori thought she would grow out of her anxiety. It had been years since her mother offered her up as a sacrificial lamb, abandoning her to the constant threats and abuse at the hands of her grandfather. After this long she should be fine, right?

Should be able to hear someone at the door without panicking.

Should be able to sleep without dreaming of being stuck in the barrier again.

Should be able to trust that when her mother was late coming back from an errand that she surely wasn’t coming back with a mob. Except maybe she was, and it was safer to hide than be wrong.

When her mother died Shiori cried for days, trapped in the house with a corpse. What would happen to her now? How could she possibly stay in the village that had so willingly cast her aside? But she didn’t know where the surviving bat tribe members had fled to. What if the bats trapped her again? She didn’t want to go back, she didn’t want to go back, SHE DIDN’T WANT TO GO BACK.

Shiori awoke with a start as a firm hand shook her shoulder. Her eyes scanned the dark room, before meeting concerned amber. She never knew how Inuyasha had learned about what happened; maybe the Kami had finally taken pity on her and it was a miraculous coincidence. Three days after her mother’s death, there he was, scooping her up off the dusty floor and bringing her to his new village. It was unlike anything she’d ever heard of: humans, demons, hanyou, all living together and training as slayers.

She still had nightmares, still spooked in crowds, and struggled to speak some days. But as Inuyasha silently lit the fire in the hut where she lived next to him and Kagome, she was starting to finally feel like someday she would be able to do all the things she wanted to. Until then, she was safe, and that was more than she’d had in a long time, so she would cherish the feeling.

#WHAT EVENT WAS THIS #i cant believe i have a whole ass doc and just.. no idea #none #blank brain

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