#this is just thought dumping of what I’ve played of the game so far | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

my-horniness-is-okay · 11 months

Text

Hellooo, this is my first fanfiction so please go easy on me 🙏 not beta read so probably some errors. The character is obviously aged up, idk where in the timeline bc I’ve only played the first two games. I tried to keep him in character as much as I could, sorry if it’s not great. MC is supposed to be gender neutral, genitalia and appearance is not detailed.

Synopsis: the head of the Togami Corporation has his eye on the new intern. After hiring a private investigator, he discovers that the object of his affections is a sex worker; he has found his angle to get closer in a way he understands. Paying for what he wants.

Warning: unhealthy obsession, unhealthy power dynamics, nsfw content, graphic sexual content, Switch Byakuya, Byakuya gets pegged lol, oral sex MC receiving, sex toys, prostitution/dominatrix MC, edging and overstimulation, begging and slight dacriphilia, implied stalking, classism, asshole rich guy being conniving and entitled who could’ve guessed, MC is subjected to corporate bullshit, um tell me if I missed anything

Byakuya couldn’t help but feel just a bit awkward. It’s not like anyone at this kitschy cafe would really stare at him this late in the evening, even with him being the sole survivor of the Togami name and all; it was dark out and a weekday so most would be at home, not actively seeking out more caffeine.

This place was your recommendation, and after sending that private investigator after you a while back he found out that this is a place you liked to schedule meetings with clients, but this cafe was too low brow for his liking; tacky decor, shoe prints scuffed onto the floor, and a few too many frazzled college students damn near weeping into their coffee mugs as they furiously hammer away on their keyboards. Not to mention, his tea was a little oversteeped; Just awful, Byakuya thought to himself, clenching on the toy faithfully nestled inside of him, how long do I have to wait in this dump? In reality, it had only been a few minutes, but he had been waiting the whole day to get to this point, canceling his meetings and setting his work aside to get ready for this date.

Byakuya shifted in his seat, feeling himself throb and shiver as he remembered your instructions; clean himself up real nice inside and out, put on that nice new white shirt with the gold detailing that makes him look so pretty, and edge himself. Edge himself until he can’t stand it, until he is shaking and just wants to cry and be gifted release. Then get up, put himself together, straighten himself out, have his driver take him to this ridiculous cafe, and tell his driver to park the car in the alleyway and fuck off somewhere else until he is ready to go home.

Well he did, and now he waits sexually frustrated and irritated at everything, hands trembling slightly around the warmth of his mug as the bell tinkles above the front door and a cold breeze from the outside sends an electric current up his spine. He quickly takes a sip of his halfway full cup as the barista loudly welcomes in the newcomer, who’s murmured hello and approaching footsteps were all too familiar to Byakuya. He tried to ignore the pulse of excitement that shot to his cock, staring down at his drink nonchalantly, but he can’t prevent the quiet whimper that slips past his lips when he feels your gentle hand slide over his shoulder as you walk from behind him into view.

You’re as lovely as always, eyes captivating, smiling gently, and saying something in greeting he wasn’t listening to, far too busy drinking you in. You had all your usual luster but his heartbeat hammered uncomfortably loud in his ears as he gawked stone faced, just knowing you would be touching him, that he would finally be touching you. You look nice, but your clothes are notably non-constrictive. For easy access, Byakuya swallowed, just taking in your presence.

“Togami? Y’alright?” Your voice calls his attention as you sit down across from him, pulling your bag in your lap. He makes a little hmm? sound, face flushed and hands nervously stirring his tea. “Busy day, huh?”

His lips part as he pauses, wondering what to say. The last thing he wanted to do was dwell on small talk. “I’m here on time. What’s your excuse?” You had a quizzical look on your face; true, you were only about 10 minutes late, but that felt like centuries to Byakuya. He had wanted you for so many months ever since you had started interning at the Togami Corporation; You were all polite nods and smiles with uncaring sardonic eyes, bracing yourself for the lowly corporate job you signed up for. Even passing him in the hall there was something sarcastic in your bow, something joking in your tone- Oh yes what an honor Mr Togami, said with all the eagerness of a wooden board. Something about your frankness, your beauty, your humor- he hated it, hated how crazy you drove him.

“Traffic,” you dismissed lightly with a quirk to your brow. “Never knew you to be one for punctuality- in fact, I overhear enough gossip around the office to know that you’re never on time. Your meetings start and end according to your whims, right Mr Togami?” Byakuya swallowed, eyes trained on your fingers tap tap tapping against the tabletop. “And you came,” your fingers stilled, “right on time for me, didn’t you?” Clenching on the toy inside of him he glanced up to your gaze, quickly looked away as if he had been burned by the mere intimacy of the act, and nodded sheepishly. A tch aww left your smile as you tilted your head at him, your legs brushing against his under the table. “See, you can behave when you want to; you’re even wearing the shirt I picked out for you!” God, how your praises set him on fire, “Does that mean you did everything I asked of you?”

“Obviously, I’m not an animal.” He scoffed; he didn’t really know why he snapped like that when you already could tell how much he was enjoying being under your scrutiny, but what does a man like himself say to such a thing? Must he suffer the indignity of having his intelligence questioned? His hygiene? His physical endurance? His ability to follow simple fucking directions?

“Watch your tone.” You chided quietly, the sultry simplicity of those words made him dizzy, “How tragic it would be for you to have gotten this far just to have me punish you because you chose to be a brat. Wouldn’t that be sad?” He nodded once, his tongue darting out to wet the corner of his mouth as he took a nervous deep breath. “You gotta use your words, honey.”

He felt his pride tightening his throat in defiance to being spoken down to in such a manner, causing him to simply gawk once more. He ached for you, your touch and your simpering mockery and your confidence all had him throbbing with the need to finally feel your skin on his. All he wanted was to be worthy under your wry gaze, to impress you, to please, to-

Suddenly you stood, lifting your bag onto your shoulder and pushing in your chair. “Listen, if you’re not ready for this-”

“I am!” He exclaimed a little too quickly, face scorching hot with embarrassment. “I just- it’s hard! For me to-” Byakuya lets out a slow angry sigh as he averts his gaze, more frustrated with himself than you, “It’s difficult for a man in my position to- to trust someone with this.”

You blinked at him, unimpressed, “It’s understandable to be nervous, but we worked out the do’s and don'ts at our previous meeting, remember? And the NDA.” Something softened in your voice, “I see you hesitating. We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for. This is all at your own pace, remember? Let’s do this when you are more emotionally ready.” You turn, starting to take your first step away to the door when suddenly he snatches your wrist in his tight grasp. Looking down, you see that Byakuya’s eyes now lack the austereness they usually carry, replaced with an embarrassed yearning.

“I am,” he positively pleads, sounding more sure than ever, “I need this. Please- Please show me.” The depth of your eyes makes him breathless as you search his face for a moment, before slipping your wrist out of his grasp and gently taking his hand, smiling; your warmth against his uncalloused palm made him annoyingly giddy.

“Then be a good boy and put your mug on the counter so the nice barista doesn’t have to come all the way over here to clean it up.” You let go of his hand. “I’ll be waiting by the door.”

A burst of excitement shoots through his chest, full of relief as he gingerly stands up, the toy settling inside of him as he grasps the half full cup by the rim. He is so ecstatic at not letting you slip through his grasp, he only is slightly affronted at having to do the plebeian’s work and return the ugly mug of oversteeped tea to the sticky counter, where the barista is too preoccupied with their phone to even thank him for gracing the trash bin they called a cafe. As he gently sets the glass on the granite counter, Byakuya watches you across the room; you’re looking through your bag triple checking you have everything you need, glancing out the window and checking the time as he approaches you.

“Good boy~” You purr, looping your arm through his. The bell above the door jingles as you enter the autumn night air together.

…

If he knew about how all consuming you would become to him, Byakuya would not have left finding interns for the Togami Corp to his underlings; he would have vetoed their decision, thrown out your resume, and eradicated the problem like crushing a bug beneath his expensive boot. This passion, this weakness has ruined him he knows, but the secrets of Pandora’s box cannot be silenced, and dammit neither can he while he lays underneath you.

You had thrown down a towel on the plush leather of the backseat of the car Togami arrived in. With his trousers, coat, and boxers discarded haphazardly over the partition and on the cab floor, Byakuya laid facing up with his white and gold shirt partially unbuttoned. You said missionary so he is in missionary, you said to hitch his knees up to his chest so now his socked feet were brushing the ceiling, and you said you wanted to put him in a cock ring and well, here he was.

“You’re so pretty like this, baby~” You mutter between kisses. He can hear the grin in your voice but he can’t care when you’re playing with the plug he brought inside himself, teasing his entrance with one hand and the other trailing up his chest to his throat. Diaphragm rising and falling, his dark pink head was leaking with arousal, aching and needy to burst already as your strap on brushes against his length. The car was filled with the humidity of sweat and cologne as you both took shelter from the quiet alleyway.

Using the bottle of lube from your bag you prep the strap for him, the slick sound emanating in the small space makes electricity shoot throughout his body. It was finally happening, having you so close and so alone; it almost felt like a dream to Byakuya, staring up at you like he was in a spell. The light from the street lamps outside barely illuminated you, the enclosing shadows making the space seem smaller, more intimate. The thought that no one but him was seeing you in this moment had him damn near keening. This was all for him, he owned this hour with you.

The plug was set to the side and Byakuya shakily sighed at the loss of sensation. Teasingly dragging the tip around his entrance, the slippery silicone of the toy creates a quiet squelching sound that makes Byakuya throb. Watching you unblinking, his desperation emanates from him, his pink lips silently form the words please please please.

As you start to ease in the head of the toy, his lips press together, glasses askew and eyes closed in a relaxed focus. A quiet noise resonated from his throat as it slipped in, his flushed chest rising and falling under his half unbuttoned dress shirt. Under you with his legs hitched up to his chest, his head was thrown back in pleasure and a few stray tears wetting his lashes and trickling down his temples.

“You’re so pretty like this, pet,” you coo, and he really is, “doing so well. Take me a bit more, yeah?” He shakily nodded, so you gradually pushed the girth deeper, his lips parting at the stretch. “How’s that feel, baby?”

He takes a shaky deep breath, practically panting in arousal as his member twitches, and his smooth white thighs shaking under his vice grip. “More.” He murmured; It doesn’t sound like a command like he intends it to be, more like a whine.

You give his thigh a hard smack, and when he jolts he accidentally rocks back and forth on the strap-on, gasping and opening his pleading eyes.

“Is that how you’re supposed to ask?” You say, your fingers massaging the tender pinking flesh. The words have him clenching around the toy, a tingling sensation darting through his limbs.

He chuckles diverting his wanton gaze up to the ceiling of the cab, Adam’s Apple bobbing, he clings to his embarrassment a bit longer as his tongue darts out and quickly licks his bottom lip. “I, uh-“ he falters, not because he doesn’t know the answer, but because he’s not sure if his pride can handle listening to his own voice admit to what he wants out loud.

You strike him again on the same side, this time on his ass cheek. A sigh, almost a squeak, escapes him as he furrows his brow at you, his eyes misty with longing and bashfulness. You start to pull out and Byakuya’s mouth drops open at the feeling; the head of the toy catching on his entrance before pushing it back in shallowly, only as deep as you had gotten before. He nearly keens as you strike him again but harder, lazily dragging the toy in and out, shallow thrusts that do nothing but tease his entrance.

“Please.” His voice cracks, eyes watering as he stares desperately, trying to move his hips to pull the toy deeper, so he gets another spank. He hums a stifled groan, heart skipping a beat.

“Please, what?” You demand with a shit eating grin, watching his obstinance melt under the pain and pleasure.

You, You, You, maddening beguiling You with your razor sharp smile somehow draining him of his dignity. He never signed up for this religion of his, but he found his new god in You whether he liked it or not.

“Fuck,” he grunts, squeezing his eyes shut and tilting his head away; his mouth is rosy and a little swollen from being kissed so much, and you can’t help but feel like there is something a bit Adonis-like to his face when he isn’t being so cold.

You grip him by his disheveled hair and force him to look at you; his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows and squeaks under his breath. “C’mon, pet,” You smack his hip hard, so much so that he bleats, his brows knitting together as he looks up with humiliated pleasure, “use your words.”

“I-“ As he falters a quiet whine resonates from the back of his throat, “I need it, please. Please fuck me. I- Master, fuck, I-“

He’s cut off as you finally thrust in deeper; his eyes roll back as he lets out a shrill ecstatic sigh, giving him what he so desires as we ease up to the hilt of the toy, your pelvis snug against his, the tip of the toys nestled snugly against his prostate. Dropping your grip on his ruffled blond locks, you caress up and down his soft thighs, letting him get used to the length.

“Better, sweetheart?” He jerks his head in a vague nod to the question. His breathing is ragged as he savors the stretch, lost in his own world as he trembles excitedly. His cock pulses, dripping and twitching on his abdomen.

“‘M ready. Please, master.” His tone is a little childish, a petulant whine to beg for his reward. A choked sob escapes him as your hand rubs his balls and you start to gently rock back and forth inside of him, admiring his flushed cheeks and focused expression.

“See, baby?” Your voice chimes with an undertone of mocking, pulling out a bit more for some real thrusting, “see how easy it is when you just behave? Get you everything you want.” As the toy gets pushed back in he lets out a small cry of pleasure, “Everything you want.”

Setting a slow pace, low drawling moans reverberate in his chest as people pass by at the entrance of the alleyway, just a few paces from his begging and debauchery, just a few meters from witnessing this young man’s dreams coming true. Byakuya reaches up to pull you in closer and kisses you feverishly, and when his lips open begging to taste you his noises are freed from his throat; between each lick and thrust he vocalizes, he can’t help it, filling up the tiny space. In this moment he is a thing to be owned, nothing else exists.

“Doin’ so well, being used like this. So perfect for me aren’t you?” He moans an ardent affirmative, “This what you want, baby?” You ask between kisses, a hand teasing his head.

He’s breathing heavier now, holding back his shrill panting in the back of his throat as the toy massages deep within him, grinding his hips flush against yours. “Please,” it’s a barely contained whisper, he has tears in his eyes and he looks like a dog begging, “please- I just need it. Fuck me hard. Please.”

Byakuya bites your lip and he grinds his hips in tandem to yours, his hands releasing their hold on his thighs, his feet planted firmly on the ceiling of the cab now as his hands grip your hips pulling you into practically lay on top of him. “Hmm?” you breathe, the sound almost a moan as his long elegant fingers grip like a vice into your back, into your skin. He can feel arousal of your own dampening your inner thighs at this point; Byakuya smugly wondered if you got this worked up for all your clients. Jolting him out of his thoughts you reach down and start to fist his straining cock, leisurely dragging the foreskin back and forth causing him to gasp and tense up, unconsciously pushing the strap out by an inch or two.

“No, please, not like this, I-“ he whines in a panic, gripping the wrist that has a hand on his dick; Byakuya stills you entirely, his fingers massaging your skin as he tries to relax and slow his breathing. Sighing, he plants kisses along your jaw over to the hollow of your ear, “I want- master, god fuck- just, please fuck me for real already, I- Oh~” Cutting him off as your hand lifts from his cock and grips his throat, you draw the length out and when you quickly snap your hips forward, his voice cracks he cries out so loudly and suddenly. Back and forth, you keep the steady rhythm, gripping his white hips and pounding into him hard, watching as he comes undone. For a moment his hands scramble for purchase against the leather seats, desperate for something to ground him as his loud moans filled the cab, a sensation he had never felt before spreading over every inch of his skin. Pleasure trickles through his nerves like a tsunami, pleasure that for the first time stretches beyond his cock, throughout his whole body.

Like the air is being punched out of his lungs, he rocks up against the seats, the crown of his blonde head brushing against the door behind him, his feet dragging on the ceiling, his long gangly legs framing your shoulders. Removing your hand from his throat, you grip the headrest of the front seat and give him deep powerful strokes that seize up his limbs painfully and have him shaking. Each cry melds into the last, quickly becoming a stream of moans each as loud and undignified as the one prior. The toy hits too deep, persistent and punishing and unbearably good. He doesn’t know how long the feeling lasts, but he remains on the edge of an orgasm like the ebb and flow of the sea; closer and closer still and then receding back into himself again. Weeping openly he begs, he has never felt this good before and that scares him, not knowing if he wants the sensation to end or go on forever.

Falling suddenly silent, Byakuya cums much quicker than he would have liked, gripping you hard in shock as his rigid limbs thrash at the sensation that he had never felt quite like this; like you had lit a flame in his feet and he felt it creep all the way up his body, slowly moving through his torso and making him shiver.

Even after his cock had stilled, his head was still spinning, his heart hammering. Keeping one hand on your hip to keep you flush against him, his other hand reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes, bumping his glasses clumsily. He shudders as you carefully remove his cock ring. You were certain that for once not a single thought was in that beautiful head of his as he blinked his wet lashes slowly and dreamily.

When he glanced down at himself, he was surprised to see that there wasn’t any cum on him. He had cum dry, his cock a bit more relaxed after removing the cock ring but still stiff. He almost couldn’t believe that you made him feel that good without the external release he was so accustomed to; he might’ve described it as witchcraft if he was a superstitious man.

“I want…” Byakuya says much too slowly, much meeker than he would have liked, “I want to make you cum. Can I?” His heart soars when you chuckle. “Sit on my face, please? I want- I want to please you too.”

“You are a good boy, aren't you?” Leaving the toy inside of him, he watches you as you unbuckle the strapon from your hips. “Damn near read my mind, baby~” You sound delighted as you crawl over him, his awkwardly long legs cramping up against the door by his feet. His heart melts when you gently remove his glasses from his face with a laugh, setting them off to the side somewhere as you saddle up to his face, gripping his hair and pulling him forward to your heat.

He is shocked by how the smell of your sex drives him mad, incapable of stopping himself from breathing in frantically like a hound as he grips the fat of your hips. After one tentative lick he is hooked, burying his face between your thighs and devouring you feverishly like a man starved. His cock throbs at the taste, his heart leaping out of his chest at your quiet groaning and your firm grip on his hair. He needs this shit on tap, he realizes, Byakuya can’t live without this. Your taste at the back of his throat, swirling his tongue passionately along your slit while groaning in excitement makes him feel high. He is thrilled when you really start to get into it, moving his head back and forth and humping his face like he’s your toy, making his jaw ache. You need him so badly as you grow swiftly closer to your climax, your voice rising and your pace speeding up. Your arousal starts to ooze out of the corners of his mouth as he eagerly works his tongue to your pleasure.

Byakuya’s hips leap when you reach back around and start playing with his throbbing cock; Much to his embarrassment he ejaculates immediately with a loud grunt, pleasure overtaking him once again. The orgasm this time does not keep him in limbo like the last one did, instead it is reliable and easy, though notably more intense than normal. Semen paints his stomach, shooting out of him hot and fast, leaving him trembling ferociously once again. Even after his cum soaks your hand you don't stop stroking him, riding his face harder as you gradually come up on your own release, overstimulating him in the process.

His throbbing pleasure transforms into an aching numbness. Hungrily, he grips you fiercely and yanks you forward, forcing you to lean against the door above his head and suffocate him with your weight, grinding on his mouth. It’s heaven when he finally makes you cum, filling his mouth with you and making you shout. He needs this, Byakuya thinks to himself, he needs this warmth between your quivering thighs forever. It’s where he belongs; It’s where you belong.

After a few minutes, when you come down from your high, you ease yourself off of him with a shaky laugh that reignites his pride. He made you feel like that. Byakuya was the one who summoned the relaxed expression on your face as you straddled his waist, carefully brushing his bangs out of his eyes. You say something but he is so zoned out he doesn’t hear you. “Hm?” Byakuya breathes out, squinting up at your blurry form dreamily.

“Feeling good, huh?” Your chuckle and teasing grin melt his already relaxed self. “All I said was that you did well.”

Byakuya had a hard time thinking of a response. He was so blissed out, so at ease as he absentmindedly massages your now bruising hips. After a long pause he sharply chimed, “Our hour isn’t up yet.”

“Still got more in you?” You sounded surprised.

“Just-” Byakuya slowly shook his head, face heating up. “Just reminding you.” After removing the toy from inside of him and putting it in a ziplock baggy along with the plug and ring, he sat up with his back against the door and with you straddling his lap. “Where are my glasses?” He asked in an annoyed tone. After you retrieved them from under the driver’s seat, he donned them again, blinked at you, and sighed at the sight.

“So what do you want to do now?”

“Um,” Byakuya hesitated, his fingers clutching your soft waist possessively, not knowing how to ask for something more affectionate without embarrassing himself. He swallowed, avoiding your gaze. “I think I- well, let’s just relax for now.” He drawls sheepishly.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees you lift your hand and bring it up to his head; his scalp was thrumming from having his hair pulled a few minutes ago. As your deft fingers card through his blond locks, he admires the way you smile mockingly as he unconsciously leaned into your touch. “You’re cute~” He found something demeaning in your tone that sent a pulse of excitement to his spent cock; how the hell do you do that, he marveled.

“Do you… usually cum like that? With your clients, I mean.” Byakuya cleared his throat nervously, his jealousy ravenously clawing him apart from the inside out; he didn’t want to ask it but it came out anyway.

“Why do you ask?” You challenged teasingly, “I do have to be confidential about my clients, you know.” Anger tightened Byakuya’s throat, making him feel hot. Didn’t you know how special this was? How honored you should be that the Byakuya Togami has fallen for you? His own feelings disgusted him, but as your gentle fingers combed his blond locks from out of his eyes and back out of his face, he felt the rage melting out of him again. “Silly boy.”

His deft hands massaged your hips tenderly as he stared at you, watching as you gulped under the intensity of his gaze. You seemed uncomfortable, and some part of him liked it; seeing you squirm and glance away as he stared you down. “I want to schedule another appointment.”

The sound of your surprised laugh made his heart swell in a way he found particularly vexing. “Well I do love good business, but how about you pay me for this one first?” You snapped.

He grinned sleazily, feeling for the first time you were speaking a language he knew how to speak back. He grabbed his trousers from the floor and fished his phone out from one of the pockets. Ordering you a ride home, sending you the thousands of dollars straight from his personal account and pulling up his calendar with lightning speed, he breezed through to your next day off and canceled his meetings for that day with barely a glance in your direction. He knew your schedule inside and out from what the private investigator told him, so it was a breeze to find a day you were open.

Those measly thousands meant absolutely nothing to him; if they want to earn real money they’ll have to actually work for it, go where I want us to go and wear what I want them to wear! Byakuya thought to himself, not that trash cafe and these cheap rags for mere pennies to pay for that little hovel you called home.

He knew that if he eased you into the lifestyle of his caliber, gave you a taste for the finer things in life and got you attached to easy living, he would have you begging to be his lifelong pet- a modern day concubine all for himself. His smile was sinister as he watched you blink at his phone screen with great interest, gawking at all the pretty numbers. With the Togami fortune at your leisure, how could you ever deny him? Eventual mistresses and bastard children be damned, you’d be eating out of the palm of his hand in no time, an empty headed little bird trapped in a gilded cage. And the thought alone had his cock pulsing with excitement again.

——-

Yandere Byakuya smut! Please leave a comment and constructive criticism! I hope you enjoyed <3

#yandere #Yandere smut #Dom reader #smut #rich yandere #Yandere Dangonronpa #yandere byakuya togami #Yandere stalker #Yandere anime #switch reader #gender neutral mc #chubby reader #dangonronpa

190 notes · View notes

wataksampingan · 1 year

Text

This was supposed to be some form of Therdeo Dane Lapileon Defense Thesis but my brain cannot pull off all the necessary research to do it justice.

So I guess let’s just brain dump all my thoughts and feelings?? About this manhwa?? (Spoilers for the story up to episode 63 on Webtoons and 66 on Naver Webtoons)

...this also gets FAR too long so cut is here for sanity’s sake. Tl;dr Theo Lapileon is a wounded puppy and I want him to be happy gdi

I need to preface the Theo content by saying that I adore Pereshati. I think she’s one of the more realistic heroines that I’ve read, in the sense that she’s plucky and determined but she damn well knows how the game is played. Every move she makes is plagued with doubt and uncertainty coz she’s only a minor noble, and one with an unbelievable story at that. (Resurrecting after being fed poisonous blood and getting thrown back in time is a stretch for anyone). But whenever she does decide to do something, she handles herself with the kind of poise you’d expect from a grown woman who knows how polite society works. It’s the kind of elegance and maturity that the novel’s Perry doesn’t have.

I wonder very much how seungu would have thrown Perry into Theo’s way if they had had full control of the adaptation because the first... 10? episodes or so reads very much like a typical isekai manhwa: she’s murdered, she awakes, and then immediately besieges Theo with a proposal, simply because he needs to marry someone to get the emperor/princess off his back. The Perry we see currently in the latest chapters would likely have done something smarter/more socially acceptable/conventional simply because imperial pressure or no, why the fuck would the grand duke entertain a minor noble they’ve never met before?

Granted, this is quite in line with Theo’s character in the first few episodes as well (which is lampshaded in a later chapter AND I LOVED IT) whose excuse for entertaining her absurd request/proposal is just “I got curious about the woman who kept bombarding us with messages”. The Theo we see later, who just burns letters from the Fourth Princess Dodolea without even thinking about it, would have hardly buckled under that kind of insistence.

This is all pure speculation of course because the artist, seungu, has no social media I could trace. The original novel’s writer, Han Yoonseol, has Twitter and various socmed that show an active writing career and interest in the MILAOWM webtoon. But the artist? Nothing, apart from their work. They’ve completed a previous series (Google translated to “New Year’s Taste”) but that also seems like an adaptation. I have no access to their thought process, rationale or any inkling of why certain decisions were made.

Whatever the case though, those decisions so far have me hooked. They’re making changes that reflect something more... realistic, with higher stakes and actual consequences for the actions of the characters. E.g. you can’t humiliate, much less threaten, members of the nobility at a public function in front of a crowd without some sort of retaliation. Theo in the novel actually threatens to kill a nobleman in cold blood in front of a gathered audience whereas Theo in the manhwa does this in private.

Well, I say threaten. In the manhwa, he has just a fraction of the dialogue Novel!Theo says. Just one or two lines before he snaps and is about to decapitate a mofo before being restrained by his guards. The bullying incident that precipitates this is also dealt with realistic actions and importantly, contains a reflection on Perry’s part about the power and privilege the Lapileons have in this universe. I don’t know if this foreshadows anything but my mind has gone as far as the dissolution of the empire/defection to an enemy kingdom (and the loss of their noble titles) by the end of the whole manhwa. Far-fetched? Maybe, but I have so much faith in seungu by now and so little idea of what they’re planning that I won’t be surprised.

Manhwa!Therdeo Lapileon is also extremely taciturn and poker-faced, to all the natural disadvantages this sort of personality entails. Everything we know about him is told in silent images, or expressions we explicitly don’t see. This is a man who believes in actions over words, who has no idea that open communication is a Thing and that doing stuff behind a person’s back without telling them can backfire at times (”I’m gonna have someone follow my wife’s ex-fiance around without telling her, and that got her kidnapped. SHIT.”) And all the backstory that’s been hinted at so far gives us very sad explanations how he turned out this way.

One could very justifiably argue that actually, the entire Lapileon family is a collection of sad iron woobies. Saoirse lost her husband and only son because of her own blood, Phineas is doing his level best to save his family but keeps seeing them die despite his medical expertise, Gloria probably had a HELL of a marriage to survive this long, and the poor children have had their own bouts of suffering and daddy issues. And of course there’s also Pereshati who’s been murdered about 3-4 times at this point, and lost a most beloved father to a stepmother she loved to the moon and back.

BUT. Theo.

If the housekeeper’s flashback in Episode 47 is anything to go by, and if I’m guessing right, Theo and Saoirse’s father (maybe grandfather? Unclear at this point but let’s go with father for now) was a nightmare of a man. Slaughtering servants for infractions was probably a regular threat in the Lapileon home, and judging from that flashback during the episodes when they first find Islette, so was torturing and testing his younger son’s limits. His survival in the family was due to his “usefulness”.

One can suspect that of the three siblings, Theo was the one with the softest heart. We have no idea what his older brother (Celphi’s dad) was like yet and Saoirse is a Lapileon to the core: toughened enough to do what is needed, hardened even further by tragedy. She’s also a mom, which is why harming Islette earned Gen a rightful and vicious stiletto-heels-to-the-face-ass kicking. It also gets Theo a reprimand: get his shit together or step down from the headship of the family.

(And I’m just. Saoirse, honey, I love and respect you immensely and to be stepped on by your footwear of choice would be my honour. But that’s your younger brother we’re talking about. And he’s been emotionally sucker punched in just about every aspect. He’s trying, okay?)

I’m just saying that when you’re a child, and abused to that degree, sympathy from the devil is still sympathy. Of course it echoes to the present day even as a full-grown, supposedly rational adult. Of course it’s going to fuck you up.

You were also probably raised to put family above all (witness Theo not trusting Perry with the full truth of Celphi’s condition until circumstances force his hand, Saoirse only fully warming up to her once it’s clear she loves Celphi without any ulterior motive, Gloria immediately expecting her to be wrong about the family blood being sold, only to be confounded by the awful truth that this stranger to the family was right). You’ve been operating on the full expectation that any Lapileon would follow that creed. How could they not? Their curse is too great a responsibility.

Then you’re forced to confront the devil who once gave you rare comfort as a child, and that devil bears your family name and blood. Not only does he spout the most heinous things you’ve never imagined, he also manages to hit you where it hurts: you have used your blood. You have used it for your own benefit. Are you truly no better than he is? Who are you to judge him?

(Never mind that the devil is a liar and is trying to save his own ass which is why Saoirse, who has a better understanding of her own identity and self-worth, doesn’t give him enough time to say anything - she just kicks the shit out of him)

Is it any wonder Theo hesitates to do anything harsher?

Everything he does implies a reluctance to inflict lethal force if it can be helped. Perry remarks on it when he first removes Schiff without killing him the day they got married. He doesn’t even draw his sword on the assassin at the parade, merely KICKING HIM INTO ORBIT subduing him long enough to be taken in by the guards. The only times he has killed someone in the story is Perry’s ex-fiance who had kidnapped and blackmailed her, and... well, Perry herself.

(Which again goes back to that weird early episode installment - how do you reconcile him feeding her his blood in such a cavalier manner with the gravity of his responsibility as head of the family to ensure their blood isn’t used exactly like that?

You give him a HUGEASS dose of remorse and guilt later on when Gen accuses him of also using the blood to his own advantage, and then have him offer a sincere apology to the woman he experimented on.)

He also very nearly murdered the father of the child who bullied his ward. But even that was prevented by Raymon, the guard. This is more speculation on my part but his personal guards - who are all loyal to him beyond a doubt - may have been instructed (by him?) to restrain Theo, maybe to make sure he doesn’t repeat the sins of his father who just murdered people as and when it suited him. I don’t know if seungu would even bring this up at some point but I’ll be thrilled if that is the case.

This abusive childhood is compounded by the trauma of war. Theo specifically is credited with just swooping in out of the blue and ending the conflict between the Castor Empire and the kingdom of Schwartz. His reaction to being hailed a hero is to show up covered in blood to report to the emperor, and then disappear back to the country without attending any ceremonies. It earns him the notorious reputation of being “the bloodthirsty war fiend”.

Judging from Episode 13, what he really earned was a lifelong diagnosis of PTSD and various other neuroses. “Fuck this noise, I’m going home” was a reasonable reaction from a man who has no care or time for polite society. I'd go a bit further to suggest he also didn’t want to hear his actions being lauded as heroic when all he experienced was violence and death (re: that line about him being glad his statue was destroyed, that it’d been a stain on his honour). Whatever he did was to satisfy the emperor who has some form of hold over him, and absolutely no respect for the Lapileons (every single reaction from any imperial family member, even creepy Dodolea, has been sneering condescension or reluctant compliments). So from that perspective, why the hell would he have stayed to schmooze at the castle?

There are no therapists in Castor clearly coz Theo does what most soft-hearted introverts do and represses the shit out of his trauma. Just... stuff it WAY down into the depths of his subconscious and never address it because what the fuck else would you expect him to do? Talk about his ~*~feelings~*~ in the Lapileon house where weakness is a death sentence? No, he bundles it all behind his iron mask and resigns himself to literal nightmares for the rest of his existence.

The timeline has yet to be properly established, but I'm guessing that he comes back from war only to find that his brother has died and sister-in-law has just upped and left. Which means baby Celphi is left in his care. I’m not sure why Saoirse wasn’t the one to adopt him, but I’m guessing since he’s the next in line to the grand dukedom, it ‘makes sense’ that Grand Duke Therdeo has to be in charge of him. (Saoirse not being able to become head of the family just because she’s a woman is another sticking point that I suspect will be key to resolving this entire mess) (how/when exactly he becomes Theo’s ward is subject to many theories since the timeline of the story hasn’t been actually clearly explained; a guess that a friend and I have settled on is perhaps at the time, securing Celphi’s place as a ‘spare heir’ after Saoirse, Saoirse’s son and Theo in the line of succession would have been a practical decision. Either that or, more plausibly, Theo saw Celphi in himself and just decided to adopt the boy. Which makes this next part even more tragic)

The image of Theo in a soldier’s uniform looking helplessly into the cradle, with baby Celphi reaching up to him, broke me when I first saw it. It explains every mistake Theo made in trying to raise him.

He was a soldier. What the hell would he know about raising children (even if the theory that he chose to adopt this boy is correct)? He loves this tiny child with every breath, and he’d do anything for Celphi - but most of what he knows is how to fight and die. How the fuck does that help?? Not only that, his only experience of fatherhood is the shadow of a man who abused him so severely. What is that supposed to teach a man about parenting?

Clearly not much, considering his very shocked reaction when Celphi ends up demanding what he was supposed to think when his guardian/uncle kept ignoring him all the time while he was growing up.

And the boy is correct. Theo has no answer. He fucked up (again), and he didn’t know he was fucking up so hard.

But my god, he keeps trying to make up for it. It’s awkward and uncomfortable, but Theo shows up every day to pick him up from school with Perry; he’s even glad Celphi yells at him about killing Perry because that means he’s not turning out to be Therdeo 2.0. Celphi is expressing feelings and opinions and even if they turn the boy against him, so be it - at least it’s coming out. It may be too late for Theo to learn how to express emotions but at least his ward won’t make the same mistakes.

Which is why IT HURTS SO MUCH IN EPISODE 63 TO SEE HIM SO CRESTFALLEN. After suggesting to Perry she stay away from the Lapileon house for a while, she says she will and the dialogue translates to:

“Thank you for your kind consideration.”

THERE ARE THREE - T H R E E - PANELS where his face/expression isn’t shown at all but you can ABSOLUTELY TELL HE’S 360 DEGREES OF ANGUISHED.

This woman - this beacon of hope that he’s come to have feelings for (all the subtle blushing and unseen pining looks have been sprinkled very well throughout the chapters so far) - has just had to go through the ordeal of a trial (along with months of preparation before that) where she had to send her stepmother to 35 years of hard labour, among other things, for the murder of her father. She's just had to reconcile the mother she knew with the killer sitting in the dock, and the cries of a stepsister she once loved. And all this with the knowledge that it's the Lapileons’ blood that ultimately killed her father. There’s a stray thought that poisonous blood or no, her stepmother would have found some way to kill her dad.

But it doesn’t change how it was their blood - his blood - that killed Count Zahardt. It is Lapileon blood that has tortured Perry, the woman responsible for bringing out the best in his adopted son, discovering little Islette and bringing warmth back to this frozen wasteland of a household (to paraphrase Daniel Molton who is a treat of a character, I love him so much).

Yes, he's essentially thrown his immense resources into legal recourse, released her from their obligatory contract, and offered her help in being independent and free from them. He's done many, many things to try and make her current situation comfortable.

Yet the fact remains that she basically rescued so many parts of his life, and he inadvertently destroyed hers. Nothing he does will bring her father back.

Yet she won’t curse him or his family, won’t demand any form of recompense, won’t even give him the cold shoulder, despite everything in her that says she should. Her line “leave me be so I can resent you” is so good and so sad and my HEART disintegrated.

The most ironic thing is that Theo would’ve probably understood that reaction better. The justified reaction would have been to storm and rage at him. He knows what to do with anger.

Instead, she said thank you for your kind consideration.

And he can’t say anything to that as she walks away.

HIS LIFE HAS BEEN AND IS FUCKING SAD. AND IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE.

Episode 64 is already up on Naver and Dodolea is about to do a NUMBER on his ALREADY VERY FRAGILE PSYCHE. What she calls love - and what some of us may have suspected as straightforward obsession for his attentions - is seeming more and more like a love of torturing him, and watching him squirm.

He has to sit for a portrait in the palace (emperor’s orders probably because he just wants to jerk Theo’s chain around), and cannot escape when she comes into the room to sit and watch. There’s no good reason for him to leave, so he just has to grit his teeth and bear it.

And she laughs at his discomfort. She laughs and calls it “cute”.

The rage and fear in his face when she does so is alarming from someone whose poker face is usually immaculate. It sucks so much strength/spirit from him that it alarms Daniel who greets him at the house. I have a feeling that he’s about to just shatter into pieces since Episode 66′s thumbnail has him turned away, lying on a pillow. And then I will shatter, coz this dude CANNOT catch a break.

At some point, I came to the conclusion that Theo was soft-hearted and I cannot tell you when exactly that was. It's testament to how seungu weaves in his quiet charm throughout the chapters so we can see why Perry might possibly fall for him apart from his handsome face (even if at this point, that is the FURTHEST thing from her mind). There are huge things of course like rescuing her from her kidnapping and financing her legal battles.

But the little warm things speak volumes: learning how to dance so he could accompany her to a ball, saying yes immediately when she suggests maybe he could just reply to people, telling the servants to make her special tea when he found out she also had trouble sleeping, bringing a hot water pack(?) to ease her cramps, rushing back for her auction, squeezing her hand as he helps her into the carriage because that’s all he can do after the trial. (seungu did you also watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)? Did you see the hand flex scene and immediately decide to use this? Inquiring minds must know. Also inquiring minds screamed when they first saw that scene becausE HAND TOUCHES ARE GOLD BULLION IN SLOW BURNS) And just his face (?? back of his head?? seungu never gives us any idea what he looks like when he’s in ‘oops fell in love AGAIN’ mode)

BUT SOMEHOW YOU CAN JUST TELL:

They all tell the story of a broken man who has made so many mistakes, but he can be kind and attentive, and tries hard to do what’s right (even if it takes him awhile to figure out what’s right, coz again: he’s Fucked Up). He’s also a socially awkward dork who ignores people at parties coz he doesn't know how to behave as expected. And resembles a really sad puppy when he disappoints Perry.

I could speculate a lot more on what/who the fuck Dodolea actually is and how she’s related to the Lapileon’s curse, but I also know this manhwa has steered some distance away from the webnovel. So I cannot really tell if the plot lines will be similar.

I’ll probably be back after the plot progresses further so I can scream some more. I’ve been shrieking on Twitter but that site is subject to a hungry ghost’s whims and I can’t hide spoilers/rambling behind cuts there. So here it will have to be.

Hang in there, your grace.

#theo lapileon #pereshati jahardt #is this character analysis? plot analysis? the ramblings of a diseased mind??#ALL THREE?#episode 63 sent me into the stratosphere #which is why you get this disorganised tangled mess of word vomit #my in laws are obsessed with me #my in-laws are obsessed with me #MILAOWM #apparently it should have been Theodore Lapileon and Princess Dahlia??#that makes way more sense #OH WELL dodolea is funnier anyway LMAO

264 notes · View notes

griffmstr · 1 year

Text

I haven’t really been on here much lately and certainly haven’t been talking about stuff but I have a lot to say and I don’t really know where to say it other than just dumping it into discord.

Unsurprisingly Tears of the Kingdom is really great. Everyone is raving about it from what I’ve seen but I’m staying away from most of it so I can experience it for myself you know? I’m not very far into the game so I wont bother talking about spoilers as I haven’t really seen anything myself to be honest and I wouldn’t be surprised if everything I’ve seen so far has already been shown in trailers.

There’s a couple things I really like about the game and how it builds upon what Breath of the Wild started or brought to the table. I’m one of those people that didn’t actually mind the destructible weapons. I know that was a huge issue for some but for the vast majority of the game it didn’t bother me. It did become a little annoying later when you had really good weapons and fighting shit mobs would eat your super weapons and they would drop sticks and clubs. So you ended up avoiding most combat when you could or just using other means to kill people.

That issue seems to have been solved or at least heavily addressed in TotK. All enemies drop an item that can always be fused into something to make a weapon. The more powerful the enemy the more powerful the fusion. Likely later you will have more of these items than you know what to do with so you can always make a powerful weapon from mobs even if you just use the weapons they wield as a base. This entire system is such a clever way to address the issue. Not only are you guaranteed materials to craft a weapon but you also are rewarded with your creativity on what weapons you choose to make. Some fusion materials make stronger weapons of different types like the hinox horns make good 2h clubs for example.

I also really like the crafting system even though it is surprisingly more limited than it originally seemed however the artifacts you get continue to be more powerful or complex which allows you to make more powerful and complex machines which is really fun. Even if it’s limited when you make something using your imagination and it works how you planned it’s an amazing feeling.

Anyway mostly just rambling about my thoughts but so far I’m fucking loving this game. I complained about how long it took to come out considering they confirmed it used the same assets and engine as BotW but now that I’ve had a chance to play it I can fully understand why it took so long.

Miyamoto was right all those years ago “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”

#Legend of Zelda #Tears of the Kingdom #LoZ #Zelda #TotK #Griffmstr Gabs

152 notes · View notes

aleksa-sims · 5 months

Text

RL Simself Story ( 18+)

CW: Pregnancy

We didn’t even manage to stay together for a whole month. How's this supposed to work with with N. & me? We're having a Baby soon. That means, I’m forever bound to him, whether I want it or not. But I wanted him! Maybe if I didn’t love him and didn’t care about him, it would have been easier? I wanted to make it work with us, but N. broke up with me. 😭... I think, Nico was actually right? This became clear to me, 2 weeks after he dumped me. I sat at my desk, to study for my exam. As I tried to concentrate, I noticed that Daniel’s photos above my desk distracted me.. Why can’t I just take Daniel’s photos off that damn wall to put them away, I asked myself?... The last days I’ve been thinking about, what’s wrong with me, bcs everyone’s letting me down. Now I got my answer! The moment I thought about all this, I was ashamed of myself! I let it happen again. 2 Men, you know? Agh, somehow I had to puke? 🙄🤮...... Was probably my first pregnancy nausea. I was to slow. Instead of puking in the toilet, I throw up next to it. Well, near-miss is still a miss! 🤦‍♀️

I have to file for divorce, I told myself. I can’t go on like this forever. D. was gone! But loved him, sm. 💔Still, I had to end this! No matter what happens to Nico and me, I had to draw a line, to finally accept that.... Daniel and I failed.😞

Back to the fight between N. and me 2 weeks ago. After finishing the conversation with my Grams, I went over to my bedroom. Nico was waiting for me. I was still thinking about my Grama and her twins... I started to tell Nico about it, but he didn’t listen to me? His phone buzzed. Constantly! I was annoyed, you know. I asked him, to put it away. But Nico didn’t react! So I went closer to him... I wanted to know what distracted him? He knew I was standing right next to him! I thought he’d try to hide his phone from me, to prevent me from seeing what he was doing? But he was totally relaxed. This encouraged me, to take a look at it. Damn, I saw Stephanie!! She sent him her fucking selfies. 😡

Me: You lied to me! You didn’t break up with her!

Nico: I didn't lie! I, don't lie!!! ... Hm, I need to change my number. 😕... But I swear, it's OVER!

Me: Prove it! Text her back! Tell her, you never want to see her again and you’re sick of her.

Nico: She already knows that! She knows I love you! She saw it herself! She saw us together. Or did you forget?

Me: She didn't saw us togehter! The only thing she noticed, is that I cried and left your apartment! You, didn't give shit about that! You didn’t try to stop me! And that’s exactly what she saw & noticed! ... You still fall for her pityscam.

Nico: No, I don't...😞😞...

Me: What happend to you, N.? I don't recognize you like this ... Why are you such a candy-ass with her?... Where is that mad asshole you used to be?

Nico: I don't want to be mad 😞 ... Come to me, babe. I wanna hug you.

Me: ???😦 ... NO! Get off me! Don't touch me!

Nico: I told you what I want and expect from you! You have to trust me!

Me: Did you expect or demand the same from Stephanie too? Or are you just playing your crazy mind games with me?

Nico: I’m honest! I demand those... certain things, only from you! I told you I chose you! But I see you still don’t quite understand me. That’s why you’re gonna listen to me now and do what I say. I feel like you’re not taking me seriously.

Me: Are you kidding???

Nico: Why would I kid you?... Agh, whatever! What interests me far more is.... Why are Daniel’s photos still hanging around here?

Me: I wanted to put them away! But Dilek was here. We were studying. And... I didn’t want her asking me stupid questions about D., so I didn’t do it in front of her.

Nico: You're always thinking up excuses, babe... Sit down! And listen to me well!...... I'll go. I don’t want to! Honestly not! But you leave me no choice....

Me: Are you ending this? Us?

Nico: Let me finish! When I’m done, you can talk.

Me: You got a lot of nerve, talking to me like this. You know?... You’re only leaving me, bcs Stephanie threatened to hurt herself or something.🙁😢

Nico: You don't get it!... It’s not about her! She’s with her parents! I don’t care what she does. She’s not my responsibility anymore. Agh, anyway! It’s no use debating for hours. I take off! You need to learn and understand me.

Me: And.... what about our Baby? You’re letting me down on this thing? It’s your Baby! You have to take care of your child too. That’s not fair that everything sticks to me while you continue to enjoy your freedom and your life. I thought I could rely on you...I always fall for the same shit.

Nico: I won’t let you & our Baby down. I keep my word, I’ll do my best for her or him. Just... you and I, won’t be together. But I’m here until september. I can support you in everything you need for our Baby.

Me: Sure. Like... Isabella & Philip did, right? I get why Isabella took off! Philip is an ass, just like you! 😠.... 🙁

Nico: I’m not like P.! But I don't want to say any more... just one thing! If you love me and want us to be together, as it should be! Get a divorce finally! Cut it with D.! Alone. Without me!... As soon as you get the divorce petition in writing, you’ll get me back, if you still want to. Your parents know about us. I even talked to your Dad. They all know about our Baby. There are no more excuses to postpone or wait for divorce. But you don’t care, you’re doing absolutely nothing to move this thing forward. Instead, you want to see Daniel’s brother. Anyway, do what feels right for you. I said what I had to say.

Me: I understand 🙁 .... but.. please don't go! Stay with me. I'm gonna do what you said.

Nico: I don't want to, but...agh, damn it!.. I have to go, or you won’t change anything. Don’t disappoint me! Do the right thing. I trust you! You come back to me, I know that. But now, I have to leave you alone. I'm so sorry. 🙁🤦‍♂️

He left! 😨In his.... sleepwear. I swear! Nico left in his shorts and a shirt. But okay, he just got in his car. He didn't have to take the subway or anything. I wasn’t feeling well afterwards. I had a killer Dejavu! It felt like when he left me a year ago... He said he talked to my Dad. Did my Dad talk Nico into some shit again?... However, I have to end my marriage to... finish this chapter and move on. 😞I also noticed that I never stopped loving N. I still loved him, as I did then. Now I was in love with two men again. I know, that sounds good to some. I’ve been asked a few times, why I complain about it? But trust me, it doesn’t feel good, it........hurts. We're running in circles, hurting each other, though we don’t want or intend to, it still happens....all the time.

Previous/Next

#ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 story #rl story #myrlgameplay #cw pregnancy

30 notes · View notes

atsadi-shenanigans · 2 months

Text

Feeding Alligators 36 - Glee

On the properties of blood rejuvenation and the history of the world (i guess).

On AO3.

“A devil? Astarion’s voice is sharp and just this side of a whine. “Now we’ve got a devil after us?”

Voices from below. Gale and Shadowheart and Lae’zel. Y’all should probably regroup. You try to focus as you climb back down (easier, as you’re laying on your belly, but also harder, as you’re already shaking and shivering).

The rest of the crew look between worried and grim. Lae’zel has relaxed back into her “breathe on me and die” stance. Only you seem to still be having a physical reaction. Possible because you’re the only one suddenly dumped ass over tea kettle into an unasked for crisis of (un)faith.

The others debate about it. Or discuss it, since nobody seems to be outright in favor. Wyll is dead set against the entire concept. But it’s Astarion that draws your eye. He wants to use the parasites, you’d gathered from snippets over the last day and a half. He’d said so to the others after the whole dream intruder episode. Man seems pretty down for snatching any form of power (or supplies) he can get his hands on.

But when you look at him, he wears a dark look.

“He’s playing with us,” Astarion says when you ask. “He reminds me of…well. Creatures like them don’t play games unless they know they can win.”

That fuckface hunting him.

“I don’t want any kinda deal with a devil,” you say. “We got stories about that where I come from, and they all end bad.”

Which piques Gale’s interest. You really should take an evening and let the man go whole hog on your stories. He’s been so helpful and curious. Might be a good idea to get a wizard on your side anyway. Short of finding some butthole ship flight recorder, he might be your best shot and getting home again.

All your troubles are starting to run together. Problems gained, nothing solved. You’re not even sure you’re remembering everything outside of “Wyll’s demon” and “Halsin with goblins.” Seems like there’s more you should be remembering.

This line of thinking usually means y’all should set up camp. You ain’t gonna get any less crotchety. Maybe if you offer Gale a Q and A session you can get another vote in “we should stop for tonight.”

***

Gale is only too happy to swing the vote. To be fair, Wyll don’t even protest. Whole devil thing really rattled everybody. Y’all find a stream, start setting up tents, and Astarion is the first one to march over with an arm of clothing.

You still ain’t done nothing with that scrap of linen he gave. You don’t know how to sew, and you don’t have the supplies. You been pondering scavenging another belt and just rigging you up a goddamn loincloth. You suspect it’d look weird and bulky underneath your trousers, though. But maybe you should, just to get used to it. You been here a week or so; it’s maybe another week until the cramps kick in and you start bleeding. You read enough history to know a loincloth is your best bet for dealing with that (you’re gonna have to keep an eye out for more rags or shirts that ain’t all mildewy).

Thoughts of drawers aside, Gale is ecstatic to sit you down and pick your brain. He hands you a scroll and a quill and an inkpot (“For your own keeping. One never knows when one might need to take notes”). He talks to you until most of the others have retired for the night. Talks to you as Astarion finishes his first watch (he sends you both a weird look), and only seems to notice when Shadowheart emerges from her tent to take second shift.

“Oh, goodness, I’ve completely lost track of time!” he says, scribbling furiously.

He’d started with what you remember of Mesopotamia—quickly sidetracked into prehistory and the entire theory of evolution, and then veered into parallel world speculations you didn’t quite follow. He taps his lips with the tip of his quill. They’re not, you notice, full feathers like in the movies. He actually cuts them much shorter, leaves only a tuft of feather on the far end. You wonder about that, until you realize the trim brings the thing down to about pen length. Huh.

“But if that theory is correct, your people would have had to be on Ay-arth for a significant amount of time. Far beyond even the creation of Toril.”

“Toril?”

He looks up. Blinks. And that’s how you learn Faerun is the name of the continent. The planet is Toril. Neat.

You leave him still muttering. He kind of waves, murmurs a “Thank you, Eleanor. Rest well.” And then he shuffles towards his tent, still reading his notes, quill still tapping his lips and you don’t have the heart to tell him he’s got ink on his fingers.

Shadowheart nods as you approach. “Late night?”

You groan. “I barely even got started. He wants to know everything I do and I been learning for years.”

She hums. Glances to the wizard settling in at a reading desk he probably pulled out of his magic bag. You don’t think he’s going to sleep at all, tonight.

“So you’re a scholar, then?” she says.

“More of a hobby,” you say. “My people got access to a lot of information real casually. I don’t got the brain juice to explain right now, sorry. Though, could I ask you a question?”

Her face is cool in the orange glow of firelight. “That depends on the question.”

You know very little of her, aside from hating Lae’zel, and she’s got jesus hands. Also that she’s got mean girl tendencies.

“That potion and your magic, the healing? Does it speed up, um, blood production? Not the fluids but, like, the bits it carries?”

She holds up a hand. “I’m aware of how blood works and its components; I’ve seen enough of it. And yes, a healing potion or my spells encourage the body to heal any recent injuries; so more than just replacing the water in the blood. Why?”

There’s…a suspicious fucking edge to the last word, there. Ain’t no time to be subtle.

“Feeding the vampire,” you say and fuck it, being honest with doctors makes their job easier, right?

Her suspicion turns scathing. It takes all you got not to squirm.

“Really?” she says.

“It helps him fight,” you say.

“So would a feather bed, yet we’ve all been managing fine without.”

But she didn’t feel the monstrous hunger ripping through her innards. Not more than the barest flash Astarion had let slip during his impromptu group chat.

You been hungry before. It was one of Mother’s favorite lessons, hungering for the grace of the lord. His salvation made physical through the hands of the shepherd he sent to guide the unworthy. Deliverance could only follow punishment, though. As your unclean thoughts or actions separated you from the light and bounty of the lord, so did your physical body have to experience that loss. Plus it left no marks for any outsiders to see and be concerned over.

(raspberry and artificial lemon and the stink of dirt)

(No, there’s no root cellar here.)

It’s an awful feeling. And if your body is fine (and soul firmly tied down) you don’t want to let that carry on. Not if you can do something.

Nobody came to help you. Not for a long, long time. Not until Sasha.

You can do your best to be a Sasha, too.

“Is it gonna hurt me in the long run?” you say.

Shadowheart’s voice is as flat as her expression. “No more than letting a vampire at your throat usually is. Are you sure he didn’t dominate you?”

That word again. It’s enough to break through the nasty turn your thoughts were taking. You wonder if that’s a sex thing in Faerunese, as well in English.

“I am of sound mind, making choices of my own volition,” you say. “I used to do this back home pretty regular. Not with vampires, though; we don’t got them. Donating blood helps people with medical emergencies. And my dad’s side…helping your people is a cultural thing. You go to any of my relatives and you barely get a ‘hi’ outta you before somebody’s asking if you’re hungry and they got food in the kitchen, help yourself. It’s real…people-oriented. Helping each other. Or it is when people are trying to do right, anyway.”

Gale still mutters over his desk. There’s ink stains in his beard, now. You wince, but you’ve committed, and you ain’t gonna out yourself at this point. Let him think nobody noticed and salvage his pride.

“That sounds like a people that can be taken advantage of,” Shadowheart says.

That hits. It’s a subject you get stuck on, too. Maybe if the first people the Spanish and then the English had found had been less generous and more murder-happy, y’all wouldn’t have been decimated by disease and then force-marched off all y’all’s land.

Or maybe your ancestors still would have lost, eventually, and without that caring, y’all would have torn yourselves apart during the chaos that followed. Maybe y’all wouldn’t still be here.

“I helped you on that ship,” you say.

Her frown is a sharp, vicious thing. A razor embedded in a ball of ice. “I believe I’ve already repaid that debt a few times over.”

You hold up your hands. “More than that. I’m not trying to hold that over your head. You’uns are the only reason I’m still alive, so thank you. I’m just saying, people survive better when they work together. I ain’t gonna ask any of you to let him chomp down, I just wanna know if it’s safe for me to volunteer. If it ain’t, I won’t.”

She stares silently for a long moment. So long, you’re sure she’s gonna walk off without giving you an answer.

Only she sighs. Puts her hands on her hips and glares at Astarion’s red tent. “You should be able to manage every three or four days, given you have a potion or someone to cast a lesser restoration spell.”

You look at her. She looks at you.

She throws her hands up. “Alright, fine. Find me in the morning after I’ve had my breakfast. But if he drains you dry, you’d best let everyone else know not to come to me to revivify you.”

The too-tight muscles at the base of your skull relax a tick. There’s one thing off the problems list. Or, well, piled onto your plate. Still, you’re gonna count that as a win because fuck it.

“Thank you,” you say.

“Don’t thank me for this. Ugh. And keep you…feedings to yourselves. I doubt anyone else in camp wants to see that.”

You give her a two-fingered salute and let her begin her patrol.

Finally, you can sleep. Deal with all this tomorrow (when maybe y’all find a demon woman to kill). You’re trudging by the time you make it to your tent—next to Astarion’s; somehow, that’s become the official set up. You hadn’t really noticed before, but they did it even when you died passed out, didn’t they?

“Well?” His voice is smooth and low in the dark. You valiantly try to catch yourself when the startle tangles your feet and you end up plowing into your own tent. The poles creak as the whole things sags under you.

His laughter is high and light. Exactly what you think some fancy boy at a rich bitch party would sound like if the staff dropped a tray of teeny, tiny little pickled fish eggs or roasted peacock asshole or whatever those dipshits eat.

“Fuck you, too,” you say on instinct.

On bad instinct.

“Feeling rather forward this evening are we, darling?” Astarion says. The dick. He’s not actually inside his tent; has plonked himself down all criss-cross applesauce right outside the flap. He sits completely unmoving, the only giveaway the shift in eerie eyeshine as he tilts his head back to regard you.

“Ain’t you just a creeper,” you say.

“A what?” He sounds more amused than insulted.

“Creeper. Some guy lurking all creepy in the fucking dark.”

He ponders that a moment. Then lets out his high, little “ah-ha!” giggle. The firelight catches that predator’s eyeshine again. “Vampire, darling. It rather comes with the territory.”

“I guess.” He’s got a point, goddamnit. “You eavesdropping again?”

“Of course. Especially once I caught that juicy little conversation with our dear cleric.”

You’re so tired. You sway on your feet. Sitting down sounds great, and it’s the polite thing to do, but you know the second your butt touches the dirt, you ain’t getting back up.

“Tomorrow night,” you say. “I’m way too beat right now. But you can feed tomorrow.”

“Oh ~darling~” the man fucking purrs. “I was so hoping you’d say that. I’ll come to you then, when you’re snugly wrapped in your bedroll, and we can have a little privacy. And this time, I’ll make sure I’m quiet. We don’t want to disturb your rest. Later on, when we are at rest, I will eat you right up. Just enough to give me strength and just enough to leave you wishing for more.”

Um.

“Um,” you say. Scratch the back of your head. “I think I’d prefer you don’t come in while I’m asleep?”

So of course he plays right onto that, because he’s a horrible person. The firelight catches his face as it pulls down into a leer. “Prefer to feel my lips on your skin again?”

He can see in the dark better than you, you gathered. Hopefully not enough to catch the wash of heat over your cheeks.

His tongue on your neck. It’s the most intimate you ever been with somebody.

“A strange man slipping in and biting my while I’m asleep, hmm. You do know that’s exactly what I meant when I called you a creeper, right?”

“We’re hardly strangers at this point.”

“I’ve known you a week.”

He seems on the verge of firing something back. Reconsiders. His smile, when it comes, is a touch too composed. “As you like. You’ll wait for me, then? After the others have gone to rest?”

Making it sound like a damn hookup.

You’re honestly too tired to keep up with this pointy-eared dork. “Sure, sure. I’ll wait up for you. Do me a favor, though, and if I do fall asleep, wake me up?”

The reflected glow of his eyes dips as he places a hand over his chest and gives you a seated bow. Maybe it’s your own tired, or maybe (just a little), the teasing is (kinda) fun. But you dip into a fancy bow back. You been itching to do that.

Which lights up his whole face in delight.

“Night,” you say before he can kick off another round of being weird, and you duck into your still-sagging tent.

#feeding alligators fic #these two shitheads #bg3 fic #astarion fic #tavstarion #astarion x tav #plus size tav #demisexual tav #slow burn #like reallllllly slow #isekai #i'm not sorry #bg3 #they're both idiots

14 notes · View notes

arc-misadventures · 1 year

Note

Salem FMK: Jaune, Hazel, Watts

Salem: FMK

Salem: Hmmm… Well this is rather simple really.

Watts: My, Queen. Why are you choosing to play this rather… juvenile game? Surely you have better things to spend your time on.

Salem: Indeed there is, however, playing this game will help you understand my decisions in this matter.

Hazel: And, what matter is that?

Salem: Oh, just a matter of succession issues, nothing you truly need to worry about.

Watts: I can’t help, but worry now.

Hazel: Neither can I…

Salem: So, I would kill, Watts.

Watts: May I ask why, your Grace?

Salem: Sleeping with you sounds like such a bore.

Watts: Ahh?! W-What?!

Salem: You would put it in, pump it until you came, and then leave. You would he so unsatisfying not even a payed, a handsomely paid whore could fake her enjoyment.

Watts: I-I-I…?! What?! Excuse me?!!

Hazel: Ha! I’d buy that.

Watts: Shut up you brut! I’d like to see you do better!

Hazel: Well, I’m not being killed right off the bat, so of course I’m doing better than you.

Salem: Yes, but how much better would you be?

Hazel: What?

Salem: I speculate you would no doubt be a far sight better than, Watts. But, considering out past it would basically be a, ‘Hate Fuck.’

Hazel: E-Excuse me?

Salem: There would be passion, but it would not be a simple, ‘One pump dump,’ scenario. But, where would the desire, the lust, the love be? It would be fun, but it would be a fleeting joy, which is not what I truly desire. No what I truly desire, is you~!

Salem the turned her gaze towards one, Jaune Arc. A sultry, lustful smile spread across her lips, as she stared at him like starving predator. One who was ready to pounce upon its unsuspecting prey, and feast!

One might to be caught in such a gaze by a woman such as, Salem. Woman who has lived for thousands of years, and her pick of women would find this a rather comforting compliment. Except for, Jaune, he did not find this to be complimenting. After all he was currently, bound, and gagged to a chair as he struggled against his bonds.

Jaune: (MmmMmm#%?€!Phhh?!!!)

Watts: Wait, did you bring us here just to explain why you had, Tyrian kidnap this boy?!

Salem: Yes.

Hazel: Ma’am… That’s… That’s messed up.

Watts: Agreed.

Salem: I agree I may have gone… A bit far… But, I assure you I have a valid reason for all of this.

Watts: And, that would be?

Salem snapped her fingers, and the gag around, Jaune’s lips vanished as he spent a moment caough, and spitting as he groaned disgust.

Jaune: Ugh…?! Gods, it was like I was being gagged with black liquorice! Now then… Why am I here, and who the hell are all of you?!

Salem: Those two don’t matter, all that matters right now is you, and me~!

Jaune: Then who are you?!

Salem: Surely, Jaune, you haven’t forgotten about me…?

Jaune: Trust me, Lady…

Jaune gave, Salem the once over again, paying particular attention to her rather, hourglass figure.

Jaune: I would remember seeing a woman like you. But, not for all the reasons you’re thinking off!

Salem: What?! How could you forget me?! Ohh, its because of of my appearance. You are used to something more like… (Snap!) This~?

With a snap of her fingers, Salems magic made her appear with a far more human appearance. One that, Jaune recognized all too well.

Jaune: S-Seline…?!

Salem: While my true name is actually, Salem. It is still I, Seline, your wife to…!!

Jaune: WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!!

Salem: …

Salem To be…

Jaune: Well, where have you been?!

Salem: I’ve been… busy…

Jaune: Busy with what?!

Salem: Stuff…

Jaune: GrrrRRRR!

Salem: I don’t see why you’re so upset, I thought you would be happy to see me?

Jaune: Oh, I am over the moon seeing you again, Seline… Uhhh… Salem. I really am. But, I would have preferred if you just dropped by our home like you used to; Instead of you kidnapping me?!

Watts: Uhh… My lady, how do you know this boy…?

Salem: On a whim I decided to save his mother; As a thanks for that, she promised me her first born son as my husband when he came of age.

Watts: So you had us collect him, as some sort of life debt?

Salem: That, and well… So he wouldn’t freak out, and run away from me when he saw me like… that…

Jaune: Is that seriously why you stopped coming by…?

Salem: It was… I was worried that you wouldn’t like me once you say the real me…

Jaune: Ohhh, Salem… I don’t care that you look like that. I just wanted you back in our… Back in my life. I missed you, Salem. I missed you so much it hurt.

Salem: Oh, Jaune…

Jaune: But, if that was your reasoning then I’m mad as hell! You worried me half to death! I thought that, Ozma guy finally found a way to put you down, you being immortal, and all.

Salem: How do you know that?!

Jaune: Mom say’s you have pretty lose lips when you’re drunk.

Salem: Juniper…! Oh, you’re going to get it now!

Jaune: Hey! Don’t talk to your mom like that!

Salem: My mom? What are you talking about?

Jaune: I’m going to marry you, so she’s going to become your mother-in-law. Duhh.

Salem: W-Wait! It’s just a game we’re not actually getting married… R-Right…?

Jaune: Listen, I don’t know what mom was thinking when she promised you her first born son. Honestly, I think it for the best that I don’t know. But, I do know I want to marry you, Salem.

Salem: Y-You do?

Jaune: Since I was a kid. Granted I didn’t really understand what, marriage, or love was. But, I’ve had years to think about this, Salem, and I love you with all my heart, body, and soul. I was devastated when you didn’t show up after being a part of my life for all those years.

Salem: Oh, Jaune…

Jaune: So, with all of that in mind, and more. I want to marry you, Salem; I want to have you by my side for the rest of my life until the day I die. I want to bask in the warmth, and joy our presence will bring one another. I want to have a large family, where they will stay with their mother, shower her, in love and affection even long after I am gone. So, Salem, will you marry me?

Tears fell down the immortal witch’s eyes at the bounds that bound, Jaune were loosened, and he was lifted into, Salem’s warm embrace.

Salem: Yes… Yes, Jaune I will marry you.

Jaune: Oh, how long have I wished to hear those words from you, my Witch~!

Salem: So have I, my Valiant Knight~!

And, with these words, a long, and over due first kiss was shared between the two as the melted into one another’s embrace. All the while, Hazel, and Watts watched on as tears fell down their eyes at the beautiful scene before them.

Watts: That was beautiful!

Hazel: I haven’t cried like this in years.

As the duo broke their kiss, Salem sighed happily as she rested her head against his. Jaune enjoyed her warm embrace as she stared lovingly into her eyes. But, as he stared into those blue eyes of her’s, a wicked, and devious smile spread across her lips as she gazed upon him.

Salem: You know~? Since we already agreed to it, why don’t the two of us consummate the marriage; Now doesn’t that sound like fun~?

Jaune: Oh it does~! But, no; We’re not doing that!

Salem: What, why?!

Jaune: Pay back for making me think you forgot about me!

Salem: It was only a few years, what’s the big deal?

Jaune: Ten years may seem short to you, but it was a decent chunk of my life! So, you ain’t getting any until after the wedding, that we are having back home with the rest of my family!

Salem: Ffffffine! Fine, I’ll do that…

Jaune: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Salem: Not like you a useless virgin knows what to do with it anyway…

Jaune: What was that…?

Salem: I said; ‘Not like you, a silly little virgin would know what to do with it!’

Jaune: I’m not a virgin.

Salem: You’re not?!

Jaune: Nope.

Salem: When the hell did that happen.

Jaune: Couple of months after I turned sixteen.

Salem: What kind of skank did you sleep with?!

Jaune: The woman who will be your sister-in-law. Saphron’s wife, Terra Cotta Arc.

Salem: You slept with your sister-in-law??

Jaune: She wanted a child, they wanted it to be an, Arc. So I help them.

Salem: You knocked up your sister-in-law??

Watts: The plot thickens.

Hazel: I don’t think we should be here anymore.

Jaune: Hey! It was a mutual agreement. Among other things~!

Salem: But, you slept with your sister?!

Jaune: Hey! I’m an, Arc, we don’t, ‘sleep’ with woman.

Salem: W-What…? What does that even mean?

Jaune: We, Arc’s fuck woman!

Salem: Excuse me?

Jaune: When I enter you for the first time, it will feel like I just popped your cherry!

Salem: J-Jaune?! W-What happened to the sweet little boy, and his toy trains?!

Jaune: Then, when we really get at it, you forget that man was ever inside you.

Salem: W-W-What?!

Jaune: And, when were done, you’ll look like you’re three months pregnant, and begging for more…

Salem: You’re kidding! This is just teenage bravados talking, none of this is real!

Jaune: And, what if I say it is real, very real indeed. So, what are you going to do about it; Are you going to say its a lie, or do you want to embrace reality, and bathe in blinding pleasure, and unbridled lust~?

Salem: …

Salem: WATTS?!!

Watts: Y-Yes… My, Queen…?

Salem: You’re in charge of the castle, I’ll let you know when the wedding is being held. Bye!

And, with that, she shoved her fiancé onto a Nevermore, and flew away to, Jaune’s home town for the wedding. All the while, Hazel, and Watts watched on with wide eyed, and utter confused minds. They stare at one another before shrugging their shoulders, and headed inside.

Somethings were simply best not to think about in the end.

///

Well… This went places…

I regret nothing…

Enjoy~!

#rwby #jaune arc #arthur watts #hazel reinhart #rwby salem #rwby ozma #terra cotta arc #juniper arc #jaune x salem #salem x jaune #terra x jaune #jaune x terra #rwby grimmknight #tyrian callows #saphron cotta arc

148 notes · View notes

specialagentlokitty · 10 months

Text

Mr Evershed x Teen!reader - avoid the rules

Hello! Would you please like to write an Evershed x Student Reader story where his own kid sells the solutions to the upcoming exams to the classmates? And Mister Evershed find it out somehow... - Anon💜

You were the complete opposite of your dad, while he was honest, calm, caring and by the book, you were far from that.

You were cunning, sly, snarky and you will cut any corners you can to get to know where you need to be.

And that’s what you were doing right now.

Standing behind the school, you looked at the student in front of you.

“Look, you want to do this you need to know if I going down am dragging you down with me.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“That’s business my friend, call it insurance really. If you tag me out we both go down, you rat me out for selling these you’re coming down with me for wanting to buy it.”

“As long as I don’t buy it I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“You already looked at it.” You winked.

The student sighed and handed over the ten pound note to you and you beamed, handing him the answer sheet.

“And you’re sure this is the right one?”

“Course I am, now scram.”

The student nodded and you beamed, closing your bag, you stuffed the money with the rest of the money into the liner of your blazer.

You knew all the answers to the incoming exams, and you were making a profit selling it to other people.

Grinning happily to yourself, you went to sit on your favourite bench, and you happily scrolled through your phone looking for something to do to pass the time until the end of the day.

You heard someone walking over so you looked up and pocketed your phone with a smile.

“Yo dad.”

He pointed at you.

“My office. Now.” He said lowly.

Raising a brow, you shrugged and followed him to his office and he closed the door and the blinds.

“If this is about me eating your breakfast I would say sorry but you left it unattended and that’s just not safe.”

“Bag.”

You furrowed your brows a little more but tossed it over and he dumped everything on his desk.

“Where are they?”

“Where are what?”

“The exam answers you’re selling! What’re you playing at?!”

“I’m not!”

“Mr Hyatt heard you through his window talking about selling them! Where’s the money you made?”

“I didn’t do anything!” You huffed.

“Do you know how serious this is! Not only can you get expelled but all those students could fail their exams!”

You sighed, stuffing your hands into your pockets as you looked at him.

“They knew that when they brought them, I told em.”

Mr Evershed sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he paced back and forth in front of his desk.

“What the hell were you thinking (Y/N)?! This isn’t some game!”

You shrugged again.

“So what if I sold a few things? Don’t matter anyway, half them answers are wrong.”

“What?”

“Jesus dad do you think I’m stupid enough to give people the whole answers? That would raise too much suspicion. It’s designed to give people an average passing grade.”

“That doesn’t make this any better! Oh my god why didn’t your mum tell me you’d do this…”

“Cause she’s the one who taught me how to do it…”

“Seriously?”

You shrugged a little and he held out his hand.

“Money, now.”

Sighing, you walked over and put some money in his hand, and he set it aside and held it out again.

“All of it.”

“Fine.”

You handed him some more.

“I’m not playing with you.”

“Okay. Okay. I’m seriously this is all of it.”

Reaching your hand around the back of your blazer you pulled out the rest of the money and handed it over to him.

“Now you’re going to give me the name of all those students.”

“I can’t, buyer privacy and all that ya know?”

He pointed to the sofa and you walked over sitting down, and he sat down on a chair on the other side of the table.

He clasped his hands together and sighed.

“(Y/N) this is really serious okay? You could be expelled, banned from taking the exams, this could ruin your whole future. I thought your mum sent you here to stop you doing this?”

“Uhm no. She sent me here because I got expelled from my last school for doing this.”

“That’s not in your file.”

“Well they said I was expelled but she withdrew me before they could do anything so technically speaking my file would say I was withdrawn from the school.”

“I’m trying to help you here, please give me the names before this gets any worse.”

“Fine. Okay.”

You gave him a list of all the students you had given the papers too, and he wrote them all down, quickly emailing all the teachers to send those students to resolve.

He then walked back over and sat in front of you.

“I’m going to have to suspend you for this behaviour.”

You nodded your head.

“I get you may not care about this, but I do. I don’t want to see you ruin your education because you thought it would be a great idea to sell the answers to people (Y/N).”

“I’m sorry, I’ve just been doing this for a while.”

“Why do you do it?”

You shrugged a little.

“I have a knack for business.”

“The wrong kind of business. You’re such a smart kid sweetheart, I just don’t understand how you always manage to get on the wrong side of the rules.”

“It… is an active choice.”

“I can tell, and this active choice you’re making needs to stop. So, phone.”

You handed it over.

“And your other phone.”

You handed that over.

“You’re going to sit here for the rest of the day, you’re suspended for two weeks but you will be coming in with me so I can keep an eye on you, and your grounded. You can have your phone back only when you’re at home.”

“Okay…”

You leant back on the sofa and rested your head back on it.

“If you do this again I have to tell the exam board, you understand right?”

“Why don’t you tell em now if you’re such a stickler for the rules?”

Mr Evershed sighed.

“Because I want to give you a chance to do the right thing (Y/N). I want to give you a second chance. The rules are there for a reason, you can’t just keep going around breaking them.”

“Rules are meant to be broken.”

“Rules are there to protect us.”

You shrugged a little and he sighed, walking over he poked your forehead and you smiled a little.

“If you’re angry at me that’s fine, but I’m doing this for your own good.”

You reached up and flicked his forehead.

“I know. But I’m still mad at you, so go away so I can sulk about it.”

“Your a big baby.”

“And the big baby wants to sulk so go.”

He laughed a little and nodded his head, walking out of the room to go deal with all of the other students.

You worried him sometimes with your lack of regard for the rules and you active engagement to break them as much and as fast as you could

#ackley bridge #ackley bridge imagine #ackley bridge x reader #ackley bridge x you #mr evershed imagine #mr evershed #mr evershed x you #mr evershed x reader

31 notes · View notes

vampkitty66 · 1 year

Text

2023 Spring Anime Season: My Thoughts Thus Far

Yamada-kun at Lv999

Disclaimer!! These are just my opinions

Status: Currently Ongoing

Starting off we have Yamada-kun at Lv999. I will say after watching the first two episodes I immediately picked up the manga. It currently only has five episodes, and the final episode will be the thirteenth. This follows Akane, a college student who recently got dumped by her boyfriend for a girl he met in a online game they both used to play together. Wanting to make him jealous, she attends an event for the online game knowing that he’ll be there and meets a boy named Yamada. Yamada helps Akane out after she tripped and her ex boyfriend spots them together. Turns out her ex is a big fan of Yamada’s, and in an attempt to make her ex jealous she bribes Yamada to say that they are dating each other. Since I am a shoujo lover myself, I felt super drawn to this series because it feels nostalgic. I think the characters are likeable and despite their age gap ( although I don’t find it a big deal as its only two years apart ) their relationship is healthy. Really enjoying it so far, I think its refreshing to see a romance anime nowadays with little to no fan service. If you haven't, I highly suggest picking up the manga.

Hells Paradise

Status: Currently Ongoing

Completing the “Dark trio” we have Hells Paradise, I preface that I have not read the manga. With only five episodes so far, I've got to say that this might be one of the best watches for me this season. Mappa has really outdone themselves in my opinion, the animation is crazy. The story follows Gabimaru the Hollow who was captured and sentenced to death. With him practically being invincible, Sagiri, his executioner, gave him an opportunity to be pardoned. To be able to be pardoned he and other death row convicts have to find the elixir of life. I think the story is fantastic and the characters are all interesting. I’m really excited to see what comes next as the series continues, and we’ve already seen some development in some of the characters, as well as some of the backstories. Waiting for my girl Sagiri to be an absolute badass and prove everyone who doubts her wrong. Also just got to say that the opening song is fire and its been on repeat for me.

Skip And Loafer

Status: Currently Ongoing

Skip And Loafer, another romance anime with only five episodes so far (its very exciting to have so many wholesome animes come out this year) This one also feels like a very nostalgic shoujo, but its in fact a sienen. This one is based in high school and it follows Mitsumi Iwakura, a girl who lived on the countryside her whole life. Iwakura attends high school in Tokyo and even though she thinks everything will go smoothly, it turns out to be quite the opposite. Watching this made me cringe so hard not even going to lie, its awkward and goofy but that’s also what I like about it. Despite having to throw my phone to the other side of the bed because of the awful secondhand embarrassment I got, I'm definitely going to continue watching it.

Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Dukes Mansion

Status: Currently Ongoing

This was originally a manhwa that got adapted into an anime. I have not read the manhwa so I can’t base anything off of it, but so far I'm enjoying it. It follows Raeliana who was originally Park Eunha who had died in the real world and woke up to be Raeliana. The world that she is in as Raeliana is based off a novel she had read in her previous life, so lucky for her, she knows what's to come. There were a lot of isekai animes this season and to be honest, this is the only one I've watched. This seemed like an interesting concept, I don’t watch or read too many isekai series because a lot of them feel the same and I find some of them boring but maybe I should give it more of a chance? I digress, I like most of the main characters so far and if I were her, I’d totally jump on the duke bandwagon. The animation is a little iffy but I can look past it, overall I don’t have that many complaints about it.

Honorable Mention

Oshi No Ko

Contains spoilers!!

Status: Ongoing

Note: This is an absolute mess of a review oops

Okay so I’ve only watched the first episode so far (I think there's two or three now??) The first episode was like an hour long and it was a lot. We start off meeting the two main characters in the hospital, the little girl and the doctor. We see Ai on tv and to be honest does no one else find it weird that the doctor is like obsessed with a teen idol? Yes I know its because of the little girl, she was his patient and she died blah blah blah. I just find it a little odd... I don't know, it’s fine, moving on. Ai is pregnant and the doctor gets assigned to her, turns out shes having twins and on the night that she is supposed to deliver, the doctor gets pushed and dies. The doctor and his little girl patient gets reincarnated as her twins but they are fully aware of their previous lives. So now a 12 year old girl and a 20 something year old man are Ai’s twins. Also forgot to mention, didn’t the doctor say something sus to the little girl before she died because didn’t she want to marry him??? Honestly I forget, anyways, fast forward the twins, Aqua and Ruby, get older throughout the episode. Ai has been doing her idol shit and what not and Aqua also dabbles into acting a bit. Ruby is dancing or something and all is swell until it all turned to shit. Ai is I think 20 years old now? There's someone who comes to the door and she opens it, he then stabs her and she dies. Oh and she finally tells her kids that she loves them. The episode is almost over at this point, Aqua asks this one guy to raise him or something and Aqua pretty much figures out that his dad hired someone to kill his mom so he’s in his revenge era now. This was a whole mess but its fine. I liked the characters designs a lot, I thought they were really pretty. I have some problems with this anime but I think I might continue to watch it and then do a whole review on it. Still baffled on how people claimed that this was the best first episode they've seen ( even topped aot ) I think it was a good episode don’t get me wrong and I liked the animation style and there were cute moments but I don’t think it was the best first episode I've seen. Ai’s song was fire though, I will say that.

#anime #anime review #anime recommendation #manhwa #2023 anime #spring anime 2023 #yamada kun to lv999 no koi wo suru #hells paradise #skip and loafer #why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion #oshi no ko #isekai #shoujo #sienen #shounen #the dark trio #romance anime

21 notes · View notes

girlishful · 2 years

Text

Get Away — stay stay stay.

pairings :: football team captain!haechan x y/n

genre :: angst?, jealousy, y/n being dramatic basically, best friends to lovers

warnings :: mentions of cheating

parts :: this is a part two. read part one.

notes :: haechan is an original character on here with a different name — heston heath van lennartz.

“YOU COULD’VE JUST TELL ME IF YOU WANTED US TO BREAK UP!” You yelled with your phone swinging right at Heston’s way, luckily he ducked right on time for it to hit the wall instead of his face.

The fight has been going on for 15 minutes and you finally let out the big urged you wanted to let out of your chest.

He glared at you, anger clearly shown in his eyes but he remained calm, mannered though his fingernails felt like they were piercing right through the skin of his fists.

“YOU COULD’VE TOLD ME. You could’ve called.. and-“

“My phone is dead. Coach kept us for practice til late because we’ve got to win the next game. I went straight to you after he dismissed us. Will you please calm down and listen.” He said sternly, cutting you off.

“Which part of me, that you assumed went missing, went off to dumping you? I don’t get it.” Heston shook his head in disbelief.

You sighed, hot tears streaming down your face as you put your palm on your forehead, looking everywhere but the pair of eyes preying your every move, trying to catch on what will come out of her lips next.

“You could’ve texted me about it first..” you whispered.

“I would’ve told you if my phone’s battery didn’t run out…” Heston sighed, trying to ease the heated atmosphere down.

“I would’ve told you if coach wasn’t yelling at our faces that we needed to do better so we could win the upcoming game. I couldn’t even glance at my drink babe, you know how coach is, and you knew about the game.. what happened?”

He walked slowly towards his girlfriend. He understood why you’re swinging in this mood, every student in the campus are as busy and occupied by so many things to be productive about, including him and yourself, finals are near anyway.

You looked up at him, your fingernails being unconsciously bitten down. Shit, you thought to yourself. Oh there you were again, it was clearly your head playing games on you, persuasively leading you to believe that you’re not enough for him, maybe you’re not worth to be loved.

This is Heston Heath van Lennartz. The captain of the school’s football team. Your bestfriend. Every other girls’ dream-come-true. Why you?

Heston stopped his steps right in front of his girlfriend. The top of your head right at the bottom of his chin. He smiled to himself, knowing damn well what gotten into you. She needs constant reassurance and I would give her the world for her to understand why I chose her, we’ve come this far, she’s my bestfriend and I’ve loved her since the first day, I’m not going to stop now, he said to himself.

“Baby,” He started. Bending down to scan your embarrassed and sad face. He pulled your chin up slowly so you would finally look at him. Your eyes teary. “Can we make up now, please?”

He spread his arms open so he could embrace you into his arms slowly, before attempting to change the topic “have you had your meal?”

“I’m sorry i shouldn’t have yelled at you.. i lost it, i- no one knew where you were somehow, and i freaked out, i thought something else happened.” You cried into his chest, your fingers crumpling his shirt, holding him near you as if he wasn’t close enough.

Heston nodded “I’m sorry too for making you worry, I should’ve informed you in the morning.” The lengths of his arms around your waist tightened, making you shift your balance in between his long limbs. You sighed and nodded. Heston chuckled, knowing the very look that is plastered on your face right now, glancing down at the top of your head before teasing you, “did you miss me?”

“No.” You shook your head instantly, already knowing what your boyfriend is up to.

“You just don’t ever want to lose me, don’t you?”

You shook your head again. This time, he shifted his balance.

“No?! As in no i’m wrong and you’d want to lose me or-“

You pulled away from the hug to look him in the eye and confessed “No. I don’t want to lose you, like ever.”

He looked at you with a slight pout on his bottom lip, maybe asking for a small peck, but was then rejected when you continued. “I’ve been loving you for quiet some time…” you whispered and snuggled yourself again, resting your head on the crook of his neck to feel more of his warm, “please stay. Stay forever.”

Heston smiled and kissed the top of your head, “I will, sweetheart.”

160 notes · View notes

the-sparrow-sings · 2 years

Note

REGARDING THE CORRUPTION POST-- YOU GET IT!!!!!! YES THAT'S EXACTLY IT

AHH THANK YOU FOR MESSAGING ME ABOUT IT!! I WAS GOING TO MAKE A POST DELVING DEEPER INTO IT BUT I GOT DISTRACTED

Okay so these are my tags for those who haven’t seen them on @floating-goblin-art ‘s beautiful post about Reaver hiding horns under his hat(link added for those who haven’t seen the art I’m referring to)

But yeah context given, I need to Brain Dump about this after doing a little more thinking, because it makes SENSE!!

There are a LOT of characters who should have more evidence of corruption in Fable 2 with how easy it is for Sparrow’s appearance to change (admittedly it’s hard to necessarily say who has hero blood, and it IS possible that the whole horns thing was meant to just be an Archon blood thing, but there are characters who we go up against that in my opinion most likely have Hero Blood—like Dash, the Bandit who claims to be “The Fastest Man Alive”, and the Cult Leader who you can kill to protect Oakfield)

However, if we assume that Morality in Fable (2, at least) is NOT judged by an otherworldly being, but the values of an individual and their lifestyle personally, it would make more sense that they don’t end up sprouting horns or glowing cracks in their skin even when the narrative clearly shows them as villainous. Sparrow on the other hand, we know grew up on stories of Heroism that Rose made up for them until her death, and that they FINISHED growing up under Theresa’s guidance and training for the explicit purpose of getting vengeance upon Lucian. The specific types of things that raise CORRUPTION(not Evil) in Fable 2 relate VERY well to the base of Sparrow as they’re shown in game and that fascinates me.

It’s been a while since I’ve played, but if I remember correctly the biggest “Corrupting” influences in Fable 2 are 1: Rich Foods and Alcohol, and 2: Raising Rent Prices. The rent prices specifically are a betrayal of who Sparrow was as a child—they grew up on the streets before Theresa took them in, to raise the rent and further impoverish families is not only a shitty thing to do, but it’s SPECIFICALLY shitty from the perspective of Sparrow’s childhood. The food is fascinating as well, because when I first played the game I thought “Well this is kind of fucked up” from the perspective of disordered eating, but I don’t think it’s ACTUALLY about the Food and Alcohol itself—this may be a reach, but I suspect that the reason cooked foods(and alcohol in general) raise corruption is that they represent slowing down to enjoy life, as opposed to remaining staunchly devoted to The Mission™️ and avenging Rose.

Theresa reminds us throughout the narrative that Sparrow has a PURPOSE. I suspect that betrayals of that purpose are what cause corruption, since I don’t think we get any corruption when we perform Evil acts in The Spire.

As far as Reaver goes, he as a character REPRESENTS the things that are Corruption for Sparrow, and yet he’s beautiful(narratively speaking, regardless of personal opinion, though I obviously agree. ALSO it’s fascinating that Sparrow gains Evil but no corruption for carrying out the sacrifice on the girl in the Shadow Court). This makes sense because Reaver himself feels no remorse for the drinking and the killing and the hedonistic enjoyment of his life—he feels guilt over Oakvale, but that was centuries ago, and he hadn’t known the cost when he made his deal. In truth, I actually think failing to ENJOY his long life would be corruption to Reaver, because if he’s not enjoying his life than everyone he ever knew in Oakvale died in vain.

That makes me think that in Fable 3 (which has no corruption mechanic, but I’m getting more into Lore territory than actual mechanics) Reaver HAS failed to enjoy himself. Reaver’s betrayed the man he’s spent CENTURIES as by trying to erase all history of his Piracy. This is my opinion, but Reaver in Fable 2 seemed much more ALIVE and overall pleased with life than he does in Fable 3. In Fable 2, we saw that most people Reaver rubbed shoulders with were other Pirate types and in general grittier people, where as in Fable 3 he’s surrounded by rich idiots (and also Balverines, but these Balverines are also very likely rich idiots)

This may just be the unrepentant Spreaver shipper in me—but I do feel as though it may have something to do with Sparrow’s death. I have a hard time wondering what else could have been significant enough to have him suddenly and brutally erase his history as Pirate King.

#asktag #fable 2 #fable2 #fable reaver #fable 3 #fable 2 reaver #fable 3 reaver

59 notes · View notes

ladylooch · 7 months

Text

Letters in Your Last Name - Chapter 34

A/N: Another time jump! Also, I still love the smut in this chapter. Also, the moment in their bedroom together before the game. That's the good stuff 🤌🏻

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: SMUT 18+ Content, dreaming big dreams as a wild fan ☠️

Minnesota Wild head to their first ever Stanley Cup Final Berth. Fiala scores twice in Game 3 win over Bruins. See You In St. Paul: Wild force Game 7 against Boston.

The kids and I are playing in the back yard while Kevin takes his pre-game nap. This will be the last one of the season. Tonight, is game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final at the Xcel Energy Center. I watch as Luca rushes next to Lacey at the portable water table. He sweetly shows his little sister how to scoop the water with the buckets. Lacey giggles excitedly as Luca dumps the water back into the table, making the water splash onto her face.

“Is that fun, baby?” I ask her, smiling at her big grin.

To anyone looking into our backyard, we look like a normal family enjoying a warm summer day. However, we are anything but that. Tonight is the biggest game of our family’s hockey life. The series against the Boston Bruins has been a battle from the first puck drop. Both teams are evenly matched across the board and every mistake must be capitalized on. The Wild have switched off wins each game so far this series. To say it has been stressful to watch would be an understatement. Kevin has handled the series well. He’s playing some of his best hockey and he has certainly been the most electric I’ve ever seen him in his career. Truthfully, I think it helps to have the kids around for a distraction from the seriousness of it all.

My phone begins to buzz in my hand and I look down, seeing Lauren Hartman’s name flash on my screen.

“Hi!” I answer.

“Oh my god. Tell me you’re as antsy as me about this game.” She groans.

“Definitely.” I confirm with her. “Kevin is taking his nap right now and I have no idea how he is able to sleep. I don’t think I’ve slept well since the series has started.”

“Ryan is too! Meanwhile, I’m resisting the urge to do tequila shots in the middle of the day.”

“Hey, it might help.”

“Probably except with my luck I’d end up passing out through the game. What are you wearing tonight? I’m struggling with what will bring the most luck.”

“Not sure yet, but probably something that goes with our jackets for the playoffs.” Each playoff season, the WAGS order a few articles of new swag to wear to support the team. This year, we picked a black leather jacket with the last name and number stitched on the back in forest green. Sparkly jewels line the outline of the stitching to make the lettering pop.

“Oh! Good call… Now I just have to figure out jeans and shoes….”

I look over at Luca and Lacey, noticing immediately at how tired they both are. Lacey is getting whiney and Luca is rubbing at his eyes more and more with each passing minute. I know if I don’t get them out of their suits and into bed soon, a meltdown will be imminent.

“Laur, I gotta go. Kids are hitting their limits. I’ll see you tonight though!” I click the end button and stand, walking towards the kids. “I see some tired babies.” I murmur, kneeling between them.

“I want to nap with daddy.” Luca tells me with a pout. He’s a little old to be napping, but with the late night we have, it’s necessary for him to at least rest.

“Not today, baby.” I smooth his dark locks from his forehead and give him a soft smooch. “Daddy needs to sleep well for the game tonight. I bet he will snuggle with you tomorrow to make up for it.” I nuzzle my nose into his neck before swinging Lacey up into my arms. She settles into me immediately. Her wet hair tickles my face as I reach for Luca’s hand, leading both of them into the kitchen to dry off.

When I enter our bedroom after putting both Luca and Lacey in their rooms, Kevin is up. He is moving quietly around our bedroom, putting on his tie, then his suit pants. He seems lost in thought, so I’m not sure if he even notices that I’m here with him.

“You look great.” I tell him. His head snaps to me quickly, confirming he had no idea I was with him. He tilts one side of his mouth into a quick smile.

“Thanks,” He says simply, moving around me to the bathroom. He grabs his hair gel and rubs it between his hands before he rushes his fingers through his hair. My lips tilt into a smile at how damn good he looks. How lucky am I?

“How are you doing?” I ask. Normally, I wouldn’t press much but the butterflies are dive bombing the walls of my stomach right now and it feels harder to avoid it than face it head on.

“Fine.” He responds, grabbing his cologne and spraying a few spritzes onto his body. He washes his hands quickly, then fixes a stray tendril of his hair that keeps trying to dip back to his forehead.

“At least you can shave your face tomorrow.” I say, trying to break the tension I see in his body. As is customary in the playoffs, the Wild players have all been growing facial hair since the beginning of the post-season. Whether it really brings them luck is up for debate. But hockey players are knowingly superstitious, so it’s best not to bring up the validity of the tradition.

“Yeah, that will be nice.” He murmurs as our eyes meet in the mirror.

Silence consumes our room as he adjusts his tie and tugs the ends of his dress shirt down towards his wrists. All of his shirts and suits are custom made to fit him perfectly. There is something about watching him get ready for games that always makes my heart flutter in response. I step towards him and wrap my arms around him, resting my head against his back. He places his hands on the bathroom counter and we stay like that for several moments. I struggle with coming up with words to say to him. I’m so nervous I could puke. I can’t imagine how he feels right now.

“Luca said to tell you good luck.” I finally say, breaking the silence and glancing at him in the mirror. Kevin smiles in response.

“I love that kid.” Kevin tells me, turning so he is holding me to his chest. “My favorite son, for sure.” He jokes with me, kissing my lips softly before stepping out of the bathroom.

I watch as he puts his shoes on and his cuff links before he pulls his suit jacket over his broad shoulders. I walk over to him as he buttons the jacket. He turns to me and I reach for him, smoothing his jacket down anxiously. He hands me his tie clip and I secure it to his dress shirt perfectly in the center.

“I think you’re ready now.” I whisper. I bite my lip as I feel the tears pinching at my eyes. This moment. Everything he has worked for. I’m overcome with the emotions of it all coming to a crescendo tonight. What if they win? What if they don’t? I gulp back the lump in my throat and push a happy grin onto my face.

“I have to go.” Kevin advises me. His eyes search my face but I’m not sure what he is looking for.

“Yeah, okay.” I step to the side so he can walk around me to grab his watch. He comes back to me and gives me a soft, sweet kiss. He rests his forehead against mine as our eyes stay closed. “Good luck.” There are so many more words I want to say, but I know now isn’t the time.

“I’ll see you after.” He tells me, giving my hand a squeeze before he begins to leave. The reality settles between us that the next time we see each other, the game will be over. He may or may not be a Stanley Cup Champion.

“Kev.” I call to him just as he steps into the door frame of our bedroom.

“Yeah babe?”

“No matter what happens tonight… we love you.” Kevin, who is still working on strapping his watch to his wrist, stills. His brown eyes melt and he sighs, walking back over to where I’m standing. He gathers me into his arms and breathes in deeply while we hug. I squeeze him one last time before we part.

“I love you.” He says simply before he walks out of the bedroom and into the greatest moment of his career. _ _ _

Overtime in Game 7 with the Stanley Cup in the building has got to be the most intense anxiety I’ve ever experienced. Yet, here we are. After 60 minutes of battle, the score couldn’t be decided and the game needs extra minutes to determine this years’ champion.

I watch intently as the Bruins cycle the puck in the Wild zone. I feel antsy watching, knowing that if the puck doesn’t get out soon, this likely won’t end well for our tired defensemen. Kevin is on the ice; his positioning is perfect defending at the point. I watch as the Bruins defenseman winds up for a slap shot and it hits Kevin’s shin pads, bounding back into the neutral zone. The biggest mistake- one that defensemen will see when he closes his eyes for the remainder of his career.

“Kev!” I gasp, watching as Kevin flies forward towards the puck. The Bruins defenseman has reacted, but too slow. Soon, it’s just Kevin and the goalie as he darts down the ice on an obvious break away. “Kev.” I say again quietly, almost begging.

Everything seems to slow. I put my hand to my chest and hold my breath watching as he locks eyes on the net. The arena is buzzing with excitement as he moves the puck off the boards and heads closer to the center. He stick handles once more to change the angle at the last minute. He flicks his wrists and snipes the puck into the top, left hand corner of the net. My heart lurches into my throat as I watch the white twine snap in response to the puck.

“Yes!” I scream as the horn blares and the fans roar. “Oh my god! Oh my god!” I jump up and down, reaching for Laura as we both celebrate. The noise in the arena is deafening as everyone yells in disbelief and celebration. I pull away from her and turn, watching as the Wild bench clears rushing to Kevin. Helmets, gloves, and sticks litter the entire ice as they pile together in the corner. Kevin disappears from view while sobs clutch my chest in suffocating heaves. He did it.

“Mama!” Luca yells from behind me, his eyes wide and his face scrunched up in response to the noise.

“It’s okay baby!” I say to him. “I know it’s loud. Daddy won!” I kneel down and hold him tight, trying to gasp for air around the incredible excitement and overwhelm for Kevin. My lips press to Luca’s cheeks and he buries his face into my side as I stand again.

“The Minnesota Wild are your Stanley Cup Champions!” The announcer yells as confetti falls into the general seating area. I laugh in response, tilting my head back and feeling the paper settle into my hair. Kevin just won the Stanley Cup. He is finally a Stanley Cup Champion.

“Everything is okay.” I say to Luca again. I turn and see Laura holding Lacey who is watching with wide eyes like her brother. I turn back to the rink and point down to the ice where Kevin is still being mobbed. “Let’s look for daddy.” I tell Luca as I pull him onto my hip. He’s gotten so big it’s hard to hold him up here, but he needs the comfort. It’s so loud. I’m grateful for the baby headphones both of the kids are wearing. Eventually, the Wild players pull apart from one pile and focus on giving hugs all around. I see Kevin and Luca points excitedly. “Wave, bubba!” I tell him as Kevin looks our way. He searches for us and when he finds us his eyes brighten and his smile somehow gets even wider.

“Woo!!” I yell to him, bouncing with Luca who puts his hands in the air. I blow him a kiss as tears fill my eyes and stream down my face. Everything he has ever worked for has lead to this moment. I can barely breathe with the pride I have for him. The long-time Minnesota sports fan in me also can’t quite believe what just happened.

Quickly, the red carpet is rolled onto the ice and the Stanley Cup makes it’s long awaited arrival onto the Xcel Energy Center ice to the roaring applause of the State of Hockey. I beam with pride as I watch Kevin clap his hands and yell along with the fans. Ryan Hartman wraps him into a tight hug again and they both laugh. It’s a hug filled with history- from Nashville to Minnesota to Stanley Cup champions. I glance down the row at Lauren and we grin at each other. Then, a round of boos greet the commissioner as he begins his introduction.

Matt Boldy comes in next, joining the hug until Ryan breaks away. Matt and Kevin embrace. The hug is tight, clasping each other like the brothers they have turned into. Matt changed our lives on and off the ice. I can’t imagine not having him here to celebrate this with.

“Uncle Matty.” Luca points excitedly at me.

“Yeah, baby. Uncle Matty and daddy.” I press my nose into his hair, hiding my large grin. Matt says something to Kevin, who points in our direction. Matt’s eyes lock on me and I give him a fist pump.

“Proud of you!” I mouth to him. His boyish grin fills as he waves in acknowledgement.

“Joel Ericksson Ek, it is my honor to present to you the Stanley Cup.” Joel skates forward and after a moment to pause for pictures, he grabs it in both hands and lifts it high into the sky. The crowd roars and I sob happily in response watching it all unfold. This moment of greatness not just for our family but for this entire state. I yell and cheer holding Luca to me as he buries his face in my shoulder again. I rub his back soothingly, watching as Joel skates his lap. When he is done, he sets his eyes on Kevin and I know it’s his turn next.

My husband grips the edges in both hands and thrusts it above his head while laughing through a wide smile. His excited yelp is drowned out by the sound of the fans. Tears fall down my face as we yells back to him in response. I bite my quivering lip as he skates closer to us, giddy in response to seeing us cheer for him. He brings it to his lips and kisses it before skating back towards his teammates. Laura snaps away pictures of her brother and then turns the camera on me to capture my teary mess of a face.

“Congratulations! This is yours too.” She tells me confidently. “All the sacrifices we have all had to make for this. It’s ours.” She nods at me and I agree.

The countless hours his parents spent driving him places. The terror and hopefulness of allowing their teenage son to move to a different country to find competition that challenged him. A sister who continuously understood that Kevin’s games came first. A wife and mother who rocked both her kids to sleep alone while her husband was out on a 14 day road trip. All the nights I fell asleep gripping his pillow, wishing it was him. Laura is right; this is ours.

Soon, team representatives are next to our section, ushering us up the stairs and down the elevators so we can join our boys on the ice. Kevin’s parents and Laura help with the kids.

“I’ll take him.” Jan, says, grabbing Luca from my arms as he was beginning to fall asleep on me. “You go to him first.” He nods at me as we step out of the elevator. I look at Renata who nods her head in agreement. I give them a small smile as we are directed down the tunnel.

Stepping carefully, we reach the ice and I search for Kevin. He’s across the rink from us laughing and skating away from Kaprizov who is dumping water all over him. Kirill laughs as he empties the bottle all over Kevin’s head. Kevin spits out the water onto the ice and runs his hands through his hair, shaking the excess water off. His eyes lift to the tunnel. When he sees me, I feel like the only person in this entire world.

I don’t even think about the slippery surface of the ice, or the fans, or the media, or honestly, our kids. I just run to him. He meets me in the middle and catches me effortlessly. I wrap myself around him and immediately begin shaking at the excitement of being in his arms. He smells absolutely awful and he’s wet and now I’m wet and I don’t care about any of it. All that matters is the feeling of his body connected with mine.

“Baby! I am so, so, so, so, SO proud of you.” I squeal to him joyfully, pulling back and looking at his face. “My Stanley Cup Champion.” I wrinkle my nose cutely at him, placing my lips hungrily on his. He skates slightly backwards as our lips nip and tug at each other greedily. I can hear the click of a camera and I don’t know who it is or where this picture is going. I’m too wrapped up in Kevin to care.

“I love you.” Kevin says to me as I slide down from his arms. My boots hit the ice and he reaches down again and kisses me. His lips are greedy, sucking up every ounce that I’m giving him. “So fucking much, Samantha Fiala.” My name comes out of his mouth in a breathless whisper. The sound of my full name sets my body on fire and I want all of him instantly. After all these years, he knows my tells. He chuckles in recognition. “Later.” He kisses my nose and wraps an arm around my body, turning towards where our family is coming towards us. “I see our final baby in the very near future.” He squeezes my side as his mom approaches for a hug. I don’t get the chance to agree with him, but I do. A Stanley Cup baby is a pretty good story.

The celebration continues on the ice, then into the locker room and the family lounge. We laugh and cry and share stories of the successes and struggles to get here. After midnight, the players start to confirm plans of going out in downtown to continue the celebration at an upscale rooftop bar. Despite the exhaustion I feel, Kevin and I agree to join the group. We can sleep in a few days when the excitement dies down. I look over at our sleeping kids on the couch and know we need to get them home to bed before we meet up with the rest of the team.

“We have some sleepy babies, mama.” Kevin murmurs to me as he grabs Luca and I grab Lacey.

Laura comes home with us and offers to stay with our kids for the night while we go out to celebrate. I rush up the stairs and into our closet, shrugging off my black Fiala jacket and looking at the available outfit options. What does one wear to a Stanley Cup celebration?

“Wir sind bald draußen.” I hear Kevin say to Laura as he walks into our master bedroom. I hear the soft click of the door and Kevin appears in the doorway.

“I’m not sure what to wea- Oh!” I exclaim as Kevin grabs me, lifting me off the ground and roughly sets me on the dresser in our closet. “Right here, huh?” I say breathlessly as he kisses down my neck. His hands are unruly and greedy on my body. I moan in response to his lips and eagerness.

“Laura is upstairs. Try to be quiet.” He advises me, tugging at my shirt. Our lips part briefly as he lifts it over my head. He is back to my lips for a moment before his mouth trails down my chest. He buries his face in my breasts and grinds his hips into me. He is warm and hard and my inner core clenches in response.

“Mmm, Kev..” I whisper as he tugs at the button on my jeans. I grab the belt on his suit pants and pull it apart. It takes mere seconds before his erection is at my entrance. When he feels how wet I am, he pushes in quickly and I lose myself in the feeling of him. He pauses there for a moment, watching my face for the stitch of pain to turn into pleasure. He slowly slides an inch out and then thrusts right back in. The dresser shakes from the movement of our bodies. I moan desperately in response and he grins down at me.

“Holy fuck, you feel so damn good, baby.” He growls as he begins to move quickly. “The entire time we were on the ice, I wanted to bend you over and fuck you against the boards.” He pounds into me in a steady, hard rhythm and I’m gone within moments. Something about when he gets like this- horny, needy, and just the right amount of rough- has me crashing fast every time. Kevin pulls me into his arms and walks us into our bedroom. When we get on the bed, he begins to move again, slower, almost painfully slow. I wrap my legs around him to hold him close to me. He brushes a loose strand away from my face, leaning down and kissing my lips tenderly. “ I love you, babe.” He places feather light kisses along my cheeks, then sucks lightly on my neck. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I murmur. He slows his pumps to a stop and I pout in response.

“For everything. This wouldn’t have happened without you. I wouldn’t be this version of me if I didn’t have you. I’m so lucky. The life we have… that you’ve given to us…”

“I think you had more to do with this than you’re giving yourself credit for.” I laugh, squeezing my muscles around him. He groans in response and dips his head in pleasure.

“Maybe.” He finally admits, “But I’m a Stanley Cup Champion because of you, Sam. Your support, sacrifice, and unconditional love brought our family here.” He is looking at me through serious brown eyes and I swallow hard in response. “We always said three. I want to complete our family now.” He whispers as he begins to pump into me faster. The rhythm is delicious and I can feel my second orgasm building within me.

“Me too.” I respond. “A Stanley Cup baby.”

“I know we shouldn’t pick favorites, but come on, it won’t even be close.” My chest heaves with loud laughter.

He begins to move faster inside of me again, cutting off my laugh with a breathy moan. His hands go to my breasts and his thumbs slowly circle my nipples. I arch my back into his waiting palms in response. I tilt my knees closer to my chest to allow him deeper. There it is. Our groans fill the room. He strokes that marvelous spot inside of me. My skin breaks out in goosebumps in acknowledgement. Kevin reaches down and places his lips over mine to catch the deep, primal wail coming out of my mouth. He pumps hard twice more before his hips jerk awkwardly as he finishes inside of me. Our mouths break apart after he comes as we both gasp for air from the highest of highs.

“That should do it.” He laughs, pulling out. I giggle in response, shoving away the dark cloud of our last attempts to conceive.

“I feel pregnant already.” I joke to him.

I know this one will be different.

Five weeks later, after multiple Stanley Cup Celebrations, a parade down West 7th, and not nearly enough sleep, I smile down at the pregnancy test confirming what I already knew. Pregnant. I walk out of the bathroom where Kevin is coloring at the kid’s table with our older two babies. He perks up when he sees me walk into the room. A wide grin breaks onto his lips when he takes in the look on my face. He stands up and dances over to me, gripping my hips and kissing me tenderly.

“Our Stanley Cup baby.” I giggle when we pull apart.

“So lucky.” He whispers to me, resting his forehead against mine.

Our little family is almost complete.

#letters in your last name au #sam X kevin fiala #Kevin Fiala Fic #los angeles kings #my writing #hockey fan fiction #hockey writing #NHL writing

13 notes · View notes

kalevalakryze · 9 months

Text

Inkblots

Pairings: Bo-Katan Kryze/The Armorer, Bo-Katan Kryze & Din Djarin, minor Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth/Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze & Grogu, Din Djarin & Grogu Characters: Bo-Katan Kryze, The Armorer, Din Djarin, Grogu, Cobb Vanth, Boba Fett Warnings: s/h scar mention, scars, past violence, past abusive relationships, Pre Vizsla mention, Moff Gideon mention Notes:idk it’s the way I absolutely live for these tattoo au’s where The Armorer fixes Bo’s Death Watch Tattoos and turns the designs into something beautiful, also, kind of based around my own tattoo situation? Very loosely Summary: “Have you ever thought about getting that tattoo covered?” Din questioned as they sat on the dock, her boots just brushing the surface of the lake. “I used to think about it,” Her eyes trailed down to the inky scar tissue across her forearm, the shriek hawk that had been shoved into her skin as a teenager, ink bleeding out to practically give the long white and purple scars a dark backdrop as they wrapped around her arm. “Too much work, I guess. And it’s part of who I am.” “If you’re ashamed of it, why carry around the guilt?” “I’ve done a lot of things, Din Djarin. Sometimes it’s the reminders of who I was, and who I am, that help me get up in the morning,” He seemed to ponder this a minute, as he tossed a crumb from his sandwich into the water, a fish breaching the surface to swallow it. “What if you have it turned into something new?” He suggested as he brought his boot to scrape the rotting edge of the dock. “I guess I haven’t met the right artist in a long time, it would be hard.” Pre was the only one she’d let touch her skin with the tattoo gun, she’d avoided all kinds of artists who’d talked about fixing the work or blown out ink for years. That kind of trust was hard to come by these days, especially for her. “If you ever change your mind, my mom’s good,” “Yeah? Maybe I’ll check her out,” AO3 Link: Here!

Loneliness was not a new concept for Bo-Katan Kryze, it was just another long line in the list of consequences for the actions of her youth. Except, through the darkness, there had been a light. Din Djarin, a younger man, a good dad, and a pillar of support that Bo had wanted nothing more than to leave her alone. Still, every day she spent in her isolation, he would visit, he would even bring his young son, Grogu, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she loved the kid, and he had been absolutely obsessed with her.

Each day, the clan of two would show up at her door and take her with them on some wild adventure. The amusement park had been genuinely fun, and she’d gotten a lot of pictures, and when they’d left that night, she couldn’t deny that going through them had brought a smile to her face.

When Din had introduced his partners, she’d been a little more on edge. She hadn’t exactly been the best to the Fett kid, but even with their rocky past, he still saw past it, had been polite, and had welcomed her into their game night. How Cobb managed to turn Dungeons and Dragons into a cowboy themed role-play game was lost on her, but it had been fun nonetheless.

It was just Din that day, when he’d showed up and asked her to go to the lake with him. He’d seemed contemplative, far in his own head, and she’d felt that herself, hadn’t wanted him to lean into the isolation like she had, so they’d went on their way.

The docks were old, the city abandoning the property it was on when they figured the wastewater drained into the body of water anyways. It hardly counted as a real lake anyways, and they hadn’t been able to stop the dumping, so it had been left alone and marked an overflow reservoir. No one really ventured out that way due to the decomposing conditions, which made it a perfect place for the two Mandalorians, who found a stable piece of the dock to settle on.

Din hung his backpack on a rusty nail sticking from one of the wooden posts, which seemed in much better condition than the rest dock. “How’s Grogu?” Bo questioned as she dropped herself onto a seemingly dry plank that didn’t try to cave in with her weight pressing in on it.

“He’s doing good!” The younger Mandalorian always brightened up when he got to talk about his family, it was a good look on him, seeing him happy, especially with what she’d told him about his recent troubles with his adoptive family. “Cobb and Boba took him to the farm for a few days while things got sorted out,” His brightness slipped, arms crossing his chest as he looked out across the small lake, still standing, he let his boot kick a small rock on the dock.

The dock creaked as the rock tumbled, though he didn’t seem to notice. “I love them, I do, My mom, and Paz… It just doesn’t feel fair, that I try to do something right for Grogu, and-“ He never got to continue, when his weight shifted next, the rotting boards under his feet splintered and broke, and he was being swallowed by the dark, murky abyss of nasty lake water.

Before she could even fully process what had happened, Bo-Katan was already shoving herself off the dock, headfirst into the water that Din was thrashing for purchase in. The water was too dark to see in, and when she tried to open her eyes, the chemical waste stung. She had to focus on the movement of his thrashing to find him, and when his fist met her arm, she was able to grab a hold and start shoving him to the surface.

He hadn’t made it easy for her however, thrashing the entire way, inexperience in the water evident as he kicked his feet with no direction. They breached the surface and he managed to just barely keep himself afloat long enough for her to give a hard shove to his back. “Grab the dock!” She sputtered, directing him to the intact wood she’d been perched on moments before.

Swimming around him, Bo grabbed a hold of the old wood, hauling herself up and swinging her leg over until she could set her knees into damp wood, grab a hold of his forearms, and yank him up and over as well.

The lake went still, both of their ragged breaths filling the late afternoon air as they sprawled across the dock, absolutely drenched and dripping excess through the slats in the planks, back into the water. “I’m gonna smell like sulfur for weeks,” The damp redhead complained after minutes passed, her nose crinkling at the scent that wafted to her nose.

Every gust of wind had her shivering, despite the heat, so the redhead yanked her sopping wet shirt over her head. She trusted Din enough, at this point anyways. He was doing the same with his own shirt, trying to drape it over any available dry spot so the beating sun could work at least some magic on the clothing.

She had never told Din too much about her past with The Death Watch, had mentioned her involvement in passing, but he’d never seen the tattoos, or really, any of the ink or scar tissue that adorned her body. Neat lines of old scars decorated the insides of her forearms, making stripes in the different art that wrapped around her skin, the ink had never held up for very long, always bleeding out of the textured skin after a few years. Pre had offered to touch up her first piece, once, but then he’d died, and all thought of letting anyone near her with a tattoo gun went out the window.

She had the black shriekhawk inside her left arm with a patchwork of Nite owls and her family’s crest scattered across pale skin all the way to her shoulder, with blacked out tribal bands and thick geometric designs along her right. The paleness of her skin showcased light freckles across her shoulders and back, blue, green, and purple veins just barely visible around her wrists and neck. Scars were smattered randomly across the canvas of her back and torso, fingernail imprints on the side of her throat, a scratch mark across her shoulder blade, a burn on her hip, and other smaller pieces that she only barely remembered the stories of. The Shirek hawk was torn by lines of neat scar tissue, when the goal had been to try and erase the visage. The ink bed out, but the design was still unmistakable where it remained.

She was a walking storybook of her tale, of why people like Din Djarin had been warned to stay far away. She’d only given him glimpses to who she truly was, had revealed parts of her story in slow increments, to try and scare him off, a warning to the true woman he was trying to befriend.

Like her, however, Din also wore his story on his sleeve. His shoulder was decorated with designs of a mud horn fossil, and while he also adorned the mark of the shriek hawk, it had seemed more evolved, reborn, like the Children of the Watch had been. They did not use the design often in their teachings, but with the beasts’ role in the tales, she had understood why they’d felt the need to reclaim it. A winding view of the Mythosaur of Old stretched across his back, tusks wrapping around his sides to tickle his ribs. There were designs that had floated on the backwater cities, back when Separatists marched the streets, spreading filth.

He never talked much about how he was brought into their culture, and she didn’t ask. Just like, as dark eyes followed the trail of ink and scar, the roadmap of her own story, he did not ask. The two settled in against the dock, while he dug through his thankfully dry backpack to toss her a wrapped up sandwich.

“Have you ever thought about getting that tattoo covered?” Din questioned as they sat on the dock, her feet just brushing the surface of the lake.

“I used to think about it,” her eyes trailed down to the inky scar tissue across her forearm, the shriek hawk that had been shoved into her skin as a teenager, ink bleeding out to practically give the long white and purple scars a dark backdrop as they wrapped around her arm. “Too much work, I guess. And it’s part of who I am.”

“If you’re ashamed of it, why carry around the guilt?”

“I’ve done a lot of things, Din Djarin. Sometimes it’s the reminders of who I was, and who I am, that help me get up in the morning,”

He seemed to ponder this a minute, as he tossed a crumb from his sandwich into the water, a fish breaching the surface to swallow it. “What if you have it turned into something new?” He suggested as he brought his boot to scrape the rotting edge of the dock.

“I guess I haven’t met the right artist yet, it would be hard.” Pre was the only one she’d let touch her skin with the tattoo gun, she’d avoided all kinds of artists who’d talked about fixing the work or blown out ink for years. That kind of trust was hard to come by these days, especially for her.

“If you ever change your mind, my mom’s good,”

“Yeah? Maybe I’ll check her out,”

They spent hours at the dock, that night. Both of their phones were good and ruined from the water, so he’d never heard his partner calling him. Neither of them had a single thought about going on their way, drying off in the sun as they passed stories of what they’d been taught about their people, putting similar stories together to see the other side.

Headlights flashed as someone pulled into the empty parking lot nearby. Soon, the babbling of a child and two sets of adult footsteps filled the clearing, until Di’s partners, and his son were visible.

“Patu!” Grogu warbled, before his small legs had him running towards the two Mandalorians. It was not Din that he ran to, but Bo-Katan, who, with minor hesitance, picked him up at his insistence.

“Hey bud, did I keep your dad too busy?” She questioned as she balanced the small child on her hip, who seemed very interested in following the path of the scar that chased up her shoulder.

“Patu,” He nodded his head, as his face tried to form something akin to seriousness, though a crooked smile took over, before the boy was breaking out in laughter.

Bo handed Grogu over to Din, before she moved to grab her now, thankfully, dry clothes and tug them on.

“Went for a dip?” Cobb questioned as he moved to greet his partner.

“A little bit,” Din replied with a soft laugh and a shake of his head, shifting Grogu in his arms. “Bo, do you need a ride back?” He questioned, jabbing his thumb towards the lot.

“No, I’m good, let your mom know I might swing by soon, though? The Forge, right?”

“That’s the place,” They bid their farewells with the promise to see each other soon on the horizon, with Bo-Katan’s thoughts churning a hailstorm in her mind around the winding ink across her body.

#bo katan kryze #the armorer #the mandalorian #bo katan x the armorer #nitearmor #star wars #Din Djarin #Dinbo friendship #the dinbromance #din djarin x cobb vanth x boba fett #tattoo au #modern au #idk why I'm only writing modern aus #but oh well #fic writing

7 notes · View notes

doorplays · 1 year

Text

IMMORTALITY (2022) SPOILERY REVIEW

Hello! I have decided that I think I will try and do two (2) reviews for most games I will play. One is a non-spoilery review, and another is a spoilery review that is done after I finish the game! I just think it would be need to share my thoughts about a game without spoiling it for people who don’t want to see spoilers.

In light of that, here's a big bad !!!SPOILER WARNING!!! for you, and only proceed if you are okay with seeing this despite the warning! Please also be mindful of Immortality’s content warnings before reading.

Also: this will be a long article, so hang on to your buttcheeks and let’s talk Immortality!

PREAMBLE

So, Immortality is a game that is more than meets the eye. While the start of it is interesting enough (searching clips, watching the three movies), there is more to it. It is... difficult to talk about these secrets without spoiling the experience, thus I chose to talk about them in this spoiler review! I’m going to talk about the secret clips and how to find them, the overarching metanarrative, and my thoughts on it.

STYLE

You may notice that when you view clips, sometimes you hear a droning sound. If you’re on the controller, you will feel it rumble along with said sound. That’s not a trick of the music, that’s intentional. That’s the game telling you something is off.

When I played this game, everytime I heard this noise on the clip, I would Favorite this clip so it gets filed for future viewing. The game has a separate folder of sorts for Favorited clips. At one clip, I wanted to click on something in the background, but the characters keep blocking it. So I decided to rewind the clip a bit to get a better angle. And lo and behold, I saw echoes of a clip just playing in the background, almost invisible... and I can’t quite access it yet. There was something I didn’t know at this point, but this was a big moment of discovery for me, and definitely flips the game on its head.

Once you discover this, the game goes from discovering what happened to Marissa Marcel, to discovering what the fuck this game actually is! I rewound the previous clips I Favorited and got lore dumps about two new characters that I’ve never seen before, but apparently have a big influence on the plot! There are clips that once you rewind them become much more sinister and scary, and there are clips that tell more of the new characters’ motivations.

I’d say this moment of discovery and what it entails is exactly what makes Immortality what it is. It recontextualizes the previous clips you’ve watched and opens up new questions in the narrative. And what surprises me is that all the clips, the discussions in the three films and the new discussions put forth by the rewound footage, all relate together in such a tight way! It is very well written and well made, and I feel like this is a great feat.

My only concern is how, at times people can access the credits sooner than you’d expect, and that might spoil their experience thinking the game is already finished, even though it is far from that. I feel like there is more refinement to be had to this kind of game, but as it stand it’s still pretty phenomenal.

SUBSTANCE

Okay, so the rewound footage tells a heck of a story and really wraps up the themes the 3 films tell and makes them relate to the tribulations of these two new characters. I want to talk about the overarching meta-narrative, so I will put up my own retelling of it as best as I can understand it. After I write this retelling, I will then discuss what I think of the story, how it affected me, and my own interpretation of it. Let’s get to it!

Story Retelling

The One (she/her) and The Other (he/him) are two immortals that have existed for a long long time. The nature of their immortality is that they are sort of... parasitic. They kill a human and consume their flesh, biting into their neck like a vampire, and once they do this they get to be able to act as them for however long they want. They absorb their memories, with the experiences and traumas of their last years dominating the immortals’ minds. It is hard to truly kill them, as when they experience a death, they end up in a dormant state and awaken sometime later. They have mastery over time, and this allows them to do some things outside of our own perception. It is stated that you can only truly kill them via burning.

At one point, they tried to create the Perfect Story to elevate humanity to their level. This involved The One becoming Jesus, preaching to humanity and in the end getting crucified, rising again, and ascending to heaven (though in reality she never ascended and stayed on Earth). The Perfect Story failed to elevate humanity, however. This made The Other feel disillusioned, but The One just thinks humanity wasn’t ready yet.

Time passes. The One wears different bodies. She found herself awakening from a dormant state at the tail end of World War 2. She stumbles upon a dying Marissa Marcel, having just been violated by soldiers. The One proceeds to consume her and take her form. Marissa’s dying words to The One were “Je veux vivre... pour toujours.”

I want to live forever.

The One lives as Marissa for a time. She gets into acting and modeled for a commercial. She was scouted by director Arthur Fischer for his upcoming film Ambrosio. She was fascinated by the dawn of film as an audiovisual medium. She and others like her perceive reality differently, and movies match this perception. She wanted to learn the art of film making from Arthur Fischer, which was why she let him cast her in Ambrosio.

Ambrosio is an adaptation of a real book called The Monk, by Matthew Gregory Lewis. It is about a monk who is tempted by the devil into selling his soul to him. This was Arthur Fischer’s first film to involve nudity, and it involves a good amount of sex. During shooting, The One as Marissa starts enjoying acting. In particular, she liked seeing the other actors be intimate and saw a certain immortality in that.

She encountered The Other while shooting this film, but they did not really interact much other than staring each other down at some points.

She soon starts a relationship with John Durick, director of photography in Ambrosio. She encourages him to overstep Fischer’s authority, adjusting shots and scenes to be more powerful and modern, and even shooting a sex scene without his knowledge, with Durick saying he’ll go above Fischer and go to Gino for approval. Eventually, shooting for the movie is finished. Durick and The One (as Marissa) decided to shoot a new film named Minsky.

Ambrosio ended up not being released for as-of-yet unknown reasons.

Minsky is about detective Alan Goodman who investigates the titular character’s murder, not expecting that he would fall in love with the suspect. Carl Greenwood, an actor from California, was cast for the role of detective, with Marissa casting herself as the suspect. The One saw in him “an intelligence, something warm and savory about him.” However, this did not last as unbeknownst to everyone but The One, The Other decided to kill him and steal his body.

Where The One is artistic and hopeful for humanity, The Other is despondent and cynical of them ever since they failed to be elevated, thinking of them as “monkeys flinging shit.” The two of them have been at odds about this for a long time, with one of them killing the other at certain points because they want them to actually think about things. Their deaths aren’t actual deaths, being treated as “time to think” before they awaken once more. The One killed The Other at one point, but they awakened in New York, angry at The One for trying to integrate further into humanity. He found the idea perverse, especially since the two of them are now the last of their kind.

Things came to a head when during a scene, The Other threatened to shoot John Durick. The One turned the tables on him and shot him instead, saving Durick and preserving her plans. From the outside perspective however, Marissa Marcel just accidentally killed Carl Greenwood due to what seemed to be a gun prop misfire. This caused the film to be shuttered, never to be finished and seen by the masses.

The One made sure that Carl Greenwood was cremated.

After this incident, The One decided to talk to John Durick about the truth of herself. Who she is, what her goals are, how different she is from humans. John... did not react well to this. At least, he did not react in a way that satisfied The One. She loved him, she wanted to be like him, and yet... why is he reacting this way? She did not think, she just acted: she killed John and took his form. Marissa vanishes from the public eye, and The One begins her life as John Durick.

The One directs many films. She missed The Other, so she thought to direct films that pleased him. They were decent films, though people thought them cold. But throughout all these films, what drove her to make them was her desire to make the case for humanity, to prove that they’re not just monkeys flinging shit.

As she lived her life as John, she found herself taking on a lover, one Amy Archer. She treated her like a muse and a partner. Amy asked little from The One (as John) but her brilliance. She wanted to bring out the best in her. However, as she made more films, The One found that each film was less good than the last.

Arthur Fischer, now a dying old man, went to John Durick’s house bearing a gift: the Ambrosio negatives that he stole. It is not known why he stole them (though it is implied he stole them because he couldn’t bear the humiliation of seeing John go behind his back and override his authority), but here he was bringing it to Durick in an effort to mend bridges. Once he left, The One watched the negatives and was overcome with grief and nostalgia over her time as Marissa, so much so that she managed to bring her form back into the real world. She is now essentially existing as two people: Marissa Marcel and John Durick. Director and Actress.

It was then that she decided to make Two of Everything. It was a film about a pop star and her double, and the struggle of making art. But more than that, it was a film about The One’s story. In her words, Two of Everything was “about everything, but as simple as possible.” It was her most ambitious movie yet, not least because she is currently being two people at the same time. This state of being is causing great stress to The One, and as filming goes on she becomes increasingly erratic.

In the middle of filming, something happened. The Other One reappeared. The One was shocked at this discovery, but he explained himself. After being shot and cremated, it turned out he didn’t die. He was trapped in an “infinity of nothing.” That is, until Amy Archer watched the old Minsky footage and saw Carl Greenwood’s death.

She watched him die on the screen. And he was reborn.

He comes to The One in contrition, regretting how he acted. He wants to help her realize her vision now. The One is still confused, saying that while he is alive he is “not here,” and that “Amy’s still here.” In response, he simply said that yes, Amy’s still here and that this is a different kind of rebirth. He reaffirmed his desire to help.

The Other’s rebirth pointed to a new possibility for The One, who by now is barely hanging on by a thread. She has been pushing herself too hard, and that is causing Marissa’s form to experience nosebleeds and other pains. At one point, both Marissa and John fainted on set. This all culminated in a shoot where she outright hemorrhaged blood from her head. She then talked to The Other, who was acting through Amy Archer. She wanted to die like he did once, so that she may then be reborn.

We now go to this scene, the last scene that was shot chronologically. The lights turn on and we see Marissa sitting down. Amy walks into frame and gently runs her hand through Marissa’s hair. She kisses her on the top of her head. She walks towards the camera, holding up the clapper, on it written a single name: Marissa Marcel. She claps it closed.

Action.

She walks back out, picking up a gas can, and walks back in, showering Marissa with its contents. Walks back out, this time picking up a matchbox. She gets a match and lights it up.

She throws it onto Marissa.

Marissa, now burning, just stares at the camera. She lets the flames consume her, until all that’s left of her is a burnt-down mannequin.

This is the moment of her death.

And we, the players, have just witnessed it.

Story Discussion

I’m not really going to talk deep about some of the themes across the game. The game discusses a lot about the nature of art, the costs of art, its evolution, etc. It addresses female exploitation and male privilege at points, it talks about the dichotomy of Art vs. Law, it also talks of how controlling and exacting some directors can be, to the detriment of the film they are making at some points.

What I want to focus on, however, is The One.

This game is not just about three films. This game is about her. I’d go as far as saying this game IS her. This is her story, her being, distilled into a game.

I don’t think anyone would notice, but when you open the game for the first time, the title screen looks like this. The title here is “Marissa Marcel: An Interactive Restoration of Three Movies. Once you click on “Start” however, the title changes. “IMMORTALITY,” it reads and will read for the rest of your playthrough. And on more than one level, that’s exactly what the game is about. Immortalizing yourself on film. Immortalizing your life, deeds, and thoughts.

The One immortalizing herself. Into us.

You might think this is very sinister, and that The One and The Other are ultimately villains. But I would argue that they are tragic figures, with The One being our Tragic Protagonist.

I want to start by talking about the nature of their species. They are entities that exist just outside our perception, influencing our space by taking on other peoples’ forms. A comparison can be drawn with the director-actor relationship. The One puppets her forms in the same way directors utilize their actors. She consumes her victims, just as directors exploit actors and, moreso, actresses. We can see this happening across Ambrosio, with Fischer’s disgusting language at points and his controlling nature.

This director-actor relationship is referred to as a chain by The One. Fischer wanted to sculpt Marissa. When she entered into a relationship with John, he in turn wanted to make her a star. For the longest time, she has observed this chain, but with John, it was her first time putting herself in it as a participant. I assume she means when she started to include herself in the writing process of Minsky.

In Minsky, The One wanted one of the main characters, Franny, to be more real. The premise of the film revolves around Franny murdering Minsky, the artist who took her as a muse. There is a certain irony to this, with how her immortality works. And there’s even further irony to this, as after she put an end to Minsky’s filming, she ended up murdering her director and lover John Durick.

She loved him in the way that an immortal like herself could love anyone. She treated loving him and being like him the same way. When she told him of her true nature, when she bared herself to him, he did not react the way she expected him to react.

He was scared of her. Who wouldn’t be scared, when faced with a threatening entity we do not fully understand?

So she kills him, like a spurned lover. She becomes him. She continues on and fully integrates herself into the chain, using his form from here on out.

She continues on, not addressing her pain, her own trauma that lived in Marissa and now lives in her, her trauma over killing the only other immortal of her kind. She continues on the only way she knows how: making movies.

She directs movies that try and make the case for humanity. She is so enamored with them, to the point that she thought herself as one of them, blind to the privilege that she has. She continues the chain, even taking on her muse as a lover. But one day, a discovery: The Other is alive! She is baffled, but she finds that this is a new form of immortality, an evolution from the previous one. And so, with her dying, she pursues it through this game. She hatches a plan with The Other to have herself burned and have us witness.

Now, I think the popular interpretation of this game will be that The One used this game to possess us. But I think there’s more to this.

In one scene, The Other explains his own rebirth. The One observes that he isn’t here, that he isn’t directly influencing the world through their previous means. She further observes that Amy Archer, the woman The Other is speaking through, is still “here”. While on one level, this explains the uniqueness of The Other’s rebirth, I think this also puts forth the possibility that this kind of immortality does not have to harm anyone now.

Amy Archer is still here. Amy is still alive.

And when The One seeks immortality through our witnessing of her death, I choose to believe that she does not possess us. I think what they’ve discovered is indeed a way to continue where no one has to die. No more exploitation. No more suffering.

She breaks the chain.

Immortality discusses many points about art, but I think chief among these points is the cost of making art. But why do we have to pay these costs? Why do we choose to pay and demand these costs in the name of art? We should strive for a way to make art that eliminates harm and suffering, and I think this is the point that Immortality is trying to make. We do not have to participate in the chain if it causes us suffering.

In The One’s death, she elevates herself to a new kind of existence, a reversal of The Great Story. Where once she died for our sins, here she dies for hers. She rises again and ascends, becoming more. She breaks the chain, paving the way for new possibilities.

Vous vivrez en moi, she says to a dying Marissa as she takes her form. You will live in me. And now, she will live in us.

ENDING THOUGHTS

My interpretation of the game is just that, an interpretation. You could read the game as The One continuing the chain in service of her own continuation. You could read it as her being a sinister entity. But I choose to interpret this game as The One choosing kindness. She could have continued her existence by feeding on others, but she chose not to. Only when this form of immortality presented itself that she rolled the dice.

There is one last scene I want to discuss. in one rewound scene, we see The One lipsyncing to Candy Says. This is the best distillation of her character. She hates herself and how her immortality works. She wants to understand humanity and its joys. She wants to see what life holds if only she can step outside herself and her own realities. She experiences the emotive power of art as she sings along to a song that completely resonates with her own life.

For all her menace, she is just someone who wants to understand and be understood. And to this end she made this game, presenting herself, her life, for others to watch and experience. In this act of nakedness and vulnerability, she is reborn and made immortal once more.

I very much enjoyed this game. It is definitely more of an art house, avant-garde kind of thing, but I’m hoping that more people would try it out!

#door reviews #immortality #immortality game #immortality spoilers #half mermaid productions #sam barlow #spoiler review

13 notes · View notes