#updated version since on the old ones i often got asked “what about EVEN SHORTER skirts?!”
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“Omg, I love these! They go up to size 6X AND they have pockets?! Wow!! But do you have anything longer?”
Sure do, no problem!!
“YES these are great!!! But what about.. longer?”
I gotcha!! Comin’ right up!
“Perfect! But I have just one more question… what if I’m feeling spicy? How about skirts that are even shorter than the first ones?!”
Oh, you’re in luck! We’ve got minis now.
*wild cheering*
/scene
🖤witchvamp.com🖤
#updated version since on the old ones i often got asked “what about EVEN SHORTER skirts?!”#well they're here now!#witch vamp#fashion#clothing#skirts#skirts with pockets#online shopping#skater skirt#midi skirt#maxi skirt#mini skirt#short skirt#long skirt#cute skirt#vetiverfox#clothing design#indie fashion#indie brand#small business#artists on tumblr#alt fashion#alternative fashion#fashion inspo#outfit inspo#style inspo#fashion inspiration#goth#gothic#gothcore
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The Early Leaf’s a Flower: 11/11
I can't believe we are at the end of this fic! I am immensely proud of it, and I am so thankful for those who were willing to go on the journey with me to re-imagine Someone to Watch Over Me. I feel like the original was just a germ of an idea, and this event gave me the courage to build an entire world around it. A world similar to canon, yet unique. World building has never been my strength, and this re-write stretched me and helped me grow. In that way, I am so thankful to the ladies in the csrt discord chat, especially @optomisticgirl who stepped in as one of my last minute betas. B, you are the queen of world-building, and you have no idea how many times you helped me in chats to work out my own world in this story! Character development was also a big challenge in this fic, and for that I thank @shippingtheswann, my other beta. Emma and Killian's relationship wouldn't be as rich if not for you! And thank you to @distant-rose for helping me with the Lost Boys, the pirate crew, and the Neverland mythos. (If you ever need any info on pirates and ships, she's your girl!) I was nervous to take the story into some dark places, but you cheered me on and helped me trust my instincts. And of course, tons of thanks to the mods of this event at @captainswanbigbang. I was contemplating abandoning this fic until I saw you were organizing this, so massive kudos for putting this on!
One final thing, and I'll shut up and get to the actual chapter. My original vision for this fic was to take it where people had been begging me to - with Emma reuniting with her parents and the fall out from that - yet with my own version of the Enchanted Forest and the curse. However, as I worked on the story, I realized I had bitten off way too much. Therefore, I decided to split up the story. Sooo, this isn't the end! There will be a part two, which I am already working on. I will not be posting it until it is complete. It is shorter than this story, however, so hopefully the wait won't be too long!
Summary: She saw eyes that were the blue of the forget me not peering at her through the cracked door of the wardrobe. He saw hair as gold as the buttercups. Why does the wardrobe keep bringing them back to one another, if fate keeps tearing them apart? Or maybe fate has her reasons …
Rating: M for sexy times, violence, canonical character death, and attempted rape (all in previous chapters - this last chapter is mostly fluff)
Words: 6k and some change in this chapter
** Complete and updated every Monday** Also on Ao3
Emma and Killian: Age 24
When Emma was a little girl, she had found a book of fairy tale stories at the school library. Inside was a picture of a little cottage by the sea made of a hodgepodge of stones and a thatched roof, and rolling all around it were hills of soft grass. She can no longer remember what story the illustration accompanied, but she does remember how often she would stare at that picture, thinking how cozy the family must have been who lived in that house. She checked the book out every chance she got, and when she was moved yet again to a new foster family and a new school, she had committed a grievous sin: she had ripped the picture out of the library book.
Well, it had felt like a grievous sin to her seven year old self. Especially when the sweet librarian, Miss Stacy, had reminded them gently on numerous occasions of the proper way to treat the books. Ripping pages was definitely not the proper way.
Somewhere along the line, she had lost that ripped page. Yet here, below her now, nestled in the dip of the hills and facing the sea along the shores of Avalon, is that dream house of her childhood.
“Killian,” is all she can manage to say.
“Do you like it?” he asks, dipping his chin and scratching behind his ear. How can he be nervous giving her such a gift? Henry yells in delight and races down the hill towards the cottage.
Finally, she finds her voice again. “Like it? I dreamed of a house like this. When I was a kid.”
“Truly?” he asks incredulously, eyes bright with hope.
“Yes!” she exults, throwing her arms around his neck and peppering his face with kisses. She shakes her head as she pulls back, cupping his face with her hands. “But we can’t live here. Won’t you miss the sea?”
“A pirate ship is no place to raise our son, and besides . . . “ he pulls her closer to the quaint home. Once they crest the hill, the land levels out, and the view is breathtaking. “ . . . there’s the sea right at our back door,” he finishes with a wide grin.
“Mama,” Henry cries as he comes flying out the front door, “can I pick out my room? There are three. Cause I want the one upstairs. Can I have the one upstairs?”
Emma laughs at her son’s barrage of questions. Killian reaches down and scoops up the wriggling child.
“Sorry, my boy, but you’re mum gets first choice.” He successfully cuts off the lad’s whines by tickling him. Then he sets Henry down upon his feet and ruffles his hair. “In the meantime, why don’t you pick some flowers for your mother? The field over there is carpeted with them.”
Killian points west away from the sea, and Henry eagerly scampers off. Emma calls after him to be careful.
“Don’t go too far! Make sure you can still see the house!”
“He’ll be fine, Swan,” Killian assures her, pulling her inside the house. “He never fell overboard on the Jolly despite your worrying, now did he?”
Emma rolls her eyes. “Haha, that really puts my mind at ease.”
Killian winks at her, then gives her a tour of the first floor, which is bigger than she would have expected. There’s a small foyer, then a formal sitting room to the right and a formal dining room to the left. At the end of the hall is a kitchen that opens up into a family room with a stone fireplace identical to the one in the parlor. Next to the stove in the kitchen is a door that opens out onto a patio with an even better view of the rocky sea below. Between the hallway and the kitchen is another door that leads into the master bedroom. The bed is tucked right beneath the window, and Emma can imagine falling asleep to the soothing sounds of the crashing waves.
“There’s no indoor plumbing like in your realm,” Killian explains as Emma circles the room, her hand skimming over the furnishings, “but there is a stream practically in our backyard, and the kitchen is large enough to put a tub in one corner.”
Emma pauses in her explorations and arches a brow at him. “You think I’m going to complain about a lack of plumbing after six months on the Jolly Roger?”
Killian manages another nervous laugh. “So you like it?”
She steps close to him, resting both of her palms on his chest. “I’m more worried if you’ll like it. You won’t miss the adventures at sea?”
“As I’ve said many times, piracy is ten percent adventure, ninety percent sheer boredom.” He lifts one of her hands and kisses it. “I’m ready for a life with you and Henry. I’m ready for the family I haven’t had since my mother passed.”
Tears well in Emma’s eyes. It’s still hard to believe sometimes that anyone would choose her, put her first. Yet this man isn’t just anyone, is he?
“Besides,” Killian says, thumbing her chin, “the Jolly still belongs to us.”
“But are you really satisfied turning her into a merchant ship? Is your crew?”
He draws her close, tucking her head beneath his chin. “Mason has always wanted to go to the naval academy, and with a year or two on a respectable merchant ship, he can. Hawkins wants to go to university, and Curly is looking at a plot of land to purchase and farm. Starkey has a sweetheart in Camelot, though he’s tried to hide it. As captain of my vessel, he can now ask for her hand. They’ve all grown up, Swan, and they have dreams and plans of their own.”
“And they’re loyal to their first captain,” Emma amends with a smile.
“I don’t know why.”
“I do,” she tells him, brushing a kiss to his cheek. “Are you sure you won’t get bored doing ledgers, placing orders, or whatever else merchants do?”
Killian shakes his head and bops her nose. “Quit doubting me, love! Besides,” he leans closer and stage whispers in her ear, “don’t tell anyone this, but I rather enjoy keeping the ledgers.”
Emma finds the nerd beneath his swashbuckling swagger incredibly sexy for some reason. “Well then,” she teases, stepping away from him to saunter over to the large bed. She grasps one of the bedposts and drapes herself around it in what she hopes is a sexy maneuver. “In that case, Mister Jones, maybe we should christen this bed.”
Killian growls and pounces, yanking her close and claiming her lips hungrily. Emma’s just dropped to the bed with a giggle when Henry comes pounding inside.
“Watcha doin?”
Emma almost falls to the floor in her haste to push Killian off her and jump to her feet. “Um, Papa’s just . . . tickling me.”
Killian chokes as he tries to hold back a laugh, but Henry is oblivious. Their son sticks out his hand, and clenched in his fist are a bunch of small yellow flowers.
“Oh, well, I did what Papa said and got you some flowers, Mama!”
“Buttercups!” Emma can’t help the tears that spill down her cheeks. “Thank you Henry!”
She picks up her son as Killian steps closer. He embraces both of them, brushing kisses to the tops of their heads.
“Welcome home, my loves,” he tells them.
******************************
After removing his boots by the door, Killian tiptoes through the cottage, the light of the full moon helping him avoid the furniture, Henry’s toys, and Emma’s shoes which she always leaves wherever she happens to kick them off. When he gets to the kitchen, he’s able to light a lamp so he can find the supper that Emma promised to leave on the stove. The Jolly was late coming into port, and going through the inventory took much longer than he had anticipated. Luckily, Emma is used by now to that most unpredictable of mistresses: the sea.
“Killian?”
The sound of his name is weak, yet he can still make it out on the other side of their bedroom door. He crosses to the bedroom, opening the door as quietly as possible. Emma’s curled up on the bed, her hair lit gold by the moon, and she’s so still he thinks maybe he didn’t hear her after all. He wants to reach out and touch her, yet he doesn’t want to wake her.
“Killian? Killian?”
She stirs slightly, but it’s clear she is still half asleep as she mumbles his name.
“Aye love, it’s me.”
“Killian?”
“Yes?” He touches her lightly through the blankets.
She says his name a few more times, like a question, and he can’t help smiling at how disoriented she is. He’s learned over the past year that she does in fact talk in her sleep. She finally seems satisfied that he’s here, and that he’s Killian. Her body relaxes and she mumbles good on a sigh. He pats her gently again and turns to go, but before he can, she reaches out and manages to find his hook in the dark.
“But you’re not leaving?” she asks, still in that sleepy voice.
The question makes his heart swell. “No love, I’m not leaving.”
“Henry’s not leaving?”
He lifts his hook and brushes his lips across her hand, which clings to the metal tightly. “No, Swan.”
She lets out a little shudder and releases his hook. He bends, brushes a kiss to her brow, then turns back to the kitchen.
“Killian, have we done this before?”
The question has him frozen with his hand on the doorknob. He isn’t sure what she means by the question.
“I only just got home, Emma,” he tells her gently.
“Oh,” she murmurs, sleep finally beginning to claim her fully and slurring her words. “I guess I dreamed it, then.”
Killian tiptoes out and slowly closes the door behind him. He chuckles to himself as he sits down at the table with the food Emma had left on the stove. Yet as he takes a bite of the roast on his plate, he sobers. He hates the fears that sometimes plague Emma. He wonders how long it will take for the love in their little home to ease them.
******************************
Killian awakes the next morning to the banging of pots and pans, sometimes punctuated by curses in their small kitchen. He may have had second thoughts about the location of the master bedroom if he had been aware of the fact that Emma was completely incapable of moving about quietly.
“Can I have more strawberries, Mama?” Henry calls out, far louder than necessary, and Killian groans as he shoves the pillow over his head.
“Shhh,” Emma admonishes, in the exact same volume as their son, “you’ll wake up Papa.”
“Why’s he not up? He said he’d bring home more paper for me.”
“You know the ship doesn’t always arrive on time. Now eat.”
Killian flings aside the pillow with a sigh, knowing that getting any more shut eye is impossible. Yet as he buckles his brace and slips into his shirt, he only feels joy well inside his chest. He did get Henry more paper for his scribbles, and he can’t wait to hear what tall tales the lad will weave next. He can’t, at only six, truly write yet, but he feels with fatherly pride that it’s merely a prelude of what is to come.
Once he’s dressed, he grabs the parcels wrapped in brown paper and string that he’d hidden in the nightstand before he went to bed. He tucks them under his hooked arm, then bursts through the bedroom door. “Making an entrance,” as Emma would say.
“Papa!” Henry cries out, tossing aside his fork and jumping up from the kitchen table.
“Killian!” Emma admonishes, turning from the stove with a spatula in her hand. “I was trying to let you sleep.”
“A pointless endeavor, love,” he quips with a wink. Emma rolls her eyes and turns back to the stove. Henry leaps onto his back, trying to grab the parcels.
“Whaddya get me, Papa?”
“Well, get off me, you little monkey, and I’ll show you.” Henry slides to the floor, and Killian hands him the largest parcel. “Paper, as requested.”
“Yay! But what’s the other one?”
Killian hands him the small, compact, rectangular package and grins as Henry rips into it. The paper falls away to reveal a leather bound book with beautiful gilt-edged pages and hand painted illustrations in deep hues.
“That, my boy, is a book of tales from Agrabah where the air smells like spices and the sultanese keeps a tiger for a pet!”
“Wow! Will you read it to me right now?”
Killian glances over his shoulder at his wife. “Not until after you eat your breakfast.”
He ruffles Henry’s hair, and the boy obeys. Killian turns to the stove where Emma is purposefully keeping her back to him, though he can’t fathom why. He saunters up behind her and leans over her shoulder, breathing in the vanilla scent of her hair.
“Mmm, something smells delicious.”
“It’s just pancakes,” she retorts, but she is unable to hide her smile.
“I wasn’t talking about breakfast,” he growls lower against her skin. He feels her shiver beneath him, but when he tries to grab her around the waist, she dodges him. She grabs the plate of pancakes and carries them to the table.
“Eat them before they get cold,” she says with forced cheerfulness, and he frowns. She sits next to Henry, sliding a pancake onto the boy’s plate, and Killian sits as well.
“I got you something too,” he tells her, sliding a small parcel across the table with his hook.
Emma still refuses to meet his gaze, fiddling with the string around the square package that could fit in the palm of her hand. “You know I never need anything but you.”
“Yet a man likes to spoil his bride. Go ahead, open it.”
She glances up at him from beneath her lashes, then tears into the paper with a tentative smile. It falls away to reveal a small velvet box, and Emma gasps before she’s even lifted the lid. When she does finally open it with trembling fingers, she breathes out his name. Killian slides off his chair and falls to his knees next to her. He pulls the gold ring with its simple jade stone reverently from the velvet and slides it onto the ring finger of her left hand.
“I promised you I would get you a ring the day we wed, remember?”
Emma nods, staring at the gem and turning it in the light.
“I know diamonds are the usual choice, but this immediately made me think of your eyes. Then the gold like your hair . . . “ he trails off worriedly. “Emma?”
She looks up at him finally - and promptly bursts into tears. Killian glances at Henry worriedly.
“Take your breakfast outside on the patio, okay?”
Henry nods and scurries off without argument, his brown eyes wide as he glances at his mother. Killian rubs his wife’s back and whispers soothing words, most of them nonsense. He hands Emma his handkerchief, and she wipes it across her eyes, then blows her nose loudly. She cocks her head at him, and the words out of her mouth are the last ones he expected.
“Did we have a conversation when you came home last night?”
“Um . . . yes, love. You said my name about a hundred times then asked if I was staying.”
Emma nods, twisting his handkerchief in her hands. “I thought so. Did I ask if we’d done this before?”
Killian laughs and rubs her back again. “Yes, you did. I wasn’t sure if you meant last night, our entire marriage, or since we were ten.”
Emma nods, but says nothing. He’s entirely confused. It isn’t like Emma to cry out of nowhere. Or refuse to look at him. Or dodge his touch. He’s beginning to become concerned, truth be told.
“If you don’t like the ring -”
“Of course I like it! It’s perfect!”
“What then?”
“Oh God,” Emma pants, hugging her middle and looking up at the ceiling. “Last night, I dreamed about this conversation. In my dream - my nightmare - you got angry and left.”
Killian’s brow furrows. “I can assure you, Swan, nothing you can tell me would ever make me leave.”
She levels him with a steady gaze. “You used to. Through the wardrobe.” He starts to open his mouth, but she lifts her hand to stop him. “I know it wasn’t intentional, and I’m not blaming you, I just . . . I just . . .”
He grasps her hand firmly in his. “Breathe, love, it’s okay. You just get scared sometimes. It’s okay. So do I.”
“You do?” her voice sounds so small and fragile that it breaks his heart.
“Aye, of course. It has nothing to do with love or trust. The wounds of childhood tend to linger.”
“But I do trust you!” she exclaims.
He draws nearer and cups her cheek. “I know that. That’s my point entirely. The fears are irrational, for both of us. Now, what is it you have to tell -”
He stills when Emma takes his hand and places it on her abdomen. It’s different somehow, and he freezes. He had noticed the last time they made love, but couldn’t quite put his finger on the change. Now he gazes into Emma’s blushing face - how had he not noticed the sudden roundness in her cheeks? The pieces begin to fall into place - her fatigue lately, that illness that seemed to linger far too long . . .
“Emma, are you . . . “
She nods, her eyes welling up with tears again. Her tears - of course! He swallows thickly.
“Emma you’re . . . “
She grins wider, cocking her head saucily. “I’m rather proud that I’ve rendered you speechless. I think the word you’re looking for is pregnant.”
A grin fills his face, a goofy, joyous grin. “Well, I was going to say with child, actually.”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course you were, my old fashioned sailor who -”
He cuts her off with a passionate kiss, and when it ends, he scoops her up and spins her around with joy.
“Careful there, buddy. The morning sickness is mostly gone, but I make no promises that I won’t puke on you.”
“Wait,” he says, shaking his head, “how long have you known about this?”
“Well,” she hedges, “this realm doesn’t exactly have a stick you can pee on.”
���Sorry?”
She laughs, “Never mind. Let’s just say it took me awhile to figure it out, and then it took me a bit longer to get up the nerve to tell you. I’d say I’m at least twelve weeks along, probably more.”
Killian cups her face with his hand and locks his eyes intently on hers. “Do you honestly believe I would leave you over this?”
She bites her lower lip and shakes her head.
“Can’t you see now how happy this makes me?”
“Well,” she says with a shrug, “you spinning me around the kitchen sort of convinced me, I guess.”
He throws his head back and laughs before kissing her soundly again. But he doesn't do any more spinning.
No sense testing fate.
***************************
“I’m sorry, Captain Jones, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
The midwife has the audacity to grab Kilian by the arm and try to forcibly remove him from his own bedroom. On the bed, Emma is crying out as her next contraction hits.
“I’m not leaving,” Killian says firmly.
“It isn’t proper for a man to be present,” the midwife argues, though her words are almost drowned out by Emma’s cries.
“Bullshit,” Emma interrupts the argument, her breaths coming raggedly as her
birthing pains abate for the moment.
“Mrs. Jones, it just isn’t done,” the midwife snaps back, aghast.
“Well it is in the realm I come from,” Emma tells her, “not to mention the whole
impropriety thing is ridiculous. He’s obviously intimately familiar with my vagina.”
The midwife’s eyes grow impossibly large, and Killian can’t stop the chuckle that escapes him.
“Mrs Jones! It isn’t ladylike to -”
“Yeah, well ladylike has never described me anyway.”
The midwife presses her lips together in a disapproving way as she draws closer to the bed. She lowers her voice, but the woman is seventy-three and hard of hearing, so Killian can hear every word.
“I’m aware that your husband isn’t the biological father of your son, so I’m going to assume this is a bit new to you. If your husband sees you in this state, well . . . it may . . . turn him away from you, if you catch my meaning.”
Emma’s face turns a deeper shade of red that has nothing to do with her labor, and her eyes blaze in a way Killian knows well. He grins wider, knowing that his wife is about to render this woman speechless.
“My husband wasn’t complaining about my pussy when he was between my thighs last night, so I think I’m safe.”
Yep, speechless. Killian can’t help winking at the midwife as he saunters past her. The woman looks like she might faint. Killian kneels beside the bed and brushes a kiss to Emma’s forehead. Her face crumples as she clutches desperately at his hand.
“She was trying to make you leave!”
“Nothing could tear me away, love.”
“Oh God!” Emma yells, drawing her knees up as another contraction rolls through her. Emma releases Killian’s hand and grabs onto his hook instead as she groans in pain. This one is stronger than the last, and just as Killian is about to lose his mind because he can’t help her, she collapses against the mattress.
“I didn’t want to break your one good hand,” she tells him with a wane smile.
“I appreciate that,” he quips back with a lopsided grin.
The midwife has pushed the sheets back and is examining Emma. “Well, Mrs. Jones, your contractions are longer and closer together, but the baby isn’t crowning yet. We’ve got a while still.”
Emma whimpers and shakes her head. “It didn’t take this long when Henry came.”
Killian puts his arm around her and whispers that he loves her. She drops her head wearily to his chest, and he kisses her sweaty brow. Another hour goes by the same way, and it feels like time has stopped altogether. Killian feels her labor is unceasing, so he can’t imagine what it must be like for her. Though she’s clearly exhausted, he’s amazed at her strength.
“I see the head!” the midwife finally says excitedly, and it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. “Can you push for me when the next contraction hits, Emma?”
The look on his wife’s face is full of determination as she draws her knees up. He sees her tense when the pain comes again, but she bears down with a scream. She has to do the same thing again, and again, and yet again before the midwife laughs out that the baby’s head is out. The midwife shocks him when she pushes back the sheets further and asks if he wants to see. Killian does, and he blinks back tears when he sees their baby.
“It’s almost over, Emma,” he encourages her.
Emma pushes a few more times, and finally, cries fill the air. Emma laughs even as she collapses in exhaustion. Killian kisses her and murmurs over and over how bloody brilliant she is.
“It’s a girl!” the midwife announces as she rubs the baby down with salt to fend off infection.
“A girl,” Kilian breathes and kisses his wife again.
The midwife then washes the baby off with the water Killian had boiled for her hours ago. The little thing is red, screaming, and oh so tiny, but the midwife is all business as she cleans her up and wraps her in a blanket. The woman only softens when she gently places the baby girl in Emma’s arms.
“Oh Killian, she’s so beautiful,” Emma whispers as she brushes her fingers over the baby’s cheeks.
Killian lays down sideways on the bed next to his wife and gazes in wonder down at the tiny baby. She has a tuft of dark hair on her head, and her skin is damp and feather soft beneath his fingers. She’s ceased her crying, her eyes wide as she gazes up at Emma, as if she recognizes her mother instantly.
“She has your eyes,” Emma whispers with a smile.
“And your chin and nose,” Killian adds.
“And your ears,” Emma says, her thumb tracing over them.
“Poor thing.”
“Hey,” Emma admonishes, tearing her gaze away from the baby, “I love your ears.”
They just gaze down at her for several moments, Killian grinning broadly when the baby’s tiny fingers wrap around his pinkie. A tear slips down his face, and Emma reaches up to wipe it away.
“Do you want to hold her, Papa?”
He can only nod, his emotions overwhelming him. He gathers the bundle into his arms, holding her close to his chest and out of the way of his hook.
“What shall we name her, Swan?”
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. I sort of had a feeling she was a girl, and well . . . there’s only one name that seems fitting. A name that I will always associate with love and home.”
“I know exactly what you’re referring to, my love, and I think it’s absolutely perfect.”
There’s a soft knock at the door, and they both turn their heads to see Starkey in the doorway with Henry in tow. Kilian grins.
“Henry, would you like to come meet your baby sister Martha?”
Henry’s eyes are wide as he draws closer to the bed. Emma reaches out and encourages her son to climb up and join them. He settles in next to his mother and leans over to look at the baby.
“She’s pink,” he observes, and they laugh.
“She won’t be forever,” Killian explains, “all babies are that way at first.”
“Even me?”
“Yes,” Emma teases, kissing his cheek, “even you.”
Henry gets bored of the baby fairly quickly and asks if he can go back down to the beach with Starkey. After he leaves, Emma and Killian cuddle together to love on Martha, until she starts to fuss.
“Okay,” the midwife says briskly, “Papa needs to leave so Mama can nurse.”
She let’s Killian stay the minute she sees Emma’s scowl.
Emma and Killian: Age 28
“Papa, again, again!”
Killian laughs as his three-year-old daughter makes futile attempts to move the rocking horse back and forth. “Okay, okay, anything for my cygnet.” He presses his hook down on the horse’s tail, setting it in motion again as his little girl squeals with delight.
Emma laughs too from her chair by the fireplace. “That’s the truth. You know the kids don’t need you to bring gifts every time you’re away.”
“It’s part of the inventory I own, love, I can do what I please with it.”
“You spoil us.”
“Happily.”
He winks at his wife as she settles back into her chair and sips contentedly on her mug of hot chocolate - another gift from his latest shipment. Business is booming with the addition of a second ship. Starkey is still the captain of the Jolly while Nibs has taken the helm of the Jewel II. The Jolly is what sets Killian’s business apart, however. With the pegasus sail, it’s able to bring exotic goods from far away realms that no other merchants can acquire. Though Hawkins, Mason, and Curly all left to pursue their respective dreams, Killian had no trouble replacing them nor acquiring a crew for Captain Nibs. Jones Shipping has developed a reputation for treating their sailors well, and Killian has been able to hire the very best at sea.
The Jones family enjoys frequent trips on the Jolly as well, with renovated accommodations that Killian made specifically to make his family more comfortable. Henry and Martha are just as content at sea as they are on land, though this little cottage of theirs is always a joy to come home to.
Killian continues to rock Martha on her new toy as his gaze lands on Henry, now nine years old. As usual, he wanted more paper and pencils, which he goes through at an alarming pace. His writing is incredibly engaging and complex for a boy his age, and Killian couldn’t be more proud. Henry’s no slouch behind the wheel of the Jolly, either, and can read the stars as well as any of Killian’s crew. No father has ever been more blessed than he.
Their domestic evening scene is disrupted by a knock at the door. Emma frowns as she rises to her feet, setting her mug down on the coffee table.
“Who could that be?”
When Emma opens the door, she lets out a pleasantly surprised gasp to find Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily standing there. Despite Martha’s protests, Killian joins Emma at the door with his little girl balanced on his hip. There’s the typical round of greetings, hugs, and exclamations over how much the children have grown, but Emma and Killian both get the feeling this isn’t just a social visit. Not at this time of day, and not by the looks of those nervous expressions on the fairies’ faces.
“I just brought home cocoa and tea from Agrabah,” Killian tells his old friends. “Would you like some?”
“Yes, that would be nice,” Tiger Lily says, “tea for me, please.”
“I’ll take some cocoa,” Tink adds, “remember how Wendy used to love it?”
“Yes, she sure did,” Killan says, his mind going back in time to a frightened little girl with leaves in her hair. He hopes wherever she is, that Wendy is happy.
“Um, Henry,” Emma says slowly, “why don’t you take Martha upstairs with her new rocking horse?”
Killian holds his breath for the lad to protest. His baby sister in his room isn’t his favorite thing in the world, but the boy must pick up on the tension radiating off the fairies because he immediately agrees.
“Come on, Martha,” Henry tells her as he hoists up the rocking horse, “I bet I can rock you even faster than Papa.”
Martha squeals in delight and eagerly follows the big brother she idolizes up the stairs. Emma settles in at the kitchen table with the fairies while Killian goes to the stove.
“What’s this all about?”
That’s his wife, direct as always. Tiger Lily sighs and cuts a quick glance over to Tink.
“Emma . . . “ she says slowly.
“We found your parents!” Tink interrupts, practically vibrating with excitement. Tiger Lily rolls her eyes.
“What?” Emm breathes, and Killian abandons the tea pot to rush to her side and take her hand. “Are you sure?”
“Well, lost princesses are more common than you might think,” Tiger Lily says dryly, “but in the case of the lost princess of Misthaven, it all adds up.”
“Adds up to you, Emma,” Tink put in. “The birthmark, the princess’s birthdate, the wardrobe - all of it!”
“Wait,’ Killian interjects, “did you just say wardrobe?”
He’s cut off by the whistling of the teapot, and he goes quickly to retrieve it from the stove.
“I think we need to start from the beginning, Tink,” Tiger Lily says as Killian sets out the tea and cocoa on the table. When he joins the women, he draws his chair as close as he can to his wife so he can put his arm around her and take her hand.
“You may have heard the tales about Snow White, her Prince Charming, and their battles with the Evil Queen,” Tiger Lily begins.
“Snow White and Prince Charming?” Emma asks. “You mean they’re real?”
“Says the woman married to Captain Hook and having tea with Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily,” Killian quips, earning him an eye roll from his wife. She’s told him the version of Neverland in her former realm - a ridiculous version, in his opinion.
“Yes, they’re real, silly,” Tink says with a shake of her blond curls.
“I’ve heard of them,” Killian says, “go on.”
“Well,” Tiger Lily continues, “you may have heard that though they banished the Evil Queen after taking back the kingdom, she returned when Snow was with child. She cursed the baby with an evil spell.”
“Yes,” Killian says with a shake of his head, “and it came to pass. The child came too soon and died.”
“No, she did come too soon, but the child did not die. Secretly, the Blue Fairy helped the court woodworker fashion an enchanted wardrobe -”
Emma gasps and clutches her husband’s hand tighter. “Killian! A wardrobe!”
“I know, love,” he whispers.
“The wardrobe was supposed to send Snow safely to a land without magic where the curse couldn’t touch the unborn child,” Tiger Lily says.
“It could only carry one,” Tink clarifies.
“But the baby came too soon, so they had no choice but to send the child through alone. The Evil Queen and her minions were mounting an attack on the castle, so they had no more time.”
Killian nods. “I’ve heard of that battle. It’s a favorite tale in every realm, though not one with a happy ending. The Evil Queen was slain, and everyone was led to believe that in the chaos, Queen Snow lost the child.”
“And you believe this baby was me?” Emma asks softly.
Tiger Lily reaches across the table and gently turns over Emma’s left wrist. “The Blue Fairy cast a spell over you in the womb so that when you were born, this mark would be upon you. So your parents would know you when you found them.”
Emma’s eyes well up with tears. “How did they know I would ever find them?”
“They had faith and hope. Even with the Evil Queen dead, her curse still remained until your 21st birthday.”
Tink jumps in, bouncing on her seat. “The best part, Tiger Lily, tell them the best part!”
Tiger Lily smiles indulgently at the blonde. “I think you’d like to tell them, so go ahead.”
“The Rose Fairy imparted a gift to you, Emma - that the wardrobe would bring you your true love, and that when the time was right, he would lead you home.”
Emma turns to Killian, her eyes bright with tears as she cups his face. “Our wardrobe, Killian, that’s why it appeared to us.”
He shakes his head in wonder. “Emma, I know how you feel about me, but true love? That’s the strongest magic of all. Surely someone more worthy . . . “
Emma’s face softens as tears slip free and roll down her cheeks. “Don’t you see? The wardrobe brought us together right when we needed one another the most. Right before I lost Martha, right before you lost your brother and Milah. Then it brought us together for good when you found Henry.”
Killian lets out a breath of wonder as Emma’s thumb traces the scar on his cheek. “We always find one another, don’t we?”
Tiger Lily and Tink both beam as they speak again.
“It’s funny you should say that -”
“Because it’s kind of your family motto.”
To Be Continued . . . . 😉
Tagging: @snowbellewells @kmomof4 @whimsicallyenchantedrose @teamhook @bethacaciakay @let-it-raines @welllpthisishappening @wellhellotragic @winterbaby89 @xhookswenchx @courtorderedcake @branlovestowrite @hollyethecurious @vvbooklady1256 @profdanglaisstuff @carpedzem @ekr032-blog-blog @jennjenn615 @tiganasummertree @lfh1226-linda @ultraluckycatnd @spartanguard @shireness-says @scientificapricot @stahlop @resident-of-storybrooke @superchocovian @sherlockianwhovian @snidgetsafan @ohmakemeahercules @thislassishooked @ilovemesomekillianjones @nikkiemms @delirious-latenight-laughs
#cs ff#csrt#captain swan rewrite a thon#cs neverland au#cs canon divergence#magic wardrobe#fate#soul mates#angst#slow burn#childhood sweethearts
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I Will Spend My Whole Life Loving You (Spock x Fem!Reader) [Request!]
“Fic Request: Spock x Fem!Reader (Vulcan/Human hybrid) go on a romantic date!”
”Headcanon or Fic Request: fem!Reader being married to Spock!”
“Request: Spock x Human-Vulcan Fem!Reader get married on the Enterprise. Preferably TOS Spock please.”
- @sovereignoblivious
Hi there! Thank you for requesting :) I decided to mash these all into one since they are all kind of similar. I hope you don’t mind! Also, I write for mainly AOS but nothing really distinguishes it from TOS so you can imagine it taking place in TOS if you would like! I also totally forgot about the vulcan/human hybrid until I was about 1k words in, so if it’s not as well represented I’m so sorry!! I tried to fit it in as best I could :(
I wrote this like a recap of your relationship with Spock, so there’s not much dialogue. I tried to be as detailed as possible!
Also, sorry for the lack of updates... the school year just ended and I went on vacation for two weeks to visit my family in Hawai’i! I had no wifi for nearly 10 days and let me tell you it was AWFUL. Haha. I’m so glad to be home. The rest of this summer will hopefully be full of updates! Keep the requests coming!
ALSO, THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE FOLLOWS!!!!! I gained 20 more followers while I was away! I love you all so much :D!!!
Word Count: 2377
Warnings: fluff, swearing, mentions of self-harm/self-loathing
Send a request!
You had absolutely hated Spock at first. Boiling, raw, pure hatred for him, even though your reasons were unfair and you knew it.
Your initial thought was to just avoid him as much as possible, but that plan was eventually foiled when you realized how difficult that was going to be when he was in almost all of your classes, his dorm was literally directly across the street (like you could look out your window and see right through his window, how you both happened to be on the 17th floor in separate buildings and the same room number was beyond you) and you saw him probably more than ten times a day.
He was there on the walk to class in the morning, there during class, there during lunch hour, even there sometimes on the walk home after class. Once you thought it couldn’t get any worse, your professors started pairing the two of you for group projects. When you asked why, all of their answers ran along the same lines: ‘You both need to learn to get along’ or ‘You could learn a lot from each other’ and other shit like that. You started getting suspicious when you suddenly had four projects assigned with him as your partner. You asked your friends about it when you were getting frustrated and all they did was share a look between each other and shrug. When you and Spock set a date to finally start working on all of your projects, you started dreading it. You found yourself lingering around, whether it be to ask a professor a question that you already knew the answer to after class was over or staying late at the library so that you wouldn't have to go to bed and wake up the next morning, a whole day closer to doomsday. You tried to tell yourself that the reason you were doing that was because you hated him and didn’t want to be around him for any amount of time, but when the familiar burning sensation you always felt when thinking of him started morphing into something else you got scared. The change startled you, suddenly feeling self-conscious and unsure as opposed to your typically confident nature. It was all so new and it was especially frightening when you didn’t have enough time to unpack it before your workday with Spock, so, instead of dealing with it, you tried to push it all down.
When the day finally came, it took every ounce of willpower you had to roll out of bed and get dressed. It was a Saturday so you didn’t need to be dressed in uniform, so you went with some black sweats that had ‘STARFLEET’ written down one side and a [f/c] tank top. It was a little chilly outside, so you threw your favorite hoodie on as you walked out the door. You tied your hair back in the elevator, careful to leave enough down to cover your ears, put your keycard into the side pocket of your backpack and you started the walk to the campus library.
If there was one thing you were most self-conscious about it was your Vulcan ears. You didn’t like your Vulcan side as much because of your father. He was half-Vulcan half-human, while you were three-quarters human and only one-fourth Vulcan. You were glad you only inherited the ears, not the eyebrows. You and your father didn’t have the best relationship, or any relationship at all, really, and you never knew why. He was often strict and unfeeling, never exercising his human side in front of you. He left when you were eight years old for a Vulcan science mission and never came back. Your mother still loved him, though you never saw him show any sign of affection back. You always believed your mother deserved better, and that was when your hatred for Vulcans started to manifest. Starting with yourself.
A few years after he left you fell into a dark place, although you were exceptional at hiding it. You would often stare at your sharply pointed ears in the mirror and pull on them, hoping that if you pulled hard enough from the bottom they would even out. You would wear earmuffs year-round so that nobody would see. When you were fifteen, you snuck out and got them pierced several times so that they would appear more human. They also compelled you to become more emotional to appear less like your father.
You shook yourself out of your reverie as you walked out of the front entrance of your building.
Luckily for you, Spock was not walking down the opposite sidewalk so you slid your headphones under your hood over your ears and shuffled your playlist. The walk was much shorter than you would’ve preferred and you sauntered up the steps into the vast hall. Since everybody was off, the library was used more as a hangout area than a quiet study hall, save for the actual study hall in the back, so it was a bit louder than usual.
You spotted Spock sitting at one of the smaller open tables next to one of the windows overlooking the grounds. The fluttery-anxious feeling was back again, causing you to swallow hard as you approached him.
“Hey,” you called as he looked up from the window.
“Hey,” he greeted, somewhat awkwardly. Setting your backpack down, you sat down across from him. He was wearing casual clothes too; a plain green sweater and some jeans, though you thought it was cute how he still wore his badge. You shut your eyes tightly and cursed yourself.
I don’t think he looks cute, I don’t think he looks cute, I don’t think he looks cute-
“[y/n], are you feeling alright?” he asked.
You opened your eyes and glared at him.
“Fine, just mentally preparing,” you snapped.
He did what you could only assume was his version of an eye roll, but what surprised you was the flicker of a smile that passed over his features. It was only there for a fraction of a second, but your cheeks reddened as your heart raced.
What is happening to me?
“Would you like to begin?” he started pulling out papers and you gulped.
This was going to be a long day.
Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. You had never really sat down and talked with Spock before, and to your astonishment, he was a really cool person. You both talked for hours, barely getting any work done, and before you knew it the library was empty and it was almost nine pm. You packed up your things and headed back towards your dorms you continued to talk and he continued to make you laugh and once you made it to the front entrance of your building you couldn’t even remember why you had hated him in the first place.
You smiled and told him goodnight, feeling the heat creep up on your cheeks. You swore that you saw his own cheeks tint green. You both stared back at each other for a moment, feeling yourself gravitate towards each other for a brief second before you realized what you were doing and leaned back a little. He bid you goodnight and with the tiniest little smile you had ever seen, he turned away and crossed the street. You shook yourself out of your daze and hurried inside, texting your friends to meet you asap in your dorm. Even though it was late, you knew your friends and their Saturday night habits.
You asked them about Spock again, this time a little less aggressively. They looked shocked at your calm, almost lovestruck expression settled over your features, glancing worriedly between themselves.
Your friends were there for hours talking with you about your feelings and how you were to deal with them until you all fell asleep. They told you that this was just a case of misinterpretation of feelings, so when you felt so strongly towards Spock you mistook it for hatred when it was really admiration and infatuation. The confirmed that the same thing had happened to Spock, though he had realized much sooner. When you asked them what that meant, they dropped the bombshell on you.
“[y/n],” [friend’s name] said gently. “Spock has been smitten with you since midterms. Almost everyone knows, except for you apparently.”
You sat and stared for a minute, unsure how to react. Giddiness rose above all the other emotions you were feeling, forcing a smile to form on your lips. You felt all choked up, excitement raising your heartrate and slowly taking away your ability to breathe.
“So, even the teachers know?” you managed to force out. Your friends chuckled.
The teachers assumed something was going on, but didn’t know for sure since you acted so hostile towards him all the time so they went out of their way to pair you and Spock together.
You thanked your friends and invited them to stay the night.
The next day you had planned to work with Spock again, so you left your friends a note and told them they could stay as long as they liked as long as they locked the door before they left.
You met Spock at the library again but this time you actually did get some work done, and quickly. When you both finished, you packed your things and took a walk around the grounds. You talked all day about random things, interests, favorites, childhood (you tried your best to leave out the part about your father) and a little bit about your hopes for the future. You did most of the talking, though Spock did contribute on occasion, like he talked a bit about his love (or as he put it, ‘subtle interest’ but you knew better) for music and his passion for science.
Hours passed quickly and the sunset came quickly. You and Spock were sat on a grassy slope overlooking the San Fransisco Bay, watching the sunset.
“[y/n], I have something to confess,” he broke the silence. You turned to him.
“Go ahead.”
“The truth of the matter is that I harbor no malice or hatred towards you,” he started, looking away from you. Even in the dim golden light from the descending sun, you could tell he was uncomfortable. “My... feelings towards you are quite the opposite.”
You stared blankly at him for a moment. Even though you had already known, hearing it come from his was a totally different story. You scooted a little closer to him and placed your head down on his shoulder. He relaxed beneath you, accepting the action as one of reciprocation. You felt his hand brush over yours and the spark that followed after confirmed a Vulcan kiss. You raised your head up to meet his eyes, which flickered between your lips and back up. You leaned in slowly to give him time to back out if he wasn’t comfortable, but to your surprise, he was the one to close the distance.
This kiss was sweet and only lasted a few seconds. When you pulled away, you could see the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips. Your smile faded, though, when you remembered your lie.
“I have to tell you something,” you said softly. He nodded slowly, letting you remove your hand from his light hold.
You pulled your hood back and tucked your hair behind your now exposed ear. You couldn’t look him in the eye as he stared at your earring-ridden ear that mirrored his.
“You’re... Vulcan?”
“A quarter,” you replied softly, wringing your hands in your lap. Spock reached out to grasp them in his own, forcing you to look back up into his eyes.
“Why did you feel the need to hide this from me?” he asked you gently. “It would not and does not change the effect that you have on me.”
So, you explained in the waning sunlight what actually happened in your childhood and the issues with your father, why you ended up hating all Vulcans and that’s why you hated him too in the beginning.
“You don’t need to be ashamed of your heritage because of him,” he told you when you finished. “You don’t need to hide part of who you are because of his mistakes. I can assist you in exploring our culture to help change your views if you would like.”
You threw your arms around his neck in a tight hug.
“Thank you,” you murmured.
_____________
You and Spock stayed together for the remaining years at the academy. You brought him home to meet your mother (who instantly approved) and you did almost everything together. Date night was your favorite time of the week, which ranged from movie nights or fancy dinners. Your favorite one was when he took you out of the city to go stargazing and set up the cutest little picnic complete with lanterns and fairy lights. It was romantic and beautiful being there with him and listening to the wildlife as the stars made themselves known. He showed you all the constellations he knew of.
Before you knew it you were both assigned on missions. At first, you were separated; you on the USS Bradbury and him on the USS Enterprise, but with some convincing, you were reassigned to the Enterprise.
After your first run-in with danger when Nero attacked and your near-death experience, Spock decided it was time to pop the question. You were married not long after by Jim, who you had gotten very close to because of Spock. You had asked Nyota to be your maid of honor and Spock chose Leonard (who agreed despite his recurring annoyance with the Vulcan). You were awarded a larger, shared quarters and time off duty to spend time together.
Married life was much more normal than you had originally thought it was going to be. Everything just started to slow down around you, and you always had a sense of calm whenever Spock was near you. The butterflies you always felt when he was around died down and instead you felt an overwhelming amount of safety and comfort.
He was all you had ever wanted, and he was forever yours.
#star trek#star trek fanfic#Star Trek Fanfiction#star trek aos#star trek aos x reader#star trek aos reader inserts#spock#spock fanfiction#spock x reader#spock imagines#spock x femreader#star trek spock fanfiction
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hello hello!!! it’s your friendly bi-weekly update here, telling you that this dumbass fic has updated and you can now read it! mbmbam-style talking points: Springtime, Intimate Haircuts, Children Rebellions, and Grace Under Pressure!
i had a lot of fun putting this one together, mostly b/c the entire chapter changed when i went to work on it. carmina is surprisingly fun to write, although i try to stay away from her dialogue as i can’t write children at all, and john is increasingly more frustrating for nick, which is always a blast. i think we’ll probably check in with kim next chapter and see how things are holding up on her end. i’m sure it’s fine!
as usual, if you enjoy what i’m doing, feel free to leave a comment, or reblog, or send me anonymous asks telling me i’m not thinking about xyz deeply enough and should be ashamed!!!! i won’t be ashamed but i will appreciate you taking the time to tell me i should be :)
for real though, thank you guys so much for being so supportive, and i hope that i continue to provide some good, engaging “nick and kim adopt an asshole” content!!! i appreciate each and every one of you. below the cut is the text for this chapter, in case you don’t wanna leave tumblr!
The seasons seem to roll over without Nick ever really realizing it. The last snowfall was a week ago, and although the nights are still bitterly cold and long, the sun burns bright enough in the morning to chase the chills and frost away before noon. The vines that cover everything have begun to bud again, although it'll be a little while yet before they turn pink and blossom.
Nick is glad that spring is back, but coming out of semi-hibernation is a struggle. He wants to stay in bed, to pull on a few jackets and sit around the campfire, to work on the random DIY projects that kept him busy while they were partially snowed in. Now, it's time for Kim to start talking about planting again, and Carmina has started begging to go hunting with Aunt Grace, and the radio is coming to life every evening with people checking in after their own long winter rests. Hurk and Sharky are trying to peddle something they call party liquor over their own channel, suspiciously refusing to outright call it moonshine, and Fall's End has begun broadcasting about retaking the farmland that's become home to monstrous bison and two-headed cows.
Sometimes, Nick thinks he's stuck going ten miles-per-hour while everyone else can switch gears at the drop of a hat. Adaptability is the second name of survival out here, but damn it, Nick needs a couple of days before he can start thinking about trading with other survivors, much less making the long-needed visits he's been putting off since they climbed out of the ground. He needs to go into Fall's End proper, to pay his respects to Mary May and visit Jerome. He also needs to go out and finally trade out for some hens, so they can have eggs more often, and so they have their own supply to barter with. He's got a list a mile long of things he has to do; so does Kim, for that matter, although she handles it better than he does.
At least they can use John to pick up the extra slack. John's the reason why Nick was able to clear junk out of the hangar, and why all of the trash from Carmina's old room has been taken outside and burned. Ever since Nick fixed the window in his room, John's been quicker to work and easier to instruct, and his weird habits have mostly died off. He still gets distracted during long, monotonous tasks, and he doesn't speak unless spoken to most of the time, but at least he's stopped pacing around and muttering all night, and he's starting to remember what table manners are.
The first unofficial day of spring is family haircut day. Carmina demands that Kim lop all of her long hair off, leaving her with a see-your-manager bob that Nick hopes she'll get tired of. Kim helps Nick out too, trimming up the back for him as he cuts his bushy beard down to just off his chin. Getting a clean shave is more trouble than it's worth these days, and Nick has long since gotten used to wearing a beard. Besides, Kim doesn't seem to mind the Kenny Loggins look one bit, pulling gently on his whiskers to steal a kiss once he's done.
After Nick, Kim cuts John's hair. Nick doesn't know how he feels about John being included in a family affair, but the guy needs it more than any of them. There's only so many bucket-baths one man can take, and John's hair seems to have absorbed more dirt than water could remove. Nick's not sure if it's actually eight years worth of grime that he's keeping in his tangled hair, but it's bad enough to need serious attention.
They do it upstairs in John's room with the door locked, while Carmina reads downstairs — Nick really doesn't need her asking questions about why John's being included on family haircut day, thanks. He stands by the door just in case Carmina tries to interrupt, or in the unlikely event that John tries to bolt, unhappily watching ask Kim sits John down in a chair borrowed from downstairs.
John keeps his eyes fixed on his shoes as Kim assesses the damage, hands clasped tightly in his lap. When Kim huffs unhappily at the rat's nest she's facing, he drops his head so the hair can curtain his face.
Kim hacks off as much hair as she can, careful not to cut one side too much shorter than the other until she knows what she's got left to work with. She orbits slowly around John as she quietly trims away dreaded knots and grime-caked tangles, more focused on her work than on the dangerous psychopath who could grab her kitchen shears at any moment. As she trims his bangs back, John closes his eyes, and he keeps them that way even as she moves on, leaving his face exposed.
She wrinkles her nose as she clears enough hair to reveal John's destroyed ear, heavily scarred and torn from where the deputy shot him. She says nothing about it, but Nick can see from John's expression that it's all he's thinking about. Nick wonders if he can still hear out of it, or if his eardrum never recovered. He's never even thought about it before.
The space between the three of them starts to fill with the heaviness of unintentional silence, but Nick can't bring himself to break the quiet. He doesn't want to distract Kim or trigger some fighting instinct from John. And anyway, he doesn't know what he could say that would make this whole thing feel less weird.
"Well," Kim says, once she's stepped back to get a look at her handiwork, "I mean, it's... better."
It's a shaggier, poor man's version of what John's hair used to look like, but Nick can at least tell the hair that's left is clean. There's not enough hair for him to hide behind anymore, much less hide his busted ear. For the first time, Nick notices an old scar across John's forehead and the dark gray hair that's grown in at his temples. It's... jarring. All at once, Nick is looking at the man he'd sworn to destroy as if he'd only just now removed some kind of disguise. An older, more exhausted version of his sworn enemy is sitting right there, leaving Nick to wonder if cleaning him up was even such a good idea to begin with.
"Damn," Nick says as realization dawns on him, "There's no hiding who he is now, huh."
John's jaw clenches. Nick wonders if he'd been hedging his bets on being indistinguishable from any other survivor.
"We aren't hiding him," Kim huffs.
This is news to Nick, who's been operating with as much secrecy as possible. They'd even stopped having Grace come pick up Carmina, going out to meet her instead. "Yeah, well, we aren't exactly banging pots and pans to draw attention to him, either," he points out.
" You're the one who said he needed a haircut."
"And he did! Just... I didn't realize the difference it'd make, is all." Nick tries to catch John's attention, but he seems to be just fine blending into the surroundings while Nick and Kim argue about his stupid hair. "Anyone with a scope is gonna spot him half a mile away."
"People are going to find out about this eventually, Nick," Kim tells him. She goes so far as to rest a hand on John's shoulder to emphasize her point, saying, "We can't keep his survival a secret forever."
Nick frowns, but Kim's right. Eventually, they're going to have to make a case for letting John live. So far, it's been alright, but... well, is John really worth staking their reputations on? Even if he was, has he done enough to prove that Nick hadn't made a dumb, sympathetic mistake? And if not, is Nick going to have to step aside and let somebody else do what he should have done months ago?
"Well, we've got time to figure it out," Nick admits at last, mostly because he doesn't want to think about it right now. Since it feels weird having a conversation about John right in front of him without addressing him at all , Nick offers him some direct commentary. "I guess you better just keep working on that good karma, huh?" he asks, aiming for smug but falling somewhat short.
"Yeah," John rasps. "I guess so."
The haircut does something for John's attitude, although it takes a few days before Nick notices. After a couple months of strange demureness, he begins to react to things like a goddamn human again. He can meet Nick's eyes now, although he struggles to hold the contact for more than a few seconds. When Nick or Kim tell him to do something, there's no more mute nodding. Instead, John will say, "Okay," or, "I understand." Sometimes, he'll even ask questions about the things they tell him to do, like where to move things or if he's doing something right. Once, after a few solid hours in too-bright-for-February sunlight, John asks Nick for a break, and it doesn't feel like selling out to let him sit down and have some lunch.
Of course, Nick never forgets that John is a manipulative user. He's got a way of seeming reasonable at first, going from pleasantries to stealing your land out from under you before anyone realizes he's dropped the kind and charitable act. Nick can't afford to forget that. There's nobody left in the world who could help him if John decides to toy with him this time around. Before the bombs, there had been laws and regulations and an entire justice system that he could get help from, but now? Now, if John decides he wants Nick's property more than he wants to make amends, all he's gotta do is take it.
Nick would like to believe that John isn't planning some sort of coup, that he's not just acting pitiable to drop their guard, but he's already taking so many risks with the guy. It's not safe to think John is playing along with Nick and Kim because he feels bad about what happened. That kind of low-ball expectation is exactly what caused Hope County to underestimate the Seeds before, and Nick isn't going to do that again.
John always seems tense whenever Carmina is around. She knows better than to directly address him, of course, since Kim and Nick have told her multiple times not to, but somehow she manages to work around the rules. She'll pretend he isn't around when she asks about his tattoos or scars or how his ear looks weird, and no amount of scolding manages to stop her. She asks for specifics about what he did to get in so much trouble, and why they're always watching him, and why he's not allowed to handle guns or knives or anything bigger than a hammerhead missing its handle. The healthier John looks, the more she asks about him, and now that he's got a haircut and clothes that hide most of his scars and tattoos, Carmina's fascination has started full force.
The only thing that keeps her from turning to John outright for her answers is his avoidance of her entirely. John goes out of his way to avoid looking at her, and if there's any distance to be gained between them, he's the one looking to gain it. Nick can't tell if he just isn't fond of kids, or if he has something personal against Carmina. The latter concept probably shouldn't irritate him so much, but — well, that's his daughter, man! He's obligated to be irritated when someone doesn't like her, even if that someone is his oldest enemy.
Thankfully, now that it's nicer out, Carmina has better things to do than sit around speculating on the guy living in the spare room. Nick takes her on an unsuccessful fishing trip, Kim takes her to visit Grace, and on days when nothing special is planned, she gets to run pretty much free, as long as she's within earshot.
One morning, as Kim and Carmina get ready to go meet up with Grace, Carmina asks, "Does dad always have to watch John?"
Nick thinks she waited specifically until Nick had brought John downstairs to ask, which is a little too cunning for his liking. "I'm not always watching him," Nick replies. "Sometimes it's your mom."
"We've told you," Kim chides gently. "John needs supervision."
John doesn't look up from his customary spot on the bottom stair, chewing through his breakfast. His shoulders are held tight, but otherwise, it's as if he can't even hear the conversation happening around him. Nick has to admit, he's impressed that John doesn't get more worked up when they talk about him like he's not there. It'd piss the hell out of Nick if he were in the other's shoes.
"We could take him with us," Carmina suggests. Since she's standing in front of her mom, she can't see the horrified expression that Kim directs Nick's way.
"Uh, I don't think that'd be a good idea," Nick says, which is usually what he says whenever he wants the conversation to end.
Apparently, that's not going to fly this time around, as Carmina pouts and asks, "But why not ?"
Kim puts her hands gently on Carmina's shoulders, sighing and saying, "It's complicated, honey."
Well, great, they just used both of their canned responses to her back-to-back. Carmina is a good kid — patient, kind, tolerant — but she knows when she's being given the runaround and she won't put up with any of it.
"That's what you always say," she complains. "I want to know why! I'm complicated too, I can handle it!"
"Carmina, it's not that easy —"
"I don't care!" Carmina exclaims. Her frustration is about to boil over as she whirls to face John. "I'm talking to you, now!" she demands, downright offended that she has to declare it. Carmina hasn't worked herself up into a riot for a while now, but she certainly hasn't lost her touch. "You're supposed to be a bad guy, but all you do is hang around all day! Don't you want to go outside? Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"
Nick has definitely told John not to address Carmina, but this feels like extenuating circumstances. It was bound to happen — there's only so many times you can write off the prisoner in your house as a disagreeable weirdo before your daughter demands answers. He just isn't sure that there's anything John can say that won't raise more questions, each one harder to answer than the last.
John finally looks up from his breakfast to offer Carmina an unimpressed stare. "I have no interest in speaking to you," he tells her. His voice is downright chilly, with a tone best reserved for dismissing an incompetent secretary with an NDA. It's borderline offensive to have John talk to his little girl that way, but the ice freezes Carmina's escalating tantrum in its tracks.
"O-Oh," she says, deflating almost immediately. It's only going to dissuade her for a couple of days, tops, but by then they'll have figured something to say. Something that will paper over history that Nick can't afford to hide from her forever — eventually, they're going to have to tell her just how big John's role was in their suffering. But it's going to require nuance, and a better explanation than, Daddy's just going with his gut, sweetie .
"I'll try to explain," Kim tells her, turning her away from John's visible disinterest and facing her towards the door. "You just have to be patient. We're doing our best."
" He's not," Carmina sulks. She pulls on her coat, offering Nick a gloomy, "Bye, dad," before Kim ushers her out of the house.
Nick turns to John as soon as they leave, ready to lecture him on how to talk to children, but John doesn't look remotely up for it. Just the one interaction has left him wiped, and there's a distant glaze to his eyes as he gets caught up in his own thoughts. He keeps getting trapped in his own head; it used to irritate Nick, but lately, it's just worrisome behavior that he's got to keep an eye on. Like Carmina having nightmares, or Kim taking out her stress on firewood.
"You sure know how to handle kids," Nick winds up saying, which isn't exactly the fight he'd wanted to start.
John closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do you have something else for me to do today other than talk?" he sighs. He's trying for irritation, but he only manages to sound exhausted.
Nick can't help but think he's hit a nerve. Worse, he feels bad about it. He tries to brush it off, asking, "Well, what do you wanna do — pull siding or chop firewood?"
"Does it matter what I want?" John replies.
Damn, but John has perfected that cool dismissal, leaving Nick feeling chastised. "I guess not," he grouses.
Nick is definitely sulking as he sets John to removing some rotten siding. Thankfully, he has a whole bunch of wood to take his frustration out on. He's got John right in view, and he knows how to throw an ax and sometimes even hit things with one, so he should be fine. Anyway, John only ever has eyes for his work — Nick's not sure if escaping is really on his mind anymore. Sort of like feeding raccoons. You do it because you don't want them to go hungry, like any decent person, and the next thing you know they've stopped foraging and come by like clockwork every Wednesday night until the apocalypse.
Actually, maybe that's Stockholm syndrome? Nick isn't sure. He sure hopes not.
The day goes by as uneventfully as any other. It's not particularly hot out, but the sun is out and the birds are singing in true springtime fashion. It's actually a pretty nice day when all's said and done; Nick takes a minute or two after he finishes chopping wood to enjoy the blue sky and the tall, somewhat decimated trees swaying in the breeze. It's quiet all around, feeling like the edge of the world for a second or two before distant gunshots remind him that they aren't truly alone out here. He doubts it's anything to worry about, and he's sure that it has nothing to do with Kim and Carmina meeting Grace, but he still worries about it enough to chop down a few more logs.
Afterward, Nick definitely could use a break, sweaty and tired and a little hungry. John looks mostly done, too, having taken off nearly all of the section Nick had outlined for him. There's enough scrap to make plenty of shingles to finish the roof, even if it means leaving some of the house exposed. The nails will be useful, too, and Kim can probably figure out what to make with the unusable bits of wood.
"C'mon," he calls, shaking his canteen in John's direction, "Get some water. Then, you can start pulling any nails out of the boards that managed to survive. We can't afford to run out of those if we're gonna fix up the hangar."
John takes a gratefully large drink before he asks, "What's the point? You don't have a plane."
Nick rolls his eyes. Great, now he's got another petulant child asking dumb questions to deal with. "No, asshole, I don't. But I figure the house isn't really big enough for all the supplies we're gonna need. Wood, siding, sheet metal, not to mention the generator that's been sitting in the closet for longer than you've been here. There's that old chest freezer in there, maybe it'll still work." He waves towards the building, which is missing a good deal of its roof, RYE & SON faded across the front. "I'm not just gonna leave it like that."
John doesn't have anything to say to that — if he does, he keeps it to himself. Which is good. Fine! Nick doesn't need, or want , John to argue with him about the damn hangar.
Together, they drag long strips of old siding to the porch, where Nick has John sit while he gets to work on dinner, which is going to be classic, leftover-meat-and-potato stew. By the time Carmina and Kim get back, Nick will have everything taken care of and under control here. Kim will have probably figured out what to tell Carmina to keep her from putting too much trust in John, without telling her the gruesome, not-safe-for-children details. They'll sit down and talk about going fishing, and hopefully this time Nick won't ruin the stew with too much salt.
Carmina comes running towards the house a good hour before Nick expected her to be back. His heart immediately leaps into his throat as he imagines why she's alone, why she's towards him looking so upset. Thankfully, Kim is following right behind, which stops him from blocking Carmina as she bolts up the back porch and inside without a backward glance. The relief Nick feels at seeing Kim is short-lived as he realizes she isn't alone — Grace is standing there beside her, rifle in hand, staring across the backyard at John Seed sitting on the porch with a pile of nails at his feet.
"Ah, shit," is the first thing that Nick manages to say. He turns to John, with a fresh haircut and his sleeves rolled up to show off his tattoos, and he knows there's no mistaking him for anybody else. Grace is going to take one look at him through her scope and pop his head clean off his shoulders. "Don't move, don't speak, don't do anything ," Nick warns him. "Just... sit there, okay? Carmina's just upstairs. I don't want her to hear you get your brains blown out because you decided now was the time to bolt."
John doesn't respond, but he also doesn't move, frozen with a piece of wood clutched loosely in his hands. That should count for something. Nick turns back to Kim and Grace, who still haven't come any closer. Kim is talking to Grace, who may or may not be listening to whatever she's trying to say. All Nick knows is that Grace has him pinned dead to rights with an immeasurably pissed off glare.
He should be worrying less about John getting shot and more about Grace shooting him . Shit, should he go over to them and try to patch things up? That would be leaving John unattended. That would look bad for them, right?
Finally, Grace begins an approach. She's got her rifle clutched against her chest, her stony gaze sliding from Nick to John. Kim hovers behind her, anxiously giving Grace some distance as she tries to explain everything to Nick through frantic hand gestures alone.
Grace reaches the fire pit before she stops. She looks at the stew, bubbling in the pot, then to John, and finally to Nick.
"So it's true," she says.
"I know you're probably angry," Nick begins. From Grace's sharp glare, it's the wrong way to start the conversation.
"Angry doesn't begin to describe how I feel right now, Nick," she replies flatly. Nick starts to suspect that she's only holding on to her gun to keep herself from wailing on him. "You're harboring a goddamn cult leader in your home! You've been hiding John Seed in your home for months — what the hell are you thinking? Have you two forgotten what this maniac did to all of us?" She points accusingly at his chest, "Did you forget what he did to you ?"
"Of course I haven't!" Nick struggles not to raise his voice, trying desperately to maintain some kind of diplomacy with one of his oldest and closest friends. But he doesn't have any defense prepared for John, and he's not all that willing to defend him to begin with, so being backed into a corner isn't helping. "How could I? That's the reason he's here — he owes us!"
Kim jumps in to plead with Grace. "It's like I told you," she insists. "Nick gave him an ultimatum. He's been sticking by it."
Grace is overwhelmed enough that she spits in disgust. "You made a deal with a devil to mend fences and pull nails?" she asks. "You think that's what he owes Hope County? Some housework ? Is that really worth rekindling the god-damned cult?"
"Hey, there's none of that bullshit around here. John," Nick instructs, "Tell her."
"It's true," John rasps. He's pale and trembling, looking like he might faint. "Eden's Gate is dead."
"What makes you think I'd believe a word you'd say?" Grace snaps. "You're nothing but a murderous conman. Don't you dare speak to me."
"You don't need to believe him," Kim says, moving in to distract Grace's lethal glare from John. "You can believe us. The cult destroyed everything, and then it destroyed itself. All we're trying to do is put the pieces back together the best we can. For everyone ."
"You can't possibly think this is a good idea," Grace says, a distinct accusation buried in her words. "He's lying to you. He's using you two. And you're just going to let him?" When neither of them immediately respond, she scoffs loudly. "Unbelievable. If Rook were here..."
"You know exactly what they would do," Kim says.
Grace taps an irritated beat against her rifle, scowling first at Kim, then at John. She's probably trying to stare him to death. Nick's just glad she isn't directing that lethal glare his way. "And what do you expect me to do?" she asks.
Nick is sure that if Grace chooses to shoot John, he'll let it happen. He worries about the aftermath, about his relationship with Grace, about Carmina's wellbeing, about the kind of post-apocalyptic world they'd finally be living in, but he's sure that he won't try to stop her. Mostly sure. Pretty sure.
Lord , Nick prays, Please do not test me on this one today.
"I'm hoping you'll trust us to do what's right," Kim says, concluding what sounds like a defense she's been building since this whole mess started. Nick can only imagine what the walk back home must have been like.
For a moment, Grace doesn't move, her jaw clenching as she considers the stakes. Nick doesn't know what makes the decision for her, but finally, she eases up on her gun. "I must be an idiot," she mutters to herself, before addressing the two of them directly. "The minute he reveals his true colors, you tell me."
"Yeah," Nick says, surprised at how breathless he sounds. Had he been holding his breath? "Yeah, obviously."
"You're making me take a huge risk that I don't want to take," she informs them grimly, ignoring John as if her life depends on it. " Don't make me regret it."
Grace storms away with such righteous anger that Nick almost doesn't catch the retreat for what it is. He can hardly believe that she's leaving, still tensed for the gunshot he'd thought was inevitable. As soon as Grace disappears from view, John lurches from his seat, sweaty face going gray. He barely manages to stagger to the corner of the house before he throws up, clutching the wall for support.
Nick will handle that in a minute. First, though, he turns to ask his wife, "What the hell happened?"
"God, Nick, it was a disaster," Kim sighs, looking pale and trembly herself. "Carmina was still upset when we met Grace, and she spilled everything. I tried to soften the blow, to, you know, explain, but Grace didn't believe any of it at first, and then Carmina was talking about him being in our room all night..."
"Jesus." Nick rubs his eyes, then wraps his arms around Kim, feeling her melt into the hug. "I should've been there. I should've told Grace before Carmina could get the chance." He groans quietly, "Damn it, she's probably still freaking out up there."
"She was convinced Grace was going to kill him," Kim tells him. "She thought it was all her fault."
Nick sighs. "This was a big mistake. I should've taken him to Grace when I found him. Carmina doesn't deserve any of this."
Gently breaking away from the hug, Kim looks briefly towards John before gesturing towards the house. "I should go check on her. She needs to know everything is... well, stable. For now, anyway."
"Yeah, you do that. I'll, uh... I'll deal with this mess."
Nick watches Kim go inside, and then turns to watch the pathway Grace had disappeared down. He half expects to see her lurking in the bushes, but he knows Grace better than that. She would never let him see her coming if that were the case.
John sits down heavily against the side of the house, pale and wracked with uncontrollable tremors. It's not the reaction that Nick is used to — whenever he waved his gun around, John always seemed patiently resigned, waiting for the time when Nick would finally make good on his hollow threats. Grace hadn't even pointed her rifle at him, and he's losing his damned lunch.
Nick catches John muttering to himself as he approaches, but he doesn't hear the words, and John shuts up when he gets too close. He stands over John for a minute, but the move seems too aggressive when John looks up at him with saucer-wide eyes. Reluctantly, he crouches down, his knee popping in complaint.
"Well," Nick says, when John just stares at him, "Looks like you're still in one piece." When that doesn't get a reaction, he scrubs his beard and tries another approach. "I guess Carmina doesn't take the cold shoulder very well, huh?"
John takes a shaking breath. "She should have killed me," he rasps. "Why didn't she kill me?"
"Honestly, I've got no idea. I guess she probably didn't want Carmina to think it was her fault or something. I mean, she might've decided Kim and I know what we're doing, but..." Well, considering that Nick isn't too sure what he's doing, he doubts that's the case. All Nick knows is that he's glad he doesn't have to clean John's brain matter out of the wood. "Well, either way, you're still here."
"I am," John agrees, soundly deeply unsure about it. He takes a breath, then another, although neither seems to calm him down much. "I'll get back to work, I just need... I need a minute."
Nick had completely forgotten about the siding. He'd forgotten about the food on the fire, too, although it's bound to be fine, it's stew . He finds himself wanting to give John the rest of the night off, to... who knows, process what happened? Give him a chance to get his head on straight, to figure out what he might say the next time someone comes waving a gun at him? Nick's not sure what John's free time would even entail. Nick really hasn't been giving him any.
"Stop looking at me like that," John rasps. "I'm fine. I can still work."
Nick's not sure how to change his expression, but he can at least try not to openly pity the guy. "Fine, whatever. Look — take a break for now. I'll tell you when you can get back to it."
John nods, dropping his head back against the wall with a dull thud. He closes his eyes almost immediately, like he might just pass out then and there, and Nick knows that he's got to be finished for the day. Since Nick is the one timing the break, John won't notice if Nick lets him rest, and if he wants to complain, he can go eat a boot.
The stew is ready inside of an hour, although Nick had planned to let it sit for a while to thicken. Kim comes downstairs at some point with her cheeks blotchy red from tears, but she gives Nick an immediate smile to let him know everything is alright. She looks John's direction, but the guy hasn't moved for the last thirty minutes, so he isn't much to look at.
"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Nick asks her, unable to help himself.
"I want to think so," Kim replies, rubbing his back gently. "We'll see."
Kim calls Carmina down for dinner, but who knows how long it will take before she actually drags herself downstairs. It's been a pretty heavy day, so Nick doesn't blame her for wanting to hide for a little while longer.
He doesn't know if it would be better or worse to let John sleep through dinner, but the guy did throw up half of his lunch, so he probably needs the food. Going to John's side, Nick almost kicks him awake, but that feels too aggressive after everything that's happened. Tomorrow, Nick can go back to being a dick to him. For now, he settles on nudging John's shoulder until he seems to come to.
"C'mon," Nick says, "It's time to eat."
Maybe John hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep. He looks around as though he's never seen the backyard before, not quite comprehending the hazy late-afternoon glow that showed up while he was out. "What happened?" he asks, visibly dreading the answer.
Nick can't help but roll his eyes. "You fell asleep," he says. "It's a real shocker. Told you, even a kid can do it."
John frowns. He looks towards the pile of siding, ready to calculate how much work he's missed, but Nick nudges him with his foot to distract him.
"I figure, if you sit here and don't move, maybe you can stay down here to eat. At least that way, Carmina will know you didn't get shot at on her account."
There's something in John's expression that implies he might want to argue the point, but he doesn't. He nods, remaining seated as Nick goes back to the fire. He doesn't move when Kim comes out of the house with four bowls and spoons, although he watches her like he's expecting a bomb to go off in her hand.
"Is he okay?" Kim asks Nick over the pot, keeping her voice low as she watches John out of the corner of her eye. "He's staying down here?"
"Bad idea?" Nick asks. "I can move him, I just figured..."
"No, it's okay." She pats his arm. "Good work with dinner."
Carmina comes downstairs with all the reluctance of a girl with a straight-D report card. She trudges down the porch steps with her head down, looking at her parents briefly through her hair before she swivels her unhappy gaze towards John.
"Hey, honey," Nick calls as she solemnly makes her way over to where John is sitting, trying in vain to reel her back. She ignores him, coming to a stop some five feet in front of John, well out of his reach by instinct alone. Nick can't see her face, but he can hear her teary voice.
"I'm sorry, John," she apologizes, her hands clasped in front of her and her head bowed like she might never look anyone in the eye again. Nick has to clamp down on the visceral reaction he has to his own daughter apologizing to John Seed , but he manages to choke it down even if it risks souring his dinner.
For his part, John looks more ready to bolt now than he did when Grace had been actively threatening him. His heels dig into the dirt as he presses himself against the wall, eyes darting as he calculates an escape route. When neither Nick nor Kim attempt to pull Carmina away, he flings a wild glance their way, but there's no avoiding the little girl's apology.
"It's okay," he tells her, his throat almost dry enough to strangle the words. Carmina must not seem convinced, because he continues uneasily, "You didn't do anything wrong."
Thankfully, Carmina accepts the sentiment readily. Nick doesn't know if he could handle her insisting he take her apology. "Dad," she says, apparently satisfied enough to rise out of her morose mood, "Are we going fishing tomorrow still?"
"I don't see why not."
Nick's glad for the subject change. It's fun to tease Carmina, who keeps insisting she's good at fishing even though she's never caught anything, and it keeps her distracted from John. John doesn't seem to mind being left alone to eat. He seems miles away from the house and the conversation, distracted by the darkening path that Grace had disappeared down. He eats slowly, waiting for something to happen. Probably waiting for Grace to come back and finish what Nick started months ago.
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Not as Easy the Second Time Round (Part 1)
(I put this up on my amino awhile back but decided I wanted to continue it somewhere else in full. Nothing was changed from that version of the first chapter but I’ll be updating here.)
Jumin sat across from the man, never as dubious to what the other was planning than in this moment. Jihyun was always horrible at concealing his thoughts or feeling out of his eyes, said eyes pleading silently as if begging for him to spill out his thoughts to him as well. Needless to say, it did little to affect Jumin's bored glance as he continued looking over papers looming over the back of his mind since he was driven home. It became second nature to sit here like this however long necessary for the man to spit out whatever was on his mind. He supposed this is what it was like a mother tuning out the tantrums of a child: nervous wringing of pale thin hands replacing the insistent wailing of someone who actually had an excuse for their behavior, or at least the denial of a more appealing learned behavior. Still, he waited, past experience telling rushing the lanky male would have him near pulling his hair out till sunrise. He showed strong resilience in not letting out a soft practiced cough, instead settling on a reluctant sigh through his nose.
"So..."He started, though it didn't get a clear response from the other. "Are you still in contact with that um... the last company that you used for the cat project last month, the one that did the marketing?" That's it? Jumin was half expecting him to tell him he needed a kidney with how long that took.
"Well it is hard to lose contact, any major event, or new endeavor C&R decided to branch off to, they're often behind. So far the partnership goes well for us both.." He answered, but oddly the look in Jihyun's eyes didn't fade or seem relieved at all. Now that's slightly surprising. He sat up and gave the other his full attention. At least that seemed to catch his childhood friend's own faster as well. Piquing the CEO's interest was not a small feat.
"Oh. No. I just was curious. Honestly, it wasn't fully about the company or your work, More about Luciel." Ah, was that all...? "How did you feel about him?"
"I assume you mean the child, you walked in with," Jumin answered, with the reward of a small nod from the other. "A bit young to surprise with an impromptu visit to a twenty-three-year-old he's never met."
"Well...we just wanted to make sure you two got along, Rika was unsure but, I think given time, you two might really get along." So he intends on bringing him back? To what end? With his father, he can see a clear reason why 6.43 times a year he's 'blessed' with the company of a woman he's never had a stread of need towards or for.
They never shared the same appearance. As if his father was trying to gauge his type by throwing different size shape and colored women at him. He was as a child always mesmerize if by none else than of his father's efficiency, part of him is still rather surprised to see features he must have reacted well to, appear on different packages. Unlike Chairman Han however, it took more than appealing eyes or hair to fool him into not reading their deeper motives. He'll admit there are the rare women who have no motives, either just as rich or as disinterested. Some just find him attractive and want their version of a perfect family, however, he doesn't have time for fruitless readings into people he has no interest in when there's a company to run.
He sometimes wonders looking at them if they've settled for his father, once or twice... before- or after.
But this was a random child. Who shows up in the dead of night, with his dear friend just to 'share some drinks'. Still, he didn't push his questions. One thing he learned early on is that questioning Jihyun head-on was conversational suicide. "Other than that... what do you think?" He probed softly, interrupting my thoughts and idle sipping. so he genuinely wants an opinion of a stranger I spent twenty minutes in silence with?
Then again, it wasn't completely silent, and Jumin was a strong believer of actions over words. The kid had plenty of actions, and after he had taken in his surrounding, never giving anything a twice over in the short walk to the couch; he seemed to start taking in Jumin's as well. He caught on that Jumin was studying him early on and started studying openly in return, while Jihyun went on about something on cats and shared love. He appeared at least fifteen. His large ringed glasses and his height did nothing to help him seem old enough to solidify his place beside the two men. Unless V had taken on an apprentice.
V had not taken an apprentice.
He did, however, treat the boy with an open affection. And not in the usual Jihyun way. He pat his shoulder, his back, sat closer to him if Jumin asked a question he felt too brash or personal. Jihyun was being protective. Not really in a way he was ever in front of Rika. No, surprisingly the two solemnly touch at all for a couple. Although past experience showed Jihyun to be reserved but a universal toucher to anyone he was comfortable standing alone with for 15 minutes uninterrupted. In the back of his mind, Jumin did always question it but it wasn't until seeing him interact with a perceived stranger and not himself that it truly clicked. The boy obviously did notice, holding back flinches at every touch, not looking outwardly uncomfortable but tensing and untensing quickly after. Seemingly a micro-reaction he was working hard to keep under control. He did well, Jihyun didn't notice. His face was clear of displeasure. It was respectable.
He hated to admit, but he could see his younger self get on with a Kid like this. He looked to be straining to hold back sarcasm, his responses quick and smart. But not always. There was one time in the conversation when asked a question, he seemed to lose himself going on for twenty-six seconds about something seemingly unrelated, his voice softer. Then looked up and didn't seem surprised at his outburst like what he said made sense. Maybe it did... to him.
Looking back, it might have made sense to everyone in the room. Or at least the feeling there in the words.
Jumin thought over this for a bit. Not having the gift of time nor hindsight, finished his drink and stood. he finished his thought too. "he seems fine." Feeling Johyun's dissatisfaction in waves at his answer.
...…...
I take a soft sip of my wine as the man sits across from me readying his tape recorder and notepad. From what I heard the note pad was just to write down his initial thoughts, words he doesn't know so he can listen out for them, and of course, my reactions to the questions. He takes a deep breath, and starts it, looking towards me. He is a shorter male with a tuft of rather curly brown hair, unkempt but framing his face in a unique way, so he had the thought to at least tease it before coming here. "Hello Mr. Han, first, I would like to say thank you for being here today. I know it's been hard for you and the rest of the 'RFA' with this loss. I heard you were one of the few who wanted the privacy to mourn in peace. So I wanted to thank you for coming, especially so early in the morning."
I took a sigh. Then answered, knowing that this was less of genuine thanks and more to gauge how up I am for not only this interview but for his scoop. "You're welcome." However, I am not 'up' for it. Hence the glass of wine, though he didn't seem to mind too much.
He at least seemed to catch on. "May I ask why you changed your mind on this interview? You seemed steadfast in not wanting to before in our last few approaches."
My father.
My father had always been a man who prided himself in being right. Or looking right. Knowing what's best. I hated when he actually was. But I did hate when he pretended to nine times more. So his behavior here is much more manageable.
He came for a spur of the moment visit, taking one step in before beginning. "My Boy, you know you can't stay quiet forever. Especially not after you broad-casted on the back of the C&R reputation. People will talk." I opened my mouth about to correct him about my status of caring when he raised his hand to interject. "Not about you. About C&R being an open supporter of the other prime minister candidate. Convenient lynching. About Mr. Choi. Both of them. They appear out of nowhere with instant access with the CEO of the biggest company in all of South Korea. Arguably all of Korea. And one of them not proven to exist. Not publicly" He corrects after noticing my slight reaction,. "and the other without papers or records of existing at all." He paused, waiting to see if I look to argue, I don't. Just glare slightly. Unsure where my anger lies truly at this moment. "What's worse is that you are the only one, who has not stated claim. Even the brother is speaking out on his loss. I can't claim what is going through your head, or why you brought our company name into it. And while I trust you and your word, I do know what the people will think if you remain silent on the matter." Like that, he was already turning to leave. Having apparently come all this way to say just that he had said. "Tomorrow morning I have scheduled a meeting with an influential paper. whether or not you show is your business and I am always on your side. But it is in the best interest of the company that you make your stance known." With that, he left.
...
I knew what Father meant by that. He wouldn't show up in person just to tell me I needed to do damage control. This was not to be a PR reach, this was a personal loss that required personal statements for the public to believe this is anything but a smear campaign. Hence the second glass of wine.
I neglected to say this though and the interview continued on, the reporter ordered his coffee. He spoke clearly, taking his time in asking everything he wanted to. Sometimes unrelated things sure as my feelings after, and how often I keep in contact with the others, more so Saeran. But unfortunately, I haven't kept up with the man. That's more MC and Jaehee's stance. As Yoosung locked himself off still taking it hardest as he can't control his emotions and Zen complains of uncanny feelings hearing another person looking so much like...Saeyoung sound so... not Luciel. But Luciel was a dense package, even I only saw the shallow end of once or twice in person. In the chatroom, he'd flip back and forth given a change in what must have been a tenth-degree shift in temperature. Luciel had a very hard time not feeling or expressing those feelings, in some way. But there's something about genuinely seeing first hand those moments few and far between. I think I am the only one who truly sees the resemblance and it's hard to miss, heartbr- startling how much the man is so much like a younger Luciel. Missing some of the bite and snark in the words but it's there. Even the hairstyle, before Luciel, cut it... Puffed bangs towards the front.
The reporter listened to me, his eyes pensive as if trying to catch something he missed in my words. "You two seemed close. I'm sorry." In his defense, he seemed to mean it. Perhaps I got lost too deep in that sentimental mood Jihuyn is always on about.
I sigh, looking away, "Luciel is a very difficult case. Constantly pulling pranks, teasing everyone about something at some time, he had no concept of breaks, passing out for days at a time after a job then constantly around 24/7, getting him to pay attention and stay serious is an uphill battle featuring roller skates. But I have no reason to doubt the love given by anyone in the RFA for him. Oddly enough he's the most dedicated of us all."
He pauses a bit but eventually continues, scrawling something out on his notepad before continuing. "So, how did you feel about him?"
"hm?"
"Well, you've been talking about the group feeling a lot and that really makes you seem like a family. But what is your personal thoughts on Saeyoung Choi?"
There was no hesitation as I answered. "Saeyoung... is an idiot." It was a simple thought.
Simple.
'Simple' and 'Saeyoung Choi' share nothing but a few letters. Somehow it felt wrong leaving it only at that. So I tried again. "He is one of the largest fools I know, and I supposed I'm doomed to attract those near me and for them to stick," I say knotting my eyebrows together in annoyance. I hold the silence a bit longer. "But I would do anything for him. And right now, it's starting by putting everything I have into making sure the Mr. 'would-be-prime-minister' realizes that the slow rotting he'll be doing in jail now is the greatest mercy the world allows him as long as I breathe."
I expect the foreign reporter to be shocked by the sentiment but he moves right along with a small nod, and I, my attempt to honor my father and company. Hence my third glass of wine.
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MINI UPDATE PART 1: Backer-only Discord Server Questions
Mirroring a recent Kickstarter update over here on Tumblr to try and keep all the social outlets up to date.
This has to be split into two parts because Tumblr only allows five embedded videos per post.
Thanks for everyone’s comments and support on the previous Kickstarter backer only update! A good number of people have joined the Cryamore Backer Discord server that I started up.
We’ve got about 132 members on there right now and it may grow a bit more once I send out the invite to the Paypal backers as a means to get them caught up with what’s been going on behind the backer-only posts. I just have to mirror the backer-only posts in somewhere like Dropbox for their prolonged perusal and prepare a short list of Q&A in case they have any queries and I’ll send out this draft I’ve done.
With that said, I wanted to make a short update reiterating questions gathered from the Discord channels and sharing some of the things we feel we can have non-backers see since it won’t spoil the game... too much.
FoolishWolf asked:
I guess my first question is if it is possible to give an ETA on the project at this point?
Rob: We want to be finished this year. We're currently in the "Polish" phase where all the moving and working parts are in, it's just a matter of cleaning up presentation, major bugs, and final art.
Alan: There are going to be gameplay polishes too as we go along. The mechanics we've got are now all adjusted to any suggestions we've taken in from our publisher's testing but we'd like to see if during the backer tests, anyone feels it could be improved further.
That's fair. I guess this is just the marketer in me, but is there gifs and videos that maybe you can release for the community for #Indiedevhour and #screenshotsaturday that we share around. Kinda get the hype train going?
Rob: We want to get back into doing more of that, yeah. Now that we're polishing stuff up.
Alan: We'll be sharing stuff as often as we can on Discord which we'll then pool together for the mini updates.
Clay | Terminally Nerdy asked:
Once the game is in a “playable” preview state, would you all want someone to stream/talk about it?
We’re absolutely okay with it as this would help reinforce the fact that the game is legit. We’ll make sure to mark which builds are public ready.
Can you get Atlus to port the Persona series to PC, and will Jack Frost be in the game?
We sadly don’t have that kind of pull but I personally would like to see the Persona series on PC too.
Phosphatide asked:
How close is it to the proposed "40+ tracks" from the Kickstarter?
We’re pretty much within the forty track count already. I’ll share surasshu’s answer here as it’s better to hear it from one of our composers.
here's a link to a larger version (just adjust the zoom) in case Kickstarter decides to shrink the whole thing to an unreadable point.
fpwong asked:
What do ppl usually use for programming AI in Unity? UE4 has inbuilt behaviour trees but idk if unity has anything of the sort.
Alan: We’re not sure about other people using Unity but for us, we’ve been using a mix of C# and FlowCanvas/NodeCanvas to achieve an easily tweakable AI system. It’s the same thing we used to set up our cutscene/dialogue system too, so it’s multipurpose!
youtube
Rob: This video is quite outdated though; It’s mostly the dialogue on example there and a few older bugs but that shows how the dialogue tree is set up, how it can control objects to walk away from the scene, change sprites and more.
Brendan (luigimeistersa) asked:
Hey dev guys. Does Cryamore have any kind of buffs you can apply to Esmy?
Alan: We sadly don’t have much in way of buff abilities besides things like Oxy Barrier which provide you with a protective bubble and allow you to breathe underwater or other abilities like Time Paradox and Shadow Cloak. You do get a Well Rested buff though from sleeping at the inn though and the buff comes at various tiers.
Can you bind them (abilities) to the row of number keys on PC?
Alan: We're using Rewired for Unity to support keybinding and a variety of controllers (here's a list) so you should be able to rebind controls to any key you wish on a desktop keyboard.
Rob: Controllers may be more limited for keybinding in comparison, however.
AreYouSmarterThanACheeseGrater asked:
So, how are you going to work sleeping? Will time advance a set number of hours or will time progress to the next morning/evening?
Alan: Here’s an excerpt from our design document to easily explain how sleeping works.
Take note, costs are subject to change but sleeping in specific beds advances time by a set amount and you get better rest in a shorter amount of time from the more expensive rooms at the inn (to be fully rested and free from fatigue for a day in just two hours would be amazing). You do have the option to be cheap and just sleep in your own bed but you use up more time in a day.
Downing energy drinks is a way to stay awake without having to sleep but you can only carry so much and it won't fully restore your fatigue and you'll eventually find yourself sleeping on the ground, helpless against any threats around you.
shadowreaper5 asked: Are you still looking for help? I can't draw or code, but if you need someone to poke every corner for bugs I'm your man
We'll put out a public call for assistants when there's nothing else left but the art polish push, there's a bit of design polish that Rob and I still have to work on here and there but when the backgrounds and pixel tracing are all that's left, we're hoping we get many applicants that're willing to stick through.
As for poking every corner for bugs, I've currently given 13 members on the Backer Discord @tester status. Having them on Discord will help us all communicate as they run the builds. I expect we're going to have a few questions of why the game won't start when loading a save (recurring bug that happened in old builds regarding data from a previous build being kept in the %appdata% folder on Windows systems and conflicting with the new build)
Does your [insert magic equivalent here] regenerate quicker if you sleep in a bed/inn?
Alan: In our aim to nail down the fun factor without sacrificing too much of the original vision, we decided to make EP regenerate automatically.
You should see it in action in this older stress test video that Rob shared on the Discord server.
youtube
As you can see, the blue meter to the lower left goes down each time Esmy uses a skill. The meter is actually comprised of a number of cells but displays as a meter, the cell count is shown to the right of the meter as EP <number>. Each ability eats a number of cells, i.e. an ability like Ignite Lv1 costs = 1 cell but Shadow Cloak of any level will use = 4 cells. A channeled ability like Boulder Dash will eat up a cell every second.
Cells can be increased by finding certain collectibles in the game.
Rob: You can also see in the video above that even in-editor, the game runs pretty smoothly (60FPS+) with 8 monsters and numerous adds it summons.
Alan: I've personally tried it on my own PC with a 1GB video card from 7 years ago and it runs fine in-editor and runs even better on a compiled build.
lemon-rev asked:
With your post regarding the update, I can now fully understand why the game looks at is base level, playtime on each of those levels sounds great, but are they leveling, completing quests, just beating up mobs, I am sure each of those other sections that have to be redone for unity as well as the type of content for each one.
Some context is necessary here for the non-backers reading this. During the previous backer update, I mentioned the listed completion times we got for each dungeon when we had testers run through it, here are those numbers...
Northern Caverns v1 Build: 20-30 minutes
Rime Rapids v1 Build: 30-40 minutes
Molten Mountain v1 Build: 30-40 minutes
Terrestrial Woods v1 Build: 40-60 minutes
Vale of Gale v1 Build: 40-60 minutes
Sunken Ship v2 Build: 40-120 minutes
Mekanika v2 Build: 40-120 minutes
Phantom Marshes v2 Build: 40-120 minutes
The v1 builds were before I ran a level design revamp over the layouts so those numbers can go up. All in all though, that's currently around 4.6 hours worth of dungeon crawling (and there's one dungeon unaccounted for still).
With that bit of context given, to fully answer lemon-rev's question, take note, these are all approximate numbers as there was a guide provided for the publisher testers to consult and these numbers also DO NOT include boss fights, cutscenes or enemy ambushes. There's also the time required to head out into the overworld and look for and access those dungeons so we estimate that we could hit 12 hours at the very least of regular gameplay without completing any sidequests and hopefully 16-18 hours if you try to 100% the whole game.
sky asked:
Is Linux still planned?
Yes! This is also why we're going to have to reach out to our backers for testing assistance as we've only been able to test on PC and Mac so far and do not have much if any Linux testbeds.
We've had a number of people on the Discord server that I've tagged as willing testers and we look forward to working with them soon!
CONTINUED IN PART 2
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Devour Me
Chickpow here: I found an old disc/floppy disc in my attic containing a lot of very old fanfiction from authors and websites that are either gone or taken down. I am not the author but I would like to share what I’ve found. if you find the author please let me know so I can credit them properly. Thank you and enjoy
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach
Authors Notes: Well, here we go again? Another Goku & Vegeta yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakkarotto, is definitely OOC, but it’s all good. You’ll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! I’ll be adding chapters weekly, but I may update faster, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! It’s all-good here!
Warnings: If you don’t already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if you’re just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or it’s characters, and, again, unfortunately, I’m not making any money off of this.
Okay, if there’s anyone left? On with the fic?
"Vejita, you know I hate pressing you with such matters, but you’ve recently turned twenty-four and are still without a mate?"
"You say it as if I didn’t know." The prince interrupted with a sarcastic tone, rising from his throne.
King Vejita simply shook his head. There was no point in arguing. He’d just have to be patient with this and hope that his only son didn’t take too long.
Nappa stepped out of the shadows, following his prince out of the elaborate throne room and down several long corridors until they arrived at the training hall. He’d been serving the prince as a bodyguard since his celebrated birth. It seemed pointless to the oversized Saiya-jin since the prince was one of the strongest. It was even rumored that the prince was stronger than his own father.
Nappa was tall with bulky muscles. He was loud, bald, and had a thin black mustache. Vejita could barely stand him, but Nappa was the closest thing he had to a friend. Motioning for the bodyguard to join him in a spar, the prince stepped out into an open area.
Vejita was shorter than most with compact muscles. His ebony locks stood on end much like a flame. He was nearly a mirror image of his father. However, the king was taller with a thick mustache and short beard, and his hair had a more brunette tint to it.
The prince found himself in a complex as he and Nappa began their daily spar. Ever since his twentieth birthday, the royals had been urging him to take a mate. But whom should he take? Every woman threw herself at the feet of the prince. He yearned for something more than a companion to bear his children. Besides, he’d been taught his entire life to avoid any and all weaknesses. Strength was everything, and women were weak. There were few that held any strength, but their blood was the rebellious type. He wanted a mate that respected and obeyed him. Of course, the royals could care less what kind of woman he chose, as long se he continued the royal bloodline. That’s all that mattered to them.
"Sire!"
Vejita snapped out of his thoughts in time to realize what he was doing. His teeth were bared, and he was on the verge of firing one of his most powerful ki blasts at the slow-witted bodyguard. The prince quickly powered down, straightening his posture.
"Thank you, sire." Nappa said, bowing slightly. That had been close. His prince seemed to be frustrated and it was showing in their training.
"How long have we been training?" Vejita asked, glancing around to see that the training hall was empty.
"You don’t know?" Nappa asked, puzzled by his prince’s question.
"How long?!" Vejita snapped, glaring up at the taller man.
"Hours. It’s late." Nappa said, pressing a small button on his scooter to see the time.
With that Vejita turned and hurried out of the empty hall, Nappa close on his heals. Like a dog. After a long walk, they came to another wing of the palace. The prince had been given the large section of the palace on his eighteenth birthday. It was practically a smaller version of the palace itself. It was made up of a mess hall, a training hall, and many rooms for elite soldiers and a few for slaves. There was nothing royal about the way it looked. It resembled the inside of a spaceship with metal walls, ceilings, and floors.
Soon they came to a door with no markings to tell it from the many others. Inside was a large common room. Along the dull walls there were three doors, not including the one they’d just entered through. One door led to Vegita’s quarters, another to Napa’s, and the last led to a large washroom, which they shared.
"Nappa, get me up before the suns rise." The prince said just before stepping into his private room, closing the door behind him. He wanted to get out of the palace before his father or any of the other royals found him. The last thing he needed was to be hounded by those bumbling fools.
"Father, must we put up with these fools every single day?" Vejita said, resting his head in his hands, his elbows on the arms of his throne.
"Yes," the king answered from his much larger throne, "There are treaties and threats to be made."
The prince glared at the numerous slaves and soldiers. It all seemed pointless.
"If you would just choose a mate and produce an heir, then there would be less work to do." The king said under his breath as he signed a tattered document.
"I don’t want to talk about this." Vejita snapped, rising from his seat and storming out of his father’s presence for what felt like the hundredth time this week.
"Nappa," the king snapped, causing the man to step forward rather than following his son out of the room.
"Sire?" Nappa questioned, bowing respectfully.
"Is the prince this way with others as well?"
"I’m afraid I don’t understand." Nappa said, hoping the king was in a good mood.
"Is he constantly this rude?" the king scoffed in a low voice.
"Uh? Sire, Prince Vejita has been this way for years, but you’re right? He seems more frustrated lately." Nappa said, explaining poorly.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, when we spar, it’s like he forgets what he’s doing, and I find myself fighting for my life." Nappa said, remembering the most recent death match. In his thinking, the low-watt soldier didn’t notice the king waving his hand in a manner meaning he was dismissed.
"Nappa! Get out of here!" the king bellowed, watching as the man slowly backed away before rushing out of the room.
After roaming the palace for what felt like hours, Nappa found himself at a loss. The prince was usually always in either the large training hall, or his own smaller one. Finally, he gave up and returned to his quarters.
"My prince, I’ve been looking for you everywhere." Nappa said, surprised to see Vejita relaxing on the dull couch in their common room.
Vejita stirred at the sound of the loud voice. He’d been unable to concentrate on any of his usual training, so he’d retired to the quiet room, where he’d just about fallen asleep.
A simple, "Hn," was all the bulky bodyguard got in reply, "Are you feeling well?" he questioned with concern, taking a seat beside his prince.
Vejita had opened up only a handful of times in his entire life and each time had been with his faithful bodyguard. Nappa was only twelve years older, but to the prince, he was more of a father than the king was.
"This mate nonsense is making me crazy. My father’s constant hinting and the royals always finding me and hounding me." Vejita said, finding himself standing and speaking in a louder tone than necessary.
"Well? Why don’t you just choose a mate?" Nappa suggested. He’d seen the many Saiya-jin women who’d come to present themselves to the prince. They were all very beautiful.
"Hn. And who do you suppose I should choose?" Vejita said in an annoyed voice, pacing the floor somewhat.
Before Nappa could even think of an answer, the prince continued, "Every women proclaims to be faithful and obeying. I want?"
"What do you want?" Nappa said, staring curiously at his prince.
"I want? I don’t know? Honesty?" Vejita said through a sigh, plopping back down on the couch.
Nappa could understand what his prince was going through. It wasn’t often that Saiya-jin chose mates. Of course, they all had their share of sex, especially with all the beautiful slaves around but to choose a mate was something different. That meant committing yourself to that one person for the rest of your life. First, two Saiya-jin decide to mate. Then, dominance was decided, it was usually always given to the male. Next, the dominant one marks his mate, making them one in body and soul. Of course, all of this took place while they had sex, sealing the bond. From that day forth, the two would share a link, a link that connected their minds.
Nappa knew no other way to describe it since he didn’t know anyone who’d experienced it. It was a big decision, and not many had the qualities the prince yearned for. How could anyone be honest with royalty? When answering to a prince, you tell him what he wants to hear or you’ll find yourself dead.
Over the next few weeks, King Vejita watched, as his son grew louder, ruder, and more frustrated. As he slouched in his immense throne, he considered all the things that could be troubling his son. Nappa had mentioned something of honesty. That didn’t seem to make much sense though. His son refused the simple task of choosing a beautiful woman to bear his children. Perhaps his son didn’t want to be tied down to just one woman, but that didn’t make sense either. Nowhere did it say that one must remain faithful to their mate. He’d never been faithful to the late queen, who’d died in childbirth. So, what could it be?
As his thoughts wondered, the king watched as a translator stepped out of the throne room, a young male slave following him. It was obvious the young, weak looking Saiya-jin was a sex slave, judging by his behavior. It was extremely rare and somewhat degrading for same sex relationships to be made public. Royalty never did it.
Maybe that was it! Perhaps his son was sexually frustrated? Perhaps he yearned for some male intimacy?
"Nappa!" the king snapped, waiting impatiently for the oversized man to step forward.
"Yes, Sire?" Nappa questioned curiously.
"I’ve been thinking? I believe Prince Vejita needs a slave?"
"But, Sire," Nappa interrupted, knowing that that wasn’t the problem, "Prince Vejita has many slaves."
Eyeing the foolish bodyguard, the king growled, "I know very well my son has many slaves. Who do you think provides them?"
"I? Uh? I?"
"Baka? I was trying to say! I believe my son needs a pleasure slave," the king lifted a hand to silence Napa’s interruption, "Yes, I know he has pleasure slaves, but I plan to get him a male pleasure slave."
Napa’s eyes grew wide, "Male? Why?"
"This nonsense has to end. There is obviously a problem here. I can see no other reason than perhaps the prince is sexually frustrated." The king said, running a plan through his mind.
Nappa knew well enough that this plan wasn’t going to work. The prince had said it himself. It wasn’t a problem for him to be mated? It was just the stressful decision of choosing the right mate.
"Sire, I think that if you give Prince Vejita enough time, he’ll choose a mate."
"Humph. Do you really believe that honesty bullshit he told you?"
"Uh?" Nappa stuttered, not sure what his king wanted to hear.
"What he needs, and what I believe he wants, is a male slave!"
"But what if you’re wrong?" Nappa interrupted again.
The king growled, glaring at the fool, "I’ll buy him several new female slaves as well, and I want you to keep this quiet." The king said, realizing that if this got out, his son would be far more than a little embarrassed.
Nappa complied, stepping away as his king gestured with a wave of a hand for him to leave. It didn’t seem that the king was thinking straight.
Chapter Two
"Sire, welcome! It has been many months since your last visit." A skinny, pot-bellied man squealed.
The king rolled his eyes at the man’s overdone enthusiasm. The shop was one of the largest, but rarely visited due to the new crises that have plagued planet Vejita. Stepping into the large shop, the king was reminded that the economic situation was affecting everyone. There were few slaves and all of them were women.
"How may I help you today, Sire?" the man questioned, gesturing to the beautiful women.
"Hmm? I think I’ll take the blonde and? The small brunette over there." The king said, gesturing to the two women he’d quickly chosen for his plan. He decided that it might soften the blow for his son if he were given a male along with two females.
The owner quickly had an employee begin unchaining the two slaves, preparing them for sale, "Sire, I detect disappointment in your tone. Was there something in particular you were looking for?"
"Yes, actually. I was looking for a male."
"Ah," the owner said, his eyebrows rising high on his large forehead, "It is rare to have a male slave nowadays with the demanding need for soldiers, but I just so happen to have one!"
"Well," the king interrupted, growing impatient with the man’s insistent gibberish, "Where is he?"
"He’s in the back," the owner quickly ordered another employee to run back and get the slave in question, "However, Sire, he’s quite young."
The king pondered for a moment, wondering what exactly he should do. He wasn’t about to run around, going from small shop to even smaller shop, but it wasn’t wise to purchase a slave too young; they often grew to be rebellious or hadn’t had enough training to serve properly.
"How young?"
"In the whereabouts of sixteen." The owner said, watching his king’s face closely, hoping for a sale.
"In the whereabouts, huh? Whereabouts, meaning younger?" the king questioned, eyeing the conniving little man.
"Ah? He could be a bit younger but not much," the owner said, shrugging. Just then, a tall lanky man stepped out of a doorway with a boy in tow.
The king smiled at the boy’s fair skin and well-developed body, "Was he to be a soldier?"
"I believe he was born a third class and trained hard to improve, but his mother died soon after childbirth and his father was killed in battle ten years ago. Until recently, I’ve allowed him to train in his spare time."
The king nodded, "I see. What’s his name?"
"Kakkarotto." The owner said, shooing his employee away.
The boy was tall, but he was still shorter than the king. He was wearing a loose-fitting dull blue sleeveless gi tied with a white sash. His spiky hair, jutting out in several different directions, was the same raven black as his son’s; however, the boy’s gaze was fixed on the floor, as it should be, but the king wondered.
"Let me see his face."
The owner’s rough hand took hold of the boy’s chin, lifting his gaze from the floor.
"Very nice." The king thought, admiring the thick spiked bangs and the liquid pools of ink the pale-skinned boy had for eyes.
King Vejita smirked, "I’ll take him."
Kakkarotto knelt quietly on the floor beside the two other slaves that had been purchased. They’d been placed in the king’s luxurious quarters just after arriving at the huge palace. He knew the two women on either side of him quite well. They were both in their late twenties and had been good friends of his at the shop; however, he didn’t dare say a word to either of them for fear of getting in trouble and being punished. The petite woman on his right was Chiisai. She was a brunette, green-eyed beauty with a mind of her own. The lovely blonde on his left was Hanna. She was a bit older than Chiisai but a lot more immature. Her figure was also more voluptuous than Chiisai’s. She fitted into the dumb blonde stereotype rather well.
Stepping into his room, King Vejita eyed the three lovely beauties kneeling on the floor at the end of his king-size bed. Surprisingly, Kakkarotto seemed to be better trained than either of the women. His gaze never faltered from the floor while the other two sneaked an upward glance now and then.
"I might as well let you know that all three of you will be a gift for my son, the prince." The king explained as he lifted his heavy armor and cloak from his shoulders.
No more than an hour later, Kakkarotto remained kneeling in the exact same place. He almost couldn’t bear the sounds and smells that filled the room. The king was enjoying himself with both his friends at once.
"Hmm? You girls go clean up and get dressed." The king said, gesturing to a side door that obviously led to a washroom.
Kakkarotto could hear the faint sounds of cloth rustling and bare feet padding across the floor as the two gathered their clothes and exited the room.
"Kakkarotto."
Immediately, the boy stood, turning to face the direction of the king’s voice, keeping his gaze on the floor.
Smiling wickedly, King Vejita ordered the boy to kneel before him, where he sat on the edge of the bed, "Suck."
Kakkarotto grimaced at the vulgar order, but he’d heard much worse. He complied with the simple command, letting his gaze rest on the king’s semi.
The king enjoyed the boy’s innocent touch, keeping his moans to a minimal. Surely his son would enjoy this one.
Meanwhile
"My prince, I’ve been searching for you." Nappa said, stepping into the smaller of the two training halls in the palace.
"What is it?" Vejita asked in annoyance, pausing in his harsh training.
"A while back King Vejita asked me why I thought you hadn’t chosen a mate."
"And?" Vejita persisted; Nappa definitely had his attention now.
"I told him how you just wanted to find the right mate, someone honest, but he misunderstood" Nappa explained, watching his prince’s expression.
"What do you mean?" Vejita interrupted, his eyebrows knitting further together in annoyance. His father had no right to go behind his back to try and find a solution to a problem that wasn’t even his concern.
"He plans on…"
"Ah, ah, Nappa, don’t ruin the surprise."
Both Vejita and Nappa looked up to see the king leaning against the frame of the large entryway. After a quick command from King Vejita, all other occupants of the training hall left.
"What is this about, father?" Vejita questioned, his eyes narrowing as his father stepped further into the hall, gesturing for someone hidden to come into view. Slowly, two women and a boy stepped into the room, obviously slaves. The women were attractive enough, but it was the boy who caught his attention.
"I bought these for you earlier today. Hopefully, they can relieve some of your stress. Then, maybe you can finally choose a mate."
"Slaves? I don’t need slaves, father."
"Yes, well? They’re a gift. Do with them what you like." The king said, winking as he left the hall. He hated coming to Vegita’s wing of the palace. It was so drab.
Vejita knew exactly what his father had meant. "They’re a gift," meant that he had to keep them or face his father in a much more unpleasant mood.
"Shit." The prince mumbled, glancing at Nappa.
Hanna glanced up at the prince surprised to find that he was rather handsome. Glancing to the side, she could see that Chiisai had done the same and thought the same, judging from her reddened cheeks. They were such good friends. They even had the same tastes in men. Finding herself smiling, Hanna glanced passed the brunette to see Kakkarotto ever so quickly glance up at the prince.
"Nappa, you should have warned me sooner. What the Hell am I going to do with these slaves?"
"Sorry, Sire. I tried to let you know as soon as I could," Nappa said, placing his hands on his hips, "I guess you could just let them stay in the room with the rest of your slaves."
"Hn. I guess," Vejita said, when he remembered that a boy was a part of the group of slaves, "Wait?"
Nappa watched as his prince stepped forward, inspecting the boy. Perhaps the king was right?
"What the Hell is this boy doing here?"
Then again, maybe not, "That’s what I was trying to tell you. King Vejita thinks that you yearn for… For male…male intimacy."
"What? My own father thinks I’m a fag? I guess he thinks that’s why I haven’t chosen a mate yet." Vejita said, starting of yelling and ending in his normal pissed off tone.
"What are you going to do with him?" Nappa asked curiously.
"Hn. He looks strong? Were you a soldier?"
Kakkarotto flinched slightly when he realized that the question was being addressed to him, "I was goin’ ta be."
Vejita smirked ever so lightly at the sound of the boy’s young immature voice. The slave was a bit taller than he was, but it was obvious that he was years younger.
"I dislike the idea of a soldier being a pleasure slave. Nappa, I think I’ll spar with the boy. You can take the women away."
"Yes, Sire." Nappa said, exiting the training hall, the two slaves following him. It was strange. Vejita never took a liking to slaves. He knew the prince enjoyed them now and then, but he rarely did anything else with them. Then again, he didn’t consider the boy a slave, rather a soldier. Who knew what the king’s ridiculous actions were going to cause.
"What is your name?"
"Kakkarotto."
Vejita pondered the name. He’d never heard anything like it before. Usually slaves were named something relating to their appearance or behavior. (A/N: Chiisai translates to Small, and Hanna translates to Flower.) Kakkarotto was a warrior’s name.
"How old are you?"
Kakkarotto was so nervous, "I’m told I’m sixteen, but I think I’m closer ta fourteen."
"I see," Vejita said, "Look up."
The boy did as he was told, keeping his gaze on the prince’s chest rather than receiving punishment for looking his master in the eye. Kakkarotto was surprised by the prince’s size. He was small, almost petite, yet he was quite muscular and had an enormous ki. He was wearing a navy blue, sleeveless bodysuit and white gloves and boots, his tail wrapped tightly around his waist.
"I’m guessing you know how to spar?"
Kakkarotto quickly nodded, surprised with his master’s request. He complied, however, crouching down in a defensive stance.
It had been several hours and the prince was surprised by the boy’s endurance. The young slave was strong, but he wasn’t that strong. He had no idea how the boy was able to continue. Vejita found himself short of breath, but Kakkarotto was breathing much more heavily. Firing a fairly impressive ki blast, the prince watched as it made contact with the boy’s chest, causing his lithe body to fly back about ten meters, where he fell and didn’t get up.
"Hn. So, he finally had enough." Vejita said, smirking as he stepped over to the boy’s side. He was on the verge of unconsciousness, eyes squinted as he panted heavily.
Kakkarotto had tried his best to please his master but wasn’t sure if he should try to win the match or not. Moments after he fell, he could feel strong arms lift him off the dull metal floor, cradling his body against a strong chest.
Vejita didn’t know what to do with the boy. He needed medical attention, but how would that look for the prince to step into the med. lab with a young male slave in his arms?
Instead, he carried the boy down the long corridor to his and Nappa’s quarters. Upon entering, the prince found that the bulky bodyguard had already gone to sleep. With a sigh of relief, Vejita stepped through the common room and entered his own private room, laying the boy on the floor. He quickly decided that wouldn’t do though. So, he lifted a blanket from his bed and spread it out just beside his bed. Then, he lifted the boy and placed him on the pallet, draping the same blanket he lied on around and over his blue-clad body.
Kakkarotto calmed his breathing finally and opened his eyes when he felt someone lift his head and tuck a pillow under it. He was surprised to see his master, who was now standing and removing his gloves and boots, and then, climbing into his bed.
Vejita snuggled down in his bed, glancing down over the edge to get a glimpse of the boy before he went to sleep, "Ah, you’re awake."
"Hai, I’m sorry for causin you so much trouble."
Vegita’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Then, he realized the boy was referring to the fact that he’d been unable to walk.
"Hn. It’s fine. Go to sleep."
Nappa awoke to the repetitive sound of the intercom in the common room. Slowly sitting up and wiping his eyes, the large warrior stumbled out of his private room and pressed a button on the small device that sat on a low table before the couch.
"Nappa, Saiya-jin Elite." He said groggily.
"Prince Vejita is to report to the throne room immediately." Came the voice of a young woman before cutting off the communication link.
Nappa lifted his scouter from the table and placed onto his right ear. After turning it on, the time blinked in the upper right hand corner of the green-tinted glass that covered just one of the bulky bodyguard’s eyes. Nappa was surprised to see that it was nearly noon. Why hadn’t the prince reported to the throne room yet? The king had made it law that the prince show up in the elaborate hall every morning when the suns rose.
Walking briskly across the room, Nappa entered the prince’s private room, which he soon discovered was empty. However, he did notice that there was pallet made on the floor beside the prince’s bed. He wondered if the boy had been the first person other than Vejita to spend an entire night in the prince’s private room.
Forgetting the matter, figuring it must have been one of the new slave women, Nappa tromped out of the room; he had to find Prince Vejita as soon as possible.
Kakkarotto flipped and ricocheted across the width of the small, dull training hall, flying towards his master. He didn’t dare put all his strength into the kick. He knew better than that, and even during these sparring matches his master insisted he participate in, he kept quiet and avoided eye contact.
Vejita had awoke to the sound of light snoring, smirking as he looked down at the boy that slept beside his bed. They’d begun sparring before the suns had risen and yet, the boy was still going at it. It was much more than surprising.
The prince pushed his curiosity of the boy’s powers out of his mind as he dodged the kick, punching the boy in the gut, causing him to double over.
"Sire, I’m glad I found you so soon." Nappa said, stepping into the prince’s training hall, interrupting the training match.
"Hn. And why is that, Nappa?" Vejita scoffed, turning his back on the boy who’d fallen to his knees.
"You’re to report to the throne room immediately."
Vegita’s eyebrows rose for a fraction of a second, had he forgotten? Pressing a button, the prince checked the time in the red-tinted glass eyepiece of his scouter.
"Shit," he mumbled, baring his teeth, "Stay here with the boy. I’ll be right back."
Nappa stared as the prince stormed out of the room. Then, he turned his gaze to the boy, who was kneeling on the floor, breathing heavily with a trickle of blood running down his chin. Nappa had seen the boy take the fierce hit and was surprised when he slowly rose from the ground, standing unsteadily but still, he was standing.
"Were you the one that slept in Prince Vegita’s room last night?" he questioned, knowing he’d be in big trouble if the prince ever found out.
Kakkarotto nodded. He knew he shouldn’t answer personal questions about his master, but his master hadn’t exactly given him rules and regulations yet. Besides, he didn’t know this man and feared his possible wrath.
"Tell me what happened after I left."
"We sparred, I lost, and he let me sleep on tha floor." Kakkarotto explained honestly.
Vejita stepped into the well-lit room, sitting gracefully in his throne beside his father, "Sorry, I lost track of time."
The king smirked, "And what were you doing that was so interesting that you forgot, for the first time I might add, to report here?"
"Training."
The king’s smirk instantly disappeared after hearing his son’s flat answer. He’d been so sure that the prince had slept in with his new slave.
"How do you like the slaves?"
Vejita growled quietly, knowing what his father was getting at; he decided to displease the presumptuous king, "To be honest, the women reminded me too much of whores."
The king’s smirk returned as he signed an order to have an alien terrorist executed, "I see, and the boy?"
"I must thank you, father. He’s quite exceptional."
Mentally patting himself on the back, the king pressed on, "Exceptional, eh?"
"Yes. He’s an excellent sparring partner. I’d have to say he’s even better than Nappa." Vejita said, fighting the urge to laugh as his father’s expression changed to that of surprise and then anger, "In fact, he’s surely the best sparring partner I’ve ever come across. I’m considering having an additional room built into my quarters."
"Vejita! That’s enough!" the king snapped, "How ridiculous? He’s a third class Saiya-jin! How Excellent can he be?"
The prince’s eyes narrowed, "Nonsense. I fought with little more than half of my strength. I practically went all out and killed him." He said, thinking allowed.
"Humph. I’m hoping you won." The king mumbled, ordering a guard to show in the ambassador of a nearby planet.
Vejita snarled, "Of course I won. He just has incredible endurance. A normal third class would have been killed."
"You won, but he survived? That’s not saying much, Vejita. He’s a third class."
The prince growled louder this time, rising from his thrown and marching out of the room, not so accidentally knocking a large amount of documents from several of the palace’s representatives Arms.
Nappa watched, impressed as the boy stood in that exact spot, in that exact position, never once looking up or repositioning his limbs. He’d never seen such a well-trained slave, especially one so young.
"Sire." Nappa said, bowing slightly as his prince returned.
"Nappa, report to one of the engineers. I want another room built into our quarters. It doesn’t need to be very big. Just enough room for a bed and a closet."
"Yes, Sire."
Vejita waited until his bodyguard had left before continuing his training with the boy.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach
Apology: I'm SO sorry you guys! I know I promised to do this weekly at least, but it seems I'm late! Just to make up for it I'm posting TWO new chapters!!!! Aren't I sweet? ^_^
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the fic
Chapter Four
Several months passed and the prince was surprised that Kakkarotto remained the perfect slave. The boy never spoke unless spoken to, never made eye contact, and did as he was told. Time usually changed slaves but not this one.
A room had been added just as he’d ordered, and the boy lived with them. He never left his room unless told to. Vejita had learned that the hard way. He’d forgotten about the boy for nearly two days, but was reminded of his presence when he’d heard a loud rumbling. Turned out the boy had quite the appetite. That seemed to be the only thing the boy hadn’t been trained to do, to eat properly. He never asked for food and when given it, he never complained or asked for more; however, there was never a need to worry about him not cleaning his plate. The boy ate everything placed before him at record speed.
Vejita couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought as he lie there in bed. His father and the royals were still bugging him about choosing a mate, but he was no where near as stressed about it as he’d been before.
"Sire, I’ve been ordered to help out with the purging of the planet Dreek. Ill be back in a week." Nappa said, interrupting one of the many sparring matches of his prince and the boy.
Vejita nodded, "Very well."
With that, the bulky bodyguard tromped off, leaving the prince and Kakkarotto alone in the small training hall. Vejita leaned against one of the dull gray walls, sliding down until he was sitting cross-legged on the cool floor.
"Come over here and sit."
Kakkarotto quickly obeyed his prince’s order, taking a seat beside his master.
"Why are you such a good slave?" the prince asked, more to himself than to the boy.
"I, uh I dunno." Kakkarotto stuttered. What was his master getting at? He’d been trying his best under the circumstances.
"Tell me how you came to be a slave."
Kakkarotto swallowed nervously, "My mom died when I was a baby. My dad left me with a few of his slaves I was four when they told me he died purgin a planet for tha king. The slaves were givin freedom, but they didn’t have any money. So, they sold me into slavery."
"Hn. I see," Vejita said, considering every detail of the boy’s story, "And you were born a third class soldier?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then, why are you so much stronger? I’d say you’re practically an elite."
"Well I was told that I only recently was allowed to train"
"But?" Vejita said, urging the boy to go on.
"But I’ve been training ever since I can remember, and after my fathers death, I trained even harder." Kakkarotto explained.
"I see. One thing that bothers me; why don’t you address me as master or sire like all the other slaves?" Vejita questioned, growing fond of the boys presence.
"I don’t wanna displease you," Kakkarotto said, blushing before he continued, "I’ve been waiting for you to give me all tha rules ta bein your slave."
"Hn. Well, I think it’s pointless for you to even call yourself a slave. I should make it official; you’re a soldier." The prince said, staring at the opposite wall of the empty hall.
"Please, I’d rather be your slave."
Vejita looked back to the boy, surprised, "You want to be my slave?"
"If that’s okay"
"I have a better idea," Vejita said, unsure of what he was about to do, "I enjoy your company, but I dislike slaves. I don’t want you a soldier either though. You’d be sent on mission after mission and I’d never see you. How about you being my Friend?" The prince saw his answer when the boy began blushing and smiling like an idiot, "However, to everyone else, you’re my slave. Got it?"
"Hai." Kakkarotto answered, grinning uncontrollably.
"That means you can look me in the eye." Vejita said, taking the boy’s chin in a hand and lifting his gaze until their eyes met for the first time ever.
Kakkarotto gasped. It was nothing like he’d expected. His master’s eyes were as deep and black as his own, but the prince’s held more pride and arrogance.
Vejita was surprised to find the boy’s eyes so similar to his own. There was much more pain and strength there, however, and he didn’t miss the fact the Kakkarotto cheeks were glowing with a radiant blush.
"And when we’re not in the presence of royals, you may do as you like. Call me what you like, look where you like It makes no difference to me, but always remember I’m the stronger. I am the prince."
Kakkarotto was nodding furiously, grinning like a loon. Finally, he was unable to contain himself and lunged forward, throwing his arms around the stiff prince.
Vejita was thrown off guard by the sudden closeness. As mentioned before, Nappa was the closest thing he’d ever had to a friend. Mostly he and his bodyguard had sparred with one another, every now and then having conversations about anything of real importance. His sudden urge to become so close, mentally and at the moment, physically, was beyond him. He just knew it was something he needed.
Only several days had passed and the two were inseparable. Many of the local soldiers and slaves that inhabited the palace were amazed with the closeness of the relationship. The shy slave boy they’d seen in the corridors had become a whole new person. He was constantly going on about one thing or another, and he turned out to be quite playful.
"Jita, you Wake?" the boy questioned, pressing an ear to his master’s bedroom door. Suddenly, it slid open, a groggy Saiya-jin prince standing before him, wearing only a pair of navy blue spandex pants.
"Morin." Kakkarotto said cheerfully, grinning like fool.
"Hn. What time is it?" Vejita said, stepping into the common room and taking a seat on the dull couch. Wiping his eyes with one hand, he searched for his boots with the other, feeling around his feet and under the coffee table.
"Breakfast time. I’m starvin!" As if on cue, the boy’s stomach rumbled loudly.
Taking a seat next to his master, he smiled, "Wanna go get something ta eat?"
"Figures. All you ever think about is food." Vejita said dryly, continuing his search with both hands now.
Kakkarotto leaned forward, his nose practically coming into contact with the prince’s as he reached under and passed Vegita’s legs.
"NЕ Nani?" Vejita said, suddenly wide-awake. Was Kakkarotto going to…
"Here," the boy said, pulling forth a pair of white boots and holding them before Vejita face, "Now, common I’m starving." "Hn," the prince growled, yanking the boots from the boy and slipping them onto his feet, "Yeah, I heard you the first time. Let’s go." He said, rising to his feet and wrapping his tail around his waist.
Once in the mess hall, the two Saiya-jin sat alone at a small round table. Soon a female slave of a strange species served them large quantities of food. Normally, so much wasn’t given to just two warriors, but the woman must have seen Kakkarotto coming. As usual, they ate in relative silence. There wasn’t much that could be said while the boy was stuffing his face. Finally, they’d both had their fill.
Leaning back in his chair, Kakkarotto patted his full stomach, "Mmm That was good."
"Yes So, ready for a spar?" Vejita questioned, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. He knew better than to think that the boy wouldn’t be able to fight at such an overstuffed state. He never needed a moment to digest, and it seemed to speed him up rather than slow him down. The prince, on the other hand, had never been able to consume that much in the first place.
"Nnn Jita, I’m sleepy now." Kakkarotto said, whining somewhat as he retied the white sash around his waist, tightening his blue gi.
Vejita faltered for a moment at the way his name had sounded coming from the boy, "Sleepy?"
"Hai. I couldn’t sleep last night. Ya really kicked my butt," Kakkarotto could see that the prince’s mind was fumbling with an apology but unable to say it, "Don’t worry Bout it I just haven’t recovered enough to spar like that again so soon."
"I know." Vejita snapped. Why was the boy being so sweet? He hadn’t been on the verge of apologizing to a third class, had he?
"Wanna go back to our room?"
Vejita shook his head for a moment, not understanding, "Why?" he asked, unsure of why the boy wanted to go back to their boring room.
"Please, Jita I’m sleepy" Kakkarotto said, yawning, causing his eyes to water up as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.
Vejita couldn’t refuse those cute puppy dog eyes, "Come on, Chibi" he said, almost smiling.
Together they walked through the corridors littered with soldiers here and there. Kakkarotto walked several feet ahead of the prince, his bare feet padding the metal floor, his tail hovering behind him.
Once they’d reached their destination, Kakkarotto had plopped down on the couch, lazily stretching out on his stomach. Vejita closed the front door and, oddly enough, decided to relax on the couch as well instead of the two empty cushioned chairs that remained.
There was a small space between Kakkarotto head and the arm of the couch, Vejita fond himself bored, "Are you asleep?"
"Nnn Not yet," Kakkarotto mumbled, repositioning, surprised to find the prince so close, "Jita?" he questioned before smiling and scooting up until his head rest in his master’s lap.
"Baka What are you doing?" Vejita asked in a slightly more-than-upset tone, blushing heavily and baring his teeth. Luckily for him, Kakkarotto didn’t notice his embarrassment.
"You make a good pillow." The boy teased, his eyes closed in exhaustion.
"Hn." The prince answered, his embarrassment having faded away as he leaned his head back, closing his eyes as well.
"You know, Kakkarotto, it’s like you’re a totally different person." Vejita said, keeping his eyes closed.
"Nah, this is how I’ve always been. It’s just been a long time since I’ve been able to be me."
Vejita opened his eyes at the feel of the boy nudging his thigh with his head as he repositioned himself again. Soon, he stilled, and the prince closed his eyes again. Before long, they were both fast asleep.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Apology: I'm sorry for doing this everyone, but it seems that Fanfic.net went and erased all my fics along with all my wonderful reviews! *Holds back the tears!* I was no longer able to log on, so I just re-registered. I hope no one gets too confused.
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the fic
Chapter Five
A little more than a week later, Nappa stepped out of his space pod, stretching as he looked up at the darkening sky. They’d taken two days longer than expected. The king wasn’t going to be happy about this.
Several other soldiers joined Nappa as the walked silently to the throne room.
"Ahh So, you finally decide to return. What took so long?"
Nappa stepped forward, bowing, "Sorry, Sire. The inhabitants were stronger than expected. Our scouters were next to useless."
"Still all your men managed to survive?"
"Yes, Sire."
"Very well. Dismissed."
Nappa straightened his posture and strode out the small side door. Now he had to find Prince Vejita. It didn’t take long. He found his prince and the boy training in the large training hall near the throne room.
Vejita stopped the spar, turning to his bodyguard, "Welcome back, Nappa. Everything went well?"
The slow-witted soldier was surprised by his prince’s tone, "Yes, Sire. However, I thought I’d let you in on a rather useful technique I witnessed on Dreek."
Now the bulky man had his attention, "And what is that?"
"It seems that the inhabitants were able to hide their ki from the scouters."
Vegita’s eyebrows lifted for an instant in surprise, "What a useful little trick. Have any of you picked it up yet?"
"No, none of us were able to." Nappa answered, noticing that Kakkarotto seemed to no longer be the slave he used to be. The boy was looking about, making eye contact with him, and obviously listening in on the conversation.
"I wonder how,” Vejita mumbled.
"But you never use all your strength against me" Kakkarotto stated innocently.
"Yes, but a scouter can still pick up on my full ki." The prince answered as he continued to ponder the skill.
"Can you sense ki?" the boy asked, curious now.
Nappa stared in amazement. He had no clue what was going on. The two were conversing as if they were siblings; however, he remained quiet as to not upset his prince.
"Not without a scouter. No one can." Vejita said, eyeing the boy.
"Well, I can. I sense ya right now. That’s how I know ya don’t use all your strength when we fight."
Both Nappa and Vegita’s mouths fell open, though, the prince recovered much quicker, "And, can you sense others?"
"Course."
"Nappa, give me your scouter," Vejita snapped, taking the device from his bodyguard and putting it on, pressing a few buttons, and turning his attention back to the boy, "This says you have a ki of 1500."
"1500? Is that good?" Kakkarotto asked, his head tilting to one side much like a dog.
Vejita smirked, "Mines at 60,000."
This time only Nappa’s mouth hung open. The prince had never revealed his power level to anyone. Now he was curious of the king’s power level. No one knew which of the two were the strongest.
"60,000? Is that a lot higher?"
Vejita frowned, just now realizing that the boy was as uneducated as he proved, "It means I’m forty times stronger than you."
"That doesn’t make sense. I’m almost tha same as you."
"Nonsense! Unless You’re able to hide you ki from the scouter" the prince said, mumbling the last, "Then, why do I defeat you so often?"
" Cause it would make ya mad if I beat ya. I don’t wanna have ya mad at me." The boy said, almost pouting.
"Hn. Fight me right now With everything you’ve got, and that’s an order."
Swallowing hard, Kakkarotto stepped out into the middle of the large, empty hall, nodding.
Nappa watched in amazement as the two began their match. It seemed the boy had been right. They were nearly equal, though it was obvious that the prince had more experience and skill. The boy left his guard open too often, and if the prince were fighting as ruthless as he normally did, the boy would be seriously injured.
Vejita jerked the scouter from his face, tossing it to the floor. They’d been fighting for nearly an hour and it seemed Kakkarotto had been right, but the scouter had never indicated his ki going above 1500 the entire time.
"That’s enough," he said, straightening his posture, "Tomorrow I demand you show me how you do it."
Kakkarotto stood straight as well, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back a hand. He nodded, noting his master’s stern tone. Without saying a word, Vejita turned and started towards the exit.
"I didn’t make ya mad, did I, Jita?" he questioned, jogging to catch up. Suddenly, a fist made contact with his jaw and he went sailing backwards, landing unceremoniously on his behind.
Vejita turned on his heel, "Nappa! What do you think you’re doing?" he bellowed, going immediately to the boy’s side. Kakkarotto was clutching his jaw with both hands when Vejita extended and arm, offering a hand up. The boy took it without question.
"Enough! No need to go on like a baby." The prince said, almost chuckling at the boy’s whining. Then he remembered
"Nappa???"
"Uh, sorry, Sire. The boy had ill-addressed you. I thought it was law to punish slaves for-"
"Its fine," Vejita interrupted, "Just Don’t do it again. I’ve given Kakkarotto permission to behave how he likes."
The bulky bodyguard felt that the day would never end in surprises. The prince seemed to be less frustrated and kinder. Nothing noticeable by others, but he’d spent so much time with the fiery Saiya-jin, that he did. Maybe the king had been right after all. Maybe some kind of sexual lust the prince had been unaware of was being fulfilled; however, he’d heard upon arriving that he still hadn’t chosen a mate. Nappa decided not to worry over it as they came to their room. All would be revealed in time.
Nappa awoke early, having set his scouter to go off much like an alarm clock. He flung a bulky arm over the edge of the small bed, his fingers searching wildly for the device. Nappa sighed before deciding not to smash one of his last scouters in his large hand.
Before long he was tromping through the common room, soon learning that neither Prince Vejita nor Kakkarotto were there. It didn’t take long for him to find them though.
Breathing heavily, Kakkarotto bent, resting his hands on his knees, "I’m too hungry to fight anymore."
"Is food all you ever think about?" Vejita said, earning an adorable grin from the boy. Adorable? Where the Hell did that come from?
"Sire, shall we get some breakfast?" Nappa said, stepping into the doorway of the dull training hall.
Kakkarotto all but sprinted down the few corridors that led to the mess hall. Soon all three were seated at a round table near the entrance. Nappa was somewhat amazed at the speed in which the boy inhaled his food. His prince didn’t even seem to notice.
"Kakkarotto, really You’re going to choke or something." The prince said, speaking loud enough to be heard over the ruckus of quite a few other warriors.
Chuckling, the boy gulped down the last of his large meal, leaning back in his chair while rubbing his overstuffed stomach with both hands.
"Have some dignity." The prince mumbled, smirking. Almost smiling.
"Sire, I really don’t understand" Nappa began, only to be cut off when his prince suddenly stood.
"Let’s get back to training."
Nodding, Kakkarotto stood, following his master out of the less crowded mess hall, leaving Nappa alone at the table.
"Jita, I don’t think Nappa likes Me."
"It doesn’t matter." The prince said as they took their places opposite one another in the larger of the two training halls in the palace.
"I’m tired of training. Can’t we do something else?"
Vejita straightened his posture, growling lightly, "Stop whining. Saiya-jin doesn’t whine."
They’d been training for hours and had finally accomplished their goal. It had been nearly a month since Vejita had insisted Kakkarotto teach him this new technique that only a handful of Saiya-jins had even heard of. The prince was finding himself capable of picking up ki like a sixth sense. It was hard at first, but he was finding himself able to do it better and better the more he did it. It seemed the boy had been right. They were nearly equal in strength.
Kakkarotto sighed, letting his arms drop limply to his sides. Without a word, he let himself fall backwards, bumping his head, lying flat on his back. Vejita almost gasped and hurried to the boy’s side. Kakkarotto chuckled when the princes upside down face came into view.
"Please"
"Fine," Vejita said, smirking down at the fool, "Just stop whining."
The boy jumped to his feet, nearly knocking his master over, "What are we goin to do?" he asked excitedly, only getting a shrug in response.
Vejita was finding it harder and harder to entertain the boy. His life consisted of training, eating, and sleeping, and in that order. Kakkarotto always wanted to "do something." He considered going outdoors, but soon changed his mind. He didn’t want his father to see how he allowed the boy to behave. Plus, it was dangerous outside. Kakkarotto was far too innocent and curious. If he turned his back for a moment and the boy wondered off, he could be stolen and sold into slavery again. These were desperate times. The rich were extremely rich, and the poor were extremely poor. Of course, nothing was going to be done about it. Who cared if a few poor Saiya-jin starved? Vejita hoped he’d never be king. He hated being prince. If it were that easy, he’d just leave, but where would he go?
Snapping out of his thoughts, he began walking towards his quarters with Kakkarotto in tow. Their little naps were becoming more and more often. Now they were up to once a week. Stepping into the dull room, Vejita kicked off his boots and slid onto the couch, stretching out before relaxing.
Kakkarotto stared in amazement. He’d noticed his master’s grace in battle, but this was different. It reminding him of some sort of elegant, sleek panther. Suddenly he had an urge to be closer to his master, to have some sort of contact.
The boy snapped out of his trance and hurried over to the roomy couch, kicking off his boots before taking a seat near Vegita’s feet. Carefully, he swung his feet up onto the couch until they were behind his master. He too stretched before relaxing against the prince.
Vejita opened his eyes at the feel of the boy’s entire body pressing against his own. Lifting his head, he could see that Kakkarotto was already asleep, hugging his bare feet to his chest as if they were a teddy bear. The boy’s hold was so gentle, his skin so warm. He’d never really thought about it before, but Kakkarotto was quite the specimen. He had pale ivory skin, ebony locks, and large eyes like inky windows into his soul. The boy’s soul had to be his best quality. So innocent and pure as if he’d never had an evil thought in his entire life, even though he’d been raised to be a pleasure slave.
The prince closed his eyes, letting himself slip closer to sleep. Still, Kakkarotto invaded his thoughts. The boy was just so perfect. Even his physique was idea, as if he’d been chiseled to perfection by the Gods themselves. He was pretty much finished growing, standing at least a foot taller than the prince. Even after his years of training, he held a somewhat small frame instead of growing bulky and oversized. The prince smirked as his thoughts took a new direction: The boy had compact muscles like himself, thin waist, narrow hips, and a delicious looking ass. He obeyed, respected, and was honest with his prince. Actually, he seemed to be the ideal mate.
Vegita’s eyes flew open at the thought. Where had that come from? Why was he thinking like this? He wasn’t a faggot! There was nothing wrong with noticing beauty in a fellow warrior. Beauty?
Sighing, Vejita tried not to think about any of it. The more he thought, the more he confused himself. Soon, he was fast asleep.
Kakkarotto grinned. He could feel the emotions radiating from his master. They were so strong they nearly overwhelmed him. They were friends. The electricity in the air foreshadowed something stronger than friendship, but Kakkarotto shrugged it off. He knew of no such thing, however, he was glad he had Vejita. The arrogant prince was the only person who’d ever been kind to him.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go again Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakkarotto, is definitely OOC, but its all good. You’ll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! I’ll be adding chapters weekly, but I may update faster, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! It’s all good here!
Warnings: If you don’t already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if you’re just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or it’s characters, and, again, unfortunately, I’m not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
Thanks: Wow! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I didn't think I'd have this many especially since FF.Net went psycho on me! So, here's chapter six three days early! ^_^ Aren't I a sweetie? ^_^
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the fic
Chapter Six
A month and a half later, the king was disappointed to see that his plan had backfired. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. If he didn’t do something soon, his son would kill all of his palace guards.
Nappa raised his head at the sound of his name being called, "Yes, Sire?"
The king motioned for his son’s bodyguard to come close, and he did, "How’s my son?"
"As frustrated as ever, Sire."
"I don’t understand. Has he enjoyed the slave?"
"The boy?"
The king nodded, waiting impatiently for the slow-witted warrior to continue.
"I don’t think so, Sire. Prince Vejita made it clear that he isnТt homosexual."
"I see. Then, why was he so calm those many months when I’d first given him the slave?" King Vejita questioned curiously, his brows knitted in confusion.
"It seemed they’d become friends, like brothers even, but now Prince Vejita is back to his old self again. I don’t know what happened."
"Very well." The king muttered, waving Nappa away, watching as he retreated out of the room. This was getting ridiculous. He’d somehow convinced the royals to leave his son alone for a while, but now they were hounding him. Something had to be done.
"Prince Vejita?"
Kakkarotto sat up quickly to the sound of knocking. He rose from the couch and went to the door, opening it to see a short, pale blue creature.
"Where is Prince Vejita?" the obvious guard asked in a feminine voice.
Kakkarotto didn’t know how to behave. He hadn’t been addressed by anyone other than his master or Nappa in so long. So, he just stood silent, fearing to be punished.
The guard was pleased; he’d found one of the prince’s slaves, "Inform Prince Vejita immediately that the king requests his presence at council along with his slave Kakkarotto."
Kakkarotto lifted his gaze and watched as the small guard trotted off. He had to find his master. This seemed to be important. His stomach was tense as he ran down the corridors to the prince’s training hall. He didn’t want to see the king again. Memories flooded into his mind of the last time he’d seen the king.
"Jita?" Kakkarotto said as he barged into the room, barely dodging a ki blast.
Vejita growled low in his throat, "What is it?" Seeing the boy reminding himself of his frustrations. Everything had been so crazy lately. At first he’d been so eager to spend every second of his time with the boy. Now that he understood why, he’d been avoiding him, ordering him to remain at their quarters.
Kakkarotto visibly cringed at the sound of his master’s tone; "This guy said you and me are supposed ta go to council immediately."
Vejita wanted to smirk at the boy’s difficulty in pronouncing the last, but the message had already sunk in. Council. Something was wrong when you were ordered to go to council.
"Very well. Let’s go." The prince said as he began his walk to the south wing followed closely by Kakkarotto. It seemed the boy had suddenly become the perfect slave he’d once been when they’d gone far enough into his father’s wing of the palace. Now that Vejita thought about it, Kakkarotto had only ever been in his wing and the royal training hall. Surely he wasn’t scared, was he? What was there to be afraid of? With a quick glance, the prince’s guess was confirmed. The boy was obviously nervous. His hands were fidgeting and it seemed his mind was battling as he tried to decide whether to slip back into slave mode or remain as Vejita had ordered him.
Finally, they came to a large set of double doors made of a rich chocolate wood. Two insignificant guards opened the door for his Royal Highness and the slave. As they stepped into the room, Kakkarotto slipped back into slave mode out of fear. From what he could see, the room was well lit with large rectangular table taking up most of the space. He couldn’t see how many, but there were many chairs with many royals occupying them. As they stepped closer to the well-polished table, obviously made from the same wood as the doors, Kakkarotto could see that notes and documents littered its surface sporadically.
Everyone’s attention turned to the prince as he entered the room. Quickly, all but King Vejita rose from their seats.
"Have a seat, my good prince." An older man offered, gesturing to a large chair, not as large as the king’s, however, at the end of the table, just opposite the king.
"What is this all about?" Vejita questioned with a scowl on his face.
"Let’s keep calm now, son. The council has decided to meet over the issue of you choosing a mate." King Vejita said, watching as his son’s eyes narrowed in anger.
Vejita was fully aware the moment the word "mate" had left his father’s mouth, and he noticed all too easily that Kakkarotto, who was standing at his side, had flinched.
"I see. Then, why was my slave ordered here as well?" his question was dismissed, however, by a wave of his father’s hand.
"Prince Vejita, in six months you’ll be twenty-five. In the history of Planet Vejita, no king-to-be over twenty has been without a mate." Stated a rather old Saiya-jin with white hair and small spectacles.
Another council member continued where the previous one left off, "Therefore the council has decided that if you do not choose a mate in six months time, one will be chosen for you."
"The ceremony will be held a week after your birthday." Finished one of the younger members, rising from his seat along with the others.
Vegita’s teeth were clenched, causing the muscles of his jaw to protrude ever so slightly. Kakkarotto, however, picked up on it easily and knew that his dear master was far more than upset.
The royals gathered their papers and exited in the room in silence. Soon, all that remained was the king, the prince, and the slave.
"Father, this is ridiculous. What Is the importance of my choosing a mate?" Vejita said with strained calmness.
"The royals fear a king without an heir. In times such as these it makes for easy rebellion."
"That makes no sense. You are king and you have an heir." Vejita all but growled.
"Yes, but imagine the distress if I were assassinated tomorrow. You would be a king without an heir." King Vejita said, almost smirking at his son’s realization.
Vejita growled, casting his gaze to the side, where Kakkarotto stood, which reminded him, "What does any of this have to do with Kakkarotto?"
"I see now my error in ordering him your slave. I apologize if I’ve offended you."
This time it was the prince’s turn to smirk. It wasn’t often his father apologized for anything. He watched as his father stood and he too rose from his seat.
"He is a good slave though. So, I’ll keep with my others. It’s good to have some variety." The king said, winking at his son.
Kakkarotto paled visibly. No. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Not when he and Vejita were becoming so close. He couldn’t imagine loosing the one person who’d ever been kind to him. No. It just couldn’t be this way
"No Jita" Kakkarotto murmured, looking up to see the surprised eyes of his master. Suddenly a large hand made contact with his face, causing him to slip out of consciousness for but a second.
"Father, is this really necessary? Kakkarotto and I have become," the prince paused for a moment, grimacing at the truth, "friends."
"Is that so? Well, I’m afraid this boy wasn’t cut out to be a soldier or a warrior for that matter. He’s a pleasure slave. He will always be a third class pleasure slave. We cant have the prince being seen conversing with a slave like they were friends." With that the king headed for the door.
Kakkarotto didn’t care about his manners at the moment. He was being separated from his one and onlyЕ Friend. Vejita had admitted to that much. It was the happiest and saddest day of his life.
Vejita starred into the boy’s eyes, which were becoming more and more watery by the second. He had to do something Say something But why? Why did it hurt so much to think that he may never seen the boy again? He wasn’t a faggot! Was he? Instead of speaking up, the prince just watched as Kakkarotto finally turned and followed his father out of the room.
Kakkarotto had been placed in a guardТs care once theyТd reached the kingТs personal wing. The guard was a tall lanky man of an unknown species. His skin was a play yellow, causing him to look sicklier than he really was.
"Wait in here." The guard ordered in a surprisingly deep voice as he shoved Kakarotto in a large room, closing the doors and standing guard outside to room to assure the boy didnТt escape. The king had warned him that the boy was in a rebellious mood since heТd just been plucked from his previous masterТs side.
Kakarotto stumbled into the room, taking in his surroundings. The large four-posted bed, the bright colored walls, and the enormous chestnut dresser. He was in the kingТs bedroom. In his entire life, Kakarotto had been scared many times, but heТd never been terrified like this. It wasnТt only his life that was in danger, but something more. It was a curse. He was to forever be near the one person he cared about, his best friend, but heТd never be able to talk to him or touch him again. It was hopeless. Wiping a single tear from his cheek and blinking several times to assure that no more tears slipped through, Kakarotto kneeled at the end of the bed, fixing his gaze on the floor.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go againЕ Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakarotto, is definitely OOC, but itТs all good. YouТll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! IТll be adding chapters weekly, but I may update faster, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! ItТs all good here!
Warnings: If you donТt already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if youТre just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or itТs characters, and, again, unfortunately, IТm not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
Thanks: Wow! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Here's yet another chapter out early. ^_^
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the ficЕ
Chapter Seven
"Sire, where have you been?" Nappa questioned, nearly tackling his prince as he rounded a corner.
"I went for a walk." Vejita answered calmly, completely unlike himself.
"Outside the palace? ThatТs dangerous," with that Nappa decided to change topics, knowing this one was headed no where, "I heard you were in CouncilЕ What happened?"
Once theyТd entered their quarters, Vejita complied with his bodyguard's questions, "IТve been ordered to choose a mate by my twenty-fifth birthday. If I donТt, they will choose one for me."
Nappa was dumb, but he wasn’t retarded. Obviously there was something more to the story. Normally being ordered to do something only angered the proud prince, causing him to hurl things at anyone and everyone. Watching as Vejita took a seat on the dull couch, Nappa took a seat across from him. It seemed it was going to be one of those few times where they behaved as friends Where Vejita would open up to him
Vejita held his composure for as long as possible, but relaxing on the very couch where he and the boy had been nearly Intimate It was too much.
"My father decided that it had been wrong for him to push a male slave on me like that. So, he took Kakarotto away."
Nappa knew that this wasn’t a good thing. The prince had become especially close with the boy. They were like brothers Best friends
"Nappa"
Snapping out of his thoughts, the bulky bodyguard looked up to see his prince a little stronger, "Uh Yes, Sire?"
"How many slaves do I have?"
"Near ten, I’m guessing." Nappa answered, narrowing his eyes in curiosity.
"Have them all sent to my father. Tell him that I don’t need any distractions while I search for a mate." Vejita said, the last coming out in his usual hard voice. Besides, this was all nonsense. He quickly rose from his seat and went to his room to change. He needed to train and get his mind off everything.
Nappa bowed slightly before trotting off to do as he was told. It wasn’t far down the hall. He paused in front of the narrow double doors before entering, closing the doors behind him. The room was large, but not nearly large enough for ten women. Quickly he learned that it was actually eight. Prince Vejita owned eight slaves. That was nothing compared to the king; however, Nappa had heard through other guards that the king didn’t have near as many as he’d once had. There just wasn’t time to shop for women when the planet was being threatened so often.
"Ladies, whose in charge here?" Nappa said, interrupting their chatter.
"I am." The voice was that of the oldest woman in the room. She couldn’t have been older than thirty, but she was the oldest, which automatically put her in charge of the rest of the women.
"You have an hour. Have all these women including yourself gather only your most precious belongings and one change of clothes. Your master, the good prince, has decided to give you to the king himself." Nappa said, pressing a button on his scouter to set a timer before exiting the room.
"Well, you heard him." The brunette said, turning to gather her things.
"Can you believe it! I barely even got to see Prince Vejita!" Hanna protested, throwing her hands on her hips. She was next in line to being the oldest.
"I wouldn’t complain." Came a tiny voice. Hanna turned to see that it had been Emerarudo who’d decided to join in the conversation. Nearly every slave was jealous of the lovely "emerald."
"What’s that supposed to mean?" Hanna said, her voice raising a notch as she lifted her right hand from her hip, using it to flip her shimmering blonde hair.
"Well," Eme began, speaking ever so softly, "You’re lucky the prince never used you."
Hanna glared at the girl trying to decide whether or not that had been an insult. She was enraged just looking at her. Jealousy was a powerful thing. Eme had beautiful pale green skin. It wasn’t like most. It wasn't fleshy, scaly, or smooth. Her skin felt almost like a fine powder, cool and dry at the same time, glittering like sand at her joints. Her fingers and toes were webbed in a strangely elegant way, and her eyes were the deepest green, like emeralds. Turned out that she was from another planet far away, where shed lived at the bottom of a large ocean. Few had seen the gills behind her ears, but Hanna knew they were there. Eme wasn’t the type to lie.
"Hanna, come on. Lets just get our stuff together." Chiisai pleaded, hoping her friend didn’t get into another argument. They’d all told their sob stories. Chiisai, Hanna, Kurisutaru, and Eko had been sold into slavery when they were just toddlers. Their parents couldn’t afford to feed them, much less themselves, and had been forced to give up their precious daughters but never their sons. Riko had been stolen from her parents, so she said, but many guessed that she too had been sold. It was quite depressing to think that even your parents hadn’t seen your importance. No wonder there weren’t many Saiyajin women. They were all slaves! Jiyu had offered herself into slavery. She was a very strange girl indeed and the youngest of them all, having just recently turned twenty-two. Seido, the oldest of them was also different. She was Saiyajin, but her skin was much darker than most had seen, rich like chocolate. Her hair and eyes were also a deep, rich chocolate, much darker than her skin however. (A/N: Emerarudo translates to Emerald, Kurisutaru translates to Crystal, Eko translates to Echo, Riko translates to Clever, Jiyu translates to Loose, and Seido translates to Bronze.) Eme was like the many other slaves that populated the Planet Vejita. Her planet had been taken over by the Saiyajin and she’d been taken into slavery.
Wait a minute, are you saying he’s used you?" Hanna questioned out of curiosity now.
Eme ran a hand through her dark green hair, her fingers working quickly to twist it into a long braid, "Yes, only a few times though."
"That can’t be true. Everyone here says that he’s never enjoyed any slave." Hanna said, her tone much calmer now as she watched the green girl slip a few pieces of jewelry into a cloth bag resembling a pillowcase that had been altered.
"That’s enough. Most of the girls here are new like yourself," Seido interrupted, "Eme and myself are the only slaves that Prince Vejita purchased himself. I was only twenty then. That was nearly eight years ago."
Many of the girl’s mouths hung open in disbelief. Seido had waited until now to tell them this!
"Are you saying you were his first?" Eko questioned, her extremely short red hair bouncing as she stepped closer. Normally she was much, much more talkative.
Seido nodded, causing Hanna to gasp, "So, you’re saying that you and Eme are the only women that he’s ever been with?"
"No, I’ve heard that he’s taken many of the slave women that work in the palace. I’ve even heard that a few didn’t survive it." Eko said, letting the gossip bug take hold of her. Her last sentence caused the room to gasp in shock and fear.
"Okay, okay, that’s enough of this. You know how much trouble we’ll get into for talking about our master like this?" Seido said, not really knowing what had gotten into her. The women continued with what they were doing, nearly all of them finished packing what little jewelry they’d collected, a few personal items, and a single change of clothes. They’d be provided with more clothes later, clothes that better suited their new master’s tastes.
Vejita watched out of the corner of his eye as Nappa began walking out of the room, "Where are you going?" the prince questioned, stopping his training in midair.
"You ordered me to give your slaves to King Vejita." Nappa said, a little confused that his prince had forgotten already.
Vejita landed swiftly, wiping the sweat from his brow. He remembered giving the order. It was only right. He didn’t need slaves any more. It wasn’t because he needed to choose a mate. It was because there was only one person that he wanted.
"No." he mumbled, shaking the thought from his head. This was crazy! Why couldn’t he get his thoughts clear?
"Sire, do you want me to do it or not?" Nappa questioned, a puzzled look coming over his face. His prince didn’t answer though. Instead, he gestured for him to follow him. Nappa smirked as they made their way to his slaves quarters, Vejita was reminding him of the king.
There were many gasps as the prince barged into the colorful room, "My father will be pleased. Take them to him immediately. Its late, he should be in his quarters."
"Yes, Sire." Nappa said, stepping forward to count the women and get them together.
Vejita watched as his bodyguard worked. He didnТt recognize any of the women. Wait, he did recognize that one. The lovely bronze one. She’d been a present from his father on his seventeenth birthday. His father had taken him to shop for a woman to be his first. He’d chosen this one. He stepped forward, quickly capturing the woman’s chin in his hand, surprising everyone in the room.
"Master?" Seido questioned, keeping her gaze to the floor.
"Nappa, I think I’ll keep this one."
Nappa was a little shocked. He’d never seen the prince act intimate with a woman in his life. Vejita said it was a weakness to be so soft and romantic. Nappa quickly remembered what he’d been told and nodded.
That’s when the lovely green one caught his attention. Yes, he remembered her. He’d gone with his father to prepare a shipment of slaves that were to be sent to a nearby king to repay him for sending his most powerful soldiers to aid in a battle. He remembered seeing her shivering in one of the many cages and demanded that she be his. Vejita smirked, eyeing his emerald.
"And this one." He said, making sure Nappa knew which he was talking about before he exited the room, heading back to the training hall.
It was obvious to Nappa why his prince wanted to keep the two slaves; they were both very beautiful, "Well, you heard the prince. You two stay here. The rest, follow me."
Kakarotto nearly cried out in surprise as the front doors flew open. The boy could tell that it was the king by the scent of him.
"Ah, such a good slave." The king said, forgetting his stress as he laid eyes on the lovely boy. As he’d expected, the boy didn’t make a move. He was going to enjoy this. The king quickly removed his gloves and boots, followed by his red cloak and shinning armor, leaving him in only a navy blue bodysuit much like the ones the prince wore.
"Now, Kakarotto, is it? Undress."
Kakarotto shuttered at what was to follow. He hated having to do this. It wasn’t that he was shy, he just hated what he knew was to follow once he was naked. Slowly, he untied the white sash around his waist, letting it drop to the floor along with his dull blue gi pants, which he soon stepped out of. Ignoring the king’s approving remarks, he continued by pulling the dull blue sleeveless shirt over his head, letting it too drop to the floor. Now he was completely naked and feeling more than a little vulnerable.
"Very nice." The king said, stepping forward to fondle his newest slave. The boy was exquisite with his pale white skin and black features.
"Get on the bed." He ordered, quickly discarding the rest of his clothing and joining Kakarotto on the bed. It seemed the boy wasn’t the type to enjoy himself. It didn’t matter. The king leaned forward, licking the boys ear as he whispered what he wanted.
Kakarotto grimaced inwardly, watching out of the corner of his eye as the king lay back, spreading his legs. He’d been taught to follow orders. He’d been taught to follow orders. Repeating the thought didn’t help as he lowered his face to the king’s large erection. He had to do as he was told. What good would it do to disobey? He’d only be killed. Without another thought he lowered his head to carry out his king’s… His master’s request.
King Vejita closed his eyes as the boy’s tongue intruded his body, causing him to breathe deeply, groaning from time to time. He groaned a bit louder, lifting his hips off the mattress as his erection was nearly swallowed. A finger had replaced the tongue and he was on the verge of completion.
Kakarotto nearly gagged as the king’s seed filled his mouth. He quickly swallowed as he’d been ordered and withdrew, waiting for his next order.
The king gasped for a few moments before sitting up, "Now" he began, glad that he was finally going to get the chance to fuck the boy senseless. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Growling, King Vejita rose from the bed, pulling on a large navy blue robe, "It seems we’ll have to finish this later. Get your clothes and get cleaned up. There’s another door in the washroom that leads to my slaves quarters. That is where you stay unless called for."
Kakarotto quickly rose, gathering his clothes, and making his way into the large washroom, closing the door behind him. It seemed that the king wasn’t used to living without his luxuries. Prince Vejita lived with the minimal, insisting that any and all frills were for the weak.
King Vejita threw open his door, surprised to see Nappa, his son’s bodyguard, accompanied by six slave women, "What the Hell is all this about?"
Nappa swallowed nervously, "Prince Vejita ordered that these slaves be sent to Your Highness immediately, saying that they are too much of a distraction while he searches for a mate."
"Hmph. Very well. Take them to my slave’s quarters." The king said through a smirk, gesturing to the narrow double doors just down the hall before closing the door in NappaТs face. His son was being awfully spiteful. Oh well. Maybe it was enough to calm him down and set his mind to what was at hand. The king stopped his worries; it was pointless. What he needed was some sleep.
Kakarotto used the soap, since he couldn’t find any toothpaste or mouthwash, to rinse his mouth again. Once he was satisfied, he pulled on his clothes and opened the door to the room he’d been told was his new home. Upon entering, there were many gasps from at least twenty women. The room was enormous, slightly larger than the king’s own room.
"Who are you?" demanded a tall, yellow-skinned woman. Her hair and eyes were a bright red, contrasting nicely to her pale yellow skin. She was tall and stout. Here ears were pointed, she had no nose, and it seemed as though she only had four fingers on each hand.
"Kakarotto!"
The boy was surprised when he was suddenly tackled by, "Hanna, and Chiisai"
"You’re a slave?" the yellow woman questioned.
"Yes, he’s one of us." Hanna said, throwing the woman a look that said, "No shit!"
"Well, like I told the others My name is Nikko, and I’m in charge since I’m the oldest." (A/N: Nikko translates to Sunshine.)
"Okay." Kakarotto answered simply, causing the women to roll her eyes before walking away, leaving him to be greeted by Hanna, Chiisai, and four other women.
"I thought you were Jita’s slaves, why are you here?" the boy questioned, looking from the blonde to the brunette.
"Prince Vejita has given us to the king," Chiisai answered, "What about you? I thought you were one of the prince’s slaves too?"
"Are you saying that Prince Vejita had a male slave?" Jiyu asked, her eyes bulging in shock.
"It’s pretty crazy. I don’t mind telling ya, but right now I just wanna sleep. Kay?"
After receiving several nods and a blanket and pillow, he made his way to an empty space along one of the bright-colored walls. Soon he was lying comfortable and on the verge of sleep. The truth was, he didn’t want to talk about it. In his mind, Vejita would always be his master.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the fic
Chapter Eight
Several days had passed and Prince Vejita was training harder than ever, deep in thought. He felt as if he were going mad. He’d enjoyed himself with each of his two remaining slaves. Of course it had been pleasurable, but he yearned for something more.
Baring his teeth, he attacked Nappa, throwing swift kicks and punches at full power. He wasn’t a faggot!
"Sire, please!" Nappa bellowed, backing away quickly when the prince paused in their sparring. Breathing heavily, the slow-witted bodyguard watched his prince; it was obvious he was deep in thought.
Vejita’s eyes were open, but he wasn’t really seeing. Maybe he needed to enjoy himself with a male, just to see if that was what he yearned for. No. He knew that the aching he felt wasn’t something that could be remedied with physical pleasure. He needed more. Love? Love was a weakness, but he could remember not so long ago when he’d felt the beginnings of the cruel emotion.
Vejita opened his eyes at the feel of the boy nudging his thigh with his head as he repositioned himself. Soon, he stilled, and the prince closed his eyes again. Before long, they were both fast asleep.
Yes, Kakarotto. No wonder he’d felt so hurt when his father had taken the boy away. He needed to get the boy back. Even if he was unsure about his feelings, he knew he didn’t want anyone other than himself in Kakarotto’s presence, touching him The thought caused him to snap back into reality.
"Nappa, your services are no longer need for the day." With that he stomped off, heading for his father’s quarters. It was quite early, surely he’d still be there.
Before long he was standing before the doors of his father’s chambers. He paused, taking a deep breath. He hadn’t seen his father in a couple of days. He’d had Nappa inform his father that herd be unable to come to the throne room each morning, insisting that he didn’t want any distractions while he chose a mate. Funny, though he’d rid himself of distractions, Kakarotto haunted his mind. Finally, he raised a hand to knock, knowing full well that his father was inside, since he was able to feel ki now.
"What is it? Oh, Vejita, and to what do I owe this pleasure?" the king said, half-dressed.
"Father, I’ve been racking my mind, trying to think which of the many women I’ve encountered would make the perfect mate"
"And?" the king interrupted, "I’m pressed for time as it is. I have to be in the throne room in less than ten minutes."
Vejita fought back the urge to snap at his father, instead continuing with his charade, "As I was saying, I’m quite stressed, and the truth of the matter is that I was hoping for a slave to relieve that stress."
"This makes no sense. You gave me all of your slaves." The king said, leaving his chamber doors open as he stepped back into the room to continue getting dressed.
"Yes, but I’m afraid you took away the one that I had yet to enjoy." Vejita said, hoping his father caught on, he did not look forward to explaining it.
King Vejita’s eyes lit up at the realization of his sonТs words, "I see, but you said that you and the boy were friends, and IТ gotten word from Nappa that the two of you had conversations like you were brothers, not lovers."
Vejita swallowed, knowing that his father was going to say this, "Yes, well, it’s something to be ashamed of when you yearn for male intimacy, and the conversations, have you never had a conversation with one of your slaves?"
The king eyed his son for a moment before smirking, "Then, I was right all along. Well, he’s in my slaves quarters. Help yourself, he’s all yours. I need to be going. So, if you’ll excuse me."
Vejita nodded his thanks to his father as he left, his cloak billowing behind him as he turned a corner. Pausing again before another set of double doors, slightly narrower, Vejita finally worked up the nerve to enter, throwing the doors open to see quite a large number of slaves.
Kakarotto lifted his head to the sound, forgetting his manners as he laid eyes on the face of his true master. He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.
"Jita!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and running to the prince, his tail flowing behind him as he tackled his master.
Prince Vejita smirked, "Hey, chibi. Let’s get out of here." With that, the two of them left, leaving the remaining slaves in shock.
"Can you believe it?" Hanna questioned, turning to gape at Chiisai who only shook her head. It was unbelievable. Their little Kakkarotto had won the heart of the prince.
"Jita, I didn’t think you’d come. I’m so glad to see you." Kakkarotto went on as they made their way to their quarters.
Vejita became suddenly all too aware of the warm hands that were holding his left arm in a near death grip. Actually, it was a strong yet very, very gentle hold. Almost like an Embrace. Vejita pulled away as they reached their destination, but he found himself pausing before yet another door.
"Kakkarotto, I have a lot of things on my mind. I want you to stay in my slave’s quarters, okay?"
Kakkarotto nodded. Was it him? Why did his own master refuse his touch? He took a few steps back as Vejita began to show him to the doors.
"No, it’s okay. I know where it is." Kakkarotto said, entering the room, closing the doors behind him.
Vejita sighed. He knew this wasn’t much better, but at least he knew that the boy wasn’t being used. Now he was free to his thoughts, and the only way he could think was to train.
EmeТs eyes grew wide when she saw the strange man step into the room. She glanced to Seido. The dark woman was keeping her manners. So, Eme followed suit. Whoever this was, he was Saiyajin, which meant he was above her.
"Hi. My name’s Kakkarotto. I guess I’ll be staying here for a while."
At that, both women’s heads snapped up, "Are you saying you’re a slave?" Seido asked, watching the boy wearily as he came closer, plopping down on the floor near them.
"Yup."
"I’m guessing you’re Prince VejitaТs slave since you’re here." Eme said, pulling at her unruly dark green tresses.
"Yeah, but I don’t think he wants me. He just doesn’t want anyone else ta have me." Kakarotto said, sulking. He wasn’t a complete moron. He knew well enough what he was. He’d never actually started his training, but he’d lived there nearly all of his life. He belonged to the prince. He belonged to Jita. Why didn’t he enjoy him?
"Well, that’s a lot better than you think." Eme said, leaning back against some of the plush satin pillows that filled the room.
Two months time had passed and Vejita found that he’d gotten absolutely nowhere.
"Sire, I don’t think this is good for you." Nappa said, leaning against the cool dull metal walls of the prince’s training hall.
"What?" Vejita snapped, turning from his invisible training partner, hovering in midair.
"I know it’s not my place to say but something’s wrong, isnТt it?"
"Hn." Was the prince’s only answer as he floated down out of the air, landing with a tap of his boots.
"All this training isnТt helping. If you don’t choose a mate within the next four months, they’ll choose one for you."
"Do you think I don’t know that?" Vejita yelled, storming towards the daft bodyguard.
"Uh Sorry, Sire It just seemed that you’ve been deep in thought for some time now. Maybe"
"What Nappa?" Vejita yelled when it seemed the bulky warrior wasn’t going to continue, "By all means, grace me with you intellect!"
"Maybe you should just act on instinct. Do what feels right." Nappa said, starting off yelling and ending in a soft tone.
VejitaТs eyes were wide. That was perhaps the smartest thing the man had ever said. Maybe he was right. Maybe he should stop worrying about his brain and stick to his heart.
His brain told him that homosexuality was disgusting. His heart could care less. His brain ordered him to be proud and arrogant and strong. His heart wanted him to seek what his body ached for. His brain told him the boy was nothing more than a third class, orphaned pleasure slave. His heart told him that Kakarotto was the love of his life.
VejitaТs eyes grew wider, if that was possible. Love of his life? Where had that come from? He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to go through with this.
"Maybe you should just act on instinct. Do what feels right." The words echoed in his mind. Quickly, he regained his composure.
"Nappa, thanks. Take leave for the rest of the day." Vejita said, blurting out the last as he turned and bolted for the door.
Nappa wasn’t quite sure what’d gotten into his prince, but what he’d said really seemed to shock him.
Devour Me
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the ficЕ
Chapter Nine
Seido, Eme, and Kakarotto all looked up when the door suddenly flung open to reveal the Saiyajin prince breathing quite heavily. He was thinner than usual, but still quite attractive.
"Come on, chibi." Was all he said as he turned and stepped out of view.
Kakarotto smiled, quickly rising to his feet as he hurried to the door. He gave his two new friends a quick wave before closing the door behind him. Soon, they were in the common room of Vejita and NappaТs quarters.
"Sit down," ordered the prince, continuing once the boy had taken a seat on the couch, "I’ve been thinking"
"JitaЕ"
"Huh?" Vejita said, stopping in his pacing to look the boy in the eyes.
"I forgive you."
Vejita’s eyes narrowed in confusion as he stepped closer, taking a seat far too close to the boy, "For what?"
Kakarotto’s breath quickened at the proximity of his master, "For taking so long." It was barely a whisper.
"Chibi" Vejita whispered in return, lifting a hand to trace the boy’s jaw down to his chin, pulling him closer. The prince let his eyes slide shut as the two kissed for the first time.
It was anything but awkward since the prince was well experienced. It was slow and wonderful. Kakarotto all but melted into the touch, when suddenly, he felt the warm electricity of Vejita’s tongue gliding over his lips, not asking, more like gently demanding, permission inside.
Vejita smirked ever so slightly as permission was quickly granted and he took his time exploring the new wonders of the boy’s mouth. It didn’t take long for him to begin his own exploration, his tongue coming alive but remaining submissive.
Finally, the prince pulled back, pleased to see that the boy’s eyes were still closed, his lips still pursed. Without saying a word Vejita rose from the couch, making his way into his private chambers. He quickly discarded his clothes and got into bed. As predicted, it didn’t take long for the boy to come to him.
Kakarotto didn’t bother knock, stepping into the prince’s room, closing the door behind him.
"Yes?" Vejita asked, a smirk on his lips. He watched closely as the boy stepped closer, his fingers tracing his lips were VejitaТs had been only moments ago.
"Would you taste me again, please?" Kakarotto questioned in a voice barely above a whisper.
Vejita could see the boy’s lust filled expression clearly in the dim room. He didn’t feel quite ready to go all the way with the boy but another taste wouldn’t hurt. Smirking, he simply nodded. He was pleased to see the boy smile and then shocked when he began pulling at the sash around his waste. Before long he was standing before him completely naked. Breathtaking. That was the only word to describe him.
Lifting the thin blanket, Vejita watched as Kakarotto climbed in bed with him, smiling like a fool. They lay together for a moment, just staring at one another. Then, the prince noticed the ever so slight blush on the boy’s almost feminine face.
"Please, Jita" Kakarotto said, begging as he blushed further.
Vejita had to force himself to suppress the groan that threatened to escape him. The way he was saying his name It was surely going to be the end of him. Smirking, he reached a hand up to the boy’s jaw, gently caressing the smooth skin further and further back until his hand was at the back of Kakarotto’s head, gently pulling him closer. He watched as the boy’s heavy eyelids fell closed as they neared.
Vejita swallowed the moan that erupted from the boy and into his mouth, fighting the urge to vocalize his pleasure himself. The prince was surprised when their bodies were suddenly pressed together as the boy sidled up against him.
Kakarotto gasped at the feel of his masterТs erection pressing against his abdomen, "Please"
Vejita finally pulled back, smirking to see the boy breathing deeply from their most recent tongue dual, "No. Not yet. Go to sleep."
Kakarotto frowned as he started to get up. It was strange that he wanted this so much. He was usually so uncomfortable with even the idea of being used for pleasure, but it was different with Vejita.
"No," Vejita said, wrapping an arm around the boy’s sensual waist to keep him from leaving, "Sleep here."
Kakarotto half smiled, pressing himself back into his master, "I’m sorry I’m not better."
"It has nothing to do with you. Go to sleep Chibi." Vejita said, lying on his back, the boy’s head resting on his chest, an arm draped over his body, and one leg draped over both of his, causing the boy’s ever present erection to press against him. He was informed of the boy’s slumber by light snoring. Vejita smirked again, lifting an arm to drape over Kakarotto. It eased his mind to feel the boy so close, but he wasn’t ready for anything more than this. His heart was telling him to take it slow.
Nappa rubbed his face roughly as he rose from his bed. Mornings had always been hard for him. Yawning widely, he pulled on his black spandex shorts and full armor, grabbing his scouter from his dresser as he made his way into the common room, wrapping his tail around his waist. He was surprised to see the prince stepping out of his room at the exact same time, wearing only a pair of loose-fitting black gi pants tied with a white sash.
"Good morning, Sire." Nappa greeted, still wary of his prince. The last couple of times theyТd spoken the prince had been rather moody. It was dangerous to speak plainly with royalty when their frame of mind was uncertain.
Vejita plopped down on the couch, "Morning."
Nappa cautiously sat in a chair opposite his prince, he seemed to be fine, "Are things better since yesterday?"
"Actually, yes, they are. Your words of advice helped quite a bit."
"Are you better now?"
"I believe so." Vejita said, suddenly feeling the boy’s ki nearing him. Glancing to his left, he could see that Kakarotto was up, dressed in only his gi pants.
Kakarotto smiled upon seeing his master, making his way to the couch, his bare feet padding against cold metal floor, "Morning, Jita."
Vejita nodded in reply, smirking at his bumbling bodyguard’s open mouth shock. The boy flopped onto the couch, cuddling up against him, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"I’m hungry." Kakarotto stated simply, his stomach rumbling as if on cue.
Several days passed and this routine continued. Nappa was more than surprised, more than shocked, especially after hearing the prince badmouth homosexuality not so long ago. Now the prince stayed in his quarters all day with the boy, leaving only for meals.
"What are ya going ta do about picking a mate?" Kakarotto asked, his head hanging off the couch, back against the seat, and legs dangling over the back.
"I donТt want to talk about this," Vejita said, stepping out of the washroom wearing only a pair of gi pants, "How old did you say you were? Sixteen?"
"Nn Well, I was told ta say I was sixteen, but I’m really fourteen. I’ll be fifteen in the month of harvest." Kakarotto said, watching as the prince sat across from him in a dull armchair.
"Okay, so, your mother died while you were still an infant, and your father died in battle when you were four," Vejita waited until the boy nodded before he continued, "And your father’s slaves you’d been living with were freed, but they soon sold you into slavery for their own survival?"
"Yup." Kakarotto said, swinging up out of his odd position only to be faced with a sudden head rush.
"When did you start training?"
"Ever since I can remember. My dad always said that strength comes first. After he died, well, it was all I ever really had," Kakarotto paused, finally having regained focused vision, "Why do you want ta know so much about me?"
"Just curious. Why? Do you want to know anything about me?"
"Umm" Kakkarotto thought, looking up at the ceiling for a moment, "Well, I already know you’re gonna be twenty-five In the month of… When is your birthday?"
Vejita smirked at the boy’s simplicity, "In the month of reproduction actually."
"Where’s your mom?"
"My mother died in childbirth. My father used to tell me when I was young that she was the most beautiful woman who ever lived."
Kakarotto grinned, "I’m sure she was. Just look at you. Ya don’t look like your dad that much!"
"What do you mean?" the prince questioned, especially since most said they were nearly identical.
"Well, you’re smaller, smoother, not all big and bulky looking, and you’re," Kakarotto paused, taking on a serene look, "Prettier."
Vejita became suddenly serious, letting their topic venture further in the direction it was generally headed, "Had you begun your training as a slave?"
"Then, why so obedient?" Vejita asked after the boy had shook his head in answer to his previous question.
"I’ve been living there since I was so little I just started acting like they told me I was going ta have ta act once I was eighteen."
"So, you’ve never been enjoyed?"
"Twice."
Vejita looked up, feeling strangely jealous, "When? Who?"
"Just before I was giving to you and a couple months ago"
"Who?" Vejita interrupted impatiently.
"The king." Kakarotto said in a whisper, feeling ashamed of his betrayal.
Vejita was in shock. What was his father thinking? Using the boy just before giving him to his own son!? Using the boy just after he’d made it clear that Kakkarotto was his friend!? Then, Vejita realized that he was angry, very angry. Kakkarotto was his. How dare anyone think to even look at him?!
"I’m sorry, Jita." The whisper was barely heard, instantly calming the prince. Kakkarotto thought it was his fault?
"No, don’t be. There was nothing you could do. Refusing this king is like asking for death," Vejita said, his voice becoming unexpectedly soothing as he continued, "I should have been there for you. How can I make it up to you?"
Kakkarotto instantly began grinning. Vejita cared, he really cared. Then, he thought of something, and if it was possible, his grin spread further.
"What?" the prince asked through a half smile, chuckling.
"Can we go outside? Please"
"Of course, just stop whining."
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go againЕ Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakarotto, is definitely OOC, but itТs all good. YouТll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! Seems I'm updating every three to four days, but even that could change, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! ItТs all good here!
Warnings: If you donТt already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if youТre just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or itТs characters, and, again, unfortunately, IТm not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
Thanks & Dedication: This semi-short chapter is for you Kokoro, my biggest fan! ^_^ Yes, I've received your emailsЕ Thank you so much! Enjoy! ^_^
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the ficЕ
Chapter Ten
Nappa stood from his seat at the table he normally shared with his prince and the boy. He’d returned late from a meeting and had missed dinner. Only a few warriors remained in the smaller mess hall as he stepped briskly towards the exit. Since Vejita had been insisting on privacy with the boy, heТd signed up for guard duty. It was just something to keep him from mischievous boredom.
Soon, he was out of the prince’s dull wing of the palace and traveling through the elaborate corridors towards the main entrance of the palace. Many guards were standing at their posts in the large room that served as the entrance to the palace. Nappa, being well known, wasn’t questioned as he exited the palace, the cool are being an open welcome.
"Ah, Nappa, youТre late." Came a deep, somewhat raspy voice.
"Yeah, itТs been awhile since IТve been reduced to guard duty." Nappa answered, smirking wickedly at the second class warrior known as Raditz.
"And what the HellТs that supposed ta mean?" the longhaired warrior questioned, resenting the comment.
"Nothing. I didnТt meanЕ" Nappa sighed, leaning against the cold metal of the palaceТs outer wall, "The prince has been demanding privacy recently, and I find myself more than bored."
"DonТt tell me that youТre not bored having to follow him around all day?"
"ItТs better than this." Nappa said, chuckling.
Raditz couldnТt help but join in as he playfully punched his friend in the arm.
"Wow. ItТs been a long time since IТve been outside." Kakarotto said, eyes wide as he looked around at his surroundings. TheyТd exited the palace through a back way and were walking along its outer walls towards the main entrance.
"Ever since I was a child, IТve hated coming out here." Vejita mumbled, trying his best to ignore the few weak Saiyajin scum that were moving about in the dark. His eyes, along with a few of his other senses, being able to pick up easily on all that was around him even on the blackest of nights.
"Why?" Kakarotto asked in amazement, "I love the outdoors. EverythinТs soЕ I dunno."
Vejita smirked, "Were you born near farmland? You seem more like a farmerТs son than a warriorТs son."
"NnЕ I lived just near farmland. GrowinТ up, my dad was hardly ever there and I played with the slavesТ kids outside. I barely remember it, but I miss it."
After hearing that, Vejita was sorry for voicing his comment and looked up, trying to avoid the need he felt to stare at the boy. The sky was the deepest red, nearly black, and the bright stars shown exquisitely. Unable to hold the gaze for long, the prince glanced at the boy, who was innocently staring at the stars just as heТd been doing. Vejita wondered if it was for the same reason. Then, he noticed the boyТs tail.
"Kakarotto, why do you hold your tail like that?" a question heТd never thought to ask before.
"I dunnoЕ ItТs just easier."
Vejita nodded, accepting the simple answer.
"Why are there so many people out here? DonТt they have homes?"
"Probably not."
Kakarotto seemed to be shocked, his pace slowing somewhat, "Why?"
"ThereТs economic trouble at the moment. The rich are extremely rich, and the poor are extremely poor. ThereТs no in-between."
"Are ya doinТ somethinТ about it? I mean, the king." Kakarotto questioned, coming to a stop, leaning against the outer wall of the palace.
"HeТs supposedly working on it, but IТve yet to see progress. Why? Are you okay?" Vejita asked, his tone becoming concerned when he noticed the sadness in the boyТs eyes.
"I hate it here."
Vejita barely picked up on the mumbled statement, "Here? Here where?"
"Oh, I don’t mean I hate it with you I mean, on this whole planet, you’re the only thing that’s good."
"You should be proud of your home planet and your people. We’re the strongest race of people in all the universe." Vejita said, his eyes narrowed in confusion.
"There’s always someone stronger. Always. And how can I be proud of the terrible things my people do?" Kakkarotto said, his voice a solemn echo of his feelings.
Vejita stepped closer, "Terrible things?"
Kakkarotto suddenly looked up, anger glinting in his eyes, "Yes, terrible. All the hate, murder, and rapes It’s terrible. Cant you see that, Jita? Can’t you see what it’s doing to me? What it’s doing to you?" the boy paused, his voice calmer as he lifted a hand to his master’s face, "It’s hard to love in a world like this, but I love you, my master, my prince. I always will."
VejitaТs eyes immediately began to water, his lips trembling as the boyТs tender fingers traced them gently before reaching his hand behind his neck, pulling them together. The kiss was short and chaste, leaving them both aching for more.
"IТm sorry." Was all the proud prince was capable of as he quickly worked at wiping away his tears.
"Sorry?" Kakkarotto questioned, unsure of his movements as he pulled the fragile prince closer, holding him in his arms.
Vejita finally gave up and let the tears flow as he rested his head against the boyТs chest, circling his arms around his waist. His world was falling apart. It was true. It was all true. This planet, this way of livingЕ It was terrible. HeТd been on many purging missions, even as a child. HeТd seen things he could never voice. Why was he so proud anyway? He was soon to be the leader of it all, and through it all, this boy of only fourteen, found reason to love him. Love! How could anyone love him?
Kakarotto could sense VejitaТs mind struggling with things heТd just recently become aware of. He hadnТt meant to hurt himЕ All he could do now was just be there. He lowered his head, resting his chin in the gravity-defying locks of his master, inhaling the princeТs masculine scent.
"Jita, you smell so good. Can I taste you?" He whispered, tightening his embrace.
Vejita couldnТt help but crack a smile, a genuine smile, as he lifted his head to look up at Kakarotto, "Devour me if you like." He whispered as the boyТs lips came down on his again, passionately exploring his mouth, his entire being, with his smooth, velvety tongue.
Finally, they pulled apart for much needed air, both of them breathing deeply.
"LetТs go back inside." Vejita said after recomposing himself, looking as if nothing had happened.
Kakarotto knew better, however, and nodded as they continued their walk. Soon, they turned a corner and found themselves not far from the main entrance.
Nappa was surprised when in the middle of their conversation Raditz took up his formal composure. That meant only one thing. Nappa turned to see Prince Vejita and the boy nearing.
"Good evening, Sire. I had no idea you had plans on leaving the palace. ItТs dangerous for you to be out here alone at night."
"Really, Nappa, you act as if I’m a child." Vejita said through a smirk.
Raditz glanced to his right to see the prince dressed similar to any other guard except for his lack of armor. He was surprised that Nappa was allowed to speak so casual with him. The longhaired warriorТs scouter blinked for but a second and realized that there was someone else with the prince. Taking a chance, he glanced again to his right to see what appeared to be a young male slave, judging from his attire, but his behavior said otherwise. Suddenly, his mouth fell open. The boy lookedЕ Looked just like hisЕ
"Soldier," Vejita growled, stepping forward, "I suggest you remember whose presence youТre in. I do not appreciate others gawking at my property."
Raditz quickly snapped out of his trance, "Sorry, Sire."
Vejita shook his head, "Nappa, how long is your post here?"
"Until just before the suns rise IТm afraid. Why? Am I needed?"
"Hn. I was just wondering. Well, IТm going to retire. Goodnight." Vejita said quickly, walking past the two.
Once the prince had entered the palace, Nappa turned to his friend, "What the Hell was that all about? You should be more careful. Prince VejitaТs been known to kill guards for less than that."
"Who was that with him?" Raditz questioned, still amazed at the resemblance.
"Oh, thatТs his newest slave. TheyТre practically inseparable." Nappa answered, rolling his eyes.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go againЕ Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakarotto, is definitely OOC, but itТs all good. YouТll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! Seems I'm updating every three to four days, but even that could change, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! ItТs all good here!
Warnings: If you donТt already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if youТre just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or itТs characters, and, again, unfortunately, IТm not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
More: I know, I knowЕ It was (officially) Friday 15 hours ago (as one reviewer pointed out), but I was experiencing some technical difficulties. *Damns her iMac to Hell!* AnywhoЕ This chapter is the one many of you have been waiting forЕ The lemon! ^_^ Enjoy! Oh, and Christopher, I'm afraid I can't send you the entire ficЕ That would be unfair to all my other readers! So, I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait like all the others.
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the fic
Chapter Eleven
Kakkarotto sat patiently on Vegita’s bed as he’d been told. His heart raced as the evening’s happenings came back to him. It was true. He hated this planet and it’s purpose. He’d just never dreamed he’d tell anyone, especially the prince but that was just it. He’d been honest when he’d declared his love. Sure, he’s young and naive, but he knew what love was. He couldn’t imagine his life without the arrogant prince.
Rising from the bed, he began undressing. He and Vejita had grown accustomed to sleeping together in the nude. Kakkarotto was about to untie his sash that would allow his pants to drop to the floor, where his shirt lay, when the prince stepped into the room clad in only a large towel that had been secured around his waist. His body still glistened from his recent shower.
The prince had used the excuse of needing a shower to find some alone time where he could think. Smirking, he stepped forward, pulling at his towel, and letting it drop to the floor. His expression became all too serious though at the look of affection in Kakkarotto eyes. Reaching forward, he placed his hands on the boy’s arms, running his callused palms down to his hands, taking up the task of untying the white sash. With several easy movements, the sash dropped to the floor, along with the boy’s pants, leaving them both naked.
Swallowing, Kakkarotto let his eyes fall shut as Vejita pulled him down for a chaste kiss that slowly moved down his neck. The prince’s hands were on his stomach now, moving to his sides, and slowly sliding up to his shoulders.
Vejita gently push the boy down onto the bed, climbing in with him. They lie side by side, Kakkarotto on his back, Vejita leaning over him.
Kakkarotto gasped as the prince planted wet kisses up and down his chest, finally finding his hardening nipples, worrying them gently with his teeth.
"Say it again." The prince whispered, moving his lips down the boy’s abdomen, caressing his sides with his hands.
"Nnn What?" Kakkarotto questioned, finding it harder to think as a sensual, oh so talented tongue dipped down into his navel.
"What you said outside." Vejita answered, his voice still just a whisper as he placed a chaste kiss on the tip of the boy’s desire.
"Jita, I Ah," Kakkarotto thoughts slipped from his mind as a warm mouth enveloped his erection, slowly taking in more and more. Instinctively, he lifted his hips off the futon-like mattress, moaning lightly.
Vejita smirked into his work; using his hands to hold the boy’s hips down as he pulled back, "Say it."
Kakkarotto turned his head, looking down at Vejita through half-lidded eyes, smiling at the pleading look in the prince’s eyes, "I love you. I’m yours Always." He said through deep breaths.
Vejita smiled, moving up to kiss those lips, those sweet lips. They both moaned into the open mouth kiss as heated flesh met heated flesh.
Kakkarotto could feel that the prince was about to pull back, and he quickly wrapped his arms around him, crushing them together.
Vejita smirked into the kiss, allowing the boy to hold him close as curious hands moved down his muscled back until they came to the base of his tail. Suddenly, Vejita broke the kiss, growling deeply and arching his back at the sensual pleasure of the boy’s finger’s working their magic.
Kakkarotto paused, unsure of what had just happened, "Jita?"
The prince smirked, running a hand down the boy’s side and around until he found his tail, administering the same sensual movements. He smirked as Kakkarotto moaned loudly, arching his back as well.
He leaned down, licking one of the boy’s ears as he whispered, "Do you know how bad I want you?"
"Nnn Jita, please"
"Of course." Vejita answered through a smirk, reaching down to grasp one of Kakkarotto legs, pulling it up and to the side, causing the boy’s legs to spread so that he was able to position himself between them.
At the feel of hot flesh pressing against his virgin entrance, Kakkarotto gasped, "Jita, I’ve never" he said, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"I thought?" Vejita questioned, finding himself doing the same. He was answered as the boy shook his head ever so slightly. He couldn’t help but smirk. He was glad that he was to be the boy’s first.
Leaning down, he kissed the younger Saiya-jin ever so sweetly, "Don’t worry, I’ll always be gentle with you, Chibi." Slowly, he continued to press forward, knowing this was going to hurt the boy, but it was tradition during mating rituals for it to be pure raw ecstasy with little to no preparation. Kakkarotto let him know just how much pain was involved in his pleasure as he moaned loudly, clutching his back with strong hands. Vejita gasped at the feel of such tightness. He never imagined it could be this wonderful. The prince stayed still, waiting for Kakkarotto to adjust.
"You okay?" he whispered, watching carefully for any traces of pain, which there were a few.
"Nnn Yeah" Kakkarotto mumbled, moving his hips in time with his master’s slow movements. He reminded himself that he’d endured worse pain when training, that it would soon fade. Suddenly, all pain was forgotten as lights flashed before his eyes.
Vejita smiled when the boy practically screamed in pleasure as he found his sweet spot. Slowly, the pace quickened, and he could feel it coming. Lowering his lips to Kakkarotto, he trailed wet kisses down his neck, sucking lightly at the place where his neck connected to his shoulder.
Kakkarotto could feel it building as well, the moaning and groaning that filled the room lost to him when he felt his master’s callused hand take hold of his desire, pumping it in time with his thrusts. A new wave of pleasure flooded through him. It was so close. Suddenly, an electricity shot down his spine and throughout his body at the feel sharp canines puncturing his skin.
Kakkarotto could feel a mix of emotions and memories flooding his mind.
A young prince slowly stood, wiping the tears from his smudged face.
"Enough! Saiya-jin don’t cry!" came the bellowing voice of the king.
"Sire, perhaps we you should call it a day." Nappa’s voice suggested.
"No! I have to be the strongest! I have to be the best!" yelled a furious prince of fifteen as he powered up to his maximum even though he couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept or eaten. Suddenly, he passed into unconsciousness from exhaustion, his head slamming against the floor as his body crumpled.
"No, No What have I done? What have I become?" mumbled the prince, decked out in bloodstained armor as he stood before a foreign city that was crumbled and in flames. He instantly hardened himself. Saiya-jin don’t cry! It had been his first purging mission, and he had murdered He’d taken the lives of warriors, men, women, and children like he would on every other purging mission he’d go on from this day forward.
A more recent memory surfaced, "I love you." a familiar voice echoed. An inner struggled followed by a solution
Vejita was experiencing similar emotions and memories as he lapped at the savory crimson.
An innocent child shuffled his feet as several women, obviously slaves, stood before him.
"Kakkarotto, your father was killed in battle." One of them said, placing a hand on the small child’s shoulder.
Suddenly a sorrowful crying filled the silence.
A young Kakkarotto stood just outside the room, peeking in the doorway at the women within.
"We don’t have any other choice." One said, pacing the room.
"How can you even think of it." The youngest one protested.
"She’s right. We have to sell him to the slave traders, otherwise we’ll all starve." Another said, hands on hips.
"Listen, boy, don’t do too much of this." Said the shop owner as he glared at a ten-year-old Kakkarotto.
"No, I have to get stronger. I have to be the best." The boy muttered, suddenly receiving a fierce slap in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"None of that!" the shop owner yelled, storming back into the shop.
"I will be the best." Kakkarotto muttered, clutching his already swelling cheek.
A more recent memory came forward in the form of thoughts, "Jita. I can’t live without Jita. I may be naive, but I know what love is."
The Saiya-jin howled in unison as the memories faded from one another’s mind to be replaced by the intense pleasure they had far from forgotten. Kakkarotto came first, his entire body tensing, causing Vejita to reach his peak with one final thrust. He then collapsed onto the boy, both of them breathing heavily. It didn’t take long for them to slip into a deep, deep sleep, lying in one another’s arms in the damp bed.
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Chapter Twelve
Vejita was the first to wake, surprised to find that they’d shifted in their sleep to where Vejita was lying on his back, Kakkarotto cuddled up closely. Smiling, the prince wrapped his arms around his mate. The movement caused the boy to stir, and Vejita watched closely as the boy stretched, cuddling closer as his eyelids fluttered open and he smiled sweetly.
"Nnn Jita." Kakkarotto whispered, kissing his prince chastely. It didn’t take long for him to notice something knew at the back of his mind. Concentrating on it, it was like he was experiencing everything twice. He looked up questionably at Vejita.
"It’s the bond." The prince answered simply.
"Bond? Does that have anything ta do with me seeing and feeling" he couldn’t finish, he didn’t know how to.
Vejita nodded, "Last night I decided that the only person I want for a mate is you. So, that’s exactly what I did I dominated you, mated you, marked you, and a bond was formed. Our minds are linked now. It’s surprisingly stronger than I imagined. What you saw and felt were my memories, my past. That same thing happened to me."
Kakkarotto gaped at his prince as the explanation came to a close, "Me? You chose me?"
"Is that okay?" Vejita asked, suddenly feeling a slight fear of rejection.
Kakkarotto was surprised to be able to sense the sudden feeling and pressed himself against his master, "It’s wonderful." He said before planting a wet, sloppy kiss on Vegita’s tasty lips.
Pulling back for air, Kakkarotto grin faded, "Aren’t you goin to get in trouble for this?"
"Don’t worry about it." Vejita said as they both settled into the comfort of their messy bed, holding one another.
Just before he drifted back into the world of sleep, Kakkarotto felt warm breath at his ear and a faint whisper, "I love you, Chibi."
Nappa yawned as he entered the palace, heading for his quarters. It was only minutes until the suns rose and he was dying to get some sleep. Raditz had become suddenly quiet throughout the remainder of their post, and NappaТs boredom had nearly gotten the best of him. Falling asleep on assignment, however, was a serious offense if you got caught.
"Nappa, come in here!" called a deep voice.
Nappa took several steps backwards and looked into the expansive throne room to see the king motioning for him to enter.
"How are things progressing with my son?"
"Sire," Nappa said, bowing respectfully, "IТm not sure, but he went for a walk yesterday evening."
The king smirked, nodding. Perhaps his son was coming to his senses. If he was out walking, he was surely keeping an eye out for a beautiful woman.
"And what of the boy?"
"IТm not sure what you mean, SireЕ" Nappa said, his brow furrowed.
"I mean," the king said, rolling his eyes at the bodyguardТs stupidity, "Has he shared the princeТs bed?"
"Yes, but IТm not sure if theyТveЕ"
"Good." The king interrupted, ignoring the foolТs babbling as he waved him away. So, things were looking up. HeТd been right all along.
Nappa shook his head, trying not to worry himself with the kingТs strangeness. Finally, he reached his destination and stepped into the common room, closing the door behind him. Glancing at the time on his scouter, Nappa decided that he best wake the prince. The suns had already risen and the prince would surely be angry with him for not waking him. Sighing, Nappa opened the door to the princeТs room, the smell of sex bombarding his senses. Peering into the dim room, the bulky bodyguard could see that the prince was holding the boy in a rather intimate embrace.
VejitaТs eyes cracked open to see Nappa staring dumbfounded. Silently, the prince woke his mate.
"Morning, Nappa." Vejita said as he stood, pulling on a pair of black gi pants.
"UhЕ Oh, good morning, Sire."
"JitaЕ" Kakarotto whined, "Lemme sleep jusТ a little longerЕ"
"Nope. Come on, get up." Vejita said, dragging the boy up out of bed.
Mumbling something or another about being too tired, Kakarotto pulled on his gi pants from the previous day, "IТm hungry. LetТs get somthinТ ta eat." He said, fully awake at the thought of food as his stomach growled loudly.
"Is all you think of food?" Vejita asked, continuing once heТd received a grin in reply, "LetТs wash up first."
"Kay." The boy chimed happily.
Nappa just stared dumbly as the two walked past him, heading to the shower.
"WhatТs this?" the king asked, lifting a document closer for better inspection. It had been two months since heТd been pleased to hear from Nappa one early morning that his son was both looking for a mate and enjoying the male slave heТd provided.
"Sire, Raditz, Saiyajin second class has issued this request." Explained an alien guard.
King Vejita nodded, reading over the document, "Is he here?"
"Yes, Sire." The guard said, scampering out into the crowd to retrieve the warrior.
"Raditz?" the king questioned.
"Yes, Sire." The longhaired warrior answered, bowing respectfully.
"WhatТs this all about? My son doesnТt need a second bodyguard."
"I was just hoping to better serve His Highness." Raditz lied.
"I see," the king mumbled, reading over the document again, "Your father was Bardock?"
"Yes, Sire."
The king was surprised. He hadnТt known that the third class warrior had had children. He was a rare case that Bardock was. For his class, he was capable of doing more damage than expected.
"IТm feeling generous. IТll grant your request. Understand, though, that this isnТt permanent." The king said, signing the document before handing it back to the alien guard, dismissing the longhaired warrior.
"You take too many hits!" Vejita roared, sending an onslaught of ki blasts at the boy.
Kakarotto easily dodged each one, looking back to see them impact the wall behind him, "Careful or youТll blow tha place up."
Vejita smirked, "Nonsense. Now, attack."
Kakarotto took an offensive position as he floated before his mate, suddenly disappearing and reappearing before the prince, punching him in the jaw with full force, causing the smaller Saiyajin to sail backwards.
Regaining his balance, Vejita tensed his muscles, causing his body to halt in midair.
Raditz stepped into the princeТs training hall amazed to see an all out battle taking place before his eyes. He glanced around the room to see a number of other guards watching the spectacle. Checking his scouter, the longhaired bodyguard was surprised to see that both of their ki levels were quite low compared to the amount of power they were displaying. Shrugging the phenomenon off, he searched the room again, finding that Nappa was quite near.
"Hey, howТs it going?"
Nappa looked to his left, surprised to see Raditz, "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"IТve been assigned to Prince Vejita."
"What?" Nappa asked, the warrior gaining his full attention.
"WhatТs this all about?" Vejita asked, dropping down out of the air and approaching his bodyguard, Kakarotto close behind.
"Sire," Raditz said, pausing to bow, "IТve been assigned to you as a second bodyguard."
"Why?" Vejita questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"I requested it."
"I see." Vejita said, realizing that there was more to this than just that.
"Hiya, IТm Kakarotto." The boy said, breaking the silence that had come to settle on the group, a grin plastered on his face.
"Really, KakarottoЕ Must you be so cheerful?" Vejita snapped.
The boy giggled, "I almost had you."
"You did not!" Vejita exclaimed. Their sparring match had been close, but it hadnТt been that close, had it?
"Better watch outЕ" Kakarotto warned playfully, sticking his tongue out at the prince.
Vejita smirked, leaning forward to take the delicious tongue into his mouth, pleased to wring a moan from the boy as their kiss broke.
Raditz stared wide-eyed at the display.
Nappa only rolled his eyes, looking the other way. The flirting, teasing, and show of affection had been going on for some time now. He was just about sick of it.
"Well, Raditz, thereТs an extra room in our quarters. You can stay there." Vejita said, his tail curling and uncurling with desire.
"Thank you, Sire." Raditz said, bowing again.
"No need to be so formal. Nappa, I expect you to show him the ropes." The prince said before he and Kakarotto took back to the air, continuing their match.
"Are they always like this?" Raditz questioned, watching as the two performed techniques he could barely keep up with.
"Yup. It takes some getting used to."
Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go againЕ Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakarotto, is definitely OOC, but itТs all good. YouТll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! Seems I'm updating every three to four days, but even that could change, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! ItТs all good here!
Warnings: If you donТt already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if youТre just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or itТs characters, and, again, unfortunately, IТm not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
More: Here we goЕ It's 1:45 AMЕ And it's FRIDAY! ^_^ So, here we goЕ
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the ficЕ
Chapter Thirteen
It had been three weeks since heТd started and Raditz found that it was a relatively easy, laid back job. Stepping out of his room wearing only a pair of black spandex shorts, he was surprised to see Kakarotto sitting on the couch, yawning.
"Good morning, Kakarotto."
"Huh? Oh, morninТ." The boy answered, watching as the longhaired warrior took a seat across from him in an armchair.
"DoesnТt that bother you?"
Raditz was surprised by the question, "What?"
"All that hairЕ DoesnТt it get in tha way when ya fight?" Kakarotto asked, leaning back to get more comfortable.
"Oh, well, I havenТt fought in some time." Raditz said, looking around. It seemed that Vejita and Nappa were both still asleep. This was his chance.
"I was wonderingЕ What was your fatherТs name?"
Kakarotto was somewhat shocked, the question bringing painful memories back to his attention.
VejitaТs eyes snapped open. HeТd felt a slight sadness accompanied with some pain find it's way through the link he shared with his mate. He pulled himself out of bed to find that the boyТs ki was in the common room. Pulling on a pair of black gi pants, the prince exited the room he shared with Kakarotto.
"MorninТ, Jita." Kakarotto said, watching as his master took a seat beside him, wrapping an arm around his waist.
With that, Kakarotto continued his conversation with Raditz, "Bardock, his name was Bardock."
Raditz smiled, he was right. He knew it all along. Suddenly, there was a loud yawn as Nappa entered the room, wearing his black spandex shorts and full armor.
"WhatТs wrong?" Vejita questioned, feeling that same stab of pain and sadness shoot through his mind.
"IТm okay." Kakarotto reassured his mate as he arched his neck to the side to reach the princeТs lips for a good morning kiss.
Both Nappa and RaditzТs mouths fell open in shock. On the boyТs neck was a scarЕ A bite mark. After some time, Vejita and Kakarotto noticed.
"Catching bugs?" Vejita joked, only to find that the bodyguardsТ expressions didnТt change, "What is it?"
"Sire," Nappa said, "Did you make the boy your mate?"
Vejita bared his teeth instinctively. HeТd hoped they wouldnТt find out.
"Are you crazy? King Vejita is going to kill you."
"Nappa!" Vejita snapped, "IТm quite capable of handling this on my own. WeТve been mated for nearly three months."
"Do you think the king and the royals will accept this?"
"What choice do they have?" Vejita growled.
Nappa shook his head, "Most likely theyТll have him executed so that the bond can be broken. The purpose for you finding a mate was so you could produce an heir, remember?"
The entire room fell into a shocked silence.
"KakarottoЕ" Raditz began, feeling that it was time he explain himself, "The reason I requested to be assigned to Vejita was because the first time I saw you, I was shocked to see that you look remarkably like my father, Bardock. See, weТre brothers."
Vejita quickly looked to his mate to see that tears had sprung to his eyes.
"YouТre my brother? But I never met youЕ"
"I moved into the palace when I was fourteen to begin guard service, you must have been born just after that."
"I canТt believe it!" Kakarotto exclaimed, jumping forward to hug his brother, forgetting what Nappa had said only moments ago.
Prince Vejita and Nappa were left in the common room while the two brothers went to the mess hall for an early breakfast to do some catching up.
"What do you think I should do?"
Nappa sighed, unsure of what to tell his prince, "I donТt know. If you resist, it will just be more painful."
"I canТt believe that baka can be off chatting with his long lost brother while his life is at stake." Vejita hissed, annoyed with the world.
"Sire, heТs just a child in love. IТm sure he expects you to be there and thus isnТt worried."
"I hate it when youТre right," Vejita said through a smirk, rising to pace the floor, "I still have to think of something."
"Well, you could challenge your father and become king. If youТre king, your word is law." Nappa suggested.
"No, the royals still have council. They could rebel," Vejita said, sighing, "My best bet is probably to run." He said through a chuckle.
Nappa looked up, "You could, you know."
Vejita paused in his pacing, returning to his seat across from Nappa.
"You could take a space pod and just leave," Nappa said, noticing that his prince was actually considering what he was saying, "Does he really mean that much to you?"
"In my entire life I have killed hundreds and destroyed so muchЕ I hate it, yet I saw no other way to live. HeТs shown me emotions you canТt even imagine."
Nappa smiled, "ThenЕ I think thatТs what you should do. ThereТs no other way."
"You can come tooЕ" Vejita offered.
"No, my place is here. I happen to enjoy being one of the strongest." Nappa said, smirking at his prince.
"Very well. My gift to youЕ Eme and Seido, the two slaves I have left. TheyТre yours."
NappaТs eyes widened slightly. HeТd never owned a slaveЕ Moments later he was smiling, nodding his thanks.
Kakarotto snuggled up to his lover, kissing his sweat-covered chest. Their recent bout of lovemaking causing them to look at one another through half lidded eyes.
"Do you remember what Nappa said about how you could be executed to break our bond?"
Kakarotto looked up from his task, "YeahЕ" he answered quietly.
"IТve been thinking about thisЕ The only way to get out of it is for us to leave. What do you think?"
"Leave?" Kakarotto questioned, confused.
"Yes, we could leave in a space pod. Leave this planet you hate."
Kakarotto smiled but it quickly faded, "Are you sure? What about Nappa and Raditz?"
"If itТs the only way for us to be together, IТm positive. IТve spoken to Nappa about this. He wants to stay. Raditz doesnТt know. No one else does."
Kakarotto fell silent, resting his head back down against the smooth chest of his mate, sliding his arms up to encircle the princeТs waist, pulling him close.
"Chibi?"
"YeahЕ LetТs do it. We could start a new lifeЕ Where are we going?" Kakarotto smiled up at the older Saiyajin.
Vejita kissed the boyТs forehead, "I forget the nameЕ ItТs a blue planet. The files said itТs full of vegetation and peaceful life."
"It sounds great, but when are we goinТ?"
"In a couple of weeks my father and the royals are going to approach me about my choosing a mate. WeТll do it that day."
Kakarotto nodded. Soon they both fell into a peaceful sleep. They had a future.
"RaditzЕ"
The longhaired warrior turned to his right, "Hmm?"
Vejita was sparring with an invisible partner high in the air and Nappa was off reporting to some royal or another about the planets current defense system since there were rumors going around about some new tyrant heading their way.
"Promise not ta tell anyone about thisЕ"
Raditz eyed his younger brother carefully, a bit confused, "Sure. What is it?"
"Me and Jita are goinТ ta leave soon since itТs against the law for us to be bonded."
RaditzТs mouth hung open, "But I just found youЕ" he stammered.
"I know. Jita says you can come if you want... ItТs up to you." The boy said, watching his brotherТs face for any signs of what he was thinking.
Vejita could sense his mates troubled mind and concentrated on feeling confident about their decision, hoping it would be some kind of comfort to him through the link they shared.
"IЕ I donТt think I want to leaveЕ" Raditz said, looking up to see his brother smiling serenely.
"I knew you were goinТ ta say that. IТll miss you." Kakarotto said, leaning forward to his hug the only other person than his mate to ever care about him.
"Yeah, IТll miss you too." Raditz said as they separated. Devour Me
By: Hatti Lee* AKA Amalthea* AKA Saiyajin_Peach AKA Saiyajin_Peach_18
Authors Notes: Well, here we go againЕ Another Goku & Vejita yaoi! Woo hoo! ^_^ In this one, Goku, or should I say Kakarotto, is definitely OOC, but itТs all good. YouТll see. ^_~ I actually have this entire fic finished. Complete! Seems I'm updating every three to four days, but even that could change, depending on reviews that is. Hint. Hint. ^_^ Oh, and I welcome any and all reviews. Be it from just a fan or a flamer! ItТs all good here!
Warnings: If you donТt already know, this is a yaoi fic, which means male/male intimacy. If you are uncomfortable with this, or if youТre just narrow-minded, I suggest you go elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own DragonBall Z or itТs characters, and, again, unfortunately, IТm not making any money off of this. So, please don't sue me! It's not like you'd get much anyway! ^_^
More: FINAL chapter!
Okay, if there's anyone left, on with the ficЕ
Chapter Fourteen
Vejita pulled on a full navy blue spandex bodysuit, watching as his mate dressed in nearly the exact same thing, except his was black. They both tugged on a pair of white gloves and boots. Last, they pulled a sleeveless shirt of white chest armor on over their heads.
"Looks good." Vejita said, looking his mate up and down as he wrapped his tail around his waist. The spandex clung to every curve of the boyТs body, leaving nothing to the imagination.
"Thanks." Kakarotto chirped, allowing his tail to just hover behind him. Together they stepped out into the common room, where Nappa and Raditz waited. As expected, there came a knock at the door.
Vejita quickly stepped over to answer it, "What is it?" he snapped, finding sadistic joy in watching the alien creature tremble before him. Happening to catch his mate out of the corner of his eye, Vejita took in the scolding expression and quickly calmed down.
"Sire, youТve been ordered to council." The creature said, stuttering over every syllable, trotting off once heТd delivered the message.
"Well, letТs go." Vejita said, motioning for everyone in the room to follow him out the door.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, no need to worry. IТm sure my son has chosen a mate." The king said, looking from council member to council member, reassuring each one with a look of confidence. Just then, the wooden double doors opened to reveal four Saiyajin rather than just one.
King Vejita quickly rose to his feet, "WhatТs this all about?"
"Father, if youТd please calm down and take a seat, IТd be more than glad to explain."
Growling, the king lowered back down into his extremely high-backed chair, "Well, explain."
Vejita nodded, taking a deep breath before he began, "IТd like to announce to all of you that IТve chosen a mate, however, none of you will be happy with my choice. So, IТm leaving, never to return. Goodbye, father." Vejita said, practically whispering the last as he turned to leave.
"Wait a second! What the Hell are you talking about?" the king bellowed, rising from his seat again along with all the other members of council, "WhoТd you choose?"
Vejita smirked, turning on his heel to face his father again, "You were right, father. What I yearned for was male intimacy, but IТm afraid your plan backfiredЕ IТve mated with Kakarotto... WeТre bonded."
The kingТs mouth fell open, "So, you think you can just leave then? I wonТt try to stop you. You became more powerful than myself some time ago, but such a power as that can be scouted from anywhereЕ Do you honestly think IТll let you live peacefully elsewhere?" the king said, his voice rising with each word.
"ItТs a good plan, but IТm afraid that both Kakarotto and myself have learned how to hide our ki from the scouters." With that Vejita turned, walking briskly down the corridor towards the launching bay followed by Kakarotto, the two bodyguards, his father, and all the members of council. Fortunately, they got their first, both of them climbing into a sphere shaped ship.
"Goodbye, brotherЕ" Kakarotto said just before the door hissed shut, a round red-tinted window allowing him watch as the king followed by the old men came around the corner, several of them shaking their fists in the air.
Vejita quickly punched in coordinates and such, causing the ship to slowly rise high into the air, and with one final press of a button, they were blasted into space.
"JitaЕ" the boy whispered in astonishment once theyТd exited Planet VejitaТs atmosphere, "I never knew it could look this beautifulЕ" The planet was made up of many different shades of red, ranging from near black to bright as blood.
"ThatТs itЕ IТm no longer the princeЕ" Vejita mumbled.
Kakarotto was surprised by the statement, "YouТll always be a prince to me."
They embraced, remaining quiet for a few moments to bid their final farewells to their home planet.
"How long Сtil we get there?" Kakarotto asked once the view slowly turned to where he could see nothing but blackness and a few shimmering stars.
"About a year." The prince answered honestly.
"A year!"
"DonТt worry, Chibi, we can sleep the entire journey away with the press of a button." Vejita said, wrapping his arms around the boy.
Kakarotto settled down against his mate, "WhatТs the name of the planet weТre going to?"
"Earth."
"Earth." The boy repeated, rolling the word around on his tongue.
The prince chuckled, "ShhhЕ Now, letТs get some sleepЕ"
Kakarotto grinned, "Kay. See ya when we reach our new home."
Vejita smiled, poising his finger above a small white button, "Sweet dreams, my love." With that he pressed the button and they both fell instantly into a peaceful slumber.
The space pod sped across space, leaving a bluish white streak in its wake. Within itТs small metal sphere it contained two of the strongest beings in the universe whom happened to be madly in love. Together theyТd find themselves on the peaceful planet called Earth, and together theyТd live out their lives in peace.
End
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Why DotEmu Has Me Worried About Windjammers On The PS4
Early in 1994, an unassuming little game named Windjammers made its way to arcades. Developed by Data East for the Neo Geo Multi Video System, Windjammers is essentially high-octane video air hockey. Players pick one of six characters with different skills and shots, one of six courts of different sizes and layouts, and proceed to volley a frisbee back and forth with the hopes of jamming it past their opponent and into the goal. It’s a game that’s dead simple to pick up and play, but that simplicity masks an amount of depth to its mechanics and variety in a player’s options that makes Windjammers something special. When two skilled competitors go at it throwing rapid fire shots, counter-shots, trick shots, super shots and counter-super shots, the game is an edge-of-your-seat adrenaline pumping blur. Unfortunately, most people just didn’t seem to catch on to that hidden layer, and Windjammers was generally met with a middling reaction.
As time went on and arcade game emulation became easier, Windjammers gained a bit of a cult classic status. For a good long while it was a side-tournament staple in the fighting game community, and a French community had rallied around it and were doing their thing, but it wasn’t until website about video games Giant Bomb started playing it in 2013 that North American awareness of the game really started picking up. As much as I would like to be a cool on-line guy and say that I was way into it before that, I was only tangentially aware of the game prior to Giant Bomb’s coverage (I was more of a Street Hoop guy when it came to weird Data East Neo Geo sports games, for whatever reason). Nevertheless, it’s a game I feel like I’ve been a fan of for a long time, if that makes any sense. It’s an immediately and deeply lovable game.
The only port Windjammers has ever had as of this writing was a Japan-exclusive release on the Wii Virtual Console in 2010. This release eventually got delisted in late 2013, shortly after Giant Bomb’s coverage started strangely enough. Ever since then, there’s been a steady rumbling of people asking for the game to come to modern systems with online play, mainly aimed at PlayStation’s Third Party Production team. After all, they’re the guys who got us a Final Fantasy 7 remake and Shenmue 3, right? If anyone can get this weird obscure frisbee game out of whatever licensing hell it fell into following the death of Data East and years of turmoil SNK has gone through, they could! Well, at PlayStation Experience 2016′s showcase event it finally happened. The lights dimmed, a familiar tune started playing, and there it was on the big screen: Windjammers was coming to the PlayStation 4. The wish had been granted.
And then the monkey’s paw curled.
Pictured above is the banner for the Windjammers booth at PlayStation Experience 2016, and pictured in the zoom-in of that banner is the one thing powerful enough to instantly turn a retro video game fan’s excitement into dread: the logo of French video game company DotEmu. Founded in 2007, DotEmu is a company that specializes in bringing old video games to not-so-old platforms. Over their nearly 10 years of existence they’ve built up a network of connections with Japanese developers and rightsholders and have been responsible for bringing a sizable amount of classic games to various platforms (an exact list is hard to compile, as even their website’s game list is clearly incomplete). The rub here is that, despite the years of experience and web of trusted business partners, DotEmu consistently puts out products that can be described as poor at best.
Generally not poor in flashy, attention grabbing ways mind you. They’re competent enough that a passerby could go “sure, that’s Metal Slug!”, but for the people who love and care about these classic games the vast majority of DotEmu’s output may as well have shipped with crash bugs. It’s not just old game obsessives that suffer either as, even though it may be difficult to point out specific shortcomings without side-by-side comparisons, the way DotEmu’s ports are busted have an undeniable effect on the way these games play at even the most casual levels. These problems aren’t flukes, they’re consistent and documentable, but they often go ignored in media coverage of the company and general discussion of their releases.
I don’t think this is due to any sort of nefarious intent or anything, but rather a lack of education about the subject. Most of the complaints are loosely organized tweets, or squirreled away in niche message boards, and the informative reviews that hit Steam are easy to lose among the less-than-informative ones. The reason I set out to write this article was to attempt to find and document the issues plaguing DotEmu’s ports (with a focus on their Neo Geo offerings as they pertain more to Windjammers) and, most importantly, put everything somewhere easily viewable and shareable. With that mission in mind, I jumped into the Steam version of one of my favorite arcade games: Metal Slug 3.
The Steam version of Metal Slug 3 was, unbeknownst to me at the time, my first brush with DotEmu. I ran through it once back in mid-2014 and here in 2017 all I could recall was that it was the worst port of the game I had ever played, so it was a natural pick to start off with. I played the Steam release simultaneously with the game running in MAME, trading off every other level, just to make sure I was getting all the facts straight. The most immediately apparent issue with the Steam release is that the audio is wrong on almost every level. Most of the sound effects are off in different ways, the worst of them reduced to nothing but shrill screeches, and the music is mangled in one of the oddest ways I’ve ever experienced. It has trouble keeping a steady beat, but it doesn’t quite skip and instead sort of tries to rush back to where it’s supposed to be. It almost makes it seem like the music is being performed by some sort of drunken orchestra, or as if someone were briefly holding back the turntable of a record player in the few cases where it seemed to affect the pitch. I’ve taken the liberty of making a video comparing the music of both versions, below.
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The other two big issues are slightly more subtle, but much more impactful on the gameplay itself. First off, the Steam version drops frames like crazy, which means the game consistently stutters and jumps around erratically. Metal Slug 3 is pretty chaotic so it can be a little tough to pick out amidst the explosions, but the DotEmu port drops frames at all times, even during the game’s rare quiet moments. I found that the tiled background of Stage 3′s pre-sub cave area offered the most readily visible comparison (below). [UPDATE 1/12/17: This is actually an issue with frame-pacing rather than dropping according to John Linneman of Digital Foundry. Frame-pacing issues are where, rather than completely skipping over frames of the game, individual frames will stay on screen for longer or shorter than they’re supposed to. The end result is still a stuttering, choppy mess.]
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This problem only exacerbates the next issue: the Steam version has input lag. Input lag means, well, there’s a lag on your inputs. You press a button and it takes a little bit longer for the corresponding action to happen on screen. Don’t know why, don’t know how, but there is a slight amount of input lag present in the DotEmu port that just isn’t there in the MAME version. Weirdly enough it wasn’t anything visual that tipped me off, but instead something auditory. The gap between pressing the fire button and hearing the gunshot sound effect is a bit wider in the Steam version, and it’s fairly noticeable when you’re going back and forth between versions.
These two issues are bad enough alone, but when combined it causes the game to feel muddy and unresponsive when in actuality it’s quite snappy. Easily dodgeable attacks suddenly become less so, simple actions such as jumping and shooting below you become more difficult to perform effectively, and the game is much more likely to register jumping and shooting as a simultaneous press of A+B, making you accidentally activate your kamikaze Slug Attack while in a vehicle. This isn’t any sort of scientific evidence, and I certainly wasn’t playing amazingly in either version of the game, but I did demonstrably worse in my playthrough of the Steam version and I attribute that to the generally awful feel of the controls.
The one nice thing I can say about DotEmu’s port is that the online play seems, from my extremely limited experience, totally fine. I played the first couple of levels with a friend and it was smooth throughout. The port’s underlying problems still existed, and I’m not sure how the netcode would hold up to something more timing intensive like a versus game, but online play did not accentuate any of the port’s issues from what I could tell.
A brief check-in with the Steam port of Metal Slug X revealed that it, unsurprisingly, has the exact same problems Metal Slug 3 has. This is where my firsthand experience with DotEmu’s products ends, because I’m not enough of a sucker to buy three bad versions of old games. Just two. Craving more info, I put out the call to my wonderful, smart, definitely non-sucker Twitter followers. What follows is everything I was able to gather from them.
Now, I love Metal Slug 3, but I’m far from an absolute expert on it. There are people who have played the game for longer than I have and are way better at it than I am. I doubt the same can be said for friend of the site LordBBH regarding Shock Troopers. One of his favorite games of all time, BBH has probably put more hours into playing Shock Troopers than anyone on the planet (and plenty of those hours are on video). He knows the game inside and out, and he found all of the same issues in Shock Troopers that I found in the Metal Slugs, but he also stumbled upon a couple of things I would have never even thought to check. Such as the difficulty settings, for instance. Every Neo Geo game has about 8 or so different difficulty options that you can change in the system settings, but DotEmu’s ports have just four: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard. Whereas the original release of Shock Troopers adjusted the damage you take depending on what difficulty you were playing on, the difficulty options in the Steam version, from what LordBBH can tell, do... absolutely nothing. If it were anyone else I would chalk it up to not knowing the game well enough to spot the differences, but this guy knows.
There’s also another issue that’s entirely specific to Shock Troopers and definitely worth noting. There were two versions of the game, and the thing with Shock Troopers is you can either select one character or a team of three that you can freely swap between in-level. In what’s generally considered the “main” version of the game, a team has individual life bars for each character. In the other version, the whole team shares a single life bar. This minimizes the difference between playing as a team and playing as a single character, and the version of the game that uses the shared life bar is treated as more of a curiosity than a thing people play. The DotEmu port uses the single life bar version, and there’s no option to switch to the other one. This is probably an easy thing to overlook if you’re not, you know, a company in charge of porting the game to a different platform. But if you are, it shows a real lack of knowledge and care for your product in my eyes.
If you want a really, really long look at LordBBH playing and discussing the Steam version of Shock Troopers (and a little bit of the next game), he uploaded a video of it to his YouTube channel. For now though, let’s move on.
Twinkle Star Sprites is a cute versus shoot ‘em up game where players compete to clear out the enemies on their side of the screen and launch attacks at the other player. According to the info I received, the Steam version has all the general problems of the previously discussed games, but with a couple of fun unique wrinkles. First of all, the online leaderboards report impossible scores. Like, scores in the billions. For a while people weren’t sure whether it was a bug or people were hacking, but it turns out the leaderboards take the sum of all scores attained in all the versus matches you’ve played and post that. This makes the feature useless for competition, as you can rack up higher and higher scores simply by playing more.
The other thing I was told is by far the weirdest one I’ve heard. While the previously mentioned useless difficulty options actually do something in Twinkle Star Sprites, what they do is increase the frame rate. The game itself is unaltered, it’s just sped up. I have absolutely no clue how or why this would happen, and I didn’t receive details on how much each option increases it by, but this is apparently a real thing that happens and I kind of can’t believe it.[UPDATE 1/12/17: My source on this has gotten back to me with claims that this does not actually happen. Whether or not it never did or was fixed in a patch is unknown. The difficulty settings currently do nothing. Leaving everything here for transparency.]
With that we’ve gone through all the specific examples I was told about and could find on my own, so that about wraps up the “what” of this whole situation (for now). Now we have to move on to the “why”. Why are these ports so consistently shoddy? Why does a company that positions itself as trying to make sure classic games don’t “get lost” continue to bungle everything in both the most basic and most baffling ways? The answer to that isn’t exactly clear. We could look at the case of DotEmu (legally, don’t start) using Nebula, an emulator last updated in 2007, for their 2015 Neo Geo Humble Bundle releases and question their competency. We could look at stuff like the apparently lacking Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD release or the fact that their promotional Windjammers PS4 theme contains no actual elements from Windjammers and question their passion. We could look at any number of things and take any number of guesses, but I have a feeling the real reason for all of it is simple: they can get away with it. You can technically play through everything beginning to end, and the amount of people who care about these games to the point of easily noticing and articulating these flaws is minuscule compared to the greater number of players. Major outlets aren’t going to report on the input lag of a specific port of a 17 year old game. Negative Steam reviews complaining about frame drops aren’t going to drown out the people going “just like my child days!” and giving a thumbs up (except in the case of specific franchises where obsessives outnumber nostalgia fiends). The people just coming to these games for the first time aren’t going to have the frame of reference to know something is wrong, for all they can tell the game just normally sounds like that. DotEmu can phone it in because there’s not enough people to get the word out that they’re calling collect.
As for the final question: “where” does all this leave the PlayStation 4 port of Windjammers? Only time will tell. DotEmu has been talking up how they’ve had the French Windjammers community constantly playtesting and giving feedback to make sure they get things right, but then again David Sirlin said the same thing about having pro players help with the development of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. It’s just not enough of an assurance to make me overlook the company’s extremely rough track record. I hope they prove me wrong and knock it out of the park. I would love to have an official and fully featured re-release of this game that I love, but I’m not holding my breath. My money’s on it being another in a line of DotEmu botch jobs. For a company supposedly devoted to making sure old games aren’t forgotten, it’s almost ironic that they’ve so consistently helped make sure they’re something even worse: misremembered.
Did I miss something? Get something completely wrong? Do you have something to add about a different game? Let me know! I want to update this article with as much relevant and accurate information as possible! Feel free to get at me on Twitter or send me an email.
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Capsule Wardrobe Remix: How to Wear the Convertible Sweater Four Ways
**Press play to watch the video!**
Happy Monday!
Exciting news–I just discovered that some of my favorite items from last year are back in stock with exact or have new updated versions! 🙌🏻 This post was one of your favorites last year, so I wanted to give it a refresh!
In this post, I’m showing you how to wear one of my favorite sweaters four different ways. (This is also a similar new version of it this year!) My exact one I’m wearing in this post is also still available but the sizing is limited–however, I have a hack: most of the petite sizes are still in stock, so I would try ordering that! The petite sizing is only 2″ shorter–which I still think would be just as cute–especially because I often tuck mine in, so the length doesn’t really matter anyway! (And Nordstrom has free returns, so it’s worth a shot!)
Before we jump in, let’s go over the staples I used to create these looks.
Convertible sweater: First up, obviously. This sweater, you guys, is probably one of the most versatile things you could buy this entire year. It’s both cowl neck and off the shoulder. You can wear it as a tunic or tuck it into high-waisted jeans, skirt, or even over a dress!
I’m only showing you four ways to wear it today, but there really are ENDLESS ways you can style it and to top it off, it just might be one of the softest things I’ve ever purchased. (Oh, it comes in lot’s of colors too!) It’s so soft that this was the FIRST thing I put on when I transitioned my closet over to fall because I couldn’t wait to get it on my body 😂
I typically tuck it in because I think it’s most flattering to show your waistline, but you can leave it tucked out as well. It’s more of a tunic length, shorter in the front than the back. I would highly recommend sizing down because it runs pretty oversized. For length reference, I’m 5’6.
Skinny Jeans: These haven’t been in stock in FOREVER! You guys know I have become obsessed with AE and Abercrombie who make some of my favorite (super budget friendly jeans) but there are some jeans that cannot be replicated and are worth the splurge, and these Rag & Bone skinnies are that. They were my #1 bestseller when I got them at the Nordstrom sale two years ago and they were sold out for so long–I always got asked to link similar and the thing is–there aren’t similar. They’re the real deal!
They are super stretchy, they feel like butter and unlike any other jean–they’re also not particularly thick which is why I think they’re so comfortable. I also love that the raw hem is very subtle–and the leg opening isn’t TOO skinny or too straight. They are ankle length. Sizing: I would say if you’re on the fence go with the size down because they are very stretchy–they run a bit big.
Heeled Booties: I recommend a pair of neutral booties for every fall wardrobe. If you go with one with a bit of a pointed toe, light tan color, and little bit of a heel, they also help to elongate your leg, which is hard to find in a bootie, as most of the time they can cut you off at the ankles and make your legs look stubby! A midi heel is great because it gives you a bit of height but is still comfortable for lot’s of walking!
The pair I’m wearing here is from last year, but I’d recommend this pair of Sam Edelmans if you want a bit of a heel or if you want a lower heel, this pair–which are insanely comfy! (Kelly has them in like 4 colors, haha!) I’ve also been dying to try Everlane’s Day Boots–I’m in love with their Day Heels (they are SO comfortable) and I think the brown leather version is calling my name!
Leopard loafers: You’ve seen a LOT of these leopard loafers on this blog, because they really do make every outfit look instantly more stylish. Leopard always adds a ton of visual interest to any outfit. Plus, they are truly the most comfortable shoes I have ever put on my feet. They required zero break-in, no blisters–ever!
Leather tote: The Madewell Transport tote making the capsule wardrobe cut comes as a shock to absolutely none of you, I am sure. It’s my everything bag. Work, travel, groceries–whatever, this is always the bag I’m reaching for and it comes in several styles and colors as well.
Black pumps: I’ve owned this particular pair of Sam Edelman pumps for years but they make a ton of similar versions currently that you can shop here! They run TTS in my experience!
Trench coat: FULLY RESTOCKED! HUZZAH! It was gone for so long and now it’s back in ALL sizes! (Also in black!)
I purchased this trench by London Fog last Spring before my trip to London and it is one of my very favorite coats for both Fall and Spring. It has a detachable hood as well as a removable liner. Which unlike a lot of trench coats, does add a significant amount of warmth. I absolutely adore it and it’s one of my favorite jackets. It looks super chic for work, and just as pretty for dinner or a stroll around the neighborhood. It’s amazing for travel as well. Runs large, so size down. I’m wearing XS.
Leather jacket: I now own two leather jackets–one brown and one black. The black one is my newest addition and I don’t know what took me so long to get one! I definitely love both colors and I think whichever color is best for you just depends on your preferences. The one I feature here is also from last year but there are tons at really good prices here! My favorite is this one, which is most similar to the one you see me wearing here!
Leopard clutch: For the same reasons as I sing the praises of the leopard loafer, I love a good leopard clutch! (Nordstrom actually has a TON of different leopard clutches right now!) I’m a huge fan of it for going out because it brightens up even the most basic outfit. Plus, it’s such a steal for less than $50 and it looks and feels like the designer version.
Belts: My gold buckle belt is Topshop and has since sold out (boo!) but this one is really similar and so is this one!
Okay, now let’s get into these looks!
Look #1: Date Night
This is a look that is suitable for just about anywhere in Chicago. Dinner, drinks, it’s great for all of the above! Throw a leather jacket over your shoulders and you’re good to go! (With the leather jacket I felt like I was subtly channeling a 2017 Olivia Newton John and I am so into it.)
Now, remember, this sweater is tunic length, which means you can wear it tucked in or out. I tend to prefer all of my shirts tucked in just because it defines your waistline and elongates the leg. Additionally, I think it makes it a bit more formal (for instances such as date night!) The pumps go a long way in dressing this outfit up, but not too much. I like them here because they’re a bit more feminine and “date” esque than if you were to pair this outfit with booties, but booties would work perfectly too!
You can see this demonstrated in the video above, but to tuck in, just take a corner of the sweater, twist it, and then tuck it in. It’s really easy!
Look #2: On the Airplane
When you find a sweater that feels like a hug mixed with the softest blanket you’ve ever felt, it becomes a no-brainer to wear for travel. (Specifically I am referring to a fleecy, microfiber-ish, faux fur-ish blanket I found at Target last year that is wrapped around me as I write this post and will probably not be removed from my body until next April–unless it’s to put on this sweater). I know you have one of those blankets too. THAT is what this sweater feels like!
Anyway, pair it with your favorite jeans and the comfiest loafers ever (that slip-off quality comes in reaaallyy handy at airport security) and you’ll be good to go!
P.S. My suitcase is on sale right now on Amazon for $180! It’s one of my favorite purchases ever! You can see a full review of it here!
Look #3: Business Casual
When you’re trying to get the most out of your wardrobe, it’s important to remember that you can layer OVER as well as under! This sweater is great layered over a work-appropriate dress! If you’re feeling a little “garbage baggish” like you have no shape, reach for a belt (mine is old but this one is similar!) and cinch it at your waist and VOILA. WOMANLY FIGURE! This look would also be just as cute with a pencil skirt or a pair of slim trousers or ponte leggings for an office-friendly look.
Look #4: Sunday Dinner Casual
Perhaps the best match of all for this perfect sweater is your favorite jeans, a pair of booties, and a plaid scarf (mine is last year’s but similar here at Nordstrom Rack!) . All you need is a PSL ;-P (By the way, if you’re looking for how to wear a scarf a few different ways, that post is right over here!) This is the perfect outfit for dinner or a movie to wind down the weekend!
How would you style the convertible sweater?
Make sure not to miss our previous posts in the Capsule Wardrobe Remix series: How to wear a black dress four ways, how to style leather leggings 3 ways, and how to pack a carry-on travel capsule wardrobe!
Source: https://thegoldengirlblog.com/capsule-wardrobe-remix-how-to-wear-the-convertible-sweater-four-ways/
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Capsule Wardrobe Remix: How to Wear the Convertible Sweater Four Ways
**Press play to watch the video!**
Happy Monday!
Exciting news–I just discovered that some of my favorite items from last year are back in stock with exact or have new updated versions! 🙌🏻 This post was one of your favorites last year, so I wanted to give it a refresh!
In this post, I’m showing you how to wear one of my favorite sweaters four different ways. (This is also a similar new version of it this year!) My exact one I’m wearing in this post is also still available but the sizing is limited–however, I have a hack: most of the petite sizes are still in stock, so I would try ordering that! The petite sizing is only 2″ shorter–which I still think would be just as cute–especially because I often tuck mine in, so the length doesn’t really matter anyway! (And Nordstrom has free returns, so it’s worth a shot!)
Before we jump in, let’s go over the staples I used to create these looks.
Convertible sweater: First up, obviously. This sweater, you guys, is probably one of the most versatile things you could buy this entire year. It’s both cowl neck and off the shoulder. You can wear it as a tunic or tuck it into high-waisted jeans, skirt, or even over a dress!
I’m only showing you four ways to wear it today, but there really are ENDLESS ways you can style it and to top it off, it just might be one of the softest things I’ve ever purchased. (Oh, it comes in lot’s of colors too!) It’s so soft that this was the FIRST thing I put on when I transitioned my closet over to fall because I couldn’t wait to get it on my body 😂
I typically tuck it in because I think it’s most flattering to show your waistline, but you can leave it tucked out as well. It’s more of a tunic length, shorter in the front than the back. I would highly recommend sizing down because it runs pretty oversized. For length reference, I’m 5’6.
Skinny Jeans: These haven’t been in stock in FOREVER! You guys know I have become obsessed with AE and Abercrombie who make some of my favorite (super budget friendly jeans) but there are some jeans that cannot be replicated and are worth the splurge, and these Rag & Bone skinnies are that. They were my #1 bestseller when I got them at the Nordstrom sale two years ago and they were sold out for so long–I always got asked to link similar and the thing is–there aren’t similar. They’re the real deal!
They are super stretchy, they feel like butter and unlike any other jean–they’re also not particularly thick which is why I think they’re so comfortable. I also love that the raw hem is very subtle–and the leg opening isn’t TOO skinny or too straight. They are ankle length. Sizing: I would say if you’re on the fence go with the size down because they are very stretchy–they run a bit big.
Heeled Booties: I recommend a pair of neutral booties for every fall wardrobe. If you go with one with a bit of a pointed toe, light tan color, and little bit of a heel, they also help to elongate your leg, which is hard to find in a bootie, as most of the time they can cut you off at the ankles and make your legs look stubby! A midi heel is great because it gives you a bit of height but is still comfortable for lot’s of walking!
The pair I’m wearing here is from last year, but I’d recommend this pair of Sam Edelmans if you want a bit of a heel or if you want a lower heel, this pair–which are insanely comfy! (Kelly has them in like 4 colors, haha!) I’ve also been dying to try Everlane’s Day Boots–I’m in love with their Day Heels (they are SO comfortable) and I think the brown leather version is calling my name!
Leopard loafers: You’ve seen a LOT of these leopard loafers on this blog, because they really do make every outfit look instantly more stylish. Leopard always adds a ton of visual interest to any outfit. Plus, they are truly the most comfortable shoes I have ever put on my feet. They required zero break-in, no blisters–ever!
Leather tote: The Madewell Transport tote making the capsule wardrobe cut comes as a shock to absolutely none of you, I am sure. It’s my everything bag. Work, travel, groceries–whatever, this is always the bag I’m reaching for and it comes in several styles and colors as well.
Black pumps: I’ve owned this particular pair of Sam Edelman pumps for years but they make a ton of similar versions currently that you can shop here! They run TTS in my experience!
Trench coat: FULLY RESTOCKED! HUZZAH! It was gone for so long and now it’s back in ALL sizes! (Also in black!)
I purchased this trench by London Fog last Spring before my trip to London and it is one of my very favorite coats for both Fall and Spring. It has a detachable hood as well as a removable liner. Which unlike a lot of trench coats, does add a significant amount of warmth. I absolutely adore it and it’s one of my favorite jackets. It looks super chic for work, and just as pretty for dinner or a stroll around the neighborhood. It’s amazing for travel as well. Runs large, so size down. I’m wearing XS.
Leather jacket: I now own two leather jackets–one brown and one black. The black one is my newest addition and I don’t know what took me so long to get one! I definitely love both colors and I think whichever color is best for you just depends on your preferences. The one I feature here is also from last year but there are tons at really good prices here! My favorite is this one, which is most similar to the one you see me wearing here!
Leopard clutch: For the same reasons as I sing the praises of the leopard loafer, I love a good leopard clutch! (Nordstrom actually has a TON of different leopard clutches right now!) I’m a huge fan of it for going out because it brightens up even the most basic outfit. Plus, it’s such a steal for less than $50 and it looks and feels like the designer version.
Belts: My gold buckle belt is Topshop and has since sold out (boo!) but this one is really similar and so is this one!
Okay, now let’s get into these looks!
Look #1: Date Night
This is a look that is suitable for just about anywhere in Chicago. Dinner, drinks, it’s great for all of the above! Throw a leather jacket over your shoulders and you’re good to go! (With the leather jacket I felt like I was subtly channeling a 2017 Olivia Newton John and I am so into it.)
Now, remember, this sweater is tunic length, which means you can wear it tucked in or out. I tend to prefer all of my shirts tucked in just because it defines your waistline and elongates the leg. Additionally, I think it makes it a bit more formal (for instances such as date night!) The pumps go a long way in dressing this outfit up, but not too much. I like them here because they’re a bit more feminine and “date” esque than if you were to pair this outfit with booties, but booties would work perfectly too!
You can see this demonstrated in the video above, but to tuck in, just take a corner of the sweater, twist it, and then tuck it in. It’s really easy!
Look #2: On the Airplane
When you find a sweater that feels like a hug mixed with the softest blanket you’ve ever felt, it becomes a no-brainer to wear for travel. (Specifically I am referring to a fleecy, microfiber-ish, faux fur-ish blanket I found at Target last year that is wrapped around me as I write this post and will probably not be removed from my body until next April–unless it’s to put on this sweater). I know you have one of those blankets too. THAT is what this sweater feels like!
Anyway, pair it with your favorite jeans and the comfiest loafers ever (that slip-off quality comes in reaaallyy handy at airport security) and you’ll be good to go!
P.S. My suitcase is on sale right now on Amazon for $180! It’s one of my favorite purchases ever! You can see a full review of it here!
Look #3: Business Casual
When you’re trying to get the most out of your wardrobe, it’s important to remember that you can layer OVER as well as under! This sweater is great layered over a work-appropriate dress! If you’re feeling a little “garbage baggish” like you have no shape, reach for a belt (mine is old but this one is similar!) and cinch it at your waist and VOILA. WOMANLY FIGURE! This look would also be just as cute with a pencil skirt or a pair of slim trousers or ponte leggings for an office-friendly look.
Look #4: Sunday Dinner Casual
Perhaps the best match of all for this perfect sweater is your favorite jeans, a pair of booties, and a plaid scarf (mine is last year’s but similar here at Nordstrom Rack!) . All you need is a PSL ;-P (By the way, if you’re looking for how to wear a scarf a few different ways, that post is right over here!) This is the perfect outfit for dinner or a movie to wind down the weekend!
How would you style the convertible sweater?
Make sure not to miss our previous posts in the Capsule Wardrobe Remix series: How to wear a black dress four ways, how to style leather leggings 3 ways, and how to pack a carry-on travel capsule wardrobe!
Source: https://thegoldengirlblog.com/capsule-wardrobe-remix-how-to-wear-the-convertible-sweater-four-ways/
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What Hip-Hop’s Old Guard Can Learn From The Creator Of ‘Halloween’ As Both Evolve In 2018
Getty Image / Uproxx Studios
This past weekend, legendary horror producer John Carpenter returned to the franchise that made him a household name — and basically kicked off the enduring popularity of the slasher genre Halloween — with a fresh, 21st-century take that has delighted general audiences, genre fans, and critics alike. Needless to say, this is kind of a feat for a 40-year-old property which experienced slumps in three different decades.
Ironically — or fatefully, depending on whether you’re a hip-hop writer with a taste for both classics and their contemporary counterparts — the Halloween franchise is nearly the same age as hip-hop, the reigning most popular genre in American music. And while it may not seem like there any deeper lessons inherent in watching teen babysitters being stalked and dismembered by lumbering serial killers, in this case, there is something veteran creators and followers of the music and culture can learn from Halloween and its own creator: How to remain successful 40 years later through evolving, while still remaining true to the spirit of the original.
Also, there’s this:
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When Carpenter was asked why he finally returned to the series after leaving it in the wake of Halloween III‘s lukewarm reception, and over creative differences with his producers, he told Rotten Tomatoes: “I talked about the Halloweens for a long time, the sequels — I haven’t even seen all of them… But finally it occurred to me: Well if I’m just flapping my gums here, why don’t I try to make it as good as I can? So, you know, stop throwing rocks from the sidelines and get in there and try to do something positive.” It’s true: The Halloween movies that followed the third iteration are often considered inferior rehashes of old formula short on scares, new ideas, and perhaps most damaging, the spirit of the initial film.
I happened to catch the new Halloween last week, and as a fan of the genre and the series, it occurred to me that he’d largely succeeded. Carpenter’s latest take is fantastic, borrowing hints and nods from the previous films, but not living off their nostalgia. It updates old tropes and finds ways to seamlessly work in social and technological changes from the 40 years since the original (my favorite is the way the movie dispenses with the near ubiquity of cell phones as modern horror plothole fuel). By accepting its characters’ growth and development and incorporating them into a loving homage to all the details that make the first movie work so well, the newest reboot/remake/sequel is the first that might actually live up to its legacy.
As a fan of hip-hop, however, Carpenter’s above quote reminded me of the shortcomings of my other favorite genre, along with a video that resonated with me, and got me thinking about how fantastically that reasoning applies to rap — and how many rappers, outlets, and fans are failing to meet that standard. On last week’s episode of Genius’ interview show, For The Record, guest Styles P shared a few critiques of modern hip-hop culture with host Rob Markman. The below clip, which was shared widely, drew an impassioned response from hip-hop heads who follow the show and also potentially offered the seeds of a solution.
STOP HIRING PEOPLE WHO DONT KNOW ABOUT THE CULTURE#ForTheRecord got real with the Beloved Bros @therealstylesp & @DaveEast https://t.co/BdaG5m5vG3 pic.twitter.com/PqtoPoeIjD
— Rob Markman (@RobMarkman) October 19, 2018
Styles effectively reiterates Carpenter’s words above and shows exactly how Carpenter’s comments would practically apply to rap with his music. He and New York rapper Dave East recently teamed up to release their joint album Beloved, much like Carpenter did with a pair of younger filmmakers in David Gordon Green and Danny McBride to revitalize his franchise. Beloved combines the best of both worlds, old and new, by sticking to the rap purist formula on Styles’ side while updating it with elements of Dave East’s more new-school, trap-inflected New York swagger. He says, “We could have did some sh*t just to get a look or that had nothin’ to do with hip-hop… Nah, let’s make some authentic hip-hop.” That’s what they did, combining hip-hop’s Golden Era lyrical emphasis and roughneck style, with Dave East’s youth and vital, current outlook. However, their approach — like Carpenter’s — is a rarity.
While it’s no secret that sectarian dissent has divided rappers and their fans into opposing camps — lyrical rap against mumble rap, woke rap vs. cloud rap, old heads vs. Generation Z — in shorter supply are the answers to healing those divisions and recognizing the ways in which each of those subcategories defines and complements the others. More fans and artists are more interesting in the constant fighting, casting their stones in an effort to prove their favorite subgenre or approach to the craft is the best, than in actually supporting, growing, and building the culture of hip-hop as it evolves and expands to encompass multiple generations, ethnicities, nationalities, and identities of fans.
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A prime example of this: Eminem’s recent album Kamikaze. In my review I pointed out that his railing against the developing tastes of the genre wouldn’t do much to transform it or endear himself to the new generation of fans he seemed hellbent on berating into submission. Effectively, Eminem is playing the role Carpenter pigeonholed himself into before this most recent project; throwing rocks at the Halloween 5s of the rap world — in Em’s mind, these are the so-called mumble rappers, or trap rappers, or crunk rappers, or ringtone rappers. You see how this cycle repeats itself. You can’t “fix” hip-hop; it doesn’t need fixing. Granted, there are a lot more elements going into the discovery, development, and promotion of new talents, and not all of it is positive.
I’m not sure signing viral personalities simply because of the number of views their latest videos have or because they have a ton of followers on Instagram is the best method for breaking new acts. It’s like the “reality TV” gimmick of Halloween: Resurrection: An attempt to seem “hip” but one that actually reveals how truly out-of-touch the producers were and how little they understand about the culture. But at the same time, firing off demeaning invective — whether on songs or in the comments sections of rap blogs and Youtube videos — doesn’t seem to be very helpful at all, especially as it seems listeners aren’t much willing to actually engage with the music they harp against, like Carpenter badmouthing the sequels he hadn’t even seen. That much seemed evident when Eminem chose to deride his newly-minted lyrical rival MGK as a “mumble rapper,” implying that he either doesn’t listen to much MGK or doesn’t actually know what a mumble rapper is supposed to sound like.
Meanwhile, the perfect counterexample to this approach and the closest to the Carpenter philosophy of “make it as good as I can,” would be J. Cole’s KOD. I know, I wasn’t entirely friendly to this album in my review of it, either. But in recent months, its grown on me. Sure, there are moments of “get off my lawn”-ism — I still cringe at that Love & Hip-Hop line from “1985,” especially in light of YBN Cordae’s stellar response to it, that Cardi B got rich from her stint on that show — but Cole’s approach was largely more productive and reasonable than Eminem’s in a lot of ways. Like Carpenter’s selection of hardcore Halloween fans David Gordon Green and Danny McBride to direct and write the new movie, Cole embraces some aspects of the new, but makes sure they’re grounded in tradition and executed with the utmost quality he can manage.
For one, rather than calling Lil Pump a “mumble rapper” or other such derisive epithet, he called him on the phone, organizing a sitdown conversation to better understand the youngster’s viewpoint. Rather than retreating further into a barricaded, recalcitrant, “real hip-hop” beachhead, Cole expanded his musical variety, trying his hand at contemporary trap styles — even if it was a little awkward in execution, it was appreciated. Rather than decrying the wackness of everything around him, Cole simply upped his game, working to make a doper version of the formula.
It has its flaws, but it works a lot better than Joe Budden constantly haranguing of Migos and Lil Yachty, or Nicki Minaj relentlessly disparaging Cardi B. Eminem can’t get people to stop liking MGK, and it’s not a zero-sum game anyway; it’s entirely possible to be a fan of both or neither. Just because The Curse Of Michael Myers was a different kind of horror movie than the original Halloween, doesn’t make it any less of an enjoyable horror flick; so it is with two approaches to hip-hop.
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Everybody doesn’t have to get along, either. John Carpenter never stated that he went back and watched all those old Halloween movies, nor was he suddenly bursting with praise for Busta Rhymes’ performance in Halloween: Resurrection — although, how did Busta not win an Oscar for this moment, seriously? All jokes aside, what brought Carpenter and original Halloween scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis back to the iconic brand they created wasn’t the need to sh*t on the goofiness of prior takes on the formula, which to be honest, still have their charms. It was the opportunity to create something that met their own lofty standards, to recalibrate the conversation, and more than likely, to make truckloads of cash, which the 2018 Halloween soft reboot is currently doing.
So far, the movie has made $100 million worldwide, is the highest-grossing film of the franchise, and has already sparked chatter of revitalizing the entire slasher genre, all because it held itself to a higher standard of excellence and then actually went out and made something that met that standard, rather than standing on the sidelines throwing rocks. There are plenty of veteran rappers who could stand to update their formula, set a higher bar for themselves, and execute their visions for a better form of hip-hop. If Michael Myers can keep coming back again and again and still find a way to make a killing at the box office, so can the vets who make their living killing mics instead of frightened teens.
source https://uproxx.com/hiphop/halloween-hip-hop-john-carpenter-j-cole-eminem/
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The Ever-Expanding Digital and Web Comic Landscape
Comic books have come a long way since the days of sitting in metal racks located in grocery stores and newsstands. Today, you can read comics from any of the big publishers, such as Dark Horse, DC, Fantagraphics, Image, or Marvel, and you can also read comic books made by the creators themselves—and some publish independently. Not only are comics available in printed form, but they’re also available digitally. Printed, on the web, or on an app? Where do you start? If you have a hard time choosing what to read and where to read it, you’re not alone, because the choices are limitless. With print and web and digital options, we now have so many comic books. (Perhaps too many.) I asked some comic book fans how they feel about digital and/or web comics, and one big take away seems to be that it’s less a matter of Where to start? and more about Where does it end?
Rich Barrett
There’s a distinction between digital comics and web comics which I think of as two different things. Digital is defined by the platform that they’re delivered on (apps like comiXology or even digital reader formats like PDFs) and web is simply a comic that is read on a website. Digital comics often work as print comics as well. A lot of the comics you can buy on comiXology are comics that are also available in print but the experience of reading them digitally can be very different either through the Guided View technology that is offered or just the differences between reading the art on the screen vs. the printed page. Webcomics, a.k.a. web comics, are really a completely different form, usually not adhering as closely to a print-friendly page size of page count although many of them do eventually get collected that way if they’re popular. Both have been game-changing for independent cartoonists and self-publishers although digital comics have offered more monetary opportunities for the creators.
That said, I tend to prefer digital comics over webcomics because I find the format of reading discrete volumes or issues at once at my own leisure easier than trying to keep up with the shorter, sporadic updates that many webcomics are hindered by (and I say this as someone who used to publish a webcomic a page at a time on a completely erratic schedule). I buy comics from comiXology and also subscribe to their comiXology Unlimited service where I can check out their comiXology Originals series which are kind of hit and miss.
Image courtesy of DC Universe.
I also subscribe to Marvel Unlimited which I’m a big fan of and may sign up for DC Universe when that launches. I use Hoopla through my public library which lets me read 6 graphic novels a month for free and there are a TON of great choices to read there. I occasionally will buy an independent digital comic directly from a creator’s website or sometimes I support a Kickstarter and just get the digital PDF copy of their book.
I wish that I could keep up with more webcomics because that is usually where you can discover some unique voices and up and coming talent. The entire comics industry has been influenced tremendously by webcomics over the past decade or so and if you want to see some future trends in comic storytelling, you’ll probably find them now on the web. I’ve recently been trying to follow some cartoonists that are publishing comics via Instagram which is pretty interesting. There is a lot of unique experimentation with digital formats out there, but I admit I don’t have as much time as I once did to keep up with it all.
Rich Barrett is a writer and illustrator.
Brandon Wilson
I can remember buying my earliest comics in 1981. I’d have been 10 then. Batman. She-Hulk. Spider-Woman. I still have those. I collected comics for most of the 1980s, drifting more towards Marvel and away from DC (although I remained a very loyal Batman reader). In terms of Marvel I read a little of everything but I definitely was attracted to the X-Men, the various spinoffs and the overarching Mutant Saga.
I then started reading Dark Horse Comics in the late 80s. Hard Boiled, Aliens vs Predator, Terminator. By the early 90s I was a college student and my comics consumption dried up. I didn’t come back until after the dawn of the MCU in 2008. I bought comics the old-fashioned way, going back to the comic book shop I went to in the old days. The faces behind the counter were new but I developed a rapport with them and my brief commune with them turned my second wave of comic book reading into a fairly regular thing.
Then the shop got sold and those guys disappeared. It was around this time that I decided to take the plunge and go digital since the social aspect of buying comics had been disrupted. I’d always been skeptical of reading on a tablet, and I love the feel of a book. But with comics, digital is the way to go. My middle-aged eyes truly appreciate the guided mode that zooms in on individual frames. Such a superior way to experience a story in this format. I downloaded four reader apps: Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image. The majority of what I’ve purchased and downloaded is Marvel but I read Bitch Planet and Monstress for a time as well.
Digital also eliminates the need for storage which my wife is utterly delighted about.
The big change in how I read comics now is I follow writers more than characters. Mark Waid, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Gary Phillips, Kelly DeConnick are people I will read almost sight unseen. I’ve slowed down my purchasing now to one book a month. Comic books are very cyclical, you read with interest for a while and then the interest wanes. Eventually you come back and the characters are new and yet pleasantly familiar.
Brandon Wilson is a filmmaker & educator and co-director of SEPULVEDA.
Ling Chou
I find webcomics through the artists I follow on Twitter or Tumblr. A few of them host them on comic sites and some have their own domains. On Twitter, I follow @theyoungdoyler’s comic Knights-Errant. I read it on Sparkler Monthly. I enjoy the world building and societal constructs especially. It’s well researched and compelling!
Images courtesy of Jennifer Doyle.
On Tumblr, I follow this comic called Starward Lovers. I love the graphic style of this comic, it lends itself well to the action scenes. I think the thing that drew me in most was the pacing of the story telling. I’d always wanted to know what happened next.
I also read Black Sheep by @lirthel. The designs and world building are completely fantastical and unique. Additionally, the character acting/relationships are stellar! It’s a slice of life immersed in a fantasy world done exactly right.
One negative for me though about webcomics is that I personally find it hard to keep up with them consistently. This is mostly due to the way I keep up with them through Twitter/Tumblr update posts but also because they generally update one page at a time (at least the ones I read.) I’m someone that likes to binge whatever media I’m consuming and I end up having to reread a few pages, if not the entire chapter, before I’m able to remember all of the events.
Despite that, I try to return to them because I enjoy the storylines and character relationships because I think web comics tend to have more interesting characters/plots and take more risks. I also have a lot of respect for the artists, who write and draw and post them consistently (for free too!).
If available, I would definitely buy a physical copy of the comic as well. I try to support my favorite comics if Kickstarter campaigns are started, such as Knights-Errant. In the end I do enjoy reading comics in the physical form but I have nothing against reading them online.
Ling Chou is an illustrator who shares “sketches and stuff” on Instagram.
Michael Dooley
“90% of everything is crap” has become a lowball figure now that we have to factor in web comics.
There’s a reason that Charles Schulz never yielded control of his Peanuts: only he could position his kids’ eyes and render their mouth line just so for maximum emotional effect. No one else could come near the subtlety of his drawing skills. Like Fred Astaire, he worked hard his whole career to make the extremely difficult appear effortless. So from an art appreciation standpoint, I have no tolerance for copy-and-paste dinosaurs.
But there have been glorious exceptions, artists with the brilliance and skills to make the web aesthetic work. I’d credit David Rees, the first breakthrough talent. His classic, post-9/11 Get Your War On used generic clip art in the exact way it was designed for: endless online repetition. And it was perfectly suited to deliver his subversive political messages in a way that would make any hard-core Situationist proud.
And there have been other landmark web-toonists with enough creative flair to master and advance the medium in marvelously unique ways. I’d put two at the top of my personal pantheon. One, Kate Beaton. Her lusciously illustrated Hark, a Vagrant was always a delectably witty treat for the eye and the mind. And Emily Horne. Her poignant photo-comic A Softer World, written by Joey Comeau, provided hauntingly beautiful, thrice weekly, zen moments.
All three of the above web comics series are either archived online or preserved in book form, but they’re gone from the net. So here I sit in my rocker, laptop in my lap, yelling at all these tediously unimaginative, visually incompetent young whipperbloggers to keep off my monitor.
Okay, seriously: I never miss Tom Gauld, the meta-Kate Beaton, on Tumblr.
And when I interviewed Peter Kuper for Print online about the digital versions of his recent books, he had a two-part answer. He told me that he felt obligated to explore the medium, “since it’s clear that this is a direction books are headed.” But he also said, “It is really striking to see the pages illuminated this way, but not worth the loss of the tactile experience of a print book.” I agree with his first answer, and take strong issue with the second.
Images courtesy of Peter Kuper.
If you’re not a hard-core print person, you need only to look at his Diario de Oaxaca on an electronic device to be awestruck by how the vividness and luminosity enlivens and enhances the artwork and the colors. This is what I consider to be an excellent example of an illuminated manuscript for the 21st-century—as someone who considers stained glass windows depicting the Stations of the Cross in churches and cathedrals to be “visual narratives,” a.k.a., comics, with roots in medieval times. There’s also Digital Comic Museum and Comic Book Plus. These are online repositories of what seem to me like innumerable public domain comic strips and books. As an historian, they’re a treasured resource. And as a hard-core comics person with an insatiable appetite, and a limited budget, they’re, well… priceless.
Michael Dooley is creative director of Michael Dooley Design and teaches History of Design, Comics, and Animation at Art Center College of Design and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is also a Print contributing editor and author.
Contributor testimonials were edited from a series of electronic interviews.
The post The Ever-Expanding Digital and Web Comic Landscape appeared first on HOW Design.
The Ever-Expanding Digital and Web Comic Landscape syndicated post
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We did a rebrand for our startup almost a year ago and I recently wrote a blog post reflecting on the process. Thought you might find it interesting:There are many different reasons to rebrand your company, and there’re even more blogs out there on how to go about doing that. Since there’s already a lot of advice, from people smarter than I am, I’ll instead tell you about our own experience of rebranding Pastel, why we did it, and what worked for us.Before Pastel was Pastel, it used to be Flowcast. The core functionality of Flowcast was the same as it is now, being able to leave comments on live websites. But that’s about where the similarities end. Every other aspect of the product and brand was overhauled – from the name, logo and language, to the core commenting experience. To really understand the full picture and why we changed so much, you need to know what Flowcast was and how it came to be. Flowcast was the result of a lot of experimentation and attempts to validate a market need. It started pretty far away from the feedback tool it became. Initially, it was a browser extension that allowed developers to share a local version of a website in development with their designer teammates. It was very developer focused since it solved a developer’s problem. Everything from onboarding (Github sign in) to the language, with phrases like “choosing an environment”, was geared towards developers.As we learned more about the problem and the market, we realized developers were only a small subset of our potential users, and so our language and UI just wouldn’t cut it.To add to all of this, we hadn’t yet figured out which customer segment got the most value out of our product. We tried to cater to everyone, from the hobbyist developer who needed to share their localhost, to enterprise customers, and everyone in between. We actually booked meetings with telcos and banks like Rogers and Scotiabank early on – those didn’t go too well.What ended up happening was that our product was mediocre for a bunch of customer segments instead of being outstanding for one.Once we realized this, we decided to step back and take a better look our core customers, our brand, and the experiences people had with our product. Not by coincidence, this was around the same time we brought on a rockstar designer as a cofounder. I would absolutely recommend having a designer on the founding team if it’s an option.We knew we had a lot of things to change, so we decided to tackle it in two separate steps. First branding, then product.BrandingThe first thing we wanted to do was change our name and branding. We had been considering it for some time, our colour scheme was fairly dark and uninviting, and the name Flowcast no longer fit with the product we wanted to build – it was a much better fit for a developer tool. And you have no idea how many times I got emails from people asking me about Flowchart (if you’re going to pick a name that’s not a real word, do yourself a favour and see what it will autocorrect to). We started by trying to think of a name. We were looking for something that was already a word, easy to say, and had some relation to art or building products. But most importantly, we were looking for something with an available domain, preferably a .com. Even if it had to be with a get, use or app tacked on the beginning or end.We spent some time brainstorming and narrowed it down to three names. We first looked at polish, as in polishing a final product, and we thought it was great. That is until we Googled it and realized we forgot about Poland. The country. And how half the result when you Google polish are about Polish things. So that was a no-go.We then considered chisel. It was a tool related to building and had a nice analogy going for it. But it was a bit rough sounding and we were surprised to find out how many people don’t know what a chisel is (don’t feel bad if you had to Google it).We finally settled on Pastel. It’s an artistic tool, easy to say, can be used for writing and giving feedback (a stretch, we know), and most important of all – usepastel.com was available. We had our name.Next, we looked at colours. We knew we wanted to go with lighter, more inviting colours, but also wanted to have something more than just the typical shades of startup blue. Luckily, our new name helped us in choosing our palette. So we had our colour scheme.We then moved onto our logo. We went through many different iterations before finally settling on our current logo. We wanted the logo to show the benefit of feedback. Feedback comes in different shapes and colors, sometimes even competes with each other. The conversations that happen during design critiques are what makes for a better product. In short – we decided on a positive color made by two different abstract speech bubbles.ProductOnce we had branding figured out, we set our sights on the product itself. Before we could go about overhauling that, we first wanted to know which customer segment we should focus on. After a lot of research and user interviews, along with a healthy dose of diving into our usage data, we narrowed it down to agencies and freelancers building websites for clients. There are a few key reasons for this.First, agencies and freelancers usually work on shorter projects that have discrete periods of time designated for feedback. This fit a lot better with how our product functioned, as it was more suited for intensive feedback sessions rather than ad-hoc internal feedback that might be seen in a product company.Second, there are many agencies that mostly build static websites rather than dynamic web apps. At the time, we were still building out our tech and our product wasn’t yet optimized for web apps (that’s not the case anymore, but it was a barrier at the time).Lastly, a big percentage of our existing users were agencies and freelancers and we already had some paying users from that segment, so we knew it was at least a plausible market.Once we had our core customer segment figured out, it guided a lot of our decisions around UI and UX. We knew the app had to be as simple as possible. Both from a canvas creation standpoint as well as the commenting experience. We also renamed our commenting experience from “feedback links” to “canvases” – we drew inspiration from Digital Ocean and their droplet concept.Since agencies and freelancers already have an established workflow, we knew we had to make onboarding and set up as easy as possible. Adopting a new tool isn’t easy. And if that tool is supposed to save you time, it better not be difficult to learn or pick up. So we simplified the canvas creation process by removing a lot of the options we had in previous versions. We actually ended up removing some features in the process but they weren’t key to our core users and in the end, it was worth it. Canvas creation was dead simple and getting started was intuitive.The next step was sharing the canvas and getting teams and clients to use Pastel. With that in mind, we simplified the sharing flow, making it a prominent part of our dashboard. But more importantly, we improved our core commenting experience. Our old comments were bulky and covered big chunks of the screen. Our interface was not very intuitive and easy to miss – people often weren’t sure they were in a different app and thought it was just the regular website.We moved the comment text off the screen and made it clear that this was a Pastel canvas by adding a bottom bar and more prominent buttons.Since our core target market does client work, we also wanted to make sure the client experience was simple and intuitive. We made it so they didn’t need to install any software or sign up for an account – just click and type to leave feedback.But clients don’t always give the best feedback, so we wanted to make feedback as actionable as possible. We included as much metadata as we could in each comment and started taking a screenshot every time a comment is left.Those are most of the key things we changed when rebranding from Flowcast to Pastel. There were a lot more things behind the scenes, like messaging and updating the look of our transactional emails. But all of that is ongoing and still evolving.So, how did all of this result in 14x revenue? Well, a few weeks after we had our new landing page and product live, someone posted Pastel on Designer News. We got a lot of criticism and lots of people were upset about our pricing (our messaging wasn’t clear and we’ve since simplified it).But while it looked a bit negative, and we were jarred by the criticism, the signups started rolling in. We saw higher engagement, a better conversion rate from people signing up to actually using the product, and ultimately converting to paid users.We had about $20 per month in residual MRR from Flowcast. A month after the post on Designer News, we were at $280 MRR. And it’s been growing steadily ever since.That’s our story of how a rebrand really helped us boost growth. Do I think it’ll work the same way for most people? Should you just do a rebrand in the hopes of increasing revenue?Frankly, I don’t think so. We had a very good reason to do this and it took a lot of research to understand our core target market. As I said at the start of this post, there are many reasons to rebrand. This is about one of them, and why it worked for us.Link to original post: https://blog.usepastel.com/post/how-a-rebrand-increased-revenue-by-14x
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VR: What do you look like? (WIP)
Masterpost
Mimi’s first time seeing Marsohu’s “human” form.
This scene is kind of old, and I’m not that happy with it, especially the translated version(original was in Finnish). First written when Joyjaa’s character initially appeared much nicer than he does in newest version, I had to update some things, and I used expressions that are hard to translate into English... So the language is even more flat than it is in Finnish.
(Italics are words spoken in English, because Mimi doesn’t know the Tagor equivalent)(Hoki is the name of the animal that resembles hyenas)
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Joyjaa used his human form more often than his hyena form. Maybe he felt more human than kini. Maybe he just didn’t get along with his kini mother. How should I know. And frankly, he interested me less and less each passing minute. I hadn’t liked him from day one, and since then he had only proven the first impression had been correct – he was an arsehole who enjoyed attention far too much and talked about nothing as much as he did about himself. He pretended to be jovial and social, when in reality he was neither. I doubted he even remembered my name despite being the one to demand I take the job.
Marsohu on the other hand. He was always quiet, always observing. He listened keenly and thought constantly, green eyes burning and claws scratched the ground distractedly.”We don’t have forests like you anymore”, I continued my story. ”Most of the land is… is… All the land is inhabited. Forests are felled from… humans build on forests.”
”No forests anywhere? The whole planet has been felled clean?”
”No, not clean, but most forests are… farmed. Plant… planted. Not wild.” Damn, some words were so hard. I was getting better at using the past tense, but when I had to think up some rare expression I almost always forgot to apply the correct tense. ”The trees are young and there are few animals. In places far away from my home there are still… uhh… we call them jungle, or rainforest. They’re different than this. They’re… wet. Different trees. More bugs.”
I glanced at Marsohu. He was listening with strained ears, but immediately turned to look away as if he wasn’t the least bit interested. His tail twitched impatiently. I didn’t try too hard to suppress the snort, and Joyjaa smirked and said something to him. He acted deaf.
”Rainforests also most felled.” And that, ladies and gentleman, is how you got his attention back. So impossibly curious but too childishly proud to admit it. He really was like a housecat.
”What are the cities like?” Joyjaa asked just for the sake of hearing his own voice again, after all he hadn’t spoken in ten full seconds!
”There are different kinds. The name of my city is Sheffield. It’s much larger than Tir, and… more… dense? London is bigger, some are smaller. Some cities are… attached? Attached to each other. Much humans, few animals. No kinis.”
”Of course not! Kinis are only found here. Some have moved on the other side of the mountains. I’ve thought about it, too.”
No, he hadn’t, there would be no one to listen to his bull crap and self-praise.
”We have a story like kinis. Werewolf is a human who turns into a wolf. A wolf is – many animals together? Lives in a group?”
”Ibosu?”
”Could be. I don’t know the word in Tagorese. A wolf is an ibosu.”Again I turned quickly from Joyjaa to Marsohu. Before I had even stopped the motion he was already staring away is if bored. So childish. From Joyjaa’s stories I had figured they were more or less the same age, but it was hard to believe when faced with acts like this.
”Marsohu, how old are you?”
”A little younger than me”, Joyjaa told.
”What do you look like as human? You’re always hoki, don’t you like be as human?”
”Don’t you like being human?” Joyjaa corrected snidely, all pretense of friendliness gone from his voice. Guess that meant he hated humans just as much as Marsohu did, but didn’t explain why he still preferred the human form. ”And this form isn’t human, either, it’s still kini.”
”It looks human.”
”And you look smart”, he answered with a condescending smile. I could hear Jotiri adjusting his stance behind me, presumably wanting to wipe the smirk off his smug face. He hated Joyjaa even more than I did, and he wasn’t even obligated to kiss up to him.
And then the dickhead did that face that never predicted anything good. Conceited smirk and narrowed eyes. Had I dared, I’d have hit him. With something heavy and sharp. Never had I seen anyone with a face as infuriating as him.
”Well, brother dear, why don’t you show her highness your human form?”
Marsohu looked at him with suspicion. He knew his brother’s expressions, but not his thoughts. He also knew that if you resist him, he can just make you want to do whatever he’s after. With a deep sigh he submitted again, and I really felt for him. I only had to tolerate Joyjaa maybe an hour at a time, but the poor boy was shackled to his flesh and blood.
The transformation was just as confusing each time. I could look as hard as I could but the cloudiness always seemed to form in my own eyes instead of around the kini, and each time I had to rub my eyes because I was convinced I was going blind. And each time I opened them again there was just something else instead of a hyena standing in front of me. This time it was a black-haired man. An even taller than Joyjaa, with a slender build, emerald-eyed, beautiful, black-haired man. His amazingly bright eyes looked at me bothered, they hit me straight in the heart like lightning. The choppy, messy black strands fell like silk on his shoulders. His slim face and narrow shoulders made him look more feminine than his brother. He wore a dark green tunic and black shorts, which showed off his long legs and wide paws, covered with glistening black fur. His arms were also fuzzy, but the hands were hairless. His ears were turned back in annoyance and he turned his gaze to the forest.
I was struck speechless. I hadn’t expected him to look like this. I thought he’d look more like Joyjaa, with similar dickish expressions. A bit chubby, maybe freckled. But instead he was so pretty and embarrassed. The two brothers were nothing alike, you couldn’t have mistaken them for family even if they said so.
Suddenly it became difficult to breathe. I noticed Joyjaa glaring at me with the most hostile look, and jerked. It looked like only noticed it himself then, because for a moment he looked confused and I could breathe again. After he collected himself, he plastered that stupid smile back on his face.
”Well, how do you like it?” he cooed coyly. I blushed and lightly cleared my throat. I didn’t have the courage to answer honestly, not after he force-strangled me. I didn’t know what kind of answer he was after.
”I… Well… It’s different from what I expected” sounded like a suitably neutral answer, and it did spare me a second choking, so I continued. ” You two look much different. Very! Very different.”
That still wasn’t the opinion he had wanted to hear, as he turned hostile again. But at least it was light hostility, it had no physical effects.
”We’re cousins, not twins”, he shot back with a what-are-you-an-idiot-tone. Excuse me, since when were they cousins and not brothers? Better still to just go with whatever he said.
”Of course, I just… I don’t know. Expected something different.” Marsohu’s tail started whipping, so I rushed to explain lest I get two enraged kinis cursing me. ”I don’t mean bad, I like it actually -”
He waved his hand to make me shut up, and with a light blush turned to glare daggers at his brother. Cousin? Joyjaa looked back just as furious. They stayed like this for a fair while, both equally silent. Joyjaa loved speaking out loud, so this spoke volumes of how private he wanted this argument to be. I used the opportiny to compare the two further. Marsohu’s nose was more flat and upturned, his ears a little smaller and more triangular than Joyjaa’s soft squares, his skin a tad darker, the fur thicker and much shorter, but covering his thighs completely. Joyjaa, for once telling the truth about something, was a little older – he looked roughly 25, while Marsohu was around 22.
Joyjaa had enough of the row and turned back to me smiling.
”You are wanted at home”, he told to me oddly sweetly, hardly a trace of malice in voice. Marsohu transformed back into a hyena and stalked off, disappearing from view in seconds. Joyjaa threw a poisonous glare after him and walked in another direction, without even saying bye.
”Their manners get worse every time you visit here”, Jotiri grumbled as we climbed in the buggy.
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Every AP Chemistry Practice Test Available Free and Official
Every AP Chemistry Practice Test Available: Free and Official
SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips
What's the best way to study for AP Chemistry? Practice, practice, practice. This article will provide you with links to every practice test and quiz for AP Chemistry that's available online, including full official and unofficial tests, shorter quizzes that cover each topic area, and other prep services you can access with a subscription!
Official exams are the best practice materials because they help you make accurate predictions of your performance on the real test. They will also get you used to the test format so that you’re not caught off guard by the structure of the final exam.
Unfortunately, for AP Chemistry, most of the available official practice materials are for the old version of the test (pre-2013), but these can still be useful for practice. You should be able to get newer practice tests from your teacher or through review books.
I’d recommend starting with the unofficial practice materials listed later on in this article and then using official tests in the final stages of your studying. That way you’ll be in the best position to estimate your ultimate AP score, and you won’t squander limited resources.
Old Official Released Exams:
2008 AP Chemistry Exam (this is a crazy-long document with in-depth scoring guidelines, skip to page 108 for the start of the actual practice exam)
2002 AP Chemistry Exam (multiple choice only)
1999 AP Chemistry Exam
1994 AP Chemistry Exam
These official exams come from before 2013 (when significant changes were made to the AP Chemistry curriculum), so they’re formatted slightly differently from the current test. They have 75 multiple-choice questions (there are now 60) and six free-response questions (there are now seven). There are also five answer choices for each multiple-choice question, whereas now there are only four.
The old AP Chemistry exam emphasized calculations and factual knowledge over a strong understanding of fundamental concepts and mastery of scientific practices. The questions on these tests will still help you practice your skills; just make sure you also use more recent materials for an accurate preview of what to expect on test day.
Current AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description (multiple choice practice included)
Go to page 126 of this course description to review sample multiple-choice and free-response questions for the current exam. This is not a full practice test (it only has 26 multiple-choice questions and four free-response questions total), but it’s directly from the College Board, so it’s the most accurate representation of the format and content of the test in 2016.
Free-Response Questions 2014-15
These free response questions are from the most up-to-date version of the test. I would advise you to save them for later on in the year when you’re more serious about practicing for the real AP exam. There are seven questions from each year.
Free-Response Questions 2006-13
These free-response questions are from the old version of the AP Chemistry exam. As I mentioned in my description of the out-of-date practice tests above, you’ll notice that there used to be six free-response questions on the test instead of seven. You should also know that t he questions that ask you to write balanced equations are not on the new version of the test (doesn’t mean they’re not good practice, though!).
Practice Tests from Your Teacher
Since there aren’t any full AP Chemistry practice tests available online that reflect the current format of the exam (well, any that I can legally link to in this blog post), you can also ask your teacher for additional practice materials. AP teachers have access to extra practice tests from the College Board that are available for classroom use.
Oh, you need more practice tests? Maybe you should have thought of that before you interrupted all of my lectures with unnecessary questions about when I'm planning on "breaking bad." I don't even watch that show, Eric. You are a nightmare.
Unofficial Free AP Chemistry Practice Exams
There are also a bunch of unofficial resources for AP Chemistry practice questions on various online learning platforms and independent sites. Few of these offer complete tests in the same format as the real exam, but they do provide a large repository of practice questions (mainly multiple-choice). These are great if you’re looking for questions in specific topic areas or are studying early on in the year and want to avoid certain concepts that you haven’t learned in class yet.
Just be wary of using these resources too much in your studying, and make sure you supplement them with official College Board materials at regular intervals. Unofficial practice questions often lack many of the nuances of real test questions. In a lot of cases, they will test straightforward factual recall whereas on the real test you'll have to do more complex analyses of unfamiliar experimental scenarios.
Barron’s AP Chemistry Practice Test
This is a full test in the same format as the up-to-date AP exam (free response and all!). There's automatic online scoring for multiple-choice questions, and free-response answers are provided so that you can check your responses.
Varsity Tutors Diagnostic Tests
There are six diagnostic tests here with 50-60 questions each at varying difficulty levels. You’ll also be timed as you take the tests so you can get a better sense of your pacing. Questions are multiple-choice only, so this won’t give you any free-response practice. I’d also recommend trying out their AP Chemistry practice app (it’s free).
National Math and Science Initiative Tests
These are three practice exams, two with multiple choice and free response and one with just multiple choice. These aren’t self-scoring, so you should print them out and take them. A nswer explanations are provided for each test. As the website specifies, these exams are not updated to reflect the current structure of the exam, meaning they have a slightly less experimental focus and fewer question groups on the multiple-choice.
Downloadable Practice Questions By Topic
These are some long lists of multiple choice practice questions for all the main topics in AP Chemistry. They're i n Word document form, so you have to download the files to open them.
Learnerator
This site includes quizzes for each concept broken down according to the Big Ideas of the course. This site will track your progress and tell you what percentage of questions you got right from each difficulty level (questions are organized into easy, medium, and hard categories). You can also access over 200 additional questions, including free-response, if you pay $25 to set up an account.
ScienceGeek
Here you'll find tons of review questions and activities, with lengthy practice quizzes for each unit of the course. This is one of the few resources that has non-multiple-choice questions that you can check automatically online.
PracticeQuiz
This quiz includes 58 free AP Chemistry practice multiple-choice questions.
Adrian Dingle Quick Quizzes
This site has short five-question quizzes for each topic in the course. If you click on each topic, you’ll also see helpful notes covering what you’re expected to know for the exam.
ChemmyBear
There’s a lot of stuff here, but if you’re just looking for practice tests, you can find them at the end of the list of resources for each unit. There are multiple-choice and free-response tests for most units with accompanying answer keys.
Unofficial Paid/Subscription AP Chemistry Practice Exams
Here are some additional resources that will cost you some money, but they might be worth it because they provide full properly-formatted AP Chemistry practice tests.
Peterson’s ($19.95)
Two full-length practice tests (up to date format and content)
Answer explanations
Automatically tells you what you still need to study based on your results
90-day access
BenchPrep ($30/month subscription)
Two practice tests
Tons of lessons and questions
Games to teach you the material
Access to practice for other AP courses in addition to Chemistry
Sterling Test Prep (price varies)
On this site, you can buy individual practice tests for each topic in AP Chemistry. A ll of them together cost almost $100, so that might not be feasible, but you can get each specialized practice test for less than $3 each (most have around 60 questions). You can also just get the Sterling book of practice questions, which many students seem to find helpful.
Review Books (price varies)
Review books can be great resources because many of them include instructions for how to structure your studying in addition to focused content overviews. For AP Chemistry, I recommend the 5 Steps to a 5 and Crash Course books. You can click on the link in the title of this section to read my full article on the best review books for this course.
You can also get review books as e-books on your Kindle or whatever, but that's much harder to represent visually. Do you guys even know what you're looking at here? Do people under the age of 20 still read physical books?
How to Use AP Chemistry Practice Tests
Practice tests are great study tools for AP tests, and they’re especially helpful for a subject like Chemistry that involves a lot of calculations and experimental analysis. In the next couple of subsections, I’ll tell you how to use practice tests throughout the school year to prepare for the AP Chemistry exam.
First Semester: Using Practice Tests for Your Class
It’s not practical to take full practice tests during the first semester of AP Chemistry because you haven’t covered enough of the course material yet. Focus on official free-response questions and unofficial topic-specific practice tests that address aspects of the curriculum that you’ve learned already. It’s a great idea to start early and do consistent reviews so that your knowledge base remains strong throughout the year.
Since chemistry is a subject that builds on the fundamental concepts learned in the first few months of class, it’s vital that those early lessons are solidified in your memory. This way, more complex material that you learn second semester won’t fly over your head. You can also consider getting a prep book; most of them have practice questions organized by chapter for selective review of different concepts.
Second Semester: Preparing for the AP Test
During your second semester, you can start to take full practice tests to predict your AP score-range. At this point, you’ve learned most of the material that will be covered in the class, so your scores should accurately reflect your abilities. Every time you take a full practice test, keep track of the areas where you need more practice.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I would recommend saving the most up-to-date official practice materials for later in the semester so that the format of the current test stays fresh in your mind. As you take each test, circle any questions where you were unsure about your answer. Even if your choice ends up being correct, you should still plan to go over these concepts, so you don't feel shaky about them on the real AP test.
After you've finished taking the test (with realistic time constraints!), categorize your mistakes by topic area, and use their distribution to inform the rest of your studying. The purpose of taking practice tests is to diagnose your weaknesses so you can address them as efficiently as possible. DON’T go from one test to the next without taking a deeper look at what went wrong! You’ll end up wasting your time, and your second practice test is unlikely to demonstrate much improvement.
Spend at least a couple of hours after each practice test doing practice problems and reviewing concepts that you didn't quite understand when they came up on the test. When you feel satisfied that you have a better handle on the background information and solution methods, you can take a second practice test to see how much you've improved.
The process as a whole should work like this:
Take and score first practice test (4 hours)
Evaluate mistakes (1.5 hours)
Practice problems and study content to improve weak areas (2.5 hours)
Take and score second practice test (4 hours)
Reevaluate your progress and repeat steps if necessary!
One cycle through all of these steps will take around 8-10 hours, but you can repeat the steps ad infinitum until you’re satisfied with your scores. If you find that you're not improving between practice tests, you'll need to reevaluate your study strategy. To master a complex subject like chemistry, you need to have a strong grasp of the fundamental concepts. Then, you can build on that understanding for more difficult problems. Be sure to do lots of practice problems where you’re required to justify your answers!
The smug dude on top is you after studying with these practice tests! Just mentally replace the 1 with a 5 so that your smugness makes sense on the AP scale.
Conclusion
Practice tests are essential study tools, especially for AP Chemistry. Doing practice problems that align with the format and content of the real exam will help you to gain familiarity with the material and feel less stressed on test day. Try to start your studying with unofficial practice tests to build up a strong knowledge base, and then move onto official practice tests when you're ready to estimate your real AP score level.
As you take practice tests, assess your mistakes and plan out your study time according to which areas need the most work. Make sure you start with basic concepts and then work your way up to more complex problems. Use these practice materials to detect gaps in your knowledge, and fill them before you take the test!
What's Next?
Want to learn a bit more about the test before you start practicing? Read my expert guide to the AP Chemistry exam, which includes sample questions and study tips!
If you want a complete overview of the concepts that will be covered on the test, check out my ultimate study guide for AP Chemistry.
Do you plan on taking the Chemistry SAT Subject Test as well? Find out the differences between AP tests and SAT Subject Tests, and check out my Chemistry SAT II study guide article (coming soon!).
Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:
Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!
Samantha is a blog content writer for PrepScholar. Her goal is to help students adopt a less stressful view of standardized testing and other academic challenges through her articles. Samantha is also passionate about art and graduated with honors from Dartmouth College as a Studio Art major in 2014. In high school, she earned a 2400 on the SAT, 5's on all seven of her AP tests, and was named a National Merit Scholar.
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Declutter Your POJOs with Lombok
I have a love/hate relationship with Java. On one hand, it’s a mature programming language with a diverse number of frameworks and libraries that make development relatively easy. On the other hand, it’s very verbose and requires writing massive amounts of boilerplate code for common tasks. The situation got better with the introduction of lambdas and streams in Java 8, but it is still sub-par in some areas, like writing plain old Java objects POJO. In this post, I'll show you how to rewrite POJOs in only a few lines of code with Lombok.
Verbose POJOs
Take a look at this regular POJO class with just three fields: name, surname, and age. It has elements that are common to POJO classes: getters, setters, equals, hashCode, and toString method.
public class User { private String name; private String surname; private int age; public User(String name, String surname, int age) { this.name = name; this.surname = surname; this.age = age; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public String getSurname() { return surname; } public void setSurname(String surname) { this.surname = surname; } public int getAge() { return age; } public void setAge(int age) { this.age = age; } @Override public boolean equals(Object o) { if (this == o) return true; if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false; User user = (User) o; return age == user.age && Objects.equals(name, user.name) && Objects.equals(surname, user.surname); } @Override public int hashCode() { return Objects.hash(name, surname, age); } @Override public String toString() { return "User{" + "name='" + name + '\'' + ", surname='" + surname + '\'' + ", age=" + age + '}'; } }
It took us 59 lines of code just to implement this simple class with three fields. Sure, an IDE could generate it for us, but remember that code is read much more often that it is written. So what is even worse than the sheer number of lines it takes to represent this simple concept is that the code fails to clearly communicate the implementation's intent. How long will it take for you to answer these questions:
What fields don't have getters/setters?
What fields are not used in equals/hashCode/toString methods?
What fields have non-standard getters/setters?
What getters/setters have non-public modifiers?
It's not impossible to get these answers, but it is much harder than it should be. The signal-to-noise-ratio is just too low!
The situation gets even worse if we need to implement the builder pattern. Besides all the POJO code, we need to maintain similar boilerplate for one more class - roughly doubling the amount of borderline useless code. As if this is not bad enough, when we need to add a new field, we have to update both the builder and the POJO class in multiple places. This makes it is easy to miss something and introduce a bug.
[author_more]
Introducing Lombok
Gladly there is a better way. Lombok is a library that allows us to define POJO classes using a set of straightforward, but powerful annotations. These annotations specify if a particular field should have getter/setter, if it should participate in equals/hashCode/toString methods, and so on. Lombok has been around for a few years and has been used in many commercial and open source projects.
So let's add Lombok to our project. It's very straightforward, just add the following dependency to your pom.xml file:
<dependency> <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId> <artifactId>lombok</artifactId> <version>1.16.10</version> <scope>provided</scope> </dependency>
After this, your Lombok code will compile without issues, but if you are using an IDE you will be in trouble. Since Lombok annotations generate new code (see below for how Lombok works), the IDE should be aware what methods are implicitly added by what annotation. Fortunately, there are several plugins for different IDEs, so you can pick your favorite.
If you use Intellij IDEA, you need to download a third-party plugin for Lombok support. If you use Eclipse, you need to download the lombok.jar and just execute it. It will install the Eclipse plugin. For NetBeans, you need the same JAR and have to enable annotation processing.
Now we are ready to improve our code with Lombok.
Using Lombok
Lombok provides a few basic annotations to define if a particular field should have an accessor method or if it should be used in equals/hashCode/toString methods:
@EqualsAndHashCode @ToString @AllArgsConstructor public class User { @Setter @Getter private String name; @Setter @Getter private String surname; @Setter @Getter private int age; }
As you can see, we have five basic annotations. @EqualsAndHashCode and @ToString instruct Lombok to generate equals, hashCode, and toString methods that will use all fields in the class. @AllArgsConstructor will create a constructor that has as many arguments as there are fields in the class. @Getter/@Setter annotations are applied to every field and will create getters and setters.
Now we can use this class just as a regular POJO class:
User user = new User("John", "Doe", 32); user.setAge(30); user.equals(new User("John", "Doe", 30)); // true
If you don't want an annotation to use all fields, you can provide an optional parameter that specifies what fields should be used for generating a method. So if we do not want to use the age field in the toString method you can do it like this:
@EqualsAndHashCode @ToString(of = {"name", "surname"}) @AllArgsConstructor public class User { @Getter @Setter private String name; @Getter @Setter private String surname; @Getter @Setter private int age; }
I would argue this code is already much better than what we've started with, but it still does not look concise. What about these repetitive @Getter/@Setter annotations? It's handy to use them like this if you need to expose only a couple of fields in your class, but if you need to generate accessors for all your fields, it becomes annoying.
To make this case even more concise, Lombok allows using these annotations on the class level. If @Getter/@Setter annotations are used on the class level Lombok will generate getters and setters for all fields in the class.
@EqualsAndHashCode @ToString @AllArgsConstructor @Getter @Setter public class User { private String name; private String surname; private int age; }
This does not change the behavior of the class, but now the code is even more succinct.
Implementing Builder
At the beginning of the post, I argued that builders add another level of boilerplate. Lombok turns the exercise of writing a builder into a one-liner. To do this, just add the @Builder annotation on top of a class, and you will have a builder with a fluid interface at your disposal:
@EqualsAndHashCode @ToString @AllArgsConstructor @Getter @Setter @Builder public class User { private String name; private String surname; private int age; }
Now we can create an instance of our class using a builder:
User user = User.builder() .name("John") .surname("Doe") .age(32) .build();
Reducing Lombok Boilerplate
The result code is more readable, but what about this repetitive set of annotations? Most POJOs have all these methods, and it is still cumbersome to use the same annotations again and again. Lombok provides two annotations that can make this even simpler:
@Data - an annotation that replaces @Getter, @Setter, @EqualsAndHashCode, @ToString and @RequiredArgsConstructor
@Value - same as before but generates an immutable class with no setters
@Data and @Value annotations got their names from so-called data classes and value classes. Data classes are mutable classes that expose their fields through getters and setters. Value classes on the other hand, are immutable and usually have no logic except equals, hashCode, and toString methods.
So we can rewrite our class with just two annotations:
@Data @Builder public class User { private String name; private String surname; private int age; }
Not only is this example much shorter, but it also conveys the meaning of this code much better. It is clear that this class has three fields, all of them have getters and setters, all of them are used in hashCode/equals/toString methods, and there is a builder class for it.
Defining Custom Methods with Lombok
One question you can ask is, what if you need to define a custom getter or setter? What if you need to add a custom boundaries checking for the age value?
Lombok has quite a straightforward behavior in this case: If a method Lomobok is going to generate is already in the class, it does not generate a new one. Therefore, it never overrides your methods and only adds new methods to a class.
How Lombok Works
Continue reading %Declutter Your POJOs with Lombok%
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