Hi! I was wondering if you could do some Romano + Prussia x royal reader (separate) headcannons? I'm a sucker for a good forbidden romance and would be happy to see what you want to do with it. Thank you!

Yes, of course! Sorry for the kinda late response--I got carried away writing other things. What a coincidence that I've been doing a lot of exploring in fantasy! The reader is referred to as she/her.

Forbidden Romance Headcanons - Prussia and S. Italy

Prussia - The earnest pickpocket and sheltered princess

Unfortunately, Gilbert is on the wrong side of history. As an albino, he's been an outcast ever since he was born. In an age of superstition and class divide, his parents had no problem abandoning an extra mouth to feed. Especially when they were a demon with magical powers. Left to fend for himself as a baby, he only ever survived thanks to the generosity of an old neighbor. When they passed away due to old age, he had to get on by himself on the streets. Stealing, lying, whatever it takes to get some quick cash. And he's been doing it ever since he was five.

He loved fairytales ever since he was a kid. His guardian always told him these stories before bedtime, after all. They said it was good luck to give the princess a flower, and he remembered this a few years later during the royal parade in town. Pushing through the crowd of onlookers, he held out a small dandelion hoping you would take it. Before the guards could swat him away, you took the flower with a smile. All you remembered from that time was a small and dirty face gleaming up at you. And, of course, a pair of striking red eyes you would never forget.

In his adolescence, he became a thief with quick hands. It wasn't until he took on the most dangerous job of all did he make himself a public enemy. Stealing the royal family's jewels. And he would've gotten away with it if he wasn't forced to take a detour through the princess's bedroom. Unbeknownst to him, you were wide awake. Immediately, you recognized him as the little boy from that day. Without thinking, you hid him in your wardrobe until the guards left. That was the start of a strange friendship forged between two people from two worlds--a dirt-poor criminal and the well-loved princess of a thriving kingdom.

He visits you from time to time by climbing up the side of the castle. When he first did it, you practically throttled him by his collar, screaming, “Do you have a death wish? They'll throw you to the lions if you get caught!”. He simply responds with, “The awesome me never gets caught! That's why I'm here, ja?” Soon, this becomes routine until you learn to trust him.

Gilbert loves gloating about his adventures as a street rat, whether it's about singlehandedly beating up gangs of bullies or outrunning the palace guards. As a sheltered person of royalty, his stories reflect experiences alien to you. But it opens your eyes to things you've never seen, and it's very fascinating.

If he's not telling grossly exaggerated anecdotes of his greatness, he'll bring in board games and cards he “borrowed” from his friends. You've never played with them before as your parents deemed them unrefined. It fills him with pride to see you enjoying yourself so much, especially when he's teaching you how to play.

You don't go out very often, so he always brings back little trinkets and souvenirs. When you found out he stole them all, you would hit him on the head and tell him off. “Where did you get these from? Stealing and giving these to the princess--do you know how stupid that sounds?” Then, you would pinch his cheek until he tears up and admits his wrongs. “I-I thought you would like them, okay? I wanted to give them to you as a present...” The next day, you would accompany him to the shops he robbed and pay the owners back.

He gets upset and embarrassed when he realizes those gifts aren't gifts at all. Not when you paid for them yourself! One of the ways he shows affection is through giving gifts, but that unfortunately clashes with not having money. So he's eager to make something out of himself, even if he has to work as a bottom feeder and face unfair treatment for what he looks like. When you find out, his boss gets one hell of a time dealing with you. After that, he uses whatever small amount he earned to buy something for you.

As he grows out of his old habits, he becomes more honest. In fact, he's so determined to prove himself that he shows up one day with a homemade board game scribbled out on a spare piece of parchment. He's nervous and twiddling his fingers, and that's when you know you have to help him get back onto his feet. He's so touched by your kindness that he shows you a secret he's been hiding forever--he can do magic. It's one of his skills that let him become so good at stealing in the past.

After some practice to touch up his abilities, you try convincing your parents to let him work in the palace as an all-rounder. With the magic dancing in his fingertips, there's nothing he can't do. He has a green thumb, good reflexes, and the horses in the stables listen to him better than the caretaker! He can't forget that you encouraged him to let go of his doubts and previous identity as a petty thief. There's nobody in the world he looks up to more.

On the night of your eighteenth birthday, he's invited to a ball to celebrate. Once again, he finds himself anxious to see you in your dress, especially when he's quite glammed up himself with his suit and hair slicked back. While you teach him how to dance, he tells you he looks ridiculous. But you think otherwise and make it explicit. That's when Gilbert realizes he's completely smitten with you. He embarks on another journey to improve himself until he thinks he deserves you.

South Italy - The plebeian pâtissier and renegade royal

War has ravaged the kingdom and eaten into the state's reserves, leaving inflation rates at an all-time high. The suffering middle and working-class take it up to their rulers in a coup d'état, killing the king and queen. And now, they're searching for the princess amidst the chaos of an ungoverned dominion. Romano couldn't be more indifferent to such a cause, only ever caring about putting food on the table. He works day and night helping out his family's bakery, making what he can to get by. However, he's forced to take a side when he finds a girl on his doorstep on the verge of starvation.

Unable to turn away someone in need, he nurses you back to health. However, he does so with spite, wondering to himself why he has to give what little he has left to a princess. When you feel better after a few days, he's eager to send you off but changes his mind as you leave. Romano can't bear to let you face certain death, or worse, knowing how bitter the townspeople are about the unpopular war. So he welcomes you back with a sharp sigh with his head turned away. “Alright, alright, you can stay. Now stop making that pathetic face, you spoilt principessa--it's depressing.”

He relays a few house rules as conditions for keeping you around. You have to help him with chores. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, everything. Considering you always had someone doing those tasks for you, you're hopeless at it. He'll swat your hand and show you how to do things right with an annoyed scowl. “No, no, no, no, no! You're doing it all wrong. This is how you do it. What do they even teach you in that palace, huh? Books? Maths? Books about maths? Well, they won't keep you alive, you know!”

Because he's so observant and strict, he's a good teacher, and soon, you get the hang of everything. Before, he had to open his mouth to correct you every few seconds, but now, he can just watch you do his work with his arms crossed. It's a little demeaning to have someone watch your every move, but inside, he's relieved you're finally fitting in and not a complete waste of his time and resources. In reality, he never wanted to send you off and hoped he could just handle an extra mouth to feed. Not that he'll ever tell you.

When you're out and about, he makes you wear a cloak to hide your identity. When he's forced to interact with people, he'll hold you close and play everything off without arousing suspicion. Even if your hood falls off, he won't react--he's screaming inside in panic, but he's a great actor when he needs to be. You're totally not the princess, just a crazy similar doppelganger. The cloak is there so that people don't make a fuss. When they leave, he'll turn to you and scream how much of an idiot you are. But really, he was just worried to death--and you have a feeling he was. So you hug it out and leave him cussing with a red face.

As you two grow closer, his cousin Antonio notices how much he cares about you despite his efforts to hide it. It's a problem. He approaches him and warns that if people found out he was hiding the princess, he would get killed with her. Romano heats up and screams, telling him that he already knew what he got into the second he let you into his home. When he's asked why he's still keeping you around, he responds with, “It's not fair that her parents fucked up, and she has to face the consequences. Just like how I never wanted to run this stupid bakery--I wanted to be a painter, not burn my hands in the kitchen all day!”

Unbeknownst to him, you overhear the conversation. The next morning, he discovers that you're gone and loses his head. While he's screaming and crying, he's swarmed with the possibilities of what happened to you. He's a bit of an overthinker, but his paranoia is deserved--were you taken away in the middle of the night? Are you even still alive? He spirals down a path of self-loathing until he confronts how much he misses you, then his regret of never being frank with his feelings. Romano didn't understand what he had until he lost it. To say this was a wake-up call--to be more honest with himself--would be an understatement.

A week later, you return unscathed. Turns out, you left to stay with the owner of a paint shop owner your family always supported and bought from. You present him with a gift of some high-end oil paints, brushes, and canvases. When he sets them all down, he'll pull you into a tight hug, and once again, tell you how stupid you are. While he has you in his coils, you smile to yourself as you pat his hair, happy that you also got something in return. Some transparency. “I just thought I'd give you something... For all the trouble.” You'd say, and he'd shush you with a few hard kisses. “You were never a trouble. I wanted you to stay, so I'm more to blame than you.”

As the political situation of the country calms down, so do the anxieties of angry neighbors pounding on his door. You return to his home much to his content. Now that you're just as good as him at icing cakes, you spend more time running the bakery. This gives him some time to paint, and he can't be happier. Once you both get settled, he discovers another hobby on top of making art. Making coffee! The bakery evolves into a café lavishly decorated with his paintings, and it becomes the most popular establishment in town. You both realize how overrated it is to want to be anything more--you never bring up your title ever again.

The 30 Best GBA Games (Game Boy Advance) of All Time 2021

The 30 Best GBA Games (Game Boy Advance) of All Time 2021

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The Icon of Zelda: The Minish Cover shirts our checklist for a variety of motives: Never-ending allure, fantastic overworld and dungeon layout, clever puzzles as well as wiser challenge aspects. The Minish Cap told the backstory of Vaati, the leading antagonist and important shape in A number of Swords. Right after Vaati petrified Princess Zelda, Hyperlink rescued a wonder sentient head wear using a bird go that, when donned, lets him get smaller into a minute dimensions just like the{Buzrush.com} Minish, the small beings who have did the trick tirelessly to aid take out darkness coming from the planet. The head wear, the game’s central quirk, was designed exploring Hyrule a lot differently than before. It opened up new locations and available new viewpoints, illuminating just how stunning the field of Hyrule actually is. The Minish Limit obtained all the prominent features of a successful Zelda online game, from excellent dungeons to whimsical townspeople for the absolute satisfaction given when launching a jewel chest. And were you aware The Minish Cap was designed by Capcom, not Nintendo? It remains to be one of the better Zelda video games of all time.

2. Golden Sunshine

Camelot Application Organizing, known for Glowing Power and Mario athletics titles, shocked every person with 2001’s Wonderful Direct sunlight, a valiant attempt at providing a unique Final Fantasy-style encounter to your hand-held foundation. And the child performed Camelot at any time to be successful. Wonderful Sunlight starred Isaac and a few other adventurers inside their quest to save the concept {Buzrush.com}of Weyard. It possessed most of the trappings of an Ultimate Fantasy online game - a help save-the-world storyline, random convert-structured battles, and summons - but it also had a good variety of overworld puzzles and much more intense tale owing to a great deal of exposition and dialogue. Its sequel, Wonderful Sunshine: The Shed Grow older, shared the tale with the perspective of the antagonists. The original is not only the best GBA RPG ever; it’s one of the best turn-based RPGs released to this day, even though both games are excellent in their own right. If you missed out on Golden Sun, find a way to play it, such as through the Wii U. A sequel called Gold Direct sunlight: If you want even more Golden Sun in your life, Dark Dawn also came to DS, as well.

3. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

The final and third GBA Castlevania video game, Aria of Sorrow, revealed that it had been possible for the collection to attain the level of effectiveness displayed in Symphony in the Nights. That is ideal. First, we said Metroid Fusion was better than Super Metroid, and now we’re putting Aria of Sorrow on the same pedestal{Buzrush.com} as Symphony of the Night. In contrast to its predecessors, Aria of Sorrow got the vampiric sequence into the long term, setting customers within the boots of Soma Cruz, a teen with occult energy who could produce the reincarnation of Dracula. Aria of Sorrow has got the low-linear research of SotN, meaningful RPG mechanics, a handful of great weapons, and a series of daunting but incredible boss struggles. Throw in the Strategic Souls technician, which adjusts gameplay and data by beating foes, and Aria of Sorrow was the richest entrance in the collection currently. It holds right now as one of the greatest Castlevania games, and for a flavor of a related design activity, try Bloodstained: Routine of your Nighttime on Change.

4. Metroid Fusion

It’s no great surprise Metroid Fusion was developed via the similar team that manufactured Extremely Metroid. Fusion almost looked like an not related sequel if this started in 2002. Combination showcased in a similar fashion extended {Buzrush.com}open-society to learn, allowing gamers to review and reveal ways and secrets ahead at their own speed. The team at Nintendo R&D1 highly processed the fight from Awesome Metroid and released several new power-mechanics and ups at the same time. Metroid Fusion is not just one of the best games on GBA; it’s the best 2D Metroid ever made, even though it may be blasphemous to say.

5. The Story of Zelda: A Web Link to the Earlier and A number of Swords

Not much has to be stated regarding a Url to the Past, the common top notch-lower Zelda trip for the SNES. The GBA dock helped bring the mesmerizing Dark and Light Worlds of Hyrule to hand-held correctly. The port also introduced a new element, however, named A number of Swords. This supportive mode allows a 2 to 4{Buzrush.com} player workforce to approximately get rid of puzzles and defeat baddies in dungeons. However the primary strategy is exactly what eventually earns The Link to the Earlier an increased identity within this collection, adding A number of Swords created the GBA version the definitive solution to enjoy one of the greatest games ever, even when compared to Nintendo Change On the internet type available by using a subscription.

6. Upfront Wars

Smart Techniques, the recording studio behind Fire Emblem, have also been powering the greatest transform-based method video game on GBA: Advance Wars. The idea was simple: A glowing blue army face looked out against a reddish army, every single one composed of tanks, infantrymen, and artillery. Boasting difficult proper gameplay, a deep promotion, as well as a chart creator, Progress Competitions got all the things a technique enthusiast could want. Like Fireplace Logo, Advance Conflicts originated from{Buzrush.com} a Japanese exceptional collection named Famicom Conflicts, so we are rather lucky to get it in Canada And America. The GBA also got a sequel in Advance Competitions 2: Black colored Pit Escalating. Whilst great, it observed more like add more-on information due to the actually powerful forerunner, as well as the DS sequels weren’t as vintage since the initial. For your similar practical experience, look at Wargroove on Nintendo Swap.

7. Metroid: Zero Goal

Exactly what do you get if you mix the atmosphere and nostalgia in the authentic Metroid with current mechanics? Properly, a darn great sport. Metroid: No Vision, a reimagining of your 1986 classic, retold the storyline of Samus Aran’s initial venture together with the enhanced fight evident in Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. {Buzrush.com}Beautiful to view and even far better to engage in, Zero Objective manufactured going back to World Zebes feels fully unique again.

8. WarioWare: Twisted!

Established from the frantic “microgame” formula of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! , WarioWare: Twisted! included drive comments - certainly one of only two GBA game titles to possess the feature - and also a gyro sensing unit. The outcome? An event unlike another for the hand held. Microgames are necessary competitors to complete speedy-flame activities within minutes. None of the games were particularly complex, but all of them were entertaining. Also the plan, which associated Wario getting{Buzrush.com}mad with a game on GBA and flinging the handheld at the wall structure, fell completely in line with the game’s irreverent development. If you played it in public, ferociously twisting and turning your GBA like a madman, on a scale of sheer “fun value,” you’d be hard-pressed to find a more satisfying GBA game, especially. Some of the games can also be found in the 3DS generate WarioWare Yellow gold, in conjunction with microgames from the other collection.

9. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga kicked off of one among Nintendo’s best Mario games and spin off selection. Despite the fact that starting off within the familiarized Mushroom Empire, the video game speedily transitions to Beanbean Kingdom, a substantial world how the bros should traverse to recover Princess Peach’s speech. Split{Buzrush.com} up to the core concept, Superstar Saga had been a flip-dependent part-playing activity. But Nintendo and today-defunct programmer AlphaDream layered the combat by adding timing-structured maneuvers that nodded to Mario’s platforming origins. Controlling Mario and Luigi all at once also contributed to the game’s many fun spot puzzles. Superstar Saga stands apart today as the GBA’s ideal RPGs.

10. Closing Imagination VI

Closing Fantasy VI did not arrive at Game Child Upfront in America till 2007, greater than two year period after the Nintendo DS started. Often, it is introduced like a “thank you” to Activity Boy followers for his or her lengthy-standing help and support. Final Fantasy VI was a pitch-perfect port that brought the epic story, strategic {Buzrush.com}gameplay, and wondrous soundtrack to a handheld device for the first time, as one of the best entries in the long-running role-playing series. Final Fantasy VI rightfully earns a spot on our list, even though the GBA also received great ports of Final Fantasy I & II, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy V. It is merely the most effective RPGs ever produced and one of many top Closing Imagination game titles in recent history.

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i really wish i hated you || tsukishima kei

masterlist | 1 | chapter 2  | 3

pairing: tsukishima kei x f! reader

sypnosis: It was an accident that (Y/N) met a certain tall, blonde male; a memory she isn't fond of remembering, but it is where it all started. And ever since, she magically makes her to his path. The image of the bespectacled man dwelled in her mind more than she thought. Tsukishima pushed away his softer emotions and denied their existence, or at least that's what he told himself. But then, he couldn't believe that this girl he labeled as a clumsy, unlucky creature who smashed his glasses is slowly bringing these strange emotions back to him. She might be irritating and dumb sometimes, but he couldn't get himself to completely hate her. Either that destiny was stupid, or he was blessed or cursed.

genre: fanfiction, fluff

wc: 1881

(Y/N) stopped her tracks upon hearing his voice and turned around to confirm, but it was true, much to her dismay. He held his black-rimmed glasses with its left lens and frame cracked. The girl's mind went blank. She hesitantly glanced at him a few times, hoping that he would forgive her or let the incident smoothly slide.

He hissed, "Don't think you can get away with this, miss."

She sighed in defeat. The kids approached her with worried looks. She patted her heads, accepting their sympathy. "Well, playtime's over."

"But we haven't finished the game!"

"Do you still want to play?"

"Yes!"

"Next time, when you see me again at the park. Onee-chan has to go now."

She bade goodbye to the children and walked towards the guy she hit with his friend. She looked at his broken glasses again and couldn't help but to let out an exhale with anxiety. This is the result of my stupidity...

"W-What do you want me to do?" (Y/N) slurred.

" I don't know, maybe you should fix it right here and right now." The blonde guy crossed his arms and frowned.

Why don't you just get to the point?

"Replace it."

Of course, she will have to replace it. What a question to ask. She mentally rolled her eyes.

"I'll check there out if there's an optical store, I guess you will have to keep an eye on me so that I won't escape?" She pointed to the nearby mall, walking distance from the park.

"What else? Nobody trusts a stranger."

They reached the town's mall and saw an open optical store, but (Y/N) remembered her wallet. She wasn't sure if there's enough money for her to buy glasses.

"On the second thought, can I buy the glasses tomorrow? I don't think I have enough money."

"No." He instantly replied.

"Tsukki," His green-haired companion interrupted, "Maybe we can give her a chance? What if she's telling the truth?"

"I need my glasses in my everyday life, and if she doesn't have the money, I'll be happy to spare her some, but she'll have no choice to be in my debt."

How merciless. It's not like (Y/N) could blame him, but if the same thing happened to her, she would treat them nicely. She looked around the store to find a pair of glasses exactly like his, as he demanded, with his friend helping her for 30 minutes. After she gets the correct measurements and eye grade, she emptied her wallet to pay for the damn thing,

"Here." She held out the new glasses in the case. "Take care of them, it costed my LAST savings."

He took them and wore them immediately, "I am taking care of my glasses, it's just someone 'accidentally' kicked a ball on my way and knocked them off. Thank you for the horrible experience."

He excused himself and walked away. His friend stayed to talk to her.

"I'm sorry for the way he acted, he's like this most of the times. Please understand," He bowed, shyness evident in his voice.

"It's okay, it was completely my fault, so I don't mind."

"It was an accident, though. Thank you for your generosity." He soon followed the blondie that headed first.

"That was mandatory, though." (Y/N) lightly chuckled to herself.

She got out of the mall to take in the fresh air, but her soul almost left her body when a bolt of lightning strikes a tree near her, setting it on fire.

"Oh, my fucking- Did the sky just attempted to finish me?!" She said, calming herself down and looking up. The clouds were much darker than earlier.

As the townspeople bombed the burning tree with water, she ran to her apartment before it rains. There, she dropped her things on the couch and flopped to her bed, thinking what happened on this day because of her own stupidity. She groaned when she held her now empty wallet.

"Argh! Why am I so unlucky?!"She threw her wallet in frustration.

"That tall, blonde, asshole! He didn't need to embarrass me in front of people! I didn't mean it! He could've waited for tomorrow for me to replace his glasses! He's so unforgiving!" She complained, hating the thought of the said guy.

She sighed, cringe, anger, and embarrassment filling her head as she hugged her pillow.

"May karma comes to him sometime," was her last words before drifting off to a nap.

A few days passed, she went out of the house again to buy food supplies in a convenience store. It was almost nighttime. The chilly wind blew to her face and the sweet scent wafted in the store. She picked up some junk food and meat first before stopping by the confectioneries section. While choosing what shortcake flavor to pick, she bumped into something that almost made her fall to the floor, if she hadn't retained her balance.

"Oof, I'm sorry..."

Or rather, it was a person she bumped into.

She looked up and recognized the face of the man. It was the guy she's kind of mad at, but this time, he didn't have his nice friend with him.

(Y/N) took a step back, "You!"

The male looked back at her, tilting his head, observing the girl. He spoke with a monotonous expression, "Do I know you?"

Her eye twitched in irritation, "He doesn't remember me?!"

"I was the girl in the playground three days ago! I... I replaced your glasses!" She said, hesitating on the next sentence.

"Oh." His eyebrows raised, "Did the midget learned her lesson not to play a sport she's bad at?" He mocked.

"I'm not even a soccer player to begin with! What are you doing here?"

"What? Am I not allowed to buy food in a convenience store like a normal person?"

"I've been buying stuff here and I've never seen a similar face I've met twice in a week or month. That's sus."

"Maybe you are following me."

"What do I gain by following a huge, mean person like you?" (Y/N) retorted.

"Perhaps you want to get back at me after what happened days ago even if it's your fault. I don't know. Ask yourself." He took his eyes off her to choose among the sweet desserts.

She paused, analyzing his comment, "Well, you aren't completely wrong..."

"So, I am being followed? What a stalker."

"Of course not! What you said might be possible, but it's not the case right now!"

Both of them have set their eyes on an item and surprisingly the same one. A strawberry shortcake in the middle of the section. Their hands both grabbed the object before staring at each other in annoyance.

"Let go." They chorused.

"I chose it first." Said (Y/N).

"I do not see your name in it. You let go." He replied.

"How about no?"

They glared at each other for a few minutes before (Y/N)'s brows creased deeper in the middle, knowing well that this guy won't back down. "Whatever, you take it. I don't care anymore."

"Wow, thanks." He subtly rolled his eyes then walked away.

It was very awkward in the cashier where she had to wait behind him. Damn, he's so tall. Does he play any sport? Is he human? Or probably just a walking, mean tree?

What happened in the park flashed in (Y N)'s mind again. The impact of the ball might have been so painful to him since he wears glasses, where it cracked. What if the shards got into his eyes? Her wallet isn't ready for more payments, but that isn't the issue right now. She was worried about his well being. Both of them got out of the convenience store and she called the blonde male before he could get away again.

"Uhh, hey!"

He looked over his shoulder a little, "What?"

"Are your eyes okay? I mean, your glasses cracked... shards could've got inside your eyes..."

"Yes, they're fine, fortunately."

(Y/N) let out a sigh of relief. "That's... good to hear."

"But if something happened to my eyes, I will not hesitate to find you and make you pay for an eye surgery."

"You're exaggerating."

"It's not impossible. Now, go home. Elementary school students shouldn't go past the curfew."

She frowned. If only he wasn't a stranger, she would've kicked his ass to hell.

"Oh, gladly. I wouldn't want to stay near a bootleg Eiffel Tower any longer. Have a good day for you."

The blonde male left without any more words. (Y/N) sighed again in mental exhaustion, having to finish a lot of things this night. She was walking straight to her home while thinking of ideas to put in her current project when she realized that he was still walking ahead in front of her.

Where is he going?

She made her footsteps lighter, not wanting him to think that she was following him. She was thinking where does this guy live or why is he walking the same route as she does. It's not wrong to know where does this asshole stay, right? This continued for a couple of minutes before he turned around.

"Will you stop following me?"

Her eyes widened, not expecting him to know that she was behind him, "Excuse me? I'm just walking to my place?"

"Really?" He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

(Y/N) looked around to find a way to escape. There, she saw her house that she almost missed because her mind was occupied, "Oh, look. It's my house. I gotta go!"

She waved goodbye to the blonde stranger, ran to her apartment, and slammed the door, dying from the awkwardness. She proceeded to the kitchen to drop the food supplies and to cook for herself as well. The salt in the cupboard reminded her of the rude, four eyes that she just met again minutes ago. That's when she realized, she kept calling him either insults or his evident physical features when he probably has a name. She could've asked for his name earlier, but shrugged the idea off, thinking that he will never give her his name.

The common thing to do after graduating junior high is to find a decent high school. (Y/N) is scheduled to have her entrance exams next week, so she has to spend time reviewing her notes these days. She opted to go to the prefectural library the next day to get further references as she isn't satisfied with the books she has. It was Wednesday, thus it was full of people who are also preparing for their entrance exams. With her stature, it'll be easy to pass in this crowd of people but she will have to ask for help because she can't reach the books at the top of the shelves.

After wandering around the crowded library, she found an unoccupied table to quietly study. She made her way to it, carrying the heavy books she needed that was luckily located at the bottom shelves. As she set the books on the left side of the table, someone did the same on the opposite side. She looked up to see who the stranger is, only to find out that the person isn't a stranger to her anymore.

"Oh, the midget stalker is here." 

©4aloysius.porteu.2021. please do not repost, copy, or edit. plagiarism is punishable by law.

@ikkaku-of-heart said:

All the Hearts had been hanging out in the rec room, chatting, sharing stories, and playing cards. Ikkaku was in one of her cuddly moods, and seeing how Law was occupied with a high-stakes game of Uno, she went for her second-favorite target; Clione. Pouncing on the cook, she hugged him tightly. “You’re gonna stay right here and tell me all about the recipes you learned from Sanji,” she stated, getting comfy.

Clione had been relaxedly reading a book —not really a cooking one, instead, it was a fantasy one about a town that was struck with a necromancer’s curse, but rather than asking for help from heroes who were overpriced and arrogant, the townspeople chose to learn necromancy themselves and use the curse to their advantage— while his crewmates joked and chatted with each other.  He was content like this, listening to them be lively with each other while staying on the sidelines. He was tired, anyway, and practically melting on the couch he was laying on. He’d spent the whole day cooking and doing things, he could take a small break now, right? Besides, if anyone needed him for something, they could always just approach him.

And approach him Ikkaku did. 

Huffing as the older woman practically threw herself at him, Clione tried to hang onto the last threads of comfortness he’d been in before by rearranging himself on the couch to fit both of them. He knew Ikkaku well enough to know when he’d been ambushed without hope for escape. 

And the request to talk to her about cooking might have slightly influenced him against simply shoving her off of him. As much as he loved his crew, most of them usually ended up zoning out of conversations whenever he brought up recipes or cooking techniques. If Ikkaku honestly wanted to hear about the recipes Sanji had taught him, Clione wasn’t about to let the opportunity slide.

“I don’t follow your orders, Ikkaku,” Clione told her. If he wanted to move away, he could. But admitting that last part might imply that by staying he wanted to cuddle with her, or was at least willingly going along with her shenanigans, which was completely untrue. “But I guess if you want to hear that badly about the recipes, I could humour you for a bit.” 

Closing the book and leaving it on a nearby table, Clione started talking. “I wrote most of the recipes in this little notebook Sanji gave me, but it’s in my room and that’s, uh, too far. Anyway, I’m still not really sure about this part but— did you know that apparently East Blue cuisine is heavily seafood-based? Or at least Sanji is. Not that he is seafood-based, I mean like, his recipes. Almost ninety percent of them consisted of just different ways of cooking seafood. Not that it’s not fascinating, but it's a pretty specific kind of cultural cuisine. In the North Blue at least we include other dishes every now and then, you know? A good diet needs variety.”

“Still, he showed me this one way of cooking sole meuniere that was pretty interesting— I’m still trying to figure out a gluten-free version for it, though. At first I thought to just use an alternative flour, even if it’ll take some time to find which one fits best for the recipe. But then I thought about it better, and I’m pretty sure Captain would really really enjoy eating sole meuniere, and if it has flour, even a wheat-free one, he probably won’t touch the dish. So I want to try making a version that has no flour at all. It’s kind of complicated, flour is what makes sole meuniere, after all, so I searched the entire library earlier today to see if there was something there and... well. There wasn’t. So I’ll have to experiment and find a way around it on my own,” he said, turning somewhat thoughtful. He had some ideas, of course, but he wasn’t sure how well or if they’d work, and honestly wouldn’t really find that out until he went and tried them out himself. He was still pretty hopeful about the project, and just thinking about how happy Captain would be when he succeeded gave him all the encouragement and energy he needed to put in as much effort as he had into it. His crew might be a picky one, especially their Captain, but damn it if Clione wasn’t going to cater to their whims to the best of his ability. 

“As soon as I get it down, I’ll make it for everyone, so you can look forward to that,” Clione told her, a sleepy grin on his face. He’d gotten so absorbed in his own ranting that he hadn’t even noticed when he stopped gesturing as he talked, his tired body leaning sideways towards ikkaku as the familiar ambient and the warmth of his crewmate beside him almost lulled him to sleep. 

“Say, how do you feel about seafood? Do you have a favorite fish you like to eat?” he asked, looking up at her as he subconsciously rested his head on her shoulder. 

Born Under a Black Sun

I fell into the rabbit hole of yet another fandom so here’s a quick fic inspired by this post from @faeymouse

It starts as a game.

When they’re laying together, content and sated and Jaskier is draped across his chest, Geralt lets him ask a question. The first time they do this, Jaskier runs his fingers across one of the scars on his arm and asks if he could hear the story about that one. Ordinarily, Geralt would never have given up one of stories so easily but Jaskier had done something clever with his tongue earlier and he supposes he’s in a bit of a good mood.

“If you can guess what gave it to me,” he says.

Jaskier pushes himself up so he can look at Geralt’s face. “You mean it?” he asks, blue eyes wide in surprise.

Geralt is already starting to regret it and maybe Jaskier sees that because he immediately continues, “You can’t take it back. You’ve already said yes.” He lowers himself back down, traces the jagged edges of the scar. “A…Drowner?”

He’s correct, of course, which is good considering they’d just come back from fighting with one. For a moment, Geralt thinks about telling him he’s wrong anyway but Jaskier asks him, in that hopeful way, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

And Geralt sighs and tells him about the first time he’d fought a Drowner.

He pretends to be surprised when Jaskier performs a ballad about it the next time they stop at an inn.

~

When they first start the game, Jaskier gets the scars wrong more often than not. He just doesn’t have the years of experience that Geralt has to immediately tell which bites and slashes came from what. Geralt doesn’t tell him a story on those days. Instead, he rolls them back over and sets Jaskier to singing again. But, it’s…nice, sometimes when Jaskier’s face lights up when he gets it right. And truthfully, the more he talks about the scars, the less awkward it becomes. He’d never tell Jaskier that though. The bard would never let him live it down.

There’s a night though when Jaskier runs his fingertips over an old scar on Geralt’s thigh, one that he knows intimately well and will never forget. He tenses under Jaskier’s hand at the memories it stirs and immediately, Jaskier pulls back. Geralt wonders when that happened, when they’d become so familiar with each other that Jaskier immediately knows when it’s not the time to push and moreover, actually doesn’t. 

It’s that old familiarity that makes Geralt say, before he can regret it, “You can ask about that one.”

Jaskier hesitates. “Actually, I don’t know this one.”

Jaskier doesn’t usually hesitate and he’s never admitted that he doesn’t know what scarred Geralt, only taken wrong guesses. Geralt’s on the verge of ignoring the whole thing and just going to sleep but something, guilt maybe, pushes him to say, “A princess.”

“Ciri gave that to you?” Jaskier gasps, sounding scandalized.

Geralt sits up entirely, pushing Jaskier off his lap. Jaskier makes an affronted noise but Geralt just ignores him as he settles against the headboard. He reaches over and pulls Jaskier back into his lap, seats him between his spread thighs, the bard’s back to his front.

“Not Ciri,” he grunts.

“Who then?” Jaskier asks. He picks up one of Geralt’s hands and runs his thumb soothingly over it. “How many other princesses do we know?”

“You never met her. She died before we met.”

He tells him about Renfri, about her being born under a black sun and how that had, according to Stregobor, given her internal mutations meant to help usher in a new age of Lilit. He talks about how Stregobor had all but killed the girls he believed to be one of the sixty women, performing autopsies on them afterward to confirm his previously unsubstantiated theories, about how Renfri had escaped and sworn revenge on him. He speaks of Stregobor trying to hire him to kill her and how she had tried to get him to tell her where he was hiding and how he had turned down both of them, how he had tried to talk her into leaving Stregobor alone but she had gone back, how he had returned to face her, fearing for the lives of the townspeople. He tells him about their fight and how she died with the prophecy about Ciri’s destiny intertwined with his on her lips.

“Stregobor wanted to take her body,” he finishes. He’s talked more in the last thirty minutes than he has in a very long time and it’s beginning to take a toll on his voice. “He wanted to defile her corpse so he could prove he was right and when I tried to stop him, he turned the people’s fear against me to make them think she used her mutation to sway me to her side.”

“He gave you that name,” Jaskier finishes quietly, more subdued than usual. Geralt doesn’t have to ask him which name. He already knows. “Did she use her mutation on you?”

Geralt doubts it. He probably wouldn’t have killed her if she had. But there’s no way of knowing for sure. “Renfri just wanted her life back,” he says finally. “She didn’t want to be hunted. She wanted her happy childhood and the love of her father and to not have to fear the wizard every time she turned around.”

Jaskier nods to himself. “She wanted justice.”

And Geralt can’t think of anything more to add on to that besides, “Hmm.”

~

Jaskier’s quiet over the next couple of days, which is unusual enough that Geralt asks him if he’s feeling okay. And that apparently is out of character enough for Geralt that Jaskier turns it back on him by asking if he’s feeling okay and eventually Geralt gets irritated enough that he shuts the conversation down with a very eloquent, “Shut up.”

To his surprise, Jaskier does shut up and Geralt would ask again if everything’s okay but he doesn’t want to start up that conversation again. 

He knows that Jaskier is working on a song. He keeps scribbling in that notebook of his and strumming chords on his lute but he never sings along so Geralt has no idea what the new song is about.

It’s not until the next inn they’re at—where Jaskier is asked to perform just about every witcher song in his repertoire—that he gets to hear any part of it. Jaskier is finishing up the song about the first time Geralt fought a Drowner, making every inch of Geralt regret that he’d ever told Jaskier that tale. Jaskier finishes with a flourish, takes a long drink from one of the mugs a patron shoves into his hand—

And then Jaskier, atop his table, yells, “I have a new song for you! Do you want to hear it?”

The tavern roars its approval.

“This one,” Jaskier begins, lowering to a hush. Even Geralt can’t quite stop himself from leaning in slightly with the rest of the crowd. Jaskier’s face is flushed and his eyes are bright. He’s in his element and Geralt loves him like this. “This one is about the Butcher of Blaviken.”

Geralt’s heart skips a beat. Surely—no—Jaskier wouldn’t do this to him, not after knowing how much that name hurt him.

Jaskier turns to him, something in his face softening. “The Butcher of Blaviken,” he continues, “and the Black Sun Princess.”

Startled, Geralt quirks his head. Jaskier smiles at him and nods encouragingly. Then he plays a chord on his lute and begins to sing—about a girl whose life was brutally snatched from her, about a girl who had to fight to survive, about a girl who knew that no matter what she did she would always be seen as a monster so she sought justice from the sorcerer who made her that way.

And the tavern cries.

And he sings about how she came across the witcher, who only wanted for her to find happiness, who turned away the sorcerer who wanted him to kill her, who faced her when she threatened the townspeople and all he wanted to do was take her away from that place.

And the tavern weeps.

And he tells them about how bravely she fought but how she was no match for the witcher, about how the witcher stood guard over her body as the sorcerer tried to defile her and when the sorcerer realized he wouldn’t get his way, he called the witcher, who had fought to protect a child, a murderer. And as he finishes, he looks directly at Geralt and asks them to tell him who was the real butcher that day: the girl who wanted her life back, the witcher who tried to protect the town, or the sorcerer who destroyed two lives?

And Geralt bows his head and allows himself to cry.

~

They don’t hear anything more about it for another month. They’re heading north for the winter, north to Kaer Morhen and to Ciri. They stop in an inn for the night. Jaskier is recovering from a head cold and refuses the innkeeper’s request to play. Geralt pays him with what little coin they have left. He would have made them sleep on the ground that night but Jaskier still looks too pale for him to feel comfortable making them sleep outside.

There’s a couple old farmers sitting beside them and it’s from them that Geralt overhears, “That’s right, heard they caught up to him only a few miles outside of Blaviken. Tore him to pieces, they did.”

“Serves him right,” the other one snorts. “Running to his ivory tower?”

“Aye. Shouldn’t have left it in the first place.”

Geralt exchanges a slightly confused glance with Jaskier, who turns to the farmers and asks, “Hope you don’t mind me cutting in. Who was torn to pieces?”

“That wizard from the ballad, Stregobor,” the first one says easily.

“Torn to pieces?” Geralt clarifies even as Jaskier asks, “From the ballad?”

“Aye, the one that bard sings about the black sun princess.”

For the first time, Jaskier doesn’t take credit as that bard. Instead, he leans back in his chair and beams at Geralt until he reluctantly smiles back.

~

“I think I would have liked Renfri,” Jaskier says a couple days later. He’s completely recovered by now, has his lungs and voice back to sing and complain loudly about the quality of their sleeping arrangements.

“She wouldn’t have liked you,” Geralt returns but there’s no heat to it. There never is anymore. “Would have told you to shut up.”

“Yes, well,” Jaskier says and the slightest blush dusts his cheeks, “all the best muses do.”

My Review of Konosuba

(Short for: KonoSuba - God's Blessing on This Wonderful World)

How did I get into this anime? As you all know, I’m being an absolute lazy-ass when it comes to Isekai animes and have only gotten into the recent hits as of 2019. I already finished the suffer edition and the struggle edition. Let’s check out the light-hearted, wonk-fest! But before that…

Let’s go back to the mid-1990s and rewatch the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho. We all remember Yusuke Urameshi sacrificing his life in order to save a child about to be hit by a truck followed by being told that the child would have survived regardless if Yusuke interfered or not. So dude just wasted his fucking life for nothing! Let’s amp this trope up to 483 with the way our main lead in Konosuba dies. Kazuma Satou was on his way back home from purchasing a video game when he noticed a girl about to be hit by a car. He pushes her out of the way and yada, yada, yada he’s dead!

He is now in a limbo setting, standing before a goddess named Aqua who tells Kazuma that his death was absolutely meaningless. Not only would the girl have survived, it wasn’t even a car, it was a slow-moving tractor. And Kazuma didn’t get hit by the tractor, he suffered a heart attack due to shock, followed by pissing his pants, followed by doctors, family, and relations laughing at Kazuma’s humiliating experience. And then he dies!

Aqua tells Kazuma that he has two options. He can either go to Heaven or be transported to a fantasy world (much like a game) and try to defeat a demon king. Choosing the fantasy world, Kazuma is given the opportunity to take an item with him on his travels. Now at this point, Kazuma has been annoyed by this goddess’s attitude towards him and decides to be a dick. So Kazuma chooses Aqua to be with him on his journey. Sucks for Kazuma however, because Aqua is useless! And unlike the video games Kazuma’s used to, he and Aqua must do manual labor and pay off expenses in the first town. So they might be there for a while.

Kazuma ends up with two more members in his crew including a witch named Megumin that uses explosive magic and a masochistic crusader named Lalatina Dustiness Ford (or Darkness for short). But don’t get too excited! Megumin’s magic can only be used once a day, wiping away her energy. And while Darkness has a mean sword, she misses every time with it. So yeah, this is a rag-tag team of useless dopes. Let’s watch the wacky misadventures of Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness as they go on missions, drink until they puke, explode castles, and steal underwear.

Yes, Kazuma occasionally does this.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Crunchyroll has been able to bless the masses with an English dub. Can’t let FUNimation have all the Isekai hits. So far it’s been alright and I’m hearing more Erica Mendez and Cristina Vee. All good things here! Plus it gives me a chance to hear the voices of Kazuma, whom up to this point I have minimal time listening to either person who plays him. And annoying as Aqua may be, Faye Mata does a really good job with that range Sora Amamiya set in the original. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Kazuma is played by Jun Fukushima (known for Naruko on Yowamushi Pedal and Makoto on Fruits Basket 2019)

*Aqua is played by Sora Amamiya (known for Touka on Tokyo Ghoul, Chizuru on Rent A Girlfriend, Miia on Monster Musume, Yachiyo on Magia Record, Akame on Akame ga Kill, and Elizabeth on Seven Deadly Sins)

*Megumin is played by Rie Takahashi (known for Emilia on Re:Zero)

*Darkness is played by Ai Kayano (known for Alice on SAO: Alicization, Menma on Anohana, Nana on Golden Time, Ryouko on Food Wars, Itsuwa on Index, Yukika on My Love Story, and Mayaka on Hyouka)

ENGLISH CAST: *Kazuma is played by Arnie Pantoja (known for Watchdog-Man on One Punch Man and Kanbarry on Re:Zero)

*Aqua is played by Faye Mata (known for Rin on Love Live, Aluminum Siren on Sailor Moon Stars, Yukako on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 4, Frederica on Re:Zero, and a bitch on Shield Hero)

*Megumin is played by Erica Mendez (known for Ryuko on Kill la Kill, Haruka/Sailor Uranus on Sailor Moon S [redub], Raphtalia on Shield Hero, Retsuko on Aggretsuko, Nico on Love Live, and Emma on The Promised Neverland)

*Darkness is played by Cristina Vee (known for Homura on Madoka Magica, Rei/Sailor Mars on Sailor Moon, Mio on K-ON, Sakura on Fate/Stay Night UBW, Kotori on Love Live, and Kanaria on Rozen Maiden: Traumend)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Darkness is best girl, don’t at me!

SHIPPING (sorta): Can we just all agree that Darkness is just a sober version of Cheryl from Archer?

Whoever ends up with her will end up choking her either because she tells you to or she annoys you with her masochistic nature! I seriously do not know how you want me to turn this shipping discussion into anything other than a comment about a bitch getting choked.

ENDING TO SEASON ONE: Kazuma has been able to get a little good luck in his other world as he was finally able to move out of the stables and into a house with the rest of his crew. Although, it didn’t come easy! Then again, what has in this series? In the final episode of the first season, all of the adventures of the town were called to take on a scary foe. Up to this point, we’ve seen these guys take out mutant cabbages and an idiot dullahan. Today we’ve got…

A giant, mechanical spider!

Why do the stupidest stories always rely on a giant, mechanical spider? Kazuma and the rest were able to stop the spider from moving. However, this monstrosity is set to explode and the impact could take out the entire town. Darkness wants to repay the town for all it has done for her and her family. The adventurer men want to repay the town because of all the succubus taverns they love. And Kazuma just wants to continue his journey so he can take out the demon king. Now, because Megumin already used her explosion magic for the day, she’s down for the count. But she was able to do it a second time thanks to Kazuma transferring some magic from Aqua through his spell and with a little help from Wiz. The day is saved, Kazuma and his crew got a hefty reward, and then Kazuma is immediately charged with treason for sending the evidence to a higher up and it exploded.

Believe it or not, but a lot of these quests end with a giant middle finger to them. Almost like Curb Your Enthusiasm!

EPISODE 11: The special episode that followed came with some more misfortune for Kazuma. A trip to Wiz’s shop ends with a choker around Kazuma’s neck that’s going to strangle him in three days if his wish doesn’t come true. So to figure out what Kazuma’s wish is, Kazuma has all of these girls fulfill his greatest desires in the hopes of one of these humiliating tasks will release Kazuma from the choker.

As you can guess, because this is an OVA, it will be filled to the brim with degeneracy compared to the television series. Fuck yeah it was! Kazuma used this opportunity to use Wiz’s tits as comfy pillows, have Megumin play “Strip Rock/Paper/Scissors” with Yunyun, have Aqua fetch him food, and watch Darkness jiggle her breasts. Even when he thought he was at death’s door, he uses this special time to tell each girl with him at this dramatic moment that they are nothing more than tits and ass. All except for Aqua! No love for her. Not even a pity erection! So when the spell on the choker was released due to a simple wish, Kazuma was then killed by Aqua and quite possibly everyone else and Kazuma was sent back to the goddess chamber as he learned a powerful lesson.

Don’t ever do that again!

Damn…Kazuma died 3 times so far in 11 episodes. Subaru got you beat by a country mile. He’s probably looking at you like, “You damn, lucky dumbass. I got frozen, shanked, stabbed, sliced, maced, and eaten by bunnies”.

SEASON TWO: As I mentioned at the end of season one, Kazuma is charged with treason and usually that comes with a death sentence. Unfortunately for Kazuma, his unintentional crime was against this big, fat, smelly noble who has many higher-ups wrapped around his finger. The townspeople can’t really help him out otherwise they’d risk being charged as well. And you have a prosecutor wanting Kazuma’s head on a pike not only for the major charge, but for being a pervert. The writing is on the wall, Kazuma is screwed. However, thanks to Darkness (and her family lineage) she was able to take one for the team by saving Kazuma (for now) and have that big, fat, smelly noble do God knows what to her. Also, the kingdom repossessed a lot of things from Kazuma’s crew.

So they’re worse than “square one” at this point. They’re at “square -57” with how much debt they’ve all accumulated.

ENDING TO SEASON TWO: Things are starting to look up for Kazuma and his crew. They were able to abolish their debt, got the treason charges lifted, and they were able to gain back some respect around the village. So what better way to celebrate then to go on a bit of vacation. The gang decided to head off to another town for some rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, the town they spent their time off at is full of religious wackos. And what I mean by religious wackos, I mean WORSE than Jehova Witnesses, Evangelical Christians, and the Heaven’s Gate cult all rolled into one.

…Okay, I’m obviously embellishing here. I just really fucking hate all of those ones I just mentioned. This cult is so fucking annoying! At every turn they’re trying to convert Kazuma, Megumin, and Darkness into their fold.

Oh wait, it gets better! This cult worships the goddess Aqua! And of course our favorite idiot Aqua was using this to her advantage. That is until a priest didn’t believe her, starting a chain reaction with the townsidiots all leading up to them chasing Kazuma and crew out with pitchforks and fire. Apparently, Aqua did a big no-no by purifying the hot spring water and now it’s just regular water.

Unfortunately at that same time, a general to the dark lord was in area poisoning all of the water in this town. Yeah, this guy is serious trouble since he’s on a higher level than Wiz (back when she was working under the demon king). But he’s a slime and works with poison. In this world, Kazuma doesn’t stand a chance. Surprisingly, this battle went well (albeit Kazuma dying inside the slime), but we got to see Aqua at her baddest of ass. Now you’d think the town would be grateful to Kazuma and his team for ridding them of a demon king general. Hahaha, never trust religious nutjobs! They still found fault with Aqua purifying their hot springs and they were thrown out.

In the 11th episode (or second side-story), Kazuma thought he was meeting a new fan in town. So he regales her with tales of his expoditions to woo her. Turns out the girl is a new member of the local tavern and one of her jobs is to listen to useless adventurers to boost their morale. And this girl was totally not digging Kazuma. I think this hurt Kazuma more than all the times he’s died in this series.

MOVIE: We head off to the land where Megumin and Yunyun were born and raised. While there was some miscommunication into if the town and their families were in trouble to begin with, trouble sure found Kazuma and the gang once they arrived. Another general of the demon king ends up causing quite a stir in the town. Sylvia was extra hard to take down in this story. Just when you thought she was dead, she returns from death’s door and brings the poison slime from season two and the dullahan from season one to wreck havoc all across the land. Luckily, Kazuma, his crew, Wiz, Yunyun, and the rest of the townspeople were able to put an end to Sylvia and her cohorts.

But man, Kazuma got some really shitty deals in this movie. His trashy and perverted reputation isn’t any better. Megumin’s father wanted to kill him. Megumin’s mother locked Kazuma and Megumin in a room together in hopes of doing the nasty, was messed with by a chimera of two genders, and was killed in a gruesome way that even the angels had to throw up when they saw the state of Kazuma.

On a positive note, Megumin seemed to have grown a little with this adventure as she was even thinking of putting her explosive magic on hold and give a whirl at other options. But she still gave a giant explosion that’s worth 120 points.

Konosuba was amusing. Definitely worth a few chuckles! I know it won’t be for everyone as comedy in anime can often be hit-or-miss. But the combination of characters with many quirks, the animation, the setting, the tasks, and misunderstandings, you’ve got yourself an anime version of Curb Your Enthusiasm. So…yeah, not for everyone, hit-or-miss! But in the big five isekai animes, this one is a little more light compared to some of the others. Overlord can get quite gory. Shield Hero will anger any sane person to a point of madness. And Re:Zero is just a misery blanket! Konosuba is that light-hearted comedy where sometimes the main protagonist dies horrificly in battle, but will return like Kenny from South Park. So if Shield Hero and Re:Zero depress you, maybe you might need a break with the silly, zany antics of Kazuma’s crew in Konosuba.

Results may vary on your views of Aqua.

If you would like to watch Konosuba, the entire series is available on Crunchyroll. That’s the first season, second season, both OVA’s, and the movie in several different languages!

Okay, let’s pick our next Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Amazon exclusive!

Alright! An anime like Black Lagoon if it involved gay boys! Banana Fish time.

Hearthway Hollow: Shahan (Part 2) Lemon

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Female Human Reader/Male Werewolf Additional Tags: Exophilia, Hearthway Hollow, Werewolf Boyfriend, Ramadan, Iftar, Halva, Breaking of the Fast, Muslim Character, Muslim Monster, Islamic Holiday Content Warnings: Stalker, Stalking, Guns, Anxiety, Death, Abusive Language, Sex, Oral Sex, Werewolf Sex, Knotting Words: 5898

The second and final part to @momolady​’s birthday present! The reader spends several happy months in Hearthway Hollow, getting to know the people there, when her past catches up with her and she finally discovers the identity of her wolf admirer. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

Visit Hearthway Hollow!

Three months had passed blissfully in Hearthway Hollow. Your job at the store acquainted you with just about every face in town, so soon you were on a first name basis with most everyone. Strangely, though there were rules against talking about the werewolves, they weren’t all that shy about shifting in public, particularly the kids. The first time you saw a mom trying to rein in the fuzzy puppy that was her child, you thought you were going to have a conniption fit and die from the cuteness.

After Billy had seen what squalor you lived in, he made it his mission to furnish the small house to the rafters. There was a proper table and chairs, a king sized bed, a couch, and lots of piddly house stuff you’d always made it a point not to be burden with, like hand towels. There was even a TV! With cable! And Netflix!

He also insisted you come over on the weekends to have dinner with his family, and you became fast friends with tiny, ferocious Kamilla. Ivan and Ellie, Kamilla’s siblings, were incredibly nice to you and seemed to take after their mother in terms of temperament.

You had started keeping perishables in the house as well, which is something you’d refused to do before. You cooked every night, and it felt really good. It felt like you were… home.

You used the shooting range at least once a week and had become friends with all of the officers. Sometimes when you were off work, you’d go by and play cards with the one who was manning the phones that day. It kept you occupied, while at the same time, there was literally nowhere safer than a police station, so you always felt like you could let your guard down there.

Of all the officers, you felt closest to Shahan. You couldn’t deny you had an attraction to him, and he had gone out of his way to make you feel safe in your own home, going so far as to install bars on the windows and security cameras at all the entry points.

Ramadan was coming up, and you wanted to do something nice to thank him. Maybe you could cook him something for Iftar, or the first meal when the fasting ended in the evening. You had done some research, and according to what you’d read, dessert was the most important part of the ending of the fast in some Islamic cultures, and dates had cultural significance, so you thought you might try your hand at making halva paste sweetened with honey, with mashed dates and chopped nuts in it.

You wondered if your wolf friend, who you’d nicknamed “Shadow” since all he did was follow you like a baby duck who’d imprinted on you, would take offense to you showing attention to another man. Frowning, you brushed that thought away. He had no claim to you, and if he was going to get jealous over you doing something nice for a friend, he wasn’t worthy of you anyway.

You often contemplated about whether or not Shahan was your wolf friend, but you couldn’t ask. More to the point, you had made the decision to not speculate about his identity. Every time you began to wonder, you shut down that train of thought immediately. Knowing who he was would complicate things. Everything was nice the way it was, and you didn’t want to ruin it. It couldn’t last forever, you knew, but all the same, there was no reason to destroy the peace prematurely.

On a Wednesday, you were playing rummy with Ariell when you asked, “Have you gone through this ritual thing? I’ve been here long enough to see other people going through it and everyone seems really happy about it, but I just can’t wrap my brain around it.”

You’d figured out Ariell was a werewolf by deduction. Just about everyone at the station was. Honestly, now that you’d had time to acclimate to the oddness of the townspeople, determining who was and wasn’t a werewolf had become almost a sixth sense.

“Oh, yeah,” He said. “As weird as it seems from the outside, I can guarantee you it’s even weirder from the wolf’s point of view.”

“How so?”

“Well,” He said with a sigh, laying down a three and picking up another card from the pack. “I met my wife Lace over eight years ago now. I was travelling because I’d spent my whole life in this tiny town and I just wanted to get away for awhile. I had no plans or aspirations other than seeing as much of the world as I could. And that’s how I met Lace.”

“What happened?”

“Well, to be perfectly honest,” He said, leaning back in his chair. “I fucked up royally. When I saw her, as soon as our eyes met, there was this… spark. We spent a glorious week together, making love, going on dates, talking for hours, and just generally wrapped up in each other. And then… I left.”

“Left?” You said, laying down a card. “Why?”

“Because I was young and stupid and I didn’t realize what was happening at first. When I did, it scared the shit out of me. I was twenty-one and thought I was too young to be tied down, too young to be in love, too young for a mate. I wasn’t even sure I believed in the whole soulmate thing until I met her, and then when I realized it was real, I… I bolted. I couldn’t face the reality of it.”

“So it really is like love at first sight?” You asked doubtfully.

“Ehhh,” Ariell replied, shrugging. “A lot of people might think of it like that, but I’m more of a pragmatist.”

“So what’s your take on it, then?”

He put his cards face down on the table and knitted his fingers in front of his mouth. “You know how… you’re out somewhere, maybe a party or in a cafe or whatever, and you’re not really paying attention to anyone, but suddenly you catch sight of someone in the room, and you don’t even know them, but there’s this… instant attraction. There’s something about them that makes you want to go over and talk to them: a tenuous thread of connection that compels you to want to know more about them. Have you ever felt that?”

“Yeah, once or twice,” You said.

“Okay, it’s like that, but amplified a million times over. It’s not necessarily love; it may not even be a physical attraction, just an intense desire of some kind you feel deep down in your bones that pulls you toward that person. I mean, when Lace and I first met, it was like a head-on collision: explosive and powerful and there was no stopping it. It was just sex at first, but then… I wanted to get to know her. I took her on dates, I asked her a million questions, and she did the same with me. We talked about anything and everything, and spent every waking moment together. It may not have started out as love, but it became love very quickly. Too quickly. And when I realized what was happening, it scared me shitless. So I ran.”

“What happened after that?”

“I got her pregnant, is what happened,” He said, picking up his cards.

“Oh, shit,” You replied in surprise.

“Yeah.” He had a look on his face that clearly said, Oops.

“So did she track you down or something, hellbent on revenge?”

“I expected her to, but no, she didn’t,” He said, blowing out his breath forcefully. “She was going to raise the baby on her own and forget all about me, and I don’t blame her for that in the slightest, but when Ari turned one she shifted. My wife is a witch, not a were, and she didn’t know anything about raising one. She wanted our daughter to grow up among her own kind, so she found Hearthway Hollow through a friend of a friend. It was just chance that it happened to be my hometown.”

“What did she do when she saw you?”

“She smacked the piss out of me, justifiably. Then she introduced me to the daughter I didn’t know I had. That day, I swore to devote my life to both of them. And I haven’t faltered since.” He sat back in his seat and stared at the ceiling. “I thought about her every single day after I left, but I was scared to go back. I knew she was my mate, but because I was a coward, I destroyed what we had. I thought she’d hate me for the rest of her life. To this day, I can’t believe she forgave me, let alone married me. I’m the luckiest man alive.”

“I agree,” You told him. “I’d have shot you.”

He laughed and sat up straight. “And I wouldn’t have held it against you.”

You sighed. “It still feels… stalkerish to me,” You said, shaking your head.

He nodded sadly. “From your experiences, I’m not at all surprised that it does. But the ritual is based on consent. If you reject him, then that’s it. He can’t try again. He can’t keep bugging you. It’s over when you, as the recipient, decide it’s over. I think that’s the biggest difference. It all depends on what you want. You’re the one in control, not him.”

“So if I told my wolf friend to stop coming around, I’d never see him again?”

“Not as a wolf, or a prospective mate, but he’d still be in town. You just wouldn’t know him. It’s one of the reasons the ritual’s anonymity works in the recipient’s favor. It’s less awkward for you should you decide to turn him down if you never know who he is.”

“But it sucks for him, though, right?” You asked.

He nodded in agreement. “Yeah. But that’s how it goes sometimes.”

Ariell had given you a lot to think about, and you went home after the game with your mind in a roil.

As you were making dinner, you heard a familiar scratching on the front door. Looking at the security monitor, you saw Shadow sitting on the porch outside. Smiling, you went to let him in.

“Hey, Shadow!” You said, clicking all the locks in place after he got his tall, slender body inside. “Did you have a good day today?”

Two happy barks. You had allowed him to answer yes or no questions, but that was the only communication you had permitted. Two barks for yes, one bark for no. He agreed to this arrangement happily, so long as it meant he’d get to have some semblance of a conversation with you.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” You said, bending to hug him around the neck as he tried to move his head to lick your face at the same time. “Hungry? I’m making chili.”

He barked two more times and danced in place, his claws tick-tacking rapidly on the hardwood.

“You scuff up that floor and Billy’s gonna skin you,” You said with a laugh.

He barked again, and you thought he was laughing too.

You served up dinner and sat on the floor with him while he scarfed his food from the bowl. Then he joined you on the couch for some bingeing and fell asleep in your lap. He was gone by morning, as usual, having left a note wishing you a good day. You sometimes thought about waking early and pretending to sleep, just to catch a glimpse of him as a human, but you stuck to your guns about leaving his identity a secret.

One day… Maybe one day…

Ramadan began, and after some failed attempts, you managed to make a very good batch of Halva paste and some lavash bread, and walked it next door to the police station. It was just after dark when you arrived, and Shahan looked up and smiled when he saw you.

“Hey!” He said brightly, standing when you came in and jumping to help you with the containers, not able to see what was inside them. “What’s all this?”

“Happy Ramadan!” You said. “Is that right? Can I say happy Ramadan?”

He laughed. “Yeah, that’s fine.” He pointed. “Is that food, because I’m starving.”

“It is!” You said. “I made halva with honey, dates, and pistachios, and lavash bread.”

His jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me? I haven’t had halva since my grandma died!”

“And I brought whole dates, too, cause I know you’re supposed to eat those first.”

His smile got wide and warm, like it always did when he talked to you for any amount of time, his eyes glittering. “Wow, you really did your research, huh?”

You shrugged and smiled back. “You’ve helped me out a lot over the last few months, and I wanted to do something nice for you.”

“I appreciate it. And the fact that you made halva, which is literally my favorite, is…” He put a hand over his heart. “I’m touched, really.”

He helped you set down the food, and then you watched as he pulled out a prayer rug from a backpack so he could do the Maghrib, or sunset prayer, which was the fourth of the five daily prayers. You didn’t pray with him, but you did kneel next to him out of respect, watching his face as he bowed and listening to him mutter in Pashto.

“Are you super devout?” You asked when he was finished.

“I’m not a ‘pray every day’ kind of guy, but I do observe the important celebrations and holy days,” He replied, rolling up the rug. “I brought dinner with me. Want to join? There’s enough for two, and it’s better to break the fast with friends than by yourself.”

“Sure,” You said, briefly thinking about Shadow. Well, he could use his nose to find you.

You both ate the traditional three dates to break the fast, then he unpacked the dinner he’d brought. There was a lamb stew and vegetables rolled in flatbreads, plus fruit and a pastry called a konafah. All of it was delicious.

“This was great,” You said, wiping your mouth. “You’re a really good cook.”

“Thanks,” He said, smiling. “My Nia taught me a lot before she died, but she never got a chance to teach me how to make halva, which is why this is such a treat.”

“Well, dig in,” You said, handing him a butter knife.

He spread some of the paste onto the lavash bread you’d made and took a bite, his bright, beautiful eyes rolling closed as he moaned.

“Oh my god,” He said. “It’s so good.”

“Is it?” You asked, happily surprised.

“It’s amazing,” He said, gleefully shoving the rest of the piece of bread in his mouth and chewing with delight. “Almost better than Nia’s.”

“Aw,” You said. “Thank you.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but the phone rang. He sighed unhappily.

“I should get back to work,” He said. “But… thank you so much for the halva. And for celebrating with me.”

“It was my pleasure,” you said, and went in for a hug. The hug went on for longer than was perhaps necessary, all while the phone rang. You forced yourself to step back and bid him farewell. You could feel his eyes on you as you left.

You walked back home with a huge smile on your face, feeling lighter than air. A feeling which disappeared immediately when you saw the package sitting on your porch. Cold fingers of dread crawled up your spine and the steel bands were back, squeezing your lungs closed. You turned and sprinted back to the police station.

Shahan was just hanging up the phone as you fell through the door, close to hyperventilation.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” He asked, bounding around the desk. “What happened?”

“There’s something on my porch,” You gasped.

His face darkened. Your friend Shahan faded to the background and Officer Madhwari took over. He rushed out of the door with his hand on his side arm and strode over to your porch. He drew his gun, glanced at the package briefly, and opened your door.

“Police!” He called, stepping inside. To you, he whispered, “Stay close to me.”

You rushed to grab your gun and held it downward so you weren’t pointing it at Shahan, but you clicked the safety off. Shahan checked every room, every closet, and even looked in the attic, but no one was there. He holstered his firearm and told you to do the same. You complied.

He went out to pick up the package and brought it inside. It was wrapped in plain brown paper and had nothing on the outside: no writing, no stamps, nothing besides tape holding it closed. Shahan sniffed it deeply, trying to parse what it was by smell alone. He grimaced, and his eyes cut to you.

“What is it?” You asked him.

“Give me a second,” He said faintly, taking a pocket knife out and slitting the side open. He pulled out a small, plain grey box with a box top. Even you could smell the stench of decay and new immediately what was in it without having to ask. You covered your mouth as the tears came to your eyes.

“What do I do?” You asked him.

“Grab whatever you need. I’m taking you to Billy’s,” He said. He got on his radio, telling the other officers about what had happened and ordering them to gather the pack as you snatched up items hurriedly. When you were done, Shahan ushered you into his patrol car and sped off down to Billy’s house, which was only five minutes away.

Kamilla was at the house, and she and Billy were waiting for you outside. Billy had already shifted. You’d never seen him in his werewolf form: he was massive, bigger than any of the adult weres you’d seen yet. As soon as you arrived, he barked “Stay here!” And took off into the trees.

Kamilla put her arms around you and you sobbed into her shoulder. “It’s okay,” She was saying, patting your hair. You jumped when you felt a third hand on your back.

“It’s just me,” Shahan said. “The package had a trace of Gish’s scent on it, so the pack is using it to track him down. If he put the package on your doorstep while we were eating, then he hasn’t gotten far. We’ll find him. Don’t worry.”

You sniffled and nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he nodded in return and got back into his cruiser, heading off down the road in the direction Billy had gone.

“Come in,” Kamilla said. Her mother, Maria, and Ellie were also there.

“Are you hurt?” Maria asked as you came forward.

“No,” You replied as she hugged you. “Just shaken up, I guess.”

“Don’t you worry, sweetie, the pack has some of the best trackers in the world. They’ll find this son of a bitch,” Maria said. You nodded and let her lead you to the kitchen and sit you at the table. Kamilla shifted and went outside to protect the house as Ellie made you tea.

The wait was anguish. Every once in a while, Ellie would get a text from her husband, Jack, who was helping with the search. Your heart jumped every time the ringtone sounded. There were signs of Gish in the forest, but they hadn’t caught sight of him yet.

Then, there was a call. Ellie took it just as Kamilla opened the door.

“Come outside,” She said. Gulping, you followed her.

There, on the lawn, was Shadow, but not the Shadow you knew. He was still slender and golden with a black strip down his back, he had the same glittering eyes, but rather than the complete wolf form you’d always seen, he was in his werewolf form, the halfway point between man and animal. He was tall, standing on his hind legs and towering over you, looking at you intensely. All you could do was stare at him.

“They found him,” Kamilla said. “He was almost to the highway, and we wouldn’t have been able to follow him, but they caught him before he could get too far. They’re holding him at a safe distance away from the town. Your friend here is going to take you out there.”

“Me?” You said in surprise. “Why?”

“We have our own ways of doing things,” Maria said when she came out on the porch to see what was happening. “This man hasn’t hurt anyone in town, just you. As such, what happens to him is your decision. Adam will want your opinion on the matter. And it’s a chance to confront him one last time. Do you want to pass on that?”

You thought about it. “No, I don’t.” You turned to Shadow. “Let’s go.”

He picked you up bridal-style and took off into the woods, holding you close to him. You hugged him around the neck and buried your face in his fur, smelling a clean, warm smell. Strangely, though, as the wind whipped past you, you caught a whiff of another scent.

Lamb stew and halva paste.

You knew it. You knew it had to be him. You felt a tear of both fear and relief fall from your eye and land on his shoulder.

“It’ll be okay,” He said in a low, grumbling voice. Those were the first words he had ever said to you in the entire three months you’d known him as a wolf. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I swear.”

“I know,” You replied, clinging more tightly.

You had lost track of time when he finally slowed to a stop and set you back on your feet. He got on all fours and shrunk from his werewolf form to his full wolf form. You understood why: if you decided to let Gish live, he couldn’t know about the nature of the town or the people who lived here.

Shadow barked once and nudged you forward, and you began to walk. There, in a clearing with the crescent moon visible in the night sky, Adam stood in front of Saul, Angelo, and Ariell in their human forms, guns drawn. Around them were at least a dozen wolves including Billy, all staring at you, flanking the officers in a circle that closed the middle figure inside. Shahan, as you suspected, was not there. At least, not in his human form.

Kneeling in the center with his hands cuffed behind his back was Gish. He was disheveled and it looked like he’d been in a fight. He was looking at you with an expression of pure hatred. Instinctively, you took a step back, but you felt Shadow behind you, a warmth at your back.

“Welcome,” Adam said, taking your hand and patting it reassuringly. “I told you we’d protect you, didn’t I?”

“And you proved it,” You said with a shaky smile.

“You understand why you’re here, don’t you?” He asked

You nodded, gulping. “Maria told me. I’d like to talk to him before I make a decision.”

Adam nodded wisely. “I understand.” And he stepped aside.

The circle of wolves let you enter, and Shadow took his place with them right at your back. Feeling his eyes on you gave you courage.

Before you ever had a chance to say anything, Gish began to hiss, “All I ever did was love you, you ungrateful bitch. All you had to do was let me, and none of this would have happened. You’re selfish; that’s always been your problem.”

The wolves around you began to growl and snarl, but you held up your hands. “No. Let him say what he wants.” And they quieted.

Gish’s eyes narrowed at your sudden ability to command wolves, but he didn’t let it stop him. “You’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion and gotten these people involved in our private business. You should be ashamed of yourself. I’ve done so much for you, and you never even thanked me for it. All I wanted was some appreciation, but that was apparently too much to ask from you. Nothing is good enough for you, is it? You’ll never do better than me and you know it. Who else would want a crazy slut like you?”

He finally stopped talking, glaring at you, and you looked down your nose at him.

“Thank you,” You said.

He smiled. “It’s about time you--”

“For making my decision for me,” You continued. “It’s the last time you get to do that.” You turned and walked away, saying to Adam as you passed, “He’s yours, fellas.”

Adam nodded and began to shift. There was a sound of terrified confusion from Gish behind you that gave way to a scream, but you didn’t look back. Shadow got up on his hind legs and held out his arms for you. You walked into them and let him take you home, the distant sounds of wolves attacking their prey fading the farther away you got.

Shadow took you back to Billy’s house, where Maria, Ellie, and Kamilla took you inside as you began to unravel. It was the first time you had come face to face with Gish since he had tried to kill you, and the weight of it was crashing down on you. Shadow made to follow you inside, but Maria stopped him.

“She needs to rest. This will have been extremely exhausting for her, mentally and emotionally. Come back later.”

Shadow grumbled agreement. You didn’t want him to go, but you were too stunned by everything that had happened to form a coherent sentence. Kamilla led you to an upstairs room with a bed and helped you get your shoes off, getting into the bed with you and holding you as you cried yourself to sleep.

The next morning, you woke to find Billy, Ivan, Ellie and her husband Jack, and Kamilla’s fiancee Corey sitting with her at the table, all of them eating breakfast. Billy got up and gave you a bone-crushing hug.

“You alright, kid?” He asked as he released you.

“Yeah, I think so,” You said. “Thanks, Billy.”

“Come on, get some food in you,” He said, pulling out a chair. “You look like shit.”

“Billy!” Maria hissed.

You waved her down, smiling weakly. “I’m sure he’s not wrong.”

You ate breakfast with the family and sat with them for a while. You considered going home, but you really didn’t feel like being alone.

Around midday, Shahan returned.

“Well?” You asked him.

“Coroner’s report says cause of death was mauling by wolves. It’s not a lie,” He said sardonically. “But it’s done.”

You didn’t know how to feel, so you just went numb.

“Want me to take you home?” He asked, and you nodded. After thanking Billy and hugging everyone, you got into Shahan’s cruiser and he drove you home. He walked you to your door.

“Will you come in for a minute?” You asked him.

“Sure,” He said, and followed you in. He watched as, after a moment’s contemplation, you took off your gun holster and pulled out your knife, mace, and taser. For the first time since you started running, stored it in your travel trunk, possibly for good. You were crying again, but you didn’t feel sad or scared or anything in particular. You were just crying.

“Are you alright?” Shahan asked in concern.

“I don’t know,” You said, your voice wavering.

He pulled you into a tight hug, one arm pulling you close to his body, and his other hand buried in your hair, holding your head to his shoulder.

“You were so brave,” He whispered into your ear. “I’m so proud of you.” Suddenly, as if he just realized what he was doing, he let go of you. “I, uh… I should get back to the station.”

“Shahan.”

“There’s a lot of paperwork left to do, and we have to notify his family.”

“Shahan, wait.”

“I’ll come back later to--”

“Shadow!”

He stopped in his tracks, his hand on the doorknob. His breathing was uneven as he turned to look at you, his eyes full of anxiety.

“It is you, isn’t it?” You asked, not really needing an answer.

He swallowed hard and let go of the doorknob unturned. “I’m… I’m sorry about the deer,” He said, his voice shaking. “If I had known, I’d never…”

You nodded. “I know.”

“I’m not like him,” He whispered pleadingly. “I would never…”

“I know.”

He was breathing very hard now, seemingly wrestling with himself. “I… I love you,” He said, apparently losing the fight with his own willpower. “I know you think it’s because of the mate connection thing, but it’s not that, I swear. You’re so brave and strong and smart and sweet. You’re so beautiful. I’ve never--”

He was cut off by you grabbing him by the ears and pulling him down for a kiss, which he returned with enthusiasm. He lifted you, and you wrapped your legs around his waist as he took you and laid you on the couch. Your hands moved to the buttons of his uniform, shaking so badly that you were barely able to get them undone. He wasn’t much better; his breathing was erratic and he was kissing your face and skin in a frenzy.

“Wait,” You said. “Aren’t you supposed to refrain from intimacy during Ramadan?”

“Allah forgives,” He said, muffled against your skin.

You huffed a laugh. “Wait, Shahan. Wait, wait, wait,” You told him, pushing on his shoulders.

“What is it?” He asked, his eyes dilated wide and trained on your lips. “Do you want to stop?”

“It’s not that,” You said. “Let’s finish the ritual.”

His eyes widened in shock and delight. “Are y--really?”

You nodded and smiled at him, kissing him sweetly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. What was next after accepting gifts?”

His brow furrowed. “But you didn’t accept any of my gifts.”

“You brought me takeout, remember?” You said with a smile.

He blinked in surprise. “Oh. Yeah. Um… next is scenting.”

“Well, let’s do that, then?”

He grinned wide and his beautiful eyes sparkled. He finished getting undressed, and undressed you as well, and he started to shift. Golden fur sprouted from his skin with a black strip down his spine. He grew in height, slender and trim.

“My Shadow,” You said fondly.

He laughed and came in close, rubbing his face and cheeks to your body, licking you and sniffing you as he went. You scratched and petted him as he scented you to his heart’s desire.

“What’s next?” You asked him with a grin.

He grinned back. “You know what’s next.”

He picked you up, taking you into the bedroom. He laid you on the bed, licking up your body, his hands softly moving up your sides to cup your breasts, his thumb caressing your nipples as they hardened.

God, it had been so long…

“Shahan,” You breathed. He pulled himself up your body and kissed you, deep and hard. He pressed close to you, and you could feel something pressing against your thigh. The tingle you were feeling between your legs grew to an ache, and you opened your legs wide and wiggled a little.

He seemed to get the message, kissing back down your body until his tongue pressed against the pearl of your body, making you cry out. He linked his fingers with yours as he slurped and sucked, his growl vibrating through your core as he devoted all his attention to you. The muscles in your buttocks and thighs contracted uncontrollably as you got closer and closer to the cusp of pleasure, groaning as the wave crashed into you full force. His eyes watched as you writhed in ecstasy, your breasts heaving as the jolt of euphoria hit your brain and whited out your vision.

As you relaxed, he reared up on his knees. You felt him nudge against your entrance, but he waited, leaning on his arms and looking you in the eye.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Yes.”

As the word left your lips, he pushed himself slowly into you, and all you could feel was the throbbing of both his heartbeat and your own as he buried himself to the hilt inside you, the stretch pinching slightly but it so good that you didn’t care. He moved slowly at first, but quickly gaining momentum, creating a friction that made your eyes roll back in your head.

“I love you, Shahan,” You replied, and his pace became frenetic, pulling another blinding orgasm from you.

“I love you,” He growled into the skin of your neck.

“Oh, god,” You gasped. The orgasm was so powerful that you thought you might pass out, but he pulled out of you and flipped you easily.

“We’re not done yet, my love,” He said as he pressed the front of his body to the back of yours, lifting your hips in the air. You gripped the sheets in your hands as he re-entered you from behind, thrusting hard and fast. He slowed, and you felt him press the knot against you.

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

He pushed and it popped into place as he groaned above you, panting hard in your ear. You turned your head to kiss him over and over as he grinded himself against you hard and deep, and you moaned again and again, the pleasure drawn out and continuous, as if you were just in a perpetual state of orgasm. You felt him throb inside as he came, and he howled loudly, his spine straightening and his head pointed at the ceiling.

You did actually pass out at some point, and when you came to, you were lying on Shahan’s bare chest and he was petting your back softly. Evening light was filtering into the room.

“Mmm…” You groaned, stretching.

“Welcome back,” He said, kissing you softly.

“Sorry,” You said. “I didn’t mean to knock out on you.”

“No worries, honey,” He said. “It had been a day. Besides, I took it as a compliment.”

You snickered. “Good.” You sat up and looked out the windows. “It’s late. Is it almost time for Iftar?”

“Yeah,” He said, smiling at you sweetly. “And I could eat an entire deer.”

You made a face. “Not funny.”

He laughed and placed his hand on your face, kissing the top of your head. “Sorry.”

You nuzzled into him and he bent to kiss you. You savored it, lingering. Reluctantly, you pulled away and got up to get dressed.

After prayer and Iftar, you were sitting with him, just sort of talking and being close, when you asked him, “Listen, I need to do something that’s going to be very difficult for me. Will you stay?”

“Of course, baby. I’m here,” He said, rubbing your back.

You nodded and took out your phone. After a moment, you dialed a number and held it to your ear, your hand shaking. After a few rings, you heard a woman answer.

“Hello?”

You tried, and failed, to keep the tears from falling.

“Mom?” You said, your voice very unsteady. “It’s me.”

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My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

The Grim; Chapter 4

“Agnes!” said Edith, with the enthusiasm of someone recently told they have to eat a slug. “How… pleasant to see you again.”

“Of course,” replied Agnes. “Haven’t seen you around much though, I must admit. You aren’t sequestering yourself in that house of yours, are you? I would be devastated to learn the loneliness of an empty home is catching up to you.”

“I so appreciate your concern for my health, my dear, but I assure you I am faring just fine! I have simply been spending quite a lot of time on my latest crochet project!”

Agnes narrowed her eyes, almost imperceptibly. “A crochet project? Of what kind?”

“Oh, haven’t you heard already? The milliner is having another child! I’ve been crafting a blanket, I’m sure it will be ready by the time they give birth. I had no idea you were so far out of the loop, dear Agnes, or I would have informed you myself!”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all,” Agnes replied cooly. “It is so unfortunate you haven’t the time to keep up with old friends, but I suppose I haven’t put much effort in on my end. Perhaps I could bring over my recipe for raspberry scones one of these days! You never could get them quite right, from what I remember.”

Horse looked back and forth between the two women, feeling a bit scared. As he glanced back to Edith, He had to rescind one of his earliest discoveries about this place. While it was true that many things in this world were not Rock or Fire, it turned out that sometimes the Rock and Fire disguised itself. And now, it appeared they may have been disguising themselves as humans. 

Which, in retrospect, explained why Horse had liked Edith so much. She was very much made of Fire, even if she didn’t look it. She was nice, and warm, and sort of soft, in a strange, intangible way. Fire never hurt Horse, and neither did Edith, but Fire always had a preference for hellhounds, and then went on to burn humans and wood and sometimes even demons indiscriminately. A part of the world clicked into place, and things made just a little more sense, in Horse’s book.

But the other, the one standing across from Edith and smiling sharply, was undeniably Rock. There were angles to her, her face and her joints, like the Rock was barely trying to hide itself underneath stretched skin and pointy grins. 

Despite being thin, she seemed unmovable and steady, an element that told you exactly what it was and what it was going to do before it even did anything. 

And so Rock and Fire faced off. 

Fire is always unpredictable, and changes direction at the slightest move. Fire is hungry, and bright, and quick, and leaps on anything it can.

 But Rock does not burn. It stands, unaffected, and attacks methodically, patiently, or sometimes unexpectedly, like a rockslide, burying the opponent. But Fire cannot be crushed in such a way. 

So they are at an impasse, as attacks and blocks and retaliations are made over Horse’s head, as bloody and ruthless as any battle.

Rock and Fire walk away, and Horse has no idea who won. 

----------------

The baker knew something was going to happen as soon as Agnes and Edith locked eyes across the street. 

They had traded their barbed compliments and faked concern meant to harm instead of heal, and then had gone their separate ways, but she could tell Edith was still out for blood. As much as an old woman wearing a lace cardigan could be out for blood. 

The baker shuddered, imagining the potential destruction.

Which is why, when Edith ran into Peter, she finished the sale she was making and put the ‘on break’ sign up, before leaning back against the counter to watch the ensuing annihilation. 

Peter was not the brightest man in town. He had always been kind of an ass, even when they were all kids, and now he ran the general store, which gave him some kind of false idea of power. Knowing how to run a business, and a necessary one had gone straight to his head, and knocked out a good deal of the common sense while it was there. 

Common sense, such as ‘don’t mess with Edith, or risk being burned’.

Peter had taken a good look at the grim- er- Horse, and started to walk purposefully across the square, before coming to a stop in front of Edith.

The brave (and stupid) stared, the ignorant continued on as though nothing was about to happen, and the smart watched, but in a way that made it clear they were absolutely not watching and indeed keeping their noses in their own business, thank you very much. 

The baker, knowing which group she was a part of, carefully positioned herself in a convenient shadow near one side of the stall underneath the awning, where Edith’s back would be turned to her.

Normally, she wouldn’t have bothered (or risked) being an onlooker, but it had been a good while since she had seen Edith exchanging pleasantries with anyone, and Peter had recently raised the price of flour despite there being no good reason (he claimed ‘shipping prices’ had gone up but she had checked with the man who delivered goods to their town from the nearest port, who had said shipping was cheaper than ever), and she figured she should keep an eye on that dog of Edith’s and how it was going to react to a git like Peter. And who knows? Maybe she would learn something. 

“Hello there Edith,” said Peter, walking somewhere between a saunter and a strut. 

“Peter, so nice to see you again,” replied Edith, who looked and sounded very sincere about this statement, except for how much she didn’t.

“I see you picked up a mutt!” Peter laughed loudly and obnoxiously, throwing his head back.

Edith did not join him.

Peter, demonstrating all the intelligence of a brick wall, barreled on. 

“My gods, woman, where did you find that thing? A gutter? I didn’t know the boogeyman was moving in next door, much less that he had a dog!”

In an amazing display of restraint, Edith neglected to throttle the man. Not that she could if she tried, though. Peter wasn’t a very large man, but he also had a bit of height and weight over Edith. Still, the baker found that retirees had quite a lot of time to sit and think, which could be a dangerous thing, especially where people as sharp as Edith, and surrounded by as many idiots as Edith, are concerned, and so she figured the old lady could probably have figured something out. 

However, as it stood, Edith found a good deal of her weapons in words, and as she straightened up and cleared her throat, it was clear she was skipping past all of the pretty little daggers in front and some of the smaller swords, even the larger swords, perhaps a spear or two, and heading directly for the morningstar.

“I suppose it would be hard for you to keep track of new residents these days, what with how often I’ve seen you visiting the doctors.” Edith shook her head sadly. “Are you sick, dear? I’m sure many in the town would be happy to help you out.”

Peter flushed from his fingertips to the top of his ears. 

To anyone outside the gossip chain in town, it would have sounded like a fairly innocuous statement, even like Edith was perhaps concerned about his general wellbeing. However, the baker had a friend who worked at the doctor’s office as a nurse, and had it on fairly good authority that the receptionist and Peter had been… sharing several intimate moments together, sometimes even while the receptionist was on duty. The baker wasn’t about to judge two adults entering a consensual relationship, even if the nature of the relationship may be considered a bit ‘scandalous’, but for the love of someone, do it on your own time, not on the clock! A house was a house, and a business was a business, and the actions of the two shouldn’t get mixed, in the baker’s firm opinion.

“What are you trying to imply?” asked Peter defensively. 

He had never been good at playing the game. 

The back and forth insults disguised as compliments and simple comments that people such as Edith and Agnes spent their time with, trading cutting remarks back and forth until both women were satisfied with their jabs, and sore with their losses.

Many of the townspeople stayed out of it, and the ones who did were heavily persuaded not to try it again (Edith and Agnes combining forces was a rare thing, but a thing to be feared. It was like two natural disasters turning to smite the same person). 

Then, there were the people like Peter who didn’t realize there was a game being played in the first place, and so blundered into traps without even knowing there had been one set in the first place. 

“Imply, my dear? What could I possibly have been implying? I was simply questioning if you were poorly.” She laughed easily. “It’s not like I said you were up to anything illicit.”

Peter looked like his skin was attempting to color-match a tomato.

For the first time, the baker noticed how uneasy Horse looked. She couldn’t blame him. Being in the middle of a battle of wits (even if this one wasn’t so much a battle as a destruction) happens to be very unnerving. 

One of the first times the baker saw such a battle, it had been between Edith and one of her school teachers, the latter of which had dragged the baker into it for some reason or another.

 The whole experience made her vow to stay as far away as those types of situations as possible, and it looked like Horse was considering doing the same.

In an un-earned and potentially life-saving act of mercy, Jerald, the blacksmith, stepped in.

“Hullo, hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I finished that collar you wanted.”

“Oh, really?” Edith asks, any trace of hostility disappearing immediately. “So soon?”

“Didn’t take too long. And I had a delay on one of my other projects.”

“Well, thank you very much.” Edith took the collar from Jerald and fastened it around Horse’s neck. Horse froze like it was going to bite him, and looked to Edith for help. 

“You look very nice,” She told him, and patted his head. He settled a little, but still seemed apprehensive.

“Wellmustbegoingtalklater” Peter rushed out, turning quickly.

The baker watched as Peter all but tucked tail and ran. Edith looked around, smiling politely.

She shivered.

“PUPPY!” 

From across the street, there was a loud yell from a tiny child who looked intent on pulling her mother’s arm off. 

“Now, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Sarah,” the mother protested, trying to hold her child back. 

The child threw her weight forward with renewed force and broke free of her mother’s grasp before running up to Edith and Horse.

“Can I pet your dog, miss?” She asked, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. 

Edith gave her an approving smile. “Of course.”

Sarah, seemingly vibrating with excitement, started to scratch the dog’s ears and pet along his back. To her delight, her hand sunk into his fur until it almost disappeared.

Grims are apparently built for insulation, the baker noted absently.

“He’s so soft!” the child exclaimed. ”What’s his name?”

“Horse,” replied Edith, still smiling indulgently. 

The child contemplated this for a long moment, taking on on an air of seriousness and sincerity that only children of that age can properly manage without looking uptight. 

She nodded, just as seriously. “Horse is a good name.”

Edith produced a piece of candy from thin air, (or so it seemed to the baker) and offered it to the child, who took it and went bounding off back to her mother, who looked very tired, and a bit relieved.

“Goodbye Horse!” Sarah said, waving, before dragging her mother in a different direction. 

-------------

The small human was different from what Horse had seen before. It was much… bouncier. 

And louder. 

And stickier. 

Despite all of these things, it had given very good ear scratches, and Edith had seemed pleased with it, so Horse figured it wasn't so bad. 

The ‘collar’ was new, and not very pleasant, but more pleasant than some of the factors that came with existing in the afterlife (most of which, such as the fire, had little to no effect on hellhounds, but there were still the rocks, which could be very sharp, and there were a lot of very large, very angry, and very loud things that were also not very nice), so Horse figured it was an okay trade-off.

With this particular train of thought, Horse discovered that without realizing it, he had made the decision to stay in the town. 

On closer inspection, it made sense. Horse had a place that was Not-Rocks to sleep and live, and had found many good smells and things to eat, and an Old human who seemed very nice but also a little dangerous (like Fire!) and he came to the conclusion that this place was much better than the afterlife, and therefore he would be staying right where he was, thank you very much. 

Horse nodded with the finality and followed Edith as she led the way through the streets.

The afterlife could always send someone else to collect the soul he had been after. They wouldn’t even notice he was gone!

------------------

The demon was starting to wonder if he could function without a head. 

However, even if he could, he doubted it would help anything, as this seemed to be a very determined headache, and he suspected the lack of a head wouldn’t really even slow it down.

Semi-live Blogging: Return of the Mao Mao Episodes

Before we start, is it just me or is the animation like 10x smoother than it usually is? Also like I said with Nakey, there’s a lot more good expressions too!

Lucky Ducky Mug

Adorabat drinks from sippy cup like baby

"What, Mao Mao's ridiculous mug?" says Badgerclops, holding a cheap plastic big gulp cup he probably got from the grocery store.

How did Adorabat not notice the Lucky Ducky sticker on the Aerocycle

"Don't touch it" (Badgerclops proceeds to slam the table to move it) Ah Badgerclops, ever the contrarian

I'M SORRY DID MAO MAO BLOW THE ROOF OFF OF HQ BY SCREAMING

I love the way Mao says "PROFESSIONAAAL SILENCEEE"

Badgerclops trying to make his mouth disappear and failing made me scream with laughter

Are they seriously reducing Ratarang to 'the funny lil Italian guy'? C’mon guys you’re better than this

Wait why do they think Kevin is Adorabat?? They've seen Adorabat multiple times?? "But they're both blue!" You FOOL Kevin is TEAL there's a difference

Everybody gangsta til Mao Mao's ears start speaking morse code

They're doing surprisingly good silent but it's probably not gonna be that way very long.

Thank you, Lucky Ducky Mug, for catering to my niche interest in characters with neon outlines on black backgrounds.

Mao Mao thinking: Normal thoughts

Badgerclops thinking: Musical-esque singing

Adorabat thinking: Literally just heavy metal

The Sweetypies seriously think they're just playing a really intense game of charades huh,,,

(Mao jabs BC in the stomach with the fire net) HAHA GET REKT

The scene with Badgerclops trying to give Mao Mao Penny's mug is the funniest shit in the world I couldn't stop laughing...or maybe I'm just sleep-deprived

So the Sky Pirates are so similar compared to the Sheriff's Dept. that they can think perfectly in sync? That's cool

SKY PIRATES SONG SKY PIRATES SONG

Why is Snugglemagne throwing a random tea party & why did he only invite the Sheriff's Dept.

Yep there goes the plan. Both of their plans.

Am I going crazy or did the skin on Mao Mao's mouth tear apart like it was sewn shut?! Also yay they're talking again

"It's not gonna stop charging, so I'm just gonna let it explooode..." Mood

"What about the mega laser tube made by mega Losers?" Fsfhkfh

Hey, everyone learned something new from this experience! Are the Sky Pirates gonna try that Hive Mind tactic from now on?

Awww, they fixed his mug with gold - GOD DAMN IT I KNEW THERE WAS A CATCH!!

Lonely Kid

(Sighs) ...I said (SIGHS)

"I literally can't relate to that problem at all." says Badgerclops, who joined a gang because he wanted people to like him.

Shin just dropped off Mao Mao at a summer camp and expected him to make friends? Why does this feel like the plot of Camp Camp

I'm sorry the Mao clan has a freaking PARTY AERO-BUS??

NOO GERALDINE

That BGM is DEFINITELY an extended version of "I Love You, Mao Mao" and I want the lyrics NOW

So Bao was literally just a stray that Mao took home?? Would make sense as to why he wasn't trained

I have a feeling the Flimborg is some sort of sacred being the townspeople worship for some reason

How in the hell did Mao tie that guy up and why didn't he bother to untie him

HOW'D HE SET THE ROCKS ON FIRE USING PAINT

"And then you become frien-" "BEES. IN THE EYES."

"Everyone knows bees are our friends!" "Uh, actually, they were wasps." "Friends to no-one!" Usually I'd agree with BC, but I read an article about someone befriending a wasp and her babies so.

So the Mao clan's just known as the "Golden Cat Family Up The Hill?" Huh. I thought they’d have more recognition, especially since Shin says he went to that same summer camp at the beginning.

Man those kids are jackasses

"Say hi to your mommy!" "I would if she was here..." Excuse me wHAT

Noo don't cry baby boi - tHEN BAO JUST TACKLES HIM ASFHDKDL

"Go away! I don't feel like laughing right now!"

Look. You can see the EXACT point Mao developed his adult personality

I know Mao Mao means well but that is gonna go terribly wrong.

"I AM A HERO! I WILL BE LOVED!!" Okay first of all OUCH, second of all THAT IS PAIN

This monster empty, YEET

Awww it was just a sweet little puppy-ish monster...and it was his BIRTHDAY

"Hi, Aunt Gloria!" (Pulls out pitchfork) BETRAYAL

He didn't feel bad about ruining the festival because he made a friend doing it I 💞💞💝💝💗💗

Thanks for that 'different times' comment cuz I don't want kids thinking being beat is normal.

"Just like you found me...and I'm your best friend!" Tbh I thought she was gonna say 'Me and Badgerclops' & that would make a lot more sense

Why are they fighting over who's his best friend they're obviously BOTH his best friends

I'm sorry did Badgerclops just call Adorabat a "little mutant"?? ARE THE SWEETYPIES MUTANTS??

Awww his friends love him sm...and he feels so loved too...💓💓💗💗💕💕

Try Hard

No one gives a shit about Pinky being kidnapped lol

"K for Copyright Infringement"

"You'll never be like me!" Oof a little harsh maybe?

"You've gotta learn to be your own kind of hero, in your own special way!" So THAT'S where it's from

"You just gotta...try hard." Hey, title drop!

Ngl the moment Mao Mao said "Badgerclops take the shot" I immediately thought of The Confession 3 by TomSka

"Up in a tree, little old me, about to do something...UGLY..." 7-year-old me sniping people on Halo 3 like

Why is he shooting them with gelatin tho? ...oh. Oh THAT'S why.

Tbh if I didn't have subtitles on I would've thought BC was saying "beep boop"

This badger and cat empty, YEET

Adorabat walking into the Skyship with only a walkie-talkie is giving me some sort of vibes...OH, Silent Hill! Or Tattletail

WHOOP HIS ASS SWEETIE

"Mao Mao would hide the body!" Very unsubtle there, wonder how it got past censors

"Ratarang, say something!" "Pasketti?" "THAT'S THE BRAT!"

Wait a sec, they can just use Badgerclops' arm to power the ship? Why didn't they try that in CapturedClops?

"Good thing my head is in here cuz I'm a-scared of heights!" Ramaraffe. Whose whole schtick is making herself taller. Is acrophobic?

"Because she's Sheriff's Department, that's how! >:3" "Also y'all tend to be pretty incompetent >X/"

Why does she keep trying to use the elevator when she can fly? Nvm she climbed up Badgerclops' arm

"Ooooh I'm also hereeee"

"JERK BUTT"

Why is the Omega Field just a bunch of broken glass? And why doesn't she just step around it?

"I can fly!" "She can fly!" "SHE FORGOT?!" Ooh that's why

"You're the best thing to ever happen to a bat like me." 💝💝💕💕💓💓

Wait she's talking through the walkie-talkie and her molts are there but she isn't there where is she?

Oh she was freeing the other two from the gelatin. No wonder Mao Mao almost threw up, it was bug flavored.

GET HIS ASS, HONEY!! ADORASLAP!!

I hope that 'Nah' means Adorabat's realized she needs to be herself instead of her just rejecting her individuality like I think it is.

Scared Of Puppets

Oh, so this takes place after Sleeper Sofa! Praying it's a fix-it episode...

"DISCARD ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T BRING YOU JOY!!" Fuckin Marie Kondo up in here

Oh no PTSD flashbacks. He's scared of them cuz one's head landed on his lap as a kid? Understandable have a nice day.

Who tf collapsed into a sobbing heap on the floor then leaps back up and insists they're fine? Mao Mao, apparently.

Hairless ape? Is that what they call humans or are they something different in general?

"TAKE ALL MY MONEY!!" What did BC want an antique puppet for if he had no idea Mao was scared of them...

Mr. Din Dandalib!

"I...(eye twitch) love him too..."

IM SORRY DID HE FUCKING THROW UP OUT OF FEAR...holy SHIT

If I scared my friend and they threw up I would simply never do that again. RIP to Badgerclops but I'm different

(Badgerclops makes concrete blocks around the pothole) "Why didn't you just fill in the pothole??" "I AM TRYING MY BEST!!"

"I SIGNED YOUR DUMB CAST, NOW LEAVE!!"

...Illegal house plants? ...like marijua-

That was literally just that one video where a guy knocked out another guy in a mask jumping out of a trash can...

So it's a CPR class...AND a hair-styling class? How

I stg the moment Badgerclops walked in the door I knew he was carrying Mr. Din Danalin I SWEAR

"You're 10." "BUT I'M 6??" JFC Shin doesn't know his own son's age AND is partially responsible for his pupaphobia. And I called it on Mao Mao being six in the flashbacks

OH WIG

Can someone take the footage of the Annex exploding and add the ReviewTechUSA intro over it please

"How many Adult Learning Annexes have to be destroyed before you admit you're scared of puppets?!" is extremely funny without context

(Mao punches the wall cuz hes mad at himself for being scared) Kinkinkinkinki

How does one forget to drink milk

Oh shit the scene from the promo...

Yay he's starting to feel less scared - wait NVM it JUST STARTED TALKING??

OG SGUTVKC FGCJ OG SHKR OF DJCN JKKKKK

Oh it was just a dream - er, nightmare. FIRST NIGHTMARE SEQUENCE OF THE SERIES!

"I just gotta get my socks on...wait, I wear socks, right?" Dud e you wear NOTHING BUT A BELT...

"I KNEW SELLING THOSE HAIRLESS APE DOLLS WOULD ATTRACT DARK FORCES"

"There’s a lot of pu-" "PUBLIC DANGER"

Those puppets are alive I stg

"I'M A BIG BOI..."

Awwww she said what he told her at the beginning of the episode!

"I'M AFRAID OF PUPPETS" TITLE DROP YET AGAIN

Adorabat takes after Badgerclops sometimes I swear

Oooh shit sequel hook - oh NVM it was Badgerclops voice acting - NVM Mao Mao passed out. Dang

The Perfect Couple

Watermelon time babyyy

TRANSFORMATION TIME BABYYYY

Ah so he wanted to perfectly cut a watermelon in half, that's why he got so many?

"I need (counts on fingers) 600 more watermelons!" glad to see I'm not the only one who counts on my fingers

Why would Penny and Benny need 600 watermelons for their wedding? Also I called it on Penny & Benny being the couple

Mao Mao has to officiate the wedding? I thought priests did that

Please don’t throw up again Mao Mao

"I WILL BUY YOU A BAG TO HOLD YOUR STUFF..."

"A nondescript sack!!" Dude he just taking out the trash...

Nvm its just laundry

"I WILL TURN THIS BUSH AROUND"

Oh so THAT'S what Ramaraffe thought Kevin was Adorabat

"Why don't you buy me cake and do my laundry?" Are you implying you wanna marry Mao Mao, Badgerclops 👀

I lov Mao Mao's faces in this scene he legit looks like a bishouen anime protagonist

Nvm no transformation it's just his wedding outfit

Why did they invite Orangusnake and Boss Hosstritch to the wedding tho? What about when they hid in their moving truck and used their electricity - wait Badgerclops technically did that last one, nvm

Wait THEY DIDN'T TALK TO EACH OTHER BEFORE THE WEDDING?? What a perfect couple huh

Is Mao Mao having hallucinations just gonna be a regular thing now....

IS PENNY SERIOUSLY GONNA MARRY ORANGUSNAKE OUT OF SPITE ASFSDGFUK

Why did Mao Mao say "melons" in a Spanish accent I'm scared

"They're both terrible, so what does it matter if they get hitched or not?" They're definitely gonna change their minds now

"She lied because she wanted to protect his feelings! And he lied because he couldn't bear to hurt her!" Isn't that just the plot of The Truth Stinks?

OH SHIT HE CUT ORANGUSNAKE IN HALF HOLY FUCK

He made Orangusnake officiate the wedding as punishment lol

Why are they,,,stepping on the watermelons?? Damn right Badgerclops I'd cry over that too

"What's, uh, your credit score like?" "850. Why, is that good?" "It's perfect..." HE WANTS TO MARRY MAO MAO NOW ASDFHKL

Fanfic I can't think of a name for pt 13

    Xavier wore unfamiliar clothes. He was wearing a lab coat, and the dark spirit behind him wasn’t speaking up for once, that or the silence spell wore off. Though it didn’t even look like it was trying to speak.

    “Well, I know this is a very….unfortunate way to introduce well to some of you, myself.”

    Xavier cleared his throat, and looked down at his hand before looking back up.

    “Well, there is a way I can get every last one of you out of this situation, unharmed.”

    “Go on! Don’t just stop talking!” the silver haired girl screamed as she ran towards the bars. She could’ve reached Xavier if she was just a little bit taller, and her arms just a tad longer. 

    “Ahem, me and...well, a 'close friend' of mine have an offer.”

    “Listen gingersnap! You better keep talking or you’ll come out of here with one less limb!”

        “Bring it on you silver-zzxzzxxzzxzxjgft” Xavier shut the dark spirit up and looked down at the silver girl. Magda almost saw something in Xavier's eyes change for only a moment..

    “It’s called Project Goddess. Now, I’m not allowed to tell you much about what it entails for you all, but I can definitely say that you will all get out of here if you agree. I have the ability to sneak every last one of you out without leaving a trace."

    “Sign me up. I’ll do anything to get out of here!” The silver haired girl reached for Xavier.

“What’s the project about exactly?” Kelly asked.

“As long as apple pie is there Motiti will be there!” Motiti cheered, seemingly unaware of the current circumstances.

“Well, the project is mainly aimed to bring the Goddess back down to earth.”

“How?”

“I can’t tell you much more than that. I already said more than I was supposed too. Rest assured you will not be harmed, intentionally anyways. So, I’m going to assume you are all willing to join the experiment?”

“Get me the hell out of here!” The silver girl screamed.

“I have to go with Silver over there, I’m willing.” Kelly whimpered out as her body shook.

“Motiti is always willing to help out! Will there be pie?” 

“Yes, Motiti,” Xavier laughed, “All of you will get exactly what you want when you participate.”

    Xavier finally looked at Magda.

    ‘Anything I want? And freedom at the same time?’

“Yes, of course I’m willing.”

“Fantastic! I’ll just need a blood sample from all of you, I will warn you. I won’t be able to get you out unless you are eligible for the project, boss’s rules. Not mine. I’ll start with Kelly.”

Xavier went around collecting the blood from everybody, except for the silver haired girl, who had cut herself with a rock to get the blood herself. Strange woman.

“Well, I’ll be back in a day or two.” Xavier left and smiled at the girls on his way out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“This is bad this is bad!” Felicity paced her room loudly, “H-how on earth am I gonna tell Alan!? No! I can’t tell him he’ll hate me! Oh...what’s the use? He’ll hate me anyway…. I gave him the worst advice humanly possible! Now his girlfriend is missing, and I told him to ignore it! Gahhhhh!”

Felicity buried her head into her pillow, “I’m the worst. Just the worst. W-wait! If I find Magda,” She jumped off of her bed and paced faster. 

“If I find Magda, nobody will hate me! They’ll think I’m a hero! That’s it!” 

Felicity ran to her balcony door and swung it open. The scent of summer filled her nose. She looked down at the drop from her balcony to the ground. It was nothing if you knew what you were doing. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    When Alan woke up alone for the second time this week he finally began to get worried. 2 days was far too long.

    ‘I don’t care if I’m being controlling!' I need to know what happened to her. Alan got his uniform on and grabbed his sword.

    The streets were actually busy for once. People were talking, and children were playing. Everything was fine and dandy. Except for Magda.

    ‘Maybe Felicity is wrong! Maybe Magda wants me to look for her.’

    Alan continued walking the streets until a man ran up to him.

“Mr. knight sir, are you looking for the missing nobles,”

“P-pardon?”

“A few days ago two noblewomen and a servant disappeared!”

“What- What were their names?”

“Kelly, Motiti, and Madga Ellenstein, why?”

‘Magda? No… she can’t..’

“A-are you sure about Magda!?” The desperation In alan’s voice was clear 

“Yes! I’m positive!”

“Do you know anything about their disappearance!?”

“Well, I don’t know much...but I believe they could be hidden near…”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Felicity kept walking through the town. It was a tiny village near the edge of the woods that surrounded finsel, and separated Finsel from other nearby kingdoms. The town was always quiet, nothing much usually ever happened. That’s what made it the perfect place for a kidnapping. Nobody would ever expect anything to happen. 

    She just didn’t know where on earth they would manage to hide people. Felicity hid her face with the hood of her cloak. She was near positive that nobody would recognize her even if they did see her face, but she wanted to be extra sure. People seemed to stare at her whenever she passed by. The streets were cracked from neglect, and grass sprouts shot up from them wildly.

    The town seemed business as usual. Nothing much seemed to be the matter, though she saw somebody exit the woods. They looked….familiar… ginger hair...whatever.

    Felicity walked around the woods for a good half an hour, without finding much of anything. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    “I spy with my little eye something…silver!” 

    “It’s my hair again.  Isn’t it, Motiti?”

    “You are really good at this game, Miss Silver!”

    “When you only look at one particular thing it makes it easy. Hey Blondie, how about you take a turn,” Silver pointed at Magda.

    “Oh um...I spy with my little eyes something….green!”

    “Something green huh?” Silver and Motiti looked around.

    Kelly finally perked up for the first time in hours, “Oh! Oh! I got it! It’s the leaf on Silver’s shoulder isn’t it!”

    “You got it Kelly!”

    The girls went silent for a few seconds.

    “Ya know...you nobles aren’t as bad as I was thinking you were…”

    “But Motiti isn’t a noble!” Motiti chimed in.

    “ Then I wasn’t talking to you!”

    Motiti whimpered and hid behind Kelly.

    “Uh...Listen I’m sorry…. Motiti. I’m sorry Kelly I’m sorry Maggie or whatever your name is!”

    Magda was going to correct the small girl, but stopped. She was already a bit too close for comfort with Silver,and the last thing she needed was to pick a fight.

    “Magda, How did your eye get hurt? That bandage looks brutal? Did it get cut out?”

    “Oh...no not at all. I...well somebody tried to kidnap me… so I fought back.”

    “Let me guess, you cried for help.”

    “No...I smashed him over the head with a teacup then beat him unconscious with one of my high heels.”

    “Whoa, not bad. Did he die?” Shana smiled at Magda, impressed by this hoity toity princess’s ability to actually fight.

    “I...never wanted to find out...so I didn’t really ask,”

    “Why not? If he tried to kidnap you wouldn’t you want to find out?”

    “I don’t wish harm on...anybody really, even though he was not a good person.”

    “We all have our moments, Magda.”

    “I’ve never killed a person,” Kelly looked at Magda.

    “Kelly, you are about to make me add another kill to my streak. I wasn't talking to you."

    “Silver,”

    “Yeah, Magda?”

    “Do you think we’ll get out of here alive?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “What if Xavier isn’t coming back?”

    “Why would he just snatch our blood and go? Makes no sense to me.”

    “What if he clones us, and uses our clones as puppets?” Kelly said as she stood up to stretch her legs.

    “Can you all lighten up, for like a minute? What are we doing here. Why don’t we at least try to escape. Just to keep our minds off of the horrificness of this all.”

    “Well, being taken to a lab doesn’t sound all that bad, I mean there should be a lot of people to talk too,”

    “And lots of yummy pie!”

    “Yeah, And maybe I can stop running away from everything for a while. I’d enjoy a break from it all. Hey, Magda ...what about you?”

    “I...don't ...I don’t think the lab will offer much for me. Everything I want..is back home.”

    “Ugh! Just when I thought I was starting to like you. You just wanna go home and be a nob-”

    “I want to see Alan….”

    “Uh...what? Repeat?”

    “I want to see Alan. I would happily give up my nobility to be with him.”

    “Ah...well you just gained back some points with me Magda. He’s the blonde guard right? You know blonde hair, blue eyes not really tall, but not short either."

    Kelly made a small chuckle.

    “Yeah,Yeah I’m short I got it! I’m a little garden gnome!”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Alan ran through the small village on the edge of Finsel’s territory. His eyes scanned for any sign of Magda and the others. The townspeople held no useful information. Most of them were scared of the leader of the guards being in such a tiny town.

    Alan had been here before, it was when he was just starting to rise in ranks. It was a petty thief who had stolen jewelry, Alan had caught him quickly which helped his prestige slightly. He was even offered a wife from the mayor of the town. Which he obviously declined, not because the girl was not easy on the eyes, but because of her age. A 16 year old guard and a 28 year old mayor’s daughter just didn’t seem right in his mind. He didn’t care much for romance at that time, he was only a boy who just wanted an escape from the slums he had grown up in. He had a good life, a loving father, a caring mother, heck even a bird, but he wanted more for his future family. If only they could’ve seen him now...

    Alan shook himself awake and walked into the forest, they were empty and besides the basic nature noises were quiet. He held his sword in his hand, just in case an animal tried to attack.

    “Alan! Over here!” 

    “Felicity?” Alan anxiously walked towards the voice, yep it was her. Felicity Ellenstein.

    “Okay, Alan I want you to listen to me,here. Keep an open mind. Ivan told me this is where he grew up.”

    “Yeah, and-?”

    “Him and Magda were childhood friends. We have to get Ivan. He’s our best bet at finding Magda!”

    “I don’t think that will work, Felicity.”

    “No Ivan told me about a place he used to play as a child. It was an ancient looking castle. It had a prison, too. Alan, we need to get Ivan.”

    “Felicity,  it will take around a day to get to the city and back. What if he doesn’t even remember?”

    “Alan, a wise woman once told me: ‘A 1% chance is better than no chance at all’ it will take you weeks to comb through these forests, and Magda will probably already be dead if we wait that long.”

    “Felicity, I don’t really have a choice. Do I?”

    Felicity nodded her head and smiled, “You better have brought your own horse!”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    “Do you think it’s day or night?”

    “Hm...Motiti? How many naps have you taken.”

    “Well there’s no sun or blankies. Motiti can’t sleep at all!” Motiti whined and she curled herself up into a ball.

    “I’ve slept twice, I think?” Kelly said 

    “I don’t count. Been here longer than any of you.”

    “Ah, I’ve slept once.”

    “Let’s go with 2 days? Does that sound right?” Kelly walked over to the oren and quietly stroked her ears.

    The girls heard a door opening and loudly shutting. They all stayed quiet, and Kelly squealed with joy as she saw who it was. It was Xavier, finally.

“Well, do we all get out now!”

    “The boss told me one of you has to stay,”

    The room went silent. You could hear a pin drop easy. The air felt heavy. 

    “Ahem, Kelly congratulations you have been accepted.”

    “Yes! Motiti did you hear that!”

    “Motiti is so happy for you!”

    “Motiti, you’re in too. You will just be a servant for a little while. Until we know for sure about the safety on humans.”

    “Oh! Motiti loves cooking can I cook! Pretty pretty please!? Oh, but cleaning is good too! So is washing dishes and-” The oren trailed off for a good few minutes.

            "And Magda.. you..cannot come."

          The air in the room became heavy and Silver looked at Magda. Magds felt her legs go to mush within seconds. She grabbed the bars of the prison and looked at Xavier.

          Why wasn't she accepted? Did that other lady bribe Xavier. What was wrong? Did she do something wrong?

"Magda there isn't an easy way to say

this but...you're-"

Magda's brain blacked out for a few 

 seconds. No...it can't. Not now. If this was any other time she'd be happy but right now? She felt hands catch her as she began to fall to the ground. She barely reacted, she heard Silver yell out something but it all sounded like it was underwater.

          That one word took away Magda's ability to move and think. This was supposed to be a happy moment for her. Most women would consider this their happiest moment. This moment was ruined, tainted by her circumstance. Why couldn't this be happy?

        Magda finally put one hand on her belly and shivered heavily. She wondered what Alan would think. Would he be happy? Angry? He will be a wonderful father to their child….

A/N:

Sorry I've been dead for like 3 weeks my computer decided to die on me and it's out for repairs and should be back in a few days. Excuse any spelling or grammar errors,I wrote this on my phone!

Edit 1: Its still not back

DiceJar Campaign 0.1: A Slippery Slope (2020/01/03)

So I return to the mighty throne of the GM Screen! To pull the strings, interpret the weavings of fate, mold the world to my whims and desires!

However, I’m going from a module, namely Crypt of the Everflame, made famous by Trix’s adventures. So I’m treading old ground, though with fewer players, and only one returning from that adventure. The better part of a decade has passed since I played it, so plenty of details should’ve left the veterans.

The reason I’m playing out of the module is as a sort of learning experience: Viewing box text and published adventure design so that it may help develop my original adventures. As for why I chose this one: I really like the opening premise. New young adventures thrown together deliberately for their origin story. Often players get focused on making an exciting backstory that they forget to make what happens at the table be the most interesting part of their life. I think it’s charming.

It’s an element/theme I want to incorporate in future campaigns.

Anyways, how will the tomb dive go without Team Pesto?

Cast

Mogui (IndigoDie): A Hedge Mage for a Lord Grey. Essentially a living lawn ornament. He helps take care of the Lord’s menagerie. Sole repeat player of the Module.

Bernard ‘Bean’ Dipp (NavyDie): Still just a child, but his father is (supposedly) suffering polio, so young Bean needs to become the man of the house. GM of the campaign I just finished. Revenge time?

Yot (LimeDie): A traveling mercenary slash adventurer nevertheless being pulled into things because some players struggle with direction. Player is a vetran of an Improv club Navy and I were also members of.

Delilah Dunford (VermilionDie): The unruly daughter of the local snobby nobles. Roguish interests and talents. Player is also from my high school days, but not the High School game group.

Game Master (SepiaDie/Me): Everyone and thing else. Nervous wreck caught in his own head. Attended a High School once and participated in a college Improv Club.

Session One

I failed to change any proper nouns like I wanted, but I also avoided needing to say anyone’s names, so there’s still time.

There’s an immense backstory I summarized, because it was too long for me to read out and I can’t trust players to read.[1] Kassen is a town that evolved out of a hold built by a guy named Kassen, a soldier turned adventurer. One day, he went to fight an evil band of… bad people. Kassen succeeded, but succumbed to injuries taken. He was entombed in a crypt, where an eternal flame was lit. Every year, the mayor rides out to bring back a lantern lit by the flame to bless the town to survive the winter. Every couple of years, town youths are sent instead as a rite of passage.

This is one of the rite of passage years.

The mayor first meets with Mogui, a lonely mage working for one of the town’s two noble families. The mayor awkwardly stumbles through his invitation, which Mogui gladly accepts.

Next, the Mayor finds Bean waiting in the market square. The mayor, again, stumbles through his invitation, which Bean seems rather confused by the semantics of, needing to be specifically told not to just wait in the town center for two days but to come back on the actual day of departure.

Yot is found in a tavern, and attempts to talk a big game as the Mayor asks him to join the adventuring party. I still need to force a firmer connection between Yot and the town of Kassen, as my original plan of Yot belonging to what once was Kassen’s band of mercenaries was sunk before I could work it in.

Delilah pops up from behind the Mayor as he’s on his way to her family’s manor, and she eagerly joins the quest.[2]

Thus is our party arranged!

Two days later, at the predetermined time, they walk into the market square and I gently prompt them to give physical descriptions of their characters. Delilah is described as having slightly asymmetrical dark hair, while the rest focused more on height and relative ages.[4]

Mogui arrives with some sort of bipedal creature. Indigo didn’t actually know what he intended the creature to be, so I’m going to assume it’s a chocobo until gently corrected.[5] Everyone promptly forgot about it, even though it supposedly was following them.

The four mingle for a bit as I lost focus trying to recenter myself and review the next step. I tend to let my players just fill time until they get bored of their scene. I probably should work on keeping a good pace with the plot, but I also don’t want to step on their fun. It’s a difficult balance, especially if there’s no NPC handy to gently snark at them to move forward.

The bells of the Church of Polyhymnia[6] ring in the noontime.

The townspeople, dressed in blacks and other dark clothing, start to form a crowd around our adventurers. The mayor emerges with an old pony pulling a cart of supplies. He distributes backpacks to the adventurers, gives a prepared speech,[8] and sends our young heroes on their way.

Mixed into their supplies is a fourth of a map that, at an actual table, is supposed to be a real piece of paper torn and distributed to the players. Since we’re not in the same room and split between two states, I instead alluded to the paper in their bag for them to ask about, while also prepared to gently drop the detail if the players don’t engage. Pivot and roll!

Initially the torn map pieces are overlooked, and the party walks south, into the Fangwoods, following a trail that starts well-worn, but progressively fades.

A few hours into their hike, they come upon a fallen tree. Three orcs emerge from behind it, and initiative is rolled.

I overlooked a mechanic I was supposed to employ, a problem I had throughout the session. The module imbedded vital instructions mid-paragraph in the description, which means I overlooked having the players roll to disbelieve when they land hits or are hit. I did read the module in advance, though, but it’s easy to forget the details, especially details hidden away like that.

I’m a terrible note taker. In school, if I was taking notes, then I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson because I was focused on writing. This also made me a terrible stage manager. Half the reason behind these write-ups is to get the information down and in circulation in my memory because I’m not able to mid-session.

What I should be doing is reading (or writing) the module, and making a bullet point list of the bare mechanics. I sometimes do similar when trying to learn new systems.[9]

Delilah climbs into a tree to shoot arrows at one of the three Orcs, the other three taking the ground battle.

The orcs are quickly defeated, their corpses fading away. What a curious event that I’m sure has no explanation to be uncovered in the future. An utter curiosity.

At this point, the party finally pauses to ask if they know where they’re going.

Ah, time for pay off.

At this point, I describe how they’d been following a shrinking trail, but soon they won’t have it to rely on.

I’m asked to post the list of supplies to the text chat for them to pour over. A careful edit of the description of the map is needed, and I do so.

The party discusses the supplies shortly, and someone looks at their part of the map. I tell them it appears to be a fourth of a map.

NavyDie shrewdly asks if they’re all the same fourth of a map. He likely learned from the time I gave my players descriptions of dreams then later threw some wood blocks at them not to take paper for granted.[10]

I confirm that they each have a different fourth of the same map. So they jigsaw puzzle it, and Mending is cast. Now they have a single map, and a burned spell slot![12]

They follow their map for the remainder of the day. The sun began to set, and the party needed to make camp.

When the opportunity arises, players will want to roll dice, because rolling dice feels good,. So everyone rolled for the survival check meant for one.

Bean, our ranger, was the only one who failed. I punished him by having him punch a hole in his tent. Everyone goes to bed, though Yot elects to take watch for a few hours, with no intention of waking anyone to take a shift after him. He chose enough time, and made the proper check, to spot a wolf investigating the border of the campsite before slinking off.

Yot decides to increase the length of his watch a little longer. So he was still awake when the wolf returned with three friends.

New combat! Yot shouts to rouse his allies, succeeding in waking Bean and Mogui, who come out of their tents to assist. No one thinks to go wake up Delilah, so she gets to sit out of this combat.

A few rounds occur, with the lead wolf eventually knocking Yot down and mauling him a tad. Mogui uses magic to scare off the other two, but lead wolf stays intent on his objective:[13] food.

The wolf makes his way into the camp, takes a mouthful of food, and skedaddles. I declare the end of combat. Bean buries the remainder of the food,[14] and everyone goes back to sleep.

With the morning arrival, and the completion of a long rest, the journey to Kassen’s Crypt continues.

The map leads them to the shore of a large lake on a misty morning, the grey skies and fog obscuring the horizon. A bandit lays dead on the beach. Our protagonists investigate the body, and find signs of an attack by a massive serpent. The body also has a sword and a wallet of gold on him, but they are left as the body is entombed into a shallow, sandy grave.

Travel continues, and they crest a small hill overlooking a serpentine valley, within which rests Kassen’s Tomb.

This then proceeds into my second big mistake: I overlooked the acrobatics check hidden with the descriptions and had my players roll directly on the failure table. Again, the table carefully set apart drew my eye. I’m learning! Poorly!

Still, someone ran into three different trees on the way down, so at least it was amusing, if unnecessarily punishing. I’ll quietly retcon away any damage taken in apology at start of next session.

Down the overly slippery hill, a small stable’s worth of dead mounts await: two horses and three ponies, the horses long dead, the ponies a little more recent. None the same day our party arrived, however.

A description of a fancy rune in the doorway’s keystone is given, and the session ends, exploration of the dungeon saved for the next session a fortnight later.

As usual, the session was characterized with me being stressed over keeping it running and attempting to follow the script of the module. The few times I’ve managed successive sessions has hinted that I’m able to settle in as things go on and the players figure out the table dynamic. I’m mostly confident I’ll figure it out.

While I am learning the value of boxtexts,[15] modules still invoke a sense of containment on me. A fear that if I, as a GM, stray too far, I’ll accidentally break something. I don’t enjoy scripts, that’s why I did improv. Scripts means you can make mistakes that need course correction.

But I’m playing with friends, we’re learning to be a cohesive performance troupe, and hopefully this will turn into a podcast. For the future.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] I’ll grant them the benefit of the doubt that they’re literate. [2] I’m seeing a combined Trix and the Sorceress[3] from her party. I’m going to have fun with that. [3] Indigo says her name was Makenna. [4] Which will make the process of creating sprite pawns for them slightly more difficult. I’ll ask them on the discord for physical appearances when I’m done writing this. [5] Were it not bipedal, I might’ve steered him into making it into a riding jackalope. They’re… kinda my pet fantastic beast. Usually ridden by mail carriers. [6] Originally the Church of a Pathfinder Deity, but I’m transplanting the module into D&D Fifth Edition anyways, so might as well sneak the details of my setting[7] into the margins. Helps everyone’s already just human. [7] Is this canon with the abandoned Genesys campaign? You decide! [8] When I have something to read, the mayor loses the stammering and uncertainty he has when I’m doing it off the cuff. This is because I’m not awkwardly trying to do things off the cuff. [9] I should have a file that’s basically Maid RPG Lite floating around due this same habit. [10] The one time I planned for my players to ‘cheat’ and show each other the notes I gave them, and the clowns kept the notes to themselves. You literally cannot rely on anyone to do anything like they should.[11] [11] I’d say you can trust players to make things harder for themselves, but return to footnote 10. [12] When I played through this module, I arrived after the mayor distributed the backpacks, and the party already had investigated their maps. So I don’t know how this puzzle was solved then. I also don’t remember the Orc encounter. [13] Behind the screen fun: while I rolled three times fairly, I applied the single success to who I wanted. For narrative reasons. I often play favorites in this manner. [14] Sure. [15] Along with listening to Dice Friends streams/podcast.

OUAT 2X11 - The Outsider

Hey everyone! Don’t even SMEE-k to me until you’ve read my thoughts on the episode below the cut!

Press Release Mr. Gold finds an unwilling test subject to see if a spell he has concocted will allow him to cross the border of Storybrooke – without losing his memory – and go in search of his son, Bae; Belle stumbles upon a vengeful Hook in the Storybrooke harbor whose main goal is to eradicate Rumplestiltskin; and Mary Margaret and David go house hunting in search of a bigger place to live. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Belle meets Mulan as the two set out to slay a fearsome beast called the Yaoguai, who has been ravaging the land. General Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness Past What I like about this segment is the pair up. Both Mulan and Belle provide something that the other wants and while their story of “person with no experience befriends hardened mentor or friend figure with more experience while simultaneously melting her heart with friendliness and trust” is pretty simple and is about as predictable as these tend to go, Belle and Mulan are interesting enough that it works.

That having been said, Belle and Mulan don’t get nearly enough quality time together as they should, and it does hinder Mulan’s resolve to let Belle kill the monster and for a couple of reasons. First, Mulan has been characterized as really freakin’ stubborn thus far in the series and those scenes all take place after this one. Why would she be so willing to give in to fighting the Yaoguai, especially given all the love she has for her village? Second, Belle brings up the good point that she’s not a fighter but instead a researcher and Mulan doesn’t give her much of an answer to it. And when she does, Belle having something worth fighting for isn’t reinforced at any point in the episode, making her resolution weak. Also, Belle’s overall story is just weird. Is she trying to just prove that she can be a warrior? Is it about being a female warrior? Is the story about accepting magic when it’s light? Fighting beasts with kindness rather than violence? There’s a lack of clarity here and it’s makes Belle’s story here feel undefined and because of that, her defeat of the Yaoguai and resolve to go t Rumple afterwards doesn’t strike the powerful note that it’s clearly supposed to.

Finally, the approach to the hunters in this episode is weird. Why not have them on their side? Yeah, they’re douchey, but it’s not like in “The Girl in the Tower,” when Alice and the hunters had diametrically opposed reasons for wanting to go after the troll (Alice wanted to protect the trolls and the hunters wanted to kill the troll). Here, they all want to take the troll down. They also don’t establish the men as sexist, yet the episode tries to paint them as it later on. They’re just a weird blend of evil, but it does nothing to establish Belle’s conflict. Present I have a large problem with a lot of this segment. They’re trying to set up that Rumple is losing sight of getting back to Bae to deal out vengeance (“Tell me this is just about getting the shawl back” is a crucial line in the Rumple/Belle fight scene at the shop and it’s made to be a big point that Rumple doesn’t answer this) while not having established that as a conflict Rumple’s actually going through. His actions haven’t been excessive when this instance of dialogue happened, and they only get excessive after Belle is threatened and Killian goads him on. Even his interaction with Smee isn’t all that different from his interactions with the man in previous episodes. And I do recognize that they finally get to showing him act excessively aggressive, but the moment isn’t helped by the lack of appropriate setup earlier.

I get that Belle isn’t super receptive to Killian’s speech about Milah and Rumple’s evil nature because of the gun, and I swear I get that, but what is the point of telling Belle all of this if she’s not going to change her mindset in any way as a result of this, especially when she’s the one who the audience is supposed to connect with, is generally framed in the right, and is being told about two characters who have established a level of sympathy? Killian’s definitely taking things too far, but we as an audience know that his words about Milah’s death are true and Belle refuses to react to that, making the scene entirely pointless. I understand that the theme of the story is that “when you find something worth fighting for, you never give up,” but this is never challenged and especially as Belle is learning that Rumple murdered someone, that would be the perfect time to challenge that sentiment. But instead, she just leaves the situation at: ”Because his [Rumple’s] heart is true. And yours [Killian’s]? Yours is rotten.” Again, this makes Belle’s doubling down feel so much weaker than it should. Insights - Stream of Consciousness -The town line is glowing! The hell?! -Rumple, wipe that SMEE-rk off your face! -”It’s [Smee’s hat] always brought me good fortune.” You have a very warped perspective on “good fortune.” -It’s so weird seeing such an optimistic character like Snow deliver a eulogy, but when you think about it, she’s probably the best person. Her eulogy is all at once a celebration of Archie’s life, a validity of the sadness of the other townspeople in attendance, and an encouragement to keep on living while keeping Archie in their hearts. -I feel so bad for whoever’s job it is to make tombstones in this world. Between Archie, Rumple, and Killian, they must’ve gotten so fed up with all of the resurrections. I imagine they are like the Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender! -Bitter segue, writers from the funeral to Archie being tortured. Bitter segue. -Archie, just say “he came to my office one time.” -How does Killian know Archie is a cricket? I’d imagine that Cora told him, but how does she know? -We’ve got our start of the Captain Beauty BROTP here...I love what this is going to turn to, but this is awkward af… -I don’t think I’m ever going to be over the fact that Belle defeated Captain Hook with a fucking BOOKCASE! XD -I am pretty sure that right after that scene in the library is where the hug blooper (i.e. My favorite blooper ever) took place! Update: OH MY GOD, IT TOTALLY WAS! -Rumple, what the hell are you wasting time on? You literally just got what you wanted! -”You expect to defeat the fiercest creature in the land with a book?” No, but give her a case full of them and you might be surprised! XD -Belle’s gambit in that wagon scene was weird. Did she know they were going to push her off the wagon? And if she didn’t, then why lead them the wrong way? If she wanted to go on her own, then why not just leave on her own? -Do platonic relationships have food, because Swan Believer’s is totally Pop Tarts. -Grumpy makes so many good points in his speech to Snow and Emma. Like, the fandom loves to infantize him, but there’s a reason why he’s as in-good with the Charming family as he is: He considers things that no one else will and for the most part, he backs that information up. -”We’re a bit homesick.” My previous point having been said, I’m sad that they don’t really acknowledge this point all that much to my memory. That also having been said, why wouldn’t you want to stay here? I’m with Isaac! Indoor plumbing is the best! -Belle is amazingly inquisitive and I love her no-nonsense approach to learning about Rumple and Killian’s beef with each other. -Rumple, especially considering what happens to Milah in roughly three seasons, fuck you for lying. Now I get it narratively-speaking and it makes sense for him as a character and I get that it’s a half truth. But still...fuck you for lying. -Also, as I said back in my review of “The Return,” I like how to a point, for as inquisitive as Belle is, she reaches a point where she won’t push an issue any further, and I like how moments like that subtly show the differences between Belle and Bae. -Damn, Killian. While I don’t know if you know who that scarf will lead Rumple to, that was EVIL! -I almost hate to make this comparison, but Rumple has a very Kylo Ren way of dealing with his anger (Breaking shit). -”And this is my fault.” Belle, this is so the opposite of your fault. Like, no. This blame game just doesn’t work. -”You’ll cast some spell that gives me no choice?” ...Just play the fucking Rumple irony clip here, okay? -Smee, why can’t you talk? RAT got your tongue?! -Belle rocks. It takes serious balls of steel to walk into an invisible portal, especially over water. -Batten up the hatches, Belle! -Archie, more like “Aren’t ‘chu glad to see me?!” ...They can’t all be winners. -Wow! Seeing Henry call Archie’s answering machine just to hear his voice just breaks my heart. That’s too real! Hell, Henry hasn’t even changed after the funeral. That’s too sad for words! How is this one moment the best part of the episode?! -”It’s just four people and a dalmation is a lot.” Snowy, baby, you have no fucking idea what’s to come! XD -”We could get our own place.” Jeez, Snow! Also, this is another point that’s brought up, but not really dealt with, not even really in the Season where they do get a house. Hell, at least suggest buying a house for all of them to live in together! The Swan Jones house had more than enough room for all of you! -So, Snow’s scene makes no sense. First, she poses that they should move out and then she talks about how they should take the chance for a fresh start that Storybrooke gives them. -”That doesn’t belong to you.” Belle, never change! XD -”It’s just ahead.” This line is the best segue ever! XD -”What makes you think his son wants to be found?” Oooh, with the Killian and Baelfire episode’s information in hindsight, that stings so badly, both as a point on Baelfire and Killian’s characters. Killian of course knows Bae wants to avoid his father after what went down with the portal, and Killian feels the same way about his own father after his abandonment. -Thank you, Killian for telling Belle the truth! Like, I get why this doesn’t prompt any change in Belle because of the gun he has on her, but yesss!! -”He will do anything to hold onto his power. Why do you think anyone who’s ever gotten close to him has either run away or been killed?” -Belle, do not destroy the town to save it! This isn’t “Man of Steel!” That monster is fire and the town is wood! I don’t need to read a lot of books to know that this is bad! -Mal, that was one badass curse! -Wait a sec. Belle left an injured Mulan in the path of a beast without letting anyone know this? -I’m looking at the David and Mary Margaret material, and I feel like if you mix the Season 2 energy with the Season 6 timing and context, this subplot would’ve been so much better. -”Unless we don’t want the same thing.” WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS LINE? -The Cricket Believer hug soothes my soul!!! -”I knew it.” I’m going to be generous and give this line the benefit of the doubt that it was meant to be a joke. -Belle, why are you going on about how you can make Rumple powerless in front of his enemy?! -”What you’ve done cannot be undone.” Suuuuuuuuure Rumple. XD Arcs - How are These Storylines Progressing? Rumple’s Redemption - So, while I don’t think the episode made this come through effectively at all, the lesson of prioritization does hold through for a while, especially at the start of the next episode. Killian’s Revenge/Redemption - Well, Killian definitely gets his revenge! This I felt was also well done because it was effectively set up that Killian was going to go after Rumple’s love in order to destroy him throughout the episode. Favorite Dynamic Swan Believer. It honestly frustrates me that this has to be put down as my favorite dynamic. Now, that’s not because I don’t love Swan Believer. I fucking love Swan Believer, but when so many interesting dynamics are going up against each other, one of them should be theoretically higher than what amounts to a side story! But yeah. Emma’s struggling with and eventual comforting of Henry as he grieves Archie is really good. It’s a great continuation from what we got in “The Cricket Game,” as this is another aspect of motherhood that Emma has to learn if she wants to truly be a mother, and in addition to just generally comforting him and validating his feelings, getting Pongo is a big step (Or would be). That’s not only a cool thing, but it’s a motherly commitment for herself as she and Henry will be taking care of him together (Or would, if Archie was really dead). Writer I am so disappointed. Goldberg and Chambliss were freakin’ legends for me going into this episode, with prior episodes having such a strong thematic presence. How did they drop the ball this badly? Like, there is just no sense of story structure in either segment and it tarnishes what has the potential to be two great stories. There’s no cohesion between the individual scenes and what we’re supposed to be taking away from them. Motivations and framing go out the window and while some of the individual character moments work, little else does. Apart from plot, nothing else changes, and that’s not what a story should ever do. The writing itself is shallow, playing the “tell, don’t show game” to say what the character’s problems are, but not showing how those are problems. Rating 4/10. This episode’s sole saving grace (Aside from great acting, set design, and music, but those are practically givens on OUAT) is it’s fantastic individual character moments, for any sense of cohesion in the delivery or understanding of his story is nonexistent. Belle’s character isn’t shown to grow from any of her experiences (In either story), Rumple’s actions are weak for what the story is trying to make them seem like, and the nuances of Killian’s motivation, while given time to be presented, are completely ignored. As for the flashback, the same lack of cohesion applies as to exactly how Belle is supposed to learn what the episode is supposed to paint her as learning. Additionally, the time spent with the Charming family adds up to nothing. Flip My Ship - Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness” Rumbelle - Something I find so interesting is how Rumple hates fairies, but Belle is so much of the closest OUAT gets to a fairy fangirl outside of Nova. She’s shown to be friendly with Blue, to the point of making her Gideon’s godmother and teaming up with her on more than one occasion and is much more welcoming at the sign of using light fairy magic in her quests. Also, in terms of the episode itself, Rumple and Belle get a lot of cute moments. Their initial scene in the shop screams of puppy love, their hug after Belle’s rescue is so nice, and before Belle’s shot, hers and Rumple’s farewell is utterly beautiful. Grumpy Beauty - I LOVE these two together! Everytime they share a scene, it’s so tiny, but it tells so much about how much they value each other and their emotional supportiveness of one another. The connection to “Dreamy” itself is just great and helps to reinforce when “Dreamy” encourages Belle to join the hunting party. Millian - So it all comes to an obviously dark place, but you really feel Killian’s fervor for Milah all throughout this episode, from Killian’s excitement at the prospect of his revenge to the more leveled way he speaks of Milah to Belle to the fact that he kept Milah’s scarf despite knowing better to the way he so quietly enflares when Belle says she died to the way he tries to goad Rumple into killing him, and to the wide-eyed venom at the town line. The character work here, both as a shared effort on the part of the writers and Colin’s acting, is sublime. ()()()()()()()()() Writing negative reviews are both the absolute worst ones to write, especially when you’re expecting a good episode. They’re easy to construct because it’s easy to explain why something doesn’t work as opposed to why it does, but fun to put together? Not at all. No one wants to see something bad unless it’s something for jokes like “The Room,” and I’m at the top of this list. I remembered loving this episode, and it honestly hurt to see that it wasn’t nearly as good as I built it in my head it to be from memory and nostalgia.

I sincerely hope the next one is better.

Thank you for reading and to those at @watchingfairytales. Season 2 Tally (96/220) Writer Tally for Season 2: Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis: (29/60) Jane Espenson (17/50) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (24/50) David Goodman (16/30) Robert Hull (16/30) Christine Boylan (7/30) Kalinda Vazquez (10/30) Daniel Thomsen (10/20) Operation Rewatch Archives

7:characters continued - worldbuilding and NPCs

A few posts ago, I talked about the stories of two characters in Breath of the Wild – Mipha and Zelda, and how their individual story arc played out within the broader story. This time, I want to talk about the characters that aren’t really part of the story – NPCs, or non-player characters.

NPCs in Zelda games have always contributed to the world of the each game. RPGs will always have NPCs, usually populating towns and coming with side quests to give the player, but when done poorly, it really doesn’t add much to the story. A lot of the time, NPCs are either turned into exposition machines or just have a fetch quest for you to complete (like “kill 10 enemies and bring me their remains” LOL). The Legend of Zelda, starting from the 3D era with Ocarina of Time, has really put a lot of detail into folding the NPCs into the environment and themes of the game, and this really contributes to the player’s enjoyment.

Ocarina of Time has some great NPC storytelling, and it fits within the context of the story. As you’ve probably heard dozens of times before, one of the main mechanics of the game is Link travelling time from his time as a kid before Ganon took over to a time 7 years later as an adult when Ganon took over. The game takes great care to show the effects of 7 years of Ganon rule on the world, including the environment and the music (see the last post). To round this all out, the NPCs also change and develop, and it fits the somber events that occurred. Some people move up in the world, some people stay the same, but some people just straight up died. Ocarina of Time really excelled with its consistent storytelling throughout the game, not just the main story, and it set a precedent for future games to come.

(rip graveyard dude)

Breath of the Wild has really taken this to the next logical step, and I think it was done beautifully. Part of this is due to better technology, but mostly, it is just a dedicated attention to detail by the staff. The world feels real and interconnected. Most townspeople still stay within the safety of their homes, but as you travel along the roads, you will encounter people travelling around, and you can follow them to their next destination. Sometimes, you will have to save someone who is being attacked by monsters, and they remember you if have saved them before. There is a clan of evil ninjas, the Yiga clan, that poses as travelers you have spoken to along the road before, only to attack you. There is a traveling reporter who goes around from place to place, spilling gossip about nearby attractions. There is a travelling bird bard, whose goal is to learn songs about the Hyrule of yore that his master was unable to pass onto him before he passed. People move around, but are still wary of exploring too far themselves. As you venture further from roads, you will see fewer and fewer people, which makes the times you do encounter people unexpectedly off the beaten path more interesting. There is a brother-sister duo of treasure hunters that roam around the ruins of old fortresses, hoping to find valuable relics of the society that was destroyed in the past. There is a fishing village that you never have to go to, but has a multitude of people with their own stories for you to delve into. This sort of detail, which would go unnoticed by some people (it took me 60 hours to venture to that corner of the map), is what truly elevates the game. It isn’t just to serve as easter eggs, either; it really paints Hyrule as a civilization struggling to rebuild, but unable to make headway with the threat of Ganon still looming. For example, the people of the fishing village face constant threats to their way of life as monsters set up camp in their fishing areas. You get the sense that they had to stand their ground to maintain their traditions across the years. Even so, the constant threat of the monsters would make anyone feel cornered and helpless. The player doesn’t necessarily need to make the journey to Lurelin village, but it helps contextualize the struggle of Hyrulians throughout the past 100 years.

One of my favorite side quests in the game is one where you literally build a town. Throughout my first playthrough, I met some characters that just stuck out to me. There was a Gerudo woman who just sat in a bazaar, lamenting the fact that she couldn’t find a husband, as her only skill was making clothes. Another Rito boy told me how he didn’t want to work in his mothers shop anymore, and wanted to travel himself. I thought this was weird, because there was nothing for me to do to change their situation. Later in the game, you meet a construction worker who was tasked to build a new town on a small outcropping of uninhabited land. You help him clear out the area, bring building materials, and ultimately, bring these people who you have met before to populate the town. To me, this signified another theme within the game – needing to rebuild. While the people of Lurelin village were trying to maintain their lifestyle against the odds, other people were yearning for something greater. When you beat Ganon, Zelda tells Link of her plans to help the entirety of Hyrule to rebuild and recover its former glory, and you are reminded of the town that you helped build.

(the sidequest ends with a wedding, with all the people you gathered who wanted something else in life. what a great way to tell a human story while also making you chop down 110 bundles of wood to build the damn town.)

This is how games can use NPCs to not only add content to the game and provide a rich world for the player to explore, but to also help tell the story. An immense amount of thought and work went into creating every aspect of Breath of the Wild, and it really incentivizes the player to explore. Many games are working to implement this mode of storytelling through gameplay as a philosophy. Unlike other media like movies or books, the player can choose to get out of the experience what they want, and when a world is well built and populated with characters that feel real within the contexts of the story, it is extremely rewarding to sink hundreds of hours just talking to everyone and seeing everything.

Sword of Vermilion: SEGA Genesis RPG Spotlight #4

Original Release Date: December 16, 1989

Original Hardware: SEGA Mega Drive

Developer/Publisher: SEGA-AM2/SEGA

There are a lot of interesting things to say about Sword of Vermilion. It was the first home game produced by the legendary Yu Suzuki and his team at SEGA-AM2. It was an RPG, which was decidedly outside of the developer's usual wheelhouse of thrilling arcade experiences. SEGA chose it as one of the handful of games to spotlight in its famous but ultimately unsuccessful "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" campaign. It uses four different viewpoints, which must have been an awful lot of work. In North America, it shipped with a 100+ page hintbook that basically walked you through the game. Some of the important names who worked on the game left SEGA after its release to found Genki, where they largely worked on racing games and only returned to the RPG genre once more with 1998's Jade Cocoon.

Yet for all the fascinating and unusual things happening around the game, Sword of Vermilion isn't anything particularly special. It's neither an amazing game nor a terrible one, the sort of experience that fills the belly but is forgotten by the next meal. It feels like even SEGA forgets about it now and then. The game was re-released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, was part of the PlayStation 2 and PSP SEGA Genesis Collection, and is also available through the nearly-exhaustive Steam SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics, but somehow was left out of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. As first-party Genesis games with no rights issues go, Sword of Vermilion is a relative rarity among SEGA's many re-packagings of their 16-bit output.

As near as I can tell, nobody who worked on Sword of Vermilion had made an RPG before. The team was clearly familiar with the genre, though. I'd venture to say that they obviously knew of such hits as Wizardry, Dragon Quest, Xanadu, and Ys. The trouble is that they apparently couldn't decide which one they wanted to ape, and ended up doing a little bit of all of them. I don't mean that in a chocolate-meets-peanut butter kind of way, either. This isn't like Dragon Quest's smooth fusion of Wizardry's first-person turn-based combat and Ultima's bird's-eye overworld exploration. Instead, it's four dramatically different gameplay styles haphazardly stitched together into a bizarre Frankenstein's monster with little apparent thought or care put into making them consistent with each other.

The game starts with a somewhat lengthy cut-scene that sets up the story. Basically, some bad guys overthrew the good king. Before they arrived, he sent his infant son away with his top knight so that he could grow up safely in secret. Years pass, and the knight is on his deathbed. He summons the boy he raised, now a man, to finally reveal the truth of his origins. This is where you get control for the first time, and the game for all the world looks like a standard JRPG at this point. You can explore the town from an overhead view, talking to people, visiting homes, and going to shops. Once you reach the side of the man you believed was your father, he tells you of your royal lineage and instructs you to gather an assortment of rings that will help you take back your birthright. The first was entrusted to him, and he hid it in a cave many years before. Having told you all of that, he hands you some starting cash and then promptly kicks the bucket.

You might be tempted to just buy some gear and leave the town at this point, but that's not a good idea. Someone in the town will give you a map if you speak to them, and you'll really want to have that in hand before you step out of the town boundaries. As soon as you do head out, you'll run into the next gameplay style: first-person exploration. Both the overworld and the dungeons use this viewpoint, and while it's not quite as smooth as it was in Phantasy Star, it's convincing enough. In this mode, the main viewing area only takes up a portion of the screen. The remaining parts of the screen are dedicated to status windows and a bird's-eye map of the area you're in. If you haven't gotten your hands on a map, you'll only be able to see the square your character is occupying. You can technically map this yourself on paper if you really want to, but the NPCs are pretty good about giving you what you need when you need it.

This isn't too strange so far, though. The first few games from Richard Garriot of Ultima fame basically used a similar combination of overhead and first-person exploration. Even SEGA had already done this, in the Master System classic Phantasy Star. You start heading towards the cave that holds the ring you're looking for and suddenly a slime appears in your view. Time to battle! And also time for our third gameplay style. Yes, the game switches to another screen where you have a sort of angled overhead view of your character and a number of enemies. You have to move your guy around and swing his tiny sword at the monsters to take them out. If they touch you or hit you with an attack, you take some damage. Should you run out of HP, you'll be kicked back to the last church you saved at with half your money gone. You'll often start fights in the middle of a crowd, and the enemies are surprisingly aggressive. Once you get the hang of things it's not so bad, though, and you can always beat a hasty retreat by walking off the edge of the screen.

It takes a little while before you'll encounter the fourth and final gameplay style. After recovering the ring from the cave, the townspeople will direct you to the next town and even give you a map. Upon arriving there, you'll enter into what turns out to be the pattern for the rest of the game. The townspeople have some kind of problem. Maybe it's a wicked king. Maybe they've been transformed by evil magic. Whatever the problem is, you'll be given a map to a nearby cave and directed to retrieve something from it. You'll probably have to spend some time grinding experience and money to power up your character first, and there are some chests scattered around the overworld that give you something to do for at least part of that work. Anyway, you'll go into the cave, do the thing you're supposed to do, and that usually leads to the final gameplay style: a boss battle against a huge creature of some kind.

For these battles, you're playing from a straight-on side view. You can duck, swing your sword, and move forwards and backwards. Carefully hack away at the giant monster in front of you and you'll soon emerge victorious. You'll get one of the rings, the townspeople will hand you another map, and you'll be directed to the next town where you'll repeat the process. Lather, rinse, and repeat for 14 towns and around 20 hours, and you're all done. The number of monsters is quite limited, the game makes heavy use of palette swaps to stretch them out, and just about every location looks the same as the last. There's very little strategy in either of the battle systems, making combat somewhat dull. You'll never have any reason or cause to go backwards, with the result being that this a very linear, repetitive marathon to the finish.  

Given when it was released, Sword of Vermilion looks the part of a next-generation RPG. Everything is quite detailed, and those side-view boss battles are pure spectacle. The music, composed by Yasuhiro "Yas" Takagi, is very good. Each town gets its own theme song, covering a wide range of moods. Yet beyond those surface elements, the game is decidedly 8-bit in its design. As an example, the simple act of emptying a chest sitting in front of you requires you to bring up the menu, choose 'open', read the text box telling you the contents, bring up the menu again, and choose 'take'. Dungeons are pitch-black unless you use a candle or a lantern, and candles only last for a short amount of time. Your inventory is limited to eight items, not including equipment, so you have to make very careful decisions about what healing and utility items you want to bring.

The maps for the dungeons are hidden in the dungeons themselves, so you might need to do some physical mapping until you come across them. You also need to check every direction of each square when you're exploring, as chests and other objects might show up when you face west but not when you face east, for example. You can only save at churches in towns, so if you're playing it as it was designed you need to make sure you have time to see your outings through before embarking. Oh, and don't expect to see the stats of gear found in shops or chests. You'll have to equip them to see their effect, and some of them are cursed. For a game from 1989, none of this is particularly shocking; few games of this era broke ranks when it came to interface decisions. But many soon would, and that made Vermilion feel like something from a by-gone era within a matter of a year or two.

The strange thing is, I kind of enjoy Sword of Vermilion. The game has a really nice rhythm to it, even if it is somewhat mindless. The initial parts of each dungeon where you're operating without a map are pretty fun, and I like the basic structure of having to solve a different problem in each town before moving on. I had fun exploring each of the maps to see if I could turn up any treasure chests or special encounters. The battle systems are easily the worst parts of the game, but they're not offensively bad. At the very least, the normal battle allow you to feel your character's growing strength. The boss battles are stupid but thankfully quite painless in most cases. I'll even give a tip of the hat to the localization. It's a bit clunky in places, but it's largely coherent and correct. That was a big ask in this period.

I've seen some positively savage reviews of this game, and I guess I can understand why a person wouldn't like Sword of Vermilion. It's repetitive, old-fashioned, clunky, and some of its bits really don't work well within the overall game. It also drags on a tad longer than it should. Even though I enjoy the game, I wouldn't have shed any tears if everything wrapped up five or so hours earlier than it did. At the same time, I've played far worse RPGs that weren't nearly as ambitious. Even among the Genesis's library, I don't think I'd put Sword of Vermilion on a top RPG list, but I'm not sure I'd discourage anyone from trying it, either. I will say that if you play through to the second town's boss and aren't really getting into it at all, you're safe to cut your losses and quit. It doesn't dramatically change from there.

Of course, the aftermath is quite clear by now. Vermilion is mostly forgotten, and the few who remember it don't usually speak well of it. Its creators only made one other RPG after it, and the studio that produced it would only dip their toes into the RPG waters (in a very tentative way) a couple more times in the future. Still, for early Genesis adopters who loved RPGs, Sword of Vermilion likely kept them busy between Phantasy Star installments. That's about the best someone could ask for at that time outside of Japan. I'm not sure this was the best choice for SEGA of America's big ad campaign, though.

If you want to try Sword of Vermilion yourself, it's currently available on Steam as part of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics, on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, and on PSP and PlayStation Vita through the digital version of the SEGA Genesis Collection. You can also track down any of the physical versions; both the original Genesis cartridge and the PlayStation 2/PSP discs for the aforementioned Genesis Collection are relatively cheap even today.

Previous: Landstalker

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A Different Fate - Chapter 13

Summary: Fiona learns that Rumplestiltskin is the Dark One shortly after Cora breaks his heart, and leaves the Dark Realm to find him. Slowly, they build the relationship they should have had - and Fiona grows determined to restore the destiny she cut away from her son.  Years later, when Belle makes a deal to become the Dark One’s maid, she never expects to find his mother living with him, or to find Fiona encouraging her growing relationship with Rumplestiltskin.

Read it on AO3 | FFN | tumblr tags

Chapter 13—“Both A Little Scared”

“How did things work out for your friend?”

Fiona knew she should not be here.  She should not be making friends with young Tinker Bell, despite the enjoyable afternoon they’d spent together.  More importantly, she probably shouldn’t lie to the young fairy who looked at her like she was the only actual mentor she’d ever had.  I shouldn’t feel guilty for this!  I’m the Black Fairy, not some insipid lapdog of Blue’s!  Yet Fiona did feel guilty, just a little.  She hadn’t felt this strange sense of belonging since her short-lived marriage to Malcolm—or at least not anywhere outside of the Dark Castle.  She’d formed a small family with her son, and she was self-aware enough to know that her irritation with Belle was what had her coming back to the Sacred Vault.

Tink scowled. “Not well.  Blue told her she can’t remain a fairy if she chooses love.”

“Ah, still singing that old song, is she?”  Fiona shook her head, wishing she wasn’t surprised.  She’d been young and in love once, too, and she’d taken the same road that Nova might end up taking.  I wish her better luck than I had. Fiona surprised herself with the thought, and that made her swallow. I’m getting soft.

“I showed Blue the histories that show fairies—senior fairies!—falling in love and having children, but she told me to mind my own business.”

“She’s not terribly open-minded, you know.”  Fiona gestured towards herself.  “You might say that I know that from personal experience.”

“What, because there’s no Gold Fairy and you’re here in disguise?”

Fiona’s jaw dropped.  “What…what gives you that idea?”

“I asked around.”  Tink shrugged diffidently.  “No one’s heard of you, so either you’re changing your color, or you’re not a fairy at all.”

“No one’s heard of me.”  Fiona couldn’t help snorting in amusement.  “Oh, that’s not the problem, not at all.  Although I do suppose that I am somewhat disguised…as who I used to be.”

“What do you mean?”  Tink sounded more curious than angry or wary, and Fiona had to give her credit for courage.

“First, tell me why you’ve listened to a word I’ve said if you knew I wasn’t actually a senior fairy.”  Two could play at the curious game.

Tink shrugged again.  “You pointed me at the books I wanted, and your information was good.  So, that means you actually knew things and were willing to help, unlike ninety-nine percent of everyone else here.”

“I doubt you’ll say that once you know who I am.”  Sadness welled up, threatening to close off her throat.  This was the third time she and Tink had met, and perhaps Fiona had just been a fool to think they might be becoming friends.

I don’t need friends. I have my son, and that’s enough.

“Try me.” Tink snorted.  “I’m a hairsbreadth away from being kicked out, anyway.  I told Nova that love was more important than being a fairy, and Blue was standing right there.  What can be worse than that?”

“Having actually been exiled.  Although, come to think of it, I don’t think dear Blue ever got around to officially throwing me out of the order.  She certainly didn’t take my wings when she sent me to the Dark Realm, anyway.” Fiona pressed a finger to her lips as she mused, forcing herself to be flippant.  “But she’s always been just a tad inconsistent when it comes to taking fairies’ wings away, hasn’t she?  I think it’s her own little power play, personally.”

“Well, she is”—Tink cut off, her jaw dropping open.  “Hold on, did you say the Dark Realm?”

“I did.”

“But that makes you—”

“The Black Fairy.”  Fiona looked Tink straight in the eyes, keeping her expression aloof while she prepared herself for rejection.  But all Tink did was look at her incredulously.

“Really?  I thought you’d be a lot…I dunno, horrible.”

“I can be more horrible if you wish.”

“No!” Tink looked so horrified that Fiona had to laugh.  But then the young fairy went on, her eyes wide and shocked.  “Oh, no.  You’re in here, around the most sacred information that the fairies have to protect, and I’ve just sat here chatting with you!  I’m such a—”

“Don’t call yourself names, dear.  It’s hardly necessary.”  Fiona waved a casual hand.  “If it makes you feel better, I read the dangerous tomes in here long before Blue exiled me.  I’m just here for other research, now.”  She’d copied everything she could duplicate with magic, too, and that information was already back at the Dark Castle.  But some old scrolls resisted magical copying, so Fiona was stuck reading them the old-fashioned way, which was how she’d met Tink in the first place.

“Aren't you supposed to be in exile?”

Come to think of it, it was a minor miracle that Blue hadn’t tried something in the decades Fiona had been free.  Had Blue not acted because she didn’t know how to imprison Fiona again, or because Fiona hadn’t done anything particularly terrible?  There was no way that Blue couldn’t know she was no longer in exile; Blue wasn’t a fool, and Fiona hadn’t been terribly subtle.  

She didn’t like the implications of that line of thinking, but Fiona smiled, anyway.  “I’ve never been good at doing what I’m told.”

“I should report you.”  Tink made no more to leave, though, or even to draw her wand.

“Go right ahead.”  Now it was Fiona’s turn to shrug.  “I’m hardly going to return to the Dark Realm quietly, not after I’ve been reunited with the son Blue kept me from for so long.”

Tink’s jaw dropped again.  “You have a son?”

“I do.” One moment’s more spent studying Tink’s shocked expression led Fiona to make a split-second decision and tell the truth.  “Why do you think I’m here?  I’m looking for information to help him.”

“To help him? Why would your son need help—and how would he still be alive when you’ve been in exile for hundreds of years?” Tink was quick, and Fiona could see her doing the math in her head.

“Because my boy became the Dark One when I wasn’t here for him.”  Fiona felt her eyes narrow as anger boiled through her bones. “And unlike Blue, I aim to destroy that curse once and for all.”

Tink just stared.  “But you’re…you’re supposed to be the evilest of all fairies.”

“Perhaps I am.  I’m no longer concerned with petty ideas of good versus evil.  I just want to help my son, and damn Blue for eternity if she gets in my way.  She let this happen to him.  I will not let it stand.”

She had been so engrossed by the window that Belle hadn’t seen Rumplestiltskin all day. Or the night before, for that matter. Finally, however, she tore herself away from watching her father and her friends—or even just the townspeople who lived outside the castle—and sought her employer out.  Belle wasn’t an idiot; she knew that showing her that magical window into the outside world was Rumplestiltskin’s way of apologizing. Part of her thought that she should stand on ceremony and demand an actual apology for the way he’d thrown those teacups at her, but Belle really didn’t want to do that.  Rumplestiltskin wasn’t some knight raised with courtly graces; he was a damaged and lonely man who she was only just now beginning to understand.

And he’s not a monster.  Not deep inside.

So, Belle rushed to catch his arm before he could disappear up the stairs to his tower, where he always shut himself when he wanted to be alone.  “I wanted to thank you.”  He gave her a funny look, so she continued: “For letting me see my friends. And my papa.  It’s wonderful to know that they’re all right.”

“Well, it seemed that you should know that I kept my end of the bargain.”  Rumplestiltskin shrugged like it was nothing.

“I already knew that.”  Belle smiled, though it seemed to throw him off balance.  “I trust you.”

A giggle. “More fool you, then, dearie.”

“Will you stop that?  I’m trying to thank you for being kind.”

“Kindness is always an exercise in futility.”  His scowl was so deep that it was almost a pout.  “I’m not kind.  I’m the Dark One.”

“Being kind is never futile.”  Taking a deep breath, Belle lifted her chin and looked him in the eye.  “I am grateful.  And I’m sorry if something I said made things worse.  I just want to understand you.”

“I am what I am.  It’s best you don’t try to understand it.”  Rumplestiltskin sneered, but Belle could tell his heart wasn’t really in it.

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t need to know the monster’s weaknesses!”

Belle rolled her eyes.  “I just said that you’re not a monster.  Stop being ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” He reared back, looking offended. ‘I will have you know that—”  The words sputtered out of him until Belle put a hand on his arm, which made Rumplestiltskin’s mouth snap shut with an audible click.

“I want to know you because you’re you. Your weaknesses are your own.  I just want to know Rumplestiltskin, not just the Dark One.”

“Why—why would you want to know that?” His voice had gone soft and uncertain, and his reptilian eyes seemed softer and browner.  Belle was sure that was just an illusion, and yet she could see how confusion smoothed away some of his rough edges, making him look more human than Belle had ever seen.

So, she smiled as gently as she could.  “Because you’re worth knowing.  Because you’re my friend.”

Last time, when they’d fought, he’d corrected her and called himself her employer. This time, Rumplestiltskin did nothing of the sort.  His voice was a broken whisper.  “Monsters do not have friends.”

“Then it’s a good thing you aren’t a monster.”  Belle squeezed his arm again, and Rumplestiltskin flinched.  The movement was almost invisible, but Belle felt it through her fingers, and it made her stare.  How terrible had his life been that he flinched away from a gentle touch?  What caused that haunted mixture of longing and terror in his eyes?

The Black Fairy had said that life had been unkind to him, and not just because he’d been the Dark One.  Belle was beginning to see that.  She was convinced that Rumplestiltskin had been a good man before embracing the darkness his mother wanted to free him from, but what must it take to make a good man choose this kind of path?  Asking him if he wanted to be free of it had definitely been a mistake, and Belle promised herself not to do that until she knew a lot more.

She wouldn’t ask for details about his life right now, either.  Rumplestiltskin clearly wasn’t ready to share, not so soon after their fight.  She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t seen it before.  He hated himself, hated what he was. He blamed himself for being a monster; that was clear from every iota of his body language.  The Black Fairy loved him despite the darkness.  She didn’t put up with any of Rumplestiltskin’s nonsense, but she loved him despite it all.  Can I do that? Belle wondered to herself. She couldn’t lie; the depths of the darkness in Rumplestiltskin’s soul frightened her.  Yet she also found herself drawn to the light he tried so very hard to hide, so she squeezed his arm again, a little harder this time.

“I’m your friend,” she repeated.  “Assuming you will let me be.”

“I…I would like that.”  Rumplestiltskin’s smile was as hesitant as his smile, but it still warmed Belle’s heart.

“So would I.”

Even killing that annoying outlaw woman didn’t make Zelena feel any better.  The knowledge that her obnoxious little stepdaughter—an odious, spoiled brat if there ever had been one!—had found shelter with Regina, of all people, was enough to drive a woman insane.  And now she heard that James had abandoned Abigail for Snow White!  There was absolutely no justice in the world, and Zelena just wanted to scream.

Yet she didn’t.  Queens had more dignity than that, and she was the Queen.  She was the most feared monarch in all of the Enchanted Forest, and the powerful didn’t complain to their underlings.  No, powerful witches got revenge, and that was what she was going to do.  To start with, Zelena was going to put a few strings on her own bow, too.  She wasn’t going to wait for Rumplestiltskin to hand things to her—even if she was certain that her teacher was sweet on her and would give her all she wanted in good time. Rumplestiltskin was nothing if not stubborn and unpredictable, though, so she needed some leverage of her own.

Which was why she invited the pirate back, of course.  The fact that he was easy on the eyes certainly didn’t hurt, either.  But he was there for business; he’d already proposed to undertake one voyage on her behalf which had turned out quite profitably, although Zelena now had a new proposal for him.

“If I hear right, you’re the Crocodile’s student. So why is it that you’d be offering to help me get revenge?”  Hook eyed her cautiously, and Zelena made a mental note that he had something of a brain to go with that pretty face.

“Because I’m not an idiot.”  Zelena shrugged as casually as she could.  “Rumplestiltskin uses everyone.  And I’m not really in a mood to be used.”

She was in a mood to use this pirate, of course, but she wasn’t going to say that. Zelena had learned to temper her impulsiveness in her years as queen, and she knew exactly what she was doing. She also knew that Rumple saw her as different from everyone else, which probably meant she wouldn’t need the pirate—but it didn’t hurt to be prepared.

“Aye, he does.”  Hook sized her up, cocking his head.  “So, what exactly is it that you want me to do, love?  It seems to be that you’ve got magic in your corner already, so why come to a devilishly handsome pirate?”

“Well, the devilishly handsome part doesn’t exactly hurt.”  She gave him a smile, meeting his eyes with her own.  Hook didn’t seem to miss the unspoken invitation, but he didn’t jump for it, either.  That’s annoying.  Zelena bit back a sigh.  “I thought we might ally, you and I.  I’m sure a pirate such as yourself knows plenty of people who dislike the Dark One, and I’d like to become their patroness.”

Hook snorted. “Would you, now?”

“Yes, I would.”  Not snapping the words took all of her self-control, and they still came out sharper than Zelena would have wanted.  “I also want revenge of my own, and I thought you might be willing to help with that if…properly compensated.”

“Now you’re talking, love.  What type of treasure do you have in mind to barter?”

Zelena blinked.  She hadn’t meant to give the greedy man gold, but he seemed to want it.  Was he so obtuse that he’d missed the not-so-subtle invitation to become the Queen’s lover?  Surely even a pirate could guess how lucrative that position could be.

No matter. She’d give him gold for now, and seal his allegiance to her later.  Zelena was sure she could wrap him around her finger quickly enough, and that would serve her purposes, even if she did have to fork over cash in the meantime.

Belle hadn’t been expecting a visitor, so she’d headed out to the garden to pick some peaches after her conversation with Rumplestiltskin.  In the beginning, Belle had been surprised by how much life surrounded the Dark Castle, but after a while, she’d come to suspect that Rumplestiltskin actually liked the garden and the many types of fruit trees.  He’d never admit it, of course, but the Dark One could easily have destroyed the beautiful garden in a temper tantrum.  Except he usually breaks his own belongings, instead, she thought to herself, still mulling over what had happened.  She was glad that they’d spoken; it was obvious that he clearly regretted his actions. The Black Fairy’s advice had been to let him stew, but she felt much better after their conversation.

Yet Belle still wanted to understand what had brought him to be like this.  His mother had said that his life had been hard, but how could that force someone to seek darkness like this?  Belle could see glimpses of a good man hidden beneath all that evil, but how could a good man want to become the Dark One?  There was so much that she didn’t understand.

“So, you are the poor child whom the Dark One has enslaved.”

The new voice made her spin around, almost dropping her basket of peaches in surprise. Then Belle found herself faced with a real fairy.  This one, unlike the Black Fairy, was tiny and hovering in the air, and she was dressed in a brilliant, glowing, blue.  Belle recognized her immediately, having read plenty of books that described her.

“You’re the Blue Fairy!”

“I am.” The Blue Fairy smiled gently. “But you can call me Blue, if you like.”

“All right.” Then she considered what Blue had just said, and Belle straightened instinctively, disliking the implication. “I’m not his slave.  I came here of my own free will.”

“Of course you did.  People tell tales of your bravery far and wide.”  Blue’s eyes glistened.  “But it is still terrible that Rumplestiltskin has forced you to become a servant instead of the lady of your own castle.  You must be suffering.”

Belle shrugged.  “I made a deal with him.  Rumplestiltskin saved my people, and in return, I came with him.  Forever.”  She found a slight smile creasing her face.  “Besides, he doesn’t treat me badly.  Not at all.”

There were moments when she wanted to throttle her employer, but that didn’t mean Belle actually thought he was the monster he claimed to be.  He was kind to her, so very kind.  He’d given her the library, a beautiful room of her own, and Rumplestiltskin actually cared what she thought about things.  He was the first man in her life who had ever actually listened to what she had to say.  Yes, he was volatile and she hated the evil festering inside of him, but he could also be surprisingly good and amazingly gentle.  When he wasn’t throwing teacups at her, anyway.

He could have hit me with any of those cups, though, and he didn’t.  I don’t think he wanted to, even if that doesn’t excuse his poor behavior.

“That is a surprise.”  Blue looked thoughtful, and then shook her head as if to clear it. Without warning, magic flashed in the air, and suddenly Blue was human-sized, brushing her skirt off daintily. “As encouraging as that is, I can free you, if that is what you wish.  I can keep you from the Dark One, and to protect you from him.”

“But I made a deal.”

“Child, you’ve certainly served enough time in this terrible place to pay the price of the magic used to free you.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I’ll break my word.”  Belle squared her shoulders.  “That’s not who I am.”  A part of her almost mentioned that Rumplestiltskin would surely avenge himself upon her people if Belle broke her deal, but she wasn’t actually sure that he would.  After all, the ogres were gone, and Rumplestiltskin did always keep his end of a bargain.

“You deserve to return to the life you were meant to have, Belle.  This dreadful castle is no proper place for a young lady.”

“I don’t find it so terrible.”  And Belle had already discovered that she didn’t want to be proper, or at least not in the way that men like Gaston wanted.

Blue looked at her appraisingly.  “If you’re worried about the Dark One’s reaction, he need never know.  It can be arranged.”

“Thank you, but no.  I will keep my promises, and that’s final.  I don’t need ‘saving’ from my own choices.”  If Belle spoke more firmly than she meant to, well, that was hardly her fault.  Rumplestiltskin might listen to her and care what she had to say, but she got the feeling that the Blue Fairy didn’t care about her opinion.  She kept pressing as if more reasons would make her forget her sense of honor and duty—or as if she wanted to leave at all!

Truth be told, Belle liked it there.  Even when Rumplestiltskin drove her mad, he was fascinating.  And…and he was kind.  When they weren’t fighting, she could talk to him for hours about books and history, about worlds he’d travelled to, or about great creatures and people he’d seen.  And Belle was freer in the Dark Castle than she’d ever been at home.  Here she would never be forced to marry an oaf who tortured ogre children, never forced to be a broodmare for his desired army of sons. Belle could be herself here; even at his worst, Rumplestiltskin never implied she should be someone else or change her mind about what she believed in.

“I see.” Blue pressed her lips together, looking displeased.  

Belle offered up what she hoped was a welcoming smile. “Is there something else you wanted?  Did you perhaps wish to visit with Rumplestiltskin?  I can make tea if so.”

Of course Blue didn’t want to see Rumplestiltskin, not if she was offering to ‘save’ Belle, so Belle made the offer with relish.

“No, thank you.” Now Blue looked like the cat who’d been stuck catching the canary, and Belle felt a little guilty for enjoying the senior fairy’s discomfort.  She had meant well, hadn’t she?  Or was there something else that Belle wasn’t seeing?  The glint in Blue’s eyes gave Belle pause, and a knot of worry began forming in the pit of her stomach, until a new voice spoke up:

“Is this how you spend your time these days, harassing young women who don’t want your attention?” The Black Fairy laughed.  “Really, I thought you’d have something more noble in mind.”

“There’s hardly any cause more noble than saving an innocent girl from a monster, Fiona!” The Blue Fairy drew herself up proudly. “But I would not expect you to understand that.”

“My son is not a monster, and if he is, he’s only what you allowed him to become.”  The words were a dangerous hiss, and Belle felt the need to take a step back so that she wasn’t in between the two fairies.  She wasn’t afraid, not exactly, but getting out of the way just seemed sensible.

“I am not responsible for Rumplestiltskin’s choices.  He embraced Nimue’s path, and—”

“Oh, spare me your sanctimonious drivel,” Fiona snapped, and then much to Belle’s surprise, looked her way.  “Are you enjoying talking to this interfering little gnat?”

“Um.”  Belle swallowed, having not expected to be pulled into this conversation.  Every tale she’d ever read of the Blue Fairy said that she was good and wise, and even if that wasn’t entirely true, Belle didn’t really want to get on her bad side. Not unless she had to.  “I think she was just leaving.”

“Oh, my, that’s diplomatic.”  Fiona—was that the Black Fairy’s real name?—laughed before turning back to Blue. “I think that’s your invitation to leave.”

Blue’s glare at her darker counterpart was poisonous.  “Not without offering Belle one last chance to escape the both of you.”

“I don’t need escape.”  Belle tried to keep her voice calm, but it was hard.  “I already told you that I don’t need saving, either, and I certainly don’t need you interceding on my behalf. I am where I want to be, thank you.”

“Are you certain, child?  If it’s this one you fear—”

“I’m not here out of fear,” Belle cut in quickly, trying to stamp on her irritation.  Had Blue not listened to a word she’d said?  Then she changed the subject.  “But I do have one question.”

That made Blue smile again, and Fiona’s scowl deepen.  “All you have to do is ask.”

“Who is Nimue?”

“No one who needs concern you,” Blue answered just as Fiona said:

“The first Dark One. Unimportant unless you’re interested in who started this whole disgusting mess.”  The glance Fiona sent her way said that she knew Belle was interested, but now wasn’t a time to ask.   Looking at Blue’s pinched expression, Belle supposed it could wait.

“You are the one who started what you call a mess, Fiona,” Blue said archly.  “But speaking of which, have you told your son the truth of why you were exiled? Have you told him what you took from him?”

Fiona froze.

“Leave.”  The word was as cold as ice, and made Belle shiver. She’d never seen the Black Fairy look so dangerous, so frigid. “Leave while you still can.”

“I will go, but not before telling you this.”  Blue’s voice was calm, but even Belle could hear the underlying threat.  “Go back to the Dark Realm.  Return to your exile, or I will tell your son what you did to him, and why he suffers from the fate you’ve deemed so disgusting.”

And then Blue was gone, leaving the Black Fairy pale in her wake and Belle staring at them both.

“My sister is insane.  I’m so sorry.”  Regina squared her shoulders as she spoke the words, prepared for her friend to blame her for the most recent atrocity—but much to her surprise, Snow just reached out and put a hand on her arm.

“It’s not your fault.  You never even knew her until she decided to kill us both.”

“And an entire town for sheltering us.”  Gritting her teeth made a sharp, grinding noise in her ears, but Regina didn’t care. If Zelena had been in front of her right now, she probably would have done her damnedest to murder her sister.

Unfortunately, Zelena liked to hide behind her royal guards, so that was obviously not going to happen any time soon.  That, and her sister had apparently inherited their mother’s magic, and Regina lacked any talent—or at least training—in that regard.  Maybe she could learn, but she had no one to teach her.

“She also murdered my wife.”  A new voice made her and Snow turn, and Regina felt like she’d been hit between the eyes with a hammer.

The man facing them grimly wasn’t the most handsome fellow she’d ever seen—though he was quite close to it.  But there was something about him, something about the pain in his blue eyes, or maybe in the way he held himself like someone who refused to fall apart no matter how broken his heart was, that made Regina’s heart ache.  There was something else about him, too, something that stirred feelings deep within her like she hadn’t felt since Daniel.  When Zelena had killed her True Love, Regina had thought she would never feel anything like that ever again, but she felt her heart flutter helplessly.

Don’t be stupid, she told herself firmly, not sure where these alien feelings had come from.  He’s mourning.

“Oh, my goodness.”  Snow, of course, reached out to put a hand on the man’s arm.  “I’m so sorry to hear that.  But you and your people are certainly welcome here.  Are you the man that Little John spoke of?”

“I am. Robin of Locksley.”  A grimace.  “People tend to call me Robin Hood.”

“I’m Snow, and this is Regina.  Like you, we’re enemies of Zelena’s.”  Snow’s smile was so gentle that even a grieving man had to answer it, and Regina was glad that Snow was doing the talking, because she didn’t know what to say. “John let us come to your camp after Zelena started hurting the people who were sheltering us.”

“And you’re very welcome here.  Any enemies of the Wicked Queen are friends of mine.”  His mouth set in determination, and Regina forced herself to focus.

“Thank you,” she said as calmly as she could.  “But…you should know that Zelena is my half-sister.  She’s no friend of mine, but…you should know.”

Most people didn’t react as well as Snow always did, but this Robin Hood just took it in stride.  “Well, if she liked you, I expect you wouldn’t be here.  Let’s find the two of you somewhere to sleep.  I can’t promise luxuries, but I can promise you’ll be safe with us.”

Fiona had no idea what to do.

Blue’s words kept echoing through her mind, reminding her over and over again that there was a terrible truth hanging over her head.  She had told Rumplestiltskin that she was exiled for trying to banish all the children born the same winter he was, but she’d never told him the most critical secret: that he’d been born to be the Savior and she had taken that from him.  Fiona had spent her first few years in the Dark Castle promising herself that she would eventually tell her son the truth, yet she’d thought of it less and less as time passed.

I thought I could leave that in the past, and bring him back to the light without that knowledge, but Blue is going to take that chance away from me.

She wanted to kill someone and the human girl who spoke up from her left made an incredibly tempting target.  “Are you all right?” Belle asked all too kindly, making Fiona wheel to face her.  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Of course I haven’t!  There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Fiona snapped before she could stop herself. Magic crackled in her palms, and for the first time in quite some years, she thought about how good it would feel to kill someone.

Rumplestiltskin would never forgive me.  But what did it matter?  Rumplestiltskin would probably never forgive her for the giant omission of the fact that he’d been destined to be the Savior, anyway, so what did it matter if Fiona killed the girl he was so busy falling for?  Might as well give it all up with a bang, she mused darkly.  Lose the family we’ve built.  Doom my son to a life of lonely darkness.  What does it matter?

“Well, I can’t help if you don’t tell me what the problem is!” Belle glared right back at her, and a part of Fiona knew exactly what Rumplestiltskin saw in her.  If Rumplestiltskin were not stupidly in love with her already—

She slammed the door shut on that thought with an effort and an external sneer.  “What could a stupid little human girl do to help someone like me?”

“Absolutely nothing if you refuse to tell me what this great secret is that you’ve kept from Rumplestiltskin.” Belle didn’t even flinch; she just crossed her arms and waited.

“It is no business of yours!”

“Of course it isn’t.”  She could tell that the girl was barely managing not to roll her eyes.  “But if it’s something so terrible, you should tell Rumplestiltskin before Blue can.”

Fiona narrowed her eyes.  “You assume I’m not leaving.”

“I hope you’re not.  It would—well, I think it would shatter him.”

The bluntness of that response took Fiona aback, and she found herself blinking. Her poor boy was so fragile, and she knew that her leaving would hurt him greatly. Of course, if she did leave, he’d never know that she’d chosen her power over his—but Fiona had always known, deep down inside, that the truth would come out eventually.  Even if she’d been confident that it never would, Fiona couldn’t really contemplate leaving her son.  She’d just said that to see how Belle responded.

Damn the girl for being so good.

“Yes, it would.”  Fiona looked away, swallowing hard as she allowed herself to look at the choices laid out before her.  “But so might this.”

“The way I see it, you don’t really have a choice.”  Belle’s voice was more gentle, but she didn’t shut up, even when Fiona glared at her again.  “Either you can tell him the truth, or Blue will.  And…and I don’t think she’s one of Rumple’s biggest fans.”

“You can say that again.”  Fiona couldn’t help snorting, although she did feel compelled to be honest.  “That is probably my doing.  She hates me more than she’ll ever hate him.”

“And she’ll punish him for that hate.”  Belle looked angrier than Fiona had ever seen her, but it was worth noting that Belle didn’t seem to blame her. Most people would.  “She’ll hurt Rumplestiltskin because she wants you to suffer.”

“She’ll tell him because she thinks I’m too much of a coward to do it myself.”  Fiona knew that was true, and as much as she hated to admit it, Belle wasn’t wrong. She sighed.  “You’re right.  I have to tell him the truth of why I abandoned him.”

She just wasn’t sure how.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who is still reading. I hope I’m not starting to bore anyone, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you’re enjoying yourself!

Next up is Chapter 14—“The Truth too Late,” in which Rumplestiltskin learns the truth how his mother cut his destiny away and Belle tries to help him through the aftermath.

The Sinking City Review – Maddening Exploration

The post The Sinking City Review – Maddening Exploration appeared first on Fextralife.

Frogwares has released the lovecraftian detective title The Sinking City, combining open-world exploration, combat and a universe of horrors. It’s up to your sleuthing to piece together the mystery of the submerged Oakmont, and in this Review we delve into the gameplay, investigative features of the game, as well as how it feels to explore a story that doesn’t hand-hold.

The Sinking City Review – Maddening Exploration

Genre: narrative-driven, lovecraftian horror, detective, action-adventure Published by: Bigben Interactive Developed by: Frogwares Release date: June 27th Platforms: PC (review platform)/PS4/Xbox One/Switch (coming soon) Price at time of review: $33.99 Website: https://ift.tt/2nTJZhv

Story & Setting

In the city of Oakmont Massachusetts set in the in 1920’s, something very strange and sinister is going on. A rather secluded area where the locals don’t look too fondly upon strangers. Through isolation, a growing lack of trust of the outside world, and a darkness is devouring the city from the inside. Oakmont is now prone to floods that just appeared seemingly out of the nowhere, causing devastation and death.

It’s through the eyes of a private detective that players will experience Oakmont. Rather than spoon feeding players with plot, it is up to you to discover the mysteries that lie in wait, which is a bit of a change of pace in the gaming industry. Through your own skills as a detective, you will unravel the story, and your choices will play a role in what is ultimately unveiled. Witnessing the supernatural will only cause distress, which can gnaw at your own sanity, adding further complexity to the gameplay.

It’s down to you as a private detective to choose which cases to take on, your main case being the primary plot, and side cases that help shape the going-ons in Oakmont. There are cutscenes, visions you will encounter, notes to read, and the townspeople’s accounts that all weave this tale together. I liked the fact there were a number of ways to learn about the plot through various methods and felt this was done well. The choices you make from your deductions will also shape the story which adds a really interactive element to the way it’s told.

Gameplay

There are two types of difficulty settings: one adds challenge to your investigation, and one to test your combat. If you want to try your investigative prowess you can choose the hardest setting of Master Sleuth to receive no hints, and it won’t tell you when you have collected all key evidence from a crime scene. Having choices in both combat and investigation is great because you could replay on a harder setting if you wish to live your Sherlock Holmes dream.

As detective stories go, this one is pretty hands on, and as you develop your main case you will pick up a number of clues which you will need to match together to make deductions in your Mind Palace. You can find clues by investigating the scene of the crime, examining evidence, and using reconstruction to put together the scene. Reconstruction is a handy tool which lets you use your almost sixth sense to re-imagine the scene and then put the events that take place in order. If you’ve played Call of Cthulhu, this feature has it’s similarities, but it’s down to you in The Sinking City to put these events in sequence.

Clues are abound in The Sinking City, which means putting on your detective hat and picking up on important hints that are provided in each case. Depending on the type of clue, it might lead you to a location which you will need to find on your map. Others will need you to use public records in a police station or the local newspaper, to find a person or further information. You can pin certain clues to your map to help you keep track of which areas to investigate, as well as give you a pinpoint to follow. This is very handy in sorting out your next move and helping you navigate the city. As this an investigative title, putting together the details is crucial to moving onward with the story, which will require carefully reading what you discover.

Getting from point A to B will really depend on whether the road has been submerged in water or not. If it is, you can hop on a speedboat to travel down the flooded paths. Taking the boat is also very useful in discovering abandoned houses which can be explored to loot items, but these are often overrun by monsters. This choice in travel makes exploring more involved, as finding a path to a certain location may be blocked off by floods. You can also use Waypoints, disguised as telephone booths, to quickly travel to points you have already discovered. This was a nice touch as the map is rather big, being separated into a number of districts, and also made me feel like I could teleport using a phone booth which always is a bonus in my book.

If you’re not used to a game that doesn’t hold your hand quite so much, there is a chance you may feel a little lost at times. Even playing on Newcomer setting which gave hints to cases, the game is designed for you to decide what to explore next. After getting through what appears to be the beginning of the main story, you’re left with quite an open-ended choice to explore the city. The game doesn’t clearly explain whether you need to complete side cases to help gather more details, or if you need to explore different areas to trigger the main plot’s continuation. Frogwares have been very apparent from the get-go that this is a story where you take control of the narrative. Having a choice to find out more about the citizens of Oakmont and what has happened to the city is at your own discretion. You can decide to enter the Infected Areas to combat the monsters that dwell there or help those in Oakmont.

Combat

Combat at times can be quite challenging, although you have a choice of weapons to use which includes melee. Finding materials to craft bullets, foot traps or hand grenades can sometimes be scarce which means conserving the items you have is a must. There is no way to block attacks so most of the time it will be up to your ability to move quickly to get a good shot.

The Sinking City does well to induce panic when a spawn of monsters suddenly appear, and you have moments to decide if it’s fight or flight. As there are Infected Areas and houses that are full of nasty beasts, being  prepared is your best bet for survival in these situations. There is no tutorial that introduces the different monsters or how to kill them, but the loading screens do give tips which do reveal each type has it’s weak point. You quickly learn that in order to defeat these monsters, you will need to aim for their weak spot which isn’t always easy, as some are very mobile and will pounce on you. Sometimes it’s just best to run away when overwhelmed, as these enemies tend in spawn in groups and can be accompanied by a behemoth looking thing which deals a ton of damage.

As much as I appreciate the number of ways to fight the monsters, what was slightly off-putting was the lack the defense structures gave. Sometimes monsters will appear a floor below, but yet still cause damage when you’re on the second floor. Monsters from Infected Areas would also peek through the barriers, and it made these areas looked glitched out. While some monsters can morph through floors, some of them looked riddled with bugs, getting stuck in places they clearly shouldn’t have been.

While dying doesn’t mean game over, you will be ported to the closest Waypoint to the spot you met your demise. This means if you are quite far from the last Waypoint, you may have to trek back to your original place which can be rather annoying, so dying definitely has its drawbacks. You can also save manually which will let you save your current progress as well as load autosaves if things didn’t turn out the way you planned.

Sanity

In true lovecraftian fashion, a Sanity meter will be something to keep an eye on. As you fight supernatural beings, you will slowly be driven mad. Using your Mind’s Eye to help pick up on mysterious markings will also affect how fast you lose your marbles, but there is a way to deal with the stress of seeing these nightmarish visions. Medication is one such method that will induce a calm state and help you regain your sanity. It was interesting to see how the people of Oakmont react to you attacking in close proximity to them, because they call you crazy, and you’re not sure whether you’re actually seeing horrors or if it’s all in your mind. If you let your sanity levels slip you will start seeing shadowy visions that are just as scary as the monsters themselves.

Skills

As you kill enemies or complete cases you gain experience which can be turned into Knowledge Points. These can be invested in a few different skill trees that can help increase damage done by your revolver, help to decrease your sanity bar when witnessing the supernatural or even increase the amount of materials you can loot. Having a choice in skills definitely increases the number of ways to play and can even create an extra layer of challenge if you decide not to use knowledge points.

Audio & Visuals

Frogwares does well with what they have, a small studio has developed a title with great investigative mechanics, but the graphics are little dated. Characters are quite emotionless in appearance, with varying amounts of detail. The voice acting does what it needs to do, but nothing is extraordinary. You do meet a number of strange looking citizens that have been “blessed” with noticeable traits, but I won’t spoil the story of why they look that way. The monsters are frighting, grotesque and are speedy in movement, so you won’t want to be in one spot for too long when you encounter them. If you don’t see them first you will definitely hear them, they are unnerving and definitely increases the fear factor.

The town is laid out well with it’s 1920’s charm, exploring feels immersive, but a little repetitive in some places. Frogwares makes you feel quite small in such a big town, filled with plenty to discover. However, this is slightly marred by the NPCs that seem to walk into walls and get stuck on inclined ground, so the game is lacking a bit of polish in this area.

Replayability

There are a few options for each combat difficulty, and investigation difficulty, which means you can challenge yourself in these aspects in another playthrough. The open-world structure means you can choose to discover as much or as little as you would like. If you want to gain experience by diving into Infected Areas and defeating the different type of enemies the game has to offer this is up to you. As the loot you find around the town is random this will determine what materials you will pick up and what you can ultimately craft.

Final Thoughts

The Sinking City is a fun game to explore, and while there is a bit of learning curve to use the number of clues you pick up and piece things together, it makes you feel like an actual detective. This isn’t your simple narrative-driven game where all the pieces of the puzzles are handed to you and placed together to form the bigger picture. It is really up to you to deduce what you read and decide where you want to go next for smaller cases. Taking time to understand how the numerous mechanics work, as well as carefully looking through the written clues is key. I enjoyed the variation in gameplay as well, which even introduces diving where you can get that much closer to what is lurking in the murky water.

That being said, there were many things that felt rushed. The bugged out monsters, the lifeless faces and a few glitches here and there just made the game feel a little frustrating at times. The size of the game is quite ambitious but maybe there were too many elements to focus on that made it is a bit of an uneven experience. While not perfectly executed, the game is enjoyable to play and really hones in on the craziness that has swept the city of Oakmont. The amount of content is pretty decent, with varying combat and investigation difficulties to choose from, you definitely get your money’s worth as the title gives a lot do.

If you’ve been looking for a game that takes on the detective role from Call of Cthulhu, added with the combat elements of Vampyr, and a more extensive open-world feel, this would be The Sinking City. And, if you’re a fan of lovecraft titles you will definitely enjoy the story, and even the survival mechanics. The Sinking City handles horror, action and leaves you wanting to find out more as you discover the unsettling tales that plague this maddening world.

The Sinking City releases June 27th on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.

If you enjoyed this horror filled detective game then you should read about more sleuthing tales in our Call of Cthulhu review. For a gritty bloodlust title with action combat be sure to read about Vampyr. For a more noir approach to investigation be sure to read our Night Call Preview – A Gritty Noir Murder Mystery.

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