#“Suits of armor you think's a statue”

[robolvrr]

late night adventures  ⁠`⁠๑🍻

swerve x gn! human bartender headcanons /

i need more of this adorable little guy.

sfw / suggestive under the cut.

"wait a minute. you gotta go to academy to make drinks?!"

you end up on the lost light completely by convenience. sure, cybertronians haven't exactly gotten the best reputation - a waging war following wherever they migrated wasn't pleasing for the planets caught in between a billion years of conflict. still, you're tired of working in a shitty bar with shitty customers and shitty pay.

while brainstorm first suggested to find a way to mass displace you (which you tend to just tune out his plans because he makes zero sense), the crew has settled on just making you a mech suit. it's not boxy, fitted for your frame. you don't have a helmet on because the mechs like to look at you.

kind of like a zoo animal exhibit to be honest. look, the alien in the tin can can speak!

you quickly develop some favorites. tailgate is adorable and cyclonus is terrifying but warms up to you over a few months. rewind is chatty. rodimus is.. rodimus. whirl has his charm and you love to hear skids ramble.

but who you really click with?

swerve.

my god he is OBSESSED. a human? on board? in his lifetime? at HIS bar?

it's even better once he learns you share interests.

you talk about your experience as a bar tender and yap his audials until he's melting. he loves it though.

he finds it interesting all the personal touches humanity tends to do for drinks.

like little fruits in fancy cups? burning a glass just for the fun of it?

"do you ever experiment with drinks?"

"well, yeah. to an extent."

"huh. do your customers sometimes offline for a lil?"

"... no honey i don't think they ever have."

please help him convince ultra magnus to include their trades for wines and spirits.

sometimes he lets you get behind the bar top.

he gets posted at your side and gushes like a goof. he finds the way you're able to talk and make drinks very, very impressive.

he learns to make drinks for you over time.

the first time you kind of gag and he freaks out, but you just end up patting his helm and choking out it's alright, he just gave his drink some extra kick.

HOOO. that is LIQUOR sir.

"what's wrong, starshine? feeling nervous?"

so. swerve isn't much of a flirt funnily enough. mechs laugh at his jokes and he's gotten some great connections, but not nearly the time to actually go out of his way (or shell) to banter like that.

it doesn't help that not a lot take him seriously. :(

when you talk to him about the culture of bartending, you joke about whether or not he had to sweet-talk his frequenters for tips and such.

he looks so confused.

"huh? why would i? you come to a bar to.. drink. right?"

oh boy.

you laugh though pat his shoulder when he gives that tiny pout of his. and you have the brilliant idea to show him what you mean.

it turns into a bet. if you can casanova the armor of em you win! and he'll get to see you in your full element. that means one night, human bartending - which drags in a HUGE crowd.

swerve bumps into mech after mech, shooting a lazy set of finger guns before knocking his way up to the bar. why was it never this busy when he was tending?

maybe he should hire the human. they certainly got some flair. for business purposes, of course. not like he's been thinking about them in the middle of the night staring up at the ceiling still as a statue. that would be weird. and creepy.

is it hot in here? it's definitely hot.

he eases himself on a stool. it feels funny being on the receiving end for once.

imagine his surprise when he spots you effortlessly zipping around, making drinks and finding him in the crowd! that look in your smaller optics sparkle and he feels the ship shift. is he having a spark attack? maybe premature crisis.

"hiya, handsome. the regular?"

he doesn't even look down at the glass you set before him, but it's his favorite engex mix and you remember, you remember what he likes. frag. you are a real sparkthrob.

"haha, already starting with the show, huh? you're gonna have to do better than that if you wanna prove your point."

it doesn't take a detective to sense how nervous he sounds. or an magnifying glass, because his gaze is a little focused on where your aft would be. your mech suit is real nice. there's orange and yellow accents, dark coal mesh barely visible between rivets of armor.

sometimes in the shower he thinks about how you'd look as a cybertonian. you'd probably be just as hot.

hot galaxy babe. ha. so he's a hopeless romantic and a xenophile.

"you're my favorite customer, swervey. just admit it feels nice to be pampered. big, hard-working mech deserves a little treat now and then."

then you toss that impish look over your shoulder, shaking two steel mixers together. the motion is standard. up, down, up down, up down, shake shake.

your grip is firm and confident on the equipment. your fingers can't really fit fully around the circumference.

he gulps.

"y-you're not slick. nuh-uh-uh. takes a lot more than saucy words from a pretty thing to get this motor running."

"oh. so you'd like me to demonstrate? i am a hands-on learner."

"this kind of talk wouldn't fly around here for long, sweetspark. makes me kind of jealous - you doing this for all the crew? cause i gotta tell you, there's some reaaaal bastards--"

thank primus it's loud in here. you don't help you know, tipping over the bar with a wry grin.

something pops into his mouth. an energon cube. raw.

"then it's good i just like teasing you."

you slide down about four drinks along the metallic table. swerve wonders if love at first sight is truly like the movies.

"tell you what. these drinks? on the house. and if you stick around.. i can teach you some chemistry outside of just making a damned good cocktail."

steam whistles out his vents.

..........

yeah. you won.

[whereserpentswalk]

Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.

The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.

The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.

The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...

The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.

The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.

The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.

The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...

The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.

The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...

The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.

The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.

The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...

[ladybyakuya]

| WHITE DRESS + JING YUAN.

+cw. — f!reader, established relationship, arrange marrige, fluff, pining, banter, teasing, suggestive content , mention of feixiao :D

+wc. — 1k

+syn.— a peek in general Jing Yuan's married life with you.

+notes. —can be read as stand-alone but if you wish to read the other parts can be found in my masterlists | redirect to blog navigation.

Jing Yuan had a very mundane morning routine before you walked into his life. That’s how he used to keep his sanity at bay. Being the General of Xianzhou Alliance's Cloud Knights for centuries, fighting and protecting his people he had rather grown comfortable in it. He is just too used to zone uproars and war turbulence but it has been peaceful for a while. He likes that. That’s why he is taking it easy. But when you came into his life he was on edge again. He has something to protect, something belonging only to him. It was like walking on a wire again. Surprisingly, you filled the boring gaps in his mundane morning routine.

Jing Yuan wakes up at seven o’clock in the morning, like he usually does but he is naked under sheets ever since he got you as a wife but that is not the case on all days. But often he wakes up to an empty bed running his hands on your side of the bed with a soft smile over his face that has a warmth of morning dews because he gets to spend the whole night with you after work. It’s not easy to have this abundance of mundanity for a man of such power, wealth, status, and responsibilities. He is more happy than he was before. He waters the plants, sinks in the lap that nature has to offer, and then gets ready for work— and that is when he first sees you. He used to wear his armor all alone before he married you, thinking that if he died people would mourn him, people would miss him, people would remember him but that is all they will do for the rest of the generals too. He is not something special. But with you in his life, he feels special. He has someone to come home to, someone who would be too devastated to live if he died on the battlefield. He does not do anything except coordinate his movements so that you can easily put on his suit but there are days when he throws tantrums. The whole corridor gets filled with giggles on days like that, your giggles especially.

“Wait,” Jing Yuan grabs you pulling you into his body. His hands immediately lock you in an embrace. “Let me take a good look at my wife.” This. This few minutes where there are no lingering staffs or any sort if interruption is an absolute bliss for him. He touches his forehead with yours as you refuse to look at him, playing with the brooch on his collar. He knows you feel shy at first. He always have to get you a little worked up to be comfortable but that denotes him off because it might be just a kiss to you but he is going to think of it for the rest of his day, wide awake— no dull moment in his life. You are the cure to his boredom. Despite such yeaning agony swelling in his heart, his lips wrap around yours. It's wet, coated with longing. One of your palms moves under his jaw and he knows his time is up. He pulls away with a groan. 

“I’ll set the table, yeah?” you mumble unlocking his hands easily now. If you hadn’t given in so easily like how you used to he would have ended up having you cave in to his cravings before he goes to work. Yeah! That’s how he is. You leave him in the room to get to work as thinks back to one of his most fond memories of you. Ever since he caught you having a midnight snack alone in the kitchen after few months of marriage,he demands to eat the food cooked by you. It was one hell of a night. It wasn’t the sex that set this night apart from others. Sex was good, of course, but amongst those dim lights, when you were busy stuffing your mouth with the food you freshly cooked as he stood beside you holding the plate for you, all he wanted was to protect you, your happiness, and your sadness — everything related to you.  

Jing Yuan sits to dine as the staff sets the table while you stand aside keeping rapt attention if anything is amiss. “Wait! you forgot something. he calls you out. You tilt your head and wait as he adds, “a kiss!” You immediately look around to see if any of the staff heard your husband or not but now they are all gone. They know better than you. Did he really forgot what happened in the dressing room? You saunter towards the table thinking its better just to give in rather resist; as you stand by his side, and lean to place a dry kiss on his cheek and then you turn on your heel to walk away.

“Just on my cheek?” Jing Yuan enquires with surprise in his tone as he stops you by grabbing your hand. Finally, you chuckle— ah! what a time to be alive. 

“Feixiao is waiting. I got her message.” You sit on his lap encapsulating your free arm around his shoulder while he refuses to let to of your other hand. “I have already made her favorites. Your too, love— He kisses your hand as you keep going on— and it's packed. I do have a lot to do today. The staff are getting lazy. . . ” Ah! He remembers how you were so silent during the first few months of marriage. Not that he is complaining but he is just. . .blessed to see this side of you. He does not particularly fancy sweets yet is but he feels nauseous at this point since you are too sweet for him. Oh! How can he ever deny you? He can deny sweets but not you.

You feel the gaps of your fingers being filled by his fingers. “can we stay like this a while longer?” Jing Yuan asked as he kisses the back of your hand. 

“You know we can’t.” You watch him pout a bit so you are compelled to add, “Come home soon.”

[perfectsunlight]

I BET YOU THINK ABOUT ME - JISOO

kim jisoo x reader

word count: 3.5k

warnings: implied age-gap, class disparities, isolation, belittling, emotional manipulation, mentioned breakup.

synopsis: despite being broken up, you bet your wealthy ex-girlfriend still thinks about you.

there were many things you enjoyed about dating kim jisoo. the way her laughter could light up a room, soft but knowing, like she was in on a joke no one else understood. how her touch was always delicate—calculated, even—as if everything she laid her hands on was an extension of the control she had over the world around her.

but her wealth and status? no, those were never the reasons you stayed.

even now, walking down the narrow, cobblestone streets where red and gold leaves scattered beneath your feet, you couldn’t help but be swallowed by memories of her. the crisp autumn air bit at your skin, a sharp reminder of the past, tugging at your thoughts like the wind tugged at your coat. it was in this season that jisoo had always seemed to glow brightest. her beauty matched the fall—effortless, rich, like a vintage painting come to life. she was untouchable.

however, she was just as cruel.

you just didn’t realize it at the time. how her perfectly manicured fingers—always cold to the touch, always adorned with rings that shimmered in the dying autumn light—had dug deep, not into your skin, but into your spirit. each time she mentioned your "quaint" lifestyle, your "charming" lack of understanding about the finer things in life, it had been wrapped in a velvet glove of affection, so you hardly noticed the sting at first.

it had felt like walking through the falling leaves, admiring the beauty, unaware that winter was creeping closer, ready to strip everything bare.

she had always made sure you knew she was from another world—one where silk sheets were the norm, where every meal came with a waitstaff and a glass of wine you could hardly pronounce. her apartment had been like a showroom, sterile and pristine, with floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched out over the city like a kingdom she ruled from above. and you, standing in the middle of it all, had felt small.

but now, in the aftermath, you could see how she had looked at you, like a pet project. an amusing distraction.

you remember the last dinner you shared at some restaurant you couldn’t pronounce, where the chandeliers above flickered against the dim light and the leaves outside the window swirled like some gilded snowstorm. she had ordered for you without asking, her voice as smooth and cool as the autumn breeze that crept into the cracks of your jacket.

"it’s adorable," she had said, waving her hand dismissively at your confusion when the plates arrived, "how little you know about this. really. it’s sweet."

at the time, you’d laughed it off, sipping the wine that burned your throat more than it soothed. but now you realize how sharp her words had been, each one a blade wrapped in silk.

the holiday parties were even worse.

you’d always felt out of place, like an actor in the wrong movie, wandering through rooms filled with people who looked like they belonged in some old-world painting. there were always murmurs of stocks and art auctions, people in tailored suits that hung off them like armor. you, in your off-the-rack blazer, had felt like an imposter. but jisoo, with her arm linked loosely through yours, had moved through the crowd effortlessly, her smile cold and practiced, like she knew every secret and every face in the room.

the air inside was thick with perfume and candlelight, but it never warmed you. outside, through the towering windows of the penthouse venues, you could always catch glimpses of the world you belonged to—the same city, but miles away, where people didn’t wear silk scarves that cost more than your rent or talk about vacation homes in hushed, reverent tones. the autumn leaves that still clung to the trees seemed desperate, the last few hanging on in the icy wind. much like you had been, clinging to jisoo’s side, pretending not to notice the subtle, cutting remarks she’d make about your clothes, your taste in music, your background.

"you know," she’d say in that breathy, disinterested tone of hers, eyes scanning the room like a queen surveying her subjects, "maybe next time you could wear something… a little more appropriate for the occasion?"

the words had stung, but you’d smiled, nodding like you hadn’t just been dressed down in front of people who already looked at you like you were her charity case. you’d downed your drink, hoping the burn of it would distract from the ache in your chest, while jisoo had already moved on, laughing airily at some joke from a man whose name you couldn’t remember, but whose disdainful eyes stayed with you long after the night was over.

at those parties, she’d always introduce you the same way: “this is y/n.”

nothing more, nothing less. like you were just another accessory—another piece of her perfectly arranged life. your name alone always hung in the air, stiff and formal, with no affection behind it. 

it was a title, not a connection.

but the way she spoke about herself was different. she was kim jisoo, daughter of one of the wealthiest families in seoul, a woman who everyone admired but no one truly knew. she never missed a chance to remind people of her lineage, of her success, of the places she’d been that you could only dream of. you’d stand there, smiling politely, the outsider in your own relationship, as she charmed the room with stories of her luxury trips to europe or some exclusive party she’d attended.

you used to tell yourself that maybe this was just her world—one you didn’t quite understand but could learn to navigate. after all, you thought, love was supposed to be about growing, about adapting to each other. but now, looking back, you see it differently. you hadn’t been adapting. you had been erasing yourself.

you remember the first time you’d seen her living room—everything about it had been a display of understated opulence. the couch, soft and inviting, had been custom-made in italy, a piece of furniture that cost more than you’d make in a year. the kind of thing you wouldn’t even dare to sit on without an invitation.

she’d caught you staring at it once, your fingers brushing lightly over the velvety surface, as if afraid you’d leave some permanent mark on it.

“do you like it?” she’d asked, her tone casual, almost playful, as she kicked off her shoes. organic shoes, she’d said—handcrafted by a designer who only used sustainably sourced materials, each pair worth thousands. she’d tossed them carelessly to the side, as if they were nothing more than an afterthought.

“it’s beautiful,” you’d breathlessly answered, unsure of how to respond. what else could you say? the couch was more than a place to sit. it was a symbol of everything that separated you from her.

the older woman had smiled, that knowing little smile of hers, and settled onto the couch, curling her legs beneath her. “it should be,” she’d replied, her voice laced with a subtle arrogance. “it cost a fortune. but you can’t put a price on comfort, can you?”

at the time, you’d nodded, sitting beside her, careful not to spill the coffee you’d brought from a café that seemed almost comically out of place in her world of curated luxury. but now, looking back, you realize how much weight that moment held.

the couch, the shoes, the apartment—it was all part of the same narrative. jisoo’s life was meticulously designed, every element perfectly placed to reflect her status. even her so-called love of organic, sustainable products wasn’t about caring for the earth; it was about showing the world that she could afford to care. it was another layer of the image she presented, another way to remind you that you didn’t quite belong.

the shoes—those ridiculously expensive shoes—had been one of the first things you’d noticed about her. how she would glide through the city in them, effortlessly chic, while you tried to keep up in your well-worn sneakers. how she never seemed to care about the price tag, because to her, money wasn’t something you worried about. it was something you had. something you displayed.

you remember asking her about them once, marveling at their craftsmanship, at the intricate details stitched into the leather. “they’re nice, right?” she’d said, almost bored with the conversation. “made by a small artisan. i like supporting brands that are more...conscious. but it’s not just about the shoes, you know? it’s about a lifestyle.”

at the time, you’d nodded along, impressed by her philosophy, thinking there was something admirable about her commitment to sustainability. but now, with the clarity that only distance can bring, you see it differently. it wasn’t about responsibility or caring for the environment—it was about exclusivity. 

jisoo didn’t just buy things; she bought status. and as a result, she never let you forget where you came from.

she didn’t need to say it outright; her silences were louder than any words. the way her gaze would graze over your simple gifts, a flash of disappointment quickly masked by a too-sweet smile. the way her laughter, always so soft and melodic to anyone else, would carry a sharp edge when she’d point out how "cute" your attempts to impress her were. every look, every gesture, had been a reminder: you would never be enough.

and the holidays only magnified the divide between you. her family gatherings were a spectacle—elegant, with a quiet kind of opulence, but they were colder than the snow beginning to fall outside. conversations were distant, sterile, filled with politeness and half-meant compliments. you’d watch as jisoo’s mother raised an eyebrow at you, a polite but questioning smile on her lips, while her father barely acknowledged your presence at all, too engrossed in conversations about business acquisitions and real estate.

you remember the first time you had brought her home to meet your family. the warmth in the room had been undeniable, even if the house had been modest. the table was small, the plates mismatched, and the wine was cheap, but there had been laughter. real, full-bodied laughter, the kind that left your cheeks flushed. but jisoo had sat there, stiff and out of place, a polite smile frozen on her lips as she delicately picked at her food. she had said all the right things, but you could tell—she didn’t belong in your world, just as you didn’t belong in hers.

and after that night, she’d never come back. not once.

"it’s not my kind of environment," she’d said, as if your family home was some quaint little corner of a forgotten world. but you hadn’t pushed it. you’d just smiled, hoping that love would eventually smooth out the rough edges between your lives.

but it never did.

your image of her entirely changed once she launched her own dior collaboration.

the transformation was undeniable. jisoo had always been poised, elegant, and out of reach, but when her dior collaboration was announced, it was as if she ascended to another level entirely—a world you never truly belonged to. the moment you saw her in those campaign ads, draped in luxury from head to toe, with that distant, unreadable expression in her eyes, you realized something had shifted. it wasn’t just the clothes or the brand—it was her.

the once subtle differences between you were now glaring. she’d always had a way of making you feel small, of making the simplest moments feel like they were being measured against some invisible standard. but now, with the world’s eyes on her, she no longer had to hide it. she wore her superiority like couture, and her status was no longer just an undercurrent in your relationship—it was the defining feature.

you remember scrolling through your phone that first day the campaign was released, seeing her everywhere—billboards, social media, magazines. her image was iconic, flawless, unattainable. the woman in those pictures wasn’t the same person you once loved, or perhaps she was, and you had simply refused to see it. the jisoo in dior was the one the world adored: polished, elegant, and untouchable. and the jisoo you had known—the one who laughed with you on lazy sundays, who curled up next to you in bed with soft whispers—felt like a figment of your imagination.

that night, you sat in your apartment, surrounded by the faint scent of coffee and fallen leaves, watching her face appear on the tv during yet another interview. the host praised her for her taste, her grace, and asked how it felt to be a global ambassador for such a prestigious brand. jisoo smiled that small, practiced smile, the kind that could melt an audience but had always left you feeling cold.

“it’s an honor, truly,” she said, her voice as smooth as ever. “i’ve always been drawn to the finer things in life, and working with dior is the perfect alignment of that vision.”

drawn to the finer things. those words echoed in your mind long after the interview ended. it wasn’t that she loved the finer things—anyone could—but the way she lived for them, the way they seemed to define her, made you realize just how different you were.

the last time you saw her in person, it was the tail end of last fall, the leaves almost entirely stripped from the trees, the sky a muted shade of gray. you’d met for coffee, though it felt more like a final performance than a reunion. she had walked in, dressed head-to-toe in dior, effortlessly chic in her monochromatic outfit, the click of her heels on the hardwood floor echoing like some distant reminder of all the ways she had outgrown you.

she hadn’t even taken off her sunglasses, those oversized black lenses that concealed any hint of vulnerability. the moment she sat down, you knew—this was the end.

“i’m heading to paris for fashion week,” she had said casually, as if she were talking about a trip to the grocery store. “things have been busy.”

you remember nodding, unsure of what to say, feeling the weight of the unspoken words between you. there was no warmth in her gaze, no familiarity in her voice. the woman sitting across from you was a stranger, more concerned with her schedule, her image, her empire, than with you.

when you finally found your voice, all you could manage was, “i’m happy for you.” it sounded hollow, even to your own ears.

she had smiled—an empty, fleeting gesture. “thanks. it’s good to hear you say that.” her leaving behind the scent of her designer perfume felt more symbolic than it probably should have,

that’s when you knew—there was nothing left of what you once had. 

the girl you had fallen in love with was gone, replaced by someone who only cared for power, prestige, and perception. and as the autumn wind howled outside, rattling the windows of the café, you realized you weren’t mourning the loss of her, but the version of her you had once believed in.

jisoo wasn’t just a woman anymore. she was a brand. a symbol. a masterpiece crafted by the very world she belonged to. and you? you were simply a chapter in her rise to the top, forgotten as soon as the ink dried.

you didn’t date kim jisoo for her wealth. 

you dated her for the way she seemed to know the world in a way you never could—confident, poised, above it all. you thought that maybe, by loving her, you could somehow touch that world too. but love wasn’t what had tied you together. not really.

it had been power.

she loved the way you looked at her, like you were eternally trying to catch up. the way you stumbled over the names of her favorite designers, or blinked in confusion when she mentioned some art exhibit you hadn’t even heard of. she loved the control. and you—god, you had loved her for it. back then, you thought it was awe. now you see it for what it was: submission.

but there, in the middle of the bustling autumn streets, as you watch the leaves scatter across the pavement in a dance as fleeting as your relationship, you find yourself wondering—does she think about you?

does she ever sit in that apartment of hers, surrounded by luxury and untouched by the season, and wonder what it would be like to be less than perfect? does she ever close her eyes and picture the messier parts of love, the parts she could never let herself fall into?

you smile bitterly, pulling your coat tighter around yourself. maybe she does.

maybe, even now, as you wander through the city you had once explored together, her mind drifts to you—the one person who had never fit neatly into the frame of her perfectly curated life. maybe she remembers how, despite everything, you were never quite small enough to be molded. 

and maybe, just maybe, in her moments of silence, with her designer bags and high-rise views, she thinks about how she’ll never find someone quite like you again. someone who saw her for more than just the polished surface she presented to the world. someone who, despite it all, had loved her—flaws, cruelty, and all.

the wind howls, scattering more leaves into the air, and you watch as they swirl and disappear. there’s a certain beauty to the way things fall apart, you realize. a kind of freedom in it.

jisoo might not know that, but you do. however, your mind refused to let you rest.

it was 3 am, and you were still wide awake. the cold light of your phone screen cast shadows on the walls of your tiny apartment, worlds away from the penthouse where jisoo was probably fast asleep. you imagined her there, wrapped in those luxurious silk sheets, her breath steady, undisturbed by thoughts of you. in her city. the one that always felt a little brighter, a little shinier than yours. a place you never quite belonged.

your mind wandered, picturing her with someone new. someone from her world. the kind of girl who knew all the right names to drop at fancy dinners, who could wear those thousand-dollar organic shoes without feeling like an imposter. a girl with a perfect pedigree, someone who her friends probably thought was “better” than you. you could almost hear them whispering it, their voices low but full of certainty.

it wasn’t long ago that you had tried to fit into those circles. you’d been the outsider, awkward and out of place in jisoo’s world of high-society dinners and private parties. but you tried, back when love made you brave, when you thought if you just held her hand tight enough, the rest would fall into place.

they let you sit at the table, once. out of courtesy, or maybe because you were still attached to her arm like an accessory she wasn’t ready to give up. you’d laugh when they laughed, your smile tight as they sat around talking about the meaning of life, throwing around names of philosophers and books you’d never heard of.

“the book that just saved me,” one of them had said, casually, like it was a known fact that certain books saved people. you’d smiled and nodded, even though the title flew right over your head, another reminder of how little you belonged.

jisoo had glanced at you then, her eyes softening in the way they sometimes did when she noticed you struggling. she squeezed your hand under the table, like she used to when you were still hers, when you thought her world was one you could live in.

but that was before. before the doubts crept in, before the weight of her world pressed down on you. now, it felt like she’d moved on, maybe even found someone who fit in effortlessly where you never could. someone who didn’t have to pretend.

you rolled over, the silence of your room closing in, and you couldn’t help but wonder if she was asleep now, completely at peace. and if the girl in her bed had the right name, the right look, and could keep up with her friends when they talked about art and life and all the things that always seemed just out of your reach.

the thought made your chest ache, that deep, familiar loneliness that always seemed to come with thinking about her. about them. those nights when you sat in the background, silently wishing you could be enough. but no matter how much you tried, you could never quite silence the feeling that jisoo’s friends were always comparing you to someone else, someone better.

and tonight, even though you knew it was pointless, you couldn’t stop wondering if they were telling her that the new girl was everything you never could be. or maybe jisoo was out at one of those cool indie concerts she dragged herself to every week, trying to feel young, trying to prove she was still part of the scene, even though she didn’t belong there any more than you did. it was always about feeling cooler than she actually was, pretending she wasn’t inching further from the age of the crowd around her.

but even with her friends laughing by her side, pretending to be someone else, you knew the truth. 

“i bet you think about me.”

[ode-to-melpomene]

hello mel!!! your jason todd x artist! reader is a real gem, so delicious i think i would like to eat it!!! could i possible request a jason todd x famous poet!reader?

Anon, you get me.

I struggled a bit with the plot for this one, but I hope you like it regardless <3

Erato

Pairing: Jason Todd x gn poet!reader Synopsis: Jason convinces you to take a break. Word Count: 1281. Warnings: Established relationship and fluff!

The living room was dark. 

Blanketed in shadows, Red Hood stepped off the fire escape and into the apartment. Muscles taut, shoulders squared, jaw clenched tight beneath his helmet, he stalked with a panther’s grace through the shadows. Light on the balls of his feet, his heavy boots hardly made a sound against the floorboards of the creaky old Gotham apartment.

Red Hood kept his hand hovering inches from the gun on his waist as he stepped warily around the furniture. The white film obscuring his eyes trailed over the lamp atop an end table beside the familiar orange chaise sofa.

Something wasn’t right. It was so dark.

Filling the shadows with his presence, Red Hood slunk down the hallway. His broad figure filled the space, looming in the narrow hallway like a beast waiting to lunge from the darkness. His skin crawled with a sense of wrong, wrong, wrong. His teeth inched to sink into something. The scent of copper and gunpowder clung to his body armor, suffocating him as he inhaled it with each breath. His hackles rose.

There, at the end of the hall. The tiniest sliver of pale light filtered through the crack of an ajar door. Red Hood’s fingers twitched beside his gun, itching to reach for the grip that he knew fit so comfortably in the palm of his leather-clad hands.

Said hands, dirty and tainted, slid across the sage green surface of the door. Claws curled around the edge of the door, sliding through the gap. He inhaled deeply, a rumble like a growl deep in his chest as he steeled himself. Something was wrong, wrong wrong-

Red Hood pushed the door open and hovered in the doorway. A hulking, heaving, monstrous figure doused in oil-slick darkness that filled the entire threshold. Sharp eyes and predatory teeth staring down at-

You.

Your eyes jerked away from the dimly lit laptop screen on your desk and landed on the shadowed figure looming at the entrance to your home office.

“You didn’t leave the lamp on,” Red Hood gruffed, his fist clenching and unclenching at his side. You always left the lamp on.

Your eyes widened as you glanced around the dimly lit room, the blackout curtains drawn. “What time is it?” you demanded with a breathy sense of panicked realization.

“Three in the morning,” Jason breathed a sigh of relief and sagged against the doorway. “Scared me, angel. Thought somethin’ might have happened.” His gloved hands reached for his helmet, dragging the metal from his skin with a satisfied exhale. He rolled his head on his neck, stretching the aching muscles. “What are you still doing up?”

“Finally found a groove,” you replied, your gaze again fixed on the dim screen. Your fingers hastened over keys with a swiftness he hadn’t seen in days. He had grown used to the sluggish drawl and frustrated taps, your dramatic grumblings begging for inspiration to strike. “If I stop now, I- I’ve gotta get this done before-”

“The end of the week,” he finished, an exhausted, lopsided grin rising on his lips. He lifted a gloved hand to swipe sweaty hair from his skin. “How many have you written tonight?”

“Six,” you answered quickly, fingers pausing over the keys. The sound of heavy boots crossing the floor drew your attention and you found yourself staring up at Jason as he leaned forward and planted one hand on the desk. His helmet thudded onto the desk next to your hand. Your eyes met his, lips parting slightly at the curious expression he wore.

Jason always seemed like a statue to you. Strong, immovable, broad. Your eyes grazed over the scrawling scuffs and scratches of his suit that spiraled like vines climbing over his marble surface. The red highlights of his armor like maroon clematis, blossoming from the vines that held him together-

“Might have an idea for a seventh poem,” you began as you turned back towards your computer. Your breath hitched at the feeling of leather sliding up your throat and stopping to cup your jaw. Jason’s fingers curled slightly as he turned your head to meet his gaze again.

“When was the last time you took a break?”

“Um…” your tongue felt useless in your mouth as you stared up at him with wide eyes. Green eyes gleamed back at you, brows pinched together in a subtle scowl. Your stare roved over his face–the subtle crook of his nose, twice broken, and the thin scar tracing from his jaw to his cheek, and the wisp of sweat-damp black and silver hair that stuck to his forehead. “Probably… noon?”

Jason sighed. “C’mon, up.”

“Jay-”

“Up,” he prompted, hauling you up from your chair. Your palms flattened to his armored chest as you sought to stabilize yourself. Your fingers fanned out wide against the red sigil scrawled across his chest, then slid down to rest over his ribs. Jason hummed appreciatively and looped one arm around your waist, the other cupping your cheek. “Take a break with me, yeah? Know you need to get this done-”

“- I’ve got the book signing next week, and I need to have my draft turned in to my editor before then-”

“- But you’ll be no good to anyone strung out and exhausted.” Your cheeks warmed and you cast your eyes down. Your hands drifted back to the vibrant symbol across his chest. He was right, of course–he knew better than most how important it was to avoid being overworked… not that he heeded his own advice very often.

You jumped from your thoughts when his gloved hand closed around your wrist. You felt a pop from between your teeth and your gaze shot down to where he pulled your hand from your mouth, nail slightly torn. Oh. You were doing it again, and you hadn’t even noticed.

Jason brought your hand to his lips and laid a kiss on your palm, then trailed down and placed another on your wrist. It was like butterflies gracing your skin. His hands were strong as oak as he tugged you tighter against him-

“Yuck,” you said, jumping as he kissed your forearm and his wet, sweaty hair brushed your skin. You wrinkled your nose in disgust. He chuckled when you tried to pull your arm away.

A squeal escaped your lips when he buried his face in the crook of your neck. You squirmed at the ticklish feeling of Jason pressing open-mouthed kisses to your skin, dragging his damp face against your dry skin. “Jason! Gross!”

You groaned in disgust at the feeling of his damp hair dappling your skin. Your hands pushed at his shoulders, but his arms just pulled you tighter against him. There was no escape from the torment, and you whined pitifully in protest. He returned your frustration with a huffy laugh against your shoulder.

“You’re the worst.”

Jason grinned a crooked smile against your skin as his gloved hand slid into your hair and cradled your head against his chest. “C’mon, take a shower with me. Save some water. I can make dinner after, and we can eat in here while you wrap up.” He pulled away, his hair mussed as he gazed at you with a gentle expression. When he leaned in again it was to press barely there kisses to your jaw, your cheek, your temple, and back down. “Take a break with me.”

Your eyes fluttered shut as a content sigh left your lips. Your eyes felt heavy under his ministrations and you finally acknowledged the weary ache in your bones. You hummed quietly, a wordless reply to his request. 

You could spare thirty minutes.

[bleedingichorhearts]

𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧’𝐬

𝕾𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖞: Smut & Normal headcanons for the Living Armor.

𝕬𝖉𝖉𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝕹𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘: I’ll be mixing a few living armors from different games and such.

TW // Smut, Oviposition, Polyamory, Teratophilia, Agalmatophilia?

|°ᴛᴀɢ ʟɪꜱᴛ ᴀᴘᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ°| |°ɪᴄʜᴏʀ’ꜱ ᴀᴏ3°| |°𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕃𝕚𝕤𝕥°|

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫: 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐫

A creature or rather suit of armor that doesn’t need a host to move by themselves. Though, do be warned… not all like walking alone.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜/𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜:

Alright, you gonna have to be in a dungeon, random cavern or some… special armory to meet one of these guys, or rather multiple of them as sometimes they are known to be in a group. Whether it would be in piles of armor or a decorative, shiny armor in a their selective spots within a stone-walled corridor. They can quite randomly appear on you as long as you think they are just a simple armor set, nothing more than to admire for decoration. That is how you met them however… fooled by their appearance.

The metals of their armor would glint in the warm light of your torch/flashlight as they would slowly follow your forwarding movement with their helmets, watching you closely when you get within their range of attention, and before you know it? You’ll have some sets of armor following you closely behind whether you know it or not. They can be quite stealthy, and stealthy they were. They were unsure if you would be a threat or not to what they were protecting. Which would be their… colony.

Yes, colony. How else are they to reproduce? To randomly; magically grow in their numbers? They are like bugs (or from what I read Mollusk’s.) However, they continue to see you as something in-between a threat and not because you have yet to see them or find their main part of the colony. They grow more curious of your naiveness, and well… will start to see you as something else. Perhaps, one of the colony, and they do think you would be good for the colony once they figured out you were just there for the little treasures hidden about the area. They did manage to spook you though… once you figured out they were following.

Did chase you down as soon as you were spooked. Their armor clinking together; echoing as they would give chase. Some parting off from the main group to cut you off; successfully, I might add. One of them would have you in their metallic arms and completely squish you up on their solid chest. They were curious, and they had a growing feeling to comfort you! They think you’re part of the colony now.

This is how you find yourself apart of the colony, whether you like it or not because you are not allowed much anywhere without an armor set following you. You are part of the colony. Sure, you look way different than every single hollowed armor there, but you play your part, even if you don’t do anything. You simply get to watch how the colony itself works. Eventually, you’ll also grow in status within the colony. They will start to see you in a different light, but will get to that later…

While growing in status and rising within the colony you get to see what their weakness and strengths were, but keep in mind not all living armors are the same. Some get affected and others simply do not, it’s in the matter of the armor/mollusk. So, to see that some were simply unaffected by simple physical blows, magic or even (rarely) both was an anxious surprise for you. Especially when you saw one of them get their limbs cut off, but they simply reattached themselves. So you figured out they were mostly immune to being disabled. You did however, see the unfortunate of one… drowning. They simply just sunk to the bottom of the water and never came back up, and that is also how you figured out why they avoid the water so much…

Anytime that a battle might commence, they actually protect you in the most… unusual way. Always wrapping themselves around you snuggly. You can feel all the… muscles of the armor constricting around you, making sure to cover every inch of you the living armor can. You can move yourself, but most of the time they don’t allow it. The living armor is too busy enjoying the warmth of your body and how you feel within its… embrace. All while keeping you away from the danger of course, but you did have to coax the living armor so you can roam freely afterwards.

From that day forward, the group of the living armors would absolutely fight each other just so you can wear them. They wanted to feel your warmth as well, and wanted to wrap around your plush body all cozy. They like the closeness of you, and would chase you all around the area to just to get you to wear them, and that eventually leads to them teaming up on you to get their fair share of… attention to let you wear them.

Take their helmets as revenge. They’ll be so disoriented, it’s almost funny to watch them. It’s like watching chickens with their heads cut off. Their bodies bumping into each other with a loud clank and thud once they fall over. Which, I mean, you technically did cut off their heads… but just be careful and watch them so they won’t accidentally fall into some random body of water. Be aware for their own form of vengeance however, they can brood on it and will lock you up in their armor for quite some time. Pleasing for them, not so much for you.

Every time you are wearing them, you get more and more comfortable with them, safe even. Which the living armor can feel from you. They can feel how safe, tense or fearful you can be, and well… they definitely use that to their advantage, but in a more good sense-ish. They don’t want another person/“living armor” to be saddened or even fearful of them. They are a colony, they are supposed to help one another and you are no exception. You will get smothered with their treatment of touches and cuddle piles. They don’t know the concept of medical stuff; the closest thing you are going to get for healing is affection: like some sort of cat trying to purr to ease your pain type of thing. So… you’re maybe on your own trying to heal yourself unless you can teach one of them the ways of a medic. Which, they wouldn’t be opposed to be learning by the way. If it helps you and the colony, the living armor will learn quickly.

𝐒𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥/𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭:

Whew, okay. Living armors from what I have read hold hands in the act of “mating.” So, imagine your confusion when they start to hold your hands, but nothing is… producing. You honestly think they just start liking to hold your hands each time they try this with you, and it has happened quite a lot. Imagine how the living armor feels? They are mentally crying in frustration and confusion themselves. Why are you not glowing with their and your creation? This is how this works, does it not? Would keep trying anyways, they again, like the closeness of you, but are incredibly frustrated that you haven’t gotten any young from them. Your surprise goes through the roof once you figure out what they are trying to do though.

Acknowledge their advances, and return them with your own hand holding; they’ll be almost surprised and flustered by it. You… want to mate with them too? So you have been willing this whole time, but how are you not glowing with their child?? You are going to have to tell these walking pieces of armor that is not that ways of a human reproduction, and it isn’t likely that you would get pregnant by their advances in any way, but lucky them… they are mollusk’s after all…

Would absolutely slam you up against the wall and keep you there after learning about your humanly reproduction. Too frustrated by the fact they have gotten it all wrong, you’re accepting their advances, and well… they have been wanting to breed you. Would take them a while to understand just how your body works, but they eventually figure it out and leave you withering against the wall or against another suit of armor holding you up, trapping you. They learn best when together.

Wouldn’t out right breed you at first as they have grasped those humanly rules and concept of yours. So they would mark you up instead. Touching you so intimately; almost passionately. Slowly dragging their rather cold, armored fingers along your skin and the dips of your muscles. Watching while your skin twitches at their touch and liking the little pitched sounds you make. It was certainly arousing… just be careful when their season comes. It’s… something else.

When their season comes you know better to hide or be away from them during this time because it is just the pure act of mating. They would try and find you of course and eventually get you dragged in, but you have learned from the first time they. Do. Not. Stop. It can be overwhelming and definitely overstimulating with how much they have to give. You are definitely left in the middle of it all withering and pleasured out of your god damn mind with a few living armor protecting your blissed out form. Definitely not testing your limits!

Oh, remember when I said they were lucky they are mollusk’s? Well they sure are as well… they can lay eggs and a lot too. Your body is the perfect host for their young, and you’ll become the main show during this. You were definitely mind boggled when you first felt them inside of you. Almost felt jelly-like marbles being pushed inside of you. Sometimes though, some of the eggs can be bigger than the others. Which leads you to either carry thousands of little marble-like eggs, a few softball-like eggs or maybe even both. Depends once again on the armor/mollusk.

Do be warned if the living armor wraps around you durning this time as well. They will be impossible to get them off of you as they pleasure and breed you to heaven and back within their safe embrace. You’ll be stuck as you can feel the muscles of the armor press up against you, squeezing at you all while giving you its eggs, filling you up nicely. You almost don’t want to leave. (It’s not like you have a say anyways.)

Tease them with the water situation. Swim within that body of water and you’ll have a warrant out for you as soon as you reach the shore again. Some would even risk it to get you in the water, and of course being part of the colony and not wanting one to die because of your foolishness to tease them. You swim a little closer to the living armor that waddled through the water to get to you. The chest of their armor still out of the water before they tightly grasp at you and absolutely rail you right there in that water. It may or may not enhanced the… fertilization process.

They would chase you once again to plant their kin inside of you. They find a strange arousal in it to do so as they can see just how much your body’s moves and twists to avoid their tactics. Either way, you are going pinned underneath them or inside of them, and honestly? They prefer for you to be inside of them to do the deed. It feels way better as they cannot only feel their own self, but they can also feel you. How much pleasure they are giving you and how little. It can be hell sometimes if they wanted to tease you instead.

Though, within all these activities. Your status has grown significantly with them. Not only can you host a lot of their eggs, but you also can wear them and provide your cares for them. So, I would say you went from being a sort of outsider to being like the queen/king of the colony. Not an… incubator as they understand the concept of not treating you in such a way, but they definitely do once their season hits.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

how about that uhhhhh Fantasy Julie. she gets her sword <3 no one can take it from her <3

rambles:

SIKE you get an extra, lower quality doodle

SIKE AGAIN here's the rambles

yeah... i caved and gave her a tail... I'm Not Sorry! it's cute! i wanted to stick with her sorta flower motif - it's stronger in her princess look, since I imagine that when she was part of the royals she was very blatantly flower power based. it was her Thing!

but a Julie free of her noble shackles... she deserves her big sword. like yeah, she has flower magic, but who needs it when she has a Giant Blade??? on the royalty vein, and if we're classifying "rainbow monster" as a species, i feel like horn size/curve would be a status symbol of some kind. maybe Julie would have kept her horns filed short. but if she ran away from that life... longer horns! i like to imagine that they'll keep growing until she has a pair of Extra Weapons attached to her head! curved forward like mammoth tusks maybe!

i imagine that like Frank, she goes with minimal armor - range of movement over protection, yk? some scale mail over her front, a thick leather flower over her chest w/ scalloped leather pauldrons, wrist armor and metal knuckles! i'd think that the faux-suspenders include a back sheath for her sword... i wish i'd thought of that Before i finished the little ref! i don't feel like going back and editing!

i imagine that she was forced to cut her hair when it got caught in something (a gelatinous cube, mayhaps). it didn't look good! don't let anime and Mulan fool you! cutting your own hair with a blade will not look nice! but someone - Eddie, probably, he's good with scissors i'd assume - cleaned it up for her. and hey, it didn't look bad! plus, Julie probably liked being able to just tuck up her long strands into her hat when she's feeling a bit more like a Julius than a Julie!

it's been a fun challenge transforming their canon outfits into a similar variation with fantasy flavoring and twists! i want them to suit the setting but still maintain Themselves! Julie's was tough i gotta admit. i was messing around with the princess look and the fighter look side-by-side. it worked better when i sat back and thought "fighter Julie is Julie unrestrained. that version would be more aligned with her canon look"

i wanted her princess form to look Restrained! she has to be a ~delicate flower~, a noble woman, pristine and poised and very much a princess. soft colors, poofy clothing, bright white gloves that are not to be sullied. carefully bundled up hair! jewelry! that dress must be Heavy and hard to move in! her tail must be so cramped under there!

but Julie Unleashed? violent pinks! rose gold accents! short skirt so that she can sprint and Kick! fun boots that she can be active in and delight in watching them get dirty! her hair is free to whip in the wind and get caught in things! fun straps and Deadly Accessories! a sword that she stole from the royal armory on her way out the window! she has forearm wraps both to match Frank and to support her wrists!

[thedexcat]

VotV Speculation Megapost

(For posterity's sake, the latest major release is 0.8) (Also, buckle in. This post is a long one.) (Edit 9/20/24: Added Addendum 1) (Edit 10/14/24: Added Addendum 2) It should be extremely obvious, but spoilers ahead.

As we all know, Voices of the Void has a "story breadcrumbs" approach to its plot. Combine that with its alpha status, and we're left with a lack of hard answers. However, some pieces did seem to click into place. This is far from anything definitive, but here are some of the conclusions I've drawn. Let's start with everybody's favorite:

Part 1: The Arirals

god i want one to hold me like that

You know em. You love em. Like 90% of the fanart is about them. But the question is... what the hell are they doing here? Judging by the fact that they construct a campsite in the facility, they clearly expect to be here for a while. A common interpretation I hear from people is that the ones out in the facility are either political refugees, or just some sort of benign "tourist group". I've personally come to a different conclusion. Let's consider what they brought with them.

Exhibit A: The weapon (left)

The weapon they drop around Day 24 is no mere Star Trek phaser. If you drop it in the main building, pretty much EVERYTHING in the building is going to be sent flying from the resulting blast. Not only that, but the "human-wieldable" version that can be unlocked for the sandbox mode has one hell of a fire rate. Something tells me that there's no way in hell this thing is a civilian-grade weapon. And, as established in a previous post of mine, they're kitted out in full-body armored stealth suits.

Exhibit B: The stealth suit (Kerf dutifully remains there for scale)

These aren't tourists or runaways. They're goddamn Black Ops. But you're probably asking, "If that's what they are, then why do they have nothing better to do than to steal shrimp and prank you?" Don't worry, I'll get to that later. Eventually. Maybe.

For now, let's move on to a third thing of theirs: The letter to Kel.

Exhibit C: Esraniki's Letter (D-, see me after english class)

This is the letter left at the Ariral camp if you have maxxed reputation with them. There's one line in particular that's always stood out to me. "GET WE HOME YOU GET DEATH AVOID" So... why can't they go home? Let's review: A: They have perfectly functional spacecraft parked right behind you. Even if they were broken, surely some random Pre-FTL primitive wouldn't be able to help with a mechanical failure in their technology. Hell, they buzz you at the radio tower with one. So there seems to be nothing physically stopping them from leaving. B: They've come kitted out with some serious weapons and armor C: Something in the facility is drawing the attention of all manner of extraterrestrials (and ghosts and demons. are 'metaterrestrials' a good word for them?) So my take? They're monitoring something, waiting for an opportunity to act upon it. (In keeping with the Patch Note naming convention, I will be calling this unknown something "The Threat") Not only that, this 'opportunity' may only open up with the assistance of a human. But what could Dr. Kel possibly do that an Ariral couldn't? Well, I can think of one thing he can do better... Interface with human technology.

Exhibit D: Ariral Communique (quality: shit) Computer technology isn't some universal constant. You can't make a program and expect it to magically run on alien technology with an unknown architecture. This ain't Independence Day. The fact that the Arirals barely managed to send a heavily-garbled message to Kel's computer, quite frankly, speaks of an extreme amount of effort on their part. And it was all just to say the word "OUTSIDE".

If The Threat has some ties to human technology, then perhaps Kel actually could be more qualified to deal with it than the Ariral Black Ops. Hmm... An unknown threat with ties to human technology. Could it possibly involve...

Part 2: The Incredibly Suspicious Bunker

"I left a 'Do not enter' note on the floor. That'll stop people from investigating!" This damn thing is quite obviously, as TVtropes would put it, The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. It is my firm belief that this is what the Arirals were sent to monitor, and where The Threat can be found. But we can't really get much further in than a few doors. So... what's in there? An easy assumption to make is that it's some sort of fallout/storm shelter. But something nearby might tell a different story...

Exhibit E: *squints* ...Liberty Prime? If you take a metal detector over to the bunker entrance, you'll quickly discover a buried drive nearby. The image you just saw is its contents. It's clear that something is being depicted here. What exactly it is, well, that's hard to say. but if you look at that teeny tiny thing at the top, you'll see something that looks like the Alpha base and its radio tower

oh god we're getting into crusty duende video territory now

What this says to me is that there is a colossal something underneath the base. Some sort of mega-facility? Unnatural cave formations? Something else entirely? Or I could be looking at it entirely wrong. But the point is, it's very likely that something extremely expansive is down there.

What if we could just take a peek a liiiittle bit further in? Well, there is ONE way...

Exhibit F: The Least Cursed Elevator in Horror Fiction

Roughly around 3:33 each night, there is a chance that a camera inside the bunker will become active. It's monitoring what appears to be a heavy-duty elevator coated in blood. An elevator like this would also indicate something buried deep underneath the base. Say, this elevator seems familiar...

Exhibit G: Monique Santificer's Extremely Ominous Foreshadowing

...Huh. I'm sure that only means good things. So we have a Hellivator and evidence that there's some place that you'd need a Hellivator to get to. Are there any other clues around? Well, there's that handy instruction book on robotics. You can make your own little friend!

POV: You're 5'11 and she's 6'0 And... Oh! looking back at that camera, it looks like someone else made their... their own... friend...

Exhibit H: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- ...I don't think they followed the instructions to the letter. So it seems the people in the bunker were working on combining robots and, er, 'biomass'. I don't think our meaty friend here is The Threat itself, but I do believe that it is some aspect of it, or at least a result of it. And whatever The Threat is, it seems to be "leaking" out of the bunker. After all, this toothy bot here seems to have little siblings burrowing out from underground!

Exhibit I: should start running Kerfus. Kerfur. Whatever name they have, they love you! Such a shame that the flesh inhabiting their chassis does not.

they seriously recalled the ++ models over a little thing like this, smh Something deep underground, cursed flesh, and occult sigils. Hmm. Things would tie together neatly if there were, say, some sort of demon around associated with flesh and dark depths.

Part 3: Furfur (and conclusions)

"I WATCH YOU SHIT AT NIGHT" The Great Earl of Hell and raw flesh afficianato, it's Furfur! Demonology refers to him as a liar, but also a teacher of secrets. And he seems to really really like flesh. Not bones, though. He's always leaving those behind.

They say that if you burn an offering of flesh at his altar, he'll give you a marketable Furfur plushie!

The children who survived loved them! Interestingly, there's a certain location connected to Furfur: The bottom of the well. If you pass out at the bottom of the well, you will end up in a (dream of a?) mysterious structure.

Exhibit J: all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well

A few things of note in this place: -More demonic sigils -The only 'exit' is a tunnel leading upward with a broken ladder. And even if you could reach up there, Furfur's giant skull-face is blocking the way. -A unique knife, which when examined in the inventory, says that it was found "deep underground".

How very interesting that this flesh-loving demon has his own little place down in the depths of the earth. And you say the bunker reaching downwards has been spawning horrific robot-flesh amalgamations? Robots that are specifically of human design?

Well then. So here's what I think is going down:

no i'm not crazy it's invisible alien catgirls versus demon cyborgs you weren't listening were you?

-Some scientists from before did a Very Bad Thing in the bunker depths. If I had to venture a guess, it's that they bargained with Furfur for secrets of the flesh, perhaps in the pursuit of cybernetics, biocomputers, or somesuch. This resulted in the Very Bad Thing happening, thus creating The Threat. -The Threat was contained to some extent, but is starting to noticeably leak out. It is also severe enough to have drawn extraterrestrial attention. -The Arirals have sent a squad to monitor the situation and act if necessary. Seeing as there's been no urgent need to act as of yet, they are bored out of their skulls and taking it out on you. -The fact that the bunker hasn't been blown up by catgirl black ops already says to me that the situation down there is delicate, and a 'guns-blazing' approach would be inadvisable. Not only that, but The Threat seems to be tied to technology they have little knowledge of. They would most likely need outside assistance if they want a 'clean' resolution to the problem. -And wouldn't you know it? Right there in the facility is some nerdy, crusty, half-crazed twink that seems to be very proficient in handling human technology. How very convenient.

"average person eats 3 roaches a year" factoid actually just statistical error. Dr. Kel, who-

That's how I think this ties together, personally. Of course, there's always unaccounted for 'loose ends' that may or may not be tied to the Bunker Conspiracy (the rozital pit in particular has been bugging me with its vagueness). Plus there's always the chance that I misinterpreted things like a dumbass. There were a few other smaller things I wanted to cover, but my fingers hurt from typing, and my ability to hyperfixate has its limits. And sorry if the screengrabs are a bit mismatched, I've already spent hours on this post without having to get screenshots from the game myself. If anyone actually read through this monstrosity of a post, congratulations! If you're as deeply brainrotted as I am, feel free to point out the reasons I'm dumb and wrong :)

Addendum 1: Meta Aspects

no, not this. wrong place. wrong time.

Every now and then I hear talk of lore clarifications in Discord servers, Google Docs, etc. Will I be covering these?

(source) The reason? I want to give my impressions based purely on the work as published. Death of the Author and whatnot. The furthest I'll reach 'outside' the games are those ambiguous little teasers on YouTube, which you don't have to be in any 'specific server' or anything to see.

haha what if funni meme robot was irreversibly corrupted by the horrors?

Think of it as me giving a form of feedback on how the game is presented as an isolated work. Anyway, I'll be posting another Addendum later, connecting more demon stuff to the bunker. Fun! One thing I intend to investigate between then and now is a rumor of a very poorly documented... item interaction. As a little preview, consider this note.

It seems, in my pursuit of knowledge regarding a mysterious bunker in an incomplete videogame story, I find myself investigating a skeletal entity of ambiguous origin described as having a single glowing eye. God. Fucking. Dammit. Every time with this shit.

This always seems to happen whenever the protagonist is bullied by tall monstergirls

Addendum 2: Classified

Progress on my investigation has been slow due to a combination of poor RNG and real-life stuff. Fun fact: I've never encountered the fossilhound in my many months of playing, and it looks like that won't change anytime soon!

I'll get you one day, ya boney bastard. In the meantime, it seems that someone has leaked classified pokemon data communications from our employers...

And just who do we encounter within the first few weeks?

Our classified documents are their vacation photos

So it seems that at the very least, our employers seem to be aware of the Arirals. So to what end do they want to draw them out? And why would the Arirals show any particular interest in a human presence in this facility specifically?

They clearly seem to be hiding their presence from the world at large with their cloaking ships and whatnot, but they seem almost eager to grab the attention of anyone working at this particular site.

And, as everyone already knows, Arirals are certified Goobers. They form like 3/5ths of the Counsel of Goobers*. The ones we encounter at the very least are very much not what our employers expect to kill us. So our employers are also aware of the existence of some other threat, possibly even THE Threat. *the remaining members are Kerfuses and Dinguses

Truly an incomprehensible menace from beyond the stars. (source)

Personally, I feel like this all feeds back into my previous thoughts. There is clearly a Threat at this location, and the Arirals probably believe that they may need human assistance to do something here. Or maybe I'm just biased towards whatever random thoughts got cooked up in my head.

Anyway, hopefully next time I'll be back with reports of yanking the lifecrystal out from the Fossilhound's head and shoving it up its ass. I am so, SO sick of trying to get that thing to show up.

[mer-acle]

Do you have any athena hcs?

Uhhh

How much time do you have lol

I'll try to list the short ones so this post doesn't get too long. Due to writing about her a lot I have a lot of lore lmao

1. Athena is the eldest child (Hephaestus born shortly after her). Nobody who's spoken to her once would expect anything else honestly

2. At the time of the Odyssey she's about 4000 years old (No reason or proof I just decided) Her first 200 years give or take were spent with Triton (read: Pallas)

3. She only got assigned with Warfare as her domain after officially joining Olympus

4. Her emotional distance with her siblings is partly due to Pallas trauma, and partly due to Zeus liking to "keep her to himself" (read: isolated as the favorite). She gets along best with Hermes and Hephaestus (yes, I refuse to accept Erechtonius happened) bc the former is just as chaotic as herself and the latter shares her creativity and both don't ask for a big commitment from her (again. No Erechtonius and no arranged marriages in my plotline let me have this)

5. Dislikes being touched. Her siblings learn to accept it, Zeus does not. She doesn't try to enforce it with him. (Yes in every iteration of her that I will ever write, there will be a touch-starved to hug plotline sue me. I need therapy)

6. Never braids her hair. She used to have braids when with Pallas, but since then she has never worn her hair this way again. She also wears it quite a bit shorter than she used to back then.

7. Her grey eyes are inherited from Métis. They also glow in the dark. She has perfect night vision.

8. Perfect memory. Also she has bird's eye view versions of even her own memories (hc that one of her domains is history so that's why) It's how she found out that Zeus interfered with Pallas's death.

9. Used to have an Oceanic themed armor before joining Olympus (Métis made it for her) She allows Hephaestus to make her a new one, shedding the Ocean symbols in an effort to please Zeus.

10. Connected to her status as a virgin goddess but in contrast to Artemis, Athena dresses pretty covered up, doesn't undress even for bathing (in ancient Greece sometimes you'd keep your chiton on as a sort of bathing suit almost, but being naked was more common) (also this is not 'purity' stuff btw I just get that vibe from her, Artemis, literally go off queen you're doing great)

11. Classic but good, cocks her head like an owl like all the time. Also says "hmm" a lot (intonation may vary)

12. (Remember, my hc, you can do whatever you like) I think all the virgin goddesses are acespec/arospec in some capacity, but Athena is the cut and dry aro/ace/repulsed one. Like... It's a big fat no from her (I'm projecting hard btw)

Anyway twelve seems like a good number I hope you like them :) I picked those that aren't specific to Epic and can be applied to myth!Athena too

[carionto]

Ignition

Once the Galactic Coalition had (without other realistic options) given Humanity an equal position among the governing bodies, despite the fact they were a single planet race, the initial dread of what they would do eased. A little. When they showed how they powered their impossibly massive vessels, the fears of our ancestors who deemed the Responsibility Barrier a necessity reemerged a thousandfold.

The Humans, with a slight grin, said "Solar power, of course."

They took a delegation within the bowels of one of their smaller, civilian research craft, which was still bulkier, better armored, and more worryingly - better armed than most flagships of the other predator-races. Were we not able to see with our own eyes their actual, what they aptly call, Dreadnoughts, from distances you would normally need a telescope, we would have assumed this was their mightiest warship. Yet it was just one of hundreds.

As we passed through the ludicrously thick and seemingly excessive number of bulkheads and shielded and compartmentalized hallways, the ever present hum of raw power beneath our feet gradually became nerve-wracking. What is that? It reminded us of stories told by those who traveled near Black Holes - of the sheer vastness and infinite apathy they felt from the all consuming entities.

A dozen or so biometric gates later, we were greeted by a gigantic sphere, easily a hundred and fifty meters in diameter, an abomination of reinforced panels, wiring, heat pumps, and countless tubes, hanging from numerous power conduits in the middle of an even more massive chamber from behind our observation platform. A true, pure fusion reactor. And there were Humans, in full protective suits at least, working directly next to it within the ominous chamber.

"We wanted to give you a demonstration of our advances in the past millennia, so please observe as we turn on this one."

This one? As in... the power we were feeling was not from this monstrosity? We had to ask.

"Oh, of course not, this ship has three such reactors, we recently performed a full maintenance on this and decided to delay reactivating it for you to see."

The delegates' mouths (or equivalents) were agape. Sure, nuclear fusion is known far and wide, but due to it's high potential for cataclysmic failure, or worse, deliberate destruction, the vast majority of such reactors were mostly found in deep space stations where solar radiation was scarce. Background radiation converters, while efficient at what they do, were nowhere sufficient enough for anything more than as passive emergency battery chargers. And no civilization kept fusion reactors anywhere near populated or colonizeable planets.

Yet here they were, looking at one nearly five times larger than any other known or attempted. And there were three on this ship alone. They counted hundreds of similar size, a few dozen of their Dreadnoughts, thousands of smaller vessels ferrying between the stations, the surface, and other larger ships. Countless world ending bombs-in-waiting right around the Humans' only home.

"Yeah, us science ships get the biggest ones, kinda need the extra oomph for our projects. The military kids like their redundancies, so theirs are smaller."

A slight relief.

"I think their newest capital ship, the UGSF Caliban of York, has fifteen, each about half ours."

A few delegates passed out. Their attendants rushed to salvage some dignity, but Captain Knoslark of this vessel, The Radiant Dusk at Everest, didn't seem surprised or offended and simply waited for the delegation to regain composure before continuing.

"This is my favorite part."

He said quietly with a glint in his eyes, then his tone changed to a more formal and authoritative one.

"Chief Engineer Ira Tameki, status of Reactor 2."

"All green, Captain. She's ready to purr to life at your command."

"Good. Then," his tone shifted once again, to a far more theatrical one as he took a pose, half turning his body and extending his right hand towards the reactor, index finger pointing dramatically. As he pronounced every syllable of the next word, there was a silent resigned sigh from his crew:

"ignition!"

Outwardly, nothing of significance changed. The engineers clicked at their consoles, bars slowly rose and everyone was deliberately doing their best to make it clear they were ignoring the fact that the captain was still in the same pose.

There was a muffled thump from the chamber, then the hum beneath their feet became a rumble for a few moments before steadying back to a now slightly more intense almost-buzz. Physically, nothing all that noteworthy. Mentally, everyone in the delegation was in true shock as they fully understood what they had just witnessed done all too casually:

The birth of a star.

[in1-nutshell]

THE DRAMA THAT THE REVEAL WOULD CAUSE

I need Ophelia to NEVER leave her armor the moment Megatron is on board and it throws everyone for a loop.  Like they were just getting used to Minimus Ambus coming out of the armor every now and then suddenly they have to start craning their neck to look up at Ophelia.  No one questions it, she’s small and practically grew up during the war, maybe this is just her way of feeling safe with the tyrant on board now.  

I need Ratchet and Chromdome to give each other increasingly awkward looks the longer it goes on. Megatron is totally unaware that the child he abandoned is staring him right in the face.

And I need someone to snap.  Someone who watched Ophelia grow up and saw how Megatron's abandonment affected her.  Maybe it's not about Ophelia to start with at all, maybe it's about war, the stress, the complete lack of justice he faced for his crimes and while they’re ranting they throw in the cherry on top that is Ophelia without thinking.

I need the realization, the awkward attempts at reconciliation, THE FUCKING ANSWERS

And I need the crew's reaction

Only certain crewmebers KNOW Ophelia's true story.

Others just know about the tiny minibot piloting a war machine and takes strolls around the ship every other day humming to human music.

Hope you enjoy!

Ophelia's identity reveal?

SFW, Platonic, Slight Angst, Familial, Cybertronian reader

MTMTE

With the arrival of Megatron, it brought certain changes in the ship.

One being the introduction to the status of ‘Co-captain’.

Ophelia had a feeling Rodimus was behind that change, or at least had an influence.

Another was how many bots started making graffiti and saying… certain things to the ex-warlord’s face.

All which he never said anything back.

Many of the lonelier bots soon started to group up, making it a bit difficult for Megatron to ‘make friends.

And many bots on the ship realized that Ophelia was staying in the suit for much longer.

Ophelia sitting with Perceptor at the bar. Perceptor: “How long have you been in there?” Ophelia: “What?” Perceptor: “The frame. Doesn’t it need maintenance soon? You usually have Ratchet take the su—” Ophelia quickly gives him a look at Megatron and shakes her helm. Thankfully he got the message. Ophelia coughs a bit. Ophelia: “Thankfully there hasn’t been any ‘big’ has happened yet, so we can keep maintenance off for a bit longer.” Perceptor: “As long as you get it maintained…” Ophelia: “I will Percy.” Perceptor sighs at the nickname as Ophelia giggled a bit.

Ophelia refused to leave her armor.

She got away with her name already.

Thank Primus, he never gave her an actual name.

But if he SAW her?

Sure, there was a change in her kibble and slight armor modification, but Megatron would definitely recognize her.

…right?

Still, not worth taking the risk…

She figured to take the suit off in private, but now with Ravage on board, it changed plans.

The minibot already heard around that Ravage found her smell to be familiar.

It scared her more than dealing with any six-changer head on.

What if he found out who she really was and told Megatron?

What would he do to her if he found out?

Many of the bots who knew her relation with Megatron often found themselves giving each other long stares whenever the ex-war lord came within 10 feet from her.

Sometimes even acting when she looked uncomfortable.

Chromedome is having a drink at Swerve’s with Rewind. Suddenly feels like someone is staring at him and looks around. Ratchet was looking at him and glancing behind him. Chromedome sees Ophelia… and Ravage. Ophelia notices Ravage coming closer to her side. She tenses up a bit trying to think of an excuse to leave. A servo suddenly pats her servo. Chromedome: “Hey ‘Lia, Rewind wants to ask you some questions.” He begins to pull her away from the bar and away from the felicon. Ophelia gently squeezes his servo. Ophelia: “Thanks Domey.” Chromedome squeezes back. Chromedome: “No problem kid.”

The small group was not prepared for a random drunk bot to be the cause of Ophelia’s near reveal.

It was another night at Swerve’s.

Several bots were at the bar.

Engex was being poured.

And drunken bots spoke their minds.

This random bot came up, stumbling, to Megatron and started cursing him out about starting the war, how it affected them and other bots around them.

Whirl saw this as a moment to throw a bot out (he had been itching to throw someone out for a few minutes).

But when the bot started going after Whirl things started heating up.

Random bot: “And what is it to ya Whirl!? You should just stay outta this.” Whirl: “The only reason you aren’t face down on the floor is because I choose not to indulge in bits of violence… for now. SO, unless you really want these claws, I suggest you get your sorry metal hide and beat it!” The random bot laughs. Random bot: “Please! You’re about as useless as Ophelia—” SLAP! Whirl stood over the bot angerly. Whirl: “Keep her name OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!” Random bot: “What? You don’t want to here how much of a wash up that little—” Megatron stands behind Whirl and looks down at the bot. Megatron: “I suggest you consider your next words carefully.” Random bot getting up: “So you can hit me? No blast me with your fusion cannon? Why defend someone you barely met?! Why?! Why stand up for a small bot who has nothing to do with you!” Megatron feels a familiar pang of guilt in his spark for some reason. The words sounded familiar… Megatron: “Ophelia is far from a little bot as you put it. And I guarantee you a bot worthy of her title on this ship.” Random bot: “You seriously don’t know?” Whirl’s optic shrinks. Random bot: “Your little friend is actually—” Whirl: “AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” WHAM! The bot was now getting beaten to a pulp. Later in the medbay… Ratchet was tending to Whirl’s injured claw. Magnus enters the medbay. Whirl: “Listen Magnus, I’ll cut to the chase. Yes, I beat the sorry sod into a pulp. No, I don’t regret it. And I would do it again.” Magnus looks at Ratchet. Ratchet: “The bot was going to tell Megatron about Ophelia’s… situation.” Magnus widens his optics a bit. Magnus: “I see…” He turns to Whirl. Magnus: “Report to my office when you are treated. I will give you the data pads you will need to distribute for the day.” Whirl looked at him confused. Whirl: “No brig time? Who are you and what have you done with Ultra Magnus.” Magnus: “You were protecting a vulnerable crewmate. While there were OTHER ways to deal with the situation… what you did helped Ophelia.” Magnus leaves the room. Whirl: “…I think that was a thank you.” Ratchet: “It was.”

Ophelia, while she was not happy that Whirl got hurt because of her, was also extremely thankful for the copter.

Deep down she was going to have to confront her father about... everything that had happened between them.

Rung was going to have a field day with that.

Whether it be on her terms or in a forced situation.

The best-case scenario, Megatron forgot he had a sparkling.

A scenario that flushed down the drain when she accidentally overheard Megatron mention Terminus.

Oh, Primus give her strength… this was not going to end well…

This is how Whirl punched the random bot before going in for the true beating.

[bibibbon]

A common trope in fanfics is that Izuku could become a Quirkless Hero via an Iron Man-type armor. But while it doesn't work at all for the ending, it works in fanfics. You know why? Because in those fanfics, HE MAKES THE ARMOR HIMSELF. It's not handed to him on a silver platter. He goes though many amounts of trial and error to continuously improve his suit, and is allowed to feel emotions and thoughts from his point of view. He's allowed to be spiteful, angry, sad, and conflicted. The fanfic "I Am Not Done" by JayDeeKay on AO3 is one that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND because it did all those things and more, depicting Izuku as a victim of both Bakugo (who crippled him) and Hero/Quirk Society for wanting to become a Hero, with many people from different angles coming at him because they fear that his attempts will rightfully shake up the status quo. Love that fic.

Iron Might in canon shouldn't have even worked in the first place because Horikoshi conveniently forgot that AFO has a Radio Waves Quirk that can disrupt all kinds of electronics. Why the fuck didn't AFO use that? As Deadpool would say:

Hi @patrickowens86 👋

Iam going to be honest but I love quirkless izuku and he honestly doesn't need to be OP just quirkless izuku who changes the definition of what it means to be a hero works really well in a story because like you said it's a journey that izuku must take. This journey allows Izuku to feel certain emotions, grow as a person, allows his beliefs to be challenged and changed by his experiences in society and it also focuses a lot on Izuku's intelligence which I love.

The reason iron Izuku doesn't work in the manga ending is because he never made the suit it was given to him. Izuku also never goes through the journey of trial and error the journey of challenging his beliefs and overall development it's just a little thing hori gave izuku so he can still be a hero.

There's also the depiction of canon iron Izuku or iron might as the suit being powerful enough to beat many villains but to be a hero you don't need to beat villains you need to SAVE people not BEAT them. Like I said izuku doesn't need to be powerful enough to go against villains like all for one or shigaraki but his intelligence and influence can change society and allow for him to connect with others.

Izuku becoming a quirkless hero is also one way that he breaks the status quo so there's that.

Going on a tangent here but one of the things I don't understand is the belief that izuku can't be a quirkless hero when heroes like wash (a flipping washing machine) can be a hero or someone like lunch rush is a hero. The term hero doesn't mean that someone needs to physically fight villains.

I don't like iron might. To me it hinders all mights own development of him learning to leave stuff to the younger generation and also learning and finding his own self worth outside of heroics and being able to fight or save others. Also I must say that I even forgot that all for one had a radio wave quirk and I suppose hori just ended up nerfing all for one because he made him too powerful in the first place for anyone to beat.

The link to the fic that you mentioned is here Iam not sure but I think I might of read it but I forgot so Iam definitely gonna read it anyways.

[felassan]

Just poring over some of the new images. ◕‿◕ DA:TV spoilers under cut.

Elf Warrior Rook, Bellara and Harding engaged in combat. The location looks to be Arlathan (not sure if it's the Arlathan Forest or Arlathan Crater area), outside the ruins of an ancient elvhen building, I guess the temple mentioned in the Game Informer cover story. Rook is mid-swing; Harding looks like she's doing that rogue archer move where they fire arrows then leap/flip backwards[?] and Bellara looks to have just fired a bolt or something of blue magic energy or electricity magic (her specialty) using the gauntlet. blue light emanates from it, there are blue sparks in the air and the orb on the stairs looks like it's crackling with energy. the orb is also surrounded by the golden triangles, something connected to the use of the gauntlet and ancient elven magic/artifacts/tech in general I assume. To Bellara's left are some blue butterflies btw! how pretty!

I have highlighted some things in this image. over Bellara's shoulder, you can see the ears of one of the classic Fen'Harel statues. in the background, in central, priiide of place above the archway/temple door, is the Fen'Harel mosaic from DA:I. (I wonder now, are the concentric circles/repeating rings above his head in that mosaic the Veil motif..?) to his right is the DA:I mosaic of Sylaise. to his left, I can't make out which mosaic it is - if anyone is able to pls let me know? :D and, are these wolf-ear patterns on either side of the door, or am I simply squinting too hard at unremarkable archy shapes hh?

the arch/doorway is the same shape as here (ancient elven architecture feature). on either side of it is a blue lamp-looking thing that to me resemble the ones here (another location with ancient elven ruins). the pattern on buildings that I think looks like wolf ears (...lol) can also be seen on the ruins across the lake in Arlathan Crater.

the focal point of this image is the creature that the team are fighting. I assume it is a demon-infested suit of mechanized armor known as a Sentinel (which are weak to Bellara's electricity magic), as detailed in the Game Informer cover story. gold in color, elfy in design and guarding an ancient elvhen ruin, it's clearly of ancient elven make. the mask of its head extends on either side in two pointed elven ears. its headpiece reminds me of the Evanuris head-shapes, though I'm not sure which one. I wonder if the green light in the gaps between the armor pieces is the energy of the demon animating it, and I wonder what type of demon has inhabited it. in DA:O, we fought suits of Fereldan armor that had been possessed by demons, so it's a phenomenon we have encountered before.

the Sentinel's name, armor design and protective function at a temple remind me of the DA:I Sentinel Elves (concepts one, two, three, showing the similar aesthetics), whom protected the Temple of Mythal. did one derive the name from the other? in ancient Elvhenan, did mechanized suits of armor assist the actual-elf Sentinel guards of temples? did the Sentinel suits actually once encase elves who passed away long ago after the elves lost their immortality (and the armor persisted through the ages but their organic remains have crumbled away to dust with time)? or maybe once upon a time the Evanuris sometimes used the spirits/souls of willing/unwilling elves to power/'possess' the suits in a process similar to the dwarves, golems, and the Anvil of the Void? and if so, could June have been involved in the creation or use of this process..? Master of Crafts, gods of crafts and building. the Sentinel Elves, and the Sentinel armors. like.. you could serve out of love/fear/faith, or willingly at least, or.. not?

the Sentinel's disembodied gold hand reminds me of these elven gold hands. at this point, if you were an Evanuris.. hell, why not make a giant 'statue' of [in this case golden metal rather than stone] armor like the sort the Dead Hand DA:I landmark implies once existed..? (more on the hands here). ancient elven and huge, and very dangerous. it would be a powerful weapon if powered to move by magic. remember in the final battle for Kirkwall, Meredith used her red lyrium-acquired powers to animate the giant golden statues to fight Hawke?

lastly, the war-axe that the Sentinel holds aloft. the negative space in its head creates a triaaangle shape. the non-cutting edge of the axe reminds me of the Evanuris head on the left here (Graphic Design is my passion). and idk, something about the axe reminds me of the new axe-wielding axe-headed red lyrium darkspawn guys. even the branches winding up it from being overgrown remind me of the darkspawn's veiny axe with the different branch-like parts curling into making up the axehead. and like, we know from the Game Informer article that sentinel armors and darkspawn are both found in Arlathan, and darkspawn can be found inside the temple itself.

The file name of this screenshot iirc on Game Informer was "Solas ritual". at the top of a flight of stairs, surrounded by ancient elven statues with the Evanuris head-shapes, Solas holds the knife aloft, using it to wield green Fadey magic or cut a tear in the Veil. do you think this is concept art/storyboarding art of this moment (two) from the DA:TV gameplay reveal video and opening cinematic, or a look back in time to when he created the Veil and sealed the Evanuris away in the first place? on the right hand side of the picture is the statue with Ghil's head-shape. on Solas' left is one which has Elgar'nan's (though interestingly, to me the body of that statue looks animal-like and to have four legs. draconic? dragons were the "shape reserved for the divine" in the Evanuris days..). other Evanuris statue shapes can also be seen in the image.

the big black mass Solas is focusing on in this shot is really interesting.. it reminds me of an asteroid hh. it's black and ominous with an oily-looking surface, pitted, rocky. idk, it gives the impression of something corrupted or something, like a giant Tainted pustule. what it this? the literal outer encasement of the Evanuris' prison? the Game Informer article told us that at the point Rook encounters Solas in the gameplay video, Solas was trying to move Ghil and Elgar'nan to a new prison, as the one he had previously constructed was failing. the 'rock' in this image doesn't look stable. the dents give the impression of holes forming in it and the small pieces of rock flying through the air around it make it look like little chunks of it are crumbling away. it leaves me with the impression that the floating rocks in all the DA:TV key arts and branding/banners etc aren't just representative of 'Fadey stuff, reality as we know it and the Veil are cracking, magic is coming back' but also 'oh no. the prison they were in was failing and cracking'. as an aside I am really curious about what specifically Solas did when he constructed the prison.

Lovely crisp screenshot of Bellara. She's so beautiful, I just love her design sm. it looks like she's in Arlathan here, not sure if it's the Forest or the Crater. I would guess this is from early on in the game when Rook meets Bellara in Arlathan, as detailed in Game Informer. the detailing on her clothing, the patterns and folds of the cloth and everything, is just :D the triangle theme runs through everything, on the bag strap, dotted on her scarf/kerchief, even in the shape of her layered sleeves and things. in this shot we can see that the stone set in the 'shoulder' of the gauntlet has cut, polished surfaces, jewel-like. and the greenish scarf reminds me of Merrill's fashion.. 🥺

curled under the 'lid' of her backpack it looks like a sleeping mat-type thing that you'd take with you when you're camping or hiking, right? like her bedroll. ^^ As with Taash, I really like Bellara's earring and I hope Rook can have earrings/piercings in CC or from items they find in the world. also it looks like the thing I thought was an arrow in a blurrier shot totally isn't, it's a hair accessory (cute!!) in the shape of a halla, you can see the branching horns. I really like that it's golden and not white or silver - it brings to mind the golden halla, Hanal'ghilan, a legendary creature said to visit the Dalish in times of great need. Hanal'ghilan translates as pathfinder, which seems apt for a Veil Jumper who is an explorer that goes on expeditions!

the other thing I loved about this screenshot was that we got to see a clear, front-on look at the design of Bellara's vallaslin. it's so lovely! pretty and intricate. and it makes me really curious and excited to see the designs that will be available to Rook in CC. I wonder which Creator Bellara's pertain to, if any?

Arlathan. Looks like concept art[?]. Super beautiful, Final Fantasy vibes, a high fantastical feel, a bit of whimsy. Reality warping, the telltale golden-orange trees (I feel like Harding in the gameplay video now when she's like "I know these trees" LOL same tho. like, from the days of 'mysterious triangle guys concept art' and the vinyl cover those trees were soo. KNOWABLE hhh). Lakes and waterfalls, ancient elvhen architecture in ruins, the towers with their distinctive curves and tops, floating rocks and chunks of buildings as reality breaks and magic seeps in - look at how the tree in the foreground is all streaky and blurred as everything warps, like it's been half-phased out of existence on this plane. (looks like a silver birch tree btw). in the background, the curved iridescent wall of bright light around one of the ruined buildings looks like the edge of a soap bubble, reminding me of how there are "Veil Bubbles" (pockets of reality or unreality?)

Arlathan. Looks like concept art. Bellara explores ancient elven ruins, and the ruins of reality. with what we're seeing and hearing of Arlathan so far, they're doing the Ruins of Reality and the warping of space-time that we saw in the Veil Jumper issue of DA: The Missing justice. Things in this spot seem to be in particular disarray in this image. some of the floating chunks in this image have the same 'blurring' thing going on as the birch tree in the previous image. in this image there is also a lot of energy and magical power, coalescing around or emanating from what look like a set of gold rings sat atop a tower. I get the sense of motion, that they are spinning rapidly (like helicopter blades). the light is Green, like Veil-fire or Fade-magicky stuff. (in this image, I also got the sense that the gold semicircles floating near the top of the picture are actually part of gold rings, and that these too were mid-motion. that image also has a green glow of something magical.)

Arlathan. Not sure if it's Arlathan Forest or Arlathan Crater specifically. In-game screenshot, another beautiful one at that. Qunari mage Rook, Bellara and Harding explore ancient elven ruins. Bellara looks around all curious. :) the lighting effects and particles are so lovely, everything is suffused in this pretty, soft golden light. on the crumbling archway in the foreground, we can see a repeating triangle pattern as decoration. in this image we can see at least three halla wandering around, two just in front of the party and one on a ledge a bit father back. I'm really curious about the little blue lights that are floating around (Bellara looks to be watching them). they look kinda like pixies or something. 🥺 maybe they are firefly-like bugs or, they seem benign and this is an area where the Veil is thin and there's a lot of magical energy - so maybe they are wisps, two, or something like that? wisps are the weakest spirits, in some cases benign and even aiding mages. they're described as being shimmering orbs of light that are too simple and impressionable to be good or evil.

(For these menu screenshots, to compliment your understanding of what we're looking at, this article is a great read to refresh on. these are the "gigantic spider web-like visuals" Corinne mentioned in that article.)

^ Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Warrior Rook. This Rook is Level 30. The Level cap is 50, so this is a skill tree of a Rook who is about mid-game. I wonder if "Thorne" is this Rook's custom first name, or if it is the set last name of one of the factions Rook can be from? for the skill tree, it looks like we start in the center and then spec outwards as we wish right? at the very center is the core of the Warrior kit. this Rook has invested some of their points in the Slayer specialization. it looks like they are not far from dipping into Reaper too - I wonder if it's possible to sort of multi-spec by dipping into more than one spec 'bubble' like that? we can see that the other spec for Warrior is Champion, that each spec has the symbol for the faction it is tied to next to it, and that there are the same amount of 'points' in the same pattern available to choose from in each spec. there are also places on the skill tree where it looks like Rook can choose to focus on Weapons, Survival and Abilities. these are the three sections that Corinne described the skill grid as being divided into in addition to the specializations in the article. for Warriors, Weapons is weapons-oriented, Abilities is ability-oriented, and Survival is defense-oriented. "So what you might do trying to get to, say, the Reaper specialization is go… Rather than going up through defense into Reaper, I’m going to go down through Ability into Reaper."

I like the art for each of the specs, it's cool!! (see a compilation of them here).

overall I like the skill tree. :) it's pretty/aesthetically-pleasing (constellation-like), and it looks like it's very extensive, with lots of different options and different choices to 'plot' your own 'route' through it depending on what sort of build you're trying to create. there are different shapes of points: small circles, large circles, diamonds, hexagons and some more star-like ones. I'd guess each one corresponds to a different type of ability or boost? and I'm curious to find out more about what those are. :)** from the interview with Corinne, we know that there are abilities, passives, and "traits". (I wonder what the "traits" could be? maybe stuff like "Persuasive", "Charismatic" or "lock-picker"?) we also know that these skills are unique per class, that every level you get a new skill point, and that there are other "side activities" in the game to get skill points from.

(** edit: @morganzephyr reminded me that we do know what these each correspond to, as detailed in this previous article:

"Large circle: Class Diamonds: Abilities Medium circle: Major Passives and Ability Upgrades Small hexagon: Traits Small circle: Minor Passives and Stat Boosts")

we can also compare these final skill trees to the prototype skill tree frame/wire diagram that we were shown at an earlier stage of development in a BioWare blog post and see how the concept has been realized since then. if the color coding on the prototype is still the same, it looks like the points on the tree are arranged in groups/clouds of related ones like this:

so like, some 'Champion-ish' or related ones are part of the main ring of the grid, and then there are some in-between each 'cloud' that correspond to neither side.

in the bottom left, we can see that this Rook has zero points left available at the moment to invest in the skill tree, and that they can refund their points to reset the tree by pressing 'F'. makes sense, in this article they talked about how the skill points can all be refunded. in the top left, under 'Level 30', I wonder if that bar is the exp progress bar that would record how much progress Rook makes to the next level? along the top, we can see that there are tabs for Map, Character (I wonder if this is where we view our inventory?), Companions, Skills and Library (Library is the codexes). Skills of course is the one that is currently highlighted and that we're currently looking at, with two triangles pointing at it in a pattern that looks like an hourglass.

Also evident in the skill tree menu is the purple-and-bronze key color theme of the game. I think the whole thing looks cool and aesthetically pleasing. around the 'Level 30' is some eight-pointed star designs, which is neat to me as we have 7 companions+Rook=8. curving past "Points Available"/"Refund Points", those lines look like the edge of the concentric circles motif. also, it looks like the design of Rook's skill tree takes inspiration from the DA:TV Veil keyart, with the layers, cracks, crumbling pieces and floating rocks, only in this case it's hexagonal rather than circular.

Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Mage Rook, again with the very core of the mage kit in the center. this Rook has invested in the Death Caller spec. we can see the other two specs for mages, Evoker and Spellblade. (it looks like "Spellblade" is one word rather than two like "Death Caller"). like with the differing arts for the different specs, it seems that the art piece for the 'central core' of each kit is also different, which is a cool touch. For mage, for the other 3 'non-spec areas' of the skill tree, where for Warrior they are Weapons, Survival and Abilities, here they are Control, Burst, and Sustain. this Rook is also called "Thorne".

Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Rogue Rook. this Rook has invested in the Saboteur spec. we can see that the three non-spec areas for Rogue Rooks in their skill trees are Sustain, Burst and Control, like mages. that's an interesting choice, I thought they would be 3 different ones for each class. this Rook is also called "Thorne".

In this screenshot we are still looking at a Rook's skill tree. Specifically this is a close-up view of part of a mage Rook's skill tree. So it seems like we can zoom in to the different parts of the skill trees to see them in more detail. In this image, an ability called Wall of Fire is highlighted. Wall of Fire was a mage skill in DA:I.

In the pop-up ‘info card’ looking section for it, we can see all the stats, numbers and relevant information for this skill. We can that it’s a skill of type ‘Duration’ and ‘Control’, ‘Control’ being one of the three non-spec sections on a mage Rook’s Skill Tree. It deals 50 Fire Damage (in the RPGsite article, Corinne confirmed that Elemental damage is a big part of the combat in this game) and has a cooldown time of 60 seconds. The description reads that the skill involves summoning a flaming barrier that burns those enemies who are foolish enough to cross it. We’re also told that enemies incur damage and Burning [damage over time effect or condition?], presumably upon doing so. A scroll bar at the right allows you to scroll down and read the rest of this information. (compare these numbers and descriptions to Wall of Fire in its DA:I incarnation out of interest) We know which symbol on the tree is Wall of Fire as it's highlighted in a purple design around it (I highlighted this below in yellow). We can see that the symbol for Wall of Fire is some burning purple flames.

We can also see some more detail on other, unhighlighted skill points, even though their 'info cards' aren't opened. For example, I think the one I circled above in orange is the new Meteor skill, and maybe the one with three 'bolts' to the right of the Wall of Fire 'card' is a sort of Arcane Bolt[s]-type attack spell? this image also gives us a bit more insight into what each of the different shapes of skills represents. for instance, both Wall of Fire and Meteor are the same diamond shape, so maybe it's like the diamond shape is for specific attacks/spells, as opposed to something like e.g. a passive. Some of the symbols also repeat, like the several different smaller ones around some of the main skills like Meteor (with swords on them). maybe these are optional upgrades for those, like you could invest a point in those to do something like increase the damage done by Meteor or something like that?

There is also this new screenshot of this scene of Emmrich from the character reveal trailer, as noticed by @sandetigerrr here (it's a slightly different version of that shot, one you can't get from slowing the character trailer and pausing it due to the splash text of his name that pops up in that). from the distinctive tall skeleton-pillars in the background, we can see that this scene takes place in Necropolis Halls. (more on that discussed here). a fire burns in the foreground as Emmrich does necromancy, looking all distinguished as he does so. the banners blowing around in the background on the 'wind' created by Emmrich's magic is a nice touch. in this scene we also get a good look at Emmrich's full outfit from the front. it looks like Emmrich is strong/skilled enough to command at least nine undead without breaking a sweat.

the adornments on each skeleton are interesting - are these pieces of armor that never rotted away like flesh, being metal, or are they post-death accoutrements that are added as part of Nevarran funeral/burial customs or something? the headpieces in particular, along with the missing top half of their skulls, make it look like upon death, the top half of the skulls were removed and the brains scooped out, maybe to then be stored in those canopic jar-looking things, Ancient Egypt-style? other parts of these metal pieces look to be at joints like knees, elbows, wrists - maybe after the flesh rots away, these metal parts help to keep the skeleton from falling apart, so that they can wander around successfully in the Grand Necropolis when possessed? lastly, this scene is quite similar to this DA4 concept art in style, vibe, content, setting etc, which makes me wonder if 'Flaming Skellington', who appeared in several pieces of concept art, is actually Emmrich himself.

and finally, that's all the screenshots we've seen so far (unless I've forgotten to include one somewhere along way, in which case pls let me know!), which concludes this post series. I think I will compile the links to all of them into one other post for ease of browsing, and for anyone who read all of these rambling over-analyses, I hope there was at least some stuff in there you found interesting or something. ◕‿◕

[saikira999]

For TWST Minecraft, do you think you could do Lilia, Riddle, Leona and the tweels next. It doesn’t have to all be in one post.

~ Headcannons for TWST characters playing Minecraft

Hi! I was away for a long time because of exams and because I was writing headcanons with these characters. however, I want to warn you right away that I will only do two characters per post, for the sake of beauty. But don't worry! All headcannons have already been written and translated and I will exhibit them in the near future.

(By the way, I have already added Lilia to my old post with Azul. I'll keep all the links here)

Another parts about:

Azul and Lilia!

Idia and Malleus!

Jade and Floyd!

[Riddle]

Riddle definitely heard about this game, but was never interested... However:

1) "What? No, Ace, I won't play this game... How do you imagine Me playing with blocks? I'm not a child, and besides, according to the law of the Queen of Hearts, the number...."

2) Trey convinced Him by saying that the players of Heartslabyul needed Their leader, and playing together would strengthen Their camaraderie... And carefully hinted that not all of Them adhere to the rules of the game (Ace is a damn griefer).

3) First, studied all the information about the game, including the history of its creation, instructions, guides, and even memes, which He didn’t really understand.

4) “Why is the cake not cooked in the oven???”

5) Competes with Azul and Vil in meticulousness and pickiness. He always has perfect order in his chests, each labeled with its own type and number. If you put something in the wrong place, you are must be prepared to get hit in the neck with this object.

6) His house is a perfect symmetrical monster, built not far from the nearest village, next to a birch grove, on the border of which giant mushrooms grow. The house itself is small, with a rose garden around it, and a small lake in the shape of a heart. The house is predominantly made of birch and mangrove, maintaining a red and white palette. Inside there are many vases with roses, paintings and one iconic red bed.

7) The village that He occupied took under His wing, Riddle also rebuilt, planting flowers around it, making a statue of the Queen of Reds from carved stone, and in some places he rebuilt houses, or made new ones, to suit His style. He has good taste, however, this place often comes under the threat of griefing.

8) “I will not punish a freshman for breaking My building in a game about blocks. I will not punish a freshman for breaking My building in a game about blocks..... I will not.... "

Sees Ace surrounding TNT His village and setting it on fire*

"....."

Gets up from the computer and aggressively quickly stomps towards the freshmen's living rooms*

9) A peaceful player who only draws his sword if someone breaks some rules or behaves inappropriately. His blacklist: Ace, Grim, Floyd, Epel, and sometimes Lilia.

10) He prefers the construction and development of his own village (In no case because He likes power over anyone... And no! Not because He competes with Azul in whose village is better... No, no, no. Nope).

11) He runs the largest stable on the server and is very proud of it.

12) His favorite horse is Vorpal. A fast and healthy horse, dark brown in color with white spots, wearing iron armor.

13) Loves to prance around His village, appreciating it from all sides and receiving guests while sitting on a horse.

14) ...In no case because He looks taller like that...

15) Plays Minecraft in secret from his mother.

16) Tries to follow the laws of the Queen of Hearts even in the game and makes sure that players break away from the game in time and drink tea, or do not eat cakes or pumpkin pies within a certain period of time.

17) Despite His strictness, Riddle loves to help other players with buildings or resources.

18) Entry into His village is officially prohibited for Floyd.

19) ACE, EPEL, DON'T TOUCH THESE CHESTS!

20) .....Cakes....The chest is completely filled with cakes...... Completely.

[Leona]

How lazy... Headcanons for a lion and pixel cubes:

1) “What do you want from Me, herbivore? Ahh... yawn*... Do you want to play games for the little lion cubs again, hmm...?”

2) Didn’t want to play for a long time, because considered the game stupid and not worthy of His attention. And He started playing by accident, when he ordered Ruggy to bring Him a sandwich from the kitchen, but he suddenly refused, because “He’s fighting with some dragon and He doesn’t have time to serve on him now... OUCH! OUCH! ENDERMAN IS HITTING HIM!!!”...

3) Had to go get the sandwich myself...?

Nope. He sent someone else, and he himself started downloading this stupid game...

4) Definitely the laziest player. Leona only comes into the game when He gets SO bored that even sleep seems too energy-intensive for Him.

5) As a rule, Leona wanders from side to side, sometimes getting into fights with other players and monsters. He's not much of a builder, but he's quite a good fighter.

6) Loves to cause trouble and often pits other players against each other. It especially hits the villages of Riddle and Azul.

7) At first, He didn’t even try to work on His house, and simply dug a hole for Himself in a beautiful rock... But as he immersed himself in the game, he began to improve His lair more and more, adding some bulky stone structures to the rock and cobblestones, reminiscent of turrets growing from rock walls. Inside, everything is hung with vines, the palette has warm shades. Lots of carpets and flags. The inside of the "royal palace with one single ruler" is a little empty, as Leona only knew that His house must look great from the outside.

8) Perhaps He will plant a couple of acacia trees at the foot, since during construction he often fell down the cliff, and the foliage softens the fall... However, Ruggi, who lives right below Him, seems not very happy with this idea.

9) “Lightning rod, Ruggy. Make Me a lightning rod. You don’t want lightning to set fire to the dry grass near My rock?”

10) Exploits Ruggi, Yuu and other players as best he can, forcing Them to carry resources and food to Him.

11) In Savanna, where He settled, Leona found a huge village, which he captured and declared as His kingdom... Which He would quickly abandon, since he had already killed all the local livestock and accidentally beat up a couple of residents... And then the robbers came, and that village no longer exists... Boredom...

11) Definitely a good ruler (Nope).

12) Afk 24/7. Often, His character simply freezes in place, ignoring any attacks from mobs or players for the simple reason that the lion fell asleep right at the computer...

13) A couple of times he tried to use cunning to take power over other people’s villages and even the server itself, which is why he earned the title of “Local Villain,” but every time, He was either driven back to His rock or banned.

14) One day, as punishment for the fact that Leona had quarreled with the entire server, He was sent to the mine...... And He fell asleep there.

15) And when he woke up, he quickly persuaded Ruggy (I already feel sorry for Him. Seriously. Stop torturing the hyena) to give Him coal, iron and other amenities from the mine, so as not to dig in the dirt on His own.

16) Sometimes He teases Jack, taming wolves in front of Him.... Now, He has a whole army of dogs, ready to tear anyone in His path.

17) Besides Savanna, Leona loves to walk in the desert and jungle, but hates going into water.

18) All creepers are afraid of him.

19) Initially, the lion had poor preparation for the final battle with the dragon, but after visiting other players (DO NOT TOUCH RUGGY), Leona entered the portal, armed to the teeth, and was especially ferocious in battle.

20) Along with Idia and Yuu, he killed the dragon (Insert the sound of an angry cat fighting a huge lizard here), and was the one who picked up the egg.

Initially he wanted to burn it, but in the end he decided to voluntarily give the egg to Malleus “out of pity”... Well, and maybe a little because he wanted to exalt Himself and show who is cool and noble here.

...Needless to say, Malleus did not understand His evil mockery and accepted this ambiguous gift with a little funereal honor.

Give Me ten minutes and I'll post the twins. Also, if you find errors in the text, please report it in the comments (English is not my native language).

Reblog Me, please! :D

[daezedglownut]

I thought I’d already found all the possible little hints in XI that Sylvando/Sylvia is trans-coded.

There’s the throwaway party chat line at the French private school:

Ah, to travel from place to place collecting mini medals, learning all about the world and blossoming into lovely young ladies! The students of this school are so lucky!

If we find any mini medals on our travels, we should bring them back here right away so that we can blossom into lovely ladies too! Wouldn’t that be wonderful, honey?

There’s the fact that Sylv in Act 2 bends down to pick up items in the exact same way the girls at the academy practice with mini medals, echoing the statue at the gates of ‘La Collectrice’ - “an elegant young lady picking up a gold medal in a distinctly dignified fashion”.

Very demure. Very mindful.

There’s also the name angle to consider. Though it could be argued that if you leave home and don’t want news of where you are getting back to your dad, you’d probably go by a pseudonym or a stage name. So I don’t think that Sylvando/Sylvia not going by Norberto is a very strong piece of evidence at all.

Adding to that, the fact he ran away from home could yet be seen as a gay young man running away because he didn’t feel accepted at home. But it could also be a trans character doing the exact same thing, so I’d say it’s still very plausible. Not to mention Sylvando inadvertently following in his mother’s footsteps during Act 2 with his gang of gay little ducklings, as mentioned by the Ringmaster is actually a really cute detail, however you want to slice it:

I saw her when I was just a child. She was simply the most incredible performer… She led a parade of people out of a kingdom destroyed by monsters, and on to a new home and a brighter future. And she kept them smiling from start to finish! You can’t imagine how inspirational it was for those of us who were lucky enough to wave them on their way.

You remind me of her, you know. The look on her face as she proudly led all those people out of danger, spreading joy and laughter wherever she went…

Then there’s the fact Sylvando/Sylvia goes by female pronouns in the JP version of the game. Again, not concrete evidence based on the fact that “extremely flamboyant gay male characters” in JP media are often (sadly) treated in the exact same way, reducing them to a comic relief sort of “hodgepodge mix of everything queer” Okama stereotype. This doesn’t erase their cisness or their homosexuality. But I can see why from a western viewpoint it might seem like really strong evidence of their transness when it’s something particular to Japan that got lost in translation. The closest comparison I can think to make to “make it make sense” is in the west where gay femme—but entirely cis—males call one another “she” and “her”.

However, I found what could be the most concrete “HEAR ME OUT” evidence completely by accident:

Boxer shorts are a common suit of armor in the Dragon Quest series. They are generally considered a gag piece of equipment notable for their low defensive properties and they can only be worn by male characters.

And wouldn’t you know it, only the Luminary, Erik, Rab, and Hendrik can equip the boxer shorts in XI…

I checked.

Now. I don’t want to say this is canonical or 100% proof by any means. Sylvando could just be a flamboyantly gay man who has too much self respect than to be seen dead in those striped monstrosities. After all, I can’t imagine someone like Jasper would deign to equip them either lol

What I love most about Sylvando/Sylvia is how open to interpretation the character is. I’ve seen so many conflicting theories that are all written beautifully, and all hold merit. (I myself enjoy dabbling with how I interpret the character depending on the needs of the story I’m writing, and whatever tf my gender is doing on any given day…)

And the best thing about Sylvando/Sylvia is the overwhelmingly positive reception to the character from fans. How Sylv could’ve been a cheap throwaway gag without substance, yet arguably became the character who ‘stole the show’ at every turn and got some of the best storylines.

In the end, I didn’t want to save the world for the rest of Erdrea - I just wanted to do it so Sylv could go home and make up for lost time with his adorable, crotchety dad! 🥺💕

[golvio]

As somebody who shaves in an “old-fashioned” way that’s come to be coded as “masculine” in recent decades, it’s got me thinking about about how Ganon was portrayed in TotK and how Nintendo could’ve used that to characterize him more coherently.

A lot of people tend to draw Ganondorf with body hair because bearishness is kind of the “in” thing for more masculine and solidly built characters. However, in his actual key art in TotK along with his ingame model, not only are his hair and beard meticulously trimmed and styled, but he also has absolutely no body hair anywhere else on his body, which means his grooming routine likely involves some pretty intensive shaving/waxing.

Like, shaving is EXTREMELY time-consuming. Shaving the old-school, “masculine” way with a safety razor or an outright barbershop razor blade is even more time-consuming. You have to wash the area clean first. You have to mix and keep mixing the lather to keep applying it to prevent the razor from getting caught on your skin and making microabrasions. You have to use the safety razor very slowly and carefully to make sure you don’t nick yourself, then seal any nicks that do happen immediately with a styptic pen. After you’re done, you still have to do extra steps to make sure your skin doesn’t get those red rashy bumps from microabrasions or trapped ingrown hairs that can get infected, such as putting on aloe gel, rubbing your skin with a wet alum block and rinsing it off after a few minutes so it doesn’t leave chalky residue behind, then applying moisturizer and waiting for it to absorb.

It points to Ganon having an extremely meticulous, regimented, and time-consuming grooming routine, having to give himself a full shave on his arms, legs, and chest every few days or so on top of daily maintenance of his facial hair. It makes sense to me, given that the Extremely Cleanshaven look to be covered up with cooling head coverings, wigs and false beards was something of a beauty standard among upper class men and their attendants in Ancient Egypt. Ganondorf’s desire to project a composed, “kingly” aura would of course extend to meeting certain standards regarding his own appearance. Being so “put together” is also a big blinking social signal that he’s A Man Of Status, as he’d actually have the time/money and resources/assistance to regularly perform such strict personal grooming rituals.

But it also makes me wonder how he’d regard men who were less meticulous about grooming and hair care. Would he find hairiness a sign of slovenliness or poor upbringing? Would he be kinda grossed out the first time he went to Hyrule and saw a hairy leg or back hair on an older man? Would he get snooty about the more lax standards of grooming for men in postindustrial Western patriarchal societies in amusing/less amusing and more classist ways?

It also makes his throwing away his sense of self at the end of TotK even sadder. Like, when a character who was formerly so concerned with appearing well-groomed and put together suddenly stops their routine and goes to seed, you know something’s gone horribly wrong. The poor guy’s stuck with an eternal neckbeard and messy, molting feathers, and that would’ve driven him nuts if he still had his brain! Who’s going to brush his hair and bathe him? Who’s going to trim his horns and keep his scales moisturized and polished so he doesn’t get all flaky and itchy? Who’s going to treat and cover up all those unsightly, sensitive looking blemishes? The poor thing! 😭

But, also, it makes certain details about his beast form more interesting in retrospect—how he puts more care into his appearance the more connected to his humanity he is. His at least wearing a cape and a suit of armor along with some accessories in ALttP, only to lose his clothing as he lost touch with himself. His resurrection in Oracles being his mother dressing him up in an outfit he would’ve worn if his soul and mind were intact by his mothers as a dying act of love. His wearing a similar outfit when Yuga resurrected him, only for that to feel like Yuga halfheartedly dressing him up like a doll as a matter of precedent/personal aesthetic, which Ganon has no way to appreciate or consent to.

His blobby, amorphous appearance in BotW, which he tried to move away from by attempting to restore his human form and reconstruct impressions of his old signature jewelry with so much time and effort, only for the result to come out shoddy and incomplete due to Zelda and Link’s interference, and then his abandoning it entirely to become a naked beast at the very end when he was backed into a corner. And then, in TotK, his preoccupation with “looking the part” of king of the world who got to defeat his destined opponent even though he could’ve just slaughtered Link right there when they first met.

Just…you could do something with that. There’s so much you could do with that, both to reinvent the man for the soft reboot and recontextualize his prior appearances with a new personal detail that can act as a barometer for his overall mental health as he changes, rearranges, dies and resurrects! But then they just…didn’t? They just said a line in an interview and didn’t even put it in the game? 🤦