#(I'm just a nerd who just like the lore and my muses. they are the most intriguing and most developed to me tbh)

[atomiqueen]

this is an INDEPENDENT, SELECTIVE, and PRIVATE rp blog for LUCY MACLEAN of amazon prime's FALLOUT tv show. written by bean. mainly show & headcanon based, as i slowly familiarize myself with the lore. oc & dupe friendly! NOT SPOILER FREE.

A STUDY IN: being neutral good in a chaotic neutral world; a variety of tv tropes (the pollyanna, action girl, martial pacifist, the golden rule, took a level in badass, the conscience, break the cutie)

✑ CARRD » ABOUT » HEADCANONS » MEMES

beta editor + xkit rewritten only! rules under the cut; everything else on carrd.

wandering the wasteland with: @radiaking

blogroll: @atomiqueen. @heartsdefine. @thiefscant.

✒ RULES & GUIDELINES;

GENERAL: SELECTIVE AND PRIVATE. this means i’m particular about who i follow and i will only write with mutuals. my blog is semi-iconless (depending on the muse/if i feel like making icons or not). NOT SPOILER FREE. NO GODMODDING, metagaming, etc. EXCLUSIVITY IS RARE but not unheard of so you can find my mains/exclusives list here

WRITING: I USE PRIMARILY THIRD PERSON PAST OR PRESENT TENSE. i'm not entirely comfortable roleplaying in first or second person (yet). when it comes to verb tense, i'll often check to see what my partner is most comfortable using and go with that. i can do one-liners or multipara threads, but longer things will likely take a bit more time.

SHIPPING: I SHIP CHEMISTRY, and i do not force ships because i’m not a monster. i definitely enjoy a good romance, but platonic and queerplatonic dynamics, rivalries, etc. are just as interesting to explore!

FOLLOWING/UNFOLLOWING: IF I FOLLOW YOU, IT MEANS I LIKE WHAT YOU HAVE GOIN' ON AND WOULD LOVE TO INTERACT. it doesn't have to happen immediately, just down the line! i'll give most folks at least a week to follow back (thus indicating mutual interest in writing together at some point) before unfollowing. but if i really enjoy your blog/portrayal, i may stick around as a passive follower so long as i am welcome!

BLOCKING: I PREFER TO BE HARDBLOCKED IF YOU NO LONGER WISH FOR ME TO FOLLOW YOU for any reason. this is so i don't assume tumblr unfollowed you for me and refollow, inadvertently crossing your boundaries. if i suspect someone has softblocked me, i will likely hardblock them myself to avoid refollowing in the future. (i am generally quite liberal with the block button, as i'm serious about curating my online space.)

PLEASE DO: BREAK YOUR REPLIES FOR ME UP INTO SMALLER PARAGRAPHS if we write together, as my adhd makes hugelong paragraphs difficult to read; ASK ME TO TAG YOUR TRIGGERS if i’ve neglected to do so (whether i’m following you back or not); like my starter calls, SEND ME MEMES, turn my meme replies into threads (if we are mutuals); SHOWER ME IN PLOT IDEAS and ooc chatter; HAVE PATIENCE with me on all of the above; FEEL FREE TO UNFOLLOW ME at any time for any reason, as i will be reserving the right to do so myself 

PLEASE DO NOT: USE SUBSMALL TEXT or multiple spaces between words in our threads as i find both difficult to read; UNFOLLOW/REFOLLOW to get my attention (it won’t be the kind of attention you’re hoping for); EXPECT ANY KIND OF IMMEDIACY FROM ME IC OR OOC. i love making friends via roleplay, but i’m one smol nerd just trying to have a good time and i won’t stress myself out by trying to keep up with everything at once. just know it’s not personal, and i’ll get back to you as soon as i have the energy.

I WILL GLADLY: TAG NSFW AND TRIGGERS appropriately and accommodate those who ask to the best of my abilities; WELCOME LGBTQIA+ HEADCANONS; USE MY SHITPOST TAG (#blacklist for less soft nonsense.) on most of my inane ooc content so feel free to block it, that’s why it’s there

I WILL TRY: TO REMEMBER IF YOU DON’T LIKE TO BE REBLOGGED FROM, but please note that I have ADHD and may forget. Often and repeatedly. (A bit more info about this can be found here.) If being reblogged from on the reblogging website really bothers you, please feel free to soft/block me as needed. Relatedly, I don’t really care if you reblog things from me that aren’t in-character roleplay posts and/or headcanons. I do think it’s polite to reblog a meme from the source if you don’t send one in, but I don’t personally consider it a blockable offense.

I WILL NOT: FOLLOW BLOGS THAT DON’T HAVE ANY RULES OR GUIDELINES set up; exceptions to this are reserved for muns i already know aka those whose boundaries i’m already familiar with; FOLLOW VERY MANY BLOGS THAT INCLUDE CHARACTERS from game of thrones and/or house of the dragon, as i’m just not comfortable having a lot of ASOIAF content on my dash; exceptions to this are typically reserved for people i already know and/or multimuse blogs that include other fandoms/muses i’m interested in 

MUNDANE: MY NAME IS BEAN/BEE. they/she. nonbinary lesbian. i’m 32, neurodivergent, and a full-time grad student with two jobs. I’M WHITE. in the event that i fuck up and/or swerve out of my lane, i invite my friends and followers of color (or fellow white folks who are wiser than me) to let me know. i can and will do better.

CREDITS: banner, promo, psd

[thatsneakymedic]

🍷 a character i want to write but never made a blog for 🔥 my hot take about the roleplaying community

@uchihacollector

🍷 a character i want to write but never made a blog for

Believe it or not...

I wanted to rp this dude even though to rp them would require big (and I mean BIG) shoes to fill in and I wasn't sure if I would be able to rp them right or at least correctly. And I still don't. I also lowkey wanted to do some ROOT threads and rps since I love how unexplored, morally questionable, and mysterious that organization is other than the "just Danzo's personal henchmen" that the anime would give us.

I wouldn't say that I just want to be a dick to everyone, but more like that whole "for the greater good" kind and actually make threads where the necessary evils is actually needed.

Also...

Because I really REALLY love the Kirigakure lore and how I always wanted to do rps within the Kiri muses and do threads with them myself. Also because Kisame is really a cool character to me and I love how friendly they are yet they also would kill you if ordered too.

And I guess I myself wanted to explore that once upon a time. From the above muses, I am not confident in myself to rp these characters as good as others would expect of them. For now, I'm content with my little nerd since there's still so much for me to learn about them. <3

🔥 my hot take about the roleplaying community

Well, I guess it would be about my own issue with drama between two muns or more. Maybe call me a benchwarmer or indecisive but I really rather not want to "pick sides" when such things happen. And the last time I did that, I lost a friend who I think truly thought and treated me as their friend and I didn't realize it till it was too late. And back then, I was such a dumbass that I picked a side that only pretended to care about me just to make me pick them even though we hardly rped at all other than small interactions. And as soon as I made my choice... they ignored me completely and my attempts to want to roleplay with them and then left the community. While my other friend I blocked because I bought into the lies when I think in reality, they probably weren't even true at all. They deleted their blog a long time ago when that happened so I regret making that choice to this day.

So I make it my own rule to not pick sides when two people are arguing but I do try to find solutions without making it seem like I chose a side when I didn't. But if someone was problematic, I do try to give them a chance and stick with them while tagging my posts so people can blacklist them. Though the moment they come after me with their bullshit or drama, I'm unfollowing.

[panwati]

NAME / ALIAS: mythe (or for some, wish) AGE / AGE GROUP: 30+ PRONOUNS: she/her TIMEZONE: est (gmt -4/5 for summer/winter) WHERE ARE YOU FROM?: don't worry about it (some would say hell, probably-) CHARACTERS IN THE GROUP: just Ari!

A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF: I've been in both iterations of the group since around... 2013? 14? starting with my best girl Fionna the Human, so I've been around for a looooot of things.

Uh... what else? I'm a lore nerd for anything and everything I get into, especially if I pick up a muse from it. My very specific lore caches are related to Guilty Gear, Blazblue and FFX/XII, and more recently, Dislyte and TWST.

I also really dislike when people try and get me into things without actually telling me what it's about, which is why it took me 'til this winter to watch BSD.

My favorite types of characters are depressed men, women who could (and would!) kill a man, and tiny people with Big Danger energy. I somehow wind up latching to a character with an unrequited romance plotline at least once a year. And I really, really like cream puffs.

[sunshineandcheer]

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙣𝙤𝙬 ! 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝘼𝙍𝘾𝙃 𝙖𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩 !

// This is a roleplay account! Any message or piece of text not marked with the two slashes shown above is in-character, and is completely fictitious.

This pinned post will inform you a bit about the character, some unique circumstances regarding him, things you should be aware of when interacting, and the person who writes him! I sincerely hope you enjoy it. :)

THE CHARACTER HIMSELF.

Liam Sunshine was an OC created on a Multifandom RP server about a year ago. He started as a character that I would rarely think about, and grew to be my #1 original muse. Friends of mine interlocked their character's lore with his, so you'll probably hear vague references to it in RP. He's set in the SCP 'verse, inspired by the title of a Will Wood song, with slight influence from the game We Happy Few. However, he is his own character, and he stretches far beyond just that!

With the "backstory" set aside, I invite you to look at his 4.3k word DOCUMENT, that entails everything about the character - from personality, to backstory, to strengths and weaknesses. That can be found at the bottom of the post! PLEASE mind the TWs/CWs at the top of the doc, they are serious and important, and I just want everyone who reads it to be safe!

There's one important character missing from the backstory, but they'll be mentioned in RP and, one day, added to the doc! Keep an eye out. 👁

One final thing, before we move on;

I (the writer) am an indie dev. I hold this character very, very close to my heart, and he, the mystery character, and his story are going to be turned into a full fledged RPG/VN in the coming years. It's going to take a lot of work! ^^;

With that said, if you end up liking his character, please keep posting about it strictly on Tumblr! This account is like a little experiment; to see how people like the character and what could be improved. (It's also quite a bit of fun, because I ADORE writing him!!)

I'd also like to keep most things about the game under wraps for the moment, so do note that when asked, I can only answer questions vaguely.

THE WRITER.

The writer of this account is a MINOR. (Which is to say; do not attempt to initiate NSFW with the author or his character.)

I'm a huge nerd, and a lover of writing, podcasts, and video games. I really love the opportunity of getting to share this MASSIVE piece of my writing with you guys!

I also am on the Autism spectrum, so please be patient if I (or Liam) doesn't understand something the first time. When speaking OOC, tone tags are greatly appreciated! /g

BEFORE YOU INTERACT.

This account comes with loads of Content Warnings that you really MUST be aware of before interacting. The following list is exhaustive, some of these are not likely to come up frequently or at all, but it's important that you know that they are a possibility. Don't trigger yourself, and stay safe!

The list of TWs/CWs is as follows;

Death, overdose, violence and gore (commonly associated with SCP), self-harm, suicide, forced suicide, mind-altering medication, mutilation/body horror, heavy discussion of manipulation and toxic relationships, religious trauma, hallucinations, and spiking.

That'll do it! I hope you enjoy learning about this little guy and interacting with him. Thank you for reading all this; and stay cheerful!

:)

(There's the aforementioned doc, by the way!)

[clickedbait]

🧍🧍 could i get to pleaaaase

send 🧍‍♂️ to hear about an obscure character on my list!

Cinephile and critic, Spencer Wilson, runs a youtube channel with his best friend Graham ( @whatscanon ) where they review films of any genre and type... but mostly ones that peak their interests like superhero films. There is nothing these two love more than seeing their comics come to life right in front of their eyes. Unfortunately for them one of their prized comics was given a movie adaption-- a terrible one.

In their canon lore, Spencer and Graham are sent back in time by a woman who works for Supreme Studios and under the likes of a man named Mac Schneider (HA). She sends them back to before the movie is even pitched so they can kill the man. Sadly, for them, they are unable to follow through and therefore go back further in time to the man who created the heroes they love so dearly. With a gun raised to kill their comic book hero-- they're talked down and assured that despite what happens... they can be their own heroes and that it'll be okay. That what happens happens.

In my canon there is no time traveling, but there's a lot of jabbering and cracking jokes at the expense of movie creators. Their youtube channel is NOT for young viewers due to language and jokes, but... regardless of that warning-- most of their fans are fifteen year olds and then some neckbeards. It's hard out here for two nerds just doing their absolute best.

Spencer is very much an empath and calmer than his friend. When they are put face to face with Mac it's Spencer who tries to think up a different, better plan to save them from making Mac a martyr. He's very proud of what he knows, but at the end of the day he's aware that despite all his love for movie and the knowledge there... it's all just fiction. Every aspect of a movie isn't real and it can't be taken too seriously.. even if it is how they make money. Mainly, he doesn't let movies consume his life. That's for comic books.

Conman aged thirty-five and in denial about getting closer to forty. He's from Boston and makes sure everyone knows it-- be it in the accent, the way he talks, or the fact he hates being in the South. The only reason he heads downstate to the likes of Georgia is riverboat gambling and even then he's not there to make friends or even acquaintances-- often running his mouth about terrible things regarding those from the area he's in. He's not one to apologize either and won't shy away from a fight... should one ensue. See, he's very good at running his mouth beyond insults. It comes with the title of being a conman.

He's from a video game (Left 4 D.ead 2) which means his canon is zombie apocalypse based with a found family trope that kills me. He winds up getting stuck with three other survivors that are far from his crowd of people. Rochelle, a mouthy woman wanting to be an anchorwoman before the world went to hell. Coach, a man with a boisterous laugh and an appetite for an snacks that come along. And Ellis-- god, if he had to pick between saving Ellis or his five thousand dollar WHITE suit? He'd choose the suit. Every. Goddamn. Time. Or so he thought...

Fun fact: Nick is my longest running muse. I've been writing him since the game came out and continue to. I have so many headcanons and lore about him, but these are supposed to be sort of brief. To put it into a tl;dr-- he's a conman with an attitude that doesn't want to admit he needs other people. Because once he has people-- they're his and he'll protect them. BUT FUCK does that take time. He's very much "the name's nick, but don't bother learning it because i'm not sticking around" only to stay with the same three people and save their asses on different occasions.

@badsteps

[stellarhistoria]

#STELLARHISTORIA. // affiliated, mutuals only, semi selective. multi - muse, ship, verse, fandom. // main foci: luka, alexios, wolfwood.

welcome to my blog. i'll be the scribe, kouren. ( he / they / fae )

this blog features a ton of neat muses, such as wolf.wood from tri-max & tri-stamp, clo.ud strife from FFVII:R & FF:AC, and dot.tore from gen.shin imp.act. on the flipside of things, i also roleplay a ton of original characters, such as luka highwind, alexios ambrosi, and kairos serif. if anything here interests you, please check out the following listed pages.

[ rundown of rules will be beneath the cut. ]

rules & muse selection // credits // faceclaims used. // thread tracker. ask // memes // open starters // all tags used. // carrd.

I. introduction: 

hi hello i'm sure you know at least of my exploits in the past 8 or so years of being a roleplayer. i'm practically willing to bet you've heard of my various aliases (vrai, vixi, riley, lunos/lulu, ri, solaris/sol, so on and so forth)! nonetheless... i'm 22 years old, a part time artist and graphic designer, i have schizoaffective-bipolar and c-ptsd and add, and i have an associates of science that i have a physics major, astronomy minor in that allows me to make magic cohesive and yet so fucking bizarre~ share your thoughts with a fellow fantasy and horror nerd.

II. activity & exclusivity: 

first things first, my activity on any given week, let alone day, will be extremely sporadic and i will only be responding to what a) i have muse for and b) what my mood allows for. if i'm not responding to you, it's nothing against you. it's just where my head is at, at that moment. secondly, this is a mutuals only, affiliated, and selective multimuse multifandom blog, i have so many muses man...

III. affiliates: 

the people who have muses directly tied to this blog's characters and lore are: @stellafortunae, @zodiac--muses, @breathofcosmos, @pleiadeshalo, and @constellaeinfinitum. please go give them a follow if you find interest in their characters, i assure you that you won't regret it ♥

IV. fandom association: 

while i roleplay in a vast majority of fandoms, there is very very little that i want to do with most roleplay communities, as i have been unreasonably kicked out of at least two (one due to them finding out i was not 18 [not doing smut, but was writing horror], and the other kicked me out for playing an irredeemable villain for years). the only ones i want to associate with right now are TRIGUN & KINGDOM HEARTS.

V. triggers: 

if you have any you don't want to see on my blog, please, please let me know! i'm not a mind reader!!! i will tag it or if it's possible i will avoid it. as for myself, the biggest ones that illicit strong ptsd reactions out of me are romantic cheating threads or aus, sexual assault or noncon/dubcon threads or aus, the emergency room (real or otherwise), sacrificial knives (i know they're not real but my brain fucking panics and i'm sorry), and specifically familial manipulation (that i have not been warned about). you can tag this as "mordred dont look" if you'd like.

VI. general rp rules: 

the general sentiment goes as follows . . . one, no godmodding/powerplay (aka making my character do something, unless it's a very small or implied action they'd take). two, no rushing for replies, it's not cool. three, if you want to drop a thread, tell me, because i will also tell you if i find no more interest. four, if you want to not see me on your dash anymore, hard block me. i might accidentally refollow.

VII. specific mun rules: 

one of the biggest rules is while i am a shipping whore, please don't force a ship onto me. i love pre established threads, i love family ties, i love things that have implication, i love it. but don't force it. similarly, another big rule i have is that if you don't enjoy having a lil more than occasional ooc posts, and just want a mostly roleplay area, then i am sorry, but i can't help ya.

VIII. queue / staggering posts: 

another small thing but one i should mention, is that i use the queue rather religiously. if i am particularly excited about something i will respond right away, however most of my replies, as of now (8/26/2023), are going into the queue.

IX. blog birthday: 

i may have made this blog on an impulsive whim of mine, but i fucking love it now. this blog was made on january 10th, 2023. most of these muses are those i've had anywhere from 2010 - 2023. ♥

X. credits: 

please check this google document for all of the references i have used or made myself for each of my characters (being continuously updated).

[noxshade]

For the Record.

This is about my fanfiction, so I don't know why I feel weirdly anxious about this.

So I just posted chapter 32 of Things You Cannot Forget, and it had some issues. I sort of swerved into this super-fanservicey crossover territory that made no sense in the story, but satisfied the nerd in me.

I sort of knew going in that it would be a leap from the rest of the story, but the real problem is that it was done mostly to amuse me. Which is fine, it is just fanfiction, but I want to make a cohesive story that flows naturally. The fic itself is already a crossover of two different series, it doesn't need me hinging major plot points on references to further other works.

So surprise, surprise, it was not a terrific chapter. It's not a piece of writing I'm not proud of, but it's also I realized I had made some pretty big writing errors and just introduced shit that was of no consequence to fill time when I should be moving towards the conclusion of this story. After getting feedback from a few different sources, I decided to totally re-write the offending scenes. Not all of it is different (the intro and outro scenes are almost untouched), but the middle parts where I dump SMT and Lovecraft lore with little-to-no explanation was Not Great.

All in all, I do like the new chapter much better. It flows better, it focuses on the right things, and it feels more in tone with the rest of the fic. I do want to keep the old chapter up somewhere, and a random ass Tumblr post is as good a repository for this as any. So below the break is the original version of chapter 32, titled Sand Dune.

After a day to recover, the Phantom Thieves reconvened at Leblanc, with the intent of exploring the bottom of Mementos.  Makoto, ever the stickler for efficiency, pointed out that there were a few requests they could handle while they plumbed the depths.

“I’m surprised that there’re any requests at all,” Ryuji said, scrolling through the Phansite.  “Figure’d Maruki would have gotten all these desires sorted.”

“There are some things even he can’t fix,” Sumire said, her tone worried as she also scrolled through the page. “But these requests are really dire.”

“Some of it might actually precipitate from Maruki’s perfect world,” Akechi commented. “This mother who abandoned her child might be fulfilling her ideal life.  Or perhaps Maruki’s brainwashing just missed a detail or got a wire crossed in her mind.”

“Do you send calling cards for these little missions?” Rin asked, standing behind the counter and staring up at the jars of coffee beans.

“No,” Haru explained. “Futaba-chan usually just messages the target in the real world.  We found that method simpler and just as effective, provided they don’t have a Palace.”

“Then Chika was right,” Rin said, turning back to the group.

“Your friend?” Yusuke asked.

Rin nodded. “She said that a bunch of people claimed they got a calling card after posting on the internet.  She didn’t believe any of them.”

“Wait…” Ryuji said, leaning back in the booth, staring at the ceiling. “Does this Chika go to Kosei?”  

“Yes,” Rin answered. “She’s a super-Phangirl.  Runs the school newspaper.  Or maybe she did.  I haven’t been able to check in Maruki's world.”

“Is she datin’ a Shujin boy with short black hair?” Ryuji asked.

Rin thought for a moment. “Yes.  They met in Hawaii.”

“Huh.  And here I thought Mishima was just lyin’,” Ryuji said, then explained: “He said he had a girlfriend he was spendin’ Christmas with when I texted him, and I called him out, but he said she was a Kosei student, and a Phangirl.  I just kinda figured he made’er up.  I was going to ask Yusuke about it, but then we got all caught up in this bullshit.”

“Mishima with a girlfriend…” Ann mused. “I guess the world is just full of surprises.”

“I think we should get going, if you’re all quite done gossiping,” Akechi said, a familiar venom in his voice.  Akira reluctantly agreed, and they gathered their things and took the train to Shibuya, then passed into the Metaverse and down into Mementos proper.  They all gave Rin and Sumire a run-down of Mementos, and answered the odd question that followed.  Akira gave a nod to Lavenza, who stood by the door to the Velvet Room, still invisible to the others.  They noted the gray, metallic strands that snaked across the ceiling, so similar to what they had seen in Maruki’s lab.

“That has to be the good doctor’s work,” Yusuke said, gesturing up as they all sorted out items and equipment.

“It’s certainly new,” Haru commented. “Oracle, can you scan it?”

Futaba looked all across the pattern of material, her goggles humming slightly.  “Nothing special.  Whatever he’s doing with this, we’re so far away that my Persona can’t pick up anything.  If we follow them deeper, we might get some clues.”

“Well, they will probably lead back to the Prison, if what he told Witch is true,” Ann said.

They finished their preparations, and Morgana was eager to show the two newcomers his amazing transformation, but when he bounced to the ground in van form, neither seemed that surprised or enthused.

“Really?  Nothing?” Morgana whined at Sumire’s quiet ‘Oh,’ and Rin’s stone-faced reaction.

“With everything that’s happened, and everything we’ve seen, I guess a talking cat turning into a talking automobile just isn’t surprising,” Sumire admitted.  Morgana moaned his disappointment.

Rin was quiet, her eyes squinting behind her mask.  “Does the air conditioning smell like cat breath?” she asked, finally.

“Wha- No!” Morgana protested.

“A little bit, if we drive for too long,” Makoto added.

“Are the seat cat fur or cat tongue texture?” Rin continued.

The headlights that served as Van-gana’s eyes bulged, and the purring engine seemed to sputter before he responded.  “Gross!  They’re fine leather, I’ll have you know.”

“It’s not fine at all,” Yusuke commented. “It's passable, at best.”

Rin didn’t seem to notice, and continued her barrage of questions: “Do you have to eat or fuel up?  How does your exhaust work?”

“It just works, okay?!” Morgana shouted back, becoming increasingly flustered.

“Do you get hairballs in your engine?” Sumire asked, joining the inquiry.

“Just get in!” Morgana huffed, rearing up back, then back down on his front tires, as if putting a foot down. “Jeez.”

They all piled in, only to find it cramped with their two new members.  Eventually, Makoto opted to step out of the van, and ride on her Persona, which was newly awakened into the vehicle Agnes.  Akira took Morgana’s wheel, and the two of them descended into the depths.  

After a few minutes of driving and some light banter made awkward by the cramped interior, the Thieves arrived at the entrance to what used to be the Prison of Regression.  The gray metallic threads had been woven into the fabric of Mementos, and they had grown thicker as they descended, eventually looking more like roots of a plant.  They passed the enormous black stone slabs that marked the beginning of the Prison and disembarked from their modes of transport.  The area beyond the entrance was no longer an overwhelming red, but a pale blue color; not at all dissimilar to Maruki’s laboratory.  They found the panopticon-like temple not far from the entrance.  Instead of the veins of red desire and a enormous red chalice, the space was now filled with cables and wires; with massive lenses and blue floodlights.

“I think we can safely assume Doctor Maruki is behind this change,” Makoto said as she gazed about at the lines of neon cyan and reflective metal that criss-crossed the space.  Akira looked up the thread of gold woven into sheets of wires and fiber-optics that held camera lenses the size of large trucks above them, each shifting its internal mechanism in a way that made Akira feel distinctly… observed.

They scaled the root-tentacle-cables down the space, past the now-empty cells and down to the floor of the space.  A massive pillar of neon cables rose from the floor, then split apart into separate, glowing streams of energy, bounced between hexagonal plates and leading away from the entrance, to a new hallway at the back.

“This is almost certainly the ‘lynchpin’ Lady Elizabeth mentioned,” Morgana said as they approached.

Akira looked at the structure that had been created… or perhaps grown?  It struck him that this was a particularly powerful location: the nexus of thought in Tokyo.  From what Elizabeth had said, they were not the first to fight a mysteriously powerful cognitive being.  This space had either been created by the Holy Grail or had created the Grail in turn, and now Maruki had been drawn to it by his own Persona, if Rin had interpreted his words correctly.  What other beings might it draw from the Sea of Souls or beyond?

“So all the threads he wove through Mementos are anchored here?” Yusuke asked, glancing about.  Akira was also shocked by the transformation the space had endured.  He recognized most of it, including the plaques on the ground with the Latin names of the deadly sins on them.  They had fought the Holy Grail here. They had defeated Yaldabaoth here, in a way.

“Not quite, Inari,” Futaba corrected, scanning the mass of cables and metallic mesh. “It’s the other way around.  They don’t converge here; this is where they begin: the stuff we’ve seen all around Mementos starts here and spreads like roots.”

“This must be what he made on Christmas,” Rin said, staring up at the space, her eyes lazily following the glowing lines of the cables.

Ryuji wandered closer and gave the cables a smack with his bat, to no effect. “Doesn’t seem like we can cut it off here,” he said.

“It all looks really similar to his Persona,” Ann said. “If he created this, it makes sense.”

“Meaning we probably have to deal with Maruki to get rid of it and separate the two dimensions,” Akechi added.

“It seems that he may have expanded the space since we were last here,” Haru said, having walked to the side.  She gestured to the hole in the wall where the lines of energy were directed out, there were a series of escalators out of the space now. They all circled the central structure with her and approached the dark moving stairs.  “I doubt the escalators were something the Holy Grail decided to include.”

“You never know,” Rin said, as they stepped on the moving stairs and traveled beyond the panopticon.  The area behind that looked like another floor of Mementos, but… infused with Maruki’s Palace.  The subtle white glow, the posters talking about happiness, the blue-veined metal roots burrowed into the ceiling.  The Metanav buzzed in Akira’s pocket and notified him of the new area they had uncovered as they did, and a massive new section appeared on the map, one that had them ascending, but on a new path, parallel to the original descent.

“And having reached the bottom of the Inferno, we must climb our way to Purgatorio,” Akechi commented.  From the looks other Thieves gave, it seemed only Makoto, Yusuke and Akira had understood his reference to Dante’s work, but Akira’s rebuttal was cut off as a toy car honked its way up the escalator, trailing balloons.  The tiny Jose waved at each of them, driving his one-child car.

“Hello, Jose,” Ann greeted with a wave.

“Oh, hello,” he commented to the Thieves. “Are you exploring this new area too?”

“We have some business here,” Akira said, glancing over to see Sumire utterly lost, and Rin tilting her head. “Have you been following us, Jose?”

“No, but I thought it might be a good idea to try this area’s new flowers,” he said. “I’ll see you later!”  He honked the car’s toy-like horn again, then sped off down the train tracks.

“Anything else I need to know about this crazy place?” Sumire asked. “This is so weird, it’s like Alice and Wonderland,”

“Alice in Wonderland,” Akechi corrected. “The mental world is bound to not make sense from our rational perspective.  That child is no stranger than any Shadow.”

“Why does he have yellow eyes like Elizabeth and Margaret?” Rin asked, to which Akira simply shrugged.

“I don’t really think it’s any of our business,” Akira said.  Rin seemed to accept that, and they set off into the new layer of Mementos that the Metanav had labeled the “Path of Da’at.”

They found the targets of the requests with relative ease and handled them.  As they ascended the floors of the path, the Shadows grew more and more powerful, each battle chipping away at their resources.  New, strange Shadows appeared; not just the ones from Maruki’s Palace and the Qliphoth World, but others; ones that had no interest in negotiation.  There were pairs of Obsidian Gargoyles with unnaturally long arms and no faces that hovered in midair, along with bright red crustaceans with wings that Al Azif called Crimson Fungoides.  They each had odd, bizarrely powerful attacks that caught the Thieves off-guard, but the hardest fight was the pack of five dog-like Shadows they fought close to the top, each called Canine of Corners.   They were oddly immaterial creatures, each with a long, bladed tongue and their solid outlines trailing away into geometric, fractal smoke.

They stopped to rest on an empty floor right before the end.  Akira passed out snacks, coffee and medical supplies.  The climb had been pretty taxing.

“What’s with these new Shadows that don’t wanna talk?” Ann asked as she helped Rin with an energy drink.

“They all feel like those bizarre things we fought in the warehouse,” Haru commented.  Akira shared a brief glance with Rin, neither wanting to bring up that they had discussed this exact scenario.  

They packed their snacks and moved on.  The further they moved into the Path of Da’at, the more Mementos resembled Maruki’s lab.  Eventually, following one final set of escalators, the Thieves found themselves in a large, metallic room.  Glowing cables snaked back and forth across the floor, all feeding into a large glass tube that rose all the way to the extremely high ceiling.  There were futuristic workstations all around, each with a holographic screen that showed some part of Mementos.  The group surmised that they had reached the heart of Maruki’s data-gathering effort.  Futaba moved to try and see what could be done about it, but from behind them, they heard someone walking in.  They turned to see a human figure approaching.  Yusuke and Ryuji readied their weapons, and Akira even caught Makoto pulling the hammer back on her revolver, but when they could see who it was, they were all surprised.

“Lady Lavenza?” Morgana asked.  The small girl approached them with a smile on her face, her expression calm. 

“I thought you could use some assistance in this matter Trickster,” she said, bowing slightly.  Her yellow eyes flicked between the different members of the Thieves. “This place has become exceedingly dangerous, after all.”

“I thought…” Akira began. “What changed?  I thought this world was too taxing for you and your siblings to manifest.  Why-”

“It’s not her,” Rin said, taking a step forward.  Lavenza stopped short, her smile dropping to worry.

“Your confusion and distrust is expected, but-” Lavenza began.

“Witch is right,” Futaba cut her off, her goggles glowing a faint red as she scanned the short figure. “It’s not Lavenza.  She and her sister registered like Mona.  This is some kind of Shadow.”

‘Lavenza’ dropped all pretense, the emotion sliding right off of her face.  Her kind yellow eyes suddenly looked dead, and her voice changed to one of an indeterminate gender, but with a Shadow’s distortion.  “You all continue to surprise me.  I settled on this form after much debate as the most trustworthy and the least suspicious, and you still saw through it.”

A dark haze began to gather around the thing that looked like Lavenza.  In a blur, its form changed to Sojiro with yellow eyes, then to Sae, then to Wakaba, then finally to Maruki in his old lab coat and sandals.  The Shadow stared at them from behind his glasses and flop of curly hair.

“Good thing we’re not that stupid,” Akechi said, drawing his serrated blade. “I assume you’re some security measure Maruki put here to try to protect this area?”

“You are very wrong, distorted echo,” the Shadow said.  Akira raised an eyebrow at the term it used for Akechi, but pushed past it. “I am here of my own free will, as the doctor’s goals and mine align.”

Rin’s eyes narrowed and she shifted in place, brushing her combat sandals on the metal floor.  “If you’re here to stop us, then you’re too late,” she said.

“Far from it,” it replied. “You are too late to stop the world that is to come.”   It darkened, abandoning the shape of a human, growing to monstrous size and adopting a new form.

“I prefer to use intermediaries for this kind of base violence,” it said, its voice deepening and growing in volume. “But you have defeated the other roadblocks I created.  So I shall show you all the truth.”   Its form resolved into a massive, three-legged monster.  Its head was nothing but a mouth, shrouded by tendrils and contorted into a permanent scream, its head a wriggling, serpentine tentacle.  Blue orbs dotted its black body as its green-tinted hands dripped with dark oil.

The entirety of the Phantom Thieves lined up against the creature Futaba’s Persona labeled the Moon Howler.  Cornered as they were, it would be hard to not use the whole group in battle.

Looking back on what Akira would remember of this battle later, he would pinpoint that as their mistake.  

“Hahaha!  Perhaps the time for pawns has not yet passed after all!” it boomed, then raised its hands and unleashed a deep magenta pulse of energy from its gaping mouth, its shroud of tentacles parting.  Akira recognized a status effect attack, but his fears were soon exceeded as Ryuji turned and swung at Akira with his mace.  It was a brainwash attack.

“No!  It got Skull!” Futaba shouted over their mental link from within her Persona.  “And Queen, Noir and Fox!”

Ryuji branshied his weapon again, trying to bring it down on Akira’s head.  Akira blocked with his dagger as he saw the entire team descending into chaos.  Ann was desperately dodging a series of ax swings from Haru, Morgana and Sumire were trying to restrain Makoto as she thrashed about wildly, and Akechi squared off with Yusuke in careful sword duel.  Akira looked back into Ryuji’s eyes, only to find nothing there, just a dark void.

“Skull!” Akira shouted, trying to hold back Ryuji’s attack.  “It’s me!  Snap out of it!  It’s just another trick!”

Rin ran full-tilt at Ryuji, tackling him off Akira, and quickly putting him on a kind of leg-lock where she held both his arms behind his back with her legs.  Akira was momentarily impressed by her ingenuity, but looking over the internal battle tearing his team apart refocused him on the threat: the Shadow.

“I’m working on something to help, Joker,” Futaba said. “But… It's fighting back.  This isn’t just another Brain Jack.  This Shadow, it’s different.”

Akira summoned his metallic angel Persona Sandalphon to blast the Moon Howler with a bless attack, but it just laughed at him.

“You face me alone, Akira Kurusu?” it asked.  Joker reeled back.  How on Earth did this Shadow know his name?  “Yes, I know you.  I am the darkness of the human heart.  I know all humanity, and I know your soul.  Nothing you will do here can possibly matter.  Free will is an illusion.  You think you have escaped the doctor’s prison, but there is no freedom, only larger and smaller cages.”

“You’re wrong!” Akira shouted. “I know we can make a difference.  We can’t… we can’t…”

“Fail?” it said, completing his thought. “Hahaha!  You already have.  I have seen it.  This world is one of many, and I have seen the world where you fall.  In this, and all others.  Nothing you do can ever matter, because in the future of another world, you have already made the opposite choice.  There is no hope!”

“That’s bullshit!” he and Futaba shouted together. 

“Don’t hit us with that ‘multiverse’ crap, you overgrown tripod!” Futaba said.

“I don’t care about other timelines- I’m still here, and I’m still going to stop you!” Akira shouted.  He swapped Personas over to the robed and spear-wielding Odin, who called down lighting on the Shadow.  It seemed to injure it, but only a tiny fraction.

“No, you can’t,” the Moon Howler taunted. “Your mind already cracked when it touched oblivion.  Let me show you the futility of your actions.”

The Shadow raised its hand at Akira, and suddenly his mind was assaulted again.  He screamed and doubled over as images and sensations crashed through his mind.  He felt burning heat, smelled decay, and could taste the void.  He saw Tokyo.  A dozen different Tokyos; each with something terribly wrong with them.  The red-veined Mementos Fusion they had averted was there, but then there were more.  One where a yellow fog shrouded the entire city as a multi-colored eye gazed down as the citizens slowly disintegrated into mist, then one where the people on the street were replaced with crystal coffins as the moon grew larger and larger in the green-blue sky.

He tried to shut them out, keep his wits about him and remember the techniques for mental control that Maruki had taught him, but the screams of an entire city dying filled his ears.  He saw Tokyo turned inside out, the souls of its inhabitants consumed to birth a new god as angels and demons warred over the sand-blasted hellscape that the city had become.  Then a chillingly un-fantastical vision of Tokyo: missiles raining down and vaporizing the city in a mushroom cloud.

Each of these visions were compressed with dozens more, like individual frames of a film that made no sense, but played so loud as to drown out all else.

“This is no time to keel over, Joker!” he heard Akechi say at the same time he saw the world end.  Vision, after vision, after vision cascaded over him.  He wanted to scream; he might already have been screaming, but he couldn't hear his own voice over the thousands of lives being ended as Maruki smiled at him and the world faded away into the roar of the void.

“Joker!” he almost heard Futaba shout. “Something happening… I can’t see… I can’t…”

The rest of what she said was lost as Akira’s entire world became the thrumming laughter of a malicious god.

---

Futaba Sakura looked around herself.  She was supposed to be at the bottom of Mementos, supporting her team, but she wasn’t.  Instead, she was standing at the top of a ruined building, in a lifeless, ruined Tokyo that was buried by sand.

Her mind raced as she looked around.  Her goggles were gone, but she was still in her Metaverse outfit, with its skin tight bodysuit and neon green lines.  She gazed out over the city around here.  There wasn’t a single living thing in sight.  The building she was on was slightly askew, leaned up against a massive hill of sand that was so tall that the top of it spilled over onto the roof, just a bit.  All around her were the sand-blasted ruins of Tokyo.  Gone was the sea, gone was the horizon, like the city now existed in a permanent sandstorm.  She could see the Tokyo Skytree past another row of office buildings, partially destroyed.  

She tried to think back.  She’d been trying to support her teammates after several of them had succumbed to a powerful brainwashing spell.  She had just prepared a special cleansing effect, but then her vision had begun to dim, and Al Azif had warned about… what was that warning it had given her? “Dimensional…” something.  Futaba swore, not used to not remembering something.  And now here she was, trapped in some kind of dream or hallucination.  She was still not quite over spending a week with her dead mother, and now whenever the hell this Shadow was had trapped her in another illusion.  Al Azif had given it another name beyond Moon Howler, something Egyptian-sounding.  Was that related to the sandy expanse before her?  There were no pyramids here, just her memories of her own tomb, and a blazing, dry heat.

Was there anything here?  It felt like a post-apocalyptic landscape, like those Australian action movies with the cool cars.  Was this nothing more than a figment of her dying imagination?  Or had she been-

“Hello, Oracle.”

Futaba spun around to see a person on the roof with her, where there had been no one else moments ago.  He looked to be a man of perhaps twenty or thirty.  He was tall, with an slender, almost androgynous figure and well-coiffed blond hair that was carefully slicked, but feathered in the back.  He was dressed in an immaculately tailored double-breasted black business blazer, with an orange tie and spotless black dress pants and shoes.  Everything about him was far too clean and slick to fit in with the sandy surroundings.  Futaba focused on his eyes, and saw that he was heterochromatic: his left eye was a deep red, and his right was a rich blue.

“Who are you?” Futaba found herself almost shouting.  “Where am I?  Are my friends… Did you do this to me?”

“You have so many questions, but only some of them are relevant,” he replied, his voice smooth and even.  He was unnaturally calm.  Futaba knew instantly that he wasn’t human.  He couldn’t be.  If she was even still alive.

If any of this was even real.

“My name… well, I suppose you can call me Louis,” the man said, scratching his chin with a ringed finger. “As for where you are, it’s Tokyo.  But not your Tokyo, in either the past or the future.  You might call it a… possible Tokyo.”

“I know what a parallel universe is,” Futaba responded, slightly annoyed. “I’ve seen movies before.  You dragged me to some apocalyptic timeline… for what?”

Louis smiled. “To save you,” he said, turning and walking down the slope of sand piled against the building.  Futaba was annoyed, but hurried after him, sliding past him down the bank of sand.

“Are my friends safe?” Futaba asked as Louis finished walking down the slope, the sand sliding right off his dress shoes.

“That depends on a great many things, Oracle,” he said. “They were attacking each other, and at the mercy of an Outer God, so I would say no, but you were preparing to aid them.  So perhaps the answer is yes.”  Futaba was quickly burning though what little patience she had.  This cryptic super-being was more annoying than any Shadow they had faced, but she had to go along with him if she wanted answers.

“What do you want?” Futaba asked.

“I want a certainty of outcomes,” Louis said as he passed Futaba and kept walking.  Futaba followed after him.

“What outcome do you want to make certain of?” she asked.

“Your victory,” Louis said. “Your world is one I have always treasured, because He was unable to influence it.  And even though He is unable to directly affect your world, His design and intentions can still manifest.  Patterns propagate, regardless of intent.  You handily defeated His shadow in the Grail, but now this doctor with the Idiot God in his heart is trying to carry on a dream that will bring about a vision of the world very close to His.”  Louis stopped and looked back at Futaba.  “Too close.”

“Can you just skip to the part where you help me?” Futaba asked, frustrated by his rambling.

“My, the children are impatient these days,” he said, snorting a small laugh. “I had to convince Stephen to help me contact you like this, in this imaginary pocket space, and you just can’t wait to leave.”

He kept walking, and Futaba was forced to follow him as he made his way around the ruined city.  “Your world is important to me, Oracle.  More than you could ever know.  But I can see that you are concerned for your friends, so I will keep this brief.”  They arrived at a clearing, what might have been the Shibuya crosswalk, buried under sand.  It was hard to tell where they were with so many landmarks eroded.  “The location you are fighting at in your world is one of immense significance.  It can empower lesser, banished Shadows like the unwelcome guest currently making a mess of your group, but it can also allow those outside your world to cross over, if they are powerful or interested.  And I am both of those things.”

“Then you can help us fight that… thing?” she asked, remembering the other name her Persona had assigned it. “That… ‘Nyarlathotep’?”

Louis shook his head, his blond hair fluttering slightly.  “Each transgression across borders invites a reaction and reprisal.  Even I dare not interfere beyond this chat.  But this fact can be used against your foe, for he is an interloper.  He should not be there.  If you can attract the attention of higher powers, then the reprisal he deserves will deal with him and remove him from your world.”

“So I… call his bosses and tell them to come deal with it?” Futaba asked.  It couldn’t be that simple, could it?

“If it is helpful to think of it that way,” Louis said. “I can give you a phrase that will summon a being that will ‘deal’ with him.  Though it will only work once, and only at your current location, as that is the only location where such a summoning can occur.”

“And you’re sure you can’t come back and help more?” Futaba asked. “You’re clearly some kind of big-shot metaphysical super-boss.”

Louis smiled and chuckled. “My aid and power is available in your world to those who have cultivated the power of the Star.  Your Joker can call upon me, but he has chosen to avoid summoning me, as he is frightened of what my power may represent.  If you make it out of this mess, tell him this from me: it is not the effect of great power he should be concerned about, but what those with power will do to those without.”

Futaba swallowed hard.  That particular sentence felt ominous.  The wind picked up and pelted her with sand; she felt it was time to go, but she had one last question to ask.

“Why me?” she said. “Why not tell this right to Joker if you know him?”

“Because I want to minimize my involvement,” Louis said, reaching into the pocket of his blazer. “And you hold the tome of forbidden knowledge in your world, so you are much easier to contact.”  He withdrew a small, rigid rectangle of black paper: a business card.  He extended it towards Futaba, between his index and middle finger.

Futaba reached a hand out, but felt herself recoil with doubt. “And there are no catches for this help?  No fine print?”

“Normally, there would be,” Louis said. “But in this, I offer only knowledge, and I offer it freely.  Our objectives align.”

Futaba reached forward again, and tentatively took the black business card from his fingers.

And before she could form another thought, she was gone.

---

Akira’s head felt exceedingly empty.  The visions had stopped, as had the screaming from his party.  He stood, shaky at first, but was helped to his feet by Ryuji and Yusuke, who had apparently been cured of their brainwash-effect.  He looked around, and saw four of the Thieves lined up against the Moon Howler.   Morgana, Akechi, Sumire and Ann held the line against a wave of Almighty attacks from the Shadow.

“You feelin’ better, bro?” Ryuji said as he steadied Akira and helped him stand.  Rin, Haru and Makoto were a few feet away, hiding behind a computer console and patching each other up with their medical supplies. 

Akira was about to respond, when he looked up and noticed that Futaba’s Persona was glowing with… unusual colors.  The runes on the underside of the triangle shifted and changed, and Akira could have sworn he heard… chanting?  What was happening?

“Oracle, what are you doing?” Akira asked, his throat sore like he had been screaming.  (Had he been screaming?  He couldn’t remember.)

There was no response as the droning, chanting sound from her Persona and shifting lights reached a fevered pitch.  Then, without warning, the metallic triangle stopped and a noiseless pulse of sound emanated from her Persona.  Everything in the room stumbled at the sudden lack of noise, even the Shadow.  It seemed to look around, its green tentacles writhing.  It seemed… shock?  Anxious?  Akira could hardly be said to be an expert in its body language.

“No!” it shouted. “No human has had that knowledge in a century!” Akira looked back up at Futaba’s hovering Persona, but something else caught his eyes instead: an eye.

On the impossibly high ceiling of the cavernous room they were in, was an eye.  A human eye had opened, and it was the size of the entire room.  Akira blinked, and it wasn’t an eye anymore, it was a glowing, luminous ball of energy.  Akira blinked again, trying to make sense of it, and the ball had multiplied, and not instead of giving off light, they looked like bubbles filled with swirling nebulae and stars.  Akira glanced down at his teammates, only to find each of them also staring up at the sight unfolding above them.  Akira looked back up only to see even more spheres, but instead of bubbles they now resembled spheres of flesh and blood, with fibrous tendons holding them together and black ichor flowing across their surfaces, dripping upwards.

At that moment, Akira knew what it meant to see something your mind could not comprehend.

The spheres grew and multiplied downward, each time shifting and changing, until the entire space some ten meters above them was occupied by human eyeballs, each wildly swinging about.  

Then, each eye turned on the Moon Howler.

The Shadow seemed to shrink under the pressure of the many-eyed gaze.  “Guardian-Gate, I-”

You have transgressed beyond your role, Crawling Chaos.

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere.  It was a deafening silence that reverberated in every fiber of Akira’s being.  

You can not remain where you are not permitted.

“All-in-One, no!” the Shadow protested. “If this world ends then, our kind may be free again.  I have aligned the stars, you need only let me fulfill-”

You will not remain where you are not permitted.

Akira glanced down from the unblinking eyes to see the Moon Howler be rent apart, shredded by invisible forces down the green and black dust.

It didn’t even have time to scream.

The eyes turned to look at the Phantom Thieves.  They all tried to prepare themselves for whatever might come next, but Akira still felt exhausted.  Instead of any attack or another thunderously quiet voice, the orbs shifted again, rapidly shrinking and multiplying until there was nothing but a sea of light brown specks suspended above them.  It was sand, he realized; an inverted sand dune.  The sand began to fall in a narrow column in front of all of them, like it was the top of hourglass.  The frontline backed away, but they were all too exhausted to put up any real defense if whatever this thing was turned out to be hostile.

The falling sand reshaped itself into a human figure.  Tall, but completely obscured by a pure white shroud.  As it emerged, Akira noticed Futaba touch down on the ground next to him, her Persona recalled.  

“Greeting, children of men,” the white-robed figure said to them, his voice strangely accented, but smooth and pleasant.

“Who are you?” Makoto asked, standing up from behind the console.

“Do you mean to harm us?” Yusuke asked.

“I am called ’Umr At-Tawil by some,” the figure said. “And I mean you no harm.  The Crawling Chaos was banished from this world, and as a relation from the other side of what you understand as the Sea of Souls, I was bound to hold him to the law.”

“So that thing is gone?” Akechi said, his sword still drawn.

“And you’re not going to harvest our eyes or anything?” Rin added.

“The Crawling Chaos can no longer access your minds, or the minds of mankind,” the figure said.  It made some indecipherable gesture beneath its shroud.  “Your destinies are your own to shape.”

And with that, the figure vanished in white mist.  

“That was fucked up,” Ryuji said.

Akira agreed.  They all wanted to talk, but no-one had much to say.  They were all injured from the battle, and Akira could feel that most of them just wanted to get this over with.  Futaba hacked the system controlling how Maruki gathered data, which cleared a path forward back in the Palace.

On their way out of Mementos, Futaba slipped Akira a small black business card.  There were dark gray characters that looked like Arabic on one side, but it was what was on the other side that shocked him.  In silver letters he saw a name:

LOUIS CYPHER The Morning Star

Akira recognized the pseudonym.  He swallowed hard and looked back at Futaba, who shrugged at him. “Where did you get this?” he whispered to her.

“I think my Persona gave it to me?” she said, her brow creasing in confusion. “I don’t really know what happened.  It’s hard to remember…  But something tells me you should have it.  Like the star Jose gave us: it feels like it’s for you.”

Akira wondered what force could possibly evade Futaba’s near-eidetic memory, and felt a chill roll down his spine considering that question.  He still felt sick from the Shadow’s assault.  They’d have to take some time to recuperate.  Hopefully things would be smoother for them in Maruki’s Palace.

---

Nyarlathotep is ejected from the Metaverse.  His no-quite corporal form that he projects from his exile is spat out on a rooftop in Tokyo, one that overlooks Shibuya.  His disguise is failing, so he reverts to an older form: the man with long gray hair and a red suit, the one with the monocle.

How dare that brat call upon the All-in-One?  How dare the One-in-All banish him?  This is their only chance to return.  There is no other way.  The Crawling Chaos seethes, rapidly pacing on the deserted rooftop, trying to put together a new plan.  He overstepped his bounds, directly confronting Persona-users like that, but he needed to stop them soon.  It was a calculated risk, and the math is rapidly changing now.  The odds of them being able to overcome the doctor and his expression of Azathoth are too slim.  But he needs to hurry.  This transgression will attract the attention of his opposite, and in his weakened state, he is no match for Philemon’s tools.  If he-

“There you are.”

Nyarlathotep stops as he hears the voice behind him.  No, no, this is not the end.  Even those who rule over power can be tempted, after all.  He turns to see which of them has tracked him down.  The man suddenly sharing the rooftop with him is tall, with platinum hair slicked back under a blue cap.  He is dressed in a blue outfit reminiscent of an elevator attendant’s, a thick tome with a mauve cover held in his arm.

“You evaded us for some time,” he says, his yellow eyes staring into Nyarlathotep’s illusory ones. “But you must leave.  You were defeated and banished.  Your interference is unwelcome.”

“You’re not looking at this right, attendant,” Nyarlathotep says.  “You’re not thinking of the possibilities.”

“There are no possi-” the man begins, waving a hand.

“You could bring her back,” Nyarlathotep says. 

The man freezes.

“Oh yes, Theodore, I know about her”, he continues, sensing opportunity. “I know your sister left her duties when she lost him, but you chose to stay when you lost her.  In this world, humans’ hearts are being mended and even the dead may live again.  She could return.”  The man called Theodore takes a step closer as Nyarlathotep continues: “The barrier between desire and reality has never been weaker.  If you stay, keep this world in place, you can finally save her.”

“And what would you know about her?” Theodore asks, his voice low and dangerous.  He waves his hand, and Nyarlathotep’s human guise falls away.  Where the red-suited man with a monocle stood, now there is a thin humanoid with black, stonelike skin.  It has no hands or feet, only sharp claws at the end of its spindly limbs.  Small red wings spread out behind it, motionless as it floats just off the roof.  There is no face on its head, but black orbs set all around its head are surmounted by a golden crown made of endless spines.

“You are the darkness of the human heart manifested,” Theodore says. “You misjudged their potential when you thought humanity would destroy itself.  Because of that, you have failed to grasp why she made the choices she did, because you cannot understand sacrifice.  You are selfishness, greed, spite, nihilism and misery, given form.  Nothing more.”

“You cannot destroy me,” the mouthless creature says, its voice calmer, more accepting.  It knows what comes next. “I am undeniably part of the human heart.  I am eternal.  Where there is darkness, there are Shadows.”

“And to the shadows you shall return,” Theodore says, opening the book in his arms.  “You do not belong in this world.”  He thrusts his hand forward, and the crowned creature disappears in a flash.

His quarry finally banished back to beyond the world of humanity, Theodore sighs deeply.  He looks over the edge of the roof, to the busy street below, where humanity remains enthralled.  Shutting the Crawling Chaos out of the world won’t undo the damage he has done, but now he can do no more.

Theodore feels his arms grow weak.  This reality has already worn him down, he can’t handle much more of it.  He needs to return to his master and report.  Then he and his sisters can return to their duties.  

The fate of the world falls to a group of young Persona-users yet again.  Perhaps that is how it is meant to be.

Wearily, Theodore opens a door back to the Velvet Room, and disappears.

[sasorikigai]

Are you hype for Ghost Of Tsushima? I got it first day and lemme tell you: it's nice.

Random Inbox Shenanigans || @personal-blogs-things || always accepting 

Hot take: I only own a PC and a laptop, and do not own any console-related games, including Mortal Kombat. Seeing all the gifsets related to Ghost of Tsushima on my dash, I think I do appreciate the fact that Jin Sakai does sound much like Hanzo Hasashi in the fact that he stands as one of the last surviving members of his clan. And him being resolved to do whatever it takes, at any cost, to protect his people and reclaim his home. Besides that, no, the only thing that’s keeping me hyped as of now is reading the manga Vagabond (for all the uncanny connection which happens to be linked with Hanzo, with the fact that Musashi, one of the protagonists in the manga was also played by Sanada in Westworld and Sanada plays Hanzo/Scorpion in the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie) and the said MK movie coming out next year. 

[captainkurosolaire]

Do you regret writing any of your past muses?

I regret leaving a lot of my past muses if anything. Perhaps, the character, I betrayed the most was the writer and person behind them the most. Ten year's ago even before this community. I was a whole different young man. One with ambition and passion. My creativity was boundless. I allowed my ambition's to die from a lot of my own harboring doubt, self care, health, artificial limits and barriers I placed on me, anxiety, and my closest people that were in my orbit of that time, unfortunately didn't understand my nerd levels, or creative interest and very much were attuned to pessimistic, that cut me like sharp blade's disguised as rain. As well, lot of being distracted and other's to sway me overtime and null me, like a black cloud it obscured my light. I've spent ever since trying to get that back and replicate it. But alas, I still am not yet there. That me, created character's and world's so elaborate and built a whole table-top game and RPG very akin to D&D for his closest of friends, made 50 classes unique, lore definition of world building, it created 10 spells unique, one ultimate. It made races, it brought a whole universe a life. There's character's and concepts that just really were great. Although it lacked proper writing and a lot of life lessons that was a much easier thing to hone then losing that imagination. (Thanks so much @thefreelanceangel for the heavenly ask!)

Overtime I've been working just to get back to that level and thrive to reach the amount of potential and depth I can still do. One-day maybe I'll even regain ambition. I think challenge's and everything like the one I've set is the only way I can regain it. Then I'll also gain back all that I ever discarded or lost and become someone much better and healthier as a result.

Mind over matter I think is the key to survive and really for me to truly live against all things that attempted to define me. I intend to uplift and spark life and reinvigorate it around me with my intense passion! But also to do it for myself in this process.

I especially do feel, I owe it. Because now I get that having a PROPER space and orbit that allows me to go on this journey with people who do get me and have supported me or followed me all this time, I've a best to offer them. Last year I showed that. I couldn't have done it with out all that energy and cheering, belief infinite motivation and inspiration in everything I saw.

I discovered and awakened myself a lot closer to my former. I attend to retrieve myself by the end of this year. I'll eliminate all my anxieties, and I will revitalize and do the most to ensure that I do my mightiest to prevent anyone to suffer that same ordeal. I will speak more and and be absolutely unbreakable, unfathomable, for it all. With what's entailed and in motion. The new friends I've gained and still could and empowering and loving the one's I have harshly in support, I'm on the right track. I'm seeing all the glimpses of the future for my challenge and theme's, ideas, collabs, I've just a ton in-store and I'm excited to bring it.

[rubyfall]

❔ Hello

send  ❔  and   i’ll  list   a  couple  muses  that  i’d  like  to  throw  at  yours !  (  @wrrnth  )

✱  SHEIK & ELSA 

i  guess  sheik  has  to  deal  with  all  my  enchanted  forest  girls  .  but  elsa  is  quite  literally  a  spirit  and  also  someone  who  is  a  protector  of  sacred  native  land  SO  there  is  a  lot  of  room  for  these  to  interact  and  join  forces  and  just  learn  from  each  other  in  general  .   also  in  the  vein  of  time  displacement  it  could  be  an  interesting  concept  to  explore  since  the  enchanted  forest  was  in  a  sort  of  stasis  for  years  and  i  headcanon  that  time  has  flowed  differently  in  that  region  ever  since  !!

✱  SHEIK  &  CARDAN

another   faerie  royal  except  this  one  is  the  definition  of  a  little  bitch  .  sheik  is  probably  having  the  worst  time  being  an  ambassador  to  elfame  because  he  has  to  deal  with  cardan's  party  hardy  ass  constantly.   when  he  becomes  king  i'm  sure  this  only  gets  worse  and  sheik  was  probably  the  one  person  that  was  super  excited  when  cardan  became  a  big  snake  like  "  please  sir  stay  that  way  finally  the  outsides  match  the  insides  "    

✱  SHEIK  &  GANSEY

no  lie  gansey  would  just  be  HEARTEYES  from  the  jump  .  he  sees  anything  that  is  vaguely  magical  and  he  cannot  contain  his  excitement.   also  by  the  end  of  trc  he  is  basically  half  boy  half  dream  forest  which  again  i  am  just  throwing  all  my  forest  related  muses  your  way  and  seeing  what  sticks  .   he  also  is  a  research  nut  and  overall  nerd  so  i  think  they  can  both  relate  on  that  front  .  

✱  SHEIK  &  EIMILE

feels  like  a  comedic  duo  waiting  to  happen  .  em  is  technically  a  modern  muse  now  but  she  has  a  huge  connection  to  the  celtic  pantheon  and  is  a  bit  of  an  anomalous  character  because  she  bridges  the  gap  between  modern  and  ancient  lore  .  i  feel  like  sheik  functions  in  a  similar  fashion  and  she  would  probably  write  some  really  bad  poetry  about  their  situation  and  it  would  be  a  good  laugh.  they  also  both  sing  !  so  that's  fun  as  well  

[sohelish]

✔ - ( tho what haven't we done at this point lmao )

plotting guide @ofdeomnes <8

My muse(s): Hel + Bob and Eddie, and that shady drunk woman ( wait for it ) xD

Do I know your muse(s):  yes | no | a little | tell me about your muse ( always up for more; I'm watching/reading Sky use her powers and going eee! like the nerd that I am )

Setting: our verse | my verse | your verse | modern | alternate universe | other ( honestly, all the verses? you're the only person who did aus with me ever, I think... but I do enjoy that we're finally doing mainverse stuff, it's the most complex story + I prefer to work with original lore )

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship ( mostly for aus, I think )

Possible relationships: friends | classmate | co-worker | roommate | family, real or adopted | dating or blind date | married | friends with benefits | unrequited love | lending a hand | teacher - student | rivals | allies | partner-in-crime | enemies | protecter - guarded | business partners | spy - infiltrated | manipulator - manipulated | star-crossed | first meeting | other ( we never wrote a first meeting but whatever, maybe one day )

I’m in the mood for: fluff | angst | horror | romance | humor | crime | hurt / comfort | action | supernatural | slice of life | crack | dark threads | light threads | any genre | multi-para | shorter para | one-line | any length | plotted threads | unplotted threads | other

Feel free to: message me ooc | message me ic | tell me your ideas | write a starter | answer one of my opens | send a meme | reblog this with your preferences - let’s find common interests! <= this whole section just applies to everything and everybody always

[cursedfortune]

[kazeofthemagun] ♛ >u>

[ ♛ ] send me a url and i’ll tell you the following; @kazeofthemagun

my opinion on;

character in general: Fuck me up. I love this character. I know I've said this before but I can't stress enough the long journey I went on to find this boy and it was only because of you I came to finally have it answered who the fuck this character is. The TWO pictures I have of him since I was like, 11 or 12, sitting in a ??? folder because I loved his design (and Kumo's) but I never found any names associated with the art of them. Then you like, kicked down my door and revealed the glory that is Kaze and FF:U and I'm still crying in joy and relief this mystery has been solved. What does that have to do with the character? A fuckton, I'll tell you whut. The thing is, this great mystery could have turned out disappointing. My intuition wouldn't believe that Kaze and Kumo would be awful when/if I learned of them, but there's always that possibility that just cause something looks appealing doesn't mean it actually is. I was so happy to be reunited with this mystery plaguing me and to also see these characters were also fucking fantastic that god. I was a big dumb baby. Stupid sobbing baby that also didn't want to freak you out about it asfdgfhg. Kaze? Fantastic. People overlook him and it's a fucking shame but he's... an onion. Layered. In between each layer is a gun. I love everything about him, even when he's an ass. how they play them: BEAUTIFULLY. He's a quiet boi but like, you reflect that wonderfully and in a way that still allows for others to easily engage with him, I feel. Quiet characters mean a lot to me, they are my bread and butter but I feel like they are often viewed hesitantly to engage with. You write Kaze with so much thoughtfulness, tbh. You pay mind to all his details and from them grow more lore that you further research for. The lengths you go to with the minimum content you have to avoid loopholes and keep information flowing in one direction blows my mind. I appreciate it so much. I'm not joking when I say that if I ever make bank someday I want to buy the rights for FF:U and dump it into your lap. You're like, the guardian of Kaze and the FF:U lore and how you write him is just... enchanting. Every description, every poetic line, every bit of dialogue he's willing to verbalize - it's always so clear to me and paints the scene. There's so much body language being spoken even if it's just the slightest change in his gaze. You write to highlight these things and convey what others would see of him, but then equally place it in the other's hands to see if their muse would even be able to understand it. It's a beautiful manner in which you write, okay. Your writing style is one I've always leaned towards and favored reading. You better not even get me started on how you write horror or the things you focus on/believe as horror or suffering to this boi because it's my shit and I'm all for it. I'm all for all of your writing. the mun: I'm all for YOU too. You're so welcoming to speak with and have become such a good friend. I love hearing you go off on your nerd and FF:U, or just anything in general. Your own content or whatever is on your mind. Topic doesn't matter, I really like just shooting the shit with you. I appreciate your kindness and how genuine you are about your interests. Especially when it's like, shown my way (or even towards others too!) and hearing your thoughts or answering your questions and what not. I enjoy our freak outs over these two and how they have unexpectedly grown and revealed parts of themselves that are near-impossible to access. But are still very much there and a core part of themselves. Doing deep dives late at night/early morning on character or lore stuff just feeds me. I have so much fun with you. I enjoy your brain. It's hella creative and funny and you just have this eye for talent, i feel like. no matter what you are doing, whether it be writing, drawing or animating i always find myself amazed by the things you create. it feels like you should just sign the adoption papers on this boi already ahahaha. i appreciate our ability to talk lightly or deeply at the

drop of a hat and have been having a blast all in all knowing you for like - over a year now? heck. time well spent, i say. ^^

do i;

follow them: Yes. rp with them: YES. want to rp with them: Always. Forever. ship their character with mine: Well, we got a ship of sorts yes. Unconventional ships are still a ship, right? These two certainly did the unexpected. Look. Look, the thing is, I know in Mortem's canon what her range of love is. She has a lot to give but nothing ever leaves the platonic zone. So this has been a TRIP. Going from, 'haha, we're attracted to one another' to her being smitten to the extent she can allow for it. Like, they bonded before this, which is great. I love how the two of them became just solid platonic pals, bonded by their natures and understanding for one another. Finding acceptance in each other rather easy since they just get it. But then you throw some blood on them in their first spar together and the THIRST is like, 'lol u fools i was here ALL ALONG!' and I'm dying. I'm dead. Thank you. Yes, I ship these two hard. Their dynamic is so like, peaceful. Understanding. Even when they are getting aggro with one another (whether it's a spar or they fight or she does a pendulum swing) there's such a comfort in the trust they have formed that makes it so hard for them to shake their perspectives on one another. All the things I could get into about how well their dynamic just works, how accepting they are of who/what they are and how much they can care for one another before their purpose takes lead. It kills me. Which is why the Chaos thread makes me CRY. Even if it's not as accurate now that these two decided they caught feels and all, it's still right to the gut on the feels train because it's so heavily focused on their purposes and also their bond. Which, like, think how much worse it will be if we ever reboot it or something. B) All in all. These two fucking SLAP. And also slap anyone that interrupts or interferes with them. Power slapping duo. #Never Forget Mortem Turned Him Into A Switch! *wheezes*

what is my;

overall opinion: There's so much love in my heart okay. Also, pls reblog the read out loud meme sometime cause your voice is so soothing and I keep forgetting to demand MORE lmfao. These two are like, a bundle of memes and tropes that walk hand in hand with one another and it's beyond precious. They are such violent and scary fucks but then they look at one another and it can all melt away. Or come back. Depending on the situation. And YOU are a very cool, funny, creative and wonderful soul. I love all the jokes that have formed between us and just. everything. Everything, okay?? Thank you for choosing to spend time with me. u///u

[iacon-stargazer]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

fill out & repost ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stolen from @oneshallfall like.... months ago. im a slow gremlin hjksd. it's been in my drafts and i finally decided to finish the last few sections while working on clearing them out

tagging: steal it

MY MUSE IS.   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  Well.../ NO / IDK. (i know optimus is but i don’t really... know about orion? i have seen a handful of fanartists who turn him into a very sexualized moe baby but i’m not sure about the fandom at large)

is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated?  YES / NO. (lmao there’s like no fan content with him unless it’s with megatronus) 

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. (not yet.... lol)

how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

This... this is a trick question in this goddamn mess of a continuity. That said, I try my absolute best to make my portrayal coherent with the TFP show... even if said show contradicts itself at times. I take inspiration from the earlier parts (the thirteen primes section) of the Covenant of Primus for his origin backstory, but ignore the rest of the Covenant since it makes absolutely no sense with his characterization in... literally anything else. I’ve peeked at Exodus and it utterly sucks, but I’ve picked up bits and pieces of concepts that originated there just from spending time in the fandom. Aside from that... I spend a ton of time thinking about how to weave everything together in a way that both makes sense and makes for a character development arc.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.)

Orion is genuinely kind, thoughtful, and introspective, very loving of the world around him.

He’s also a more complex character than is initially obvious - despite mostly being good sweet pure baby nerd he’s still flawed, with many of those flaws being his strengths put into the wrong situation. His strong morals can lead to dogmatism, and he’s only slightly less likely to deliver lectures than Optimus. His determination to be kind and help everyone can come off as unintentionally patronizing at times; he has a very “well-intentioned semi-privileged middle class” perspective that he’s not always self-aware of. However, he’s also willing to look at himself critically and learn/adapt. 

Essentially, he has many of the same traits as Optimus... just more or less apparent and/or developed. He's less confident than he eventually becomes through his future experience with leadership, wanting to change the world for the better but sometimes struggling to ground his plans in reality—something that continues to apply, but with reduced intensity and frequency over time. Idealistic cinnamon roll will eventually develop some realism, though never really quite enough. His selflessness remains a strength for now, but we know that eventually it will dip into martyristic tendencies.

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

He could be potentially ‘boring’ in some senses. he’s the polite, considerate ‘next door’ type, who has for most of his life has just lived as a very average middle caste nobody. He’s more laid-back than he eventually becomes as optimus, but where others might get into trouble and shenanigans he’s most likely to just express concern. And since I try to keep him at least mostly ic, even with non-serious posts, this can derail ‘fun’ stuff and I fear dissuade some interaction.

While I try my best to give him realistic flaws that work with his character, he could still be seen as a little too good. very kind, understanding, forgiving, patient, considerate... almost endlessly so. A lot of my “he’s so good and pure” interpretation comes from using his having been the thirteenth prime as backstory, where he was pretty much the epitome of that, but some might not like the “he was a literal deity in a past life” idea for its “super special chosen one protagonist” elements.

His responsiveness to his environment can also be a downside. He’s not the type to start things; he just reacts and responds, standing his ground and finding himself when things get crazy around him. without megatronus, he may have eventually attempted political campaigning, but it wouldn’t have gotten very far. He needs to have more intense characters or events around him for major plots to really go places. Without those nothing would ever happen besides slice of life fluff, because he’s content with that kind of life.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?  

Honestly I just wanted to write op/ratch fhsjkdjsdh. But I also wanted to be able to interact with a variety of muses and so I chose Orion over Optimus because he’s not so emotionally closed off, which I figured would give more flexibility beyond the handful of characters op would reasonably have close personal and/or plot-important relationships with. Also, I can relate to him on a thought-process level which lets me get into his head easily, which additionally made him an appealing choice for my first real rp muse.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  

I just love him so much, especially with the layers of his character I've built up around him. I don't always have inspiration to write or rp, but I think about him a lot. When I do find motivation to write, it's generally out of wanting to continue to work on developing him and just having a chance to express his characterization.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  (i should do it more...)

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. (at least most days fhsdhfskj)

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. (it waxes and wanes. I know I'm a good writer but I could still be better...)

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

I’ll be honest; I’ve never gotten criticism. I haven’t been here very long in comparison to some and I’ve never been that popular, so I figure I’m pretty easy to just ignore. I guess how I would feel about it would depend on what it was and how it was delivered, though I like to think I would be reasonable regardless

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  

yes? yes absolutely?

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  

I would be curious to hear their reasoning, but I think enough about how everything fits together that chances are I would agree to disagree

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

Depends on if their disagreement makes sense. Maybe I’ll give back my own reasoning for why I characterize the way I do. Maybe I’ll just agree to disagree, if their view is just totally different from mine. If they have valid points I’ll probably overthink it and spiral into self doubt. In all cases I’ll spill my thoughts to friends on discord.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

......Orion in general or? ... fhsjkdhf...... Well if it was mine specifically that might hurt lol. But at the same time.... I doubt i’d agree with their takes either so... fair enough.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  

Sure. I’m good at grammar so if something glaring is there it’s probably a typo I missed and I’ll be grateful for the chance to edit it out before more people see it lol

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

Yeah. I’m pretty quiet most of the time because I just don’t have energy to talk to a lot of people, and I never want to get caught in drama. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in a situation like that. I tend to avoid conflict, I’m quick to apologize, and polite with anyone I don’t know very well.

[hir-nin-thranduil]

RPing The Elvenking

"Elves marry for love, or at least with free will from both parties, typically early in life. Monogamy is practiced and adultery is unthinkable.[3]:229 By their very nature, they are "seldom swayed by the desires of the body" or influenced by lust.[2]:211 They marry only once for it was ruled by Manwë that, "'since the Elves are by nature permanent in life within Arda, so also is their unmarred marriage.'"[4]:225 Finwë, first High King of the Noldor, was an exception. After his first wife died, from passing the majority of her life into Fëanor,[5]:237 and refused to be re-embodied, Finwë was permitted to marry again. This was pronounced by Námo as the 'Doom of Finwë and Míriel'.[4]:226" (Reference: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Elven_life_cycle)

Since 95% of my RP requests revolve around potential romance, I thought it important to post this blog. To be clear, I’m not trying to imply that I won’t write love stories and the like. If we can't live out our fantasies in Roleplay, than where can we?

My purpose is to forewarn any interested parties that it's not going to be easy. Not only because of the Lore posted above, but because Thranduil has heaps of emotional baggage. The death of his wife shattered him...and Elves can literally die from grief. "For the Elves die not till tile world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief." (The Silmarillion). I think The Elvenking found the will to survive, not only for his people and his kingdom, but more importantly, his son.

That being said, it's damn hard for me to imagine that Thranduil is in any hurry to put himself in a position where that could happen again. Plus, there is the shadow of his late wife to consider, his obvious love and devotion to her could cause him to feel that he’s betraying her memory. There’s also a great deal of guilt because he most likely feels responsible for her death. This is of course my own brain dribble. I don't believe his wife is even mentioned in the original lore. But according to the films she died as a prisoner at Gundabad. If anyone doesn't think he feels responsible for being unable to rescue her, then they just don't know Thranduil.

Why do we think he's so obsessed with reclaiming the Gems of Lasgalen? Sure, they're heirlooms of his people and probably worth quite a lot...but Elves aren't greedy or concerned with material gain. These gems were basically stolen from him when he commissioned a necklace for his wife....and in his mind, they sort of represent the last link he has to her - particularly that necklace. He couldn't rescue her, but perhaps he could rescue those gems. It’s symbolic and psychological. It is for this reason that I believe he is willing to go to war over something like this and risk the lives of himself and his warriors.

That's also probably why his grudge against the Dwarves is so intense that he refused to help during their time of great need. He warned Thror of "what his greed would summon" (AKA: A Dragon). So he probably felt that they got what they deserved. Plus I really don't think Thranduil is in any hurry to go up against another dragon after the injuries he suffered in the past. 

Since he was somehow unable to rescue his late wife, he may also feel that he deserves the loneliness and isolation that he now endures, simply because he could not/did not save her. Which is another reason he may choose to actually deprive himself of the solace he might find with a new lover.

Also, I don't control my muses...they call the shots. I honestly can't guarantee much of anything...except perhaps angsty feelz and lots of sarcasm. My advice? Well, The Elvenking is over 7,500 years old. There's probably almost nothing he hasn't already seen and done. Most of his life is probably a blur of repetition. Conventional Beauty alone just isn't going to cut it....I mean, he's surrounded by other gorgeous Elves all the time. If a character has any hope of attracting his attention and interest, they're going to have to be unique and/or stir something deep within his soul.

Also...I know there are a lot of people who like to imagine Thranduil with a human lover. As I mentioned earlier, the grief from losing his wife nearly killed him...so why would he ever choose to go through that again...particularly with someone who's guaranteed to die? "A hundred years is a mere blink in the life of an Elf"....his words, not mine.

On the flip side of this, if anyone is curious about why I AM willing to lorebend and write romance/erotica with Thranduil in spite of all the evidence against it's likelihood:

Well, Elves are meant to be incredibly wise and much more advanced than other peoples of Middle Earth, therefore I'm inclined to feel that they're probably more progressive than their Old Fashioned Christian creator originally intended. I of course, say this with the utmost respect and admiration for J.R.R. Tolkien and his legacy. He's one of my personal heroes, and as you can clearly see, I'm a huge fan/nerd.

As we all know, Peter Jackson and his crew took plenty of liberties and bent/broke the original lore. The Elvenking we know and love from the films is quite different from one we read about in the books. He's also inspired by Thingol, and to a lesser extent, Fëanor (the Gems of Lasgalen were said to be loosely inspired by the Silmarils). Anyway, as a fellow writer/creative person, I guess I feel justified in doing the same as long as it is in the interest of good storytelling and fun RP, while also within reason. I enjoy writing romance as much as anyone else.

There are obviously purists and others who would disagree with me, and that's fine. This is just my personal stance. Feel free to contact me with questions or concerns. 

Thanks for reading.

P.S. AUs are an unconventional method of writing romance with Thranduil. This blog refers to when I write him strictly canon.

[desertbroad]

I really love your muse! Problem is that I'm super intimidated by you and I'm not familiar with new vegas. But I think you're awesome.

cries in courier six

         sobs……..i think YOURE awesome anon, thank you ;-; honestly i keep meaning to rewrite kaj’s opening in her bio so it’s more comprehensible to people who haven’t played new vegas / fallout, since the lore is intricate as hell and bars interactions. i’m just … lazy af. i should make a crash course page for people who haven’t played the game so they can like. understand literally anything about this blog KDASFASFJDK (though i do recommend playing it if its your kind of game and you ever run across a copy! i mean theres a reason so many people hold it up as the best fallout game)

     also i’m not intimidating at all i promise, anyone whos seen my shenanigans or has me added on discord can tell u that lmao…like i’m just a nerd who uses too many ellipses and loves stinky deceptive characters. i know my rules seem kinda strict but its literally because im too nice and cannot say no to people so i have to do it preemptively in my rules. so like …. opens arms. come into my bosom

[sala218]

Hi! I'm also watching Tales of Zestiria, but I can't play the game. I saw your posts about how anime isn't... accuarate at best. Could you tell me more about the changes in the story that anime made? With spoilers and everything, I'd like to know how much I'm missing.

Oh dear did they change A LOT! 

While I’m not most knowledgeable at all Tales of Zestiria lore and for more accurate of everything-what-anime-mess-up  @talesofsymphoniac would definitely know much more. 

But lets just say 1st season for biggest part was somewhat close to original except the very end where it started to deviate so much more, and personally I think that that’s the beginning of down fall of the anime.

Aside minor things like Berseria moments that would have been so much cooler if whole anime was done differently, they weren’t in original. And I don’t find myself missing those little bits in game, I mean it does give bit more depth to to the lore and all, but like it was a good idea but it sort of just flopped.

Then lets tackle Alisha matter, in game she left party before Rose joined, she was quite great character and while I did wanted more of her, the way anime gave us Alisha, in my opinion was way sad. In game she grew so much, and although hurt because Maltran actually had been hellion and betrayed Alisha, honestly I’d suggest to look it up on google, that moment actually made me tear up, unlike how we had Maltran as supportive mentor in anime till the end, all that drama with Alisha’s father frankly wasn’t given in game and in anime itself it sort of fell flat… 

Rose joined part COMPLETELY differently, she saved Sorey after he first faced Lord of Calamity in Glaivend Basin, and she is afraid of ghosts, having seraphim speak to her without her seeing them had terrified her, even after she could see them, at times they still scared her when she heard only their voices. And what happened in anime? Oh but of course she spoke to Dezel calmly even though she COULD NOT SEE HIM. and while its minor deviation, I think it kinda gives more character to her, but whatever… 

Anyway Rose story line deviated FAR too much to make comparison, 

and so it failed some Sergei moments, but at least even in cluster fuck of what anime is he still fairly same in the personality wise, at least. 

Back to squires for min, Alisha never got armatus, she just didn’t have big enough resonance, that in anime was completely forgotten but oh well,,, Also none of that telepathic bs with squires and shepherd. 

Dragon purification in game was impossible, unless you count Maotelus, but for that Sorey went to sleep for who ever knows how long. And the fact that Edna had to give up on purifying her brother and accept that only way to save him is to kill him, and in game for me it was actually emotional moment too, but in anime, they can save him,,, and so like yay? I guess… I like Eizen, really but whole purifying dragons just takes away from Sorey character bit too much…

Reason why Sorey was amazing protagonist in the game, because he was simple nerd, he wasnt all that special, didnt have grand ambition till later on in the game, after he saw world and all, and not making him any better than other Shepherds that were before him, keeping him as human as possible, that made him amazing, but in anime he suddenly can purify dragons that no one could before him, I’m sorry what? Also maybe due to keeping game mechanics consistent you couldn’t armatize with all seraphim at the same time, and honestly it was quite nice that there were ground rules, they kinda important, anime seems to be going like whatever seems cool, and I kinda understand why anime only fans would like it, but for those who are familiar with the game, its like ripping all the world rules apart and throwing it all out of the window, well not cool… 

Mayvin, the story teller was really important too, he told of how the Lord of Calamity was born, he, true to his title, told what truly happened in the Camlann, and boy it was far more important then just birth of the Lord of Calamity, it was also Mikleo’s and Sorey’s back story, and why a human boy, Sorey, was in care of Zenrus, a seraphim. Because you said spoilers are okay, let me tell you that that the baby Mihael sacrificed was actually Mikleo, hence why he is a young seraphim and even was show as a child while none of the other seraphim were, seraphim were once humans, unless its animal seraphim, but you get what I mean, yea. And while it was hinted in anime with the tiara thingy he took from Muse, if you knew about it you see it right away, but not sure if everyone could have made the connection, not saying no one would, but yea, it was truly down played,,, Also in the original, now, it’s been while, but Im pretty sure Lailah knew of how it all ended in Camlann, also in the game all party saw the story, not just Sorey and Lailah, so it had far bigger impact. 

Symonne never turned to dragon, and lets keep it at that.

Honestly anime changed so much details, that drawing a comparison is almost impossible anymore. Its like an AU, with many major important and not that big details that made the game so charming completely ruined. Its like anime have completely different set of rules that weren’t even given to us properly. 

Surely, when you aren’t familiar with source material at all, it is cool anime. I have seen even those that are familiar with the game and enjoy the anime. Personally to me, I’m just waiting for it to end, to see if they put it as some sort of Tainted AU, or they keep to original ending, but that seems unlikely,,,  

I’m sorry, I’m just very salty, if you liked the characters I do suggest to play the game or if you cannot, then watch walkthrough on youtube or something, its good story, it really is. It’s just that anime changed so much, destroying most of what I loved about  the game. 

@llevellynvaneck