#(also was rather important for him to have that situation with the sword happen honestly)

[godzexperiment]

the knowledge that nix was allowed to be around the discarded stuff (even after the sword incident he didn't quite learn from) is quite horrifying but especially also in that an lot of it was weapons too strong to be wielded or too much to punish the humans with- so that really makes the safety hazard of it way worst. like i dont know maybe dont leave an isolated angel alone with all that unless want to leave space for an whole lot of disaster, kinda got lucky the sword was only an threat to it's wielder.

[lullabyalikpoptarot]

Seventeen Love Energy (September)

Alright, let's look into what love energies are in store for them for the month of September, now this only shows a small aspect of what is going on. You can never get the full story with Tarot.

S.Coups (Queen of Swords Rv)-There could be a cold, calculated woman in his life. Someone with a sharp tongue, pretty harsh and mean when need be. Petty at times and doesn't really know how to shut up. With QOS upright, yes, she is cold and callous, but she is calm and reserved, and speaks, when need be, but with this reversed, she may not know how to do that, this could also be his energy as well.

Jeonghan (King of Swords)-He is a Libra, so fits his energy. He is pretty calculated in terms of love, not that emotional. He will definitely know how to keep his cool. He may like people that fulfill him intellectually, rather than emotionally. He is all about strategy and planning. This doesn't say much about a love interest, but how he would have a lot of air energy in it if he were in love. He would definitely not be the irrational type in love. He will be pretty clear headed.

Joshua (The devil)-Dude why did he get this!? I see this as someone with toxic habits, attachment issues, possessiveness and a bit of a freak with this card. I mean he is a Capricorn, the Devil card represents Cap energy, so makes sense. He puts in the work in relationships but could possibly get obsessive. Once again, not sure anyone is in the picture, but this could indicate an attachment to someone.

Jun (The High Priestess)-If he is in love, he would keep it under wraps. He would like his privacy. He would keep it to himself. He is also very intuitive and wise when it comes to love. This card does show someone with a lot of knowledge and experience, so there is that.

Hoshi (3 of Pentacles)-Dude seems to be highly focused on work. If he does date someone, they will have to be in the same work environment or do what he does, they will have to have similar goals and work like a team.

Wonwoo (3 of Swords)-He seems to be hurt by love or will be. He may be hurt by some confession I am getting. Hurtful words, frustration, feeling sadness and upset. The idea of love may be upsetting for him.

Woozi (Ace of Swords)-There could be an idea of someone he may like. I don't see him moving forward, as in this card, he would have to learn a lot about the person, before moving ahead. It seems he would like to know all the details about a person before going forward with it. He would be the type to ask a lot of questions and would want to gather a lot of information on this person, so he may be doing that. There could be interest here.

Dokyeom (6 of Swords)-He could be trying to move past a difficult situation, trying to recover from it, leaving the mental baggage behind. It is like he is trying to move past love from the past and move to something bigger and better. He may not be very interested in love right now.

Mingyu (The Hermit)-How I can never see this energy in him ever, but he gets this, what? I always feel he is on to the next person. But it seems he is going to be spending his time alone, maybe doing some work on himself, which honestly surprises the hell out of me.

Minghao (9 of Cups)- He could be happily in love right now. It seems his wish has been granted, he has what he wants. This card can also indicate someone who tries to mask the bad things in love and just pains a happy face, so take that as you may. I mean, this card doesn't give me someone in love, just kind of in their own world, but may fantasize about love and how it should be but may not be too realistic about it.

Seungkwan (The Fool)-This energy is naive and a bit inexperienced in love. But it seems he is open for something new, but it seems he doesn't seek love, he just leaves it to fate. If it happens, it happens.

Vernon (Temperance)-He could in a peaceful, harmonious relationship. Balance is important to him in love, so he may not want to devote his whole time to love, but he would like balance in relationships as well. He is open-minded. I don't think he cares about gender roles, or this person does this or that, because of their gender, they both do their part equally. Oh, I like that tbh

Dino (2 of Wands)-This a strong indication that there could be a spark with someone, some passion, sexual tension, fireworks. Just someone he vibes with well and is very attracted to.

Well, over not sure any of them seem to be a long-term loving relationship, or a true relationship, but what to expect for idols who constantly work, but it can happen, anyway, this doesn't mean they aren't, but the energy doesn't indicate that for this month. This is only a snapshot, so obviously there is more to it.

[firsttarotreader]

Hi, mami! Does P have any ongoing fwb situation? If he doesn’t, has he had it, male or female? And what about Lena, was she one of his fwb? Sorry, too many questions! 🫣 If you can ask Tarot, please?

Hiya! So, I realized I’ve never done readings about it, but I’m gonna need to split this ask in 3, since there are 3 different questions. In the part 1, I’m gonna do the general question, about whether he might possibly have ongoing fwb situations or not. The Major Arcana for that were Strength, The Hermit and The Moon reversed.

Well, Strength points to him mastering his raw emotions, having inner strength and self-control. The Hermit means he might prefer to not go there, to retreat and keep non-sexual friendships, since he knows well enough the consequences it might have to be fwb and he is wise enough to know it. The Moon reversed shows him knowing how confusing it could be, how secrets and lack of honesty could happen, and how it could lead to distrust and the feeling of being fooled or lied to. It would be full on confusion, insecurity, an emotional mess.

The Minor Arcana were the Page of Cups, Queen of Pentacles and 5 of Swords. Page of Cups with Strength could be telling us he might fear he would develop feelings for the person (or the other way around). He could even think the sex could be fire in certain situations, but he still controls himself a lot. Queen of Pentacles with The Hermit means he could stay away from fwb situations because he’d rather be a reliable, stable, trustworthy friend, one his friends could count on and someone who supports and nurtures them. 5 of Swords with The Moon reversed is the ultimate defeat. All that confusion and that lack of trust from The Moon reversed would cause a lot of conflict and misunderstandings and it would fuck up the friendship, it would probably end up with him losing the friend.

So honestly, I doubt he has any ongoing fwb situation now because he knows the mess it can be and the way he prefers to be a more grounded and reliable friend instead. I am obviously not saying I know anything for sure but these cards show Pedro to not really be someone who is into fwb arrangements right now. Also not saying he has never done it before ever in his 48 years, which is something we will delve into in the part 2 of this ask.

Another thing that’s important to point out is we are considering fwb as something consistent and a “stable” arrangement.

[ridiasfangirlings]

Ridia-san, i hope you had a lovely day! You've done a lot of reaction what if of three dad au!saru murdered by colorless. But what about son of blue king!saru au being murdered by colorless instead? What would munakata and s4 do? And how homra and the rest of the kings handle a livid munakata? Thank you!

I think the biggest difference here is that unlike Mikoto Munakata's Sword of Damocles is in good shape and could presumably handle the strain of him killing another King so it's a bit less of a 'we need to stop him or everyone dies' situation. Going with AU where Fushimi gets to be Munakata's kid, maybe this was a scenario where Munakata became King earlier and Niki was like a Strain that S4 arrested, at which time Munakata sees young Fushimi and decides to take him in and raise him. Fushimi basically grows up as Scepter 4's communal child, once he's a little older he gets to join the clan and shows everyone that he takes after his 'dad' Munakata and is a super talented person. Munakata is particularly close to Fushimi, always treating Fushimi as his precious child and basically being even more doting than in canon. Fushimi usually just rolls his eyes and complains that Munakata's annoying but he's attached to Munakata as well, I imagine he'd be less standoffish and much more willing to accept the affection that the members of S4 give him.

Then one evening Fushimi goes out to buy a drink at the convenience store and never comes back, meeting the Colorless King on the way. Fushimi manages to call Munakata while he's bleeding out and Munakata and Awashima get to be the ones who find him and hold him while he dies. In the aftermath Munakata immediately uses all of S4's resources to figure out who killed Fushimi and that's when they're able to retrieve the video feed from the place where Fushimi died and they find out about Colorless. At this point I imagine Munakata putting all of S4's resources towards seeking out the Colorless King in order to bring him to justice, to a degree that there's probably an uptick in criminal Strain activity because S4 has more important things to do. Even so Kokujouji at most sends him a half-hearted missive about it and then lets Munakata do as he will, seeking out the Colorless King is also part of S4's duty in this case so he'll allow Munakata to make his own decisions.

On the Homra end this would probably be a lot less personal in this AU versus a 'normal' Fushimi Dies AU, since presumably Yata and Fushimi never became friends here and Fushimi never joined Homra. Instead the main question would be what do they do about Munakata and honestly I could see Mikoto largely letting Munakata go ahead and do whatever he wants, as far as Mikoto's concerned if this is what Munakata wants to do Homra has no standing to step in and stop him. I could even see them helping S4 in the right situation, like maybe instead of Fushimi just getting randomly killed by Colorless he gets killed saving Totsuka and now Homra has a feeling like they 'owe' it to Scepter 4 to help find the guy who killed Fushimi.

I think Mikoto would have Kusanagi keeping an eye on things with S4 (and if Colorless decided to try and strike at Homra at all that would definitely get Mikoto to actually step in and go after Colorless as well to defend his people) and I could see him at least talking with Munakata at some point, expressing surprise that Munakata is letting this get to him so much. Munakata denies that, claiming he is perfectly in control, and Mikoto notes that Munakata's been burning through everything he can in order to find Fushimi's killer and it isn't like him. Munakata finds it rather funny that Suoh Mikoto of all people would be lecturing him on losing his cool, Mikoto shrugs and says no one else will tell Munakata the truth so it might as well be him. Mikoto tells Munakata that he should know what could happen if he loses control, like 'don't make me be the guy to have to clean up your mess' and Munakata can't help but chuckle a bit at that. Munakata says he will keep that in mind, but even so he will not waver in his resolve to bring Fushimi's killer to justice.

[mst3kproject]

Return of the Fly

In Revenge of the Creature, MST3K offered us the budget- and idea-starved sequel to a massively successful horror film, with only one returning star in a comparatively minor role.  Return of the Fly is pretty much its exact insectoid counterpart.  Danielle De Metz from The Magic Sword is in it, along with Brett Halsey from The Girl in Lover's Lane.

The plot of The Fly concerned a freak accident, the sort of thing that can only occur once in a thousand years... so of course the sequel is about the exact same thing happening again. It's been some years since the original unpleasantness of that movie, and young Philippe Delambre has grown up and wants to know what really happened to his father.  He badgers his Uncle Francois into telling him the story and quickly becomes obsessed with it, determined to prove that his father's invention could work (which, let's be fair, it did, but only on one thing at a time).  He and his friend Alan soon have a functional prototype.  Too bad Alan turns out to be a corporate spy, here to steal the teleporter – and he's not above fly-ifying Philippe if it'll get him what he wants.

As you may already be able to tell, the script jumps through several hoops in order to get Philippe into the teleporter with a fly to donate some extra body parts, and although the situation is deeply contrived I am honestly impressed by the effort they put into it.  The whole 'corporate espionage' thing continues to be important to the plot rather than merely being an excuse, and they spend enough time properly setting things up and working them through that the movie is more than half-over before we get to the titular event. Where I felt like Revenge of the Creature was the result of a brainstorming session where everybody just gave up, Return of the Fly feels like they stayed at the table and tried to develop the idea further.  And that's good – I commend them for it, and when Return of the Fly is being its own movie it's not all that bad.  When it tries to do what its predecessor did, however, it loses its grip.

Before I get into that, I want to mention a couple of things here I really did like.  One is Philippe's pteronarcophobia – his fear of flies.  He doesn't know, or possibly doesn't remember, why his father died and his mother lost her mind, but he knows it had something to do with flies – how could he not, when Helene was so obsessed with them that entire awful week?  His fear is not only reasonable, but also motivates Alan to stick a fly in the teleporter with him in order to punish him, which is about the best justification for the same accident happening twice as the writers could possibly have come up with.

The other thing here that they did well is Phillipe's fly head, which is both more realistic and more gruesome than the original, although comically oversized.  I especially like the little 'tongue' bit that inflates and deflates as the actor breathes.  I have no idea what that's supposed to represent, but it's satisfyingly gross. Other than that, the special effects are for the most part pretty bare-bones.  Things being disintegrated and reintegrated are represented simply by stopping the film, moving an object into or out of frame, and starting it up again.  A guinea pig magnified to enormous size by a mistake is simply placed in a smaller set – not even the barest effort is made to have a human being in the frame.

As well as fly-headed Phillipe, we get to see the Philippe-headed fly, which is just a plastic fly with Brett Halsey's head rather half-assedly superimposed on it.  This is hilarious, especially when it speaks in a high-pitched voice.  There's also a man with guinea pig paws, which are represented by giant furry gloves that don't look anything like rodent feet.  His counterpart is, of course, a guinea pig with little wiggly human hands, which is meant to be horrifying but the execution is laugh-out-loud funny.

One odd thing that got my attention is that although Return of the Fly was made only a year after its predecessor, the fact that Philippe has grown up means it must be set at least fifteen years later, in the early seventies.  The writers cannot be faulted for not predicting how people would dress in that far future, but not the slightest effort is made to suggest that the technology has improved.  The idea that machines become smaller and more portable as we improve them was around at the time – remember the little cordless phones in 1953's Project Moon Base?  But Return of the Fly's teleporter machine looks exactly like The Fly's... probably because they just re-used the set.

The major weakness of Return of the Fly, however, is in its treatment of its characters – like so many other bad movies, it can't really be said to have a protagonist.  The main character of The Fly was Helene Delambre – the story was literally told from her point of view, and chronicled her mental disintegration as much as Andre's.  She was active throughout the story, right up to the unavoidable tragedy at the end.  There is no equivalent to her in Return of the Fly.  Philippe's childhood friend Cécile fills the 'mad scientist's girlfriend' role, but she plays almost no part in the plot.  She's just there to look pretty and scream.

Most of the screen time goes to Philippe, but he is a victim rather than a hero.  We spend almost as much time with Alan, but he turns out to be the villain.  The character who is set up as the hero is Vincent Price's Francois Delambre, who is assisting his nephew with this work so as to keep an eye on him.  One would therefore suppose that Francois would be the one to find the fly-headed Philippe and the Philippe-headed fly and save the day, but he gets shot and spends the last half-hour of the movie lying in a hospital bed.  He and the policemen talk about the situation, but are incapable of taking any action.  All they can do is hope fly-headed Philippe will return to the house in search of help.

The Philippe-headed fly obviously can't do much but buzz around and beg for help – one of the cops catches it and puts it under a glass with some cake to eat.  We don't get a close-up look at this, which is a shame because I would love to see Brett Halsey's superimposed head gnawing on a giant cake.  The fly-headed Philippe, on the other hand, climbs into the back of a truck and heads to Montreal in search of revenge on the people who got him into this situation!  He tracks down Alan and his fence to the funeral home where they have their hideout and kills them both, then sneaks back to the house in the countryside so that Francois can un-scramble his genes.

There's kind of an interesting idea here, which expands on something that was implied in The Fly.  In that movie, Andre retained a mostly human mind despite his fly head, and then when we see the Andre-headed fly at the end, it's caught in a spiderweb and begging for help.  That suggests that a sentient part of Andre was present in both beings.  The same appears to be true of Philippe – fly-headed Philippe doesn't murder at random, he specifically goes for the people who have wronged him, and despite the undercurrent of hostility in their relationship, he knows that Uncle Francois is not really one of those.  Meanwhile, Philippe-headed fly can call out for help, and specifically calls for Cécile, suggesting that memory and emotion are intact.  It would have been kind of cool to explore this a little once Philippe gets put back together, perhaps by asking what he remembers, but this movie is another that ends very quickly and the re-integrated Philippe never speaks.

There are a couple of problems in the ending.  The first is with the movie's body count.  Fly-headed Philippe kills only people who have wronged him... that suggests very much that he is aware of what he is doing and doing it on purpose.  A line from Francois attempts to put it up to 'the murderous mind of the fly', and perhaps fully human Philippe would not have done these things, but we don't know.  Fly-headed Andre was horrified by his urges to hurt people, and even though he had no lines we could see that in his body language.  Fly-headed Philippe shows no such internal conflict, though perhaps this is just because Brett Halsey was not as good an actor as David Hedison.  The fly-head thing here is less a way of eroding Philippe's humanity than a free pass to get away with murder.

The other issue is not so much a problem as just something that doesn’t feel quite right.  Throughout The Fly we have a nagging suspicion that Helene’s quest to find the fly so Andre can try to fix his mistake is doomed.  The swapping of body parts seems to be random - if Andre and the fly go through the teleporter again, it’s much more likely that they’ll get scrambled up even more and die in agony, rather than going back to normal.  Return of the Fly seems to take it for granted that it’ll work just fine, as indeed it does, and that doesn’t quite sit right.  I feel like it should have involved some calculating on a chalkboard or something, some suggestion of modification in order to get it right.

There's one more kind of interesting thing I want to talk about, and that's the fence, Max.  He has a day job as a mortician, and we first meet him sitting in the funeral home enjoying a big, greasy meal with corpses just a few yards away.  This is partly a fat joke, but it's also a way for the writers to tell us that Max is heartless.  Most of us probably wouldn't be comfortable eating in a building we knew was used to store dead bodies, but Max has no concept of them as anything but objects.  In real life this is probably true of most morticians, who will be used to working with cadavers.  For this movie, it's not a bad moment.

I can say for Return of the Fly that it tried really hard, much harder than the average quick and dirty sequel.  If they'd chosen to expand on the original material in some meaningful way, perhaps by looking at what the fractured parts of Philippe are actually experiencing, they could have made a worthy sequel – and being as The Fly is such a classic, just the possibility of that is pretty high praise.  As it is, Return of the Fly still isn't really bad, it's just not what it could have been.  As a b-movie in its own right, it's a rather enjoyable one.

[bronyinabottle]

MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

[frozenartscapes]

I think Verdant Wind being added as Silver Snow copy paste dragged down the development. If VW wasn't added, then SS, CF, and AM could have all been more fleshed out (so Edelgard could have been shown killing Thales personally and Dimitri's arc would be gradual instead of him going from batshit crazy to "good boy" instantly). So I think either VW should have not been made or SS was scrapped and Claude could actually get a story about him.

So here's what I'm thinking for Verdant Wind, because honestly if it were up to me it would be a total overhaul, and if put into the context of the game's development might have had to be a DLC or something if they were as pressed for time as it seems.

You pick Claude and the Golden Deer and the first half of the game follows many of the same story beats. (Though one thing I would like to see in White Clouds is more opportunities to interact with the other Houses outside of free time, like maybe a couple missions where two houses are sent to the same place to back each other up. This would then allow for supports to form between characters who might not necessarily be in the same house).

Shit goes down, Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor, war is declared, Byleth falls into a ravine for 5 years.

You come back and things are in a similar place as they start off in VW. You meet Claude at the monastery, he fills you in on what's been going on, and you decide that action needs to taken. However, that action is not "let's go to war too" but instead more of a diplomatic move. You decide to meet with Edelgard in a parlay at Grondor and she initially accepts, but when you both arrive you discover Dimitri has come with an army of his own. Not believing this isn't some sort of ambush on Claude's part, Edelgard calls the parlay off and initiates the battle of Grondor. However, this time you and Claude decide to stop Dimitri and successfully manage to intervene in the Kingdom's attack. Edelgard and her forces still retreat back to Enbarr but Dimitri is able to be captured and (eventually) reasoned with. (In this version Dimitri hasn't fully lost it like he does in AM. He still has some old friends and supports so he doesn't end up completely feral. He's still deeply distrusting of Edelgard but he at least agrees to help Claude find out a motive before killing her).

The attack on Fort Merceus is basically the same. You succeed in seizing it only for the whole thing to be blown up by the Javelins. Everyone manages to escape, though, including notable people from Edelgard's army. They are just as confused and horrified about the strike as you and your team.

Edelgard isn't up for talking this time around so you are forced to lay siege to Enbarr. This also plays out very similarly to VW, but the end cutscene is different. First, Claude is there. Then, rather than killing Edelgard, you extend a hand out to her, instead. She's hesitant, but Claude manages to convince her that there are no schemes this time. They just want to talk. He mentions the Javelins and how even her own army didn't seem to know what they were. When she blanches at the mention, he realizes that these "allies" of hers aren't exactly the most trustworthy of people.

Edelgard then reluctantly tells you, Claude, and Dimitri about Thales and TWSITD. She's hesitant because this is all sensitive information but she doesn't have much to lose at this point, what with Claude's army basically occupying Enbarr. She reveals what happened to her and her family, why she has two Crests, and why she's been forced to work with Thales. It's Dimitri who approaches first once she's finished, moving quickly and reaching out a hand before anyone can react. Edelgard flinches but instead of going for her neck, his hand comes to rest gently on her shoulder. "Where is that monster?" Dimitri hisses, "So I can tear his head from his body."

Once the three leaders form a tentative alliance, Edelgard reveals where Rhea has been hidden. She tells them all that she tried to keep her from too much harm, but she didn't have much control over the situation. Rhea is released and initially weak from imprisonment. She is also briefed on what happened to Edelgard, and why she started the war in the first place.

With a new target in mind, the alliance of nations storm Shambhala. Rhea has been healed up enough to aid in this battle. You defeat Thales, and he responds by launching all the Javelins he can. Rhea goes on to intercept them as she does in the game, but this time things go differently. Hubert points out that as long as Thales has a hand on the rune activating the Javelins, they'll keep coming. So Edelgard charges him along with Dimitri. The two cut through any mage who tries to stop them, and ultimately Edelgard sees vengeance for herself and her family by killing Thales herself. This halts the Javelins before they become too overwhelming for Rhea, and she returns, a little hurt but ok.

Everyone returns to Garreg Mach for celebrations, and also political discussions because there are a lot of things that now need to be covered. Rhea reveals everything about the Nabateans, Crests, and the Relics. Once she learns the true history of Fodlan, Edelgard makes her case for her own goals. She still believes that society should move away from putting so much importance on Crests, especially now that she knows where they truly came from. But she admits that uniting the land under one banner and disbanding the Church entirely would be taking things too far. Dimitri agrees with Edelgard, despite some protests from Faerghus officials. But he decides that the Hero's Relics have served their purpose and it is time they let the souls of the dead rest. Claude is insistent on Fodlan opening up to other nations, to which the other leaders agree, too. Rhea also decides that it is time she steps away from being Archbishop, but she does not appoint Byleth to the role.

A messenger then interrupts with news that a strange and powerful army is currently sweeping across Fodlan. They connect the dots and realize that it is Nemesis. They all decide to confront him as a group, showing off the might of a Fodlan united under peace. Rhea, fearful of mass casualties, tells Byleth what she did when they were a baby, explaining why they have the Crest of Flames and can wield the Sword of the Creator. There isn't a lot of time to unpack all of that because Nemesis is basically at their door, but Byleth still thanks Rhea for telling them.

They confront Nemesis all as one united front and defeat him. There are many parallels in cutscenes that call back the first cutscene of the game. The difference this time is that Rhea isn't facing Nemesis alone. In the last cutscene after defeating him in gameplay, Claude's arrow fake-out kicks things off, but it also includes Edelgard, Dimitri, and Rhea charging him alongside Byleth. In the end, Nemesis is run-through by the Sword of the Creator, the Sword of Seiros, Aymr, Areadbhar, and a bolt from Failnaught. He goes down, his army dissolves into dust, and victory is finally secured.

After that it's revealed what happens in Fodlan: each nation stays as their own land. Dimitri takes his place as the King of Faerghus and works on moving the kingdom away from knighthood and militaristic practices. He devotes more time and money to revitalizing the land and towns, building better roads between cities, and expanding education and other important services. Edelgard also works on fixing and providing social services like education and healthcare to the Adrestian people. She forms a strong alliance with the other nations, utilizing the fact that Adrestia has so much viable farmland to ensure no one goes hungry. She also grants Brigid its freedom, and works closely with Seteth and Rhea in Church reformations. Claude leaves Fodlan to take his place as King of Almyra, though he promises to visit often. Lorenz takes over the Alliance, and like the other two leaders works diligently to provide a better life for his people. Rhea eventually steps away from her role as Archbishop. She does offer it to Byleth, but you get a choice as to whether or not you want to take it. If you don't Rhea says she understands and that Seteth will take on a temporary position until a human can be found to carry on the legacy. She agrees that an immortal being shouldn't hold that kind of power forever.

There's one final cinematic cutscene in which every character with a Hero's Relic solemnly returns it to the Holy Tomb, with Byleth laying the Sword of the Creator last. They glance up at the Throne with all the characters visible behind them, and they smile.

Now Sothis can finally rest.

---

A couple other fun things that could be included in this route:

Because of the mentioned supports between houses, it is possible to s-support any of the House Leaders, not just Claude in this route

To make things extra fun, every unit could potentially be playable in the final battle

Edelgard and Thales can have special dialogue where she basically tells him to go fuck himself before killing him with the axe he gave her

None of the Black Eagles who stay with Edelgard would actually die in the siege on Enbarr, but would have unique "oh no I've been captured" quotes

The cutscene with Edelgard's surrender could start exactly like it does in SS/VW so if people saw that first, they would at first think she was going to die. This would then make Byleth extending a hand out in peace that much more impactful

Every now and then Dimitri and Edelgard could make a comment about how odd it is to be working with each other, and how they are still surprised neither one of them died after all those years of war, a BIG wink to the camera regarding the other routes where one or both of them don't make it

Claude can bring in Nader and other Almyran reinforcements for the final battle, and as a result could result in unique battle quotes from Rhea and Nader with the two of them commending each other and realizing that tensions need not be so high between their nations

Because different supports can happen between houses, there isn't as much pressure to recruit everyone by the end of White Clouds

There could be different paralogues for characters, along with ones already in the game that might be route specific. Dimitri's paralogue where he takes on Cornelia can be a side event that helps strengthen the Kingdom's army in future battles. Bernadetta/Petra's paralogue would allow for allies from Brigid to join in future battles. Edelgard could get a new paralogue where they have to sweep out the last remnants of various TWS labs and lairs, and it's made clear just how bad it had been for her.

Like, I know this is a lot, and executing it as a playable section of the game would be a lot of work. This is all just hypothetical, of course. This would be what I would recommend for the game, but as I say this just know that I don't expect any of this to actually be made. These are just some ideas for how VW could theoretically be changed.

The game would still need a route for Claude, as he is one of the three main choices at the very start of the game. I don't necessarily think SS should be removed, either, because that choice of "kill or don't kill edelgard" is still an incredibly poignant moment that would be lost if SS was gone. But I do wish VW or SS played out differently or at the very least used different cutscenes. The fact that Edelgard dies the same way twice kind of sucks. (This, on top of Dimitri dying off-screen multiple times and Rhea basically being kneecapped and not useful in 3/4 routes)

But I like Claude's route being a Golden Route. It is the Golden Deer after all.

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

The Ritual of Propagation: The Third Generation

(Wow the second chapter of my fic, "The Ritual of Propagation" posted this Friday and forgot to share on my Tumblr!)

The First Generation of angels were created by God.

Then came the Rebellion, and Lucifer and his Dissidents were cast out to the farthest reaches of the universe.

The Second Generation of angels grew on the wings of the Archangels and the Angels of Creation who carried the Spark of Life, replacing those who had been lost in the Rebellion.

Then came the War, as the Dissidents returned, to reclaim their place in Heaven and seize control of all Creation.

And so, as more Soldiers were lost in the ensuing fight, a Third Generation was needed...

--

Crowley learns of Aziraphale's contributions to rebuilding the Legions of Heaven, and does not take it nearly as well as Aziraphale had expected. Or, perhaps, Aziraphale begins the long, painful process of acknowledging that maybe there was something not right about the whole situation?

Rated M.

Content Warnings: This fic is about r*pe, forced pr*gnancy, and contains references to miscarriages, as well as the usual emotional abuse and gaslighting. Aziraphale is in deep denial of the abuse he suffered. Please heed the warnings and tags!

Excerpt below contains Crowley's initial reaction to learning about Aziraphale's activities in the War...

“I… wait.” Crowley pressed his palms against his eyes. “You what?”

“It was during the War,” Aziraphale explained patiently, hands folded on his lap. “Your side had, well, ‘done a number on us,’ as they say. We needed to rebuild our strength.”

“But…” He stood up, started pacing. “But Guardians don’t have the Spark of Life, barely half the Angels of Creation have it!”

“So many?” Aziraphale had only known of twenty or so, plus the Archangels, and hadn’t thought there was more than twice that number all told. But half the Angels of Creation? How odd. “Regardless, I didn’t need the Spark. I used theirs.”

“Whose?” Poor dear looked as confused as if Aziraphale had admitted to flying with another’s wings. But of course, he wouldn’t know how it worked, they’d hardly shared such news with the enemy.

“Well, that’s rather a difficult question. Let’s see. Our first clutch—just two or three, to see how they grew—we were paired with some of the Angels of Creation—”

“Who?” Crowley’s fists tightened at his side, pale and shaking, eyes wild. “Tell me which of those bastards—”

“Crowley!” Rising from his chair, Aziraphale crossed the room and tried to take his husband’s hand. “My dearest, please, it was a long time ago. It hardly matters. I—I hope you aren’t jealous.”

Golden eyes searched his face, and slowly Crowley began to relax. “No. If you were—If…” He wrapped his arms around Aziraphale, pulling him into a tight embrace. “As long as they didn’t… didn’t hurt you, I don’t care who you chose.”

Chose was certainly too strong a term, but that wasn’t important now.

“I was perfectly safe,” Aziraphale assured him, rubbing Crowley’s back where his wings would sprout. It usually made him smile, but today some of the tension remained. “Safer than I would have been on the battlefield, you know. And… and quite honored for my service.”

They gave little badges for meeting particular milestones, which Aziraphale had kept in a neat row on a table beside his sword, gathering dust.

“How did it happen?” Crowley asked, finally sinking back onto the sofa. He still looked anxious so Aziraphale sat beside him, clasping his hand. “I mean, it was—it was rare. I think I only ever saw two or three angels successfully propagate. And each of them did all the…” he gestured uncertainly. “Did everything alone.”

Aziraphale managed not to laugh at his husband’s confusion. “It’s quite simple. I have the ability to meld my True Form with another’s, briefly, on the astral plane. While we mingle, if I perform the ritual while my… my partner provides the Spark, well, it’s almost as if I had the Spark myself. Then I carried the little Soldiers on my wings until they were mature, and someone would collect them and bring them for training.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“It was. Honestly, dear, there was hardly anything to it.”

“And… and…” his brow furrowed again. “How did they… turn out?”

“Hmm? Oh, quite well. Lively, healthy little things, running around my feathers. The medics always said they were some of the strongest among all the younglings gestated. Apparently, I was quite good at it.”

“No, I mean… after they were… were brought into being. Born. Matured. Whatever you called it.”

“Ah.” Aziraphale shrugged. “I don’t actually know. My job was to incubate, not train. Once they detached, well, I never saw them again.”

“Aziraphale.” He was turning pale again. “You…They took your children?”

“Now don’t be ridiculous.” What a demonic way of looking at things. “They weren’t children, they were angels. And they were God’s angels, just like any others. No, I just carried them for a while.”

“You—” Crowley pushed his hands against his eyes again. “Hold on.”

“It’s really quite simple,” he went on, wanting to make sure Cowley was clear on this point. “God would… would plant the new angels in our wings, like seeds, and they would grow, sharing our essence, until they were ready to detach.”

“That…” his husband swallowed, still not looking up. “I mean, it sounds like a pregnancy.”

That elicited a laugh from him. “Oh… metaphorically, I suppose. If you also want to say your garden is pregnant in the spring after you do your planting. No more than that.”

“But the garden isn’t… it’s not aware. It doesn’t understand what children are, doesn’t miss them when they’re taken away.”

“Nor did I. Perhaps it was different for you Angels of Creation, seeing all the animals you created grow in—in packs and herds and whatnot. I was a Soldier, and I thought like a Soldier. These were just… new recruits, as it were. Reinforcements for the front lines.”

“You… I…”

Aziraphale rested a hand on his knee, smiling. “Darling. I promise, it was just a—a duty I fulfilled, one of many things I did during the War. No more than that. Yes, it had its rewards, but… but there was never any…” He gently took Crowley’s hands, pulling them down to meet his husband’s eyes. “But we, darling, we could have that. A clutch of younglings we care for in whatever way we want. Little angels who can always be with us, who we can keep safe in ways that… that we can’t for humans.” He swallowed. “A… a family, if you like.”

Read the rest on AO3!

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep14

Do you ever wanna just watch two little girls who are actually 100+ year old witches beat the absolute SHIT out of each other for 20 minutes straight? :)

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Plus Umineko spoilers.

Part of this might just be because I’ve been high on painkillers for a few weeks now [long story short, I’ve got a lot of dental work that needs done], but this is perhaps the most entertaining episode of anime I’ve seen all year, lol. Not even in a jokey ironic ‘so bad it’s good’ way.

I feel like this is going to be the most polarizing episode of this whole show, because for better or worse it really crosses the line between Higurashi and Umineko, so whether or not you’re a fan of that whole trajectory the story’s been taking will really change how you feel about this.

Though to be honest I think on one level people are ignoring how Higurashi has always had a lot of these things in it. For one thing, the concept of the fragment space and ‘game boards’ has been a thing since Minagoroshi, and we’ve always had stuff like Hanyuu being a literal god who can manifest in the real world, and the existence of the mythical sword was hinted at in Matsuribayashi and then expanded upon in Kotohogushi. This episode also directly referenced the over the top rooftop fight scene from Tsumihoroboshi, which was just the start of Higurashi having lots of fun and silly fight scenes, like the fights between the club members and the military in Matsuribayashi, or the whole fighting game spin-off arc thing. Even in the VN there was an intentional shift from horror and mystery to high-octane fight scenes fueled by the power of friendship and miracles.

Obviously on the other hand there’s definite Umineko stuff going on here, but in general this feels like a pretty natural progression for this series to take.

Anyway, this was absolutely worth the wait, and it goes a long way toward making up for how bad the pacing in Sotsu has been thus far, lol. I still think they could have cut this down by at least two or three episodes, but still. As a climax to this whole conflict between Rika and Satoko, it was really cool.

Sort of like how Nekodamashi had it’s rollercoaster death montage, I really loved how this whole episode transitioned between fragments in increasingly seamless and surreal ways. The use of transition cuts between scenes was honestly really cool, and made it way more dynamic and engaging than it otherwise would have been to basically have an entire episode spent on one fight scene.

I think a lot of people are hung up on the exact logistics of how the fragment-hopping worked in this episode, but I don’t really think you should read into it too much. It basically operated on dream logic and heightened emotions. In the first few fragments Satoko might have waited a bit before attacking Rika, but it very quickly became one continuous sequence of events for all intents and purposes, with how their back and forth dialogue and their exact movements transitioned from one fragment to the next.

Basically it ended up becoming a fight between voyager witches who have become totally divorced from reality and just hop from one fragment to the next whenever they please.

I was wondering how they’d follow up on the gun scene, since it created this stalemate where they both know what’s going on and thus have no reason to surrender, but I really like how they decided to take this. I know a lot of people have been wanting more of a drawn out battle of wits between them, but the whole concept of them just getting into an endless fight with each other now that everything’s out in the open is extremely entertaining to watch.

It does make me even more convinced that it was a bad idea to have Nekodamashi happen in Gou, though. The immediate resolution to the cliffhanger was more anti-climactic than most people would have wanted after so much time spent leading back up to it, and the whole tone and pacing of Nekodamashi would have flowed very seamlessly into this. It also would have fixed the issue of the last two episodes being almost entirely recaps if this was instead the first time that we saw the Nekodamashi loops.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not we might get a third season or some other kind of continuation to this, and I think this episode makes me way more convinced that it’s actually just going to end here, whether people like it or not. I think I’ve already said that there’s literally nothing the story needs to do anymore except have Rika and Satoko hash things out with each other, and that’s exactly what they’re focusing on now. Maybe they could spend time recapping Satokowashi, but that’d be extremely pointless. And at this point it’s pretty clear that one way or another the other club members just aren’t going to be very important to this story. There’s a bit of a loose end with their teenage selves showing up in the OP with new outfits, but that might be as simple as an epilogue scene set back in the Matsuribayashi fragment or something, and them looking ominous might be a red herring.

Also, in a more meta sense, there’s certain stuff the staff are doing and saying that make this seem like the finale of the whole series, like how in a couple months they’re going to release a congratulatory book compiling all the official artwork and interviews for Gou/Sotsu, or how they recently released a compilation CD of all of Ayane’s Higurashi-related songs, or how [I think] the artist for the Gou manga said on Twitter that the new chapter that just came out will be the last one to come out while the anime’s airing. We’re also getting two new Higurashi manga arcs starting soon, along with the reveal that the Gou manga will diverge from the anime and go into a new answer arc called Higurashi Jun.

So in general it just comes across like everything’s being wrapped up with Sotsu. I can see why people would be disappointed if we don’t get more, but with how the story’s been going, there’s just not really much material left to work with. Also, we know from TV listings that there at least won’t be a direct continuation in the next season, so if we get anything more it wouldn’t happen until January at earliest, and at this point I’d rather things just wrap up here instead of having to wait even longer to get the actual ending, lol.

I guess we won’t know how things will end until next week, but we really seem to be barrelling headfirst into this being Bern and Lambda’s origin story. Which has been pretty obvious for ages now, but this episode in particular really cements it. This whole fight is really similar to the one they have in Episode 8, and you can see throughout the episode how they’re embracing their looper/witch personas and becoming divorced from reality. You can even see the foundation for how Bern and Lambda have a twisted love for each other based on the fact that they’re basically the only people who can actually understand each other, and they’re so detached from reality that the violence between them is more like a sign of affection.

I feel like this is also going to end up tying into the miracle that Hanyuu is waiting for. At the moment we’re in a situation where it seems like they’re stuck in an infinite stalemate because they’re in a fight where neither of them wants to lose, but neither of them wants to win if it means permanently killing the other. So it seems like there might not really be any way out of this, but if they’re able to truly forgive each other and embrace their identities as witches, then they can basically step away from this entire conflict and just enjoy being with each other. It seems impossible for this to end with either of them ‘winning’ and things going back to how they used to be, so it could certainly be called a miracle if they both decide that they’re OK with that, and they take a third option where they can both be happy in a way that neither of them would have predicted at first.

This could also lead to a situation where Rika is able to ascend to a higher level by letting go of her human side once and for all, which could give her the ability to appear in the part of the fragment space where Eua and Hanyuu are, so she can save Hanyuu from getting killed by Eua’s spear.

And on that note, the whole bit with Hanyuu at the end actually reminds me a lot of the idea of logic errors in Umineko. I think people kinda over-use that term when it comes to stuff in this series where it doesn’t really fit, but that scene was actually extremely similar to the whole set-up where Battler got stuck in a locked room that he couldn’t come up with an answer to get out of, and he had to wait for the ‘miracle’ of Beatrice awakening so that Kanon could arrive and save him. Hanyuu is in a position where she’s already committed to flying straight at Eua, but the spear is right in front of her face and about to kill her once time starts again, and she has to wait for a ‘miracle’ to happen to change her fate. Which is also a lot like how in Matsuribayashi she almost got shot by Takano, but a miracle happened and Rika was able to divert the bullet. So it’d make a lot of sense in general if in the next episode we see Rika show up there and save Hanyuu.

And considering how Featherine acts in Umineko, I could honestly see Eua sticking to her word and rewarding Hanyuu if a miracle like that actually happens and saves her. So even if it’s anti-climactic, this might end with Eua accepting her loss and backing off, and maybe not even doing anything to punish Satoko for losing in her fight against Rika. Which is part of why I think the whole lingering threat of the ‘world without Rika’ might not even lead to anything and might just be a vague threat towards Satoko that never materializes.

Other than that, I think the last episode will probably also involve us going back to Matsuribayashi and seeing what sort of ending Rika and Satoko’s ‘human selves’ get once their ‘witch selves’ leave them behind once and for all. Which will probably just be along the lines of Rika going to the Saiguden to check up on Satoko, and them heading over to the cafe where the other club members [and probably Satoshi as well] are waiting for them, and it’ll just end on the note of them presumably working things out between each other peacefully.

Along those same lines, I think that the whole story of Gou/Sotsu will also get somewhat recontextualized as being a sort of deranged power fantasy that Satoko came up with in her head while visiting the Saiguden. I don’t think that’d be intended to devalue anything that happened here, but it’d be like how Umineko presents enough narrative framework for a non-magical interpretation of everything, while at the same time still acknowledging the value of the magical interpretation.

While I remember, I’m curious to see how the manga version turns out, since it’s clearly diverging a fair bit from the anime. It might just be an alternate take on the story concept, but at this point I think it might be presented as an ‘earlier loop’ of Gou/Sotsu, with how it’s been implied that Eua and Satoko have met before without Satoko remembering it. So maybe this whole series of events has repeated over and over again, presumably with Satoko ‘losing’ each time so things get reset, and Gou/Sotsu is the final iteration of that loop where they’re finally able to achieve a miracle.

I feel like the manga version is probably gonna end up being closer to what people wanted out of Sotsu, since it seems to be going in the direction of Rika knowing everything without Satoko knowing that, so they can have more of a drawn out conflict between each other as Rika tries to figure out how to win. Which is one way to take the story, but I still like how the anime ended up doing it, even if it could have been paced a lot better. I also think that the manga isn’t exactly a straight improvement over the anime anyway. There’s stuff it does well, but there’s stuff it doesn’t do well, like how the whole Nekodamashi arc feels extremely weird in the context of Rika not remembering her deaths [or at least not being given a clear reason for why she can suddenly remember them], her not deciding to go for five more loops before killing herself, and Satoko apparently not having any idea about Rika remembering her deaths, which seems to defeat the point of Nekodamashi’s rapid-fire death loops.

Either way I’m curious to see how Jun goes. I assume that we’ll still get some version of Satokowashi out of it, but I think that unlike with Sotsu they’ll spend much less time on answering the damashi arcs, and I also think at this point that the answers to them won’t be exactly the same as they were in the anime either.

Also, we recently found out that two entirely new Higurashi manga arcs will start in November, called Oniokoshi and Hoshiwatashi, which seem to be collectively referred to as Higurashi Rei, using the kanji from ‘the Reiwa era’, since it seems like the idea of these new arcs is that they take place in the Reiwa era. Oniokoshi seems to be about Keiichi’s son and a new mysterious character, while Hoshiwatashi seems to be about two entirely new characters, so I’m really curious to see how their stories pan out. I’m particularly excited about Oniokoshi since it’s being drawn by Natsumi Kei, who’s basically the primary artist for the Umineko manga, so that kinda makes me biased towards it, lol. And even though there’s basically nothing to go off of except for one preview image, it looks like it might go in a bit of a gay direction, which would be really neat. But we’ll see how it goes.

So yeah, I guess at this point with where things are going I’m gonna be really disappointed if we don’t get something like an Umineko remake after this, lol. It wouldn’t be very satisfying if it just ends on the note of ‘go and read the Umineko VN’ or something.

[mihidecet]

Sbi&co d&d AU: Cxlvxn

AKA Tibi’s MCYT WritingTober, day 25!

This chapter was prompted by @awebo ‘s lovely ask! They were wondering where Calvin would fit in the Au, and it spawned this! I do hope you’ll like it!

This is also a fill for @the-only-gamer-gost ‘s list of prompts :3

"So this is the infamous Technoblade."

If anyone had told Tommy that he'd one day see Techno pale, recoil and stand up straight immediately just by hearing some random dude call out his name, he would have called them fools. 

And yet. 

Here they were, all sitting at a tavern, having lunch after they'd finally arrived in a town with actual living people in it - ones that didn't want to kill them, hurray! - just talking amongst themselves, hanging out. 

And then a random dude dressed like a random forest scout just appeared behind Techno, thinly insulted him and that was enough to make the rogue seemingly scared for his own life. 

What the hell was happening.

Techno had been worried. 

Ever since they'd entered the town. 

He knew that village, he'd spent a lot of time there, training, with one of the most relentless fighters he knows. 

Techno had hoped, hell, he'd prayed that he wouldn't be found, but … there was little he could do to hide, despite the fact that his identity was usually mostly unknown. 

And he knows that voice. He knows it because he can still remember it yelling at him to get back up, you dumbass, it's not sleeping time yet! 

Techno squeezes into his own shoulders and turns on his chair, ignoring the worried looks of his teammates. 

He stands up, eyes trained to the floor, and then gives a bow so deep he's afraid he's going to fall over. 

"Master Calvin." 

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Wilbur and Fundy's voice yelp out from his right, as if Techno wasn't already regretting everything that had ever led him to that moment. 

And then Tommy bursts out laughing, because Techno's life is an endless array of increasingly unsurprising nightmares. 

As expected, there's a quick pat on his head - followed instantly by Tommy's chocked out wheeze - and by now Techno is starting to consider the benefits of bailing out on them all. 

The only reason he won't is because he knows who's standing in front of him, and he knows very well that he's either not going to make it out of the door, or he's going to be found later. Either way, he's going to have a bad time if he tries to leave. Techno bites his tongue and stands back up. 

As soon as he meets Calvin's eyes, the elf bursts out laughing: first a snort, then a hand flies to his mouth to keep in hiccupping giggles, then the utter traitor lets go and soon after his loud guffaws are resounding in the mostly empty tavern. 

"Oh, oh by the gods, Techno, you look like you swallowed a lemon whole. Cheer up, man, you're not my student anymore!" He exclaims between one chuckle and the other, punching his arm lightly - not that lightly though, he's not able to not be strong and it is honestly so unfair - before moving a chair from another table and joining them. 

"You guys mind? I'd love a chance to catch up with little old T." He asks as he sits down, Niki currently the only one able to answer with a silent nod as the others are all red faced, looking at Techno who's not so subtly rubbing at the newly sore spot on his arm. 

Wilbur has actual tears on his face. 

Techno is so not ready for this.

"And that's how I found him the next morning, hanging by a foot, tied to the pole, swinging lightly- actually sleeping!" 

Techno has stopped regretting his existence two stories ago, and is currently just trying not to see the expressions on his friend's faces as Calvin mercilessly destroys the image of a powerful and skilled combatant that Techno has spent so much time creating. 

At least it's just them in the tavern. 

That, and Calvin still hasn't proposed a sparring session "for old times' sake".

He counts his wins on the fingers of a single hand. 

Techno had figured that after the first story of how they'd met - he'd stumbled into a guard while trying to steal some food, and therefore gotten himself thrown in jail for a week while Calvin was working for the town's guard - he'd be satisfied with the embarrassment caused but no. He should have known the elf would have thrived off of this. 

An elbow hits him lightly as he's hiding his face in his crossed arms, half lying on the table, having given up on groaning his way out of the situation. When he turns his face, there's a slightly pinched look on Niki's face, her brow furrowed as her eyes move from him to a spot behind him - right where Calvin is. 

Techno gives a quick, tight lipped smile. 

Yes, he's suffering, but no, he doesn't need Niki to kill him. 

Her eyes soften and Techno sees her hand move towards the side - to tap on Phil's arm, who shoots the both of them a reassuring smile. 

"But still- Alright, I'm done torturing him-" Calvin starts a moment later, prompting Techno's shoulders to relax an inch and several protesting groans from people that will perish by his swords before the next morning. 

"Nah, nah. Storytime over. I have to go in a while too. Are you guys stopping in town or do you have somewhere else to be?"

"We're not working on anything at the moment." Phil answers shrugging lightly, then taking a sip from his by now rather warm ale.

"Why? Do you have a super difficult task to give us?" Tommy asks immediately after, leaning over the table - his face is still red and he still has watery eyes from laughing too much, he will be the first to go. 

But Calvin on the other side of the table shakes his head and looks down at Techno. 

"Not a task per se. But a friend is holding a tournament, and I already sent one of my students there to compete, so …" 

Techno's back snaps straight immediately, almost flipping his chair backwards. 

"How big of a tournament are we talking." 

Calvin bursts out laughing immediately - one time, what seems like ages ago, Calvin had taken him aside and explained him that he'd broken his "no favourites" rule for him, only because nobody had ever been able to match his enthusiasm and sheer need to be good. 

"Very big. There will be many people, and many important ones. It's organized by this friend of mine and Noxite-" 

A sudden shrill sound interrupts Calvin as Fundy seems to explode and implode at the same time, jumping in his chair as his tail starts thumping loudly against the floor; he's clutching Wil's arm too, in what seems to be a rather painful way. 

"You mean the best magic users in this whole plane?!" Fundy asks, tone a couple of octaves higher than usual and loud enough to cover Wil's tentative plea of "can I please have my arm back". 

Calvin's got a Cheshire smile on his face as he nods - once is enough for Fundy to turn, dead serious, towards the rest of the group. 

"We gotta go. You guys don't even understand, we're going. We are so going."

About ten minutes later, after getting all the informations they need for this fabled tournament, Calvin stands up - and by force of habit Techno does too, he doesn't want to talk about it - and says goodbye to all. 

"It was lovely to meet all of you, and I'm glad you're taking care of him. The gods know he won't do it himself." He quips, giving him a light nudge which awakens Techno from his awkwardly stunned state - he's still reeling from the fact that he stood up when Calvin did. 

"Accompany this old man outside, will you?" With a small nod towards him and one towards his team, Techno follows his former teacher outside. 

It's almost midday, so the streets are now much more full of people than they were the previous night when they arrived. 

Still, since it's chilly outside, not many stop or care about the two of them. The fresh air is also a good thing. 

When Calvin turns to him, it's with an earnest expression on his face that makes a small part of Techno ache with nostalgia. 

"I'm glad to see you're doing well. When you disappeared, I knew you'd be onto great things, but it's nice to see you got yourself some great friends too." 

I missed you too seems both too little and too personal. 

They're my family now feels like too much to admit. 

Unable to answer in a way that seems appropriate, Techno simply nods.

"You know, if the embarassement didn't murder you, Fruit opened a monastery that is conveniently on the way to the tournament." 

Techno rubs a hand over his face, feeling extremely tired but also knowing that he is surely going to stop by. Still, he gives a small smile. 

"I'm glad to hear. Sensei did always talk about wanting to do that. I assume TapL is with him." 

Calvin answers with a small chuckle and a nod:

"Of course, of course. So, am I going to see you at least once before tbe next century?" Techno scoffs, aware that the quip is perfectly reasonable and mostly deserved. He did bail on him without even saying goodbye.

"You'll see me in a couple of months after I've won the tournament." This prompts Calvin to burst out laughing, despite Techno's unimpressed stare. 

"You say this now, but I do have another student fighting there." 

"Do they know about me? Or have you got yourself a new favourite?" Techno asks, crossing his arms over his chest with a daring tone - which is mostly pretend, but still. 

"Well, it depends on who wins. But he does know about you." Calvin answers, starting to move away, walking backwards.

"I see, I see. How do I recognise him, so that I know who to crush instantly?" Techno asks, having to raise his voice a bit in order to be heard. Once again, Calvin is laughing as he answers. 

"Just look for the cockiest half orc with an axe! Good luck, Techno!" 

[twstlotus]

Hi there! 👋 Nice to see our fandom growing, more writers joining and trying their pens out with twst boy~ I'm here to wish you a nice day and leave a request, if I may. How would Epel, Malleus, Trey and Rook react to their s/o being well versed in a sword fighting? Seeing her(or them, I don't mind) in an act, maybe even protecting the boys? The s/o haven't disclosed it to them before and took a stance only because she had no other choice. Thank you very much💓

Before we begin, I apologize if I had written Epel a bit ‘off’, for lack of a better word. I have not played through Pomefiore’s chapter thoroughly let alone get to the important bits of said chapter (I’m only on 5-9..)

If I did mischaracterize Epel, please inform me! I will try to perfect how I write him as soon as possible.

Now, onto the headcanons.

Epel Felmier

Epel is astounded to see you swordfight. Perhaps his amazement is a bit inappropriate considering the context being that you were fighting off a few Savanaclaw boys for teasing and mocking Epel about the rumors that he wanted to join the Savanaclaw dormitory—but they did it right in front of your face. Saying how “a pretty boy soft as he is could never join Savanaclaw!” and continued.

You didn’t find violence necessary in the situation, but you weren’t opposed against it either. So when the Savanaclaw members began taunting both you and Epel, you quickly drew your sword and began fighting them, all while Epel walked in at the perfect moment and hid behind a wall and watched you.

The beastmen tucked their tails between their legs and ran off soon after you had your sword pointed to them on the ground. Once they were gone, Epel quietly walked out of his hiding spot and asked if you were okay, to which you hesitantly replied with a “yes”.

Quickly after, Epel began to somewhat gush about your sword fighting abilities and how great you were. Yet, he’s also curious about why you never told him about your skill in such. You explain to him that you never thought of a reason to why you should inform anyone of it, but you were also a bit afraid that he might find your talent in it ‘weird’.

He shoots your suspicions as completely incorrect. You were amazing out there! Epel has never seen sword fighting up-close and done so well! It makes him stagger through his words. He also states that you don’t need to hide anything from him and that he’ll accept you whole as a person and as a lover. The reason why he even fell in love with you was because of how free-willed you are, you know?

“Well, I think your sword fighting is great, (Y/N). I don’t think it matters what other people see you as, especially the negative ones—you’re great and that’s all there is to it!”

Malleus Draconia

Malleus first saw you sword fighting a handful of the Savanaclaw boys, or, well—it looked more like you were deflecting and inflicting minor wounds on the beastmen until they eventually ran off out of cowardice.

The fae was completely stunned. He had never known you were so skilled in sword fighting, and you fight with such gracefulness and elegance, too! The only other time he had seen sword fighting up close was when he and Lilia trained Silver as Malleus’ knight. Even so, his fighting style was merely that of a normal knight’s—but you, you looked like you were dancing with the sword.

When he snaps out of his amazement, he quickly comes out of the shadows to your aid and checks if you have any wounds. Humans are very fragile, after all. You reassure him that you’re fine and he eventually brings up your talent in swordsmanship, to which you bashfully deny ever being skilled in such a thing.

Malleus can obviously see through your lies, and after a while, you admit that you do. You kept it a secret because you were afraid that he might see you as improper or ‘strange’ and the only reason you even fought those Savanaclaw boys were because they were ridiculing your beloved fae.

He’s visibly surprised by the notion. Fighting...for him? Of course, he has literal knights who fight for him, but he always considered it as the two merely doing their jobs. You, on the other hand; you didn’t need to do such a thing for him, yet still, you did it anyway. He’s touched, to say the least. Afterwards, he comforts you regarding your talent and says to not be shameful of it, for it is a talent one could only look up to and that he’s always welcome to talk about anything.

“You’re not required to put yourself in dangerous situations, Child of Man. Trust that I can fight my own battles, so please, do not burden yourself with mine. Though I must say...you did well.”

Trey Clover

‘Surprised’ would be a bit of an understatement to describe what Trey felt when he saw you sword fighting with a fellow Heartslabyul member. Just a little bit.

The way you made your sword swings seem effortless renders him speechless. Just when did you learn to swordfight? And how will Riddle react when he sees you, battling a Heartslabyul member, with a sword!? The consequences may be severe… (and even so, when did Heartslabyul C-kun learn to swordfight!?)

Trey quickly steps in and stops the duel between you and the other dorm member. Heartslabyul C-kun leaves with a scoff while small wounds decorate his otherwise clean skin. Meanwhile, you seemed completely fine. There were only a few cuts from C-kun’s sword but it wasn’t at all serious. Still, Trey treats your wounds so they don’t get infected.

The entire time, Trey is almost quiet as he tends to your wounds until he releases a sigh of defeat, for lack of a better word. He tells you that fighting by yourself isn’t safe, you know? That would just end up in both you and him getting your heads chopped off by Riddle (thank goodness he brought you out of the scene of the crime).

You explain to him that the only reason you had done it was because C-kun recently found out about your talent in sword fighting and wouldn’t stop bugging you until you agreed to duel with him, knowing it was against the rules, so you denied his every demand. However, he brought Trey into the story by mocking him and that was the last straw.

Quite honestly, Trey doesn’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, he’s afraid and a bit worried for you and what could have happened. And on the other...he’s grateful and rather enamoured about the fact that you tried to defend him. Still, he shows appreciation for what you did in his name but reminds you to be careful next time.

“Don’t run off fighting other people, okay? I really appreciate what you did for me but I don’t want you getting hurt. Plus, I can’t have my favorite cupcake get in trouble with Riddle!”

Rook Hunt

Saw you sword fighting another Pomefiore member, but it didn’t look intense if at all. From afar, it did look like you and Pomefiore B-kun were simply practice-duelling—and from afar, it stayed as such. Rook continued to watch you from the bushes with a keen eye and a smile tugging on his face.

However, B-kun just had to do it. During your duel, he began taunting you about Rook, your Hunter of Love. It started small; calling him a weirdo and other nicknames Rook had likely grown accustomed to. But B-kun just went on and on, his small taunts grew to harsh insults, and you weren’t having any of it.

You swiftly defeat B-kun in the duel. His sword flying out of his hands and landing on soft grass, piercing the surface. You quickly tell him to scram and he leaves without a word, not even to retrieve his sword.

You let out a sigh before turning to the bushes, where you know Rook is. You call out his name and after a few rustles from the bushes, he walks out with a large smile on his face and claps for your performance, stating that it was marvelous! ....However, this does spark curiosity in him—curiosity on why you never informed him of your talent in the art of sword fighting.

You say that you never found the reason to tell him of it, though you weren’t exactly ashamed, it was just what it was also because you knew Rook wouldn’t stop pestering you about it once he found out that you were skilled in sword fighting.

Non, non! This is wonderful news to him! He’s happy to know that you’re confident in something you’re skilled in and he would be all the more glad if you wanted to speak to him about sword fighting, should you ever wish to do so.

“Your swordsmanship is fantastique, mon cherie! Though, I must ask…,” The self-proclaimed hunter steps towards C-kun’s sword and picks it up. “May I request a few sword fighting lessons from you?”

[jesussavedevenme]

To Be A Knight

This is the beginning of a collection of one shots following Seth's adventures as a Knight of the Dawn

Description: Like most young boys Seth had always dreamed of being a spy. He had spent most of his childhood sneaking around the house with a walky-talky while humming the Mission Impossible theme song. And while he technically still wasn't a spy,he was pretty darn close.

May 20

St.Matthew's Island, Alaska

6:25 pm

"Sorenson, I've got a job for you." came a gruff voice from down the hall. Seth turned and saw his handler, a man by the name of Flynn Hotching, leaning out of the door to his office. Flynn was a tall and strong man with a broad frame. At fifty five he was in excellent shape and the only indications to his age were the flecks of white that were sprinkled throughout his dark hair and neatly trimmed beard. Flynn was a serious man and often gave off an intimidating vibe, but Seth knew that he wasn't that bad once you got to know him.

Seth stood, ignoring the way his back popped and cracked in protest because of how long he had spent sitting in the rather uncomfortable wooden chair. He had once started a petition to replace them with those really comfortable bean bag chairs. He actually had quite a few supporters. But Flynn, being the man he was, just rolled his eyes and walked away. Seth could feel the stares of his fellow knights burning into the back of his head as he made his way over but opted to ignore it. Seth got missions quite frequently, a fact that many knights were slightly jealous of since it would occasionally get him out of some the more mundane tasks a Knight had to complete. For example, paper work. Which is what he had been doing when he had been called. He quickly made his way over, eager to get away from the evil sea of inevitable paper cuts. He couldn't help but chuckle as he mentally heard Eve calling him a drama queen. Though she wasn't much better.

Flynn barely waited for the door of his to close behind him before he began pouring out the details of whatever job he had lined up.

" There's a dealer that's been causing us some problems. They are preying on creatures such as unicorns and there has been some rumors that they are working with some less than savory characters. I need you to track them down. " Flynn stated firmly. Seth narrowed his eyes, there was no way it was that easy. If it was that simple then they would have brought in a rookie.

"Ok, what's the catch." He replied crossing his arms over his chest.The man heaved a sigh before sliding a file towards him.

" The catch is we don't have any idea who the dealer is. We don't even have a description. However, all of our dealers crimes have a certain flare to them and we have reason to believe that he is human. We have intercepted news of a deal taking place in three days in Belize. "

Seth read the file and whistled at the lack of information. The file was extremely limited which meant that whoever was doing this knew what they were doing. The Knights of the Dawn had excellent connections and kept tabs on every possible threat so for them to be this uninformed- well lets just say it wasn't good. It also meant he was walking into this mission completely blind. He couldn't plan for anything meaning he had to plan for everything. He had no idea what was going to happen once he got there but, if you ask Seth, that was part of the fun.

"Alright I'll do it." Seth replied after a moment of thought. He had to admit he only pretended to think about it, mostly just for the suspense. He had always loved a good mystery and this mission honestly excited him.

"Good, your plane leaves tomorrow at eight am sharp. You will be issued a bag that will be stocked with supplies but I advise you to bring anything you think would be useful" He said gesturing to the satchel over his shoulder, that served as his emergency kit. " I have wired five thousand dollars into your account but if you need more than that you know who to call." Seth nodded, placing the folder in his satchel and walked out of the office, heading to his apartment to prepare for the mission ahead. He pulled his coat tighter around his body as he walked outside and realized that it was later than he had originally thought. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon and though Seth loved the pinks and oranges that painted the sky, he could practically feel the temperature dropping. Last time he had checked it was 25 degrees, which is no where near as cold as it could get but it was still very cold. Despite how long he had been in Alaska, he had yet to get used to the bitter cold. And he honestly didn't think he ever would. Seth guessed he should count himself lucky, this was the Knights biggest base and it had been cleverly hidden by distractor spells as well as the natural terrain of the island. Seth shivered as a strong gust of wind blew through the base reminding him of the other reason it stayed hidden from most people. Luckily he lived on the grounds of the base so it was only about a minutes walk.

The Knights of the Dawn had no shortage of money. Seth wasn't sure how they got there hands on so much money and honestly he didn't want to know. It was all warranted though considering how many supplies they had to buy along with the amount of damage control. It was amazing sometimes how much chaos a secret organization could cause. Seth knew he definitely wasn't the favourite over in the legal department because of some of the 'incidents' that had been a result of his missions. Seth was proud to be able to state that these incidents were few and far between but when they did happen he knew they had to be a nightmare to clean up.

Needless to say, with all that money, his apartment was very nice. It had a decent size living room and kitchen which connected go a small dining area. Upstairs there was two bedrooms and a bathroom. Seth's furniture was pretty sparse if he was being honest. He had a couch that had been there when he moved in, his bed, a desk, a small dining table that has also come with the apartment, as well as few chairs scattered here and there. It didn't bother him in the slightest. He honestly wasn't here that often. He slept there when he wasn't out on missions which, once again, was pretty rare. Besides the real fun began downstairs. He walked down the stairs into what appeared to be a musty, unfinished basement. A punching bag hung from one of the exposed beams and a small pile of weights sat not far from it. Seth rarely used those, they were reserved for restless nights when the big communal gym and training area was closed for the night.

Seth strode confidently towards the back wall and slid away a lose board revealing a keypad. It was truly a horrible hiding spot for something that important but there wasn't really anything he could do about it. The neat thing about the keypad though was that it had been enchanted so that he was the only one who could touch it. Meaning that not only did you need the correct code, but he had to be the one to punch it in. He wasn't exactly sure what would happen if someone else touched it but he knew it would do more than just set off an alarm. Stuff like always made Seth feel like a true spy and totally made up for the unsecured hiding space.

Seth punched in the code and heard the distinct sound of stone scraping on stone, briefly reminding him of his few days spent in the Sphinx's prison. When the sound stopped, a small opening was revealed that lead to a room containing his weapons and supplies. From the outside the room appeared to be tiny and cramped but it had also been enchanted to be much bigger on the inside. It wasn't quite as big as the knapsack they had all those years ago but it was nothing to sneeze at. Still, no matter how big it was on the outside, Seth had to crouch down to fit through the opening. The door frame was ridiculously short and the amount of time he had smacked his head against the top was honestly embarrassing. The supplies inside the room was a knights dream. There was everything you could dream of, swords, daggers, armor, bows, you name it. The special thing about this room though, was that most of the items were his. They were things he had gathered prior to becoming a knight. Seth also had several magical talismans and tools that had gotten him out of more than a few sketchy situations. His favorite talisman was a ring that sat on his right forefinger. The ring had been a gift from The Fairy King when Seth had been accepted into the Knights Academy. It was pitch black and didn't look like much at first glance however, when you looked closer you could see three unicorns that were engraved on its surface, each of which served more functional purposes. The first unicorn, when pressed, sent out a distress signal strong enough to reach Bracken even if he was in the fairy realm. The distress signal also went out to anyone who had a connected talisman. At this point the only ones being himself and Kendra who had gotten hers when she officially began dating Bracken in the form of a bracelet. The second unicorn held a few precious drops of unicorn blood. The substance could heal almost anything but it could only be used once. The final unicorn was arguably Seth's favorite. When it was pressed it would release a pearly white dagger which had been extremely helpful in the past. The downside to this tool was that, since it was made of light, he tended to have a harder time controlling it.

Seth looked through his stash, trying to decide which weapons were right for this particular mission. He knew at this point stealth was key but if you leave for a job without a weapon, you're just going to get yourself killed.

When going on stealth missions the best route to take is small weapons that can be easily concealed, such as daggers or blow darts. However, the problem with that was those were easily detected when going through airport security. Ever since becoming a knight Seth had decided that he hated flying. It was loud, chaotic, and absolutely impossible to tell who was a danger to you.

Plus carrying weapons onto the plane was pretty much impossible but, a knight needed to be prepared in every situation. The weapon had to be easily accessible, ready at a moments notice, and the best way to do that is to build a weapon that doesn't look like a weapon. Seth walked over to a small red tool box tucked away in the corner, and pulled out a large nut and and tied a piece of cord to it. He secured the cord and then started to spin it, making sure nothing was going to fall off. And just like that he had a weapon that made a killer whip and could easily crack a mans skull if it came down to that. The best part was that it wouldn't trip any alarms. Sure it might seem a little odd that someone carries a piece of cord tied to a nut but, he wouldn't get arrested for it. Seth tied the lose cord around his neck, creating a necklace that he could hide underneath his shirt until it was needed. When that was finished he turned his attention to his emergency kit and sifted through the various items, taking out anything that would tip off a scanner. Seth gathered the items that he had taken out and moved towards the suitcase that he would be taking with him. He felt around one of the sides and unzipped a pocket so small that you most likely wouldn't see unless you knew it was there. In the pocket he placed the remaining items of his emergency kit. This time he wasn't worried about the items being seen as the pocket had been enchanted to hide the items from sight. Seth then repeated the process with the bottom of the suitcase, peeling back the inside to reveal a similar compartment that had also been enchanted to be bigger. In this pocket he placed two daggers, A blow gun and darts, and his favorite sword. He pulled the sword out of it's sheath and inspected it for any chips or dull edges. The sword was jet black and held the name Shadow Slayer, which was kind of ironic given its nature. The sword held just enough darkness to work well with him but not so much that there was a risk it would corrupt him. He had found the sword while on a mission for the fairy realm not long before joining the Knights. He was pretty sure he wasn't going to use it because lets face it, milk or no milk a sword was still a sword. However, Seth had learned that it payed to be prepared. So with that thought in mind, he placed the sheathed sword in the compartment, closed it up, and began to carry it upstairs to his bedroom. He filled the rest of the suit case with clothes and other essentials and once he was satisfied that he had everything, he closed it up.

He slumped down in his desk chair and pulled out the file he had stashed in his emergency kit, pouring over what little detail it had and attempting to prepare for what was to come.

†††††

May 21

St.Matthews Island, Alaska

5:00am

The next morning Seth was up well before five am preparing for the mission ahead. Thankfully he had always been a morning person so the early hour didn't bother him in the slightest. He grabbed his bags and exited the apartment, heading to the missions office to pick up the final things he would need for this job.

The lady at the desk, He pretty sure her name is Jennifer, smiled at him as he approached the counter. She was a women in her mid thirties and she was one of the nicer people that worked the desk. There were quite a few of the people working here that obviously didn't want to and others who even seemed to resent it. Seth really couldn't blame them though, he had worked here for a few months while he was going through training and it definitely hadn't been the most fun or exciting job out there.

" ID and case number?" She asked as more of a formality than anything else. Seth was such a regular visitor that he was pretty sure they knew who he was. However, since it was required, he slid showed them his badge and rattled the number off anyway. Seth supposed that he coukd see the logic behind the badge. It was a way of identifing someone beyond ther looks. All of them had been enchanted fo return to their owners, generally via their pocket, should they be lost. Seems simple and secure enough. However, in their line of work things were rarely that black and white. Seth is not entirely sure what would happen to the badge if their was a stingbuld or if the enchantment could be removed. Luckily they didn't do much. They were just means of identification and they didn't let you into anything at all. Any area qhich required a certain level of access had several different enchantments placed on it. Ones that were designed to recognize the person requesting access and weed out potential imposters. After the battle of Zzyzx and the whole mess with the Evening Star, the knights had undergone huge security upgrades. Bracken as well as one of his sisters, Iredessa, had set mist of the enchantments. Kendra had also played a major part on strengthening these enchantments a few years ago.

The case numbers were pretty harmless. Not the most secure but all they did was let the people at the desk know what bag of supplies to get. It didn't give access to any crucial or confidential information. The most a fake could get was an issued duffle bag and possibly some.plane tickets.

Jennifer smiled as she stood and disappeared through a secured metal door. When she returned a few minutes later she was carrying a black duffle bag which she passed to him over the counter along with a two way plane ticket.

"Thanks a lot," Seth told her, flashing a bright smile her way. She hummed in response before responding,

"Stay safe out there,"

"I'll try my best," Seth replied with a grin as he headed towards the door and began the short treck to the parking lot where a car would take him to the airport. He knew he must have looked a little funny carrying around a huge duffle bag, suit case and a leather satchel that sat across his shoulder but he wasn't worried. Every Knight here had been in similar situations before. Seth looked around the parking lot, squinting in the bright morning sun, before making his way to the small grey jeep that sat close to the front. Leaning against the side was a tall guy with wind blown red hair and a lean build. Seth smiled when he spotted him. The man's name was Parker and he was one of Seth's closest friends here on the base. They had gone through training together though, Parker was about three years older than him. He was twenty-four while Seth was only twenty-one. Seth, unfortunately, hadn't had a lot of friends at that time. Because of his shadow charmer status, people tended to be wary of him but Parker had never been deterred by his abnormal abilities.

In between his own missions Parker volunteered to drive Knights back and forth to the airport. Due to Seth's frequent missions, the two usually ended up paired together.

"Another one Sorenson? Didn't you just finish that one in Sweeping Pine preserve like a week ago?"

" Yeah, Jealous?" Seth teased, raising his eyebrows. Parker laughed and shot a playful glare at the taller boy. Despite Parker's tall height, he was still at least and inch shorter than Seth. Though to be fair, not many people were taller than Seth. A fact that many people found unsettling.

" Just a little bit dude. What, you trying to show the rest of us up or something?" Parker laughed back, poking Seth in the side as he got into the car. Seth rolled his eyes as he loaded his bags into the car before following Parker's lead. They road in silence for several minutes as Parker navigated his way out of the crowded base and set up the directions to the international airport. It wasn't everyday that a Knight flew internationally for a mission. Generally if they were going to somewhere outside the country they were going to a preserve and would have to be flown there by helicopter or other means. So while it did happen, it didn't happen often.

Seth used the temporary quiet to unzip the bulky duffle bag and look at its contents.

Looking into his bag for a mission and seeing the certain supplies or gadgets still made him a bit giddy. Like most young boys, Seth had always wanted to be a spy. He had spent most of his childhood sneaking around the house with a cheap walky-talky while humming the mission impossible theme song. And while he technically wasn't a spy, he was pretty darn close. One of the common misconceptions about the Knights of the Dawn was that they didn't use any human or modern technology such as computers and other gadgets to do their job. However that was far from true. Sure they tended to avoid it when dealing directly with magical creatures, but they often used these gadgets for things such reconnaissance.

Inside the bag was some of the things you would expect such a binoculars and many more that you wouldn't expect. Seth's favorite part of these bags were the small box near the bottom that generally came with each one. The box contained different potions that you might need for the mission. Seth had always found potions to be fascinating. There had even been a time that he had considered going into the field himself. For this particular mission he had been given a night vision potion which was pretty self explanatory, An eavesdropping potion that enhanced his hearing and allowed him to listen in on a conversation without getting too close, and a form of truth serum that would loosen the lips of of someone you wish to get information from. There was at least three bottles of each along with the normal defense and first aid potions that were added. Such as, the gaseous potion, a potion for pain, a salve for injuries and many more. On top of that Tanu insisted on making sure that Seth was always stocked with his own personal set of potions. Tanu usually supplied him with more gaseous potions, a gummy potion, a giant potion, a new potion that enhanced his focus and his reflexes, as well as plenty of first aid related ones. He seemed to be convinced that Seth would end up seriously injured on every mission. Though sadly, Seth could admit, that the worry wasn't completely unfounded. Other than the potions, the bag contained an enchanted communicator, a few listening devices, a laptop, and a few other useful knick knacks.

" Got anything good in there?" Parker questioned.

" You bet," Seth replied holding up the box of potions that was in his bag even knowing that with his friends eyes on the road and so Parker probably couldn't see them. Parker laughed anyway not needing his eyes to know what Seth was referring to.

" Seth, I swear I have never seen anyone get so excited over potions before."

" What can I say, I'm a simple guy," He replied earning a scoff from Parker.

" Uh huh, says the literal Shadow Charmer who has a mission every other week," The pair laughed once again and fell into an easy back and forth banter. Continuing there shenanigans until they pulled into the airport. It was then, as much as he, loathed to do it he bid Parker farewell , thanked him for the ride, and walked into the crowded airport.

Arriving at the airport was just as hectic as he expected it to be. Of course it was crazy for everyone but, it was even more so when you are constantly looking over your shoulder or waiting to get stopped by airport security. Thankfully he was able to board the plane okay even if his makeshift weapon did raise a few eyebrows.

Something Seth had learned was that a knight should always fly economy. It may not be the most comfortable but few people would start a fight with that many witnesses around. Plus it was easier to blend in. A tee shirt and some jeans and you were all set. Ready to settle in for a long flight.

Seth popped one ear bud in his ear but left the other out in order to let him hear incoming threats. Seth found it impossible to sleep on a plane, no matter how long the journey was, because of the unknown circumstances. It would be difficult to keep an eye on people and to know who was a threat. Unlike Kendra, Seth hated reading. Only a few books had every managed to hold his attention for any.period of time. He was too restless. He would much rather be doing something outside. Moving and exploring. He didn't mind doing art, sketching being his favorite. However, that was difficult to do in a crowded, bunny plane. So Seth resigned himself to a long ride half listening to music and ignoring the guy beside him who vaguely smelled like onions.

††††

May 22

Corazol, Belize

4:45 pm

Seth stretched his stiff legs as he walked from baggage claim to the exit of the airport. He breathed deeply and relished the feeling of the sun on his skin, even though he knew he would quickly become hot. But, after a long eight and a half hour flight, they were welcome changes. He glanced at the clock hung on the wall and noted the time. He knew that Corazol Belize was about two hours ahead of Alaska. Not that it mattered. Seth was pretty much immune to jet lag at this point. Not necessarily because of the constant travel, though that certainly helped, but because of the erratic and uncertain sleep schedule he had become used to while on any mission. His body had become well trained in sleeping whenever it was told. The only thing that interrupted this was nightmares but he rarely got those while on missions because his mind was too focused on other things. Seth would never admit it but that's one of the reasons he takes on as many missions as they will give him.

Seth's hotel was not far from the airport so he opted to walk there. He had done some research the night before and found a hotel that he rented under the name of Roger Alpine. The Knights would usually rent one for you but Seth preferred to do it himself. To say the hotel he chose was run down would be putting it nicely. The paint was peeling horribly from the siding and it was definitely not on the nicest side of town. The rooms were separated from the outside by a door with A flimsy looking lock, something Seth would secure once he had settled in. The room held a musty scent mixed with the smell of cigarette smoke. There was a bed in the center of the room, covered in some unsettling stains, a side table and lamp beside it, and a desk under the window. The window itself had a pair of thin ratty curtains and crooked blinds. There wasn't much Seth could do about the window, except string up a blanket, which he did. Opening his suitcase and removing his clothes, he opened the hidden compartment. From inside he took out the pieces of his emergency kit that he had stashed. He also opened up the duffle bag he had and pulled out a few other various knick knacks that he thought he might find useful. He then empty the remaining items into the compartment at the bottom of his suitcase. Leaving the duffle bag empty. This was.common practice for Seth in a place like this. He didn't want to leave his unused supplies in a relatively unprotected duffle bag while he was away. Unfortunately this was something Seth had learned the hard way.

In the end Seth was left with: the box of potions, a rope, a small bottle which held a thin dust that immediately soaked into the skin upon contact allowing the victim to be tracked, dark sunglasses (which did indeed have a camera and microphone installed) , a slingshot, some marbles( which as Seth had found were great for distractions), binoculars, and a pair of ear buds. All of these things were packed neatly into his emergency kit, ready for use. He still had his makeshift weapon secured around his neck and two knife secured in a holster and strapped to each of his legs. He had glanced mournfully at his sword but knew that it would only draw in wanted attention. Besides today wasn't about getting into a fight. Today was about exploring Corazol and getting a lay of the land. Still it played to be prepared, hence the knives. Finally, satisfied that he was ready, Seth left the dingy hotel room and began to wander along the streets. Searching for anything that might lead him in the right direction.

Corazol was a quaint little sea side town. You could smell the salt in the air, carried by the cool breeze. Corazol was small in population but it also had its fair amount of tourists. Especially right now with summer just around the corner. The busy streets were lined with street vendors all vying for his attention but Seth was more interest in searching his surroundings. The smells coming from said street vendors were heavenly and caused his stomach to crumble loudly reminding him that not only had he not eaten breakfast this morning, but that he had been walking for over an hour. Technically he could have rented a car, he definitely had the funds for it, and most Knights probably would. However Seth, was not most Knights. He didn't like rental cars for many reasons, one because it was easier to see a car and a license plate then just someone walking in a crowd. Two, every rental car was required to have trackers and such in them to prevent theft which was fine in most cases but problematic for him. That wasn't necessarily a huge risk but it was still one Seth wasn't willing to take. Maybe he had grown paranoid, but he was still alive so there's that. Finally he didn't like rental cars because, in his line of work, it was likely to get beaten up or destroyed. Plus having a car would cause him to miss out on the unique sights, sounds, and smells. That is yet another thing Seth loved about his job. It allowed him to travel the world and to see as well as, experience things he would never get to otherwise.

He had to admit this was a good place to go if you were going to hunt for artifacts and magical creatures and then illegally sell them . The Cerror Ruins were only a few miles away and Seth knew that it was a prime spot for missing person's cases, especially when people wandered off alone. He hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't have to venture there during this trip but, that's definitely where he would go if he was an illegal dealer trying to avoid the Knights as well as any other prying eyes and ears. Plus it wasn't exactly a place you would expect anything big to happen. And besides the Cerror Ruins, their wasn't really anything magical about the place. It honestly seemed kind of ordinary. It was perfect because it tended to be overlooked.

After another thirty minutes had past, the rumbling in Seth's stomach became too overwhelming to ignore and he resolved find a place to eat. He stumbled upon a small hole in the wall restaurant that seemed to be pretty popular amongst the locals. Meaning it was the perfect place for Seth to gather some information.

Even though he worked directly with magical creatures, you'd be surprised how many times he had to interact with regular people. The knowledge gathered from these people was often shaky at best and should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. However, this information often helped him form some semblance of an idea. In his experience Seth had learned that regular people noticed a lot more than even they realize. In addition most people never pass up a chance for a good gossip. And since they didn't know how valuable their information was, they were a lot less stingy with it. The only problem you run into is when they begin to ask questions and wonder why you're asking and who you are. When that happens you become the subject of gossip and word will eventually get back to you enemy. That's why Seth hated small towns. The information might be easier to come by, but it was also easier to get caught. And getting caught meant revealing your mission too soon.

In his line of work , timing was everything. Move in too soon and you risk blowing you cover as well as the entire mission. However, if you don't move in quick enough you'll miss your chance to get your guy. That perfect timing came only when you knew you enemy better than they knew themselves. It came from careful observation and lots of Intel.

Gathering Intel was arguably one of the most boring and tedious parts of Seth's job. It involved a lot of waiting, listening, learning, more waiting, and every once and awhile, a well calculated risk. Luckily, for Seth, his shade walking gave him an edge in this particular area. The ability allowed him to get closer to his enemies so he could overhear plans and put together one of his own. However no ability came without its share of risks. He had gotten a lot better at learning to shroud himself in the shadow to help cover his movements when shade walking but it wasn't an exact science. Not adding enough shadow would reveal his position should he happen to move too quickly however, adding too much shadow could be just as revealing.

Seth's favorite way of gathering Intel was doing exactly what he was doing now. Finding a place to eat while he sat back and listened. Small places like the diner he had just entered were prime spots for gossip. Additionally, they gave him an opening to talk with the locals in a relatively unsuspicious way. People tended to loosen up and talk more freely when both parties were eating. Plus it gave Seth a reason to try all the local dishes. Most of which were pretty good. The smell of home cooked food hit his nose the minute he walked through the door making his mouth water so much it was a wonder he didn't start drooling. He was met at the entrance by a plump, kind looking lady, who appeared to be somewhere in her mid fifties judging by the gray streaking through her black hair. The hair was pulled tightly into a bun at the back of her head, accentuating her full rosy cheeks. He apron stated that he name was Rosa which somehow seemed to fit her perfectly, even thought Seth didn't know her. She gave off a very motherly vibe that instantly made Seth feel at home. With a smile she led Seth to a table and asked him for his drink order. To which he replied with a simple black coffee. Coffee was something Seth had quickly become addicted when he became a Knight. It often helped him through the multiple all nighters he pulled while on a mission. Some minutes later she returned with his coffee, this time ready for his order of food.

" What would you recommend. I'm from out of town so I'm counting on you to hook me up with the good stuff," He said with a wink. Rosa laughed heartily and replied with a thick accent,

" Well only for you I will tell you my personal favorite," She rattled off the name of a dish which sounded completely foreign to Seth but he wasn't going to admit that.

" Ok then, you've talked me into it,.I'll get that," He replied and as Rosa turned to leave he continued, " And could you do me a favor and just wave your little magic wand and take all the fat and calories out for me," Once again Rosa replied with a full bellied laugh.

"You are a funny man. But for you I will have to add extra. Maybe then some of it will stick. You look like you need it," She teased in return before turning a leaving Seth alone once more. He leaned back in his chair, and pulled out his phone. Absent mindedly scrolling through something or another and trying to hide the fact that he was listening to the conversations around him. The diner was loud, making it difficult to discern the voice of only one person. Seth was tempted to use the potion he had that would hone his eyesight and hearing but didn't want to waste it seeing as he only had one. It would be unfortunate to use all of it now at the beginning of the mission when he could need it more later on.

His thoughts were interrupted by Rose who had come with his food. Seth was shocked at how quick the service was seeing as it was rush hour and the small diner was packed to the gills. With the meal she also brought his check. Seth glanced at the check, surprised at the low prices considering the quality of the food.

" Well would you look at that! you must have given me the senior citizen discount!" He paused for the laugh that he had come to expect and then followed up with, "So what are some cool things to do and see while I'm here, anything particularly interesting?"

" Oh well the Cerror Ruins are always a prime spot for tourism but you must be careful to stay on the trails. Too many people wander off and go missing. One of my favorite things is to see the sights at night. The water takes on this stunning color and you can see the star as clear as day. But if you choose that route you best stay away from Devils Tavern. Its on the North end of Corazol, close to the beaches. That place is nothing but trouble, and full of shady characters, especially recently," Rosa said. Rosa was obviously the type of person who talked openly once you got them going. The last part of her sentence caught Seth's attention.

" Really, shady people in this town? Surely not everyone seems so nice,"

" You are young. You haven't seen the darkness of man. People are not always as they seem child," She replied with a sad smile. Seth internally rolled his eyes. If only she knew. " But yes, a week or so ago , this man arrived and came into the diner to eat. He seemed normal enough even if he was a bit rude. However, later that night I saw him outside the Devils Tavern, its on my route home you see, and he was talking in hushed tones with another man. They were standing in the shadows real creepy like. I wasn't really able to hear what they were saying but they didn't sound to happy and they looked like they were planning something, " Rosa finished with a grim look on her face. A look that didn't last long as it was replaced with her usual bright smile.

Seth stored the information away for later, and smiled brightly in return. Acting as if the information had no effect on him at all. Something that had always made Seth a good agent was his poker face. He had a good control over which emotions showed on his face. This was a vast contrast to Kendra who tended to be easily read, like an open book. One with pictures and big letters. A fact that Seth ,and surprisingly Bracken, had teased her relentlessly for.

" Well I won't keep you, thanks for chatting with me . And I will be sure to check out those suggestions," He said, putting an end to the conversation. Seth then dug into his food, nearly moaning at the taste. It was incredibly good. Probably one of the best meals he's had while on a mission. While he ate, he began to sift through the information that he had been given. As always he had to wonder how much of it was true, seeing as people had a tendency to exaggerate. He also couldn't bring himself to believe that Rosa stumbled upon the Devil's Tavern, a place she claimed to despise, on her way home. From what he had seen of Corazol most of the housing was away from that part of the beaches. He wasn't going to completely discredit it but as Rosa had said, people aren't always who they seemed. However, no how much truth there was in the statement, one thing remained true. Tonight he was heading to the Devil's Tavern.

†††††

May 22

Corazol, Belize

10:00pm

Seth walked through the darkened streets. Careful to remain close enough to the street lights so as not to unintentionally shade walk. He had gotten a lot better at controlling it but it still happened from time to time. And he couldn't afford giving himself away like that. Just in case there were eyes watching him that he could not see. He had done a pretty good job of keeping on the down low. After lunch he had wandered around the streets a bit more and then headed to the beaches. Particularly the part of the beach close to the Devil's Tavern. The Devil's Tavern had been relatively quiet during the day. The sign had stated that they were opened but it had seemed oddly empty. That was a stark contrast to what he was seeing now.

The tavern now seemed to be packed to the gills with people. And even more of them were standing outside. Even from where he was standing a few feet away he could hear the loud music that played he could see the bright, colorful lights shiny through the windows. As Seth drew closer he saw a problem. Standing at the door was a big burly man wearing dark sunglasses and a tight short sleeved T-shirt that accented his bulging muscles. He was shorter than Seth, most people were, but he made up for it in width. Seth was considered to have pretty wide shoulders and his years of training had hardened his muscles into steel cords. However, none of this reassured him as he stared at a man that looked like he could snap him in half like a twig. He wasn't scared of the man per say. But, he was definitely cautious.

As Seth approached the man he seemed to be doing his own analysis and his stance showed that he didn't feel even the slightest bit intimidated. Which was fair and actually worked to Seth's advantage He had done his best to tone down the darkness of his aura that seemed to put people on edge. Plus the leather jacket he had opted to wear hit the bulk of his muscles, which weren't overly pronounced to begin with, as well as a few... other tools. Aside from the daggers strapped to his legs and the makeshift weapon around his neck, he had three throwing knives cleverly hidden in the folds of his jacket. Unfortunately, much to Seth's displeasure, he had once again leave his sword behind. As weird as it may sound he felt like the sword gave him a better sense of security than the multiple knives strapped to his body. He was dangerous with both weapons and that was disregarding the fact that he was a shadow charmer. So even without the sword, he was hardly helpless. Still, he always felt oddly bare without it. A look settled on the bouncers face. A look that Seth had often seen on bullies when he was a kid. In the end that was all this guy was. A bully. And obviously he saw Seth as his next victim. However, despite all the scenarios Seth was mentally planning for, all the man did was sneer. Seth did his best to pretend he was scared as he entered the building

The air smelled heavily of alcohol and the music, which had been loud before, now seemed to shake the floor. He immediately began to weave his way through the sweaty bodies packing the room searching for signs of anything that was amiss. You would think that a place with this much chaos would make it harder to find anything let alone one person but for Seth it made it easier. If there was one thing that the file full of its limited information had taught Seth was that this guy was far from careless. He wouldn't risk anything that might loosen his tongue. The rest of the people in this place shared no such caution. So find the guy who can walk a straight line and that was probably who Seth was looking for.

He hadn't been searching for more than five minutes when something caught his eyes. His eyes darted to what had caught his attention and and, confirming his previous suspicions to be true, he found Rosa.

†††††

So there is part one!!!! Most of this collection will be one shots but seeing as this z alone is over seven thousand words I figured I needed to split them up. I will hopefully be able to post the next part very soon. It needs a few touch ups and changes but.other than that its.practically done. This took SOOO much research its not even funny. I'm pretty sure trip advisor things I'm moving to Belize. Anyway I really hope you all like it, it is probably one of my favorite fics to date so let me know what you think. I apologize for any mistakes you may find. Let me know what adventures you want Seth to have in this book or any other requests you have!!!!!

[rwdestuffs]

Likely because Oz’s early attitude came off as more “Arrogant Headmaster” rather than “Traumatized Victim of his ex”, I feel more sympathy towards Salem than I do towards Oz.

It’s a major writing flaw that persists because the overall show. A lot of the early attitude of the show is kinda dropped because they don’t know what to do with these characters.

For example, Ruby’s obsession with weapons was dropped and was never mentioned again. While it’s admittedly sweet that she didn’t start fawning all over Penny when she found out that she was in essence, a living weapon, the fact that her weapons obsession was dropped early on makes that interaction less heartwarming, and more like they were just bonding.

So, when Oz’s early attitude reeks of arrogance, like when he more or less overruled a lot of Glynda’s objections, and how he more or less was implied to have known that Jaune cheated his way in, it comes off as moves that were less due to his trauma, and more due to his arrogance.

Contrast Salem, whose name not only invokes sympathy what with the witch trials, but was also introduced and had her backstory revealed not too long after said introduction, she invokes more sympathy than Oz does because of a combination of her name and her early reveal of her backstory.

While yes, both Oz and Salem were victims of abuse, Salem’s came much sooner than Oz’s after their initial reveal, which invokes more sympathy for the character.

In a similar sense, this is why Cinder isn’t that much better. Without the Cinderella motifs, nobody would have guessed that she had a rough childhood. It’s also why Adam is also demonized. The naming motifs combined with how long it took for the characters to receive any meaningful backstory (Supplemental material for Adam, and 8 volumes for the fire hag), creates a situation where it’s hard to sympathize with one because of how the naming conventions work. Like I said here, names are important to a character. Had Salem been named Lilith, after a biblical demon, she would not have received as much sympathy as she does now. Had Adam been named Maurice (After Belle’s father), he would have received more sympathy than he did. Adam invoked more similarities to Gaston than he did to any other character, resulting in him not getting as much sympathy as Cinder did, despite them both having similar backstories and actions throughout the show.

If the writers have done anything right, it would be knowing how naming conventions work.

But this still ties back into how early traits were just… dropped. Blake stopped calling out racists to their face, and stood by when Velvet was being a victim of Cardin’s bullying.

Weiss’ early racism was resolved off-screen and was never really addressed again.

Yang’s overall protective nature is only ever brought up when the plot demands it.

And Ruby’s weapons obsession, a trait that could have been used to properly describe each character’s weapons in an unforced manner, was never mentioned again.

Oz’s early arrogance was now replaced with the backstory of “He was traumatized!” And look: Oz is indeed traumatized. But it’s clear that that wasn’t something the writers thought about until recently. There were few (if any) hints that this was Oz’s situation from the start. Hos arrogance in wanting Pyrrha to give up her hopes and dreams by forcing her to take on the maiden powers with that “Become the Fall Maiden for us, or the Bad Guys win” ultimatum, combined with his overall secrecy led a lot of conclusions to think that he was more arrogant than he was traumatized.

Now, this isn’t to say that he wasn’t traumatized. His feelings and emotions towards the subject are completely valid and he deserves sympathy. But given how the early writing was, it’s hard to really feel sorry for him because again, his early actions came off as if it was fueled by arrogance, as opposed to trauma.

It’s admittedly hard to land the sweetspot for backstory reveals, especially for characters that aren’t your title character, but it really feels as if the writers didn’t know what they wanted to do with Oz until they came up with the idea of him and Salem having been romantically involved together.

They lyrics of the song Sacrifice also don’t help,

You can't have my life I'm not your sacrifice You can try, but I'm free And you won't conquer me I won't crawl, most of all I won't fall for you

The overall way the song is done implies that Oz sacrifices people for his own gain. Given that this song was made and released well before the backstory reveal, it also lends to the idea that Oz was more arrogant than traumatized. Admittedly, this is basically Raven’s song, making the views a little skewed, but again, it was made and released before Oz’s backstory reveal, meaning that it had more time to fester in peoples’ minds and be analyzed to come to the conclusion that Oz was a manipulative bastard rather than a traumatized victim.

Like I said, it’s hard to land a sweetspot for a backstory reveal. You either do it too early, and make the character lose their mystique, or you do it too late, and people won’t care about the character making the reveal pointless.

In addition, doing it too late, such as the case for Cinder, means that you have to make all prior actions make sense in this scenario. If Cinder’s backstory did anything correctly, it was that it made her attack on Weiss back in Volume 5 make sense. But all other actions don’t make sense. For example, she was a slave, so her abusing the WF into working for her makes no sense since both have had to deal with slavery. If anything, her revealing that scar would have made it make sense, even if it was off-screen, because then Adam has every reason to take her side. He would know that she was abused by the elite, and he would sympathize with the mentality of overthrowing a system that allowed such things to happen, even if it meant the deaths of a bunch of people.

Then we get to Cinder’s reveal and we find out why she was so hellbent on tearing down a hunter school. A Hunter decided to arrest her for fighting back against her abusers, so she views them all as the same: A bunch of privileged assholes who punish victims, but not the perpetrators.

If anything, Cinder’s was revealed far too late to make her actions make sense, or make audiences truly want to forgive her actions. She killed Penny and Pyrrha. Had this been revealed in Volume 4, where everyone was dealing with parental figures, Cinder’s motives would have made more sense. She was betrayed by a person she considered to be her father figure, and that led her down this path. Think about it. Yang was dealing with her dad calling her soul a temper tantrum (And no, I’m never letting that go). Weiss was dealing with her abusive father Jacques and the best parental figure ever Klein. Ruby was dealing with parental figure Qrow, and the prospect of losing him. And Blake was dealing with best biological dad Ghira and his advice on not letting the past or your fears control you. Cinder’s backstory would have fit right in.

These characters had really interesting personality traits that got dropped. I would have loved to have seen Ruby and Jaune work together to give Jaune an upgrade to his weapon that would make it cool, but still make it Jaune’s. But no. A random blacksmith does the upgrade.

It would have been so cool to learn about the other characters’ weapons through Ruby. We could have learned the names of the weapons, their function(s), and maybe even learned a it of symbolism about the weapon and the weapon’s user. Another thing the writers do well is that they make the symbolism of a weapon and their user make sense. Blake is a stealthy, quiet, and reserved character. So her weapon isn’t loud or fancy, but it has a lot of utility. Yang is loud, boisterous, and wants to tackle her problems head-on, so her weapon reflects that by giving her the option of getting in close for powerful blows. Jaune is a basic character with nothing special to him, so he gets a basic sword and shield combination.

So the weapons and semblance being the only way for us to know what a character is like is honestly really jarring when some of those character traits are no longer that applicable.

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon and ah, its just me than. Links on tumblr break half the time for me sorry bout that!

1: Mostly how it looks in the actual episode but with some changes. Its gaint, even has multiple floors, most rooms have a glass dome roof with iron railings (3-4) lining the bottom of the glass. The hallway typically have windows leading up to the roof, but the roof and both floor are a mix of materials like iron, copper, wood, and even gold. The most complex room is the Council room, which has a a higher roof than the rest, with mostly wood railings that go all the way up and lead to a circle at the top. The Council is the group that leads Mizu, they have 1 leader of every Idol to represent the different opinions of the citizens, with 1 special member that doesnt belong to any Idol, and is instead used to represent the opinions of people who either haven't chosen a idol yet, got kicked out of a idol following, and just to give a unbiased opinion most of the time. They do make most decisions, mostly those relating to topics like construction, farming, money distribution, where people can live, etc. And they also mostly agree on most subjects and don't agure, but they do have massive disagreements on topics and problems like Representation in other Cities/Kingdoms, trading, visitors and immigrants, and sometimes supply missions. 

3: Situations like taking care of his siblings (I have decided Benjamin shall have siblings) and friends, and he was also put under extreme stress as a kid in school and family life, but unlike Ranbob, he managed to successfully communicate his struggle and find coping mechanisms. Also when he went off to live by himself for a bit, he was under sudden extreme situations where he had to make split second decision. So he just learned from everything thats happened to him over time. 

8: Levi exists purely to make Watson and others go insane. People claimed it was made up because they claimed most events as unrealistic (like Doomsday, Techno escaping a death trial, Pandoras Vault (they believed it impossible for something to be inescapable)). Plus the fact it seemed cruel such young people where faced with such trauma that no sane person would let it happen, and the fact most historical important items couldn't be found, people claiming that they where made up (also cause if the land was that exposed to such devastation, it would've collapsed on itself). No to both of those, by this point their to far away from Dream for him to have a direct meaningful affect on the group, and while the residents of Kelalen know it was Dreams sword, the group does not know. Nope! Mizu came about years after Kelalen was forgotten about and shamed. And Mizu was only made because of the growing number of believers in the SMP history was causing disruptions in both the political sense and educational sense, so it was made to separate the "outcasts". Though Mizu eventually grew as big as most cities, and greatly civilized and advanced, though they where still often "forgotten" about and basically seperate from the Kingdom that set them up and became their own place (though not officially). 

They do have a friendship! Its not super close but their definitely friends. Ranbob is definitely a worrier, he heard that two of his friends almost died he immediately goes to them and fuses over them. And when their recovering he doesnt leave their side, infact Benjamin has to drag him away from the two just to get him to eat. And he refuses to sleep unless he's like directly on top of them. Yeah, Cletus challenges Grievous to a parkour challenge over a Delta Basalt, and he happily accepts. They end up giving everyone a heart attack after Cletus slips and almost falls onto a magma block. Jackie plays in soul sand and dumps a handful down Rans shirt, Watson teaches Charles and Isaac how to make gold from gold nuggets and more Piglin culture. When Cletus is cleared to be ok and Jackie stops getting soul sand in areas he didn't even know existed. They all sit in a circle and decide what they should try first, with Ran and Watson watching carefully and preventing them from drinking anything that they recognized as harmful. But other than that they just let the others do whatever. 

10: Because he couldn't use it, when Dream was a full human he used to be able to access his powers at his own will. But after his spirit got linked to his mask his power greatly reduced. To the point he relies on others for his powers, more specifically, he needs them to be exposed to him for a certain amount of time (like 2 weeks) until he can use their own essence/spirit to help his powers. When the group of people came after Ranbob left, they stayed for a long time, especially after they took the mask with them. Dream got the power back. Cause it is a "I worked to hard to give this up." Type situation. Ranbob was his first victim and the first person he had control over in decades, he considers Ranbob the puppet he was meant to have and refuses to let him go. Everyone is the nat to him, but specifically Ran. Cause Ran was the only person who survived the murders, so Dream sees him as a kill that was taken from him that he needs to fix. Everyone else to him is nothing more than an annoyance, and he's more than happy to use them as nothing more than a stepping stone to kill once he's done with them. 

13: Ran is stronger than everyone else, Jackie is faster than everyone else, and Watson is more acrobatic than everyone else. Sorry can you reword "Is Jackie considered stronger than them aside from shared tactics, or is it the other way around?"? I dont completely understand sorry. Kind of, I'll say. There can only be 3 ranking members, but it can also be 2 Corporals and 1 Sergeant. 

14: They where caught off guard, but also knew something must be going on due to the fishermen staying closer to Ranbob than normal. He never got too far, as he isnt very fast and Charles and both Isaac tend to be fast enough to get him. If the episode is really bad bringing him back can lead into physical fights but it rarely gets into that, as it seems like Ranbob really doesn't want to fight them most of the time, and holds himself back.

Well, I hope it’s working for you now, cause that sounds less than ideal, honestly.

1: Well, Mizu sounds gorgeous, quite frankly. As for the council having a member of no idol, what about that? People can get kicked out from an idol group? Why? Do some just never choose an idol? Also, how’s the housing situation there? Are there like, apartments on one of the floors, or something? Why does the council not really agree on outside affairs?

3: Not gonna lie, I’m rather curious. What kind of life did Benjamin lead to be under such heavy stress? Does he relate to Ranbob because of this? And what was he doing when he lived on his own to need to make fast-paced decisions? Also, siblings! What’re his siblings like?

8: He sounds like it.

And hm. There are several things I’ve taken from this. 

Do totems no longer exist, if they don’t believe Techno could have survived, or did that particular piece of the story just get left out over time?

Has Pandora’s vault fallen? And why would people find it unbelievable? If it’s the future, shouldn’t they have even more advanced technology than that? Or is it simply the lack of evidence that leads them to disagreeing about it’s existence? 

They don’t believe people would have been so cruel to the younger ones? Oof, um. Well, at least that says something about the future, I guess. 

Mizu sounds like it has an interesting history in it’s self. How do Ran and Ranbob feel about being in a world that basically shunned the people of what would eventually become their home? Do they ever have issues when people find out they originate from Mizu, or worship an idol? From how you put it, it seems like that wasn’t really looked upon well, since they shunted the people who did it to Mizu.

Friendships for the win! Maybe not close, but it sounds like an interesting dynamic. Charles honestly seems pretty mild, and as you said, shy, so putting him with Mr.Random And Chaotic certainly sounds like something. How did these two become friends?

And honestly, it sounds like everyone had a lot of unique experiences in the Nether. It also sounds like Ran and Ranbob were probably an inch from a heart-attack the entire time, considering the shenanigans ongoing. It sounds kind of cute that Ranbob was only sleeping when he was close to them though, and it gives me the image of a giant fluffy cat, so win-win there.

10: Interesting. Was Ranbob not enough to fully return that power to him when the Fishermen first came and took him? Or did Dream just not think they’d get that far and not react in time, when he still had that power from his puppet?

And, uh, wow. Dream was certainly off his rocker before, but that’s definitely cemented now. Is anyone aware he thinks of Ranbob in such a way? Does Ranbob know? How are everyone’s feelings on that-besides y’know, ‘gonna murder Mr.Mask Man’. How does everyone feel about being considered as ‘nats’?

13: Huh. And yeah, I confused myself rereading that. Basically, is Jackie considered stronger than those two? You said they were mostly on par, because of the shared tactics, so when it comes to cutting those shared tactics out of the picture, does Jackie come out on top?

14: So the gang could tell? If I may ask, what were the tells that gave Ranbob away?

[elizabeth-baelish]

Partner in Crime

Part 1/?

Pairing: Petyr Baelish X Reader

Word count: 1738

Warnings: none

Synopsis: With the help of the Vale, the North falls back to the remaining Starks. Petyr and you, his partner in crime move to Winterfell and is about to manipulate everyone to finally achieve your goals, the Iron Throne.

Aidan Gillen Week 2020: Sat, Oct 31 (Halloween)

I was thinking of writing a Petyr fic for a pretty long time now and this week was quite handy 😅 so this is my first fic with him, I hope it's okay!

∆

Blood. Blood and dead bodies everywhere. You were walking above the fallen soldiers at the field after the end of the Battle of the Bastards. John killed Ramsay and the rest surrendered, the wolf flags took the places of the previous ones.

A huge amount of men died: knights of the Vale, soldiers from both House Stark and the Boltons. The flies were already resting on the wounds making them smell. You flinched but then jump when you felt a hand on your ankle.

"Please, hel-." He couldn't finish his sentence since you stabbed him with your sword. You gasped for air and cursed when you saw it was a knight from the Vale. Luckily, no one noticed or thought it was the enemy. Either way you helped him after you glanced at his wounds. No one could've helped.

You didn't take part in the battle since Petyr didn't let you although you were his personal body guard. The game he was playing was dangerous and if he or you didn't pay attention for a moment, he would be dead. Lord Baelish and you met in Kings Landing during a ball. You were lucky to born in a wealthy family, but you didn't feel like that. You didn't want to marry and have children, instead you wanted to do something important and useful. At the event, you were watching the dancing couples from the side when Petyr offered his hand which you accepted happily. After the dance, you were walking in the gardens while you told him about yourself and vice versa, though it was pretty difficult to get any information about him. Then when he escorted you home he offered you a job as you mentioned him about your plans.  It felt like ages since then.

You went through a lot, the plan went well and now Winterfell was yours and Petyr's. Technically the Starks', but Sansa was easy to control. She was in your hands. At least, that's what you thought.

You wiped the blood with a clothing and headed back to the castle. The gates were still a mess only a few guards asked your name and who you were. When you informed them they let you in and followed your way to your room. You opened the door with the big old key and leaned on the closed door with eyes closed. That man really freaked you out. It wasn't the first time to kill though.

"Are you alright, (Y/N)?" Petyr's voice echoed making you gasp.

"Why can't I just be alone in my room for a second?"  You snapped as you took off your sword belt and placed it on the table in the center of the room.

"What happened? Your hands are shaking." He observed and walked over to you from the window.

"Nothing." Petyr gave you a 'You can't fool me' look earning a sigh from you. "Alright. A man scared me then I killed him. I thought he was one of Ramsay's soldiers. He just grabbed my leg and-. Ah, just let it go, I'm fine." You sat down on the edge of your bed, Petyr following you. "Let's talk about something else. For example, what's next?"

"A game, my dear." He smirked. That kind of smirk which he only gave to you and it melted your heart. You had feelings for him, though he didn't know about them. You knew he was head over heels in love with Kat then Sansa so you didn't even bother. You just kept your feelings for yourself.

"I like games." You smiled. "And who are the main players this time?"

"You." He stood up and walked back to the window watching the life of Winterfell. He hoped he would soon observe as the King himself.

"Me? Personally, I would like to remain the Game Master if it's not a problem." You weren't fond of the thought being used as a doll. Particularly, in Petyr's theater.

"Don't worry. It will be easy. I just would like you to talk to Sansa. Braid each others' hair, talk abut love and knights. I would like you two to be friends." He said avoiding eye contact.

"Are you kidding me, right?" He exactly knew that you weren't on speaking terms and only talked if it was necessary. "And I don't think that a girl who was raped and assaulted and was forced to marriage will talk about knights and love." At the word 'rape' you could see that Petyr's jaw clenched and balled his fist. "Petyr it wasn't your fault. We didn't know about Ramsay." You eased you voice to comfort him. You stepped next to him and placed your hand on his shoulder. "We messed it up together."

"No! Only you. You were in charge of asking and getting information about him." He snapped. He was a calm person and only acted like this when he was extremely fed up or disappointed. You drifted away and sighed.

"I can't believe what you've just said. But alright. If you feel like this then achieve what you want alone. I would ruin everything, anyway."

"Stop acting like a child, (Y/N)." He sighed rolling his eyes.

"Get out." You hissed through your teeth.

"Excuse me?" He glanced at you with tilted head.

"You heard me. Get out of my room. Lord Baelish." You crossed your arms and tried to put a strict face on, but the only thing you wanted is to hug him tight and never let him go. He hesitated at first, then he glanced at younbefore he left your room.

The night was full of nightmares with wolves, mockingbirds and faceless men. You woke up swimming in sweat and panting. You were about to make some sense from the dreams when you heard a knock on the door.

"Lady (Y/N)? Lady Stark would like to have a word with you in her chamber as soon you are ready." The guard informed you through the door.

"Thank you, sir. I will made my way there first." You said. After you heard him left you took on your rather masculine clothes as it was much comfortable and useful. You didn't trust anyone there and you were in a dangerous place with hazardous situations, like this one. Why in the seven hells would Sansa want to speak to you?

Your sword hung on your side as you were taking the steps to the next floor. A few knocks on the door and the redhead  yelled to come on in.

"My lady." You bowed your head. "You needed to see me."

"Yes, thank you for coming and also my apologies if I woke you up. And please call me Sansa. I think we have known each other pretty long now and are friends." She smiled. You hid your disgust from the word 'friends' but faked a smile.

"As you wish. So, Sansa, how can I help?" You asked as she gestured towards the empty seats.

"I have a kinda personal question for you. And you don't have to answer if you don't want to." She help up her hands.

"Alright." You shrugged.

"What are Lord Baelish's intentions? I mean, you are the closest person to him and I thought you knew." She was playing with her necklace as she told you her rather intimate question.

"Well, honestly, I don't know." For the long term you knew, but the near future was still a blur. "And if you really want to know, I think you should ask him yourself. All I can say, that he feels sorry and terrible for what he did, Sansa. Even if he looks shady, he cares for you. He sees your mother in you and maybe that's why." You were still mad at him, though you felt the urge to defend him both mentally and physically.

"Thank you for telling me this, (Y/N)." She put her hands on the top of yours making you feel embarrassed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I know, you like to stay in the distance." She pulled her hand back and stared in the fire. "It's just... I'm happy that there is someone I trust here. I admire you, (Y/N). Despite that you are a girl, you can defend yourself and at the same time you are gorgeous and attract the men." Your eyes widened hearing all these compliments from the girl you hated. Though, if she knew you also took your part of all the things happened to her, to the kingdom, to the death of her dad, she wouldn't wanted to be so desperately be friends with you.

"Oh, I don't think I'm attractive at all, but thanks." You tucked a lock of hair behind your ear.

"And I hope, I'm not asking too much but would you be by my side? At least, until John comes back." She bit her lower lip down fearing your reaction.

"What about Brienne?"

"I sent her to the Black Fish and I don't want to bother her anymore. So, what do you say?" She asked as your mind were already clicking and the wheels were screeching. Being this close to her can be handy and she may tell you secrets that Petyr will never know about. All in all, that's what he wanted.

"Let it be." You cracked a mischievous smile before you hear the sound of the horns and the gates opening. You shared a look and headed downstairs immediately.

When you arrived to the gates you saw a boy in a chair with a girl. Sansa rushed to him and hugged him tight. You could see Petyr from the corner of your eyes standing upstairs and watching the scene.

"Isn't that the cripple of Ned Stark?"

"Brandon Stark. The last true heir of Eddard Stark." You heard the whispers. If he was Brandon Stark you were both in a pit with Petyr. A quite deep pit. And you just hoped that chaos was a ladder.

[syubub]

SEOKJIN SOULMATE READING

~disclaimer: this is for entertainment purposes and simply my interpretation. Not to be taken as fact!

Seokjinnie seokjinne Jin Jin jinnie.

My very fine fellow sag it is your time now.

So for starters: energy color. Its honestly fascinating? I've never seen a more dynamic color? It gives off more of a feeling rather than a color and the best way I can describe it is like a spring sunrise/sunset? Its got a lot of colors but its very refreshing and warm at the same time. I could not for the fucking life of me find a picture on all of Google that looked anything like it but these two are the closest?

It's crazy really how cool that is to me.

Anyway. So things are normal, doo doo doo going up to his little platform, offer energy blah blah blah (Jin has a box of energy? Flowers? Idk but its cute, infront of a "wall" thing? Anyway I get past it) and ask him if I can do a read and stuff and so he connects.

Now. His soulmate shows up once we connected and connected to me as well? Its like I had two little energy connection strings attached to my forehead. His soulmates energy is cute af.

Anyway, I asked if there were any messages that they'd want to share and I shit you not I let out the most unattractive sound ever.

"I'm his better half"

Soulmate has jokes! Honestly so cute and hilarious.

Onto cards. For personality/signifier I pulled the empress. This is one heck of a cool energy. This is someone that has a lot of abundance, especially in their mindset! This is also someone with a very nurturing and caring personality but don't be fooled! They are not afraid to drop kick you to Mars if they need to. Most likely fire and earth energy (the wands and pentacle cards beside the empress) (probably some in Taurus in there tbh)

As for the other personality cards I drew daughter of swords, 2 of swords, fool rev. And 3 of swords. Now this shows that this person is very curious? This is someone who has a lot of new ideas and has a rather... unique way of connecting/communicating with people. This is someone who is likely guarded at their core and hard to get to know due to past heart ache. This person can also be a bit reckless and even directionless at times. A weird line popped in my head while doing this reading, "the line of morality isn't always a straight but rather a thin grey line thats been smudged at the edge." I'm not sure where that comes from or if it really comes from anywhere at all but to me this is really interesting. No, it doesn't mean that his soulmate is a serial killer. I think it means that this person is deliberate in their beliefs and doesn't take outside influence to determine their moral compass. This is so cool.

Now. Relationship. Protection, value your self worth, akasha, progress not perfection and stand strong in your faith. They have a very solid relationship! They take the time to support eachother and are very generous with their time together. They uplift eachother and help eachother grow. Definitely a confidence boosting couple. They also hold eachother accountable! Theres also a feeling that Jin gets really blushed around this person! Cute af.

Onto messages his soulmate has for him! We have, take time for yourself, figure shit out on your own and make it rain. I think this is his soulmate telling him that he needs to define himself by his own standards and treat himself like the fucking king that he is! He needs to work out his own shit without being told how by other people in his life! He needs to make himself happy. Enjoy the hobbies that he has and to live for himself. Do whatever it is he needs to recharge himself!

For character cards we have dilettante, addict and exorcist. This person might be a life coach or maybe an art/music therapist? Or at the very least the type of person that everyone goes to for advice because they just have a way of telling you straight up, "here is your problem. Fix it." This is also someone who dabbles in the arts for funsies. Likely has a billion hobbies and thus has at least a million skills!

Feature cards: dark hair, light eyes, purple, fashionable, funny, acts of service, gifts, younger, feminine and hard working.

For the other little cards I got: it will come, thinking of you and truth.

Now onto the last cards. We have: what do you feel and she sees, she knows. This is cute. These are both messages to seokjin. So from what do you feel, there's a line that says, "Do you know how unique you are? How your path is your path to be chosen, lived and created- only by you? Someone else cannot become the source of your decision making power without negative repercussions for both of you in the long run." There's another quote I like from this same card that says, "you are at a crossroads in your journey and the choices you make at this time-even simply choosing to do things a little differently, without much drama associated with the decision-are powerful triggers for some great magic to enter your life." Jin has a lot coming up for him in the future and his soulmate is saying that the choice is his. He can live how he wants.

In she feels she knows it says, "The situation you find yourself in right now might not be one of joy, but in time you will understand more of the bigger picture. You will come to see why things are happening as they are, and how you are being helped on to the next stage of your path-even though it may look like an obstacle right now." I think this means something to him in a lot of ways but specifically in terms of the state of the world and his impending military service. He might be down because he's not sure if he'll be able to perform for army in person before service. Theres a lot of thoughts in his head but his soulmage is saying that things will work out and its happening for a reason. Also there's a big chance of him realizing something really important about himself in this time!

Overall his soulmate is awesome? Definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Also the feeling of theor energy is so so so so so domestic and cute and fun! They have their serious moments together but they prefer to keep it happy and light and fun because they understand eachother so well that they hardly need to have "serious talks". One look conveys everything that needs to be said and they deal with everything accordingly!

I love love.