#(the most pre-written lore anyway)

[thewhumperinwhite]

i genuinely love posting attd stuff to this blog in particular bc there's like. a *very* complicated (perhaps too complicated, working on the same project for 14 years will do that) story going on, with lots of Politics and Magic and Political Magic going on, but for the purposes of this blog i'm always just like "...anyway who wants to see this white boy get the shit kicked out of him again"

[lissomelace]

THE EUROPA CLIPPER LAUNCHED THIS MORNING, AND I AM SO NOT NORMAL ABOUT IT!!!!!

Space is so fucking awesome. We're headed to one of JUPITER'S MOONS!

Every time a launch happens, it makes the latent space enthusiast in the back of my brain jump up and down. It also derailed all my plans for today. I did have plans.

Instead, someone made one comment about how I could now maybe make mission patches on my embroidery machine, and the space thing crossed over with my current hyperfixation (silm) to produce THIS:

Mission patch for the launch of Gil-Estel! A bit messy, but a good place to start!

Design and linguistics details under the cut, because I put WAY too much thought into it and now must talk SOMEONE's ear off about it. Feel free to ignore this bit:

So, to start: Elvish NASA. I chose to call them Vardildi Elengolmo Vilciryamoyë, or VEV. The Followers of Varda, Astronomers and Astronauts. This could very much be totally wrong. Vardildi is Varda+the suffix used in Yavannildi, the followers of Yavanna. Elengolmo comes from the coined word for astronomer, Elengolmë (star-lore), with the -o suffix from nolmo, wise person. Vilciryamoyë takes the vil- from the root of vilya, meaning air, sky. ciryamo is mariner, and yë is the suffix added to the second word meaning 'and'. (I may be very, VERY wrong on this! If anyone has better ideas, I very much welcome input/guidance/constructive criticism)

So I stuck the tengwar for this on either side of the patch. (None of the tengwar is all that legible, though, I'm working on getting that sorted out) Most NASA mission patches don't actually have NASA on them, but I put it on anyway. Here is the tengwar and the start of a logo I made an attempt at (the tehta is supposed to be a shooting star, but that did NOT come through clearly in the embroidery [because it's tiny]):

(Probably going to try to make an elvish NASA patch before too long, honestly)

Most NASA patches (from research I did with great self-restraint here) have the (last) names of the astronauts. Not sure if they also have the name of the craft or if that's generally somewhere else, but I put both--Eärendil Ardamírë (his fathername and mothername) are the tengwar at the bottom of the patch, and Vingilotë is written on the keel of the ship. None of these are legible because they are small, and my machine has limits. It's a work in progress. Also I apologize for the bad lighting in the photo.

NASA patches sometimes also have a mission motto. That's the tengwar across the top of the patch here-- aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima, Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars (a common cry among elves and Frodo [when facing Shelob]).

(I half wanted to do something a bit more funny--maybe something like 'Now I have become Venus,' or 'Do I get to come down?' but this was a bit easier since it comes pre-translated into Quenya and tengwar, and also I have no faith in my Quenya translations that are any longer than a word)

The horizon is flat because Númenor exists, in the middle there between the shore of Middle-Earth and a teensy bit of Valinor and the Enchanted Isles.

The design for the Silmaril is sort of taken from the heraldic device Tolkien designed for the Silmarilli (though it isn't clear), and it is rayed with the six-pointed star from Eärendil's device. (I stuck the moon phases from the same source around the edges as well)

This was really fun, even if it might be the silliest thing I've ever made! It definitely needs some workshopping--i don't mind the black lines framing some sections from the background fabric, but I might try turning all the tengwar into lines of stitches instead-the satin columns really are illegible.

I now need to restrain myself from doing some sort of NASA/Astronaut Earendil AU, because it now sounds kind of fun (I do not have the background knowledge for this)

Sources:

NASA patches here: https://www.shopnasa.com/collections/patches

Quenya translations here: https://www.elfdict.com/

Tengwar transcriptions here: https://www.tecendil.com/

And if you want info on the Europa Clipper mission, here: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper

Embroidery digitization done with Embrilliance Stitchartist 1, embroidery done with a Brother SE630 machine. Thread is Brothread Cotton and YLI cotton bobbin thread, with a little sulky rayon on the Silmaril. Cloth is a black linen from Fabric Wholesale Direct.

[jesterjaxx]

Halloween AU lore dump!!!

❗️WARNING❗️

so much infodumping world buidling and headcannons

DJ- Robot

Originally built to be a robo cop type deal. But when given free will refused to hurt anyone and got scrapped

Was found and repurposed by "Momma" to be a son

Really fuckin loves animals. Nature in general but mostly animals.

They get spooked by him a lot though

Hes kinda sad about this but gets it.

Momma is a scraper/engineer and outfitted him with everything a "good human boy" would need, like touch receptors and an ability to taste

Nothing to be done about majorly changing how he looks tho

The ability to feel is a bit too much sometimes

Sometimes all he can feel is cold

Goes to Duncan to see if he can do something about helping communicate to animals that he is a friend. Ala magic.

Machinery and Magic don't mix well typically, you gotta be crazy specific, which isn't really Duncan's styel

Duncan likes DJ tho, and proceeds to steal some of Harolds spellbooks

Side plot of them being wayyyy to hard for him to read, in both way too high level and shitty handwritten chickenscratch that fucks with his dyslexia, so he has to ask Harold for help

Maybe they learn to better understand eachother idk

Maybe they kill eachother

Harold and Duncan team up 6 dead 9 injured every single person is fucking baffled

Anyways DJ is like iron giant up in this bitch

His Momma is kinda worried that one day he'll learn enough mechanics to fix himself up and wont need her anymore

Tyler - Harpy

Ok the chicken fear makes sense now

He gets the uncanny valley feeling looking at chickens

I would too

He would fly into a window

Can he fly?

Hes like a turkey

Or a seagull

Wait im an idiot hes a chicken

Duh

Eva - Gargoyle

Her carver loved buff women thank god almighty for that

Punches like a brick wall

Living Stone

lion paws for feet

Did you guys know sound resonates the best through solids??

Her music listening experience is legit i just know it

Noah - The Blob/ slime monster

Oh god that poor guy

Hes gonna get slime all over his books

Harold - Witch

He's the type of witch to have seperate waters for different kinds of spells

A pretty dorky Witch, even by witch standards

Wears proper witch PPE (robes and hat)

Has his sheldon Big Bang Theory style shirts on underneath tho

Uses incantations and written spells in magical languages mainly

Uses the starlight, paper, ink, historical artifacts and an assortment of magical ingredients as fuels

Has a large collection of quality spellbooks for references

Not those shitty amazon spellbooks that are just a list of pre written spells, these ones were written by some old hag 80 years ago and through flowery rambleing language tell you how write spells yourself. They go into spell syntax.

Harolds books for writing incantations and spells are spiral notebooks

If he uses smbols will typically craft a custom sygil for it

Uses alot of number magic and latin

Uses his confidence in his skills with writing spells to harness magic

Is better at doing spells for other people, when doing spells for himself he tends to overcomplicate things

Actually went to magic camps and magic summer schools

"I was trained for this!" and it's Mostly true

Can make the most specific fucking spell work for him

I cannot stress he is good at this type of casting.

Duncan's way of doing magic pisses him off. Both are convinced their way is better

Harold to Duncan ->"What the fuck do you mean you increased your strength with a posca marker, bare knuckles and a dream. How are you not dead yet >:[ "

He has a lot of respect for magic itself, Duncan's almost disrespectful way of using magic makes him mad.

Whats worse is that it works.

How Harold casts a spell

Writes down a goal -> outlines different methods to achieve it (incantations, scrolls, potions) -> writes out the spelleork with alot of detail accounting for almost every outcome -> it takes very long -> outwardly or inwardly recites writes spell to activate it -> profit

Alejandro - Siren

(I give up with organization here no more bullet points)

Mermaids and Sirens are almost identical, with few overt physical differences

Sirens will typically have colored iris', 2 finned gills, longer tounges, boned ears and uniformly sharp teeth

Mermaids have colored scalera, 3 smooth gills, finned ears and sharp canines

This isn't a rule, and in modern times there are few families of sirens or mermaids that havent mixed with other monsters at some point

Both species have shape-shifting abilities.

Mermaids have two forms, and can switch between them at will, though the process takes hours and the mermaid will have to stay in either aquatic or land form for a couple weeks before changing again. though this wait time can be speed up with tailsmen, it's can cause health problems.

Siren can shift their features at will, including shifting from aquatic to non aquatic with no wait time, some families of Siren encourage "good breeding" and fostering shifting abilities to the point of shifting bone structure, hair, colors and gender at will. This level of shifting controll is a very desirable trait, and cannot be learned.

Alejandro is one of these few families who try to stay purely Siren

Hes a 100% Siren, but unlike his brothers he lacks any shape-shifting abilities, a flaw that has brought him great shame (this is just a genetic fluke, it's like a birth defect)

but he has both a very powerful ability to enchant his words and natural charisma. Dangerous combo.

Because of the well known knowledge that Sirens can manipulate people with ease, Alejandro semi pretends that he is a Mermaid, using his long hair to obscure his gills

He more just lets people assume hes a Mermaid and does not correct them rather than actually lying

He lies about many things but outright lying about species is a bit much

Siren Speech doesn't work as good if someone's also using magic at the same time or knows what's up about it

It doesn't work that great on Heather, Duncan or Harold point blank, or Lindsay, Beth Trent and Justin if they're shifting or shifted

Good thing hes manipulative on his own!

Beth - Mermaid

Yeah sure why not

I don't know enough about Beth yet i need a moot whose obsessed with her

Ezekiel - Ghost

Lmao hes invisible

Poor dude probably gets looked over all the time

Hes just clothes and a transparent person

Justin - Werewolf

The twilight girls would go crazy over him i know it

Cody - Puppet

Oh poor dude

Itll look cool tho

Hed make knock on wood jokes all the time

Trent - Werecat

The trustin girls would go crazy over this i know it

But real like hes chillin

Would use claws as a pick

Geoff - Frankenstein

A man of the people

Literally

Looses limbs easily

Wakes up after a party like "wheres my leg lmao"

Heather - Zombie

Oh this is good

Shes vegan

Would insult people like "i can tell you have a brain why the hell don't you use it"

Very concerned over phsyical appearance

Uses so so many products

Pretty alive looking for a zombie cuz of it

It's kinda creepy

Her eyes got no eyeshine tho

Like a shark.

Gwen - Skeleton/Ghost

Ok this was an accidental double Gwen got both Skeleton and ghost

Since Ezekiel is already a ghost i'm Gonna lean into the Skeleton bit more but throw a transparent silhouette over all of her for the ghost bit

Ghost vs Zombie rivalry

She'd do all sorts of cool drawings and markings on her bones

Gwen, drawing a bat on her femur with sharpie: tattoo moment

Her eyeliner is also sharpie

Who the fuck cares about skincare when you don't have skin

Lindsay: you shouldn't put permanent marker on your face! It can hurt you 🥺

Gwen, floating bones:

LeShawna - Chimera

YES I LOVE MONSTER COMBOS

LIKE COMBINATIONS OF MULTIPLE ANIMALS

lets do classic chimera but with one head

Lean into the Lioness bit cuz Leshawna is a boss bitch and Lionesses are so fucking cool

I might give her a scorpion tail

Duncan - Witch

Another double whoops lol

He's a "fuck it we ball" typa witch

lmao he and Harold are beefing like crazy i know it Harold has 12 spellbooks hes memorized with their specific ways of casting and Duncan is writing runes on his knuckles with sharpie

Duncan to Harold ->"Why are you using 2 pages of latin for a fire spell??"

"Because i need only this bit of wood to light on fire a little bit and nothing else and if i dont i could loose control of it or blow it up or it might not even start"

*stares in did finger guns at a branch and cremated it for fun*

Harold to Duncan ->"Why are you writing runes on your nailpolish??"

"i'm tired of being the only scary bitch here without claws"

*stares in once accidentally rubbed spell notes off of his spellbook and onto his face while passed out on his desk and gave himself acid burns for 3 weeks"

They go crazy they go stupid

Hes self taught

The Duncan and Harold bullying arc turned Street smart vs actually Smart but make it witches

Mostly just picking shit up as he goes

"Stole" (it was free) a pamphlet on different types of magical symbols and has managed to make the symbols illustrated in it work for almost every spell he wants

Fueled by raw unrelenting audacity

Real lore tho- magic is created with belief and harnessed with confidence, you can either go the intellectual route and control every variable and have trust in your control of those variables to harness the magic like Harold, or like Duncan, have enough semi-unearned confidence in yourself to harness magic with little need for more than a few variables.

Basically as a general rule, it has as much meaning as you truthfully believe it does

Doesn't explain what hes casting or how hes doing it

"Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"what are you a cop?"

(learned from illustrations, word of mouth, and other witches on the street)

Has a couple stick n poke magical symbols, several other scribbled on symbols that are temporary

Biggest one is a glyph for fire on his hand, he doens most of his spells using it

Has burns around his glyph tattoos from spells backfiring cuz he got distracted

Uses sharpies, spraypaint, eyeliner and the insides of firecrackers for drawing symbols

If he needs a magical material he'll typically substitute whatever he has on him, belief goes a long way.

"Pure Holy Silver?... this earring looks silver enough

This doesn't work for potions cuz potions are only a little left to normal chemistry.

Has alot of talisman he wears

Carries extra ingredients on him ala accessories cuz fuck it it looks cool

Mains his spells with symbols, uses potions or material fuels if he cant make a good connection between what he wants and one of 10 symbols he remembers at any given time

Uses moonlight, bones, rocks, and personal artifacts as fuels

How duncan casts a spell

Draws glyph -> creates a mental connection between what the glyph means and what he wants to do (this is mostly subconscious with Duncan he doenst know what hes doing he just knows he does it well)-> activates glyph physically (ie hitting, tapping, lighting, punching, tracing with finger)

Example: draws fire glyph on Chris's camper -> wants to set it on fire but not the surrounding grass and trees -> smacks the side of the camper that has the glyph on it -> profit

Duncan, to Harold: You make magic math, i make magic my bitch

Bridgette - Alien

Aww she could be so cute

Surfer girl from planet nine

Owen - Plant Monster

This could visually look really cool

Big carnivorous plant

Izzy - Angel

kaleidoscope = biblically accurate form, cuz she "Looks like a kaleidoscope! Duh!"

Lindsay - Selkie

If you steal her coat ill fucking kill you

Sadie - Vampire

Ough thats cute

I'm Gonna make her pigtails batwings

Katie - Zombie

undead girlfriends

Sadie thinks Katie is so pretty it doesn't matter her eye just fell out

Courtney - Demon

Oh this bitch looooves contracts

Is also upset about Duncan but she just doesn't like witches in general

Whats the point of making deals with humans for magical powers of some humans give themselves magical powers

Demon of what?? Pride maybe?? Or envy??

Shes a sweetheart tho

[nukacoola]

It’s kind of annoying to me that the sosu can’t fail the SAFE test. You can say at least one answer that we know is a likely synth indicator, but even though we know all of the responses are pre-written multiple choice and given to you as options, there’s no combination of them that will count as a failure.

I know it might cause some crazy lore implications if the sosu was able to fail it but I think it’s lame anyways. After all, the test isn’t the most accurate thing. It doesn’t have to mean anything.

[technocite]

Until 1999 comes out and reveals the lore my personal headcanon/fanon idea is that the Hex used to be a pretty tightnit and functional squad of agents but the encroaching helminth technocyte infection is slowly driving them “mad” (ie just throwing their brain chemistries off and worsening pre-existing issues and being forced to suddenly go cold turkey on your adderal because your cool machine body is now immune to conventional drugs) so it’s manifesting as them all having unusually short fuses with each other and bickering and increasingly resorting to coping mechanisms for their worsening neuroses (Arthur is isolating himself, Amir is dopamine seeking, Aoi is incongruently faking it till she makes it, Leticia is increasingly prickly, Quincy’s developing something of a defensive superiority complex, and Eleanor is invading peoples’ minds and privacies and keeping obsessive tabs on her peers). Basically everyone’s on the verge of a bad nervous breakdown (which could be used as a metaphor for “losing their humanity” or something. Like really examine how there’s this ableist connection between having psychological disorders/disabilities and personhood (lack of it)? But doing so via Dark Sector Dating Sim where everyone’s a tragic werewolf but instead of turning into a wolf they’re turning into superpowered space ninja mechsuits. )

Which is to say that absolutely very little of this is strongly supported by the demo but I’ve been having a lot of fun thinking about it because I think one of the most entertaining ways to do a character study is to see how they crack under pressure/distress/trauma and cope with it. And the Hex are in that perfect intersection of being characters that are deliberately written to be appealing in some way (for the folks who wish to go the dating sim route) but also have some interpersonal conflict. Maybe part of the plot of 1999 involves the drifter reconnecting them or helping em manage their emotional issues (see inside an ugly broken thing and take its pain away or whatever). Drifter’s had some personal experience with cognitive behavior therapy or emotional regulation skills via learning to master and escape the spirals of Duviri, they might be able to wrestle the Hex into a group therapy session. More likely involving void nonsense. I could just be projecting my own personal issues onto these characters but it’s fun.

All of this is just baseless musings, and I very well could be pulling a lot of nonsense out of thin air- I’ve definitely confused warframe canon with my own assumptions or imaginings to fill in the gaps in the story myself. But anyways.

[feukt-42]

Yet another post about Leda

You know, its kind of funny, but I've been browsing ER fanfics and fancontent almost daily for a while now (pls help), and one thing I've noticed is that a lot of people just. do not want. to put Leda and the gang in their fanfics. The most out of all Miquella's followers I found was Ansbach with 68 fics on Ao3. Leda herself comes at second with 48 fics and the others just kind of fizzle out after that. By comparison, Messmer, another DLC character, already has 500 fics.

Now, I know that this in large part due to the Messmer horny. But still. There's been 1,372 fics released in the ER tag since the DLC released as of me writing this. That doesn't really explain it. A good explanation might be that souls fans like to dwell on the pre-canon lore era we don't get to see, but even then, I remain disappointed by the lack of Leda in those fics as well. I have read several Haligtree-or-adjacent-focused fics written post SotE and few of them feature Leda or the needle knights, which is honestly a shame because Miquella having his own order of knights (almost counterbalance to the cleanrots), is a very interesting idea, and I am starving for Leda interacting with literally any member of that cast, her whole deal is just so interesting. And its not like Miquella doesn't care about her and she's just a weird fanboy, he gave her a wholeass rune and shit.

"But OP," you might be asking, "why dont you just write your own fic then ?". And you see, that is an excellent point, but I am unfortunately a coward with no confidence in my writing skills. So instead, I decide to make this.

I hereby present :

My Leda facts/analysis/interpretation/theories collection !

I am making this mostly to gush about Leda to spark interest in her as a character and maybe give interested writers who have actual skill to use this to get some inspiration. By no means am I suggesting that this is a guide everyone should follow, this is mostly just my inane ramblings about a character i am obsessed with. Still, if it helps someone make something, that's a net positive in my book.

without further ado, let's get into it.

Part 1 : Miscellaneous Facts

Fact number 1 : Leda doesn't see grace (at least her character model implies so):

I don't remember where it was, but I remember seeing a post that had every SotE NPC's eye colour in it. And a cool thing about that was that only a few characters didn't have the grace of gold in their eyes. And I remember specifically getting to Leda, noble knight of Miquella, and finding out that her eyes do not have a single trace of gold in them. They are grey with a blood-red clouding.

And I just found that so interesting it made me make this post, because what does it mean ? How did she lose it ? Did she ever have it in the 1st place ? Some of you might be thinking it's because she follows Miquella and not the GO, but the funny part is that, again, most of the others have it !

Hornsent has it, Ansbach has it, Freyja has it, Ymir has it, Moore has it, even the fucking madding hand has it. So why doesnt Leda ? (this also goes for some of the other NPCs who don't have it but im not spinning them in my head like a microwave so too bad ig)

Fact number 2 : She definitely killed the other needle knights

Ok so I already talked about this somewhere but I don't remember where so let's just start over from the beginning. The description of the Retaliatory Crossed-Tree states there were once more Needle Knights but now there's only one left. Meanwhile, Leda's sword says it "still reeks with the stench of crusted blood that lingers from the cull of her knightly comrades". Love myself a good "can't wash away the blood" trope.

Anyways, I took those two facts together to mean that she killed the other Needle Knights and talked about it in that alleged prior conversation I mentioned, but someone else replied that her "knightly comrades" could very well mean Hornsent and Ansbach, whom she attempts to cull before you reach Enir-Ilim. And I wanted to disagree with that, but I didn't actually have any evidence except "it's funnier this way" so you know, fair's fair. Except ! No it isn't !

When you help kill Hornsent, she says this :

He never placed his full trust in me, even under the effect of Kindly Miquella's spell. He must've recognised something. The scent of the killer that slept within me. The stench of crusted blood.

Mind you, this is before killing Ansbach, and right after killing Hornsent. The crusted blood from the cull of her comrades cannot be theirs, meaning Leda did kill the other NKs.

Fact number 3 : She deadass just smells like blood the whole time we see her

As just stated, we have 2 items describing how Leda just smells like dried blood. This has endless comedic potential imo, hear me out :

You first meet this dignified, knightly woman in Mohgs arena. You don't notice anything wrong with her smell, because of course it smells like blood in here, have you seen the place ?

The next time you meet her is in Scadu Altus. You begin to think something does smell really bad here. It's still not her however, because the Hornsent and his canonically shitstained loincloth are standing like 10 meters away from you, likely overpowering the scent.

You only get to realize its her constantly smelling like blood after the charm is broken and Hornsent leaves, and that coincides perfectly with the reveal that she's just paranoid as fuck.

10/10 olfactive storytelling. I mostly just put this fact here in honor of that Bloodborne bosses ranked by smell post tbh, that shit lives rent-free in my brain.

Character analysis time ! This bit is more given to interpretation so feel free to disagree on this :

Shes really not that bloodthirsty you guys

Alright, so this one might be a bit surprising given we just went over the fact she smells like blood, but the popular interpretation of Leda doing this because she likes killing and shit is just dead wrong to me. I spoke about it before, but there are so many lines of dialogue that suggest otherwise. Hell, even the sword description says she tried her damnedest to get the blood to come off. Here are some of the most telling lines i found (from fextralife/the github with all the text from SotE) :

-Her describing herself as a "killer" in that line about hornsent and crusted blood earlier, she seems to be very blunt and honest about what she does, almost to a self-deprecating point.

-I know I shouldn't let myself... But I suppose it's only natural to feel the weight of one's deeds at times like these. There is plenty left to be done. And I will see to it. <- what else do i even add here

-I don't enjoy casting suspicion on anyone I've called a comrade. But it's a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. We must eradicate all doubt...

-None can deny Sir Ansbach was truly a great man. We can be proud, that we were the last opponents he ever faced.

-Sir Ansbach must have considered it an honourable end, being felled by your hand. After all, the good fellow held you in the highest regard. When we speak of it, we may speak with pride—that we were Sir Ansbach's final adversaries

Those lines seem to be alternate versions of the dialogue you get after helping her kill Ansbach. And oh my fucking goodness gracious, i fucking love the second one. Like ghhhhhh, the grief for a comrade and the guilt and the self-justification and the need to move forward and theres somehow even more blood on her sword that she can't ever wash off but she can't stop here, she has to keep doing this because its not about her for her, its not about her feelings or her guilt its all just for the greater purpose shes reaching towards arghhh its so good.

There's also a notable throughline of her shutting her emotions down more and more as she goes, whether its to better do her job or to follow in miquella's footsteps :

-Unruly emotions only lead to misfortune. All the more reason we need someone like Miquella the Kind.

-Man is a compassionate animal, for better or worse.

-So be it. If you insist upon facing Miquella the Kind, Then I will run you through, whoever you might be.

-A single betrayal, enough to turn the tides… Unfortunate, but I will leave you be, for now. 

-I expected things to end differently with you. What a pity

-I suppose it was Sir Ansbach who won you over. Fine. One more heart for my blade to skewer.

Side Note : Those three last ones also read like shes really salty about being betrayed, and that's really juicy because it feels like she trusted you. She trusted you a lot more than most of the others, so it really stings quite a bit to learn you were lying the entire time.

All in all, it really does feel like she has to shut herself down to be a better knight, a more efficient tool for Miquella to wield. It's also quite tragic because she seems to be a compassionate person at heart, she welcomes you into the club, she constantly tries to understand the reasonings for other people's actions, and she tries to find ways to let those she suspects off the hook :

-The hornsent, hmm. On one hand, he trusts Miquella the Kind to bring salvation to his people. With the enchantment lifted, his vengeful passions may once again ignite, but surely he'd be mindful of Kindly Miquella's promise... <- this reads like her trying to convince herself she doesn't have to kill him

It's also very interesting because despite that, she really doesn't seem to be much of a people person :

-But for this very reason, Thiollier is incapable of betrayal. St. Trina's love for Kind Miquella is boundless. She is, after all, his other half. Or perhaps her feelings go beyond even that. Even if she was left behind, I doubt her heart would waver. <- she's just deadass wrong about Thiollier and St Trina

-If you don't meet her before the charm breaks, she does a really awkward introduction and then immediately starts infodumping about her crippling paranoia and zealotry

-Ansbach straight up just tells you : So, you've taken Lady Leda's side. I'm glad she stands with an ally. She tends to overestimate the burden she might carry alone. This is straight up just "oh nice, you finally made a friend, im so glad for you". This implies that Ansbach didn't believe Leda really had anyone on her side before then, and she kinda doesn't tbh. No one is really here because of Leda in the final battle, Dane is here for Miquella, Freyja is here for Radahn, Moore is here to cope with existence, and Hornsent just has an (understandable) hate boner for everything Golden Order. She doesn't really have any friends.

(Also shoutout to Ansbach for being concerned about the people trying to kill him, he really is the goat fr. Also: I've utterly failed you both... No wait grandpa its not your fault im so sorry)

--the funniest moment in the DLC imo : I've come to a realisation... There's ample evidence... Without Kindly Miquella's influence... I'm quite mistrustful of others...

Ah yes of course, the trust issues. Where do I even start.

This woman has nothing but contempt for mankind as a species. She is, as stated earlier, compassionate and tries to be nice to people but she constantly assumes the worst of everyone as a reflex. Her trying to find a way not to kill Hornsent is only because she wholeheartedly believe he will be the worst version of himself as a baseline, and thus thinks of him as a threat who must be dealt with.

-I'm afraid Sir Ansbach will have to be next. He claims he hasn't the spirit to take up his sword again, But in his day, he was the feared commander of the Pureblood Knights, who cleaved open Miquella the Kind with his blood blade. But I doubt it'll be very long... Before he recalls, as I have, the cascading sheets of blood. <- no trust at all

-her dialogue about you "turning on her" also feel like she's resigned about it, like someone who came in expecting failure and was still disappointed, like why did i even try, i should really know better.

-That aside, man is by nature a creature of conquest. They were never saints. They just happened to be on the losing side of a war. <- the classic. What else needs to be said. These are the words of someone who takes war, violence and hatred as a given.

And that leads me to my next point. I think Leda has had a very violent life overall. Some of the shit she says sounds too specific to just be a generalisation:

-But vengeance changes a man.

-Unruly emotions only lead to misfortune.

-Before he recalls, as I have, the cascading sheets of blood.

-One more heart for my blade to skewer.  

-The scent of the killer that slept within me.

This all sounds like she's talking from experience, and there's also her skills as a knight : she has the highest hp pools of the gank squad and can 2-3 shot most players. I know gameplay =/=lore but Freyja respects the hell out of her: Lady Leda and honourable Ansbach are of a special breed.

It's a very interesting combination of an extremely skilled knight who is very good at killing, has presumably been living a very violent existence and who trusts no one but herself, but who also hates having to kill and feels really guilty about it, despite having to do it for the sake of her cause.

And I believe that is the crux of her purpose, and why she is going through so much to fulfill it at any cost:

Leda believes intelligent beings are inherently flawed , and can never be trusted to do anything but make each other suffer. Leda is tired of inflicting and receiving violence, and sees little purpose in seeing the good in others. Leda would have probably made a terrific Lord of Frenzied Flame with how little hope she has.

But instead, she found Miquella. Miquella, who dreams of an age of compassion and who is in a position to achieve it, Miquella, who was raised in an order built and maintained through violence and grew to abhor it. Miquella, who Leda probably sees herself in, who Leda trusts blindly and unconditionally, for whom Leda is ready to commit any atrocity, no matter how it makes her feel, because he is her lifeline. He is her very last hope, the only solution short of complete annihilation she can see for mankind to reach pace.

So what if that peace is forced, is all of this suffering truly worth what little free will we can exert onto our world ? Leda has seen what mankind does with its free will, and she is tired of it.

She doesn't care if she lives to see it, she doesn't care if she has to kill every last part of herself in order for the world to see peace. No one will miss her anyway, she's nothing but a blood-soaked murderer. It doesn't matter if she likes these people, friendship and trust aren't worth all this senseless violence.

So she'll keep killing and killing and culling, until her blade is dull with crusted blood and every last obstacle to Miquella's age of compassion is gone. That's what a Needle knight does, is it not ? Kindly Miquella fashioned us as his needles to quell all, to ward away all.

And if Miquella doesn't understand her, it doesn't matter. He's far too good to understand the sacrifices necessary. She'll do what he can't. The other needle knights did not understand this, they were too naive to do what has to be done, so they were a liability. Don't think about their betrayed looks of terror, don't think about the cloying stench of blood sticking to your footsteps, this is your burden, this is what you deserve. You already knew you couldn't trust anyone, why would this be different ?

If Miquella must cast away parts of his very being to have this world then so can you. So sever that part of yourself that says you should be nice, that you should trust those willing to help, it only makes things worse. It will all be worth it in the end.

Phew, i kind of went apeshit while writing that last part. I hadn't really planned all that honestly.

To conclude this essay, I'd like to point out a really fun parallel to draw here. In this analysis, I have described my interpretation of Leda as a very skilled self-loathing blood-soaked knight who is tired of their endless crusade and yet is endlessly pushed forward by their utter devotion to their god, their salvation made flesh, whom they will shield for the atrocities committed in their name by being the sole person to blame. If that doesnt remind you of Messmer, then i think ill just curl up into a ball and yell very loudly.

Thanks for reading till the end of this absolutely nightmarishly long ramble, let me know if you liked it ! And don't hesitate to send any Leda fics you find or write along the way !

[desultory-novice]

Marionettes' Pavane, Chapter 5 Part 2

"The Sweet Taste of Home" (conclusion, 10 pgs)

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"MariPav" is a strangers to friends to......... fan comic about Marx and Magolor's meeting and their zany adventures in the days before Return to Dream Land. It was written before RtDL DX came out, so expect inconsistencies with current game lore!

[Previous] [Main]

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...After :cough: over a year of real-world time :cough: Magolor finally got a teeny, ti~ny taste of delicious, homemade cake - and a large taste of what his life of withered dreams was missing all this time.

Could his inescapably annoying jester companion be bringing something more than just chaos into Magolor's world...?

Up Next: Chapter 6 Part 1 "Let Me Play Amongst the Stars" ...Where the two go sphere hunting in earnest!

[Previous] [Main] [Next - coming soon] [Chapter Bonus: "Style Savvy"]

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A/N: So, fun story, when I was first drafting the plot of MariPav, for the longest time, this chapter was just the phrase, "Space Boyfriends Cooking Chapter! XD" I was constantly re-arranging story beats to figure out what scenes should even go here. In the end, it turned into a somewhat significant chapter despite starting out as a joke / lighthearted story tucked in between more serious events.

While MariPav isn't (and can't ; _ ;) be canon to the Magolor of DX, I did think it was funny how several aspects of his character actually do mesh pretty well with DX!Magolor, one of them being Magolor's soon-to-be obsession with preparing food! (At least, I saw Helper Magolor bringing Kirby a constant supply of healing treats to be indicative of him actually kind of liking food prep!) MariPav Magolor has definitely caught the fever for baking after this adventure!

By the way, most of the script you're seeing here is completely unchanged from my pre-remake final draft but I did end up adding the line, "...a delicacy favored by the wizard kings of ancient Halcandra" (and "Your monarchy ate rocks?!") after seeing the role the gem apples played in the Magolor Epilogue and their ties to the Master Crown. Gem apples sure seem to be made of / grown with magic, yet we know they can be eaten too! If such a food existed, it would be no surprise that wizards would love to dine on highly sweet, concentrated magic power! (The "concentrated magic" part is why they explode, of course. That stuff is pretty volatile!)

...Oh, and also, this is canonically when Marx first coins the nickname "Mags" for Magolor. I know it's confusing because I've used that nickname a lot in side material already, but it starts here!

-

Lastly, for the eagle-eyed readers who noticed the cook book uses the New World Font and thus, ought to legible in English, I'll spare you the trouble by copying the text I used here:

So we're finally here. The end of the cooking chapter. Has it really been a whole year? Amazing. Anyway, I'm finally learning how to implement 3d models successfully. Like that cake.  The one in the book is the defeault.  I modified it a bit for the one they make... Uh, what else can I fill this space with? Oh yeah. I was really proud that I wrote about Magolor quickly becoming addicted to sweets before he showed up in DX always dropping cakes and other food on you. There's a few things I felt MariPav predicted despite all that it got wrong.

[ahamkara-apologist]

All right gonna be going ham on this one for the character asks:

4, 14, 16 for Eramis

21, 22, 23 for Taniks

9 and 26 for Misraaks

MEGA ASK GAME SO I CAN PROCRASTINATE ON WRITING MY FIC YIPPEE!!

Eramis:

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

-Oh gosh, this one's difficult. I think, if I could choose, my first thought would probably be a book, because it allows for a lot more explainations and insights into her actions than what's apparent in game; just look at how stellar her lorebooks are for explaining her POV and her actions, and how many people in the fandom/playing the game still have zero idea what she's about because of it. For a second, though, a longform tv series would be stellar, because I'm fucking obsessed with all her little mannerisms and speaking inflections and a longform tv show would also allow for the nuances of her character to shine through in a way that isn't so easily ignored. But, since she's a morally grey lesbian, I feel like she'd be shit on and ignored anyways, because there's no winning with fandom

(I AM thinking about potentially making a lore video explaining Eramis's motives pre-Revenant, but given my lack of a professional microphone, editing skills, and time, that...may be a problem. But I want to do a lorevid explaining her character one day bc damnit she's D2's most nuanced and interesting antagonist apart from Savathun and I want to explore that)

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

-I know jack shit about fashion but she's a leather jacket motorcyclist 100%. Just look at her and try to tell me otherwise. You can't. Maybe she's got a side thing of spikes and collars and whatnot but she blends fashion and utility extremely well in her canon getup, so I can't imagine it would be much different otherwise

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

-I don't really think I have a least favorite ship, tbh- there's just not enough shipping for her to begin with. Maybe her x male characters* or her x anyone romantically after losing Athrys? But that's less of a dislike thing and more that with my hcs for her (+ her being canonically only attracted to women) and the fact that I just can't see her with anyone after losing Athrys. Too much trauma, depression, and rage for any relationships to bloom, her heart is salted soil, it just doesn't work

*I know I've said that I like the thought of her and Taniks as fuckbuddies before, but this is explicitly from the perspective of my indulgence hc that Taniks is closeted genderqueer (he/she), and that Eramis sought him out for sex explicitly because she wasn't attracted to her, so she wouldn't get flashbacks to Athrys mid-fuck. I would not call this any form of shipping as much as it is me being aro and trans and craving nonromantic sexual intimacy in fandom bc I'm frustrated about how difficult it is to get irl

Misraaks

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

-Jaxx ur trying to get me to talk more about the eggfic aren't you. Anyways my fav thing to write is Putting Him In Situations (of any kind!), while my least favorite thing to write is his dialogue. I keep forgetting that Misraaks has an Eliksni-accented way of wording things compared to, say, Eramis or Eido, and that trips me up when writing him- which is ironic, bc the way he speaks in canon is how I like to write a lot of my own prose, lol

WAIT THIS WAS FOR TANIKS MY BAD. Misraaks I'll get back to you in a bit bud

Taniks

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

-HIS MANNERISMS!! I love how ruthlessly fucking wild and feral he is in canon, enough that you'd think he's just off the shits insane, and yet the one (1) lore entry we get from his perspective indicates that he's actually a deeply cunning, intelligent, and proud Eliksni with a very strong (if twisted) sense of right and wrong and a deep disgust for the power structures that have brought his people to such lows. The face of Taniks that we see as the Young Wolf is that of a mindless, sadistic monster, but the one that we see when he's speaking to other Eliksni is a guy that I'd happily call comrade, would he not beat the everloving shit out of me for it. I love everything about the scraps we get of him in canon and I enjoy trying to fit those two sides of him together to get a nuanced individual who's still a guy that's basically an abused ex-circus chimp on ketamine while also giving little hints as to why he's Like That. Monsters are made, not born, and Taniks is not as much of a monster as we think he is.

What I don't like, like Misraaks, is writing his dialogue- albeit for different reasons. With Misraaks, what I worry about is getting his dialogue right, while for Taniks, it's getting the length of it correct. Like I said before, we only get one lore entry where we actually know what he's saying, so I don't actually know how talkative he is. So far, what I've been doing is having him monologue a lot when he's hyped up on something and near-silent when not, but I'm not quite sure if that's right. He spends way too long roaring unintelligibly at us in canon for me to know if he's actually chatty or just unimaginably furious at our existence

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

-Buddy I don't think there's enough fics out there for me to have gathered anything I might dislike from them. I'm just happy to find one where he's in it, and actually plays a real role in things. I guess the closest that I can say is that I dislike how much of a niche character he is, because he's genuinely so fucking interesting, but he tends to get relegated to just a meme character and nothing more

23. Favorite picture of this character?

-This one. I love how he looks like a lazereyes reaction image sjkhfdgbksjdhfg. He's so fucking done with our shit

okay, now time for Misraaks

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

-Honestly yeah, I probably could. Misraaks just seems like a really chill guy to live with though, and Eido is an absolute cutie who's just like me in that she's ravenously curious about everything. I do think we'd butt heads a bit about letting her participate in potentially-dangerous scenarios (mostly bc I grew up with an overprotective, paranoid father so I feel Eido so hard), but he's a respectful guy and I think he'd understand that I need a lot of alone time to not go insane. The culture sharing would be a blast and I think that he's like me in that he hates drama, so apart from debates over Eido and him being all ashamed of his sordid past (which I don't give a shit about), we'd be cool

The hardest part would be not jumping his bones. I don't know if I could be normal about that. As I said before, I'm an aro trans man who craves a form of contact that isn't socially acceptable or easy to find among humans, and Misraaks is a big sweet calm nonjudgemental alien dilf who probably thinks all humans look weird, trans or not. The temptation is obvious here

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

-HIS OBSESSION WITH ASHER MIR. IT WAS SO FUCKING FUNNY DJHBDGH. That and his friendship with Saint and Osiris (old man gang go!) and his hatred for Eramis are all things that I absolutely love about him. He's just a big reverent nerd of a man who doesn't want to talk about his college age years and I love that about him so so much

Character ask game here

[zoobus]

I'm not normally a victim of FOMO tactics, nor do I usually let being late to the party stop me from chatting about a piece of media but I'm genuinely sad I didn't get into Obey Me/Nightbringer earlier. It makes me want to write a million essays but the disposable and decentralized nature of gacha kind of makes it feel like you missed your chance to talk about it. I keep coming across years old, unrepliable comments that I want to jump on sooo bad but I can't because the moment is gone and most of these people have likely moved on to less overtly money-hungry games.

Which sucks! because one essay I want to write in particular is how this game is extremely skilled in arousing your desire to create, to actively engage with the characters and worldbuilding, to do fandom shit, and I find this enormously fascinating in itself. The story isn't good but to a certain extent, it's not supposed to be; it functions as an elaborate set of writing/art/rp prompts for its audience to expand on and tailor to their needs.

And I think Obey Me does this well! Amazingly well. I find discussion of narrative structure fascinating, the study of how we define writing as effective, good, or as failures, so I'm drawn to this story full of contradicting lore, one-note characters, and half-finished plots. The story isn't good but that hardly matters because it's not here to be a good story; it's here to throw you into imagination boot camp. It compels you to speculate what it could be, what this character could be, what a slightly different tone would look like, what other people think about it. It feels distinct from the average popular show fandoms where, to an extent, creators congregate simply because that's where the people are. Creating for your own sake is nice and all but validation is usually a stronger force. Usually.

I keep coming across old high effort researched posts about abrahamic religions and occultism from fans setting themselves up for inevitable disappointment. I keep coming across creators leaving notes on their work like "I haven't written a thing in ten years, but,". I keep losing it over heartfelt posts defending x and y canon story decisions with their whole chest, oblivious to the fact that they're misremembering their personal tweaks/headcanons as what happened in the game, like it's seriously so cute when they're so passionate and completely wrong.

I have no idea if fandom actually plays a role in the lucrativeness of a franchise (though as a personal anecdote, I 100% started Obey Me after a single piece of horny Mammon fanart crossed my dash), but it makes more sense to me now, less a projection of wishful/haterful thinking from those with strong opinions about Fandom. Maybe it really does matter.

---

Other essays I missed the boat on:

A Casino Right in Your Home: goddamn is the pre/sequel's gacha obscene

Satan: how to put a mid character into S-tier with one simple trick (make him insane)

Sorry Belphie defenders but you're imagining a better psycho than you were given

Solmare added a shiny new rhythm game but didn't fix the now four year old coloring error on Levi's hands lmfaooo the disrespect is crazy

Remember when you saw the Nightbringer trailer of them glaring in bdsm gear with freshly blackened wings, and you thought "ah, so this takes place right after they fought god and lost. After they went to war to protect their sister only for her to die anyway. After one brother in particular saves someone, but not her, the focal point of the war. They will finally take these to their logical, guilt despair rage pain and grudge filled ends." And you were correct until that very last sentence? lol

Remember when the Ruri-chan event gave you the option to tell Levi you're not cheating on him and then the rest of the event was just making out with his brothers? Then it ends with you kissing him in front of them? Bring that energy back!!!

[here-there-were-dragons]

the average sornieth dragon is probably illiterate.

it's easy to forget in current times that literacy is a skill that has to be taught, and is actually pretty hard to teach on a large scale, and not something all sentient beings are born by default with. the world of sornieth seems to largely exist in a patchy pre-industrial state made up mostly of isolated self-reliant clans under a loose shared banner held together by what is functionally the church (the functional territory map of each flight probably looks like fucking medieval germany), with no sign to date of any sort of consistent-or even really particularly extant-standard education system, and a large proportion of breeds-like snappers-have anatomy that makes writing extremely difficult to impossible for them without employing a scribe, which takes money and time and access to someone you can hire in the first place. magical or technological assistance to be able to do such things probably exists in some limited capacity (the grasp apparel as a telekinesis spell comes to mind), but most likely is either pricey, difficult to learn, difficult to find, or all of the above, and most dragons seem to live in situations where they do manual labor to support their clan-not famous for being the sort of circumstances where someone would have the money and time to dedicate towards learning what would most likely be an unnecessary skill for their day-to-day work, especially if they lack the anatomy to be able to use said skill without help anyway, and also not famous for being the sort of circumstances where finding access to education on unnecessary things like that would be very easy either. not to mention that quite a few breeds seem to prefer living in isolation entirely.

rates of illiteracy probably vary by flight and are probably concentrated most in larger breeds, since more of them have anatomy that isn't conductive to being able to hold any sort of writing tool and probably mostly take-or are mostly only offered- physical jobs because their sheer size and strength is useful and well, stereotypes form and eventually it just becomes The Thing To Do and employers love sticking people in rigid categories to do whatever form of business astrology the prefer on them to determine if they're "right for the team" no matter how nonsensical their standards for testing are, so the stereotype becomes self-reinforcing. as much fun as we have sitting up here with our highly accomplished world-destroyingly powerful sorcerers and wizards, remember that the average citizen of sornieth, is not an accomplished powerful sorcerer or wizard. most of our dragons are the protagonists of the world, not it's average everyday people. this might also contribute slightly to why in-lore dragons don't seem to breedchange very often-baldwin's transformation mentions that a breedchange scroll is used by reading it, which you can't really do if you can't read.

there might be some sort of simplified runic system that most are made at least passingly familiar with-like "this is the symbol for danger"-but full on written language is probably a less common skill than it is on modern earth.

spoken language, on the other hand, i could see most knowing at least a little bit of two or more of, with several breeds having native languages and all of the beastclans there are to trade with. and whatever number of magical languages there might be.

[tremendouskoalachild]

anyway since a lot of it might be getting overwritten soon now that filoni is revisiting the inquisitorius characters (i assume he is? he wrote basically all of tales of the jedi right): here's what i understand of the inquisitor lore outside of the rebels show

Palpatine was keeping an eye out for Jedi who seemed at odds with the Order and/or susceptible to the dark side during the war (and likely earlier, much like with Anakin), either in person or using various agents (can be assumed and is shown in Rise of the Red Blade). this likely includes Jedi with specific knowledge or skills (the implication i got from Cere in Jedi: Fallen Order)

the groundwork for what would become the Inquisitorius was already in place by the time of the war's end

the Grand Inquisitor was a former Temple Guard who felt held back by the order and had a grudge against Jocasta Nu specifically (pretty sure this comes from Rebels and shows up in Darth Vader 2017). he was recruited at some point prior to Order 66 by Palpatine personally and promised leadership of the organization. this happened before Vader's conversion, and neither Vader nor the GI were informed of each other's existence at first (DV 2017).

several former Jedi were recruited willingly (eg. the GI, Iskat Akaris/13th Sister, Prosset Dibs/10th Brother, 5th Brother according to Battle Scars, Reva Sevander/Third Sister)

most (?) inquisitors were recruited by force, specifically torture upon being captured, usually during Order 66 (eg. Trilla Suduri/Second Sister (JFO), Seventh Sister (described as feeling broken in the Force in RotRB), Tualon Yaluna (RotRB), Masana Tide/Ninth Sister (JFO))

their primary purpose seems to be killing Jedi survivors rather than expanding their ranks by recruiting them. although it is a fear for those hunted by them, the inquisitors rarely try it, even if they do taunt their prey with the possibility (Masana's dialogue in JFO). this may have changed in the later years as the inquisitor numbers dwindled (i'm pretty sure they were actually trying to convert Ezra during Rebels. please correct me.)

they do, however, often try to kidnap Force-sensitive children too young to have been pre-Empire Jedi. this appears to include any age group and be the continuation of Palpatine's project during the clone wars. (i believe this is expanded upon in Rebels? it's a plot point in DV 2017 with Eeth Koth's infant daughter. also, i might have made this up but it seems to be the implied threat in Jedi: Survivor.)

the numbered titles appear to reference the order of initiation, with the GI being implicitly the First but never referred to as such. the numbers do not change over an inquisitor's tenure and do not seem to be replaced when an inquisitor falls. there do not seem to be duplicates (except for the Third Brother, who appears in a reference book written before Obi-Wan Kenobi and whose existence seems to have been overwritten by the Third Sister's. her character's age and implied backstory do not fit this naming assumption, however.)

if the naming is sequential, then siblings 2 through 10 join very shortly after Order 66, and number 13 gets initiated within months (RotRB). we still don't know 11 and 12.

there is some number of active inquisitors without a numbered title, who still go by their old names. these seem to have similar duties and authority to their numbered colleagues and are also referred to as "brother" or "sister", at least by other inquisitors. (Tualon in RotRB)

there might (?) be some hierarchy to the numbers, with lower numbers corresponding to a higher position. or not. (Third Sister seems to think she's next in line after the deaths of Grand Inquisitor and Second Sister as per Obi-Wan Kenobi. there's a confusing exchange somewhere in Rebels where Seventh and Fifth pointedly emphasize their titles to each other while having a disagreement but i have no idea what that means.)

inquisitors do occasional solo missions but mostly seem to work in pairs or small groups. the chain of command during these missions seems ambiguous, possibly intentionally so. Darth Vader joins in for some missions, where all inquisitors defer to him.

originally recruited inquisitors are not trained after joining outside of sparring with each other, which seems entirely voluntary. sometimes Darth Vader drops in and tests them, often ending in mutilation. they are allowed and perhaps even encouraged to study the dark side on their own time, though they do not have many opportunities to do so, possibly by design. (RotRB)

inquisitors are not Sith, and are not officially intended to become Sith, though as dark side adepts they are a potential source of replacement apprentices. (i believe this is fan speculation and out of universe material more than actual text but would love to be proven wrong)

Inquisitorius personnel have authority over some other Imperial forces, and have a long-term rivalry with the ISB (JS). they are generally an unknown force.

the organization was founded on Coruscant and headquartered there for about 5 years after its founding. (DV 2017) afterwards, its HQ transferred to Nur. however, that facility was already in heavy use immediately after and possibly before Order 66 (backstory in JFO).

the members get killed off pretty quickly. 6th and 10th die within a year, 2nd and 13th (along with her bf without a number) within 5 years, 3rd and 9th 5 years after that (Reva actually leaves, as we know). the ones that make it to Rebels die in that show. Fourth Sister is unaccounted for.

inquisitors tend to die by Vader or Ahsoka and Maul.

[blueskittlesart]

Sorry in advance for how long this ask is. Botw was the first zelda game I played to completion, I played a tiny bit of twilight princess when I was younger purely because you could be a dog, the first dungeon of wind waker, and I have fond memories of both loving and sucking at skyward sword on the wii but ultimately I was just too young and easily distracted by games I was actually good at, and therefore less frustrated by, to have the attention span to beat a zelda game. I think I would have beat skyward sword if not for the motion controls being very frustrating.

Anyway, I played totk and then obsessively read your big zelda doc and basically every post you've ever made about zelda and now I'm insane. Thank you. I didn't have totk spoilers blacklisted at first because I assumed I wouldn't care because I never care about spoilers and then I saw your posts when you were finishing the dragon tears questline and it made me stop just running around doing sidequests and focus down the main quest like crazy.

I'm trying to decide whether to play skyward sword remastered or hrule warriors age of calamity (which I did very much enjoy the demo of) next and was wondering what you'd recommend. I did try to play ocarina of time on 3ds and I WILL go back to it once I stop being so mad at myself about dying in the first dungeon and also maybe give in to using a guide because I don't need to get a Good Grade in Zelda, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

HIII i'm so glad i could be your introduction to zelda lore!! the question of aoc vs sksw really depends on what exactly you're hoping to get out of your gameplay experience imo.

aoc has its. decent points. i will say this. but the 2 most important things to know about it going in are 1. IT IS NOT CANON and none of the events within it actually correspond to anything that happened pre-botw, and 2. its gameplay is NOT zelda gameplay, it's dynasty warriors gameplay. you've already played the demo so you have some understanding of the gameplay, but you should know that that's ALL there is to aoc, and if you don't enjoy hours upon hours of hack-and-slash large-group combat, you're not going to have a ton of fun playing aoc. there is technically a story tying aoc together, and it has its moments, but they're few and far between. mostly it just kind of sucks. if what you're looking for out of this is a well-written story similar to the experience of botw/totk, i would not recommend aoc.

the most important thing i'd tell you about sksw is that even thought this one IS canon, the gameplay is still gonna be noticeably different from botw/totk. sksw is much closer to the classic zelda formula than the games you're most familiar with, and is actually smaller and more linear than games like oot and wind waker. the gameplay is also almost entirely dungeon-based, and those dungeons are gonna be noticeably harder than the botw/totk ones. what sksw DOES really deliver on is story!! i'd say it's comparable to botw with the way in which the story is told and the subject matter it works with. like i said, it depends on what experience you're looking to get! personally i would go with sksw but. we all know how story-focused i am LMAO

[autumnslance]

Do you have any preliminary headcanons for your character going into Dawntrail? If not, have you ever had ideas for your character(s) based on upcoming expansions and how did they morph/change as you played through the story?

I actually, really don't!

I don't plan out how/why my characters pick new jobs up; I want to see how the new job plays and what it's lore and story actually is before deciding how and why my gals might get to it, or if I want to tweak it at all. I'm not spending too much effort on baseless plot and NPC speculation and making intricate plans that will be jossed by level 93 and how MSQ actually does unfold.

The closest I ever came to pre-planning anything for an expac was "we're going to Thavnair; I'll finally get lore to flesh out some of Aeryn's family stuff and decide how to fit in my headcanons for them" (as I purposefully made them a minority ethnic group in Thavnair for the reasons we had only a little lore for so many years, and no nation is a monolith anyway, and then the writers' discussion at previous FanFest 2023 panels really drove home how they tried to make Thavnair a diverse melting pot culture due to its history and trade position, so that worked out). But even then I waited until I actually played through MSQ to really decide what to adjust or keep.

A reason I go through with Dark Autumn first is to just enjoy the story (or not) as it comes, to get my own knee jerk reactions and feelings out of the way. And then I go through again on Aeryn or C'oretta and see how the story's constructed to reach the finale, and consider my WoL's reactions, thoughts, and feelings, and where that takes her story. Sometimes my opinion on certain things may even change, or I get a different idea for how it looks and works when seeing it again and considering the IC angles on that new run.

I might still do so when going through my 3rd or 4th time on alts or in NG+, even years later, as I've changed since then and also seen later storyline and how they go together now.

And then I probably spend a few years playing within those lines and scenes and ideas in my fanfic. But I also tend to keep my WoL fairly close to the canon storyline for the most part and with as close as I can get to the canon depictions of the NPCs. Other, own story stuff tends to happen based on interactions with friends and their writing, or random ideas at random times and deciding if they work or not (like Corran's history and Avengret hitting me out of nowhere based on prompts).

Also it's kinda nice to just open the expac on Day 1 with no real expectations or preconceptions, just letting story and gameplay roll in and sweep me along with them. Frankly, I think more folks really ought to give that a try, instead of pitching fits over how the expansion wasn't all they hoped and dreamed and so was a giant disappointment based on...what? Fanon? Headcanon? Speculation? Hopes for complicated plans they made for their OCs based on out of context lines and screens from FanFest and the trailers?

Just try experiencing a story for what it is and what it's trying to do, not self-hyped preconceptions, in any direction.

I dunno. A lot of words to say that I just like seeing how the world is written and presented, as it hits my characters and determine their plots that way, not ahead of time. I want to be inspired by the gameworld, not try to twist it into something it isn't (and will never be) when I can just write in my own original settings for that. My creation in FF14 is fanfiction on the story and characters presented.

Also I really am just tied up in my original writing at the moment, new MSQ will be a break and brief bout of new fandom creativity.

[dr-demi-bee]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love 💚

Ohhhhh!! Thank you, Nonny! 💚💚💚 I hope today you encounter your favorite type of animal! I've written so much before that I never published - it wasn't until BG3 came along that I finally started sharing my work. I've really enjoyed getting to share and hear from folks that read and enjoy my work 🥰 This community is so lovely.

Anyway, onto my (published) favorite five (In no particular order)!

Back from the Dead - It's a little angsty, as happens in a lot of my work, but this was the first piece I wrote about Miri/Gale. I had intended it to be a part of her larger story, but it didn't really fit. I think it makes a good one shot - and addresses what feelings I had as a galemancer during the "In Case of Death" quest. It's also my most popular work on AO3!

Service and Worship are not Love - Miri's magnum opus! Okay, it's very self indulgent, and I am so slow updating it - but I really love writing this story. There's so much I've written for it that I haven't shared yet! (Really trying to stick with the chronology, but I get new ideas all the time - genuinely haven't played much in Act 3 so I can have those moments fresh for when the fic gets there!) But it's got everything I enjoy - angst, silliness, forged family, slow burn romance. Just a massive love letter to BG3 (and Gale) honestly. If you're a loyal reader of SWanL - ILU! There's so much more coming I promise! 💕 I have pieces through ACT3 + epilogue drafted. Just working on some connective tissue

To Sleep and to Dream - Another one shot I really enjoyed writing. A cute galemance moment playing around with some Forgotten Realm lore in BG3. Shameless Miri/Gale pre-relationship fluff.

We're at War: The Wizard and the Commander - This is a briefer long fic. It's fully written, but I am slow with editing. Partly because it's hard to stop myself from adding more. Gale/Miri Royalty AU that I just could not get out of my head. This is my first foray into posting outright smut (and of course it's enemies to lovers). But it's been pretty fun hehe.

Taming a Bear - But Learning from a Wizard - Another self-indulgent Miri/Gale oneshot. Mostly fluff, and a little jealous!Gale. I had some silly brain worms about explaining how the Beast Master class in BG3 can have so many different kinds of summonable companions (usually you only get *one*, ala Drizzt and Guen.)

I could yap about my writing all day haha. Thanks again for asking! My inbox is always open to chat more 🥰

[flufflepuffle296]

The Perfect Day

Hello!!! I wrote this prompt post-(ish)-s3 pre-s4 era where there was a lot of salt so this is about 3 years old I wanna say? So that’s why it’s so outdated so HEAVY Alya/Lila/Adrien/Tom and Sabine salt with a lot of Chloe sugar and slight Marigami (best ship) because *this was the vibe at the time* (ayyyy Kendall Jenner) on this page SO if that is not for you fair enough love that for you now SCROLL ON you have had many warnings about how old this is.

Also because this was written before all of s4/a few s3 episodes the lore is very much not present here and outdated so tough luck!

⚠️trigger warning!⚠️

Talking about s*icide here. Please stay safe and do not read this if you think it may trigger you even the slightest bit. Look after yourself! (Also I’m not trying to romanticise sewerslide in any way here (if you want the trauma dump version of how we came up with this you’re welcome to it) but if there is something that shouldn’t be in a post please do let me know and I will remove it but HEAVY TRIGGER WARNING).

SALT FOR (almost) EVERYONE

The Perfect day:

Marinette alarm startled her eyes open at exactly 4am. She scrunched her face up at the prospect of consciousness, but her expression softened slightly when she remembered: today was going to be the perfect day.

The perfect day, to die.

She clambered out of bed, and went downstairs to make her favourite breakfast, with a hot chocolate on the side and mountains of whipped cream, just how she liked it. She had spent the last week trying to convince herself out of this, but it was the only solution.

She was numb.

She was always going to be numb.

Nothing made her feel (that being a full sentence in itself) truly, wholly happy in her being anymore.

She went back upstairs to her balcony and ate her breakfast as the sun rose, squinting at her city. As she finished the last bite, she realised a good swing around Paris was just what she needed, so effortlessly transformed and pulled out her yo-yo, setting out for the Eiffel Tower, the source of so much inspiration for her designs.

Or rather, her *old* designs. She hadn’t the energy or mental strength to do anything she loved recently, nothing sparked much happiness or felt worth it. Her last design was about 2 months ago, but all it did was make her sob at the realisation that she was a failure and a fraud; nothing matched or was cohesive in any way. But in a way, realising her lack of talent when it came to her recent designs was sort of a net positive she concluded.

It meant it stung less when Lila spilled juice all over them, when Alya said they looked better smudged and ruined, or when Adrien delivered his father’s disapproval.

So instead she just watched the rest out the sunrise from her favourite spot, not picking out the different angles in the monument for a ridiculous geometric gown, or whatever her most recent fantasy was.

After another half hour, she sprung back home and got into her favourite Sunday dress, twirling her hair into her cutest hairstyle that the night before she had meticulously studied for hours on Pinterest, that she had always wanted to try. She packed her bag, three letters included, and ran out to catch up with her only real friend at a Francois DuPont.

Alya had left her a long time ago. After all, Lila had “no reason to lie”. She was “perfect”. Marinette was “just jealous” and “refused to cooperate”.

Because after all, it was always Marinette’s fault.

Marinette wished Alya the best in life, but she wasn’t going to waste much more energy on her. She was drained enough as it was.

Chloé was waiting for her, grinning ear-to-ear as she held up her first try at macarons for Marinette to critique. Marinette bit into the surprisingly good attempt at the cookie as they walked up to school together, laughing at Chloe’s sudden inability to swallow a cookie without choking. They walked to the back of the class and sat in their seats, ignoring their classmates.

It’ll all be over tonight anyways.

She spent the lessons talking with Chloé, as it wasn’t like she’d ever need the information after tonight. She encouraged Chloé to reminisce on their favourite times together, such as the day they realised they were different enough to be the same, or the day they realised that they (platonically) loved one another, and were the closest thing each other had to a soulmate.

That was also what Marinette considered a “perfect day”…

…Was Chloé going to be alright tomorrow?

At lunch, the pair met up with Luka and Kagami and went out to a cafe for food and orange juice, before sprinting after André the ice cream man and getting sweetheart ice cream together, Chloé paired with Luka, and Kagami with Marinette (“platonically” of course!). They parted ways once the hour was over, as they had to return to school, where Marinette spent the time daydreaming, recalling childhood memories from before Francois DuPont. This was going to be the last time she would ever remember them, after all.

They were let out of school at their usual time, thankfully no akuma that day, and Marinette, Chloé, Luka, and Kagami briefly chatted outside the gates, before parting ways. Marinette hugged them all tight as she left, handing them her letters and telling them not to open them until midnight AT LEAST.

She returned home, and watched her favourite films, favourite shows, and had her favourite meal for the very last time.

She kissed her parents on the cheeks, which was the most contact she’d had with them in a while, after Lila decided the bakery was her favourite Boulangerie, and she went upstairs to peacefully watch the sunset.

She would never have to deal with Chat Noir again and his flirting sexual harassment, so she decided to enjoy being Ladybug one last time. She transformed and went her usual route, ending up at the Eiffel Tower to finish watching the sun go down, swinging back home whilst it was still just barely light, taking notice of the cool air stinging her cheeks; the first real feeling she’d had in months.

Tikki begged her not to go through with it, but Marinette had made her decision, and renounced Tikki, telling her to find a new Ladybug; her only real plea being to warn them about Chat Noir prior.

Tikki was distraught, but Marinette used her guardianship to send her off and push her away — she needed to be alone for this, she wouldn’t let Tikki under any circumstance.

But Marinette didn’t want everything to be over quite yet, the air was too still, so she turned to her dust covered mannequin, and slowly stitched the zipper onto her old project that she never had the creativity or energy to finish. She tied a figure of 8, and snapped off the thread, taking notice of how it frayed.

Looking at it finally finished, it wasn’t as horrific as she made it out to be in her head a couple months ago, but still, not good enough to convince herself she had any worth.

She looked over at her clock.

10:30

I guess it’s time…

Marinette climbed up to her balcony and stepped over the railing, peering down. She took a deep breath…

And jumped.

She lay in the air, feeling as if she was floating for a second, waiting to to hit the ground. She thought she heard her name, but knew no one was around…

“MARINETTE!”

She felt a clawed hand grab her waist, knocking the air out of her as the two beings shot into the sky, the black figure clutching her tight.

She opened her blue eyes, and stared into Chat Noir’s brown ones.

…Brown?

…This wasn’t Chat Noir?

The black cat landed on a roof, hurriedly demanding to know if she was okay, in a voice that Marinette recognised must be —

“Kagami?!”

The black cat set her down on her balcony and explained that when Tikki was renounced, she was so distraught and furious she renounced Chat Noir of Plagg, revealing Adrien Agreste. The two Kwamis sailed around trying to find someone when they came across Kagami coming back from late night fencing. They quickly told her to read her letter as they were near incomprehensible from stress. Kagami briefly skimmed the letter before immediately snatching the nearest miraculous - the ring - and transforming into the black cat before sprinting across the rooftops as fast as she could, rushing to Marinette’s aid still clutching her letter. She arrived just in time to see her topple over, and saved her just before she hit the ground.

Marinette started sobbing in Kagami’s arms. Kagami sobbed with her a few minutes, promising to never let her go. She eventually picked her up once again and carried her to Le Grand Paris, where she banged on Chloé’s window. Chloé opened it and let the two crying girls in, announcing Luka’s presence as he happened to be in the room teaching Chloé guitar. He rushed to the girls when he saw them collapsed in each other’s arms. Marinette was feeling the first emotions she had felt in months, refusing to leave her saviour’s side, clutching to Kagami. Luka and Chloé listened as Marinette vented how she had been feeling, or rather the fact that she hadn’t been feeling anything, whilst Kagami stroked her hair and wiped her face, kissing her forehead every so often to remind her she was safe.

Chloé had a room prepared and the four of them off school the next day, booking Marinette in for a highly rated therapy appointment. The four friends snuggled in each other’s arms, Marinette in the middle. They fell asleep immediately, crashing from the excitements of the past hour, except for Marinette, who lay awake just a few more moments to make a promise to herself.

Every day, from today, I will make into the *perfect* day.

—————————————————————————

Hello me again!!!! I had a few other endings in case we weren’t feeling this one so just quickly:

Alternate ending 1) She jumps. When midnight comes around her friends open her letters and rush to her place, only to find police and an ambulance declaring her dead, and if you want some more angst, Chloé and Kagami storm into the school the next day scream-crying at their classmates whilst Luka repeatedly whispers “I couldn’t save her” crying in his mum’s arms. (Very depressing)

Alternate ending 2) Marinette realises that she doesn’t want to die. Why should she? She’s just spent today just doing what makes her happy? She should live like this everyday! She has so much to live for! Sure therapy is needed and some communication too, but she can do it. (Yayyy happyyy)

This was for the most part written when I was around 14/15 so if the sentence structure is a bit shit I’m gonna blame it on that (and not my lack of progress in writing in the past 3 years!)

[mackachu1212]

@violetenjoyer

This probably won’t be the most organized and well written because I'm better at explaining through casual conversation and better at storytelling through more formal writing. But this is explaining a character so it might not be super formal or it will change tones randomly. 👍

Content warning for mentions of trauma, sh, eds, and drug use

A little info I wrote for Fritz’s art fight page:

“A kind guy who lives with his friend and “platonic buddy”, Walter after being in a drinking and driving accident, unable to support himself after witnessing his dead friends and his mental health declining. He is willing to try and take care of himself and Walter to make him happy. He decided to un-associate himself with his family's last name and shorten his birth name. He typically hates it when people call him “Friedrich”; you are lucky if he lets you call him that.” 

(Violet you can call him that)

So uh

Fritz is German/American and his family isn’t so great. His American father was verbally abusive whenever he was around and his mother did somewhat love Fritz, but tended to be physically and even physiologically abusive towards him. He was a well behaved child at home and tried to let out his energy outside the house

They expected him to participate in sports and be a straight A student (despite not caring enough to make sure he gets the support to do so), but that never was for him. He ended up quitting football when he was a junior and his grades started going from high A's to B’s and C’s. But he started to feel happier despite his home life not being the best. 

But of course some days were worse than others. Some of the football boys (immature little shits) would occasionally tease him about his weight and the fact he kept to himself majority of the time. This was one of the big reasons why he quit, but they wouldn’t leave him alone until the next year. He did unfortunately result in hurting himself if things were horrible for him that day. 

He had a really close friend while he was in high school though. Damian. They met for the first time during their freshman year while they were watching a game. Damian decided to sit next to him and after that they were inseparable.

(Until, of course, Damian dies 👍)

Fritz had an eating disorder for a long while, resulting in pre tormenting about his weight. He’s still a pretty strong guy and he is tall👍👍👍👍 (6’1) 

Fritz is Aromantic Asexual but tends to be very cuddly with people he’s close to. He doesn’t see being friendly and “overly” platonic as something that shouldn’t be shared between friends. 

(If y’all ever see art from me of Walter and Fritz being super platonic THEY ARE FRIENDS NOT DATING 🙏🙏🙏)

Ok uh pre main lore lore time 

Before the incidents, Fritz never really talked to Walter. He knew who he was, but never bothered talking to him more often because he seemed like he preferred no one talking to him anyways. He occasionally asked about him to people who knew more about him (main gang), and they even didnt really know too much. Damian has Walter’s number for the purpose of asking him questions for a class they are in and gives it to Fritz just in case he “needs help or somethin’.” (this stuff is important later I guess). 

Damian introduces Fritz to some of the other people he talks to (that being Amia, Jessie, and Rose), and they grow to be friends. This gives him an obvious reason to be concerned once they begin to go missing.

Fritz can’t take the fact they all went missing within the span of a few days. He tries not to assume the worst, but he can’t help but think something bad happened to them. He remember’s the gang's plan to clean up a little abandoned restaurant for a secret and special date for Amia and Rose and plans on looking there first. But before he travels there, he calls Walter to at least have someone know where he’s going so if there was a chance that something happened to him, someone could try and help. 

Quote: “If I dont call back in like… 30 minutes, maybe assume something happened and come look for me? Hahahah…”

He finds the building and begins to search, only to hear laughing from behind a door. The sound of his friends. He finds someone standing. He calls out. 

“Oh, is that you? You found us just in time. We are about to play a game.” A voice that sounds like Amia’s, but something is off. It's too dark to see, but once she turns around, there's an off feeling to her presence. She looks braindead. 

“You’re not Amia.” 

“You’re a smart lad.” a different voice tells him.

Fritz is forced to see the aftermath of SKREEN’s actions to his friends. He has to escape. Fritz ends up getting hurt on his way out, being covered in dust, blood, and other mystery substances, but makes it out in one piece. 

(random off topic thing important for the next part. My boy. He does some not so legal stuff. At the time hes 17, but even before then he would drink and erm… eat NORMAL brownie)

Anyways

Fritz is desprate to get away and forget everything he saw, he does something really, REALLY dumb (drinks and drives 👍). He begins to hallucinate his dead friends in the car due to hysteria and begins to lose control due to the alcohol. He ends up crashing out of drunkenness and fear.

Walter begins to grow concerned. It’s been longer than 30 minutes since Fritz last called. He goes out to search for him, ending up finding Fritz in his totaled car. 

Thank god Walter knows CPR and how to treat wounds ammiright?

Fritz, once somewhat conscious, hears Walter mention a hospital and totally freaks out and begs not to go because he knows he will get in trouble. 

Walter takes him to his house instead. 

And yeah that's basically all I can think of right now for important lore. If you have more questions about him or other characters ask me and I'll happily awnser!!