#Alaya Wells

[winterkittenreads]

Review: A Kingdom of Bitter Magic by Alaya Wells

Audience: 18+

Stars: 4.35/5

Fav quote:

"Ivenrail Levestan." His name was poison on my tongue. "I'm going to start with his fingers, slicing them off with a delicate touch. I'll grin at his screams, then turn my attention to his toes. He'll feel it when I cut off his legs at the knees and his arms at the elbows."

                  "I'll hold him down for you.”

"And then I'm going to filet the skin off his back and chest."

                  "I'll enjoy watching that.”

"And only when there isn't any part of him left to rip apart, I'll slice off his head."

                  "I'll mount it on the highest castle spire.”

"Thank you." I snuggled deeper into his arms. 

...

dear radish,

CHECK OUT MY MURDER BABIES. Hahaha. But actually they spent more of the book building up to getting steamy, being teases, and then getting steamy. But that's all good. Steam is nice too. 

Can't lie, I picked up Kingdom of Bitter Magic because of the phrase "stalker-like tendencies" from the male lead in the synopsis. And you know what? It delivered heh heh.  

My biggest gripe is that the pacing slowed in the middle-end part, but in no way will that stop me from picking up the next book in the series! Looking forward to it!

(Also, two review in one day! I'm on a 🍣 roll :))

Synopsis:

A dragon rider seeking revenge for the death of her brother. A ruthless fae lord with his own agenda. A love that will drop the fae kingdom to its knees.

I’m nothing but an orphan, a dragon trainer in one of the many border fortresses. When beasts attack the villages, I ride, driving them back to the hellscape they crawled from.

When my adopted brother’s killed during battle, I discover who’s controlling the invading beasts—the brutal ruler of the neighboring fae kingdom. A gruesome plot is brewing beneath the glimmering fae surface, and he’s responsible for it all. Now vengeance is all I live for. No matter how powerful or well-guarded the king is, I will avenge my brother. This I swear.

To infiltrate the king’s court, I’m forced to make a deal with Vexxion, a devastatingly beautiful and equally malicious fae lord. In exchange for getting me close to the king, I’ll allow Vexxion to collar me at the upcoming Claiming. He’ll train me, and I’ll give him access to my supposedly dormant magic. Little does he know I have no power for him to harness.

Surrendering to Vexxion’s seductive allure could fracture what little remains of my heart. Falling for him could destroy my wounded soul. But learning his wicked secrets could shatter me completely. A Kingdom of Bitter Magic is Book 1 in the Kingdom of Blighted Thorns trilogy. Expect spice, suspense, a ruthless, determined woman, and a fae lord with stalker-like tendencies who will stop at nothing to claim her as his own.

[simmerwhit]

Whitney and Ryder are married! ❣️

They both came into each other's lives when they needed it the most. Ryder lost his father at a young age as well and he is so happy to be able to become a father figure for Jassy and Alaya. The girls couldn't be happier to have him.

[soleilnmity]

Doujinshi - [U.S.O (Tankinu Nagase/Shinshu Ueda)] Megami Ibunroku Persona/ Persona 2 dj assortment [RAW]

Titles: (Megami Ibunroku Persona) 阿頼耶DEGO (Alaya de Go), リバース (Reverse) , ゴーバッド (Go Bad) (Persona 2) BIG BAD BINGO, CARRY THAT WEIGHT!

Artist: タンキーヌ・ナガセ (Tankinu Nagase) [Shinshu Ueda's penname for doujinshi) Circle: U.S.O (For Megami Ibunroku doujinshi) ESTMA (For P2EP doujinshi) Google Drive link

Personal Notes: I always wanted to upload these doujinshi, but I usually refrain from posting pure raws because I want the translations too…Unfortunately, I cannot defeat my archenemesis </3 japanese handwriting, and Nagase/Shinshu's handwriting is very……..messy x_x. For some of these, I still want to try my hand at translating eventually, but it'll definitely take a while. I love translating little artist notes and there's a lot of those in every doujinshi so if I can't translate something absolutely fully I end up giving up orz. In any case, yes. These are doujinshi made by Shinshu Ueda under the name of Tankinu Nagase in their doujin circle U.S.O. There are 5 doujinshi attached, 3 for Megami Ibunroku Persona and 2 for Persona 2.

270823 Edit: リバース has now been fully translated! The gdrive has been updated to reflect that. Please thank @falsekaiba for the typesetting and translation! Really well made 🙏 it will also be found in Mangadex as well.

Under the cut are some small explanations for the others, but I'll go straight for the P2EP doujin for introduction, as I actually translated bits of that one.

Title: CARRY THAT WEIGHT! - Eternal Punishment focus (PG, small bits of Kandori mixed in with a Post-EP story) Original printing date: 2000/08/12

This is the only doujinshi of Tankinu that was published under a different circle than their usual "U.S.O.", called "ESTMA". I have never found any other doujinshi of them under this label, and if there were any, they might be lost to time. The first page warns about the book containing spoilers for the ending of EP, so it's advised to proceed with caution. After that, all the way up to page 7 there's small gag bits with Kandori, and an obligatory Naoya illustration (they really seems to like him so much ww). From page 8 to 23 is the actual story of the doujin, "Phantom Pain". FORTUNATELY, it was all written in computer text (not handwritten) and I thought it was such a good story, that I took the time to actually translate it at least. The pictures attached to this post are the translation of those pages. There might be some errors in some of the handwritten parts, but I hope I did well.

TL Notes: アンプ (Amplifier / Ampli), The change in fonts is supposed to represent that Eikichi is talking in english there in the original japanese (but that's hard to showcase to an english translation duh), I keep honorifics like Senpai and Aniki as-is.

I was surprised to know that these doujinshi were never talked about (nor were they ever scanned), but now they exist for all to see.

Now, for the rest of the doujinshi.

Title: Reverse/リバース - Naoya and Kandori (+misc) (PG, a bit of a general all-genre doujinshi mixing doodles for other games and a second half focusing on BAROQUE) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1999/12/24. Has a small gag story called "Dead man's questions" about Kandori in a strange flashy outfit.

English Translated (Google Drive)

Title: Alaya de Go/ 阿頼耶DEGO - Shadow Naoya/Naoya (BL, not explicit but Naoya has (implied) sex with his shadow) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1998/08/14. 3rd reprint 1999/05/03 Naoya is called "Isurugi Tatsuya" (岩動 達弥) in this doujinshi.

Title: Go bad/ゴーバッド - Naoya/Hidehiko (BL, Naoya kisses Hidehiko. Seems to have crossover bits from BAROQUE, another ATLUS game Ueda/Nagase did doujinshi for) Original printing date: 1998/12/29. 2nd reprint 1999/05/03. Despite the cover being Naoya with a skirt, there's no crossdressing involved.

Title: BIG BAD BINGO - Innocent Sin focus (PG, done with collaboration with another artist which is Superunknown Corp's sho太郎/沢田翔) Original printing date: 1999/08/??

This doujin physically has Superunknown's side be printed downwards, so you have to flip the doujinshi to read their part which is pretty nice. Unfortunately this is the only one of U.S.O. doujinshi without an specific day of printing, just vague August 1999.

And that's pretty much what I can say for now, at least until when I get to translating some of these (and the folder will be updated accordingly when so)

Sorry, but I don't allow reposts of these scans unless it's with permission (specially not twitter gimmick accounts that are 'daily character accs', etc). However, if you want to translate these you can do that anytime even without my permission! As long as you credit me for the raws (and @ me while you're at it because I want to know...). You can also edit, crop, use them for avatars and whatnot, whatever you want, just that I specifically don't want the whole doujinshi reposted itself without my credit. Just that, sorry for what inconveniences it causes www

[kaxtwenty]

It's fun looking back on that original post now--two months later and having now completed both Iron-Blooded Orphans and The Witch from Mercury. I wanna say, "I didn't know what I was getting myself into," but that'd be a lie. I was expecting to watch a pair of space operas revolving around giant robots fighting with stories that would probably get me emotional. Both shows are generally well regarded so I expected them to be good going in. Suffice it to say they both still managed to exceed my expectations.

I firmly believe that these shows should be watched together. If you watch IBO, move on to WFM--if you watch WFM, go back to IBO. WFM very much feels written with IBO in mind (the similarities between the GUND Format and Alaya Vijnana System being the most obvious example of IBO's influence) and I feel that having the immediate context of one going into the other enhances your experience. WFM is IBO's little sister through and through and watching IBO before it made me appreciate the show (especially its ending) more than I would have otherwise.

If you wanna know which one's my favorite, it's Iron-Blooded Orphans. Largely because I love a good tragedy, but also because it felt more complete than its successor. It's kinda obvious in WFM season 2 that they wanted more episodes than they got and had to cram a lot near the end. I could especially feel this in the last 4-5 episodes. Was it bad? Hell no! But there were a lot of plot threads awkwardly left hanging and some others that were under-cooked or felt contrived (the Space Assembly League are painfully under-cooked). I feel like WFM needed at least one more season to reach its full potential, but what we got was still damn good and had me crying waaaaayyy more than I usually do watching television.

In summary uhhhhh...

Mobile Suit Gundam is really good and words cannot describe what these two kids mean to me.

I'm still letting G-Witch settle in my mind before I move on to the next Gundam show and while I know I should go back to the original and start my UC journey; y'know, to enrich my experience through the AUs and mecha anime as a whole...

There's still one other Gundam show I got unfinished business with...

[wordsandrobots]

Huh. Actually -- since I'm stuff home sick and my brain refuses to shut up and let me sleep -- apropos of reblogging @superhelltubedotsys' post citing Barbatos Lupus Rex's status as a werewolf Gundam, I'm now thinking about the significance that has within Iron-Blooded Orphans (some spoilers follow).

Because Barbatos the demon has no association with wolves in the Ars Goetia. The nearest applicable part is "He giveth understanding of the singing of Birds, and of the Voices of other creatures, such as the barking of Dogs", which is fitting for Mikazuki and plays into the comparison between mobile armour Hashmal and a bird, but pointedly does not imply 'appears as a giant fuck-off wolf monster with a knife-tail'. That description would seem more appropriately applied to Amon, the immediately prior demon, number seven: "He appeareth like a Wolf with a Serpent’s tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire . . ."

But of course, Gundam Barbatos' steady revision towards the Lupus Rex form is a drift away from its initial design. Exactly how much influence the Ars Goetia descriptions had on the Gundam project and how much they were just used as a naming convention is a little up in the air. Some do seem to be applicable (Zagan being a 'bull with gryphon wings', Flauros switching between the forms of a leopard and a man, etc.). Others . . . well, Bael is supposed to appear as either a toad, a cat, or a man, or all three at once, and while that has some applicability to McGillis' whole deal, it's not really a match for Gundam Bael's angelic form. Nor do the Gundam's abilities evoke demon!Bael's power to render someone invisible. However, I think we can safely conclude that, in-universe at least, the goetic demons are only pertinent to the Gundams' initial appearances and capabilities.

Barbatos' revisions throughout Season 1 are instead a gradual cannibalisation of various different sources of technology and weapons to get it back into fighting shape (Teiwaz technically restores it to its original appearance, but that doesn't last past the Dort arc; thereafter, we're back to bolting on any spare armour going). Barbatos Lupus then represents a significant step towards redefining it in line with the Chief's goal of creating an 'ultimate' version based on Mika's battle data, with Barbatos Lupus Rex being the end-point for that progression.

Put simply, Barbatos gradually becomes more and more tailored to Mikazuki, specifically. To digress for a moment, this forms a big part of my reasoning that Mika being able to use the katana properly at the climax of Season 1 represents the influence of Barbatos' original pilot; after this, he ditches that kind of weapon entirely. Even while fighting Hashmal, he reaches for the biggest club available (technically, a broad-sword, but so ridiculously huge nobody could call it a precision weapon). It's another interesting detail that Mika can't beat Ein in their final face-off by fighting like himself, which comes back around again as the back half of Season 2 kicks into gear.

Anyway, my point is this: being a werewolf is not inherently part of Barbatos' deal. Rather it represents Mikazuki's growing influence -- as you might thematically expect for a union with a character named after the moon (crescent moon, specifically, though I can't imagine the association wasn't intended given Tekkadan are wolf-coded in the text). And that's fascinating because as I've written about before, Barbatos and Mikazuki are the most blatant example of a devil's bargain in the show. The kid literally sells and arm and a leg (and an eye) for the power Barbatos can give him. And yet, the bestial aspects Barbatos takes on are rooted in Mika.

There's an echo of Gundam Wing's 'Gundams are a curse' refrain in IBO. These machines bring bad luck to everyone who pilots them, as a function of representing humanity subsumed by war. The inherent gamble of the Alaya-Vijnana, the overwhelming nature of the conflict they were built to end, the fact Gundams are never sufficient on their own to change the world -- it forms an unspoken counter-argument to McGillis' zealous faith in their status as symbols of transformation that is actually very in keeping with the demonological tradition from which they take their names. What they offer is costly and potentially damning, while also largely illusory when it comes to anything other than utter destruction. Indeed, Mikazuki is a living testament to how 'cursed' their pilots are.

It just happens that he was able to curse Barbatos back.

Because that's what Barbatos Lupus Rex is, isn't it? Put side by side with its original form, this is a clear degradation of a proud warrior into a savage beast. The same design elements persist, of course, yet by the end, it's near impossible to picture Barbatos as an elegant fighter making precision strikes with a honed sword. It has become a true berserker, tearing into its opponents with teeth and claws (well, claws and knife tail). As Tekkadan in general tend to, Mikazuki strips away the affectations of nobility and 'honourable' warfare in favour of brutal reality.

The detail of the Lupus Rex form merging parts of a mobile armour into a Gundam only heightens this. Weapons are weapons, whoever they serve and whatever guise they wear. Mikazuki is always honest about that. His awed response to Hashmal is of a piece with how easily he fits within Barbatos. He sees himself as equivalent to them -- has, in fact, constructed his entire identity around being so.

Thus, the lycanthropy he inflicts on Barbatos is of a kind that merely reveals the truth lurking under the skin. It was always an instrument of devastation. Now it looks the part.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Status of Persona Users when SMT's Great Cataclysm was supposed to strike

The end of the world never came to this timeline, but if it had, would they have been prepared?

Legendary Persona User (and Lovecraftian cameo!) Randolph Carter is currently 118 years old. His incident with Nyarly already took place and he goes by Chandraputra.

Baofu and Kandori are 25 years old. Kandori has graduated from Oxford. Baofu still goes by Kaoru.

Katsuya is 20 years old. He has begun to study to become a police officer.

Ulala is 19 years old. Her friendship with Maya is recent.

Zenkichi is between 16 and 25 years old.

Maya is 16 years old. Her father died in the Soviet-Afghan War. She just returned to Sumaru for high school six months ago.

Yukki, Maki, Masao, Reiji, Eriko and Kei are 13 years old.

Naoya, Brown and Yuka are 12 years old. Hidehiko already earned his nickname. Kazuya died years ago.

Tatsuya is 11 years old. Has already taken somebody's eye out.

Jun and Lisa are 10 years old. The Alaya Shrine Incident took place some time ago, and Nyarly has taken Akinari Kashihara's place.

Eikichi is 9 years old.

Adachi is 8 years old.

Mitsuru, Shinjiro and Akihiko are 1 year old.

Yukari has just been born. Maybe Minato/Kotone has as well.

That's all of them. From this group, only Carter has fully awakened to his Persona, but has that entire "Nyarly fucked with me and now my mind is trapped" deal going on.

Maya and Tatsuya have also awakened but don't even know what a Persona is. Jun, Lisa, Eikichi, Katsuya, and (maybe?) Kaoru, Ulala and Kandori have already played the Persona Game, so they have the potential.

No wonder Persona Users are basically extinct in main Shin Megami Tensei.

[guujikaroko]

It's Star Rail x Fate collab time (well, not really, it's gonna be next year) and apparently our beloved Faker has been summoned over by standard Heroic Spirit summoning? If it really turns out to be an actual storyline within the game, it would be nice if I could clear some doubts of Star Rail fans. So I'm explaining about how Servants work here and speculating a little about the plot!

So, the Nasuverse (the world where Fate and other works by Kinoko Nasu take place) is essentially a world where magic exists. To summarize how magic works in the Nasuverse, I'd put it this way: it's a force shaped by belief.

(P.S: you'll probably see the term "Magecraft" thrown around a lot instead of "Magic". That's because Magecraft is the name of Fate's main "power system", while Magic is a different thing.)

Human belief is a very powerful thing in Fate. So powerful, in fact, that humanity itself has a collective consciousness named Alaya, which operates with the objective of "perpetuating humanity", so to speak.

Alaya responds to humanity's beliefs. When someone gains notoriety, humanity believes in them, and when their life ends, they turn into a Heroic Spirit and get engraved into something called the Throne of Heroes, a sort of database of famous figures. Those figures can be summoned by Alaya to fight for humanity in times of need and they can be historical figures, legendary heroes or even literary characters. They don't even need to be fully human in the first place.

Here is the interesting thing: Heroic Spirits can also be summoned by mages through a ritual and become something like their familiar. A mage that summons a Heroic Spirit is called a Master and their summoned Heroic Spirit is called a Servant.

The summoning process can be random (like a gacha, lmao), but you can use an object as a catalyst to summon a Heroic Spirit of your choice. The more specific to a certain figure your catalyst is, the greater the chances of summoning that figure (for example, a piece of the Round Table can summon one of its knights, and a weapon or accessory belonging to one specific knight will summon that very same knight).

Now, you might be asking what is the motive behind summoning a Heroic Spirit? There are many, from personal gain to amassing forces to save the world, but the most famous use of a Servant would be participating in the Holy Grail War.

A Holy Grail in Fate is a massive core of magical energy that can have multiple uses. It also can grant wishes, but it's so double-edged that it lost that specific value over the years, lmao. Sometimes, mages will gather in a region and organize this large-scale ritual called the Holy Grail War, where seven or so Masters each summon their own Servants to battle it out for the right to make a wish to the Holy Grail. There are variations of this model and this shit almost never goes the way anyone wants to.

[P.S: Heroic Spirits are separated by Classes on the Throne of Heroes. Originally, there were only seven (Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker), but a lot more were added later. Conceptually, a Heroic Spirit is put into the Class that better represents their legend. In the game Fate/Grand Order, Classes are a Pokémon Type kind of mechanic.]

With all of that out of the way, I'd like to speculate on what is going to happen in this collab.

It seems that a Heroic Spirit has been summoned by a Nameless of the Astral Express. The description (tan, uses two swords) and the voice at the end belong to the one I'm going to call Archer (because I don't want to expose his identity shenanigans right now).

Now, let's answer the questions this left, starting by the "who". I'm betting the Master is the Trailblazer on pure vibes alone. The "how" is the tricky one: how the hell did the Trailblazer successfully perform a Servant summoning ritual, seemingly unaware at that?

Remember, Heroic Spirits can exist in this world because of human belief. And, as it may, Fate/Grand Order does have a story chapter in a world where Heroic Spirits couldn't be summoned because of a lack of belief from the population. It got resolved once people witnessed one Heroic Spirit perform an unbelievable act and began wishing for more heroes to appear. With that in mind, I wonder if they're going to work this sort of trigger into the story in Star Rail too.

Now, the more pressing matter is the "why", but that's actually easy to answer. The collab is with Fate/Stay Night, the visual novel that kickstarted it all, and the setting is a standard Holy Grail War. Which means: a Holy Grail War is happening in Star Rail and the Trailblazer might be one of the seven Masters selected to the ritual, which then led to Archer's summoning.

Yes, that might mean that other six Star Rail characters were selected to be the Masters of other six Stay Night Servants. Either that or the collab will also introduce the Stay Night Masters as well. There's also a Holy Grail on the loose somewhere, which is... Creepy as fuck? Someone get that thing dealt with, please?

[deyz]

More screenshots of my Sweet & Sour save! 🍉💗

Alaya went to the club where she met a 4-star celebrity Tom Wordy, she was in a flirty mood so they became friends really quickly and she got another star! The next day after work, she decided to go to the club. JACKPOT. She met her favorite actor, a 5-star celebrity whom she has been following on social networks and has a crush on for a long time - Matthew Hamming oh the man you are... Alaya asked him for his autograph then he left lol not today Alaya maybe next time you get a chance to talk to him more👀. She didn't spent much time in the club that day, but she was so happy to meet her celebrity crush. The next day, while she was at work, she got an invitation to a party from Richie Striker, she went to that party and… SHE MET MATTHEW THERE. She quickly struck up a conversation with him and they are now "best friends" and she's a 3-star celebrity now, but of course Alaya wants more... SHE WANTS THIS MAN TO BE WITH HER for popularity and not only…🤭 Alaya is the GREEDY ONE so she got a wish to kiss both Matthew and Richie 😂. Richie was the one who started it actually 👀 he asked her to watch the stars together WHILE HIS WIFE WAS ASLEEP. Well that's pretty much it! I actually have more but that will be in another post soon 😂 Thank you all for your likes and reposts, I really appreciate it ❤️ Until next time <3

[e17omm]

(Is this called post hijacking?) This is why Elysia wont have any big part in my Snippets AU and, at most, will only show up in two chapters; when Mobius went to the ER, and when Hua/HoS went in there. And she will basically just say "hi" or have a small chat.

Because the rest of her does not matter. The only important part of Elysia's character is that she did something to make the CE Herrschers retain some humanity (I think? That's what Im going with), and thats it. Because everything else is, as you said, "she's so flawless!"

How she died isnt important. Understanding her doesnt mean anything. Because they both lead to "Elysia is a perfect human" (which is about as inhuman as you can get. Writers didnt think that through). The only important part is that she's the 13th Herrscher of Humanity and she did something to have the CE Herrschers have some humanity too. (I think)

Is it okay to ask why you don't like Elysia? Personally I don't really like her because she's a walking massive retcon who also undermined the efforts Herrscher of Reason made to rebel from the Will of Honkai

I love being asked why I hate elysia, it's like people falling for my infodump trap

so basically, first off her overfriendliness and ignorance of one's boundaries. that damn horn touching scene sickens me to no end, and even more the dialogue after that with raven joking out it while mei wants her not to talk about it. and elysia having the greatest fucking idea of announcing her success in crossing mei's boundaries via megaphone? dude, what the fuck. like, keep it to yourself. the only reason mei didn't kill her that time was because writers didn't want her to

second off it's her constant idealisation. wherever you see or go she's described as "flawless". flawlessness seems to be her only trait. okay, we got it first time, she's pink jesus so fucking flawless and beautiful and everyone loves her and trees are fucking singing for her like for a damn disney princess. y'know, in my discord server we had a talk about the whole lesbian jesus thing and we came to conclusion that elysia is what christians imagine jesus to be like and kallen is what jesus was more like. failed writing very much

speaking of writing, she seems to drain good writing out of everyone she's around. flamechasers have varying opinions about her, from love to hatred and distrust, but when she was about to sacrifice herself everyone was suddenly like "omg elysia so cool", even kalpas and mobius who are the most known for not liking her. I don't even fucking know what happened to mei, beside good writing she seems to have drained her off brain cells. what does herrscher of origin even do, what are its powers? if they don't plan on elaborating on that part before moving on to apho, I... it's just such lazy writing that tries to pass as some pseudo-wisdom. the answers mei came after to elysian realm? what answers, there's that pink elf and that's all that matters

another reason her writing is questionable is like,, she's said to have done something before current era started that was supposed to make CE herrschers docile, no? seems like mihoyo didn't think that one thoroughly because current era very much still had hostile herrschers. great retcon mihoyo, the plot has as many holes as roads in poland

[teecupangel]

Hi Teecup!

I hate to add to your pile of asks, but I've just started watching Star Trek TNG and it made me wonder... what about a AssCreed × Star Trek crossover?

To be more precise, the kind of crossover I'm thinking of is one where we take the characters of AC and mix them with the premise of Star Trek, so everyone is hanging out on a starship and getting dragged into random adventures on a weekly basis.

We can separate the Assassins and Templars into Starfleet and Romulans if we want to keep the fight between the two going, though I'm actually more interested in seeing a situation where there is no reason to fight so those factions no longer exist, and everyone is allowed to interact and make friends with whoever they wish.

Also since I want to keep the joke of isekai protagonist Desmond going, maybe he gets transported into this parallel universe after dying and finds himself face to face with the Star Trek versions of all his ancestors, as well as... himself?

As long as you don't mind the long wait to get to your asks, just pile them in my asks hahahaha

We do have this Q is Desmond’s real father idea before because William Miles’s voice actor played Q and that includes Desmond getting sent to Stark Trek ‘verse.

So for this one, we’re going for AC cast in Star Trek but with the caveat that Desmond gets transported there from his previous world just to annoy him (and probably save his life but he can never be sure about that)

For this one, I like the idea that the Templars and Assassins have finally buried the hatchet because one of the main point of Star Trek (especially the early ones) is that humanity managed to unite. Of course, we can still make some of the Templars Romulans if we want to preserve the ‘antagonist’ route but imagine Desmond’s “????” whenever he learns that Templars he knew as super bad news have formed relationships with the Assassins ranging from “I don’t want to ally with them but they’re good at their job” to “besties!”

Desmond would feel a bit weirded out when Ezio just sigh when he learned they would be allying with a ship that has Cesare Borgia as a high ranking officer. He knows that Cesare’s probably on their side but he’s curious why Ezio looked less like he wants to kill him and more like he’s already tired just thinking about dealing with him.

Then he learned the reason why Ezio looked like that.

‘Allegedly’, Ezio slept with Cesare’s sister, Lucrezia Borgia during one of their downtime in the Borgia’s home planet. And nooooo, this wasn’t a case of “You fucked my sister, you must die!” revenge story. That would not have been complicated enough for Ezio’s messy love life. The problem was… Cesare didn’t get to join Ezio and his sister. Yeah, that’s it. Cesare wasn’t angry at Ezio. He was trying to get in Ezio’s pants (“Of course, we’ll invite my sister”) and Ezio is just… he’s done. He’s soooo done with everything. Fuck being the primary communication liaison of the crew. He’s gonna hide in his room and call his BFF back in his homeplanet (there’s a bet going on if said BFF was “the one who got away” – No that was his childhood sweetheart Cristina- or the “he doesn’t know he’s in love with his BFF or vice versa”)

My primary idea for the crew and a little bit of sprinkled lore:

The name of the ship would probably be Aquila to hammer in the bird motif. Another sorta weird names would be names used to talk about a group of eagles like convocation or eyrie or aerie. Or just go for Alamut which some call “Nest of Eagles”.

Edward Kenway is the Captain. He can be Haytham’s father and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s grandfather, a humanoid with long life and a thirst for adventure. In this life, he’s drinking buddies with Alaya and is also friends with Roberts. To make it funnier, he’s actually John Standish’s godfather (who is the son of Roberts and Haytham’s childhood friend)

Haytham is the First Officer because the entire crew (including his father) lives to make his life stressful. He’s married to Kaniehtí:io and their eldest joined the crew. There’s joke of nepotism because of this but it’s all said in a teasing manner because the Kenway men gets the job done. He trained Charles Lee (and the rest of his Templar Order) when they were fresh new ‘graduates’ so they like to call him Master Kenway.

Ratonhnhaké:ton is the Navigator and is being trained to be the Helmsman by the current Helmsman Adéwalé. He can usually be found talking to Ezio or Aveline. He’s really good at combat so he mostly join offworld missions which is why…

Aveline is the second Navigator in case Ratonhnhaké:ton is offworld. She’s also their offworld liaison if Ezio is not available. Sometimes, she also takes over the Communications Officer’s jobs. The crew is not entirely sure what her actual job is??? (Her parents divorced and her mother is alive. She and her stepmother are close as well and her stepmother is the Captain of another ship)

Adéwalé is the Helmsman and he had been ‘sailing’ with Edward for so long that Edward rarely had to give specific orders. Adéwalé is already doing what Edward wanted. It gives Haytham a headache because ‘communication’ is important, especially for reports and such. Adéwalé takes Ratonhnhaké:ton under his wing and Ratonhnhaké:ton calls him Uncle Ade.

The Science (technically called Research and Development Department) Division is under Altaïr’s complete control and no Kenway can go against him. He wants to go offworld to research one thing or another, he’s joining the offworld team. He wants them to take a pit stop in one of the colonies or world for materials or something, the ship would change course. Desmond didn’t even question it when he heard of it. He just said “… yeah, that sounds about right.” and moved along. The funny thing? Altaïr isn’t the Chief Science Officer. That’s the long suffering Malik Al-Sayf. Altaïr’s official position is “Second Officer”. He has an academic rivalry going on with Robert de Sablé and he still sends letter to his grandfather who is a high ranking government official of the United Federations of Planet.

Ezio is the Chief Communications Officer and he’s always part of the offworld teams (unless something comes up). He comes from a long line of Starfleet officers. His siblings are stationed in other ships and his father is a member of the United Federations of Planet.

Shay is the Security Chief and it is the second most stressful job (after Haytham) trying to keep the peace and order of the ship (okay, that’s an exaggeration). Most of the time, he just makes sure everyone is okay and safe whenever shit hits the fan. He’s pretty chill and is Haytham’s drinking buddy. He still writes to his mentor Achilles who taught him everything and to his childhood friend who joined another ship Liam.

Arno is part of the Chief Tactical Officer and he has a close professional relationship with Evie and Altaïr mainly because those two takes care of weapon upgrade… and other… uuuhh… ‘stuff’ their missions might need. He has a fiancee who is a high ranking officer of Starfleet.

Evie is the Chief Engineering Officer and is Altaïr’s number one supporter. Edward once joked that if Altaïr was to mutiny, they would be fucked because Evie would be first in line in shutting down all the engines and any security procotol they have in place. Ezio would like to stress it was more of a ‘mentor and student’ kind of thing. Desmond learned that Altaïr also had his hands on the Engineering Department and is like “yeah, that tracks too.” Evie has a rivalry going on with Lucy Thorne and her twin would just comment that they should sleep together once and get it over with.

Jacob is usually the captain of the offworld team unless a higher ranking officer joins then he’s the vice-captain. Close to Arno because he’s always asking for new ‘toys’ to play with. May or may not have a son who may or may not be adopted called Jack. The crew isn’t sure if he’s Jacob’s son or his protege.

I’m missing a few more main characters and the modern day characters so uuuhh… they’re there, I just couldn’t think of a position for them XD.

(I kept their species vague so you can make them any race you want. I will suggest that Altaïr be half-Vulcan though because he feels very Vulcan-ish but, honestly, pick whichever feels right for you or what would make you go “you know what would be fun”? XD)

[miraculousbumbble]

Alya, talking into the Dupain-Cheng's Ring doorbell: Marinette you gotta stop texting me off your ring, I can never tell what your trying to say.

Alya: you texted me and said, 'bring some queer'.

Alaya: I'm assuming you meant, bring beer but just in case I brought Adrien.

Adrien, popping out from behind Alya: What? I'm not gay?

Alya: dude what? Yes you are.

Adrien: You guys always joke about that, but I swear-

Alya: well then I don't need yah!

Adrien: I walked here with you, what am I supposed to do?

Alya: oh my God

Alya, violently knocking on the door: Marinette answer the door!

[gremoria411]

Fuck it, it’s been out for….. however many days now, let’s talk about the Gundam Murmur.

Gonna be discussing the design and sorta just general implications of its existence (like I did a little with the Haagenti and Rustal).

Design-wise, gorgeous. I love how unique it looks compared to units that came before it, while still retaining enough Gundam-like features to not look too out of place. It is, I suppose, the limit of the Gundam’s human-centric design (watch something else come out that just blows this out of the water), especially since it’s primary weapons (the Surgical Feathers) are controlled via remote (through Alaya-Vijinana). It makes sense as a weapon system, since it seems to be designed to overwhelm a Mobile Armour from range. The form and flowing armour I find quite pleasing - I’d like to assume the engraving was added postwar (particularly since the Fareed’s are part of the Seven Stars), but I’ve absolutely nothing to back that up with. I did think that given the nature of its weapons systems, it’s possible that it relied on a lot of other units (like Hugo’s or Rodi’s) to tie up enemy mobile armours until it could strike the killing blow, so perhaps they’re there to inspire its vassals? Then again, the surgical stylings of its equipment seem to be pointing in a different direction.

I’ve seen a lot of comparisons going around with the Qubeley, because of the flowing nature of its armour, but I honestly associate it more with the Gundam Harute (Final Battle ver.), likely due to the skirt, back weapons and orange colouration. I do have a fondness for the head - it feels quite removed from the typical design, thanks to its large shape, but it retains the key features (twin-eye, “horns”, faceplate). It could even be said that the both have a significant compliment of ranged weaponry, since the Harute has Scissor Fangs. I do like how it’s upper half seems rather lightly armoured, since it makes it seem mobile and able to fight with its surgical knives - too much armour would make it’s mobility less believable, so it’s a nice touch. I generally like skirts on mobile suits (a good example off the top of my head would be the Xamel), so Murmur going the whole hog with a dress and a bunch of knives is just wonderful.

Alrighty, so I mentioned way, waaaaay back when talking about the Haagenti that it’d be interesting to see what the other Seven Stars Gundams are that remain in Vingolf along with Bael (barring Kimaris, obviously)

(Which is a thought. Wonder how Kimaris’ loss was covered up. It’s all very well saying Gaelio died at Edmonton, but surely you’d at least recover the Gundam frame. Supposedly the official records were doctored to say that the Kimaris had been returned, but I feel like someone should’ve at least checked if it’d been returned.) (Hm. Though now I am imagining Rustal just swapping the armour onto Haagenti and then smuggling it into the Baudin’s vault, which is fun).

Anyway, we now have the Fareed and Kujan Family Gundam’s leaving only the Baklazan and Issue families to go (I’ve been seeing some theories floating around regarding the Issue family Gundam, so it’ll be interesting to see how accurate they are). So, to recap, there’s 8 Gundam frames in Vingolf (unless House Baklazan’s missing theirs or something) of the 26 confirmed to still be in existence at the start of Iron Blooded Orphans in P.D. 323 (though we don’t know who’s doing the confirming, so that number’s fairly loose).

So, what does this mean regarding our erstwhile Agnika Kaieru Impersonator over here?

Mcgillis Fareed stood to, and by the second season did, inherit the Gundam Murmur as part of his position in the Seven Stars. It’s not difficult to fathom why it wasn’t used in his coup - Mcgillis wishes to inherit the power of Agnika Kaieru - Bael, the symbol of Gjallarhorn. If anything, I’d wager he actively wants to reject his connection to the Fareeds not only because of his relationship with Iznario, but also because it would tie his coup to the Seven Stars. It would cheapen it to (in his mind) an internal power struggle within the echelons of Gjallarhorn, rather than the glorious revolution he wants it to be, spurred by the inheritor of Agnika Kaieru’s legacy.

Ironically, Murmur’s rejected because it’s a thing of the past - The Fareed family is shortly to cease being an active part of Gjallarhorn as Mcgillis rejects it, Iznario no longer holds any power with which to access it and it’s not a part of the world that Mcgillis wants to create. It’s part of a bygone age - a symbol of the Seven Stars system that Mcgillis aims to remove.

How very poetic.

[nyaacaron]

Alaya thinks she's funny, well, I'm about to be hilarious

[p5x-theories]

Thanks for the story summary! It's so large and detailed, im impressed by the diligence.

I'd like to add to the Persona blank slate discussion too, by noting that they are less 'blank slates' but rather instead 'cool enough' for you to 'self insert' into. You are Joker, this cool rebel, they're given enough personality for you to insert into, with the dialogue options all things Joker could say or do for you to self insert into the role. If Joker had the time, he could and probably would say (nearly) all of them. That's why you have the dialogue options, to help with the inserting.

Persona 1's protagonist is very interesting too because our Boy With Earring, is only given very small bits of character, for a different purpose that I really like, and you may already know but im rambling anyway.

He's rather aimless, he wags classes, he sneaks into the casino, several people are concerned for him. But the tagline is 'Be Your True Mind', so as you progress, you are asked a litany of questions and do small tasks- and at the Alaya Cavern, a final dungeon, the shadow shows up and judges you on everything youve done during the game. It makes him very difficult to do as a manga or anime protagonist, because he becomes quite literally a reflection of the player's choices, as opposed to a vessel that the player inserts into/inhabits, throughout the game. This is why the p1 manga does something entirely different, youre not there to mold him. Fun Stuff.

You're very welcome!! It makes me happy to know people appreciate the effort I put into the story summaries, haha, they're a lot of work.

That's a good point about self-inserts, as well! The dialogue options are there to help you feel more like you're the character, while ironically staying in-character for the supposed "blank slate" of a protagonist they've actually created. On that note, I always find it particularly interesting when the protagonist's choices- for instance, several of Wonder's in this latest update- all essentially say the same thing, and your only option is which exact aspect they focus on, or how exactly they phrase the question. It sort of takes you out of the self-insert aspect a bit, and abruptly reinforces that the protagonist would do this- it's almost like turning the tables, and suddenly it's not about you projecting onto the protagonist, it's about the protagonist turning around and saying you are acting as me, and I'm doing this, so you're picking this, haha.

And I like how you're adapting that line of thinking to the P1 protagonist as well, that's a great argument. Though I'll always find it funny that, regardless of anything the player chooses or does, thanks to the students at St. Hermelin we'll always know he's a slacker who doesn't do well in his classes, alongside the other little traits you mentioned, haha! It kind of creates an interesting characterization situation, in the respect, because like you said, he's much more of a reflection of the player's choices than the later protagonists, but there's also still these little moments where you don't have control over him, either in the sense of other characters' observations about him, or little actions he does. And of course, it says something in and of itself that his personal Shadow judges him (you) based on his actions! He's an interesting case study all on his own, for sure.

[animeladybug]

Happy Felix Day!

Since Friday the 13th lands in October this year, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to patch together this quick little birthday fic for our favorite grumpy espresso kitty.

"Swiss?"

"Huh?" Alya turned to face her friend with a somewhat confused expression.

"Swiss chocolates? Does he like those?" Marinette inquired.

"I don't know. He's rich, so.. maybe.." Alya trepidatiously responded.

"Maybe German made stuff?" Marinette asked again as though she hadn't heard the answer. Her ahoge curved into a sort of question mark shape.

"Peanut butter." Alya quickly countered.

"Huh?" Marinette turned and acknowledged Alya for the first time since the conversation started.

"From what I've seen in his very close circle, Felix likes peanut butter candy. His Dad won't let him eat chocolate at all, but when he gets an opportunity, it's THAT one." Alya concluded with a wry smile.

"HUH?! So.. That means.. If someone GAVE him some candies like that…" Marinette half-whispered to herself, a crimson blush beginning to cross her cheeks. Her ahoge now curving into the shape of a heart.

"Like a certain LUCKY BUG perhaps?" Alaya hinted in a mild tone, capping it off with a wink.

"ALYA! SHHH!" Marinette frantically shushed, holding her index finger to her mouth with a panicked expression.

"Oh, it's okay.." Alya assured her friend with a casual glance around the campus grounds "No one can hear."

"You can never be TOO careful!" Marinette replied in a hushed tone and a suspicious expression, her ahoge now slowly spinning in circles like a radar. "Besides.. I CAN'T use my powers for selfish reasons, you know that! Something bad would happen to Felix or me!"

Alya simply heaved a sigh and replied "Mari dear, you don't take enough risks. If you love Felix THAT much, you've got to be willing enough to do something wild to get his attention!"

"I..I do love him, Alya.." Marinette replied timidly, her ahoge reflecting the heart shape once more. "But a birthday gift has to be carefully thought out. Besides, I DO have a plan.." She said. A slight grin beginning to form on her lips.

"THAT'S my girl! Always resourceful!" Alya smiled back.

Suddenly, the cheerful mood was cut short by a stray black cat traipsing by.

"Just a coincidence.. Don't worry." Alya attempted to assure her friend.

"SHUT UP!" Felix Sphinx shouted as he tossed the book halfway across the room, it just barely missed Plagg, his floating black cat fairy near the edge of his private library.

"HEEEY! Watch it! That was too close for comfort!" He complained.

"DON'T push me!" Felix snapped back at the mischievous creature. "I'm NOT going to let THIS birthday end up like the rest! I'm GOING to find a way to woo Ladybug!"

"Well, you don't have to take it out on me just because you can't stand some constructive criticism, birthday boy!" Plagg spat, crossing his arms defensively.

"For it to be constructive criticism, Plagg, it has to be CONSTRUCTIVE to begin with! All you've given me is DESTRUCTIVE criticism!" Felix growled, digging his face into the book he'd been reading. [Some peanut butter chocolates would really hit the spot right now..] He thought somewhat distantly.

Marinette sweated feverishly.. Carefully inserting the peanut butter interiors into each small chocolate pieces on her kitchen counter with the skill of a surgeon.

"Mari.. I really think you're overworking yourself!" Tikki, the small ladybug fairy imparted as she floated near her.

"Tikki! I've been making pastries since I was a child! I THINK I know what I'm doing!" Marinette responded tersely.

"Yes, but HOW LONG have you made them while KNITTING a scarf with your TOES?!" Tikki demanded.

"I'm on a time crunch, okay?!" Mari replied snippishly.

The next day, Marinette's ahoge probed around the large oak tree located near the school bench where Felix sat reading a book. With expert stealth and skill, she climbed the tree up towards the top, with a bundle carefully cradled in her free hand. Her ahoge then pointed forward slightly, as though acting like a targeting site near the empty seat near him. Then, with the grace of a trained bombardier, dropped the payload, which landed with a light thud next to the object of her affection!

Felix's eyes flared open with surprise, instinctively taking a combat position as he looked around with confusion only to see not a foe in sight. He cautiously looked over to see the bundle wrapped in decorative paper near him. Examining a tag attached, it declared in fanciful script "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FELIX!" His eyes still wide with surprise as they darted up to the treetop above him!

Marinette lay perfectly still on the limb she was wrapped around.. Trying her best not to betray her position. [Please don't let him see me! PLEASE don't let him see me!] She thought.

After a few more seconds and a sniff of indifference. Felix picked up the package and sauntered off with it.

[YES! He took it! He took..] Marinette began to think elatedly, before quickly losing her grip and tumbling from the tree! Now flat on her back in the soft grass, whatever nagging discomfort she felt was blocked by a sense of relief.. "Happy Birthday, Felix, my darling.." She said softly to herself.

"HEY! FREEZE!" Ladybug shouted to the sure-footed thief now bolting from one moonlit rooftop to another!

"HA! Nice try kid, but I'm outta.. HEEAAAAA!" The thief began to turn and taunt before he slipped and slid on roof tiles that suddenly came loose and attached to his feet, which he then proceeded to become entangled into a clothesline suspended in between two buildings.

From out of the shadows, Chat Noir casually sauntered over and snatched the stolen purse out of the thief's hand. "Sorry, pal. You're fresh outta LUCK!" He remarked.

"Hey, thanks again.." Ladybug remarked somewhat reservedly.

"Hmmph.. My pleasure, mon cherie.." Chat replied, swaggering over to the object of his desire. "You know.. Tonight is Friday the 13th.. And it's known to be.. quite unlucky.. Perhaps you'd be better off if a certain black cat crossed."

"OkaythanksI'mgoingtogivethisbacktotheladyhestolethisfrombye!" Ladybug declared in a rapid fire delivery, before leaping off the rooftop.

"Sigh This truly IS an unlucky day.." Chat moped.

Ladybug, having returned the purse to its rightful owner and now cascading carefree from the lampposts and rooftops on the slightly chilly Paris night couldn't help but notice something was different about the somewhat irritating fellow vigilante.. Something familiar.. About the scent of his breath..

[Peanut butter?] She thought to herself.

[wordsandrobots]

Been up in Harrogate for this year's Thought Bubble convention, during the course of which, @thedancingwalrus-blog and I got talking about how you might do a Gundam (specifically Iron-Blooded Orphans but probably generally applicable) TTRPG.

Because, while I have flicked through Lancer, that seems to follow a very combat-focused Armoured Core-like model, which is not how Gundam tends to operate. I'm not saying one couldn't adapt it (and I'm sure some people are already on that), but at base, I think you'd want a system that would allow you to incorporate a lot more non-pilot roles into a party. Your C&C, your mechanics, and so on. Essentially, if you actually wanted to capture something akin to how Gundam has traditionally operated, you need to be able to do both Epic Giant Robot Fights with appropriate aircraft carrier support, and the obligatory dramatic/homoerotic fencing as you corner your rival in an exploding space fortress.

I think, based on my limited experiences and @thedancingwalrus-blog's considerably greater knowledge, that means skewing more towards character-based gameplay than machinery. Obviously, the mecha are important, but in Gundam, it's always the pilot that makes the difference, and there's always more than pilots contributing. (I'm aware of Mekton, which I think did something similar, putting character-building first; it just doesn't sound like my idea of fun.)

Thus maybe a three by three set of attributes like Vampire the Masquerade?

Physical

Endurance -- what can you take?

Reflex -- how fast can you react?

Training -- do you know what you are doing?

Mental

Intelligence -- how smart are you?

Awareness -- are you paying attention?

Education -- did you go to school?

Social

Social standing -- how does society view you?

Charisma -- how do others react to you?

Experience -- do you know what's going on?

I think this probably captures most of what you'd what to quantify from a Gundam character, with its spacenoid/earthnoid, earthian/spacian, colonist/core kind of divisions and all manner of silver-tongued aces and psychic teenagers.

Then you could have Newtype powers to boost awareness, Alaya-Vijnana systems to boost reflex, being the president's daughter to boost experience, and so on. You could do backgrounds that would set bonuses or penalties to various attributes e.g. for social standing: Human Debris = -3, Martian war orphan = -2, space colonist = -1, Gjallarhorn aristocrat = +2 (or the equivalent). And you could do experience gain -- quite literally -- by boosting the 'learning' stats.

But then of course at some point you have to weld this to a combat mechanic and I'm not sure of that part. Certainly I think having some kind of initiative order where you can have mecha fighting, captains surveying the battlefield and directing ship fire, mechanics doing repairs/optimisation and so on, and having the order they go in mattering. Like, a pilot can race ahead of their captain, but that'll mean not getting the help of a tactical overview. That could model something like Judau charging ahead of the Agama, without getting a full view of what's actually going on, leaving Bright to frantically play catch-up. Or they could wait, holding their turn until their captain can give them a better idea of what they're up against.

Beyond that . . . well, mecha specs would obviously have to play some a part. IBO has the frames, which could provide discrete base stats like Lancer, that you then build out with armour and weaponry. I don't think you'd need much in the way of scale variation. Then again, I suppose mobile worker -> mobile suit -> mobile armour would work as another division.

I'm thinking some sort of base power stat (Ahab reactor) that then gets split between attack, speed and defence . . . but really I need to work out what kind of basic mechanic to adapt before I try to go further with this idea.

(Please note: I am not a big TTRPG person *at all*. But it might be fun and I really like the Post Disaster setting would be good for running games in.)