#Also I would like a mango alliance

[chic-beyond-the-wall-oc-acct]

For Abigail:

🍎 [RED APPLE] Who does your OC value above all else?

🥭 [MANGO] What colours best represent them and why? Does this differ from their favourites?

🍎[RED APPLE] Who does your OC value above all else?

Herself... Kinda. Her answer would be herself but really it's her father. Tyrion may not be the number one dad but he's her best friend. Does she suffer from Cersei's "I see myself in this person, therefore they're important to me" syndrome? Yes. He's also her main comfort person. Unless he's completely unavailable he's the only person she goes to when she's sad or scared. Losing him after Joffrey's death is probably one of the worst things she goes through. He believes she blames him for the death of "the love of her life," because that's what he was told. He's actively avoiding anyone she sends out to find him, and he doesn't believe anyone who tells him she holds nothing against him.

🥭 [MANGO] What colours best represent them and why? Does this differ from their favourites?

The colors that best represent Abigail are blue purple and white. I don't draw her in either very much because I'm used to the Lannister red BUT I plan on fixing that. The white is because of her White Lion alter ego (I say alter ego because she actively gives the persona it's own personality and alliances and everything like that.) Purple is a royal color and I intend to have her be the one that popularizes the color for House Blackfyre, but it looks good with her right eye (I know it's on the left side of all her drawings but she's meant to be looking at us sooo) I always describe the color as a "twilight blue" so there's where the blue comes in. Blue paired with purple is definitely her thing...but she also looks good in green... still tho, white, purple and blue.

[doshi-sukiru]

Hey! I read your fic and I can only say that I love Jinzi. She was so happy with her parents that it hurts to see that she is no longer with them and that destroyed them. I'm a masochist, but I would like to be able to read scenes where Macaque breaks the news to Wukong that they will have a baby, how Macaque pregnancy went. Only them being happy because they deserved to be happy....

*Le sigh* The things I do for you readers . . .

dw I like the idea! I rarely write fluff, so this will be fun! I’ll write how his pregnancy goes in a separate post so I don’t make this one too big. 

✨ How Wukong found out Macaque was expecting ✨

---------------------------

Wukong knew something off with his mate when he watched him hissing and growling at the male monkeys whenever they came by. It didn’t have to be adult ones either, even young boys were scared off. He would try to stop him, but the king felt an anger of his own when they came near his mate too. 

He also noticed how Macaque seemed to show himself less and less to their subjects. The shadow monkey didn’t even show his face when his own father, the macaque king, came to the mountain the week before. 

The females seemed to huddle him and whisper to the shadow monkey all the time as well, which pissed off the great sage even more. What was so important to them that they couldn’t tell their king? He sat on his throne and saw Macaque enter. 

“Míhoú,” Wukong called out to the snow monkey. He narrowed his eyes when he noticed how his mate seemed to freeze at the simple action. He also saw the pile of clothes in the other’s hands - all of them belonging to his wardrobe no less - and raised an eyebrow. “Come here, please.” 

Macaque hesitated, before nodding and making his way to the throne. He gripped onto his lover’s clothes tightly looked at the Sage’s amber eyes. “Yes . . . ?” 

Wukong took Macaque’s arms and gently pulled the snow monkey to his lap. “ Míhoú . . .” The king nuzzled into his lover’s neck, chittering as he smelled the familiar scent of mangos and apricots. 

He froze when he smelled a faint scent of plums. 

He jerked his head back and looked at his lover in astonishment. “What- . . . what’s going on, Míhoú?” He held his lover tighter, his soft amber eyes sharpening glowing with anger. 

Did one of the monkeys touch him? Was it one of the baboons that came by the other day to discuss alliances? He knew his mate was too loyal to perform such an act, so someone had to have-

Macaque caressed his face, pulling him out his angered state. He blinked and looked at his mate. Macaque’s face was contorted with concern. “Wukong,” He began, his soft voice immediately causing the Great Sage to relax and lean back on his throne. “Whatever you’re thinking about in your head, cease it. It’s much better than you think.” 

Wukong didn’t know when he it happened, but he started purring to his mate’s touch. He felt Macaque’s hand move up and to the back of his head. His scent seemed to consume Wukong’s attention as the Sage went back to burying his head into that corner. He huffed whenever he smelled the plums, though. 

“Then what is it, Míhoú?” He mumbled. “Why do you smell different? Why do you hide from everyone? What is going on?” 

Macaque only smiled and kissed his mate. His own purr seemed to relax the king once more, letting him slide closer to his lover. Such a dangerous lover he was; wasn’t too skilled on the battlefield, but was the only person who could send Wukong to his knees. 

The shadow monkey eventually pulled away, and chuckled when he heard his mate whine at the loss. “I thought you’d notice it immediately, my love,” Macaque took one of Wukong’s hands and gently placed it over his stomach. 

The king stared at his hand and tried to understand what it meant. He glanced at his mate, utter confusion written on his face. 

It seemed it was enough to make Macaque laugh, because it was the first time in a while since he heard his mate laugh so loudly. “Oh my darling,” He chuckled, and shook his head. The snow monkey connected their foreheads together, keeping his smile. 

“I’m expecting, Wukong.” 

Wukong’s eyes widened, and silence surrounded the two. “Expecting,” The king finally whispered. “You’re expecting.” Macaque nodded, his smile only growing. “You’re expecting. You- I- wha-” He cupped his lover’s face. “When? How long?” 

Macaque giggled at his mate’s reaction and placed his own hands over the others. “Just over two weeks.” Macaque could see Wukong’s tail wagging excitedly behind him at the news, and it only seemed to make the snow monkey happier. 

“Hahaha!” Wukong laughed and picked up his mate. He stood up and spun him around for a bit, his joy overfilling his thought process for a moment. It all made sense now. Why he felt more angered towards the male monkeys, why Macaque was hiding, and why the females seemed to only be interested in his mate. 

“I’m gonna be a father!” He yelled happily. He stopped spinning Macaque, only to kiss him deeply. He never felt so jovial in his life before. They would have an heir to their line, a new member in his kingdom. 

How lucky was he, Wukong thought. To have a child shortly after promising to spend an eternity with my love.

Things never seemed better for the couple. 

[chaozsilhouette]

Moonlit Musings

The night is such a perfect time to face one’s darkest truths. Shrouded in the moon’s light what can one do but admit to their flaws. It can be a time of rejuvenation and rebirth, only if you let it.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

It was a quiet night.

The full moon hung high in the heavens accompanied by millions of stars. Not a cloud to be seen, an ideal night for passions to run wild. Normally people would be taking out their telescopes or arranging romantic picnics.

Sadly, nights like these only filled Sun Wukong with dread. It was a night like this when he was finally able to return after the Journey. That was the night he learned he had lost a precious treasure.

When he returned, he expected to be greeted by his subjects until Macaque showed himself. He expected to be strangled as the pale furred monkie admonished him for his recklessness. He expected to watch as fury transformed into tearful joy as they embraced one another for the first time in over five hundred years.

But that wasn’t what happened.

The moment he set foot back onto Flower Fruit Mountain, he sensed something was very wrong. Like his previous return trips, his subjects greeted him with loud celebrations. The new mothers showed off their infants. The young ones wasted no time climbing all over him, taking in the scent of their king.

The immortal elders, however, looked concerned.

That was when he realized Macaque’s scent on the mountain was far too faint. Even the magical signature of his clones no longer felt fresh.

Macaque was nowhere to be found. The monkeys reported Macaque had returned a few years after he stopped by the mountain earlier in the Journey but not as his usual self. He didn’t respond to any of their questions. He didn’t even take time to check in on the infants. He didn’t say a word.

He just entered the mansion, but no one saw him leave.

Entering the mansion, Wukong dashed to their room desperate for answers. Opening the doors, he saw the room was horribly empty, sure all of his belonging were exactly as he remembered them, but all of Macaque’s stuff was gone. Macaque’s closet was empty and all his books had vanished. Despite his desperate hopes, there wasn’t any signs of a struggle or hidden messages to be found.

Macaque left of his own free will, but why?

He couldn’t bring himself to sleep in the bed they shared so many nights together. Every time he dared, he awoke expect to be greeted with the comforting warmth of familiar presence, instead he opened his eyes to a cold emptiness.

The lack of answers broke his heart, but he didn’t have time to start tearing the landscape apart trying to find him. Now that he was back for good, he had so many responsibilities to catch up on. He was determined to be a good king for his subjects and that meant ughthinking things through. Plus, he wanted to spend as much time with his master and brothers as possible.

Then there was the concerning fact all his previous allies had severed their alliance with him.

Apparently after all the fuss with the Demon Bull King, word had spread that Wukong broke their alliance by disrespecting protocol and attacking the royal family. Plus, his new position as a defender of humanity annoyed more than a few respectable demons. Combined with the sheer number of powerful demons he killed on the Journey cemented the idea that having an alliance with him would only end poorly.

He was banned from court meetings and the other kings in the surrounding areas wanted nothing to do with him. The chaotic nature of his past had finally caught up to him and in the worst possible way.

He was still recognized as the Monkey King of the Sun Court but was effectively blacklisted. No one wanted to mess with him, but they also didn’t want to interact with him. Not good for his mental health to say the least.

Simians are naturally social creatures. Wukong was used to constantly being around other people and learning new things. His time imprisoned was not kind. His first year of freedom had him constantly climbing over his brothers and master just to reassure himself that this was real.

And now that he couldn’t reconnect with old faces unless it was through a battle to the death…It forced him to delve into old memories. Memories that while sweet only made the emptiness more pronounced.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

Sun Wukong smiled as he watched Macaque’s reaction.

The six-eared monkie was furiously pinching the bridge between his eyebrows after he shattered a boulder with a careless headbutt as though it would make his life mercifully easier. “You’ll have to explain it to me again. What did you mean by ‘no longer under Yama’s jurisdiction’?”

“Exactly what I said. I was napping. Having some time to myself, when out of nowhere some idiots tried to take my soul to the afterlife.” Wukong explained as though having entities of death rip out your soul to drag it to the underworld was no big deal.

“Bet you weren’t happy.” Macaque couldn’t help but smirk at the flippant tone. He just made it so difficult to stay mad.

“Not in the slightest. I barged my way to the top brass, bunch of cowards called the Ten Kings (totally undeserved titles by the way) and demanded what the fuck was going on.” He was still ticked off even if the payoff was sweet. Seriously! Did immortality mean nothing to these cowards? They couldn’t even play it off as him dying in battle. He was in the peak of his youth! “Can you believe they tried to play it off as a misunderstanding? Should have smacked the loudmouth when I was there.”

“So, through a series of ridiculous events, you erased your name from the records of the dead.” Macaque could easily piece together the rest from there. No matter how ridiculous the odds. He learned never to bet against his friend when a problem could be handled with brute strength or intimidation. If it didn’t look like such an answer was possible, clearly, they hadn’t experienced the force of a determined Wukong. Something about facing a ticked off monkie of practically infinite strength and invulnerability left harden conquerors pissing themselves.

It was hilarious.

“Not just mine. In my infinite wisdom, I erased the names of several of the monkey inhabitants of esteemed Flower Fruit Mountain, including yours.” Wukong playfully booped Macaque’s nose.

Turning away to hide a light blush, Macaque scoffed to cover his embarrassing response. “Typical. I can’t leave you alone for five minutes without you doing something insane.”

“I know. I’m just that awesome.”

“So what? Are we now double immortal?” That was the question wasn’t it. Due to their master’s instructions, they were immortal and ageless, so what exactly would this give them? He didn’t feel any different. He couldn’t sense any new powers or changes in his instincts.

His counterpart, however, had other things on his mind. “Who cares. All I know is that those idiots have no control over our souls anymore.” And with that the King took his rightful place across Macaque’s lap as the other returned to his scrolls.

Wukong instead took the time to examine his friend, who finally gained enough confidence to fully drop his glamour and embrace his true appearance.

He still couldn’t believe Macaque actually had six ears. The weird part was how natural they looked, almost as if seeing him with only two was bizarre. The coolest part was how each pair softly glowed a different color. Blue. Purple. Red. Sometimes Wukong would just stare at them, imagining that he could see glittering stars emanating from that glow.

Suddenly those magnificent ears twitched. Macaque didn’t bother looking up from the bamboo scroll. “A trespasser...multiple, boar and vulture demon. Another hunting party”.

“Again. Ugh. Don’t these idiots ever give up!” Don’t get him wrong, Wukong loved a good fight. What better way to prove how superior you are to others than to steal what’s most precious to them? But even he was starting to grow bored with the sheer number of hunters that thought kidnapping his subjects was a quick cash grab.

After the fifth army he returned in pieces to the surrounding upstart lords, you’d think they’d take a hint.

Thankfully he wasn’t the only powerhouse on the mountain. “I haven’t tasted blood in a while. Why don’t I defend the kingdom while your highness enjoys a show?” Macaque set aside his reading material, eyes glittering with bloodlust.

Wukong returned the smirk with one of his own. “I’m always up for a good thrashing. One request: make it glorious.”

“Don’t I always.” Macaque joked as he retrieved his spear from his own shadow.

Wukong summoned his cloud and claimed a good vantage point. Once again, he marveled at his friend’s hearing. Judging by the distance it would have been at least three hours before he would have detected their presence.

Kicking back, he transformed some hair into a fruit platter and waited for the screams.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

To this day, Wukong knew Macaque was alive. Thanks to his efforts combined with the intense training, the monkie was double immortal. Besides, that monkkie was way too stubborn to die. He would survive purely on spite if he had to.

Macaque left, but why?

While he may have effectively isolated himself, that didn’t mean he didn’t hear about the other courts. A few centuries ago, he heard rumors about the formation of a new court by someone under the title of the Macaque King. Supposedly they were a powerful monkie who knew way more than he had the right to. For a brief moment, Wukong dared to hope it was his old friend, but it didn’t last. The few recounts he caught described him with black fur. Besides, he knew how much Macaque hated the title of King. Even when Wukong offered him the position as co-ruler of his kingdom, the pale monkie adamantly refused.

Still, he was curious.

For a few weeks he could have sworn he detected a familiar scent hiding underneath Mk’s. And he wasn’t the only one who noticed. A few of the immortal monkeys questioned him on the mango infused scent and what his plans were. It was almost too much to take in.

To think he returned to teach his student instead of showing his face. It hurt just to think about it. He chose to ignore the beckoning scent until it became impossible to ignore MK’s leap in progress. Then it just vanished like it hadn’t been testing his patience. Like it hadn’t brought him to the brink of shaking the kid upside down until he confessed where his old friend was hiding. The kid probably grew wise, or someone told him to change his bathing habits, and by the next training session it was all but gone.

Dragging his hand down his face, Wukong tried to reevaluate his thoughts.

Getting mad at the kid wasn’t going to solve anything. He knew he hadn’t been the most attentive master. Hell, the whole hammer exercise at its core was a desperate attempt to remove a painful reminder of better times. His master would be disappointed in how he was running away from his problems, but would encourage him to take the steps to be better. Zhu Bajie would be a sarcastic little shit, trying to get him riled up so the monkie would prove him wrong. Sha Wujing would sit him down and wouldn’t let him leave until they talked everything through.

He had to make things right with the kid. He deserved a better master. And this New Years he was gonna get one.

He spoke, praying the winds would carry his voice to his Warrior.

“Macaque. I know it’s been a while, but…I-I want to talk. I know you’re out there, somewhere I can’t reach. I miss sparring with you. I miss lazy days napping in the shade by your side. I miss defending the mountain as we held contests to see who could take out the most trespassers before their common sense kicked in. I miss you. Please come home.”

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

The moon was high in the sky. Stars danced in the heavens as the faintest hints of vibrations pulsed through the concrete from the late-night dance clubs. MK lay awake, his mind struggling to make sense of it all.

Ever since Macaque disappeared in order to remain undetected, he kept thinking about his relationship with the Monkey King. Sure, he was being trained and he was definitely making progress. The monkie was still on his case for supposedly cheating on him with another mentor. Nothing MK said or did could make the monkie think otherwise. Thankfully, he was no longer shooting him suspicious glares, but the underlying tension remained.

The sad truth is they just weren’t that close.

He would have expected to learn more about the Monkey King on a personal and emotional level, but he just couldn’t get past that wall. Their training sessions felt more like just the Monkey King arranged just to get it over with. There was no passion at all.

Okay, perhaps that last bit was an exaggeration.

When you peered past the arrogance and pride, you found one socially awkward monkie. It was similar to Red Son the more he thought about it, both seemed to find it difficult to talk to or relate to others in a friendly setting. Sure, Monkey King projected a friendly demeanor and called him “bud”, but if he didn’t know any better he could have sworn the monkie was afraid to take that final step.

The last few sessions had taken a bit of a turn in a positive direction as Sandy would say. Maybe Monkey King decided it was time to make a change? Maybe this was all a trick so MK would lower his guard and reveal Macaque’s identity? Maybe he was just tired and should have conked out an hour ago?

Maybe.

Reality was so different from the legends. When Tang first introduced him to the Monkey stories, he was hooked. He loved listening to the tales of the infamous trickster that flipped off every major religious figure with unbridled confidence. Meeting the Great Sage in the flesh was like a dream come true until he was exposed to the King’s less pleasant tendencies.

Mk couldn’t help but wonder just how much confidence the Monkey King had in his training skills. Did he ever train someone before? Could MK talk to someone about this without appearing even more ungrateful than he already looked? Why didn’t he stop Red Son from unsealing his father when he was there? Why didn’t he simply seal the entire family when they were reunited? Why did the five times immortal sage decide that now he needed to train a disciple? Was Monkey King not telling him something important?

He had so many questions and not even the foggiest idea of where to start looking. Or perhaps he did?

The truth was he missed Macaque. The dark-furred monkie may have only taught him for a month, but the progress he made and the level of care he was exposed to made him feel as though he had finally unlocked the ability to fly.

He missed the regular grooming. He missed learning about the demon community. He missed learning new ways to mess with Red Son through appropriate court manners.

Watching the fire user freeze up at the term “honorable prince of the Iron Bull Court” just made him laugh, when his hair combusted it really matched his face. Now that he thought about it, were those horns starting to peek out of his forehead? And maybe the slightest hint of a tufted tail swiping the bottom of his coat? Seeing the demon frantically compose himself was a treat he didn’t know he needed. He still had the video saved as one of his favorites, didn’t hurt that Mei caught it at the perfect angle.

Oh yeah, he missed that.

With any luck, New Years would be the start of something better.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

On an island that remained surrounded by unquenchable storms, a single black-furred monkie sat cross-legged in a secluded part attached to the palace. All around him fruit trees and bushes bore a hefty bounty releasing an intoxicating scent of life.

Ears twitched.

Macaque opened his eyes, aroused from his meditation. It was odd. He had the faintest sensation that someone had been talking about him. Now that wasn’t exactly unusual, he made plenty of allies and enemies across the centuries. What was odd was that the voice sounded like someone he once cherished.

But that couldn’t be right.

The deceptive silence of his personal orchard gave him no answers. Not that he really expected it to.

For some reason he refused to identify, Macaque turned to the single peach tree in the grove. A tribute from his past and a reminder of his mistakes. But it was also a valuable resource once he learned the truth about the peach’s properties. He used its powers to protect many happy relationships, if only it could have helped him so long ago.

No matter.

He still had many projects to work on, including one successor just rife with insecurities. He honestly felt bad ducking out as he did. If things were different, he would have offered him a new life. His Stars were always happy to welcome a new member into their budding community.

As a bonus, his presence would have interrupted their constant attempts to set him up with new dates. He adored their efforts but being paired with partners who only wanted power or he would view only as friends was not something he enjoyed. Although watching them mentally destroy those they didn’t find suitable for him was quite entertaining.

Either way, New Years was coming up fast and he still needed to approve a few changes. His Stars were determined to make sure this event topped last years in every way possible, but they had to make sure they didn’t set the orchard on fire again. Or worse, they could launch the fireworks into the storm barrier. He wasn’t sure why or how, but the tornadoes and clouds turned different colors as explosions rang throughout the night.

It was beautiful but lost its charm after the third day.

[asnowperson]

But are you reading Shoukoku no Altair?

As the nerd who spends way too much time while translating Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago, I wanted to make a post on my first "Ottoman" manga: Shoukoku no Altair.

Left: A real-life Mahmut (Ottoman Sultan, Mahmut II). Right: Japanese Mahmut. I know that Altair has nothing to with his time period, but I can't help but think about Mahmut II everytime I hear the name "Mahmut". He's such a boss. So in my mind, a Mahmut can never be as bishounen as Tughril Mahmut.

I first saw that manga in the dark corners of LiveJournal years ago, at a time when there weren't even scanlations. And I LOVED the art. But back then, due to the lack of scans and because I couldn't even read the Japanese title, I forgot about it for years. Yes, I do have a very bad memory.

Fast forward to 2017, Shoukoku no Altair got an anime adaptation. And when was I going to start reading this Ottoman-inspired manga if not now? Like I did with DoD, I expected it to be an orientalist trainwreck. But little did I know that Katou Kotono had a degree in history and the more I got into Altair, the more I would be crying about how ignorant I was. I quickly caught up with the story. And boy, did I love it! (The anime adaptation doesn't do this manga justice. And I'm still mad that they skipped an entire sea battle.)

Published SnA volumes, minus the latest vol. 24, and the fanbook. Japan should bring SAL back already, I want to be able to buy my mangos without developing shipping strategies.

Warning for DoD fans, this is a full shounen manga. There is no shoujo romance to see here (I'm still mad at the editors for forcing that dancer girl in the story in the earlier volumes because a shounen manga had to have a female love interest. I'm glad we didn't get to see her again and if anything, not-Vlad the Impaler's cute daughter would make a better waifu for a pasha like Mahmut). It's about the wars between the not-Ottomans and the not-Holy Roman Empire, complete with some Italian city-state drama. It only has battles, politics and keikakus. Huge armies maneuver in battle, alliances are made and broken, heads fly, armies clash, cities are besieged, we peek at the logistics behind huge armies, and civil war and coup d'états can happen any moment! If you are in DoD for politics, I'm sure you will love Altair because it actually delivers in that department.

My little pasha can't be this smug. Vol. 20, and vol. 9's cover from the Milkazzar Altair art book (2014). Those volume covers have me screaming.

Unlike DoD, Altair is not a fully historical manga, so it's not based on real events nor there's a set time frame for it. But looking at the story elements, we can say that it's set somewhere around the second half of the 15th century. So it's somewhat close to DoD's time frame if we squeeze hard enough. I also think Burak Paşa, the "sultan" in Altair, kind of resembles to an old Suleiman I.

Every little detail in Altair is just chef's kiss! Katou-sensei has a vast knowledge of military tactics and uses it in every chapter of Altair. And huge kudos to Sense Scans and their translator, murakumo, who did a perfect job. Turkish written in kana hurts my brain, and I always check their scans before going "naruhodo!". Go check their Altair blog, it's awesome and has lots of info on the manga and you can find pretty manga artwork there. And after thanking them, go buy the manga in a language you can read, it's very likely licensed in yours.

Now my little inner fangirl will speak: Altair has the finest men and boys. You can't find this many bishounen even in 70s shoujo manga. Even if you don't care about all those battle tactics, you might care about all the bishies! Anyway have this very soft Bayezid to prove my point <3

Can you believe that this is the face of a murderer?

Let me also talk about the art in Shoukoku no Altair: It's gorgeous! That's all I can say. I legit spend minutes looking at the outfits and the accesories. Katou herself said that she was inspired by Turkish jewelry and created Altair. Check this Mahmut swag out:

Vol. 3's cover, scanned from the 2017 art book. I wish I knew how to process my images so that I could do sensei justice.

Shoukoku no Altair is licensed in English by Kodansha, and they are almost up-to-date with Japanese releases. Honestly the best timeline for reading Altair. Go read Altair while waiting for new DoD chapters.

[hiccanna-tidbits]

okay, okay but hear me out!

Hiccanna, Moanida and Jackunzel (and maybe someone else if u want) going on a holiday trip together (it could be sea or lake or just swimming pool).

And that three couples playing "chicken fight game"~ When u have to sit on partner shoulder or ridding piggy-back and knock down or separate the other couple!

sksksks just imagine the fun and the chaos!! hahaha

Okay SO I recently watched Palm Springs so I’m just imagining The Gang going to like…a fancy pool resort in like Arizona??? SURE LET’S GO WITH THAT

I’m imagining the only resort the gang could afford to stay at is someplace out in the middle of Arizona or something

It takes a LOT of persuading to get Jack to go, because he haaaaates deserts. Rapunzel basically has to beg. Moana finally managed to bribe him with really good homemade ice slushies. (She’s used to making smoothies for Merida, so how hard can slushies be??? Just throw in some ice!)

Rapunzel offers to help Moana with the slushies, since she gave Jack SO many puppy dog eyes to get him to come. Since they’ve got two people working on them, they’re REALLY good slushies. Jack approves.

Anna also tries to convince Elsa to go, but the perpetually-single Elsa is just like “Um, deserts? Sunburns? Being indefinitely stuck with gross couples doing gross couple stuff?!? Yeah no thank you”

Hiccup tries to wake everyone up at like 6 am to go hiking because "that's when the desert iguanas are out guys!!! C'mon, we have to go!!!" Anna is only persuaded to go after Hiccup makes her coffee--she really wants to make her bf happy, but also mornings can suck her dick. Rapunzel is more than happy to go, because she loves mornings anyways!!! And oh my god, IGUANAS!!! Jack, Merida, and Moana are like "oh FUCK no" and put the pillow back over their head, shoo Hiccup away, and go back to sleep.

On their hike, Hiccup just goes "!!!!!!!" about every reptile he sees. Snake, lizard, horny toad, literally anything with scales will send the boy into an excited frenzy. Rapunzel has similar reactions. Anna could not love both of them more.

At one point, they stumble across a gila monster sunbathing, and Rapunzel is overtaken with the unwavering desire to adopt him. She gets Hiccup on board, and he tries to lure the lizard over with a dusty piece of a snake carcass he found (Anna tried to tell him he really shouldn't touch that, but he was not to be swayed and Anna ended up figuring he could just wash his hands really well when they got back). Anna finds herself in the unusual position of having to be the Voice of Reason, having to be like “hey uh I think this might be illegal and stuff??? Also aren't they poisonous???”

(I know what you're thinking. Bold of you to assume Anna knows the difference between poisonous and venomous.)

Rapunzel literally CANNOT stop gushing to Jack about all the wildlife she saw when she gets back! Jackrabbits! Kangaroo rats! Roadrunners! Peccaries! Centipedes! Jack has only mild to moderate interest in desert ecology, but loves hearing his gf gush so he listens attentively anyways. 

Anna and Rapunzel definitely hit up the gift shops in the resort town at some point, and go ABSOLUTELY BATSHIT HOGWILD buying gifts for everyone. They probably max out their credit cards. It's embarrassing, really. But Anna gets Hiccup an absolute shitton of those little wall lizard things and he nearly cries tears of joy when he sees them, so it's all worth it, really.

Moana will not leave the pool like. The entire time. The girl is just obsessed with being in the water, honestly. She gets restless, though, and can't just stand in the pool and vibe--she needs to constantly be moving and swimming around or she'll explode. Merida is more than happy to indulge her by hanging out in the poor with her, but Merida is also constantly challenging her to swim races--a very dumb idea, considering Moana is on the high school swim team and water polo team. Merida, naturally, is an extremely sore loser and is not above excessive pouting, splashing, yelling in angry Scottish, and dunking her girlfriend in revenge. It's at least entertaining for all of their friends to watch.

Jack keeps fucking taking huge buckets of ice from the ice machine and dumping them in the pool. At first he only does this because he keeps griping about the pool not being cold enough (this boy will accept nothing less than sitting in the goddamn arctic ocean), but after her figures out that it pisses off his friends, he takes to pouring said ice directly over their heads. Merida has threatened to murder him several times for this.

Hiccup and Anna's main pool activity is just lazing around on their pool floaties (Anna has a duck one, Hicccup has a dragon one because obviously), sipping cocktails, and just generally vibing. Through some ungodly mixture of pure charisma and a fake ID that Rapunzel helped photoshop, Jack manages to talk his way into getting the whole group access to alcohol. Hiccup is a sangria or Moscow Mule kinda guy while Anna usually gets a Pina Colada or a Sex on the Beach (she's aspec, so she literally will not stop joking about the irony of this). Merida makes a game out of attempting to tip over their floaties and dunk them. Jack, chaos gremlin that he is, puts aside his usual rivalry with Merida to join in. They have a surprisingly strong dunking alliance.

Hiccup and Anna try to form a syndicate of their own, and try to lounge on the same floatie so that they can protect each other while fighting off Jack and Merida together. Unfortunately neither of their floaties were made to hold 2 peoples' weight, so the one they're on ends up tipping over, spilling their cocktails everywhere and dunking them anyways. Jack and Merida consider this a Win By Default.

Moana of course loops everyone into playing water polo at some point. Unfortunately some idiot decided it would be a good idea to let Merida of all people pick the teams, which means of course that they are incredibly rigged. It's Moana, Merida and Anna vs. Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup, so basically The Jocks vs. The Nerds (although admittedly Anna is more of a softcore jock--she's nowhere near on Moana or Merida's level, but she's still more naturally athletic than Hiccup, Rapunzel, or Jack). Naturally, Jock Team absolutely whoops Nerd Team's ass. Jack gets salty and demands a rematch. ...Jock Team kicks Nerd Team's ass again.

Throughout all of this, no one thinks to just...rearrange the teams a little. Merida was counting on this. All according to plan.

In the titular chicken game (yes, I remembered, don't worry!), it's Merida on Moana's shoulders (Moana swims and has a lot of upper body strength, what can I say?), Hiccup on Anna's shoulders (I mean...Hiccup's a twig, and Anna HAS to have a fair amount of upper body strength from throwing busts around and punching men off boats and such), and Punz on Jack's shoulders (Jack's pretty lithe and good at keeping his balance while jumping around, so he's their best candidate for not just falling over).

Jack and Rapunzel actually manage to stay in the game longer than anyone expects--their primary strategy is “be good at dodging and staying out of the way while Merida and Hiccup duke it out.” And it works! As limber as Hiccup is, Anna's not nearly as coordinated as Jack and is no match for Moana's sturdy footing. Also, neither Anna nor Hiccup are prepared for how goddamn ruthless and determined to win Merida is. Even though they really, really should have been. I mean...have you met Merida???

When it comes down to Merida-Moana and Rapunzel-Jack, Mer feels a little bad for having to go up against Pure Sweet Punzie. Unfortunately, Rapunzel turns out to be a very hardcore fighter when she puts her mind to it, and Merida is much more evenly matched than she initially thought and realizes she must use her Full Power. It definitely helps her snap out of Going Soft when Jack starts brutally roasting Merida in particular (as per usual). Merida gets a rage-fueled Second Wave, and finally manages to knock Rapunzel over in one foul swoop. Merida and Moana are victorious!

Moana and Merida basically always shower together after a day at the pool. They claim it's because they both know how to handle curly hair in chlorine, and just like to wash each other's hair, but the rest of the gang is pretty sure that's not all that's going on in there.

One day, Anna hits up the resort town alone to buy some kind of secret gifts for her friends with what little money she has left (this girl seriously has no chill when it comes to buying presents).  She goes past this huge, fancy ice cream shop and she's like “!!!! OMG!!! I'm gonna surprise all my buddies with pints of their faves!!!” She just gets super hyped and buys everyone ice cream, getting so caught up in the thrill of it that she forgets that she'll have to like. Drive all this back all the way back to the resort in the rental car. In like. You know. 110+ degree weather.

By the time she gets back to the resort, the ice cream is, of course, goop. Poor Anna, feeling incredibly dumb and like an utter failure of a friend, just kind of bursts into tears. Like damn. This is too much. She was gonna make all her pals so happy, and all for naught! Jack just kinda shrugs and throws all the melted ice cream cartons in the freezer anyways. Once they're (partially) re-frozen, Rapunzel and Moana make slushies with them. They actually come out pretty decent. Anna is substantially cheered up.

Moana prepares some tropical fruit platters for everyone to snack on. Rapunzel tries to “improve” them by adding chocolate sauce and nutella to half of them. Sometimes it works (I mean...bananas and strawberries with chocolate and/or nutella is pretty solid). Other times it just tastes...very weird. Merida gest frustrated and yells at Rapunzel for “ruining all of her girlfriend's good mangoes.”

Jack just thinks this whole thing is so funny, and decides to swap the chocolate sauce with barbecue sauce to cause further chaos. Absolute mayhem ensures. Everyone has a bad time. Except for Anna, who apparently is just a freak who enjoys eating pineapple slices dipped in barbecue sauce.

At some point, Merida gets really drunk on appletinis or some shit and signs the entire group up for a local archery competition. Much to everyone's chagrin, it's no refunds. Naturally, basically everyone sans Merida does terrible. Rapunzel and Hiccup very nearly shoot themselves, while Jack and Anna come very close to  accidentally shooting a group of referees (although Jack might have done this on purpose). Moana gets the farthest, if only because Merida's taught her how to shoot a bow at some point. Merida actually ends up winning--although unfortunately, the prize is $20 and a very cheap plastic trophy (which Merida STILL manages to find a way to break before the trip is even over).

The rest of the group is much more amicable to the concept of going on hikes when said hikes are in the evening. Hiccup and Rapunzel are still excitedly chattering about the local ecosystems the entire time, and Jack and Anna are just kind of looking at their nerdy SOs like “<3 <3 <3″ Moana and Merida, meanwhile, are just kinda vibing in the back, passively listening in and watching the desert sunset.

Rapunzel manages to capture Mer and Mo's interest and gets them to participate more with geology, of all things. Merida just thinks rocks are cool (especially when they can be thrown at people bothering her!), while Moana likes learning about the physical history of places--how water can carve out landscapes, and all that. Hiccup and Jack just kind of exchange a look like “I had no idea that they were into rocks, but...the more you know, I guess???”

Jack makes fun of every reptile they see, mainly to piss Hiccup off. Unfortunately it has the opposite effect, and Hiccup can't help but be entertained--mainly because Jack's insults are so weirdly specific and over-the-top that they loop around to being hilarious. Seriously, he keeps saying shit like “Those are the lamest scales I've ever seen. Absolutely drab, and not nearly shiny enough to prove that nature is beautiful. 0/10.” and “Ohhhh, this fucking rattlesnake think's he's so scary, with his dumb percussion instrument tail!!! I could be more intimidating with a mean look and a large pair of maracas!”

At some point, a bunch of tourists riding donkeys pass them. Anna, Rapunzel, and Merida just absolutely lose their shit fangirling over how cute the donkeys are, thus exposing all three of them as the unabashed Horse Girls they are. Hiccup, Jack, and Moana find this extremely amusing, and definitely aren't above teasing their girlfriends about it. Hiccup asks if next time they take a couples' vacation, the Horse Gang (as Moana insists on nicknaming them) would like to go to a ranch instead.

Anna gets like. Obsessed with palm trees. Like they're just so pretty and exotic and tropical!!! OMG!!! And they definitely don't have them wherever the gang is from in this AU. (Also if griping about Elsa not having "tropical powers" is anything to go by, she DOES canonically like the tropics!) She has to take a picture of like...every palm tree on her phone. And considering the gang is in Arizona, that means Anna is stopping to take a picture like...every 2 minutes. Rapunzel catches onto the fact that Anna likes them, and paints her a picture with some when Punz has the time. Anna definitely cries when she sees it. Hiccup can't do nearly that good, but he does buy her some little plastic figurine ones in a gift shop that she can put in her room. Anna also cries about this. She just cries whenever any of her friends indulge her random fixation on palm trees. Surely she doesn't deserve such niceties!!!

Rapunzel is just. In love with the desert landscape tbh. Like the huge funky cacti!!! The shrubs!!! The desert wildflowers!!! The mesas!!! All of it!!! So of course she needs to pull out her easel and paint it. Jack walks by one day and sees her working on it and, partly just to troll her, he's like “put some snow in it!” As he walks away, Rapunzel just stops like “wait...that'd actually be such a great idea for a surrealist-type fantasy piece!!!” After she finishes the main landscape, she adds an overcoat of little puffs of snow on top of everything, and has some clumps falling off of the cacti. When she shows Jack, he just about cries tears of joy, but frantically tries to hide it. She gives the painting to him as a present at the end of the trip. He hangs that shit front-in-center in his room and cherishes it forever and ever.

At some point, Jack gets the ingenious idea that he's going to prank Merida by catching a tarantula and leaving it in her room. It's one of the harmless ones--Jack fact-checks this by offhandedly asking Hiccup and framing it as a casual interest in local etymology. Still, Merida screams far louder than is at all dignified, and also probably loud enough to wake a neighboring country. Rapunzel later has to physically hold Merida back to keep her from absolutely beating Jack into a pulp. Rapunzel also manages to get the World's Largest Sheet of Cardboard and the World's Largest Cup and somehow manages to get the damn thing back outside.

[krakenbait]

kraken bait 3: the moment of truth

the moment is finally upon us! no, not the actual expansion draft, that’s in 10 days. i mean my last (but best) installment of the kraken bait expansion draft theories! 

this has been a long, long work in progress, basically since i posted the last one. i’ve asked nearly every hockey fan i know, as well as randomly messaging several friends and cool people on hockeyblr, for their ideas and opinions on their favorite team’s expansion draft situation. and as with my previous lists, i had my friend and capfriendly consultant corwin (@chaos-hockey) collaborating with me to make this semi-reasonable (largely against their wishes). i’ll be including commentary from myself and my variety of sources with each pick. 

for reference, this is a somewhat plausible look at who seattle might take in the expansion draft. it’s not a prediction, because even i don’t honestly think the kraken will take some of these players, but it’s a fun simulation. it does follow expansion draft rules, and even comes under the cap (which took some last-minute finagling by me and corwin).

without further ado, let’s get into it! this list got long, so it’s all under the cut.

Anaheim Ducks: Haydn Fleury

this one comes straight from resident danton heinen fan, ergo ducks fan @dantonheinens, so thanks for your help casey! they sent me a very detailed explanation of anaheim’s expansion draft situation basically explaining that there’s a whole lot of “ands, ifs, or buts” with the ducks, but if fleury is exposed, he’s a slam dunk (slam duck? i’m sorry)

Arizona Coyotes: Christian Fischer

the one thing i know about this dude is he got wrecked in a fight with nathan mackinnon in the 2020 playoffs. this is the first of several picks on this list i borrowed from The Athletic’s mock expansion drafts, which happens if i don’t know the team and i don’t know anyone else who does. corwin and i also considered taking adin hill from the yotes, but we decided on some other goalies instead (stay tuned).

Boston Bruins: Jeremy Lauzon

i have a lot of friends who are bruins fans, so credits are owed to: corwin, casey again, alex (@patron-saint-of-boston-hockey) & luna (@kureally) & any other bruins fans in the nwhl discord, and my irl bruins friends. i got a lot of opinions on the bruins pick, including jake debrusk, jakub zboril, connor clifton, and trent frederic. but the one name almost everyone could agree on was lauzon. therefore, i’ve decided he’s headed to seattle. 

(it feels worth it to mention that at the prospect of having to take someone from the bruins, corwin said “curses be upon your name!” in an aggressively thick boston accent)

Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Asplund

i could not tell you who this is, other than the fact that he’s one of buffalo’s three rasmuses (rasmi?). corwin and i had also talked about maybe putting anders bjork here, like i did in the last go-around, but i defaulted to The Athletic this time, and they thought asplund was a good pick, so here we are.

Calgary Flames: Mark Giordano

another pick borrowed from The Athletic, but i’ve seen predictions of giordano to the kraken a fair amount. it just seems right (and a whole lot better than corwin’s proposition of matthew tkachuk from last round).

Carolina Hurricanes: Brady Skjei

this one comes from the lovely @summerteukka, so thank you kinga! she gave me a very good rundown on the canes and the expansion draft, with the conclusion being the canes have so much defensive depth that it’s definitely going to be a defenseman, and especially if they resign dougie hamilton, skjei seems to be a likely choice. i’m all for it- we’ll have “an S and a K and a J all next to each other” on a kraken jersey.

Chicago: Adam Gaudette

similarly to the arizona pick, corwin and i considered a goalie here- in this case, it would have been malcolm subban. but he is not one of the goalies we ended up going for. instead, we opted on bringing micaela gaudette and her husband back to the pacific northwest. 

Colorado Avalanche: Ryan Graves

this is really a no-brainer. gravy is a good defenseman, but the avs have such a strong defense between cale makar, devon toews, and sam girard (and you could add erik johnson when he’s healthy), plus up-and-comers like bo byram. gravy will almost definitely be exposed, and i think he’s a great pick for seattle. plus it’s relatively painless for avs fans who also will like seattle (like yours truly).

(corwin also wanted me to mention that they want gravy traded to the bruins so he can play with curtis hall, who is basically “color-swapped ryan graves”)

Columbus Blue Jackets: Dean Kukan

another pick taken right from The Athletic. i do not know who this is, but he’s a defenseman and the writers liked this pick so i went with it. for the record, corwin really wanted this pick to be boone jenner because he has a funky name, but i wanted another defenseman, so the fun name was sacrificed for function.

Dallas Stars: Jason Dickinson

i don’t really have an explanation for this one. corwin and i were talking about the stars options and picking dickinson just felt right.

Detroit Red Wings: Vladislav Namestnikov

thanks are owed here to joce (@doubleminor) for her red wings expertise! she gave me a few players who were likely kraken bait and i picked from there. it came down to evgeny svechnikov and vladislav namestnikov, but i went with namestnikov in the end. he was with the avs for a brief period and i liked him then, plus the vibes just seem right, so here we are.

Edmonton Oilers: Tyson Barrie

really, tyson barrie was the player who started the whole kraken bait thing. corwin made the drawing, i made the first list, and the rest is history. do i actually think tyson will be going to the kraken in a week? not really. do i still really like the idea of it? 100%. therefore, i will continue to engage in my “tyson barrie to seattle” nonsense.

Florida Panthers: Chris Driedger

oh look, our first goalie! florida had some interesting skater options, but when it came down to it, corwin and i thought the cats were a good place to take a goalie from. driedger did pretty well this season, plus the panthers’ goalie situation is locked up between $10 million man bobrovsky and future star spencer knight.

Los Angeles Kings: Viktor Arvidsson

corwin was feeling pretty strong about this one, so i’m trusting their judgement. according to them, seattle expressed interest in arvidsson, so nashville traded him to the kings instead of giving him up for nothing. now the kings get to give him up for nothing, which works out pretty well, considering i had absolutely no clue who to pick from the kings. 

Minnesota Wild: Matt Dumba

like some other picks, this just seems right. i like matt dumba a lot. he seems like a fun and wholesome guy, and his activism, both on his own and with the hockey diversity alliance, is admirable. i hope he gets to display his personality and keep working to better the sport of hockey with the kraken.

Montreal Canadiens: Jake Allen

goalie number two! picking a player from the habs was weird because i got attached to them during the playoffs, but i really don’t know many of their players? so corwin and i deliberated on this a little, and after looking at our goalie situation, decided that allen was the right pick from montreal. 

Nashville Predators: Calle Jarnkrok

after doing art for and getting a featured article from the preds, corwin thinks they’re some kind of nashville expert. i originally had matt duchene here, but corwin said not him. their logic? they did art of duchene for their preds project, so they probably want to keep him around. fair point. so we went with calle jarnkrok. the logic behind that choice was simple: “calle jarn-kraken”

New Jersey Devils: Andreas Johnsson

i wish i kept a counter of how many times corwin told me “ron francis doesn’t care about your feelings!” when we were discussing the devils pick. they kept advocating for either nate bastian or mikey mcleod, but i would not stand for the superbuddies being separated. this is my kraken bait list, so my decisions. i asked a few of my devils friends for their input (props to sabs @jakejuentzel and h @bigmouthnatebastian), and in between the mild panic, andreas johnsson got tossed out. therefore, it’s mango getting shipped to seattle. does it further lower the average age of the devils? yeah, but it’ll be fine! the nhl could use some youthful chaos.

New York Islanders: Jordan Eberle

all of my kraken bait ideas for the isles came from the bardown breakdown podcast (a great listen if you like hockey and pop-punk/punk music!), since both hosts are isles fans. they had a few names tossed out, including josh bailey and casey cizikas, but corwin and i decided on eberle. like with a lot of these, right vibes.

New York Rangers: Kevin Rooney

i’ve seen two names pretty consistently for rangers kraken bait: colin blackwell and kevin rooney. is blackwell is better and therefore the more likely pick? yes. but kevin rooney is a former devil and also mocked tom wilson, so i voted he gets to go seattle.

Ottawa Senators: Chris Tierney

i don’t think i could name more than three, maybe four players on the sens, so i defaulted to The Athletic on this one. i have no idea who chris tierney is, but it works, so there we go.

Philadelphia Flyers: James Van Riemsdyk

@phillyjoel left some fantastic notes on the flyers kraken bait in the tags of my last list, giving me good evidence to tell corwin that for the last time, nolan patrick is not kraken bait. the argument i saw was that the flyers are probably going to trade patrick instead of giving him up for nothing and make cap space by giving away van riemsdyk or voracek. The Athletic liked the van riemsdyk pick, and corwin could live with it, so that’s where we settled.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Zach Aston-Reese

i honestly don’t have a whole lot of explanation for this one. another pick borrowed from The Athletic, corwin and i liked it, there we go. we considered going with kris letang, but the vibes weren’t right.

San Jose Sharks: Ryan Donato

shoutout to my sharks friend and amazing artist K (@18minutemajor) for their help! i originally had brent burns in this slot, on K’s suggestion (we had a fantastic exchange about brent burns befriending bigfoot). however, i ran into last-minute cap trouble and had to switch the pick. ryan donato came from The Athletic, but i think it’s kind of a fun pick. he’s been passed between a few teams recently, but most of what i know of ryan donato comes from the 2018 olympics (aka the first time i really watched hockey!), when he was apparently doing pretty well for team usa. 

St. Louis Blues: Vince Dunn

thank you @powerblais (and the blues fans group chat) for your input on this one! vince dunn was one of the names on the list erin sent me, and The Athletic also had him listed, so we went with it. 

Tampa Bay Lightning: Blake Coleman

thanks @heddy for responding to my out-of-the-blue message with some good input on the bolts! ana gave me some good suggestions like tyler johnson plus something else so they take on the contract, alex killorn, and ondrej palat. in the end, this devils fan defaulted to pickles. this pick is in the same category as tyson barrie- do i actually think coleman is going to the kraken? not really. do i still like the idea? absolutely.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Travis Dermott

borrowed from The Athletic and some other kraken bait predictions, because everyone has something to say about the leafs. corwin and i waffled between dermott and alexander kerfoot for this pick, but we eventually settled on dermott to seattle.

Vancouver Canucks: Madison Bowey

this pick changed so much in just one day. we originally had braden holtby here because original kraken bait, but then i ran into cap trouble. so i switched it to zack macewen, following a pick by The Athletic. but then i wanted one or two more defensemen, so i switched to madison bowey, who was the other pick from The Athletic. after all that, it seems like the right pick.

Washington Capitals: Vitek Vanecek

our third and final goalie! corwin and i had our eyes on vanecek as kraken bait for a while- a young goalie with promise and room to improve seemed like the right pick for seattle. we briefly considered tj oshie--he’s from washington state, and corwin wanted to upset caps fans (we were talking during the first round of the playoffs)--but ended up back with vanecek as our pick.

Winnipeg Jets: Mason Appleton

last pick of the list! not much to say here, though. it’s a pick borrowed from The Athletic, but we went with him over the other option from the jets because he has a fun name. to quote corwin, mason appleton sounds like “an apple pie in a mason jar on skates.”

and there you have it folks, the final kraken bait list! if you want to know the specifics, we’ve got 3 goalies, 16 forwards, and 11 defensemen, and the total cap hit is 76.4M. i’m pretty doubtful that this will be the actual expansion draft lineup, but we’ll have to see how many, if any, picks corwin and i got right. 

thanks again to everyone who helped me out, and i hope you enjoyed the chaos and commentary of the kraken bait lists!

[meteorherd]

tell me about your favorite fruits. and knuckles also

YAAAY coffee hi benny :) umm my favorite fruit is MANGO king of fruits...its so good just by itself or in desserts but i think more people need to try pickling it i LOVE pickled mango. i am also a raspberry and blackberry enjoyer and HMM ive never had lychee raw but ive had lychee flavored stuff and i like it :) OH and green grapes those are the only kinds of grapes i think. i actually have no opinion on apples really because im allergic to apple skin </3 you could tell me anything about apples and i would believe you

KNUCKLES okay well first off i just think knuckles would like mangoes. also i think one of my favorite things and coolest thing about him is that he's a treasure hunter i wish we got to see that more...SOOO so awesome. i like to think that sa1 is basically the first time knuckles really left angel island and he became an Actual treasure hunter in between sa1 and sa2 because he learned more about his culture and got interested in archaeology and got some experience from hunting down the emerald shards. the only other time i really remember knuckles' treasure hunting skills being mentioned in a game after that is sonic riders zero gravity? where he's able to read the ancient text. i like the idea that he picks up new languages pretty quickly

OH and i also think unknown from me sa2 remix is the song of all time. knuckles has the coolest soundtrack ever in sa2 but i also think its really funny that he roleplays a lot in his songs. i love the death chamber part where he takes up half the song roleplaying a hypothetical argument with sonic and he's talking as both himself and sonic its REALLY good. like you can tell he's not used to having friends and doesn't really know how to assume certain things happen in friendships just yet. i think knuckles tries to script a lot of his social interactions just from the way he roleplays in his songs like that, i think his songs add SO much to his character + i really love the meteor herd song too because thats the last of his songs in sa2 and thats the first time he calls everyone else his friends, i think the timing of that means a lot considering his introductory song is about how it's all just an alliance that's supposed to be temporary :)

[shelli-gator]

Well, as you request, may we have some Pancho headcannons?

HECK YES HOMIE <3

So I posted some stuff on another Pancho ask, so here’s PART 2!!1!!1! (I’m sorry can you tell I spend every waking moment thinking about Pancho?

After AHKJ

- I HC that after the show, Pancho is nominated by KJ to be Commander of the Ringtail guard, and his bodyguard. He has the same crazy and often questionable methods as Clover, and by the events of s5 he's already a member of Julien’s inner circle.

- Of course this is met with ample, and not even unfair skepticism. Like “Yip, that idiot king is going to kill us all. But now he’s just going to get this pipsqueak to do it for him.” (Can you guess who that is)

(hehe look at this jockey)

- Pancho is a bit awkward and unsure about the whole thing at first, but the title is shiny and the job comes with perks, like getting to officially be part of the gang. Not like he wasn’t before, but now Maurice can’t actually tell him to go away.

- He doesn’t stop doing petty crime, like stealing or shady deals, but he keeps the kingdom relatively safe with traps and sometimes shady alliances. So he gets a passing grade as their protector, even if he does steal their underwear or try to sell them ‘government approved’ blenders.

- Depending on the story, if Clover does come back, he gladly lets her reclaim her role as Commander, and he works with her and Ted as Julien’s Head of Security.

- Because his alliances change, he becomes less inclined to do hard crime with Andy if it goes against his King/Kingdom. Andy is bitter about it, but at least he has someone in government to pull some strings for him. Sometimes. But he also likes to piss Pancho off by deliberately getting in the way of his job. Ultimately things don’t change much, since Andy starts gearing more towards selling than doing massive heists or trying to sell everyone scorpions. He makes more business that way.

If the crime is outside the kingdom though, he’s keen. Robbing the crocs? Stealing shipments from humans? Count him in. That way he still gets to bring home goodies.

- He sometimes brings Julien along for heists, mostly if he’s doing them alone (Andy is a lot less thrilled about it, and he doesn’t want to upset the bat even further). Julien l o v e s going on heists, what with his passion for crime dramas and true crime stories. Now he actually gets to be part of them. 

- I used to be vehemently against Pancho ever having kids, but it steadily grew on me to imagine him as a chaotic and often hopeless dad. He lets his baby play with a stick of dynamite, but if someone who isn’t him tries to hold his child he’s all “If I so much as hear a whimper out of him/her, I SWEAR TO GODS I WILL END YOU WHERE YOU STAND! DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

- As part of the gang now he often joins them for things like board game night, and he brings them new games that he steals. He’s really good at Gimme Gimme the game, but no one trusts him to be banker, ever. He loves Uno, and he saves all of his action cards specifically to stack them and ruin someone’s day. And he absolutely can and WILL end on an action card.

- He’s also really good at card games like poker and whatnot, and he teaches Julien and the others to play. They have fake gambling nights where they bet stuff like mangos and things, and at one point he wins Julien’s crown and wears it the whole night, until he lets Julien win it back.

- He eventually becomes friends with Clover, and they enjoy setting up wild and chaotic traps. And to them, what’s a few accidental casualties in the name of progress? Maurice thinks its a terrible idea letting them work together, and Julien thinks it’s genius.

- He becomes better friends with Maurice once Maurice is reassured that they both of Julien’s best interest at heart, and though their working relationship is not as great as it was with Clover, Maurice respects him for his loyalty and resourcefulness. If someone’s going to get the job done, in some sense of the word, it’s Pancho. 

- Sometimes I like to imagine the sheer chaos that would be the lemurs with smart phones, after Pancho steals a shipment of them and Julien gives them out to everyone. Pancho is a menace with a phone, and the sort to send a risky text message, agonize over it, and the moment his phone vibrates with a response he literally throws his phone against a wall in panic. Then he actually has to go ask the person what they sent. He also calls Maurice a lot, and Maurice repeatedly blocks and unblocks him.

Thanks for reading! I probable have more, but this is already a LOT. Love you guys, thanks for the ask! <3

[talesofealdancynedom]

Asada Fauxbit, in fairy robes with familiar; riding a “giraffe, but with malice”

Tale 19: Meriam Craweleoth: Mage Queen of The Grand West (chapter 7.1 - Has Yet to Pass 7/10) part 4. Stories of Old

Maps

Harsh Language

Upon the western mountains of the Far East, lies the Sinoian wall of fire. The mountains between the great desert, and the temperate lush kingdom. Due south of that, where the climate is soft by the sea, lies a very unlucky fishing town. To the south west, in Indonia of the Central South, lies the Monkey Gate within the heart of a cursed jungle.

           Five aligned nations, out of ten, only created half a circle around Francia; Meriam needed more alliances to make the world get along. But Francia was between Anglia and the rest of the world. The North Central kingdom, was like the hole of a donut. A donut that was bribing allies in Indonia to it’s south, and Sinionia to it’s East. Meriam would need the favor of the sultan of the South Central to guarantee a safe passage to eastern lands. She took her men with her, to meet this powerful man in his jungle palace. They traveled safely through the Westlands of Dania, to get to the South Central. Once in the ivory, pearl, marble and oak home, the sultan spoke down to her. He sat on a silk pillow, surrounded by sari drapes, wearing bangles and slippers. The sultan was quick to insult Meriam, by tasking her with an impossible quest. He did not care that she was a mage or a queen. If she wanted the trust of Indonia, Meriam must understand that people in this country are cheats, and that the secret to Indonia’s heart, lies in an alliance with Sinonia first.

“Appease the emperor on the other side of the desert, with a grand gesture, and I will mark your papers; Mage Queen. Offer me something greater than our northern neighbors do.” Th sultan said, playing with his silver beard. “You will find guides outside the cursed jungle of Veya.” He chuckled. Meriam felt frustrated; She was asked to do an unspecified favor, for an unknown man, after crossing Ealden Cyendom’s central desert.

“Fuck.” She murmured.

           As Meriam and her company traveled to the Monkey Gate, they began to remove clothing; it was far hotter than any land they had been to thus far. The humidity made it sticky, and the rain’s slowed their passage. When Meriam and her men arrived at the small village, they began to look for someone who spoke their language, that may guide them. Their investigation was fruitless; and they paid good silver to sleep on weaved mats in and uninsulated stone shack. The doors and shutters were made of intricately carved wood, that resembled lace patterned in lotuses and peacocks. They did little to keep out the rain; but did keep back the wildlife and wind. The fruit and nuts they bought were delicious, as was the fresh rain water; but they began to miss home. This may be, the longest journey they will have to embark on.

           In the sticky, hot, humid night, while Meriam and her men struggled to sleep, they heard someone enter their room. They sounded like they were trying to be quiet, which resulted in them making even more noise. The sliding wood window creaked, and they heard the clink of bangles, and knocking over of pots and baskets; followed by very familiar Anglian cussing. Then, Meriam suddenly rose summoning fire in her palm, as her men drew swords at the intruder; Who was now in the middle of the room. To their surprise, it was an Indonian woman with pale golden eyes and hair against, her brown skin. She wore a scarf about her head that was a translucent tan, that glittered like her clothes, in pin stripes. She had her nose pierced as well as her ears, which held elaborate gold rings that matched the innumerable bracelets she wore about her wrists and feet. She was built like a knight, under the glittering fabrics of her Monkey kingdom fairy robes. Upon her shoulder, she had a marmoset. The robes hung in an ex across her shoulder and breast, and she wore gold armour to link the loose fabric. Her pants were baggy, her sash wrapped and left a fabric tail at her back, and her curled slippers matched perfectly. Meriam wanted badly to draw her; for she had never seen a mage of this kingdom.

She was stealing their fruit.

“You spoke in Anglian just now!” Meriam said. The woman was surprised, and looked Meriam up and down, with a mango in her mouth. Then she also held out a palm of fire. Magic. This must be the mage of the Monkey Gate.

In order to share magic, and teach it, mages use the language and letters of Anglia, as few other peoples know the language well. This meant they found a translator; but not a guide. More pressingly, they had an intruder.

“Who are you!” a knight demanded.

“I am Asada Fauxbit.” She said, chewing her bite of fruit. “Who the fuck are you?” She contested.

“We are the queen of Anglia’s royal guards; we need to cross the desert to Sinonia, to impress their emperor with a grand gesture of peace. We need the favor of his kingdom, to win the heart of this one. So, we are told. Anglia and other lands need as many lands as possible united, to restore balance.”

“You got so conned, miss raven mage.” Asada smirked, examining Meriam’s feather and velvet fairy robes. “Indonia don’t give a shit about other kingdoms. The Sultan is putting on a front to extort Francia’s bribes.” Asada laughed. The knights all drooped in defeat, and sheathed their weapons.

“Also, that mission sounds so awful; I pity you. I’ll make you a bargain: Find me a mage husband, so I can produce a mage daughter to protect this cursed magic forest, and I’ll come with you and provide guides to cross the fields of fire. Just to be sure, this is to help you do this thing you think will work, for this person, that is somewhere.” Asada teased. It became apparent that the sultan had actually given Meriam no information at all; his instructions were vaguer then being asked: can’t you not put that thing there maybe? Meriam rolled her eyes. She wasn’t a quitter.

“Are you conning me? You’re willing to take us across a desert in exchange for magic seed donor? That’s all?”

“Yup. Preferably Sinonian in ethnicity, with blue hair, and an aura of chaotic silliness.” Asada mused.

“But why?!” one of Meriam’s men asked.

“My bloodline is cursed by the Monkey King, because of my mom. The Monkey King is a lady who likes a matriarchy, and her children shrouded in mystery and isolation. My mom said she’d raise me to keep the gate open, and tend the monkey fey; as I was a mage. In exchange the Monkey king promised to provide a protective curse on the jungle. The Monkey King said that a line of pure-bred mage daughters, must be the ones guarding her gate. Starting with me. A cursed magic bloodline, in exchange for safety. Oh, also, If I leave the forest for any reason other then looking for a groom, I kind’a die.” Asada explained casually. While she explained the curse, Meriam racked her brain of mages she knew. And she knew of many. But, when Asada said blue hair, she membered one of Feon’s books. It was the teal journal detailing types of mages; and the illustration for the storm breaker mage, was a Sinonian man of blue ridding an Orca. Sirulius Healpenbroc; a warlock who made storm staphs, like Feon’s. And possibly joy induced natural disasters. This was a bargain Meriam could make.

“If your determined to be another dame, pigeon holed into relying on men for events in your life, I may have heard of a suitable man, south east of the desert, in Sinonia.” Meriam grumbled.

“Pigeon holed? What if I want kids and a nice guy to hold me? What if I want to protect my magic forest home and fey friends? I can do both! Cursed or not, it’s my life and choice; as a mage I have more choice than any lady in this land. And I chose a man of the Grand East who can fulfill my feminine desires.” Asada boasted. “Wait? You seem madder about me willing to abide by this curse, then going across a desert called the fields of fire. Who hurt you?” Asada inquired. Meriam glared at her; She was a queen surrounded by demanding men. Five of them were with her right now. Of course, she was rabid with envy. Happily, wed or not, Meriam would have at least of liked the choice. Her knights wisely chose not to comment.

           Coincidences can make a day. Exact change, or meeting an old friend at a market: things sliding perfectly into place is satisfying. The only trouble is that these moments are rare, and you never know when one is going to happen. If you are looking for one, it’s like watching water boil. Speaking of boiling, the desert earned its name; The Fields of Fire. Though Asada and Meriam could alchemize water, and they had all gotten loose white clothes, the desert felt eternal in it’s unrelenting discomfort; like a socially obligatory holiday gathering with collogues. The expanse of dry nothingness, resulted in there being little else to do, but talk to your road companions. The guides Asada found where merchants, who regularly crossed the desert. They did not know a word of any other language; which seemed counterintuitive for efficient trade. Meriam was on a long road of days of travel upon stinking spiteful camels with a group of knights, and Asada.

Meriam admired how unbothered Asada was. Her men wouldn’t stop complaining about how they feared the desert would consume them before they could ravish a Sinonian maidens, and drink rice wine till uncoordinated. Meriam was too sober to talk to human males, and was forced to talk to Asada.

“What are these animals?” Meriam asked looking over her camel.

“Giraffes; but unkindly.” She laughed smugly. Meriam was confused; she didn’t know what a giraffe was either.

“Do you hawk? You have tiny falcon on your shoulder? Also, didn’t catch your name.”

“My name Queen Meriam Craweleoth. I do not hawk, this is my familiar Nihten; she is a kestrel. You have been seeing me send her off to see where we are. I meld with her to use her eyes. As well as make her big enough to ride if I have to.”

“Neat. So, where are we? According to Nithen?”

“Nowhere.” Nihten said. Gave everyone a good chuckle. To distract from their discomfort, Meriam’s entourage listened in on the two mages conversation; and then began butting in.

“Are there fey in the desert? If magic is less frail then men?” one asked.

“Oh yes. There are many basilisks and drakes in the sand. I heard once of one who was disowned by the dragon king for breaking a sphere at a banquet. If we convince him to let us cross a river, he might accompany us on our journey to the west.” Asada said. Meriam looked confused; she was lost in the second half. They were going to the east. Asada’s smiles faded into bitterness.

“That was a joke. The dragon king would never disown a child nor make one capable of guiding people.”

“We rode dragons once!” another knight said. “You must have spent too long in your forest, monkey girl; I’m not sure you even know what magic this desert holds.”

“Ah, but I do. It holds desert magic; obviously. Now stop complaining, and telling me I’m wrong, or I’ll summon my Iron staph to knock some sense into you. It matches the Monkey King’s; who is also a woman not opposed to striking things. Your men are idiots Merriam! No wonder your sexist. Are all Anglian men this daft?” Asada exclaimed.

“Actually, their very loyal, talented, and make sure my husband’s mind is sound whilst I quest. They are made of the finest fibre Anglia can provide, by order of my King husband.” Meriam said proudly. “Intelligence is not a factor in determining their value as people.” She added. Her knights smiled proudly upon their grumbling ‘steads’.

“So, you hate being controlled by people, sorry men, but you still accepted your betrothal to the king? then gave him a child, and take his men, sorry your men, with you, just to make him happy? You knew you were a mage and could have used magic to evade them, right? Your ungrateful; I would love to live in a palace and have someone who takes care of me, supports me, and loves me for being myself! And you judge me for wanting that!”

“Shut up, I love him! And love is powerful,” Meriam snapped. “and no; I don’t judge you for wanting a romanticized version of reality you use to cope with being cursed into heteronormativity. I judge you for talking like a drunk, and pulling my leg. It is about respect and freedom. I am equal, if not above, the men I meet.” Merriam snapped.

Asada looked off into the desert. She was nodding quietly while refraining from laughter. Meriam wondered what was worse; Asada, questioning the motivations of all her life choices, the desert, the malicious giraffe, or how she had complimented Tiberias’s architecture. She felt a little faint. Meriam began to hate Asada for ripping apart the meaning in her life. Meriam looked away in distaste.

“Must be nice to love someone so much, you throw away your philosophy to kiss them goodnight… Before I knew I was cursed, as only a child, when I saw the people in the village, all I lusted for was to hold even one of their hands. I want that Meriam; I want someone to be with, that makes me feel like nothing else matters.” Asada said into the sands. The morale went down as they clomped across the bright dune. Meriam never wanted to be in this arid wasteland again.

NEXT--->

<---PREVIOUS

[confusedhost-archive]

Coffeeshop Au

She-Ra coffeeshop au because I said so:

Everyone works at one of two shops: Hoard or Princess Alliance

At the very beginning, it shows Adora, a normal human, and her friend Catra (everyone looks the same, has the same powers) in the breakroom chatting, and then they switch shifts with Kyle, Rogilio and whatever her name is- I can’t remember- 

Yay! You get to meet Shadow Weaver, who is being very rude to the girls because her coffee was too hot (and also because Catra made it and no one is allowed to make her coffee except Adora)

Adora ends up missing a day and gets fired, which is immediately met with distaste from Shadow Weaver

Adora gets a new job at The Princess Alliance

Quickly becomes friends with Glimmer and Bow, but Glimmer’s mom, the owner of the cute shop, is less happy with her, as she looks like a gangster

Catra has mixed feelings about Adora not being at work, as she is now able to get promoted to manager beside Scorpia, but also she doesn’t see Adora like, ever, anymore

Adora’s aunt, Mara, died recently, and LightHope, Mara’s wife, came over to give Adora a charm with the words She-Ra carved in the side. 

Adora promises to visit the farm and see LightHope soon

With the knowledge that she has a bit of her mother figure still with her, Adora throws herself into baking, creating her newest pastry: She-Ra

Was named after the charm!

It is the best thing anyone has ever tasted. They sell out quick, and become Adora’s special (All the princess’ have specials, they’re at the bottom of the post)

Aight, so Entrapta misses a couple days, didn’t call in sick, and was fired

Immediately picked up by Hoard and now has a new job! Stuck with Catra and Scorpia until Catra got promoted

Afterwards she met Hordak, and they started talking 

and then they started flirting in their cute roundabout way

Hordak had to leave for a few days because Imp needed to go to the hospital, he left Catra in charge (She’s manager anyway, but now she had free reign)

With Double Trouble’s help, Catra made a fake resigning form for Entrapta while firing her

While this is going on, everyone gets word about Prime Restaurant chain wanting to set up in the area. Hordak would like to sell his shop for them, but first he needs to get another place to set up (He only decides this after he comes back, and he needs something to do after learning that someone he thought he had a connection with just left)

Entrapta hasn’t really let it sink in that she’s unemployed. Goes to get a coffee from a starbucks nearby, name and coffee get mixed up with someone named Micah. (Think when she stole his bug)

Start talking, then bow and Adora just speed walk into the shop like, “Hey Entrapta, would you like to be hired for Princess Alliance again?”

(Bow is also kinda like “Hey wtf, is that you, Micah?” And Micah’s like, “Hey, Bow, is that you?”)

And Entrapta’s like, “Hired? Oh, uh sorry, I have to- oh.” and its suddenly sinking in that she doesn’t work at Hoard anymore and (excuse me if this isn’t what would actually happen but it happened not to long ago so I’m just giving it to Entrapta rn) she is kinda just moving around and kinda just trying to get away from anything touching her because it all just feels horrible against her skin and shiz

and she just kinda goes “Yes, I’d like to be hired, but please leave me alone right now, I’d like to not be touched,” and so Bow and Adora kind of hesitantly go away and Micah stays walking her through her (I don’t know what this is. Touch aversion? A mild panic attack? A depressive episode?)

Anyway, cut away, and now we see Adora and Bow sitting on the roof of the cafe. Talking, thinking about life, doing a bit of college homework. Adora is playing with her charm, and then she drops it and it shatters. Obviously, she’s freaking out, that’s the only thing she has of Mara and it means so freaking much to her

Bow is trying to help and is gathering up the shards, and finds a little piece of paper among it all. Adora reads it and completely breaks down crying. No one knows what it says but her (which is to say I don’t know what it says)

Takes a break for a couple days, going to LightHope, her aunt, and 

(In this time, Entrapta has reluctantly gone back to work, Micah has procrastinated around seeing his ex-wife and daughter, Angela has packed up for a plane trip, Hordak is having trouble finding another place to set up shop, and Prime restaurant chain is moving in)

Adora comes back with a new fire and an upgrade to her She-ra pastry, tastes even better now

Micah finally got the courage to go see his family, only to find out that Angela had just left for a trip that morning. (They get the news that the plane had an accident and Angela didn’t survive later in the evening)

Afterwards, Glimmer moves out of the cafe, finding it to be too empty. This leaves the top floor of the cafe completely open. She’s living with Bow and Adora now!

Scorpia, a panicking second manager of Hoard cafe, is juggling running the cafe, keeping Catra in check and finding a new place 

Double Trouble, as is their job for the owner, finally fills out their form on what had happened while Hordak was away. He finally learns that Entrapta didn’t leave him. 

Scorpia goes to the Princess Alliance and tells them that she heard their top floor was open. She’s desperate

It takes a few times to get them to agree, but the Princess Alliance realize that there’s no point in fighting like this. After a few more hours of haggling with the cost, Scorpia turns to leave

She comes back after a couple seconds. “Um, actually, is Entrapta here?”

Scorpia and Entrapta come back into Hoard cafe, chatting. Hordak walks out of the back, holding Imp. Entrapta looks over and sees him. She just jumps him, helping both of them stay up and holding Imp with her hair. 

“Did you hear the news?” She laughs

Scorpia jumps in, telling Hordak how they found a place for the shop to go; right above the Princess Alliance. Entrapta is really helping Scorpia sell it, but Catra is getting upset. 

“No! We’re enemies or whatever, right? We shouldn’t be sharing space with them!” 

Hordak has already given his okay. “I’m sure we’ll be able to become closer, Catra, it should be alright.”

Catra is extremely reluctant about all of this, but while they’re setting up in the top area, she’s beginning to rekindle her friendship with Adora. (And also maybe feeling like at some point her feelings had stopped being just platonic. She has no clue when this happened.)

Scorpia is doing pretty well with taking boxes of stuff up, and after a while they figure out that the dark aesthetic won’t be working well side by side with the pastel fluff that is the Princess Alliance. So Scorpia says they change it up a bit. So she goes downstairs and, “Is anyone free right now?”

It’s Perfuma that looks over. “Oh! Yes, I am!”

Scorpia gives a little smile. “Great! We need some design help and we were wondering..”

With a happy gasp, Perfuma hangs up her apron and walks upstairs. Perfuma is made for this. After being told that they’d like to keep the general dark aesthetic, she says that giving it that certain quiet feel, very unlike the loud chatter that comes from downstairs, students will likely want to come by to study

It’s a hit. A few plants with calming aromas, gifted by Perfuma herself, and some teas that help with stress made by Scorpia, students are running in. It’s generally very quiet here, and it’s really helping the stress that the employees go under too!

Scorpia and Perfuma may or may not have gotten closer in a romantic sense because of this-

Catra and Adora are also getting closer, friends first, then girlfriends. It’s quite the trip for everyone else in the shop. 

Entrapta and Hordak are basically just parents to Imp now, and Imp’s only job at this point is to make fun of Hordak for having a crush. It is a romantic relationship, yes

At some point the the Hoard and Princess Alliance become one place with two names. Menu is the same on both floors and anyone can be a waiter at whichever floor they like. 

Just a few things that exist but aren’t really plot relevant:

Hordak has anger issues and trouble understanding his feelings 

Hordak has weak bones in his arms specifically

Imp is Hordak’s nephew who he ended up adopting after Imp’s parents died

Hordak and Entrapta both like working with robotics

Entrapta is making a project to support Hordak’s weak arms in order to help him do things. Talking with his doctor to figure out what’s safe and such

Frosta is Glimmer’s cousin who has been given the okay to volunteer at the cafe. She comes and goes as she pleases and whether or not you get a Frosta special depends on whether she’s in or not

Time for the specials!

Entrapta’s: Donut holes. Her special is a pack of donut holes that are literally the best you’ve ever tasted. Your pack has one of each flavor and they are made with such care- just- No special drink for her though

Perfuma: Mango hibiscus clementine cold tea. I have had it before. It tastes really freaking good. She always grows a little flower for you to eat and puts it on top. The texture of the flower is nice, and the petals are sweet. The food portion is a fruit salad with flower petals sprinkled on top!

Frosta: Icecream sunday! And slushie! No one knows what exactly goes into the flavoring on top, but it tastes really good and Frosta promises it’s safe for all allergies she knows of. Makes sure to ask about any allergies though, just in case!

Mermista: It’s a small cake. Has this general water/beach vibe! Drink changes from day to day. Always an iced coffee though!

Glimmer: Cupcakes!! The inside of the cupcake has a small portion of sprinkles. Very sweet, too sweet for some. Pastel smoothie too! Family recipe, shared between Angela and Glimmer. Has sprinkles littered on top of a nice helping of whipped cream! Very glittery

Angela: Called the heart of Etheria. Not one single person knows what it’s classified as, and only Glimmer and Angela know how to make it. It’s heavenly

No more specials (Scorpia doesn’t work at Princess Alliance)

Micah and Angela had a divorce when Glimmer was young. It wasn’t because they disliked each other or anything, just, Micah learned that he was aromantic and felt a little bit uncomfortable with the marriage. They broke it off as friends and lived under the same house- like, it was all exactly the same, except they didn’t have the title of husband and wife

Then Micah had to go away because he found a job somewhere else and they ended up loosing contact

Swiftwind lives on the farm with LightHope

Catra and Adora are childhood friends who had the same Preschool teacher: Shadow Weaver

Angela lives on the second floor of the cafe with Glimmer

Entrapta has a roomba and she’s taken to it the way tumblr has

Entrapta has a tiny Emily that she made with Hordak’s help at a robotics workshop

Adora lived with Catra and moved to share an apartment with Bow afterwards

Shadow Weaver may or may not have died shoving Catra and Adora out of the way of a car that was driving on the sidewalk

There are fricking huge windows looking out on the street for both floors and on the other side of the street is a grassy park, so it’s really nice.

[ask-pakistan]

What other hetalia characters do you think pakistan would be friends with? Like, ignoring political alliances, going strictly off personality. Like if they were humans than who would Pakistan, (or umer in this case) be good friends with?

hmm ignoring politics, he would still be good friends with countries like China, Turkey etc.

Ooh! i also head cannon him having good relations with most of the South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives etc. (we all have that one sore subject common //cough cough)

He’ll be able to get along with the more timid and nicer characters such as Canada etc (fun fact, Pakistani people have favourable views of Canada :D we think it’s a really polite country with polite people! In fact, many overseas Pakistanis live there.)

Really, anyone’s a fair game as long as they respect him. Though he’ll probably have a harder time getting along with more flamboyant characters (Like America etc, too much hyper energy-)

//just don’t offend him on his babies goats, mangoes , biryani , oh and Kashmir (that’s another one of his babies), then you’re all good//

[tarithenurse]

On my mind, in my soul - 5

Prompt: Got three things to go by on this. “Waiting Game” by Banks (used passages as block quotes), a weapon (not firearm), and a bathrobe. Pairing: Loki x Burglar!reader. Content: Morning after, reference to lemons and even some small citrus fruits growing here and there. Swearing, ofc. Uhm...might have forgotten something because my brain is broken. A/N: It’s the Loki we know, but he’s made himself a home on Earth, curating an impressive collection of valuables from across the universe – all for himself and the fame he finds despite the New York incident. Check out masterlist! Plsplspls reblog if you liked <3

Bright light of day

It’s the bed that wakes you. Stretching lazily, the hazy semi-sleep caresses you gently with the softness of silken sheets and pillows, you suddenly stop mid-yawn at the realization that this bed isn’t yours. The smooth sheets are a far cry from the coarse linen you should be tangled in. Peeping out from under the eyelashes, you take in the lavish decoration of the master bedroom that looks so different now the soft morning light is filtering through a slit between the curtains. And even so, your roaming eyes barely register what they see, instead noting what’s no there. Who’s not there. Pushing the duvet aside, it’s a surprise how gently the air greets your naked form, the cold bite from the night gone. It wasn’t the night.

Without Loki around, there’s no one to ask where your clothes have gone to, and you spend a good five minutes searching before giving up. Better make the most of it, a snarky voice urges you as you push the door open to a bathroom that could be heaven on earth.

The way you make me feel all sexy but it's causing me shame

…

Tiptoeing through the house, you let your nose guide you with the promise of breakfast and coffee. There are no fluctuations in the temperature, yet the soft bathrobe is pulled tight around your form as if it could lend some sort of protection, shield you from judgement in case someone’s around and guesses what has happened.

You’d expected some maid or similar to be busy in the kitchen, not Loki casually stirring the contents of a frying pan while nose-deep in a newspaper. The sight immobilizes you as the caffeine-lacking brain tries to catch up with the image of a domestic god.

“There’s a fresh bowl of fruits waiting for you,” he offers without looking up, “and fresh coffee.”

The words hang in the air for a beat longer than necessary before you react, face warm with the realization that even someone as different as Loki would have a daily routine. A pattern of habits and basic needs. And right now, you’re intruding on that.

“Uhm…thank you.”

Looking further than the perfectly dressed man, you spot a bar-like table extending the granite into an L-shape lined at the bottom by swivelling bar seats, in front one of which there’s a neat arrangement of bowl, glass, cup, cutlery…everything possibly needed for a breakfast. You make sure to tug the bathrobe around your legs, not wanting to accidentally reveal your nudity even though Loki already must be aware. Clothes don’t grow legs and leave on their own.

“I’ve had your clothes send to the dry cleaner.” The crinkle of the thin paper warns that his reading material has been discarded. “Also took the liberty of getting you something more fitting to wear for your trip home.”

You’ve already wrapped your fingers around the mug of steaming, liquid energy. “Where’s it?”

“Not here yet.”

This time the voice is much closer, making you look up into the calculative eyes, almost missing the plate full of pancakes and the bottle of real maple syrup. Next moment he’s striding away to refill his own coffee cup, dumping you into a silence that you’re stubbornly set on not breaking as if it’s some sort of competition. Like a staring game, but here the urge’s to say something.

So you eat, savouring the exotic fruits that seep with sweet tastiness contrasting the roasted bitterness of the hot drink. And while you enjoy the tantalizing meal, Loki simply stands there at the other end of the kitchen, watching in silence. Only a flicker of a smile ghosting his face when you bite into a pancake, sending a sticky drop of syrup astray on your lips.

“Why aren’t you eatin’?” You point nonchalantly at him with a piece of mango on the tip of the fork. Silver fork.

“I already have.” Innocent words unless the darkened gaze is taken into account.

Don't tell me listen to your song because it isn't the same

…

He lets you finish, even clears away the mess without allowing you to help. What does he want from me? You’re about to ask when the sound of a door opening and closing can be heard followed by steps that only are silent because of training. You listen as the steps fade upstairs, then return to the very same door you entered the kitchen through…but no one opens.

“Master, the clothes have been laid out on your bed as requested.” It’s hard to judge the age of the woman speaking. “Is there anything else?”

“No, Matilde, that’s all for now,” Loki answers smoothly, “you may be excused for the day.”

Neither you nor the god moves until it’s evident that the maid has left. Then you slide off the tall seat, fully intend on going to get dressed because that must’ve been the clothes they were talking about, and if not…well almost anything’s better than wearing Loki’s own bathrobe much longer.

“Thank you for breakfast,” you manage to say before turning away from his intense gaze.

“[Y/N]…there’s something we must discuss…” Like cold water would, his words sends a ripple of goosebumps down your back. “The profit could be considerable for you.”

You don’t want to be further indebted to him, already painfully aware of how much of your life rests in his hands, but the entire reason that you ended up in this house and staying until morning is because he wanted it that way. He’s used to getting what he wants. Turning back with a sigh, you grab the cup and hold it out to him because you’ll be damned if you’re not having all the free coffee you can get if he’s going to talk you into some ridiculous scheme. Not that you’re interested, of course…at least that what you keep reminding yourself as you settle against the hard countertop, feet crossed at the ankles and nose inches from the warm brew.

“I’ve been challenged to obtain an artefact beyond any of the miserable trinkets from your world,” Loki smirks, “in fact…it’s so rare there’s only one in the entirety of the cosmos…but as luck will have it...” the smile broadens, “I know where to find it.”

“Just cut to the chase!”

He does, though not without a huff of annoyance, and starts out with the convoluted ancestral background of a being called Luɣ. Not unlike the Asgardians, this being and its kin (Thuäthan Dae) would roam through space to seek adventure or expand their empire, and they were so good at it that rumours of their riches spread and fostered alliances which ultimately led to the Thuäthan Dae’s downfall. During the following eons, the survivors scattered and got assimilated into other races, but some of the legends still exist…including that of a nifty spear capable of reacting to verbal commands of the owner.

At this point in life, you’ve come to accept that perhaps there’s more to old mythological tales than people once did believe, all things considered. Glancing skeptically at Loki’s hands, you wonder if there’s more he hasn’t told you yet about himself which would be relevant to know before getting intrigued in an alien-made weapon.

Baby I'm thinking it over What if the way we started made it something cursed from the start

Large hands weave elegantly through the air as the god describes artefacts that already have been recovered…and…and…lost in memories of the acts of colour changing limbs, it’s as if you can feel the touch upon your skin, sending shivers through your already heating body, and shifting focus away does nothing to help you because the next you see are the narrow hips wrapped in subtle leather. Oh fuck. Yeah, the leather doesn’t hide the proportions of the man, and a new shiver races towards your cunt.

There’s only one thing for it and that’s to avert your eyes by pretending to drink from the already empty mug. Of course, Loki’s still talking, so you take your time trying to coax the very last drops across the ceramic surface and almost succeed before a golden shimmer leaves you emptyhanded.

“You’re not listening.” A cool finger under your chin forces [Y/E/C] and green eyes to meet. “Tell me…what were you thinking of?” No words escape your mouth despite several attempts that only results in Loki smirking. “It’s alright, my pet,” he purrs, head dipping so close the nose tips meet for a fraction of a second, “I can sense your…excitement.”

The only logical response is to protest, but you don’t really want to and even if you did then you couldn’t because his lips are on yours. Sweetly. Softly. The taste of minty toothpaste lingers under notes of coffee when he opens his mouth for you, waking up your senses after they’ve been doused in the sweetness from the breakfast. A perfect contrast coaxing a humming from your throat, and you can feel Loki’s crooked smile on your skin even before his hands runs down your waist, hips, grabbing under your thighs and lifting you effortlessly onto the stone tabletop.

It’s a simple nudge by the god’s hips that has you parting your legs for him to stand between, mouths and tongues still dancing and your fingers flexing against his chest because damn-it, you want what he can give you. The all-consuming rush rolling through your body from the best orgasms you’ve ever experienced. It’s addictive, and frighteningly so, especially because this man has more power over you than good is. I shouldn’t…shit! Deft hands are already pushing the front of the bathrobe aside and fondling your breast, tugging at a nipple with an expertise that makes your back arch and you know how wet your cunt already is.

“Stop.” Faster than you thought possible, you’ve caught Loki’s wrists tightly. “Stop…I can’t…”

It feels as though the temperature drops ten degrees, and you can’t bear to meet the god’s gaze. Shit, shit, shiiiiit. Fear’s lodged in your throat like bile, making you queasy and preventing you from breathing as freely as you want…but it’s okay because filling your lungs would cause your chest to move and you don’t want his attention there. Well…I do…sort of. It’s a messed-up situation that would have been plenty awkward on its own but with him –

“Why not, my pet?” At least he doesn’t try to continue, merely attempts to meet your eyes. “Don’t deny that you desire this.”

“Shut up!” Your exclamation catches you by surprise but it’s Loki’s slight jerk that scares you enough to cower, shielding yourself from whatever the Asgardian might do to hurt you.

Nothing happens. At least not really.

”I see,” he whispers almost sadly.

Each movement’s deliberately slow and obvious as he back away, only turning his back when he’s at the other end of the kitchen, allowing you a sort of privacy to slide off the granite and wrap the bathrobe around your shivering body.

“I’m…I’m sorry, Loki…”

The wide shoulders roll. “Don’t be. I brought this on myself.” His knuckles are white from the grip on the edge of the sink he’s leaning against. “Get dressed. I’ll have my driver ready to bring you home afterwards and you won’t see or hear from me again.”

…

He’s true to he word, the only sign of him being a flat parcel the driver hands you when you reach the place you ask to be dropped off (some random address not far from the subway). You don’t have to look what’s in the box to guess it and the knowledge digs painfully into some part of your heart no matter how hard you try to ignore it.

Cause lately I've been scared of even thinking 'bout where we are

[fanresearcher-blog]

My Criticism of Planet Puto

You know, just in case HC never finds about my criticism...

“Hello HC! My original criticism was lost…unfortunately but I`m determined to get my message to you. I wrote it on Word first before posting it in your submit. If you managed to get my old submission, then I`m glad that it worked, but if it didn`t then that`s why I have this. So HC, I wanted to do this for a long time but I needed to be composed of my thoughts first. Now I`m ready.

In this submission, I want to talk about the character development of your personification characters and character design. I`ll also talk a little bit of the lore by the end of the post. It is not intended for hate, it is just criticism. I am also aware that Planet Puto is more like random posts instead of comics or something. The reason I feel like giving criticism is for HC`s improvement in some stuff and to voice my concerns. Before I write my criticism, I would like to praise HC for her/his dedication to creating that group of Actor AU (I don`t know their names but it`s the Aswang lady and her Spanish-y husband and they had twins). I love your work since it has good art but mostly it`s because you post so often. Reading your posts become a part of my everyday routine.

So before we get to the specific criticism and tips, I`ll talk about my general problems with the personification characters. It appears to be, that the characters are used for meaningless fanservice. When I`m scrolling through the Planet Puto archives, once in a while I will see characters drawn with sexy poses or they have ship tease with someone. If it is part of their character, then that would make sense. So is everybody…smutty? It seems like whenever there is a major foreign country, they would be shipped with Elena or Emilio. There are entire pages filled with random pick-up lines from Emilio and all the art of Elena with the guys.

I`m not saying that shipping is bad. I think it is perfectly fine for some countries to be attracted to Emilio or Elena. What I don`t understand is…why? Why do those countries find Emilio or Elena attractive? What do they see in them? Please don`t say, that they love the Phils because Emilio is pogi and Elena is maganda. If that is the reason, why they love those twins, then that is not real love at all. Also…they can`t just be compatible because of politics! It is like shipping someone with another person just because they had a good business deal. It also makes me wonder if a country can even decide who to love instead of who they are told to by their bosses. It`s sad no?  

It would be best that you create the character before the ship. If you create the ship before the character, they may end up not being their own person. Also pair the ones, who are naturally compatible. It`s like food combos, there are basics like cheese and tomato go so well but when you experiment you will also find out that green mango tastes great with bagoong. Relationships, like food combinations, should be compatible. When people talk about food combos, you hear “The tomato`s freshness balances out the saltiness of salted egg” or “A bit of chili actually brings out the flavor of vinegar”, so characters should be like “He has a great mind but sometimes he can be really tough. She quite emotional but she can be the best friend you can ever have. Together, his heart softens and he learns how to get along with other people. She learns how to keep cool and keep things together now.” Characters by themselves are great, like peanut butter bread and jelly bread, but when you put them together, they are even better.

Be careful of red flags! If the relationship is starting to break boundaries, border on abuse, and toxic behaviors, please stop. It will just give the wrong message to the audience if you ship something like that. After all, in a food combo, if one of the ingredients are rotten it would make you sick. The pair should not be toxic to each other. You can still portray abusive relationships, but please don`t romanticize or encourage it because it`s not okay. It will never be okay.

 You must develop them first, though. After you got their character, then you can start thinking about shipping. They must care about each other. That is the bare minimum for a good ship. In psychology, people are more likely to be attracted to someone they have in common with but not too much in common. The thing they have in common could be anything like background, motivation, interests, etc… After that, be careful not to make them too similar or too different. To add special garnish, if the work has a theme, then it would be best if that ship reflects opposite or different sides of the theme. That would make everything really juicy. Remember to not force it, if they can`t match no matter how hard you try, then they weren`t meant to be. Move on. The best ships will just come into place.

Summary for writing ships:

-They must care for each other

-It must be natural

-They must have something in common but different enough

-Experiment

-Avoid Red Flags

My other general problem is random sadness. I`m okay with sadness, but the sadness in Planet Puto is very random. Everything is happy then boom! Sadness. I don`t understand what it is supposed to mean, what am I supposed to know here? There is a pattern of using historical events for angst. It would be much better if the angst was more built up and more meaningful if the characters had character.

Let`s start with the protagonist, Emilio. Of all of the characters, he is the one I have problems with the most. I find it hard to discern a characteristic to him other than a pabebe, a flirt, and a pushover. I`m sorry if that is insulting, but that is my own impression. He may not be like that, but the way he is portrayed gave me that vibes. So what makes a protagonist likable and memorable? They should:

Struggle: Hmm…does Emilio struggle? I have been searching all the pages with Emilio in them to know. None of those posts indicate really big things. I try to dig deeper like a Language Teacher but it is hard for me to see the meaningful struggle. All I see is meaningless angst. The problems that Emilio faces are politics, love life, and history. Politics, I understand that it is hard to live with such a corrupt government. What I need to know is…how does this affect Emilio personally? Normally, citizens of this country will not feel affected by politics. Sometimes they will be affected, but most of the time they would live most of their lives without worrying about this. It would be best to show how it affects Emilio on a personal level, so I can feel why.

Love life, it is now a more human problem. I wonder why personifications aren`t marrying each other by now. So many feelings and ship tease! Are they forbidden? If that is so, then that would be impractical. There are so many countries in the world, so at least one government permits a country to marry another country. I also wonder why Emilio only dated Brunei. I remember you said it is because of the union of the Kingdom of Tondo and something Brunei. So does that mean, whenever a country is joined by political alliance or merging of kingdoms, are they are automatically in love or dating? Heartbreak happens, it is a human thing but I hope it isn`t too much of a problem. There is such a thing as move on, right?

 History, now that could have a lot of potential. I think there is a lot of creative potential with this. The problem is…how do you portray it properly? The best thing to do is to look in history books and determine what he would be doing at a place in time. Give him a backstory based on the things taught in history. I know you are doing that, but I think it is unrealistic that Emilio is everywhere at once. How is he in a lot of historical events!?! There has to be an explanation. I think it could be answered by knowing his occupation exactly. What is his skills? What are his abilities? Does he have powers to help out? What does being a personification mean? These things could really help me understand how the plot works.

 (Out of topic: What is being a personification? How immortal is he? What if we cut off a personification`s head? Would they die? What if we chopped off their fingers? Would they be crippled or would their limbs grow back eventually? In your WWII drawing, Elena asks Japan to finish off her useless brother, so are you saying he can die? What if no one saved Emilio?

Do personifications get paid for being personifications? Can they resign? Do they have insurance or vacation days? Do they get a bonus? Do they get senior citizen`s discount, after all, they are older than our grandparents? Why do countries have a girl and boy version? Let`s say Emilio resigns from being Phil, would Elena have another twin?

What jobs do personifications do? Are they immediately conscripted to be a soldier, kind of Captain America? Captain America is a super soldier and also used for propaganda. Do they go in missions assigned to them by their presidents? I remember your Brunei and Phil post, that countries might be super spies by their governments. Is it really something like that? Are countries allowed to have other jobs? I remembered a post, I asked if personifications can have jobs. Emilio answered that he wanted to be a general, so he is not allowed to? He is the amang bayan after all, can he use his influence to get the job that he dreams of. Why can`t he be a general? I also heard your answer that being a personification means that you help people, how do they help people? Do they work in social services? Military? Education? Counseling? Psychology? NGO?

Can they have superpowers or are they as strong as an average person?

PLEASE ANSWER THIS, EVEN IF IT TAKES TIME. I CAN WAIT. You don`t have to make a drawing for it. Just type or draw if you like, I just really need to know. What if you randomly gave the characters abilities out of thin air? That would be really confusing. You might risk yourself with plot holes. We would be left out with the information needed to know what their life is like. If they have more detail what is their job exactly, then I would feel like they are more relatable because they actually have a life of their own other than being a mascot.)

Not whine: Back to one of the general problems, random sadness. Emilio is the one with the most random sad posts, so he has that main problem. I don`t know about you but if you put it in real life. It would sound like whining (I`m sorry). What is whining? It is a negative connotation of complaint. Complain is to express grief, pain, or discontent. It is okay to show strong emotion possibly even required but it would be weird to hugot it a lot.

 I already talked about the struggle part, not whining is the combo for struggle. Why? When someone suffers and they whine, suffer, whine, suffer, then more whining, then it would feel like handling an annoying baby. I know that they have pain but I would not respect them if they whine. They would be just like an average person to me, “That sucks, but the way you reacted made me not like you.”

Struggle makes the audience root out for the protagonist because it is natural human behavior to root out for the underdogs and struggle is what everyone goes through so it`s relatable. Not whining is what makes the protagonist respectable. Who has more virtue, a person that complains whenever there is something inconvenient vs someone who endures it instead?

A protagonist should be relatable hence, struggle, but they should also have something admirable because if they are so painstakingly average it is not any more interesting. We did not ask for reality to be displayed, we already live with that every day. What we want is to be entertained, learn, or feel something. A protagonist is someone we should admire, respect, and relate to.

In my opinion, Emilio in the Yandere!Adam event actually shows a bit of character and for the first time, I find myself surprised to actually care about a fictional character even if it is a little bit. What I am talking about, are the normal posts before that.

Be active: This is what makes an ordinary protagonist, entertaining. An active protagonist is a protagonist that shapes the plot while a passive protagonist is pushed by the plot. Why I believe that Emilio, isn`t an active protagonist, he is controlled by events. I have never seen an event that Emilio started because of his actions. For example, Yandere!Adam event, Yandere!Adam is the one that sets the events in motion, while Emilio just watches. I can understand since it is a Yandere!Adam event, it has to focus on Yandere!Adam. I just wish that there is an event of Emilio`s own doing.

(Out of topic: I feel like Emilio and Elena`s relationship isn`t that strong when I looked at the Yandere!Adam event. Letting your own twin die?! It affects me a little bit personally because I have a twin of my own. I would never imagine killing my own twin or letting that happen. According to research, boy-girl twins are even closer than same-sex twins, so they should be closer but they are not. Maybe it is because they were separated for so long, so that is why they aren`t that close.)

So in totality, I think Emilio needs a lot of work in his character.

IN SUMMARY:

-Please elaborate in his struggles

-Tone down the hugot

-Have an event focused on Emilio

-Add more to his backstory

-Tell us more about him

  So that is all with Emilio. The other main characters like Elena, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Manila, Cebu, and Davao don`t get enough characterization. They feel like caricatures and stereotypes sometimes. I don`t get who they are supposed to be like. Cebu as INTJ really? As a fan and deep researcher of MBTI, it is hard to see why Cebu will be that. In a nutshell, my impression of them are:

Elena: Oh I`m going to help Emilio, get shipped with so many dudes, and do most of the country work.

Luzon: I`m Miss Serious who is kind of like Manila by design. I`m also the boss and hate insubordination.

Visayas: I`m the guy that has such a peaceful life and brown streak of hair. (Apparently, I also betrayed my countrymen by siding with Spain.)

Mindanao: ….

Manila: I hate probinsyanos! Especially Cebu. I`m swimming in the trash and I have problems…with Cavite. #ampalaya #lifesucks #dacapital

Cebu: I hate Manila! (Hehe I speak Bisaya so he can`t understand) I also don`t get along with Iloilo.

Davao: Yay! (Anime hair).

(Out of topic: I get confused with the glasses on capitals. You said that it was a sign of progress and you put the capitals of other nations with it. It feels quite the opposite. People need glasses to see, so when someone becomes a capital do they become visually impaired? Or they don`t really need it. Does that mean that glasses on capitals are like crowns on royalty? It gets quite confusing to theorize over simple stuff like that. It seems to be too much of a coincidence.)

I`ll talk more about character design later which involves the main characters.

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While writing this, I realized that foreign personifications were more developed than the main characters. They show more personality in a page than Emilio or Elena can show in 10 pages. For Adam, I thought his character design immediately gave me the vibes of someone who would be America. He tries to keep his reputation so he hides his brown eye with contacts and he hides issues to show that he is strong. When it came to struggling, I feel like that is implied. He seems admirable at some aspect and he sets the story forward as a colonizer.

His character design also gives an implication of his character. He has blonde hair and blue eyes (something that is associated with America), he has a blue business suit, red tie, and white underneath. That is the colors of the American flag! Colors like that are usually associated with heroes. I immediately saw a developed character in him. I wonder why that can`t be the same for Emilio or Elena.

Emilio`s outfit is a Filipino barong, he has sun-kissed brown hair, tan skin, and really, really light brown eyes. He is basically brown all the way through. While Elena has similar eyes, black hair, and light tan skin. Their outfits are traditional Filipino clothing. Luzon has a yellow tie and female business suit. Visayas has a red shirt and brown pants. Mindanao has a white robe with blue highlights. It seems like the island groups are wearing the colors of the Philippine flag.

 Their character designs are okay enough. It could possibly do better but it`s okay. When I mean to do better, I think you should modify it a little bit so it can look better. Like add detail to the clothes, use a different shade of color perhaps (the current colors aren`t bad on its own but I think it is best to experiment), and I think that is basically it. I get that you gave them really unusual eyes, to give them an anime feel (Personally I don`t like it, but I would not criticize that. It is your own personal aesthetic decision.). Maybe give Emilio and Elena an alternate casual outfit, the traditional clothing makes them seem like they can`t move on from the past (unless that is what you are going for).

The provinces are what I have a problem with. I can see that you tried, but some of them need work. They look unique but not unique enough. Sorry but, I think they look like branded food from the grocery sometimes. The Mindanaoan personifications are the most unique, Visayan personifications vary in quality but mostly unique, and the Luzones personifications have the most problems. I think you should do a bit more work in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Region, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, a bit in Western Visayas, and Zamboanga Peninsula.

Ilocos Region:

Pangasinan. Despite being part of Ilocos Region, he isn`t exactly Ilocano. He is Pangasinense. That means he has a different ethnicity than the rest of his fellow region mates. His economy and some of the way he acts is a bit different from the Ilocos. In all means, he is different from the other members. So he should look a little bit different. His fashion sense isn`t that good either. Come on! That collar shirt looks too long and does nothing to improve the figure. The hair is all levels baduy.

Ilocos Twins. They seem too similar to each other. It seems like the only difference is how they tuck their shirts and belts, and that Ilocos Norte is wearing a fake mustache. The minuscule detail is that Ilocos Norte has his pants tucked in more neatly while Ilocos Sur has slightly loose pants. You can differentiate them a bit unless you like it that way.

In general, they are kind of plain. It would be best to add more variety and fashion sense. (Unless you intended it that way)

Cagayan Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, MIMAROPA, and Western Visayas:

Make them a bit more varied.

Central Luzon:

Pampanga. My DEAR province would never wear something like that! It`s like he didn`t move on from the past. Bro, it is the modern days not revolution. Besides, Pampanga would wear a uniform during that period of time. In reality, Kapampangans like to dress well to the point it is a stereotype. Whenever there is an event or casual life, we always like to dress up. I think it would be best if he has a more fashionable outfit or you add something to the outfit to make it more fashionable. The most fashionable ones always seem to be the Metro Manilenos. It would be good if there are provinces that are really, really fashionable. Fashion is a really big deal.

What feeling are you trying to invoke when you made him?

 Bulacan. Really baduy. This outfit is something I imagined to be in a cheap fantasy project. The upturned collar according to historical events was a trend because it was “preppy”, so okay then I guess since it indicates character. The shirt is really plain and does not catch the eye. It feels like it was cheaply done. The color of mint green or light green used for the shirt does not add to his character. Light green is used to indicate the more positive aspects of green like growth or healing. Quite ironic, since his eyes were turned grey due to fireworks.

The outfit is even worse than Pampanga`s, at least Pampanga`s outfit is something that someone would wear but that is something I don`t see in a traditional outfit or normal clothes.

Others. Bataan`s outfit is also baduy as well as Nueva Ecija. Why do the girls always have to wear traditional clothing? What is Zambales ordinary outfit? He does not dive all day, you know.

CALABARZON:

I have fewer problems with these guys but...does Cavite have to always wear the uniform. I`ve seen him in a different outfit before. I wonder what his signature normal outfit would look like. Laguna wearing a baro`t saya…a classic for Planet Puto women. What does Quezon have that is different from QC? They are pretty similar.

 GENERAL CHARACTER DESIGN

Character design is of utmost importance because it can determine first impressions and show personality. What I`m looking for in character design is Personality, Color Scheme, and Symbolism. Personality is displayed by the little details like a business suit to indicate the character`s work-like personality or a suspenders to indicate a person`s old-fashioned/gangsta/a cop/compliments the figure of a muscular body. Colors have multiple symbolisms, blue can indicate dependability but can also give a depressing feeling. Light blue has more positive connotations but dark blue indicates the darker aspects. Little things like the wear the clothes are worn can indicate if someone is a slob or a neat person. Clothing can also indicate the standard of living, fashion style, personal preferences, and attitude. After all, you are what you wear.

Of course, character design is not just clothing it could also be a hairstyle, how the body is built, and stuff like gesture can add a push of characterization. Do they wear their hair in a neat manner or they have long hair? Things like that can indicate the beliefs of the person or attitude. Are they muscular? It might indicate that they workout, part of the military, or some physically demanding work. Are they thin? It could indicate that they don`t eat much, but why? See, that adds more character.

IN SUMMARY:

-BE FASHIONABLE (unless it is part of their character not to)

-MAKE THEM STAND OUT

-ASK “Why would they wear this?”

-COLOR IS IMPORTANT (research their meanings)

-COLOR SCHEME IS ALSO IMPORTANT (make it still look good, unless it is part of the character to clash)

Optional:

-Give each character a signature color that fits their personality

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Thank you for listening to my character design and characterization criticism. The lore is really difficult to get into. The only lore I can theorize perhaps is the Yandere!Adam with his eyes. That is basically it. I want to know where personifications come from, how immortal are they, and their origins. How was Emilio made? Did he have parents? Or he just appeared into existence? How are Elena and Emilio twins? How are they related to Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon? You know, questions like that.

I`m sorry if I was offensive or anything. I really mean the best.”

[justanartsysideblog]

I finally managed some more Four Kingdom’s AU, this time little Olwyn’s first real meeting with Kel..

Kel, Ireth, Haninan, June, Arethfal, and Glory belong to @feynites. Kass belongs to @scurvgirl. Selene (mention) belongs to @selenelavellan.

---

Olwyn’s betrothed is named Kel. Kel is the daughter of the Keeper Ireth and her husband Haninan. She has a brother named June who is A MILLION YEARS older than her, and a big clan family. Kel’s mom can turn into a dragon. No, that isn’t right. She’s a dragon that can turn into an elf, that’s what makes her a Keeper and not an Evanuris, like her grandmothers and uncle Dirthamen. It is hard to keep track of it all, but she has been studying very hard about the Council of Clans, so that she can make a good first impression.

Olwyn knows it is very important to make a good first impression. And also that betrothals are serious business. Her grandnanae has been trying to make friends with the Council of Clans for a very long time, and this betrothal is really important for that. It could mean that there wouldn’t be any more fighting.

That’s a good thing. Olwyn doesn’t like it when there’s fighting, because that means her parents might have to go off to war and they could get hurt. There hasn’t been a war since Olwyn’s grandnanae defeated Mythal and divided the empire into four kingdoms, long before Olwyn was born, but she knows that all of her parents fought in it, and so did her Aunt Selene and Uncle Dirthamen and grandparents. Sometimes she has nightmares that there’s a war again and her parents have to leave, but her parents always tell her it’s ok, because there isn’t any war and they’re all trying very hard to make sure there won’t be any more wars either.

Olwyn believes them, and she’s glad that she gets to help make sure there isn’t any more fighting by getting betrothed. She’s trying her hardest to be good at it, and be as responsible as all the adults. They don’t let children do responsible things very often, so Olwyn has to show them that she’s ready for it.

It’s hard to be serious though, when she’s so excited.

“I wonder how many pets Kel has,” Olwyn swings her legs back and forth, and stares at her reflection in the big dressing room mirror. “Nemmy do you think she’s got a dog as big as Haurshos? I don’t think anybody’s got a dog as big as Haurshos. Do you think the Council of Free Clans have dogs at all? Are dogs only for empire elves?”

“Keep your head straight, little princess,” Nemael chuckles, continuing to braid her hair. Nemael is Olwyn’s nanny. He was a spirit once, one of the kinds that doesn’t really have a name. He came with her father Arethfal when he married her papae Aelynthi. He smells like the forest, and he’s almost as tall as an aspen tree. He always makes sure she stays out of trouble when her parents are doing important things or adult things or important adult things which are the worst. “I’m not certain if Kel has a dog or not. That is something you can ask her tonight at dinner.”

Olwyn begins to nod, and feels the soft tug of her hair as Nemael continues to braid, and sits up a little straighter for him. “Keeper Ireth was a really pretty dragon, have you ever seen another dragon? Are they all as pretty as her?”

“I have seen other dragons, but not another Keeper.” Nemael answers, “Your grandmothers Princess Andruil and the Lady Ghilanain can both turn into dragons, but their forms were very different.”

“Kinda like how all elves look different?”

“Just so,” Nemael agrees, and gives one final, playful tug. “There you are, all set.” Olwyn looks at herself in the mirror with a pleased grin. She’s wearing an all new dress; it’s gold and teal with a white fur trim, and she’s got a yellow jade hairpin nestled in her braids.

“Do you think Kel will like my hairpin?”

“I am sure she’ll love it.”

Normally Olwyn doesn’t like big dinners. It means sitting at the high table and having to eat all her vegetables because she has to be well-behaved. She can’t even sneak some to Haurshos because he isn’t allowed to come.

But papa Thenvunin has assured her that there will be lots of wonderful foods to eat and that she gets to sit with Kel and also stay up late like adults do! She hasn’t been able to talk with Kel yet, not after seeing her at the big meeting place when her papae Aelynthi was greeting Keeper Ireth and she hadn’t been able to really talk because the adults were talking.

Adults really like talking.

But she’d waved at Kel, and smiled at her, and tried to make her feel welcome. It is her job as a good hostess and betrothed to make Kel feel safe and happy. She thinks Kel is very pretty. She doesn’t wear her hair in the intricate court styles, but keeps it cut short, and her eyes are warm and her ears are straight rather than sloping up at the tip.

Papa and nanae Glory come get her from her rooms, to take her to dinner. Olwyn knows papae is in talks with Keeper Ireth and Grandnanae, and babae is helping show the clan members around with uncle Morwen.  

They don’t go to the imperial dining room, where Olwyn is used to her more formal meals. Instead papa carries her out into the large, open-aired courtyard that is usually used for the large festivals. There are already musicians playing, and a group of dancers at the center, surrounded by smaller tables that each sit four (two imperial officials and two clan members to each). On a raised dais are two longer tables, and on the highest dais is where Olwyn’s Grandnanae will sit, with Keeper Ireth beside them to show a level as equals. Grandpapae Nithroel, grandma Faunalyn, and grandnanae’s wife Kassaran are already seated. Olwyn waves, and is rewarded with smiles and a wave in return from all three.

On the dais just below Grandnanae Melarue is where Olwyn will sit with her parents and Kel and the rest of Kel’s family. Olwyn’s father, Prince Arethfal, isn’t here yet, which makes her a little sad. Her papae had explained that father was talking with her grandmamae and grandmemae back in their kingdom because they were angry that they hadn’t been invited to Olwyn’s betrothal meeting.

He was supposed to be back before the meeting itself, but he sent a message ahead saying he’d be a day or two late. Nanae says that Olwyn doesn’t need to worry, but she still does. Sometimes she finds her grandmamae Andruil to be scary. Grandmemae Ghilan’nain is a little nicer, she thinks. She made Haurshos after all.

Her worry is overshadowed by her excitement, of course. She has so many things she wants to show Kel, and so many questions to ask her!

Papa sits her down on his left, on a large blue cushion. It reminds her of eating meals with her parents around her low table, and not the high-backed imperial dining chairs. She likes it even more now. The only thing that would make this perfect would be Haurshos. He’d whined the whole time they’d gone down the hallway from her rooms; he doesn’t like it when he can’t see her.

Nanae sits beside papa, and Olwyn knows that babae will sit beside them. Papae will sit with Grandnanae, for more talks with Keeper Ireth. Olwyn can see lots of officials and clan members settling into their own seats, and recognizes several of grandnanae’s top officials, including uncle Morwen and nabae Treachery and gran gran Mirena.

The air is pleasantly cool, like a spring evening, despite the snow on the tiled roofs. Lanterns line the courtyard, still unlit, though Olwyn knows they will activate once the sky darkens. She learned all about that kind of light magic in her lessons, and she even spelled the one in her own room!

A gong sounds, and a herald announces the arrival of Grandnanae and Keeper Ireth. Papa picks up Olwyn and stands, as everyone else gets to their feet and Grandnanae walks to their seat with papae. Both of them are dressed in even prettier dresses than Olwyn’s. Keeper Ireth is in her elf form, but she has her horns still. They’re different than the horns Grandmama Kass has, they go up and out and they’re gold.

Babae leads Kel and her papae and brother to the table next to Olwyn, and Olwyn has to keep herself from talking until Grandnanae addresses everyone and welcomes them to the meal and talks for a little bit about peace and alliances and new beginnings while Olwyn twists in papa’s arms to get a better look at Kel.

She’s dressed in a deep emerald dress with silver embroidered trees on the hem and collar, and there are silver cuffs on her ears, and she’s trying to get a good look at Olwyn too.

When Grandnanae and Keeper Ireth sit down, the rest of them follow suit and Olwyn nearly jumps out of papa’s arms to settle on her cushion beside Kel. “Hi!” She chirps, “I’m Olwyn.”

Kel smiles back, “I’m Kel.”

“Do you have any favorite foods?” Olwyn leans over and grabs a small bowl of sliced mango. “This is my favorite fruit, do you wanna try some?”

Kel takes a bit and nods, “It’s good.” She doesn’t finish it though, Olwyn notices. Oh no, is she being a bad hostess already? Olwyn pauses, and tries to think about what she did wrong. Well, she’d asked Kel if she had any favorite foods...but she hadn’t given her time to answer. She’d just given Kel the things she liked. That wasn’t very nice of her. Olwyn tries again. “What kind of foods do you like, Kel?”

“I like spicy things,” Kel replies, as Olwyn waits and tries REALLY hard not to start talking until Kel finishes.

“Oh!” Olwyn nearly knocks over her glass of water as she reaches across the table—nanae grabs it and keeps it from spilling just in time—and grabs another bowl. “Wanna try these peppers? My babae really likes them. They’re too spicy for me though.”

Kel takes the offered pepper and goes for a second before her papa tells her that she has to eat the other foods on her plate too. Olwyn steals a glance at him as she nibbles another piece of mango. His name is Haninan, she knows, and he’s got his hair in braids like her, with little gold and glass beads in it. It’s pretty. Sitting beside him is Kel’s big brother June. June is dressed really fancy, like the empire elves, and he’s watching the room like he’s not sure who he’s supposed to talk to.

Papa keeps putting foods on Olwyn’s plate and—Olwyn grimaces—there it is, vegetables. She sighs. She’d really hoped that since it was a special night she would just get to eat good food, but nanae gives her a look that says “no”.

Babae and Haninan are talking about something over Olwyn’s head, as Olwyn leans over conspiratorially. “Do you like vegetables?”

“Some,” Kel nods, “Why?”

“Any of these?” Olwyn points to her own plate. When Kel points to a few Olwyn hurriedly transfers them over.

“Da’len,” Nanae pats the top of her head, “What are you doing?”

“I’m being a good betrothed!” Olwyn defends, “Kel likes these vegetables it would be remiss of me not to let her have them.” Remiss is one of the new words her tutor had taught her the other day.

Haninan laughs, and Nanae makes a face like they want to laugh but know that they shouldn’t. Instead they pat Olwyn’s head again, “Alright.”

“Tomorrow do you wanna play with my toys?” Olwyn turns back to Kel. “The adults are going to do boring stuff, but we can play in my rooms! You can choose all of the games, since you’re the guest.”

“That is very nice of you, Princess Olwyn.” Haninan smiles down at her.

The rest of the evening continues much the same. Olwyn and Kel both get distracted from talking about their favorite games by the new dancers in the middle of the courtyard, before Olwyn’s uncle Morwen walks forward and makes a speech about two groups coming together for peace, and about the wonders of music connecting people—uncle Morwen is very good with words—and then plays a piece of his own, inspired by traditional clan music, and the whole courtyard goes silent to listen. 

Olwyn barely notices she’s getting sleepy, until she finds herself being carried down the hall in papae’s arms. She doesn’t need to open her eyes to recognize him—he smells like his favorite jasmine perfume and paint. She doesn’t hear his words, not awake enough to make them out, but he’s talking with her other parents.

“Can I play with Kel tomorrow?” Olwyn murmurs, as papa Thenvunin pulls the blanket up to her chin. She feels the bed shift as Haurshos leaps onto it and settles against her back.

“Of course you can, da’len.” Babae answers, and then each of her parents gives her a kiss on the forehead. By the last, she’s fallen asleep.

---

Olwyn wakes the next morning before Nemael arrives to help her get ready for the day, too excited to stay in bed a moment longer. The sooner she gets dressed the sooner she can see Kel, after all. She is halfway through putting on her clothes when he walks in and pauses in the doorway to survey the chaos.

He laughs softly as he begins picking up the clothes scattered across the ground, “Eager to play with your new friend?”

“Kel’s never seen a big dog so babae says I can bring Haurshos to play and we’re gonna go to the big garden and the menagerie and we’re gonna have a picnic next to the koi pond because it’s romantic.”

Haurshos gives a soft woof of agreement from where he’s curled up on the bed.

“First we need to be properly dressed.” Nemael nods. “It’s going to be too cold for that dress today.”

Olwyn looks down at the dress she’d chosen. It’s one of her favorites, with golden bamboo and cranes on it. It makes her feel very grown up, like Grandnanae; all silk, with a red and gold sash with a beaded pendant in the shape of her formal seal. She frowns, “But this one’s my favorite.” Just in case Nemael forgot.

“What about the dress is your favorite part?” Nemael asks as he sits her down on the ottoman next to her closet.

“The sash,” Olwyn decides, “and the colors.”

“Well,” her nanny stands and heads for her closet. “What if we find some warmer clothes that are the same color and wear them with the sash?”

Olwyn thinks about it for a bit. She really wanted to show Kel her favorite dress. It makes her look important and royal. But...she also doesn’t want to be cold. She doesn’t like the cold very much. “Ok.”

In the end Olwyn finds herself in a pair of warm leggings and a long-sleeved tunic—Nemmy reminds her she’ll be running around, and leggings will make it easier to move—with a pretty navy blue coat with gold swans sewn into the collar that match her sash. Her hair is still in braids, so Nemael leaves them loose. The braids reminds her of babae’s hair, which has her in an even happier mood by the time nanae and papa come to take her to breakfast.

Haurshos whines, but stays with Nemael as they head out. He’s not allowed to come to the formal dining hall and has to stay until they go to the gardens. Olwyn hates it just as much as Haurshos, maybe even more. “Haurshos is really sad papa.” Olwyn pouts, tugging on Thenvunin’s hand. “Can’t he come to breakfast? He didn’t get to come to dinner and he waited so good. Please?”

Her papa wavers, but nanae simply wraps a fur-lined scarf around Olwyn’s neck and boops her nose. “You know better than to ask papa with that sad face. Haurshos will be fine for a little longer.”

Nanae always catches her when she tries to ask papa or babae for something she knows her other parents will say no to. Olwyn sighs, “But what if he forgets what I look like because I’m gone so much? Or he tries to eat the ducks because he’s so sad, like Screecher?”

Nanae snorts. “Screecher did not eat the ducks because they were sad, da’len.”

“Well it made Uncle Morwen sad,” Olwyn asserts, while papa sputters and begins telling her that Screecher was just doing what Screecher does and wasn’t trying to make anyone sad. Papa tells that story every time Screecher attacks an animal or person—which is often.

“Where is my little puppy?”

Olwyn recognizes the voice instantly, and tears away from papa’s hand as she careens down the hallway toward the tall figure at the end. “Father!”

Her father grabs her up and lifts her into the air as she giggles, before pressing a kiss to her forehead. He’s still wearing his traveling clothes, and smells like his hunting leathers and the snake hounds. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Olwyn wraps her arms around his neck, and breaths in the smell of the woods from his coat, before she leans back to look him in the eyes again. “Have you met my betrothed, Kel? She’s really pretty and she’s never seen a dog before!”

“Did your talk go well?” Nanae asks her father, as they continue down the hall. Nanae doesn’t like Olwyn’s grandmamae and grandmemae at all, Olwyn heard her talking with papa Thenvunin about it before, when Olwyn had gone to visit them for the first time. nanae Glory had said “NO! It’s too dangerous.” and papa had stayed behind with them so they wouldn’t be lonely when she had gone with father and papae and babae. She remembers how scared nanae had sounded, and how hard they’d hugged her when she’d come back.

“Of course,” Olwyn’s father answers, but even Olwyn knows he’s only saying it because they can’t talk about adult stuff when she’s there. Instead he turns to her again and smiles, “Your grandmothers sent you some presents to congratulate you on your betrothal. Would you like to see them?”

Olwyn loves presents. Even if sometimes her parents tell her she’s too young to play with some of the gifts that Grandmamae Andruil sends her. Last time Grandmemae Ghilan’nain sent her a gift it was Sunset, her very own moose-lion. She lives in the stables, and usually Olwyn has to sit in father’s lap to ride, but she’s old enough now to start riding lessons on her own because she’s practically all grown up. She’s about to say yes when she remembers something, “Did they get Kel any presents?”

Her father blinks, “Well, no.”

“Then I’ll wait till later,” Olwyn decides, and tries not to seem too disappointed. “I don’t wanna make her feel left out.”

She is such a good betrothed.

Her father sets her down, and holds her hand while they walk to the dining hall and listens to her describe the night before. The herald at the door announces them, before they walk inside. The imperial dining hall is full of five long tables made of dark wood, embedded with tops made of clear crystal. This is where the nobles of the court sit, those that wish to eat their meals in attendance of Grandnanae and the rest of the royal family.

This morning the tables are full to bursting, with imperial elves and members of Kel’s clan. Grandnanae Melarue is sitting at the sixth, final table with Keeper Ireth and her family. The table is longer than Olwyn remembers it being before, to accommodate the new arrivals, curving at both ends rather than straight across.

This time Olwyn doesn’t get to sit beside Kel because they’re seated at opposite sides of the table. She hears Kel ask her papa why, and Olwyn turns to her own parents with the same query, before she can’t stand it any longer and tries to get down from her seat so she can go talk with her. The debacle ends when she finds herself firmly seated in Grandnanae’s lap, with Kel in Keeper Ireth’s, so the two can talk.

Olwyn isn’t a baby, she doesn’t need to sit in someone’s lap, but she knows the adults like to think she does.

And she doesn’t get to sit in Grandnanae’s lap as much anymore, and she knows Grandnanae misses it and she doesn’t want their feelings to get hurt.

“My papa says that when we finish eating we can go and play and don’t have to wait for the adults to be done,” Olwyn tells Kel, “We get to spend the whole day together! And all of tomorrow too. And the day after that, to make sure we like each other. I think I already like you, cuz you like dogs and eat the vegetables that I don’t like so I don’t have to. But we can spend more time together too just to make sure. And because being betrothed means spending time together.”

Kel nods, “We need to play games so we can see if we like the same ones.”

“There’s a tree in the big garden that has lots of good branches for climbing and it’s the tallest tree ever,” Olwyn leans back in Grandnanae’s arms, “We can race to the top!”

Kel bounces in her mother’s arms, “I wanna see it.”

“After you eat,” Grandnanae reminds them.

Olwyn has never eaten her breakfast so fast. She slows down only when her grandmama and grandpapae tell her that she’ll get a stomach ache if she doesn’t stop, and pouts for a bit while she waits for her tummy to settle before babae comes to take her and Kel to go play, along with Kel’s papae Haninan.

By the time they get out of the dining hall both girls are giggling with excitement, ready to run off and play.

The most important thing, of course, is meeting Haurshos. Olwyn reminds her babae several times as they leave the dining hall that they need to go back to her rooms and get him. She refuses to be carried; she wants to walk with Kel.

She knows betrothed hold hands, but she doesn’t want to go too fast. Betrothals are long and she needs to be patient and understanding. She and Kel agree that waiting is important, so they’ve agreed on the end of the week for hand holding.

Olwyn can hear Haurshos whining as they near her rooms—he’s smelled her coming. When babae opens the door Haurshos tumbles through and nearly knocks her down. He doesn’t of course, because he’s the smartest dog in the world and he knows better than to knock her over when she could get hurt. Instead he covers her face with kisses.

Nemael walks out of Olwyn’s rooms behind Haurshos with a sigh, and begins wiping the slober off Olwyn’s cheeks, tutting. Olwyn is so preoccupied with scratching Haurshos’ chin that she almost forgets that she’s supposed to be showing Kel around. She turns to see her betrothed standing a few feet away, eyes wide, looking excited. Olwyn grins, “This is Haurshos!”

At the sound of his name, Haurshos looks over Olwyn’s head and turns to welcome Kel. He leans forward, tail wagging furiously as he sniffs Kel’s outstretched hands. When Kel lets out a giggle his tail wags even harder and he ventures a lick on her palm.

“He loves getting his ears scratched,” Olwyn shows her how, and Haurshos grunts and leans into Kel’s hand as she does so.

“He’s so soft!” Kel exclaims, and looks more than a little wonderstruck. She can’t seem to stop petting Haurshos, and Olwyn’s faithful hound shows no sign of moving.

Olwyn knows the concept of sharing, but is not something she’s ever had to do before. There were never any other children to share with. And while a part of her feels some odd tinge of worry, that maybe Haurshos might like Kel more now, she realizes that more than that worry she likes the idea of Haurshos and Kel getting along, the idea of all three of them there, having fun.

Olwyn smiles, “Do you want to ride him?”

[smithbrayden-blog]

Blockchain has Entered into Food industry and The use of technology in the Industry

Blockchain technology is one of the growing technologies in the world and many of the industries other than Cryptocurrency are adopting the technology. The blockchain technology is now very popular and industries such as health, IT, Food, and Economy are adopting it.

Last month the news came that the Vechain is collaborating with the Walmart China and Walmart China wants to track the foods items with the help of blockchain technology. On the other hand, many famous companies such as Nestlé, Carrefour and Starbucks are stepping into the world of blockchain with their initiatives powered by blockchain technology.

According to research, 20% of the global top-10 food grocers will be using blockchain technology by the year 2025. It is even very clear the blockchain industry has impacted its influence on the food industry this year. What the reason behind the success of blockchain in the food industry and what is the bad impact of it???

More Data empowerment for Customer and tracking illness of food: There are two main problems have come out. Last year in a research study conducted by the U.S. based Food Marketing Institution (FMI). They found in the study that now the people are becoming more health-conscious and they are concern about the quality and information of the food. They want transparency in the system.

The report stated that 75% of the users wanted to switch to the brands or company who provide more details about the food items on their labels. Later in 2016, in the same study, only 39% of the people stated that they would change the brand concerning with the label details of the food.

And blockchain can solve this issue because of its features such as easy accessibility, fixed distributed ledger by design, and it can provide details of the products to the customer easily. The Chief Marketing Officer at blockchain-based farm-to-table food traceability company Te-Food, Matron Ven said,

“Food companies implement traceability because they see that the consumers require transparency and credibility. Blockchain’s immutability helps them to prove that the information the different supply chain companies provide is uncorrupted.”

This food traceability is not only issues raised by the customers, but the main purpose of the industry at the big scale to know and investigate about the illness because of the food products and that should be stopped at any cost from endangering any human life. Another San-Francisco based blockchain startup, Ripe.io is functioning with the food supply chain. The Chief Operating Officer at Ripe.io, Rachel Gabato said,

“One of the primary drivers for food providers to consider blockchain technology is the ability to consider blockchain technology is the ability of the technology to collect data from various sources and create a single view of the transaction. This plays an important role in the ability to track the food product back to its origin driving more efficiency when a food safety issue arises.”

In the year 2017, a critical Salmonella outbreak was brought under the investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which was earlier linked with the imported papayas from a Mexican farm. Then late to know the actual cause of the disease, the agency conducted more a hundred interviews and research studies on various mango samples in the lab environments. And with the help of the blockchain, we can easily decrease the procedure of locating the responsible cause and the corrupt harvester can be easily tracked.

The food industry has a long chain of participants such as farmers, vendors, retailers, and shopper, etc.- to keep track of everything is complicated. This every idea generated the encouragement in the suppliers and retailers to know the data straightway. The research associate at Henley Business School said,

“A key benefit not discussed is the fact that data needs to be cleansed, structured and verified before it goes onto a Blockchain. This is one of the key benefits and in the use cases I have examined closely, 75% of the effort was in fixing the data.”

IBM’s domination in the blockchain providing solution: IBM’s Food Trust is dominating the industry of blockchain tracking solution and it is based on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain protocol. With providing the first product tracking solution to Walmart China in December 2016. They are getting big clients such as Nestle, Dole Food, Carrefour, Kroger, and Unilever. The stage officially went live on in October 2018. As the IBM “millions of individual food products” were traced by retailers with the help of Food Trust blockchain.

IBM has also signed Albertsons Companies, another main food, and drug retailer in the U.S. They will use it first to trace the supply chain for romaine lettuce and then on the other products. Recently, the news came out that the U.S. seafood trade association National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is also working along with IBM and using Food Trust to track seafood. This is first of its kind and now it’s joined by other companies. A few months ago North America’s biggest self-stable brand of seafood branch, Bumble Bee Foods has introduced a blockchain stage for tracing their seafood alliancing with SAP, a German tech company.

Earlier for expanding the reach of Food Trust members, IBM blockchain has done a partnership with Nestle in April, and France based retail company Carrefour. The Carrefour is tracking the chain of Mousseline. They provided the customer to scan QR and know the details regarding the product.

New tools will emerge based on blockchain traceability: As the market technology ever since developing, Carrefour has launched its own blockchain solution for tracking their milk, named as Carrefour Quality Line (CQL). CQL promises the users to have total traceability for the whole supply chain. The user will even get the GPS coordinates of the producer farmer of the milk. Another project initiative related to blockchain technology is the U.S. National Pork Board alliancing with Ripe.io to examine the supply chains of pork.

The Representative of the company stated,

“The ripe.io platform will enable the NPB ecosystem of pork producers to monitor, evaluate and continuously improve their sustainability practices based on six defined ethical principles guiding the U.S. pork industry. These principles provide industry standards in food safety and public health, animal well-being, protecting the environment, and improving the quality of life for the industry’s people and communities.”

More of this, in the starting of 2019, World Wildlife Fund-Australia and Global Corporate Venture BCG Digital Ventures together introduced a blockchain-based supply chain tool named as OpenSC. It provides the facility to track their producing products. In July, Nestle also joined OpenSc for tracing milk from farms and producers in New Zealand for supplying it in the firms in the middle east.

Blockchain is different niches: Alcohol and Coffee: The popularity of the blockchain is increasing in beverage and alcohol industry. The news came out in March that the premium Scotch Whisky brand Ailsa Bay will be introducing the world’s first tracing scotch whiskey with the blockchain-powered system. The U.K.’s auditing firm E&Y also declared that they will bring blockchain solution across Asian countries to know the quality and authenticity of imported European Wines.

Starbucks’s “bean to cup” initiative is that the company will implement the I.T. giant Microsoft’s blockchain service Azure to trace the production of its coffee and coffee provided to them allegedly from the farmers of Rwanda, Colombia and Costa Rica with more economic independence.

Co-signing the technology by China’s food industry: Chinese food and beverage industry which held the record high of 4.27 trillion yuan ($620 billion) in revenue last year are now also showing interest in blockchain. The official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party has reported in January that their Food and Drug Administration Chinese Chongqing Yuzhong District is going to implement blockchain to make the supervision of food and drug quality strong and assured with tracing the life-cycle of products.

Walmart China has also collaborated with VeChain’s Thor blockchain. Like the press release, the Walmart China blockchain traceability platform (WCBTP) will be an alliance venture by the VeChain, PwC, Walmart China, Inner Mongolia Kerchin and the China Chain-Store and Franchise Association.

Presently the Walmart China has traced the supplies of 23 products and soon will release another 100 products. On the other hand, their neighbour Vietnam, there the Te-Food has currently implemented blockchain-powered traceability at Vinamilk, one of the biggest dairy companies in the Southeast Asian countries.

Most of the companies are tracking their food for their safety. Earlier in April, Swiss food technology company Buhler has launched two blockchain-ready products: Laatu, a tool targeting to decrease microbial contamination in dry goods, and Tubex Pro, a scaling system that self-optimizes and produces a continues flow of the produced data. The Bulher tools are connected with the Internet of Things(IoT) service, which hosted by Azure cloud platform of Microsoft.

As per the information of the company Laatu can destroy over 99.999% of salmonella and maintain the nutritional quality of food. Also, Iota Foundation has teamed up with the digital food safety management firm Priority in the month of June. It also enables the user to check the different variety of foods for allergens. And it also provides the customer with the detail of food products by scanning the barcode on the app.

Possible problems: The food industry is adopting blockchain technology but it has limitations too. The data entered into blockchain systems by the supplier is not guaranteed to be sure, but the technology ensures the prevention of the tampering or entering of false in the last stages. In most cases, it is difficult to collect and digitize the date because of numerous different setups utilized by suppliers, Ripe.io’s Gabor says,

“As we have engaged with the farmers in the food areas of dairy, meat, produce, citrus, commodities, a primary challenge is the access and availability of data. Farmers capture data in many different forms and the ability to digitize this data for capture and sharing has been our primary challenge.”

“The main challenges of implementations are not blockchain-related, ” assured Marton Ven from Te-Food. He further said,

“The hardest obstacle comes from collecting data from a large number of different companies. In recent decades, supply chains have become global, sometimes incorporating hundreds of companies from different countries, with different technological maturity, using different identification methodologies.

Keeping the data integrity – which is the backbone of traceability – requires all of them to actively cooperate on what data to collect, how to capture the data, and how to compile the information into meaningful product data, which the consumers can read.”

As per Keogh, there is another problem that needs the attention that if blockchain becomes compliant with the present GS1 standards. The food industry mainly depends upon them to format their data for communications sharing across supply chains before the blockchain technology.

Keogh said, “In this context, a Blockchain should be viewed as an outcome of a configuration of multiple technologies, tools and methods and hence interoperability is a critical component.

The Blockchain solutions using the GS1 standards for product identification, company identification, location identification and the joint GS1/ISO interoperability standards called Electronic Product Code Information System (EPICS) will excel in this space.”

As an academic’s view, the blockchain is like a record-keeping solution and not traceability. The state of supply chains in the food industry will immensely depend on how these blockchain-based solutions are implemented:

“WalMarts’ strategy with a single platform from IBM Food Trust is an example of both progress and a hurdle at the same time. […] I would have preferred to see WalMart providing a blockchain-enabled, standards-based platform and then their hundreds of suppliers who will use dozens of Blockchain solutions being able to connect and share a vendor lock-in is counterintuitive in the evolving Blockchain world.”

Ven agreed, “As traceability throughout food supply chains barely exists worldwide, blockchain has a good chance to become the de facto standard technology for it.” He further added, “But to provide global solution, other standards have to be applied as well, like GS1 standards for identification and event structure.”

Therefore, more and more suppliers and retailers are joining with blockchain companies or firms. The experts were stressing about the blockchain adoption inside the field, but it is not much about concluding out the technology as the shortage of proper data analysis in the first place. Ven told,

“We haven’t ever met any food company which refused to use blockchain. Although solution providers have to put in a lot of education effort, food companies are open to the idea of using blockchain. Certainly, the media hype around blockchain helps this effort, but 90% of the implementation challenges are not blockchain-related ones.”

[bloxfilm]

I have not been paid by any entity in any way (financially, benefits) to write the following post.

After enjoying a night in Paris, it was time to take flight back to the States, and I was excited to be flying the increasingly rare United Global Polaris First Class. These less attractive legacy United birds are the first to get retrofitted with the new Polaris Business Class seat, United’s flagship premium product.

New United Polaris Business Class Seats

The need to get these specific B777s retrofitted lies in the horrendous 2-4-2 Premium Economy “Business” class product that someone, somewhere in an executive boardroom saw these seats and thought “that’s a great idea!”

“Business” Class Seats IAD-SFO

After spending time in the First Class section of the Star Alliance Lounge Paris, I collected my bags and made my way to the gate in order to be among the first to board.

The food offerings weren’t exactly “first class,” but it was definitely better than nothing.

Star Alliance First Class Food Spread

Star Alliance First Class Food Spread

Star Alliance First Class Food Spread

With United Polaris First getting that pre-boarding access, I got to the gate early and boarded, settling into my seat for the flight to the Bay Area.

United Global First Seat

Provisions like the Saks Fifth duvet and pillows were offered, but I had moved them and stored them in the spacious compartments offered at the suite. I took a look at the menu to see what was in store for me in this “elevated” Polaris dining experience.

United Polaris First Menu – Paris to San Francisco

Since this was a morning flight, the offerings were all breakfast and brunch items. The flight attendants serving the first class cabin came around and asked for my order first thanks to my Premier 1K status with United’s MileagePlus program. Also, I got this flight for 80,000 MileagePlus miles, which isn’t really a steal, but I was consulted by the FlyerTalk community to spend the extra 10,000 miles to fly Polaris First vs Air Canada’s Business Class to Toronto, which would’ve been 70,000 award miles.

I then took some time to admire the Singapore Airlines A380 that was getting ready to jet on to Singapore!

Singapore Airlines A380

Soon enough, we pushed back and were on our way to the United States. On the taxi I was able to get some pics of the ramp, including another United B777 that had just landed.

Finally we got to the runway, lined up, and those massive Pratt & Whitney engines lifting us up into the skies over France!

Shortly after takeoff, the breakfast/brunch service began with the starters, which included fresh citrus and chilled oatmeal.

United Polaris First Class Starters – Chilled Citrus and Oatmeal

The oatmeal was actually quite good, containing mango, giving it the perfect touch of sweetness! This was followed by the entree.

United Polaris First Class Entree – Steak and Eggs

I chose the steak and eggs as my entree, and I will say that there were great and not so great aspects about this meal. The eggs were perfect, just fluffy and quite frankly could’ve been restaurant quality. The steak itself was cooked perfectly, but just didn’t taste as well as I expected. Overall, I wish the flight would’ve been later, since I just wasn’t impressed with the options that were offered.

Signature United Sundae

Thankfully, sunshine or dusk, sundaes are a constant! After gobbling this sweet treat, I went to the lavatory to freshen up as the flight attendant made the suite into a bed. I had been feeling under the weather due to something I ate while in Germany, and I wanted to rest up before getting to San Francisco so I could enjoy United’s San Francisco Polaris Lounge again!

For those of you that enjoy the wine lists, here they are!

Flying way ahead of schedule, I woke up right about an hour and a half before touchdown. The flight attendants quickly set my table for the pre-arrival meal service! The choices were either chicken or fruit, veggie and cheese plate. I chose the former, and I am very happy I did!

United Polaris First Arrival Dining Service – Grilled Chicken

Everything on the tray was phenomenal and tasted perfect. It was a refreshing meal that I personally would have preferred as the main meal vs the arrival service! Alas, our time in the sky was coming to a close, and after freshening up in the lavatory one last time, the pilots lined us up with one of the runways in San Francisco and brought this journey to a close!

Verdict:

United Polaris First class was a great product to have flown! It was a very competitive business class offering, but was nowhere near the levels of Lufthansa’s First Class. The food could have been better, and although the service was very warm and friendly by an excellent crew, they just weren’t as proactive as you’d expect in a true first class. Since this trip (June 2018), United has phased out Polaris First Class, retrofitting these older legacy United B777-200ERs with the new Polaris Business Class seat, which is a major upgrade from that disastrous 2-4-2 seating, but a step below all the space offered by the legacy United First Suite.

All in all, I am happy to have experienced this product one last time before it is officially, 100% gone!

Got thoughts? Let me know in the comment section below! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, follow us on our social media accounts located in the sidebar, and please share share share! 

As always, remember to keep living life one trip at a time!

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First Class Dream: United Polaris First CDG-SFO I have not been paid by any entity in any way (financially, benefits) to write the following post.