#I actually really like my solutions and lore around the sun and moon

[nightly-ruse]

Critter has convinced me to share my things so here you go

Kinda long post be warned dashboard scrollers

Sun and Moon

The sun and moon are called Solarwing and Lunarwing by the cats.

Solarwing was the first Star to ever climb to the sky and brought light to their dark withering world, her pelt of glass and eyes beaming with light reflecting to all the creatures below. Other names for her are First Star, Solar, and Radiance.

Lunarwing was the second star to rise right after her sister, shining when her older sister couldn’t so the world was never fully dark. She is has a wavy glowing pelt and eyes as dark as they night sky. She always looks up to her sister and pads behind her at all times. Other names for her are Small star, Luna, Illuminate, and the Second star.

Solar eclipses are when the two sisters meet and a day the whole wings celebrate. It’s a rare event that marks new bonds and amending broken ones, most cats getting together when one happens or in the days following. When the sun is dark and turns the sky red cats gather underneath to share stories and talk, feasting together, hunting in large parties, singing/performing for everyone. The sky is tracked well by the cats so most often a gathering will happen on a Solar eclipse to really bring everyone together, ones that happen unexpectedly can be seen as quickly sent to mend things in times of need

Lunar eclipses are when the moon is shaded making it partially black or deep red like it’s been painted in blood. These are not so lucky and taken as the little moon feeling lesser for her dimmer light, making her dim even more, or angered over how she’s always chasing after her sister, going red. On these events cats can start worsening relations or taking it as a sign to finally cut/end relationships with others. The most breakups, acts of war, and fights happen after a Blood moon. To try and amend things cats try to shine lights up to Luna, hoping to encourage her to shine once more as well as singing long songs of sorrow at her darkness. Since they happen a little more often then Solar eclipses they are less best tracked showing up and usually catching cats in shock.

The Hoard + Solution to No Humans

The Hoard is a banded together group of cats who specialize in scavenging the dangerous city. Walls are put around the town to keep whatever it is that roams inside or any banished cats trapped. They follow one leader called the Overseer looks over all the trades, alliances, enemies, and bounty of scavenges keeping it in the tower which is on the corner of the wall.

They would easily be swept away by a real force but no cats dare as no one would want to take on the role of collecting from the city. And some whisper that the runner of the Hoard can control the beasts within it walls, deterring almost all threats to them.

The Hoard is how the Immunity has access to scrap, medicine, various human trinkets, gold, silver, cut gems, almost anything found in a modern town. While they try to keep good marks with them the Immunity has been getting rather tense with them, especially with the new successor taking over more and more control of The Hoard.

[catflowerqueen]

Well Moon went off the deep end very quickly in this episode… It’s sad and scary—but also pretty funny that he immediately defaulted to tossing barrels around in order to ease his boredom. I’m also very proud of Sun for both defending himself and getting to safety, as well as for his immediate worry over Lunar. Which, sidenote—nice to have that confirmation that Lunar does, indeed, go by he/they. Horrible to have confirmation that Lunar is indeed suffering right now.

I really hope this doesn’t damage their relationship with Moon in the future. I don’t think it will—or at least, not on Lunar’s end, mainly because Lunar was there and worried during the reactivation process, and they’re also going to more than likely figure out that Eclipse is the one who caused this. Not to mention that Lunar was already aware that Moon was worried about this sort of possibility occurring and will probably just end up having more empathy for what Moon went through in October. Moon is probably going to feel guilty on his end, though.

And I feel like the computer putting the Daycare on lockdown like that actually might put a wrench into Eclipse and Bloodmoon’s most recent plans, since I doubt that anyone is going to be able to get in until a solution for Moon’s problem is found. …Unless Bloodmoon completely disassembles and sneaks in nanobot by nanobot, since presumably that room isn’t going to be airtight.

As far as lore goes, there was a lot of it hiding in the subtext of Sun and Moon’s “discussion.” Mainly in that it confirmed that Moon really did get this level of insane while they were still together—which then begs the question of what, exactly, the inciting incident/conversation was that led them to begin working together, to the point where Moon would actively comfort Sun in his mind. Especially considering how sane Moon was at the start of the channel—which is implied to be very shortly after the separation. Sure, some of that could have been because Moon deliberately left a large piece of the kill code in Sun when he left (hence Eclipse coming into being to begin with—or at least that’s the implication, since Eclipse was definitely not as unhinged as Moon is here), but that doesn’t account for everything. Especially since I highly doubt that a Moon in that condition, who was severely tethered by Sun’s will, would have been able to think about the plans and blueprints needed to make a new body.

My best guess is that the corruption process was a lot slower—hence why Moon was able to keep the Daycare afloat the way he did—and one day Sun just took a look at how bad things had gotten compared to the early days and decided to push down his fear and try to drag Moon back from the brink. And that care and effort is probably what clued Moon into the fact that Sun wasn’t deliberately trying to be his jailor, and that he sincerely wanted to help Moon and have at least a civil relationship with him.

Additionally, Sun might be conflating a lot of his memories of his own Moon with the Sun-less one he saw—especially since he did actually bring him up when talking to Moon, and that’s part of what tipped him off to there being a legitimate problem.

[shkika]

I LOVE ALL THOSE POINTS I also never really knew about the terror area that's so cool wtf!!

Anyway I definitely agree with like everything I find it really silly about how moon, despite how soft-spoken she appears to be-, talks so bad about the ancients while five pebbles being the one on the meaner/blunt side speaks so highly of them I LOVE that the iterators are their own people like they have their own opinions rather than just being machines..they really feel like they have that biological aspect to them :]

Most of my musings are based around fp (i miiight be a little biased) but I love the thought of exploring even more in depth with his relationship with the ancients ...like the way he interacts with artificer?? The way he considers her to be one of his citizens is so silly (I wonder does he find a source of comfort in that??)

Like... I wonder how did he feel about the ancients all ascending, he seemed to admire many of them and he must have felt some sort of emptiness at that (STARING at the posts of ancient talking to him like siri) like especially with the cities on top of the iterators too, like i wonder wonder wonder what daily life was like for the ancients

Aghghgh adding on even more I wonder does he ever feel rage towards the ancients, like surely he must feel some way abandoned, like yes ascension is such a big thing for them but still like how EASY it was for them to just get up and leave him behind

ALSO THAT ECHO THAT YU FIND NEAR MOON THAT MENTIONS THE RANDOM GODS it must've been so nasty to hear yur literal parents talking so badly about you. Like it wasn't the iterators fault they couldn't find a solution and it wasn't their fault they lost themselves to time but the ancients still seem to blame that stuff on them

As for cycles that IS really silly I think like it seems at first just like death but it goes so much further in such a weird way, I love games with vague ass lore but AUGH GODD

For having like everything based around those cycles there really is such little information on them........maybe nobody really figured it out? That's unlikely though considering how everyone talks about them

I've just started really playing the game so I have yet to get into every little thing but I really enjoy the broadcasts u find as spearmaster I love the like conversations I love how much further it pushes the previous thing of iterators being their own things but I'm sure they had so many limits put on them too

It's also pretty late for me forgive me if this is really rambled but yuhyuh

OH HEHE ALL THIS FOR ME YUMMY!!

moon is the kind of person whod smile passively agressively at you when she wants to strangle you and she has no mouth! so nobody ever noticed <3

I adore Pebbles attitude towards Artificer actually. It’s incredibly funny. She posesses an ID of a citizen and it’s attached to her. So like.. what is he supposed to do??? Yeah. she is one ig..

He even at some point tells you that he has absolutely no power to kill or kick you out (probably an ingrained taboo!) because of her id! which is why you can hit him with spears and rocks all you want and get him to yell at you. (did that for 30 mins <3).

My personal hc for him is that he wanted to kill this weird cat so bad. Wasn’t allowed to. and now shes his emotional comfort beastie (awful garbage dweller)!! shes part of his city, tending to it even. A citizen if you ask me! (the overseers literally give her ads i lost my shit at that). Ancients seem to share similarities with us!! They have campfires and festivals! (info from moon) They get copius amounts of ads, they have neat little shopping lists!!!

I think Pebbles is a deeply lonely little man who got stuck being Moon 2 (he was built to house her people in the first place) even though she doesnt even like them. Grew to like them himself and got then abandoned. I think the idea he feels deeply betrayed and hurt by the ancients leaving him really shows in the conversation with Suns. He can hardly believe all he was ever made to do is be.. uh.. some useless little bug. He wants to escape.

I also really enjoy thinking he loved the attention and loved feeling important. Them leaving was confirmation that he was not actually. (then we decided we’re gonna be the next sos actually). He also believed he had to go through everything alone. Pebs constantly asks to be left alone up until riv campaign. him acknowledging that maybe he doesnt have to be, so he probably got to share his last functional cycles with moon has me in tears!!

As for the echo!!! I can understand the anger partly. I’m pretty sure the karma gates and building complexes on the ground imply that not all ancients were fortunate enough to live on the back of an iterator. (Shaded citadel people did not!) That echo iirc was a worker I assume. Imagine wasting your entire life building a god that never even fulfilled their purpouse. They just crumbled on the ground you built them on!! Not to mention you had to suffer the rain if u lived on the surface (jeez Moons rain siren sounds horrifying btw!!!)

Hopefully cycle lore gets cleared up in rw 2 (cope)

Also also the logs for spearmaster are incredibly interesting and show that iterators are in fact very diverse little discord people that like gossip <3 and that nsh is horrifying i think <3

[sunset-spring]

What's your favourite Pokemon gen? Mine is gen V (gen V'ers rise up for the best story and characters 😤😤 N is a god)

Not gonna lie, I think gen 7. Sun and Moon’s story and characters sucked me in more than any other game so far. Gen 5 and N were awesome, I wholeheartedly agree, but the way Sun and Moon’s was executed did a really great job of sucking me in and getting me invested in progressing the plot in a way that other Pokemon games hadn’t before. 

And I think Lillie was a big part of that. As a protagonist, your own character has to remain a pretty blank slate and as a result the plots tend to have to put you into a chosen one spotlight without having an actual impact. Not exactly the best in terms of motivating and pushing the story along when the character can’t be defined in any way to avoid breaking that immersion. 

Lillie was the perfect solution: a central character who you meet at the start of the adventure, who goes through her own arc along side you completing  the main story. The standard plot progressions not have more personal weight as you see how they effect and change her. That character transition as a result of watching the player shows the effects of your own actions, and gives and allows a way to motivate the plot forward without having to paint a personality onto the player character. And by her being tied in so deeply with the story of the villain, it now gives a more personal stake in the events and gives stopping Lusamine more impact than had it just been her doing her thing and the player having stumbled upon it. 

Not to mention the very consistent theme in the game with family and parenthood  that we see tied into the games. There’s of course the central one with Lusamine, Gladion and Lillie, but just about every character has a parental or guardian that you can talk to at least briefly in the game. Kukui and Burnet have a contrast with Lillie compaired to Lusamine, Hau and Hala, Guzma’s parents are interacted with very early on before it’s revealed who they are after the main story. Even minor characters have interactions like that, such as Ilima’s father talking to the player. Team Skull can be seen as a large family unit, to the point where Plumeria is even called big sis. And that is a very common occurance with gangs such as that, as like in real life, they’re a bunch of misfits who didn’t fit into what their social surrounding thought was acceptable via heir views on the trials. The way it ties in with every character in even small interactions does a lot, as it gives small depth to characters you otherwise wouldn’t see other than for trials, and also makes the narrative even more cohesive with the world it’s built around. 

There’s also the setting, which while small has a lot of personality and does such a good job of conveying the culture and society of Alola through the portrayal of it’s characters and the trial system, which also serves as a huge tie for the overall plot with Team Skull. And the Pokemon designs are some of my favorites next to the ones of gen 6- I could go on and on.

Part of it might also be because I started my comic about the games, so I ended up thinking on all of these things so deeply because of that as apposed to other gens. But I just absolutely love these games so much. 

On the USUM side of things, a lot of the story elements were sadly not as good as a result of trying to change only some and not enough of the plot, but those games mainly focused on improvements to gameplay and giving more content to the player outside of the story through side quests that gave a little more to other characters and making the world feel more organic. The difficulty increased and improved the challenge element of it, Ultra wormholes gave more to both the lore and more areas of the game to explore, etc. It was more gameplay focused rather than story focused. Which while the story changes were things I didn’t enjoy, those gameplay aspects they focused on were still great.

[bluerosesburnblue]

GOD THANK YOU. I’m so tired of people hating on Sword and Shield when we no zip. I understand being upset you can’t take your Pokemon over (I know I’d be worried if my fav wasn’t a guarantee and even now I’m nervous about some Pokemon I really love not being there) but holy shit that’s not a reason to be calling game devs lazy oh my god.

I think the worst part is that if you know anything about game development, then you know it’s probably not laziness, too. There’s a post I’m gonna reblog at about the same time as this explaining why, at some point, they were going to have to cut Pokemon from the game. Right now there’s 809 Pokemon. If you include new Pokemon currently revealed for SwSh (and add in six more for predicted evolutions for the starters) then that bumps us up to 830 individual Pokemon. But that’s not 830 different models. We have to account for gender and form differences, too, which could be anything from a new texture to an entirely new model for quite a few Pokemon!

There’s a reason that the number of new Pokemon each generation has been less than 100 since they made the jump to 3D. It’s difficult and costly to make and implement that many 3D models. Either they were going to have to keep releasing less and less Pokemon every game (which limits creativity and freshness of gameplay) or just flat out cut things

And then there’s just development stuff that people aren’t aware of. “They future-proofed the models!” They made very high poly models with the intent of using them in future games, yes. That’s why Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon lag extremely hard in Double Battles. But there’s A. No guarantee that the models were 100% compatible with the Switch’s hardware and didn’t have to be heavily edited to be used and B. No guarantee that they didn’t have to be retextured. Which they have been. The Switch has a wider color range and different shaders than the 3DS, and it’s very apparent in the trailers that SwSh intends to make use of that

Also, GameFreak... doesn’t make the Pokemon models. They’re outsourced to Creatures, Inc. Which is just another layer of bureaucratic red tape slowing down game production. It may not have even been GameFreak’s call, but rather something they were forced into conceding to due to complaints from Creatures, Inc. and their own programmers having difficulty balancing the gameplay around so many creatures

Like, I get it. I have a lot of dumb favorites that probably won’t make it in. I’m almost certain that the Ultra Beasts are going to be cut, which sucks because I’m a big fan of Kartana and would love some more development of Ultra Space lore (biggest missed opportunity in USUM, honestly)

But right now we just don’t know all that much about the game, and I’ve really liked what I’ve seen do far. The idea of making Pokemon Battles in this region a huge sports tournament is really fun for worlbuilding, aesthetic, and gameplay! I LOVE how all of the Gym Leaders are wearing sports uniforms. The emphasis on family is back from SuMo with Leon/Hop and Magnolia/Sonia and I’m really excited to see where those storylines go. The cities are gorgeous. I don’t mind Dynamaxing because they’re using it in fun ways, like stadium battles and raids. Speaking of raids, they streamlined the multiplayer stuff so well! We haven’t actually seen what camping entails yet, but it sounds interesting. And the game is so colorful and bouncy and you can tell that they really invested a lot of detail work into the environments to really make the aesthetic work (all of the text is readable in their own, made-up alphabet! There’s cute advertisements everywhere!) Like, there’s so much going right with the design of this game (and before people get on my case, design and modeling are different things)

When I saw the Let’s Go games get announced, I went “those don’t look like games I’m particularly interested in, but I hope some people have fun playing them and fall in love with Pokemon through them!” Let’s Go takes place in Kanto only includes Kanto Pokemon and their Alolan forms. I don’t have any particular nostalgia for the Kanto Pokemon or the region (tbh, I find both of them to be the most boring in the franchise), but like... a lot of people either really love Kanto or are newcomers who don’t have a frame of reference for anything else. Or are old anime fans who never played a game. The gameplay is based on Go, which I’ve never played and was never interested in. And honestly, I’m kinda sick of seeing Kanto and Kanto Pokemon in everything. But you never saw me bashing Let’s Go, or telling people they weren’t allowed to like or be excited for the game. I recognized that the games didn’t appeal to me, didn’t buy them, and stepped back and let other people enjoy

In fact, there’s a lot of things about Let’s Go that I actually like! I’m a big fan of the updated Gym Leader outfits and gyms. I think that a lot of the environment work is very well done, especially all of the neat little posters everywhere! The addition of cutscenes like with the Marowak ghost and encountering Legendaries are all very nice little additions. And the partner Pokemon are just so cute when you pet them!

People are just so hung up on demanding more while knowing even less. They’re acting like because they’re fans, they have to buy the games even though they don’t want them. The Pokemon Company makes decisions based on budget, time, cost-benefit, etc. calculations that they have internally that we’re not privy to. (Also, The Pokemon Company, GameFreak, and Creatures, Inc. aren’t the same thing and I imagine that quite a few decisions that people find “questionable” were made as compromises between all three to keep things running smoothly)

The games aren’t immune to critique, but critique is more than just criticizing. Critique is being able to pick out the things that work, the things that don’t, and the possible ways that things can be improved. And even then, sometimes your ideas for how things could be improved just aren’t workable solutions. The people complaining need to stop letting the mob mentality hate train control them, stop acting like they’re owed anything as consumers because again, they haven’t actually consumed anything except advertisements yet, and keep an open mind that development is much more complicated in practice than on paper

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Alright, season finale time for My Little Pony.  I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers for this one.  No idea what’s going to happen.  So, let’s see what goes down in “Shadow Play”

* We open on the book that got the ominous sting at the end of the last episode.  So yeah, I guess we were in the finale then.

* Huh, a different set of Elements being talked about here.  OK, we’ve got Rockhoof as Strength, Flash Magnus as Bravery, Meadowbrook as Healing, Mist Mane as Beauty, Somnambula as Hope, and who I’m guessing is Star Swirl the Bearded as Sorcery.  [note to self: look up actual names]

* And apparently they had been gathered together by somepony else to embody their ideals, like the Mane 6 were.  Was this Celestia, or somepony else?

* Ooh, the gatherer was a unicorn stallion, but the ancient Elements came to believe he was just wanting to use their power for himself and so they cast him out.

* Then he became Shadow Pony, and the Pillars stood as one against him.  They beat him but had to make some kind of sacrifice to do so, and created a seed to carry hope to the future.  I wonder, was that seed the origin of the Tree of Harmony?  I’m also seeing the emergence of the sun and moon on the sides of where I have it paused right now, so maybe it’s the origins of Celestia and Luna?

* Incidentally, I am loving this lore dump.

* Oh good, Sunburst was smart enough to make a report on this directly to the Alicorn Sisters and the Mane 6.  I guess he knows who has to deal with all the destiny crap around here.

* Huh, apparently Celestia never knew what happened to Starswirl, but these were apparently his last words before vanishing.

* OK, so Celestia and Luna were around back then, but young and had only ever met Starswirl.

* Reluctant nerd hoofbump. Also, I like how Celestia doesn’t know much Old Ponish anymore due to disuse.  It’s a nice nod to what happens when you don’t use something.  I can’t imagine how bad it would be after 1000 years. I’m a bit surprised Luna isn’t more familiar with it though, given how she spent most of the time sealed away. Unless she was fully cognizant of the passage of time during those 1000 years, which is… fairly nightmareish.

* So, more to Old Ponish than she thought, actual other languages being used, or Starswirl just had horrible hornwriting.  You decide!

* Ah, sloppy writing. Only readable by somepony who is ever worse at that kind of thing.  Anyway, the last stand was at the Temple of Ponhenge at the base of Mt. Foal.  …OK, I know they try and fit in horse puns, but “Ponhenge”?  Surely they could have done better than that.

* Those ruins look nice and ruiny.  Also not much like Stonehenge, which again makes me wonder why they referenced that.

* Be careful what you wish for Twilight.  Also, be careful where you place ancient magical tomes.

* Ooooh, ancient holographic display of the final battle.  So, sealed away, and the objects each pony carried are somehow related. Well, they’ve got the book, and they know where the mask is at least, so that just leaves the flower, the blindfold, the shield, and the shovel.  Gonna be honest, might be hard finding a flower after 1000 years.

* Never underestimate Twilight’s ability to be a nerd.

* Right, so banished to Limbo, but they had to take him there themselves and so got stuck there with him.  …Who’s gonna be the idiot to try and get them out and release the Pony of Shadows in the process?

* Twilight!  Twilight shall be that idiot!  Come over here so I can slap you!

* RD does not like demonstrative models.

* Boo!  The Map stepping in to help the search is cheating! Although this might be seen as the Tree of Harmony trying to get its parents back.  Kinda touching if you think of it like that.

* Skeptical archeologist is skeptical.  Somepony should tell her she’s in a fantasy series.

* Had no idea AJ was that strong.  Oh well, Shovel Get!

* Rarity’s problem to overcome is crappy gardening?  I can’t say I think much of Mist Mane’s descendant if it never occurred to her to, you know, perform upkeep.  Or hire others to do it.  Heck, just apply for a government grant if money’s the problem, that place has got to be a historical site, and once you attract tourists you can get money for, you know, upkeep.  Flower Get.

* Actually Flash Magnus’ shield being in the Dragon Lands makes quite a bit of sense.  It was made to combat dragons after all.  Makes sense that either it would accidentally get left behind after an expedition, or stolen by the dragons to keep it from being used.

* Also, neat to see a Spike/RD teamup, even if it’s likely gonna last a minute or two of screentime.

* Ugh, seriously, Garble has it?  Somepony just kick that idiot in the face so this can be over with.

* Garble is stupidest dragon.  Seriously, he just got outwitted by Rainbow Dash.  Well regardless, Shield Get.

* Fluttershy… just help to move the zap bee hive, and didn’t even need to do that to get the mask. She just felt like it.  But then arguably her trial was a few episodes ago anyway.  Mask Get.

* Pinkie’s trail… was very Pinkie.  And that ooze was a lot less dangerous then they made it out to be.  Um, Blindfold get?

* How is Starlight the voice of reason with regards to the risk involved in this plan?

* Why didn’t Pinkie wash that thing before bringing it >P

* Oh, gee, Starswirl is horrified that somepony broke the seal what are the odds?

* Way to summon the ancient evil, Twilight.

 And there’s the end of episode 1.  Time for a stretch and snack I think.  Let’s all go to the lobby, let’s all go to the lobby…

 * Yeah, having a backup plan in case the ancient evil escaped as well would have been a great idea, Twilight.  You still have that slap coming.

* Twilight and Starlight are able to hold the PoS back with a double tech… but can’t stop him from escaping at the speed of dark.  Nice going, Twilight.

* On one hoof, having the person you’ve revered all your life give you the dirtiest look for your incompetence must suck.  On the other, she really has this coming.

* Heh, Pinkie pointing out all of the other threats they’ve had to save Equestria from is a good one. And I like how Magnus is totally down for teaming up with the modern heroes to beat PoS into submission.  But Starswirl is going to be an absolute grumpy gus about this.

* Yay, source of Tree of Harmony, and the Elements, confirmed!

* And now Starswirl is planning on sacrificing the Elements to seal PoS again.  Despite the cost to Equestria.  Yeah, getting Outer Senshi vibes from this guy.  Which is a shame, because all of the other Pillars seem to be perfectly nice and affable ponies willing to work together.

* And Twilight’s search for a different solution… just has keeping the Pillars around while still sacrificing the Elements.  And yeah, the Pillars made the elements, but did so over a long incubation period. Try following Starlight’s advice and look for a non-banishment solution, stupid.

* Kinda funny how the heroes are having trouble tracking PoS down because Equestria is a better place, so all of the old dens of darkness are just fine these days.

* Starswirl needs to get his head outta his flank.

* I think some offense was taken.

* Yeah, the narrative is leaning pretty hard against Starswirl and towards Starlight here. Especially with the whole “Once a villain, always a villain” bit.

* Thank you, Starlight, for actually asking what happened all those years ago.

* Huh, Sirens confirmed as series canon.  Odd. Mind you I don’t know that much about them as I’ve never watched the movies, but some things are unavoidable knowledge if you hang out online in the fanbase.

* The PoS’s name was Stygian?  Man, it’s like his parents wanted him to go supervillain.

* So Stygian gathered them together to fight evil, but got jealous.  At one point he stole their artifacts to work some spell or another, but was discovered before actually finishing and was cast out.  And when he came back he did so as Dark Death Evil Man. But as Starlight helps to point out, they don’t know what exactly he had been trying to accomplish with his spell, though their guess is stealing their power.

* Yeah, Starlight has had enough of Starswirl’s crap.

* Now I’m wondering who build the temple to the Shadows, as apparently it already existed before Stygian came upon it.  Also, never listen to the mythos spoken from the depths of the Earth, dude.

* Oh look, there’s more to the story than meets the eye, who could have guessed.

* Well, Twilight’s been holding the idiot ball all finale thus far, but at least she noticed the pony of Stygian within the Pony of Shadows.  Not sure diving in was the right idea though.

* OK, Stygian’s side comes out, he wanted to make copies of their artifacts in the hope it would make him a Pillar and he could join the battles.  That’s still something you really need to talk about before you go stealing stuff.

* Rainbow Friendship Lasso Beam go!

* So The Shadows are banished, but Stygian remains.  Happy end!

* Aw, Starswirl commenting on how tall Celestia got is cute!  And Luna asking not to have to turn in the essays they were supposed to 1000 years ago is just funny.

* Can’t blame the Pillars for wanting to see what’s changed over the course of a millennia.  Of course there’s the problem of nopony’s gonna believe who they are.

 And that’s the end of the season.  It was pretty good all things considered.  Although this ending does make one question how things are going to work out with the non-reformed villains.  OK, Sombra isn’t likely to be a problem, but he is still awkward in that they killed him all kinds of dead.  But the new characters introduced seem decent enough now that we actually get to see them in something other than tales.  And I’m still curious about who built the shrine to the Shadows.  Evil cultist ponies!

Also, I may not care much about shipping debates and all that, but I can definitely see Rainbow Dash/Flash Magnus being a thing.  At the very least they’re certainly chummy with each other.

[tipsycad147]

3 Unique Ways To Use Mirrors In Your Magic

SL Bear

Defensive Mirrors

Did you know mirrors were once made from silver? That is supposedly why vampires couldn’t see their reflections. But this is only one reason mirrors are associated with the detection of dangerous beings. Fogging up a mirror and reciting an incantation is said to reveal to you those who seek to harm you. In the right conditions, mirrors are able to show a person’s true soul and whether or not they are good or bad.

I don’t find these types of magic particularly useful, however, that doesn’t mean I don’t use mirrors for defensive situations. One of my favourite methods of using mirrors is for binding. I’ve written before about placing a target’s name between two mirrors and taping those mirrors together. Recently, I’ve updated this method because it bothered me only one side of the paper was facing one mirror. The other mirror was reflecting a blank piece of paper. Since intention is where true magic comes from it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I don’t like doubt. So, how to remedy this tiny flaw? Simply write the name on the mirror with a permanent marker instead of using paper. The name touches both mirrors and is reflected forever. A much stronger binding, in my opinion. You can also add a line about what you wish the target would stop doing, binding that particular action.

Another way to bind using mirrors is to place a picture of your target between two separated mirrors, usually performed in a hallway, symbolically holding the target in suspended animation. I haven’t tried this, though I think you’d have to leave it set up indefinitely, which seems like an inconvenience. Instead, I suggest getting a tube (from a toilet paper roll, for example), securing a small poppet in the middle of this tube and then slot two mirrors on each end of the tube. Paint the tube black or wrap a black cord around it, then pop it in the freezer. If you wish, you could also place a clear quartz in with the poppet to amplify the binding. If you’re wondering, yes, I do have more banishing and binding spells in my freezer than actual food. No regrets.

You can also add a mirror to your altar in the same way you’d add one to your front door as a defence against spells cast at you. The only problem with this is that I like adding mirrors to my altar to boost the magic I perform there (instead of doing something once, I’m working with my reflections and performing it three times simultaneously), and I don’t like confusing energies by having identical mirrors that are supposed to work in different ways. The solution was to create a protective sigil and paint it on the mirror, giving that defensive mirror a distinct purpose. Protection runes can also be painted on the mirror.

Charging Mirrors & Using Mirrors To Trap Energy

When I learned about charging mirrors, I was so in love with the idea that I ran to my craft store, loaded up on little mirrors, and started manically charging them by leaving them all over the yard and carrying them to different locations to “trap” the energies I found so helpful and calming. How amazing is that?!

Do thunderstorms make you feel particularly powerful? Leave a mirror out and let the thunderstorm charge it, use the mirror on bright and sunny days, then recharge it when it rains again. Snowstorms, the beach, autumn weather… charge mirrors with this energy and keep it with you. Harness these energies for spells, meditation or even enhancing dreams. Add a sigil to the mirror to give these “trapped” energies specific purposes. For example, if you’re charging the mirror with moonlight and you want to use this for cleansing, make a cleansing sigil and draw it on the mirror. Then you can place what you want cleansed directly on the mirror and leave it — like stones and talismans.

If you’d like to use this moonlight for spells that are best performed under specific moon phases, draw the moon phase on the charged mirror and use it as a substitute. This is great when you don’t want to wait a month for a specific moon, or you need to do a spell fast, maybe when the sun is out.

Mirrors In Spells

Amplifying Magic

I’ve recently been reading up on clear quartz and like clear quartz, mirrors can act as an amplifier in spells because it multiplies your actions. I mentioned above about leaving mirrors on the altar for this purpose, but mirrors can be set up for any spell to significantly boost the power of individual elements! Strategically placing mirrors around whatever aspect you want amplified (candles, stones, yourself) will have the most impact and I recommend using multiples of three when deciding how many mirrors to use.

Breaking Mirrors

People have major reservations about breaking mirrors and this superstition goes back a long way. Symbolically, breaking a mirror can represent breaking some aspect of yourself or “breaking through” to an enlightenment. You’ll see this a lot in movies because it’s very dramatic and cinematically gets a point across quickly. For spells involving moving past old obstacles, breaking bad habits or cycles of behaviour, you can look into the mirror and tell yourself what you want to change, what habits are coming to an end, then put the mirror into a cloth bag and break it (safely). These pieces can then be discarded or used in a larger self-altering ritual.  

Bridging Worlds

Mirrors are sometimes seen as windows into other dimensions or a way to look in on others without their knowledge. This made mirrors tools of divination. It was believed that your reflection was your soul and therefore when used for scrying or divination, you could theoretically ask your soul-self questions or ask to see something happening elsewhere. Black scrying mirrors are actually less reflective so you don’t see yourself as clearly. The reason for this being that your own reflection was considered a distraction from whatever you’re actually hoping to find in the mirror’s surface. I see the point, to be honest. If I stared into a mirror, I would never be able to focus on anything but flaws and I’d end up getting the tweezers and eyeliner before I’d get any answers. So, to save money on expensive black mirrors while completely limiting distractions when using mirrors for astral travel, divination, scrying, you can close your eyes and simply touch the mirror or rub it with your thumb to conduct its power — particularly useful if the mirror is charged first!

Alternative Mirror

Water was the first reflective surface we used to see ourselves and lots of superstitions and lore cropped up about what this reflection truly meant. If the water rippled while you were looking into it, well, that was bad news because whatever happened to your mirror self would obviously happen to you (not sure why ripples were bad for you… they sound kind of fun). You could become transfixed by your reflection like Narcissus, or unwillingly invite cruel spirits through. Water, though, is a very gentle mirror and conducts energy well. Remember what I said about trapping? You can use the water’s smooth surface in the same way, and then have a more tangible ingredient for spells. Witches have used water for divination just as they have used mirrors and if you’re more comfortable using water, then it’s a perfect alternative. It’s also easier to use for divination, in my opinion.

Today using mirrors isn’t as common as it used to be, so experiment to find the best way to incorporate mirrors into your craft and revive this ancient and effective practice!

Ever wondered if you’re really prepared to handle the dangers of the craft?

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In Defensive Magic For Beginners, I’ve created a step by step learning path that will give you the boost you need to start defending yourself confidently today.

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https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/2018/8/26/3-unique-ways-to-use-mirrors-in-your-magic

[sage-nebula]

If you could rewrite Pokemon Sun/Moon with things like better character development and more depth to the Aether Foundation, how would you do it? :D

I mean, these games were such a ridiculous disappointment (especially with regards to the Aether Foundation) that we could be here all day, but …

Let’s get started.

General:

Let the Island Challenge actually be a fucking challenge. I love the concept behind it, and how similar it sounded to the Orange Islands in the anime, and I love the idea of having that instead of the standard Gym challenge, particularly since it allowed Alola to be run under a religious oligarchy rather than the typical League system (even if Kukui staged a political revolution, but more on that in a second). However, the actual Island Challenge itself was pathetic. There was hardly any exploration, the challenges themselves were like teeny-tiny minigames … and considering how interesting or challenging they could have been, it made the entire thing feel boring, particularly since the “totem battle” at the end is basically just a Gym Leader battle, albeit against “wild” pokémon. It’s a cool concept that Game Freak didn’t bother to flesh out at all.So instead, I’d want the Island Challenges to actually be detailed and fleshed out. Give us temples or caves to fully explore. Give us actually challenging puzzles to complete. Make it a blend between Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. And don’t just have us do a totem battle for every single one, or at least—perhaps there’s a way to pacify the totem pokémon without battling. Maybe you can battle, but you can also find alternative solutions with your team, thereby strengthening the message of unity between person and pokémon and also giving players various different ways to complete their Island Challenge—a way to make it unique to each person. At the very least, don’t just have us go through pretty much empty locations (like Kiawe’s mountain—there was practically nothing there, just a boring hike to the top and then a ridiculously easy “game” before the totem battle) until we hit the end goal. Give us more lore, exploration, and challenge instead of wasting a perfectly good concept.

GIVE. US. BACK. THE. BIKE. Or at the very least do away with the fugly outfit and godawful Ride music. And for that matter, let us use our own pokémon for the Ride feature. I should not have to call upon a charizard when I have a charizard in my party. That’s asinine. 

Similarly, MAKE ALOLA BIGGER, and make it so that we can surf between the islands. Alola feels tiny. Having a tiny region isn’t necessarily new—some of the other regions aren’t that big, tbh—but it feels very compact because you just insta-travel between the islands, rather than being able to surf the distance as you could in, say, Hoenn. Additionally, some of the islands are mini, sometimes only having one city or town. I get that Alola is based on the State of Hawaii, but there were certain design choices that limited exploration that make it seem infinitely smaller, which is a disappointment. Make Alola bigger, or at the very least let it breathe.

Stop having everyone fawn over and worship the player character. It felt so unnatural and got to the point where I wanted to punt all of the other characters into the ocean. The player character—or player, I guess—does not need to be worshiped and have their shoes licked for being “OMGOSH SO AMAZING BEST TRAINER EVAR!!1!!!1!!” by the other characters. I hate that. Let the other characters be incredible, too. Let them recognize their own strengths and talents. Shine some light on them, rather than on this rando child who spontaneously moved to this region and yet is somehow the savior they were all waiting for. I just … hated that, so much. It felt like even more fawning and salivating over how awesome the player is than usual, and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

Put so much more focus on Kukui’s honest-to-Arceus political revolution. Kukui overturned the religious oligarchy that had governed Alola for ages and turned it into a League system because … well, because he felt like it, I guess, and yet this not only goes smoothly, but basically no attention is called for it whatsoever. Now, I know that Nintendo did this because they still wanted to give the player a chance to be the Champion and have an actual throne to sit on while the rest of the characters at the game salivate at their feet (sigh), but that doesn’t change the fact that this should have been met with a lot of resistance and upheaval and should have been a very solid B Plot (if they weren’t going to make it the actual plot), particularly since the end result was an eleven-year-old child who had just moved there and knew nothing of the history or populace suddenly being placed in charge. Like, you would think Hala would take serious issue with Kukui being an upstart and calling for a revolution, but no, he was fine with it because … just because. We don’t know, because Hala didn’t get to actually do much in the main story despite being hyped up as an important character. But as far as we know, everyone was perfectly fine with Kukui’s massive political revolution, and the ramifications this would have on Alola (both domestically and internationally in fields like general politics, finance, et cetera) were completely ignored.So let’s explore that at least a bit. Even if Kukui is still ultimately successful, perhaps show him meeting resistance from people like Hala, and gaining support from people like Nanu (since Nanu doesn’t want to be a Kahuna anymore lol), and people like Olivia being torn. Show the effect this has on the kids, where perhaps Hau ends up coming into conflict with Hala because Hala is against Kukui’s revolution, while Hau thinks it could be interesting and fun, and so they encounter some family strife there as Hau tries to find his own way in contrast to what his grandfather wants for him. Show this coming up again and again, and explore Kukui’s motivations for it more deeply. Why does he want a revolution so bad? Is it really that he wants Alola to have a stronger presence internationally? Does he have personal stakes in that? Will Alola have a stronger presence internationally if they switch to a League system? And so on and so forth. And since he’s the one leading the revolution, make him the Champion, versus the eleven-year-old who literally just moved here and knows fuck all about Alola. Honestly, please give Kukui some semblance of intelligence and let his revolution actually be treated with some degree of gravitas, as it should be. (Alternatively, if Game Freak is incapable of doing this, remove this subplot and let Alolan government stand. We don’t need to be the Champion. It’s not that big of a deal after six bloody generations of letting us do just that.)

On that note, Professor Burnet needs to play a bigger role in the Aether plot. While Kukui is spearheading his revolution, Burnet is studying wormholes and Ultra Space and, as such, should have played a bigger role in the main plot, going up against Lusamine (or at least assisting the kids in doing so) in the process. That she was all but ignored in favor of Kukui, whose research and ultimate goals had absolutely nothing to do with the Aether Foundation, was a huge mistake and (imo) just one of the MANY ways in which Gen VII treated its female characters horribly.So let her be more involved. Actually show her relationship with Lillie, rather than just telling us about it in a couple lines of dialogue. Let her continuously run experiments on the wormholes and dig deeper into what the Aether Foundation is doing. Show her her science contrasts with that of Lusamine’s, in addition to how her parenting contrasts with that of Lusamine’s. Let her show up at various times throughout the plot, including when Aether Paradise is stormed, because this is her field of expertise and, as such, she is damn knowledgeable about it. Let Burnet be the one to point Lillie and the others to the pedestals where they can get the flutes, and let her be the one to direct them when it comes time to play. Basically, actually utilize this wonderful character that was created, instead of ignoring her because she’s not the “main professor” (or more accurately, because she’s female, because apparently this series can’t give us a female professor without upstaging her with either her father (Cedric Juniper) or her husband (Kukui), regardless of how little sense that upstaging makes).

Make the RotomDex optional. This speaks for itself. The RotomDex was obnoxious, and is quite possibly one of the worst companion characters I’ve ever seen in a video game (far worse than Navi, for instance). I hate it. 

Don’t make Team Skull bad guys at all. The idea of having them appear to be criminals (or at the worst being punks) but actually having some heroic moments near the end was one that was kicked around a lot, and was also one that was shamefully wasted by making them cardboard caricatures of villains instead. Instead, it’d be much better if they were instead representative of the terrible CPS system / justice system in Alola (at one point a cop NPC mentions there being no crime despite crime being everywhere, showing how useless the police in Alola are), which could potentially be fuel for why people like Kukui and Nanu want a revolution, thus tying into that B Plot. It would also drive home a message about appearances being deceiving to have Team Skull actually be decent people despite being forced to sometimes steal food because they have none, whereas the Aether Foundation looks pristine but clearly isn’t. It’d certainly be more meaningful than the “they’re comic relief but also still Bad Guys™” message we were given instead.On that note, LET PLUMERIA PLAY AN ACTUAL ROLE, GOD DAMN IT, particularly with regards to Guzma teaming up with Lusamine (if he still acts as her grunt), and Plumeria being the one to confront him over it. If Plumeria is the aneki of Team Skull, let her act like it, and let us see her acting like it. I would have her stepping up and taking charge, the one truly in charge of Team Skull (and even Guzma tbh) because she has her shit together. I would also expand and build upon her relationship with Gladion, with whom she actually does have a good relationship with, so that he, too, had some support outside of Null / Silvally. But more on that in a second.

Give Hau actual depth. The most we get out of him is that he has an inferiority complex, is a bit of a stepford smiler, and dislikes how much of a bully Gladion is to him (and thus dislikes Gladion—and yes, he did dislike him, complete with an D8 reaction whenever Gladion showed up, and their “reconciliation” was rushed af, so I don’t count it).  That’s not really enough, and Hau deserved better. If Kukui’s revolution B Plot was given more focus, inserting that conflict between Hala and Hau mentioned before could spur Hau to really find himself and his own motivations other than what was expected of him + his “having fun” excuse. He could also have his relationship with Lillie explored more, particularly since they were friends before the player character showed up and stole everything, meaning that he should have been more prominent as a support figure for her rather than being shoved to the side so that the player could do it instead (again, rather inexplicably). And as a final idea, perhaps he could be manipulated by Lusamine (whom he seemed to like in the games) into working for her, possibly even for Lillie’s sake (potentially) because he wants to help Lillie reconcile with her mother, + believes Lusamine is doing the right thing, + is potentially even trying to escape the brewing conflict between Kukui and Hala and figures that since the Aether Foundation is removed from it, joining up with them is a safe way to go. He doesn’t know that Lusamine is evil af, of course, and so he (rather like Alan in the anime) is completely manipulated into thinking he’s doing good—but that could spur his development along even more and make him a much more prominent and important character, which would be awesome considering the fact that he was another under-utilized character who, again, deserved better. There’s no reason why he can’t be involved in the plot from multiple angles so that he can exist as more than a simple rival, and I think that would be a good way do it.

Aether Foundation + Aether Twins:

LET. THE AETHER. FOUNDATION. BE. SCIENTIFIC. And I don’t mean general zoological science, but I mean, very specifically, that I want them to be drenched in alchemy and science of that nature. It doesn’t have to be historical, realistic alchemy; in fact, making it strictly realistic would be boring, which is the reason why stories such as Fullmetal Alchemist go the “magical alchemy” route. Nonetheless, I want that. I want the basis of the Aether Foundation to be scientific and alchemical. I want the reason for their existence to be based in the alchemy plot that makes up the A Plot, because these games have been heading toward alchemy for several generations now and it would have made so much sense to have that payoff be here. I want to see experiments, I want to see talk of theories and hypotheses, I want tests, I want—I want the Aether Foundation to resemble Aperture Science Laboratories in a lot of ways, basically.

On that note, the “conservation” needs to be a farce. None of this “well, most of them were good, but it’s just the neurotoxins that made them bad!” bullshit. The conservation needs to be nothing more than a facade in order to gain them funding from the government + good press. Additionally, the pokémon that they “save” could be used in experiments (such as the chimera creation experiments that created the likes of Type: Null) behind the scenes. Essentially, just as Team Skull should have been good with bad publicity, the Aether Foundation needs to be bad with good publicity. LET THEM BE EVIL, particularly since I love the visual contrast between how pure and clean they look, but how corrupt and vile they are beneath the surface. Love that so much.And note, too, that it isn’t necessarily that every single grunt knows the full scope of Lusamine’s plans and is on board with them. Perhaps some of them are in it for personal gain, perhaps some of them are in it because they’re interested in studying science, perhaps they put up with parts that creep them out because they feel the benefits outweigh the cons, et cetera. Not every unnamed Aether employee needs to be evil, they can all have their own motivations for going along with the plan + might only know bits and pieces, but by and large the Aether Foundation should have been our large villainous organization for this game, rather than the half-assed nonsense we were given. And on top of being villainous and corrupt, they should have also been massively scientific, in terms of actually carrying out experiments that we see and using conservation as an excuse / way to get test subjects. Don’t make them charitable; make them corrupt. Go big or go home.

LET WICKE ALSO BE EVIL. My god, Wicke had all the personality of a wet piece of cardboard, and it’s bullshit that she was relegated to just being a motherly piece of cardboard while Faba actually got to be the villain he always wanted to be. Wicke, as I characterize her, would know pretty much everything of what Lusamine is up to, and would be in support of it both because it aligns with her personal beliefs and because she loves and is deeply devoted to Lusamine (what type of love that is would be up for interpretation by the player, but in any case, Lusamine doesn’t return it, she just takes advantage). Wicke wouldn’t truly care for the twins, but would instead be the type to guilt trip them for not also being loyal to Lusamine + hurting Wicke in the process by running away and whatnot. She has that simpering, faux honey approach, similar to Umbridge. She’s allowed to be competent, strong, and every bit a member of the villain triad as Faba and Lusamine.

On that note, let Faba be more of an actual scientist. Let’s see what contributions he has made to the Aether Foundation other than his ego. Maybe he was the one who made the chimeras. If so, great! Let’s see that. Let’s see why Lusamine bothers to keep him around. Let’s see more of a conflict between him and Wicke that isn’t so much that he puts her down and she cowers, but more that she looks down on the fact that he’s here mostly for his own self-interest (+ interest in science + Lusamine lets him do what he wants) and less because of loyalty to Lusamine, whereas he thinks that her loyalty to Lusamine (/ her reasons for that loyalty) are pathetic and that the only thing that matters is, well, science. Like, he’s loyal to Lusamine, but he’s loyal because she’s giving him the opportunity to do / get what he wants, rather than because of personal feelings for her. He thinks he’s using Lusamine. He’s not aware that the situation is actually the other way around. Let’s see that, let’s explore it, and let’s explore how his hubris is in direct contradiction to the principles behind the Philosopher’s Stone and, more importantly, the lion that devours the sun, according to alchemical writings from our own world, long in the past.

LET THE TWINS HAVE AN ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP. My god, one of the things that bothered me the most was the fact that Lillie and Gladion barely interacted, on top of how under-utilized Gladion was and how Lillie seemed, in so many places, to exist only as a way to further boost up the player and make them feel special rather than getting to explore her story for her own sake. (Right down to giving Nebby to the player, ugh.) To begin with, I want to know more about their past at Aether Paradise. What happened the night Gladion left? Why did he leave without Lillie? I’d like to think there was a fight or disagreement there—that Lillie wanted to stay because she was insistent that perhaps they could change Lusamine’s mind, or that combating her plan would be easier from Aether Paradise, or (far more likely) that it was their duty to stay, that they were family and thus it was wrong to leave. Gladion disagreed, and so he left, leaving Lillie behind when she refused to come with him. This creates tension between them in the main plot, because Gladion resents Lillie for seemingly choosing their mother over him, whereas Lillie resents Gladion for leaving as he did, even though she herself leaves later in order to save Nebby.But over the course of the game, they encounter each other again and again, and slowly their relationship mends. Gladion appreciates that Lillie is now willing to rebel against their mother, while Lillie learns to admit that her brother had good reasons when he left two years prior (even if his method of leaving still chafes with her), and she respects how he has managed to survive on his own (well, with Null). They meet again and again, come to understandings, and ultimately reform the bond of best friendship they had prior to Gladion’s departure in order to stand against their mother TOGETHER in the climax. (So if there are two flutes to be played, the player is standing off to the side watching while the twins play the flutes in restored harmony.) On top of all of this, I would want to modify Lillie’s personality so that she’s more than just the demure, shy, moe girl who worships the player. Gladion shows the C-PTSD he has from years of child abuse by being harsh, closed-off, and cold. While Lillie doesn’t have to be exactly like him and while everyone is different, I feel that Lillie just being ~omg shy~ as a result of her abuse is not only playing into the Good Victim / Bad Victim dichotomy (with Gladion being the Bad Victim), but was also done just to make her someone the player would want to protect at the expense of making her a well-rounded character with a believable personality. So I would want to modify Lillie so that she’s also stand-offish and cold in various ways; where she, like Gladion, feels that she has a unique view of the situation because of her background, where she’s incredibly studious and smart even if she doesn’t battle, where she’s unwilling to open up to others without the others putting in serious effort (such as Hau potentially, pre-game), where she “defrosts” just as much as Gladion does, because girls can be cold and hard as well and she should be no exception, regardless of how feminine she is. Lastly, both of the kids should have been adopted by Kukui and Burnet at the end of the game. I won’t budge on this.

LET LUSAMINE BE THE VILLAINOUS SCIENTIST QUEEN SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. Lusamine’s canonical role / personality is perhaps one of the biggest letdowns the Pokémon franchise has ever bestowed upon me and I’m never going to be over it. Whether she’s actually an Ultra Beast herself or not (and I’m still disappointed that the Ultra Beasts didn’t get to be shapeshifters), she still should have been the mastermind behind everything, the one in control, and the one perfectly aware of everything she was doing, as well as the one wanting to do it because of her own grand plans, rather than just being ~*~manipulated by neurotoxins~*~ and ~*~in need of redemption~*~. So to that end?Lusamine is the actual founder of the Aether Foundation, versus it being founded by her father or grandfather or whatever that NPC said, because I’m sick of this series having women simply inherit positions from male relatives or else be overshadowed by them. Lusamine founded the Aether Foundation as a scientific organization to promote her own ambitions and goals while using pokémon conservation as a convenient cover (as well as a means to get government funding if need-be). She’s the president and founder both, and everyone respects her for it.To that end, Lusamine is blindingly intelligent. Not only does she have a wealth of scientific knowledge across various fields (alchemy is obviously her forte, but she’s also incredibly knowledgeable about chemistry, physics / astrophysics, and various other fields), but she’s also quite knowledgeable in terms of history, various fields of mathematics, and other areas of study. She is very much a Ravenclaw in that she loves learning and studying, but also views the universe in terms of the ultimate question True or Not. She is very interested in the (or at least a, but in her mind she is always right, so the) universal Truth, and seeks to not only claim knowledge of the Truth for herself, but also to grasp it in her hand show the rest of the world / universe that she has it. Right or Wrong doesn’t matter to Lusamine, because both of those things are subjective. True or Not is what matters, more than anything else. She is very, very Ravenclaw. So Lusamine is the Big Bad. I have actual motivations and goals for her in my AU fic, To Devour the Sun, and I won’t get into those here—but if Game Freak didn’t want to make her actually an Ultra Beast, they would change anyway. Instead, we could say that perhaps Lusamine was furthering her alchemical ventures in an effort to grasp the Universal Truth™, much as alchemists of the past were always searching for that very same thing (in a fashion), usually by means of the Philosopher’s Stone. In the context of Pokémon, Lusamine could not only be searching to harness the power of Solgaleo (or Lunala ig, but Solgaleo makes far more sense) for this endeavor, but could also be trying to rip open the Gates between Worlds in order to obtain the Truth (much like Father in FMA:B!). This could potentially put the entire world at risk, particularly since Lusamine wouldn’t exactly care who or what needs to be sacrificed in order to make her dreams reality. To that end, no, she doesn’t care about her children; in her mind, they would be additional pawns that could be used in order to accomplish her goals, and if they disobey then they are cruelly punished—but otherwise, she doesn’t (and has never) care(d) about being a family with them. Mohn isn’t really important, either; he has no bearings on Lusamine’s motivations or desires. If anything, he doesn’t even need to be in the game, at least not as the twins’ father. It’s not like he adds to the plot, and it wouldn’t be the first time kids didn’t have present fathers in this series. (Additionally, if the Johto Rival’s mother is never identified, I don’t see why the twins’ father needs to be.)So yes, Lusamine is frighteningly intelligent, calculating, savvy (she doesn’t take gambles or risks if they can be avoided, generally—once she has everything in place, she won’t risk it for a lesser payoff than she’s planning for), extremely manipulative, and ruthless … with a spiteful or sadistic sense of humor at times (in terms of causing emotional pain, rather like GLaDOS). She uses whatever and whoever she needs to in order to achieve her ends, and while I’m aware that sounds Slytherin, remember, Lusamine does not have precious / important people, does not care about those close to her, and is concerned with the question of True or Not, which is all very not Slytherin and also very Ravenclaw. (And yes, while her actual goals are different in To Devour the Sun, this is the characterization I’m using there, too. She, like Sycamore, is a Ravenclaw. She just also happens to be a very terrible person on top of it. She foils him, in other words, in a variety of ways, on top of having some surface resemblance to Lysandre.)Let her be the true, unapologetic villain she deserved to be. Let her be in command the way she was supposed to be. Lusamine was done a massive injustice in canon and I’ll never be over it. (Oh, and as a final note? She either dies or goes to prison in the end. No exceptions.)

Of course, I’d still love it if the Aether fam were Ultra Beasts as well (and that Ultra Beasts could have human forms), but if Game Freak didn’t want to go that route in canon, then the above is fine as well.

This is all I’ve got for right now. Completely rewriting the plot would take more time (and would likely largely ignore the player, but tbh that’s probably for the best, because the fact that Lillie’s most important was relationship was with the player instead of her brother will never cease to make me salty af), but these are the base ideas I have that would have made me more happy than the disappointing, flat mess we were given. Here’s hoping USUM can improve things, but unless the plot is radically changed, I highly doubt it will.

[esdeem]

Anchors, an Overwatch Fanfic

Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying I’ve not done much revision work at all on this, so I apologize for any egregious errors in grammar, characterization, lore or quantum mechanics. I felt really inspired so I just let it flow. I might pick at it a bit and post it a few other places.

It’s inspired by this amazing artwork here and I hope this little fic tribute does it justice. Also there’s not nearly enough Lena/Emily stuff out there and I’m hoping we get to see more of their relationship in the future, as I think it’s really cute. (And yes, I really do think the two of them would be big Disney nerds.)

Author rambling out of the way, here’s the story. I hope you like it!

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Winston stopped marking the passage of time in hours, day or weeks. Instead, he counted how many jars of peanut butter lay strewn across his desk, and how many white boards he'd filled with calculations. Presently, those numbers stood at fourteen and six. Soon, he'd have to start raiding other offices to keep up with the workload.

“You are working yourself toward an eventual sugar crash,” a voice called out from the computer speakers.

“I'll deal with that later, Athena.” Winston mumbled, chewing on the cap of the erasable marker in his hand. “I don't imagine anyone's come up with any major breakthroughs in the unified theory in the last few days, have they?”

“There are currently no new academic papers to that effect,” Athena replied. “There is a man in Wisconsin with some new ideas, but in my opinion they rely too heavily upon Doctor Who and the Terminator franchise.”

“Which ones?”

“Genisys.”

“Ugh.” He scribbled a few more calculations, though perhaps Athena had a point. The details of quantum chemistry had grown fuzzy, and he noticed with embarrassment that he'd assumed a superfluid in the current design behaved as a Bose-Einstein condensation, which of course was foolish. He erased the details with his forearm and grumbled. Literally back to the drawing board--

“Winston,” Athena interrupted. “You asked to be informed when Ms. Oxton reappeared--”

She didn't even finish, as Winston dropped the marker and bounded out the door, and down to the main lab floor.

* * *

The gorilla rested his hand on one fist, a brow arched high. “Really.”

“Cross my heart, love. Saw him pull it out of the stone and everything.”

“And they couldn't see you?”

“Think they were all a little distracted, what with the whole next King of England being chosen. Funny way to pick a king that, don't you think?”

“Lena, you know the whole King Arthur story was a myth, right?” Winston smirked. “And if he really existed, he wouldn't have been anything like the old stories.”

“Okay, fine, you got me. It was just a field again, nothing really happened.” She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Y'know, a real friend would nod and smile.”

“I know, it's just... I keep hoping if I know when you're going, it would help me figure out a solution.”

“You don't want to hear it big guy, but maybe there's just... not a solution?”

“It's funny,” Winston said, ambling over closer to the containment field. “I seem to remember a member of Overwatch who believed in taking in a refugee from the moon and protected him from other people who claimed he was just a company asset. Someone who believed in his value, no matter what anyone else said.” He pushed his glasses back up and smiled. “You never gave up on me, Lena. I won't give up on you either.”

“Awww, you big lug. You're gonna make me cry.” She giggled, but then stood up and looked at a small table the others set up for her, where a simple picture frame sat. She remembered the day they took the photo, their first day in any of the six parks. The silver, geodesic  sphere behind them glowed in the Florida sun, but paled in comparison to the smile on the red haired woman's face. She'd dreamed of that vacation most of her life, and Lena hadn't told her until the day they boarded a plane for the United States. The trip had been almost perfect, save for the hurricane scare at the end. They'd not had a chance to see the Magic Kingdom itself, and to see the reveal of the majestic castle at its center. She promised to take them back one day....

She could close her eyes and see that smile, smell that perfume she always teased her about but secretly loved. If she tried, she could even remember the softness of her fingertips pressing against hers and the warmth of her embrace on a cold winter's day.

“You still don't want us to contact her?”

She reached for the frame, but her fingers passed through it. With a sigh, she reached into the pocket of her flight jacket, and her fingers closed across a small box, one of the few things she could still touch.

“She's better off not knowing about this, Winston. I'd rather she move on with her life, rather than keep holding out for a cure that might not happen.”

* * *

“It's safe?”

“Well, there's not really any guarantees, that's why they call the job test pilot, silly. But you know I've done a bunch of these already, right?”

“That,” Emily said, a crooked smile on her face, “Is a glorious attempt at sugar coating things.”

“I happen to know that someone likes their coffee with sugar and cream, so I tell her things the same way.”

Emily gave Lena's shoulder a playful shove. “You're terrible.”

“Guilty, but what does that say for you, then?”

“That I'm more attracted to your looks that your moral character?”

“How salacious!” Lena smirked, but then took hold of Emily's hands. “You know you're technically not supposed to know this, but if this works then we're going to save the lives of hundreds of pilots. And not just fighter pilots! Imagine if you put that in a commercial plane. They start to have engine trouble, they can just teleport it back to an airport for a safe landing.”

“Well then, Ms. Oxton,” Emily said, and squeezed her hands gently, “I shouldn't keep you from your mission to save the world.”

“Someone has to, right?” Lena reluctantly let go of her hands.“Oh, by the way? You might want to get dressed up while I'm off doing this. Someone might have scored reservations at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester.”

Emily's eyes grew large. “You must really be expecting this test flight to go well.”

“Just a hunch, love.”

“I'll be ready,” she said, and let out a soft laugh. “I'm glad you told me, though. Usually you love springing things like that as a surprise.”

“Oh, maybe I'm turning over a new leaf.” Lena said, and pushed one hand into her pocket, and let her hand close around a small box inside. Silly Emily, to think she didn't have another surprise up her sleeve.

Emily had almost finished getting ready when Jack Morrison called with the news that the Slipstream vanished without a trace. And as the light swallowed the plane and its pilot, Lena Oxton's fingers closed around that same box as she apologized to Emily for missing their date.

* * *

“It's Higgs,” Winston announced. “Or more precisely, the Higgs Field. Whatever happens to Tracer during the accident, it prevents the bosons in her body from interacting with the Higgs Field. It's amazing, actually, because we had no idea that mass affected how we interact with time, and that does lead to some interesting implications for future research--”

“Winston? Focus.”

“Ahem, right. Sorry. We know how it happens, now we just have to figure out how to fix it.”

Angela Ziegler pressed a finger to her lips as she looked over the notes. Winston had done his best to simplify things, but the baffling world of quantum mechanics still provided a powerful obstacle. Lena Oxton's condition stood at a complex intersection of advanced biology and theoretical physics, and thus far attempts to combine the two fields proved frutiless.

To say nothing of the more practical concerns, which McCree once less than eloquently summed up as the pair discussed it with him in the room.

“Hard to give a shot to a ghost, ain't it?”

Dr. Ziegler still wasn't even sure how Lena had survived, since she'd not eaten anything in months. Perhaps the phenomenon that unmoored her from time halted the biological processes of her body. It made little sense, but to be fair nothing about this situation made any sense at all. She'd run a variety of simulations, but none of them came close to duplicating Lena's results.

And just like a shot, it wasn't as though she could take a sample of Lena's blood to study, either.

“If we could just bring her back in sync with our world, even for a moment...” she said aloud.

“I've tried a few different things,” Winston admitted. “But we never even know how long of an experimental window we have. She's vanished in mid conversation more often that not.” He jotted another formula on the board, stared at it a moment then marked it out hastily, growling.

“We have to be patient, Winston. If we give it enough time--”

With a roar, Winston punched the white board, sending it flying across the room. His skin started to turn red, electricity flaring around his eyes. “You know the numbers as well as I do! It's not predictable, but the mean amount of time she spends in our world is decreasing. If we don't hurry, she'll... she'll...”

Dr. Ziegler put an arm on his shoulder. “I know, Winston. And I know what she means to you. But your anger won't help her. Just... please calm down. We can't do this without you.”

Winston slowed his breathing, and slowly his skin started to return to normal. “I... I'm sorry. But we can't... I can't lose her.”

“I know. That's why you need to control yourself.”

The gorilla walked over to the white board and picked it up again. “I only wish Lena could control this, like the others can control their abilities.”

“Have you asked her to try?”

“Of course, but it doesn't work, at least not consistently. She's been able to phase in enough to move things just a little, but it never lasts.” Winston sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if McCree's right, and we shouldn't just call in a ghost researcher.”

“I don't know what's scarier, that you're considering ghost researchers legitimate scientists, or the fact the words 'McCree's right' just came out of your mouth.”

“It's not like we're having any better luck with our science.” Winston stared at the board again. “Of course, they'd say she was haunting this facility, or was even some kind of haunted thing.”

“There are haunted things?”

“Oh, all kinds of haunted items. Usually really old, and associated with some kind of tragedy in the past. Usually it's stuff like paintings or dresses. Oh, and dolls. Lots and lots of dolls.”

Dr. Ziegler said nothing, and Winston finally looked up to see the incredulous look she was giving him.

“Look, it gets really boring some nights here, and they play a lot of those shows at night,” he said. “But it's not like Lena's haunting us. She's very much alive, and it's not like she...”

Winston stopped speaking, the marker leaving a long streak on the white board. “That's it.”

Dr. Ziegler waited a moment to respond. “You need sleep, doctor's orders.”

“No no, I don't mean we call in the ghost people. But maybe that's what we've been missing.”

“What's that?”

“We've been focusing on curing Lena, and maybe she's right. Maybe that can't be done.” Winston wiped away the calculations and, instead of writing more, he started to sketch out a design. “But what if we didn't have to? What if, like a haunted object, there was something that kept Lena here? Like... a device that served as an anchor, pulling the Higgs field back toward her?”

“Then we could try to figure out a permanent cure.”

“There's just one problem,” he said. “I might be able to extend the field once it activated, but... she'd need to be wearing it first.”

“Which would require a greater control over her state than she currently possesses. I don't imagine you have any ideas on how to help her do that?”

Winston stared at the sketch and tapped the marker against the board. He turned to the side, lost in thought. As fate would have it, he found himself looking at a picture he and Lena had taken together, one that always stood next to his work station. Slowly, a smile passed over his face.

“You know why all those silly shows about ghosts said that some people stayed behind to haunt things?”

“I can't believe we're having this conversation, but why?”

“Because they had a reason to stay.”

It took her a moment, but once Dr. Ziegler understood, she smiled as well. They had a second, more important anchor after all.

* * *

When she was eight years old, Lena broke her left leg and right foot leaping from the top of a playground slide pretending she was a super hero. It happened only a day after the end of her summer term, and she spent her entire summer holiday between her bed and the sofa in the living room while she could hear the laughter and excitement from her friends outside. She longed to escape the house and rejoin them, but her parents said in no uncertain terms that super hero games would be off limits when she did.

Well, they said no playing but they never said no dreaming. Armed with notebook, pencil and pen she started to document her adventures as a super hero that could do a whole lot more than jump off playground equipment. In her version of things, Lena could copy the powers of other heroes by touching them. Really, it just gave her an excuse to use whatever power struck her fancy in the moment. She never gave the hero a name, until a friend visited and saw a drawing she copied from one of the books.

“That's not really yours,” they teased. “You just traced it.”

“What's wrong with being a tracer?”

The name stuck, and Tracer even became her call sign as a test pilot.

Those memories came back to Lena often since the accident, since both times she found herself unable to do much. Sometimes she'd reappear in the dead of night and beg Athena not to wake anyone, since she might vanish. She rarely found herself anywhere interesting during her time jumps, and never stayed there long enough to even see much, let alone start a decent conversation. Maybe she didn't have a notebook to record it all, but she could still dream.

Of course, a lot of her dreams dealt with food. Instead of rushing into a burning building to save the day, Lena imagined dropping off by the pub for a quick drink or a favorite spot for a bite to eat. Today, she went back to an old favorite. She used to stop by her favorite chippy at least once a week, where they always fried the fish while you waited. Little spots of oil singed your fingertips even through the paper. Then we went to the condiment stand, where she added the right amount of malt vinegar... or as her friends put it, “nearly drowned everything in it”. The aroma of the beer batter mingled with the tang of the vinegar.. it made Lena's mouth water just thinking about it.

She'd been just about to bite into the imaginary plank of fish when footsteps echoed from behind her. With a soft sigh, she stood up. “Can't a girl have just a few minutes to dream before you start running more tests?”

“...Lena?”

She froze.

“Lena, is that really you?”

Her fists balled up, and she drew in a halting breath. For the first time since the accident she felt afraid, and it kept her from turning around or even looking over her shoulder. The uncertain future, the increasing doubts of Winston and Dr. Ziegler, even the days when hope all but faded away, she could handle that. But seeing a look of pain on her face, knowing something she'd done brought tears to that beautiful face...

“You can hear me, can't you?”

It still took her a minute to find her voice. “You're still wearing that awful perfume, aren't you?”

“The one you gave me a bottle of for Christmas last year? Of course.”

“Only because you like the stuff, and I was daft enough to support you.” The silence hung between them a moment. “I didn't want you to see me like this, Em.”

“Your doctor explained it to me,” Emily said. “I don't understand it completely, but... I'm here now.”

“Truth is, I really hoped you'd get on with your life. Forget about me, move forward, maybe even start dating again and find someone a bit more normal. I can handle this burden, but I... I wanted you to be happy.”

“Happy.” Emily's voice drew closer. “I thought I knew what that meant, but then I met you. Hearing you giggle at my silly jokes, or make fun of how my hair looked in the morning, or hugging me after a long day at the office. Lena, it's hard to move on with my life when you are my life.”

“Em...” She still couldn't bring herself to turn around.

“You remember how you always made me a cake from scratch for my birthday, and insisted on putting the candles on it? I hadn't done that since I was a little girl, but you always made me blow out the candles and make a wish before I could eat it? That's what you brought me. You made me realize how special, how magical life really is. I did it again this year, and I made a wish again. You know what I wished for?”

“You know if you tell me--”

“I know, but I'll give you a hint,” Emily said, her voice starting to waver. “You just need to turn around.”

Dammit. Lena looked to the ground and closed her eyes, then slowly turned to face her. With a deep breath to steel herself, she opened her eyes once more. To her surprise, Emily wore a beautiful emerald green dress, her red hair cascading around her shoulders. And while her cheeks shone with tears, there wasn't a hint of pain on her face. Instead, she rewarded Lena with that perfect smile, the one she dreamed about seeing so often.

“See? You just made it come true.”

“You look amazing.”

“You think so?” A flush of red splashed across her cheeks. “It's... what I was going to wear that night.”

“And suddenly, I'm even more upset about the accident.” She giggled, and even drew a small chuckle from Emily as well. “I've missed you.”

“It's really quiet without you around. Believe it or not, I'm starting to hate it.”

“You might regret saying that some day.”

“If I'm lucky.” Emily reached a hand out.

“You can't actually touch me, you know.”

“I know, but someone taught me that it's okay to just dream sometimes.”

Lena lifted her hand. Truth be told, she dreamed of this often as well. She missed the little things, like just walking down the street with their hands locked together. Like the rest of her, her fingers had taken on a blueish glow, translucent enough to just see Emily's fingers through her own. They drew closer together, as she tried to stop just enough to make certain Emily's hand didn't pass through hers, to provide a stark reminder of how desperate her situation truly was. Closer, closer...

They touched.

...they touched.

Emily's fingertips pressed gently against hers, and the glow faded. She trailed her fingers down Emily's, to her palm. Wrapping her hand around hers, she gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I'm back,” Lena whispered. “You brought me back.”

Somehow, Emily's smile grew even more radiant than before. “See? I told you I wasn't going to let go of you so easily.”

With one swift motion, Lena drew close and pulled Emily into a tight hug. Both women started to sob as they held the embrace, Lena's head resting on her shoulder as she cried. After a moment, Lena lifted her head up and whispered into her ear.

“There's something I need to tell you,” she said.

“I'm not going anywhere.”

“This is hard to admit, but...” Lena bit her lip. “It was a box mix. Every year. I'm a lousy cook.”

Emily kissed her cheek. “I think I might be able to forgive you.”

* * *

“We can make adjustments as needed,” Winston said as Lena pulled at one of the straps that held the bulky contraption in place. “After it activates, the field generator will route the bosons in your body to the local portion of the Higgs field. I call it a chronal accelerator because--”

“Winston, love, I know you find all this really amazing,” she said. “But you lost me way back at 'It's simple physics'. Pretty much, I turn on the Matrix of Leadership here and I'm anchored back in the real world full time?”

“Yes, and there might be some interesting applications we can test down the line. More importantly, after it's been activated you won't have to wear it all the time. As long as you're in close proximity to the device and it still has power, you'll remain connected to our time.”

“Good thing, that. Would've made showers and changing clothes really awkward.”

“I did make it waterproof,” Winston said and pushed his glasses up with one finger. “I know how much it rains in London, after all.”

“Well, guess we'll give this thing a shot.”

“You'll probably want Emily in here with you,” Winston said, and glanced back to the lab's control room. “I should--”

“Stay here. You're as much a part of this as anyone.”

“She doesn't know about me yet, Lena. She'll think I'm like the others, and be afraid...”

“And then she'll get to know you, and love you like the rest of us do.”

“Like Reyes?”

“Difference is, Emily's not a raging asshole.”

“Point taken. I just, um, don't want to ruin the moment.”

“Okay, let me put it another way,” Lena said and jabbed a finger into Winston's chest. “If you so much as think about hiding in that control room, I will kick your butt.”

He sighed and took a few steps back. “Fine.” He pressed a button on his wrist comm. “Dr. Ziegler, we're ready to activate the accelerator. If you'd sent Emily in please.”

It took only a minute for Emily to make her way into the lab. She walked over to Lena, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the massive form of Winston standing across from them. She stared, and Winston could only manage a weak wave.

“Uh, hello. I'm Winston.”

Emily finally turned away from him, and to Lena. “Amazing. You weren't lying about the gorilla scientist.”

“Wait, you told her about me?”

“Before the accident even. Oops.”

“You are a walking security risk.”

“Guilty.” Inhaling sharply, she looked down at the chronal accelerator. “So, shall we turn this thing on?”

“If you're ready.”

She grabbed Emily's hands and gently squeezed them, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Now I'm ready.”

“You should take a few steps back, miss,” Winston warned.

Emily nodded and walked beside him. Lena pressed the buttons in the sequence Winston told her, and the center of the accelerator sparked to life with a faint blue glow. Seconds later, she felt a strange wave pulse through her body. At first, everything around her seemed to move it slow motion, then sped up even faster than normal. After a few more seconds, a pulse from the accelerator bathed the room in blue light. Lena looked at the device, then to Emily and Winston. The gorilla moved to a nearby terminal and started hitting buttons.

“Am I supposed to feel any different?”

“I don't know, but all the readouts seem good. Did you experience anything strange when you turned it on.”

“Like the real world acting like I hit rewind and fast forward on a movie?”

Winston grinned. “The blink and recall functions worked at start up! You're going to like those, but we can talk about them later. Now that you're stable, I'm sure Dr. Ziegler will want to run a few tests. You might have to follow her around, since your blood will be just as unstable as the rest of her, but it shouldn't take too long.”

“Fine, but first things first.” She threw her arms open. “Hug time!”

Emily ran over and fell into her arms. Winston turned away to give them privacy.

A second later, he heard Lena clear her throat. “Winston?”

He turned to see both Lena and Emily with their arms stretched out to him.

“Huh?”

“You're the one who brought her back,” Emily said. “So you're a part of this hug too.”

“But I--”

“You're my best friend, you big lug. So get over here before I drag you into it.”

With a smile, he walked over and gently wrapped his arms around the two. It would be the first of many he'd share with his new family.

* * *

She'd booked the trip only a week after the accelerator tests proved successful, though this time she let Emily in on their plans a little sooner.

“I decided maybe Ducasse wasn't really our speed,” she said as she showed Emily the plane tickets to Orlando.

“Not surprising me this time? You're losing your touch, Ms. Oxton.”

Silly Emily, underestimating her like that.

Getting her out of bed that morning proved the most daunting challenge, as Emily hit the snooze button at least five times before Lena finally gave up and pushed her off the side of the bed. A few beignets from the food court bought her forgiveness. Emily didn't even bat an eye as a private town car pulled up in front of their hotel and whisked them away to the park, long before the gates opened to the public.

“Commander Morrison knows some people,” Lena said, and Emily accepted it without question.

Save a few cast members, it was empty as they walked down through the gates and turned the corner. Lena didn't take her eyes off Emily's face as the castle revealed itself in the distance, framed by the shops of Main Street. Lena squeezed her hand softly.

“What do you think?”

“It's amazing!”

“We should get a picture, shouldn't we?” Lena said, and winked to the photographer behind her.

“Oh, of course!”

She never saw it coming, maybe because Lena just hugged her for the first two pictures. The photographer directed them for the next show, getting Emily in just the right position.

“And Ms. Oxton, I think you know your pose.”

She reached into her pocket, for the box she'd held onto since the day of the accident. She pulled it out just as she dropped to one knee and opened it to reveal the ring inside.

“Surprise,” she said with a sheepish grin.

The next picture was Emily answering that question with a kiss.