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glaciiermonarch · 9 months

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❀ *◦ sen mitsuji. genderfluid. he/she/they. demiromantic homosexual. ⇝ hey, isn’t that takaharu mochizuki? i think that the thirty-five-year-old from adelaide, south australia, works as dj at the boom boom room, music producer & engineer, and drummer of vain rogues & the ghost orchestra; but outside of that people describe them as perpetual busyness to prevent the chance of an emotion occurring; a pristine but empty-feeling mansion with too many rooms; perfectly pouty lips pulling up in a smirk over a private joke; and a robin's egg blue drum kit with every possible bell and whistle on the market. i hear they are moody & distant, but they are also known to be cerebral & generous. consider giving them a visit at their home in winterwood estates and get to know why they’re called the ice queen.

➙ this character uses he/him, they/them, AND she/her pronouns freely! the writer will be using ALL of them, sometimes within the same paragraph, so please extend the same courtesy! ➙ taka is attracted to men and masc-presenting enbies and just calls themself gay!

full name: takaharu mochizuki ➙ this is in "western" order since taka grew up in english-speaking countries ➙ kanji: 望月貴陽 (Mochizuki Takaharu) 望 (mochi) meaning "wish, desire" and 月 (tsuki) meaning "moon;” together meaning “full moon” 貴 (taka) meaning “precious” and 陽 (haru) meaning “sun”

nicknames: taka, taki, tako, haru, mochi-san, tsuki-san

dob: 17 august 1989

place of birth: adelaide, south australia, australia

languages: japanese (native); australian english (native); korean (advanced); german (advanced); arabic (advanced); hindi (strong); mandarin (strong); okinawan (some)

education: bachelor’s degree in philosophy and asian & middle eastern studies, duke university

strengths: educated; cerebral; generous; loyal; resolute; shrewd; creative; captivating; wise; patient

weaknesses: cold; moody; gloomy; judgmental; harsh; disconnected; distant; crass

hobbies: playing drums, guitar, piano, and clarinet; surfing; skateboarding; playing video games; smoking weed; napping; reading

likes: warm weather & beaches; fashion;

dislikes: messy people; uncreative people; children (friends' kids are an exception)

disabilities & health: major depression; chronic back and knee pain

even the silverest of spoons being in your mouth when you're born doesn't shield you from the unhappiness of life, but it does slap a bandage over a festering wound so you can ignore it a while longer. kenta mochizuki, a dermatologist originally from japan. beth mcnulty, general legal counsel for one of the biggest energy companies in all of australia. married a little later than either of their families would have liked, but in their defense, they were both busy being successful. and they barely slowed down long enough to have their only child, takaharu.

though of an ornery countenance since birth, taka was always still popular and favored because he was pretty and rich. clarinet lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, surfing lessons, she was set up for success from the very beginning. her childhood memories are mostly accompanied by nannies and tutors, though her father, an earnest and excitable man, always made an effort to be present in his child's life, eager to see her succeed.

there was always a distance between taka and their mother, though; taka knows now that beth never wanted to be a parent. this attitude became clearly evident when she didn't show up to taka's tenth birthday dinner. it was soon revealed that she'd forgotten, and more of the truth came tumbling out: she shirked her parental duties for an affair. and this apparently had been going on for quite some time, seeing other men that weren't her heartbreakingly devoted husband.

a divorce ensued, and taka sided with his kind, loving father, who had also always made an effort to keep japanese culture alive in the home. when taka was barely into her teens, her father sat her down to tell her about a woman he'd met online, one he'd fallen in love with. the catch was that she lived in malibu. taka was given the choice to live with her mother or move to the united states with her father. she easily chose the latter.

lashonda rhimes, successful anesthesiologist to the stars, and kenta's second wife. she was a few years younger, though not egregiously so, but still childless. and she treated taka like her own child, which might have been externally brushed off by the surly teenager, but taka came to appreciate it. he was popular in his new home, with his accent and his money and his looks. being so intelligent, the transition to a new continent wasn't difficult at all, and he finished high school near the top of his class.

he didn't really have a plan for his life, and all his parents really wanted out of him was just for him to go to college. an acceptance to duke university was sweetened by some scholarships, and whatever those didn't cover was easily made up for by the wads of cash his family had. taka had started smoking weed not long after landing in the US, but she branched out into new drugs while in durham, north carolina, for college.

acid trips were unpleasant every time she tried dropping; and she didn't like injecting anything to leave marks behind on her pretty body. but she soon found a bad habit in cocaine. she would sniff a few lines, party for several hours, go home and do homework, go to class, and go to modeling shoots, and do it all over again. somehow, using sheer ambition probably, she finished college within 4 years, even with a double major and a couple semesters spent studying abroad.

bouncing around the US for a year or so; living with his aunt in japan for a couple years; and then landing in anchorage for the next adventure around 2016

these days, taka keep busy in any way she knows how: too long with her own thoughts can be dangerous and make her itch to return to her cocaine habit. but they've done a good job of staying clean. taka doesn't need to work for money—his mother sends him gobs of money to curry his favor, and his father and stepmother have nobody else to spoil—but he does work to stay busy, spinning tunes at the boom boom room; modeling for small indie publications and brands; and gaining some traction as a music producer.

with more money than one person should ever need, taka gives a lot of it away. there are a few charities she routinely makes generous donations to; but she also likes to take care of her friends. she'll buy her closest friends whatever they want, buy their groceries, offer to pay rent or even let them stay in her house, offer to pay their medical bills... seriously, what is one lonely person gonna do with all those digits in their bank account? besides, spending money is the only way she knows how to show love.

#anchorintro

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bleachbleachbleach · 3 years

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meme!

I was tagged by @magical-girl-coral for this meme! Thank you!! idk if @ippoddity is going to answer it here or on her personal, but I decided to answer it here, since this is the space/fandom we share. That and some of my answers have to do with Bleach and none of them are about Lightning McQueen, LOL.

I made a fresh post instead of reblogging the original one because I do not know how to shut up.

Favorite color: red, but I wear purple and greens/blues/teals.

Currently reading: I just finished Elizabeth Miki Brina’s memoir, Speak, Okinawa, and around the same time also finished @recurring-polynya’s Portions for Foxes. Speak, Okinawa has a lot going for it that’s really well done, and is about Brina’s life growing up in whitebread part of New Jersey with a military father and an Okinawan mother, and the ways that her and her parents’ lives have been informed not only by World War II and US-Japan relations, but also by Okinawa’s colonial histories at the hands of the US military, Japan, and China. I’ve been reading a lot of Okinawa-related things for work, and I think it will go well with them.

Portions for Foxes is a post-TYBW fic in an alternate timeline where Byakuya dies (DX), and it is absolutely fantastic. It’s Renji POV and is just an exquisite tapestry of multifarious forms of grief and trauma, but is also about moving within and beyond these things, and working through a postwar daily life where you still have to deal with division work (and Leading Division work) and Kuchiki family politics that involve political marriage and strategic pregnancies (but also real love of each other, and real love of the coming baby). If you have not already read it, you are in for a treat if you do.

Last song: Songs That Make You Feel Badass, which is a 19-minute YouTube mix track, hahaha.

Last movie: Technically we watched the new Natsume Yuujinchou movie, if that counts? It was more like a double feature OVA. Outside of stuff like that… Fast 9? Fast 9 was majestic and beautiful in too many ways. I was legit in tears only 10 minutes in, lol. What I love about Fast is that it’s fantastic spectacle even for the casual action-blockbuster-viewer, but if you actually care about the series, all the callbacks and easter eggs reveal that they’re such a careful labor of love. Mind you, absolutely none of that care has anything to do with the dialogue or the plot or the logic. But listen. In the Fast 6 extended cut there’s a scene where Vin Diesel shows Han an orange Camaro and Han replies, "Nice color." And this foreshadows 1) Han’s orange RX-7 in Tokyo Drift, but also Han comes back from the dead in Fast 9 and he’s got another orange car, this time a Supra, which is a model that WAS ALSO REVIVED FROM THE DEAD in the years between Fast 8 and Fast 9, IN THIS ESSAY I WILL—

Last series: Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko, inspired by this gifset that @magical-girl-coral reblogged. (ty!) It’s about this guy who determines that he is living in a BL manga because he keeps witnessing the tropes manifest in his classmates. Initially, he thinks he’s off the hook because he’s boring and plain-looking, and then he reads on the Internet that often the boring guy ends up being the main character of BL series. This sends him into an existential spiral because of how badly he emphatically does not want to be a main character in a BL series, LOL. It’s a very meta, and very much a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the BL genre.

Coffee or tea: Tea >>>>>>>>>>>

Currently working on: A fic whose in utero name was originally "Gotei 13 goes to the ocean" but is now "Gotei 13 goes camping," because it kind of seems like they’re going to spend more time trying to get to the ocean than actually doing anything there. I haven’t decided whether I should change that or not, because on one hand the original inspo for this fic was "where’s the ocean in Soul Society?" but the first scene that came to mind was a shinigami having to bushwhack their way around Mt. Koifushi, and that’s really all I want in life.

The premise is that post-TYBW, Soul Society is in a rush to assert to various other parties who might want to invade them that they are indeed alive, and they won, and no one else should want to invade them. One of these parties is the Western Ocean. The problem is, the last person to have taken on this job of establishing diplomatic terms with the Western Ocean was Kaien, on account of Nejibana and his being from a noble family. But obviously, Kaien died, and apparently did not... leave notes... And if there are notes from any of the people who did this job before him, no one can find them, because far be it from Soul Society to write reports that can ever be referenced again.

Soul Society is basically just like… welp! Rukia is Kaien’s most recent protege, and is also conveniently of a noble family, and ice is ****basically water**** right?? So even though literally no one knows what she’s supposed to do, what lies within the Western Ocean, or who/what she’s even supposed to be negotiating with in the first place, this task becomes Rukia’s problem.

To ease the burden, Soul Society sends Rukia off with what proves to be a very dysfunctional assortment of Captains/VCs, with the intent that such a high-ranking entourage will make it look like Soul Society respects the negotiations and, possibly more importantly, has their shit together. (They do not have their shit together.) And that’s the story of how Akon ends up technically being the mission leader, LOL.

Other than that, er, the "plot" is that everyone is real sad and kind of fucked up about TYBW. I am not a strong plot-writer, so I dunno how well that’s gonna pan out. But I really wanted to know where the ocean was!

Oh no I forgot to tag people! Uhhhh I’m not sure who our mutuals even are and of those, who likes memes. O_o @backwardshirt, @ulkoilla, @crysuzumushi, if you’re into it? <3

#tag meme

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Cobra Kai Season 3: What to Expect

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This article contains spoilers for Cobra Kai season 2.

It’s been a year and a half already since the Cobra Kai season 2 finale cliffhanger took the show literally over the edge.

The climactic West Valley High School fight in “No Mercy” pushed Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) over that cliff – off a hallway balcony and onto a back-shattering staircase rail. It was a first-rate “long take” fight scene (what’s called a “one-er” in the film biz), the epitome of stunt cinematography because it is so technically challenging. The slightest mistake from anyone involved and everyone must start all over again. That season 2 finale fight was the best piece of fight choreography of the entire franchise, finally levelling up Cobra Kai to the martial arts showcase it always deserved to be. The challenge for season 3 is whether the show can top itself.

Cobra Kai has been a surprise hit from the very start, already triumphing against major challenges. Launched in 2018 as a tentpole show for YouTube Red, Cobra Kai appeared doomed after YouTube’s foray into a subscription-based premium access service model fell short of expectations. YouTube let go of all their original scripted shows not bound by contract. Even though the Cobra Kai season 2 premiere set a record for the platform, it seemed destined to end after two seasons all the same. That was until Netflix picked it up, restoring the series like Mr. Miyagi’s healing hands. The show has since become a breakout hit all over again on its new home.

Now season 3 is the first true Cobra Kai Netflix exclusive. After the “cruel summer” of 2020, Cobra Kai season 3 is set to arrive in January and Den of Geek spoke to its stars about what it means for the beloved Karate Kid franchise.

Flashback to Karate Kid Part II

Netflix dropped its first Cobra Kai season 3 teaser last August, and ended it with a mysterious offscreen line “Are you sure about that?” Fans quickly surmised that the speaker was Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), the villain from The Karate Kid Part II. It wasn’t hard to guess. The teaser showed Daniel (Ralph Macchio) returning to Okinawa, and some press coverage revealed that season 3 had shot there, so who else would it be? The stabbing sai was another telltale giveaway because it was Chozen who brought traditional Okinawan weapons into the Karate Kid fray.

The potential of Chozen’s inclusion in Cobrai Kai has enormous, and perhaps dangerous implications. While Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) beat up Daniel-san in some high school fights, Chozen and Daniel were full-on prepared to fight to the death. As Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) said just prior to their match, “Daniel-San, this not tournament. This for real.” Cobra Kai has been masterfully placing Easter eggs that hail back to the original ‘80s films throughout the series with cameos of many members of the original cast. Adding Kreese (Martin Kove) to the cast for season 2 was a game changer. Chozen was a perfect tease from Netflix because anyone who saw The Karate Kid Part II would hazard a guess that the conclusion of their death match did not restore Chozen’s honor.

When the official Season 3 trailer dropped in December, Netflix gave Chozen’s inclusion away. Not only did we see Chozen, but we also see Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), Daniel’s second love interest from The Karate Kid Part II. Tomita just beamed down from playing the inscrutable Commander Oh on Star Trek: Picard. She’s been working steadily in television ever since her breakout role in The Karate Kid Part II.

What’s more, there were a lot more merciless fight clips in that trailer. It was another well played lure for fans of both the original and the ongoing series. Great throwbacks, great humor and great drama are what makes Cobra Kai so engaging. And now that they’ve upped the ante in the fight choreography department, can they keep the momentum going? Will we see another death match between Daniel and Chozen? That stabbing sai landed so close to Daniel’s head and that’s a good way to put out an eye.

Growing Challenges

“The challenge of season 3 is obviously cleaning up the mess that was created both on LaRusso’s watch and Johnny Lawrence’s watch,” says Ralph Macchio, who first began playing Daniel LaRusso in 1984.

The “No Mercy” High School fight left every character horribly scarred, both physically and emotionally. In its wake, Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler), Daniel’s wife, told her family “No more Karate. It’s over,” prompting Daniel to take down Mr. Miyagi’s picture from the Miyagi-Do dojo wall. Carmen (Vanessa Rubio), Miguel’s mom and Johnny’s (William Zabka) love interest, told Johnny “I never want to see you again.” When Johnny goes to his Cobra Kai dojo, he is greeted by Kreese who repeats his meme-worthy line from the original The Karate Kid, “We have a visitor.” With both Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai dojos out of their hands, what’s left?

“The biggest challenge of season 3 was probably stepping out,” reveals Zabka.

“What is Johnny going to be without the skin of Cobra Kai? But it was also kind of a rebirth because at the end of season 2, Kreese takes the Dojo. So who is Johnny without the Cobra Kai banner wrapped around him? That was a fun challenge.”

After all the tragedy that befell their teenage kids, can Johnny and Daniel finally bury the hatchet for the sake of their children? Macchio says they will try in season 3, but we’ll have to watch and see how that goes.

“From a performing standpoint, there was an excitement to it because I knew script wise, I was going to step up to Johnny Lawrence and say, ‘Let’s put our differences aside and let’s go help this kid, your son, my student,’ and set off on that journey,” Maccho says. “Upfront in the season, these two rival characters have to coexist and work together, where so often in the previous two seasons, it wasn’t until late. We have a handful of scenes during the year in the season.”

However, there’s much more to Cobra Kai than Johnny and Daniel’s 30+ year feud. This is a Karate soap opera for the next generation. Teen drama was the heart of the original films, the story of Daniel-san’s coming of age. Now it’s about Johnny’s son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and Daniel’s daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) and all their high school friends and rivals. It’s their turn to find themselves and they’ll have to do so in a much different world than that of Johnny’s and Daniel’s.

“I’m excited for people to see it,” says Mouser. “In Season 3, it’s just recovery and growth, and learning from her own mistakes, learning from other’s mistakes, and trying her best to be the better next generation. I think that’s everybody’s goal all the time. We’re learning from our parents, we’re learning from the past, we’re learning from history, and we’re learning from each other. We’re doing our best to improve as people. So I hope Samantha continues on that path. Although, sometimes she falls off the wagon.”

What about Ali with an ‘I’?

Prior to the season 3 premiere, the possibility of the most requested cameo remains unknown. At the end of season 2, Johnny’s Facebook pinged the acceptance of his friend request to Ali Mills Schwarber (Elisabeth Shue). What a tease! Fans have been clamoring for the return of that Encino cheerleader who stole all our hearts so many years ago.

Shue has been steadily working in TV and film since her breakout role in The Karate Kid. She was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her gritty soul-baring performance in Leaving Las Vegas and was recently seen playing Madelyn Stillwell in The Boys. With the return of Chozen and Kumiko, might Ali make a cameo too? There’s no hint of her in the trailer. No spoilers here. You’ll just need to wax on, wax off, and tune in.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Cobra Kai season 3 premieres Jan. 1 on Netflix.

The post Cobra Kai Season 3: What to Expect appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3rx4Qqv

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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cuprum63 · 7 years

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Pathfinders AN 3

Author’s notes for paragraphs 31-51 of Pathfinders.

P32:

I was the insult that broke her

Lucy was born into wealth and was turned into a vampire for no known reason. Cixi longed for eternal life, had a vampire for a teacher, and still wasn’t turned.

monster hunters that comprised the Yihetuan

The Yihetuan are the Boxers. In this universe, they were also legitimate monster hunters.

P33:

The conflict resurrected Dracula by the end of first month.

Circa early December 1899.

merchants who sold invincibility potions as late as 1748

Harmony of Dissonance: the merchant sells medicine jars for 10,000 gold.

the formula itself dates back to the mirage skeletons from before the First Crusade.

Lament of Innocence: the mirage skeleton drops the invincible jar relic.

P34:

Surprisingly, she wasn't in China because of him or the Boxers; she'd come in search of new recipes for her tinned foods empire.

Jonathan Harker wrote about getting recipes for Mina in Dracula. As he’s confined to Exeter by this point, she has to step up and get them herself.

The Harkers have diversified into canned foods by the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Mina’s idea is to see if any foreign foods were adaptable to British tastes. China happened to be next on her tour.

Her mission to build a teleportation node in Peking was a cover story to her own allies

Another parallel with Lucy. Mina’s not loyal to her own group.

she'd grown to hate Jonathan and their son by then

Again, Mina is the reincarnation of Lisa. Loving Jonathan and their son is betraying Dracula and Alucard. Loving at all is betraying herself. This is a reversal of Alucard’s words to Dracula at the end of Symphony of the Night.

I have to add that I wrote Mina and Lucy as two different aspects of Lisa. Lucy, until her turning, had Lisa’s personality and even her visage, but no skills. Mina grew up an orphan, acquiring knowledge and strength, but little of Lisa’s empathy.

and longed to feel the joys of adventure, battle, and good food once again.

A reference to Clan Murray’s motto. As for good food, check out all the food items in the Castlevania games.

P35:

section of her bodyguard

Lucy’s slipping into modern British Army terminology. Here, section refers to the unit size—around eight bodyguards.

only to find that every estate needed to be guarded and staffed

Ever hear of “lumpy assets”? This is a similar idea. You buy one thing and create so many other problems that you’re thrown all the way back to square one.

she employed even more servants and mercenary retainers from wherever they could be found

Mina’s solution, enabled only because of her marriage to Jonathan and the money she looted from Castlevania.

P36:

Unlike any hunter before or since, she infiltrated Dracula's hideout, evaded all detection, and slew him as he slumbered.

This is consistent with Mina’s secretiveness. She and Lucy started so many fires in their youth and were never caught. She taught Lucy a way to become independent. Mina even killed Quincey and covered it up. She’s a natural assassin.

Anyway, not the finest hour for Dracula’s minions.

P37:

She was fleeing up the Yellow River; I chose to outflank her at the Dragon's Gate.

There’s more than one Dragon Gate around; Lucy’s referring to the one in at Longmen. A Dragon Gate is a waterfall that in myths, Asian carp jump over…

old Chinese legend

The legend tells that a carp that successfully jumps the waterfall becomes a dragon.

P38:

one of their leaders neutralized

Pay attention of the word “neutralized.”

P39:

We shadowed Morris and Lecarde as they traveled across a war-torn Europe to eliminate Elizabeth Bartley.

Castlevania: Bloodlines, set in 1917.

one of the Draculinas was betrayed by her servant, Sandor,

Dracula’s Daughter (1936), meaning one of the Draculinas took an alias of Countess Marya Zaleska and was also plotting against Dracula.

At Dark Oaks, we prevented Caldwell from usurping Dracula's power for herself

Son of Dracula (1943). Dark Oaks was a New Orleans plantation and home to the Caldwell family. Katherine “Kay” Caldwell manipulated Alucard (Dracula) into marrying and biting her because of her fear of death. Obviously, in this universe, whomever she manipulated was neither of the Tepes men.

treasure hoard hidden on that Okinawan island

Among other things, the mythical M-Funds of Major General William Frederic Marquat. Here, the funds are named after Mina Murray, and they are not Japan’s property.

and on the mainland, the fifteen swords stolen with the help of Sergeant Cody Belnades

Sign Cody Belnades’ name in cursive. Compress and fudge the writing a bit. The ‘e’ looks like an ‘i’, the ‘n’ turns into an ‘m’, the ‘a’ becomes an ‘o’ if you end too high and especially if you mix it up in the ‘d’, the downward motion used for the vertical line in the ‘d’ looks like an ‘r’, and the ‘s’ blends into the end of the ‘e’ if it’s too small.

His name becomes Cody Bilmore. He’s the one responsible for the Honjo Masamune’s disappearance, and the swords have never left Japan.

P40:

Schneider clan after they fell in with the Nazis

Reinhardt Schneider was a playable character in the noncanon Castlevania 64. Vampire hunting is still a type of genocide, and as his descendants were blond-haired, blue-eyed, tall, and strong, they embodied the Nazi ideal.

Holmwood LLC

Major antagonists to Arikado and crew in later fics.

Harkers felt our wrath in 1986

The first Castlevania was released in 1986.

elderly Quincey A.J.A.X. Harker's life

Quincey Harker was born on November 6, 1898 in this universe. He would have been 87-88 when he was killed.

His initials stand for “Abraham John Arthur Xavier,” as adding “Jonathan” would be redundant because of Seward. This is where Xavier Lecarde comes in: with his name, the X can be added.

AJAX, also called Typhoon is the name of another Konami game. From this game is the song “Command 770,” remixed as “Golden Bough” for Kokoro Belmont in Otomedius Excellent.

counterfeiting of the AH-64 and F-14

In A-JAX, you fly the Tom Tiger (AH-64) and Jerry Mouse (F-14). The A-JAX 2 Jerry Mouse is also a playable aircraft in Airforce Delta Strike.

P41:

Dracula had been vindicated, his evil surpassed many times over by other forces.

All the tyrants of the 20th century.

God's own flocks committed sins with abandon and still called themselves holy.

Look up any of the Abrahamic religions’ abuses in the 20th century alone, and how many people now belong to no religion. Mathias Cronqvist would be nothing unusual if he’d lived in modern Europe.

Church's crimes be revealed

Among these crimes was the war on Dracula. No matter how justified, the Church deployed a military force to assassinate a sapient being who had legally done nothing wrong. It sends a message that dissent will not be tolerated, and no matter where you run, you will be hunted down.

P42:

Madmen control nuclear powers or slaughter countless innocents while their lackeys gush at how wonderful it is to be creating their paradise.

Welcome to 2017.

Being weak or a victim has not only become acceptable, but desirable.

Tumblr in a nutshell. This is the same excuse used by the HIV+ to avoid being tested and therefore having to disclose their status. For that matter, it was the same mindset that Gandhi encouraged—weakness to invoke sympathy from others.

Meanwhile, people like me end up having to clean up their messes.

The masses have more tools available to improve their station in life than ever before, yet they are firmly committed to remaining ignorant.

You have computers. You have cell phones. You have the internet. You have search engines. Stop hiding in your echo chambers and use them.

P43:

Ecclesian who volunteered her unborn child to serve as the vessel for Dracula's reincarnation

In this universe, a baby receives a soul after birth.

She simply had to get pregnant with her husband from Japan seven months ahead of schedule.

Late April 2016, for a due date of late January/early February 2017. Shortly after the Iraqis retook Hit.

Japanese-Brazilian-American pilot

A clue to the Ecclesian pilot’s true identity..

who stepped up in late November.

Probably around Thanksgiving, if shooting for the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Also, this means Soma’s mother wasn’t the first choice.

Phoenix isn't one to leave survivors.

Survivors as in enemies or descendants.

P44:

San Diego hospital

The baby is automatically an American citizen by being born on American soil to parents subject to American law. The Japanese father means the baby is also a Japanese citizen, and while Japan doesn’t recognize dual-citizenship for adults, it does for minors.

P45:

This paragraph changes the meaning of a lot since P39.

Born into nobility, you died from disease and your husband declared war against God.

Elisabetha Cronqvist.

Returned as a doctor, you were burned as a witch and your husband went mad against mankind.

Lisa.

leave behind the drudgery of the match factory

Wilhelmina Murray from this universe.

You became a teacher, then a legal secretary,

Canon from Dracula.

then a vampire hunter and mercenary commander

Inspired by the Fury of Dracula board game and Mina’s role in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics.

Memsahib

A term for married white women in India during the Raj. Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a hint of the Harker business empire’s composition by 2017.

established a crime family to uphold your values as the times changed

To be covered in the fic where Quincey Harker dies.

P46:

Dracula and his son fought against each other in your name, interpreting your memory according to their own beliefs.

Castlevania 3 to Symphony of the Night.

Your former coven sister and apprentice, the first Draculina, still has flashes of self-doubt even now, when she has grown more powerful than any Dark Lord.

Lisa, in this universe, truly was a witch.

The first Draculina is a dark reflection of the games’ vampire hunters. She serves as the penultimate boss of my planned fic series, and the battle is planned to last several chapters against the entire Sorrow crew at once before they end up being whittled down.

The final boss, in case you’re wondering, is a duel between the instigators of the entire series.

Without you, Van Helsing's coalition fell apart.

Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Without Mina, her team of Allan Quatermain and Orlando fell apart in 1969 and would not reunite until 2009.

P47:

You won the duel that day at the Dragon's Gate.

Inspired by two Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes, of all things. Like the duel between Solomon Muto and Arthur Hawkins or their grandchildren, Yugi and Rebecca, Mina had Lucy dead to rights and surrendered instead.

You spared me and chose to surrender your mortality and identity for my sake

Here, Mina finally shows where her true loyalties lie: with Lucy.

and like a carp that becomes a dragon, you were reborn into the power you deserved

This is where the legend from P37 is explained if you weren’t reading these notes.

Lucy isn’t saying that she turned Mina into a vampire, but that the Dragon’s Gate was a place where a chosen hero can absorb power. Or it’s one of those locations where you can pick up permanent stat boosts, like the HP/MP/Heart Max Ups from the games.

There’s also the issue that Dracula means “son of the dragon.” By defeating Lucy, Dracula’s last bride, Mina has become a dragon herself. Partially inspired by the Yakuza series, where one of the themes is that there can be only one dragon.

demi-savage hidden under layers of trained refinement .

The demi-savage comes from Clan Murray’s coat of arms. Lucy is saying that under her mask, Mina is a warrior.

your name will be known as the harbinger of the end.

Again, a point from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (volume 3). While Mary Poppins is fighting the Antichrist (Harry Potter), Oliver Haddo tells Mina that she is to be the harbinger of the apocalypse.

Lucy says “your name” because Mina’s new identity is Mina Hakuba. The kanji for Hakuba mean “white horse,” and a white horse is associated with the first horseman of the apocalypse. Adding to this is if Soma doesn’t equip Mina’s Talisman at the right time, he ends up reverting to Dracula.

P48:

Only my sisters—you and the Draculinas—have ever remained loyal to me, and now I must choose a side.

Lucy’s never been loyal to the Draculinas, as she said long ago in P1 and P10.

I can save you from sacrificing yourself at the cost of damning the world, or I can let you be reborn once again as a mortal and become your enemy in the future.

Mina is the last person on Earth Lucy loves. Lucy doesn’t want to let Mina kill herself to be reborn, but she knows she must.

P49:

There never was a choice, was there? This is still your path to walk, no matter my wishes.

Two meanings here: Mina’s life is her own choice, and Lucy is loyal to her.

Maybe in your next life, I will be the one to help you find your path.

They won’t meet until 2045, but Mina has been on Lucy’s trail since around 2038.

P50 & P51:

Farewell, Mina.

And welcome back.

Mina is finally named. Mina Harker dies and her soul is transferred into Mina Hakuba.

#castlevania #fanfic #behind the scenes

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