#I could go into specifics but don’t wanna be spoilery

[seeyounextmurder]

As someone who finds it interesting to analyze character personality types, naturally I’ve been thinking about what zodiac signs and MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) I feel like both Kathy and Stella are… so here’s my thoughts on that!

Kathy comes across as a Virgo to me, especially given how meticulous and rule-driven she is. Feeling some Taurus in there as well and possibly Capricorn because of her groundedness? She also reads as a strong ISFJ. We know she’s super introverted plus focused on sticking to facts and while she makes decisions based on information, she also tends to go along with what others want and is quite aware of people’s feelings.

Stella seems like a Leo, especially with her desire to be in the spotlight. Also a bit of Scorpio and Aries energy because of how stubborn and impulsive she can be. Getting big ENTP vibes from her! She’s definitely the more extroverted of the two and tries to use logic to justify her actions, with less concern about how her choices may affect people.

[grayintogreen]

WIP WEDNESDAY

I thought i wasn't going to have anything for YCDHN that wasn't spoilery, but I was WRONG (aka I finished something today), so have some Veth and Caleb!

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Caleb put the mansion up in the parlor of Kindunos Keep and left everyone to scatter to their own devices. Molly and Yasha had pulled back from everyone in the aftermath, despite Molly’s insistence that there was nothing either of them had to be ashamed of beyond his frustrating act of martyrdom in the King’s Cage. He had dismissed it as the two of them needing time alone together to heal from an experience only the two of them (and Lucien, presently off with the Tombtakers) understood.

Exhausted and drained, Caleb collapsed in the study with Frumpkin scarfed around his neck. He bent double in his chair and rubbed his cheek against his cat’s fur and contemplated the floor until a pair of dainty halfling feet appeared in his eyeline.

“Well, we won,” Veth said, casually. He looked up into her eyes and saw the relief and weariness there.

“For now. We will be going to Cognouza soon.”

“I don’t wanna think about that tonight.” She crawled up into the chair with him and he shifted to make room for her so that she was squeezed tightly between his skinny frame and the side of the chair.

“Would that I could,” he replied, dismally. “I cannot stop thinking about it. Or Trent, for that matter.”

Veth frowned like she’d just been reminded of something- like a rock in a shoe that you only noticed when you stand up. “That boy back in Vergessen…”

Caleb squeezed his eyes shut. “That was a mistake.”

“No, it wasn’t. He almost killed you because you hesitated.” She laid a hand on his chest, twisting so she could look at him. “He tried to kill you, so you retaliated. It doesn’t matter that he was just a boy.”

“He looked just like me.” Caleb dragged his hands down his face. “We were the same and I could do nothing. I could not convince him that he was making a mistake.”

Her fingers fisted in his shirt. “You can’t force people to change their minds, Caleb. It’s not your fault if they don’t listen.”

It didn’t feel that way. It felt like the continued existence of the Volstrucker program was entirely his fault because he had run instead of trying to meet Trent head-on, focused so much on the past that he let the future stagnate. Instead of helping those like him, he had blown them up and that led to this new batch of young eldritch knights. Trent had to have known what he was doing when he selected his new army. They were built specifically to combat the Nein. That was, objectively, his fault. Had he not killed most of the Volstrucker, there would be no need. No matter which victims he picked out of Trent’s collection, he felt responsible for all of them.

“I could have done more,” he whispered.

Veth swung around so that she was standing on his lap, her boots digging painfully into his thighs. She gripped his collar and dragged his face up to meet hers. There was a cold fury in her eyes, rimmed by the bright aquamarine of the spirals around her eyes. “Listen to me, Caleb Widogast. I need you to look me in the eye and promise me something right here, right now. We’re going to run into those kids again and I know how much it hurts- I saw my boy in him too- but they’re killers. We don’t have to slaughter them, but I won’t let you stand down and let them slaughter you because you blame yourself for them existing.”

He’d forgotten how easy he was for her to read. He blinked at her, lost in the brown of her eyes the same way he used to get lost in the gold of Nott’s eyes. The same woman stared back at him no matter what. Gods, how he loved her.

He pulled her into an embrace, sending Frumpkin shifting slightly to make room for her. He would have wept, but he was too tired too. “You are too good for me, Veth the Brave. I have half a mind to send you back to your husband. You do not need to keep going. There are so many following us as is.”

“And we need all of them, including me.” She pulled back, just as he started to feel the dampness of her cheeks. Subtly, she wiped the tears away. “I thought about it. I thought about asking for just a night with them- one night before the end of the world.” She sighed. “But I can’t do that to them. I can’t give myself over for one night and then go back to this. I promised Yeza that the next time I saw him, I wouldn’t walk away again.”

The proof that she was going to eventually leave him hurt more than it should have, especially knowing how badly he wanted her safe. No more mothers burned up to leave their sons bereft- he would not see that boy grow up with an ache and a resentment in his belly that might lead him towards darker dreams. Caleb Widogast, consummate selfish bastard, could guilt with the best of them, but he also wanted it all. He wanted Veth in his life and he wanted her with her family. He wanted his friends safe and free of him and his poison but he needed to be around them. He wanted the Empire and wanted it to grow without his claws sinking into it. He studied at the school of contradictions and all it ever did was make him feel muddled and listless.

He would feel better when he had a task. This break was necessary, but if he didn’t keep moving, he would die. That was how it had always been.

Veth was tired. She needed this to stop. Above all else, including making sure Molly was liberated from the Somnovem and never had to worry about being something he’d never asked to be, he needed Veth to get back home to her family. It was not a statement about his love for Molly so much as it was a testament to how intense his love for her was. It was no different than how Molly was with Yasha. “I will promise you that I will not falter if you will promise me something.” He cupped her hands and rubbed the teartracks from her face. “If things begin to turn. If it becomes too dangerous where we are going… You must let me send you back home to them. I will save a spell for it.”

She looked like she wanted to say no, but the thing that made her and Caleb so close was a mutual selfishness. Her only compromise to what she wanted versus what she believed she was meant to say was to let it hang there for a moment, like it was a more difficult choice than she knew it was going to be. “I promise.”

[myrmyrtheorca]

Thought I was done with questions? HAH! THINK AGAIN!

I’m back from work and now ready for another interrogation/analysis. This time I wanna dig deeper in the Cavalieri Family, because the concept of an isolated Mafia Family is fascinating and I want to take it apart (affectionally).

This is probably going to be super rambly and I’m going to theorize a lot (since I have just snippets of information to work off as basis), but I’ll try to structure it a bit? No guarantees though. Btw if the answers to some questions are kinda spoilery and you don’t want to reveal them yet for plot related reasons, no prob! I can wait, this is just me being noisy as hell and spouting random thoughts.

Sooo, the Cavalieri Family. You said they’re isolated, members aren’t allowed to interact with the outside world and that the information flow is restricted.

However, they don’t seem to be completely cut off from the world, since Lidija’s father is an outsider in their employ. Also, you stated that normal members have no way of knowing about other Flame types, which again underlines the isolation part but also implies that other members – I’m guessing the higher ups – are aware of what’s going on with the rest of the Mafia. Therefore, it’s not complete isolation, but I guess they’re still squirrelled away from civilization, otherwise it would be easier for outsiders to find out about the Cavalieri Family and their secret Flames. It would also give Cavalieri members more access to outsider which seems to be a big no no.

So my questions is: where is the Cavalieri estate actually based? Like geographically? Surrounded by mountains? Forests? Am I completely off and they just chill in a city hiding in plain sight?

Also, you said they have different territories. Do you mean like it’s one big ass plot of land that is separate into smaller parts or do they own smaller territories that are physically separated (like one is in North Italy, the other one in the South, do you get what I mean? I can always draw an ugly map if you don’t, just say the word).

Which actually brings me to another question: do they only operate in Italy or do they have international business as well? I’m also wondering about the size of the Family. Since they have different territories, I assume they are a pretty big? It would further support the isolation aspect, because in my opinion a certain degree of isolation comes hand in hand with independence and if you want to be independent, you will need resources such as people, land (for agriculture for example), money etc.

Back to the isolation thing again. Do the Cavalieri have their own sort of culture? Because if you separate a group of people from the rest of civilization over generations, they’re bound to develop their own specific habits/traditions. Again, this kinda depends on how isolated they are, I’m basing this off a “hermits in the woods” approach, so I could be completely off on that. It’s just… I was wondering if Myr had major culture shock when she left her family and if so how she dealt with it. (Also, I’m a bit confused about the timeline. Did she leave and then gets thrown into the plot soon after or is there more of a buffer between her leaving and interacting with canon.)

I’m pretty sure I could go on for longer, but I’m gonna leave it here for now and wait for your answers, so that I can ask even more specific questions.

Please take all the time you need to answer this mess, don’t feel pressured from my bombardment of questions and half assed worldbuilding analysis (I’m very much shooting in the dark here. I have no clue if any of this makes even sense).

Lots of love from your buddy, keep being awesome! 💕 💕

these are a lot of good questions. This time, I thought to answer in a different way. I thought to let a witness answer for me.

A very unfortunate witness. (TW: mentions of death and violence) ----------------------------------

The following document has been retrieved in the outer section of the Cavalieri Dite Base. Investigation about how such breach could happen has been launched. Access is only allowed for members of the Third Branch as per rules pertaining spoils of war and enemy intel.

I did it! After days of trial and error while stuck here in the middle of these godforsaken woods living like a rat, I managed to intercept the radio communications from the nearest Cavalieri Base. I don't think they've found out about my meddling yet – my equipment basically made up of scraps, but it's been built that way so that won't be easily detected. I've gathered two hours' worth of data, and they still haven't shown any signs of noticing me. I absolutely must hurry to put everything in writing and leave as soon as possible. I'm not safe. IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO ME AND YOU FOUND THESE ABANDONED NOTES... PLEASE. I BEG YOU. THESE PIECES OF INFORMATION MUST REACH THE VONGOLA. THE NINTH BOSS OF THE VONGOLA, TIMOTEO, MUST BE MADE AWARE, FOR THE SAKE OF THE INNOCENTS KILLED ON THE NIGHT OF SAN GIOVANNI. I arrived here three days ago. Visconti's hunches were correct – Tuscany was the right place to look. I find myself in a nature reserve that is off-limits to the public. At the main entrance, the guys dressed as guardie forestali ushered me to leave (No, I didn't think it would actually be that easy, but I decided to try anyway). I'm sure those were just Cavalieri agents guarding the entrance, to keep up the lie that it's just a protected area. Bullshit. I found an isolated opening and started to venture in.

I can't say if this is their main headquarters or just one of many, but it seems that their Boss (they call her the "Nera Signora") is currently staying here. I understood that this is the base called Dite, like the infernal city in Dante's work. From the communications, I could trace a rough outline of their area of influence: Tuscany, Umbria, parts of Abruzzo and Romagna. They also mentioned Sarzana and Varese Ligure, in the province of La Spezia. Also, mention of Montaquila and Isernia in Molise. It's plausible that theirs isn't a hegemony, but rather they implant autonomous and self-sufficient bases sporadically in hard-to-reach places among the Apennines, or in nature reserves like this one, to remain hidden from the public eye. I heard an official say that "the Mother Branch and the big shots of the Third Branch will move to the headquarters in Assisi", so it can be assumed that the higher-ups move from base to base. I couldn't infer how frequently, though. Regarding this – they are divided into "branches." -I suppose the Mother Branch is the boss and his closest family; -The second deals with research and development; I caught several references to technical meetings; -The third is the defense branch (N.B. The name OZYMANDIAS is often repeated); -Another official mentioned "a budget meeting of the Fourth Branch" – that must be the one dedicated to finances. *At this point in the document, there are several nonsensical lines made o ink.* Porca puttana. Okay, it was just a badger. I thought I was dead. Anyways, it's well-known that the Cavalieri are an "isolated" family, but the communications I intercepted demonstrate the absolute opposite. It's plausible that simple cadets are not authorized to leave the various bases (I haven't seen a soul since I've been here), but they talked about "outsiders," mercenaries in their service. It seems that Visconti's information regarding a strange influx of Slovenian and Croatian immigrants observed in mafia circles in recent years may be connected to these mercenary groups serving the Cavalieri. In fact, there has never been mention of a "Cavalieri militia", all the men we've captured so far are never fully their affiliates (but I'm sure those responsible for San Giovanni were proper Cavalieri agents, not a hired group). This means that they have an interest in contacting the outside world, but they don't allow the outside world to contact them in return. One can expect this from a family whose main income comes from selling information about various mafia groups. They collect and record everything about the rest of the world... but they don't allow even the smallest piece of information about themselves to wander. Everything we have on them, we've gained by losing a lot of men in the process... ...I don't want to think about it. Just a few more lines, and I'll return to the Ninth. It's getting dark too. There's one thing that worries me more than anything else. In a communication with a certain "Anemone" of the Second Branch, they talked about the "Vongola's Legacy", in relation to "the Cavalieri Legacy." They know about the Ninth's power? Such a secret in their hands is a terrible occurrence, but I only heard it from big shots of the Second Branch, so maybe it's just confidential information. Though above all, to think that these snakes possess a power even remotely comparable to the noble inheritancce of the Ninth... it terrifies me even more. *more nonsensical lines of ink* Shit. These aren't the sounds of a badger. Human voices, female. I have to get out of here. If someone finds these notes, I beg you to return them to the Vongola. They are the only ones who can do something. The Cavalieri are not normal people, I can't stand not being able to talk about it aloud anymore. It's not just spies and informants. They are criminal beasts who killed innocents in Cesena on the Night of San Giovanni, the whole mafia knows it was them, yet no one lifts a finger to accuse them, just because among the victims there were also members of their own family!

[mareastrorum]

The Fool and the Soldier: Chapter Commentary

Chapter 5: Gift & Debt

On off weeks, I’ll be posting some commentary on the prior week’s chapter. Since this is a longfic, I expect that it will be helpful for keeping track of stuff, plus I might mention something you missed. Of course, this will include spoilers, so continue with that in mind.

These aren’t meant to be comprehensive! There is so much more going on that I’m not saying. Feel free to ask questions too, either in replies or asks. If it’s too spoilery, I’ll let you know. I’ll add them to the body at the bottom as I receive them.

See the directory for other meta posts.

Gift & Debt

What’s this?! We haven’t seen this card! But no worries, Jester makes the card about halfway through the chapter.

There’s a lot of toxic fandom discourse on what characters “deserve” and that eventually culminated into an intent to explore that in the story. This chapter juxtaposes a lot of the characters’ worldviews on what must to be earned/paid versus what should be given freely.

Luctus

The first thing I came up with for Luctus was the sensory perception: pain. It immediately came to mind when I looked up the latin word luctus, which means grief or sorrow. I didn’t feel that I needed to iron it out further for the emotion, so this was an easy fit.

Next was the school of magic. She wasn’t encountered in the stream, but her ability during the Lucien fight was a Slow spell with a dexterity save instead of the usual wisdom save. This wasn’t the only eye that had slightly different effects than a normal spell—Vigilan’s anti-magic cone dispelled magic rather than suppressed it until it passed out of the field (at least, sometimes).

Slow is an interesting spell. It’s transmutation, which is all about changing reality (and I had already decided on another Somnovem for that school). It affects a specific number of targets in a space. According to the PHB, wisdom is about being in tune with the world, particularly with perceiving it. Thus, a wisdom save for avoiding a Slow effect makes sense if the point is to resist a change to one’s own perception of the world. After all, if it was actually changing the space itself, then there wouldn’t be a limit on the number of targets, and it would be avoided or exited by leaving the area. So it changes the target, not the world. Makes sense for a level 3 spell.

But Luctus’s Slow required a dexterity save, which is the score for agility, reflexes, and balance. Dexterity saves are usually for dodging an ability, but not all the Somnovem’s abilities used that save, so it wasn’t about avoiding an eye’s gaze. There’s a couple ways to interpret that, like maybe it’s a stronger transmutation of the same effect, but it affects everything in that area, so it has to be dodged. However, Matt didn’t pull out any AOE measuring props to see who else he could get; Luctus looked directly at Fjord in episode 139, then Veth in 140. Matt also didn’t describe a beam or any projectile. They both felt a wave of grief and sadness, which imparted the effect. So I don’t think it was about dodging so much as it was about the character’s general speed and agility.

So I chewed on that for a while, until it suddenly clicked: dunamancy. Dunamancy has both chronomancy and graviturgy specialties. It would totally track to have either of those require a dexterity save rather than any other stat to resist a slowing effect. Once I had that, I came up with Luctus’s role.

And as I thought that over, I also had my fix for why Molly survived at Glory Run Road: Luctus used Cognouza to alter the timeline.

You might wanna check out those first two scenes in chapter 1.

Pieces

The first draft of this scene didn’t have the funky kerning and formatting. It was going to be very brief, only giving the reader a vague sense of what had happened to Lucien.

However, once I got used to testing out different types of formatting quirks, I decided to use that here to emphasize how disorienting it was for Lucien. Since this was third-person limited perspective, and his perception of the world would have been shattered, the text was as well.

Gems

I wanted to do a check-in with Nott because she spent so long in the early campaign keeping her backstory to herself, and she’s in the background for a lot of Fjord’s arc. Much of her dialogue makes more sense in a second watch of the campaign. She projected a lot of her issues onto other people, and she used that lens to decide what she should do for herself.

The actual events of the scene weren’t that important though. I almost cut it entirely and added a scene for Nott elsewhere, but I wanted Nott’s canon dialogue about not being good yet, but trying to do good. It’s such a big part of who the Nein are at every point in their story. Thus, I kept it.

Debts

This scene was so long originally. I think it was nearly 9,000 words at one point. Then I cut it, then it bloated again, then I cut it more, etc. I think this is the 5th or 6th major version of it.

I chose Fjord’s POV for this because his arc is coming into focus next and I wanted to lay some ground work about where his head is at. There’s also a lot of parallels between him and Molly that will come into play.

Gustav’s bail was always going to be a big scene in the early chapters because Molly would have been there to realize that Gustav knew about Kylre. However, then the origin comic came out, and I was like, wait, was Kylre the reason Lestera died? She wasn’t that old—no gray hair, no signs of illness, no weak constitution, etc. There’s no way to confirm it, but considering that nergaliids can passively feed off people, then Molly would have thought that was a possibility. No reason to be extra upset about it… unless Gustav knew all along.

Molly’s only really gotten angry a few times in canon, typically when other people are getting hurt. He didn’t show anger if people disagreed with him over plans or anything. In the comic, he dealt with his anger through choir practice, and that was honestly more fun for him than anything else, with his anger showing before he came up with an idea of what to do. He wasn’t even that angry at Kylre when he chased him down with the Nein.

But Gustav was supposed to take care of the carnival, he brought Kylre in, and he knew what was happening the whole time. Kylre’s betrayal was more straightforward, and it didn’t really harm anyone at the carnival (other than possibly Toya). It’d be like being angry at a wolf for hunting a person instead of a sheep. Instead, it seemed like Gustav put people in danger for coin, after all the lessons and mannerisms that Molly picked up from him.

So, yeah, Molly was pissed.

I also wanted to explore the Nein’s various moral leanings and perspectives of the world. Fjord and Caleb are more on the end of earning what you have—there’s an expectation of behaving a certain way under threat of punishment. Fjord would have gotten that from his time at the orphanage and as a sailor. Caleb learned that from growing up poor in a totalitarian regime and then training as a Volstrucker. It took a long time for both of them to shake out of that mindset in their respective arcs.

In comparison, Jester and Caduceus have kinder outlooks. They didn’t let outrage override their sense of fairness. It wasn’t like Gustav or the carnival had been rolling in funds, so it couldn’t have been just about money. So they stood up to the others and asked questions to get at the heart of why Gustav had done it in the first place.

Nott and Beau struck me as somewhere in the middle. Beau rebels against authority and has a powerful curiosity, so she’d be wary of the idea of meting out justice without knowing all the facts. Thus, I had her stop Molly (to protect him from getting arrested for murder) at the start, then hold him back until they got answers. Nott backed up Caleb, of course, but after the scene she just had about trying to do good, she’d feel uncertain about it while she does it. After all, how many people did she help torture and kill because she was scared of what the goblin tribe would do to her?

Taliesin said in a Talks that his concept of Molly was an unaligned character that broke traditional D&D alignment. Thus, Molly is not a good person. That doesn’t mean he’s evil, lawful, chaotic, nor neutral. He’s unaligned. He thinks he’s a good person and tries to do good—when he feels like it. He has a code that no one actually understands, but it makes sense to him, so who knows if he follows it? He likes mischief and causing chaos, but also wants things to make sense. He does what he feels like when he thinks he should, sometimes. Unless he doesn’t. But there’s rules to it. Maybe.

In short, he’s a two-year-old adult. Two. Years. That is not a lot of time to come up with a comprehensive, consistent view of what the world is, what it should be, nor how he should handle discrepancies. That doesn’t mean Molly isn’t capable of acting rationally or being persuaded to do something he doesn’t initially want to do. He listens to people, and even if he talks back, he’ll go with the flow.

That resulted in this scene, with half the group wanting to kill Gustav, and ending with them letting him go.

Easter egg: I had Molly’s swords get caught on the coat because it was Lestera’s. As discussed in the next scene, she wouldn’t have wanted him to kill Gustav, so that was added here as a symbolic show of her interference.

Stories

Molly drank alone to panic after he first got his Rite of the Dawn unlocked in Alfield, so I figured he’d try to isolate after what happened. Maybe he would have sought some comfort with Yasha because she’d trusted Gustav too, but she’s unfortunately not there.

Jester to the rescue! This provided exposition about Molly’s thought process through the prior scene, and it showed just how much it rocked Molly’s view of a few things. Even so, he’s not angry at any of the Nein, nor did he hold what they did against them. His emotions were just running high and he’s having trouble keeping a grip.

I wanted to explore Molly’s and Jester’s relationship a bit. In all honesty, their personalities are very well suited to each other: they like having fun, they understand each other well, they’ve got each other’s backs, and they both prioritize helping people at their own expense. They also enable each other to their detriment, and their maturity is a bit stunted because of that. That said, Jester’s a romantic and Molly’s a hedonist. They have very different views of what relationships should be and what they’d want out of it, so the scene doesn’t stray from a platonic feel. Thus, I had them order different drinks, and neither would ever order the other’s for themselves. Despite that they showed some physical affection and even got caught on each other’s horns, it’s all in silly fun.

This scene also gives a lampshade to the naming convention to for the fanfic (which was discussed in a prior meta post): each of the chapters is named after one of the cards, and the reason is that they’re conveying a theme through a story rather than saying something outright. However, it’s not just for the readers. The characters also refuse to acknowledge certain truths, so they cope by telling stories (Caleb’s book, Molly’s cards, Cad asking Gustav for his story, etc.). Heck, even Molly does it, by telling stories about his time at the carnival instead of answering Jester’s questions outright—but it’s not Jester who doesn’t want to hear the answer.

Worries

Time for the terrible spellcasters to be terrible together. At this point in their arcs, Caleb and Fjord are also enablers for each other. The worst thing is, they rationalize their decisions as being best for the Nein or the world generally, not just themselves. Yes, they’re worried about Molly, but there’s also that tempting blood magic that might be useful somehow, plus whatever happens to Molly might affect their aspirations, etc.

I went with Caleb’s POV because he would be having a rough time with the events of the day. This was basically sandpaper on an old wound. He betrayed his parents and murdered them for the Empire. He betrayed Astrid and Eadwulf by attacking them and then by fleeing the Sanatorium without seeking them out to tell them the truth. Ikithon betrayed them by altering their memories and warping them into weapons for the Empire. Caleb’s only just started to truly grasp that he’s been fed Imperial propaganda his whole life. He’s been wrestling with the idea of whether his own judgment can be trusted and whether he can or should try to do anything about Ikithon or the Volstrucker. Then the group decided to let Gustav go when he wanted to kill Gustav, and it hit him fairly quickly that he’d made a rash decision that was rightfully overruled.

He’s a mess.

Then, along comes Molly (also a mess) to ask for a silly favor to borrow Frumpkin because he can’t sleep. That manages to pull Caleb’s head out of his own butt long enough so that he can get to sleep too.

It’s almost like they feel better about their own bullshit when they help other people…

Zoran Kluthidol

The first part of this scene about the hounds was in one of my earliest sets of notes from August 2022. It was one of the first scenes I wrote for the Tombtakers. I’ll discuss more of Zoran’s backstory in a separate meta post, but the key thing for this scene is that goliaths travel in herds and are fairly isolated from other communities. A lot of this scene came from my brainstorming about what sort of goliath would leave his tribe and wind up at the Claret Orders.

Once I came up with the basics for both backstories, I considered what Zoran would have thought about Lucien. Timing wise, I figured that Zoran would have already been at the Orders for a while when Lucien joined, and Zoran would have joined as an adult (because that’s when he would have left his tribe). Lucien would have joined as a pre-teen. Thus, Lucien would have been a tiny brat compared to Zoran, a fully-grown goliath.

Then I thought, what sort of person would Lucien need to be for Zoran to respect him enough to take up an offer to form a mercenary group and leave the Orders? (Reminder: Lucien died at 23, after the Tombtakers were active for at least 5 years—so he led them away when he was no older than 18!)

A fucking brawler, that’s what. Someone who could kick his ass when he had no right doing it. This scene helped me flesh out both of their personalities in that respect.

Thing is, an introductory scene can’t just be about the character getting his ass beat by a mostly-dead antagonist if the point is to show he’s not a pushover. Thus, there’s some bits to show that Zoran specifically enjoys hunts, not just fights, and he doesn’t care as much about the outcome as Lucien did. It also shows that he’s still someone to be feared and does as he pleases because of it.

(And captainsparklefingers nailed that Zoran snagged a bottle of Lionett wine from the storage room!)

Zoran is the other Ghostslayer of the Tombtakers, so his POV gives insight into that as well. He immediately clocked how fucked up it was for Cree to make Lucien an undead, and he’s intuitive enough to recognize several implications that stem from that. He also doesn’t take what Cree and Otis say at face value; he recognizes their biases and takes that into account. Finally, he’s got some reservations about the Somnovem and the Pattern, even if he enjoyed how it felt at the time.

But Zoran’s not the schemer. As fucked as the situation is, he’s more comfortable following the others’ leads. So, for now, he’s settling in for whatever insanity Lucien’s going to lead them into, and he’s well aware it’s going to be messy. That’s what’s fun, after all.

Senses

Another check-in with Lucien. There’s some subtle hints of what the Somnovem are up to. I also included a demonstration of Luctus’s ability to warp time. As she mentioned in her later scene, she had to “undo” some things, so the reader gets to see an example of that here.

Dream: Bait

The introductory poem is “To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No” by William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet and politician. He’s a fascinating historical figure that turned to some seriously questionable views about how the world should work in his later years, and I thought that was perfect for including here. I’m being vague about it because I think you should read it up yourself—and you’ll hopefully get a sense of why I thought, of all the poems I could have chosen, his poem about trying to pet a squirrel was appropriate here.

It’s fairly obvious that the overarching theme of this dream is bait. I had considered including scenes where Lucien hunted for small animals, but honestly, that would be a terrible idea for kids in the Savalirwood. Fishing would have been safer, and it gave an opportunity for some exposition from an adult.

Every other scene in the dream includes an example of using bait to lure someone to or from something. First was Cree distracting guards while Lucien snuck out of a house he robbed. (There’s a clue as to whose house it was…) Second was Lucien trying to bait the goliath into harassing Cree instead of him, but it’s too tempting to bother the tiefling that’s already so close to the water. Third was Lucien distracting vendors so Cree could nab wares at the market, plus acting as lookout for Greytraders that might have caught her otherwise.

Fourth was an unfortunate example of Lucien leading some thugs to his group when they were looking to snatch orphans and sell them off to the Mardoons or Jagentoths—slavers. The fisherman mentioned three sets of three are extra special: Lucien’s red eyes, purple skin, and horns (as noted when he spooked the baker); Cree’s a “half-beast” girl with gold eyes; and the half-orc is also a “half-beast” girl, but with blue eyes. Being good bait isn’t always a boon.

And now, look back at that poem. Hmmm. HMMMM…

The rhyme in the market scene is the last verse of a popular Irish song, “Molly Malone.” Cockles are a relatively easily-foraged shellfish that are a common street food in coastal towns, and they’re often used as bait for fishing. Mussels are another shellfish, found both at sea and in freshwater. While Shadycreek Run is a fair distance inland, it’s also a trade point between the rest of the Greying Wildlands and the Empire. While I doubt there would actually be hawkers wheeling barrows of shellfish to sell in the Run, there’s some obvious puns and references to prostitution in the song, which was also a thriving business in town. Plus it’s totally the kind of place that would have rumors of a ghost trying to sell wares.

Gifts

Then we go to Molly, who, as expected, is doing his best to not deal with what happened and is instead fixating on his name. Identity was a big thing for him, so it makes sense that he’d focus on that rather than process his feelings about Gustav or mourn Lestera a second time.

I figured Fjord would be optimal for that conversation because Fjord was the one who wavered about his last name, Stone. Vandran had argued to him that it was a good name, which tempered his distaste for it. However, once Fjord learned about Vandran in the stream, that threw it all into question again. Thus, of all the people in the Nein who would understand, Fjord’s best suited.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a heart to heart with Molly without a +0 to Charisma moment like him insinuating that Fjord should have seen Sabian’s betrayal coming. That said, Fjord is dense sometimes, and even then, he’d be used to Molly’s brand of arrogance to know better than to take it at face value.

I can’t recall the exact context (I’ll update this if I ever find the quote), but Taliesin once mentioned that he expected a party pet to “make an alligator so happy.” I immediately thought of that while outlining this stretch of time and saw that the pet vendor would be dealt with here. I planned to include it as Molly’s dialogue for one of Jester’s pets, then realized that she would probably goad him to buy the peacock, which he would definitely decline. Molly had also mentioned that the carnival had named a horse Winter’s Crest because that was when they planned to eat it if it lasted that long. That evolved into this section where Jester bought him the peacock and he suggested the Nein eat it instead.

Jester had more gold to spend at this point because Molly pitched in to buy Nott’s cloak and for Gustav’s bail. The Nein also had more coin overall because more guards had been killed at the Sour Nest. Thus, while Jester is still pretty broke, she’s doing a little better than she had been in the stream.

Bruises

Caduceus is still taking it easy, but he’s learning to enjoy the trip. I wanted to include a POV for him because I thought he would do a half-apology to Molly, and it’s fun to explore their relationship since it was a blank slate. We also got to see that Molly’s doing better after a few days.

More cards for Molly’s deck! These will absolutely be chapter titles in the future.

Tyffial Wase

Tyffial was the last of the Tombtakers that I fleshed out. It took a while to come up with her backstory, but once it clicked, everything fell into place rather easily.

In the Critical Role artbook “The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein” there is a blurb about the Tombtakers based on Beau’s notes that were submitted to the Cobalt Soul, and Adon Zeenoth personally crossed out Tyffial’s name. I took that to mean that Zeenoth must have known Tyffial somehow. They’re both elves, but there was no indication about their ages in canon. But why would he personally censor records naming her? There had to be something he didn’t want people to know about her, but I had to come up with what that would be and why he would do it unprompted.

First, I tried to come up with what Tyffial would have been doing before she joined the Claret Orders. Nothing really came to mind, so I thought instead, why would an elf with a long lifespan join the Order of the Mutant and then defect to follow an 18-year-old (or so) to form a mercenary band? I had considered the route grayintogreen took where Tyffial was also from Shadycreek Run and grew up with Lucien and Cree, but I wanted to do something new. There’s not a lot of takes on the Tombtakers, so there’s a lot of possibilities that hadn’t been done yet.

Then I thought, well, what if she was bored? Elves live a long time. What if she joined the Orders out of boredom? Then she’d leave once she was bored of that, too. That would make sense, especially if Lucien comes up with exciting jobs, and we (the audience) knew that eventually took the Tombtakers to Molaesmyr. But a young elf wouldn’t get bored that quickly. Their sense of time passing would be about the same as a younger race until they started getting up there in years.

So Tyffial is fucking old. The Order of the Mutant makes sense because then she can adjust her abilities and her looks using mutagens. And that gave me a reason for her to know Zeenoth, an Archivist at the Soul: he’s covering up her tracks when she comes up with a new identity. He’s taken bribes before, so a bribe mixed with threat of violence would certainly keep him acting on Tyffial’s behalf.

Tyffial’s backstory will be explored over time in TF&TS, but there will be hints aplenty about just how long she’s been around. For example: what names does she use to refer to certain places?

I’ll note that I came up with this before it was revealed that Ludinus Da’leth was artificially extending his lifespan. I was so hyped when C3 started exploring that. More things to chew on.

Lucien & Luctus

Yet another look into Lucien’s relationship with the Somnovem. I don’t want to point out too many hints, but there were several. Is he needlessly paranoid or rightly distrustful? Time will tell.

Now Lucien has a body! Kind of. Curious that the Somnovem did that after he was defeated on the Material Plane…

[ariondevereux]

Soo, remember when I said to grab a seatbelt for all the Maya x Phoenix hcs, you can grab another one for Kirsten x Blaze. I know you said that Kirsten is an oc that isn’t the most developed so hopefully these are a little helpful… and like, y’know, I’m an anxious mess so if these are ever annoying pls tell me asdfghjkl:

Kirsten x Blaze <3

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/CeMXL0TN27D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- I know you said Kirsten is a shy bean and crushed on B as soon as she saw him, so a few years down the line I’d think that B would try doing stuff to get her all flustered and y’know, keeps the magic of their romance alive.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/CLA-3EfjAPf/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- couples that have banter stay together!!!

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch4mx0trVeh/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- it wouldn’t truly be a B headcanon list without a fashion hc. I personally think the two of them would look goddamn beautiful on their dates.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChfJac9tgXW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- dates at home, like really cute, chilled out dates like this…idk, they’re super wholesome y’know.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChJfhw7PNOw/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- if Kirsten and Blaze don’t wanna do this then you and I can, Disney movies are top tier! But yeah, I feel like they’d enjoy it with their ice cream sandwiches and they’d watch each other’s favourite movies and like rate them out of ten.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cjxd-PwPHcD/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- I feel like B would be a fan of giving these unique kind of gifts, like you’d walk past and see that framed up and go ‘omg, we did that together’ <3

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch_sbFJDM05/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- Blaze and Kirsten on vacation!! I think it’d be so cute, and romantic, like it’d be such a vibe. It’d be a few days or weeks together and they’ll be completely into each other and asdfghjkl, if Kirsten is into marriage then B would probably propose on a holiday.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/CSkNY9Ph5d0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- okay, but like the roles are reversed where Kirsten worries over Blaze when he walks in in the morning after difficult full moons; gotta put that nursing degree to good use. I imagine Kirsten being all worried and Blaze saying that he’s fine with a smile on his lips.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj1ILDBONV3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- sort of getting angsty, but I think it’d be cute if Kirsten and Blaze did something before each full moon so Blaze is less…stressed out.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj78AxursNi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- okay, proper angst time and well, self-explanatory, if Kirsten has a sad backstory then you know B’s going to give her sweet pick me ups.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjyTR8MLGbI/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- not necessarily this specifically, but any childhood triggers Kirsten had, Blaze is going anything to squash them.

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXUbYk5tUqR/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- this just gives me Blaze vibesc, like I see him does this for Kirsten.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/CL-BKLpj8wz/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- I’ve put this here but this could probably go in two ways: one being that Kirsten totally already knows how to do Blaze’s hair, or P would teach Kirsten how to do it so brotp vibes <3

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ccb2MajP1n3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) <- spoilery? Maybe, but Blaze’s reaction in chapter 9 🫢

Brotp with Kirsten and Phoenix; like two shy, intelligent souls being friends. I think P would come out of their shell a little quicker than Kirsten. Like I imagine P on their days off calling up Kirsten like “hey, i’m going out, wanna come?” and they go to cafes, exchange photographs, and P definitely give Kirsten a lovely sketch of her and Blaze. One of those candid ones <3 I feel like their friendship would be wholesome, and like, ‘soulmates can be friends, not just lovers’ and that’d be them.

Asdfghjkl, okay, thanks for reading my word vomits I really appreciate it. Ilysm <3333

PLEASE I WAS DRUNK WHEN I FIRST READ THIS ASK AND I COULDNT STOP GIGGLING IDNEUSJWSK listen some of these headcanons are literally the exact same ones i have for blaze and kirsten ugh the way we are always on the same wavelength 👯‍♀️

THE WHOLE THING ABOUT KIRSTEN NOT ABLE TO MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT WITH BLAZE 😭😭😭😭 that couldn’t be MORE them!!!! and the thing is it’s soon after they met that blaze realized how flustered kirsten gets when they’re eye to eye. kirsten has always been more of an introvert and she’s always been too conscious to talk about whatever she likes with someone and when she meets blaze, she quickly feels his interest in getting to know her better in the way he always initiates a conversation with her. one of my scenarios is that she’s going on and on about something she’s passionate about and it looks like she’s in her own little world until she looks at blaze and he’s literally staring right at her and her whole system glitches like ON GOD she is down bad for this guy and i don’t blame her <333 please the idea of blaze still teasing her about it in the relationship stage UGH IT FILLS MY SOUL 😫😫😫

THE SECOND REEL I DIDNT REALIZE B COULD BE SO GOOFY KSXNEJSJAKS MILA ALL YOUR ROS ARE SO PERFECT I CAN FEEL MYSELF SIMPING OVER B :(((( i’m literally going to fight kirsten for blaze

AND THE FASHION HC WAIT WAIT not to insert maya everywhere but i actually have this headcanon that her being a blaze x kirsten shipper, she’s DEFINITELY designed a matching outfit for them once jxbjddjsjssj

and the home dates…….. b highkey starting to look like my ideal partner… 🫣

me and you on a double date with blaze and kirsten when?????? snsnejskska but OMG WAIT why can i imagine them doing that thing where they reach into the popcorn bucket at the same time but blaze would do it on purpose because referring to headcanon #1 he would do anything to fluster kirsten 😭😭😭 i’m literally foing insane at this point i’m crying

AND THE UNIQUE GIFTS!!!!!! LISTEN OMG there’s a few sites like this where you can know the phase of the moon on a specific date and i’ve always hc’d them getting a frame of the moon phase when they became official and it’s like kirsten’s little way of associating moons with a few good things for blaze 🥺

THE WINE TASTING IN THE VACATION REEL IS SO FUNNY PLEASE I CAN IMAGINE BLAZE’S GOOFY ASS DOING THAT UFHSGWJSJDJ i just KNOW they’d be the sappy couple i would literally HATE seeing because i would be so jealous jzbejaqjjswj

also after full moon, kirsten would be such a strict nurse that first thing in the morning i can imagine blaze immediately going “i’m fine. i’m fine” literally at the second kirsten sees him but she will NOT have it and will check blaze for wounds or anything and PLEASE if blaze has a smile on his face, kirsten would try her hardest to sound stern and be like “stop it’s not funny” but it only makes his smile widen because she’s such a natural softie she can’t be intimidating at all even if her life depended on it 😭 and he’d probably pull some on the spot flirting like “how lucky am i to have such a cute nurse?” UGH i just know the flirt in b does not rest 😩🫶🏼

and the angst hcs actually apply to kirsten SO much. her backstory definitely isn’t as sad as maya’s but kirsten being conscious of the things she talks about comes from the mindset she kinda drilled into herself when she was younger that she should only talk about things that are relevant to being the mayor’s daughter. it’s like she’s kirsten adler first, just kirsten second. out of all my golden ocs, she has the least messed up relationship with jared and now i’m realizing i think it’s the people pleaser in her and she’s like trying so hard to fit into this mayor’s daughter mold so she doesn’t cause any problems for her parents. and this isn’t to say her interests are problematic but she tries not to indulge in, let’s say photography, because she thinks that’s mostly seen as a hobby. she tries to keep her indulgence lowkey, even though they’re harmless, just so she can avoid media people like erin who will do anything to twist her image into another rich kid having all the luxury in the world to do what she likes and not have a care about real people problems blah blah blah

so yeah she meets blaze and she realizes he’s a breath of fresh air because he’s coaxing her out of her shell. no matter how concise she’s trying to be, he keeps asking questions about her, not about her family and for the first time in a long time she feels seen <3

AND NAURRRRRR BLAZE CARRYING KIRSTEN TO BED PLEASE I CAN IMAGINE HIM DOING THAT WHEN SHE FALLS ASLEEP TRYING TO PULL AN ALL NIGHTER 😭😭😭😭😭😭 and please omg blaze would whisper smth like “and yet you tell me to take care of myself” god i got tears in my eyes

THE CHAPTER NINE REACTION DHHEJSHWISJAJS MILA PLEASE WHEN I TELL YOU IM LITERALLY SO EXCITED FOR THE UPDATE 😭😭😭 i just know b’s gonna pull some “uhuh” level shit that will make me go insane again 😭😭

OKOKOK PHOENIX AND KIRSTEN’S FRIENDSHIP <3333 kirsten WOULD ask phoenix to teach her how to do blaze’s hair 🥹🥹 kirsten would do it in secret though like “don’t tell blaze i asked you” or something just because she’s shy LMFAO so phoenix will be discreet about it like if she’s in the room while he’s doing blaze’s hair, he’ll be like “kirsten, you wanna try it?” like it’s just some random question and blaze will have the cutest prettiest smile on his face that will soothe her nerves 😩😩😩😩

AND YES YES YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP BEING SO WHOLESOME 💕💕💕 i’m gonma ramble about them because i have been wanting to talk about this for the longest time jdxbsksk

i imagine kirsten taking being in the early relationship stage with blaze to be fully comfortable with the team. she doesn’t hate them, it’s just her shyness so at first, even though she likes being around them, she still feels a bit too self-conscious unless blaze is there too. and like she’s glued to blaze that at one point blaze is like “i swear they’re great” and she mumbles “i know” and that’s when he realizes she’s just shy 😭 so after a while, in the middle of the conversation with the group, blaze intentionally brings up photography and when phoenix lights up, he goes “kirsten likes photography too” and that’s where their friendship begins

and after that, they bond over photography (the same way blaze and maya bond over fashion. #parallels) and other common interests they later find out about each other. early friendship stage, kirsten’s still a little conscious so phoenix makes sure to ask her open ended questions that he can elaborate later on with follow up questions. soon enough kirsten relaxes around him so she goes “blaze told me you can draw?” and he’ll probably say something like “oh yeah. i’ll have to show you sometime” like please it’s like a whole platonic meet-cute and it’s the cutest fucking thing ever. and when blaze notices kirsten growing more and more comfortable—like when she starts rambling about something—he’ll throw phoenix an appreciative look for making her feel at ease <333

UGH I ENJOYED THIS SO MUCH 💞💞💞 it literally shocks me how you Get my ocs. especially kirsten. these are so in character for her. i watched the reels so many times and i smiled every time at the accuracy dnxbejskwk and please. thank YOU for going out of your way to make headcanons when you didn’t have to. they’ve made me so so happy and i just can’t thank you enough. ilysm i hope you’re having the best day. i’m sending you a million kisses <3

[khaothanawat]

i’ve started watching a tale of thousand stars and i’m just convinced at this point that p’aof is making shows just for me specifically 😭 like… he just gets me, man

after the first episode, i genuinely thought that this show was going to be another iteration of ‘everything i hate in a story’ but the first episode is just… so misleading in terms of what the actual story is (so far lol - i recognise i’m just over half way through, so it could truly all go to hell)

here’s my (non spoilery) Thoughts so far:

i get the earthmix thing now tbh like i See It

perhaps i would like to hold tian’s hand and tell him he’s valid idc idc he’s just going through some shit and i love and support him at all times

i did NOT read the summary or watch the trailer before watching this show and like… on the one hand i probably need to stop going into things blind but on the other hand, can i explain in human words the utter joy i experienced when i realised, about 13 minutes in, why we had been following a random woman on a bus trip, because i don’t think i’ve ever laughed so hard

no one on this planet is cuter than khaotung in this show

this show really said “there are 10 episodes and i ain’t spending more than 2 minutes showing how tian befriends these kids” and i’ve never respected a narrative choice more. ABSOLUTELY skip past the boring stuff and cut straight to the stuff i wanna see (tian play with kids and look cute whilst phupha looks on and has Feelings)

phuphatian mean the world to me and i mean this with every bone in my weak little body

[rosebloodcat]

PLA/EO3: Starting Point

Okay, so, I mentioned stuff about a crossover between EO3 (specifically the thing with my Deep Buccaneer) and PLA before and I think it's time I chattered about it a bit.

Especially in the wake of mermay and all the fun of fish people dealing with non-fish people.

((Read at your own risk! There will be spoilers for universe stuff involving late game eo3. I’m going a bit of the rails with some in-universe stuff they mention there, so it might be spoilery/confusing if you  haven’t played (or read about it in the wiki). If you don’t care or wanna know what this au idea is all about anyways, go right ahead! I won’t stop you! Also, this got really pecking long.))

Basically, Deep Buccaneer (whom I've named Renato Delmar and will refer to as such) gets turned into a Deep One after a near-death experience in the Labyrinth. By chance (or by the mercy of the Deep that changed him) he stays himself after the physical change.

(Death was possibly a self-sacrifice thing to give his guild the chance to escape a FOE, and the FOE (or another Deep One that was nearby) decided they didn't want him to die and force-fed him a piece of their body to change him. Might have wanted to save him for either showing mercy to a kid of their species by sparing them (bc killing a kid is just cruel) or bc they couldn't understand why he'd fight a losing battle to save his team and wanted to make him stay so they could find out.)

His guild, after finding out that he was not, in fact, dead and definitely wouldn’t be able to return to normal life, manages to smuggle him out of the labyrinth  and set him loose in the ocean where he would be (marginally) safer. (bc if the yggdroids/other adventurers would probably kill him if they found him due to the whole "secret war" going on in there) 

Ren, while unhappy with all of this (and mildly traumatized by everything that's happened to him), agrees that one near-death experience was more than enough for him. He bids a reluctant farewell before swimming out to the open seas and tring to figure out what the hell to do with himself now.

This is... Not easy, despite Ren being a Buccaneer Class.

He doesn’t really know the abilities/limits of the new body he has and a lot of the stuff he does is basically him trying random things and hoping they work. (Some stuff was auto-planted into his brain, but all of it was intense combat stuff and not day-to-day survival.) So he’s actually struggling a bit to do things like hunt and figure out how to safely take care of himself.

It’s frustrating and stressful and he really wishes there was some way to return to being human, but as far as he knows there isn’t a way to do that.

And he gets more than a few close-calls from both mosters and humans while in the open waters. And he’s sure he’s running low on luck to keep himself safe.

Cue a fragment of Giratina's Rift breaking through to a reality it doesn’t belong in to suck him up and spit him out right in the middle Acreus' Private Realm/Domain.

Arceus, after using his Divine Sight* to figure out what the hell the thing that popped into existence where it really shouldn't have is, looks at Ren and goes "Oh hey, maybe this could actually be helpful."

*Devine Sight is basically how I depict gods who seemingly know “everything” but aren't explicitly omniscient or clearly have things happening in the world that they don’t know about. They can look into the history/memories of a thing/person they're focusing on to learn about it and where it came from. If anyone want’s me to go into detail about this, let me know.

He sees that Renato is a seasoned adventurer/explorer, with all the hard-earned skills that would come with that. Stuff that would be perfect for his champion. (or a perfect helper for them.)

So he pops up, gets the panicking fish-man’s attention and goes, “Hey, I know you don’t actually belong here, but you’ve got a problem and I might be able to help you with it. If you’ll help ME out with something.”

Arceus lays out his problem for Ren, which is that Humans and Pokemon (the magical beings of his world), used to be really close/similar to each other and lived really well side-by-side.

Until one of his Deputy Gods that he made to help him keep everything running smoothly had a major, violent freak out in the past and ended up killing a bunch of the mortals they were supposed to be helping/protecting. He had to banish them to stop them from wiping them out, and tried to stand back for a bit and hoped things would mend on their own while he tried to sort his godlings out.

But he stepped too far back for too long and now any chance of them going back to “normal” was pretty much gone.

However, one of the humans in his world had an idea for how to start bridging the gap again by making an index of pokemon to help humans understand them again. And it would work! Arceus looked through time and the creation of the index worked perfectly!

At least. it’s SUPPOSED to work perfectly.

Something is screwing around with time and space, messing up how they’re supposed to flow and putting that really good future at risk. Not even getting to it dragging in things from places that it shouldn’t reach and spitting out things that don’t belong there. (Like Ren.)

Arceus has a plan to fix that, by pulling a champion/hero to help finish the ‘dex and hopefully make sure the future follows the path it’s meant to. But he’s worried that the person he picked might not be enough to make things right again. What if the problem attacked them before they could finish? Or tricked them into making things worse? Or set off the political powder keg that the area where the ‘dex is being made is?

All of those are really bad and could be a disaster in waiting.

So he needs someone to keep an eye out for them. Help them stay safe and healthy. Make sure they’re ready for anything that happens. And just, be in their corner when things get to be too much to handle.

Which is where he’s hoping Renato might be willing to help, by being that person. Arceus knows Ren’s not happy with his current situation (forced transformation and loss of previous life/support network) and, as a Creator God, Arceus may be able to help him out with that. 

He can’t promise that he can make him fully-human again, but he can probably get him human enough to make a new life in Arceus’ world. (Form Changes are a thing, after all.)

“You don’t need to be the hero. You don’t have to take charge or have everything fall to you. You just need to be there for them and help where you can. And that will be enough.”

Ren, though hesitant to take the word of a “god” after everything he’s seen and been through in the Labyrinth but desperate to reclaim even a fragment of his stolen humanity, accepts the deal being presented.

And prays that this won’t come back to kick his arse later.

[trailshome]

hi clam!! how about [ 😇 ], [ 🎵 ] and [ ❌ ] for th3 ros?? also can you tell the ros i love them. they are just So. loveable and huggable hrngg i love them so much ... sigh anyway fun fact: one of my earliest memories is of me throwing snow at my dad’s car lol!! i also remember eating snow, but i don’t remember the taste!

— spice [also my brother (the one who let me keep his ring safe for him) let me keep it!! apparently he can’t wear it on base?? but he told me i could keep it as long as i make sure not to lose it haha!! also i’ve been making MORE ocs. it’s driving me wild bc whenever i make a new oc i feel compelled to make a playlist and a pretty pinterest board and a cool back story and that doesn’t go well when you make several new ones at the same time because i end up working on all of them simultaneously which makes everything kinda. messy and Not How I Wanted It To Be, you know? anyway how are you today clam? i hope the day’s been good to you!! <33 remember to take care of urself alr?? we love you!! 💕]

//Mwah, platonic forehead kisses for you, Spice!! I'm doing well, drained from seeing family the other day but thriving off of left over dinner!! You know, I only ate snow once and it was because a friend convinced me -- never did it again. Snow is yucky and I didn't like the texture of it, haha!! That's super cool that your brother let you keep his ring!!

[ ❌ ] is there something your muse struggles with that they might never overcome? what is it? why do they have so much trouble with it?

Finlay: haha, their religious trauma -- I don't think they'll ever overcome it but it might become more bearable to live with and/or for them to understand. I suppose they struggle with it because so much of their identity is based around the church and their work commissioned by said church.

Lesilfae: I don't know... He probably has something he's struggling with but I can't think of anything aside from the obvious ''has feelings for his best friend but his best friend is oblivious and in a relationship with his 'enemy'' thing. Sorry for the cop-out answer! :/

Galeon: Him? Struggling? I would never let him struggle! but he does have some strong beef with how the church (and by proxy the court because they're kinda just letting this happen) is monopolizing Healers making his 'business' illegal and forcing people who can't afford 'proper' healers to suffer.

Hollond: Mytessa. They messed them up the most imo and I don't think they'll ever get over things said and done between them. Struggles with it more so because they've acknowledged that parent's aren't meant to be like Mytessa and Aostran but they don't know how to go about fixing/removing that.

Greta: No struggles, just vibes tbh.

???: Religious trauma 2.0 with a side of hates the matriarchy -- can't go any further in depth to it for now but it's not going well for her...

[ 🎵 ] is there a specific song or songs you associate with your muse? why is that?

Finlay: either Churchyard by Aurora or Our Will Be Done by Larry and his Flask. Don't know why, honestly added aurora because I have a stupidly huge crush on her...

Lesilfae: Two Birds or The Call by Regina Spektor (hello flashbacks to 2017) Why? I wanna see if yall can guess why, might be hard tho :D

Galeon: Obstacles by Syd Matters (growing up with Les) or Brother by Kodaline (the music video makes me cry hella tears)

Hollond: Cellophane by FKA Twigs and If I Had a Heart by Fever Ray -- First song for Holly's feelings towards Galeon and second song for feelings in general.

Greta: Buttercup by Jack Stauber, covered by Sophie Wood and Julian or Lady (Hear Me Tonight) by Modjo -- these both give me Greta vibes, I feel like she'd listen to these on repeat.

???: Brutus by The Buttress or Sister of Charity by The 69 Eyes for the vibes. Brutus is a bit... spoilery imo and is pretty 'on the nose' so... haha!!

[ 😇 ] what would your muse do if they became a god?

Finlay: Hard to say, I think they'd be a distant but ultimately benevolent god who'd occasionally offer a hand to those that need it. Would be a miracle granted imo

Lesilfae: A greedy god who's intent is never known. Probably caused some chaos for the sake of offerings or smth. 10/10 bad god but not the worst.

Galeon: Sweet boy, would bring about a peaceful world. The most benevolent god you could meet, devoted to his people and their wellbeing.

Hollond: lmao uh oh... probably a spiteful and fickle god -- doesn't like most of their subjects but tolerates them because what is a god without worshippers? Doesn't help them often, more inclined to help the young or the elderly, the truly pitiable.

Greta: Chaos for no reason. A friendly god, very much a trickster who causes damage by accident -- doesn't mean to and makes up for it with plentiful bounty and harvest.

???: A malevolent god but not out of pure evil -- thinks destruction of her subjects is the kindest mercy she can offer. Doesn't believe her world is worth saving or helping. She's a jaded and hurt god.

[bard-llama]

New fic universe premise (pregnant trans!Roche)

So, yesterday I came upon a list of pregnancy prompts (feel free to send me some!) and I decided to make all the prompts part of the same universe that would involve pregnant Roche. 

Now, idk how many of you know this about me, but pregnancy used to SERIOUSLY squick me out. Like, there’s a lot of dysphoria stuff related to it, but the idea of me and a baby anywhere close to each other? YIKES! But somehow this fandom/pairing has made me... idk, more comfortable with the idea? To the point that pregnancy is a plot point in a few of my WiPs. So when I saw the prompts, I figured, ‘hey, why not?’

Now for the spoilery part: (don’t read if you prefer to be surprised!)

So with the prompt for pregnant Roche, I had to figure out how the Roche in my head would get there, especially considering my own issues with it, which he might share some of in a world where he’s a transman. And what I decided is to make it PAINFUL first lmao. Sorry? So basically, I have a few specific installments in this series planned out. (again, don’t read if you don’t want spoiled):

Iorveth and Roche decide to have a baby. They’re old retired men in Vergen, they’ve been raising Anais and Boussy, they’ve been together for several years now - they decide they’re ready. Then they have to talk about who carries the kid (which is a standard part of elven baby discussions, but is a bit more surprising to Roche). Both of them have the physical, biological capability, but in Iorveth’s culture, there’s a certain amount of... idk, honor? in carrying a child. So they decide Iorveth will carry. But wait, didn’t you say this was a pregnant!Roche story? Yes, yes I did. XD Just wait. 😇

Iorveth is SUPER excited about having a baby with Roche. Babies are a big deal to a species as longlived as elves, especially now that there aren’t as many of them as there once were. And Roche loves him enough to want to have a baby with him. That’s pretty magical. So he tells EVERYONE. And I do mean everyone. If he feels safe with you? He is telling you all about how he’s having a baby with Roche. It’s kind of annoying, tbh, but he’s so excited!

So excited, in fact, that maybe he gets a bit careless. idk exactly how yet, but Iorveth gets injured. Badly. Bad enough that he physically cannot carry a child anymore. Which definitely leads to a depressive spiral, but also everyone around them (cares about them) pities them, and Iorveth hates that.

I think he gets injured protecting Saskia, which he hates that he regrets doing. She wasn’t in dragon form at the time, so she like, legit needed the protection? But also, he can’t have a baby anymore. Their future is ruined.

Saskia feels HELLA guilty and fretful and like... Iorveth is her BFF. This hurts.

It takes Roche a little bit, but he suddenly remembers, ‘hey. I can carry a child. We can still have a baby, we can still do this. Iorveth can still be happy with me. 

Which leads to Roche getting pregnant. Idk if my ideas about elven reproduction (i.e. eggs, because ovi is fun) will apply here or not, because tbh I think Roche would find the actual making a baby bit with his parts awkward and uncomfortable. Like, he wants to do it. He genuinely wants to have a baby with Iorveth and he wants to make Iorveth happy and he’s kind of excited about doing this. But it’s also just... uncomfortable. He usually doesn’t think about that part of anatomy like at all. 

Then he actually gets pregnant and once they’re sure, they share the news. I think a lot of people are a bit shocked (”wait, the Boss can do that??? Can all humans do that?” “No, Fenn, that’s not how it works.”), but excited for them. 

Then we get idk cute stories while he’s pregnant? This part is a lil fuzzy to me.

So, what do Anais and Boussy (who are now 12) think? Anais is pretty excited, honestly, caught up in the hype with everyone else. Boussy... well, Boussy’s kind of dealing with a lot at the moment, so he’s not thinking very hard about it, but he’s like “uh... cool?” But of course, things aren’t that easy.

So what’s going on with Boussy? Well, before the story (maybe about a year), Boussy lost his left arm. Not a fun time. BUT he has a really, really awesome prosthetic that’s both magical and mechanical and gives him the ability to manipulate magic! So he’s started training with Triss and Philippa and he’s honestly pretty busy. 

Which leaves Anais the odd one out. Everyone’s excited about the new baby and now Boussy has magic, and what does she have? (Fight training with Maeral? ‘cause Anais is a heavy hitter badass, but she doesn’t quite get that yet). She tries to be happy for everyone, because that’s what she’s supposed to do, but eventually something has to break. Which leads to tantrums and heart to heart communication and appointments penciled into their calendars to spend time with Anais specifically.

Did I mention Philippa? Yes, yes I did. Because I have a whoooole idea for the role Philippa plays in this universe, but idk if she’ll get a whole separate fic or if it’ll be woven into the background of the more pregnancy-centric ideas.

I really, really wanna write Philippa’s POV, tbh. Philippa flees after Witcher 2, trying to recover from all her plans shattering around her and losing her fucking eyes. 

But the fact is Vergen is able to stand against Nilfgaard. And that’s exactly what Philippa wanted - an independent state that could resist Nilfgaard and that would view magic favourably. And she decides she can’t not be part of her plans coming to fruition. So she returns to Vergen, even though she mindcontrolled Saskia and most everyone except Saskia really hates her. But ultimately, everyone defers to Saskia’s decisions and Saskia decides to give Philippa a second chance. But she has to earn her trust back.

The worries of many a dwarf, elf, and human are soothed by the knowledge that as head of Saskia’s guard, Iorveth is watching Philippa like a hawk. Or... an owl? A fox? Some metaphor.

Because we’re all thinking it: yeah, I think Saskia/Philippa happens at some point in the 4 years before the pregnancy stuff takes place. Maybe Philippa helps when Saskia feels super, super guilty about Iorveth’s injury? idk.

And then of course, they gotta HAVE the baby. I know there’s gonna be some emergency surgery involved, just because, but honestly, idk anything about their baby. Anyone have any thoughts? Ideas?

[kaesaaurelia]

a conscientious objector

For @whumptober2021 day 4: Trust Fall (specifically "Do you trust me?" and "taken hostage") Continues on from day two, wherein our protagonist, having narrowly escaped from an exploding spaceship, and on the verge of running out of air in her escape pod, was permitted entrance to a strange ship.

CW for medical trauma; more specific, mildly spoilery detail in my tags. (The trauma is very science fictional and over-the-top as described, but the aspect of it that I find most frightening can happen to people irl, so, better safe than sorry.)

The ship was dark, and eerily quiet. Was it a derelict? Had she just been speaking to an AI the whole time? There was no gravity, but the ship didn't seem to be built for gravity, which made her anxious; she did not want to start losing her strength. Then, a lot of her musculoskeletal system had been replaced, so she wasn't really sure if that would happen. But it didn't really matter if it did; she was stuck here for a while, at least until she could convince the ship, or the person in charge, to take her back to civilization.

She was tempted to shout "Hello?" into the darkness, but also, it wasn't like she'd never seen a horror movie and it seemed like a good way to trigger a jump scare. She could see, of course; she had had her eyes replaced long ago, before she'd been deployed, but it still felt spooky.

Then she climbed around a corner and came face to face with a long maw full of horrible teeth. She kicked backwards and away, and she had the vivid, horrible sense memory of her nanites practically shouting awake! awake! awake! and coming back to consciousness unable to move, the stench of rubbing alcohol in her nose.

Something made a horrible series of cackles and clicks, and her heart was going to pound out of her chest, because no, she had gotten away from them, how could they have found her again here? But then the lights came on and the cackling glitched into a voice. "There you are! You should have said something! Haven't cleaned up in a while, haha, sorry about the mess. Are you all right?"

The toothy maw was nowhere to be seen in the slightly red-tinged light, although there was some floating junk -- used meal packets, maybe? "Yeah, no, I'm good," she said, looking around. Little suction instruments came out of the walls and cleared up the junk while she watched. She wondered if any good could possibly come of asking whether she'd seen anything real.

Excuse me, does this ship belong to the -- oh, I'm going to mispronounce the name -- it's just that these aliens kidnapped me and took half my body apart a few years ago just for fun and I think maybe they put my brain back the wrong way, so could you confirm that you're not them? Or, Sorry, rude question, but are you the AI of a derelict vessel or a real person, and if you're an AI would you mind telling me about what happened so I know you're not going to go crazy and kill me? It wasn't like she had a better option. And any no, you were hallucinating answer wouldn't help. Either her host (?) was lying and she was trapped here with it, or they were telling the truth and she was just fucking hallucinating. Which, well, it wasn't like she hadn't had enough nightmares about The Incident.

"So, uh, where are you?" she asked, making a show of looking around the corridor. Maybe then she would get an answer to her AI or not question.

"Haven't you ever heard of a PA system?" the voice said. The words were sarcastic, but the voice was strangely neutral, so it was probably artificial, even if the personality behind the words was not.

"Oh, right, of course," she said, trying to make it sound as if it was a normal thing, to forget about audio projection technology that had been around since the ancients. "Um, do you -- are you --"

"What happened to the person who told me to choke on a magnet? That person seemed way more fun than you," the voice interrupted.

"I was severely oxygen deprived, I'm sorry," she said, quickly.

"So you're saying I should lower the percentage of O2 in the shipboard atmosphere to get you to say what you really mean?" the voice suggested.

"No!" said Victoria. There was a long silence, and then she heard it: an ominous hissing noise. "Okay look I just want to know, uh, uh, are you, do you -- are you like some kind of crazy murderous AI that's lured me here to kill me, because if you wanna do that I think we can just skip to that part, I made peace with dying earlier today and it's not ideal but if it's inevitable I'm good with getting it over with."

The hissing stopped. "Pretty sure dying is inevitable generally," said the voice.

"I meant, you know, in violent, terrifying circumstances," she snapped.

"You know that hissing was just a recording, right? I'm just fucking with you. The ship's not a fucking balloon. You know that, right?"

There was an awkward silence; she had not considered that.

"Anyway," the voice continued, "I did not bring you aboard just to kill you. That seems like a waste of everyone's time, since you were going to die perfectly well outside. I was iffy about bringing you in, but here you are. Are we good?"

"Why aren't you using your real voice?" She wanted to kick herself for asking, but maybe the voice would appreciate her honesty.

After another brief pause, the voice said, "I don't have a real voice. Does this one bother you?"

So it was an AI after all. Which seemed weird, because most of the ones she'd met would never have fucked around with her in the way this one had. (When an AI fucked around with you, it was usually in ways you didn't really notice until you'd been in the tech support queue for days dealing with what had initially seemed to be an unremarkable glitch.) "No, it's -- it's nice."

"What was wrong with it? I don't have an extensive library of human voice... stuff," said the voice. "Not in this language, anyway."

Not an AI made by humans, then. "It's a little unexpressive?" she said.

"All your languages are unexpressive," it said. "Well. That's not true. I do like some of the swears."

That was also weird for an AI. Well, it was weird for an Inner Solar AI, anyway; all the ones she'd worked with in the course of her job regularly had obscenities expunged from their dictionaries. They either made do without, or worked out increasingly baroque methods of relearning them immediately. Maybe it was different elsewhere, though. Instead of admitting to her ignorance, she said, "I had a buddy who could swear in about two hundred languages. Just the swears, though, nothing else." Something else was still niggling at her, though. "Why didn't you let me on at first?" she asked.

"Look, I have not in general had good experiences with your military," said the ship. "I'll keep you alive, but if you try to commandeer me or bring me back to your territory, that is absolutely not happening. I can take you to the nearest neutral or human territory that is not Inner Sol controlled, but --"

"No, that's fine!" she said, quick to avoid looking the gift horse in the mouth. The horse had no mouth at all; she was going to ignore that mouth. And all those teeth. Except. "Um, what, uh. What happened to the crew?"

"Let me amend my earlier statement: I have not in general had good experiences with anybody's military. They have also not had good experiences with me." The ship paused, presumably for effect. "Call me a conscientious objector."

"What's that?" Victoria asked. She was already regretting this gift horse mouth-looking experience. This was a terrible horse. But her face was already near the horse's mouth, so if it was going to bite she might as well find out now how much of her nose it was going to eat, or whatever horses did. (Victoria was not entirely clear on why, idiomatically, one wasn't supposed to be looking at horse mouths; she had always been a little afraid to look it up, because what if there were pictures?)

"You really don't know? Hang on, hang on, gonna implement some uh, new linguistic data. You really don't know?" The first statement had sounded mildly curious; the second, abjectly horrified. "I mean -- the phrase is from your history, I didn't -- we call it something else, but -- seriously, you don't --"

"Sorry I didn't study a lot of history, I guess?" she said, feeling a little stung. It wasn't like she was stupid, she'd just had more important things to learn -- math and physics, mostly. Also, since she hadn't gone to school at an Inner Sol college, it was a bitch getting their approval to sign up for any classes that weren't directly applicable to what they knew they wanted her doing, especially history and literature. She was still kind of smug about having snuck in some art classes, even though she hadn't been very good at anything she'd tried. "I'm not stupid, though."

"Oh, no, sweetheart, I don't think you're stupid," said the ship, almost pityingly. "You're just brainwashed as fuck. Come on, let's get you fed and rested."

[dragon-grunkle]

star wars and flight rising are in the same universe and here’s why, a ted talk by stanley

in an effort to both 1. talk about my lore more often like i’ve been meaning to and 2. explain what i meant when i went off about it in the tags of my last post, i’m gonna attempt to explain my rationale for deciding star wars and flight rising can totally coexist in the same universe.

there’s a tldr at the very bottom! i do use rebels as a basis for some of this lore, since it basically just confirms concepts i was already thinking of before i even watched the show, but it IS a little spoilery sometimes.

SO. what do we know about sornieth? here’s a summary: it’s the fourth planet from its sun. it has at least one but possibly two or more moons. powerful beings of pure elemental energy sprung up in the early days of the planet’s formation. a darkness from beyond attacks the planet, and the gods build a pillar to keep it out. after this, humanoid races flourish and they learn to combine magic with technology, but eventually someone gets too arrogant and builds a big machine that blows up all of civilization. from this, the arcanist is born. he grows curious and encounters the shade, which breaks the pillar. the other gods see this and decide to go their separate ways. they create dragons.

this new society has reached a point roughly equivalent to the 1920s, and that’s as far as we’ve gotten. that’s it, that’s flight rising. no aliens mentioned, except for the shade (and possibly the forbidden portal enemies if you count those, but that’s for another time).

what about star wars? as we all know, it’s set ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’. there is a lot of history here that isn’t really relevant, so i’m just going to talk briefly about the layout of the galaxy: it isn’t named, but there are different sections to it that are, and they’re grouped according to how far away a planet is from the center of the galaxy. you have: the core worlds, the inner rim, the mid rim, the outer rim, and wild space. generally, planets are more densely populated towards the center of the galaxy and less as you go out. compare coruscant, a core world entirely covered by a city and inhabited by trillions of people, to tatooine, an outer rim planet that wookieepedia states has 200,000 inhabitants total. 

-----

where does sornieth fit in this map? the answer is simple: wild space. this region lies beyond the outer rim, where not many bother to travel because it’s just not worth it, and it’s where i’ve placed sornieth in this scenario. wookieepedia says:

Unlike other regions of the galaxy, Wild Space existed along the entire circumference of the galactic disk and on the borderlands of the Unknown Regions. It was inhabited by sentient species but not fully charted, explored, and civilized.

star wars: rebels touches on wild space a bit: one of its main characters is a lasat, a species thought to be wiped out by the empire. lasats come from lasan, but they have a legendary ancestral homeworld called lira san. except it turns out that lira san isn’t a myth: it’s real, it’s populated, and it’s in wild space.

the fact that an entire species believed their original homeworld was a myth means we can easily set sornieth there without ever having to worry about political groups such as the republic, the empire, and the rebellion coming across the planet and mucking up our established rule of No Aliens Besides Shade (And Maybe Arcanist). it’s conveniently out of the way AND protects the lore of both continuities very well, ensuring that they don’t interfere with each other by introducing a previously-unheard-of super-powerful flying magical race to the galaxy, or having stormtroopers invade the southern icefields, or something else fucky like that.

------

now that we’ve got location covered, we have to talk about the force, magic, and the gods. i’m gonna get a little handwavey here, but it’s also, i think, the most interesting part of this whole thing, so here we go.

first off, the force. what is it? here’s how obi-wan describes it in a new hope:

It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

with that description in mind, i want to draw attention to one little throwaway line from the flight rising lorebook chapter 1: the first age: 

From this bedlam, the magical energies themselves began to concentrate and change. Similar particles receded into four great beings, each overwhelmingly dense with a different element. As if eager to proudly display their emergence to some unseen divinity, these beings took on the shapes of great wyrms.

that ‘unseen divinity’? yeah, that’s the force. you could even take the ‘similar particles’ bit to mean midi-chlorians, if you want to acknowledge the prequels’ interpretation of the force.

as we know, some people are stronger with the force than others. these people usually become jedi or sometimes sith, depending on whether they use the light or the dark side. but the jedi and sith aren’t the only force users out there: there are plenty of civilizations who have different names and explanations for it and how it manifests itself varies from person to person. in fact, the lasat people i mentioned earlier recognized the force as something called ‘the ashla’. so different concepts for the force exist across the galaxy, and it’s very possible that what we know as ‘elemental magic’ on sornieth is simply how dragons see different aspects of the force. as if that wasn’t enough, we also know some force users can use the force to manipulate the elements themselves, like how palpatine can use the dark side to create lightning.

so really: i don’t think it’s a stretch to say some intensely powerful creatures born of the universe itself could specialize in a specific aspect of the force and manifest entirely that way.

[billy mays voice] But Wait, There’s More! i’m gonna reference rebels again. yeah, i know. on the planet of atollon lives the bendu, a being of the force who is neither light nor dark. he’s powerful, and at one point, turns himself into a giant storm and strikes down ships with lightning to defend his planet. loth-wolves are a similar concept. they’re animals which are shown to have a deep connection to the force, but only as it relates to the planet they call home, lothal. at one point a character asks if the loth-wolves are on their side and the answer is "they're on lothal's side.” this is how i see the gods as existing in the greater star wars universe: powerful beings intrinsically linked to the planet they originate from. they’re capable of great feats on their own, but can guide others (like humans or dragons) to use the force / magic in their stead.

the gods are real inasmuch as the force is real, and act as extensions of one another. if we wanna go a step further, the deities could all be light-side users and the shade is their dark counterpart, which is a REALLY fun concept to explore.

-----

phew, that’s it. i’ve covered most of it except for how dragons get off sornieth and into the wider galaxy, which is...somewhat less essential than the stuff i talked about above, but i still want to address it, especially since we’ve established they have no outside contact and are limited to 1920s tech. to keep it brief, the easiest answer is...magic.

i don’t want to get tooooo deep into rebels stuff again, but space-time portals do exist in star wars, which is really exciting for me personally, and also a nice setup for dragons to get out into the galaxy - if they have access to them, that is; in rebels they only appear in a jedi temple, but i think it’s possible other access points exist, given that other force-societies also exist. the point is, being handwavey and saying ‘eh, portals’ is a valid excuse that doesn’t totally break either universe because they are canon to both universes. you could also go the route of magic experiments gone wrong, the deities picking off a few special individuals and sending them out, or crazy lighning-arcane tech mergers shooting dragons off into space, never to be heard from again.

there’s any number of possibilities here, ranging from crazy space wizard shenanigans to early spaceflight gone very very wrong.

-----

tldr: sornieth is located in the far reaches of the galaxy, away from major events, and has remained undiscovered. the deities are manifestations of the force channeled through the planet itself; the gods and the force are extensions of one another. sometimes dragons can get off sornieth, but not often, so dragons are rare in the wider galaxy. there is no conflict of lore that says these two things CAN’T exist in the same universe, and in fact, the lore sometimes even supports them coexisting.

or in other words: star wars and flight rising coexist because i want them to, but also because i have legitimate justification for it. i’m too powerful and nobody can stop me from making star wars dragons now.

[ichika27]

The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

--

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

--

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well. 

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

[rei382]

The last line game ✨💫

Rules: Share your favorite closing lines from 10 of your stories (if you have less than 10 then list them all!). Feel free to skip any that might be too spoilery. Notice any patterns? Pick your #1 and tell us why you love it. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Thanks @andithiel​ for tagging me!! So sorry for taking so long with this one ^^” I barely remember about half of the things I wrote since most of my works are one shots of various lengths and I have over 100 of them... but I found the time to go over them and see which ones I did like the endings of, so, here’s the list ^^”

More or less in the order I posted them, but not strictly so XD

1. Equilibrium (Drarry, T, 315 words)

With each other, it wasn’t being used.  

It was equilibrium.

2. The Marks It Left On Us (Drarry, 358 words, T, please mind the tags before reading)

You ignore the lingering pain in your throat and the burn in your lungs as you smile at him. “I’m alright,” you say, and you know that it’s a lie. Neither of you are alright. 

3. Broken Promises (Roy/Ed, 8336 words, T, please mind the tags before reading)

Roy’s head dropped, his cheek leaning against the cold prison bars as he tried to compose himself. He opened his eyes when he started to feel threatened from the darkness. The prison corridor felt emptier than it did before Edward’s visit, colder and darker. His eyes landed on the only thing that sparkled in the dull space: the three coins Edward had dropped on the floor, refusing to take them back when Roy didn’t accept. A memory of a better, more hopeful time, when Roy still thought he’d be able to achieve his goals. Of a time Edward still had faith in him.

He reached over and grabbed the coins, holding them tightly in his hand. He should’ve taken it when Edward offered it, even though he did not earn it. He felt sorry for breaking his promise to Edward. He regretted so many things he’d done, so many things he hadn’t done but should’ve.

Death sounded like a safe haven, almost.

4. Food for Thought (Roy/Ed, 1792 words, T)

Roy chuckled shortly. The feeling of relief was like having the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders. Combined with the happiness of what Ed was actually saying, it made him feel like he was floating. His soft smile turned into a grin. Hospital or not, he couldn’t wait to see Ed, to hold him and kiss him and tell him face to face how much he loved him. “I’m on my way,” he said, and listened for Ed’s short response before he clicked on the disconnect button. He spent another moment looking at Ed’s grinning picture, now decorating his screen again, with the little numbers showing the length of their call. Four minutes, two seconds and seventy-eight milliseconds. That’s how long it took for Roy to go from panic to the happiest he has been in a very, very long time. 

5. Going Public (Roy/Ed, 21781 words, T)

Roy was now so close Ed could feel his warm breath brushing against him. He leaned his forehead against his, their lips so close they almost touched each other. “Are you sure about this? You know people will be talking, even if we just try it out for a week, or a month, or just right now. You can still walk away, I will not hold it against you.”

Ed glanced downwards, at Roy’s lips. Pink and soft, they seemed so tempting. His tongue darted out, wetting his own lips that suddenly felt too dry. He opened his mouth to take in a breath, considering this for just one more moment. Did he want to take the way out Roy offered? But no; those past few days made Ed feel more at ease than he had in very long while, and certainly much happier. At least during the times he forgot about everything else and found himself lost in the conversation he shared with Roy. No. He did not want to back away. He wanted to see what more they could be. He wanted to see how happy they could make each other without pretending, but by being real. He smiled, and placed a kiss on Roy’s lips. It was short and shy, hesitant – and he immediately knew that he wanted more, and this was no mistake. “Yes, I am sure. Let them talk.”

6. Missing (Drarry, 2120 words, T)

For some reason it made him laugh. It annoyed her, but she felt too warm and relaxed to continue caring.

“She definitely takes after you,” he said.

“Excellent. I’m a wonderful person.”

She had to agree with her human. Despite some of his flaws, he was good. For a human.

7. Don’t Quit Your Day Job (Roy/Ed, 5923 words, M)

It was almost like an outer-body experience. Planning a date with Roy Mustang. Because he was more or less caught pleasuring himself to his porn picture. He could not think of anything more insane.

"No, I eat almost anything."

"Good. I'll try to move some stuff and will let you know the exact details. And, Edward?"

Ed turned back, already getting ready to leave. He needed to clear his mind. "Yes?"

Roy smiled at him. "I can't wait."

8. Cupid Owl (Drarry, 17876 words, T)

He looked up at Harry hesitantly, nervous to see his reaction. “Do you… does this bother you?”

Draco had a moment when he thought he might get a panic attack while Harry was staring at the article. He couldn’t read his expression. Would he be mad? Was he regretting spending the night at Draco’s place?

Harry finally turned to look at him, and Draco braced himself to whatever may come. But Harry smiled softly at him, and leaned a bit closer to place a short kiss on his lips. “Not at all. Do you?”

The tension Draco had been holding in his body eased away at once. He smiled back. “I don’t, either.”

9. Worth The Risk (Roy/Ed, 2690 words, T)

Roy kept watching as he closed the door behind him. His lips still burnt from the feeling of Edward’s mouth on them, and for a moment, it felt like being able to kiss Edward was worth all the risks in the world. He relaxed his hold on the file, well aware that the way he clenched on them would leave dents in the paper, and walked towards his desk to place it there.

Riza would scold him so bad when she found out.

10. Scars (Roy/Ed, 520 words, T)

You tell him about the time you took out the trash from your aunt’s establishment and a broken piece of glass tore into your leg. You tell him about the one you got while fighting an alligator. Let alone no alligators lived in Amestris; Ed doesn’t seem to care how crazy the story is. He just listens as if every word you say is important. Sacred. 

Woah. I don’t think I’m very good at endings! I usually have the general premise, or a specific scene I wanna write, and I go from there...

I think if I have to choose my #1 it’d be the one I posted here as #1 - Equilibrium. Most people who commented on it really loved that ending line, and I too thought it was a good way to end that little drabble. It represents the way I perceive their relationship perfectly.

I’m gonna tag... @cai-danu , @aurumdalseni , @ausynja and anyone who feels like playing <3

[analyzingadventure]

Emerging from the endless void to 1) react to some Psi episodes and catch up a little and 2) say that I did in fact see that new poster/key visual for Psi and I LITERALLY CALLED THEY WERE GONNA DO THAT HOLY FUCK LMAO

Anyways!! EPISODE 34 TO 36! (Not catching up fully but just a lil)

Tailmon.... baby.... I’ve missed you so much...

I am deeply enjoying how Tailmon has revelant information about Mille’s plans etc to share with the kids- like y’all know how I love the Villian Theory in Adventure, and even when it’s canon in the novels, Tailmon never has any relevant information to share beyond getting the Crest of Light back (and while I admit I haven’t properly read the novels I at least don’t remember her giving any useful info) (which is one of the key points against the theory of course), but I’m rambling

Tailmon’s new voice is nice! I do miss her old VA, but new VA is nice

TAILMON CUTE

So they burst a hole into the glass ceiling of this underwater city... and no water is rushing into the city to flood it?

Too lazy to skip back bUT WAS THAT A WHAMON SKELETON?? IS THIS CITY MADE IN/AROUND THE REMAINS OF A GIANT WHAMON??? That’s COOL YO (although that leaves some questions but...whatever)

DAIPENMON! Frontier rights!!

Okay I’m not sure that’s the skull of a Whamon specificially but it could be and regardless THAT IS A COOL DESIGN

MARIN ANGEMON! :D You are very lorge

Wait no LMAO she is very tiny, that’s good lmao

Wait holy shit Daipenmon is huge now that we got a better look djfhdfg

Tailmon.... tiny........ widdle kitty.... Yisss... soft cuddles... good....

Daipenmon is in charge of moving the city?? Holy shit that’s a stronk Digimon

HOW DID IT GREYMON GET THAT HIGH UP?? I CALL BS GREYMON CAN’T FLY FUCK YOU

Mambomon would you please help Tailmon and at least catch her instead of letting her free fall??

God everytime I hear MetalGreymon announce their name during evolution... Oh that’s so sexy and cool... Sakamoto Chika I love you so much

Man remember how big MetalGreymon was when Agumon first evolved that far? MetalGrey has shrunk so much....

BABY HIKARI

(I don’t wanna complain about this because this series has never been particularly good about it but man the animation is a bit wonky in this episode)

MOVING ON! ANGEWOMON!! GIMME ANGEWOMON!!!! EPISODE 35!!

Oh they can just. Breath underwater now. OKAY thanks Marin Angemon??? For this extremely convenient ability???

Amazing, their fire-attacks don’t instantly die within the water either

OH NO DOES SHE HAVE LIKE EVOLUTION PTSD??? (Good thing Agumon and co evolving never triggered her PTSD but oh no baby ;;__;;)

GIGA DESTROYER!!!

Ooooo it’s MarinDevimon time bros

I love how Komondomon didn’t even try to avoid the tentacles or wriggle out of them lmao

I gotta say, I’m kind of already super disappointed that Tailmon was given like evolution PTSD in this episode but she’s also going to overcome it this episode, like, there was no time for that to really sink in, they totally could’ve introduced that character point at least in the previous episode

YEAH HIKARI!! HOLD TAILMON’S PAW!!! ;;__;; SHE WILL HEAL YOUR HEART

NOW GET OVER THAT PTSD, EVOLVE AND KICK MARIN ANGEMON’S ASS

LET’S GOOOOO

THE ANIMATION ISN’T DOING HER JUSTICE BUT SHE’S PRETTY ANYWAYS!!!!!!! ANGEWOMON!!!! AAAAAAAA

(No really though her time in the spotlight didn’t even compare to Angemon’s, I’m sad)

I’m expecting nothing exciting so uh. Moving to Episode 36

Did Koushirou get Vadermon’d???

I’m sorry I still just don’t give a damn about the Human World crisis (and this whole episode is gonna be about that, isn’t it)

Oh lorge Digimon can leave behind remains? Guess that explains the underwater city

Awe, Komondomon is cheering them on c:

dsjfkhfdgjkhsfg Kabuterimon’s reaction to BladeKuwagamon was hilarious jkdhsg

OH YEAH THIS

AFGJKHADFGJJSDGKJDG

I SAW THIS ART ON TWITTER AND OUT OF CONTEXT SPOILERS ON YOUTUBE BUT I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS THIS EPISODE

ALTERNATIVE EVOLUTION PATHS!! BLITZGREYMON!!!! AAAAAAA

THE ONE FUCKING THING I HAD BEEN WISHING FOR AND IT HAS NOW BEEN FULFILLED TWICE!!! (And based on the spoilery poster of the Ultimates all gathered up, will be further explored in the future)

AAAAAAAAAAAA

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUN AND COOL, A THIRD EVOLUTION FOR METALGREY!!! YEEAAAAHHHH

(BTW I love how they did like a lowkey fake out and made us (or at least me) think we were gonna get Mugendramon for a few seconds) (That would’ve been also cool tho)

No pressure Koushirou, ya just gotta save an entire city from being wrecked

Ah, so Koushirou didn’t get Vadermon’d ike in Adventure, they were just lowkey evoking that familiar imagery

Cute, HeracleKabuterimon imagery vwv V cute, v cute

Agumon is glowing red?? Oh it passed, the left-over energy from BlitzGrey

Okay this is all the time I have now to catch up with Psi, I’ll catch up with the rest soon (I hope)

SO LET’S WATCH AN EPISODE PREVIEW!

And nothing interesting in the preview

So uh, summary

Episodes were all mediocre as always, nothing special aside from a few fun moments here and there

I am missing how, due to the power escalation in Psi, we’ve seemingly gone from Devimon being the villian to straight to Milleniummon (who isn’t even revived yet), with no direct villianous force to look out for... Like it just makes Psi feel pretty aimless right now (I think I had the same complaint about Appmon too)...

That said I am deeply enjoying the alternative evolutions (even if they’re just temporary)! I am hoping we might see a little bit more of those but not holding my breath for it (but Toei if you did give us more, specifically for Sora and co, that would be cool)

And now, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SPOILERY POSTER DON’T READ FURTHER, GONNA RAMBLE ABOUT THAT FOR A MOMENT

OKAY YOU WERE WARNED

I am just losing my shit how Toei trolled us by fucking building up Seraphimon and Ophanimon and then revealing they’re doing Holydramon and fucking GODDRAMON instead

Like 1) that is great fucking trolling and I applaud them for it

2) While I’m sad about the Ophanimon rights... Holy shit we’re gonna see Goddramon??? That’s new! THAT’S FUN that’s interesting! THAT’S REFRESHING! I’m so tired of Seraphimon that the idea of seeing Goddramon is fucking hype as hell!

Like honestly I’m just gonna lament how we’re probably not gonna see a full line-up for alternative Ultimates for the whole group (I mean I’m sure Yamato is gonna get one just like Taichi did but the others probs not), but like, any change to the line up will still be refreshing, fun and different, so I’m here for it!

As always, I have no idea where Psi is going, it’s been real mediocre so far, but I’m still really curious what they’re planning so ye!

[silverbastardgoldenfool]

Realm of the Quarantine Reread End-of-Book Questionnaire: Assassin’s Apprentice

Any differences between your first/previous reading experience and this one?

Uhhhhh yep!! I can’t even believe how different it was. Every scene has taken on an entirely different colour and flavour in my memory. I skimmed far too much the first time, yes, but also I just went into it with the wrong framework. I think I’ve mentioned this before but my mum recommended me these books on the basis of my love of A Song of Ice and Fire. She directly compared them and said how similar they were. Because of RotE’s length I had been putting it off for years, and only finally picked up Assassin’s Apprentice because I was itching to do an ASOIAF reread but was (and am) trying to wait until Winds of Winter to do it. 

So you can imagine the difficulty settling into a book like Assassin’s Apprentice when you’re expecting Game of Thrones. I remember my overall impression on my first read being that it was a pretty standard fantasy novel with the only really exceptional thing about it being the characters and their relationships. Characters are always my top priority so it was enough to keep me invested and progressing onto the next book and the rest of the series, but I did so not having absorbed nearly as much as I should have from the first book in the series.

Now, just from revisiting that first book, my understanding of Fitz and the world he operates in has exponentially increased and I know that will transform my experience of every book going forward. I really made sure to make myself slow down and read every word; absorb descriptions and just be in each moment without racing to the next one. Overall this book (and all the Fitz books) are much more concerned with the human condition and the effects of abuse and trauma and deep loneliness than being an epic fantasy. In fact it barely reads like fantasy at all; it’s incredibly grounded and focused. Of course the elements are there, but while Assassin’s Apprentice may not be as subversive as the rest of the series, it is certainly not generic fantasy. This book just feels alive to me now in a way it didn’t before against the rest of the series. I can regard it as a beautiful piece of the puzzle in its own right instead of just the setup. I wanna reiterate I always really liked Assassin’s Apprentice but it just paled in comparison to my unholy obsession with the rest of it. Idk this reread just really shifted a lot of things into perspective for me and I’m excited!!

Something you can’t believe you forgot

So so much but most ridiculous GALEN IS QUEEN DESIRE’S BASTARD am I dumb??? I didn’t even remember until it was explicitly stated lol

Favourite character introduction moments/scenes

It’s gotta be a tie between the Fool, Kettricken and Patience (realising there is a common theme here of Fitz making an idiot of himself). I genuinely was laughing so hard when Fitz is like, actively making himself smaller and so pleased with himself trying to help the Fool, and of course the Fool’s iconic “listen you idiot” ugh it’s just chef’s kiss baby, that’s what we in the biz call a meet-cute! (I know they have seen each other before, but this is the first time the Fool talks to Fitz). Then of course we have Kettricken who poisons Fitz at their first meeting, and Patience who Fitz continuously embarrasses himself in front of before even realising who she is. The fact that all three of these people end up being some of Fitz’s only genuinely loving relationships makes it even better.

Favourite character arcs

I think I’ve gotta go with Verity and Burrich. Verity goes from kind of a bloke’s bloke (he was so different in the beginning than I remembered!) to being a proper King-in-Waiting. He is self-sacrificial but not for pride; he genuinely cares deeply for his people, as a whole and as individuals, and will do anything it takes to protect them. He is far from perfect, and he could have done a lot more for Fitz when he was younger, but once Fitz is in his eyeline and he is confronted with the life the boy has led he seems suitably shamed and tries to do his best for him. He’s a good boy and I love him!

Burrich of course is just. unlucky. His health deteriorates due to injuries. He gets saddled with some kid and is burdened to bring him up to an impossible standard he has set himself (to not shame a man he has an impossibly high opinion of). He’s deprived of a job he loved and was good at, and most importantly he’s deprived of his boyfriend I mean lover I mean “master”.

His arc is not a happy one at all but it is compelling, and I can’t help but love him and feel for him despite also disagreeing with him on almost everything :)

Favourite quote/s

Unfortunately I don’t have any tabs atm so I couldn’t really keep track, but my heart exploded when Fitz said to the Fool after going into his room, “I wish I had a place that were as much me as that place is you.”

Favourite relationships

Fitz/Fool obviously. Even though they don’t have that many interactions in this book I loved every single one of them. The Fool volunteering to care for Smithy after Fitz has endured a long day of horrendous abuse is just!!!!! Kindness! What a concept! I could really see why they develop such a deep bond so quickly.

Fitz/Burrich is just so real and so compelling and it hurts me but I love it. Fitz/Chade breaks my heart bc Chade is manipulating his way into Fitz’s heart - I think without realising it a lot of the time bc he is lonely too, but the power imbalance is not okay when he is the centre of Fitz’s world for a long time and the closest thing he has to a friend. Knowing how Chade behaves not too much later just makes it even worse when he is so nice in this book because it just shows why Fitz has such a hard time being his own person and saying no to Chade ever.

Fitz/Verity for obvious reasons. Fitz/Hands!! They’re cute but it makes me sad that Hands betrays him in AQ. Weirdly I liked Fitz/Molly way more this time but more their friendship than anything. And next is Royal Assassin and their deeply toxic romance soooooo.

And Fitz and his puppies BUT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THAT.

Favourite setting

Do yourself a favour and read the description of the Mountain Kingdom and specifically the palace. It is STUNNING and something I completely skimmed over the first time cos I’m a dumb idiot bitch I could have been picturing a city of huge colourful tulips all this time but fuck me I guess!!

Favourite chapter

As a rereader I think I’ve gotta say chapter one. There’s just so much to pick apart all crammed into one chapter. It still holds a lot of mystery even when you’ve read the entire series.

Most loved character

At this point I’ve gotta say Fitz. That’s who my heart is with during this book and he NEEDS IT

Most hated character

Okay I found Regal a much better villain on this read and hated him A LOT but whomst I despised even more w the very fibre of my being was Galen bitch disgusting!!!!!! Verity was so like, smug?? when he killed him and it was so satisfying. It’s what she deserves!!

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimised by Robin Hobb (most heartbreaking and/or visceral moments)

Literally this whole book was so harsh and I was perpetually emo throughout but off the top of my head, Fitz’s depressive episode after Shrewd and Chade test his loyalty fricking broke me, as did the entirety of Galen’s abuse/training; since I was paying so much more attention this time it hit a lot harder that he is an absolute textbook abuser and the psychological torment he inflicts on Fitz is just. deeply upsetting to say the least. It really got under my skin.

Details, observations, spoilery notes made with the benefit of the full picture

Okay this is where I just dump all the notes I took while reading that don’t fit anywhere else. It’ll be long lol so strap in.

- It’s never not funny to me that Narrator Fitz comes across as like a hundred years old when in actuality he is like twenty. Also that he looks back on himself with such a sense of wisdom and superiority, yet we know there is dumbarsery aplenty to come. Amazing.

- I’ve never really registered that for the first six years of his life Fitz had a mother who loved him and I don’t know how to feel about that

- REVELATION THAT SEEMS REALLY OBVIOUS IN HINDSIGHT: Fitz most likely only spoke Chyurdan when he was abandoned, which would have played a huge role in why he was not only quiet but unresponsive to what was happening around him. He probably didn’t even understand that he wasn’t going to see his mother again until much later, and he didn’t know how to ask questions. When he goes to the Mountain Kingdom and Kettricken comments that he speaks Chyurdan like someone remembering the language he doesn’t comment on it, so it’s likely that future Fitz doesn’t register that he didn’t always speak Six Duchies(?). He mentions in the narration that the memory of being abandoned is incredibly stark but not necessarily reliable, and possibly shaped by the Skill, which to me opens up the possibility that his memory is essentially auto-translating for him things he didn’t understand at the time. We also know that at the time of writing this he’s given up his memories of his mother etc. up to the stone dragon, so obviously his recollections of these traumatic events are going to be warped by that. Anyway thanks to my sister for pointing this out and being much smarter than me.

- According to Fitz’s grandfather, Chivalry always knew about Fitz. Don’t know how trustworthy a man desperate to yeet his grandson out of his care is but there ya go.

- Weird and hilarious that Shrewd tries to see Fitz on the day he arrives but then just like. What? Forgets about him? For years? lol

- Chade literally tells Fitz that he is a king’s man now and that’s the most important thing about him YIKES

- Chade becomes the closest thing Fitz has to a friend for quite a long time and that is fucking depressing

- It’s interesting that Chade had to be convinced to teach Fitz. It’s hinted at that there was an ~incident~ the last time they tried to train someone, followed by a long period of Chade being left to rot in the walls.

- Not to be out here diagnosing fictional characters but like.Fitz. Literally has depression.

- Fitz having to turn down Fedwren’s offer of apprenticing for him is so sad. It’s the life Fitz should have had.

- The Fool’s non-binary gender is mentioned as early as Chapter Nine! (Published in 1995! We have no choice but to stan!)

- “So quickly we were all made accomplices in our own degradation.” OOF.

- I really realised this time that the reason Fitz seems so shit at things he trained his whole life for later is because all that training was interrupted by many months of isolation, deprivation and abuse. All at the age of like 13-14. He got out of the habit of subconsciously acting in a way that Burrich or Chade would approve of. For a long time the only person he needed approval from was Galen, and he became completely single-minded about it because that was his means of survival. And you don’t just recover from that - especially since neither Chade or Burrich would give him the time of day for an extended period *after* his training was done. When Chade did finally talk to him again it wasn’t to recommence training really; he just gave him a bunch of tasks to do. By the time Fitz got to the Mountain Kingdom he was completely out of practice, and still managed pretty bloody well in spite of it.

- Kind of related to the last point: I love that while Fitz isn’t a savant at anything he’s a pretty realistic jack of all trades. He not only has an aptitude for learning almost any skill or subject but a genuine broad curiosity too. It’s one of the few things that is just him, ya know? It’s just his personality and something he can find joy in, even if it does also factor into his being used by others.

- Imagine being Burrich and finding out that your son thought you were a dog murderer for like ten years lol ouch

- Fitz thinks about the Fool soooo often in the Mountain Kingdom, pointing out things that remind him of him, or things he would like. It’s v soft tbh I love them so much!!

- Another dumb thing I forgot is that Regal is convinced that Shrewd had Fitz poison his mother to death, which adds a rather important layer onto his motivations lol

Anyone doing a reread feel free to fill this out! You don’t have to use the tag :)

[let-me-make-you-proud]

Tangled: The Series Q&A with Kait.

This is a recapitulation from today’s (September 14, 2019) Questions and Answers session with Kait on the Tangled Discord Server.

Q: Which Disney princesses outside of Tangled the series can you see Varian being friends with? Nonfranchise ones included.

A: I think Belle is the first one who comes to mind!! She’s super studious and goes against the grain…not to mention her father is an inventor who’s a little off-base! 🙂 I think he’d be super comfortable experimenting with Belle and her dad and reading awesome stories! (Maybe even sharing the Tales of Flynn Rider with her! …Assuming she hasn’t read it! Haha. ) He could also eat ham sandwiches with Anna. Sorry. Second thought. Lol!!

Q: So Kait, as a storyboard artist on the show what kind of little details, quirks or creative touches did you or any other artists put into Varian scenes you or others storyboarded?

A: Ha!! Any acting scene with Varian I had…I pretty much based off of Anna Lencioni (my best friend/ another board artist on the show.) Anna makes these very specific expressions and she gestures to herself a lot and closes her eyes and creases her brows and says things like “A-huh! Actually…” or “Um!!” Before making a point and it’s always reminded me of him.

She kept a “flynnolium” prop from Halloween with green goo in a vial in her cubicle at work so long it grew mold. She said she was studying it. She found scrap metal in her boot one day. She has a basement lab for her experiments and crafts. She befriended two raccoons at her last apartment. She is the most accident-prone person with freckles I’ve ever met…she’s pretty much him.

Jeremy Jordan’s reads give you so much to work with…and I love that character so much I feel a natural sort of understanding of how he might say something or do something…but Anna would always do these specifically Anna things that I had to use for Varian.

Q: Do you have any specific advice for aspiring storyboard artists or people who aspire to work in animation?

A: Gestural drawings help you learn to draw fast…which is a very important part of storyboarding. I would say storyboarding‘ s biggest requirements are clarity and speed. Lots of productions have different requirements in terms of what they look for from story artists. Tangled‘s leadership cared a lot about drawing skill, animation, layout, etc. because it more strongly informed the animation studio to have those things. The show I’m working on now (Monsters at Work) is a 3D show…so for our production, the emphasis is more on story and speed. We pitch ideas more than we pitch drawings…so clarity is important and acting is too, but we’re far less precious about tying down drawings and animating since we shift into the 3D production pipeline after story. The boards are still very important…but the more technical aspects are a *little* less so. The focus is just more on story and character and what the board artists can bring to their scenes.

So I’d say just practice drawing…maybe try and give someone a prompt or ask a friend for one. Choose a theme! Maybe vampires? What’s the worst thing that could happen to a vampire? What’s the best thing? What’s the funniest thing? What if they were also an alien? Or fused with a werewolf? Or chained to one? What would happen? Giving yourself a starting point for an idea will inspire you to explore all the possibilities for humor, drama, etc. in that idea. If you’re struggling to give yourself a prompt, try looking online…or maybe choosing a song you like or a passage from a book for inspiration.

There’s also this really fun thing you can do to study cinematography and shot composition called a “three tone” exercise. Basically…put on your favorite (live action) film, grab a sketchbook, grab a black and grey marker, and use the white of the page for your third tone. What you wanna do is (as you’re watching or while pausing) sketch a small thumbnail using only three grey tones of what you see on the screen. Draw the shot- where the characters are, try and duplicate the lighting…it teaches you a lot! 🙂 (Phew!)

Q: Do you have any fun non-spoiler head canons about Varian?

A: I think his favorite dessert is apple pie and I think he bakes recreationally very often! He’s probably a good cook. (Though he may have one or two minor accidents……a burnt thing here and there. Minor oil splatters….haha!!)

Q: What’ve been your favorite episodes, both to storyboard and in general? Of course, no specifics if it’s S3

A: Haha! Well…What The Hair and Queen for A Day have special places in my heart because they were such big moments for my favorite character…(Varian, haha.) But I’d say the episodes I had the most fun boarding are all in season 3!!! Which is exciting! I have to start compiling some work to post! 🙂 I think the episode I had the most fun with is one you guys will really enjoy.

Q: Will we get some interesting surprises (In Season 3)?

A: Without any spoilers- absolutely!! The show is always full of those.

Q: So We’ve heard many fans express why they love Varian as a charcter before, I’d love to know what drew you and Anna to Varian as well and why you guys personally found him to be a great character.

A: When Shane Prigmore originally pitched the character to me, he was much younger. He was like 11 or so, I think? Maybe 12? He’s still pretty young…but what Shane said was that he wanted him to go from this wide-eyed kid to this dark, angry person whose bangs fell over those wide, bright eyes…just full of rage. That idea was super interesting to me…it just hit on something in character development that I felt like I’d never exactly seen before? He was so young and it was such an interesting idea to me to make a child the villain and to give that child a strong reason to be angry? It felt like it was taking this child very seriously, which I appreciate. It felt very real and very dark.

The thing that threw me through a loop but also evolved my fascination with the character was Jeremy Jordan’s casting. I listened to a lot of the auditions they had for various actors and I had seen a ton of Shane’s concept art of the character…a lot of them were VERY different than what we have now. One version Ricky Roxburgh (writer) contributed to had Varian cast as an adult in the story. But when I heard Jeremy I felt like I totally understood who Varian really was.

He was a well-intentioned disaster with unchecked emotions. That. Is me! Haha!! I see myself in his imperfections, his emotionality in spite of his creative and often intellectual thinking. He wants to ascend to these levels he may not be ready to ascend to…he feels this need to prove himself and seek validation. I don’t know, I guess I relate to that! And I’m just a sucker for good guys gone bad. The other half of this, of course, is that he’s very charming and cute and super reminds me of my best friend, Anna Lencioni.

Q: Which character do you most like seeing interacting with Varian?

A: It’s a little spoilery for me to reveal that……..but I think you guys are gonna know when it happens! Haha!

I can’t wait to post THOSE boards

That’s actually right out of the episode I think I liked boarding the most, haha.

Q: If there was one prop (furniture, object, the like) from the Tangled series that could be made real and you could keep, what would it be..?

A: I think it’d have to be those little alchemy orbs that Varian throws? They just suddenly clean the whole castle hallway somehow and like…could use me some of that. He also has the one that removes stains from tablecloths, so. I’m sloppy. That’d be a big help. Haha!

Also his staff is pretty cool 😉, I boarded/created that staff…David Lee (prop designer) did its final design…haha

Q: I have a question about a scene in season 1. When Varian got back the first part of the scroll he mentioned that it took him a while to translate it. Has he really been able to read it or has it been a bluff?

A: Varian can indeed translate what’s on the scroll. 😉

Q: Do you have any networking advice for those trying to get into the animation industry?

A: Post your work!! Make it easily accessible, tag it well, just show what you’ve got online! Upload boards, animatics, drawings, etc. Creating an online presence can really help put your name out there. Apply for internships, jobs. I know it’s hard to network because a lot of industry professionals don’t have time to answer specific questions or give portfolio reviews…so it’s sort of important to take some initiative on that and be self-motivated.

For me, I studied the portfolios of Disney feature story artists, CalArts students, etc. and tried to structure the presentation of my work based on that. Also, it helped me get a sense of what pieces of work would best showcase where I was trying to go and what I was trying to do. I’d ask yourself those questions as you develop a portfolio and artistic voice online! 🙂

My first feature job after a trainee program in New York at Blue Sky happened because Doug Sweetland (Pixar animator, feature director, awesome dude) found my work online and liked it. He just reached out based on that!

Shane Prigmore actually reached out to me for Tangled similarly.

Q: Besides Varian, do you have a favorite character that you’ve boarded?

A: I always love Eugene. He’s the second character I think I’m most like. His acting was really fun to play with and I felt like I could push his expressions a lot because he’s so funny. I loved boarding Lance too (I boarded a lot of Lance in S3!!) but MAN was he hard to draw, haha! His face shape is just really hard to draw at certain angles.

Q: With Varian cosplay that is going on, what Disney character would you like to see Varian dress up as next?

A: Jack Skellington! Halloween is afoot. Jack is another well-intentioned disaster. Guess I have a type!

Q: What’s Varian’s opinion on raccoons, are they his favourite animal?

A: I imagine it’s because Ruddiger is always finding interesting things in the trash and giving them to Varian to use in his experiments. Also, they’re fat and cute.

Q: There’s a bit of an argument going on over how many freckles Varian has. Can you confirm how many he has?

A: Ha!!! Yes…one second… 14!!

Q: How big do you think Corona is? Like Vatican City small or Arendelle big?

A: You know, with the wall and all, it actually feels a little on the smaller side to me? I’m sure there’s a little bit of discrepancy between the movie’s version of Corona and our version…but based on where we went within Corona on the show, I’d say it feels on the smaller side.

Q: Are there any non-spoiler Varian scenes or moments that didn’t make the cut that you can share?

A: MAN. Yes. There is one scene that changed after I rolled off the episode and I’m very sad about it. I’ll post it after the episode airs! There was also a line of Varian’s that I boarded to a specific read from Jeremy Jordan and that read was not chosen in editorial later so…I’ll post that one too, haha!

Q: What is your favourite song from the first two seasons so far?

A: All my favorite songs are in season threeeeee…hahahaha!! I think Let Me Make You Proud or the Buddy Song are my favorites. Buddy Song still gets stuck in my head now and then.

Q: What do you think Varian would order at a drive-thru? Specifically at chipotle 😂

A: Chipotle isn’t a drive thru!! Hahaha He’d get the kid’s quesadilla from chipotle. I think Varian is a fries/chips kind of person…something to snack on while he works! He probably also likes milkshakes.

Q: (Continuation from the question above) Chocolate or vanilla?

A: He’d revolutionize by combining them both. FOR SCIENCE!

Q: What is, in your opinion, the most challenging part of varian’s design to draw?

A: His goggles, hahaha. Or just his…hair in general.

Well it’s funny too because when you board these guys, you get used to doing a shorthand for them and then when you go to draw them FOR REAL you realize how complicated that actually is and how wrong your shorthand actually was? Hahahaha

Q: is Varian ticklish at all?

A: I feel like Varian, Eugene, and Lance are all equally ticklish. To the point of absurdity. Cass would fight it as long as she could…but when it finally got to her, she’d laugh uncontrollably. Rapunzel, she’s the TICKLER.

Q: What do you think Varian opinion and belief on magic is now that he’s seen it with his own eyes?

A: I imagine that he certainly believes in it now and no longer underestimates its powers…but I imagine he’s ultimately more comfortable staying in his own lane and working with worldly properties!

Q: If Varian would have been able to meet Demanitus…how would their conversation had looked like?

A: I feel like Varian would have had a TON of questions about his legendary device and whether or not he truly traveled dimensions.

Q: Did Varian have any other friends in old Corona before he met rapunzel?

A: Probably not many…he’s a bit of a hermit. I think Ruddiger is his best friend……. It’s sad but I also think that’s kind of why it hurt so bad when Rapunzel wasn’t able to help him. Also why he was SO excited to have Rapunzel, Cass, and Eugene come visit.

I think the village looked at Varian as a little unstable or worrisome. I’m sure everyone knew he was very nice…but they were likely very unnerved by his inventions.

Q: Do you think Varian ever tried to synthesise gold or the elixir of life like a real alchemist?

A: I’ve wondered that myself!! I think his alchemy has proven to be more about other people…helping others, making people proud. Maybe if someone he cared about was in need.

Q: If you were to meet Varian in real life, what would you say to him?

A: What elixir did you make to get THAT kind of volume? His hair’s so POOFY! Honestly, I’d probably just give him a hug.

Q: How much does Varian know or remember about his mom?

A: I’d say about as much as the photo of her on the wall.

Q: Is there spoiler about his hair streak? Or is it just by design?

A: It’s totally by design. I think it’s safe to assume it’s probably the result of some lab accident!

Q: In what ways is Jeremy Jordan like Varian?

A: I don’t know Jeremy Jordan personally, haha! But I think a lot of these inflections he adds to Varian sort of off the cuff probably come very naturally to him. I know he often wants to do his own pass at the musical arrangement Alan Menken writes…like he’ll want to do something a little different, in his own way, and it will change the song completely!! In an awesome way. That’s a little Varian-esque. In the “Let Me Make You Proud” reprise…Alan Menken had sung that “they are going to pay…they…will…pay” all in a low, downward tone. Jeremy wanted to scream it and make it powerful and angry and loud when he said “PAY” and you could just hear the spite in his voice for the “they will pay.” Genius!

Q: What was the most shocking moment/revelation of the series to you (minus anything season 3)?

A: It’s hard to say because I knew most of what was going to happen long, long ago. I think one of the things that made me go “oh dang!” was something Tom Canfield boarded. It’s that part in Destinies Collide where Lance slices the entire statue down the middle with a sword. What a BAMF!

Q: What were your thoughts on the early concept of Varian having an apple orchard and being a farm kid instead of a young alchemist?

A: He still kinda has those things! Quirin is a farmer as well as the village leader and there are apples on their little farm estate! 🙂 I think that makes Varian very unassuming as a mad little scientist. I’m sure that’s how (Ruddiger and Varian) met! Remember, he used his purple tacky goo stuff to catch raccoons so they wouldn’t eat the crops! And Ruddiger’s favorite snack is apples. 😉

Q: What is his official height and weight?

A: Smol.

Q: How did you guys come up with Varian’s name? And was there any other name suggestions for him before the name ‘Varian’ was chosen?

A: I’m not sure who came up with that name, actually! I’m sure it has something to do with the meaning of the word “variant” which means something that varies, changes in form.

Q: What’s his last name?

A: His last name!! I have NO idea and it bothers me!!! A Disney magazine referred to Varian, Ruddiger, and Quirin as “The Ruddiger Family” and I still haven’t stopped laughing about that.

Q: What sad Disney movie moments would make him cry?

A: Oof. Lion King.

Q: What musicals do think Varian would enjoy?

A: Little Shop of Horrors! I think he’d see himself in Seymour! Or Wicked…you know, that villain arc.

Q: How did Arianna and Fred meet?

A: I actually don’t know off the top of my head!

Q: Would Varian enjoy rollercoasters?

A: I think he’d enjoy how they’re MADE and then scream his head off while riding one, throw up his cotton candy and corndog, and go play carnival games instead. Then get mad that they’re rigged.

Q: So what comes next for you now that the series is almost over? Any big plans?

A: Well the series wrapped for production a while ago! I’ve been on another show for almost a year now! 🙂 I’m working on the new Disney+ show Monsters at Work as a director! It’s an awesome, awesome show…totally next-level…I’m shocked that I’m getting to be apart of something like this. It’s a direct sequel to the movie that serves as an office comedy (a la The Office, Parks and Rec) and has so many characters that fit immediately into the Monsters Inc world. Monsters Inc is my favorite Pixar movie…so I literally come to work and leave work on the same high! It’s an awesome, awesome show with a great crew! 🙂 It’s also just really exciting to be apart of the first original animated property for D+!

Q: How would you compare working as a director to working as a storyboard artist?

A: It’s hard work, just as hard, but in a different way! For me personally, I’m a little easily fatigued by drawing? I get a little creatively frustrated because my thoughts move quicker than my hand. Or because I don’t always feel like I can execute in a drawing what I’m thinking in the way that I want? Part of that is just being an artist…and it’s not ALL the time that I feel that way…but I think I have a certain stamina for drawing that I found challenging to increase.

Directing is just different! It has a lot more to do with managing a team, communication, coordinating, listening, speaking up, problem-solving, being very aware of story as it applies to ALL parts of a production. I don’t draw as often anymore. You have to consider a lot more…more people, more constraints, more difficulties, more opinions, more solutions…it’s just MORE. And you also still have to draw! 🙂 It’s very busy work, but it’s AMAZING and I love it. I feel like I’m contributing to animated storytelling a lot more in this role, actually. I love working with people, I love workshopping, and I love helping! I’m also just spoiled to be working with some great people right now. It’s a blast.

Q: Are any Tangled: The Series crew joining you on that show?

A: Yes!! Tom Caufield and Wendy Sullivan were on it for a minute, but they’ve both moved on to Dreamworks recently! James Suhr (board artist), Isabelle Gedigk (season 3 board artist), Naomi Hicks and Casey Coffey (revisionists), David Lee (props), Ricky Roxburgh (writer), and I are all working together again! It’s awesome.

Q: Does Varian, deep down, blame himself for the amber?

A: I believe he does.

Q: How do you deal with artist’s block?

A: I try to think about the intention behind what I’m doing. Why is the scene I’m working on very important to the story? If it feels unimportant or boring, how can I make it interesting? What can I do on my end to make it more inspiring or fun without going too far off the rails and still serving the scene’s purpose?

If it’s not work-related, I try and start with some fan art or something familiar for me to draw. I have a lot of scribbly Varians in the margins of a lot of my sketch documents. I use him as a warm-up a lot. It helps build my confidence to draw something familiar/ that I think I can draw pretty well.

Q: What’s the hardest scene you’ve ever had to board?

A: Oh God. ANYTHING with action. I’m not an action gal. Lots of stuff in S3. I was board partners with Wendy Sullivan and ended up getting a lot of action to board even though she’s WAY better at it than me!! It was an interesting challenge…but it was very, very challenging. Ben (Co-EP) was a great mentor to me in the scene I did for the mid season. He was very patient with me, despite my shortcomings as an action board artist, haha. I enjoy boarding for comedy much more.

Kait: Anyways, I should probably head off now! Thank you guys so much for all the questions!!!! You’re awesome! I hope you’re all super excited for S3! It’s a great one.