#I mean come on he has so much potential of being a mad scientist and likes resurrecting people

[hauntingmiser]

tbh why does everyone think of maruki as

A ) one evil mf that is worse than shido or someone that doesn't need redemption. only suffering

Or

B ) cinnamon roll or an innocent himbo man that did nothing wrong

[viviennevermillion]

Mortals and Fools — First Look #1 (Coming Soon)

Want to read a SFW coming-of-age fantasy novel with evil gods, two adult aspec protagonists and magic? Consider supporting this project!

Author's Note: After a total of 8 years of posting fanfiction on this account, I am excited to announce that I am finally starting my first long-term original work as an author! Goal is to get this series published as an actual novel but until then, I will be uploading chapters online as I write them, hopefully building an audience in the process! Mortals and Fools will be available on Wattpad and potentially other platforms. The first 4 chapters will be uploaded to Tumblr as well. Over the next few weeks I will keep uploading promo posts with new characters and more info! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me as a writer over the years and welcome to everyone who's new here!

Summary: In the land of Elsthess, brilliant but arrogant Dr. Immanuel Faust is doing his best to follow the teachings of the Goddess of Wisdom, live up to his late grandmother's expectations and hide the fact that he has been seeing strange, mystical apparitions all his life. When his pupil becomes afflicted with an ancient curse and the things he has seen turn out to be more than just hallucinations, Immanuel must forge a contract with Morgan, a being from another realm who's ready to humble him at every turn, and learn his religion's most despised art: magic. As he steps outside of the simple world he has grown up in, he slowly comes to realize that there is much more to learn for him still.

Themes:

The Meaning of Wisdom & Growth

Unlearning harmful narratives and prejudices

Religious Trauma

Healing from Abuse

Rebuilding trust in others

Learning to understand others

Navigating radical changes during adulthood

Elitism and class inequality

The problems with the ideal of meritocracy

Queerplatonic & Alterous Attraction

Addiction

Gender Dysphoria

What this story contains:

A variety of fun magical powers!

Evil Gods & Forces from other Realms!

Queer rep! (demisexual & aroace protagonists, a trans man and a wlw couple)

Mysteries to unravel

The coming-of-age fantasy adventures you're used to from YA novels but with characters in their 20s and struggles of adulthood

Humor

My blood, sweat and tears as an author

The Cast: Introducing 3 Characters

Here's some info on the three characters in the header, from left to right!

#1 — Dr. Immanuel Icarus Faust

❝ It wasn't supposed to be like this... I've failed... as both a doctor and a man of faith. I wanted to follow your teachings, dear Goddess, and guide those who seek wisdom and knowledge, as grandmother did... but I couldn't even save one innocent girl. Have I become godless? ❝

Raised by his grandmother, the High Priestess of Solbrynn's temple, Immanuel was taught from an early age on to aspire to be the best in everything he attempted to do and dedicate his life to wisdom, in order to make the Goddess Adira proud. Having become a renowned physician at the age of 28, Immanuel understands himself as his kingdom's ideal of a self-made man: a scholar who can achieve everything he puts his mind to, no matter the circumstances. As a result, he has put himself on a pedestal, believing that those who achieved less than him had all the chances and merely didn't use them. Fearing nothing more than failure and becoming anything like his absent, alcoholic father; Immanuel is bound for a rude awakening.

#2 — Morgan Miralaith

❝ While you were having your existential crisis in the mad scientist laboratory you call your bedroom, I took the liberty to read your grandmother's diary. The good news is, I finally understand where all the hubris comes from. ❝

Morgan, belonging to a long-lived species from the realm of Calliah, is the second-in-command for the Elsthess Resistance against the Plague Avatars. While the Resistance on Mhorunn regards her as a capable leader and a skilled fighter; using fire magic to blaze her way to victory; it is clear to most that she has many secrets and ulterior motives. She cares about others in her own way, yet hardly lets anyone close to her. With her mischievous demeanor and cynical nature, Morgan has made it her new mission to recruit Immanuel for the Resistance and, while at it, shatter his very distorted self-image and worldview. Upon forging a contract with her, Immanuel believes that he has sold his soul to a demon. It is only upon meeting others of her kind that he realizes that really is just her personality.

#3 — Mortis Grimm

❞ People reject that which is foreign to them. You of all people should know this. Still, my personal aspirations and origins are of no concern to you. Remember that. ❝

While there are several people from the Realm of Calliah in Elsthess, the realm that Mortis Grimm originated from is unknown. He seems to be the only one of his kind and there is something sinister about him. Wielding powerful magic that matches no other in recorded nature, Mortis, despite being the leader of the Resistance, is a big mystery to all of its members. Usually donning a Plague Doctor mask, Morgan is among the few to have seen his face. He is Mhorunn's greatest ally, but hardly a trusted one. Most understand that he could just as well become its greatest enemy one day.

Interested in reading more and receiving updates as they're posted? Comment on this post and tell me if you'd like to be added to the taglist! Reblogs are appreciated to spread the word! 💞

Taglist — @gwaaaaar @silveryloneliness @noxochicoztliv @justletmeon12 @averytirednerd @letsallsleepoverwork @styrofauxm @non-pressurizeddiamond @mangoinacan13 @amateurmasksmith @kenobiblue @soru-dee @pictures-of-the-stars @elf-osamu @animusicnerd @jaytherat-hometothereblog @watcherofeternalflame

[cerealboxlore]

Okay so I have a headcanon that captain marvel have gold in his blood

In greek mythology the gods bleed golden ichor and captain marvel is basically a God or at least half god

so that stands to reason that half his blood is gold or at least has some golden flacks in his blood stream

I could totally see some greedy supervillain trying to exploit the $h!t out of this, someone like penguin, Lex Luther, Dr. Silvana or basically anybody who has a lust for wealth and power and the bragging rights of I made the great captain marvel bleed and make a profit off it

There is so much art potential in this idea, it's just

Beautiful.

Yes, Captain Marvel may be injured and suffering in agony, but think of the art 🎨 the poetic tragedy in a mortal (somewhat) man bleeding the divine blood of the gods.

I think this idea is so cool!! I love the little inhuman traits being added onto Captain Marvel for some subtle horror and magic effects for the audience, like; not needing to breath, not needing to blink or sleep, doesn't need to eat, and now, bleeds gold. Someone out there in the DC universe is calling Captain Marvel a SCP, I just know it.

And yes!!! I can absolutely see a supervillain trying to take advantage of this info once they know it!! A man who bleeds gold is akin to finding a goose who lays golden eggs, once you find one, you won't just let him go. Although, there aren't much people who can make him bleed in the first place, so that part of their plan is a tad bit tricky.

Penguin, yeah he would want the wealth that comes with Captain Marvel's blood, but I'm not sure how he would try to make him bleed. Perhaps a team up with a magical/mystical villain? Lady Blaze, maybe. That'd be an interesting team up. Or if batman has a vampire themed villain, that could work even better. I'd like to see how that could go down, especially if it means Captain Marvel gets captured for ransom in Gothom with Batman and batfam trying to find out where he is before all his blood gets magically drained out of him.

Dr. Sivana is an obvious choice, and I am here for it. He would be one of the few people who knows that Captain Marvel bleeds gold, and as a mad scientist who ventures into the dangerous depths of magic from time to time, he would find a way to make the Champion of Magic bleed, whatever it took. If his blood is magical, then Dr. Sivana could be doing this to steal some of the Champion's power for himself or his weapons.

Lex Luthor on the other hand, oh gosh golly. This man would learn that Captain Marvel bleeds gold and 1000% take advantage of it. Not because he needs or wants the golden blood of a magical champion, but because he can.

Adding onto this, you know in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, how "Father" would turn his blood into a philosopher stone? Maybe that's how Captain Marvel's golden blood works. Or maybe it's not just gold that comes from his magical blood, but he can create other minerals from it as well.

Other minerals that aren't so easy to find.

Minerals such as....Kryptonite.

Lex Luthor would definitely want to make the Captain bleed if it meant a larger and more steady supply of Kryptonite, and also manipulating the friendly relationship between Superman and Captain Marvel (like in the episode, The Clash, of Justice League Unlimited).

I had so much fun talking about this idea of yours! Feel free to tell me more about it and others you want to talk about!

[theclearblue]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

I have, but luckily I enjoy gushing about some of my favorite characters aksjdklkgl so I'm happy to answer again! Last time I just listed some but this time I'll 1. Do a limit of one per series and 2. Give an actual description of why I love them. Also I'm so sorry this will be mostly animanga characters just because these characters stick in my head easier for some reason? My memory is truly awwwwful. (Also also this is by no means a definitive list or order, just some that I really really like).

Zoro (One Piece)

I feel like I've talked a fair length about Sanji and Robin and why I love them so much, but I have a little bit of a difficult time with Zoro. Fun fact before I started watching one of the few things I knew was that he was a fan favorite an was determined that I wouldn't like him that much, he's the "cool and badass and broody" one and I thought he was gonna be the kind of character similar to Megumi (JJK) or maybe Bakugou (MHA) both who I like but it's not favorite archetype. But then I realized. He's just a Guy. a Silly Guy. My man is stupid in such interesting and unique ways ajfdklsl. But what I REALLY love about his character is , yeah, he is kind of broody and reserved, but it seems more like a burden he puts on himself in order to protect the people he loves rather than a true reflection of himself. He cares SO much about the people that he loves and it's clear to me that his greatest fear is not being strong enough to protect them. His "I need to get stronger" attitude honestly seems to stem a looot from his anxieties and maybe even trauma around losing Kuina at such a young age. Ok I could talk forever about him and it's actually not difficult to pin down why I love him but I'll end it there.

2. Kenjaku (JJK)

I've kind of built a bubble within my online presence where I don't really see the vitriol, but I know this is REALLY not a popular opinion, and a lot of people are confused as to why I really like them (biggest offender is my sister who gives me shit for this constantly lmao). And I get it! Kenjaku is genuinely vile in what they have done (particularly as Kamo Noritoshi) and what they're trying to do with the merger. By all means he shouldn't (isn't) supposed to be likeable. But they REALLY captured my attention when I caught up to JJK back in August and read the Culling Games arc in full. For starters, silly guy, and I love silly guys (see above example). They're pretty unique where they fall into this "mad yet cold scientist" trope but...they're playful? They're genuinely excited about sorcery and will be kind of annoying where, for the life of them, they CANNOT read the room that everyone just doesn't care or actively hates them (which makes me a little sad honestly lol)? Little bits of information were just constantly intriguing (their relationship to Tengen, being a foil to Yuki, and not to even start on them being Yuji's mom). What really cemented it for me was the Takaba vs. Kenjaku fight though. Kenjaku before this seems driven to keep going for scientific curiosity, but it's clear to me that they're bored, disappointed, and even seem depressed a little bit ("And yet...there must be more to human potential"). But then Takaba comes along. And they honestly have an instant connection while also pushing each other in ways nobody has before. Isn't that insane on Kenjaku's part? They've been alive for over 1000 years!! They find someone who understands them, they might be enemies but they are a duo. Gahhh I could talk about Kenjaku forever they have so many layers and they just fascinate me SO much.

3. Yona (Yona of the Dawn)

One of my favorite protagonists of all time, without a doubt. And I didn't even like her in the beginning (you're not supposed to really). At the beginning of the series, she's honest to god, a spoiled brat. She whines, she complains, she's incredibly weak and takes people for granted. But good god, this is one of the best character arcs I have ever seen in my life. When her entire world is thrown upside down and she's betrayed by her childhood best friend, and has to go on the run with Hak, she just matures and grows into herself so beautifully. She travels around her kingdom for the first time and sees the complexity of the situation where, yeah, she lost her father because of Soo-Won, and that hurts still, but she understands why because it becomes kind of clear that her father was pretty incompetent as a ruler. If I picked one character on this list that just has the best character development, Yona sweeps I'm sorry.

4. Killua (HxH)

Ugh this really should be both Gon and Killua but if I had to choose one it's Killua. Another great example of amazing character development. At the beginning he's already a fun character to watch, he's easygoing and quippy and just cool honestly. But with his upbringing as an assassin he's clearly not very...well adjusted to what a normal life looks like. He's raised to be a cold and ruthless killer and nothing more, and that's reflected in the Hunter exam arc when he swipes a guy's heart from his chest without a second thought. But then he meets Gon, and for the first time in his life he gets to just be a normal 12 year old boy? And as he goes on this adventure you can just see him become more human to the point he can't ever return to how he was at the beginning of the series. And to have that parallel with Gon (particularly in the Chimera Ant arc) where Gon is losing his humanity while Killua gains it?? UGH I want to give this kid a hug so bad I love him.

5. Riza Hawkeye (FMA)

On this list because she sent me into my first gay panic (at least, the first one I was consciously aware of LMAO). God, what a woman. She is incredibly hot but I do love her character as well. It's hard to talk about her without also talking about Roy (and vice versa) because they are just SO intertwined, but god if there were ever soulmates, it's maybe them. Just the level of respect and trust they have in each other is unlike anything I've ever seen, where they both are so haunted by their pasts but they keep each other going and are able to so easily rely on each other? Ugh they're just so amazing, and with Riza seeing how strong she is where her own father uses her to protect flame alchemy, and her just 100% trust in Roy to burn the tattoo?? Wowowowowow she just. She changed me.

6. Anatole (The Great Comet of 1812/War and Peace)

Ok so um. My big secret is that I'm a Musical person. I really don't talk about it much here lmao, but when I tell you I was like. Obsessed with the musical The Great Comet of 1812 for a solid two years that's no joke. Which is just. If you don't know a musical that adapts about 90 pages from the novel War and Peace (stick with me here). And my even bigger secret is that I'm obsessed with Anatole, who is the villain/antagonist. Um he's not even particularly deep I don't think, he just sucks. But he captured my heart by being a silly guy. This man is an arrogant piece of shit man but also kind of a coward, and him singing the line "Just as a duck is made to swim in water, God has made me as I am" to justify him cheating, I-...it changed something in me. Never before or after have I wanted to dissect a character's brain so much in my life. He's maybe the first silly villain that I just really loved lmao, maybe there's a Anatole -> Kenjaku pipeline (this pipeline only exists for me and no one else in this world).

7. Toph (Avatar the Last Airbender)

God choosing between Zuko and Toph was difficult for this entry, but I want to talk about Toph lmao. Just. What a unique and refreshing female character where I still think her writing is ahead of it's time. Just on the surface she's so fucking cool right. What an introduction where she's soloing all these musclehead earthbenders and putting grown men into the dirt. And such good representation of a disabled character where she's clearly not incapable and the things she can do well, she does really really well! But she is faced with the reality of needing help sometimes and she's not ashamed to ask for it, and I think there's this really good balance struck with her character between these two factors. I think she also just blends into the gaang seamlessly while also challenging them in new ways, and vice versa, and they really don't seem complete without her.

8. Eurydice (Hadestown)

Ok oooonnnnneee more musical character and this is definitely more justified lmao. Another big secret is that I love Greek mythology, was obsessed with it as a kid and still am. And Hadestown twisting the Orpheus and Eurydice story into this grim early 20th century industrialist/capitalist setting with jazz elements?? I'm a history major I'm such a BIG nerd for shit like this, and this is the best iteration of Eurydice to me. In the original myth, she gets sent to the underworld because a snake bites her, there isn't any agency to it, it's just bad luck essentially. In the musical, she CHOOSES to go down with Hades to the underworld, and that small thing does wonders for her character. She obviously loves Orpheus, but the fact is, she's going hungry and growing cold, and where before she would run away, she stayed for her love of Orpheus. And then Hades slips in to offer her food and shelter for the exchange of labor, and she leaves to the underworld, not realizing the colossal mistake she just made. She's such a flawed character but you understand why she makes the mistakes she does, and her character is just so incredibly human.

9. Mob (Mob Psycho 100)

This kiiiiiiid. God I love him. Apologies to Gojo but this is just the best instance of an "OP" character. This kid has busted ass psychic powers, powers that people literally worship. Unfortunately this doesn't save him from any of the horrors that middle school presents. He can't talk to his crush, he kinda sucks at sports, and he has little to no social skills. And on top of that he feels the need to suppress his emotions due to the consequences of his powers? GAHHH I just think Mob is maybe one of the relatable characters ever, you can be the best at something but that doesn't save you from the growing pains that being a teenager presents! And just his journey of self acceptance and kindness and love is so heartwarming to see, the way he resolves his insecurities throughout the series just healed something in me too.

10. Sophie Hatter (Howl's Moving Castle)

HMC isn't even my all time favorite Ghibli movie (top 3 though), but it's certainly the one I've gone back to the most and that's in large part due to Sophie. At the beginning of the movie, she certainly isn't in a bad place in life but there is this...melancholy? sadness? to her where it seems life is more happening to her and she has zero self esteem. When the curse is placed on her and then we can literally see her character journey and the ups and downs being reflected in her appearance, it's just so unique and realistic. It's so satisfying to see her start to actually live her life, to gain confidence in all of her various states, and how she helps both her new found family and how they help her as well. Another character where her development is just unmatched.

Thank you for sending this ask, I had a lot of fun rambling here <3

[talenlee]

The Brilliant Fool

Normally when I write here about a Transformers character, it’s a character who has some significance to me as – well, honestly, as an example of a kind of person I could be, growing up. Blades gave me a lesson about quelling the want for violence inside me and also how defensive violent bf /softboy medic bf was a top tier pairing, and Dinobot gave me lessons about dying well in the face of oblivion, a lesson that I thought I needed really soon when I got it. There are Transformers I love because of jokes, Transformers I love because of association with toys and there are some Transformers that I love because they are, through no fault of their own, completely useless doofuses.

Let’s talk about Wheeljack

Wheeljack is an OG Transformer. Not only was he present in the original TV series, he was the first ever Transformer to be animated, the first one to appear on a cell and the first one to say or do anything. Wheeljack was also in this privileged position because he was from an earlier time, an earlier toyline, one of the diaclone toys that needed minimal changes to come on over. And not only was this the 1980s but this was a Japanese toy from the 1970s, so his toy was a really nice model that was also, coincidentally, made largely out of die-cast metal and had all sorts of lovely detailing and stickers that you could use to show how good you were at putting on stickers unless you were a fumble handed gallumphus like myself.

Don’t worry, I never had a Wheeljack, but I knew someone who did, and that toy was nice.

Anyway, Wheeljack as a character was one of the huge cast of Transformers who got a personality written up in what feels in hindsight like filling out a spreadsheet, where the writer got a picture of a character and had to devise a name and personality for them and keep moving, while also doing everything they could to keep them from overlapping with one another, which, of course, they did. Did you know that Grimlock (A t-rex) and Fortress Maximus (a city) and Brawl (a little guy about the size of a VW bug) are all listed as the strongest Autobot? Making sense of these original bios was like digging through Biblical harmonisation, but at least Transformers admit they’re making stuff up.

Anyway, Wheeljack got given the personality up front of being a crackpot mad scientist working for the good guys, which meant you took an archetype normally full of potential malice and potential goofiness and then just stripped out all the malice. Wheeljack in G1 was a guy who would invent things, and those things would have to be useful to pretty much only anyone in exactly one episode. This meant Wheeljack was either solving the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that would fix it, or causing the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that unfixed something, and sometimes both.

Wheeljack served a good, steadfast, mechanical role in the story of the show and to that end he hung around a lot. He also had a really easy face to animate – rather than flap a mouth or move a visor, his face lit up when he was talking, which meant you just changed its colour. Real convenient, real nice when you wanted to have him talk at length.

But this is just ‘why Wheeljack showed up a lot,’ it’s not by any means an explanation as to why I liked Wheeljack. What I like about Wheeljack is instead something created in the negative space of the character by what the people making it didn’t intend to do.

Here’s how it cooks out. First of all, Wheeljack is an inventor who is memorably depicted screwing up and eating dirt, regularly. He’s an inventor but it’s easy to feel like his hit rate is half and half, and a bunch of the things he makes have the weirdest solutions to them and ways they work. It’s not true in the comics, mind you, those are written a bit less for, y’know, four year olds in the 1980s, but the ‘crackpot inventor’ element sticks around.

The other thing is that Wheeljack’s disguise sucks.

It’s not that he doesn’t look like a car, he sure does look like a car! But Wheeljack doesn’t turn into ‘a car.’ Wheeljack turns into a sports car.

Well, so what you may say, it’s not like sports cars are that rare.

And then I go, he turns into a Lancia Stratos

And you’d interrupt me, comically, — Well, okay, no you wouldn’t, you’d say what and I’m embellishing for the bit — and say, hey, no no, see, you’ve got a specific name for it, a model, that means it got made in some degree of mass production,

And I respond with yeah, we know how many of his type of Lancia Stratos got made. He’s the Group 5 Lancia Stratos. He has specific racing regalia on him for sponsor material. Because he didn’t copy ‘a car’, he copied a race ready Lancia Stratos Group 5. There were only 500 Lancia Stratos made, and only a small number of them – like, less than ten – were ever put into racing colours, and then they were deomissioned. Imagine if while trying to blend into a location you picked the disguise of ‘recognisable celebrity,’ or maybe tried to blend in at the zoo as an endangered animal of which they knew they only had two. This means Wheeljack was in a position to scan the Lancia Stratos Group 5 (which wasn’t run in many races after it failed!) and then drove around after it left!

It plays into the way that his inventions seemed to fail a lot, or seemed to work in weird ways. It depicts a person who has somehow a skillset that’s suited to making big, impressive, technically challenging accomplishments and not a goddamn lick of sense about what he can do with it. This is a guy who can invent a teleportation machine and his idea of how to use it to solve the war is to let humans move more quickly to and from the base to update them on what the Decepticons are doing. This is a guy who makes a blender with a frappe setting that retasks a satellite. This is a guy whose first appearance on screen is using a machine he built that then immediately backfires and sets the tone for him for the rest of his life.

Wheeljack is one of my favourite Transformers, but only in the way that I love to watch the way fans talk about him, because of the beautiful alignment of super genius and fantastic idiot.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[icebreaker01]

S4E2 Review

So, a few questions right out of the gate. First off, who is in favor of killing that smarmy little weasel Nima? (Every hand in the reading audience races to be the first one up.) Excellent. We’ll be selecting winners later. Feel free to get your bribes in order now. (Person in the back.) “Ummmm…..Question?” (Author) “Yes?” “Not meaning to press for too fine a point here, but…..exactly ‘why’ are we killing him?” “Because he’s a weasel. Any other questions?” (Everyone else is busy trying to figure out how much they can afford in bribery money to be the one who gets to kick him off the train.)

Next. While I have nothing personal against the character, I have come to the conclusion I am fine if they kill off Till. Why? Because they have already tried every episode, TWICE in E3, and I am actually tired of watching ‘The Bess Till Show’. What was it, Tomorrow Studios? You asked who would accept a pay cut, Mickey Sumners got her hand in the air first, so you said, “Great! You will get 90% of the screen time for S4, since we can‘t afford Jennifer Connelly anymore.”?

Moving on. While I am an avid Laytonie shipper (Melanie deserves SOOOOO much better than Bennett), I actually have a plausible reasoning for this ship, and most of the reviews of S4E3 agree with me apparently. Did anyone else notice back in S3 that the only time Layton came down from his pillar of ‘I’m in charge!’, was when Melanie came back, slapped him good and hard, asked “What exactly were you thinking!?” and walked off to fix it? Even over Ruth, she seems to be the only woman on that whole show who can keep this man in line. Gone from her influence for 9 months and he falls completely off the rails when the first thing upsets his happy little world. If Melanie had been at New Eden when the kid was taken, she’d have made him sit down and form a plan, present it calmly and rationally to the others, then left enough time at the end to take suggestions and opinions . NOT just go running off yelling at everyone why they had to do it his way. And as for Ruth’s manner of handling Layton, I akin this to an unruly child whose parent stands in front of them and asks “Have you REALLLLLY thought this through?”, and the kid is smart enough to do just that. In other words, folks, whenever Layton is acting like a pitbull, Melanie is the one who gave the leash a good, hard yank.

A fun speculation here, folks. We have run into just about every male left on the planet. As has just about every male left on the planet denied being Alex’s father. Now we have suddenly a new male, who Melanie obviously knows………..and I am will to put some money on the table here……..for Nima being a potential father. I don’t like the thought. And it doesn’t make me want to kill him any less……just sayin’. And I am also having issues trying to imagine Melanie hooking up with Dr. Frank-n-furter. Also, I will absolutely admit to a strong need within me to jump that man from a side corridor with a handheld trimmer and have at that hair until I see skin! Honestly! What crack infested dream did someone have that had them coming up with this look!? The man looks like your consummate mad scientist! (Someone from the audience gives the writer a tap on the should and a long, knowing look in response.)

And thank the frozen planet New Eden still has Sykes. Because seriously, in Melanie’s absence, someone needed to step up to the plate and give Layton the beating down he got at the hands of that woman. Once again New Eden’s group has a picnic, and Layton is the one showing up with all the bad decisions. Seriously, for the past three episodes, he has made the other little weasel Oz look positively sane.

Next up; Honestly folks, I didn’t think a show could have as many plot holes as this one had through three seasons and still manage to survive, but wow! Three episodes in and I’m already driving a train through them. Plot hole 1: In seven years, these people in the bunker never once tried to contact a ten mile long train circling the globe?

In seven years, you never tried to contact the other train either?

Snowpiercer; you had a revolution with a few hundred people against armed guards and won. Now you have a train with at least a thousand people on it against MAYBE (We’ll be generous here) 100 guards, who rarely travel in more than twos or threes, and you can’t take them out?

Regarding the lone rat person in New Eden. What is this person eating? Where are they staying? And this equation does not get better as you add people to it. Say it is a whole squad of rat people. Again, what are they eating and where are they staying?

And what's with the Rat guards? A reviewer of the show eluded that they are in fact some sort of mutated humans and horribly disfigured under their masks. And the fact that pulling out a tube in their suits causes them to go nuts and bleed a black fluid seems to be a point in favor of the assumption they are something not quite normal. OK, who on this show is, but that’s another topic.

Now lets move on to what the Hey, whazzup at New Eden!. First off, who really took the kid? Why would the rat squad bother? They know nothing about her. There are so many other worthwhile targets. Why her? (Now, in recent days I have learned that the whole plot here was to get Big Alice, and believe me, I did NOT learn this by way of anything presented in the show. Maybe I fell asleep at a crucial point or something, but I do not remember one character mentioning this.) Also, if it is the rat squad, how did they get there? It isn’t like New Eden was in their backyard. And how would they manage to get a whole group of people that close to New Eden without anyone noticing? Josie is regularly out there in the mounds of fake snow contemplating what the &$^&# she is doing with Layton……or at least if she‘s smart she is. And she never saw ANY trace of these people? How are they staying hidden? Also, why (and how) did Dr. Headwood even meet up with these people? And why offer to help them? I think a better alternate theory is that there is a sole rat person; Wilford. Someone Dr. Headwood would have no problem working with. And he would know about the kid’s genes being manipulated (as that he did it), making her someone he would want to experiment on further. Mind you, reviewers of the show do NOT favor this theory and still stipulate that the rat squad will attack New Eden.

Now, having read some recaps and reviews of S4E3, it appears I indeed fell asleep somewhere near the end and woke up again just in time for the credits to role. I seriously thought the whole plan with the ‘fertilizer’ was to kill people on the train. Why do this? Who knows? The writers had obviously relapsed into their crack addiction when they wrote this. However, it seems that there was a plot line here I completely missed. Apparently while in the back car and Till and Bennett were ‘discovered’, everyone managed to get out when the canister went off except Till and Admiral what’s-his-name. Apparently there was a supposition where Till was sacrificing herself (being killed off AGAIN) to make sure the head evil baddy also did not get out. Well, they did survive (BIGGG surprise) and the canister only contained a knock-out gas. (Seriously, if you want to survive, just stand near Till.) Now apparently this is not just some random plot stuck in so the writers could have a circumstance where they could make yet another attempt to kill off Till. The gas in the canisters was intended as part of an ambush for when Big Alice arrives. HOW the rat squad knows Big Alice is coming is anyone guess. Wishful thinking? Who knows? But this whole ‘increase the food production’ (and again, a great big ‘WHY?’) is merely to get the canisters hooked up to the ventilation system in the last two cars so whoever comes off of Big Alice is simply walking into a trap. And again, the question is ‘why?’. You had Snowpiercer. You had your ‘bird in the hand’. Why did you let that one go? If this is all some elaborate plot to get both trains, wasn’t there a simpler way to do it? Let them know Snowpiercer is at your base, lie about everyone having a good time and we’re all friends and ‘Hey! Why don’t you and your group at New Eden drop by for tea one day? Meet old friends. Talk over old times. Steal your train. It’ll be fun!’

I have a very bad prediction for the last episode of this series. I have seen numerous head nods to both the movie and the graphic novel. In fact, I swear the graphic novel was the script for the first episode from the characters to the set lay out. So currently I live in fear the final episode will be a head nod to the movie, ending in a similar way.

But again, I waited too late to post this and read more reviews, so I have learned a few new things that could be happening.

Now, assuming everyone doesn’t ‘all go together when they go’, I have a few quick predictions:

Surviving: Melanie - because she’s Melanie, and killing her off is just stupid and pointless and your viewing audience will hate you forever. Bennett - Because it would upset Melanie otherwise. This was LITERALLY said on the show. Layton - Much as we may wish for an alternative, I think he will survive. Till - Because she is obviously a cat and has six lives left. Although there are seven more episodes. Audrey - Again, you had your shot and missed. She’s in the clear. Alex - As annoying as she has become, you don’t kill the kids. Miles - See above, less the annoying part. Wilford - because Sean Bean has it in his contract he can not be killed.

People for whom this is likely their last train ride: Roche….and his lunchbox. Boki - he has become a superfluous character now. I see a fight at New Eden and he goes down. Oz - because he has become annoying and we were promised ‘redemption‘ story lines. Sykes - See ‘Boki’. Javi - See ‘Boki’. Dr. Headwood - Just because…..and ‘See Oz’. Nima - we can only hope. Admiral what’s-his-name - if he survives your show has no ending. Rat squad - See ‘Boki’.

[cak31ssuperi04]

uve prolly gotten this before but y ship the blondie and oreoy,,,, curious

Is this about Izuchi and Sagara??

For what little we see of it I like their potential dynamic. They're so particularly annoyed by each other. I like that most of Izuchi's presence in the story shows him as a hyper-smart prodigy who thinks he's better than everyone, only for him to get lame and pathetic in Sagara's 3rd event because the competent bonafide genius is weak to the Weird Anime Kid. She's able to bring him to her level and cracking through his ego, which is maybe more fragile than he lets on. He's stubborn and likes challenges, and she wants her unhinged mad scientist antagonist-figure to clash with. He acts like he's above the petty rivalry but folds after one childish insult. If that's all it took, and if Nanashi had to get between them this time, I 100% think this happens regularly and has escalated before. They're silly.

They're both jaded teens who have an inflated sense of self-confidence. They do what they want without regard for what people think(though I will draw the distinction between how she's just kind of annoying and he's actually harmful) and end up detached from them without much of a drive to change that, but they take it in different directions, with Izuchi being pragmatic and serious and Sagara being a chuuni who's easygoing and kind of making it up as she goes along a lot of the time. He's arrogant and will wrong others to further his research but can be capable of and willing to help others(re. Meru's event). She ultimately means well and is a nice person but will casually threaten strangers and target people because she thinks they're weird(her dialogue regarding him as an organization member indicates that she doesn't seem to actually know about any of the legitimately shady shit he does and just messes with him because the genius schtick is bizarre. Again, Kind Of A Bully Maybe is really not on the level of Human Experimentation but then the game doesn't treat that very seriously either. And also Sagara's still capable of knocking him on his ass)

It definitely would take some sort of development for them to come to like each other or for romance to come into question, but I think it could be fun. They'd challenge eachother. She'd keep his ego in check and make him see the value in things that aren't strictly logical and he'd act as a voice of reason(to an extent…) and help strike some balance between reality/fantasy, but they still wouldn't really care about what people think. Menaces always.

[countlessrealities]

MULTIMUSE MEME: Send a " ⭐ " and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours, or potential muse combinations if you are also a multi.(copied the meme just to make sure you know what meme it is, since it can get quite confusing with all the memes out there to remember which one was for what occasion)

Send a ⭐ and I'll tell you which muses I'd be interested in throwing at yours || Always accepting !

After an age and a half, I'm finally replying to this! Sorry for the wait, but I wanted to answer your ask while having enough time and brain energy to give you something substantial combos and plots wise.

For the muses on my side, I'm basing myself on your pick on my interest checker, since I'm assuming those are the ones you'd like to interact with ^^

Rick: Obviously Dr. Chandra would be the most obvious interactions since he could easily mistake my Rick for the Rick who gave him the portal gun / Rick might want to know why some random guy has access to portal travel. I could also seeing him interacting (whether it means making pals or butting heads) with Tycho (science & bad attitude bros),

Morty: I could definite see Morty making friends with your younger AI muses (Joshua, Edgar, Hal, Tau) and be either some sort of "babysitter" or just help getting them in even more trouble. Both things are equally possible xD Also, I could see him sort of stalking Dr. Chandra while he works (he does like watching Rick work, but well, Rick isn't exactly the teaching kind xD)

Evil Rick: AM - If you ever want to explore AM having his progress undone, Rick is definitely the kind of muse who could do that. He is very level-headed and cold most of the time, but he is also sadistic, enjoys experimenting on living beings also for the sake of it, and he has moments when he goes all "evil mad scientists" where he shows a much wilder side of himself. Colossus - Very serious and no-nonsense attitude? Big lack of understanding when it comes to human emotions, but curious towards them? He could be Rick's soul twin xD He's not a people person at all and he's very picky when it comes to acknowledge someone's existence (let alone make friends), but I think Colossus is the kind of person he could get along with.

Rick Prime: AM - Pretty much what I said about Evil Rick, with the different that Weird Rick would probably purposefully try to get AM back to his old self as a game or a little side project to keep himself entertained. He just loves planting the seeds for a big mess and then sitting and watching the chaos that follows. Blain - These two share a lot of bad traits, so I could see them reaching a point where they still don't like each other / get on each other's nerve, but also hold a certain respect for each other. I think Blain could come to appreciate how blunt and brutally honest Rick can be, even while being a master manipulator.

Mercenary Rick: Dr. Chandra - Since this Rick OC doesn't know about portal travel and all, he could be the Rick from Chandra's dimension. The guy spent most of his life away from Earth, but I can see them running into each other either when Rick has returned to Earth (for some reason) or while Chandra is out looking for "strays" xD Leela - Their relationship could be interesting because Leela would remind Rick a lot of his late best friend (Diane), so he'd be torn between wanting to get to know her and avoiding her like the plague because she brings back all his unsolved grief. Also, with her nurturing personality, she might actually be the kind of person he needs in his life to start moving on! Durandal - They have a lot of common ground, especially the bluntness and love for tidiness, so I think they could be friends!

AR: I couldn't pinpoint any dynamic in detail for him, but I could see AR interacting with Sal and Tycho, maybe?

Ofc these are just ideas! If you don't agree with them that's totally alright to let me know. And if you have more potential dynamics in mind, please let me know! I'd love to hear your ideas -eyes-

[fairy-lights-and-blobs]

I feel like, from the side of the canon main characters, all that Class 1-A hear is like, a mention on the news of "Weird Teen revitalizes Space Program by sheer passion for the subject". Which, huh. Cool. Anyways.

But on the DP side of things? Nezu and David Shield have to CONTEND with Danny "Little Badger" Fenton, son of mad scientists, and a mad scientist in his own right.

He WILL bulldoze his way into Nedzu's office if he Has To. What is all this futuristic tech you're using for, if not to Explore The Cosmos?

"The Gods wanted me dead, now YOU get to Find Out why" says a mildly sleep-deprived Danny, bane of David Shield's patience, and incredibly amusing friend of The Rat.

All Might? Who's that? Why is the space suit lady not IN SPACE? Why even have a space suit if you don't use it for what it was designed?

Danny will Have Words with these people.

All For One can't get a single moment of peace if he shows his face. He crushed Danny's favorite place. The ONLY space museum. The staff are grateful that the feral raccoon of a kid managed to make the Boogeyman reverse the damage, but they'd rather not know HOW he did it.

He's their Little Guy. Everyone's favorite unhinged madman with a passion for science and space, say the Museum Staff, tossing a moon rock at a sparkly-eyed kid who immediately sets about gutting their gift shop microscopes to build himself an Actual Microscope that functions, and discovering new and unheard of properties in the Space Dust.

What do you mean "he acts like a villain"? The Museum has collectively adopted him. Kanako over there managed to lure the kid out with beef jerky and rice balls, and now he's living in their attic.

They tossed him in the shower, and everything.

And they don't have to waste money on tours guided by someone who cares more about people punching each other than Space Dust. They just put Danny in front of this group of tiny preschoolers, who are here because the Hero Museum has more dangerous bits they CANNOT gnaw on. And he DAZZLES them.

Danny infodumps So Much on Space and all that's Up There. His cheeks are lighting up like little constellations, and his eyes glow a little Too Much to be normal, but the kids? They ADORE this scrungly Older Kid. His vibes are perfect for them. Mama duck and his little ducklings. The Adults are immediately forgotten.

"We can just...go get some coffee? The kid's good, he may look feral, but he has enough spatial awareness to spot a kid about to lick an electrical socket, even from his blind spot (Somewhere in the distance, Aizawa feel tremendous rage and jealousy). He's good."

They come back to Danny tossing a moon rock up and down like it's a tennis ball, and somehow one of the light fixtures have been mad science'd into being a projector for constellations.

A whole class of preschoolers walks into the Space Museum bored out of their minds and wanting to go see All Might instead.

They leave all shoujo sparkles and big eyes, with a new passion for Space. They WILL get someone Up There, as payback for their new friend and mentor.

Maybe Clockwork tells the Fentons they don't have to hurry so much. Danny is Thriving, in his own way. Has carved himself an irreplaceable spot in the place he got yeeted into. He's tossed a couple Heroes on their backs for touching him while he's distracted. Iida has tried to get Random Civilian to stop Mad Sciencing, only to get thrown on his ass because he startled them.

Quirk? What quirk? His powers let him phase through things, sure, but the mad science is pure Human Potential. Izuku has a new idol.

Maybe this could even be a couple years later. Like, Danny first getting dropped into this place BEFORE BNHA canon. He's a feral 16-year-old and 13-year-old Midoriya goes to The Museum with his mom. And there's this guy who unapologetically talks about how his Quirk isn't something he uses for his work. Sure, it's great to be able to grab something from a machine's inner parts AFTER it's already built and it got snagged in the gears, but what's he gonna do being intangible while sciencing? Drop beakers? Been there, done that, got the detentions for it.

No, Danny is a Cool Older Kid who inspires children to work with more than just their Quirks.

And then, on the U.A Internships, Midoriya meets his favorite Role Model, now in his 19-20 years of age, still as feral as he remembers, but age has tempered him.

He walks softly and carries a big stick.

Everyone listens to him, even if he doesn't raise his voice, because he's half-raised the local young adult population, and is now also half-raising their siblings, and in some cases their kids.

He's official Museum Staff nowadays. Still their Only Tour Guide, but now he's so tall he can see every kid in the area, no matter where they hide (he's a liar, he can feel where they are because thei is His Haunt now). No one gets lost, and meltdowns are handled by Danny picking up the toddler in question and letting them hide away in his shirt until they're less overwhelmed.

Until a Villain comes knocking. Then, Feral Raccoon is back in town. There's Fenton Anti-Creep Sticks strategically hidden around the place. The Shmuck Of The Hour is getting locked in the Museum. And Danny will show no mercy.

Unless they're hiding for a good reason. No sir, Danny has not seen the man that Endeavor almost killed for stealing some bread. Certainly he didn't run into the Museum. That's preposterous. Tsukauchi, buddy! Remember what Danny did to that guy that tried robbing this place? (The Detective does remember, and his headache intensifies at the memory)

Sorry, this is just me rambling on and on now, but the idea grabbed me by the throat and once I started writing the rest just wrote itself, with me as it's Oracular vehicle of expression.

Hope at least some of it's entertaining?

Okay but? We of the DPxDC? Are COMPLETELY Sleeping on DPXBNHA?

And not even for the Main Plot Shenanigans!

Just?? It has ALL of DC's super powers? But MORE OF THEM. And like 80% of the population has um! Danny can?? Finally achieve his DREAM of being???

JUST SOME DUDE™!

Yeah, he's in Japan. That's a bit of a learning curve. And YEAH, there was a cataclysmic war like a few centuries back that sorta... fucked everybody up. No one wants to talk about it. There may be mass graves and Never Forget memorials. But?

On the SURFACE!

This place seems utopian!

No ghost hunters! Advanced technology! Robust social services*!

Wait... what was that asterisk? What do you mean "corrupt shadowy government organizations"? What do you MEAN "Immortal Supervillians"? NO SPACE PROGRAM!?!? AaaaaAAAAAAAAAAH?!?!? I'M IN HELL!!! This is ACTUALLY THE BAD PLACE, THIS IS HELL, OH GOD NOOOOOOO-!!!!!!

Cause see?

There are SO MANY REASONS he'd end up there?

Think about it! Wish that he lived somewhere his weird biology wouldn't exclude him from becoming an astronaut? In Quirks having Bnha Japan EVERYBODY has weird biology! Y'ain't special! You could TOTALLY be an astronaut!..... if we HAD those! We do not. Shut down that program during the Quirk Wars and never really started it again. (And somewhere, Desiree LAUGHS)

Or MAYBE? Things are getting a little hot on the ground? Bit TOO spicy. The Family Fenton and Friends have fallen back, behind the barely holding shields. Not even the Mansons considerable political maneuvering could stop the inevitably of human fear and blind unthinking hatred. Money can't buy everything, in the end. There is only ONE(1) way out.

Through the Zone.

Plan: Strangers In A Strange World is a go.

They're all Limnal enough to fake it. Sam with her plants. Tucker with his technology and persuasion. Jazz with her limited empathy. Their parents with their... well, weirdness. And with a touch of ghostly assisted meddling? Well, they've always BEEN there! Haven't they?

And that's not to MENTION the random 4 year olds with no control! JUST coming into their powers! With all those big emotions in tiny bodies? Startling events and tantrums? Villian attacks? What could THEY possibly hope to do to control or guide that fresh new power? It does what it does and the rest of us are just along for the ride!

If Danny happens to be minding his business and gets accidentally kidnapped by a VERY distraught 4 year old? Well, that's hardly the KIDS fault, now is it? They're FOUR! That is basically a toddler! Tiny child! They are upset, confused, and didn't mean to do ANYTHING. He's a hero. And Heros don't blame little kids from accidents, no matter HOW stressed it makes them.

No, the curse like a sailor INSIDE their head. Like an ADULT.

Just? Imagine~☆

The slow transition from *starry eyed shoujo sparkles* "This is SO COOL~!" to "huh, that's... kinda weird. And Sus. Weird Sus. Maybe nothing... oh! A distraction!" To "okay, this KEEPS happening, that was shady. You all saw that right? You realize that's not NORMAL, right? That that's fucked up? Not cool?" To "oh god, oh God, OH GOD! I'm in HELL! This is actually HELL! I'm trapped in HELL!!! WHAT THE FUC-"

Like? This kid LOVES space. LOVES the stars. And this is one of the few Superhero Cannon that SPECIFICALLY MENTIONS that IN CANNON? Thanks to Quirks? As in Superpowers? That VERY THING got fuckin SCRAPPED. Gutted. Consigned to be a relic of the past so they could all focus on punching each other Real Good.

He would weep BLOOD. Chew the WALLS. The LEVEL of unhinged this child would unleash? Not as Danny Phantom... but as DANNY J. FENTON? Beautiful. Vaguely psychotic. Definitely doing the Fenton Name proud. God, the NOISE HE WOULD MAKE would be inhuman and yet somehow? Come entirely from his human half.

They👏 Would👏 Hear👏 BOSS👏 MUSIC👏

I don't even know if he'd CARE about the main characters. They'd be tangential at best. The man would be in a one man war with I-Island over their lack of space program and hoarding of scientific progress. Probably living out of an abandoned building or forgotten subway station. Just? The MOST bedraggled, feral genius to ever haunt Japan.

As opposed to the REFINED feral genius. Who is Nedzu.

I bet Danny stands outside his school at one AM waving his scientific papers at a camera and YELLS. Like a deranged lunatic. Mismatched slippers and a "haven't slept in a week" crazed glint in his eyes.

He's Nedzu's new best friend. They GET each other.

And, yes, Nedzu COULD let him in... but it's faster to just let him yell and read the papers through the camera. Who CARES if they both seem insane! Let's shout about advanced physics and engineering at 1 am! Over the speakers!!! Oh? You need to physically SHOW me the notes? Well I COULD unlock the gates... OR just wait for you to finish scrambling up the walls like a feral Racoon, to then throw yourself OVER them.

Either, Or.

I'm just SAYING! We are SLEEPING on this! There is so, SO much fun to be had! Danny breaks rules and minds! His outrage over injustice and the complete lack of SPACE! His protection instincts going BUCK FUCKIN WILD. The INDESCRIBABLE hate boner he would have for Mr. "Lemme just rip parts of your soul out so I can collect your powers like pokemon cards" AfO.

There? Is SO MUCH, guys. SO MUCH!

@hdgnj @the-witchhunter @babbling-babull @hypewinter @nerdpoe @lolottes @dcxdpdabbles @mutable-manifestation

[ignitification]

Dissecting What-thefuck-Ever is Happening in Jujutsu Kaisen

Am I crazy? Am I going mad? Is this manga making me delusional? All of this are valid hypothesis. However, onto the content, because I'm confused and trying to give shape to whatever my mind is thinking.

The last couple of chapters really put my English comprehension skills to test: not because I don't get it, but all the different details and the shades which Gege uses to describe and entwine things is so subtle that sometimes I am afraid that the translation does not give it justice. And kudos anyways to those who put this into words, because this is one big mess on 'insert weird jujutsu thing'.

This New Arc (The Culling) is probably one of the most difficult, in terms of events and storyline, arcs in the story. Fair enough, Shibuya was pretty complicated, as events were happening at the same time - but in the end, Shibuya lasted about five hours and that was it. The Culling has origins which go back in centuries, and only that makes it interesting, dangerous and maddening to think about.

One thing which I want to mention before anything else, because I know that I will forget otherwise, is the sentence which Tengen repeats twice in Chapter 145.

Per his saying, he cannot read the Human Heart, once in reference to Yuki, and the other in reference to Kenjaku. The weird thing is that this makes it clear that despite everything and the implications, Kenjaku - is still human at the end. He is physical, material and therefore he is not invincible. I am not sure if this was the intent behind this words (to let them know how Kenjaku is as human as them, and therefore it it possible to stop him) - but I still it has some sort of relevance. Also, this makes me question, whether Kenjaku's technique is limited to the brain and its knowledge, and what generally his technique is.

Tengen tells the Six Adventurers that Kenjaku is at least as old as Sukuna, and the two have been involved somehow. His objective is so force human evolution. And in order to do, he wants to boost up Japanese individuals (likely because of the amount of immense cursed energy present) - and to merge Tengen, who is now more cursed spirit than human, with humankind.

This is because the next stage of sorcery (and humanity, intrinsically), for Kenjaku, lies in optimising cursed energy. But in order to do so, the potential which human retain needs to be exploited fully. Therefore, people have to be aware that there is still potential to be discovered (next stage of human evolution).

The objective of the Culling Game therefore splits into two currents: cull the potential vessels to fuse with Tengen and spread cursed energy like wildfire (with the end goal being a new golden era, Heian Era) by applying the natural law of the survival of the fittest (searching for the one who could completely fuse with Tengen) and making Japan the cull of all cursed energy - which would potentially attract other cursed energy, from other countries (even if as we know it is extremely lower compared to Japan) and as Yuki potentially already guessed in Chapter 136 to make Japan a monopoly on cursed energy.

Another things which gets mentioned, but at the same time I am not entirely sure has anything to do with the things I am thinking of (and specifically Sukuna's fingers and the remains of the clan ancestors - if this is even a thing), however boundaries and restrictions (f.e. Heavenly Restriction that both Toji and Maki have) are a very big thing in Jujutsu Society and Sorcery. A blatant example is the pact that Sukuna made with Yuuji (and that neither can break). However, according to Tengen the bond of fate between The Six Eyes, Tengen and the Star Plasma Vessel has been broken thanks to Toji Fushiguro, who killed Riko Amanai 12 years ago. (Also, the choice of words that Toji escaped cursed energy is very interesting, and worthy of further looking into). This allowed for Kenjaku to carry out his plan to weaken and further let Tengen evolve into an almost cursed spirit, which he could manipulate through Getou's technique (which explains why he seized his body) to finally let the ritual of breaking into the body and finally merging begin (the culling game). To allow this however, Kenjaku had to make different restrictions, one of which is not not be the Game Master of the Culling. But in this case, two questions come up: who is the Game Master and what are the other restrictions? Can this be used as an advantage by Yuuta, Yuuji, Megumi and Maki to beat Kenjaku, free Gojo and stop the Evolution?

And this also prompts the question of, if Kenjaku would merge with Tengen in Getou's body, what would the consequence be? Also, does this merging occur after the end of the Culling? What if Kenjaku finds another body to take advantage of and this way, the vows he made when it Getou's body are not worth anymore? Would that play in his favour? Could it even be possible?

However, in order to do so, and since Tengen's barrier optimises cursed energy, and at the same time protects itself, Kenjaku is striving to eliminate Tengen's barrier. In the end, if the cursed energy is dispersed, yes it would mean chaos, but as well it would mean endless possibilities to evolve. Furthermore, if Is stretch this into unknown territory, what the picture could be is: since for Kenjaku the only ones able to successfully merge with Tengen and have a use out of it are Japanese people (for reasons stated before), and from the things we know of Kenjaku (old as they come, acquainted with Sukuna and Uraume, mad scientist who tampered with the Womb Paintings - creating Choso among the others, and most likely having tampered with the Itadoris') it would create the picture of a mad scientist in full gear striving for innovation, evolution, creating by destruction.

It gets cleared with the content on these next two panels:

Kenjaku wants a chaotic world, one that even he cannot control, in which Cursed Energy is a limitless source and has no possibility to be put down. The question that comes naturally with it is definitely why, because I am afraid that merely 'evolution' is a downplay of the real intentions of someone who experimented so much and has survived different centuries, under different names - all of which (known for now) are of 'evil' jujutsu sorcerers (both Kamo Noritoshi and Getou Suguru), who did not conform with the will of jujutsu society.

Does Kenjaku want the whole to end, to go berserk - because if there are no barriers and one individual goes mad, everyone does? The creation of 'Trascendent Being' which are more than jujutsu sorcerers? To see what's over the threshold of jujutsu sorcery? To have the world as the scene for a new Shibuya but with the possibility to influence and kill more people? Territorial expansion extendable over a certain barrier?

Anyway, I am not sure what the point is, just that Gege's plot is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to know more.

[wisteria-lodge]

Archetypes: Sorting Hat Chats

I’ve been asked about my rationale for naming different primary/ secondary combinations. I did this originally as a tool to help me sort characters - I wanted to see how these types tend to be used, so I could more easily see what subversions looked like. I'll run through my thoughts, but know there’s a lot of variation within each category. But even WITH that variation, I do think that each one has its own specific energy that makes it interesting to talk about. An explanation of the terms I'm using.

DOUBLE LION “THE REVOLUTIONARY”

Pretty straightforward. The Lion primary knows something is wrong, they know it in their bones even if they can’t articulate it, and they’ve got to go out and do something about it. Probably charging at whatever power structure is directly in front of them. It’s unlikely you find a character leading a revolution who isn’t a Double Lion. These guys are intense, inspirational, single minded.

The villain version of the Lion primary tends to be the person who “went too far" or "became the monster they were trying to fight.'' But I think that the much more interesting Lion primary villain trope is the Traitor. Since Lions work from their feelings, and their philosophies can’t necessarily be articulated or linked to individuals outside of them - they can definitely have their head turned while still feeling moral about it.

One of my favorite examples of this Revolutionary archtype is actually Christian Bale‘s character from Newsies. He’s the spark that starts the unionizing revolution, but 100% needs his Badger and Bird lieutenants to keep him focused and keep him from defecting

LION SNAKE “THE ROBIN HOOD”

These guys are similar to the Double Lion - they will recognize a cause or injustice revolutionary style - but Robin Hood doesn’t go up and bang on wicked Prince John’s door. His move is the snake secondary one: confront the problem indirectly. Undermine the regime by stealing tax money and re-distributing it to the poor. Be simultaneously Robin Hood the outlaw and Robin of Locksley the noble, infiltrating and getting information. The Lion Snake is more likely to work within society (or deliberately separate from society) versus just breaking everything down.

LION BIRD “THE LAWMAN / THE VIGILANTE”

The fact that the Lion Bird can either be the Lawman or the Vigilante shows off the very clear hero/villain split you get with Bird secondaries. We also see this with the Snake Bird (simultaneously the Mastermind and the traditional Villain) and the Double Bird (either the Scientist or the Mad Scientist.) This is why I think I had such trouble naming the Badger Bird. I wasn’t leaning into the duality of the Bird secondary enough. The Badger Bird can be the King Arthur, or he can be the Mob Boss, and he’ll look kind of similar either way.

The Lion Bird also has that Lion primary conviction and drive, but they want to follow up on it with investigation, evidence, and plans. I actually think there need to be more stories about Lawmen turning into Vigilantes and vice versa. Because Lion Birds are their Cause no matter what external alignment gets attached to it.

LION BADGER “THE LINCHPIN”

This is my own sorting - although when I came up with this name I still thought I was a Double Bird. The linchpin is the pin-axle thing at the center of a wheel that prevents the whole thing from falling apart, and I think it's a good way of talking about the energy of this combination. The Badger secondary means they’re a lot less single minded than the other Lion primaries: their power comes from being part of a group. They become the emotional “heart” a lot, and have a way of quietly keeping things together just by existing. They can be leaders, but a Double Lion will lead from up front while a Lion Badger will lead from in the middle (if that makes sense.)

I do think it’s really funny that this is a common sleeper villain trope. Peter Pettigrew, Prince Hans, and Randall Boggs of Monsters Inc. all became integral to a group, and then exploit their position within it. They’re kind of the evil bureaucrat. Maybe that's a good trope for children’s media

DOUBLE SNAKE “THE TRICKSTER”

This is another straightforward one. Double Snakes are in it for themselves (and maybe like three other people.) They're going to be clever and tricksy about how they get what they want, and will not mind doing things backward and unofficially. And they won't mind if you know that's what they're doing. There’s something very unapologetic about the Double Snake which makes for very attractive characters. They are consistently voted the sexiest... and when they’re villains they’re fun villains. You know what they want, and what they want is not that complicated. I think that’s a big reason for the appeal of Snake primaries in general. They’re the easiest primary to understand and explain.

SNAKE LION “THE LANCELOT”

I used to call these guys “The Rebel,” which... is too generic, doesn’t really mean anything. So I started thinking about the Lion secondary as the Knight secondary, and I liked that. Double Lions are the Crusader Knight, riding for their Cause. Bird Lions are Grail Knights, riding for their own personal truth. Badger Lions are Champion Knights, here to help the helpless and defend the innocent.

And if that's that case… Snake Lions have to be the Knight Errant, the knight who rides for his lady. It is that simple. Lancelot might be a Knight of the Round Table, but he’s riding for Arthur the person, not Arthur the King. And for his lady, Queen Guinevere. I feel like his dilemma is one that’s common to a lot of Snake Lions: what happens when they’re forced to split their loyalty? It’s tragic, but Lancelot can’t have Arthur and Guinevere simultaneously.

(At least not until my awesome Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot OT3 which I will totally write at some point :)

SNAKE BIRD “THE MASTERMIND / THE VILLAIN”

The classic. We see a little more of the Bird Secondary split, and well… this is your stereotypical villain. They want power. They’re going to use an elaborate plan to get it. There’s a lot you can do with this sorting, but I actually do think it’s fun that whatever you do, this slight undercurrent of villain and/or mastermind… never quite goes away.

SNAKE BADGER “THE LOVER”

The Love Interest sorting. Chances are very good that if there is a love interest (who does not serve some other role in the story...) they're going to be a Snake Badger. Devoted to one person, solving problems by caretaking. This is the Badger secondary who is likely to have the smallest group, which is just going to make them look excessively devoted to their friends. This type is pretty gender neutral, which is fun. A lot of female love interests, but also your Mr. Darcys and Peeta Mellarks.

One of my favorite things about this trope (mostly just because I think it’s funny...) is that if you write a character who is not supposed to be a love interest, but who is a Snake Badger... subconsciously I think people are going to read them as a love interest anyway. Looking at you Jaskier, Horatio, and even Captain Barbossa.

DOUBLE BIRD “THE [MAD] SCIENTIST”

I think that (especially if you aren’t a Bird Primary yourself) your response to hearing a fictional Bird Primary’s motivation is kind of …huh. That seems random. Or oddly specific. You get your Hannibal Lecters, whose entire motivation is... wanting to eat people while drinking nice wine.

Double birds seem especially unusual, just in terms of society. They are Bird secondaries and they interact with the world through gathering data, but their Bird primaries mean that data can literally lead them to any conclusion, no matter how potentially wacky. These guys consciously build themselves from the ground up, and that can make them kind of detached - either in a logical way, or an unmoored way. They're written as either really stable, the rational mentor figure. Or really... not. And that’s how you spot a Bird villain. They’re not after money/power/safety, they’re after something weird.

BIRD LION “THE GRAIL KNIGHT”

This is the trope of Perceval or Galahad, questing after the Holy Grail chalice... which is really just meaning, and truth. It’s a personal quest. Grail Knights tend to ride alone, and a lot of the things that concern them are metaphysical, to do with identity, purpose, things like that. You can have extremely different Bird Lions, but I do think there is a sort of spiritual core there. Doctor Harleen Quinzel sees freedom and truth in whatever the Joker is doing, and then once she recognizes his hypocrisy, has to go build her own meaning.

I actually think these guys are pretty easy to spot because of that Lion secondary. When they change direction, they change direction, and there’s probably a period of despair between the direction changes. I’ve talked about how Bird Lions having a habit of falling apart pretty dramatically, and that’s where this idea comes from.

BIRD BADGER “THE SURVIVOR”

A rare sorting, but an interesting one. I call this one “the Survivor” or “the Last Man Standing” because, well, they seem to be. They seem remarkably stable. This is the Bird primary least likely to be a villain, and maybe the sorting least likely to be a villain. I think what’s going on is that they are grounded and integrated in whatever community they happen to be in (because of that Badger secondary), but they can define themselves and rebuild themselves in the Bird primary way. This makes them uniquely suited to building a new version of themselves for whatever situation they happen to find themselves in.

Maybe a better name for these guys would be “The Adapter.”

BIRD SNAKE “THE ARTIST”

Like all Bird primaries, these guys are inspired by their own projects and their own worldview, but because of that Snake secondary, Bird Snakes have a more easy-going ‘take the world as it comes' kind of energy. They are “the Artist” because everything they do is art: they want to use themselves and the world around them, put all of that towards whatever their Bird primary happens to be interested in.

You can have villains like the Nolan Joker, or the Talented Mr. Ripley, who kind of turn the world into their own personal philosophical social experiment. Or Scotty from Star Trek whose meaning is solely the well-being of the Enterprise. Maybe they just like traveling, and that's all they need. (It's a way for the Bird primary and the Snake secondary exist very happily together, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was pretty common.)

DOUBLE BADGER “THE PEACEMAKER”

Badgers are interesting, because while I think they’re generally regarded as “correct,” they’re also seen as kind of boring. That’s the case with both Badger primaries and Badger secondaries, which means it is doubly reflected in the Double Badger. They often get written as simplistic, the sweet Jane Bennet type who loves everybody and caretakes everybody and just wants everybody to get along.

They are often the targets of what TV Tropes used to call “Break the Cutie.” What could be more interesting than making this character, who wants to be happily part of a community, be forced to build protective models, be all tortured and angsty? I actually think we’re seeing a return of the Double Badger as an interesting character in their own right, with people like Aziaphale, and I'm here for it.

BADGER LION “THE PROTAGONIST”

What can I say? There are a lot of protagonists that are Badger Lions. They want to help the group - so we know they're the good guys - and then they charge and make stuff happen. Lion secondaries are very useful in fiction - you drop them into a situation and stuff just happens. I also think of this as the Starfleet officer sorting - because if you’re a Starfleet officer, either you are the sorting, or can model it really well.

I will say that this is kind of the stock Protagonist sorting, the way that the Snake Badger is the stock love interest and the Snake Bird is the stock villain. There’s just something sort of generic good guy about this one, which is why I want to see it used as a villain sorting more. Badger villains - mostly people who define ‘human’ very narrowly - are insanely terrifying.

BADGER SNAKE “THE ADVISOR”

Possibly “the Power Behind the Throne.” This is another one I had difficulty pinning down. I called it “the Politician” for a while, which unfortunately came off as a little bit more negative than I meant it to, since I think this sorting has a lot in common with Lion Badger, the linchpin of a heroic team. The difference is that Lion Badger takes on that role kind of unconsciously, while the Badger Snake does it very consciously.

Their loyalty is to the group, but their skill set is all about subversion and different ways of going around the group, which is why there’s an interesting contradiction at the heart of Badger Snake. A lot of real life Badger Snakes struggle with feeling like “bad people" and it's too bad. These guys are ridiculously powerful and competent when they are sure of themselves, and I love seeing them in action

BADGER BIRD “THE KING / THE MOB BOSS”

Another difficult one, despite (or because) I really like them. I was calling them “the Architect” because “The City Planner” sounded too boring… but that’s what they do. They’re all about the community but they problem-solve the way all Bird secondaries do, by prepping, and gathering knowledge. I talked more about this in the Lion Bird entry, but Bird secondary seems to have this villain split going on, and that’s what I see here too. This is a controversial love-them-or-hate-them sorting, and I think that’s why. There’s a lot of room in whether or not you see this sorting as villainous.

[knickynoo]

After Doc reached his breaking point with Alex in the crossover AU, what do you think would happen?

AU post here.

I actually don't think Doc would reach a true breaking point, at least not in the sense of him losing his cool or anything. I mean, Doc's only human, so he definitely does have his limits, but I can't picture him reacting with anger or frustration unless the situation really called for it.

So, in my little AU world, any breaking point he reaches would yield a pretty subtle reaction. It's funny, because there are a lot of facets of both Doc and Alex's personalities that have the potential for them to get along really well. They're both very smart, highly driven/motivated to succeed, and are the types who can focus in on one specific area and just be completely consumed by it until they achieve whatever they're aiming to achieve. These things would allow them to work well together.

HOWEVER...there are many areas in which the two of them could clash. Because when it comes down to it--and this is kind of funny to say, but it's true--Doc absolutely has the upper hand when it comes to social etiquette. As much as he does enjoy his solitude, Doc really is good with people! I mean, just look at how in tune he is with Marty and how suave he is with Clara and how well-liked he is by the townsfolk in 1885, etc.

Alex is. Alex is not good with people. He's brash. His capacity for being in tune with those around him is shaky at best. He just Says Things without much consideration as to how his words come across or will impact others. In all likelihood, he would be pushing Doc's buttons left and right from the moment he shows up (with only a vague awareness, if any, that he's doing so). A lot of it would be in the form of prying questions as to Doc's history--his family and schooling and whatnot. And yeah, he'd also drive Doc a little bananas with his incessant chattering about economics or law (hopefully Alex doesn't somehow discover that Doc's dad was a judge because LOL rip Doc; Alex would be firing off a million questions about that). And yes, Doc would be getting asked every 20 minutes to play chess because Alex really, really loves chess. It would be the perfect scenario for our favorite scientist to go a little mad.

Upon reaching his breaking point though, Doc wouldn't really show it too much?? I just don't think it's his style to lash out at others. If anything, he would just remove himself from the environment for a little bit. Be like, "Um, excuse me, Alex. I need to attend to a quick errand. Be right back." And then he would go to a room on the other side of his mansion and lock the door and just sit in the quiet for a while, haha. And the good part would be that it would work every time without even the slightest risk of Alex having his feelings hurt or suspecting anything is up because Alex's ability to read between the lines is almost non-existent. He'd just be like, "Huh, that Dr. Brown sure does have a lot of secret errands to run. Oh well! Maybe he'll play chess with me when he gets back. :)))"

Thanks for the ask!

[dawnssummers]

they set up parallels between buffy and riley as secret demon hunters with very different philosophies and then they explicitly have adam relate to riley as 'creations' of maggie walsh and yet it feels like missed potential! they never even seem to spell out that experimenting on demons is a bad thing! maybeeee there are media law limitations around messaging but it's like. maggie dies for her follies / we see that adam can't be controlled but adam could and should have expressed more frustration over being intended as some kind of weapon and also maggie should have been framed more as a natural result of this environment and not a mad scientist outlier. and riley has his crises of purpose and does help oz escape but there's never a real moment of showing that this whole operation was bad because i actually don't think it's a grey area i just think the military is bad. and i mean we would also have to look at the idea that maybe there ARE harmless demons which yes we SHOULD consider. angel is good at showing demon diversity and like different shows different main protag purposes but still. we get so close to Some kind of commentary with oz being captured and it gets dropped. and then riley just rejoins the military what was up with that. the military operation that was secretly feeding him drugs so that he could hunt demons who would then be experimented on??? i also just remembered they literally chipped him. dude what the hell. he actively does not know how to adjust back to "normalcy" after all that. when buffy was the one being secretly drugged on behalf of the organisation that she worked for bc they didn't see her as a person she eventually walked out and only came back when THEY could work for HER and i'm not even trying to pit riley against buffy i am saying that this was badly executed he and the boys could absolutely have left in that helicopter to be rogue demon hunters. bc however much i want him to die for cheating on buffy it would have been a good end to riley's narrative to have him not be in the military.

buffy and riley have been used as weapons while adam seems to have been created for that purpose. and at the end of s4 we start to dig into what it means to be the slayer and buffy once again refuses to do it alone. generally there are distinctions drawn between buffy who has this calling to protect people (being called a 'killer' is shocking bc it isn't how she sees herself, it's not what she wants to be) and the initiative who comes in thinking they can hunt. Then there's adam's demons vs humans thing which was silly like why give him this vision to populate the world with versions of himself (???) when he could be having a proper identity crisis as well. literally have the incitement be either part of his programming or true disillusion with a humanity that created him. idk this was a chance to further interrogate military and slayer systems just as s3 started and ended with unionisation. and most importantly i hate the military...

btvs season 4 if they had committed more to the anti-military / child soldiers / war machine ideas

[ooooo-mcyt]

Honestly though I have seen a lot of takes that seem to really overstate/oversimplify Grian's negative- or perceived negative- personality traits and it feels very odd to me. Like, obligatory disclaimer that im new to the yhs fanbase and and as such don't know how old most of the fan content ive found on yhs is so if I ever mention character debate ive seen and y'all are like "I ain't seen anything like that recently???" It's cause I don't discriminate on new stuff, five year old stuff, or anything in between, mostly cause I don't know how old any post or whatever I stumble across is.

But like. I see Many posts implying Grian is rude, disrespectful, manipulative, vindictive, arrogant, and violent. And I don't *get* it.

I mean. Throughout yhs Grian is actually one of the characters most averse to violent or criminal action. His typical pattern of behaviour actually consists of Grian trying to completely avoid involvement in wild dangerous activities and objecting immediately both on logical and moral grounds, giving in only under outside pushing and often threat of serious harm to himself. And, well, duress is an actual legal defense in criminal cases that can get criminal charges cleared or reduced. "In criminal law, actions may sometimes be excused if the actor is able to establish a defense called duress. The defense can arise when there's a threat or actual use of physical force that drives the defendant—and would've driven a reasonable person—to commit a crime. A classic example is someone holding a gun to the defendant's head to force the defendant to break the law. Some courts use the term "coercion" or "compulsion" for this defense". Which is why it's immediately very odd to me for Grian to be assessed as just violent/criminal period as if that's an active part of his character. Most of the time when we see Grian commit a crime or physically harm someone he has reasonable cause to feel like he's in danger if he doesn't do so and would not take the same actions otherwise. Hell, legally speaking sometimes he's got an outright case for violencd self defense even beyond the cases for duress. Some examples of times Grian was involved in criminal activity include cases of robbery under duress, shooting in self defense, that kind of thing. This is a young highschooler with very minimum history of wrongdoing before getting stranded in a seriously abusive relationship in an incredibly crime heavy city and getting pulled into a string of crimes pretty much all with potential coercion/self-defense defenses built in. Literally everything about Grian's situation- from his age to his decently clean criminal history to the abuse he was suffering at the time to the use of threats/attacks against him to convince him to commit any crimes he was involved with- are likely to be a point in his favour on a legal standpoint and certainly should be notable when it comes to moral judgement. Quite frankly there aren't many characters in the series that id feel individually safer around because independently inciting violent encounters just isn't something he typically does. And having the survival instincts to bend under serious threat just isn't the same as being a violent person in your own right and saying Grian's just a violent or criminal person overall feels really weirdly oversimplified.

And beyond that is the idea that Grian's arrogant/disrespectful/manipulative/rude/vindictive. Which just feels out of pocket honestly. Grian can have a cynical streak, but that usually manifests in calling out genuinely inane bs or like...insulting his abuser(s). Stuff like being touchy and annoyed about their teachers not teaching them anything or calling Sam "literally the worst person who's ever lived" or making snide comments about how fucking insane Yuki is or similarly pretty justified grievances. Grian plays into the trope of the Only Sane Man, which, ive quoted this in the past but imma do it again, here's a quote from yhe tv tropes page on the Only Sane Man. "Alice is a Psycho for Hire, Bob is a Cloudcuckoolander, Henry is an Empty Shell, Charlotte is a Chaotic Stupid prankster, Daniel is the Annoying Younger Sibling, Emily is a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, Maria Rhymes on a Dime, Franklin is a Mad Scientist, and Gardenia is a Holier Than Thou Lawful Stupid. Looks like your standard Dysfunction Junction. But then you have Isaac. Isaac is actually a very well-adjusted individual. He reacts with appropriate horror to things like Alice's finger collection or Franklin's experiments to revive the dead with science, and the crimes against nature that Gardenia calls pets. Isaac is the Only sane Man and The Only Voice Of Reason in the room". That's what Grian is. Pretty consistently. Grian's the guy that calls out the cruelty and incompetence and stupidity of the other characters because their general community is fucking *insane* and nobody else seems interested in questioning it. Grian isn't wrong about these observations though and it can't even be a case of "you're not wrong you're just an asshole" because he's not calling out harmless silly stuff, he's usually calling out shit like police corruption or the school neglecting their student's education or people consistently forgiving/excusing his abuser or the frequent unnecessary violence and crime going on in the community generally? And when he's in a situation where he's engaging with a kind or reasonable person Grian is actually typically prone to being polite and level headed in return. He's not typically, like, talking down to innocent people for harmless quirks/choices, he just shows a level of dismay and frustration towards the constant awful shit going on around him and in his interactions with people who are behaving like normal functional human beings he tends to have a pretty decent head on his shoulders?

Like. Grian isn't always in the right 100% of the time with no flaws and no incidents in which he's done something wrong. But he's definitely not some arrogant violent unempathetic prick who loves getting into fights and mocking undeserving people. The latter of which ive actually seen implied (maybe not quite as intensely/directly but ive certainly seen the words arrogant, violent, manipulative, unempathetic, disrespectful, and rude ascribed to him as general personality traits he has which just isn't accurate) way too many times for comfort.

[veryimportantsparkles]

I really need to do more shilling for Josh the Boyfriend’s project!  Neon Divide (formerly Callous Row) is a giant VRchat roleplay, played by over a 100 players and streamed by most of them.  It’s so hard to explain that.  Imagine a tabletop game like Dungeons and Dragons, but done over a 3d chat client.  So some interactions are pure improv acting, based on the players being able to speak and gesture to interact with each other realistically.  But occasionally the game mechanics require a DM to roll a dice (mostly for technical skills).  But also, Neon Divide has a dev team that coded a bunch of custom stuff into their maps so that they can use functional weapons and track damage and effects.

I’ve talked about Neon Divide a little, and done art for it (hmmm, I should update the tag to reflect the name change) but I can never figure out a good way to explain it.  I’m not an expert; I’ve never used VRchat myself, nor do I follow any of the players other than Josh.  It’s a huge setting, you can follow one player’s streams and never encounter half the other players.  They’re spread out across four separate maps with their own overarching storylines, there are several factions in-world, and of course there are little cliques of characters who hang out with each other.  I could probably give a good summary for Josh’s season 1 and 2 character, Johnny, but he’s DEAD and it’s TRAGIC.

For season 3, Josh is one of the DMs of the Upper City map.  ND is a space cyberpunk setting, taking place in a galaxy divided up between seven megacorporations.  Each corp has a branch office on the planet Hellion, which is a distant, backwater dump planet, and they’re fighting over resources and exploiting the residents in order to prove themselves to their respective main offices.  The Upper City is where (most of) the corporate characters live and work, meaning that Josh is the dungeon master of villain town.  Josh wrote a bunch of new systems for them to use, he calculates out their company stock prices and officiates “bureaucratic combat” (sneaky contract deals), a long with a bunch of other stuff that has yet to come.  The image above is my art for his character, a mad scientist doctor dog.  Every DM gets ‘DM hands,’ an avatar that’s just two sinister floating arms that can roll dice.  Josh put a skull pattern on his, because that’s how he does everything.

You could watch Neon Divide through nearly any of the gajillion characters.  I’m not familiar with a lot of them, but now that Josh is a DM if you watch his perspective you can see him jump around between characters who need dice rolls and lore info.  Sometimes he voices NPC characters (through a phone or through a generic avatar) to push the plot.  So watching him is a decent intro to the other characters on his map.  ‘Episodes’ happen every Friday, and we’re two weeks in.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Ep 1 had a lot of fussing around with technical stuff and was mostly just characters introducing/establishing themselves.  A slow start, as to be expected.  But episode 2!!!  I’m surprised by how many shenanigans are kicking off, the villains are all villaning at each other and it shows so much potential.

This is my long-winded plea to take a look at Neon Divide.  I’ll probably start posting here when episodes start, so take this as the main explanation of what I’m talking about.  Even if you don’t end up following Josh (we also use the Hundera account for streaming normal video games, in which I usually appear as well), check out some of the other players and see if anyone clicks for you.  It’s way more interesting than I can fully explain!

[carcass-confessions]

OK SO! shes not the main character, shes not even part of the Main Main cast of this story which is claire, heather, serra, and london, but shes still really important to the world. bit of background on the magic system, everyone has basically a symbol tied to their magic, so all their magic comes out of that symbol whether its the real thing or a drawn representation. so like 400 years ago or Whatever there was some big dumb war or something that ultimately resulted in (or was influenced by? not entirely sure but theyre related) an ApocalypseTM that basically caused the planet to stop rotating, meaning each season is just another time of the day (so winter is night, spring is sunrise, summer is day, autumn is sunset, yknow). anyways there was like this trio of witches that were Super PowerfulTM because of some bs prophecy that basically forced them into being used as soldiers in a sense, and those were Ursa Elara the golden sun witch, Ewa Gloska the silver moon witch, and Altair Tahtinen the white star witch, and their power is kinda the reason why now the sun is golden, the moon is silver, and the stars look white from earth. so they all obviously fuckn died because apocalypse, blah blah blah, 400 years later its present day and omg their symbols have finally been recycled to where all 3 are alive at the same time, and thats now Claire Estrella the amber star witch, London Knight the lavender moon witch, and Nova Jones the periwinkle sun witch.

as for how she is presented as a Character in the story, shes basically the stereotypical All Pink Popular Girl that the mc (claire) is kinda intimidated by at first ((((because nova is really pretty and claire is really gay)))) and it seems like nova is gonna be a bully type character but then she approaches claire first and is just So Bubbly And Nice and i only just now realized that her having a sunny disposition is a pun,,, anyways while claire and london are like really serious about the prophecyTM in that theyre freaked out by it, nova is like "omg guys were famous B)"

theres this odd disconnect between the current trio and the previous trio in that they serve completely different roles yet everyone who knows about the prophecy expects them to be the same. altair was an incredibly powerful healer and basically set the blueprints for this worlds type of astrology as its used in divination and healing, but claire is much more interested in necromancy than being the type of public servant that altair was. ewa was something of a mad scientist and her biggest strength was helping other people achieve their maximum potential and was incredibly devoted to her pursuit of knowledge in researching the science behind magic, since the vast majority of people dont use magic (but are all capable of it) and those who dive in too deep end up going mad and becoming outcasts of sorts. london, on the other hand, is terrified of magic because of the implications of a prophecy, yet magic comes very naturally to him in a way that he cant really explain to others. ursa was the main source of power of the trio, and since she was the youngest (still a student like the main characters), she was the most volatile. while ursa and nova have very similar personalities, ursa was heavily focused on her perceived duties of acting as a kind of magical soldier (which resulted in the apocalypse, oopsie) while nova is ok with exploring all kinds of potential for her sun magic, and although it may be perceived as shallow to an extent, shes slightly more focused on the aesthetics of magic than the practicality of it

i have absolutely 0 idea if this is coherent so good luck i guess

this thing keeps happening where i make a character and then build the world later and find out something about the character like its a plot twist as if i didnt Write Them in the first place