#Maybe even their disguise having elements from what people find pretty

[uvpartybomb]

Had a dream where there was a 64-bit/Horror Visual Novel game about Merged Conscious, so now I wanna talk about it

Nameless protagonist and their nameless dog that you can name both whatever you want. Protagonist is 24, possibly enbie, and has a bachelor's in an unspecified area, but it's also left in the open whether the game takes place in the 90s or 2000s, so protagonist could have been born in either the 70s or 80s.

Protagonist suffers from severe social anxiety, so bad actually, that their mother had to step in and be the one to negotiate their house purchase, in whatever state/county MC is taking place in, but since mom is from the mid-1950s, it's understandable that she might have gotten some stuff wrong, so she ended up coming into contact with a supposed "real estate agent" that she refers to as just 'Angel', and since 'Angel' is heavily implied to be an Echo in disguise, that is supposedly the reason Protag has been targeted.

Protag's father is already dead, and though they have many happy memories with him, they also have a very traumatic one which is of the day he died, and what little their brain allows them to remember, they know that someone tried to break into their old house, and that their dad managed to drive them away on his own, but he passed away from internal bleeding before authorities could arrive. Whether or not this means that Protag was a target for the Echoes ever since they were a kid is left unclear.

The only possession Protag has of their dad is a military jacket, implying that he could have been a Vietnam War veteran. Inside, is a charged L9A1 Browning that must have been left in there by accident, and will unlock two routes if picked up.

All the routes in the game are directly tied to Protag's dog, since it is either a service dog, or is so important to Protag's life that it is basically a therapy dog.

The "choosing point" starts after Protag has gone to sleep after a long day of unpacking, and they hear a creepy sound from downstairs, followed by their dog's incessant barking. Protag starts going downstairs to assess the situation, causing their dog to see them and start following them, and for them to see Damien trying to get through/around all the packing boxes in the living room.

The "Bad routes" can be achieved by hiding in any room that has a door, or in the bedroom closet, but leaving the doggo out. One of the reasons Damien will find Protag will be because of the barking. He shoves the dog out of the way and proceeds to either abruptly slam it open or break it down, depending if it was locked or not.

When Protag wakes back up (game was a bitch and didn't specify if they're still human or not), their dialogue options will either be very impulsive and without thought, especially about their doggo, or of complete silence. Bad routes can result in either Protag being killed if Damien and 'Angel' are irritated enough, or in them finding out that their dog died because Damien accidentally kicked it with too much force, and what happens next is left out in the open, presumably for you to imagine the rest.

Neutral routes are apparently numerous, but they have one theme in common: Protag is turned but their dog survives. My dream didn't provide me with too much of these, but I remember the few that there were. 1- Picking up the dog and evading Damien by making large noises in certain rooms and then hiding in another one, eventually managing to reach the front door, but since Damien is still after them, a chase sequence in the woods happens, which results in Protag getting their foot caught in a random bear trap. 2- The exact same thing but giving the dog a blouse with Protag's mother's phone number sown into it, and letting it run outside to maybe find help, thus Protag is caught but the dog is presumably safe. 3- Hiding in the bedroom closet along with the dog, but being unable to keep calm, eventually bursting into a panic attack, which for some reason makes Damien kill only Protag but leave the dog alone. 4- Shooting Damien with dad's pistol in either the arm or leg, but since the Good route pre-requisit wasn't met, this will just result in him ignoring the discomfort and attacking anyways. 5- After Damien has made it through all the boxes, having picked up the dog or not, shove the largest pile of those on top of him and bolt for the front door. It will refuse to open for whatever reason, and Damien will get up quickly, so Protag shields their dog with their own body instead of fighting back, resulting in their neck being snapped (screen goes black and a crunch noise is heard, so I assume it was that)

Protag will wake up in their living room, this time definitely no longer being human, and Damien is gonna try and talk to them out of the TV, because apparently, up until that point no one was ever so "creative" in trying to avoid him. Even if less polite dialogue options are chosen, D won't be offended or anything, just assuming that Protag is still agitated from all that happened. 'Angel' does eventually show up too, but so does Protag's dog (through the front door doggy space) and that's the most important fact for Protag. They're probably still in a sour mood, no matter if they expressed it or not, but they'll go along with their new "Echo agenda" out of obligation.

Neutral routes are sorta like "training routes" so it's understandable if their endings aren't the most satisfying.

The Good Route, I'd say, is the one that most requires fast reflexes and thinking. Perhaps it is the true ending of the game? After Protag sees Damien midway through the staircase and the doggo notices them, pick up the dog so it stops barking and grab dad's pistol. Go fully downstairs, try to hide and be as quiet as possible until Damien has made it through all the boxes, then run and shove the largest pile of those (kitchen stuff) on top of him, and quickly shoot him either once or twice in the head. Won't kill him, but will definitely give him enough of a headache (haha) for Protag to run away through the front door and reach a safe space without him still chasing them.

Yeah, that's it, I don't remember anything else lol :P

Holy hell this is a cool as fuck dream??

That's really interesting that Damien is so present in it despite there being an established Echo being 'Angel' but also makes some sense-

Your brain made a cool game within this dream, Anon goddamn! Love myself some multi choice games, i could see it in a few different styles, like you got a classic visual novel/RPG setting, like say.. The Crooked Man! Or maybe soemtimes more like Life is Strange or Detriot: Become human in a more 3D space with quick time events. Could even see it within a more retro feel of the styles that Fears to Fathom or Chilias art games has!

Oh this is cool as hell!

[malavera]

Low Profile (18+), pt. ii — Tom Cruise

↳ you’re a successful singer who’s secretly a Sugar Baby to the biggest movie star, Tom Cruise.

summary: 2 months earlier before hell went loose, you and Tom went to Lake Como for a small getaway to enjoy yourselves.

pairings: Tom Cruise x Singer!Reader

warnings: undisclosed relationship, mature content, fluff, smut, public (but secluded) oral f/receiving, squirting, age gap (reader is 25 tom is 59), pet names (princess), dd/lg elements, daddykink.

w.c: 2891

a/n: please do keep in mind that THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION, any places mentioned, time and events are all fiction. I do not own tom cruise (i wish i do). this series will contain 18+ contents most of the time, minors DNI!

read part 1 here

“What do you have in mind?” His deep raspy voice mumbled through the phone on your ear. Your hands playing with the hem of your dress, your eyes darted back and forth watching the situation in the studio peeking from your sunglasses as you think to yourself what would be the perfect place to getaway from all of this workload. Every once in a while people would need to get away and heal just for a good hour before they go back to face the reality ahead of them.

Then you remembered, you’ve always wanted to visit Lake Como in Italy. You’ve seen pictures of it from Pinterest or Tumblr, how wonderful and seemed so magnificently magical. It’s almost too good to be true. A week later you told your manager how you needed to fix yourself a getaway, alone. She offered to come with you, but you politely declined as you assured that you’d be going with a very dear friend of yours. You also wished that you have a full day off, you don’t want to be bothered, nor the internet needs to be informed about your whereabouts.

Here you are, head on his broad shoulders, snuggling around his arms on your way towards the hangar for to get on his private jet. The smell of his signature fragrance breeze lightly through your nose—felt like being at home. The warmth that he projects, the touches, the sweet words it’s nobody’s fault if your heart desires to wish for more, more than what you have right now.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry, but it’s just for 15 seconds. Okay?” The first 3 months were fine, you were intrigued by the excitement—the feelings were mutual while it lasted. Now, it aches your heart as you watch him handing your sunglasses and your scarf to cover up your face. As if on default, your body reacted normally and quickly put on the disguise. Tom, of course, is not stupid. He knows you’re starting to hate these kind of things, but he couldn’t help it any other way. He’s aware about the danger to this relationship if it breaks out to the world, and little did you know—he’s not thinking of himself out there, he’s thinking about you. He knows the majority of your fanbase across the world will look at you with a side eye, at least their parents would as the majority of your fans are younger age.

Tom always finds a way to distract you from your own thoughts, Throughout the long flight, you both pretty much enjoyed yourselves with you warming his cock. Having his hard cock inside your cunt without doing anything for a good 15 minutes to, even possible, 1 hour, is one of many things that is your favorite when you’re with him. Aside from he could just fuck you right there, you feel more connected as he’d get vulnerable with you—for some reason, maybe he felt connected with you more though no pun intended. He’d excitedly talk about his upcoming movie projects, and you’d ask him about his old movie projects for example; You had a movie with Brad Pitt and I read that you complained he had a bad odor, was it so bad? When it was your turn to talk about something, he couldn’t really give you time to talk about anything because when it was your turn, he’d find you adorable explaining all of your big singer gig and music project he couldn’t help but to thrust his hips slightly here and there—that’s where you’d get flustered, fisting his dress shirt and have your eyes fluttered shut feeling his cock.

Turning off the hairdryer, you softly place it back to where it belongs before you brush your thick hair smoothing them out. You sighed to yourself, applying chapstick to your plump lips then joining him in the bedroom as he laid there shirtless with only a jogger around his hips, arms crossed behind his arms flexing his chest watching the local channel. Of course, he owns a Villa here and you couldn’t feel more happier, safe, and content for it is his private manor, and no one would bother both of you.

Unwrapping your robe to reveal your bare breasts and a soft pink panties, Tom peeked to stare at you with a tiny smirk on his face as well as yours. He loves it when you’re almost naked as it gave him easier access to play with your breasts while cuddling. You sighed pulling the blankets up, Tom uncross his arms behind his neck shifting into an open invitation to cuddle against his chest.

“What do you want to do first thing in the morning?” He mumbled in your hair, kissing your head.

“Mm, I don’t know. You be my tour guide, daddy.” You mumbled out an answer while rubbing your eyes with your knuckles. Tom chuckled and went to kiss your forehead,

“You feel so soft, baby. You smell good too.” His big calloused hands went wandering around your body, caressing your arms then to your collarbone, down to your chest—massaging your breasts. A smile formed on your face with your eyes closed.

"I'm tired, Daddy. Can we do this in the morning?"

Tom smiled, "Alright, baby. Get some sleep, I'm here, I'm not going to leave you."

Your heart melts in your chest, your smile falters slowly, you could only pray to god that despite the undisclosed relationship and how wrong it is, you hoped that there comes a day where you could be flaunted in his arms to the world as you could finally say it's me and you against them.

Of course, you didn’t plan this little getaway trip only to feel melancholy and other things that you shouldn’t be overthinking. You’re with him, and that’s all that matters. Morning came by pretty soon that you thought, you woke up to a smell of the burnt Blueberry Pancakes and a hint of the sweet maple syrup. You peek one eye open before adjusting your blurry vision to reveal he had prepared a tray full of breakfast. You gently rub your eyes before sitting up to look around the room for him, you noticed how he opens the door to the balcony—the breezy wind breezes into the room, that unfamiliar fresh air runs through your nose giving your heart at ease. A note was propped against the cup of coffee as it reads,

Out for a small meeting with McQ, be back before you know it.

Of course, everywhere he goes, he would have his crew around with him. You huff in annoyance, crumbling the piece of paper and toss it away. You thought this would be only just the two of you, away from the reality like you wished to. It’s a bad trip already, you thought. You tried to not let your annoyance gets in the way of you and him enjoying this trip, but you couldn’t help it, either way you’d be a brat.

Sitting outside of the Vila at the backyard that leads straight to the beautiful lake, just need to take a couple of steps down and you’d have your own private swimming pool. You plan on getting in the water but Tom just came back and better yet, he’s talking on the phone while you sit there, annoyed, with your legs crossed while flipping through Vogue.

“Do you want to see the market? They’ve got good spots and you can take your Instagram pictures.” Once he hung up his phone, he placed it down on the clear glass rounded table and pulling his chair closer to you.

“No, I won’t be posting any pictures.” You mumbled.

“Okay, how about a small cafe not far from here? It’s my favorite they’ve got-”

“McQ or anyone of your crew’s going to be there?” Tom clamped his mouth shut receiving your snap. You’re upset, tilting your head biting your tongue in the corner of your mouth staring at him while your hands kept flipping the magazine pages on your lap.

Tom’s shoulders slumped, a soft sigh escaped from his lips. He understood why you’re giving him attitude, it was his fault anyway. “Princess,” Oh he’s calling you using your favorite pet names now huh.

“I know you’re upset, you have every right to be. But, you don’t have to worry about anything, they’re not staying. Even if they are, I promise you they won’t be in our away..” Tom coaxed, wrapping his hands behind your knees as he kneeled in front of you. You kept your ground, your lips pursed still in annoyance.

Tom sighed once again before he put himself back om his seat. “How about this,” He started. You turned your attention from the view to him. “You’ll have full control of my phone, for these 3 days. I’m all yours, Princess—I promise.” Tom assured, pushing his chin down, his eyes burning into yours.

“How does that sound to you?” You tried to suppress a smile but fail either way, your arms slowly uncrossed before nodding your head vigorously.

“That sounds like a deal, Daddy.” Bright smile displayed on his face before you jumped to sit on his lap, hugging him.

"Come on, let's go for a swim."

At last you could finally feel at ease, throwing your head back, a sunglasses perched on the bridge of your nose, your elbows propped to support your body relaxing on the ground. Striking a pose for your Sugar Daddy as he took the photo using your phone, a smile on his face as words of encouragement sounded from his lips. Your heart felt giddy in the moment watching him act like a paparazzi taking your pictures, it's a hot day outside but both of you didn't mind it at all.

"Here, Princess." Tom handed you your phone as you gently set it down beside your stuff.

"Come on, let's jump into the water. Get on my back."

"Uhm- Are you sure? I think it's pretty deep, besides it's been a while since I went swimming, I'm afraid my body forgets how to float." Tom laughs shaking his head before he grabs you by your hand pulling you up to stand on your feet.

"Don't worry, Princess. You'll have me, just hold on to me. I promise you, it's shallow, you'll land on your feet."

Boy, that was such a big fat lie once you get on his back as he jumped into the lake with your eyes screwed very shut. As both of you dived into the water, your legs tried to find the bottom where he said you could land on your feet but failed because the lake was not shallow. You swam up to the surface with your heart thumping in your chest, gasping a breath before Tom follows.

"YOU LIED!"

"SEE, YOU FLOAT! There's no way your body forgot how to." Tom laughed.

You grunted, splashing the water at him. "It's not funny! What if my body did forgot how to float?!" You exaggerate. Tom is still laughing, wiping his face before he swims closer to you, holding your body.

"You're silly, that wouldn't happen, you big baby."

The water was mineral clear, it was cold but it felt nice against your skin. You and Tom basically became kids again, at least for him. You both had a challenge who could hold their breaths longer, play tags, goofing around until you didn't realize it's almost afternoon. You swam towards the steps as Tom follows behind you. Setting your palm against the surface to lift yourself out from the water, before sitting down on it.

"What do you think we should eat?" You asked, gathering your wet hair before squeezing the water out.

"I have something in mind." His voice low, his hands set on your knees, spreading them gently as in default, you adjusted your seating position and Your elbows propped on the higher steps.

"I want a taste of this." His thumb went to caress your soaked bikini, a smile pulled on your face.

"Here?"

"Mhmm.." Tom nodded his head, his eyes set on your pussy before his hands went to untie your bottom. You help him by lifting your ass up as it would be easier for him to discard the clothing off from your hips. He tossed it behind you as it landed on the ground, turning your head back to watch him get in between your legs. Tom puts your legs on his shoulder, his fingertips went to caress your naked pussy—teasing your clit.

"Mm, Daddy.. Do you think it's a good idea to do this? What if someone sneak into your manor and took pictures of us?" A worry started to rush inside you, you know it won't happen but you like to overthink the unthinkable situation, as it didn't even happen.

"No need to worry about anything, Princess. Now, shh. Let daddy have a taste." Tom mumbles before he dives into your flesh, his tongue gliding from the bottom to the top, as he sucked on your clit. A gasp earned from your plump list, as your head throws back, your eyes fluttered shut rolling to the back of your head. His tongue game is definitely something, it never fails to bring you the euphoria.

Especially now, the thought of being watched by someone, whoever hides behind the bushes or the walls, or even if there's a helicopter passing by—watching the way Tom Cruise eats the young singer's pussy in the pooling steps, somehow excites you know. The worries had gone away, consciously you challenge anybody out there to watch you getting eaten out. He nestled against your thighs as his hands caress your waist before they wander up to your breasts giving them a massage.

"Oh fuck, daddy.. That felt so good.. Please give me more." You whine out a plea. Tom pulled his face away from your pussy, his eyes bore into yours as you watch him gather his saliva using his fingers before he glides them over your pussy.

"Tell me you need my fingers to cum." Tom growled, flicking his fingers against your clit.

You squeaked, your thighs almost clamped against each other but Tom stopped them. "I need your fingers to cum, daddy. Please!" You moaned.

A smirk on his face, shoving two fingers inside your cunt earning out a loud gasp from you. Tom started to curl his fingers at a slow pace, moans escaped from your throat, your hips started to move to create more friction, you spread your legs wider—if you could watch yourself, this is such a porno situation. But, you love it. You watched the way his bicep flex as he shove his fingers inside you. His eyebrows scrunched in concentration, eager to get something out of you.

Tom increased the pace of his fingers, before he dives back into your pussy playing with your clit using his tongue. Porn sounds watered down from your lips, you couldn't stop staring at the way his jaw moves up and down sucking in your pussy, the familiar tight knot feeling appears in your stomach and Tom knows you're almost reaching for your orgasm.

"Come on, princess." Tom growled against your pussy, the boom from his voice sends vibration through your body, his tongue flicking nonstop.

"Shit! Daddy!" You shrieked, your legs lifted straight up in the air, your thighs shook and with one final glide from his warm tongue, his face are greeted with a spray from your pussy as you squirted out your orgasm. Tom moaned drinking in your fluid, his fingers still thrusting inside you as you ride out your orgasm.

Fuck, I just squirted out to the lake, You thought. Tom must've read your mind as he is taking in the way your eyes widened, your chest heaves, your eyes stares away to the lake. He lets out a small laugh before wiping his face.

"Come on now, Princess. Let's get you something to eat."

Memorizing it as you swiped through the pictures in your phone, you couldn't help but ache. You miss him, it's been 2 weeks and he's back into his reality. Busy as ever, he barely texts you nor call you. You have to understand though, after all,

You don't think he's really yours.

"Y/N, there's a package for you. Here." Your manager came into your room, setting down a medium sized box on your table. You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion as you set down your phone to reach for the box.

"Who is it from?" She asked, nudging her head.

A note was attached to it as it read,

I know you miss me,

here's something to keep you company for a while. — D

The way your lips tugged to each corner your Manager got the hint as it is probably from someone very dear to you. She rolls her eyes with a silly smile before leaving you alone, shutting the door on her way out. You bit your lip once you hear the doors closed, unwrapping the ribbon on the box.

A gasp sounded from your lips, a silly smile plastered shaking your head side to side.

"Such a naughty old man."

It's a replica of his cock as a dildo.

——————————————————————————

tagging:

@deanscroissant

@helloitstsyu

@tomsf18

@call-sign-shark

@moondustfairies

@katherineswritingsblog

@elenavampire21

@gypsymoon548

@lynnsthoughts

@joeltheegoodson

[what-have-i-unleashed]

How write please tell :(

I've written one(1) anonymously posted horrordust one-shot and it is the only thing I've ever managed to write(excluding 1 tma oneshot that doesnt even feature any characters) and is barely more then a thousand words and horrendously bad quality

Every other time I try I can't even get past the first sentence like-

I must be cursed-

I can't even practice writing because I cannot write to practice. How make words. How do words word. How sentence. Help.

Also pretty sure ao3 curse is real cause the first time I posted something(the tma oneshot) my appendix ruptured and then the second time when I posted horrordust my partner of 4 years broke up with me-

Maybe my inability to write down even a single word is a blessing in disguise from the universe to protect me from the ao3 curse-

mind you, english is not my first language, and i am only an amateur hobbyist writer so my advice/tips might not work for you. but i give you some right here if you want.

analyze which authors/text you like it's like doing a literature study/analysis. read what you enjoy, and then break down the components of what you've read. enter your *critique* mode. there are formal elements that might help you see how people write on a basic level: how do they use sentences? how are paragraphs constructed? is there a form/flow to the reading that you find effective? how do they describe things? how do they use dialogue? there are also content that you like that you can take inspiration from of course: themes, characters, character development, arcs, story progression, etc. treat it like a lit class!

plan ahead! one trick i find easy for me to write is to plan what the chapter/fic is gonna look like. put it in point forms: what happens in each scene, which characters are gonna be there, etc. once you have a plan on how the fic is, you can start filling in the gaps. oddly enough, i don't write chronologically from start to bottom - it's a "fill the gap" thing for me lol. i write down summaries of scenes, and then when i read through the outline i will write whatever scene i find i can write at the moment. so yeah!

proofread! might be enticing to post right away, but never hurt to proofread. especially to catch errors or adjust the voice in your writing. you can read it out loud just to hear how the story would be told - that is usually helpful.

that's my advice for you for now. idk if they're helpful, but good luck on your writing journey. though remember: this is fanfiction - it's not that serious. this is supposed to be for fun after all :]

[juniaships]

My idea for Frozen 3

Which surprisingly acknowledges the second movie! Even though I dislike it, I'm not going to pretend it doesn't exist. Well, think of it as a Frozen 2.5 as it's more of a spin-off movie. Rhe story takes the magic mirror elements from the Snow Queen tale. Tw for Flashing Images

Ominous green fire not included

The movie starts with Hans is still on punishment for his actions in the first movie. He's sick of shoveling horse crap and resents his station in life. One day his father offers him a deal: find a magic mirror and bring it back and he will reverse all charges. Maybe even upgrade his rank. Seeing it as a chance to finally prove his worth and get back at the people who wronged him, Hans eagerly accepts the deal.

He boards a ship set coursed to Westleton as a starting point. But one evening it gets caught in a cyclone and Hans is thrown overboard. Miraculously he lands on a deserted island. Turns out the island is inhabited by a beautiful woman named Kirsten. Her only companions is a female reindeer named Anders and a artic fox kit named Sian (pronounced shee-anne).

To Hans's surprise Kirsten has the mirror he's looking for. So he puts on the charismatic Prince Charming act to try to trick her. But Kirsten is no Anna: she sees right through it and shuts him down! She already knows about Hans as she heard about what he did from the villagers she often stayed with. She decides to take him as her hostage.

Kirsten says she got the magic mirror from one of her great grandparents. Her family were far from royalty and couldn't make ends meet. One of her relatives stole a precious item from a powerful mage to exchange it for food. As a result they got the entire town cursed, which ultimately led her family's exile. She believes that by returning the mirror back to original place, she can end the curse. She could give it to Hans and pass the curse on to him but that would be taking the easy way out.

While on the Island Hans and Kirsten try to get along. He's bitter over losing another chance to be a king and she is upset that she's pretty much stuck with the worse guy on Earth. Doesn't help they have to face obstacles such as like giant bugs; a river of lava that can only be crossed via a wonky bridge; and questionable berries.

Gradually the duo starts to get along particularly after Hans saves Kirsten's life. The journey also forces Hans to rely on strengths other than his manipulation.

During a heart to heart, Hans admit the reason why he's so obsessed with getting the mirror is to show up his family; as he was the youngest they blame him for the death of the Queen (who had died giving birth to him). Kirsten replies while that doesn't excuse taking it out on Arendelle, he was still a innocent baby who did not deserve to be treated that way. The honest talk pushes Hans to consider if it's actually worth it.

In Arendelle Hans brothers' are there, not really caring about the possibility of their brother dying. Anna and Kristoff are uneasy working with them but knows that Hans is a potential threat, unaware that he is changing for the better.

After getting to the other end of the island they make it to a coastal village and stowaway to Arendelle (how ironic). Hans is terrified so Kirsten disguises him as a sailor. By luck they arrived during a time of a festival so Kirsten decides to take a breather. Hans teaches her how to dance and Anders and Sian push for them to be a couple much to Kirtsen's amusement.

After a day of jest Hans and Kirsten resume their quest and make it to the trolls. Grandfather Troll tell them about the hall of mirrors. The others trolls know that Hans is bullshitting with the disguise but Grandfather Troll senses that this is a necessary journey for Hans so they can't interfere.

The quartest go to an abandoned Cave (the mountains Elsa were in the first movie) which turns out to be the entrance to the Mage's house. That's where the ultimate test begins. Hans sees a reflection of himself at various points in his life, and the events that culminated in the monster he was in F1. Realizing he doesn't like what he sees Hans resolves to finally change his life and plans on telling his father the mirror is lost. Kirsten undergoes her own test as her "loner" mentality made her miserable and time with Hans made her regain her sense of trust and joy.

Confronting their past selves they pass the test. But Just as Kirsten is about to return the mirror, Hans' brothers show up (having tracked them down) and take Sian and Anders hostage. To save Kirsten's life he takes the mirror and asks his brother to put her under house arrest. Kirsten is upset and tells him off, which hurts Hans.

Back in the Southern Isles Hans gives his father the mirror. With the item now in his possession the king starts making plans to invade the other nations in the fjord. Hans is given a new rank but cannot enjoy it as he's guilty for lying to Kirsten even if it was to save her life. Knowing his family's true intentions Hans decides to go to the last person to ask for help; Queen Anna.

Hans surrenders himself to the Arendelle authorities and is brought before Anna. She's still angry over his actions. Hans pleads that this isn't about that anymore and he is ready to accept full responsibility. But his father is plotting to take over the entire realms, he has one of hus friends locked up, and he needs her and Elsa's help. Anna senses that the desperation is genuine and reluctantly helps him. She learns about Hans's special friend and skeptical over it.

Together with Honeymaren's tribe the heroes go to the Isles and confront the King. Hans sneaks to the tower and frees Kirsten. She punches him and about to do it again when Hans catches her and confesses he only said that to save her life. He has seen what kind of monster his father really is and no longer wants to put up with him. But first they need to stop him before he brings about a world war. Kirsten is relieved that Hans isn't lying, but she makes her grumpiness clear. During the fight they're arguing and accidentally let slip they like each other.

The heroes end up playing keep away with the mirror but the king gets it and about to turn Kirsten to stone. In an intentional callback to the scene in F1, Hans jumps in the way and gets turned to stone. The king is unsympathetic that he turned one of his own kids to stone. Suddenly Sian bites him causing the mirror to fly out of his hands. Kirsten catches it and smashes it.

The effects of the mirror ends. But Hans remains frozen. Heh. Touched by his sacrifice Kirsten weeps over his body. Then the ghost of the OG mage arrives, having witnessed Hans' sacrifice. Even though Kirsten's family stole the mirror, her determination to set things right and sacrificing her only chance at breaking the curse, made the Mage so impressed he takes pity on them. That, and Hans finally putting his life towards what's actually important.

Hans is restored and he and Kirsten embrace. Much to the shock of his family, Hans renounces his royal title and leaves for good. After the battle the nations in the region decide to cut the Southern Isles and arrest the King. The twelve brothers fight over the throne which eventually leads to the monarchy getting dissolved. Being replaced by a kinder more just Prime Minister.

While Anna and Hans' don't become friends they do become allies. Hans and Kirsten travels the world a bit more, focusing on helping people and Hans working to repair his reputation. Even meets her family (who live with Honeymaren's village). Shortly afterwards, Hans is working as an ice harvester and Kirsten is a writer and publishes stories based on her adventures.

An alternative version of the final battle is the king almost turns Hans into stone to punish him for his betrayal but Kirsten takes the blow instead. Hans realizes this is exactly what Elsa felt when Anna turned to stone. He fights his dad and gets the mirror and smashes it. He cries over Kirsten's, the act of true love cures her and the original owner of the mirror takes pity and heals her blah blah blah blah blah Yes it is cheesy. It's a fuckin disney princess movie let me have fun dammit!!

And later when Elsa sends a message that requires Arendelle, Hans and Kirsten decides to go as he wants to make it up to Elsa too.

The story essentially is removing the metaphorical shard in Hans' eye and leading him to experience the world on his own terms and not just what his family expects. You don't have to help the people who ruined your life and doesn't care about you; but also redemption takes a lot of time and work. You might not always be forgiven but the results are truly worth it. Also learn to consider someone else's need and help people without expecting a reward all the time.

[dernarrleid]

CHARACTER SHEET INFO

Name: Anna Liebert (first real name she associates with herself), Nina Fortner (the name she truly resonates with from her adopted parents)

THREE HEADCANONS YOU’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE

Nina's something of a sleeper. She doesn't have command phrases or words, but her brother is able to give off a presence that draws her up by a string. In the manga, it's speculated maybe once or twice that Nina's actually the monster and doesn't realize it. That within her in something Johan's actually trying to protect her from, which is like, never mentioned in detail but man. It's definitely present in my characterization (as loose as it may be. idk, she needed more screentime).

Johan's decided he needs to be more involved in her sister's development, unfortunately(?) Nina's had boyfriends. Both of them not exceptional, more like good friends. It's not until Johan gentle nudges her in the direction of an upperclassmen, sometime around her last bachelor semester, that she realizes women are more appealing. Even later she realizes that sex seems more like an activity to enjoy distantly than something she necessarily craves.

Aside from the obvious issues with her mother, Nina finds comfort in dangerous men. She likes that they share that element in common, and doesn't shy away from the knowledge they bestow from time to time. It's funny, because occasionally, they'll look at her and wonder why the hell she's so interested in them and just oh. Like, wow, this girl found me out, hasn't told the police, hasn't change her demeanor once. Who the hell is she? And as soon as they have that private revelation, like clockwork, she's on their tail asking them question after question, lesson after lesson, gathering all sorts of information and techniques to eventually use for herself. And the strange part about most of them is that they'll give her what she wants without much effort. There's always a "you're so young and pretty, why do you need to do this?" Nina gets that look in her eyes and once again, they just know.

THREE THINGS YOUR CHARACTER LIKES DOING IN THEIR FREE TIME:

Read. Classics, the newspaper, web articles. You name it, she's read it.

Making clothes. She studying for a law degree, but she's also super into fashion. It's sort of comforting to her, as most of her brother's antics involve disguises, so when given permission (or orders disguised as requests) to be the distraction, Nina's brought it upon herself to pad them with the most ambitious styles she has knowledge of.

Training. She can fire a gun with 75% accuracy, so they're not her weapon of choice. If she must defend herself, she'd rather use martial arts and integrate a few small knives if the verse demands her to be more physically inclined. (Despite the grit required to make this something to like, she does enjoy it as a way to release pent up resentment. It's almost spiritual. Some techniques she'll get the hang of and be able to turn her brain off, going through the motions.)

SIX PEOPLE YOUR CHARACTER LIKES/LOVES:

She interacts with like, 4 people because her Mun is dysfunctional.

TWO THINGS YOUR CHARACTER REGRETS:

Not fighting for her brother when they were children. It was almost always Johan protecting her, but she couldn't recall ever doing the same for him.

Shooting him too.

TWO PHOBIAS YOUR CHARACTER HAS:

No phobias!

TAGGED BY: @unladielike TAGGING: @mugunghwc ( kim ), @badheart ( futaba/fang ), @furiaei, @zorkaya

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Honestly I can admit the movie is a little shaky on it's writing.

I still feel like the Movie has an anti war theme cause Miyazaki was feeling anti war at the time, understandably so. But the war plot is shoved a lot into the background and I feel this wasn't really the movie to put it in.

Not to mention how the plot beats move from one to another.

The whimsy is okay, but I tend to watch other ghibli movies more. It's not even my favorite Ghibli movie. Not even in my top five.

But I've always been a fan more of the ideas or concepts presented in film, and a good concept or character writing that's highly relatable can save an okay movie for me at times, but it highly depends.

If theres one sole reason I come back to the film, and that's Sophie herself. Sophie I find is one of the most realistic and down to earth characters that I connected to in a Ghibli movie.

She's a bit of a wallflower, very responsible, obsessed with her work and doesn't even consider doing anything else besides running her father's hat shop.

She's also frumpy and doesn't see herself as attractive.

I absolutely adore the scene early on where she's looking in the mirror and trying on a new hat she just made, and then frowns, coming to the wordless conclusion that it doesn't look good on her. Compared to how beautiful her friends are.

There's also the subtle plot element of the curse. In where I think the curse changes her to be how she always presented herself in mind and body.

And once she becomes an old woman, its almost a blessing in disguise for her. Like she has a blast. She can be as grumpy, and frumpy and do what she wants without so much fear of judgement or physical appearance. Cause it's more an attitude of "well I'm old now I can do what I want"

I also like that she was never really interested in Howl romantically at the start, when all the women were fauning at him. It's just through gaining a deeper understanding of him that she fell in love.

The movie does have it's issues, and sometimes I don't think the other characters are fleshed out as Sophie, and the magic building isn't explained that we'll, but maybe that's explained more in the book. (I don't know I haven't read it. But it's on my list)

But Sophie pretty much saves this movie for me. And it's almost scary how Miyazaki can get into the mind of a young girl, cause a lot of female Ghibli characters are outstanding and I can see myself in them, and I think it's cause he writes his girl characters as people without such a huge focus on romance.

But I know your milage may vary. As I said it's not even in my top five Ghibli movies, but it does provide a nice comfort brains off movie (in an Alice and wonderland type of way) with a strong female lead, and some days, that's all I want in my entertainment.

Somebody is gonna have to explain to me why everyone likes Howl's Moving Castle.

[st-just]

Hi I'm here to give you an excuse to write up what WoW should have been

WoW dream build

I’m glad you asked!

So, you know how the whole entire plot of Warcraft 3 was about the various non-Scourge factions finding common ground to live alongside each other and unite to stop demons from destroying the world? How Frozen Throne’s whole pseudo-Wow epilogue was about Jaina’s dad showing up with a fleet and trying to restart the race war, and Jaina sided with the Horde against him?

So, first things first, in the base game, there are no factions. If you’re a tauren or troll or orc you start in Orgrimmar, if you’re human or dwarf you start in Theremore, if you’re a Night Elf you start in whatever the night elf capital was called after Archimonde blew up the old one. Thrall, Jaina and Tyrande are political leaders and there would be some tension,, and quest-lines based around hardliners and agent provocateur from one faction or another, maybe getting to the point of creating battlegrounds in places, but officially speaking everyone is Kumbaya.

Speaking of – as of vanilla, the entire game map is Kalindor. Because one giant continent should really have enough content. The main questlines would be stuff like putting down radicals trying to restart the war, dealing with scourge agents trying to create beacheads, satyr and fel orc dead-enders trying to call the Legion back, Old God cultists corrupting/awakening ancient spirits, centaurs and quillboars, and just general fantasy adventure stuff. You’d need to make a bunch of raid bosses for endgame content, but I assume people who care more about warcraft lore than me have ideas for that.

Then, expansions! Each one would, of course, expand the map.

First, a really big one that opens the Eastern Kingdoms back up. Each sectioin is kiiiind of a complete clusterfuck, because of course it is.

-Londoner is zombie apocalypse 101, with Kelthezad’s generals fighting the Forsaken and scattered remants of living survivors (or escapees, because evil undead mad science needs fresh corpses,and that means people farms), mostly organized by the Scarlet Crusade

-The dwarf mountains in the middle are a second, unrelated clusterfuck where Ragnoros’s whole empire of enslaved dwarves and elementals fight the dwarven holdouts

-Stormwind! Which would feel the sorely missed niche of fantasy-racists with a real power base, and consider all the Kaldindoran humans/elves/dwarves basically race traitors. Just real assholes about it. Even before you add in the disguised dragon playing grand vizer to the king, who absolutely isn’t helping but also isn’t at all solely to blame.

(This is also where you’d add Forsaken as a playable race.)

The second expansion would be Outland. And really I can see two ways of going here.

First is that this is where you add faction conflict – Naga, Blood Elves, and Dreanei are all now playable races. They start in Outland, working for Kael’thas, and oh boy are their a bunch of battlegrounds and conflicting quests. The whole ‘all of us are utterly fucked, and totally reliant on the goodwill of an archdemon to not waste away and die/find a home’ is a pretty good motivation for faction cohesion, really, and who doesn’t like playing the bad guys? (the dreanei you see in WC3 to be clear, not the basically unrelated goat-angels in actual WoW)

Alternatively, they’re the main antaongists of expansion, all sympathetic anti-villain like, Outland falling apart around them. The rest of the zones would be filled up with fel orcs and demons, probably.

Aaaand that’s as much actual thinking about it as I’ve actually done.

[franki-lew-yo]

The Romantic (2009, R, Gothic Fantasy/Horror), aka the most forgotten animated film in the world

What if I told you there was a movie under serious threat of becoming lost media with no clear reason as to WHY it's been lost other than no one has apparently watched it besides me and a few people on Reddit? What if I told you that movie wasn't half bad and would no doubt have some interest peeked if anyone DID know about it?

The name of that movie is The Romantic.

It was released in 2009 and it's Rated R for nudity and sex scenes [insert Robbie Rotten meme here], though none of it too graphic. It was a pet project created by animator Michael P. Heneghan, originally starting as a flash project for his animation class before he expanded it into a feature film. The film was inspired by movies such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, but what I see every time I look at it is a touch of Jhonen Vasquez, Tim Burton, and Roman Dirge- the guy behind Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl. It's flash animation especially remind me of the puppet-rigged toons of the 2000s (again like Salad Fingers or Lenore). It's not bad, it's just not inherently 'feature film' quality flash, nor is it exceptionally artistic like Sita Sings the Blues in it's simplicity. Like, really, if you happen to find this thing it's not the worst animated project at all it's just amateur for a professional production. I've seen worse flash movies. Heck, if The Romantic were released in separate parts on youtube or Newgrounds as a series (ala Homestuck) I'm sure it would have been really successful and totally in it's element. But it wasn't.

Because next to no one has seen it and I'm lucky to have not only ever seen it when it was available for free but have also found it recently (hush hush, I ain't telling you how) I'm going to actually give you all a plot synopsis under the cut. There will be some details I leave out and I think I've spelled some characters names wrong. It's a bit of a surrealist film as well, so you might need some things explained.

Spoilers ahead:

The Romantic is set in an autumnal, surrealist world inhabited by humans and monsters and ruled by three gods; Po the goddess of love; Pik the god of Hate; and Pjorrc the god of time though Pjorrc was made to live inside a pumpkin moon as everything he touched rabidly aged and died.

((Tapestry art featuring the main three gods of the film.))

A young man (called “Romance” or “The Romantic” by the other characters) performs a bull sacrifice in order to summon Abbledepopa, the unseen creator of the other gods and ‘storyteller’ of the world. The sacrifice does not conjure Abbledepopa but, when Romance spares a monster that was ready to eat him, the monster tells him of a profit named Patience. Patience is a foul-mouthed dwarf living alone with an army of babies who points Romance in the direction of Po.

((Romance outside of Patience's house.))

Romance wants the god’s help because he has fallen out of love with his girlfriend. Po grants him his desire and restores his love only for Romance to return home and find his girlfriend with another man. Blinded by heartache and rage, Romance kills her. He then swears vengeance on the gods for ‘making’ him do it. In the midst of this vow, a corrupt prophet called Fat Daddy kills the queen of Vauxhaul (Romance's home) and her guards, and forges a new body for his newborn son with their bodies. Fat Daddy rallies the townsfolk behind him in supposedly finding the Queen’s murder into follow a new religion called "The Poetic End".

((Romance (right) besides the monster he spared at the beginning of the movie.))

Patience accompanies Romance on his quest and tells him to take Po’s mask, which hides her true face, once he kills her. Romance buys Po’s trust by weaving her a tapestry that tells her story: in the dawn of time Po and Pjorrc were in love. However, Pjorrc gradually became distant and Po became resentful when their daughter, Love, earned Po's original title as the god of romance and love.

In the present day, Romance sleeps with Po for over a year before finally killing her and taking her mask. He and Patience return to his home of Vauxhul only to be chased out by Fat Daddy’s personal army. They flee to Marshallton, the town nearest to the god Pik.

((Romance's hometown of Vauxhul. ))

The king of Marshallton, King Crookie, tells Romance of a prophecy he, Patience, Fat Daddy and all the gods are a part of and that the world is soon to change. Romance then fights and successfully kills Pik when he shows the god of hate his reflection in a mirror King Crookie gave him, but not before losing his hand to Pik.

When Romance comes down the mountain he learns from Patience that nine years have passed since his fight with Pik began. Patience reveals to Romance what Pik saw in the mirror that allowed Romance to take the killing blow; after Love had grown up and married, Po asked Pik to tell her where her husband was always running off to. Pik reluctantly revealed Pjorrc was disguising himself as a human and married a mortal woman. Po found Pjorrc and his pregnant second wife, forcing Pjorrc to leave his human family behind, but not before asking his wife to name their son “Patience”. In retaliation for his treachery, Po proceeded to sleep with fifty men and produce the fifty bastard children in Patience’s house.

((Fat Daddy, the main villain.))

Marshallton and the entire rest of the world has fallen to the rule of Fat Daddy, who captures Romance and Patience. Fat Daddy tortures Patience into telling him how to get to Pjorrc but is unable to convince Romance to take part in his ‘new world’ or give him Po’s mask. Romance and Patience escape and leave the village to be torn apart by the fifty babies Po had, now transformed into veracious monsters after Patience didn’t feed them for the past ten years. Romance confronts Patience when he realizes the latter is Pjorrc’s son. Patience calls Romance out on his mantra of vengeance and points out that all his decisions are his own, not the gods, and instructs him to seek Love herself in Po’s basement. Patience then attempts to confront Pjorrc but is cornered and killed by Fat Daddy before he can do so.

In Po’s basement, Romance finds Love nailed to a wall, her face torn off and half eaten by her deformed husband. Love tells Romance that Po ripped off her daughter’s face in rage over Pjorrc’s infidelity and Pjorrc did not intervene fast enough. Po then threw Love into her basement, turned Love’s husband into a monster, and wore her daughter’s face as a mask - which Romance had broken into pieces moments ago after Patience had shown him his face in King Crookie’s mirror. Romance then finds Pjorrc hanging himself. As he dies, Pjorrc tells Romance to take the hand Fat Daddy had cut off and sew it onto himself, which will in turn help Romance defeat Abbledepopa.

Romance traverses the wasteland and does not find Abbledepopa, but instead a golden loom. Having seen all the destruction he and others had caused, Romance sits upon the loom and accepts his fate as the new ‘storyteller’ of the world, as he begins weaving a new one...

---

I mentioned before the animation quality of the film and why maybe that caused people to overlook it. The only other thing I could complain about on a technical level with The Romantic is it's sound design. Some of the voices and music is a little too quiet and so all these key details I had to go through the film a few times to really piece together. But that leads me to the thing I like about this movie and I'm sure others would to: the lore.

It's very hard to create a new fantasy world w it's own customs, religions, history and rules out of the blue as any YA Harry Potter/Hunger Games ripoff book could tell you. The Romantic is so unique in how it handles the pantheon and culture of these three gods and their kin; really only four or five characters throughout the entire story aren't connected to the gods or prophecy in some way, as there's the main three gods, Abbeldepappa, and the prophets Patience, Love and Fat Daddy, who make up your main cast besides Romance. There's a lot that's intentionally left unexplained and other info that must be explained, like Pjorrc and Po's marriage and Romance's feelings towards the gods, if we want to understand the former. The movie is paced pretty well and knows when to follow up on what, it's just that again some of those animation and editting shortcomings might make it hard to understand...but I don't think THAT hard. Look, if someone can enjoy Starchaser: The Legend of Orin or even better surrealist world-building films ((Fantastic Planet comes to mind)), then I say there's no reason The Romantic wouldn't have a following. There's no other way I can articulate why and what doesn't work about the story except just to recommend you watch it yourselves, but before I get into that I want to talk themes...because I love the themes and tone of The Romantic.

I revisited The Romantic a week before I made myself watch Centaurworld and The Owl House for the first time...and what a week that was~! The Romantic has the vibe of those kinds of shows along with Adventure Time and Infinity Train ((so I hear, I haven't watched the latter)). It's surreal and you'll only marvel at 'woooah wut an acid trip' for so long before you get into the vibe of the universe. It also reminded me substantially of the Broadway musical Hadestown and not just because this movie is also a self-contained, somewhat self aware fable about the relationships between humans and gods - it's very raw in how the characters talk. It's very emotional and blunt in how kind and how cruel they can be, and it doesn't make excuses or really worships any one of them. Romance himself is the world's most likable Incel: he murders a woman he thought he needed to love and blames his emotions on the gods of those passions...except the gods AREN'T the manifestations of love, time, and hate - they simply dictate and oversee it in the lives of men. It's a dynamic I really like in religious works where Gods are powerful but not all knowing or puppet masters to everyone's design- they have morality too and there is only so much you can blame and get from them.

"You made your gods into excuses and your excuses into gods!"

-Patience. This here is a cool quote. I like this quote.

No matter what, The Romantic is not gonna be a film for everyone. We all have our tastes - I think I'm drawn to it and accepting because I've come to love these kind of worlds that used to keep me up at night - these trippy 70s inspired fantasy landscapes given a whole Avatar: The Last Airbender degree of worldbuilding and character worth. It also doesn't feel exploitive in it's violence, it's sexuality, it's grimmness - it doesn't feel like it's trying to hard or going over the top because it happens to be an adult animated film, something that I love in movies like 9 or Hair High but really turns me off in stuff like Sausage Party or Wizards. Whatever go watch The Romantic...

if you can.

-----

When I first saw this film in 2016 it was actually very accessible and was even uploaded to youtube by the creator himself. I don't know WHAT happened to Michael P. Heneghan, but simply put, the man's disappeared...like...REALLY disappeared.

Lookit his IMDB. He has The Romantic and a wapping two other projects to his name. His Twitter isn't very helpful either. He last updated in early 2020 and he says next to nothing about The Romantic. It's so odd that he would one day be happy with the film enough to host it on Vimeo and Youtube but then just cop out.

According to a Reddit user: "On Valentines Day 2011, Heneghan released the film for free online through all kinds of platforms including direct download, bittorrent, Vimeo, and even directly through Archive.org. He even joked about releasing a 300 gig uncompressed version.

I know I watched it on Vimeo probably as recently as 2016. Now I can't find it anywhere. The website is dead, the Vimeo video went private, even the archive.org version has been taken down. It really looks like he wanted to wipe it off the face of the internet. His newer website mentions it, but again, the Vimeo link is dead and even that website is closed for business."

It's weeeird. What happened Michael?

And yes, obviously, other people worked on the movie.

No - I can't find out anything about them either.

I'm betting on three theories at the moment: 1) this film is an SCP or some Candle Cove weirdness with only me and a handful of people ANYWHERE remembering it, 2) something weird is going on w Michael Heneghan and it involves too something about this film. It was a scam or a scheme or a hidden agenda weirdness, 3) Heneghan's doing okay he just doesn't like this film anymore and wants it hidden while he takes a break.

Look, I get it Michael! What was once our life's worth can become cringe as you improve as an artist - you're not the person making the stuff you were ten years ago...but you should still have the film kept alive somehow. Someway.

I'm seriously the only person to have ever made fan art of this movie on the internet. That just doesn't happen, and I don't think I like being in a fandom of one. The Romantic is a testament to the power of design and storytelling > animation quality itself. Too often I see people equate good animation with smooth animation, with a budget with squash and stretch. These animations are good but art is diverse and there's so many kinds of films out there, the value of the medium can't just be in one style/form. There's a lot of honestly wonderful pieces of art out there if you know where to look and you're willing to see where it leads you.

Don't let The Romantic be the most forgotten movie of all time. Reblog this post. Show it to your friends. PM the animation community reviewer people like Saberspark and someone who isn't Saberspark and smuggle them a copy.

Keep telling the story...

[clarissalance]

A sneak peck on the corner of your lips

Pairing: Xingqiu x G/N!reader, Chongyun, mention of Xiangling and Liyue trio

Warning: a peck, hugging, reader and Xingqiu are the same age 

Word count: 3943

Summary: You are going on a ghost-hunting trip with Chongyun and Xingqiu to Mingyun village.

A/N: Last time I said I’m going to write shorter fic, well, my fingers accidentally slip and tada, here it is. I feel like this Xingqiu is a little bit too shy compare to the game but I want to make him blush (or any character in general). This one takes me quite a long time to write but I hope you all enjoy it. Maybe I should write Venti next, I totally forgot his birthday until my feed was flooded with his fanart. I’m sorry Bartobas ;-;   Anyhow, please shower Xingqiu with a lot of love!! He’s the reason why I can pass abyss floor 11. 

Picture credit: Pinterest. ( I really don’t know the author of this picture. If you find the source, please comment so I can add. Thank you (❁´◡`❁) ) 

Hanging out with the Liyuen trio has always been an adventure full of thrill and excitement. Usually, there would be someone who ends up with all troubles and mischiefs the other two sets up. Chongyun is our center, holding a strike 10 times in a row, while Xiangling sometimes gets bombed by them, but it’s nothing compared to our popsicle boy. Xingqiu, you have never heard of him getting into any troubles, but he has been the famous one in the town for plotting pranks and tricks. The victim is Chongyun, and he’s somehow still very oblivious, despite many times falling into the holes.

Maybe the boy is just too naïve and trusting for his own good. 

“ Xiangling is not coming today. ”  Xingqiu announces, successful getting your attention and Chongyun’s.  “She’s busy with the restaurant, so today, there will be only three of us.” Letting out a commital sound, you return your focus back onto the unfinished charm on your hand, fingers skillfully waving through the strings. 

“ Guess we’re off to Mingyun then.” Chongyun stands up abruptly from his seat, the sound of clothes rustling together. “I got a reliable intel this time about a ghost there.” 

Glance up from the unfinished charm, you shoot a questioning look to Xingqiu, to which he sends you a wink and a charming smile. The source of ‘reliable intel’ Chongyun is telling you here definitely comes from Xingqiu. Somehow, the boy has managed to stay away from the Chongyun’s suspicion list, even after those obvious unrealistic intel disguise as pranks. You wonder how has he manage to deceive the poor exorcist this time. 

“Chongyun, there are only hilichurls in Mingyun village. No one is there.” You state the obvious. How can he fall for this so many times? The light blue hair boy turns at you and tilts his head in confusion, waiting for you to anticipate more details. He is really dense, isn’t he? 

“ So, how did you get intel about a spirit at the place if there is no one lives there?” Letting out a huff, you fold your arm, feet tapping impatiently.  

“ Someone sends me the request this morning.” He pulls out a white envelope in his pocket and hands it to you, smiling a bit enthusiastically. The envelope has no trace that indicates sender, yet the exorcist assures you it’s a reliable source. You have no idea what his standard of ‘reliable' is anymore. 

Inside the envelope is an expensive-looking card, the curving and neat writing dances on the piece. Bringing the paper closer, you can faintly make out the scent of floral perfume mingles with the fresh wooden smell of crisp paper. “By the look, this looks more like a love letter than a request of exorcism to me. You’re sure it’s not from one of the maidens?” A little further away, you can hear the sound of someone choking on breath and a muffled laugh. Chongyun then mutters something about no one would send him a love letter anyway. Oh, so he doesn’t know then. Did this boy live under a rock or something? 

This is too well-crafted for a mere prank. Did Xingqiu handwriting improve this much over the past month? Eyeing the blue boy suspiciously, you carefully watch his interaction with the young exorcist while reading the content. 

This letter is pretty legit, but you’re still very suspicious of a certain someone over there who meticulously crafts this. If you ask, will he answer truthfully or skit around the subject again? 

Putting the card back into the envelop and return them to Chongyun, you finally raise your hand in defeat. Coming with them might be a better solution, in case the exorcist condition gets out of control, you can help Xingqiu carry him back.  

“Fine, let’s see the spirit ourselves then.” You stand up, hand dusting your clothes. “ If we’re lucky enough, we might be able to see the adepti on the mountain before catching the ghost.” Shrugging, you beam brightly at the shoulder-shaking Xingqiu and the scratching-head Chongyun. You can already guess what will happen in the village after so many times witnessing Xingqiu’s prank. Is this what we called… experiences? 

---

Mingyun village is located on a mountain and surrounded by many dried up ores mines, which result in people leaving their homes and moves to the Chasm and Harbor. As your group slowly trek to the written address, you notice an unusually high activity of hilichurls. It’s common for them to move to an abandoned village but isn’t this a little too much? From broken bridge connect the Guili Plain, there are many groups clustering, wandering among themselves. Even Chongyun tries to avoid them, not jumping on their head as usual. 

Imagine fighting this many hilichurls, you don’t think your group can make it back to the harbour in one piece. Padding quietly, you walk faster toward Xingqiu, hoping to stick close to him. At least if fighting is bounded to happen, he can protect you. The young master still keeps his unfazed face, following Chongyun while eyes glued on his book. You remember he already finished reading this book?   

“ Psstt.” You whisper. “ Are you sure we’re heading the right way? That direction is crowded with monsters.” From here, they can barely see the beast but you can sense an abundant amount over there. 

“ It’s this way. It’s marked on the map.” Chongyun answers, eyestrain on a piece of paper, which results in his misstep and tripping. Behind, Xingqiu looks up and worriedly calls out to be careful. You trust Chongyun map-reading skill, but right now, you’re very concerned about his navigation. How can he navigating if he does not even look at the road? 

As the scorching sun blazing down the heat, big droplets of sweat dripping down your forehead, and your shirt starts to stick on your skin. Ah, you forgot summer has arrived. The path is sun-drenched, not a single shade can be found. The sweltering heat in this village is almost unbearable, despite the area is borderline with Dragonspine. How can not a single breeze from Dragonspine drift to this area? 

As you lazily following the group, your mind starts going into vacation mode. You imagine staying under the shade, enjoy the cool breeze and munching ice cream. The village is quite close to Yaoguang Shoal, maybe you can convince the guys to head down there after they finish their task. In this weather, dipping your feet in the cold water while enjoying popsicles are the best. Stealing some from Chongyun might not be that bad. 

Next to you, the Chongyun and Xingqiu are not affected as much as you, maybe because they carry visions? You wonder how their visions help them to cool down? 

“ Xingqiu.”  You call, hand fanning your face. The boy looks up from his book, humming, unfazed by the boiling weather. Is he not feeling hot at all? Under all of those long sleeve shirt? 

“Can we hold hand?”

As soon as the question leaves your mouth, some things don’t feel right. Did you phrase it, a little bit weird? 

The cerulean-haired boy chokes on his saliva, eyes widen in surprise, almost drop his precious rare novel. You think you definitely phrase it wrong. 

“ Are you okay?” Chongyun turns back abruptly after noticing the coughing sound, his blue eyes filled with worries.

Xingqiu shakes his head and waves his hand, motioning the exorcist to turns back to his map. After a few second of heaving, he finally returns back to normal, shooting you stinky eyes and put his book away. It’s not your fault that he chokes on his own saliva. He chokes it by himself. 

“Why would you want… to hold my hand?” Xingqiu questions, cringing at his cracking voice. 

“Don’t you feel hot under this weather?” You point your finger at the sky, bright rays hitting your face. Xingqiu nods in confusion, still not understand how your request related to this question. 

“If we hold hand, maybe you can share with me some of your coolness.” 

Xingqiu stares owlishly at you, and you elaborate more on how the pyro transfers heat through physical touch, and maybe, hydro has a similar mechanism. 

As you explain, you notice how his shoulders shaking, while his face remains perfectly calm, except for the betraying light curve on his mouth. Is he trying to contain his smile? 

Finally, Xingqiu folds in half and blurts out in laughter, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. In between his howling, the boy breathlessly explains how you misunderstand the elements and visions aren't used for this situation.   

Potato, potato, you don’t believe the mischievous vision-holder over there has never tried using his vision for different purposes other than fighting.  

Your face burns up, you’re not sure if it’s because of the burning sun, or the embarrassment caused by the hydro user over there. Pouting, you turn away from him, stomping toward Chongyun direction instead.  

Hmph, if Xingqiu isn’t going to help you to cool down, then you’d have to ask the exorcist. Somehow, you already know the man is going to hesitate because it might disturb his congenital condition. Well, you’re just going to bribe him with two or three popsicles when you are coming back to the harbour. Nothing a little money can’t fix. And maybe a lot of persuasions too.

As soon as you make your mind, you rush toward Chongyun, calling out for the cryo user. The exorcist is a distance away from you both, and he doesn’t turn back even when you call out for him. Does this mean he didn’t hear the conversation between you and Xingqiu? 

   Casually skipping toward Chongyun, you call for him again-

“Chongyun, can I... ” before, suddenly hands from behind wrap around your neck, pull you into a wall of meat. You wince at the hard collision with the chest, sensation of callous fingers on your shoulder bring your longing desired: Coolness. Surprised by the sudden touch, you shoot your eyes wide open and crane your neck behind, immediately meet with a sly amber orb. 

What is he doing?

Followed by your call, Chongyun curiously turns back and his gentle light blue eyes unwavering. He doesn’t seem to be surprised at this scene. 

Does Xingqiu always this touchy? 

The young exorcist raises his brows at you but behind, Xingqiu waves his hand dismissive, successfully driving the young boy away, even before you can form your word. 

You see the exorcist shrugs and turns his attention back on the piece of paper, heading deeper into the abandoned village, distance between the cryo users and you two starts to grow.

You gawk shockingly into his small figure starts to get smaller, mouth gapes open slightly. 

Did Chongyun just leave you behind? What kind of cold-heart friend is he? He definitely saw you are being held back by Xingqiu, right? 

Behind, you hear Xingqiu mumbles something about Chongyun being ‘unbelievable’, ‘workaholic’ and ‘careless friend’. Shouldn’t you be the one who says that?   

All of a sudden, you realize your back touching his chest, his hands wrap around you from behind. From here, you can smell the faint vanilla and a mix of woody, musk scent. 

He reminds you of old books, the feeling of immersing yourself in a dusty library. 

Blood rushing to your face, and the first thing that comes to your mind is to escape from his hold. The hydro user somehow able to read your mind, his grip tightens, holding you close. 

In an intimate position, with you both fall in silence, your senses suddenly heighten. Even separated by layers of clothes, you can still feel the heat from Xingqiu. The rapid beat of your heart thumping in your rib cage, the coolness from his palm seeping slowly into your skin. 

Somehow his touch doesn’t cool you but heating you up more, your body slowly burns up like a furnace. “ C-can you let me go ?” You stutter, squirming helplessly inside the young hydro user, avoiding his teasing gaze.  

“ You asked me to touch you, so I comply with my liege's request.” 

“ I didn't ask you to touch me.” You quip back at the shameless hydro user, body twisting weakly inside his hold, the sound of clothes rustling. How come you both learn martial arts, yet your strength is nothing compared to him?  

“ This is not holding a hand.” You point out at his long arms wrap just under your neck, sulky. “ And stop hugging me. It’s burning in here.” 

Xingqiu gives you a grin, amber orbs shoot you a questioning gaze. Well, it’s not true. His long-sleeved are rolled up, exposing the long slender arms, now is pressing on the thin layer of fabric, resonating with coolness. It feels like hydro is running under the vein of his arm. His fingers wrap on your shoulder, constantly transferring the calming sensation of flowing water. 

 “Isn’t this position more efficient than holding hand?” The hydro lazily rests his face on your shoulder, smirking devilishly. You have to admit this is much cooler than holding a hand, but this is too intimate. Flustered by his alluring gaze, you turn your head away, feet start moving toward the exorcist direction. 

“W-we sh-ould catching up with Chongyun, he’s quite far away.” Stammering like a mess, you point your finger at the general direction where the exorcist was heading, the image of a light blue boy is getting smaller, slowly mending into the heat under the scorching furnace resting on your head. A chuckle is followed, but Xingqiu doesn’t say anything else, hands still wrap loosely around you, trailing steps after you. 

You are too naïve to think that walking fast will break his hold. The young master of Feiyun Commerce Guild has proved your effort is futile. He effortlessly adjusts to your pace even when you purposefully try to quicken your step or stop abruptly. He doesn’t faze by your antic, instead, leaning close to your ear and blow hot air into your ears teasingly, knowing well how flustered you are. 

From here, you can see Chongyun still having his eyes glued on the piece of paper, still not noticing his companions drift far behind him. Indeed he is careless, maybe you two should keep a close distance to protect him. 

“ Are you getting cooler?” Xingqiu suddenly leans close, his face just a few inches away from yours. 

You hold your breath in silence, heart almost drops at his close proximation. Can he not scare you like that? “ It's getting cooler.” As much as you tempted to elbow the hydro user away, you know how hot it will be without having his arms wrap around you, so you easily give in. 

The two of you keep a decent pace while the boy wraps his hand around you, clinging like a koala. Look around, you realize this place is mostly dry trees somehow manage to root in the barren soil, broken wagons and holed baskets lying around in this place. Luckily, this area has much fewer hilichurls compares to the entrance of the village. Look like they’re also trying to find a shade in this weather. This place is closed to Dragonspine, and you still have no idea how the land doesn’t receive a single cool breeze from the frosted city.  

“Why did you pull me back earlier?” Hesitantly, you ask him. 

Xingqiu let out a confusing sound, not registering your question. Should you elaborate some more?     

  “When I was calling out to Chongyun.” You quickly add, trying to keep your voice steady and casual.  

“ Oh, that.” He hums, his arms tighten around you. Why did he even hold you closer than before? You didn’t try to pry off his hug, why all of a sudden? 

“ Because…  you were… about to ask Chongyun to h-hold your hand right?” Freeze at his words, you twist your neck, curious at the face he is making right now. It’s rare for him to sound this uncertain about something. As a second son of the Guild Manager of one of the biggest trading guild in Liyue, the young man has been trained to speak with perfection. Every word coming from this young man is carefully formulated and spoken with utmost confidence. 

 As you face him, the young man furrows his brows, amber eyes fill with hesitant and worried. Why is he acting like this? A sudden wave of guilt washing your stomach, uneasiness slowly sinks deep into your skin. 

You… are not supposed to call out for Chongyun?

 “ B-but you laugh at me when I explain about the coolness exchange?” Tilting your head in confusion, you can’t help to not follow the hydro user thoughts. He refused you first, wasn't he? It should be normal for you to find Chongyun instead. The exorcist will probably agree to anything as long as he can help. “Wouldn’t it make more sense if I go to find Chongyun instead?” 

“And holding hand with Chongyun? Archon, no!” Your skin jumps as Xingqiu raises his voice, and you have no idea what tickles him. Why fuzzing over something so trivial like this? 

“ We always hold hands. There’s nothing wrong with it.” You can’t help to shoot back. “ You also hold his hand too.” 

“N-no, our holding hand is different.” He can weakly defend, trying to rack his brain out to think of a time when they hold hands. He gives up soon afterwards. “Besides, you shouldn’t be holding hands with anyone.” 

“ For your information, this is much more scandalous than holding hand.” You meekly point out, finger poking on his arm bares smooth skin. Twist back, you lean in closer, eyes crinkle into the shape of crescent moons. “And what’s wrong with us kids holding hand?”   

  Xingqiu can’t help but let out a defeated sigh, face drops down your shoulder and sulky buries his face in the crook of your neck.  His hot breaths tickle the sensitive skin, cerulean locks brushing your cheek. Under his breath, you can barely make out his muffle word, saying something about don’t understand. 

You slowly trek toward Chongyun’s direction, humming along with familiar tunes. Sudden changes from Chongyun and Xingqiu have no longer made you felt lonely or sadden. Boys at this age are unusual. They aren’t being closed with you as before, no longer inching close to you or hugging you from behind. They are more cautious when being close with you, more mindful when your fingers accidentally graze their.  

If you ask them directly, will they answer you why they're acting like a married woman, always jumping every time you innate skinship?   

You have a feeling they probably won't answer that. 

“ /N… Y/N! ”

Abruptly, you raise your head, forehead almost hitting with Xingqiu’s. Your face is a breath away from his, so close that you can see his long lashes fluttering like a butterfly, shying away from the captivating eyes. His porcelain skin is smooth and flawless, a sudden urge tells you to caress it. A blush slowly creeping up his cheek, and finally, the hydro user shies away, staring at the road.   

Xingqiu clears his throat. “ I was talking to you. You were spacing out again?” You can only offer him a sheepish smile. 

“ S-sorry, I was thinking about something.” 

Xingqiu looks up and stares at your face intently like he is trying to make his way into your maze-like mind. You shift away from his fierce gaze, but the hydro user is faster. His fingers easily catch your face, your cheeks fit perfectly into his cool smooth palm. Xingqiu lets out an amusing chuckle, fingers squishing your cheek playfully like a stress-reliever. 

You feel like he has you wrapped around his little finger, literally. 

“I don’t know what you were thinking, but whatever it is, it’s incorrect.” Despite the mean fingers toying your cheek, his voice is awfully soft and reassuring. Is he trying to comfort you? Carefully, you gloss your eyes over to his direction, observing the mischievous feature on his face slowly melts into a soft and mellow. 

Before you can enjoy the rare gentle side of his, the amber eyes slowly gleam with playfulness, and he leans closer, only stops when your face is just a breath away. His hot breath fanning on your cheek, tickling. He is so close to you, so close that if you tilt your head, our lips will meet. 

“ A moment ago, I said that you shouldn’t let any male hold your hand right?” His voice drops low, golden orb flickers like a torch. What is he planning again?  You carefully nod. 

He isn’t going to… bite you right? 

“ You see, holding hand...” The young man chuckles slyly, the arm was wrapped around your neck makes the way down and nudges into your hand, fingers interlocking. " can easily drifting to this." You turn back fully to face him, the other hand still glazes your cheek. 

“ They can easily slip their arm around you into a hug…” Slowly, the coolness in your palm slips away and snakes around your shoulder.  “Then, they can…” Xingqiu’s grip on your cheek slowly relaxes, fingers slowly inch down on your neck. 

Take a big gulp of saliva, you can only widen your eyes, nervously follow at the tracing fingers of his. His long digits don’t stop after wandering around your neck, they slowly creep up, follow your jaw, and then cup on your cheek. The cooling sensation you craved a moment ago now feels like frost nipping on your skin. Heart thumping loudly in the rib cage, you unconsciously hold your breath, waiting for his next move.    

In the comfortable silence, his thump delicately brushes your cheek, caressing the sensitive skin. You notice his touch is loving and delicate, it makes you want to snuggle your face into his palm, enjoying this lasting moment. 

“…then what?” You open your mouth impatiently, voice light and mushy. 

A light pinkish blush quickly dusts on his cheek, you feel the man in front of you tenses up, but he remains his eye contact with you, refuses to avoid your gaze. His lips quiver but nothing coming out. Is he… hesitating?  Finally, you hear him mumbles something quietly.   

…you

“ What ?” You cock your brows and inch closer, eyes training on his plump lip. They remain still. 

Feeling an intense gaze on your head, you feel a light squeeze on your cheek so you curiously tilt your chin up, just to see Xingqiu leans down and presses a light peck at the corner of your mouth.

His plump lips brush yours like a feather, almost non-touching. It’s soft and plush, but the moment only lasts for a few second. Abruptly, the coolness on your cheek leaves hastily, follows by his sleeveless arm around your shoulder. 

As soon as you realize what just happened, the young master of Feiyun Commerce Guild has already dashed away, leaving a burning tomato behind. You shyly lower your head, face heats up profusely.  Fingers slowly draw up to your lip, you recall the feeling of his lip touching yours. 

You feel like you can combust right here and right now.   

Unknownst to you, if you look in his direction, you might have spotted a pair of red ears and his inelegant falling on his butt.   

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 141

Last week I posted a day early because vacation was doing vacation things to my sense of time.... This week I forgot to queue the chapter up because Monday was a work holiday, so I forgot today was Tuesday. *insert facepalm here please*

Thanks on this one go largely to @baelpenrose who rightfully pointed out that one part made very little sense to him and therefore was unlikely to make sense to a reader.  The clarification smoothed things out quite a bit, I think.  Just in case, whoever spots the area I’m talking about gets a cookie as soon as travel restrictions lift.

As always, thanks go also to @the-raven-fae, @charlylimph-blog, and @anotherusrname for completing the corners of my support system. And, a super-duper extra-special to @drinksteawithcake! I don’t know if I am allowed to tell everyone why, but you know why you get the extra-special, and I hope you are having fun!

BWAAAAAHP!   BWAAAAAHP!

“Uhhh?” I squinted in complaint as flailing arms clambered over me. One pair snagged me around my waist to drag me from bed before depositing me shakily on my feet. “What are you - ?”

BWAAAAAHP!  BWAAAAAHP!

Any trace of sleep was shoved out of my system, replaced by sizzling alertness when I realized I was hearing ship-wide alarms.  Shoving myself into the first clothing I grabbed, not even bothering with shoes, I was hot on Conor and Maverick’s heels as we raced out of our quarters and into the corridor. We paused only long enough for both men to kiss me and for “I love yous” to be exchanged before they turned and headed toward the areas indicated on their datascreens, while I hauled ass toward the Archives, ducking and twisting to avoid anyone in my path.

“Forty minutes,” Tyche told me crisply as I basically fell through the door, panting. “The Ark could be invaded and the battle over by the time you make it.”

“I ran….huff….the whole….ugh….way….” I managed to gasp out.  Part of me felt like puking, but I was pretty sure the muscles in my abdomen were too busy to figure out the logistics.

Clicking her tongue, she pulled me up from the floor. “Alistair, make a note to suggest to Xio that Sophia’s quarters be relocated once we have a better idea of when we are dropping into real space.”

I nodded numbly. “And probably… amp up… sensors… give… earlier… warning.”

“Nice outfit, by the way,” she laughed quietly as we finally reached the shelter point within the Archives.

Glancing down, I had to suppress a sigh. The first thing I grabbed to dress myself had apparently been a pair of Conor’s boxer shorts and a very filthy t-shirt that I assumed belonged to Maverick, since Conor’s was usually under coveralls. “At least you can’t say I took my time getting dressed.”

Her shaking head was greeted by faces in various states of wakefulness - this had been a drill, and woke nearly the entire Ark during their sleep interval on Delta shift.  But we weren’t out of the woods, yet: the drill didn’t end until all of Xiomara and Evan’s scenarios played out, including the mock combat and various tests of concealment for the other shelters.  As such, Tyche stood guard over the choke-point into this section, while Alistair had stayed behind at the entrance.

Early on, when the drills started, there had been fifty-fifty odds that the mock-invaders would make it this far, but over the past few weeks, that had narrowed to maybe twenty-percent.  It was still too high a chance in my judgement, and Xiomara clearly agreed as she stepped up training schedules and randomized the timing of the drills. 

Taking a swig of water from a stash of bottles, I queued up my datapad and stood next to Tyche, watching the ‘casualties’ from a point where no one could see over my shoulder to avoid panic, which I would have done in a real situation. “They didn’t find mess hall seven this time,” I murmured.

She glanced at my screen. “Acoustics are still too damned high. She must not be simulating for that this go around.”

One of the decoy locations lit up. “Looks like this time it’s heavy on thermal.” The location in question had been equipped with a cooking surface, triggered to activate when the klaxons that had woken me up went off.  Which Xiomara knew, but did not tell the ‘pirates’ for authenticity.

“How did they get past the combatants this time?” She asked, both curious and slightly worried.

Rolling back the sensor data, I watched it carefully. “Looks like these got in during the initial breaches, multiple points. But the line has held since, that’s good.”

Doing another check toward Alistair’s direction, she didn’t seem to see anything concerning. “How many?”

“Four,” I confirmed.  “Sam’s thermal camouflage is working beautifully, though.”  I couldn’t help but grin, and Tyche snorted at the same time. ‘Thermal camouflage’ was a bit of overkill as a name, but it was working well in every round. Potential access points were equipped with fast-acting environmental simulators - originally designed for temporary habitats on inhospitable moons - modified to release atmosphere like a Terran equatorial rainforest within one minute in an enclosed space.  It was a much more simple and elegant solution than any others we had found for giving combatants defending the Ark an advantage - instead of trying to create technology to make them look colder, make the entire area match human heat signatures.  Boom, instantly blinded enemies.

A tense half-hour later, the ‘all clear’ sounded, queueing grumbling from those who had dozed back off as everyone stood to make their ways back to their quarters. I waited with Alistair and Tyche for everyone else to be accounted for on the way out, and the three of us headed back toward our quarters together.  Alistair peeled off first, living closest to the Archives, and no sooner had my sister and I reached my door than the page sounded for the post-drill meeting.  She waved me off as she answered on her databand, and I did the same as I pushed into my quarters and flopped on the couch. “Councillor Sophia Reid, present, audio only,” I answered. “And no jokes, Pranav… I look like I smell awful.”

“Alistair Worthington, present, audio and video. I can confirm that she does, and she does.”

Laughter filled the comms and the rest of the group leaders and Councillors joined the debrief.  Finally, everyone was present and Xiomara called the meeting to order.  First, the leaders of each shelter reported in, as those usually went the fastest. There were a couple malfunctions in the deployment of the shielding to disguise the entrances and hide heat and electrical signatures, but nothing Huynh’s team couldn’t fix.  Tyche and Alistair made the recommendations around earlier detection and the need to move those sheltering in the  Archives closer as we approached time to drop out of relativistic space. 

Once that was out of the way, it was on to the combat and invasion teams. Overall consensus was that Sam’s trick with the portable environments was a rousing success and would be installed at each point determined to be most likely as a breach, with trigger conditions to be determined later. “I hate to say it,” Michael sighed, “but we also need Charly’s team to crank up the scovilles on the arrows and grenades.” His team had played the ‘invaders’ this go around, equipped with sensors and readouts to simulate the effect our defenses would have on the various species who most commonly were found on pirate vessels.  Evan had worked intensely with Pranav and Derek to ensure that the strategies provided by the readouts were modelled after similar strategies based on which ever species each team member was assigned, to ensure we weren’t accidentally drilling against human tactics.

Michael hated it, but he was strict about his team complying nonetheless.

“Seriously?” I squawked, and I wasn’t the only one. “One of those things accidentally went off in my quarters���. Can confirm, they’re pretty potent.”

“They dissipated too fast against my team, and also the contact element left a lot to be desired. Charly, you may want to consider adding a sticking element.”

“Duly noted,” she chimed in with a yawn, her normal pep doused by being woken up and then the drop in adrenaline post-combat.

“What about the sonic weapons?” Xiomara asked, moving the meeting along.

“Still less effective than Nixe is on her own,” a familiar voice I couldn’t put a name to responded with a sheepish tone.  “How hard would it be to train more people to shatter glass with their voice?”

“Incredibly,” Grey stressed. “It takes a very unique combination of training and the right vocal chords.”

“Then we may need to work on adding a projection component.  The sonic devices can match the pitch, but not the actual tone and direction. They’re very effective given time and especially contact, but we need something more immediately disabling.”

Xiomara groaned. “Are we back to Mariah Carey on this one?” Objections exploded until she muted the comms. “It’s that or opera.” Votes started scrolling up the screen, and I could see Xio nod. “Opera it is.  Let’s find a suitable piece and try using more analogue-style speakers.”

“I still say that death metal would work better,” Arthur suggested as soon as the comms were back on.

“Annnnd we already tested it, I will remind you. The volume works, but the pitches aren’t high enough to hit a broad enough population of species sensitive to sound.” After that nearly-obligatory objection, the meeting continued going through reports from each combat team until finally Xiomara announced the end results. “I have to admit, this was one of our best drills yet. Ten percent casualties of the combatants defending the breaches, only two percent among non-combatants, and the invaders were only able to traverse three decks before they were subdued.” She let the cheers go for a couple seconds before getting everyone’s attention again. “Yes, great job on the improvements, but let me remind everyone - those numbers still leave us below threshold for a healthy genetic population. Engineering teams, make the necessary adjustments with whatever resources are necessary. Shelters Three and Seven, you will start training for armed and unarmed combat with Shelter Fourteen and Combat Team Two daily.  Sophia, your team will coordinate schedules. Any questions?”

There were no arguments, not even a groan or mutter as the meeting was dismissed. Before I could even add the new task to my agenda the next day, I received the notification that Alistair had beaten me to the punch.

Glancing at the time, I wanted to hit something.  I had to be back up and at work in four hours, and the realization weighed me down with exhaustion.  The guys had come in and gone to bed while I was in the debrief, and I could already hear synchronized snoring coming from the bedroom.  Rather than risk waking them with my now-frozen feet, I pulled the quilt off the back of my couch and rolled myself into it.  Only minutes later, a heavy weight oozed across my hip and started purring furiously.

“Yeah, buddy. I agree. We need a nap.”

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[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #142: Ishtar

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making Best Goddess and, according to @hasishtardoneanythingwrong, a servant who has done absolutely nothing very little wrong, Ishtar! 

In this build, Ishtar is a Divine Soul Sorcerer to balance her blasting abilities with her divine nature and a Zeal Cleric to push her explosive capabilities and godhood to the max.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: The second part of the oldest bromance in human history.

Race and Background

Unfortunately WotC hasn’t figured out how to balance literal god PCs yet, but since Ishtar is a demiservant we can still technically call her a Protector Aasimar, giving her +1 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, Healing Hands to heal some hands, and the Light cantrip.

Since she protects Uruk in her own special way, we’ll call her a Goddess Alliance Anarch. This gives you Animal Handling and Religion proficiencies, as well as some bonus spells as you level up!

Ability Scores

As the goddess of love and also blowing up mountains, your Charisma needs to be as high as possible. Follow that up with Dexterity, you can literally fly, that’s pretty fast. After that will be Constitution, you can take a lot of abuse, especially if it’s coming from the writers. Your Wisdom has to be next so we can multiclass, keep that in mind if you’re rolling. Your Strength isn’t amazing, but it’s not like you’re using it anyway. Finally, dump Intelligence. Not gonna dwell on that one, let’s just move on.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: Honestly I think “Divine Soul” is kinda selling yourself short, but we’ll work in the framework we’re given. You can cast Spells now, including your Divine Magic from the cleric spell list, using your Charisma. You’re also Favored by the Gods, giving you the option of adding 2d4 to a failed save or attack roll once per short rest.

For cantrips you get Thunderclap and True Strike for offensive options (I mean you do aim. Even if your target’s a mountain, aiming is important.) You also get Minor Illusion and Friends to manipulate people into doing what you want.  Finally, your stand against the Three Goddess Alliance grants you the cantrips Fire Bolt and Produce Flame to make the battlefield a little bit spicier.

For first level spells, you get Bless from being a divine soul, as well as Compelled Duel, Speak with Animals, and Thunderwave from being an Anarch. For your actually chosen spells, Mage Armor makes your outfit feasible, and Feather Fall will be very helpful once you start flying.

2. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, giving you sorcerer points equal to your sorcerer level. Right now you can turn points into spell slots or vice versa, but it’ll get more interesting later. 

You can also cast Disguise Self, in case you have to, I don’t know, organize a servant-based wacky races kind of event? Idk, whatever.

3. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get Metamagic, letting you alter your spells to suit your mood by using sorcery points. A Transmuted spell lets you swap out its acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage for another option on that list. Meanwhile, you can use a Distant spell to double a spell’s range, making your archery much more effective.

You also become a Radiant Soul, spending an action to transform yourself and gaining a flying speed for up to a minute. You can also deal extra radiant damage to a creature you hit with an attack or spell once per turn. You can do this once per long rest. It’s not a long trip, but it’s free.

On top of that, you get second level spells this turn. Distort Value lets you halve or double an object’s apparent value for the duration, perfect for haggling with a certain someone. You also get Beast Sense and Shatter from your Anarch spell list. The former isn’t that in-character, but the latter is a good start to taking down that mountain.

4. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Constitution and Charisma, giving you more health, better concentration, and stronger spells. What a glow up!

You can also cast the cantrip Resistance to add 1d4 to a creature’s next save, or use Find Traps to make sneaking into Gilgamesh’s many treasure vaults slightly easier. If it works.

5. Sorcerer 5: You’re a god, so you probably shouldn’t be messing up that often. To help with that, Magical Guidance lets you spend a sorcery point to re-roll a failed skill check. Maybe it’ll help.

You can also cast Fly this level, giving you more frequent flying miles at the cost of your concentration. You can also Conjure Animals if you want to show up that gazelle-loving sister of yours. More on-target, however, is your other Anarch spell, Conjure Barrage. Gosh, it’s almost like you’re an archer or something.

6. Cleric 1: This whole flying around exploding things is great, but I think we can put more pizazz on it. Or, as they say down in Amonkhet, let’s add some Zeal. That’s right, we’re stealing from two MTG planes this build! As a Priest of Zeal, you can attack as a bonus action if you attack as an action a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier. That sounds kind of useless, but as a Zeal Cleric you also get proficiency with martial weapons, meaning that yes, you can use a bow and arrow. The archer class really is made up of archers!

You can also cast and prepare Spells using your Wisdom, but we got the really good ones in your sorcerer list, so don’t worry too much here. You do get some more cantrips, though! Thaumaturgy lets you throw your godly weight around, Light lets you cast light again using a worse casting modifier, and Guidance gives a creature some helpful advice from their favorite goddess, adding 1d4 to their next check.

You also get some domain spells, but they’re both smites and you’re an archer, so...

7. Cleric 2: The real reason we’re dipping is for your Channel Divinity option, which you can use once per short rest. You could  use it for Turn Undead, forcing a wisdom save against all undead near you (with a dc of 8 + proficiency + wisdom modifier), but the much more fun option is Consuming Fervor. This turns one fire or thunder damage roll into its maximum instead of rolling. That will be very scary later.

8. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level divine souls get Empowered Healing. You might not have any healing spells, but just being around people makes them feel a bit better. This lets you spend a sorcery point to re-roll any dice being used in a healing roll near you once per turn.

Speaking of healing, we’re still not doing that! You can now Bestow Curses onto people. Serves them right, calling you a “useless goddess”. This is one of those creative spells, so have fun with it!

9. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells! Anarchs get Dominate Beast and Stoneskin, and while neither are technically in character the latter could be very useful given your less than stellar AC. Also, literally turning yourself into gemstones is a real power move.

Your spell of choice this level is Ice Storm, letting you pummel a 20′ radius area with plenty of hail (or fiery debris, or just pure force), enough to turn the area into difficult terrain for a round.

10. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to grab the Spell Sniper feat, letting your spells ignore most cover, and spells you cast that require an attack roll have two times their normal range. You also learn Eldritch Blast to further flex on those dumb warlocks. They have to sell their soul and waste an invocation to get 300′ range blasts, and here you are with 480′ range and your soul’s intact! Hah!

You can also exude an Aura of Purity now, preventing disease, weakening poison damage, and granting advantage on a ton of status effect saves. 

11. Sorcerer 9: Ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, including your final Anarch spell, Destructive Wave. It’s only got a range of thirty feet, but it never hurts to prepare for an ambush. For longer range attacks, Flame Strike will do nicely. We’re still not quite at “blasting a mountain to smithereens” level power, but we’re getting there.

12. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers can get the most out of their spells by making them Empowered, letting them re-roll a number of dice on their damage roll, up to their charisma modifier.

You can also cast Dancing Lights for a bit of a dramatic flair, or Creation to make gemstones out of thin air. Heck, you could even make a proper Boat of Heaven with this!

13. Sorcerer 11: Another two levels have passed, that means you get another spell level. Sunbeam gives you a reusable sunlight blast, dealing radiant damage and blinding creatures that fail their constitution save. You can use this attack again as your action each turn for up to a minute. Sadly this isn’t affected by either of your range enhancements, but you’ve still got plenty of airspace to work with.

14. Sorcerer 12: If we’re going to blast a mountain apart we’ve got to get serious. Use this ASI to get the Elemental Adept feat, focusing on Thunder damage. Once you take this feat, all dice on thunder damage rolls coming from spells always count as at least a 2, and they ignore thunder resistances.

15. Sorcerer 13: The first step to launching the literal planet Venus at somebody is actually getting the damn thing, and that means we need to leave the atmosphere at a moment’s notice. The closest we can come to that here is Plane Shift. You can also use this on enemy creatures as a melee attack

16. Sorcerer 14: Fourteenth level Divine Souls get an Angelic Form you can transform into as a bonus action. This gives you a flying speed of 30′ that is basically permanent until you’re incapacitated or you just get rid of them on your own. Have fun with those orbital bombardments!

17. Sorcerer 15: Sunburst sounds like a good pick for your eighth level spell. This one actually does get a range boost, which is good because it deals damage in a 60′ radius. Creatures within that radius get a constitution save, and failing that means a lot of radiant damage and being blind until it makes the save on the end of its turn. Sadly, it’s stuck on radiant damage, but it’s still an effective blasting spell.

18. Sorcerer 16: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma so that whole “making the save” thing from last level never happens.

19. Sorcerer 17: To make those saves even less likely, our final metamagic option is Heightened Spell, causing one creature’s first save of the spell in question to be made at disadvantage. Basically you’re saying “like you had a choice in the matter”.

Speaking of spells though, we can finally pull Venus through for a charged shot, thanks to the ninth level spell Meteor Swarm. With a max range of 1-2 miles this truly is nuking the planet from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Here’s a step by step guide for removing a mountain. 1. Hang out in the Troposphere. 2. Cast Meteor Swarm, swapping out Fire for Thunder damage. 3. Channel Divinity, maxing out the thunder damage for extra fun. 4. Deal 120 Thunder damage that ignores resistances, on top of 20d6 bludgeoning damage. 5. Enjoy your new crater.

20. Sorcerer 18: Your capstone level of sorcerer gives you an Unearthly Recovery. When you’re bloodied, you can spend a bonus action to heal yourself for half your HP, once per long rest. You had enough trouble in the underworld as it is, no point in going back again.

Pros:

As I just mentioned in level 19, you can deal a lot of damage. Like, Sanson level damage, without all the nonsense attached to it. You’ve got big booms, and multiple ways to make those booms hurt even more than they should.

Flying on a spellcaster is just. Really, really good. Especially on one built for range. There’s almost literally nothing they can do to you up here. Like, arrows, maybe, but you can just retaliate with the literal wrath of god. Plus, you’re probably out of counterspell range, so there’s nothing the DM can do to you!

A lot of your spells are focused on damage, but you do still have plenty of variety in your spell list, just in case. And on the off chance you’re fighting someone in a silence bubble, you can just change your thunder spells to acid or something.

Cons:

For most of this build we’re relying on the Flight spell to get off the ground, which eats up your Concentration and has a chance of failure when you take damage. It’s not ideal.

Those Cleric Levels are very useful, but they still push back your spell progression by 2 levels, which means you’ll have even less time with your An Gal Ta Ki Gal Se than you would normally.

You can’t fly everywhere. Caves exist. Buildings exist. I mean you totally can blast holes to get where you need to, just don’t expect to be that popular with whoever owns the building. Also, fighting in cramped areas plays to your biggest weakness: squishiness. Your AC is only 15, and you’ve got barely over 120 HP, which as we just discussed, someone built like you can take out very easily.

[yanderecandystore]

breaths Poly Among Us AU. Reader is a wizard in training or Royalty. Buddy is the horse/familiar. Red is a knight in armor and Black and Gremlin (the mini imposter) are the dragons. I'm lowkey trying to find escape as my class judge my final work. - Cold Anon

:( Awn boo, I hope you do well on it!

I can't lie this is the weirdest concept that I have heard off and I'm living for it lol- It's so creative boo, thank you so much for requesting it!

Idk which should I pick tho! Both ideas are great (wizard or royalty) but I'm afraid that if I mix it, it won't be as nice ;-;

Eh, fuck it, I think I can do all of them boo-

TW/Tags: it's one of those multiple scenarios in one headcanon cause I couldn't choose ;-; // I never watched Harry Potter fully but I know some memes, sorry- // should I call this among us?? We're kinda in a really different realm and I really like the idea but what should I categorize this post as? // Among Us Au //

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

You're a wizard, [y/n] [Yandere!Among Us AU? x Reader - Headcanon]:

🎇 Let me set the stage for a quick sec!🎇

So, because this is a Among Us Au I think it would be unfair to not add some of the elements present in the game and my headcanons, just so it doesn't lose the original feeling but also adds a new gimmick to it.

I think it goes without saying that we aren't stuck in a spaceship floating around aimlessly in space as our station tries their best to get us back anymore. Your story passes in a classic medieval town, a capital city surrounded by large walls protecting the citizens from the outside world that is filled with all types of different creatures looking forward to destroying the entire city whenever they can.

You would be surprised how many of them do try to destroy everyone constantly, so that's why it's important for everyone to be inside and never ever let the gates open, even if accidentally. There is no room for errors considering the huge beasts that try to come here constantly!

But what if a betrayal happens inside the castle? What if someone with the authority to do so, allow a creature of demise inside the town's walls? Well, that's exactly what happened, Red, a "loyal" knight of the royal family has let in a powerful dragon infiltrate and use their magic to disguise themselves as humans.

Did he do it because of love for the scaly beast? Because of revenge towards the royal family and/or the entire human race? It could be both, honestly.

Red had managed to get both father and son inside your city and although they were fine for the time being (ya know, not wanting to destroy everything JUST yet-), they got enchanted with unexpected feelings towards you, and there are many, many ways this story can go.

I hope you don't mind being stalked by a traitor and a dragon, and a dragon child-

→👑Royal Reader🌷:

Basically: It's obvious how this would go, right? I mean- It's a pretty classic plot don't you think? The dragon and the prince/princess?

It's obvious that kidnapping you would be the way to go, considering they see reality as their own perfect fairy tale that they can erase everything they don't want to be part of the story. It's such a classic cliche plot, yet they believe to be very effective.

But maybe they can wait a little, since it wouldn't be wise to simply take you away right now, considering there are guards everywhere outside your room, and starting a war without a proper plan wouldn't be wise.

They may content themselves with the distant view they get of you for now, although they would prefer it if that horse you love so much wasn't always near you, thankfully he can't be inside the castle's walls, but since you spend a lot of time in the field riding him it does make their job a lot harder.

→🧙Wizard Reader✨:

Let's say you're an outcast. Not necessarily hated, just a bit different and usually left alone since you are a master at the fine arts of magic. You're eccentric by nature, and so people tend to leave you be and take care of your work alone.

The royal family calls for your guidance rarely, normally when they consider the situation to be involving concepts that are foreign to them, like spells and curses.

I imagine you would be called to be aware of the intruder inside the kingdom. No one knows what it is exactly and who it is, who they could be disguising as- So the king asked you to investigate the case closely and hopefully be able to deal with whatever creature may be hidden amongst the castle's staff members.

They at first considered you to be somewhat of a burden, they did consider killing you multiple times especially whenever you almost caught them being suspicious.

That damned familiar of yours keeps trying to show you the clues they left, and they can't stand the idea of having to break up because of some "know-it-all Wizard"!

But… They can't lie that you are pretty attractive, being all smart and all. Before they can actually go in for the kill, they start to get really attracted to your wisdom and oddities.

When you discover what type of creature has entered the kingdom, you would immediately warn the king to not only be alert but to prepare his soldiers to war, considering that a shapeshifting dragon would be no easy task to handle- But it would be a shame if you didn't make it to the king in time, wouldn't it?

→🧙Royal Wizard Reader👑:

In a kingdom filled with wizards and spellcasters, you can imagine that it would be much harder to take them down than a normal human kingdom where most people are commoners living their daily lives trying to not worry about the monsters trying to destroy them.

Being the child of a powerful lineage of wizards should have prepared you for the probability of an infiltration happening at any time, bit- Come on, who wants to be scared everyday that someone will try to betray your kingdom in the first place?

You have been trained and properly taught all your life about spells and magic, and the dangers of the outside to such a strict manner that made you crave some sort of freedom. All of these rules and lessons day by day doesn't make you feel more powerful, it makes you feel weak! It makes you feel unhappy considering the state that the world outside the kingdom's walls is in.

Is absolutely terrifying, yet you would rather joke about it and live a carefree lifestyle than let that fear overcome you- And besides!! Maybe not all monsters are like that, right?! They can't be!

You can't believe that all monsters are creatures of pure evil and nothing more, you couldn't help but doubt the teachings of your tutors ever since you were young, to the point you feel curious enough to try and get to know a monster personally.

Your wish for understanding the creatures outside the kingdom is an admirable thing, yet that naive curiosity will only bring you bad things.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[luninosity]

Okay, so, some Falcon and the Winter Soldier thoughts (will have some spoilers) for episodes two and three. General non-spoilery comment first: I feel like these were both *okay* episodes - neither as good as the first, but I didn’t dislike them, either. I’m still really curious to see how we’re going to wrap this all up in three more episodes; it doesn’t feel like we’re halfway done yet!

Okay, more spoiler-y notes below the Read More, not in any real order, just as I think and type. I’ll probably forget some things, but for now, here’re some thoughts...

--I like ep 3 slightly more than ep 2, mostly because of Zemo!

--I actually really love Zemo here (I liked him in Civil War, too): complex, sardonic, enjoying poking at people, a villain we do feel sympathy for even as he’s still sharp enough to remind us that he is a villain. Daniel Bruhl has always done a fantastic job flipping between calculated cruelty, wry humor - the whole “I am a Baron” moment was great - and pain that for him is still raw, about the loss of his family. (Some things’re awfully cliche - look, the supervillain’s playing chess and reading Machiavelli in his cell? really? - but, y’know...sure. Why not. We expect some cliches in the superhero genre, and this is an inoffensive one.)

--also Zemo dancing. That’s it. That’s everything.

--moving on from that: I’m also really liking how they’re writing John Walker. He does have charm, and there’s a certain amount of sympathy - especially as we see him worrying about filling the Captain America shoes, in ep 2 - but we’re also getting this really subtle sense of wrongness about him. He’s clearly vindictive and angry when things (and people) don’t act according to his mental script for them, and he’s willing to use his name and power to do things like get Bucky released...which in context and given our sympathies for Bucky is a good thing, but...it’s also an indicator of his willingness to do what he wants, because he can. (To be fair, Steve Rogers also often did that! - but Steve earned our trust, both in narrative and character. From his first introduction to WWII leadership experience to all the Avengers stuff, Steve consistently acts to protect people, and he’ll also listen if someone else has a good idea or if someone needs to talk, like with Wanda.) So I’m really liking this slow-fuse character development.

--mixed feelings about Sharon. I love that the show’s acknowledging how much she sacrificed for our main heroes, with no reward. On the other hand, she also clearly knew the consequences that could happen; she said as much at the time. The level of bitterness seems like a lot. But I’m also interested in everything we still don’t know about her - if she’s not the Power Broker herself, she’s obviously Up To Something. So that should be fun.

--hey, look at that X-Men location, with Majipoor! Also a nod to Wolverine’s favorite bar there, I think?

--I love heist and disguise plots!

--I also really like Bucky’s having to revert to the Winter Soldier - Sebastian Stan does it so brilliantly, with so many layers of emotion: not wanting to, loathing it, recognizing the necessity, shutting off all emotion and just coldly doing it, hurting but covering it up...just fantastic, and you know I love some hurt/comfort, and this seems like such a great set-up for emotional hurt

--but! this also seems like...a weird plot hole, kind of? Bucky’s pretty famous at this point, right? I imagine the criminal underworld knows he’s been pardoned and deprogrammed, right? or do they assume Zemo, with his knowledge of Hydra, still has some special control over him?

--along the same “this seems like someone didn’t think this through” path, Sam, you’re a professional, turn off your phone on a mission. Oh my god. Face-palmingly stupid - and I think somewhat lazy writing, as the writers plainly needed a giveaway, and went for the first idea they had. Even if it made a main character look incompetent.

--the Flag Smashers and Karli are...fine. They feel very Generic Marvel Villain - not the big space alien type, but the other type, the “I have a personal loss and motivating pain so I’m a little sympathetic but also Clearly Evil, watch me kill civilians so the audience won’t ever find me TOO sympathetic” type. Meh. Fine. Zemo’s more interesting, but...fine.

--Anthony Mackie is such a fantastic actor - every bit of his reaction to the Isaiah Bradley reveal is so good. The anger, pain, frustration, ferocity...heartbreaking. Actually that whole scene is so good - his emotions at discovering this secret history are palpable, and it’s so painful, because we also understand why Bucky would keep the secret - as someone who knows about pain and trauma and being experimented on, and knowing Isaiah wants to be left alone - we feel really deeply for both characters here, and it’s great.

--I actually liked the abrupt swing from the Isaiah Bradley encounter to the casual everyday racism of the cops on the street - is it subtle, no. But it’s not meant to be: it’s meant to be standing up and shouting about how not that much has really changed, and about how pervasive racism is. I know some reviews were all, “this was just too much!” or “too forced!” but...look, it needs to be shouted sometimes for people to hear.

--Bucky’s notebook being Steve’s, oh, ouch, my feelings. If I had the time and energy to write fic...

--(also, if I had the time and energy to write dark!fic: where’re my fics in which Zemo’s implication about the Winter Soldier “doing anything you want” gets played with? what or who does Bucky have to do to keep the undercover charade going? so many Bad Wrong Kinky power dynamics and explorations of consent and what this would do to Bucky’s head, here, and honestly I’d totally read them all, just saying.)

--Sam and Bucky together...I don’t know. This is one of the elements that I’m not actually a huge fan of, but I think it’s partly a personal genre / sense of humor thing that’s not clicking for me, personally, again. Like...

--I don’t find people shouting aggrievedly at each other to be funny? I’m not sure why it is.

--I mean, I get that they’re doing, like, eighties buddy cop movies, but...it got old really fast then, and it’s not something we needed to bring back. It’s not clever, and it’s...well, shouty and annoying.

--(I say this as someone who genuinely likes the first two Lethal Weapon movies...but the significant difference is, I think, we’re also shown in both those movies that Riggs and Murtaugh care about each other. They don’t want to be partners initially, and they don’t get along initially, and they do argue over tactics**...but they immediately feel responsible for each other and act to protect each other even as they argue, because it’s the right thing to do and we’re shown moments of them awkwardly trying to connect, because they both have that deep sense of...protectiveness...that makes them Good People - like, if they learn something that the other person needs to know, they tell each other. They protect each other’s families / love interests. So by the end of the second movie, with that fabulous character death fake-out, Murtaugh’s initial shock and grief is real and powerful and painful, and so is his genuine relief when the worst isn’t true - and it’s all earned.) (**however, they tend to argue tactics *before* jumping in - “is it 1, 2, 3, go on 3? or 3, then go?” And then once that’s established, they go ahead. That makes a difference as far as...well...competence and teamwork!)

--(Sam and Bucky, as far as I can tell, don’t do the above, and just...maybe shouldn’t be working together?)

--I also don’t find grown men acting like my youngest nephew, when he’s having a temper tantrum, to be funny. Staring contests? Random insults? Sulking in silence? Oh, grow up.

--(Also, yes, writers, we see you with the “couples therapy” and “get closer and make your legs touch” and “landing on top of each other as they hit the ground” moments. I, at least, personally, am very tired of...I don’t know that I’d call it queerbaiting exactly, but this idea that we’re supposed to find these moments funny...because why? Because, ooh, they’re two men getting close to each other, physically or emotionally? Why is this a thing we need to draw attention to? Do you think you’re doing some sort of fan service? Please either make Sam/Bucky happen or stop doing this.)

--both Sam and Bucky are highly competent and professional agents, or they should be. They should know how to work in the field - even with people they may not like - and adapt to shifting strategy, make best use of available assets, include people in the plan, etc. I can’t help but compare this to something like, say, Leverage, which also has a team who mocks each other and makes jokes but clearly absolutely respects each other’s capabilities, has a plan going in and tells everyone what the plan is, and adapts (and trusts each other to adapt) on the fly as necessary, and does it all without random insults about someone’s (PTSD-related) staring and “robot brain”.

--one of the very specific moments that bothers me a lot is the ending of the therapy scene (yay for showing heroes in therapy! but also I’m pretty sure she’s...not a great therapist?). Bucky finally opens up and says something real, about his own self-doubt and wondering whether Steve was wrong about him....and Sam just...brushes it off and goes, “we’re done here,” basically. Not only does that feel wildly out of character for former counselor Sam, it feels cruel. I really deeply dislike that moment the more I think about it. Makes me want to scream.

--Sam insults Bucky way more than the other way around. It’s starting to feel very one-sided (it’d be better if more clearly reciprocal, though it’s still not a dynamic that’s my favorite), and again, feels out of character - maybe this is Anthony Mackie’s sense of humor, but Sam isn’t Mackie, and Bucky isn’t Seb, and it reads as...a weird unbalanced power-trip thing to me. And also out of character for Sam, who can be sarcastic (”If you guys eat that sort of thing,” about breakfast, when Steve and Nat have randomly shown up at his door) but that’s not the same as just throwing unprovoked insults at a person who’s trying to recover from trauma, and a lot of those insults seem to center on things that were done to Bucky, that he had no choice in (the staring, the arm, etc), and that feels....it just feels mean, to me. Make fun of things he’s had a choice in / can do something about, if you have to - hair, clothes, liking “old people’s games” like gin rummy or pinochle, not knowing who Beyonce is, I don’t know, there are so many options that aren’t cruel! Do that instead. Let Bucky have a good comeback for once, too!

--the action scenes are action scenes. Also fine.

--Sam might be right about destroying the shield, and the show may even be (unintentionally?) setting that up as the best outcome, but that’s a problem for the future, Sam; get it back first. Also it’s a problem you caused by giving the shield up - did you really trust the government to leave it unused in a museum? You’re not that naive.

--overall, it’s...a perfectly fine show, so far, I think? Solid, and interesting, but not great. I think some of what doesn’t work for me is because it doesn’t work for me personally, as far as the shouty insult-heavy action “comedy” bits that I’m not enjoying, but I think they’re doing what they aimed for with it, so in that sense, I guess it’s working? There’s a lot of really cool stuff around the edges - John Walker, Isaiah Bradley, that Dora Milaje stinger, the bigger world of a history interwoven with racism and superpowers, the chillingly effective use of Bucky’s past - but I wish I liked the central Sam-Bucky relationship more. Individually they’re wonderful - they’ve both had such powerful scenes dealing with family, trauma, and consequences - but I feel like, in the effort to do the buddy comedy dynamic, the writing has just made me really sure that they actually genuinely don’t like each other? To such an extent that if they show any affection / caring / interest in each other in the last three episodes, it won’t be believable. (I mean Sam and Bucky, not Mackie and Seb. Mackie and Seb’re adorable.)

--I just want to think about Zemo dancing some more.

[jackdaniel69nice]

Ninjago ATLA au Book 3: Earth

Books 1, Book 2

Harumi gathers her friends, Skylor and Vania to to help her find Lloyd

While in the swamp Lloyd learns from Bolobo about the connection between all living things and sees a bright flash of light and energy and two boys. He decides to follow the connection and arrives at the Walkers.

He meets Jay, an inventor and quite frankly a genius. He invites them to stay with them for awhile which is great because they’re firenation and fugitives and should stay out of big towns

When Lloyd mentions he’s searching for an earth bending master of course he points out Karlof, a strong man who’s said to be able to bend metal but his harsh treatment and cocky attitude don’t sit with Lloyd (or Kai) and Jay says he may know someone else.

They meet Cole at night. At first he’s off putting and cold (Jay said he would be, you just gotta warm up to him) and he’s suspicious of them but by Jay’s convincing he says he’ll “think about it”. Kai isn’t impressed and Cole puts him in the ground...literally.

They go into town to get supplies. They are quick to learn that the Walkers have a...reputation...here.

“Strange things go on out there girly don’t go associating with those people..”

“What do you mean?”

“Flashes of light, loud booms, quakes that shake the very mountain. It’s witchcraft.”

Unfortunately the attention had not escaped the local army and they tried to take them for “causing a public disturbance”. But Jay’s quick on his feet and leads them to a safe place, which just so happens to be Cole’s house.

Now they know Cole’s rich and dances competitively like his father, though he doesn’t seem to be happy about it. Cole takes them back through a tunnel, apparently the same one he had used yesterday to sneak out. The mysterious glowing lights guide them along. Cave of two lovers anyone ;)

They have a bit of fun talking, Cole really can be nice once he’s not so pent up. He says he’ll come by latter tonight. Jay say he wants to show them something. It’s an invention, he shows them the water wheel, a motor that generates electricity. It’s what made the lights in the tunnel and powers an assortment of other devices he has. Nya’s stoked (haha get it like to stoke the fire)

They are finished in a few days which is good because they have stayed in one place for a little to long and things are going to go sour. It turns out one of the people in the military was able to recognize Lloyd and sent for backup. An earth bending army is coming to capture them.

They meet nightly still. It’s mostly just chatting and relaxing. Of course the army ambushes them so Jay and Cole not only find out they are from the fire nation, but that Lloyd is the prince. There’s only a few moments to talk but even without much explanation Cole and Jay give them enough time to get to Ultra (is that a dragon!) and help them get away.

They have to make a decision, if they stay they’ll be arrested for treason, if they leave and go with them they will be leaving their families behind. Ed and Edna push for Jay to leave, only wanting his safety. Really they had already made their decision. They rejoin the others before they can get out of range.

It’s still not over yet though. Cole demands answers but they are able to get a hold of Ulta and start to bring them down. Cole tries his best to defend against the assailing rocks but is quickly overwhelmed. Lloyd can only watch as they fall into the arms of the earth nation army. When Cole gets injured it’s the last straw, his avatar state awakens and he decimates the army.

So now the earth nation, Cole, and Jay know the fire lord’s son is the avatar. They explain their past and struggles and how they need to defeat Garmadon before the solstice. Cole is still wary but understands their need for lying, more then they would know. Jay never really doubted them (in fact it’s really exciting, real life fire benders!) but he can’t help but wonder what’s going to become of his parents.

Other stuff happens like Morro and Wu’s traveling and the team facing off against Harumi. They meet a bunch of Pirates and Jay steals a lightning bending scroll from Captain Nadakhan (because Lloyd needs to learn duh! And maybe it will help me with some of my inventions... just a little) /

Cole’s mother died fighting in the war. They were very close and she taught him everything she knows about bending. It’s how he learns seismic-sense. Lilly always preached about about being one with the earth and nature and how important it it to give back to it just as much as you take.

Cole’s training is basically to climb a mountain and sit in a field of flowers and “listen to the earth”. They do this for days. Cole will tell stories and they’ll have a laugh. They bond a lot get to know each each other better.

But Lloyd is impatient, he doesn’t want to just sit around, people are dieing in this war and he needs to learn earth bending fast. They get in a fight. Lloyd says he doesn’t care about the stupid plants and needs to learn real earth bending. Cole decimated the entire field in an instant and leaves.

Lloyd is distraught, this place was where he got to know Cole and really become friends with him. He KNOWS this place deep down, right to his core. How it feels, how it moves, how it lives...but it’s all gone, buried under a mountain of rock and dirt. He cries and mourns, what has he done?

Jay talks to Cole who is just as upset and goes to talk to Lloyd, it’s almost night now and he still hasn’t come back. He tells Lloyd about Lilly. How the earth was something special he shared with her and was the only connection to her he has left. Cole wasn’t trying to teach him earth bending (I mean he was...), he was trying to connect to Lloyd, the same way he connected to his mother. Lloyd feels a lot worse after that but that wasn’t the point Jay was trying to make.

“If you felt that same connection he did, if you care about this place, then fix it”

“How?”

“Bend”

So he does

He works all night to remove the rubble. The next morning Cole comes back because Lloyd still didn’t come home. He finds the field, different but still familiar, has returned and a sleeping lloyd in a pile of crushed flowers. Lloyd immediately tries to apologize but Cole just wraps him up in a hug and they go back down the mountain.

They are traveling again and hear about the The Lost City of Ouroboros, a place filled with all knowledge guarded by a serpentine spirit. Obviously they check it out and discover the solar eclipse, they have an invasion plan. But with a cruel twist of fate Ultra is stolen right out from under Cole and they have to get to Ba Sing Sei on foot. Lloyd is torn up, he’s stressed, all he really wants to do is go home, for everything to back to how it used to. When they find the people who took Ultra...they never stood a chance.

They get to Ba Sing Sei and find it under attack. Using his technical know-how Jay is able to take out the drill from the inside. They get Ultra back and are eventually able to have a meeting with the earth king despite General Kozu and the Stone Army’s interference. Earth King Dareth agrees to help with the invasion plan after some coaxing.

The team temporarily splits up. Now that they arnt criminals anymore Cole and Jay are able to visit their parents. Kai and Nya receive word from the northern water tribe about possible information on what happened to their parents, Kai decides to go to the South Pole and look for them. Lloyd tries to master the Avatar state. Nya is excited to reunite with Pixal but Harumi worms her way in under the disguise of a Samurai-X warrior and takes over the Stone Army for herself.

Meanwhile Wu and Morro had opened up their own tea shop Steep Wisdom and are living pretty peacefully until Harumi captures Morro. They return to Wu telling them about Morro and Nya’s capture, they go to the crystal catacombs and the fight begins.

Lloyd finds that while he has an arsenal of elements to his call he can’t match up with Harumi’s abilities and the Stone Army. His avatar state becomes blocked once she tells him Garmadon sent her to kill him, and she does so.

Morro makes the wrong choice and sides with Harumi. He attackes Cole and Jay while Kai and Nya are busy fighting Skylor and Vania. Wu tries to stop him but he still ends up hurting Cole and knocking him out.

Jay’s weapons are shot and it’s easy to tell they’re losing, soon they will be captured. It’s a hard choice but with his friends in danger he would do anything to protect them. He uses lightning, not some little invention, real lightning bending. Who knew! (Probably you)

It gives them the edge they need for Kai and Nya to break free, they grab Lloyd and Cole and run. Wu gives them time and Nya has to use the spirit water to revive Lloyd. The earth kingdom falls.

Book 4

[rinharu-purple]

Lucien: MLQC’s Mastermind

Yes, I said that Lucien is the creepiest LI in my opinion, and I wouldn’t choose him in a million, billion years. BUT, Lucien is by far the one person, who is pulling the strings and is the driving force of the MLQC universe. He is the only person who acquires all the information from all sides and is connected to every important actor in the story. Therefore, Lucien has become the second LI I’ve started to follow more attentively. Mind that the ranking ist 1) Gavin 2) Gavin 3) Gavin 4) Lucien ;)

In my manifesto, why Gavin is MC’s choice, I’ve already mentioned briefly, that Lucien has the strongest EVOL among all the characters but is also the strongest character (it’s not the MC or the Black Queen, let’s not fool ourselves)

The Machiavellian

Before we talk about Lucien’s part in the MLQC universe, we should first look at him as person and observe the elements that make up his personality.

In the game, all our guys have their personal priorities. Gavin and Kiro are on the front line, fighting for peace and prosperity, Victor, well...I don’t think that he cares for anything else besides MC, maybe his position. But with Lucien, his priority is not a person or a concept, but rather a philosophy. Lucien wants to see the next step in human evolution and is determined to take any measures necessary to see it to it’s end. Other guys can not stand oblivious to other things that come up their way in achieving their goals but Lucien only has his eyes on the prize and to him nothing else matters, no one else matters and no ethics matter. 

Machiavellianism denotes cunningness and claims, that those dark triads use whatever means necessary to gain power. If we consider the choices Lucien has made throughout the story so far, we can clearly find his manipulative ways in getting other actors to the positions of his conjecture. He lies to MC and hides his personality as Ares, penetrates Black Swan to use their facilities, but also uses LFG’s resources for his R&D projects all the while concealing his true nature. 

Another trait of a Machiavellian, is that he is charismatic and friendly, all the while displaying no emotions. I think, there can be two possible reasons as to why Lucien has limited display of emotions. The first possible explanation has something to do with his parents passing and the trauma he suffered afterwards. Among all LIs Lucien is the one with the most loveless childhood and teenage years, the most important years in developing one’s psychological traits and during those years Lucien received alongside with Kiro the most blows. That resulted in him losing the connection to his emotions as a defense mechanism. 

Another possibility might be him losing the connection to his emotions as a result of a chemical reaction in his brain due to excessive testing Black Swan objected him to. Lucien’s EVOL was created in a lab and he was the first man-made Evolver. Lucien is called various times a psychopath, because he shows signs of psychopathy such as lack of remorse, empathy or compassion. It is said that that kind of behavior might occur due to a misconnection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. Considering the fact that Lucien’s parents were killed right in front of him and that he was both physically and psychologically abused for the coming years, this might have led him to experience an imbalance in his chemical balance. One might argue, that his altruistic actions in the orphanage are an evidence for his compassion, I think it is yet another disguise for his unethical ways of reaching his goals.

The Orchestrator

In all honesty no one is actively seeking alliances and keeps tabs on other’s actions for their agenda like Lucien does. Maybe Commander Leto but he mostly fails in drawing others to his side, because he is not able to speak in their pendants’ language or resonate with their perspective. Lucien, on the other hand, is gifted with an extraordinary ability to observe his surroundings and companions, making it very easy for him to talk to them in their terms and desires. Lucien doesn’t show much empathy, UNLESS, it contributes to his cause, in that case he can perfectly put himself in other’s shoes and plays them in such a meticulous way, that they join him willingly.

That is how Lucien directs MC successfully in entering the Black Cabin or in understanding the evolution core.

Lucien is not exactly a piece on a chess board, but is a player, who knows all the pieces very well, knows the rules of the game, has observed many games and took notes of how they all has turned out and therefore knows what kind of a game he is going to play. Just watch closely. how he co-operates with Kiro and the Black Queen. He knows that Kiro is using Black Swan for his goals, much like he does, so he uses his hacking abilities to access to information. The Black Queen is the initiator of everything in S1, so he makes sure to stay close to her. He knows that Victor is searching for MC and trying to understand the Evol gene, there he has an investor. 

The Cool, Calm and Collected Type

in the MLQC universe, everyone loses their composure at one point or another, because...who wouldn’t? Time and space warps constantly and people are also changing their stances depending on the time-space constellation they find themselves in. 

MC loses her cool almost on a daily basis, Gavin was in a constant haywire in the Daybreak era, Victor literally threw people into black holes in CH11 and freaked out as he saw the Black Queen for the first time and Kiro walks around in a bipolar state. So, everybody is pretty unstable due to understandable conditions but we never see Lucien lose his cool and this is one of his best qualities. 

Here is the thing about Lucien. This guy is always at least one step ahead of everyone and he achieves this by two simple rules: 

1) Acquire all possible information

2) Observe everyone and everything at all times

Why am I saying this? It lies in the basis of anxiety and angst. We humans tend to feel uncomfortable in the face of an uncertain situation, meaning in the wake of the unknown. MC is constantly anxious, because she doesn’t know what is going on, why is everyone after her, why is she blessed with the unconditional affection of 5 equally attractive men? (ehm, but not quite equally ehm *Gavin* hihi, sorry, Gavin-stan gotta Gavin-stan ^_^). Anyway you get the picture. Gavin went haywire in CH22 because he was pushed in a tight spot and therefore had angst. Same goes for Victor in CH11 his mind went blank as he saw history repeating itself and then in CH18 when he saw with his own eyes what could the girl of his dreams might become.

We don’t see Lucien in such deadlock situation though do we, and I think it is mainly because he is always prepared for every possibility and he can calculate them meticulously, because he possesses the largest chunk of information and also keeps tabs on everyone and everything that’s going on. So, when a crisis occurs he doesn’t freak out, sure he gets surprised at times, because the outcome of a a certain situation is the possibility, which he calculated to be no higher than 1% and yet there it is. But since he’s already took this into consideration, he has a plan. Combine this with his knowledge about the persons and organizations involved in the matter, then you have a calm Lucien, who is in control of the situation. Thus, he is calm. You can actually also bind this behavior of Lucien with that of a predator, whose movement are languid, is non-reactive and doesn’t mind turning his back to his opponents, since he doesn’t perceive them as a threat.

If this wasn’t enough, Lucien manages to joggle all of this without exposing himself. Even in the last stage of the play he never gets caught. Unless he willingly exposes himself, as in the case of revealing Ares to MC. MLQC actors can usually see through each other and use their weaknesses to meet their own ends. MC is obviously Gavin, Kiro and Victor’s weakness and their opponents can see this pretty easily. IT’s not quite the same with Lucien though and he doesn’t let himself be blackmailed or threatened by any weakness. He always keeps his cards close to his chest. 

Considering the fact that Lucin is the least outstanding LI, this is pretty impressive. So I guess this makes him the embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”.

The Renaissance Man

Lucien is a man of science and aesthetics. Explaining phenomenons with associations and loading them with philosophical substance. He doesn’t necessarily perceive things bluntly as they are, but interprets them in a meaningful way. The way he associates MC with a butterfly, how he wants to entrap her in ajar, so she wouldn’t get away, alas taking the only resource of color in his life away. Not only that, but he can also break down the matters at hand to its fragments and can therefore work his way up from there. He is blessed with a strong deduction ability, so he can connect the dots easily, come to a conclusion and act accordingly. No doubt that the other guys have very good deduction abilities, but because Lucien always has a bit of an information more than them, he can find the solutions just a little bit faster in my opinion. 

Reading is a necessity for his guy much like eating and drinking, Which is why we see him reframing events in the context of a certain story he’d read at some point in his life. With time, I will add here some of his quotes about certain situations to explain what I mean. Or even better, if you have some, that are evident in you opinion, you could add them in the comments. I really enjoy reading/hearing Lucien’s philosophical, scientific explanations to certain moments in MC’s life. They are always to the point and helpful.

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

So this is my very first analysis on Lucien and I have to admit, I still have  so many material to check on him, so if anything is missing please bear with me here :)

I was watching Joe’s Twitch while I wrote this, so there are many spelling, grammar mistakes, which will be corrected gradually.

This post will get better and better, scout promise!