#The Pharaoh rewrite

[kisaraslover]

Blue Eyes White Dragon, as a deity of victory and power is attracted to sheer willpower so jot that down-

[bakawitch]

Ooh I'd love to know about Sunriseshipping :) (I actually googled to figure out what that ship is and couldn't find it, so now I am curious :D)

Ooh this is a good one!

So you couldn't have found this because I just kind of made up the ship name on the spot because the ship it is for doesn't exist according to all the ship lists I checked. I'd might wanna change it to something shorter, I just couldn't really find a good name yet, so I'm open to suggestions. The closest thing I could find to an official ship name was goldshipping, but that is already the ship name for one officially and another ship unofficially.

Sunriseshipping is: Pharaoh Atem X Malik Ishtar X Yami Malik X Thief King Bakura

The reason for that is all of them can be associated with it, like Bakura's name can be loosely translated to sunrise in middle egyptian, Atem is a Pharaoh which is often associated with sun gods, after leaving the tomb Malik prefers the sunlight to darkness and Yami Malik has Ra for a longish time.

Here's a quick, unedited excerpt from the chapter where Atem gets mysteriously resurrected:

As Atem finally made a move to get up it immediately became painstakingly obvious that he must have been laying there for quite some time. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, a sudden ache shot through his spine.

Confused, he gritted his teeth and bore through it, finally managing to push himself up into a sitting position. Despite what he hoped for, the pain kept coursing through his back and shoulders as he quickly moved an arm behind himself to prevent his sore body from collapsing back onto the sand-covered ground.

He felt dizzy. None of this made sense... The pain, the tiredness, his sickly state, these should all be impossible to experience in the Field of Reeds...

Atem considered the idea of this all being a nightmare, but the growing migraine in his head, made him instantly abandon the mere thought of it. Something was very very wrong about this whole situation. He just couldn't figure out what.

Attempting to shake the ache out of his head without much of a success, Atem decided to take in a bit more from his surroundings.

[natedogx15]

Miraculous Descendent Chapter 62: The Ancient Desert King

Previous Chapter

In the museum, Sabrina is still searching for a hint about the Miraculous on the papyrus Barkk pointed to. However, the lighting isn't helping her much. Nate and Adrien look at different papyrus to find the same hint as she does this. Chloe looks bored as she looks over a golden coffin. However, the four's inspection stops when they hear panic inside the museum. They quickly turn around to see a museum employee blowing their whistle to alert everyone.

"There's an Akuma in the museum! Everyone needs to get out of here!" The employee shouts in a panicky manner as Pharaoh turns the corner and reveals himself to the four teens.

Jalil's new form is that of a tall, muscular individual with pitch-black skin and a golden human pharaoh mask with glowing cyan eyes, a cobra ornament on the top front of it, and a necklace littered with beads and gems. Surrounding the eyes of the mask is a black domino mask-like design. With it, he also has golden arm bands, wrist bands, and anklets. The scarab necklace around his neck also changed. It became a lighter shade of blue with bird-like wings spreading around it and a golden sun disk above it.

Pharaoh sees the employee blowing his whistle while telling people to leave, and civilians panic when they see him.

"Thoth, give me time!" Pharaoh exclaims as he raises his arms and looks to the roof.

Suddenly, the mask changes form and looks like a baboon while losing the cobra ornament. He then puts his hands almost together and creates a bubble of golden energy before throwing it at the employee, trapping him. While trapped in it, his body is seemingly in a form of stasis. Pharaoh then launches more golden bubbles at different panicking civilians and trapping them.

He's about to do the same to Adrien before Nate tackles the other teen out of the way. The two teens then crawl off the floor behind an exhibit while Sabrina and Chloe do the same.

"You okay?" Nate asks him as they hide behind a coffin.

"Y-yeah, thanks." Adrien stutters slightly from his panic as he tries to figure out what happened.

"I really need to stop leaving the hotel at this point. I can't seem to go anywhere without an Akuma showing up." Nate jokingly tells Adrien before ducking to his knees when a bubble passes them.

"I wouldn't say that. This is still better than being locked up in my house." Adrien tells him as he tries to figure out how to escape and transform.

"Get out of here faster!" Pharaoh suddenly shouts as he telekinetically sends the bubbles out of the museum so they're not in his way.

He then walks toward Tutankhamun's scepter and has it float toward him. Adrien takes the chance to run and manages to pass Pharaoh without being seen. Sabrina doesn't do the same, though. She feels it's still too risky. While Adrien runs for it, Nate sends a quick SOS to Marinette, letting her know what's happening and telling her to rush over here.

When Adrien turns the corner and sees it's empty, he smiles as Plagg appears.

"Huh, not going to lie. I didn't expect this. I probably should have, though. Maybe Nooroo told his wielder about the exhibit too, and the wielder hopes it'll give him a hint about the current Ladybug." Plagg says casually as he leans past the corner and stares at Pharaoh.

"Can he actually do that?!" Adrien asks in alarm.

"No. Not to my knowledge. It's a very loose connection at best." Plagg explains as he turns to Adrien with a shrug.

Hearing this causes Adrien to sigh in relief before deciding to intervene.

"It's time to transform. Plagg, claws out." Adrien states as he raises his ring.

Plagg flies into the ring, and Cat Noir quickly turns the corner with a practiced grin.

"You know, there are better ways to be a part of the exhibit than stealing it." He tells Pharaoh while inwardly happy about the joke.

Pharaoh turns around, and Cat Noir becomes slightly more nervous as he stares into the glaring cyan eyes of the baboon mask. This nervousness grows when the museum's security system activates, and iron bars drop behind him, trapping him with Pharaoh.

"I'm not stealing this. It was stolen from me, and I'm just claiming back what's rightfully mine." Pharaoh claims, causing Cat Noir to blink at him in surprise while Chloe raises an eyebrow.

"Does he think he's the real pharaoh? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. This is one of the most delusional Akumas yet." She whispers in annoyance as she glares at Pharaoh.

"Not the time, Chloe," Sabrina tells the girl as she looks for a chance to run for it while Cat Noir distracts Pharaoh.

Pharaoh's mask morphs back into its human shape as he stares at the hero. While it does, Cat Noir pulls out his baton and glares at Cat Noir.

"I think you might need a hit in the head to set you straight." Cat Noir tells him as he charges at the villain.

He suddenly swings a fair distance from Pharaoh and extends his baton to get a quick sneak attack. But Pharaoh raises a hand between him and the baton and grabs it. As he holds the other end of the baton, he shouts.

"Sekhmet, give me strength!"

His golden masks into a lioness, and his strength seems to grow. With this newfound power, Pharaoh tosses Cat Noir into a wall with enough force to leave his indent on a papyrus.

"Ow. I wonder if this is what it feels like to fight Majesta?" Cat Noir groans as he slides off the wall.

The other three teens in the room winch when they see this.

"That looks like it hurt." Nate absently mutters.

Pharaoh doesn't hear him and walks straight to the iron bars. With the lioness mask still on, he grabs the bars and bends them to give him more room to exit. When Cat Noir gets up and sees this, he panics and rushes after the villain.

"Stop!" Cat Noir orders.

Pharaoh does stop. However, only to turn around and rebend the bars back into place, trapping the teens inside. He then raises his hands in the air and shouts.

"Horus, give me flight!"

His golden mask turns into a hawk. He then floats before flying out of the museum at high speed. Once outside the Louvre, he flies up and stares at all the civilians surrounding it.

"It's time for the next phase. Who is worthy of being the sacrifice to the sun god?" Pharaoh asks as he searches for someone specific.

Unluckily, Alya is heading toward the Louvre as he's searching, planning to take pictures of the Egyptian exhibit for her blog to try and get more followers and give her a chance to focus on something besides Hawkmoth's hint. When Pharaoh sees her, he immediately dives toward her and lands before her, causing her to fall to the ground in shock and fear.

Pharaoh crouches before her and grabs her by the jaw while examining her features.

"Your face. To think I would find you so soon. Fate has placed you in my path, telling me I'm right!" Pharaoh announces before slinging Alya over his shoulder, causing the girl to kick and hit him.

"Watch the threads, buddy. Let me go!" Alya orders as she continues to struggle.

Just then, Cat Noir runs out of the museum and glares at Pharaoh when he realizes one of his classmates is in his clutches.

"Are you seriously hiding behind a hostage? That's weak!" He angrily shouts at Pharaoh while glaring at the villain.

Pharaoh turns to Cat Noir, and the hero can feel himself getting glared at.

"I'm way more powerful than you are. I have no need for a hostage. But I do require her." Pharaoh announces before shouting.

"Anubis, bring me mummies!" After saying this, his mask turns into a jackal, and he stares at the civilians sticking around to record the fight or wondering if this is a publicity stunt.

Cat Noir is confused by his action before his eyes widen in shock when golden lasers shoot from the mask's eyes and hit a civilian, turning them into a mummy. Pharaoh then repeats this process while Cat Noir is in shock before the hero charges at him.

"Stop!" Cat Noir shouts desperately as he charges at the villain.

He extends his baton behind him to close the distance between him and Pharaoh while also getting some height before shrinking it and going for a downward strike on the villain. But like before, Pharaoh grabs the baton to stop his attack before throwing him to the side.

"Pathetic. And you call yourself a warrior. You've grown weak. Neither you nor my nemesis will stop me like you did five thousand years ago." Pharaoh announces as he stares at Cat Noir.

After saying this, a rubber ball strikes him in the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward. He then turns around to see Canine glaring at him as the ball bounces back into her hand.

"How dare you strike a king?" Pharaoh asks in anger before shooting lasers at the heroine. However, Canine easily avoids them with her enhanced agility, and Pharaoh's focus on her gives Cat Noir a chance to charge at him and slam his hand into the ground under him.

"Black Hole!" He shouts, trapping Pharaoh's feet in his power as it expands under Pharaoh's feet.

"What!?" Pharaoh shouts in alarm.

"Gotcha." Cat Noir says with a grin.

"Nice work, Cat Noir!" Canine praises as Alya cheers while filming this whole confrontation.

"Did you see that, folks? Cat Noir and Canine just captured the villain." Alya says excitedly while having the camera focus on her face.

However, this excitement is short-lived with Pharaoh's words.

"Sekhmet, give me strength!" Pharaoh orders as his mask morphs back into a lioness, and he slams into the ground around Cat Noir's power with his enhanced strength.

The ground shatters and is blown away by Pharaoh's strength, disrupting Black Hole and causing the power to fizzle under the Akuma.

The heroes are in shock at this display of power. They're not the only ones, though. Anyone watching Alya's livestream is, too.

Luckily, someone important is watching right now. A group consisting of Marinette, Alix, Kim, Max, Nathaniel, Ondine, and Nino are enjoying some of the lunch that Kim got. As they're enjoying it, Nino has his phone out and watches Alya's livestream.

"Oh man, this new Akuma is crazy!" Nino shouts in shock as he stands up in surprise.

"New Akuma?!" Marinette urgently asks as she slams her hands on the table while leaving her seat to look at Nino's phone.

"Yeah. Cat Noir and Canine are fighting some kind of living pharaoh near the Louvre." Nino says while showing Marinette his phone.

Marinette stares at it in shock before quickly rushing to find somewhere to transform.

"What's got her in such a panic?" Kim asks with a raised eyebrow as she watches her run.

"I'm uncertain. But it seems she can give you a run for your money, Kim." Max states as he observes her speed.

"Ha, no way. I know for a fact I could beat her in a race. She doesn't look like the athletic type." Kim tells him with a grin.

Alix watches Marinette go, neither she nor anyone else at the table noticing her bracelet glowing again.

Marinette quickly dives into an alley, and Tikki appears.

"We need to hurry over there, Tikki. Hopefully, the others are handling the situation well." Marinette hopes before transforming.

Back with Cat Noir and Canine. The two aren't handling the situation well. Pharaoh seems to be taking them more seriously now and orders some of his mummies to distract the two while the rest bring him civilians to turn into more mummies or hold Alya so both hands are free. 

He's trying to hit the heroes while still in Sekhmet form, but the two manage to avoid his strikes. The problem is that this form seems to have strengthened his durability, causing none of their attacks to work against him. Not even Canine's rubber ball is working against him.

The two soon get distracted by the sound of a scream, and they instinctively turn their heads to see a family getting dragged toward Pharaoh by his mummies. This moment of distraction lets Pharaoh slam a fist into Cat Noir's side, sending the hero flying. He tries to hit Canine, too. But the heroine ducks under his punch and rolls to the side. She then decides to activate one of her powers.

"Command!" She shouts as Pharaoh turns around to attack her again before she says something else.

"Freeze!" She shouts, causing orange-tinted soundwaves toward the villain and causing his body to involuntarily freeze mid-step toward Canine.

Seeing her chance, Canine throws her rubber ball at the mummies, hitting one in the head and causing it to bounce into the other mummy's head. The force from the attack causes the mummies to drop the family and gives them a chance to run off.

Canine winches at this, feeling sorry for having to do that since she knows the mummies are ordinary people. She doesn't have long to think about it, though. She has to duck under Pharaoh's fist as the villain powers through Canine's power with Sekhmet's strength to attack her.

"Freeze!" Canine shouts again to try and force him to stop, but now it's only slowing him down instead of outright stopping him like before.

"You cannot order a king," Pharaoh tells her as he continues pushing through her power before getting hit in the head by Cat Noir's baton.

"That was for the punch! You hit harder than Stoneheart!" Cat Noir shouts at the villain while glaring at him.

Pharaoh growls and wants to charge at Cat Noir but can't because of Canine's spell. Having enough of this, he decides to stop wasting.

"I don't have time to waste fighting you two. I need to prepare the ritual." Pharaoh announces before breaking the spell and quickly changing his mask into Horus.

With that, the Akuma flies off at high speed. A few seconds later, Ladybug appears in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Ladybug. It looks like you're the last to appear again." Cat Noir laughs somewhat awkwardly, causing Ladybug to apologize.

"I'm so sorry. I only just learned that you guys were fighting." Ladybug tells them.

"It's fine, Ladybug. You're here, at least. It seems like the Akuma can change their mask into different forms. Each mask gives a different power." Canine explains, having analyzed the Akuma mid-fight.

"Yeah. It's like a better version of your Seamstress since he can constantly change it. There was a lion mask that gave him strength, a bird mask that let him fly, a monkey mask that traps people in bubbles, and a jackal mask that turns people into mummies." Cat Noir explains while counting the masks off with his fingers.

"Didn't you hear the names he was shouting before he transformed? Those were all Egyptian gods." Canine adds.

"I mean, he does think he's an ancient pharaoh." Cat Noir shrugs.

"Do you guys know what he might be after?" Ladybug asks them urgently, wanting to stop him as soon as possible.

"He mentioned something about a ritual." Cat Noir states, causing Canine's eyes to widen as she realizes what Pharaoh is planning.

"He probably wants to finish that ritual on the papyrus!" She shouts before running into the museum.

"Where are you going?" Ladybug asks in worry as she and Cat Noir follow her.

Canine runs into the Egyptian exhibit and notices the iron bars are still bent from when Cat Noir escaped. He had used his baton to bend the bars by extending it. She crawls through them and enters the exhibit to see the papyrus missing. The other heroes soon join her, and Cat Noir notices the same thing.

"Wasn't there something here before?" Cat Noir asks while motioning toward where the papyrus used to be.

"Yeah. A papyrus with a ritual on it. Pharaoh is probably going to try and perform it." Canine tells them.

"What was the ritual?" Ladybug asks in worry.

"Apparently, it's to bring the dead back to life." Canine reveals, much to Ladybug's shock.

With Pharaoh. The Akuma is in a more populated area and uses his Anubis form to turn more people into mummies. While he's doing this, Alya is watching, trapped in the clutches of two mummies, as another set of them walks past her while carrying the papyrus. As the papyrus passes her, Alya notices something, thanks to the sunlight.

One of the smaller pictures on the papyrus has the symbol of a woman spinning a yo-yo.

"Hey! Is that woman holding a yo-yo?" Alya shouts her question toward Pharaoh.

Pharaoh turns his attention toward her and notices what she's staring at.

"Yes. That is a depiction of my long-time nemesis, Ladybug." Pharaoh claims, surprising Alya.

"But that papyrus has to be over a thousand years old," Alya states, causing Pharaoh to nod again.

"You're right. Five thousand years ago, she stopped me from completing the ritual to resurrect Nefertiti. However, she and her allies will not be so lucky this time. I've already nearly completed all the necessary preparations." Pharaoh promises before going back to turning civilians into mummies while leaving Alya with something else to think about.

Back with the heroes, Canine and Cat Noir try to remember the steps to completing the ritual while Ladybug is busy figuring out where Pharaoh is.

"I found him. He's a few blocks away and is turning people into mummies." Ladybug informs the two after checking her yo-yo.

"Alright. Let's go." Cat Noir nods, and Canine adds.

"We may not have a lot of time before Alya is sacrificed." She claims, causing Ladybug to look at her in surprise.

"Alya is what?" She asks worriedly.

"Oh yeah, Pharaoh plans to use her as the sacrifice to revive Nefertiti." Cat Noir says upon realizing they forgot to mention that.

"We need to hurry," Ladybug states, not wanting one of her classmates to be sacrificed.

The three heroes rush out of the museum and head toward Pharaoh. Ladybug takes the liberty of grabbing Canine by her waist and using her yo-yo to zip them across buildings while Cat Noir uses his baton. In what seems like no time, the three lands on a rooftop near where Pharaoh is. He and his army of mummies are seemingly heading back to the Louvre.

"Why are they heading back?" Cat Noir questions in confusion.

"I don't know." Canine says suspiciously as her eyes narrow at the moving army.

"Do you two know where his butterfly is?" Ladybug asks them as she observes Pharaoh.

"I think it's in that necklace." Cat Noir gestures to his chest as if there is something there.

Ladybug nods, and Canine can see she's thinking about something.

"What are you planning, Ladybug?" She asks the other heroine.

Ladybug turns to her and Cat Noir with a somewhat joking smile.

"I was just thinking, since we're dealing with mummies, it would be right to give them a burial." She jokes, causing Canine to look at her in confusion.

Cat Noir looks the same, but after a couple of confused blinks, he realizes what she's talking about and grins.

"Oh. This is going to be awesome." He tells Canine, who's even more confused now.

Ladybug takes a few steps back so Pharaoh doesn't notice what she's doing before saying.

"Seamstress."

Light envelops her, and her costume changes into a familiar suit.

"Eath Seams." She announces when the transformation ends, and she's in her yellow trenchcoat with a yellow black-polka-dotted mask.

Canine blinks in surprise at Ladybug's choice before deciding to ask something else.

"Wouldn't it have been better to use Reverse Seams and turn the mummies back into people?"

"That forms a bit unpredictable, and I don't know what would happen if we used it against Pharaoh's mask-changing ability. So, I don't want to use that against him." Ladybug quickly explains to her, causing Canine to nod.

"Alright. So, what's the plan?" Canine asks.

"I'll keep the mummies away from you guys with my powers. You need to use Fetch to get the pendant from him." Ladybug tells Canine, causing the girl to nod.

Ladybug then looks to Cat Noir.

"Try and help her as best you can," Ladybug tells him.

"You've got it. It shouldn't be too hard. Right? All we have to do is get the pendant and not fight him." Cat Noir laughs in slight nervousness as he remembers when he and Canine fought Pharaoh head-on.

"I'll do what I can to help you guys, but I also have to save Alya," Ladybug promises.

"Alright." Canine says before she and Cat Noir prepare to jump down when Ladybug gives the signal.

And that signal soon comes in the form of Ladybug raising her black-gloved hands and the ground under the army trembling before rising in tsunami-like waves, pushing the mummies away from their master. However, it also drags Alya and the papyrus with them.

"Woah! What is happening!? Help!" Alya panics as she's being swept up with the mummies.

Luckily, a hand of earth forms under her, lifting her out of danger and next to Ladybug.

"Glad that worked," Ladybug mutters in relief as Alya looks around in shock before seeing Ladybug and grinning.

"Oh my god, guys. I just got rescued by Ladybug. In style, too. I was literally in her grasp." Alya says to her livestream excitedly, having kept it going after she got captured.

She then runs next to the heroine and films the fight between Canine, Cat Noir, and Pharaoh. Like Ladybug said, she's keeping the mummies from interfering by manipulating the earth to form walls they can't climb over. This leaves Pharaoh alone to deal with the two on the ground and Ladybug.

Cat Noir jumps at Pharaoh and goes to hit him with his baton. Pharaoh tries to grab it, but Cat Noir immediately retracts it.

"I'm not falling for that again!" He yells at Pharaoh before backing away.

Confused, Pharaoh tries to figure out why he's backing away before remembering Canine and turning around to see the girl throw her rubber ball at him. The rubber ball almost hits the pendant but barely lands under it. The impact is enough to cause him to bend over slightly and hold his chest in pain.

"How dare you strike a king," Pharaoh grunts before changing his mask.

"Thoth, give me time!" He shouts as the mask morphs into a baboon, and Pharaoh creates golden bubbles to try and trap the two.

However, Ladybug uses her powers to pull out chunks of the ground before throwing them at the bubbles, making them useless against the other heroes.

"Curse you, Ladybug! You and your new allies will not stop me like you did five thousand years ago!" Pharaoh angrily shouts at Ladybug as his mask morphs into a hawk, and he tries to fly at her.

But Ladybug acts quickly again by crossing her arms and causing columns of earth to fly out of the ground and trap Pharaoh. Ladybug glares as she focuses harder and creates more columns to try and contain him.

"Hurry!" Ladybug urgently shouts at the two as she can feel Pharaoh try and escape through her connection with the ground.

The other two heroes run along the columns right as Pharaoh breaks through them using Sekhmet's strength.

Cat Noir jumps at Pharaoh and grabs him by the head, covering his eyes.

"Get off me!" Pharaoh roars as Canine runs at him and hits the pendent with her rubber ball. She then tries to grab it with her free hand, but Pharaoh grabs Cat Noir and throws him at Canine.

The two hit the ground, but it's already too late.

"Fetch!" Canine shouts from the ground with Cat Noir lying atop her.

Her rubber ball flies at Pharaoh and hits his pendant before they fly back to Canine in a bright orange orb of light.

"No!" Pharaoh angrily shouts as the ball returns to Canine with the necklace, and she takes the chance to break its pendant.

As she breaks it, Ladybug jumps down and captures it with her yo-yo as Pharaoh de-transforms. In a swift, practiced motion, she activates Miraculous Ladybug to fix the city. Doing this causes the ground she manipulated to return to normal, and Jalil rests on his knees in the middle of the three heroes.

"Ugh, what happened?" Jalil asks as he holds his head and looks around.

"You may have gone a bit far in trying to test your theory." Cat Noir tells him.

Next Chapter

[void-writing]

Thinking about Mummies Alive again and that if the show was more true to ancient Egyptian mythology then Scarab would have run afoul pretty much the entire pantheon by killing Rapses.

Like...so many of the gods were devoted to protecting the Pharaoh, and cosmic balance was also a big thing in their cosmology. So I feel that Scarab’s whole “oh I’m going to murder the son of the man with the largest and most blatant amount of divine favor--who would have inherited that same favor--and use his soul to cheat death” scheme would have spat in the face of what the pantheon stood for.

Also, for a guy who’s utterly terrified of dying, I find it hilarious that he regularly allowed Ammut, the Devourer of Evil Souls, to just chill in his house on the regular. Honestly, any underworld deity would probably want a piece of Scarab, especially any that were particularly concerned with tombs and the desecration of the dead.

You know that Anubis once flayed Set and wore his skin as punishment for trying to desecrate Osiris’s body further, right? And Bes was a guardian of children? Scarab’s ass would have been grass.

[liiiiianne]

I made headcannons of how I think these pjm characters writes & takes note cuz we love (over)analyzing over here🥰

●Amaya:

•has 2 handwritings

•she's one of those people who takes messy notes at first then rewrites them all pretty

•uses alot of graphic organizers

●Connor:

•kinda messy & fast (obviously)

•only ever uses the bullet method when taking notes

•doodles on the page alot

●Greg:

•uses the bullet or boxing method

•kind of embarrassed about his handwriting cuz it's not neat

•draws lizards all over the page cuz he just loves them

●Romeo:

•mixes regular and cursive together

•an absolute God at note taking but never let's anyone borrow them

•digitizes his notes after writing them

●Octobella:

•uses the mapping method

•takes stunning notes but only on the subjects she likes

•mainly uses cursive and has a bunch of glittery gel pens

●Pharaoh:

•really good handwriting but doesn't use cursive

•uses the rapid logging method

•his notebook looks like it belongs in a museum (probably because it does)

●Carly:

•messy handwriting. Sometimes when u read her notes u can't tell the difference between the n and h or the f and t

•uses the bullet method & flow notes

•her notes are actually really effective if you can understand them

●Cartoka:

•likes writing & typing, he finds it relaxing

•uses the mapping method and flow notes

•digitizes his notes after writing them and always makes flash cards

●Lilyfay:

•loopy handwriting. And sometimes mixes in writing from other alien languages, forgetting that her friends can't read that

•uses every single note taking method somehow

•70% of the time when people borrow her notes they can't understand them

[alevolpe]

Hello! I plan on doing a Sailor Moon rewrite later on next year (bc i have a lot of shit to do in the entirety of my 3rd year of university) and I'd like to know what issues you have with each season of sailor moon. You don't have to name all of them, just name the biggest problem(s) you have with each season!! I hope I am not troubling you :3

Hi! You're no trouble at all! Thank you for asking, I'm humbled you're interested in hearing my opinion.

Ok, let's see. Before I start I wanna say, these are MY opinions based on also how I'm doing my own rewrite AU thingy, so don't take it personally if I don't want to include elements or characters you love. (Most fo the time it doesn't even mean I don't like those characters in canon, I just don't think they'd fit with the specific narrative I have in my mind)

I'll say for Season 1, my biggest issue is the amount of time it takes to get everyone in the cast. By the time we get Mina it's like what, over 3/4ths of the season in? I like that the show takes its time introducing everyone and giving the girls some organic bonding time in the filler, but there's better ways to do it imo. That's why I have Usagi be the last to awaken and meet an already tranformed Ami and Rei, so we don't totally break from Usagi being the center at first. We can use her as a vessel to get to know these new people and this crazy new identity at the same time she does, letting us know more about her too in the process, while not slowing the pace of the story to a crawl. As we get to know more, you can introduce the rest of the girls and break from the main group to catch glimpses of Mako and Mina, to later unite them. But that's my fix, there's other ways to fix the slow introductions, just.. don't maybe go manga style and spend only one ep per girl and immediately move on to the next, give them time to breathe.

My main issue with Season 2 is the time travel. The show does NOT know its own rules and that is a recipe for disaster, once you introduce an ally that is able to time travel, you got a LOT in your hands. Everything in the show could be solved with one travel through time, but they never do. Why? Cause otherwise the show wouldn’t exist. It leaves too many possibilities and questions that is not ready to answer. Idk how one could fix it, I'm sure there's many ways you could, I just have 0 interest in incorporating time travel in sm.

With Season 3 I'd say it's the introduction of the whole Pharaoh 90 or Mistress 9 thing. I don’t know, I know they are the main baddies, but like.. just make Saturn the main threat, she already basically is. That's my problem with it, I'm sure a ton of people disagree, but I'd rather the season just focus more on Saturn, Haruka, Michiru and Pluto, I don't need another "queen Nehellenia" type villain that gets introduced 2 seconds before the end. And I lovee Eudial and Mimete, but we don't need 5 of them. I'd just make those 2 Tomoe's assistants and that's that. Too many villains, especially if you're not going to do a motw format.

With Season 4.. uff where do I even begin. Tbh I scratch the whole season and do a ground up rebuilding project, but if I HAVE to stick with the canon structure I'll say make Nehellenia more present. She's THE BEST part of SuperS, make her more present and more threatening. Give her that mirror power from the get go, make her appear in mirrors, reflections, show her subtly , in the background, give the season a subtle but palpable atmosphere of unease, make her scary. I WANT TO BE SCARED of her! Also unrelated, but get RID of the S*A metaphor with the 3 eyes.

With Stars the whole pacing the season is a mess. The start is way too slow and the end is rushed as fuck. Introduce Galaxia as a present threat earlier, again idk how you'd do that exactly while keeping the episodic tempo of the show, but my solution is. Don't! Lol

[chronicbeans]

Okay for the rewrite, I'm stuck at a writer's block for Alastor and Sir Pentious. Lilith, Adam and Eve probably wouldn't be very high characters, so I haven't been planning on writing a huge character post for them. So, I'm mostly trying to focus on non-canon characters.

However, the Pharaoh is going to be a relatively important character to the plot. So, I may write a post for him. It may or may not be a joint "Pharaoh and Moses" post, though, because their characters will probably be very intertwined due to the fact Moses grew up in the royal household and literally EVERYTHING that follows that.

I'm not sure if I'm going to go for the classic "they were raised as stepbrothers" that a lot of adaptations seem to go for, or something more like Moses was a sort of servant to the royal household, and him and the Pharaoh became good friends/practically family, due to a lot of the scriptures being very vague about what happened in that period of his life. However, I will figure that out while I'm writing.

Also, in case you ask, I am DEFINITELY going to take some inspiration from The Prince of Egypt because that movie is amazing and I do see a lot of people who are religious saying that they liked the interpretation there. So, I plan to try to figure out what exactly they did right, if there's any huge inaccuracies that could be fixed in that movie, and take it from there.

[twisted-art-wounders]

can you tell more about yugi welding the millennium key and millennium scales?

okay so in this AU Shadi had come to Domino city to punish the person responsible for taking the Millennium Puzzle, Grandpa Mutou so just as he's ready to give the finishing blow a small cry alerts him to Yugi whose holding the puzzle box.

After witnessing the death of his grandfather Yugi is inconsolable so Shadi feeling guilty uses his Key to rewrite Yugi's mind and make him forget about his whole life up to this point. He then takes him in and starts to raise him as a son. He tells him the truth about the Millennium Puzzle and that a chosen one will solve the puzzle one day and awaken the Pharaoh.

After Shadi's death Yugi inherits not only the Millennium Key and Scales, but is now on the hunt to find the true successor of the puzzle. His travels take him to Domino City were he hears about a gaming genius and young CEO Seto Kaiba, and decides to seek him out as he may be the chosen one. While in Domnio he's drawn to this old and seemingly abandoned store when he goes in he's met with the aged and broken Sugaroku; who survived his encounter with Shadi but with Yugi missing and no one believing him when he tried to tell them a man form Egypt had taken Yugi. Grandpa fell to despair and closed himself off form the world, until Yugi walked in.

Yugi is shocked as his memories are starting to flood back into him and he breaks down completely once he realizes his life was destroyed thanks to Shadi, Millennium Items and the Pharaoh. This is when hes approached by the alternate Item counter parts and joins them so he can make his wish come true.

And here we go another Yugi whose life got messed up!

[imthepunchlord]

So, awhile back, you mentioned that for your miraculous rewrite, you were considering turning some of the akumas into their villains, so out of curiosity which akumas do you think could works as their own villains?

Teeeechnically spoilers, though the fic isn't coming that soon and I guess this wouldn't really give away too many details and not everything is for sure...

Honestly, most of them, so far, are a handful of the season 1 akumas. I can't think of any akumas from s2 that stood out to me as potential villains to stand on their own, and I stopped watching around s3 so any akumas post s2 I either don't remember or just haven't seen.

Horrificator I'd vote to be a mythical creature, as in hindsight, it's kinda icky that the plus size girl is the only one with a monstrous akuma out of all girls (that I know of).

So Horrificator instead may work better to be her own thing, and be an intro to other types of magic out there than just the Miraculous.

Darkblade I feel could've been his own thing, could've tied him to the Arthurian legends (maybe he has a corrupted Excalibur), or could've been tied to the Catacombs, which I don't think Miraculous has covered yet, and he could've had a magical sword that animates suits of armor. And if Chloe was to have an arc, could work off him targeting her family as he seeks to be the mayor.

Mime I could see possibility in being his own villain, the ability to mime could be it's own sort of magic and could be fun; but I do also think he was one of the better akumas in s1, having a good balance of being powerful but having limits, and a good set up for him becoming one. So he could go either way.

Pharaoh I'd lean being his own villain. Rewatching it recently, he was a very awkward akuma as he wasn't working off Jalil himself, he was like he was the actual pharaoh revived, talking about how he clashed with a Ladybug hero 5000 years ago and I'm like...

Does this mean the Butterfly also has the power of letting old souls possess people in the present? Or is Jalil just LARPing as an akuma? Idk. It was just really awkward so he's be an akuma I'd vote to just go ahead and be his own thing. And it can work off classic mummies being enemies.

The last one off the top of my head is Volpina. I'm of the belief that Lila either should've come to Paris already having the Fox, or she did actually buy the Fox Miraculous from the jewelry store. This also goes in hand that I don't think Fu should've had 16-17 Miraculous with him (depending if you think he does have the Rabbit or not as that seems kinda up in the air). It actually makes much more sense that he lost more than just 2 or 3 given the chaos, and it better works off him sending out the very two Gabriel wanted if Fu had more limited options on what he could do.

This also could've had Volpina nicely reveal to the heroes that there are more Miraculous out there than the initial 3 they knew about. This also would've made Lila work more naturally as a threat if she had a Miraculous and was playing hero, competing with the other heroes for glory, and coming to side with Gabriel later. A lot better than her spending s2 sulking in her room.

There could be others, but off the top of my head, these are the major ones.

[mamamittens]

Piece by Piece, You'll Come Back to Me

Part 9/13 of Spooktober 2023

@sunken-diver

Zoro X Reader (GN pronouns but Masc, so they are called brother)

Warnings: Kidnapping, yandere/possessive behavior, offscreen murder, and talk of corpses. Also this is inspired by the 1999 The Mummy movie, but it's pretty chopped up and loose at best. I was not writing a scene for scene rewrite lol

Word Count: 2,024

Luffy often dragged you into trouble. It seemed to be his job as an older brother. But he’d never managed to drag you all the way to a previously undiscovered section of ruins in the Egyptian desert alongside a book rumored to bring the dead back to life.

No, that was not something he’d ever managed before. Which is a little impressive if you were being honest. You’d lived in Egypt as an archeologist for several years now, Luffy naturally following and making fast friends on his own, so you feel this scenario was a tad inevitable. Robin thought so, at least, judging by her amused expression as she helped you climb onto a camel for travel to the sight. The last leg of the journey after a frankly disastrous accident on the river.

One that almost led to you being kidnapped but that was something to consider later. When you weren’t suffering under the scorching hot sun and intimately reminded that the library you were working at was perfectly climate controlled to preserve the many ancient works housed there.

Luffy laughed, punching Sanji’s arm as he saddled up.

“Ahah! Welp! That was an interesting ride, wasn’t it brother?” Luffy addressed you and you couldn’t help but smile.

“To be honest, Luffy, I really hope that’s the most exciting part of this trip.”

It was not the most exciting part of the trip.

In your defense, you’ve never liked alcohol. Let alone cheap wine. Couldn’t carry it if you had a bucket with instructions on the ergonomic handle.

Flush with the discovery of a sealed tomb belonging to a deliberately forgotten priest, you gleefully cracked open the Black Book of the Dead to see if your top-notch skills in ancient Egyptian glyphs was up to snuff. Pushing up your glasses before they fell off your nose as you did so. The heavy book almost winded you when you lifted it up to your chest, unlocking it with the puzzle box medallion to rest more comfortably on your lap.

Now, you’d read cursed scripts before. Usually promising an afterlife of discomfort and darkness or a life of having your ass bitten by fleas. Most unpleasant stuff. And you sort of expected this book to be no exception. Maybe some lines about being haunted by the inhabitants of the tomb that the book was resting in previously. Or the gods themselves cursing you.

What you instead found was a passage about the disavowed priest.

“—and he, o’ deceitful priest of the pharaoh, will be cursed to walk the earth for his greed. Banned from true rest, that foul, lustful man. Roronoa Zoro. Imprisoned forever more.”

Even more than a little tipsy you couldn’t help but frown. Luffy looking at you with his nose wrinkled.

“The hell did he do to deserve that?” Luffy muttered. You shrugged.

“Maybe he tried to sleep with the pharaoh’s wife?” You offered, personally a little doubtful you’d get a clear answer without scouring the entire complex maze buried under the earth. And maybe not even then.

That was when you heard it. Thundering hooves on the sand towards you campsite. Luffy jumped to his feet in alarm, the people further out firing at the intruders.

“Go! Hide in the tomb—I’ll come find you!” Luffy ordered, clenching his fists. “And take the book—they must be after it if they followed us all this way.”

Remarkably less tipsy than a moment ago, you closed the book and held it to your chest, running into the underground maze. Torches lighting your path as you instinctively ran towards the sealed sarcophagus of the priest. It was the furthest room you could think of and any locals so terribly interested in the Black Book would be wary of going in that far.

Only to find it empty. Totally and completely empty. Heavy stone lid on the floor and corpses of scarabs crushed at the bottom.

Obviously, someone stole the corpse but why?! Why now?! It had only been found hours ago! And it would have taken considerable strength to remove the lid—

There was a shuffle behind you and you whirled around in fright.

In the flickering torchlight, there stood a corpse. Withered and sickly gray, soiled bandages dragging as it stepped cautiously towards you. The smell of death thick in the stale air.

When you had turned around, it froze. Almost taken as taken aback as you were.

Something whispered in the air, a mumbled, breathless call.

And then the room was awash in golden light. Your clothes, modest pants and open shirt, traded for flowing silk draped over your shoulders and waist. The weight of a wig on your head with gold clicking at the end of the locks.

And before you?

A man. Tall and broad with golden skin. Green hair clipped short with modest robes bundled around his waist. Dark eyes fixed on you with a longing that made you breathless.

“After all this time… You find your way back to me. That foolish man could never hope to keep us apart.” He declared, his voice deep and resonating in the air with an almost doubled quality. English and ancient Egyptian laced together. He stepped forward as though you would bolt at the first chance. “Do you recognize me as I do you?”

You shook your head as he stepped closer still. The heat from his body washing over you as he reached out. Lifting up your face to look at him.

“I-I know your name… I think. But we’ve never met.” You confessed softly. He smiled indulgently. “Priest Roronoa Zoro… I think you may have me mistaken for someone else.” You informed him, flushed at the intimate caress of his calloused hands on your face.

He chuckled, the sound rushing over your face pleasantly.

“There is no mistake. It is not just your body that I know intimately well… but your soul. It calls to me still.” Zoro remarked, breathing against your lips like he’d die again if he had to pull away. Almost kissing you with every word. “And with my power we can finally be one. Memories can come later… for now, I just want you—”

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!” Sanji screamed and the illusion shattered.

Cold, withered hands held your face gently. Rot and decay filling your nose as the corpse of a man thousands of years dead nearly kissed you. He whipped around with a snarl only to receive a boot to his face. Sending him to the ground as Sanji grabbed your arm and pulled you out of the room.

“W-What the hell…?” You gasped, glancing behind you to see Zoro standing defiantly in front of his sarcophagus. Black Book in his arms.

For very obvious reasons, you could not stay there. Choosing instead to run back to the capital city.

Chopper was nowhere to be found, but Sanji assumed he made it out alright.

“He’s pretty good at finding his own way out of things, to be honest. After all, we were both in the same place but I was the only one that got arrested.” Sanji offered with a smile. “Now rest up. We’re going to have a full day tomorrow trying to figure out how to put that bastard back in the dirt.”

Ah right. The end of the world by the hands of a vengeful, resurrected priest.

Sweet dreams?

If only. Though it certainly seemed so at first once you’d settled into bed. A long few days of running across the desert with rumors of plagues and mysterious deaths in your wake left you feeling exhausted. You set your glasses on the bedside table and sighed, glad for the modern convenience of a proper bed again.

It started with the sound of falling sand. A gentle, sort of grinding sound. Too far gone to move but not enough to block out the sound with deep sleep, you huffed, burying your face in the pillow. The sound growing louder until you could almost feel the heavy weight of sleep lift off of you.

And then it stopped. And it was just you and the sound of rustling sheets in the dark room. And you drifted back to sleep.

Your name sighed into the still night air with a warm touch on your bare shoulder.

You weren’t sure what you dreamed of. A confusing, tumbled mess of sensations.

There was screaming. Firm, warm arms holding you close.

Harsh, sneered Egyptian curses.

Furious buzzing of locusts that nearly woke you. Your mumbled protests hushed with a soft kiss to your ear.

“Sleep. You’re safe here.”

Daybreak cast long curtains of warmth over you from an open window.

You shakily rose out of a criminally nice bed, bleary and half awake feeling like you’d slept for a week. Overly large shirt draped over one shoulder, the other bared. Definitely not yours, or Luffy’s for that matter. You fumbled around for your glasses carefully, not wanting to send them flying and need to search for them first thing in the morning.

“Ah!” There was a soft click of hooves. “Here. He’ll be glad to know you’re awake!” You accepted your glasses, recognizing the brown and pink smear as Chopper. His earnest expression looking up at you nervously.

“Chopper? Where am I? Where’s the others?” You asked, looking around the startlingly traditional Egyptian architecture. Smooth white walls and open windows with silk curtains billowing. Not any room you’d ever been in before, that’s for sure.

Chopper laughed nervously.

“W-Well, they’re somewhere, I’m sure. S-Safe! They are safe! I know that much. Z-Zoro wanted to ask before doing anything drastic. He’s been waiting for you for a long time, you know.” You frowned.

“Zoro? T-The mummified priest?” You grimaced.

“Well, to be fair, he’s not mummified anymore! Took some sacrifices but he looks much better now, I swear!” Chopper defended.

“Look, Chopper, I know he thinks I’m… well, someone, but he’s got to be mistaken!” You protested but Chopper just shrugged.

“He’s a pretty real priest, you know. If he says your soul is one he knows, I believe it.”

“It is. Though I don’t blame you for not remembering. Souls are meant to leave their past behind.” A deep voice called out. You whirled around and saw him standing there, just like the illusion.

Though he wore simple cotton pants now, his bared chest was that familiar golden tan. A deep scar ripping across his chest. Gold dangling from his ear as he smiled, striding towards you.

“W-What do you want?” You stammered, nearly falling back on the bed as Chopper scurried out of the room.

“This. This is all I ever wanted… you don’t remember, but in the past, we knew each other. You, the cherished son of the pharaoh. I… I was too eager to have you. If I had just waited a little longer, we could have been lovers without interference. But I was brash and the pharaoh was not pleased.” Zoro smiled helplessly. “Trying to kill him probably didn’t help my case, either. He already couldn’t stand the thought of you having suitors. Ah, but now? Now he’s long gone. And we’re free to be together.”

“…Is that really all you want? What about the plagues and the curses?!” You asked, still freaking out a little as Zoro pulled you close to him.

“I intend to rule, obviously. And who could stop me now? But above all else, I wish to have you by my side for eternity. As we were meant to be.”

You swallowed hard.

“And… if I said no? That I didn’t want that?” Zoro smiled, almost indulgently.

“Eternity is a long time to say ‘no’.” Zoro pressed his lips to yours and your heart fluttered despite itself. His eyes still staring deep into yours. “I’ve waited for thousands of years just to see you again. I can wait thousands more for you to want me.”

He wrapped his arms around you, pressing your face to his shoulder as he sighed into your ear.

“One day, you’ll wonder why you ever thought to say no.”

[stormbreaker101]

BEHOLD! MY MAP!

I first made it on a physical styrofoam board, then realized my phone camera is bad so I remade it in MS Paint. The locations of the worlds are NOT indicative of their actual positions in the Spiral (i have more headcanons about that), and instead were chosen just so that no thumbtack was directly in between 2 others... to some extent.

There are 49 different connections and each one has SOME bit of reasoning behind it, which I shall write under the cut.

I made this map for my AU, Corrupted Spiral, which has some noncanon shenanigans going on.

1) Wizard City/Wysteria: Canon says so

2) Wizard City/Valencia: The old Leyline to Valencia in the Catacombs, a handful of Valencians live in Wizard City, more know quite a surprising amount of the Wizard & WC.

3) Wizard City/Avalon: The old Leyline to Avalon in the Catacombs

4) Wizard City/Dragonspyre: The Druid/Dragoon war, and Dragonspyrian immigration to Wizard City after the awakening of the Fire Titan.

5) Krokotopia/Marleybone: Of course Marleybone would expand its empire to a neighboring world. In fact, I'm of the headcanon that the reason we see so LITTLE of Krok and it's all so hyper-concentrated into the Iconic Bits TM is because Marleybone fucking TOOK CHUNKS OF KT AND BROUGHT IT CLOSER TO MB SO IT'D BE EASIER TO HAVE EXPEDITIONS TO IT. (Following in the accidental footsteps of Stallion Quartermane)

6) Krokotopia/Valencia: To-be-released Canon P101 (Arc 2)

7) Krokotopia/Mirage: Both based on SWANA, and I'm of the opinion that worlds with similar IRL geography should be closer together. It just makes sense. Plus, both worlds mention the Sands of Time.

8) Krokotopia/Wallaru: Of course the Krokotillians (Pharaoh Ramakrok in particular) would attempt to expand their empire to a neighboring world. Additionally, I'm of the headcanon that the Manders, Koalas, and Kangaroos are all distant descendants of the Storm Titan (I can go in further detail if asked), so it makes sense for folks of related origin to be nearby.

9) Marleybone/Avalon: Both worlds are based on England, just different eras of it. We see a fair bit of species overlap between the two worlds as well; I'm of the headcanon that MB and AV split off from each other, with AV retaining its high-fantasy magic and MB going more low-fantasy steampunk.

10) Marleybone/Valencia: Canon P101.

11) Marleybone/Mooshu: Canon P101.

12) Marleybone/Cool Ranch: The Marleyboneans are seen establishing CR's train systems with fail time and time again (Duck of Death, Great Sky Train Robbery Gauntlet)

13) Mooshu/Zafaria: A Wizard101 NPC mentions she trades internationally, and Mooshu is one of her regular stops (alongside Marleybone, Avalon, and Polaris). Mooshu also acts as a junction between Zafaria and Marleybone and ergo the other Spiral Powers.

14) Mooshu/Valencia: Canon P101.

15) Mooshu/Skull Island: Canon P101.

16) Mooshu/Wysteria: The wisteria plant is native to East Asia (which Mooshu is based on the way a protein shake is based on multiple ingredients: thrown into a blender), and we see pigfolk in both worlds. Similar Species clause. Yes I am absolutely going to rewrite Wysteria so it's not a fucking joke because I know leaving it in its canon state with this history is a big Yikes Move.

17) Dragonspyre/Monquista: Canon P101.

18) Dragonspyre/Valencia: Canon P101.

19) Celestia/Azteca: Celestia and Azteca have so much history to me. I made a big ol' post about it.

20) Celestia/Khrysalis: Both worlds are deeply involved in the study of Astral magic, the Celestian Zodiac includes the 4 Celestian Creatures of the Radiant Alcazar, and both worlds take... inspiration from Oceania (Celestia's Watermoles are a gross stereotyped imitation of Polynesia, and Khrysalis includes references to Aotearoa)

21) Celestia/Empyrea: I have a headcanon that the Celestians were made by Raven to be stewards of Astral magic, the way the Kalamar, Nimbari, and Dwarves were made to be stewards of the main Schools (besides Balance). But because Astral magic forms a triad of Schools rather than a pair, they couldn't form a Paradox Chain and so Raven deemed them 'unworthy' of staying in Empyrea and so dropped them into what is now Celestia. However, this action caused the 2 worlds to form a link, which became a Stormgate.

22) Zafaria/Aquila: Apparently Carthage existed and the Punic wars happened.

23) Zafaria/Polaris: Same reasoning as Marleybone/Zafaria.

24) Zafaria/Mirage: A similar (albeit weaker) situation as Krokotopia/Mirage, in that the 2 worlds are (sorta) based on similar(ish) places geographically. Additionally, we see both Lions and variants of primates in both worlds.

25) Avalon/Karamelle: They both have fae and that's good enough for me. It's how Lydia made it to Avalon to save Merle Ambrose's life from badly photoshopped gay baby jail.

26) Avalon/Grizzleheim: Both worlds feature bears (the Grizzlies in GH and King Art + Balor the Broken Fang of AV) and giants (Grendels & the Jotuns in GH, the Fomori in AV). Species Similarity.

27) Azteca/Skull Island: I'm just going to point you to THIS again. Also, Xol Akmul's existence.

28) Azteca/Karamelle: I made this choice solely to make my main pirate's backstory work.

29) Khrysalis/Darkmoor: Both are pretty "shadowy" worlds, plain and simple. It just makes sense. The vibes and nothing more profound than that. You understand.

30) Khrysalis/Empyrea: We see a handful of Khrysalis NPCs stranded in Aeriel Shore, and also I just love the idea of a stormgate stretching from the most Light-heavy world to the most Shadow-heavy world. Like, the Heart cannot be completely severed from Spider. Ripped out, but not disconnected.

31) Polaris/Valencia: Canon P101.

32) Polaris/Empyrea: Raven made Empyrea to keep herself out. She dumped Mellori in Polaris. The two worlds hold a theme of being distant enough from everything else that Raven assumes them safe. Sounds pretty close to each other to me yknow?

33) Polaris/Grizzleheim: Similar to Avalon/Grizzleheim, both worlds feature bears (the Grizzlies and the Oskiy) and giants (the Grendels + Jotuns and the yetis). Additionally, the Rus that became Eastern Europe were originally norsemen. Once again bringing up the Geographical Proximity = Spiralian Proximity.

34) Mirage/Wallaru: I have a headcanon that the Sands of Time are related to the Dreaming. If the Dreaming is a sea of possibility, of everything and everywhen all at once, then the Sands of Time are just the things that became real, crystallizing and precipitating onto Mirage.

35) Empyrea/Wysteria: There is regular trade between these two worlds.

36) Empyrea/Karamelle: So we're just gonna take the canon gobbler shit and just kinda burn it in a fire, then completely rework the Alphoi's involvement in Karamelle to not be so shit. Don't worry I made it way better. Ask me about it.

37) Aquila/Valencia: Canon P101. Also what if Valencia had more birdfolk than just Marco Pollo?

38) Aquila/Monquista: Canon P101.

39) Darkmoor/Grizzleheim: Similar to Polaris/Grizzleheim, in that some of the Norse became Eastern Europe. But now instead of fantasy Russia, it's fantasy Romania.

40) Darkmoor/Cool Ranch: English Bill was able to flee from CR to DM to become the Duck of Death.

41) Skull Island/Monquista: Canon P101.

42) Skull Island/Cool Ranch: Canon P101.

43) Skull Island/Valencia: Canon P101.

44) Skull Island/Wallaru: We see many folks of Skull Island in Wallaru in-game, plus it's a convenient way for the Spiral Powers to be able to reach Wallaru.

45) Valencia/Cool Ranch: The Valencian unicorns became the Santo Pollan Stallions, and what if some of the Aquilan/Valencian birds also became the birds of Cooper's Roost? Something something the idea of the West moving from the Roman Empire to Modern Europe to America.

46) Cleaved/Lemuria: CCSAU lore time: CS Lemuria is basically in the Cleaved Spiral now, rather than in the CS Spiral. It probably has a handful of Stormgates leading to multiple worlds of the Cleaved Spiral, but that's not what this is about.

47) Cleaved/Grizzleheim: A rift formed between Cleaved!Karamelle and CS Grizzleheim because many canon Karamelle NPCs fled to Grizzleheim. The presence of "the same" characters in multiple Spirals forged a gateway between the two.

48) Cleaved/Wallaru: Just like the Cleaved/Grizzleheim rift, a rift formed between CS Wallaru and Cleaved Wallaru.

49) Lemuria/Empyrea: To help the two Spirals be more interconnected, and to help Lemuria develop a standing, a Stormgate between CS Lemuria and CS Empyrea was made. Why Empyrea? Because it's doing rather well compared to the rest of the CS Spiral, and also because knowledge of the other rifts between Cleaved and CS weren't international knowledge yet.

[99problemsandallofthemarefandoms]

Ok instead of possessive lovers I want to see possessive rivals/enemies/frenemies. Person A: Tells person B they suck or some on going nickname person B hates. Other person not involved in A and B's relationship saying something similar to person B. Person A: Oh no you did f*cking not! I am not here to defend their honor. I am here to defend my place as the one to put B down/in their place. I want a rewrite of the episode where Duke Devlin humiliates Joey with a dog suit but instead of defending Joey he is just pissed that Duke is bullying his pathetic mutt. Just as possessive of his right to taunt Joey as he is of his right to eventually defeat the pharaoh.

[neonrn7]

Psychology Part 1 : Seto Kaiba Vs Atem

My whole life i read about how Seto Kaiba might actually have feelings for the pharaoh. After all he was passionate enough to build a machine that defied laws of the universe and sent him to the afterlife to battle him again… and while this idea stands for those who have a very fetishized idea of what kind of relationship they could have… i can 90% promise that this is NOT how it is.

Growing up in Elitism and wealth along with abuse gets you messed up. You can argue that the events that happened between Seto Kaiba and Atem were after Gazaburo Kaiba suicided and therefore what am i even talking about here? But hear me out. Seto Kaiba (i would have said Mokuba too but the trauma is kind of different) lost a mother then a father… saw family members treating him and his brother like dirt taking their heritage away and throwing them in an orphanage only for them to be adopted by a cold hearted abusive parental figure who raised Seto as a heir. Many nights of abuse exhaustion reading and studying non stop. As a comparison my parents raised me the same as i child i had to study from the early mornings till 1am. If my hand writing wasn’t for their liking they would tear apart my books and my notes and i had to rewrite them again and sleep is not an option unless i finish rewriting…. This behavior being a recurrence in my home made me quite a rigid, practical and only thriving for excellency because failure was never an option. Failure meant harsh treatments. Physical and emotional pain to come. Mix it with wealth and power and you get a deadly combination… a vulnerable child adulting his way while being a kid still knowing full well that losing means a huge fallout with consequences because there is a minds that grows within « i can’t fail because everyone is watching me »…

Then within time the vulnerability turns into hate. Usually this hate is directed towards the person that is better…. For Seto Kaiba it was Yugi (Atem basically after he realized that he was dueling the pharaoh the whole time). I remember getting physically sick if someone got a better grade than me or beat me at anything… “i was meant to succeed and everyone is bellow me” was the mindset and so i see it very clearly in his behavior which is toxic and carried out as such through most of the part of the series anyways.

Then comes the mundane lack of competition… because yes… Seto Kaiba was bored! Bored of having 0 competitors in business in school in anything he does and Atem was stimulating… he made him go out of his way a lot in attempts to beat him….

And while i can discuss this further i will do that on a second part of the thread to see your trail of thoughts first

PS: sorry to the Kaiba/Atem shippers 😅

[convexicalcrow]

Oh? How normal are we about Pharaoh Cub?

Okay look. You gotta understand. I've been interested in ancient Egpyt since I was a kid. It's my longest-running special interest/hyperfixation, so much so that I've been practicing ancient Egyptian religion for over twenty years. It's something that's very, very precious to me, bc it's so personal to me, and bc I'm who I am, my knowledge of this stuff is arguably higher than the average person. This makes any kind of media about ancient Egypt actually not that interesting to me bc my brain will Not shut up about inaccuracies, so I tend to avoid them bc of that.

(I could go on about my issues with ancient Egyptian themed media, but I won't, that's a whole 'nuther essay frfr.)

(Also I hope you like infodumping, anon, bc that's what I'm about to do :D)

That said, I've actually written a whole lot of Egyptian myth rewrites, as well as ancient Egyptian stories exploring all kinds of various topics. I have some published on an old blog of mine, but some I never finished for various reasons. It's a whole thing. It's been a whole thing for me for a very, very long time.

So, you're me, someone with a more than average knowledge of and interest in ancient Egypt, and you've just become a Cub fan in s8 bc that was my first Hermitcraft season. I had heard about the pyramid, and Pharaoh Cub, and I was both SO INTERESTED but also actually quite hesitant to watch Cub's s7, bc I didn't want to be disappointed if he messed it up or did something wrong that caused my brain to Disagree. Again, very irrational bc my brain do be like that, but also based on previous experiences of seeing ppl just taking the aesthetics and doing whatever with it, and screw historical accuracy.

(Honestly, this is, like, my One (1) critism with the lore TrixyBlox built into the USW map. Can we Not have evil pharaohs plz just for once. ;_;)

I wanted to trust Cub, bc I'd seen the research that went into the canyon build. He's a smart dude. He cares about getting those kinda details right. And I did genuinely want to see how he approached the pyramid build and how he was going to use it as a base. But again, SO HESITANT. bc what if my blorbo messes it up and ruins the whole thing for me bc m brain is Stupid about this sort of thing. ;_;

But I'm so glad I trusted Cub when I did get around to watching s7, bc I fell in love with the pyramid. The fact that he cared about making it as life-size as possible, but also that he took an approach of taking what works, but also making it his own, and making it fit into the minecraft world. Like, using Standard Galactic for hieroglyphs! I loved that small little detail! It makes so much sense to use it that way.

Like, my very-not-srs gripes about the Pharaoh skin and its weird sleeves aside, his approach was very much how a lot of Egyptian pagans approach things today. Take what works, or what makes sense, and adapt it to where we currently are in the world and what we have access to. And I could tell from how he talked about it throughout the season that he really had done his research. And just- The Morning and The Evening Sun/Star epithet he gave himself like!!!!

Like, it's the little things, like the lapis roof, the stars - including Sirius!, the most important one bc its rising heralds the flood of the Nile and the new year - on the ceiling in the bedroom, the statue room and the way he built those five statues to represent aspects of himself (I cannot stress enough how much I adored those statues), allll the little tunnels and sekrit passageways, and the cartouche on the wall with his name in SGA and using SGA in the museum room, the treasure room with its traps, and the tomb of the Pharaoh himself. Like. It was such a perfect blend of Cub and Egyptian stuff. 10/10. I can find no faults. Although I do want to go back and finish the oasis room at some point. Make it a healing pool room with a shrine or two in it. Something like that.

Like, I had my doubts, but I trusted Cub and his process, and I was right to do so. It cemented Cub as my favourite Hermit at that point, bc he took my special interest and did it justice. And that's why I'm Very Normal about Pharaoh Cub.

But there are also other aspects too! Pyramids were designed to be tombs, and that's where the Pharaoh was left to rest at the end of s7. Which seems very appropriate, given where Hermitcraft went after that.

The reason I fixate so much on this is that there's this Egyptian underworld book called the Book of Caverns, that describes the King's journey through the underworld. It's not as well-known as the Book of the Dead, but the reason I keep coming back to it is because of Cub's canyon in s8. Where he built everything in little caverns in the canyon itself. And with the change of skin to young Cub, my brain just cannot let go of the idea of s8 being Pharaoh Cub's journey through the underworld, culminating with the final battle against the serpent we do not name so we do not give it power (a/p/o/p/h/i/s) that is here manifested in s8 as Moon Big. It's not a perfect metaphor, and I won't pretend it is. Especially bc while Cub escapes, the world is destroyed, and that's not necessarily accurate. But! He still escapes! He uses all his knowledge and resources that he's gained through his journey through the underworld to escape. To rise again in s9 as the new sun.

AND AND AND the fact that in s9 PHARAOH CUB DID ACTUALLY RETURN. Only now, we have the Pharaoh as a distinct entity. A divine akh/ancestor, a master magician, one who is clever and wiley like Thoth and who loves playing games and playing pranks. (Thoth is a trickster, and a very smart one.) And to have the distinction between Pharaoh Cub, who is a god, and mortal Cub, who is just Cub, like.

(Cub and his possession kink is also a whole 'nuther essay frfr)

That distinction makes sense in an Egyptian theological framework. Once the Pharaoh dies, they become divine akhu/ancestors. Very few were Actually Deified in a way we would recognise, but Cub is still not wrong when he calls the Pharaoh a god. The Pharaoh was a conduit between the people and the gods. He acted as the only high priest of the religion. He became King by hosting the Kingly Ka, the divine soul of Horus that legitimises their rule. This Ka/soul, has been with every king before it, and all the kings are attached/accessed through it. Kings live forever, after all. My own personal religious work has involved various Kings and Queens and working with them. (Not the most famous ones, tho, it's mostly the Sobek ones bc I worship Sobek first and foremost.)(Sobek being a crocodile god, a strong protector, and a god who was incorporated in Horus at one stage and gained Kingship attributes from that.)

And so it makes so much sense for the Pharaoh to be a separate entity now. The old man died, bc Cub is mortal, and ba/eternal soul of Cub was reborn into a new, younger body, with a whole new ka. Everyone has a ka, it is the soul that belongs to a particular lifetime and is the one that goes through judgement after death. The ba is eternal, and can have many kau/souls throughout its existence.

And bc the Pharaoh has died and become an akh, he can be contacted and manifest in the world again through the mortal Cub. The fact that Cub never actually changed the Pharaoh skin to reflect his younger self? It still has the old man's face? Like. This helps the distinction work. They're two different souls. This is theologically sound. And honestly I never imagined the Pharaoh lore would get to that point. But here we are, in s9, and we have the Pharaoh and mortal Cub, and I am Just So Normal about this bc I thought I'd missed my chance at Pharaoh Cub bc I only started watching in s8. BUT NO. s9 came along and is like, would you like some more Pharaoh Cub? and it's eating my brain like. oh my gods.

And also like, the Vex Magic Grimoire I've been working on? Canonically (to me), it's being written by Pharaoh Cub. Once the ConVex and ConCorp shenanigans settled down, and Cub had space to really focus on his magic, that's when he starts working on the grimoire. bc almost all Pharaohs were also master magicians. They had to be! It was part of their work as high priest and conduit for the gods. So Cub has Pharaoh magic on top of Vex magic, and in working through his new powers, decides to start recording down all he knows about Vex magic. Scar does some as well, but it is intended to be mostly Cub.

(I have an ask I STILL have not got around to about the Pharaoh's magic, and I will save a longer discussion for that there. I will get to it, I promise, anon! It's just taken a while to get my thoughts in order. <3)

It's like, in Pharaoh Cub, I can combine my love of writing about Egyptian things with my current hyperfixation on Cub, and it's so much fun omg. Cub doesn't do deep lore the way someone like Sausage does (again, whole 'nuther essay lol), but there's enough there to make a really good story, and build up these aspects of his character and make a really coherent story out of it.

And with Pharaoh Cub, I can explore all kinds of things that maybe don't work with other characters. Like death! In a way that doesn't really happen in minecraft bc players just respawn. Permanent death is something I've really only encountered on Empires, not Hermitcraft. But with the Pharaoh dying and being laid to rest in his pyramid? Like. That's something to work with. There's lore there to explore. Old Man Cub coming to terms with dying and what happens afterwards. and bc like. idk if anyone has actually ever written Old Man Cub as an actual Old Man. But as someone who's approaching 40, and has their own chronic pain stuff to deal with, like? Maybe I see it differently. Maybe I want to approach Old Man Cub as an old man. And maybe the Old Man dying as Pharaoh, and being reborn into a younger body is one way to do that.

Sure, it may not be the most popular fics for ppl. Maybe ppl are more interested in my other works. But I don't care. It's all my special interests in one place and I'm having the time of my life. :D

Even if I STILL don't know what to do with the journey through the afterlife!s8 caverns idea. Maybe one day I will find the right spark to do that idea justice. <3

[void-writing]

Mummies Alive!: Reanimated

Since I refuse to be normal about this show, here's a general outline of what MY iteration of Mummies Alive, which I have creatively given the subtitle of "Reanimated" because I am hilarious.

Some General Plot Notes:

I'm keeping the designs because they slap and the general tone because I love that good 90s cheese, but I'm rewriting for a more cohesive story and more accurate myth references. Basically, I'm letting my Egyptology fixation run wild.

I give a justification for Scarab's name being...uh...Scarab! Erasing a person's name is like a big deal in ancient Egypt! We see this most famously with Hatsheput and her successor/nephew (I think) who tried to literally chisel her name off of every structure in Egypt to erase the memory of her. This is what Amenhotep does to Scarab except MORE (because he's the Pharaoh and has that kind of power both spiritually and politically). As in Scarab's original name gets power-washed out of reality itself and even people who knew Scarab before (like the Mummies) don't remember what his name used to be and just call him "Scarab." Personally, I find this fitting given that Scarab is a man who has misplaced aspirations of grandeur and having his name and memory super turbo erased from even memory itself would be an excellent fuck you from Amenhotep.

And on the note of Scarab, I justify his scarab beetle theme with the idea that Scarab stole power from Khepri in ancient times, the sign of that manifesting as the scarab-shaped mark/tattoo we see on his back in the show. This is what gives him the power to create life-sized shabti in the volumes he does and is a vital component to his plan for using the Pharaoh's spirit to grant himself immortality. In ancient times, Scarab used the power he stole from Khepri to rob Rapses of his Ka (aka, his life force, killing the poor boy) and then using that stolen ka as like...an appetizer, which consequently gave him enough power to survive most of his three thousand five hundred year living entombment. From there, Khepri's power served as emergency life support for Scarab until Harris Stone cracked the seal of his tomb (given that Khepri is notably the god of resurrection, so it stands to reason that Khepri's power could do that). Scarab then ate Stone's Ren (and possibly the rest of his soul) because he had lost his godsdamned mind in that tomb, which allowed Scarab to not only regain his sanity, but subsume Stone's identity and buy himself some more time.

Similarly, the Mummies are also powered by Khepri! You see, Khepri noticed Scarab stealing some of his power but was unable to directly interfere to take it back because he's part of Ra and Ra is busy 24/7 unfortunately. So when Rapses is reborn and Scarab tries to hunt the boy down again, Khepri sends a little of his power the Mummies' way to call them back from the Field of Reeds to redeem their lifetime's greatest failure. Hence their battle cry/incantation "With the Strength of Ra," because in this case, they literally were given power by Ra himself.

The Amulets are going to be Important Plot Points in my Season 2 as not only are they juiced by Khepri's power, but they're originally finely crafted magic items that each bear the blessing of an Egyptian deity. Ja-Kal's is Horus (obviously), Rath's is Wadjet, Armon's is Khnum, and Nefer-Tina's is Sekhmet (because really that makes more sense given Nefer-Tina's occupation as a warrior in service to the Pharaoh as Bastet seems to be more home-oriented) that gave them special abilities reflecting their patron deities. These powers are separate from the armor and weapons they wield in the modern day, which were gifts from Ra of the Dawn (aka, Khepri) as part of their revival. After season 1, the Mummies will be set on a quest to renew/re-earn the blessings of their patron gods so that their Amulets keep functioning properly. There's also going to be a bunch of others floating around that pop up for Plot Reasons.

Season 1 will be largely made up of the original episodes (though some of the original episodes will be in Season 2) and will be used to establish the world, the characters, mechanics and whatnot. Season 1 will also be largely defined by Presley's "refusal of the call" stage in his hero's journey, culminating in a two part finale where Presley can deny the truth of his situation no longer. Remember the eclipse in episode 4? That's a big part of my season 1 finale, as is that incredibly underutilized time Scarab impersonated Amenhotep.

Season 2 will have a few of the original episodes sprinkled in but will largely be my own original concepts. This season will be defined by Presley stepping into his role as Pharaoh and going around to get the favor and support of various gods in the pantheon. This will also be where the bulk of the Amulet Plot Line will be. The season finale's final battle will be set up as a mirror of the Season 1 finale but meant to showcase how far Presley has come from the defenseless kid he was in the first season.

Season 3 will be Scarab's third act breakdown and descent into madness as he stoops to consorting to Apep, the Chaos Serpent (also known more commonly as Apophis). Still noodling on what this will look like story-wise, but it's looking like it will feature a lot of the more primordial-leaning gods (Nuhn, Geb, Nut, etc) that were just casually dropped in the original series.

Walter, Elaine, and Amanda will also have larger roles! Walter will be experiencing most of the Mummy Nonsense from jump, serving the narrative role of being Presley's "non-chosen sidekick/best friend". Elaine, meanwhile, does not conveniently lose her memories and elbows her way into the plot (after learning an important lesson about the sanctity of secrets in situations where exposing the truth would put innocent people in danger). Hiding the Mummy Nonsense from Amanda will be a more deliberate effort for the first season as she will be investigating the events of the first episode to discover what really happened to her exhibit (and not conveniently oblivious to the Nonsense going on around her son), finding out the truth in the second season and helping from there to actively fight Scarab.

I'm also keeping Kimas because this is MY STORY and I WILL KEEP MY LITTLE GREMLIN SON IF I WANT!

The Original Episodes: What Will Stay, What Will Change, What Will Go

The Keep Category (i.e. These episodes will largely be unchanged except for some pacing and story details)

"Ra, Ra, Ra, Ra"; "The Bird Mummy of Alcatraz"; "Body Slam"; "The Egyp-Tsu Kid"; "Missing Ja-Kal"

The Change Category (i.e. episodes that will remain the same on core concept and story but the execution will be changed)

"Sleepwalking Like an Egyptian"; "Pack to the Future"; "Good Bye Mr. Cheops"; "Dead Man Walking"; "Miscast"; "Ghouls' Gold"; "Pepped With Good Intention"; "Object of His Affections"; "My Dad the Hero"; "Family Feud Parts 1 - 3"

The Scrap Category (i.e. episodes that are either "completely scrapped" or "scrapped for parts," the latter will be bolded)

"Kid Scarab"; "Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Huxley"; "The Gift of Geb"; "High Nuhn"; "Water, Water, Everywhere"; "Honey I Shrunk the Mummies"; "Who's Who?"; "We've Got One"; "Show Me the Mummy"; "Sleight of Hand"; "Tempting Offer"

The Overhaul Category (i.e. the "Change" category but on steroids)

"Paws"; "The Curse of Sekhmet"; "Loss of Face"; "The Prince & The Presley"; "Dog Bites Mummy"; "Reunion"; "The Face in the Mirror"; "A Dark & Shrieky Night"; "Monster Truck Mania"; "Tree O'Clock Rock"; "True Believer"; "Desert Chic"

The Undecided Category (i.e. episodes that I haven't decided what to do with yet)

"Married to the Geb"; "Eye of the Beholder"

Character Profiles: The Mummies

Ja-Kal:

Amenhotep's second cousin, a hunter he holds in high regard for his loyalty and general level-headedness, as well as his skill with a bow. He lived a humble but comfortable life with his wife, Tia, when Ja-Kal was asked by Amenhotep to lead the Prince's personal guard. When asked, Amenhotep said he wanted his son to be surrounded by people Amenhotep knew he could trust with the boy's safety.

Was given the Falcon Amulet of Horus as a sign of the Pharaoh's trust and favor. The Amulet expanded upon his already impressive skills as a hunter by endowing Ja-Kal with intuitive knowledge of his environment and the terrain as well as the power to see in total darkness.

He's duty-driven and loyal, but also longs to be a good father and husband, though he struggles to find a balance between his duty to the Pharaoh and his duty to his wife. In fact, when his son was born about a year before Scarab carried out his scheme, Ja-Kal nearly resigned from his post as the leader of the Prince's guard so that he could devote his full attention and energy to his family, because Ja-Kal knew that between his family and the Prince, the Prince was bound to take precedence and he didn't want to do that to his wife and son. Tia convinced him otherwise.

Ja-Kal still somehow equates all of his life advice to hunting metaphors.

Ja-Kal has a younger brother, Arakh, with whom he has a tense relationship. Between the two, Ja-Kal always had an easier time finding success and Arakh grew to resent Ja-Kal for it.

Rath:

A scientist, swordsman, and mage all in one, and immensely proud of that fact. Initially, he was brought on to be Prince Rapses' tutor when the boy was about five. Even after he became an official guardian, Rath's primary role in Prince Rapses' life was that of a tutor, though after the incident that led to Rath becoming a guardian, he was permitted by Amenhotep to school Rapses in the art of magic.

Rath proved himself an effective guardian when a mystic threat posed a danger to Rapses and Rath disposed of it by his own skill. As a symbol of his position, he was given the Cobra Amulet of Wadjet, which gives him a venomous bite and the ability to temporarily transform his head into that of a cobra (you know, that thing he does like...once, in episode one).

Rath is kind of arrogant but smart enough that he almost earns the right to be that smug. He lords it over his fellow guardians and adults but still demonstrates a great deal of patience with those under his tutelage. While Rath is a genius and he knows it, he also understands that there is much more for him to learn. The biggest difference between the canon!Rath and the one I will write is that Rath will not be as dismissive of new advances in sciences.

Before Rath was the Prince's tutor and guard, he was a research partner with Chantra, a sorceress whose skill with magic easily matched his own. Together they devised a powerful new method of spell casting that could draw power from gods and living souls directly and without incantation or permission. Rath was more interested in this concept in the theoretical, whereas Chantra always pushed to apply it despite its dangerous and heretical nature when used straight.

Armon:

The first to be part of Rapses' personal guard, Armon was a renowned warrior who served Amenhotep in one of his many campaigns to Nubia, even losing his right arm defending him. Up until Rapses' birth, Armon was part of Amenhotep's personal guard and they were even on friendly terms. There are some stories that say that Armon was one of the first people the Pharaoh let hold his newborn son, which only lend credence to the rumors of Armon and Amenhotep's close friendship.

Unique to the other guardians, Armon was given the Ram Amulet of Khnum following his discharge from the Pharaoh's army and acceptance into the Pharaoh's personal guard (and later into the Prince's). This was done as a way for Armon's valorous actions in defense of his Pharaoh to be honored. The Ram Amulet allows Armon to walk freely over all terrain, including water.

As a warrior, Armon is an exceptional fighter with or without his right arm. He's skilled in wielding all sorts of weapons but Armon truly excels in hand-to-hand combat due to his raw strength and his skill in wielding that same strength, even against opponents stronger or larger than he is.

Compared to Rath, Armon is not especially book smart, but he's by no means stupid. More academic subjects go over his head sometimes, but out of all the guardians, Armon understands and reads people the best, spotting things others might miss or asking questions that may have been overlooked. (Armon was the first to grow suspicious of Scarab, sensing his ill-intent and underlying resentment towards the Pharaoh)

Armon's love of food stems from being the son of a royal chef and he has a long mental list of recipes he learned from his mother (who is said royal chef).

Nefertina:

(I'm not opposed to changing her name because the "tina" bit really feels like Western writers trying to signal to the Western audience that she's a woman. I haven't figured an alternative out yet, so I'll continue calling her "Nefertina")

Now, in my telling, Nefertina never hid her gender because as it turns out, ancient Egypt wasn't quite as sexist as modern interpretations might portray (this isn't to say that it was free of sexism entirely, as women were barred from certain professions, like being a soldier and posts of great and overt political power, but it wasn't as restrictive as we might imagine). Still, Nefertina was a bit of a stand out because women weren't warriors in any capacity, but she was more interested in chariot driving than combat anyway, so that didn't bother her much. Given my research, it's pretty doubtful that women were barred point blank from driving chariots (though the Pharaoh's chariot specifically may have been a stretch for anyone other than the Queen, but sources are unclear). Still, regardless of whether or not she was allowed to do the things she wanted, Nefertina was no push over and had plenty of fighting spirit.

Initially Nefertina was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, but gained favor from the Pharaoh after she successfully defended the Queen and a three-year-old Prince Rapses from an attempted assassination with little more than a footstool and a hair pin, giving the Queen time to escape with her son and raise the alarm. As a reward for her courage, Nefertina was given the chance to take up a position in the Prince's personal guard, gaining the Lion Amulet of Sekhmet as a sign of favor, and unilateral permission to drive whatever chariots she wanted whenever she wanted.

Nefertina is a talented tactician who uses her environment and cunning to her advantage while also using pure strength and blunt tactics. However, her youth and inexperience compared to the other guardians often leads Nefertina to take a "brawler approach" over a strategic one even though she does have the talent for it. She's something of a wild card, as likely to use a clever trick with her environment as she is to pick up the nearest blunt (or sharp) object and go to town.

Nefertina is hot-headed and passionate. She often feels she needs to earn her place/prove herself amongst her older male comrades and this can lead her to get a bit defensive in the face of judgement. Which is a little silly when put against the fact that Nefertina regularly serves as Ja-Kal's second in command (and also as his lancer from a meta-narrative perspective), filling in for the leader in blue when he's unavailable.

So, essentially, the order in which the Mummies joined the Prince's personal guard goes as follows: Armon, Ja-Kal, Nefertina, Rath.

---

Next post will be an episode-by-episode guide for what my seasons will look like. I'll probably only do Seasons 1 and 2 for now because Season 3 is still largely blank, but I will welcome any questions on this :)

[kitsunefaux]

Hey!! Anon cause I'm shy, but I'm a big fan of your writing! Ive left some guest kudos on your fics and am always waiting patiently for the next update! I was wondering if you had any recommendations for fics since you seem like the type to have good taste... I'd love to read more stuff that reminds me of your work!

Hey! Thank you! I definitely do have some recommendations I’d like to share. These are in no particular order.

Ryou-centric (and/or tendershipping)

Corruption by firetrap

After seeing the pharaoh off to the underworld, Ryou comes home to find that his own spirit hadn’t left like he thought.

The Last Puzzle by tenderwulf

11 years after the Ceremonial Duel, Atem and Bakura inexplicably find themselves back in Domino. When they meet their previous hosts, they realize how much things have changed: Yuugi, the now world-renowned King of Games, is going through a marriage crisis, Ryou is struggling to balance studies, work, and his brittle mental health, and Malik... well, Malik is living his best life—and his own yami is nowhere to be seen.

They soon realize they all have to work together in order to solve the mystery of the yamis' return: some to make sure that they stay, and some to make sure that they don't.

Haunted by Ehtar

Ever since receiving a strange artifact from his father, Ryou Bakura’s life has changed. He gains the friends he’s always wanted, and the bullies are disappearing. At night, though, he dreams of the life of a thief in ancient Egypt. A young boy who was the sole survivor of his village’s slaughter, who must turn to thievery and worse in order to survive on his own.

Ryou knows that something is wrong when his friends begin to fall to the same malady as the bullies, that something is wrong with him. It’s not until he makes some new friends in Domino City, including a boy who has an artifact similar to his own, that he realizes he harbors the soul of that thief within himself – that he’s been possessed for years by the spirit of a killer.

He should rid himself of the evil spirit, save himself and those around him. The only trouble is, now he doesn’t know where one of their souls begins and the other ends. After so long, he’s not even sure he would reject the spirit if he could. After all, no one knows him so well as the spirit that haunts him.

Cornered by YadonushiRyou

Life is different for Private Investigator Ryou after a too close encounter with a maniacal killer. Ryou has to deal with physical and mental scars, navigating through life only to find that he can’t forget Bakura as easily as he would have liked. His partner Malik tries to help him along the way, but things between them are much different than they used to be, causing tension in their close relationship. Meanwhile, time is running out when it seems the killer on the loose has already chosen his next victim.

An Unwhole Half by SheIsHoldingACat

The problem with being one half of a whole is that the other half has to agree. The problem comes when the other half wants it all to itself.

Or:,

Ryou wishes he had the bond with his spirit that Yugi has. He wishes it was possible.

Philosophy of a Knife by crushedmary

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ryou learns this the hard way when he becomes the vessel for Zorc's power.

A canon rewrite where Bakura wins.

Other Yugioh

Gratitude by Resuri

Amir is an assassin. His job is easy. Someone give him a target, he kills them, and he gets paid for it. Not to mention he is really good at it. However, never could he had imagined his job would have him to be acknowledged by the most beautiful and horrific creature he ever saw.

But, hey, Ryou just wants to thank him for the meals!

Our Scars remind Us that the Past was Real by Sesshy380

Imagine waking up, and everyone is trying to convince you that the things you 'remember’ never happened, and that those 'memories’ exist only in YOUR head. The Thief King doesn’t have to imagine…because that’s exactly what happened.

-or-

The Thief King get’s a second chance at life.

Martyrs by SheIsHoldingACat

the history of the shadow games extends three-thousand years, to Ancient Egypt...

~

A rewrite of the events of Memory World, with emphasis on moral greyness, political intrigue, and the premise that Thief King Bakura was entirely justified

These are a few of the fics I really like. Thank you for your ask!

@resuri-art @worldendercharles @tenderwulf @crush3dmary @sesshy380 @millenniumringg