#alfea mapping project

[referrix]

Dorm Floor Plan

"I have a floor plan I'm pretty happy with" I said 4 iterations in. This is... maybe seven eight. And three days later. I've just gotta fling this one out, I can't keep nitpicking it.

I'm still not entirely happy with the nook, I probably could have gotten the proper fit if I'd been willing to move the bathroom out (and mirror it over to the other side) but I need to be done with this or I'm going to send myself completely barmy.

fellow tumblrina @dagstar7 passed along a link to a copy they'd made of what may have been the official copy of the dormitory floor plan, unfortunately the source has been lost to the depths of the internet, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was however pretty pleased to discover that my floor plan looked pretty similar, although their copy's nook was slightly more rupee shaped, and their bathroom was flat.

I've assumed a bit of mirroring in the dorm that should be just the other side of Stella's wall judging by the windows and balconies from the outside. (the windows and balconies that really don't work once you start measuring from the inside...)

My last edit was to slim the common room from 5m to 3.5m. I have previously calculated the balcony windows/doors to be at least 4m across, but looking at the space they have I realised it looked pretty similar to one of the main living spaces in my house which is also 3m (and change) across, and it's more than enough space for that.

*Edited the pics as I was typing, just greyed some step lines in the rooms and removed the outer stair line on the nook. The steps in the room are only two deep, but they do have a different colour than the rest of the carpet in the bedrooms, so the original step outlines included that, making it look like there was three steps per room.

Apart from the nook and the bathrooms, the biggest liberty I've taken is centralizing the window in Stella's upstairs room, because her bedroom window is mostly central in her room, the only window above it should be directly above it, and there's just not reasonably enough space between floors for the stairs to wind back and forth for them to come out where they do, unless the stairs are a ladder.

I was actually looking for a shot of someone falling down Stella's stairs when I found the bathroom, because I remembered it happening, and I feel certain I remember a shot looking down the stairs proving they go in a straight line, but the only fall down the stairs I can find is in episode 6.19, which is the new apartments, not the old dorm, and didn't have the angle I remembered.

Here are some older iterations, staring with the one with the "5m" wide common room on the left, and a more squared in version of the nook in blue.

Actually, it's a little weird/interesting, but for the last iteration I actually flipped which way I was viewing the map?

[butterfly-winx]

Hi moya I would like to know what happened to Varanda in your Au

*cracks knuckles* Anon, I have been thinking about her lately and come up with a few thoughts:

Varanda gets introduced as Stella's penpal, whose resignation letter she was supposed to deliver to Alfea, and she is done away with making room for Bloom. Kind of like a throwaway thought, a throwaway character.

Varanda however desesrves to become a person of her own might and her textual story reflects this metatextual thought.

Varanda Fiona de Numor is the elder princess of Callisto, the south neighbour of Eraklyon on Manubra 47. Callisto, in contrast to Eraklyon is ruled by magic using royalty, and theirs is a country of bountiful beaches, grottos and parades; military might hidden under colourful uniforms and feathered hats. They are no less strict and traditional than their northern neighbour: despite being the older sibling, Varanda is not set on inheriting the throne, instead her younger brother is.

Until Mika was born however, Varanda was the only heir and she spent her early childhood off planet for her protection (the war on Manubra 47 and the danger of heir assassinations explained in another post on Eraklyon, pls check masterpost.)

Her paternal aunt took Varanda to another planet, very similar to their own: full of beaches, rocky coastlines and tiny islands. Hopping from boat to boat enjoying the colourful garments of the people in this new place, Varanda almost felt at home. Her aunt took her to a palace here too, but not to live locked up like she would have on Callisto, but to dance. Varanda made friends with the only student of her aunt's who was similar to her in age, but was forbidden from sharing any information about herself. When Varanda turned 7, she received the news of her brother's birth with much heartbreak. She had to say goodbye to the islands, goodbye to sunsets at the beach and to the girl with dark skin and mischievous smile.

From then on, she was barely permitted to leave the palace grounds anymore. Only long pleading and begging could get her free passes to the boat parades and annual masquerade balls (which she attended disguised of course). She took great pleasure in pretty things and fashion and spent her time on the UWW (universe wide web) so much that her parents started to worry for her.

When her powers as a fairy manifested, marking her as Fairy of Glass (which she then expanded to Spun Sands), they set her up with a pen pal partner: another princess from a faraway planet. Why she couldn't talk to any of the other Princes and Princesses of Manubra 47 was beyond her, but she acquiesced. Despite also being 12, the other princess hasn't shown any powers yet and her mother had asked them a favour, if maybe talking to a peer would help her daughter's magical development.

So Varanda and Stella, the princess of Solaria, began their slow exchange of letters. Rarely at first, only making a show for the sake of their parents, like "look I tried". Stella discovered her magic powers over the entire night sky feels like and Varanda had to deal with jealousy and feelings of inadequacy for the first time on her life. Being the Fairy of Glass, a trade associated aspect, wasn't what her parents have hoped for. It was still a good aspect. Varanda took pleasure in creating beautiful glass structures, and they also projected her to be able to use her power offencively should the need arise.

Varanda didn't want the need to arise. She had grown accustomed to the protected gardens of her home, every shaded corner a familiar fold on a cherished map she knew like her own palm. She no longer wanted to scale the walls. The more Stella told her about her wild life, roaming free in the world, the less Varanda felt like she wanted to do the same. She felt like she couldn't, like if she had to talk to a stranger she might fail and faint. How could Stella come up with all those quirky responses in her (sometimes unbeknownst to her, embellished) stories? Varanda felt a stone form in her throat if she even thought about it!

Eventually she confided this fear to Stella and her penpal wrote her an essay length letter, with pages upon pages trying to entice her to leave the country. Slowly, Varanda let herself be convinced, that this is a good idea. Stella revealed that even the Prince of Eraklyon would be attending a school on Magics, so it couldn't be that dangerous, could it?

And maybe exactly because of that information, or completely independent from it, her parents spoke their final word. There were plenty good teachers and schools in Callisto anyway. She could get to Enchantix here if she wanted to.

So much was true, but still, Varanda had just missed her chance to go to school with Stella, a friend as support. Stella kept updating her about her adventures dutifully, about meeting prince Sky and other fancy members of high society. Then, towards the middle of her second semester, Stella's letters have stopped. King Radius and Queen Luna announced their divorce. Varanda could put two and two together.

The next letter arrived from Queen Luna instead: Stella would be attending Alfea next year again (heed no mind to the rumour of her expulsion). There was no request, or implication. Just a simple statement.

This time Varanda tried, she really tried. She had her application accepted by the time she told her parents about her plans. She talked to Stella at length, read up about Magics. But then the Duke of Callisto, her cousin had been the target of an attempted assassination while on holiday off planet and Nishi increased their border patrols. Her parents had to respond in retaliation. Sending her away now would only invite trouble and harm to her.

Varanda understood. Heavy-hearted, she composed a letter of resignation she entrusted Stella with, since she couldn't leave the planet to deliver it herself. Despite it all, the control, the isolation, the social anxiety, Varanda was a pragmatic girl. She understood when sacrifices were necessary, and kept herself dutifully blank, but ready for when her time would come.

The world would change, and how it did. Mostly thanks to Stella and her school friends. For the longest time all Varanda had heard was that Stella had used Varanda's name to smuggle a girl to Alfea from Earth of all places who was badly in need of magic education but had zero means to get it where she was from. From Earth? Go figure. All of this, she received notice of in post. The more Stella spent in her second year with a better set of friends, the less she wrote to Varanda, and Varanda herself also felt less and less inclined to pick up the pen.

She studied magic in Callisto and trained as a home defense guard behind her parents back.

Magic returned to Earth.

Mika started his magic training and Varanda tutored him after his official classes. If they were confined together, they might make the best of it.

Calamities came and went, then one day everyone woke up with a fragment of their memories fundamentally altered. Or restored? Old books became legible again the knowledge that nymphs existed in near past and the possibility of an ascension into nymphhood shook the world.

Varanda was finally allowed outside into this renewed changing world, to celebrate the restoration of Domino, a kingdom everyone thought just as gone as the nymphs. She met Stella in person and the Princess of Domino, one of Stella's many school friends who remarked there to be no similarity between them at all. How could there? The princess of Domino, while also red haired, was pale as powder! Varanda was mixed but she inherited a good heap of melanin from her father thank you very much!

Then the Trix happened to... pretty much every country and planet of the inner universe and people were forced to introspect about their treatment of witchcraft users. Varanda had an encounter with the rescued ex-exiled Lady of Isis of Eraklyon, who was in many aspect more her equal than Stella had been. Diasprom in the shadow of her two brothers, disgraced as the fiance of Prince Sky, had not many avenues left in life, especially not now, confined to only being able to use witchcraft for a good while. Yet she clung to her homeland, to making an honest life there.

"At least we don't shackle our magic users over here."- Varanda had said, carelessly cold thinking about the magicless hegemony of Erakyon.

"I'll take the shackle and honest work over a gilded cage any day."- was her response and the fire in Diaspro's eyes sparked a longer and truer friendship than Varanda ever had in her entire life.

----

As some general notes, Varanda is shy and naive when brought outside of her comfort zone, but her nature is naturally reserved and level headed. Even while in contact with Stella and absorbed in fashion, Varanda was never as surfacially frivolous as her friend. Deep down she does love all sort of gaudy knicknack tho is the thing. She just doesn't say it out loud. Her love language is definitely receiving gifts.

[trashcankitty12]

Timmy Headcanons

(Sorry for the wait, life, am I right?)

Timmy Somerville. Cute nerd, badass strategist, and most likely one of the smartest dudes you’ll ever meet.

Poor dude doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves, so here it is. I hope.

(Also, I took the name for his hometown/home city from the comics.)

(Also, these headcanons are mostly for my main verses. “Left” and “The New Company of Light”.)

-Timmy is from Zenith, more specifically, the City of Titania, Zenith’s Capitol.

-It’s just him and his mom and dad, and their robo-cat, Chester. (Timmy named him after a character from his favorite game series.)

-Timmy doesn’t have many family members, as both his parents are also only children and both sets of grandparents live in the warmer climates of Zenith. (There are like… Two or three warm cities/villages in Zenith.)

-But his parents do have lots of friends that are sort of like his ‘aunts and uncles’. (And they spoiled him like they were his family.)

-Honestly Timmy is a bit spoiled as far as family love goes. They have always been supportive of his projects and are just so proud of him.

-He tends to be closer to his dad than to his mom. His dad was more of a stay-at-home dad (he ran his business from home, which was game designing), and his mom worked as a hotshot lawyer on Zenith. (Mostly for copyright claiming and patenting.)

-His dad always let him playtest his games (assuming they weren’t for more mature audiences, Timmy was a bit of a sheltered child about those subjects). And Timmy… Well it started Timmy’s love of them.

-As he got older and more into the mechanics of game design, mechanic-ing in general, his parents let him start using his room as a workshop.

-He used to take everything apart he could get his hands on, and then would put it all back together, good as new. (And sometimes, better.)

-His parents used to suspect he may have some techno-magic because of how the machines responded to him, but they never could prove it.

-(To this day, even the others in his squad question if Timmy has some latent-magical abilities. He tries to laugh it off, but he has found himself wondering too… Even to the point of trying to summon his magic. So far, nothing.)

-His vision started going bad around the time he turned 12. He was averse to getting glasses at first, but his run-in with contacts didn’t go so well… So glasses. (Which sucks when you wear helmets, but he’s come up with specialized helmets for people like him with poor vision. It just took some time to create. And for his mother to help with the copyright and patents.)

-Timmy had braces for a short time after an incident in elementary school messed his mouth up.

-(Dodgeball at Titania Prep was cut-throat. Cut. Throat.)

-Timmy also has an allergy to seafood. Which sucks, because he likes the smell of fried fish and the sauces that come with shrimp… But if he eats it, he can’t breathe and he’d just rather not deal with that.

-He was actually a pretty popular guy at his elementary and middle schools. He was the guy who had access to first-rate games before anyone else did, and he got to have the latest in technology. (And could explain it without it being boring.)

-So how did little Timmy decide to go to Red Fountain?

-His middle school hosted one of those fairs that shows off different high schools that someone could go to. There was Zenithian Prep, which was connected to the main college of Zenith, Zeni Tech. The Eraklyon Institute. The Callistian Artistry School for the Aspiring Youth (what a mouthful). Coventry Academy for Witches and Wizards. And Red Fountain.

-Timmy had been wanting to go to the prep school, just as was expected of him. But Red Fountain just… Spoke to him. He wanted to be different. He wanted to be more than just ‘the smart Zenith kid’. He wanted to standout somewhere. And he kind of liked the idea of the adventures Red Fountain offered.

-So he started his training for the entrance exams. Thankfully, Chester could easily be programmed to be an exercising partner and couldn’t be easily swayed to deviate from the course.

-Granted, the physical part of the exam was hard, but Codatorta saw something in him and personally vouched for him to join the program.

-Timmy’s parents were shocked at first, but since Timmy got in and had expressed such a want to go, they approved and signed the necessary papers. (With the promise that Timmy would bail if it became too much for him. No shame in realizing something wasn’t for you.)

-Not gonna lie, adjusting to Red Fountain life was a bit hard at first, but once he got into the routine, it was second nature.

-Granted, he was never as physically fit as Riven or Sky or Brandon, but he could hold his own in a fight.

-Hand-to-hand fighting isn’t his strong suite, but he is tenacious about it and isn’t afraid to exploit weaknesses his opponent has.

-Thanks to his hand-eye coordination skills from playing video games, he’s actually really good at aiming blasters and performing with a bow and arrows.

-Piloting is his favorite though. He loves getting to ‘play with the ships’ and getting to work on them and fly them around. It’s just… He loves it so much. You guys just don’t understand.

-Please don’t ask him to fight with swords or shields or spears… He does his best and he could hold his own… But it’s just not for him. (He doesn’t have the upper-body strength to really fight and hold up the weapons too. At least, not for long periods. He does well enough just to get passing marks.)

-Strategy is another strong suite of Timmy’s. He loves plotting and looking over maps and creating the battle strategies. (Maybe, just maybe, it makes him think of the Magical Dimension’s version of DnD, but he won’t say that outloud to anyone but Tecna.)

-He also sort of liked the war game drills Red Fountain ran. And the off-world training exercises.

-And okay, he wasn’t a complete fan of the camping trips, but he did have his favorite camping moments. Like bonding with his squad-mates and getting to know more about the people around him.

-(And getting to learn more about people other than Zenithians. Despite being the tech giants of the Magical Dimension, Zenith doesn’t really communicate much with the rest of the realms. So this was a great experience for Timmy and he got to share his adventures with his family who also loved hearing about them.)

-The Sky/Brandon thing did hurt him though. Like he found out early-on who they really were because they weren’t as discreet as they should have been at Red Fountain. But the fact that they didn’t just come to him and admit to him who they were kind of stung. Especially since he was supposed to rely on these guys to be his ‘brothers-in-arms’.

-His crush on Tecna happened early-on too. When he first met her, she made him so nervous and he just couldn’t believe that he was talking to that Tecna Mode, daughter of the owners of Mode Inc., and he just… Almost lost his cool. (Okay he did lose it, but she laughed and joked and that made it so much more bearable.)

-(And the fact that after they started dating, his parents fell in love with her too, just sealed the deal for him.)

-He does tend to go to Helia and Brandon for romantic advice. He knows Tecna loves him as is, but he wants to continue being able to make her feel special and keep the warm-fuzziness going.

-When she was thought to be dead in Omega, Timmy had a full-on meltdown. He went to her memorial at Alfea and he cried like a baby to her parents. He apologized at least half a dozen times to them. But he swore to them he’d bring her back. Alive. Somehow. He swore it.

-It didn’t matter that everyone thought he was crazy or delusional. Tecna was alive and he could feel it. And so could Digit. And if anyone would know if Tecna was really dead, it’d be the damn pixie she was bonded to. So she had to be alive.

-And damn, when he did see her again, when they finally made it back to the ship in one piece… He almost couldn’t bear to let her go. He basically let Helia fly the ship back so he could spend the entire flight holding her. (And she let him, despite not usually being one for PDA.)

-After that, he texted her nearly non-stop for a month, just be sure she was still there. That it wasn’t a dream he’d had. Thankfully, it was all true. She was safe and back at Alfea.

-Timmy has a poor sleep schedule, despite having been training for early morning drills at RF since he was 14. When he’s working on a project though, nothing will stop him from finishing it. (Unless the others literally pull him away.)

-(Which has happened before. Riven will literally just scoop up Timmy and take him to his room and plop him down and be like ‘sleep or I’ll knock you out’.)

-Timmy has a small case of tinnitus due to blaster use and working on the RF ships.

-Timmy also runs mostly on caffeine. Coffee, energy drinks, soda. You name it. (Helia and Nabu have been subtly trying to remove the caffeine over the years, but Tecna keeps enabling him… Or rather, enabling them both since she also runs on caffeine.)

-Timmy has tried his hands at poetry. It’s not the best, but it makes him feel great to work on writing and Tecna absolutely loves the poems he writes for her.

-Stella and Timmy have secretly been working on uniforms for soldiers/cadets in training. She wants them to be a little more stylish and he has some ideas on how to better protect the person wearing them. (And maybe add in some heat/air condition stuff. Those things are super temperamental.)

-And Layla has been helping Timmy stay in shape since they all graduated and moved to Earth. (Well, temporarily relocated to Earth.) She knows he’s slacked a bit on training since he hasn’t been at RF, and he needs to keep on his toes.

-He likes Earth okay, but he has to fight his need to fix everything to be on par with the rest of the Magical Dimension. (Please Bloom? Just one car? Or maybe a computer? Please? Please?)

-Timmy loves when they have game-night at the loft. Even if it tends to end in screaming matches between Stella, Riven, Musa, and Tecna. (So many super-competitive people in one place.)

-He has discovered that he makes the ‘best sweet tea’. At least, according to Bloom. (He doesn’t understand her or what this ‘sweet tea’ is… He’s honestly just pretty sure he ruined a thing of tea… But hey… Earth is weird.)

-Timmy hopes that after all of this ‘saving the magical dimension’ stuff is over, he and Tecna will get to live a quiet life. Or at least one where their inventions and games blow-up and they get to bring joy to others’ lives.

-(But first, the Magical Dimension needs to stop needing to be saved. And like hell that’ll happen.)

[alternativewinxcontinuity]

Winx Alt Con Season 02 Recap:

Previously: Season 01, Weeks 9.2, 10/11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Week 17: Episodes 219, (partial 223), 224-226

As the week starts up, things appear to be back to normal for the time being, but Avalon seems melancholy. Bloom reaches out him after one of his classes, her primary excuse is that she wants to ask about technical incantations that might help the girls get Daphne's 'temple' up and running.

Avalon expresses an interest in the project, and the pair talk about it on the way to dinner in the school dining hall.

Bloom waits for just the right moment, and asks what has him so down. Avalon is reluctant to add his troubles to Bloom's burdens, but after some gentle prodding, admits that he's disappointing with himself for his part in the attack on the pixie village, blaming himself for the loss of the pixie's part of the Codex, and the near loss of the Life Blossom. He reasons that since the village was attacked so soon after a pixie left to help him, the two events were directly related.

Bloom points out that it wasn't really his fault, and while the Codex was missing, Flora had managed to save the Blossom. Before Avalon can deny her logic, she presses on, reminding him that Darkar is, basically Satan as far as anyone can tell, the Vessel of the 'original evil'. Darkar is super old, and really bad, and he would have found a way, they should all just be thankful things turned out as well as they did.

Avalon perks up and remarks on Flora and Tecna earning their Charmix, Bloom proudly tells him their entire group is now made up of Charmix level fairies. She's really proud of her friends, and so glad they all work so well together.

Avalon admits the Winx do seem to be a fairy circle to watch, and that he's (while sorry for the circumstances that brought him to Alfea) pleased to be helping to teach such fine young fairies.

(Bloom makes a sly comment about the faculty being quite nice to be around too after Palladium waves Avalon over to their seats at the staff table. Avalon blushes faintly and admits that the other faculty have certainly been welcoming. Bloom chuckles and) the duo part ways.

Avalon drops by the Winx dorm to go over the 'temple' they have thus far, and offers several pointers for the type of technical spell they're thinking of using to help build it.

As the week wears on, Bloom starts to get a little twitchy. Most of the students do, since their school is the only protection between Darkar and the final piece of the Codex. The Winx accidentally talk about Bloom behind her back, intending to talk about how her 'twitchy' seems to be... not the same as everyone else's somehow.

Bloom catches them in the act and snaps at them, the group apologises, and Bloom backs down, seeming to deflate. She admits she's been having trouble sleeping properly the past few days, and that she's really worried about Darkar's plans.

She's particularly worried because Daphne, Griselda and Faragonda have all told her that Darkar had once kidnapped Bloom's biological mother, Miriam, and she was starting to wonder if he'd try to take Bloom this time. She says being the Vessel of the Dragon Fire sounds cool, but in practice it's a lot of hassle.

The group commiserate and have a sleepover in the main room of their dorm.

During the party, Flora notices Kiko behaving oddly towards Bloom, and when she mentions it to Chatta, the pixie mentions Lockette was acting weirdly (almost subconsciously) distant towards her fairy.

The pair can't figure out what could be causing it, and they can't say for definite that something is wrong, and they certainly can't prove it, so they let the matter go for the time being.

The 'party' winds down pretty quickly, since they still have a day of school left in the week, and the fairies, pixies and lone rabbit settle in for the night. Stella hides a frown as she notices Lockette bunking down with Amore, and Kiko picking a spot with Flora rather than Bloom.

She tries to brush it off as the two companions picking up on Bloom's stress and trying to give her space, but something pings in the back of Stella's mind.

Just after midnight, Bloom seemingly gives up on tossing and turning, and gets up. A bleary eyed Flora asks what's going on, and Bloom tells her she's just going for a walk. Half asleep, it takes Flora almost ten minutes to remember what happened the last time Bloom went for a late night 'stress walk'.

She wakes the others quickly, and the group rushes out to look for their friend.

Aisha and Tecna find Bloom in the mirrored corridor outside of the hidden archive, (one of the secret rooms in Alfea that every student knows about) an oblong object clutched in one hand.

At least, they think it's Bloom.

She's in her fairy form, but her wings look like they've been tattooed with tar, and her clothes are a deep maroon that Aisha recognises as the colour of Darkar's carapace. Before the fairies can do anything, the being with their friend's face slams them into one of the mirrors in the hall.

The duo aren't sure if they black out, or if Bloom simply vanishes, because by the time they pull themselves upright, the maybe-Bloom, is gone.

An emergency assembly is held, the students arriving in only minutes from their dorms, none of them have bothered to change out of their pyjamas.

(At Red Fountain and Cloud Tower, similar assemblies are being held.)

A devastated Avalon reveals to the school that roughly half an hour ago, something had woken him, and when he tried to figure out what it was, he recalled an incident from shortly before he'd joined them at Alfea.

He'd been caught off guard by a sudden shadow, it had overwhelmed him, and then, nothing. He'd completely forgotten about it as soon as it was over.

He'd headed down to the medical wing, and Ofelia had confirmed what he'd feared: shortly before he'd come to Alfea, Avalon had been possessed by a type of sleeper-agent spirit, which had blocked his memory, and watched everything from its hidden space at the back of his mind.

Everything he'd learned in the last several weeks, it knew.

He'd woken to the final tether between them snapping as the creature finished its relocation to a new host: Bloom.

It had (most likely) spent the last week moving in, creating a tether when they'd spoken after class, or at any point when they were physically close enough for it to reach out undetected. The transfer had worn at Bloom's psyche, causing the difficult sleep, and when she'd finally fallen asleep an hour ago, it had taken control of her body, marched it down to the hiding place of the Codex, and taken the final piece.

From the reports of the students who'd set up a rotating guard, they could confirm Bloom had flown off in the direction of the caverns that led to Darkar's lair.

Faragonda asks for volunteers only.

The Winx are the first to step up, followed closely by Mirta, and the few on campus seniors.

Several more students volunteer as well. Avalon refuses to be left behind, and Palladium is [-determined to stay with him through this emotional turmoil-] likewise ready to go save their student. (and the worlds. (again.))

It takes less than half an hour for everyone to get ready.

The Winx step aboard The Sparx with several others (as easy mass transport to the caverns) to find Kiko and the pixies ready to go.

Stella and Tecna take the helm (all of the Winx have been keyed into The Sparx with the help of Daphne, who walked them through the old Domino tech of her ship. Before blanching in mortification when she realised what state she and her circle – the Nymphs – had left the ship in. (Daphne and Bloom had shared a moment of sisterly hysteria when Bloom assured Daphne that she had excellent taste in sexy underwear.)) and pilot their group to the entrance, where they meet up with the volunteers from Cloud Tower and Red Fountain.

Tecna has moved their mapping program to several portable arm devices, and the small army, lead by Faragonda herself, hurries down to Downland, where the three headmasters, and the Winx, get an audience with Amentia.

The Downland princess confirms someone flying very fast passed through their city a short time ago, heading towards Darkar's lair, but as far as they knew, the caverns were still blocked off.

Tecna shows the princess the holo-map, which has been updating as they walked, and now shows a small opening in the wall.

Amentia introduces the group to her pet rockworm, and offers to help burrow an opening large enough for the cobbled together arm. They gladly accept, surprised when Amentia also offers to aide them in battle against the shadow monsters.

They understand pretty quickly that it's a political manoeuvre as well as a friendly one, after all, how would Amentia be perceived by her people if she didn't offer her assistance fighting an enemy who dwells along the fringes of her own territory and posses a threat to the people of Downland?

As the army (now with added Downlanders) prepares to depart the city, the Specialists check on the Winx, making sure they're coping with the loss of their friend, and being in the Underrealm with its power draining effects.

Stella admits she's been stockpiling solar power since their last trip, since it was likely they'd have to return, but with their new Charmix powers, they'd all be able to hold of the effects a little longer.

When asked about their previous problems with entering the Underrealm, Musa and Flora confess they've been working with Diaspro and a few other rock aligned fairies to figure out how to deal with their powers under ground. (Flora shows off a few of her seed pouches, and ready made potions.) Tecna assures the boys that she's been working on her problem as well, though she's been working by herself.

The boys are impressed, and glad the Winx will be able to fight, but they notice the girls say nothing of their distress at losing Bloom, only look away with anger in the back of their eyes. (who the anger is directed at, the boys aren't sure.)

Aisha mentions, since they're talking about Diaspro, that it would have been nice to have the gem fairy present for the fight, since amongst the magic users they'd brought, only two others had rock based abilities.

A voice pops up beside her (“oh, I know, Diaspro is just so useful, and wonderful and pretty and smart-” “-and HERE! Diaspro!... what, why are you here?” “Sky called, Bloom's been kidnapped? Funny thing happened to me last, any way, I thought I'd return a favour... plus the king sent me to babysit his son.”) as Diaspro makes her presence known to the group, giving a brief run down on Sky's father's desire for his son to call before going off into battles for the fate of the Magical Dimension. It doesn't hurt (in the king's opinion) that the person they're going to save recently saved Diaspro's life, claims legit (though distant) relations to the Princess of Solaria, and is dating the Crown Prince of Eraklyon.

(In the background, Lucy fusses over Mirta, worried her 'new fairy-ness' will make her susceptible to the negative effects to the Underrealm.)

They don't bother with subtle when they break through to the cavern surrounding the citadel, they bust down the walls, and Diaspro leads the two other fairies of similar elemental nature in creating a thick stone bridge to get everyone into the citadel.

What seems like an endless supply of shadow monsters await them.

The three schools come together in a united front, forming small parties based on compatibility, available skills, and that one time they all fought of an immortal army last term. The teachers take point, leading the way into battle, while the students follow their lead, and the Downlanders slot themselves in where they can.

Amentia is a terror on the battlefield. (at one point Stella swears she heard the Downland princess scream about bringing back one of her enemies' heads on a pike for her sweet husband, Sponsus (who stayed in the city to set up medical response for after the battle).)

The Trix make themselves known on the battlefield, casting their magic carelessly, not worried about hitting their monster 'allies'. The three headmasters step up and go toe to toe with the Trix, pushing their advantage as Griselda joins the fray, leaving the lesser monsters to the students, other teachers and Downlanders, who make good progress in cutting swathes through the enemy.

At Faragonda's order The Winx and Specialists leave the battle and make their way through the lair, searching for Bloom; Diaspro, Mirta and Lucy working with them. Alongside them, not only a very determined Kiko and their pixies, but Athena, Discorda, Concorda and Ninfea, the Four Guardian Pixies, who have brought the key to the backdoor, just in case they're too late.

Stella, using her innate connection to Bloom, bolstered by Kiko and Lockette, leads the group to the heart of Darkar's lair, just in time to see a portal close.

Lockette considers trying to open it, but the portal is tied to Darkar and Bloom, and either one of them could destabilise it if they noticed the group trying to cross through.

The Guardian Pixies bring forth their substitute Codex and reveal the lock to the mystical back door to Relix, home to one of the Ultimate Powers of the Magical Dimension.

Unfortunately, the group's presence in the room causes a security measure to activate, and they find themselves surrounded by enemies. (thankfully though, not the Trix.) The Specialists prepare to defend the group, Diaspro, bound by her vow to the king, steps up to make sure Sky doesn't die, and Mirta and Lucy join her.

When the Winx waver over whether or not to stay and fight, Diaspro lays the fact out.

If Bloom is possessed like she's been told, she'll need her closest friends to get through to her, and if Darkar's in there, they'll need as many fairies in there as they can.

(Diaspro and Mirta might be friends with Bloom, but it's a different friendship than the Winx, Lucy is only there because Mirta is there, and the boys are needed to defend the portal from this side.)

Stella knows Diaspro is right, and after a brief 'I love you/too' with Brandon, turns her attention to the lock as the fight begins behind her. It takes her mere seconds to figure it out, the Guardian pixies are flabbergasted, but Stella brushes them off with mentions of 'colour theory' and 'any fashionista would have' before diving through the portal, both in haste to find Bloom, and so she doesn't have to talk about how she figured out a difficult puzzle, that should have taken several geniuses several days, in only seconds.

The remaining Winx are close behind them, and so is Kiko and their pixies. (The Guardian pixies, their job done, return to their Bonded companions.)

The world on the other side of the portal is desolate.

The sky seems to stretch on forever, out into a purple hued endlessness. The part of the world directly around the portal site is made of stone. Unmarred by the passage of time, no wear from people walking over it, yet it carries a heaviness of age in its every brick. A few dozen metres from the portal site, a flat topped pyramid rises, stairs leading straight up the middle of each side.

At the top stand Darkar and the possessed Bloom, a luminous crystalline flower dissolves into being between them. It is lit with a dark flame from within.

The Winx call out for Bloom, Kiko already halfway up the monolith trying to reach her, Lockette close behind him.

Darkar sneers at the fairies, and orders Bloom to attack them.

But they came prepared.

Aisha and Flora bring up netting and vines while Musa and Tecna slam a wall into place. Before Bloom can react, Stella is already in her face, shoving a handful of glitter in her mouth. Kiko and Lockette reverse course, dashing to join their fairy.

As Bloom begins to writhe, the borrowed fairy dust loosening the grip of possession, Stella talks to her, Kiko and Lockette plastering themselves against her, being there for her as Stella remind her who she is, and begging her to wake up.

Bloom shoves Stella away just far enough to retch up a cup's worth of black tar, which Stella quickly vanquishes with her staff. Bloom's transformation dissolves with the tar, leaving her shaking and confused in her pyjamas.

Stella fills her in quickly while Darkar starts to make a fuss, not only has his minion been soundly and easily defeated, the Crystal of Power won't respond to him.

(“hey, dickhead, you need a key for that.”)

In the citadel of Shadowhaunt, the Specialist and the trio with them find themselves running out of enemies, until a large monster appears. Unbeknownst to the group, it is Kerbog, Darkar's favourite minion.

Kerbog reflects any energy based attack back at the group, but the group remembers the monster at Red Fountain, and the three girls use their aerial mobility to distract the creature while the boys take advantage, hacking their foe to pieces.

Only for it to burst into a dark smog.

The girls are ready for it though, and blast the spindly bird that emerges from the cloud.

After that, they seem to actually be out of things to fight, so they debate whether or not to go after the Winx, or remain on guard.

In Relix, the Winx find themselves on the defensive, but something is off about the fight. The way Darkar fights, it's not fit for out and out battle, it's a sly, insidious style. He talks as he hurls magic blasts at the girls, physically separating them even as he tries to worm his way into their heads, to divide them, to make them doubt themselves, to make them doubt each other.

The pixies do what they can, but Darkar keeps interfering with their Bond abilities, and bats their own powers aside with ease. He gains enough breathing space to try absorbing the Crystal again, but when he turns he finds it gone.

He yells in rage and Bloom (once more in her sparkly blues) laughs. Because she gets it, with a clarity that feels preternatural even for her, she understands what he is, why he can never use the power of the Crystal, and why he could never have opened the doorway without her.

Born from the ashes of the Dragon Flame, his power is everything hers isn't.

Alone, rotten, corrupted, it is evil in what it does to people, but she understands that his power is a natural part of the fabric of the universe.

They can't defeat it, but they can defeat him.

Together.

Like they can read her mind, the Winx and the pixies gather together, Charmix manifesting, the pixies synchronising with their fairies. Their magic coalesces around them in a protective bubble, which even Darkar's strongest attack can't penetrate.

Their spell builds, to purify and repair, it builds and builds and builds. Bolstered by their Charmix, and their pixies and their unity, it builds.

(“Begone Satan!”)

“HARMONY OVERLOAD!”

Darkar is made of deceit and manipulation and greed, he is all the dark emotions of the universe given form. But the Winx and their pixies are truth and trust and compassion, they are everything he isn't, and in this moment, they are stronger than him.

The light of their convergence washes over Darkar, and when it fades, he is gone.

The negative emotions which made him continue to exist, but their manifest form is erased.

With Darkar gone, the portal he and possessed Bloom created, destabilises, affecting Relix in turn. Bloom looks around wide eyed as the small island world begins to shake, she calls for Kiko, who yells from nearby the backdoor portal. Bloom tells him to go, and the fairies and pixies rush to join him. Kiko emerges from the portal with the girls hot on his tail.

Their power use catches up with them, and they collapse to the floor, de-transforming. Nearby, the boys turn from where they've been standing guard, Mirta and Lucy likewise make their way over, but Diaspro is kneeling on the ground, arms outstretched.

Tremors work their way through the room, and Diaspro flinches every time they do. Sky tells the Winx that Diaspro has been holding the room together, it started crumbling shortly after they killed the last monster. Diaspro gets up carefully, and corrects that the entire citadel is starting to crumble, and they need to leave.

Bloom sweeps Kiko into her arms, distractedly she notices he's holding something, but the group is hurried out of the room before she can check what it is. The Specialists help the Winx out through the corridors.

The group is met part way by other members from the volunteers, who help usher them the rest of the way out.

The entire assembled group makes the slog back to Downland, where the wounded and weary are seen to. Bloom almost cries in relief when she finds out they didn't lose a single student, teacher or Downlander. Then lets out a 'ha!' when she finds out the Trix have been captured by the teachers, and will be sent to a deep stasis prison planet called The Omega Dimension.

Amentia holds a party to celebrate, but the Winx and their support team stay just long enough to be polite.

(Amentia takes one look at them five minutes into the party and tells Stella to 'get out, your face is disturbing me, and take your friends too.')

They exit the caverns to the landing field filled with transports just as the sun rises. Bloom finally takes a moment to look down at her rabbit...

and freaks the heck out.

When she calms down, Bloom realises she really should have put it together sooner.

Kiko was the reason Darkar had been distracted long enough for Bloom to put it all together in Relix, because Kiko had been the one to steal the Crystal of Power.

And he hadn't had time to put it back before the magic backlash from the portal had destabilised the world.

The group follows Bloom's example and proceed to freak the heck out when they too realise that Kiko is holding the Crystal of Power. They debate amongst themselves what to do, all of them tired, none of them thinking straight, they recoil at the idea of telling Faragonda, let alone the other two heads.

Some one suggests Daphne, and the group jump on the idea. They rush aboard The Sparx and make for Lake Roccaluce at the fastest (legal) speed possible.

When they reach her and explain the situation, Daphne spends almost ten minutes freaking out about the danger her sister was in, before she realises what they'd brought her.

(“Man, I thought you were cool and mysterious.” “I am cool and mysterious! But that is THE Crystal of Power! Do you understand what it IS?!?!?!?” “Kind of! Can you help us or not?!”)

Daphne explains that she was stuck between worlds because she was transferring the contents of a magical vault to a mobile pocket dimension, similar to Relix; so she might, theoretically, be able to put the Crystal in this pocket dimension.

The group sorts themselves out on the shore in the early morning light as Daphne and Bloom prepare to transfer the Crystal between them, agreeing that, if it works, the pocket dimension would be the safest place for it.

Stella uses the sun to rejuvenate herself, passing the energy along to Bloom, who uses it, and a touch of the Dragon Flame, to craft the... 'magical pathway' the Crystal will take. It is not a spell, but a reaching of familial magic, from Bloom to Daphne to the pocket, it is crafted with intent and instinct more than anything else.

From the outside, it looks like Bloom is covered with Daphne's ethereal glow as she passes the Crystal to her older sister, who takes it, pain spreading across her face.

As she takes the Crystal and shifts it into the pocket dimension, Daphne begins to scream. The group move, gathering close, then backing off realising they can't do anything but crowd the older woman.

Bloom reaches, but the magic is complete, and she can no longer touch her sister, who writhes in agony before her.

It feels like forever to the group, but it is only a moment before Daphne stills, her screams petering out to whimpers, then silence.

Daphne sits up slowly and lets out an intentional 'ow,' before asking the group to never make her do that again. While the magic was successful, it tore at the edges of Daphne's suspended mortality, allowing her to feel the painful death-spell that had been paused by her trapped state. It didn't move her closer or further from death, it just hurt. A lot.

Bloom nods and agrees and apologises over and over. Daphne waves her apologies off, because the pain is already gone, and her sister didn't intend for her to be in pain.

The tension dissipates when someone's stomach rumbles loudly, reminding them all that they hadn't eaten since the night before.

Stella calls a take out place in Magix and offers double if they'd deliver to the shore of Lake Roccaluce ASAP.

While they wait, Bloom finally changes out of her pyjamas, slipping into an old outfit of Daphne's they hadn't cleaned out of the closet on The Sparx.

They also bring out some picnic blankets to rest on while they ate.

(“why do you even have picnic blankets and a closet on the ship, Daphne?” “It was technically a pleasure craft-” “EW!” “not like that! It's a girl's-road-trip ship, not a world-saving battle cruiser, we just tended to use it for that because I was the only one with their own ship.”)

They spend the day relaxing by the lake with Daphne, eating take out and napping. Lucy spends a large chunk of time feeling uncomfortable, until the group is joined by pixies from the pixie village, who'd gotten word of their friends on the shore.

Mirta finds herself Bonding with a pixie named Jolly, and Lucy doesn't even have time to be jealous when a baby pixie bumps into her, and a strong Bond snaps into place between Lucy and Glim.

Daphne laughs at the group's shock, and explains that pixies can bond with any magical species, they just have a naturally higher compatibility rating with fairies, which led to the misbelief only fairies could Bond with pixies.

Lucy is delighted, and spends the rest if the day taking notes as Aisha gives her a full run down of not just having a Bonded pixie, but a Bonded baby pixie.

When Faragonda finds them late in the afternoon, they tell her everything that happened, concerning the Crystal of Power.

The headmistress understands, and agrees, they made the right choice, as unfortunate and regrettable as the pain it caused Daphne might have been.

When they tell her what happened in Relix, Faragonda lets them know how proud she is of them, and amazed that they had managed to do what she and her team hadn't at their age. She also tells them that the Trix have begun their journey to Omega, and that they should arrive on the ice planet in a day or two.

Upon learning they're being sent to an ice planet, the group expresses concern that Icy, the Witch of Ice would be able to escape.

Faragonda assures them that the Trix's powers are still burnt out, and their Gloomix incomplete, they've taken every measure possible to secure the witches, and there were no other prisons strong enough to hold them.

The group accepts that every thing that could be done, has been done, and the Trix were as secured as they were going to get, try to enjoy what's left of the day.

Until Musa pipes up with “at least this deciding battle didn't interfere with an exam block” and the group realises they have only two weeks of study time before exams start.

The group say their goodbyes to Daphne, and head back to Alfea, where the Specialist, Diaspro and Lucy all head off.

[moonlightreal]

Winx Club season 8/4

In which Sky attempts, and fails, a date

4 Popstars!

The shell-ship is called “The Starship Puripla”… I think.  This must be one of those words that sounds ok in Italian but is just weird when ported over to English.

Alfea.  Bloom is delight!  Emojis say Sky has come and brought a present!  She goes dashing off with great enthusiasm.  But… he’s not here yet.  Apparently the other Winx know that Sky is setting up a surprise picnic for Bloom but he’s making her wait because he… texted her to come before he was all set up?  Bonehead.

I sense idiot plot!  At least we get a great shot of Alfea’s new look.  Ooh, it has a gazebo and some pools!  I wonder if Rainbow Magic Land has those things and the look in the show updated to match.

Kiko and Knut are helping Sky set up the picnic, because we need the comic relief.  They make a mess. Aisha, Flora and Musa come to help out and tease Sky about his dating fails.  Sky says he’s defeated hundreds of monsters.  =)  So the girls ‘help,’ Aisha by adding a scented candle that smells bad, Musa by inventing musical sandwiches that make you hear noise when you bite them.  And Flora grows some flowers around the picnic blanket.

Sky thanks the girls for their help, then whispers “but mostly you.” to Flora.  Musa and Aisha hear him.  Heh.

Then the specialist ship flies over and Brandon summons Sky for a top secret mission.  Sky jumps like Spiderman to get up to that ship!  He says the picnic is only a little delayed, but Aisha isn’t sure Bloom will be ok with it.

Bloom’s not.  She’s super disappointed and says she and Sky haven’t had any time together in a while.  Stella just hugs her and says, ‘All guys are crazy!  But you’ll always have us!”

Let’s leave the relationship drama behind and go see Valtor!  He needs more star energy to become the most powerful sorcerer in the magic universe!  He sends Obscurum to steal light from Puripla.  Purripa?  Something like that.

Alfea courtyard, evening, Flora and Stella console Bloom.  Sky hasn’t come back or texted.

Twinkle comes falling into the bushes, pops up, and says she has a surprise too.  She projects from the star thing around her head a star map.  Tecna comes over to say it’s a “holomap of the entire magic universe.”  Tec is impressed.  It is really cool looking.  Doranna also gave Twinkle another power: whenever a star is attacked the map will show it, so the Winx will always know where to go.  Only there’s a star blinking now-- Purripla.  Twinkle says they have to go save it, and suits the girls up in their space travel outfits.

We’re blasting off again!

Purripla is a “starship” --a star, that’s a ship.  The design is pretty cool, it looks like a spiky star on the bottom and has a city on top.  The whole thing also reminds me of a shell.  (the city on top also reminds me of the Mortal Engines movie that I watched last weekend.  Good movie.)

The girls land on Purripla.  The star moves around space to light the way for spaceships, Twinkle says.  The girls have to get on board without scaring the local lumens.  Musa has an idea.

This ship is full of blue lumens.  The captain has this navy hat and an anchor on her star, it’s adorable.!

The Winx arrive as… popstars!  Here to introduce the lumens to music, which I guess lumens don’t naturally have in their society.  The captain can’t wait to find out.  Heh.

I guess using their music to go undercover is at least a sensible use of the “we’re fairies AND idol singers!” sillyness.  Also i think the girls being twelve now makes the popstars thing less weird to me, because now my brain doesn’t try to insist they should have all the adult concerns of real musicians, which really bugged me in WoW.  Whatever.

The Winx also see the core of the starship, an engine of starlight.  It looks like a glowing bubble like the one on Lumenia, with a red jewel underneath.  A ring of lumens run around the top of the bubble, powering the ship.

Stella says, ‘Starsome!” which is a word I think she picked up from Twinkle.  Cute.

Another little lumen comes to say a ship is approaching.

It’s the specialists!  They’re on the trail of a ruby thief.  They’re quite surprised to see Bloom here!  She reassures the captain that the specialists will certainly catch the thief before he can steal the ruby from Purripla’s engine, which would be a bad thing.

The lumen crew looks a little stressed and the Winx know just how to help.  A concert!  Let’s go transforming instruments!  A star-shaped stage has appeared under the Winx, and they’re suddenly surrounded by the lumens in bleachers. Does the magic make the stage appear too?  that’d be cool.  Twinkle introduces them and the blue lumens cheer.

New song!

Obscurum is hiding in a handy ventilation duct!  He warns his staryummies that the music can cause weird effects-- like dancing!  The yummies bounce happily.  Obscurum dances and can’t help it.  He says the music is a powerful magic-- and maybe he can use it.  He sends the staryummies to create a diversion.

They rampage through the ship breaking things.  The Winx run to investigate.  Cosmix time!

Stella finds a hall full of tiny staryummies and freezes them.  That was easy.

Tecna realizes it was a trap!  

Back at the stage, Obscurum and his big starchomps appear.  The chomps pick up the Winx’s instruments and play loud noise, and the blue lumens scream and run away.

Starchomp band advances on the core only to fight about which of them gets to eat it.

We cut to the Specialists who are chasing a different ship entirely. The space pirate!  It throws out space mines and Brandon zaps them with the ship’s cannons.  It heads into an asteroid belt and Timmy has to pilot through it.  Space pirate is badass.  He decides to play chicken with the Specialists’ ship then disappears.  This scene gave each specialist a chance to shine, and got each of their names spoken so new viewers could work out who’s who.

Back on Purripla, starchomps chomp the core.

Back with the Specialists, they got too close to a black hole!  it’s pulling them in!

Winx vs. Obscurum!  Gorgeous attacks by Aisha and Flora.

Then, a video call from Sky!  They’re in trouble!  Without Purripla’s light they’re being pulled into the black hole!  I guess they need the star to guide them away from it?  Anyway, they’re in danger of being doomed.

The Winx must relight the core even though Obscurum will escape.

The boys see Purrpila has returned. They say scifi-ish things and pull their ship out of the black hole and land it on Purripla.  They survived, but their ship is a wreck and the thief escaped.

The pirate ship pulls up next to Purripla and Orion hops off and invisibles his ship.  I love him already.  The hair!  The goggles!  The costume!  That is a great costume!  I still kinda wish he’d been a girl

….

A wander through Tumblr just informed me that Orion’s design is based on a character named Director Petra from a video game called Shardbound.  And “based on”… you could also say “plagiarized” and not be wrong.  Rainbow, come on, not cool…

Rainbow does a certain amount of not-cool stuff.  They make our beloved show but that doesn’t mean we can ignore the not-cool stuff.

On the other hand, now I can ponder Orion having a twin sister named Petra.  It’s practically canon.

[referrix]

I'm currently working on trying to find locations for some of the known rooms and things inside Alfea, (at the moment specifically, I'm working on the kitchen and dining hall) before I put myself through floor plans again. So I thought I'd share what some of my working out looks like behind the scenes.

And why it might be a problem that Season 8 turned these flat topped towers:

Into these much shorter flat topped towers:

Because I'm currently fairly certain that was the dining hall in that upper half.

Trying to figure out where the dining hall is, isn't a one room tracking operation, because we know there's a kitchen, we've seen it, we've seen the Winx Club set fire to it with their negligence. You don't typically put a food making place far from the eating place, so tracking one, should help track the other.

We first see the kitchen in episode 105, when the girls are on dinner duty (or making a spell with potato peels and a magical back-flip if you're a 4kids truther), and during dinner prep they head back to their dorm to help Stella pick an outfit.

From their dorm, they're able to smell the smoke and react, racing to the kitchen before even the chef and Griselda arrive, though not by much in Griselda's case. (Also, Bloom uses the same spell Griselda does a few episodes later back on Earth in her house while cooking with Vanessa. Just saying.)

This means, or at least suggests that the kitchens are not only in the same building as their dorm, but reasonably close by.

When we return to the kitchen in episode 115 we actually have a little zoom around the rear tower and focus in on a spot above/behind the rear most dorm balcony on the building before phasing inside to the girls walking along a hall to the kitchen.

While the hallway is different between the two episodes, background continuity is not Winx Club's feature, but it does double down on the idea that the kitchen is in that building.

(In 105 the girls turn a corner into a short hallway, while in 115 it appears to be a long straight hallway with windows all along it. Though later in the episode the looking out view does look kindamuch the same as 105?)

(props to Alfea for having non-magical fire extinguishers for added safety)

Or at least one of the kitchens is in that building, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there are two. Or at least a smaller communal kitchen for the other mirrored building, so the girls don't have to go across campus for a midnight snack.

Further, although the exterior and interiors of the school don't always match up exactly, in several shots of the dining hall, we can see the six bays of tall windows. Now there is a chance they could just be windows from the middle floor, one of the balconied window sets, but the shape and compactness matches much more closely with the tower's rear facing window wall, the one that leads out onto the flat balcony.

The number of windows/bay divisions don't match up perfectly, but again, internal-external logic consistency isn't 100% at Alfea,

Additionally, in these shots from season two, we can see some smaller windows lining the upper sections of the wall opposite the window wall, which match up loosely with the windows on the rear towers, where they meet the roof of the dorm section.

We should also talk about sizes and room dimensions.

Based on the door below the smaller windows, the windows are at least three maybe four meters off the floor. The tables run about 5 meters.

Estimating for girls behind pillars, the most packed side holds 16 students, while the least packed has space for 13.

A quick bit of research into bench tables brought me some numbers.

The longest commercial tables I could find that came with suggested sizing by seat number suggested that for a 10 person table (4 on each long and 1 per end cap, so realistically for out count and 8 person table) would range between 2.2m, 2.6m, or 2.8m depending on how comfy or squished the seating is expected to be. Doubling those numbers to get tables to seat 16 max per side, we end up with tables ranging 4.4m, 5.2m, and 5.6m.

Doing a quick eyeball and stamp measurement, and given that the room isn't perfectly circular, but there is at least one (suspiciously straight) hallway outside it, I'd be okay saying that we're looking at a space with a rough diameter between 9 and 15 meters.

Finally, there's the thing that might be a door opposite the teachers' dais, which I think might match up with the external door on the tower that leads up a protruding staircase to a spiral staircase that leads to the observation platform on the top of the tower.

Or at least an elevator or internal spiral staircase up to the external door, or even a door across a corridor to the external door, depending on how big the overall dining hall really is in relation to the tower it's sitting in.

Why don't I think it leads to the kitchens?

Well, let's look at the kitchen: it looks roughly square, or at least not a whole lot longer one way than the other, so we're looking at a squarer sort of rectangle at most, and with that we can do a few quick calculations based on what's in the kitchen.

First, my research tells me that in a commercial kitchen, like for a restaurant, recommended kitchen size is .5m² per seat. The count of the students at the table (estimated 16+14+14+13=57 plus three teachers) give us around 60 seats, which makes our estimated kitchen around 30m².

(That's a fridge in the left corner as far as I can tell, though I did for a short time assume it was stairs. Gosh darn pattern on the door, fooling me.)

Further, commercial fridges, double ovens and cupboards give me widths of 610cm for a fridge, 60.96-68.58-76.2cm for double ovens, and 1200cm for a cupboard. recommended ventilation distance between ovens is a suggested minimum of 15.24cm, and there are four ovens along one wall with the fridge and the free standing cupboard. Using the largest width for ovens, we're looking at a room of at least 5.62m across.

It's important I note here, that the room isn't actually square, while the main body of it looks that way, there's also a little alcove attached along that wall.

Now there is a bit more space between the ovens than is recommended, enough for Musa to hide between them comfortably, but this gives us a starting base.

Even if the dining hall is 15ms across on the outside, that's still enough room to fit the kitchen in the tower given some of my other calculations which have the width of the mirrored buildings at 24-30m across, which should translate to the width of the flat topped towers.

But again, there's that zoom in, and the fact the girls come in from the side and turn left into the kitchen. I think we're looking at a kitchen position that's a little something like this:

Although I am hoping that despite the lack of any doors in the alcove, there's actually a walk in fridge/freezer behind the back wall, because there's plenty of cooking spaces, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of food storage outside the free standing fridge in the corner, the pantry by the alcove, and the alcove.

Maybe there's more in the various short cupboards, but at least a portion of those would be for cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, and I don't see any that are different enough to indicate cold storage vs long-life/shelf.

[referrix]

How many stories? 5, I think it's technically 5. (*and a bit)

The average height of a door is around 2 meters, using my line copy/paste stamping method, I have calculated the bottom of the balconies under the tall windows to be a minimum of 8m high.

Even the tallest classrooms, (USA ceilings 13feet=3.962m) fall short of 4m. There is enough theoretical space for a floor between that.

(even with the thickness of floors which can be between 10 and 30cm.)

Not a full floor, but a mezzanine floor. Or a Partial floor that only covers part of that story. In some episodes we've actually seen Griselda on the mezzanine floor that overlooks one of the classrooms, and given the height of the tall windows, I don't think she's looking down from that floor.

We've also seen in several episodes that both classrooms and hallways have windowed walls on both sides, and some but not all hallways have exceptionally high vaulted ceilings. Along some of the windowed walls there's a ledge which I believe is part of the mezzanine floor.

I actually think there might be 2 mezzanine levels, given the estimated heights. There might be more than just five floors, technically, but that's more about the shifting heights on the floors of the individual stories within the building, than true floors.

In the second picture above, and interior shot of one of Alfea's hallways, in the background we can see an elevation of several steps up. Even outside, the double doors at the center of the verandahs are slightly elevated from the rest of the walkway by several steps.

So within the mirrored buildings I think the stories/floors are primarily divided like:

(*Stella's tower closet - not large enough to count as a real floor, but honorable mentions because it is there) The (Winx's) Dormitory floor The Upper Mezzanine The "Balcony" floor (at the base of the tall windows) The Lower Mezzanine The Ground floor

I genuinely believe they Did Not Have a Floor Plan when they made the series. Maybe I should start a tag just to complain about all the times it broke me.

#non-euclidean alfea

(That says ">36m" on the tower btw. I was just trying to get an estimate on the height of the tower but it's cut off and I'm not sure if that's an extra tall outside door or not.)

[referrix]

Reasons placing the simulator is making me want to cry: 1. No two episodes can seem to agree where it's located.

With other locations, like the dorms, the kitchens and Wizgiz's classroom, the zoom in/fade in tends to have a strong percentage of agreement on where in the school they are generally.

The simulation room though...

The very first time we see the simulation room, we zoom in to the north tower (the one that gets destroyed in the season 1 end battle), subsequent zooms suggest the East tower, 'somewhere' in the north-east building (where the Winx dorm is) and in the west tower, where I've assumed the dining hall is. (or under it at least)

I had actually misremembered the order of events from the Season 1 battle and convinced myself the north tower was destroyed before the Winx were transported to Domino, but upon rewatch, the tower is still standing after the teleport.

The one major internal feature that stops me from wanting to put the sim room in the north tower though, is the windows.

Big curved and a little swoopy. Like a much shorter version of the windows of the rear towers' lower floors. There is nowhere on the front towers that have similar windows, the closest is, as far as I can tell, just a fancy open air walkway around the tower's middle-ish area.

And then there's season 4, which is the first time we really zoom in on the rear/east tower, but also the first time we get to see anyone going from the sim room to somewhere else:

(I have figured out recording! sort of. the splice is just the story of the Black Circle being chopped from the 402 opening)

This sequence cements the idea that at the very least the sim room is definitely in the north-west building, but further, that the sim chamber is on the lower levels of the rear/west tower.

While the group leaves and turns left out the door, the corridor they walk down has very distinct widows on their left:

These windows are closer in appearance to the windows found on the outer sides of the mirrored buildings:

Again we're seeing a case of the internal size doesn't match the exterior, but the scene does have some "internal logical consistency."

So at the moment I'm going to keep working on the assumption that the sim room is actually in the lower floors of the rear tower.

That the window we see from the inside is actually a smaller window separate from the external windows we see, because there is a hallway that runs along the outer wall from the open air hallway door mirroring the external staircase up to a landing (where it exits out the rear facing door,) and around to the other side, down a matching staircase and into the ground floor outer hallway.

over all I'm currently imagining it looking something like this:

Please ignore the fact the red dome indicating the mvr chamber is so far forward in the left half of the picture, I forgot it was sitting directly under the windows and there's only so many times I can redo things from scratch because I wasn't thinking and closed my files losing access to individual layers.

Also, yes, based on external measurements, I'm working on the idea that there are 2 internal hallways on the ground floor and lower mezzanine, separating two series of classrooms.

and the similar testing room without the mvr chamber being in the other rear tower's base, in basically a mirror but with more seating. Partly because that one does zoom/fade in to the other rear/south tower.

[referrix]

I’ve hit the point where I’m using cut outs and way too much graphing paper to figure out the angles and distances of the nook. Because it makes so little sense

It often looks like a wedge, but the walls meet at a right angle, but the can’t unless it’s really shallow.

But I sort of thought that was an oopsie by the show because if the wall was like that wouldn’t that put the fireplace in Stella’s wall? But there’s only really two walls, not three, so it has to be angled. Which.

Why!?!?!?!

I did several neat looking designs of the dorms, but I kept getting the sizing wonky, and then I’d realise I’d forgotten things, like the dorm on the other side.

So this is where I’m at. Messy quick sketch screw the measures, just to get it down on paper instead of getting caught up in a million other things.

Current room size estimate: bedrooms 5.5 by 4.5 meters Bathroom by the nook (1.7m across the entry wall | 2.1 across at the rear wall) by 2.67 meters

[referrix]

In case anyone was wondering, at all, when I said in my last post I was having some maths fails...

The problem with my brief foray into "measuring things in Stellas" back in January, is that for the most part, the exterior shots of Alfea are (or seem to be*) CG. It's done in a way that matches the visuals and vibes of the cartoon portion of the show, but as far as I'm aware, the majority of outside shots are done with characters drawn on top of the CG environment.

This leads to some... interesting discrepancies in the comparative sizes between characters and environmental objects like the main entrance to Alfea.

(* when I say 'seems to be,' there are some discrepancies like moving window placement and missing grass patches in some episodes which suggests they aren't simply doing tracking shots over a single, base model.)

Using some guesstimations to calculate the width of the double doors of the two side buildings and the area around them, I came to a width of 4.5 meters, and this matters because the central pathway of the courtyard that runs between them seems to be roughly the same width. Using that measurement an the most overhead close up I could find from my collection, I've estimated the width of the central path running from the gate to the central building to be roughly 5.62 meters.

The edge of the pathway looks like it matches up with the outer edge of the gate's arch, where the two curves (archway and wall) kiss into the dirt. (These points are marked with green dots in the top picture, and the one below.)

From there, working on the assumption that that length was 5.62 m in total, I used my line and stamp method (where I draw a line and use the paint program's stamp feature to copy the line exactly and move it and stamp it repeatedly to see how many time's one length fits against another) to figure out what fraction of the gate is gate and how much was archway.

The arch's width didn't quite measure the same as the gate's opening at ground level, but some checking of the difference revealed the arch was ¾ of the gate, and thus, the gate was ⁴∕₇ of the total width.

5.62 = ⁷∕₇ ∴ 5.62/7 = ¹∕₇ = 0.802857 = .802 meters

the arch total width ³∕₇ = 0.802 * 3 = 2.408 m ∴ 1 arch width = 2.408 / 2 = 1.204 m

the gate at ground level ⁴∕₇ = 0.802 * 4 = 3.211 m ∴ from arch to gate center (one wing at ground level) = 3.211 / 2 = 1.605 m

using the base line measures at ground level, the stamp method and the flip by 90° function, I roughly calculated the gate opening at the widest point to be just shy of 2.4 m from the center, or just shy of 4.8 meters across and sitting at about 1.86 m from the ground.

given my door based height guesstimate of Stella's height (and thereby the average height of the Winx) at roughly 1.75 m, this puts the max width just above their heads.

looking into some architecture based person dimensions to see how the various shots of people and the gate stack up, I used the average shoulder width of (405mm or) .405 m.

I first checked if the five girls could stand shoulder to shoulder in the gateway and found they could. Then I checked if they would have room between them, assuming half a person width on either side (between each other and the arch) for 3 more people widths.

.405 * 5 = 2.025 m .405 * 8 = 3.24 m

Looking at this shot, the point of max width in the gate is sitting at just above their heads, right about where I'd expect given the height assumption.

This shot is therefore what I'd consider to be the most realistic in terms of person vs environment sizing.

More importantly, or equally importantly? The School busses.

Doing some digging, I discovered that the most types of busses have a width of 2.55m (thought the height can range from 2.67 to 3.81m) which means I feel pretty confidant that the Alfea school busses could clear the gate if my calculations are correct.

Along the font fence-line, on the outside stretches (as marked by the two front towers) there are two more gates, both 'one-winged' single gates. A quick measure suggests that the single gates + arches are roughly the same width as the double gates at ground level, which if the arches are the same width as the doubles and the single wings are the same as the individual wings on the main entrance:

arches = 1.2m * 2 = 2.4m total + single gate wing 1.6m = 4m at the outside of the arch at ground level

although given the lack of curve on the inside of the two archways could make them slightly slimmer, 4 m does seem to fit with the path beyond them in comparison to the central path in the courtyard.

I need you all to understand that as convoluted as calculating the gate width is, it is still less nonsensical than the windows in the Winx Dorms.