#also there were some tidbits i ended up not including and that makes me a little sad

[jinkoh]

finally finally finished a fic i started all the way back in feburary idk why it was so hard to finish but finallyyyyy

[existentialcrisis-9-5]

DCA Subnautica AU

Version #2 of the designs, including the bioluminescence! + fun tidbits on each of the goobers and a visual on Y/N!

(Edit: it’s out now! Check my bio for the link)

Eclipse is up first!

Theirs was the first design I drew out in any detail (as shown in the crude MS Paint drawing), so it's the one that needed the most work. Even after making the more detailed version with the lights, I still ended up changing things as I got a better grasp on what direction I wanted to head in. Fun lore tidbit! Eclipse is a freak of nature and should not look like that! They're properly split down the middle between day and night. Also I messed it up in the drawing because I was tired when I made it, but they're also covered in scars and bite marks.

Sun !!

I did Sun next, and here I had a better idea for what I was going for. There were still a few problems with this design though, which got changed. This is also where I started drawing the pattern on the tail, which I felt looked weird in this picture. Fun tidbit! Sun has an inability to express his feelings in the appropriate fish mermaid way, leading to much confusion.

Moon !!

Moon was done last. Once again, I learned from this drawing and changed Moon's design to match, however Moon is the one that remains the most unchanged! I knew what I was going for by the time I got to him each time, so I guess that helped. Something I did alter, however, were some of the lights. I found that they either blended together too much or weren't as visible as I would have liked. Fun tidbit! This is pose actually based on a scene in one of the chapters. It was actually one of the earliest written scenes.

Y/N, my beloved <3

I did 2 versions of Y/N, one with longer hair and one with shorter. It was important for me, when writing the story, that I kept the person I'm imagining as vague as possible, with the only physical descriptions being "physically fit" and having a few scars (for plot reasons), so this is only for me and whatever drawings I do. As a result of trying to keep it vague, I ended up going with the shorter hair (though in the final reference I made it a bit longer than shown here). Fun tidbit! The green is because whenever I'm sketching, I have 4 colours I sketch in to differentiate parts of the picture (usually background vs foreground or different people), and green was the one I used here (red, blue and purple were taken, I'm sure you can understand why). It ended up sticking, since I didn't want to go with the orange that's on Ryley's suit in order to avoid possible confusion.

That's it for now! At some point, I'll post the full references for each of them, but until then, the next thing I post will probably be chapter 1!

[raedas]

where in the locked tomb universe are we?

or: a tentative guide to the solar system in the locked tomb and which houses go where :)

[id: a diagram of the solar system, including pluto, with additional white text overlaid over each body. the sun is labeled dominicus, mercury is labeled the sixth, venus is the seventh, earth is the first, mars is the second, jupiter is the third, saturn is the fifth, uranus is the fourth, neptune is the eight, and pluto is the ninth. /end id]

note: i'm pretty sure people have put together similar analyses before, but i wanted to try my own hand at it! and please feel free to share if you disagree with me on anything & your own evidence and thoughts <3

evidence & analysis under the cut!

THE NINTH HOUSE:

okay, this one is pretty much just a freebie. if you didn't know that the ninth house was on pluto, then, uh... sorry! i'm not going to exhaustively go through all the evidence for this one, but some things that stick out are the cold, gideon's awe at how close the first house is to the sun, and the fact that it's the "ninth" to begin with—the house that wasn't really meant to exist, perfectly in line with the planet that isn't really a planet THE FIRST HOUSE:

this one is given to us just as much, if not moreso, than the ninth. with that in mind, i'm just going to do a quick run through of the evidence that the first house is earth: it's very blue and covered in water, there are ruins of civilization, it's "the first", so on and so forth. home, sweet home :)

THE SIXTH HOUSE:

Then he said, "The sun has stabilized. Hope the Sixth House didn't get cooked in the flare." (Harrow the Ninth, 490)

this line is pretty much the entire selling point for the sixth being on mercury, the closest planet to the sun! (until they run away to the other side of the universe, that is)

THE SEVENTH HOUSE:

There were other planets that made their homelands closer to the burning star of Dominicus--the Seventh and Sixth, for instance--but to Gideon they could not imaginably be anything else than 100 percent on fire. (Gideon the Ninth, 67)

the implication here is fairly obvious: the seventh and sixth are on venus and mercury, or vice versa. thankfully, since we have the sixth squared away as mercury, it's pretty obvious that the seventh is located on venus

BONUS MYTHOLOGY FACT: venus is the roman goddess of beauty! (also known by her greek name, aphrodite). "seven for beauty that blossoms and dies", huh?

THE EIGHTH HOUSE:

"I squeal so long and so loud that they hear me from the Eighth." (Gideon the Ninth, 26)

while this line is obvious hyperbole, to me it implies one of two things: either the eighth is the farthest planet from the ninth, or it's right next to them. and since we know that mercury already has its hands full with sixth house, i think it's safe to assume that the eighth is on neptune, the ninth's next door neighbor :)

THE SECOND HOUSE:

"We went through the same shitty questions of what to do. What about the Mars installation, what about the fusion batteries?" (Nona the Ninth, 74)

john helpfully offers this tidbit to us when he's recounting everything that happened leading up to the apocalypse to harrow. i think it says a lot that there was a mars installation even before the apocalypse properly hit, and it makes sense that said installation would eventually become a proper House, with a capital H

BONUS MYTHOLOGY FACT: mars is the roman god of warfare (known in greek as ares)! looks at the second house and how closely they're associated the cohort... yeah, i think that speaks for itself

THE THIRD & FIFTH HOUSES:

"I thought we'd end up on the Third or the Fifth, or a sweet space station, or something." (Gideon the Ninth, 56)

"We are not becoming an appendix of the Third or Fifth Houses," continued the necromancer opposite." (Gideon the Ninth, 58)

okay, here's this bit where things begin to get a bit hairy. repeatedly throughout the books, we're told about how the third and fifth are the two "big" houses. harrow's scared of them and worried they'll make the ninth one of their appendixes, gideon originally thinks the entire lyctoral meeting will be on one of their planets, so on and so forth. with that in mind, it really isn't that much of a stretch to think they'd be situated on the two giants in our solar system: jupiter and saturn. we'll come back in a moment to sort out which is which!

THE FOURTH HOUSE:

aaaand uranus is the only planet left! congrats, fourth!

THE THIRD & FIFTH HOUSES (again):

"Naturally [Isaac] is Pent's protégé. I hear the Fifth takes special pains with the Fourth... hegemonic pains, some may say." (Gideon the Ninth, 170)

from this quote, as well as the whole of jeannemary & isaac's relationship with magnus & abigail, we can surmise that the fourth house is very close to the fifth house (hegemonic though it may be). it's reasonable that that metaphorical proximity is reflecting (or caused by) something else: physical proximity. with that, i think it's fairly safe to assume that the fifth is on saturn, putting the third on jupiter

DOMINICUS:

aaand finally, the center of the solar system itself! i really, really don't think it needs sharing that dominicus is the sun, as long as you accept that the locked tomb takes place in our own solar system. however, i do think the meaning of dominicus is worth sharing. coming from latin, it translates roughly to "lordly", "belonging to god", or "of the master." very subtle, john, very subtle.

[thankskenpenders]

As I'm sure many of you are already aware, Did You Know Gaming (who have been doing some really great investigative work lately) recently put out a video on canceled Sonic games. The whole thing's worth a watch, but I have to bring it up here specifically because they talk about the plans for Sonic Chronicles 2 with a LOT of new info directly from the lead designer.

The section on how the story of Sonic Chronicles 2 would have went starts at 9:45. It's very interesting! He outlines the whole plot, including the fact that they were going to end with ANOTHER obvious plot hook for a sequel in the hopes that they or some other studio could keep the Sonic Chronicles series going indefinitely. Sonic Team even claimed they were interested in using Chronicles characters like Shade in other games. It's crazy to imagine a timeline where this might have become a pillar of the franchise.

I refuse to mourn the loss of the sequel, though, because y'all saw me stream the original. It was miserable. And with the original game selling and reviewing decently well, they would have had little reason to go back to the drawing board and overhaul that game's bizarrely hateful design.

Of course, DYKG also had to talk about the reason why the game was canceled. I was dreading this because of how often people tend to get the basic facts of the Penders cases wrong or downplay the obvious Archie Knuckles inspiration in Chronicles. But no, they did their homework! And they got the details right in part because, well... they asked Penders for comment directly. And he sent them back a MASSIVE wall of text about the whole ordeal, including some fascinating details that I don't believe I've heard before!

You can go to 15:19 in the video and scrub through to read the many, MANY screencaps of their emails from Ken, but here are the most interesting and/or hilarious tidbits to me:

#1: Perjury!

As we already knew, Ken claimed that the incomplete, photocopied contract Archie presented in court was a forgery, and that he had never signed a work for hire contract.

The judge obviously knew that one side had to be lying here, and thus was more than willing to present the case to a jury to let them decide the truth... and send whoever was deemed the liar to jail for perjury. (The judge apparently looked Ken directly in the eye when he said this, which... well, make of that what you will.)

Archie's lawyers knew that they didn't have a completely airtight case and obviously did not want to go to jail. So they decided to settle instead of going to trial in front of a jury.

(I will reiterate that Archie's arguments not working out is overall a GOOD thing, because we really do not want to set a legal precedent where corporations can "lose" a contract for a creator, make up a story about what was on the contract, and then have that hold up in court. They gotta get that shit in writing. And they didn't. They fucked up!)

#2: Sega was threatening to revoke the Sonic license!

As we knew, Sega wanted nothing to do with the comic copyright lawsuit. To them, it was Archie's job as licensee to deal with their freelancers. (Y'all watch Succession? You know how Logan loves lackeys who will eat shit for him without him having to even hear about the problem? Yeah.) And, in fact, according to Ken, Sega gave Archie an ultimatum: if they wanted their license to make Sonic comics renewed, they were gonna have to deal with Ken on their own, and cover all the costs.

Yeah, uh, this kinda makes me think that Sega being pissed about the ongoing Scott Fulop copyright case in 2016 may have been a bigger factor in Archie Sonic's cancellation than I previously thought. There was a lot going on at the time that could have contributed, but, y'know.

Anyway, Archie sued Ken for "damaging their business" largely because Sega was threatening to take away the Sonic IP. But because Archie couldn't ask Sega for help and they couldn't produce an original contract, they had to settle.

There's another detail I find funny here, though. Ken WANTED Sega to get involved in the comic copyright case, thinking that Sega would strongarm Archie into paying him the millions of dollars he wanted for "using his work without permission" so that they could be done with it. I mean, sure. I guess Sega wouldn't have cared about Archie's finances, but still. I'm not so sure that would've worked out for him.

#3: Shade!

Yes, Penders still claims he legally owns Shade, and under advice from his lawyer still intends to put out an NFT of her to put his claim to the test. Yes, it's incredible that he still hasn't put out the damn NFT. It only needs to be one image, which he already drew! The market has collapsed!

Anyway, building an argument off the legal concept of estoppel, he says that if Sega continues to not do anything about his claims that he owns Shade then, in the eyes of the court, they'll be forfeiting their claims to Shade altogether. But they aren't going to do anything because they never wanted any part in the copyright battles in the first place, and to them Chronicles is a long dead asset not worth fighting over. Why bother trying to use Shade again and giving Ken a reason to take them back to court when they can just move on? It's not like this franchise is short on characters. And so Ken can say that Shade and Julie-Su are literally the same character, and if he owns Julie-Su then therefore he also owns Shade.

Our copyright system is, indeed, a nightmare. Chronicles should have been halfway to the public domain by now.

#4: Sega's oversight on the Archie comics!

Ken says that in his first year on the series Sega only requested some dialogue changes here and there through the editor. They never requested huge script changes, and also never spoke to Ken directly. After that first year, they stopped asking for dialogue changes altogether, and Ken "had a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wanted." Yeah, no surprise there.

He does, however, say that Archie's original deal with Sega stated that they weren't allowed to create ANY new Sonic characters without informing Sega. They would've needed to make a contract every single time to get Sega's approval and make it absolutely crystal clear that Sega owned the whole cast. And then Archie just... didn't do that! And didn't tell any of the freelance creatives not to come up with new characters! Had Archie followed this rule, the trajectory of the comics would have been completely different, but there also never would've been a copyright battle in the first place.

What a shitshow. Truly.

[xbomboi]

i wonder if people actually realize that darling and dexter being twins was a retcon

if it were up to me, they’d have always been presented as twins from the start, because that’s just way better imo, but i’m not CEO of Mattel so it’s NOT up to me and we have this weird inconsistency.

i mean, first of all, the start of the tv series already includes that weird period of time where darling just straight up Does Not Exist because at the end of the day this is just an extended toy commercial and there wasn’t any toy to advertise yet.

when darling WAS, however, introduced into the show, she strangely interacts with DARING more than she ever does dexter, despite her closeness to the latter that’s established as early on as her doll’s diary. my personal guess as to why that is has to do from the show capitalizing heavily on darling’s princess charming gimmick of being a girl who’s a knight, and as a result, benefited from portraying the fact that she and daring are, in a way, foils to each other.

anyway, when darling’s doll released, her bio listed her birthday as November 16th. dexter’s birthday had already been established as the 11th of February, so at this time, darling was not intended to be his twin.

and we can see this further shown by the word choice in darling’s diary. she refers to daring as her “oldest brother” and then goes on to refer to dexter as her “older brother”. which, sure, a twin can be older than the other, but in her doll diary, she’s gonna call him her twin if they want us to know that they’re twins.

i’m not sure exactly when the earliest instance of any official media referring to darling and dexter as twins was, but if my memory serves me correctly, i believe it was a post from the official Facebook that had stated they were twins. again, don’t quote me on that.

this discrepancy is important to me as someone who has to constantly fact check lore and timeline of events, because it very much so impacted Ever After High media released prior to the twin retcon’s ability to hold up. as far as I can remember, a good amount of the books were written under the initial status of darling’s birthday falling on 11/16 rather than 2/11 with dexter, the Susanne Selfors books coming to mind in particular. but i could be wrong, because i’m not going to reread all of those books just for this post.

the updated birthday for darling ended up being the one they stuck with. a brief scroll on the official Ever After High Instagram page will show as much, with birthday posts for dexter & darling on the same day. there is the tidbit of information that dexter is still older by a few seconds (not sure if this was ever officially stated, i’m only going off of the wiki for this one detail), but i honestly think that’s only included as a way to try and rectify the past instances of darling or possibly anyone else referring to dexter as her older brother.

as of today, it seems like everyone understands darling and dexter to be twins, and if they are familiar with the past retcon, they prefer the twin change and are glad it was made. i’ve never witnessed anyone say anything like “ugh, i really wish they wouldn’t have made darling dexter’s twin and kept her younger!!”.

still, it’s interesting that it happened. i call it what it is: a retcon. and most people hear that term and associate it with negativity. which, to be fair, in terms of writing, it more often than not absolutely is. but in this isolated case, despite it making some of the supplementary pieces of media for the series confusing (though the show and books/diaries take place in a different continuity anyway), i see this as a good thing. right off the bat, it makes less sense to me that the Charmings would intentionally go on to have not just one but two other children individually after daring with him being the successful golden child they wanted. it makes more sense that they decided to have one other child just for the hell of it and happened to end up with two.

also, and i don’t have the source for this so i’m just going based off of memory, apparently the grade-level cut off isn’t in the fall in the Ever After High universe, because daring, dexter, and darling are all intended to be in the same grade according to what i believe was one of the writers or producers or something of the sort for the tv show. and i make that conclusion about the cutoff not being in the fall because daring’s birthday is April 2nd, and since he’s older than dexter & darling, they’d have been born in February of the following year, meaning in order for them to be in the same grade together, the grade level cut off couldn’t fall anywhere within the roughly nine months gap between April to the next February. which, if you’ve done the math, you’ll have realized must mean that either the cut off for the next grade either falls sometime late February anywhere after the 11th, is on the 1st of April, or is any day in the month of March.

darling being in the same grade as daring and not a grade (or two) below also makes daring and rosabella work considering that, being her roommate, rosabella would be in whatever grade darling is in, and were she to be anymore than a grade below daring, there’d be a questionable age gap. not to mention with darling herself and apple. jesus. so it’s definitely a positive that’s not the case. and to anyone who may have been confused before, this is also why dexter can room with a character like hunter, because he too is in the same grade.

or maybe this is a show for babies and nothing matters.

[nyerus]

Overview of TGCF Versions

Due to recent(ish) events, I thought it would be good to make another post cataloguing all the different "versions" of TGCF, for newcomers and old fans alike! I'll also be going over some FAQs that I've seen or been asked so this post can serve as a decent info thread.

For simplicity's sake, first think of there being two "main" version of TGCF:

The Original -- what all the translations are based on, as well as the manhua and donghua.

The Revised -- what was released in print last year in China (only), and what was recently updated on JJWXC. The audio drama is adapting this

The original webnovel was itself not "censored." By that I mean, it contained everything MXTX originally wrote including kisses, swearing, innuendo, etc. MXTX did self-censor to avoid Real Censorship (hence the lack of NSFW scenes we may have gotten like in her previous novels), but that's a whole different thing. For all intents and purposes, consider the original version and (most of) its translations as being uncensored.

The revised version was first publicly released as a print novel in China. As such, it was actually censored. While "Hualian" is still there, and things are alluded to, it's a lot more vague. Kisses and a lot of other things were cut, including certain dialogue tidbits that perhaps were deemed a bit too obvious. (Plus a lot of Feng Xin and Qi Rong's cursing was removed lmao.)

HOWEVER, shortly after the print release, the audio drama started adapting the uncensored revised version. So we all knew there was an uncensored revised version somewhere in existence. It wasn't until the end of last month that we actually saw it! TGCF was available again on JJWXC after years of being "temporarily locked" to comply with regulations. (Though it was possible it was locked for other reasons. We will never fully know!) Not only was it finally unlocked, but it was actually updated to the uncensored revised version!

F.A.Q.s

1.) Why did MXTX make a revised version anyway? MXTX has mentioned before that she was not entirely satisfied with the original version of TGCF. Because she wrote and released each chapter in a serialized manner, with frequent (possibly daily?) updates, it doesn't surprise me that it didn't turn out exactly how she wanted. Now that she has the opportunity to sit down with it and go over everything on her own time, she's able to get it closer to what she wanted. In short: she's just really passionate about this story!

2.) Is there and English translation, or will there be? What about other languages? Officially, not yet. We don't know if there ever will be, as MXTX would have to re-negotiate the rights with publishers for translations, and at this time, we don't know if that'll happen. Unofficially, there are a few options: a. ClearNoodle has done some fan-translations you should check out here! b. By purchasing the webnovel on JJWXC now, you can MTL (machine translate) the novel. If you've seen screenshots in English floating around that aren't part of the fan-translations above, this is probably the source.

3.) What is JJWXC and how do I use it/purchase TGCF on it? JJWXC is the webnovel publishing site where TGCF was originally released. It hosts a giant array of C-novels, including most other danmei that you may have heard about. SV and MDZS were indeed also on JJWXC, but are currently (still) locked. To purchase TGCF (or any other novel) on JJWXC, cangji.net has an excellent guide and list of other helpful links to get you all set up. Please do check it out! Additionally, buying on JJWXC seems to be the most direct way to support authors. You can also throw bonus tips at them!

4.) How much has really changed in the revised version? A fair bit. Mostly, the changes are to do with plot structure, minor characters, overall flow, and so on. It's still essentially the same story, but in a way that feels fresh. Hualian in particular have exactly the same dynamic as before. MXTX added extra scenes between them, including very sweet and tender domestic stuff haha! There's also a few new lines of spicier dialogue to go along with some of the scenes that already existed in the original.

5.) So what is considered canonical? Both, in a way. MXTX has stated that she's happy if fans can enjoy both at once, and that we're free to pick-and-choose as we wish. Personally, while there are many things I prefer from the original, the revised version is something closer to MXTX's true vision for the novel. So I feel that holds a little bit of weight there, too.

6.) Will the manhua/donghua be adapting any of the newly revised content? So far that seems unlikely. The revised version facelifts a lot from the early parts of the story, which is stuff these adaptations have already covered. It would be hard to change things down the line now. At most they could add some of the extra dialogue or such, but we'll see if that's the case. For now, we simply don't know and shouldn't count on it. If you'd still like an adaptation of the revised, please absolutely check out the audio drama! It's easily become my personal fave adaptation of the story, and is made by a small but very passionate team who are close to MXTX. Thus, it's quite faithful and does the source material such justice! <3

[genericpuff]

Hi from Australia!! Honestly I was trying to think of a cultural thing I could properly talk about (Given, I am both white and a dual citizen who moved here from another country as a child which I will admit skewed alot of my perceptions of things) and I settled for just a variety of things!! (I have only NOW noticed you asked for just 1 fact. Uh. Sorry D:) We mock our prime ministers (and other public officials to be fair). I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the fact someone started a rumour about our at the time PM Scott Morrison shitting himself in a McDonald's and he had to actually address it. SEVERAL TIMES. Wish we could have the claim that we threw a dildo at a politician, but that fame goes to Aotearoa, but we have thrown alot of boots and shoes.

(A very tangential note, but I must include it since we're talking about PM's, We had Harold Holt just completely vanish after going swimming in 1967- which came with alot of conspiracy theories with one of the more bizarre being that he apparently was a spy for the PRC and was whisked away in a submarine)

Outside of politics we do use an insane amount of slang terms (which. I think is at least widely known). Things are shortened, you add 'o' to things, words can get slung together- but also incredibly regional!! Bottlo- Bottle Shop, Maccas- McDonalds, 'Skanon- Going on, Thongs- Flip Flops, Togs- Swimsuit but was primarily used in primary school (Contentious!! I'm from Queensland but most states have wild names for swimsuits, I have heard someone call them Cozzies though??)! We also pull the 'Yeah, nah' and 'Nah, Yeah' thing

I grew up around Gumtrees, Eucalyptus and Paperbarks, which growing up my Ma always referred to widow makers. Have no idea if the tale she told me about them were anything outside of her, but its a good point to talk about folktales (if its even the right term for it asdfad).

With widow makers apparently a man fell asleep beneath one, the wind was blowing and a branch came down on him- leaving him with a widow. There's a focus on the bush, bush rangers, swagmen- the ones i were exposed to the most was Waltzing Matilda (a folk song telling the life and death of a swagman, ending the song with his ghost) and Ned Kelly (A real man whose become a legend, he was an outlaw and bank robber)

I say this all this genuine love for my country, but also that everything is incredibly white. The area I grew up in was not diverse, so the stories I've heard and what I've learned and seen IS coloured by that.

(For an added tidbit, I present a few cute birds for you to check out native to Australia, Crimson Rosella, Blue-Eyed/Faced Honeyeaters and Willie Wagtails my personal favourite)

more than one fact is absolutely allowed!! y'all understood the assignment and then some 😘

i stg y'all down there in Australia have some of the craziest shit going on, you got me wheezing at nearly 2 am in the morning reading about Scott Morrison, jfc LOL

also yesss I've heard SOME of these slang terms but not all, 'thongs' always makes people laugh in NA because as I'm sure you know that's a word that's typically used to describe sexy underwear LOL also not shocked at all that you also do the 'no yeah' 'yeah no' thing, iirc there are a lot of similarities to be found between Canada and Australia simply by virtue of "we both became independent from British rule and are now part of the commonwealth". But there are also a lot of massive differences because we're living in entirely different continents LOL

ALSO HELL YEAH MORE BIRDS AJAJFDKSLAFJASDKL <3

[meamiiikiii]

Can we hear more about the King in the reverse isekai au?

Sure thing!! :D

Funnily enough I’ve been slowly working on and off on a silly lil comic including the King from Reverse Entry AU recently. So have a messy concept sketch of what he’ll look like. Before the mumblings under the cut (design will most likely be tweaked later tbh ASFASD)

To talk about the King I also need to talk a tiny bit about this Siffrin’s background, so here is the briefest of rundowns for them first (which will prob get a more elaborate post some other time):

Siffrin’s parents used to run a storefront (refer to first bullet point section in this post). 

It was their life’s work and they loved that place dearly, since they built it themselves from the ground up.

However, his parent’s passed when he was 19-20, and that storefront ended up falling into his hands.

They were in college at the time, and ended up switching majors to try to get better know-how in running a business.   

But at the end of the day, they had to sell it.

[the above premise was heavily inspired by stuff that happens in a webtoon with the initials GH since it is very near and dear to me actually] 

With that established, onto talking about the King in relation to above!

The King was a family friend to Siffrin’s parents.

The wooden crown is actually a gag gift from one of Siffrin’s parents due to “The King” being a nickname for him from college, it’s not actually his name ASFASDA.

(It’s actually too big for his head and sometimes it falls above his eyes actually LMAO)

For a time, he worked underneath the storefront when he was down on his luck, and he is eternally grateful for that.

After he got back up on his feet, he still made sure to visit from time to time, and even helped lead a couple of the crafts sessions the store did. 

When Siffrin’s parents passed, he was devastated, since they were close, and had known each other basically forever.

And they had done a lot for him when he needed help as well.

But, at the time he was not in the best position to try and help with the storefront from a financial standpoint.

However, he, alongside a couple of others, did try to volunteer around the storefront to help it stay running for a time (it was well-beloved in the community, after all!)

It just wasn’t enough. 

He was one of the few people at the time who was against Siffrin’s decision to sell it off to some random company

(which happened to be the crafts company that Siffrin and the King and literally everyone else now work for now)

Mainly due to knowing what that store meant to Siffrin’s parents / how it helped him when he was at his lowest / overall having lots of good memories tied to it / he didn't want to let one of the last remnants of his friends to be thrown to the wind 

And to end this off, some miscellaneous tidbits on the King in the present time of this AU:

The King actually joined the company specifically because it was the one to buy out the Siffrin Family Storefront™ and usurped what they were doing with it

But uh…. he’s like in the IT department?

And has like no real influence on what goes on with whatever acquisitions the company makes

Or what the company does with them LMAO (without it being probably directly illegal)

Best he can do is be a nuisance to those working around it tbh

Like actively slowing down conversations on fully discontinuing the products attached to the storefront to further stretch out its life?

Or being annoying with tech and just? Not being helpful. When people are having system issues that cause delays in work despite being a main contact.

And in general probably being more nosy in places he probably shouldn’t be tbh.

Stuff like that!

There’s a chance that some of this gets tweaked the slightest bit / elaborated more on later since I am always Indecisive, but those are the vibes!

Thanks for asking :D!!! Also again if anyone has any questions on literally anything from this silly AU feel free to ask!!!!! 

[apparently-artless]

WHY YOU SHOULD TRY READING WIND BREAKER EVEN IF IT'S NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA

Content warnings to take note of before you read: poorly written explanations and BAD ENGLISH [like extremely bad I'm not even joking XD], a few manga spoilers like mentions of characters that might not be included in the current season of anime

A few days ago, I started reading the manga of Wind Breaker by Satoru Nii and reached the latest chapter after two days. Considering I have a life to deal with, this is actually fast because I couldn't stop reading for as long as there is a next chapter to read. This series was suggested to me by my sister and I was already looking forward to the anime. After watching 2 episodes so far, I couldn't contain myself and decided to read the manga instead. In all honesty, delinquent theme is not my cup of tea. At the very least, it is not a genre that I would actively seek. However, this series piqued my curiosity, kept me engaged, and made me want to read more. And now here I am, desperately waiting for the next chapter to come.

Before anything else, I would like to let you know that [as far as the latest chapters are concerned], there are no teachers involved in the story. Even if they are going to school, there are no scenes of them actually studying. There are also no authorities involved. So just think of them as students only doing social studies by protecting the townsfolk and interacting with them daily. But then again, THIS IS FICTION, SO IT'S OKAY!! So with that out of the way, let me point out a few things that I really love about this manga.

THE MAIN CHARACTER

The main character, Sakura Haruka has such a cool character design. Bicolored hair and different eye colors, who wouldn't be interested? To top it all off, he's good at fighting and he is such a tsundere he ends up blushing all the time! He also has a sad past that makes us want to protect this baby boy from all the pain and suffering he encountered thus far. If you've watched the first episode, it's quite evident that he was ostracized because of the way he looks. Ugh, my poor baby boy. T_T

The anime actually did a great job of including more tidbits of Sakura's dark past in the first episode. There were scenes that I noticed that are included in the later chapters. In fact, the first 1 minute and 30 seconds of the first episode gave us something that manga did not give until almost 50+ chapters.

Some of the scenes are these:

And this:

It may seem like a normal dark-lit room but it actually speaks a lot. One room, no other furniture, and just a futon he can sleep on. What I am trying to point out is there is a difference between someone who started living alone as soon as they moved to a different town and someone who has been living alone almost their entire life. Now, don't get me wrong. Sakura's past is yet to be revealed. The full details of how he ended up alone are not yet even shown in the latest chapters of the manga. We can only make assumptions based on what was shown thus far and his behavior as he tries to interact with more people. Anyway, as you read more chapters, you will eventually realize that the main character lived a painful life before coming to Furin High.

THE OTHER CHARACTERS

If the main character is great, it's a good series. But it's even better if the other characters are interesting too. The mangaka did an amazing job with the other characters and how they contributed to the story. Each character has their own personality that you will also love. I bet you might even have a top 5 or even top 10 favorite characters just for this series alone.

THE CHARACTERS' DEVELOPMENTS

Now this is one of the reasons why I fell in love with the series. I am not just referring to the character development of the MC but also the other characters! What's more, is that the author finds a way to make their development interesting but brief and how their past contributes to who they are right now. Sometimes, the past is even included in a single chapter and with a few more scenes of the present. Of course, there are longer backstories but I assure you that every scene is important and contributes greatly to the plot.

THE PERFECT BALANCE BETWEEN MC AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS

You know how there are times that the main character feels like they are being forgotten in some series? I can think of a few but let's not mention those. XD Anyway, this one will surely not disappoint. The MC is a first-year high school student and even though it was already proven how strong he is in the first two episodes, there are surely other characters that are more OP than he is.

To me, this is very important. If the MC is the only one progressing, it's quite boring. But if there are other characters developing to the point that it makes you think, oh maybe he's the MC all along, it makes the series annoying. If I ever encountered such tropes, I would immediately put that series on hold and get back to it once I felt like it. Or maybe just never get back to it, at all. XD

Wind Breaker, despite having many interesting characters, manages to highlight the secondary characters without having the main character overshadowed and underappreciated.

THE DRAMA, THE COMEDY, THE ACTION AND THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE

Since delinquency is one of the themes of this series, of course, there's action. And the anime so far is doing a great job with the animation of the fight scenes. The drama is superb. It tears my heart out and rip it to pieces every single damn time whenever one of the characters' past is introduced. And then there's comedy. MC is socially awkward, and tsundere to boot. Who wouldn't laugh at his antics? What's best is that despite the fact that Sakura's behaviors are quite disturbing [signs that indicate that he did not have a normal life], the author managed to portray these scenes in such a way that you will find them painful but endearing at the same time.

As for the found family, I wouldn't want to spoil a lot but just think of it this way, the founder of BOFURIN considers every member not just as a friend but as family. And not just the students, he also considers the people of their town a big part of their family. Not some strangers to protect, but a family to treasure. If that's not sweet, I don't know what it is.

ADDED LGBT THEME

Since it's been confirmed that the anime will only have 13 episodes, the character I am referring to will not be introduced in the anime. As you may have already noticed, Furin High is an all-boys school so needless to say, all students there are males [at least, biologically speaking]. She's the only rose among the thorns. She was included in the screenshot below but I doubt we'll get to see her completely in this season. So I will leave it to your capable eyes to identify who I am referring to. XD

Anyway, the portrayal of this character is very close to reality. Her story of how she struggled with her sexuality and how she wanted to be accepted by other people is so beautifully and at the same time painfully written.

I really love Sakura and this character's interactions. It feels like Sakura has a very reliable and beautiful older sister. I do hope that this series will continue getting more seasons because I am really in love with this character.

I can still go on but I think that I already made my point. Anyway, if you are still having doubts about this series, just give it a try. Read at least 60 chapters and if you really don't like it, there's nothing wrong with it. We all have our own preferences when it comes to anime and manga. I thought I just needed to make this review since it's really a surprise how this series managed to make me love it a lot.

So if you are looking for a series that has these elements: fluff, angst, action, drama, comedy, found family, lgbt themes, you will definitely enjoy it!

[cashmoneyyysstuff]

Please tell me about your ocs!! IM HUNGRY GRRR

helloow omg ! im so honored you want to know more about my ocs aaahhh!! :D my moot @kovu-bunnbunn also wanted to know more so i figured i could do it now !!

i have a bunch of ocs but I’ll just talk about my main oc ryoko right now !!

her full name is ryoko ‘007’ aizawa. I’ll explain the 007 in a minute !! she’s aizawa’s adoptive daughter.

her parents (her dad more specifically, her mom was more of a bystander) are both from very wealthy families and merged. Her parents had an arranged marriage and after some chatter to get to know each other they’re conversations take a little bit of a turn..and inbetween bonding about their favorite movies oop! A lil comment about how the world would he better off without heroes..oh you think so too ? Well look at that, we have so much in common!! long story short they both decide that the want to create something that will be able to take down all might and the entirety of hero society and it’s restrictions,,and I’m pretty sure you can guess what that something was ! nine months later ryoko is born yipeee…!

during her entire pregnancy ryokos mom went through some quirk experiments (sponsored by doctor garaki 👍) because they knew that with both their quirks alone they wouldn’t be able to create a super weapon. (ryokos dad has an overhaul type quirk, and her mom has a healing sort of quirk) so they did some experiments hoping something would change in the womb, and when she was born the kept on doing experiments until she started manifesting a quirk w no attributes from her either of her parents and manifested a fully different quirk than she was originally meant to have,

since she had those experiments done ryokos body adapted to be able to handle her quirk, but it’s not perfect unfortunately.

heres a simple little chart of how it works ! (BTW I DO NOT DRAW LIKE THIS ANYMORE THIS IS OOOOLLLLDD😭😭😭😭)

her quirk is a lot like neijires as in she uses her own energy and converts it into power ! The amount she uses shows in her hair :3 ryoko tho, unlike neijire can do multiple things from sending blasts, to powering herself up to make parts of her body stronger, to making it hard objects like stepping stones she uses to navigate and weapons like dual swords or chains to restrain ppl !! she can also drain other peoples energy (and from her surroundings, but thats only in 100% mode ! ) because of the fact that her body had been modified, ryoko can carry more energy into herself than regular people which is why she can drain energy without any major drawback to a certain extent ! However, her drawbacks are way more severe, overusing her quirks makes her sleepy and drowsy, it gives her nosebleeds and very worse case scenario if she were to have too little or too much energy she could die :0 !!

(ALSO !! I lil extra tidbit: ryoko is capable of sensing peoples energy’s if she concentrates hard enough, it works better if shes seen them before, but she can sense all the energy in humans in her surroundings or if she has a picture, tho it’s slightly weaker and is limited to one person at a time. This is a form of remote viewing that i gave her bc of my obsession w stranger things i had !!😭)

its a pretty powerful quirk that her parents and other scientists knew they could use well, but unfortunately for them ryoko ended up liking heroes (she was barely educated, so she had no idea that she felt admiration for heroes and especially all might, she was alsovaguely aware that she was taught to do the wrong things, because she’d be forced to use her quirk on robots/ small animals in some cases.)

her parents weren’t supposed to feel any affection towards her so they decide to just give her a code name 007 :D which i realized a little too late was the same as james bond..woops😭

anyways fast forward to the biggg “earthquake” incident, shes rescued by a group of heroes, eraser head included :D unfortunately shes detained in tartarus since her being in a constant state of panick set her quirk off and she couldn’t stay in a regular hospital so ryoko has canonically been to tartarus as a inmate at the age of 4 😭! Oh forgot to mention this, but ryoko got her quirk veryy early due to the experiments done before her birth and after.

since ryoko cant control her quirk an aizawa can cancel them, they’re a pretty good matchup !! Fast forward some more and shes living with him ! he adopts her and lets her go to school, where she meets izu n katsuki and they quickly become friends because. Of COURSE. My main ocxcanon ship is a CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS ONEEE😭😭😭😭will i ever stop. raise your hand if you’ve ever seen that one comin

lmk if you want to know more about her or other ocs ! I didn’t wanna ramble TOOO much so this is all the basic info!! plus some drawing of her

two of them r completely credited to horikoshi cus i used ochaco n hagakure as a base !! I accidentally have two in normal mode and two in 100% or overdrive mode as she calls it (tho one of them is a soul eater au :3) ! Both made by me :3

Much luvvv xxxx!!! And thank you Sooo much for your ask again💗💗💗💗

[markantonys]

wotseries did a little article about the south africa filming which apparently officially started today, and there's nothing crazy in it but i'm so desperate for crumbs that i'm bringing the little tidbits i found interesting to you all!

they speculate filming will last about 2 months

they speculate some tanchico scenes may be filmed here as well as aiel waste scenes

crew members spotted include people associated with all of the season's directors (block 1&4, block 2, and block 3). which might mean the waste scenes (and/or possibly tanchico scenes) start as early as 3x01/2 and/or span as late as 3x07/8 (the director for blocks 1&4 is the same, so we can't say for sure whether they're there for both blocks or just one of them). wotseries does specifically say they believe they may be filming for material as early as 3x02.

they are confident that rosamund pike, daniel henney, madeleine madden, ayoola smart, and josha stradowski are involved in the filming. (actually, they said they were confident about the first 4 and assumed josha was also there since rand yknow has to be there, but i'm 99.9999% sure josha mentioned being part of this filming in the december interviews, so i'm confident.) so it does sound like exclusively the waste crew right now, and thus i'll take the tanchico speculation with a grain of salt, although of course it could be that there are tanchico scenes that are scheduled for later in the shoot and those actors may arrive at a later date.

now for some of my mini musings! first, season filming length. this would put s3 filming at april 2023-april 2024. s2 filmed july 2021-may 2022 and started airing in september 2023. the s2 film end date-air date gap would put s3 at august 2025, while the s1-s2 air gap (1 year 10 months) would put s3 at july 2025. could be we're looking at summer 2025, or could be that amazon wants to alternate septembers with ROP and will put WOT s3 at september 2025, or could be they want and are able to start getting seasons out a bit more quickly and are hoping for spring 2025. who knows! i'll be very curious to learn ROP s2's release date and potentially get a sense whether alternating septembers is their plan or whether they're aiming to start having a fantasy season out every 8-10 months instead of every 12.

second, The Mat Question, given the recent rumor that mat will be part of the tanchico plotline. donal is starring in hadestown which is happening right now, so he's obviously not involved in this filming - at least yet. possibilities are:

a) most/all of the filming is for the waste, and mat is not part of that plotline at all

b) mat is part of the waste plotline in some capacity, but all his scenes were already filmed in the studio and donal doesn't need to participate in the south africa shoot

c) donal does need to participate in a portion of the south africa shoot and an understudy will take over his part in hadestown for a bit while he's doing that (i know nothing about how long-running theater productions work, so i have no idea whether or not it's likely that he would take a theater job or be hired for a theater job if he already knew he wouldn't be available for a chunk of its run)

i don't really have any guesses at all here. mat is destined to be the most mysterious and hard-to-predict character of every season!

third, i'm thrilled to have unofficial confirmation that madeleine is part of this filming and i hope to soon see an end to the "egwene will go back to the tower instead of accompanying rand & co straight to the waste from falme" nonsense haha

fourth, the potential timeframe of the waste plotline. that it spans episodes 3-6 is totally unsurprising, so it's the bookend blocks i'm most curious about. arriving at the waste in 3x02 makes sense to me - this would give them a whole episode with the gang together in falme, and then everyone can split up to head off on their trips. there's also a bit of a possibility that the suspected 3x02 material could be just the end of the episode, and rand's group spends most of the episode in a different place such as caemlyn (a theory i love very much and will hold onto as long as i possibly can!). i thiiiiiink previous leaks placed rand's rhuidean visions in block 2, and in the books the rhuidean trip is just about the first thing they do upon arriving in the waste, so it could be that their arrival is sorta like the 3x02 cliffhanger and then we dive into rhuidean and such in 3x03.

then for block 4. again, we don't know for sure whether this director is here for anything to do with block 4 or only for block 1, so this might be a moot point. but the potential block 4 i can think of for rand's plotline is either a) they're still in the waste all the way through 3x08 as in TSR, or b) they leave the waste sometime in 3x07/8 and go to either cairhien or tear for a big battle. option B would probably still involve some waste scenes in this block even if they ultimately end in a different location, so i don't even know why i'm bringing up anything to do with block 4 because we're no closer to guessing the location of rand's crew by the end of 3x08 than we were before!

[angstywildcats]

it’s been a hot minute since ive read warrior cats so i just wanted to ask what the relationship between ferncloud and brightheart is? and in turn the general premise of your coming surrounding them? im really interested!!

It has been a hot minute since i've touched a book too, anybody is free to correct me but. In canon, they really just were apprentices at the same time.

If you wana pepe silvia it up, it should be noted that the books however included that:

Fernpaw and Ashpaw's mother is killed by the dogs

Swiftpaw would invite Fernpaw (and Ashpaw) to find out what's been out there hunting down Thunderclanners (It should be stated that Swiftpaw, I think, did this for his Warrior name and wanted support. I don't know if there was ever any mentioned other noble cause on saving his Clan or specifically his apprentice denmates)

Brightpaw and Swiftpaw leave, that whole tragedy happens.

Fernpaw is the one to confess to Fireheart (and Cloudtail, I think?) about where the missing Swiftpaw and Brightpaw's whereabouts are. Which, theoretically helps Brightpaw be found in time.

The book never really shows them interacting otherwise, as far as I can remember, but Ferncloud and Brightheart also most likely shared time in the nursery together since they have kittens around the same era... which you never see because that's in between The Prophecies Begin and The New Prophecy, and Whitepaw is an apprentice by then.

Basically I'm making mountains over underdeveloped molehills over side characters, but I think with what's given, there's a lot of emotional exploration to be had over it, while still feeling in-line with canon!

I should say as well, I was all particularly inspired by this because a couple of Warriors videos ('Danse Macabre', 'No one, Everyone, Your mama') both included a shot of Fernpaw watching them leave in the night. It's such a simple thing to include, but there's a lot of weight to seeing your friends the very moment they leave to go on a suicide mission and one of them never coming back! What would have happened if you broke their trust and just told on them to not leave! Is it your fault they died!?

Soooo with all that being said, and my absolute hunger for just... more interpersonal relationships between characters in Warriors (which they fail me for even the main characters), there's a lot of strong potential in this.

With my take on Brightheart and Ferncloud, I just see them as really good or bonded friends who grew up together. They go through a lot through shared trauma, and based on the tidbits of personality given for both of them, I think they also would get along. Fernpaw being timid, Brightpaw being caring for others. In my comic I've added a bit to also imply Brightheart agreed to go with Swiftpaw not only to support him but to do it for Fernpaw/Ashpaw as well. I hesitate to put any further label on it since... well, their children get together romantically so it would add to the tangle of bloodlines, but I def can see it as how some childhood friends have sibling bonds.

For the comic... you will have to see exactly what happens! It's short, chill. Mostly conversational, just like the Shrewpaw/Ferncloud one but i hope it still hits emotional beats. I think something just fun to chew on while I make it is... How would it feel to watch your friends try hunt something that killed your mother, and only one survives, coming out of it extremely shaken. What would seeing her again feel like.

Perhaps I have talked to much, but I actually planned to do an extension of this comic where it timeskips further on where all the apprentices, grown up, visit Swiftpaw's grave.... but I decided against this because. 1. This is already a lot of work to do this many pages. 2. It's gonna be pretty long already, and I do not like making extremely long posts on tumblr. 3. I found a different way to end the comic I preferred.

Here's the script. Perhaps maybe I'll touch on it another while but admittedly after this I may be tired of exploring the Dog Incident for a bit.

Thank you for being so kind and inquiring! It's very fun, I enjoyed explaining this.

[its-cartooncrazy]

Okay i finished my dunmeshi reread where I was trying to predict which chapters will go into which episodes for season 2 (assuming 24 episodes)

I made some questionable splits towards the end tbh but I ended up with 24 without pushing too hard so. I guess I'll write down my thoughts here mostly so when season 2 comes I can compare them

So I'm gonna add my screenshots from my notes page so I'll explain that the yellow numbers was me guessing from chapter titles and my poor memory, and the pink is from my reread and focusing on content.

I started by looking at season 1 and how they split stuff up. Every episode was two chapters, save for a few that either didn't need full episodes, or were a lot of action which takes up more space in comics. (I don't know where exactly the dragon chapters split, but the 7 dragon chapters + good medicine were 3 episodes, so that makes 2 episodes of 3 chapters there.) They also preferred to keep 2 part chapters in one episode, but also didn't shy away from doing it either.

Theres only enough chapters left for 22.5 episodes at a rate of 2 chapters per episode, so we actually never have to group three chapters into a single episode again!

That being said...

On Floor One features would be a banger season opener. It features a couple of fight scenes, so it shouldn't be too long. I wouldn't want to split it into two episodes anyway because for a season opener, I wouldn't want to be away from the main cast for too long.

(It also, oddly enough, cuts back to our cast and gives them little name badges, which is a joke about the changelings, but also its very fitting to reintroduce our characters in their first appearance in season 2)

Bicorn / Stewed Head go together very easily, as do Succubus 1 + 2

Jumping ahead a little, roasted walking mushroom and 6 days would fit together nicely, especially with the Winged Lion taking place during the Succubus chapters, but. I don't wanna squeeze that in with them...

I think if trigger do their thing, 6 days could be an episode all on its own (and it could be one of the best episodes, too) And hey, if they need more content then there's a couple of monster tidbits extras that take place here that they could add!

Confit was the problem child. I wanted Rabbit and Curry to get their own episodes, but I also wanted 6 days to stay alone, which left confit alone. It features a fair bit of important stuff: reaching thistles house, cleaning up, finding the book (and opening it I think), and eating the phoenix, so I wouldn't feel right cramming it with something else.

So I ignored it for the time being, to see if Rabbit and Curry could be split in half.

Confit would lead well into rabbit 1, with them arriving at the house and having a meal, and then rabbit 1 takes place shortly after the meal. Rabbit 1 ends with laios getting got by a rabbit. That seems like a pretty fun cliffhanger to be honest. Rabbit 2 ends with them comforting marcille, and then curry 1 cuts away to several scenes viewed through the eyes of the mage, ending with them showing up at the house. And then...

Grouping curry 2 and thistle 1 together is kinda evil actually. Sibling flashback scene, that fight, and then thistle backstory?? Yikes. I love it actually. So yeah I'll go with that.

Thistle 2 and 3 feature the dragon fight (placing the teaser at a predicted episode 9) and then thistle 4 and 5 include the chat with laios, the lion eating thistles desires, and then the wrap up meal. I'm pretty satisfied with that if a little disappointed we don't end an episode with laios in the plant

Bavarois and whatchamacallit are both the canaries' interrogation so thats easy, ending with a cliffhanger of sorts where the lion is fully released by marcille.

Lord of the Dungeon 1 and 2 are both pretty full chapters. It continues the fight with the canaries, which unfortunately features a lot of talking still, and then the aftermath with our group waking up to a room of unconscious canaries and spider guts like that one community gif.

Dungeon 1 is actually a shorter chapter. Putting these two together would possibly make for a kinda sparse episode. So, we have a full episode and an empty episode. Can we borrow a scene from lord of the dungeon to even it out? No! Because almost all of Lord of the Dungeon 2 is kabrus epic fumble, which isn't a scene that can be cut up neatly. Let's set those aside for a bit and see if the solution comes from the next few.

We have three single chapters before our next grouping, which doesn't split nicely into 2s like I want it to. Unfortunately, none of these are particularly short, and we're past the point in the series where we can skimp on the details. Parasites starts with a shortish scene with marcille and frozen falin, so I wondered about giving that to dungeon, if I could group the three together with slightly less content, but I think there's still probably too much content to get through with those three chapters even without that scene. (Not to mention, I don't think season one ever split any part of a chapter between episodes, so I'm reluctant)

Honestly, I thought for a long time about how to arrange these chapters and never came to a conclusion, so I just moved on for a bit, to see if answers were in the next section. (Spoiler alert: they were!)

Marcille 1 is kind of a misnomer (if I know what that word means) since it doesn't actually focus on marcille at all, and instead shows people around the world reacting to the dungeons opening. I don't feel as bad separating it from the rest of marcille in that case. (It's also a short chapter but local cuisine has a fair bit in it so I think that won't matter)

So to sum up the last section before we move fully into the marcilles, we have Lord of the Dungeon, Dungeon, Parasites/Food Chain and Local Cuisine/Marcille 1. Phew, that was a lot of effort just to end up splitting them into pairs of chapters. (Dungeon may still borrow from parasites, but that's up to them. Yknow, if they were still looking at how to split them up in this stage of production or whatever XD)

Marcille 4 ends with the group hug and, as sad as I am to not get a week to sit with that scene, it wouldn't work as well as an episode ending during the big finale battle segment, so pairing it with Winged Lion 1 (mostly chatting up on that tower, concluding with them getting gobbled up by the monster pile lion) works pretty well and gives a good cliffhanger.

Winged Lion 2 and 3 gives us Lion backstory, and then laios becoming dungeon master, ending with him plopping his head back on like its nothing. Lmao I can't wait to see what the outtro is for this episode.

Winged Lion 4 is short, actually, and with the action of Winged Lion 5, that episode might be a bit sparse. But, well. Iunno I figured it's fine? Look, I started to give up and make weird decisions around this point. Winged Lion 5 ends with everyone freezing and then laios picking up "laios".

Winged Lion 6 I gave its own episode. It doesn't have enough content for that, to be honest, but I gotta put some single chapter episodes in here somewhere and where better than laios eating laios and laios and laios and laios and then the winged Lions desire to eat desires. Idk I said I gave up, didn't I?

Starting here, I start to worry about momentum. How long can you keep people interested after the Big Bad has been defeated? Def-eat-ed lol

The Island I also gave its own episode, just 'cause, I guess. It features the action packed escape from the dungeon, everyone washing up safe and sound, and then searching for laios, ending with a nice hug. I didnt seem to take my own advice tbh, that ending doesn't really force you to keep watching. Hm.

Falin 1 and 2 gives us everyone pitching in to prepare to eat laios sister, and also mithrun 🥺, but much like the last episode, doesn't end on too captivating a note (although it is a very good scene, it just doesn't lead in to the next episode so much) so I guess I really didn't take my own advice much. I swear I took this into consideration while I was reading but I guess I gave up lol

Falin 3 is the izutsumi show, where she asks everyone what they're gonna do now (not cooking, I mean in life!!) and ive put this one by itself because there are plenty of scenes that could be expanded upon, and also izu deserves a whole episode to think about her character development because she is the best and I love her.

This also lets us group falin 4 and dungeon meshi for the season finale. Another reason I wanted falin 4 to go in this arrangement is that this is where laios becomes king, which really just screams "finale" for me. We also get falin waking up, and a sweet epilogue of laios' fantastic reign, plus him being good with kids <3

So uhhh. Yeah. That's how I would split up the chapters. Quick recap/summary to make it clear hopefully:

1: 53,54,55

2: 56,57

3: 58,59

4: 60,61

5: 62

6: 63,64

7: 65,66

8: 67,68

9: 69,70

10: 71,72

11: 73,74

12: 75,76

13: 77,78

14: 79,80

15: 81,82

16: 83,84

17: 85,86

18: 87,88

19: 89,90

20: 91

21: 92

22: 93,94

23: 95

24: 96,97

That was a lot of waffling to end up with mostly just two chapters per episode tbh. If you've made it all the way, I hope you don't consider your time wasted lol. Looking forward to seeing how trigger does it!

[kings-highway]

TRICK OR TREAT >:]

Aaaaaaaaaa hello hello, welcome, yet another treat for the bag <3

What’s it this time? Well a little bit of behind the scenes worldbuilding from my early days of Paranormality!

Did you know: The original draft (of which several pages are written) centered around first years Daichi, Suga and Asahi being recruited by a literally haunted Kurokawa to investigate the paranormal and potentially find a way to relieve him of the figure that was always following him - it maintained a consistent distance, always just standing, watching, never doing anything more. Although he believes himself maybe just crazy, Kurokawa is genuinely suffering from these hallucinations and needs an answer. Unfortunately, when Daichi reports seeing this thing (before he knew of Kurokawa’s hallucinations) things get a little bit more complicated. The story would have spanned all three years, including eventually a match-up with the Alien-hunting pair of Oikawa and Iwaizumi, who strike up a friendship with our Karasuno crew though they only team up when their areas of interest overlap. There were also potential plans for a Yokai-hunting team over at STZ, in the way that some people try and “hunt” bigfoot. Of course, Kurokawa’s condition gets worse and worse, he gets more erratic, until eventually, at the end of their second year, as he’s set to graduate, he is suddenly hospitalized. (having been driven to hurt himself due to the hallucinations). He is, at this point, diagnosed with schizophrenia. (not in a demonizing mental illness way trust me on this let me cook a fucking second). Of course, with the proper treatment, medications, and being able to understand himself, his circumstances… improve. And the ghost hunting trio is left… a little adrift. Were they really just… chasing nothing? Well…

Except… hadn’t Daichi had seen Kurokawa’s figure before.

And even as Kurokawa’s symptoms improve and he regains functionality… that one, watchful vision is far too solid to be a schizophrenic hallucination, and seems to refuse to waver despite his increasing control over himself.

ANYWAY for various reasons not entirely unrelated to the fact that I was too afraid to write this version for various reasons, I ended up eventually reworking it into the concept that became Paranormality. HOWEVER as maybe a sneak peek, I can confirm that Kurokawa and Kurokawa’s ghost may just in fact make an appearance in the upcoming installments of the Paranormality series. A few other tidbits about this fact:

1. My roommate directly inspired this, because her first reaction upon laying eyes on Kurokawa was a genuine gasp and then “oh that man is HAUNTED.” And then, way later, there is a scene where Kurokawa and Tashiro go to talk with the third years after the stx match and I pointed out a figure in the background that looks like he has no head (go find it if you want) and my roommate, without missing a beat my roommate said: “THAT is what’s haunting him.” so.

2. The story was going to be tonally WAY darker and more intense, whereas I ended up/wanted to give Paranormality a sort of… Doctor-Who/Mary Poppins vibe of just whimsy and horror more in sync, instead of straight ghost stories.

3. The Schizophrenic Kurokawa headcanon is… canon to me. I… wish this character was more popular, but I LOVE him, and he’s entirely a headcanon in my brain. A lot of his behaviours were going to be inspired by a friend of mine who has schizophrenia and became the funniest person in the world because her auditory hallucinations started using MY voice and she kept bringing me things she thought I asked for and I was gonna give that dynamic to Kurokawa and Daichi. But anyway. The point is. Despite it being almost entirely fanon I love Kurokawa and he WILL show up somewhere eventually I PROMISE. And he will probably have schizophrenia

[aesethewitch]

I was showing a friend my spell recipe card designs, and she asked me why I didn't do step-by-step instructions for the magic portion of the recipes. I include tips, tricks, and ideas, as well as correspondence information, but I don't provide a one-two-three guide for casting the spells, even in the long-form posts. My reasoning for this is twofold:

First of all, the recipe cards are intended mostly for practitioners who already have a basis for their magical practices. Folks who have paradigms in place and ways of doing their magics. They're friendly enough for newer practitioners, with room to interpret, add, remove, and grow. They're spells in and of themselves, yes, but they're also prompts.

Even in commissions, where I provide extra context, tips, and instructions, I leave it to the practitioner to form the full ritual. I make mention of where I suggest including certain words or actions, and I note when to focus or rest, but... it's up to the reader to interpret that. My way isn't going to be your way, and so instructions written too specifically won't apply anymore. I don't want you to practice my magic, I want to inspire you to practice your magic.

Secondly... I use this magic. I'm a folk practitioner. Many of these recipes are spells I cast and use. I'm not going to give out all of my secrets. I'll share some techniques and ideas of where to include magic, but if I were to provide full, step-by-step instructions, it would end up as a recreation of my own workings. And that's a no-no to me. I leave out additional ingredients, steps, incantations, and techniques on purpose. I add extra tidbits that I don't actually use but that still make sense in context.

No spellwork that you see posted here (or anywhere) is 100% accurate to life. Partly because I want my work to inspire others to create their own paths, but also to protect my own magics. It doesn't make sense to share my most closely-guarded secrets. Why on earth would I give out the keys to undoing all my hard work?

Information, I think, should be shared. Communities can't thrive if we're all siloed completely away from each other. It's good to write guides and recipes and books; it's good to share tidbits and tips and tricks; it's good to provide context and help others understand and build on each others' works. It's important, even.

But at the same time, there are some things that are best kept hidden to yourself. You can't just post whatever on the internet and believe there will be no consequences. Some things should be private, and it's up to each of us to decide where to draw that line.

[pixies-and-poets]

Post-DLC Phantom Lore and Theories!!

Hello everyone! I've put together a post that I hope will be fairly comprehensive, condensing what we've learned about our dear titular character of Rayman in the Phantom Show. No, not Rayman. Phantom!

There will also be a few theories of my own to fill in the blanks, although I will clearly mark what's a theory and what is confirmed.

I wanted to include tidbits about other characters, but this got really long, so I'll save that for another post.

Showtime!

Phantom's History with the Space Opera Network

First of all, Phantom did not create the network/studio!! This was a surprise to me, and I assume others... I think we all had guessed that it was his baby. No, it's existed for decades, and was in financial trouble BEFORE he came along. In fact, they paid him for a huge comeback concert, but when they didn't get a good return on investment, they owed Phantom a lot of money. I assume this is when he was able to take it over. Then, he held a telethon where people paid him to stop singing so the network would air other things again, lmao. And he got pretty rich off of it.

Source: The Space Opera Network memory. "After decades of poor ratings, the Space Opera Network bet everything on a live comeback concert by the Phantom. It wound up in bankruptcy with the opera singer as its largest creditor. Rumor has it that afterwords, the Phantom held a live telethon where viewers paid GOBS of money to have him stop singing so the network would return to its original programming, making him a small fortune."

(I also like that the telethon has been reduced to "rumor", implying that all footage of it was erased to spare anyone else from seeing it, LOL)

It appears this was all fairly recent instead of being something Phantom has been working on gradually since we last saw him. The studio is still in dire shape and doesn't appear to have had much time to put any financial improvements into effect. This is also backed up by "The Phantom" memory, where Beep-0 says that "most recently" he has become "Director of the Space Opera Network", AFTER his relationship with Bea and the Galactovision song contest incident. I also imagine the sets for the final battle are recycled from the concert and/or telethon, but that's just a theory.

So the timeline appears to be: Phantom dates Bea, Phantom dumps her for the dancer, Bea and Phantom co-host the Galactovision contest as bitter exes and blow out their voices in their rivalry, Phantom regains his voice sometime later through unknown means, hosts a comeback concert that bombed, takes over the network, has a telethon, gets rich(er), at some point during this realizes he can use the network for sweet revenge, then sends three golden tickets to the Heroes. The main adventure of Sparks of Hope takes place sometime after he ruined his voice, and sometime before he sends the tickets.

THEORY: Phantom probably figured AT LEAST Mario would come because he's the main hero, and he's always leading the adventure, right? He also surely guessed Rabbid Peach would come as she's an influencer. Both were people he was desperate to get revenge on. And he didn't care who the third was. Summoning only three was a way to prevent them from overwhelming him, and it would also be easier to keep them distracted so they wouldn't snoop around and figure out what was going on behind the scenes. He also figured the more savvy ones like Edge and Rabbid Rosalina wouldn't come because this just wasn't their thing, and Peach would be kind enough to give her ticket to someone else, not to mention her being busy - he would have loved to see her, but didn't want to have to FIGHT her.

I think his reasons for summoning Rayman as well, were because he thought it would make for an epic roast. But also, he knew of his traumatic history with rabbids and thought it would be destabilizing, and if he ended up in a hero group with Mario, there could be a rivalry (even if friendly) that would keep them distracted. Basically he just thought Rayman would never work with Mario and the Rabbids smoothly, and they would all end up interrupting and tripping over each other's heroism.

Needless to say things didn't go as he planned. Little did he know Beep-0, Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario would just intercept the tickets and run without telling anyone. And that Rayman would end up getting along better with his new friends than even the limbless hero himself could have foreseen.

Assorted Stuff

On various shows, Phantom has played the role of "Cyprien Fairclough, a young swashbuckling prince with a voice like a nightingale and throngs of female admirers", presumably a pirate named Captain Opera-Beard (although the memory log doesn't specify it was him, we can make a confident guess lol), and possibly the cowboy Plungerhands McMurdy, if we are to presume Phantom himself tries to star in as many of the shows he produces as possible.

The Space Opera Network wanted to make a movie version of the heroes' adventures but replace Beep-0 with a wise-cracking parrot. I'd like to imagine this was Phantom's idea just to piss our favorite roomba off.

Phantom GAINS STRENGTH FROM ADORATION AND ATTENTION, which..... is this something we knew before? It feels really natural but this is the first time something like that was established as far as I can tell.

"The Phantom lured Rayman, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach and myself [Beep-0] to the Space Opera Network under false pretenses, so we might boost the viewership from which he draws his power. Should his spotlight have grown any larger, he would have become invincible." - excerpt from The Phantom 2 memory

And finally, there is a gramophone in storage in Phantom's control room. We can make a guess that this might be his old gramophone, and that he got his voice back by replacing it somehow. Thanks to @randomrabbidramblings for pointing this out, for the screenshot and theory! (I wanted to go look for myself but I don't think there is a way to get back into the control room after you beat the DLC? Without playing it again of course.)

Feel free to add anything I might have missed, and your own theories!

Fun facts about other characters coming soon!