#also it's all over the place sound and concept wise but that is pretty much how my personal playlists always are so !

[ningtual]

tagged by beloveds @28reas0ns @kimsuyeon thank you so very much 😽😽

sweet dreams by red velvet ; ever seen by beabadoobee ; useless by omar apollo ; unf/air by artms ; life's unfair by omar apollo ; getting no sleep by tinashe ; immaterial by sophie ; kingdom come by red velvet ; i'm unhappy by aespa ; supernova by aespa ; sympathy is a knife by charli xcx ; echo by clairo ; russian roulette by red velvet/the boyz

i love any tag games where i can involve my music taste so i was very happy to do this hihi!! tagging anyone who also wants to do this and happy listening <3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

With Playful land ending soon, can you try which part of the Halloween event is better which is either Playful Land or Glorious Masquerade? For example, the topic is characters and you picked Glorious Masquerade because of etc like that. (NRC cast design, NRC cast role, Yuu and Grimm's role, New character/s, Movie-inspiration event, Plot, Music, Place Setting, Opening, Ending) You can add more topics if you want.

By “better”, I’m going to assume you mean which (between Glorious Masquerade and Stage in Playful Land) I preferred in each of those categories? (I say "preferred" here because I'm judging based on my own tastes; obviously everyone will have a different opinion on how the two events compare.)

It’s quite a few to get through, so I’ll just quickly summarize each. This post will also serve as my general thoughts on Stage in Playful Land.

***Spoilers for those two events below the cut!!***

NRC cast design — I’d say the designs are pretty split down the center?? In theory, I love the concept of masquerade balls and marionettes, but in practice the designs look all over the place and I really only like a select few of them.

NRC cast role — GloMasq was stronger in this, especially the choices for the SSR trio. Malleus and Idia are a deliberate rival and foil to Rollo, whereas Azul’s UM comes in clutch during the final showdown. Meanwhile in Playful Land only Kalim seemed to be very significant story-wise; he was the one trying to convince everyone to sit down, eat, and try to understand Fellow’s motives, is the last to be captured, and gives the big speech about how he’ll never abandon his friends + the importance of school. Ace has his usual schtick of being brutally honest and there are some parts where Ortho’s robotic abilities come in handy (like playing sounds to distract the puppets), but these seem like very minor roles compared to what the GloMasq trio did. Perhaps they were good choices for the end when they all decided to destroy the amusement park though??

I also feel like some things the SSR trio does in Playful Land (like dispersing the puppets by using a “lost item”) could have been done by any smart or deceptive character (Leona, Vil, Cater, etc.), not just the SSRs (ie Ace). Furthermore, the other cast members in GloMasq seem much more important in how they split off and battle—there are good reasons or synergy given as to why they pair up the way they did (ie Riddle and Epel needing to be good flyers, Ruggie and Jamil willing to use others as meat shields, etc), while in Playful Land it seems more random (like Floyd losing interest) or obligatory (mostly the third years stepping up to defend the younger students).

It’s also anticlimactic how Fellow just let them all go??? Especially compared to Malleus, Idia, and Azul and Rollo squaring off to the bitter end.

Yuu and Grim’s role — Once again, this goes to GloMasq. In Playful Land, Yuu is automatically caged and tossed into a corner to wait it out to the climax. At least in GloMasq Yuu is actually doing something (even if it is offscreen): they’re with Grim and Trein, helping the townspeople from the flowers. (Note: I’m not entertaining the “but Yuu is magicless! It was a wasted opportunity for them not to have a bigger role in GloMasq!” thing because I’m talking only about canon and not hypotheticals here.)

New character(s) — … Do you even need to ask 😭 Obviously, I’m loyal to Roro-chan Rollo; I just find his story and character to be super interesting, especially with the root of his conflict being inner turmoil and an inability to move on… It makes him an excellent foil to Idia.

While I do also enjoy Fellow and Gidel, I feel that I’m not as invested in them because despite the terrible dark shit they're doing, the conflict they get wrapped up in gets resolved in an underwhelming manner. Plus, there was not a lot of elaboration on their own backstories?? It was mostly told to us via Fellow, yet kept so vague that the fans are left to fill in many missing details on their own. I’ll have another post out later going into more depth with how I feel about Fellow and Gidel.

Movie-inspiration — I think both events have their moments of film inspiration. A lot of GloMasq's comes through in the traditions and culture of the city, whereas Playful Land's are embedded into the games, foods, rides, and attractions in the park itself. Playful Land feels more overt because of how flashy everything is, but also because it's not really based on any real-world area (unlike the City of Flowers/Fleur City, which is fantasy Paris and therefore also has Paris elements) it has to stand on its own. They don't need to worry about developing a unique "culture" for a smaller area like a park; they can just cut loose and have everything be fun and whimsical like Pleasure Island is. For this reason, I feel that Playful Land has stronger movie ties.

Side note: I want to put out the disclaimer that I personally don’t think how much an event references its source material should be counted when evaluating the quality of its writing. Just because you mention things from the film or reinterpret them doesn’t mean the story itself is good.

Music — I’m going to give this one to Glorious Masquerade because while the tracks are nice for both (I love the dramatic bells in GloMasq and the eerie music box of Playful Land, and both songs with lyrics are also great!). However, the narrative context and meaning behind the songs with lyrics are very different, and I feel that this makes Let My Wish Resound performance that much more meaningful. Additionally, Playful Land introduced a sung version of Rave Up! Up! in part 3 (even if it was just the first half of it) whereas GloMasq saved its sung version for part 5, which grants us more time to get hype. (I also like the rhythmic/twistune of the boys dancing over the boys… idk, dancing and doing property damage for funsies.)

Opening — Both openings do a good job at building up the hype for the ominous events to come, but again GloMasq wins on a technicality… which is the quality of the evil laughs given during them 💀 Fellow’s is kinda weak (like it stutters and sounds like he’s out of breath), at least Rollo can do a slow, unabashed laugh like a proper villain/j

Setting — This one’s suuuuper subjective; I don’t really like amusement parks I know, I’m boring so that automatically means I don’t find Playful Land to be a compelling or interesting setting (even if it fits thematically). I’d much rather just be allowed to wander and explore a city unsupervised, get to learn about its history and culture by experiencing it myself. GloMasq’s City of Flowers/Fleur City allows Twisted Wonderland to be expanded so much more (like, thinking about how this city relates to other cities and countries), whereas one isolated floating park doesn’t add much to the overall world lore.

Plot — Playful Land was so… boring 🤡 I’M SORRY, IT’S TRUE (to me)????? Like, they were just aimlessly wandering around during the second half of the event (even though it should be obvious that Fellow is at the theater)???? While at least in GloMasq they knew where to go (the bell tower) right away and strategized around that… Plus, we keep switching perspectives between the captured boys and the action, which bogs down the pacing. GloMasq keeps the action going and only takes very brief pauses to check in on our villain for the evening. There was way too much time spent meandering and not enough time spent actually Doing Things in Playful Land.

Stakes — GloMasq’s were higher. This isn’t to say that higher stakes automatically means the event itself is good. It’s just that the same urgency isn’t present in Playful Land because the scope of it is not as grand. If the crimson flowers/fire lotuses spread, there is no stopping them—and it endangers many people, communities, industries, etc. if they do. Meanwhile, a handful of people go missing in Playful Land. It’s still tragic, and their losses will still impact their loved ones—however, that’s still on a smaller scale than what the flowers would have done to their world.

Ending — GloMasq trumps. It’s just perfect how Rollo indicates he won’t give up and then drops ominous lines foreshadowing Malleus bringing ruin to them all (ie book 7) 😂 Love the pettiness of the banter, the ballroom setting, the perfectly timed delivery of the gift/song, and especially how Rollo’s punishment was so perfectly fitting for someone as neurotic and self-righteous as he is!! Also loved little details like the gargoyle and Trein wanting to keep an eye on Rollo 💕

The conflict resolution for Playful Land felt like a deus ex machina…? Fellow’s literally about to win (he caught them all) and the boys get let off the hook because Fellow had a change of heart. The boss told him it will cost a lot to repair the destroyed puppets so it’s coming out of his paycheck… That, and I guess all the stuff the boys were saying about how great school is finally got to him? Fellow got so fed up he called the whole thing off???? So he releases everyone and they all go around busting up the park???? I mean, they did foreshadow it by pointing out earlier how Fellow isn’t loyal to his boss + showing more phone calls where the boss is getting increasingly annoyed 💦 so it’s not as anticlimactic as Endless Halloween Night (one of my least liked events). I just mainly dislike how the conflict is triggered in part by Fellow’s boss being rude 😭 Like damn, what if his final straw hadn’t been claimed??? Then everyone is screwed.

At the very end, Fellow and Gidel decide to go on the run?? Which… isn’t an easy thing to do but it’s hand waved away so fast. If the staff meant for it to feel this way because the original Pinocchio also left Honest John and Gideon’s fates ambiguous and they did show remorse for their victims 💦 idk, it’s cases like this that make me think TWST is at its best when it does more of its own thing rather than strongly stick to the source material…

I also have?? Mixed thoughts on how TWST doesn’t follow up on the whole “yeah a bunch of rich people are caught up in running a human trafficking operation using this scary ass magic”. I know crime must exist in TWST, so in a sense this is… realistic??? But it feels odd to see such a big thing being casually mentioned and not being treated with full gravity?? (Maybe these are the types of crimes that special mage police defense forces (like the one Deuce wants to join) investigate??) Guess that’s just going to sit in the back of our heads from now on… It’s not satisfying seeing a story “end” like this, but I understand why it had to be 😭

The cathartic release of breaking down the park that once trapped them all is fun, but too goofy. I know it symbolizes a lot more than that, but it’s just not for me.

And so (to no one's surprise, given the frequency with which I talk about R*llo), I much prefer Glorious Masquerade to Stage in Playful Land. It's not even a contest to me. A certain pseudo-French boy aside, I just think the former has much better writing overall. By comparison, Stage in Playful Land has a very strong aesthetic and start, but not much else to keep me engaged??? It was an entertaining if not mid event aside from the big scare when the twist is initially revealed (because none of us expected it to be that dark) and minor other parts like Kalim’s big speech. The rest of the event felt like walking around and not doing anything useful.

I honestly think the failure of Playful Land to execute on its ideas comes in part from the hype of Halloween events (like, so much attention is put onto them that when Halloween events flop, it is SUPER noticeable) and the legacy of GloMasq (which set the bar VERY high) 💦 A shame, really…

Anyway, round of applause for Roro, who stays winnin’--

[izpira-se-zlato]

Munich, 26.03.24

Gig report! Can’t believe this tour is almost over :o In true Joler Ot fashion I am writing this while our train is losing a broken carriage so we're picking up delays. Fun.

The queue was. Insane. I just. Boggle at how we went from the chill Berlin and Hamburg and Leipzig queues to this.

The actual queueing was pretty chill regardless, thankfully

There was a whole-ass. Like. Tumblr meetup? Not like, planned, but I met (at various points) @occhi-verdi-come-il-mare, @nyx-aira, @itskrejsaitsparty, @j-restlessgeek, @lovvecherrymotion, @thisismyobsessionnow, @zadig-fate, @mogoce-nocoj and probably more because my brain is a sieve. So wild to just meet these people irl, you know?

My place in the queue was right in front of the person who sold Kris and me our EA tickets, which I thought was super funny

Kris was technically way further ahead of me but traded her place with a teenager whose only gig on this tour was this one and who was super bummed by someone cutting in line in front of them, and instead joined me further back and jfc we had so, so much fun. So glad I didn't have to be all alone. Gigs are more fun with friends, as it turns out (who woulda thunk)

I got a lot of short messages for my gig memory book 😊

I'm actually out of I 💛 Hojan and medium Hojan stickers. And I think tall Hojan stickers? So there's an end in sight 😂

super late gig start (EA doors was at 19:00)

The Munich venue is tiny and so Kris and I were… 7th or 8th row Jance side. I saw pretty well for the soundcheck, but after general doors a tall girl with two friends pushed her way in front of us (cutting in from the side) and severely limited my view… until a queue friend asked if we wanted to swap places bc she's taller and also wanted to be next to her friend (who was another tall person in front of us). So Kris and I went on Jan-side kinda in front of the speakers and it was a really great view 😊(thank you again)

We got NGVOT (no Kris version) and Vem da greš for soundcheck

Jance played each others' instruments (again). Well. I think Jan played Nace's bass while Nace either touched the dials or the tremolo. I hate them

there was also another Jance moment that got such a homophobojan from Kris I had to laugh. I think Jance were playing their instruments at each other at that moment? Kris was just "jfc guys" from his expression

Sector 5 were so, so good from our spot. Finally heard the lyrics again (I heard only the drums and maybe a bit of the guitar in Cologne). Sound-wise, our spot was excellent ngl.

I'll definitely miss them. If they have a concert in Berlin I can swing (or come by where I live), I'll definitely go. But yeah, I really grew to like them! (also they're babies. like. 21. They all studied music in Berlin, which is where they met. And the guitarist used to do parcour for several years which is why he did a backflip on stage each show)

they were definitely adopted into the family with glasses given to them (they kept falling off Mika's face so the guitarist, Johann, put them on and looked slej) and people singing along and just. The vibes were great. You could also definitely tell they'd settled into the stage compared to Berlin (which was their first gig for JO)

JC Stewart 🥰

I really grew to like his set, if he ever comes near where I live, I'll go for sure

I still don't understand the timeline of the boys meeting JC tho. It doesn't make sense. According to JC, Conor introduced them at the end of last year, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have time to be in the UK. At least not all five of them

Kris and I attempted to speak JC's jokes at the same time as him. It worked worryingly well

Actual gig was Katrina opener

Jan in only a leather jacket, worn open?? Maybe Bojan was right and they did run out of shirts xD boys have you heard of the concept of a laundry machine?

Nace in a simple white shirt, tucked into his pants. Jfc. Truly starting to be Nace girlie (gn) period

Kris wore a half collar underneath a sweater vest which was a look. What kind of look? I'm still not sure, if I'm honest

Jure in the sleeveless jeans vest and otherwise topless. I caught glimpses of him and hnnng

Bojan was also there ig

well. There was a small girl in the audience (on her mom's shoulders) of around. 7 or 8 years? So we got a whole lot of heart-eyes-Bojan

the girl sang UM and Bojan pulled her onto the stage (no Bojan in the audience bc of the speakers)

no idea how long UM lasted bc I put stuff on Instagram in the meantime

we got Barve 😭 I screamed so much and was so happy and gaaaah. I love this song so so much. And of course Bojan did the Ju-re Ma-ček! (and so did the audience)

we got Schlager 😭 Bluza my beloved where are you

tho tbf they look so fucking happy playing that song

Nace almost went to his knees in front of Jan twice (at least)

they also did that "leaning against each other"-thing again

I didn't film a lot bc I was too busy vibing, though I did take a bunch of pictures

Fairy!Bojan. Or as @itskreisjaitsparty put it on tumblr: Prinzessing Lilifee at home

People threw stuff on stage like a crown with a veil attached and sparkly glasses and so Bojan went, "Kris, you have to put on everything they've thrown at you!" and Kris did

Nace got heart-shaped glasses with rainbow studding and tried to show Jan immediately but Jan was busy 😂

The atmosphere of the gig was really, really good

The girls next to us started bawling during Barve iirc and just. Didn't stop. The cute security guard near us (who I think recognised me from the December Strom gig) shared amused glances with me bc the girls were kinda adorable. At least that's how I chose to interpret their expression

someone fainted ahead of us. Though not badly enough to be removed, just sat down for a while while the security guard stood, well, guard and had the girl drink something

It was actually so freeing not to be not in the very front but off to the side. We had space to dance and make snarky/funny comments at each other and just laugh

I got a Vita wave! She was shooting from behind the merch table, which was up two stairs from where I was, and so I kept glancing back, and just before she made her way into the crowd to shoot from there, she waved at me :D

They got food (Trolli gummi bears 😂) and Nace fed Kris two of them. I didn't catch the moment on video but it was so cute

After the gig, we talked a bunch to the Sector 5 guys. They're kinda adorable

JO left immediately without even saying goodbye to the Sector 5 guys. Guess Bojan wasn't the only one out late last night (it was a bit disappointing because Munich didn't get them last time, either)

we still stayed and talked to each other a whole bunch well after it was clear JO had left -- chatted with Mika (Sector 5 singer) a bit more, and then just the tumblr girlies

as we turned to leave for Astrid's hotel room (just like last time) well after the band had left (just like last time), I said, "well, at least this time they won't have reason to tag me on IG" (unlike last time), only to open my phone to a tag from Jan bc he restoried my pic😂 collecting yet more twinning moments from Jance ig

[painted-bees]

For the ask game that you just posted!

I would like to see Magritte in 10, 11, 25, 26, 32 and 48 (sorry if it's a bunch of questions I'm just very excited I simp for her)

More Margie!!

10. Is your character street-smart, book-smart, intelligent, intellectual, slow-witted?

She wouldn't describe herself as smart in any sense. Indeed, she does come off as very ditzy. However, she's resourceful as fuck and, when left to figure things out by her own devices, she is quite a brilliant problem solver. Not only that, but she's a sponge when it comes to learning about things that have engaged her interest. She can pick up on concepts very, very remarkably fast. The problem is, she has a lot of trouble recalling knowledge on the spot, and her inability to narrow her focus or filter out information, etc, leaves her looking like a deer in the headlights more often than not. So at a glance, she does not appear booksmart nor streetsmart, and when she's being watched, it's an endless comedy of errors as she tries to fulfil even the most simple tasks. Which is a tragedy, really...because she's actually quiet brilliant.

11. How do they see themselves: as smart, as intelligent, uneducated?Oh, I kinda just answered this HAHA yeah, no, she thinks she's a total dumbass.

25. What are their hobbies and interests?

Music. Making sounds, mixing sounds, composing tracks, sound engineering, just--audio stuff, any and all audio stuff. She also likes theatre, etc on a hobby level. And hiking, and looking at wild life...and photographing wildlife... for funsies.

26. What does your character’s home look like? Personal taste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

Hahaha well, until she met Raf, she was kind of a hobo lmao she couch surfed and stayed at shelters and stuff. And when she did get to stay at a friend's place or w/e, it was never for very long because...uuuh...her domestic habits are not great. Dirty dishes, food wrappers, laundry......she is not a very tidy person...very...messy, in fact. And often completely oblivious to her own mess. Though she has become a little more self conscious about it after having it pointed out to her enough times by enough people. She can never seem to stay on top of her mess, though.

Living with Raf, who IS a very habitually tidy person, they have an...arrangement. Her room is 100% allowed to be as much of a stye as she wants, but the rest of the house needs to be...respected. She's still pretty bad about leaving dishes in the sink unwashed, but she's much better about making sure the living room, etc, are free of her clutter pile-ups and half-empty coffee mugs.

Clothing and hair-wise, Magritte prioritizes comfort over beauty lmao Her hair is always thrown up in a messy bun because it takes her like five minutes, tops, to do. She loves things like sweater dresses and loose fitting clothes...and leggings. Leggings are great because she can get away with not shaving her legs if she just makes sure she throws on a pair of leggings.

32. How does your character react to stress situations? Defensively? Aggressively? Evasively?

Magritte does not get angry. It's very hard to make magritte mad.

Magritte is a frusterated crier. She'll get really sad and withdrawn, and just kinda shut down and avoid the thing until she's ready to deal with it.

48. How are your character’s gestures? Vigorous? Weak? Controlled? Compulsive? Energetic? Sluggish?

She's very energetic, active, big dumb gestures, laughs -too loudly, too often-. Throws her limbs around when excited and often hits people by accident.

[debb987]

TEB Shredder/Karai arc

Heya! Heya! So, and I'm saying this now so you know what to expect… after musing it over, in the end:

I am shortening/summarizing TEB Shredder/Karai arc ��

My original idea (and reasons why this won't happen anymore lol) it's below the cut!! Possible TEB Spoilers for Ch 21 - 24(?) you've been warned!

Also, this makes more sense after reading Ch22! So I'd suggest doing that first 😂 it's coming up this Saturday 13th! Just resist temptation for 36HR! XD

So! For the 21st my original idea was for Raph to accompany Bradford all the way to Shredder's lair. Raph would cross paths with them right before Shredder and Karai leave to meet the 12 family. Raph realizes he was tricked, he tries to keep them from leaving the building…

But then (and this is an idea born from the comments of times long past lmao) Mikey's ninpo starts to act up.

What had started as warm love, a reassurance that "we're here with you" had turned into a desperate "don't leave." The orange wrappings were overcharged and starting to burn through the red projection, scolding chains reaching green skin.

The orange energy burns.

So Raph suddenly can't use his ninpo anymore and his arms are injured, so he gets knocked out and imprisoned. Shredder and Karai leave and the ending of canon TEB 21 happens. They encounter the 12 fam.

Shredder lets Splinter know he took Miwa. Other than that, nothing much changes from canon, the fight is a stalemate, the Hamatos manage to escape, and Shredder and Karai return to their base. They need to know where the 12 fam is hiding and the fastest way is to get answers from the turtle in their dungeons.

Karai passes by Raph's cell to go to her "room" (because her Ch21 POV would have remained) so she speaks with the trapped turtle, a bit teasing, a bit taunting, tries to see if she can get some intel by getting under his skin.

Except that's not Raph anymore, but Puffs.

Puffs, who is internally counting down the minutes it will take for him to regain movement in his injured arms so he can wreck the whole place, starting with her, the most cheeky person he's encountered so far. He regards her with a sharp gaze…

…that softens minutely the moment she tells him her name.

Karai was the one that protected them (system), gave up her life for them, the one they failed to protect.

Puffs decides to remain a "prisoner" for a short time, because at the beginning it's easier that way. For as long as he gives off the impression of weakness, then his questions are answered, and he gets to know more about this version of Karai, that only keeps getting more and more relatable for him.

At some point, he and Karai would have gotten to talk about their very similar circumstances, about how not all kinds of love are good.

The man that raised me wanted me to be a soldier, in an upcoming war against humanity.

I have no value to the man who raised me, not beyond my reseamblance to my mother, my worth as kunoichi.

Essentially, this was meant to be a healing arc for both, Karai and Puffs… the parallels of their circumstances.

The exploration of Karai as she unlearns Shredder 's teachings, cope with her trauma, understand that her real father is a rat that could also project onto her the memory of Tang Shen, even if to a much lesser degree than Shredder. She has brothers that are turtles, in her ignorance, she was trying to kill her real blood-related family…. and that's without delving into the Karai of Rise and how Raph (not Puffs) would react!

Can you imagine how long this arc would have been? 🫠🫠🫠

So that was the plan! But alas, longterm story-wise the most important piece of their arc was the healing journey of Puffs, who finds kinship in Karai.

And that healing can be shown in other ways.

Also, in the long run their arc doesn't affect the story. Shredder dies, Karai flies back to Japan... their presence was never meant to be longterm or a main focus in TEB.

Hence, I'm "killing the darling" cool concept, sounded so pretty...

If you're not familiar with what this means, this post is a good reference! (Expressed a bit like a vent tho! xD)

Thus the revised version of this arc! Very summarized~ sorry for those that wanted a more in-depth Karai bond, this is all I can do!

If you'd like to explore this though, feel free to write and add to the TEB AU collection in AO3, I'd love to read you 💕

And that's all, I believe. Thanks for reading me if you bothered to. Hope the story continues to be enjoyable even with the change of plans 🤗

I just wanna reach sooner the part where my Rise turtles come into play!

P.D. Casualties to this "cut" are, among others I'm probably forgetting: the plans for Leatherhead & Baxter Stockman (uwu)

[fvriva]

🐖 for Newt & Cy!! What do they look like now??

holy moly, a double whammy! heads up, a lot's different, and the art is a little outdated.

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Newt: Newt's name was intended to be as generic and boring as possible. Kind of ho-hum. Newton Daley feels pretty successful at it.

Cy: Honestly Cy is a huge placeholder name that kind of stuck. First and foremost it just sounds cool, but it's technically short for Cyclops, because when I first drew them, they had their face obscured by shadow save for their grin and one anime eye. This is the kind of thing that could honestly be revised, haha.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Newt: Originally in the story he was the same age as everyone else (15-16) but I'm toying with the concept of having him be a teacher instead because I liked him so much in the prophecy au! Additionally it feels like the cast is like of desperate for positive adult role models so he can kind of step up here. This puts him in his late-40s.

Cy: Cy was created from a scrap of Vernon's husk during the events of the story, making them throughout it only a few weeks to a few months old, as the whole thing takes place over the course of a year.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Newt: Nope! He's ace. When he was a student earlier in development he had a platonic-sort-of thing for Cy but as he is now it's purely just fatherly.

Cy: Not currently. In the prophecy au they had a thing for Amanita but we'll just have to see what happens to them in development.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Newt: He's been eating bran and prunes and plain oatmeal gleefully since he was a wee tyke.

Cy: They've never had the pleasure of eating food where they are in development but they would enjoy the process of eating. It's fun and an excuse to be messy, even if they don't get anything out of it nutritionally or taste-wise. They'd be super into those styrofoam blocks that hold machined parts in place during transit.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Newt: He's basically the magic school equivalent of a kindly gym teacher. Specifically focuses on swords. In a modern au coaches girl's volleyball.

Cy: Currently their job is assassin. Their dream job is unemployed.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Newt: Newt likes to keep busy so he has a lot of homesteading kinds of hobbies. Some textile work, some wood, lots of gardening and animal husbandry (especially beekeeping).

Cy: Not yet in canon, but after the story they hang out a lot with Newt and figure out what they like. They'd probably like camping honestly. Something about being out in nature, dissociating between spirit and body surrounded by life.

🎯 -What do they do best?

Newt: Genuinely, he doesn't especially excel in one particular area, but he is a reasonably talented swordsman to the point that they put him in change of training in that area. He's also incredibly kind.

Cy: They don't have any particular skills. Even as an assassin, which they're trained for, most of what they can do is because of cheap tricks and magical items they've been given. But so far, theoretically, it's murder.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Newt: He hates having to yell. Nobody likes it when he does either, because he's not even brooding beforehand or afterwards, so it always just takes people completely by surprise every time. As for things he loves to do, he gets a lot of joy from tutoring someone one-on-one.

Cy: Cy hates people telling them what to do, which is basically their entire existence so far. It'll only get worse as it goes on because they value their freedom so much. Consequently their favorite thing to do is the opposite of what they're told... even if that's what you wanted all along. They're not smart enough to know what reverse psychology is yet.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Newt: He's lived a pretty full life with a lot of happy memories. It's hard to pick just one, but it's probably one where he's teaching.

Cy: Later on in the story, Newt chooses to spare their life at great personal cost (he partially turns to gold). It's the first time someone treated them as valuable and worthy of grace despite the circumstances, and they hold this memory in high regard.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Newt: There was a disaster that happened at his sister's workplace and she was missing for a long time. This is a plot thread that kind of goes nowhere but he was up all night worried out of his mind for her.

Cy: Like Vernon, they're subject to the nightmares that come as a result of their amalgam nature, though due to their dissociative abilities with As Above/So Below they can avoid a lot of these thoughts, but at some point when they're whole and merged they need to rest, and they hate it every time.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Newt: Not even a little bit. Newt's initial gimmick was that he was supposed to be an incidentally faceless character, then his face changed to be modeled after Jon Duckdotcom, then I made him a dilf, and now we're here.

Cy: Yes and no. I'm in the process of redesigning them to follow more of a rogue clone kind of arc, but haven't put this to paper yet. As for the design in most of the art I have of them, it's basically identical to the first drawing I made of them all those years ago.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Newt: The Boy Scouts of America.

Cy: Damien Wayne. And one of the prompts during Inktober.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

Newt: Honestly? He started as joke pastiche character riffing on a certain kind of non-threataning blandman that exists a lot as a buffer in the cast. He still is kind of a buffer, but now I think he'd be perfect in a comedy.

Cy: They're peak sci-fi honestly. Love an evil clone with sick swords and an edgy hood.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Newt: Cis male aroace

Cy: Agender, still figuring the rest out.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

Newt: Several. He's the oldest of 6. Most of them aren't super important but had established dynamics when he was a teen character that just don't fit well now. They're all named after Earth scientists, canonically wizards of antiquity from humanity's distant past. The most important one is Rosalind Daley, investigative journalist. She's the one that went missing. Pascal, Joules, Darwin are the rest of the kids.

Cy: Technically Vernon is like a brother to them, and probably the closest time they have to a sibling. But there's also all the failed clones that are basically just mindless blobs of matter. If they count.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Newt: They're long dead at this point but good! They challenged him and were generally very supportive and proud of all their kids.

Cy: They were brought into this world by Ozymandias and hated him so much they joined the party trying to kill him. And turned the tide, allowing them to succeed. So bad.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Newt: Newt surprises me because I didn't expect his character to touch on something genuine and heartfelt in the planning phase. Hopefully it follows us to the page as well.

Cy: Cy has a special place in my heart because of how fucked up their given circumstances were, but how much they tried to do something about it. Not gonna lie they really do kind of suck as a person even by the end of the story because they're only just starting to grow and change, but you hopefully get kind of a sense that it's not the end for them. And hopefully they're fun to watch despite it all.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Newt: Not often these days though technically his art is newer because of his prophecy au cameo. In it, he had fancy prosthetic arms and served as a plot hook for the party finding the engineer that made them.

Cy: I haven't drawn them in a hot minute but I used to love doodling them. However I have written them a bit in the prophecy au. Unfortunately because I needed an antagonist for Yule's arc and I was operating under the assumption that this was an alternate timeline where they didn't get the kind of help when they needed it and things were very different for them, so I ended up kind of character assassinating them in front of the squad. Even now this is their impression of Cy which is a crying shame :/

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

Newt: I could see it but it wouldn't make sense within the scope of Animus Vitrum really. However he will die at some point of old age.

Cy: I think a good death would probably fix them. Or make them worse. I dunno. Regardless they're also sticking around, being a menace, ect.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Newt: Nope!

Cy: That they know of.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

Newt: He's much too normal to have one of these.

Cy: Their "brother" Vernon. And Olivia Hart (self declared)

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Newt: I think I must've made him in late 2018-early 2019. So about 5-6 years.

Cy: I made them in October of 2018 I think? So 5 years.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

Newt: 18-19. Though the refresh occurred in like 2021, when I was 20.

Cy: 18.

send me an oc + an emoji (or order the WHOLE HOG)

[irresponsibleink]

Blood and Honey 2 review

**No Spoilers**

I watched Blood and Honey 2 on opening night and I was surprised. The first movie was mediocre and my hopes for the sequel were in the gutter. It seems director Rhys Frake-Waterfield worked out some kinks from the first movie. Maybe constructive criticism did its job here and Frake-Waterfield listened to the reviews of the first film. 

The first Blood and Honey film put spectacle over storytelling. The production team expected the sensationalism of the concept to carry it through and they were mistaken. Reviewing the first film in any serious capacity would be a mistake, as it’s clear they weren’t trying to make a serious film. They took the sequel more seriously, which opened the door for guys like me to tear into it. For people like me who have seen a lot of slasher flicks, Blood and Honey was nothing to write home about. During my viewing of the first film, I had to fight to stay awake. 

The sequel changed some details from the first film. For starters, this film includes characters such as Owl and Tigger, who weren’t in the public domain when the first movie was in production. I was pissed Tigger wasn’t in the first film. Tigger is the Batman to Pooh’s Superman and if anyone can tell you with a straight face they prefer Pooh to Tigger they are not to be trusted. Another change I enjoyed was the redesign of Pooh and Piglet. I understand the original design was about taking the original character of Pooh and making him scary, but you can’t tell me that Pooh is supposed to be a bear-human hybrid and then show me a man with yellow leathery skin. In this film, they updated Pooh to look more animalistic, giving him hints of fur and razor-sharp teeth. 

They also changed the leading man, recasting Christopher Robin’s character with producer Scott Chambers. The acting in this film is pretty standard. The strongest link in the crew was Tallulah Evans who had good charisma as her character Lexy. Except Lexy, the supporting roles were not greatly noticeable and they didn’t take up a lot of runtime. 

The special effects were a step up, as well. In the first film, the crummy effects made the gore look a lot less like blood and guts and more like some cheap props you could buy at a discount store. I'm surprised that Pooh didn't appear after the credits and thank PartyCity for sponsoring the movie. In the sequel, the props looked very professional. The gore looked real enough to make your stomach turn but not so real you can’t enjoy snacking during the movie. 

Character-wise, I was invested in Christopher’s story. I was rooting for him right from the beginning. This film opens with everyone in his small town believing he’s a brutal killer and that leaves him on a quest to deal with his trauma and confront his monsters (both real and figurative). I liked the supporting characters. It was very endearing to see how much Lexy and Bunny (Thea Evans) cared about Christopher and believed in him when a lot of people didn’t. 

While I was invested in Christopher’s journey, the first three-quarters of the movie dragged a bit. Christopher is on a quest for answers, so naturally, a lot of the film is him trying to get to those answers any way he can. But this is still a slasher film! During this “investigative” period, they throw in a few kills to keep us invested, but Christopher and Pooh don’t even confront each other until the final quarter of the film. 

Speaking of the kills, they were very brutal. Bear traps, exploding campers, flaming chainsaws, what fun! A lot of people may think, ‘A flaming chainsaw? That isn’t realistic!’ All I have to say is, dude, if you’re worried about how a flaming chainsaw isn’t realistic then maybe a movie about animal-human hybrids isn’t for you. 

The score was fine, but there were times when the music was a little out of place. It was disorienting to be watching a sad or frightening scene and hear music that sounded hopeful. The narrator also took the piss out of the movie. It was so jarring to watch a serious and intense scene and then to jump to narration like someone is reading a bedtime story to us. 

About that plot twist… Words cannot describe how out of left field it was. I’m glad they explained where the creatures came from, but… yikes. It was entertaining, but a bit convoluted. Also, why did Pooh have to be that character the whole time? That just complicates Christopher and Pooh’s relationship in a way it didn’t need to be complicated. They already had a troubled past together, so why make it more tragic for no reason? 

Then there was the rave scene. I almost cheered when Tigger came onto the scene. I love Tigger! Whether he’s bouncing around in a colorful cartoon or murdering people with his claws and calling his victims fluorescent bitches, Tigger is the OG of the Hundred Acre Wood. And it was so fun to see Pooh batter people around while trap music played. It reminded me of that party bus scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). I also loved how Pooh and the others kept Tigger in a cage because they knew how fucking crazy he was. 

Was it a good movie? Uh, sure? It wasn’t the best slasher I’ve ever seen but watching it wasn’t a complete waste of time. I would wait until this one hits streaming services before you go watch it. A part of me feels stupid for spending money to watch such a mediocre movie when I could have just waited for it to come to Peacock. That being said, I’m genuinely excited to see what else the Twitsted Childhood Universe has to offer. 

I believe Frake-Waterfield is self-aware about how stupid these movies are. But they’re fun to watch and I bet they’re pretty fun to make. There are worse moves to watch this weekend.

Final score = 62.5%

Caleb Stepp (calebstepp23@gmail.com)

[lanawinterscigarettes]

I’ll reply to all of the responses in one ask so I don’t clog your inbox again LOL

1. Trust me I will be taking up your offer to yap about any and every tv show I’m interested in…starting now. I watched the first two episodes of the show Wilderness today - it’s so good, way better than I thought it was gonna be (and also in a different country?? I thought it was set in Australia but no apparently it’s set in New York 😭) and Liv is a bit naive in love but I was more distracted by how attractive she was than half of the actual plot LOL also she’s canon bi, and I lowkey ship her one-night-stand-wise with the girl her husband cheated on her with, like I won’t spoil too much in case you decide to watch it but literally Liv was pretty much stalking Cara then said to her best mate ‘She’s hot, no?’ like 🤨👀 and when Liv kissed her husband she was more bothered to see that Cara was watching them than her husband enjoying the kiss LOL random rant that I can’t tell anyone else about. I don’t know if you know the British show gogglebox which is where people record themselves watching TV but I basically did an amateur gogglebox and now I have a funny 1hr 30m video of my first impressions to the first two episodes LOL

2. Don’t cry! Although I do hope the stars shine for you as I am star anon - I chose star anon because I love the stars so much I have star jewellery and iPad cases of constellations and a phone case of a star and my most used emoji is the star!

3. Missy is the most charming nuwho master…although every time I see John simm I’m like OH MY GOSH ITS THE MASTER

4. Thank you for adding my little thing about the ficmas, I love the snowmen and I’m so excited to see it as with everything you write!! Plus Christmas is my favourite favourite time of year

5. About the foursome fic you’re always welcome to write Missy/River/Clara/Fem Reader stuff I will LAP THAT STUFF UP even like I love the concept of like a double date between River/Missy and Clara/Reader but it just ends up turning into one massive data where River and Missy are being bossy boots and teasing the other two at the table next to them along with riling each other up. Or like, an adventure where they’re all showing off each of their talents like Missy having to manipulate people or River shooting people with her gun thingy or Clara hacking stuff and the reader…idk, deciphering codes or something all trying to impress each other while the doctor is just stood there like 🧍‍♂️these gay idiots LOL

6. I know some people need comfort fics at Christmas but it saddens me that people are even sad at Christmas in the first place ��

Hope you’re doing okay Aeron - enjoy the rest of your day in the tumblrverse 🫶

- ⭐️

wilderness sounds like it's so good, plus jenna coleman stars in it so it gets even more brownie points in my opinion hehe. and I've never heard of gogglebox before but now I'm realizing I do the exact same thing when I watch tv- (of course I don't record myself but I get very opinionated on what's going on lmao)

the bit you wrote about the stars shining brightly sounding like such a beautiful piece of poetry to me and I've been known to cry over far less, but they were happy tears I promise 💘 and you seem like someone who gives off star vibes, if that makes sense. like I could imagine you being someone who enjoys stargazing or observing different constellations at night (I might have a new clara x reader fic idea now tbh)

no because why does literally every version of the master seem so goddamn charming 😭 I'm not sure how much you know about classic who but if you think the nuwho masters are charming then the classic who masters are who they got it from because WOW. I love the doctor but I think if the master invited me to travel with them I'd fold right away lmao I have no restraint

no problem!! I love christmas too, though I will have to say it's in constant competition with halloween for me (I've always been someone who loves the fall holidays a bit more than the winter ones but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy both) and you're so sweet for saying that, thank you 💞 sometimes I get worried whenever I'm writing something based on a request that it wont turn up like the person envisioned it so it means a lot to know you enjoy my writing so much and trust my artistic direction or whatever haha

stop you're going to give me too many new ideas on what to write for- (don't actually stop though I always love whatever you come up with) I'll definitely have to write some more river/missy/clara/fem reader stuff in the future, although I can't promise they'll be as long as the kinktober fic (honestly I've never ever written anything that long before idk how it happened 😭)

yeah, I get what you mean. it's just no fun being sad at christmas, but if I can hopefully cheer someone up even a little bit then I'm glad to write a holiday fic that has a bit of hurt/comfort in it ❤

the tumblrverse is such a creative and cute way little phrase omg (I spend way too much time in the tumblrverse than I should tbh-) I hope you're doing okay too star anon!! it's always nice to hear from you 🥰

[garrettwrites]

Hi, how's it going? Anything new and exciting in your life?

I see you're obsessed with vampires, who are your favourites? 👀

Sorry for the 3day delay I had to think on this. Picking favourites is hard. Reminder that I welcome all sorts of asks! Especially vampire and Worldbuilding ones!

Life's hard, gotta study the hell out of roman fish productions while simultaneously making art for social media and my portfolio, but what's life without a little stress.

Onto your question (which I ended up rambling on, sorry), lore wise I have two absolute favourite pieces of vampire media:

VtM: Bloodlines (2004 game). My love. I like how they write vampires and set their powers, clan divisions and hierarchies. The aesthetic of the game is also early 2000s late 90s, which is nostalgic. It's more fantastical than straight forward, a vampire DnD in fact, so it offers a lot of liberty and flexibility for whatever story you want to tell. It also works well as inspiration for original works, since the more you look into it the more you can pick what to use for your own vampire stories.

Second one is the netflix series Vampires (2020). It's french. It is an... incredibly fresh take on vampires. The series unfortunately only has one season with six episodes. It follows the life of this poor vampire family, but the twist is that vampirism is biological and vampires are born as such, and can die of old age (they just age much slower). Their weaknesses, their biology, their social structures and the way the series explores them through the eyes of a teenage girl slowly coming into her vampire disease (because it is kind of an illness), the way the series IS NOT AFRAID of pushing forward extremely embarrassing moments (such as the girl, still unable to control herself, biting the boy she loves IN CLASS and being viewed as a weirdo for it - refreshing when many writers are afraid of such realistic moments due to how cringe they may come across as for general audiences.... It's pretty solid. The scenes with the girl's mother walking into the sun covered in scarves and pieces of cloth is also really good, more series should do that - makes sense that a vampire would still go outside during the day, they'd just need to look absolutely out of place while doing it. Which they should. Vampires don't belong in daylight.

Honorable mention: Interview with the Vampire. Of course. Especially the new TV series. I love the psychological exploration of vampirism in there. However, I think the series is good because of the characters themselves rather than the blood sucking of it all. Vampire wise I don't care much for the lore, it is there to solidify the fact they're all monsters.

Extra 2: Unironically? I know this might sound cringe, but if you ignore the main storyline and exclusively look at the lore... Vampire Diaries is kinda good. The writers clearly did their research and included ideas from all over the world in their social structures, vampiric powers, etc. One of my favourite aspects is how they utilise the concept of "vampries can't enter a house without consent" to its absolute fullest. There's even a character who is turned into a vampire, and gets locked out of his own home because he lives alone and no one is in there to allow him in. Hilarious.

CHARACTER WISE...

Lestat is definitely one of my all time favourites. He symbolizes what a vampire should be for me, but is still multi faceted enough to be a person rather than a caricature.

Olrox from Castlevania: Nocturne (animated series). I miss drawing him. I wrote two whole ass fanfics about him, but they were romantic rather than focused exclusively on him.... A shame. I think he's pretty interesting. Depending on where Nocturne goes, he might surpass Lestat in the future. He's charming, but dangerous. Tragic yet with a chance of rising above the rubble. He's also native american, and possibly a god - all really fresh concepts. I really love Olrox. Top tier vampire dude, sorry Alucard but you're just not as cool.

Talking about Castlevania... Carmilla. She's not even that original as a character, but she's what people nowadays call a "Girlboss" except she's actually well written. You feel for her. You love her. You hate her. And she's a vampire that knows she's a monster and wants to keep being one. None of that "oh naur I'm immortal but must... commit the sin of drinking blood" bullshit. She, much like Olrox, steals every scene she's in.

Jonathan Reid from Vampyr (2018 game). A very... text intensive game. But I like reading, so I don't mind. He's a doctor, and was a soldier during WW1. He's the main character of the game and you can take his path in multiple directions. He's a favourite of mine because I like the concept of a doctor vampire, plus I genuinely love Vampyr.

The cast of The Lost Boys. No explanation needed,

Least favourite vampire: Astarion because 1) he took over my dash, can't talk about vampires anymore without that man being there and 2) people can't tag his fucking name properly and I'm over here trying to find minotaur content (AstErion) and I see that kind of muscular kinda lean white haired small fangs elf taking over the tags. Please people. Learn how to tag.

[mobloomspell]

I finished the main quest for Tears of the Kingdom, rolled credits and got my little epilogue scene, and my final thoughts are... meh. 

If that sounds familiar, that’s because the blunt truth is the game never changed from my first and second impressions. It shares the same exposition five times, it’s blatantly obvious not much is going on story-wise and the presentation, lovely as it is, can’t hide that. A majority of the plot is bad, and I don’t feel the need to sugarcoat that opinion for an otherwise good game.

(While none of my complaints are unique, there are probably hundreds of blogs and comments criticizing  the same things I am, I will say, maybe unpopular opinion: I don’t mind the Sheikah tech being basically erased and replaced with Zonai stuff, and other little retcons throughout. All my problems with the structure is from treating TOTK as its own standalone game and story.)

I don’t even hate the main quests most of the time, it’s pathetically easy to skip the bits I wasn’t liking each time. In some ways the town stuff is a massive improvement over BOTW and fun to play and interact with this world. The dungeons and even getting to those places with a companion are neat little sequences. But I cannot emphasize enough how actually completing dungeons and being ‘rewarded’ with essentially the same (far too long) cutscene is such a deflating experience to what I was just enjoying. I don’t how to briefly explain it, but I feel like new Zelda games have this problem where I’m not really a part of them anymore as a player, I’m just supposed to sit there and accept that Link is The Hero the universe revolves around. It’s weird and boring and I hate it every time!!

LOZ games have always been game first, with narrative being a far second priority. And I’m an easy to please lady, I genuinely love BOTW and HWAOC because they’re simple and don’t waste time dressing themselves up as anything more important than they really are. I expected TOTK to be on that same level just with a different gimmick. But even with those reasonably low expectations, the story feels like it’s the brainstorm session of a plot that lucks into making a scene or thread I like, but spends a lot of time saying nothing. Most of it fell flat for me, and the worst part is I can see how even just a few punched up sentences here and there could have a domino effect to better emphasizing what I think the main quest is thematically trying to say. You certainly can’t make Ganon’s terrible dialogue worse.  The basic shape of a decent story is there, it just desperately needs a second draft to reach its potential.

(I spent most of the post-credit scene thinking “what are you talking about?” as characters conversed about something that had been brought up maybe once, it was unintentionally funny)

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but it’s just plain true that Zelda is the only character I cared about here. She’s a bit too fair maiden archetype for me to be fully comfortable with (to be fair, this is a problem BOTW has too) but she’s got the closest thing to a basic character arc in comparison to the lacking development everyone else has. A concept at the center of her story is unambiguously cool and compelling to be worth pinning a game on. Along with the main quest, there are also side quests that show she’s been doing things like commissioning a schoolhouse to be built and starting an animal sanctuary at a stable. These are nice glimpses into a down-to-earth person’s life as she genuinely cares about the present world around her, not just the big plot stuff. It’s crumbs in comparison to other RPGs but I savored them.

I could say more but I actually want to focus on the stuff I set aside to get to the credits like finding more pretty outfits, or playing indie games I bought from itchio and haven’t checked out yet. At the very least, I preordered TOTK because I thought it would be fun to play and I might finally have an opportunity to experience something before fandom osmosis spoiled stuff for me, and I got to have that, it was nice. TL;DR narrative lacking but gameplay good.

[overnightheartbeats]

"Oh, you're the quiet studying type?" There was a slight hint of disappointment, only because she was not the quietest person. Then again, she was already getting carried away, thinking they’d be studying together for weeks to come. She liked him already, and though it was very early, Laurel could see herself befriending him. If he wanted to. “Very busy, and you still squeezed time to party. How do you do it all?” She pondered playfully. “It’s only cramped because it’s the first few weeks. I’ve heard it’s a ghost town otherwise. But, the librarian is pretty strict. I already got my first warning to keep the noise down.” All because she laughed at a dumb joke. “Comparative analysis, that’s interesting. I can’t say I’m not the strongest writer either, but history wasn’t my worst subject.”

"Woah, you learn something new every day," she concluded. Laurel did catch his confused look. It did sound dumb, didn't it? Was it too early for the family talk? "Lame that I don't know about my own name, I know. My mom didn't really give my name much thought, so I never really thought about it either. Ooh state flower, fancy. Though, in my defense, Connecticut is so far. I barely knew my own state flower before we moved." California poppies. Grape cool aid made her laugh, "really? You make these Laurel flowers sound really cool." Forensic anthropology sounded fascinating, though it could also be that he spoke of things in a very intriguing manner. It was making everything interesting. “Then, you are a super genius. So, why forensic anthropology? If you don't mind me asking?"

Laurel’s gaze landed on her book, and then back to him. His green eyes were full of sincerity, it made it difficult to disagree with his encouraging words. She sat with his words for a moment before smiling to herself. “That is a very wise person, thanks for sharing that with me. You’re really nice,” she observed. “Anyone ever tell you that?” He’d explain it to her? Laurel almost protested because she didn’t want to put him through the pain of physics, especially if he didn’t need it. But, she also really needed help. The crying comment from earlier was not inaccurate, so she didn't object. “Those professors suck. Just because it’s easy to him,” Laurel grumbled before turning her notebook to a clean page to follow along.

She was completely enthralled with his explanation. It was technical, but it was also easy to follow. Laurel wondered if it was the examples, or just that he was taking his time to go over this with her. "Hm," she looked over at his notebook and the equations she wrote, then back at the notes she added in her own sheet of paper. "Okay, yeah that makes more sense. It's not that complicated once you put it like that." Listening to his explanation made the concept so simple, that she almost felt dumb for not grasping it earlier. Except that, his explanation was simple but not condescending. “Definitely stopping the bicycle." He had every chance to, but he didn’t make her feel dumbest student in the class. It was refreshing. “Noo, not at all,” she agreed with a teasing tone, her smile widening to an amused grin. “But, nerd or not, you totally just saved my ass. I can see why you don't need to take this class." Chicago education seemed to yield more than her Texas one had. The basket of fries was placed in front of them, and Laurel picked one to pop into her mouth before speaking again. "Was this school your top choice then?"

"Only on days I work. The other times I study at my dorm. I need the quiet to focus on the writing. It's not my strongest suit. Sometimes I even study while I'm eating. Don't really have enough time to actually sit for long." Mostly due to his schedule being so scattered. "The library is too cramped and that lady sounds like she's one cleared throat away from throwing people out." Eli couldn't help but laugh since that was she looked like to him. "Fries should be coming out soon. Essay is on a comparative analysis of kinship systems across different societies."

"Mmhm yes." His eyebrows furrowed confused, wondering how she didn't know that her name was a flower and a bay leaf but that was neither here nor there. "It's the state flower of Connecticut that blooms in late spring to early summer. The buds and fruits are showy. Fun fact about Laurel's, their fragrance resembles grape kool aid." he said and laughed considering that was such a left field fact. "No, I just need Braga's class to get my degree in forensic anthropology."

Eli hummed softly as he leaned forward to take a look at her book. "Everyone is capable. Someone very wise told me that before. All you need is belief in yourself. Anyone else's opinion doesn't matter." Momentum and impulse were easy enough once it got broken down into layman's terms. Not everyone learned it the way it was supposed to, he didn't so he thought he'd apply how he learned to this mini lesson. "Okay, so basically he skipped over this because to him it's too easy a baby can do it. When I explain it without the math jumbo you'll see why he doesn't deem this necessary to reteach. " as he gave her a smile he took out his notebook and started to draw up the equation.

"Okay, so what you need to remember are these two equations. For momentum, p = mv. P is the momentum, m is the mass and v is the velocity. Then the equation for impulse is J = FΔt. J would be the impulse then the F is force, and Δt is the time interval." Eli paused just to look up making sure she was still following him. "What you got to remember is the impulse applied to an object is equal to the change in its momentum. Basically, a few examples off the top of my head are a bowling ball rolling down the lane. That'd be an example of linear momentum. The ball with its mass and movement possesses considerable momentum. Example of the impulse part would be a baseball bat hitting a ball. When the bat makes contact with the ball, the force applied by the bat over the brief contact time creates an impulse, effectively changing the ball's momentum drastically. Another example of that is when a person jumps and lands on their feet. When a person lands on the ground, their body experiences an impulse as it decelerates, with the force of impact acting over a short time."

Setting the pencil over his ear he chuckled. "It's like if we are standing at the bottom of a hill and are faced with the option of stopping a motorbike or a bicycle. Most likely we would probably choose to stop the bicycle and that is because the motorbike has more momentum than the bicycle. Here, momentum simply means the mass in a moving body." he slinked back and gave her a sheepish grin. "I'm not a nerd I swear."

[reilliane]

Enchanted ★ Aether

— ★ Scry: Solar Umbra + Aether + Modern AU — ★ Genre: Romance + Fluff — ★ Concept: That strange man... just who was he to you? Your mind speaks of a stranger, but your heart says differently. — ★ Words: 2.5k A/N: In the beginning, this was a normal kind of modern au, but listening to Taylor's song of the same name suddenly gave me a spark of something—then I incorporated a little theme that you dears will identify later, and boom! :'DD

If you knew you’d be wasting your night this way, you wouldn’t have come.

But then again—how could you not? It’s the second homecoming hosted by your university and you were sick during the first one, so you weren’t able to make it.

A lot of your friends have been insistently telling you to join this time around, so why not?

Dolled up in a pretty dress rarely taken out of your wardrobe and hair stylized nicely whilst not being over the top, you left home with a pep on each of your steps.

It had been going nicely.

The splendor of the venue lived up to everyone’s grand expectation, and those present did little in holding themselves back from capturing a sliver of how the night passed back when you were all struggling college students. Entertainment-wise, of course.

The event genuinely categorizes itself as one of the best moments in life, but that was rather fleeting—as all good things are.

For not even three hours into the party, half of your friends have to leave, their reasons being work-related or a sudden emergency that required their attention.

And now, the time isn’t even nine and yet—the last one of your friends is leaving, having to look after her sick sister.

“I’m really sorry, [Name],” Barbara bows her head one too many times as she stands up in a fuss, squeaking when her given silverware clatters to the navy carpet.

“I wish I can stay and accompany you for some more, but I really have to go. I’m so—”

“Ah-ah, don’t continue, just go.” You don't mean to sound so dry in urging her to hurry because you know how much she cares for her family, but you also can’t help the tone.

The disappointment is just too discernible that if you try sounding jolly, it’d flunk.

Catching the dismay on both your features and voice, Barbara lets this flustered sound that has you bobbing your throat in guilt. So, you ease your expression and send her a smile.

“It’s okay, really. We can just catch up some other time, no?”

“[Name]…”

You beam at her, doubling the size of your smile as if forcing yourself to display an emotion so counterfeit and believable that no one would even think it to be false.

Unfortunately, Barbara has been a longtime friend, so it’s easy to say that she knows that you are simply trying to be optimistic.

She sniffles and, in a speed of light, she picks up the silverware, places them on the table—and leans forward to clasp your hands in hers. “That’s a promise! I’ll make it up to you!”

Oh, this sweet person. How can you stay dispirited after such a moving oath?

It’s a little silly, given you’ve passed the age where childish promises exist—but this is a night to reminisce, no?

“Alright, alright, now go, Jean’s waiting.”

It takes her a couple of moments—her hesitance clearly taking part—but when she does, her smile is trembling. You don’t quite blame her, this is the first time you’ve seen each other in years and she’s leaving so soon.

But with a nod and a little shove, she gets moving and her mind clicks onto her current priority.

Waving you goodbye, the blonde scurries off, heading in the crowd with only her glimmering white frock telling you of her form getting farther and farther away.

Once you’re certain that she’s gone, you drop the heavy smile and sigh, looking down at your plate. Dinner and dessert have lost their spark.

Appetite waning, you simply tap the slice of [flavor] cake with your fork, no longer able to find the capability to take a bite even with the delicious-looking icing and décor.

There’s room for dessert—but you’re simply not up for it.

All of a sudden it seems like the already chilly venue has gotten even colder.

The music blasting in the speakers fades in the back of your head, the lights that flicker into a different hue with each passing minute becomes a messy blur, and you feel yourself shrinking.

You’ve always been the kind of person who keeps to your own circle of friends, withdrawing far from unneeded attention.

So everyone in the venue, regardless of being your batchmates, are merely familiar faces. Not people you’re close to.

Perhaps this is the universe’s way of mocking you for being too hopeful for a wonderful time? It sounds plausible.

Life has its way of bringing someone down right when they’re at the summit, after all, and you’re a victim like many others—but you suppose you can’t have a break from it.

You do not know how long you’ve stayed seated, but with the minuscule observation of how everyone has gotten rowdier and chaotic, the drinks are kicking in. It must’ve been hours.

In that span of time, you’ve miraculously emptied your dessert plate but stuck to sitting. Maybe it’s finally time to leave.

You sigh loudly—not like anyone is sober enough to notice your dismay—picking up your purse and leaving the table, all prior contentment gone.

The click-clack of your heels vanish in the musical cacophony played by the DJ. Getting to the only exit of the venue means you’ll have to go through the sea of chaos, and if you’re going to be honest, it sounds far from being pleasing.

But oh well—at least better times await you back home.

Tightening your grip on your purse lest you drop it on the dance floor, you exhale and trudge on. As expected, it’s a nightmare trying to walk your way through.

In fact, it’s a miracle that you haven’t fallen from the many times someone has bumped into you in the midst of their dancing.

“I’m here, wait, just trying to get throu—!”

You spoke too early.

Someone collides with your front, far too swiftly for you to maneuver out of and suddenly you are falling on your back.

The flashing lights do an incredible job of rendering your sight useless so you’re left flailing—attempting to latch onto something.

A hand seizes your arm before you can hit the floor, pulling a little too roughly and thus making you topple forward.

Nothing but the gasp that moves out of your lips can be heard—and only the electrifying zap is felt as you’re hurled onto your savior’s chest. The grip on your arm squeezes and—and there’s this jolt that adds up to the previous sensation.

All of a sudden your vision is milking with white and replaced with images of a grand room with masked, dancing people. The music vanishes, in its stead, whispers that feel awfully close to your ear.

“A lovely night to you,”

There is a picture of a smiling blond man kissing the back of your hand somewhere a little far from the waltzing group of nobles. In a golden ballroom with navy curtains.

“Your surname does not matter at this moment. Rivals our houses may be, tonight, we can speak merrily. As we wished.”

Although you are well aware that this—this imagery is a complete hoax and you are in a different place and time, it feels too surreal to pass it off as a hallucination.

It all melts away into another scene, one in which it plays in your entire perspective; hands clasped with the same man, laughing as you run through a labyrinth of green with the moon as your witness.

“The party was a little stifling, wasn’t it, lady [Name]?” his chuckle resonates in the center of the maze, where a grandiose gazebo stands and he invites you with a gentle tug.

“Don’t worry, here there are no prying eyes. Don’t be burdened, my lady.”

He turns—slowly, as if the sands of time decided to delay itself. Then there is burning in your chest, a stabbing kind of burn—then a sharp cry.

“[Name]—!”

A multitude of colors swarms all at once for the nth time, making a splatter of the image and messing with what’s supposed to be a picture of the man’s face.

You think you hear whispers and exclamations, but you’re being reeled back—into the present.

“Aether! There you are! You stopped speaking in the call so suddenly!”

With a single tick of the minute hand, the hand latching onto your arm disappears, and along with it, the scenes in your head. It’s as if the man’s pull has strung away all that you’ve been seeing and hearing.

Taking a gasp—as if you’ve breathed back into life—you look up and-

The man before you holds the same surprise as you do, unmoving as he is pulled away. He has his phone hovering over his ear, lips parted to gape.

His hair is the same shade as the one in your vision and his eyes—heavens, his eyes sparkle with a depth of gold, bearing wonder and the desire to know more.

That alone leads you to believe that he’s seen the same things as you did.

“My lady, to be subjected to this penalty…”

Your breath hitches and so does his.

“If you’re to bear the woe of this fate, then fear no longer,”

There is someone pulling him away from you and the crowd—someone… perhaps his sister? Still, your eyes do not leave his, and his does not leave yours.

“I will join you, my lady—in hopes that in our next life, fate will be merciful.”

The whispers stop and time resumes its normal pace. The dancefloor is once again booming, everyone is dancing to their hearts’ content—and you’re moving forward to- you don’t know, to reach for a stranger.

He seems to understand your intention and attempts to do the same, the bewildered eagerness in his eyes mirroring yours.

But in the chaos, you’re knocked away and so is he—until his outreached fingers can no longer be seen.

That was a night exactly four months ago and up until the present, it’s yet to leave the crevices of your mind.

It came and it went so abruptly that you’re left hanging, confused and flustered with a heart that paced in a way you didn’t know it was capable of until that meeting.

It’s almost a shame to say that a stranger—who infiltrated your headspace—has such a bizarre to make your heart race to the point that you stayed longer in the venue than necessary.

Looking for a man who couldn’t be found even when it was time to leave.

Slapping your cheeks, you begin walking across the crosswalk, not quite as concentrated as you’d prefer. Well, you’re focusing on something—or to be specific, someone—rather unhealthily.

Seriously, I should stop. You convince yourself after a dry swallow, fingers twitching in the pockets of your jacket. What use is thinking over someone I don’t know?

You think this, and yet—there is bitterness on your tongue. As if something deep within does not wish to let go under any circumstances.

You think this, and yet, your feet are leading you to the same place you’ve been frequenting in your free time—hoping to catch a glimpse of the same person who’s been plaguing your head twenty-four-seven.

It’s almost laughable.

Feet stopping in front of the venue—now hosting a wedding feast, you realize—you peer through the glass, captivated by the theme of the ceremony.

The same gold and navy accents appear identical to what you’ve seen in that dreamy haze sometime ago.

Everyone inside is having the time of their lives.

Pursing your lips with minute aversion, you resume walking, eyes downcast.

This is yet another day of futile hope.

But then, the approaching feet at your left, walking their own way to cross with yours, stops—and you feel compelled to pause. So you do.

And when you lift your stare, your heart picks up the pace as it did.

Four months ago.

Ah… was he also going here to visit? You think, feeling oddly warm.

He speaks first.

“Do I… know you from somewhere?”

Funny, it’s the same thing you wanted to ask him in the first place.

You look at him from head to toe, examining his sunlit hair and golden eyes, studying his entire appearance and endeavoring to liken it to those you’ve met and befriended. To no avail.

There is only one ‘place’ where you ‘met’ him.

“.. No, I don’t think so.” Is your response.

“I see. I thought as much.”

But that place is nothing more but a figment of your imagination, right?

He nods—his form of bidding adieu, maybe—and you return the gesture paired with a small wave, then you’re both crossing each other’s paths. Away to your own destinations.

You have gotten your answers and you know it to be true; you do not know one another, you’re simply strangers.

Strangers, and yet—why is it that with each step taken away, your feet get heavier?

Strangers, and yet—why is it that when you turn at a block, it feels like you’re turning your back on a once in a lifetime chance that won’t ever present itself again?

You don’t understand.

You don’t understand the pitter-patter of the urge to go back, nor the way your chest hollows at the prospect of leaving, and the manner in which your heart laments for a man you can’t even name.

But you’re spinning on your heel and sprinting down the road, anyway, making sure to yelp a quick apology to those you’ve bumped into.

And you keep running—and running and running until you’re back at the street you met him at and-

He’s there, right in front of you, drawing heavy breaths as if he’s done the same thing.

You both take a moment to catch your breaths, the eye contact feeling right and meant to be. You ask him first this time around.

“What’s your name… ?”

“Well hello, good sir, may I ask for your name?”

He stands up to his height, still strained from running, but eased enough to respond.

“Aether… it’s Aether. You?”

“And you, fair maiden?”

There are butterflies fluttering in your stomach the more he keeps his stare on your profile and you don’t know why, but it’s flustering. You cannot help but shy your gaze away at the intensity.

“[Name]..”

“What an enchanting day this is to have met you,”

“Listen-“

You both break into flushes of pink upon speaking at the same time, encouraging the other to continue with what they planned to say, but no one is giving in.

Breathing in and out, you start—

“If you’d like-“

—But your words clash with his again, and this time the two of you are erupting into goofy smiles. What little trace of awkwardness has then vanished.

You nod for him to continue, bringing your fingers across your lips to gesture that you’re sealing your mouth shut to avoid confusion. His expression softens—and your chest floods with warmth.

“This is sudden, but, if you want to…” the pinks on his cheeks turns red, “Would you like to go out with me sometime?”

“You flatter me, sir,”

You find yourself smiling as you reply, “Of course.”

“But I do agree, it’s quite enchanting to have met you, as well.”

a/n: yes, there was a tiny smudge of Romeo and Juliet. yes. yESSSS- AHH I hope you like this, requester anon!! There is also an Aether req that's a little similar in the reincarnation aspect but it'll be completely different in narrative! ;> @cherryflushz @scarlet-halos

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭'𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬

[dailytatsu]

Heya! Can I request an Aether/Lumine & reader?

So reader is basically an immortal half-elf who've lived for centuries and a well refined fighter. Well at the beginning even tho they volunteered to tag along on traveler's journey to find their sibling, reader is rather obnoxious and a lazy-dork who only help when actually needed. But as the journey continues, they began to act like traveler's bodyguard after witnessing (archon quest spoiler!) traveler almost getting killed by the Shogun? And maybe random shenanigans happen between them (ft.Paimon). I don't mind if you do either Aether or Lumine if you feel pressured 🙏

Hi! This kind are my favorites! Tysm for requesting! (๑>◡<๑)

I did this with Aether since he is my favorite is who I chose, and I feel more comfortable writing with guys than with girls.

I know they have some different personalities but I can help but see Lumine as the all mighty abyss princess.

Hope you enjoy!

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Aether & Half-elf! Reader

GN! Reader

Inazuma Archon Quest Spoilers!

Request are open; sorry for any mistakes!

Genshin Impact Masterlist

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Aether always thought that immortality brought with it wisdom, beings who live for much longer than an ordinary human tend to gain an understanding of life and changes in the world after years of appreciating the passing of the ages.

But when he met you he couldn't help but feel that all his beliefs were based on fiction and old rumors from other worlds. You were anything but wise, not even his first choice to be the voice of reason.

Even Paimon takes her role as his guide seriously.

But what was so wrong about you that get him on his nerves all the time? And most important, why does is he still dealing with you?

To be fair, maybe he was waiting a little too much from you. After all, he always forget that you still have half of a human’s nature.

“Mmh? What are you doing?” You asked Aether the first time he removed your hair from your ears to see if they were pointy. They were, and Paimon yelled kind of a objection when she realize she had to pay for losing their bet.

Not a human, not a elf, but a hybrid between them.

The first encounter was really something he would never forget. Rumors about treasures and requests from the guild made them follow some clues to find a cave that was marked as lost, impossible to enter and explore.

But “impossible” is a word that doesn’t exist their vocabulary. Yet is common that regretting comes along when you’re that bold and risky.

At the very end of that strange cave there wasn’t a treasure waiting, not even a new clue to keep going with the mystery. Instead, was a humanoid silhouette, they seemed to be meditating, not showing a single interest in their voices neither getting nervous because of Aether and Paimon taking some steps forward to have a better look.

But they were breathing, and both could see the pupils moving slightly under their eyelids. Eyebrows twitching now and then, like they were having a nightmare, one of which they couldn’t wake up.

Paimon encouraged him to get even closer to shake that person's shoulder, while she was hiding behind some rocks, obviously.

Aether summoned his sword and then he approached slowly until touching them with his fingertips, waiting for some kind of jumpscare.

The stranger raised their arm, carefully but also in a robotic way. Their fingers were tense, as much that it was painful just looking at them. Like a quiet call, like a order that couldn’t be heard, from the pile of rocks where Paimon was hiding something emerge, breaking through the stone and letting a rusty polearm to be seen.

Their fingers closed around the weapon, bringing them back to reality.

“Master and weapon, reunited again, rise so the world can meet their end!”

Or at least that's what he would have preferred to find. A servant guarding a lost relic, a soulless body moving by a curse, perhaps even a fate that death could not prevent.

But instead it was something really underwhelming, something that broke the mystical and strange atmosphere. That person opened their eyes, annoyed by the light of the torches and disoriented by the situation.

With their body in pain and numb at the same time, how long have they slept in that position?

The first thing they did after waking up was sneezing.

‘So much dust…’

Never accepting missions for exploring legendary caves ever again. Nope. Negative. He refuse to.

What if they find another (Y/N)? Thanks, but no. One is more than enough.

“So what you mean is that your parents' families exiled you and locked you up in the cave for being an ‘abomination’ to both species?” Paimon confirmed once the three of you were back in the surface again. Her hands moving side to side to explain -in a very expressive way- everything you told them.

“It seems that we found the remains of an ancient race that used to exist in Teyvat.” Aether said, still surprised by the way you roamed to feel the wood of the trees and the grass under your bare feet. Kind of heartbreaking.

“Like the boar we found with Xiangling!”

He wasn’t sure if it was okay to compare both encounters but he could see her point.

“… ‘Wait for us’, they told me, ‘think about your existence and find the answer to why your conception is not the atrocity that everyone says you are. May their words not reach you, because we have long ears to hear the words of the gods and not the ones of those who defile earth’… ” You pronounced after decades of not needing to use the language you were taught, with one hand on your chin and eyes closed to concentrate. All you had left was the few memories you preserved inside your mind and heart.

“With ‘they’ you mean your parents?”

You nodded.

“And what happened next?… ” Asked back the tiny companion of the blond guy that rescued you.

“I got bored and I fell asleep.” You admitted, carefree about it, shrugging your shoulders and sighing.

A total waste of your youth.

“Eh!? Then you didn’t thought about those things? That sounded important!” Paimon seemed disappointed for your answer, while Aether held his forehead, without having a clue of how he was supposed to react.

That was the day you joined their party! New team member, (Y/N) strikes in!

Or something like that,,

“H-Hey! We could use a hand over here!… woah!” The little white girl scold you but from your high sit on the top of a big rock only a exaggerated yawning can be heard. Paimon crossed her arms to almost immediately duck down to dodge a fire bullet from the Fatui. Aether didn’t say anything, he was concentrated fighting.

“Oh, yeah… You’re doing great. Go, Aether, go…”

“Was that supposed to be a cheering?!”

“Hey, calm down” You said “He doesn’t need my help. Just take a look, he’s an adventurer. If I meddle it will be really boring for him.”

“Hmp! Now Paimon believes that you were lying when you said that you were a well refined fighter!” She was floating around you, ignoring the battle of his blond friend. Like a pesky bee, the only thing you did was avoiding her furious gaze. “Don’t ignore Paimon! How can you not hear with those ears!? That’s it! Paimon will give you a ugly nickname!”

“What about ‘extinct deaf elf-der��?”

“Yeah, that’s a good one!” She agreed immediately, then she shook her head, pointing at you like a guilty criminal. “Wait, Paimon doesn’t need your suggestions!”

When the last Fatui was defeated Aether turned back to face both of you, sighing because of the new arguing between you two. His sword disappeared and some steps were took to get closer.

Your eyes met each other, a slight smile in your face after looking him safe and sound. So confident but so unaware of the remain danger hiding. Your expression became a surprised one, then your gaze sharped like a killer sight.

You left Paimon on top of the rock when you jumped down, summoning your own weapon you ran straight to where Aether was. The traveler panicked just a fraction of second before loosing sight of you.

Next thing they know was that a you were behind him, facing at the nothing with a defensive pose, just a second of silence before a impact could be heard. Some dirt and dust was lift as the pair of Fatui Pyro Agents became visible again. They stayed there, defeated in one hit.

“Like I said. It would be pretty boring if I meddle...” Aether and Paimon were shocked, none of them felt their presence, not even the heat of the pyro delusion. Your weapon disappeared in the air, and your hands rested on your waist. “Dear Seven, that was intense.” Looking at your friends you sighed, with the laziness on your body language. “It was my turn to cook dinner, right? What a pain having to eat again… ”

Acting that relaxed after that really made them went Ô_Ô and Ö

A silent speech, where devotion and gratitude are the best topics of conversation. The message that is heard even if there’s no words in between. Just a exchange of gazes. Little signs of affection that are shown when it’s necessary.

Your family was gone. No clues about their whereabouts could’ve found in that cave of where you came. Not even the skeletons of a couple holding their hands and petrified in a sobbing position. Not even ashes.

When you have been thinking about the most unimportant things in the universe for so long you can deal with the lost faster than anyone else. Getting the idea of no remain evidence of your parents and feeling that it wasn’t that heartbreaking.

Maybe because you gained a new family almost immediately.

Still you could empathize with Aether, he still had his precious memories with his sister, still remember her face and her voice. And most important was that he knew that she was still roaming Teyvat, waiting for him.

Even if they leave behind Paimon and you at the end of the trip.

Or even if they just leave you behind.

‘I’m okay with that.’

You thought, stroking Paimon’s hair when her head found a comfortable place to rest in your lap. You thought, moving your shoulder so Aether wouldn’t have neck pain. Both sleeping peacefully and you staying awake night by night.

You’ve slept enough, for so long besides.

Somehow the flames of the campfire are warmer now that you have someone to look how the fire dance in the night.

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“I see, so you were serious when you told me that your companion was a mystical extinct creature, weren’t you?” Albedo’s hand went up to hold his chin, analyzing you from distance.

“They are half of it, actually.” Aether answered back, notice how Sucrose was asking you permission to check your features. The sparkle in her eyes made you accept her petition after feeling with the back against the wall.

“Your ears are like mine! Look, look!” Klee pulled your shirt, then she pointed at the side of her head.

“… Still the shape of both are quite different, the length too.”

Years of isolation really are hitting hard right now. You felt overwhelmed and somehow shy when Sucrose hold your face to have a better look.

You follow the traveler to everywhere, no matter the place, you were there. Like a shadow, sometimes just a spectator, other times like an actual active team member.

“Who would’ve tell that our Honorary Knight also has his own knight watching his back.” Kaeya’s voice has that joke but charming tone, as always.

Day after day, it’s the same, everyone talking you through Aether. Like some kind of translator.

“More like a human shield.” Your hand landed on top of Aether’s head, not agreeing with his explanation.

Bonk.

“I guess everything’s better than being Emergency Food.”

“Hey!”

“Haha! You three are quite a team, aren’t you?”

Of course you were. Mondstadt, Liyue, you name it. You could assure that every place in this two nations have at least one story about the team.

You knew that the most brave and magnificent outlander in Teyvat didn’t need a guardian, he can defend himself (somehow even if he’s still using that dull blade).

Bodyguarding also sounds like such a hassle…

You only provide a last resource help when was needed, sometimes also helping with some puzzles and mysteries.

The long eared people was known to be wise and smart people that searched for the full comprehension of the world. Also such a nerds and fans of knowledge. So, even if you considered yourself dumb, in your blood was the instinct of looking for the truth, and sometimes that impulse could be really annoying.

You were always near enough to reach him. Pulling his scarf from behind to move him away from danger. Countering after he gets hit.

Always in a place where you could reach him.

You just needed to extend your arm and you would catch Aether. It was always like this. Always with you jumping in the middle of the crossfire to shield them if it was necessary.

It’s always like this.

Until the day you three set a foot in Inazuma’s land. And a bad feeling of a imminent catastrophe made your shiver.

A new nation, a new problem to solve. But a war? Boldness and stupidity sometimes looks like the same thing, but no matter how many times you repeat this to Aether, he would still ran into problems.

And you would follow him, until your debt is paid, until his travel is done.

It used to be like this.

But then you failed him after being unable to move because of the fear that paralyzed your body. The day Aether faced Shogun Raiden in the ceremony. The day you heard the broken voice of a god inside the Shogun you also fell apart. It was painful, cruel, a void of anger and sadness.

Jumping into danger, without you behind.

You tried to ran between the goddess and your savior, you tried to get closer to at least be useful one last time as the shield you promised to be.

You tried.

But, for the first time, your hand didn’t reach him.

The void of despair and darkness that could be heard inside the Shogun devoured him.

The tears of panic and fear in Paimon’s eyes. The way the Shogun lifted her sword to end his life. The way you were paralyzed because of her presence, forced to be part of the crowd and presence his execution.

That day your facade of laziness faded away, the real feeling of being a knight burnt along your proud. It was so annoying, it was so unnecessary, but still you couldn’t ignore it.

“Are you… are you sure that you’re okay? We don’t have to find the Sangonomiya resistance today. If you need to rest then-” Your hands were shaking when you placed them in Aether’s shoulders, holding yourself for tearing up.

“We have to keep going. I’ll be fine.”

“Besides, if we stay near Inazuma this night they could find us! Paimon won’t be able to sleep like that!” Your mouth opened to counter their arguments, but not a single word dared to go against Aether’s plans.

They could see it in your face. The worry, the remains of shock and fear, the guilty.

“Don’t try to look strong then. If you get tired, tell us. I can carry you in my back.” Even if you were offering help your voice was serious, so cold but so hurt at the same time that nor Aether or Paimon knew what to said to bring the old you back.

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“… Aren’t you coming?” You could hear how the door was slid to let him saw you. The lighted spots on Aether’s clothes were purple, just as the lighting that almost end him. Your lips made a concerned and stressed grimace.

The young traveler took a seat next to you, outside the structure, sitting on the wooden steps and looking at the starry sky. The wind was cold but still the soldiers of the resistance were talking normally and the slight feeling of discommodity because of the excessive presence of other people was climbing up your back.

“(Y/N), there’s no need of guard us every night. You also need to sleep.”

“I'm not tired, I think I've gotten enough sleep, at least not to need it until the next century.”

Aether’s expressions went into a sarcastic one, asking if you were serious with just his gaze.

“That’s not how it works.” He said, trying to change the mood. “And if it does, then why are you always snoozing during the day in every chance you get?”

You had the answer to that, but you weren’t sure about telling him.

“Because everything supposed to be boring. Nothing really changed a lot and… looking at the familiar places was depressing.” So easy, so simple, but still enjoying the company, still enjoying the sound of theirs laughs and their own shenanigans. “… Lately, I’ve been thinking that I should not had left the cave. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate that you two helped me to be back at the surface, and I really want to help you on your journey, but if you still run into the chaos by own decision I think I could not follow you any longer before being a burden in your adventures.”

Overprotection, an unbreakable shield, frequently avoiding fights, always being pulled back to not be part of the battle. Enemies of the braveness of the traveler.

Worry, panic, an overreaction due to fear of loosing everything again.

‘let me do it’, ‘I got it’, ‘wait here’, ‘don’t get close’.

These day could be described like that.

“So, before I do something worse as an excuse of defend you, please let me find a cave to await. You do what’s is needed and… call me back, or leave me there, anything you think it’s better… ”

You could be pronouncing the words from the very bottom of your heart, but still your face was the same seriousness as the accident almost happened.

And even with that you felt his gloved hand removing the hair that was covering your right ear, revealing how it slightly leaned down, showing sadness unwittingly.

“Hey, cut it out… I’m serious about this… ”

“It doesn’t matter if you think that it’s the best option, you’re still sad about leaving.”

“… That’s cheating.” Removing his hand away from your hair you tried to act indifferent.

“You know the reason why we invited you to came along?”

‘You felt sorry for me.’

“I can’t totally tell the exact reason, but it wasn’t for you to pay us some kind of debt because of saving you.” He crossed his arms, looking at the stars, wondering if his sisters was doing the same. “We don’t need a guardian, we need our friend back. And I know you care about Paimon and me, but still you must enjoy the journey. It’s not fair that you are always aware of every potential danger while we mess around lately.”

An eternal silence, your response is late to appear but somehow Aether can tell that you already have something on your mind.

“Then apologize.”

“… Why?”

“For believing that playing as the hero and jumping to face the Shogun was something you had to do.”

“… but-”

Neither Aether nor you slept that night, the blonde had to listen for hours to all the things that you ever wanted to complain about since you arrived in Inazuma.

You made your position on joining the army of the rebellion very clear, you had no intention of fighting to seek "justice" or "peace". Because after all, that fight did not correspond to you, but if he asked you to, you would protect some soldiers or help to guard the barracks, if he asked you to, you wouldn’t complain about it (at least not that much).

Both had enough of each other’s attitude, but it was okay. Because that was what all of you chose in first place.

[shihalyfie]

The meaning of the Beast Spirits in Frontier, and what it means to control it

(On request by @digitalgate02​.)

When you think about it, Frontier can be framed as a story of outcasts or misfits having to accept the idea of “changing themselves” in order to become better people, both literally in the sense of embracing physical transformation, and metaphorically in the sense of making attempts to do better. Implicitly, it speaks a lot as to how quickly these kids accept the idea of turning into something else -- perhaps implying as to how ostracized they’ve felt that such a thing instantly sounds appealing -- but it also adds some interesting layers to the concept of the Beast Spirit and how the difficulty of “controlling it” ties into each character’s personal story.

I think a lot of it has to do with the idea that these kids did have inclinations of being selfish or shallow at the beginning -- while they were full of potential to become heroes, they definitely started off as unlikely misfits at the beginning. In that respect, you can see the Beast Spirits arc as a sort of lesson that great power must be used wisely and responsibility...

Believe it or not, our biggest clue to all of this comes from episode 16, Izumi’s episode. It’s not directly stated in words, and the abstract summary of “determination” is passed off as a joke, but looking at the context clues around the episode indicates that’s actually not far off.

The thing is that Calmaramon is depicted as having the hardest time with her Beast Spirit compared to practically about anyone else in the group, and one of the recurring themes about it is that it’s partially because her personality is downright terrible. If you look at the context clues behind the prior episode (15), you’ll notice that while her looks are briefly brought up as an issue there and in this episode, the part that’s really freaking everyone out (and is making everyone worried Izumi will turn out to be the same) is that they actually saw it have an impact on her personality, where she was clearly conscious and able to talk but also indiscriminately destroying everything and enjoying it. At least in the case of Kouji, Takuya, and Junpei, they can be forgiven because they all did their best to keep it under control after the initial fallout, but Ranamon changing into Calmaramon had also involved her becoming someone actively reveling in senseless destruction. When everyone worries that Izumi might turn out like that, they don’t even bring up looks at all, and they all recoil when she does start showing signs of being destructive anyway.

The thing is, the entire rest of the episode puts a massive spotlight on Izumi’s actions of standing up for the Gomamon and empathizing with their loneliness (which, given the contexts added about Izumi’s background and backstory in episodes 8 and 26, are most likely her feeling that the concept of “being isolated from others no matter how much you want to reach them” hit way too hard for her) to the point she puts her foot down to override the boys’ prior plan of chasing the Toucanmon and their Digivices. She actually faces quite a bit of protest from the boys on this issue, and even admits she’s not sure if her own plan will work, but focuses on the idea of doing her best to undo the whirlpool with her abilities -- that is to say, using her power to protect and help others.

This sentiment of “I have to protect everyone” drives Izumi’s actions for the rest of the episode, to the point it’s the only thought consuming her head right before she finds and claims her Beast Spirit. So to make it clear, at the time she claimed it, the thought of “protecting others” was desperately, single-mindedly consuming her head...

...and the contrast is immediately apparent when Shutumon emerges, and the only thing Ranamon cares about is looks.

In other words, the reason the Beast Spirit wasn’t working out for Ranamon/Calmaramon is that she only wanted the Beast Spirit’s power for the sake of pride, vanity, and dominating others, and because of that, she had difficulty controlling it because it resonated with those feelings -- after all, although she wanted to “control” it to the extent of not carrying her all over the place, she was perfectly fine with the part about causing wanton destruction. Izumi, on the other hand, is clearly holding herself back even after her first evolution to Shutumon -- trying to keep a calm head -- and, after all, her entire motivation had been driven by “helping and protecting others” for the whole episode, so she doesn’t want to let this fail on her now, and she keeps that calm head all the way throughout the rest of it.

When we get to the next episode (17), you’ll also notice that one of the first things Blizzarmon (Tomoki) does is actively attempt to restrain himself. If you look back at what Tomoki’s character arc is about, he’d spent the better part of his past being bullied by others and tossed around, so “overpowering the weak” is the last thing Tomoki ever wants to do (especially given the events of this episode, as well). So, having witnessed the potential consequences of the Beast Spirit with the other boys, it stands to reason that Tomoki would want to avoid “hurting others” so much that restraining this would be a strong priority for him. While it’s commented that it does take his personality out of control a bit, the worst it ever gets is that he seems to be overly elated and cheerful about his defeats, but that’s also in line with Tomoki constantly having been pushed down so much during his life that you can imagine he’s enjoying the opportunity to finally be strong and have the spotlight.

But because he hates the concept of bullying and pushing others down so much, it stands to reason that he wouldn’t really have as much of a problem with that.

So when you look back at the prior episodes with the Beast Spirits with this context, you can see it applying there as well. In episode 14, Junpei was spending the better part of the first half of the episode livid at what was happening to his friends -- absolutely pissed at Grottomon for taking Izumi's spirit (and, despite Izumi's doubts, it's pretty apparent he actually does care about it beyond just having a crush on her), and then upset at the idea of being a sitting duck while Agnimon and Wolfmon are getting tossed around. While Junpei initially has trouble keeping the Spirit under control, the exact moment he gets a grip on himself is the moment he reaffirms his determination to fight for the sake of his friends.

Looking back at the other two episodes about rampaging Beast Spirits in episodes 10 and 12, you can also see why the concept applies there as well. It’s interesting how the “worst” rampage shown among the main protagonist Beast Spirits was not the first one obtained (Garmmon) but the second one (Vritramon), and if you look at the circumstances surrounding them, it doesn’t seem to mean as much about Takuya having any particular stronger tendency towards condescending violence as much as the sheer circumstances that went on behind them:

Kouji obtained his Beast Spirit under the circumstances of already knowing that he needed to protect Gotsumon with that power (and, moreover, having spent the end of the prior episode and the duration of the beginning of this one mulling on Ophanimon’s warning that he’d need to “grow” before he could obtain it). Therefore, “using this power for the desire to protect others” was a huge thought in his head from the very beginning, even though -- presumably partially because this was a first time for everyone -- it threw him off just enough for him to end up exhausting himself.

Takuya obtained his without warning and without proper understanding of what he was dealing with, having had it practically forced on him after Shamamon-as-Vritramon’s defeat, and so, with no context of purpose and no real depth of what he was about to get into, he ended up on a complete destructive rampage. He was snapped out successfully by the need to not hurt someone (Tomoki), and spent the rest of the episode agonizing and mulling over the risks and meaning of having such power before he eventually evolved into Vritramon without too much issue the second time.

So the point is made clear: the “destructive” and “uncontrollable” impulses associated with the Beast Spirits will be sent out of control if the user doesn’t have a strong desire to use it with proper purpose. For Ranamon/Calmaramon, she had the worst time with it because she was the single most obsessed out of the Legendary Warriors to use it to stroke her own ego and vanity, whereas at least the other three Cherubimon-allied ones (besides Duskmon -- see below) were at least capable of using it towards a greater goal, and the remaining five went through the proper outlets of thinking about how this power should be used and how it shouldn’t be used lightly.

While the issue of the Beast Spirits being inherently difficult to control isn’t as prominent as we go later into the series, we do actually see shades of it when we get to the tale of Kouichi/Duskmon/Velgrmon, because while part of it can be chalked up to the power of darkness being consuming, Kouichi, during his first transformation to Velgrmon in episode 30, is only able to talk barely coherently and is really just venting his rage and anger out, presumably because his entire state of mind is locked into all of that, making the rampage even worse. (Also keeping in mind the theme of embracing the idea of changing yourself, you can also think of this in terms of how Kouichi is getting so consumed by his own emotions of anger that he’s become almost completely unrecognizable from his original self.)

Once we get his first “proper” evolution in episode 33, however, Kouichi is abundantly aware of what he’s done and has all of the proper determination to never let such a thing happen again -- so it’s not surprising that his evolution to KaiserLeomon happens with relatively little incident.

[vyvesvi]

ep 7 / 8 / 9 FINALLY

ep 7: i wasn't actually able to watch it so ill just say -

tsukushi, rinon, and keiko killed it, they were definitely #1 in my mind. i loved rinon's tone and they all balanced eachother out super well. im sad that tsukushi got third but really, they all did so well.

antifragile was bad. they were a dance group but the vocals took me out of the song so bad i couldn't finish it. love ema though (rip). i didnt like rimika but she had so much potential storyline wise that she just never leaned into. missed opportunity for her

i tried to watch rocketeer for ran but im learning that i just don't vibe with ini's music. should've been jo1 supercali or something 🤷🏿‍♀️

i saw the feedback on twitter before watching ofc so i had pretty high expectations for momoka in the milet x aimer song...if i put the overhyping aside she did pretty well, WiSh I cOuLd'Ve ExPeRiEnCeD iT iN tHe CoNtExT oF tHe EpIsOdE tHoUgH and it probably would've been very satisfying

shut down was eh even though i like everyone on the team. i stopped halfway through, i dont love the song and their energy was oddly low

first love was great & super glad rino won :) even if it didnt impact her rank 🙃🙃🙃

overall bijin was the best, then first love, run run, & hero imo.

ep 8: as a rule i don't watch eliminations, but my beloved koyama mana was eliminated at rank 38 😭 fly high queen we love you 🕊 follow her on ig & yt @ himana_mana! also rip takagi mayu loved you too 🤧

im also sick that a certain someone is still in but we move 🥴 glad aita rin is still top 11 & ISHII RAN #1!!!! someone needs to save my sister tsukushi tho omg

ep 9

friend i watch with made the comment that these sound more like actual songs than survival show song usually do and i agree lol. usually there's this "made for tv" movie feel about them but these were honestly good enough to go to a debuted group. taking everything into account, my rank:

baddie - i was very suspicious of this song from the demo honestly but this team did great. i dont have many comments except that my girls rino and yui did the thing! hana has also been growing on me a lot

&me - now. the song was great but i didnt actually enjoy this tbh. im not a kokoro anti but it bothers me that she can get away with not showing anything over and over again and still be fighting for #1. she's very comfortable onstage and she seems like a great eldest member...that's pretty much all i can say. also, even though i really enjoy this style of music i don't think the final group members suit this and it would be a shame if this was the concept. my winner on this team, to no one's surprise, is tsuzumi. i wonder if she knows that they would be screwed without her. she quite literally did everything on this song

popcorn - this song was very cute but it was a bad choice for a performance. no matter who was on this team i think it would've placed low because there was no chance to show vocal or dance abilities. serina did a great job as center and i liked kokona's rap, but overall i just feel bad for them.

toxic - something was off here but they still did pretty well. they should've switched tsukushi and yuuki's parts for the vocals, but yuuki still visually looked good performing her part. i wish ran had the opportunity to stand out more but she knows she's that girl so she'll be fine. ayane served vocals of course. kokona...i like her more now but focusing the narrative on her was really annoying. and then it didn't seem like she really changed for the final performance? i also thought the pd session was kind of weird with them telling her, a 2007(?) baby to use her imagination to sing sexier.........it's a no from me.

a to z - this was rough and unfortunately it was kind of because of mena. she was the perfect center but she lost it vocally because the song was out of her range. i wish they couldve made her chorus a group chorus, but her other lines were fine

voting list!

however i know that it's 2 pick right now so id be voting for sakaguchi rino every day and irresponsibly splitting my votes between ishii ran, sasaki tsukushi, saito serina, and and yui. pretty confident that rinon is safe

top 11

this is the current top 11 minus suzu, plus rino & rinon. kenmotsu nano dropped 10 places after some rumors about her spread so she's probably out unless her fans save her. i've said this before but im not the hugest fan of how stable things have been thus far, but we'll see what's changed in just a few hours i guess!

i've added my picks to my carrd & this is looking like it'll be the second worst season for my picks after chuang 2020, where i got 0 lol (this season is looking like 1 out of 4). im pretty disappointed with the lack of storytelling & character building (& i dont mean evil editing) this season because that's what really gets audiences invested & makes the show feel more worth it. right now the final group is gonna have to impress me with their music because even though my top pick is literally top 3 (ran) im not super excited for the group 🙃

pd 101 japan picks & commentary (3)

preshow & ep 1

ep 2 - ep 5

ep 6 general commentary

this ep was kind of lowkey. not really sure how i feel about the team selection being entirely determined by rank - pretty sad that karen & momoka, amongst others, probably wont get to show their actual main abilities

the teams that performed were hero, shine a light, wa da da, & run run. ranking: run run > hero ≥ wa da da > shine a light. i don't really like the song choices (songs that already have choreo for a dance round, only one non-idol dance song, plus the singers/producers for that song helped arrange all of the vocal performances? makes me wonder if the final group will be getting a LAS song) but at least theyre all in japanese this time (for the vocal & rap groups at least)

run run: good performance but i have a few gripes. 1 - why was it worth more points? they said that the choreo was harder but the whole mission was for the girls to create choreo so... i dont actually expect that the trainees on these shows are doing all the arranging and writing and choreography themselves (much less on pd japan where virtually no one has a trainee background) but the whole set up of the mission kind of says the quiet part loud, you know? 2 - the distribution was a complete mess. loved joa as the center but the rest were basically backup dancers...for a choreo that theyre ostensibly creating themselves the difference in screentime between each person just doesnt make sense. and that was reflected in all of the ranks apart from yuuki & yurara i think. storyline: i found the koto/yuki storyline pretty meh. joa did actually do better than both of them so...? still, in another series this wouldve had a massive conflict edit & im glad pdj doesn't really do that. sad mitsuki & serina didn't get much screentime, i think mitsuki should've gone for antifragile actually, she needed to be on a team where the styling would've worked with her & allowed her to show more of a charming side on stage (friend that i watched LOVED her in cheer up, made me pause to figure out who the "gorgeous regina george lookalike" was.)

hero: ando yui is my daughter but i have to admit that she has a tendency towards shouting some notes. still, i feel like she has a ton of potential and im glad that she got to redeem herself after the audition. tsuzumi is basically in and she 100% knows it, so it's interesting to see how she's dealing with it. more than anyone else in the top it seems to really be impacting her, but she also seems to have a lot of close friends on the show who understand & are supporting her. to be honest, i usually don't like contestants like mayu but...idk. i see a lot in her but im not sure why. it seems like voters are starting to get serious so her rank has dropped a lot but i i'll miss her when she's eliminated. i hope there's some opportunity for her beyond the show.

wa da da: kind of sick that no one chose wa da da 😭 the stage was pretty messy in my opinion but mana did great, she's such a performer. personally ranka isnt one of my picks but i like her intensity a lot & she definitely deserved her rank. i don't think this is her moment exactly but i could see her being recruited somewhere after this. she would suit a kind of dramatic vibe. karen is interesting to me because while she doesn't dance well i found that she really fit the stage. i also love her attitude. there's no way she won't rise but im not sure that itll be enough. last and least,

shine a light: im a big jo1 fan but i knew this wasn't gonna go great from the outset. the energy of the original song is part of what makes it so good so the fact that they removed that.....i also think it's kind of notable that hina said that she didn't want it to be a ballad and was kind of steamrolled........anyways. we saw the performance. i've always said that i wanted hazuki to get more screentime & establish herself and this was her chance but...rip. from the second her voice cracked it was over for the whole team. every single person messed up except for hina. i know that this wasn't a super strong vocal group but it's so sad that they did the worse they've ever done on stage. i expect hina's rank to continue to rise, and hazuki in particular will fall (not because she was the worse but because she has the smallest fanbase & isnt insulated from mistakes like some of the top contestants). curious about what will happen with chiharu because honestly...no one really expected her to sing super well and she was gorgeous so. we'll see

member commentary

change is always possible but this is my stable top 4. rino & ran's teams weren't in this episode but it's a very good sign that rino still got screentime singing well & being a good leader. not thrilled that her rank dropped (14 → 17) and there are a lot of strong contenders in the early teens right now. in truth, i think some of them would be a much better fit for a spin off project (which have much higher success rates than the ones from korean produce) & rino would make more sense in top 11 but that's neither here nor there.

mana, as i said earlier did sooooo well in wadada, although im curious as to what she would've picked had she been given a real choice. im hoping her rank will rise - she didn't get a push in this ep but she was significantly more visible than a lot of her teammates so fingers crossed.

serina is just a good [potential] idol. i was surprised that she went for dance since her vocals are what i noticed first but she pulled off run run well. i wouldve picked shine a light or even antifragile for her though. unfortunately she got very little screentime & storyline but i'm sure run run will win so maybe that 20k will help maintain her spot.

standouts in this ep

not gonna break it down again but yeah. love the girlies love the vibes

other thoughts

call me crazy but im so so sure that these three will be recruited by lapone for a gg after the show. with the top 11 having skewing less cute im hoping that this becomes a reality bc these three fit eachother more than they fit momona/nano/ran/rin/etc. oda aruha (and maybe moro anon) would be here too but alas.

people i'd like to have seen in this ep

rin is riding a wave right now and she needs momentum to stay top 11. looking at the ranks now, kokona dropped 10 places (19 → 29) 🙃 rinon & ayano are fine, but i wanted to see them keep momentum as well. i like akiyama ema for some reason but to survive she desperately needs screentime and a good performance. I'm even more worried about tsukushi - her dropping from 18th to 31st after doing incredibly well is kind of insane. what i've said about tsukushi needing a storyline in the past still stands. i can already tell that her part in bijin will be great but with rinon & keiko im not sure what her screentime potential is.

ep 6 voting list

no surprises here, although im not sure what the voting has been reduced to? if it's only 5 i'd have to go with mana, rino, rin, serina, and then alternate kokona, yui, and mayu. i know that the "this person is safe so i wont vote for them" logic is flawed but i can't help it. good thing intl fans cant vote so this isn't a real concern! 🤪 /s

ep 6 semi-realistic top 11

only change is that i replaced kokona with joa. i have to say, im not thrilled about how many "givens" there are this season. it's not that i dislike them but it makes for a kind of boring top 11, at least until we get to 1 & 2 pick voting. rin was a nice surprise but i think the production has been pretty mask off about their picks. interestingly, i think it might bite them in the butt that momona & kokoro in particular don't actually get that much screentime. for people who are seeing them through the show for the first time (and also dont keep up with twitter discourse) probably feel that their ranks came out of nowhere. ran has gotten good screentime but she's definitely also buoyed by her original fanbase. miu, joa, & tsuzumi have good screentime & storylines so when joa goes up to top 11 i won't be surprised. rin had a good storyline so she makes sense. ayane doesn't get very much screentime but her voice does the brunt of the work. nano is a (capable) visual pick but she doesn't have a storyline. suzu has had a fanbase since the theme song but i expect her to fall a little honestly. we'll see. keiko is new to the top 11 this ep, i hope they reveal the actual ranks this time because that will influence my thoughts. keiko has great screentime and a litle bit of storyline so her rising makes sense. kokona is interesting to me because her rank is so stable based on not very much honestly. i don't dislike her but her lack of expressiveness on stage is probably something they'll try to build a storyline out of later.

i have a lot of confidence that rino will debut elsewhere after this but in the interest of creating a group i would actually like...

[adobe-outdesign]

thoughts on hydreigon’s evolution line?

First off, I should disclaim that I like this line quite a bit, both conceptually and in terms of the overall theme. I'm only mentioning that now because I'm mostly going to be focusing on design here, which I don't like as much.

Anyway, Deino reminds me of a Muppet and that's really all I need to like it. It's just such an endearingly silly aesthetic for such a ridiculously violent Pokemon.

Design-wise, however, there are some things I don't care for here that are present throughout the entire line. I'm not a big fan of the fur only being on the upper body; it just creates such an odd, unnatural look. It feels like the neck should've been plain blue, with just fur around the head(s) and the manes.

I'm also not big on the random head spike. It reads as more of a horn than fur at this point, and I really don't think you needed it at this stage. Just a bit of fluff up there at most would've done it.

And finally, I'm not big on the random magenta flecks. It's possible they're meant to be injuries based on the 'dex descriptions, but it doesn't make sense that every single Dieno has injuries in the exact same place. I would've just left those off. I don't think you need the third color at this stage anyway.

Now, Zweilous does a really good job of being a middle evo, in the sense that it bridges between the first and final evos without just being a blend of the two. One head -> two heads -> three heads (one main and two minor) gives each stage its own flavor while still managing to stay coherent as one line. And in general, it's taking the same good, muppety elements that were present on Dieno and expanding upon them.

However, it does still have hairy neck problem that I mentioned with Dieno, even if the fur on top of the head looks more natural. And more importantly, we have the issue of those two underbelly lines. Fun fact: the reason it has those two lines is because this line was originally based off of tanks, and those were the treads. While it's interesting to learn about from a development standpoint, I'm really not fond of them in the final product. Having the bright magenta in the least important spot on the body doesn't accomplish much, and it's adding a ton of detail where you don't need it. I'll go over this more in a moment with...

Hydreigon is pretty damn cool looking. First, it has a very interesting concept with the three heads, and the yamata no orochi theme gives it a unique flavor compared to other dragon types. I'm also fond of how vicious it looks, befitting of its personality, along with how the wings invoke the other six heads without being super literal about it.

I'm also a big fan of the face. The eyes are really cool looking, and much more interesting than the standard anime eyes these kind of Pokemon usually receive. The hand heads also retain the muppet look, and the way the frills flare up around the head reminds me of frilled lizards. It both adds some nice brighter color and feels like a logical continuation of how the fur covered its pre-evos faces.

Like the rest of the line however, it doesn't quite sit right with me from a design standpoint, even if the concept and execution are strong as a whole. Going back to the underbelly thing: having two separate underbelly markings isn't needed when you could've just had one, and in all honestly I don't think you needed any. If you want more magenta in the design, just make the tail tip magenta instead of brown (which makes more sense anyway; does it have fur on its tail?). It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's adding too much detail in an already detailed design for no real reason.

Secondly, the weird broken-off legs and tails of this line don't do it for me. I think it's supposed to give them a more battle-worn appearance, but that doesn't really work when they just evolve to look like that by default. Just keep the tail whole, and honestly you could probably remove the legs entirely seeing as Hydreigon never seems to land anyway.

And finally, this one just might be me, but I would've liked to see a black/dark grey in place of the brown for the whole line. I think the reason is that it's very low-contrast as-is, so the whole thing looks kind of dingy and muddled. Just changing that to a black would help the design pop a bit more. Plus I feel that black would play nicer with the magenta than brown does anyway.

So as a whole, I like this line quite a bit; it's got a great theme and the designs are very cohesive with each other, each with their own flair. It's just that the details of the designs feel clunky and overly detailed to me. Still, I'll take it over another generic dragon any day of the week.