#and if you match them correctly it translates the word on all the in game objects

[roseofhybrids]

you know what would be fun?

A puzzle game where you're given a bunch of different objects, magazines, books, food labels, et cetera, all with a made up language on them. Then, with just the objects you're given, you have to decipher how to read the conlang your only clues come from the pictures and contents of the items

say for example, the game gives you two cans they're different brands, but two of the words on the front of them match the game lets you open the cans, and inside you find that both are filled with tomato soup ergo, you can conclude that the shared words mean "tomato soup"

then you can take another can, this one only shares one word and is filled with vegetable soup. Therefore, that single word that all three cans share must mean "soup" and by process of elimination the other word means "tomato"

and the idea is you keep doing this with different words till you can fully translate everything

[jovial-thunder]

Lancer Tactics devlog

I'm gonna try out posting my ~monthly devlog roundup here as well. These suckers are glorified changelogs with anecdotes and gifs galore. Let me know if this is something you like seeing show up on your dash?

Map Editor

Got units able to be placed/deleted/moved in the mission editor

Can paint/remove command zones in the editor

Can paint minecraft-like terrain blocks in the editor

Can paint/rotate multi-tile props in the editor

Can edit unit character sheets and portrait via the editor

3D maps

Did a bunch of art tests with 3D mech models, provided by GeneralChaos, which we ended up deciding not to go with to keep things simple.

To avoid the can of worms that is animation, we'd have to lean into a static "tabletop minatures" aesthetic which we decided is not a style we want to be stuck with. By sticking with 2D sprites, we avoid falling into a sort of uncanny valley; it's easier to get away with not animating a 2D sprite than it is for a 3D model.

 We also experimented with 3D terrain. We decided to make a rule that the visual style for a piece of terrain should match its mechanical effect: obstructing terrain that you can't move through, such as rocks or buildings, will be in 3D, while non-obstructing terrain like trees will stick with 2D sprites.

Hooking up the 3D camera to follow events like movement and attacks did a LOT for making it starting to feel like it's cohering into an Actual Game™

Implemented cover! And an attack preview! Cover works by aiming a ray from the target to the originator (technically to and from each voxel of each, respectively, to handle size 2s shooting above size 1 cover) and tracking all the terrain blocks it hits (how we'll handle non-terrain hard cover TBD). I think I have it working according to Perijove's cover rules manual, but I'm sure there'll be edge cases to work out. This is a case where things are significantly simplified by working in squares instead of hexes; hexes have a lot more possible weird angles you have to deal with.

Re-added what I'm stubbornly calling Combat Popcorn; little bits of text that pop out when you use abilities and attacks.

UI & game screens

Added ability for the engine to show UI that's anchored to the game world via a little word bubble line but also stay on screen as the camera moves around.

Got word bubbles working; you can now write dialogue in the mission editor, hit playtest, and see it work in a mission! (it does actually translate correctly now; this gif is just from a bug I thought was funny)

Got ability effects mostly behaving appropriately again, including muzzle flashes. The easiest way to handle them ended up being NOT billboarding them so they always face the camera (like all other 2D sprites in the game); instead, I put them on a plane parallel with the ground and just spin them around the unit to point at wherever their target is.

Did some work ironing out our tooltip system. The standard in CRPGs these days is this kind of nested labyrinth of tooltops that you see in Baldur's Gate 3:

I Did Not Want to try and figure out how to wrangle that much UI, so we're instead opting to cap the nested tooltips at the second layer. You can lock a general tooltip for e.g. an action and then mouseover various items within that tooltip to get glossary definitions...

...and then instead of having those glossary tips be lockable/mouse-overable themselves, I collect all related terms to that glossary definition and let you tab through them.

Added skin overlay functionality to the portrait maker, enabling textures like scars, tattoos, stubble, and vitiligo to be applied to just the skin and not extend off into space.

Midway through writing this update, Carpenter sent me this gif of the randomization button working! There's a still a bunch of skintones/assets missing and a few are a bit janky, but it was exciting to start seeing the range of these lil freaks (affectionate) that this editor can create.

Mourning cloak license!

This is the one I'm probably most excited about: I did a bit of a content dive and implemented a basic character sheet + all Mourning Cloak traits and equipment. They don't have fancy graphics yet, but the weapons and systems can be added via the character sheet and used in-game.

It took a little under a day, including adding soon-to-be common mechanisms like bonus damage. This is great news in that it means the engine we've been building for so long in the abstract seems to do a great job in handling comprehensive actual game content, and that it looks like we've set ourselves up for success when it comes time to buckle down on churning that out.

I'm sure other licenses will come with unique difficulties (I fear the day it comes time to do the Mule Harness // Goblin CP) but I'm feeling good about it!

Vertical slice?

Taking a step back, the pressing question on my mind has been "when will we have a playable early access build?"

I was originally hoping for Feb/March, but what we've internally been referring to as the "3D cataclysm" has pushed everything back by at least three months, so the target for the first alpha build is now in May. So, ah, thanks for your patience! Seeing things come together, I've become more and more convinced that moving to 3D was the right call.

[sojirosteacup]

Trivia from the character book/fanbook/FF

Here it is, after many requests, some of the trivia from the character book. Of course it's not even close to everything that's in there (translating the entire book would be impossible), but I handpicked some of the most asked trivia or useful stuff for fanfics/headcanons

Notes from the mangaka (there are a few of them on some pages):

About the second richest F4 boy:

"Between the F4, when it comes to who has the most money, it's undoubtedly Doumyouji. If you ask me about the remaining three… maybe Nishikado is in second place. I don't really know why, the tea ceremony master gives me the impression of having a lot of money. As for the last two, they might have about the same amount, I think."

About Rui's dancing skills:

"Rui is a skillful character quite able to do anything, but he only does what he has an interest in, so he is enthusiastic about the violin and isn't really interested in dancing. I think he would be talented if he danced. He just doesn't do it. Selfish, isn't it? (laughs)"

About Soujirou's dating history:

"Flirting debut at 13 years old?! Nishikado started going out to clubs since around middle school and learned to womanize. He wanted to feel what he couldn`t at home. His target was generally woman up to their early 20s. Does it seem similar to his partner Mimasaka? … of course. I assume it would be a facing match!"*

------

20 year olds at 13?! #SaveNishikado

*(note: I'm not sure if i translated the last part about Mimasaka correctly, please take it with a grain of salt)

----

Other fun facts:

There is an entire page dedicated to Tsukasa mispronouncing idioms and the next page is dedicated to him mispronouncing words

There are two pages dedicated to Soujirou and Akira's friendship, including something called "Nishikado and Mimasaka's love theater" which are the moments they pretend to be a couple.

Tsukushi spends 600 hours per year sleeping in class. She also takes 50 minutes to get to school everyday (she takes the subway).

The male staff from the Doumyouji family have canon names: Nishida (Kaede's aide), Misawa (head of the security team) and Saito (a new staff member). The one who got headbutted by Tsukasa on the bathroom was Saito.

Soujirou's branch of tea ceremony is Omotesenke

Soujirou dates about 12 ~ 13 girls at the same time (they all know about it).

Akira straightened his hair halfway through the manga because he was heartbroken after breaking up with his affair. The woman he calls during the party at his house is a different affair.

There is a whole page of Akira's face getting covered/cut on panels due to lack of space. lol He really is our Mike Wazowski

Profiles:

Tsukasa:

His page calls him "Wild beast prince"

Birthday: January 31st

Horoscope: Aquarius

Height: 185cm

Weight: 67kg

Blood type: B

Speciality: Fighting

Favorite color: Red

Favorite Food: Okonomiyaki

Rui:

Soujirou:

Birthday: March 30th

Horoscope: Aries

Height: 182cm

Weight: 65kg

Blood Type: AB

Speciality: Sleeping

Favorite color: Black

Favorite Food: Mineral Water

Akira:

Birthday: December 3rd

Horoscope: Sagitarius

Height: 181cm

Weight: 65kg

Blood type: O

Speciality: Flirting, tea ceremony

Favorite color: White

Favorite Food: Sesame tofu

Tsukushi:

Birthday: February 28th

Horoscope: Pisces

Height: 179cm

Weight: 66kg

Blood type: A

Speciality: Flirting, making cocktails

Favorite color: Yellow

Favorite Food: Shrimp and avocado salad

----

Birthday: December 28th

Horoscope: Capricorn

Height: 160cm

Weight: 48kg

Blood type: B

Speciality: Part time job, Kendama (japanese cup and ball game)

Favorite color: Green/blue*

Favorite Food: omuraisu (fried rice with omelette), caramel parfait

*the word used is あお, it can mean both green or blue depending on context

The other characters do not have this kind of profile.

[blazescompendium]

Blaze's Compendium Entry #5:

What does the fox say? Ask Cironnup- Kamuy

Warning: Faith and religion are important real life topics, that tackles the culture and way of life of millions of real life people. It is a cultural expression, and must be respected by all means. Here, we use a video-game series only to ignite the flame of learning about the matter, using its art when well depicted, but we do this with all due respect to the cultures we talk here, grounded by real life sources, cultures and people. And i mean this with respect. Hope you all enjoy.

Let's get back to Japan once again, but this time to the northern Island of Hokkaido. There lives the Ainu people. Today we are not only talking about my favorite Megami Tensei creature, but also about very interesting entities, culture and people. Please, sit back and enjoy the ride.

(Please, note that i don't speak Japanese. I had to go over English sources as well use software to translate. If i got anything wrong, let me know!) This time, all sources will be available at the end of the post, since iv used them extensively, it got pretty messy to pin down the exact points, so will list them below)

Cironnup (Also called Chironnup or Chironnupu in Japan) in the Ainu tongue translates to ''Those who we kill many''. And it can be used to describe foxes in general, but also is referred to a Kamuy.

For us to understand what Cironnup is, we first need to dive in the meaning of the word Kamuy, which is very, very interesting.

In the Ainu tradition, Kamuy can be a complex term to translate. It can be defined as a sort of divine spirit, supernatural entity or even a god. The Foundation for Ainu Culture translated it as the word god, when i emailed them about the matter. Its similar to the word Kami, in Shinto Japan. It's a tricky word to translate that has no perfect match in English. But let's go with god.

Sometimes in the modern day Japan, the word can also be translated as Kami, or Hotoke (Spirit). But as their English counterparts, those words don't match 100% correctly the true meaning of the Kamuy word.

The Ainu belief system comes from their relationship with the Kamuy. This belief came from people who have a deep connection with nature, and helped them to survive and thrive in their environment, as well protect them from disasters and other calamities.

The Ainu belief system does not have a central scripture, like the Christians have the Bible. Their views of the Kamuy can be interpreted differently through time and place, but remain somewhat similar. It's good to remember the Ainu is a diverse group. Beliefs, customs and regional dialects can vary from region to region.

But ok, then what is a Kamuy? You ask.

The Kamuy description can vary, but they are spirits, supernatural entities, or gods. They can be attributed to many creatures and objects. In fact, there's Kamuy for diseases, earthquakes, fauna, flora, and more. It's like this belief system comes around the idea that everything and everyone has a soul.

There's not only natural occurred Kamuy, but also the ones that came from man-made objects, like spears, boats.

The relationship between Kamuy and Human are complex. Some Kamuy can provide for Humans, like animals that provide meat and fur, or plants that provide food and remedy. Others can protect and take care of Humans. There's also Kamuy who bring calamities, like diseases such as smallpox. (Sources where keen on Smallpox, it seems it got pretty common in Hokkaido some times.)

Some examples are like the Fire Kamuy, that not only provides heat and cooked food, but also hears Humans and take their pleads to other Kamuy in case they still have not answered. the owl related Kamuy remain outside villages looking after their people.

Another good and very specific example is the Salmon Kamuy. Known as Chep-Kamuy. Salmon was a much needed fish for the Ainu, so they often built their villages next to streams where they could find this fish. Thus the importance.

Kamuy are often portraied as free willed entities. They live their lifes just as we do, and they can be good or evil. Some times they are not eivl, but there can be a conflict of interests between Humans and Kamuy. Being good or bad, Kamuy would only come back to their world once their mission is accomplished in the Human world.

It is said that the Kamuy have their own relatives and friends in their world, so it is at least implied that are many instances of one Kamuy. For example, many Chep-Kamuy living in their world along many Cironnup-Kamuy. For this reason, when a good Kamuy is going home the Ainu offers them hospitality, food, drinks in rituals so they can either thank the entity for what was given.

This way, according to the Ainu, the Kamuy will come back home happy and satisfied, thankful for the Human hospitality. They will tell all their friends and family about how good they were treated on Earth. The Ainu believes that not only the hospitality offered to the Kamuy makes they wanting to come back, but also they could bring more Kamuy along, after telling their relatives about how good they were treated. This also make that specific Kamuy more respected in their world. Both sides having a mutual relationship.

In the case of bad Kamuy, like disease, the tactics were to run away from it. Some Ainu even erasing their own footprints in the snow so they can't be tracked by the malevolent entity. They were also treated with respect, but in more of a fearsome way.

The Kamuy often inhabited animals and plants, for example. So, in the case of wild animals the way a Kamuy go home is when the animal is killed. Hunting deprives a creature of their life, but it is necessary for survival. This act is seen as the Humans liberating a Kamuy back to their world, after have killed their carcass. (In the case of wild animals)

One of the more famous, and important of those rituals were related to the Bear Kamuy. (Kin Un Kamuy) I wont go too deep into it, because it's complex, but basically the Ainu took care of a bear cub for a whole year, even living among them as another member of their society, before slaughtering it with arrows, and eating its meat. This way, the Ainu hope the Kamuy goes to its world grateful for the hospitality and the time it spent with Humans.

-You can remember Teddie from Persona 4 kinda having this motif in his Persona ''Kamuy''.

As you can see, the Kamuy is a fascinating subject. They can be good, bad, they are multitudes, they have families and lifes, their own personalities and interests just like Humans. They can be humble, hateful, have pride or a good sense of humor. They can be related to natural phenomena, animals, plants. There's just a lot to cover about Kamuy.

My note here, but it remembers me a lot of the concept of Jinn and Daemons, from Islamic and Greek pantheons respectively.

BACK TO CIRONNUP, THIS WAS A LONG TURN

Cironnup-Kamuy is the fox deity in this context. Foxes by themselves were called upon many names in the Ainu culture. Cironnup is one of those names. But it could also be Kemakosnekur which means ''light footed god'' according to the Foundation for Ainu Culture.

Cironnup appears in many tales and are generally known to be Kamuy that listens to people's requests, brings food, can protect against illness and foreign enemies. They can appear in premonitory dreams to warn about calamities. But there are some instances of Cironnup doing mischief and evil deeds, like possessing people, transforming into people as disguises.

As in many cultures around the world, foxes are treated like cunning and natural tricksters. But the Ainu had a deep relationship with the foxes, since they were essential to their survival in some times. They could be deceiving, but also could bring good help. This could explain this duality.

The name Cironnup could also be referred to other creatures, it can be names of villages, and could also describe wild beasts. It could describe many other wild animals that were heavily hunted by the Ainu, but slowly the name was more and more associated with the Fox. (The Fox itself could have different names in different regions as well.)

In the specific case of Cironnup, the premonitory nature of it were also brought by some regions using fox skulls as divination tools. They could also be used as guardians for Sea Fishing.

Cironnup calling its Kamuy friends for help? In Japanese this attack is called ''Kitsunebi Aputo'' Which mixes the Kitsunebi flames, with the Ainu word for rain, meaning a rain of a fox fire. Although... Kitsune is a whole different matter.

In my researches i found a Brazilian web page dedicated to Japanese culture. There, i found a story about the author being hunting with an Ainu, and they talked a bit about their relationship with the Cironnup Kamuy.

According to the author, they were out hunting when he noticed footprints in the snow that were from a Fox. He then proceeded to ask the Ainu hunter if they should go after it. But the Ainu stopped the Brazilian hunter, informing him that if they catch the fox first, the Cironnup-Kamuy would certainly go around the woods telling all other animals they were hunting nearby. Because by killing the Fox, the Kamuy would be liberated of the body.

When the fox was indeed caught, they would tie their snouts, so it would keep its mouth shut and wont spoil their hunt. The author did not seemed conclusive if this was a general and normal hunting behavior for the Ainu, but being a first hand account (And written in my own native language) i found it interesting to post here.

Cironnup's beta design for Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. It wears some clothing inspired by the Ainu.

The Human Race has a very interesting relationship with foxes in general. Their depictions usually repeats itself through our history, because they are very interesting animals by themselves. Me myself, I've lived my whole life, in a culture where foxes are absent because they are not naturals to the place where i live.

Their relationship with foxes makes me wonder and reflect about it, since the creature does indeed have a duality. While it can be deceiving and cunning, it has also a protective nature, it is strong and some times even lovable. Foxes are also signaled worldwide as an awareness and investigative symbol, which is also portrayed by Cironnup, sometimes presenting danger from far away.

Still worldwide, the foxes are treated like the tricksters of the nature, masters in deceiving and playing pranks.

The Ainu fascinated me not only as a culture, but also in their relationship with the nature, not exactly looking at the world around only as resource, but also with care and respect.

I hope one day i can visit Hokkaido and learn more about the Ainu culture personally.

-Ainu online dictionary Ainu-to-shizen Degitaru-zukan”by Ainu Museum

Sources:

-Akarenga JP (A Hokkaido culture foccused web page)

-Commentary on the book “Karirinka-to-kitsune-no-kamisama” [カリリンカときつねのかみさま] (2012) by Sakiko Yatani Provided by the Foundation of Ainu Culture

-The Foundation of Ainu Culture (Inquired via e-mail)

-Ainu Legends, Cironnup Daisuke Tchê (The tale about the Ainu hunter, in portuguese)

Special thanks go for @researcherposts for helping me reaching the Foundation of Ainu Culture.

Again, if i got anything wrong, please correct me! I will be more than help to fix anything :)

[dervaaas]

You broke up, but you still attend his matches

Character: Kenyu Yukimiya

wn: Hint at moments before blue lock, match with U-20

Part 1 with Kenyu Yukimiya!

the following: Hyoma Chigiri, Rin Itoshi, Yo Hiori, Meguru Bachira, Shoei Baro

P.S. This is a small problem in translation from my language. Lock translates quite differently, it would be better to say as castle, so we use prison for the most part. So Blue Lock will in fact be translated as a Blue Prison. I'm sorry if I explained it badly!

He himself does not understand the reason why he decided so. And it was right after he learned quite unpleasant news. Perhaps it happened on emotions that, by the way, he did not try to restrain.

— Can we break up?

Not to say that she had a good relationship with his parents, but they were quite friendly, so she learned information about his stay in Blue Lock from them. Quite a mixed feeling, yes, he said that he wanted to become a better striker and this is his best option for becoming one, but at the same time there was some kind of offense. Although she herself could not understand why.

Soon it will probably be a year since they last saw each other. And the news about the Blue Lock match against U-20 has already spread all over Japan. The funny thing is that his parents gave her a ticket, with the words: "Go, he may be stubborn, but he definitely still loves you." It's not that don't want to trust these words, rather on the contrary, she knows perfectly well what Yukimiya is.

A place in a not so busy place as the same fans. At the break of the first half, nearby I heard a woman shouting to her son to play better, apparently he is also from Blue Lock, nothing more than an assumption. Yukimiya is talking to one of her teammates. And now she doesn't even know if it's worth shouting his name, although as a fan it should hardly stop her.

— Yukimiya! — She didn't shout too much, but perhaps closer to the stands from the field she should have been heard. The guy looked a little confused in the direction where his name is, of course there are a lot of his fans here, but the voice was much different from everyone. The voice he was used to hearing.

— Oh, is someone playing with you, too? The three adults stared at her with interested faces.

— Oh, yes, mine.. an acquaintance," she was taken aback by this, I would like to say that "ex-boyfriend", but it's better if they ask even more questions.

— Oh, and who is he playing for? — A younger-looking woman asked.

— For Blue Lock, number five, I'm probably not sure what I saw correctly..

— What good news, we need to thank him, since he is playing with our boys! — the woman is already older, she babbled excitedly.

— I'll tell him somehow, — the girl thanked them for their words.

There was still the same commotion on the field, little did she know that her scream had reached the guy, well, not only him. Perhaps they started teasing him and asking who it was. According to their assumption, either a fan, or he still has a girlfriend, and he was silent! A particularly interesting point is that he was excited by her presence, if he says that he didn't miss her, he will lie.

The match ended with the victory of Blue Lock. Seriously, this was probably the most exciting game she's been on in a while.

He learned about the meeting from his parents, for some reason, according to them, the girl could not transmit the information herself. Place, time and possible options if he cannot be present on that day. I have provided for most of it.

— Hello.

— Hi, it was a great game, I haven't seen you play for a long time, — the girl sipping a cocktail from a straw, looked at the guy in front of her. Still handsome, tastefully dressed.

— Why did you come? — without much ceremony, without asking how things are going for her now. Nothing, just an interesting question, why all this, if they have long given a reason to abandon this relationship.

— Can't I watch football? — the girl bowed her head, there was an interesting note in her voice, — although you know, I just want to talk. You still haven't told me the reason for the breakup, I need to know what I did wrong.

"It's not your fault. — After mumbling thoughtfully, I thought for a while and decided to say: — I have vision problems due to fatigue, my visibility decreases, and if I continue to play football as a professional, I will lose my sight altogether. When I found out, something came over me and I started to get into trouble about it, - the guy put his hand on the table, rubbed her weight, thinking, was it worth talking at all?

Yes, he knows how understanding she is, but she does not forgive mistakes, and if this is his mistake? He did not say the reason for his actions. Why is he so worried about this? It seems like I've been buying my feelings for a long time, but still somehow uncomfortable.

— That's it? Yuki, it's not even a problem if you ever can't see me or the surroundings. At least I can tell you what it all looks like. — The girl stretched out the words in a puzzled way, not understanding at all what can be said about it. Support him? But he seems to have resigned himself, support is unlikely to change anything now. — And yet I was offended!

The girl turned away from the guy with a sulky look. Which caused Yukimiya to be surprised. She plays with him, which becomes clear when she smiles and laughs at him. He'd really be lying if he said he didn't miss her. Does the thought of how he lived this year at all slip through?

— Well.. you have every right.

"That's stupid, especially on your part.

— That's right. I don't know how to say it, it was too much for me, and I should have been alone and not say such words. — Kenyu sighed heavily, realizing that he had seriously screwed up so much. — And by the way, I didn't want this, he says, on emotion or something..

— Yeah, I know, I just didn't think it would last a year and plus you'd go to some kind of prison*.

"This is the Blue Prison, Blue Lock*," Yukimiya points at her with her finger and corrects her.

— I don't care at all. And I've also come up with a way to redeem you! We're going on a date right now! The girl spread her arms out to the sides, completely proud of herself. — And don't you dare leave, you wrote yourself that you are free all day. Yukimiya only laughs at her a little. But he is clearly not going to leave, although honestly there was an idea to talk and leave if everything goes wrong, which is what he was waiting for most of all. — By the way, thank you from some women.

"Who are they?" Yukimiya was genuinely surprised. Moreover, these are women, not girls, as is usually the case.

— Honestly, no idea at all; it turns out we met during the match, — the girl shook her head, making a shocked face, as if saying: "I experienced such horror from the conversation!". — Apparently they also had someone playing for Blue Lock. — The guy just grinned, and Y/N looked at him puzzled, expecting some explanation, but got nothing. Kenyu changed the subject.

Needless to say, she was really able to get him out on a date that wasn't even in her plans at all? But in any case, this is what they both needed. After a year, they realized that they were too attached to each other, to such an extent that it was difficult to maintain self-control over their actions. Yes, my God, Yukimiya had a place in his notes where he writes to her while she was using his account from which he lost his password a long time ago.

How many words were there about their love for each other? Uhm... A difficult question.

[nekosvocabdex]

The first Pokémon to examine couldn't really be anything else except one of my favourites:

Skitty

Big disclaimer: I'm still learning myself. This blog is an attempt to learn something new for myself first. If anyone notices any kind of error in what's written here, even just a spelling typo, please let me know!

Learning is what we are all here for after all.

First, let's start with the Japanese name

エネコ　Eneko is a pun between 狗尾草　エノコログサ　Enokorogusa, which refers to the green foxtail, the type of plant that Skitty's tail looks like, and 猫 ねこ neko, cat.

Then let's look at some of the Pokedex entries:

動くものを 見つけると 夢中に なって 追いかけ回す 習性を 持つ ポケモン。

夢中(むちゅう) being absorbed in something

追いかけ回す(おいかけまわす) to chase something around

"When it sees something that moves, this Pokémon has the habit of getting immersed chasing it around"

You can attach 回す to the -masu stem of a verb to indicate that you are doing that action "all around, all over"

(Example: chasing around)

動くものを つい 追ってしまう。

"It ends up chasing moving things unintentionally"

Different dex entry, same general meaning but with a slightly different nuance. I find reading these kind of dex entries useful because they offer multiple ways of saying the same thing, and are good to reinforce the same vocabulary that appears in them and grammar rules.

ーてしまう signals that you are doing the action without meaning to

つい as an adverb similarly shows that you are doing the action unintentionally, subconsciously, and it's often paired with てしまう to emphasize it.

For its abilities, they are mostly named with English words anyway even in Japanese, except for Cute Charm (which was its only ability in Gen 3, if I remember correctly, since Normalize didn't exist)

Cute Charm is called メロメロボディ, which uses the "meromero" onomatopoeia to indicate being spellbound or madly in love.

Some interesting moves it can learn:

猫騙し (ねこだまし, Nekodamashi) Fakeout

The Fakeout move has a interesting bit of trivia in its Japanese name! It has the kanji for "cat" and "to deceive" in it, and it's actually a reference to a specific sumo move!

"Nekodamashi" refers to a sumo technique where one of the athletes slaps the air with both hands right at the beginning of the match near their opponents face to stun them. That's why it can only be used in the first turn in the Pokémon games!

And since it translates pretty much to "cat's deception", it's the reason why mostly kitty Pokémon other than Fighting types like Hariyama can use it.

真似っこ (まねっこ, Manekko) Copycat

It stands for "to imitate" and I can't help but think that the reason it can learn this move is because of another cat pun in "manekko", which conveniently also works in the english version. Sadly not in other languages.

Skitty's lost signature move:

猫の手　(ねこのて, Nekonote) Assist

Another cute move with its origin stemming from a Japanese idiom!

Assist is another move that can be learned almost exclusively by cat Pokemon, and it's effect was to randomly use a move known by another Pokémon in the party. It was unique to Skitty in Gen III and is what made it maybe my favourite Pokémon ever: watching this adorable pink kitty bust out Earthquakes and Flamethrowers that the rest of my team used was hilarious. Was it effective? Usually not, but it was hilarious.

I always had a Skitty on my team during most of my Gen III playthroughs and in ORAS.

The idiom is 猫の手も借りたい ("I want to borrow even a cat's paw), which is a way of saying "I'm desperate and need any help I can get ". Even a cat's.

Cute and fitting name for a move where a kitty asks the rest of his team for "help"!

[mastomysowner]

Chess Philosophy

This is a translation of this fanfic.

Author's comment: Inspired by a scene from Chuck Wendig's book "Aftermath: Empire's End", where Palpatine was explaining the philosophy of chess to another character. In my opinion, the old-canon (not Disney) Palpatine would have come to a different conclusion.

Sate prided himself on being one of the few beings in the galaxy - perhaps even the only one - who understood the Emperor's mood. And now Palpatine was clearly very pleased. On the table in front of him stood a board lined with dark and light squares. There were carved wooden figures on the board. One side represented the CIS, the other - the Empire. The figures of the sides stood in two rows. The first row of Imperials consisted of stormtroopers. Behind them were figures in the form of the Emperor, Darth Vader, two officers, two soldiers on dewbacks and two AT-STs. The Confederates had the first row of B-2 droids, the second row consisted of Dooku, Grievous, and two tactical droids, a beetle droid and an AAT tank. There was, of course, some irony in the fact that puppet separatists were set up as the enemy of the Empire, but they created this set without knowing the background of the Clone Wars.

- How do you like this work of art, my friend? – asked Palpatine.

Sate sat down and carefully examined the figures. He didn't like to jump to conclusions.

- I take it this is handmade? A gift from some delegation?

Palpatine leaned back in his chair and folded his hands:

- Yes, a gift. Made from some very valuable and rare wood.

- A strategy game?

- Exactly, - the Emperor nodded, - it’s called “chess.” The game is of the same type as dejarik. Only, as you can see, there are not monsters, but armies. I saw the same type of chess back in my youth, on Naboo. Of course, the figures looked different there.

- But the meaning is the same?

- Yes. What makes chess more interesting than dejarik, by the way, is that it can be adapted to the political realities. The ones I saw in my youth featured the Mandalorians and Revan's forces. But, as you correctly understood, the rules are the same, - Palpatine took the Darth Vader figure, - for example, an advisor. The most powerful figure.

- Why isn’t I the advisor? - Sate chuckled.

- Because you won’t strangle the delegates, - Palpatine smiled in response, - Although, even if you were here, the rules wouldn’t have changed. They are the same for both sides.

The Emperor turned his gaze to the board and began to move the pieces:

- The sides are equal. No one has an advantage. Everything is decided by the battle of intellects. That's why I like chess. And also for clearly divided roles. Pawns can only move forward. They are exchange pieces in a big game. However, even a pawn can play an important role in the match. The advisor is a very important figure, he needs to be taken care of, you need to keep an eye on him. - Palpatine touched his finger to the Vader figure, - But you know, Sate, what I like most about chess? What is the meaning behind them, which, by the way, is not found in dejarik and many other similar games?

Sate was silent. Sheev clearly was in the mood for philosophy.

- This is the king, - said Palpatine, shaking his figure with his finger, - Shah. General. Commander. EMPEROR, - he emphasized the last word with intonation, - He’s called differently, but the meaning is the same. This is the main figure. It is far from the strongest, but the point of the whole game is to protect your king and kill the enemy. Do you understand, right? All pieces matter - as I said, even a weak pawn can play an important role. But, - Palpatine knocked the figure onto its side, - if the king dies, then the game ends. Total defeat, no matter how many pieces are left on the board.

With these words, with an indifferent expression on his face, he knocked over all the other Imperial figures with his palm.

Sate looked at Sheev's face. Yes, indeed, the game is just right for him. It reflects the essence of his old friend. He sees others only as figures who move to achieve his goals. Sate knew very well that Palpatine was not an idiot or a comic book villain - he took care of his figures and never threw them away for nothing. But Sate also knew that his friend could easily sacrifice anyone, even the strongest figure, if the goal required it. Even him, Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier of the Galactic Empire, a man with whom they had walked shoulder to shoulder for many decades.

- These are the rules of the game, my friend, - the Emperor unexpectedly continued. - As I already said, they are the same for all sides. But... You know, the first time I played chess, I lost. I didn’t notice that my king was open, and he was killed - in chess terminology, “captured.” But my opponent - and this was not his first time playing chess - told me then: “You did well. I see, you just opened due to carelessness. Try your move again, let's continue the game." And I returned my king to the game. I didn’t have enough experience to win back then, but still the memories of that game give me an idea.

Palpatine took the fallen figure of the king and put it back. Then he began to place other figures.

- This is not according to the rules, right? - Sate asked.

- Of course, - Palpatine grinned, - But tell me, my friend, if we always played by the rules, would I be the Emperor and you the Grand Vizier? I'm not going to play fair. If the rules don’t suit me, I change them. I change it so that victory is always mine. When the enemy thinks he has won, I will always be able to surprise him. In the meantime... Shall we play? I promise, with you I won’t cheat and change the rules on the fly. There is no need for this now.

While Palpatine was explaining the rules, Sate thought - that's why I'm always on his side. Because Palpatine always comes out victorious in any game. And it’s better to be with someone who treats you like a figure, but at the same time knows how to achieve victory, than with someone who treats you like a brother, but loses.

[boymage666]

I survived the

WIZARD RACE

Anyways I'm gonna talk about it now. no readmore because mobile tumblr is dumblr, sorry.

So, only slightly relevant to anything, but I did the entirety of the game during the school day. Started around 11:30, but I didn't find my first charm until about 12:45 (I had to go to an assembly then eat lunch)

Finding the charms was a pretty fun challenge, the only one I didn't get on my own was the heart (thanks for that one @wizardgoblin )

had to take another break after submitting the charms because I had to get back to school, by that time 3 people were already done. No big deal to me, all I wanted was top 13. So I do my work for that class and open Tumblr again to start phase 2.

This is a good point to say I love codes and cyphers, so I was very excited at the idea of the next part, only to metaphorically fall on my ass because I forgot that the actual question was on the main post about the game. Once I found that again I copied it onto a sheet of paper so I could write out the sounds as I figured them out. And so the teacher of my next class wouldn't flay and crucify and sous ve me for using my phone, but more so i could write my thoughts.

This bastard. (affectionate)

That symbol right there caused me the most trouble of everything, I thought for a moment I was going mad because I couldn't find anything like it in the sample text. But you know what? I think it's better that way. Made me think harder. I was kinda skipping around on words while translating, going for the easy words first then the words that I felt would be important. Decided I would hold off on this word and skipped back to the line above it to solve the big word up there. Catchphrase. And the last word was "Weekly". I realized then that this had to be "Wizard".

I'm glad that the "z" sound wasn't in the passage, it made me think harder about the puzzle, and that was fun in hindsight.

(please ignore the blatantly mistranslated word on the second row.)

Unfortunately I don't have timestamps for exactly when i entered the maze, but it was probably around 3:40, as I remember realizing school was about to be over, which meant I'd have to drive home before finishing if I didn't get through fast.

MAZE SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE IT RUINED FOR YOU. DO READ IF YOU'RE STUCK AND WANT TO PLACE. IM NOT YOU MOM.

On the first page of the maze there were three options to choose where to go. I translated the first option, If I recall correctly it was scoundrel. Did not want to deal with that, the second option I couldn't translate immediately, so I skipped to the third option. Merchant. Sounds safe enough, I should go there.

So I did.

Reading the options, and knowing I was at a merchant, I decided to barter, and got an item. Cool. Sick even. So I move on.

[something] [STRENGTH] [STEALTH]

Decided to go stealth, and remembering how the merchant went, I choose the stealth option. Made it out with a cool gem. Encountered the dragon. Decided I didn't want to give up the candle and tried using the gem. Back to the start. Same path with the merchant, chose the option i didn't translate for the monster, and decided to try and charm it. Sandwich aquired. Not a good offering, back to the start. Merchant and gem? Close but no. Finally, I decided to try and fight the monster. It worked, and the item visually matched what I got from the merchant much more that the other items, sure enough, it was a good enough offering, and I got to move on.

Last part of the maze. 14 options, one was correct, spotted it immediately. Escaped at 3:57 pm ctz, day one of the race.

Honestly, I thought the game was fun! The maze was slightly easier than the cypher, for better or for worse, but that also could have been on me by refusing to try the other routes at the start of the maze. I can't wait to see what future events have waiting for us! Thanks for hosting this @wizardweekly

[leclercdreams]

hi! can i get an imagine in which max v is taking care of the reader after an appendix removal surgery?

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮 ❘❘ 𝘔𝘢𝘹 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯

pairing: Max Verstappen x Fem!Reader

warnings: None really, just overall fluff, Max being a protective and caring partner

word count: 1.42K

a/n: All information was found on google, and translations are from google as well (despite me being able to read Dutch, I can't spell it or speak it really) ENJOY!! ps, Yes I am using summer break again.

Getting surgery wasn't exactly how you wanted your summer break to start, it was the only time you really got to spend with your fiancé. Max had a busy schedule all the time due to his job, one he loved and one you had come to love just as much.

Just three days before you both were due to meet your family in Ibiza for a holiday to relax and unwind you sadly had to call them to cancel. Now two days later you were led into the uncomfortable hospital bed having gone into emergency surgery to get your appendix removed.

Max was moving around the room freely while packing your things, you were allowed to go home if you made sure to not overwork yourself and take it easy for at least two to four weeks to let yourself heel. You could after a few days go on the holiday you two wanted to go on if you could get him to agree.

“Schatje, Are you listening?” Walking over to your side you looked up at Max and have him a sheepish smile shaking your head while he helped you sit up. “No, sorry. What did you say, love?” Taking a seat on the bed he grabbed your hand softly and placed the earrings you always wore in your hand that you had to take off for surgery, wincing slightly when you leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “And my ring?”

Your engagement ring was one of your most prized possessions, it was made specifically for you and if you could recall correctly Victoria had told you he spent almost six months of planning, choosing every little detail on the ring before your engagement. You loved everything about it and about the man who put it on your finger there to stay, only the matching wedding band missing that he had safe and hidden at home.

Sending you a smile he stood once again and reached into the tiny pocket of his jeans pulling out the shiny piece of jewelry. Grabbing your left hand he slid it onto your finger and kissed your hand. “Right where it belongs. Are you ready to go home?” “I’m more than ready, lover.” Helping you out of bed and into the wheelchair he handed you your pillow, and one of the bags while he slung the other one over his shoulder.

Covering your body with some of his merch you had loved since the first time you got it, the perks of dating at the time, and being one of the models for the photos meant you got whatever you wanted. Though you preferred to wear his hoodies just to have his scent with you.

“Mum said she and the family will still join your parents on holiday so it doesn’t go to waste. I’m sorry you have to spend your break stuck with me.”

Rolling his eyes he leaned down and kissed your head while wheeling you out waving at the doctor and some of the nurses. “It’s not a bother for me, and I have been thinking about what you said schatje, if you feel better and ready to move around we can go on a little holiday before the season starts back up.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

You had never been so happy to be back in your shared apartment in Monaco, though you missed the gloomy weather of England you would move anywhere if it meant you got to be with him.

Grateful, would be one word to describe what you felt to have him in your life, before going home he had stopped anywhere to get what you needed before helping you get comfortable on the sofa in his gaming room when arriving home. You didn’t want him to change all of his plans so while you were there still with him as he insisted you were within hearing distance and to keep his eye on you.

He was about to go on a streak with Lando, the two continuing the antics they had started during the lockdown. “You sure you have everything?” Giggling at his worry and the frown that adorned his handsome face you reached out to where he was sitting on the edge of the sofa and placing your hand on his cheek. “I’m fine handsome, you enjoy your time with Lan, I’ll be here enjoying my own thing.” Nodding he leaned forward and pressed his lips to your soft ones, returning the kiss eagerly you poured when he pulled away.

“Just one more?” Chuckling he pressed his lips to yours again, sighing softly you relaxed and pulled away kissing his nose and looking into the beautiful blue eyes, the shade of blue that had become your favourite after the years. “Go on, I have my shows to catch up on, I’m behind on Love Island.” Humming he kissed your cheek and got up taking a seat on his chair. You had only placed one of your earphones in so that you could steal everything.

About an hour into the stream your ears perked up when you heard your name fall from your fiancé’s lips, “Y/n is doing very well, sorry for not getting back to you all I’ve spent my time taking care of her. She’ll be up and at it again in no time.” Smiling softly you turned your head to where he was waving at the camera that clearly showed where you were comfortable on n the sofa laptop on your lap. Looking over his shoulder he smiled and looked back in front of him.

When it came to nighttime and you had to take a shower you wanted to let out a loud groan, you weren’t quite sure if you’d be able to wash your dirty hair yourself not wanting to put too much strain on the stitches you had. Hearing a soft knock over the running water you looked into the mirror seeing Max enter.

“Did you read my mind?” “That would be pretty cool, but no, I was actually listening to the doctor when she came to talk to you.” You could feel your cheeks flame up while looking away from him, humming you got into the shower standing under the water thankful for the waterproof bandaid covering the small cut.

Not even minutes later you could feel his hands running down your arms, lips pressing against the soft skin of the shell of your ear a shiver running down your spine. “Need some help?” Turning your head to the side you sent him a smile and pecked his lips. “Please, my love.”

Wetting your hair you forced yourself not to let out any noise when you felt his fingers massage the shampoo into your scalp. There were many things that could be heaven on earth this was one of yours, he wasn’t working too hard on your scalp but also not too soft.

Staying in the shower for as long as you could you both got ready side by side, since he got with you Max had gotten into a nighttime routine, though it was much shorter and simpler than yours he left the en-suite with a kiss to your wet hair you wanted to leave to dry naturally to get the bed ready.

Replying to your mother and his that you were doing okay and you had the best carer in the world taking care of you. He was by your side when you got into bed wincing at the uncomfortable feeling, but when you settled in you sighed and waited for your lover to return to your side.

When he turned off the lights and slipped into bed next to you moving closer he turned on his side and paved his head close to tears his arm going around you careful not to put too much pressure on you. A kiss on your shoulder made you snap out of your daydream and look at him.

“Thank you, for taking care of me and for helping me, for being here, and for loving me. I love you so much.” Drawing patterns on your exposed skin he smiled and lifted his arm up resting on his elbow while he leaned down and peppered your face with kissed your nose scrunching up.

“I love you more schatje. I’d do anything and everything for you always. Now get some rest so you can heal and we can have a short holiday, yeah?”

Letting out a soft laugh you nodded and kissed him one last time moving closer to him wanting to be as close as you possibly could, maybe the surgery won’t stop all of your plans after all.

Tag List: @ifancycharlesleclerc @luv4gasly @hungryhungarian @moutnz @honethatty12

please let me know if you’d like to be added to the tag list.

[glaivenoct]

!!!! how would the "i never felt abandoned" line translate over for nyxnoct sandman au? also any ideas for the other endless?

(The first NyxNoct Sandman AU ask) for anyone interested!

"How?" Noct would ask when they're still sitting on those crumbled steps together. "All those years without a word or sign of me. How did you have the heart to stay when others fled?"

"Others began to feel abandoned. I never did. Not to overstep, but," Nyx will look at him slowly, and Noctis' eyes will flick down quickly to pretend that he hasn't been staring at Nyx deeply this whole time, "I know your heart, Noctis." Fine fine fine, Noct will look at him again. "I know the care you put into this realm and for the people in it. You would never abandon it so carelessly or without reason. If you did, there would be nothing left. Not even these ruins before us. I held onto that. Told myself to keep going if I wanted to see the day you returned."

Noct will be silent for a minute, because again, the sentiment. I think the sentiment Nyx shares here might be a level that he's never really expressed. At least not so vulnerably or verbally. And then -

"Your perseverance is admirable, Dear Knight. I can't help but feel I'm in your debt."

"You owe me nothing. Besides," Nyx will lean back on the steps, relaxing and taking a breath, a crooked smile as he looks at Noct once more and, "it was worth the wait."

helllpppp, I love them ;u;

As for the other Endless, I'm going off of the ones I've seen in the show so far. I never read the comics before, and a quick google search tells me there's 7 altogether :o

For Death, maybe that could be Luna? Might sound funny given she's literally the whole white mage healer deal. But! I think the way Death really loves and takes pride/care in her work, and has this calming way with people are qualities that go well with Luna. And if Death is one of the siblings Dream really confides in and he values her insight so much? I'm here for it even more, give me big sis Luna for Noct to look up to!!

For Desire - Ok idk if this is gonna sound weird either! But I feel like if anyone from XV could match their energy, I think it'd be Loqi lol. I know he's barely even in the game but.. akdjsfkd I dunno!! Out of everyone else, I can just see him being the sibling that has some fuckery up his sleeve to derail/destroy Noct. Give me that scene of Noct pinning Loqi down in the AC Festival DLC but with much higher stakes and full on animosity lol.

For Despair - HMMM I'm actually stumped on that one lol. Not sure who would be a good pick to match that energy. Another excuse for a rewatch lol even tho Despair only has like two short appearances in the show so far.. am I remembering that correctly?? Idk!! But need to rewatch for sure lol.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions I'm totally open to them! :D

[sleep-i-ness]

Love Game (James Potter x reader)

Summary: Remus has spilled the beans about you having a crush, and James is determined to find out who it is.

“So, Remus says you’re in love with someone.” Sirius came up behind you as you sat in the shady corner of the common room, reading quietly. You were out of the way, but still able to keep an eye on everything going on.

“Does he now?” You turned the page, finger tracing the words as you continued to read.

Sirius flipped a chair round, sitting down in front of you and tipping the top of your book down towards him. You finally glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Who is it?”

You gave him a confused look. “Why would I tell you?”

“Because you told Remus?” Sirius stated, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

“I told Remus because he asked me out just so he’d have a date for Hogsmeade, and I felt bad for not being able to accept.” You returned your gaze to your book, trying to signal that this conversation was over.

“So, what you’re telling me is that I need to ask you out?” Sirius grinned at you and you shook your head, knowing exactly what that smile meant. You’d seen that exact smile 5 minutes before your best dress had been covered in mud, aged 5. And then again before you got caught playing the Muggle sport ‘football’ at age 12. And yet again before you went swimming in the canal and your brothers yelled at you for a solid two hours at age 16. Nothing ever good came of that smile. “Y/N Prewett, would you do me the pleasure of going on a date with me?”

“Well that’s not very romantic. No.” You shook your head, trying to concentrate on the words on the page in front of you. You had reread this line at least 5 times and it still wasn’t making sense.

Sirius sniffled, faking tears, and you glanced up at him, giving him an unimpressed frown. “Why not?”

“Because I’m in love with someone else,” you sighed, feeling a very uncomfortable sense of deja-vu.

“Who is it? Who could this man be, that has stolen your affections away from me?” Anyone who said Sirius Black was a serious bore should see him now; he was being a right dramatic pain in your arse.

“Not telling you,” you replied in a sing-song voice. He snatched your book away and you scowled. “Give it back.”

“Not until you tell me.”

“Don’t be an arse Sirius.”

He gave you a look.

“It is so bloody obvious!” You threw your hands up in the air. “If Remus, Marlene, and Lily were all able to guess, so should you.”

Sirius thought for a second, his eyes lighting up as he finished scanning around the room. “No fucking way. How did I never notice?”

“You’re oblivious.”

“It’s James, right?” He grinned, making eye contact with someone behind you and you hushed him furiously.

“What’s me?”

You froze, sending Sirius a sharp glare. Turning around slowly, you smiled up at him as you shook your head and rolled your eyes. “My least favourite Marauder, apparently. But don’t worry, Sirius has definitely filled that spot because he’s being a right pain in my arse.”

You snatched your book back from him and settled down into your chair, focused on returning to your reading. You just wanted to finish it, for God’s sake. You only had a few more pages left and so many other books to get started on.

James stared at the two of you a moment longer, suspicion brewing in his eyes, before he lowered himself into the chair next to you. You assumed he was going to drop the subject. “So, Remus told us about someone you’ve got your eye on.”

You slammed the book on the table. “Has Remus gone round telling everyone?”

“Probably, it’s Remus,” Sirius sniggered at your exasperated expression; you’d told him to keep his mouth shut but you really should have known better. Remus had never been good at keeping secrets from his family; he always managed to blurt them out, accidentally or not.

“So are you also in love with a Hufflepuff?” James crossed his legs, the silky fabric of his trousers tensing around his thighs and your gaze flickered downwards unwillingly. You blinked, quickly looking away, as a soft flush crept up the back of your neck. Sirius grinned at you, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and you rolled your eyes at him. The teasing was going to be incessant. Remus had already started making snide comments.

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer, and you sighed. “No, surprisingly the only thing Marlene and I don’t share is our taste in men.”

Sirius laughed again and you pulled a face. If he continued being so obvious, James was sure to guess he knew.

“Does Sirius know who it is?” And there it was. The surprise was evident in his tone, his voice tinged with barely audible hurt, and guilt shot through you. Sure, if the man in question had been anyone other than him, he would have been one of the first to know. But you couldn’t afford to affect whatever friendship you had with your silly feelings.

You nodded, sending Sirius a poisonous glare, and placing your hands flat on the table. “Sirius guessed. And I’d say it was pure luck, judging by the way he stumbled on the name.”

“So if I guess, you’ll tell me whether I’m right.” James steepled his fingers together, eyes sparking, and your own widened. If there was one thing you knew and always abided by, it was to never challenge James to a game. Although his competitive nature translated well into his work, you had seen him and Sirius fighting to win, and learnt.

But it would be unfair in his eyes if he didn’t get a shot. You could always lie if he ever guessed correctly. “…Fine.”

He grinned; teeth almost sharklike. This was a bad idea. His eyes darted around the room, appraising every guy slowly before stopping on a pair playing Wizard’s Chess. You stifled a laugh as one got splattered with slime, wiping it off his face with a grimace. “Diggle.”

You shook your head, wrinkling your nose. Diggle was in the year below but only a couple months younger than you; you weren’t into boys who still had the mental maturity to find fart jokes funny. James glanced at Sirius who shrugged in response, at least he wasn’t going to give it away.

“Is it someone close to me?” James asked, fiddling with his watch as he watched for your reaction.

You hesitated, looking to the side as you thought of how best to answer. “I don’t think I said I’d answer your questions.”

He gave you a long hard stare and you met him with equal determination. You weren’t prepared to let yourself be thoroughly embarrassed that easily. James glanced away, slender fingers tapping against the table and your mouth was suddenly dry.

“Podmore.”

“No, however, I need to go talk to Marlene,” you hesitated, fumbling with your excuse. “About my Alchemy essay, so I will see you around.”

You brushed down your skirt, tucking your book under one arm as you waved them goodbye. James looked as if he were about to say something before he hesitated and thought better of it, resorting to a nod instead. Sirius waved you a cheery goodbye, the most evil twinkle dwelling in his eyes, and you returned him a bitter smile.

You managed to avoid James for the rest of the day, darting round corners and forcing Marlene to sit in between the two of you in any shared lessons. But you knew you couldn’t keep this up for long; Lily and Mary had started to give you weird looks.

“Shingleton.” James murmured as he passed you on the way out of Potions, and you shook your head with a grin. At least he was no closer, he was suggesting people from completely the wrong House.

The next time you saw him was dinner, a vacant space left beside him. You narrowed your eyes as he patted it cheerily, waving you over. On the other side of it, a seat up from where he usually sat, was Remus and you shot him a glare, huffing out a breath. Trudging over to James’ side, you slid onto the seat, flinching as your leg brushed against his.

“Toots.”

You scoffed. Of course he didn’t want to just spend time in your wonderful company. “Nice to see you too, James.”

“Come on, please give me a hint.” He sent you a pleading look, eyes big and round, and you couldn’t help but feel a little tempted to tell him. But again, you had enough self-preservation instincts to realise that immediate rejection was not what you were after.

You turned to Remus, giving him a wry smile. “Hello Remus. How kind of you to save me a seat.”

Sirius snorted from his seat across the table, turning it into a cough as you scowled at him.

“You’re welcome. Besides, I’m really enjoying watching James trying to guess,” you raised an eyebrow, “and you squirming.”

There it was. You hated them all; this was absolute torture. You could have, in theory, not sat with them, but you knew James would have made enough of a scene to fully embarrass you either way. Lily, Mary, and Marlene were at the end of the table, where you would usually be, and you sent them longing looks. If only.

Marlene caught your eye and smirked, glancing suggestively between you and James as she wiggled your eyebrows. For Merlin’s sake, of course she was in on this ridiculous match-making plan too.

You sighed. “Remus, I thought when I told you about my crush, you’d keep your mouth shut.”

“They were ragging on me about not ever having a date for Hogsmeade, and apparently we look like we’re dating already so I should ask you out. I told them I already had and that you’d said no because you like someone else,” Remus rattled off what had happened, and you rolled your eyes. Stupid boys and their stupid pride.

“You could’ve just said that I wasn’t interested. And left it that.” You knew why he hadn’t, that was obvious, but it still infuriated you. You’d said it in confidence, feeling a little guilty, but knowing that you were doing the right thing by not leading him on. Now you strongly regretted it.

“Stebbins?” James interjected, having been barely paying attention to the conversation. He’d been too busy scoping out the room for potential crushes, dismissing them for being too ugly, not good enough for you, too dim, too dull, and soon made his way around the room without finding anyone that fit his criteria. So he had to go back round and lower his standards for who you might like, although they clearly weren’t worthy. He wasn’t sure why he cared so much that you liked someone who he thought was miles below your league.

“Nope.” You barely spared him a look, deep in conversation with Remus. For some reason that stung.

The plates in front of you filled with food, but even the delicious meal couldn’t distract you from the bitter mood you’d settled into. You pinched roast chicken between the tongs, ladled peas onto your plate and settled on baby potatoes to make up the rest of your meal. It looked deceptively bland, a white hunk of meat and boring vegetables but you could barely stomach this.

“Gravy?” Sirius offered you the spoon and you shook your head, prodding at your plate. James looked at you weirdly, but you brushed it off as you used the food as an excuse not to talk.

You decided to skip dessert, main course being sufficient to sustain you for the rest of the evening, and headed back to the Common Room. Slughorn had set you yet another essay, this time on the properties of Angel’s Trumpet Draught, so you’d already taken out a couple of the thick tomes in the library that might contain information. The rest you hoped was in your class textbook; you really couldn’t be bothered to trawl through book after book to find enough information to fill the required space.

You set yourself up quite nicely in the corner of the Room, books spread out around you and taking up the whole table. You hoped that was enough of a hint to leave you alone. To add to that, you had your back to the room so that you really looked unapproachable.

Remus was first back from dinner, making a beeline for you as soon as he stepped through the portrait hole. “I’m sorry about dinner.”

You groaned, shaking your head. “It was awful, it was so unbelievably awkward.”

“Yeah, I could tell.” Remus, not taking the hint from your piles of work, settled into the seat next to you. He grimaced. “James is so oblivious.”

Laughing, you nodded in agreement, quickly scribbling out notes on a relevant paragraph before returning your focus to Remus. “Tell me about it. James was just listing off all of these names and I can’t believe he can’t see that he’s the one I like.”

Remus’ eyes darted to something behind you, and you turned round, expecting to see Sirius pulling a face, or something of that kind. He was insufferable in that way. Instead, your heart dropped.

James stared at you, mouth dropped open, making it abundantly clear he’d heard your conversation. Oh Merlin. You swallowed, feeling your eyes prick and heat rise up the back of your neck.

“I’m going to my dorm.” You swept everything off the table into your arms, ignoring how pages bent and parchment crumpled. Side-stepping James neatly, you ducked your head as you passed Sirius and Peter, and headed up to your room. That was mortifying. You couldn’t ever show your face again.

You heard James shout behind you, but you just picked up the pace. You were not going to get rejected in front of your entire House. His shouts grew louder as he caught up with you, but you hopped on the stairs before him, breathing a sigh of relief. As a boy, he wouldn’t be able to reach you; the stairs were charmed to make sure he couldn’t go up them.

Your feet slipped from underneath you. But of course he knew a way around that.

You slid down on your stomach, papers and quills spilling from your grasp. Tumbling into the grasp of two broad arms, you took a moment to reorient yourself before quickly breaking free. James had been the one to catch you and he now helped you up, stacking your sheets untidily.

“Y/N, please don’t run now.”

You blinked, breathing harshly as you pursed your lips. You nodded, feeling eyes on you from all around.

“Go on, scram.” Sirius yelled at the onlookers, who were mostly from younger years, and even if they weren’t, they were scared enough of the Marauders and their tricks to obey instantly.

James grabbed your hands, waiting for everyone to leave, as he rubbed a calloused thumb over your skin. “I heard what you said.”

You smiled waterily, breathing out a laugh. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, James, you don’t-”

“Wait,” he interrupted. “Let me talk first. I like you too so will you go on a date to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday?”

“You like me too?”

James almost chuckled at your gobsmacked expression, before realising that probably wasn’t the right response. “Yes, you fool. Have done since about fifth year, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh,” you breathed, speechless. Your lips moved soundlessly as you tried to think of what to say, mind blank with surprise.

James brushed a strand of hair out of your eyes, hand moving down to cup your cheek. “The only thing I want to know is if you’ll go on a date with me to Hogsmeade.”

“Yes,” you grinned. “Of course!”

-

-

hp taglist: @missmulti @dreamer821 @1marvelavengers1 @samnblack @neymarlionelmessi7 @okkulta @gredandforge @yourenotafailureoverall​ @milkshakelol @natblidaclexa

james potter taglist: @methamphetaminee @thefernandasantana @uglipotata72829 @lozzybowe @persephonehemingway @sunandmoonchild158 @blisfvlll @mads-bri @fific7 @ccosmic-illusion @icareabouteverythxng @blackblossomqueen @wheezyreads @tugabooos @atomic-chickenwings @its-evita-here @inkandpen22 @rue-123 @emilianamason @mesmerisedalien @frecklesandfirecrackers @aspiringsloth20

be added here

[kurokoros]

silver tongue | kuroo (kinktober day 5)

Rated: M

Words: 4.9K

Pairing: villain!kuroo x fem!reader

Summary: A late night at the agency takes a turns when you run into Panther, an S rated villain.

AN: I started working on a bnha x hq crossover a while ago, and decided to base character quirks on the kanji in their names, and, well... Kuroo means “black tail” sooooo I wrote tentacle porn. You’re welcome. 

Note: Jishin is, if google translated it correctly, Japanese for “earthquake”, which has to do with Daichi’s quirk in this au.

Kinktober 2020 Day Four: Public Sex + Day Nine: Tentacles

Warnings: smut, oral (male receiving, implied at the end), public sex, manhandling, restraints, quirk play, tentacles, double penetration, teasing, overstimulation, choking, biting, dirty talk (degradation and praise)

X

Leaving Daichi’s new sidekicks squabbling in the corner of the office, you slip out the side door of the Agency, stepping into the quiet alley with a sigh. Your heels click against the ground, and you shiver as the cold night air curls around you. The light breeze tickles your bare legs and arms, your work clothes providing little coverage from the chill, unlike the warmth of the building behind you.

Closing your eyes, you lean back against the brick wall behind you, two fingers rubbing at your temple to chase away an impending headache.

As much as you’ve grown to like the pair of energetic rookies in the short time they’ve been working at the agency, you could do without their constant bickering. Especially this late at night. It was just your luck, really, drawing the short straw tonight. As Daichi’s personal assistants, it was up to either you or Kiyoko to supervise Kageyama and Hinata—fresh out of school and eager to work in the field—as they did their required paperwork. Without someone breathing down their necks, neither boy would get any of it done, and Kiyoko finally cashed in on a favor you owed her to get out of babysitting late into the night.

Not that you can blame her for that. With the amount of petty fights you’ve already had to break up tonight, you would have jumped at the opportunity to leave, too.

A muffled shout comes from the building behind you, but you ignore it. Opting to leave the arguing pair to their own devices for a few minutes. It may not be the best idea, but given the alternative, you’d rather deal with the repercussions later.

Besides, what Daichi doesn’t know won’t kill him.

You drop your hand back to your side, making yourself comfortable against the side of the building despite the rough texture of the bricks and the chilly temperature. Opening your eyes, you turn your gaze to the mouth of the alley, tucked between the agency and a café that closed hours ago. Despite the late hour, the streets are still bathed in light from the moon and the street lights.

A shadow moves in the corner of your eye. Soundless as it slinks across the ground. Graceful. It’s gone as soon as you glance to the right, and you frown, but decide not to dwell on it as you return your gaze to one of the old buildings across the street. A trick of the light, that’s all it was. Or one of the skittish stray cats you’ve caught Asahi feeding on more than one occasion. It’s late, but not late enough for anyone to be causing trouble, especially this close to such a reputable agency.

But the shadow moves again, just barely visible in the hazy space where the light from the streetlamp melds back into the darkness. It squirms again, a dark shape against the ground. This time, you’re faster, following the movement with your eyes just in time to catch something black disappearing back into an unlit part of the alley. It flickers at the edge of your vision almost tauntingly, coaxing you to follow, and your brows furrow in confusion.

Peering into the darkness where it vanished, your breath hitches when you make out the silhouette of a tall, suit-clad figure leaning against the alley wall across from you. You tense, eyes widening just the slightest as raw, icy fear grips your chest.

A pair of vibrant eyes meet yours through the shadows, and a lazy grin spreads across a handsome face. “Don’t you know it’s not smart to be at the office alone this late at night, kitten?” There’s a playful lilt to his voice, almost deceptively sweet. He shifts against the wall he’s leaning on, eyes narrowing playfully. “There might be villains around.”

The irony isn’t lost on you.

Across from you, Kuroo’s lips twitch as you stay silent. Irritated, perhaps. Or maybe this is all part of some game to him. He stares at you through the lock of messy hair falling in his face, relaxed despite how close he is to such a well-known Hero Agency. Especially one that’s been tracking him for so long.

His hands casually slip into the pockets of his slacks. “What’s wrong?” he asks, cocking his head to the side. Amusement dances in the depths of his gaze. “Cat got your tongue?”

An indignant scoff leaves the back of your throat. Cat? More like a— “Panther,” you say, purposely using his alias. It’s not a greeting—not quite, anyway. And it sounds strange on your tongue.

Kuroo’s eyes narrow into a glare. He’s always hated how his villain name sounds coming out of your mouth. Almost mockingly. Taunting him. Pressing his buttons in just the right way. You’ve never been truly afraid of him. Despite his reputation. Despite the fact that you’re quirkless. And that’s what makes this so much fun.

“What are you doing here?” you ask, before he can respond with one of the sly remarks nettled on his silver tongue. The question is breathier than you mean for it to be, a result of the intoxicating concoction of emotions swirling inside you. Shock. Confusion. Lingering fear from the split second you didn’t recognize him. And beneath that, something else.

You wet your lips, glancing at the door to your right. You can still hear Kageyama and Hinata inside. Their arguing is louder than before, but still muffled through the wall. They probably haven’t even noticed you slipped outside yet. And you doubt they will. At least, not for a while.

Kuroo follows your gaze, but otherwise doesn’t move. For a moment, he listens as well, finally hearing the tell-tale sounds of arguing from inside. Something in his expression shifts, his grin devilish. You squeeze your thighs together. “I was in the neighborhood,” he tells you nonchalantly, as if he isn’t a wanted criminal lurking outside of a building owned by one of the men intent on arresting him. Those clever eyes shift back to you. “Thought I might check on my favorite assistant.”

His tone is teasing, but you recognize the hint of genuine concern that flickers in the depths of his hazel eyes, and it makes you soften for a split second. You hate when he does that. He’s not supposed to care about you, and you’re sure as hell not supposed to care about him. But then, you aren’t supposed to be fooling around with him either.

This time, you snort, eyes rolling. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine.” Pausing, you glance at the building behind you again, wondering if you should say anything else. Kuroo must know by now that you aren’t alone. It would be impossible not to hear the amount of shouting going on inside the agency. “Kageyama and Hinata are here. We have them doing paperwork tonight. I’m babysitting.”

Kuroo’s brow furrows as he tries to connect the names to the faces he’s seen. Once he does, he narrows his eyes. “Jishin left his pretty little assistant alone with just some rookies?” he asks, using your boss’s alias mockingly. “What are a couple of kids going to do if some big, bad villain shows up and attacks the place?” Because that’s what he is, right? A big, bad villain.

What does that make you?

You choose not to take the bait. “What are you really doing here, Kuroo?” you ask him, lowering your voice even though there’s no one around to hear you. “Shouldn’t you be lying low? It’s only been a few days since you and Daichi—”

One long, black tendril shoots from his lower back. It lashes out. You cut off with a yelp as it races towards you, wrapping around both of your wrists and pinning them above your head before you can react. Gasping, you tug at the squirming limb, but it only coils around you tighter, squeezing. Like a warning. It’s cool to the touch, smooth against you, and the strange sensation makes you shudder. The tip wriggles against the inside of your arm, almost ticklish.

“I don’t want to hear his fucking name out of your mouth,” he snaps, Daichi’s name setting him off. Just like you knew it would. His eyes narrow again, his jaw clenching. The slim tentacle around your wrists tightens, and you bite your tongue to hold back an embarrassing whimper. Pulse pounding, your heart stutters in your chest when he sends you a look that makes you tremble.

Kuroo slips his hands out of his pockets as he takes a step towards you. Gravel crackles beneath his feet, loud in the otherwise quiet alleyway. Gold eyes glint beneath the dim light of the streetlamps. Predatory. Hungry. His lips curl into a smirk as he stops just in front of you, his chest nearly brushing against yours.

Your breath catches at his proximity, and his grin widens. You swallow down another soft, pitiful sound that bubbles up in your throat, but he’s close enough to notice the way your pupils dilate.

“I think you know exactly why I’m here,” he says, voice a low hiss in your ear. “So, don’t play dumb. You know better than that.”

The shadows around him squirm, something moving behind him, so dark it blends in perfectly with the murky walls of the alley. Another tendril curls out from behind his back, flickering back and forth like the tail of an irritated cat. You shiver again as it reaches for you, lashing out just like the last one. The tip of the tentacle ghosts across your cheek, caressing you. It’s a startling contrast from the rough way your hands are stretched above your head, an ache already forming in your shoulders.

The loving stroke against your cheek isn’t matched by the mischievous glint in his eyes. “Didn’t you miss me, kitten?” Though still teasing, there’s a note of blatant affection to the endearment this time. Even his eyes soften just a little, betraying his fondness for you, though it’s hidden away again just as quickly.

“No,” you huff, struggling against the binding around your wrists. It doesn’t budge, only wriggles against you tauntingly. It’s a blatant lie, and Kuroo sees right through it.

His grin twists into an exaggerated pout, but the mocking look in his eyes never dims. “Ouch.” Kuroo presses a hand to his chest, like you’ve wounded him. “You’re going to break my heart.”

You lean into the cool touch of his quirk against the side of your face. “Like you have one.”

While you mean for it to be biting, scathing, the quip comes out breathy, and it only makes him laugh. It’s dry, humorless. “Maybe I don’t,” he agrees. You can’t make out the look in his eyes. “But that’s never stopped you from letting me fuck you before.”

“Fuck you,” you say, embarrassed by the way you arch into his touch instinctively.

He clicks his tongue. “You’re being such a brat tonight. I thought you might’ve learned to behave after last time.”

The tentacle touching your cheek shifts, brushing the corner of your lips before sliding lower. You inhale sharply as it glides down the front of your throat, wriggling. The phantom sensation of those tentacles wrapping around your throat and squeezing has your thighs rubbing together. Heat pools in your lower belly, and your legs start to tremble.

You’re not subtle enough to escape his watchful eye, but Kuroo doesn’t lean in. He doesn’t reach for you—doesn’t pry your legs apart the way you want him to—he just watches you with those catlike eyes, drinking in the way you squirm under the familiar touch of his quirk. The tip of the tentacle flicks against your collarbone almost playfully.

It’s his name that falls from your pretty mouth this time—his real name, and pride swells in his chest at the needy tone of your voice. “Tetsurou,” you gasp, and his given name sounds so, so sweet coming from your mouth. Much better than his other name. “We can’t. They’re still inside. If we get caught, you’ll—” You cut off with a yelp as the tentacle slithers beneath the neckline of your shirt and yanks.

The blouse you’re wearing rips down the middle. Buttons snap from your now ruined shirt, scattering across the ground near your feet. Kuroo reaches for your waist as his tentacle traces the soft cup of your bra, starting from the outer edge and following the curve of your breast to the thin band beneath.

Kuroo quiets your half-hearted concerns. His stare follows the path of the extra limb, and you think he’s about to rip your bra as well. Anticipation makes you tremble, your heart beating faster.

The tentacle disappears from your chest, slinking back to Kuroo’s side like a loyal pet. It squirms, wriggling provocatively as it twists and curls through the air, level with his hips. The hands that slide against your waist are a welcome distraction, and the tentacle coiled around your wrists squeezes, as if reminding you that you’re still stuck, pinned against the wall and helpless against his quirk.

“If you really want to stop, just say the word.” He nuzzles against your cheek, lips brushing against the corner of your mouth as he speaks. You arch into him, hips rocking against the thigh that slips between both of yours. He pulls his leg away. “Out loud, kitten. I want to hear you say it.”

You gasp a needy, “Don’t.” Kuroo grins as you whimper and lean into his warm hands when they rub against your sides. “Don’t stop. Please, Tetsu, I—” Two of his fingers slip beneath your bra to pinch your nipple, and you cut off with a squeal.

“Behave and maybe I’ll let you cum.” The words are murmured against your lips. Your back arches off the wall as his lips press against yours. The kiss is harsh, all tongue and teeth, and you moan against his mouth. You struggle against the tentacle around your wrists, but it doesn’t budge. Kuroo’s teeth dig into your bottom lip until it hurts, his tongue soothing the bite when you whimper and rock your hips against his.

It’s been so long since he was able to touch you like this—weeks since he had to go into hiding—and he’s not leaving until he’s had his fun with you. Your fingers twitch, desperate to reach for him, to pull him closer, and your struggling only makes his amusement grow.

A cold touch to your leg makes you flinch, and Kuroo swallows your surprised moan as the tentacle that was idle at his side curls around your thigh. It coils around you like a snake, wrapping around you before tugging, forcing your legs apart. You rock your hips towards his, but Kuroo leans just out of your reach, and the tentacle forcibly pulls your hips back against the wall.

“Tetsu,” you say again, mewling his name this time, the sound muffled against his mouth.

His lips move to your cheek, wandering across your soft skin until he finds that special, sensitive spot just beneath the curve of your jaw. Teeth graze the delicate skin of your throat, right over your racing pulse. Eyes fluttering shut, you tilt your head back against the alley wall, letting him angle your head how he wants it.

An approving hum vibrates against you before Kuroo bites down, teeth digging in hard enough to make you wince. He soothes away the pain with a soft kiss, only to bite you again as soon as you relax, a little lower than the last. Sharp canines prick at your skin; your pulse jumps.

Your squirming and whimpering only makes him chuckle. The rough sound vibrates against the side of your throat, and he presses one last kiss to your delicate skin before pulling away.

The dark tendril wrapped around your leg sweeps back and forth lazily, the tip teasing your inner thigh with slow circles and nonsensical shapes, mimicking the movement of his fingers. It strokes you from your knee to where your skirt is bunched halfway up your thigh, flirting with the hem before dancing away.

He’s playing with you. Taunting you. Trying to get you to beg. Each fleeting touch causes the dull ache between your legs to intensify, and the way you’re pinned down and put on display for him only makes you wetter. And he knows it, too. The bastard.

Kuroo leans back suddenly, whistling as he takes in the sight of you. Chest heaving. Shirt ripped open. Bound by shadowy black tendrils that writhe against you. “Look at you,” he coos, lazy fingers wandering over your soft skin, drinking you in. Kuroo follows the line of your collarbone with the pad of his thumb.

His head cocks to the side. There’s an absolutely wicked look in his eyes when they meet yours. “What do you think that boss of yours would say if he could see you like this?” He hums, and his fingers move higher, ghosting against the front of your throat. It would be so easy for his hand to wrap around your neck and choke you, but he just strokes his thumb over the faint indents left by his teeth. He presses his thumb into your neck a little harder. Just enough to make you gasp. “Spreading your legs for a villain in some dirty, back alley. Moaning like a whore.” He chuckles when you whimper, leaning in so that his lips brush against yours when he says, “Such a naughty girl.”

The tentacle around your leg wriggles suddenly. The tip disappears under your skirt, trailing up the inside of your thigh. “But you’re going to be good for me, yeah?” he asks you, grinning at the way your head falls back against the wall, your eyes squeezing shut in bliss as the tentacle strokes you through your panties, tracing your dripping slit. It’s cold. Slick. Wrong. And you shudder as it flicks over your clit with just the right amount of pressure.

You try to swallow down the moan building in your throat, but it comes out as a high-pitched whine instead. “Tetsu,” you gasp, arching into him as the tentacle continues to play with you. His smirk widens as you try to roll your hips against the slick movement between your legs, only for his tentacles to hold you down harder.

Your fingers dig into your palms, nails biting at your skin as the stroking between your legs becomes more teasing, the tentacle lazily flicking against you. It isn’t enough to do more than tease you. Frustrated tears well in your eyes, but there’s nothing you can do but let him play his game.

He’s waiting, watching you. And you know exactly what he wants.

“Fuck, I bet you just love this, hmm?” His hand moves from your throat to your jaw. The tips of his fingers dig into your skin. “You’re so wet already, and I’ve barely even touched you.” His thumb brushes against your bottom lip. Mock sympathy drips from his tongue. “Oh, but I bet I know why.”

Heat pools in your lower belly as Kuroo’s head tilts to the side. A dark, twisting mass rises from behind him, and the large tentacle splits in two before your eyes, branching off as it reaches for you. One moves low, wrapping around your neglected leg. It doesn’t move to stroke you like the other, but the tip draws circles against your inner thigh. So, so gentle. The motion would be soothing, if you didn’t know exactly how dangerous they can be. Tearing through skin and bone when he wants them to.

“Could it be this?” he asks, watching as the other tendril snakes across your torso, barely brushing against you. It follows the curve of one of your breasts all the way to your neck, and the sound that falls out of your mouth when it wraps around your delicate throat is absolutely lewd. He chuckles. You recognize the look in his eyes, and it only makes you shudder harder.

The pathetic little mewling sound that falls from your mouth is all the answer he needs.

The tentacle around your neck teases one of the spots where he bit you, and the one between your legs strokes just a little bit harder. “Are you really that fucking depraved?” Kuroo asks you, sneering. “Fuck, kitten, you’re practically dripping,” the tentacle between your legs slips beneath your damp panties, “and all because you just can’t wait for me to fuck that cute cunt of yours with my quirk. Right here where anyone could walk by and see you.” You moan, because of his words or the tentacle that rubs against your clit, you aren’t sure. “I bet you’d just love that. Little slut.”

Like your shirt, your underwear is ripped down. The soaked, lacy fabric gets caught on the tentacles wrapped around your legs. Kuroo clicks his tongue, rucking up your skirt to get a better look at your slick thighs as the tentacle flicks over your clit once more. As his fingers graze your soft, inner thighs, the tendril drawing circles against you hooks around your panties and pulls. It tears, and you wince as the fabric snaps against your skin. Rough fingers slip between your legs, taking the ruined fabric from the tentacle and pocketing it. He makes sure to brush the lace against your clit as he pulls away.

Shakily, you take a deep breath, head tilting back just enough for you to meet his gaze. “You’re the one that wants to fuck me with them,” you remind him, fighting the urge to shiver as one of his tentacles strokes you directly, covering itself in your slick. “Who’s really the depraved one?”

The jab makes him grin. “So mouthy,” he murmurs again. The tentacle around your neck tightens, but doesn’t choke you. The pointed tip slides across your jaw and cheek, prodding at the corner of your mouth. It slides over your lips, but you refuse to part them. Kuroo sighs, disappointed. “I’ll have to fix that.”

Without warning, the tentacle stroking your slit shoves inside your pussy, spreading you open wide. Your lips part in a surprise squeal, but the other tentacle slips into your mouth, muffling the sound before it can tear from your throat. You moan around it, and Kuroo curses under his breath, feeling the vibrations through his quirk.

Another choked whine sounds through the empty alley, and he hushes you, stroking your cheek with his knuckles. Your hips lurch against the squirming sensation inside you, but the tentacles wrapped around your limbs hold you against the wall, forcing you to stay still as it wiggles.

“Careful, kitten,” Kuroo warns you, a smug look on his face. “You wouldn’t want Jishin’s little sidekicks to hear you moaning like a whore.” Those catlike eyes drift down your torso, locking on the thick tentacle stretching your dripping cunt. The tentacle in your mouth wiggles, pressing against your tongue and teeth. It pushes against the back of your throat, and you try not to gag. When you whimper again, Kuroo chuckles. “Or maybe you would.”

The palms of his hands land on your bare thighs, coaxing them further apart for a better view of the sloppy mess you’re making all over the tentacle between your legs. It’s a strange feeling. Smoother than his cock. Colder. It moves erratically, squirming inside you rather than thrusting. The tapered tip finds your sweet spot, rubbing and prodding until your hips jerk and you start to squirm again.

Around your left leg, the other tentacle holding you open starts to move, creeping across your inner thigh to join the other between your legs. Kuroo watches it slide over your skin, his pupils blown wide with arousal as he watches his black tails writhe around you, simultaneously pinning you in place and stroking you purposely. They know just where to touch to turn you into a whimpering mess, and you cry out around the tendril in your mouth when the tentacle stuffed inside your dripping pussy slides part way out before slamming back inside of you.

The other, thinner one flicks over your clit. Your moan is muffled by the tentacle shoved down your throat. All four wiggle in delight as you arch your back, trying to match the pace of the tentacle that begins to pound into you. It’s thick inside you, stretching you obscenely, and Kuroo chuckles under his breath as he watches your pretty cunt swallow the shadowy tendril.

He takes a step back and slips his hands back into his pockets, watching the tentacle fuck you with a wild look in his eyes, like a cat toying with a mouse that’s already been caught. As he cocks his head to the side, his stares intently as your cute pussy as it drips all over the wriggling appendage. Slick glistens against the black tendril with every harsh thrust, and Kuroo shivers at the phantom sensation of your cunt clenching around one of his black tails.

The one playing with your clit strokes over you slowly, swirling against your swollen nerves in the same slow, teasing way as Kuroo’s tongue.

“I guess you really are a depraved little slut,” he muses, leaning his weight onto one leg. “Letting a bunch of filthy tentacles ravish you in a dirty alleyway.” Gold eyes glint possessively as they lock with yours. “And look how well you take them.”

A muffled moan falls from your mouth, and the tentacle pressed against your tongue thrusts against the back of your throat languidly, wiggling in a way that borders on uncomfortable. The tentacle in your mouth slides out of you wetly, leaving a trail of saliva across your cheek as it retreats to your neck, coiling tighter around your throat as you gasp for breath.

The tentacle thrusts against you harder, and this time there’s nothing in your mouth to muffle you as you cry out. “Ah, Tetsu, please.” You practically sob his name, writhing almost as much as the tendrils fucking you. “Please, I can’t—” You cut off with a whine, your head tossed back against the wall as you squeeze your eyes shut. By now you’ve started trembling, pleasure feeding into the tight little ball of tension in your lower belly with every rough thrust and stroke from his quirk.

“That’s right, kitten,” Kuroo murmurs. The jingle of his belt coming undone makes you whimper, and you force your eyes open, watching as his hand slips beneath his slacks, palming his hard cock. “Beg me to let you cum. You sound so fucking pretty when you beg for me.”

Your mouth is moving immediately, whimpering garbled pleas and breathy versions of his name between the gasps and moans rolling off your tongue. You’re only half aware of what you’re saying, but delight flickers in his eyes with every word. He strokes himself slowly, watching as you start to come undone.

The appendage around your throat constricts, stealing your breath.

The tentacle inside you writhes as the one on your clit rubs against you at just the right angle, and your mouth drops open in a silent scream as the knot of tension inside you snaps. You choke out a rough, strangled version of his name, whimpering as you tremble, writhing against the limbs holding you in place. The tentacles fuck you through it, pace never slowing as they draw out the pleasure until there are tears welling in your eyes from the intensity.

Shaking as you start to come down from the high, you wince when the pounding doesn’t stop. “Tetsu. I can’t—” The tendril that flicks over your clit again makes you flinch, and the one still stuffed inside your pussy thrusts against you roughly, making your walls clench. A hissed exhale escapes from between your teeth, your eyes squeezing shut at the raw feeling of overstimulation. “Too much,” you gasp, starting to struggle against the near painful pleasure.

You shiver as he caresses your cheek, his hand warm against your clammy skin. “Oh, sweetheart,” he coos as you lean into his touch, thumb brushing against your bottom lip lovingly. “You didn’t think we’d be done that fast, did you? No, we’re just getting started.”

The tentacles curled around your limbs suddenly yank you towards Kuroo, pulling you away from the side of the building. They drag you down to your knees, and you wince as gravel digs into your skin. The tentacle around your wrists release you, but before you can grab Kuroo’s thighs to steady yourself, they’re wrenched behind you back, binding you again.

Kuroo nudges your thighs further apart with his foot. An approving sound rumbles in his chest as he watches the tentacle continue to fuck you despite your whimpering. He grabs your chin between his thumb and fingers, grip bruising as he tilts your head up, forcing you to look at him. A devilish look flashes in his eyes, sharp and predatory as he looks at you, on your knees for him. He shoves the front of his pants down with his free hand, clever fingers sneaking inside to stroke himself.

There’s a reason they call him a panther. “Now be a good girl and suck my cock.”

[timeturner-jay]

For the ask game, edelweiss and jasmine? (And while I'm here, thank you for always providing some much needed sanity on my dash!)

Aww, thank you! But me, sane? Your dash must be pretty wild if I look sane in comparison! ;D But really, I appreciate it! <3

Edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you?

Funny story, actually - people always assume it's a Harry Potter thing. It's not. I've been using the online alias Timeturner since I was a young teenager, and back then, I had never even read or watched Harry Potter in English. So I didn't even realise that I was using the same name as that one item. Sure, it's a direct translation from the German word for it, but it just never occurred to me to make that translation (and why would it? It was a completely unrelated thing after all).

In fact, I came up with the name when I was playing an MMORPG called Aion Online. The game had just added two new classes - Gunner and Bard - and I wanted to make a Gunner character. The class had a big emphasis on the Steampunk aesthetic, which I love, and I wanted a character name that would match it - and so, after some thinking and back and forth, Timeturner was born. She became my main in that game, but I was always a pretty casual player. Never even maxed her level, in the end. I haven't played Aion in many years now, but I liked the name so much that I kept using it online!

As for Jay, it's just a nickname for my real name, which is Jasmina - and speaking of! ;D

Jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

Back when the Hobbit movies were announced, I guess you could say I loved the idea of them? I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's works, and I was hoping Peter Jackson would capture the same magic he put into the LotR film trilogy. Which have their own little issues, but are still a fantastic adaptation overall.

Well.

Let's just say that now that the Hobbit movie trilogy is out, I can (and will) rant for hours about how much of a terrible adaptation they are. An insult to Tolkien's works really, and to the New Zealand actors. The problems with the movies go pretty deep, and several people on YouTube have said it much more eloquently than I can (those long video essays about the movies are great btw, can definitely recommend! The ones from Lindsay Ellis and Just Write were my favourites, if I remember correctly!), but I wish those movies had never been made. I'm more exasperated than angry about it these days, but still. They're bad adaptations, and not even good movies when considered as stand-alone works.

[bellamyroselia]

Who could replace Hades as the new big bad? Overly long essay

Like pretty much everyone else in this fandom, I love Hades. Guy’s your typical pure evil villain with a personality larger than life itself and he’s having so much fun with it that it’s contagious. Every time he pops up, I’m delighted to see him. It’s so fun to see him do his shtick and have the time of his life with it, which also makes beating him feel so great. After all the crap he has put the main cast through, it’s so satisfying to blast him into the face because for a moment that confidence finally breaks and once it's all over, people cheer because they don’t have to live in horrible fear for a while at least. This characterization is mostly rooted on the sheer fear factor Hades had in the eyes of ancient people - even in civilizations which have rather chipper afterlife people tended to prefer living over dying, and this of course meant that they were absolutely terrified of the Underworld deities. Hades was mostly addressed by epithets in texts because people thought that if they called him by his name, they were drawing his attention and the last thing a sane person wants is the attention of an powerful god who has power over the dead. So if a god has this level of appeal, be it positive or negative, you may not even need excessive amount of mythological content to create a frame for a character!

This being said, I don’t believe his chances of coming back are as the big bad of a next game are high - that is unless we have to wait another 15-20 years to get a new game, but I’d like to be more hopeful than that. So if he isn’t coming back, who could possibly replace him as the new big bad of Kid Icarus? It’s not like the writers could ever run out of source material because there’s so many monsters to deal with and every god is more or less morally grey, meaning that there’s many possibilities for new bad guys regardless of the scale.

This took a lot longer than I originally expected and I’m sorry for that - there’s no worse idea than to jump into a rabbit hole and bringing a shovel with you because things will quickly spiral out of control into new interesting directions. The more info I gathered, the more interested I was on looking more into it and sometimes it even spiraled out of mythology into history and philosophy. If you’re interested on some specific reasons for why this took so long, here’s few: myths are long and there’s many different versions of them, epics are even longer, Peloponnese people couldn’t be bothered to write their own things down so I had to look what travelers wrote down, it takes Plato way too long to get into the point, Herodotus never gets into the point, someone translated the term metic as resident alien of all things which I thought was the funniest thing ever and Ludovisi Ares is really pretty.

This is the point where I give the obligatory warnings, so here - since I'm discussing mythology here, it's inevitable that there's some talk about violence and death. I'm not going to linger on the gruesome details, but know that it's there. At couple points this will spiral into a full-on history lesson because I thought that understanding the historical context was important regarding the topic I was discussing. Also this is a one long essay - and by long, I mean really, really long. If you want to read it all at one sitting, prepare some time for yourself. But with that all out of the way, let’s jump straight into the discussion on who could be the next possible big bad, shall we?

I’m limiting this mostly to the main 12 Olympians with the addition of some other big names to keep things simple - while some smaller mythological figures such as Arachne or Arke would work fantastically as villains, they don’t have that recognition or presentation the more well known characters have. We’re trying to speculate who could fill Hades’ shoes as the new main bad guy here after all, not who we could add on the list of great yet less significant antagonists like Medusa, Pandora and Thanatos. I’m excluding Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus and Demeter from this list for rather obvious reasons - Zeus because the the guy seems to be MIA for good so Palutena could rule the place, Athena and Hephaestus because Palutena and Dyntos practically are them and Demeter because Viridi pretty much is Mycenaean Demeter on steroids in a package way too small to contain all that anger within. I also don’t think her relationship with Pit and Palutena will change drastically, so she’s sitting comfortably on her friendenemy-zone.

As for already existing characters, I don’t think anyone of them could snatch the title of the big bad. Viridi is off the competition for already mentioned reasons and I don’t see anyone from Forces of Nature defecting to become the new main villain. Pyrrhon is either gone for good or went back to whatever is this world’s equivalent of Egypt to lick his wounds, so I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon - and if he’s coming, I don’t think he’s coming back as a main bad guy since he really wasn’t one to begin with. Thanatos’ only major mythological appearance is the myth of Sisyphus capturing death which doesn’t exactly strike confidence on his abilities in general and if that version of Thanatos couldn’t do his job correctly when meeting one guy too stubborn to die, do you really think that I believe our Thanatos has any chances of becoming the new big bad? Bringing back Medusa would be beating a dead horse at this point unless they really twist the formula and I don’t think that’s going to happen, so Medusa is off the competition. Pandora wasn’t all that big of a threat to begin with, so if she comes back she most likely stays that way. So it’s definitely going to be a new character, but who could it be?

As for who for sure can’t replace Hades as the new main bad, it’s Hestia. She probably has the lowest chance of any big Greek god to even appear in a possible future Kid Icarus game simply because there’s next to no material of her and that’s for a good reason. She was the goddess of hearth, domesticity, family, home and state. Most of these were and still are considered private, so that explains why there’s very little material of Hestia actually doing anything - we don’t write epic poetry about cleaning the house, making a macaroni casserole for dinner or going to bathroom and so didn’t the ancient people. With Hestia, you’re dealing with the bare bones of a character because she’s so passive and non-confrontational figure. It would be hard to make her a central figure in any kind of plot, especially for a one centered around action, so she’s out.

Hermes is also a figure I don’t think would work as a big bad or as an antagonist in general and I don’t really have any concrete reasons for why I think so. I just feel that he would be unfit for the role. He’s a trickster who started his shenanigans on the day he was born and the rest is mythology - by cunning escapades and underdog tactics he became the messenger of gods and from that point onward he kept collecting even more jobs such as becoming the god of merchants, shepherds and thieves, being a psychopomp, guiding dreams and helping heroes whenever he felt like it. He has a lot of going on but he’s always regarded as someone who knows all the tricks and isn’t afraid to use them, not all bad for a guy whose name was derived from a word meaning a pile of rocks.

As for why I think Hermes would make an terrible antagonist is mostly because of his status as the god of thieves and how it’s pretty much the easiest way to turn him into an antagonist. The thing here is that I just can’t stand antagonists whose main thing is that they’re amazing thieves and/or tricksters in games. While I think they can be enjoyable in other forms of media if they’re written on a smart way, in games this is almost never the case because gameplay and story don’t always match perfectly and writers need to use cheap tactics to make the character work - and by cheap I mean either A.I stands for artificial incompetence and the character is simply bad at being a thief/trickster despite all the characters and lore saying otherwise or that the game just starts cheating against the player to make them feel dumb even though they did nothing wrong. Thieves and tricksters are just really hard to balance in a game when it’s not the player character doing the deceiving. That perfect sweet spot for a great character is too goddamn tiny and if the thief/trickster isn’t exactly in there, you have an annoying character either because they’re incompetent at their job or because computer is a cheating bastard. So while there’s many enjoyable antagonists who share traits with Hermes, combine them all into a one character with the problems I already mentioned and most of the time you have a figure everybody hates due to how infuriating they’re to deal with. We’re trying to make people interested of going on and seeing what happens next here, not trying to annoy them to the point where they can just drop the game and never pick it up again. As for another reason I don’t think Hermes would work all that well as an antagonist is because his whole shtick is that despite his incredible powers, he still manages to be an underdog. Needless to say, the way underdogs are represented in media is vastly different from the way major antagonists are and while it can work, it’s hard to pull off. And of course there’s the thing of Hermes being portrayed almost always as a positive figure in myths, meaning that I and many others have a hard time imagining him as a bad guy. At his most evil we imagine Hermes doing stuff such as saying to his nephew that grandpa equals target practice, not anything that could threaten the world. Though if Hermes is included into the cast of a future game, I can image him having a theme that sounds similar to the BW rival theme for some reason. It has that I’m a one chipper fella but I’m also extremely busy right now so goodbye for a moment, see you soon-energy in it that I associate with Hermes.

As for what kind of role Hermes could be playing, he could work rather well as a quick cameo like Poseidon was in KI:U, where he offers help in some form. If one wants to go deeper into it, he could possibly run some service since he was the god of merchants and trade as well - though if one want to involve the fact of him being the god of thieves in addition to previously mentioned things, make him an occasional scammer because that’s what one would expect from a trickster. Or have him as a boss in a training gauntlet. Works either way.

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If Artemis was introduced into the series, I don’t think she would be antagonistic. I can totally see her having a cold personality and her being bit of a hard person to deal with, but I don’t see her being actively malicious character - only example of Artemis being overly cruel towards figures KI-characters seem to be based on would be her sending the Calydonian boar to cause chaos in Calydon. It’s interesting if you believe Magnus and Gaol are at least partially inspired by Meleager and Atalanta like I do, but I don’t think it’s enough to make Artemis an antagonist, much less the main villain so she’s off the competition. Not to say she isn't wrathful, I looked into it and her wrath far outnumbers her blessings, though it's rather messy at times and some of them even can't co-exist the ones about Orion and Callisto definitely can't but her wrath is divorced from the main KI-cast. You'd have to create new characters to excuse it and KI already has a rather large cast, so I don't think it would be all that wise to create new characters just for the sake of goddess cursing them for a plot line that's resolved in couple chapters. Maybe she’s just a cameo or possibly a boss in a training gauntlet.

Apollo would be an antagonist. I just don’t see any other way how he could be introduced into the series. He has potential to be a charismatic, funny and mostly harmless antagonist who isn’t there to cause any trouble, he just really hates Pit and only Pit. But why would he hate Pit? It’s not like the mythological Apollo dislikes Icarus or Perseus and that’s indeed true, but there’s one more thing. For a god who we associate with a celestial body mostly made out of hydrogen and helium, Apollo has extremely high levels of sodium chloride within him - which is to say that he has been salty starting from the moment Hermes robbed him that one time and that lake of salt inside him has only become larger ever since. That salt is directed at people he dislikes and while he doesn’t dislike Icarus or Perseus because he never met either of them, guess who he does dislike? Angel-like gods, or just Eros to be more specific.

The story goes that Apollo’s enormous ego took the better of him one day and so he started to mock his nephew for what he thought was mediocre use of the bow and arrow. Insulted Eros decided that Apollo had officially lost his uncle-license which led him to curse Apollo to have the worst love life imaginable, starting with Daphne. And as we all know Cupid is Roman version of Eros and Pit is named after Cupid, so this was hatred made in heaven and it would be disappointing to not use the opportunity when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And you don’t even have to come up with an detailed and intriguing story to explain why Apollo hates him - something could’ve very well happened during the three years Pit’s consciousness was in that ring. His body may have ruined Apollo’s chances to hit it off with people because it was destroying their cities or something similar. Or just leave it as a noodle incident that’s referenced multiple times, everyone wonders what the heck actually happened but only Apollo knows, refusing to tell the story because he just assumes that everyone already knows it and they’re just messing with him by pretending to not know. Either way, Apollo should be an antagonist if he’s featured in a sequel. Not a villain, definitely not the big bad but fun antagonist to deal with.

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This is something that most of you probably already know or at least you would know if you’ve actually read something other than Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or as I like to call it Jaded man screams at Emperor Augustus because apparently telling the Roman citizens to go all out on every monument the prude ever built clearly wasn’t enough, please tell me you have but Medusa isn’t an only child. She’s in fact one of Phorcys and Ceto’s seven children, both of them being somewhat monstrous primordial ocean deities - Phorcys has been described as a merman with red skin and crab claws, Ceto’s name in the other hand just literally means sea monster. Besides Medusa and the two other gorgons Stheno and Euryale, the list of their children includes the graeae sisters, serpentine dragon Ladon and Echidna, which is quite a lot of snake monsters for two deities who themselves don’t have any snake traits. There’s a lot of potential in this group but ideas of any of them becoming the new big bad end up falling apart because just like Medusa, they’re all rather bland characters like you’d expect from a mythological monster. They’re less like characters and more like plot devices that the hero needs to deal with. The only two members of this family besides Medusa who actually get to do something of importance are Ladon and Echidna and even those acts aren’t all that interesting. Echidna gets to have her many monstrous children with Typhon and then she’s apparently is killed by Argus, Hera’s servant-giant while sleeping on a cave just like her sister. Ladon guarded the garden of Hesperides which was well known for its golden apples and he doesn’t get to die with much dignity either, since Heracles just shoots him in the back and literally the next day other Argonauts find nymphs looking at his still twitching body. Alternatively Heracles just tricks Titan Atlas to do all the apple picking, which leaves Ladon alive.

Possibly one of the biggest problems writers have to deal with is setting. Ladon is very strictly tied into the garden setting and Echidna was cave dweller who never left her home, so writers would have to come with rather specific situations for them to appear. Of course if one wants to be lazy, Underworld could possibly serve as their home. It could very well house caves big enough to house a snake monster and Greek Underworld does have Elysium, which is basically Paradise and it could very well also function as a garden. But honestly even with the right setting, I don’t think either of them would make all that interesting big bads. They would definitely work fantastically as large-scale villains, but they don’t really have that much intimidation factor all things considered - you can blame Argus and Heracles for that.

But I’m not done with this family yet as there’s one character connected to them who’s probably the most feared monster of all Greco-Roman mythology and that’s Typhon, Echidna’s mate. He’s essentially an ancient Greek equivalent of a kaiju, more a destructive force of nature than a monster and everyone fears him - and by everyone, I mean everyone. There’s couple of versions of what happens but the most popular one goes that when the gods saw him, their first instinct was to shapeshift into animals and flee into Egypt. Those who did stay behind such as Hades were said to cover in fear in their homes while Typhon ravaged the land. Zeus tried to fight him but when he went for the kill, Typhon caught him and cut off his sinews, then threw him into a cave under the watch of another snake monster Delphyne. This didn’t stop Hermes and Pan from getting the sinews back and saving Zeus, and once his strength has been restored he and Typhon fought once again. Zeus eventually wearied Typhon down and then either casted him down into Tartarus or dropped a mountain on top of him, that being Mount Etna.

He could work very well as a big bad, problem here are just how high the stakes need to be for him to work. He’d had to be the ultimate villain if that was the case, the stakes need to be higher than they were with Hades. And considering how Hades was pretty much your typical pure evil villain causing chaos, what separates Typhon from him? Just some more chaos and no wisecracking dialogue because everyone is too scared to talk? He comes off as way too similar to Hades without all the fun personality. Maybe if KI:U became a KI:U-trilogy he could work as the ultimate big bad of the last game, but I got to say no otherwise. The bar for making him work is already sky-high due to how destructive he is and we don’t want to repeat the plot of Uprising here. So while he definitely can work, maybe save him for later.

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Hera and Poseidon both have potential to be serious antagonistic forces, but I don’t think they have it to be main villains. Hera simply fits the bill because most of the times she’s the antagonistic force actively trying to make people’s lives worse, all because she can’t direct her anger at correct people. Some times she’s just blatantly evil, like how she imprisoned her own daughter Eileithyia or you may better know her as Lucina to prevent the birth of Artemis and Apollo or how she tricked her pregnant great-granddaughter into disintegrating herself Semele is her great-granddaughter by the way. As for examples of Hera being wrathful which don’t involve Zeus being horny, she was said to be the one who sent Sphinx to Thebes, no reason given why or if there’s one, I couldn’t find it. Works either way.

Because she might as well be the personification of divine wrath, it’s pretty easy to see why one would think she would make a great villain. However that wrath also gives us a big problem, it being that her evil escapades are mostly rooted on anger and spite - while wrath is a good driving force for a villain, it needs more to work. With Hades, he does evil things for fun and is having a blast while doing it. Hera on the other hand just rages and most of the times it’s because of Zeus, who seems to be out of the picture. She’s not there to have fun and when you add her general lack of charisma on the top, you don’t end up with the most endearing character. While wrath can serve as a character motivation, it can become stale very quickly and this means that unless the story regarding villainy her is short (as in solved in 1-3 chapters) it starts to feel like dragging. I overall think that Hera does have very low chances to appear in general, but if she does appear as an antagonist she should preferably be a minor one in the same way Viridi was. You know the meme of what makes villain a supervillain and the answer is presentation? Hera doesn’t have that presentation. Writers can certainly just give her that which is what they did with Hades whose mythological counterpart was more or less a basement dweller, but why go trough all that trouble when there’s so many better candidates to work with?

On to Poseidon, who’s an important figure in the founding myth of Athens - it’s honestly quite odd how it’s never mentioned in any shape or form in KI:U despite Palutena being based on Athena. But then again, considering how much “care” this series put on the names of its cities and towns, this being ignored doesn’t really surprise me even if it does disappoint. He was a really big deal during the Mycenaean period, besides being the god of ocean he was also seen as the head god and the ruler of the Underworld. Then the Late Bronze Age collapse happened and Poseidon was nerfed in the lack of better words - during the Dark Age, Zeus became the new head god and Hades popped seemingly out of nowhere, taking over Poseidon’s role as the god ruling the Underworld. On the other news Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is somewhat dwarfed by the fact that most of his escapades involve banging and they don’t really feature any figures the main cast of KI seem to be based on. It’s annoying because he does so much but because it’s mostly banging people and either helping or bullying very specific heroes, it’s just not something that’s all that relevant in the context of KI. But there’s couple myths and stories that would make him an easy bad guy, first one is that of Atlantis - and we’re going to jump straight to the source material because on it’s core, it’s technically just another tale of Athena and Poseidon having a conflict. Fish people under the sea is fun as well, but by using the source directly it gives us the most potential.

So Plato tells in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias that when Athenian statesman Solon visited Egypt, he found some interesting records about certain events during 10th millennium BCE and translated them into Greek. Only thing here that’s true is Solon visiting Egypt, everything else was made up Plato - if you need more proof, know that 10th millennium BCE was during the stone age for context, Britain wasn’t sharing a land border with just France, but also with Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark during this time. It was that far into the past. As for the actual story, it begins by gods choosing lots of land for themselves and Poseidon chooses Atlantis. He then falls in love with a mortal woman Cleito, builds her a luxurious home, they have five sets of twin boys together and once the kids have all grown up, they divide Atlantis into ten parts and so is born ten different lineages of kings. But by each generation the kings become more and more human, meaning that it’s much more easier for their wealthy lifestyle to hit them in the head - compare that to Athenians in the story, who’re not tempted by luxuries and have quite Spartan lifestyle interestingly enough. This wealthy lifestyle of the Atlanteans quickly leads into colonialism and war mongering, leading into them trying to take over the Mediterranean but they’re are stopped by Athens because naval warfare was the only type of warfare Athenians actually excelled at. Zeus eventually looks down to see what the heck is going on and then tells Poseidon to do something because this racket is technically speaking all his fault. Poseidon agrees, causes an earthquake and then sweeps Atlantis under his rug, that being the ocean. So Atlantis is pretty much an antithesis of a perfect society, a concept that’s discussed more in Republic and the lesson here is that being consumed by hubris in the search of luxury leads to ruin - but since we’re not here for philosophy lessons, let’s forget all of that and think what kind of plot one could craft out of this mess.

Island nation in search of wealth is a good set-up for some action, so I don’t think there’s much that needs changing. Have Atlanteans attack some cities which alerts Palutena and that leads Pit into a mission in which he tries to tell Poseidon what’s going on. After 2-5 chapters of war against Atlanteans, Poseidon deals with the problem either willingly or by force - whether he just destroys the place or makes Atlanteans full on aquatic folk who can’t survive on land meaning that they have to give up the conquest is up to writers. It’s honestly quite refreshing to have the original tale working so well, because usually everything related to Atlantis in media is so divorced from what Plato told. Sure, a submerged city full of fish people could still work but by using the original tale as base we get a story with clear beginning and end which makes perfect sense in context of KI. Or maybe have the a plotline inspired by the original story first and then later have something related to the submerged city with the fish people. Best of both worlds, amazing!

Also orichalcum, the metal Atlanteans were said to have aplenty, is pretty much just copper. Reddish metal and only gold is more valuable than it, it couldn't be anything else but copper. The term even translates into mountain copper! So why is it never portrayed as copper in fiction?

Besides Atlantis, Poseidon has couple other myths I’d like to talk about too. The first one has him and Apollo losing their divine authority for a while and as punishment they have to serve Trojan king Laomedon father of king Priam and grandfather of Hector among some others if you’re wondering. The king makes them to build the legendary walls of Troy and he promises them great rewards, but once he doesn’t deliver them Apollo sends the plague upon Troy and then Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize the place Heracles kills it if you’re wondering. There’s also certain another situation which I’ve actually already talked about on a different post and how with little shaking it could work nicely on a future game - what I said was that Pit should do something Poseidon is going to hate to the point that the god is screaming for his head and that he wants to settle things on court.

The myth I used as reference was that of the supposed first trial in history, in which Ares kills Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius for assaulting his daughter and Poseidon loses his marbles over it. The gods gathered on Areopagus which is a real place in Athens, fun fact and I’ve heard two versions of how the trial goes. In the first version everyone agrees that Ares’ actions were justified and in the second one gods side with Poseidon, but goddesses side with Ares and since there was more goddesses present than gods, their words mattered more. Either way, Poseidon loses the trial and Ares gets away scot-free.

Were a future KI-game do their own twist with this myth, Pit would obviously take the role of Ares. Besides the fact that we’re trying to make Poseidon more antagonistic, Pit just being on a situation similar as Ares makes sense thematically speaking and I’m going to talk more about this later since it’s rather interesting. As for why the trial happens in the first place, it could very well be over anything. Maybe mix it with the one where Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize Troy just replace Troy with some unimportant city as this series always does and he’s so attached to it that seeing it getting slayed deeply saddens and angers him. You don’t even need to get rid of the idea that it was over a girl, even if the motive for killing the monster is changed along with what kind of relationship the girl could possibly have with the main cast. This is something I’ll get back into later because there’s in fact one other character who I’d like to talk about and how their most cruel and personal form of villainy happens to bound to a certain girl.

So back to Hera and Poseidon. There’s definitely potential for them to be antagonistic, but I’d say they would work much better as arc villains rather than as the main bad guy. There’s only so many things you can do with characters whose actions are rooted on anger or wrath, especially when they don’t have all that striking personalities.

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As for someone who could well work as the big bad, Dionysus is the first serious candidate. It’s partially due to how inconsistent his characterization has been, which I guess is something one should expect from a figure who has been around since the Mycenaean times and who happens to be the god of insanity, vegetation, orchards, fruit, grape-harvest, winemaking and wine. Does this sound like someone you’d expect to be a member of Forces of Nature? Because it sure does for me and I’d honestly be surprised if he wasn’t one if he was introduced to the franchise.

Symbolism behind Dionysus’ birth is pretty neat, my favorite version of it is the one written down by Diodorus of Sicily in Bibliotheca Historica and in that one Demeter is his mother. It starts the usual way in which the poor kid is killed shortly after his birth by Titans and Demeter comes back just in time to gather his remains to allow his rebirth shortly after. It references the harvest process and wine making - the god wine is born from the union of rain and earth just any plant is, he’s torn apart and boiled alive symbolizing the harvesting and wine-making process, his remains represent the fallen bare vines which become fertilizer for the earth and lastly wine itself is supposed symbolize the now reborn Dionysus. All of the versions of his birth myth do have this symbolism to a certain degree but I’d say this version has it the strongest because unlike his other the mother candidates, Demeter is a nature goddess first and foremost and also the goddess of agriculture.

This next point is somewhat tied to the previous one which is that he actually has valid reasons for his absence, that being his meanderings. Long story short - Hera’s angry over the fact that he exists, she injects him with madness and he wanders around like a madman for a while, then Rhea cures said madness and tells him to go on a journey so he could teach people how to make wine. So he goes and wanders around the world with the exception of Britain and Ethiopia for some reason teaching people the art of winemaking and does some other things in the meanwhile, such as apparently founding a city it’s told that on his campaign Alexander the Great came across a city that was supposedly founded by Dionysus. And this is a fun fact, apparently Dionysus’ popularity exploding around late 4th century BCE can be directly linked into Alexander, which is pretty neat. Once he comes back home he firmly establishes his place as a god and then he starts doing shenanigans much more familiar to us, such as giving king Midas his golden touch and marrying Ariadne.

So why do I think Dionysus is the first real contender for a possible new big bad? Well, do you know what’s the first thing he did once he came back to Greece? According to Bacchae, he brainwashed a city to worship him, caused an earthquake, set a palace on fire, gleefully watched when his worshipers teared a man into pieces and then turned some other people into serpents. Now that’s an entrance Viridi would be proud of!

Besides this, there’s also two similar stories in which Dionysus meets some pirates and they both show him as an unhinged god. They capture him and in the first one Dionysus shapeshifts into a lion and unleashes a bear against his captors, causing the scared pirates to abandon the ship and then Dionysus turns them into dolphins. In the other one he turns the mast and oars into snakes, fills the ship with ivy and the sound of flutes to make the pirates go mad and once again when they abandon the ship, Dionysus turns them into dolphins. The tale of him giving Midas his golden touch could also count as him being antagonistic since the act gives Midas nothing but suffering. So while he is much more friendly towards humans than your average god, Dionysus definitely has an antagonistic flare deep inside him and a place in the Forces of Nature and you can’t change my mind.

If Dionysus was a major antagonist or the big bad, I could see the plot going a lot like this - he comes home, causes some racket because he feels neglected, Viridi is happy about all of this and tries to control it while keeping him on this state of mind because who wants a happy party guy when you can have a chaotic deity, for a while she can do it but not for long before things snowball out of control and he becomes an unhinged god dead set on causing chaos. As for how he’s defeated, I can’t really come up with anything concrete on a fly but I don’t think Dionysus would be defeated the same way Hades was. And while he has the personality and presentation needed for a main antagonist, I just can’t see him as a pure evil villain like Hades was. He’s very much redeemable in my eyes and as for what happens to him after his defeat, I could see it leading to him mellowing down kind of like how Greek wine was watered down before it was used for anything - he’s still part of Forces of Nature and perfectly capable of doing all the same stuff he did as a major antagonist, but he would prefer partying with humans over destroying them. Viridi probably isn’t going to be all too happy about this, but it’s not like she’s going to be all that angry about it either.

Also fun fact at the end - in Dionysiaca, Ariadne laments if Eros and Anteros hate her because she had amazing dream about a wedding, only for Theseus to piss off and abandon her on Naxos. But as we all know, she would soon meet Dionysus who she does end up marrying so hey, the dream just wasn’t about the guy she thought she would marry. So if Dionysus isn’t going to be the big bad and the arc devoted to his villainy is relatively short, this could very well be used as a blueprint for a funny side story. Ariadne lamenting about Eros and Anteros would give Pit and Dark Pit valid reasons to be there.

This is not a joke, by the way. The part of Underworld which wasn't either Elysium or Tartarus was commonly referred as "the House of Hades" in ancient texts.

As for someone else who could also work quite well as the big bad, that would be Persephone. You all know the drill with her - Hades takes her, Demeter panics and goes to search her, she causes the Mediterranean summer on the meanwhile and does a thing which looks awful without context Demeter sets a baby on fire which is supposed to make him immortal if you’re wondering, everyone else decides that enough is enough because endless Mediterranean summer is a nightmare, they beg for Hades to give her back and he does that but not before the pomegranate trick. Demeter causes Mediterranean winter to come, the trouble is solved, we have a nice functional couple in our hands and they continue to appear together when Underworld is relevant to the plot - which surprisingly isn’t all that often as only Adonis, Heracles, Theseus who loses his arse and friend in the process, Orpheus who loses his wife and will to live in the process, Odysseys, Psyche and Aeneas managed to go to Underworld and back. That’s not really all that much all things considered.

And before anyone says anything about seasons here - Mediterranean climate is a thing and it’s best known for its hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. One of these is much more preferable for plant life and in this case, it’s not summer. The more you know.

While there’s not much material of her when compared some other people in this list, I’d say there’s enough to create a frame for a character. In both Theogony and Iliad Persephone is described as dreaded and in Odyssey Odysseus assumes Persephone is the one sending ghosts to torture him while he’s visiting the Underworld. Just like Hades she has her fair share of vague epithets like Despoina (mistress) and Kore (maiden), presumably for the same reason as to avoid getting her attention. And while the etymology behind her actual name is rather muddied, the popular theories are that it means something in the vain of to destroy, to bring/cause death and she who brings destruction. And people have the gall to say she isn’t scary!

With this info and Hades’ characterization from KI:U in mind, you could very easily create a powerful pure evil villain who’s not going to be happy to learn what happened to her husband. As for why I believe she would be pure evil instead of redeemable one like Dionysus, it’s simply so she and Hades would match on their villainy. Considering how the big thing about Hades and Persephone is that they genuinely love each other to the point of possessiveness Pirithous and Minthe learned it the hard way, it would be weird if they hadn’t rubbed on each other during the time they were together. There’s an amazing chance for drama here and it would be dumb to ignore it when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And besides, unholy matrimonies are quite fun in fiction. Villains too have something they love.

As for attempts of villainy that don’t revolve around her being antsy at Pit about Hades, we interestingly need to look at the list of those she granted favors rather than those that had to deal with her wrath - or just one of them in particular, Psyche. As I’ve already mentioned she was one of those mortals who managed to go to Underworld and back and to make things better, she went to Underworld specifically so she could speak to Persephone. Persephone greets her with a nice cushion to sit on and a banquet, which Psyche declines because it’s a trap this is practically just the pomegranate trick on a larger scale. She tells why she came into the Underworld in the first place and Persephone fulfills her request, which is to say that she gives Psyche boxed death.

Coming to Underworld to speak to Persephone in particular definitely gives Psyche an edge compared to others when it comes to exploring Persephone’s potential villainy. But just why is Psyche such a big deal when compared to someone else like Orpheus, Adonis or Aeneas? Well, Psyche just happens to be the girl who would become the goddess of soul, a job that isn’t currently filled by anyone in KI-universe which Hades has kindly illustrated to us in KI:U by eating and repurposing souls for his own purposes. She’s also Eros’ wife with the addition of being the mother of his daughter and as we all know at this point, Pit is mostly inspired by Eros. While Persephone just being angry about her husband’s treatment makes a perfectly fine motivation, why not use the chance when it has been represented to us on a golden platter? Because while KI has a large cast of characters, most them are quite divorced from one another when it comes to their mythological counterparts interacting with each other. This subverts it since Persephone actually gets to interact with someone important to the figure Pit’s inspired of, which is more than almost anyone else in this list can say. The opportunity is there and there’s an open position for a new god, so why not take it?

Also if Persephone is going to be in a future game, I say I’m going to be so disappointed if there's not at least one pun about her epithet Kore. Like imagine if she was introduced on a chapter called Lost Kore or something similar and then the characters would just continue on making bad puns, annoying her. Wouldn’t be too out of line when it comes to this series humor.

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I know what I’m going to say next is probably going to be controversial, but anyway - if Ares ever makes an appearance, I don’t think he would be a bad guy and this is mostly due to how Pit has been characterized. I know that may sound weird at first but trust me, I do actually have a point with this.

So let’s start with something that may seem completely unrelated at first, these being a history lesson and some talk about over-demonization. We honestly don’t know much about how some city states worshiped gods and what specific versions of the myths they had because some people just couldn’t be bothered to write things down. Besides it being extremely annoying for me, this is also probably where the misconception of all of ancient Greece being either like Athens or Sparta came from, which just is completely false. However what is correct is that city states didn’t really like one another all that much and often engaged on stupid wars with each other, only uniting when there was a much bigger threat looming on the horizon - and with war comes propaganda and when only some people write things down, we’re usually left with really one-sided information when it comes to both good and bad. For one example of this coming off as hilariously hypocritical to me is Athena being worshiped under the epithet Areia in Athens. Areia is very obviously derived from Ares and means warlike, but Athenians had their heads so far in their arses that they came up with a reasoning that this version of the epithet is actually derived from areô or areskô, meaning to propriate or atone for. It’s most likely just some crap Athenians came up with to excuse the worship of Athena Areia, which I just can’t help but find pathetically funny - you can only blame your own propaganda for this, guys.

Historically speaking Ares most likely originates from Thrace since besides his popularity in there Herodotus notes in Histories that only gods from Olympian Pantheon that Thracians worshiped were Ares, Artemis and Dionysus, a really odd trio if I have to say so myself, it’s also said to be his birthplace in the myths. His name can be found on Linear B scripts, a writing system that goes as far back as 1450 BCE and which disappeared during the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1100 BCE. This informs us that he was part of the Mycenaean Pantheon in some way, most likely even then as a war god - it also informs us that he predates gods such as Apollo, Hades and Aphrodite who just don’t exist in Mycenaean texts at least in any recognizable forms. As for Ares during the Archaic, Classical and Hellenic period, especially when it came to places that weren’t either Athens/Attica or Sparta, I had to mostly rely on travelers who wrote things they saw down because some people just didn’t bother to write their own stuff down. Pausanias’ Description of Greece was especially helpful with the research, but what must be remembered is that he lived during 2nd century CE and that he was an outsider to these cultural aspects so how old some of this stuff here is and what the exact context behind it was, I don’t know and neither do others at least currently, one sure can hope so we know more in the future. Then again past is another country so maybe I'm setting my hopes way too high. When given anything in Linear A, people channel their best "I never learned how to read!"-impression.

As for how Ares’ Roman counterpart Mars came to be, it’s mostly due to syncretization. He probably was originally an agricultural god who was later associated with warfare once the Roman Republic started expanding. It’s possible that he was syncretized with an Etruscan deity called Maris, who was usually portrayed as a young boy whose caregiver was Menrva, a goddess who was later identified with Athena and Minerva. While this isn’t an universally agreed take, it’s still pretty interesting in context of Kid Icarus even if it wasn’t intentional or in the case of the take, true. Once Romans started to interact with Greek settlers from Magna Graecia Mars was syncretized with Ares, giving us the Roman god that looks familiar to us. One notable thing to keep in mind is that most of those Greek settlers in Magna Graecia originated from Peloponnese and what I’ve managed to find, they held Ares on much more higher regard than those originating from Attica did.

Okay, now when that has been cleaned out of the way, let’s go to the slightly more interesting stuff which is cult titles and epithets. Just like any other god he has his fair share of both, some examples include Teichesipletes (stormer of cities/walls), Hippius (horseman, of the horses), Theritas (beastly/brutish), Enyalius (warlike), Obrimus (strong/mighty), Thurus (violent/furious), Chrysopelex (of the golden helm) and Chalcocorustes (armed with bronze). I’m using Latin spelling of these to make things easier for myself if you’re wondering. But there’s two titles I specifically want to talk about, both them originating from Arcadia around Tegea because apparently all the cool stuff happens in Arcadia.

Interestingly also in Tegea there was a temple of Athena under epithet Alea. Pausanias tells that her priest there was a boy who held the title until he reached puberty, meaning that her priest was a child. Now this has nothing to do with Ares, but it’s pretty interesting when thinking of Pit. It’s not exactly same for sure, but could this mean that he would leave Palutena if he ever grew up?

The first one is Gynaecothoenas, meaning “Feasted by women” - and no need to worry, it’s nowhere near as sexual as it sounds. The story goes that Tegeteans were at war with Sparta and what decided the victory was an ambush by Tegetean women. Because of this, they offered Ares a sacrifice and celebrated the victory alone. The king of the Spartans at the time was said to be Charilaus, meaning that this victory must have happened around early-to-mid 8th century BCE, making this rather old cult title by the time Pausanias was writing. If only the research for everything else here could’ve been as easy as this.

The other and much more interesting title was Aphneius, meaning “Abundant” and under this title he was worshiped as the giver of food or abundance. The story behind this title goes that Ares fell in love with Tegetean princess Aerope and they had a child together, but she died during childbirth. Ares, doing his damndest to keep his son alive, managed to find a way for the baby to still have milk. Once he grew up, his son Aeropus then managed to do the thing that’s near impossible for a demigod, which is to live a normal life as the lord of Tegea. Now this would make a great character backstory…

… What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, history lesson is over! Finally! Now into the fun stuff, which is Pit’s characterization. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that that Pit’s inspirations are Icarus, Perseus and Eros but when it comes to his characterization, Eros definitely takes the cake as the main inspiration. He is a fully realized character with multiple myths under his wing, unlike Icarus or Perseus.

Starting with Icarus, he isn’t even a character but a plot device. He’s a tool for Daedalus’ character development and that’s where his importance ends. He’s a miniscule part on a much larger narrative in which the most important part is the Minotaur, as it drives the plot for everything else in it. Icarus’ death serves to drive Daedalus’ character to the point which eventually leads into him killing Minos. He exists for a metaphor that pop-culture has blown out to be way more important than it originally was and that’s it.

As for Perseus… The guy is just really bland. While all the other heroes have their flaws like hubris and wrath, Perseus doesn’t really have any flaws. He doesn’t have that many achievements in either bravery or stupidity due to his method of dealing with things being the quickest way possible. This makes all of his battles extremely boring and because he’s one of the first demigod heroes in the mythological timeline, he doesn’t even get to interact with anyone who could be interesting. How many of you even know that he’s supposed be the founding hero of Mycenae? Not many, I’m sure about that. The most interesting thing about the guy his that he’s an ancestor to people such as Tyndareus, Alcheme, Heracles, Penelope and Telemachus but this doesn’t save him from being any less boring. He's that famous ancestor nobody gives a damn, so to speak. Pit certainly doesn’t get any part of his personality from a plot device or a blank of wood, only a literary reference and an antagonist.

Also can I quickly rant about the Angels in art vs. Angels in Bible meme because I hate it? For some reason most of times when people show art of these supposed angels, they aren’t even showing biblical angels but Erotes/Amores or Nike/Victoria instead. Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria are winged Greco-Roman gods, not biblical angels and using art of them proves absolutely nothing. Also you may have forgotten that there’s in fact hierarchy of angels and not all of them look identical. In Christian faith angelic hierarchy is composed of three orders, there being nine different kinds of angels - Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim/Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Seraphim and Cherubim do indeed look terrifying and so do Ophanim, but Thrones are just bizarre because apparently they’re elderly carrying God’s throne, whatever that means also I’ve seen people use Ophanim and Thrones interchangeably which just makes the whole deal even bigger of a mess. And then there’s Dominions, who’re just really pretty winged people, proving that the idea of all biblical angels looking terrifying is completely false. I couldn’t find what Virtues looked like, but if they’re anything like Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels they’re most likely pretty winged humanoids. So yeah, surprising amount of biblical angels are indeed just pretty winged humanoids and only the highest order of them is clearly inhuman - so if you ever wondered why so many angels in art actually featuring Biblical angels have them looking so humanlike, now you know! It's not the highest rank's job to interact with the human world. Though in modern language, the term angel is simply used as an umbrella term which refers into a winged humanoid being regardless of which religion they originated from - so by using this as a frame, it would indeed make Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria angels along with some other winged gods such as Eos and Iris. This would also make Iris’ twin sister Arke a fallen angel because as punishment for siding with the Titans during Titanomachy, she was casted into Tartarus and her wings were ripped off so she could never escape from there. And then much later her wings are given as a wedding gift to Achilles’ parents, my god! You could actually a craft a plot out of this, hmmm. When it comes Pit and Dark Pit, I do think they’re angels only on this broad, modern way definition due to them being mostly inspired by the Greco-Roman Erotes/Amores and it’s possible that they’re only referred as angels because not only is the term Erotes/Amores is strictly associated with Aphrodite and only Aphrodite, it's also much more specialized term than just "angel". There has also been cases in art featuring multiple Nikes, but Nike's special role as the goddess of victory still prevents its use as a broad term. So I believe that in the case of KI, angel is just an useful umbrella term and nothing more.

So Pit’s mostly an Eros-expy when it comes to his personality and attributes, so what makes him so special when compared to many other Eros-expies in media? It’s actually a surprisingly small thing, but boy does it make a difference - on a thematic sense, Pit’s a total daddy’s boy and in this case the dad would be Ares. Most of the Eros-expies you see in media are completely divorced from anything related to Ares despite the guy being Eros’ dad but not in Kid Icarus, where we have a very blatant Eros-expy whose connections to his main mythological inspiration come almost exclusively from Ares. Just why is Pit doing Nike’s job? Because Nike happens to be Ares’ daughter according to some sources, like in the Homeric hymn dedicated to him. Why’s he a soldier in an army? Because Ares was a soldier and in some parts of Greece he was seen as a model of a perfect one who’s resilient and has physical strength that isn’t matched by anyone else. Apparently in Sparta they even had a statue of shacked Ares, supposedly as an attempt to keep the martial spirit and victory in Sparta I don’t know about you but for me this sounds like a very bad move, as if they were asking for the god’s wrath. Then again Athenians did the same thing with wingless Nike, so I guess it was fine in some twisted way. Why does Dark Pit exist? Because would you know it, there’s myth in which Ares and Aphrodite spot lonely little Eros and decide to create Anteros to be his brother, their only differences being hair, wings and weapons of choice Anteros has longer hair, plumed butterfly wings, golden club and lead arrows when compared to Eros' golden bow + both golden and lead arrows. Why does Magnus possibly being based on Meleager matter? Because would you know it, the dude’s sometimes a son of Ares. Why did he spend three years trapped inside a ring? It could parallel the tale of Ares and the giants, in which he spent a lunar year trapped inside a jar. Why does a dog help him during that section? It could still very well be reference Ares and the giants as Hermes and Artemis came to save him and one of Artemis’ sacred animals is a dog and Hermes is the god guard dogs. Also one of Ares’ sacred animals is dog as well, meaning that it could reference this as well. Honestly if Pit ends up having a divine parent and it’s not Ares, I call bullcrap.

So now when that has been made clear, what can writers do with Ares? Well if you take the myth of Poseidon wanting to settle things on court and give it to Pit, you end up losing one of his three major myths in which he’s wrathful towards someone odd I know, you’d probably expect a god of war to be much more wrathful but no, he’s not. The two ones that are left don’t really give all that great material either because in the first one, the target is Adonis and whether it even was Ares’ wrath that killed him is left open - in some versions it’s Artemis who wants him dead because she’s angry at Aphrodite for causing the situation which lead to the death of her hunter Hippolytus, sometimes it’s Apollo who still hasn’t forgiven Aphrodite for blinding his son Erymanthus, occasionally it’s Persephone of all people because she’s angry at Adonis for wanting so spend time with Aphrodite and at times it’s just an accident this all makes me think it was an elaborate coup. There’s always a reason for a divine being to be angry at Aphrodite because she just can’t help but cause trouble whenever she can. When it comes to the second one, it’s honestly pretty odd because not only does Ares forgive the man who originally was the target of his wrath, it illustrates how good of a parent he is on Olympian standards not that it’s a high bar but anyway - even better than the lady whose favorite boytoy he is, and she’s well known for being an overprotective parent.

The myth starts with this lad called Cadmus, who founds the city of Thebes, becomes its king and then kills a dragon residing on a nearby spring. Ares is furious about this since the dragon was sacred to him and apparently it’s sometimes his son, don't know how that works and as punishment, Cadmus has to serve Ares for eight years he got it easy when compared to Adonis and Halirrhothius. Once that service is over, Cadmus marries one of the two daughters of Ares and Aphrodite, this being Harmonia, the goddess of harmony. However not everything is all sunshine and rainbows because Hephaestus is still salty about how his marriage with Aphrodite went south and once he hears about a wedding, he prepares two gifts for the bride - first one was a beautiful necklace that could keep its wearer eternally youthful and the other one was a luxurious robe. But there was a catch, since both of these objects were cursed to bring bad luck to those who owned them. The bad luck eventually took its take on Cadmus’ mental state and one day he remarked that if gods fancied those serpents so much, maybe his life would be so much better as one. Gods fulfill this wish, he’s turned into a serpent and once Harmonia notices what has happened, she wishes the same. At one point Dionysus comes to the city, trashes the place and then gives them a propechy of this happening. Either way, Ares comes down to get the unlucky couple and then scoots them to safety in paradise-like Elysium, where they get to reside from now on.

You may already be familiar with this myth to a certain degree because Pokemon B/W could technically count as an adaptation of it. N is of course the most obvious parallel due to him getting his second name from Harmonia and Ghetsis takes a role comparable to Hephaestus. It all becomes even funnier because Harmonia hits some characteristics associated with yin - she’s passive, feminine figure who represents harmony which can only exist due to lack of action, an idea. It gains even more hilarity points thanks to existence of Adrestia, Harmonia’s sister and the goddess of revolt - she’s pretty much yang to Harmonia’s yin and to make things even more hilarious, she was often portrayed as a beautiful winged maiden. Now who would expect the goddess of revolt to be a lovely winged lady and the goddess of harmony to be at least momentarily a serpent?

While this is indeed an interesting myth, I don’t think it would make all great material for future KI-game, at least on its current form. The cast of KI doesn’t really get to interact with humans on a personal level, which is something this myth largely relies on. Honestly, I think the best way it could be referenced in game would be just Pit going to Elysium and meeting Harmonia still trapped on a draconic form. Considering the way Hades had been characterized in KI:U, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had just kept trapped Harmonia as a pet lizard in his garden. Maybe say something on the vain of him eating the husband’s soul or using it for something else to explain why she’s there all by herself. And if you want to make fun of the fact that the fourth wall might as well not exist, throw Adrestia in Elysium as well as a dragon as a nod to Pokemon. “The Twin Dragonesses of Elysium” sounds like it would make a very cool boss fight.

So a wrath or blessing, Ares gives us not much to work with either of those at least when it comes to him actually doing stuff - but that doesn’t mean we’re left with nothing because there’s three myths that I’ve glossed over quickly that could give us something, one just for comedy and two others actual plot. As for the one that’s just for comedy, it’s the one in which Sisyphus captures Thanatos. Ares is actually the one to save Thanatos from the tough situation since after it has continued for a month, he bursts into Sisyphus’ house, frees Thanatos and drags Sisyphus’ spirit to the Underworld… Only for him to come up with a sad story, which leads into Persephone letting him go only for it to backfire. Ares then disappears from the story, but it ends up with Sisyphus doing P.E for eternity in Tartarus once he dies for real as you all already know. This is pretty funny if a bit morbid myth, so it could be really easy to use it as a comedy goldmine if Ares ever interacted with Thanatos. Maybe have Thanatos trying to act like they’re friends, only for Ares to become more and more frustrated the longer Thanatos continues. Maybe once he mentions some of his escapades involving Pit, Ares finally decides that enough is enough and shows to Thanatos that mortals don’t call him by the name Thurus for nothing.

To the myths you could get some serious plot out of, the first one is very predictably the one in which he earns the title Aphneius. It just has everything a great character backstory needs on its original form, meaning that it could easily be inserted on the game with minimal changes and it could still work fantastically. It has a romance between a god and a mortal which ends up on a tragedy during a moment that was supposed to be joyous not because of any divine whim or I guess it could’ve been Aphrodite being salty because she has a habit of releasing her wrath upon Ares’ loved ones or relatives, usually grandchildren such as Hippolytus, but I think it would’ve been written down had the story actually said it was Aphrodite behind Aerope’s death, but because of something beyond their control. And instead of taking his frustrations on the baby like so many fathers in these stories do, he instead does everything to keep him alive and so Aeropus grows up to be fine ruler, if an unremarkable demigod. A writer could easily use Aeropus as a base for an interesting heroic character… And I guess you can already see where this is going. I already said that Ares would make the most sense as Pit’s divine parent if he indeed has one, so this would make an excellent backstory if that was the case.

I could see the timeline going something like this if this was true - Ares meets KI-universe’s equivalent of Aerope, the two have an adorable romance and are expecting a kid but something goes horribly wrong and Aerope dies, instead of letting Aerope’s family to take care of the kid Ares takes the baby with him because who knows what they would do to a winged baby so many myths have families abandoning their kids for dumber reasons than this so why wouldn’t he take the kid with him + this dude had 3-6 winged kids, one all by himself, so he definitely is the one hogging all the wing genes instead of Aphrodite, he tries single parenting but it’s hard when certain goddess is constantly shooting stinkeyes and paralyzing glares at his direction and it leads into him asking help from Palutena because a winged kid wouldn’t look too out of place among her angel minions. Considering how Palutena and Poseidon were capable of having a conversation in KI:U without any horrible atrocities being committed, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to imagine her relationship with Ares being along your typical sibling-relationship rather than what Atheanians wrote down Ares and Athena were actually worshiped together in the town of Olympia under titles Hippius and Hippias, fun fact. You could also see it as a favor inspired by how Menrva took care of Maris. Anyway, this deal goes swimmingly for a while until the events of a certain other myth take place, which makes Palutena the sole caregiver of Pit - some unspecified amount of time later que the events of the original Kid Icarus and onward.

Fanfic time over, now to the other myth which could explain Ares’ absence - it’s the one about him and the giants. Long story short, there’s these two giants called Ephialtes (derived from the word meaning nightmare) and Otus (either derived from the word meaning insatiate, doom or horned owl) who’re sons of Poseidon because of course they are, goddammit Poseidon and a mortal woman Iphimedeia, they’re also called by the name Aloadae. They were planning to storm into Olympus to kidnap some wives for themselves, Otus wanting Artemis and Ephialtes wanting Hera what great choices, you complete imbeciles, absolutely amazing. So one day Olympians are surprised to find these two giants piling up mountains on top one another and as expected, there’s a big fight between them because no one comes to the Olympian home turf without facing the consequences. Once the two giants finally leave, the Olympians notice that someone is missing, that being Ares. Ephialtes and Otus probably realized way too late that kidnapping the god of war wasn’t the brightest idea and because letting him go wasn’t an option, they locked him inside bronze jar of which he tried to break out without success. It took around a lunar year for the giants stepmother to rat this out to Hermes, who went to save Ares with Artemis. While she distracted the giants and made them throw their spears at each other, Hermes lockpicked Ares out of the jar and so the three returned to Olympus.

So how could this myth be used while crafting a plot for a future game? I’d say it depends on whether writers want to use Ares as a full-blown good guy from the start or as an antagonist at first - and while I do still believe that Ares wouldn’t be a bad guy on his own free will, who said he’s going to burst out of that jar with that free will still intact? It’s not like we haven’t seen brainwashed antagonists in the series before, Gaol was a one.

So if we have Ares as an antagonist who’s brainwashed and crazy, how could the possible plot be handled? I could see it starting with the two giants resurfacing for something trivial but because they’re being destructive, it catches the attention of Palutena who sends Pit down to deal with them. The giants are dealt with in 1-3 chapters and one way or another Pit finds a large jar and breaks it, releasing the crazed Ares. Neither side recognizes each other and there’s possibly a boss fight which ends with Ares leaving and him becoming a wandering antagonist who causes racket when someone angers him. He most likely isn’t connected to any other antagonist or the main villain, but I could see them trying to recruit him without any success. As for how he was brainwashed in the first place, it could be the Aloadae wanting to get some use out of their prisoner and they decided to make him into an indestructible living weapon either to themselves or someone else - maybe it even was commissioned by the big bad because who wouldn’t want an powerful living weapon who’s loyal to you and only you. Either way it proves fruitless as Pit frees Ares from the mind control and slowly but surely he starts to establish himself as a good guy and an ally to Pit and Palutena.

This would actually go pretty well along with a certain another thing about Ares, that being helmet and symbolism connected to it - you see, mythological Ares was often portrayed to have something I like to call Meta Knight-syndrome. He was said to be a beautiful man with a lovely face, apparently much more prettier than any other male Olympian which could possibly explain why he’s Aphrodite’s favorite boytoy and he wasn’t particularly proud of it - just what kind of self-respecting enemy would take you seriously if you have a face of an angel? But that didn’t stop people from drawing or sculpting him without a helmet, and the result were indeed pretty my goodness is Ludovisi Ares a one beautiful sculpture. Just considering how the art we see of Ares can be categorized into him either with or without a helmet, writers could easily craft a narrative out of this - while wearing a helmet he’s under mind control and once freed he fights helmetless, allowing player to see him as who he really is. Helmet obscuring the face equals bad guy and once it cracks, we can have a very confused ally who cries over the fact that his baby is a big boy now, cries some more because there’s two of them now, may or may not join us to missions if there’s a two-player mode for story or just help with training and also maybe cracks dad jokes few times because humor is a valid coping mechanism. This all kind of reminds me how one other popular trend relating to Ares in art was to have him disarmed with young Eros playing with his armor. Cute!

Somewhat relating to the idea of Ares starting as a brainwashed antagonist turned ally once the helmet is smashed, I could see him having two different themes which illustrate the different natures of him. First one should be something brooding and terrifying, maybe something similar to Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War which a really great piece of classical music that has inspired composers all around the world, even at Nintendo. If you haven’t heard it, you certainly have heard at least one song inspired by it metal genre can thank its existence on Mars, no kidding. As for the other theme, I think it should be a warm, calm and welcoming one with a hint of sadness, a complete opposite of the battle theme when it comes to the first expression. I’ve been recently listening a lot of TSFH and Hans Zimmer so if I had to say what kind of energy I’d want this possible theme to have, I’d probably say something between TSFH’s Friendship To Last from the demonstration album Nemesis, Final Days of Rome from album Unleashed and Now we are free from Gladiator. They all have this bittersweet yet beautiful feeling in them I love. Maybe there’s a shared leitmotif or something between the two themes connecting them into each other. Thurus and Aphneius were both titles for the same god after all, even if they were about wildly different aspects of him.

So just like with Apollo, I think there’s only one way to bring Ares into the franchise and in this case it would be making him Pit’s dad. It just makes way too much sense to me considering how Pit has been characterized that it would be odd if there wasn’t any connection between the two. And there’s even couple out-of-universe reasons why I don’t believe he would be the bad guy, the first and most notable being that the names Ares and Mars are already associated with morally righteous characters or at least characters we’re supposed to root for in Nintendo games. Sakurai certainly knows this, Marth has been in Super Smash Bros since Melee as a playable character and his name just blatantly is Mars in Japanese and his English name is just the Japanese way of saying Mars. You don’t bastardize the face of another franchise in your own one, especially if you’re both exclusives to the same company and the other franchise is much more bigger and important than yours is.

Since it would be hard to introduce Ares into the franchise, I would be completely fine with him not being featured in next game at all even though I would find it extremely disappointing. But if you’re not going to have him, at least have a reference to him in form of a weapon like Blade of Ares or Blade of Mars because would you know it, the legendary sword of Attila was also known as the sword of Mars. We’re probably never going to get actual swords in KI but blade has been used as a synonym for them, so there being a blade with said name could work just fine. That or finally add spear and shield combo into the game. But if you want to use the character who would work as the big bad the best into their fullest, maybe it would be a good idea to have Ares as well... All roads may lead to Rome, but not to the arms of Genetrix in this case.

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Call me crazy, but I think that Aphrodite would make the perfect big bad. Does she have that charisma and personality comparable to Hades? Yes she does, and unlike him she had all that in real life - one of her titles was Pandemos, quite literally meaning “of the people”. This made her extremely popular among people regardless who they were or where they lived, and how can you blame them since there’s not many people whom things such as beauty, love and sex don’t matter in some shape or form. Only Olympian who really matched her when it came to popularity was Zeus, but considering how he was the king of all gods it was to be expected that he’d outrank her on the popularity board. She was the most popular goddess in Greece by a longshot and that was also true for Venus in Rome, even if Mars took the place as the second most popular god after Jupiter. Due to her being the mother of Roman founding hero Aeneas, she was viewed as the mother of all Rome and it was used by people as a way to climb up the political ladder. The Julio-Claudian dynasty claimed to descend from her through Aeneas and it didn’t stop there - you can actually trace the ancestry of multiple mythological European figures all the way back to her! Some notable examples of this include Bladud/Blaiddyd, Leir of Britain, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia of Britain and supposedly even king Arthur himself last one is a bit iffy, but all the others are concrete, Aphrodite just flat out is their ancestor through Aeneas. She definitely has the charisma and presentation needed for a big bad because you simply couldn’t be able to pull of any of the previously mentioned things without them and if she could do it in real life, who says she couldn’t do it in a fictional world?

Pretty much only thing about Aphrodite that stays constant is her popularity because in the myths, her characterization is wildly inconsistent - I guess that something one should expect from a goddess who rules over matters such as beauty and love, two things one can never truly understand. However with that being said, there’s trends that stay with her regardless her ever-changing personality. She’s technically speaking an outsider to the Olympian family tree as her most popular and possibly the oldest one as well birth story has her as the motherless child of Ouranos, emerging fully formed from seafoam. Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus form the first generation of Olympians and Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes and Dionysus are principal members of the second generation. By adding Eileithyia, Persephone and Hebe into the mix you get the main Olympian family, making Aphrodite feel like even more of an outsider. She only starts to fit among the family when the third generation is added and speaking of said generation, part of it forms her attendants. The two most important ones are her sons Eros and Anteros, love and love requited, whom she let’s to do pretty much all they want as long as they stay loyal to her. However once that loyalty shifts, she can be quite cruel towards them which is illustrated in the myth of Eros and Psyche quite well - and I’m going to let Aphrodite herself to do all the talking, so here’s a quote from from Apuleius’ The Golden Ass:

‘This is a fine state of affairs, just what one would expect from a child of mine, from a decent man like you! First of all you trampled underfoot the instructions of your mother--or I should say your employer--and you refused to humble my personal enemy with a vile love-liaison; and then, mark you, a mere boy of tender years, you hugged her close in your wanton, stunted embraces! You wanted me to have to cope with my enemy as a daughter-in-law! You take too much for granted, you good-for-nothing, loathsome seducer! You think of yourself as my only noble heir, and you imagine that I'm now too old to bear another. Just realize that I'll get another son, one far better than you. In fact I'll rub your nose in it further. I'll adopt one of my young slaves, and make him a present of these wings and torches of yours, the bow and arrows, and all the rest of my paraphernalia which I did not entrust to you to be misused like this. None of the cost of kitting you out came from your father's estate.’

Let’s file that under yikes. She’s saying this to her injured child and it’s about a girl he loves more than anything but she can’t stand her. And it’s not like Aphrodite dislikes her for any valid reasons, it’s all because Psyche is pretty and Aphrodite took it as a personal attack. This temperament is a stable with her, be the fuss she causes either positive or negative. It goes well in the line of the idea that she was never a child and was born fully formed, as it’s pretty hard to learn those important childhood life lessons as an adult. And do you want to know the best part about this mess? After this massive rant she’s confronted by Hera and Demeter, two goddesses who in all intents and purposes should understand what she’s feeling right now and guess what they do? They call Aphrodite a hypocrite in her face because that’s exactly what she is. Why is she so angry at her child for growing up and experiencing romantic love for the first time when she spends most of her time either being in love or making others fall in love?

Let’s leave the sad lovers behind for a while and talk about Aphrodite in some other myths. There’s not many myths about her that don’t feature romance or sex in some form, but those few are usually about her competitive nature. There’s a myth about Hermes and Aphrodite participating on funeral games yes, this was a real tradition organized by Apollo and she won, her prize being a zither which she later gave to Paris. There’s also a myth about her and Athena having a weaving competition which ended on her losing miserably because as one might expect, challenging the goddess of weaving into a weaving competition couldn’t possibly end well. But since these kind of myths are about things out of her assignments, there isn’t many of them. Most of them are about her helping people with their relationship problems, some examples could be her giving Galatea life on Pygmalion’s wishes and gifting Hippomenes the three golden apples so he could win the race for Atalanta’s heart. But it’s also really easy to earn her anger, some notable immortals who were victims of her wrath are the titan goddess of dawn Eos (she didn’t want to share Ares so she cursed Eos to feel uncontrollable desire towards a new man every day), the titan god of sun Helios (he ratted out her relationship with Ares so she cursed him to forget everyone he ever loved romantically and then made him fall in love with princess Leucothoe - it ends badly and that’s how we got heliotropes), the muse Calliope (Aphrodite saw Zeus asking her help for covering the whole deal about who gets to keep Adonis as a personal attack and so she cursed her son Orpheus to have a horrible death in the hands of Dionysus’ worshipers - interestingly enough this has nothing to do with the fact that Calliope did also sleep with Ares or that she married Oeagrus who’s sometimes said to be Ares’ son, which would make Orpheus his grandson), a minor ocean deity Nerites (he refused to follow her into the land so she turned him into a shrimp) and Pan (Aphrodite and this handsome lad Acheilus had a beauty competition and Pan was the judge - he said Acheilus was prettier so Aphrodite turned the poor lad into into a hideous shark-creature and then cursed Pan to be hopelessly in love with the nymph Echo, the very same Echo who had her eyes on Narcissus). It could even be said that her blessings aren’t going to last for long and by using Hippomenes as an example once again, we learn that in one version of the story she turned him into a lion all because he didn’t pay his respects back to her soon enough. Guileful Aphrodite indeed.

Due to her temperament and general lack of caring about the consequences of her actions, Aphrodite has earned the ire of many gods - just look no further than Adonis, there’s four possible culprits who could’ve caused his death. Because of their contradictory natures, she’s often portrayed as not getting along with Hestia, Athena and Artemis and while there’s not much material for Hestia there’s multiple myths of Aphrodite causing unpleasant situations for Artemis and her hunters, Hippolytus being the shining example of this. The judgement of Paris establishes her relationship with Hera and Athena as a rocky one and the Trojan war has them full-on enemies on opposite sides, Athena even telling the Greek Diomedes during the war that he should avoid fighting literally any god with the exception of Aphrodite - it leads into him throwing a spear at Aphrodite, piercing her wrist and this leads into Aphrodite cursing Diomedes in return. Also in some records such as Cypria Helen’s mother is stated to be the goddess Nemesis, so add her into the list of gods Aphrodite has angered so it turns out the goddess who truly was Nemesis’ enemy was never the one from Blue Sea Star but rather the one who represented Morning Star, how ironic. Her relationship with the male Olympians are a bit better but not always, in fact she has no meaningful one with Apollo at all. Her marriage with Hephaestus was an unhappy one and only after they divorced were they both allowed to be happy, Hephaestus by marrying Aglaea and having a family with her and Aphrodite by continuing her many affairs without any worries. She did scorn Zeus when he tried to get it on with her, but otherwise there’s not much either good or bad blood between them. Besides Ares, Aphrodite did find both Poseidon and Dionysus handsome and had affairs with them, but it’s unclear if they resulted any children - Rhodos has Telchine Halia and Amphitrite as her other mother candidates, Peitho is almost always said to be a child of Tethys and Oceanus instead, the Charites were more often said to be children of Zeus and Oceanid Eurynome rather than Aphrodite’s and Priapus just has no parents set in stone because no telling was seemingly more popular than others. The birth myth of Hermaphroditus starts with Aphrodite telling Hermes to piss off because he doesn’t come even close to her standards, so he asks little help from Zeus to get what he wants and therefore I can’t imagine them having a positive relationship because of this. And after reading so many myths in which Aphrodite targets Ares’ grandkids for whatever reasons, I’m starting to think that he should start running away and quickly. Maybe she really did kill Aerope.

Now returning to the love story with a happy ending which has the most famous victim of Aphrodite’s wrath, Eros and Psyche. It begins in a town with no name given oh, so this isn’t completely baseless in KI where princess Psyche (meaning either soul or breath of life) is having trouble socializing - the people have declared that she’s as if not more beautiful than Aphrodite and they have started worshiping her, denying normal human interaction from her. This obviously pisses off Aphrodite because it has been established that she has the self-control skills comparable to a toddler and so she orders her son Eros to make Psyche to fall in love with something hideous. While he agrees to do the deed, once he sees the beautiful Psyche he can’t help but to fall in love with her and then he chooses to defy his mother, crafting a plan on what to do next. In the meanwhile the loneliness is making Psyche miserable and that doesn’t go unnoticed by her parents, so they go to visit the oracle of Apollo for help. Considering how Apollo is still very much salty at Eros for cursing him to have the worst love life imaginable, his words aren’t all that comforting (another quote from The Golden Ass):

‘Adorn this girl, O king, for wedlock dread, and set her on a lofty mountain-rock. Renounce all hope that one of mortal stock can be your son-in-law, for she shall wed a fierce, barbaric, snake-like monster. He, flitting on wings aloft, makes all things smart, plaguing each moving thing with torch and dart. Why, Jupiter himself must fearful be. The other gods for him their terror show, and rivers shudder, and the dark realms below.’

She and her parents are obviously horrified by this, but they do as they were told to and Psyche is left alone on a cliffside where the god of west wind Zephyrus picks her up. He brings her into a lovely meadow where she takes a refreshing nap and after she wakes up, she sees a beautiful palace and goes in. She’s charmed by the looks of the place and then a disembodied voice tells her that she will be provided by many invisible servants while living in there. Once night falls she’s nervous to meet her husband, but after the first meeting she starts looking forward on their nights together. This continues for quite some time, but in the meanwhile Psyche’s family is starting to get worried about her and she’s in return worrying about them. Eros promises that her sisters can come to visit, but also tells her that she shouldn’t listen them if they sound jealous. Psyche agrees and Eros gets Zephyrus to scoot the sisters down to visit, but as expected the sisters get jealous really quickly and start to make her worry if what the oracle told about her husband was indeed true - what finally broke the camels back was the sisters suggesting that he’s planning to kill her and their unborn child. So when the next night falls, she has prepared herself a lamp and dagger to see if her husband really is a monster - once she draws the lamp near and sees that he’s in fact Eros himself, she’s awestruck and accidentally stabs herself with one of his arrows, making her fall for him even harder. But while admiring him some oil spills from the lamp on Eros, causing him to wake up and leave. Earlier in the story Psyche had said that she’d much rather die than throw this marriage away and she’s willing to live by that statement, so she goes to search Eros and atonement - meanwhile Aphrodite is beating her son in the head by talking how horrible child he is for daring to fall in love and then she imprisons him Genetrix knows nothing in this case. Hera and Demeter call her a hypocrite, which doesn’t ease her anger in the slightest.

Psyche eventually finds her way into a temple of Aphrodite and she calls her two servants to beat the poor girl to make herself feel better. After having a good laugh over Psyche’s suffering, she gives her another beating herself and then dumbs different kinds of grains on the ground, saying that she should sort them by night if she ever wants to see Eros again. Sometimes prompted by him, ants nearby take pity on Psyche and help her - predictably Aphrodite isn’t all too happy about this and she comes up with a much more deadlier task. By morning she tells her that she should get some golden fleece from the sheep living on a grove across nearby river. This disheartens Psyche because she knows gathering the fleas directly is a suicide mission, but she’s consulted by local river deity who tells her how the sheep behave and that instead of approaching the sheep at all she should just collect fleas caught on foliage. She does as was told and Aphrodite becomes even more enraged, telling her to go gather water from river Styx. While she finds her way to Styx without much hassle, she’s overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation - luckily for her everyone has come to the conclusion that Aphrodite is being horrible and Zeus sends one of his eagles to help Psyche to get the water.

At this point Aphrodite’s patience is running thin and she gives Psyche a box, tells her to go into Underworld to get a part of Persephone’s beauty and come back with it because this whole deal of torturing her little daughter-in-law has been so hard for her and she needs to look good while going to the divine theatre. After being consulted by a tower on how to actually get into the Underworld without dying, she does as was told and and it doesn’t take long for her to be greeted by Persephone. After refusing to fall into an obvious trap, Psyche told her why she was visiting her and Persephone agreed to help her without hassle - but after returning into the mortal world, Psyche’s curiosity took the better of her and she wanted to see that beauty herself. Turns out it was Stygian sleep fancy words for boxed death and Psyche drops on the ground like a rock, but at this point Eros has escaped his imprisonment goes straight to her. He draws the sleep back into the box, gently pricks her with an arrow to wake her up, the two have a heartfelt reunion and Eros brings Psyche to Olympus, asking Zeus if the two can now get properly married. Everyone agrees, Zeus tells Aphrodite to stfu and they give Psyche ambrosia, making her the goddess of soul. The two have a glorious wedding and some time after it Psyche gives birth to their daughter, either named Hedone or Volupta(s) depends if it’s a Greek or Roman telling the story, the personification of pleasure, joy and delight. I personally prefer the name Volupta, it rhymes much more nicer with rest of the family.

And since we’re at here, that gorgeous painting by John William Waterhouse that everyone thinks has Pandora wearing a pink dress? It’s actually Psyche opening the deathly beauty box. Don’t believe me? Just check Psyche opening the golden box and you see who’s right. He however did create an equally pretty painting about Pandora though.

So now when the story time finally over, what can we do with all of this info? Well, it does tell how perfect of an antagonist Aphrodite makes for an Eros-expy. She has power over him and isn’t afraid of abusing it when she feels betrayed. Compare this to the tales of Icarus and Perseus which really don’t have a main antagonists - Icarus has no personal stakes in the story because he’s a plot device rather than a character and from Daedalus’ point of view, the main antagonist is Minos but mythology doesn’t really treat him as all that horrible person. After he died he became one of the judges of the Underworld and probably sent Daedalus to Tartarus once he died, which illustrates a one seriously big missed opportunity which should’ve been used if Icarus truly was that important inspiration for Pit. Instead it just makes it even more clear how irrelevant Icarus and the narrative about the Minotaur are to KI. As for Perseus, I already talked about how Medusa is a mcguffin while alive and the other ones aren’t much better. Polydectes, Phineus and Acrisius are all dealt with so quickly that they don’t really matter - his only fight that isn’t solved by a handwave is against Cetus and it’s just a sea monster sent to kill Andromeda by Poseidon. Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is a topic I’ve already discussed and the already mentioned possible fusion of the myths of Poseidon sending a sea monster to harass Troy and Ares’ trial covers the idea of Pit saving a girl from a sea monster which is bit funny because in the former one, oracle tells that king Laomedon should let it eat his daughter Hesione to get rid of the monster, so that doesn’t really add anything new here. But with Aphrodite as the big bad it could be rather easy to craft two different but overlapping plotlines, one with a main goal and the other with a personal one. Aphrodite always was Eros’ biggest personal antagonist who treated him as a trophy child and didn’t take it well when he stepped out of the line - how dare her little doll grow up, behave like a man and then decide that he wants to move on to build a family of his own, which now takes the priority over her? Him choosing Psyche over his mother is his defining myth, with the addition of it being the myth in which he finally gains the respect of the other gods. Besides having its message about heart and soul being capable feeling and creating joy while together, it also functions as a coming of age story for its main couple - and when those stories have an antagonist, things tend get really personal.

So going back to those possible two plotlines and goals, what could they possibly be about? I’d say that the main plot line shouldn’t really be based on any myth but instead it should take advantage of her popularity among ancient people, more so when it comes to Venus and Rome. Even as a city, Rome was massive - by the time of 1st century CE it had reached the population of million people, being the first city in history to do that. And this was only the capital of the empire! Rome wasn’t build in a day indeed. Venus wasn’t worshiped by the thousands, her popularity was in the millions during this time period. That’s a lot of power for one goddess and as we all know, too much power can easily hit one in the head - especially when remembering that we’re dealing with a Pantheon composed entirely of manchildren. Give Aphrodite an empire that looks up to her, doesn’t do anything without a last world from her and you’re set with a supervillain who has it all from power to personality. In this case, the reason why Aphrodite should be stopped is that she’s a conqueror who rules by fear, saying that if she was ever abandoned she would curse them and take away all the blessings she has ever granted, leading her empire to ruin. If you want to make her feel even more villainous, don’t even give her an army of her own like Hades and Viridi had but make her use the people of the empire she rules over. There’s nothing more evil than using people who look up to you for protection for your own selfish goals. What those selfish goals may be, writers can be creative with them - maybe she wants to be viewed as the supreme goddess above everyone else, maybe she wants everyone to worship her and isn’t afraid to use extreme measures to get what she wants, maybe she wants to wipe out everyone who could be a threat to her, everything goes. Considering her role on the judgement of Paris, her causing a war or chaos for selfish reasons isn’t out of character. But whatever her reasons may be, there’s going to sparks in the air and fights of massive proportions. Ares may be Pit’s father but Aphrodite definitely isn’t his mother, so she’s not going to show him any sympathy or kindness if he gets in the way of her plans.

This would be the plotline that’s more on the background and focused on Aphrodite’s relationships with Palutena, possibly Ares and the other gods, the main goal is their goal. It’s why they want her defeated. If Palutena is anything like Athena, she can’t get along with her and she understands that allowing Aphrodite to do whatever she wants will have catastrophic consequences even if she herself couldn’t care less about those. If Ares was featured on a future game along with Aphrodite, their relationship would probably be focused on how they feel betrayed by each other. The myth of her cursing Eos illustrates how she sees their relationship open only from her end so she’s very likely still angry at him for leaving her, be it for Aerope or something else entirely. If you want to go with the depressing idea of her being the one who ordered Aloadae to kidnap him, she probably feels even more betrayed because even under mind control he didn’t come back to her like she had anticipated. And if it’s indeed her favorite ex-boytoy’s son with some other lady who has been foiling her plans, her blood quite possibly starts to boil. Ares’ feelings of betrayal would likely stem from Aphrodite trying to kill his child for no other reason than sheer pettiness, along with orchestrating his kidnapping and torture just so she could get her boytoy back. Other gods probably want her stopped for similar reasons as Palutena, maybe with some selfishness rippled in - the consequences of her actions are hurting them and because she doesn’t care, something must be done to stop her. For example, Viridi could possibly oppose Aphrodite because she doesn’t care about how she’s hurting nature on her attempts to viewed as the supreme goddess. Not to say that Pit doesn’t also care about this goal since he’s an empathetic youngster, but I think that the more personal plotline should be his and it’s goal his main motivator during the story.

As for the plotline with the more personal goal, the myth of Eros and Psyche makes the perfect outline for it. Aphrodite is already the main antagonist of the tale, so there’s no need for any massive changes when it comes to her jealousy and want to dispose Psyche. The tasks she gives to her could also be mostly unchanged, if adjusted with something that makes gameplay more immersive assuming we would get to play as her like we got to play as Dark Pit in chapter 22 in KI:U. However what needs to changed is Aphrodite’s relationship with Pit, how he and Psyche first meet and how their relationship is evolves from that point onward since following the myth to a T isn’t an option in this case. I could see Pit and Psyche’s first meeting being a result of Aphrodite’s wrath manifesting on a relatively harmless way, meaning that she already knows about this new, pretty princess that challenges her status as the supreme goddess and she’s not having any of it. As for how her wrath could manifest, it could be a your garden-variety monster attack in the first chapter disguised as someone else’s troops so no one would suspect it was her behind it. The sheer weirdness of it could catch Palutena’s attention so she sends Pit down to investigate it and to get rid of the monsters. While getting rid of them, he meets Psyche in one way or another - maybe she’s trying to escape from them or she’s trying to fight against them, either way Pit comes to her aid and they befriend each other. Maybe she’s featured on a few following chapters as minor character doing something on the background, giving them more possibilities to interact and become better friends - in these chapters Apollo could possibly be introduced along with reintroducing Poseidon, to foreshadow the roles they would play later on. What side plots would these chapters have, it could anything - maybe Pit meets Ares for the first time at this point of the story, but he’s not freed from mind control just yet.

At this point Aphrodite could be getting more angrier but she doesn’t want to out herself as the main villain yet, so she crafts a plan that would eventually lead into Poseidon hating Pit into the point of him wanting to take things into the court. Maybe she tricks Poseidon and Apollo into becoming mad at Psyche’s home city for whatever reason, like how they got angry at Troy in mythology proper. If this was the case, I think that she would keep Poseidon in the dark while letting Apollo fully know what’s going on - if Poseidon doesn’t know the true reason why Aphrodite wanted his sea monster to terrorize the city and why it was killed, he would be much more enraged when it happens. I’ve already established reasons as for why Apollo would dislike Pit, so he probably wouldn’t really need any prompting to cause Pit suffering since he’d still want some payback from that embarrassing noodle incident. So Poseidon sends his sea monster to terrorize the coastline and once citizens start asking help from the gods, Apollo lets the hate flow through him and offers nothing useful - instead he tells them to take the Hesione/Andromeda-approach and let it eat someone to calm it down oh look, it’s a reference to Perseus that’s not about Medusa for once, nice. In this case, it would be Psyche and Pit’s of course not going to let his friend die so he goes to save her, be it with or without Palutena’s approval. In my head I did imagine this as a chapter that would work amazingly with multiplayer, starting with Pit and Dark Pit distracting the monster, then Pit freeing Psyche and them setting out to kill the monster before it causes more harm. Player 2 would have to deal with changing characters on the fly but if Pittoo and Psyche had similar weapons, I don’t think it would be too distracting since they’d be playable on different parts of the chapter. But once the monster has finally been defeated, the joy is cut short by Poseidon interrupting and wanting vengeance for what happened to his monster, ending the chapter. The plot would immediately catch on the next one and what I could see happening on this chapter is that Pit’s taken into the court by Poseidon and he’s not allowed to have anyone defending him, but Dark Pit and Psyche go into his defense anyway Pittoo being the playable character. After a long and treacherous journey they find they way to the divine courthouse and tell their point of view on the events, which gives Pit the sympathy of the court and he gets away scot-free. Poseidon and Apollo may face on consequences at this point and they may even rat Aphrodite out on a subtle way, but the main group doesn’t catch it.

The following few chapters would be breathers before the plot kicks in again, Aphrodite ousting herself as the big bad in one way or another. Maybe she has sent her troops to attack some place, possibly in search for Ares since he would make a great ally on this brainwashed state. Much to her dismay he declines her offers, he and Pit fight and the helmet is smashed, but Palutena recalls Pit before anything can come out of it. The fight continues for couple following chapters, Palutena and Aphrodite are gradually getting more and more mad at each other and maybe she comes down to face Pit herself because the little brat getting on her way is starting to be really annoying now this would make a pretty cool unwinnable boss fight, but Ares comes just in time save him - que silent, cold anger between them, confusion from Pit and Palutena’s end with some extremely awkward reunions and explanations.

What could follow from here is another set more lighter chapters focused less on Aphrodite’s plans to become the supreme goddess and more of the cast getting to know each other better - Palutena and Ares reconnecting, Ares trying to form a meaningful relationship with Pit and Dark Pit, Pit and Psyche becoming better friends, etc etc. Not to say Aphrodite has given up on her plans - she’s still doing things on the background, but it’s implied that what little chaos she currently causes is serving as distraction to hide her bigger plans. Persephone could possibly be introduced at this point of the story, making it clear that she knows about the events of KI:U and that she’s going to get her payback on what happened to Hades in one way or another, possibly drop an implication that she’s working together with Aphrodite. But since everything good comes to an end and so do the breather episodes, plot would go on with Aphrodite kidnapping Pit and getting Persephone to throw him into some dark part of the Underworld, maybe even to Tartarus. And now we get into the fun part of the myth, Psyche’s four tasks!

I could see the plot separating into two directions from here on, first one being Pit’s great prison escape from wherever Persephone threw him into and the second one being the titular four tasks. The prison escape is more focused on traversing the Underworld and Pit trying get out of there while Persephone throws all kinds of obstacles at him - maybe it ends with a ghost gauntlet, since Odyssey illustrated that she can summon ghosts. Arke would make a pretty great boss fight here as well, since she could be classified as a fallen angel. Maybe her motive for going after Pit is to get his wings for herself as a mean to escape, since her own ones were ripped off as punishment for siding with the Titans. But since Pit’s a brave boy, this isn’t enough to stop him and he eventually finds his way out so there could be reunion and a final battle against Persephone.

While Pit’s great prison break is going on, Aphrodite makes an empty promise to rest of the cast that she can give Pit back, with some conditions - but just like in the myth, all she actually wants is Psyche’s death so the danger factor is amped up to eleven. I honestly don’t know how the one about sorting grains could be handled I guess it could work as a puzzle chapter, but the rest work rather well without massive changes. The one about gathering te golden fleas could now take a more direct approach, the one about getting Styx’s water is now missing the helpful eagle and the Underworld trip is largely same with the exception of Persephone not being cooperative. This would be the point where the two plotlines merge together and they take Persephone down together before leaving from the Underworld. Psyche falling for Stygian sleep in this version is up to debate, I say it could work either way. It mostly depends on when she’s going to wake up - if it’s too early it might as well not matter, if it’s after the final battle I’d say that’s too late.

As one might expect Pit’s escape makes Aphrodite furious and she challenges him into a one final battle - that brat has stolen her favorite boytoy from her, satisfaction of getting rid of the annoying princess and also her chances to become the supreme goddess way too many times, she has reached her third-act breakdown and at this point she has nothing left to lose anymore. Ares isn’t going to come back to her, Psyche is not going to die and the people under her empire have started to become less dependent of her, the last thing she can do is get rid the troublesome kid that brought her into this situation. Of course Pit ends up winning, sending the goddess to Aether to hang with Hades where they can now together sulk over the fact that they got defeated by an angel. Pit triumphantly returns to Skyworld where Palutena and others have been waiting, there’s a joyful reunion between all of them and if one wants to follow the original myth at this point, Psyche could gain divinity or immortality for her bravery for standing against Aphrodite as a mere mortal. People have become immortals for dumber reasons in Greco-Roman mythology, so at least Psyche doesn’t become immortal merely because one god thought she was pretty. Have some little banter at the end between the cast and then credits can finally roll in.

When thinking of some nice bonus content, maybe there could be a secret ending player can unlock after beating all the chapters on a certain difficulty, which confirms that everyone is doing well. If we have to deal with another long hiatus that could last for decade or two or eternity, best the game can offer is closure. Pit doesn’t have to a married man with a daughter, but at least show that he’s doing well and ready for a new adventure or that he has had many of those under his belt at this point. All one can do is hope at this point that there will be a new adventure or a happy ending that ties all the loose ends together. Praise Volupta, maybe one day dreams can come true.

______

Welp, this turned out to be much more longer and heavier than I originally expected! If nothing else, that would make an interesting fanfic. Anyway, I think I made my point clear - Aphrodite has everything a big bad needs from power to personality and motives to harass the already existing KI-cast. Even if you don’t want to go with the ideas I came up with, there’s so many myths to use and modify in which she could fill the role of the main villain. And just because there’s heavy themes it doesn’t mean it has to be without humor - I mean, there’s a lot of heavy implications in KI:U yet the game still manages to be a comedy gold mine despite those heavy implications. Writers just need to know when to be serious and when levity is needed, good pacing is something that every great story needs. For some reason I could definitely see there being a gag in which Pandora has regained her true form, only for Aphrodite to snatch it away because Pandora was living on borrowed beauty anyway and she’d like to have it back.

Though I must say that I’m proud of all of these plot bunnies I came up with. It was a fun journey to me to research, overthink, adapt and mix myths while trying to imagine who could be the next possible big bad and what the plotline relating to their villainy could be. And I came out wiser from it, so I really can’t be angry over it even if it took so me so much longer than I originally planned. I never thought that me wanting to write about a Nintendo game would make me read this much about history and philosophy yet here I am. Also now when I’m thinking of it, that last one would tie a lot of threads nicely together if they had a plotline like it on a future game - Poseidon gets to be an antagonist, Apollo gets to be an antagonist, Persephone gets to be an antagonist and Aphrodite gets to be the villain. It’s so nice when things work out this well together! Dionysus is left out though, but I guess it’s not all that bad because having too many antagonists would make the plot feel overly complicated.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts of who could replace Hades as the big bad. You can’t change my mind on Aphrodite being the best possible candidate but if you disagree with me, who do you think it could be? I’m always open for discussion so feel free to talk with me. Now there’s only one question remaining on my head - if a future Kid Icarus game had Arachne, would she be a jorōgumo?

[anxiousstark]

S2 05 | Venomous

BIG MASTERLIST | TW REWRITE

Stiles Stilinski x Reader! Half-sibling!Mccall

Word count: 2305

Warnings: Mentions of injuries, murder, swearing (always).

↪ PLEASE RESPECT MY WORK. DON’T COPY, TRANSLATE OR CLAIM THEM AS YOURS. NOT ON THIS WEBSITE OR ANOTHER. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

"All right, I only found one thing online called a kanima. It's a werejaguar from South America that goes after murderers." Stiles grabbed his backpack with one hand while the three of us left class.

"That thing was not a jaguar."

"Yeah, and I'm not exactly a murderer." I chuckled as Stiles threw his hands in the air.

"Yeah, but you did see it kill somebody, which is probably why it tried to kill you. And it's still trying to kill you, and it probably won't stop until you're dead." Scott gazed at me. "Especially, not until she is dead." Thank you for the reminder, dear Scotty.

"You know, sometimes I really begin to question this 'friendship."

"Hey guys," I stopped walking, both of them doing the same thing, peering at me. "I will catch you in the next class. I need to talk to someone." I glanced at Jackson who was resting his side against the lockers, talking to Danny.

"Are you sure?" The Hazel-eyed boy questioned after he followed my gaze. "Do you want me to go with you? Because last time he-"

"It's okay," My hand rested on his right arm, rubbing my finger through his shirt. "Jackson is acting suspicious, more than normal. He has been talking to this guy from class." Both boys waited for me to continue talking. "He asked that boy for his camera, to record himself at night."

"How did you get that information?"

"At the lacrosse game the other night, he started talking and didn't shut up." I chuckled while rolling my eyes to add a little more of dramatism. "He told me that Jackson gave him back the camera, but it was broken. He didn't give any explanation of what had happened. Just told him to send him the bill, rich boy things I suppose."

"Okay," Scott nodded. "We will head to class, then." His hand grabbed my wrist delicately. "If you need help, let me know." I nodded at him, smiling. Then, I grinned at Stiles, knowing that he didn't feel comfortable with the situation. I didn't either, Jackson was hiding something. Something bigger than me.

I walked to Jackson and Danny, putting a sweet smile on my face. "Hi boys!" Danny winked at me. "Uhm, Jackson I need to talk to you about," I bit my lower lip. "About the swimming class!"

Danny nodded at us, saying he was going back to class. Then, I was left alone with the smirking boy.

"You aren't good at lying." He smirked while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Neither are you, Jackson." The smile disappeared from my face. "What is going on with you? You can't tell me you don't have a little idea of what you are." I mumbled, getting closer to him.

"Do you have any idea of what you are?" He got me there. "There's your answer. I don't either. But I know one thing for sure, Y/N McCall." I hated that last name, it came from someone who probably wouldn't even recognize me if he saw me. "Whatever I am, you are too." I shivered.

"I don't think so." I swallowed. "We might have been scratched by the same thing. But you," I pointed my finger to his chest. "You got scratched by a wolf, and you aren't one." Of course, I did have my suspicions. They only thing we knew for sure was that we weren't werewolves.

"I told you," He glared at me. "Shit going on in your life can affect the bite or scratch. Anxiety and depression can affect the outcome of being scratched by a wolf. You aren't one neither. It means you were also affected by those side effects."

"Flash me," I said. Jackson smirked, getting closer to me. "Your eyes, stupid asshole." I slapped the side of his head.

"I don't know how to do that, but they are yellow." He grabbed his backpack.

"Slit and yellow?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," He started walking away. "Now, if you excuse me I'm going to be a responsible student and go to my class."

I did the same as Jackson, walking to my next class. When I entered, both of my boys were sitting next to Lydia. I was surprised by that as normally Scott would sit with Allison or Stiles, and Stiles would sit with Scott or me. The male McCall made a gesture with his head, Erica and Isaac were sitting behind them. Nice. Derek thought that Lydia was the kanima, but she wasn't. I needed more proof, but I was convinced that the strawberry blonde girl wasn't that beast.

Mr. Harris looked at me. "Grab a seat, McCall." I apologized, doing what he had ordered. "Einstein once said, 'Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' I myself have encountered infinite stupidity." He put his hand on Stiles's shoulder. The poor boy looked up, pouting. "So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one. Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one. Erica, you take the first station. You'll start with - I didn't ask for volunteers." Most of the boys in the class had their hands up, wishing to be put next to Erica. Horny teenagers. "Put your hormonal little hands down. Start with Mr. McCall. All right, next two."

Allison ended up sitting next to Lydia, Scott next to Erica, Stiles got a random person from class while I got to see next to Isaac Lahey. "If you touch Lydia, I will kill you." I hissed.

"Let me tell you," Isaac looked me up and down while I tried to follow the instructions. He completely ignored my previous words. "You look so beautiful. I can't believe you and Scott share the same daddy." He bit his lower lip. "I could be yours tho." His hand stretched out to touch my hair.

"CHANGE!" We all turned around to stare at Stiles, who had screamed that. He was looking directly at me. "I-I mean, Mr. Harris is time to c-change, right?"

"That's my job, Stilisnki." He glared at him. "Switch."

Now I was sitting next to Allison. "You okay?" I ask while helping her mix whatever we were mixing.

"Are you asking because that bitch put her hand on Scott's thigh." She smiled while gritting her teeth.

"Scott doesn't feel anything for her," I affirmed. "He is a puppy in love with you, Al." She smiled while I used her new nickname. We both continued following Mr. Harris's instructions. Then, I heard Stiles's voice who was sitting in front of me.

"If you harm one perfect (h/c) hair on her head, I'm gonna turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present." His hands moved rapidly, trying to match the instructions given by Mr. Harris. "Actually no, I wouldn't because she doesn't wear clothes that make use of animals to sell more, but that doesn't matter, I will still kill you."

"Mmmh seems like she could kill me with her hands." He was trying to get Stiles even madder. "She told me she would kill me if I touched Lydia." He smirked. "You have a crush on Lydia, right?"

Stiles shook his head, looking up, meeting Isaac's gaze. "Don't touch any of those girls."

"Listen, Stiles," He touched his nose, sniffing. "I could help you get Lydia, and then Y/N will be fully available for me. I told her she was beautiful, and she ignored me." Stiles smiled proudly. "I told her I couldn't believe that Scott and she shared the same fucking dad." He got closer to his ear. "I told her I could be her daddy."

The Hazel eyed boy bit his lower lip, trying to control his rage. "Mm, unrequited love's a bitch. Maybe you should write about it in English class, you know? Channel all that negative energy."

"Nah, I was thinking I'd channel it into killing her. I'm not very good at writing."

Mr. Harris touched the bell. "And switch!" I moved, sitting next to Erica now. Fuck my life. Stiles didn't move from his seat, which made Mr. Harris hit him with a ruler.

"Aw, that must hurt," Erica smirked while resting her head on her hand. "You seem mad, babygirl." She peered at me, still smiling. "I didn't touch your boy this time. I touched Allison's."

I smiled at her. "True, you didn't touch my boy, so I'm going to let this pass. Next time you touch anyone close to me, you are a dead werewolf, Erica. And tell Derek that if he dares touch, Lydia, I will kill him myself. I won't hesitate." I continued grinning. "I won't hesitate to discover what the fuck I am while I kill the three of you slowly, Erica."

"Seems like you are quite similar to your mom." She grinned. "Must feel like shit when your mom was a murderer."

"You and my mother have something in common then," I replied while swallowing, a knot had formed in my throat. "You both murder innocent people."

"Time. If you've catalyzed the reaction correctly, you should now be looking at a crystal. Now for the part of that last experiment, I'm sure you'll all enjoy - You can eat it." My eyes went to Scott to see that he was deeply studying Lydia and Isaac. Lahey has offered the crystal to Lydia, a thick liquid falling from it.

I rubbed my eyes, feeling frustrated. I couldn't help them. I couldn't entirely help them without knowing what creature was I. I yelled inside my head due to the frustration I felt. Next thing I know, the window next to Lydia shattered, the crystal fell to the floor due to the shock. The pieces of the window didn't hurt Lydia at all, but they hurt Isaac.

Scott looked back at me, mouth wide open. I did that?

After class, we parted ways. Scott went to 'talk' to Boyd and Derek to the lacrosse field, Allison went to talk to Lydia's psychiatric after she found out that she could be able to read whatever language the bestiary was in. Meanwhile, Stiles and I accompanied Lydia to the library, scared to leave her alone.

After that, we all reunited except Scott.

"If we're doing a study group, why didn't we just stay in the library?"

"Because we're meeting up with somebody else." His hand sometimes touched Lydia's arm, which made my heart ache for some unknown reason. He was just protecting her.

"Hmm, well, why don't they just meet us in the library?"

"Oh, that would've been a great idea. Too late."

"Okay, hold on-"

"Lydia, shut up and walk." I didn't like the idea of Jackson coming. Nobody was listening to me, Lydia wasn't the kanima. They wanted to protect her in case Derek would get a hold of her, but we needed to do other things, like discover who the fuck was the kanima. Even though, I had some ideas.

We got into Stiles's jeep, and when we arrived at his house, he closed the door, locking it and lying to Lydia, letting her know that there were some robberies on the neighborhood and a fricking murder. Great idea, Stiles.

When Jackson told Lydia that he wanted to talk to her, just the two of them, I didn't like that. But it was the perfect moment to tell Allison and Stiles about Jackson. "Guys listen," I started. "I think I know who the ka-"

I was interrupted when Allison noticed that Derek and the other were outside the house, ready to attack. She called Scott with Stiles's phone. "It's me." She was neurotic, like all of us. But they had to listen to me. "You need to get here now. Right now." When she hanged up, I tried to talk again.

"What are you doing?" I was interrupted by Stiles, who looked at Allison.

"I think...I think I have to call my dad."

"No, but if he finds you here - you and Scott -"

"I know. But what are we supposed to do? They're not here to scare us, okay? They're here to kill Lydia."

"Guys, there's no need in calling your dad, Allison." I raised my voice. "I know who-" I was interrupted, again. Allison was thrown to one side of the room, while Stiles to the other.

I hissed at the person, he turned around, flashing his eyes. Isaac Lahey. "Allison!" I yelled while keeping my eyes on Lahey. "Take care of Stiles!"

"Where are you going?!"

"I'm going to get the Kanima."

I went into some rooms, trying to find anything that would help me find the kanima. One of the windows inside a room had some sticky fluid, which meant the kanima was there. I went out of the window, thankful that Coach had made us climb rock walls.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" I heard Lydia's voice, which meant that they were outside the house.

The kanima looked at me, trying to get away. "Jackson!" It turned around to look at me, he hissed. I groaned. Then, he jumped, pushing me down. I closed my eyes tightly, knowing that my body would hit the ground. Thankfully, I was caught my Stiles, more or less. I ended up on top of him, both of us on the ground. I panted looking around.

"Are you okay?" Scott ignored Derek while coming closer.

"I've been trying to say it all day." I gasped. Stiles sat down, I was still sitting on his lap. "It's Jackson. The Kanima it's Jackson."

What does that make me?

.

.

TAGLIST: @og-baby-ob14 - @savemypostcards - @cas-loves-pizza - @used-avocado - @mvrylee - @bilesxbilinskixlahey - @honeydoll-stark - @arieltheworldisamess - @softpeteparker - @kit-kat-katie99 - @thatsuperherosidekick - @bexbetterxthanxwords - @big-galaxy-chaos - @littlemiss-forgotten - @enchantedcruelsummer - @coldfreakeggsexpert - @merla123 - @sammypotato67 - @weirdowithnobeardo - @maggiesblogsblog - @itskindyl - @bobo-bush - @moongoddesskiana - @multifandxm353 - @irwxnhugsx - @xoprincessmel - @iclosetgeek - @andreagf956 - @niawoods - @anerroroccurrrrred - @perrytheplatypus11 - @trustfundparker - @nmriia - @steve-harringtonnn - @trustfundparker -

People in bold means it doesn’t let me tag them.

[shinydelirium]

MLQC Season 2 Chapter 5 (Kiro) Part 3 [Game Initiation] & [Props and Points] Translation [CN]

***SPOILERS*** THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR CONTENT NOT YET RELEASED ON EN SERVER!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***

For the previous translations of Chapter 5: Part 1, Part 2

[Game Initiation]

When I woke up, it was already light out and Kiro wasn’t beside me.

During my rest, the metal collar sent out messages about players that have been out of the game from time to time.

I gently removed the leaves and found that Kiro was leaning on a tree trunk next to the hole, tapping away on the microcomputer.

Kiro: You’re awake!

MC: Sorry, I seem to have slept for a long time…

KIro: It's all right, you needed the rest after yesterday’s ordeal.

The sun slowly sunk. I called out the game map and found that the red dots on the screen were fewer than before, and the highest score in the ranking was nearly 100 points.

The red dot closest to us was moving to the southeast, as if not intending to get any closer to where Kiro and I were.

At this time, Kiro handed me a contact lens case. After I opened it, I found a pair of contact lenses inside.

Kiro: Put them in.

Although a little confused, I still followed his instructions and put on the contact lenses.

Kiro: Kilo, display location.

As Kiro’s voice fell, I instantly saw the same map screen as before, but it only seemed to appear in front of my eyes.

The difference is that in addition to the red dots, there are two pixelated bear heads on the map. One bear had a small golden flower on its head.

Kiro: I just analyzed the GPS system inside the metal collar and matched it.

While talking, he pointed to his eyes.

Kiro: Your lenses are matched with the ones I am wearing now. One of the bears is you and the other is me.

Kiro: Aren’t they cute?

MC: Yeah! But if the little bear wearing the little flower was you, I think it would be even cuter.

Kiro: I don’t have to be so cute!

Kiro simply rejected me and continued to explain the instructions to me.

Kiro: Kilo, show the connection.

Responding to his command, the two bears on the screen shook their heads, connecting a red line between them.

Kiro: Also, you can check the distance between us at any time.

Kiro: Kilo, display satellite signal, zoom in.

I saw the map in front of me being enlarged, showing a huge forest which looked familiar.

There are visible bushes all around and I can actually see a young man running in the distance.

Kiro: You can open it at any time in case you need it in the future!

Kiro: Kilo, close map.

MC: Amazing!

MC: But this forest looks familiar to me…

Kiro: Because this is the forest on the outskirts of Loveland City.

I looked around and felt a shiver go down my back.

Who would have thought that this game was so close to the city and all this was deeply hidden in the shadows?

MC: What exactly is this game?

Kiro glanced at me, hesitating for a moment, then turned on the microcomputer in his hand and motioned for me to come nearer.

Kiro: This game started three years ago. I heard that it was only a small-scale game, but little by little it gradually expanded. The organizer is unknown.

Kiro: There are two ways to participate in the game.

Kiro: One party is a player and points are earned by participating in the game.

Kiro: The top three can choose whether to advance to the next level of games to get more points in exchange for huge rewards. ***Sounds like the Box Office in the MLQC game XD***

Kiro: The game is divided into “zone” and “level”. Games of the same level will be played simultaneously in all corners of the world.

Kiro’s fingers tapped on the keyboard lightly and a world map was displayed in front of us on the screen and dense red dots were pinned on the map.

MC: Are all of these game locations…?

Kiro: This is just a suspicious point found based on the signal. In order to hide the existence of the game, the main messenger of the game often changes the IP address of the server.

Kiro: But the only thing that can be confirmed is that this game has a very wide range of influence and every continent has its own game zone.

I suddenly remembered the words introduced by the electronic voice when I first arrived in the forest.

MC: So we are now the first level in the ninth district…which means there is an eighth and seventh district…..even a tenth one?

Kiro: Mm-hm.

Kiro: The first level of the eighth zone started 5 days ago.

He quickly tapped the keyboard and rows of numbers flew across the screen.

Kiro: It ended about 4 hours ago.

I sucked in a cold breath.

All of this is like a thick, hidden black mist, lurking in a silent corner, quietly using people’s desires as bait.

Kiro: But this is only in Asia.

Kiro: If my guess is correct, right now in the United States, Africa, and Oceania…there should also be a first-level game in the ninth district going on at the same time.

According to Kiro’s prediction, I slightly raised my head and thought about it carefully.

MC: So in simple terms….

MC: The same can be said for the first-level game, the eight-zone level and the nine-zone level in which they may be played sequentially according to the date.

MC: Then, games of the same level in the same area on different continents will be played at the same time?

Kiro: Bingo! You got it.

MC: Can those players who have not been promoted still leave here?

Kiro: Yes, but…

Kiro: You need to be able to get out of here alive.

His tone was faint, but my fingers slowly went numb.

Kiro: In this game, the only way to earn points is to attack others.

Kiro: According to the degree and result of the attack, the system will make a judgment and give the corresponding points.

MC: If you…kill someone, the score will be the highest…right?

Kiro looked at me with some uneasiness and hesitation on his face.

Kiro: MC, even if you don’t know this, it also doesn’t matter.

Kiro: I will protect you so that you can leave here safely.

Kiro’s soft words are like a feather and his beautiful eyebrows were also slightly creased.

I took a deep breath.

MC: No.

MC: I want to know.

He looked at me seriously, as if he was still unsure whether to continue speaking.

MC: And it’s not “I”, but “we”. We are leaving here together safely.

Kiro looked at me, but then chuckled. He didn’t respond to what I just said but lowered his head and tapped on the keyboard.

Kiro: You guessed correctly. If you kill someone, you get the highest score.

Kiro: In order to get a higher score, the participates of the game will naturally choose to directly kill each other.

Kiro: And the messenger has a way to keep such killings undetected.

MC: ….Why would this person do such a thing?

Kiro: This involves the second way of participating in this game: betting.

MC: Could it be…

Kiro: All game participants will be photographed by a camera hidden in the metal collar, and then displayed on the screen for different people to watch and place bets.

Kiro: After the punter obtains the authority through a special method, he can watch the game on the monitor and bet on the participants. If the bet is successful, he can win money.

Kiro: It’s the same as betting on horses.

I inhaled sharply, and suddenly thought of something.

MC: Is this game specifically designed for Evolvers?

Kiro: Mm. At the very beginning, it was just a game for the existence of Evolvers.

Kiro: Probably many people want to see this kind of supernatural beings kill each other like watching a movie.

Kiro’s tone gradually calmed down, and the light from the screen was very solemn in his eyes.

Kiro: For Evolvers, there are still many people who do not acknowledge their existence and the huge rewards of this game are undoubtedly a huge attraction.

Kiro: Later, in order to increase the enjoyment of the game, a few ordinary people with superb physical abilities, were added to the game.

Kiro: In most cases, an Evolver has a greater chance of winning, but I heard….that the hunter with the highest score in this game is an ordinary person.

MC: How did you find out about all this?

Kiro: Well, I also saw a player who survived.

Kiro: His experience was also added to my survey results.

Kiro: But he quickly disappeared.

His brows were tightly knitted into a knot, and his eyes were full of guilt.

Kiro: Because this game has a rule that even after leaving, you are not allowed to disclose any information about the game.

MC: Then, he…

Kiro: The other party is sent to KEY through encrypted mail, and the transmission path and address were destroyed instantly at the same time the mail was sent.

Kiro: In the email, he wrote the online address of the game and the server address that he queried, and he also attached the server change rule he tested.

Kiro: Although there is some deviation from the correct result, it is precisely because of his calculation that I could find the real server address faster.

Kiro: But the next day, he vanished.

He lowered his head, like a self-blaming child. Kiro probably has been continuously blaming himself for this incident.

MC: He knew what the result would be, but he still sent you that email.

MC: I think he must believe that KEY can help more people to end this sinful game.

MC: He believes in you, and so do I.

Kiro touched his hair and smiled helplessly.

Kiro: Damn, I want to be more handsome in front of you, but I didn’t expect you to see me so useless.

MC: No, you are still the most handsome superhero!

He showed that bright smile again. Lu Kang’s memory suddenly flashed across my mind, which seemed to be similar to what Kiro said just now.

So I briefly described the scenes about the youth I saw before to Kiro.

Kiro: It’s not just this young man.

He tapped the Enter key softly, and the faces of six people immediately appeared on the screen.

Kiro: These are the six victims in the Evolver assassination.

Kiro: In fact, the second one was also a game player. He talked about the game in the post bar and disappeared in the afternoon.

MC: Is it possible that the so-called Evolver assassination is somehow related to this hunter game?

Kiro shook his head.

Kiro: The remaining dead have nothing to do with this game, so these two things exist simultaneously.

Kiro: Although they have different goals, both sides seemed to want to dilute themselves to the other side.

MC: How did you find so many…

Kiro: As long as electronic information is used, it will definitely leave traces in the world.

Kiro: I only happened to find out just now.

He turned off the computer screen and there seemed to be a progress bar on the side of the screen flashing by showing 35%.

MC: Then what did you do…

I wanted to ask what method Kiro used to break in and why he was investigating the hunter game when the metal collar around my neck suddenly vibrated.

The chilling mechanical interface was cast in front of us. The difference is that several green dots have been added to the map, and one happened to be near us.

Electronic voice: Ding dong.

Electronic voice: Now is the time for the supply of items for a limited time. Please obtain them according to the map if you need them. Don’t miss it.

[Props and Points]

Supply of limited-time items? What is that?

I looked at Kiro. He also seemed puzzled, but we looked at each other and decided to head towards the nearest green dot first.

It was a relatively spacious clearing in the forest, and there seemed to be a medicine box on a slab of rock in the center.

Kiro and I stayed to the side for now. Because of the virtual positioning set by Kiro, our location will not be discovered for the time being.

Soon a figure appeared in the clearing. He looked like a young man in his 20s with dark red blood stains on his clothes.

??: Open….

*popping sound*

He didn’t finish speaking. A bubble gum-like object floated to his ear at some point and immediately exploded!

The young man fell to the ground in pain, his ears bleeding, and another man emerged in the clearing while blowing bubble gum.

There were more and more bubbles. Kiro suddenly pounced on my body and held my head, covering my ears and the metal collar on my neck all at once.

*more popping sounds*

Nevertheless, the young man’s endless and painful wailing and explosions still pierced my head.

The world returned to silence after a few minutes.

Electronic voice: Hunter No. 19 attacked effectively, earned 30 points.

From the clearing, a cold electronic sound came from the man’s metal collar.

Kiro’s somber expression was reflected in my eyes. Someone died so tragically in front of us, but we were helpless.

The man blowing bubble gum didn’t seem to feel this. He even whistled happily and stepped forward to open the medicine cabinet.

He picked up a syringe and inserted it into the vein of his arm without hesitation.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the man’s arm was already covered with traces of injections.

He bent over slightly. His hands were shaking incessantly, and his nose kept pouring out blood. But he didn’t seem to mind and swiped the blood with the back of his hand.

Ferocious and chilling.

A tree rustled, and the man keenly glanced forward diagonally, revealing his blood-stained teeth. He smoothly spit out a bubble which seemed to be several times larger than before.

MC: His Evol has been enhanced….

The bubble floated leisurely in the direction where the sound came from and a huge explosion was heard the moment it touched the tree trunk!

Man: Huh, an illusion.

He smacked his lips, took a few steps, holding the metal collar with his hand.

Man: Display map.

The man continued to chew bubble gum and his eyes were full of bloodthirsty light. I didn’t know what button he had pushed, but then a call status appeared on the interface.

Man: I got the supplies. This thing can be increased by half an hour which is too useless.

The person on the other end of the call gave a little laugh.

??: I also got it. Indeed, it was a good idea to form an alliance. This game is not that difficult.

??: I heard that there has been a new improvement recently and it can last up to forty minutes.

Man: Forget it. I’ll try it out, see you later.

He turned off the screen, and started walking farther and farther away.

At the moment he left, Kiro lowered the brim of his hat and rushed to the side of the fallen young man.

As he approached him, he covered the metal collar on the young man’s neck with his clothes.

He silently watched the young man take his last breath, and then kindly covered the young man’s horrified eyes.

Electronic voice: Hunter No. 12  has died and his points were cleared.

Electronic voice: Out.

My metal collar said these cold words mercilessly.

Kiro’s body was trembling from anger and he clenched his fists and slammed his fist heavily onto the ground.

I walked forward quietly and lightly dropped my hand on his head. He raised his head and looked at me dejectedly.

Kiro: “I must put an end to the game.”

As soon as his spoke the words, I understood immediately, and nodded fiercely.

I looked in the direction where the man just left, and then at the thick tree trunk that was blown up by the huge bubble.

The syringe inside the medicine box instantly increased the Evolver’s ability. According to the content of the call, the increase time was only half an hour.

I picked up the needle that had just been randomly discarded and found that it was the same packaging as the “Small Syringes.”

….But the effect is obviously different.

Goosebumps stood up on my skin.

The medicine in the test tube is at least ten times or even a hundred times….it’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s an enhanced version, and it really improves capabilities….

Could it be said that the “small syringes” circulating around the black market is actually just a cover, and its biggest role to play is in the game?!

The other player on the call said that it has recently been improved…

MC: The potions in this game….are constantly being tested.

Perhaps what’s going around in the black market is only a large number of defective products after testing and the main messenger behind the scenes has proved that it does contain a special “existence” through medicine.

Next, he can find the special variable through countless experiments and investigations to find the answer--

The manipulator behind this game is also looking for CORE.

All prizes are bait, enticing those Evolvers and powerful ordinary people to become natural guinea pigs.

Kiro: Miss Chips…

Kiro: MC!

MC: !!

Kiro’s face suddenly appeared in front of me and I was relieved. He took my hand.

Kiro: Let’s leave here first.

As if deliberately against us, the metal collar vibrated again, but this time I saw my face appear on the screen.

Electronic voice: Ding dong.

Electronic voice: Now is the time for special missions.

Electronic voice: This time, Hunter No. 29 has been selected. All players who execute an effective attack on this player can get ten times the points.

His voice is sharp and cruel and my photo at the top of the screen is especially clear.

Electronic voice: The time limit is 30 minutes, please don’t miss it.

-End of Part 3-

Continue to Part 4