#and if you've managed to avoid this particular spoiler

[snowcoming]

fam i dont think any of us are getting over aaron driving the mas

[funishment-time]

🔵 Kodaka BlueSky Q&As: Misc Rain Code & Other Questions

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: Please be advised! Translations of all Japanese answers derive from a combination of Google Translate and my manager's three-quarters-remembered Japanese. We've tried our best to work out what he's saying, but there will be mistakes here and there. Do not take this as gospel!

To avoid spreading too much misinfo, where we're completely boggled about an answer, we've decided not to even make an attempt. We'll still list the post, but mark it accordingly.

💕 FEBRUARY 2024:

Q: While I'm at it, could you please tell me where to send fan mail for Rain Code and Danganronpa?

A: Please send it to Spike Chunsoft.

/////

Q: What's your favorite furikake?

A: The ashes of the dead.

NOTE: Furikake is a type of Japanese seasoning. Kodaka is a weird guy.

/////

Q: Is it okay to send a New Year's card to Too Kyo [Games] as a fan letter to you?

A: That's fine. I'll watch for it.

/////

Q: Can I send a birthday present for a character to the company?

A: Please send it to Spike Chunsoft!

/////

Q: Please tell us what games you've played! What movies and shows have you watched? What books, manga, and comics have you read? What media have you consumed?Please tell us! We want to know what are your inspirations. I don't know what media I should consume. And we all want to know more about you!

A: I am inspired by all kinds of games, comics, novels and movies. I used to work part-time in a video game store. I love Tarantino.

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Q: Do you have a favorite line or phrase from Danganronpa or Rain Code?

A: When I search for "Danganronpa quotes" and look back at the lines that come up, I think, "This is a great line!" For Rain Code, it's any line that Shinigami-chan says that helps Yuma get back on his feet!

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Q: Sorry for the second question! I have a lot of questions about Rain Code, but I'm hesitant to ask them here because it would be a total spoiler for the main story... I'd love to have the opportunity someday to ask questions with full spoilers OK. Are there any plans for that at the moment?

A: That sounds great. I'd love to do it. But I don't think I'd be able to reveal spoilers openly unless it's a real event.

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Q: Excuse me for the second question!! Previously, there was a Danganronpa collaboration with Identity V, but are there plans for a Rain Code collaboration...!!!!!

A: We would really appreciate it if you could send a persistent message to Identity V!

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Q: I'm sorry it's not Danganronpa or Raincode... I love both series, and I'm really looking forward to the release of Tribe Nine. I have a question about Tribe Nine. Sonoda from the Oota Tribe could kill Haneda at any time, even though he has murderous intent towards him, so why does he keep him alive by just beating him up until he's on the verge of death? Also, why is Sonoda the only one who is a little better dressed (in a suit and tie) than the other members?

A: When it comes to Tribe Nine, to be honest, Akatsuki has a much higher weight than Too Kyo Games, so only Akatsuki can answer that question...!

NOTE: Akatsuki is the company publishing the upcoming Tribe Nine game.

/////

Q: Are there any other Rain Code characters besides Dr. Robot that are favorites of Mr. Komatsuzaki? Also, I would like to know more about Mr. Komatsuzaki and would like to see more media exposure for him.

A: Basically, I think they are all my favorites. I'm very particular about it, and I've made many drafts over the years. But I'm sure ramen store owners would love him [Akira].

NOTE: We're pretty sure "Dr. Robot" is the character listed as "Akira" in the credits, but we're not 100% certain. Also, Komatsuzaki is the artist behind Danganronpa and Rain Code.

/////

Q: What is your favorite foreign movie?

A: Tarantino!!

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Q: Is there ever a character that you liked so much that you thought it would be a shame to kill them off, but you still ended up killing them anyway?

A: On one hand, I want to get to know them better. If the character isn't well-defined enough to the point where I want to get to know him or her better, there's no point in letting him or her die… So, I let them die while wishing I could depict more of them.

/////

Q: Mr Kodaka, can I please ask another question? Persona 3 RELOAD came out recently. Have you played it yet? Did you play the original Persona 3, including Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable? Have you played all of the Persona games, including the spinoffs? Are you a fan of the Persona series?

A: i have played all the persona series, from 1 to 5. I haven't played any of the spin-offs though, I'm waiting for the release of 6.

🍀 MARCH 2024:

Q: How did you and Mr. Komatsuzaki meet and start working together?

A: We met in the smoking area at work.

/////

Q: Please tell me how to cook delicious rice🍚

A: Mannan rice is great for dieting.

NOTE: Mannan rice is a (usually) microwavable kind of rice that's part konjac (you know, the thing Kirumi has trouble cutting). It's low-calorie. The joke here is probably that Kodaka doesn't cook, he makes things in the microwave. Relatable, really.

/////

Q: What are your favorite indie games? Have any indie games inspired and/or influenced your own games and works? If so, what are those indie games that inspired you as a creator? Are there any indie games that you recommend we should play? Or what indie games should more people play in general? 🙏 🙏 🙏

A: If Hotline Miami is an indie game, it is Hotline Miami. I love it the best.

/////

Q: Can I please ask another question?🙏 I really enjoyed watching Akudama Drive, so I would like to see the concept art and character and setting materials, but I don't know where to find them. I especially want to see drawings by Rui Komatsuzaki, Cindy H. YAMAUCHI and the staff. Is there a book? 📖

A: The artwork for Akdamadrive has not been released. Maybe not much is made in the case of the animation. Please submit a request to Studio Piero for Komatsuzaki and Cindy's designs, as well as Kansai's designs, which are awesome!

/////

Q: i'll ask another! piggybacking off another question on here, what games have you been playing recently? what games are you excited for coming out in the future?

A: I've been too busy lately to play games. I want to play cruel games.

/////

Q: I love games with interesting stories like Danganronpa and Raincode, but Mr. Kodaka, who writes the scenarios for such interesting games, is there a game whose story you thought "this wowed me!"?

A: Resident Evil Code Veronica, FF7, and Killer 7 are fun. When I first played Persona 3, I thought that Megaten [Megami Tensei] killed it.

/////

Q: if you had a forte which would you want to have? i want to have desuhiko’s disguise

A: me too!!!!!!

🥬 APRIL 2024:

n/a

🌺 MAY 2024:

Q: Are there any plans to make a Happy Rain Code where the train incident never happened?

A: I'm sure Melami would solve the first clock tower case. No, she won't wear those clothes…

NOTE: A reference to the flashy clothes you find in Melami's room during the first case.

/////

Q: Mr. Kodaka, you often respond to illustrations drawn by your fans on Twitter, but do you also watch the hand-drawn videos that your fans post on YouTube?

A: I don't watch YouTube because it takes a long time. I can see the pictures right away [on Twitter], so I just respond to the pictures and hope that people who like them will follow me.

/////

Q: Which do you prefer, liberal arts girls or science girls?

A: I like both!

/////

Q: Was Mr. Kodaka a super high school level film director when he was in high school?

A: During my time at university and as a part-time worker afterwards, I was a really low-achieving film director.

☀️ JUNE 2024:

Q: I have a question about the world of Rain Code. I heard that there are about 1000 super detectives in the world of Rain Code, but are there detectives with the same abilities and titles?

A: There are similarities, but no exact matches.

/////

Q: Regarding Raincode's special detective abilities. In the story, it was stated that if one acquired special detective abilities during his two-year training period, one would be registered as a super detective. If one were to express an ability that could be considered a special detective ability while working as a regular detective, would one be re-registered as a super detective?

A: Abilities often depend on innate talent, but that's a possibility.

/////

Q: Is it decided how old the characters in works such as Danganronpa and Raincode are? If so, how old are they?

A: Of course, Danganronpa is mostly in their teens. Raincode has a wide range, but even Yakou is in his 30s.

NOTE: This is kind-of hilarious, because I'm pretty sure it's canonically stated Yakou is actually in his late 20s...in something that Kodaka himself wrote. I'll have to go find evidence.

/////

Q: Why do you have so many cats in your work?

A: Because Komatsuzaki likes cats. I like dogs.

NOTE: Komatsuzaki is Kodaka's usual artist. He's worked on Danganronpa, Rain Code, and the upcoming The Hundred Line.

/////

Q: There have been various spinoffs for Raincode and Danganronpa, but can we assume that the interpretations and character settings discussed in these spinoffs are official?

A: I'm not sure about the official take [from Spikechun], but if you enjoy it, enjoy it, and if you don't want to accept it, don't accept it. I think it's all up to the player's freedom.

NOTE: By "spinoff," this probably means the anthology mangas, light novels, audio dramas, etc.

🎇 JULY 2024:

Q: Do Rain Code and Danganronpa take place in the same world? Do any of your games and works have a shared universe with another? Or are they all separate? 🤔 💭 I'm asking because I just had a dream about Rain Code today!

A: I won't make a clear statement. I am not sure what will happen in the future. Anyway, please spread the Rain Code around the world.

/////

Q: Can I change my clothes before changing into the Final Defense Academy uniform in Hundred Line? I like the original clothes because they are so unique... Or do you wear uniforms only during battles?

A: We'll give you more details later, but they usually wear casual clothes and change into their uniforms when they fight!

NOTE: I'll start a Hundred Line section when the game comes out next year. For now, I'll put Hundred Line questions in here or in Game Development.

🌭 AUG 2024:

Q: What percentage of people in the world of Rain Code have special abilities? I wonder if most people have the ability to do something like "ordinary psychometry" like Halara did in the past.

A: No, it's still rare. I guess it's about as rare as Devil Fruit users.

🍁 SEPT 2024:

Q: The specific ages of most of the characters in Danganronpa and Rain Code have not been revealed, but is there a reason for this?

A: I thought age was an unnecessary filter.

🎃 OCT 2024:

Q: The collaboration between Kodaka and Ryukishi07 hasn't happened yet. Why?

A: Collaboration won't work unless there is a good amount of compatibility and compromise.

NOTE: Ryukishi07 is the pen name of the author who created the When They Cry VN series.

/////

Q: In The Hundred Line there is a girl with a tomato head. Who was the one who suggested that character, Kodaka or Komatsuzaki?

A: I told him to imagine a pumpkin, but that would be too Halloween-like, so Komatsuzaki made it a tomato.

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Q: There are supposed to be 16 playable characters in Final Defense Academy, but only 15 members are known at the moment. Does this mean that more members will be added along the way?

A: Hawawa…!

NOTE: "Hawawa" is an expression of surprise, rendered as "はわわ." I believe it's typically considered cutesy and feminine, which is why, if I recall correctly, Usami/Monomi uses it a lot. Regardless, I think this poster stumbled across something Kodaka didn't think people would notice!

/////

Q: Do you prefer girls with high or low voices?

A: Hmm, both are cute.

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Q: You said before that Rain Code was inspired by Tim Burton. Was Shinigami based on Beetlejuice? Also, have you seen the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Or have you watched Wednesday on Netflix? Or which Tim Burton films exactly inspired Rain Code?

A: I referred to some kind of atmosphere. I didn't refer to it that clearly.

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Q: If your allowed to answer this question, is the girl in the middle originally Takumi? Or is it the boy on the top right?

A: She became a character named Shizuhara.

[The art in question:]

/////

Q: What's the story behind the Guren 5 manga? How did you come to work together with Yuuki Kodama? I read all the issues, and I was very impressed with both of your talents displayed in the work!

A: I miss it..!

🦃 NOV 2024:

Q: Why don't Rain Code characters get birthday comments and tweets like Danganronpa characters? Many fans have spent time and money to send gifts to Spike Chunsoft to celebrate their birthdays. So please, can you write comments for them too? 🙏

A: I want to write them, but it would interfere with my work. It's hard to even write comments just for the Danganronpa characters. I haven't been asked to do it as a job, so I can't ask the staff to help me. I've already started Danganronpa, so I'll continue as long as the gifts keep coming, but it would take courage to start Rain Code in the same way. If Spike Chunsoft would at least ask me to do it as a job, I could get the staff to help me.

/////

Q: There are five members of the Special Defense Forces at the Final Defense Academy who are not in the first classroom. Is it a coincidence that the gender ratio of the members is biased? Also, why are those five not there from the beginning?

A: That's a good question! The story starts off differently from Danganronpa.

/////

Q: I understand. Thank you for dedicating so much time to composing the Danganronpa character birthday tweets! And, even if you can only retweet for the birthdays of Rain Code characters, we deeply appreciate it and are grateful to you! Should I send gifts to TooKyoGames for The Hundred Line birthdays?

A: If you give it to Aniplex, I think they will collect it! Please love them!

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Q: Is there any significance to her wearing a different outfit than the other students?

A: That's a good question. I can't answer

[The "her" in question:]

/////

Q: Have you decided on each character's dominant hand?

A: When it's necessary for a trick. I don't want to discriminate against people based on their handedness!

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Q: Mr Kodaka, you said before that for the music of Rain Code, you made Masafumi Takada listen to music from the soundtracks of detective dramas. May I ask what the names of those dramas are? I would like to watch and listen to them as well!

A: [A link to this song on YouTube.]

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Q: Mr Kodaka, do you listen to the rapper duo Insane Clown Posse? Someone noted Darumi Amemiya resembles a Juggalo, that is, a fan of Insane Clown Posse? I know the Mystery Phantoms in Rain Code were based on KISS, but is there any influence from Insane Clown Posse or Juggalo subculture in Amemiya?

A: “I wasn’t aware of it at all.”

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Q: Mr Kodaka, what is your dog's name and gender? Rui Komatsuzaki drew them in Zilch Alexander's character art, and you post about them sometimes on Twitter and Instagram. Sorry, I don't want to be intrusive or anything, I was just curious for the past few years. Thanks for understanding! 🙏

A: He is a male Shih Tzu named Ritz.

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Q: Mr Kodaka, SIREI and NIGOU are described as robots, but are they sentient AIs (Artificial Intelligences) or are they remotely controlled by another person or persons?

A: It’s one of the mysteries revealed throughout the game.

/////

Q: So when will we learn more about the Special Defense Unit? Like when will we get some new names? Or a sneak peek of their personalities? Or is all of this Aniplex’s decision?

A: About 100 days before the release, the mysteries are revealed all at once.

🎄 DEC 2024:

Q: In Akudama Drive, Swindler cuts her hair near the end of the series. And back in Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, you originally intended for Kirigiri to cut her hair but couldn't work it into the narrative. Was Swindler cutting her hair a reference to this canceled plot point? Or was it a reuse?

A: It is an expression of the moment when she became hungry, an idea of director Taguchi.

/////

Q: Kodaka-san, which of Uchikoshi Kotaro's works do you like the most? I recently started playing "ZERO ESCAPE: The Dilemma of Time" and it's really fun!

A: Hmm, Punch Line

/////

Q: Why did you decide to get a Shih Tzu out of all the dogs available?

A: I like their faces.

/////

Q: If Fubiki's Forte comes from Life Is Strange, Zange is modeled on Snake, and Vivia's Forte derives from Murdered: Soul Suspect. Are there any inspirations behind Desuhiko, Yuma, or other Detectives' Fortes? Or inspo behind any other characters? I know about Alice: Madness Returns, Control, and Eva

A: I have taken inspiration from Alice Madness Returns, Control, and Life is Strange.

[sukimas]

A Spoiler-Free Guide for Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

With a short introduction, mechanics, and notable sticky situations.

(A PDF version of this guide is available upon request.)

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is a SRPG (Simulation RPG) for the Super Famicom, released in 1996. You have likely arrived at this guide either because someone has recommended it to you or because, far in the future after I have written this, a remake of it has released and you want to go back and play the original to see what has changed and what hasn't. Either way, you were likely inspired to play it from its strong story- rumored or experienced- and aren't too clear on what the mechanics of it are. Maybe you've played a number of Fire Emblem games, but are nervous about this one due to its reputation as an odd duck. Maybe you've never touched a SRPG before, and have a very excited Jugdral fan of a friend shepherding you into playing it. Either way, this guide is for you.

This guide will attempt to avoid spoiling any story events, but for those who mind gameplay spoilers, it is organized in ascending order of how obscure each gameplay feature is to stumble upon- the last two sections (Sticky Situations and Secret Events) in particular are not usually encountered by an unspoiled first-time player. Nevertheless, I highly recommend at least reading up to the fourth to last section, "Recruitments"; it contains no identifying character information besides time of encounter and class, and you will likely reach no end of frustration attempting some of them without foreknowledge (or some very good guesses). NOTE: List of Conversations (Section 8b) does contain spoilers for recruitable characters. Peruse that section with caution if you do read past the Recruitments section.

This guide is meant for use with the Project Naga patch, though some characters will be referred to by their more modern names; these will be indicated with a slash mark between the two. (E.g. Edain/Aideen.)

Table of Contents: Section 1. The Small Differences of Genealogy of the Holy War Section 2. Main Objectives Section 3. Finances and Resource Management Section 4. Skills Section 5. Side Objectives Section 6. Genealogy Section 7. Recruitments Section 8. Conversations Section 9. Sticky Situations Section 10. Secret Events

Section 1. The Small Differences of Genealogy of the Holy War

Genealogy of the Holy War is similar to most other Fire Emblem games in the broad strokes of its mechanics. It has general gameplay of fighting enemy units with your army on a grid-based map, chance-based unit growth, most of your usual classes and weapons, et cetera. However, it has a number of differences, large and small, with later (and earlier) Fire Emblem games, some of which may make gameplay more difficult if unknown. The small differences are catalogued here.

1a. Movement

There are two principal differences to movement in Genealogy compared to in other Fire Emblem games. Firstly, all mounted units may move with their remaining movement after performing any action except conversation or seizing of a castle. Secondly, though terrain in this game that decreases movement exists as usual, there is also some terrain that increases movement; when walking on roads, all units may move 1.4x as many spaces as usual, rounded down. So, for example, a paladin (9 mov) on roads may move 12.6 spaces, but this is rounded down to 12. As a trade-off for this, roads, like some rare terrain seen in other Fire Emblem games, lower the avoid of any unit standing on them by 10% (represented by the small shield icon in the terrain window):

1b. Follow-up Attacks

While units in most Fire Emblem games can attack an enemy unit twice if they are faster by a certain amount, units in Genealogy require a skill to do so. This skill is called Pursuit (or Follow-Up, depending on your translation.) There are ways to attack more than once without Pursuit, but they are either more rare or not guaranteed. Pursuit allows for a follow-up attack if a unit's attack speed is greater than that of their opponent by 1 or more points.

1c. Critical Hits and Effective Damage

Much like follow-up attacks, units in Genealogy cannot naturally perform critical hits. There are four ways to perform a critical hit on most enemies in Genealogy: Being next to an immediate family member or lover (flat 20% critical hit rate bonus to anyone, including those who cannot naturally crit); having the Critical skill (skill% chance); or using a weapon that has been used to kill at least 50 enemies (skill% chance, plus 1% for each enemy killed above 50, up to 50% bonus at 100 kills); or having the Wrath skill (guaranteed critical hit as long as you are at 50%+1 HP or lower).

Critical hits in Genealogy follow the damage formula of doubling a unit's attack power before subtracting enemy defensive stats, rather than the more common tripling of a unit's damage output after enemy defense is subtracted. They are generally much more useful in the hands of units with lower Attack than normal.

Effective damage in Genealogy (bows vs. fliers, etc.) is simply calculated as an automatic critical hit on the target unit (if the attacking unit hits, of course.)

There is no critical avoid (dodge) stat in Genealogy.

Also, the minimum damage for any attack which lands is 1.

1d. Weapon Weight

All weapons in Genealogy have a weight stat. This stat is subtracted from the attack speed of the unit wielding the weapon. There is no way to counteract this speed penalty, and attack speed may be decreased below zero when utilizing particularly heavy weapons. This can lead to a negative Avoid stat.

1e. Weapon Repair

Weapons in Genealogy are infinitely reparable at any castle on the map. The price of repair is equal to the weapon's price, divided by the number of uses the weapon has when new, times the number of uses to be repaired.

For example, repairing a 38 use Silver Sword to full durability costs 5000 (sale price) / 50 (maximum uses) * 12 (uses missing) = 1200 gold.

Each weapon in the game that the player can receive is unique.

1f. Weapon Triangle

The weapon triangle in Genealogy of the Holy War is generally similar to in other Fire Emblem games. However, it is notably stronger; units gain Hit/Avo ±20 for advantage/disadvantage. Additionally, there is a magic "triangle", which functions similarly.

The weapon triangle is Swords>Axes>Lances>Swords

The anima magic triangle is Fire>Wind>Thunder>Fire

The interaction of light and dark magic with other varieties is Light=Dark>Fire/Wind/Thunder

1g. Experience Gain and Class Change

Units gain experience based on their level in relation to the enemy's. The lower their level is in comparison to the enemy's, the greater their experience gain. Class changes don't affect level; you will gain equal experience as a level 1 Knight Lord and a level 1 Troubadour.

Class changes can be performed once a unit reaches level 20, if they are not already a promoted class. They can be performed using the Class Change option at one's home castle. There is no reason not to promote as soon as possible; all classes have a flat level cap of 30.

The stat caps for each class are each class' stat bases plus 15, excepting HP which caps at 80. There is data out there on the base stats; however, I won't go into it here.

1h. Weapon Level

If you've played Engage, you'll be familiar with this, but if not: weapon level is inherent to the class a unit occupies, and can only be changed by class change or personal modifiers (more on the latter in the Genealogy section.) So, if your paladin has B swords, he will never have A swords, even if other paladins you encounter might have the latter.

1j. Enemy Reinforcements

Reinforcements generally do not spawn on the map as in other Fire Emblem games; they will almost always appear from the mouth of a castle. If you defeat all of an enemy commander's allied units and said commander is capable of movement, they will return to the castle they came from, enter it, and 1-2 turns later exit it with a squad of new units statistically identical to their previous squad.

1k. Saving

At the start of each turn, before you have moved any units, you can save in the map menu (i.e. the menu that appears when you press A on the map.) It's highly recommended to keep at least two saves; one save every turn, and one save after you capture a new castle. You can set the game to save automatically each turn in the Options menu by scrolling down to Autosave and selecting a slot (1 to 4).

Section 2. Main Objectives

2a. Seizing Castles

Chapter progression is made by seizing enemy castles after defeating the boss standing on them. Theoretically, castles may be captured in any order that you like; in practice, in most cases the way ahead to the next castle will be blocked until you capture the previous castle.

When you seize a castle, a short cutscene will play and the enemy units whose allegiance lies with that castle will disappear (allegiance can be checked in the second page of the unit menu; this same page contains skills and weapon level). At the start of the next enemy phase, the "[Name] castle seized" map events will trigger; formerly neutral castles may turn red, enemy and ally units may spawn, and terrain may be changed (for example, a bridge may be lowered or raised, a path may appear through difficult terrain, a gate may be opened, etc.) Keep an eye on castles you have not yet seized due to this.

Allied (green) and neutral (yellow) castles cannot be seized, and may lack some amenities of allied castles upon entrance.

2b. Losing Castles

Any enemy unit who reaches the entrance of a castle (that is not their own) will capture it. Allied and neutral castles will become enemy castles when this happens, and can be recaptured by your own units; however, player castles will be pillaged and will no longer be able to be recaptured.

If the player's home castle (the castle where you start the chapter) is captured by the enemy, it's game over, and you'll have to restart from your last save.

Section 3. Finances and Resource Management

3a. Unit-Specific Gold Pools and Trading

Unlike in every other Fire Emblem game to date, units in Genealogy have their own specific gold pools. They cannot trade gold with other units, unless those units are their lovers; if so, they can use the Give Gold command to give their lover all of their money.

Units also cannot trade with each other. In order to exchange items, they will have to sell them off at the Pawn Shop in the castle menu, where another unit may rebuy them for twice the sale price. Therefore, it's best to think carefully about who should defeat enemy units when a droppable item is in play. The money cap in the wallet is 50,000 gold; if you're reaching that cap, consider spending it on something so you don't waste any new money you earn.

3b. Thieves

Thieves are an exception to the above gold rules. Though they still can't receive gold from just anyone, they can attack enemy units to steal all the gold in their wallet. Additionally, they can give gold to any unit in the army.

3d. The Arena

Each chapter, beginning with Chapter 1, has an arena. This arena consists of seven opponents per chapter whom, upon defeat, will give the unit who defeated them experience and 1000-4000 gold (beginning with the weakest and increasing by 500 until the strongest is reached.) All units can enter the arena as many times as they like until they've reaped all the rewards- each and every unit in your army may face and defeat the seven opponents, rather than just one. If your unit's HP hits zero in the arena, they won't die, but their HP will be reduced to 1. However, winning a match in the arena restores a unit to full HP.

It's recommended to challenge the arena each chapter with all the units you intend to use, but you don't have to in order to complete the game. So, if you start getting tired of it, you can skip it... but it might be best not to.

Section 4. Skills

4a. What are Skills?

Skills are abilities that a unit can activate- generally in-combat, though sometimes they have out-of-combat effects. Various skills have various chances of activation (some are guaranteed, some rely on specific stat thresholds), so be aware.

4b. Skill Types

There are two different skill types- "Class Skills", those granted based on a unit's class, and "Personal Skills", those a unit has innately. All skills can mechanically either be class or personal skills- though most skills are only personal. Class skills, however, apply to every unit that is a member of the class- including faceless enemies. So watch out, and check out the skills present on the unit menu to make sure you do not meet a dire error.

4c. Skill List

(Note: Attack Speed is here abbreviated as Aspd.)

Pursuit/Follow-Up: Allows a unit to strike again after an enemy counterattack (or twice in a row if the unit themselves is counterattacking). Trigger: Unit's Aspd > enemy unit Aspd.

Critical: Allows a unit to perform a critical hit in combat, doubling their attack before enemy defense. Trigger: Skl%.

Adept: Allows a unit to attack twice in a row. Trigger: (Aspd + 20)%.

Accost: Triggers another round of combat upon the completion of the prior round. Trigger: [Unit Aspd - enemy Aspd + (unit HP/2)]%.

Pavise: Negates all incoming damage for 1 hit. Trigger: (Unit Level)%.

Steal: Takes all of an enemy's gold upon hit and adds it to the unit's personal wallet. Always activates.

Vantage: Unit attacks first when enemy unit initiates combat (treats it as if unit initiates combat). Trigger: Unit HP ≤ (50% of unit's Max HP + 1). When conditions are met, always activates.

Wrath: Unit always performs a critical hit (if unit hits). Trigger: Unit HP ≤ (50% of unit's Max HP + 1). When conditions are met, always activates.

Astra: Unit performs 5 attacks in a row. Trigger: Skl%.

Luna: Unit negates enemy defense for 1 strike. Trigger: Skl%.

Sol: Unit recovers HP equal to damage dealt. Trigger: Skl%.

(Note: Only one of Astra/Luna/Sol may activate at once. Additionally, they are only usable by infantry sword units.)

Nihil: Prevents the activation of Astra, Luna, Sol and critical hits against this unit. Always activates.

Bargain: Shop prices for this unit are reduced by 50%.

Charm: Hit and Avoid +10 to allied units within 3 spaces.

Dance: Grants another action to all adjacent allies.

Miracle: When unit HP is ≤10, increases unit's Avo by [(11- Unit HP)*10] points.

Paragon: Double's unit's gained experience.

Renewal: At start of turn, unit recovers 5-10 HP (random).

Section 5. Side Objectives

5a. Villages

Visiting a village gives a unit 5000 Gold and may also grant an item. Bandits will attack villages; a village will be destroyed when a bandit attacks it for 10 turns, and every turn that a bandit attacks it will subtract 500 Gold from the total that a unit will gain from visiting it.

5b. Combatant NPCs

NPCs ("green units") that have normal classes will grant items when spoken to by certain units of yours. Their status screen will tell you who they should talk to.

5c. Civilian Rescue

NPCs who do not have normal classes (i.e. their class is Civilian) will grant 100 EXP when interacted with.

Section 6. Genealogy

6a. What's All This About Children?

Like Gaul, Genealogy of the Holy War is divided into two parts... Er, it seems I've misread my notes. Gaul is divided into three. Nevertheless, Genealogy takes place over a long period of time- 24 years, in fact. As the characters you recruit at the beginning of the game are in the prime of their lives, it's only natural that, over such a long period, some of them will marry and have children. However, the latter half of the game takes place over two decades later than the beginning- the characters that you've recruited back then, such as Edain, may be in their forties by that point. By no means can characters in their early middle ages not fight in the early middle ages, but this IS an anime- the timeskip calls for a new cast of teenagers, the children of your early units all grown up.

6b. Can Love Bloom on the Battlefield?

Units can only have children if they become lovers. Some units will be- or become- lovers automatically, such as Quan and Ethlyn. In this case, their children will always be theirs. Some units do not- take, for example, Edain. She will not automatically take a lover, and you'll have to get her to fall in love with another (male) unit in order to have children. (Evidently, Jugdral has not yet invented magic that allows for cloning or IVF. Sad.) Even if she doesn't fall in love, however, you'll still have the same number of teenagers fighting for you later in the game- two of them will simply not be the child of any of your own units, and will be "substitute" characters with their own backstories. However, the children of early-game units will have some gameplay advantages, which I'll explain in a bit. Either way, each potential mother has two associated children, one of which will take after her to a greater extent and the other of which will take after her lover to a greater extent. No male unit has any associated children without falling in love.

As for how units fall in love, it's quite simple. Units have a certain number of "love points" with each other- all of them start with a certain number of points shared with each other unit. Once a unit reaches 500 love points with another unit, they become lovers, and can have conversations, gameplay interactions, and children. Units gain +5 love points per turn from standing next to each other, as long as they are the only two units standing next to each other; there is a bug that can cause units to gain love points meant for other units if they stand next to another unit who is standing next to that unit's prospective lover. There is a more detailed explanation, but it would involve some spoilers, so I'll leave it at that for now. Units also gain a certain number of love points by being on the same map together; this can be as low as 1 and as high as 10 per turn for a given pair. Finally, units gain love points by having conversations with each other- conversations between unrelated men and women often come with love points attached.

Perhaps this explanation has been tiresome, and I haven't convinced you you shouldn't just toss up your hands and go for the substitutes. Well, there are many gameplay benefits to kids, starting with the following...

6c. Holy Blood

It's hard to miss, considering how constantly it's talked about. Some of your units are descendants of the Twelve Crusaders, who destroyed the darkness about a hundred and twenty years ago. This has numerous story implications. However, it also has gameplay ones!

If you open up a unit's Holy Blood menu (press A on the unit menu) you'll see a circle showing all twelve of the Crusaders' weapons and their names. Some of these will have green dots next to them; when a green dot is next to a Crusader's weapon, that means that the unit has Minor holy blood of that crusader; when the green dot is glowing (there's a yellow light surrounding it) that means that the unit has Major holy blood of that crusader.

Minor holy blood boosts a unit's rank in the associated weapon by 1 letter grade. For example, Troubadours naturally have a B rank in swords, but because Ethlyn has minor Baldr blood, she starts with an A rank. Meanwhile, Major holy blood boosts a unit's rank in the associated weapon to the maximum, and allows them to use the associated holy weapon if they can get their hands on it. For example, because Sigurd has major Baldr blood, he can use any sword in the game (excepting other holy weapons), including Tyrfing. This isn't just a nice bonus- most holy weapons give a total of +30 to a character's stats, spread out across a varying number. Some give more or less, or have other special effects (for example, Mystletainn grants the Critical skill), but they are universally extraordinarily powerful. A unit with holy blood can turn the tide of battle on their own, in both gameplay and story.

Holy blood also increases a unit's growths. Depending on which holy blood they bear, various stat growths are boosted; a list is shown below. Note that minor blood cuts these boosts in half.

Baldr: Associated with swords. HP+20%, Str+10%, Skl+10%, Lck+10%. Od: Associated with swords. HP+20%, Skl+30%.

Dáinn: Associated with lances. HP+20%, Spd+30%.

Ullr: Associated with bows. HP+20%, Lck+30%.

Bragi: Associated with staves. HP+10%, Mag+10%, Lck+10%, Res+20%.

Thrud: Associated with thunder magic. HP+20%, Skl+30%.

Fjalar: Associated with fire magic. HP+20%, Mag+30%.

Hoðr: Associated with swords. HP+20%, Str+30%.

Njörun: Associated with lances. HP+20%, Str+10%, Spd+10%, Def+10%.

Nál: Associated with axes. HP+20%, Def+30%.

Naga: Associated with light magic. HP+10%, Mag+20%, Res+20%.

Forseti: Associated with wind magic. HP+20%, Spd+30%.

Children will inherit their parents' holy blood, but only partially; both children will inherit minor holy blood, if it is held, but only the child which most resembles the parent will inherit major holy blood. The other child will again receive minor holy blood, unless both parents share a holy blood type, in which case they will both bear major holy blood. This is the case even if both parents' holy blood is minor.

6d. Weapon and Skill Inheritance

Units will inherit the weapons and items of the parent they most resemble, but only if they can use them in their base class. The exception to this is Holy Weapons, which will be inherited even if the child unit can never use them.

Both parents' personal skills pass on to both of their children. However, their class skills do not. Check carefully to see that the skills you want to pass on actually belong to the unit innately!

6e. Growth Rate Inheritance

Child units' growth rates are equal to 100% of those of the parent they resemble most + 50% of those of the parent they resemble less. Therefore, all child units will be equally or more competent in battle than their resembling parent.

Section 7. Recruitments

7a. From Enemy to Friend

Units in Genealogy of the Holy War won't always be on your side from the start. Oftentimes, they'll start out as green allied units, or even enemy units. While talking to enemies to recruit them is common in Fire Emblem games, Genealogy has some more esoteric methods on its hands. Therefore, a list of (non-automatic) recruitment methods and chapters (without mentioning unit names) is below.

7b. Spoiler-Free Recruitment List

Chapter 1.

-Speak to the swordfighter with your lord after seizing Genoa.

Chapter 2.

-Complete all seven Arena matches with any unit.

-Speak to the princess with your lord.

-Speak to the free knight with anyone holding more than 10,000 Gold.

-Speak to the pegasus with the bard.

Chapter 6.

-Speak to either the axe fighter or the axe knight with the lady swordfighter.

Chapter 7.

-Enter Dahna castle with the cavalier who worries for it.

-Speak to the mage girl with the other mage.

Chapter 8.

-Speak to the archer with the thief.

-Speak to the sage with your lord.

Chapter 9.

-Seize Luthecia while the general still lives.

-Talk to the general with the cleric from Luthecia.

-Talk to the wyvern knight with the prince.

-Talk to the wyvern knight with your lord.

Epilogue.

-Speak to them with your lord after seizing Velthomer.

Section 8. Conversations

8a. Communication is Key

Though supports weren't introduced into the Fire Emblem series until Binding Blade, that by no means that units did not talk about their past and present with each other prior to it. Units in Genealogy of the Holy War can talk to each other on the map for lore, love, stats, and items. The "Unit" section of the map menu contains a list of all units who can speak to each other on page 4 ("Personal Data"). It's highly recommended that you utilize this; though all units will have who they can talk to listed on the second page of their unit screen, it's easy to miss conversations without this.

Conversations have several triggers, but the most common one is the seizure of a castle. A list of all conversations between allied units, triggers, and results (things obtained from said conversation) is below. Initiator of the conversation is listed first, who they speak to is listed afterwards, trigger conditions third, and rewards fourth.

8b. List of Conversations, Conditions, and Results

Note that all events that can cause love point gain will not occur if either participant in the conversation already has a lover.

Prologue:

Azelle->Sigurd, Azelle recruited Lex->Sigurd, Lex recruited Ethlyn->Sigurd, Ethlyn recruited Quan->Sigurd, Quan recruited

Chapter 1:

Quan->Finn, from start of chapter, Finn gains +1 Str/Skl/Def Sigurd->Edain/Aideen, Edain recruited Midir->Edain, Edain recruited and Azelle has not spoken to her, +100 love points Azelle->Edain, Edain recruited and Midir has not spoken to her, +100 love points Edain->Ethlyn, Edain recruited, Ethlyn gains Return staff Quan->Ayra, Ayra recruited Dew->Edain, Genoa seized, 50 love points + Edain gains Warp staff

Chapter 2:

Deirdre->Ethlyn, from start of chapter, Ethlyn gains Light Brand Dew->Raquesis/Lachesis, Lachesis recruited, +50 love points and Lachesis gains Thief Sword Quan->Finn, Heirhein seized, Finn gains Brave Lance Sigurd->Lewyn, Lewyn recruited Beowulf->Lachesis, Anphony/Infini seized, +100 love points and Lachesis gains Str+2, Skl+2, Def+1 Alec->Sylvia/Silvia, Infini seized, +100 love points Silvia->Sigurd, Silvia recruited Fury/Erin/Erinys->Sigurd, Erinys recruited

Chapter 3:

Lex->Ayra, from start of chapter and Chulainn has not spoken to Ayra, +100 love points and Ayra gains Brave Sword Holyn/Chulainn->Ayra, from start of chapter and Lex has not spoken to Ayra, +100 love points and Ayra gains Brave Sword Ethlyn→Quan, Sylvale seized, Quan gains Gae Bolg Sigurd -> Brigid, Brigid recruited Edain→Brigid, Brigid recruited, Brigid gains Yewfelle Midir-> Brigid, Brigid recruited, +100 love points Claud->Sigurd, Claud recruited

Chapter 4:

Taillte/Tailtiu->Azelle, if the two are not lovers, +100 love points and Azelle gains HP+5 Sigurd->Claud, from start of chapter Edain->Midir, if the two are lovers, Midir gains Brave Bow Edain->Jamke, if the two are lovers, Jamke gains Brave Bow Edain->Azelle, if the two are lovers, Edain gains Rescue staff Silvia->Claud, Thove/Tófa seized, +100 love points Lewyn->Sigurd, Silesse seized Erinys->Lewyn, Silesse seized, +290 love points

Chapter 5:

Edain->Brigid, from start of chapter Claud->Edain, if the two are lovers, Edain gains Rescue staff Sigurd->Ayra, Lubeck seized Lex->Azelle, Lubeck seized Dew->Jamke, Lubeck seized Tailtiu->Azelle/Claud/Lex, if the two are lovers and Phinora seized Erinys->Lewyn/Arden/(Noish/Naoise), if the two are lovers and Phinora seized Silvia->Claud/Lewyn/Alec, if the two are lovers and Phinora seized Lachesis->Beowolf/Naoise/Dew, if the two are lovers and Phinora seized Ayra->Lex/Chulainn/Arden, if the two are lovers and Phinora seized Brigid->Alec/Jamke/Midir, if the two are lovers and Phinora seized

Chapter 6:

(Scathach/Ulster)/(Roddlevan/Dalvin)->Larcei/(Radney/Creidne), from start of chapter, Larcei/Creidne gains Lck+1 Lester/(Dimna/Deimne)->Lana/(Mana/Muirne), Lester/Deimne recruited, Lana/Muirne gains Lck+1 Oifey->Seliph, Oifey recruited Lana/Muirne->Julia, Julia recruited, Julia gains Mend staff Fee/(Femina/Hermina)->Seliph, Fee/Hermina recruited Arthur/Amid->Seliph, Arthur/Amid recruited Julia->Seliph, Isaach conquered, Julia gains Nosferatu tome (recommended) Julia->Seliph, Sophara conquered, Julia gains Aura tome Seliph->Lana/Muirne, Sophara conquered, +100 love points

Chapter 7:

Shannan->Patty/Daisy, from start of chapter, +100 love points and Shannan gains Balmung Oifey->(Dermott/Diarmuid)/Tristan, from start of chapter, Diarmuid/Tristan gains +1 Str/Skl/Def Seliph->Shannan, from start of chapter, Seliph gains +1 Skl Larcei/Creidne->Shannan, from start of chapter, +100 love points and Larcei/Creidne gains +2 Skl Patty/Daisy->Seliph, Yied/Aed is seized, +100 love points and Seliph gains Brave Sword Leif->Seliph, from start of chapter Diarmuid/Tristan->Nanna/Jeanne, from start of chapter, Nanna/Jeanne gains +1 Lck Ares->Seliph, Ares recruited Lene/Laylea->Seliph, Lene/Laylea recruited (Tine/Tinni)/Linda→Seliph, Tine/Linda recruited Finn→Nanna, if he is her father, Nanna gains +5 Spd Finn-> Lana, if he is her father, Lana gains +5 Mag Finn-> Larcei, if he is her father, Larcei gains +5 Skl

Chapter 8:

Julia->Seliph, at start of map, Seliph gains Lck+1 Arthur/Amid->Fee/Hermina, from start of map, +100 love points and Fee/Hermina gains +3 HP Finn->Leif, from start of map, Leif gains Str +3 Faval/Febail->Seliph, Febail recruited Seliph->Tine/Linda, Connacht seized, +100 love points and Tine/Linda gains +3 HP Nanna->Ares, Connacht seized, Nanna gains +2 Str/Def Ced->Seliph, Ced recruited with Lewyn as his father, Ced gains +3 Lck Fee/Hermina->Ced/Hawk, Ced/Hawk recruited, Fee/Hermina gains +1 Lck

Chapter 9:

Febail/Asaello->Patty/Daisy, from start of map, Patty/Daisy gains +1 Lck Patty/Daisy->(Coirpre/Cairpre)/(Sharlow/Charlot), Coirpre/Charlot recruited, +100 love points and Coirpre/Charlot gains +3 HP Seliph->Hannibal, Hannibal recruited Lene/Laylea->Coirpre/Charlot, Hannibal recruited, Coirpre/Charlot gains +1 Lck Julia->Seliph, Grutia seized, Seliph gains +3 Res Finn/Hannibal->Altena, Grutia seized, Altena gains +3 HP

Chapter 10:

Lester/Deimne->Patty/Daisy, from start of map, +100 love points and Patty/Daisy gains +3 HP Nanna/Jeanne->Leif, from start of map, +100 love points and Nanna/Jeanne gains +3 HP Shannan->Seliph, from start of map, Shannan gains +3 HP Febail/Asaello->Lana/Muirne, from start of map, +100 love points and Lana/Muirne gains +3 HP Oifey->Seliph, Chronos seized, Oifey gains +3 HP Leif->Altena, from start of map, Altena gains +1 Lck Seliph->Fee, Rados seized and Lewyn is her father, Fee gains Str +5 Seliph->Lene, Rados seized and Lewyn is her father, Lene gains Def +5 Seliph->Tine, Rados seized and Lewyn is her father, Tine gains Mag +5 Coirpre/Charlot->Altena, Miletos seized, Altena gains +5 Res

Epilogue:

Arthur/Amid->Tine/Linda, from start of map if neither has a lover, Tine/Linda gains Lck+1 Tine/Linda->Seliph/Ced/Hawk/Leif, if the two are lovers, Seliph/Ced/Hawk/Leif gains Mag+3 Patty/Daisy->Seliph/Shannan/Lester, if the two are lovers, Seliph/Shannan/Lester gains +3 HP/Spd Daisy->Deimne, if the two are lovers, Deimne gains +5 HP Jeanne->Leif, if Edda is seized and the two are lovers, Leif gains +5 HP Muirne->Asaello, if Edda is seized and the two are lovers, Asaello gains +5 HP Nanna/Jeanne->Seliph, if Edda is seized and the two are lovers, Seliph gains +3 HP Nanna->Ares/Leif, if Edda is seized and the two are lovers, Ares/Leif gains +3 Def Lana/Muirne->Seliph/Scathach/Dalvin, if Dozel is seized and the two are lovers, Seliph/Scathach/Dalvin gains +3 Res Lana->Febail, if Dozel is seized and the two are lovers, Febail gains +3 Res Larcei/Creidne->Seliph/Iuchar/Iucharba/Shannan, if Dozel is seized and the two are lovers, Seliph/Iuchar/Iucharba/Shannan gains +3 Str Fee->Oifey, if Friege is seized and the two are lovers, Oifey gains +3 Skl Fee/Hermina->Seliph/Arthur/Amid, if Friege is seized and the two are lovers, Seliph/Arthur/Amid gains +3 Skl

Section 9. Sticky Situations

9a. Large, Progressive Maps

Portions of the maps in Genealogy open up as you progress through them and seize castles. While this does lead to some impressive storytelling, it can also lead to you being caught in an unfortunate situation because you're halfway across the map for where some new event is happening. I call this a "sticky situation", and have provided hints for dealing with them below.

9b. Hints for Sticky Situations

Chapter 1. Leave a unit to guard your home castle. The young man won't attack the woman he saved, but his fellows will.

Chapter 2. The northeast passage will open when your lord is in the least convenient location for it. Consider preparing for the worst beforehand, and sending a particularly moralizing young artist home ahead of time.

Chapter 3. Be prepared for sneak attacks from the west and the north, again when you're in the most inconvenient location for them. Think of the feelings of your recently-recruited units about the ones closest to them- maybe communication is the answer.

Chapter 4. If you like money, don't abandon the northeast entirely when duty calls elsewhere. Just don't leave your best units there. It's only provincial. Thieves can pick any lock, even when it's that of a drawbridge. If one were to be raised, they could lower it in no time.

Chapter 5. Units will automatically equip plot-relevant weapons. Even if they're broken.

Chapter 6. Better movement options don't necessarily result in a better outcome. Weigh all the pros and cons first.

Chapter 7. Your unlucky number is one greater than the number of Crusaders. Get a move on! Pegasi are broadly applicable to understaffing situations.

Chapter 8. Just because someone doesn't have Pursuit doesn't mean they won't attack you twice. Use more reliable methods. Thieves work in exactly the same way when they're your enemies.

Chapter 9. Never trust convenient roads that you didn't ride in on. Keep your guard up at home.

Chapter 10. If you're not willing to abuse critical hits and avoid stacking in the face of insurmountable odds, you'll have to either make sacrifices or count tiles very precisely. Consider sending winged beasts as close as you can to the cliffs east of your homeland before arriving there yourself.

Epilogue. Keep the one who inherited a blessing they knew not of until recently close to home. If you give a sage a magic ring and the right tools to use it wisely, you might be able to minimize your distress from enemies who mirror their abilities in the final stages of the war. Beware movement ranges.

Section 10. Secret Events

10a. What Is A Secret Event?

Secret events are events that the game does not outright inform you will occur if you perform certain actions. Some of these events are meant to be easy to infer (the Not-So-Secret-Events) and some a player would only figure out by looking them up in the manual (the Truly Secret Events). The Not-So-Secret Events are highly recommended for all players to prioritize due to their notable gameplay impact, and are difficult to miss if you read every conversation. The Truly Secret Events are fun, but if you wish to stay as unspoiled as possible, consider skipping them.

10b. Not-So-Secret Events

Chapter 4: After seizing Silesse, have its heir enter it. They will receive an important item.

Epilogue: After seizing Velthomer, have the most recently recruited character enter it. They will receive an important item.

10c. Truly Secret Events

Chapter 1:

A. Have Lex wait on the marked spot with an Iron Axe equipped. A conversation will occur, and he will receive a Brave Axe.

Chapter 2:

A. Have Arden wait on the marked spot. If he does not have a lover, a conversation will occur, and he will receive the Pursuit Ring.

B. After capturing Heirhein, have a male character wait next to the neutral soldier just north of Evans castle for a conversation to occur.

Chapter 3:

A. Have Dew wait directly in front of Bragi Tower and he will receive the Wind Sword.

Chapter 4:

A. Prior to seizing Tófa/Thove, if neither Silvia, Lewyn, or Erinys have a lover, a conversation will occur if Silvia waits next to Erinys. Silvia will gain a large number of love points with Lewyn, while Erinys will gain a smaller number.

B. Have Silvia visit the second-most right-hand village on the map. An event will occur, and Silvia will receive the Safeguard/Defense Sword.

Chapter 5:

A. Have Arden wait on the marked spot. If he has a lover, he will gain 5 points of Skill.

Chapter 6:

A. Have Seliph visit the village directly northwest of Isaach castle, and a different conversation will occur than usual.

B. Before conquering Ganeishire, Lester, Deimne/Dimna, Diarmuid/Dermott/Delmud, or Tristan can speak to the neutral soldiers of Sophara or Isaach castle.

C. If Deimne enters Isaach castle, a conversation will occur, and his Strength will increase by 5 points.

D. If Johan/Iuchar or Johalva/Iucharba waits next to Radney/Creidne for 10 turns, a conversation will occur, and Creidne's Strength and Luck will increase by 2 and 3 points, respectively.

Chapter 7:

A. If Laylea visits one of the villages south of Leonster, a conversation will occur, and she will receive the Barrier Blade.

B. After the boss of Ulster castle has been defeated, if Daisy waits next to Shanan, a conversation will occur, and Daisy's Skill and Speed will increase by 3 points.

C. After Melgen has been seized, if Tristan and Roddlevan/Dalvin are both below level 10, having them wait next to each other will cause a conversation to occur and both of them to gain Strength +2 and Def +1; Tristan will gain Speed +1, while Dalvin will gain Defense +1.

Chapter 8:

A. If Fee waits on the marked location before the character guarding Munster castle is recruited, a conversation will occur.

B. If Linda waits on the left-hand marked spot, a conversation will occur, and she will gain Resistance +3. If Amid waits on the right-hand marked spot, a conversation will occur, and he will gain Resistance +3.

C. If Asaello visits the village northwest of Connacht, a conversation will occur and his Strength will increase by 3.

D. After Connacht has been seized, if neither Seliph nor Muirne/Mana have a lover, and if all characters recruited from chapter 6 onwards have survived so far, have Seliph wait next to Muirne. A conversation will occur, and Muirne will gain Luck +5.

Chapter 9:

A. If Hawk enters Luthecia, a conversation will occur, and he will gain +3 Magic and Resistance.

B. After Grutia is conquered, have Charlot/Sharlow wait next to Hannibal. A conversation will occur, and he will receive the Berserk staff.

C. If Femina/Hermina or Janne/Jeanne visits one of the northwest villages, a conversation will occur and she will gain +3 Defense.

Chapter 10:

A. If Seliph defeats the boss of the final castle and before seizing it waits next to the water on the beach below, something will happen.

[frauleinandry]

just finished the episode aigis dlc, and honestly...

just watch a FES cutscene compilation instead, imo.

long post of my specific thoughts under the cuts; it's not proofread, so read it at your own peril.

so, to start with, i've never played FES and the OG answer, but i pretty much knew all the rough sequences of events (along with the common fandom complaints) since i never bothered dodging persona spoilers when i was younger since i didn't think i'd ever get the chance to play the games.

one of the Big Problems most people seemed to have with the original version is that 90% of it is an unfun dungeon crawler, but i was pretty confident reload would fix that by sheer nature of it being reload. i mean, i loved the new tartarus gameplay loop - more of that sounds great!

except it wasn't. i couldn't figure out why at first - was it because of the reset levels, loss of the second theurgies/personality traits, or the lack of ambush mechanics i'd gotten used to? in part, yeah. i do think it would have been more enjoyable if you'd started at level 70 or so, and were at level 99 by the time the final boss rolls around. in normal persona games there's never any actual reason to get to that level after all unless you're playing some sort of challenge run.

but ultimately, i realised what the dungeon crawling segment lacked compared to tartarus. and that was a time limit. a huge part of newsona games is resource management. to optimise your time, you've got to complete as much of tartarus as you can whenever you go in. the full moon is constantly looming, and with it the end of your time in iwatodai.

episode aigis completely lacks that, however. there's no looming deadline hanging over you. you've got all the time in the world to tackle the abyss of time, and no stakes pushing you onward, nor any particular reward waiting for you at the end. the characters themselves treat exploring it as a chore once paulownia mall is unlocked, with good reason.

it also doesn't help that there's not much happening during that point of the game besides going through not-tartarus. the new conversations between aigis and SEES help, but there's no real change in the gameplay loop. you go to tartarus, see a figure that's clearly makoto but somehow no one puts two-and-two together, and get a flashback, rinse and repeat.

admittedly, there's no real fixing the lack of deadline issue. that's simply inherent with the premise. the makoto stuff, however, is a different thing. i love the resolution to it, with him being a proto-erebus (and everyone taking solace in seeing his face one more time again, even if they know it's not him - like argh). the lead up, however, is meh.

make it so SEES recognises him instantly - make it so they think he's the real deal, somehow returned to them from the past, but for some reason he's avoiding him all. make them gradually realise how odd that is (except for yukari and maybe aigis, who are in denial). make it so his appearance is what sends both of them spiralling for the next segment of episode aigis, the boss rush.

so, the SEES vs SEES match over the keys is something i like in theory. and i do like parts of it. i think junpei's character development shines through greatly here, along with some regression on yukari and akihiko's parts, which is also fabulous! like, this is some really solid conflict!

what i dislike, however, is the hackneyed 'if aigis loses her key she'll die!' storyline. it's just so... unnecessary? on that note, the loser-gets-turned-into-flames aspect from the colosseo purgatorio is also, uh, not fabulous, especially how metis springs it on aigis. it makes metis far too unlikable, and therefore completely sours the effect of her begging for aigis to be safe, because at that stage i had absolutely not forgiven her.

like, they simply could have had akihiko force aigis to fight since he realises she doesn't want to actually move forward into the future and he'd feel bad using her key for something she doesn't actually want. then, have it so metis was unaware of what the colosseum does to losers, which then make her realise (with fuuka confirming it) that it'll mix poorly with aigis multiple personas, preventing her from rematerialising properly if she loses.

i think the final nail in the coffin is that the bossfights are just... not fun? like, why the heck do akihiko and koromaru have counter skills. why are crit rates so nerfed if you're playing on hard. hell, i actually bumped the difficulty down to normal purely because the SEES team were absolute damage sponges, and i just got bored. i will say though, the way they actually use their theurgies was a nice touch!

this leads me to my biggest gripe with the DLC. i'd heard about it before i reached this point, which i think was for the best because it saved me an immeasurable amount of disappointment. namely WHY DID THEY NERF MITSURU'S MOTIVATIONS?! no, she did not make a promise to stay by each of her friend's sides if they're suffering. she made a promise to aid yukari specifically due to her gratitude over kyoto!! anyway, excuse me, i'm going to eat some drywall now.

i will say though that the erebus stuff all got my seal of approval. the final door was appropriately creepy (and the time travel to the final fight was a great way to introduce SEES to erebus), and generally, I have no complaints about the final fight.

my final issue with the DLC was the death fakeout for aigis at the end. it's just like the whole if-aigis-looses-her-key-she'll-die-for-real thing. like, the whole 'oh no, she's dead!', 'oh wait, she's fine!' thing is just. uuuuurgh. like, really, just have SEES worried for a moment when she doesn't wake up, and then have them realise using multiple personas just drained her battery lmao. same thing, but far less grating.

but yeah. anyway, very much a 4/10 experience, and a stark lesson as to why remakes that mirror their predecessors gameplay structure don't always work.

[notedchampagne]

hi hello augh i just read the unwanted guest (multiple times) and my mind is pretty much just a parade of agonized radio static

i surprisingly managed to avoid spoilers when the internet was going wild over it (besides some rather confusing albeit nicely drawn pinup art of Ianthe in a maid costume) until now, and now that i've read it you're the first person I thought of to tell because if it weren't snowing outside i'd literally go out to the wood pile and scream. please tell me i'm not alone this story did something to me, how do i put into words what the impact of the stage-direction narration was in particular.

MMM thank you for listening. i hope you've been having a good holiday season if you celebrate anything!!

i loved the unwanted guest!!! i cried for a straight hour reading it the first time and promptly avoided rereading it because i knew id cry again. anyway i Did reread it and i Did cry again. its a really lovely story it tugs at my heartstrings and it makes me want to die thanks. i love it so much. one day i want to write a similarly formatted dreambubble fic w the 69ers on this but thats for another day

thanks for asking i hope youre having a good week :]

[asheanon]

🌑 📖🐌 🌕 I woke up thinking about Fall To The Moon things again... Or rather, some particular Fall To The Moon things, which are actually Anthology of Anon things too! Fall To The Moon has just a bit of a wackier, alternate version of those things, really.

And in thinking about those things, I am also brought back to Blasphemous and its incredible soundtrack. 🖤

* In particular, this song came to mind! Without fail, every time, it makes me think about what is now a chunk of this particular story sequence (or an iteration of it) that is starting to come together a bit through these scribbles/WIPs...

(The song starts here.) *

(The quote goes here.) **

🤔 I know I've shared all of these scribbles and WIPs before, but as they accumulate, I like putting them all together as they really are like pieces to a puzzle! While they weren't all necessarily dedicated to the particular story sequence I have in mind, they are either a parallel or a symbolic representation of this specific sequence. 🎨🧩

This sequence (and things reminiscent to it) are practically a staple to not only my own mind (this sequence has been haunting me for years,) but Sal's (who's also been haunted by it for even more years!) Like, this is the recurring dream she has. The one to rule them all...!

⚠️ Not sure the "read more" will work on a post this long, so just a warning that below are FttM and Anon story spoilers. On the off chance you've managed to avoid them so far and want to continue doing so, just stop here! Haha!

The sequence: Sal finds Vance, knowing what has to be done. He must be dealt with, one way or another.

They take to the sky, their stage being the "Transcendent Moon," as it is called. In a way, they "fall to the moon" here. Vance turns to face her once again, offering this one single line:

** "Let us play this game that nobody wins."

And they fight. A fight that only that "moon" could withstand! Sal never "wins" this fight in the dream. She never "wins" this fight in reality, either. She "falls to the moon" here too, in that sense.

And so, the cycle repeats... And they both continue to "play this game that nobody wins..." 🌌

🐌 By the way, I've never known how this sequence actually ends as it really is just this tragic cycle with no end, to this day.

(Not that I haven't had thoughts on how it could! But none of them are set in stone like the sequence is. Fall To The Moon in particular has a thought, since it's an alternate telling. The original Anthology of Anon version remains at a stalemate, however.)

[humanoidalien27]

Alright, fixed. This is the right Chapter. 😂 Sorry about that.

Content warning: mentions of death, pain and slight game referencing and spoilers.

.....

Chapter 15

The curse of Woe

Arriving at the Ministry, you and Ominis we're met with Professor Fig and Sharp.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd both show up. Stephen and Richard told me Elizabeth stopped in to talk to you."

"Looking like me, that's very worrying," Fig added.

"No worse than me as Professor Black," you teased, getting Sharp and Ominis to look your way.

"Bubotuber puss and dittany, I should have known," Ominis mumbled, chuckling slightly.

Smirking, you changed the topic. "So, how's Anne?"

"I feel we're getting closer to a breakthrough. We managed to narrow it down to two different curses. Is there anything you've noticed about her side effects that could help us?"

"Yes, it's called Maledictio vae. Solomon knew the whole time what it was."

"How do you know?" Sharp asked, glancing between you and Ominis.

"He wrote it on a paper in his home," you answered, making Ominis stiffen slightly at the half lie. "He also knew it was Rookwood who cursed her."

"Hmm, this complicates matters," Fig mumbled, looking to Sharp.

"Why? You can reverse it, right?"

"This particular curse is one we haven't seen in a long time. It took us a while to hunt it down, but as far as we can tell, there is a way to reverse it, but it's not recorded," Sharp answered, his face remaining neutral.

"If it's that bad, how is it not recorded?" Ominis asked as you started to get a really bad feeling.

"It could have merely been lost to time, but with Rookwood knowing it, I have a feeling Charles would too," Fig mentioned, his eyes moving to you.

"You want me to break into Hogwarts in mid summer to ask?"

"Hardly," Sharp replied, giving you a look for suggesting such a thing with two professors in front of you. "You won't be breaking in. I've already informed Professor Weasley. Fig will apparate you to the school gates. We're taking great pains to keep this from the headmaster, so do try to avoid him."

Sighing, you rubbed your temples.

"Do you want me to go with?" Ominis asked.

"No, it's okay. You should be with Sebastian and Anne." He hesitated, but nodded as you moved over to Fig. "Be back soon."

He smiled just before Fig disapparated. The pull on top of the nerves almost made you feel sick.

Professor Weasley smiled at you as nearly tripped.

"I see you're studious. Don't seem to want to leave."

You nearly answered, but Professor Garlick raced over. "Professor Black is coming."

What horrible timing that man has, but at least he wasn't there when you arrived.

Fig spun towards you. "You go on ahead. Quickly before he sees you."

Not waiting to be told twice, you moved onto the school grounds and raced as fast as you could to reach the doors, slipping inside just before the headmaster could see you.

You didn't stop, not even when you came across Peeves who started floating beside you, taunting that he'd tell.

You just baited him by telling him to go ahead and do what he wanted, anything to get him to stop following you.

It worked. He went to go tell anyone who'd listen, but that was okay. The worst they could do was yell at you, maybe expell you.

The keepers weren't in their portraits, but calling their names, they moved into view.

"Isn't it still summer?" Percival asked, concern written all over their faces.

"Maledictio vae," you panted, hands on your knees. "Do you know how to remove it?"

You looked hopefully up at Charles, but saw everyone's faces darken.

"Why are you asking about this?" San Bakar asked, still suspicious of you.

"My friend, Anne was cursed with it by Victor Rookwood. Please, if you know anything-"

"That magic is dangerous and wildly unstable," Charles mentioned.

Well, obviously you considered that being it was a "curse", but you weren't going to point that out and push your luck.

"Please? I don't want to watch her die and I don't want to turn to dangerous magic like Isadora. Please help me."

You watched as they did their best to glance at each other.

"The curse of woe was born from a witch with powerful magic, hurt by one she took as a lover. She created it so he would feel her pain. It went wrong and he died from experiencing the pain from anyone in the area," Percival answered, making the pit in your stomach grow. "Only powerful magic can remove it and contain it."

"Like Isadora's emotional psycho ball of pain?"

"The very same," Niamh admitted. "Though it wasn't born of ancient magic, so doing this could be potentially lethal to you, especially if that powerful magic attaches itself to you."

"But Isadora stole every emotion from the people she used this magic on, how do I avoid that?"

"Which is why we shouldn't be entertaining this idea," San remarked, drawing your gaze. "She's walking the same dangerous path."

"She's not removing her pain, just access to everyone else's, which is the source of the curse," Percival replied, getting Charles and Niamh to nod. "If you recall, we have pulled a few from people too. We were quite a bit older and more advanced however."

You felt pressure weigh on your shoulders making it harder to breathe.

"It's too close to-"

Percival sighed softly. "We can't stop her from trying and there is a distinct difference between taking someone's pain and pulling a curse from a body."

You looked at San. "I do understand why you don't like me asking about this and I wouldn't have if my friend wasn't dying from it. I understand that people's pain makes them who they are, even if sometimes they shouldn't go through it, but she's not just living with her own now."

San fell silent as Charles gave a soft chuckle. "She has a compassionate heart and knows the boundaries well. There is no reason to stop her from trying."

Niamh smiled when San nodded. "It's best to do that here where you can store it with the repository."

"This will not be an easy task," San mentioned strongly. "Even in our time, it wouldn't remove itself willingly and almost always went wrong, resulting in the death of the one attempting it."

"What about risk to Anne?"

He blinked as if he wasn't expecting you to ask.

"The curse will try to hold on, she will need to be willing to let it go," Niamh answered gently.

The door opened loudly, making you whirl around seeing Fig rushing over. "Professor Black's on the look out for you, we have to go."

Nodding you moved over to the passage to San Bakar's tower and opened it, slipping through with Professor Fig.

"Did you get the answers you needed?"

"Yes and it's not good."

As you recounted everything you learned since parting with the Sallow twins, they stared at you, not even bothering to read the diary. Though at the mention of Anne's curse, Sebastian looked hopeful.

"So, I'm feeling the bad emotions of those around me?" She asked cutting over you before you could bring up the probability San told you about.

"And it projects into physical pain?" Sebastian glanced around the room at everyone.

"Any pain in the vicinity, emotional or physical," you clarified.

"Did they say you can remove them? Like Isadora did?"

You had to keep yourself from flinching. "Let's not forget she stole all emotions from them, not just pain," you said pacing.

"Can you?" He asked again, leaning forward in his chair.

"Charles said it's old powerful magic." You began to wring your hands, trying to put the words together the best you can. "And only another powerful magic can remove it."

"You have that ancient magic thing. We saw you contain it before it tore the school down," he said climbing to his feet to moved closer.

"You seem to be forgetting that magic like this always comes at a cost Sebastian." Ominis mentioned, drawing everyone's attention. "Two powerful magics fighting, I can't imagine it's going to be simple or easy."

Of course Ominis would see more than what you put forward. A consequence of hiding the truth from him for too long.

"No, it's not," you admitted, your stomach turning as you grew too close to the truth, but you couldn't bring yourself to tell them seeing hope in the Sallow twins eyes. "We have to do this in the caverns under Hogwarts so I can store the curse in with Isadora's stolen emotions."

Ominis twitched his brow as his eyes stared your way. Even if he couldn't see you, it felt like he could see through you.

"Sneaking into places is something of a pass time of mine," Sebastian teased before he turned to face Anne. "We can cure you. I was right!"

She laughed as her brother hugged her, the smiles on their faces were happy and carefree.

The image was enough to tell you that you did the right thing. Anne never would have agreed if she knew the truth.

"Well, I'm going to get some food. I haven't eaten in a while and running made me hungry."

You moved to leave, being carefully calculative about how fast or slow you walked so as to not let Ominis catch on more than he had.

"Hey," Sebastian called, getting you to look over your shoulder at him. "Thank you."

Smiling, you nodded as you left.

Instead of going to get food, you sat in one of the windows overlooking the adults busying themselves with their daily work.

"I thought you were going to get food," Ominis said coming over, frowning when he made you jump. "You know they only believed your lie because they're desperate. What is the true cost? If you don't tell me, I will tell them my worries."

It was too good to be true thinking he wouldn't catch on despite your efforts.

You sighed, your eyes never leaving the window. "Do I win your silence if I tell you?"

"Possibly," he replied and noticed after a moment that he wasn't getting an answer without it. "Fine, yes. I won't say a word."

You couldn't look his way as you fought the growing pit in your stomach.

"It could be potentially fatal," you whispered, the words making it feel real. "For me."

He half sat, half fell into the seat beside you. "You have to tell them. You can't exchange your lives-"

You caught his arm as he moved to get up. "You couldn't see it, but they were happy. For the first time since I've met them, they were hopeful. I'm not about to destroy that. Besides, it COULD be lethal. It's not a guarantee, like it would be if I didn't do anything."

He sat back beside you, a mixture of emotions fighting for a spot on his face.

"I don't like this," he replied after a moment. "But, I know I can't change your mine. Though, just so we're clear, I'll never forgive you if you die."

You moved to rest against him, feeling him set his head against yours as he enveloped you in his arms.

"I can't imagine those keepers were happy about you asking about this."

"No, but this is similar to breaking a curse that people do normally."

His frown deepened. "If it was, you wouldn't need to do it. The Ministry has plenty of curse breakers." He tightened his hold as he sighed heavily.

"Do you think I'm following Isadora's path?"

"No, I can see how it parallels, but a curse isn't the same as stealing emotions. But, you can't blame me for worrying."

He pressed his head further into yours, before his eyes closed as he tried to keep his fear locked tightly behind his lips.

.....

Chapter list can be found on the master post, you can find here, if you're interest or missed a few chapters.

Thank you for reading and I apologize for the technical issues.

[afniel]

Tears of the Kingdom and early Metroid games share SO much design DNA. Especially in the Depths, but just in general.

Mild spoilers re: the Depths atmospheric design basically and the intro sequence of the game, nothing plotty, but I'll put it under a cut in case you've been avoiding everything about it until you can play it yourself. Which I recommend, it's SO good blind.

You're exploring a vast, oppressively dark, alien space, cavernous and claustrophobic in equal measure. There are signs of past civilization in the existence of cyclopean stone and metal megastructures, the exact function of which is hard to imagine from where you are now, and they bring you no comfort. There's very little music, but a lot of strange, echoing, disconcerting sounds. Are they a threat? Are they just background noise? Who knows. The landscape doesn't care about you. It is essentially inimical to your existence. You are small, alone, and uninvited, and anything could be lurking in the echoing blackness. Over time, you find hidden items, overcome bizarre creatures, grow in strength, and your forays become a little less sweaty-palmed...but not completely.

Okay, am I describing Metroid 1 and 2, or the Depths? Both? Both. Both is good.

For as much as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom riff off the first few Zelda games, with their sense of open-ended adventure and ability to do things in whatever order you can physically manage, TotK in particular draws a huge chunk of its design from the first several Metroid games; mostly 1 and 2, somewhat Super Metroid (which is in fact subtitled as Metroid 3, though nobody really calls it that, because it was in the era of titling everything Super because, you know, Super Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System).

The design cues they use to create a feeling of dread and fear in the Depths are basically one-to-one the same, just expanded on since the Switch has more capability to do so. Black is used heavily as a background color. On the NES, this was a limitation turned into a design feature; on the Switch, this is a very intentional decision. It's not just dark, it's pitch-black, and the drifting patches of fog and particles add to that feeling by showing you the vaguest dimensions of the open space yawning before you, but nothing else. The feeling of the darkness pressing in on you in a very visceral way is increased even further by the use of an extremely clever low-light shader that actually replicates how humans see in low light: we have far more rods, which detect contrast, than cones, which detect color, and our very low light vision is almost colorless as a result. Find a dark corner of the Depths and wander into it, and you'll see the saturation of your surroundings do the same. It's not even a simple desaturation filter, either! The contrast of the textures around you will actually increase as the overall light level drops. Certain colors will persist a little longer than others, which is true in human vision too. It's IMPRESSIVE. They very much did their homework to make the darkness feel like a physical presence.

The music is in the same vein as well. It's discordant, unsettling, and sparse enough that you can't readily pin down any sort of beat, with non-tonal flourishes like a jagged-sounding burst of bass. And it echoes forever. It feels like the Depths look: not necessarily malicious, but inhospitable, and incompatible with surface life. In the areas that do have recognizable music, it's somber and distant, and still very much discomforting.

Much like any of the early Metroid games (and many of the following ones), the scenery is largely organic, punctuated by constructions of mostly unknown function. You do of course have the benefit of some place names; this is a mine, that's a processing center of some kind, et cetera. But they still don't look like any kind of facility we might recognize without that prompt. Despite being mainly natural, though, it's designed after no nature we know, and once you shed some light on things, it's no less alien. Plants are blue and pink and gray, stone is yellow and white. The quality of the light is bioluminescent except for directly under activated lightroots. It could just as easily be an entire other planet down there. There's even a superheated area that you need specific armor to navigate, not unlike Norfair...and just like Norfair, if you're feeling adventurous and know what you're doing, you can entirely skip that armor and navigate without it.

This is all without getting into the obvious part where Link is alive because of an alien graft, from a dead race, which interfaces with their lost technology and gives him extraordinary abilities and upgrades. Samus has this same plot beat exactly, only hers is some kind of Chozo modification in her backstory rather than a limb replacement, and later in Metroid Fusion, a literal dose of metroid DNA that transfers some of their absorption abilities and cold weakness to her. Link and Samus could form the most strangely specific support group ever.

Also, the music that plays when you're being spoken to by a shrine is very, very much like any of the Metroid riffs (especially in Super Metroid) that play when you pick up items or load a save file. There's not as much to say there, because my ear is not good enough to try and compare the chord structure, but it's audible even without that so it's whatever.

Anyway yeah I've spent way too much time thinking about this, which is probably obvious lol. But I was REALLY excited when it suddenly clicked for me what the Depths reminded me of, and the more I compared TotK and the Metroid series, the more I realized they shared in design, and I'm a design nerd so now I'm making it everyone's problem. Hopefully it's interesting to others! And also if I missed anything you caught, or you've got a different take on it, don't be shy about adding to reblogs, I love discussing this stuff and I will absolutely not be upset if you saw something else instead. I think that's cool and I want to hear about it! There's so much going on with this game that there's no one right interpretation, especially for something like world design elements, and I love it to death for that.

[vegvisirsofthegalaxy]

[Holorecording] - Turmoil

This recording encapsulates a meeting between Darth Marr and Darth Merphis, taking place in the aftermath of the grand oration delivered by Darth Marr to dispel the rumors spread by Darth Archassein.[Caution: Spoiler Alert - Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers.]

[After exchanging words with a few acquaintances, Darth Merphis decides to retreat to a secluded corner, seeking a moment of solitude with a goblet of wine in her hand. As she strolls toward the corner, she accidentally crosses paths with Darth Marr and his apprentice Lord Hateon. Unfazed, Darth Merphis approaches the two, leaving Khem Val stationed nearby on vigilant guard, ready to act upon her command.]

Darth Marr: "Cease not until their eradication is absolute."

Lord Hateon: "Of course my lord."

[Seeing Darth Merphis approach, Lord Hateon acknowledges her presence with a slight nod—a subtle yet significant show of respect, before he tactfully retreats, leaving the two alone, surrounded by the ambient murmur of the chamber. As Lord Hateon withdraws, Darth Marr, in a subtle yet perceptible shift, eases into a more relaxed seated pose in the absence of prying eyes.]

Darth Merphis: "A compelling oration you delivered in the assembly. Yet, it does not escape my notice that even afterwards, a handful of Moffs sought audience, eager to express their feigned loyalty and curry favour for your ascension as... our new Emperor."

Darth Marr: "The folly of their actions shall dawn upon them shortly."

Darth Merphis: "What is the state of Illum? I trust Hateon has brought the situation under perfect control after the traitors were swiftly and ruthlessly subdued. All thanks to that child."

Darth Marr: "Let us not disregard the fact that the very reason for our presence here, expending our time, is also due to that same 'child'—the one you recommended I should place my trust in." [Extends his datapad towards Merphis] "Read this."

Darth Merphis: [Her eyes move through Archassein's letter meticulously before they meet Marr's behind his imposing mask again] "While certain accusations may seem unfounded, I do acknowledge that he presented valid points. Ultimately, it was your initial disrespect toward his master and himself that triggered this conflict."

Darth Marr: "I merely spoke the truth."

Darth Merphis: "A truth that may lead you into inescapable turmoil in due course."

Darth Marr: "So be it."

[Leaning against the wall with a certain nonchalance, Darth Merphis takes another sip of the wine in her hand, with its sweet scent gradually weaving into the dimly lit corner. Even behind the impassive mask, there's an imperceptible shift in the atmosphere that suggests Darth Marr is frowning.]

Darth Marr: "You've indulged yourself more than excessive."

Darth Merphis: "I demand a moment of distraction, as, for the sake of a particular someone in front of me, I find myself in a situation where I have to swiftly reallocate scholars and engineers from Kaas—resources we are already stretched thin for—while concurrently managing the Dwarf Galaxy Project."

Darth Marr: "Even so, remain vigilant. This is a critical moment for both us and the Empire. As you have undoubtedly observed, rumors propagated with unexpected speed this time. There is likely an adept strategist among us who's in favorable terms with that man, proficient in the subtle arts of dissemination."

Darth Merphis: "Are you suggesting Vowrown's involvement?" [As she redirects her gaze towards Vowrown, who commands attention in the bustling crowds, a light chuckle escapes her] "At the very least, he provided some entertainment for this assembly with his fine selection of wines."

[An imperceptible shift in the undercurrents of the Force suddenly catches Darth Marr's attention—it's from Darth Merphis.]

Darth Marr: "I sense there's another matter occupying your thoughts. Speak."

Darth Merphis: "Oh? Pray, elucidate what you sensed."

Darth Marr: "Sorrow, confusion, disappointment, and—" [Exhibits a subtle pause, with a sense of disbelief] "A seed of distrust directed at me." [In a sudden realization, he connects the dots regarding Khem Val's vigilant presence nearby] "I see now. The Wrath, once more."

Darth Merphis: "Rest assured, I have not unquestioningly accepted his words. Yet, as Sith, strife courses naturally through our veins..." [Lifts the glass to her lips and sips the last drop of wine] "There may come a day when you seek my life. The reasons elude me, but if ever that day dawns, I trust that you would confront me openly with honour."

Darth Marr: [In a decisive motion, he rises from his seat] "That day shall never come."

Darth Merphis: "What makes you so certain of that?"

Darth Marr: "See it for yourself."

[In an unexpected and forceful gesture, Darth Marr seizes Darth Merphis' hand, guiding it to press against the cold, unyielding surface of his chest piece. The pulse beneath her hand echoes with a torrent of feelings—the pride borne from countless battles, the unwavering loyalty toward the Empire, the seething hatred directed at her enemies, and...

A few minutes later, after ensuring that Darth Merphis glimpses what he wished to reveal, Darth Marr finally releases his firm grip on her hand.]

Darth Merphis: [Instinctively withdraws a step, creating a subtle distance between them] "You..."

Darth Marr: [Resumes his seat with a stoic movement, his gaze instead fixated on the platform where he recently delivered the oration, as if their exchange, the glimpse into his heart, was nothing more than a fleeting illusion] "Now that it has come to this, leave with the assurance that I shall never betray our alliance. Our work is far from complete, and..." [His voice, already a commanding presence, becomes lower and more resonant] "Whatever you have just glimpsed within, let us never speak of it again."

Darth Merphis: "Agreed."

Subject: Memento

From: Darth Archassein the Wrath

To: Darth Marr

Hey babyboy,

By the time you read this, Makeb will be a ghost town… with not a single imperial nor mercenary and certainly none of Makeb's natives will be in the damn planet. You have exactly one rotational cycle of Makeb to find a full team to run the whole planet, the drills, the lasers and how to keep the planet from falling apart and of course… extract the damned Isotope-5.

Don’t worry cutie, I have left all manners of instructions on how to run everything, including from the engineers of Makeb. You’re in good hand… well unless you think I don’t know my shit, in which case you are free to figure your shit out yourself.

Now, Makeb had 3 mercenary leaders outside of the Hutt Archon, who helped me in not only keeping the secrets of the planet but also get the citizens of Makeb off the planet.

Oh and how can I forget the team you sent on a "suicide mission" with not only inadequate but inaccurate intel and yet you had the audacity to blame the team…

But you see, what I did was, treat these people with respect. A little respect, some promises and of course… actually cared for and saved their lives.

Now if you're guessing why I did what I did, well while you're busy trying to land on Makeb or trying to find people to replace the ones you… fumbled, you will find that there are your holorecordings being played all over the galaxy, especially in Dromund Kaas and Korriban where the news is… you did this mission not simply to thwart the Hutts and the Republic but to enforce your first duty as the new Emperor, the Shadow Emperor. Which is apparently is part of your plan to secretly become the new emperor while still pretending to be loyal to our Emperor. Quite the interesting plan you have made, babe!

I mean seriously? Letting your own Emperor be killed by aiding the Republic Jedis of all people so they can safely enter Kaas City and kill the Emperor and then killing 3 other planets simply because they were loyal to the Emperor and found out your treachery? That's cruel even for a guy like me. Can’t believe you're doing all this and going on and on about how "no one would mourn the Emperor".

Oh and don't worry, aside from the holorecordings, the mercenaries, the Makeb citizens, will all be spreading news of your ironfist action on Makeb. How you personally killed countless people solely out of pure rage and vainglory. How the very few who lived, lived only and only because the generous Wrath of the Empire wants them to live because he believes in a welcoming and merciful Empire where passion and generosity flourishes. How the Wrath did all he could to keep the planet alive but the Shadow Emperor Marr still destroyed the planet and worst of all, brutally murdered the Hutts, one of the Archons of the Hutts too? Yeah I am sure the Hutts on Nar Shaddaa won’t like the new Shadow Emperor whatsoever…

I mean think about it… I befriended them, ensured friendship with them in Nar Shaddaa, promised a prosperous relationship in trade and you did this. Yikes…

So now, the galaxy, the Siths, the Hutts, countless others are talking about you, Darth Marr. How you planned and allowed the Emperor to die by Jedi hands and how you devasted 3 planets to ensure the plan doesn't leak. How you further destroyed Makeb out of pure spite and how you openly hate and desecrated the treaty with the Hutts on Nar Shaddaa and is currently but secretly, the Emperor of the Sith Empire.

So yeah… save your Isotope-5 fast but also try to fix all these. Don't worry, it shouldn’t take longer than a week for you, as you yourself said, "in a week…"

And once you’re done, remember this and remember well… I have people… I have my mind and as someone who singlehandedly won 3 planets for the Empire (meanwhile you lost 3), I have allies… powerful allies. After all, my master was… Baras and you all know if it wasn’t for me, he'd be the current Voice and kicking all your arses now.

I killed Baras, Vengean, won you planets, got you your damned Isotopes and have only gained power and alliance in my time.

So I will be around, and you will see me. In fact, you will have need of me… oh yes. And when you do… next time, kindly remember to treat me with proper respect. Or else… next time, it won't just be rumours and Hutts on your ass.

I wonder how the Emperor will deal with your arse when he actually does show up.

Peace out bitch, Darth Archassein the Vicious.

P.S. I sent you one, of the few holorecordings that’s playing around the galaxy. Long live the Shadow Emperor!

[grayintogreen]

LitMoR Original Character Guide

FINALLY a guide to the massive amount of OCs featured in LitMoR. Despite how big this is, this doesn't contain every goddamn character in my expanded universe, just the ones that have appeared multiple times, have a significant impact on the narrative/world, or because I just wanted to throw them in because you've probably seen them in OTHER works of mine and maybe you'd like to know a bit more about them.

This list doesn't include characters like Ishel, Nima, the Jagentoths, and any other character I took straight from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Those are Canon OC's and while I have thoughts on all of them that goes beyond little blurbs in a book that doesn't make them mine.

I have also avoided MOST spoilers for the entirety of LitMoR but there still are some.

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO: THE LIST.

Sharna Abegno Female shadow elf, Paladin (Oathbreaker)

A member of the Seven, a cult dedicated to Tharizdun, descended from its original priests in the Calamity, she left the cult at a young age to become a Raven Queen paladin. After an incident at sea, she was keelhauled and left to die in the waters of Lucidian Ocean, eventually washing up on Rumblecusp where she took the name Rosaline after her memory was taken. Close to a fragment of Tharizdun, she returned to her family's old god due to the influence of the corruption once she could recall her origins.

Narcissa “Agee” Ageratum Female firbolg, Rogue (Thief) After exhibiting a series of troubling unchildlike behaviors when she was six that she can’t fully remember but were considered ill omens by her tribe, Agee was left in the care of a shopkeeper in Nogvurot and was “communally raised” by various locals who looked after her for ten years before she began to have strange dreams that exacerbated a sense of anxiety around the Righteous Brand. Fighting off her own growing anxiety with kleptomania, she began to alienate her adopted family and when she was all set to run away, she was approached by members of a Kryn party looking for their own people in the Empire. Believing that she might finally understand her strange dreams, she went with them but panicked and robbed them in the night.

Ashley Allard Male human, Paladin (Oath of Treachery) The youngest child of Yves Allard of Nicodranas and his late wife, Ashley was born into privilege and immediately found it to be a complete bore. Through a series of cutthroat victories, he stole the Blade of Broken Mirrors and the title of Champion of Tharizdun from his uncle Alder. As a paladin, Ashley has a strong personal code, despite the atrocities he’s willing to commit to get what he wants, and believes very strongly in his objectives to the point of playing long games for years to reach what he believes to be his magnum opus.

Yves Allard Male human, noble Ashley’s father and a founding member of the Court of Nightmares, alongside Rinna Pathan and her patron. As the eldest member of the Allard family, he maintains the family’s massive shrine to Tharizdun in the basement of his manor in Nicodranas, though he has no particular interest in the Epoch of the Ends and prefers to use his family’s old money to feed his obsession with the Calamity and indulge his own cruelty. He uses his considerable connections to gather members of the Court for Rinna.

Calpurnius Amabilia Male aasimar, Bard (College of Whispers) Cal is an immigrant into Aeor from the floating island of Zemniaz, who managed to excel quickly through the ranks in Cognouza by being extremely good at finding and keeping secrets. Using his quick wit and charm, he maintained personal relations between Cognouza and the other wards as “Cognouza’s voice,” but when Cognouza was shut out, he turned his attentions to spycraft, instead. Cal is known more for his compassionate nature and easy-going charisma more than anything, but he is absolutely ruthless when that which he loves is threatened.

Levitica Arrenhall Female elf, Cleric (Twilight Domain) The High Priestess of the Midnight Vertex and one of the Dawn Marshalls of Vasselheim. It is said she saw the construction of the first Moonweaver temple in Vasselheim and will not die until it crumbles to dust. She considers herself a mother to all those who find themselves in her temple and guides them like a shepherd as an extension of Sehanine’s will.

Seneca Candidus Male elf, Wizard (Order of Scribes) A vocal philosopher who developed a reputation among the wards of Aeor for outlandish ideas on the belief of manifestation and higher achievement through dreams, which were considered particularly backwards in a city on the cutting age of advancements in arcane sciences. After becoming the head of Cognouza, he gathered like-minded debaters and scholars and scientists who were outcasts in their own right and formed the Somnovem.

Tacitus Camillus Male human, Wizard (School of Enchantment) Before coming to Aeor, Tacitus was lord over a small community on an island in the Lucidian Ocean that he attempted to manipulate into a perfect society where everyone lives up to their exact potential, after becoming disillusioned with the majority of societies within Domunas. When his attempts to mind control the masses led to a series of misfortunes, he covered up his mistake and fled to Aeor where he was readily accepted into Cognouza as a Lorekeeper, leaving nothing behind but his guilt. Calculated and manipulative as well as charming, Tacitus often assuages his own guilt by placing the blame on others, instead. It’s often said that he cares more about preserving history and leaving something behind that future generations will find pleasing than he cares about the present.

Gertrude Blakenship Female aasimar, Bloodhunter (Order of the Mutant) The current head of the Order of the Mutant in Wildemount. Gertrude is an anxious, spacey woman who compensates for her shortcomings by crafting elaborate mutagens, preferring ones that increase her strength and make her a menace in hand to hand combat.

June Blessedthane Female dwarf, Bloodhunter (Order of the Lycan) A boisterous werewolf who runs the Order of the Lycan compound in Trostenwald. Primarily jovial and easy to get along with she has no patience for any lycanthrope who gives her Orders a bad name and has mercilessly killed her own students for even showing the potential to go rogue.

Melancholia Cheveron Female human, Druid (Circle of Spores) Huron Stahlmast’s childhood friend and eventual lover. Despite coming from two entirely different worlds, Melancholia’s devotion to Stahlmast allowed her to overlook his obsession with industrializing Wildemount, which he often promised her would be used towards reclaiming the land for her and her people, long wiped out by Hupperdook’s advancement and constant encroaching upon the mountain. Whether or not it was true, Melancholia believed it wholeheartedly and therefore supported him in everything he chose to do, often defending him publicly when the rest of Hupperdook shunned his ideas, which further othered her as an outsider and left her with no one else but her long time friend.

Wake Dashwood Female dwarf, Ranger (Horizon Walker) A follower of Sehanine and friend/daughter figure to Levitica, Wake acts as a go-between for the Midnight Vertex and the rest of Vasselheim as the clergy rarely, if ever, come down off the mountain. She knows the Vesper Timberlands like the back of her hand and runs with a group of rangers called the Riftkeepers who keep an eye out for extraplanar threats to Vasselheim.

Balbus Delphina Male human, Wizard (School of Divination) A former member of the Hall of Prophecy in Avalir, Balbus washed out when his visions became too much for him to handle and he no longer wished to serve as an oracle. Knowing this would bring shame to his family, he fled to Aeor where he studied under Seneca in dream-based magic, at first, and then eventually turning to astronomy after discovering a love of the stars, though he could never properly escape his visions.

Antioch Dodger Male elf/halfling, Bard (College of Glamour) The “Beggar Lord” of Shadycreek Run, Dodger developed a reputation among the Tribes when he created his own tribe consisting of the cast-off children of the working girls, which he eventually expanded into various other orphans that the slavers couldn’t catch. Thanks to his skill with illusions, he managed to obtain enough blackmail material on the tribes to keep himself in enough standing to provide his own form of service, until he was as much a staple in the Run as anything else. It’s said that he makes deals with things far more dangerous than simple crime lords.

Heather Dougal Female human, commoner A staple of Shadycreek Run, Heather Dougal has been surviving on sheer grit and kindness for sixty years, despite the town trying to drag her down. She saved Ophelia Khar from succumbing to injuries and illness when she first came to the Run and helped her eventually become Jack Mardoon’s heir. In return, Ophelia left her infant son Lucien in her care.

Fergus Dougal Male human, commoner Heather’s deaf-mute husband and a talented fisherman and woodcarver.

Eda Female human, Artificer (Artillerist) No one in Hupperdook can exactly tell you where Eda came from, only that she turned up as Nima Cinnarid’s protege some years ago and has been building more and more terrifying cannons ever since. When Lance, Fayne, and Obsidian settled in town, she declared herself a member of their group. The trio have accepted her over time, even going as far as to call themselves the Clockwork Hounds after her automaton dog, Auto.

Faint Chance Male tabaxi, Bard (College of Eloquence)/Rogue (Thief) A member of the Rifenmist Jungle-based Briskmist Clan, Chance believed he was born for more than simply languishing in the trees and spent considerable amounts of time taking risks by engaging travelers who came through the jungle for stories- risks that earned him his name. His love of a good gamble and a better yarn led him to Byroden where he developed a lust for both card games and music. A wandering bard trained him up enough that he felt capable of taking his skills on the road and he left his home to see the world and seek out more stories.

Gabriel Ferreira Male black dragonborn, Warlock (Pact of the Talisman) A member of the mysterious "Seven" along with Ashley Allard and Jayne Merriweather and captain of the Feywild Delight. Gabriel originally hailed from the Rifenmist Peninsula to a nomadic tribe until his pirate father returned to claim the son that one of the women had borne, slaughtering them all when she refused to give him up. His father taught him piracy, which he continued long after his father died, eventually taking on a ship staffed entirely by fey after an encounter in the Feywild no one really knows the truth about.

Augusta Felice Trans female half-elf, Wizard (School of Conjuration) A former Genesis Ward arcane scientist, Augusta became the Architect Arcane of Cognouza after being humiliated at a conference by Laerryn Corramar-Seelie who held many of the same theories as she did about extraplanar travel. Unable to prove whether or not her work came first, Augusta was laughed out of the Genesis Ward and taken in by Seneca Candidas where he allowed her room to build a machine capable of transporting Cognouza to the Astral Sea.

Claudia Felice Female half-elf, Artificer (Armorer) Augusta’s twin sister and the meeker of the two Felice twins, Claudia prefers to exist in her sister’s shadow, though she is a considerable scientist in her own right, having been responsible for the Aeormaton sleeper assassins that the Genesis Ward took full credit for after she was banished to Cognouza with her sister because she refused to denounce her. Claudia is one of the only Somnovem who is well-liked by nearly every single one of her peers due to her lack of guile and ambition, though her inability to ever see when Augusta might be wrong about something has led her to butt heads with Balbus, specifically, quite often. She prefers the company of her Aeormaton “babies” more than she does other people besides Augusta.

Fayne Hart Female elf, fighter (gunslinger) Born in Syngorn, Fayne left after robbing the home of a minor lord and spent the next several years of her life as a casual cat burglar. She met Lance and Obsidian in Kymal by insisting they help her with a casino heist that would mutually benefit all three of them, but when the plan went sour and not a one of them got what they wanted, she tagged along with them, much to their immediate disdain.

Stasya Hydriss Female tiefling, Druid (Circle of the Moon) Daughter of Kashaw Vesh and Zahra Hydriss. Stasya acts as an acolyte and “assistant” for the Voice of the Tempest of the Air Ashari in Zephrah, offsetting Keyleth’s kindness with her bossy, brash nature. She is her father’s favorite even if he insists he doesn’t pick favorites.

Tasya Hydriss Female tiefling, Monk (Way of the Cobalt Soul) Daughter of Kashaw Vesh and Zahra Hydriss and younger twin of Stasya. Despite having a vested interest in the arcane, Tasya has no inherent magical talent nor any real knack for picking it up and therefore has devoted her life to the study of it. Her ability to see through deceptions and understand magic has made her an asset in detaining illegal arcane magic users in Vasselheim and because of this, she was made the personal warden of Gulliver Thurston. Unlike her grumpier sister, she is bubbly and excitable, which comes as a surprise to anyone who knows her solely by reputation.

Spurius Juventus Male elf, Artificer (Alchemist) As an alchemy savant, Spurius was one of the first to be picked as a member of the Somnovem with Seneca Candidas citing his skill with potions as a necessary part of his plans to achieve power through manifestation and dreams. On top of numerous other advancements in alchemy, Spurius created a potion that helped promote lucid dreaming that helped the Somnovem learn to harness the aether of the Astral Sea long before they ever planned to set foot there. Despite his skills, Spurius is considered off-putting to anyone outside of the Somnovem due to his poor social skills and intensity about his work.

Tyne Kerthis Female dragonborn, cleric (Knowledge Domain) The High Curator of the Cobalt Vault in Vasselheim. Tyne runs a tight ship despite her gregarious and jovial nature, though some question her desire to rehabilitate criminals such as Gulliver Thurston out of a desire to not waste their knowledge. On top of being a dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, she is a loving wife and aunt to her sister-in-law’s multiple children.

Bastian Klinger Male human, Wizard (School of Necromancy) A nobleman from Nogvurot, Bastian Klinger attended the Academy while Delilah Briarwood was still Archmage of Antiquity and became one of her star pupils. Delilah’s casual interest in necromancy inspired him and after she was cast out, he left the Academy and began to pursue his own necromancy experiments, which eventually attracted the attention of Rinna Pathan who was building up the Court of Nightmares. At the suggestion of her patron Ira Wendagoth, Rinna encouraged Klinger to create creatures that were a fusion of living and dead flesh that could withstand divine magic. The task became his obsession, squandering a chunk of his fortune in the pursuit of it.

Cassia Livio Female human, Wizard (School of Necromancy) An arcane scientist of considerable clout and even more considerable attitude, Cassia was shunned in her home ward for her violent outbursts and extremely outspoken beliefs in the science of divinity and how precisely one could extract essence of Fate from those who were said to be Fate-Touched. Her cruel methods and outlandish theories and philosophies led her to be scouted by Seneca Candidas to become one of the Somnovem, though she admits to only being part of the cabal out of a lack of any choice, as Seneca is more than willing to support her extremely brutal experiments.

Lydas Male halfling, Warlock After being shipwrecked on the island of Rumblecusp as a teenager, Lydas quickly rose to the ranks of leadership through cuttthroat ambition and a not insignificant amount of prodding from the corrupting forces of the island.

Miriam Marchen Female human, Wizard (School of Divination) Trent Ikithon’s annex and one of the first Volstrucker and the longest surviving member of Trent’s original experiments, Miriam earned the nickname Dornroschen after she killed her parents in her sleep as part of her initiation. She is considered an “imperfect” experiment due to lacking some of the refinement of the later Volstruckter, though she makes up for it in sheer loyalty and tenacity.

Joni Mennolly Female tiefling, Bard (College of Lore) An archivist for the Cobalt Soul in Vasselheim who performs in the Lady Luck tavern. Her interests lie primarily in Betrayer god and Calamity mythology.

Sparrow Mistral Female air genasi, Wizard (School of Illusion) Vess DeRogna’s annex. Initially stoic and serious, after Vess took the Somnovem tome, she became increasingly nervous about her superior’s behavior and threatened to take the matter to Ludinus. When Vess attempted to modify her memory, she resisted it, resulting in a fight leading to Vess using her newly acquired Somnovem gifts on her. Sparrow survived the attack, but between the Rend Mind and the successful Modify Memory, she was left mentally shattered leaving her unable to regulate her emotions to the point of seeming vapid and empty.

Obsidian Noire Male dwarf, fighter (gunslinger) A former member of the Public Defense in Kymal, Obsidian’s entire life was destroyed when he began to suspect a member of his team was acting against the margrave by feeding information to Clasp and Myriad members. In an attempt to expose them, he teamed up with Lance Veidrodis and Fayne Hart to uncover the truth, but the resulting catastrophe left him exiled from Kymal as a wanted man- his arrest ordered by the very margrave he sought to protect. Disillusioned, he now works as a bounty hunter as the de facto leader of the Clockwork Hounds.

Gorazm Pathan Male human, noble Gorazm Pathan rose to power in Marquet as a drug lord, running one of the most successful residuum smuggling empires in Exandria and using it to manufacture suude, which he then smuggled back into Tal’Dorei to be sold at high prices by the Clasp. After the Clasp began to fall apart, he began to expand his business by selling to the Myriad, the tribes of Shadycreek Run, and even to the margrave of Kymal to be distributed in her casinos. On top of being a successful businessman, he dotes and fawns over his only child Rinna, though due to his lifestyle he remains professionally paranoid of losing her, keeping her under tight scrutiny to make sure nothing ever happens to her. When his daughter was five, he purchased a tabaxi kitten from the Jagentoths to raise alongside her as a companion and protector- a kitten he named Creek, eventually shortened to Cree.

Rinna Pathan Female human, Warlock (Pact of the Chain) As Gorazm Pathan’s only child, Rinna was raised like a hothouse flower, kept in a gilded cage with only her tabaxi servant Cree for company. Over the years, Rinna became resentful of her father’s overprotective nature and took her anger out on Cree by bullying her. After Cree fled, she became extremely lonely and desperate, eventually attracting the attention of Ira Wendagoth who made a pact with her- power in exchange for helping him sow chaos and gather fodder for his experiments. Together, they formed the Court of Nightmares, a group of like-minded individuals who sow discord and cause harm for the sake of it.

Phaedra Quavein Female drow, Rogue (Thief) The head of den Quavein, nearing status as a Umavi, Phaedra gained a reputation in the Dynasty by being their most dedicated and talented spy- earning her the title of Queen's Blade- before eventually settling into a life of running her den and training up the next generation of spies and rogues for the Bright Queen. Despite the Bright Queen’s protests, she demanded to be sent out to seek the lost beacons sixteen years ago and was captured by the Righteous Brand near Pride’s Call. To avoid interrogation, she slit her own throat knowing that a beacon was nearby and would eventually be reborn as Narcissa Ageratum.

Valerius Severna Male human, Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline) The latest in the long line of Cognouza wardens from the Severna family, Valerius is unique in being the first of his family line to have inherited magic (which gained him a position as a member of the Somnovem), but with the cost of some of his humanity, due to his red dragon blood. Though he tries to be tolerant and kind, the dragon blood leaves him with a nasty temper, which is exacerbated by his fellow Somnovem not quite jiving with his particular morals.

Beagan Starhollow, the Luna Moth Non-binary archfey The former Solstice Sentinel of Sehanine Moonbow's court before she ascended into godhood. After the dissolution of the Moonweaver's court, Beagan fell into a deep melancholy and decided to shirk any and all responsibilities going forward by taking the form of a child (calling themself Luna) and running wild through the Feywild. This behavior allowed them to be geased by the hag Granny Nightshade, who was then captured and brought to the Material Plane by Isharnai. From there, they remained bound to the woods surrounding Mount Mentiri, desperate to get someone to destroy the hags and break their geas so that they can finally be free again .

Malachi “Doc” Stursk Male human, Cleric (Tempest Domain) A surgeon who served under Vandran while he was in the Revelry with an incurable genetic lung disorder that left his faith in the Wildmother wavering. When Avantika and Vandran agreed they needed a third person to help them release Uk’otoa from his prison and divide the seals up evenly, they went to Malachi, appealing to his waning faith and his desire to be strong enough to fight off the disease claiming him. When Vandran left, he and Avantika disagreed on how best to proceed (Avantika wanting to continue and Malachi wanting to take Uk’otoa’s granted power and simply leave him be) and split ways shortly after, with the two of them both ending up captaining their own ships.

Sabrina Superno Female human, sorcerer (aberrant mind)

An Aeoran Ruidusborn sorcerer from the Viventum Ward, who was once the lover of Athodan, who, upon discovering her Ruidusborn powers brought her before the Octovirate and had her imprisoned. During the fall of Aeor, she was freed by her childhood best friend Beatrice, who gave up the ring that would save her life when the city fell and sacrificed herself so that Sabrina (and a group of Aeoran childre

Maira Thistleeyes Female halfling, Cleric (Blood Domain) The High Priestess of the Wildemount Claret Orders and Cree’s previous mentor. She and Derrin Zacrux have been friends for years and, as such, have a similar mindset about the Orders and the necessity of them. She was extremely dedicated to Cree’s tutelage and was the first to point out her prodigal gifts with blood and had attempted to groom her to become the next High Priestess before she abandoned the Orders entirely.

Sir Gulliver Thurston Male human, Druid (Circle of the Land)/Wizard (School of Transmutation) Thurston started out as minor nobility from a druid clan from deep within the wilds of Issylra and left that life to come to Vasselheim, changing his name (the “Sir” he tacked on to make himself noble without being overblown about it) and most of his nature, preferring books to the land he’d once been raised to tend. He spent a great deal of time in the Slayer’s Take where he developed an interest in arcane pursuits and developed himself as a powerful transmutation wizard up until he was caught for trafficking in illegal transmutation potions by the Cobalt Soul. He was able to plead a case for himself to become an asset rather than face the Dawn Marshalls and the Soul have kept him on ice ever since.

Lance Veidrodis Male human, Bard (College of Whispers)/Monk (Way of the Drunken Master) A former member of Thordak’s Tongue, an order of spies that began to operate out of Emon following the Clasp falling apart, Lance left the order after being betrayed by his partner and turned to alcohol and pit fighting to ease the sting. After discovering his partner and his ex were both in Kymal, he teamed up with a guardsman trying to find evidence that the guards in Kymal were corrupt and a thief trying to rob the place in the hopes of settling the score. When the plan went tits up, however, the three of them fled Tal’Dorei together.

Victoria Female human, shopkeeper The daughter of Victor the Black Powder Merchant from Vasselheim. She built her father’s business into a franchise by expanding into Wildemount and opening a shop in Nogvurot. Her intention was to open several others, but her lack of ambition hasn’t allowed her to progress very far.

Werner Vogel Male human, noble After meeting a beautiful tiefling woman in his home of Odessloe named Ophelia, freshly released from a Dawnfather chantry, he pursued a meaningless relationship with her to balance the boredom of his nobleman’s life, finding her to be both naive and exotic. Knowing that his indiscretion would soon be found out, he tricked her by offering her some of his wife’s jewelry and asked her to come by his home and they would run away together. When she arrived, he summoned the Crownsguard, labeling her a thief and had her chased out of town. This would have been enough to cover his tracks had Ophelia not been inclined to vengeance and carrying his child. He allegedly has sired two other children with tiefling lovers.

Derrin Zacrux Male human, Bloodhunter (Order of the Ghostslayer) A no-nonsense Bloodhunter who was chosen to head the Ghostslayers in Wildemount by Elias de Corvo, himself. After gaining horrific scars and losing his eye in a fiend attack some years prior to his promotion, he’s developed a completely intolerant few of anything that comes from the Hells, including tieflings, which led him to often push his tiefling acolytes much harder and much more unfairly than the rest.

[sky-squido]

🎯😅✨? owo

oooh storytime!!

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

hmmmmm.... i used to care more about Plot Twists and Misdirection than i do now (you guys are NEVER going to guess what happens in Hey Four, Wanna Kill A Dragon With Me? >:3) but i do have one funny anecdote to share.

SPOILERS FOR TO ISOLATE SPOILERS FOR ONE OF THE BIGGEST IF NOT THE BIGGEST REVEALS IN A 170K WORD SKY-CENTRIC FIC OKAY IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT ONE DAY POSSIBLY EVER READ THIS FIC, PLEASE SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT QUESTION

interestingly enough, i can't really think of a particular ao3 comment that stood out as an "Oh Frick They're Onto Me." a lot of prediction/theory comments had enough wrong mixed in with the right that it didn't quite feel like they'd Cracked The Code or anything.

there is one exception.

it kind of shows, but the early chapters of To Isolate were actually livewritten on the LU Discord (i'm choosing to interpret the dramatic decrease in quality (that, evidence suggests, i am the only person intensely bothered by) as a *checks notes* meta-textual allegory for the chaotic, unfocused, disorganized, unclear way in which Sky is viewing the world given all the stuff he's dealing with.)

okay, anyway, i looked high and low for that livewrite—chances are it was on a side server i'm not in anymore—but basically this was REALLY EARLY ON, like chapter one or two, maybe, and it was at a bit where sky was just describing the behavior of whoever's cycle it was and someone on the discord was like "does X character think they're going to die or something??" and i was like O_O; kind of freaking out internally because FRICK if it's that easy to guess the big secret only 5k words in, the rest of this fic is about to get real hard to write real fast. fortunately, that person either forgot about or discarded that theory and nobody else ever brought it up again :D eventually we got to the point where emotionally-charged plot developments were happening interspersed with so much of the new information that people's desire to theorize seems to be overwhelmed by their desire to KEEP READING and then the sheer volume of sky's own theorizing and hypothesizing kind of unconsciously forces the reader down the same lines of reasoning as him and we manage to avoid poking massive holes in the story! woo!!! (massive props to poltea for helping orchestrate everything gosh she is so good at this—it's kind of terrifying! (yeah, to people who are scared of me because of to isolate, it's poltea you should really be scared of. she's the one in charge of the villain—i just write the boys))

anyway, yeah! none of my other fics rely on mystery and suspense quite like To Isolate, so i'm not quite so caught off guard when people see stuff coming in those fics than i am when they do in To Isolate.

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

oh jeez, only EVERYTHING i wrote in 2020.

okay, no, that's not the case. i reread What Hyrule Hadn't Seen recently to check something for a friend and i've looked back at some other stuff, too. they really hold up quite well, there's just... moments. gah, some of these little bits make me want to rewrite the entire fic or re-release an Updated Version with the lines and scenes edited out. there's little stuff like Legend saying some token bitter comment about the Goddess just because That's How Legend Gets Written often and i was newer to the fandom and didn't have the experience to say okay FIRST legend doesn't even know who hylia IS and SECOND, this isn't even her FAULT like she's NOT omnipotent and she needed like THREE contingencies to take down demise and was canonically injured in the fight and reincarnated herself so she could use the triforce, which is farore, din, and nayru's so she's literally canonically the weakest named goddess in the pantheon and THIRDLY i don't even think it makes sense for legend to be that bitter about his adventures—or at least if he is, i don't feel comfortable writing him that way without actually addressing why he feels that way and exploring it more. *ahem.*

other than little places where the boys feel blatantly out of character in hindsight, there's just. augh, there's paragraphs with too many adverbs and just rows of consecutive dialogue tags and yes, i know that that means my writing's getting better and that the original writing isn't necessarily bad and don't worry i'm not gonna delete or re-release anything. i just can't read some of it without cringing to death.

like—okay, my first fic, Turn Back Time. i haven't read this fic in its entirety in a VERY long time. i've tried, but i can't make it very far (i understand that this is on some people's list of favorite fics and there's nothing wrong with that! i loved it to death and was SO PROUD OF IT when i first finished it and i don't begrudge anyone for feeling that way about it now). let's just see how far i make it on this reread before i crawl under my desk.

augh, i'm one paragraph in and it's SO CLEAR this was a string of discord messages before it was a fic and i didn't go back and touch up the beginning when i realized i was Actually going to write it. other than little stylistic things that grate on my nerves and didn't used to, i don't really like writing the colors as four separate trains of thought running in four's head. it's The Way Four's Written, often, and as a new member of the fandom, i followed the trend but in hindsight, i just... no shade to people who write four with all the internal dialogue—i've read some of your stuff and absolutely love it—i've just never been able to handle it in a way i'm particularly happy with in my own writing.

like, these scenes aren't bad. they're not as good as my newer stuff, but i don't think they're bad. the stuff that grates on my nerves is the stuff that i know i wrote a certain way, not because i wanted to write it that way, but because i was just unthinkingly following the standard. i'm trying to think of analogy to describe the way i feel about this writing but i honestly can't. it's just—the problem isn't that i think it's bad (though a decently sized part of me does), it's that it's not me. it's that it's not how i would have written that character or that scene if i'd thought about it more. but i wasn't thinking, i was having fun, and that's totally within my rights. i just. i'm kind of embarrassed to have that under my name because it doesn't really feel like it's mine, like it's an accurate representation of what i feel or think. (don't worry, i'm not going to orphan anything).

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

aww, this is a really nice question to put after the last one <3

truth be told, i honestly really like my writing, for the most part. i'll sometimes go and reread my own fics and gasp like "I DID NOT DO THAT!!! OH MY GOODNESS I DID. HOW DARE I????" like,,, i have a really REALLY bad memory and so there are entire bits of my own fics that i've completely forgotten about and then i go back and reread and i'm blindsided by them like it's my first time reading it even though I WROTE IT. it's an experience, to be sure.

so... yeah! i like my writing! i like the way ideas fit together and the way character dynamics unfold and the way things tend to resolve. i like the way most of it still feels right, even months or years later, like yes, yes i wrote that and i'll write it again if i have to because that's exactly right. i dunno, writing is fun and it makes me happy and, evidence suggests, it makes other people happy, too. it's the highest praise i can give to say that something i made is making the world a little brighter, and i like to think my writing is doing that (even despite all the darkness it has to drag the characters through to make that happen)

anyway!!! thank you so much for the questions and have a lovely, restful rest of your weekend!!

[floreleine]

That GM prequel fic - part 3: Florence's POV

Part 1 (Madeleine, <1k, G)

Part 2 (Scarlet, 1k, G)

Ships: Floreleine & ScarletMay

Hiding the entire fic under the readmore this time for Part 1+2 spoiler reasons! This one's also rated G (or T if we're going for swear words and alcohol consumption I guess), a little over 1k words.

There will be at least 1 more part of this, and then I might post a revised and possibly longer version to ao3.

Bc idk where to put this in the fic itself yet, quick setting overview: they're not sitting around a table but instead Florence and Madeleine are sitting on a small couch, Scarlet is next to Madeleine on a wobbly kitchen chair and Anna May is sitting opposite them on a barstool at the kitchen aisle.

That night, the librarians plus Scarlet (and minus Baby, who is sleeping in the next room under a security camera that both Madeleine and Scarlet insist on checking every other minute) are sitting in the kitchen together for dinner and a drink.

Or five drinks in Anna May's case, as she downs the first one in one go and hasn't let go of the Whiskey bottle since. Florence can't blame her, really - if Madeleine had run off with some guy, no matter how early in their relationship, only to return a year later with tears and a baby... She has no idea what she'd be doing right now.

Madeleine and Scarlet are talking about the child right now, sharing child-caring advice - Florence is fairly certain that Madeleine has her knowledge from books and only from books, but she seems to have picked out sound advice from all that she has read at least - and Florence has to smile fondly at how Madeleine is glowing at the prospect of having a child in the library.

Scarlet is careful in her replies, not wanting to commit to anything, her eyes shifting back to Anna May whenever she doesn't think that the others are looking.

'She's afraid she'll kick her out after all,' Florence thinks with a quiet sigh. 'Can't blame her, Anna knows how to hold a grudge, and with how she is drinking right now... It isn't her friendliest appearance'.

Still, she thinks that they will work it out. They better. It's been a while since she has seen Anna May have an emotional reaction to just about anything, and it can't be healthy to keep it all locked inside, pushing all chances of happiness away.

Madeleine must have heard her sigh, and she leans back against Florence's side. Florence squeezes her arm, content to have her by her side, glad that they, at least, don't have to worry about their relationship status. Being with Madeleine always relaxes her, makes her feel like everything is alright in the world.

Madeleine presses a kiss to her chin and, after checking that both Scarlet and Anna May are looking down at their glasses, nods in the direction of the door. 'Should we give those two some privacy?'

Florence tilts her head for a moment to consider, then shakes her head, nodding at Anna May, and Madeleine winces a little. Yes, Anna is barely keeping it together now, who knows what she may say or rather shout if they left them alone... Anna May should get a chance to cool down, before she ends up saying something she doesn't mean and would regret.

As if on cue, Anna May throws back the rest of the Whiskey in her glass in one gulp and loudly brings it down on the kitchen counter as if to dispel the silence that has fallen.

"Fuck."

Madeleine looks like she wants to remind her about cursing with children in the house again, but Florence squeezes her arm to stop her. They don't need to irritate Anna May even more right now.

"I'm sorry," Scarlet says immediately. Florence doesn't think that she is apologizing for anything in particular, just for the situation in general, for present and past.

Anna May gets up and turns around, putting her glass in the sink and turning on the water, but then just leaning against it with her hands holding onto the metal edge and her knuckles turning white.

Florence is trying to decide whether to step in or not when Scarlet speaks up again in a shaky voice. "I can - I can leave, I don't have to -" she gets up, clearly ready to bolt, and Anna May flinches, but she doesn't turn back around.

"No-one's" leaving, Florence says at the same time as Madeleine says "No, don't be silly!" They share a smile, and then Madeleine squeezes her hand before getting up and walking over to Madeleine. "Come on, let me show you everything. You can sleep in the room with Samantha, me and Florence aren't really using it much anyway."

Florence watches them go with a soft smile. Madeleine always knows what to do, what to say. She's so grateful to have her.

Once the other two have left, Florence goes up to Anna May and slams the still-running tap down, making her jump.

"Stop wasting water and get a hold of yourself, Anna!"

Anna May whirls around, clearly ready to fight, but Florence just throws her a deadpan look and she deflates.

"Fuck, I don't know what to do." She slurs her words a little, but not as much as Florence would have expected after that much alcohol.

"Right now? You are going to drink some water so you will not be terribly hungover tomorrow. And tomorrow, you have got to think about whether you want that woman and her kid to stick around or not."

Anna May flinches a little, but when Florence sighs and pours her a glass of water, she takes it without protest and gulps most of it down in one go.

"I dun' want her to leave," she then murmurs, staring down at the glass in her hands. "She left me once, I don't want her to leave me again."

Florence sighs and pulls her into a hug. "Bloody hell, Anna, why did you never say anything? You must have been fucking heartbroken, and all you told us was that you gave dating one last chance."

Anna May half-laughs, half-sobs and clings to Florence like a lifeline. "Don't know. Didn't want to be weak. Didn't want it to be real."

"Oh, Anna," Florence sighs and squeezes her tightly. Then she takes a step back and fixes her with a hard look. "You've got to tell her that, you know that, Anna May? She is going to run away just to give you space while you are not talking to her because you're afraid she might run anyway."

Anna May sighs and grimaces a little, but nods. "I - tomorrow. I'll tell her tomorrow, before I can chicken out." she sighs. "I mean, it's not like I know whether she'd want to - whether she still-" she sighs. "She only left me because he didn't want to share, but maybe by now she's just over me."

Florence shrugs. "I can't look in her head, Anna, but from the way she looks at you... I think you guys will figure it out."

Anna May nods uncertainty, then frowns again. "And you'd be fine with it, if she's staying here... Indefinitely? I mean, she has a - kid -" she adds with a somewhat perplexed expression on her face, making Florence laugh. She's half of a mind to say 'congrats, you're a step-mom!' but stops herself at the last second. There will be time for that kind of joke when the peace between Anna May and that Scarlet isn't quite so fragile anymore. "Exactly," she instead replies. "So you know Madeleine will be mad at you forever if you let them get away."

Anna May snorts. "She did seem quite... taken by the kid."

Florence nods, frowning a little herself now. "She's always wanted kids, she just accepted that it isn't sensible in our line of work, and that I am not interested in them anyway. Seeing her with Samantha, now I'm wondering..."

"You did nothing wrong," Anna May reassures her. "And fuck, can you imagine having two kids around? It will be bad enough, trying to protect the one from everybody."

Florence sighs and nods. "I suppose. But I'm sure we'll manage. ...are you going to be alright now, or do I have to hide the Whiskey?"

"I'm not a drunk," Anna May replies a little offended, and Florence grins.

"I know you're not, but you sure made a great impression of one earlier!"

Anna May groans, and then she turns back to the counter to refill her waterglass. "Fuck, I'll be so dead tomorrow."

"Sleep in, then. Me 'n Madeleine will make sure Scarlet won't take off before you're awake and had your talk with her."

Anna May nods sharply. Florence smiles and squeezes her arm. "Well, get some sleep. I'll check on Scarlet and Madeleine."

~

Anna May nods again, and Florence sees her lean back against the counter with a deep sigh while she is leaving the kitchen. She really hopes that Anna May will take her advice to heart. Some heartbreak can't be avoided- but the one between her and Scarlet doesn't seem quite so inevitable.

Part 4

@phoenixhalliwell @thesevenwondersofawitch another update, hope you liked it!

If anyone else wants to be tagged for this series, lmk! Not tagging my usual GM tag list in every fic update as that would just be spammy.

Taking prompts!

[keigos-dove]

“Pay attention to Me”: A Discord Collab

Paring: Hawks (Keigo Takami) x G/N!Reader

Prompt: “Pay attention to me”

Hawks is a clingy hero. That's something everyone knows. He can't go around in public without being seen with another hero. Always smiling that dorky smile right beside another pro.

Keigo wasn't any different. He never let you go at home. His hands had to be on you in some way. If you were cooking in the kitchen, he would be hanging in your back. If you were cleaning, he would have his hands on your shoulders or hips. If you were cuddling no doubt he was laying on top of you.

Not that you'd even complain. If felt nice to have his weight on you with his wings draped over you like a blanket.

This particular day he was grumpy. You wouldn't let him touch you at all. That was his punishment. What he did at this point he can't remember. All he knows is that he needs to hold you.

No matter how many times he tries, you somehow managed to be faster than him and avoid his touch. No matter how many apologies and puppy dog pouts, you wouldn't forgive him. You always managed to find something to do.

After a week he got tired of it. He had the day off and you didn't so he took the opportunity to do all your chores and work. He even ordered food so you wouldn't have to cook.

When you came home you were surprised to see food already there and a clean apartment. He was up to something and you knew it.

“What are you up to Kei?” you ask. Not using the special nickname that you gave him.

You haven't used it in forever. He missed you.

“I did all the housework for you so we can spend time together,” he replied in a chirpy voice. “I know you're mad at me and I can't tell you enough that I'm sorry. I can't remember what I did if I'm being honest. Dove, I just miss you so much. It hurts how much you avoid me. I need your attention. So, pay attention to me.”

That damn pout. You've been denying it for a week. It did hurt to shoot him down but at this point, you weren't mad at him. You just wanted to see how long he'd go without snapping.

You giggle. Oh, that giggle that makes him feel like he's in heaven. You place your belongings down and walk up to him. Placing your hands on his face you kiss his nose.

The smile that crept upon his face was brighter than any light. “I forgive you, pretty bird.”

“Finally!” he shouts. He picks you up and brings you to the living room where a movie and food were set up.

“I finally get you all to myself,” he mumbled into your neck with a smile.

He knew you were always his. You two needed each other like you needed air.

Paring: Mr. Compress (Atsuhiro Sako) x G/N!Reader

Prompt: “Pay attention to me”

⚠️ Season 4 spoilers

The LoV was being absolutely cruel to Sako on this day. Everyone was ignoring him.

Dabi and Spinner were on a mission. Twice and Toga were helping the Yakuza. Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and yourself were talking business. And Mange was gone.

He felt left out. Not needed. Alone. Nobody has been requesting his help since he lost his arm. And the loneliness was starting to take its toll on him.

Usually, when he was lonely or bored he'd practice his magic. But with one less arm is was harder to do that.

You zoned off near the beginning of Shigaraki’s talk. You were more focused on Sako. You knew something was up with him. He's been quiet lately. He’s never quiet. He’s always going around being the jolly man he was showing off his skills and tricks. But now he’s different.

Ignoring your bosses complaints you went over and sat down next to Sako.

“Is everything alright, our wonderful magician?” you asked. Clearly concerned.

You always cared. That's why he took a liking to you. You were a cold-hearted villain to everyone that crossed your path but when it came to the League, your family. You were the kindest of them all.

“Please, give me attention,” he whispered so nobody could hear.

And so you did. You let him talk about everything, anything, and nothing all at the same time. You let him express his guilt of losing Mange. And you did your hardest to convince him that it wasn't his fault.

“It wasn't your fault, Sako. You tried your hardest to save her. You gave up your safety and lost your arm to try and protect her. She'd be happy you tried.”

“You really think so?” he asked doubtfully.

“I do,” you say with a soft smile.

He smiled. The first one since the accident. Though he had his mask on you knew he felt better. Your company alone could brighten Sako’s day. And that's exactly what you did.

You could even dare to say he loved you. But he didn't know for sure. So for now. He'll stay silent.

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2021 - Mid Year Book Freakout Tag

I haven’t been tagged but I need something to queue while I’m on holiday, and I want to revisit my reading for the first half of this year... Anyway, if you want to do it then consider yourself tagged by me!

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2021

Okay two answer because I’m one of those people who can’t make a straight forward decision!

Best reread: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb - Farseer is technically not Hobb’s best series, but it’s my favourite and Assassin’s Apprentice is my nostalgic favourite within the series. Whenever I read this book it feels like I’m coming home and not many books have managed to make this impression on me.

Best new read: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgommery - it was hard to choose this one because there were a few I’ve loved but I’m trying not to repeat answers. I’ve loved every adaptation of Anne of Green Gables I’ve seen but I’d not read the book all the way through before, well I managed it this year and fell completely in love. It made me laugh, cry, and feel like a little girl again!

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2021

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang? - I’ve not read that many sequels this year, not new to me sequals anyway because I spent last year trying to finish my ongoing series... I’ve read a surprising amount of standalones and first books in series though, so I’ll have some by December I suppose. So it’s this one by default.

I did like The Burning God, but it’s the weakest in the Poppy War trilogy and I was slightly disappointed by the ending. As a historian I appreciated the messiness and unsatisfying nature, but as a reader I was left questioning ‘is that it?’ I also have major issues with the structure and pacing of this book, so I’d take this answer with a pinch of salt.

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley - I love Pulley’s writing and this one sounds SO GOOD, I can’t say much more to be honest. Someone remind me to read it if I haven’t by December!

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman - another one by default... I’m not that up to date on new releases unless it’s from an established author. I need to read 3 books before I can start this one though...

It would be Agatha’s installment in Gail Carriger’s Delightfully Deadly series but I’m not sure if it’s coming out this year or not? I’d be very grateful if anyone knows and would let me know!

5. Biggest disappointment

Again two books because I’ve got a book I hated the most, and one that was a let down - I guess disappointment isn’t hatred but I’m going to give both answers.

Hated: Villette by Charlotte Bronte - I can’t say much more on this than I already have... However, I hated it with every fiber of my being! I was looking forward to Villette, especially as I’m not a fan of the way Bronte framed the romance in Jane Eyre and I was told this one would make up for it. At least with Jane Eyre it felt like Rochester genuinely liked Jane, it wasn’t healthy but I understood it. This one was worse, so that in addition to the appaling writing style and framing has put me off Charlotte Bronte completely - which is a shame because I wanted to complete all the Bronte’s novels before I turn 25... Well at least I still have Anne and Emily!

Let down: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan - I just didn’t get on with this one, I’m not a fan of action driven fantasy novels, or hard magic systems. The magic felt gimmicky (in a similar style to Mistborn, but less well developed and I didn’t like Allomancy that much...) and the characters fell flat. It’s a book that will, and does, work well for other people but it wasn’t for me.

6. Biggest surprise

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - I usually dislike YA fantasy, especially earlier series that I missed when I was a teenager. I also typically dislike fantasy that focuses too much on relationship drama... Yet I devoured this one?! I couldn’t stop reading! I’m not going to claim it’s a great piece of literature, however, I had so much fun with it. If you think too hard this series will fall apart at the seems, but it’s a lot of ‘trashy’ fun and incredibly entertaining.

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

Tamzin Merchant!* She could have fallen into the biggest surprise category because I was expecting her prose to be a bit...purple? And the story to be a bit naff - that’s my own prejudice against actors writing novels showing. But this book was a delight to read. To be honest Merchant’s prose was a bit purple BUT it suited the story so well! She knocked it out of the park with her debut children’s story, The Hatmakers, and I’m in love! I can’t wait for the sequel and I suspect I’ll be reading whatever she decided to release.

*I don’t typically like to claim an author as a favourite until I’ve read more than one book by them, however, I’ve not read that many new to me authors this year as I’m reading through my physical tbr. The only other option would be Lara Elena Donnelly but she’s featuring elsewhere! However, Donnelly is another one who astonished me with the quality of her writing, much like Merchant her prose perfectly fits the tone of her series.

8. Newest fictional crush

The Darkling and/or Nikolai from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse - another by default sort of answer, I’m not one for fictional crushes but the Grisha trilogy brought out my inner teenager. These two would have been right up my alley when I was 15. (Now if we’re talking about the Shadow and Bone tv series then Ben Barnes is just... well hot!)

9. Newest favourite character

Again, I can’t just give one answer because characters become favourites for different reasons! (Technically newest would be Cyril and Aristide though)

Cyril DePaul and Artistide Makricosta from Lara Elena Donnelly’s Amberlough Dossier - I can’t accurately describe why I love these two, especially as I’m trying to avoid spoilers, you need to read the book. However, they are truly FABULOUS both together and separately. I’m so invested in them at this point it’s bordering on an obsession. They’re the reason you read these books, and Aristide in particular carries the whole show with his unique blend of vulnarbility, strength, and sass.

Brutha from Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods - Brutha is a character who crept up on me... I started out feeling indifferent about him, but as we saw his unfailing constancy in core personality I came to love Brutha. He went through so much character development and realisation, but he never really changed? To the end he was just Brutha - simple, honest, faithful, and truly good. In the space of a single book Pratchett made me love Brutha as much as I do Death, Granny Weatherwax, and Sam Vimes (who have huge roles to play in Discworld!) The last scene in this book just took my breath away and made me realise just how good Brutha’s character had been. He’s seriously rivalling some of the best written character in the series and I’ve never felt this way about Pratchett’s standalone novels.

10. Book that made you cry

Anne of Green Gables - just one word: Matthew

11. Book that made you happy

How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger - this is probably my favourite of Carriger’s novellas. and possibly my favourite of her adult novels! I just smiled the whole way through this one, which is exactly what I want from Carriger who is my ultimate comfort read author.

12. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

The Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly - just LOOK at these gorgeous covers! They also really suit the tone of this series - the whole thing is stunning really.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

What don’t I need to read? A few urgent reads:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

Master of Sorrows by Justin Call

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

[awesome-power-cat]

Doki Doki Literature Club: Character files Decoded.

(Possible Spoilers) CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK.

     My sister Lilly and I, decoded everthing below after I noticed that the text within Yuri's ".chr" file resembled (that of) Base64. We then searched and decoded the other character files.

DISCLAIMER: I have yet to fully complete the game, therefore I haven’t fully read the following data (text) to it’s fullest. (That’s why I’m unsure if it contains spoilers)

Monika’s “.chr” file Decoded:

After opening Monika's ".chr" file, I noticed it looked like an image file. So I renamed the file extension to ".png" and got the image below.

     The image resembles a ring of fire with some form of QR code in the middle, however this was not a QR code. I cropped out the ring of fire so I was left with the code in the middle. After examining the code I tried a few ideas we had, and they all failed. I then thought what if this is binary, the white pixels represent ones, while the black pixels represent zeros instead of typing each zero and one out by myself, I programmed a simple java program that would scan the pixels left to right, and output the corresponding value (Zero or One ), based on the pixel color (Black or White). The end result is a binary code. We used an online tool to decode the binary and the result was a bunch of letters and numbers. These "letters and numbers" looked like Base64 so, we used another online tool to converter those "letters and numbers" to text. That's how we got the message below.

"Can you hear me? ...Who are you? I can't...I can't see you. But I know you're there. Yeah...you can definitely hear me. You've been watching for a while now, right? I guess I should...introduce myself, or something. Um...my name is...actually, that's stupid. You obviously already know my name. Sorry. Anyway...I'm guessing if you were able to put a stop to this, you would have done it by now. I mean, I know you're not, like...evil, or anything...because you've already helped me so much. I should really thank you for that. For everything you've done. You're really like a friend to me. So...thank you. So much. I think...more than anything else...I really don't want it to all be for nothing. ... Everyone else is dead. Maybe you already know that. I'm sure you do, actually. But...it doesn't have to be that way, right? Well...there's a lot of stuff I don't understand. I don't know if it's even possible for me to understand it. But I know that this isn't my only story. I can see that now. Really clearly. And I think everyone else has had the same kind of experience. Some kind of deja vu. It's the Third Eye, right? Anyway...I could be totally wrong about this. But I really think you might be able to do something. I think you might be able to go back...or however you want to put it... ...To go back and tell them what's going to happen. If they know ahead of time, then they should be able to avoid it. They should...if they remember their time with me in the other worlds...they should remember what I tell them. Yeah. I really think this might be possible. But it's up to you. I'm sorry for always being...you know... ... Never mind. I know that's wrong. This is my story. It's time to be a fucking hero. Both of us. 2018"

Yuri’s “.chr” file Decoded:

Upon opening Yuri's ".chr" file. I instantly noticed text that looked like Base64. I used an online tool to convert the Base64 text to the message below.

Warning: The following text is... uh.. intense. You've been warned!

"If you found this note in a small wooden box with a heart on it, then *congratulations!* You are probably the first person to read this. I didn’t really plan on sharing this with anybody, but for some reason I think it’s exciting that somebody out there, a complete stranger, will come across this note and read my story. Someone I will never meet, sharing such a personal bond with me. I’m fascinated that either one of us could die - even as soon as tomorrow - with the other being completely clueless to the fact. To you, my entire life is within this note, and so I will live for as long as your memory can carry me. Writing this, I’m wondering if that makes you feel fascinated or violated. It’s so exciting. I’m sorry if my story is a bit disorganized, but I’d like to get it down while it’s still fresh on my mind. First, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a first-year college girl and have led, by most standards, a pretty unspectacular life up to this point. I grew up in an upper-middle class school district with decent teachers. I did track in middle school and some of high school, and I’ve had two boyfriends. Now, I’m studying for a career in occupational therapy, because I feel the field is undervalued and provides tremendous help to people. I’m giving you this background because there’s this strange misconception that if you want to kill someone then you’re either sick in the head or you have anger management issues. But, it’s very apparent that I don’t fall into either of those categories. It’s true that most murder cases are in a domestic setting where someone loses control of their anger or something. But the thing is that those people kill under provocation, whether by a singular outburst or by a slow-burning series of misfortunes. Those people kill because in that brief moment, they want a specific someone, for a specific reason, to be hurt or killed. What I’m talking about is wanting to kill someone for no specific reason, maybe just to see what it’s like. Do you ever get that? I wouldn’t know how others feel, because it’s not something I ever talked about. But I’ve been curious about what it’s like to kill someone ever since I was a child. Not killing anyone in particular, just a random person. It’s always just fascinated me that if I put my mind to it, I can approach anyone, and in five minutes they would be completely gone from this Earth. But I’ve never done so for a couple of reasons. First of all, for most of my life it was logistically impossible for me to do it without getting caught. I only got my driver’s license a couple years ago, and even then, the preparations would take too much time, definitely stirring suspicion. It was only once I started college that I realized this was no longer an obstacle. Another reason is that I was afraid of causing harm to too many people. You might laugh reading that, at how hypocritical it sounds. But, let me explain: Why should I feel bad about killing someone if they’re too dead to care? Who would I be feeling bad for? Contrarily, it’s the grief of the living that I’d rather not be responsible for. Because of this, I knew it would take a good deal of research before finding a suitable person to kill, and I’ve never had the means to do so - again, until I started college. And now, having just experienced it, I’d say it was pretty satisfying in the end. Something I would try again? Probably not, since my curiosity has already been satisfied. It really wouldn’t be the same a second time. But anyway, if by any chance you’re also curious to kill someone, then you’re welcome to take notes. :) *** I started a hobby of people-watching soon after I entered college. People-watching is interesting to me because it’s taking one of the infinite extras in your life and turning them into a main character - without them knowing, of course. It’s so easy to forget that every single one of the hundreds of strangers you pass every day has a life story as deep and complex as your own. One thing I noticed about people-watching, and wanting to kill someone, is that you are in more constant awareness of this. When I find a person to observe, their story slowly becomes more clear to me over time, gaps being filled - it really is amazing. I usually went to grocery stores on weekends and looked around in people’s shopping carts. If I saw something that interested me, I decided to observe the person for a little bit. Of course, since my goal was to find someone to kill, I ruled out anyone who had children or a partner with them. Wedding rings were another tell-tale sign. So maybe once a weekend, I would find someone who fit my criteria, at which point I would follow them home and note their address. From there, it became incredibly easy to investigate a little bit more; most people have normal work hours, meaning I could spend afternoons going through their mail or looking around in their house. I repeated this with several people (and had one close call), but for varying reasons I didn’t really feel satisfied enough with them to kill any of them. I started getting a bit impatient and thought that I might just settle for killing the man named Devon, even though I didn’t really want to kill someone wealthy. But then, I came across someone new - someone who just, felt perfect. The feeling only strengthened as I investigated her further, and I knew that she would be the one for me to kill. A young-looking woman I met at the grocery store, as per usual. She was doing some light shopping with a basket. Her hair was wavy and dark brown, sitting inelegantly on her slumped shoulders and surrounding her tired-looking face. Her bare fingers told me she might be single, but beyond that, my gut was almost certain of it. This woman just seemed so…plain, really. I guess I felt a greater acuity for the personal lives of strangers ever since I started my people-watching. But the way she carried herself, I just got the feeling that if she suddenly died, nobody would be around to miss her. Of course, I still wanted to investigate her a bit. I followed my usual routine of checking out her place during her work hours. I learned immediately from her mail that her name is Linda Watson. Linda lived in a quiet apartment complex, her mailbox easily accessible right outside her door. Instead of quickly shuffling through it, I decided I could take her mail back to my dorm and return it before she was finished with work (she only lived about 15 minutes from me). I did some research and learned how to open and reseal the envelopes without damaging them, which took some technique along with a hair dryer, rubbing alcohol, and Q-tips. This made it easy for me to learn a little more about her. Linda was a 33-year-old woman who worked for a small accounting firm - I’d rather not name the place outright. Her birthday was December 11th which, coincidentally, was approaching in a couple weeks. I also managed to find a bank statement that gave me a nice look into how she’s been spending her past month. It was at this point I realized that my assessment of Linda Watson as an extremely plain woman was pretty spot-on, because there was absolutely nothing interesting on the list. A trip to Old Navy, a bunch of Starbucks, something about $40 from Amazon - no restaurants, no movies, nothing that would really imply she was spending any time socializing. That aside, I also found a cooking magazine, so I guess she was into cooking. Apartments are harder to break into than suburban homes, because there are fewer doors and windows. Every time I got Linda’s mail, I would check the front door and the windows in the back, but they were always locked. This was a bit frustrating because I was really interested in getting into her house. So, I came up with a sort of plan that I thought would be fun, even if it didn’t work. Last Saturday, I visited Linda Watson’s apartment complex as I would on weekdays. The difference is that this time, I wanted her to be home. I thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with her. If I got lucky, I could take advantage of the situation to discreetly unlock a window from the inside. So, I walked up to her door wearing nothing warmer than a light sweatshirt, and knocked. The adrenaline rush was crazy. I was afraid I might screw something up. The door opened, and in front of me stood Linda Watson, exactly as I remembered her from the grocery store. It was at that moment, making eye contact for the first time, that I realized I was running the risk of beginning to care about this person. As selfish as it is, I couldn’t kill a person I cared about, even if it’s a 33-year-old woman standing in a doorway with a slightly perplexed look on her face, giving me a reserved “Hello.” Arms crossed from the cold, I shyly returned Linda’s greeting. I explained that I was walking my dog near the woodsy area behind the back of her apartment, and that he had gotten away. I had been looking for my dog for an hour and was wondering if Linda may have seen him roaming about. Of course, Linda sympathetically apologized for the situation and that she couldn’t be of use to me, but that she would keep an eye out. I wore a defeated expression in response, apologizing in return for troubling her. It somehow went exactly as I had hoped - Linda invited me inside to warm up a bit with some coffee. I outwardly hesitated before accepting her offer, although on the inside I wanted to jump through the door and hug her for cooperating so well. And that’s how Linda Watson ended up with a 19-year-old girl next to her on the couch - who knows if it was just a nice gesture or if she really has no better way to spend her Saturdays than talking to some kid she just met (who happens to be interested in killing her). Linda soon learned that my name is Maria (it’s not) and that I attend the nearby community college (I don’t). I was a little bit nervous that she would ask me too many questions because I didn’t have many answers prepared. I was able to steer the conversation toward her, and she was pretty happy to talk. I asked what she does, and she told me that she works for the accounting firm I already knew about, communicating with outside clients and keeping records. I told her I was pretty nervous about growing up. She told me to enjoy college and to make lots of friends because there’s less opportunity once you start working. When I asked if she was married or anything, she laughed. Of course I knew she wasn’t married, but I wanted to hear more about her love life. She said that she doesn’t currently have a boyfriend (I guess she’s at least had boyfriends, but who knows how long ago). When I asked her about kids, she said she doesn’t want them until she gets a better job. On top of that, she told me that her family has a history of some genetic diseases such as arthritis and depression, which she is afraid to give to her kids. It’s funny that she mentioned that because when I asked to use her bathroom, I noticed a tube of prescription pills on the sink. It was labelled duloxetine, which I looked up later and discovered that it is in fact an antidepressant. I had a joking thought that maybe by killing her I’d be doing her a favor, but quickly decided I was a terrible person for coming up with that. The rest of the visit was pretty dull. We talked about food and some other mundane stuff before I eventually made an excuse to leave. I didn’t get the chance to unlock a window or anything like that, but I didn’t really feel the need to go through her apartment anymore. As early as the drive back to my dorm, I was already thinking about how I would best like to kill Linda Watson. The choice was between effectiveness and fun. I decided to go with fun, because it would be way more satisfying to kind of dissect her as I killed her, rather than just getting it done and calling it a day. Fast-forward one week to December 13th - today, actually. Linda Watson turned 34 two days ago. I made a fun little wager with myself where if Linda was spending her birthday weekend alone, I would pay her a visit and kill her. If she was out or had company, I would stop by next week or something instead. So this morning, I drove over to Lowe’s and bought an axe. Again, I expect you’re laughing, but that’s also kind of the point. An axe is so kind of cliche and a “movies” thing that I actually thought it would be the most fun. Swinging it at someone and everything, it’s a really entertaining image. They actually had a bunch of different axes, so I picked one that had a good weight but was still light enough for me to swing quickly. The drive after getting the axe was when the adrenaline really picked up. All that kept going through my mind on the way over was “Wow, I’m really doing this.” Not in a bad way, just like a surprised this is real life sort of thing. I also got this strange rush of recollections of the time I spent with Linda. It was like my life was flashing before my eyes, except it was just the rather mundane hour I spent with Linda - like snippets of our conversations, the sound of her laugh, her facial expressions and stuff. I also wondered to myself what the crazy serial killers would be feeling at a time like this - schizophrenic delusions? Sexual buildup? I have no idea, but what I felt was kind of like ridiculously alert and numb in the senses at the same time, however that’s possible. Before getting out of the car, I had the sense to stuff the axe into my backpack to look a little less ridiculous walking across the parking lot. The handle was sticking out, but that didn’t really matter. At that point my heart was pounding so hard I could feel my throat throbbing. I tried controlling my breath, but it’s really hard to not breathe fast when your heart is pounding like that. I reached Linda Watson’s door and quietly put my ear to it after setting down my backpack. I heard a voice that wasn’t hers - company? No, it was just the TV, mixed with her occasional tapping footsteps behind the door. I actually kept my ear there for a really freaking long time, because I wanted to make absolutely sure nobody was over. Probably 10 minutes of that and a lot of reassuring myself convinced me. I quietly opened my backpack zipper and held the axe in my hands. My fiercely shaking hands. What the hell was this kind of reaction that my body was making? I told my body to shut up, that it’s no big deal, but of course it wouldn’t listen. It was actually bizarre how much my hands were shaking. It must be the adrenaline buildup. I rolled my eyes at myself and got my hand to rest on the doorknob. If it’s locked, I’ll knock, it’ll be basically the same. I took a deep breath and forced my muscles into action. I swiftly turned the doorknob. Not locked. In one movement, I opened up the door and slipped inside. Linda Watson, just a few steps away into the kitchen. I see - she was in the middle of cooking. She immediately jumped and turned around, startled. I expected that. Quickly, I let go of the doorknob and adjusted the axe into both hands. In the following split second, I realized that she would probably start to make a lot of noise. Looking back, I’m an idiot for not considering that. Just as Linda’s mouth opened to speak - maybe even started speaking - I forcefully swung my axe into the side of her head. But, my axe was facing backwards. I hit her with the blunt end of the blade. I actually did this on purpose, because in that split second I somehow decided that it would be the way to keep her noise to a minimum. It actually worked. I felt barely any resistance in the swing as I collided with her head, knocking it clean aside. Linda’s half-formed syllable came out as a kind of weird grunt - a noisy exhalation is probably the best I could describe it. That happened at the same time as her head smacked into the cabinet from the force, and she fell backwards without any ability to keep her balance. I didn’t hesitate at all to keep swinging at her while she was half lying down on the ground, this time my axe facing the right way. I didn’t really know where to swing, so I kind of just started hacking at her collarbone area and chest. It didn’t feel like the axe was going too deep, but there was a nice “thunk” sort of sound every time the axe embedded into her. I even felt the soft sinking sensation ripple into my hands, like the axe was a kind of physical extension of my sense of touch. On a whim, I swung once at her throat, but most of the swing actually missed and I hit the floor by accident, causing a loud, dull whack to resonate through the apartment. I didn’t have time to think about it. I swung again with better aim and got a more centered hit, feeling the bone or cartilage or whatever is in there, so I must have split it open. Right after that, I decided to swing at her face, and I got this diagonal cut along her nose and mouth, which felt pretty good so I did it once more. I finally briefly stopped to survey the damage. Linda was bleeding ridiculously. The blood was kind of coming out in waves, in sync with her beating heart, probably. It was pooling all around her and riding along the cracks between the tiles. Her light blue shirt was all torn up and stained dark, kind of mixed with a fleshy mess around her chest. It was all just glistening red. Her face wasn’t much better, covered in dripping red at this point, and her lip was kind of hanging off, revealing red-stained teeth in a really weird way, like a zombie or something. Linda wasn’t dead, though. Her limbs were kind of weakly, aimlessly trying to move while she was stuck on her back. More than anything, she reminded me of a bug that you crush but it still pitifully moves its legs around before it dies completely. That’s basically what she was doing. But I didn’t know how long it would take for her to die, or what kind of condition she was in. I ended up grabbing a big knife that was on the counter that she was using to cut up meat. Trying to step around the blood, I reached down and carved into the upper half of her neck, trying to sort of saw it from the left side to the right. It was a little awkward because the area was so soft and squished around the knife as I was cutting. But the sensation was completely different from the axe. It actually felt like I was cutting a tough piece of raw meat (which I guess technically, I was). The blood started pouring out, and I hoped that I severed the most major arteries in there. It must have worked, because after a moment Linda’s limb movements kind of just had the strength drained from them, soon resting still on the floor. I took a few seconds to catch my breath. No time to stick around and think about the experience. I shook the knife blade through a dirty pan in the sink to clean off the blood, then threw the knife into my backpack. I did the same with the axe. I also took her laptop that was sitting on the counter. It had some recipe open for veal and mushrooms. I didn’t really take the laptop to use it, since I have a perfectly good one myself that I got for college. I just wanted to look through it for fun. I finally went outside and closed the door behind me. I got some blood on my sweater and jeans. But funnily enough, I actually anticipated that so I wore dark colors. The drive back to my dorm was just a constant replaying of the experience in my head. I guess that’s still kind of happening even now, actually. But it felt pretty nice. Linda Watson is dead. I kind of let the weight of that sink in. The sensation of having completely removed a human life from existence. It’s crazy. I don’t know how else to describe it. Anyway, I threw the axe and knife into a dumpster on campus, which I think is picked up every Monday, so they’ll be gone by then. My roommate goes home on the weekends, so I have the dorm to myself today. It gave me the chance to go through Linda’s website history. I was right in thinking that’s where her deepest secrets would lie. There was actually a lot of dirty stuff, like the names of websites for porn videos and stories and things like that. Same with her searches. A lot of the websites were boring, like cooking websites and recipes, and game websites like Bejeweled and stuff. I eventually got to the “one week ago” section of her history, and it gave me a chill. There were a whole bunch of searches like “methods of suicide”, “how to tie a noose”, “dangerous household chemicals”, “carbon monoxide poisoning” - like a lot of them. She was probably ready to write a book on suicide after all the research she did. So I guess Linda was contemplating suicide. I wonder if it was influenced by her depression. The irony is actually striking. Maybe Linda was going to die anyway. Or maybe she couldn’t find the courage to do it. If that were the case, I almost literally gave her a birthday present by killing her. That’s actually really comical in a messed-up way, and it leaves a weird taste in my mouth. The part I don’t get is that I didn’t see any of those searches up until the “one week ago” section, nothing more recent than that. I ended up throwing the laptop in the dumpster with the other stuff. It’s been a few hours since then, so I’ve had some time to calmly think about everything. Like I said, it was pretty satisfying and I’m glad I finally got around to it. I feel like I can finally cross it off my bucket list, or like I’m tying loose ends with myself. This is probably the first and last time I’ll write the name Linda Watson - it’s back to living a normal college life, except I might do some people-watching every now and then because it’s definitely fun and interesting. But I’ll always wonder how many people there are like me. I’m sure there has to be a lot, because there is just nothing strange about it to me, being curious about killing someone. Sadly, it’s something that people can’t exactly just talk about, so I guess I’ll never know. I’m sure that anyone would just lie about it even if you asked them. But you can’t help but wonder if that person in the grocery store, who stares at you as you pass by, might be considering what it would be like to kill you. If I could, I would tell them all about it, so they could decide for themselves. But who knows, maybe I got lucky, and that person is you. I actually really, really hope so. ~♥"

Natsuki's ".chr" file Decoded:

We haven't figured this one out yet, but we have a few ideas. Note the image is seamless horizontally.

When we opened Natsuki's ".chr" file we again noticed it looked like an image file. We simply renamed the file extension to ".png" or ".jfif" to get the image below.

     The above may have already been documented/decoded. I would like to note that not all of the character files were encoded with Base64.

Thank you for reading, even though it may have already been done.