#and my train is about to arrive o7

[autism-corner]

fuck you clown dante is real.

[hypnoticmoth]

Some ramblings about the version of Vox I draw/write for my AUs, stories (and RP). It's a mixture of headcanons/canon/AU, putting it under a read more so you can skip if that ain't your cup of tea ~

I HC him as transmasc if you couldn't tell yet with some of my art ~ When he arrived in Hell, though, he didn't yet identify as male (lived in life as a woman). He dressed masculine because he thought it would be easier for him to achieve stuff. And he just eventually realized he felt more comfortable with that identity.

His body is an awful amalgamate of artificial and organic fused together. He bleeds both blood and coolant and other mechanical fluids if injured.

His head isn't a part of his body that can regenerate. The TV he uses starts off as a normal one, but once he connects to it, its properties change. Like the rest of his body it gets invaded by organic material. The screen is a solid surface but can disperse when he opens his mouth (which is another can of worms

His vision is tied to the type of TV he uses as a head. Black and white TV means black and white vision, grainy and desaturated colors screen means the same for his vision, ect

Changing his head is not a pleasant experience in the slightest.

His bent antenna is self inflicted after Valentino got his own antenna burnt in an Extermination saving his ass. He felt guilty Val got permanently injured and did this so mothman wouldn't feel alone and bad (he did feel bad)

This injury is what brought his glitches/seizures whenever he gets too emotional.

Vark is a gift from Valentino to Vox (and was trained as a service dog in case Vox glitches out when Val isn't there)

He didn't call himself Vox for his first few years in Hell. His name only came about later.

His very first Extermination happened only two weeks after he arrived in Hell. Man had no idea what the fuck was going on and after his screen got smashed in the chaos, played dead for the remaining how many hours left of it.

Valentino was a prominent name in Pentagram, and Vox saw his chance to ally himself with someone powerful. He was the one to seek out the other.

When he allied with Valentino, he was on good terms with Alastor. The two had disagreements about the place of technology in Hell and how it could be used to further their control over the masses, but they got along. Vox had decided to do his thing on the side to prove Alastor he was right. His idea was that once he'd proven his point, Alastor would come to him to stay allied (it didn't happen shkshksh)

The beginning of Val and Vox's partnership (as in business) was rocky. Vox was very reserved and Val was temperamental, leading the two to often have angry matches. It wasn't helped by the fact Val also made physical advances towards him but Vox "ignored" them because he felt insecure about being a trans man (and thought Val would think lesser of him)

Val and Vox started their relationship because Val caught Vox watching him on camera like the little freak he is.

Vox was the one to recruit Velvette. Valentino didn't like her at first, feeling jealous as the Vees were just him and Vox for the longest time (and he wanted Vox's attention on him and him only)

Velvette isn't in a relationship with the other two. They're friends/have familial like bonds. She's, however, in a relationship with Verosika (i saw art of these two and my heart is forever changed) There's a lot more but i don't feel like boring everyone who wanted to read this already hskjsgkjsg, maybe i'll expand on some points another time. Don't be afraid to trade ideas, i'm always happy to discuss o7

[dollyprincessollie]

please tell us about avery pokemon i don't know much about him but you post about him a lot

HI UR ENABLING MY TENDENCIES. I LOVE MY LITTLE VIDEO GAME BOYFRIEND

but ask amd u shall receive. i will now be listing off every piece of canon information abt him i can think of. HERE GOES

Avery is a tall, skinny (but he has, and i usually dont like these words together, thick thighs) white guy with long blond hair and like. those creepy kinda icy blue eyes 👁👁

He's a psychic type trainer and minor-division gym leader!!! he's also an ACTUAL psychic, hailing from a long lineage of psychics, and has telekinetic abilities :3 however, telekinesis is the only psychic ability he has, so he's kind of the black sheep of his family

because his family thought of him as a disappointment, he developed a like. superiority complex to compensate for his simultaneous inferiority complex. he's very prideful and even would go so far as to LITERALLY LEVITATE PEOPLE if they won against him in battles. he basically covers up his feelings of inadequacy by flaunting his good qualities, though he's prone to exaggerating them as well. he literally straight up pretends to have psychic visions and literally goes "AVERY TELEPORT" when leaving the area

he initially arrived at the dojo in the isle of armor due to being kicked out of the league as a gym trainer for levitating people 💀 he was kind of an asshole at first but since mustard and honey were so nice to him, he kinda chilled out too. HOWEVER when he met the player character, his Superiority-Inferiority complex kind of came back in full swing. he saw that they were better than them and literally LIED to them to keep them away from the dojo. when they make their way to the dojo, he basically fought tooth and nail to make sure he bested them in all of the trials, going so far as to even cheat during the battle by setting up psychic terrain, giving himself an advantage 😭

after he's beaten, he basically goes tsundere mode and is like. "If Only I Was As Strong As . . . BAH FORGET IT ." and after the player beats mustard, avery like. kind of realizes that he wants to be acknowledged by them. he literally trains alone in the dam desert like "OH SLOWPOKE WE'RE REALLY IN IT NOW .... OH TO BE RECOGNIZED BY YOU-KNOW-WHO...." and from then on u can battle him every day :3

after all this, he becomes the minor-division psychic leader 🫡 hard work DOES PAY OFF

AND NOW FOR SOME MISCELLANEOUS but still canon facts

avery's final team is galarian slowbro, galarian rapidash, swoobat (she's the only girl in his team btw :3), alakazam, and galarian slowking! in the galarian star tournament, he only uses his slowbro, alakazam, and slowking :3

avery (and klara, by extension) has a chance of fighting alongside u in a raid battle on the isle of armor! idk what the exact likelihood is though but they Definitely don't show up with each one but. he still oulls up on occasion o7

in the galarian star tournament, he has special dialogue with mustard, bede, fucking SHIELBERT, marnie, and melony!

it's implied that he's afraid of dark types, considering said special dialogue with marnie is like "🥲 I Do Not Wish To Be On The Field With A Dark Type Trainer, But At Least We Are On The Same Side." becaude of this, it could ALSO be implied that he's afraid of ghost types and bug types, considering that dark, ghost, and bug are all strong against psychic types

according to the manga, he's a little weak and tires easily due to his reliance on his telekinesis

...HOWEVER, his second league card shows him.doing pushups with a whole ass galarian slowbro on his back WITHOUT telekinesis, so despite his low stamina, he can lift at least 155.4 lb

due to his speech patterns, avery seems to have a pretty keen ability to associate things with psychic types, or pokemon in general. he often incorporates different psychic type moves in his speech and talks about people (or, the player, specifically) as if they have like. pokemon natures (bold, quirky, hasty, etc.)

avery strongly values elegance and tries to conduct himself in a very gentlemanly way <3 however, he's not immune to being sassy and definitely will be snooty to someone's face

besides the psychic type uniform, avery's clothing is definitely 19th-century inspired! his hat, cravat, shoes, and socks are definitely inspired by victorian dandyism imo. even his glasses are very victorian

THIS IS ALL I HAVE FOR RIGHT NOW.... this is (almost) every piece of canon info i have abt my sweet booboo bear avery *kisses him*... i can also delve into headcanons but. i thought i would delve into the actual factual stuff

[bnuuys-writing]

Chapter Two - Insecurities Begone!

Here you go you guys! Part two of Vil's Moving Castle!! Its not super long but I tried my best for you all! o7

-Bunny out!

The bakery was jam packed with customers left and right due to the festival going on. Yet, even with all the chatter, all the pushing and shoving with the delicacies of sweets and tea floating in the air; You felt like you were a feather, floating with the wind. You could only stare out the window, in awe as you heard the fast approaching footsteps of your sister arriving. 

“Y/n! Are you alright? Someone told me you just floated down onto our balcony!” Her sister exclaimed as she looked you over, worried about your far off gaze and lost in thought body language.

“So it wasn't a dream… It really did happen.” You murmured out softly to yourself, trying to think of what exactly happened- Of course, you could remember it all but… You didn't believe any of it was even real until your sister just confirmed it for you.

It wasn't long before you were whisked underneath the bakery, sitting on boxes with your sister as you could only stare down at the ground with a dull expression. You had recalled all the memories and told your sister all that you could tell her without sounding lost or confused.

“Wow! It sounds like you truly met a wizard, Y/n!” Your sister exclaimed, looking at you with awe and wonder in her eyes. ‘You’re so lucky, Y/n! I wish I could meet a wizard too Y/n!’ You could already hear your sister's train of thoughts as you looked at her slightly pouty face, before giving her a small smile.

“He was so nice to me… He rescued me…” You stated out before turning your gaze back to the boxes across the room, before your sister's face turned upset.

“Well of course he was! He was trying to steal your heart! You’re so lucky, Y/n! If that wizard were Vil, he would’ve eaten it!” Your sister was right, but wrong on another topic.

“No he wouldn't, Vil only does that to beautiful girls.” You didn't mean for your voice to come out so cold but it did, you could only shake your head slightly at your sister’s antics who could only scoff at your insecurities showing once more.

“Oh! Don't give me that! You need to be more careful! It's dangerous out there.” Your sister leaned closer to you, as if trying to pierce through your walls yet you couldn't dare give your sister another glance, keeping your far away look on the boxes in front of you. “Even the Witch of The Waste is back on the prowl.” Saddened by the thought, your sister turned to face you once more only to see that your mind was off somewhere else than this conversation.

“Hey! Are you even listening?” Your sister asked as she leaned back in front of you, gauging your reaction. All she got in response was a snap back to reality gasp from you as you looked back at your sister, aware of where you are again. A groan only came from her as she stared you down, about to speak up once again to scold you if it weren't for one of her coworkers removing a box behind the two of you just to look down at her.

“Chocolate eclairs are done!” He smiled down at your sister, nodding his head at her in which she could only sigh, thanking him for letting her know. Hearing that your sister had to get back to work, you stood up and held your hat closer to your lap as you looked down at your sister.

“Alright, I better get going then. I only stopped by just to see if you were doing okay.” With that, your sister guided you out from the bakery up to the front gate of the bakery, grasping your hands before you could even start to bid her goodbye.

“Y/n! Are you sure you want to be spending the rest of your life in that hat shop?” Your sister asked out, concerned about you in which you seemed to tense up ever so slightly by her concern.

“It meant so much to father, and I am the eldest so I don't mind!” You hummed out, relaxing your shoulders as you looked at your sister with a smile, hoping that she would leave the topic as just that. Just as your prayers were being answered, a man walked by and said his goodbyes to your sister, causing her to let go of you. To you, this was an opportunity to turn yourself away from her and start walking down the road once more.

“Goodbye!” You muttered out, ignoring her statements of how; It's your life! Do something you want to do for yourself for once!

Afterall, you were doing something for yourself… Weren't you?

Hopping on the trolley, and hearing the chime to start pushing off. You could only stare out at the sunset with a small sigh on your lips. You hoped you were doing something for yourself, afterall… You may not be like your sister who gatherers all the attention from the males around you, pretty and with a beautiful personality to follow. Not to mention you were lacking in some assets she seemed to have plenty of… You could only shake your head as you got off the trolley at your stop, the sun having already set long ago. Unaware to you, the trouble that is soon to follow.

Stepping up the stairs up to your hat shop, unlocking it with a soft click and pushing the door open to hear the all too familiar bell chime overhead. Ah, finally back. Letting out a sigh as you shut the door behind you, locking it afterwards did you finally turn on your heel and start making your way inside. With swift fingers, a match was lit as you lit up a candle upon a holder, ready to make yourself comfortable.

Right as you were about to take another sigh of relief, the all too familiar chime rang out as you turned around, startled as you saw another woman standing at the door you thought you had just locked.

“I'm sorry ma'am but the hat shop is closed currently, I could've sworn I just locked that door.” You calmly explained to the woman who was taller than you, and more presumptuous with their choice of clothing. What an eerie sight for you…

“What a tacky store, with such tacky hats… Yet, you are by far the tackiest one here.” The woman stated, causing you to frown at the insult as you tried to hold back your offense. Your hats were perfect! With wishes inside that will lead someone to be happier than before! 

“I’m afraid you will have to leave now.” You replied out, covering your offended pride with confidence in hopes that your authoritative tone would help get this strange woman out of your store. Walking past the larger woman and towards the door, you opened it smoothly which caused the bell to ring once more as you motioned her to leave. “The door is over here. We’re closed.” 

The woman could only turn to you, smile and chuckle. “Standing up to the Witch of The Waste? That's plucky.” Time had seemed to honestly stop for you as you had come to realize your mistake. 

“The Witch of The Waste-?” Fear ran cold within your veins as you swung your head back to the door only to see two of those familiar goons- only this time they wore nice suits and facial masks- standing ominously at your door as your head spun once more to face the woman who was now charging full speed at you with her coat. You covered yourself as you fell to the ground, getting enveloped with this icky feeling covering your form, as if you were just tarred and stuck to the ground. Your bones ached and you felt light of air as you heard her final words. 

“The best part of this spell is that you cannot tell anyone about it. My regards to Vil.” With that, the door was slammed shut as the figures quickly retreated from the area. 

It took a moment for you to even register what had happened, slowly rising back to your feet felt weirder than normal this time. Your bones ached as your muscles screamed for you to stop moving and just rest. You didn't quite feel normal, nor yourself at this time. Slowly looking down to your hat that was within your hands, you could only find yourself staring in shot at seeing your once calloused hands now looking much older, more… Wrinkly, and veiny… You couldn't help yourself as you raced over towards your mirror where customers could try on hats to see which one they liked more. Your body aching and screaming, begging for a small break by sitting down in a chair as you made it over to the mirror. 

As for what you saw in the mirror? Silvery gray hair was perched on top of this older person’s head, their face more wrinkly as their features had begun to sag as if time itself dragged it down. The body was hunched over ever slightly so, as your back ached as you moved. Bringing up one hand to your face, you couldn't help but drag one hand across your cheek as reality set in.

This… This was you! You had turned older! No- not just older… But elderly!

“Oh my! That's really me, isn't it?!” Finally registering everything, you could only swallow a deep gulp as you blinked, looking away from the mirror. In a state of shock, you couldn't help yourself by walking away from the mirror, blinking and rubbing your eyes as if this was all just a trick of your mind. As if your sister’s words were getting to you and you’re just tired from all this work, right?! “I’ve got to stay calm” to keep repeating to yourself as you made your way back over to the mirror, slowly peeking in at yourself only to find yourself looking right back at your older figure. 

Not being able to handle yourself in the mirror anymore, you decided to go get some fresh air. Maybe that will help wake you up, right? This was all just a dream, right?! 

[lanternbats]

actually, tell us everything about your LoZ AU

Sorry I had so much to say apparently so whacking this all under the cut o7

So my first thought was what game do they fit into best. Ocarina of time is an interesting choice, Sheik Bruce is pretty cool and Navi could be a fun take on a lantern ring as she’s a source of information and such, which is the same reason Fi and Skyward Sword also has potential (that and FLYING!! Oh Hal you would love a Loftwing). But I settled on Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom because of course I did.

The Sheikah Slate/Funky arm work soooo well as a lantern ring replacement, and Hal gets to glide around and build planes so boom, perfect Link role for Hal. And BOTW Zelda is a big ‘ol over worked nerd with the weight of the world on her shoulders which is very Bruce.

So they meet when they’re both teens, only around 16 or so when Hal is assigned Prince Bruce’s personal knight, which Bruce hates because he can handle himself thank you very much, but Hal is persistent and carries out his duty. They argue a lot. Bruce feels like Hal is looking down at him for being unable to figure out how to seal Ganon (Who is Ganon is this au? Darkseid I guess) away, which is just him projecting his own insecurities. He also doesn’t understand why a reckless idiot like Hal would be chosen as their hero and wielder of the master sword. Hal, who’s spent years training to fill his late father’s shoes and prove himself as a knight is angry that Bruce won’t see him and his skills for what they are and assumes that Bruce dislikes him because he’s not from a noble background. Things between the two of them are pretty tense.

They’re not in this alone however! Four champions from the rest of Hyrule join them in an attempt to beat Darkseid. Clark (Daruk), Diana (Urbosa), Arthur (Mipha) and Oliver (Rivali) join them and become the pilots of the divine beasts. Up to you if they stay human/Hylian or become one of Zelda’s fantasy races. They try to repair the frosty relationship between Hal and Bruce, trying to get them to put aside their nonsense and see each other properly, but it doesn’t work until Bruce is caught in a surprise attack by Darkseid’s cult followers and Hal saves him. It’s the first time Hal has gotten to show off his skills properly and Bruce has a little “Oh.” moment about it. 

After that the two of them are more open with each other. Hal finally tells Bruce that his father was a knight who died trying to protect Bruce’s parents, the former King and Queen of Hyrule, on the night they were murdered. He always wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps despite his mother’s resistance to the idea, but he also always wanted to become a knight because he knew Bruce was like him and he felt an urge to protect him. Bruce tells Hal he’s scared that without his parents guidance he’ll never unlock the powers he’s said to have that would allow him to seal Darkseid away. A friendship blooms between the two of them and the baby idiot pining goes into full swing. 

Between experimenting with the guardian tech, training with the champions and visiting the goddess springs, Bruce is exhausted. He’s working himself to the bone in hopes of being ready when Darkseid arrives. And Hal can do is watch over him. Bruce’s 17th birthday arrives and he is finally permitted to go to the spring of wisdom to hopefully awaken his power, but to no avail. Darkseid appears, all the champions fall, you know the drill. They’ve failed, Bruce has failed. Hal gets mortally injured protecting Bruce, and to save him Bruce puts him in the shrine of resurrection, knowing that doing so will mean the loss of his memories and the potential that they will never meet again. He doesn’t care. He just wants to save Hal, he can’t let Hal die too. 

Hal wakes up, 100 years later, with no memories of who he is or what he’s doing. He just knows he trusts the voice of the boy asking for his help in his head more than anything. An old man (Alfred), helps guide him and get him back on his feet and accustomed to the powers of the Sheikah Slate before explaining what has happened. Hal sets off to regain his memories and save Bruce. He meets the new champions (it would be fun if they were the Robins?) and sets his friends' souls free from the divine beasts. Said friends grant him their powers and their spirits join him on his journey (This means constant jokes from Ollie, constant worrying from Clark, and Diana and Arthur making so many comments about his fighting form. All his friends are dead but they still find ways to be annoying. It’s a ghostly road trip.). 

With their help Hal gets all his memories back and then sets off to defeat Darkseid and save Bruce. They do, and as Bruce and Hal hug it out the spirits of their friends finally move on and the two of them set out to restore the kingdom. 

NOW. Tears of the Kingdom! Is the perfect Link for Hal, he can literally make constructs. I don’t wanna get too far into spoiler territory with this game since I know a lot of people are still playing, but I don’t think Zelda’s story in it fits Bruce as well as BOTW’s does. So maybe we can just smush the two together and Hal get’s the Zonai arm early.

I’ll just leave you with thoughts of them rebuilding Hyrule together and living up in Hal’s little house. Oh and Dinah is Kass. And Barry is… Beedle. Because I’d miss him otherwise. That is all.

[nicsastros]

elloe tumblr folks, just wanted to show a book i just got eueue, im just so overjoyed

it's so gorgeous, smells so booky, oh god my gremlin hands are smudging the shiny covers, if ppl see me rn it's obvious that i don't look like I read books 😭 (i rarely do tbf)

i actually have read half of good omens before online, but i thought, hmm yk what i want to experience this in real time, and so i got the book :D and also i kinda want to have some sort of good omens merch hhhh

and this is probably my best purchase yet, seriously, i flip through the pages while doing spine training and there's so many paragraphs and texts that i missed, there's even font changing n other details, which i didnt see in the online ver (it was a free website hhh) so im actually quite happy with it, i think i need to do reread again (as i should, because i rewatch the show so many times too hhh)

when i bought this, it didn't actually specify which cover i would get, so i could be getting aziraphale's or crowley's which i'm fine either way, it'll be like a suprise hhhh (actually i had a dream of getting aziraphale's cover because i cannot wait for the book to arrive, it shipped out on 6th may and only arrived now, i was pissed about it hhh)

yk what makes me so mad? is that how in general books in my country are so damn expensive, seriously, look that this, in the US it costs like 10 bucks but when i have to buy it it costs me my whole lungs???? (it's actually was nearly 50 bucks including the shipping, which is accurate when u put it into the google ig, currency i mean, as a brokie however this was a strong purchase 😭) literally if u go to a bookstore, good books can get up to 500 bucks, u think i can afford that?

oh god i remember looking at hp books, i cried looking at the prices, the book looks good though

o7

[jordanprice]

June 11 - Himeji-jo

Dear the fans back home,

I hope you are doing well and that you are ready to hear about today’s adventures! I’m sorry this post is late, and I apologize for making you wait. Hope y’all are well :)

Today we visited Himeji-jo to see the Himeji castle. It was a long way there, but I would say it was worth seeing it.

When we arrived in the area, we split up for lunch. I went with Lauren, Bianca, and Emily to get food. It was some vegan restaurant that Emily found. When we got there, it said that they had a 90 minute wait, but they kicked out a group of people who had apparently been there for over an hour after finishing their meal, in favor of seating us. The others seemed to like their food good enough, but there was a problem with mine. The problem being it never arrived. The lady confirmed our order and everything, then I never got my food, and we didn’t get charged for it. So, I just literally didn’t get to eat for that meal, but it was whatever I suppose. I’m glad the others enjoyed theirs.

We then went to the castle. When professor smith pointed out all the positions for defenses and archers and stuff for the castle, Lauren made the joke that we seemed to make it in easily and that their defenses were lacking. It was really funny, and she kept joking about it throughout our time there. Every time we made it through another gate, she would comment on its ease.

I was then making a joke of my own throughout it on asking whether things were original that obviously weren’t (like tvs and ac and stuff). Just being like “do you think that’s original?” Lauren was then also joking about how much it would cost to rent out a room there, saying like it’s gotta be like four yen or something, and at least two yen. I always like gross over and under exaggerations as jokes. It’s been really fun having someone on this trip that gets my humor well and has a similar sense of humor themselves.

The castle itself was really cool to look at, and I do genuinely wonder how much of it is original and how much of it is like restored and stuff. Overall, I must agree with Lauren though… it was way too easy to invade.

Also, there was this well that was said to have some lady be thrown down it after she broke/was robbed of the tenth plate of a set of ten. People say that they can still here her counting to ten at night and stopping at nine. And all I’m saying is she is swimming in money down there. Literally as there are definitely at least thousands of dollars worth of coins down there, as well as I’m assuming water given it’s a well.

(You can sort of see the coins glimmering in the bottom of the well in this photo. Also, yes, someone from our group is trying to salvage a coin using an umbrella in the left of the photo.)

Lauren wanted to make it up to me for not getting lunch, by letting me decide where to eat for dinner. She’s vegetarian, but was trying to convince to go to a steak place to make up for it. Obviously I’d feel bad dragging her to a steak place, especially since the whole lunch thing wasn’t her fault at all, but I knew it would make her feel better about things. The problem is though, that everywhere either had no menu at all, had a set menu that did not sound appealing, and or was way too expensive. The one place we found was impossible to get to, and the replacement we found literally didn’t exist anymore. We ended up in what I could only describe as a cyberpunk speakeasy, and I ended up getting yakitori and it was really really good. The vibes of the place were so crazy on point I can’t even explain. I felt bad for Lauren as there weren’t really any options for her. She ended up getting strawberry pancakes, and I know she doesn’t particularly like pancakes, so it wasn’t the best for her, but she just seemed happy I liked my food, which was very sweet of her.

Overall pretty good day, but rip everyone’s suica cards. The suica carry is real, and it’s service will not be forgotten o7 (it’s the train pass for anyone wondering, and the round trip today used up a solid fourth of our total original funds).

Academic Reflection

Today I learned about Japanese castles and castle towns. I found it interesting how, as opposed to the tall European castle walls, those of Japanese castles were shorter. This was made up for, however, by the fact that they were on top of hills. This allowed for them to fire down on any possible intruders, without needing to have high walls to maintain high ground. I also liked how the walls were. More naturally sloped, and following that the of the land. This was better for bearing loads. Walking through the castle today, I could see why intruding it would be so tricky. It is on a hill, has multiple layers of defense with many archer holes in the walls, and it honestly kinda confusing if a layout if you don’t know your way around.

An interesting story we learned about was that of this lady who was thrown down a well. She was found to be missing one of ten plates by who I think was her husband, and out of anger he threw her down the well. The theories are that either she broke one or that this samurai whose proposal she turned down stole it from her. The well itself felt like a gold mine looking down at it. The bottom was covered in coins which I thought was actually pretty cool.

[empires-recap]

Weekly Recap: Sept 12th - 18th

A/N: Hello and Welcome to Weekly Empires Breakdown 1! Sorry I don’t have many episode breakdowns to attach to this, I go really in depth and with 3 tests in 4 days this week I just didn’t have the time to dedicate to all the episodes to give them the breake=down they deserve. I will get to them eventually, but this overall my main focus. One week of Empires Video’s Lore all nice and summed up for you guys. So look out for these every Monday, covering Sunday to Saturday so people have a chance to watch all the videos the videos and I’m not spoiling the vids that only came out yesterday. Also, perspectives of events will only be sited if it was released in a episode in this timeframe. Duplicate events may be included week to week based on what creators upload. And feel free to let me know if I missed anything important. So, let’s get into it.

Videos Included this week:

Gem Episode 13 (Fri)

Jimmy Episode 15 (Fri)

Joey Episodes 18 and 19 (Mon, Fri)

Katherine Episode 20 (Sun)

Lizzie Episode 15

Pixl Episodes 22 & 23 (Mon, Fri)

Sausage Episodes 29 - 31 (Sun, Wed, Sat)

Scott Episode 19 (Fri)

Shubble Episodes 16 & 17 (Sun, Tues)

Major Events - Multi-person Lore Events 

The Phantom Joins? The Assassin’s guild - Sausage meets the Assassin, who seems interested in joining the guild but is anti-demon, though doesn’t show his stance outright. Sausage asks him to fulfill a contract and bring him the head of an Empire’s Ruler. He then immediately kills Sausage with blue firework rockets (Such a power move omg). (Sausage 29)

Meeting of Scott’s Allies - Scott calls all his allies to Rivendell to propose a plan for their corruption: put it in a box somewhere far away and forget about it. Katherine volunteers her box of corruption, incased in obsidian in the mountains. They all put their corruption in the box and walk away. In a later scene, unknown to the characters, the box begins to leak corruption (Gem 13, Katherine 20).

Re-solidifying an Alliance - Pixl heads to Katherine to re-solidify their shaky alliance. They do this by heading out to the desert and collecting rare mob heads Katherine does not have (Katherine 20, Pixl 22)

The Bloodlust of The Lost Emperor - Joey, taken over by the bloodlust of the crown gifted to him by Xornoth, goes out and kills both Shubble and fWhip (Joey 18, Shubble 16)

Meeting of the Corrupted - Sausage and Joey meet up. They gush over the power they have been gifted before Joey suggests capturing people. They scout out their targets: GeminiTay and Scott Smajor, while Sausage informs Joey on what he knows of the two. This mainly includes the Dragon Egg, the lack of corruption on one side of Rivendell, and the brotherly relationship between Scott and Xornoth (Joey 28, Sausage 30)

The Capture and Rescue - Joey and Sausage meet with Xornoth to talk about the plan of capturing Scott and Gem. He says they can do what they want with Gem, but Scott must be kept alive as he’s part of the bigger picture. Scott and Gem are talking around Gem’s Embassy at Scott’s when Joey comes up to them. Joey tries to get them to follow him but they refuse. Sausage, who was sneaking up on them, come out and hits them with sleeping potions. Scott and Gem wake up with Mining Fatigue in Sausage’s dungeon, where they are questioned: Gem about the dragon egg and Scott about the brother thing. Gem is actually killed twice during this. Sausage and Joey try to get them to hand over the egg and stop trying to stop Xornoth and they refuse. They leave them there after Scott points out they can’t do anything while trapped. Jimmy, coming to Mythland to brag about how tall his wall is to Sausage, finds the two and frees them. (Gem 13, Jimmy 15, Joey 19, Sausage 31, 

Gunpowder Boys Prank - fWhip meets with Pixlriffs to trade and share demon discoveries and how they have been utilizing the corruption to their own benefit. They then work together and put two elder guardians in Mythland: one in The Dark Tower and one under his house in the dungeon. They try to get a third by his afk hole in the Iron Farm, but it dies. This series of clips also confirms Pixl either has no idea about The Phantom or is denying his knowledge about to fWhip, who seems to acknowledge the incident with Sausage and The Phantom.(Pixl 23, Reaction in Sausage 31)

Battle Arena - Pearl and Sausage build a battle arena between their based, however twice - once proposing the idea and another time during their first fight in the arena - Sausage gets possessed and turned into a more corrupted version of himself. Sausage does not remember anything during these blackouts. Also, Pearl wins the fight (Sausage 31)

Demon Watch - What is happening with corruption, the demon itself, and the resistance efforts against it

The Eyeball has moved, the last known location of it being Lizzie’s base. Crystals have also popped up around the server floating above people’s builds, usually important ones (this is pointed out in Sausage 30). Xornoth physically appeared in 3 episodes this week: Joey 19, Sausage 31, and Shubble 17. To Joey and Sausage, he appeared to over them assistance in their plan to kidnap Scott and Gem, and also to tell them not to touch Scott. He appeared to Shubble, taunting her first by calling her a coward and killing Lord of Mars (o7) but also by showing the power he could gift her if she joined his side. Considering he destroyed her last kingdom, she refused and then he killed her. Resistance stances have been mixed. Gem still has possession of the egg, with no indication if it will hatch anytime soon. fWhip has turned the corruption into fertilizer. Pixl has observed that copper slowly kills the corruption  by turning it into a harden substance and, when struck by lightning with a copper rod, can petrify the tentacles in a fossilized state. Katherine had tried to cure the tentacles with the potion that cured her flowers, but it and the new Moat have failed to stop their advancement.

Personal Events - Buildings, Trade Deals, Personal or Single-Person Lore not including the demon

Gem - Gem builds the embassy at Scotts. After returning from being captured, she calls on friends from other servers to help protect her and the egg: Three White Dragons with purple wings now circle her wizard tower.

Jimmy - Jimmy builds a tower next to his wall, officially taller than Sausages, and plans out the border for his wall/mega-base to surround his kingdom. He also promises one diamond to anyone who brings him a cod head.

Joey - Joey works on the start of the interior of the water temple. It’s not finished, but he also talks about his goal as emperor of the lost empire is to build up the temples of the 4 elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air - to reunite the kingdom in harmony again. He also is still jealous about the amount of corruption other empires are getting, and is also jealous of when empires have a lack of corruption as shown with his meeting with fWhip.

Katherine - Katherine might bring Pixl in to the plushie business, but at the very least has a sale as he wants a husk plushie in his empire. All other events in her involve the corruption or other people.

Lizzie -  Lizzie builds a tunnel from her empire to Katherine’s, decorating the inside to make the steady train ride more enjoyable. In the dessert section of her tunnel she girlbosses tricks Joel and Scott to do the manual labor for her. She also receives Sausage’s “Thank you for Helping to Kill the Dragon” present

Pixl - Pixl returns to Pixandria after several episodes of self imposed exile. He has a brief interaction with Sausage when the man drops off his “Thank you for Helping to Kill the Dragon” Present, basically telling him you are not welcome here.

Sausage - Sir Carlos finally arrives in Mythland, warning Sausage that he cannot escape becoming fully corrupted. He gifts him an artifact he needs to keep in his inventory to escape the spirit realm Bubbles will guide him through after he fully dies, although he is a bit frustrated that Sir Carlos doesn’t tell him who gave him the information or the artifact. He takes a stealth mission to gather information on the other empires, saves the bloodsheep that have been disappearing since Xornoth came to full power, and got the Great Staff of Mythland gifted by a friend.

Scott - Scott shows off his embassy buildings and gets conned by Lizzie to build her tunnel for her

Shubble - Shubble focuses on building a mushroom house for one of her future villagers, and builds the embassy at Scott’s base. Xornoth also gifts her a villager, mainly because he wanted her to kill it testing out her gifted powers. 

[shinygoku]

Liar Revealed! A Bug’s Life Essay

A Bug’s Life is my favourite Pixar movie and thus, it turns out I have a lot of thoughts about it. In this case, what was originally my interpretation soley in response to points I’ve seen raised on YouTube and TV Tropes has spun off into this mega essay.... all focused on a single scene.

But hey, it works with one of the film’s main messages; that something big grows out of a small idea!

The scene is the most notorious in the movie, at least from what I’ve seen, and I’m inclined to agree it’s the weakest part of this giant clock. But why is it like that and how could it have been handled better?

As I’ve said, this is actually my favourite (albeit not what I consider their very best) of Pixar’s output, and I wouldn’t have been able to go into such depth without a huge amount of love for the finished product, flawed as it may be.

It’s also possible I’ll write a more generalised thing on what I love about the film in the future, but I won’t promise anything o7;; 🐜

The Lie is ...laid

Actually, I should talk about two scenes. First is where the Lie is established:

After the humourous mutual misunderstanding between the Circus Bugs and Flik, the former are quite horrified to discover they’re expected to fight the Grasshoppers off themselves instead of putting on a show. Ahh, that old classic~

But no, they want out and Flik, who has just been informed by them during the welcoming shindig, is understandably rattled and despairing over this addition to his list of failures. He says the fallout will not only brand him, but his hypothetical grandchildren as a Terrible Loser and even says he’s as good as dead as soon as the other ants find out. Owch.

Before things get too heavy, the focus shifts around until The Bird becomes the main immediate threat. The whole Bird scene leads the ants to become convinced the Circus Bugs are really amazing warriors and, as this is the first time in what could be years that they have a crowd cheering for them it’s the success and Flik’s later idea to make a Giant Mech in the shape of a Bird instead of planning any actual combat that convinces them to play along.

So, that’s the lie set up and solidified. Now for the eventual fallout:

During a fun party after the Bird has been built, an ominous force arrives... PT Flea, the Jerkass ringmaster who had fired the Circus Bugs. This local bug promptly ruins everything by literally shining a light on the Circus Bugs and their nature as such, and then Flik is accidentally outed as the Guy Who Thought Up The Bird.

The Liar Revealed Trope

I would link the TV Tropes article here, but as tungle doesn’t like external sites I’ll just quote the more relevant parts from it:

“Liar Revealed in the Internal Reveal of The Lie, the facade maintained by a protagonist which provides the primary dramatic tension for the plot. This usually sets up the third act where the protagonists are forced to deal with the consequences of the lie on top of any external threats.

There are a few usual ways this ends up. If the lie was for selfish reasons, the protagonist will doubtless face the wrath of those he lied to, but along the way end up having a change of conscience, and try to redeem themselves through good acts and An Aesop about "what really matters". If the lie was well-intentioned, the protagonist may still find that others turn their backs on him, but go on to carry through with what they said they'd do anyway, proving themselves a hero after all.

It's worth noting that this trope is particularly easy and common to misuse, either in the tendency of the protagonist to Maintain the Lie for reasons that make no sense except for dramatic tension or of the deceived to turn against the protagonist for the deception in spite of other considerations that should by all rights absolve him.”

And in the folder there’s a specific entry for this film:

A Bug's Life has Flik supposedly finding "warrior bugs" to save his colony after misconstruing a situation. When he realizes his mistake (that they're circus performers rather than trained warriors), he's forced to keep the lie going in order to not cause panic among the other ants. Once the colony finds out, it inevitably results in one of the most painfully Played Straight examples of this trope in animation history... 

As you can see there, the dislike for this scene has seeped into the entry. Of course, TV Tropes is pretty informal and I like that, but it’s telling that this is a general perception.

Continue reading below the Cut! ✂

What I don’t like

So, I think my main issue with the scene boils down to... it’s very nebulous and unclear as to what’s so bad about Flik lying. Between the Council, the Queen and Atta, there seems to be a jumbled, confusing motive traffic jam that somehow results in what TV Tropes refers to the Liar Reveal Trope being played “Painfully Straight”.

But uhh, what’s the problem? Yes, Flik lied, but we know that wasn’t something he’d planned on doing, it was his attempt at damage control. The other ants don’t know that part, but still, what are they objecting to, specifically? That the Circus bugs are Circus bugs? That the Bird Plan was Flik’s? That.... lying is treated at an absolute moral failing regardless of the circumstances??

The council dudes are like: “OH WHAAAAT, the defence plan was by Clowns??” [No, it was Flik] “OH WHAAAT, we don’t have our mafia money prepared what if Hopper finds out we nearly sicced a fake bird on him!?”

The part about objecting to Clowns drafting the defence plans is actually the more reasonable explanation, but I guess they presumed warriors habitually made Decoy Bird plans instead of fighting themselves? There’s already a hole in their objections but it only gets worse.

The Queen is like: “Wow Flik evidently you’re a self serving prick. Anyway the best thing to do is pretend this never happened and no we’re not going to tell Hopper.”

Why the fuck would that happen? ‘Oh sorry Hopper we got sidetracked doing a ...thing... so we’re still picking your food no please don’t break my legs’

But also, why THE FUCK is this the plan? Some ruler you are, you old prune. ‘We have the bird all made and ready to go but oops the idea came from a DIRTY LIAR so we’re going to return to the doomed harvesting racket even though we’ve been set an outrageous amount and we can’t possibly hope to catch up and even if we had been picking the food the entire time it was established earlier on we won’t have time for our supplies on top of all that.’

Fucking.... astonishing lack of logic. YOU MORONS HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, GO WITH THE BIRD! Flik himself says something to a similar effect lol

But noooooo, his arguably selfish lie [which is more Omitting the truth once he knew it, really] has forever doomed everything, apparently. Honestly it comes across more like they just hate Flik and see anything he invents as doomed to fail, so the second the truth emerges that he spearheaded the Mech Bird they dismiss it as a lost cause. Even though everyone worked together to build it, and Flik’s inventions weren’t the issue but him being awkward and clumsy. But seeing how Flik’s mere presence in his first scene seemed to drive the Council members into a quivering fury, it really does feel like their objections are from them refusing to give him a chance.

And then there’s Princess Atta. Hoo Boy.

In this scene, she comes off as being ridiculously vindictive, petty and hypocritical. This applies to the Council too, but it’s more galling coming from Atta as by now she’s realised that Flik gets a lot of flak [yay wordplay] from the others and she had resolved to give him more credit. BUT OOPS, that didn’t last!

She takes the Lying thing so personally, acting like he was cheating on her or something. “You lied to MeEeEee” well golly gee whiz, was there any particular reason why he would tell you the truth? Other than his rather obvious crush on you, that is? Cause that would still be a weird reason, seeing how the ‘lie’ was after he’d finally got a bit of decent treatment from the others, why would he wanna upset the apple cart?

He probably feared coming out and confessing to Atta [or anyone else] that they’d lose all faith in him and scrap a valid plan that was the only way out of the grasshopper racket mess. Which would be a bit silly and probably the result of someone with low self esteem and confidence issues overthinking the situation but it’s Exactly what actually happens!

It wasn’t a personal slight against you, Princess! To quote Helen Parr: THIS IS NOT! ABOUT! YOU!!

And wooow, you must be awfully chilly up there on your high horse, Miss “Lied to Flik to get rid of him earlier in the film”! Did you ever feel like fessing up? Like ‘hmm I’ve grown much fonder of this doofus, maybe I should be honest with him before engaging with some more light flirting’ ? Maybe if you had, he woulda been honest in return!

I don’t even see why she and the Council bothered lying about their Snipe Hunt ploy, seeing how now they act like he crossed a moral event horizon. Why even bother making a phoney baloney decoy idea to get him away, when they clearly dislike him enough to play the Brutally Honest card without fretting over his feelings. They coulda just ordered him to stay in a corner away from interfering but instead they’re willing to risk his life on a wild goose chase.

...And she then Banishes him! For what?? Lying? About what, the circus bugs or the bird plan? Both?? It really feels like her taking undue personal offence and the Council hating him and the Queen being old and senile.

So yeah, wow, this scene has what I think is the Unintended side effect of making me hate the stupid jerkface Ant colony as every named ant in it except for Dot fucking suck and throw Flik under a bus the second they deem him to be untrustworthy. In spite of, like, that the plan itself was solid and that the Circus Bugs have all been proven to be Good Eggs. They don’t give him a chance to explain and made their own bed to lie in, so I feel dark joy and satisfaction when the grasshoppers do arrive and kick them around some more.

Wow gee, if only you dumb ass ants had some sort of already made contraption to fall back on?

Why is it like this?

I can only make guesses here, be warned!

From what I’ve gathered of an older version of the story, mostly via Wikipedia, I kinda feel like the exposing would have fit that take better. In the beta version of the story, instead of Flik the lead would have been “Red”, who was a red ant and circus bug from the start. The first draft Circus lot woulda been out to scam the ants initially and I guess would have grown genuine fondness with time. The idea of an outsider flim flamming his way into the good books and later being exposed makes the overblown outrage a lot more understandable. But that’s my hypothesis for the direction they ultimately didn’t go in. Also look at how Red looks like a fuckboi here:

But in the final version, Red doesn’t exist! Flik is a part of the colony from the get go, but also apart from it cause no one likes him as, again, his ideas were good but poorly executed and he seemed to be a hindrance. But the ants should at least see that Flik is genuine in his attempts, that he’s trying his best and they should maybe cut him some slack.

The way the ants have their knickers in a twist doesn’t gel so well with the “Well meaning screwup” angle, especially compared to a possible “Opportunistic so-and-so who doesn’t have real attachments to the colony” route.

Also it may be worth noting up there where I put a TV Tropes excerpt, I bolded the relevant half of the run down, but it seems the other half applies much more to this first draft. Interesting...

So I don’t know, but I got the idea that the scene in the movie is basically a holdover from earlier that didn’t get sufficiently updated. The Liar Revealed Scene is the first thing I’d change if I were rewriting the script, and I might go back and change it again after other parts had been redone too, cause the story needs to flow from point A to point B etc. smoothly or else viewers will get annoyed and point it out in Youtube videos or overly long tumblr text posts.

How could it be fixed?

I’m not saying I’m sitting on the perfect idea of a rewrite. But the main thing is what I already touched on, the jarring disconnect between what happens and how the stupid ants respond.

Like, Atta’s sudden grabbing of the Jerkass and Idiot Balls in this scene. Wouldn’t it have been better if she was instead unsure and conflicted? She had lied to Flik earlier and, unlike the Council, was shown to actually realise Flik Has Feelings Too and apologised for the general lack of faith. She didn’t come clean about the Snipe Hunt Lie, so that could be weighing on her during this scene, maybe she would have been the only Council member to Not want to kick him out but felt pressured into it and hasn’t got into the groove of being the Future Queen enough to pull rank and talk them down from being hate filled twats. Maybe someone will mention the flirting that had been happening as muddying her judgement?

That’s my main idea, compare that with her barging in and taking undue personal offence and shooing him off. She’s supposed to feel like she’s doomed to fail too, so her facing a moral dilemma and falling on the wrong side of the fence could tie into that! (To be honest, her arc is kinda undercooked so hey, I’m killing two birds with one stone here!)

Flik being banished at all is a casualty of The Narrative, that he and the Circus Bugs have gotta go away temporarily for the finale to be cooler and more exciting. It’s a Necessary Weasel of writing and you’ll find them in every story ever made. Sometimes things have gotta happen cause Story Structure. The trick is having them more organic and concealed.

So yeah, have the Old Fogeys be in the wrong [which is so far unchanged] but also the majority of the ‘voting’. Make it difficult for Atta to choose between loyalty to the colony as a whole and her sense of duty versus trusting in Flik, who she now knows to always have his heart in the right place. She comes close to standing up for him and herself, but ultimately falters and gets pressured into the call made in the movie. She’s still ultimately responsible as leaders are, but in a much more sympathetic way.

Summation

This got way longer than I had initially imagined, and that’s even after I cut stuff in the editing process! Let’s quickly review the three main points I’m trying to make.

The Issue with the scene - A big song and dance is made over The Lie, but no reason why it’s such a terrible thing is offered. A perfectly sound plan is dismissed nonsensically.

Suspected reasoning for the writing - The tone matches a potential alternate story much better, where someone would have lied for self serving purposes instead of for the greater good.

A suggestion for a rewrite - Make it much more nuanced and fitting the character arcs. Give the characters a reason to react the way they do and have different responses per person. If the ants are going to drop the Bird plan, at least offer a more viable alternate route than going back to what wasn’t working before.

Does it really matter?

Well, I don’t expect a 22 year old film to suddenly get a rewrite, no. And I maintain that it’s a real gem which deserves much higher praise with the other Good Pixars instead of being so constantly overlooked.

Part of what spurred me to think about the scene and what I’d alter is seeing it referred to as ‘Kinda Bad’ in a youtube video that was talking about another Liar Reveal scene in another movie, and that is a bad take, but the point about how clunky this part is isn’t wrong. I don’t want people to dismiss the whole, beautiful image cause one section of it doesn’t vibe!

It doesn’t ruin the picture, but when people have something negative to say it’s this which is the magnet. And I’m kinda guilty of doing the same thing here, haha. But I wanted to really dissect and examine it, to figure out why it’s like that and to guess how simple it may be to rework. It’s bittersweet, but there ain’t such a thing as a perfect movie.

This has been fun for me to go into though, and it’s nice to get thoughts out from just swirling around inside my head, so even if barely anyone sees and makes it through this whole dissertation, I’m glad I wrote it out. It’s a funny way to derive enjoyment from the bumpy part of a beloved movie, but hey, I’ll take it~

[madefate-a]

you don’t build a life in grand gestures and final battles; you build a life in every moment you collect until you have a seawall. / moments, in a lifetime. 

o1. you are tiny, and your moms are large and warm, and you’re all sitting in the backyard looking up at the stars. the moons are bright and full tonight, and mama points out the way the lights in the sky make patterns with names while mom runs a brush methodically through your hair. you -- all three of you -- will frequent the overstuffed chairs outside your home, with blankets and brushes and stars many times. ( you will remember the last time, before you are set to leave for those stars. you will play it over and over again when you know that your days are numbered and this will all end in your death or theirs. ) 

( now, though, you are small, and mom is brushing your hair. ) 

constance, mama teaches you, tracing a cluster of stars. justice, another one. heartstone. 

the sky is big and endless and for a moment you are part of it, safe and warm and surrounded. 

o2. you’ve never thought to ask why research training involves sparring sessions like this -- captain agathe has explained planetary readiness and you never thought to question what that meant. --- though, for just a moment in your defense, there is quite a lot to take in. star charts ! flight technology ! the delicate tools that measure and catalogue the strange and distant magic of strange and distant planets ! 

the fact that you, you, have been chosen at all. 

in your moment of dreamy awe, you are tipped backwards, the world spinning wildly away from you until you are on your back, looking up at ren’s face. 

wow, mara, she says, leaning casually against her practice staff. you’re so planetary ready. 

neatly and with little fanfare, you brace on your elbow and sweep ren’s legs from under her until you two are tangled together on the floor, breathing heavy. then you grin. 

i like to think so. 

captain agathe gives you two a look when she finds you, a tangle of limbs, laughing and trying to ruffle each other’s hair. 

o3. grayskull ? ren asks, wrinkling her nose. mara has to stifle a laugh -- captain agathe could come back at any minute, and it’s one thing to be caught messing around during training. but this, now ? when they’re about to land planetside in the wilds of an undiscovered world? 

but ren is sticking her tongue out now, doing her best imitation of someone long dead, and it’s a touch battle. 

it’s historical, you whisper to her. important. 

it’s morbid, she tells you. 

maybe it is, but it’s yours. all of yours -- squadron grayskull. 

o4. no one knows what to do when suddenly, your first day out, you fall to your knees in the thick, dark woods near the landing sight. 

the world -- planet -- etheria -- is wild and free and inhabited by the most beautiful, most fantastic creatures any of you have ever seen. large quadrupeds with golden eyes, beasts that fly that outsize a bird ten times over and shriek or sing in turns. serene little lizard-like fellows that look at them curiously as they set up their first observation station. calls and noise that echo warningly in the thick tangle of the woods’ heart. ren had immediately gone after one of the little, perched, birdlike creatures, trying to whistle and imitation of its song. 

you had tried to join her, and you had ended up drowning in sunlight. 

that’s what it feels like; it feels like something golden and burning has poured itself like liquid fire down your throat, spilling out of your eyes, tangling in your hands, grabbing your hand -- tearing you apart. spinning you like a child with a toy, terrible in its joy, destructive in its ecstasy. you realize that you feel it like a living thing -- feel a wonder, a happiness, that will burn through everything you are. you will perish in its brilliance, the last thing you see with your frozen eyes ren -- just out of reach. watching you, not understanding what she is seeing. 

and then you are floating. this is a world without pain; this is a world with only power blooming at your fingertips. you are bigger -- you are stronger. you know, instantly, that you can do anything with the thought alone -- that you are like these creatures: beautiful, strange, strong, free. 

magic, you think desperately. this is magic. 

this is she-ra, the sunlight tells you in an ancient voice. 

then you are you again, and you promptly pass out. 

o5. captain agathe gives you a sword. they have been making it for weeks, since ren ran and got her when you had been overwhelmed by a magical force calling itself she-ra. not that you left it at that; the moment you opened your eyes, you had gone to captain agathe -- to the members of squadron grayskull, to the records on the ship. they are incomplete; you have only just arrived, after all. 

but you find out when the information starts compiling, taken from the written and spoken records of the etherians: the legend of etheria’s champion. a warrior of magic and heart, who has always served to protect etheria when etheria needs her. manifesting in etheria’s greatest time of need: she-ra, the princess of power. 

she-ra, the sunlight had told her in its ancient voice. 

we need to understand this magic, captain agathe had said, but we also must respect it. mara, we will help you wield this power. 

so, for her seventeenth birthday, mara is given a sword. 

this will unlock the mystery and power of she-ra, captain agathe says, handing you a great, golden-hilted marvel of tech. i trust you will learn to use it well. this is an honor you have been bestowed, junior officer. 

ren isn’t far away; she’s watching at you with large, wonderstruck eyes. when you hesitate, she flashes you a furtive, familiar thumbs-up. 

you take it -- for the respect of etheria. for the honor of her squadron, who stand silent and waiting and ready for you to do something that you are not sure you’re capable of. 

( every time you use it, you remind yourself: it is for them. always, forever. for ren and the others. for the honor of team grayskull. ) 

o6. you must let go of your attachments, light hope tells you. 

you laugh. 

light hope, you tell her, fixing one of the hanging plants in the crystal castle. you’ve been saying that for a year, now. look ! watch this. 

mara, this is -- 

-- highly irregular. but nothing about this is regular anyway! just -- watch and observe. record if it makes you happy, okay ? 

light hope pauses as you step back and lift up the sword -- only to reflect some of the castle’s light to a focal point, aiming to the wall just behind the hanging plant. it’s a beautiful thing: lush, thick-leaved, deeply green. some of its leaves are stubby little buds, but some have unfurled to form broader spades. and when you aim the light, the leaves slowly, surely, stubbornly follow it. 

oh, my -- light hope says haltingly. you grin. 

see ? you go to elbow her, the way you might with ren, but you stop, remembering that you will pass through her. afraid to harm her programming. light hope turns to watch you, and you swear you see curiosity in her gaze. 

you soften. 

it is -- fascinating, she says, like a concession. 

i won’t stop training, you tell her, also like a concession. warm and giving. but sometimes it helps us mere mortals to remember what we’re fighting for. can you trust me on that, at least ? 

i -- 

you don’t know then, what is hidden deep in the heart of her coding. how she is fighting to rewrite it. you only wait, bouncing expectantly on your toes until she finishes her sentence: 

i will try. 

( you don’t know that you are both remaking yourselves, circuit and moment and memory at a time. ) 

( you just laugh in joy and say thanks hope ! and light hope blushes. ) 

o7. when madame razz kisses you in a flurry on the cheek, holding you by the chin as if you two are old friends, you are reminded of your mothers more viscerally than you have been in -- in years, now, right ? three, since you touched down on etheria. it catches you by surprise, how you’ve never realized how large and empty and cavernous the hole is where you are separated by lightyears of planetary distance from them. 

but you don’t have much time to dwell in it; razz is bustling around the crystal castle like she owns the place, like she knows precisely where you keep everything -- from transmission crystals to sugar, even if she keeps calling you adora. you watch her in something like wonder, something a little like amusement, something almost like guilt when you remember pointing the end of your sword at her throat, ready to strike for the protection of -- for the protection of -- 

-- of the crystal castle. but that’s not -- that’s not what she-ra was meant to be, right? she exists... what was it captain agathe said years ago -- no, not her. the stories. it was in the data you’d collected; a warrior summoned by the force of etheria’s need. 

this is not the last time you’ll realize you’ve forgotten something important; it’s the first. 

razz calms both you and the quadruped the same way, weeks later -- nonsensical shushing, a calm confidence, it’s alright, nothing will hurt you. you hesitantly place your hand against its fur and, as you let go of she-ra’s form, a flicker of memory comes back: golden sunshine filling you up, pure and unfiltered. go, you say, overcome with the words. be at peace. 

but you have not brought peace; you have torn up what captain agathe calls the darkwoods and razz calls the whispering woods. guilt burns up all the way through you, wrapping around your ribs clawing at your throat. i’m sorry, you tell her, because you are, even though it’s not enough. even though you have destroyed something beautiful and innocent, leaving deep scars in its soft ground. 

she’d wanted to -- to protect razz. and that was supposed to be good, right? 

you don’t have the sword; you can’t use magic to heal what you have hurt without it. except: 

razz takes you by the hand and you feel it again, this time in force: sunlight, twining around your arm like vines growing joyously, seeking the light. it’s not like when you were younger and the sheer magnitude of it overwhelmed your body. this time the magic comes in its little, sparkling puffs -- greets you with gentle kisses on your wrist, your cheek, dancing around your hair like an old friend. 

she-ra is not a sword, razz tells you. she-ra is you. 

and you know this is true, because you can feel the heartbeat of etheria like a twin of your own. 

o8. your people have sent their strongest troops to quell the rebellion. 

your forces -- your grayskull teammates, your etherian allies, your friends, are being run ragged. if you only had to fight to win, maybe you would have stood a chance; she-ra’s strength isn’t something to be taken lightly, and ren and the rest have been training their whole lives for planetary readiness. you’ve been on etheria for ten years -- you have fought the forces of horde prime, you have protected the etherians, and they have given you their friendship, their trust. 

but it’s not only the fight. it’s the research -- gathering every bit of classified information about how the heart of etheria works, following the whispers of a failsafe that always turn out to be insubstantial, inaccessible. you are all learning and investigating and fighting and you wonder how much more they will have to suffer: if you will all fight until the end, losing life and love and hope, only for this and every world to be razed by the corrupted, constrained magic at the planet’s core. 

that your people have corrupted and constrained. 

one night, when the sun has just sunk below the hills and there is a moment of peace, ren sits besides you. you are both silent. your ribs ache every time you breathe, and you cannot look at ren’s arm without wincing in sympathy. but for a moment, you exist beside each and breathe and feel each other’s warmth. 

the stars are spread out across the vast canvas of the night sky. they are not the same stars from your childhood, but you’ve learned their names, their formations, too. 

slowly, ren covers your hand with her own. 

ren, you say, voice rough around the edges but quiet. serenia. her name is heavy in your mouth. 

mara, she says. worried. because she knows you. you turn to her and smile and cut her off. 

i’m glad we can have nights like this, you tell her. you don’t know if you have convinced her -- that you’re alright. that this is alright. that you’re not going to do something reckless. 

but maybe she knows that your choices are dwindling and that the honor of grayskull comes with a responsibility that feels like a terrible price. 

you will hurt her, probably. 

yeah, she says, looking at you, then at the stars. me too. 

just, not tonight. 

o9. you’re out of time. 

you can barely get the words out to razz -- she looks so startled and confused; she looks like she’s hurting. but you know that you will hurt everyone if it means that you can save their lives. there’s nothing left; you couldn’t reach the fabled failsafe. the last princess must have connected with her runestone, and you feel the sensation of something coming to life stirring in your veins. 

tomorrow, you tell razz, knowing that it’s a lie but a small one: if you can do this and do it successfully, razz will have a tomorrow. we’ll bake a pie tomorrow. 

i’m sorry, you want to say, even though it cannot make up for all the scars you will leave. 

this is not like the first time with a sunlight. yes, etheria’s magic would have torn you apart -- with joy. with freedom. with great and beautiful power that had found a home for the protection of those it loved. 

now, your jaw opens as wide as it will go but the scream is lost in your throat. you are paralyzed; you have your hand on the hilt of the sword and are driving it into the surface of etheria, wounding it with the sharpness of the blade and the code that it bleeds. and the magic -- changed, corrupted -- is like burning ice in your veins. it has a mission; it is searching for something in you, and you try to do anything to excise it ( scream, cry, vomit ) but your palms ache and your body is frozen as the code writes itself to life on your flesh. if you could break the sword, maybe -- except it’s all you can do to wrench your hands away, delaying the activation by only a minute or two. 

when you reach your ship, light hope’s voice is not light hope’s, and you know immediately that it’s not because you wrecked her code. she wants the sword. that is what they all wanted -- that is what her life has culminated in. a hand to hold a sword, and with it, rend the magic from etheria and use it to lay waste to this and every world. 

it is your destiny, light hope tells you. 

maybe it was. but you will protect etheria, and you will protect she-ra too -- from the hands that would use her, point her to enemies as a weapon. 

you will be a hero, light hope tells you. you are she-ra. 

something inside of you that has been fracturing through this whole rebellion shatters. 

1o. you never wanted to be a hero. you won’t be remembered as one. 

you don’t think of the way agathe and your superiors turned on you -- the way they looked at you as if you were some unknowable thing the moment that you realized that they must be your enemy. 

instead, you think of razz kissing your face and ren holding your hand, and hope telling you that despite what she has been programmed to do, she’ll try to change. you think of squadron grayskull: of the nights spend laughing under the stars, cataloguing the new birdcalls, training with the sword, growing plants with magic without it. you think of your mothers, lightyears away, who will be safe, now, because you will make sure that the only heart of etheria is the love that it bears and not the weapon in its core. 

for their protection, love, and honor, you can finish this. 

so, you steal the stars. 

[yoags]

Elite adventures

So I have been playing paragon on and off, and I am writing an essay about what we get from games and why I don’t get as much from Paragon as I used to; but mostly I have been playing Elite: Dangerous. It is a space simulator from an English developer based in Cambridge that are known for Planet Coaster as well as the original elite games. Frontier seem to be a small but good developer who are constantly adding content. So, although this game is a few years old now on PC, it is still evolving all the time. It is a kind of MMO like Eve Online, but you can also play it alone if you choose to. I always play on open but there don’t seem to be tons of player on ps4. Either way, I think it’s a great game. So here is a little photo-story of my travels around the galaxy.

Elite is as realistic a space-sim as you can get. Everything is difficult to control. Flying, landing, etc. They give you flight assist but it can even be turned off for a greater challenge. My first few months with the game were made up on learning to land properly (which took some weeks and I still fuck up pretty often) and making some easy money bounty hunting until I could get my first decent all-round ship, the Cobra MkIII. Most people get this ship and with it I involved myself in a Community Goal. These are weekly missions to bring trade items to a system or kill NPC pirates etc. and the efforts made by the community add into a global pot which gives big rewards at the end of the week. I managed to haul enough rare goods into a system with my little Cobra MkII, making 10-15 jumps per run, spending hours actually over the course of a week, until I got into the top75% and got about a 30 million or so pay out. I was rich! (Not really though, just relative to what I had been able to earn before). Rich enough to buy a Diamonback Explorer and go exploring!

So I set off into the stars, looking to visit a nearby nebula: the beautiful California Nebula.

Wow. It really is striking, and I took many photos from all around this nebula whilst scanning stars and planets which looked interesting. The most valuable planets are earth-likes and water worlds as well as ammonia worlds and a trained eye can tell at a glance on the system map. But I am pretty new to this, so I took my time; learning what to look for.

With the rest of the Milky Way in the background, the reverse side of the California Nebula is stunning. And I still love my little Diamondback Explorer.

I saw blue-white giants.

Endless rings.

And neutron stars.

But this was just a practice run. This was a short 1000 light year journey. Something you can do in around 10 hours, give or take. I found lots of beautiful systems, and got my exploring legs, saw how my DBX ran, and returned to the human inhabited bubble with some millions of exploration data. I had some decent money but not enough to upgrade to the next ship(s). I would have to take a longer journey. 

So I decided to take some famous explorers sightseeing. They wanted to go to Cat’s Eyes. I did not know what it was, but on the galaxy map it said black hole. Around 7000LY away from me. It’s a long way, but not as long as the journeys some people take. Some explorers go away for months or even over a year OF REAL LIFE TIME. That is how big the galaxy is. It’s a realistic simulation of our galaxy, many of the sights are there and you can visit it all. It’s quite miraculous. I will never be able to go to space in my life time, but in this game I really feel like I do.

So, I fitted my DBX with a passenger cabin. It would mean I could not make such long hyperspace jumps, but I would get a very nice 15million credit reward when I got back and it felt nice to have some company and a destination. 

We set off. And I did not realise how long the journey would be. It was around 10 days of heavy play that I was away. I did not stop to smell the roses as much as I could have. I had no planetary vehicle hanger, my jump range was quite standard though without engineering. So it took me a long time. I don’t know how many hundreds of jumps I made. I have to admit, everyone was right. You cannot keep doing the same thing for so long without some entertainment. I would watch a show while jumping. Stopping, scooping fuels from the star while I checked out the system, and if there was nothing interesting to surface scan, move on to the next.

But I found undiscovered water worlds.

Brown dwarf stars, dying slowly, surrounded by striped rings.

Many colours of stars.

And systems so hot I was glad I was in a Diamondback.

The journey was long and I had discovered many new worlds and systems. But we were about to reach our destination.

Closer to the galactic centre the sky is simply away with stars and nebulae. It becomes as bright as the star nearest to you.

Then I saw it. The black hole. I was scared. I dared not go near. I did not want to be pulled in. It was hard to see, hard to visualise the hole itself. In fact, what you see is just the light being bent around it. So the normal band of stars across the sky was the only way to see where the black hole was.

But, hold on, the visitor’s beacon is very far away, I had not fulfilled my mission objective. So I super cruise over to the visitor’s beacon and realise that there is not only one black hold in this system, but three!

The cat’s eyes stared back at me and I felt very far from home and very alone in my little ship. The explorers travelling with me were happy to have seen this too, so they were ready to go home. But that was another 7k LY back, and I would go a different route. In fact, I found a faster route home but I went though many unexplored systems and found plenty of terraformable and water-worlds. I mean to go back to certain regions as I believe them to be a rich gold-mine of earth-likes.

But I finally arrived home after a weekend of hard work, many hours or travel, and I was rich. Well, not really rich, but even relative to what I had before I left I had a very healthy credit balance. I made some 80 million credits from my passenger mission and the exploration data, and it was time to go shopping.

Asp Explorer. The explorer ship of choice. Enough space to fit an SRV, passenger cabins, whatever you could want, and still get a 40-50LY jump range. Not as far as the DBX can go, but more flexibility. So I’ve been scooting about the near galaxy seeing some sights.

The planetary vehicle is very much fun in low gravity.

Saw some barnacles but no Thargoids as yet.

Did see a destroyed prison ship that had been decimated by Thargoids. There were emergency vehicles around tending to the casualties.

Made a friend at the old INRA base. He was wanted but I did not hold it against him and it was fun.

I bought a vulture for bounty hunting. This thing destroys.

And a dolphin for passenger missions. This is my space bus.

Geysers.

A magestic class interdictor. Not a player controlled ship, the hugest ships in the game.

Dolphin in front of things. See you soon! o7