#and the dragon nest arc too! all in one!

[tobiasdrake]

'ello again! got any db outfit that you have any particular fondness of or enjoy narratively? i personally like future gohan's gi, 'cause of it symbolizing his attempt and failure to be goku. so close, yet so far. also goku's unweighted clothes because i think he looks cool like that.

Obligatory mention of Videl fucking people up in her school uniform.

Which is easily the coolest look in Dragon Ball. As a general rule, I love uncostumed supers. People with fantastical powers kicking people's asses in jeans and a t-shirt? Yes, please.

Narratively, I've always been fond of Goku's blue dogi from the epilogue in the anime.

I'm actually not sure if he's supposed to be wearing a new dogi in the manga. The grayscale makes it difficult to definitely say what color this is.

But if this is the blue outfit then I like that too.

It harkens back to Goku's original outfit from the first arc of the manga so there's a bit of "full circle"-ness to it but also. Like.

After a certain point, the meaning of the orange dogi became lost. It was originally the uniform for students of Kame-senryu. Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha were supposed to stop wearing it as of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai but continued to do so as a way of paying respect to their master.

This was a cute moment. But then they kept wearing those forever. The orange dogi gradually ceased to have any narrative weight to it and just became... the iconic look. You wear that because that's what you wear because everyone knows you wear that.

It can be cute to wear your high school uniform to the graduation afterparty if you have really strong feelings about your school. But if you're wearing your high school uniform to the grocery store at 35, something's gone wrong with your life. Yamcha and Krillin never really left the nest until their retirement from martial arts years later. Hell, Krillin continued to live with the Muten-Roshi for decades after.

Goku did, sort of. He changes out symbols as his art develops under new masters, culminating in his Peak Goku outfit with his own Go symbol.

This is Goku leaving masters becoming and coming into his own. Stepping out onto Namek as the master of his own art.

...but also it's still the Kame-senryu dogi. Goku is wearing the uniform of a school he hasn't been a student of in about a decade. By the time Gohan and Goten start wearing it, two characters who have never once studied under the master whose clothes they're wearing, it has lost all narrative meaning and settled into pure brand recognition. "The Goku Outfit."

The blue dogi is the first time Goku actually does what Kame-sennin told him to do two decades prior and gets his own look. An outfit that is distinctly Goku's. Something that marks him not as a student of Kame-senryu but as what that symbol up there was supposed to mean: The master of Goku-senryu.

For similar reasons, I really like this look for Gohan.

The series goes back and forth between Gohan wearing Goku's clothes vs Gohan wearing Piccolo's clothes. WHICH ONE IS PEAK GOHAN? GOKU JR OR PICCOLO JR!?!?!

But that is an argument designed to keep Gohan in the shadow of one of these two characters. Whose son is he? Whose apprentice is he? Who is he the sidekick to? Whose legs should he be hugging? Whose shadow should he walk in?

The Great Saiyaman outfit, goofy though it is, is the only time Gohan has ever chosen a look for himself. It's the only look he has that is distinctively Gohan's. This is what Gohan looks like when he steps out of the shadow of others and gets to be the star. This is who Gohan wants to be, and not who Goku or Piccolo would make him.

Goku's blue dogi and Gohan's Saiyaman uniform with Super Saiyan hair are incredible because they both embody the apotheosis of these characters.

Let's see... Krillin with hair, that's a great look.

Krillin quit shaving his head when the fighting stopped AND suddenly had the first romantic success of his entire life. Coincidence!? Yes. Yes, it is. But it's still a good look.

I also like how Vegeta's look gradually devolves from the battle armor he's wearing in his first arc. Vegeta always looks phenomenal in civvies.

It is a crime that Vegeta didn't get to have a single fight while dressed in the Blowjob Princess outfit.

GT didn't do much that was good but it did give us this look.

And I am here for Vegeta finally going Full Earthling and wearing jeans and muscle shirts into battle.

To wrap this up, we'd be remiss to talk about Dragon Ball outfits and not mention Bulma. She's had a variety of looks over the course of the series but my personal favorite is this one.

Bulma's 25th Tenkaichi Budokai outfit is a simple, elegant, and mature that shows her advancing age while still looking stylish as hell.

Man, the Buu arc was just... a good time all around for character aesthetics.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Review 8 in series of Dragon Age Veilguard

60 hours in 58 actual gameplay

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Part 7 is here.

Spoilers for Dragon Age Veilguard

Critical review CW strong language.

Well. If I'm right about who the Gloom Howler is, and I'm almost certain after the Cauldron... I really fucking question the reading comprehension of whoever wrote that arc.

She loathed doing what she was ordered to do to the griffins. She saved the last clutch of eggs, left secret clues on where to find the nest kept in stasis, and answered her calling early so no one could get the information out of her. All in the hope that future generations would be worthy of griffins again. And now she's doing the exact opposite? Seriously?

I mean, I'm aware that the supplementary material isn't something everyone is gonna read, but as far as I know the printed materials are considered canon. Which means they've taken a sad, epic story and completely reversed it in a retcon I'm not sure I can forgive them for.

I've marinated myself in the Lore of this world. That's an incredible disservice to her sacrifices to save the last remaining griffins. It's a disservice to the writer of Last Flight, too. That's not even touching on the 'of course when you shove a blade into the bones of a roughly 400 year dead arch demon... it will come out bloody?' Excuse me now? Someone has watched too much jurassic park, because that would be utterly impossible.

Once again, I'm asking myself What. The. Actual. Fuck. were the devs and writers thinking?

Surely they know at least some of us have read the printed stuff?

Did they think we'd have forgotten? Unfortunately for these retconning incompetents, (I am so, so sick of retconning in general, and fed the fuck up with it in this game) autistic and AuDHD folks like me tend to have razor keen memories about our special interests. Whoopsies.

Last Flight wasn't my fav of the books, but it was beautifully written and heartbreaking with a gleaming golden string of hope.

And this is the end of that story? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I can honestly think of only one way they could make that make sense. And my trust in Bioware writers now lives below sewer level, so I'm not hopeful they'll go that way.

It's possible that I'm wrong, but understanding and critiquing media is my actual job when I'm not recovering from a pulmonary embolism. And yes, absolutely, I could've written far, far better material.

How. Can someone please tell me HOW a company that has something as successful as DAI under their belt... makes... this? I swear this game (DAV) is like some of the worst AI written shite I saw in ESO back when I played that years ago.

I guess I should say machine written. Whatever. I've heard ESO was doing that a long while ago. And the blah storylines and boring assed questlines proved it.

This game reminds me of that. Though, I think they were probably written by actual humans... I really have to question where exactly they scraped up the writers for them.

The street? A back alley? A mud pit? Did they give apes access to a keyboard and use whatever claptrap they came up with? (Yes. They did. Humans are apes.)

It's common enough in Hollyweird that writers working on a particular IP (intellectual property... IE Dragon Age or Witcher etc.) often utterly loathe the source material. I fail to understand why or how that would be okay, because we can fucking tell, you know? You can tell when a writer loves their work, and when they don't. And we wonder why so many things in hollyweird fail.

Is that what happened to DAV?

They had a fucking blueprint for fuck's sake! DAI was RIGHT THERE. It won GOTY if I recall correctly. No one wanted a game exactly like DAI but dear fucking gods something... not this... would've been far preferable. If they'd used DAI as a sort of map? A guideline or outline? DAV might’ve been a good game. And the sad part is that it actually could have been. With just a little more care, less streamlining to mediocrity, better editing and writing? This could've been another win for Bioware. As is, if it wins anything I'll be suspicious of bribery.

It's just so... meh. Where it's not outright bad.

And even though I'm under media blackout so I can write a truly unbiased review... it wouldn't surprise me if some fans were going gaga over this travesty of a game. Just because it has Dragon Age in the title.

It sucks when you want desperately to love something. But you just can't because you can see the flaws. And the flaws far, far outweigh the good parts.

And none of those good parts are even unique. They're just lifted from other games.

And I got the load up with no CC glitch again. Lost about an hour of playtime figuring out when it happened and which save to reload. I'd really hoped the damned hour long update would've taken care of that.

What a sad mess this game is.

Though on the positive, I do love the new takedown mechanic. And it's oddly satisfying to clear blight. I like tracking things. IRL too. I grew up in a subsistence hunting family. Though, I always just used a camera. I know how to track stuff, so that's fun. I like the ballista and zip lines. There are good parts of the game... but they aren't the parts that really matter.

I had to turn Taash down for Romance because it happened way too fast. I barely felt like I knew them, and my demi ass needs more than what we got before committing to a relationship.

It's warming up with Lucanis, Emmrich, and Davrin. I'm not decided yet. And this is where a polyam mod would be great. There's no reason polyam shouldn't have been included in the game. It could've been just a few characters okay with it like BG3, but the rep and possibilities would at least be there.

I'm incredibly fed the fuck up with the narrative that turns Solas into an awful person. They're trying so fucking hard to paint him that way. They're hammering it home so hard I really can't recommend (at this point) that Sollavellans play it. It's possible that will change, but... sigh. They've even got my Rook saying negative shit about him. Shouldn't that be a choice that I get to make about my Rook? How they feel about Solas?

And if I could kick the incredibly unintelligent and massively fucking annoying Lace Harding off a cliff, I absolutely would. Hard. And laugh while I did it.

Everyone blames Solas. Why is everyone so far up Mythal's asshole that they're forgetting it was always her requiring her bound servant IE enslaved spirit who never even wanted a body (forgetting that part?) Solas to do what she said. That he tried over and over again to dissuade her?

You know, as a friend said, they could've hired a bunch of Ao3 fic writers and paid them in pizza or waffles and come out with better story lines than this.

Oh, but no, it's all Solas's fault. And the narrative is so fucking heavy handed on that that it's honestly nauseating me a little.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Section 9 here.

[yronnia]

[Edit: check my reblog too, screenshots from the book kindly provided by spookydazechaos]

Agnesses Nyce and not so accurate prophecies with screenshots.

The full list below.

Some are unreadable (to me), so I inserted some X-es instead, where necessary. Interesting is, that Orient Chariot is mentioned twice, in prophecy nr. 3819 anf 4019.

Prophecy nr. 3012 is only one I cant allocate, dont tell me its about Aziraphale and Crowley, when Agness adressed Aziraphale by "angel" "thyf " and "principalitee", whats the bit about the dragons? Because they have wings?

1111- An the Great Hound sharl come

and the Two Powers sharl watch in V

Goeth Where is, Where they

Notte, and he sharl name it, True to l

and Hell sharl flee it

2213- I tell ye thyf, and I charge

ye with my wordes. Four shalle

ryde and Four shalle alfo ryde,

and Three sharl ryde the Skye

as twixt and Wonne shal ryde in

flames, and theyr shall be no stopping

themme, not fish, nor rayne nor rode, neirher

Deville nor Angel. And ye shalle be theyr also

2214- In December 1980 an Apple will arise no

man can eat. Invest thy money in Master Jobbes

thinking machine and good fortune

will tend thy days.

2315- Sumsay It cometh in Londo xxx or

New Yorke, butte they be Wronge, f xxx is

Taddes fild, Stronge inne hys powr, h xxxxke

a knight inee the fief, he divideth the xxx

4 partes, he bringeth the storme.

3001- Behinde the Eagles Neste a grate Ash hath fallen.

? 3007- Brings forth

For the devil lucks in plain sight.

Under an arc of pale moonlight.

3008- When that the angel readeth these

word of mine, in his shoppe of other mmennes

books, then the final days are certes upon us. Open

thyne eyes to understand. Open thyne eyes and rede

I do say, foolish principalitee, for thy cocoa doth

grow cold

3009- Seven, who hold the Scepther shall be killed,

xxx shall become a saint.

3011- xxThe?

and churces be laid open

opressed shall prevail, and oppose the cruen

foreginers. For a Boar of Cornwall shall give his

assistance and trample their necks under his feet

3012- A shower of blood shall rain and a ragging

famine shall afflict mankind. When dhese things

happen, the Red Dragon shall grieve, but when his

fatigue is over, he shall recover his strength. Then

shall misfortunes hasten upon the White Dragon,

and the buildings of his gardens be pulled down.

3017- I see Four Riding, bringing the Ende, and

the Angells of Hell ride with them, And Three sharl

Rise. And Four and Four Together be Four, and the

Dark Angel sharl Own Defeat, Yette the Manne

sharl claim his Own.

3477- Lette the wheel of Fate turne, let harts

en- join, there are othere Fyres than mine, when

the wynd blowethe the blos- soms, reach oute one

to anothere, for the calm cometh when Redde and

Whyte and BLacke and Pale approache to Pear is

Our Professioune.

3819- When Orients chariot

inverted be, four wheles in the

skye, a man with bruises be upon

Youre Bedde, achinge his head

for willowfine, a manne who

resterh with a pyn yette his

hart be.

3988- Whene menne of crocus come frome the

Earth and green manne frome thee Sky, yette ken

not why, and Plutos barres quitte the light- ning

castels, and sunken landes riseth, and Levia- than

runneth free, and Brazil is vert, then Three cometh

together and Four arise, upon iron horses ride, I tell

you the ende draweth nigh.

3989- He is not what he says he is

4009- Where the Hoggs back end the young

beast will take the world and Adams line will end

in fire and darkness.

4019- When Orients chariot inverted be a

man with bruises up thy bed, aching his head for

willow fine

4020- Let the wheel of fate turne, let harts

enjoin, there are other fyres than myne, when the

whirl wynd whirls, reach oute one to another.

5001- When the skies are xxxx, then ye

both must stand between the world and life and the

world of wae, where the iron bird lands no more

5004- When alle is fayed and all is done, ye

must choofe your faces wisely, for soon enouff

ye will be playing with fyre

[rcrisdraws]

Vash the Stampede and Livio for the character ask meme, please and thank you!

GIVE ME A CHARACTER; and I’ll break their ass down:

I'm gonna start with Livio bc the list is shorter.

How I feel about this character: First of all probably the most Lesbian design in Trimax when he's still with Chapel. 100% Cowboy, he's such an interesting blend of killing machine and big ass softie towards the end of the manga it's genuinely so compelling. His protectiveness over Milly&Meryl is so genuinely heartwarming. And that's not even mentioning him sharing his headspace with Razlo bc my thoughts are even less well organized on that front than a big AUGH. I feel for him extremely

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Milly and Vash! Tasting a lil bit of that with manga Elendira

My non-romantic OTP for this character: With Wolfwood. They are brothers and each other's ghosts are following them around throughout the entire narrative 🥺🥺

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don't think I'm well versed enough here to have very strong opinions, let alone unpopular ones- except that he's one hell of a butch lesbian

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Depending on how Trigaze goes I just really really wanna see short hair, beef-cake Livio following WW's death. But also yeah, beef him up, he's too skinny in Stampede, but it's a prequel so I'll let them cook for a bit.

Now VASH!

How I feel about this character: Everything! I feel EVERYTHING! This character crawled up into my ribcage, wrapped himself around my heart and now refuses to let go. I think about him for longer than 5 seconds and I feel the need to curl up and scream. He's such an incredibly complex and compelling character no matter the adaptation you get him from (except BLR). The suffering he goes through and the way he relates to it is so human, so easy to relate to for me. And that's such a comfort. It's horrible and bleak sometimes and you're so so hurt, but there's love and there's peace and there's people loving you and there's love still waiting, and there's a better future up ahead that's yet to be written. Maybe we don't make sense, maybe we don't coalesce, maybe we're all a bit hypocrites, but does that matter when you're still trying in the end? trying to be kind and do as little damage as possible. His personality will always get me, his avoidance will always get me. His sadness, his mask will always always make me just bent over. I am gutted over this man in a way I haven't felt for a character in a long while.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Wolfwood & Meryl in any combination, Polygun, and a sprinkle of TriMax Livio in it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: MillyVash. They're my queer platonic GOALS

My unpopular opinion about this character: With feeling so strongly about a character also comes feelings of overprotectiveness over the characterization, though I guess if there's one thing that really grinds my gears is people insisting his Stampede characterization is off-key or flat, whereass to me it feels pretty darn close to the manga just condensed. Idk. I know a lot of people latch onto Vash's sillyness and highjinx, but to me the sadness is just so pervasive that it'd be doing him a disservice to not have it permeate all his actions. The sillyness is mostly a mask, there's always a degree of deception, of avoidance, of trying to sidestep and minimize himself; be as little of an inconvenience as possible to everyone else. And that's Tristamp. Also idk how unpopular this is, but you will have to pry intersex Vash out of my cold dead hands. That man is not cis.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Aside from Dragon Nest arc, which we're likely to get adapted in Trigaze, I'm hoping for Hospiral Yuri: Vash in civilian clothes. and higher on my list of 'most likely won't get adapted' but I wish they were bc those panels haunt me: arc rescue mission, but specifically this panel, bc the way Vash looks here just GUTS ME in such a particular and personal way.

ALSO I NEED THE PREGNANT PLANTS ACKNOWLEDGED AND ADRESSED IN TRIGAZE BC WHAT HAPPENED THERE WAS 100% SA AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN DAD VASH IS A CANONICAL POSSIBILITY!?

[kiskivmiske]

The Blooming Fever

Short summary: Sable and his little sister Pebble run from their home to find a better life. During an outbreak of a new disease from far away land, brother and sister are separated. Now Pebble has to face the most evil dragon in Pyrrhia.

Ff takes place between arcs 2 and 3.

Contains: canon level of violence, mild gore, ableism, mentiones of SH, SA, drug abuse, non descript mentions of cannibalism (a baby thinks another dragon is gonna eat her)

Canon characters that will appear: Clay, Umber, Sora, Reed, Marsh, Pheasant, Newt, Peril, Moonwatcher, Qibli, Turtle, Kinkajou, Blaze, Glory, Tsunami, Anemone, Deathbringer, Peacemaker, Sky, original characters

This ff has a lot of chapters already done, but they aren't translated into English yet. You can find it on ficbook titled "Цветущая лихорадка" if you're fluent in russian.

Keep in mind that built-in google translation is gonna suck.

Prologue

The air was clear and icy, with a tang of tree sap almost blocking rotting stench of algae and duckweed coming from the swampland. The sun, peach pink behind the veil of bluish clouds, was slowly disappearing out of sight behind a dark, jagged wall of pines. In the clearing, trees were glowing with all the shades of orange, as if the sun was actually melting into the ground just to be absorbed by the roots.

Lush fruit trees surrounded the clearing, their leaves red and golden, their branches hanging low, heavy with fruits. Red apples, green apples, pears of all shapes and sizes, shadberries, quinces, walnuts, aronia… all growing from the same root! It was almost impossible to tell, which seeds were originally planted here, their bark was a jumble of browns, grays and greens.

Apple sapling, growing in the center of the clearing, shook as someone huge stomped past it.

Cowberry took a deep breath and dug his claws deeper into the ground, enjoying the feeling of cool water seeping through thick layer of white moss. Shaking water off his wings, plump young dragon walked around the tree and picked up one of its apples off the ground. Big, at least twenty times bigger than wild forest apples, which rarely grow bigger than cherries. A bit too soft, with a small scratch on its side, but otherwise fine. Cowberry sniffed it and took a bite. Apple juice, honey sweet with an unusual hint of apricot and carrot filled his mouth. Young MudWing finished his apple in two bites and sat down, squinting at the sunset, his dappled amber and golden underscales glowing as if they were made of pure fire.

«So how's it?»

Cowberry swung his big brown head around, turning towards dark and mossy spruce trees on the other side of the clearing. Black shadows behind large unrooted oak stirred, and another dragon stepped into the light. Berry was fairly large for a three year old dragonet, almost as big as an adult. But the other dragon was even bigger and much more intimidating. Another MudWing, tall and well muscled, with broad flat head covered in battle scars, big snout with nostrils on top of it. However, as he walked out of the forest and golden rays of the sun hit dragon's scales, his color didn't really change that much. Sable was solid black, darker than any NightWing, the only light spots being his bright yellow eyes and wrinkled long scars on, seemingly, every part of his body. One of his wings was torn off almost completely, leaving only one claw, another had three spear holes in it.

«You gave me a heart attack, Sable. And my heart attack has got a heart attack on its own! Don't you ever do that again!» he scolded his uncle jokingly, rolling his eyes and clutching his chest.

«You picked that from your grandmother, didn't you, Berry?» coal black MudWing stretched, clawing at a flat granite boulder.

Cowberry nodded, round hazel eyes sparkling with amusement.

«You were looking for me?» Sable straightened himself, concerned. «Is something wrong with the nest?»

«No» Berry answered, «I was just wondering what you're doing. That's all! That, and… Sapropel started a mudball fight with Tadpole again and I just want some peace and quiet.»

Sable had lost all of his sibs, including Cowberry's mother, to the war that sparked in the Sand Kingdom and soon spread across the whole continent. Cowberry was only a year and a half old when it ended and didn't remember much of its horrors. He could, however, see, that is has left too much scars on his uncle, not only on his scales, but also on his heart. Although is isn't usual for MudWings to care about their young, Sable took full responsibility to care after Berry and six of his sibs, untill they were old enough to show their independence. Cowberry was the only one who didn't stop hanging out with his uncle.

But it will change very soon. His grandmother's eggs, hidden on the edge of the swamp, were going to hatch in the next few days, if not today. Sable sure was more excited about those eggs than their own mother. He even built his new den on a tall cliff where he could watch the nest. Five little sibs to take care of! Berry also guessed that it wasn't the only reason why his coal black uncle was so interested in them: one of the eggs was different from the others. It was red like a cherry! Berry didn't ask what it means, but he thought it could mean that one of his little aunts was going to be unusually colored, too.

Sable sat next to his nephew and fished a stack of papers out of his pouch.

«I found a patch of rare orchids deeper in the taiga,» he explained, showing charcoal sketch of a weird looking plant, with small flower resembling an obese duck.

«I thought orchids grow much further to the south? In rainforest?»

«No, actually, I've seen more species before, too far away to reach at the moment,» he frowned, looking at the sky, «I better come back!»

«If you're worried, I can watch the eggs instead,» Berry offered, «I will call you is something happens!»

«That would be nice», Sable took a piece of charcoal pressed between two wooden planks in his talons and started taking notes next to the drawing of a flower, mumbling to himself.

Cowberry nodded quickly and took off.

His uncle laid down on mossy ground and continued to describe his finds elaborately.

The sun had almost gone, its warm light shined for a brief moment in pines, before finally letting the twilight in. It was much harder to write now, as the forest was completely submerged into the darkness. Sable put his notes in the pouch, well protected under his good wing.

That was when he heard Cowberry's desperate shriek in the distance.

«Sable! The eggs!»

Huge black MudWing jumped up, excited. His little sibs were hatching?! Then, he heard another scream. Too high-pitched to belong to a dragon. Sable's heart sank.

Scavengers!

He ran as fast as possible, for the first time in years wishing he could fly. But, when he reached the swamp, the fight was already over. His other nephew, Peat, held limp body of a small scavenger by its torso, Cowberry and Sapropel were sniffing the ground, trying to pick up scents of the others. Sable's mother, Grouse, sat nearby, looking at her talons.

Despite being throughly hidden between two leaning rocks, behind a wall of dirt, and masked with ferns and ivy, the nest was found. Found and destroyed.

Separate pieces of eggshells scattered around. Four tiny bodies lay near the entrance, just next to a long barbed club.

«Are they–»

Sapropel dipped his head.

«I checked for the pulse,» he nodded at the nest, «The fourth one died just moments ago, and Berry is still looking for the fifth.»

«Those weren't adult scavengers!» Peat noticed, whiping blood from his greenish brown snout. «The others disappeared as soon as they saw Berry approaching. Looks like a game of dare to me!»

«What a fun game!» Sapropel spat, arching his back like an angry cat, «Killing innocent dragonets who can't even fight back!»

«This one tried»

Berry stood over the fifth body, laying farther away under thorny bramble bushes, half pressed into the mud. Sable looked at his little sister, but averted his gaze as soon as he saw a pool of red shining on her head. Looking at the scavenger, he saw two deep bite marks on his foreleg and shoulder, too tiny to be left by an older dragon.

«Her teeth are stained with blood. And it's not her own,» Cowberry explained.

Gently, he pulled dragonet's body out of mud and placed her on a patch of dry lichen. His little aunt's back was dark gray, the colour of thunderstorm clouds. Her scales were rusty red with small spots of the same stormy gray, like pebbles on a river shore.

«Ow! Arf!»

Sable turned around, unable to believe his own ears. He got up and moved closer towards his tiny sister. Looking a bit closer, he could see her chest moving up and down slightly. He sighed with relief, moving his talon across the dragonet's head, wiping away a piece of wet red eggshell he had mistaken for blood. Sister's legs were badly injured and covered in wounds, but she was going to survive. Sable won't let it be the other way.

Grouse stood next to him, frowning. Then, he grabbed her daughter by the chest and reach for her head.

«What do you think you're doing you old fool?!» Sable roared, pushing his mother away.

«Putting it out of its misery,» Grouse flashed an angry look at him.

«You don't get to call my sister «it»! And if you're going hurt her, you're going to get through me first,» black MudWing said, lashing his sides with his tail.

«I'd like to see how would you raise her in your… condition,» she said coldly, looking directly at her son's injured wing, «She will pull you down.»

«Duck dung! I raised Cowberry and his sibs and they turned out fine. So will she.»

«She'll grow up to be a nuisance,» Grouse retorted.

«It'll be my problem, then,» Sable turned away from his mother to Cowberry. «Can you help me?»

With the nephew at his side, Sable managed to pick his sister up and onto his wing. Avoiding eye contact with Grouse, he got up and headed towards a cliff at the edge of the swampland. Berry watched as his uncle stepped into the darkness of his cave, disappearing in it.

Strong smell of different plants immediately hit MudWing's nose. It didn't seem to please his sister. Sable could feel tiny dragonet move on his wing, lifting her head and chirping loudly. Being left without an answer, she called again. And again.

«Tshhh, it'll be okay now,» he spoke very softly, holding her closer.

And again. This time Sable could sense fear in her voice. She was calling her sibs.

«Sorry, dear, but it looks like I'm the only option you have left. Don't you worry, we'll get through it.»

He then put his sister down carefully, lit up a fire in the corner of the cave and started digging through his herb storage. This day had left a new bleeding wound deep inside him, but now he had something to live for. Now he had someone who needed him.

[duhragonball]

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Episode 50

The finale of the Supreme Kai of Time arc finally came out a few weeks ago, so let's wrap up my liveblog of it.

Just so we're all up to speed, I covered Episodes 41 through 49 here , here, and here. But if you're not in the mood to read that: this arc introduces Aeos, the previous Supreme Kai of Time, who has now returned to take back the position from Chronoa. Aeos believes that there are too many alternate timelines now, and Chronoa's refusal to deal with them has only made things worse, so Aeos and her four attendants take over the Time Nest to resolve the problem instead. Aeos's solution is to hold a big tournament with warriors from different timelines, and the losing teams get their timeline erased.

This all gets thrown into chaos when Demigra shows up, having recently gained a power boost from the Dark King energy once held by Fu. I'm not sure if this was just a coincidence, or if Demigra somehow manipulated the Aeos/Chronoa dispute to his advantage. Anyway, he tries to seize control of the Time Nest and destroy all the fighters who oppose him, which culminates in this climactic beam struggle against Goku, Bardock, and Future Gohan.

Just so we're clear, the Bardock and Future Gohan we see here are variants from other timelines, recruited by Aeos to serve as her attendants. Bardock was the "Hooded Saiyan" who occasionally helped Goku during the previous arc. Gohan hails from a world where Trunks died fighting 17 and 18, while he survived.

Anyway, the Father-Son-Grandson Kamehameha ends with Bardock daring the boys to push even harder, which leads to Bardock turning SSJ4, Goku going Ultra Instinct (again), and Gohan turning SSJ2. This overwhelms Demigra and he dies.

However, before Demigra is beaten, Aeos and Chronoa have this nice little reconciliation where Aeos points out that Demigra only got this far because of the multitude of alternate timelines. Even if he's defeated, some other menace will just rise up to replace him. She asks Chronoa how she can continue to support sparing the timelines if this is true, and Chronoa replies that a lot of good has come from the alternate timelines as well, and she's willing to trust the heroes to rise to the occasion. Then they hold hands and do some sort of time stuff, which might have helped tip the scales against Demigra, but I don't know. When it's all over, they use the Scroll of Eternity to restore everything to the way it was before Demigra attacked.

Goku is satisfied with this outcome, but he has one last bit of business to discuss with Aeos: Goku wants the Super Space-Time Tournament to be restarted, since he never got to finish his match with Xeno Goku earlier in the arc. Aeos agrees, and this time it's just an exhibition, with the fighters who still want to fight having 1v1 matches with no brackets.

We get some brief glimpses of the other matches, like Piccolo vs. Pikkon, Master Roshi vs. Grandpa Gohan, and so on, but none of these amount to anything. This episode spent a decent two minutes re-telling the beam struggle from Episode 49, which could have been used to show a little more of the cool fights they teased instead.

Credit where it's due, Goku vs. Xeno Goku actually gets some time, and there's some cool spots, like SSJ4 Goku trying to use a Warp Kamehameha on UI Goku, only for UI to try to float over to avoid it. Then 4ku snares him with his tail, but UI-ku is still too nimble to be trapped for long.

As everyone watches, Aoes reflects on how Goku impressed her, and I think the implication is that Goku's the one who convinced her not to erase the other timelines, at least for the time being. Then there's a credits sequence, like this is a big finale, but it's not.

They do the finish of the Goku/Vegeta fight from DBS: Super Hero, and it's UI Goku who wins. Sound booking, but I wish they could have come up with a different way to end it. I mean, Aeos's tournament was already a rip-off of the Tournament of Power, and Demigra's invasion was just a retread of his invasion in Xenoverse 1, and now this. It's tough to find anything really fresh in this story.

With the match settled, Aeos announces that she'll be leaving again to survey the alternate timelines for herself. She says she wants to re-check everything to re-evaluate her decision, and warns Chronoa that if she finds she had it right the first time, she'll be back to erase everything like she intended. Chronoa seems to accept this. Maybe she's confident that Aeos will see things her way, or maybe it's just that Chronoa has no choice. This arc suggests that Chronoa cannot, or will not, challenge Aeos' authority. I guess with Aeos leaving, Chronoa is reinstated as Supreme Kai of Time, but they never explained why Aeos left the job in the first place, or what claim she had to take it back. There's a lot of unanswered questions in all of this.

Aeos's four attendants will be joining her on her new mission, including Vidros, who proposed to Yamcha during the tournament. So what about that? Well, it turns out Vidros can't marry Yamcha right away. Her people have a tradition that says she can't marry until she reaches a certain age, which is still a dozen centuries away. So she intends to go with Aeos and return for Yamcha 1200 years from now. D'oh!

This did not go over well with the fandom, who were pretty hyped for the idea of Yamcha getting the girl. I think we all knew that there'd be some kind of catch. They weren't going to marry off an established character in a web series for crying out loud. I choose to look at this in a positive light. Yamcha's still got a fiance. And just because she has to wait 1200 years doesn't mean that he has to wait the same amount of time. Aeos might do her a solid and bring her back to the present day so she can still marry Yamcha during his natural lifespan.

At least Vidros had some sort of character arc in this story. I have no idea what this alternate version of Piccolo was supposed to be about. He just shares some meaningful looks with Gohan and that's it. Future Gohan says goodbye to Xeno Trunks, Bardock takes a last look at his son, and they all head out.

I seriously wondered if Episode 50 was going to be the finale for the entire web-series, since this arc seemed to wrap up the last plot threads of the whole show. Most of SDBH was about Fu's rise to prominence, and then he got defeated with the help of Demigra and Aeos's team, who settled all of their business in this arc. So this seemed like a pretty good stopping point, but no. There's an Episode 51, which promises a whole new arc that will probably take another two years to finish. I guess Super Dragon Ball Heroes will be around for a while longer.

And I'll probably cover those future story arcs one of these days, but this seems like a good place to stop for now. It's a lot more satisfying to watch this show several episodes at a time, and it'll be at least a year before we're far enough along to make this worth my time. But we'll see how it goes.

[franeridan]

I'm gonna start testing the reading comprehension of the next person that says tristamp is simply a trigun prologue

[notmaplemable]

Of Birds and Knights

Back in September I made a short joke about Ruby being a bird faunus and doing a mating dance to get Jaune's attention. In that time I've wrote out a little longer version of the story.

I'd like to thank @thatorigamiguy and @howlingday for adding some pretty great reblogs which really expanded the story of that original post. And of course inspiring me to make this.

So enjoy 3170 unedited words worth of me trying to be funny. It didn't work.

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Ruby Rose was a bird faunus. Well, a hooded crow faunus if one wanted to be specific. Which wasn’t too bad. She got some cool wings and a tail with black and red tipped feathers. Which, yes, she could use to fly sometimes. She could whistle like a champ, and she could sing pretty well too. If one were so fortunate to catch her doing so. She’ll even coo if someone ran their hand through her hair, but she’ll take that secret to her grave.

Sure, there were some people who were a bit mean to her. Washing her wings could be a pain, sometimes literally. And having people come up to her asking for her to shake her tail feathers was a bit weird.

But overall, it wasn’t too bad to be a bird faunus. So, why was Ruby pacing on one of Beacon’s rooftops one morning?

Well, you see, she was having these dreams. No, no, no! Not those kind of dreams. Nothing filthy or anything like that. So, if they weren’t filthy then why were they such a concern to the girl? Well, the best way to explain would be to recount one of these dreams.

They would usually start with Ruby building a nest. Running around looking for cool sticks. Finding nice bits of, usually red, fabric to add. Putting in a few shiny things to bring it all together. Adding some pillows and blankets for some extra comfort. Completely normal things that she was sure every girl dreamed of!

Then he would show up and make it all weird.

The “he” being Beacon’s resident blond knight to be, and Ruby’s best boy friend, Jaune Arc.

At first, he would just lay down beside her. Then they would start touching each other. Cuddling, He would even pat Ruby’s head. Then they would start kissing and holding hands. Okay so maybe her dreams were filthy, but only a little bit.

As you can imagine, Ruby was a mess after she had this dream. She couldn’t even look at Jaune for most of that day without becoming a blushing mess. Much to Jaune’s confusion. Which didn’t go unnoticed by a certain sunny dragon.

The teasing. Oh gods, the teasing. It was merciless.

But eventually Ruby did get over her embarrassment. That was until she had the exact same dream that night, and for every night over the last few weeks.

Which brings us back to Ruby’s current crisis. Why was she having these dreams? For the first week the answer alluded her, but now it was clear as day. Even to someone as usually uninterested in the topic as Ruby.

Ruby Rose had a crush on Jaune Arc, and she had no idea what to do about it. She couldn’t ask Yang, for reasons that should be fairly obvious. Weiss… well she would just insult Jaune instead of helping. Blake would probably say to do something lewd. Nora had her own boy problems to overcome. And Pyrrha… well she wasn’t an option.

Ruby sat on the edge of the roof wondering what she was going to do. This wasn’t exactly her area of expertise. Why couldn’t this be simple, like making a weapon? Actually, maybe she could forge Jaune a sword? A dagger, maybe? Or maybe a sword that turned into a sniper and a rocket launcher! See that was simple. Love, not so much.

She stared down at the park her metaphorical perch overlooked.

Maybe she could bake him some cookies? Yeah, that was a good idea. Special “Will you pretty please go on a date with me” cookies. It just might work. But what kind of cookie did Jaune like? She couldn’t just make any type of cookie for him. It would have to be a type he loved. Nothing less would be acceptable.

But she couldn’t just go up to him and ask. “Hey Jaune, what kind of cookie do you love so much that you would fall in love with the girl who made them for you?” No, she would have to do some reconnaissance. Be all sneaky like. Maybe Blake could help her with that? She can be pretty sneaky when she wanted to be.

It was then that Ruby noticed something. The object of her current crisis, and affections, sitting on a bench below her. Feeding the birds. Spreading out bit of corn for the pigeons when he should be feeding Ruby corn!

Getting over her momentary corn-based jealousy, which is a normal feeling that normal people have, she came to a realization. Now would be the perfect time for some spying. She would just need to use a little trick that her father had taught her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaune had just sit down in his favorite spot. It was in a quiet corner of Beacon’s courtyard. A few trees providing some nice shade. Though surprisingly few people came to this section. Which Jaune was more than happy to take advantage of. It was nice to have a quiet corner all to himself.

Sometimes it was hard to find some peace and quiet in his dorm. Nora would usually make sure of that. Jaune had come to see the energetic young girl as a true friend, but man, could she be a handful sometimes. He had no idea how Ren handled her. That man had the patience of several saints.

Even Pyrrha could be a bit distracting at times. Jaune understood that she liked to sleep naked. It can get pretty hot in those rooms sometimes. Really it wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t toss and turn so much in her sleep, which would mean that her blanket usually ended up in the floor instead of covering her.

Which made it pretty hard for Jaune to get things done while she was taking a nap. Which she started taking a lot more of lately. How strange.

Jaune stared up at the sky for a few moments after taking a seat. It had been an interesting few months since he arrived at Beacon. He’d made some good friends. Killed a few grimm. Nobody knew about his transcripts besides his partner and Cardin. And he managed to not die yet. It was going great.

But it was stressful as hell.

Which is why he’d made a habit of coming out here to feed the birds, speaking of. Jaune pulled out a brown paper bag containing bits of dried corn and scattered them on the ground. And soon his feathered friends appeared. Well, most of them at least.

Ruby was probably off doing something with her team. He wouldn’t have minded her company. She always had a way of making things make sense for Jaune. Even if half of what she talked about involved pointy things or things exploding.

It was then that a bird perched itself on the bench next to Jaune. To say it wasn’t like the others was a bit of an understatement. Well for one, it was a crow. Second being its coloration. With black feathers that became red at the tips. Almost like Ruby’s actually. Well, isn’t that neat. Lastly it was staring at him. Not at the food, but at him. With little silver eyes.

Jaune did what he usually did with the birds. Offered some food. “Want some food, buddy.” He said to the crow before throwing another handful of corn onto the ground. Which the crow responded to with a quick caw and walking closer to Jaune. Eventually crawling up onto his lap.

“Do you want to be hand fed?” Jaune asked the crow, holding out another handful of corn. To which the crow responded with another caw before staring to peck at the corn kernels in his hand. He sat and watched the crow for a minute. It was strangely familiar.

“You know little guy, you kind of remind me of my friend Ruby.” He said, because normal people talk to strange birds, “Or well, I guess your coloration does. Black feathers with red tips. At least that’s what she has on her tail feathers. I’ve never actually seen her wings, but I would guess they have the same pattern.”

The crow stopped eating and returned to staring at Jaune as he carried on his rambling.

“Which I get. I mean with people like Cardin around it’s not she can go around just displaying them, but I guess it’s a bit weird not to have seen them. I don’t know. I bet they would be pretty, though. Well, she’s already pretty so I guess that would just make her prettier. Does that make sense?” He asked the crow.

The crow didn’t respond this time. Simply continuing to stare at Jaune.

“Guess it doesn’t really make-“ Jaune was interrupted by his scroll buzzing. “What is it this time. ‘Nora found the sap. All over the dorm.’ Welp, better go sort that out. See you later Red? Can I call you that?”

The crow again responded with a caw as Jaune sat up to leave. The crow standing on the back of the bench watching him go.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby, still perched on the bench, watched Jaune walk away before flying back to her previous spot on the roof. She transformed back into her regular form and started pacing on the roof again.

“He said I was pretty,” She said still pacing back and forth, “Not cute. Not adorable. Pretty.”

Oh, Ruby was in trouble. Her plan had pretty much failed. She learned nothing about the kind of cookies he liked and just ended up all flustered.

“What am I going to do,” She said laying down on the rough surface of the roof, “Why can’t this just be easy. Why can’t I just say that I like him!” She screamed towards the heavens. No, it can’t just be that simple. She had to do something to make him notice her. To make him want to ask her out. That would be so much easier, but what?

She laid there thinking. “It has to be something that’ll work fast. Something awesome. Something that’ll make me irresistible.” She needed something. Anything! If only she had someone, she could ask that would actually be helpful. “If only…”

She paused. Maybe she did have someone that could help her. Someone that always gave her good advice. But asking her would be a drastic measure, but Ruby couldn’t risk Jaune falling for Pyrrha while Ruby was indecisive.

No, now was the time for drastic measures. So, Ruby would bring out the big guns.

She’d call her mom and ask for her advice. “Sorry Pyrrha,” Ruby said bringing up her mom’s number on her contact list “But that Arc booty is mine!”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer was enjoying the cool morning air while tending to her garden. She was still getting use to Yang and Ruby being gone, but she was getting through the days just fine.

Maybe she should start taking on missions again? Ozpin would probably be happy to have her back in the field. Though Qrow would probably have a much less positive reaction. Considering how close her last mission came to being the end of Summer Rose.

Summer’s scroll started to buzz. “It’s Ruby,” She said looking at the caller ID. “Hopefully RWBY isn’t in trouble again.” She said to herself before answering the call. “Hello Ruby.”

“Hi Mom,” Ruby said, “Do you have a minute to talk? I kind of need your help with something.”

“I’m just doing a little gardening, so I’ve got time to chat. What do you need help with?”

Ruby started fidgeting and rubbing her fingers against her cloak. A little nervous habit she picked up from her father. “Well, you see I… Well, I umm… I kind of…” She trailed off.

Oh, she was definitely nervous about something, but not the same kind of nervous she was when her team got up to something dangerous. She usually only acted like this when Yang would tease her about getting a boyfriend.

Wait, Summer’s mother senses were tingling and more importantly her grandmother senses! It was finally happening. Ruby likes a boy!

“You need help with a boy, don’t you?” Summer said, holding back her excitement for the moment.

“…Yes.” Ruby said sporting a healthy blush.

“Who is it, honey? That nice boy you met on your first day?” Summer said.

“Yeah, it’s Jaune.”

Jaune, from what Summer had heard about Ruby’s fellow team leader he was a perfect gentleman, if not that great of a fighter. Helping Ruby out on her first day like that. Almost like Qrow did with Summer all those years ago. And the fact that Summer was good friends with Jaune’s mother helped. Though it was a shame that they never had the opportunity to meet before they both went off to Beacon.

“Well, why don’t you tell me why you like him, rosebud.” Summer said, more than happy to do a little motherly snooping.

“Well, he’s really kind, and brave. He fought an ursa by himself once.” Ruby said in what was the beginning of what Summer sensed would be a long ramble. “He likes all the same comics I do. We play games together and stuff. He always helps me with my work for our leadership class. He doesn’t zone out when I talk about weapons, and he actually asks questions. He pays attention! And, well umm…” Ruby paused with her blush deepening.

“Go on.” Summer said. Trying to encourage her daughter.

“Well… he has a nice butt.”

That earned a rather hardy snort laugh out of Summer, and a rather disgruntled “Mom,” out of Ruby.

“Sorry dear,” Summer said wiping a tear from her eye, “Like mother like daughter, I guess. So, I’m guessing you called to ask for some advice?”

“Yeah, what am I supposed to do. Ask him out? I’d probably just end up running away if I tried.” Ruby said with a defeated look on her face.

“Honestly Ruby, I don’t know if I can really help you there. I spend three years following your father around before he noticed me. I wasn’t the one to ask him out.”

“Well, he definitely isn’t going to notice me. Pyrrha’s had a huge crush on him all year and if he doesn’t notice her… I don’t like my chances.”

“You’ll just have to do something to make him notice. That’s what I did.”

Ruby quirked an eyebrow “What did you do to make dad notice?”

“Well, you see, I did a mating dance.”

“A mating dance?”

“Yeah, since your father is a bird faunus I figured it would make him do, something. Either he would ask me out or he would turn me down, both were better options than me just pining after, and eventually losing, him.”

“That… That might work.” Ruby muttered to herself.

“What was that, dear. I couldn’t hear you.”

“Oh, I said thanks mom. I think I have an idea of what I should do now.”

“Well, that’s great. I hope it goes well, rosebud!”

“Thanks mom, I’ll talk to you later.”

And with that Ruby had a plan. To do a mating dance for Jaune. If she could work up the courage to try it that is.

If only love could be simple.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today was the day. Either Ruby and Jaune would be dating after this, or they would just be best friends, but Ruby wouldn’t just let nothing happen. Or take the chance that Pyrrha wouldn’t make a move eventually. Nope. Today was the day.

So today Ruby was sitting on the bench that Jaune usually did when he fed the birds. Waiting for him to come. It wasn’t quite as private of a place as Ruby would have liked it to be, but it was about as private as she was going to get. So, there she waited until eventually her knight made an appearance.

“Ruby?” Jaune said surprised that anyone knew about his spot, “What are you doing out here? Don’t you usually spar with Weiss this time of day?”

“Yeah, usually.” She said, standing from the bench taking one last deep breath. “But I have something I want to show you. Something special.”

“Really? What is it?” He said.

It was now or never.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaune was surprised when he found Ruby out here by herself. He was more surprised when she said she had something to show him. And even more so when she unfolded her wings in front of him. He’d admittedly never seen her wings, but he had to say they were quite beautiful.

When Ruby started dancing well Jaune was figuratively, and almost literally, knocked off his feet. First by the fact that it was Ruby of all people dancing. She rarely put herself front and center.

Second being the fluidity of her dance. Her movements fine and controlled as she spun and weaved her way around him. Her wings hiding and revealing parts of her as she moved. Her tailfeathers and hips moving side to side rhythmically. It was really quite something. And Jaune was mesmerized by it.

And lastly, a fact that became more and more apparent as she danced closer, was that she was dancing for him. Jaune couldn’t do or say anything. He was simply overwhelmed by that fact. A pretty girl was dancing for him. His best friend, or perhaps they were more than that?

Finally, Ruby’s dance came to an end as she wrapped Jaune in her wings and looked into his eyes. Her face was as red as her cloak, she was breathing hard, but there was determination in her beautiful silver eyes. “So, did you like my mating dance.” She asked.

“Mating dance?” He said quirking his head to the side. Mating dance. So did that mean she wanted to… “Wait, does that mean you want me to be your mate?”

“Yeah! Though you can say we’re boyfriend and girlfriend if you prefer that.” She said still staring into his eyes.

She wanted to be his girlfriend. She wanted him to be his boyfriend. Or mates, or whatever.

“…Yes, I’ll be your mate.”

“Really!” She said with a squeak.

“Yeah,” he said wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Great.” She said laying her head against his chest. “Well, as my boyfriend do you think you could do a little favor for me?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Can you carry me back to my room,” She said her face turning several shades redder, “That was actually really, really, really, embarrassing.”

So, with that Jaune picked up his new “mate” and they headed off to her room.

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Jaune and Ruby laid in their “nest”, the nest being Ruby’s bed with a ring of blankets and pillows around them. Ruby was fast asleep cuddled up next to Jaune. Softly cooing as he ran his fingers through her feather soft hair.

This wasn’t exactly how Jaune thought he would get his first girlfriend, but he couldn’t say that he would have it any other way.

[phoenix-manga]

Heartslabyul Arc Team

Meganium ♀

“Mind helping me with this garden? We need to stock up on more berries this month”

Moves: Nature Power, Strength, Poison Powder, Magical Leaf

Ability: Leaf Guard

· Meganium is a motherly type of Pokémon, she looks after the group during travels. She is quite social with other people and easily warms up to almost anyone. It’s not impossible to think that the Pokémon was too nice to get angry.

· There have been occasions where Meganium got mad but it only happened twice. Usually, she would shield whoever made her friends upset from the one responsible.

· Meganium absolutely adores a well-cared-for garden. She will aid in breathing life into dead plants if she can. She can be seen with Haxorus and Aggron enjoying themselves in the garden.

· Phoebe received her as a Chikorita from Professor Elm as a gift for her journey. Chikorita and Furret got along quite well along their journey throughout Johto.

Swablu ♂

“Get off Ace’s head, I know it looks like a nest but it’s rude to invade personal space you know!”

Moves: Safeguard, Dragon Breath, Steel Wing, Aerial Ace

Ability: Natural Cure

⊖ He is a neat-freak of a puffball that loves to nest in Ace’s hair for some reason. Swablu is also adorably diligent, always cleaning away at anything and anyone who has a bit of dirt. Though he can’t tolerate a messy person and would peck them relentlessly until they clean their mess.

⊖ Swablu doesn’t mind also letting people sleep on his wings, though Phoebe’s permission would be required if someone wanted to borrow him to sleep on.

⊖ Phoebe always wanted a Swablu ever since she took a look at the Hoenn Pokédex. She just had to have one. Plus, Swablu’s wings are often stuffed with all food. The Pokémon tends to keep berries in there a lot, either for others or for himself.

Aggron ♂

“You want to see the flowers again? I’ll see if Riddle can let you see the roses again”

Moves: Metal Claw, Iron Defense, Dig, Reversal

Ability: Sturdy

⊖ Phoebe rescued this Pokémon from a trainer who abused him for being too soft-hearted. The trainer had his other two Pokémon bully him so bad that there were scars on the metal body.

⊖ Phoebe challenged him for the ownership of Aggron with Officer Jenny as a witness. She won though he was quite tough to beat she was determined not to let Aggron suffer under the hands of this trainer any longer.

⊖ Aggron took a while before he willingly stepped into battles again, he’s more on the defensive. He often helps out Phoebe in setting up camp and even foraging for edible food.

⊖ Aggron loves flowers, their pretty colors are mesmerizing to him, his old trainer would trample on them if he was seen holding even one. But Phoebe thinks it’s cute and would let him sit and enjoy what he does.

Smeargle ♂

“I knew I’d find you here! Are you making food in the kitchen again? Finished painting?”

Moves: Sketch

Ability: Own Tempo

⊖ Smeargle is a Pokémon who appreciates all forms of art. But this Smeargle grew up in the wild looking at the chefs at work through a window before he was caught by Phoebe.

⊖ He is quite eccentric, his sense of smell might not be as good as a Slurpuff’s but he does have an eye for quality. And he can mimic any chef’s cooking technique by watching them once, so he tends to watch a lot of cooking shows whenever he gets the chance.

⊖ There needs to be a rule in the kitchen is that you finish Smeargle’s food and say “Thank You”. If you can’t finish it then you must be equipped with Tupperware. Otherwise, you’re getting your face drawn on by an angry dog Picasso.

Ditto

“You know I can tell which shape you are right now, right? Get over here, you little bugger!”

Moves: Transform

Ability: Imposter

⊖ Phoebe found a wild Ditto that just wanted a place to belong to. But the way they go about it is to disguise it as an item and transform it in front of the person to try and convince that person to adopt them.

⊖ This tends to backfire because people get angry when Ditto does this and gets chased out. Phoebe is the first one to offer them kindness and the Pokémon decided to stay with her.

⊖ They still have the cheeky tendency to pretend to be objects, but Phoebe has spent enough time with Ditto to know their disguise from one look.

[corviids]

No because they’re trying to make some of these people not have flaws or empathize with them at the cost of others Character development.

Also question for Misty Dream and Flesh without blood, could the Dance happen between Aenys and Saera?

yeah tbh my biggest issues are with rhaenyra and daemon because a huge aspect of book!rhaenyra’s character is that she IS spoiled and entitled – hell her dragon is called the spoiled princess (if i remember correctly). in fire & blood, it is basically jace, corlys, and daemon doing all the planning and fighting while rhaenyra is more of a figure head and tbh doesn’t do anything beside take over kings landing while aemond is gone and aegon is incapacitated. and no offense to matt smith but he and the writers didn’t really sell the fact that daemon very clearly in the book still has a massive craving for the throne as he always has.

the dance is called a war of succession between rhaenyra and aegon, but neither of them (save for aegon at rooks nest) DOES any fighting. they have everyone else fighting and strategizing. by making show!rhaenyra so…. girlbossy, it strips her of what made her a genuinely compelling character and makes so much of the dance not make sense thematically. book!rhaenyra is not an anthesis to alicent – they are BOTH women willing to uphold patriarchal norms for what they want, whereas the women around them are the actual ones challenging things (johanna lannister, jeyne arryn, every lady that became regent for their infant sons). book!rhaenyra is not very likable because she does screw many people over for her own selfish desires. if the show runners wanted to make rhaenyra more likable or whatever, i think they should’ve made her go through an arc of realizing she actually wants to fight for the throne – make her go from a spoiled, sheltered girl that got everything she wanted to a woman that is forced to fight for what is rightfully hers. but in the show, the made young rhaenyra far too likable which makes her character arc kinda static.

it’s kinda like what i said in a previous post: i can’t see the characters in hotd doing what they do in the books because they didn’t establish their natures pre-dance. like hotd rhaenyra seems FAR too level headed to arrest and try to execute members of house velaryon bc her paranoia.

i could ramble about this forever but tldr: in their quest to make characters have no unlikable traits, the writers have given themselves a steep hill to climb to justify future events without giving the viewers whiplash and i don’t know how much faith i have that they’ll pull it off

(i will answer the other question in a separate post cuz i rambled lol sorry )

[ilikeyoubetterthisway]

Bring Karura BACK!!

Hellooooo.

Here I will just quickly (not really), explain a bit of my theories about the manga regarding Ryuuji and Karura, along with the rest of the Immortals, and what I'm expecting/hoping to happen for the rest of the war arc and other tidbits I found laying around.

Enjoy!!

First of all I want Ryuuji to be able to summon Karura, they literally have Tatsuma and Gozo discussing about the possibility of summoning him back from the vessel of forced possesion (aka. Todou).

Like, they wouldn't just hint at this possibility and then not doing it in the future, and even more now that they are in the middle of a war against very strong forces.

They are talking about summoning him back, but there's no need since Ryuuji still has his contract on going.

We have been drilled into our heads of the outstanding regenerative powers of Karura by Todou not shutting his mouth about it during the Kyoto Arc, so I would guess he (Karura), would be able to easily come back from dying and being used as a lab rat for the elixir that helped to perfect Satan's cloned body.

This could also be followed by his similar demon kind used for the same experiment, the Ouroboros and Hydra, since they are also creatures/demons of regenerative abilities that represent death and rebirth, destruction and creation. (And we also know that the more powerful the demon, the faster it can regenerate, like how it took Lucifer a few hours to return from being destroyed during the Blue Night, it could also apply to the Immortals but would take a bit longer).

According to the legends:

Phoenix: (Karura) A fire bird that arises from the ashes of his own predecesors. Death and rebirth. A cyclical life.

Hydra: (Hachirotaro) A water and wind snake/dragon that regenerates its head by double every time one gets cut down. Death and rebirth. A ciclical life.

Ouroboros: An (earth??) serpent reptile that eats its own tail, continually eating itself and being reborn from itself. Death and rebirth. A ciclical life.

Anyways, I want Ryuuji to summon Karura back because he never frickin broke the aeon wave flame contract with him and he was also the last one to have an actual, valid contract, since Tatsuma clearly passed it down to Ryuuji (1), (2), and he explicitly said after, that his contract with Karura was broken (3).

While with Ryuuji, he simply fainted from exhaustion during the Impure King battle, but it was never declared that their contract broke or was annuled in some way.

Like, just how it happened during the Kyoto Arc, Karura divided himself into two beings, one with Todou and the other one with Ryuuji, and thus the elixir experiment being succesful means that Todou and the other chosen ones died along with the immortal demons. A part of Karura died but the other part still lives inside Ryuuji.

That means that the forced possesion with Todou and all the other guys was broken and they can go to being independent but Karura would go back to Ryuuji since their contract was never broken.

And he would go back to him on full power too, because if you remember when he split up, Tatsuma had already broken/lost the generational contract with the head priest of Myo Da but still had his personal one between himself (Tatsuma Suguro) and Karura (the aeon wave flame contract). What Ryuuji "inherited" was the smaller and younger (time wise) contract of Tatsuma and Karura, thus that's why Karura was so smol and cute and nesting on top of Ryuuji's head agh the cutie bean.

Meanwhile, what Todou devored and then proceeded to force bodily possession on himself, was the larger, oldest self of Karura that was in the contract (now broken), between the head priest of Myo Da and Karura.

Karura told Tatsuma that their generational contract was broken because Mamushi, Rin, Todou and many people learned about it but Tatsuma told him that the personal one was still standing. Karura was just like "fine" but his body stayed the same, it didn't diminish in size or anything, until Todou devoured the available part of Karura (the generational contract).

I do believe that a generational contract has more power than a one life time contract but at this point it just depends on the different amounts of contracts the demon has, how many "bodies" it posesses; and if it only has one valid contract then, despite the lack of generational length of it, the full power of the demon would still go to the one active contract, which in this case would be Ryuuji's.

2. Also, we know that Karura asks in return secrets, he feeds on lies and suspicions, of making things secret.

Almost or if not all of Myo Da's secrets were revealed during the Kyoto Arc, so Ryuuji can't really feed him with that, but, he just became Lightning's apprentice which entails him to all the secrets about Section 13, the Okumura brothers, Yuri, Shiro, Mephisto, Satan, the demon kings, the Asylum, the Illuminati, the entire Order of the True Cross, etc, etc.

All that information spans at least over 16 years of secrets and lies, since the birth of the Asylum and the True Cross. Ryuuji really got hit with all that on the face in less than, what? 1 week?? four days??, that is more than enough to keep Karura satisfied for the following weeks or even months in regards to secrets.

Besides, I want to point out how when they were starting their investigation and Lightning went to question Mephisto about it on his bathtub, Mephisto was kinda going to play hard to get, but we got a few panels of him glancing towards Ryuuji and then immediately agreeing to talk. (Imean, isn't this weird? Why would he decide to spill one of his biggest secrets right after seeing the boy in the demon contract with an immortal that feeds specifically on secrets, hmmm... I wonder wHy...).

(gah, I remember reading this chapter when it came out and finding it weird that Ryuuji was focused on here and was practically the reason for Mephisto to start talking, sigh... li'l ol' me already knew there was some shady stuff happening but was too young and too early to realize it, damn. dis is some gud stuff).

(Also, poor Ryuuji, the amount of distress and torment he endured during this entire time must have been exhausting, thankfully Lightning and Izumo, along with his entire family and friends, helped him to calm down, gosh he needs a hug).

And just to finish it up with a nice touch. After telling them where to find Section 13, Mephisto says this:

._.

"Raising suspicion" ah? Dear Mephy? Because you know that someone has the immortal demon chicken that feeds on lies, suspicions and secrets?? HM??? You wanna keep him well fed ah?? I wonder for wHat specific event that may happen in the future he would come in handy... (cough the war cough if you didn't realize it already cough)

Now, I'm not sure if a few people knowing the truth would affect the amount of nice food that Karura gets, like how Uwabami and Jaozo kinda knew about some of the stuff Tatsuma was hiding, so maybe the food effect would only last up until Ryuuji, Izumo, Osceola, Lucy and Lightning saw the whole laboratory thing with Drac and showed Angel.

And also, if Karura feeds on secrets, it could also be secrets not even known to the user, like before all the Lightning stuff, in between the Kyoto Arc and the Section 13 arc, (as well as throughout the entire manga), Ryuuji was developing, harboring and realizing his feelings towards Izumo, I'm sure Karura could feed off of that too, for more simple they could be, they caused a great deal of confusion and conflict during the Illuminatic Arc right until he confessed them to Izumo, but even after that, only Izumo knows about them, is just one person, so the secret is still a secret, nobody else knows (officially), he still doesn't know if his feelings are corresponded and still feels and seems conflicted whenever Izumo gives or receives some kind of attention from another guy (Rin, Shima), all that inner turmoil, doubts and suspicions would keep Karura well fed inside Ryuuji.

3. Also, why in the universe would Kato sensei give us this big hint in the official art of the 10th anniversary with Ryuuji holding his Buddhist priest beads with red fire coming out of it for literally no reason unless is foreshadowing for something that later could be important and relevant??

(Also, look at dem ships beautifully standing one beside the other, the boy's arms holding them inside their own body frames, sighhh cuties <333)

Also, I love the fact that the three boys from the gang (sorry Koneko, you are our strategist man), have the three different flames from Gehenna and Assiah:

Ryuuji: Red Flame, Assiah's physical fire, that destroys the physical aspect of the things, the vessel of possesion or external temptaint. (Ryuuji thinks and feels too much, you know, non-tangible things, so he would have the red flames in order to balance himself out).

Shima: Black Flame, Gehenna's spiritual fire, that destroys the demon possessing the vessel while leaving the vessel intact. (Shima is all about physical desires and dreams so he needs the spiritual flame in order to balance himself out).

Rin: Blue Flame, Assiah and Gehenna's fire in one, being able to burn both the physical and non physical being. (And Rin being both human and demon has the special blue flames that are both spiritual and physical flames that also help balance himself out).

4. And continuing with the talk about the three immortal demons.

They are fire (phoenix), water (hydra) and earth (uroboros) [most likely].

We know that Ryuuji has a contract with Karura and has used him before, his powers include regenerative abilities and shields.

Yukio has some affinity in summoning water type demons (the naiads, and he just needs more confidence bc he's already able to summon eight of those things like plEase), as well as he had an almost contract with Hachirotaro himself so that could mean something you know?, his powers include hypnotic abilities, and regenerative abilities with his blood. Shura could come here and help him manage the new powers since she used them for so long and had a contract with Hachirotaro.

And I guess the earth demon, ouroboros, could only be for Shiemi..? since she's related to the earth as well, but I'm not that sure, I still need to find someone that can make that contract and find the actual demon in the manga jaja.

Maybe, they will unite, along with Mephisto's special weapon, to lower Satan's body defences, and then everyone will strike together like the good shonen manga that this is, because if Satan is defeated by the dumb Devil *star* Banisher thing that Mephisto created and the manga ends right then and there ima just gO.

Also, that thing of Satan dying thanks to Angel's Holy Light Descension is pure bs since I'm pretty sure Satan will regenerate by next chapter (what was the entire point of the immortal's regenerative powers, if not for this kind of situation?), or he will proceed to try and posess Rin because he was going to be his og vessel, anyways, this war cannot be that short, I want to see everyone participating and I hope Lucy is okey :c.

I'm not saying I want nakama power to win the big war, I want a good demonstration and participation of every member of the gang with all their new skills, abilities and powers in the final battle to see their development and growth. Gah please.

Also, please, Ryuuji, just summon Karura and kick someone's a$$ alreadyyyy ahhhhh. And I want to see my goddess Izumo perform the Metamashizume no Harai ritual again and kick some a$$ as well. Those special capes must come in handy if they keep the stamina inside the body of the individual, is different if the person was already worn out, injured and tired (like Yukio), but it could be different with someone who was pretty ok for the most part (like Ryuuji, Izumo, Koneko, etc).

Anyways, thank you so much for reading all the way here! This is all a theory and some analysis I came up with, sorry for the many paragraphs and if it's confusing as well for the weird english.

I hope you look forward for the next chapter as much as I do! :D

See ya next time~~!!

[hintsoftheredlightdistrict]

Very frustrated that I keep seeing people on here complain about 25th Bam's supposed plot armor when that's actually one of his main character flaws.

Like sure, he can withstand some attacks he shouldn't be able to, and he can punch well above his metaphorical weight class. If you're willing to read through this, I want to do my best to convince you of two things - first, that Bam has always been written with this intent in mind (i.e. that this is not a case of runaway power levels a la Dragon Ball) and second, that the themes of the story are directly served by Bam being OP (i.e. that much of the series' emotional weight is not just in spite of Bam's power, but because of it). I'll be talking about the current arc so if you care about spoilers this is your one and only warning

In order to illustrate the first point as briefly as possible, let's go over a bulleted list of some major moments in Bam's life, as well as some notes on what we can learn from these about Bam's desires and eventual conflicts.

Bam spends his early life in extreme isolation in a cave. He has one friend who occassionally visits, Rachel. As such, Bam has a strong desire for companionship and autonomy.

Rachel tells him not to leave the cave. I can think of three main reasons for this: 1) that Rachel was worried people outside would abuse or manipulate Bam, 2) that Rachel feared Bam's destiny would directly interfere with her dreams in some way, or 3) that the physical environment or the nature of Bam's resurrection prevented him from being able to survive outside.

Bam makes a contract with the Administrator on the 2nd Floor. The Administrator tells him that this contract - arguably the source of Bam's abilities as a Wave Controller - is a shackle. Bam's powers are thus suggested to come at the expense of his autonomy.

FUG manipulates the 2nd Floor testing process to separate Bam from his friends, essentially using them as hostages to make him participate as JVG, Slayer Candidate in their bid to commit regicide. Bam's power and his Irregular status are both explicitly cited in the text as reasons FUG interfered in his life and endangered his friends. Because Irregulars are not bound to the rules of the Tower, Bam is thought to be one of the rare few exempt from the rules of Jahad's immortality contract. This makes Bam's desire for autonomy tragic, because his unusual capability to act as he wants

Bam, as JVG, allows himself to be pulled into the newly-formed Team Sweet & Sour. His FUG mentor realizes how important it is for him to have these new friends and decides not to punish him for violating FUG's earlier command that he pass the floor test alone. From this point on he has three teams of people who are for the most part significantly weaker than himself who all want to climb the Tower with him.

Ok, this got much longer than intended already so time for the lightning round

Bam's initial motivation to be with Rachel

SIU deciding to have Bam basically unaware of, and uninvolved in, Horyang's recovery.

Bam initially rejecting Blue Thryssa's offer of tyrannical power

Endorsi's team turning against Bam temporarily in the Name Hunt Station

Bam's failed promise to save Deng Deng

Khun and Hatz's homoerotically-charged anxiety about the increasing possibility that Bam will simply become too powerful for them to keep up with him, and their desire to continue climbing the Tower with him as long as they can.

Here's a question about the bolded bits above - are these the strategic decisions of someone who intrinsically values victory and strength? Are these conflicts that Bam could have overcome through sheer power and durability? Does Bam's power lend itself to the type of life he wants to live?

This has been a lot, so let's return to the issue at hand: the idea that Bam is 'overpowered' or has 'plot armor.' As much as the phrase 'plot armor' irks me, I do think it signifies a real issue with how stories driven by a Main Character often struggle to make mortal threats the Main Character faces seem credible. I think this is actually one of the reasons for the recent ubiquity of power-fantasy based isekai - faced with the task of dangling the marshmellow over the campfire only to yank it out at the perfect golden-brown moment, some decide not to bother and just eat them straight from the bag instead. There is no 'correct' way to write a story, but in my opinion the most promising isekai authors often do what SIU has done with Tower of God - convert narrative weakness into strength by using the protagonist's invincibility and immense power as a catalyst to introduce conflicts that these superhuman traits cannot directly solve.

I'm sorry if you feel like Bam's power dulls the stakes of the story, but in my opinion these are the highest the stakes have ever been. He has brought some of his closest friends to war with Jahad's army, endangering their lives for the sake of one man - one of the guys responsible for threatening his friends to begin with, at that. Even if weaker characters like Shibisu manage to make it out of this thing without serious injury or death, they will be targets of Jahad's soldiers and assassins for the rest of their lives. Physically, Bam will survive and continue to grow stronger and climb the Tower after the Nest. But otherwise? I see no reason to believe the Nest will do anything less than humble Bam to an unprecedented degree.

[enigmasong]

I'm rewatching the Warship Island arc, and it does so much heavy lifting for the world building of One Piece that I'm absolutely gob smacked that it's just anime filler and not part of the actual manga.

That arc introduces concepts that wouldn't be introduced in the manga for over a decade - Luffy being able to hear the Voice of All Things (as well as that power in general) and the existence of real dragons, which is still yet to be confirmed otherwise.

---

And Lost Island is just the architype for the 'lost island civilization from the void century' theory. Like, oh, it's an island that's been abandoned for centuries which surrounding environment seems almost artificially designed to keep people away from it - and it's related to a species that hasn't been seen in so long it's passed into legend and also the last time they would've used their nearby breeding grounds was just before the beginning of the void century. Also, the people who lived on the Lost Island abandoned so they could move to the dragons' nesting island proper.

That's just too high a level of sus that falls too close in line with the other sus in the main series that doesn't really exist in most of the filler arcs to not have been, at least broad strokes, written by Oda.

So, it's just weird that it's not part of the actual canon.

[jackoshadows]

Unpopular opinion, but I disagree with the notion that Jon should be accepting of his bastardy and not rule if given the chance. Even  “I don’t want it ” show!Jon ended up as KITN when some Northerners randomly made him one despite Ned Stark’s trueborn daughter sitting beside him, so why wouldn’t the book version - who does want it - not accept an offer to be King? 

Why shouldn’t Jon Snow rule the North and Winterfell? Of the remaining Starks, he’s the oldest, most experienced and qualified. He is Ned Stark’s son. Winterfell is as much as his home as it is to the rest of the Starks. He learned from the same people Robb did. Removing any gender and class bias, Jon’s still the best person belonging to house Stark to rule the North. Robb Stark certainly thought so.

Jon has never let being a bastard define what he is capable of. He has always looked beyond class lines and valued people for what they are capable of rather than the limited and narrow views that society has. Why wouldn’t Jon want to rule the North?

I feel that reasons like ‘Jon is a bastard, he should remain a bastard, Jon being king would undermine his story, perfect King Jon would be boring etc.’ are just excuses for wanting Jon out of rulership. One may as well say that they want *insert favorite character* to be king/Queen rather than Jon.

Rather, I think this line of thinking should be applied to someone like Young Griff - and this is precisely the story that GRRM is trying to tell with the character. It would, for example, be boring for secret, trueborn, Targaryen prince Aegon to go on to be the perfect king that Varys expects him to be.

Young Griff is the perfect king on paper –  groomed to know the common man’s struggle, he’s smart, well liked etc. But for us readers, him becoming king would feel unearned. Young Griff is actually a critique of unearned rulership.  We see from his cyvasse game with Tyrion, that he is arrogant and spoiled. He feels entitled to Dany’s dragons – the dragons that Dany has hatched and nurtured and bonded with. He thinks that Dany will immediately throw her full support behind him.

Compare Young Griff to Jon, Dany and Arya. Jon is defending the realm without any expectation of reward, planning Stannis’ campaign to win the North, preparing the wall for an attack from an existential threat. Dany halts her Westerosi campaign and is ruling Meereen for the people, dealing with insurgency, famine and sickness, having to make the hard decisions that come at great personal cost. Arya actually lived among small folk in war torn Westeros. She has no Jon Connington or mercenaries protecting her as she fake lives among the small folk – her experiences are real. The pain and trauma she experiences – that she sees the small folk go through – that’s real. It was about survival for her, instead of Young Griff learning how to fish and wash clothes.

Young Griff is supposed to feel unearned. He is a stand in for Jon, Dany and Arya – the secret prince, the Targaryen come to take the Iron Throne and the Stark princess who has actually lived among the small folk and befriended them. Young Griff is Jon, Dany and Arya without their actual experiences.  Not to mention that in GRRM’s world, there are no perfect kings or queens. His rulers are flawed leaders who make mistakes because ruling is hard.

That has been GRRM’s position  - rulership has to be earned. And I think right now 17 year old Jon and 16 year old Dany have earned their leadership positions by actually doing and learning. If Jon Snow becomes KITN, he would have earned that position.

I also disagree with the notion that Jon should not be trueborn because that would ruin his character and make his story pointless.

This is Jon Snow we are talking about here. The Jon Snow who loved wild child Arya for her bird’s nest hair and her scabby knees and gave Lady Arya Stark a sword because she wanted to learn how to use it like her brothers. The Jon Snow who thought that it was okay if Randyll Tarly’s eldest son did not want to fight and asked Maester Aemon to take Sam on because he’s intelligent and liked to read. The Jon Snow who made Satin his steward because he was quick and clever and fearless in a fight. The Jon Snow who held out his hand and called Tyrion Lannister friend.

The Jon Snow who said this:

The collar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn’t that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people. The Night’s Watch needs all sorts too. Why else have rangers and stewards and builders? Lord Randyll couldn’t make Sam a warrior, and Ser Alliser won’t either. You can’t hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn’t mean tin is useless. Why shouldn’t Sam be a steward?”

If this Jon Snow turns out to be trueborn, does he suddenly regress into a person who buys into Westeros’ patriarchal and primitive notions of blood and birth defining who a person should be? Is he suddenly going to expect Arya to behave like a southron lady? Fire Satin from his job?

Is Jon going to believe that being trueborn is superior and that is why he became Lord Commander? Are we as readers going to think that Jon only got to where he is because he is trueborn? All the decisions he made  – all that is retroactively ruined because he’s trueborn?

I doubt Jon is trueborn in any case - Rhaegar was married to Elia and they had children.  Rather, I think GRRM will use Jon’s parentage to explore one of the themes that he really loves – the human heart in conflict with itself. It would add an extra layer of angst, self-doubt, and struggle to Jon’s already existing personal issues.  A father he loved and blamed for his bastardy, send him to the wall - to a life of hardship and celibacy - without telling him the truth. Everything he knew about himself is a lie.

With GRRM’s writing, he could delve into Jon’s inner psyche as he is hit with these truths. A possible heir to the Iron Throne ends up a low born bastard at the wall – how does one deal with all this? How does one react? Then there are his relationships with the only other Targaryen and his now cousin Arya. And that’s what would make any such reveal exciting and add complexity to character and character arcs.  And I think that would be damn interesting to read.

[amitieos]

how to train your dragon

For reasons unknown to anyone else, a mother wyvern has rejected her newborn wyvern and refuses to care for it. The task is now up to some brave volunteers to acquire a friend for life… or the scars. [Grants Flying +1]

Elincia carefully dismounts from her pegasus and approaches the abandoned wyvern nest. Gusts of wind threaten to blow her off course as she carefully navigates the rocky ledge of the mountain. Almost there, she shoots a triumphant smile towards Leanne, and Naesala, who the heron princess had managed to drag along into their escapades for the day. Shuffling across the outcrop, their target finally comes into sight.

It’s hard to believe, that this tiny, vulnerable little thing will one day be large enough to carry men into battle. Daring and proud, unwilling to back down. An instrument of war. For right now, it’s scales gleam in the sunlight, it’s wings too fragile and underdeveloped to lift even it’s petite body from the nest. Large, round eyes stare up at her in trepidation, and Elincia can physically feel the way the feeble creature tugs on her heartstrings like a harp. There was no turning back now. If the wyvern’s draconic mother would not care for it, then she’d just have to be enough, somehow.

Tentatively, Elincia makes her way closer still. Her footsteps are light, delicate so as to not startle the infant. Once within arm’s reach, she stretches out cupped hands, gently lifting it from the ground into her embrace.

It doesn’t stay there very long.

Fire gushes from the dragon’s nostrils, racing up her arms. It’s all she can do to pull her face away just in time, to avoid it too being engulfed in the raging flames. Instinctively, she let’s go of the baby wyvern, sending it arcing into the air as she tries to summon a spell to put out the fire, licking it’s way up her arms.

@allegreta or @aliferousumbra (someone please catch the baby dragon!)

[vergess]

i'm getting back into his dark materials recently, and it's bumping up against my love of ffxiv, so what do you think the scions (or any other characters you're partial to) would have as their daemons? how about your wol?

Nyeheheee, okay, I haven't considered this extensively but I have considered it.

Obviously, I'm a Thancred Has A Wolf Daemon truther. He has all the common traits. Childhood trauma. Comfort with violence. Extreme loyalty to his perceived family/crew/pack.

Minfilia I think is a pink-headed duck, for two reasons. 1) There's a common myth that a duck quack doesn't echo, but actually, a duck's quack consumes its own echo because of the way the soundwaves oscillate, such that a quack is equal parts call and echo. 2) The pink headed duck was recently declared extinct, much like our girl.

Yda I think has a Small Indian Mongoose that she passes off as an Indian Grey Mongoose when people ask if her daemon has changed due to the trauma of the Calamity. "Oh, no, no, everyone just always thinks he's larger than he actually is, big personality and all that!!" Mongoose are very good fighters, and not to be a Taako Taaco stan on main, but they are also very good at not being poisoned by long term exposure to unbelievable toxicity. Getting to calll him by his proper name and species during Stormblood is a whole Character Arc for her.

Papalymo has a grass snake of unusually large (though not unheard of) size, much too large to wrap around his lalafell sized staff. Because of her extremely large size, she resembles an Aesculapian snake, but she's just a common grass snake.

Y'shtola has an aquatic fairy wasp, which is 1) A wasp, 2) one of the smallest insects int he world, 3) Swims underwater with its little wings 4) Is literally too small to break surface tension and has to climb out of water on grass stems instead, much like a certain someone can never escape the spectre of her first familiar lmao. Also, I just think Y'shtola having a near microscopic daemon is really funny. Like, they definitely used to pretend she was a witch and that her daemon was Out On Errands to torment people when they were younger by having her daemon just hide in her ear or something. The fact that post Shadowbringers she actually is a witch whose daemon has been Separated is actively fucking hilarious in this context.

Urianger has an Indigo Bunting, which is a) super brightly colored and showy in spite of Urianger's best efforts to be a secretive little bitch, b) outstandingly loud, and c) uses stellar navigation during its migrations, as a foreshadowing of his class change from ACN to AST. Also, they're same-sexed. Which is to say, his daemon has the bright ultra-blue feathers of male buntings. However, unlike Urianger, his daemon is probably a they/them type of bitch.

Tataru has a Tunisian Ant. Tunisian ants are pretty famous for being the best mathematicians in the animal world, able to compute complex trigonometry to navigate by counting the steps they took leaving their nest, adjusting their travel angle relative to the sun, and making a direct line back to the nest with their food. More importantly, however, this little bastards have some of the strongest sense of smell in the world. These little fellas can scent a good deal (food) from 17,000x their body size away, and they smell in 3D since they have two olfactory organs (antennae) compared the humanity's paltry single nose.

Krile has a golden parakeet. This is almost entirely because it's as obnoxiously yellow as she is, but it's also a little bit because parakeets along with other parrots are pretty famously intelligent, yet easily startled. The golden parakeet in particular is also almost hyper social, which I think blends well with Krile's adorably youthful faith in social systems.

Estinien has a draco volans, the common flying dragon lizard. This is both because I cannot resist a shitty pun, and because of real actual reasons such as: --the flying lizard has a ludicrous jump distance do to its gliding abilities, travelling 100x its body length; --although they are relatively anti-social and dislike loud environments, they are also perfectly happy to kill kill murder kill, with even the relatively more docile females having a vicious territorialism during mating and hatching seasons; --in spite of this, female dracos are free-travelling and wide ranging; --dracos will spend their whole lives never touching the ground if they can at all avoid it.

G'raha has an obnoxiously sociable little Corgi dog who not only talks to other daemons, but will chipperly chime into conversations between people as well. They wear matching outfits. It's unbearable. They're so saccharine. This is because when they woke up in the Bad Timeline, and Raha had to go to the first, his daemon didn't make it across the void. Unlike the scions, whose daemons fell asleep alongside them, it was presumed that Raha's daemon had dissipated. He had physically moved to the first like the WoL did, yet his daemon was missing. The combination of physical pain from the sudden separation and magical disturbance from bonding with the tower seemed to support this. In actuality, his daemon was doing exactly the same thing: sleeping next to source!G'raha in the Allagan stasis chamber. Being forced to assume your soul is dead and that you've only been kept alive through your own hubris for a couple centuries really does a Trauma on a bitch. After the two Raha's memories blended, Raha's daemon is critical in keeping source!Raha from being completely subsumed by the Exarch's greater age, power, and trauma.

The Twins are almost painfully easy. See. There's these two kinds of monkey. The blue monkey, and the red tailed monkey. Though monkeys are generally territorial bastards who hate not just other family groups of the same species, but other nearby species as well, this pair are pretty well known for travelling and even living in mixed species groups of blue and red. I mean. Aside from the fact that monkey daemons are associated with highly self-actualized and intelligent people, especially those with political goals. They're literally color coded for the twins. I almost feel bad giving them matching ones, but how can I possibly deny this simple fact?

If that's a disappointment, I also considered having an Oxpecker bird for Alisaie, and a horseshoe crab for Alphinaud.

The Oxpecker is a bird quite famous for its mutualistic relationship with large mammals, where it will eat parasites off their hides/wounds, and alert them to the approach of poachers. However, it's no longer considered a mutualist relationship but rather a parasitic one, because when 'grooming' its host mammal, the bird gives exactly 0 fucks about the mammal's safety, and will happily widen and worsen injuries to get to the food. This matches welll with Alisaie's extreme temperament and tendency to consider harm in the name of her goal an acceptable cost, even while she's still a broadly very caring and maternal character.

The horseshoe crab meanwhile is famous for its armored shell and its value as a source of medical components, which is a great choice for a dear sweet boy who gave up being a shield healer so he could be another shield healer.

As for WoLs. My WoL has a dwarf pea puffer, the smallest breed of pufferfish. They are tiny, territorial, and like to investigate things. Also, they can puff which is just very funny to watch even though it's, y'know, a stress reaction and shouldn't be considered cute or desirable. Oh my god but it's very funny though.

Lastly, I firmly believe that the ~Official WoL~ or default WoL or whatever people call him, the guy from the trailers, has a humaniform daemon and also it's Ardbert.

Ardert is the WoL's daemon.