#and they just went with one of the most standard clans possible | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

meimi-haneoka · 10 months ago

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Thanks for answering Cinzia! No, you are right 😂. I should not be using older art style as any standard of indication of timeline. That was an interesting exposition. I had never read the CCS manga (or doujinshis) as a kid, but the number of *ahem* works which feature junior high aged SS I came across over the past few months is pretty concerning. On a second note, I was also wondering about Akiho's ancestry. As you once suggested, Akiho's clan might be the Reed clan, the clan on Clow Reed's father's side. From what I understand, the Reeds would be (again I am not trying to be politically offensive but still trying to be direct to the point) white-skinned. Clow, from what I understand, was very much biracial. Then if Akiho indeed is from the Reed clan, how was it possible for her resemble Sakura that much, enough for pass off as her twin? Even if we are to assume that Lilie was the Reed (with perhaps white Germanic ancestry) and her husband (who perhaps can be assumed to the one who had Shinomoto name and was thus Japanese in all probability) married into the clan and they had Akiho who was biracial (with presumably German and Japanese ancestry), it is still very unusual. Until and unless of course, one assumes that Sakura herself is not of a fully Japanese ancestry, especially given that her father literally appeared when Clow died (gave up his body?) and Fujitaka (and Eriol) were created from some kind of magical cellular fission (?). So, Sakura (and Touya) are of part-white heritage, that too from the Reed clan, explaining the resemblance. I am just thinking too much, am I not? I should just let it be, at this point. 😰 Also, what ethnicity does Kaito belong to? I originally thought he was some kind of East Asian looking Russian but his real name is of French origin? What even is going on there?

P.S. Dear God, this went into a very different direction from what I originally wanted to write.

Ohohohho this is a topic that has crossed my mind more than once, especially during the "happy sisters" chapters after Kaito activated the forbidden magic!! 😂😂😂

Long story short, the final solution to the dilemma I came up with is: suspension of disbelief! 😂😂😂😂 Yeah, I think this is one of the most prominent cases where you're supposed to look at them literally for what they are "on paper" and not what kind of ethnicity they should represent in the story.

I'll elaborate further; first of all yes, I've always had the theory that "the clan of the most ancient magicians in Europe" might have been the Reed clan, which also Clow came from. I thought it was just the perfect fit for Akiho: it's based in England, and we know the Reeds were an English clan; this clan got rivalry with the Li's in Hong Kong and again it would make sense if they were the Reeds, because those two families have ONE illustrious relative in common: Clow Reed, the most powerful magician of his time! In fact, it's stated in the Clear Card story that the "Squids" do have lots of resentment towards Clow. The reasons are unknown, but if they were the Reeds, we can easily guess them: he ditched that side of the family and decided to get closer to the Chinese side, living in Hong Kong for a time and leaving some of his magical tools with the Li's. And also, it would've made PERFECT sense for Kaito to turn to the Kinomoto family to leave Akiho with them: if Akiho was a Reed, and we know for certain that Sakura in some way does have a little bit of Reed blood in her (she is explicitly indicated as having "Clow's blood" in the story, and that's so important that they made the characters point that out in the anime too, where TECHNICALLY she shouldn't have any blood relations with Clow, since Fujitaka was never confirmed as Eriol's 'other half' of Clow's reincarnation), that would've ALREADY made Akiho a distant relative of Sakura in some way. So it would've felt way less forced and much more reasonable. Everything fit so well that I was almost sure we would've had this confirmation before the end of the story; sadly, we never did.

There's a VERY terrible translation mistake in volume 6 of the English version by Kodansha USA, where they made the Squids say this:

Please be informed that in the JP original the Squids never said "For the blood of Clow Reed...to be bested by the Li Family....is an unbearable disgrace", because that basically made them refer to themselves as "blood of Clow Reed", hence indirectly confirming they are the Reed clan. That's absolute bullsh*t and what they actually said is "THEY are of Clow Reed's lineage. We can't allow to fall behind them" and that connects with what Kaito said in chapter 68: the Squids checked every movement from the Li family because of their resentment towards Clow (and the Li's were connected to him). I know my theory sounded legit, reasonable and could've made everything more interesting and well connected, but a theory remains a theory if canon doesn't confirm it. And translation mistakes should never be so bad that they end up portraying things in a way that makes you believe what it was actually NEVER confirmed in the story.

Up to this day, we don't have a "name" we can call this clan with: they're simply addressed as "that clan" or "the most ancient magicians in Europe" in THE WHOLE the story (trust me, I've monitored that detail very well, because of my theory). They're NOT the Shinomoto clan, as many people like to report in order to simplify things. I honestly not even believe that Akiho's father's last name was Shinomoto, as Akiho seems c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y foreign to Japanese culture throughout the story. He didn't marry into the clan from "outside", because Lilie specifically says that he's a "distant relative", so he's very much part of this European clan himself. And if we have to go by how awful they are in the story, I'm pretty sure these people would've done anything to keep their blood line as "pure" as possible, without "interventions" from outside, if you know what I mean. Additional to that, Akiho doesn't even remotely mention a possible "tie" she might have with Japan: I know her clan never really answered her questions about her parents, but I'm pretty sure that if she was half Japanese they would've told her and she would've sort of mentioned it along the story. She's portrayed by CLAMP as someone completely foreign to Japan. And with a last name like that, if she was really half Japanese, if would've come up at some point (Sakura doesn't even ask about it, "how come you have a Japanese last and first name if you don't have any connection with Japan?"). I mean, Akiho did "confess" at the end that her true name is Cosmos, and I think that is the only true part of her name that we were allowed to know about her. Just like the rest of her clan, and Kaito, her last name is none of our business, basically 😂 I mean, even Eriol adopted a Japanese last name to fit better, even though he shouldn't really have any tie with Japan (if he's a reincarnation of Clow and got Clow's blood just like Fujitaka, then he should have Caucasian and Chinese traits in himself). As you pointed out, that should be the same with Fujitaka.

As for Kaito, I definitely thought that he could be Chinese at some point: one of my craziest theories was that he was actually a "lost Li", because the shape of his eyes is exactly the same of Yelan. Yeah, check it out if you don't believe me! 😂

The moon power, the fact that he's often portrayed with chinese-style clothes.... Alas, this theory went down the drain too. Or, at least, we were never given concrete hints about it. And then the fact that in his backstory he's potrayed in a cold land with a typical Russian hat made me think that he could've been of Russian's origins too, but that one seems to be even less plausible at this point. His true name is French, so it is legit to infer that at least in part he must have some French genes in him, although it's anyone's guess where exactly he comes from. I do identify him as coming from France, at this point, and that would be reasonable because it would still be in the "area" of the Magic Association, if they operate in the entire Europe (man, CLAMP must think that there's lots of evil people in Europe, wtf 🤣). It wouldn't have been difficult for them to go fetch little Kaito in France, coming from the UK, is what I'm trying to say. But as we never got any other confirmation than his true name (and CLAMP must have chosen a French word instead of an English one for a reason), it's really anyone's guess.

So all of this makes me just conclude that we shouldn't really wonder too much about things like "how is it possible that Akiho and Sakura resemble eachother so much that they could pass as twin sisters, if they're supposedly from two different ethnicities?", because I'm pretty sure that CLAMP didn't go that far in planning all of these details to the situation. 😆 You should just rememember that it's a fictional story (with magic, at that), so we should apply a bit of "suspension of disbelief! 😅

#reply #this ask was fun because this is where CLAMP really remind us to have fun and don't take things too literally when it comes to lore #but focus on the messages of the story #or what situations they're trying to portray #let these characters make you emotional and don't wonder too much about the technicalities ❤️#ccs #clear card arc #ccsakura #thank you Aubretia!#akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito

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loominggaia · 4 months ago

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Question: Is it possible for a genuinely good person to get into power in the Great Kingdoms or some other organization? Or would they just get assassinated or become corrupt and eat babies or something?

Much like in the real world, good-hearted people usually don't acquire much power. That's because in order to get power, you need to be willing to lie, cheat, and exploit others. You need to have a desire to be "above" others in the first place. And, once the power is obtained, it corrupts.

This is a big theme in the Looming Gaia series. Mr. Ocean talks about it pretty extensively. Here's a piece of dialogue from "Supply and Demand":

“We are all monsters in the making, my friend. It is power which corrupts, and I tell you from my own experience, it takes less than you think. It is an insidious thing, like a cancer that takes you from the inside. You cannot see it unless you are willing to tear yourself apart and exorcise it, or else it will quietly take your soul.” -Mr. Ocean

There is another element at play here too, and that's "perspective".

Mr. Ocean had good intentions when he formed the Oceanic Resistance. But as his power grew, the stakes and his foes grew too, and he had to pull increasingly desperate moves to keep that power. He poisoned his own soldiers with greenlite to keep them loyal to his cause, which was a terrible thing to do. But from his perspective, it was for the greater good.

He reasoned that it was acceptable to sacrifice these soldiers' free will if it meant saving all of Terria from Sovereign...until he realized that he was doing exactly what Sovereign was doing, and it was evil. The only way to cleanse himself of the evil was to let go of all his power, so he abandoned the Resistance and his cause altogether. He reasoned that there was no point in overthrowing Sovereign if he was just going to take his place as another evil dictator.

Mr. Roach took Mr. Ocean's place as leader of the Resistance. Roach is now forging monsters, exploiting mermaids and others, all in the name of destroying the Sovereign. Mr. Roach doesn't think of himself as evil, he thinks himself a hero for trying to stop Sovereign.

Most of the "evil" characters in the Looming Gaia series feel this way too. They don't see themselves as villains, but heroes. Sovereign thinks he's a hero for saving Aquaria from Terrian pollution. Indiga thinks she's a hero for protecting her people from magic. Moswen thought she was a great queen for holding her children to such a high standard. Even Dario thought of himself as a benevolent protector of his clan.

Karenza, the Divine of Love, also started her cause with good intentions: to cleanse the world of wickedness. But that's a hard thing to do when wickedness is subjective. Many people consider rulers like Sovereign and Indiga to be heroes and saints, so who is Karenza to decide they're wicked and destroy them? Many consider Karenza to be the wicked one.

I will also mention that even Karenza has done a lot of morally questionable things to acquire and keep her power. Ironically, the Divine of Love has one of the highest kill-counts of any other divine. Her Ethereal City is essentially a dictatorship. She makes mistakes. She takes actions she regrets. Her foes are so unrepentantly evil, so willing to do whatever it takes to overpower her, she feels she has no choice but to sink to their level to get the edge over them. All for the "greater good".

No one wants to take the Mr. Ocean route because...well, look at the guy. He went from a big player on the world stage to a penniless bum overnight. But sacrificing their power is truly the only way to cleanse their soul of the corruption.

Mr. Ocean is one of the very few examples of a powerful leader being truly "good". However, he had to sacrifice all his power to achieve that goodness.

Salina and Marina took the same route long before him (though for different reasons. They gave up their power not because they feared becoming evil, but because they got frustrated with allkind's stupidity and gave up on trying to help them.)

More power requires more corruption to maintain. The ultra-powerful rulers of Looming Gaia come in two flavors: evil, and slightly less evil. Some of their intentions may be good, and some of their actions may even be benevolent, but maintaining their high level of power will always require some degree of morally-questionable deeds.

There are truly good leaders as well, they just don't have nearly as much power as the big-timers. Evan is one example, as leader of the Freelance Good Guys. Jasenia is another, as princess of Barha, willing to sacrifice her relationship with the man she loved in order to save her people from war.

The greatest evil is found in the highest places.

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

#ask #askliterature #askpolitics #askmrocean #askkarenza

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blanketorghost · 2 years ago

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Weeping Wisteria

-Yuu Fujisaki after his debut performance of Fuji Musume, 10 y.o

I've been slowly working on Yuu lore and how it'd affect the current twst story + his relationships and manerisms.

One of the things I've focused the most on is his childhood as an Onnagata trainee.

I think that to follow up on Yuu's literal " a genius that's god's punching bag" trope, I'd do a couple of retconning to his backstory. Most of these are minor changes, but methinks it will impact how he interacts with people— esp a couple NRC students.

(Base info pre-retcon about the Fujisaki clan can be found here)

To start off, Ataru (Yuu's father) would be laid off right before Yuu was born, meaning Yuu wouldn't have known a life before Kabuki training.

This would serve the purpose of reinforcing Yuu's belief that he himself is a bad omen or a bad luck magnet for people, as his family probably wouldn't have struggled so much if Yuu was not born.

Also, though it's common for women in JPN to be housewives after marrying, Yuu's mom, Kanna (環花), would probably also need to resume working if they're struggling. I think Kotonoha would also start tutoring underclassmen for some extra cash to help her parents out + save for college education. His family adores him and each other, of course. And would try to spend as much time together as possible, but sometimes it just can't be done.

This would change Yuu's upbringing in two major factors:

1. He would have spent a lot more time with both his grandfather and great-uncle, which would mean he'd be inducted in two very different sides of Kabuki + also very different, contrasting expectations of what he should be like.

2. He'd have to learn to be independent fairly quickly.

Hiroshi and Nagisa are complete opposites of each other. Whilst Hiroshi gives indiscriminately no matter how little he has, Nagisa is overzealous of the family's wealth─ both knowledge and resources.

Nagisa may have accepted his grandson back into the family, but he only accepted his grandson. He would pay for his education and help with Yuu's needs with a monthly allowance, but that would be it. The rest of the family would still be left to fend by themselves.

Yuu's not dumb, he would notice the difference. After all, why was he given expensive brand-name clothes and attended a prestigious academy that he had to be taken to and from with a private driver, whilst his sister shopped in thrift stores and went to their local public school by foot? Why did his dad never come pick him up from practice and was picked up by his uncle instead? Why were his parents so stressed about pinching pennies to pay next month's rent when grandpa's manor was full of empty rooms?

He would've caught on quick to his position as a very real bargaining chip to maintain his family's finantial stability.

So, I think that Yuu, even though he would grow to hate performing as an onnagata, would not quit Kabuki as soon as possible. In fact, I think he'd continue until high school, were he'd enter an indefinite hiatus just so he could have a normal teenage experience + focus on university before returning to perfom.

Also, I think with how close he is to his cousin Nagihiko, he would not want him to suffer under the stress of becoming the Fujisaki heir— at least not while their grandfather is alive and imposing such standards. He wants Nagihiko to have the carefree childhood Yuu was robbed of because of family politics.

Because of this fact, I think Yuu would be much more prone to sacrifice his happiness if it brought out a greater good. I don't think it's out of pure selflessness, though. He's very pragmatic about the pros and cons of things— and ifthe suffering of one ensures the happiness of many, he does not see any problem with it. I think he would also see his self value in what he is useful for, hence why he would eventually hone his abilities to the point of polymathy.

Then, there's uncle Hiroshi. God bless his man because he actually tried to give Yuu a normal childhood. Whenever he wasn't at his grandpa's slaving away at different subjects, he would be at his uncle's theater office or exploring the backrooms of the place. Hiroshi was a busy man, of course— he had his own business to run, but he did his best to keep him entrtained with what he could. He also was the one to notice Yuu's academic potential as the little bugger would rather read his uncles dusty finance and politic books than the fairytales and picture books he bought especially for him. Hiroshi would have been Yuu's biggest advocate, and since Ataru didn't have the money or leverage to fight back against Nagisa, I think Hiroshi would take that place instead. Hiroshi is described to be extremely generous to a fault, so, as a result, I think Yuu would've witnessed the various times his uncle was backstabbed and taken advantage of, yet still managed to rise back and continue working on his passion.

That's what Yuu's goal was before he got interloped; he wants to bide his time and keep his head down, so once he has enough strength and leverage himself, he can finally stand up for his family... or at least the side that genuinely cares about him.

Yuu loves and admires his uncle, but he does not want to be hurt as many as he was. So Yuu would end up being much more closed off and stand-offish than his own personal hero. He would be reluctant to have close friends and confidantes, effectively making most his relationships superficial except for maybe 3 or 4 close friends he holds very dear to him. None of which are from TWST. I think he's the type of friend that listens to all your problems and knows so much about you, but when you look back— Yuu's NRC friends would realize they don't know anything about him other than the very rare nuggets of trivia he allows them to have.

Yuu is also observant and patient. Let's be real for a second— Yuu is at an infinite disadvantage. He has no magic, no money, no family name, and his smarts can only get him so far in a world he knows nothing about. He knows he needs to play things safe if he wants to survive NRC and its students— at least until he finds something he can fight back with. Humans are endurance predators, after all. (He's still a piece of shit with a big mouth, though)

There's so much more I want to elaborate on, but much like Galatea, it'll take me a while organize all my word vomit. Either way, Yuu's backstory and family dynamics are something I have so much fun of thinking about, because his life was so rich before twst! He had friends, a family and responsibilities to take care of. It's both tragic and freeing that he got taken just at such a pivetal point in his life, where he would have to make the choice to continue living for others or start living for himself.

#art stuff #fanart #twisted wonderland #yuu fujisaki #twst oc #doodles #twst yuu #this is so fucking long i wanna die #if you reached the bottom you are areal trooper #thank u for putting up with my insanity!! gn <3 #i swear to god if tags dont work this time i will commit a hate crime

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deergirlslut · 1 year ago

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But I wanna know what kinda Situations you be putting your friends into :(

Okay okay okay soooooo. I listened to this fantastic ASMR tale called The Castle of Blue Roses years ago and it instantly became a favorite and I thought, "Hey, this would make a pretty good basis for a VTM campaign." So years ago with my old polycule I ran a campaign that had some minor references to it like a sequel. It went alright but I learned some important lessons.

So a couple years later I had the chance to run another campaign with some new friends, who we'll call Goblin and Calc, and set it closer to the asmr tale's original setting, in the first inquisition. Goblin got turned into a Tremere with a longer leash than normal but Calc? Calc's my Brujah brother who is the sheriff's much-unwanted childe, sired on orders. I'm trying really hard not to just recite the whole campaign's plot but Calc's a rebel. He was a thief in life and isn't happy about having to leave his life(and wife) behind. His sire likes him but neither wanted this, so they have a bit of a strained relationship. Gobbo on the other hand came the the castle for some herbs needed to save his sister's life. So he has a much more defined role in mind. Some of the early sessions are pretty standard. They meet a Malkavian and a Setite who pass their trial and join them at the castle and they run around, making sure the inquisition isn't in town, keeping an eye out for human cults and trying to find their place as the threat of the anarch revolt ramps up. Calc, however had a neat little side adventure I guess we could say. He';s being used as a messenger to pass on coded messages, that way he doesn't know anything, and can't rat anyone out. And the poor little rebel get's played like a fiddle by the prince. She gets every ounce of important information she can out of him at a dance dinner that his sire does not attend, ramps up her defenses and learns something that the player's weren't supposed to know until the final session. The sheriff is planning on overthrowing her.

And so we keep on playing, my players not knowing that they've completely sabatoged the chances of her getting overthrown and keep playing up until the final session. Where they should have been given a choice on which of many sides to help. Calc, being true to his clan joins his sire, decides to help in the attack to overthrow the countess, and slinks off with his sire to attempt to assassinate her. Gobbo, however, will do no such thing as it could endanger his sister. And so he gets the Herb he needs, and simply waits to see how it all ends. And it all ends horribly. Calc, the Setite, the sheriff, and a few others try to assassinate the countess and are betrayed. One of their own was bloodbound and the sheriff, knowing they'll lose tells the others to run while he buys them time. Calc, refuses. The setite does not. And so in a pitched battle on the roof of the castle The Prince reveals that she has not only sired Calc's wife, his main touchstone, but that she has wrapped her around her finger and kept her bloodhound. Calc continues to fight, fails a frenzy check and attacks the prince. His sire, however leaves him. And so alone and frensying the most rebellious character at my table is dominated, bloodbound, and memory wiped to think he was always loyal. Always on her side. Always spying for her. Gobbo makes it out and saves his sister, but feels overwhelming guilt for selling out his friend. And now we're playing at the convention of thorns and the Trmemre is becoming a rebel who wants to see the prince dead, and the Brujah is bloodbound and dominated to be her most loyal servant by far. And by golly does he hate me for it. Probably some of the best rping of my life.

Damn. This was long and I was trying to cut it down as much as possible but tl;dr I got too bloodbind and dominate my favorite Brujah and he's so pissed but also could not be loving the story more.

#yeah I'm not checking to see if I spelled all this right #oops #anyways the actual best part is my players liked the game so much they're making a story and I'm so proud

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callgespenst · 2 years ago

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I recently finished watching Space Runaway Ideon (1980) and movies, and that most certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the shows of all time. I’ve been thinking about it for the last week, and some of my thoughts follow. Spoilers, obviously, abound.

- Anyone who tells you to skip the last episode and skip to the second movie should not be trusted. The first movie’s a bit of a mess, for sure, but it re-contextualizes the first two cours in a way that leads in really well to the second movie. And the second movie, if you watch the last episode beforehand, you know when the original series ends so you can brace yourself for when shit REALLY starts going down.

- Also if you watch the last episode, you can notice how the animation gets substantially better once the TV content ends and the new movie content begins. Not that Ideon’s animation is bad, it looks great, but the movie stuff looks much more crisp.

- The rest of the second movie is fascinating for a lot of reasons but also because it’s a clip show for episodes that never actually came to fruition, and the manic pacing lends itself extremely well to how completely miserable the film is.

- The Buff Clan is the least subtle criticism of the Japanese military during WWII imaginable, down to the Emperor being just kinda there and having one line.

- Gije’s journey from just another named samurai looking to prove himself, to proto-Viral from TTGL, to being possibly the only bitch in the whole show who dies content, is really something.

- I didn’t expect to be grabbed so much by Sheryl’s arc. From “kind of a bitch” to falling for a former enemy and finally opening up only to end up so totally broken she throws a baby in the line of fire. And yet, what would be abhorrent anywhere else, is understandable and even pitiable here.

- Jordan Bes is a good dude. Went through hell several times over and still kept everyone together somehow. When did he find the time to have sex?

- Karala and Sheryl are totally hatefucking in the first cour. Also, Hatari and Joliver are totally dating, if you ask me.

- I like Cosmo and Kasha but neither of them feel quite as developed as you’d expect by the end of the series, the rest of the crew gets the lion’s share of character moments. Which isn’t a problem, just the reverse of usual since they’re the ones piloting the robot.

- This applies triple to poor Moera, who only got any development when he was on death’s door.

- I think Kasha is neat because she’s your standard early super robot show girl pilot, but actually given a machine that can do something. Like if Sayaka Yumi was given a Mazinger of her own.

- You know that bit from Toei Mazinger where Kouji and Sayaka are beating the shit out of each other, and shouting “You’re worse than Baron Ashura!” over and over? Take that, sub in Cosmo and Kasha, and “Buff Clan” instead of Baron Ashura. 100% in character.

- It’s really fucked up that they gave a squirrel a custom space suit that fits both of his tails and also that no one ever mentions this in the show.

- Ideon feels a lot like Star Trek in how there’s a lot of exploring the galaxy and finding exciting and strange new worlds, but in a perverse sort of way where instead of being about humanity’s bright future and potential, it’s about how no one can understand each other except when stockholm syndrome’d together on a ship you can’t ever really leave.

- It’s the little cultural differences that really make it. The Buff Clan and humanity looking the same, being able to understand each other’s language, but to the former, a white flag means “we’re going to kill you all without quarter”? That’s the good shit.

- The episode where Cosmo meets that nice older lady who looks after him for a bit before she bites it gruesomely might be one of the most awe-inspiring bits of media I’ve ever seen.

- The more I think about it, Ideon getting cancelled was possibly the best outcome. Managed a decent ending despite that (better than any of its contemporaries that got axed) and then had its planned conclusion on the big screen. If the show had continued for another cour, the blowback from concerned parents once everyone starts dying would have done it in anyway.

- I got genuinely upset over the big space worms.

- I like how weird and alien all the Buff Clan machines are. Definitely still recognizable as enemy mecha, but they’ve got weird numbers of arms or legs, or things shoot off in ways you wouldn’t expect.

- And last, but absolutely not least, here’s the hot take: anyone who tells you “Evangelion is garbage, watch Ideon” is the dumbest motherfucker alive. Anno is the only dude on the planet who watched Ideon and really and truly understood the assignment.

#gespenst media

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the-ultimate-muses · 2 months ago

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It happened without much warning. An audio message sent to the Kuzuryu Clan from a well-known adversary. The rival group had been known to cause trouble— tensions steadily on the rise —but they had yet to attempt a personal attack… Until now.

Threat began with little indication, a standard ❛ greeting ❜ and laundry list of demands accompanied by the echo of footsteps down a corridor. It’s when a door creaked open that faint sniffling could be heard. The shuddery breaths of someone hastily struggling to quiet their crying, not wanting to be overheard. Abductor now informing that if the requests weren’t met, someone would have to pay the price.

Device must have been brought closer to the captive at that point, a gruff voice tauntingly telling them to speak up. To beg for help. To plead that the Kuzuryu Clan not leave them to die. But cooperation is not forthcoming, hitches of breath actually quieting with some difficulty. Met with stubborn silence, the man grew frustrated. Insistent… A moment of quiet. Then what sounded like a firm slap echoing in the emptiness of wherever the captive was held.

It’s then that Chihiro cried out in pain.

❝ Useless bitch. ❞ Irritably growled as weak sobs start to fill the background once more, before the recording ended with a click. — (( *gibs Natsumi a lil something UwU* ))

@not-bcring

The thing about the Yakuza, and most other crime families, is that they didn't negotiate. If you gave your rival time to drum up a ransom, you were giving them just as much time to plot how to take you down either before or after handing it over. Personal attacks of this nature, with someone not of the family, were a taboo even among the most feared of bosses. The life was about respect, and harming someone just for knowing a clan member was a transgression punishable by death, no matter if you were 'made' or not. You gave up your status of untouchable the moment you went against the unspoken, yet wildly known code.

Maybe this group didn't know that, being as new as they were, or maybe they just didn't care. That often happened with new names on the rise, thinking themselves above the old, time honored bylaws, trying to reform the vast underground to their liking.

There was a reason no one had ever succeeded.

Someone under this new name must have known that, with most people under the wannabe high riser being dealt with accordingly after the dissolution of the line. The audio, of which was no doubt to be delivered by dead drop or another anonymous mean, was instead hand delivered by a very scared looking kid, one that was expendable should he have been caught upon delivery. Only he wasn't caught, the kid defying orders and walking right into Kuzuryu territory with the demands instead of discreetly delivering them, with a letter to tell where to find it meant to be sent after its placement.

Lucky for that guy, Fuyu could respect the bold action, with them both knowing should he have wanted to, Fuyu could have the guy killed with but a wave of his hand simply for setting a toe into his territory. Of course, that didn't mean he trusted him, dissenters were always a liability even if they did offer some sort of aid. The guy would be closley watched and dealt with accodingly after their rivals were taken out for good.

For now, Fuyuhiko had the unfortuate task of telling his sister just what was on that tape.

Her reaction was instantaneous, the right hand seeming to know who it was they had taken just by the sniffling that crackled through the speakers, the monitor quick to be broken by her fist before making a grab for her brother's shirt. Her fingers had just curled around the fabric when the rest of the details fell from Fuyu's lips; location, possible opposition, everything he knew was passed on to her, and then the leash keeping her at bay unhooked.

Only Fuyuhiko's word could control Natsumi, and that was only if she wasn't in one of her moods. If he had told her to wait, she would have ignored him, and he knew that. It was why he'd crossed his T's and dotted I's before hand, the only thing left being to get Chihiro back.

Cutting through the rank and file was pathetically easy, with many having no doubt deserted once learning of this plan. If they hadn't, they certainly would wish they had when looking down the barrel of Nat's gun. There was no mercy, the only pauses in her mayhem being to reload her pistol before spilling blood once more. She'd cleared every room, even if it wasn't strickly nessecary, there being no one left to save the fool who had set this into motion once she found him.

One shot would have been enough, but not to Natsumi. She emptied her clip into the man that had taken Chihiro, aiming for non vital points to send him to the ground in a writhing mess of pain. Then, she reloaded, and went over her first layer of lead and powder, goal to leave him unable to move, just lay there in his own blood in nothing but agony until he eventually bled out onto the concrete.

As much as she would have loved to see the light leave that bastard's eyes, Nat had something far more important to take care of, a confirmation of Chihiro's saftey being said shakily into her earpiece as she dropped to her knees beside the tiny programmer. "I got you bambina. No one else is left to hurt you, I promise." Something that could be confirmed by the sheer amount of blood and gunpowder that stuck to her clothes, only one or two of the stains being of her own injuries.

"What did he do? Where'd he hurt you?" She didn't know how she sounded so calm as she cut through Chihiro's bindings, Nat wanting nothing more than to throw up riddle that man's body with bullets again and again and again-

#man now she has to process Emotions hdfksaf #muse: natsumi kuzuryu #not bcring #mobile bound

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inquisitorius-sin-bin · 2 years ago

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Ahhh yes, we were all waiting for things to come crashing down. They finally started to sense the foreboding closing in around them just a bit too late to have that one last romp together before everything went to hell.

We can tell that different individuals have different attitudes around public displays of affection, which is fairly realistic. Most of Kite clan were encouraging Dralla and Tsino back at home (Olmu and Lansah, for example), probably because of their desperation. Bolen is a really boldly romantic figure, and is pretty loud about wanting his daughter to find and express love and happiness. Drago is much more reserved and while he IS very romantic, prefers to express that in private and scolds Bolen for being too open discussing things in front of Dralla.

Talion is considered "crass" among his clan, but still gets uncomfortable about actual talk of the deeds from Tsino. Like, HE feels he can joke about it because it isn't actually happening, but doesn't actually like to hear it or hear about it directly. Meanwhile Theo doesn't even want to talk about it at all as more than an indirect reference, and even that seems to fluster him. Meanwhile Teo'danya and Teo'dora, who act as folk healers and midwives, have a bit more of a realistic attitude. "This is normal, attraction is normal, our species displays attraction on the face, which is nothing to be ashamed of".

All of this to say, Hullos caught Dralla and Tsino doing something objectively weird as hell by their standards. Ears are out all the time for Plainsmen, they don't have any kind of special feelings about them. But for someone who is used to having them covered 100% of the time, it's kind of sexy and different to have someone touching a vulnerable part of you that most people don't get to see, and very sensitive tissue at that. So Hullos is at first a little annoyed because word's getting around that Dralla is ignoring her fathers for her new Velladei and that is upsetting them, but then she sees what they're up to and that makes it even worse because it isn't something "normal" by Plainsman standards.

I can't even imagine the shock of going from someone who is used to moving around in the shadows relatively unknown and unseen, or being gawked at and stared at in Imperial settings as an oddity, to being openly revered. People giving you things just for existing, just so you'll notice them. Dralla is hating it, but I'm sure he's pleased.

Speaking of, she is really starting to fall into some strong emotional states now. The way she describes Tsino, calling him her Velladei, her brightest star, expressing panic when she can't find him, constantly seeking to put hands on him and comfort him- she is getting really attached. She also feels a heavy dose of guilt about it, and shame for her obvious outward affections. Then there's this other feeling of anger, she intuitively KNOWS Drago is being rational and she is not, but the denial of her affections makes her upset, and she's confused as to why. She's been dwelling in these darker emotions a lot lately, especially in regards to the Empire and Tsino, letting them take hold of her. She describes the feeling as "suffocating", which I think is very telling.

Those around her are also now starting to fall and suffer those negative emotions, Bolen's grief and Drago's frustration, Tsino's suffering as well. She's a very empathetic person, and I can only imagine how that's going to weigh on her.

Both Theo and Drago are really agitated. Theo seems to know things about Dralla that Drago does not (she suddenly wants to fight the Empire? Behind his back? News to him), while Drago seems to know something about Tsino that Theo does not (both him and Bolen referred to him by another name, and it's possible Lamast and Feerstan also used that name while they were being interrogated). Neither are happy to be working with each other, but Tsino has already asked Theo to put out a dowry for Dralla, so Theo is already pressuring Drago, and his weariness is showing.

Now as for Dralla completely unravelling her tunic, I think it would be situation dependent. The Plainsmen obviously find it culturally appropriate for all sexes to take off their shirts. They tattoo their clan alliances onto their chests, so there's obviously even a degree of pride in that. Chests are not sexualized among Plainsmen. While female Pau'an do not have mammaries, just like males, they can get fat deposits in their chest that might somewhat resemble breasts or even be slightly more prone to develop fat there than males because of their evolutionary history.

We also know there are some groups of Plainsmen that do fairly frequently interbreed with other species including humans, such as the Great Ocean clan, who are in closer proximity to tourists due to their location and more likely to attract attention. They even sport some human characteristics like hair. Other groups also travel to cities, so it isn't like they are completely unaware of human anatomy or customs. News travels slowly, but they do have an awareness of what is going on in the galaxy around them.

But we know Dralla likes to appear as Plainsman as possible, down to having her head shaved. Not wearing a shirt would obviously expose her as not-Pau'an, but at the same time, if her whole group is riding without tunics on a hot night, then she's the one not appearing with the rest of the group. I think it's something she'd be comfortable with inside the confines of her clan, where she's very well accepted as part of the group. I think she'd be a little more hesitant around outside groups because she doesn't want to stand out as different, but that difference is likely more perceived than actual.

Despite the celebration of the equinox picking up, there's definitely an omen settling in on this night. Tsino starts to feel it just before the Weavers arrive. There's so much tension and bickering, even about the small things, even when someone is objectively right, tempers are flaring. But Tsino is still choosing to accept some responsibility for his actions, even if he can't reveal what exactly he's done, so that is... something. I can't even imagine Nulee's parents seeing her dactillion being ridden by someone else so soon after her passing, it must sting.

I think it's important at this point to keep in mind- taming a dactillion is a spiritual act. A dactillion will not accept a rider that is not their own without their rider present. Dralla has said this, and even Victerrus would not accept her without Tsino present, and Kaisarion would not accept Tsino without Dralla present. Thus him riding Victerrus necessarily means he is his rightful pair, by divine act. He couldn't have just taken Victerrus by force.

There's just one small detail- hopefully Tsino doesn't slip. He and Dralla know something no one else does. It has to do with funeral rights and releasing dactillion. Dralla has brought it up twice and actually broken Plainsman code over it. I'm curious who will catch the problem.

Ride or Die

Grand Inquisitor x F!Reader

18+ Fic (Minors DNI)

Chapter 1: The Stranger | Chapter 2: Wet Moon | Chapter 3: Favors

Chapter 4: Negotiations | Chapter 5: The Eagles' Fall | Chapter 6: Survivor

Chapter 7: Flight | Chapter 8: First Watch* | Chapter 9: Lanternbeetles*

Chapter 10: Youngling | Chapter 11: Kin | Chapter 12: Birthright

Chapter 13: Theo | Chapter 14: Handprints | Chapter 15: Vella*

Chapter 16: Fletchers | Chapter 17: Awaited | Chapter 18: Unwell

Chapter 19: Temple Guard | Chapter 20: Home | Chapter 21: Juleper Berries

Chapter 22: Forgiveness | Chapter 23: Listening | Chapter 24: The Weavers

Working Glossary

*chapters containing porn

Summary:

It has been seventeen years since your rebirth on the plains of Utapau. An orphaned child with nowhere else to go, you were adopted by your clan leader Drago and his mate Bolen, who made you their own daughter through the unique tattooing rituals of the surface-dwelling Pau'an.

Now you lead a group of your kin to trade with a neighboring clan, when you come across a lone stranger riding across the grasslands. Nothing about him makes sense, least of all the marks he bears on his forehead in conflict with the symbols he carries on his shoulders.

You must guide him on his mission, while you ponder the secrets of his past that might just align with yours, and balance the survival of your small clan amongst two powerful opposing forces.

Content Warnings:

Canon-typical Violence, Graphic Depictions of Sexual Situations, Smoking, Drinking, Descriptions of Death, Manipulation, Gaslighting, Animal Death, Xenobiology, Fingering, Breast Fondling, Mourning, Mind-probing, Order-66 Flashbacks, Pregnancy

Current Word Count: 78,206

Tag List:

@oh-three @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @keebeees @stardustbee

#ride or die fic #long post

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exilethegame · 2 years ago

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hey there!! just played the demo and omg it's amazing!! i'm really curious to find out what the hell has been going on on syfyn's head this whole time. i wanted to ask a couple of questions, if that's okay.

how do languages work in this universe? do the characters' names hold any meaning in their native language?

about the wykna, is the "merging" with a mortal something necessary for them or they just do it because they want to? is individuality important for them? when they "merge", is loss of identity something they feel? (kinda putting "mortal standards" on gods but honestly i'm just curious about how wykna view themselves and the "merging" process).

thank you and have a nice day!! (sorry if you have answered these questions before or if i'm clearly not paying enough attention while playing the game).

There's a few different languages in Navara. As of now, however, there's Common, Old Common, Mavikras, and Vrithkan.

Old Common was spoken Before Abandonment in the Old World-- it's where the word mythosi comes from. Common is spoken everywhere-- it's very rare that you'll meet someone who cannot speak it.

Mavikras is the language of Vygrand-- it has some cool lore behind it, but to summarize, it's an ancient and magical language that was made by sorcerers in the Old World. The sigils and symbols they found and learned to implement in their magic contained difficult to pronounce sounds when translated, and they found most people would never be fluent in magic until the end of their lives due to the difficulty. Because of this, they created a language that solely used these magical words so that young sorcerers would be raised to know the language from birth. It's a very intentional language-- every sentence has the possibility to be a spell. Not every Vygrander is fluent in it-- the upper class are, but lower class would only know relevant/important words to their daily life (the name of social classes, for example). Otherwise, they speak a sort of combination of Mavikras and Old Common (as of now, at least)!

Vrithkan is actually a pidgin language (combination of Common, Old Common, and the multiple languages on the island). People from different parts of Vrithka will have their own unique languages along with knowing Vrithkan. For example, Jost + Nikke's clan speaks one language, but if you went completely north of the island to a clan of werewolves they'd be speaking something completely different.

As of now, none of the character's names have meaning... though that could change later on as I develop the languages more!

As for the wykna questions--

1.) The merging isn't something the wykna has any control over-- it just happens. They have no control over it.

2.) Depends on the god, but the term "individuality" means something different to them than it does us. For example, Freedom values their individuality a lot, but regardless of that, they'll always be the embodiment of a culmination of beliefs. Freedom will never have full control of who they are or who they become. No wykna ever will.

3.) No-- Wykna don't feel a sense of loss when they merge. They're already the culmination of a lot of different beliefs from a lot of different people, so merging directly with one more person doesn't really affect them. The change is much more significant and drastic for a human than it is a wykna. A human is a singular person with a singular identity. A wykna is the embodiment of collective thought and collective experiences.

Thanks for the ask!

#answered

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wutheringmights · 3 years ago

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more headcanons would be sick!!!

More headcanons about the boys coming up!

Sky is severely dyslexic, which means he's always had a lot of problems with school. He needed Zelda tutor him his entire time at the Knight Academy in order to just barely pass a lot of his classes. Make no mistake: he is a really smart guy, but after going through years of being told he's not, he's adopted the mindset that he's pretty stupid no matter what he does. This also led to him having a lot of behavioral problems growing up. Everyone in Skyloft thinks that Sky calmed down once he returned from his adventure when in reality they started to respect him enough that he no longer lashed out.

Four is a minor member of the Knights of Hyrule. His family has ties to the clan, with his father being a minor knight and his grandfather being the knights' blacksmith. This is what allowed him to meet Zelda as a kid, as growing up they were often told to play together while the adults talked business. After his adventures, Four had an open invitation to join the knights, and he did for a stint and became Zelda's bodyguard (aka: the Four Swords games). But he inevitably went back to blacksmithing, to the frustration of his father.

Time and Malon didn't decide to have kids until much later in life, so much so that it was a health risk for Malon. Time fretted relentlessly, intent on running the ranch himself so that she didn't strain herself. But it turns out that all of the friends he had made on his adventures were more than happy to help around. But at this point, Time had finally decided to retire from adventuring, which led to his good relations with the royal family to fall apart (he was, after all, a pretty good mercenary to call on if anything went wrong), so hem received no help from Zelda. Their previously cordial relationship ended there, and the two never spoke to each other again.

Legend loves to travel to new lands, and he wrote countless books filled with descriptions of the foreign kingdoms he went to, what the people were like, and everything he could learn about their culture and history. He even wrote guides for all of the foreign languages he learned on his adventures. His writings became super popular among Hylian nobility and helped to foster an enthusiasm for trade (which helped the impoverished kingdom recover financially). Amazingly, his writings survived multiple destructions of Hyrule, which led to him being one of the best documented and most famous heroes in Hyrule's history.

Hyrule is low-key the most charismatic of all of the Links. He's so down to earth and can strike up a conversation with just about anyone. Because of this, he's also pretty popular back in his Hyrule. Everyone wants to shoot their shot with him. He is Hyrule's most eligible bachelor. He definitely knows this, but doesn't think it's a big deal. If anything, he's annoyed that everyone's standards are so low that him just being respectful and kind to everyone is known as something remarkable.

Twilight spent a lot of time in the Gerudo Desert post-adventure trying to collect all of the pieces of the Twilight Mirror and uncover as much as he can about the Twilight Realm. His quest led to him befriending the Gerudos, where he learned that the Twili and the Gerudo not only have a common ancestor, but the many of the Twili are regarded as mythic Gerudo figures. Twilight ends up marrying into the Gerudo tribe and starts a domino effect that leads to relations between the Gerudo and Hylians finally improving in the hundreds of years post-OoT.

Wind travels the Great Sea with Linebeck in his post-adventure life. It first began as an excuse to explore and look for treasure together, but as Tetra became more intend in discovering a new Hyrule, Wind decided to instead try to find a way to make the Great Sea more hospitable for others. He's especially interested in trying to find a way to help plant and animal life thrive in the ocean. Because Linebeck's ship is a steamer from a different universe, Wind and Linebeck also had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to repair the SS Linebeck, which led to Wind becoming quite a good mechanic in his own right.

If Warriors was from a higher class, he would have pursued law. While his Hyrule is still in the medieval stasis signature to the series, it is still thriving more than anyone else's to the point where hallmarks of later periods of real world history have developed, like factories and a robust justice system. But while a career in law is theoretically possible, it's only accessible for the rich. Warriors realized pretty quickly he needed a different career path, and well, he's always liked the idea of becoming a Knight of Hyrule.

When Wild first bought his home, he was told that the previous residents had abandoned the place years ago, but he didn't learn the full story until a few months later. According to local legend, the home's last owner was a family of knights who died during the Calamity, save for a young girl who had been left at home. The young girl had been filled with grief to learn of her family's passing, and the town had done their best to comfort her. One day, the girl left. She had no supplies with her, not even shoes on her feet. She walked as if in a daze, and no one could break her trance. A few concerned villagers followed her as far as they could, watching her make the slow hike up to Mount Lanayru. They lost her in a snow storm and could not find her afterwards, but it was said you could hear her crying when the wind blew at night. Wild didn't think about this legend much until he learned he had a sister.

#every and all wild headcanons are from the wild character study i will never write #also warriors wanting to be a lawyer is canon to CTB and might come up eventually as a fun character detail #linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu #lu sky #lu four #lu time #lu legend #lu hyrule #lu twilight #lu wind #lu warriors #lu wild #legend of zelda #loz #ask #anonymous #me rambling

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ryehouses · 2 years ago

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It's probably too soon to ask this, but I'd love to see any Mandalorian's point of view of the most recent chapter. If that's not doable, I'd also love to see any Jedi's point of view of Din's lightsaber practice/duel if that's possible!

boy howdy! i got several requests in a similar vein; i do have some mando povs of the summit, but as the summit is still ongoing, i'm gonna save them for later.

as compensation, here's a bunch of mando povs following the whole riduur thing in ast 27!

(standard warning for mandalorians being awful to each other applies.)

in which the mandalorians play telephone.

“What?” said Koska Reeves, lifting her eyebrows. Why is Djarin being so weird about this? She wondered. It’s not like Fett’s fun to be around, or anything. But Djarin was looking so grim, his armor smeared with fresh ash, helmet tilting down like he disapproved.

She felt a little bad for Djarin, honestly. He was so serious, and if he was spending all of his time getting shot at on Fett’s behalf, he probably hadn’t had much reason to laugh lately.

And with what Bo’s got planned, he’s not gonna have much to laugh about for a while, either, she thought.

She took pity on Djarin. Maybe he just needed a joke. That always improved Koska’s mood, after a tough fight.

So she lightened her tone and said, teasing, “Is he your riduur or something?”

Djarin stared at her. “Yes,” he said.

Koska usually had pretty good control of her expression, but she felt her eyes go wide. “...Oh.”

- - -

Axe Woves loved his wife. He really did. She was everything he could want in a partner; loyal, funny, steady, protective. It didn’t matter how crazy the rest of the galaxy got, because Axe knew that Koska had his back.

Or Lady Bo’s, he thought. If Koska wasn’t at Axe’s side, she was at their lady’s, and Axe could get on with his work knowing that at least Lady Bo-Katan was well-guarded. Koska was ruusaanyc, a stone in a sandstorm. Her steady nature was one of the reasons that Axe had married her.

So when Koska, trailing along behind Djarin, the cultist Lady Bo-Katan seemed to think was essential to their mission to reclaim Mandalore, grabbed Axe by the elbow and dragged him back when Axe went to follow Lady Bo-Katan, Axe listened, because he knew that Koska would only leave their lady alone with a Child of the Watch if she had a good reason.

“Koska,” he said, concerned. His wife was pale. Her eyes were a little wild. “What’s wrong?”

“They’re married,” she hissed.

Axe stared at her. “...Who’s married?”

Ka’ra bal ka’ra, not Tristan and the Saxon boy, I hope, Axe thought. Tristan Wren was a sensible man and a good friend, not one prone to making rash decisions or tumbling around with strategic allies, but the Saxon boy had been enamored of him ever since he’d stepped aboard. That’ll be a nightmare to explain to his mother, she had an alliance with Clan Farr arranged for him –

“Djarin,” said Koska.

Axe blinked. “Djarin got married? To who? Another cultist?” That wouldn’t be good, but if Lady Bo-Katan was going to undermine the man already –

“Worse,” Koska said. Her voice had a manic edge to it that had Axe looking down the long white hall for a blaster or an enemy. “He married Boba Fett.”

Axe blinked again, Koska’s words taking a second or two to register, and then when they did register, Axe paled. “... I see,” he said, very carefully. “Has Lady Bo-Katan been told?”

Koska shook her head.

“Then we need to tell her,” Axe said, decisively. “And we need to tell her soon, before word gets out, ka’ra bal ka’ra, if word gets out – ”

“Right,” said Koska. “Right. We’ll just have to keep it quiet. It’s – it’s only Djarin, right? Nobody even really knows him. How hard can keeping that secret be?”

- - -

“HE MARRIED BOBA FETT?”

Axe, standing a little behind Koska, dropped his head into his hands. Koska winced. On the other side of Bo, Mira Antilles, Tristan Wren and Enna Kast were all staring at Bo, dumbstruck.

“He did,” said Koska, thinking quickly. She glared at the three warriors behind Bo, threatening them into silence with as much authority as she could muster. “And this information does not leave this bridge, alright?”

The warriors behind Bo were all veterans of joha’kaan, and nodded.

Koska let out a breath, relieved. Now all she had to do was calm Bo down, and they’d all be good to go. Everything would be fine. They could – they could still salvage this.

“Hey?” Axe muttered, lifting his head out of his hands. “Where’s the Saxon kid?”

- - -

Pike Saxon, eldest of Lysistra Saxon’s seven sons, was used to getting holotexts from his younger brothers. He had six of them, after all, and now that little Torr wasn’t so little all seven brothers were scattered across the galaxy to make names for themselves.

Well, names and credit, but Pike was after glory more. His clan’s standing had fallen. Even when his uncle had been the Viceroy of Mandalore, Clan Saxon hadn’t been well-liked, and now even though Uncle Gar’s branch of the family tree had been cut away, the rest of them were still outcasts.

Not for long, though, Pike thought. He was on Nar Shaddaa hunting Pyke Syndicate enforcers. It was dangerous, but the irony – Pike hunting the Pykes – made Pyke laugh. The credits weren’t bad either.

Pike was sitting in a grimy cantina, sipping spotchka and watching a pair of Pykes exchange a sack of credits for a crate of spice, when his commlink buzzed.

Pike frowned.

Really? he thought, exasperated. Only his family had his frequency. Giving it out had been a mistake. All six of his brothers sent him messages day and night, regardless of how many times Pike told them to stop.

Surreptitiously, not wanting to draw more attention to himself than he already had, Pike turned his wrist over so he could see the message scrawling across his commlink’s tiny screen.

I swear on all my ancestors, he thought, finishing his drink. If Grayling sends me one more stupid joke –

Pike paused. The message was from his youngest brother, Torryg. The kid was an – honored guest, his mother had phrased it – of Bo-Katan Kryze’s. That didn’t mean that Torr wouldn't send Pike dick jokes, but he usually waited until he knew Pike wasn’t working before breaking out whatever new bit of profanity he’d learned from Kryze’s people.

One eye still on the Pykes at the bar, Pike swiped over on the message, interested to see what Torryg wanted.

PIKE, the message read, in bold Aurebesh letters. YOU AREN’T GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

- - -

“ – BOBA FETT,” Bo-Katan Kryze continued, at battlefield volume. “HE MARRIED BOBA FETT, OF ALL THE KARKING PEOPLE IN THE GALAXY – ”

Korkie sighed and pushed his plate away. He had been hoping to have an ordinary family meal, but it seemed like even that was too much to ask for these days.

- - -

“Boba Fett? Really?” Cyri Ordo leaned back against the bar, studying her partner with interest. “I know that name. He was a bounty hunter, right? A few years ago?”

Her partner Haddock, one of Lysistra Saxon’s many sons, snorted. He was a few years older than Cyri and had seen more of the galaxy, which sometimes made him obnoxiously convinced that he’d seen and knew everything there was to see and know.

Cyri was doing her best to disabuse him of that notion, but it was a work in progress.

“Boba Fett was the bounty hunter,” Haddock said. “You weren’t out of the clan yet, but he was everywhere. He’s brought down some of the biggest bounties in the galaxy! Gilramos Libkath, Wat Tambor, Han Solo – ”

“I thought he was dead, though,” Cyri cut in, before Haddock could get really carried away.

Haddock paused. “I did too,” he admitted. “Can’t be, though. Not if he’s married now. Right?”

- - -

“Who’s married?” Adhira asked, fussing with the smooth leather bands adorning her lekku. They were a gift from her father and contrasted nicely with her skin, which was a rich, deep green. Adhira hadn’t worn the bands with her armor yet, but if they clashed she supposed that armor could always be painted. “Not Torryg?”

Adhira Farr had only met Torryg Saxon twice, but both times she’d liked him. Liked him enough to entertain her mother’s ideas of marrying him, anyway. Torryg didn’t have much of a name for himself yet, but he was a Saxon – Adhira knew that he’d win plenty of glory, once he was older. Clan Saxon and Clan Farr would make good allies.

Bakti Farr sighed. Teenagers, she thought. But she still reached out with graceful hands and helped her daughter arrange her new lekku-bands. “Pay more attention, sareeni. You are your father’s heir – you need to start paying attention to politics.”

Adhira wrinkled her nose. “Politics are boring,” she said.

Bakti rolled her eyes. “That’s not true,” she said, her lekku twitching disapprovingly. “Neither for the mando’ade nor for the Ryl.”

Her daughter sighed. “Fine,” she muttered. She stopped fretting so obviously over her appearance. “Who’s married?”

“Better,” Bakti approved. “Boba Fett, apparently. And some mysterious warrior that Lady Kryze has been keeping close at hand.”

“Boba Fett… I know that name,” Adhira said. “Don’t I?”

“You do pay attention in your lessons,” Bakti said, tweaking one of Adhira’s lekku. Adhira laughed. “I was starting to wonder. Yes, you have heard of Boba Fett. He’s the supposed son of Jango Fett – the old mand’alor Mereel’s son, back when we had such a thing.”

“The mand’alor’s son?” Adhira said, eyebrows rising. Bakti was proud of her – the girl did have a keen sense of clan politics, when she could be convinced to pay attention. “That’s got to make Lady Bo-Katan mad, the son of an enemy marrying one of her people.”

Bakti agreed. “Which is why,” she said, tweaking Adhira’s lekku again, “you should comm young Torryg and see if he’s got any more details, hmm? I heard the news from his mother, but Torryg is with Lady Bo-Katan.”

Adhira grinned. “I’ll see what I can do.”

- - -

“ – SHOULD HAVE JUST STAYED IN WHATEVER SAND PIT HE CRAWLED OUT OF, IF HE THINKS HE CAN INTERFERE WITH MY PLANS LIKE THIS – “

Mira Antilles had not been afraid of anything since she had first seen the hole in the stars where Alderaan had once been. She wasn’t afraid now. She had seen much worse than her friend’s occasional eruptions of temper.

… But when Vera Beroya, head of a clan Bo-Katan was trying to sway to her side ahead of the upcoming summit, commed to discuss the possible benefits of such an alliance, Mira seized the opportunity and slipped off of the bridge, leaving Bo to work through her anger alone.

A tactical retreat, Mira reasoned, wasn't a sign of fear. Just good sense, especially in this case.

- - -

“So he isn’t dead,” Mereel Skirata said, propping himself up on his elbows. Clan Skirata’s home on Daro wasn’t quite the same as their sprawling morut on Mandalore had been, but Daro was nice enough. Forested, temperate, full of all sorts of interesting animals to hunt. The Empire had abandoned it years ago and the locals hadn't bothered coming back. Clan Skirata was mostly left alone, out here. “I’d wondered.”

Ordo grunted. He very rarely thought about Boba Fett at all. “I don’t see why you care,” he said. “It’s not like Boba Fett’s ever done anything for us.”

Mereel had always been the friendlier of the two of them, though, and in his old age he’d gotten absurdly sentimental. Kal’buir’s influence, Ordo thought. It’s not like the Prime had had any sentiment in him.

“He’s one of the brothers,” Mereel said, mildly.

Ordo grunted again. Technically Boba Fett was, but Ordo's definition of brotherhood was narrow, for a clone. “Never seemed to want to be,” he observed.

“The last time you saw Boba Fett, he was ten,” Mereel pointed out. “Remember how awful your kids were at ten? Proper strill cubs, the whole pack of them.”

Ordo blinked. Considered. Reviewed forty-year-old memories of standoffish young Boba Fett, who'd never wanted anything to do with any of the other clones, with the eyes of a father and an uncle and – ka’ra bal ka’ra, a grandfather, soon – who had seen dozens of children, most with Fett blood, come up from child to adult.

Then Ordo winced.

“Okay,” he said. “That’s fair.”

- - -

“While I’m surprised that Fett, of all people, would marry a Mandalorian,” Ursa Wren said, studying a wavering blue hologram of her son, “what I’m more concerned with is who he has married. Who among us would take a mongrel like Fett?”

Tristan grimaced. “You’re not going to like it,” he said.

Ursa raised an eyebrow. That can’t be good, she thought. Tristan was a steady young man. He’d had to be, to survive under Gar Saxon. If Tristan was concerned –

Did Fett marry into one of the Great Clans? She wondered. There were only two Kryzes left. Bo would never sully her bloodline that way and while Korkie, the nephew, had inherited an unfortunately peaceful temperament from his mother, he was loyal to his aunt, and wouldn’t do anything to undermine her status.

The Vizslas are gone, Ursa thought. There are few enough Ordos. An Awaud, maybe, from the branch that followed old Mereel, but I didn’t think they had any warriors of marrying age left among them.

“He married the mand’alor,” Tristan said.

Ursa’s thoughts ground to a screeching halt. “The who?”

- - -

“No one really knows anything about him,” Kip reported, folding his arms across his chest.

Fenn Rau rubbed his forehead. This was not how he thought that his day was going to go when it had started. It wasn’t an unwelcome development – the son of Jango Fett deciding to reinsert himself among the Mandalorians was not, and would never be, unwelcome, not to those who remembered Jango and Jaster – but it was admittedly a strange one.

Fenn had never approached the boy. Well, man, now. There’d been some talk, years and years ago, about tracking Boba down, when word had reached the Protectors that Jango Fett had died. It had seemed like the least they could do. Jaster Mereel had been one of theirs, after all.

But the Clone Wars had erupted right after Jango’s death and no one had been able to find Boba when they’d gone looking, and then by the time the boy was making a name for himself there were too few warriors left to go looking, and as far as Fenn knew, Boba Fett had never sought out what was left of his father’s people.

“He must be something, this Mandalorian,” Fenn said thoughtfully. “To bring Boba Fett back into the sphere of Mandalore – are you sure no one knows anything about him?”

Kip shrugged. “Wrasse only said that the Mandalorian was some kind of bounty hunter,” he said. None of Fenn Rau’s people had been invited to Kryze’s light cruiser ahead of her summit; Fenn knew that she was attempting to flatter, threaten and bribe half a dozen clan heads to her cause, but she hadn’t reached out to Fenn yet to try the same. All his information came through the scraps Kip was able to pick up; Kippan Awaud was well-liked, even among the old Death Watch crowd, and had friends in every clan.

“And that he must be a skilled warrior,” Kip added. “Wrasse’s little brother said that the Mandalorian was the one who defeated Moff Gideon, not Kryze.”

Fenn Rau raised his eyebrows. “Now that is interesting,” he murmured. “A nameless warrior defeated Gideon and won the loyalty of Boba Fett?”

Kryze must be having tookas, Fenn thought, almost amused. She had counted on the son of Jango Fett keeping his buc’ye out of the summit. His claim, after all, was nearly as strong as hers. If Fett was canny enough to snatch one of her allies out from under her nose –

Kip just shrugged again. “I can try to find out more,” he said.

“Yes, do,” said Fenn. “This – this changes things.”

- - -

“This changes nothing,” said the armorer, sitting cross-legged in front of a dark forge. She was not sure that this new covert was to her liking, and she had no intention of going to the trouble of lighting the forge if she didn’t intend to stay.

“Doesn’t it?” Wyrran growled.

“No,” said the armorer. “Din Djarin has broken no law.”

Wyrran snorted. “Clan Fett is our enemy,” he said.

The armorer looked at him, coolly amused. “Does he know that?” she asked. “I have not spoken to him of Boba Fett. Nor have I spoken to him of any false Creed or false Way.”

“Fett will have told him,” Wyrran said, bitterly. He was often bitter, these days. He had taken the loss of the covert on Nevarro hard. The armorer supposed that she had taken it hard too, but the dead were settled now. She had performed the rights, and Din Djarin, she’d heard, had had his vengeance on Moff Gideon.

As I thought he would, she thought. Djarin had always been exceptional. It should not surprise Wyrran that Boba Fett, dangerous though he was, had caught Din Djarin’s attention.

“Djarin knows the risks,” the armorer said. “All of us take the same risk, when we venture beyond the safety of the tribe.”

The risk of outsiders. Of coming across whatever fragments of Mandalore – weak Mandalore, broken Mandalore – still remained. The risks of losing a helmet in battle, or confronting the so-called “True” Mandalorians’ false Way.

“He is well-trained,” the armorer continued. “And well-raised. He knows the Creed and the Way.”

“Fett doesn’t,” Wyrran growled.

“That is hardly Djarin’s fault,” the armorer said, tone still mild. “I care little about what Fett does or doesn’t do. What matters is what Djarin does or does not do.”

“And if he decides to throw all of this away?” challenged Wyrran.

The armorer sighed. She studied her cold forge. Her hammer rested against the dark, cool metal.

“Then we will do what we must,” she said. She met Wyrran’s gaze. “This is the Way.”

Wyrran eyed her, but finally inclined his head. “This is the Way,” he echoed.

It might have been the quiet and the dark of the unlit forge, but the words did not bring the comfort that they used to.

The armorer ignored that too. "Come, old friend," she said. "Let us sit vigil. We will see Djarin soon enough."

And then, she thought, we will see what he has become.

- - -

“ – BOBA FETT, WHO THINKS HE CAN INTERFERE LIKE THIS? AS IF THAT WALKING TEST TUBE HAS ANYTHING TO OFFER A REAL MANDALORIAN, EVEN A CHILD OF THE WATCH – “

“Tris,” said Torryg, staring fixedly out at the starfield beyond the Gra’tua’s bridge, in case accidentally making eye contact with Lady Kryze got her started yelling at Torryg instead. “Will you kill me? Please?”

Tristan Wren sighed, and did not kill Torryg.

- - -

The force of the sneeze caught Boba Fett entirely by surprise. He hadn’t even felt it coming on. One minute he was sitting at the bar with Fennec and Noora, inhaling a bowl of Espan fried noodles and discussing how many bodies they’d need to ensure the palace’s security, if Gorga and his mercs came back, and the next his bowl of noodles was upended all over the bar and Boba was blinking stars out of his eyes, dazed.

“Smoo te ya,” Noora said.

Fennec just looked amused. “Too much joloko pepper in the sauce?”

“No,” said Boba, blinking. His nose itched tremendously. He looked at the noodles now splattered everywhere, sauce dripping, and sighed.

He’d been enjoying those.

Noora reached under the bar, fished out a rag, and tossed it at Boba’s head. He thought about reaching up to catch it, but Noora hadn’t laughed since the raid. He let it catch him in the face. The cloth was damp and smelled faintly of spilled tihaar, and one corner had been singed by blasterfire.

Boba didn't mind. When it dropped back down to the bar, Noora was smiling. It wasn’t a full-on laugh, but it was good enough. Better than Boba'd seen in days, from her. Satisfied, Boba took the rag and started to mop up his overturned lunch.

Fennec knew what he was doing and rolled her eyes. Soft, she signed, in rough Tusken. Boba ignored her.

“Must be all this dust in the air,” Boba said. Gorga’s mercs hadn’t been particularly skilled, but they’d done a level job at wrecking Boba’s palace. His nose itched again and he suppressed a second sneeze with a glower.

“That,” Noora agreed, still smiling. “Or somebody’s talking about you. That’s what my mother used to say, you know.”

Most of the people who’d be talking about Boba right now probably wanted him dead. Boba snorted. “Let’s hope not,” he said. “That’s the last thing I need right now.”

- - -

Far away, on the other side of the galaxy, Luke Skywalker opened his eyes and cocked his head, confused.

“Uh oh,” said Han, dropping his feet down off of Luke’s desk like he hadn’t been sprawled out sleeping just a few minutes ago. If Luke pointed that out, Han’d accuse him of spying, even though it didn’t take a spy’s work to figure out that Han would always prop his feet up on other people’s furniture. “Disturbance in the Force, kid?”

Luke rolled his eyes. Han had been attending some of the younglings’ classes, lately. Ben did better when he knew Han was around. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea, Han attending the classes. If he paid more attention to them, he might even learn something about the Jedi.

But all Han had learned, really, was a few words and phrases that he’d trot out wherever Luke and the other Jedi were talking about the Force.

“No,” Luke said, humoring his friend. He didn’t mind that Han had napped while Luke had meditated. Han needed it. “Not a disturbance. More like…”

The Force was always close at hand, these days. Luke couldn’t remember a time without it. A time when he hadn’t been able to hear it, to close his eyes and sink into it like an embrace. He’d fallen into the Force in seconds, this time, and it had almost been –

“More like someone told the Force a really good joke,” Luke settled on. That was what it had felt like. A flicker of warmth. The Force curling in on itself, delighted. “There’s – someone out there is having a good laugh.”

Han raised a skeptical eyebrow. “The Force has a sense of humor?”

Luke grinned. “That,” he said. He knew how it sounded. Han had a pretty good tolerance for what he called “Force stuff,” especially now that Ben could talk and had no qualms about telling his father what he dreamed or heard during mediation. But there was no reason to strain his credulity – Han’s carefully-constructed understanding of the way the galaxy worked – any further. “Or I’m just hearing things.”

- - -

The graveyard that had once been Mandalore was still and silent. The surface of the planet was thick with ash and dust, scalded rock. The same sunlight scoured over the graves of Clan Kryze that scoured over the graves of Jaster Mereel, of Tor Vizsla, of the Ordos and the Awauds and the Skiratas and the Bralors, Vaus and Raus, Wrens and Wravens.

There was no one left on Mandalore to hear the news sweeping through what remained of Mandalore’s people. The whispers, the plans, the guesswork, the surprise. There was no one left on Mandalore to care.

But in the skies overhead, all of the ka’ra bal ka’ra were shining brightly.

#ast asks #ast tag #ast 'verse pov tag #y'all i have too many goddamn ocs

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jayietheriverwarrior · 2 years ago

Photo

I kinda just started this one on an impulse, but I ended up spending a fair bit of time on it, and now I'm rather proud of it. Anyway, after reading the newest Warriors book River, I was struck by how each protagonist had a unique and highly focused-on relationship with their mother. I decided to try and capture the essence of each of those relationships juxtaposing each other in an image together. So here are the protagonists of A Starless Clan with their mothers!

On the left, we have Sunbeam and Berryheart. We didn't get to see as much of these two as the others, since Berryheart didn't really appear until the middle of the book, but I was really intrigued by what we did see. Berryheart is described as being a very strict mother who taught her kits to be good, loyal, rule-following warriors of ShadowClan. She clearly became that way after how disasterously wrong it went last time she allowed and apparently agreed with her daughter's rule-breaking tendencies (I say agree with because Berryheart was one of the few warirors to join the Kin before the rest of ShadowClan did). But now that the rules are changing, Berryheart is unhappy with the rules she's dedicated herself to being disregarded and thrown away, and towards the end of River, she was hinting that she intends to remind the Clans why those rules were important in the first place. Sunbeam is a quietly loyal warrior who follows the rules, but even she can see that her mother is going too far, and seems highly uncomfortable with the way her mother is talking about reminding the Clans of the rules.

In the middle, we have Frostpaw and Curlfeather. Unlike the other two strained mother-kit relationships, Curlfeather and Frostpaw seem to be incredibly close and loving to each other. That's not the say there aren't problems - Curlfeather is apparently a bit of a helicopter parent, both coddling Frostpaw and holding her up to standards Frostpaw isn't sure she can reach just yet. But this seems less important to Frostpaw than her closeness with her mother, as she mentions several times how glad she is how have Curlfeather's love and support. But something much darker is lurking over this mother-daughter relationship. Curlfeather's role in everything that has happened in RiverClan recently is unclear, but given that her last words were spent warning her daughter to trust no cat, it's clear she knows something, and now that she is gone, Frostpaw is left to face that "something" alone without the cat who had supported her most, and who had unclear intentions and an unclear level of involvement in the current mess in the Clan.

On the right, we have Nightheart and Sparkpelt. Nightheart wants to be close with his mother, and it seems Sparkpelt wants to be close to him too, but neither of them really know how to act around each other or talk to each other. Sparkpelt was unable to be emotionally involved in her kits' early lives because of her post-partum depression and grief over Larksong and Flickerkit. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't able to be involved, and it's not Nightheart's fault that he was deeply affected by that separation and feels that sense of abandonment and lack of closeness with his kin. It's just a terrible situation that happened. But as a result, Sparkpelt and Nightheart have that feeling of distance between them that neither quite knows how to breach, and Nightheart has a mix of resentment towards his mother for not being there for him and a desire for her love and approval.

I had a lot of fun drawing this one. I think I'm happiest with how the shading and texture turned out on Berryheart and Sunbeam, but I love how the background and poses turned out for Curl and Frost (the other two backgrounds were way lazier :P). Berryheart is pulling Sunbeam in closer to hear her conspiring against the changes to the code while Sunbeam is thoroughly uncomfortable, Curlfeather is grooming Frostpaw while the shadow of the darkness within RiverClan (and possibly Curl herself), and Curl's imminent demise, loom over them, and Spark and Night are looking wistfully at each other while also turned away from each other, longing for that connection but unable to erase the awkwardness and resentment between them.

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flightless-rising · 3 years ago

Text

Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling�� which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.