#because all three of the cards in that post will appear in the second set
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thatonebjp · 9 months ago
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Just spent like 30 minutes organizing my custom card posts into "custom cards 1" for the set I did and "custom cards misc" for the other ones, so I can seperate them from my next set by tagging that "custom cards 2"
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fqlling4it · 4 days ago
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we can’t be friends (wait for your love) part 2 | max verstappen x best friend! reader
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yourusername
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liked by lilymhe, francisca.cgomez, and others
yourusername much needed rest and relaxation over the break (with some extra special family time)
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user732 posting for the first time in months after dropping THAT song is diabolical
↳ user82 her saying she’ll wait for his love is actually kinda insane because i’d be groveling on my knees if she showed the slightest bit of interest in me
lilymhe oh my beautiful, beautiful girl
↳ yourusername love you lily <3
user81 i know that second single’s gonna hit like crack
↳ user4 praying everyday for her to release again
georgerussell63 pops finally made the gram?
↳ yourusername took lots and lots of convincing for me to be able to post this georgie
francolapinto muuyyyy linda 😘
↳ yourusername i’m a little too old for you sweetheart
christianhorner make sure to tell that boy of yours thank you for winning you the bear
↳ yourusername papa, this is not how instagram works…. everyone can see this
user63 christian outing his daughter about having a boyfriend was not on my 2024 bingo card 😭
↳ user33 diabolical move on his part, but now i’m nosy and wanna know who
francisca.cgomes i’ve missed you, come by soon ☹️💔
↳ yourusername will be over as soon as possible
yourusername added to their story!
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[caption 1: night out with my girl! francisca.cgomes]
[caption 2: always third wheeling these two pierregasly francisca.cgomes]
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francisca.cgomes you could’ve brought him with you bubs
↳ it’s still new, didn’t want to force him into something he might not be comfortable with… he only met pops because of work
user72 y/n’s so me, always third wheeling my friend and her boyfriend </3
user44 two pretty girls omg
carlossainz55 could’ve invited me hermosa, would’ve been a nice double date
↳ next time then, just wasn’t sure if you were ready to officially officially meet my friends <3
alexandrasaintmleux no boyfriend appearance?
↳ keeping it low key… wasn’t sure if he was ready to meet everyone as my boyfriend yet
francisca.cgomes added to their story!
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[caption 1: picked up alex and forced pierre to be our photographer]
[caption 2: when she gets a text back so she has to set her phone down and scream]
carlossainz55 glad i have that effect on her, tell her to answer me though </3
↳ still screaming, will text you back when she’s done
user44 literally me when i get a text from my man 🧍‍♀️
user81 three baddies in one picture 🧎‍♀️‍➡️
maxverstappen1 who was she texting???
↳ it’s none of your business max, stop meddling
incoming messages from max!
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carlossainz55
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liked by charles_leclerc, yourusername and others
carlossainz55 what a great way to end a three week break, love spending time with mi sol. ¡vamos vegas!
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user72 y/n in the likes, my yncarlos truthers RISE!
↳ user63 so delusional oh my god
yourusername viva las vegas!
↳ carlossainz55 viva las vegas!
charles_leclerc sad to be out last triple header as teammates brother, i’ll be keeping you around
↳ carlossainz55 gonna miss you hermano, we’ll race hard for ferrari
user65 can’t believe it’s carlos’ last few races in a ferrari 💔
↳ user55 and if i say perez is out so the redbull seat is open and carlos goes to redbull and franco stays at williams 😁
↳ user65 delusion at its finest
maxverstappen1 ready to go in vegas 🙌
↳ carlossainz55 see you there
user23 you know who else went golfing with lily during the break? y/n!
↳ user61 that doesn’t mean y/n was there when carlos was with lily and alex, you sound delusional
yourusername added to their story!
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[caption 1: the only professional ever took me golfing lilymhe]
[caption 2: he got jealous, so my man took me golfing too (:]
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user732 man???? i thought maybe your dad was joking… oh my god
user61 hmmm… interesting…. is that perhaps carlos sainz? who wore that same outfit in the pictures he posted on his insta… suspicious 🤨
carlossainz55 i was not jealous hermosa.. just wanted you to remember how good i am at golf
↳ oh of course amor, you just wanted to show off your golfing skills… so what if i post a picture of us when i announce my new song? are you okay with that?
carlossainz55 sounds amazing hermosa, i’ll post you too.. wanna show off my girl
lilymhe oh you two are so cute
↳ you missed it!!!! when we went to go find my ball he told me he loves me… i melted on the spot lils, he’s so sweet 🥲🥰
christianhorner oh baby, i hope you’re having a wonderful break. tell carlos to stop by hospitality on media day, we’ve got some things to discuss
↳ thank you papa! i’ll make sure to remind him
user81 oh that’s so cute
user94 lily and y/n >>>>>
user01 the fit though
maxverstappen1 is that who i think it is?? you’re with carlos??
↳ please max, it’s none of your business… can’t you just be happy for me?
maxverstappen1 i am happy for you schatje, i hope he treats you well
↳ so well! i love him max… so so much
user344 imagine being max and fumbling the baddest bitch and almost losing your championship to someone with three race wins
yourusername
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liked by carlossainz55, maxverstappen1 and others
yourusername dinner dates with my man <3 (new song eternal sunshine out friday!)
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user61 I KNEW IT I KNEW IT AND I GOT CALLED DELUSIONAL FOR SAYING IT
carlossainz55 bonitaaa
carlossainz55 hermosa 😍😍😍
carlossainz55 te amo mi sol
↳ yourusername te amo guapo
lilymhe and the cutest couple award goes to… carlos and y/n
↳ yourusername ahhhh i love you lily <3
alexandrasaintmleux oh you two are just the cutest
↳ yourusername thank you alex, love you <3
maxverstappen1 so happy for the two of you, congratulations!
↳ yourusername thank you max, it truly means a lot
user743 ok but they’re so cute together
user392 newest ferrari wag but only for three race weekends ☹️
↳ user16 you act like she’s dying, they’re just moving teams
christianhorner so happy for you baby! i love you princess ❤️
↳ yourusername thank you papa, i love you too. make sure to tell geri we’ll visit soon <3
carlossainz55 added to their story!
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[caption 1: paddock days with my girl]
[caption 2: a win in vegas with the best company]
f1
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f1 carlos sainz to join oracle redbull racing for the 2025 season after sergio perez retires! franco colapinto will take sainz’s seat at williams for the 2025 season
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carlossainz55 so so grateful for this opportunity!
user55 i literally predicted this ????
↳ yourusername please predict carlos winning wdc 2025, thanks girlie 🥰🙏
user23 so so happy for him!
user82 oh this is amazing news!
maxverstappen1 can’t wait to be teammates mate!
↳ carlossainz55 so excited to be teammates again hermano
charles_leclerc happy for you brother!
↳ carlossainz55 thank you charles, double date with the girls soon!
user44 oh wow
christianhorner excited for next year! wcc is ours! work hard boys!
yourusername added to their story!
[caption 1: eternal sunshine out now 🌞]
[caption 2: my eternal sunshine ☀️ carlossainz55]
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ventiskies · 1 year ago
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Ace of hearts | Lyney
genre : growing up together, hurt no comfort, angst.
synopsis: sometimes the lines of being a performer and your friend blurred; it was dangerous to get caught up in an act. as he has said, anything could happen in a single minute.
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You knew Lyney like no other. 
If there was one person in Fontaine you could call your best friends, it had to be the magic twins Lyney and Lynette. Ever since you were young and heard a group of magicians of similar age as you were performing in the streets, you had never once missed a performance.
Your parents were merchants and you lived in the safe confines of the Court of Fontaine, so they had no trouble leaving you most of the time alone at home when you were a little older. That was when you started to spend more time befriending the mysterious magician duos that would perform almost every week.
The first time you attempted to befriend the two, you could see they were wary from the way Lyney would tell you they had to leave and go home early (and then finding him in a different spot of the Court, still performing), or the way Lynette completely ends a conversation with you before you even started by saying her “talking mode" is off.
Though all that never hindered you from wanting to be their friends. You had no others in Fontaine, and when your parents were out you were alone. You’d join and watch the trials, but you never understood whatever the Chief Judge was saying. Or how it worked. Your young mind found nothing intriguing except the twins and their performances - you couldn’t give up!
They begin to notice how you frequent their magic shows, how you took a genuine interest in them. It took a lot of time and appearances at their street shows (shows that you had to find yourself, since they never seem to post a notice of their performing) - but after a few months, the oldest twin, Lyney, began to warm up to you.
He called you to stay once after a performance, it was late at night, and they must have appreciated your dedication because right he they had asked if you were interested in joining them for a dinner at Hotel Debord (one that they had mentioned their father would pay for - how could you reject a free meal?) so without hesitation, you agreed.
And that's how you and Lyney became friends. 
It took you a while to warm up to Lynette, but she seemed to be nicer to you after Lyney decided to befriend you. When you were reminiscing of your younger days in the future, Lynette tells you that she had started to trust and befriend you the day her brother called you to stay. Because anyone Lyney trusts, Lynette trusts.
When they were not performing, the three of you would be hanging around the Court of Fontaine, enjoying strolls or desserts or playing together like the kids you were. You lacked a childhood of playing due to the lack of children your age, and you could tell they did too from the way they had to ask you how to play certain games that even you - with no experience - knew how to play. As though they had to mature faster than other kids.
Years went by faster than you had realized and you had gotten closer and grew up together alongside the twins, your friendship never once fading. You had shared dreams, fears and traded secrets. Though despite everything, you had never learned their origins or how their tricks worked.
Whenever they had a bigger performance at the streets with a larger audience, you would be dubbed Lyney’s second assistant, but beyond helping with his props and help misleading the audience you never really knew how their magic was performed. It was the one thing Lyney and Lyentte never told you, though they weren’t against you finding out. 
“Is this your card?” Lyney asks with a sly smile one day when the two of you were on the sandy beach by the Court, looking beyond the ocean at the setting sun. You don't remember how you ended up there, all you remember was curiously chasing after a seelie when it left the Court, and Lynette taking a rain check from joining to eat some dessert. Leaving the two of you to chase after it alone only to lose track of it once you were out.
Now you sit on the sand, looking up at sixteen year old Lyney who shows you a six of hearts with the confidence of someone who has never been wrong. You shake your head and snicker.
“Nope,” 
Lyney’s shoulders sagged, “No way, you’re lying!” he takes off his hat and places his hand on his head, pouting, “I've got no cards left, this has to be it,” he mutters, shaking his hat to show it was empty.
“Or maybe…” he places a hand on his chin and looks at you, placing his hat on your head. You laugh as it falls over your face, “you stole it!”
“How does that even work?” you rolled your eyes, lifting his hat so it doesn’t cover your eyes. Only, when you did, a card slips out and falls onto your lap. The queen of spades. Your card.
“That's how it works,” Lyney answers your question with a snap of his fingers and a smirk, as if he solved a mystery and caught you lying, “you thief, trying to ruin my magic,”
“Drop the act already,” you laugh. He definitely got you good, “okay, that was impressive. You have to tell me how that worked, I don't think I can figure that one out even if I watch it over and over again!”
Lyney places a hand over his heart, “Drop the act? What act?” he gasps, mock offended. You shake your head and sigh, causing Lyney to laugh.
“You are a good thief, you’ve stolen more than my cards,” he says, his tone sounding softer. From the years you’ve been friends, there were moments when Lyney showed he was more than just what he showed. Lyney acted like he had a brave face but sometimes, in the night when you were alone, he would show you a softer, more gentle side of him.
But this time it was different. He sounded as if he was showing you something. He was trying to tell you something, without actually telling you anything.
This was the first time you’ve properly looked at Lyney. He takes a seat beside you on the sandy ground, giving you a gentle smile and you feel your cheeks heat up. You see the way his pale hair falls over his eyes, the way his hands skillfully played with the queen of spades, the gleam in his magenta eyes. Was this feeling...?
Lyney’s hand comes up to push his hat on your head back down to cover your eyes. You yelp, and seeing you struggle makes him laugh.
“And as for the trick,” he switches the topic, as smooth as the way he does magic, “You’ll figure it out,” he winks.
You take off his hat and look into it with a frown. It was empty, you reach into it to find any secret compartment, there was none.
“Don't pout,” Lyney teased, “you’re just not looking at the right places,"
He takes his hat back from you gently, your fingers brushing. You had touched multiple times, being friends since you were practically children. But the contact lit something up inside of you, it made your stomach churn with butterflies.
Before you could ponder over what that meant, Lyney’s hand reached into his hat, “Aha,” he grinned, before taking out a rainbow rose.
“A thank you,” he smiled, handing the flower to you which you accept with an impressed smile, “for being my lovely assistant,”
“Don't you mean the audience?” you ask, ignoring the way you blushed, hoping it was almost dark enough he wouldn't see. The sun had begin to set.
“You're too special to be the audience,” he winks, “my assistant is more personal,”
When the stars come out and you part ways after he walks you home like the gentleman he is, you can’t help but stare at the rainbow rose placed by your bedside in a vase when you try to sleep. Pondering over the emotions stirring up inside of you as you think about him.
.
It wasn't as easy to ignore it as you thought it would have been.
When you woke up the next day you’d hope you snapped out of it. You never acknowledged your feelings because saying it would make it real. Because if you confirmed what it was you could never take it back again.
But staring at the rose, you feel heat creep onto your cheeks. You try to ignore it, to avoid thinking about it, but it only makes it worse. 
The way your fingers brushed, the way he denied you as his audience but more of his assistant, the way he looks at you gently and teases you. The way he could have been with his sister or anywhere spending his time any other way but he chose to be with you instead, watching the sunset by the beach.
Recalling the interactions you’ve had in the past, a few made you wonder if you’ve always felt like this towards him.
The three of you had once gotten into trouble with the gardes, running around and knocking a perfume vendor’s stand and breaking her bottles. It had been entirely your fault for running without looking, but Lyney had stepped between you and the garde, taking full responsibility. He had done a solo magic show for a week straight to pay off the damages just for you, and you had admired him for that.
You begin to think admiration was not the right word for it.
Recalling, you remember one day where you had been too sick to watch their performance and Lyney personally came over to your house with soup and a few props to entertain you. When he had learned you lived alone due to your parents being merchants, he began to come over more frequently after that. Often with Lynette or Freminet to keep you company. Freminet was someone new to you - but you both immediately bonded after he found out you too were interested in the ocean.
(In the future, Lynette tells you Lyney had searched for you everywhere. That he had asked almost, if not all the vendors and gardes at the Court if they knew where you lived. The information made your heart flutter - it never even hit you that Lyney never know where you lived)
Still, growing up you managed to keep your emotions all to yourself. Never giving a name to it, or acknowledging it. You and Lyney were close and there was no reason to avoid him. So you continue as you normally do. A trio. And more occasionally, a duo. Just you and Lyney.
.
It wasn't until a couple years later, after you grow up and out of the age where you develop crushes easily, and your feelings for Lyney were still there that you finally pay it any mind.
You have seen Lyney grow up as a person. From being a mere street magician when you were younger, to a person with a purpose. Under the stars one night, he shares a speck of his past with you. A purpose he had. He shares with you a prophecy you’ve once heard from your parents when you were younger, one you thought was merely a legend. He tells you with the conviction of someone who really believes it, and something about the way he tells you makes you believe it too.
You help him fulfill his purpose by supporting him. And in return he supports you, as he always did when you were younger.
You begin to take up a job as an editor in The Steambird as you grew, and that way you were able to help Lyney and Lynette by sneaking advertisements of their performance and discreetly spreading more information about the prophecy and where to seek help for relocation. You were a team, and the more time passed, the more the purpose became yours as well.
Your lives became busier and busier. The twins still performed, but lately they went out of the Court to do archons knows what. They’d tell you when they would leave, but returning was something of a gamble. Sometimes they don't return for days, sometimes weeks. And since you never knew where they went, it was difficult to send letters.
And just like that you were alone again. Though you were able to keep yourself busy with your job as the editor and sometimes Charlotte invited you to help her interview people or watch court proceedings, there was a hole in your heart that was hard to fill by anyone other than the two magicians. Hard to fill by anyone other than Lyney.
.
“Good work today!” Charlotte beams, “See you tomorrow!”
“See you,” you smile at the chirpy cryo user, clocking out for the day. It was an especially tiring one today, as it always was whenever a court proceeding takes place. Compiling and correcting Charlotte’s draft was a pain, they were written the same way she talks - all over the place, rapid and often assumptions instead of facts and truth. Sometimes you wonder if you were selling newspapers or scandal sheets.
You arrive home, the same quiet place you’ve lived for the rest of your life. You greet a photo of your parents by the door. They were a rare sight these days, but once you were older they had begun sending letters, including in them souvenirs from their trip. 
You take your mail inside to see if they sent anything else and after sifting through bills and advertisements, your eyes meet a stark red envelope, a card stamp in the corner.
Lyney
You open the envelope and was greeted with a letter, written neatly on a piece of parchment. It smelled of cold snow and ink, wherever he had written it from, it was most likely not Fontaine.
To my lovely assistant,  It has been a while, were you surprised by the letter? Haha, I can already imagine your face and what you’ll say. “My, magician Lyney is truly the best at surprising me, what a great magician he is!”. Save your flattery for when we meet, I know you have a lot. I will be returning in a week’s time, and I have something i would like to share with you. Oh, you must be very curious now. Please don't let me cause you to stay up all night wondering. Let us rendezvous by the sea when I return. On the sand where you once stole something from me, at the same hour when I had caught you being a thief. I can't wait to see you again, my heart. Sincerely yours, Lyney.
You fold the letter in your hands as your heart begins to race. An ace of hearts falls from the envelope and into your lap, as if knowing you had finished the letter. You pick it up.
My heart.
There was no way you could deny it any longer.
.
You never had experience with having an… affection towards someone. So you told Charlotte, which was, in hindsight, probably a bad idea. Though surprisingly (and, lucky for you) she had crossed her heart and swore on all the archons that she wouldn’t tell anyone. She laughed when you called it affection, calling it a crush. The word made you cringe, not in a bad way, but in a realization that that really is what it was. There is no way to deny it now.
“Rendezvous at the sea?” she exclaimed excitedly when the two of you were having lunch out together. “and he made a reference to when you were there together in your younger years? Oh my archons this is too much!” she places a hand over her heart, definitely enjoying the romantic drama between you two.
“He just has something to tell me, maybe he wants to share his journeys,” you tell her, not letting her fuel your delusions though you’d be lying if you said it wasn't working. Charlotte was looking too much into it, you tell yourself.
“But he has never sent you a letter before, right?” she says, putting her fork down, engrossed in dissecting the letter with you, “you always had to find out they were back by bumping into them by chance, or when Lyney would stop by at the Steambird for you - oh I see the whole picture now!” 
“Charlotte…”
At your worried tone, Charlotte gives you a sympathetic smile, “Sorry, I got excited,” she says sheepishly, “You can choose to ignore what I say, but it doesn’t erase the fact that he asked you to meet him at the beach by sunset. Take what you want from that, but at face value it already sounds like a date,” 
You look down at your dessert. You remember that day vividly, the day you had begun to see Lyney form your best friend to… something else. The day you began to feel these emotions, the emotions you’d only have towards Lyney.
The way your stomach churns with butterflies and how you feel electricity when your fingers brush. How you began to appreciate every moment with him as you grew and how the time he was away only made your heart long to be close again.
You couldn't deny it, you liked him. He had caught your attention when you were younger, and he still never failed to till this day.
Turning up to look back at Charlotte, you notice a street vendor selling flowers. One catches your eye immediately, a bouquet of rainbow roses.
“Ooh! Are you planning on getting him something?” Charlotte notices your gaze and follows it to see - “Flowers! What a romantic you are!”
“Don't you think its too much?” you say nervously. What if you were getting it all wrong? What was Lyney going to say to you that required you to meet at such a place?
If Lyney knew his letter was making you antsy and nervous like this, he’d never let you live it down. You could already see his smile and hear his teasing remarks, even when he wasn't there. What an effect he had on you.
“Nonsense,” Charlotte grins, “even if you’re not seeing it romantically, there’s no harm in giving him flowers as a welcome back present! Oh, you should get the rainbow rose,” 
“Rainbow rose?” you ask, wondering if she knew about the flower Lyney had given you.
Charlotte gave you a cheeky grin, “Rainbow roses are often used in performance to convey romance,” she says, swooning “If Lyney knew that, he’d take the subtle hint and might find out you reciprocate his feelings! And if not- well, they’re pretty flowers anyway,” 
“Wait, what?”
That made you freeze. You replay her words in your mind - rainbow roses are often used in performances to convey romance.
Your mind recalls back to years ago, when you were covered in sand and Lyney’s hat blinded you. When he accused you of being a thief for stealing his card. And stealing more than that. 
The card and letter comes into your mind. The ace of hearts. My heart, he addressed you.
The rainbow rose that you had kept, pressed in between pages of a book so you could preserve it forever. The rainbow rose he had given you that day. When you realized you liked him, but never cared to act on it.
“I'll get him a rainbow rose,” you tell Charlotte, and she cheers in triumph. That was the end of your talk about the magician, and for once, you feel as though you weren't scared.
.
You knew if Lyney were to confess to you, you'd accept it in a heartbeat. Now that you had connected the dots and was a little more confident, it was your turn to take him by surprise. To be one step ahead of him.
The following week came faster than you’d hope. Nights were spent practicing what you’d tell the magician when you meet him again. You had carefully taken care of the rainbow rose bouquet you bought for him, cutting the stems and watering it daily.
When the day comes, you leave your house when the sun begins to set, bouquet in hand. A reminder of the magician, and his past attempts to give you hints.
The sun casts a gentle glow at the magnificent structures of the Court of Fontaine. Vendors and noise starting to hush, being drowned out by the rushing water that gave a soft orange glow as your feet hit the sandy beach just outside, where you had started to develop feelings for the man who was there now.
Lyney stares beyond the ocean, looking the same as when he left. He must have sensed your presence, because he turns around the moment you arrive.
He calls your name gently. He looked as if he wanted to say something else, probably tease you, or ask if his letter really did hinder your sleep, but one sight of you made the words die on his tongue. His sly grin melted into a gentle smile.
“Lyney,” you smile when you see him. It had been a long while. Despite practicing what you’d say and do, the sight of him being there made your mind completely void. You outstretched your hands to give him the bouquet, and he takes it gently. His hands over yours when he takes it, examining the flowers with a soft smile.
“I knew you’d be impressed by my letter, but I didn’t know it was to this extent,” he finally takes them, gentle and precise hands caressing the petals of the rainbow rose. Seeing him now, you notice a lot of differences between him years ago. He was taller, his features more sharp, but there was still a gentle air around him. Lyney laughs, the sound making your heartbeat pick up, light and airy. “What's the occasion? I thought I was the one with the news,”
“I know what you’re going to tell me already,” you say, and a look of shock passes over Lyney, before he masks it. Finally, it was your turn to turn the tables and surprise the magician.
“Word travels fast then,” he grins, “so, what do you think?”
You take a deep breath and face the waters. Lyney tilts his head, as if he was suspicious of your actions, but before he speaks up, you cut him off.
“I like you, Lyney,” you say quietly. “I’ve liked you for a long time,”
His smile falls.
Fuck
“Oh,” he attempts to hide his surprise, “You must’ve gotten the wrong word then,” he says, as if to soften the blow. Which does the complete opposite; wrong - that's what he used to describe your words.
When you don't speak, Lyney purses his lips, “I’m performing at the Opera Epiclese in a few days, and I had wanted you to be my assistant.” he says, voice now sounding softer. You don't know if you were looking too into it, but his flirty tone was now gone. Replaced with something foreign - something you’ve never heard him use. It was devoid of anything. When Lyney spoke, you could never mistake what he was trying to convey. His tone was always clear - that's what you needed when becoming a performer, after all. To mislead your audience.
Mislead. How foolish you were to think you were any different than an audience of his.
Now he speaks with nothing, monotone, but kind.
You feel your heart clench painfully in your chest. So what was all of that? You wanted to ask him. You wanted to take back your words. You burned with embarrassment. So what was it that I had stolen besides your cards all those years ago? Why would you call me your heart? Why did you lead me on?
But you couldn’t. Instead you bite your lip and nod. It was never Lyney’s fault. He had always acted like that even when he was performing, what a fool you were to assume you we’re different, just because you had known him for almost all your life.
He takes a deep breath, "You mean a lot to me, please-" he says, trying to reach out, but you step back. Of course, Lyney would leave after that. He was too nice, above everything, he was your best friend. And you were his best friend. Nothing else; never had been. You look up and a look of hurt flashes in his eyes. All your years being together, you had never once fought. Disagreements sure, but avoiding him like this?
You can see the pain in his eyes, and it reminded you that despite having Lynette, he too was a lonely child in Fontaine. If the tables were turned, you’d also be hurt if he reacted this way. But you couldn't control your emotions, not after everything you had believed.
Its not fair, you wanted to say, that you can look so hurt when you’ve given me hope.
But maybe there was no hope to begin with. Perhaps the things you had assumed were hints had just been Lyney’s way of talking. 
Stupid.
“I-I’ll be there,” you say, looking away from him to avoid the stab of guilt his pained eyes gave you, “I’m sorry,” 
You make your way back, calling a lift to head up before he could catch up with you. And if you had went to meet him at Romaritime Harbor a few days later before his performance and saw him talking to a blonde haired outlander with the same smile he had given you before, and a familiar flower on her dress, he never would have known that you turned back around.
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petra-creat0r · 3 months ago
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Deltarune: Fool's Fate Chapter 1 Shopkeep
Okay so this should be the last important character ref for Chapter 1, aka the Attic World. (i need a better name for this Dark World.) After this my plan is to post the minor characters like enemies, NPCs, and Minibosses but once those are out, I'm not sure what to start on next. I have many things I could work on, it's just a matter of choosing. Thus why shortly after posting this, I'll be putting up a poll. Anyways! Onto Jeanie!
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The shopkeep of the first area, aka the Dusty Plains, Jeanie (like the spirit) is a mystic snake who lives alone in her tent and tells the fortunes of whoever enters. If we're to think in terms of mapping parts of the Attic World to Chapter 1 of Deltarune proper, imagine Jeanie as the Seam of the chapter. Some of her dialogue even makes mention to the cat plush, even though the two have never met proper.
Her name is a play on "genie", being said the same, just spelled differently, and tying to her mystic, fortune-teller vibe and occupation. As for inspiration, asides from taking on the appearance of a hooded cobra (a lot of the Attic World has some snake ties because of Broadway), Jeanie is an old fortune telling machine. I'm not sure if she's the full machine, or just a part of it, but that is her Light World counterpart. Her connection to tarot cards is likely due to the machine incorporating them into it's gimmick.
Being the first shopkeep, Jeanie's wares are rather basic. A healing item found a few times prior to meeting her, aka the Fortune Cookie, a stronger healing item in the Stitched Stew, a basic armor in the Crystal Lace, and a weapon for Chicago in the Fortune Cutters. I have descriptions for each of those items incase anyone's interested.
For a better look at her character, here's a quote from her shop dialogue when you ask Jeanie about herself.
"The name is Jeanie, like the spirit. Mystical Serpent of Mystery. This tent is my where I sell mystical charms and read palms, paws, and tails. I've seen quite a lot in my time telling fortunes. The past, the present... Perhaps even the future. Hee hee hee..."
Aside from asking about herself, during their first encounter with Jeanie, the player would be able to ask Jeanie about the Magician, ask for a Card Reading, or ask Jeanie how she was expecting the party based on her shop enter dialogue (depicted in the image above). Some of her dialogue will change later in the chapter, mostly after running into her a second time in the second area (the Feathered Forest) or once encountering Dorothy (the secret boss) both before and after fighting her. Under the cut is a list of what Jeanie has to say in her talk options.
You were expecting us?
"Legends have spread far and wide of Lightners who will come to seal fountains. Three legendary heroes who will save both light and dark from calamity. More recently, there have been tales and rumors among the Upper Choir of three young heroes destined to replace the Blue Knight and dethrone the High Priestess.
Call it premotion, call it fate, if you will... I simply call it inevitable that we would meet."
The Magician?
"Hmm? I'm afraid I do not know of the cat you speak off." She grins "Hee hee hee. Just kidding. You mean Magico, correct? He is quite the trickster, isn't he? I heard he's been trying capture the Lightners who've come to seal the Fountain. All in the name of the High Priestess. He wasn't always under her reign. None of us were. Our land did not have a singular, set ruler until recently. We were ruled by a collective choir. Until one day, a mysterious knight appeared, and appointed the highest Choir member, the Priestess, into power. After which, she appointed Magico the Head Magician and her right hand. It's been quite some time since this land has seen such upset in the Choir. Not since... Well, perhaps it's better you not learn of that just yet."
Card Reading (Beginning of Chapter, before Broadway joins party)
"The Fool, The Magician, and The High Priestess. It seems your journey is just beginning, young heroes. Yet I sense great potiental and power shining within you. Perhaps such potential will aid you in the facing the powers and entities yet unknown. Even still, buying a small protection charm wouldn't hurt."
Reading (Encountering Jeanie outside of her shop in Feathered Forest with Broadway)
"I left my cards back at my tent, but I can still read your fate through the vibrations of your soul. Hmm... Interesting. I sense a lack of control. A slipping of string. Perhaps brought on by someone close to you interfering with your prior norm? ... I suggest you talk things out with them, young hero."
Card Reading (Back tracking after CK and Remie re-join the party again but before the Chapel)
"Three of Cups, Eight of Swords, and Five of Wands. It seems the rest of your party has returned to you. Though you've been apart for a time, it's important to remember the value of working as a team. Especially since a great challenge still awaits you all on the path ahead. The Chapel and Priestess still lie ahead, young heroes. Be weary not to let your own ambition and feelings get in the way of your collective goal."
Card Reading (Back tracking after entering the Choral Chapel)
"The High Priestess, reversed Nine of Swords, and Nine of Wands. It seems the final leg of this journey lays before you, young ones. Soon you shall duel with the Priestess to end her tyrannical reign. Bringing a new light to this land. However such a battle can wait for a little while. Your adventure has been long and tiring, has it not? Why not take a short rest? I can make some tea and read the leaves before you must set off once more."
Odd Doll (After first talking to Dorothy)
"I sense you three have come across a strange presence oddly familiar but which you've never known. A strange prisoner whom speaks in stitched together tongue? ... So I see. Seems the Magician couldn't hide her from all eyes forever. ... I see many paths if you chose to go down this route more, yet oddly enough... The one in which you try and release her holds the most promise. It would not be my personal advice but... The stars have yet to steer me wrong yet. Perhaps dealing with the doll once and for all will yield a brighter future for everyone. ... Perhaps it was wrong to lock her away to begin with. A key? I do not hold it, but I have a sense as to were the Magician hid it. Hidden among the trees, in the thicket of the dark. You'll find the path you seek, if you chose to take the lark. That's all the advice I can give, so I would advise turning to the Magician if you get stuck further. I wish you luck on your journey, young ones, and my the stars guide your path."
"Gate blocking your path? As I said, I can offer no more advise. Perhaps seek the Magician for assistance."
Odd Doll (After opening Dorothy's cell)
"So you say you've opened the door? That explains the wrathful energy I feel far away..." I'm afraid can't see where your future leads from here. Do tell me how this plays out, if you can. Or don't. I merely predict your path, only you can decide it."
About DOROTHY (After defeating Dorothy)
"Judgment, Reversed six of wands, and The Chariot. I may not have known that doll for long, but I knew her cards, her fate, the path the stars laid out for her. Or perhaps the path she forged herself… Once she was nothing more than a blank doll. No face, no name, no path. She was a fool just as you are. Yet one day, she came across a strange someone and it seemed her stars had finally aligned. She had been gifted an identity and purpose from some higher power, she said. To this day, I still don't quite understand what she meant by that. Rambling on about the Truth, or our purpose, of creating our own stars…Yet I didn't NOT understand at the same time… At some point she was let into the Upper Choir, but even they eventually grew annoyed with her ramblings. And so they cast her out. Exiled her back to these dust ridden plains. She grew enraged, filled with an anger and hatred for all that betrayed her. She had to be locked away before she could hurt anyone else. It shames me that I had to be the one to call the guard… Ever since, I've mulled over the cards and stars, seeking answers to what she said. Yet the skies shone dark and the cards even darker. The only thing I've come back with are more questions than when I started. It makes one wonder…How much of the universe and fate can be understood and predicated… And how much can only be navigated by the blind?"
We Won (After defeating Dorothy)
"The six of wands, the Tower, and the Devil. So, it is true? You really defeated her? Then you three truly must be the heroes of legend after all… However be warned, DOROTHY is merely the first step in your fool's journey. There is still a long way to go, and many more obstacles to face. And one day soon… even the most darkest evil of all. Hee hee hee… Well, I can only wish you luck. Perhaps once you reach that point You can come back here and I shall read your scattered destiny once more."
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31 39s 38, 27 6 7 4 50 39 44, 15 19t 21ly
31 39s 38, 27 6 7 5 50 39 44, 16 6 9
31 39s 38, 27 6 7 1 50 39 44, 41 re49 39
31 39s 38, 27 6 7 3 50 39 44, 40 6 2 25
31 39s 38, 27 48 8st 50 50 39 23, 35 32 27 13
31 39s 35 32, 27 34 4feated. 50 39 35 32, 46s 10 47ed.
31 33s 34 39, 27 34 & 29 50r 18, yet 6 2 45ed
31 28s 22, can 35t 6 11ed 50 28 36, of 26 this 10 20s
31 43s the 24, 27 43s 15 in 47, 30 & 42ess, 34ly 14.
31 39s 38, 24ish 27 39ed 6. 50r 47 37 32. 17 39, will 35t 50?
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agoraphobic-artist · 4 months ago
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KURO-SHIT <3
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The first item in our Black Butler Haul is a double sided poster of unknown origins. Seemingly drawn by the A-1 anime team that is all the information I have.
My better half @mister-astringent loved both sides of this poster and as we have very little merch of Tanaka I conceded.
Look at him. With his weird little Snowman.
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The second and third items are these adorable foam hangers from Book of The Atlantic. I again have very little merchandise of the "mini" Midfords, so here are Elizabeth and Edward ready to throw down with some reanimated corpses.
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Bought as a bundle, I now have the full set of Kuroshitsuji Clear Acrylic A4 posters.
These posters were given out as part of a promotion for The Public School Arc in Japan.
The first three character specific posters have a clear window behind their design, but honestly the Sebastian and Ciel full colour print is my favourite.
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My fifth order item is this Undertaker Acrylic Standee from Book of Atlantic.
When doing some digging it appears to have been from an Aniplex collaboration with Aimon.
This particular character design of the set really stood out for me, because although they all are pretty to look at, undertaker canonically has stood in front of stained glass windows: in quite an iconic moment of the series.
The background is holographic and honestly the photos don't do justice, for how beautiful the shimmering colour changes are in the light.
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A one of a kind item next and technically last.
While browsing for new items to add to the collection, I came across a seller who hand carves erasers (Linocut) for stamping.
They had a ton of designs from various series available, so naturally I had a good look through all the Black Butler ones; I found this P4 one early on and fell in love with it.
The stamp is incredibly detailed and impressively carved, something I appreciate as someone "Arts and Crafty".
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BONUS ITEMS: Unfortunately, I cannot open them to give a better look yet as they are joint gifts for Xmas, but we are going to be exchanging the Groove Inc Pullips of Robin and Tutor.
So expect mass postings of their details probably in late December or the New year.
I can tell you though, that their eyes are stunning, and the details that have gone into them are gorgeous to look at. The boxes designs are cute as hell, with all of their extra items laid out around the dolls and it seems like they also seem to come with little collector cards as well.
...One of my many merchandise collecting weaknesses...
~A quick little side note though~
WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME!? LIKE ACTUALLY!!!
These dolls are massive! Both me and @mister-astringent thought that they would be around the 9 or 10 Inch mark.
However, we just did a rough measurement and Robin is 12"ish and Tutor is approximately 14"!!!
(The RAH dolls are to show the scale of these monsters)
Can't wait to open these up in December <3
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1moremilgram-enjoyer · 1 year ago
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Of Celtic Crosses and Wheels of Fortune
Hey there! So as I'm sure most of us are aware by now, in Double, Mikoto's diamond earrings have now changed into earrings which look suspiciously like the tarot card of the Wheel of Fortune, and the symbol also appears repeatedly throughout the MV.
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This actually could confirm something I had been suspecting since MeMe regarding how we're meant to read the celtic cross spreads which appear there, and has some interesting symbolism attached to it.
CW Murder, workplace abuse
So it's pretty widely known that there are three different celtic cross spreads which appear throughout MeMe. Here they are:
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(The first one actually flashes on screen twice, but there's no noticeable difference between the two appearances so they're assumed to be the same spread)
The third one is filled out by the cards which appear afterwards.
So, how does one read these spreads? ... No seriously, how are we supposed to read them? I don't engage in divination, I don't know what I'm doing. Let's hit up the internet to see how we're supposed to go about this!
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Ah, I see. The problem with tarot cross spreads is that the order the querent sets up the cards and the meaning they each have is arbitrary. In fact, as you can see, there's even cultural differences between how Japanese people read it vs how westerners read it. But, is there any way to know how Mikoto reads them? I believe so.
So let's start by what's always the same. The first card always goes in the center of The Wheel (yes that's the name of the thing), the second on top of it, and the last four go bottom to top in The Wand (or The Pillar or some other name). The question comes from the other four cards in The Wheel.
Why is this important? Well, because the order of drawing changes the meaning. If you draw them in a circular fashion (case 2 in the above diagrams), the cards have meaning based on draw order. If you draw them in any other way, they have meaning based on position. This means to know how we're supposed to read them, we need to know how Mikoto draws them.
Thankfully, there is a way I think we can tell. Check out the ending of MeMe:
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The second card goes on top of the first, as established. Then, the next four appear with a part of the card off frame. Even though card 3 is off center, only the bottom is cut off. Card 4 has the right cut off, then card 5 has right, then card 6 has top. Thus, the draw order is likely bottom, right, left, top. This... doesn't match any of the websites I checked, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's not a circle, so the meaning is related to position.
For our purposes this post, we're interested in the middle three. The left card is the past, the middle (first card) is present, the right is future... in western readings. Look back at the Japanese examples I gave:
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未来 is future.
過去 is past.
As you can see, because Japanese people have different reading rules, sometimes they read the spread Past->Present->Future, but sometimes they read it Future<-Present<-Past. The way you tell which is which is that the Past card is always drawn before the Future. Which, yeah, makes sense. Looking back at Mikoto, he draws the card on the right before the card on the left, meaning we're probably supposed to read it Future<-Present<-Past.
Alright got it? Good. Now, we have to check which spread belongs to each alter.
The third spread is easiest. Based on the lighting, the punch at the end, the red mannequin in The Fool card which carries a skull, etc, John appears to be the one reading it. There are more reasons to believe this, but they require a deeper reading of the spread than I'm willing to enter here. So trust me bro.
Then, the second spread has the reversed King of Cups in the first card of The Wand.
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That card of the spread represents... different things depending on the source, but generally it's the attitude the querent takes about the problem they face, the power they have over the situation, or even advice; basically, it's how the querent approaches their problems. The reversed King of Cups can mean a lot of different things, including emotional repression or violence. However, since John has this card in this position as well, we can assume this querent approaches problems the same way John does. We can thereby assume this spread belongs to the left-handed alter who also killed someone, who I'll call Midokoto. Yes I still believe Trikoto (probably should make a post compiling evidence in Double, which there's a decent bit of), since the host is probably right-handed. By process of elimination, the first spread must be the host's, who I'll just call Mikoto. Again, there's other reasons to believe this, but I don't want to go too deep into the spreads.
Alright, back to the Wheel of Fortune. I'll start with the second spread, which has it reversed in the Concious ("as above") position. This position represents what the querent wants, the thing they are actively and conciously working towards. The reversed Wheel of Fortune can represent several things, including misfortune, unhealthy cycles, etc, but in this position, I believe the most applicable reading could be resistance to change. In other words, this alter is actively working towards keeping their life as it is.
[MeMe] Maybe it's ok to try to keep on living Split in half, make that heart beat
I've talked about it before, but I believe this is what Midokoto is working towards. Although that post is slightly outdated (I now no longer believe pronouns in lyrics are a good way to determine which alter is on screen), I still believe this is Midokoto speaking. He's the only alter who doesn't want change, which I think may also be implied by Double. You know those image flashes which appear all throughout Double? The only one we can be sure is probably attached to Midokoto is this (plus a few other images):
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After all, this alter holds the bloodied bat with the left hand. You can also see the "crown of thorns" associated with John (long story) isn't over his head, and the antlers connected to Mikoto (long story) are nowhere to be seen, but I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone but me. I really should make a "Trikoto in Double" post huh.
(Note: The English lyrics on screen simply repeat "I was having such a hard time, I was trying so hard", which applies to all alters and doesn't use a pronoun in Japanese)
The thing you'll notice are the diamonds there, which look a lot like the earrings Mikoto was wearing prior to Double. This is, as far as I can tell, the only time these things show up in one of these image flashes. Additionally, this is one of, if not the only image flash which doesn't include the Wheel of Fortune. And the Wheel of Forutne by itself a symbol of change, and of cycles. Thus, this is the alter who doesn't want change, and who is least involved in the cyces of their lives; Midokoto.
Is this good or confirmation bias? Good question! Moving on.
Because you see, the most interesting thing to me isn't the second spread, but the other two. Because the Wheel of Fortune reversed is the Future of the first spread, but its upright version is the Past of the third.
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This already tells us some stuff, doesn't it? Mikoto's future in that spread is John's Past in a way, which makes sense. The outcome of the first spread is The Devil, a card which is representative of the querent's darkest desires, which-
[Neoplasm] (Translation) John: I might be the person Boku wishes he was. The person who stubbornly stands his ground, who doesn’t cry himself to sleep from stress, who gives people their payback.
Oh, hey John! Yeah, between that line and the Devil card coming out of the mirror in that one scene of MeMe, it's fair to say John is represented by the Devil card in some way. In other words, both the outcome card and the Future card point at the appearance of John as a result of the toxic cycles in Mikoto's life. Mainly overworking, apparently.
What's interesting about these cycles is that the opposite is also true. John's Future is the Five of Swords, the same card in the Past of the two other spreads.
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This card in this position basically means (among other things) conflict, in particular defeat or walking away from a conflict. I believe this represent's Mikoto's actions after John/Midokoto kill someone. After some stress is alleaviated, Mikoto begins fronting most of the time, and he doesn't want to engage in conflict. He tries to make everyone happy, which ends up stressing him and once again starting the unhealthy cycles of abuse in his life, the "reversed Wheel of Fortune", which once again leads to John breaking the cycle by killing a threat. Does that make sense?
That's why the Wheel of Fortune card is upright in John's Past. Because it's the Past, it's possible to interpret it as the destruction of an unhealthy cycle. In other words, John appears to break an unhealthy cycle... or, he appears when an unhealthy cycle is broken.
This is where we acknowledge the card in MeMe is different from the one in real life.
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For one, all the missing animals and mythological creatures, but I won't get into it. The presence of multiple wheels can be seen as a representation of various cycles, and they're bike wheels for likely no other reason beyond stylization purposes.
However, what's interesting is that there's already blood on the wheel. Naturally because this cycle involves murder, but if so, does it make sense for it to be in John's Past if he's the only killer? You could certainly read this as "someone had already died by the time John split from the system", which fits the theory John only split from the trauma of a murder and not just stress. But that may just be confirmation bias, so take it with a grain of salt.
Regardless of that, this whole explanation serves to answer why the Wheel of Fortune is so important to Double. It's showing this cycle more directly. The unhealthy cycles from overworking and hiding feelings end up in murder. The symbol is connected to both Mikoto and John since they make up the cycle (mostly) and wish to break it, but not to Midokoto, maybe. It's weird.
Anyways, regardless of whether or not you agree with my insane ramblings, I hope you enjoyed the analysis! Take care!
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isleofair · 7 months ago
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Tiger & Bunny Week Day 5
Fan Theories and/or Predictions
I've been wanting to make this meta post for a long while, but since there was no way to reach any truly solid conclusions, I always ended up setting it aside.
But since today's prompt is fan theories... I figure I might as well give this the best go I can!
Today on "Aria fixates on scraps of collateral canon in an attempt to better figure out the Tiger & Bunny timeline, since the authors just will not give us the info straight up, dammit": when did each of the characters debut as a hero?
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(under a cut for length and screenshots of actual excel spreadsheets lol)
So, we know the answer to that question for sure for about half of the heroes: Wild Tiger debuted in NC1967, Barnaby in NC1977, and the three new kids in NC1980 (at least in Stern Bild; Subaru worked for a little while as a hero in Panjourney before joining Hero TV).
(Yeah, the hero card of himself Kotetsu picks up in the pilot is technically for the '76-'77 season of Hero TV, so maybe it saying he's got 10 years of experience means his debut was actually in NC1966... but nothing says the cards don't get updated as the season goes on, and this isn't too relevant to my number crunching, anyway.)
As for the rest of them, we can make at least an attempt at (vaguely) guessing by analyzing the experience data on the Hero Cards, which you can see for Season 1 and The Rising here on the amazing Merch Wiki (shoutout to @tnbscans 😘), and for Season 2 here in an older post of mine, or here on Twitter (both courtesy of @Kazuko_01 over there).
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This is a chart of the experience values in all the available hero cards:
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The reason Barnaby's values are in yellow is that they really, REALLY tried to throw off all of my math 😅
See, the experience values seem to only take into account how many seasons of Hero TV (or an equivalent of it) you've appeared in, however briefly. (At some point I thought maybe becoming the King of Heroes would grant you bonus exp, but Karina doesn't seem to get a boost from the '79-'80 season, when the CD dramas tell us she tied with Keith and became the Queen of Heroes.)
Barnaby took essentially all of NC1979 off, spent a quarter of NC1980 in the Second League, and his score during the Rising is still an absurd 3/5. The only possible way that can even remotely work is that the time off is discounted entirely AND that the exp values aren't strictly proportional to your years of experience, but more along the lines of a curve (stretched every time to accomodate the longest career, Kotetsu's) where having been a hero for at least a season before, as opposed to being a rookie, gives you an additional point on the scale, and each subsequent point requires more years of extra experience.
(This would make a certain amount of sense: there's a lot of difference between being a total rookie and someone who's been on another season, or two, but not that much difference between having worked 9 or 10 seasons before.)
The crucial facts to make this work, and the reasons I had to discard a lot of other possible ways map the years to the exp values, are:
The cards, in spite of having 5 possible scores in S1 and The Rising and 6 possible scores in S2, really only ever have a baseline plus four extra values above it, since the 1/6 or 0.5/3 score in the S2 cards is unused (hence me counting the scores as "out of 3"). I initially thought maybe it was because all the S2 kids had some prior experience, since Subaru used to be a hero before coming to Stern Bild, but the manga tells us Thomas for sure did not, so it's not that (RIP Subaru for them ignoring your days as Hello Goodbye);
Bunny skips ahead two notches between his debut in the 1977-78 season and the 1979-80 season in The Rising;
Antonio goes from having max 5/5 experience along with Kotetsu in S1 to having a score of 2.5/3 (or 5/6), along with Nathan, Keith, and Ryan, in S2. This means he definitely debuted after Kotetsu, but before Nathan and Keith (and almost certainly Ryan).
With all of that in mind, this is the best possible thing I could personally come up with:
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I marked down the two most likely ways to map the years to the exp values for each set of cards that still somehow work at the bottom (with blue being min experience if you debuted that year, and red being max). The fully grayed-out years are downright impossibilities (again, not counting Subaru's time as Hello Goodbye, since the cards don't); the softer gray is "very unlikely", the mid blue is "possible", and the deeper blue is "most likely" (thin border) or "sure" (thick border).
I didn't really try to come up with an arrangement that would let any of Ivan, Karina or Pao-Lin debut any earlier than NC1976, because a) both Ivan and Karina have conversations with their bosses in the pilot episode that really make it seem like the just-concluded season was their first, and b) as it is Pao-Lin already became a hero at TWELVE YEARS OLD and that's enough of a headache for me, thank you very much.
The riveting conclusions, assuming this makes any sort of sense at all (and that I didn't put way more thought into this than the people who made the cards did):
Antonio almost certainly debuted in NC1969 or NC 1970, two or three years after Kotetsu;
Ryan (whose experience outside of Stern Bild seems to be fully counted, sorry again, Subaru) doesn't appear in the S1 cards, so it's a little harder to narrow his debut down, but since he's apparently younger than Barnaby, which would make him a teenager for most (if not all) of his possible range of debut years, I'd very personally tend to put him more around NC1973 than anywhere else;
Nathan and Keith most likely debuted in either NC1971 or NC1972... but I would strongly argue that the only really viable year out of these two is NC1972. That is the year Tomoe died, and Nathan and Keith, before episode 1x09, had no idea at all that Kotetsu was ever even married, let alone a widower with a daughter. I simply cannot imagine Nathan, especially, witnessing a colleague she sees pretty much every day go through the loss of his wife, and not prying enough, either with Kotetsu himself or with Antonio (who is not terribly good at keeping Kotetsu's secrets, see ep 1x09 again), to eventually find out what was going on. If Tomoe died before October, when the 1972 season of hero TV started, Nathan and Keith, debuting that year, would have met Kotetsu only after the fact, which seems a lot more plausible.
(Yes, that last thing does support my cute headcanon of FireSky being almost polar-opposite rookies together, but to be fair, the headcanon itself came directly from this math, and not the other way around.)
If you read all of this, we are true siblings in T&B nerdery and ILU forever. Especially if you have any ideas on how to make the data make more sense, lol. 💚
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p5x-theories · 2 months ago
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What We Know About Summer Tomoko/Moko
(last updated 9/2/24!)
Summer Tomoko Noge, still known by her codename Moko in the Metaverse, is the summer event variant of Moko. She is explained to stay in her swimsuit even in the Metaverse because the summer event involves a separate pocket of the Metaverse that formed around the beach, and the public's cognition is that people wear swimsuits at the beach.
This post focuses on Summer Tomoko's differences from the original Moko unit. Note that while they share the same pool of weapons, they are otherwise separate units, but cannot be used on the player's active team at the same time.
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Summer Tomoko was added to the game alongside the second half of the summer event (Version 2.1.2), and her appearance matches her appearance within that event. In other words, this is the outfit that Tomoko wears to the beach, though she's not a Phantom Thief, so she never actually enters the Metaverse with the team (and, in fact, arrives after most of their work in the Metaverse is said to be resolved).
The event doesn't have a strict timeline, as it seems to be unlocked from essentially the moment it goes live in-game (like other events), but its content indicates it has to take place sometime after Riko Tanemura joins the team, and likely prior to the next Palace. If this is the case, all plot information from the Moko post (up to this point in the plot) can be applied to Summer Tomoko as well.
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Tomoko actually comes to the beach to work part-time at one of the shops on the beach, rather than for the school event. She says her swimsuit was picked out by the couple that owns the place, partially to help draw customers. While she brushes it off as being a bit childish, she admits she likes it anyway. Tomoko joins the group in their beach fun whenever she's not working.
Summer Tomoko's voice lines in-game and in-combat tend to be more summer/beach/fun-related than Moko's, though her energy isn't drastically different.
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Summer Tomoko uses Summer Prosymna in combat, whose appearance is essentially a recolor of the original Prosymna. Summer Prosymna is categorized as a Psychokinesis type, and resists Psychokinesis while being weak to Curse.
Unlike the original Prosymna, Summer Prosymna is a Rescue Persona, meaning she focuses on healing companions, and her trait triggers a special attack after an enemy gains three levels of "Sparks": all enemies immediately take psychokinesis damage, and have their outgoing damage reduced, while all teammates are healed.
Her first psychokinesis attack skill deals four hits to random enemies, prioritizing those that haven't been hit yet (doing less damage with each subsequent hit to the same enemy) and inflicting a Spark with each hit, then buffs the attack and healing of her trait ability; her heal skill heals one teammate, and buffs their attack and effect hit (also causing that teammate's Persona skills to inflict Sparks on enemies for the next two rounds, up to five times); and her second psychokinesis attack skill hits all enemies, increases the damage they receive, and, for the next two rounds, gives them a Spark any time they take damage from a Persona skill (up to five times). Her passive skills buff her health and psychokinesis damage based on Summer Tomoko's healing ability, and allow her healing skill to buff the target's maximum health for two rounds.
Additionally, it's noted that when an enemy dies, its Sparks are randomly transferred to another enemy on the field.
In combat, her melee weapon is fairy sticks (though she can also use Moko's dual daggers), while her ranged weapon is a bow with firework arrows. Her Highlight is shown from 2:46 - 2:57 in this video, and it deals three psychokinesis hits to random enemies, prioritizing those that haven't been hit yet (does less damage with each subsequent hit to the same enemy), and inflicts a Spark with each hit.
Her recommended card sets are 1) 6 of Cups (Pleasure) + Knight of Cups (Sincerity), 2) 2 of Cups (Love) + Page of Wands (Acceptance).
The game recommends teaming her up with 1) Summer Motoha.
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infusedflame · 3 months ago
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So story time at alton towers today
Earlier I posted about the smiler, first ride I went on with my aunt, really fun wanted to do it at the end.
We get there about 5:15 and decide to do single rides because fun!
I get on the kart last on the second row. Others set off before us like two or three. We go off, do the ride and we stop right before we go into the boarding platform.
And I'm like 'oh it's fine we will roll forward in a minute.'
We don't.
Eventually we are all panicking because we are wondering if the kart after us (THE ONE WITH MY AUNT) is still going or not.
We look behind us and on the last drop we see the kart on the edge of dropping down the last drop luckily it's stable from emergency stop.
I say there for 20 minutes before I get off. I go to exit put down my details and wait for five minutes for my aunt to appear.
Nope.
I tell a staff member that I'm waiting on my aunt, and I'm told that it's all okay and they are working on getting the kart down.
I collect her bag with my phone, her phone, keys, money and cards and I go to the shop to wait for her.
5 minutes pass by
10.
15.
20.
By now I've called my girlfriend (Yes I have a girlfriend, she's beautiful and so caring <3) and told her what's happened and say that I'm waiting for my aunt.
My step mom calls me after I text her that I need to call her.
I tell her what happened and she tells me to stay in the shop.
Now a minor, in a new place, with repeated music and laughing, with hyper active emotions and sensitivity to the sounds of certain noises (shouting, crowds, buzzing, repetative noise ect.)
Is not a good mix
So I'm just standing in the corner spacing out, eyes focused on the ride exit for my aunt.
10 minutes she comes out in one of those foil blankets and she twirls like a Disney princess.
But yeahhhhh
Funnnnnn
BUT SMILER IS STILL MY FAVOURITE RIDE HA
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the-courtsjester · 10 months ago
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Greetings Ladys, gentlemen and... things, today I'll be posting my first headcanons but for what you may ask? ...go on ask me... I'll assume you asked
It's for Honkai Star Rail!
Now over time I will indulge in a bit if smut but for more I'll just probably mention characters doing something lewd or shit for one reason or another anyway let's begin!
Honkai Star Rail headcanons 1:
Stelle:
She's a lost puppy god damn, if she gets attached to someone and they wander off from the friend group she will not hesitate to go off with them
Stelle has more then occasionally had to run from law enforcement because she beat someone for bothering her friends too much
She occasionally just doesn't wear a bra and if someone points it out she'd genuinely have to remember what that is
She can and will bring a trashcan into the Astral Exress if no one stops her last time no one stopped her record was twelve in one room
Stelle will spend a good while on figuring out the perfect song to play in the Express for the day... only to just put it back to Take the Journey it's a good song I can't blame her
Stelle has made copys of their wanted posters and put them up in the Express Welt and Dan Heng have learned to not both with them but March can't stop taking the ones of her down only for seven more to appear
Silver Wolf:
As a gamer you'd expect her room to look like a tornado rolled through well you're very wrong! You foolishly foolish fool she's so meticulous in certain games she's had it bleed out into her real life
Wolfie have more then once stolen Blade's crdit card to use on monthly subscriptions ...not like he knows how to use that thing anyway
Sliver Wolf is a brat change my mind doesn't matter the scenario as long as it isn't life threatening if she finds it funny she'll be a brat
While yes she is amazing at multiplayer games she actually prefers single player and party games think, Mario Party, Smash Bros, The Jackbox series stuff like that one time she got Kafka and Blade to join her in Smash Bros and dear lord the look of Confusion on Blade's face
On the daily she will wear something similar to a hazmat suit and take all her limited edition collectibles and clean then meticulously from dusting off boxes to fixing any mistakes it has to make it absolutely perfect
She try's to make a ligament playlist to listen to but it somehow always get infested by video game osts and when asked for good song recommendations she takes a second to not say a video game song unless it's unironically good
Natasha:
Ask her what sleep it she'll take a couple seconds to respond because this woman doesn't sleep yet she tells everyone else to sleep
An entire corner of her room is dedicated to stuffed animals and she'll have a full on ceremony when she plans to gift one of them to one of the kids
She definitely listens to to System Of A Down in the same playlist as Barbie Girl but no one knows ...about Barbie Girl no one except it from her for some reason
Natasha sets up play dates with the kids and herself many times she has played the princess needing rescue and on occasion she'll play the hero or villain if requested to
On accident some of the kids managed to get her grenade launcher and she had a full on panic attack luckily it had no ammo but afterwards she kept it closer by at all times
Natasha in her free time likes to spend it with a cup of coffee and any one of the solitaire versions or any of those old computer games like minesweeper and has become unironically really good at it
Ah well that will do it for now, I'm only doing three for now as they're the three I would say, I know the best but I do feel like Natasha's wasn't as good as it could be I don't know why though, but I may see you all tomorrow with another post
Goodnight my lovely audience!
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mask131 · 11 months ago
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Can I ask this question?
What's the deal with Pére Noel?
Do you any information about him?
I really found very few information about Pere Noel before he was synchronized with Britain's Father Christmas and US' Santa Claus.
Was he just a french version of Father Christmas, focused in adult festivities and merrymaking before becoming a gift-bringer like Santa and St. Nicolas?
Is he today any different from Santa and Father Christmas?
I read that in some parts of France St Nicholas is still the main gift-bringer figure, so I'm confused about the events that led to Pere Noel being a major holiday figure in the French context.
This ask actually needs a very long and complex answer that I will provide below, because the topic of the "Père Noël" is extremely complex...
My guess is that you are referring to the "Père Noël" that appeared in Chris Schweizer's set of "Father Christmas cards" - which appears here if you want the original post, but to clarify I will copy the art below for the sake of the explanation -
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This is not the current day "Père Noël". You will NOT see this guy around in the streets today. In modern France, "Père Noël" is the name of the French version of Santa Claus. Or rather, French people call Santa Claus "Père Noël". Current day's Père Noël is just a Santa Claus copypaste. Now, "Père Noël" literaly means "Father Christmas" in French, so one would expect him to be much closer to the British Father Christmas... But yes and no. Yes because it is another incarnation of Father Christmas that predated the American Santa Claus, but no because the French Père Noël has a different (though similar) iconography than the British Father Christmas.
Overall, if you recall my previous post, it is the same thing as with the "proto-Santa Claus/Kris Kringle" of 19th America (mischievious elf-like figure wrapped in brown furs) versus the 20th century American Santa Claus (jolly old man in red and white). "Père Noël" was the figure that was the placeholder of the gift-giver before the arrival of the American Santa Claus in the post WWII world (as with all things American in France, it was imported by the Americans that helped set France free). The earliest records of Père Noël appearing are from the mid-19th century - George Sand writes in her 1855 biography that as a kid she was waiting for "little father Christmas", this "good elder with his white beard", that dropped at midnight from the chimney to place shoes in the "petits souliers" (little slippers" of the kid) ; while an humoristic newspaper of 1848 wrote a dialogue where Père Noël knocks at someone's door - only for the person not to believe them, and saying he should be entering by the chimney not the door. Here, despite the name linking him to the British Father Christmas, he bears the marks of the proto-Santa Claus/Kris Kringle of 19th century America (such as the small size, explaining why he fits through chimneys). But it is all unclear as the figure was definitively not set in stone. In fact, in the second half of the 19th century, there was a certain fleeting between "Père Noël" (Father Christmas), "Bonhomme Noël" (Old Man Christmas/Christmas Man) and "Petit Noël" (Little Christmas, aka a variation of "Little Jésus", a French variant of the German Christkindl).
The thing with France is that it is a cultural crossroad - and this explains the diversity of Noël/Christmas traditions. For example in Provence there is a strong focus on the Epiphany and the Rois Mages (the Three Magi), similar to the traditions of the Reyes Magos in Spain ; while Eastern France truly kept alive the Saint Nicholas tradition typical of Central Europe (Netherlands, Germany, etc). And that's without counting local figures like Tante Arie... Anyway. So yes, saint Nicholas was a very popular gift-giver in France for a long time because France was a deeply Christian country (First Daughter of the Church), and the tradition stayed in the "Germanic" or Dutch-influenced parts of France (North, North-East). But in the rest of the country, Père Noël emerged. A continuation of Saint Nicholas-Sinterklass (still an old man, still with a donkey/horse, carrying gifts in a wicker basket), but with less religious symbols (while he still looks like a monk in some depictions, he never looks like a bishop and never has any overt Christian symbols). There's also the whole Père Fouettard as the French evil counterpart of Père Noël, the same way Saint-Nicholas/Sinterklaas has many "dark companions", but that's another story...
That all being said, the reason Père Noël was so easily "morphed" or "transformed" into the American Santa Claus is because, while he existed as a figure of Christmas folklore in France, he was not actually... defined. There was no specific image of him, no specific attribute, no lasting tradition - he existed as an archetype, as a general image, as a figure everybody knew by name but nobody agreed on how to depict. Sometimes he was closer to Saint Nicholas/Sinterklass by appearing as a thin monk-like old man with his donkey ; other times he was similar to the British Father Christmas by being a larger man dressed in green ; other times yet he was rather similar to the traditional embodiments of winter by appearing as a being wrapped in a grey or white large cloak... You've got some fleshy red-dressed Père Noël with fur-lined clothes similar to the future Santa Claus, just as much as you have skinny brown, blue or purple Père Noëls. There was a father Christmas but more as a general idea. And it is this inconsistency, this "freedom" of depiction that led to the American image of Santa Claus easily becoming the new face of Père Noël.
For example, here are various images of what the pre-Americanization Père Noël looked like:
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You will notably notice that many of the visuals used in these Christmas pictures can also be found in England as the Father Christmas there tried out and found various looks - which is why it is sometimes hard to differentiate Victorian Christmas cards from French ones, and shows again how the French Père Noël is basically a cross between Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas.
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In conclusion, long story short, Père Noël is not actually truly "French". It is a French figure, but born of the arrival of the British Father Christmas figure into a very Catholic France that fused him slightly with Saint Nicholas, hence a slightly more "religious" look ; and threw in some traditional Father Winter/Old Man Winter imagery to the lot. Overall, when you say "Father Christmas", you also speak of "Père Noël" as they are basically the same figure, with no massive difference, just slight alterations and a different cultural context.
And today Père Noël is just Santa Claus. BUT some elements that were part of the "old" Père Noël legend stuck around even in the modern Americanized incarnation, such as the habit of referring to "petits souliers" (little slippers) as the place he is supposed to leave gifts.
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goldeneyedgirl · 11 months ago
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TwiFicmas23 Day 7: ATBT (all the truth that's in me)
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Good evening! Tonight I've got All These Broken Things, with a brand new portion from the second draft. I'm really excited about how this fits into the fic because it really sets up the 'healing' character arc and the part it replaces wasn't nearly as interesting or character-driven.
I hope everyone is well and having a nice holiday period, whatever that looks like.
all the truth that's in me.
five years post-breaking dawn.
The notes start showing up late spring, in dirty and crumpled envelopes with the address written in unsteady letters. There is no pattern to their arrival - three might arrive one week, and then it might be months until another appears. All of them are addressed to him, and they have no return address with postmarks from all over the country. Several of them arrive postage-due, and it’s all very strange, but no one says anything.
They know who they’re from, and so does he. 
And it’s always a postcard-sized page torn from a sketchbook with a simple pencil drawing. No letters or signature. Just the drawing. 
(He’s not sure what they are supposed to mean, at first - a cloudy night sky framed in treetops; hand prints sunk into the mud. His face sketched smiling warmly at something off the page. They are oddly unsettling, and he’s not sure what to make of them, or why she’s sending them. But he keeps them in his desk drawer, away from prying eyes.)
They keep coming. A dead body with the neck snapped. Blood on thin hands. Jumping into the river and being dragged by the current. A dress that doesn’t quite fit. All sketched out, devoid of colour, but so vivid and detailed that it doesn’t matter. He can see it all as if it’s a still photograph; she’s talented even beyond the skills of a vampire. 
But he doesn’t know what Alice is trying to tell him. Is she showing him where she’s going? What she’s doing? It’s all disjointed and strange and he wishes he could ask her. 
(He doesn't care if she's stopped hunting animals. It's not going to shock or disgust him if she has. He hopes she knows that.)
The pile of pages keeps on growing and it takes more than a dozen for him to realise Alice never draws herself. He sees her hands and feet, but there are no drawings of her face. No real reassurance in the images that she’s okay.
It still doesn’t feel like the reason she’s sending them. 
(The rest of the family want to know exactly what she’s sending him, but they know better than to ask. Perhaps they are imagining short letters full of pleasantries that at least makes him feel confident in her path forward. Or marks on a map so that he knows where to find her. Both things that he would prefer so at least he knows that she’s not out there miserable and suffering - which is what he assumes is the truth. She never asked them for help before.)
He doesn’t understand.
The next four arrive in a row, one after the other from Tuesday to Friday. 
The first one is of a diner. People hunched over soup bowls and coffee, the checkerboard floors, the waitresses doling out coffee. 
He doesn’t recognize the place until the second card and it’s like being thrown back in time, into his most shameful memory. He knows that diner, he remembers that night and what he did there. It weighs as heavily on him as a lot of the things he did in the South. 
He feels sick looking at the drawing, at the rendering of his rain-soaked self walking through the door. He doesn’t need another card, he wants to tear this one up. He hates it, hates the fact that Alice saw this, hates the fact that she found a red pencil just for his eyes. And he hates that the next card that he gets will show him exactly what he’s capable of, damning evidence of one of the most terrible things he’s ever done. A page scrawled over in red, letting him know that she knows his past, knows what kind of man he chose to be. 
The shame is stifling, and it takes hours for him to calm down enough to venture out of his study. He’s confused and oddly hurt that she felt the need to send him this, even as the calmer, more rational voice in his head reminds him that she is most likely still upset and hurt by him and his actions in Forks. That if lashing out with the truth, with his truth, hurts so badly then that is his fault for being such a monster in the first place. 
Esme notices how unsettled he is, but she doesn’t ask. Of the whole family, she and Jasper are the two who took Alice’s departure the hardest. The rest of the family were confused and hurt - but Carlisle was very much the kind of person who believed that the door was always open to Alice as a daughter, a sister, or as a friend, and that sometimes paths divert. Rosalie and Edward saw it as a betrayal, that Alice had rejected their offering of family, and weren’t interested or invested in her return. Emmett just shrugged and said that he hoped she was doing better. And Bella just admitted that Alice had scared her when she was a human because of everything that happened with James. 
He doesn’t want to talk to Esme about the drawings. Alice addressed them to him and to him alone. And he’s still not sure what the message is, beyond the diner. He doesn’t want Esme speculating, inspecting them for clues. They’re his, and his alone, to riddle out for a reason. 
It’s less than a day before the next one arrives, and he practically snatches it from Esme’s hand, tension in every movement - obvious enough that Rosalie gives him a funny look but he doesn’t want to explain. 
He sits in his study with the door locked, and it still takes time to convince himself to open it, to see her beautiful rendering of the diner awash in the blood of twelve innocent people. A place he set fire to as soon as he could stand. It had been in all the papers, the gas-line explosion in Philadelphia that killed everyone inside. 
Jasper never returned to that city, and has refused to live there ever since. 
He finally opens the envelope and flips over the paper. 
It’s not… 
It’s wrong. It’s not what happened.
The page she has sent has him sitting in the window of the diner, across from her; the angle is such that her hands are reaching out to him, wearing gloves with tiny buttons. The closest thing he has to a drawing of her face is her fuzzy reflection in the rain-flecked glass. 
The look on his face in the drawing is unfamiliar. It’s suspicious and incredulous but so very tired. He’s forgotten how gaunt he looked in those days, the strain of everything written across his face. 
(He understands even less than he did before, but if she means it as some kind of comfort to him, he appreciates the clumsy attempt. He murdered twelve people that night, a hysterical panic attack that was over in less than twenty seconds, and left him shaking in the corner of the diner. Ten minutes after he walked in, the building was on fire, and he was half a city away.)
It still feels like he’s missing something about all of the cards. He could ask the others, but he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want his siblings to look at him like he’s crazy or a fool, and explain them so simply and obviously. He couldn’t stand it if they understood immediately and he hadn’t, when she entrusted them to him. 
And then the next one arrives, and he’s absolutely bewildered. No faces, just bodies, his hand hiking up her skirt with her legs wrapped around him, pressed against dark brickwork of an alley. Even with only a fragment of the scene, it’s abundantly obvious that this is what happened after the diner and he’s oddly ashamed that this version of him that she’s made up didn’t have the grace to get a room for the night. But he’s also the one that was fucking her in the woods, so maybe he’s a hypocrite. 
He’s also oddly relieved to see the return of the red pencil in the trim of her shift, and nothing else. 
And that’s it for months. No more grubby envelopes with his name written neater every single time. No more postmarks darting all over the country. No more picture-riddles that he doesn’t understand. And somehow, that makes it worse. He spreads them out on the floor of his study once, in order, and tries to figure them out. There are exactly forty-eight of them, and he wonders if that’s a coincidence. 
Emmett brings him the next one, nearly six months later. Marked from Washington State, and Jasper wonders with horror if she tried to go home again and they weren’t there. But it’s been years, surely… no, surely she was just passing through. She knows they aren’t there, because she sends mail to him. Just a coincidence. 
There’s more than one in the envelope this time. And they’ve all been destroyed; scrunched up and torn and scribbled through. It takes him over an hour to piece together what she’s sent, to try and erase the angry lines bisecting the drawing without erasing something important. 
And they’re beautiful. Vaguer and looser than the drawings before, scattered scenes across four pages of them. Her face is always obscured but the way she stands next to him, the way she’s portrayed beside him - always close, always touching - is so different to what he expected. It’s a kind of gentleness he never thought himself capable of. 
Before all of this, when he considered marriage, he figured he’d be exactly as he would have been as a human husband - polite, respectful, and protective. That he was incapable of that easy back-and-forth that Esme and Carlisle shared; or that relaxed affection and camaraderie of Rosalie and Emmett. Or even the absolute devotion that Bella and Edward held together. That invisible way anyone who walked into a room could tell that they were together and in love. No, he wouldn’t have that. If there was any hope for a partner for him, they would have to accept separate rooms and that polite but firm distance between them. He would take care of them to his full ability, but that kind of intimacy would never be part of any of his relationships. He accepted that a long time ago.  
And now he’s seeing that Alice, at least, believes he is capable of more. He sees that in the lines of his illustrated self, the way his body leans towards her and her to him. Touching her cheek, clasping her hand tightly, hands lacing or buttoning up a dress along a bony spine. The kind of affection and gentleness that feels alien to him, and he is bewildered and oddly frustrated and angry that Alice has imposed this possibility onto him. She’s delusional if this is what she hopes for, what she expects from him. She’s destined to be disappointed if that’s the kind of thing she wants specifically from him. 
Those postcards get tossed in the drawer out of order from the others, and his mood is foul for days. He’d rather she’d sent him a portrait of his kills than this fantasy.
He ignores the next two envelopes on his desk for two weeks before he opens them. The first one he wants to burn, because it’s just him again, facing her with a totally foreign expression on his face. His own face looks like a stranger to him in that picture. 
But the second one… 
It’s identical to the very first one she ever sent. The night sky framed in trees. Perhaps they’ve reached the end of her fairy tale, and he can be left in peace. 
The next ones take weeks to arrive, one every three days, and he’s not really sure why she’s still sending them until he opens the first one up and recoils. 
James’ face fills the frame, his smile too wide, and his eyes cold. The red pencil has returned in his irises, in the corners of his mouth, and a swipe at his hairline. In all the careful renderings of his own face, Jasper had wondered if Alice was even capable of drawing the violent, monstrous truth in people. But now… the pencil has dug into the paper, and some of the lines are unsteady. There is terror and hate in every stroke, and James in that picture is the most terrible thing that can be conceived. 
The rest of them are abstract, with no faces or details, but it doesn’t take much to decipher the violence and fear and misery in each one.
In the spirals within the internals of her severed wrist, the petrified flesh and muscle rippled like the rings in the stump of a tree.
In the portrait of rats, of squirrels, of scavenged meals so beneath her nature that he can see the shame in each line. In a collection of lines that he doesn’t do more than glimpse at, but the meaning and intent and occurrence are already burnt into his mind. 
This is how he tortured me, degraded me, raped me. He can hear her say it, in her soft, flat voice. 
And he wonders, again, why he is being shown this. Why she has gone to so much trouble, to draw and send him each page like this. 
The final one arrives in spring, more than three years after they started. They’ve stopped being a curiosity in the house; Esme very occasionally asks him how Alice is, and he’s noncommittal because he truly has no idea. He knows nothing more than when they started, honestly. 
There are over one hundred of them now, bound together in his desk, and he’s given up trying to understand Alice’s motive in sending them and is just compiling them for her. They are some kind of diary, and he is merely the archivist. He can do that. It makes them easier to handle, in many ways. 
He doesn’t even realise the last one is the end, honestly. He’s become numb to the horror of the most recent ones, looking at them briefly before adding them to the stack - in order, of course. The previous one had them running in the forest - the red of their eyes and of Victoria’s hair bright and eye-catching amongst the black of the pencil. The drawings have gotten looser, lazier, and he wonders if she’s losing interest in the project. 
The last one slides out of the envelope, and… it’s him. It’s him, in beautiful detail, the baseball bat mid-spin in his hand. He’s grinning at someone off-page, and she’s found a golden pencil for his eyes. There’s the gesture of Bella and Esme behind him, but he is the focus - soft and realistic and rendered so very carefully, right down to the scar next to his right eye. 
And in the bottom left corner, in tiny letters, there is a heart with ‘Alice’ carefully signed. That’s how he knows she’s done. And that’s how he knows that it’s taken him too long to understand and that he needs… he needs someone else to look at what she’s given him and explain to him how he’s supposed to put this all together.
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taekooktimeline · 1 year ago
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July 14, 2023 -
Tae supports and hypes Jungkook’s new single “Seven” in his IG stories, and he does it so brilliantly and thoughtfully! His first post showcases his hand holding three playing cards that highlight Jungkook’s nickname / initials “Jk” and the numeric 7 for his new song “Seven.” I don’t play cards, so I don’t have expertise, but fortunately there is Google and other people with more knowledge! I’ve seen people break down the cards as follows:
Jack of spades - considered the most powerful card in the deck, representing physical and mental strength, determination and willpower; indicative you have what it takes to achieve your goals
King of clubs - power, strength; position of influence; natural born leader that isn’t afraid to go after what he likes
Seven of clubs: personal growth; the seven itself stands for victory
All of this fits Jk perfectly. He’s always going to shine brightly and set records. He’s a living legend.
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Cute fact - Tae’s playing cards are vintage playing cards from the 1929 silent movie “Frau im Mond" (Woman on the moon). You can find more information here - https://twitter.com/taejkforever/status/1679810073328078848?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg
And as others have noted, it appears the person in the back may be Jungkook, since the shorts seem to match what he wore to Yoongi’s concert (but decide as you like)-
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CTTO for the collage
No surprise, Dispatch covers Tae’s post -
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https://www.dispatch.co.kr/2257376
I want to note his second post, which is the below fan art from _baba_jk -
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The drawing is inspired from BTS’ 2020 Grammys performance with Lil Nas X -
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The reason I want to note this is because the artist has drawn cute Taekook fanart before-
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And in February 2020, Tae commented on their Taekook fanart on Weverse -
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Some say he posted the second photo due to the bridge in “Seven,” and that it’s another way he’s showing support. I’m inclined to believe it’s more because he’s noticed the artist’s work before but I’m receptive to plausible theories, and since I’ve seen this theory floating around, I’ll add the bridge lyrics here and you can decide.
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Jungkook’s MV for Seven - https://youtu.be/QU9c0053UAU
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just-orbiting-you · 3 months ago
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on twitter tae solos and even tkkers are literally spiraling and going crazy about the fact that jikook were setting boundaries and telling him that ays is THEIR show and they let him come. it’s kind of insane to see all these tweets but really goes to show how much they coddle tae. how did you interpret the way jikook said it was their show at the japanese restaurant? did u think it was a joke? i honestly took it as a joke when i first watched the ep but rewatching it still obviously feels like they were joking but now i feel like there was some hard truth to what they were saying, we all know jikook have a bluntness in their sarcasm that to eachother can be funny but everytime they joked about him being a guest i can feel the animosity. it honestly made me feel bad for them cause i get hes a close friend and band mate but imagine all of the sudden the plans u had for two changed to three because of a group schedule chat, they didn’t even tell him or the other members themselves lol. anyways this ep felt more light and fun with jikook. i know tae was tired and a little sick but the way he stepped back multiple times to let them be showed he also saw how his presence caused a bit of tension. sorry for the long ask, don’t know if ur tired of talking about this situation lol but i wanted to hear ur thoughts!
hey! thanks for your ask! no worries about the length!! i apologize this ended up being so long 💀💀.
this ties into a larger issue with fans of bts these days, where finding slight issue with a member’s behavior, etc. or in this case, stating literal fact opens the door for defensive stans. you’re right, it is coddling and they were coddling him a month ago with his instagram post. tae stans to me are some of the loudest, most defensive, and will never really see the fault in their rhetoric. that thread someone made saying “tae being the ‘uninvited’ guest” and it was all the ways they deliberately accommodated him and deliberately gave him the spotlight. people are coping hard.
i’d like to compare this situation to jungkook’s second suchwita episode, which was shot around the same time and has a very similar vibe. in this episode, taehyung randomly shows up to their shoot after seeing that jungkook was filming that day from the infamous group chat. jungkook’s immediate reaction was “we are doing a shoot, could you please leave?” which ended in a fit of giggles. yoongi and jungkook make a few comments about how he showed up to just eat their prepared meal and when asked to address army in the video, tae just does a thumbs up. jungkook goes “that wasn’t a sentence,” and tae ends up saying the generic 2025 stuff. he makes small reactionary comments, talks over the other two, but basically just sits, listens to their conversation, and mindlessly eats. where i feel like jimin and hobi were integrated as a part of the larger conversation in taemin and jin’s episodes respectively, (probably because they were planned appearances) tae presents as a slightly awkward presence in the video.
i bring this up to say, while the stakes weren’t as high as are you sure, jungkook said a similar comment which while serious in tone as their omakase comments, ended up being in jest. jungkook nor yoongi stopped the shoot to kick him out. i also think there’s a “well he’s our bandmate…” at play here. like they’re not going to kick out taehyung, it’s taehyung, you know. while his presence may have been slightly distracting, yoongi and jungkook still were able to have their conversation and finish the shoot.
i personally think are you sure was bigger offense, purely because this was a trip with preparation, flights, planning and crews involved. and while many have been saying “jimin and jungkook were seemingly happy to have them there and let it happen,” yes they did. again, it’s taehyung, how could they refuse him, especially if he played a pity card of “why am i being left out of this?”
i haven’t seen this problem with any other member’s behavior during chapter 2, where that member overstays his welcome during another member’s schedule. but tae has a unique way of making me say “why is he here, what purpose does his presence serve?” and i think to him, everything is silly and informal, since these are his members. but he doesn’t have the foresight or awareness to think “well what am i intruding into? why do i feel entitled to be here?” it’s a matter of respect.
hence why i think they made the comments that they did. they accommodated him, made arrangements with the crew to change the plan in 48 hours, yet he turns around to say “i shouldn’t have come here” or “why didn’t another member show up” as if their efforts for him were worthless and he was now running the show to invite whoever. everyone of these conversations ends in a lighthearted tone, just like jungkook’s suchwita comment. but i think they effectively put their foot down with the omakase conversation and they had to. while “i shouldn’t have come here” ends in laughs and jokes, i don’t think jikook particularly liked that comment if they both were saying “go home then!”
if tae didn’t get the memo with that reaction, he got it from jikook at the omakase restaurant, he should at least be grateful instead of making flippant comments. i don’t know what the circumstances were on why he wasn’t debriefed or had any assumption about why this shoot was taking place, because he really does not have the awareness on that first day. jikook did something nice for him but they know how tae is. he expressed feeling left out initially, then they poke fun at him being the “guest looking for attention.”
so tldr, i think we can chock the comments up to playful ribbing with a touch of passive aggression, especially from jungkook. even if they felt like they had to, jikook still let him come and seemingly had fun with him, so i don’t think they have it in them to be outright angry or upset on camera. but their persistent small comments throughout the ep do tell me that there might be a touch of exasperation with him working his way into their plans.
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crackinglamb · 1 year ago
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WIP Wednesday
Tagged by @theluckywizard and @anneapocalypse. Thank you! 💕
Tagging @lilbittymonster, @ir0n-angel, @mogwaei, @serial-chillr, @fadedsweater and @fiadhaisteach. No pressure!
By now you all probably know I've been absolutely swallowed whole by a Bullmance fic. And now it's a series because I'm trying to be kind to myself in terms of trying to write epics these days. The first fic is completed and will start posting next week (June 5, in fact). So here's a bit from the second fic, which is the Inquisition era.
“This the famed brother?” he asked, laying down a card to discard and drawing a new one.
“Yes. The Iron Bull, meet Mahanon Lathdahlen Lavellan.” The two men eyed each other up for long seconds before Bull stretched his hand across the table. Mahanon took his wrist the Dalish way and they shook once.
“Pleasure,” Bull said, half his attention still seemingly on his cards. Mira wasn't buying it and snorted. His head tilted towards her, accepting the callout and he made a more visible effort to appear friendly. “So, tell me how the clan thing works. Lathdahlen is the one you were born to, right?”
“And Lavellen is my current one, yes.”
Bull turned to her. “How come you never use it?”
“I wasn't formally adopted. No right to call myself a Lathdahlen. Plus, I'm not actually Dalish.” These were all things he knew already, but having her say it aloud made it obvious that he knew her history enough to clarify. It was blatant and would have been rude in other circumstances, but she also knew that the pair of them would be testing each other. She could read the set of Mahanon's shoulders just as well as Bull. He had something to say and it was likely to be defensive. Even Varric was reading the vibe accurately. He'd shifted so he could keep all three of them in his line of sight and he'd moved his glass so it wouldn't be in the way if a fist flew.
“Go ahead and say it, kid. I won't take offense with her sitting here,” Bull said lightly, not looking at Mahanon but his cards. Mira scowled at him, even though he couldn't see it. The 'we're all friends here' act wouldn't necessarily have been her choice, but Bull generally knew what he was doing.
“I know she makes her own decisions, but you hurt her, you'll have me to contend with. She is not without kin now.”
“Noted.”
“Mahi,” Mira scolded, turning her scowl at him. Honestly, the pair of them were going to drive her to distraction, weren't they. “Play nice.”
“He is, Chestnut,” Bull interjected. He was smiling now. “I'd've been disappointed not to get a threat from him at some point. He's your brother and all he knows about me is big, horns and long history.”
“Yes, well...you're not doing much to improve that impression.”
Bull grinned wide, showing off all his teeth. “We know where we stand.”
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spooky-ghostwriter · 1 year ago
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Sentinels Deck Number 6 - Ol’ Inkwell Town
A while back, I posted some Sentinels stuff which included a set of 1920s cartoon promos for all of my heroes - except Silhouette, who I hadn’t made at the time, but she is not left out!
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But I know what you’re thinking. What are these old-timey cartoon versions of my heroes? How do they fit into the flimsy made-up canon that my decks are retroactively based on?
Okay, you’re probably not asking those questions, but I made a whole deck to answer them. Welcome to Ol’ Inkwell Town...
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The story behind this deck is basically that the heroes woke up one day and found that they were no longer in New Granwall City. They were in an alternate cartoon version of their hometown - and they had to find a way to get back.
Ol’ Inkwell Town is made up of three distinct locations. My heroes Gold Dragon and Skimmer, plus guest heroes Charade and Alius (by insomn and Mistillitain respectively), explored the main city. Various street corners looked familiar to Gold Dragon and Skimmer, though danger lurked in the skies.
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The first cards to show off are pretty simple mechanically, so let’s talk thematics. Ol’ Inkwell Town is mostly based on black and white cartoons. I watched a lot of Popeye in particular, since Gold Dragon’s old timey cartoon version was heavily based on Popeye. The deck also includes some Loony Tunes clichés like falling pianos and anvils.
Instead of simply drawing a falling anvil, I turned it into a character. Living objects is a bizarre trend of those classic cartoons, so I put faces and white gloves on everything from lamp posts to other heroes’ equipment.
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The deck is intended to be wacky but deceptively brutal. Making hero equipment cards “come alive” is an effect that already exists in Sentinels, and it’s a dangerous effect because it allows villains to destroy your cards simply by doing damage. Ol’ Inkwell Town’s version is even more brutal by having your equipment fight you when you try to use them. However, heroes whose equipment are mostly magical (denoted by the Relic keyword) are immune.
Bomby is a very destructive effect, but you have a whole round to try deal with him before he goes off.
The second location visited by heroes is the cartoon equivalent of the Alesia Circus. This is where Escarlata, Electrogeist, and Tsukiko ended up.
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The Table of Pies is both a benefit and a negative. Playing the top card of the environment deck usually means another cartoon is coming into play, accelerating the deck’s nonsense. Then it increases the damage the cartoons are throwing around by giving them an arsenal of pies.
However, the heroes can use the pies too - either throwing them as well, or eating them to recover HP. Heroes typically have powers that are better than what Table of Pies offers, but in a pinch, those powers might be exactly what you need.
Past the pies and into the circus proper, Escarlata and Tsukiko discovered an old-timey version of Tsukiko herself, who cast a horrifying spell on our modern-day Escarlata...
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When Escarlata was pulled into the box, a cartoon version of her appeared as well! Electrogeist and the modern-day Tsukiko were shocked!
The Enraged Escarlata isn’t really a card in the deck. At the start of a game of Sentinels, you choose one of the 2-5 variant character cards that each hero has available, play as that character card, and put the rest back. Only one card in the official game can switch variants mid-game, but I think it’s interesting design space, so I threw it on a card here in an intentionally wacky environment.
The “thematic” way to play this deck is to have my heroes switch into their cartoon selves when Forced Volunteer hits them, but you’re free to switch your hero into any variant you want. 
The modern-day Escarlata wasn’t really gone forever, though, and she quickly found her way back to the stage from wherever the magic had put her. There, she met her own cartoon counterpart...
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The deck has two copies of Cartoon Counterpart, and even though it took extra drawing, I was convinced to change the art for the second copy. This is an annoyingly wordy card, but the premise is simple. Cartoon Counterpart fights its “owner”, who thematically is the one the cartoon is a counterpart of, but if you beat it up enough, it helps you. Cartoon violence is the solution to all of cartoon life’s problems.
So, where was the original Tsukiko during all of this? Erm... occupied.
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When I asked my friends on the Custom Sentinels Discord for things they wanted to see in an old-timey cartoon deck, I got lots of ideas for tropes and clichés (most of which I already had on my list). But someone (insomn?) reminded me of a saw I’d drawn chopping Tsukiko in half on the incap for her own cartoon version.
This inspired Choppy Sawington, who is once again harassing Tsukiko. He has a really nasty effect that I’ve toyed with before, of either chopping a hero’s hand in half or dealing some damage. (I would’ve liked it to chop the hero’s HP in half, but that’s way too strong.)
The icon on Choppy is Tsukiko’s nemesis icon, meaning that Tsukiko and Choppy deal extra damage to each other. Given Choppy’s ties to stage magic, and Choppy focusing on discarding cards compared to Tsukiko’s focus on handing out card draw, and the fact that Choppy’s only victim so far has been Tsukiko, I felt it was more than justified.
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The third location in the environment is only touched on briefly, but it’s the haunted mansion where a devilish vampire lives.
Silhouette’s cartoon counterpart, The Zany Zywen mentioned right at the start, is a user of dark magic who offers power to those who seek her out. This is usually a monkey’s paw situation where the person who gains the power realizes they were better off without it.
Naturally, Silhouette herself is all about dark magic and cursed power, and envious of her cartoon self, so she charged right into the castle. A guest hero, Antiquarian by Gaist, joins her.
The gargoyles themselves are your typical prankster minions, and in the game they’re annoyingly hard to kill and annoyingly destroy the heroes’ stuff. I don’t have much to say on them in particular, so let me go off on an art tangent.
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When I first started this deck, I’d been drawing simple backgrounds (or no backgrounds at all!) for the old-timey cartoon stuff. However, not only did I need some background art for the digital implementation of the deck, actual old-timey cartoons really did have nice background art. 
The backgrounds are still fairly simple compared to what I usually do, but I used CSP’s pencil tool to shade and add a unique texture to everything. I wanted to give everything a grainy look to it and make the non-cartoon characters really pop.
Zany Bats is a card designed pretty much for Silhouette. The bats seek out the hero with the lowest HP, and Silhouette is likely to be lowest since she starts with such low HP. A hero bitten by the bats may deal themselves Infernal damage, which is Silhouette’s whole shtick. And finally - this one was accidental synergy - if Silhouette plays her own Form of the Bat card, she has enough damage reduction that the bats won’t hit her at all.
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After the three groups of heroes escaped their perils, they all tried to meet up to share their findings. But there were still two obstacles...
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As the various cartoons met up, they started a fight that escalated into a giant brawl. 
The two in the center of Big Ball of Violence are Escarlata and The Zany Zywen. You can also see Tsukiko’s Tank Top sticking out of the cloud, as well as Gold Dragon’s tail, one of Charade’s now-sentient Stun Batons, Choppy Sawington’s... nose...?, and a foot. That foot belongs to Ampere, another guest hero by Mistillitain.
Finally, there was but a single obstacle...
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Me!
Cartoons and their animator fighting is a classic cartoon trope - though admittedly it’s more of a Looney Tunes thing than a black-and-white cartoon thing. 
I had some mixed thoughts about what the animator should look like. A giant hand from the sky? Should it even be a character, or just the reality-warping pencil itself? But I like where this settled.
The Animator has two abilities. It “erases” a cartoon and deals radiant damage, and it also plays the top card of each deck, essentially creating and rewriting the game every round. 
In the art, we see a guest hero Chronan the Barbarian (made by Gaist) as The Animator draws a cartoon counterpart for him.
And that’s the deck! None of the cards represent how the heroes actually got home, but I think there are a few possible options. Maybe The Animator was the one responsible for bringing them there (I was) and sent them back. Maybe Silhouette managed to make a deal with her cartoon self and got sent back with dark magic. And maybe Tsukiko’s magic box was powerful enough to return them to the real world.
Whatever the case, I had a blast making this deck and I hope Sentinels custom content players have just as much fun playing it.
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