#but I'm considering making a Fiora too..

[twilidragonrin]

Hey, quick question, is another piece for Underneath the Howling Moon in the works like a stand alone or a new chapter for In the Clutches of the Wolf's Jaws ? I read all of it again and resurrected my brainrot.

If not would you have some small facts and headcanons to give ?

Have a nice day

Oh you better believe there is another story in the works for Underneath the Howling Moon. And I am also working on another chapter for Clutches of the Wolf's Jaws, it's just a little slower because a lot of my brain rot has mostly been the little stories that took place before the current events of Clutches. But I do have some facts and headcanons to give out!

Bela is two years older than Cassandra, and Cassandra is a year older than Daniela. Making Bela and Daniela three years apart.

When the sisters transform into wolves, their clothes are left behind. Many clothing have been lost due to Cass and Dani transforming in the middle of nowhere in their estate.

Alcina has specific nicknames for her girls based on their traits as wolves. Bela: "My little shepherd." Cassandra: "My little bloodhound." Daniela: "My little pup."

The girls have middle names in this series! If Alcina calls out their full name then they know they're in deep trouble. Bela Josephine Dimitrescu Cassandra Milicent Dimitrescu Daniela Fiora Dimitrescu

Daniela was very sick when she was younger. I never went into details in the fic but she actually had aplastic anemia. Bela was a perfect donor for a bone marrow transplant that Daniela needed.

So in the current time of Clutches, the girls don't have jobs. The most is them working around the estate, Bela helping Alcina with paperwork, Cassandra in charge of the staff, and Daniela helping however she can.

Aside from Bela, none of the girls are trusted to get jobs outside of Alcina's business because they might end up revealing themselves. And Bela just prefers to work for her mother.

Hobbies!

Bela: Reading, considering she loves to learn. Not much romance like Daniela though she does have some soft spots for certain romance. Botany, absolutely considering I think she would love to cook and bake. Grows her own fruits, vegetables and so on. Definitely works for Alcina from time to time. Other hobbies would include playing the piano, and painting.

Cassandra: Loves to restore antiques. She likes to work with her hands. Probably is the family's own handywoman, happily getting dirty and fixing stuff. Absolutely loves to play the guitar too. Other hobbies would include some sports like hockey, and surprisingly dancing.

Daniela: Reading romance even though she loves to do physical activities with her boundless energy. Wouldn't be surprised if she does sports but she couldn't really settle on one thing. If she was asked what her favorite is, she would pick basketball. Other hobbies would include sculpting, and surprisingly sewing.

Clothing! This is something I'm taking from my friend who suggested what the girls should wear. I'm not normally keen on writing clothing so this should help gauge what everyone wears.

Bela: A casual chic/business casual style. As she’s the oldest who takes the most after Alcina and helps on the business end, it fits that she wants to make herself look presentable but approachable.

Cassandra: She wears a more casual/artsy style. As she’s the most physical out of the sisters she needs clothes that she doesn’t mind getting dirty and help her move around easier. But she still likes to look good so she mixes it up with fun and chic styles. Think like cute overalls and tank tops. But also some jackets too.

Daniela: The youngest and most energetic of the sisters, I could see her leaning more into the tomboy/sporty style. She’s a free spirit and the least likely to care too much about looking prim and proper. Plus, she’s running around all the time, it helps to have something more loose and easy to tear off when she transforms.

Alcina definitely punishes the girls differently whenever they're in trouble. Growing up, it was such a struggle because Cassandra would always talk back whenever she would lecture her. But Bela would become a sobbing and anxious mess if she were to talk to her the same way. It absolutely caused rifts between Cass and Bela in their teenage years. It's what led to Faults of a Mother.

That's it for now! I'll be thinking of more facts and headcanons, especially about Donna and Angie! Thank you so much for reading, it really makes my day to know there are some people who have massive brainrot for my silly yet heartfelt werewolf series!

[eaglefairy]

I have no liveblog to offer this weekend, so instead please take 2000 words of Meyneth analysis because I have opinions and I'm no longer afraid to share them. Summary: According to the canon of xenoblade 1, Meyneth is either an existentially less powerful god than Zanza, or her stated morals are in direct conflict with the actions she takes within the plot of the game. I walk through the reasons the former is at most implied by the game while being contradicted by the game's events and lore and what about Meyneth's characterization points towards the latter explanation. Huge thanks to @likestoimagine16 for chatting with me about this and looking this over before I posted it, it was super fun!

(Before we begin, a note: all of the following analysis is based solely on the canon of Xenoblade 1.  I will not be incorporating any potentially relevant information from 2, Future Connected, or Future Redeemed.  Anything from after the first game is just not true to who Meyneth is or to the characterizations of the people surrounding her in 1.)

Introduction For all of her stated importance in-game as the Mechonis's soul, Meyneth really does not do a lot during the game. The sum total of her actions are as follows:

Speaks to Zanza at Prison Island, begging him to cease their war and let the living be at peace

Saves the party from Egil at Galahad Fortress

Briefly acts from within Fiora to guard the party from Gadolt after his boss fight, but does not speak

Reveals herself properly for the first time in Agniratha and exposits the history of the Machina to the party

Saves the party from the explosion and holds them in the air long enough for Miqol to catch them

Battles Zanza at Mechonis Core and dies

At first glance, this doesn't seem too terrible. Zanza also doesn't actively do a ton over the course of the game; in fact, he probably does fewer discrete actions as himself than Meyneth does. There is one big difference between them, though: Zanza is inactive because he has a plan. He's controlling the narrative via the passage of fate, making him extremely active even if the party and player don't know he's there. Meyneth, on the other hand, is almost entirely reactive to what Zanza is doing and gives us no indication that she has any sort of plan to fight him. The most she does directly as a means of fighting him is ask to talk to him at Prison Island (which Zanza immediately rebuffs) and then debate him on philosophy before dying at Mechonis Core.

Option 1: Weaker God I can see two potential explanations for this inaction.  Option one: she’s just less powerful than him, and so any attempt by her to fight him is immediately doomed to fail.  There are some things in-game that support this.  Most strikingly to me, she and Alvis never directly interact.  For a while I was concerned that they never directly acknowledge each other’s existence at all, leaving open the possibility that Meyneth doesn’t know Alvis exists*.  Alvis does have a single line of thought immediately pre-Mechonis Core where he acknowledges that it’s Meyneth residing within Fiora.  However, Meyneth herself never acknowledges Alvis.  If only Zanza has direct access to Alvis’s power in Providence, that would in fact make Meyneth significantly less powerful and extremely disadvantaged against him.

*To be clear, I don’t actually think this is the case.  Based on everything else in the game, it would be absurd if Meyneth didn’t know about Alvis.  Where else could she possibly get her divine power from?  However, I do think it’s notable that the writers didn’t consider it necessary or narratively valuable to show Alvis and Meyneth interacting as an overall indicator of her status in the narrative, so I’m pointing it out here.

However, very little else in the game supports this.  Both Zanza and Meyneth have titan bodies, they seem to be about evenly matched within those bodies given that the battle at the beginning of the game ended in a standstill draw and not Zanza winning right then and there, and both Zanza and Meyneth seem to have created successful civilizations of people on their titan bodies.  

If anything, Meyneth might have been “better” at it, as the Machina worship her directly while neither the Homs nor the High Entia know of Zanza.  The Homs do hold the Monado in reverence as the fabled sword of the Bionis that can cut through Mechon and they have their funerary rites centered on the Bionis, but neither of those require a direct knowledge of Zanza of the kind we see the Machina have of Meyneth.  The High Entia I find even more interesting; while it would make sense for them to have intentionally erased the cultural knowledge of Zanza after the first battle of the titans when they sealed Arglas and the Monado away, there’s no evidence of that cultural knowledge ever existing, considering there are multiple side quests concerning High Entian history and not a hint of Zanza’s presence as an object of worship.  (Would the Valak Mountain War God count as an aspect of Zanza in this sense?  Interesting idea to think about…)  

Additionally, Zanza says “Now that I have both Monados, I should be at one with the passage of fate,” during one of the cutscenes before the final boss fight.  That implies that Meyneth’s presence in this world as the bearer of a Monado interfered with his control over the passage of fate (which is corroborated by Shulk interfering with Zanza’s sight during the final battle).  That in turn suggests that Meyneth had some amount of power over fate as a god, if we believe control over fate to be something that can be divided as Zanza alludes to in his dialogue.  All of this leads me to believe that if Meyneth is a weaker god than Zanza, it doesn’t affect any of her actions in the backstory or during the events of the game.

Option 2: Weaker Writing That leaves the other option: a writing flaw in which Meyneth’s stated character does not align with her actions and morals within the game.  We’ve been through her actions, but what are her stated morals?  She believes in the right of life to self-determination.  She sees Zanza’s actions specifically as directly in conflict with said stated right, and potentially the existence of gods as a whole.  Most of all, she believes in peace to the exclusion of things such as revenge or justice.  She (and the other Machina) want Egil to give up his plan of revenge and live in peace with them to heal from what Zanza has done.  When she’s speaking to Zanza telepathically on Prison Island, she asks him how many more he’ll kill and then tells him she’s there to talk.  Even when they’re battling in Mechonis Core, Meyneth is more focused on arguing against his philosophy and telling him that gods should not interfere with the lives of their people.

This is the heart of the problem.  Meyneth is portrayed as an unconditionally good character, Zanza’s rival in every way who wants mortal lives to be lived in peace, not under the tyranny of gods.  However, her actions and apparent values within the game make her near criminally passive against a god who fundamentally does not care about any of that.  Zanza creates and destroys all life in order to sustain his own existence (and I have to assume also Meyneth’s?  If she’s figured out the secret to divine immortality and hasn’t shared it with Zanza to make him stop that just makes her even worse, so…).  Narrative choices are narrative choices, but that Meyneth would still be at the “I can fix him” stage after who knows how many cycles of this is a narrative choice that strains my disbelief.  

Characters choosing to adhere to their morals even when it puts them at a disadvantage against their enemies is not a bad thing; however, having her hold to pacificism to this extent just makes her seem selfish and callous.  It is simply incompatible with her stated goal of opposing Zanza when Zanza’s actions are so extreme.  And to be clear, her choice to continue to try and talk Zanza down wouldn’t be so bad if the narrative didn’t absolutely stonewall her for it.  It’s very clear that Zanza is not open to negotiation, and Shulk doesn’t win by convincing him that living beings have inherent value outside of the resource they are to him.  It just makes Meyneth look silly to keep trying to talk the genocidal maniac down from doing genocide.

Objections Before I conclude, I want to take a moment to address some objections I could see to what I’ve laid out here so far.  First, as far as her actions go, Meyneth does have Vanea place her into Fiora with the stated intent to get closer to Shulk, but it’s still unclear what the end goal was there.  Was it to counterbalance Zanza’s influence on Shulk as the wielder of the Monado?  If so, Meyneth does remarkably little towards that goal.  The party isn’t ascending the Mechonis because of anything Meyneth said to them, they’re going up to fight Egil.  They don’t even know Meyneth is there until Agniratha, and the exposition there is mostly delivered by hologram.  Meyneth never directly interacts with Shulk about anything, let alone the cycle of war, which I feel is the bare minimum action if her goal is to erode Zanza’s influence on Shulk.

Notably, there are some suggestions in-game that imply peace with Zanza could be possible.  While I wouldn’t believe Zanza’s definition of “friendship” that he says he longed for at the end of the game to be reliable or at all similar to what friendship actually is, Alvis does repeat that Zanza wanted friendship and I’m much more inclined to take him at his word.  After the final battle, Alvis says that Zanza’s future and the desires of the party (and by extension Meyneth) could have coexisted, “but that time has passed”.  However, the game doesn’t indicate exactly when the time passed; the timing certainly implies that it was Zanza’s death that ended the possibility, but there’s no reason it couldn’t have been earlier.  

In addition, we’re given no indication of how likely that event was.  Given that nothing else in the game supports Zanza’s world being compatible with the freedom of mortal lives, I find it likely that the chance was infinitesimally small, something never quite impossible but extremely unlikely nonetheless.  While this does open up the possibility that Meyneth was justified in continuing to try to talk to him, the way it’s tossed in at the last second and is only told to us, never shown in any way throughout the game (through, say, High Entian legends or any kind of relationships between Zanza and his disciples) make me more inclined to believe it’s a last-second effort to add false depth to Zanza’s character.

Conclusion Overall, Meyneth suffers from a lack of focus that is sadly common to many of the female characters in xenoblade 1.  A lack of insight as to her inner thoughts combined with her extreme pacificism make for a narratively weak character who seems to be either fundamentally weaker in-story than her sworn nemesis or so committed to talking to him and making him realize the error of his ways that it literally gets her killed.  I find it most likely that the writers simply intended for her to be weaker than Zanza for unspecified reasons: disappointing, but not surprising.

What gets to me the most is that it didn’t have to be this way.  Even if she were just as strong as Zanza and/or more willing to fight against him, she would still have a significant disadvantage against him that sets the ground for the conflict seen in the game: her care for the lives and wills of mortals.  Her care to minimize collateral damage in the form of mortal lives will always give Zanza the upper hand in battle, whether directly in the form of attacking mortals being another way to hurt Meyneth or indirectly in the fact that Zanza has no qualms about manipulating mortals to do his will, while Meyneth likely would consider such a thing to be immoral and avoid it.  That, to me, would be a far more interesting setup than what we got in-game.

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading! Please drop a comment or leave some tags, I'd love to keep discussing this.

[felikatze]

I never thought about it because. Well I haven't played fe6 completely yet. But like What. HUH. I also completely deleted the ninian thing from my brain even though just recently in my randomizer I got annoyed by cutscenes slowing the text down. Oops. Can't eliwood get paired with other people too.

eliwood can also get paired with, iirc, lyn, (cracks open wiki to check which pegasister it was) and fiora. (hector can get paired with farina, and florina is obviously in lesbians with lyn.)

so like, the dragon asthma is 100% because of roy's ambiguously dead mom. gotta get a reason for her to die. if you have eliwood marry lyn or fiora instead? congrats, you've just doomed them.

does any potential hector spouse get this treatment? NO. because lilina's mother simply Does Not Exist (casually pushes aside my "lilina is adopted" conspiracy based on her ogier support chain)

the REAL kicker about elinini though is that. it's sooo canon. it's so canon, but because there's TECHNICALLY other eliwood romance options, intsys can never confirm it for real to keep the shipbait alive (even if the other main eliwood ship is eliwood/hector, lol, and they sure don't have problems pandering to a m/m ship of ANOTHER lord with multiple romantic options.)

like. ninian is in love with eliwood. always. always. no matter who he ends up with. and like. THEY DID MAKE ELININI CANON IN HEROES ONCE?? so i was watching some Forging Bonds at random for fun and stumbled upon base Nils. The way this Nils talks and what he references - this Nils is post canon. He alludes to Ninian dying, his Ninian dying, but how it was her choice that led to it, and he has made peace with that. The Ninian he talks to has not made that choice yet, but Nils can tell she will make the same one his sister has, and he respects it. He grieves his sister, but he respects that she chose her happiness.

Nils' Ninian chose to stay with Eliwood.

Which only happens if you get the Eliwood/Ninian A support. after which they get married.

It actually is interesting that there's no hesitation to push the main ship of Lilina/Roy in fe6 related content, considering that Roy also has variable romance options (Larum, Shanna, Sophia, Sue, and Cecilia. But if you pick Cecilia i'm stealing something from your house. That one's gross.)

I think this is because confirming any one Roy ship has less repurcussion, considering that Roy has no canonical children, unlike Eliwood. Confirming someone to be Eliwood's wife will also confirm her to be Roy's mom, which has far wider reaching repurcussions. Even then, Lilina/Roy are in a perpetual state of "will they won't they", wherein Roy is oblivious to Lilina's feelings, and Lilina refuses to confess.

Honestlyyyyyy it's amazing intsys keeps ALL "non-canon" ships in limbo while also fucking up and making Elinini canon. It's also really frustrating to keep characters in narrative limbo and refuse to let them progress their relationships Ever. You see the worst in this with Engage Corrin, wherein they refuse to canonize a route of Fates, meaning Corrin can only give the vaguest of references and platitudes that make her a nothingburger of a character. Heroes' Corrins tend to be.... slightly less bad, since Heroes has the option of having multiple Corrins for multiple routes, thus having their cake and eating it too - letting Corrin directly reference routes, while canonizing none of them. Coughs. Byleth however.....

TLDR: give me a dragon Roy alt already, you fucking cowards

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

hi arii !! have u ever thought of xenoblade aus with ur other f/os? 🤔 i suddenly started imagining luna as a driver LOL but since uve been thinking abt xbc a bit more lately i wanted to ask since the concept is soo cool

Hello Clara!! Thank you so so much for sending this in, it really means a lot to me~

Ooh, I am not sure I have considered Driver Luna before, but I am now absolutely going to try to. Azami was my instant first thought for who she would resonate with, but that's more of an aesthetic thing. However, I also think Luna would work well with many healer Blades, though I can see her wielding Bitballs moreso than I can Knuckle Claws. (Which is perhaps ironic considering that there are no dark-element healer Rare Blades in XC2!) Did you have anyone else in mind from your sudden imagining (either in terms of who Luna would resonate with or perhaps how any other Reborn characters would be put in the game)?

Regarding Xenoblade Chronicles AUs with other F/Os, I have considered something like this in the past, but only for my selfship with Aqua, as far as I can remember. In that, the idea was less of an outright AU and more simply that Aqua and Aria had come to Alrest (hey, that's you) at some point after KH3, probably as part of their search for new potential Keyblade wielders in different worlds (partially because, while there's definitely scope for Heartless invasion, I'm struggling to think of how that would actually play out from like a game perspective). As part of their investigations, the two would pose as Blade and Driver, with Aqua pretending to be a Driver and Aria pretending to be her Blade, since - despite Gormotti being a thing here - Aria sort of has a few too many inhuman traits to properly pass as one, I think. Like the wings, and the seams, which may or may not be able to be mistaken for ether lines. She'd specifically be pretending to be a dark-element attacker Rare Blade of some kind, perhaps even being assumed to be Legendary considering the unique nature of her "Blade weapon" (which here would, I suppose, just be Aqua using whichever Keyblade she can summon that looks most like something Aria would have given her..?)

That is the only sort of AU-adjacent thing I can really think of having come up with beforehand, and even then it's more "XC in KH" than anything else. However, here are some other considerations, if you'd like them:

Calanthe and KOS-MOS getting thrown into XC1 instead of XC2 may not be overly feasible, but it's a concept and a half for a number of reasons. Like, imagine being Shulk and co. right after Citri and Fiora get captured at the start of the game - setting out to save them both and taking the fight to the Mechon, and then all of a sudden encountering someone who looks way too much like Citri and has a lot of her same interests (like tech!), alongside a potentially-mechanical? other woman who is incredibly powerful but whose abilities sometimes seem a bit too Mechon-like. Who are both apparently not from this world. And then starting to learn about Faced Mechon and their pilots. And then finding out that Citri and Fiora got turned into Face pilots. There's so much potential for an interesting up-and-down dynamic there, I feel!

My selfship with Zero feels like it could be pretty easily ported into XC2 with how Blades work there and how that can potentially be paralleled with voidsent pacts. You could either make Zero a Flesh Eater given her hybrid nature in FFXIV, or go down the route of her being a Blade that Zenos manages to steal and forcibly resonate with, then maybe Lorenza somehow restoring her memories to her after re-resonating with her? I feel like Lorenza could also fit well as a Blade, though, so hmm.. There are ideas there, but i'm not settled on either one yet.

I'm thinking about the recent Clio rambles.. I'm thinking about the whole "preserving her heart" aspect.. I'm thinking about how I literally described that as being able to take "the Sora route or the Jin route" (if you know then you know) and settled on something more like Sora's for KH.. I'm thinking about Aria taking the Jin route in XC2 and subsequently occupying a position like his in the story.. Yep, nope, that can fit, can't it

Both XC2 and DQIX have an Yggdrasil, and angel equivalents, and so on. I therefore really want to put Pavo and Ardea in here somehow. Maybe, Pavo and Aquila as the Aegis Blades (twin symbolism there would be fun), and then other Celestrians (so, including Ardea) as other Blades.. maybe Ardea becoming a Flesh Eater to represent her loss of wings and halo in DQIX? I feel like this could make Corvus Amalthus (he’s Aquila’s mentor, Amalthus is Malos’ Driver), but surely King Godwin would fit there better given how Indol is.. unless I say the Gittish Empire replace Torna..? Maybe Corvus would be better as the Malos equivalent (final boss and all), so maybe Pneuma could be Celestria - but then where do I put Pavo and Aquila, just ordinary other Blades like Ardea? Or would he be her Driver who then also pretends to be Ardea's despite her not needing one?? There is absolutely something here, I think, but I feel like I may be the only one with enough knowledge of both games to try and make it work. And I currently am not able to make it work, so.. take what you can make of my attempts, I suppose =P

It is now gone two o'clock in the morning and I have to be in the lab tomorrow (though thankfully not until the afternoon), so I should probably leave it there for now. Still, thank you very much for sending this in, friend, and I hope that these are alright as novel concepts ^-^

[harpagornis]

MTG Analysis: Archons part 2

a while back I wrote an extensive article on the archons of Magic: The Gathering. Since I don't feel like making a fool reboot (and I can't add more images to that article) I've decided to make a sequel article dealing with the archons we haven't reviewed yet.

Archon of Coronation

Released in Commander Legends this archon hails from the plane of Fiora. Given what a political clusterfuck that plane is, I don't know what the archons political stance is, but I suppose they support whoever's in charge (currently Marquesa).

This is the first archon with an actual bird steed (unless we count Ornitharch's flock of birds?) which makes it stand out quite a lot. I also like the pure black face, so eerie for a White card. I guess it could be mask like a robber's mask, which makes it funnier in my opinion.

Archon of Cruelty

Introduced in Modern Horizons 2 this one is the first non-White, mono-Black archon, which I quite dislike since it plays into the whole "Black if evil" shenigans. As we previously discussed, Archons represent the cruel side of White mana, so this makes even less sense flavourfully.

The design at least it's interesting, with a hooved carnivore like a mesonichian with bat wings as steeds. The exact plane where it lives is not clear, but judging by the Bolas horns it might either be from the Meditation Realm (which would make it the only living thing besides the imprisoned dragon twins there) or Amonkhet, which has no precedent for archons but enough for angel-fuckery. Maybe Bolas meddled with it and that's why it's mono-Black?

Guardian Archon

(Apologies for image quality, it was the only large pic I could find without the card)

Debuting in Strixhaven: Commander, this owl ridding archon has a quill-end like shield, which I find it quite adorable for a sinister force of violent order. The pen might be mightier than the sword... which is why its a shield instead of a weapon. Clever girl/boy/non-binary!

Archon of the Wild Rose

We return to Eldraine with this imposing white-stag riding archon. Like previous Eldraine archons it looks quite luminous and ghostly and we actually have a reason why! Accroding to the D&D tie-in monster manual, Eldraine archons are actually deceased knights. They live at the boundaries of the wilds, marking the border between the human and fae realms. Human knights often pick up a fight with an archon in order to expand the humans' domain, which is fruitless as the archons don't get to decide where the boundaries are. Silly humans.

The return to Eldraine also introduces the card Archon's Glory, showing an archon flaring before what I assume is one of Ashiok's nightmare thingies. Not much to say except it looks pretty cool.

Ezrim

We conclude this sequel with the second legendary archon, Ezrim. From Ravnica, Ezrim started as an Azorius archon, before quitting because the other archons were apparently too much for him. He then went on to found a truth cult (ironic considering mythological archons are all about keeping the illusion of the material world) until it grew into a detective agency. He is a major character in the Murders at Karlov Manor storyline; not a lot of quirks but has quite a presence. We also see through him that an archon and steed can momentarily seperate... which he uses to file paperwork. Neat.

I like the use of browns in his depiction, like a very subdued gold. Besides the trenchcoat - working wonders to hide his face btw - he wilds a blue staff, which I assume he uses to unvield the truth. His steed is some sort of sharp toothed bull with two tails and four wings; it isn't described in detail in the story, I'm assuming because either the final design wasn't ready when it was written or because it's simply not easy to described

And that's it for now

Creative has made Archons quite a rare creature type, and have played quite a bit since we last sank our teeth, subverting both the MTG rule as White's bad side and the mythological role as masters of illusion.

Let's see what the future holds.

[piltover-sharpshooter]

SHIPPING INFO

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSES SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

Tagged by: @bioniczaunites

Tagging: Whoever wants to

1. WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S)?

For Caitlyn my otp is with @regina-tenebris CaitxLB, we wrote so much about them and it warms my heart every time. For Sett is with an OC, @thegoldentigress 's Qadira, who is just a wonderful character and I love em.

2. HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

So long as both characters are adult it's fine. Some characters are immortal or races that are long lived, so it doesn't matter in that regard.

3. HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

I draw the line at sex stuff for it to be nsfw (shocking, I know). But for example, a steamy kiss or them being handsy with each other is not nsfw, perhaps just innapropiate depending on the context.

4. ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Yes and no? Like, if we are mutuals and my character swings yours' way, most likely we talked about it since I'm a ship whore, but I'd like to at least talk about it? Like if you thrust the ship onto my face I might get sour on it fast.

5. WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

Oh many, as I said ship whore. For Cait there's Jinx, Ran, Chiasa, Fiora, Vi, and more. Special shout out to @songofsilentechoes 's Noelle that 's just he cutest shit alive and taught me and Cait how to be much softer.

6. DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

YES. Common sense but yes you do for fucks sake.

7. ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?

Despite being a ship whore, I'd say I'm more-or-less? Like I don't live and breath ships, I just really like them.

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

I am riding on cloud nine ever since Arcane and Cait/Vi became much more popular.

9. FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

Ask. Respect the character's sexuality and orentation. And I guess this is somewhat important 'it's not always about sex' don't forget the cutsey and romantic stuff in a ship too.

[noxianwilled]

— SHIPPING INFO

answer the following for your muse so people know how shipping works on your blog.

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER?

kat/darius....... i am a kat/garen enjoyer too i'm just. kinda picky with it?

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

i don't really have a problem with big age gaps as long as the two characters are adults and met as adults.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

hmmm it really depends on the content? honestly i just prefer to be on the safe side and tag things as nsfw even when it's mostly suggestive?

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

more or less. i need to feel comfortable with the other writer and there's gotta be chemistry/make sense for my muse. but i'm also very open to plotting romantic relationships rather than just going with the flow, especially if we're friends, so like? not that selective? i'll be very honest i think romance is SO much fun to explore in writing, i love shipping idc i'm cringe but i'm free

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

riven i adore the concept of kat/riven and the ensuing bitter exes potential with riven's horror at what noxus was doing/katarina's resentment about the betrayal. fiora. i could maybe see akali. samira. maybe sett? miss fortune!! hmmmm not sure. i have a soft spot for katalux tbh and i think i've grown to appreciate it more esp after the comic and how they interacted there. as always, depends on portrayals and how well my version of kat matches with anyone else's version of those other characters also getting into 'no one ever writes non-champion characters' but hear me out katarina and drann definitely kiss the gods themselves told me

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

not necessarily, although openly suggesting you're interested in shipping is actually nice for me because even when i can see it i'm often like oh i don't wanna come across as pushing for that even if it makes sense for how this interaction is going (literally told rey i was trying to not be insane about kat/darius at first before they said it was fine so sknfaksjfn i just get really anxious about it) so like. asking is not necessary, it can happen naturally, but i am 100% fine with someone asking as long as they're also fine with the possibility i'll say no, and talking about it actually makes me far less anxious.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

ok hold on i gotta think about the ones i haven't said yet...... ahri/sett and ahri/yone could be cute. nami and her bf and gf i don't remember their names sorry nami askdfnakjsdnf ekko/jinx. ezlux can be cute. eztalon can be cute. talon/lux can be cute. but also alfio and r unexpectedly made me appreciate ez/yasuo

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

dm me nicely to talk about the dynamics you can see. or send me memes that indicate that interest when i rb those prompts about wanted dynamics. knock on my door and yell HI MEL DO YOU SEE THIS SORT OF RELATIONSHIP BC I KINDA DO! or grab me by the throat and say you wanna ship with me, that also works.

tagged by: @seekslight here's the last one 😌

[amongussexgif]

Nia's father was a noble, too. And some people theorize thar Rex and Addam are related. At the very least, they have Azurda, which means Tora is the only driver from 2 who doesn't have notable ancestry. In terms of after Mio, Matthew and Na'el are the latest we've seen (since they're implied to be N and M's great grandchildren). This means there was N and M's 1 kid, he had at least one kid, maybe more, and then we have Matthew and Na'el making 4(maybe 5), but then we go on to include all of Doyle and Vandham, like you said. We don't know much about house Doyle, but it still being prominent during playable NoahMio's time means there was at LEAST four generations from both (including Matthew and Na'el). The oldest Vandham we know of is Guernica, and if were using minimums, he could be Matthews kid (but I like to think there's at least three or four generations in between). This means at LEAST that there's 10 or 11 after N and M (but likely closer to 22-23 because of adding more generations and the possibility of siblings at any point).

Yeah, Mio's family is HUGE.

And that's without mentioning where Noah comes from. The most common headcanons I've seen say that Noah is either a Shulk/Fiora kid, a Reyn/Sharla kid, or unknown. I'll assume Shulk/Fiora (he could still have natural black hair bc Dunban)

That means we've got Shulk, Fiora, and Dunban right away. Shulk and Reyn pretty much have a sibling-bond, so we'll throw in Reyn, Sharla, and Juju. I'll add Melia and her family as an Aunt, and we could maybe add Riki and his kids as silly uncle and cousins. Riki has a wife and I believe it was 7? kids, so thats +9, and We've seen Tyrea, Teelan, and Melia from there. We could include Melia's father and brother as well.

So, we'll give Noah 20 people (Shulk, Fiora Dunban are 3, Reyn, Sharla, Juju make 6, Riki, wife and kids are 9, and 5 more from Melia bc we exclude the stepmom) Oh, and Nikol makes 21.

To count up Mios side for real, we'll say 4 parents, two siblings (one of which is Glimmer), Dromarch, two rich aunt's, their daughter, Niall, Zeke+Pandoria, Zeke's father bc why not, Tora, Poppi, Tora's dad, Lila, and Gramps. 19, assuming Tora continues to be bitchless and Zeke/Pandoria don't have kids.

Noah' 21, Mio's 19, and their 17 descendants (heehee averages), plus one for each other, they have 58 relatives, provided we stop 2 generations up and only include seen characters from 1+2.

But wait, there's more! Eunie is likely a Shulk/Melia kid (whether Fiora knows or not is unclear), and Crys is likely a sibling to Noah and Nikol. Lanz is completely unclear in lineage, but it's not much if a stretch to say he likely sees Reyn as something of a father-figure, so we'll throw in 0.5 for the possibility of him. Dlc outfits imply that Taion might be a Jin/Malos kid, on which case he was DEFINITELY adopted by the party from 2, so well throw I another 0.5 for uncertainties sake. Miyabi is a lot like a sibling to Mio, but we have one more unknown sibling from the picture, so we'll say thar was her. Ashera was also likely a Reyn/Sharla kid, so we'll include her as well. You could maybe include Gray and Rozana as Eunie parent-figures, so I'll do so. Speaking of found family, we're adding Teach because it's unclear whether Taion sees him as a dad or has a crush on him and either way I'm counting it. And continuing the theme of uncertainty, let's talk about A and Alvis. I haven't gotten through all of Future Redeemed yet, so I have no idea whether Mathhew and A are like siblings or lovers or just friends. Either way, A, Alvis, and Malos for that matter are all Pyra and Mythra's siblings. So that'd mean adding A, Alvis, Malos, and Jin because they are ABSOLUTELY gay.

We should also consider all of Torna at this point. Mikhail is absolutely a nephew of sorts to Mythra, but I'm unsure about Akhos and Patroka. I'm leaving them out of this count. Looping back to Jin, I'm adding Lora, Haze, and Milton because of their found family dynamic throught ttgc. I'll also add Hugo because of his lineage leading to Morag and Niall. We've counted Brighid, but we'll loop Agaeon in as her sibling of sorts.

And since we've covered every other ttgc party member, what about Addam? His connection to Rex is vaguely hinted at but unconfirmed, but he calls Azurda uncle so I'm adding him either way.

Except going that far back gets awkward because of generational gaps, so I'm taking Hugo out. Addam can stay because of Gramps and Pyra/Mythra being directly connected to him, with no gaps or uncertainties.

You could go from Malos and say that Amalthus counts because he's the driver/step-dad but I'm not because Malos directly rejects him and cut ties.

Let's talk about Klaus as well! And Zanza and Meyneth, for that matter. Klaus is the closest thing the Aegis siblings have to a father, they they call him father. You could count him because of that, but the connection is clearer because of Zanza and Shulk's direct connection. Klaus and Zanza could could as one, and I'll throw in Meyneth as 0.5 as well because of her connection to him.

Let's recount now that I'm done. We have 58 from earlier, plus Eunie, Crys, Lanz(0.5), Taion(0.5), A, Alvis, Jin, Malos, Mikhail, Milton, Lora, Haze, Addam, Agaeon, Ashera, Gray(0.5), Rozana(0.5), Teach, Klaus, Meyneth(0.5)

That totals up to 75.5 relatives, with the uncertainties averaged. At minimum, we have 67 (assuming 10 descendants), and at maximum we have 89 (by assuming 23 descendants up to Ghondor, and adding in Miyabi as a third Mio sibling, Akhos and Patroka as JinMalos kids, Hugo, Amalthus as Malos's step-dad, Melia's step-mom, and by saying Zeke and Pandoria might have a kid)

Yeah, Mio's family really is huge as fuck.

Mio's family is massive

Yeah sure were all aware of the biological aspect, Happy Family™ plus houses Vandham and Doyle, but there's so much more

First we have Rex's orphanage, then Tora's bloodline, and then TWO ROYAL FAMILIES!

And last but not least, all of their blades

[blacksurvivalnostalgichanges]

soooo, i'm writing a story (because I really like the dynamics of the characters and since no one else will write it for me, i'll do it myself) but i've never played the game :'( i'm going by the official characters list, but sometimes you guys talk about characters i don't see, and because the game isn't that popular, hard to find. could you, if you please, give me a list of all the characters? like, who the heck is bianca and why does everyone hate her lmao?

first off i highly encourage you to send me a link of it once it’s done because i WILL read it. you will have at least one like and one comment

here’s the list btw

Adela,  Adriana,  Alex,  Arda,  Aya,  Barbara,  Bernice,  Bianca,  Camilo,  Cathy, Chiara,  Chloe,  Daniel,  Echion,  Eleven,  Eva,  Emma,  Fiora,  Hart,  Hyejin,  Hyunwoo,  Isol,  Jackie,  Jan,  Jenny,  JP,  Lenox,  Leon,  Li Dailin,  Luke,  Magnus,  Mai,  Nadine,  Nathapon,  Nicky,  Rio,  Rosalio,  Rozzi,  Shoichi,  Silvia,  Sissela,  Sua,  William,  Xiukai,  Yuki,  Zahir

I’m presuming you already use the characters wiki page as a guide since it’s the easiest way to learn more about the characters? So I’m gonna give the explanation for the ones that aren’t there plus a lil rundown on some fanbase stuff since it might be good to know and keep in consideration. under the read more cuz this WILL get long, especially since i’m gonna leave an image of the character with my description

-Bianca is a teenaged gothic lolita who “strongly believes she’s a vampire”, but her lore kind of implies she, at some point, did become a vampire? Well, by the point she gets to the experiment she seemingly does feed on blood, so. By all means and purposes she’s a vampire character. Not to be confused with Daniel, who is just goth, not actually a vampire. The fandom hates her because one of the pros with the characters is how realistic they were, but after Eva they just started doing straight magic constantly and by her arrival everyone was just sick of it. Some other assorted reasons include her being unrealistic for her home country (thailand is too warm of a place for her to wear gothic lolita clothing is the big one), and the fact that BS has a weird preference for making younger girls lately despite also sexualizing the hell out of pretty much all the characters.

-Chloe is the newest character, she’s a marionettist that generally is very kind-looking and friendly. The marionette with her is called Nina. I don’t actually know that much about her since I haven’t bought her, so I only have that basic info. But generally the fandom reaction to her was stuff about her being very defense-heavy and kind of weak. I think they fixed it? But I haven’t actually played any BS in a while so I wouldn’t really know.

-i was gonna comment on certain characters being overpowered but then i realized it is just a cycle that constantly ends and starts again where first it’s rozzi then it’s echion then it’s eleven then it’s aya then it’s this character then this type of weapon- i cannot tell you for the life of me what is happening. I will say that echion specifically generally is a meme because, when he was released, he was VERY overpowered. For reference, it became “either play as Echion or lose”, no one even wanted to play the game. It lasted for a few days, then they patched the game and made him weak as hell to overcompensate. Some folks think he’s hot though. Not me, I really hate his guts, but some folks think he’s hot.

-to elaborate more on the new character fandom nonsense:the first big one that pissed people off was Eva, who ruffled feathers since she just straight up has telekinesis and it’s weird to compare High School Student Abused By Their Parents with Magical Girl Extraordinaire. After her it was Nicky, who has super-strength. Her superpower was hidden in her research journal (which you only get after buying her), so no one actually knew and that’s why no one actually gave a shit, but still worth a mention Echion ruffled feathers for the stuff I mentioned, but he did keep up the streak by being a scientifically engineered ‘chimera’ of several different people and having a laser arm. Bianca is the one that really made people get pissed off not necessarily because she’s a goddamn vampire, but because she was the fourth supernatural (and, if you don’t like or consider nicky, poorly written) character in a row. The fact that she reeked of edginess like Echion too (but unlike him wasn’t hot enough or legal enough to make that be able to handwave off) didn’t help. Plus, because all that wasn’t enough stacked against her, Black Survival was in a state where everyone was already resenting the weird inconstant patches changing seemingly random shit, and the preference for girls getting (often overly sexualized) skins, and not that long before the administration changed a bunch and some folks weren’t happy about that since they liked the old one- it’s much less about her actually being that bad and more of a lot of pent up anger bubbling to the surface, really

[xemobladechromicles]

Gonna rank them real quick.

1. Riki

I love Riki. He sounds like a chain smoking toddler but then has canonically had more sex than every other character in the series combined. Goes on a quest to save the world to escape debt. Shouts "Riki Sneaky!!" while attacking. Turned himself into a pineapple. Turned himself into a pile of spikes (Riki want hugs!!). Father of Bestest. There to be the emotional support the party (Melia) needs in the most Riki way possible. Wants food. Feed him. Killed God by bludgeoning him to death with a fish. Took Monolith several games to create a Nopon with even a fraction of Riki's success. And that's only because Riku probably could have half as much sex as Riki if he knew what sex is.

2. Reyn

The myth, the legend. Now it's Reyn Time. Alleyoop. Hwah. Can't have a Rainbow without Reyn baby. Only character to manage to annoy Alvis; the supercomputer that is also the very fabric of reality itself. Not, like in a piss him off way, in a "I'm annoyed and will let you know" way. I want to lock Reyn, Riki, and Alvis in a room together for 3.7 hours and then hide in a fallout shelter while observing the consequences. Man rocks that crop top. All of his armor is an eldritch abomination. Never actually learned how to use his kit, but the fact that his weapon is called a Driver is very funny to me after Xenoblade 2's existence happened. And it's even funnier when you consider Xenoblade 3. Man's got a Blade called a Driver. Certainly he is gaming the cosmology of the multiverse. Also I think Alvis made the ocean have salt in it just to spite Reyn.

3. Shulk

I thought his last name was Soss? Xenoblade 3 is out here challenging my most basic assumptions about its story. His run animation looks very funny. I love the part where he wears armor and the artist straight up forgot that Shulk presumably had kneecaps. My man's tastebuds have been slandered nonstop for 13 years. Poor guy was possessed by God and was too damn oblivious to notice the voice in his head telling him to kill everyone and everything. The dichotomy of being too smart and too stupid for this world. Gotta love when God steals his magic laser sword and Shulk goes "fuck you" *makes my own magic laser sword*. Easily the most beginner friendly gameplay out of any Xenoblade protagonist. Simple win conditions. Simple solutions to any wrench the game throws at you. Low customization and thus minimal chance for confusion on what he's supposed to be doing. I give my compliments to the chef. Also gotta give cheers to Adam Howden for shredding his vocal chords for our entertainment.

4. Melia

Toss up between her and Shulk because her character's tragedies are sort of undermined by the story putting so much emphasis on the love triangle. That said, very funny class. I literally didn't know she could use her talent art below full gauge to summon discharge first playthrough (I'm allergic to reading tutorials). Lady can knock over a dinosaur by kicking its shins in and has only recently learned how to not fall on her ass in the process. Definitely the most satisfying character in 1 to learn (I say as tho I have any confidence in my mastery over her kit). I like how she has an ability that reflects enemy damage. Also very funny how her AI sometimes gets caught in a loop of doing literally jack shit *stares at Bunnit intimidatingly.* Which makes her being only AI controlled in 3 a very spicy move from Monolith Soft. Also funny that in both 1 and 3 she has the magical power of breaking the chain attack damage multiplier. I have literally nothing to say about her character writing tho. I neither vibe nor dislike her. I will say that I was very disappointed in "that's not Melia that's a robot" twist in Xenoblade 3 because I was really looking forward to the explanation for why Melia and Nia seemingly betrayed their principals.

5. Fiora

Poor lady's been fucking outclassed by Mio on basically every possible level. As a love interest? Mio's got a better balance between being a love interest and being an actual character. Also Mio's theoretical death being a driving force behind Noah's potential fall to darkness just works a lot better than with Shulk and Fiora. Mio's whole "I'm about to die" thing has way more palpable tension than Fiora's. Mio did the whole "I got possessed by a being with ancient memories and then fused with that being after they died to save me" thing way better than Fiora ever did (I don't think Monolith is emotionally ready to remember Meyneth exists yet). Dual wielding badass, guess what Mio's weapon is. Tho I will say that Fiora was a favorite character initially because I like knives, but that is outclassed by Elma and Mio. Get rekt Fiora lol.

6. Dunban

Man gets tased by the Monado and decides to become left handed because fuck you. The only acceptable naked character (Zeke can have a pass too, but only as a treat, Taion is free to keep trying tho it's mildly amusing). Sadly his gameplay sucks. Not as in he's weak, he's just not fun to play. Which ruins his badassery for me. Also never cared for his wisdom as a mentor figure. Quit agressively shipping Shulk and Fiora, man needs a new hobby.

7. Sharla

Literally useless in both story in gameplay its so sad. Step 0 in Monolith's journey of discovery in "how to make healers fun." We all say "rip Melia" but at least she has a fucking fanbase.