#but the thing is. when she resets her abilities they get more powerful and more op

[klm-zoflorr]

Agnes Montague, the villain Phoenix :33

I used a stained glass filter on this one, looove how it looks. Also here are a few versions without as much editing so you can see the details.

Agnes is one of my favorites in this AU. And in general too I guess lol. So I made her entirely too overpowered! She's obviously based off Dark Phoenix/Jean Grey/The Phoenix from Xmen. Without as much of the hero-turned-villain vibes Jean has, Agnes can be nice but she's mostly a wrong-doer.

I'd probably say she's the most powerful super-human in the 'verse, or at least where the story takes place. Her and Magnus are buddy-buddies because. Um. I just want them to be.

So, her powers, right. She can control and produce fire, lots of it. She can fly. The wings only appear when she wants them to btw. I think she has some form of telekinesis, sure why not plus I don't have a lot of people like that in the verse (and I'm quickly running out of canon characters anyways loool). I don't think I'll give her too many psychic powers? Maybe just some ability to block psychic attacks. Oh well nevermind lets just make her cooler let's say she can attack people psychically, as in not quite read their thoughts (even if I think she could grasp on some of the things you're thinking while she's there) but like, cause intense pain to her victim and maybe even kill them by hitting them with her mind.

Her hands are more like talons or claws, with tough nails and strong, too. She can rip someone's face off or hold herself up with them.

The nature of her powers make them somewhat incontrollable and ill-suited for precision work or limiting damage/casualties.

Despite all of that, Agnes is very tired and looks as such. Her abnormal body warmth makes her sleep poorly and not very much, if she isn't setting the room on fire or throwing objects around when she's having nightmares. She holds off from getting intoxicated in any way because she might level off the whole island if she did.

And the cherry on the cake... She can ressurect herself. AND others. Let the holy cleansing fire engulf you and be reborn anew with your sins scrubbed clean yadda yadda you know the deal. It resets people to a younger age and cures any ailment they have, so that's a rather extreme form of healing too if you will.

Naturally, with that sort of powers the Cult Of The Lightless Flame (named like that because Agnes hoggs all the light) treats her as a goddess. Which isn't that far from the truth actually.

Suffice to say in the story she is not the big bad our heroes have to take down because that would be straight-up impossible.

Design notes and misc:

-I usually imagine her with dark hair, but for this AU she really just had to be a redhead I feel.

-Yes, in the art she doesn't have feet but that's just because I got lazy.

-She wears practical gloves, a guilded shiny supersuit, impractical shoulder pads and a white flowy skirt and shoulder sash that both get set on fire very frequently. This is meant to evoke how she mostly doesn't care or need to be dressing appropriately for fighting, she's too powerful to need to.

-She doesn't carry anything on herself either, no pockets no bags no nothing, she has goons for that. She's just there to look impressive and deus ex machina everyone's asses to the ground if they get too annoying.

-She's lived a long life, done a lot, was in the military at some point which influenced a lot of how she thinks. Again, she CAN be unfrivolous and practical, she just doesn't want to and has to remain a symbol. She can shoot a gun pretty well.

-Her "crown" (it's a paper crown) is something children that admired her gave her. She's very very careful not to burn it, but can't wear it everywhere either

-She's not much of a strategizer or a long-term planner unlike Magnus, she just doesn't see the point in that and she already has everything she could ever want. She could have the potential to rule the city instead of having everyone vaguely follow her lead, but she's just not much of a tyrant.

Oh, yeah, and Jude. Jude Perry is Agnes' right hand woman and closest friend, her villain name is Lampadarius and she can make anything that isn't organic matter melt/heat up (like those cans in MAG012: First Aid). One of her favorite tricks is heating up her gloves and burning people like that. It pisses her off when you call her Agnes' guard dog. She's been ressurected a few times by the Phoenix, so been around for a while too.

[14dayswithyou]

Meowdy Saint! ^^ lolol hello hello o/ hope you are doing good!!

So this masterpiece of a game has been invading my mind with ZERO chill lately which directly translated to me coming up with a TON of questions orz I really didn't realize how many I ended up compiling lol

If you don't feel like answering this many please feel absolutely free to ignore this ask or only answer the ones you like the most, the last thing I want is for you to feel overwhelmed! ^^

ALRIGHT LET'S-A GO

-do Rendacted's memories remain intact when he resets the day or do his wipe too with everyone else's? Also is there an in-universe answer for why he has these glitchy powers or is he just Built Different™?

-if angel made it VERY clear that they would be mad asf and prolly even start hating and leave Ren/[REDACTED] if he were to hurt their friends(or killing people bc this man needs to chill fr), would he listen to them? Bc I know that if he touches Violet, Elanor, Kiara or god forbid Moth I'm personally deleting his kneecaps 🥰

-since it seems to me that Ren/[REDACTED] is only kinda meh at cooking I was wondering if he actually made the not burnt pancakes in day 3 or if he had some store bought ones that he passed off as his own lol

-does he know how to give massages? :00

-during day 1, how did Ren come up with a book on the local flora?? It seems like such a random topic to pick when put on the spot without already having a genuine interest in it lmao

-if I understood correctly Maple should be Jae's dog right?? Did you have a specific breed or age in mind when creating her? I got curious because in my head she automatically popped up as a young australian shepherd to match with Jae's hyperactive dumbass energy lol❀⸜(˶´ ˘ `˶)⸝❀

-staying on the dog topic lol, in day 1 when angel gets up from the couch to get Ren the inflatable mattress(iirc) and he follows right behind them i immediately thought he acted like a puppy lmao. So would he mind being called 'puppy' as a pet name?

(I am not sure if this⬇️ questions falls under character deaths, if it does I really apologize and absolutely feel free to ignore it ^^)

-from an ask from last year it seems [REDACTED] would ultimately kill angel if there was ultimately not way to enter in their life?? Gotta say I was very taken aback by this, would this still be the case after a year of building more to his character? (Ok I went back to check the ask again but I can't for the life of me find it anymore maybe I dreamt it up idk😭😭 im really sorry if that is the case jdkslajdl)

-uuhh I know there is already a lot in this ask(im seriously sorry orz), but I was wondering if we will eventually get an SFW alphabet for Ren/[REDACTED] for the folks who don't care about the nasty 👉👈

-THIS IS THE LAST THING I PROMISE 👹 will there be a guide to get all the endings? I'm not sure if there is one already and in that case I missed it 100%

Also I find it ironic how the fandom is trying to find out every single aspect of Ren/[REDACTED]'s character the same way he must do with angel lmao

ALRIGHT THATS ALL IM SO SORRY FOR ASKING SO MUCH THE REN BRAINROT HOURS ARE SO REAL IM LOSING BRAINCELLS orz Remember to take care of yourself drink water and take breaks!! ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

(Also sorry if some phrases don't make sense, english isn't my first language as I am 🤌 lolol)

✦゜ANSWERED: Under da cut because this got long >:3

-do Rendacted's memories remain intact when he resets the day or do his wipe too with everyone else's? Also is there an in-universe answer for why he has these glitchy powers or is he just Built Different™? Ren's memories remain intact!! I mean... He remembers each time you get a bad end and sometimes says something different... >:3 There is also an in-universe reason as to why he has his abilities — I won't spoil anything, but his real name (along with River's and one other character) have a reeeeally big tell. But what this tell is is for me to know and you to find out >:3

-if angel made it VERY clear that they would be mad asf and prolly even start hating and leave Ren/[REDACTED] if he were to hurt their friends(or killing people bc this man needs to chill fr), would he listen to them? Bc I know that if he touches Violet, Elanor, Kiara or god forbid Moth I'm personally deleting his kneecaps 🥰 Ren (and by extension [REDACTED]) knows not to harm anyone if he knows you won't like it — and even then — he won't actively show that murderous side of him in the first place. To Angel, Ren is just a timid, normal guy.

-since it seems to me that Ren/[REDACTED] is only kinda meh at cooking I was wondering if he actually made the not burnt pancakes in day 3 or if he had some store bought ones that he passed off as his own lol Ren is actually good at cooking, he's just a bit out of touch since he doesn't normally cook for himself! It's normally microwave meals or takeout for him... ^^; And yes, Ren did burn and burn the pancakes in Day 3 — he was distracted by something on his phone :3

Bonus cut Day 3 content: I took out the scene where Ren started to profusely apologise for burning the pancake because he often had to cook when he was younger. Given the dynamic of his family and the environment he grew up in, Ren didn't have much room to make mistakes ;n; I cut this scene out because I felt bad ksgskd So y'all get to have flustered, happy Ren instead!!

-does he know how to give massages? :00 If that was one of Angel's interests or desires, then sure!! ^^

-during day 1, how did Ren come up with a book on the local flora?? It seems like such a random topic to pick when put on the spot without already having a genuine interest in it lmao Someone else likes flora too, and it sure would be funny if Ren (eventually) starts to mimic certain traits and interests of the person you have the highest affinity/relationship points with in order to make himself look more appealing… >:3c

-if I understood correctly Maple should be Jae's dog right?? Did you have a specific breed or age in mind when creating her? I got curious because in my head she automatically popped up as a young australian shepherd to match with Jae's hyperactive dumbass energy lol❀⸜(˶´ ˘ `˶)⸝❀ It was mentioned in Jae's lore post (I'll link it here once I find it), but Maple is a Labrador! (Leon would be Jae's Australian Shepherd hehe) In my mind, Maple is only 2 or 3 years old, but that wouldn't really fit the official timeframe... ^^; Jae adopted Maple during high school so he wouldn't feel lonely at home, and it's been over 6+ years since then.... hgdshjg

-staying on the dog topic lol, in day 1 when angel gets up from the couch to get Ren the inflatable mattress(iirc) and he follows right behind them i immediately thought he acted like a puppy lmao. So would he mind being called 'puppy' as a pet name? Angel affectionately calls Ren a puppy during the scene in Day 1 where they meet up after work, so that nickname definitely could work!

-from an ask from last year it seems [REDACTED] would ultimately kill angel if there was ultimately not way to enter in their life?? Gotta say I was very taken aback by this, would this still be the case after a year of building more to his character? (Ok I went back to check the ask again but I can't for the life of me find it anymore maybe I dreamt it up idk😭😭 im really sorry if that is the case jdkslajdl) aaa I think you might be mistaking that ask for something else? ;v; [REDACTED] would NEVER harm Angel in any capacity, and they're a very patient person. Even if it took decades for Angel to fall in love with him, they'll wait.

-uuhh I know there is already a lot in this ask(im seriously sorry orz), but I was wondering if we will eventually get an SFW alphabet for Ren/[REDACTED] for the folks who don't care about the nasty 👉👈 You're fine!! And I'm open to doing that! I'll add it to my list hehe

-THIS IS THE LAST THING I PROMISE 👹 will there be a guide to get all the endings? I'm not sure if there is one already and in that case I missed it 100% I've shared a spreadsheet that lists all the available choices, the points you earn from each of them, and the endings you can get — however it's only available on Discord and I don't really want to share it outside of the server and potentially put it in the hands of minors. Sorry!!

Also I find it ironic how the fandom is trying to find out every single aspect of Ren/[REDACTED]'s character the same way he must do with angel lmao Hehe >:3 There's a loooot of lore that won't ever be mentioned in the game (since it doesn't seem fitting/I don't see a reason to), so I'm happy to provide it here!

[dark-lord-tom-returns]

Let's talk about Magrat, youngest of the witches. Magrat wants to be a proper witch. She has the jewelry, she knows all the uses of herbs, she wants the mysticism and rituals of witch craft. She reads everything about witch craft. She has the talent for the craft and she has the drive to explore it. However, she still believes that magic is the solution and not the tool.

In Witches Abroad, she's been struck by the idea (literally, inspiration is an actual particle) that she needs to find herself through the teachings of ancient monks (re:CMOT Dibbler scams) and self defense classes. As a witch of the Ramtops. The place Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have been terrifying and cowing into reverent terror for 60 odd years.

Magrat, recently promoted to fairy godmother in a scheme to get Granny and Nanny to leave home to take care of an evil godmother, gets a magic wand. She doesn't get a lot of instructions for the wand. In fact, the only thing she learns about it is that it tends to reset to pumpkins.

And that's it.

She doesn't try to learn more about the wand. Magrat decides that the best way to use the wand is to wave it and wish. She doesn't ask for help from the others, she's the new godmother after all.

At first glance, that doesn't fit with her character. She wants to know everything about the craft. She wants to be a "proper witch" that does "real magic". She thinks that Granny's philosophy of not using magic for most things is just an excuse to be mean and trick people, even if she does usually end up helping them by doing so.

Except it does fit perfectly. She looks for mysticism and wonder and magic in everything. She thinks that the knowledge of ancient monks on distant mountains (con men in the big city) know the secrets of the world because they are monks. The silver jewelry is magical because witches are supposed to wear them. The herbs cure sickness because that's what is supposed to happen.

Magrat focuses on the trappings of witch craft. She looks for things to make her more confident in her craft instead of trusting in her own abilities. So when she gets the wand she automatically believes that the wand is what makes her a fairy godmother.

It doesn't occur to her that the wand is a tool that she needs to learn how to use. To Magrat, a fairy godmother grants wishes so obviously the way to be a fairy godmother is to wave the wand and wish and the wand will sort it all out.

That's not to say that Magrat is a bad witch. When she lets herself be a witch in her own right, when she's not trying to act like a witch, she does some very impressive magic. Impressive enough even to Granny and Nanny. She's just young and new to being a witch and living in the shadows of two of the greatest witches of all time.

Granny has to constantly hold herself back from using magic because she knows she's powerful. Nanny is so talented that using magic is as mundane to her as walking through the door. That's a terrible environment for someone unsure of themselves and trying to get their bearings. It's understandable that she looks for things that help her center herself and boost her confidence.

I think these first set of witches books are a lot about watching Magrat grow into herself. She stumbles, she gets put down, but she is growing into the witch she is supposed to be.

Sometimes that means an older, crankier witch calls you a wet hen.

[psychic-refugee]

I agree with pretty much everyone that the season was rushed. They had so much going on and just didn’t do any kind of exposition or building of the storyline. Even if they had the normal 10-episode season, I don’t know how they would have done anyone’s storyline justice.

So, even for a Netflix season, it was short and rushed.

I think it could have been a really good season if they had the time to actually tell the story.

Some things I wished they had developed.

The bond between Jennifer and Ben. Or just having a backstory for Jennifer at all. She was literally just there and I felt I knew nothing about her. Marigold made 43 gifted children, did Durango only make Jennifer? If Marigold gives powers, does Durango make them even more ordinary? lol

They could have had a plot where maybe both particles give powers, but when they are in proximity to someone with the opposite particle, their powers get nullified.

If Lila and Five were gonna go Timeline hopping, they could have shown several timelines where Jennifer and Ben keep meeting tragic ends when they meet each other. I would have loved it if they were “Star Crossed Lovers” on steroids where literally every time they meet, they either die or bring about the end of the world.

I wished they played up more the idea that the Umbrella Academy as a unit/existing at all meant doom for the Universe.

Where if Ben and Jennifer don’t meet/die early enough, then Viktor causes the apocalypse. If Viktor doesn’t cause the apocalypse, then it’s Five with his wrecking the timeline to the point it creates a kugleblitz. If Five doesn’t cause it, then show how the others all bring about the doom.

Klaus always awakens too many of the dead and they kill everyone, zombie apocalypse style.

Alison’s ability progresses to the point that anything she says becomes reality, and she inadvertently causes the world to end because she gets pissed and wished “everyone would drop dead” or some other kind of Monkey Paw consequence to a misguided wish.

Diego is blamed for every assassination because of his abilities, and it starts a nuclear war between countries.

Luther gets captured by a shady government entity where they want to use his DNA or recreate Reginald’s serum to create super soldiers, as his powers are the most coveted for a fascist regime. They’re successful and there’s an apocalypse created by world wars.

Instead of Viktor getting two seasons of ending the world and Five and Ben getting one; It should have been a 7-season storyline where they each end the world in their own way and they continuously try to fix it. Season 7 is where it ends with all of them voluntarily being absorbed by the Cleanse because they realize, “It’s me. Hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”

I wish they had gone deeper into Abigail Hargreeves, and not only on her research for Marigold and Durango, but her apparent resentment of being brought back to life. Like, how did she come to the plan of putting the Cleanse in motion? They couldn’t have at least done a montage of the six years between the resurrecting time reset and the beginning of season 4?

It would have been nice to see the dynamic between Reginald and Abigail. Is he so self-centered that he never noticed his wife was plotting to end the universe as they knew it? Was she horrified at the lengths he went to in order to resurrect her? Was he completely different around her? Soft, caring?

Did she try to live a happy life with Reginald, but couldn’t knowing that because Marigold and Durango still existed, that it was only a matter of time before it went to shit?

Was Abigail aware of the broken timeline and the inevitable eternal loop of apocalypse and resets, and that’s why she chose the Cleanse?

Season Four wasn’t finished, IMO, and we really only saw the Wiki version.

[goldenocie]

Not sure if you've answered this one but;

Do you think Ocie's kids would have any powers? or would they be more normal sorta?

I mean Callie's like... half god half humanoid embodiment of the ocean- that seems like some wonky genetics pfft

I know when Momboo died Jamie and Easton got partial bits of her power- would it sort of be something like that? only passed down later on in life/if Ocie died?

I actually havent really thought of this! The one thing I think I've thought about is that at least Callie specifically has the same nether weakness as Ocie. Argo and TJ might have it too but not to the same extent

For the boys they might also get the regular creeper hybrid stuff of night vision/ internal gunpowder and I believe all three of them can breathe under water. As for Callie specifically, I'm not sure, we have a few half gods in fable though they don't seem to get many large abilities from their parents (besides in Rae's case but thats different for obvious reasons haha) I'm leaning towards she wouldn't get any demigod abilities unless she were to become a vessel. And if Ocie were to die...yeah, all four of her kids would likely start getting abilities, Oscar included. Though I think Oscar would have to be stopped from breaking into purgatory and resetting the world to bring his mom back.

[carlyraejepsans]

genuinely though liking age gaps and milfs ARE two separate things, I don't get why you're saying they're the same? like if you like Queen that's liking milfs, but liking Queen x Noelle that would be liking age gaps, and you specifically said age gaps, not milfs. it's kinda dodgy? can you explain why you think liking age gaps and milfs is the same thing, because I'm trying but I can't follow the logic.

i am going to explain this because you don't seem malignant and just genuinely confused, but i need you to understand that this is a you problem. and you accidentally chose the perfect example for that. queen x noelle is an age gap... sure.

queen x noelle is also yuri. it's f/f! that's all you need to fit the definition. doesn't say anything about age or (allegorical) family relation. speaking of: dess x noelle incest would ALSO be yuri. and yet when i said "this was originally a rocky mother-daughter relationship, but i decided to make them lesbians in the end", everyone CORRECTLY assumed that i meant they were no longer related.

what's happening here is that YOU arbitrarily decided that "age gap" is a bad word, regardless of context. sans and toriel have an age gap. it's not one that would foster an unhealthy power dynamic between them (which is what i beef with whenever people bring it up to discredit them), but it IS an age gap nonetheless. not only is it an age gap, that age gap is an inherent part of what i enjoy about their relationship. immortals don't exist IRL, so we don't really have an equivalent, but toriel is ANCIENT. even while interpreting her centuries in the RUINs as an allegory for the way trauma fucks with your ability to grow past it (like flowey and resetting), she has lived for so long that it does affect the way she experiences her life, a way that is both similar and immensely different from the way sans does as a mortal man.

in deltarune, too, where boss monsters likely don't exist and they both age similarly to humans. i LIKE seeing sans as younger, even more so than his undertale counterpart (theory reasons aside), because then what you have as a dynamic is a "mature" adult woman, a mother of two mostly grown up children, formerly a picture perfect wife who lived her life like a model both religiously and socially for the isolated, tight-knit community around her, suddenly separating from her husband and not coming to church and cracking that façade of white picket fenced perfection.... who proceeds to fall for a YOUNG, charming man from out of town who just moved into the place and doesn't have any attachments there yet. they're total opposites with completely different life experiences which is precisely what she needs as a character AND what makes the relationship compelling. Them having different lives due to their age is a crucial part of that.

that's an age gap ship! it doesn't make it not an age gap just because the term technically also includes paedophilia or unhealthy power disparities. if you can't fathom the fact that those statements are both true, that only speaks to your immaturity. it doesn't say a single thing about me.

[chasing-posts]

As much as I love Victor, I think some people are right about him dying in the season finale alone, being the right choice.

But more than that, I think it could have been REALLY big and climatic. If I could redo it, I would have Victor feeling guilty because it was he who started the whole timeline thing off because he destroyed the world. In season 2, he almost did so again and Ben's soul had to die/ be destroyed to stop him. Then in season three, he accidentally caused the grandfathers paradox by leaving Harlan with some of his powers. Then later he allows Allison change the world again in the hotel.

Now honestly, there is A LOT about this season that needs to change to make this next idea work. But how I would end it is as such:

- After Victor meets Abrigail, a scene should be added where she wither insists on giving the violin to him as a gift, or she manages to convince him to play together with her, and when he goes away with Reginald, Abigail gifts it to him before they leave.

- After all else fails and the siblings plan to sacrifice themselves and are waiting in the mansion for death, Victor leaves briefly to "go to the bathroom". And while the rest are talking he grabs the violin and starts playing when he walks back in.

- He never got to actually play in front of them before... so he wants them to hear his performance one last time before they're erased. Think of it as his Titanic moment.

- When he hears Ben's giant Footsteps approach...then it's time to put his plan into action and he steals his siblings miracles. Using the same "keep them attatched with strings trick" he used in season one, mixed with miracle sucking ability he got from season two. He doesn't have to physically touch them anymore because his violin amplifies his powers, and it lets him do more now that they had time to build up.

- The fam tries to stop them but he puts a wall between himself and the sibs, as Ben/ Jennifer tears off the roof. Then it's a battle between two giants, Ben and Victor.

-Victor plays the violin as Ben starts to wrap him up, and they have a moment that parallels the last moment with Ben in season 2. Victor talking to Ben one on one. Or maybe Jennifer is there too. But they talk. About the old Ben and now him. about how he regrets being unable to save him or reach him. Maybe Ben talks about never feeling like a part of the family because he had the Sparrows, nd Victor's like "I know how you feel. I never felt like a part of the family either... but we were."

-I dunno something deep

- It ends in one last explosion where Bennifer and Victor take out each other. And create an explosion. Or some sort of white hole. Victor is strong enough to destroy the moon so he should be strong enough to destroy Bennifer if he has a proper build up. Even if he has to take himself out as well.

In the end most of the siblings get to survive... but they are left with regret and have to pick up the pieces. That or the world does reset one last time, but sibs 1-5 (and Lila) survive where 6 and 7 end up erased, but they get to go together.

Its still sad and bittersweet... but some major character beats could at least come out of it and it could create a fitting character arc for Victor in particular.

[ravennm84]

Making Your Own Luck

Quick story I wrote while thinking of Plagg’s love of cheese, Tikki’s love of cookies, and the different ways we associate with good and bad luck. Sprinkle in a little Lila salt and you’ve got some wonderful brain candy to tide you over until the next story. Warm-Fuzzies and enjoy!!

There were more than a few abilities that kwamiis had that normally weren't used. Kaalki could improve her holder's horseback riding ability. Pollen could help flowers grow when she spent enough time in an area. 

Tikki's power over luck and good fortune was very well known. But it wasn't only her lucky charm, but her ability to take away luck. Now, this wouldn't give someone bad luck, that's Plagg's thing and had started the whole black cat crossing your path superstition. It would just set a person's luck to zero, and their actions afterwards would determine if it turned good or bad. This is where the concept of karma and the saying 'making your own luck' came from.

Normally, these were abilities that kwamiis kept to themselves or would become a side effect of being active for an extended period of time. Tikki was able to control that ability easily… until her holder came across that Italian rat, Lila Rossi. Oh, how she wished for the chance to reset that girl's luck and let karma determine her punishment. It would be so easy, just a second of physical contact and all her luck would disappear. Then everything she did would continue to build and grow, not that the little Goddess had to guess which way it would go.

 Then, one glorious Tuesday morning, Lila accused Marinette of stealing her orange pen. Tikki had been eating her blueberry and lemon curd macaron while reclining on a silk scarf when the girl snatched the purse she was in. Marinette tried to get it back, horrified when Lila opened the latch and shoved her hand inside. 

The purse jostled roughly to one side, causing Tikki's cookie to fall to the floor as the stolen pen slid out of the girl's sleeve and into the purse. What happened next occurred so quickly, that she would always claim, while ignoring Plagg's jokes and side eyes, that it was a complete accident. Tikki grabbed the pen, touching Lila’s fingers as she pushed away and fazed through the bottom of the purse. With all the chaos of Lila keeping the purse out of Marinette’s reach and Mme. Bustier, demanding that everyone calm down, no one noticed the kwamii fly under the desks, drop the pen under Lila’s chair, and return to Marinette to hide in her backpack. 

"...but she took my pen, I saw her put it in-"

"If that is the case, you tell me and I will handle it," Bustier said sternly, displeased that her lesson had been interrupted and her pregnancy hormones giving her a shorter fuse. "Give Marinette her purse back, now." She did, barely hiding her smirk. "Marinette, may I please take a look inside your purse?" 

Hands shaking from the adrenaline, having a flashback of the last time her bag had been searched, and worried about Tikki being found, Marinette wanted to say no. It was only when she spotted Tikki out of the corner of her eye, head poking out of her backpack and giving a reassuring nod, that she handed over her purse.

A few seconds later, Bustier handed the purse back and cast a disappointing scowl at Lila. "I believe you owe Marinette an apology." 

Shock broke through Lila’s façade as she sputtered. "But… but she took my favorite orange pen. I swear I saw-"

"Isn't this it?" Nathaniel asked, causing everyone to turn and see him pick the pen up from under their shared desk. 

Sputtering a bit more, Lila clenched her jaw before giving Marinette a terse "sorry" before stomping back to her seat. 

Plagg knew exactly what his Sugarcube had done, he'd felt the slight spike of power after the cookie had shattered on the floor and that brat had shoved her hand into Pigtail's purse. The embarrassment of apologizing in front of the class was just the start. He knew the girl wouldn't accept defeat so easily, and the consequences would keep growing. 

And he was not disappointed. 

Lila tried to trip Marinette in the cafeteria, and ended up stubbing her toe on a table leg hard enough to cry real tears. When she attempted to switch their homework assignments in Mendeleiev's class, the teacher not only spotted the switch but proved it in front of everyone by comparing handwriting. That got Lila a week of detention. 

Then, at the end of the day, Lila accidentally dumped her water bottle all over Marinette’s head and backpack. Despite acting oh-so apologetic and reminding everyone about her weak wrist, she wasn't getting the support or assurances of "it's not your fault" that she expected. Many glared at her while others ran off to get towels to help Marinette. Realizing that she miscalculated and did too much on a single day, Lila made a hasty retreat outside. Only to get absolutely soaked when a car sped through a puddle on the street. 

Plagg laughed his little whiskers off from that one. But he knew it was just starting. He couldn't wait to hear about what happened away from school. 

~oOo~

The following morning, Lila looked like she'd been dropped into Dante's Inferno and spat back out just in time for school. What happened didn't even have anything to do with Marinette, so she couldn't blame it on her. That just annoyed her all the more.

While storming home wet from the puddle, she kicked a pebble that hit a bird, then a flock of birds swarmed her while she ran for two blocks. She shoved a neighbor out of the way when she got to her apartment building, and the door flew back and cracked her in the nose. It bled for over ten minutes. 

She went to the mall for some retail therapy, coupled with a five finger discount, and was caught immediately. Her mother was called and she was banned from the mall for life. Greta was not happy with her daughter and gave her extra chores as punishment. While Lila was muttering mean and disrespectful things about her parents while cleaning the bathroom, she didn't account for the volume of her voice or the bathroom tiles echoing what she said. Her grounding was extended. 

All this made Lila’s mood particularly volatile when she arrived at school that morning. Not bothering to pay attention to what was around her, she gave Mireille a shove out of the way, making the girl stumble down the stairs. A couple seconds later, Lila slipped on the wet steps and fell all the way to the bottom. Her classmates saw the whole thing, and although they were miffed that she pushed someone, they still helped Lila to the nurse to get checked out. Nothing broken, but there were multiple new bruises to match her black and purple nose.

In class, Marinette had to resist the urge to stare at the hot mess her bully had become in a single day. The rest of the class had noticed too. Nathaniel decided to move up a row to sit with Ivan. Rose and Juleka cast wary glances in her direction whenever Lila started muttering to herself. Even Mme. Bustier had to tell Lila multiple times to stop talking with the threat of detention. 

By the time lunch came around, Marinette made sure to be with one other person at all times. With how unhinged Lila was getting, she didn't want to risk being caught alone with her. Luckily, Ivan, Rose, and Juleka wanted to talk with her about the new designs for Kitty Section, so she was covered. 

Lila noticed how the class was starting to avoid her. Fighting off the urge to curse and scream at them, she took a few deep breaths to clear her mind. She'd been rushing too much for the last two days, she knew that. Trying to compensate for her failure was only bringing more attention to herself and the sheep were noticing that something wasn't right. She had to slow down and make them come to her.

For the next few days, Lila backed down. She smiled at her followers, paid attention in class, and would occasionally look at her phone in distress and act like she was fighting off tears. By Monday morning, things were going better for her. She'd avoided getting in any more trouble with her mom and teachers, she'd texted a fake apology to her classmates, and admitted that she was going through something that was causing a lot of stress. When some of them asked what it was, Lila timidly said that she was too nervous to say anything else. She knew they would bug her and assure her that she could tell them anything. 

Monday morning, just as she planned, everyone was encouraging her to trust them and tell them what was bothering her. Seeing that Bustier and Marinette weren't in class yet, she knew now was the time to strike.

Squeezing her eyes shut as she harshly pinched the inside of her elbow to bring tears, she started weaving her story. "It's just, someone's been bullying over text. It's so bad. She keeps telling me that I'll lose all my friends and that I should just kill myself," she said between forced sobs as she dropped her head into her hands. "And it never stops. Sh- she texts all day and into the night. And when I tried to show my mom, the messages were gone. I don't know how, but it's like my phone got hacked and the messages disappear after I've read them."

Max mentioned that there are self deleting message apps, but he wasn’t familiar with them. Then he looked at her searchingly. "You keep saying 'she', that would indicate that you are aware of who is behind this?"

Doing her best surprised face, Lila shook her head. "I can't say, none of you would believe that Marinette would-" she gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh no, I really shouldn't have said anything."

Lila watched as the sheep exchanged surprised looks while Adrien glared at her, but he wouldn't say anything. His father would have made sure of that. 

"You're saying that Marinette, our class rep, has been bullying you over text?" Alix asked, unease evident in her tone.

She shook her head while turning up the water works. "I knew I shouldn't have said an-anything. She's your friend, too."

"You said she's been doing this constantly?" Mylene asked, eyeing her carefully as Lila nodded. "When did she last send you one of those texts?"

Sniffling, Lila rubbed her eyes to give herself a second to think. It felt like these were leading questions, like they knew something she didn't. Meaning they'd probably spent time with her over the weekend and would have noticed her messaging Lila constantly. But since everyone was here and Marinette wasn't…

"Right before class. It- it asked if I was dead yet." Another sniffle and she was sure the class was wrapped around her fing-

"Marinette was right! You are a liar!"

Lila was so surprised by Kim's outburst, she forgot to keep crying and stared at everyone as they glared at her in disgust and moved away from her.

"I can't believe we almost bought that crap you were selling!" Alix turned away, face turning red in anger.

"But- but it's the truth! I-"

"There is a .03% chance of what you said being true." Max interrupted, staring down his nose at her. "At this point it is better that you admit it."

Casting a desperate look around the classroom, she was surprised that no one looked supportive. Even Adrien looked absolutely done with her. Realizing the jig was up, she let her expression morph to anger and annoyance as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Wow, I'm surprised you idiots figured it out. Usually you do exactly what I say after faking a few tears. I'm curious, what gave me away?"

The sudden change in the Italian girl gave them a bit of whiplash, but Nino answered her. "You ruined Marinette’s phone when you dumped your water on her. She isn't getting a new one until this Friday. No way she could have been messaging you at all."

"Huh, I guess it was worth dumping that on her, even if you idiots started to notice." Then she shrugged and stood from her seat. "Oh well, good to know for my next school, this place was getting stagnant anyway."

Kim blocked her way. "You're not going to get away with-"

"Shut it, you stupid jock. I've already got Bitch-stier and Dumb-ocles eating out of my hand. When I tell them you're ganging up on me, all of you will get detention while I walk free." Sidestepping her soon-to-be former classmates, she gave them a sarcastic wave and smile as she bid them "ciao" and opened the door…

To come face to face with a furious teacher, principal, and her mother!? What's she doing here? Did they just hear what I said?

The thought barely finished when her mother reached out, literally grabbed her by the ear, and dragged her out the door. The class watched in shock as Mme Rossi screamed and lectured her daughter all the way to Damocles' office. 

They would be informed days later that Lila had been sent to military school in Italy. In lycee, they heard rumors that she had been arrested for stalking a local celebrity in Venice. During university, Alya found an article about Lila Rossi being sentenced to 30+ years in prison for attempting a ponzi scheme. It had failed terribly and her victims got all their money back, but Lila would have to serve 5 years for each of her victims. 

Not that it mattered to them anymore. The class was too busy with their own lives and futures to put much thought into some lying brat that they went to school with for a little while. 

Bonus:

Tikki fought her grin as she watched Lila being dragged away by her ear as she and Marinette came up the stairs. Sighing with relief, she was about to enjoy a well deserved treat when she heard a familiar snicker behind her.

"Nice going, Sugarcube. Couldn't have done it better, myself." Plagg cackled as he passed her a cookie before indulging in a wedge of cheese he'd brought with him.

She grudgingly took the cookie before looking away from him. "It was an accident, I touched her hand when she tried planting that pen in my holder’s purse. What happened was her own doing and not my fault."

"Su~re. And the fact that she interrupted your cookie time and dumped your macaron onto the floor had nothing to do with it?"

The look she gave him had Plagg laughing on the inside. Only on the inside.

"That was a perfectly baked, blueberry macaron with a tart, lemon curd filling. I only got one bite before it got dumped to the floor. A price had to be paid."

Plagg watched with great affection as his Sugarcube took a bite of her sweet treat. Oh yes, he'd learned millennia ago not to interrupt cookie time. Just like Henry the VIII, that Lenin guy in Russia, and a few others. They had experienced the wrath of the goddess of creation when interrupting cookie time, though Plagg was the only one to know why things went so bad. It made him smart enough never to do it again.

Taglist:

@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @back-cats-and-broken-mirrors @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld  @corabeth11 @chocolatechipcookiesandcamembert @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster83@iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @ladylupuscrow @maskedpainter @ miraculouslydumb @nerd-nowandforever @naruwitch @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @pandora-fucking-box @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @smartlanceisreal @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance

[promise-keeper-papyrus]

UT AU, where Asgore succeeded in getting all 7 human souls, broke the barrier and declared war on humanity...

However, a few moments after the soul-powered king began his rampage on the nearest human city, the souls escaped his body and attacked him until he was on the brink of death...

The souls leave and the city humans finish him off, then the humans begin to destroy or capture the rest of Asgore's kingdom in revenge...

The surviving monsters either fled to the forest to hide or stayed in the Ruins with a depressed Toriel...

Asgore is dead and Toriel stays in the Ruins comsumed by depression over his death and the destruction of their kingdom.

Most of the Ruins Monsters have no idea what's going on.

Undyne is the new leader of what's left of the kingdom... She hates humans more than ever, wishing to make them go extinct... She became a colder, more serious person (like how she is when she's wearing her helmet, only it's all the time now).

Alphys was overwhelmed with the grief and guilt of losing so many people as well as being hurt by the hatred the family members of the amalgamates are giving her... You see, Alphys left the amalgamates in the lab when the war began and the amalgamates got captured by humans, so the family members are less forgiving of Alphys when she tells the truth... In her pain, Alphys creates a special potion that takes her ability to feel emotions away so Alphys can focus on helping Undyne, making her even colder than Undyne.

Mettaton is a shell of his former self... He's constantly nervous and he's horrified by all the messed-up things that are happening, but he's too scared to actually do anything about it... After Napstablook got captured and he lost his TV Show Fame, Mettaton basically became the new Alphys and he isn't as vengeful against the humans as most monsters are.

Papyrus tries his best to stay hopeful, but he became kinda depressed after Sans' death by human hands... He wants to prove to Undyne that he can kill a human like her... But instead he befriends one named Frisk.

Monster Kid is staying hopeful like Papyrus, but he's not as depressed, since his whole family is still alive and also not captured.

Napstablook and Mad Dummy were both captured by humans.

Muffet and most of the spiders were captured by humans, but a only a few small ones managed to escape.

Grillby is one of the guardians of the Monsters' Hiding Place in the forest.

Jerry was captured by the humans and he's ironically the only monster that managed to escape on his own, much to everyone's disbelief.

Sans was killed shortly after Asgore's death.

Flowey is ironically probably having the least terrible time right now... After the barrier broke, he traveled across the surface, both the forest and the city (while pretending to be a normal flower when the humans are watching)... The barrier breaking somehow made him lose his ability to reset... After Papyrus and Frisk befriend each other, Flowey befriends Frisk, because the child reminds him of Chara... Flowey is less evil and less mean then in canon, but still calls other people idiots sometimes.

Papyrus traps Frisk in the forest and tries to kill Frisk, but he couldn't do it and lets Frisk go instead... Immediately Frisk knocks Papyrus to the ground and is about to stab him in the skull with a knife... But Frisk decides against and calmly tells Papyrus to leave the child alone, then Frisk quietly walks away... And that's how their beautiful friendship starts!

The 7th soul that Asgore used was Frisk's older sibling and Frisk vowed to destroy what's left of the monsters in revenge... But Frisk couldn't destroy a monster that spared the child's life... Eventually, both Frisk and Papyrus realize that they were both wrong about each other's species and that revenge/war is stupid.

Neither Frisk nor Papyrus killed anyone before and they form a forbidden friendship.

(This is AU is based on the fact that Flowey eventually lost control over the human souls... and on the fact that Asriel had trouble controlling Chara's soul... What if the same happened to Asgore if he gets all the souls?)

[deathbxnny]

Henlo

Requests are open yippee

Could I request a Stellaron Hunters with a sort of little sibling mc, who was picked up by Elio from their home planet because they wanted a loving family?

And like, they have powers involving time. And when they die they end up reversing time to the day they first met Elio. And this has happened once already, but they don't remember and only after meeting the mc in the second timeline does mc make them remember

They're like 16 btw

-----♡

A/N: Hello! I really love the idea, because it reminds me of Madoka Magica in a way and I love that anime, so thank you for the request!<33

Content: Some angst, mentions of reader dying, time travel, fluff, platonic relationships, teen reader, sfw

Reader has no set pronouns!

((Not fully proofread))

-----♡

》Blade

Blade was standing over you frozen and horrified, as your life was coming to an end. He knew you had to go back in time to save yourself, which is why he promised to protect you better in your next timeline. And so, with a heavy heart, you returned back to the start.

It was hard for you to know that Blade didn't really care for you yet, which is why you just told him all about your abilities and what happened. He didn't believe you at first, until you began telling him things only you two could know, which made him eventually accept the truth only reluctantly.

He was confused and baffled, but acknowledged that you must've been important to him, if he was really that upset about you dying. And he didn't want to feel that way, which is why he decided to keep a better eye on you now and protect you more than he did in the last time line. He didn't want to lose someone important to him again, even if he didn't remember you fully yet.

-----♡

》Kafka

Kafka knew of your abilities and was the one to tell you to use them, just before you took your last breath. She held you close, gently promising to care for you even in the next timeline, as she finally makes you reset it. The first thing you did, when the timeline restarted, was hugging Kafka tightly. She accepted you hug quietly, somehow knowing that there was more to you.

And she was right, as you eventually tell her about your abilities and what happened. She accepted the truth easily, knowing you were right and not questioning it. You never asked her how she just knew either, as you were just glad that she kept her promise to you.

You notice her becoming more protective over you this time around and doesn't let you stray from her sight too far. She doesn't want to lose you in this timeline and will make sure she doesn't either.

-----♡

》Silver Wolf

Silver Wolf couldn't do anything to stop your death, as she had to watch you through a screen. She was panicking and crying, but there was nothing she could do. And so, she asked you to reverse time, so that she wouldn't have to live without you there. It took a moment for you to oblige and she couldn't help but smile a little, when you promised to make things right next time.

Once you returned to the start of the timeline, you couldn't help but cry, when you saw Silver Wolf again. She was surprised by this and instantly knew that there was more to you. So after getting you settled in and playing video games with you, you finally had the courage to tell her what happened and about your abilities.

She was quiet for a moment, before nodding with an acknowledging hum and telling to keep your promise then. She didn't let you leave her side after that and all missions were completed with her, just so that the past didn't repeat itself.

-----♡

A/N: I hope this was okay! Thank you again for the request!<33

[bunningchaos]

..This was meant to just be a shading test, but it somehow turned out like this.

Anyways, from what I've seen and were told. It's the murderer's birthday, so uh.

Happy birthday to the dusty boi!

Albeit this drawing definitely isn't a good celebration

Dust belongs to Ask-DustTale, on Tumblr!

Swap belongs to Popcorn Pr1nce, on... Uh, where?

Andd, because I felt like it, putting a extra story thingy underneath the cut

This is mainly only for the drawing

Time and time again, the timeline kept on being rewinded back to the start. As if the human whom monopolized the power of 'Determination' had encountered some sort of issue that forced them to go back constantly. Starting all over again, rather than continuing from where the last save point left off.

How unusual, Sans couldn't grasp the situation at all. Even so, this wasn't going to stop him from moving forward with his plans on gathering EXP and LV for himself. All for the sake of hindering the human's progress and to get stronger, much stronger than the vile being that treats every monsters' lives like nothing but toys.

As much as he tries to tell himself, "It's for the better". Guilt still overwhelms him heavily, especially when he land the final blow on his own brother. His one and only precious family member, though that's besides the point. He had to forsake literally everything he knew, his morals, the others that he knew. Even the friends he made from other Universes, having no other choice but to cut contact with them. For the fear of possibly putting them in harm's way just.. didn't feel right.

Not like the current situation was any better! Why?

The current issue, right at this very point, lies in the fact that.. there wasn't any monsters in sight. No matter where he looked, exception for the few that he had managed to dust within Snowdin's town. All of it accumulating to lesser LV than the initial amount he'd normally obtain in the prior resets.

Adding onto the fact that he could barely even get one simple thing done courtesy of the constant reloading and resetting that was ongoing. This in turns, ended up frustrating him more than expected.

Just what the hell is wrong with that thing this time?

Did they finally get bored of dusting monsters and decided to mess with him by screwing with the timeline?

That surely can't be it, right?

Or was it...?

Hell if he knows, pushing aside every single thoughts in his head for the time-being. He made his way towards Waterfall, his slippers damp from the snow, the fluffy fabric making soft 'squish'-like noises with each step that was taken. Disturbing the tranquil silence, where nothing else could be heard other than the subtle noises from the waterfall.

Too peaceful, everything was far too peaceful. In a horrible way, dust could be seen drifting within the air. The atmosphere abnormally tense whilst then temperature dropped to a all-time low, even lower than the snowy region's.

Narrowing his eye sockets, his eye lights glowed dimly. Barely illuminating the darkened surrounding, there having absolutely no light sources other than the occasional echo flowers scattered around randomly. The bright blue glow emitted from those flowers was eye burning, to say the least. Yet it did a pretty good job of lighting up the area, albeit a limited range.

Even so, every single one of those flowers he walked past. All repeated the screams and noises of sheer panic, presumably from the residents of Waterfall. The culprit that caused all those, however, was unidentifiable from just these voice 'recording'. If one can even call it that.

For there isn't a single word nor sound, uttered from the perpetrator.

This definitely wasn't the doing of that disgusting thing, so, who else could it be?

Undyne? No, she isn't the type to harm others. Maybe except the human, after all. Sans did witness her going all out against them multiple times, yet it never succeeded. They were always stronger.. no, they abused their ridiculous ability to reload and kept on trying, when they failed the first few times. Unfortunately, getting the upper hand eventually and finishing off the Captain of the Royal Guard, once they learnt from their mistakes that caused their deaths and losses.

Alphys? Definitely not, she's too much of a coward to even hurt a fly.

Asgore? Yet another no.

So who...?

Unbeknownst to Sans, as he lost himself within his own thoughts. He failed to notice a presence behind him, one that was familiar yet also not anymore.

Within the blink of an eye, Sans was abruptly yanked backwards by a hand grasping tightly onto the bright red scarf that hung around his neck. Startling him right back into reality, his balance being thrown off as he barely managed to keep himself from falling onto his bum. His guard immediately rosed up, however, before he could even react nor do a thing.

A sharp blue bone, was pointed directly at his neck. It was a clear threat, that if he moved even one inch. The culprit wouldn't hesitate to harm him, and knowing of his current stats. He dare not make a move.

For once, in a dreadfully long period of time. He felt fear seep into his body, whoever this was. Is definitely dangerous, even though they didn't give off the same presence as the human.

"..Huh?" Sans uttered under his breath, his eye lights shrinking when he took notice of the all-too-familiar cyan gloves that the other person.. no, monster, was wearing.

It can't be. There's no way, he tried to deter his thoughts away from the numerous possibility that stirred within his mind. Yet it was all for nothing, once the other spoke up

"Found you." The voice was so unsettlingly cold, sending chills running down his spine. His entire body tensing up and freezing in place, he couldn't move. It felt as if his feet were rooted straight into the ground.

Not just fear, but sheer disbelief overtook him entirely. Not at all needing to turn around, to figure out the other's identity. As it was more than obvious, Sans so badly wanted to curl up into a hole and die.

It was Swap, the one other version of himself that resembled his own brother, Papyrus. Especially, being quite righteous and isn't afraid of speaking up plus doing things for the greater good. Due to him wanting to join the Royal Guards, hence having a more, dominating presence and attitude.

So, if that was the case. Why did Sans feel so much bloodlust from him? The one monster that is meant to be.. kind and forgiving, but not naive. At least, not murderous.

"Don't underestimate me, Classic. Did you really think you could cut me off that easily?"

Swap's tone was like a sharp blade, cutting through the tense silence. His entire demeanour had completely changed, there wasn't even a single shred of the once upbeat tone he used to have.

As much as Sans didn't want to cry, his body betrayed him. Bright blue tears welling up within the corner of his eye sockets, this wasn't supposed to happen.

The other skeleton wasn't meant to be here, neither should he be.. this.. malicious. It felt as if this 'Swap' was nothing more than a genocidal freak, with the presence he gave off.

Sans was more than certain he made sure no one else, but himself knew what was going on. He ensured that he left quietly without arising any suspicions.

..Or did Swap just paid too much of a attention to him?

No one could tell at this point, even Sans himself wasn't sure what Swap's intentions even were.

Since his thoughts trailed off, only now piecing together the puzzles of what caused the human to have so much issues.

They were caught up trying to deal with Swap, a completely new and unexpected obstacle.

....

This is going to be troublesome.

[archer-kacey]

Something I noticed is a lot of people who hated BATIM love BATDR and a lot of people fond of BATIM dislike BATDR. To me, this seems like a mechanics vs story issue. The actual game mechanics and aesthetic of BATDR disguise the lackluster characters and plot holes. However, BATIM still suffers those same issues.

This is a vague question, but what are your thoughts on BATIM vs BATDR story wise? Is either of them truly better? Or are they just flawed in different ways?

Sorry, this is long, but so are BATIM and BATDR :')

I think you hit the nail on the head in the sense that yes- BATDR has better gameplay and mechanics than BATIM, but BATIM by far has a much more compelling story that was able to capture and keep attention over the course of five chapter releases. And yes, BATIM is not without its flaws, for example it's mainly a walking simulator in terms of actual gameplay- the only thing saving it being the unique ability to suck the player in through the rich, stylistic environments.

In terms of story, here's my take for both of them-

BATIM is more solid overall, there are more connected plot points and there's a thread there to be followed from start to finish. It does suffer from some WTF plothole moments, the biggest one being Alice's 180 degree turn with suddenly using Boris as a killing machine rather than...what I can only assume was a plan to use his ink/body as some kind of reparative agent for the hole in her face (like thicc ink premium idk), or...some kind of spell...? It's honestly not very clear HOW she was going to use him, but bottom line she decided to entirely change her plan off-screen, which could have been remedied with something like a cutscene's worth of explanation, and more of a buildup to Brute Boris. The "reveal" in the haunted house didn't hold that much weight (at least to me,) just because we didn't even get a cookie crumb of a hint that Alice was going to mutilate him and use him as a drone instead of just axe him.

There are other nonsense details like Allison's ominous "I'm no Angel" line, which didn't make sense when Tom was the one to want to leave Henry. It was never explained WHY the Ink Demon walks around with a limp when he can shapeshift into a bigger and faster Beast version of himself (and apparently he was ALSO the hand in the ink river??? I guess???) And can we talk about how the cult Joey started was just never brought up again? Wally talks about how workers were encouraged (or mandated, idk) to put offerings in the break room to "appease the gods." What gods? Was Joey worshiping Bendy like a god? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED EVER and honestly I think Micheal D. and Meatstick just Forgot that Joey was a cult leader in favor of Sammy's cult storyline.

But despite all of the plot holes, we still get a tale of a deteriorating studio, humans being used as literal skeletons for lifelike versions of cartoon characters, themes of life, death, cults, art, and more. Honestly, going deep into the plot of Bendy would take its own post to really do it justice.

I guess the main plot is this: Ex-co-founder of Joey Drew Studios, Henry, is trying to get the fuck home to his wife, learning along the way that through the power of a mysterious ink machine, his ex-business partner decided to coerce and persuade people to Literally Die so he could have the necessary materials to create living versions of his cartoons, thus making "his" characters (and more importantly, Bendy,) a reality. Once Henry does escape, he learns that Joey has sent him through this same hell before, still filled with hatred and spite, just in time for Joey to assumedly "reset" him and send him on a different version of the same journey, as we can guess from the storyboards on display in Joey's apartment. THAT on its own is an intriguing and layered tale, and that's not even including the other details, voices, and faces we run into in BATIM, AND the new info we learn in BATDR.

Now, BATDR...is something I've come to view as a mixed bag.

Story-wise, it weirdly wants to have its cake and eat it to. Henry's story is elaborated on, and part of Audrey's origins are also brought to light. This is helpful information concerning the plot of BATIM...but then we get assblasted with a ton of new characters and lore for a completely new Cycle under the reign of a completely new Random Old Man. I know he's Nathan's son, and he was mentioned in both Illusion and Fade to Black...but those were de-canonized, so it almost doesn't help context-wise...???? So...????

In a lot of ways, BATDR almost acts like it wants to be an AU branching from BATIM rather than a direct sequel, which it was marketed/confirmed as.

I think my biggest problem with BATDR is that some of the main characters are bafflingly like. Mishandled.

I'm gonna have the mildest take on earth and say I didn't like the new Ink Demon. Old design was better and more uncanny by far, the new design looks like Generic Satan or something straight out of Baldur's Gate. He was given a deep, guttural growling voice because....tumblr sexyman I guess. Even if they needed him to talk, it could've been something more breathy and raspy, true to the heavy breathing of the original Ink Demon. Also, his alternate form was made very childlike, and I'm just weirded out by the fact that you have this oddly "sexified" version of the Ink Demon on the flipside of Bendy the Child. I don't think any ill intent was meant by this, but it's more confusing than anything thematically. I'm also not sure why Bendy's abuse was brought up and then never touched on....? Like wasn't this guy locked up and called a monster his whole life? Are we going to...say something especially considering the moral of this story......?

Memory Joey is completely fine, but I just can't shake the feeling that the narrative is trying to paint IRL Joey as "UWU fixed now" when that's not the case. The most sympathy I can extend to IRL Joey is that he was a gay man who desired to have a family at a time when that was not only frowned upon but dangerous, not just socially speaking but in terms of his physical safety. But beyond that, this was a dude who locked people in a building to keep them working, coerced and possibly forced the deaths of many people to get what he wanted (the ink machine was a scientific advancement that could've had AMAZING implications for society but he Did Not Give a Shit about that), and was abusive towards Henry. If we trust the Bendy books, he also gaslit and killed his teenage staff. This motherfucker isn't a patron saint of anything, and even if Memory Joey can learn from IRL Joey's mistakes, IRL Joey was still a shitbag who just happened to raise a daughter.

Which leads me to Audrey. Some of Audrey's tale is explained- she was raised by Joey, forgot Joey was her father, and came to work at Archgate as an animator. Got to know Wilson, who works as a janitor at Archgate, and then he drags her into ink hell because....idk, she's his version of "A Perfect Boris" I guess. Fair enough. However, it's NEVER EXPLAINED how Audrey doesn't remember her father, or WHERE she went to live after his passing, or WHO she lived with. Remember, Joey was as old as a cave painting, so he clearly passed when she was very young. While you could argue she doesn't remember his name because she was little, SURELY she remembers his face or voice, or the fact that she HAD A FATHER??? Like, was there some huge trauma there? (Other than the fact that Joey was her dad?) It makes little sense to me that she would forget so easily. If I had to make a guess (and granted I'm no Mark Twain), I'd wager that Allison probably found Joey dead. Remember that Nathan hadn't talked to Joey in years, and Allison was the one who went out of her way in the first place to visit. At this point, Allison's gonna find a little girl running around by herself, and assumedly her and Thomas would've taken her in. If that's not the case, someone else found Joey dead, at which point Audrey would've possibly lived with Nathan and Tessa, considering how much Nathan cared about Joey. Either party has ties to Archgate. But all of that is just speculation, not confirmed, and even if any of that were true, Audrey makes no mention of it. And I'm sorry, Audrey's backstory makes me want to cry, because it's just NOT THERE and she has the personality of a depressed bucket.

Alice was alright...but she was kind of stupid? Which is like....the antithesis of everything cool about her? Instead of using traps and luring the main character from a distance, she knocks out Audrey (via unspecified drink), plays Diet Jigsaw with Audrey, and then gets pushed off a balcony. She was also a lot more...idk, suave and sultry in speech mannerisms in BATDR, which isn't bad, but her unhinged and clever nature seemed a bit watered down.

I don't really have notes on the rest of the main cast. Sammy was brought back to die immediately, which honestly was fine considering his death track record. We get some mentions of BATIM characters. Wilson and Betty were fine, and even some of the lore explaining how the timelines work made sense.

HOWEVER,

I've already said it a hundred times, but the old cast was shoved to the side for a bunch of new characters we had no time to connect with. A new butcher gang member was added when we still have Miss Twisted as a potential female-role filler (keep in mind the Projectionist is based on Camera Man and Brute Boris was based on The Brute.) The whole "Amok" thing was a REALLY roundabout way to get the Lost Ones to stop attacking Audrey.

Wilson's motivations are mostly consistent and I'd argue somewhat compelling, but I don't understand why he didn't do more to protect Audrey if he was going to need her for the endgame for Shipahoy Dudley? Like what's all this about letting her run around and get killed? Was he just aware that she'd revive?

The main message of BATDR was fine, but it didn't work super well for Audrey's character. She'd already forgotten Joey was her father, and was living in blissful ignorance of that fact until Memory Joey decided to infodump on her right away. Sure, the "just because you were born of darkness doesn't mean you have to be darkness" thing applies to her AFTER she learns Joey was her father, but...Audrey was never threatening to Become Evil, so it almost didn't need to be said and was kind of a flat message...? I would argue Memory Joey would benefit more from that message- as he's a literal copy of a Very Bad Dude. My guy was projecting this whole time.

I do think BATDR was worse story-wise, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend it didn't have certain disadvantages from the start. The Kindlybeast debacle happened, BADTR was trying to continue a story from an existing property, and there was a severe lack of Adrienne Kress. Okay, maybe the last one was a bit much, but still. That doesn't mean I hate BATDR overall, I can appreciate a lot of things about it, but strictly in the story department, it needs soooooo much work and makes me want to jump off a Minecraft cliff.

[neotriobrainrot-reborn]

Hia~ this is Jane speaking.

I've decided the Phoenica time loop is a fun idea,so please share what you've thought of so far it's fun to see what other people thought of.

Of course if your okay with me writing it.

Yeah sure, go nuts! I might write about it when I can, but it’s also fun to see how others carry out the idea! Thankfully, apparently all I needed was to sleep on it to brainstorm more about the idea.

PRISON OF PLASTIC SPOILERS BELOW

The premise is that in the middle of chapter 7, Phoenica sneaks away to follow Molly as she confronts Lorelai. Before Lorelai can send Molly to the dumbwaiter, Phoenica intervenes and argues with Lorelai. That only fuels Lorelai’s already boiling anger, which leads to her firing a blast with all of her rage aimed at Phoenica. Molly tries to protect Phoenica by dumbing down the attack, but it pierces straight through her defenses, does some harm to Molly, and hits Phoenica square in the heart, killing her.

Moments later before Lorelai gets a chance to undo her mistake, Phoenica dies

…Kind of?

Upon Phoenica’s own death, the entire day resets to when she wakes up, only with one key difference:

A Rabbit summon is standing where her alarm clock should be.

The rabbit introduces itself to Phoenica as a being created from Lorelei’s magic and Phoenicia’s heart. While the rabbit itself doesn’t know much more than Phoenica does, it tells her that she’s looping the day. At first, Phoenica just thinks she unlocked her magical powers and tries to show her dad the summon, but it becomes apparent that only Phoenica can see them. The summon tells Phoenica to call it “Fluffy”.

She assumes (again) that the summon is just there to help her get accustomed to her powers. Eager to show others, she runs to the same alleyway she encountered the wolf. But because she comes by much sooner than the first time, Molly isn’t there to help her…

So Phoenica, for a second time, dies

She now gains some understanding that her power to rewind time activities when she dies. While dying was traumatic, she eagerly goes about her day for the third loop to meet up with Molly and Trixie full of joy about her new power…

not knowing that her newfound ability wasn’t a gift, but her new prison. A prison that would serve to break her.

*****

So that’s basically the premise. After playing “ISAT”, I became obsessed with yeeting Phoenica into a time-loop to watch the bapy go through existential horror. It died for a bit, but came back full force yesterday for me. Lorelai’s spell is causing the time-loop, but it wasn’t something she did on purpose. Her spell was filled by anger and her subconscious thoughts.

Some extra things I might include:

In one of the later loops after Trixie scares off the wolf, Phoenica doesn’t comfort them, zoning out completely until Molly pulls them both into a hug.

Molly in every loop notices that something is off with Feenie, but can’t precisely pinpoint it. She only subconsciously remembers the loops like Lorelai, but instead she will gain a massive sense of Deja-vu. Her subconscious memories will build off each other.

Lorelai doesn’t have any memories of the loops, but they do affect her subconsciously. Anytime she sees Phoenica, she gets a small feeling of guilt, but she doesn’t know why

During the fight where Graham’s tendril is meant to cut Molly’s check, Phoenica tries to get Molly out of the way, but accidentally ends up getting killed by the same tendril

Despite Naven not being aware of the loops, he always does something different in each one as soon as he sees Phoenica. She has no idea why this happens and it unnerves her

Every time Phoenica makes it to the final chapter, the world around her turns to ivory and before she can do anything, it loops back to the very beginning of the day

In one of the loops, Phoenica decides to begrudgingly accept Giovanni’s offer for villainy

Once the loop count starts getting to higher numbers, Phoenica distances herself from her friends. She already know so much about them that they don’t know, and she feels as though she’s manipulating them and treating them like NCPs.

In desperation, Phoenica tells Naven everything and begs for his help, anything to help her be free of this prison…only to hear the most terrifying words an adult can say: “I don’t know”

Fluffy convinces Phoenica to stay home in one loop to see what happens. The entire day goes on as it would in PoP, except faster. Upon learning this from a text from Trixie. Fluffy comes to the conclusion that Phoenica contributed nothing and even held the group back.

Sorry for giving you a full page of info lol. I might have more ideas, but I’m currently unsure of how I want to connect the existing ones or which ones I’ll get rid of. So for now, I’ll stop here, but I’ll probably post more about it

[byler-alarmist]

So I know we collectively hate time reset/dimension wipe theories about S5, but.....maybe it does need to happen?

Assuming the last couple seasons of ST weren't some elaborate manifestation by Mike to deal with the trauma of losing Will, there are some problems that seem like they can't be fixed without some kind of a reset.

El. Just El in general. Owens was able to give her a fresh start, a new name and a chance at being "normal", However, too many people know about her telekinetic abilities and the ability to open and close gates to the Upside Down. I think she would be in danger of being kidnapped and studied/used as a weapon forever. She can't just kill off/destroy the entire U.S. government (if only), so her file will probably be available for years and even if not, enough people know about her existence that bad actors could target her.

Now that the UD is merging with the RU, will it be contained to Hawkins? Will it spread throughout the country? The world? Even if it is all a hive mind, if they killed Vecna and somehow closed all the gates (it exhausts El to even close one) , would those spores or whatever still be floating around and infecting things in the RU? How could they ever get rid of all of it or ensure that it was all contained in the UD?

As long as both the UD and El exist, even if Vecna is defeated, scientists/governments will always track her because trhey will want to know more about/study/find lucrative applications for the UD. They would still want to use El or use her to find their own way to open gates.

If all this is true and Will/El/the Party need to destroy the UD to make sure no one ever crosses over again, is that really fair? Even if Vecna harnessed the dark particles and created dangerous monsters out for blood, it is hinted that the UD is not inherently malicious. Sure, the Party want to kill Vecna, but if he's gone and the creatures are just minding their own business, would they be fine with destroying it?

And even if they wanted to, could they? How? If it turns out we're right about Will having powers, how would he use them to destroy the Upside Down? I highly doubt his powers would be like El's or involve gates. If he had some kind of creation powers, would he just recreate the UD with glowy light particles and make it beautiful? But even if he did this, wouldn't scientists still want to find a way inside to study it with El"s gate-opening powers?

On the other hand if he (or someone else) has some kind of time powers,, when would they reset it back to? Or what would they go back in time to change? Is there something out of space and time that doesn't belong? (Somehow I am reminded of El saying she doesn't belong anywhere).

If Will or someone else wiped out the dimension that contains the UD (or banished it to another dimension), MKUltra would still have been doing their telekinetic children experiments, right? And if they went back in time, how far back would they have had to go? Back before Henry was taken to Brenner? Would El have been created at all if her mother wasn't part of the MKultra experiments?

Bonus thoughts about a reset: we know how much the Duffers love The Neverending Story. Spoilers for Neverending Story after the cut:

At the end of the Neverending Story movie, Fantasia (the world of fantasies and dreams a bowlcut kid has been reading about in his book) is destroyed by the manifestation of emptiness that is the Nothing. Bastian ({the bowlcut kid) realizes he has the power to make Fantasia (the world of his fantasies) anything he dreams.

After he takes ownership of his role as master of this reality (by giving rhe Childlike Empress a new name 🤔), the entire world of Fantasia is wiped out and it's just Bastian and the Empress together in a black void. All that remains is one grain of sand (a glowing particle, if you will).

The Empress hands the particle to Bastian and tells him his wishes will recreate Fantasia. He recreates it the way he imagined it, and notably brings back all the people who died as a result of the Nothing.

Even more tellingly, he exclaims:

"It's like the Nothing never was!!"

👀👀👀👀

[spooky-salesman]

Aloise Anastasia ~ Requiem Repetition (GW!AU)

Daughter of Arabella Anastasia and Dio Brando

Neglected by her mother and her father literally doing nothing but fucking around in Egypt (and then dying.) She raised herself and honed her own technology abilities. Defecting from her mothers gang to Passione, and realizing that there’s more to her life. (More undercut)

FIRST. Requiem Repetition is a AU that basically takes place in an alternate Golden Wind. Basically a everyone lives including La Squadra. During the world reset, Giorno gets dragged through a gap in time and is sent to this universe with all his memories.

Was part of a team of assassins from a completely separate gang, one that directly opposed Passione. But after a fight against Bruno and realizing that her job and her relationship with the opposing gang really give her no ground and respect. She decided to switch over too Passione.

Originally doing fine without a stand, her work was all about being as swift and quick as possible. Since she wasn’t a stand user no one could really tell her presence. Leading to simple ends to stand users and non stand users alike.

She has a multitude of technological range, such as a personal bot named B2, a rail gun, magnetic boots as well as gloves, she’s also well geese in hacking and is in general, a mechanic.

Her stand ability Coco Hooves, reflects not only the creative side of her, but her forgotten memories of childhood isolation.

Coco Hooves has the ability to manipulate matter, and antimatter. Matter manipulation takes a lot of stamina, and later on the antimatter manipulation physically hurts her. Some examples of matter manipulation

- freezing water

- making metals reach boiling points

- turning rocks into lava

- changing things shape and form

-changing objects or other peoples chemical formulas

- telekinesis- being able to move objects without physically picking them up.

Antimatter manipulation

-Conjuring lightning

-making miniature black holes

-creating auroras

——-

Her personality is bubbly and very, very, extremely overwhelming. Despite having literally annihilated people she’s still extremely happy all the time and enjoys making others smile. Though this is mostly because she’s a people pleaser all the time and her fawn response never ever turned off since childhood.

When she is on a mission however she is totally serious, not even stopping to make jokes. She wants the jobs done as cleanly and neatly as possible. She’s not above using pure brutality and pushing peoples buttons to get information.

She is overly trusting and not very cautious, her fatal flaw is her genuine kindness.

Some important relationships

Caedesa - childhood bestfriend, Caedesa has a one sided attraction to her

Giorno - half brother, don’t discover this until Giorno sees her birthmark.

Illuso- general love interest, the two somehow make a great pair

Ghiaccio- 2nd person she’s closest to out of La Squadra

Protille, Incuba, and Viola - part of her own hit man team that she integrated into La Squadra

Arabella - her terrible mother who has a VERY powerful stand and also has stand arrows, as well as a secret requiem one.

Achilla- her half sister on her moms side, does not have the joestar birthmark. Her stand is the ability to manipulate fluids. (Water, blood, soda, mercury etc.)

Relationship charts :3 (still have to do one with the other ocs)

[eldritchamy]

What the shit. Fighting a god in hand to hand combat as a gold dragon using immovable rods goes so fucking hard and it’s the backstory for a character that’s just in the main backstory???????? AMY???

You know how a lot of people, when making DND characters, make the mistake of having their level 1 PC have an elaborate backstory where they're super badass and already recognized as a hero?

When I made Ash I did the opposite. Her backstory is elaborate, yes, but in very mundane ways that inform her personality and how she perceives the world around her, and build up the logic of how she makes decisions.

I made everyone AROUND my PC a super powerful character who had done incredible things, and I gave Ash anxiety about it.

She feels, constantly, that she is inadequate by comparison. Her entire frame of reference is shaped by a bunch of women in her life that are outstandingly powerful, and she's just a quiet girl who makes leather goods and sells them for a living. She thinks of herself as the NPC in other people's more impressive lives.

Her mother, Lailah, is a nearly seven foot tall divine warrior created in Elysium to destroy Pit Fiends. She's an angel of lightning built like an MMA fighter, and she wields a weapon like piece of a lightning bolt (not stylized, I mean a real, glowing crackling arc of electricity that she holds like a staff and can be used like anything from a polearm to a spear to a whip, and when thrown it acts like a Lightning Bolt spell). She is built, both narratively and in game stats, to be an unkillable holy destroyer, capable of fighting MULTIPLE PIT FIENDS simultaneously, and winning. She's a CR 10+ magical creature (she's a homebrewed mix of Deva and Erinyes stat blocks with some unique flavor) with eighteen class levels, 16 in Zealot Barbarian and 2 in Fighter. She has a strength of 27 and a constitution of 25. She's designed to deal HUGE amounts of damage, tank unfathomable amounts in turn, NOT DROP WHEN SHE HITS ZERO HITPOINTS, and keep swinging until every devil in her way is a pile of dust, then use bonus action Second Wind to bring herself back above 0 so she doesn't incur the auto-death caveat on Zealot Barbarian's Rage Beyond Death ability. One of her attuned items is also the very simple uncommon item "Periapt of Wound Closure" which automatically stabilizes you at the start of your turn, thereby resetting the death saving throws she would theoretically have to make each time she gets hit below 0. Also, as an angel, she's innately immune to auto-death effects like Power Word Kill, which closes almost all loopholes that get around her build. She is UNSPEAKABLY badass. I ran a simulated round of combat with her once, and she could potentially one-shot a CR 15 Skittering Horror (228 HP) in a single turn. Her theoretical maximum damage output is like, 456 damage in a turn (granted this assumes all crits and rolling max damage).

So that's Ash's mom.

Aria is interesting. She was always strongly attuned to the forces of nature, and her magic grew quickly. Where Ash grew up with someone she knew would always be there to protect her from anything, Aria did NOT have that safety net, and spent her formative years learning to be more self-sufficient in terms of relying on her own power. So eventually she got sucked into an adventuring party consisting of herself (a tiefling Witch subclass with very strong druid flavor), a tiefling zealot barbarian, and a couple of elf twins who were an Arcana cleric and a Celestial Warlock. Sometime after they had made a name for themselves, they were tasked with stopping a suspected fledgling vampire who had been kidnapping girls and killing a bunch of people. When they arrived, they met Cass, who was very much NOT a new vampire. She was almost 150 years old and had been protecting women from abusers and overzealous debt collectors, and things had gotten a little messy with one or two of them, leading to a lot more attention than she normally got. They start off fighting Cass (Aria polymorphs herself into a dire wolf and lunges directly for the throat, which Cass found amusing and impressive) but realize in the banter that Cass wasn't the real problem, and she ends up being a sort of a lesson for the group in terms of whose word they trust and who they take jobs from (YES THE BACKSTORY'S BACKSTORY HAS NARRATIVE ARCS AND MORAL LESSONS THAT LEAD TO LONG TERM CHARACTER GROWTH OKAY I CAN'T HELP MYSELF). Cass, having a particular rapport with Aria, ends up joining their party as a dhampir Soulknife Rogue/Shadow Monk.

Yes, that's all backstory that I made up for an imaginary campaign that exists entirely as a set piece for Aria as one of Ash's story NPCs. This doesn't even touch on the fact that I liked Cass so much as a character that I gave HER an entire backstory of her own. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM.

Anyway the team only makes a bigger name for themselves for handling things that other groups can't. Eventually, they just happen to be in the Tenth District when the War of the Spark happens (major established event in the MTG canon), and I basically added some extra "scenes" to it that didn't violate existing canon so I could have that be the climax of their imaginary campaign. One of Aria's partners was a new planeswalker at the time and her spark got harvested by the Dreadhorde, specifically by the god eternal Bontu.

Gods in Magic The Gathering aren't honestly that special? They don't seem to have THAT much power, all things considered. Ravnica's gods are mostly powerful magical animals, and in the most recent Magic Story one of their gods (Anzrag the Quake Mole) was captured in an "evidence capsule" (basically Magic's version of a Pokeball). The most powerful god in MTG is probably the Ur Dragon honestly, unless you count the Eldrazi, but that's a whole other conversation since neither of those actually have the "God" creature type.

Anyway, Bontu was one of the gods of Amonket (basically a plane based on ancient Egypt), which had been conquered by an Elder Dragon planeswalker named Nichol Bolas. HE was the one who actually killed all but one of Amonket's gods, and then another planeswalker named Liliana Vess (extremely powerful necromancer) raised them as zombies for his army, because Bolas had a ton of complicated leverage over her (magical contract that he could invoke to kill her if she betrayed him). So Bontu was a god zombie.

Here's a reference:

Well, Aria was a level 18 Witch at this point since this was the climax of their campaign, so she had access to the Shapechange spell, a 9th level transmutation that lets you become any creature with a challenge rating equal or lower than your character level. And the best candidate for that was an Adult Gold Dragon (CR 17). So Aria goes full berserk and stands up on her dragon hind legs and picks a fight with a dead god that she's determined to make deader, and has a Godzilla vs King Ghidorah standoff with her.

So how do you fight a god that can suck your soul out and instantly kill you with a single touch? You don't let it touch you.

What Aria did was basically inspired by this gif of a Wildebeest trying to charge at a lion:

Or this:

And to be clear, yes, I'm saying Aria was the lion in that situation. She basically did a big dragon threat display to get Bontu's attention, and used the Gold Dragon's weakening breath to give Bontu disadvantage on Strength checks and saves. Bontu charged at her, and at the last second Aria dropped to the ground and then shot back up, clamped her teeth around the god's throat, and used her weight to throw Bontu around and knock her off balance, and her superior strength to grab her by the wrists and wrestled her to the ground so she couldn't get a grip on Aria. She had every part of the god that could have killed her pinned, and used the claws of her wings to pull Bontu's armor apart and tear at everything she could reach while thrashing her around. It was Fen, the Arcana cleric, who thought to use Immovable rods to pin Bontu down so that even if Aria lost her grip, Bontu wouldn't be able to immediately one-shot any of them. So Athena (barbarian) and Cass (rogue/monk) as the two martial classes were the ones who got close enough to handle that while Fen and her sister (Gwen) used whatever holy magic they could to help from a distance.

Now CASS had a problem, because she's a DEX based martial class, not a strength based one. She needed a boost to be able to get this job done. So she drank some of Bontu's blood from one of the wounds Aria had left on her arm to give herself a burst of strength. Except. She had to get real close to do that. And Bontu managed to get a loose grip on her, and tried to suck out her soul.

The magic that makes Cass what she is is very old and very powerful. It binds her soul to her body in a much stronger way than any living creature, fusing the two together to prevent her from dying (i.e. by having her soul separated from her body; Cass can recover from almost any conceivable physical injury as long as there's life energy, in the form of blood, for the magic that keeps her alive to feed on and maintain the seal between her body and her soul). BECAUSE SHE WAS FEEDING ON THE BLOOD OF A GOD AT THE TIME, the magic holding her together basically fought against the magic that was trying to rip her soul out, and it had enough fuel to hold on until Aria's thrashing forced Bontu to let go. So Cass survived the Elderspell thanks to a very weird and unrepeatable set of circumstances (which allows something narratively impressive and legendary to happen without being gamebreakingly overpowered and violating the established rules of the world).

Because of how her magic draws energy from other things, though, there was a side effect: she also accidentally took in one of the planeswalker sparks that Bontu had harvested. So when Cass had healed enough for her soul to no longer be dislocated, her spark activated and she became a Planeswalker. (I imagine a soul is connected to a body mostly through the nervous system, because that's how a brain holds consciousness in it, so a "dislocated" soul is like something glued to every nerve ending in your body being pulled on with an enormous amount of force, trying to sever that connection; imagine trying to pull yourself off the ground when every nerve ending in your body is superglued to the floor by something akin to the Strong Nuclear Force. It SUCKED.)

The team ended up being forced to retreat because of Cass' injuries, so Aria didn't actually manage to kill Bontu personally (or die trying, which in her grief-rage she was fully open to). Right about this time, my bottle scene ends and Magic canon comes back into play: Liliana betrays Bolas and turns the Dreadhorde against him, and Bontu ends up being the one who bites him and rips out HIS spark. Due to the enormous rush of energy of consuming all of Bolas' stolen Planeswalker sparks (tl;dr he was trying to become a god), and with the added bit of lore that it was Aria's team that heavily injured Bontu just prior to this, Bontu exploded in the process.

This resulted in Ravnica playing a game of telephone in the chaotic aftermath of the War. Aria fought a god. She's still alive and that god is dead. Rumors spread and now Aria is misremembered as the one who killed Bontu. Half the plane thinks of her as the "god killer." All she wanted was to avenge her lover or die trying.

Neither outcome happened, and now she's credited with the very thing she sees as her greatest failure. And that trauma has haunted her ever since.