#canon is loose enough that he could 'theoretically' be around

[likesdoodling]

This might seem kinda random, but I wanted to draw the forgers as elves, so I did. I haven't come up with any elvish sounding names, but this would be Loid infiltrating Doriath as an elf guard fallen on hard times~ (totally not a Noldor spy sent by the Feanorians-) while Thingol was in possession of a certain shiny object which a lot of other elves (the Feanorians specifically) really wanted.

[cheesycatz]

What I imagine Spamton NEO would theoretically look like in the Wormton AU

Wormton doesn't actually know that NEO exists. He's never been inside of the mansion and never picked up the phone (Wormton himself wouldn't have even been alive whenever the phone person tried to call canon Spamton, and whatever malworm found it would've rather chewed the cord off than listen to them). Still, I'm sure that he would absolutely want NEO if he knew what it was and how to use it.

Explaining myself under the cut:

How NEO works

In my personal interpretation, the NEO body is incomplete. The lightner abandoned it, so its code was never finished. Since it exists in the dark world, when a darkner (Spamton) attempts to use it, the body relies on that darkner's code to finish its own, causing NEO to respond differently to whichever darkner loads themself onto it. For example, my sneo design takes from the dormant bird-like attributes left over from Spamton's code before he turned into a puppet, resulting in exaggerated claws, fur, and feathered wings (this is definitely not just an excuse to make sneo a big bird beast).

For Wormton here, NEO took from his parasitoid wasp elements to create his translucent wings. I considered making him wingless, but I think they help change his silhouette and make him stand out. The green wires attach to his tail instead of his back, as I imagine he'd be crawling around on the walls a lot during the hypothetical bossfight. I put him at the same scale as puppet spamton to regular sneo, which puts Wormton NEO at 75 feet long. He's gained some fluffy antennae to mimic NEO's original wings, but lost some fur in order to show off the now metallic parts of his exoskeleton. His body is chunkier than regular wormton and the triangular chest opening has been changed to resemble the ribcage-like shape of wormton's "hearts" (aortic arches, what earthworms have). I decided I'd rather not deal with ten colors in one pallete and stuck with the pink and yellow parts from the original NEO design.

If Wormton NEO did exist, I imagine that he'd once again attempt to take Kris's soul once he realizes that he's tethered to the mansion. Ignoring that NEO just ceases to exist without the wires, I imagine that Wormton would want to use it to control the city. He's now big enough that he could probably cave in a building if he wanted to, so I don't think Cyber City would have a great time if this thing was let loose. With his newfound power, Wormton would no longer have a reason to hide, considering he could crumple any antivirus like a can. His disguise is more of a finger puppet than a costume at this scale, anyways. Perhaps he'd keep the addisons alive, picking them up and treating them like dolls while he begins to infect and destroy the city. Or, the addisons, alongside everyone else, evacuate to castle town, leaving him to starve alone in an abandoned city.

While NEO doesn't get to exist in the Wormton AU, Wormton does draw himself as NEO once, imagining a larger version of himself with colorful fluffy wings. It's much more pleasant that what he would end up with.

[supergito]

Fusion Revived - CH 9 (The Dream of One)

➤ This story is actually complete (finished Sep 2021) over on my Ao3 already; I'm just publishing it here on tumblr too for archival purposes. I hope any and all curious readers enjoy if they haven't checked it out yet!

SUMMARY: Majin Buu has been destroyed, and the Earth has known peace for close to a year now. Life hasn't been too peaceful for the person responsible for saving the world and the entire universe however, but when an ordinary woman meets him one day, things start to change.

RATING: Teen and Up. PAIRING(S): Vegito x OC/Reader, alluded Gochi, alluded Vegebul CONTENT: Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Family Drama CW(s) THIS CHAPTER: None.

She had to make another delivery to Dr. Brief. This was the perfect opportunity.

It’s been long enough, almost two weeks. Surely Bulma would’ve settled in nicely with Vegeta again by now, so there wouldn’t be much of a risk of igniting the scientist’s anger if she showed her face. Theoretically.

She had to take it either way. She wanted Vegito back, more than anything, and that dragon radar was a must to have. It would’ve been far more logical to have Goku get it for her like he offered to, but she needed to step up here. She felt that she owed it to Vegito.

~

This time, Dr. Brief was waiting for her. She entered the building, toting an even larger stack of folders than last time. The CEO was standing by the front desk, and ceased his discussion with the employee there when she approached.

“Ah, thank you my dear! You and your department make my life so much easier.” The man smiled. The small black cat on his shoulder mewled, and her somber mood lessened at the cute sound.

“It’s no problem, sir.” She cleared her throat. She didn’t know where the woman was in the building, and she’d rather not waste time wandering around, so she took her chance here.

“If I may ask, is Bulma in today? I need to speak with her.”

“Yes, she’s in. I can take you to her office.”

“That would be great, thank you.” She’s thankful he didn’t question why she needed to talk to his daughter, but since she had the position she did, he likely assumed it was related to business.

Dr. Brief led her down a series of halls, going past the familial quarters and deeper into the rest of the structure. As they walked, with she keeping a close but loose distance from the doctor, her mind reeled.

Bulma telling her no would be the worst end to this. If she really wanted to go that route, she could ask Goku to take the radar from her anyway, but what good would that do in the end? He was one of her closest friends to boot, maybe he would take offense at she suggesting to go against the woman’s words. Maybe Bulma would try to punish her via legal means to top it off, and that was a headache she did not want in the slightest.

When Dr. Brief led her to the door of his daughter’s office, and left her standing there, she tried to calm her racing heart.

*knock knock*

A balled hand gently struck metal, and she waited with bated breath.

“Come in.”

A feminine voice called from the other side. Not wanting to let her anxiety freeze her solid, she immediately opened the door.

Blue eyes made contact with hers, and their owner went stiff.

“Hi.” She spoke, though the strain in her tone was blatant. “Hope you aren’t busy right now, because I need to talk to you.”

“…About what?”

Bulma’s response was tense, but it lacked hostility, something she was grateful for.

“Your dragon radar. I need it.”

“Why?”

The scientist asked in a raised tone of voice. She could see that the blue-haired woman surely became suspicious now, as her stare harshened into a glare. She stepped further into the room to partially close the door behind her, just in case Bulma started shouting.

“I want to use the dragon balls to wish Vegito back. As his own person.”

She quickly added in the latter sentence, knowing that implying she wanted to refuse Goku and her husband would’ve surely set her off. Her hunch was right, as she did see the spike of fury in Bulma’s blue irises, before it fizzled away just as fast. Curiosity was left in its place.

“His own person? You mean, separate from Vegeta and Goku?”

“Yes. I don’t know if the dragon can do it, but I want to still try.”

“… … …” Bulma went silent, and stared at her closely. She could tell the scientist was examining her, trying to get a better feel of things. This is the first time they’ve properly spoken to each other, and since their first ‘meeting’ involved something that people would see in tv dramas, she couldn’t blame Bulma for being on guard. She’s thankful Chi Chi wasn’t around, as from the exchange of words they had previously, she got the impression that the Son matriarch was the far more emotionally volatile one.

If it were Chi Chi she had to ask the radar for, she had no doubt the woman wouldn’t have bothered to hear her out, refusing because of sheer bitterness…probably pettiness too. Bulma at least hasn’t chased her off yet.

“Well,” Bulma leaned back in her chair. “I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t give you the radar. I know that you…meant a lot to Vegito. And, I guess he meant a lot to you as well, since you’re here now.”

Considering how the fusion was her ex-husband in a way, she expected Bulma to express a little irritation at the minimum, but she instead started smiling slightly. A more solemn, vaguely sad light entered her eyes.

“Speaking of that…I wanted to apologize to you.”

“To me?” She asked, eyes widening. “For what?”

“…For basically taking Vegito away from you, like that. I’ve done some thinking about it since then, and it struck me that it was…very heartless of me.”

Unsure of how to respond, she stayed quiet. Bulma continued, looking down at her desk and tapping a finger.

“It was difficult, adjusting to him being around. The idea that I would never see Vegeta again…it hurt. Every time I looked at Vegito, I saw Vegeta. But, he wasn’t him. It got to the point that in my eyes, Vegito was almost like…a ghost. In a weird way.” She chuckled, though it contained little humor.

“When he told Chi Chi and I that he didn’t want to be with either of us, it made that feeling worse. He was…fascinating I have to admit, but he confused me. I was so frustrated over everything, what Buu and his handler did, and how Vegito was a permanent reminder of it, that I…never tried to understand how he felt about it all.”

“…It was just a bad, complicated time.” The reassurance left her lips involuntarily. She kept talking, briefly looking down at the ground.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t hate you…or Chi Chi. Took me awhile to stop feeling angry, but I understand why you two made the wish. You don’t have to apologize.”

She cleared her throat. “All I want is Vegito back, and in a way where you and Chi Chi can keep your husbands. It’ll be a happy ending for everyone.”

“Hm.” The scientist brightened up. “You’re right. And honestly, I shouldn’t exactly apologize to you anyway. It’s Vegito who deserves it.”

After everything she and Chi Chi did to him, how they treated him… The memories troubled Bulma. She vividly remembered the last thing Vegito told she and Chi Chi before he left in a fury, and soon, left this world altogether. That bridge between them had absolutely burned to ash, but she felt driven to see if another bridge could be built. If ill feelings could be forgiven, and let go.

Bulma pushed such thoughts back for now, and pulled out a drawer in her desk to remove something from it.

“Here.” The scientist held out a circular, white device with a knob at the top of it. Its screen was currently black, as it was powered off. She moved forwards to take it.

“This is the radar. You’ll know whenever the dragon balls become active again with this, which should be in about…”

“Four months.” She cut in. “Goku told me.”

“Oh?” Bulma looked amused. “You’ve spoken with him?”

“Yeah. He came to visit me a while ago. With the Instant Transmission thing.”

“I see. I’m assuming he already knows about you wanting the radar?”

“Yes. He said that he would go gather the dragon balls for me.”

“Sounds like you both have it all figured out. All there’s left to do, is to wait for the dragon balls to re-activate. I’ll trust the radar to you until then. You seem very responsible, but try not to lose it. Those things aren’t easy to make, believe it or not.”

“Right. I’ll take good care of it.” She gripped the contraption tightly.

It was all riding on Shenron now. If the dragon couldn’t bring Vegito back, then she would have to live with that. Easier said than done. She not holding what happened against the two other women aside, she knew that she would never get over how abruptly she and the Saiyan were ripped apart.

She never got to say goodbye to him. That alone made her not want to accept him being gone. So, she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t even try to, until Shenron was summoned.

…To think, she’s going through all this effort to revive someone who she thought would just be an annoying acquaintance and nothing more…

“Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you.” She turned to walk out of the room, but paused when Bulma spoke up again.

“Before you leave…let’s exchange phone numbers. Just to keep in better contact, in case something goes wrong with the radar.”

“…Ok.” That was good enough logic for her.

After they registered one another as a contact in their cellphones, she bid Bulma a temporary farewell and left the room. After she closed the door and turned back around to make her way down the hall, she was stopped by someone who was standing nearby.

A short, purple-haired boy with blue eyes that looked up at her with an awfully piercing gaze. Despite being 9 years old, Trunks had a bit of an intimidating air to him. Considering who his parents were, she wasn’t surprised.

“You’re really going to try to wish Vegito back?” He bluntly asked, arms crossed.

So, he was eavesdropping…that also didn’t surprise her.

“Yes.” She paused, feeling awkward. It wasn’t every day that she spoke with kids, and unlike Goten, Trunks didn’t seem to be that amiable.

“Do you…not want that?”

“Never said I didn’t. It’s just surprising. I guess you really are his girlfriend.”

“Girlfr-” She started then stopped, the heat of embarrassment immediately rushing to her face. It took some strength, but she managed to keep her voice level.

“Kid, I’m not his girlfriend.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know if he likes me like that; not that it’s important anyway. I just want him alive again.”

At this, Trunks lost the edge he carried. Similar to Bulma, his expression fell; becoming vaguely remorseful.

“…Sorry…” He muttered. She knew what he was referring to, without he needing to say it. Perhaps he had involvement in it somehow, but the details didn’t matter to her at this point. She mustered a smile, even though her heart was still beating at a quickened pace because of the boy’s earlier remark.

“It’s fine. If this works, all will be well.”

Trunks merely nodded, and didn’t say anything else; keeping his stare fixed on the ground. She took this as her cue to leave, as she had to get back to her work place anyhow.

She headed down to the main entrance, but to her surprise, a familiar spiky-haired man left a room just as she came near it. She ignored how her heart jumped, especially when he turned to face her. Off the bat, she noticed that he was…about as tall as she was. A touch endearing, but she wouldn’t dare voice it out loud.

“Uh…” She gulped. “Hi…Vegeta.”

The man’s face was neutral, mouth forming a line. His eyes were in a scowl, but she detected no anger or unfriendliness in his stare. If anything, he regarded her in a faintly…soft manner. It was almost identical to a look she caught Vegito giving her one time…

Vegeta nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t speak. He stepped past her and down the hall, in the direction she came from. She watched the Saiyan go, but recalled what she was doing before, and resumed on her way.

She walked down many halls, exiting Capsule Corp with the dragon radar tucked safely into her bag, feeling more hopeful that she’d get to see the smug warrior again soon.

                                                                                                             ༻ ❁ ༺

Her office door suddenly slammed open, making her jump.

“She was talking to you about something.” Her visitor gruffly stated, entering without waiting for approval and pushed the door shut behind him.

“What was it?”

“…It was about the dragon radar. She wants to wish Vegito back to life, with his own existence separate from you and Goku. Didn’t Goku tell you?”

“No. The clown’s been too focused on his family, I suppose.”

Vegeta snorted, and crossed his arms. Bulma smirked.

“Well, that’s why she was here. In four months, if her plan succeeds…there’ll be another pure-blooded Saiyan around. However unnatural his origins are.” She hummed thoughtfully. He tsked.

“You say that as if it means anything to me.”

“Maybe it does…or doesn’t. But obviously, Vegito’s powerful. Stronger than you and Goku even. Does THAT mean anything to you?”

“…Hmph. We’ll see.”

Was all Vegeta said in return, before taking his leave. Bulma knew, from the bottom of her heart, that he was going to train. And be training for a while.

She shook her head, entertained by her husband’s seemingly indifferent demeanor. She was aware that he wouldn’t take being the third best on the planet and likely in this universe sitting down, but despite how devoted he’ll be to sticking to the gravity room, she was thankful he was even here at all.

…It reminded her of what had to be lost first. She sincerely hoped things would work out.

[cleosven]

Why Tylorpe

Why do I (like me specifically) write tylorpe? 

Tyler x Xavier:

Tyler and Xavier together? They make a lot of sense to me as a ship to write because they have so much in common with their trauma/manipulation (and how Wednesday and their fathers turned her back on them). 

They have a history with the mural and the assault. And they had a connection the whole show (the paintings and the glares/eye rolls/fake rivalry). And with Tyler theoretically on the loose, Xavier is bound to dream where he goes next.

That mental bond between them is cannon, and even if their romance will (likely) never be cannon, it’s perfect fuel for writing fanfiction. Especially because they had so few on-screen interactions, I get to shape how they interact in a variety of ways, and play around with it.

(Eight more sections below; I’m aware it’s a lot, but it’s fun idk; warning: I vaguely mention abuse a few times)

Easy form Canon to AU’s:

With a relationship this implied but not shown in cannon, I can write a book where they have secret crushes on each other from the start, or they hate each other at the start. They could become friends, unwilling co-heros, or lovers by the end, and there won’t be many scenes to contradict the plausibility of how these interactions play out, as long as the characters and the setting stand their ground, it can make the book feel very real.

But I still have the option to write crazy AUs like in any other ship. Especially because they are two (basically) humans set in the current time period, I can more easily translate them to the past or future or to a simple high school au, or to a whole new magic system - which can be harder for me in other fandoms. 

For example if I tried writing Sherlock as an American in 2100, or writing Spock as an Australian teenager in the 90′s- it can get wonky in translation for me because I’m not as familiar with the source (britishness and space ig). This setting of Jericho in 2022 is (roughly) in my home turf, so I can easily practice writing Tyler and Xavier in different settings or situations the show isn’t interested in pursuing.

History of abuse:

I relate to characters like Tyler and Xavier who have been manipulated and abused, so they are easier to write because I get far more invested in them.

And the fact that some people in the fandom don’t like their characters actually makes me even more invested. I feel like all the criticism for their characters applies to me as well. I feel evil for doing evil things under someone else’s control (tyler), and boring for hiding my pain and staying out of the spotlight in my friend group(Xavier), and I feel fake, like my whole life was designed on a whim to be a prop in other people’s story of emotional growth (criticism I’ve heard for both of them).

By writing these characters as real people, I feel like I can do them justice while uncovering my past and fighting my misbeliefs along the way. 

Relating to a story:

So many shows have manipulated/abused characters, but I often can’t relate to them because they fight back and win, (often fairly easily in the face of world-ending doom), with lots of help from peers, mentors, and destiny. And that’s not my story, and I think there is enough of that going around that I don’t personally have to explore it rn.

I see the plot of a ‘teenage chosen one taking on the world and winning.’ And I am drawn to them because they are teenagers/young adults in a world they don’t understand (in their case because magic or mystery) but it’s still a world I have stakes in, which I relate to. 

But I need more stories about the people who didn’t have the help they needed right away. I want to see someone living a full life while recovering from the fighting the unexplainable as well as the mundane battles in life. And I feel like Tyler and Xavier meet that criteria.

I need magic and mystery:

But I still need the story to be told through a guise of a world with magic because it keeps me from relating so much that I’m just living my own life again. I want the to see the same themes as my life, but a clearly different setting or plot that I can explore.

And the magic and mystery being thrown in help me remember that I don’t know everything about life, so it feels like there is hope and opportunity around every corner.

Timing the aftermath:

And these magical YA shows also usually end dramatically before you see the aftermath of them dealing with how their life has changed. Theoretically the aftermath is not exciting. But I think that it can be. Not every hero has to be bright eyed and innocent at the start of the story. They can have a past, and I think that makes them far more interesting. But this whole show Tyler and Xavier are dealing with their aftermath (and the whole next season will be about this too!).

Tyler’s trauma:

Tyler’s trauma is revealed at the end, but it began before the show started. And his trauma is still ongoing, and that resonates with me. We don’t know if Laurel is gone forever and idk if I’m in the clear either, but rooting for Tyler also helps me root for myself.

Tyler was just an everyday barista in a small town who lives in a single-parent household. All that everyday stuff plus his trauma was there in him, weighing him down every time he smiled, laughed, joked, or spent a week on latte art. But he still managed to do those things. And that complexity just feels very real, and it draws me in.

Xavier’s trauma:

Xavier’s trauma was never shown explicitly, and that makes him an amazing character for me. I can’t always remember what happened, but I can feel the aftermath. Xavier has clear themes: not being believed (being locked up by Wednesday and so many other things), not trusting his own feelings (Bianca), and his need to appear fine (from his father’s PR demand). And all of that is such a comparatively small part of the show, but it’s just so important to me. 

I relate so much to Xavier’s character in these ways. I withdraw and I don’t know if it’s therapy or hiding from the world (like his art shed), put my hopes on people as a form of self-sabotage (his crush on Wednesday that he knew was doomed), and I react in strange and surprising ways due to my internal conflict (like Xavier giving Tyler the scarf; hiding the hyde paintings).

Xavier gets out of jail at the end, but his relationship with Bianca and Tyler and even Wednesday are all still basically unresolved. And that opens up my options as a writer on the other end. I can write the trauma, and I can write the outcomes. But the show set up a really good character somewhere in there between snarky comments, school dances, and genocidal zombies. 

Queerness is powerful:

And of course, I also write tylorpe because I love queer ships. I’m a masculine-type person who likes masculine-type people(not exclusively, but it’s up there), so that’s a big part of why I write tylorpe over wenclair. 

I don’t always include the conflict of sexual orientation/gender identity in my writing, but it always adds another emotional dimensions for me. Everyone can relate to not knowing who they are, or not accepting parts of themself because of others opinions. And most can relate to the struggle of finally realizing who you are and wanting to be loved for it. But not everyone is there yet, and I’m not always there, so I like having the reminder. 

To me, that queer inner conflict always feels more powerful than two people who know who they are, and what they want and then they just get it. I want and emotional journey of self discovery, and I prefer it to be about queer matters over other forms of identity crisis, because I understand it more, so I feel like I can tell a better story with it, and get more out of it.

I also love writing coming out scenes, and it’s nice to show examples of characters being in love and happy with or without their parents approval, because all those stories need to be told. But I also like writing in a world were there is no stigma, and they just become partners and everyone is happy for them, and maybe the journey was just one of self discovery, instead of a battle to overcome others baseless fears.

--

So yeah, that’s what’s on my mind today, and that’s why I’m writing tylorpe again....Thank you for coming to my tylorpe class today lol <3 

[sonneillonv]

Qixendiel - Descent Into Avernus

1. What is the character’s go-to drink order? A: Blood on the Snow - Made from native Rauwend rice, hand-polished in the traditional style, this sweet rice wine has a faint pink tint and a fruity bouquet. Fermented with lychee must and triple-filtered before bottling, this unique rice wine is best served chilled and compliments lighter dishes. (committee-rated 4.45 out of 6 stars, “Very Good”) A: Turkish Coffee, XXXTRA sweet

2. What is their grooming routine? A: Whenever possible, Xen prefers to wash his hair in rice water. First a comb, then a soft-bristle brush before putting in his hair pin or crown. He'll resort to dust baths and dry shampoos when roughing it, but prefers to wash his feathers in rice water before using his own taloned hands to groom them, distribute natural oils, and work free any loose quills. Being groomed by his close friends and lovers is one of his favorite activities.

3. What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? A: These days, Xen spends most of his disposable income on the family home or gifts for his Coven. He tries to be meticulous about upgrading his own magic items, but he doesn't hoard shinies - he'd much rather decorate his loved ones than himself.

4. Do they have any scars or tattoos? A: Xen never got any tattoos, and since he has demonic regeneration, he also doesn't have any scars. He could theoretically be scarred by radiant damage that doesn't receive magical healing, but so far that hasn't happened. He does have the natural markings of Hawk Clan harpies!

5. What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? A: Xen really doesn't let himself cry much, but the last time he let a tear or two fall was after introducing himself to his stepfather and being greeted with open acceptance. There are Circumstances involved that are too complicated to explain in this answer.

6: Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? A: Xen is the oldest of his blood siblings, but would be considered one of MANY middle children in his generation. He isn't the senior or the junior disciple to his Coven, just one of many. However, when he's with his blood brothers, there's a perceptible 'exasperated/jaded older sibling' dynamic.

7. Describe the shoes they’re wearing. A: Xen has bird feet, so he doesn't wear shoes ;)

8: Describe the place where they sleep. A: Steps and carved wood-screen doors lead up to a fully enclosed cabinet-bed big enough for an orgy, with paper screens and lightweight, cream-colored linen sheets. Plentiful cubbies and cabinets in the elegantly carved frame hold toys and supplies, extra blankets and reading pillows, slippers and thick socks, a Chilled Decanter full of cold, fresh water, and other comforts. Reading lanterns hang from the headboard, and the side screens can be opened to allow air flow from the patio.

The underside of the bed is a maze with keyhole entrances. Beds and cat toys have been scattered through the chambers for Xen's familiar, Centipurr.

9.What is their favorite holiday? A: There aren't a lot of canon holidays in Azzagrat, so I'll generally say music festivals are his favorite kind of holiday. He likes to hear new bands, drink, do some drugs, and dance until he drops. A few consecutive days of hard revelry will leave him exhausted and content.

10. What objects do they always carry around with them? A: His trademark polearm, his Bottle of Bottomless Coffee (trendy thermos ftw), Family Photo Locket and Abyssal Portal Key (basically his keychain), a dog-eared and annotated collection of essays on Sensualist philosophy, a chipped and dented drumstick that is actually a Wand of Conducting that plays music when he plays air drums with it, a nail file (for his talons)

So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.)  Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results: 

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory) 

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.) 

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.) 

What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.) 

[violet-sumire]

Basic outline for the first part of an AU idea I got:

(very long post!)

Izuku doesn't manage to grab onto All Might as he blasts away after saving him from the sludge villain. So, he's not offered OFA, but he also doesn't lose his resolve either.

However, the bottle was still loose, and the villain still escaped and attacked Katsuki.

And Izuku wasn't there to save him.

He was eventually saved. But he barely lived and was put into a coma for a little while. Even when he woke up, the recovery period would still take several years - he'd miss his chance to go to UA. Hearing this - what had happened to his friend bully friend - gave Izuku the motivation to step up and train for UA, so he can become a hero for Kacchan's sake.

He doesn't clean the beach, but the training Izuku puts himself through is of a similar intensity. So, by the time UA exams roll around, he's actually kind of buff (in a twiggy sort of way).

Unfortunately, Izuku doesn't make it into the hero course. But he did have the forethought to apply to general education as well. He's only got one shot now at becoming a hero - and that's the sports festival.

The USJ happens in the background. Things go similar to canon there, with the nameless student in spot 18 dropping out soon afterwards. Meanwhile, Izuku is focused on his training. He's got to win.

For Kacchan.

---

The sports festival finally arrives, and the first place student from the hero practical exam - Kirishima Eijirou - delivers a nice enough speech (though riddled with 'manly'). Then, the race is off.

(You know, in canon, Izuku never actually uses his quirk once during the obstacle race. I checked. So, theoretically, he could have performed just as well were he still quirkless.)

He finishes first.

The quirkless, general education student finishes first.

He's already made a name for himself in UA history, and even if he didn't do anything noteworthy for the rest of the festival, he'd still probably be going viral by the end of the day. Such a thing had never happened before.

From the side, All Might watches, and considers.

The cavalry battle goes alright. His team barely passes, like in canon - he doesn't have OFA to use against Todoroki, but this disadvantage is balanced out by a distinct lack of Bakugou.

Afterwards, Todoroki sees no importance in Izuku, so he doesn't tell him his backstory.

---

First up in the tournament, Izuku goes against Shinsou. As his classmate, Izuku is familiar with his quirk, and has come up with a bit of a strategy to fight it.

When the fight starts, Izuku immediately adopts an unsteady stance, looking like he's about to fall over. Like in canon, Shinsou manages to rile him up - but when his quirk takes effect, Izuku loses his balance and falls over, thus breaking out of the quirk.

Having regained his composure, Izuku promptly beats Shinsou afterwards.

Meanwhile, Uraraka's first right is against Monoma (who had passed into the tournament round thanks to no Bakugou). He really riles her up, loudly questioning her motives, but she defends herself.

Strongly.

Uraraka wins in the end.

From the side, All Might watches, and considers some more.

---

Izuku is up against Todoroki next. He knows the only way he could possibly beat him is by being underestimated. If Todoroki does anything like that massive glacier, Izuku just can't do anything.

Thankfully, in their fight, Todoroki doesn't start nearly that strong. Izuku rushes towards Todoroki, barrelling into him. It startles the boy so much he briefly erupts into flame.

It hurts Izuku - it really does - but he knows he needs to keep going forward. He can take the pain.

No more than ten seconds after starting, Izuku's fight with Todoroki ends - with Izuku shoving his opponent out of the ring.

The crowd is stunned. For a couple seconds, nobody has any words. Then they erupt into cheers. (Everybody likes a good underdog story.) No one, in their wildest dreams, had thought Todoroki Shouto, son of Endeavor, would be beaten by someone who isn't a hero student - and doesn't even have a quirk!

Izuku loses the next round to Iida, though, in like 2 seconds. Still, he's happy.

Uraraka ends up winning the festival. Kirishima's hardening is kind of laughably ineffective against Zero Gravity, and in the finals she sent Iida careening into the sky.

(Later that evening, Todoroki has a very unfun time at home. Endeavor is pissed.)

---

The next school day, before class starts, Izuku is asked to go to the principal's office. He does, and he sees there the principal (of course), as well as a very skinny blond man and Uraraka from class 1-A.

He's told he'll be joining the hero course after internships!!! He cries tears of joy.

Then things get wild when the skinny man turns into All Might.

Then things get even wilder when All Might (!!!!) tells him and Uraraka about his quirk.

He tells them he honestly doesn't know which of them to pass the quirk to. He likes them both equally, he says, so he'd like them to choose among themselves which one should get it.

The thing is, both Izuku and Uraraka want the other to get One for All. Uraraka thinks that she'd be a bit greedy to take it, considering she's already got a quirk and Izuku has none. Izuku thinks Uraraka would be able to put it to better use, combining it with her Zero Gravity.

In the end, they decide to leave it up to chance.

All Might picks two hairs off the top of his head, and gives one to each. Whoever gets the quirk will be the one to keep it and be the 9th successor.

---

In a couple hours, Izuku is taking notes when he's startled by crackling green lightning suddenly pulsing over his body. (His classmates are startled as well. Shinsou is jealous.) He heads to the principal's office, so he can discuss things with All Might, but is surprised to see Uraraka there as well.

Apparently she had just had pink lights, similar to his, appear during class.

They both got the quirk?

(Later, after some testing, it's revealed that the quirk split in half. That could be seen as a downside - having half the power and all - but even 50% of that monstrously large stockpile is plenty for most needs.)

---------

Where to go from here? I think it'd probably be an Izuocha fic. Some kind of connection appearing between the two, since they now share the same mystic bullshit quirk, also sounds appealing. (Like reading each other's minds, appearing in each other's dreams, that kind of thing. Some kind of mental connection.)

I'd also like to have Katsuki appear again in some form. I like the idea of Uraraka going to meet Izuku's very very angry, wheelchair-bound 'friend'.

(He'll eventually become a hero, some way or another. Even if he doesn't get to attend a hero school the normal way, he'll manage. Eventually. That's just who he is.)

[mittensmorgul]

Mittens, I know that some people are rejoicing over Castiel's vision in 12x19, but personally, I started crying when I realized that Cas gave up so much for love and faith in his family, and got teased with that vision of the future - a paradise he wanted for them, for himself - but never approximated that in the end. It's just so heartbreaking and I feel like I'm mourning him all over again and it just really sucks. Idk.

Hi hi!

The vision also hurts my heart, deeply, but maybe for slightly different reasons...

I have been suffering throughout the last few seasons over Cas's overall arc, and this vision, in that moment in 12.19, when Cas was literally (in text! from Dean's mouth!) desperate for a win, is just excruciating to me. And I'll tell you why.

in the mixtape scene, this was Cas's lament to Dean. He wanted to come back with a win FOR DEAN, and FOR HIMSELF. He wanted Dean to think of him as the "hero" or the "savior."

I will pause to ask here: since when has Dean ever wanted that? Ever since Cas gripped him tight and saved him from Hell, Cas has struggled to step out from that role of Protector. Shield.

This was the Big Mistake he made in s6, right? Everything that went wrong was framed around the fact that he was trying to "protect" Dean. This is why he bought into Crowley's plan, why he left Dean in the dark even after he got dragged back into the fight, and why everything ultimately ended with Cas's literal death. Like... the narrative judged him. In 6.20, all he was left with was Dean's disappointment, and a drive to prove that he was actually right (he was not actually right...).

Even in 12.19, he was "playing them" all along. He came back under the pretense of wanting to "rejoin the team" and work together with Sam and Dean again, but really he was only there to steal the Colt on behalf of Heaven. Cas was prepared to do whatever it took to keep Sam and Dean safe from Dagon, but also "safe" from having to kill an innocent woman to prevent the birth of the nephilim she carried.

Like in s6, Cas was desperate for that win. He was desperate to "earn" his place with the Winchesters, the family he chose. He even told Kelvin before they went in to confront Dagon that he wasn't doing this to redeem his "reputation" in Heaven, he only cared about "redeeming his reputation" with DEAN.

He has no idea that Dean does not give one flying fig about Cas's ability to "protect him," he just wants Cas to Be There With Him.

And later on, this is literally the lesson Cas attempts to impart to Jack. When Jack laments the loss of his power, and believes himself "useless," It's CAS who most effectively talks to him about the fact that nobody cares about his powers, that they don't care about what he can do FOR them. They just care about HIM. Like... even in 15.18. This is the conversation he has with Jack by the Impala while Sam and Dean are talking to Charlie:

Jack: I feel... strange. I don't know if that's because of what happened to me, if it means something, or if I just feel strange because... it's over. The plan. My destiny. I was ready to die and, I wanted to, for Sam, for Dean, for the world. I wanted to make things right, and now... I don't know why I'm even here.

Castiel: Jack. You never needed absolution from Sam, or Dean, or from me. We don't care about you because you're useful or you fit into some grand design. We care about you because you're you.

So like... for YEARS I've felt like this was what Dean needed to actually say TO CAS. That he doesn't want Cas to try to protect him. He doesn't need Cas to be his shield. He doesn't need Cas to be "powerful" or his savior. He just needs Cas.

So this vision... this "manipulation" that Jack showed Cas in that very moment in 12.19, that Cas believed was "paradise" at the time, was what Cas needed to hear in that moment. That he could be "powerful," with his wings healed and made "useful" again.

Dean thanking him.

Not Dean being happy that they're all safe, that they managed to finally "get a win," but specifically thanking HIM for actually winning.

He wanted to believe he could be useful again.

And to me that was a tragic, depressing lesson that he still never managed to understand for himself by the end of the series.

If Dean ever knew what the vision Cas had considered "paradise" in that moment of betrayal of his loved ones, I personally think Dean would've been horrified. I mean, he didn't even KNOW what the vision entailed, and was pre-horrified by his personal belief about how Cas had been manipulated into running away and leaving them all in the dark immediately after they'd all just gotten back on the same page again and recommitted to working together again.

So like... This is still DEEPLY in Cas's disturbing mindset of being 100% ready to sacrifice himself to "spare" Sam and especially Dean from having to do the hard things. This was nearly an identical mindset to when he'd said yes to Lucifer in the Cage in s11 because he believed he could spare Sam from having to do that himself. Like... he truly believed he was making Good Choices in these instances, and it ended up both times causing problems he'd never even considered. S11 had Lucifer using him and nearly killing Sam and Dean, and then going on a rampage that would last multiple seasons more which directly led to Jack in the first place. And then in the attempt to bring about Jack's birth, Cas cut off all communication with the Winchesters (theoretically to protect them) and therefore they had no way to warn him that Lucifer was still on the loose and closing in on reclaiming Jack himself. It literally ended up costing them Mary (pulled through the rift with Lucifer), Crowley sacrificed himself to stop it, and Lucifer killed Cas, all because Cas ran away and tried to fix everything on his own. He desperately wanted to be the winner, here.

So to me, I can't see him getting his wings back and being truly powerful and being "Dean's savior" and him basically thinking that Dean's acknowledgement of that salvation and Dean's gratitude was his idea of "paradise?" Yeah... it turns my stomach.

Dean... would hate it.

Dean's idea of paradise... is actual free will. Of them CHOOSING EACH OTHER, choosing family and standing shoulder to shoulder as a united front against the threats that come their way, instead of yet again making the same mistake of believing that they're sacrificing themselves to spare their loved ones from having to stand up and fight at all.

It NEVER works out that way. Never has. Never would.

I mean, this is why Cas made the deal with the Empty, trading away his own happiness for Jack, believing that Dean's happiness was in having JACK in the family. The tragic blind spot was his inability to see that Dean's happiness ALSO INVOLVED HAVING CAS THERE.

And the ultimate tragedy is that Dean never got a chance to actually say that to Cas.

Because if Cas had actually known that, he would never have made the choices he did.

Which is another reason I absolutely can't credit the end of 15.19 and Jack NOT bringing Cas back, knowing that he'd done it once before, and knowing WHY Cas sacrificed himself. Jack knew the conditions of Cas's deal, and I cannot believe that any version of JACK would have allowed that sacrifice to stand for HIM. Because it was the antithesis of everything Cas himself had ever taught to Jack.

Heck... I hope that makes sense...

basically, this should've been a jumping off point for Cas to ACTUALLY understand he was just as wanted, just as needed, just as cared for, and yes even LOVED, for who he was, and not the sacrifices he could make to protect Dean (and Sam, and Jack... but ultimately for Dean).

The fact he KNEW the moment he made that deal with the Empty that the knowledge of the details of that deal would be a "burden" to Dean, that it would be upsetting to Dean to know that Cas had literally traded away his own potential for true happiness because he thought that would be what Dean would prefer... he KNEW Dean would be upset about that. He knew Dean would NOT have wanted that, and swore Jack to secrecy about it. Like... he knew he had done the wrong thing here, or he wouldn't have hidden it from Dean.

So I have a really hard time thinking of this vision of Paradise (which is already a loaded word in itself in canon, and was literally what Dean spat out as an angry insult at Cas in 4.22 before his first true "tearing up the pages" and making it up as they go moment) as anything but a glaring warning sign.

And then oh look, Cas was literally killed for it four episodes later.

Then when he came back, he went right back to believing in his "purpose," wondering WHY he was brought back. Dean's "we needed you" wasn't really clear enough for Cas to understand that they didn't need him to "protect" them or to be "useful" to them. Dean just NEEDED him. Full stop.

It's a tragedy, folks.

[gae-ta]

again, i know tumblr isn’t the most ideal of places to post fanfiction but... eh. whatever. who cares. it’s late and putting it up AO3 means i’ll stay up even later

here’s a loose continuation of the piece i swore wouldn’t get a continuation

((warnings: no spoilers for the game, actually only vaguely related to canon, no lemon, generally very mild stuff all things considered, minors plz dni (read if you must but nothing else) and don’t think for one second Peter’s actions are okay. The guy is a creep and a stalker. and that is bad. stalking is bad. only bad people do stalking.))

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Finding out where she lived had been almost laughably easy for Peter, it was just a simple matter of keeping track on her in the midday crowd all while using the very same detestable crowd of people as camouflage. Although, with her habit of constantly looking over her shoulder Peter there had been a couple of close calls… but in the end they’d both reached their destination with only one of them being the wiser.

Though past that things had turned substantially harder.

Her apartment had been located on the second floor and even for someone as determined as Peter.. he couldn’t exactly scale a ten foot wall brick wall.

The tree right next to her bedroom window however was of another matter entirely, and its placement was so convenient that it was almost enough to turn a person religious. Just about the same height and close enough that one could, theoretically, sit on one of the sturdier branches and press their face against the window.

But once there Peter, under the protective sheet of nightfall, he had faced yet another hurdle to get across, this time in the form of not just one, or two, but three locks which could only be accessed from the inside. Oh, he had ground his teeth hard enough to hurt at this, but after a moment of quiet rage he’d realized that it was fine.. perfect in fact. It was a test, a challenge, something that would give him the chance to prove his dedication and worthiness, and then to boot it served as a protective barrier as well.

The world was chock full of creeps after all, filthy perverts who wouldn’t think twice before taking advantage if given the chance. That she was so well aware of that and taking such extreme measures to protect herself was reassuring, heartbreaking yes, but reassuring nonetheless. It meant she was no air head.

Still.. it didn’t seem enough to make her feel entirely safe, if the restless fidgeting of her sleeping form had been anything to go by. The feeble motions had made Peter’s heart ache in ways he had never felt before and he had pushed his face and hands flat against the window pane. His dearest little sunspot was having a nightmare, and despite being so close he could do nothing but to watch her suffer. The pain was like the pinprick of a needle- no, more like a stray glass shard embedded deep within his flesh, and with one fist clenched against his chest he had momentarily contemplated smashing the damn window which separated the two of them.

He wouldn’t though.

It was tempting but he wouldn’t.

Even though he wished for nothing more than to just wrap his arms around her and whisper sweet nothings until those bad dreams went away... he knew it wouldn’t work. The sound of smashing glass, waking up to find an unknown man in her bedroom.. no, that would not be the way to approach her. Peter didn’t want to scare her, that was the exact opposite of what he wanted. While he couldn’t deny how much easier it would be to just.. snatch her and drive off, that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He wanted to give their love a chance to blossom naturally, to make her want to stay on her own.

To make her want him the same way he wanted her.

The thought of it made Peter swallow dryly, for that to happen he would really have to be both patient, attentive and careful. He would have to spend some time merely observing her, figuring out her habits and her likes and dislikes. While he did feel like had a basic grasp of her person, quiet, meek and demure he of all people knew that appearances are far from everything. Once she felt safe (in his arms) she’d be sure to blossom into a very different person, one he couldn’t wait to get to know better.

The thought of that made his mouth water.

It would beyond a doubt be a side of her which nobody else had seen before, and once she truly was his then he would make sure that nobody else ever would. Except he himself of course, as her boyfriend he was bound to have a certain set of privileges after all.

Her boyfriend... the idea alone had made him shiver in delight. It felt so natural, so right.

‘There, there darling... your boyfriend is here.’ He had murmured, not loud enough for her to hear, of course, but even so it seemed that she sensed it. Her movements had stilled and her slumber seemed to have turned more peaceful. It had made Peter’s heart swell with joy. Despite never speaking the connection was there, she could feel it, just as surely as he could feel her.

She knew that he was there and that he would stop at nothing to keep her safe.

It was magic. It was natural. Soul bound, destiny and choice mingled together in perfect harmony. Just as indisputable as a mathematical equation. She was his. He was hers. Two parts of a whole. That was the only explanation. All of his life walking around feeling bitter and hollow but now.. things would be different, everything would be different.

He had wondered, was that how she had felt as well? Empty and devoid of meaning? Like life was nothing but a pain to endure? The thought aroused an odd feeling in him, partly sad at the idea of her going through the same pains he had suffered, yet he was also oddly delighted. If she was suffering the he could, no, would be the one who would relieve her of that pain. Yes, yes that was it, this was how it was meant to be, he would bring her the same comfort and joy as which she had given him, and once they were together she would never want to leave. After all, why would she? Once in his care she would want for nothing, good food, company and entertainment and pleasure, all those things he would give to her and more.

All she would have to do was to accept it.

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wow. this dude is a creep ain’t he

poor y/n, could’ve been isekaied into a farming sim but noooo.. it had to be a visual horror novel 

no wonder girl has three locks on her window

[goron-king-darunia]

I was asked to weigh in by @annon-guy2 on both my top pick and on the other titles, so I figured I would just recap and weigh in here for convenience. My choice in the poll was Princess Mononoke, mostly because it's my favorite Ghibli film. When asked to articulate more about what that would entail as a game, this is what I came up with (includes some edits and clarifying language I made just now):

"[A c]ombination Zelda Style adventure puzzle game and stealth game. You lose points for fatalities. Theoretically you could just go all-out and murder everything but you get the bad ending where the Forest God permanently dies (and doesn't just [become] nature) and the world ends. The main objective is to tire your opponent out or outsmart and pin them without killing them. This enables more cutscenes, more rewards, more information,etc. [It would largely follow] the main plot beats of the movie, but with extra stuff. Depending on where the player focuses their attention and what objectives they complete (or [what order they complete these objectives in]) decides which ending (other than the bad ending) that the player can get. For example, if the player focuses on trying to cure Ashitaka, you would get an ending where he's completely healed but San dies [or some other trade off where neglected parts of the story are left unresolved.] Choices affect whether Iron Town survives or not, etc. Theoretically if you played the correct/intended way, focusing on preserving as many lives as possible and stopping the war between nature and industry, you would get the canon ending to the movie.

[But h]onestly I think Princess Mononoke works best as a movie and the closest we would get to a game "set in the Universe of Princess Mononoke" would be, like, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. [Which already exist, so I'm not sure what novelty could be added that wouldn't just be aping the existing games.] So as much as I would like a game like that, I can see how a very valid reason to not make the Princess Mononoke game would be "the movie already says everything it wants to say perfectly and an interactive element doesn't really add much to the experience." As for the other potential games, in order of their listing above: Castle in the Sky: I think it would work best as a linear, narrative, adventure style game following the main story. Games currently are on a whole "expansive, open-world" kick, and I do enjoy that. I like sandboxes and running around collecting junk. But there's something about older games that, as a product of limited data available on cartridges, sort of railroaded you into doing things in order. There was a bit of flexibility. Collect-a-thons like Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie had enough flexibility that you could beat the game by skipping entire levels completely. But a lot of games from that era had a pretty strict sequence that you had to go through to progress. Lots of stuff was locked behind getting certain upgrades. And there was something kind of nice about having the experience already planned out. I'm still not done with TotK even though I very clearly could be after over 200 hours in game, but I can complete all of Banjo-Kazooie in 2 days if I wanted to. Something like that for Castle in the Sky would work well.

It would follow the main story, of course, but you wouldn't be able to alter anything like the idea for Princess Mononoke. Gameplay would largely consist of exploring discrete levels, talking to relevant NPCs, and completing quests. Combat would be limited and would be based around avoiding injury and solving the problem with puzzles.

Nausicaa: Combination crafting/survival game and farming sim. You can befriend and tame Ohmu and Fox-squirrels. Loosely related to the plot but largely one of those "set in the world of" games. Nausicaa would be the ideal protagonist if we stick with the main plot, but honestly you could run it like Ark: Survival Evolved with single player and online multiplayer and have the player character be a customizable OC. I just think it would be really neat to run around and explore all the toxic forests and scavenge Ohmu shed exoskeletons like whalefalls.

Secret World of Arietty: Classic Collect-a-thon, maybe with hints of Pikmin and Chibi-Robo. I think part of the problem with basing the games off the movies is that people would want to see the main cast in them. I could definitely see this as one of those "in the world of" games, where your experience as the player runs parallel to the main events of the story but all the stuff we see in the movie happens off screen and we only intersect with it briefly. While the game could center around Arietty and her family, that sort of a game would be collect-a-thon heavy, I think. Each room of the house would be like a different level and you'd have to gather certain items from it. You could unlock different tools to traverse the environment with, too, like the earring climbing gear. But I can definitely see centering around a group of different Borrowers who have just moved into a new house, and they have to build up their own little home with the stuff you're able to "borrow" from the humans. Pikmin-esque elements could include delegating gathering tasks to certain Borrowers and the Chibi-Robo elements could involve a similar story to what we see in the movie, with the Borrowers slowly befriending the humans of the house.

Spirited Away: This is a hard one, not going to lie. The movie is so entrenched in the cultural consciousness as its own, complete thing that I'm not sure what the game would look like, other than just "it's literally just the events of the movie but with worse pacing to allow for player input, minigames, and quicktime events. Theoretically you could do one that's "in the world of" Spirited Away. But I think that game experience would just end up being "the movie, but boring and worse. The most satisfying gameplay option I can think of is honestly just Chibi-Robo/Viscera Cleanup Detail/Powerwash simulator where they build out detailed 3D environments from the movie and you get to go through and pick up trash and clean up.

Porco Rosso: Flight sim. Arcade style flight sim/shooter. Easy peasy. Innovative? No. Ground-breaking? No. But would it have classic, simple, gameplay with cute Ghibli paint? Yes. Yes it would.

My Neighbor Totoro: Linear Exploration with minigame elements. I don't know what it says about me that this is my first thought, but I'm literally thinking something like Tigger's Hunny Hunt for the Nintendo 64, only instead of a side scrolling platformer, it's 3D. And it has minigames. Like growing the giant tree could be a rhythm game. Catbus could be a Subway Surfer style runner minigame, etc. Howl's Moving Castle: This one's also tricky. "Set in the World of" might work better, since they could work off the themes of the book instead of just Howl and Sophie's story. A world where fairy-tale rules apply but the characters are aware of it. Action adventure game with linear progression of a hero that doesn't want to be the hero and a damsel in distress who just wants to be allowed to solve her own problems without the narrative punishing her for not waiting for her "prince charming." It still has the trappings and styling of the Ghibli film, of course, but the story wouldn't be about Howl and Sophie. But of course that runs into the issue of "Is it really Howl's Moving Castle if Howl and Sophie aren't in it?" But, like with Spirited Away, the narrative is kind of so focused and jam packed with slow, emotional scenes with the characters that, other than a visual novel, there's not much you can do to gamify the movie. And a visual novel is, in this case, "just the movie but boring and worse." Ponyo: Honestly my first thought was that old, tedious "Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries" game. And as fitting as that would be, NO THANK YOU, DEAR GOD. 100 levels of literally the exact same thing, eugh. I remember being so mad that the only "reward" you got for beating all those long boring levels was a crappy cutscene that would have been fun after level 20 but felt like a slap in the face after 100 goddamn levels. And then my immediate thought after that was a "Who's Your Daddy?" style gameplay where one person plays as Ponyo and the other plays as Fujimoto, and Ponyo's goal is to grab Sosuke and RUN and it's Fujimoto's objective to basically kidnap her back to the sea because he's not letting his daughter have any fun. By which I mean he's not letting a supernatural force of nature with the mind of a child destroy the entire world on accident. XD But Honestly? Windwaker style gameplay that exists IN THE IMAGINATION of Sosuke and Ponyo, post-movie. You can do literally anything. Because it's two kids playing pretend with each other so whatever happens in the game can be as zany and silly as you want, because it's literally being made up by kids. The treasure chest on the Island of Laundry is full of ham? Of course it is. Ponyo would think of that. The evil giant kraken's main mission in life is to ruin your fun by enforcing bed time? Of course it is. That's how moms are sometimes.

Kiki's Delivery Service: Take "Death Stranding" but make it cute and soft and pastel. That's it. You did it. Maybe add in some cooking minigames you can use to get buffs. But literally just... deliver packages. Maybe some slight Animal Crossing vibes where you slowly befriend the villagers that you deliver to and learn more about them and help them with their problems.

Anyway, that's it! Those are my ideas. Obviously there's nothing new under the sun so a lot of this is literally just "take an existing game but reskin it to be Ghibli." But that's part of why I'm not in game design. I am not an innovator or an inventor. Literally my favorite thing to do is to take existing things and tweak them and mash them together. That's why I write fanfiction. But Disney built their brand on that and it's literally a human tradition to go "I like this thing. What if I did the same thing but in pink? And 2 inches to the left. Perfect." So yes. Prokopetz I am not, sadly. I will never be behind the newest Nintendo Patent for a new game mechanic or what-have-you. But thank god for that, honestly. I am here doing the word version of playing with Lego. I know how the pieces work. I know the tropes and the words and the genres. I just mash the fun things together and see what sticks. So thank you for thinking of me and what my rock-tumbler of a brain might spit out. If you find any shiny rocks in the pile of my brain dust, good! You can keep them. :) I am by no means the world-class chef thinking up things like asparagus chocolates and making them good somehow. I am just that gremlin in the corner that slaps the right veggies and cheeses in the pot and makes a tasty soup or a banging whitesauce somehow. I am not inventing, but I sure do know how to make existing things in pink and 2 inches to the left.

Studio Ghibli Game Idea Question

From the Page of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind from TVTropes;

"Three video game adaptations of Nausicaä were released for the MSX; two were top-down shooters but where Nausicaä does negotiations with human villages to prevent war and drops stun bombs (NOT regular bombs) on Ohmus as a strict self-defense measure. They were, however, mediocre in their gameplay, and flopped. As a result, not counting Future Boy Conan videogame adaptations, no further games based on Studio Ghibli works were produced (not that it kept the studio from doing the art direction for other games, like Jade Cocoon for the PS1, among others). A very common Urban Legend has it that those games greatly offended Miyazaki, based on the wrong assumption that the games openly subverted the message of his film. Interviews following Ni no Kuni's release, and an actual look on those rare games by Hardcore Gaming 101, debunked these rumors, with Studio Ghibli even being open to a Castle in the Sky adaptation."

Note: I also included what these could be Rated from E (Everyone), E10 (Everyone 10 and Up), T (Teen) or M (Mature). Feel free to explain which movie could be made into what genre of game (open world, platformer, adventure, etc.) in the reblog or comments section below.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

I have a head cannon that when technoblade becomes friends with someone he braids their hair he's so far done it to Tommy philza and ranboo but only philza knows why

This is such a good prompt thanks! I went a little overboard and added a lot of my own hc's, hope that’s okay! Quick note I’m not past exile yet so my apologies if bedrock bros and just Ranboo in general are slightly inaccurate

When Philza met Techno, Techno was only a child, barely even able to talk, sitting dead-eyed in the ruins of a piglin village, hiding under the rubble in the hopes he wouldn’t be spotted. Philza, of course, being Philza, basically immediately adopts him.

Philza tried his best, he really did, but this was in the middle of a war, and Philza didn’t really know that child soldiers aren’t the best thing (he never quite learnt that, honestly). Techno learnt to fight before he learnt to read.

When Techno was young, he always had his hair cut short and out of his face, but he really liked the small side braid that Philza always wore in his hair. He had started to grow it out a bit, but not long enough to braid, by the time he became the vessel of the Blood God.

Short side note, he and Philza were fighting against a cult, and they’d managed to capture Techno and brand the sigil of the God into his flesh allowing the Blood God to make Techno his champion. Needless to say, the cult was near immediately completely wiped out after this process was complete, but also Technoblade wasn’t exactly super thrilled with all this.

Along with the more obvious changes- glowing, blood-red eyes, growing to almost nine feet tall, an insatiable desire for a good fight, and the constant voices ringing in his head, the growth of his hair was barely noticeable. Sure, it touched the floor and regrew rapidly when cut, but it seemed to mystically never get in his way during combat.

During combat being the operative sentence. Even if it isn’t life threatening, constantly tripping over your own hair when you’re still trying to get used to being a good two feet taller than usual and the voices in your head constantly mocking you for it.

This is when Techno gets the idea to braid it, like Philza does! The issue is, he doesn’t know how to braid hair, and he’s been so terrified of accidentally hurting Philza with all of his changes that he’s been avoiding him best he can, so his attempts fail horribly.

Meanwhile, Philza's very concerned that Techno's started avoiding him. He’s actually really frightened that Techno hates him now, since as the champion of the Blood God, with the voices of it’s angels in his head now, he might well view all other gods as enemies, and Philza, as not only the most esteemed angel but the husband of the goddess Kristin, would be included in that.

Still, he was very concerned about how Techno was avoiding him, and eventually came into Techno's room to have a talk with him, and he walked in on one of Techno's honestly awful attempts at braiding his own hair.

Philza offers to help braid Techno's hair, and during this they have a long, long conversation about both of their worries. Techno reassures Philza that he doesn’t hate him (or Kristin, for that matter), and Philza reassures Techno that he’s not going to lose control. The voices decide that Philza is pretty pog, actually, and chill out a bit. Overall, it’s just a massive relief for everyone.

After this, Philza starts teaching Techno how to braid his hair. It’s a slow process- especially since braiding nine feet of hair is an ordeal- but it’s one of the few moments of peace in the Angel of Death and the champion of the Blood God's life. Once Techno learnt how to braid hair, he started braiding Philza's too. The two of them knew what it meant. I trust you, unconditionally, and without fail.

Hundreds of thousands of years pass. Nations rise and fall, legends are made, but Philza and Techno stick by each other’s side throughout it all. They maintain the tradition of braiding each other’s hair. Techno does not do it with anyone else, but Philza does it with whatever random of assortment of children is under his wing at the specific time. Techno can’t quite understand the mans attachment to whatever orphan he finds on the street. Even the ones who don’t die in the battlefield die too soon, and he can’t understand how you could let yourself go through the heartbreak of seeing their inevitable demise.

He doesn’t expect the latest batch to be any different. Sure, one's Philza's biological kid, so he’d theoretically be able to survive indefinitely, but he’s a creative type who’s so inept with a sword Techno's certain he’ll perish the second a war comes around. One's a failed clone of Philza, but the hybrid and human DNA he was given to stabilise him made him a mess of instincts with atrophied wings and constant sickness. And while the shine in the ram-boys eyes shine with an energy that's definitely a sign of some relation to the older species, everything else about him suggests a regular child who’ll pass and die in maybe a hundred years tops.

Still, when he receives a letter from Wilbur about a rebellion, Techno was excited to go. More for the fun of combat and of course overthrowing a tyrant, but he can’t help but feel proud of the boy he remembered once trying to pick up a sword blade-end becoming a capable general.

He honestly developed a respect for Tommy and Tubbo during Pogtopia. They were so young, and already capable warriors. He felt they were naive, with their talk about restarting a government, but held hope in them that they’d realise that anarchy would be preferable.

Still, they drifted apart, in no short part due to being pressured into canonically killing Tubbo and non-canonically killing Tommy. Techno would never admit it, but the anger in Tommy's eyes and the fear in Tubbo's whenever he was around stung a bit.

His few interactions with Tommy after the sixteenth lead him to believe that the boy didn’t want anything else to do with him, so he was surprised to find the boy shivering under his house, bruised and eerily quiet in comparison to the Tommy he was used to who would never stop talking.

The Blood God may be more traditionally thought of as a god of combat, of killing and of blood shed by violence, but that’s only scratching the surface of the Blood God's dominion. It is also a god of anarchy, of freedom, of vengeance, and of protecting those who cannot protect themselves. And as a champion of the Blood God, Techno would have hesitated throwing out even someone he despised in those circumstances, but Tommy? There was no way he wouldn’t have helped him, despite how much he grumbled and groaned (that, at least, was easier than admitting attachment).

Techno tries, he really does. But he mistakes bruises and scars caused by cruel hands to the ones a younger Tommy came home with on accident due to his frailness, the possessiveness of the man who hurt him as he came in search as him as overbearing concern instead of obsession. He chalks up confused feelings to some awful accident, unwilling to pry in the clearly distressed child's business (and while he doesn’t want to admit it, he doesn’t want to think that Dream, his friendly rival for thousands of years, might be truly a monster.)

The first time Techno offered to braid Tommy's hair, he didn’t even realise what he offered until he’d already said it. Tommy was just sat, shivering, despite being curled up in one of Techno's cloaks in front of the fire, and Techno'd noticed how Tommy's long hair always got in his face, and he kept raising a shaking hand to push too long hair out of his face, and Techno couldn't help but be reminded of himself long ago, scared to leave his room and dealing with hair far too long for for himself.

That’s not to say he had any regrets, though.

Techno braided Tommy's hair every day after that. Honestly, on the days where he wasn’t shaking bad enough that he couldn’t braid his own hair it sort of annoyed Tommy- he felt a bit like he was being pitied, and that’s something he absolutely can’t fucking stand, but Techno's pity was far, far preferable to being back with Dream, watching the light slowly drain from his eyes in the reflection in the water every day, so he stayed quiet.

After Tommy's betrayal, Techno felt hurt- far, far more hurt than he’d ever found himself before. He’d given the boy his unconditional trust- showed it to him, every day, and Tommy couldn’t even show enough trust to stay by him.

The first time he saw Tommy after, still wearing a braid in his hair, a mockery of friendship, he punched through the walls in his home afterwards. Anger hurt less than sorrow, so he stewed in it, refusing to admit he still cared about the boy at all.

As such, it took him a long time to even braid his own hair, let alone anyone else’s. It was something that was safe, and now just reminded him of a boy who used his kindness and left it unrepaid.

The first person he started braiding the hair of again was Philza, not long after this. It was Philza, and Techno doubted he could lose trust in the man, even if he flat out stabbed him in the back quite literally. Philza was much closer to a friend than a father, but he was still the closest thing to family Techno had ever known.

Eventually though, somehow another boy managed to sneak past his defence. Ranboo was awkwardly tall and quiet with a crown and inexplicably good fighting skills, and Techno couldn’t help but like the boy who reminded him so much of himself. He supposes this is probably the closest he'll ever get to understanding Philza and his children.

Still, it takes a while for him to feel safe and comfortable braiding Ranboo's hair for him- as far as he was aware, Ranboo almost never had it loose out of the braid it was already in, anyway. The last time he trusted someone who reminded him of himself, it only hurt.

Eventually, though, Technoblade came around. Ranboo had just come out of one of his weird sleepwalking states, hair a mess and very distressed. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if the kid had enough memory to know who he was, but he relaxed as Techno braided his hair and talked about nothing in particular.

Now, as Technoblade's founded the Syndicate, he's grown a little more comfortable showing affection to others, especially Philza and Ranboo. Niki's a little new, but Techno knows that someday soon he'll trust her enough to braid through her hair, and put his trust in her completely.

[xiyao-feels]

Part Two: Claims about NMJ and NHS

Intro - Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

NMJ

1) NMJ wished to protect NHS from cultivating with the sabre as a youth.

I don't think he tells us this in quite so many words, but it seems implied by the flashback scenes: his giving NHS the paintbrush, the bit where he takes 修刀 and gives NHS 修心, and course him literally telling NHS that whatever NHS wishes to do, he'd support it.

As far as I can tell there's no evidence of this. Now, to be fair, we don't see them as children in MDZS, but there is not as far as I can tell any sign that NMJ has ever done anything but strongly desire that NHS work on the sabre. Indeed, even at Hejian during Sunshot, the reason he overhears MY and LXC's conversation is because he is bringing NHS' sabre to LXC so that NHS will not be able to escape practicing with it. He certainly does not renew any kind of commitment to allowing NHS to do what he wills before his death. In CQL, we see rather less, but as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be anything that contradicts MDZS on this front.

2) In his heart, NMJ carried significant doubts about the righteousness of Nie cultivation practices, including both the sabre-curse-inducing sabre cultivation and the practice of balancing the sabre spirits via corpses in the wall

This is quite central to the movie. It's arguably implicit in his desire to protect NHS from cultivating with the sabre, but beyond that, he is clearly extremely uncomfortable at NHS' moral challenge of Nie practices and believes at least partially that NHS has a point; moreover, it's implicit in his confessions to NHS in the tomb:

The Nie family's ancestors created this family foundation with great hardships. Unexpectedly, it was cursed by the sword spirit. I practiced swordsmanship hard and thought I could find a way to solve it, but I just followed the same old disastrous road of the ancestors.

And of course, his moral arc in the movie is about embracing those doubts and rejecting Nie tradition.

There is as far as I can tell no evidence of this in MDZS or CQL; in fact we don't learn anything about the Nie burial traditions in scenes where NMJ is still alive, and he never shows any doubt about the wisdom of sabre cultivation.

3) NMJ used to be "intelligent and wise"; it's due to the effects of the sabre curse that he is "moody and brutal".

We're explicitly told this by NHS at around 32:50: "Da-ge, look at you now, you have changed. When you were young, you were always wise and intelligent. Ever since you practiced swordsmanship, you've become moody and brutal." It's also backed up by the childhood flashbacks. The sharp distinction between NMJ and sabre-curse-affected-NMJ, shown by the way sabre-curse-affected NMJ is visually marked out, also helps suggest this.

Now, in MDZS and CQL, this…is complicated. Again, in MDZS, we don't see him as a child—the earliest we see him is still well past the time he began practicing sabre cultivation. And in ch 26 NHS does indeed suggest that sabre cultivation causes increasing irritability; it certainly seems plausible, indeed almost necessary, that he had less of a temper before he started practicing, and for that matter we see his anger grow worse as time goes on.

Nevertheless, we never actually see any trace of a calm-tempered NMJ in the text. Even by the beginning of Sunshot, his reputation as an angry man is firmly established. Consider the Nie men's reaction to his anger at their shit-talking MY, in the cave:

The entire cave was in a muddle. Everyone knew ChiFeng-Zun’s personality—the more one tried to explain, the angrier he was. Seeing that they probably couldn’t escape punishment and would have to tell the truth, nobody dared to speak a word.

Even his friend LXC says to MY, “MingJue-xiong has quite a fiery personality. It must have been truly difficult for you to have earned his approval.”

And NHS, who very much loves his brother even as he is also to some extent frightened of him, is never shown pining for the halcyon days of yore. Narratively speaking, sabre-affected NMJ is the only NMJ we know. I think…this is something a Nie brothers spinoff could theoretically do something interesting with, but the way it's presented in their relationship is all wrong.

In CQL, the evidence is much the same or just not shown. NMJ generally seems less angry (though even so, we see him be angry at the Nie men for mocking MY (in subjective CQL-Empathy, but still), at WWX for saying maybe let's not kill XY immediately, at JGY for having killed the Nie cultivators, etc.), and if anything his relationship with NHS seems better than it is in the novel, although this too is well after he's begun to practice sabre cultivation.

4) NMJ respects NHS' interests

When picking NHS to lead the other team in the tombs, NMJ tells us that NHS knows most about astronomy in the Nie, and NMJ clearly considers this valuable.

If NHS did actually have significant knowledge of cultivation, NMJ would probably respect that. However, this is what NMJ has to say about the interests NHS canonically has (ch 49):

Nie HuaiSang was absolutely delighted. He greeted Jin GuangYao again and again as he grabbed the fans in haste. Seeing how his younger brother reacted, Nie MingJue was so outraged that he almost found it amusing. He turned to Jin GuangYao, “Don’t send him those useless things!”

In a hurry, Nie HuaiSang dropped a few fans on the ground. Jin GuangYao picked them up for him and put them into his arms, “HuaiSang’s hobbies are quite elegant. He’s dedicated to art and calligraphy, and has no propensity for mischief. How can you say that they’re useless?”

Nie HuaiSang nodded as fast as he could, “Yes, Brother is right!”

Nie MingJue, “But sect leaders have no need for such things.”

In CQL, I believe we just don't see enough to say, although given that again, NHS' isn't actually studying cultivation, it seems likely NMJ' attitudes are much the same.

NHS

1) NHS is profoundly morally motivated

NHS is immediately and hugely upset with the practice of using corpses in the walls, explicitly on moral grounds, even though it was the practice of their ancestors, and even once he finds out that they're not (usually) Nie men, but evildoers.

Having been told by NZH that the blades need the corpses to suppress their aggressiveness: "But isn't that just sacrificing people?" "Zonghui, the Nie family have always been righteous. If we give sacrifice to it with life, we will become evil."

And then, to NMJ: "Wait. Let me ask you. Why is here called the Sword Sacrifice Hall? What is to balance sword spirit? I didn't understand before coming what exactly Sword Sacrifice Hall represents. I know it now. This is not balance but sacrificing flesh and blood!"

NZH: Second Young Master, you misunderstood it. Those corpses belong to evil men. The Nie family's ancestors had uses their bodies to balance the sword spirit. We also follow the ancestral instructions."

NHS: (to NZH) Evil men? (to NMJ) Aren't they human beings? Are you qualified for deciding their fate?

NMJ: The sword spirit is extremely dangerous. Generations of the Nie family all balanced the spirit in this way.

NHS: Even if they were wrong, you also follow their way?

In MDZS…I went over the chapters where he shows up, and I'm not actually sure we ever see him express a moral sentiment? I could be missing something, but it doesn't seem to be any kind of fundamental part of his character.

This is his reaction to WWX's first suggestion of demonic cultivation, when they're studying at CR (ch 14):

After thinking for a few moments, an expression of envy and yearning appeared on Nie HuaiSang’s face, “To be honest, Wei-xiong’s words were quite interesting. Spiritual energy can only be obtained through cultivation and taking great pains to form a golden core. It would take I-don’t-know-how-many years to do, especially for someone like me, whose talent seems as if it was gnawed by a dog when I was in my mother’s womb. But, resentful energy are from the fierce ghosts. If they can easily be taken and used, it would be beyond wonderful.”

And—granted this is several years down the line and NHS is keeping up his cover, but when NHS is explaining the sabre tomb to LWJ and WWX in chapter 26, he doesn't seem to have any problem with the practice. In fact, he tells us that he participated in choosing corpses for NMJ's sabre:

Nie HuaiSang was already shocked speechless. Wei WuXian inquired, “Who chooses the corpses that the Nie Sect uses for the Saber Hall?”

Nie HuaiSang replied with a glazed expression, “Usually, the past sect leaders chose and stored them when they were still alive. My brother passed away at an earlier age. He didn’t have enough, so I also helped him choose some… I kept whichever corpses that were complete with all limbs. I don’t know about anything other than this…”

In CQL...mmm. I rewatched all the pre-Sunshot scenes with him in it, and I do think he comes across as, at least, less amoral. We don't have the gee wouldn't demonic cultivation be nice scene, and you could definitely interpret him as being worried about the granny at Dafan, or even the temporary-puppets; he says you have to admire Songxiao's integrity and elegance as they depart; and while we don't see him be part of the initial 'maybe we shouldn't just immediately execute XY squad,' he does go da-ge after NMJ seems irritated at WWX, and after NMJ throws MY out he goes in and is like but why!!!! That said, in both cases where he challenges (and I use the term rather loosely for the da-ge after NMJ is irritated with WWX), he immediately backs down faced with NMJ's opposition. I really don't see any sign of the character who is so morally motivated and so sure of his own correctness he challenges NMJ, /in front of all their men/, and keeps up the challenge despite NMJ's consistent opposition.

2) NHS isn't really interested in JGY's gifts

At no point is he shown delighting over or interested in anything JGY gave him (except of course the flute for treating his brother), and in fact when JGY says that after the journey he will give him gifts he replies "San-ge, I am not afraid of difficult journeys. I'm not craving for toys either." On the contrary, gifts are associated with /NMJ/, who gave him a paintbrush as a child.

In MDZS, we see him explicitly delighted in and interested by JGY's gifts. In ch 49, we see him going over a dozen gold-lined fans, which turn out to be gifts from JGY; when JGY mentions he's going to play a song for NMJ, he expresses interest and mentions "the limited edition" JGY gave him "last time," and then when NMJ shouts at him to go to his room he runs instead "to the living room for the presents that Jin GuangYao had brought him;" when JGY shows up at Qinghe after the stairs incident, NHS "beamed as he got ready to go to Jin GuangYao and see what presents he brought this time." Considering how little time they have together on the page, the gifts show up a great deal.

In CQL, we mostly don't see a lot of NHS and JGY's interactions after JGY's legitimation but before NMJ's death, so it's impossible to directly say. However, he is at least shown to delight in and greatly value beautiful things (see at least the fan flashback in ep 35).

3) NHS is motivated by a desire for his brother's respect and the respect of their men.

This is the argument JGY uses which finally settles NHS on going along on the journey, around 14:30: "Both of you are pillars of the Nie family. You should work together. You can also prove yourself." See also his pleasure with himself at solving the puzzle quickly in the tombs; it's not a purely self-satisfied pleasure, but rather, "It seems I'm not useless" (27:35ish). When NZH replies, "Second Young Master, you are definitely not useless. It's just because everyone has their own will," NHS gives a firm little nod. NMJ's respect for NHS' skills and interests is also made central to their relationship.

In MDZS, NHS really doesn't seem to be motivated by people respecting him. Consider, again, what he says about WWX's idea of demonic cultivation (ch 14):

After thinking for a few moments, an expression of envy and yearning appeared on Nie HuaiSang’s face, “To be honest, Wei-xiong’s words were quite interesting. Spiritual energy can only be obtained through cultivation and taking great pains to form a golden core. It would take I-don’t-know-how-many years to do, especially for someone like me, whose talent seems as if it was gnawed by a dog when I was in my mother’s womb. But, resentful energy are from the fierce ghosts. If they can easily be taken and used, it would be beyond wonderful.”

A golden core was a core formed by cultivators after they had cultivated to a certain point. It can store and control spiritual energy. After the core was formed, the cultivator’s level of cultivation would increase at a rapid speed, and become better and better. Else, they would only be a low-end cultivator. If disciple from a prominent clan forms the core at a later age, it would be a disgrace to tell other people of it, yet Nie HuaiSang didn’t feel ashamed at all. Wei WuXian also laughed, “I know, right? No harm comes from using it.”

Even during Sunshot, he's slacking off, using the excuse of having forgotten his sabre. (ch 48)

And then in ch. 49, after NMJ burns his things:

Nie HuaiSang roared at Nie MingJue, “Saber, saber, saber! Who the fuck wants to practice the damn thing?! So what if I want to be a good-for-nothing?! Whoever that wants to can be the sect leader! I can’t learn it means I can’t learn it and I don’t like it means I don’t like it! What’s the use of forcing me?!”

I'm not necessarily saying he wouldn't enjoy it if NMJ respected him, and certainly it seems a fair read that he would like it if NMJ yelled at him less. But by and large, he just doesn't show any objection to being thought of as useless, even before his Headshaker cover—and there's a reason that cover worked, after all.

In CQL...well, again, he doesn't really show any sign of objecting to being thought useless, as far as I can tell.

4) NHS knows about the sabre curse

JGY explicitly says so at about 13:05: "You know his sickness. He didn't do it on purpose." Moreover, if NHS didn't know, the offer of flute-playing wouldn't really make sense.

In MDZS, NMJ explicitly hasn't told NHS at least as of JGY's visit after the stairs, and there's no indication he told him between then and when he qi-deviated. Indeed, it's JGY who thinks NHS should be told, while NMJ rejects this (ch 50):

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, these days you’ve been stricter and stricter towards HuaiSang. Is it the saber spirit…?”

After a pause, he continued, “Does HuaiSang still not know about the saber spirit?”

Nie MingJue, “Why would I tell him so soon?”

In CQL, we're not told either way; this being the case I tend towards defaulting to MDZS unless I have a specific reason to think otherwise.

5) NHS, though bad at fighting, is skilled in cultivation theory

Again, JGY says so, at around 13:19: "You are good at Daoist magic" (and NHS seems to accept it). Moreover this is continually backed up by the film, with NHS making good use of it in the tomb, and then of course in the last scene having put together the true effect of the corrupted passage.

There is no indication of this in MDZS. He's interested in art and beautiful things, but he struggles with the Lan lectures. When JGY defends NHS' interests, he mentions art and calligraphy, and says his hobbies are elegant; he makes no mention of any kind of cultivation theory. As WWX himself notes, thinking back (ch 21):

In the past, Wei WuXian and Nie HuaiSang studied together, so there were a few things he could comment about this person. Nie HuaiSang wasn’t an unkind person. It wasn’t that he was not clever, but that his heart was set somewhere else and used his smarts on other areas, such as painting on fans, searching for birds, skipping classes, and catching fish. Because his talent in terms of cultivation really was poor, he formed his core around eight or nine years later than the other disciples of the same generation as him. When he lived, Nie MingJue was often exasperated by the fact that his brother didn’t meet his expectations, so he disciplined him strictly. Despite this, he still didn’t improve much.

I'm not saying he couldn't have developed in this direction after NMJ's death, but there doesn't seem to be any indication he was skilled in that way beforehand. Again, there's a reason his cover as "totally useless person" works as a cover.

In CQL, again, we don't really see any evidence of his skill with cultivation. NHS is shown flipping through his book for the answer to the executioner question LQR asks WWX; he doesn't show any evidence of significant cultivation knowledge on the road trip section (although he is shown to have a good memory for things he's actually interested in, and you could argue he has good instincts!); his wish at the lantern festival is that he passes his studies at the Lan. I just don't see it.

Previous | Next

[fl0ating-tree]

Eret & Wilbur - narrative foils

Writing this analysis might be jumping the gun a bit but I just can’t get over how perfectly Wilbur and Eret foil each other. I’ll be talking about how they contrast from L’manberg-era all the way to Wilbur’s death- and I’ll also be touching on theories on how this foil will continue when/if Wilbur gets revived.  (Note: I will be using she/her for Eret throughout the whole analysis for clarities sake. Also, this is all /rp) 

Firstly, there’s the classic discussion of Eret’s betrayal. Eret recently tweeted a few things that put the betrayal in some new light.

[ID: Tweet from Eret’s alt twitter “EretAlt” on February 28. Reads “Eret had hoped that by crushing the L’manberg rebellion, the server would go back to a state of peace. They believed their actions were justified in benefitting the greater good of the server whilst also gaining the kingship. From their perspective, at the time, it was a win-win”. End ID] 

This, in comparison to Wilbur’s classic “freedom or death, we won’t give into your SMP” speech to Dream, is so interesting. To Eret, the only way to secure peace and safety was to give up the rebellion; to Wilbur, the only way was through rebellion. They have completely different outlooks on how to best secure peace for who they care about- the perfect foils.  Neither of them were necessarily right, either. Eret’s outlook caused L’manberg to feel deeply betrayed, ultimately caused an explosion that severely injured L’manberg (no canon deaths- those weren’t a thing yet- but caused destruction of important landmarks like the hto dog van and loss of supplies, and theoretically injured the characters). Eret’s betrayal can also be used as an example to why Wilbur was so paranoid. Wilbur’s outlook prolonged a war, caused bloodshed, had Tommy loose 2 canon lives and his possessions, destroyed his relationship with Fundy, and more. Ultimately, Wilbur’s outlook was the one that secured them peace, but how long did that peace even last? But would Eret’s outlook even have given them a better outcome? 

Eret and Wilbur are both leaders of their countries respectively and while you can argue that Eret isn’t a leader, merely a figure head, I disagree. Eret’s position gave her authority over most of the SMP because other didn’t know Eret was ultimately a figure head for Dream- the server, asides from Dream and maybe the Dream Team, acknowledged Eret’s authority and saw her as the leader. Where they foil each other is in their control. Wilbur was power-hungry and wanted too much control, so he planned a rigged election that ultimately cost him the country. Eret didn’t exert enough power, letting Dream control her from the sidelines and causing her kingship to falter around the Manberg vs. Pogtopia war. Eret even points this out in another tweet.

[ID: Tweet from Eret’s alt twitter “EretAlt” on February 28. Reads “ - Wilbur’s character is a role-model for Eret as someone able to rally a group of people behind a cause and give people a sense of hope. These are things Eret feels they’ve failed to do themself which is why they wanted to bring Wilbur back so badly. They also seek forgiveness.” End ID]

Where Eret fails as a leader, she feels Wilbur excels as a leader. However where Wilbur fails, Eret excels. Eret knew when to keep neutral and maintain her power, while Wilbur wanted complete control over his country and tried to have a rigged election. Wilbur knew when to stand and fight, while Eret tried to step back and watch which ultimately lessened her authority. 

Now let’s look at how their arcs parallel each other in the Pogtopia-era. As Wilbur slowly became irredeemable, Eret attempted to redeem herself.  Wilbur saw there was no way to make L’manberg the country he envisioned again, so to completely rid the country of it’s problems he destroys it. This parallel’s Eret’s outlook from the L’manberg-era. Both of them saw the country as more trouble than it’s worth, so they become it’s downfall. Both times the country rebuilds with a deep distrust and hatred for them, feeling betrayed.  As Wilbur is destroying the country Eret is trying to redeem herself. She looses kingship for a short period of time, momentarily thinking it’s more trouble than it’s worth as well, but in a moment of character growth she realizes that she can’t abandon things that seem hopeless and she retakes the thrown with the goal of rebuilding the SMP to be safe and happy once more. As Eret grows as a character, Wilbur devolves. 

As it stands there is also the interesting possibility of Wilbur being revived, something Eret wants at the moment, and him becoming the complete opposite of Eret. While Eret was someone who initially ran from change, she stepped up to the leader role and is now attempting to take control of the situation; Wilbur was someone who faced change head on, spearheading it in a sense, but crumbled under the role of leader and his own shortcomings and ultimately becomes the villain much like Eret was in the beginning.  Then there’s the theories that Tommy is faking Dream out, and Wilbur is actually redeemable and the afterlife has mellowed him out. This could be interesting because it will cause Eret and Wilbur’s paths to finally meet instead of contrasting each other. They can finally be on the same page of growth and healing for the server, and once and for all fix their conflicts with each other.

Where Eret was L’manberg’s villain and Wilbur was it’s hero, Eret was Pogtopia’s hero and Wilbur was it’s villain. As Eret ran from change, Wilbur faced it head on on became a leader; but when Eret became a leader, Wilbur crumbled under change.

[supercasey]

Dumb thoughts on the Child Avatars AU

I dunno, just some dumb ideas I’ve had since I started talking about the AU online/brainstorming about it. (Putting it under a readmore for everyone’s sake)

The “Daisy kidnaps Jon” situation in this AU is Daisy riding her bike to Simon Fairchild’s mansion, holding a water-gun up to both Mike and Jon’s heads, and ordering them to ride with her to the grocery store to buy soda and hang out at a nearby playground for the day. Cue Elias flipping tf out when Jon isn’t at Simon’s place when he goes to pick him up later, Simon being half asleep because he was napping while the kids hung out, and Mike getting soaked by Daisy before he agrees to go with her, and since this happens in, like, late fall or early winter, he gets pneumonia afterwards and can’t hang out for awhile, leading to the kids jokingly saying he’s dead. Btw the only reason the trio was found is because Basira was invited after they made it to the park, and she convinced Daisy to let the boys go home. Daisy literally only kidnapped them because she wanted to play with someone.

Also the Buried!Daisy arc is Daisy getting eaten by a Buried controlled sandbox and Jon jumping in after her. The rest of the kids, who thankfully witnessed this, spent the next three hours digging for them, with Breekon & Hope eventually joining in to help since they were in the area. Daisy and Jon form a trauma bond afterwards and are now best friends.

Jon keeps getting marked by shit and it’s stressing Elias out because hE’S NOT READY FOR THE WATCHER’S CROWN YET!!! He needs more time to prepare, but his son is literally getting marked faster than fucking Sonic.

Speaking of Sonic, seeing as the “Console Wars” (Sega vs Nintendo) are happening during this time period, the kids take the rivalry Very Seriously. The biggest arguments are had between Sasha, Daisy, Julia, and Mike, who are all on Team Sega, and Jon, Martin, Tim, and Danny, who are all on Team Nintendo.

Sasha, close to tears she’s so angry: “Sega DO what NintenDON’T, Tim!!!”

When Martin was born, he only had one thick clump of curly hair that was white, but as he’s grown older and entered the Lonely multiple times, more of his hair has begun to turn white. As of the time of the AU “starting” (so when he’s 8 years old), he looks like he has white highlights in his hair.

Trevor isn’t a fully-fledged Hunt avatar yet, but the girls more or less are, so if you’ve ever watched Wolf Children, that’s pretty much the situation Trevor is currently trapped in. His daughters keeping changing into wolf pups and running wild as he frantically tries to hide their powers from anyone who isn’t Gerry.

(All of the kids secretly know already, even Basira.)

Basira is pretty much the only “normal” kid of the avatar children, save MAYBE for Tim, but he’s been deeply marked by the circus and has a few tiny powers (think S3 Jon as he was figuring out some of his powers, but wasn’t a full-on Archivist just yet).

The season 1 gang (including Danny) are the closest group of friends in the AU, save for Daisy and Basira’s friendship, and they hang out a lot at each other’s homes on the weekends.

Adelard usually brings Jane with him for his “trips” away from the institute, so it’s not unusual for her to be gone for long periods of time. But she always sends postcards and gifts to the institute for everyone!

Helen is three years old, so theoretically she should be able to talk, but she rarely does so, preferring to communicate via giggles and laughter. Only Jon, the Stoker brothers, and Michael can understand her, and they take turns translating for everyone else.

Whenever she’s brought to the institute, Helen takes to toddling around after Jon and Martin, giggling up a storm the whole time. Jon finds it a bit annoying while Martin is endlessly amused by her antics.

A list of the guardian’s/adult’s ages before I fucking forget (as of when the AU “starts” in 1994): Gertrude Robinson - 62, Elias Bouchard “Jonah Magnus” - 51 (200+), Peter Lukas - 55, Simon Fairchild - 83 (300+), Gerard “Gerry” Keay - 30, Michael Shelley - 32, Alfred Grifter - Unknown, Adelard Dekker - 48, Nikola Orsinov - 30ish (100+), Annabelle Cane - 34 (Unknown), Trevor Herbert - 47, Agnes Montague - 25ish (60+), Jude Perry - 35, Jared Hopworth - 29, The Admiral - 10.

The “good” parents all keep trying to set up some kind of PTA meeting so they can actually talk about how to raise these supernatural kids properly, but it keeps going horribly wrong; last time they tried, Alfred Grifter and his band showed up and nearly made Simon go deaf, so no one wants to initiate the next attempt at a meeting.

Tbh, at this point the Fear rituals are more successful than Elias’s shitty attempts at forming a PTA.

At some point in the AU Gerry, Michael, and Trevor all pitch in to buy a decently big house together, which leads to some serious Shenanigans now that Melanie is around Michael and Trevor’s kids/wards... let’s just say there’s gonna be a lot of knife related accidents.

Gerry taught Melanie how to fight when he took her in and it is the single worst decision he’s ever made in his short, goth life, even if he’ll never admit it. Melanie can now beat the shit out of everyone but Julia and Daisy, and it’s pure chaos every time. Tim puts up a decent fight, but he’s been spoiled on easy wins over his brother all his life. Jon tries and fails to so much as push her. Martin runs away crying before Melanie even throws the first punch. Needless to say, the other kids are very cautious about playing with Melanie now.

None of the kids have an education of any kind except for Mike. I’m serious; the only kid who’s decently educated is being raised by Foxy Grandpa Off His Shits McGee! Julia and Daisy have had some public education but not much, Elias refuses to do anything but home-school Jon yet he sucks shit at math, Tim and Danny don’t even know what a school fucking looks like, Melanie and Jane were too young to go to school when they became avatars, Martin has only recently been allowed near other kids so fuck public school (Peter can do math but Nothing Else), Annabelle fucking forgot to give Sasha any kind of an education outside of Web stuff, and Helen is still a very small child. None of these kids have gone to school for more than a few years at most and dear g-d is that gonna suck for them later down the line.

As a result of this, Basira has taught the other kids a few things when she’s come over and insisted on playing “school” with everyone, but she’s still just a kid and can’t always get them to pay attention during her lessons.

Because of this Rosie, Gerry, Michael, and Gertrude have all started making an effort to more or less home-school all of the kids, which has gone... well enough, I suppose. However, things have recently taken a weird turn since Jon keeps giving everyone the answers to assignments/tests via telepathy.

Jon: Whoa, you can make tea all by yourself, Martin!? Martin: Yeah, I’ve been doing it by myself since I was a toddler. I can also do laundry, mop floors, vacuum, and cook a few things, too! Tim: Wow, that’s really cool, Martin! I wish I could do stuff like that. Gertrude, off to the side: *Gives Peter a horrified look* I’m sorry, but did Martin just say he’s been making tea on his own since he was a toddler? Peter:  ╮(╯ _╰ )╭  Unfortunately, I’m severely depressed.

Yeeeeeeeah, Martin’s in a similar childhood situation to his canon one, but at least there are people actually willing to help him out of it in this universe. Also, Peter will clean himself up at some point here, he’s just still dealing with more or less disowning himself from his family and learning hoe to not be so lonely.

Speaking Of Which, the Lukas family are pretty big antagonists in this AU, primarily through Peter’s mother (I’ll come up with a name for her later if I can’t find it on the wiki), who is trying to kidnap Martin and more or less feed him to the Lonely so Peter will get over his “childish feelings” and return to being her favorite child.

And yes, she DOES accidentally kidnap Jon instead at some point... this kid can literally not avoid getting kidnapped.

I like to think Mike and Julia are really good friends in this AU, being the closest in age and all. They hang out a lot since their dads are both so chill and won’t get upset about it, the two of them mostly just playing video games, watching movies, and biking around their respective neighborhoods together.

(Also they may or may not be responsible for a statement that involves a woman seeing a “flying wolf” passing over London... they’ve yet to confess to it, but Elias is dead certain they’re behind the incident.)

The worms incident is 100% Jane’s secret worm collection getting fucking loose... she was keeping them in the walls “for safe keeping” and No One Fucking Knew, not even Elias, until Jon saw a spider, punched the wall, and Revealed them.

Jon and Tim got their scars because Jane lost control of the worms and they burrowed into the kids. Cue a very panicked 999 call from someone in the institute and Child Services almost getting involved, but Elias managed to cover it up.

Afterwards, Jon is incredibly self-conscious about his worm scars, but Martin tells him “now we both have freckles!” and it honestly makes him feel a little better about the whole thing.

Also Adelard makes an effort to track down a child psychologist/counselor with institute ties so he can get Jane some therapy/help controlling her powers. He loves her to the moon and back, and he’s terrified of her getting traumatized by what she accidentally did.

During the incident, a Notthem gets loose from Artifact Storage and attacks Sasha, but seeing as Sasha is of the Web and the Notthem is connected to a Web artifact, it only manages to really hurt her, but thankfully not kill her. She ends up hospitalized for a few weeks, but comes out fine later on. The table mysteriously disappears afterwards, and no one knows if it was Gertrude or Annabelle’s doing, but either way, the kids never have to deal with a Notthem again.

At some point I wanna get into Jon’s paranoia in season 2 for this AU, but I’m considering changing it from being because of the Jane Prentiss issue to be because of Mr. Spider almost killing him. I dunno how exactly it’ll play out, but I think it has a lot of potential!

Okay, before I end this post full of weird rambling ideas for the AU, I wanna make a list of the powers that the kids have at the time of the story “starting”/the ones they develop down the line because Jonny Sims himself said that all avatars have different powers, and I really wanna infodump on my thoughts for the kids!

Current powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Can simply know things whenever he wants to (so long as the Eye lets him, but the Eye sometimes keeps him from knowing anything he isn’t mature enough to handle), can compel people to tell him things (the other kids are better at resisting it, and so are other people touched by the Eye), can survive on very little food if he’s fed mostly statements/other people’s trauma, can non-consensually feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has some weak telepathy powers, and he can subconsciously summon tape recorders.

Future powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Increased healing abilities, can know most anything if he tries, ability to resist other Eye avatars’ compulsions, can survive purely off of statements/other people’s trauma, can choose whether or not to feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has much stronger telepathy powers than before, can force himself into people’s minds and read their thoughts, and he can summon tape recorders at will (though some still show up without his knowledge sometimes).

Current powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can disappear into the Fog for several hours at a time (he cannot be seen by anyone but other Lonely avatars while in the fog), can summon clouds of fog that he can momentarily hide things in (including people), can “banish” most anyone into the fog, and has “Sea Captain Eyes” (he knows where the Tundra is at all times, and can lead someone to it without a map or compass).

Future powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can change his hair color at will (only to red, white, and a mix of the two colors), can see much better in the Fog and can find anyone he’s pushed into it, can more or less teleport using the Fog, and he has what’s more or less a pocket dimension of fog for storage/hiding his friends from danger (think the inside of Gems in Steven Universe).

Current powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Can make small bipedal toys “come to life” for a few minutes at a time (they can’t talk or communicate; only move around and perform small tasks/dances), can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them.

Future powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Better control over the powers he already has as well as a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can order around creatures of the Stranger against their will, can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can change his voice to anything he likes (not always intentionally, though).

Future powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can more or less “teleport” to other circus locations by walking into theaters, can now change his voice to whatever he likes with his knowledge and consent, can take over as the Stranger’s ringmaster if necessary, can trigger a mesmerizing dance whenever he’d like, and has a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can communicate with spiders and have them send messages to other Web avatars, can read minds if she tries really hard, can “trap“ other entities in large webs that she can summon (takes a lot of energy), and she has Spider-Man-like abilities (can walk on walls and ceilings, can carry much more than her weight should allow, etc).

Future powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can now read minds without too much effort, can navigate almost any area that’s being controlled/influenced by the Web, can create webs without nearly as much effort as before, can transform her body to have more arms, legs, and eyes, and she now has venomous fangs (which can thankfully be controlled and/or hidden).

Current powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, and has supernatural senses/physical abilities.

Future powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can now track most any monster she’s hunting once she gets at least one good look at them, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and can navigate the Buried if needed (though this is very triggering for her and will cause her to pass out afterwards).

Current powers of Julia Montauk: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, has supernatural senses/physical abilities, can track most any monster if she knows their name, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and she can shift into a bipedal werewolf when she feels like she’s in danger.

Future powers of Julia Montauk: All of her previous powers have drastically improved, plus she has better control of them now.

Current powers of Basira Hussain: She has common fucking sense, something almost none of the other children have.

Future powers of Basira Hussain: She common sense AND she has a werewolf GF now. :) ((No dating for the babies, not until they’re at least teenagers))

Current powers of Melanie King-Grifter: Can listen to Grifter’s Bone without being damaged in any way, the music of Grifter’s Bone makes her powers exemplified for a period of time after she listens to it, the smell of blood triggers her to become violent, she can summon sharp weapons (knives, swords, etc) from thin air, and she can see a red aura around other people who have been marked by the Slaughter.

Future powers of Melanie King-Grifter: She has much better control of her abilities now, she can perform Grifter’s Bone songs for people and keep them from dying/going feral, and she can now also summon other weapons from thin air (guns, baseball bats, etc).

Current powers of Oliver Banks: Can see people’s deaths a week in advance via his dreams, he sees dark tentacles around people who are going to die soon, can see but not talk to ghosts, and he can smell death on anyone who’s undead/controlling other people’s bodies.

Future powers of Oliver Banks: Can raise the dead and control them to do his bidding (takes a lot of energy), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral related), and he can cause people to die within the week if he touches them in his dreams.

Current powers of Georgie Barker: Can see a “death countdown” over people who are going to die within the next thirty days, doesn’t feel any fear whatsoever, can see but not talk to ghosts, and she sees a dark sludge staining the clothes of people who have been marked by the End.

Future powers of Georgie Barker: Can bring people back to life for a minute or so by touching them (think Pushing Daisies type powers), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral is best cat dad), and she can communicate with ghosts much better now.

Current powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can summon bugs of most kinds from her mouth and under her fingernails, can communicate with bugs, and can fight off most diseases without any trouble.

Future powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can now completely control bugs via a hive mind effect, can summon bugs from anywhere on her body, has much stronger healing abilities than Jon, and she can see invisible bugs crawling on the skin of those who the Corruption wants her to get rid of (it’s hard for her not to give in to it’s desires).

Current powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Can levitate/fly at will, can summon clouds of any kind (rain, thunder, snow, etc) in any conditions, has much higher resistance to the weather/temperature, and he can “banish” people into the Vast at will.

Future powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Same as before, but with slightly better control than he had as a teenager.

Current powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can change the world around her to be more like the Spiral (adding more doors, changing the colors of things, causing hallucinations, etc), can change any door into a doorway into the Spiral, and she can amplify her voice (very hard to control as a baby).

Future powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can now summon doors that lead to the Spiral from thin air, has much better control over her powers and abilities than before, can morph her body to be longer and sharper at will, and she can “banish” people into the endless hallways of the Spiral.

((Holy shit, that took awhile))

Anyways, here’s a playlist I made for the AU, feel free to scream at me for my very weird taste in music: Pinky Swear That You Won’t Go Changing

[princess-of-the-corner]

Human After All: I'd like to know more about A) Lust realizing that Hohenheim had an actual life in Resembool and B) everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do the human transmutation and the aftermath.

Oh boy here we fuckin go!!!!!

Lust realizing that Hohenheim had a life in Resembool:

Oh boy. Okay so this has some setup.

When Lust first meets Ed and Al, she assumes the situation is a lot different. Basically They're close enough to be mistaken for twins, so she thought it was more "one night stand and disappeared from town but their mom remembered the name and told the kids". Because... Why would he stay?

But then Lust babysits Ed and Al on a trip back to Resembool to visit Winry and her grandma. And like.

Lust gets curious about some things. And she happens to see a photo album out that she can't help but look through.

Of course Granny finds her snooping but just lets her look through it and explains that it's from Winry's parents' wedding. And Lust eventually flips to a page where Hohenheim is in the photo.

Lust pauses on it because it's so strange. First in general, of how Hohenheim looks just like Father but also nothing like him at the same time. Physically identical, but the way they carry themselves is.. Entirely different.

Especially as this picture is kinda goofy. Granny tells her how everyone was hinting to Hohenheim that he should marry Trisha since they were already "basically married". And the newly married Sarah Rockbell had given up pn subtly, and chucked her boquet right at Hohenheim's face with a "sorry I was aiming for Trisha!"(which no one belives because she has incredible aim).

Lust asks more on that. And Granny mentions how Hohenheim and Trisha had been together for a bit amd were already living in the same home. And that pretty much immediatly after that whole "lack of subtly" the pair decided "despite not going through legal paperwork we are married now fuck you' and also bonus pregnancy announcement. Which has Lust relize Ed and Al aren't twins.

But it's weird to her. Because like. Hohenheim had a life here? He was with this woman for a few years and essentially got married (clearly the "don't go through the paperwork" is because he doesn't legally exist). But like. He had a wife and kids. One of the kids seems to have been actually planned. Why would he do that? And why did he leave? No one has answers on that, but Granny says that if he did leave, it was for good reasons. Not whatever the town gossips make up for fun.

Granny is a little sus about Lust's interests in all this because like. I kiiinda mentioned this before on my artblog but he way I draw Lust she actually looks a lot like "if Ed was a girl" and considering how much Ed looks like Hohenheim... They basically look somewhat related. Granny points that out and kinda pulls some Gaslight Girlboss Gatekeep of "nope no relation whatsoever my father just worked with him long ago but it's totally not relevant to anything!"

Anyway!

Later, Lust is wandering around Ed and Al's home because that fucker hasn't burned yet. And she just... Sees more of it.

True. It's been just the boys for years but there's still things like his clothes in the bedroom closet or something casually put on a shelf too high for Trisha to have reached.

The two rooms that really hit are the bedroom and the study.

Tbe bedroom is mostly untouched. But she sees a shelf of little statues. It's strange to her, but she realizes all the statutes are made from Alchemy. About half of them have very obvious marks, a sign of a talented but inexperienced maker. Seeing two distinct styles, she cam guess Ed and Al made those.

The rest are perfect. Intricate and flawless. If they weren't on the shelf with the others, she would've thought they were made by some master clay artist.

Alchemically made trinkets as gifts for someone they love.

The study is another beast altogether. A whole library on Alchemical texts. Some even older than Lust. All marked up with someone's notes in the margins. The same person's notes, as the handwriting doesn't differ. Clearly all these are important. So why leave them?

The real hard hitter is a journal Hohenheim left. Of course Lust reads it. The fact that the journal is written in Xerxian is just another punch to the gut, but thankfully Lust can read it.

It has a lot of things but the main info she reads is an entry from when Ed was just born and Hohenheim is discussing worries over how his whole "Philosophers Stone in Human Form" deal might be effecting Ed in terms of like. Genetics and stuff.

But the main thing Lust focuses on is that Hohenheim mentions discussing those fears with Trisha. That he told her what he was and his whole history and everything.

It's... Confusing to Lust. Why did Hohenheim just settle down here in this small ass rural town with a normal woman? What was it about her that compelled him to stay in one place so long? To settle down after years and have a kid? Having a second kid? And telling her about... Everything?

She finds no answer because, from all accounts, it seems like Trisha was just a normal, small-town girl. She didn't even have an interest in Alchemy! Just gardening. Why her? Why not someone at least... Great and powerful to match what he was? Even if no one could truly compare to what he was.

Everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do Human Transmutation:

Oh boy. This is a big plot point.

So the boys had quite a plan to trick the adults. Lust has gone on trips out of town for weekends(reporting back to Father), and she's also babysat the boys on a trip to Resembool before. So the boys wait until one of her trips and tell Roy and Riza that she's taking them on a different trip to Resembool. None of the adults know this until Lust comes back without them and has no idea where they were.

They put it together real fast and all three book it to the train station. Several hours of worried pacing of what could've happened.

Roy and Riza are entirely in the dark of what might happen. Lust though... She knows how the Gate works. And what could have happened.

She knows that There's a Price to pay. And while she was planning on encouraging the boys to go through the Gate anyway, she was supposed to be involved with it so she could trade a part of her Philosopher's Stone for their safety. Obviously just so they don't loose a Sacrifice to blood loss or later infection! Not because she cares or anything! But yeah without her, who knows what the Price may be?

They check the boys house first. They see plenty of blood, which is a terrifying sight. But they also see a trail leading out. And that if the boys are still alive, they probably went to the Rockbell place.

Which yeah. Granny's already waiting for them. She wants to yell at them for failing, but it would be hypocritical sinve she didn't notice the first time around.

She tells them the boys are alive but fucked up. Ed lost a couple limbs and Al is... Hard to explain.

Lust is the first to notice the suit of armor in the living room. The way it's arranged like a child, curled up and hiding, barely peeking out from behind the "arms". Light in it's "eyes", like someone's in there watching her.

She remembers the experiments done on the death row inmates. Puttin Souls in suits of armor. She's horrified, but not surprised, when it moves.

That is a whole conversation. Lust has to pretend she doesn't know how that works(while also questioning how the boys managed it). Al tells them what he remembers, which is just everythiny going wrong and then being in the armor and Ed missing some limbs.

We have a long emotional scene when Roy goes to talk to Ed.

Ed is very much not okay at this point and he's trying to be angry but it's just not really there. And he just asks why Roy is still there. He failed to keep them from fucking up why does he still care? Just go back home and leave them so he doesn't have to deal with them anymore.

Well that's just heartbreaking. Roy just talks to him about a lot of things. And the main thing was that this wasn't just "I'm gonna try and stop you but whoops failed that bye bitch" situation. He's not just going to drop the kids because he failed once. He's not even going ti drop them after months of pushing him away and being stubborn about the whole situation. They're a family now damn it.

And Ed kinda feels like that might be worse, because he threw that away ti go fuck up. But Roy tells him it's not "thrown away". They're still going to be here for him. And figure things out.

Later at night, Roy, Riza and Lust all kinda sneaknout individually. Which does lead to some comedy until Granny catches them and calls them idiots. But all of them were thinking of going to the boy's house and looking over their notes.

Roy and Lust are the only ones who can make heads or tails of the notes. Riza can follow some but gets lost and Granny never was an Alchemy person. Roy's looking more for "what went wrong" while Lust is focused more on "what went right". And Lust does find that though they came very close to making a Homunculus, they did do everything pretty right. She accidentally comments on that, which leads to a horrifying theoretical of "what if the boys managed to make a fake Trisha that looked and acted like her but wasn't her?". This also leads to the more disturbing question of "what was it they did manage to make"?

This is a thing that came up in Canon, but here they get answers of the thing that they made wasn't their mom, and you can't bring back the dead. Ed and Al take that news about as well as they did in Canon as well.

The "possible homunculus" thing comes up too with the others wondering if Al really is Al and not just... Something vaguely like him that Ed accidentally created. (Lust knows but can't tell how she knows rip!). Riza to the rescue on this one by asking Al about something Ed shouldn't know about. So that existential crisis is averted!

Of course there's discussion of what to do to help Ed and Al. Which... Does lead to getting back toward Canon of "have Ed become a State Alchemist". It's debated a lot because ya know. Sure it's the best option to help them have the freedom and access to stuff tk find shit but. Ya know. Roy already feels like he failed to protect these kids once already this is not helping.

Anyway! One more fun scene!

Please imagine once Ed gets the automail arm and just does the clap-slap Alchemy. And Roy and Riza are like "yo what the FUCK???"

[urmomsstuntdouble]

ok not sure how comprehensible this post is gonna be but! regarding the languages discussion, here are my thoughts about the anglo americans. be warned this post is long as fuck, but thank you so much if you do read all of it, and i’d love to hear your thoughts about it as well! 

so i just wanna start with alfred’s name- alfred. i think he may be named after alfred the great of wessex, who may or may not have been the first king of england. he wasn’t technically the king of a unified england that we’d think of it as today- he was the king of wessex, as his title implies, but there was a point at which he was “in charge” or however you want to put it of most of present day southern england. anyway this presents the first of his issues with his identity. he’s permanently tied to britain beyond just his culture and most common language- his name is a reminder of who he “belongs to.” of course most people don’t know that and they just think it’s a little odd that this 19yo miles morales type is called alfred but eh, what are you gonna do. 

then you have the fact that there’s no official language in the US, which makes things a little harder for him. he’s never sure what language he’s supposed to be speaking in, as the human representative of america. he thinks it should be english, seeing as that is the lingua franca, but there’s times when he just doesn’t vibe with english as a language. i mentioned before that he struggles with keeping his (spanish) dialects straight (which @cupofkey summed up as immigrant-kid-syndrome and that’s exactly it), although its not limited to just spanish. he also has a hard time keeping other shit in line, to the extent where his thoughts are a messy jumble of languages, concepts, images, and feelings. this is most evident when he’s nervous, because his accent will get super thick and he’ll start just saying the words that pop into his mind, even if they’re in another language or straight up not words at all. the only peson who can understand him when he’s doing this is canada. both of them are countries of immigrants, although they are different in who immigrated and when, so they dont have the exact same nervous tick language, but it’s close enough that they can communicate well. it’s sort of like a more global version of europanto? might sound something like this to an outside observer, but again, more global (also for the video they dont start talking until 1:17). 

america and canada also have a sort of inextricable bond because of the first nations people. the first tribe that comes to mind are the members of the okanagan national alliance, which straddles the present day border of british columbia and washington state (this is also something america shares with mexico). it’s caused a lot of pain between them personally, and with the okanagan nation. just as the border itself is vague- though the us-canada border is more respected than the okanagan borders- the parts of their identities are also vague. they feel bits and pieces of themselves ebbing and flowing, and matt and fred have gotten into arguments about it because they struggle to define their identities and they just want to be able to explain themselves to themselves. but you know that often winds up causing friction with the okanagan nations, because whatever issues with identity regarding their indigenous people fred and matt are having. they’ve got it worse, only in a sort of..negative image. like whereas fred and matt feel it on the fringes of themselves, making it so they cant tell where they end and other nations begin, the okanagan nations feel themselves being slowly eroded. none of them want each other to suffer, though, because the okanagan people can be americans and canadians and okanagans all at the same time. 

this also applies with the american border with mexico, seeing as there’s some areas in the southwestern us where spanish is spoken more than english. when he’s down there, freddie finds it easier to communicate than when he’s speaking english. chicano is his language just as much as english is- he just sort of became able to speak it when the west was colonized, and he already knew spanish for business purposes, so there ya go. there are some issues with that though because the spanish in the west is primarily from mexico and central america, whereas the east is more from the caribbean- like how miami has a large cuban minority. so he’s got a weird sort of chicano english too, because it’s no longer “pure” chicano. pure is a very loose term there because there is of course variation within southwestern chicano speakers. angelinos don’t have the same chicano as nuevomexicanos. anyway i think he’d get it mixed up with spanish proper or spanglish a lot because of the similar phonetic rules. i’m not sure about any indigenous tribes who have land that straddles the us-mexico border, but that’s probably not alfred’s biggest worry with That Border. actually no i think he might purposefully talk in an aggressively chicano dialect whenever someone in the government wants to talk to him about the ice concentration camps. like he usually doesn’t try that hard to keep the wrong language out of his mouth but he will go Full Chicano, just to make them uncomfortable and to try to get the point across that he can literally feel the physical pain of the people trapped at the border in those camps. but this also causes some tension with the countries of origins of those people, seeing as they can also feel that pain. there’s quite a lot of discourse between america, mexico, guatemala, honduras, and el salvador about that, because none of them quite know what to do. they argue again about whose pain it is and how they should, as nation personifications, deal with it.

another thing that he struggles with where matt is concerned is with his indigenous languages. the languages of his northernmost people are the most at risk and endangered, and some are actually in the process of dying. he hates that, because as much as he wants to act like he speaks just SCE and quebecois, he doesn’t. he knows all of his people’s languages, and it makes him feel like he’s losing his identity a little bit when his indigenous languages start fading away. the worst part about this is that he doesn’t even always know it’s happening until the fading feeling kicks in, so sometimes he’ll just make a point of going up to the northwestern territories and try to hang out with the oldest inuit people he can find to try and have a chat. and it’s ROUGH communicating at first but when he can get back into it he feels more solid and defined. i think this isn’t unique to him, and that the other countries in the americas do this too, but bc of the way civil rights work in canada, it’s a little different for him. because indigenous canadians are recognized as a certain class of citizen, indigenous canadian governments have a collective legal bargaining power and could theoretically ask for legal protections from the ottowa government for their languages. however, this doesn’t apply to the northwest territories, so that’s why matt goes there specifically to talk to old ass indigenous people. their languages aren’t protected legally in the same way that french and quebecois are, so he sort of takes it upon himself as mr canada to do preserve the languages and history. it’s especially sad when a language dies out forever, because then he’s one of very few people who still speak it and if he wants anyone else to know about it he’d have to teach them. but since the language is dead, there’s no one for him to get help from. the people who once spoke it are gone or use other languages now, and it’s all very weight of the world on his shoulders. i think this makes him very sad, because of the weirdly smug left wing anti-american nature of canadian nationalism. like he understands exactly the sort of pressure freddie is under but also has a cultural pressure to not say anything about it or even offer to help. 

this is also why he has the most boring and basic idiolect out of perhaps the entire anglosphere- even arthur has a distinct posh dialect that he uses most of the time. matthew talks like a textbook. a very polite and anxious textbook, but a textbook all the same. and matthew williams actually kind of likes what alfred jones has going on, but canada doesn’t. canada fell into british hands after the end of the 7yr war, which happened to be the war that sparked the american revolution (speaking of which the ages for america and canada make no goddamn sense, ask me about it if you want more detailed thoughts). loyalists fled to canada, and developed a superiority complex around the idea that they weren’t ungrateful. then it was about how they weren’t slave owners- which isn’t entirely true- and in the present day, even in hetalia canon, canadians often define themselves in relation to america. that is, they are better than americans because of xyz political thing. right now, to quote the anime, it’s “our free healthcare and lack of gun crime, eh.” this also poses some difficulties for canada in terms of culture, though, because if that much of their national pride comes from being better than america, what do they have to make a name for themselves? for anglo canadians, that’s a more complicated question. for quebeckers, it’s that the’re not anglo canadians. but quebec is also annoying as fuck and canada actually has nightmares about there being a successful secession movement there, so. i don’t know what the average anglo canadian thinks of quebec seeing as im not an average anglo canadian, but i do know that i hate their accents so now matt does too, although he will respect their right to have their language protected by the ottowa government (because quebec, that’s why). 

anyway i do have one last thought and that’s that nobody will ever really know america or canada like they know each other. they struggle with a lot of the same issues regarding language, but america has just sort of given up. in some ways, matt’s jealous of him, and in others he’s so glad he’s not the united states. but they do understand each other a lot as the anglo americans, and as some of the number one destinations for immigration out of the entire world. so yeah, i dont have any specific strong conclusion ot this post, but would absolutely love to hear your thoughts about languages in the americas! shit’s wack in this neck of the woods my dudes. 

oh actually one last thing. i think america and canada struggle a bit with their identities because they dont fit into any one specific group, linguistically or otherwise. they feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world specifically due to the intensity of the melting pot effect, and even within their own countries sometimes. people will be like oh you’re too white or you’re too black or you’re too dine or too much whatever other culture, so they often feel isolated from that stuff because they are all of those things, and have a deep connection with all of it. anyway they’ll always be there for each other

[janus-stanus]

Do you have any Janus headcanons that you want to share?? I seriously love reading peoples' headcanon

You want Janus headcanons? I’ll give you Janus headcanons. All the headcanons.

* Janus came into existence as a Side later than the others, and he wasn’t initially Deceit. More on that here and here (though I have some changes in mind for when I actually write something out of it, hehe)

* He became in charge of keeping Remus out of school things kind of by default, and from there, they bonded.

* He got into spats with Patton often, which he took way more seriously than Patton ever did. Usually everyone else sided with Patton, cause they knew and trust him. Especially Roman.

* Janus learned to fake confidence fairly early on. He figured, he had to convince himself that he knew what he was doing before the others would take him seriously. You know. “I am the first one I deceive”. That. Oh, and “Razzle Dazzle”.

* He’s planted “roots” in Thomas’s mental system, like a network of cables that can transfer information to him almost instantly. He has clusters of roots form around secrets he (or the others) is (are) keeping from Thomas. For the aesthetic, his eyes glow gold when he checks in to it, and the information rings in his ears like hissing.

* As a kid he wore a yellow shirt, with a waistcoat over it to make himself appear more professional. As a teen, he wore a long black coat, a fedora, and a striped yellow scarf. There’s more I want to say about the scarf, but, spoilers.

* ...That being said, I will spoil this from the wip where the sides all find their names: Logan helped Janus find his (ever notice that we didn’t see Logan’s reaction to Janus’s name reveal in POF? I’m running with it). He liked the name, it felt right... but it, at this point, didn’t really tell him anymore about what his purpose was supposed to be.

* It stops being a sore spot for him at a certain point, but then by the time of POF, where his failures have definitely not been getting to him, it kinda sorta is again! Hence, his... reaction, to Roman’s... reaction.

* (Also, it’s just his instinct by this point to be snide and pointedly cruel when he’s hurt or backed into a corner. He knows how to go for the jugular, and sometimes he doesn’t realize - or doesn’t care - just how deep his blows will cut.)

* Since I mentioned Jan originally not being Deceit... here’s a song that basically lays out why he came to take on that role :) (spotify recced this to me a few days ago and I’m still not over it)

* It was only once Janus became Deceit that he started gaining his snake features. First fangs; then the changes to his left eye; then his scales. Right before the other sides found out about the gay, the scales covered his whole face, and probably went below his shoulders too. It was bad. By teen times they’ve receded to mostly one side of his face, but they’re still on his neck for a few years (hence the scarf).

* Jump ahead to Thomas in early high school, and Janus, for reasons that would be Big Time Spoilers (though I may be able to... share some excerpts... if people want...), chose to cut himself and Remus off from Thomas. He keeps their existence a secret, having them only influence Thomas subconsciously, until, well, the series basically. (Virgil joined the “others” shortly after the divide, of his own choice, and thus wasn’t hidden from Thomas like the rest of them were.)

* For all those years, Janus whispered comforting lies to Thomas. Lies that stopped working after he revealed himself in CLBG, because Thomas now recognized that voice as belonging to his deceitful side. I have a wip about this that I’m planning to finish and post for his birthday!

* Janus helped Thomas believe that he was an honest person. A good person, even. Because, that’s what Thomas wanted, as evidenced by the Big Time Spoilers. Even as Janus recognized the long term impacts of the lie. Even as he himself thought the whole moral dilemma was a distraction at best.

* The more Janus dedicated himself to becoming Deceit, the more he came to rely on lies, which is a large part of why his and Virgil’s relationship collapsed. All their conversations became like, to borrow an old metaphor of mine, fencing duels, with Janus always trying to assert his control and distract from his intentions with witty remarks, and Virgil always assuming the worst of him, rapidly switching between offense and defense.

* Janus and Remus’s relationship was, and is, much less hostile. Yes, Remus gets on his nerves, literally every day... but, unlike the others when it comes to Jan, “trust” isn’t a hurdle for Remus. They’re partners in crime; they’re best friends. And that’s enough. It has to be.

* I don’t really have a better place for the following diatribe, so here we go:

Ever since the Big Time Spoilers thing, Janus has done what he can to eliminate and prevent any feelings of regret for the bad things he does. He justifies to himself that it was the best choice he could have made, that it was a necessary evil; or, he convinces himself that what he said or did wasn’t that bad, the blame is on the everyone else for reacting the way they did; or, he simply goes “oopsie, my bad, definitely won’t repeat that mistake” and does everything he can not to think about it again. To quote the song “Devil in the Details” from his playlist again, “I put my past into the ground”.

Speaking of songs, there’s this line from the song “Never Love an Anchor” by The Crane Wives, one of my favorite bands incidentally:

It's a secret I keep tucked inside my chest With this heart of mine that’s guilty not remorseful

Janus will readily admit to being guilty of having made bad decisions, decisions that hurt people (though in the moment he will be unreasonably stubborn about admitting he’s doing something wrong/stupid, to self defeating ends).

But remorseful? No, he’s never remorseful. At least, he’d like to believe he isn’t (because that would just make things so much more complicated).

And when so much of your own conception of yourself is based on lies you’ve told, to feel more confident, to feel like you belong, like you’re doing what you should be doing...

Is there really a difference?

I have No way Of telling The two Apart

Oh hey, “Devil in the Details”, what are you doing here again? It’s almost like I draw half of my entire Janus characterization from you alone /hj

* (This is a deliberate contradictory parallel to Virgil, who seems to keep a full record of every mistake Thomas has made (see ATDH). Anxiety constantly digs up your past mistakes, theoretically to make sure you don’t repeat them. What Thomas needs, as with every dilemma in this series, is a healthy balance between their two perspectives.)

* The last of the pre-canon headcanons I have is this. TL;DR, Janus helps Roman out when Thomas plays villianous roles (their cooperation could perhaps explain why Roman initially described Janus as “very nice”)

* Janus’s plan for CLBG was not to get caught; he was hoping to convince Thomas of his various merits over the course of multiple discussions, before properly revealing himself.

* When PattonJanus asks, “Virgil, it’s me. Aren’t we friends?” That’s like 10% him still trying to keep up the facade, but 90% him asking genuinely. And the fact that Virgil can’t even look at him when he answers implies that he has some doubt too... because it still might be Patton and he doesn’t want to hurt him? Or because, he knows it’s Janus, but his feelings are just that complicated?

* In between CLBG and SvS, Janus realizes the thing I pointed out earlier about his subconscious lies suddenly working not nearly as well on Thomas - specifically, the whole “good person” thing, since it’s currently causing him a lot of stress. Instead of dwelling on the fact that this has kind of undone years and years of work on his end, Janus goes, “You know what? I never believed that bullshit mattered anyway! I should convince Thomas that it doesn’t matter either; it’ll be much better for him in the long term.” And then the wedding vs callback dilemma presents the perfect opportunity. Hence, SvS, parts 1 and 2.

* Janus can read the other sides like open books... but only if they’re acting within the narrow perspective of what Janus would expect from them. The biggest example is with Roman in SvS. Janus knows that Roman wants to go to the callback more than anything. He’s Thomas’s Hopes and Dreams, for Pete’s sake! But what he doesn’t expect, is the extent to which Roman priorities Thomas being good (or believing himself to be good), even at the expense of his actual role as a side. That’s why Roman’s sentencing of Thomas throws him so badly; it’s when he realizes just how much Patton’s unopposed influence has affected Thomas (not that Patton ever meant it that way).

* My thoughts on Janus’s motivations for setting Remus loose in DWIT and his feelings on the matter afterward are covered in this fic (which you’ve commented on, but you know the hustle, gotta self promo where I can)

* So. Putting Others First. I don’t have much to add on top of the wonderful canon content it gave us. But.

“Sometimes I don't know the way. But... When I told you that, you were so scared. I couldn't bear it. So I said to myself, ‘Alright, Patton. Thomas needs you. You're responsible for his morality. You can never not have an answer for him.’

After Patton says this, the cut to Janus?

The Thing his face does after the eyebrow raise?

I live for this shit.

A while ago, my headcanon for this moment was that it was when Janus realized that Thomas wanted to be a good person, as much and as genuinely as he wanted anything else (like, being famous and fulfilling his dreams), and that, as the one who wants what Thomas wants, it’s a drive he should take into consideration. But then I rewatched CLBG, and was struck by this exchange:

[Thomas]: Why didn't I know about him until now? [Virgil]: He had you convinced you're an honest person. [Thomas]: But I... AM an honest person. [Deceit]: Oh, you are, Thomas. You are a good person. Everybody says so.

This is where some fo the earlier stuff about Janus playing into Thomas’s belief that he was a good person came from, and it required a changing of my interpretation of That Look in POF. So now? I take it as the moment Janus realizes that, when he revealed himself like a Scooby Doo villain, the effect wasn’t just that he could no longer use his comforting lies on Thomas. It put the whole responsibility of Thomas believing he’s good, something obviously very important to him, onto Patton, a side he could trust. And Janus knows what kind of toll that burden must have taken on him.

* I have plans now for a Janus & Patton fic set after the Janus & Logan one that’s been in limbo since the summer which will delve more into Janus’s vulnerabilities, going back to the whole idea of him being guilty but not feeling remorseful.

To not give away too much... Like how Logan insists he doesn’t feel things because he’s Logic, because it would get in the way of his function, Janus insists that he doesn’t have any interest in his own morality or how he’s perceived by the other sides, because it would get in the way of his ability to do what’s best for Thomas. He needs to be able to push Thomas to act in his own self-interest in all scenarios, and otherwise manipulate things behind the scenes, even when it requires being immoral. So he, Janus, can’t care about being a good person.

But Janus is a part of Thomas. And he won’t get away with hiding from the implications of that for much longer. 

He’ll have to face the mortifying ordeal of being known, and of feeling remorse.

Will this be his arc in canon? Who knows; I’m just having fun :)

...Those last two got kinda long. Sorry about that, lol. Let’s knock some final few ones out.

* Moving on, in FWSA, both Patton and Janus were watching the proceedings, with Janus contributing when called on (something he’s not used to, especially at that frequency). This leads to this post.

* Janus wants to have control, influence, some modicum of power, in any scenario he’s in. He does not like leaving things up to other people. He’s learned he can’t predict Remus and has mostly come to live with that, and he’ll ultimately bow to Thomas’s judgement if it conflicts with his own, but they are the only exceptions.

* This post.

* I don’t think about human AUs much, but, if you’ll allow me some projection: human Janus who’s nonbinary with eczema.

* An UnderTale related thought I posted months ago: A human Janus in that world would be a Determination (Red) soul, who has at times attempted and spectacularly failed at being a Patience soul. Put another way, the boy tries to plan and wait things out, but... you know.

* Lastly, he’s an enneagram type eight. Enjoy the song, and thanks for asking about my thoughts!