#does volo honestly want to help or does he want someone he can use more directly to achieve his goal?

[randomwriteronline]

In another life, Volo smiles in a way that gives his eyes a strange shape and says: “Don’t worry about tomorrow.”

Ingo looks up at him, piercing him with his blank gaze: “I’m afraid that mentioning something I should not worry about whilst not specifying what exactly that will be is bound to have the opposite effect on my peace of mind.”

Volo laughs softly, face turning genuine: “Something frightening will happen.”

“Ah. It is simply another part of the plan, I assume?”

“Very much so.”

“Thank you for warning me in advance.”

The merchant shakes a hand back and forth as if to say it’s nothing, index and middle finger raised. It looks like he’s giving him a holy blessing of sorts.

“If all goes well, you’ll even be home early!”

When the sky turns green and red, Ingo breathes evenly, and waits.

In another life, Ingo’s breath hitches in the night.

His hands are red and cold and he keeps repeating to himself, like a mantra, the instructions for covering one’s tracks in the snow while hunting or retreating as he follows them to the letter, just like the clan taught him, and thinking of the kind people makes his guilt jut a spike right through his chest, and he bites his lip and tries to ignore it.

The Lord sleeps with a quiet rumble that turns into a howling whistle as he exhales, the ice in his breath freezing Ingo all the way down to the marrow in his trembling bones. At least, it means he won’t wake up anytime soon.

He searches the enormous body feverishly, its every crack and nook. He peers into the dark maws as they open slightly: nothing. Until...

Overcome by such relief that he almost cries, he reaches out, at once careful and deliriously frantic, until his almost frostbitten grasp clenches around the stone. Maybe it’s his diminished sense of touch, but something about it feels completely alien in a manner he can’t understand, at once both above and below nature itself.

The Lord does not stir; Ingo rushes away, plate tight against his chest, masking his passage to pretend nothing happened tonight, absolutely nothing, while shame shrieks in his head unheard in the cold air about the assassination of trust he’s just tainted his hands with.

The Pearl Clan already has a home, whether a piece of the Original One is held in their possession or not.

He just wants to have a home again, too.

Ingo hopes they’ll understand.

In another life, the Survey Corps kid returns to Jubilife confused.

Pompous words echo in their mind: “If you’re talking about that pesky thing, it’s been dealt with. And it didn’t even leave a feather for all the trouble it caused!”

“Excuse me,” a voice that is outside their head snaps them back to reality.

Ingo, who barely talks to them outside of battles, greets them with a polite nod and his usual frown that reminds them in a way of Captain Cyllene’s.

“I hadn’t heard you had planned a detour to Mount Coronet tonight,” he starts off. “I suppose you too had been told of the commotion around Moonview Arena - I left for the Highlands just this morning to deal with it myself. I would have gladly spared you the trip.”

He produces a dark slab from one of his pockets and simply hands it to them.

They stare at it.

Neither makes a move for the next few seconds.

“I imagine this might be something of interest for you,” he says halfway between a question, an affirmation, and an encouragement.

The kid snaps out of their momentary stupor; they take it from his kind grip without much fanfare, mumbling their thanks as a quiet blush dusts their cheeks. They didn’t mean to just stand around like that - they feel terribly silly. He doesn’t seem to mind, thankfully.

Just as he turns to make his way back to the dojo with a quick tilt of his cap to bid his goodbyes, their voice rises again to catch his attention: “Did Sneasler give you one, too? A plate, I mean? Like this one?”

He follows their finger as it points to the object.

“The other Nobles gave me one,” they clarify sheepishly, ashamed of their forwardness: “Except Electrode and Avalugg. So I thought, maybe...”

The man hums as he considers their reasoning: “I wasn’t aware of such a thing before I was told. Perhaps she does still have it, unless she has shared it with someone else. I can inquire for Electrode as well once I return to the Highlands, though Avalugg is out of my jurisdiction, so - I’m afraid I cannot help with that. Gaeric always striked me as a helpful fellow, though; perhaps he’ll be able to lend you a hand.”

They smile brightly at him: “Thank you.”

They bow slightly before setting off for the next plate, and miss the unspoken lies the warden carefully tiptoes around telling them.

In another life, Volo’s eyes glimmer as they settle on the teen.

“You’ve been called here,” he proceeds, bout of loquaciousness still not extinguished, “You’ve been chosen, that’s plain to see. A grateful, merciful god doesn’t abandon its chosens - is it wrong to assume you’ll be granted a return from whence you came once your duty is done?”

His head tilts slightly to the side.

The kid can almost see his other eye behind golden hair.

“It must be an act of plain cruelty,” he says: “To be left in a time and place you don’t belong to, with no certainty you’ll go back.”

He smiles a little wider.

“Wouldn’t you agree?”

In another life, Volo finds the way that lost fool believes so blindly in his every word so pathetically amusing that he has to hold himself back from laughing in his face each time he crosses that look of wholehearted trust.

In another life, Volo slots a hopeless man’s only hope onto his back, together with the end of Cogita’s heartbroken grieving and his tremendous desire to do good, pure good, and his knees tremble a bit more under the expectations.

In another life, Ingo spends days in a cell torturing the wrist now forcibly freed of the warden bracelet to give himself some peace of mind, pacing back and forth, thinking furiously, to ignore the slight chill seeping into his undershirt from beneath his coat.

For an hour, he despairs about his predicament, about being betrayed, left like that; for another he berates himself for having believed so readily, for having given up community in exchange for myths and fairytales and empty promises; for another, he hates himself as much as the clan despises him, for the same reasons as them; for another, he hates the man in whose hands he so stupidly agreed to put his life.

After some time he stops thinking and only cries, cries, cries.

In another life, the kid gawks dumbly at the five missing plates as Volo carefully hides them back with a slight of hand that makes them disappear in mid-air, not expecting to have been beaten to them, not knowing two were stolen, two were given, and one was caught.

He smiles at them with an indecipherable expression. His free fingers extend, demandingly.

“Hand them over,” he orders, his voice like an airy laugh and his teeth as white as marble, as bleached and polished bone: “There’s a score I have been waiting far too long to settle with Arceus.”

“No!” they manage to blurt out amidst their state of shock, and though they gasp for breath no other words come out of their lips.

Volo smiles a little wider, looking past them.

“Please,” a voice that really does sound like it’s begging them rises from behind their back; Ingo stands, slouched but tense, and looks at them in the eyes. “I would advise complying with Volo’s request.”

The sentence stumbles out of their mouth: “What are you doing here?”

“I must catch a coincidence,” the man replies, unblinking, still as a statue: “My train departs from here, as soon as you kindly provide us with the plates.”

Confusion makes their brain swim as though they’d gotten a concussion.

They look back at the merchant. No explanation: his eyes have gotten narrower, more sinister as the setting sun dies into a halo behind blonde hair and casts a long, terrible shadow on the familiar face, turning it dark, grey, supernatural.

They look back at the warden. No explanation: his throat constricts as he gulps down a dry breath, his frame sways ever so slightly in an antsy worried uncertainty, his teeth catch a portion of his lip to bite and easy his anxiety.

Their gaze divided between the two, vocal chords fail them. Their head shakes, movement growing harsher as their footing turns steadier.

Ingo fetches a Pokéball out of his coat.

He waits for them to get one of their own to defend themselves with after fumbling a little for the surprise and fear, and swallows another breath.

His tone cracks under the terrible burden of plain, candid honesty: “I apologize,” he says, and his chest recoils into his shoulders like it really, really does hurt to force their hand like this, “It’s the only way I can go home.”

The apricorn ball leaves his hand: the Alpha Probopass once blessed to guard the Stone Plate roars above Spear Pillar.

In another life, Ingo listens carefully to the professor as he recounts the fight just a stairwell away from the sky (where he was supposed to be, had Kamado not requested he remain in the Village the whole day) as the kid beloved by Arceus told it.

“Ah,” he says once the other man finishes, pale beyond belief, looking almost sick: “Thank goodness he was stopped.”

He spends half of the night biting into his arm to muffle his cries of despair. He leaves the village during the other half, uncaring of any Pokémon or people who might encounter him, heading to the Cobalt Coastlands: his hands bleed and the soles of his shoes crack as he scales the seaside cliffs until he’s finally reached the top of the tower of rock overgrown with moss, shivering as his muscles scream, and he enters the cave the uncatious scientist revealed to him as the hiding place of the terrible creature who might be his last chance at returning from where he came.

In another life, Volo breathes slowly as the dark coat falls further and further down the side of the mountain, following the itinerary of a smaller body.

His palms sweat. He dries them on the marble.

Casualties weren’t planned.

Grabbing the Sky Flute for himself, mind numbed by the sight of two people careening down the mountain at his hands, some part of him soothes him.

He’ll fix that too, along with everything else, in just a moment.

In another life, the man looks at him like he’s out of his mind.

Volo laughs gently: “I don’t blame your disbelief.”

“It’s not-” the other tries to excuse himself, “I just - you - how can you be so certain that it was-?”

“-The work of Arceus?” he finishes. “I doubt it could be anybody else’s. Few beings could harness a power to cause your situation, and it’s not like Its children of Space and Time to cause such misfortunes in Its stead - no, they’ve had an example of what punishment could be for them far too long ago, with their sibling’s banishment.”

“Their sibling’s?”

Volo’s finger wags in the air as his tone turns paradoxically excited in the span of a second, clashing with the tense atmosphere: “Yes, a third god of reality directly descended from the Original One! Most information about it has been lost to time, but it was a truly sad creature, doomed from its birth. Could you believe it, that it was purposefully made to oppose its Parent, and as soon as it followed the very nature instilled into it the Creator banished it into a world opposite ours? Would you consider such behaviour befitting of a kind God?”

The man shakes his head, dismayed.

“Is it hard to believe it would allow such a terrible thing to happen to you, then?”

“How - how did you know, about... That god?”

Ah. A fair question, all things considered - though it is awfully rude to ignore the one asked first.

The merchant tilts his head in a playfully conspiratorial manner: “I’m a bit of a scholar, though I may not look it,” he reveals: “Old myths, ancient buildings, half-buried artifacts, nearly lost religions - with how much I travel the region I was bound to get curious about its history, no? And snooping around enough, I’ve collected quite a bit of knowledge. That’s why I made my proposal to you.”

He pulls back away from the poor lost fellow: “You didn’t believe me to be a charlatan, I hope!” he exclaims suddenly, visible eye theatrically wide.

The sheepish look he gets back is expected, and tears a chuckle out of him.

“I did not mean to offend,” the man apologizes.

“Be not afraid! You’ve done no harm. I’m used to being considered peculiar among my peers, not sure if you’re familiar.”

“Ah - yes, I would be.”

A slightly more relaxed feeling oozes through the air between them. His pitch continues, flowing smoother out of his lips: “You needn’t worry either way,” he grins kindly, “I wouldn’t make an offer like that without being able to properly back up my claim.”

He explains it all, or at least as much as is necessary to convince him, skirting around finer details that might scare him into thinking Volo utterly insane and send him running back with his tail between his legs to the clan he barely knows but already seems ready to latch onto with the ferocity of a Shinx ambushing a Wurmple and refusing to let its bite go even while the Bug wriggles disgustingly in its mouth. He speaks of his studies, his ambition, of how despite being so unfathomable a God can still be battled and rendered submissive - how that is the only way to get anything out of one; he speaks of how he hates the helplessness of humanity against the terrible things that are simply allowed to befall the world, and how he wants to stop that.

He can see a particular light in the white eyes, a glimmer of interest and hope nudging the lost soul closer to Volo; but the dark clad arms are still held tight to his chest, and there’s uncertainty in the clouds his breaths make.

“Is it truly the only way?” he asks.

Ah - a pacifist. Didn’t strike him as one, used to battling as he is, but he has seen things change enough with the centuries for this to make sense.

“Believe it or not, it’s the least tedious one,” Volo answers. His finger rests in the air, only a few inches away from the pale straight nose, as if chiding his naivety: “Otherwise you’d need his children, the gods of Space and Time; but you’ll be hard pressed to find a member of each clan even simply keen on recognizing the other’s Sinnoh as equal to their own.”

He can see how he understands immediately. It’s common knowledge, after all.

Volo smiles; his grey eye squints a little.

His voice is sweet as honey as he speaks: “Besides, I’ve done most of the work already. All that’s left to do is collecting the plates.”

Before he can be questioned about them he produces a dusty purplish slab seemingly from nowhere. Its mere presence is enough to make the air itself feel different, caught in invisible wisps of ghastly tendrils, tasting on the tongue like dried blood, gaining the unreal scent of an abandoned abode being unsealed for the first time after ages of disuse.

He can feel it though his fingertips, the droning, dormant power held within. He can feel Giratina’s long body wrap around his arm to nibble at the piece of its Parent, seeiking revenge, seeking redemption, seeking affection.

The gaze staring confusedly at it is nonetheless equally mesmerized.

“Pieces of the Original One,” he mutters, “Carved by Its legendary hero, no less. One for each type, scattered across the entirety of Hisui. Once all are gathered, one may reach Its realm and challenge It.”

The man eyes it quietly for a little, before asking: “Where have you found this?”

“In a place of worship long forgotten,” he replies with a smile. “Though I’m certain the old hero hid some in easier places to find, maybe even with his trusted Pokémon, who passed them down through the generations. Those should be much less of a hassle to get, don’t you think?”

The other hums thoughtfully.

He fiddles with his hands, trying to decide. What is there to mull over, Volo wonders? He’s made himself plenty clear: he understands how awful the situation must be for him; he sympathizes with his desire to return where he belongs; he wants to help him achieve just that; he has the knowledge and means to do so.

He’s his best chance.

His only chance.

A breath shivers into dead pale lips.

“Are you certain?” the man insists: “That I would not be a bother to you?”

Volo’s laugh is airy, kind: “You’re a victim of cosmic injustice,” he replies: “I cannot stand to see your suffering. It would be my honor to lend you a hand.”

A bout of silence; then the clear eyes turn bright, the slouched stance straightens slightly, the tone of his words becomes emphatic: “Allow me to repay you by helping, then - since you’ve done so much already. I don’t know how effective I will be, but if I can shorten the time for your plan to come into fruition even by a minute I’ll be gladly to assist you any way I can. As a token of my gratitude, for your kindness.”

Another chuckle breaks the cold air between them into fine shards. Blonde hair sways in the cold: “Who am I to deny such a passionate request?”

They shake hands, their pact sealed.

[windfalljng]

was thinking really really hard the other night about the windfalls. promise and volo are opposites in so many different ways it's sucking the normal juice out of me and i have to talk about this to someone other than my 4 twitter followers who don't give a fuck about voidpet characters. i get way too nervous to type paragraphs in the discord so instead of that i think i will spread it here... lots of words warning. i haven't gone over this for editing because i am tired. schade

there are a lot of little design pieces i want to talk about but to start off with some obvious comparisons... we have simple stuff like their personalities (volo being more closed off while promise lives on attention. introvert extrovert difference). but the first thing i thought of has to do with volo excelling physically versus promise with his immense mental strength... particularly on promise's capabilities, in the windfall family slideshow posted by linda on tiktok she actually does go over promise's lack of physical strength with points like. "will lose to a regular human in a fistfight" (hilarious) and "fights sitting down with his eyes closed" (less proving. maybe just there because it's fucking silly but i'm adding it here as reason anyways) promise is mentally powerful but weaker physically while on the contrary volo is noted to be physically powerful. they're like on opposite sides of the damage type thing. coin

this one is especially prominent in the stage descriptions but there's the way they push promise's villainy theme and emphasize his questionable morals far more than they do for any of the siblings while volo is like the only one out of the four windfall children who's doing something that's good for the world such as running a charity or becoming a surgeon... building off of this there's also the fact that it was specifically stated in the broadway video that volo is his favourite child while he is PERPETUALLY DISAPPOINTED IN HIS SON PROMISE!!! as broadway is a philanthropist i feel like he is probably quite proud of volo for helping society. similarly the whole villain thing promise has going on conflicts with broadway's superhero thing so yeah. "doubles down on greedy villain aesthetic to spite dad" congratulations it worked

then there's small shit like promise's eyes being Unbelievably Fucking Bright, even brighter than both pecunia and pandora's, in comparison to volo's which are the darkest throughout all of the siblings' stages, even without counting for the later changes in eye colour which literally turn the sclera black. truthfully this one was a bit of a stretch and i think arguments concerning eye colour fit a lot better in a different group of thoughts but i want to include it anyways because why are promise's eyes so fucking bright oh my god

more seriously though there's also how volo's passion lies with studying voidpets and a lot of what he does generally concerns helping other people while promise's focus thing is his own quest for power which is objectively way more selfish. amd then if u compare their stage 5 descriptions from garden you can look at promise and see how it's implied especially at that point that promise wanting to focus on self care and taking it easy, combined with the fact that he's always online, shows that by stage 5 he honestly isn't very productive anymore because he's already found his successes and feels like there's kind of nothing more he needs to do. so he doesn't do more. he's living comfortably with minimal further involvement in working... like it doesn't even tell us which branch of windfall inc. he leads when all the other siblings have one mentioned in their stage 5 description (volo nonprofit, pecunia finances, pandora is chair)

and speaking of the other windfall children if we go back to volo guess what the fuck he's doing in stage 5. he continues to be successful in fundraising! he runs the nonprofit of windfall inc.! and in his spare time what the fuck does he do? does he take time off like a normal person? relax like his brother promise? no he's a FUCKING SURGEON WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HIM this guy does NOT take breaks. which is completely opposite promise who by the end of his stages seems like he's kind of doing Nothing. genuinely promise takes enough time off for the two of them combined

i feel like the most interesting comparison between the two has to do with their own kind of recovery... in one of linda's tiktoks she explains that in voidpet the heroes (freshmen) represent trauma and the villains (windfalls) represent healing. volo's healing is basically him not giving a fuck about what other people think of him and promise's healing is loving himself / taking care ofhimself. however promise doesn't have volo's in the way that he does give a fuck about what kind of attention he gets from other people he may actually give too much of a fuck... volo ends up learning not to care what other people think while his brother promise actually does care a lot about attention and the way he is perceived. unexpectedly i was thinking about this several days before any of the other points and i think it's really cool how promise's recovery, his intense love of himself, might end up fuelling an egotistical desire for attention... not cool in the way that it's necessarily a good thing for him but it. gives me thoughts. many thoufhts

(real tweet by me. i'm still in a crisis)

don't think i'll get far into it in this post because it's a bit much to write about and my initial thread was rather personal and i really really do not want to get into the raskolnikov complex at 4 in the morning because that will absolutely set me off into space. i may have been projecting and i am not Quite ready to post it on public internet. there are too many words for me to write i don't know if i can do this. oh my fucking god these characters make me so??? i have to keep talking about them or i will explode. it's so over

[absolutepokemontrash]

Hi! So, I absolutely love your series where the MC is the kid of Lucifer, and I was wondering if I could request that with Diavolo and Barbatos? •v•

:0 you definitely can! Right now I’m just doing Diavolo, but Barb’s will be up sometime soon!

MC is Half Demon and Oh Shit They’re Diavolo’s Kid-

Diavolo wasn’t exactly what one would expect of the prince of Hell, I mean, he was suppressing the urge to bounce in his seat from pure excitement. I mean, his exchange program was starting! Humans, demons, and angels, all together, his dream was coming true.

All that was left was for the student to arrive, the portal opened, and the human fell flat on their back. Oof, maybe Diavolo should have set up some kind of landing zone filled with pillows. No matter! The human was-

…

What peculiar eyes this human had…

Oh… oh dear…

Dad-volo

The MC was his child, no question about it. This was… very unexpected. Well, the entire assembly hall was completely quiet, and the kid looked like they were getting impatient.

“HEY! Mind telling me what the hell is going on?!”

After that, Diavolo launches into his explanation, also the explanation that he’s definitely this kid’s dad. Kid was not impressed, they tried to square up with Diavolo and Lucifer had never been more confused as to what to do.

Well, the moment MC sprouted wings and launched themselves at Diavolo, Dia caught them with one hand and continued speaking like nothing happened.

MC, please calm down… Diavolo didn’t know they existed, let him make it up to them! They’re going to stay at the Demon Lord’s Castle! Dia’s going to be a good dad!

“This feels like the plot to the world’s most messed up fairytale.” MC jammed their hands into their pockets and grumbled. “I get sucked into hell and find out I’m royalty there. Great.”

Diavolo managed to smile and awkwardly reach out to give them a pat on the head, then retracted his hand after the kid shot him a glare. “Well, it’s not a very traditional fairytale, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy your time here.”

“Mm, sure.” MC mumbled.

Okay, so his child wasn’t that enthusiastic about the exchange program, but Diavolo was sure they’d come around.

Dia tried everything he could possibly think of to get his kid to both like him and enjoy their time as an exchange student. A lot of things had… mixed results.

Also, legally recognizing MC as his child and legitimizing them caused a big stink amongst the nobles who were opposed to the exchange program to begin with. So MC then had to deal with a few assassins. Wonderful. Fantastic. Show stopping. Dia, be a good dad and comfort your angsty murder target- I MEAN preteen.

They do manage to build a good relationship fairly quickly despite their less than stellar first impressions, and Diavolo made them a promise that he knew he wouldn’t ever break: he would let them live as normal a childhood as possible.

This means that MC gets to do all the normal kid stuff that Diavolo wasn’t allowed to do. It honestly works out great for everyone. MC gets to live their life, Diavolo gets the satisfaction of knowing that his kid’s having fun, and Barbatos doesn’t need to worry about MC causing chaos in the castle.

Man… does this kid’s magic potential scare the shit out of everyone though…

Tired Uncle Lucifer

No. This has to be a violation of his worker rights. It cannot be legal for him to be this stressed.

He knew this exchange program was a bad idea. LUCIFER FUCKING KNEW IT. This kid was judging him. Why did he suddenly feel self conscious about every single one of his features? This child was picking him apart and they hadn’t even said anything!

He confiscated Asmo’s phone immediately, this was a matter of national security! Satan’s too! Beel as- oh shit Lucifer may have to give Beel the heimlich maneuver, then take his phone.

When all the brothers eventually got back to the HOL, they were greeted with Mammon getting shaken down by Levi.

“Lucifer! Ya won’t believe this! Levi- what’s wrong with you?” “The exchange student is Diavolo’s child.” “What..?” “*pops the cork off a bottle of Demonus* the exchange student’s Diavolo’s child.”

The worst part about this kid was that they took to the privileges of being royalty like a fish to water. MC went out and did whatever the fuck they wanted, and Lucifer needed to make sure a state of national emergency wasn’t called just because MC picked a fight at RAD.

It didn’t help that MC was just so unimpressed with Lucifer. Anytime Lucifer would tell them not to do something they would just raise their eyebrows and challenge his authority without saying a word.

What the fuck.jpg

The things he does for his prince boyfriend…

Cool Uncle Mammon

Huh, so this little pipsqueak is Lord Diavolo‘s kid? Hm, do ya think they’d let him into the royal treasury? No? Okay… lame.

Mammon then decides this kid would be just perfect for scamming people! Who is going to say no to the Crown Prince’s kid? A suicidal person, that’s who!

And the kid is… up for it? Wow, Mammon didn’t even have to grovel! Awesome!

It’s such a shame that Lucifer came in and promptly removed MC from Mammon’s presence. Tsk, killjoy…

Mammon and MC do get along swimmingly after MC stops angsting. Whenever they hang out it’s pure chaos.

And they would have gotten away with it too- wait, they do get away with it. Because who’s going to question the Crown Prince’s kid? >:)

Reclusive Uncle Leviathan

Levi was in the middle of throttling Mammon for his money back when Lucifer burst through the door looking like he had spent over 1000 Grimm on a gacha game only to not get the card he wanted.

And where was that human he said would be staying with them? Huh? The human’s HUH????!!!!

… wack. Maybe he shouldn’t have skipped out on that Student Council Meeting…

Either way, ew, new person he needed to talk to. NO THANKS. Well, no thanks until MC started to visit the HOL to hang out with Mammon. Of course those two normies decided to bug him. OF COURSE.

Levi finally snapped when MC loudly proclaimed that they could totally beat Levi in Mario Kart. Haha, NO. Levi challenged the little runt to a 1 v 1 race on Rainbow Road.

Kid lost. Obviously. Rainbow Road is rigged.

Honestly, kid’s alright. Still a total normie, but not completely terrible.

Cat Uncle Satan

Huh, a half human child of the soon to be demon king, how very interesting.

Oh, and just look at Lucifer’s face. :D priceless. Satan wished he was fast enough to get his DDD out to snap a picture, but he wasn’t able to…

But back to MC, oh how very intriguing. How much power do they have in comparison to Diavolo? Will using that power rip their fragile little body apart? Would they learn to control it? Satan was just dying to find out.

His feelings on the child themselves were mixed at best. They were clearly unhappy with the situation and Satan could sympathize, being thrust into a completely new world and then being told you can’t leave and are also royalty? That has to be hard. But this kid was still being an unreasonable little shit.

Satan continued to try and study MC from afar until the kid themselves walked right up to him and half demanded half pleaded for his help in studying for a test.

Not being one to avoid an opportunity to flex how smart he is, Satan agreed to help out. (Nerrrrd)

And honestly, it went well. When the kid wasn’t being a little shit, they were actually quite pleasant to be around.

Overly Affectionate Uncle Asmo

…wut

Listen, when Asmo asked Lucifer to pick a cute human, he didn’t mean cute as in CHILD.

This kid was DIAVOLO’S?! What lucky human had gotten to have the experience of [Jesus Fucking Christ, Asmo I’m not writing what he said for the sake of the nation]

Anyhoo~ little MC just made his heart go “SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SO CUTE!” They were so cute Asmo could just eat them up!

But they were so mean! That scowl they always had on was going to give them wrinkles and ruin their perfectly cute face!

Sigh, oh well. He can’t manually rearrange people’s expressions. What he can do is take this child shopping. Poor Diavolo was constantly in his RAD uniform, this poor innocent baby shouldn’t have to suffer the same fate.

The kid continued to scowl at everything, but at the same time, their little quips were very entertaining. This little kid spitting verbal venom at anyone who displeased them reminded Asmo of someone… he just couldn’t place who, but they definitely had amazing hair and a cute face :3

Hungry Uncle Beel

Where’s the takeout- I mean human? What’s happening? …are all humans this small? Dang, that’s barely enough for a snack.

So the human’s not going to live with us because they’re not fully human and Diavolo’s kid? Huh. Wild. Anyway, what’s for dinner?

Beel’s not too invested in this drama, he misses Belphie too much to be that interested…

The kid’s weirdly interested in how cool and strong Beel is though. MC tails him to the gym pretty often.

Diavolo and Beel already being gym buddies send tweet-

Since this benevolent little shit likes Beel so much, they decided to take it upon themselves to help with the family drama.

Beel finds that very sweet 🥺

Murder sleepy Uncle Belphie

Oh man… if you thought Belphie was being unfair to L!MC due to their parentage… hoo boy…

When this kid waltzed up the attic steps like they ran the place, Belphie needed to hold himself back from trying to break down the door and throttle this kid.

Pff, of course Diavolo would have a half human kid. Of course.

…kid beat the shit out of him when he tried to kill them. We stan this MC.

After all is said and done, Belphie still isn’t overly fond of MC. They’re brash and rude and only funny 40% of the time. They don’t even like napping 😒

But Beel likes the little runt, so Belphie and MC put up with each other.

Bonus! Your Angelic Uncle Simeon’s Chihuahua

:0 friend!

MC: *speaks*

>:0 not friend! Begone! *throws crucifix*

[lady-byleth]

Ok, ok, ok, so I read your post about how the Big Twist of Volo actually being totally bonkers was unforeshadowed, and I agree for the grand majority of this statement.

I mean, he has not one, not two, but THREE Pokemon that can only evolve through friendship, and two of them are ones that can sense auras and should know if Volo is evil, which I don't believe he is - he made some mistakes (and yes, those mistakes are pretty BIG ones...), but maybe he always felt some resentment towards Arceus for the suffering he endured, and Giratina, being an eldritch abomination who ALSO held some resentment for Arceus, ended up amplifying those feelings to a dangerous degree.

People say that the backstrike technique he teaches you was supposed to count as foreshadowing, and I guess I can see it, maybe? But... I'm just not seeing the grandness in the twist like everybody else is.

I swear I'm not saying all this because he's pretty. I'm just having a difficult time processing that his entire personality, his interactions with the protagonist up to that point were all a horrible lie. I feel like there's some good in him and he deserves a chance at redemption, you know?

Right?! Half his team evolves with friendship and you'd have to be able to keep this act up UNINTERRUPTED for weeks on end and I don't believe there's anyone who could do that. Plus, why go out of his way to have a cute little photo taken with his Togepi if he didn't love the little thing? No one would've questioned if he didn't do it, that something he did for himself.

And the backstrike technique...I guess that could count but we use it too and we get rewards for using it. If it was like...something he mentioned and then the game punished you for using underhand tactics, then I could totally see it as foreshadowing.

Also, the biggest thing I don't get is, why in God's name does he help CLOSE THE SPACE TIME RIFT if he's trying to use it to drag out Arceus?

I mean, when you get banished he goes out of his way to find you, brings you to Cogita and then tags along with you and Adaman/Irida to find the Red Chain. Why would he do that? What's the rationale behind this?

There's also the thing after you catch Giratina where the Prof informs you that Volo came to him, explained Giratina decided to watch over the region cuz you whooped its ass and then he just calmly left. Considering he was very vocal about his hatred for you after his loss, why would he go out of his way to inform you of this?

Plus, he and Giratina weren't even close to each other when it decided this cuz it must've happened after you beat it again, why else would it try to kill you a second time? This makes ME believe they really were connected on a mental level, the way Dialga and Palkia are with Adaman and Irida and after you catch it that bond was severed. He seems to revert back to his calm personality immediately after and even says he wants the pokedex to be finished

And to top it all off, something that would've been a really big oversight if unintentional, Akari and Rei don't seem to bear him any ill will. When he's mentioned their faces are either sad or neutral and we know that there is an angry expression they could've used. But they don't seem to be angry at him, despite the fact that he TRIED TO KILL THEM AND DESTROY REALITY. Not to mention that you can fucking DRESS LIKE HIM after you beat Arceus. Why would you willingly dress like someone who tried to kill you unless you still care about them a great deal?

Anyway, there's a lot more pointing to this being Giratina's doing and a lot of nothing that indicated this is really all just Volo being a dick. I mean, Giratina probably amplified his emotions to the point of villainy cuz he says he had some resentment before meeting it, but it wasn't all him. He's definitely not above redemption and honestly, given he left a message instead of telling you himself, he's probably feeling pretty guilty about the whole thing too

Anyway, this got long cuz I'm still mad about it xD thanks for the message, I'm glad someone sees things the way I do!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Patches

As I sit and finish some character sheets I’ve been meaning to put together for Shenanigans (I’m hoping to have enough spoons to do Shenanigans so I’d like to at least be ready; this week has been just hell on wheels and I haven’t managed to finish the last one I need), there’s a thing I’ve noticed about D&D in terms of sourcebooks: In terms of character and class balance, it feels an awful lot like playing Overwatch.

Just, like ... you’ve got your classic races and classes, and those were balanced to work with each other. But then you have your races in Volo’s, and your classes in Xanathar’s, and whole other races and classes in other books, and none of them were necessarily balanced with the PHB stuff in mind. So they put out variants for the classic races and classes (hello, Tasha’s) to try to balance them out. Except Tasha’s gives new classes too so the tweaks to the classic races and classes are more balanced for those than they are for some of the other ones in different books and you end up with a situation where depending on what you’re going for, playing ... say, human, or even half-elf or something ... just stops being worth it.

Plus these tweaks and even attempts at rebalance cost an awful lot of money, whereas at least Overwatch just patches the damn things into the game. Yes, someone is incredibly grumpy about Tasha’s and Monsters of the Multiverse. Particularly that last, because I already have Mordenkainen’s and Xanathar’s and Volo’s but MotM gives us tweaks and changes and I’m going to have to decide whether I use that one next campaign or whether I stick with my three.

I swear before all the gods, this is my impetus to actually write Torinn’s Guide to Elossa. If I want one fucking sourcebook that’s going to cover everything I need it to cover without any arguments about which sourcebooks we can and cannot use, I’m just going to have to write it myself. That’s honestly what the Saturday Shenanigans are for - not only does it help me flesh out the game world (this next batch of Shenanigans are going to be based on the sea-based settlements of the Moskoy people), but it lets me know what races I should include, which ones I need to tweak and how, and what I can just fucking leave out. Also saves the whole “You can have some of the races from X book but not that one“ issue.

(No Changelings. That is the rule. Shit’s complicated enough as it is, especially with an eight-person party in the main campaign. I wasn’t going to include minotaurs either but Brian had such a good idea and I made it work on an accidental dimension-hop technicality and tweaked a few bits and pieces to balance his beefy ass a little better with the rest of the party and so these things are flexible, sometimes. Just not with Changelings.)

And yeah, I could get the online versions of all of these where the tweaks are probably built in, but fuck that; I don’t really like reading sourcebooks on the computer. It’s great if I need to look up a very specific thing, but I need to be able to flip through the actual dead tree book if I’m going to use it for inspirational purposes. And honestly, beyond the base rules, that’s all I use the books for anyway. I use them the way Dr Frankenstein used morgues and the like - pick the best bits for what I want to create and put them together. Which reminds me of a comment a friend of mine made when I was explaining one of my players’ characters and the choice of god made him go “Pfft; go Realms or go home”. My response was as the above: “Pfft right back at you; I’m doing homebrew - picking the best of everything and stitching it all together into something glorious. Like Dr Frankenstein!”

He said: “...Created a monster that ended up killing him?”

So I just said, “If there’s a better way of describing a campaign from a DM’s point of view, I haven’t heard it yet”.

On that note, back to water genasi kensei monk. And wondering whether I require more coffee for this. ...Probably. I always require more coffee. And then I need to do some gardening; it’s time to repot some mint and strawberries. And after that we’ll see if I have the spoons to actually run a thing after working on character sheet. Yeesh.

[themadauthorshatter]

I talked about Cal being the prince of Norta.

And I have a hard time feeling fond of or sympathy for Ptolemus.

I guess I'm just doing another analysis thing😂😂

SO

How does Ptolemus's life start?

As the son of Volo Samos, who we've been told withholds affection as a punishment, holds the bar insanely high, and is literally a human stonewall. Think Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones, but with a much lower tolerance for nonsense and/or stupidity and metal bending; so if you piss this guy off too much, he will make you regret it in one way or another.

WE'VE SEEN IN SLAP SOMEONE FOR DISOBEYING HIS ORDERS.

I honestly can't imagine what Volo did to his son when he did something like sneak a sweet or tell a small lie or even do something most normal kids would do growing up, like try to impress what little friends he had or slip up a little in training or lessons or talk to a silver girl he thought was pretty.

In the instance of Cal, all the crown prince would get is a slap on the wrist and a reminder he's already intended for Evangeline.

For Ptolemus, that would probably not be the case. I don't know if Volo would wait for him to return or retrieve his son himself, but either way I can see him berating his son like he'd slept with the girl rather than just talked with her, maybe even tell him that those who are Samos born are not common whores who seduce everyone they see.

If Ptolemus slipped up in training, Volo would ask if his hard work was a sort of 'thanks' to his parents, who raise him with love, give him clothes and a bed, and even an education. And how does he repay them? By slacking off. By taking what he has for granted.

Essentially, he'd tear Ptolemus apart with words, making sure he makes his son guilty for not meeting those expectations Volo has.

I should note that in the eyes of Volo Samos, he is not doing anything wrong. He's ensuring his son is strong and keeping the legacy of House Samos alive. It's a heavy expectation and Ptolemus needs to be ready to take up that mantle, even if it means he needs to be reprimanded for acting like a fool in his father's eyes.

A Samos does not act like a fool, and Volo is eventually going to die one way or another, so he needs a strong base to continue building the Samos legacy on.

Now being the future King of Norta has its own pressures and weight on the shoulders, but I would dare to argue that Cal probably had it a little easier than Ptolemus.

Let me explain.

Sure, Cal was most likely only raised by nurse maids and Julian, but he usually didn't have to worry about getting verbally torn apart because he barely stepped put of line; being King means you CANNOT step out of line. Cal must be nothing but perfect and it's something he's carried with him since a young age. Couple that with the fact that his father was barely around to raise him properly and Elara avoided him like a plague, and we have a good picture on why Cal is the way he is.

Compare all that to Ptolemus. Son of Volo Samos, who is a no nonsense, takes shit from no one, "Be late or slip up in any way, and I'll impale your head on a fence" man and father, who expects nothing but greatness and success, and punishes those for not meeting those expectations.

I'd dare to even say he'd be a much harsher king than Tibe was, whether that would be through literally ending the Scarlet Guard himself while they were still small or easy to hit.

It doesn't get easier because Evangeline is born and made into Cal's betrothed, and is compared to Ptolemus for everything she does. If not that, then he has to see her by exactly what he was, but can't help because it's a lesson SHE has to learn.

Something I just realized was this line Ptolemus says in War Storm: "You trained us too well."

Ptolemus and Evangeline didn't grow up with Rane Arven training them, like Cal and Maven.

They were trained by their father, who is possibly a VERY unforgiving opponent and mentor.

This might be where Ptolemus's rage comes from.

Think of it like this: You're fighting as hard as you can against your own father. You're MAYBE 17 or 16 years old and you cannot get this guy down no matter how hard you try. Your father calls you weak and says that training will continue tomorrow.

You've been training your ASS off and are improving, but your father only sees that you can't beat him in a duel.

In a blind rage, you flip out. All the metal you can use bends to your will and shoots toward your father as you charge toward him, ready to fight again.

AND YOU WIN.

For that reason, I think that's what led to Ptolemus having such a bad temper in book 1, where we see his rage the most.

'You're Samos born. A Silver with status and power. You will really allow a Red to kill you and your sister?'

'You'll call that traitor your friend? After what he did? And what of the Red rat beside him? Is she as innocent as he is? Are both their hands clean of blood?'

One more point I want to bring up was the fact that he felt bad for Shade's death.

He was aiming for Mare in Corros, but Shade quite literally appeared out of nowhere.

I think seeing how Shade's death effected Mare and Farley and the other Barrows, and remembering how scared he possibly was to lose his sister on numerous occasions led to him feeling remorseful for what he did.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[iris-sistibly]

4R’s: Encantadia Season 2 (April 24, 2017 episode review)

Episode 199

Recap:

Herans vs Sang’gres

The sisters met the Herans just outside Lireo. To prevent a bloody battle between New Etheria and Hathoria against Lireo, Sapiro, and Hathoria under Pirena’s rule, the Herans challenged the sang’gres on a three on three battle, and one rule: the sang’gres were not allowed to use their gems, Danaya accepted the challenge. Alena and Odessa came in first, Alena was defeated, then Pirena and Andora but Mine-a’s eldest effortlessly defeated Andora in battle, Hara Danaya fought Juvila but was defeated, despite the Herans gaining the upper hand, the sisters refused to be defeated, thus they worked together and brought down the Herans. Hagorn and Asval were watching them from afar to see if anything’s changed in how the sang’gres fight after many years, but Hagorn found out that they were still the same—they are still too proud like their mother, Mine-a. Hagorn showed up and blasted energy against the sisters using the air and spirit gems, Hagorn warned them to prepare for another battle against his troop and left. Pirena knew Hagorn wouldn’t just march with his troop in Lireo just like that without having any intentions, thus they consulted Imaw’s cane to find out about Hagorn’s new camp but the staff showed none, Hitano suspected that they casted a protective spell to wherever they were hiding to prevent the sang’gres from locating them.

Butterflies in her stomach

Pirena found Azulan drinking in her room and asked what he was doing there. Azulan figured she needed a drink and handed her a glass of liquor, Azulan expressed her admiration towards Pirena, smart, cunning, brave, and a hard-core drinker, and despite her not being the ideal Punjabwe-a Azulan has always dreamed of, he can’t help himself but fall for her. Azulan and Pirena shared a kiss and the former told the queen how much he wanted her to be his, something which Pirena could not believe, but it wasn’t the time for Pirena to think of herself, for she still has so many things that she wanted to do, and until then, Azulan has to wait until Pirena’s ready to be his.

Only hope

Emre and Cassiopeia had no more time to travel the world to look for Haliyah’s weapon, thus Emre summoned a pashnea friend and asked to look for the de-jar instead. While they wait, Cassiopeia tended Emre and herself and prepared an herbal drink in hopes to slow down Ether’s poison. Emre expressed how grateful he was to Cassiopeia for doing so many things for Encantadia, until now, Emre admits he still feels guilty for the fall of Devas. Cassiopeia reminded him that they all make mistake and it’s up to them to correct it. Now, all they could hope is that the sang’gres will be strong and wise enough to protect themselves while they still haven’t made it to Devas.

Memoirs of the great queen

Pao Pao overheard the conversation of the monarchs and told his friends about it, apparently Muyak and Ariana were talking about something else. Ariana was still frustrated at how Azulan and Manik still force her to marry the latter, Pao Pao advised Ariana to stand firm on her decision, after all she’s old enough to be responsible with her own life, but unlike the mortal world, Encantadia—let alone the Punjabwe tribe have very different way of living, and whether they like it or not, they must abide to their rules at any cost. Muyak accidentally blurted about Ariana harboring feelings for someone else, someone whom Pao Pao knew very well—Rama Ybrahim. Ariana pleaded her friends not to tell anyone about it which Pao Pao and Muyak promised, what they didn’t know was, Manik overheard their conversation and became jealous. He immediately went to Azulan and told him that they should return to their home that very day, for fear of Ariana falling deeply in-love with Ybrahim. Azulan refused to leave and assured him that he will not approve of this, and another reason why he doesn’t want to leave yet was because of Hara Pirena, not until she choose to go with him.

Ariana passed by the armory and saw Amihan’s sword, out of curiosity, she went in to check it out, a memory triggered in her mind and had a vision of the late Hara Amihan’s past—how her father was killed and how her father’s sword became her weapon and used it for many, many years, from the time she learned how to fight until she became queen of Lireo. Ariana was surprised and puzzled as to why she suddenly caught a glimpse of Amihan’s life, Ybrahim saw Ariana holding Amihan’s sword and asked her what she was doing, Ariana asked how this sword fell in the hands of Amihan which Ybrahim narrated that the sword was originally owned by Amihan’s father, Raquim. When he died in the hands of Hagorn, Amihan never let the sword go despite of Mine-a’s disapproval. Ariana was surprised that everything Ybrahim said was exactly the same as her vision and asked Ybrahim why Amihan is making Ariana see her memories, Punjabwe is located in the one of the most secluded place in Encantadia and any news about Lireo rarely reaches the tribe and Ariana swore she never knew her. Ybrahim ended the conversation and asked Ariana to return the sword and leave, Ybrahim was becoming more and more confused as to what Amihan was trying to tell Ariana or tell him.

Ybrahim vs Juvila

The Herans and Asval went back to Lireo and confirmed that the sang’gres indeed strengthened the barrier in the palace, but it wasn’t a problem to the Herans. Juvila has the ability to speed up or slow down time (which presumably also slowed down Lireo’s protective spell if you ask me), the very reason why she was able to get through the barrier and inside the palace. Ybrahim sensed that there was an intruder in the palace, he was correct, Juvila appeared and the two engaged in a brawl. Being a Heran of Hera Volo, Juvila is known to be Etheria’s most skilled warrior (reference: original Etheria, duh). Ybrahim was in danger, and Manik who saw the whole ordeal watched in delight.

Rave/s:

❤ YOWN! Pirena is blooming af, hindi ako sanay mga bes Hahahaha! My heart has been broken for so long after the death of the YbraMihan love story, and the forever bitin love story of DanQuil. I hope AzPiren do not go on the same route, although I do wish that they have told the AzPiren’s love story from Azulan’s point of view just to challenge Marx and try to bring out the best in him.

🌷 In fairness, hindi na nagbabasa ng script si tuod (sarkosi), nag me-memorize na siya, hahahahahaha! Although most of that tension came from Ru, I guess the improvement I see in Arra is that she doesn’t sound like oral reading anymore, and is starting to deliver her lines in an almost natural way (because it’s not up there yet), and her face is starting to show some bits and pieces of different emotions, at least her face is not that blank anymore, at least she doesn’t look like a tuod in this episode…well not that much, acting still needs more improvement, she needs to connect more with both Amihan and Ariana’s characters, I don’t know if she’s really studying her character and watching her previous performances but if she does, she have to keep doing it, because her performance is still inconsistent like this story, I still hate how this story is going and I just hope everything will be better when Marian returns to the show, because Mine-a is the only one who can save this show from epic failure.

Rant/s:

😂 I’m sorry but Jinri is too cute to be a villain I can’t take her seriously. That wrestling scene with Ru made me laugh so hard that shit was an epic fail, sorry Rama but Jinri just ruined it.

🙄I am guessing Marian’s return will be next week. Oh well.

QUESTION: Do you all honestly think that there’s gonna be an Ybrahim-Juvila affair instead of Ybrahim-Odessa? Just asking, although Juvila’s bebe love is Animus, do you think they are going to make his character cease to exist, considering that Juvila is Amihan’s counterpart in the original saga?

Best performer/s for this episode: Glaiza de Castro 🔥

Rating: 8 out of 10💎s  

Credits to: GMA network via YouTube and Dailymotion @GMAEncantadia (Encantadia’s Official Twitter account) @GMANetwork (GMA’s Official Twitter account) @GMADrama (GMA Primetime series’ Official Twitter account) Encantadia 2016 (Official Facebook page) www.encantadia.com.ph (Encantadia’s Official Website)