#fortunately canon doesn't matter lol

[cakeonfire911-thesequel]

Total Drama's Wack Ass Timeline

Dawg how was Action supposedly filmed days after Island? That is insane

Anyway so. I have a fucked up timeline for my own work, bear with me here. Island and Action happen the same way they always did, back to back. (???) The Fake Production Company had plans for a third season, set to film that spring, but budget restraints put it on hiatus, so sad. The campers are left to their own devices. Tyler and LeShawna compete on other shows; Owen hawks questionable products on late night TV; the Drama Brothers have enough time to write two albums (something the ""official"" timeline seems to think can be done overnight). There's even enough time for Duncney to be a highly-publicized relationship with enough paper trail for there to be legal proceedings over a raccoon! Wow!

It all comes to a head that October, the year after TDI and TDA initially aired, and business is BOOMIN. These teens run the fucking world. Along with the Gemmy Awards (which I'm not basing on any real Gemmy or Emmy awards), the Celebrity Manhunt Special airs live. Even though they're permanently stuck as 16-year-olds in the minds of many viewers, most of the cast is now 17. Some of them are 18! Look at the babies growin up <3 So the show happens and-- surprise-- Season 3 is finally announced! Woo-hoo! But it obviously can't air immediately after Celebrity Manhunt, Chris and Chef don't even call it by the right title. (Which, irl, we can chalk up to the actual preproduction of the actual show-- crazy how things line up sometimes!) Filming for WT begins the following March, because of all things, I wanna keep Cody's April 1st birthday part of the show-- because I care about the integrity of canon THAT much guys.

But uhhhh yeah. WT airs that summer to rave reviews, ROTI's filming goes off without a hitch in the late summer/early fall, Chris goes to jail so All-Stars is delayed to the following year and RR films on pretty much the same schedule alongside it (it's a good year for Fake Production Company). Pahkitew Island films the following late spring/early summer, and finally, 15 years later (or however long they say it is in the new TDI intro), the Fake Production Company capitalizes on their former glory with a brand new crop of youngins and an old crop of Chris and Chef.

Whew

Tell me how much you love my timeline in the comments/reblogs <3 <3 <3

[splitster]

answering asks

you'll have to befriend her first sorry

chocolate was the first sweet that Pom had so it's her favorite!! she won't go nuts or anything but she is very easily manipulated if you promise her a bar of chocolate

↓ more asks under the cut!! ↓

wraithification ideally does preserve peoples memories! part of the process is forming the core that holds said memories, so as long as the process goes somewhat smoothly then the person should wake up very disorientated but with their memories and personality in tact.

naw she's thankfully immune to most elemental hazards. one of the perks of being a wraith!

YEAHH i've been trying to keep up with the comics! this comic is a bit old at this point but i'm so glad bald dingo is canon 💖

i think it'd be funny so yeah sure

there is always an inherent risk to the process. i'd say the absolute ideal circumstances you could have would be if a wraith like pom and a doctor like yonny were working together to increase the likelihood of survival. the process hasn't been studied at all, given the rarity of wraiths as an organism and the added rarity of a wraith becoming so attached to a creature that it wants to convert it.

there is a metaphysical aspect to wraiths as a species that defies understanding, so the person being wraithified or the wraith themselves having a strong will for survival would definitely contribute to the success of it. thankfully, unless there's a VERY specific set of circumstances (that are relevant only with someone like yonny wraith who has two cores), the subject would fall unconscious and not form memories of the wraithification itself (which is fortunate, because that would be kinda horrifying).

if she's saving dingo and this is a last ditch effort, pom absolutely puts her whole being into it. it's very, very hard on her and she has every last bit of energy sapped from her. depending on her reserves, she could end up hurting herself with the amount of energy it requires. but wounds are temporary and death is forever, so pom would persevere through and give it her all to save him

yeah! pom's skin might technically be fake because it's made from goo, but she still feels sensations through her goo. she probably doesn't get itchy that easily. she's probably a little ticklish? but i'm not sure if you want to try that on a wraith that could easily stab you in a heartbeat...

wow when i was looking back for this pic i realized i first posted about the pom wraith au on september 1st, so the au is like 4 months old... time flies

WAHHH THANK YOU....🥺💖 asks like this are never a bother!! my favorite part about posting my content online is the engagement like this, i'm very happy to make stuff that you and your bro can bond over

procreate on an ipad! i use an empty cheezits box and three splatoon manga books to prop up my ipad to draw on, and i've been told its one of the worst drawing arrangements ever documented, so no matter how you draw it's probably gonna be better than my set up

of course! i didn't like... invent wraiths or anything. i just expanded on the little tidbits of what we know about wraiths in the pikmin universe. anyone is free to make their own wraith ocs or their own headcanons on what wraiths are

whuh... have i? i post pretty frequently. i used to post a bunch for a week or two and then disappear for 6+ months repeatedly so this is very good compared to my historical track record lol

AHH thank you!! i'm glad that i can inspire!

thank yall for all the asks, i'll continue getting through them... slowly

[evilkitten3]

Mutual, I'm lowkey obsessing over your tags about akatsuki Tsunade, can you elaborate more the basic timeline? Like how this would affect Tsunade's arc in classic and such

tbh i hadn't really thought about it lol

but.... let's say it happens during the search for tsunade arc? orochimaru and jiraiya are both gunning to get her on their side but you know what? the shark man said please. get your shit shizune we're going with these guys if you poison the little red-eyed shit on the way no judgement (kisame: maybe don't though?)

jiraiya is pissed, orochimaru is torn between being amused bc wow and being in agonizing pain bc his arms still don't work, naruto keeps trying to get her to come heal lee (and now sasuke) but she's having none of it so she just throws a file of miscellaneous notes at his head and tells him "find someone with good chakra control and pray" (sakura: omg i have good chakra control!!!!)

weirdly the member of team seven affected most by this is sasuke bc sakura has absolutely no fucking clue what she's doing at first and it takes her like an extra month to wake him up, so he needs to get back on his feet before he can decide if he wants to run off to orochimaru or not. lee is.... kinda sol, frankly. sakura works really really hard to help him out, and she's eventually able to get him to a place where he can do a few things, but by the time she's good enough to really be able to help him it's way too late. fortunately he's adapted somewhat, and being lee he's surpassed what anyone thought he'd be able to, but he's never going to be what he could've been. gaara feels terrible about this ofc but lee isn't the sort to really hold a grudge, even if pretty much everyone agrees he'd be perfectly justified in doing so. gai never forgives tsunade, though, not really.

concerning tsunade's role in the akatsuki.... the thing is, it's her own grandparents who started the whole jinchuuriki mess. and she's seen with her own two eyes what konoha did to places like amegakure; she was part of it. she doesn't like that the jinchuuriki die post extraction, so she starts looking into how to make that not happen, but if she does succeed, it isn't until after the gaara debacle, so chiyo still dies. her biggest motivation here is naruto - she doesn't agree with him, but he reminds her of nawaki, so she really doesn't want him to die if at all avoidable. she doesn't get too involved in the actual jinchuuriki capturing process tho; she's more useful patching people up after.

having said that, she doesn't fully agree with pain and konan's plan, she just can't really think of anything better. tobi tells sasuke about itachi while tsunade is patching him up, and since it's her family that led to this, she's pretty on-board with the whole "fuck this stupid baka village" thing (ofc she's been heading down that path since joining the akatsuki, so this isn't like canon!tsunade suddenly making this call; there's a couple years of character development first), so.... she's effectively on team sasuke at this point, and once he splits from the akatsuki she does as well.

iirc, post danzou, sasuke spent about eight and a half volumes just kinda adjusting mostly offscreen to his recent ert (eyeball replacement therapy), before skewering og white zetsu and fucking off to go accidentally reunite with zombitachi, but aside from decking itachi through a few trees on sight, idk how much about all that would change. immediately after, when sasuke brings back orochimaru, they have an awkward reunion, followed by yet another awkward reunion when orochimaru brings back the four dead hokage. she's both very happy to see her granddad again, but it's hard for her to tell him (and hiruzen, for that matter) that she deserted the village completely, even if she doesn't regret her decision.

now you may be wondering: weren't shizune and tonton also around? yes! but when sasuke went after danzou, they stayed behind, leading to shizune finding and managing to save konan after tobito killed her. there's a potential romance subplot there as well but i accidentally ruined it for myself by saying aloud "two girls one pig" and then regretting my whole life.

the other survival is jiraiya; he becomes hokage instead since it's either one of the sannin or one of the elders, and as much as he doesn't want the job, he really doesn't want them to have it. this in part means he can't go spying in ame himself, although he very nearly does after orochimaru's death gets reported, but instead he sends someone else. that person dies, but manages to get the information back to him (it has to be someone important to naruto, and it can't be kakashi, so maybe iruka? but idk how he'd be in espionage. maybe one of naruto's classmates did spy training offscreen? it's entirely possible with jiraiya as hokage instead of tsunade but idk). since jiraiya isn't a healer, he'd either need to be injured badly enough for danzou to be able to step in without him being able to object, or sasuke would just need to have his fight with danzou somewhere else (so the raikage's arm might survive also).

the final thing is that, unlike in canon, this version of tsunade never got naruto therapy'd, so while she does eventually get over the hemophilia somehow (maybe just existing in the relative vicinity of hidan did the trick), she never really dealt with the grief that caused her to leave konoha in the first place, so that's still very much there. however, i think maybe this could work to the story's advantage - instead of just naruto vs sasuke, it could be naruto and sakura vs sasuke and tsunade. tho in this instance sasuke really isn't alone, and isn't really trying to be by that point. it's more a battle of "do we try to fix the system from within, or do we really need to start from scratch for things to improve in any meaningful way", but ultimately the winner is the realization that four people from konoha not only shouldn't but honestly can't be the only ones making this call. if the world is going to move forward, it can't be dragged by a single person, or even two people. it's gotta be a group effort. idk if the story should go into the details of what they decide on, bc i'm definitely not politically savvy enough for something like that, or just have an open ending leaving whatever happens next up to interpretation.

(sorry this took so long lol i kept having to do things XD)

[almightyhamslice]

Stage 2-5, Pitch Mama's stage!

Pitch has gotten lost again, swept away by strong underwater currents after a mishap with some Squishys. He nearly drowned! Fortunately for him, Kine is adept at swimming against currents and has come to his rescue with Kirby and Gooey in tow.

Kine helps Gooey and Kirby navigate through the stage's underwater caves, but he must eventually leave them so they can free Pitch (cuz you can only have one animal friend at once). Before they separate, Kine seals Pitch in a bubble so he can breathe underwater (he's just a little guy! He can't hold his breath that long). The currents are strong and there are so many Gordos in the sea! Gooey swims ahead, pulling Kirby along with him with his tongue. It's very dicey, Kirby's afraid Pitch's bubble will pop!

In the end, Pitch is finally reunited with his mom! And she's so glad to see him again. Her canon name is Pitch Mama but I call her Picchi because it has a similar feel (it's just the Japanese name for Pitch) but its more of a proper name since her canon name is more of a descriptor. She and Pitch are very close, but she initially lost him after he learned to fly-- he's such a fast flier on his own and he's so tiny! She lost track of him! Picchi is a harpy just like he is, but she can transform into a human sized bird rather than a. bird sized. bird. you know what I mean LOL.

Regarding Gooey, you may wonder why he's fine sitting with his head underwater in the fourth image. His biology is... very strange. Because Dark Matter is a primarily space dwelling species, Gooey doesn't actually breathe. That's also why he has no inhale and merely uses his tongue to grab enemies. So when underwater, Gooey isn't really concerned about himself, but he is worried about Kirby and Pitch and wants to get them out as soon as possible. I guess this is a real character development moment for Gooey! They'd be screwed without him I think?

Fun fact, I almost died in this level when I played it! Which would've been terrible and it would've meant I would have to start aaaalllll over again since I would've lost Pitch! I also played it singleplayer, and that's why there's a Stone Kine drawing. I'm sure I've mentioned that I play this game in singleplayer before-- Gooey isn't REALLY there but I want him to be in these illustrations because he is very important to the story!! and to me. Gooey Is The Key To All Of This.

[olderthannetfic]

Okay first as a disclaimer... Yeah I guess my first disclaimer was unnecessary I'm just paranoid and stuff

But on to the follow up I might not have explained myself properly or given enough context or my question was incoherent? But for context while I do like plenty of canon ships, my favorite ships tend to be MxM ships of characters who don't have canon female love interests. My fandoms tend to be fujobait/card game anime plus video games. (Honestly I kind of feel like the guy you called 'some fuck' in your answer tbh lol (Hopefully I'm not as obnoxious and arrogant as them though)).

Anyway the stuff I was mostly thinking about was stuff like the Ike/Soren defenses and the Ash Ketchum shipping wars. (Although I only read that instead of participating) But from your answer and thinking over it I realized that I had actually seen a good amount of Hassel/Brassius hint finding etc but I didn't realize it was the kind of stuff I was thinking of (probably because they weren't being defensive or worried about homophobic attacks). So yeah the kind of stuff I was asking about does exist but I just didn't realize it.

Anyway on the anti stuff... I feared that people interested in this stuff disappeared because they became antis but fortunately it seems that's not true.

Anyway thank you for the answer and apologies for any inconveniences and vagueness in my asks.

--

Ahaha. Really, anon? Your whole preamble was pure canon het shipper from big US TV circa 2005 in its tone.

Now I'm even more confused about why on earth you think you and I have beef.

--

I think the basic answer to some of your questions may be that:

Yes, people who like all kinds of things exist.

But if you're looking for shippers of something very specific, 99% of media and ships never generate A Fandom™ in the Destiel/Sterek/Drarry/etc. sense. Canon, not canon, slash, het: doesn't matter, most are small.

Have a look at that other recent post about what percentage of AO3 fandoms are what size.

--

Guys from "fujobait" who don't have canon female love interests seem like... not actually canon ships?

This just seems like the same speculation and looking for confirmation that all the other m/m shippers are doing unless they're into MDZS or Jordan L. Hawk novels something.

I'm not clear on what sets what you're talking about apart from... just the average shipper on tumblr.

I don't know much about the social dynamics of Pokemon or Fire Emblem fandoms except for a vague sense that FE has the usual modern fandom full of young idiots harassing each other problems.

People do move on from particularly unpleasant fandoms... but... mostly, people just move on from everything and usually quite quickly.

The only fandoms people stay and stay and stay for are those that are generating a huge volume of new material, usually fan-made, often in the form of novel-length fic. And even then, it takes a specific fannish personality type to stick to one particular ship or fandom for ages. There are people still shipping those two dudes from The Professionals and nobody else, but they're a rare breed.

--

I still don't understand what you were asking in the first place.

Someone who knows these fandoms, explain????

[obsidianpen]

Hi Pen!

I'd like to add to the other anon's post re: political situation. In canon I viewed Voldemort and the Death Eaters as extremists akin to the Taliban; it doesn't matter they will ruin the entire country, they WILL enforce their personal believes into being, even if half the population dies or flees and half of the remaining population is heavily disenfranchised. I imagine that if Voldemort won, magical Britsin would depopulate really quickly; there's not too many purebloods to begin with (Ron says wizards have to marry muggles not to die out - according to JKR there's plenty of mixed marriages - McGonnagal and Lockhart had a muggle father, Umbridge and Lupin had a muggle mother etc. etc., Hermione assumes that many DE only pretend to be purebloods, because there's not enough real purebloods to fill their ranks), but even those who could falsify their family trees wouldn't be too happy with the constant presence of the Unforgivables in everyday life. I imagine that any surviving Weasleys would move either to France due to their ties with the Delacours or to Romania to Charlie. IMHO even less fanatical DE like the Malfoys or blood purists like the Zabinis would ultimately make a run for it after they took steps to secretly transfer at least part of their fortune. Everybody but the diehard fanatics would prefer to live in a functioning society.

Honestly, canonically Voldemort must have lost his marbles, because young Tom Riddle was supposed to be charming, charismatic, and able to convince and manipulate others.... but after his resurrection he is barely able to hold a conversation without threatening someone with death or torture.

NG!Voldemort must be horrified to see what becomes of him without a daily soul fix LOL.

hahahahha no comment there!!!!

[teecupangel]

So all this stuff about Desmond having the highest concentration of ISU DNA (I'm to ignore everything Ubisoft says about this after AC3) and Minerva's plan with Des as the "prophet" in the calculations leads me to think these AU :

1 - Desmond can't die in any way, from any damage at any stage of his life before the temple as a very screwed life insurance programmed by ISU (Minerva, probably), either by being the last one with that amount of ISU DNA in his body or to avoid any setback in the temple

2 - Desmond's body begins to gradually mutate to adapt to what will be his destiny in the temple but slowly he becomes more ISU than human, no one notices at first, there are signs of course (the bleeding probably doesn't hurt anymore) but everyone is too busy to notice, and Desmond is the only one who is aware that something is seriously wrong with his body (which leads him to survive the temple)

Lol. Well, you can borrow my usual go-to “I reject canon and substitute my own” and turn Desmond’s canon 0.952% Isu genes to 9.52%.

As for the prophet thing, Ezio is the ‘prophet’. To be more exact, he’s Desmond’s prophet so… in this religious-heavy symbolism/metaphor, Ezio is the prophet to Desmond’s messiah.

So… in a way, Desmond is actually higher than a prophet XD

Idea 1:

An argument could be said that this is sorta canon. The Isus picked a specific Desmond who would do all the necessary events (run away from home, be a bartender, get a motorcycle license, get abducted by Abstergo) and, if we think of this chosen Calculation as a specific branch of a large (glowing) tree, it’s directly tied to Desmond’s lifeline and is still growing ever so slightly. There will be smaller branches but these are all alternate branches (ex: instead of going to New York, he goes to Washington DC) that will either break off (too many deviations from the main calculations, creating a new timeline) or it would die out (Desmond dies in the end of this branch). The story we follow is the main branch and it continues on as long as Desmond lives. So this is less of the Isus creating an insurance program to make sure he lives thru and more that the Isus have ensured that the path Desmond walked would keep him alive.

However… if we set up a life insurance program that ensures Desmond survives no matter what (and can only be overridden by Isu orders), then we have three ways to make this happen:

1) Desmond receives a specific item that facilitates this.

In this idea, Desmond would receive this item early in life, maybe by the time he was born or when he was quite young. A family heirloom perhaps? Maybe a piece of jewelry like an earring from his mother that is said to be passed down to generations, a ‘wish of good fortune and long life’. The important part is that this item must be small enough that Desmond doesn’t mind carrying it all the time and attached to a part of his body (or he’s wearing it) that can’t be easily taken off by others (and maybe even Desmond). This item will be dormant until it scans Desmond’s DNA and the main idea is that it analyzes everything at a specific radius from Desmond, using its connection to the Calculations to remove any threats that have an 80% chance of killing or severely crippling Desmond. Training doesn’t count because it won’t kill him nor cripple him… physically anyway. This one would be the easiest to ‘combat’. All Desmond has to do is find what item is causing him to be sorta immortal and take it off, maybe even destroy it.

2) Devices are activated when Desmond is in the vicinity.

In this idea, we take the primary capability of the item in 1 and make the devices be stationed in specific locations that only activate if Desmond is in their range. These devices could be in temples and vaults, any Isu-related locations, and maybe some of them had already been taken by Abstergo but they remained dormant until they noticed that Desmond is in their range. Desmond’s life in New York has been guaranteed because he’s in the range of the Grand Temple. His life in Italy was also a guarantee because of the vault in the Vatican and Rome. This device can be something inconspicuous like a simple pillar in the vault/temple that only glows when Desmond is in its range. Or… it could be POEs in general. (Or both? The POEs themselves have a smaller range than the actual devices but they operate the same way)

3) The live preserving program is encoded into Desmond’s DNA itself.

Okay, this is the fun one and also the one that would give us yummy angst material. So, long story short, the Isus added a little bit of genetic manipulation to Desmond’s DNA that ensures that he will live no matter what.

My first choice is that this specific gene came from Altaïr’s side because we have no idea who most of his descendants are so we will have an easier time in ensuring this genetic manipulation will stay a secret until it’s passed on to Desmond but explaining how the gene got to his ancestor is more believable with Ezio since Minerva could have added it to his genes when they talked. Of course, we can just add the gene in Altaïr’s side thanks to the trusty lack of information about Umar’s origins (also, ‘son of no one’ implies he’s an orphan which means we can play with his background a lot).

Regardless of how Desmond got the gene, what it does is (and I definitely got this idea from Code Geass XD) that it uses the Calculations to check the possibility of Desmond dying. Anything at 97% or higher would activate this gene and control Desmond to ensure his safety above all else, even if it means either running away or doing something that would harm others, without any thoughts of the collateral damage. The ancestor he received this from also has this to a lesser degree to ensure they pass it to him (Altaïr: withstanding Al Mualim’s use of the power thru sheer willpower or, if we’re going for Ezio instead, Ratonhnhaké:ton finding the strength to kill Haytham at the end… perhaps the gene in Haytham has been disabled the moment Ratonhnhaké:ton has been born).

I say this would give us angst potential because this one is the most invasive. Desmond might start to think he’s a selfish person for prioritizing his life or he might think he’s going crazy because there are times when it feels like he’s another person for a few brief moments. Then he starts using the Animus and the Bleeding Effect starts messing him up even further…

Idea 2:

Oh, oh, oh! This is very similar to my and @fanworldbuildingfun’s idea a while back concerning how the Animus was slowly turning him into an Isu so maybe check that out if that interests you (it starts out with us giving more Isu backstory and then Desmond becoming an Isu gets slipped in)? In a nutshell, the usual route to change Desmond into an Isu is to make him start being ‘converted’ once he gets the Apple (maybe even point out that it starts with Minerva touching the Apple because we don’t really get a reason why she did that, although I do have an “It could be a verification thing?” headcanon for that XD) BUT the more interesting idea is that his conversion started once he’s been forced into the Animus because the Animus’ foundation is created from something Abstergo got from the Apple which might possibly be a POE. The Animus reads DNA for genetic memories but what if the device it’s based on can do more than that? Add in his high Isu genes and constant usage of the Animus and Desmond really had no escape for this one.

[thelazyhermits]

If Fortune!Yuu did finally assured herself that she's staying in Twisted Wonderland and not go back to her original dimension. What would her future be like? Like all grown up with all her boys in NRC. I would like to think she and Sebek somehow got platonically married. Just imagine the scenario with time travel trope, I would think everyone's reaction be very funny, especially younger Sebek, to the Fact Yuu is married to Sebek. Even if it's platonically :)

If Yuu gets to stay in TW, which is obviously what I would like to happen, her future would be heavily intertwined with all her friends since she'll keep in touch with them, especially her sons, so she'll never have to worry about loneliness again.

Job wise, I like the idea of Yuu working for Leona, like what was brought up in my Fairy Gala fic, as a liaison of sorts. All her social connections and her skills when dealing with people, which only improved thanks to all the work she had to do at NRC thanks to Crowley, would make her really good at this sort of job, I think.

Plus, I want Leona to always have someone in his corner, no matter what happens at home. While he's incredibly strong on his own, it does him good to have that support, and of course, Leona just likes having Yuu around since she keeps him entertained and he'll have an easier time looking after her that way.

Because once a certain lion Beastman takes an interest in someone and decides they're worthy of his protection, he'll make sure they're always well taken care of.

Anyway, so this will mean Yuu will likely end up living in the Afterglow Savannah. However, Leona gives her plenty of opportunities to travel for business-related reasons and so she can see more of the world, so she'll be able to visit all of her friends without too much trouble.

Relationship-wise, it's really hard for me to tell if Yuu will ever fall in love romantically with any of the guys or if she'll remain single and have incredibly strong platonic bonds instead. Whenever I write her, I lean more toward her being aro/ace, because she really is completely satisfied with hugs, cuddling, and platonic kisses.

She craves love after having gone her whole life without it, but in her eyes, platonic and romantic love are equal. One isn't superior to the other, so she doesn't think romance is necessary for a happy life.

But she's not necessarily opposed to romantic love. She's just never going to purposely seek it out since she figures if it happens it'll happen one way or another lol

If platonic marriage is a thing in TW, Yuu would absolutely be all over that and would be more than happy to marry Sebek. Honestly, I could also see him being aro/ace, so I don't think he'd have any issue with that kinda marriage.

ADeuce are also contenders since they've both got a lot of love for Yuu and are extremely close to Yuu. Deuce in particular might be the biggest Yuu simp cause this boy adores her so much 😂💕

Because I've been so focused on my biases, aka Jack & Sebek, I haven't been given ADeuce enough attention as of late, but that started changing with the Halloween fic which is when I wrote my first fluffy one-on-one scene with Ace, which was in chapter 2.

Since then, I've been working on more stuff for those two, and I'm realizing just how attached they are to Yuu, which makes sense cause those two are like that with Yuu in canon, based on their voice lines.

But still, I'm only now realizing that Sebek might have some competition when it comes to simping for Yuu lol 😂

[hyperbali]

For the DA Veilguard Asks: 4, 8, and 11?

4. What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

Well, it sounds like they're not using the Keep anymore, and I'm not sure what questions are going to be asked for the worldstate setup at the start, buuuut...

DAO: Jeanne Amell, of course. Jeanne doesn't have a ~canon romance (though I could be persuaded if someone makes a good argument). King Alistair and Queen Anora. Werewolves cured, Circle mages were saved, Ashes untouched, Redcliffe saved with the whole family alive (though Jeanne took the demon's deal and then killed it), King Bhelen with a destroyed Anvil. Loghain survived. Morrigan got preggo with Kieran. Architect was killed. Both Amaranthine and the Keep protected. All companions alive.

DA2: I'm having a hard time deciding if I'm going to go with Adnan or Amelie, but they pretty much have the same story beats. Humorous Mage Hawke. Romanced Fenris (OT3 Isabela). Carver is a Grey Warden. Anders is alive, but unhappily so. Merrill kept the Eluvian. Aveline is married and stayed Guard-Captain. Varric didn't keep the idol, and Bartrand is alive. Sebastian's causing Kirkwall a lot of headaches. Helped Tallis. Sided with the mages. Sided with Larius.

DAI: Proserpina (Panini!) Lavellan. Artificer Rogue. Technically romanced Iron Bull, but given Solas is in love with her, I'm wondering if I should mark the Solas romance. Dorian is besties, but headed back to Tevinter. Blackwall is back to being Thom Rainier. Chargers are alive, Bull is Tal-Vashoth. Harmond pressed into service, Sera stayed. Solas helped his spirit friend. Cole made more human. Varric dealt with Bianca. Helped Vivienne try to save the Duke. Josephine helped the Du Paraquettes and the Montilyets regained their status. Cullen stopped using lyrium. Leliana was softened and eventually made Divine. Helped the mages in Redcliffe, who joined the Inquisition. Strong-armed Celene, Gaspard, and Briala into working together. Loghain stayed in the Fade, Grey Wardens were exiled. Pina drank from the Well. Exposed the truth about Ameridan and became respected by the Avvar. Found out the truth about lyrium. The Inquisition stayed together as a peacekeeping organization. Pina vowed to stop Solas no matter the cost.

8. What faction are you excited to learn the most about?

All of them, barring the Grey Wardens?? Though I might start with a Lord of Fortune.

11. What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

Varric not being killed

Hard to say... I'm mostly trying to keep my expectations low, given just how long the dev cycle has been and the massive layoffs last year. I'm definitely not pre-ordering. I guess I'm kind of just hoping to be pleasantly surprised, lol.

[ihopesocomic]

realized that MP's weird "masculinity = bad" agenda that the other anon brought up very clearly also shows up w/ their writing of hover as a gender non-conforming/butch lesbian.. due to the fact that she takes on a more traditionally masc role in lion society and is also an obvious stereotype. she's in this weird limbo where she's written to be cruel and abusive like the males in the series but since she's a lioness the narrative kind of tries to wave it away and expect us still to find her likable. it's weird

Like we've said before, we don't even know if a masculinity=bad or even an anti-man message was intended. But it's certainly there anyway.

I mentioned this in one of my last Hover rants, but it's not lost on me that the two butch lesbians that are in canonical relationships are both crass and awful. (Karabi is just fortunate enough to have less screen time than Hover.) I don't really need to go over speciics of what they do, but the short version is they both are irrationally furious with their stereotypically-feminine parter. Or in Hover's case she's treated like being flippant and offensive is cool (or that she's allowed to be ableist so long as its against a guy she doesn't like.) and is either dismissive of Nothing's concerns or flat out isn't interested in her needs when it's more important to punish her. In Karabi's case when Kyoga is keeping their relationship a secret, her impulse is to question her love for her, instead of being sympathetic to the position she's in and actually trying to find a solution.

(And I won't get into Hover's broken personality when she wants to join the pride lol)

When I see toxic masculinity presented in a butch lesbian character, and it's never brought up or called out or improved, I side-eye the writers, no matter who they are. And no matter whether the character is "intended" to be one we side with. Because this has been a harmful stereotype for decades, and yet it shows up in a character it doesn't even make sense for it to have. So I can't help but think about whether these characters exist the way they are because there's conscious or subconscious prejudices floating around and it was possibly never even addressed by a single person during the editing process. (Or if it was brought up, it was ignored.)

There's always been this underlying judgement of butches (or transmasculine people in general) that we're "trying to be like men" and it's like uh lol That also just kind of shows how little they know. (It's almost like butches have a complicated relationship with gender or something, what a novel concept.) And yet. People keep continuing to write us this way. Now why on earth would that be? Oh yea cuz its all people see in media (bar a few outliers). Now I'm gonna stop myself before I go on an 8 year tangent unpacking why "trying to be like men" would entail being emotionally stunted and rude. Good lort.

And I don't really want to hear that "Hover is a reincarnation of Karabi, that's why they're both big and muscular" because that's not stated in the show. And I don't want to hear anything about manes and hormone levels, quite frankly I'm over granting this show the "realism" argument in any degree. The fans care more about the realism than the show does lol Especially as far as it's queer representation is concerned. - Cat

[nocturnal-impala]

The "marriage proposal" thing is more of a metaphor and my fanshipper rambling lol I know that if Fakir really proposed to Ahiru, he would do it very clearly, honestly,and sweet<3<3<3<3

Regarding LGBT and old anime (or current), honestly due to censorship, politics, and marketing strategy, I can tell you that many times "queerbaiting" was the only way for LGBT things to be recognized and open to the the public eye, since it doesn't matter if the creator REALLY wanted to make an gay romance, society won't let them (which isn´t good, and fortunately things are improving, but there is still a long way to go to make lgbt things part of life and not just "policy or marketing strategy").

For example: In Ranma 1/2, Rumiko originally wanted to do a yuri but they wouldn't let her, so she did the "boy-turned-girl" idea, and most of the romantic scenes were between Akane and Ranma in female form.

I'm just saying that when creators put more effort into a couple, like there are more scenes with ambiguous tension between them, words and phrases that can be interpreted both romantically and platonically, it may be because it's just queerbaiting or because they can't do it canon even if they want to...

Of course, this is my opinion and you can think differently, since as myself, as an LGBT person, these things do matter to me and I tend to be more optimistic because for us it is very sad that many times in anime it shows as normal "a world where gay or trans or asexual doesn´t exist or if they do, it is forced for marketing reasons" (T_T)

Sorry if I have made this a bit personal, I want to make it clear that I respect your opinion and you may be right that nowadays a lot of shippers force lgbt sexualities everywhere even where there is none (A good example is Naruto, as much as its romance is very badly written, Naruto x Sasuke isn´t a thing, and their relationship was was already very toxic as "friends", imagine as a romance lmao).

[sandwrrm]

from the ask list thing— bo-katan, for whichever ones you want/all:D

Aaaaa thank you! I did almost all of them but left out a few that I couldn't think of anything good for. Without further ado--

— a fun headcanon

She is really good at video games, especially FPS and strategy games (naturally.) She grew up kind of a loner and spent most of her teens holed up in her room not knowing what to do with herself, and this was one of her major pastimes.

— a sad headcanon

The scar on her forehead came from a near-miss of being fatally stabbed during an attack on the palace during the civil war, when she was only about 6-7. Fortunately she managed to dodge just enough for the blade to graze her skin and nothing worse. (I have a lot of uh. much sadder headcanons from this same night/event, but I’m not revealing them yet because I want to turn them into a proper fic >:D )

— a headcanon that canon doesn't disprove (yet lol, this could change in mando s3 now that we’re getting more Bo history)

She joined Death Watch ~4-5 years before TCW canon, but continued to feign a normal life in Sundari and a relationship (albeit a strained and not-very-close one) with Satine while actively double-crossing her and plotting to overthrow her behind her back. Satine didn’t find out any of this until right after the shit went down with Death Watch being exposed in general.

— a headcanon to spite canon, specifically

She is somewhere between 23-26 during TCW. Not 17. Not the same age as Satine. Early to mid 20’s. I will die on this hill.

— a headcanon about their family

Mom Kryze was not born a Mandalorian, she was the eldest daughter of a prominent Kalevalan noble family, and was adopted into the culture when she married Adonai... who was not a Duke until he married into her family, just an influential warlord and the head of clan Kryze.

— a missing scene that definitely happened

Not so much a headcanon but a speculation… something fucking intense must have gone down for her to lose the darksaber to Moff Gideon because?? she’s amazing at weilding it as we now see???

— I recognize canon has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it (+ what should have happened)

This is a bit controversial but in my headcanons, I tend to massively dial down her regret, deradicalization, and general arc towards redemption in favor of keeping her unhinged and villainous, just a bit more subdued with age. She’s just so fun and entertaining to me when she’s terrible….. I am happy with the direction they're taking her in current canon too though!

— something they believe about [other character] that isn't true

I headcanon that she had a lot of irrational, sometimes bordering on delusional, hate for her sister that often wasn’t based on anything true, but was founded on a twisted and dramatized misinterpretation of things she believed to be true about Satine and her actions, intentions, ideology, etc.

— their happiest memory

Having her dad's armor reforged to fit her and putting it on for the first time. I feel like it was kind of a “second birth” moment for her.

— favorite fanon relationship

I fucking live for anyone who writes Death Watch era Bo and Gar Saxon as antagonistic barely-frenemies who constantly give each other hell, I don’t know why it’s so funny and perfect to me but it is

— favorite should have been canon relationship

God. listen. not to get on my bullshit but Bo/Pre Vizsla…. Yes as a romantic ship because I'm trash of them, but I also just think more of their relationship and their past together “should have been canon” in the sense that I wish it was explained and fleshed out more, no matter what the nature of their relationship was. I’m dying to know what their history is, how they met, how Bo joined Death Watch, how she ended up his second-in-command, etc. I’m happy with my headcanons but I want to know what officially went down too!

Ask Meme post for anyone who wants it!

[byakuwan]

WIP fantasy AU i copypasted from the rp blog

( for some background, the flames of the earth are the magic-esque system used everywhere else in fantasy AU world. )

there is this one country with extreme weather.

when it was founded, the settlers were determined to stay there, but the weather was just inhospitable to human life.

fortunately for them, the Sky exists! a vague entity, everywhere and nowhere, comparable to a deity but without any concrete concept or shape or form. it's not something anyone really understands, but it exists and that's what matters.

unfortunately, those people who understood were more or less sacrificed into a role vaguely like a mix of deity and interpreter. like they have to translate whatever the Sky's will (?) is at any given time into language everyone else actually understands.

so this country was founded when the settlers and the Sky shook hands and the flames of the sky were made. the settlers could learn to deal with the extreme weather though those flames.

the Sky is a big ? and it's not going to really be able to communicate with these human settlers because it is not anything even remotely like people lmao. definitely doesn't use a language, thats for sure lol.

some people would be more... capable of understanding... than others, and that's who ultimately made the 🤝.

... but the method used is a little sad.

those were the deities/people who were there hovering over the (metaphorical) campfire while settlers were trying to figure out what the hell to do with the Sky's will and these deities and how to actually survive all the extreme weather.

the flames of the earth are a thing, so they were like "okay let's just do seven flame types like that."

thus, they figured out 7 deities to match having 7 types of sky flames, which are the AU versions of the canon arcobaleno.

guess who was the original sky arcobaleno!

♪ ♪ ♪

... unfortunately, he got demoted when sepira came along.

he's no longer an arcobaleno but had already been sacrificed? he still exists as a deity/interpreter but now is not an interpreter at all. still has exactly the same deific flame powers he had as an arcobaleno. but he just. doesn't. have anything to do with them... so.

( he's likely very bitter/salty toward sepira, luce, aria, uni and the country itself, but i digress. )

so he just packs up in the same mortal form he had before and wanders the world as a guy in his late teens... except he's stuck that way for as long as he lives.

as a result, showing off his sky flame powers... he really didn't look that special. his flames could be attributed to some kind of variant earth flame, though it wasn't exactly applicable. ( his relative haughtiness did not help. )

like, i'm sure there were some cultures who did take notice (hello gladiator-style games) but really, he was just one dude with some unconventional flames. wasn't taken seriously. wasn't put in any war fronts. (he might've been seen by a royal family to miraculously heal the ailing sole heir or something like that, though?)

but he was never 100% believed. he still wasn't exactly treated the way he was used to. miracle =/= god. no matter where he went, eventually someone started thinking he's delusional for saying something like that. even the few who initially did. even a few who got attached eventually were not there for long, whether they intended to or not. [ wip ]

at some point, he figured all of it out. probably too late to recover from. he's seen so much of the world now and yet, nowhere he went had truly kept him. there was always something.

eventually, he was like "Okay, I don't care about people, or humans, or the world, the sky, that country, anything." he's done with the whole thing. he's over it.

over time, the country's totally different flame system was understood in the rest of the world as a thing that exists, even if there are very few people who have/use them out there in the world. so it turns out that guy a while back was genuine? the real thing? all those miracles and unusual flames that were attributed to Other Things were actually legit?

but he'd left long before any of it was acknowledged, so now he's in a cool little temple-like area high on top of a mountain being a hermit. like this:

i bet he has a good enough time contemplating the nature of existence or something while being a... disney princess with the wildlife around. without an earth flame, he can't be one with nature so just gonna vibe and pet wild animals and grow plants or something.

( there's definitely more in the lil AU here but i just don't want to add to this post that much right now )

[hellslayersomething]

Additional thoughts:

Having a bad, "everyone dies" ending is interesting in concept, but the way the game is designed, there's basically no chance that anyone could stumble across it on accident. You'd have to know it's there and you'd have to skip through 90% of the game's content and speedrun to the endgame to ever see it. There is no way someone could "make bad choices" into it, because the only choice that achieves it is choosing to basically not play the game, and the game warns you in bright, glaring neon lights not to skip the final companion quests, so even if you do speedrun it, you know what you're getting into anyway. That really takes the stakes out of characters either dying or surviving in the endgame. I feel like it should have been more tied to approval levels, but because approval was tied to combat levels, I suppose that was fucked from the get-go. (Although, "likes you more = stronger" would make sense for survivability in the endgame, so maybe they just missed a golden opportunity here.)

The ending just recapped the ends to all the character arcs instead of, you know, ending anything. Like, yeah, lol, I already know all this shit, I just did it. I know these little ending slideshows have been par for the course since DAII, but this one was especially weak, to say nothing of the vile secret ending.

"The Veilguard will return in Captain America: Winter Soldier"

What are they even talking about with that "Veilguards be Veilguarding" slide at the end anyway? Guard it from what? (The fucking Illuminati, I GUESS)

I know I already brought it up, but the Taash thing just doesn't work in so many ways. For one, prior to VG, there were basically 3 cultural groups in Thedas that had dealt significantly with trans characters already: the Qun, the Lords of Fortune, and Tevinter. The Qun acknowledges and seems to respect trans people, and aside from that its concepts of gender are way more complicated than gender = genitals--it is straight up not a cisnormative society. The very first Lord of Fortune to appear in the entire DA canon is genderfluid, and Isabela can mention them. Literally how does Taash not already know what trans and non-binary identities are? And they learn more about trans identities using extremely contemporary, progressive, Western concepts of gender from a bunch of Tevinters, the one society in all of Thedas that has been explicitly shown to be hostile toward trans people. They picked probably the exact worst trifecta of cultural backgrounds to attach Taash's coming out story to, and it's just like....why????

For that matter--and again, this is from the bottom of my queer little heart--can that shit not wait until AFTER we've dealt with the evil elven gods thing? Like, yeah, it's important for emotional fulfillment and self-actualization, but this is a sort of Maslow's Hierarchy of Apocalyptic Crises thing.

I did like the music, though. Hans Zimmer knows what's up.

I feel like I should write out some proper thoughts about my opinions on Veilguard, or at least an outline for the much longer essay that is currently calcifying in my heart. It's a mixed bag of a reaction, and I'm not going to compliment sandwiching any of it--this is all just stream of consciousness, so I'm probably going to snag on the negative and spiral down that pretty quickly. Spoilers, obviously:

I liked the battle system. For the first time in a DA game, it actually felt satisfying to play and had its own identity. I do wish the Pokemon element aspect was a little better balanced among the companions, but overall it was great.

That said, considering the length of the game, they needed way more enemy diversity, especially with the bosses. Eventually I was just fighting dragons, and every dragon had essentially the same moveset, one of those moves being "the dragon trips over her own dick and face-plants on top of Rook", which sure doesn't make the fights feel epic. Even very unique characters, like the Gloom Howler, were just reskinned basic demons when it came time to fight them.

The decision to tie companion approval to companion levels was a mistake. A massive and extremely obvious mistake. No wonder there are no disagreements or tension among the group--the game can't let you lose affinity with your team members, because then it would have to account for you leveling them down. The gameplay design here strangled the narrative design in its crib.

Speaking of narrative design: while I appreciate that the modular approach to companion arcs was experimental, it was extremely weird of them to take that approach in the only DA game where all companions are required. The story doesn't have to be written to account for the fact that you might not recruit some of them or they might die early--so why didn't they write one story about Rook and their seven friends instead of one story about Rook and also there are seven smaller, unrelated stories of extremely varying quality shoved in next to it?

The hyperfixation on the companion quests paired with their complete compartmentalization from each other means that each companion basically has nothing going on outside of their own quest and very few opportunities to engage with other characters' quests.

I was so starved for conflict in this game that I went from Solas-neutral to Solas-positive because he was the only character who the game allowed to be a bitch to me, and I respect him for that.

I do like all the horrid little sons the game gives me. I think I would appreciate them more if there was anything bad or tense happening in the story on a personal level that required some comic relief, but I am a sucker for a funky little guy none the less, and Manfred, Assan, and Spite are the perfect trifecta of funky little guys, as far as I'm concerned.

"We're only going to do character cameos if it's important to the plot." *does what they did with Isabela* Okay, devs.

"We aren't importing player choices but we won't override your decisions either." *several codex entries overriding player decisions later* Okay, devs.

I like the companions, generally. I see their potential. Fanfic will do right by them. Harding, in my mind, is the weakest of the bunch, just truly having no personality to speak of and talking like she was written by a Boomer who thinks that Millennials are still teenagers. (Everyone responsible for her uttering the phrase "Awkward..." like she's a character in 2011 quirky girl sitcom should be tried at the fucking Hague, istg.) And while I like Bellara, it was extremely frustrating to have a character that's just "Merrill, again, but with the edges sanded off". Taash and Emmerich are also glaringly the last additions in the writing process, each belonging to one of the two most underbaked factions and neither of them being tied to any of the game's few "big choices". There's promise in this cast, but I don't think any of them came close to realizing their potential.

Davrin and Emmerich's companion quests felt appropriately scoped to the size of the questlines, had good emotionality, good antagonists, and expanded on the lore of Thedas in ways we hadn't seen yet.

Lucanis's companion quest had potential, but it was too unfocused with three antagonists, too much attention to the boring Venatori shit, and not enough examination on Illario's motives or Lucanis's relationships with either Spite or Illario.

Harding's companion quest was fine, I guess (the people are starving for dwarf lore), but Harding could have been swapped out with literally any other dwarven character who wasn't Sandal and nothing would have been different. (Also weird that the whole quest was basically about Sandal while simultaneously fully removing Sandal from the narrative.)

Bellara and Neve's companion quests were just nothing. Just a whole lot of nothing. And Neve's also suffered from what I like to call "machete editing", where it is glaring obviously where things were cut, changed, moved around, and added at the last minute.

I say, from the bottom of my non-binary heart: Taash's companion quest is total ass. Real nice of Mae to come out of hiding and risk being found and executed by the Venatori to give Taash a Queer Theory 101 class, though, I fucking guess.

Is Lucanis's romance bugged? Apparently I'm not the only one who had that thought while I was playing it, so now I'm wondering. Like, there's no way they made it Like That on purpose, right?

Why and how are the Venatori still a force in Thedas, never mind a force with numbers so great (in spite of lacking a central leader) that they were able to simultaneously occupy the two largest cities in Thedas?

They literally didn't even try with the Antaam. The Venatori are at least theoretically still working to try to restore Tevinter to its former imperial might. The Antaam are just invading countries for literally no reason except ill-defined power grabs. Given the racial coding of Qunari, this writing choice sure is...something. (And that something is racist.)

That said, the revelation that the Butcher did a military tour in Europe and fell in love with the culture and just wants to drink wine and visit art museums now is fucking hilarious.

What the absolute FUCK did they do the Crows. I like the Crow characters from Tevinter Nights/the comics, and Zevran is my favorite character in the whole damn franchise, but they completely whitewashed both TN's mafia take on them and their original portrayal in DA:O. But it also doesn't really retcon anything, making it instead seem like the human trafficking and torture and sexual abuse that Zevran suffered at the Crows' hands A) only happened to him individually, and B) are fine, actually??? Even the very few times that characters express reservations about working with Lucanis because he's an assassin, if you play as a Crow, those concerns get immediately backpedaled, so the Crows end up being so ironed out that the game doesn't even let characters say of the Crows, "Murder is bad," lest it hurt a Crow Rook's feelings. That is how conflict-averse the writing is.

So I guess everyone in southern Thedas is...dead now? Several characters survived long enough to get a mention from the Inquisitor, but by the end, it sounds like Orlais, Ferelden, and most of the Free Marches are pretty much donezo. When Epler said the events in southern Thedas didn't matter, I didn't expect that to mean they were going to nuke the damn place. Even having generally enjoyed VG (in spite of all my criticisms here) that, uh...doesn't leave me enthused about the future of the franchise, ngl.

The layoffs of several writers (and other Bioware employees) before the game's release was obviously heinous. But after that secret ending, I'm now of the mind that of the writers that remain, at least a few of them need to be demoted. Like literally what the fuck was that. That was the dumbest plot point to ever appear in a Dragon Age game, and that is a high bar to clear. If you're not going to acknowledge our past choices, then keep Loghain's name out of your fucking mouths.

[parallelroutes-old]

[ WIP fantasy AU preview? ]

for some background, the flames of the earth are the magic-esque system used everywhere else in fantasy AU world.

and there is this one country with extreme weather.

when it was founded, the settlers were determined but the weather was just inhospitable to human life.

fortunately for them, the Sky exists! a vague entity, everywhere and nowhere, comparable to a deity but without any concrete Concept or shape or form. it's not something anyone really understands but it exists and that's what matters.

the country was founded when the settlers and the Sky (handshake) and the flames of the sky were made. the settlers could learn to deal with the extreme weather though those flames.

... but the method of that (handshake) is a little sad.

the Sky is a big ? and it's not going to really be able to communicate with these human settlers because it is not anything even remotely like people lmao.

definitely doesn't use a language, thats for sure lol. some people would be more... capable of understanding... than others. that's who ultimately made the  (handshake)  people who initially understood it exists.

unfortunately, those people who understood were more or less sacrificed into a role vaguely like a mix of deity and interpreter. like they have to translate whatever the Sky's will (?) is at any given time into language everyone else actually understands.

those were the deities/people who were there hovering over the (metaphorical) campfire while settlers were trying to figure out what the hell to do with the Sky's will and these deities and how to actually survive all the extreme weather.

the flames of the earth are a thing, so they were like "okay let's just do seven flame types like that."

thus, they figured out 7 deities to match having 7 types of sky flames, which are the AU versions of the canon arcobaleno.

guess who was the original sky arcobaleno!

♪ ♪ ♪

... unfortunately, he got demoted when sepira came along.

he's no longer an arcobaleno but had already been sacrificed? he still exists as a deity/interpreter but now is not an interpreter at all. still has exactly the same deific flame powers he had as an arcobaleno. but he just. doesn't. have anything to do with them... so.

( he's likely very bitter/salty toward luce and the country itself, but i digress. )

so he just packs up in the same mortal form he had before and wanders the world as a guy in his late teens... except he's stuck that way for as long as he lives.

as a result, showing off his sky flame powers... he really didn't look that special. his flames could be attributed to some kind of variant earth flame, though it wasn't exactly applicable. ( his relative haughtiness did not help. )

like, i'm sure there were some cultures who did take notice (hello gladiator-style games) but really, he was just one dude with some unconventional flames. wasn't taken seriously. wasn't put in any war fronts. (he might've been seen by a royal family to miraculously heal the ailing sole heir or something like that, though?)

but he was never 100% believed. he still wasn't exactly treated the way he was used to. miracle =/= god. no matter where he went, eventually someone started thinking he's delusional for saying something like that. even the few who initially did. even a few who got attached eventually were not there for long, whether they intended to or not. [ wip ]

at some point, he figured all of it out. probably too late to recover from. he's seen so much of the world now and yet, nowhere he went had truly kept him. there was always something.

eventually, he was like "Okay, I don't care about people, or humans, or the world, the sky, that country, anything." he's done with the whole thing. he's over it.

eventually the country's totally different flame system was understood in the rest of the world as a thing that exists, even if there are very few people who have/use them out there in the world. so it turns out that guy a while back was genuine? the real thing? all those miracles and unusual flames that were attributed to Other Things were actually legit?

but that he'd left long before any of it was acknowledged, so now he's in a cool little temple-like area high on top of a mountain being a hermit. like this:

i bet he has a good enough time contemplating the nature of existence or something while being a... disney princess with the wildlife around. without an earth flame, he can't be one with nature so just gonna vibe and pet wild animals and grow plants or something.

[ that's all for now. ]

[void-writing]

One Batfam and Danny interaction that just came to me:

Danny, pointing fingers: How come that you can control those powers already?! It took me months not to clip through the walls!!

Whether or not said Batfam member really has as much control over their new, Danny-given powers as Danny at first believes is a different matter. XD It's about his outrage.

Hahaha lol.

I haven't gone into power shenanigans yet (that'll probably be an extra story somewhere down the line) but my thinking is that the Bats had a fairly easy time with their powers because 1) superpowers aren't that unusual in the DCU, so they have not only real live points of reference but people they can turn to with questions, and 2) they really only have to deal with 1 power whereas Danny was dealing with 3+ simultaneously.

Of course, I haven't shown it yet but like Danny, the Batfam's new powers are largely stuck in the "on" position if they aren't passive, and even then there's something of an adjustment period.

Dick floats if he's not mindful of it and now frequently hovers over his bed when he's sleeping, The Exorcist style. He kind of just lets himself do it when he's alone or in the company of other Bats or heroes, so it's not too much of an issue so long as he's not seen doing it in pubic as a civilian.

Jason is going to have a hard time getting needles through his skin now, so he better be careful about exposure to airborne chemical weapons. And also getting yearly vaccines.

Tim's astral projection doesn't necessarily mean that he's fully resting. The energy is more split between his astral form and his physical body, so the longer he spends in astral form, the less restful his sleep is. Also, the activation of his power depends on how tired he is when he goes to bed. If he's exhausted enough, he'll just sleep normally and not project at all.

Damian definitely melts a few things in his hands when he's not careful (canon seems to portray ecto-blasts as heat-based attacks, so I'm going to roll with that even though Danny is definitely more ice-affiliated).

Cass slips into the shadows a little too easily sometimes.

Steph sometimes ends up blocking herself with her own shields.

Barbara has to be mindful of what her new telekinesis grabs onto and from what direction it's coming from.

Kate is fortunate that her duplicates can't make duplicates, otherwise she'd have a harder time hiding it.

Duke definitely underestimates his own strength for a while after the abrupt buff. He may not have super-durability, which would enable him to punch through things or crush them without hurting himself, but he does keep accidentally pushing and pulling things too hard. Doors are tricky for him for a bit XD

Bruce regularly keeps blinking out of the visible spectrum, if not the entire detectable spectrum all together. Basically, his power has two settings: plain vanilla invisible (where he's just not detectable on a visible light spectrum), and Super Invisibility (where he just plain stops being detectable period). He can only maintain Super Invisibility for a few minutes continuously before it starts to wear him out (and you can bet that every time he uses it, Clark is sending him a "you good?" text or just straight up calling him to make sure he's okay XD). Of course, his power wants to be "on" all the time, so he has to be mindful of keeping himself within the visible spectrum, lest he just blip out of peoples' perception for a while.

And a note on Alfred's power: He's not going to "de-age" past his prime. I'm putting his age in CiM at around late 70's, early 80's. What his new power is doing is walking his physical body back towards the top of the "physical aptitude" curve, so he'll look like late 50's, early 60's instead of his actual age, but it won't go further than that. And most importantly, he'll feel like he's in his 50's again too :)

To note, when I say "Alfred is immortal now" I mostly mean that he doesn't age anymore. He can still be killed or fall ill, but time no longer wears on him like it used to (and really, as far as CiM is concerned, time was the only real threat to Alfred''s continued presence, so functionally, he is immortal now lol).

One thing that I do plan on writing later is that Jason and Duke spar a lot both for training and for fun because their powers kind of balance each other. Jason can take Duke's hits and Duke can wrestle Jason on fairly equal standing.

But we will be seeing Danny's reaction to the Batfam's swanky new powers fairly soon :)