#furthermore - 'canon' must be destroyed

[gorbalsvampire]

In the Gehenna War era, post-splinterification, what do you imagine it takes to be judged True Sabbat? (Please note: I'm way more interested in your creativity, interpretations, and what interests you than in strict canonicity.) Thank you!

So, about the Sabbat, post-interregnum...

In a surprising but welcome shift in approaches, antitribu doesn't mean "on the other side of the sect war from where your clan normally is" but a far more interesting "opposed to the idea of even identifying by your clan to begin with." Pack and Path identity are far, far more important than whose blood flows in your veins and, if we stop and think about it, this is both ideologically and practically on point.

Ideologically, the Sabbat makes war to hunt the Antediluvians and destabilise domains which protect or apologise for them and, of course, to recruit. Leave turf war for mundane practical reasons to the Anarchs! Given that end goal of annihilating the Third Generation, of course it makes sense that Sabbat reject the clan identities defined by which of your targets happens to be at the root of your own particular bullshit.

Practically, the Sabbat shares vitae (and consequently Disciplines) as a regular ritual practice, and during wartime, the mass Embraces aren't a tidy one-bites-one affair. It's a squirming pit of hungry angry vampires, in which the survivors are probably diablerising each other down there before the surface. And, of course, diablerie is going to have an impact too. Given these practices, the Sabbat must be breaking down the boundaries between clans all the time. Most of the buggers should, mechanically speaking, be Caitiff, with only the rare Lasombra or Tzimisce childe groomed personally for a position of apprenticeship or leadership really standing out. Even they, if they have any sense about it, will lean on the achievements of their ancestors within the sect, and push against the definitive limitations of their Blood.

(Defined "bloodlines" like the Volgirre may emerge, but - gosh, now that I think about it, Baron Philippe's brood make a lot more sense as not defining themselves as a bloodline until they're accepted by the Camarilla and start to Embrace more widely and spread. Likewise, the Harbingers joined the Sabbat as allies but kept to themselves and seldom-if-ever Embraced, until they returned to the nascent Hecata.)

Perhaps what is to be Cainite, and True Sabbat, is in truth to be descended from Caine and not his cursed grandchilder. A clanless potentiality, unburdened of the weaknesses of the bloodlines, and able to develop in the direction its chosen Path demands.

SO! Let's talk about the Paths. I've Posted before about the mechanical faults with "adopting a Path" and the impossibility of transhuman ascension under Vampire's transgression-based morality rules, let's take that as read for now. Second edition did it right with the insistence that all "playable" (read "viable, True") Sabbat are on a Path and have successfully internalised its ethics and mobilised them against the Beast.

I really like how the contemporary Sabbat has fractured into packs led by priests and sharing a Path in common. It Just Makes Sense that the philosophical commitments of given Sabbat are what holds them together. The Sabbat is, after all, a militant cult; an army. Units work better if they're pursuing common goals and adopting a common strategy, rather than being tugged every which way by the individual desires of its members.

And, again returning to my Touchstone of second edition, all Sabbat used to operate on a mechanically distinct and alien basis in which Conviction (belief in an ethic), Instinct (trust in the Beast) and collective Morale (faith in the strength of the pack) replaced personal Conscience and Self-Control, and individualistic Courage. They weren't like you, they didn't think like you, and whatever made them so unlike you happened before you ever met them.

The paradox at the heart of the Sabbat is that it preaches freedom (from mortal and Camarilla moral and ethical concerns, i.e. freedom to be an unapologetic vampire) at the cost of submission (to the sect and its goals, i.e. freedom without liberty, do what thou wilt so long as thou dost what th'art told). Adoption of a Path and inclusion into a Pack that shares that commitment is part of that act of submission: it signifies a sublimation of the self into the sect. One cannot be True Sabbat until one has accepted oneself as a vampire - playing, metaphorically and literally, by vampire rules that are proven to work.

Forsake your Clan. Choose your Path. And, above all, make war, on your own initiative, because there are no orders coming from Mexico. The Regent is dead (and, in unknown fact, has been for a decade). The elders who founded and led the sect threw their childer to the fires and answered the Beckoning call of the ancient horrors: fuck 'em, they'll die with the Antediluvians they protect and serve. The self-proclaimed Kindred are merely obstacles. Recruit them, or tear them down. Leave the turf war bullshit to the Anarchs. We have a higher goal.

It's funny how I always drift into character when I talk about the Sabbat. I started out running a Sabbat game, and cast myself as pack priestess when I started playing them. They've always been my favourite mistake, and now that they and the Anarchs are in distinct and very different kinds of conflict, they are more interesting than they've ever been.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Hi, you're the first person on Tumblr I ever asked (still don't know how it works)

But how does Nutmeg Tiger feel about the kids in your Beast Redemption canon? Golden Cheese? Burning Spice and how he changed so much?

My "actually sitting down and answering asks" bender continues lol.

Nutmeg Tiger was quite shocked and confused when she noticed her master start to change. She's been fed the same stories about him all her life, had the same thoughts and expectations drilled into her skull as all the other Wild Spices. They favor the strong. Burning Spice favors the strong. Their raison d'être is power, battle, and bloodshed, and anyone who stands in their master's way must be destroyed, in keeping with the wanton destruction Burning Spice always craved.

But... Golden Cheese. That woman... That bird. Nutmeg was aware of her master's fixation on her from the get-go (it creeped her out a lot sometimes, but she always held her tongue), and obeyed when he demanded the bird be brought to him. She hated Golden Cheese almost by instinct, for any enemy of her master was an enemy of hers. She was outraged whenever Golden insulted him, and tried to escape his clutches, and when she actually defeated him (now THAT was a shock. She always thought her master was invincible. How could this be?). But she stood by and continued obeying his commands, even after that illusion she'd had of him being unstoppable was shattered. It was all she could do, in all honesty, for she never knew anything else.

But Burning Spice kept going after her. First to fight - but not even for the Soul Jam, just for fun. When Nutmeg tried to question this, Spice shut her down with prejudice and without explaining himself. She never asked again after that; she only had one head, she couldn't afford to lose it... And regardless, he was her master, and she cannot and must not question him.

...But then he started doing more than just fighting Golden Cheese. He started just... talking to her. Spending time with her. His infatuation with her was ever-present, but Nutmeg saw it slowly evolve from entirely selfish and deranged (even Nutmeg thought he was a psycho lol) to more tempered, healthy and genuine. Furthermore, Spice himself began to... calm down, for lack of a better term. He became more somber. More subdued. He seemed lost in thought often, when he was back home. His words and tone of voice began to lose some of their bite. He didn't want to go on hunts or destroy things as much anymore. If Nutmeg Tiger had it in her to say it - to anyone at all, including to herself - Spice almost seemed... depressed.

And it was Golden Cheese's fault, Nutmeg Tiger was certain. She was doing something to her master. In addition to stealing his power AND his heart, she has stolen his spirit - and for this, Nutmeg Tiger only hated her more. Greedy, haughty, conniving bird. If only Burning Spice had succeeded in killing her when he had the chance (she does not know or understand that he never wanted this in the first place; if Golden died, who would entertain him?)...

Worse still was when her master started bringing her there. He started bringing Golden Cheese back to Beast-Yeast, back to the Spice Ridge, to visit the Wild Spices. What- what even- what is this? What nonsense is this? He's bringing their sworn nemesis around like it's normal! Like he's bringing his girlfriend home to his family! (Which unironically is what he's doing lol that sly dog) And the other spices are OKAY WITH THIS! THEY ENJOY SEEING HER! THEY WARM UP TO HER AND LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS ALMOST INSTANTLY! Fools! Weaklings! Cowards, all of them! Is she the only one with any backbone left?! Is she the only one who sees and remembers the bird's treachery?!

Of COURSE Nutmeg Tiger is angry when she actually realizes that Burning Spice has well and truly fallen in love with Golden Cheese - and that Golden Cheese has fallen for him in turn, and thus they'd begun a relationship. She can't really say she's shocked, not anymore (probably not back then, either, her master was down BAD), but she certainly is appalled. In fact, Nutmeg almost feels... betrayed. All of that time and hard work, the blood and sweat and tears, spent on trying to follow HIS orders. LIVES were lost in the pursuit of this thief! And he just... shrugs it off? Shoves them all aside so he can pretend he's a good person and walk off into the sunset holding hands with their enemy? It's honestly insulting. Hurtful, even. The Wild Spices were fools, and now Burning Spice was the king of fools.

She remains resistant to everything for a very long time. Nutmeg Tiger is nothing, absolutely nothing at all, if not principled (read: stubborn). She does not accept her master's change of heart. She is not happy like the other Wild Spices are when he stops mistreating them and actually starts behaving like a proper king/leader. She only engages with Golden Cheese and her entourage (they start coming around too, and she hates it and them, that hooded servant that reeks of smoke most of all) to snap and snarl at them. She does not approve of Spice's relationship with Golden, even if he's genuinely happy - the sort of happiness she's never seen him express before. The kind brought by something light and warm, not the starved, manic, ephemeral glee that came with the carving of flesh and bone by his axe. It's anathema to everything she's ever known. It's an attack on her people, her way of life, HER. Perhaps everyone else has bent the knee to Golden Cheese, but she won't. Even if she's the last one on Earthbread who doesn't.

Except... She ends up bending the knee, too. Last one in line, but even so. When you're forced to hang around people all the time, it starts to reflect on you in some way. Especially if those people refuse to leave you alone, and seem to make an honest effort to speak to you and interact with you and get to know you. Especially that damn bird. Never any anger or malice on her face or in her voice... Did she not remember their rivalry? The pain they inflicted on one another? How can she still treat Nutmeg this way? Why is she being nice to her?

...Nutmeg Tiger never forgot that day. That moment where Golden Cheese condemned Burning Spice for ignoring Nutmeg while she was injured. They didn't even know each other. They were at war. Nutmeg was trying to hurt her. And yet, Golden still spoke up. She still stood up for her. Nutmeg Tiger has never known real kindness, be it giving any to others or receiving it... And there was someone giving her some, even if she herself could argue that it was undeserved. Golden had already driven a nail into Nutmeg's coffin by doing that... And all these visits from her, every attempt at conversation and fun and honest friendship, was just another nail. They stung, but Nutmeg was no stranger to pain... Only this pain kept building until not even she could endure it anymore.

Thus, slowly but surely, with the help and kindness of Golden Cheese and those beside her, Nutmeg Tiger, too, learned to change. Like Spice, she ended up confused. Depressed. She had a crisis of conscience and identity that took a long time to resolve. But when she did, she came out of it all the better, finally realizing the error of her ways and joining everyone else in the light. Perhaps she cannot undo her past actions - none of them can - but forward is the only way one can go regardless. And now, she finally wants to, and there are people there willing to help her along. To say no would be another wrongdoing.

She's happy at Spice and Golden's wedding. She welcomes the unification of their peoples. She accepts Golden Cheese and the others as friends (how strange it still is, to have "friends"...). She proudly serves her master still - both masters now.

And she loves the children like her own. She's the grumpy aunt that takes things too seriously and has a temper, but they still adore her (and vice versa). She helps train them (it is now her life's mission to ensure they become the greatest warriors to ever live lol). She'll carry them around on her back if they ask. She likes when they spend time in the nutmeg tribe. They are Wild Spices just like the rest of them. (She wasn't there when Pepper Jack was born, regrettably; she made it to the GCK a few days later. But she WAS there when Matar Paneer was born. Now THAT was a crazy day lol)

So yeah, there you have it. Nutmeg Tiger gets redeemed, too. Slower than Burning Spice (which is fundamentally absurd lol), but even so. She comes around to everything eventually.

And maybe she starts paying closer attention to "that servant who reeks of smoke"...

[gallusrostromegalus]

What kind of wildlife is around in the Spirit World/Realm? The show had riding boars and river fish that I can remember, and if they grow things then the right kinds of little bees and gnats must be Around, but Just Those don't make for a full healthy environment, right?

We don't see a lot of animals in canon because animals are rarely a problem that shinigami have to deal with but some notes:

Thylacalines are not extinct in the spirit world! Actually, it's kind of a problem- Thylacalines will ONLY reincarnate as Thylacalines, and since there are none on earth, the entire peak population of them lives in the southern Rukongai. This is a problem unique to Thylacalines, as most extinct animals will reincarnate as other extant animals or humans or whatever, but nope. Not these assholes. Furthermore, killing a thylacaline in spirit world just makes it respawn elsewhere in the spirit world, as it was and with it's memory intact and those motherfuckers hold GRUDGES. They're also not native to any of the places the human souls in Soul society come from so nobody has a damn clue what they're doing here. Well, they know what they're doing- Mostly eating anything that will fit in their mouths and occasionally mauling people who don't respect their personal space- but why they're doing that HERE is unclear.

The Migratory Bird Act of Year 1066 was established shortly after the Seki-Seki stone wall and spirit barrier surrounding the Seireitei was established, and within the week, catastrophic numbers of birds died flying into the invisible barrier. The act was actually spearheaded by Yamamoto, who was immensely distraught by the unintentional carnage, and had to actually threaten the Central 46 with bodily harm to get them to legally change the Kido spell on the barrier to only block Sapient Souls and let the birds come and go as they please. It was a landmark legal case that established the soul society's remarkably robust environmental protections, and the Central 46's policy of isolation from the Shinigami, which would prove disastrously fatal to the organization almost 1,000 years later.

Many creatures we have on earth exist in Spirit world, but at massive Scale and varying degrees of intelligence. The Nago Boar was a wild boar of average porcine intelligence, but spectacular scale- 15 feet tall at the shoulder and many tons in weight. It was an infamous monster that made the Nago region borderline uninhabitable from it's rampages. It was one of the rare animals that became the problem for the Shinigami, who tried in vain to kill the beast for the better part of two centuries but unlike a Hollow who acts on instinct and has a very breakable mask, the boar was quite cunning and ended up with three zanpaktou lodged in it's cranium to no ill effect before the Gotei-13 decided to just pay the remaining farmers to leave in 1219. It was slain by a hired swordsman protecting a geological survey in 1308, and the battle was immortalized in the Epic Multi-scene Screen Painting "The Slaying of The Nago Boar" by Minami Zasso, who was working as a surveyor and illustrator when he witnessed the event firsthand. The swordsman in the painting is unnamed, but there is a persistent rumor that the distinctive facial scar of the unnamed swordsman matches that of Eleventh Division Captain Zaraki Kenpachi, but that would mean the man is at least 700, more likely over 1000 years old! Surely not!

The Eleventh Division has another peculiar association with an animal of ridiculous scale. In 1272, the annual "Ranking Day" tournament (in which the members of the 11th division and anyone bold enough to take part would battle for ranked positions in the division- including the right to be captain) took place outside the Seireitei in a relatively isolated area of the rukongai because 1271's Ranking Day had turned into an outright riot that destroyed part of the city. The commotion and blooshed attracted the attention of a supernaturally large Monitor Lizard, who joined the fray without hesitation, and devoured the 4th Kenpachi. Having met the requirements of "Defeat the standing captian in combat in front of 200 witnesses", and because nobody was brave enough to remove the captain's haori from where the lizard had become entangled in it, Tokagero Kenpachi was named the 5th captain of the 11th division. Tokagero Kenpachi remained captain of the 11th division for an astounding 234 years, the longest reign of any Kenpachi, and via highly suggestive hissing and occasionally eating people she disagreed with, lead several important reforms within the division like "Pants Required" and "No showing up to work drunk" and "instituting the first 5-day work week and successful labor strike in Soul Society" though that last one was mostly the work of her long-suffering lieutenant, but her apparent taste for strikebreakers certainly helped the cause. Tokagero Kenpachi was lost in the infamous Tonsure Riots of 1606 when she vanished down an open manhole cover and into the sewers. No body was ever recovered, and her wherabouts remain unknown to this day.

[dteamomegaverse]

Day 4: Cycles

Welcome back to prompt explainers, where we give you a more literal description of the prompt, as well as inspiration and examples!

You can find the original post with all of the prompts here. Today our topic will be heats and ruts.

This is the big one. One of the most iconic parts about the omegaverse, heats/ruts are an event that alphas and omegas go through (although in some canons betas can go through either or both). They can last anywhere between a few days to a week, and can occur once every couple of months (though the prevalence of each cycle can differ, up to once every 6 months). Heats and ruts do hold a few differences but the core concept is the same; its a period where one is very uncomfortable and really, really wants a mate. Or to mate. Or both. Usually both.

Before we go any further, the elephant in the room must be addressed: yes, this is a vehicle for characters to fuck nasty. The origins of omegaverse stem from wanting a way to explain away mpreg, and it follows that most omegaverse fics center around the existence of their cycles and the often explicit events that occur during them.

This is not to say that heats and ruts are ONLY for writing smut; there are several other takes on the subject that have it be more similar to irl afab's periods rather than a mating season extravaganza. Furthermore, one of they key parts of these cycles is that simply having someone around (though usually of a different secondary gender) is usually enough to stop the pain.

It's also not necessary to even focus on the actual cycle itself. They are often predated by periods where the effects of the cycle are lessened. During this time, a lot of preparation is made as they're left barely able to take care of themselves properly. Plans for going in mateless, trying to find a partner for the cycle, making sure the room they're in is equipped with food, water, blankets... there's a lot to do to make sure you don't destroy everything and yourself. The characters are often left very vulnerable after the events of their cycle, so there is a lot of room to explore the effects of heats or ruts outside of the actual events themselves.

For those not in the know, let's explain what a heat and rut actually are, starting with heats. This will be the full sexual version, but for those not interested in creating anything nsfw you can pick and choose effects at your discretion.

Heats are a mainly omega phenomenon, and tend to last longer and/or occur more frequently than their rut counterparts. During heats, omegas are at their most vulnerable; they make a nest (soft items such as blankets, pillows, and most importantly clothes covered in other's scents), and essentially writhe in it for upwards to a week. Their scent glands go crazy, leading them to "stink" up the room with their scent. Their slick glands go on overdrive, causing them to soak through everything they wear. Their bodies are almost always uncomfortable, with cramps and/or need for an alpha partner's knot. During heats is when claiming is often performed; in fact, in some canons its the only time it can happen. If a heat is experienced without a partner it will be near excruciating, with the character often begging for a partner (usually the person they're in love with), but it can be dealt with via toys and sheer will. Omegas will often use heat suppression medication to just avoid going through a heat altogether due to how miserable they can be without someone else to help you through it (though, this does mean that if one were to suddenly run out of said medication a heat will swiftly follow that can be exponentially worse than a regular one). It's also the period where instincts take over completely, as its the time where they're the most. Fertile. And names are thrown out the window and they revert to calling people by their second genders.

Ruts are similar to heats in most aspects, with the main difference being that it is an Alpha-dominant phenomenon where they get more territorial and dominating. They don't create nests or slick, but instead are more prone to violence and destruction. Ruts often involve knots refusing to deflate, and if another alpha comes near them they may try to bite their throat out as they see most people as threats. In a way they can be equally as vulnerable as characters undergoing heats, as they cannot control their instincts and the event is inevitable. While rut suppressors do exist (for those on the work grind and can't afford to lose precious work days) they are less popular due to ruts tending to be shorter and more infrequent. Alphas are sometimes afraid to ask others to be their rut partners, as they can get really rough and may accidentally hurt or try to claim their partner.

Heats and ruts can often be triggered by each other in a phenomenon sometimes referred to as a "complimentary heat/rut." In some canons it is a sympathetic reaction that mimics the effects of the cycle without being a full blown cycle, whereas in others it can trigger a cycle early and thus disrupting a character's schedule. This has lead to the common social practice of alphas and omegas to be separated the moment the scent of someone gets suspiciously strong. These cycles are seriously debilitating, so there is a priority in minimizing the effects as much as possible for everyone.

With all this talk of vulnerability, there does arise the question of consent during the cycles. While in some canons unconsenting parties going through a cycle can defend themselves from unwanted partners, it isn't exactly a universal rule. Furthermore, someone in the throes of a cycle will often ask people close by (such as roommates) to help them through their heat, but they are not in a clear state of mind. How you explore this topic is entirely up to you, but there are some things to think about here.

With the definition out of the way, here are some examples of fic ideas about cycles! Some of the prompts will combine the sub-prompts in the idea. (A little extra note, the "unrequited love" sub-prompt can be both pure unrequited love and not actually unrequited love)

An omega's heat suppressants unexpectedly run out, leaving them to find a partner quickly or make preparations to suffer through it alone

After a few months of being together, the pairing ask each other to be their partner in their upcoming cycle

An early rut causes their omega roommate's heat to suddenly trigger, causing both to become each other's partner

an alpha is secretly but deeply in love with their omega roommate. when they end up going into rut they trigger their roommate's heat after accidentally confessing to them

An omega is in love with their alpha friend but believes that they don't love them back. When their rut is close and they ask the omega to be their partner, they believe its only because they need a partner rather than because they love them.

A royal sailing to a different country is taken hostage by pirates, only for their (or perhaps the Captain's) heat to start

Still need some help? We have an inspiration board on Pinterest for each prompt! Find the one for cycles here.

We hope this helps you understand the prompt and think of some wonderful ideas! We can't wait to see what you post on October 16th!

[katyspersonal]

List Master Willem’s war crimes for the judge and jury, please!

Alright this is genuinely a good question! I'll start with a plain one:

1) Fishing Hamlet massacre is Willem's order

Sorry, Laurence only condoned two massacres, not three. xD We yet can see he did have a good teacher in more ways than one hfsdhffd And it is definitely not hard to guess what was the reasoning:

2) The OG grave-robber

Obscure lore because it is locked to an item most players never found as it's gathered through unlikely platformer. But yeah, he and his friends done it before Tomb Prospectors made it cool XD Furthermore, some Chalice Rituals materials are found within Byrgenwerth (Red Jelly, Pearl Slug).

Granted, since Gehrman and Maria are associated with Byrgenwerth and Old Hunter Vitus is a summon in the Dungeons, he could have rather used aid of the Old Hunters instead of terrorising leftovers of Pthumerian civilisation himself. Maybe what he and his friends did was simply checking! But in that case, bothering Pthumerians was still his order, similarly to Fishing Hamlet.

3) Something to do with the infants..

There are multiple fetuses found in Byrgenwerth, in two variants: a petrified one (a common sign of strong Arcane exposure) and a 'cursed' one (with horns and multiple tiny skulls):

This is a large room for speculation on whether they were somehow lab-grown, or kidnapped from the Dungeons... Or, maybe, they were forcibly conceived in test subjects? Commoners that live in the woods around Byrgenwerth, kidnapped Pthumerians, whatever. To "lighten" the mood, maybe volunteer scholars? In either case, something heavily unethical happened here. The reason MUST have been the Great Ones' infants umbilical cords:

We are fighting adolescent (?) version of OoK, whereas their real 'presence' that we sever to destroy the heart of the Nightmare is a much smaller form, so, very likely, OoK was stolen as an infant, from the womb of Kos, and his cord was retracted.

(Side note: it is not necessary that the cord Fauxsefka drops was stolen from Byrgenwerth, let alone that it was the cord of OoK specifically, since she only drops it after Bloodmoon. I think that either she got pregnant like Arianna, especially since she is a Vileblood too, or she was on her way to be reborn into a GO infant like Paleblood Hunter does in the New Beginnings ending! The latter is very possible since that ending is only accessible after eating 3 cords, so, after gaining a lot of Insight, which Fauxsefka does! Basically we don't know the fate of OoK's cord, but nonetheless it is likely that Willem still had it!)

4) Was Rom's fate his fault?

This is the potential one rather than apparent! There is a common assumption that he was experimenting on Rom, supported also by the fact that Byrgenwerth is the only place where Gardens of Eyes type of Kin are found (otherwise they're only found in generated Chalice Dungeons, so, "non canon" ones). Granted, there is a lot to talk about Amygdalae and Nightmare Apostles involvement with the 'Spiders', as well as Patches the Spider being in Byrgenwerth! Still:

Not an unreasonable assumption! Though it is up to interpretation whether Rom was forcibly experimented on, groomed by him to "agree" to it for greater good as Byrgenwerth is hardcore gatekeepers, volunteered herself, or did have that weird involvement with 'Spiders' and Willem simply utilised the (unwell) result by at least hiding it in the Lake. Another sidenote though is that by the game's events, Rom is THE person concealing Mensis Ritual, and Willem is the one to urge our Hunter to hunt her with his scepter!

(Backing this up because there might be people that didn't play BB yet since Sony hates fun and joy)

So I think whatever was his reason to hide her in the Moonside Lake was not Mensis Ritual; he did not see it coming back then, and now understands what has to be done to stop it! (Damn, this brings back memories, this issue was one of my very first loredigs...)

5) Willem secretly orchestrated the Choir?

This is the second potential one. Yurie was strangely titled The Last Scholar, and considering her spot, I can only think of the implication of her returning in the walls of Byrgenwerth! There is a secret cave in the woods (most likely the one Fauxsefka invaded from) that allowed communication with Byrgenwerth, as well as White Church Set is found in the Woods! And furthermore, Gatekeeper that guards the entrance to the Woods on the way in Byrgenwerth uses the adage coined in by Willem as the password, and adopted by the Healing Church!

From the looks of it, the way to Byrgenwerth was not only declared to be a forbidden area, but even hidden from the "lower rank" Healing Church staff, as Alfred says gatekeeper would not open. That'd mean he doesn't know the adage, when Amelia must be. Choir and School of Mensis are higher echelons of the Healing Church, and as you can see, Yurie(Choir) is an NPC there, whereas Damian(Mensis) is a summon there! My interpretation here is that communication with Byrgenwerth remained, just that Healing Church made effort to hide it so the unsightly, as Simon put it, secrets of their origins REMAIN secrets.

(For lyrics: ( x )) The petrified spider found in Altar of Grief IS possibly Rom! That theory could be easily discarded at the first glance because the legs don't match, but they do, as you can see from the holes in her Lake form! Lyrics of Ebrietas' song also seem to refer to Mensis Ritual, as if she knows what has to be done to stop it when she cherished Rom for one reason or another and cries at her "grave".

Willem could have had connection with Ebrietas from the start. And, hell, he should have pulled the biggest "told you so" face when Laurence's Healing Church first took a big route around to try and mess with the Deep Sea, and only through so many failed experiments decided to seek the guidance of the Stars instead, and find the 'right' way to aspire for ascension:

Myazaki please stop tormenting me enough is enough sfhdhfd So, the way things likely happened: Willem was able to tell 'Stars' was the way to go even before meeting Ebrietas in person, Laurence separated from Byrgenwerth to try out Blood Ministration when Willem already warned him it was dangerous, then his Healing Church had attempts to dive into Deep Sea for the eyes (if Micolash and Rom somehow had nothing to do with it I am suing everyone fdhfhds), then turned out patients are doing better seeking Stars (Lumenflowers balcony) and it even happens besides their will (Living Failures), they find Ebrietas and reform Research Hall into Choir/Orphanage, they focus on Eyes when Laurence favours Blood and Hunt more, they remember what Willem told them from the start and seek him, eventually people like Yurie and Rom return to their roots for the lack of better term. As for Fauxsefka, either 1) she returned with Yurie but then changed her mind on being a lazy fence-sitter and rage-quit 2) she invaded Byrgenwerth later on, after 'Choir's ways differed from Willem', might have stolen a cord from there but we don't know 3) she never even invaded and her story goes separately, but she IS from Choir's era of 'differing from Willem', that Yurie didn't catch onto.

...what I am saying, is that for all we know, experiments on the orphans and maybe-grooming Rom into sacrificing herself were under his doing, behind Laurence's back, even. Too bad that Micolash in the end turned out to be more cunning than EVERYONE in this scheme, but still, Willem could have played not the last role here! Poor Laurence, so ambitious yet so very dim.

____________________________

So yeah... This might not seem like much, especially as part of this is speculation, but I think this paints the picture of 'mad researcher' character that appears in basically every Soulsborne game at least once x) Laurence and Micolash maybe have created the main mess of the story, but even if they never existed, with Willem, there would be a lot of unethical experiments, a lot of extermination of "less intelligent" species, and a lot of dead infants! He is guilty not as much for teaching Laurence and, likely, Micolash (the boys still had their agency), but for just being himself lol. ROFL at the guy ordering to kill a pregnant mother and her baby and their worshippers in order to learn how to stop being barbaric as human beings fdjhhfdsds

[squeiky]

METAL SONIC X CHAOS ZERO!!!

IN ALL THE CHARTS I COULD FIND!!

Some of the charts got repetitive, so i cropped it.

NOTES: there may be someee minor inconsitences as sometimes id change mind my across one chart to another.

If you want an expliantion for ANY of my choices here, please ask! I am starving for conversation about this relationship- so please please please ask my questions- or just tell me your own ideas! Idk! Communicate! Your words and thoughts are not dumb!! They are very important to me and must be shared!!!

Also, some more of my thoughts + notes after the cut:

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I think my favorite charts are the first two, since the first one was pretty thourghough and easy to get whilst also including intresting and unique questions to the relatio ship dynamic. the second one i added a bit of character interaction so its really cute, and thats practically why i like.

---

I particularly like the touch chart, as i really had to consider wthe physicality of these two, and the custom model was fun to make (look they're even holding hands haha). It was a bit tricky considering i had to figure out what touches where welcomed and what weren't based on previous canonical interactions, and my own theories/speculations.

---

Oh, to explian the "lends clothes" and "borrows/steals clothes", i always found the neat detail of Neo Metal Sonic's wardrobe possesing a kind of.. arm warmer/bell sleeve? As well as its pants(?) Being a bell bottom.

Without the belt/butt cape, it does make metal sonics limbs somehwhat resemble the sillouette of Chaos' body, so obviously- i just figured that Chaos, if he were to wear any clothing, would probably be stolen by Metal Sonic since it already seems to be fond of that particular look that Chaos naturally has.

--

Oh, and Metal and Chaos being somewhat organized is due to thier jobs and enviornment they grew up in. Eggman, being the opposite of Sonics carefree, chaotic attitude, would likely prefer more cleaner, organized or "controlled" enviornments. Thus, i feel that Metal Sonic may have picked up a few tidying or cleaning habits that were a cause of eggman simply teaching or implimenting features in his bots to prefer the "clean up" of "dirty" or "messy" areas.

For chaos, i do recall reading something (perhaps on the chao wiki) of him purifying the Altars water and keeping it relatively clean from debries and such. Furthermore, having to be sole guardian of little children chao, the altar and the master emerald, requires a lot of responsibility and- if anyone has worked with children before- it can get very messy very quickly. So its mere speculation, but i do think Chaos would have picked up many cleaning habits as well, as well as cooking/harvesting skills due to him having to take care of large batches of critters.

Surprisingly, for a creature named "Chaos", the name only truely applies to the singular instance in which he is "Final Chaos" (as thats likely what the echidnas called him during and after that time.) Turns out, Chaos is way more controlled and responsible than chaotic and carefree.

So to segway, out of the two, Metal Sonic would be way more chaotic considering its nack for stirring up trouble (CD, Sonic Heroes, Chaotix.. ect) for the heroes, as well as it not really having major responsibilites outside of its purpose to "destroy sonic" and occasionally obey whatever task eggman requires of it.

Thus, is why in the driving promps, i title it "a speeder".

---

To explain the "Cognito Egro Sum" (aka. I think therefore i am) and the "infinty symbol" for the ages, er.. Metal sonic is a robot, and Chaos is an immortal being. If your being technical with it, you can say they're both relatively young, considering Chaos chao can't age and are often stuck in the form they were hatched in- despite the fact that chao do infact change as they age-

One can consider the idea that Chaos, for all intensive purposes, looks and probably is pretty young- if we apply chao logic to him.

Though one will argue "but Chaos is ancient" which is true, but his case is similar to Shadow's as he was trapped in that Master emerald for... millions of years............. so, similarly to how shadow was stuck for 50 years yet remains a teenager both inside and out, Chaos- for whatever age he was before he got trapped, probably still thinks and acts like that, as well as Tikal. Except now they probably need a LOT of therapy.

^hence why i put chaos's sleeping habits as "sleeps poorly" and "sleeps to little". In hindsight, being trapped in a emerald for thousands of years, with your freind of who's father killed your entire* family and burned your house (altar) down and tried to steal your most precious item (master emerald) and being the girl whos stuck with your freind(?) who killed your entire bloodline and basically genocided your entire community- stuck with him for THOUSANDS OF YEARS- is.....is going to require a lot of therapy.

So y'know, bad sleeping problems. Also probably why i depict Chaos hugging a lot + being affectionate, since being deprived your community that is entirely reliant on the concept of "caring, loving, and nurturing one another" (cause.. the opposite of that means chao will basically die upon reincarnation), for thousands of years is... a good recipe for touch starvation and a need for attention.

^hence why chaos is also on the attention side of some charts.

----

^ just conintuing off of that previous statement, i did move Chaos closer towards "extrovert" in the "extrovert or introvert" prompts, as since Chaos, unlike Metal Sonic, deals closely with many chao, and often is surrounded by a crowd of them, i do believe that Chaos would have to atleast gain some energy from social interaction in order to surivive that every day, without burning out.

----

The whole "who talks more" thing is kind of funny because, technically, its metal sonic (see Sonic Heroes + Sonic Free riders) who has more lines than.. Chaos's total of zero!

Meaning that, if anything, the "he said no pickles" meme would probably mean that Metal Sonic would be at the counter whilst Chaos is sitting in the back.

Though, compared to MANY other characters, these two are practically dead-silent, and would most likely rely on non-verbal ways of affection than verbal.

---

Oh and the "ethical v. Immoral thing" where i emphasized that chaos was "neutral" was because by compsring him to "chaos chao", theres a dark side, good guy side, and then neutral. Considering Chaos's history of amazingly goodwilled to horrendously incidous, one can conclude that he practically in the middle in terms of ethics or morality.

Metal sonic is definetly on the more immoral side, though i wouldnt put it all the way, as i do have considering enviornmental aspects to its behavior (such as well.. being a badnik, and being constantly exposed to eggman's immoral behaviors). So, other than like, unnesecarily abusing animal freinds in CD, and throwing a ship probably full of people at sonic (Sonic heroes) there aren't many instances in which Metal Sonic does something completely immoral and unjust- without any context regarding eggman ordering it too, or simply it just doing its job as a badnik.

However those actions are prettt bad on its own- though compared to... killing out an entire species... drowning thousands of people in a city and attempting to kill eggman with a giant laserbeam... and to whatever hyjinks eggman gets up too...

Its actions seem.. relatively small (though not obsolete.)

So like, theres not going to be many issues regarding "metal sonics gotta be a good guy"/ "i can fix him🥺" mentalities, since its kind of hard to do that, when you have a kill count of a 100+ whilst Metal Sonic is still on the "i'm needlessly harming animals, and threw a boat"...

Then again, i like to think the leiniency allows for them to work on themselves together, rather than tear eachother down or hate eachothers guts.

---

Transgender - both for my headcannnon, but also a refrence to it literally going "i transformed myself with my own hands" and well, i cant resist a pun/play on words now can i?

Agender- chaos dont have.. genders.

However, i thought this would change when introduced to concept of feminine and masculine models of the ancients in frontiers, but looking at Chaos, he doesnt resemble either one very much (tbh, in Sonic Forces, his model actually looks more akin to the fem version, than the pointy and sharp masc ones) and looks more akin to that of the children, if anything.

Plus, being masculine or feminine isnt really and indicator of gender anyways.. so like..???

So what? Does Chaos, gender? NOPE! Chaos isn't an ancient (thats his ancestor) and is a mutated chao. Chaos are genderless, or atleast out of that particular binary.

If Tikal showed up one day and started calling Chaos a "he/him", its likely that Chaos could've just.. adopted that. Assigned pronouns by random. Amazing.

So agender, as i can't think of anything else.

---

Sexuality -idk. Look, i dont consider whomth one likes. The knowledge of my characters, or other characters sexualites comes upon me in the way preists suddenly hear the words of their gods.

I dunno, until suddenly i know. Thats just how it is.

---

Ending it here cause im hungrt and cant think of anything else to chat on.

[sweetiecutiedarling]

Why I did what I did in Chapter 58 of Take Me to Voldemort… (I started to ramble in a comment the other day and I’ve decided to write it all out in a post.)

🛑 It goes without saying but just to be clear- there are some massive spoilers in this post. If you have not read through chapter 58, stop here!🛑

From the very start I had two deaths that I knew would come. Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley. The basic principle of the story was that I wanted Harry to have the Marauders + co raise him, I wanted a family hero. Neville’s death quickly took Lily’s death’s place as a way to make the horcrux but also as an early turning point in Harry’s somewhat sheltered life. Ron’s was also a turning point and a necessity.

After Hermione and Harry sneak out of Hogsmead so that Hermione can threaten Nott Sr, actually really while they do it, Hermione touches on why Ron can’t remain alive the entire time. Ron is, as an awesome AO3 commenter by the name StabbityRabbit put it, The Reasonable One. He is their limiter, the one who reminds them of their physical and ethical limits. With Ron there, Hermione NEVER would have participated in the plan for Draco to use the killing curse to destroy the horcrux in Harry. Which means that Harry and Draco would have continued without her and they certainly wouldn’t have told even DA leadership what they were doing. Though Draco read the books and helped with the plan, Hermione was key to the plan design. Draco could not have developed the method of directing the killing curse within Harry’s body without her. He may have ALSO killed the horcrux, but he wouldn’t have saved Harry.

There are other character developments that wouldn’t have happened with Ron there.

The entire rehab plot would have been missed. Yes, the potion that Narcissa fed Harry was the tipping point, but Harry would have had a better anchor if Ron was there. It’s not that I wanted Harry to relapse and suffer for no reason but that Harry needed therapy and time to himself. He needed to recognize in a way that most teenagers don’t that his personal development must be intentional. That personal development needed to be guided by a third party, a professional from outside of the war. Furthermore, Harry needed to go to Australia specifically. This opened his eyes to the flaws that he sees in the Statute of Secrecy which is a part of The Dumbledore Problem in his eyes.

Hermione diving deeply into dark magic, really losing herself in her ruthlessness, couldn’t have happened with Ron there. Furthermore, Hermione feeling so lost without her childhood friend contributed to her friendship with other witches that developed in her seventh year. These friendships still would have occurred, though perhaps not as quickly. This ruthlessness to herself and others is a key part of the war efforts moving forward. Yes, it is a flaw, but it is necessary and arguably not a flaw in the current context. (Voldemort has the Ministry and has declared the war won. Things are terrible. As Theo observed after his kidnapping- you have to give your all because Voldemort will take it either way.)

All in all, Ron’s absence was necessary and it couldn’t just be an absence. It had to be viewed as permanent. However he has an important role to play in the war, and also I just adore Ron as a character, so it couldn’t actually be permanent.

I don’t know if anyone noticed but I very much so never said that Ron was dead in my comments. I couldn’t bring myself to lie. 😂😅

I did toy with the idea of Ron ending up in the canon universe for a bit, if only because the idea of these two universes colliding is really intriguing to me, but that never panned out. It just felt off any time I wrote it.

[blackdagger456]

Lets Talk About: MHA 382 And The Misconception On How To Handle Himiko Toga

Sssup ya’ll! Hope your days been good so far! As for me? Well, past few days have been…interesting. Especially with how i’ve seen people reacting to the leaks and unofficial translations before the actual chapter came out.

I was going to talk about the entire chapter as a whole but I think it’s more important to talk about Himiko right now.

To start with let's talk about her current state, as of now Himiko is using Jins blood to use his 'Parade' move to bolster her allies ranks as well as turn into copies of Shigaraki, AFO and Dabi. The fear was that she'd be able to use their quirks as well but as Tsuyu says below that doesn't seem to be the case.

This pulls us in more into her mental state more and furthers something else that we've been seeing from Himiko. And that's if THIS is what she really wants at all.

Remember Himiko Toga joined the LOV originally so that she could be free to be herself. Society failed her, her parents failed her in both not understanding her child and forcing her to push herself down. The actions taken caused her to break, to have her personality warp and meld into what it is today.

Himiko Toga isn't insane, she's killed people and she does have the tendencies but she's not insane. Furthermore, she values those that love her for her and none did more than Twice.

That man was like a brother to her, and she couldn't comprehend why he was killed. Why the heroes who were supposed to save people were killed him. Himiko Toga loves greatly and largely and although that love could maybe be confused with admiration and is corrupted by tendencies that she cannot control it's still llove.

Which is why it's breaking her that she seemingly can't use the people she supposedly loves powers.

It calls into question her beliefs, the very core of her being but you see she's able to use Twices clones because she loves Him.

She doesn't love AFO and though she may have at one point she may not love the current Dabi and Shigaraki.

Let me make it clear that Dabi has really only been using the LOV for his own ends, don't let fanon confuse you for canon that may is manipulating everyone in his efforts to kill his father and his family. As for Tomura? Well---he's not really Tomura right now is he? He's a puppet for AFO right now even if he is fighting it.

At the end of the day, they're using Himiko to kill. Just to kill, that's never really been the end all for her. It's not her goal, it's not her only purpose in life.

Just being told to kill and kill and kill, that ALL HEROES MUST DIE? Is not something she wants, not really... She wants to destroy the things she doesn't like so she can be herself but that doesn't mean she wants to destroy everything. She doesn't want to destroy the people she loves and admires.

But she doesn't see it that way. She sees it as her not being able to love properly, that she's once again failing to understand the concept to the people that should be the most important to her.

It brings her to tears---and seeing someone, even someone like Himiko, in tears gets her on Ochacos radar.

Because here and now...Ochaco is going to try and SAVE Himiko Toga.

Unfortunately, people don't agree with that.

See, recently i've found that people have been calling for her death as of late. People have been criticizing Ochaco for seemingly wanting to help Toga in some way due to the look in her eyes and I have to say that if you agree with that---you've not been paying attention.

If you're one of the people who are saying things like, and I quote, “she’s killed alot of people just for fun, ya’ll are simps, its okay to be a serial killer if you’re cute, nah screw Toga, literally serial killer., need the punisher to teach these heroes how its done" then you have missed the ENTIRE point of one of the KEY THEMES of this story.

This was never going to end with a hug, this is a huge fight in the war and i have no doubt that Himiko and Ochaco are going to come to blows. Hell, they already have but you see here's the thing.

There's a huge difference between forgiveness and understanding.

Himiko may not get forgiveness from the people she's wrong but she sure as hell deserves understanding. We've seen it from day one that this world is not black and white, it has always been gray something that Midoriya has been through his entire life and something he admits verbally with is fight with Nagant.

If there were more people like Izuku Midoriya in the hero business people like Tomura and Himiko wouldn't have gone down the tracks they've been on. It's a whole key thing in the story, one Hori seems to be about to use Uravity to expand on. But simply killing Himiko isn't the answer, hell--its why Spinners followers stopped following him during the hospital battle.

Understanding is what is needed her--killing Himiko devalues everything about the 1A kids as a whole as well as the story.

[reginrokkr]

𝐋𝐗𝐕𝐈. Canon divergencies.

The first time I addressed Dain's canon divergencies was in two different posts without joining them into one. So in view that new peeps have joined the fray and may not be aware of them, I'll be putting them here together! Firstly, a small disclaimer about this as I think it's equally as important as to address the divergencies themselves.

My main reasoning for addressing these canon divergencies for Dain is due to HYV’s choice of making the Traveler a self-insert and as a result of this, it’s clear that plot wise they’ll have to be everywhere and even do god’s work despite the many reservations this may have behind, such as the fact that in some instances it feels forced for the Traveler to be there instead of having another character capable of doing the job to give them the spotlight instead. I feel that with Dain it happens the same in very few instances so far that can or can’t increase in the future as the story advances, but for now I’ll focus on three of them:

→ Sacred Sakura cleansing ritual: It is said that 500 years ago during the grunt that Inazuma was taking due to the Dark Cataclysm, this tree —just as Irminsul, which seems to have a connection to it— almost withered but someone was able to perform the cleansing rite necessary to rid it from all the impurities that the tree is working hard on purifying. It is also said that minor cleansing leading to a major one are required to be done every 60 years in order to keep the Sacred Sakura in good health, but at the same time it’s strange that the methods for performing this rite are lost and not preserved despite how relatively often the ritual is done. Which could be due to the fact that someone who doesn’t need these instructions knows how to perform the cleansing and thus, there is no need for them to preserve anything. Furthermore, as the Bough Keeper which most likely references to his role towards Irminsul, I believe that it’s appropriate for Dain to be the one performing this task in the past from 500 years ago up to the present days without the need to seek someone else.

→ Tsurumi Island Ley Line disorder fix: Following the premise that Dain is the Bough Keeper and as such, it makes sense for him to take care of affairs related to Irminsul, plus the ancient civilization that most likely he learned about and visited to witness with his own eyes during his 500 years of life, it is plausible for him to be the one to fix this issue that has been present for at least 1,500 years, if not more. Timeline wise, this will happen post his journey with the Abyss Twin and 40 years later (100 hears in abyssal time), which will coincide with the conclusion of Dain’s pursuit for answers related to Khaenri’ah and his the end of his learning process about the truth of Teyvat. This will lead him to another restless journey to visit places where he knows that ancient civilizations that have been destroyed existed and it’ll also punctuate the beginning of his pursuit of the Abyss Order to deter their plans the more he learns as he goes. This event will be about putting to rest Kapatcir’s wrath which is what is causing the Ley Line disorder in Tsurumi Island and sending the souls off with the boatman who will ultimately lead them to the moon-mansion where they can find rest.

→ Enkanomiya Watatsumi Goryou Matsuri: Every several centuries, this ritual must be performed in order to prevent the soil of Watatsumi Island to become infertile partly due to the salinization of the soil and partly to impede the influence of Enkanomiya to spring forth on the surface. According to Enkanomiyan ancestors, a “hero” is needed for this process who is said to be blond. This is mostly because the civilization of Enkanomiya was obligated to hide all historical records of their past from before their fall into the pit of the Abyss as a result of a war between The Saints and The Second Who Came. The purpose behind sending just one person is because all the secrets that lay in Enkanomiya must be kept secret, thus it’s counterproductive to send different people and run the risk of spreading the information about what they’ve seen in the depths —Orobashi was sentenced to death and made to fight the Raiden Shogun as per the Heavenly Principles because he found out about certain truths in Enkanomiya—. So for this matter, the fact that it involves an ancient civilization that Dain would visit and the Abyss Order involvement twice so far, he will be the responsible one of performing this ceremony. Before the current events, Dain has already performed this rite once and he’s known by Enkanomiya’s shades of Tokoyo. Likewise, this would require him to be in touch with the line of priests / priestesses in order to get the necessary permits to descend to Enkanomiya.

→ Aranyaka's return 500 years later: For most of the Aranara, tales about the Golden Nara who assisted in the many tasks required to perform the ritual in the Utsava Festival are just that, tales and not memories. During the Cataclysm, when the skies where black and there was no sun or moon while it rained crimson, it was Dáinsleif who helped these forest guardians to restore the Varuna Contraption, to nurture Ashvattha in order to give its fruit and to soothe Mawtiyima's ailment via a necessary cleansing. At the end, a great fight against Marana's Avatar waged with the company of the Aranara who shared their strength with Dáinsleif and with that, the sun and moon returned to Sumeru. 500 years later, it was time to repeat the process with new and old souls that no longer remember him, albeit can feel in him something they cannot pinpoint until it's revealed at long last that he helped them restore the peace in Sumeru. All so that it won't spread to the rest of the world, for the ailment remains the same: death's essence through Marana.

[maryellencarter]

So we still have multiple Lupin III stories in progress.

I don't know if I can bear to post any of them. I've already left almost all the Lupin servers I was in.

Not because I want to move on. I still love the show and the characters. I have more stories to tell. But...

...there just isn't a place in this fandom for me.

People can't even fucking acknowledge that they're being unwelcoming. They'll tell me to my face that they're biphobic and expect me to just be fine with that. They'll toss out general statements about how only homophobes could read a relationship as nonromantic and expect me to be okay with that too.

I've been as loud as I thought I could while being polite. It hasn't made a dent. So here's a different try:

If you say things like "Jigen isn't attracted to women", "any story with a Jigen girlfriend is a bad story", "Jigen doesn't have any chemistry with his onscreen girlfriends", "Jigen only has relationships with women because of compulsory heterosexuality" -- you are BIPHOBIC, and let me be clear in very small words:

THAT. IS. BAD!

It means YOU HATE ME!

So I do not want you reading ANY OF MY STORIES!

You don't deserve them! You don't deserve to enjoy good writing from someone you are ERASING and SILENCING and FORBIDDING FROM REPRESENTATION.

Furthermore:

If you're one of the 99% of the fandom who saw episode 5 of Lupin Zero and said anything like "This can only be read romantically", "Every queer fan is happy about this development", "It's good that they finally stopped lying to us":

you have hurt ME PERSONALLY. Which I said, loudly, multiple times, with explanations, and not ONE person came over and said "I didn't mean it that way" or "there's room for you".

(Two people tried to tell me I could still interpret the relationship as platonic. I appreciate the thought, but -- no, no I can't. I can't *share* that interpretation without having it overridden by arophobic well-meaning asshats who can't register that they're doing any harm by acting like they think I meant it as romantic, and that's already destroying me.)

So. If you think a platonic friendship, or a nonromantic sexual relationship, can't be the deepest relationship in a person's life --

-- if you think that making a queer relationship romantic is something that only homophobes can regret or be upset about --

-- if you think making any fictional relationship romantic makes it "more", deeper, more fulfilling, more meaningful --

then GO EAT A SACK OF BRICKS!

and also don't read my stories anymore.

because I was just that stupid, autistic, aromantic *loser* who thought a story that explicitly talked about the importance of friendship was going to be about

ACTUAL FRIENDSHIP

i thought i was seeing a part of myself that never, ever gets portrayed. there are no canon-media stories about friendship that's more important than romance. i dared to start *writing* about it.

and then i found out that not one solitary person in this fandom is capable of taking a minute from ASSIGNING their joy to everyone around them and realizing, hey, a queer person is saying they're NOT happy about this development, they're deeply distressed, they just lost what everyone else gained.

Nobody wants me here. Nobody wants *what I am* here. They're happy to read my writing, but only if they can *overwrite* me into the assumption of what Somebody Who Writes Things They Enjoy must be.

I haven't even been able to watch any Lupin, except for showing selected episodes to Kat, since this happened. I can't think about posting a new story without crying all over again. I'm not allowed to exist here, and I can't even yell loud enough to get anybody to acknowledge it.

I'm not somebody who nukes my fics. Even if these weren't all co-written, an archive is an archive, and everything I've posted on AO3 is still up there. But I genuinely do not know if I can share anything more with the people who make me feel like this.

[bakerstreetbabble]

Rex Stout: "Watson Was a Woman?"

[The article below is my second full-length article to be published on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.  Enjoy!]

"an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents..." [SIGN] 

In all the recent debates among Sherlockians over the CBS program Elementary, one will often find vehement disagreement over the decision of the show's creator's decision to cast Lucy Liu as "Joan Watson." They will say that it destroys the all-male dynamic of Holmes and Watson's relationship, they will worry that it will develop into a romantic relationship, they will say "It's simply not Holmesian!" All the while, the assumption seems to be that the idea of casting Watson as a female role is a new (and perhaps dangerous or ill advised) idea. As we'll see, that simply is not the case.

Let us consider an article published in The Saturday Review of Literature, March 1, 1941, written by a certain Rex Stout, creator of another famous detective, Nero Wolfe. The article, based on a speech Stout had given to the Baker Street Irregulars earlier that year, was entitled "Watson Was a Woman." Stout, apparently with tongue implanted firmly in cheek, opens his article thusly: You will forgive me for refusing to join in your commemorative toast, "The Second Mrs. Watson," when you learn it was a matter of conscience. I could not bring myself to connive at the perpetuation of a hoax. Not only was there never a second Mrs. Watson; there was not even a first Mrs. Watson. Furthermore, there was no Doctor Watson. Please keep your chairs. "Please keep your chairs," indeed. To address a gathering of Sherlockians, opening with the words "there was no Doctor Watson" seems to be a potentially disastrous idea. Remember, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had only died about a decade before Stout dared to give his speech and publish his article. I can only imagine the outrage that must have taken place among some of the Sherlockians who first read or heard these words!

It gets better, though. Mr. Stout goes on to quote from one of Watson's earliest impressions of Holmes, in A Study in Scarlet: ...he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning." Aha! A clue... Stout continues:

I was indescribably shocked. How had so patent a clue escaped so many millions of readers through the years? That was, that could only be, a woman speaking of a man. Read it over. The true authentic speech of a wife telling of her husband's-- but wait. I was not indulging in idle speculation, but seeking evidence to establish a fact. It was unquestionably a woman speaking of a man, yes, but whether a wife of a husband, or a mistress of a lover, . . . I admit I blushed. So here we have it! Not nearly as coy as the creators of Elementary would be seventy years later, Rex Stout presents the theory that Watson was a woman, and not just any woman: either the wife or mistress of Sherlock Holmes! "My blushes, Watson!" (I can almost hear the great detective saying it...)

Mr. Stout finds more proof in Watson's statement about Holmes's prowess on the violin: ". . . his powers upon the violin . . . at my request he has played me some of Mendelssohn's Lieder. . ." He writes: "Imagine a man asking another man to play him some of Mendelssohn's Lieder on a violin!" Stout goes on to develop his theory of Watson as the wife of Sherlock Holmes. He finds particularly interesting Watson's role as a "reformist wife," in his attempts to break Holmes of his cocaine addiction.

Further on is possibly the most incredible (or the most ridiculous, depending on your point of view) bit of deduction in the entire article. In an almost acrobatic feat of acrostics, Rex (I don't think he'd mind me calling him "Rex") arranges eleven of the adventures in the canon in the following order:

Illustrious Client Red-headed League Engineer's Thumb Norwood Builder Empty House

Wisteria Lodge Abbey Grange Twisted Lip Study in Scarlet Orange Pips Noble Bachelor

IRENE WATSON! All he has to do after this bit of legerdemain is to connect the name "Irene Watson" with the classic description of Irene Adler as "the woman," and his case is complete.

Towards the end of the article, Stout admits: 

"All this is very sketchy... I am now collecting material for a fuller treatment of the subject, a complete demonstration of the evidence and the inevitable conclusion." Presumably no further treatment of the theory was forthcoming, and one has to wonder if the whole thing, speech and subsequent article, was just a little fun at his fellow Sherlockians' expense.

It's plain to see, then, that the idea of Watson as a woman is hardly a novel one; inflammatory for some Sherlockians, certainly, but not new. It's no secret that Watson has appeared in many different guises over the years: old man, young man, doddering, comical, and intelligent. Indeed, in the world of film and TV adaptations, Watson has been presented as a woman in 1971's They Might Be Giants (Dr. Mildred Watson becomes the companion of Justin Playfair, a man who thinks he is Sherlock Holmes), and as a robot in the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (a robot companion programmed to believe his is the original Dr. Watson). To borrow from Ecclesiastes,"there is nothing new under the sun."

[You can read the Rex Stout article in its entirety here, or if you'd prefer a PDF of the article as it appeared in The Saturday Review of Literature in March of 1941, here for the first two pages and here for the final page.]

[airprime7]

AND NONE OF THERE GARDIANS HAD MET BEFOR THE STORY TAKES PLACE.

Dad Egbert and Mom Lalonde momentarily met on the date of John's "birth", and baby Rose and Nanna were technically present at the interaction. Furthermore, Nanna and Grandpa canonically were raised as siblings (adopted) and grew up together.

Also, dubiously canonically Grandpa set up the trust funds that keep Bro Strider and Mom Lalonde living rich.

They're universe begins to impose on itself (via jack noir and the green sun) so they decide to CREATE a New univerce. This is The Alpha Univerce.

This is not what happens. John's universe is the exact same universe as Jane's universe. They are both simultaneously destroyed by Jack Noir in the year 2242 (intenally), using the Red Miles (externally. Jack is outside the time bubble of the universe so doesn't attack it from any particular time, it's just destroyed in 2242). This universe (known as universe B) then has its destruction used as fuel, along with the destruction of the troll universe (universe A), to create the Green Sun.

What does happen is that John and his group "Scratch" their session, meaning that the universe is re-set with slightly different initial parameters. Jane lives in an alternate timeline from John, not an alternate universe.

The only people they have on hand are themselves and there gardians (seeing how everyone else died when earth got destroyed).

None of the beta kids do any of this, Skaia does. And it's definitely possible for people from the new timeline to play the game, the guardians were just created (by the game, John was just following guidance) for the express purpose of being the back-up players in case of a Scratch.

It is a paradox simply bec the kids could not exist in the ALPHA timeliness UNLESS they already existed in the BETA time.

This is not what makes Paradox Cloning a Paradox. Paradox cloning comes as a side-effect of time-travel and appearification. When you try to appearify something that has already been observed to be present in its own future, you will instead appearify a Paradox Ghost of that thing, which is a green slime copy with the exact DNA, but none of the structure to hold it up, so it will collapse into a puddle and not be alive. The term "Paradox Ghost" is also why Ectobiology is called Ectobiology: it's Ghost Cloning. This DNA can then be used to create a Paradox Clone, which if completely accurate is fated to become the the version of itself it was clones from (in at least one timeline, not necessarily all of them).

For example, if you scroll down to the bottom of this post right now you will see the word "Pumpkin" in orange. Now that you've scrolled back up, observe that I'm going to attempt to appearify that pumpkin into the following sentence:

"And here I will appearify the word Pumpkin as it is seen later in this post."

You see, I can't appearify the pumpkin, because you already read it! It's got to be there in the future (lower on the page), because you've observed that it will be. But if I copy and paste the word in the above sentence, and use it to make the word lower down, now it's a Paradox Clone: a copy of itself.

You're also confusing the term "Alpha Timeline". The Alpha Timeline is not the timeline the Alpha kids live in, it's the one true timeline that must be followed such that all paradoxes and time loops exist and are not broken. Any deviations from the alpha timeline result in a Doomed Timeline, the inhabitants of which are doomed to death. Davesprite comes from one such Doomed Timeline, and the Dave he guided was the Alpha Timeline Dave. Generally "Alpha" and "Beta" are used to seperate Jane's session and Earth from John's session and Earth, so the terminology is confusing, I'll give you that. Also Recton completely ignores all of those rules.

this type of biology does not send the babies into a new univerce. It INSTEAD sends them BACK IN TIME TO THE UNIVERCE THEY ORGINATED

This is a confusing sentence.

Nanna, Bro, Mom, and Grandpa are all paradox clones of themselves, but are still sent into the universe they originate from. Whereas Poppop, Dirk's Bro, Roxy's Mom, and Grandma, are all created by combining DNA, not direct clones, but were still sent into a different timeline from the session they were created within.

DAVE AND ROSE are also TWINS and grow up at the very END of the condesentions reign over earth. (When everyone's dying lol humanity did not win) amd both of them spoke out against her in there own ways (Dave became a movie producer. Rose became a writer)

There is no evidence that Dave and Rose were raised as twins in B2, or even knew they were sinling at all. Rose is implied to know of some things from the Beta session through her latent Seer powers, much like the Signless did, but it's unconfirmed what they knew.

Furthermore, The Condesce's reign over Earth lasted a lot longer than the early 2000s, and Dave and Rose both grew up in the 80s and 90s in that timeline anyway. They were both killed some time after 2024, and the Condesce actually reigned over Earth until its destruction in 2242.

The aphas are not related at all. They didn't even know eachother in the original univerce and there gardians are basicly adopted parents.

Once again, some of them did meet on Earth 1.

But those adopted parents (the betas) are actually created from the aphas dna. Meaning the alphas were raised by there own kids.

I believe you mean adoptive?

The betas were raised by strangers.

The beta kids were raised by their biological parents, except John who was raised by Dad Egbert (his genetic half-brother) and Jade, who was also raised by Bec once Grandpa was killed.

The alphas were raised by there own kids from a diffrent timeliness.

Not really, Dirk raised himself, Roxy was raised by carapacians, Jake was raised by Grandma until she dies and then fended for himself, and Jane was raised by Dad Crocker (who is. A clone of Dad Egbert? Maybe? But it's not technically canon so maybe he's just Poppop's son?)

Yeah okay sorry that's all I got I hope this didn't confuse people more.

Don't worry, I can clear it up.

What Pumpkin?

do we need to do an ectobiology refresher for the homestuck fandom or what because i understand why it's kinda confusing but it's also explained very clearly (well, as clearly as it can be) in the comic you should not be forgetting the basics of who is related to who

[yvfu]

non-canon post

[the-pigeon-queen]

Shadi Deeplore™ Part One:

I won’t lie, Shadi’s whole deal is a vague mess, and I’ll be straight up with you – I don’t have all the Shadi answers. But I do think a lot of things between the manga (the English translation I could find) and DSOD fit together in an interesting way that’s worth examining. And as a disclaimer, I have to say that my word is not law, despite me caring too much about the character lol We’re examining this wild lore for fun

Here’s the tl;dr

The Prana is an equal and opposite entity to Zorc

Hasan is just one soul in the Prana, and he is the part that is freed when all 7 M. Items are put into the Millennium Stone

The rest of Prana’s power is freed upon the Millennium Stone’s destruction when Atem passes into the afterlife

Hasan’s existence is dependent on Shadi’s presence

Hasan and Shadi have a rectangle/square relationship, so while they are functionally the same, they are not

It’s so hard to pick a place to dive into the Shadi Deeplore™, but for Part One, I’ll start with my theories on the relationship between Shadi, Hasan, and the Prana. I’ll try and be as concise as I can :0! I have manga snips, and for clarity, I’ll put cannon claims in bold.

The details will be down below, because there are many.

We’re going to ignore Bobasa for this Deeplore™. All you have to know is that Shadi was disguised as Bobasa, who becomes Hasan. You don’t get snips of the manga for evidence because how he’s drawn makes me sad. But you can have this pic I made of the face Bobasa makes every time he’s threatened by the gang or sees Bakura, the kid who murdered him.

Shadi/Bobasa becomes Hasan when all seven Millennium items are placed in the stone. We’ll start off easy with some facts we canonically about Hasan, and relate them to things we canonically know about Shadi and the Prana, then we’ll dive deeper in the Deeplore™.

Some things to note about Hasan:

1.) Hasan is a spirit that was sealed into the Millennium Stone itself. This was done by Atem’s father, Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen. Akhenamkhanen had to sacrifice part of his soul to do this, and the action presumably led to his early death.

1A: If Hasan is intrinsically tied to the Millennium Stone, this would explain why Shadi persists after his death – his soul is literally bound to it.

1B: Furthermore, this would explain why Shadi’s soul is freed when the Millennium Stone is destroyed.

1C: It would make sense if the soul bound to the Millennium Stone took to watching over the items tied to it.

2.) Hasan’s self-proclaimed duty is to protect the Pharoah, Atem.

2A: This would entail protecting the means by which the Pharoah can return, defeat Zorc, and finally find peace in the afterlife IE. The Millennium Items.

3.) Hasan identifies himself as the exact opposite of Zorc. He refers to Zorc as the ‘Evil God’/’Will of Destruction’/’Darkness of the world beyond’. Zorc admits Hasan must be from the world beyond.

3A: Therefore, Hasan is claiming to be a ‘Good God’/’Will of Creation’/’Light of the World Beyond,’ and this is corroborated by Zorc himself, in some capacity.

3B: The Prana is an entity with the goal of creating a world without evil or fear. This fundamentally makes the Prana is the exact opposite of Zorc.

3C: Following this, we can conclude that Hasan is equal, in some capacity, to the Prana. We will come back to this idea later on.

4.) Hasan likens himself to a ‘shadow’ projecting into the world from the world beyond. He is not the Prana itself.

4A: At this point in the manga, unlike the Prana, Zorc has been fully summoned into the world. Aknadin placed all 7 items in the stone, which inadvertently freed Hasan, but used it to summon Zorc. Following this, we can conclude that the 7 Millennium Items being placed in the Stone only releases Hasan, specifically, and not the whole force of the Prana.

4B: Placing all 7 Millennium Items into the stone creates a portal to the “World Beyond” whether this be ‘the afterlife’ or the dimension where Zorc exists. Following this, it would be plausible that the portal could also open to the dimension where the Prana exists.

4C: The Prana’s full, world creating powers are only available once the Pharoah’s soul moves on to the afterlife. When the Pharoah does move on to the afterlife, the Millennium Stone shatters.

4D: Therefore, we can infer that the Prana’s power is already sealed within the Millennium Stone, and is freed once the Stone is magically, officially destroyed. The Pharoah can move on and the Prana can be released, all in one go.

I think it is therefore reasonable to claim that Atem’s father, Akhenamkhanen, made a deal with the Prana, just as his brother, Aknadin, made a deal with Zorc. Akhenamkhanen made a deal to sacrifice a part of his soul, in exchange for the Prana to protect his son. The Prana could’ve seen this as an opportunity to get into the world, and allowed itself to be sealed within the Millennium Stone. This would explain Shadi’s/Hasan’s goals of to finding, protecting, and helping Atem, as the Prana’s full power is reliant on Atem finding peace.

Now, Hasan goes by Hasan, and not Prana (Probably because the Prana as an entity hadn’t been thought of by Takahashi yet). But this fits the theory. Since the Prana is a collective consciousness, it’s entirely possible that Hasan was just one soul in the collective, and he, specifically, was called on by Akhenamkhanen, and thereby chosen to act as the Prana’s proxy. 

That or the Prana took a poll of every mind in the collective and they all settled on the name ‘Hasan’ to represent them.

Now, there is an additional mystery surrounding Hasan. 

Yami Bakura/Zorc has no idea who or what Hasan was. Therefore, Hasan must not have been present during the first battle between Atem and Zorc.

Timeline wise, we know that Atem’s father sacrificed himself to seal Hasan into the stone. We know Atem’s father is dead by the time the first battle occurs. We know Hasan had to be in the stone during the first battle. Just like Yugi and friends, Hasan is an additional player in the memory RPG.

The only difference between the original battle and the one in the memory RPG, as far as the Millennium Stone and Hasan’s soul within it are concerned, is the presence of Shadi. Shadi’s presence allows Hasan to exist physically. Keep this in mind, we’ll come back to it.

While the relationship between Hasan and the Prana is more strongly substantiated, the relationship between Hasan/Prana and Shadi is less so. Here are some things we know, for sure.

Shadi becomes Hasan, but only when all 7 items are in the stone.

Shadi knows that he can become Hasan. He refers to Hasan as his ‘other’ self. (No proof snip of this one cause of poor Bobasa)

Hasan has certain knowledge that Shadi does not; this includes knowing where to find Atem’s name.

Shadi and Hasan share some knowledge. Both refer to the Millennium Stone as the ‘Tablet of the Pharoah’s Memories’, and of course, Hasan retains Shadi’s memories of who Yugi and friends are.

Hasan looks just like Shadi except way more jacked and with a cool mask (which gets broken really dramatically and I enjoy the reveal)

The way Shadi refers to Hasan as his ‘other self’ makes it sound like Hasan functions as some sort of Yami to him. * Hasan is dependent on the Millennium Stone containing all 7 items, like how other Yami’s are dependent on their items, and Hasan is dependent on Shadi being an existing entity, like how Yami’s need a host to possess. Unlike the other hosts and their Yami’s, Hasan and Shadi’s personalities are not distinct, and impossible to separate because we barely get any time with either or them.

*Atem and Yami Bakura are completely distinct spirits and I would not consider them Yami’s.

I am hesitant to call Hasan Shadi’s Yami, mainly because a Yami is supposed to be the manifestation of the item user’s negative personality aspects. The item is supposed to corrupt the user into their Yami by drawing out their darkness. Hasan is not Shadi’s darkness. Shadi completely becomes Hasan, both do not exist independently of each other as Yami’s do. Hasan is just Shadi but with more magic (and 100% more beef).

We know fewer concrete things about Shadi, but we know a few, so we can pencil them in.

Shadi was probably not completely mortal

We’ve determined that Hasan/Shadi’s soul is tied to the Millennium Stone itself, so Shadi has been around for ~3000 years.

He knows about the massacre that happened at Kul Elna, despite it being a historical coverup

 And I know I’ve ignored the anime, but even in it he says he’s a centuries old spirit

I didn’t want to mention Capsule Monsters lol but according to that filler arc, Shadi was around to give Alexander the Great the Millennium Ring and it’s so out there I want it to be completely cannon 

Shadi was mortal enough to be physically killed by nondescript shadow magic

He dies. He super dies. Pretty easily, in all honesty.

Is likely, in some way, physically related to the Clan of Tombkeepers.

He refers to his bloodline in his first introduction in the manga

He knows the Tombkeeper drama

He does look a lot like Shada. If we’re being completely honest with each other, I think Shada was supposed to be the ancient counterpart to Odion (Rishid). In some panels, Shada definitely looks more like Odion, and while Shada was alive, Hasan’s spirit was already in the Stone

And that’s about it.

With all that being said, I would like to provide this helpful graphic:

Hasan is always Shadi, but Shadi is not always Hasan. It’s a rectangle square thing.

It gets worse. Hasan/Shadi is the proxy by which the Prana has influence in the world. Earlier, I claimed that Hasan represented the Prana to a capacity and I theorized that Hasan could have been an individual soul from the collective Prana. Remember, Hasan likens himself to a shadow projecting from the light of the world beyond, and not specifically the light itself. While Hasan/Shadi does have access to the Prana’s power, they are distinct from it, because at the end of the day, Shadi is killable.

He tells the children of the Prana, and I quote, “I may not always be here to give you guidance. My hope, however, is that I will remain in your hearts.” Shadi knew he could die, and though he probably didn’t expect it to be so soon, he knew it was a possibility, if not an eventual guarantee. I think it is plausible that he knew that once the Millennium Stone was destroyed, he would likely stop existing as he did, because his soul is bound to the Stone itself. This is likely why he adopted the orphans in the first place. If the full power of the Prana could be unlocked and its proxy still live on, why bother placing power in another set of hands?

The main mystery surrounding Shadi is not his motives, or his actions – it’s where he physically came from. We have determined that he is the original proxy of the Prana in the world. And we have determined that in order for Hasan, the spirit sealed in the Millennium Stone, to exist, Shadi, as an individual, must exist. Furthermore, we discussed how Hasan couldn’t join the original battle between Atem and Zorc, because of Shadi’s absence at the time.

This begs the question – where did Shadi come from, and when did he show up?

I don’t know, and there is no canonical evidence to support or disprove any theories.

I will say, that this conundrum is not entirely unlike the whole deal with Yugi and Atem. Yugi just inexplicably looks like Atem, though Yugi can’t be Atem’s reincarnation because Atem’s soul has been sealed in the Puzzle. Though Shadi and Hasan are functionally the same person, Hasan’s soul has been sealed in the Stone, and we see Shadi operating as his own person in DSOD and as a ghost.

Here is my leading theory for your consideration:

The Prana, within the Millennium Stone, chose a random person to become their proxy. Just like how Yugi had to be born to be the chosen one, Shadi had to be born to be the Prana’s chosen one.

Would explain Shadi’s general relationship to the Tombkeepers and his similarities to Shada

Would explain why he’s the self-appointed Guardian of the Millennium Items

Would explain why he needs the Quantum Cube in order to use the Prana’s power

Perhaps the Prana bonded him with Hasan??

Hasan’s body reincarnated without his soul, and that body is Shadi.

This one is very similar to the first theory

Sort of like how some people have said Yugi is the reincarnation of Atem’s body (this one is weird idk how to feel about it but here the theory is, for your consideration)

Would explain why Shadi is so soulless without the Quantum Cube

Even as the resident, self-appointed Shadi specialist, I cannot give you a definitive answer for Shadi’s physical existence. But I hope I have provided some interesting angles to look at Hasan’s relationship with the Prana.

In Part Two of the Shadi Deeplore™, we will not be discussing what Shadi is, but who Shadi is uvu

[caffeinatedseri]

Dead Apple Light Novel

Recently, I decided to buy LN 5, Dead Apple, purely because I’m a sucker for all of BSD’s light novels, so this post will revolve around what I took away from this novel. 

Dead Apple is Canon

Since the story jumps around in the timeline a lot, I had originally thought that Dead Apple took place outside of canon (especially with Atsushi’s flashback). 

However, a particular part of Asagiri’s afterword stuck out to me:

Now, allow me a moment to discuss some of the particulars of Dead Apple. Chronologically, the story takes place after the second season of the anime — in other words, after the war with the Guild, which puts Dead Apple somewhere between the ninth and tenth volumes of the manga. 

The novel also ended up affecting the main story in numerous ways, and I’m sure this new experience will continue to influence my future work as well.

It’s not unusual for a light novel to insert itself into the main timeline (see 55 Minutes which takes place in the 10th volume), but it’s nice to have confirmation that the same applies to Dead Apple. 

Of course, just because a work isn’t canon compliant (see BEAST), doesn’t mean that it has no potential for further analysis or it doesn’t bring any added complexity to the main plot. Regardless, this post serves as somewhat of a precursor to my other posts concerning Dead Apple since I have a tendency to talk about it a lot, and I’d like to establish a basis for a lot of my posts. 

Differences between the Movie and Light Novel

In the afterword of the light novel, Hiro Iwahata (the author of this LN) said:

“Furthermore, I worked on this book under Asagiri’s supervision, meaning there are several lines in certain scenes that differ from the movie. It might even be fun comparing the two!  Nothing would make me happier than the fans enjoying this novel alongside the movie.”

As per Iwahata’s request, I went into the light novel, looking for differences between it and the movie. However, the novel is surprisingly, almost identical to the movie (maybe not surprising considering it is a “movie novelization”).

Because the differences are so miniscule, I believe they hold an even greater significance, since Asagiri must have wanted to change these specific details for a certain reason. 

Some of the differences I talk about might be unimportant, but I did my best to catch everything that was changed from the movie.

1. The movie doesn’t mention SKK as a part of the Dragon’s Head Conflict, but the novel says, “Some fought under the alias Twin Dark.” 

This probably means that SKK became a pair either before the Dragon’s Head Conflict or during (although I’m pretty sure that the “organization” they destroyed over night was Shibusawa’s organization).

2. When Dazai says that he would’ve continued killing people in the mafia if it weren’t for Oda, Atsushi has little to no reaction in the movie; I would describe it as maybe a hesitant or concerned feeling.

In the novel, Atsushi has a more outward reaction.

““Huh...?!” Atsushi was baffled. He had no idea whether that was true. What did Dazai mean by that? (...) The melancholy Atsushi felt from Dazai had disappeared, and Dazai continued to speak in his usual lighthearted manner.”

Not only does he react verbally, but the novel also adds an inner monologue (mainly for Atsushi) that can’t be portrayed as well in movie format. 

To me, this change highlights how Atsushi sees Dazai purely as a good person; he reacts in such a startled manner because he believes that Dazai is too good of a person to be in the mafia killing people (which we know Atsushi hates). This trend reoccurs throughout the story, of Atsushi turning a blind eye to Dazai’s “bad side.”

3. This one isn’t at all the movie’s fault, but the novel gives a lot more clues as to what the “dead apple” and the dagger in the apple motif represents.

The first time it appears is when Kunikida and Tanizaki meet the Special Division’s agent, but they find out that he’s already dead.

“It [the apple] was, without a doubt, a simple fruit... save for the fact that there was a knife sticking out of it as if to condemn the taste of sin. A blade had been driven into the symbol of original sin. A dreary, ominous aura, oozed from the ripe fruit like venom. 

Throughout the novel, it seems to associate the “dead apple” motif with Fyodor pretty strongly, especially since this paragraph ties in Fyodor’s ideals nicely with the symbolism of the apple and dagger.

The apple represents sin, the very first sin — which you could interpret as sin at its purest — while the dagger represents the condemning of such sin. However, the apple can also potentially symbolize life, while the dagger stabbing into life can mean death. 

Fyodor’s ideals revolve around “removing the sin” of ability users (represented by an apple in this case) but he does so through manipulation. The dagger is associated with stealth and deception, which is fitting with what Fyodor does to “remove the sin” of ability users.

However, he’s also taking the lives of ability users in this process, hence stabbing the apple, coincidentally committing another sin in his attempt to relinquish all sin.

4. In the “Snow White” Oda and Dazai flashback, everything is identical to the movie (word for word), but there is some additional narration.

“It was an alarming sight — Dazai sounded like he was in a trance. It was as if he was ignoring all this world had to offer while in pursuit of something else.”

I’ve talked about this particular scene before here, but the gist is that Dazai was discreetly talking about himself while referring to Snow White. 

Dazai joined the mafia because he believed that the violence (or true human nature) would give him a reason to live, but we already know that this kind of thinking was flawed.  Thus, this line most likely means that Dazai was ignoring all of the “good” qualities of the world while pursuing a reason to live, which inevitably wouldn’t work. 

5. Right after the flashback, when Dazai takes the pill, the novel really sells the act of “Dazai walking towards his death and going to the evil side.” 

Personally, this scene in the movie felt more open to interpretation after you’ve seen the ending. You could say that Dazai took the antidote and said “Being on the side that saves people is more beautiful,” because his plan is to continue living to save more people. 

However, the novel throws away any possible double meaning with this paragraph:

“Dazai then reached for the pill with his bandaged hand, neatly picked it up, and slowly brought it to his lips — just like Snow White and the sweet, poisoned apple. The venomous red-and-pure-white-pill disappeared inside his mouth.”

After Dazai’s tangent on how Snow White could’ve committed suicide out of despair, the narration compares him directly to Snow White. With the added venomous pill stated outright, it only further cements the idea that Dazai’s actually committing suicide here.

I don’t particularly like this change, because it feels like this moment was set up entirely just to divert the audience’s expectations, rather than it be a standalone scene that makes sense when considering the rest of the story. (It might not necessarily be a change, possibly just a rough translation from movie to novel). 

6. When Atsushi wakes up from his nightmare, there’s some additional inner monologue:

Everything’s okay. I’m not the same person I was when I lived at the orphanage. I have friends. I have a place where I belong — the Armed Detective Agency. Things are different now.

The anime (and in turn the movie) tends to downplay the effects of Atsushi’s trauma — probably due to the limitations of anime — but regardless the novel portrays it much better with how Atsushi’s trauma affects practically every aspect of his life. 

7. I thought Fukuzawa’s ability only gave his subordinates control over their abilities, but the novel says:

“Yukichi Fukuzawa and his skill, All Men are Equal, a peculiar ability that allowed him to suppress and control his subordinates’ skills.”

Does this mean that Fukuzawa could control and suppress all of the agency’s abilities? It could be a weird translation, but it seems oddly specific.

8. This detail isn’t actually a novel exclusive, but it is an extremely small detail that I missed while watching the movie, so I figured I would add it here too.

“the phantom’s notebook had the word Compromise written on the cover. A copy of himself that didn’t follow ideals but made compromises was an abomination to Kunikida.”

Considering how abilities act as the shadow to every character in this story, this is a nice detail that shows how Kunikida’s inner desire is to compromise, because carrying such heavy ideals is undoubtedly a burden. However, because he holds onto his ideals so strongly, it becomes his biggest weakness AND his biggest strength.

9. There’s a super small detail added to this scene with Dazai, Fyodor, and Shibusawa. When Dazai suggests that Shibusawa could be saved by an angel or a demon, the following exchange occurs:

“Hmm... Maybe an angel?” Dazai picked up the skull on the table. “Or maybe a demon?” “It’s obvious what both of your true intentions are, if you ask me.” The third man mirthfully cackled and took the skull from Dazai’s hand.

In the movie, Dazai doesn’t pick up anything, so as a result Fyodor doesn’t take anything from Dazai either. 

Because Fyodor walked into the scene after Dazai suggested that an angel or demon would save Shibusawa, I strongly suspect that this was foreshadowing future events in which Fyodor does “save” Shibusawa by giving him his memories back.

The novel adds more to this foreshadowing by having Dazai pick up the skull before it’s taken by Fyodor — essentially having Fyodor take the cards out of Dazai’s hands and put them in his favor. 

It’s also worth pointing out that the skull is also the object that Fyodor uses to revive Shibusawa into a supernatural ghost of some sorts at the end of the story.

10. This may be just a difference in translations but in the movie, Shibusawa refers to Fyodor as “Demon Fyodor-kun”, whereas in the novel Fyodor is called “Fyodor the Conjurer.” (Ango uses the Conjurer title as well).

In western esotericism, a conjurer is a person who summons supernatural beings, like spirits, demons, or God.

This slightly changes the connotation of Fyodor’s title from a inhuman being of pure malicious intent to just a human who summons these otherworldly beings. This idea also aligns with Shibusawa’s revival, since he’s some sort of supernatural ghost that was “summoned” by Fyodor. 

11. Skipping past the parts where Kyouka and Akutagawa regain their abilities, and Chuuya talks to Ango in the government facility, (since they have little to no changes between the movie and the novel) there is a somewhat significant detail changed in Draconia once again with Dazai and Fyodor.

In the novel, this glowing ball of energy from the movie is actually described as an apple: 

The two lights melted into one and spun until they formed a juicy sphere. They had produced a single apple — a juicy, poisoned apple red as blood.

It birthed a skill — and an extremely powerful one at that — the ability to absorb. Every last crystal adorning Draconia’s walls was sucked into the apple with intense force. Ten — a hundred — a thousand — two thousand — every last one was greedily devoured by the apple...

The apple swelled as it absorbed the numerous crystals until the red light became hotter than the surface of hell.

Since the “dead apple” motif aligns with Fyodor’s character, we can assume that the apple is representative of sin, and sin is associated with abilities, as Fyodor believes.

This strange poisoned apple is made of abilities and has an ability (the ability to absorb), and it commits a sin (greed) in its devouring of other abilities; it’s also hotter than “hell”, which is a very specific connection that leads me to this idea:

My theory is that a normal apple represents life, while a poisoned apple (or dead apple), indicative of a stained, impure life, represents sin. Fyodor believes abilities are akin to sin (what a clever rhyme), therefore all of their lives are sinful.

12. This is arguably the most insignificant change of this entire post, but I feel obligated to put it here regardless since it was different from the movie. When the Special Division detects the singularity of Shibusawa’s dragon form in the novel, it says:

“Abnormal values for singularity are increasing! They’re twice — no, 2.5 times higher than they were six years ago.”

In the movie, the number is five times higher instead.

Why did this number change? Is it significant? I honestly have no idea (I’m surprised I even caught this), but it’s there and I had to document it anyways. 

13. The novel adds this narration for Shibusawa when he gets his memories back and he’s in the orphanage’s room with Atsushi:

“Shibusawa clearly recalled the events from six years ago. Fyodor had enticed him to go to the orphanage where he tortured a young Atsushi... until Atsushi fought back and killed him.”

There’s two things to take away from this: Fyodor had known Shibusawa for at least six years, and Fyodor had been planning the events of Dead Apple since at least six years ago. 

I find it hard to believe that Fyodor’s plan was thwarted by Dazai, because of how Fyodor demonstrated his ability to plan ahead in the main series, but I’m not sure what the long term effects of this plan could be. If Shibusawa succeeded, then it could’ve aligned with the DOA’s goals, but once again I don’t think Fyodor’s plan was actually foiled.

14. Super minor once again, but right after Shibusawa gets revived, the last sentence of chapter 5 is,

“Nobody would ever see the smile on Fyodor’s face.” 

Honestly, I think this was just added to create an ominous tone, but it’s a nice detail regardless.

15. As the red fog spreads across Yokohama, there’s a good part of exposition that connects the “dead apple” motif to Fyodor once again:

“After the red fog devoured the earth, the planet would undoubtedly look like a floating red apple from space. There would be no humans left on its surface, nor any signs they ever existed. It would be a true paradise, and with that, the Dead Apple would finally be complete. A dead planet covered in red fog — that was what Fyodor had planned and sought out.

Nothing other than death could wash away the original sin of man, so it was only fitting for the sin, which started with a fruit, to end with one as well. 

It’s pretty long, but I like the way this passage is written, more specifically the last part since it fits well with the sinful poisoned apple idea.

It also aligns with Fyodor’s ideals of creating a true paradise, free of ability users. However, if Fyodor had planned to have the Earth covered in fog, that could mean that his plan was actually stopped by Dazai and Atsushi in the end.

16. Shibusawa has a few additional lines of dialogue when he talks to Atsushi in their final fight.

“The dragon and tiger... I see now why they are called rivals.”

The dragon and tiger have their roots in Chinese Buddhism, but to go further into that topic would make this already lengthy post even longer.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, though. I’m not blaming you for what happened.”

This line is a brief moment of weakness for Shibusawa, which is interesting in contrast to his strong will to kill Atsushi. Just as Atsushi learned to accept the past and the tiger’s ferocity, Shibusawa shares the same attitude by separating the blame from himself to just simply accepting the past for what happened.

17. In the aftermath of the last fight against Shibusawa, Atsushi and Kyouka meet up with Dazai.

Kyouka asks, “Are you sure this is what you wanted?” which prompts two different responses in the movie and novel respectively.

In the movie, Atsushi says, “Just as Shibusawa was able to forget that he’d been killed before, I think Dazai can put his past behind him again. But this is fine.”

In the novel, Atsushi says:

“... I could probably seal away this memory just like how I’d forgotten I’d killed him before. But... I’m okay with this.”

I interpreted Kyouka’s question in the movie to be questioning Dazai’s loyalties, as he did betray everyone, and Atsushi responded in Dazai’s defense because he trusts him.

However, the novel does change Atsushi’s response to focus on himself rather than Dazai, which in turn changes the implications of Kyouka’s question. 

Kyouka seems to be asking Atsushi whether he was okay with killing Shibusawa, and Atsushi responds by acknowledging that he did kill Shibusawa, and that’s okay. (a very clear development from the beginning of the story when he believed it was unnecessary to kill anyone, and he didn’t want to kill anyone)

18. In the epilogue, Ango talks about the underlying motivations behind the “Dead Apple” case. This change could be attributed to translation differences (like many others in this post), but the connotation does slightly differ from movie to novel. 

In the movie, Ango says, “How is a man like Shibusawa, so intelligent that others look like alien creatures to him, to act, to be destroyed, or to be saved?”

In the novel, Ango says:

“Perhaps the two of them [Dazai and Fyodor] just wanted to get a glimpse of someone like them... Perhaps they wanted to see what he would do and how he would meet his demise... or perhaps how he would be saved.”

The movie simply poses a broad question of what would happen to Shibusawa, a person alienated from the rest of society. 

The novel changes this to focus on Dazai and Fyodor’s perspective — two irredeemable aliens from society just like Shibusawa — executing this grand scheme out of curiosity to see what would happen to someone of the likes of them, and if there’s a possibility for redemption.

19. This is the final difference on this list, and it’s quite a large change. In Fyodor’s monologue at the very end of the story, he has a completely different tone from the movie to novel.

In the movie, Fyodor says, “But in order to end this world, rife with crime and punishment, I do need that book.”

The novel says: 

Glittering high-rises and stately brick buildings stood side by side in this port city with its countless citizens who struggled against crime and punishment. “I think I’ve taken a liking to this city myself..”  Fyodor took a bite of the apple in his hand, and the juicy nectar ran down his delicate fingers. “You’d all better be on your best behavior until next time.”

The reference to the book may have been removed for consistency with the main series, as the book is a part of the DOA’s plan (or more specifically Fukuchi). 

It also seems like Fyodor has grown fond of the city, and no longer wants Yokohama to be destroyed, so it’s still possible that his plan deterred from what he had originally intended.

Beyond that, I’m not entirely sure why crime and punishment was mentioned, or why there’s such an ominous tone to his ending statement, but that’s up to personal interpretation. 

That concludes the long list of extremely specific and minor differences between the Dead Apple movie and light novel! 

Overall, I would say it’s worth checking out the light novel if you don’t have a strong grasp of the Dead Apple story, because it definitely presents the small intricacies of the plot in a more comprehensible way. 

On a side note, the manga adaptation has a lot of noticeable differences from the movie and light novel, mostly with the addition of entirely new scenes (which you can read @buraihatranslations​ — what a shameless self plug). I would highly recommend reading it as those extra scenes are very amusing, to say the least without giving any spoilers.

Honestly, this post was a lot longer than I intended, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless. Thank you for reading!

[strawberryicemoon]

Well, NagiHono won round one. As they should. But they shouldn't be stopped here. Their power needs to be recognized.

A lot of couples are battle couples, because they are couples, who battle together. Black and White are a battle couple because they are a battle couple. A battling unit comprised of a couple. They literally cannot fight anywhere near their full power without each other. They are magical girls who need each other to transform. If you see one on the battlefield, you know the other one can't be far. (Though if one has been taken after they've transformed you're doomed. Black completely lost it when White was taken and in her anger practically tore the enemy forces apart).

Furthermore, Nagisa and Honoka are fighting this battle basically alone. They were hardly acquaintances before they were forced into a conflict beyond average human understanding between the power to create and the power to consume. The series covers approximately 2 years, and in this time, their only real support in this battle is each other, and a handful of otherworldly beings (fairies) that themselves are stressed about being stuck in another world that they are not suited for and must remain hidden in. These fairies are also extremely weak compared to precure and basically useless in combat beyond providing them with the power to transform. Over the course of the show very very few humans even learn Precure exist, much less learn that Nagisa and Honoka are the Precure. The only other "humans" to know their plight are Kiriya, and Hikari. (And Honoka's grandma probably, but they don't know that she probably knows). Kiriya, isn't actually human and is their enemy born from the darkness. Hikari isn't human either, and is rather a fragment (the life) of the queen of light who was broken into pieces. Hikari is basically a newborn and is actively learning to be a person and is mentored by Nagisa and Honoka, and is their only real support in battle besides each other. And she doesn't come into the series until a year in.

That said, in the All Stars movies, which crossover all the precure iterations and isn't really canon to the series, they're basically the leaders of a group of 50+ magical girls.

And when I say the power to create and the power to destroy I mean that. The power to create entire new realms and destroy the entire universe. Their main enemy is at least the size of skyscrapers a hulking black shadow. The season finales literally involve cities being destroyed and the earth beginning to fall apart.

There's literally this one scene where Nagisa, ever late with her homework gets assigned to clean the erasers, and Honoka helps her and they do this adorable little song and dance and then someone walks by and says it must be nice to have so much free time. Nagisa then proceeded to draw on her face later when she was brainwashed to set her apart from the fakes. They're literally just goofy teenager girls. Honoka once showed Nagisa a worm she thought was cute and was disappointed when Nagisa screamed. Nagisa once went after after a baby bear being carried away in a river despite being unable to swim. Then she called Honoka out on saying "we'll see you again" to the bear and its mom. Honoka once scolded some jewelry store robbers badly enough that they were convinced to turn themselves in. Honoka was once asked what the most important thing in life was and straight up answered water. Nagisa once called Honoka "The type of girl I'd like if I were a boy".

By the way, context for the scene the image is from. Nagisa once pushed someone out of the way of an attack, and then HONOKA PUSHED NAGISA OUT OF THE WAY OF THE SAME ATTACK, turning Honoka into a baby, and detransforming them both. When Nagisa protected baby Honoka, yelling that Honoka was the most important person in the world to her then getting hurt, that triggered Honoka's memories of her, which turned her back into a teenager (the movie being about the power of memories), and that was them reuniting. Honoka turns into a baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Kvj68-EY8 Honoka Remembers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOw0BHFVoG8 (The picture is from this scene)

Nagisa and Honoka are just on a completely different level than your average battle couple. They have an entire show, 96 episodes long, at least 2 movies about the two of them, just the two of them for the most part, and their fight against evil being a battle couple. Not to mention the amount of merchandise and other material that has been released in the past two decades showcasing the power of their duo.

Battle Couple Battle Round 2!

Percabeth (Percy Jackson) VS Nagihono (Futari Wa Precure)