#he’s great at creating interesting little magical mysteries

[mostlyghostie]

Book Recs Wanted!

I have recently noticed that I'm drawn to the sub-genre of fantasy books that involve a person, or group of people, who secretly discover a huge magical secret that they do not fully understand and will never fully understand. So yes, fantasy books, but mostly 'other world' books and whatever the opposite of books with 'a good magic system' are. I know some people are into that, but I always avoid books where the magic makes sense, I like it to be confusing and oblique and mysterious. Ditto books with a grizzled anti-hero protagonist, not interested.

Examples of this I've enjoyed include:

The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis - where Uncle Andrew has learned a few shreds of information from an elderly relative about magic. He then experiments and plots for years and finds the doorway to the wood between the worlds without having any real knowledge of what he has found or what to do with his discovery and gains no benefit from it.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - (spoiler), where a group of academics and hangers-on under the thrall of an outsider anthropologist find the way into a world hinted at in pre-historic texts. I love how the implications of this discovery are so huge, but those that can visit this world are incapable of fully exploring or sharing their discovery because of their competitive and sadistic natures. Even further worlds are hinted at but nobody visits them.

[Limited bits of] The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I haven't been able to re-read these books since they came out because I find many of the characters so unbearable, however, those sections where the students who fail to get into the college try to piece together magic on their own, or where the Chatwin children find their way into Fillory, or particularly where Quentin attempts to create his own world at the very end, are very compelling.

[Bits of] Fairy Tale by Stephen King - I found the fantasy world itself fairly irritating, but the way into it was great, and the discussion of how the fantasy world would likely be exploited if the knowledge was spread further was something I hadn't seen before.

Little, Big by John Crowley - I love how the existence of Faerie is taken as a matter of fact by the Drinkwater family, but there's no rhyme or reason to how it 'works'. It's unclear what exactly is going on half the time and all is enjoyably dream-like.

I also intent to give the Gormenghast books and Mordew a go soon, as they seem up my alley, and I think I've read all the Lovecraft stuff in this vein. I always liked the Lovecraftian bits of the Discworld book Moving Pictures too, which was my favourite as a kid- I like when the magical discovery gets too real and everyone just runs away, realising it's better left alone.

Does anyone else enjoy these tropes and have a book or two to recommend?

[desultory-novice]

"Apologies AU" Summary Part 1

-

Long, long ago, Earth experienced a radical climate shift that meant within as little as two generations, the planet would no longer be habitable for humans. A desperate humanity sought a new home for themselves and their progeny, eventually discovering the perfect place to start over, a planet they dubbed "The New World."

The New World was to be more than humanity's second chance at life. It would be an ideal society: all of humankind's greatness and triumph built side by side with nature, so the problems of the old world would not follow. Humanity began migrating in waves, the most privileged and wealthy and their loyalists first, of course.

Eventually, everyone would get a new lease on life.

Yes... surely...

One day, upon this fresh new world an alien life form crashed. Mysterious. Powerful. Dangerous. Also weak. Too weak to evade capture. And soon...life began to change. The people of The New World slowly turned their eyes away from those they'd left behind in their ugly past, their gaze fixed on a dream-like future. Advancement. Progress. Technology akin-to-magic. A galaxy of possibilities.

It could be theirs. It would be theirs. At any cost. Those in power would make sure of it.

Animal experiments... Human experiments...

Among these experiments was a woman with a voice so beautiful hearing her was to feel like your greatest Dream had come true...  She would fall in love with a man with a Heart so great he left his home to try and return this troubled species to the right path...

...From their union, two children would be born. 

The eldest, a boy, bore great Darkness within him. The abstract nature of his gifts proved of small interest to Lab Discovera at first, and he was tentatively returned to the care of his parents.

The second, a little girl, was a powerful vessel for Soul matter. The ability to create life, not just manipulate it. To bring something into being from nothing.

She, they wanted desperately! For they did not see a child or even a living creature, but a tool from which they could wrest their desired future of absolute control. The wielders of Dream and Heart would not hear of sacrificing their progeny for these twisted goals!

Considered fugitives from The New World for fleeing with precious "experimental equipment" they hid themselves the only place they thought safe: Old Earth, now little more than a dumping ground for exiles and failed or "disappointing" experiments, often sent down as trinkets to pacify the urban warlords who ruled over the depressed, powerless survivors of this slowly collapsing society.

The family of four lived as best as they could in the increasingly cold and harsh modern wasteland, seen as traitors to their neighbors for having worked closely with Old Earth's privileged oppressors. The children were able to avoid capture, at least.

But their parents would not live to see them grow up...

--

It is the beginning of summer, the only time of the year on "Shiver Star" where it is warm enough to be outdoors for most of the day. The planet awakens from another three season long hibernation...

Adeleine and Noir Fontaine are orphaned siblings, two young kids in their early and mid-teens just trying to survive amongst a tired and deeply bitter populace who knows that they, for one reason or another, are the ones humanity has chosen to die while the rest migrated to the bounteous and rich future of The New World.

Only Noir is old enough and wise enough to fully grasp that no matter how hard they pretend otherwise, there's no long-term survival for the two of them. And god knows, the day-to-day is hard enough.

Still, the two make it work. They thrive, even, due to Noir's endless tenacity and strong desire to save his little sister from the crushing despair he feels, even if he can save her no other way.

With society opening up again, the two quickly find themselves reunited with their childhood friend of several years. It is a happy reunion for Adeleine and an awkward one for Noir. Though even he can't help but admit, having Raquelle around makes the weight on his shoulders feel a little more bearable. Even if the slightly older girl's good-natured teasing flusters him in a complex way...

Still, they could have gone on like this together for many years, the three of them. Until the snow forgot how to melt and all life fell into a gentle sleep, buried under the white drifts. They could have.

...They could have but...

One fateful day, Adeleine's art supplies, her only personal treasure, are ruined beyond repair by people who did not care for their warm-hearted escapism. Alone, Noir follows a secret hunch and sneaks into the Museum of New World Technology, a wrecked and abandoned building formerly used to host hundreds of the broken and often dangerous tchotchkes left behind by the New World.

He finds just what he was looking for amongst the looted remains of this experimental display of new world glitz – the perfect gift for his sister. A "magical" paintbrush that ensures she will always have the tools to do what she loves. Adeleine now finds herself slowly able to bring her yet unrefined art to a fantastical new level!

While they start out as little more than animated sketches, she will in time learn to tap into powers deep within herself, powers as natural to her as breathing, to bring real items, even food, into being.

Noir finds a gift for himself as well. A sword with a strange dark aura. It speaks to him. To his soul. Anxiety. Dread. Anger. Negative emotions that Noir had been able to push aside for most of his troubled life with seemingly endless patience and resilience.

It tempts him: a weapon that does not require strength nor training to use, and effortlessly concealable as something no more noticeable than a chain necklace he can hide beneath the scarf he always has on him. Before he knows what he is doing, he has donned it.

Their summer takes a dramatic turn for the better. Long days of magic-fueled safety and silliness sponsored by "dream-like" technology. Adeleine continues to hone her skills. Noir trains with his gift as well and the inexplicable powers it grants him. He plays with being a hero, disappearing night after night to hunt "monsters."

...But this isn't a story about a hero...

Noir is disappearing more and more lately. He's tense. Frightened of something lurking just over his shoulder. He never takes his scarf off now, and he's begun to wear gloves over his hands, even inside.

One day, he reports to Adeleine that he and Raquelle had a bad fight; that she said she never wants to see him again. Adeleine, seeing the changes in her brother as a sign Noir's been deeply hurt by this experience, loyally sides with him and gives up her oldest friendship...

And so, things go back to normal for the two Adeleine...

What she cannot see is that Noir's hands and neck have begun to turn dark and withered; it is almost as if something other than blood is starting to run through his veins. Underneath his scarf, the chain necklace that gave him control over the dark sword has transformed into a collar he can neither remove nor destroy. His attempts to do so cause the sword under "his" control to attack him, violently.

Frightened, he manages to contact an exiled New World scientist, a man with a shattered mind who informs Noir of the horrible secret behind The New World's precious "miracle." That their wondrous advancements all stemmed from the extensive torture of an alien life form, a powerful psychic who even now, a planet away, is able to toy with the fates of those who gorged themselves on Forgo's pain.

Worse than the knowledge of what this information might mean for him is the realization that he has cursed his little sister to the same terrible end as he. Noir runs to her, frantic! Perhaps it is not too late! There may still be time to take it back!

Please!! Not Adeleine too...!!

And yet...

...She is fine! To his great relief! Adeleine shows no signs of the frightening, irreversible transformation he is seemingly undergoing!

Indeed, she hasn't changed one bit since her gift...

Time passes for the siblings. Slowly and quickly. Noir becomes desperate to continue to conceal and somehow free himself of his "gift." For if he were to die now, what would happen to his sister? She has no one left. But her joy at her growing abilities only makes his guilt worse. And negativity speeds along the change...

Realizing at long last that the fragile life he wishes he could return to is now forever out of reach, that he was the one who destroyed it, and that the monstrous transformation he is going through can only end in harming Adeleine as well, Noir makes a decision...

There is no escape for him. But Adeleine will be free.

At any cost.

Noir touches his sleeping sister's cheek with a hand she would recoil from if she knew what her "hero" has done and disappears into the night one last time...

Days later, Noir and Adeleine arrive at the spaceport. He has come along to bid her goodbye. He tells her not to worry. That he will follow once his paperwork is all sorted out. Unable to fully disguise his intentions, he smiles with tears in his eyes and begs her to be happy.

Happy enough...for the both of them...

Only he knows this is the last time they will meet in this form.

After she departs, Noir walks out into the snow, alone. The distant eye that had been closely watching the child born to Darkness from afar for years, that had begun to lurk inside him since he took the Dark Matter Blade, that sunk its claws into its prey for good the moment his unstoppable resilience finally slipped and he allowed himself, in his fear, to murder his best friend and consign her soul - along with the others he killed - to be enslaved to the darkness too, bursts forth, consuming his physical body.

His last thoughts are not for his own fate. He knows what he deserves.

No. They are for she whom he always thought of first. To the one he had given up everything for and knew, deep inside, he would give up his life for as well, the moment she gave him that scarf...

-

"Was I a good brother... Adeleine...?"

-

[Apologies AU Masterpost] [Noir's Field Trip Masterpost]

[a-araiguma-a]

The Mystery of the Abandoned Tower

Since many people liked my previous headcanon (click on me) and while I’m riding the wave of popularity, here’s another story for you. Enjoy the read! (❁´◡`❁) #deadpool and wolverine and #hogwarts Summary: Deadpool and Wolverine found themselves entangled in a mysterious case involving an ancient magical relic hidden deep within Hogwarts' Abandoned Tower. It all began when Deadpool, during one of his nightly escapades, stumbled upon an old map and decided it was the perfect opportunity to have some fun and maybe make a little “profit” in the wizarding world.

In the dark and quiet Hogwarts library, where only faint moonlight filtered through narrow windows, Deadpool—known here as Wade Wilson—sat flipping through an ancient book. His bright green and silver Slytherin robes barely concealed his restless nature. This time, he stumbled upon something intriguing—a map leading to an ancient relic hidden in the Abandoned Tower, said to grant its owner incredible powers. An idea immediately sparked in Wade's mind.

He quickly set off to find Wolverine, or Logan, a Gryffindor student with whom he had a sort of camaraderie based on mutual respect and constant banter.

Deadpool burst into the Great Hall, where Logan was quietly finishing his dinner. With his usual smirk, Wade stood in front of him and tossed the old map onto the table.

Deadpool: “Logan, my brother in misfortune! I’ve found something interesting. How about a little adventure? Picture this: an ancient magical relic, unknown dangers, and, of course, me—your favorite sidekick!”

Wolverine (without looking up from his plate): “Deadpool, if this is another one of your ridiculous schemes, I’m out. I’ve got a steak here, and it’s far more interesting than your nonsense.”

Deadpool (leaning in closer and whispering): “Oh, trust me, this steak is nothing compared to the chance to become a true legend. Plus, if anything goes wrong, you’ve got your claws. And I’ll help with my endless chatter. Come on, it’ll be fun!”

Logan hesitated for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, realizing this might not just be another prank. He knew that if he didn’t go with Wade, the guy would definitely cause trouble. Finally, Logan sighed and stood up from the table.

Wolverine: “Alright, Wilson, but if this turns into a disaster, you’re the first one I’ll deal with.”

Deadpool (grinning widely): “That’s the spirit! Onward to glory and madness!”

They began their search at night, when Hogwarts had fallen silent. The Abandoned Tower was off-limits to all students, which, of course, made it even more enticing for Deadpool. He kept making jokes and comments, barely restraining Logan from resorting to violence.

Hogwarts was an ancient castle, and even the most experienced wizards didn’t always know all the traps hidden within its walls.

Their first obstacle was a magical maze that changed every time someone entered it. The walls constantly shifted, creating the illusion of an endless corridor, while glowing symbols on the walls disoriented the travelers. Wolverine stepped forward first, trying to find a way out, but the maze kept confusing him, turning corridors and leading him back to the same place.

Wolverine (frustrated): “Damn it, this maze is just mocking me. Every path leads me back to the start.”

Deadpool (smirking): “Oh, old man, you’re too straightforward for these things! Watch and learn.”

Deadpool noticed that every time they changed direction, the light in the maze flickered slightly. He decided to take an unconventional approach. Instead of moving forward or backward, Wade suddenly turned in place and began walking sideways while doing a dance.

Wolverine (doubtfully): “You’re serious? Dancing?”

Deadpool (continuing his strange movements): “In the world of magic, Logan, you have to think creatively. See, when I move at an angle, the maze can’t react. Follow me!”

As if by magic (ironically, given the circumstances), the maze began to unravel, and soon they exited it, avoiding the traps.

Next, they encountered a corridor lined with enchanted portraits guarding the path to the Tower. Each portrait was charmed to unleash relentless magical attacks on anyone who tried to pass. The wizards in the portraits hurled curses and blinding spells.

Deadpool (dodging spells): “Oh, come on, guys, you’re so unfriendly! How about a deal? You let me through, and I’ll make your existence a bit more fun.”

Wolverine (dodging an attack): “Wade, we need to come up with something. We won’t last long like this.”

Seeing that the usual methods weren’t working, Deadpool tried a different approach. He started distracting the portraits by telling them funny stories.

Deadpool (jokingly): “You know, once I ended up in a magical bar and met a talking bug? No? Well, let me tell you!”

The portraits slowly began to lose focus on attacking, distracted by his stories. Meanwhile, Logan, taking advantage of the moment, carefully slipped past, using his instincts to avoid the last few spells. Deadpool, finishing his tale, calmly followed, winking at one of the portraits as he left.

At the end of their journey, right before the entrance to the Tower, they faced one final challenge—giant chess, known as “Devil’s Chess.” Every move they made on the chessboard could trigger a trap if they chose the wrong move.

Logan, not being much of a chess expert, glanced at the board and prepared to simply force his way through with brute strength.

Wolverine (preparing his claws): “What do you say we just break through? I can cut through any pieces.”

Deadpool (stopping him): “Hey, hey, calm down, Claws. This requires strategy. Let me give it a shot.”

Deadpool began playing a game against the chess machine. Using his penchant for unexpected moves and unpredictability, he started to confuse the opponent’s pieces. For example, he deliberately made risky moves to throw the system off.

Deadpool: “Checkmate, Mr. Knight. Even a magical machine can’t resist my genius.”

With the final move made, the board cleared, opening their path. They passed by the frozen chess pieces and stopped before the door leading to the Abandoned Tower.

Wolverine (with relief): “Well, Wade, you’ve surprised me. You’re really on a roll today.”

Deadpool (grinning): “What can I say? Genius is my middle name. Now let’s find this relic and save the world... or at least ourselves.”

When they finally reached the old, cobweb-covered door leading to the Abandoned Tower, they faced one last obstacle—a protective spell that reacted to any act of aggression. Logan, known for his quick temper, immediately began to get frustrated, but Deadpool decided to approach the problem differently.

Wolverine: “How are you going to open this damn door? Last time you tried to break something, it ended in an explosion.”

Deadpool (eyeing the door): “Oh, this time I’m prepared. Kind of.” (He pulls out a wand and begins waving it around, muttering a spell.) He started chanting a spell, but when it didn’t work, he didn’t lose his cool and instead started joking with the protective magic, even telling it stories about his past “heroics.” The spell, confused by his approach, weakened, and they were able to pass through.

The door creaked open slowly, revealing steep stairs leading upward. Inside the Tower, a gloomy silence prevailed, broken only by their footsteps.

At the top, they found a large hall filled with ancient artifacts and records left behind by old wizards. In the center of the hall was a pedestal with the sought-after relic—an ancient amulet said to grant its owner the power of foresight and time manipulation.

Deadpool (grinning): “Everything’s going smoothly. Let’s grab this amulet and become the coolest guys at Hogwarts!”

But as soon as Deadpool attempted to take the amulet, the Tower’s magical defenses activated, and ghostly guardians began attacking them. Their spectral forms floated in the air, their eyes glowing with an icy light.

Wolverine (unsheathing his claws): “Here we go. Stay behind me, Wilson, and don’t get in the way.”

Deadpool (mockingly): “Oh, sure, I’ll leave all the fighting to you, Mr. ‘Super Serious.’ Though, maybe I’ll throw in a spell or two.”

Without hesitation, Logan charged into battle, deflecting attacks with his claws and spells, while Deadpool, using his skills and humor, distracted the guardians, making mocking remarks and parrying their blows.

They fought side by side, fending off attacks and trying to prevent the guardians from reaching the amulet.

At one point, one of the guardians nearly reached Logan, but Deadpool, despite his jokes and antics, rushed forward and used a shielding spell to block the strike.

Deadpool (seriously): “Don’t think I can’t be a hero, Logan. I have my moments too.”

Wolverine (smirking): “You haven’t let me down so far. But let’s not waste time.”

They quickly realized that the guardians didn’t want to destroy them but were only protecting the amulet from those seeking power. At some point, they understood that the amulet’s power wasn’t in possessing it, but in finding a way to let it go. Deadpool, with his unconventional thinking, suggested that the guardians were the souls of wizards unable to leave this world because of their attachment to the amulet. Logan, knowing that the spirits deserved peace, agreed with him.

Deadpool (raising his hand): “Listen, guys, I know what it’s like to be trapped somewhere forever. How about we let you rest in peace, and we’ll just walk away like nothing happened?”

Logan recited a freeing spell found in one of the books in the hall. The amulet began to glow, and the ghostly guardians gradually disappeared, finally finding peace. The amulet then crumbled in their hands, and the Tower began to collapse. They barely managed to escape as the walls came tumbling down with a roar.

Standing at dawn in front of Hogwarts, they watched as the Tower vanished in the rays of the rising sun, leaving only an empty space where it once stood. They exchanged glances.

Wolverine: “Not bad, Wilson. But if you come up with something like this again, I’ll be the first to put you on detention.”

Deadpool (laughing): “Oh, don’t worry, Logan. The next idea will be even better! Get ready!”

They went their separate ways, but both knew that their friendship and adventures together were just beginning. Logan appreciated Deadpool’s ingenuity and unconventional approach, and Deadpool saw in Logan a true friend and ally, despite his gruff demeanor.

They returned to their respective houses, but from now on, they knew they could rely on each other in any situation.

[ccinos-cat-cafe]

I think my whole brand is like ... taking unpopular or controversial AUs, making my own take on them like giving them more personality ... and an aesthetic I think it's neat to rewrite a character, give them more depth and personality instead of them being something so blank, and one dimensional. People should do it more often, and I love seeing redesigns and peoples ideas for AUs !! Picking up a forgotten character and turning them into something memorable, too, is what I love. When people talk about like idk Bird and make their own stuff about him, I'm just happy 😭 he needs more attention

FLOWERFELL BELONGS TO ITS RIGHTFUL OWNER who i don't know the name of yikes Flowerfell didn't deserve the controversy it got. For a long time I stayed away from the AU myself because I thought it was the creator who made it fr4ns based, when really, it was the fandom. In all honesty, it has to be the saddest AU, and for how simple of an idea it is, I love it. I feel like Fell in general would make a great dad 🔥 kinda But I do feel like there was a whole chunk of personality missing from this guy ... the only thing in his character was worrying over Frisk, and once they died, that was the end of the AU. But I feel like he deserves a bit more to him

After Frisk's death, I imagine he taught himself to make flower crowns, since those were what Frisk always gifted to him. It first started off as a kind of memorial, but then it turned into a hobby, and then it turned into a habit that he needed to do 24/7

He keeps his piercings in. He's still in Underfell, and he's gotta keep his edge...but despite him trying to look all mysterious and bad, when he lost someone close to him, he started to soften up a bit, feeling as though that maybe he should start appreciating the little things

He started wanting to take care of things so they could live a long, good life. Partly because that's what he wished he could do for Frisk, but also because he just wanted to feel that satisfaction of helping something grow. So, he takes care of any plant he finds, especially in waterfall and the ruins. Toriel keeps her doors open for him so he can tend to the gardens

He still has a short temper, and cursing is still a problem, but it's more out of anxiety now. And the temper thing, he's worked on it, and it's getting better, and he yells less now. In comparison, he's sweeter than OG Fell, but he's not gonna be as chill as Comic any time soon

He learned about AUs when he found Dream and Nightmare battling in the Snowdin Forest once. After, Dream spotted him, and they had a very long conversation about alternate dimensions and such...he's still new to the whole thing, but he's getting used to it.

(General HC) A monster's magic is developed by training and interest, which is why Sanses have their own Gaster Blasters. After enough time in the gardens, Flower!Red ended up developing the ability to manipulate plants, and even create them through the palm of his hand...specifically buttercups. He only uses it when he's feeling fidgety and needs to make a flower crown.

His multiverse name is Patch, like a flower patch :D

[minzart]

What's Kamen rider about?

Great question without an easy answer!

I'll do my best to try and explain it since I'm just starting to know what Kamen Rider is too XD

So, the best way I know to exemplify to someone is "like power rangers but with, most seasons, 2 heroes instead of a big team" and also more serious yet without losing the silly factor.

Each season has it's own cast, story, rules of the world, and villain, so Kamen Rider Den-o, doesn't work by the same rules as Kamen Rider Wizard, even if they are in the same franchise, think Final Fantasy, were each new FF has it's own world instead of a continuos long plot.

So you can jump into any interation of Kamen Rider and not be lost, the question is if you'd like this version and keep going.

[More bellow and more about the two seasons I watch]

My first Rider is Den-o, and I fell in love with the silliness AND the characters, bc that story has a weak villain, good mystery, but mostly focused on characters, in specific the Taros with our main boy Ryotaro and the mystery of Ryo's older sister' lost memories.

Now I'm watching Wizard, and it is a completely diferent plot, I heard it has a mid story but I'm very interested until now so I'll see it for myself, were our protagonist is a survivor of some kind of ritual to create phantoms(for best understanding think evil monsters) and gained the power to become a wizard through magic rings, what's keeping me interested is how i'm slowly realizing Haruto(protag) isn't helping people and keeping them from dieing bc he's kind, but bc of his survivors guilt, and I want to see how this will change bc it will change for that I'm sure Shunpei(his new friend and ray of sunshine) will change him I bet.

The last post I made was about Rider Gavv, the new Rider released this week! And I'm intrigued already by the world it's building and it's protagonist, for the first episode(I'm patiently waiting for our fan-translators to get to the second episode and for the show runners to release the third in japan next week i think?) We know that our protagonist, Shoma, is at the very least a hybrid of a monster, the Granute, or is a complete one, or was experimented, anyways he has a weird mouth in his stomach but it is diferent than the other Granutes , he escapes his dimension and turns up here, a little boy saves him, feeds him, and when a Granute tries to EAT THE LITTLE BOY ALIVE-, he jumps in, gets beaten up over and over, refuses to keep down, learns and finaly transforms in Rider Gavv.

At the end of the day it is a children's media, so it is wacky and silly, but the topics they revolve around are what keeps me interested, it has heart.

See, in Den-o Ryo is possessed by an Imagin, the monsters of this universe, creatures that came from the future to grant wishes for people in the present, so they can go for the past that those wishes originated from and destroy the curent timeline.

The theme in this Rider is memories, fighting for the future even if it doesn't looks bright for you, accepting change, loss, friendship and becoming stronger and bolder with the right incentive. And the presentation of those themes are really well done for me.

You see there's this character, Sakurai Yuuto, our secondary Rider, he is two characters, we got Sakurai the older man who's integral to the plot, who mysteriously disappeared and the only person who remembers him is our protagonist, and Yuuto, a new Rider a younger man, hot headed, grumpy, but with a heart of gold, the younger version of Sakurai who can transform, but each time he does the memories of himself are erased from people who knew him, and he has to cope with the fact that the future he'll have is this, no-one to remember him, and yet he still fights

And all of that is played straight, there is no punch line, these characters will still be goofy and then have emotional break downs and deep conversations that almost say nothing but conveis everything to move you to tears.

To choose your first Rider can be anything that catches your interest first, be it:

In Wizard there's this scene between our protagonist and the a girl he is friends with, I don't know if it's a sister, a protégé, or just the person he saved first, but. I know that she was part of the same ritual that tried to transform him, she, unlike him, succumbed to the despair and "died", but he saved her and now she's alive only bc she has to consume his magic to keep on living.

She's sat in a lake, water almost up to her torso, and she's saing how she's a monster and how can she move on, and Haruto, instead of calling for her to get out, he moves in, he sits with her, he listens and promises to keep being her hope, and this whole scene is such a metaphor for grief, loss, depression etc, that it made me tear up, it's really simple but effective.

the suit design(what made me chose Wizard as my second season),

a silly gif(one gif of Momotarous that circle around 2022/2023 made me curious to start),

the main esthetic,

the story summary, etc.

I hope this explains it well enough and if you got curious I suggest starting with Gavv and waiting for the new episodes with the fandom or Den-o bc it was my first so... it would be the first that I recomend to people, or just search for a summary for the other and their themes, finishing Wizard I'm between starting OOO, Kiva, W or Ghost. All bc of suit design, so I have no idea what they are about XD

What I know is that Kamen Rider is a younger franchise than Ultraman, and older than Super Sentai (The serie that Power Rangers is based off) all of those are Tokusatsu(live action films/shows with heavy use of practical effects and special effects).

The older seasons are more serious, while the newer one are more colorfull and silly -Rider Gavv literaly gains his power from eating candy man XD- there's always a group of monsters to fight against, the villains are kinda mid but the heroes and deuteragonists are really good, with diferent esthetics and lore each season, many seasons don't have official translations -Den-o is one of those- but the fan-translations are around and done with good faith and plenty of bromance.

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 9/15/24

This week I finally checked out Starfall! I have a knack for starting shows right before their next season stats, its great. Also, kids performing a trickster myth, mysterious huts, and more!

After hearing about it for ages I finally checked out @starfallpod! I listened to most of the first season, with only 2 episodes and some specials left. I have a lot of disjointed thoughts about it. I didn’t realize Ishani Kanetkar played the lead, her voice is so soothing to me. The magic system is really interesting, I love how much the story focuses on it. Leona’s powers seem to be tied to hunger, and her masters intentionally starved her to control her. If I’m right that’s really fucked up, and explains a lot about her. The mold script was incredible. I would never have guessed that Fel used to be a cop.

In Starwhal Odyssey, I continue to love the style of “4 players, 2 are also GMs”. I love all the modern touchpoints used for this world, “Apple store planet” instantly creates such a vivid image in my head. Harker’s magic sword was awesome, and the ending was great.

@worldgonewrongpod had huts! This episode was a really cool premise, I really liked the discussion of the possible causes of the phenomena. From discussion online I've gathered that we were meant to recognize the food, but I didn't. Can anyone enlighten me?

@storiesfromylelmore this week included the incredible quote “It’s a surprise! It’s not like the last one I promise!” I love stories about deeply weird kids, I'm glad that Rion is doing at least a little better. The Littlest Mouse story felt very Watership Down to me. Now I wonder if there are any audiodramas with Watership Down vibes. I feel like it would adapt well to an audio medium. If anyone has recs I'd love to hear them.

In Case Study: Irec-A59 we're finally hearing Grayson speak! He's so level-headed about getting abducted by aliens, I feel like most people would be panicking or freaking out. The meta-narrative is interesting as well, why was this covered up?

This week's Second Fiddles episode was focused on Chameleon. They're such a fun character, and the alien shapeshifter making an annoying amount of pop culture references is very funny.

Once I'm done with Starfall I'm going to subscribe to the Worlds Beyond Number Patreon for a month so I can catch up on all the bonus content during the break between arcs, so I probably won't have a ton to write about next week.

[allaboutthedrama]

I know that I'm pretty late to the conversation, but I've just reread all of Vampire Academy and Bloodlines (possibly for The Untitled Jill Project) and it's the first time I've reread the VA series in years.

I'm just thinking about how, in my opinion, the quality of the VA series improved as we got into the last few books, and with Bloodlines, I think the reverse sort of happened. Spoilers for both series ahead. (Yeah, the last book came out nine years ago, but you never know.)

I think I hadn't realized how cohesive the ending of Last Sacrifice was. Details from as far back as the first book came up and were very relevant. The political plotline came together in a really tight way, Sonya Karp turned out the be Chekov's spirit user, we got more world-building details, the antagonists had complex and convoluted motivations, and even when there were plot threads left dangling, those actually served a purpose. I loved the part where Adrian pointed out to Rose that her actions had consequences and even though she had gotten what she wanted, not everything else was resolved, so people like Eddie and Sydney and Jill were left in bad situations, and she was partly responsible. It created a little more moral ambiguity, which I really enjoyed, especially since YA tends to like the very neat endings where everything winds up happily ever after.

The Vampire Academy books improved the deeper into the series you got. And, although I love Bloodlines, I do think that the first three books are much stronger than the last three. Which is a shame, because the series has so much potential.

I think Mead is at her best when she's writing something of a mystery. Last Sacrifice obviously comes to mind (they're solving a murder mystery, after all). Bloodlines had that, with the tattoos, Lee, and Keith being shady all building up to a really exciting climax. The Golden Lily wasn't quite as much of one, but the clues leading up to the reveal of the Warriors were well-placed. Indigo Spell went straight back into mystery territory, trying to find Jackie's sister. And then The Fiery Heart is where, in my opinion, things start to falter. There's a lot of interesting worldbuilding information introduced, with the new details about spirit and magic coming up, and it was fun to get into Adrian's head, but it definitely felt like this supernatural romance was shifting to become a lot more romance and a lot less concerned with the supernatural. But that's not such a big deal. It's the middle of the series, we're building tension, Re-Education has been a threat hanging over Sydney since page one of Bloodlines and we're finally seeing that fear pay off.

But then we get to Silver Shadows, and while I guess figuring out where Sydney is could be a mystery, it doesn't really resonate the way 'who killed the queen' does, in my opinion. Sydney's arc in Re-Education is great, and I do like the way the books deal with Adrian's mental health issues, but some of Adrian's chapters felt more like filler. And a bigger issue, imo, was that this was when we really started to lose the side characters. Some of my favorite parts of the first few books were characters like Jill, Eddie, Trey, and Angeline, and then the ensemble atmosphere was largely gone, because Sydney was in Re-Education and Adrian left Palm Springs. The final fight and flight sequence was really good, though, so I had high hopes going into The Ruby Circle.

The Ruby Circle is probably my least favorite of the books between both of the series, and I think that's a shame, since it's the finale. We'd just had a 'kidnapped character' arc, so I think there was less emphasis on describing everyone's reactions. We saw the biggest reaction from Eddie, but as a result, he got kind of flattened out from the really well-rounded character he'd been from the back half of the VA books and the first part of Bloodlines.

The Ruby Circle could have been a really good mystery, with lots of twists that tied up a lot of the lingering questions from the series. Except that a lot of threads from the rest of the series were dropped and didn't resurface. They never caught whoever was behind the assassination attempt on Jill. I don't think we even got an official resolution on whether Lissa managed to change the quorum law. The political plots that were integral to VA weren't significant in Bloodlines, despite it all starting because of a politically motivated assassination. We also never got a resolution on the rogue spirit user who turned Lee back from being Strigoi, or the spirit users who had been sent to the psychiatric facility in Tarasov (the prison from Spirit Bound). We never found Robert Duro. The bond itself was somewhat discarded, too, whenever it wasn't immediately useful for a plot point. Instead, we just got a scavenger hunt across the country, a few fight scenes where the protagonists were pretty much guaranteed to win, and a final showdown with a magic barrier that, as we learn after, would have dropped down on its own in a few hours for them to bring Jill food, anyways.

I obviously still like the series, since I'm rereading it and talking about it nine years after the fact. But I think that there were a lot of opportunities to continue plots from VA that were lost, even when they should have been brought back into the story.

If anyone has made it this far, I suppose I should throw in a pitch for The Untitled Jill Project, which will be my attempt to rewrite the Bloodlines series from Jill's perspective, because I think there's still a lot more story to be told. I haven't got it all mapped out, but I intend to at least tie up some of the narrative loose ends I mentioned that bothered me about the series in that story. I might write up another post here soon about how Jill's characterization also suffered as Bloodlines went on, if anyone's interested.

Anyways, if anyone has any strong opinions on what I said (agreeing or disagreeing) please let me know! I'd love to talk about the series with people, since no one in my real life has read it, and I'm curious to know what the rest of the fandom thinks about how the narrative progressed in Bloodlines.

[nil-nothing-nada]

Quincy Headcanons

(This is my partially self-insert farmer oc! I'm less worried about being cringe than I used to be so this guy is pretty self indulgent, hehehe.)

30 Years Old

Non-Binary (He/They/It/Xe)

Pansexual

Full name is Quincy Woodrow.

Sometimes goes by "Quill." His full name will occasionally be shortened to "Quill Wood." (Sounds familiar...)

Needs glasses partially because they messed up their vision by staring at screens in the dark while researching supernatural phenomena.

Was ecstatic when they found out they inherited their Grandpa's farm in the valley because that area is known to be a hub for supernatural activity. Moving there gave Quincy the perfect opportunity for their research. (You can really tell this guy is inspired by Ford from Gravity Falls...)

Renamed their grandpa's farm to "Cryptic Farm" mostly so that they could label their produce stuff like "cryptic eggs" or "cryptic jelly" just because they think it's funny.

Created many of the modern names for mines and cavern monsters. He is particularly known for his studies of goliath spiders, attempts at rehabilitating cursed skeletons, and investigations of ghosts.

Has a pet cat-sized spider named Raphael and a living skeleton assistant named Michael. He also has a horse named Gabriel. (Yeah, I'm obsessed with the monster pets mod. It just fits too well!)

All of his farm animals are named after medicinal herbs mentioned in the Bible/Book of Yoba. (He isn't religious, he just thinks that angels and old herbal medicine are cool.)

Really upset with how young he looks because people take his research less seriously.

Is actually quite a bit stronger than he looks because he handles monsters and does farmwork, he's just naturally built a bit thin.

Much more scared of normal bugs than the giant mine bugs because he can't see them as well.

Is willing to do dubious things to get answers to his mysteries.

Would've adopted Krobus, but Quincy can't stand the inside of house being hot and humid. The two are still great friends, though.

Trying to find whoever M. Jasper is so that he can talk about aliens and dwarves with them.

Super interested in Mr. Qi because of his connection to the valley's supernatural activity and his strange biology. (He might also have a little bit of a crush just because Mr. Qi is one of the only sapient monsters that he hasn't been able to figure out, which he finds really attractive for some reason.)

At some point in his storyline his heart just stops beating but he's magically still fully alive and functional which leads to a lot of angst as he tries to figure out if he's actually dead or alive. (He develops some light streaks in his hair during this arc because I think it looks cool and if any of you mention Wilbur Soot I will boil you alive.)

[themostsanebug]

miitopia is an rpg created by Nintendo utilising the customisation of the “miis”, characters meant to represent you, your family and people in general. the storyline goes along the lines of ; you’re a traveller, coming across the land of miitopia and you fall into greenhorne. Before being met with the dark lord whose goal is to steal everyone’s faces and place them onto monsters. You, the traveller have to gain team members and save the world and possibly the dark lord.

heres. My parties, ocs and a few facts :]

party 1; the sunstone party (greenhorne)

Faelyn, our main traveller, they/any, VERY gay for Aelius, just some. Guy from a kingdom that’s hidden from sight by a cloak of magic placed over it by its rulers. Faelyn isn’t anything special until the post game. In this party she is a mage, only being a beginner.

Aelius, He/they, VERY gay for Faelyn, the cleric and prince of aeligar. (By being the princess’ sibling I think that’s how royalty works?) Aelius, and the people of aeligar got infected with a curse that. Gives them more eyes and more horrifying features. Throughout the game I give Aelius more eyes.

Scamp, She/her, aroace, thief the party found her in a box and was like ‘yo wanna save the world with us?” And she was like “ok”

Penny, she/her, GAY for Nasrin. Popstar who was previously a clown, most miserable gal EVER.

Party 2; the trickster party.

Faelyn, same info as before. Slightly more miserable warrior, morning the loss of Aelius because he kinda got kidnapped.

Comet/C0M37, They/she, an anxious scientist and hacker who likes to basically bend physics without realising it. She’s terrified of their own abilities honestly. Sibling of Erith, therefore being part imp. In a qpp with sol!

Erith, She/her, a mysterious imp the party was forced to fight due to erith being partly controlled by the dark lord before comet recognised her as their sister, purifying her with a potion?? I guess?? Formula??. Erith has most likely lived through a war.

Sol, they/she, a cat that’s siblings with scamp! And in a qpp with comet. Sol is extremely energetic and found out about the party due to their sisters disappearance, wanting to help save her.

Party 3; Traveller party

Faelyn, same info, very miserable thief now. Past battles means they now have a blank eye and a lot more scars.

Nasrin, she/it, princess of aeligar, sister of Aelius. She’s also infected with the virus, and also joined Faelyn in a hope to find its brother (aelius) (she ended up finding out about Faelyn and Aelius and was li,e “good for you” and then met penny and was like “holy smokes!!”)

Jorildyn, he/it, (transgenderrr) a travelling cook from the land of the fey, seeing Nasrin and Faelyn struggle with a lack of healing abilities led Jorildyn to join their party, cooking delicious food daily with the scraps left of the monsters they fought. He probably loves cake more than anything ever actually.

Ori, She/her, Faelyn little sister! She found about her older sibling travelling to save the world and insisted she’d join, being a beginner mage after being taught by Faelyn when Faelyn still was living in their kingdom. Ori got heavily battered by goblins, being saved by the great sage who took Ori to Faelyn.

BONUS!! Pets. Technical other creatures

Cluzz, a hobgoblin they found in the land of fey that Faelyn refused to get rid of. With trial and error they managed to just about befriend it, when they saved Aelius he would cast a spell to give it a face from a person who wasn’t real. So it could live on as a friend,

skysong, a mystical horse they encountered also being swarmed by goblins. Once saved it agreed to partner with the team, regaining its magic very slowly.

Dominic, a dragon saved in the canon story that the party tamed, flying around miitopia on it.

I love my ocs DONT JUDGE ME. /silly

uh enjoy…

th. THAT IS A LOT HOLY MOLY..... BUT SOUNDS VERY INTERESTING!!!!!!! :D

[inkwolvesandcoffee]

TH Characters and Crochet

TH Masterlist

This concept was prompted by my new hobby and led to some very interesting (and, in my opinion, good) plot points. Henceforth, I might turn some of these wee ideas into full-fledged one-shots. For now, though, enjoy!

Tag List: @potter-solomons @buttercupsandboys @zablife @mollybegger-blog @liliac-dreamer @vir-tual @rose-like-the-phoenix @babaohhhriley @solomons-finest-rum @hoodeddreams13 @moral-terpitude @onlydeadcells @hecatemoon87 @wandawiccan60 @dreamlandcreations

Tommy Conlon

The art of crochet is an absolute mystery to him. Nevertheless, though he won’t admit it plainly since he’s been raised and trained to keep his emotions in check, he absolutely loves and adores the husky you made him.

It had been another fretful night, one that leaves you alone in the bed and him either wandering about the beach nearby or leads to a night of training at the boxing school. Either way, Tommy shut you out yet again, refusing to show you even a glimpse of the chaos he carries with him.

Later that day, the short night was followed by an equally as plagued nap. It's that he woke up before it was too late, but otherwise he'd have fallen off of the sofa and face planted into the soft carpet (which you had bought after the one time that actually did happen). Now, it’s his snuggle buddy and you’ve noticed it’s helped with the nightmares caused by his PTSD. So nowadays the silence when you come home after work is laced by soft snoring, an oddly comforting sound that stems from the most heartwarming sight.

Tommy, tightly holding on to his husky as he snuggles it. His ear phones are connected to his laptop, an ASMR video with rain sounds displayed on the screen.

Perfectly content.

At rest.

Alfie Solomons

You were already magical in his eyes, but the fact you can create stuff out of yarn makes you even more so. He still thinks your hooks look uncannily like embalming tools, but he adores the scarf you made him. He wears it whenever he can, loving the texture as well as your scent.

Alfie proudly promotes your stuff wherever he goes and helps you set up at markets. He’d like for you to do only markets in Margate and Camden so he can keep a close eye on you. However, should it be anywhere else, rest assured he’ll hang around the area and make sure you eat and drink properly. He’ll literally pop by a Prêt-A-Manger to buy lunch and deliver it to you or, as is more often the case, pull you away from your stall so you two can sit down in a coffee shop or restaurant together.

He loves it whenever you text him to provide him with photos of a new project you completed. Lastly, Alfie also always asks what you’re working on.

Forrest Bondurant

He’s actually the one who taught you how to crochet (and secretly adored how shyly you asked him to teach you). He’s a stern teacher, but a good one. Forrest is a man of many hidden talents (like baking, he makes a mean apple pie). Then again, so is his brother Howard, who is great at knitting. Jack, on the other hand, has skipped out on the creative gene though he’s been trying to teach himself how to sew.

Forrest and you do markets together. However, he mostly does the general set-up while you busy yourself with the customers. Because even though he’s very business savvy, the quiet force behind Little Moonshiners (specialized in the cutest handmade stuffies) is in fact a social disaster.

He does like talking to you, though.

(And has made you a custom wolf stuffie, which has become your all-time favourite)

Eddie Brock

Eddie and Venom alike love the stuffies you make, but V thinks his host sometimes takes his support of your hobby a bit too far. Recently, he’s asked you to teach him and ever since you’ve been trying to figure it out together. Eddie seems to finally have the basic stitches down while Venom is bordering on giving up. Not even reading the body language of his host makes him understand crochet. So he’s now your ultimate yarn spinner.

Eddie, on the other hand, has become a little competitive. Though he tries to be inconspicuous, you occasionally catch him glancing your way in an attempt to estimate whether your way of crocheting a certain project is more efficient and neater than his. To this extent, he proposes to try a new pattern together (and compare the results).

He does admit, without a second’s doubt, you’re the queen of plushies.

Eddie loves the journaling aspect of it too. He keeps a neat and very minimalist journal. Well, he tries to be minimalist and objective (as his work has taught him to be), but often finds himself writing about you, pondering your opinion on his works.

And Venom loves to tease him about said entries by mentioning them to you.

Farrier

He’s loath to admit it, but he can’t help but think of his Nan whenever he sees you crochet. The confession almost slipped out when you gave him a cream coloured crocheted turtleneck sweater for Christmas, the reason you puzzled him with taking measurements three months earlier. And it’s this turtleneck he wears quite often and takes with him whenever he’s sent abroad.

Because your scent lingers in it, mixed with his.

Because it’s a piece of home.

It’s you when you aren’t there.

And it’s the only thing that’ll prevent him from crying when he's so far from home it feels like his heart is torn apart at the seams.

Reggie Kray

Reggie loves to watch you work. He doesn’t need to understand it, finding perfect contentment in seeing you absolutely absorbed in your projects. He’s simply happy to plop you in his lap and rest his head on your shoulder, though that does little to help you focus on the pattern or the tutorial you’re watching.

He gives the best hand massages too! Whether you asked for one or not, Reggie will give you one regardless after you’ve put the hook down for the time being. Sometimes he even stops you after a certain period of time, knowing how your tight grip can cause your hand to cramp after carefully observing you for a while.

Although he does not say it whenever the topic comes up, he will blatantly admit when riled up enough that part of the reason he wants out of the gangster life is to permanently give you the peace and quiet that surrounds you whenever you crochet.

And stills his inner storm.

Also, have a wee treasure I accidentally found😉

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e77

"You volunteered to be the recon team that goes to the moon" what a fucking sentence.

Laudna, Fearne, and Imogen go wandering around the castle. Laudna guides them; she wasn't just someone who got picked by Delilah, she would also often take refuge in the tunnels beneath the castle and steal things from it like a mouse in the walls. She also says that she was "captured" before being brought to the dining hall, rather than having been invited there for a nice dinner like she'd said before.

Imogen summons a reiloran to..... unlock a door for her. She's able to summon multiple types of reilorans; this one is a Hexmind, and I'd guess that this one has skills, another type has melee attacks, and a third has ranged attacks.

In the room that Delilah used as a bedroom, they find a hidden chamber: it's filled with strangely-shaped furniture, desks, contraptions, equipment -- like a laboratory. More than that, it was a torture chamber, with refined residuum dust all across the floor and hungry shadows. Initiative!

Laudna's ability is actually called hunger of the shadow-shard. It allows her to absorb the target's soul, and deals 4d8 necrotic damage on a successful melee attack. The creature takes no damage (it's immune to necrotic), and recognizes Delilah within her -- the form of dread looks more like Delilah than ever before, with a choker around her neck and a second pair of shoulders over hers.

As the shadows fall, they all hear a voice: "Loyal servants of the castle. They were all useful subjects." It's Delilah's voice, emanating from Laudna. "It's interesting; you found some of my old additions to the castle grounds. A place to keep Sylas to rest, a place to experiment -- it's nice to see it again. [What am I to you? Are there others like me?] There are no others like you. [So I'm your only thread to the material world.] As I am yours. You have been dead for a very long time. I am the only thing that keeps you here. So let us put aside these strange and unnecessary quarrels and instead,maybe, do some great things together. I'm sure you've many questions -- well? What is it you wish to know?"

What are you after? I wish nothing more than to see history come to its natural close. I want to outlive this world, to uncover its mysteries and keep them to myself. What's so wrong with that?

You may live to see the day, then, unless you help us defeat Predathos. I do not push against your goals. Truth be told, Our interests are quite aligned. I leant you my gifts because you need them and I need you; I should hope thta offers you some solace. [Vecna] has little to gain from the destruction of the gods; I gave up everything to create one. His power is through you, as well. He -- I -- do not wish to see that taken by the enemy of ancient insolence.

And if Vecna goes away? So do we.

Delilah wants Laudna to devour more magic -- she recalls absorbing the gnarlrock, the soul from Bordor, the hunger. Life, power -- and if Laudna grants enough to her, she may be able to separate their souls while keeping Laudna intact. With a new body and new power, the first thing she would do is to bring Sylas back.

"I didn't choose this!" "No. But fate's a fickle mistress, isn't she?"

Delilah also senses that Fearne has the potential to become something terrible and beautiful, a meeting of realms. She recalls looking through a mirror into possible futures,

Imogen, she says, is the child of the god-eater -- "fate itself fears you, and rightly so. No one knows the limits of what you can do, what you're capable of if you should find out... where one like you would normally draw the eyes of the gods, you are anathema to them. You might be the one to choose the future of this world, if your mother doesn't make it first."

"Imogen, I need you to make me a promise. If something happens to me, the greatest honor you could give would be to move on. To be happy. To live, to live! I am quite literally a dead end. If anything happens and I become her little puppet, I trust you to make the right choice." I don't know why but this feels..... unearned, somehow.

Scavenging the room, they find nothing of use.

As they leave, Delilah creeps into Laudna's mind again. "Let us work together. Despite everything, I do care for you." "Let's do beautiful and terrible things together."

And to break!

The morning opens with a lovely little speech from Orym to Fearne. "I got you something." "What?" "I stole it!" "What?!" He gives her the spyglass he stole from the skeleton pirates!

For Chetney, he's doing this because he wants to go to the moon, yes, but also because he wants to be remembered. He's getting old, so he wants to leave his mark on the world -- for him, it's about legacy, planting seeds in a garden he'll never get to see. (i'm SORRY--)

Orym wants to avenge his husband and Derrig, wants to protect the Tempest, yes -- but if his life is lost in defense of all the lives on Exandria, or in defense of the Bells Hells, then it is well-spent. "But what about you? What's your happy ending?" "Tomorrow."

It's snowing in Whitestone, and Ashton doesn't know what sledding is. They decide to take the day to have fun, to remind themselves that they at least love each other even when they don't like each other, and to remember why they're not gonna kill each other when the stupid decisions eventually come.

Allura and Cassandra are supposed to arrive in the afternoon, so the Bells Hells disperse throughout the city to spend the time.

Imogen goes to the temple of the Dawnfather. It's certainly interesting that, between the structure of this temple, the attitude and vocabulary of the arbiter, and the General Vibe of the Place, this place is the most like a real-life Christian church I think we've experienced in Exandria thus far. Regardless, there's a massive difference between the way the Dawnfather's temple receives a non-believer versus temples of, say, the Matron (who has twice granted literal visions to people who have never once prayed to her).

But she prays anyway. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I hope you know we're trying to fix things for y'all, and if everything goes right then hopefully you'll have the power to help us in return. I'm not looking to make any deals, I know that's not something you're supposed to do with gods, but I could really use your help with her -- I know you're more powerful, I know you are, and I guess I could call that faith. But anyway, I'm gonna try real hard to help you. Thanks." She leaves the door slightly ajar as she leaves, and glancing up, she immediately sees the snow-dappled statue of the Matron looming over the graveyard, over the figure of Vax'ildan, the cold vision of death. A raven takes off into the snow. There is no warmth, and there is no response.

Orym heads to the Whitestone expansion of Gilmore's Glorious Goods. The storefront is bare, picked clean by the war effort. He buys 3 basic healing potions, a potion of heroism, and some pastries from Pike's bakery.

Ashton and Fearne go on a walk to the clocktower. "Could you imagine being so pasionate about your life that you'd do something like this? Up until recently, I would've said no... if everything goes terrible, your Nan is going to miss you so much. But if everything goes terrible, no one's gonna miss me, because everyone who would care would be right there with me."

y'all my Rockwild heart is thriving-- "well, when I said sister, you know I meant... I mean, you're hot and otherwise, you've got it going on--"

fuck. Ashton trusts someone. They trust Fearne to make the right decision, and they trust themselves to let Fearne make the right decision, and they are so convinced that they were never meant to have anything but if Fearne survived and they didn't they know that someone will miss them.

but Ashton wants Fearne to be their acomplice in allowing them to absorb the second shard, even against the will of everyone else in the group, just because they think that it is what's meant to happen. they want it to be Fearne and them alone, when the transfusion happens, because they don't think Fearne will try to stop them. "do what you can, and if I'm not okay, it's not your fault."

"Well, I-- I think you're pretty hot too." And Fearne runs the fuck away

They reconvene in the war room with Cassandra, Percy, and Allura.

I'm not transcribing all of this, there's a ridiculous amount of information here, so here are the highlights.

Residuum seems to be mostly unaffected by the solstice, and it is very uncommon for people to understand the workings of complex machines, so Percy offers a way to scramble their automatons to cause a distraction (and suddenly, this ornery old man has a Christmas-morning sparkle in his eye); they're essentially arcane EMPs. There are only 2, and FCG takes both.

They've also agreed that an onslaught of magical illusions would provide sufficient distraction en masse. It sounds like Allura will be the point-person for this, and on top of her being a 20th-level wizard, her magic will be amplified by the nexus point at the key.

The Hells are given a number of magical items: 2 scrolls of mass nondetection; 1 scroll of greater restoration (for Ryn); 1 scroll of dimension door; 2 potions of greater healing; 1 potion of superior healing; 1 potion of speed; 2 potions of gaseous form; and a bejeweled baking sheet worth 1000gp (the material component for heroes' feast).

Next is the matter of Ludinus' vest and the titan shard. First, the place: at the prompting of Cassandra, Percy leads them through well-carved, well-guarded pathways to a chamber; there are researchers here, in this cavern crowned by massive roots, and they climb the steps of the Ziggurat.

(I cannot believe that Travis resisted the urge to use grim psychometry on this place--)

I also can't believe that the Bells Hells are just...... okay with Ashton and Fearne doing this alone. They're not even questioning Ashton's extremely shifty behavior here, insisting that everyone goes away before someone puts the harness on. It legit feels out of character for them to just leave (especially Orym, with his absolutely ridiculous passive insight, and Percy, who's about to leave two near-complete strangers to do whatever they will at the top of this ziggurat).

There's something that's just so incredibly frustrating and wrong about this encounter and I really don't know what it is.

Ashton puts the harness on, and Fearne puts the crystal into it. They feel warmth in their chest, and it begins to blossom -- warm to hot to burning -- the golden fractures on Ashton's skin glow orange. The heat feels like something is trying to awaken, like a second heartbeat, a dormant organ -- it flexes, their shoulder lurches, and the heat goes there. It cracks and falls, shatters on the ground. "Don't you dare--"

The heat spreads, and through Ashton's grin, their ear shatters on the ground. The gold is molten, running, the rock of his skin is smoldering. The crystal loses its color, crumbles, and falls away; Ashton's chest is glowing like a furnace, their body expands slightly, and with each lurch -- like an earthquake that changes tectonic plates -- parts of them fall away.

Ashton fails a saving throw, they close their eyes and look to Fearne -- where their eyes were, there are coals that emit burning light, their body shakes -- another shift, their chest expands, and their right arm falls and shatters.

They start to run up the ziggurat. Ashton staggers toward FCG, FCG puts up a death ward, Fearne casts aura of life, Imogen uses telekinesis to keep Ashton together. None of it's going to work, Ashton is going to fucking die here -- and as much as I do think that Orym, Laudna, and FCG acted incredibly out of character, I also think that, with the context of Molly's death, Matt is giving a fucking masterclass in acting. I genuinely cannot tell whether he's legitimately distraught about Ashton definitely dying here, or if he's putting on a show because he knows that Ashton is coming out the other side of this changed.

"You are a man, currently holding two bombs on the verge of detonation." The gold parts of his body glows bright-hot, his face tenses, and beams of sheer white light shine into the roots of the Sun Tree and Ashton shatters -- until his ring of temporal salvation pulls him back together. They have five rounds to keep them up for.

Their only hope right now is to keep ahead of the damage, but Laudna has already given up and is trying to drag Imogen and Chetney back out of Allura's protective sphere even though she has some perfectly good healing spells in her arsenal. The party is in triage mode, they're throwing everything at this, but they only have a few more rounds to go, and Chetney and Laudna have done absolutely fucking NOTHING.

"Have you not realized that I'm a hypocrite?!" Ashton my beloved

FCG's aura of vitality is saving the fucking day here, and this only supports my hypothesis that it is the best fucking healing spell in the game.

"anyone wanna use up any more healing spells they have here?" Laudna, who has wither and bloom: *silence*

with everything that Matt has said, doing this should've killed Ashton instantly. But because of 2/3rds of the rest of their group, and a couple lucky rolls, and an overpowered spell or two--

"There's a moment where you think he's gone. And then, he erupts in steam, filling the entirety of the ziggurat with mist. You pull back, the heat burning your eyes, and you can't help but cough -- and as it passes, you look over and see Ashton there, cooling. Unmoving."

Ashton sits up, and where their arm was, there is a heavy, muscular, molten-rock arm replacing what they lost. It glows, and where gold once was, there is now just cracks of orange in the crust atop magma. "Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for saving me." Fearne just kicks him in the face with a hoof. "I am never trusting you again!"

They stand beneath the roots of the Sun Tree, and for whatever loss this place has seen, at least something was saved here.

[absolxguardian]

If you love THE ACOLYTE you should read RONIN A VISIONS NOVEL by Emma Mieko Candon

The Jedi are the most loyal servants of the Empire.

You've probably seen a lot of stuff around the Acolyte about getting into the High Republic if you want more of the same. And while the High Republic is amazing and you should read it, beyond the in-universe worldbuilding connects and that they're both stories with a lot of Jedi, they're honestly not that similar when it comes to tone and theme. If what you like the most is the unique perspective The Acolyte is bringing to the franchise, you can find more of that in Ronin.

Ronin is an expansion of the season 1 Visions short The Duel. It proposes a much more interesting origin of the Sith than what is in Legends, where you have Jedi with the samurai influence turned up to max and they are the enforcers of a corrupt state and exploiters of the peasantry. There is no Light or Dark Side. And the Sith rise up against the exploitation of non-noble force sensitive Jedi, but in the end they're fighting for their own freedom including at the expense of others. Whether you identify as pro Jedi or not, seeing what the Jedi would be like if they were actually what their worst critics- both in and out of universe- claim is a great way to expand your perspective. It draws even more on jidaigeki and Japanese mythology in general. The writing style is very unique, invoking barely localized Japanese literature.

Two decades ago, Jedi clans clashed in service to feuding lords. Sickened by this endless cycle, a sect of Jedi rebelled, seeking to control their own destiny and claim power in service of no master. They called themselves Sith.    The Sith rebellion failed, succumbing to infighting and betrayal, and the once rival lords unified to create an Empire . . . but even an Empire at peace is not free from violence.    Far on the edge of the Outer Rim, one former Sith wanders, accompanied only by a faithful droid and the ghost of a less civilized age. He carries a lightsaber, but claims lineage to no Jedi clan, and pledges allegiance to no lord. Little is known about him, including his name, for he never speaks of his past, nor his regrets. His history is as guarded as the red blade of destruction he carries sheathed at his side.   As the galaxy’s perpetual cycle of violence continues to interrupt his self-imposed exile, and he is forced to duel an enigmatic bandit claiming the title of Sith, it becomes clear that no amount of wandering will ever let him outpace the specters of his former life.

As for the similarities to the Acolyte, you got a darker tone, mystery, learning the backstory of characters as you go, a new way of seeing the Force, and witch(es).

It's also extremely queer. The main character in pansexual. One member of the main cast, the mysterious Traveler, is non-binary. There's also a sapphic romantic subplot.

It follows the Ronin right after the events of the Duel, where he is forced to join the Traveler, Chie- a bounty hunter who hunts Jedi while believing in her own Force religion, and Ekiya- a member of a people who the Sith displaced and forced to fight for them, now trying to regain her people's homeland. You also get to learn what the Sith Bandit's deal is.

It is in its own continuity (although it has also had some one-shot comics also telling original stories), although in my personal version of Star Wars it is a mythohistory about the ancient history of the Jedi and Sith. This means I don't have to stress out about the specifies of technology and magic, but can use the general gist to create my own narrative in my head.

[jessieren]

Hasn’t seen this interview before… interesting how he talks about the role not being comfortable for him. He always seems a little uncertain and unsure of himself - maybe that’s what makes him such a great actor, the continual need to grow and learn and create

[derehono]

your cardverse sounds interesting, could you talk a little about it?

Thank you so much for the interest! I would be more than happy to tell a little more about my Cardverse AU!

However, I want to warn that it was heavily inspired by oumaheroes Cardverse AU, please check it out! To be more precise, I absolutely loved the idea that at some point in time, Arthur was a royal advisor and that some shit is happening in Kingdom of Hearts. At that point, the similarities end.

Basic Worldbuilding.

The existence of their world and the birth of magic are associated with the life and death of the Great Dragoness. She was like a goddess who helped humanity giving them her gifts of healing and protection. Her power could end the famine, could calm the Earth but it could not make an immortal being.

Thus, after some time she unfortunately passed away but not before giving her presents to seven humans. Four of them were chiefs of their respective tribes and three of them were heads of their families. To the tribe of the cold and freeze, she gifted her eyes so they would always see through the lies. To the tribe from afar, she gifted her heart so their blood would always warm and any wound could be healed. To the tribe of the sun, she gifted her scales so nothing would ever destroy them. To the tribe of the night, she gifted her claws so not even a stone would withstand their attack. And to the heads of the families, she gifted her blood so her power would always be in their bodies.

And only after that, she passed away. Leaders of the tribes decided to divide their new powers between their people. The most important got more, less important got less power. This way the card system was born, and with remaining power returning to the original owners, Royal Cards were born. Even though, Royal Blood still contains mystery power that makes the card owner even stronger.

Heads of the families did not have enough power to do the same with their magic, so it remained only through their own blood. This way witches and wizards appeared who needed no card to cast even powerful spells. They had a deep understanding of the world’s magic, thus for a long time they were helping the Royals.

Kingdom of Diamonds.

The people of Diamonds have a powerful protection out of their magic. Their shields are as strong as diamonds themselves, making them almost invincible from the attacks, diseases, catastrophes, so they rarely have been attacked in history and their King rarely has been poisoned. The stronger cards could be protected even from the plagues, but even common one could guarantee some protection.

The past King was a violent man who started multiple discriminatory policies, messed up diplomatic relations with other Kingdoms, especially with the Kingdom of Clubs, and led the kingdom of jewels and gems into despair. One of his policies was Witch Trials that killed entire magic families and sent away the survivors. It surely created a new problem but the one who was left to deal with that was Francis, his nephew. But back then, he just preferred not to have an entire different class of the citizens who could possibly question his authority. During these trials Annisse Kirkland, the head of the Kirkland family, was violently killed and burned.

The current leaders are Francis Bonnefoy and Lili Bonnefoy-Zwingli. The King is the most influential monarch of his time not only because he is the eldest one in the new generation, but also because his power allows him to hold shields covering almost the entire Kingdom of Hearts. However, not a lot of people know, but Lily could guess that Francis sacrificed not only his magic to put and hold this shields. He with his young wife are seen to be extremely reliable and strong in public, even picking up the name of The Solar King but The Court holds a big challenge for them at times of their weaknesses. It is hard to see but the Civil War risks to break within the Palace.

The Past Advisor was Arthur Kirkland, secretly a witch. He was sent to the Palace at a very young age with an important mission and was raised as the next advisor for the new king. He indeed became one and together with Francis they were able to slowly start a progress in the kingdom, returning it to its prosperity. He was very well-known for his stubbornness and determination, possibly his power was something that young King needed to become the one he is today. Public does not know why he suddenly left but did not really question. After all, it is quite a hard jibe, so maybe he just could not handle it?

The current advisor is Remus Fernandez. He was the advisor before Arthur but after his leaving, he returned to the position. Thanks to blood ties with one of the witch family, has a very long life and so, has a lot of experience, and a little bit of carelessness. He is continuing Arthur’s policies and keeps an out on the Court. Has two sons: Antonio Fernandez who is a general of the army and one of the main leaders in the case of emergency, and João Ferreira who is the captain of the Royal Navy. Both of them are good friends with Francis.

Overall, the current Kingdom is recovering from its past mistakes and seems to be pretty successful.

Kingdom of Clubs.

The people of Clubs have an intimidating power of mind control. Depending on the power of the card, they could look deeply into someone’s mind and the most powerful cards could even control people. As a result, Clubs rarely communicate verbally (why say it when I can hear it anyway?) and outsiders may think of them as extremely rude due to them reading minds.

The past King was coronated for a very short period. She barely spent some time as a King despite her desire to continue her father’s legacy continue to improve the kingdom, and create stronger diplomatic relationships but quickly lost her crown. No one knows what happened to her and why did it happen but some speculate that she knew something. Something that she was not supposed to.

The current monarchs are Ivan Braginsky and Elizabeta Hedervary. King was coronated pretty early and in quite a rush, almost the same way the Queen was chosen to accompany him. Not a lot of things are known about them but with their reign, the kingdom became severely isolated and propaganda against other kingdoms appeared. It is hard to avoid since anyone could read your mind and just tell the authorities about it. The King and Queen almost did not appear in public and did not comment on their policies.

The past advisor was Feliks Lukasiewicz. He appeared and disappeared together with the past King so not a lot of information is known about him. Only ones who were close to him would say with no hesitation that despite his being eccentric, he truly wanted to make the kingdom better and he could not be dead. He is too strong for that.

The current advisor is Roderich Edelstein. Once again, there is almost nothing known about him, he barely appears in public. Before his position, he was a pretty well-known musician and his close circle knew of his passion to attempt in cultural revolution. He hoped to promote the culture of the Kingdom of Clubs, give more opportunities to artists, etc, but something went wrong.

A close friend of the past advisor, Toris Laurinaitis did not believe that his friend’s disappearance that so coincided with the unexpected King’s demotion was just an accident. He firmly believes that something deeper going on in the Court and possibly, King, Queen and their Advisor are not even themselves. Imposters? Puppets? He is not sure but he started his own Resistance that aims to uncover the secret of Clubs and bring a better future, meanwhile fighting the oppression. His other friends Eduard von Bock and Raivis Galante joined him.

Overall, the clouds are all over the kingdom and who knows what awaits them.

And that’s it for a first part!

[lonesomedreamer]

“The Rings of Power” Liveblog: Udûn (Episode 6)

Or: how does this episode have by far the highest rating of the season on IMDb?!

Starting with the Orcs again. No thanks. I just don’t find the supposed mystery of Adar’s identity very compelling.

“Where is he? What happened to Sauron?” Speaking of mysteries, they were never even remotely subtle about Sauron’s in-show identity, were they?

Some obvious CG/hokey stunts ensue…the construction of buildings in Middle-earth must be really shoddy, because the tower crumbles almost instantly and was apparently held together by some ropes??

Nothing about the Southlanders’ plan is explained/clarified in any way. They’re going back to their village to “make [it] ready,” but ready for what? A siege? (As if.)

Galadriel offers Isildur some wise-sounding words about the value of humility. But she certainly isn’t speaking from her own lived experience…

“You have the look of your father.” This must have been written before any roles were cast: the actor who plays Isildur looks nothing like the one playing Elendil! Funnily enough, he does resemble Bronwyn and especially Theo, but I’m sure that’s just coincidence.

The Southlanders were feeling hopeless/powerless enough to surrender to the Orcs literally one day earlier, or did I imagine that??

This (slightly paraphrased) Tolkien quote about passing Shadow is beautiful and moving…except it doesn’t make sense to put it in Bronwyn’s mouth. It doesn’t sound like the kind of language we’ve heard these villagers use. Besides, it’s not a line of dialogue in the book.

“It is believed that one of the Valar watches over growing things.” Her name is Yavanna, and you should say that!

This scene with Arondir and Bronwyn looks good, and it would be touching if I was actually interested in their underbaked romance.

I can’t tell if this scene is ripping off the Jackson movies, Game of Thrones, or both, but either way it feels…low-stakes. The scale isn’t there. Why do the Orcs care so much about this one village? Are these the only free humans left in the Southlands? If so, they should be easy to subjugate. If not, and without Sauron, what’s their significance?

This scene is going on forever, AND it’s become unwatchable grimdark nonsense with some added eye gore/horror to revolt me, specifically.

The actors, Bronwyn and Theo in particular, are giving it their all. It’s not their fault that I’m not remotely invested in what happens to them.

How tf does time work on this show? When did the Númenórean forces land? How close is this village to the coast? And how many horses did they bring with them on their three little ships?!?

How did they know to come to this village? Is this Halbrand’s home? (iirc he’s supposed to have amnesia or something, so he wouldn’t even know!) I have to ask again: is this the only village in the Southlands???

Horrendous costume design. I award them zero points.

Isildur told Galadriel that he’s stablehand! But now he has his own armor, weapons, and a horse and is being given orders on the battlefield by the queen herself…?

“The item he possesses: he must not escape with it.” Adar: immediately escapes with it.

Halbrand asks Adar if he remembers him, because they almost could not be broadcasting his [Halbrand’s] identity any louder.

Their half-assed explanation of the Orcs’ origin story is maybe the only worthwhile thing to come out of this episode so far…(checks watch) 47 minutes in.

“I killed Sauron.” Too bad you can’t kill a Maiar (see example A: Gandalf) the way you can a normal person. Galadriel should know that.

“We are all creations of the One…the same as you.” This is great philosophy in, say, Star Trek, but in Tolkien’s universe it’s…not true? Elves and Men are the Children of Ilúvatar (Eru, lit. “the One”), while Orcs were created by Morgoth out of spite and envy as a mockery of the Elves. They’re the product of torture and evil magic. Ilúvatar reprimanded Aulë for making the Dwarves, and he made them out of love! The writers want me to feel sympathy for their horror movie monster Orcs because, idk…they have names?

“Your kind was a mistake, made in mockery.” The thing is, she isn’t wrong.

Galadriel is pretty spiteful and bloodthirsty herself. If only they’d made ambition her driving force. Less “relatable,” maybe, but so much truer to the character.

Love that all these villagers just accept the first decent-looking dude who claims to be their “true king” with no questions asked. Very Monty Python of them.

Reverse Excalibur, but make it evil and able to operate a giant Rube Goldberg machine! How stupid.

They could have just made a show about Elendil, the fall of Númenor, and the Last Alliance. It probably would’ve been better, and there would be more of his face.

“The look of his father,” apparently.

Mount Doom origin story? Incredibly dumb. So dumb. No one asked for or needed this.

The Good:

Some very pretty landscape shots

Galadriel’s chain mail is sparkly and aesthetically pleasing

They almost made me feel something re: Theo and Bronwyn.

An explanation of Orc origins at last (though I’m unsure why the show treated that as some big mystery in the first place)

Decent to good acting for the most part

The Bad:

Did we just…forget the rest of the show existed? No Lindon? No Khazad-dûm? Not even any Harfoots??? Even though I’m still mad about the idiotic mithril subplot, at least the Elves and Dwarves make the show feel fantastical and Tolkien-adjacent. To me this was dark, depressing, and unlovely—tonally, a Two Towers kind of episode but without any of the whimsy/charm that cut through the book’s gloom. A discount, low-effort GOT.

The battle scene went on forever. It was hard to see anything, unpleasant to watch what little you could see, and it all felt kind of meaningless.

To expand on that: this whole episode was UGLY. Especially for a show whose biggest redeeming feature is its lush visuals.

Either tell us Halbrand is [redacted] already or try to mislead us. Don’t just keep winking awkwardly at us!

The overall writing has serious problems. Too many things are convenient, inconsistent, contradictory, totally illogical, and/or explained either poorly or not at all. A lot of this could be alleviated by having more episodes to explore/develop the story and characters more thoroughly…some of it’s plain old bad writing, though.

Why are they earnestly trying to make us sympathize with Orcs via Adar while also making the Orcs…like that?

My already-teetering suspension of disbelief toppled out of a window watching this one. The unbelievable speed of the Numenoreans’ travel—both by sea and land—combined with the whole “evil Sauron sword-hilt that destroys a dam and starts a chain reaction that activates Mount Doom and destroys the Southlands” thing and the fake-out ending (half of the MCs seeming to be consumed by pyroclastic flow)… Someone shared a Tolkien quote that perfectly sums up the problem with this:

The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.

So yeah…this feels like a bad Game of Thrones episode—and apparently that’s what people want, because it has rave reviews compared to the other seven. But this show claims to be Tolkien-inspired, and imo it should therefore aspire to emulate Tolkien’s style more than it does Martin’s. This was not Tolkien. If this episode is your particular cup of tea—which is fine!—your fantasy is probably in another castle.

[lipeg]

Knight's Tales: Winter Solstice Special (Christmas special )

Ever Alter - Underground

The underground of Ever Alter it was a very interesting and mysterious place, where it keeps many secrets.

Entire civilizations hidden beneath the earth.

In one of the many caves, there was a very peculiar.

A cave that didn't look like a cave, it looked like a country that was buried but the sun continued to appear, rain kept watering the crops. Even though was beneath the earth, life continued normal.

And the seasons passed normally. Even beneath the earth.

The people who lived in this cave were called of Dragronelf. A race of human beings with blue skin, pointy ears and with horns on his head.

They were a peaceful race. But they weren't stupid, they had their warriors to cause a war to happen.

This race worshipped a Dragon God.

Those responsible for creating everything.

But after he created everything, he felt alone, then he split into two parts.

This race has a legend that a traveler who was also a great warrior would bring back their Dragon God back and thus, the Dragon God would unite all the races.

But that day was far from coming.

But they would wait hopefully.

This race was currently celebrating the winter solstice, It was a five-day holiday.

During these five days, they celebrated with their families together, to celebrate the good harvests, unlike other places, this cave, the best season for them was winter. During this season, the fruits have changed, giving them a unique flavor and aroma.

They meet at a lake that has mystical properties or magic.

On the same lake, They take the belongings of their deceased relatives with them, because when the item diving into the water to the incredible happened.

But now let's change our focus.

Near the lake there was a young knight was sitting by the lake.

A young knight with long blond hair, blue eyes, he had a sad expression on his face. The knight had little armor, he had armor no covering his chest and on his left arm.

He had black pants similar to jeans, his boots had a metal protection on the front, on the heel part there was a metal protection.

He had a red sash in his right hand.

He looked at red sash and he gave a sigh tired.

He got up and walked to the edge of the lake.

He knelt down, holding the red sash tightly, put his hand in the water, and released the red sash.

The moment he released the red sash, the lake began to glow. He was blinded by the glare.

As the glow faded, his vision gradually returned.

He was shocked by what happened.

He was no longer near the lake.

He was in a place unlike anything he had ever seen.

The floor was made of water.

It was literally water, he was walking on water.

The sky was in the middle. On one side was the blue sky with the sun and on the other side was the dark sky with the moon.

The stars were very bright on both sides.

There were only clouds around him and gears in the distance.

He started walking.

To look from one side to the other.

He found himself alone in an unknown place.

He looked everywhere to find a way out and to find Pyrrha's red sash.

— Hello again

His eyes widened.

He turned around with his heart beating too fast.

But it wasn't her.

In front of him was something that looked like a mirror. The mirror showed their first date, the first time they met.

He stood still, his gaze fixed on the mirror, and memories flooded his mind.

He began to walk again.

He was unsure. Should he stop or continue walk.

The further he walked, the more mirrors appeared. Showing memories with her.

The expression on his face was both happy and sad.

He hadn't forgotten those beautiful memories, he didn't like to relive those memories so as not to suffer.

After passing through several mirrors, he arrived at what should be the last one.

His last memory with her.

They had a discussion, she wanted to fight against a powerful enemy, but he was against it, saying it would be suicide. While he was arguing with her not to do that, she suddenly kissed him, which was amazing to him, but it was a distraction.

She pushed him into the rocket closet, even he protested, she didn't listen. She went to face a demon and ended up getting killed.

He had his first and last kiss with the woman he loved.

The mirror in front of him shattered like water falling to the ground.

But right in front of him was another surprise.

Your beloved. So beautiful when the day he lost her, without your armor or weapons, just wearing a beautiful white dress with her red hair flowing in the wind.

— Hello again... Jaune

His eyes smell of tears.

He ran out to hug her again.

His desire to have her in his arms again was very great.

But he was blocked.

He fell on his ass on the watery ground and didn't understand what had happened.

He got to his feet quickly and brought his hands to hold Pyrrha once more.

But before him was an invisible barrier.

The barrier seemed to have no end.

Jaune couldn't jump or even move to the side.

His anger began to rise, and then he began to strike out at the barrier.

— Please stop, Jaune

She asked him to stop.

He paused, but his anger still burned.

— Jaune, I can't interact with you

He looked fixedly at her.

Fear was taking over him.

— I'm dead, Jaune. There's nothing you can do to change that, I'm sorry

She saw her beloved knight losing his strength in his legs. Her knight was on his knees, so she knelt as well.

— I do not have much time. I would like to say though although i have lived for a very short time, the time we spent together was very good for me, you had no idea who I was, so I was happy

She laughed as her knight cried.

— Although you recognized me because of that cereal but seriously, how did you like that cereal, it only had sugar

She lowered it.

— I was sad that I couldn't be by your side, I couldn't see Nora and Ren anymore, that makes me really sad

A tear fell from his left eye.

— When Jaune returns to Remmant and when finds my mother, tell her that I thank her for everything she did for me

Her body began to glow red.

— Jaune, I loved you. I really loved you with all my heart, from the bottom of my soul, I loved you

It broke him.

Despair, rage, indignation, hatred, sadness took over your heart.

He begin desperately hitting the barrier, he wants this barrier to take her in its arms.

His arms were covered in white light.

He quickly started throwing a lot of punches at the barrier very quickly but it was of no use.

Pyrrha's body began to transform into red particles.

— Bye my Love

She disappeared with a smile on his face.

He blinked.

He was back at the lake.

He looked down and a saw red sash floating in the water.

He held the red sash very tightly.

He fell to his knees, he was crying.

Was what happened real or fake?

Who knows?

This has left a very deep mark on him.

He held his own face with his left hand, his hand covering his eyes but not stopping the tears.

— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

The cry of raging and despairing cannot be heard.

The scream was drowned out by the joyous singing of the Dragronelf people.

Amidst loneliness and silence.

The knight on his knees and was in tears.

Pyrrha was watching her beloved crying.

She was in a beautiful place, a paradise where the souls of the dead go.

Pyrrha was worried and sad.

Until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

— Don't worry about him, he will get out of this situation. Either he will get up, or he will remain in the dark.

— How can you be sure he can get out on his own?

— He's going to get out of this completely alone, but he will get out of this situation. After all, he is the only one of my descendants who can bring pride to our family name

— You think?

— I don't think, I know, I've seen the future written in the stars and Crocea Mors is still with him, if he couldn't lift it, he would never be able to pull the sword out of the sheath, after all, I created that sword

These words came from the mouth of what would be the most powerful being ever born in all of Remnant.

So much so that there is no one in this who can surpass him, the only other being able to get close to him was his own daughter.

Ozma and Salem are nothing in front of him.

The most powerful wizard

The man who reached the stars.

The most powerful being that ever exists just below the gods, and the one who dared to challenge the two brothers

The progenitor of the clan of warriors and heroes.

Alexander Arc

The first Arc