#hopefully they'll let us post spoilers at least

[shimera]

my ini d followers don't worry i got a snack for you too

enjoy this shingo kitty nugget

[iz1331]

More Funko Pop! ideas for Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Be warned. It's a long-ish post.

I made one earlier:

Spoilers if you haven't watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice or Beetlejuice. I'll add gifs and pics for reference later, but if you're a fellow Juice box and have watched the films, then you'll know them.

Here's a chart/guide for the types of Funko Pops:

Note: "A Chase is a rare variant of a common Funko figure, whereby its design differs slightly to the original figure it's based upon."

Beetlejuice (1988)

Pop! Deluxe: Delia getting trapped by her art statue (the first time when they were moving their stuff inside the house)

Pop! Common: Lydia with her camera and maybe also holding the polaroid of the "No feet" (hopefully, this is the design they'll release for the upcoming Beetlejuice Funko Pops that have been leaked)

Pop! Moment: Wedding clothes Betelgeuse and Lydia, they're first wedding, with that alien priest and the altered chimney (kinda repetitive using their wedding clothes, but they're freaking iconic outfits)

Pop! Ride, Moment or Premium: Betelgeuse's commercial, him as a cowboy, with the cow and lasso spinning and his sign

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse's cowboy outfit

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse in his robe, the one he was wearing when he met Lydia in the attic

Pop! Moment: Lydia dancing Jump In The Line mid air

Pop! Common: Juno

Pop! Commons or 2 Pack: Adam and Barbara Maitlands in their wedding outfits (possible Chase variants would be their decaying body, or Barbara with the zipper mouth or steel plate)

Pop! Common: Adam in normal outfit with a long nose

Pop! Common: Otho (possible Chase variant would be the outfit Betelgeuse put him in, the pale blue suit)

Pop! Moment: Betelgeuse about to be eaten by the Sandworm

Pop! Moment: Betelgeuse in the waiting room between the witch doctor and the shrinker hunter

Pop! Deluxe or Moment: Betelgeuse floating after the Maitlands dug him out of his coffin

Pop! Town: Lydia and the Winter River model

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse with a cigarette or at least just holding it (let me have my smoking Betelgeuse 😭)

Pop! Common: Lydia with the veil (the outfit she wore on their first dinner after moving in)

Pop! Ride: Barbara riding the Sandworm

Pop! Common: Sandworm

Those for now.

Betelgeuse as a snake, Betelgeuse w/tombstone, Beej w/shrunken head and Here Lies Betelgeuse (Deluxe) are already rumoured to be the new designs from the leaked next line up.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Pop! Commons or 4 pack: Delia, Astrid, Lydia and Rory outfits at Charles' funeral

Pop! Moment: Lydia and Betelgeuse in the attic after she summoned him (the Winter River model in between them, Beej floating on the other end of the table)

Pop! Moment: Lydia, Rory and Betelgeuse therapist scene

Pop! Town: Astrid with the Winter River model

Pop! Common: Delia holding the asps

Pop! Common: Rory in his poor excuse of a wedding outfit (possible Chase variant is him wearing that shirt Betelgeuse put on him, "I ❤️ Delores") 😆

Pop! Common: Rory holding the cardboard boxes over his head

Pop! Moment: Betelgeuse injecting Rory with the Truth Serum

Pop! Common: Wolf Jackson in his suit holding a paper cup filled with coffee

Pop! Common: Wolf Jackson in his leather trench coat holding a gun (possible Chase variant would be when he was covered in cake when he fell into it) 😆

Pop! Common: Delores when she was alive (possible Chase variant would be her wearing the plague doctor mask)

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse when he was alive, the one he wore while grave robbing (possible Chase variant would be after he got poisoned, foam on the mouth)

Pop! & Buddy: Lydia or Betelgeuse with Baby Juice (I'm sorry 😭)

Pop! & Buddy or Moment: Lydia with miniature Betelgeuse playing the guitar

Pop! Common: Bob disguised as Betelgeuse

Pop! Moment: Lydia at the set of Ghost House sitting on her chair, and across from her is Betelgeuse in an audience chair, munching on pop corn

Pop! Moment: Sandworm chase scene with Lydia and Astrid

Pop! Deluxe or Moment: Betelgeuse sitting on a stool, microphone on hand about to tell his backstory

Pop! Moment: Lydia and Betelgeuse in the attic, Lyds holding the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and Beej holding their marriage agreement contract

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse with his hands together in a prayer position (possible Glow in the Dark Chase variant would be him getting caught on fire)

Pop! Deluxe: Betelgeuse reading a newspaper while sitting behind his desk

Pop! Common or Deluxe: Delia screaming in front of the camera ("Why?")

Pop! Common: Astrid in her school uniform

Pop! Commons: Astrid and/or Lydia holding Betelgeuse's new and updated flier

Pop! Common: Richard

Pop! Common: Jeremy Frazier (possible Chase variant would either the clothes he died in or his James Dean costume)

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse wearing the Immigration staff uniform, complete with hat

Pop! Common: The Janitor (love me some more Devito Pops!)

Pop! Common: Father Damien (preferably in the robes he wore for the wedding, Burn Gorman is freaking hilarious in this film 😆)

Pop! Common: Baby Juice (Betelgeuse Baby or his inner child)

Pop! Common, Deluxe, Super or Jumbo: Inflating or blown up Betelgeuse

Pop! Moment: Lydia and Betelgeuse in bed together after the nightmare dream (freaking indulge me, let me daydream 😭)

Pop! Common or Moment: Betelgeuse and Lydia in the attic, a wall with a bomb drawn on it and the tip of Betelgeuse's thumb is lit

Pop! Commons or 8 Pack: Bob, Al, Brad, Chuck, Dave, John, Phil and Tom the Shrinkers

Pop! Common: Betelgeuse in his El Matador outfit (might become an Exclusive, to be honest, a lot of the designs above are Exclusives types, too)

Every scene that Betelgeuse and Lydia are in together is worth being made into a Pop! Moment, the "Let's go, honey", "We're like Bonnie and Clyde, but without the bullet holes", "I'm gonna make you so happy", "You want me to marry you; I thought you'd never ask", "That was you stalking me; If stalking means trying to remarry the love of my life, then I'm guilty as charged, c'mere", half of these I don't even know how to make into a Funko scene, but all of them are just too good 😭 I WANNA MAKE EVERY PART OF THE WEDDING A FUNKO POP MOMENT!

Anyways, that's it for now. Some of the scenes I have in mind probably can't be executed properly in a Pop! Moment.

[yandere-yearnings]

On top of my last ask I also have a question geared to your sillies

We all know both Sunny and Dice have a serious jealousy problem but I was wondering why exactly that's the case? Like did anything happen in their past to make them respond so aggressively when the threat of potentially losing reader arises?

If you're planning to go into this further in their main stories then you can ignore this ask ofc :)

-Gnawing on your latest posts, 🦢

i do intend to delve into their backstories and why they are the way they are later on down the line in their main stories, but bc i'm being a bit slow with releasing new chapters, i figured it'd be nice to just explain it. also, i'm glad you enjoyed my latest posts swan nonnie🥺 gonna try and answer more asks soon so hopefully that means more content too🥰

major spoilers for sun's and dice's backstories under the cut!

warnings for mentions of cheating, alcoholism, child abuse and neglect❗❗

so, originally sun and dice had a fairly normal life, if not a really happy one — they were in what would be considered a standard family, with a mother and father who seemed to love each other loads and dote on their children. in actuality, their parents' marriage was going stale and their mother ended up having an affair with another woman, soon eloping with her and abandoning them.

that in itself was a point of trauma for both of them, sun especially, bc he was older and had spent more time with her. neither of them really understood how someone could say they loved them one day, only to have left them all alone within 24 hours, not even a note or message to explain.

then, they were forced to take the repercussions of their mother's actions in the form of verbal and physical abuse from their father, who had steadily become an alcoholic. all of the household income was used to fuel his addiction and own living expenses, and sun and dice were neglected for a long time before their aunt came to take them away.

somewhere, they kinda expected their father to at least fight for them, but when he gave them up so quickly — not wanting to see their faces anymore bc they looked so much like her, the feeling of abandonment they had been experiencing prior finally reached a point where it started to define them.

they had a lot bottled up from then; feeling wronged, feeling like they had so much left to say, questioning why. a lot of anger and bitterness and desperation to just feel wanted again fueled them into becoming who they did. sun would fight a lot as a teen, bc he felt constantly frustrated and it was easy to push him over the edge. dice was really passive, and he'd let himself get picked on bc he didn't feel like he was worth enough to speak up against it.

their respective darlings meet them at a time where they've just begun to establish a sense of self-importance, and it's bc they're clinging to that little confidence they finally have, that they're both adamant nothing takes it away from them ever again. sun doesn't ever want to be tossed aside like his mother had done to him all those years ago, and dice doesn't want betrayal to turn him into the monster his father had become.

for those reasons, they'll do whatever it takes to make sure they don't lose you. whenever they see you with someone else, they can just imagine you building a relationship with that person and leaving them behind to suffer in the end. just the thought has every bad memory flooding back. it makes them murderous.

for what felt like forever, all they had was each other and the resigned understanding between them. now they have their darlings, that desire to be seen again has reignited, and they rely to a dangerous extent on the promise that love could make up for all the pain they didn't deserve.

[night-heron-writes]

My Predictions for Buddy Daddies Episode 9

Warning: Contains Spoilers for Episode 8: Nothing Seek, Nothing Find

My previous theory still holds, at least so far. I think Episode 9 will be titled "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained". The title from Episode 8 made my predictive senses start tingling, and then watching the episode just confirmed them, especially the ending scene.

The entire episode, and really the ending scene, is setting up Episode 9 to where Rei and Kazuki, and now Kyutaro, have to make a difficult choice.

Kyutaro's up first with his tough decision. He now has to decide what he does with the organization's request for information on Kazuki and Miri: will he lie and risk it all, turn traitor and tell the organization everything, or does he provide some information and warn Rei and Kazuki of the target on their backs?

My hunch is that Kyutaro will inform Rei and Kazuki of Ogino's request for information. I've seen other posts speculating that Kyutaro is being tested as well, and I think that's certainly a possibility that the organization suspects him of something. He seems like a smart guy, and the kind to think most things through, so I wouldn't be surprised if after Episode 5 he started planning for the eventuality of the organization finding out about Miri.

Once he informs Rei and Kazuki of the situation, it's their turn to make a difficult decision. Do they keep Miri, knowing that there might be a target on her back? Or do they try and take her back to Misaki again, which might not even work? Or do they do something drastic, like faking all their deaths and moving somewhere else?

I'm hoping that they decide to keep Miri, that this family they've built is worth whatever life might throw at them. But I also think that they won't take this lightly, that they'll start preparing for when Rei's Boss makes his move. There's also no way this doesn't bring up trauma for Kazuki. Just when he thinks he's started to move on and let go of his guilt, the family he's built is in danger again. I wonder if he'll find out about the part Ryo Ogino played in Yuzuko's death?

But if my title prediction holds true and Ep 9 is titled "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" then there will be a benefit to making the risky choices, and hopefully things will turn out at least mostly all right or the seeds will be planted for things to turn out all right. This family had better be together at the end of the series or I will riot.

I'm curious to see how the plotline with Rei's Boss (i haven't bothered to learn his name and I won't start now bc he doesn't deserve it) is going to play out. Will Rei be dragged back against his will now that the Boss has suspicions? Does the leash on him tighten considerably, or does the Boss try to leave him enough rope to hang himself?

I desperately hope that the series ends with the Boss out of the picture, and I hope that gets to be by Rei's hand. That bastard doesn't deserve a redemption arc, he doesn't deserve to be in Miri's life, he doesn't deserve anything except a torturous end.

Am I wildly off track with these theories? Maybe, especially knowing how much PA Works likes throwing us curveballs with this show. We'll find out if I'm correct on the title part when the promo video for Ep 9 drops middle of the week.

Until then, good luck surviving the angst storm all of us fanfic authors seem to be going through! We will make it through the week, but at what cost?

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

If you remember, one Christmas in 2018, I made this post about if there was a made up religion about X. Well, it’s evolved to BOTH X and Zero. And I have made one piece of art relating to it, and some of the Christmas specials mentioning it.

This goes in depth on how it started and blossomed.

I’ll put this under “read more” just in case it’s spoiler territory for anyone enjoying the AU.

Without further ado, let’s get on with it

NEW CHAPTER ON AO3

It all just started with ONE post and I’ll show that here {also "here" for the previous chapter on AO3}. I was decorating that year before thinking about the Christmas special. Specifically listening to “Little Drummer Boy” sung by the Harry Simeone Chorale. A version I am quite fond of listening to in my childhood.

I thought of that version being sung whilst I also thought some of the reploids and humans would have worshiped X in some form or another.

Then it hit me, how X could actually be worshiped based on the fact he saved the world multiple times, and Zero doing so by his side, despite his record of dying at least twice. Before, the idea was mentioned he would only die once but it was scrapped for the two deaths he had canon in the games. I’ll probably talk about those in another post as well, or maybe not. I’ll ask the people in the server directly if they want to see that or not.

As I was developing the Christmas special for 2018, it definitely escalated into both the boys being worshiped at some point. Heh… it’s also kinda funny cuz “worshiped” kinda is a pun off shipping lol-

I’ll shut up about that AHEM anyway-!!

After the special was posted, it kinda got more in-depth of how it would work, and Xiddall was created with the help of my best friend Ashard, and I thought of an animaloid design to fit them. Something similar to Xerneas from the Pokemon X and Y games, basically a deer god-like mechanaloid. I have yet to design them yet, but I hope I do in the near future so you’ll see what they look like, and hopefully make a post about them and how they're created in verse.

X and Zero’s worship then connected to the worship of Xiddall that made Xevdex the son of the god, and Zero the fallen angel from the deep dark space. It’s definitely Hell’s equivalent, but it’s not a downward spiral, it’s more a “the deeper you go in one direction, the darker and deeper it gets” kinda feel. I call it “the Dark Web Abyss”. It may be a placeholder title until it’s called something better that revolves around more of the theme for “Cyberspace”.

There’s also a thing that’s added into the lore of this cult that certain humans and reploids have created that’s made even X and Zero uncomfortable.

Them having the duo’s song as a hymn for their “church”, and every time they heard it being talked about or them singing their song, Xev feels sick to his stomach and Zero has to escort him to help keep them walking. Sometimes they'll run into those worshipers. There's a bit of a spectrum of them where some are very nice and respectable, others on the other end being crazy that they think they saw cryptids, or right smack in the middle where they're a mix of both. Trying to be respectable to an extent but then can't hold in how awesome and honorable it is to be in the presence of the famous X and Zero.

Poor things have to endure it every once in a while, and at least they're able to vent about it to their small close group of friends/found family.

I think they eventually convince the "church of the messiahs" that if Zero writes some hymns for them that they might stop using their song as one, and most agree and apologize profusely while others object to the idea. It probably becomes a whole debate amongst the worshipers, but eventually Zero would write those hymns and the song is sung way less in their services. Which does help Xev feel way more at ease.

Idk I just thought of a funny lil thing I could put in the AU and it kinda expanded from there lmao.

[weemstar]

Hey hi Owl House Spoilers!

Ima give you a second to scroll away

Hopefully that "see full post" thing is automatic

Anyways

Here we go

Better scroll now

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SO I *WAS* RIGHT! Belos wanted Eda because Eda's curse can corrupt the Draining Spell!

I have a theory on how this gonna go down

Eda is gonna step in as planned. The strain will be too much/it'll start killing her just like with the Requiem songspell. She'll ONLY have access to bard spells if the sigil was actually put on her.

But I think Raine and/or Lilith are gonna join in to take some of the strain off of Eda. Lilith seemed REALLY squirrely and she's kinda looking like she's gonna try to sacrifice herself to be "useful". If not just those two, Darius and Eber too. Maybe even the Hexside crew AND King. They'll basically play as a group to take the strain off of Eda or to protect her.

I think this will lead Luz to jump in to protect all of them. She'll end up being a conduit for the Collector bc i have seen a LOT of solid theories on Luz becoming the vessel for them. It's even in her name if you translate it.

What we may also see is Belos going *full* Eldritch horror.

Also

Give my boy Hunter the killshot on Belos. Or at least let him speak his peace at that crusty dusty bastard before he gets dusted and floats away on the wind. My boy deserves that much

ANYWAYS

I may have entered this fandom late, but by GOD am I gonna ride it out with the rest of these dorks in these tags.

[iaintyourbro]

The Unknown Journey Continues

Part 1

I know it's been a while... but I've been going down a rabbit hole with @starlight-samurai regarding time loops, Jenova, Minerva, and more fun. So I figured I'd try to put it into one post to get the insanity out of my head. Everything in here is based on things we've found by either going through more obscure Ultimanias, learning more about Dirge of Cerberus and trying to decipher what the hell Jenova is by putting together various sources - including other Square Enix games - and how they handled freakishly similar scenarios.

Did you know there is a companion mobile game for it that was out on the good old flip phones? Did you know there was an online mode in Dirge of Cerberus only available in Japan, but had story elements that were not in the main game?

The sad part is, there's still so much to go through...

(I've also had various discussions with @ourfinalheaven, Manu, who doesn't have Tumblr, so here is her Twitter. and Somebody's Nightmare (here is her Twitter). So I wanted to tag them here, as it's much more fun to discuss these ideas as a group, since it'll only help you build on and strengthen your own ideas.)

Please be aware, there will be Spoilers for FFVII - Almost all Compilation titles, Xenogears, and NieR Automata throughout this.

So let's go on a journey where we explore what actually already exists in the compilation - including the idea of the whispers and timeloops - how Minerva may play into everything, and what exactly Jenova is capable of doing.

I asked Sesi if he'd ever played any of the NieR games, because he'd said something that made me wonder if they were going to take a similar approach. As a very, very quick high level summary: NieR Automata deals with a time loop type of idea. The androids will be rebooted and repeat the same things over and over again. This is broken when 2B is killed by A2 because she becomes infected with a virus. That being said, you have the option after Ending E to either erase all of your data and end the cycle OR you can try again. The Pods have a discussion, and one asks, "But won't they just do the same thing again?" and the other replies with "Maybe. But it could also be different this time."

Here's Sesi's message back to me when I asked him about this (cleaned up a bit since we were having a casual conversation over Discord):

Maybe I could just guess based comparatively on the Dirge storyline, because that was sort of SE's first flirtation with “robots and androids” since they’re all programmed and locked behind like task managers and shit that can shut them down. The story of the online mode for DoC that came out in Japan, we never got to see it, you’re basically an Android OC and you have to get to “the end of the level” and then essentially die, and a new one takes its place. This keeps happening until Weiss is essentially freed from being able to be task managed by the guys who are suppose to be able to control them and I know from tons of years with Square games that they’re verrrrry bad at differentiating their narratives they tend to just keep “ripping themselves off” so is it anything close to that?

Cuz if so I think I kinda know what you’re saying and yeah, I agree, I think with CC bringing in its poetic symbolism and LOVELESS, and DoC bringing back the cyclic nature of the lore, whispers, premonitions and future visions, proto-Materia and the perversion of this next cycle since the planet can no longer cleanse and protect itself and its will is weakening lesser and lesser to the point where it’s fate is “in a true sense of jeopardy This time essentially it’s all tied in together and sort of played as though it's a fated track; a cycle of events and something has hitched it, thus the whispers manifesting and Sephiroth's higher implied control over his destiny. Of course, even all that is just their new red herring game, but it’s definitely a part of the lore they want to play with, in order to go back and reMAKE the OG with the comp inserted from inception. Also gut punch a lot.

Time Loops

I was somewhat surprised to find out that this concept is NOT new to FFVII's universe. It's discussed in Dirge of Cerberus... probably one of the least played and least understood of the compilation. (Trying to sell a third person shooter with terrible controls to a market of mostly people used to turn-based combat wasn't going to go well.)

On top of it, we didn't even get all of it, since online mode was never released outside of Japan, and the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode was on Amp'd Mobile and Verizon flip phones back in 2006. Were you around for the cell phones in 2006? I had the ones on the list, and how somebody could play a game on those blows my mind.

Square has a tendency to reuse themes from their other titles. Probably one of the most blatant is the similarities between Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII. They were both being developed at the same time and a lot of ideas that didn't make it into FFVII ended up in Xenogears.

NieR

So how does this work? In NieR (both Replicant and Automata), you play the same path multiple times. Each time, it's slightly different depending on what side quests you did your first and second playthrough, but there's also other subtle differences throughout the story. In Automata, you get to play as 2B your first playthrough and 9S for your second. They follow the same path, but you get it from his perspective the second time and it reveals a bit more of what is going on. However, even with some slight differences, the main plot points stay the same and the ending result it also the same.

Then on your third playthrough, you wake up in the Bunker, and you're getting ready to go on a new mission. This time, though, 2B is killed and shit hits the fan. Things get crazy, you play as a new character: A2. In the end, pretty much everyone "dies", but you can choose to "reboot" and try again. You also can say you are done and let them all rest and delete your save data (the game gives you the option for both Automata and Replicant, and with Replicant, it actually leads to a new ending).

The striking thing for me is... There are certain events that will always happen, no matter what.

Fixed Points in Time

It's been years since I've watched Doctor Who, but there was something that stuck with me, and that was the fixed points in time. You can read about all of them here, but here's the basics:

Now, of course Doctor Who goes into this with much more detail and it's a recurring theme. However, as you read through that page, you'll probably find many aspects that have been used in various JRPGs that you've played. And Doctor Who most likely pulled some of the idea from classic Science Fiction novels. Each story puts its own spin on it.

How does this relate to FFVII Remake? Well, when they say that the major plot points will stay the same, it reminds me of this. No matter what, Cloud must fall into the Sector 5 Church, the Sector 7 Plate must be dropped, Aerith and Zack both must die, and Meteor has to be summoned, to name a few. So, with a time loop, those things would still have to take place in order to prevent a complete collapse of reality (at least in how Doctor Who uses it).

Therefore, the Whispers are ensuring that the Will of the Planet is followed.

One of the major themes in FFVII is that of loss. People die and they do not come back. Yes, other FF games do allow this to happen (FFX, FFXIII, FFXV), but VII is not those games. It was written with that idea in mind, that once a person dies, they, just like in real life, are dead and cannot be brought back.

I've previously written that I think they'll make us believe we are able to change fate, but we will eventually be slammed with the reality that we can't. That is because the planet has determined that certain events are fixed points.

Xenogears

Xenogears takes a bit of a different approach to the loop idea. Instead of repeating the same time period over and over, it has the characters reincarnated, and the same outcome happens each time: Elly dies. However, each time it's different. After all, they're in various time periods, in some cases thousands of years apart.

In all of the lives of Fei (who will have a different name in each time period) and Elly (who is always Elly/Elhaym), Elly will end up dying trying to protect Fei and the others. In one life, she is a religious figure at a totally not Catholic church, in another she's the wife of a scientist who was working to create children from nanomachines due to mass infertility issues. But she is ALWAYS with Fei, even if his name changes.

In her Mother Elhaym time, this is when Lacan (Fei) finally snaps. Though he's not fully aware of his past lives, he becomes aware, the anger consumes him, and he becomes Grahf. Fei is then reborn into the time period you play the game in.

There's a lot to unpack with this, so I won't go into it. Grahf wants to destroy God (Deus) because he thinks if he does, then it'll stop the suffering (his suffering).

If you do want to read more about Grahf, you can do so here, but it probably won't make much sense unless you've played Xenogears up to that point... Since it's much later in the game that this is all explained.

Lacan's desire was to stop the cycle of Elly always sacrificing herself for his sake. Though Grahf is not a perfect existence - he's not fully "The Contact", he sacrifices himself in order to let Fei move forward, and hopefully stop the cycle, by destroying the Deus system. (Elly also tries to sacrifice herself here, but Fei goes after her and stops her.)

Now, some people may think I'm saying that Cloud or somebody is going to do this in order to save Aerith or Zack (or his village or mom), but in FFVII if they do the loop method, I don't think Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and the others are aware of it. Most likely, it's only 'Sephiroth' and Aerith who are aware of it.

How this Could Be used for Final Fantasy VII

I'm stressing could because there's so many different possibilities on how they use this (if they are using this), so please, don't take this as fact. This is based on speculation based on what we know.

A time loop is a great way to explain away the differences in the story that we've seen: Biggs being alive, Wedge living for longer than he should have, etc. Since these are not major plot changes, they can simply say that this time it'll be slightly different... but your fixed points (major plot points) will remain the same.

It's a way to pull in some of the more obscure themes from Dirge of Cerberus and also play with the LOVELESS lore.

It could all simply be a big red herring and it's really just a remake of OG, but with the compilation tied together nicely... since it works much better when it's combined and not in 50 different games, books, movies, etc.

I don't think it's a "sequel" per say, not in the way I generally perceive a sequel. It's more of a loop of the same thing. The question is, when is the loop started and what will cause it to end? When will the planet (if it even is the planet) determine that it's good enough to begin moving forward?

JENOVA, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Minerva - Oh My!

Let's be real... Genesis isn't exactly the most popular character in the FFVII Compilation... but what if they make him one of the most important to the story? //Ducks as various fruits and vegetable are thrown in my direction//

I think what Genesis is probably most known for is his love of LOVELESS. He has the entire thing memorized and randomly says lines from it throughout Crisis Core. LOVELESS lore is still something I'm trying to grasp, so I am not going to comment much on it. Once I understand it more, I'll update this.

...And then this happens. The secret ending for Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis picks up Weiss. Weiss, who has now been introduced along with Nero in FFVII INTERmission and is an optional ridiculously hard boss in the Shinra battle simulator in chapter 17 of the main story. There is some lore associated with the battle sim - so if you don't plan on beating it or you just can't, you can look up the pre-battle and post-battle cut scenes on YouTube. They're very short, but interesting. (I beat this asshole last night - it's a hell of a fight.)

....To Be Continued because apparently Tumblr won't allow more than 10 images per post now.... Next will be more on JENOVA and Sephiroth along with Minerva.

[af1899]

THE REAL BEST NEWS OF THE UPDATE

The whole banner is boring, these are the real best news tonight.

POGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Yes, after a long wait of over 4 years, Sophia is finally getting her first alt and as a free unit, which is very nice.

Part of the artwork, as well as the event information, should be out in less than 2 hours since this post's date/time.

Anyway, I'll now comment on a few things about the new units now formally revealed with skills and artwork.

Trailer

Thoughts

The seasonal units come to no surprise as they were all previously leaked (thanks again Intern-kun!) but there are some interesting things in this reveal and the associated notice.

First of all, you're perhaps wondering how well I did with my guesses on the attires Male Grima and Kurtnaga would be doning plus the free unit potentially being Nasir, well... completely wrong with the last two, Kurthnaga isn't dressing like a Jiangshi, actually looking more like an... emperor? But if you know his role in the Tellius games, then it makes sense, either way he looks nice, I was right with Male Grima, more dressed up than his Female counterpart and the like, but Okuma Yugo takes on drawing Male Grima again and he looks so cool.

However, I'm still shook one of my biggest favs in Elibe got an alt like, out of nowhere, I was totally expecting some Tellius unit that'd go along with the theory I had in mind, nevethless, I'm excited to build her and comment on her gameplay elements (that'll be done once I have her properly built, but I need to prepare some resources in advance), I'll also talk about the event stuff later on, I hope today but something came up recently, so we'll see.

The banner itself remains the same: an easy skip with nothing I do feel like I need right away.

Male Grima is fodder galore for me, fortunately, he's easy to fodder for two full passive skills if one of them is [Sturdy Stance 3]. He's quite fearsome to face if you initiate on an ally of his near him, and he'll be pretty durable, replacing his special with [Moonbow] is also a good call, then add a movement assist, a [Atk/Def Bond] as [Sacred Seal] and he's set. It's also worth noting he's a colorless breath armor unit, giving him less likelihood to get WTD.

Rhea... Idk if that weapon type and animation would give away some important spoilers, but even though I know something regarding her identity, I'd rather continue avoiding spoilers, I have no way to play her home game. She's also another fodder galore unit in my eyes; but onto what's she like as a unit, not as great as Male Grima, and she relies on both keeping herself healthy to reduce incoming damage and deny follow-ups, plus healthy foes to deal follow-up attacks, not the most reliable thing but not too shabby either, keeping her health on check shouldn't be as difficult.

Kurthnaga has a rather interesting weapon over there, it makes its user beefier in enemy phase and you can inherit it to any dragon unit of your liking, the rest isn't exactly too interesting except for maybe [Even Pulse Tie 3] being on a seasonal semi-demote, it's a decent skill that can (in part) counter some teams or units but most of the time, you'll find it useless. He's also added like Spring Narcian, introducing a new {Experience} skill and an inheritable weapon, plus on demote too. 🤨

Lastly, Sothis is with Male Byleth, it seems to be the better fit for her out of the two despite his not-so-recent Legendary alt, since his Female counterpart leads a Duo with Rhea. Fodder galore as well but this one has some things to point out:

Welp, that's Múspell's C-skill but without {Joint}-esque effect all right, and you can give it to dragons, it'll likely stack with Múspell's C-skill, resulting in a slightly bigger boost in damage dealt and reduction on damage taken, most likely at least.

As a unit, this Duo is also best used on enemy phase, with a Lv.3 {Stance} of any kind being their best A-skill, they should be able to handle themselves just fine, but they're still vulnerable to arrows, green bow users like Rath or Python (for accessable choices) or Shamir with [Deadeye] should be able to quickly dispatch the Duo, they'll also most likely be used in offense than defense I think, they still don't seem super threatening, but their selling point would be the Duo Skill, which can help some units deal with Fallen Edelgard and some other dangers that tend to deny follow-up attacks:

...And it can be re-used on the same map.

Anyway, it seems everyone here has some sort of focus on being tankier and enemy phase oriented, yet there's a clear ounce of difference in how to use them, but nothing I'd exactly find super broken or must-have, the Duo might come in handy though.

I'll just free pick blue if available, otherwise I guess I'll go for colorless, green or red, I'm moreso looking forward to Sophia... speaking of her, it's possible she'll also play similarly to the units in here and her OG form (being slow and tanky, best used on enemy phase), if that's how she plays out, then [Close Counter], [Atk/Res Rein 3] (though I need a Brady first to properly fodder Plumeria) and [Pact Blooms+] are ready for her, but I'm short on B-skills and other expensive stuff, maybe [Flier Formation 3] since I have one last Díthorba to spare, I could pick [Quick Riposte 3] but my OCD wouldn't let me live with her just inheriting it up to Lv.2, and my only source without promoting anyone is Nah, so I'd have to do with alternatives, we'll see...

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you get who you want soon in the banner, hopefully Sophia will do great for you if you plan to build her also.

[aaronstveit]

I don't want to have expectations in this trilogy about Adam, because like Adam Stan, Maggie let me down, even though she insists it's the Ronan and Dreamers trilogy, she had said that Adam's arc wouldn't have ended and that I had to trust her, but ok.

So, still about Adam and his possible dark magic is what makes the most sense to me.

*Spoiler*

in Mr Impossible he crossed the line and is risking his life, he "goes up in smoke" I think adam's magic never did that, I think he might be mighty.

Now a question, would it be possible for adam to become a dreamer? Do you remember how a person becomes a dreamer or how a dreamer is born? I don't remember haha

i personally don't have very high expectations for adam's plotline but i do very much expect some amount of character development and some closure on his very strange behavior in this trilogy!! i think we will at least get some of the loose ends tied up and i think he and ronan will still be together in the end (this post sums up my feelings about pynch endgame perfectly)

HOWEVER. (this got long so i'm putting in a read more!!)

i definitely think that something is ~ up ~ with adam's magic — from the opal short story telling us that "cabeswater wouldn't leave him with nothing," to his scrying in call down the hawk to look for bryde, and again when he's trying to contact ronan throughout MI. i think the "going up in smoke" may very well have to do with the fact that he is scrying too far out and then the leyline falls out from beneath him, and that is what i'm personally most worried about at the end of MI (other than the fact that ronan is seemingly asleep as well). i have a lot of questions about that ending — what happens when the leyline is pulled out from beneath someone who is scrying? in the deleted adam chapter, they specifically reference persephone and how "she'd sent her mind out far away from her body and never come back." that worries me, for adam's sake. we know that he shouldn't be scrying without someone grounding him. we know that he has a history of sending himself out too far (in bllb, in cdth). we know that in cdth ronan specifically worries about what would happen if adam scried alone at harvard and didn't come back to himself.

that worries me.

the end of MI almost makes me think that adam and ronan are both stuck out in the ether somewhere until the leyline is turned back on, which is obviously not good. no idea what this means for either of them, their magic, or their dynamic.

as for dreamers!

i don't believe it's ever actually specified what makes a dreamer, but we can assume that dreamers are born, not made. i don't know if we'll ever find out what creates them; it's implied that it's genetic, but since declan supposedly is not a dreamer, if it's in the genes it must be recessive.

i don't think there's a possibility of adam becoming a dreamer, although that could definitely be interesting if it did happen. i think his arc will probably have to do with his connection to the leyline; despite cabeswater's sacrifice, i do think adam is still tied to the leyline somehow, even if he doesn't think so. i think he's going to use his magic to help ronan and/or to fight bryde, although it may not seem like that's what he's doing at first. i also think that adam fixed-the-leyline-to-save-ronan-in-the-dream-thieves parrish is right that waking up all the leylines is dangerous. he and ronan both have their points, and hopefully they'll end up working together again by the end.

ultimately, i think adam is going to end up doing something very risky to help ronan. something riskier than giving himself over to a corrupted cabeswater to save ronan and opal in trk. i mean, he's already scrying too far out just in the hopes of finding ronan; this is a guy who will do anything for ronan lynch and has proven it more than once. dark magic definitely isn't out of the line of possibility for him here. i might even actually enjoy some dark magic from him!! i don't think it'll be dream magic, though, i think it'll be more self-sacrifical leyline bullshit, as he is apt to do.

i hope this answers your question!!! sorry i just went off on a whole thing here, i can never quite stop myself when it comes to adam parrish my beloved <3

[thournewrites]

1-17- 22 Updates

Now that I have my website up and running I think I'm gonna do more in depth updates there and kind of share them here. Not sure the best way to go about all of this but the tools provided on my websites blog are just easier to work with and allow me to share way more snippits. To sum up the post though:

Happy New Year! Sorry if I've said it before, but I truly can't remember! It's been a hell of a few months for lots of reasons, professionally and personally, but at the end of the day there is only one thing that will make me feel better about it all and that's making more stuff! Short Story news: Scylla's Sunset I am still working on Scylla's Sunset. This is def a little bit more of a world rich short story compared to Soul's Choice. I am thinking about putting a few stories together and selling them as a collection of short stories (Soul's Choice would remain free of course.) It's taking some time for me to pull this one together because I don't want to story to feel rushed or hollow, but it's hard sometimes as the writer to see what a reader will see. I just want to make good stuff, or at least the best stuff that I can make. I also have other stories (Soul's Choice and Are these Poems or an Overshare?) out in the Googleplaystore right now for anyone who wants to check them out or support! Interactive Fiction stuff: The Price of Emeralds: I know most people are interested in that. I will say I've made progress for sure! There truly isn't much I can share at the moment without any crazy spoilers but I'd say it's going slower than expected for sure! Haha. Again, it's a pretty involved process if I'm going to do it the way that I want and life has been a little crazy, but in order to avoid a lot of the issues I've run into (coding errors, genders appearing inconsistently... typos) I'm going to be taking a little extra time to work on it to avoid frustrating those keeping up with it as it progresses. There will be a longer time in between updates because of that, but hopefully it's worth it for all of us!

-- Ultimately I'm exhausted as a person, but also feeling really motivated and motivation is enough for right now. I'll feel less tired when it feels less like I'm running in place and more when I can see some progress. I know I can't rush to real progress, but I have a feeling that it will be coming my way this year. I'm putting it out there because if I say it enough maybe it will be true, not just for me, but everyone else striving for their goals. It's not easy, it's not pretty and sometimes the weight of ambition is too much to bear, especially when there are those who offer to help carry that weight but the price is too high or when there are those who try to trip you up. When you can take even a step forward under that weight and navigate the obstacles and know in your heart that it only means more steps will follow, then how strong are you? Pretty damn strong I'd imagine. Even if we're not running, let's be proud of the steps we take forward even if they'll small steps and our breathing is laboured from the effort, it's still further than we were before. -Thourne

[elindae-writes]

chopped is a stupid show

bad. bad show.

I'm in the Mood To Rant and I have fixated on that show for this Rant Session mkay, this is not a Transformers post (but let's face it I will probably find. some way. to compare chopped to Megatron)

I'm sorry if some of u are like hardcore chopped fans and stans, I mean no offense against you but I have grievances about this foot network show and they must be AIRED

(also it's been like a good five years or so since I've watched an episode so who knows maybe chopped has changed and is like pure golden tv material so for the purposes of this rant I'm just gonna rely on my hazy memories of being passed the fuck out on the couch and blearily staring at this trainwreck of a show while upside down)

So if you're like "the fuck is chopped?" then wonder no more because I am going to expound upon that singular crucial detail

it's this show where they get three random chefs to cook some grub but they have zero control over their ingredients so they get Three Mystery Baskets of fun (spoiler alert: they are nOT FUN) and have to cook a gourmet meal using whatever knicknacks they find inside mkay

And as they cook, Bobby boy, or whatever his name is, is just chilling at the back at a table with other chef people just. observing. like:

doesn't sound so bad, right? I know what you're thinking:

"Well, Elindae, constructing a tasteful and aesthetically pleasing meal out of random ingredients is a skill to be admired!"

AND YOU ARE CORRECT, IT IS. But is the show normal about it?

no

so we got Bobby.

Bobby flay. (Is he even on the show anymore? idk? Hopefully he jumped ship and swam off to better things)

And he's like "CHEFS OPEN YOUR BASKETS"

AND THE INGREDIENTS

SWEET BABY PRIMUS, THE INGREDIENTS ARE THE WEIRDEST THINGS LIKE

"a page from an oceanside spring of 1983 San Francicso phone booth phonebook with a stain made on it by an unknown substance"

*camera zooms in on phonebook with dramatic bwongggg sound effect. the phone numbers are still legible*

"crumpled leaves from the parking garage outside that u parked in"

*dramatic iMovie scene transition to crumpled leaf*

"used mop water"

*camera pan that rapidly zooms back and forth from traumatized contestant's face over to a mop chilling in the corner"

"also one potato"

*potato*

And then Bobby always pauses to take his breath and is like

"also this will be served at The Ritz for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Alexandra Mary Windsor. so no stress."

SO, the chefs are allowed to get like a few extra ingredients from the pantry but I distinctly remember the judge chefs getting Disappointed when they saw the contestants do this

"ooooooooooooooo why the fuck is he not happy with his phonebook. this is uncalled for"

The chefs try their hardest oh damn do they try and there are always these up close and personal interviews where they try to make this seem normal

"i have never worked with these ingredients before"

Like what Becky are you seriously telling me used mop water is not a basic staple in ur pantry next to the flour? the fuk? step up your game, becky. god.

So the chefs just stare Smugly and there is always ALWAYS a frantic last-minute plating scene where at least one contestant struggles to get the food on the plates as the timer dramatically counts down

"i nEED TO GET THE PHONEBOOK ON THE PLATE"

sometimes they get some last minute garnish on, like they'll find some cilantro and chuck it on that bad boy like it's Fine Dining 101

So the chefs will look at the dishes and they'll be like "so what's in this"

YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT'S IN THE DISH

And then they go to eat it and they're always like

"why does it taste like used mop water"

wHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK, BOBBY FLAY?

And the contestant is always so Deeply Disappointed and they personally feel like a failure for not being able to utilize the used mop water in a fun fresh exciting culinary way and they're always like "wow I really failed" like no YOU were failed

or they're needlessly pretentious about it like "why did they not like the cilantro" like bitch it was on a phonebook cmon

Sometimes the judges will even insult the contestants in a way that references the shitty food they made

And then the soundtrack gets needlessly intense and the footage turns black and white and there's a forlorn shot of the sad chef shuffling away through a swinging door with a giant knife on it and the episodes always end with a single melancholy camera shot of a knife stabbed into a desk before a fade to black and roll to credits with depressing music as I dissociate and mentally roll into the void

this is the kind of shenanigans Megatron would pull on Starscream

"starscream"

"milord"

"i want you use take this rusty spatula--"

"what"

"--and this piece of dirt I grabbed from Optimus's 13th tire--"

"wtf"

"--and this framed and signed picture of me. turn it into my dinner. make it good."

"..."

"S T A R S C R E A M"

And then Starscream would just try to assassinate him

So yeah

I do not like chopped very much

I swear the next chapter is almost done

[danieyells]

Yo Danie, I wonder if you've got any ideas on this; in TAS, transients either get summoned to Tokyo because the app reaches out and makes pacts on people's behalfs with willing familiars, or they get summoned by having, like, a wish of some kind and they end up stumbling through a portal to Tokyo to see that wish fulfilled, right? And then they either get unsummoned, or stick around for whatever reason?

Here's the thing; when they get unsummoned, do they go home? The Red Oni in chapter 1 seems pretty convinced that he's going to die unless you make a Summoning pact with him, but Salomon says later that Shiro's familiar whose connection you cut will just end up going home. Further to that, Macan says about Oniwaka when he's vanishing into light that he's going back to his home world, and then when his strength recovers he'll pop right back in.

The thing is though, that there's a remark early on that Stray Transients, who are Transients without a Summoning bond by the game's definition if I'm remembering right, can only maintain themselves for a while by sustaining themselves on the land's energy. Even further, the actual Housamo wiki says that they'll be unsummoned from the game if they don't find a way to sustain themselves, usually by getting into a pact. Guilds I believe are also noted to be one way around this. Does that mean that if you just wait outside of a Pact, you'll go home? Or would you pop back in again after a bit, essentially trapped in Tokyo?

ALSO ALSO, Bathym says that, though this only applies to "his hella demonic self", demons need tons of emotional energy directed at them to survive, and a pact is the most efficient way to get energy.

But we don't see Sitri in a Guild or a Pact (unless you Pact him, but I'm pretty sure that's non-canon), and Sitri also has a family. They're all demons one would presume, so why does he not seem to need anything like Bathym does? We can derive from this that Bathym was either speaking about himself, and only himself, lying to try and get the Protagonist to make a pact with him, or that Sitri has a Pact he isn't chatting to anybody about, right?

HOWEVER. In chapter 4, we see that the Aoyama guild provides supplies for the enormous number of Stray Transients who have nothing and no prospects, but that those strays are unlikely to be guild members. Further to that, she mentions that the ninjas and many other strays are like, literally treated as the dregs of society. So, how come they're still around? Surely the Stray Transient population should be either dwindling all the time, or in constant flux? But I'm pretty sure there's a notable overpopulation issue in canon because of the sheer number of Transients! Not to mention, if they're treated like dirt and killed and traded, you'd think they'd just...WANT to leave, right? So they could just wait until their connection ran out.

AND ALSO, it's noted in the backstory that Transients started pouring through the gates one day in history, and that this generation has never lived in a Tokyo without walls, but the previous generation therefore presumably did; that means like, it's been at least 2 decades, possibly 3. How long could those Transients have stuck around without a pact going by the lore?

Lastly, the Protagonist has the power to rend Transients connections to Tokyo, canonically. How then, do those Transients come back if they've had their connection severed? And shouldn't the Protagonist offer to go to the slums and ask if anybody would like to go back to their homeworld if that were the case? Or will everyone literally just rebound to Tokyo completely?

Further to that, when people fulfil their wish, do they go home? When they've played their Role out completely, is that the end of their tenure in Tokyo?

Basically, I think the whole system is a little underexplained and I've seen you post thoughts here on stuff, so I was wondering as to what you'd make of it all! Am I missing something?

. . .holy shit anon this is an essay innit lol not that i'm complaining, I just was not expecting it when I saw the notification after I woke up. For the record I saw this at. . .7am or so. It is now 11:55 when I'm finishing it. HYPERFOCUS GO BRRRRRRRRR. OKAY LET'S SEE IF I'VE GOT SOME THOUGHTS FOR YOU.

DISCLAIMER: I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME FOR LITTLE OVER A MONTH AND I FEEL LIKE I HAVE FAR FROM ALL OF THE DETAILS. I haven't read three of the translated past events yet and I haven't read most of the untranslated content(including Chapter 11 although I'm super tempted you don't even know.) These are just my understandings of things, I suppose.

ALSO IDK HOW FAR YOU ARE IN THE STORY. . .I mean you mention them being sold so you're probably up to Chapter 10 at least since that's where we learn about Daikoku selling transients because it gets him off I guess, although they also could have mentioned it some other time and I just forgot lol BUT. YEAH PROBABLY GONNA MENTION SPOILERS.

TL;DR:

Red Oni: summoned to Tokyo without a pact. When rended from the land would disappear, possibly die. Likely this is because of whatever conditions are happening where they came from or having had already been dead when summoned. Possibly also just a false belief because they didn't know well what was going on to begin with. Possibly also just part of the game plan originally but retconned by the devs then never rewritten.

D-Evils: Shiro's Rule is Ressurection which causes an exception when clashing with Rending. The world of the Old Ones is gone, the D-Evils are familiars created by/living in Shiro's book. Entities, abilities, and artifacts from Old Ones are able to be used outside of the app/battle zones, so D-Evils can exist if Shiro just summons them. D-Evils don't go away when rended because they're part of Old Ones and Old Ones is gone--if they go away they return to Shiro's artifact where they came from. They also donct go away because rending them causes an Exception.

Oniwaka; Zabaniyya; Ophion: rended from EXCEPTIONS not from the world. Were likely sent back in order to resolve the exception after being rended and to recover the energy that sustained their physical forms in the first place, not because they had no means of being sustained in Tokyo. Returned due to pacts with MC, positions in Guild, unfulfilled pact, etc once their energy to maintain physical form returned.

Stray Transients: likely have outstanding pacts and thus do not disappear over time. However, some don't and those proper strays will likely return home after an amount of time, but we don't know how long. Alp has been in Tokyo for a few months but isn't disappearing despite arriving because he wanted to be loved/popular. So unattached transients stay around longer than a few months. They may also be attached to the school they were initially meant to go to to be monitored, or someone who works there. They may not want to go home due to poor conditions, being dead, lacking a home or people to return to, etc. Remember, even in real life people immigrate to places that treat them poorly--but that's because even that and the potential in those places is likely better to them than whatever they're running away from. If the transient arrived in distress it's because they wanted to be away from wherever they started out or because they desperately needed something. This new opportunity may be what they need--to find someone they lost, to find an answer, to simply start life over fresh. Even if they're being abused, looked down on, they may simply be happy to be alive. If they want to go home, they hopefully just have to wait--but you have to live if you wanna get home, don't you? Best to survive as well as you can.

Stray Transient Population: constantly increasing to sustain/grow the Game for the World Representatives. The overpopulation is deliberate. They do not care about the wellbeing of these people, they only want to create a stadium to fight in, and for that they need more transients and app users than humans not using the app in Tokyo.

Sitri: Aside from forming a pact with him, Sitri's Sacred Artifact is his wings/are his feathers, which cause people to fall in love with someone who touched them after the feathers that had been touched are attached to a second party. Sitri feeds off of the love directed to him. This is troublesome for him more often than not, but I'm pretty sure that's how he gets the emotions he needs to eat if not via pact.

Being around from the start?: The gates appeared in 1999--it's been at least 20 years, assuming the game takes place anywhere near the present year. Off the top of my head we don't know if any stray transients have stuck around for extended periods. How long someone's been in Tokyo rarely comes up. We know Yule has been in Tokyo for a few years because he went to middle(elementary? Idr) school with Ryota. Sitri is similar with Kengo. As such, given Sitri and Yule aren't in guilds as far as we're aware, assuming being attached to a school doesn't make one connected to Tokyo, we can assume they're stray transients. This means that they'd been here for years, as strays. Given we know stray transients disappear eventually, it's safe to assume that there have been stray transients who disappeared and went home. Assuming it isn't different per individual, stray transients can stay in Tokyo for several months to several years, but to my awareness there's no set number.

Going Home: in order to go home a transient who's been summoned must fulfil their summoner/pacted humancs desire. Surtr, Azathoth, and Babalon all disappear after fulfilling Arc's desire for them to be their family, leaving behind their sacred artifacts which contain their memories until they disappeared. So, yes, fulfilling the desire entrusted to a transient/playing out their role will cause them to fulfil the conditions of their pact, causing them to disappear. However, we don't know what happens when they do. Thus far, those three haven't come back despite the reset occurring. Arc was able to summon their artifacts but otherwise could not reach them. Their artifacts were taken by Breke who was able to channel the memories within and allow Arc to communicate with Azathoth's memories.

SLIGHTLY MORE FULL VERSION WITH A COUPLE SCREENSHOTS

(read the tl;dr anyway because I probably remembered things while Inwas writing it that I didn't remember to put in the 'full' version lol I WROTE MOST OF THE LONG ONE, WROTE OUT THE TL;DR, THEN FINISHED THE LONG ONE SO. PROBABLY WANNA READ BOTH.)

Transients arrive in Tokyo either by being summoned, by being summoned ACCIDENTALLY(someone wishes to have friends/meet someone new, etc), by being pulled in by the Rainbow Of Transient Light randomly(?) sucking them up when they're in distress/have a wish to fulfil, or some combination of those.

In Macan's character quest, MC and Macan learn that the one who technically summoned Macan was MC. The same thing happens in I think Xolotl's. They end up going to the collided past--or a collided memory?--and when past!Macan is in distress over being alone, MC approaches him and says they're there for him, however past!Macan can only hear them, not see them. He calms down and asks if they're searching for him and says he's going to find them--which causes him to disappear and be summoned to Tokyo in search of this person who wanted to be by his side. Macan realizes that's exactly what happened to him--he heard a voice saying that they were with him and, in his desire to no longer be alone, the transient light came along and took him.

(it's written as 'Magan' in Japanese hence why it's written that way here--this was likely translated before his English name was given.) (Such a request, perhaps, means that he's with MC until he's dismissed by them specifically.)

Xolotl was running from being sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca and MC and future!Xolotl protected him. Seeing himself be weak and seeing himself be strong enough to try and protect MC and seeing MC who refused to leave him and hearing what they had to say, he desired the strength to live with the people he loves and for there to not be sacrifices again. He may not have gone to Tokyo if he hadn't realized that desire through meeting himself and MC. In fact, he may not have survived at all(though maybe Quetzalcoatl would've protected him if not collided MC and present!Xolotl.)

SO. If you recall correctly, MC is implied to be a transient as well. There's also the possibility that they're not, and simply are some poor sob the Game shoved 23+ memories in at once, broke the memories of the host in the proccess, and thus we have MC coming to in a park confused about everything but their own name(of course if that were the case surely someone in Tokyo would recognize them beyond their being the trophy/exile from their home world, so it's not likely.) Lil Salomon says that as a summoned transient they can only go home if they find and fulfil the wishes of their summoner. However they neither know who or where their summoner is.

Transients can appear simply due to someone's desire for companionship. But they don't necessarily appear atop that person, hence not knowing their summoner. They just hear a voice, may not even hear exactly what's being said or asked for, and the light picks them up and drops them off with no further info or ceremony. So if someone is pulled into Tokyo this way they have a summoner even if they don't know it--even if the summoner themself doesn't know. So they won't just disappear over time unless that person unwills what willed them there or they die or something. Plus we don't know how long stray transients stick around if they have no pact/summoner--we just know that they disappear eventually. It's more than a few months, because Alp showed up a few months ago and hasn't disappeared yet.

Several characters are attached to guilds which may keep them from being Strays. However some, to our awareness, have neither summoner/master nor guild. At most they may be attached to schools. Sitri, as you mentioned, is one of them, as is Yule--whom Shiro refers to as a stray transient he sees every year without being corrected(although the situation wasn't exactly a good time to clarify that lol.)

Both of them have been in Tokyo for years without disappearing--and the app is a kind of but not super recent creation, so guilds likely didn't sustain them this whole time. Neither have disappeared. Of course someone may have summoned them or they may be part of guilds without it being stated or perhaps being in a school has the same effect as being in a guild. But we don't know that for sure, either.

(Japanese middle school is from 12-15 years old. Kengo's a second year High School student now, so 16-17 years old. Sitri was a first year while Kengo was a third year, so there's two grades between them. Sitri's been in Tokyo at least 2 years. I believe he mentions seeing Lucifuge in a magazine in Ghenna so he hasn't been here his whole life either. So a few years, but not 15.)

Transients that disappear don't have pacts but transients that come back probably do/have formed pacts/attachments to the world. Remember, Oniwaka, Zabaniyya, and Ophion say to call on them if you need them. They're attached to the player now, perhaps having formed a pact incidentally, assuming the situation that brought them there in the first place isn't still in effect(or they're not still bound by, say, their guild.)

Also, much like in real life, sometimes whatever is home is worse than the horrific things you deal with wherever you immigrate to. Or perhaps you've formed attachments somewhere you've arrived and are willing to endure suffering for them. It's rarely as simple as "we're suffering, we wanna go back to where we came from." Especially since transients likely arrived due to distress or wanting to be anywhere else but home. Some of their worlds don't exist anymore(Old Ones) or are collapsing(Yggdrasil; El Dorado.) Some people have no one and nothing back home and this is a new start for them, even if the start is bad. Also they could be waiting until they go home automatically, but what're you gonna do while you wait? Probably live your life as best you can. If you're gojna be stuck somewherefor a few months you may as well make yourself at home.

So why doesn't MC go around rending people themself?

Well, for starters, they're made to be a high school student most of the day. Where would they find the time lol. Second they're a bit busy trying to save the world and all. . .and if some teenager wandered up to you and said they could get you home if you had an app battle with them, would you really believe that when you've been told your best bet is to either find your summoner or wait out your incidental connection to the world? Sounds like a kid trying to stir up trouble, and not all transients have the app anyway. I mean really would you expect the local homeless population to have smartphones? Probably not.

Furthermore. Spoiler alert

This system of the game, the gates, the transients, it's no accident. It's intentional. Tokyo is the setting for this inter-world competition to prove which world is strongest or something to that effect--and the winner gets MC, the host of the exiles and perhaps some kind of powerful system. Of course what they do with MC is up to them. The Warmongers want to keep the game going so they can fight the powerful MV over and over again forever. We don't know what the Invaders want yet afaik but based on the name I'd assume they want to use MC as a super soldier to conquer other worlds. And the Rule Makers want to use MC to support one of their own worlds as its System. /smacks MC on the back) this baby can hold SO MANY rules and roles! Hold up a whole damn world apparently!!

So think of it this way. . .they could go around rending everyone until the transient light returns them home or to the deaths they desire. . .but would the World Representatives really allow that? They'd just keep bringing in transients. They need to fill Tokyo with them--until transients and app users outnumber the humans naturally belonging to Tokyo--so they can have their little contest.

MC alone would never be able to pull off sending everyone home as long as the Game is running. The worlds would not allow their contest to be ruined.

As for who goes where and does what when unsummoned. The Red Oni hadn't been there long. And perhaps wasn't summoned in the first place, nor had anyone likely explained much to them for that arrival. Also if you felt yourself disappearing, felt your connection to this world just torn off and uprooted and fading away, even if you knew better you'd probably think you're dying. That'd be scary. You'd want to avoid it.

Of course it's also possible the oni was dead or dying to begin with and their connection being severed would send them back to death--like Shino, who'd died long ago in the Land of Wa and when he died in Tokyo he went back to being dead.

The D-Evils don't have anywhere to go back to besides Shiro's book. The world of the Old Ones is gone. As such "home" for them is back with Shiro--and remember, their rules clash anyway. Rending and Ressurection don't mix. MC couldn't rend the D-Evils from Shiro properly because it causes an Exception. At best rending them will send them back to the book until Shiro summons them again. Plus, entities from Old Ones can use their powers without the use of the app--including those with Old Ones artifacts. Shiro can summon the D-Evils at any time, even outside of an app battle--so to send them 'home' doesn't really send them anywhere but back to Shiro since they both have no home to return to and were summoned to exist in Tokyo.

Demons needing to recieve emotions seems to be more of a feeding thing than a transient connection one afair. Like Alp eating dreams--he'll die if he doesn't. It's like "I need to external feelings or I'll starve" not "I need external feelings or I go back to Ghenna." Sitri likely survived thanks to his feathers--his sacred artifact which cause people they attach to to fall in love with whoever touched them previously--causing a constant stream of love towards him as he needs it. As such he doesn't need to have a pact to live, he only needs to make people fall for him to absorb that feeling and then take his feathers back to stop eating.

The canon-ness of MC making pacts with everyone is perhaps debateable. However events, character quests, special quests, etc have characters refer to Mc as Master or Summoner. And the story can sometimes reference events and such(see: meeting characters in events before they're part of the main story, meeting them in the main story, and being able to go "didn't I meet you in [season/holiday]?" And they go "yeah, we did! It's nice to see you again!" So technically events and the like are as canon as you make them. Also having a pact doesn't mean that person can't be your enemy or can't hurt you or is fully at your command, which means that it doesn't necessarily not make sense that characters can be in pacts with/summoned by the player while still being against them. MC likely has the ability to form pacts easily/unconsciously.

This is likely(and this part is speculation!) because of MC's role as the Wanderer--as the host of the Exiles of the many worlds, they're a system in and of themself(or they'e able to be one.) As such attachments to them are like individuals having 'faith' in them, the way Systems sustain worlds. Especially those who had some relationship with or attachment to an Exile they host. This may also cause a pseudo pact with people they meet and get attached to(and are attached to them in turn, not necessarily in a positive way)--like people believing in a faith. The attachment to them, love for them, hate of them, fear of them, is a sort of belief that causes them to be able to stay in Tokyo longer because they are now unwittingly part of MC's system. After all MC is a transient and transients, as far as I recall/understand, don't summon other transients to Tokyo, they only summon artifacts because bringing a whole person and their memories requires a strong means to bind them. Transients' connections are already dependent on someone/something else--which is already taxing as a pregnancy--and that'd be hard for them unless they were born into Tokyo.

In cases like Oniwaka and Zabaniyya and Ophion, they likely needed to disappear temporarily in order to resolve the Exception on top of regaining energy to sustain physical forms in another world. Think of it like closing a program on your computer. If the program clashed with another and an exception occurs you close the one of lesser importance. You can then maybe open it again once things have cooled down with your proccesser and it can handle them at the same time--thus, they come back to Tokyo even after being dismissed by fixing the exception.

So they pop back in because they're still bound to Tokyo. MC only rended them from the exception, not from the world itself. But transients who truly have no connection will go back and stay until summoned again. . . .

(Now that I think about it when someone fulfils the reason they were summoned to Tokyo they disappear and seem to disappear for good. We don't know if they die or what. They've been eliminated from the game. This happens with Surtr, Babalon, and Azathoth. After they successfully, properly became like Arc's family and that desire was considered fulfilled the pact was complete and they disappeared, leaving behind their artifacts.

Red Oni may have been summoned to be a tutorial for the player. But also a tutorial for the player character. Red Oni thus would go away completely after fulfilling that desire of whoever summoned them, thus giving them their fear they'd die because they'd served their purpose.

I just happened to remember/consider that lol ANYWAY.)

Basically it's a bit underexplained I agree.

But that's because you, as the player, as the MC, aren't supposed to know everything that's going on. You're supposed to learn as you go while also being denied information by the Powers That Be. You don't have your memories, you don't know what's going on here until you see/experience/hear about it. It's part of the immersive understanding/storytelling proccess. The characters don't tell you how things work because they only barely understand it themselves--and then when they learn 'this isn't just a game, this isn't just coincidence, there's something greater happening here' everything they know gets thrown into question. The people who do understand it aren't going to tell you much because they don't want you to ruin their game. You're just the final boss and the trophy to be won--and possibly the system upon which the game resides, resetting every time you die so you can struggle to be won someday.

You "can't win."

So you don't need to know how it works.

That doesn't stop you or anyone else from trying to find out, though, nor does it stop you from trying to change it.

. . .I hope that helped a bit! 8'D I don't think you missed much, really. You're right in that it's underexplained but That's Storytelling, Baby!

[captainshazamerica]

Yeah it's the same anon 💜 dude my apologies for the amount of crap I've spewed in your ask box but in my defense no one I know gives a shit about batfam or gotham rogues or Alfred (I've gushed here about alfreds fabulousness too opps) anndd I partly blame you for me falling back into the titans trap cuz s1 was meh I forgot I even watched s2 😅 then I seen some titans stuff on your blog and boom my brain latched onto it and now here I am experiencing maternal fear for my son jason 😢you are 1000% right this jason is PERFECTION as robin like actual perfection I dunno why but I thought this robin was like 16? So I was thinkin how tf is 16/17 yo supposed to be redhood!? It work in comics/cartoon but live action 16 y/o redhood seems meh I kinda want the lazarus pit just I freakin want TALIA but I don't think that's gonna happen I dunno

Tbh (this may be biased) but I think the Gotham tv show is literally the best dc comics adaptation of anything ever! it is superior to all thier shows movies animations and the arrowverse at least in my books lol

Tumblr is my only form of 'social media' and I don't keep up with updates or anything about shows cuz I like to pretend the fiction is real and I don't want reality wrecking that for me like hahahaa so I had no clue about timmy or babs but I'm so happy

DUDE YES this is literally the only time I can see bruce ever killing the joker on screen aww please I want it so bad I mean they probably won't but they should cuz this is the only capacity in which batman can kill the joker live action like if down the line somewhere on another show/movie bruce killed joker he prob wouldn't be dead dead or they'd bring him back some way so the kill wouldn't even matter but old bruce killing the joker because he's finally had enough he's old now, jasons death finished him and he's not gonna be batman anymore it's a nice end for batman and the joker, it's the only way we'll ever get this end cuz like you said they'll never have the balls to permanently kill joker any other way in live action everything is aligning perfectly for this to happen so dang dc just freakin let it happen c'mon

Yo whose your first fav rogue? Is it riddler? I feel like mines riddler haven't really thought much about whose my fav gotham rogue but I'd probably say riddler, I prefer the central city rogues but the Gotham rogues are just pure chaos and I'm living for that hahaa

I'd rather superheros/vigilantes/villians in live action not have relationship drama just put them in a relationship or dont like I came for the action and weird super shit not the ordinary relationship drama thankfully titans seem to be doing okay in this aspect I do quite like dickkory a lot but I mean in the supergirl show ughhh I was like I came here for the flying and the dope laser eyes I don't give a shit about her getting a boyfriend like seriously whyyy

My brain decides to jump about obsessing over characters like one week Kory is my wife next week detective grayson is my husband and I AM NIGHTWING then my brain is like no Barbara kean is wifey just basically fictionally I'm married to everyone 😅

Yikes this was so long sorry girl

Omg, pls don't apologize! I get so dang excited whenever i get an ask, yours always make my day, you don't even know! Like same about no one i know caring about dc/batfam! And talking to someone about it is so much better than yelling into the wind here on a text post that no one reads xD Don't stop sending your asks whenever you wanna dump your feels/talk about dc/batfam omg.

And Im so proud I got you into this Titans spiral xD My work here is done hahahaha. But yes, I feel like his looking so young for red hood over shadows how great his jason robin performance was! Love seeing him get that recognition! But yeah, the age is def off, like I cant remember how old they said he was in the show, maybe 16? but too young for red hood in live action form. Like its hard cause in reality 16 year olds and 19 year old boys typically don't look too different, for the most part, while comics you can get get away with it more. Huh, yeah, it doesn't seem like Talia is gonna happen, maybe just maybe a cameo or something? Cause we also weren't expecting joker but here we are(tho it almost looks like he wont be a big plot point/even see him much, it almost looks like it is just showing how brutal gotham is? But like its just the trailer and doesnt always give the full picture so who knows!)

Omg YES about Gotham! I 1000% agree! Im also biased cause its what got me into batman, again like exactly a year ago! It got me into the world like no other media of dc had before!(well, Shazam did, i guess tech thats the start of my interest in dc/first time i read the comics, but gotham is what really got me into this spiral). I hate how much hate it gets, like yeah its not perfect and they took creative liberties obviously, but i 100% agree that its the best adoption of DC yet! 100%! Its so nice to see the characters and rogues fleshed out more. I feel like it successfully did what Nolan tried to do in terms of making it dark and realistic, but in a way that was more accurate and true to the comics! I wish it wasn’t canceled so early and thus the last season had to be so rushed :(

thats smart, i typically dont look for spoilers and stuff anymore but I just got so hyper focused that I had to look at least what the stars were putting out on social media, but yeah, i use to get so caught up in all that that it took the fun out of seeing it live.

Oh my gosh, that would seriously be the PERFECT end to batman and joker story in this universe omg. Amen about all that! And like it would hopefully show Jason how much he cares? So maybe Bruce would kill him after red hood emerges? It will be interesting to see hat causes Jason to be so dang pissed in this version.

ahaha yes riddler is my fav! (my header gave it away didn’t it xD) I love most Riddlers but ESPECIALLY gotham riddler, Ed is like one of my fav character of all time. Oooh, I don’t know central city rogues all that well(well, way more than Metropolis rogues, I know so little about superman world), like I know some from the first 3 and a half seasons of the flash (I watched a couple years ago but got busy with school and couldn’t keep up and just never caught up/didnt have motivation to finish(plus i forgot so much id have to rewatch everything again), but I saw they finally just introduced Bart Allen, so I have have to randomly jump back in for a bit cause Bart is one of my favsss), and the ones in the cartoons and stuff

Ha! true, i dont mind it when its for character development or if I happen to be super into the ship(like Nygmakins in Gotham omg, I know they are super unpopular but they are like one of my OTPs omg), I feel like it has to be balanced right/not too much focus on the drama of the relationship over everything else. Like a minor subplot is good but don’t make it the focus of the show. And yeah , supergirl never appealed to me cause of that reason! i like drama and not JUST action (I like psychological drama, as long as there is comfort to follow xD) but yea i get what u mean by too much relationship focus . I think, for the most part, Gotham did that pretty well.

omg i love the disaster bi vibes you are giving off xD But omg I feel the jumping around thing so much ahaha. Like right now the 4 robins are constantly on rotation on who I’m obsessing over at the moment tbh xD

Omg mine responses are just as long, don’t apologize!!!! <333333333333333

[doctorofmagic]

i wonder if chthon is on his way because of blade? i'm not holding on hope they'll make scarlet witch a mutant who draws magic energy from the dark dimension/darkhold/chthon and let her show up in blade, but who knows? i just remembered that vampires are like... magic and close to the darkhold/chthon stuff just like werewolves and witches and cults and stuff so it made me go "hmmm". but knowing the mcu they might try to make "realistic" vampires in order to fit into the mcu at large. i really don't believe the very dickflicky/ultimates-inspired/shield/sword mcu will suddenly accept all sorts of magic out of a sudden. i mean even the cartoon allowed tony to sciencesplain vampires physiology. 👀

Yes, MCU hates magic, I feel you!

I’ll share a theory about a magic creature in the show so if you or other people don’t want to read it, just ignore the following paragraphs under the cut. I’ll connect this theory to Blade, so it may be of your interest.

There’s this theory that maybe a ~certain~ character whose name I can’t tell because it was leaked is disguised as [spoiler] Mephisto [/spoiler]. And to be honest, I’m starting to believe it? So maybe, just maybe, even though Wanda is more connected to Chthon, there will be a mystic creature behind her “magic” after all, pulling some kind of influence on her (which is better than going full “crazy woman trope” in my opinion because of all the problematic stuff).

Some people also believe it’s Nightmare (@godofmagic, this moment is yours!!), and there’s a third possibility that it’s maybe Chthon.

It pains me to say it because I do love both Nightmare and Mephisto, but I’d rather have Chthon because of his connection to Wanda and chaos magic. The more they insert magic, the better for us magic fans, am I right?

But assuming the leak... Maybe it’s really Mephisto. I’ll just leave a reference to back up this theory, which is Infamous Iron Man. It seems they’re using this plot (without Doom and Stephen, how dare they????).

That said, if it’s indeed Chthon, it opens the possibility to the Darkhold and, obviously, vampires. It’s funny because the Darkhold already appeared in the MCU twice (on AoS and Runaways) but that book was a joke compared what it truly represents in the Marvel Universe.

I swear to Vishanti, if they pull the scientific version of vampires, I’ll riot! I’m glad Doctor Strange was out so the cartoon (at least, Avengers Assemble) made magic more tangible with both Stephen and Loki.

But hopefully, that’s not gonna happen. It’s quite sad that Helstrom disappeared as soon as it came out because they also went full magic. Not to mention Runaways’ third season with Nico and Morgan.

I have hope they’ll add the supernatural side of the MCU little by little instead of the technology and science bs they always tend to pull on us. Midnight Sons would be fantastic, especially if they developed Johnny Blaze (not Nicolas Cage pls, Marvel, don’t do this since you’re bringing every single actor who has ever played a Marvel role before to the new movies).

Btw, no one asked for it but here’s my MCU Midnight Sons dream team: Doctor Strange, Moon Knight, Blade, Hellstrom, Elsa Bloodstone, Satana, Doctor Voodoo, Johnny Blaze and - of course - Bats.

Lastly, please do not hold your breath haha!! Feel free to share your thoughts any time. Besides... Have you seen how long my posts are???? rip