#i do *not* know how to speak buff and contained

[swiiivet-screamathon]

"May I enter?"

"Huh?-- oh, hi Dark Cacao-- What brings you, here?"

"I was informed Shadow Milk Cookie had set up base in here. I would like to speak with him, if he has a moment."

"Oh right okay, well you two have fun-- be careful with your cloak, don't want you knocking anything over because you don't know your own size."

"I can assure you I will be cautious."

Crepe leans over her workshop table to a little thin golden rope and pulls it, letting off the tiniest chime from the rafters up above.

"Yee-llo~" Swings a blue cookie down legs wrapped around his staff, meeting Cacao's gaze upside down who's only mildly surprised at the sudden character.

"Greetings, would you like to speak somewhere more private or are you comfortable staying here?"

"Depends entirely on what you want to talk about, half dough."

"I wanted to see you for myself; Pure Vanilla has given a lot of progress reports but I wanted to confirm it when I had a moment to spare."

"I feel like I should be offended that Vanilly's been talking behind my back, but you've found me on a particularly good mood today. Ya gonna quiz me or somethin~?"

"Wasn't my intention, but if you see it as such I will not stop you. May I ask what has got you in such a 'mood'?"

"Ehhh, you had to be there." He and Crepe exchange cheeky glances between each other. (magicanical engineering dont be weird lmao)

"You've been enjoying your stay here, if I may presume?"

"I mean can't compare to my tower-- but it's better than the prison, so take it or leave it."

"Related to your prison, have you been in contact with the other Beasts at all?"

"Oh are you scared that I'll bring my friends over and wreak havoc? I simply thought to let them have some vacation time, that's all; being in a prison makes ones dough yearn for some time to oneself. Maybe I will another day though."

Cacao looks over to Crepe who gives an incredulous shrug.

"Is this a vacation for you too?"

"My vacation would be looking a lot more-- blue, than this. You'll know when I'm relaxing my days away. What's up with you and Mystic though?"

"I haven't seen her since she failed to take my blade, and I hope to keep it that way."

"Friendship is magic excluded her? My, my, I didn't realize you lot were picky with who you extended a hand to."

"...Wherever she is she chose to stay there, forcing it would be unhelpful for all parties.-- Do you want her to join us here?"

"Well she's quite the apathetic one, I'm sure she won't be offended. Just surprised that someone of your resolution would simply give up on her though."

"My goal was never to invite her, it was to save my people from her ailment. You must attach your resolution to a goal, or it will tear you apart."

"Really was apt to call them awakenings huh? Spouting wisdom here. Are you here only to have a chat with me~?"

"No, we're out to collect a relic that may help with the protection of our kingdom, but needed a place to rest and refuel during our journey."

"How quaint. Well I'm bored! Got anythin fun as your final words?"

"Not quite, but it was a pleasure to meet you, it seems Pure Vanilla tells an accurate story."

"Next time get some pep in your step, ight?" Poofs

"Ah, there he goes. Has he been trouble for you at all?"

"Oh nah, he's a lot of talk but thats about it. Though he was weirder than usual with that one. I reckon he wasn't really that concerned about whoever that Mystic is."

"Hm. Good luck with him then."

[merrinla]

Bloodbath cut content. These lines are only in the localization file, so I had to assign speakers myself. The dialogue between Lucanis and Rook when they go after Zara.

Rook: Are we sure this information is good? Lucanis (Rook origin Crow): You know Viago. He checks everything twice. And then twice again. Rook (Crow): And then ten more times. I should've thought that question through. Lucanis (non Crow origin): If it came from anyone else, I'd worry, but Viago de Riva is the most cautious man in Thedas. Rook: Can a Crow be cautious? I thought that was against the rules. Lucanis: Good enough for me. Spite: (Inhales.) She's close. I smell her. Iron and meat. Rotting from the inside out. Lucanis: Zara is here. Rook: If you're sure she's here, I believe you. We'll find her. Rook: I thought Illario would be here. To… avenge Caterina and all. Lucanis: He doesn't know. I swore Viago to secrecy. Lucanis: Zara took a year of my life from me. She took Caterina. She's not getting anything else. Lucanis: And my cousin has always made careless mistakes. Rook: Fill me in. What can Zara do? Lucanis: She's a powerful blood mage. Moreso than most Venatori, even. Lucanis: She controls minds. Drains blood to restore her own youth and health. Lucanis: All that, in addition to the best—or maybe the worst—of Tevinter spellcraft. Don't let her get a word in. option: Let's not keep her waiting. Rook: Well, it'd be rude if we left Zara on her own. Shall we go say hello? option: We'll make her pay. Rook: This is our chance. This is for Caterina. Rook: For a year in that pit. Lucanis: Thanks, Rook. Spite: Zara is ours! Tell your Rook. No one. Gets Zara. But me. Lucanis: Let's get moving. And Rook… leave Zara to me. Lucanis: In a manner of speaking.

The text file also contains a short description of how Lucanis' quest was supposed to go.

The party gets into the boat. This is a Venice-style gondola with someone on the back using the single paddle to propel the boat. The player is standing on a quiet Treviso street. It's nighttime and a heavy fog obscures the surrounding building. The Chantry is a shrouded structure barely visible across the water. The player discovers that the bridge has been destroyed, so the party must find another way in. This ladder would be a line attached to a grappling hook, to better sell the idea that we're sneaking in. The player engages in light exploration and popcorn encounters. Chance to "level" up before the big fight. Player encounters the majority of the Venatori squatters. They're surprised by your presence, and are unprepared to fight. Lucanis must hack the magical door leading to the residences. Zara is bathing in a pool of blood. She's surprised by Lucanis' presence as she was unaware he had escaped the prison. Boss fight with Zara. She uses the pools of blood to buff herself Zara recognizes her defeat and tries to bargain for her life. Before she can surrender, however, Illario executes her!. Spite is angry that his revenge has been stolen, and attacks Illario. To everyone's surprise, Illario defeats Spite by controlling him with a magic ring. Lucanis and Spite feel betrayed that Illario would steal their prey. Spite freaks out, demonstrating the precarious and dangerous nature of a relationship with Lucanis.

And it seems Illario might not survive.

Zara and Illario are dead and dust.

I have no idea what this line means.

[seyvia]

A Months journey from Spellbyndell, some time after the Dark lords defeat...

Regalia's champions, affectionately dubbed the 'Roses of Thorns,' are reveling at their campsite, filled with laughter and libations. Among them, the formidable knight Parish is seen playfully bantering with Captain Brom. "So, what’s your game plan when we return home, big guy?" Parish teases. "Honestly, no grand plans. I’ll be happy just to get everyone back safe and lend a hand wherever it’s needed," Brom replies. "Oh really? You know~ If you really wanted to help out, you’d rescue me from the dating scene!" she exclaims, bursting into laughter. "You're such a brute... don't you know anything about romance, Parish?" he asks, amused by her continued giggles. "Very well, I accept. Perhaps I can teach you a thing or two." he suggests. A grin remains on Parish's face as it quickly turns into a vibrant shade of red.

The focus shifts to Avi, prince Lumin's childhood friend, whose musings are interrupted by Sir Lorcan. "I've noticed a certain hero is missing. Why not go fetch him?" Lorcan suggests. "Nah, let him wallow; he’d just bring the mood down," Avi replies. "But he can't stay like that forever! You two are practically brothers! What good are you if you can't pull him out of his slump?" Lorcan insists, nudging Avi to rise. "I'm not taking responsibility for that! Being friends with the prince just gives me the right to kick his butt," Avi retorts. "Then maybe he needs a solid kick in the rear!" Lorcan exclaims, kicking Avi's chair out from under him, forcing him to rise to his feet. "Sigh~ What a pain," Avi mutters as he makes his way to Prince Lumin's tent.

Hay party pooper! your people are missing their hero! Avi remarks with sarcasm as he nears the entrance of the tent. "Really? Brooding in the buff, you are so dramatic! I should've been a bard, I would have made a fortune using you as my muse." Avi jests. "Whose dramatic? You haven't a musical bone in your body, you'd only make a fortune in debt. Besides I wasn't brooding." Retorts Lumin as he turns to face his friend.

Anyway, how's the research going? Avi inquires, lowering his voice to a more concerned tone. After a brief silence, Lumin finally speaks up.

"I've gone through every grimoire, every journal, and even the smallest scribble the dark Lord had in his possession, and none of them contain the curse he used on my mother therefore, I can't make a proper cure. " He pauses before adding, "However, we do know that the Imp believed the Springtide Scepter could heal him."

"... But he was wrong?" Avi asks. "Indeed," Lumin confirms. "The magic within the royal scepter, better known as the Springtide, could only make new things, like the rebirth of spring, which explains how he used it to conjure the creatures of decay. He was able to use it on himself, but it only contained the curse in him like a cocoon, slowly transforming him into something potentially far more dangerous than what we encountered, and that's why the scepter had to be shattered. To undo everything he had made with it."

"Right. So... what does this mean? If the scepter was useless to us all along and it couldn't have healed queen Aine, are we really back to square one?" Avi questions anxiously. "No no, not entirely." Lumin reassures him. "Ever since we left Spellbyndell, I've been researching mystical gems because of the dark lords interest in the Springtide, and only recently have I found something promising: Hematite! By applying Lunar magic to this stone, we can prevent the curse from taking my Mother's life prematurely. As long as I keep it charged and she wears it, she'll live on normally." "THAT'S GREAT! Where do we get some!?" Avi exclaims enthusiastically. "I'm not sure yet, but I have an idea." Admits Lumin.

"GUESS WHO'S GETTING MARRIED!" Suddenly shouts Parish from behind Avi startling him. "Think you can hitch me and Brom up tonight Lum?!" Parish asks with a charming smile.

"You and the—CAPTAIN?! When did this happen?!" Avi exclaims in bewilderment. Lumin, initially surprised, softens his voice into amusement and responds with, "I-uh... Unfortunately I can't officiate outside of Spellbyndell, Parish... Though I can sympathies with your eagerness; spring is an ideal time for weddings." Avi, in utter shock from what he's hearing interjects, "How are you so calm about this?! Parish! Dose Capt. even know about your plans?" Parish begins shaking her head up and down to imply a yes at Avi's question confidently.

Lumin looks over at his distressed friend, and with a pat on the back replies, "They've been flirting for months, and I even noticed—how did it go over your head? Besides Avi, It's the end of an era and a birth of anew.

"I expect multiple weddings will be held once we're finally home."

Before - Journey forth

[the-monkey-ruler]

Hello!!! Stumbled upon this blog on a casual scroll-through and am super impressed at how thorough and passionate it is!! Kudos!!

I had a question, if it’s not too much of a bother:

Is there any sort of artifact mentioned in JTTW (or Chinese mythology at large) that’s been used to contain a yaoguai’s power/take it away from them? Maybe in the vein of Guanyin’s vase? Sorry if this doesn’t make sense.

So what you are asking for is something that can take away cultivation so to speak? There are some tv/movies that do show other yaoguai that are able to eat the life force of yaoguai and forcing them back into their original state therefore taking away their power and their humanoid form.

However that is more popular in modern media, as for any canon items they are more focused on subduing and capturing rather than depowering.

Gaunyin's vase sadly hasn't been able to show any depowering abilities either if you were asking about that. It has been show to whole an entire ocean and that it can hold healing water. But there are movies where she is able to capture demons (such as Wukong) in her vase and keep them in a state of status. But I don't know how in canon that is as she does have a lot of history outside of journey to the west.

But on to magical items in journey to the west! I shall rank them from most subduing to least subduing

Subduing Buff Attacking

Golden Jade Ring (金剛琢) - it can change size, is invulnerable to water and fire, can strike all things, collect various magic weapons and weapons, and has infinite uses. Laojun used this treasure to knock down Sun Wukong and help Erlang Shen capture him. The One Horned King used this treasure to take away Sun Wukong's golden hoop, Nezha's six weapons, and the magic weapons of hundreds of gods and generals. It can even dissolve water, fire, thunder and lightning. Later, Taishang Laojun, who came down to the world himself, defeated it with a fire-type banana fan. This was the thing that put Wukong stop in his tracks, doesn't take away power but def the most powerful.

Flask of Yin and Yang Essence (陰陽二氣瓶) - it contains the Seven Treasures and Eight Diagrams, twenty-four Qi, and requires thirty-six people, according to the number of Tiangang, to lift it. This treasure can hold a person and if a person does not speak, the bottle will be very cool. But once they speak, fire will burn them into pulp water in a moment. Wukonghad to use his Golden Hair he was given by Guanyin to escape. While not invincible it took another magical item to counteract it and thus very powerful.

Golden Cymbals (金鐃) - the magic weapon used by the Yellow-Browed Monster who trapped Sun Wukong inside and would have turned to puss inside it if he didn't escape. Sun Wukong escaped from the golden cymbal with the help of Kang Jinlong and immediately broke it. Took nearly an army to escape it, very powerful.

Purple Gold Red Gourd (紫金紅葫蘆) - as long as you call out your opponent's name if they respond, the elixir will pull them inside. Then a note with the words "The Supreme Lord Laozi, please obey my command as soon as possible" will be posted on it, and the elixir will turn into pus in a few hours. Hard to say how powerful this is since Wukong escaped it twice turning into a bug so... take that as user error or not.

Human Sack (人種袋) - Sun Wukong invited the twenty-eight constellations, the two generals of the tortoise and the snake, the five great dragons, Prince Xiao Zhang and the four great generals, but they were all put into the monster's bag. Later, Maitreya Buddha took back the human seed bag and put the demon king into the bag. Very powerful but does not kill, so less of a threat.

Golden Cloth Rope (幌金繩) it was originally a belt used by Taishang Laojun to tie his robe. It has a tightening rope spell but also a loosening rope spell and if a user knows both they most likely will not be affected. Powerful but if you know the loosening spell it is useless.

Suet Jade Flask (羊脂玉淨瓶) this was used by Taishang Laojun to make elixirs and hold water. It has space inside to hold water from all over the world.

Seven Stars Sword (七星劍) - the real sword from the Ming and Qing dynasties that has survived in modern times was used by Tan Sitong. The seven stars are mainly symbolic, but from the perspective of material mechanics, they should have the function of buffering stress concentration and preventing the sword from breaking.

Palm Leaf Fan (芭蕉扇) - The two banana fans, yin and yang, are held by Taishang Laojun and Princess Iron Fan respectively: the banana fan used by Taishang Laojun is yang, and the six Ding divine fire it fanned is the power source of the alchemy furnace; the banana fan used by Princess Iron Fan is yin, and its water vapor can extinguish the fire in Huoyan Mountain. The two fans are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining. There are prototypes that can be traced in reality.

Banana Leaf Fan (芭蕉扇) - The extremely yin treasure fan can fan out water vapor, and water can extinguish fire, so it can extinguish the 800-li Flame Mountain. "Journey to the West" Chapter 59 "Tang Sanzang's Road Blocks the Flame Mountain, Sun Xingzhe Uses the Banana Fan" "...Her banana fan was originally a magical treasure created by heaven and earth since the beginning of chaos behind Kunlun Mountain. It is the essence of the Taiyin, so it can extinguish fire." The yin wind fanned out can make people drift 84,000 miles before it can stop.

Purple-Gold Bells (紫金鈴) - This Purple Gold Bell was forged by Taishang Laojun in the Eight Diagrams Furnace, and it is very powerful. Shake it once, and fire will come out. Shake it twice, and smoke will come out. Shake it three times, and sand and rocks will fly. Sun Wukong stole the golden bell and then subdued "Sai Taisui".

If you are looking for more magic items that can take away cultivation I actually think that there is something in FSYY that took away some daoists' cultivation... but I think that was more of a formation than an item... I'm sorry I didn't take notes on but that novel DEF has a lot of magical items!!

[ducktracy]

souhh, as a looney tunes buff, what’re your condolences on this (self-imposed or not) decision on LTC to not have 40’s-era daffy interact with bugs?

(this is prolly somethin’ i’d ask ya on discord, but i haven’t heard from that in a while (and also sorry for gettin’ nosy))

hey!! i’m very sorry to you and everyone whose left DMs on Discord or otherwise, i’ve been very very busy and a bit overwhelmed by a looooot of messages from a lot of people, so i haven’t had a proper chance to sit down and dedicate my full attention to respond (i know it’s hypocritical of me to answer asks heh, but it’s more self contained and im kinda doing it as a way to psyche myself up to answering 80+ Discord messages) so i thank you for your patience and understanding :)

but to answer your question: i largely, yet reluctantly agree.. i was discussing the Bugs and Daffy cartoon that never was with friends in another server, and someone very accurately described it as being beneath both characters’ M-Os. obviously we just got a little snippet, not the whole thing, so who’s to say—but what we have does seem more comparable to a sort of story done at Walter Lantz (Bugs and Daffy present Pantry Panic) or Terrytoons rather than a tried and true WB short made for the characters’ strengths in mind. it was probably best that it was scrapped for that reason—i’d be interested to see the remainder of the boards, but it does feel like a rather nonspecific story to give them that doesn’t play to either of their strengths, and that’s especially a bit of a priority with the high standard these directors and writers have set for themselves

the contrarian and stubbornness in me still thinks its possible, but i think you are going to end up with some standard of redundancy by pairing up “wacky” Daffy and a wilier Bugs. there will be little differences and quirks, and i focus a lot on these differences and quirks and that’s sort of what’s led me to beat my drum about GUYS THEY’D BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT!, but the bigger picture just paints one of redundancy. i’m sure it’s possible, especially done by people who truly know the ins and outs of the characters (and i love my LTC friends and kin, this is not a knock against you at all, you guys are truly wonderful and should know my fanaticism i hold for you and the show! but i have a lot of critiques for how Daffy is portrayed in LTC in particular, a lot of the nuances and delicacies of Daffy’s more screwball persona are really missed and so i wonder just how successfully that would’ve panned out…. it sounds like they were aware of this too, judging by the message here), but i maintain my position that Bugs and Daffy are characters who weren’t really ever meant to be together, at least not without a major magnification (ie rehaul.. i’m pedantic, Daffy has always had the qualities of the Jones duck even at some of his most primitive) of certain traits to make it work. and it’s not all on Daffy, either, poor Bugs had to be relegated to a life of boring domesticity and apathy.. it’s not a coincidence that my favorite incarnations of each character are when they behave the most similarly.

otherwise you end up with two Daffys or two Bugses, both very strong personalities that clash and override each other into redundancy rather than compliment. what purpose does one serve that the other couldn’t, etc. there are nuances and differences, but largely, structurally, speaking in generalizations, there’s just too much overlap. even in “canon” instances where we have them interacting together in this time period, like this radio bit, they sort of exist adjacently between one another rather than any meaningful interaction

what is interesting though is that the Dell comics have tried pairing them up on occasion! i don’t have the full story on hand right now as it’s been a few years since i found it, but there was one story where they’re together and Daffy actually comes out on top! though there’s certainly more of that conflict/embitterment from Daffy to make them stand out, even then

though something i noticed the other day in regards to the Bugs and Daffy planned cartoon news.. i could still be stretching, but i thought it was interesting:

[doedipus]

I babbled about this in discord a bit but strive s4 seems... interesting

on paper most of the characters seem like they're either straight upgrades or sidegrades that will probably end up being very strong in their own right with some development... but with the way they're talking about damage nerfs I wonder how the extra combo utility they showed off in the trailer is really going to compare to what we're already doing, numerically speaking

specific to gio, she lost her guard crush access, which is huge. for the last year, getting looping 50/50s was the entire gameplan, and now we're all back to regular stagger pressure and the weak version of strike/throw. oh well.

but the tradeoff seems to be making rps around chave specials in pressure more realistic in a few ways, which has been on my wishlist for a while, and juicing her already strong neutral with increased dash momentum and speed (with meter), as well as 214k being a (probably?) safe exit from pressure or (maybe?) a good tool for spacing traps

they're also increasing the effects of the meter hoarding buffs, hopefully to an extent you really feel. flexible meter management is already one of her strongest points, so getting more factors relating to that to play with in various character/player matchups is neat.

there's also a bunch of possibly combo utility or maybe just oki utility stuff they did to a few moves that I'm really not gonna know exactly what the implications are until we get hands on

the issue is a lot of the characters that already cause gio problems (read: dp characters, baiken) got substantial buffs or confusing reworks too, so it remains to be seen how she'll be doing in the overall ecosystem. I imagine she'll probably be about the same unless there's something really fucked up that I'm not understanding correctly here

so like, by herself I think this version of gio will be pretty good. on the gio iterations tier list, probably below the god tier s3.0 and above s2 and s1, but a lot of that is going to be contained in those unknowable details.

[sol-consort]

How far along are u in cp2077? And how r u liking it so far??

ain't gonna lie chief this game might as well be the lovechild of the Sims 4 and GTA 5 because I'm completely ignoring the main missions (currently neeed to either talk to Judy to find Evelyn or talk to rogue to find the relic engineer) and just doing side missions.

Okay, not just doing side missions, this is a full-on life simulator to me. I do side missions, I go at clothes stores to shop around and sell my loot, I buy new cars and drive around just to listen to music (body heat radio is my fav channel) I stop at pretty places to take pictures of V.

There is this XP buff you get from sleeping, so whenever it expires, around an hour irl, I drive V back home—yes I drive, I haven't touched fast teleport once, get her in the shower, flush the toilet, stare into the mirror, go watch the ingame TV while I get a snack irl, then put V to bed.

While I'm still at 1% Johnny virus and 5% death progress, one time while taking a shower randomly, V coughed up blood!

I was genuinely surprised. I've been making V take showers a lot and this only happened once so far, randomly.

Then, another time, I was checking the mirror in a new apartment and

Was greated by this goddamn face. My soul almost left my body. I tell you, this is the closest thing the game has ever gotten to a horror game. Because I was used to the routine, to seeing V's reflection, this wasn't even within my list of possibilities of things to happen unwarrantly!

I immediately went to the menu screen to see if the AI chip spread increased, but... no, it was still at 1% since I haven't done any main missions yet.

Anyway so, after V wakes up, I change the clothes to a completely new fit!

some of the fits I made!

I also take pictures of NPCs with pretty clothes. Apparently, killing them doesn't drop the clothes and just summons cops :( Also, killing cops gives no xp, so I just stopped :(

But I Need Those Clothes

It's a NEED. Give them to me game! Give them to me or I will crumble into dust and particles!

And I was hoping for the ass window jeans :( It sure is endless disappointments Johnny

All of this might seem tedious to other players, but honestly, I'm having the most fun I've ever had. When I get bored of the quiet life, I do a mission or two. I read almost everything on those shards I find. One of them contained a snippet of the homer's iliad! It was a line about Achiles speaking about glory and having a choice to make, mentioning his mom.

I watch the ads on the elevator rides, I stop at interesting scenes I stumbled upon. Like this one time, all of V's neighbours were cowering on the stairs, and I didn't know why.

Jumped over them (thanks to githzerai who told me to get the double jump implants) only to find that two cops were arresting my neighbour! Like woah, now things make sense.

So far, I'm lvl 23, street credit 36, and I found a blue tier sniper! Fuck yeah. Got a new apartment in Watson for 10k, got my beautiful turbo car, and now closed the game because real life calls.

Added a picture of Jackie and V above V's bed in remembrance

...

..

.

Honourable mention: Meredith sex scene

Ma'am... ma'am, is that a strap harness?

I'll take that as a yes.

This is what Ashley and femshep could've had!!

SIR JOHN PHALLUSTIFF??

I get to bonk people with the dildostrap that was just inside me?

Oh fuck yeah.

As a player I fucking adore Johnny, hope he stays around. He's so fucking fun to mess with.

He has his deep moments, his empathy shining through. He has his silly moments, showcasing his effortless charm.

He has his sleezy moments, spikes of manipulation, and attempts at stealing the reigns.

Also, remember when I said this game doesn't have any misogynistic lines thrown around just because you picked a fem character? Yeah, that aged like milk. Enemies call you tits for brain on the regular here. Even "nice" characters can't help but comment on how you're "hot stuff"

For me, as a person, it doesn't bother me. I'm desensitised.

But I know it might bother other people, so I hope the playerbase will be more upfront about these details.

Does Johnny call a male V a joytoy, too? Otherwise... yeah.

Like I don't mind portrayals of harassment and toxic interactions in fiction, I like struggle narratives and how much conflict it creates. It gives you a window into the character's innermost workings when they don't see you as an equal.

But that doesn't mean other people have to be subjected to it just because they picked a fem V.

[chameleonspell]

HTDC commentary - 25: expecting

[Looking back at HTDC after nearly ten years: comments on lore, character notes, influences, art, whatever. May contain spoilers for later chapters.]

chapter text: 25: expecting

In which Iriel accidentally starts the Main Quest, then does his level best to nope out of it again.

Eventually, an Imperial man appeared in the doorway. The scraps of his remaining hair were white, indicating he was at the far end of middle age, but he was in remarkably good physical shape, for all that.

Even if it's nothing more than the consequence of every male Imperial character having to share a body model, I could never betray the legend that is Improbably Buff Old Man Caius Cosades. Besides, it's canon, now:

“Are you Caius Cosades?” asked Ire politely. “My name is Iriel of Lillandril, and I was told to speak to you.” The man blinked heavily, and rubbed at his eyes. “What? Yes. I’m Caius Cosades. But, what do you mean, you were told to speak to me? What are you talking about?” Ire threw a quick glance over his shoulder. “It’s a rather sensitive matter,” he whispered. “Would it be all right if I came inside?”

All right, fine, it probably counts as implausible authorial engineering to have Iriel only say things that could be interpreted as being about either drugs or spycraft, but only a little bit. And you know I can't resist a classic comedy speaking-at-cross-purposes trope like that, it's too much fun to write.

The tiny bedsit was a mess of books, plates and bottles, with the unmistakeable scent of moon sugar overriding everything.

I love Caius. I love how you never really figure out what the deal is, with his moon sugar - is he a real addict, or is it all a cover? There's plenty of evidence both ways. He's never visibly impaired, certainly. None of his subordinate Blades agents seem worried. Chirranirr says: "The old greyhair gobbles sugar like scuttle. Chirranirr is surprised he still walks. But it doesn't affect him. That is the mark of a long-time user." Is he a long-time user? Or just good at faking his consumption? Though... surely if he wanted to fake an addiction, it would be better cover to pretend the sugar did affect him? When he's recalled, Caius mentions there's"concern about my sugar" back at the capital. Why, unless they believed he wasn't faking?

I like the idea that he does have an addiction - one he cultivated specifically as his cover, and which he has near-complete control over. Which he can do, because a.) he's a stone-cold badass and b.) unlike a regular, Iriel-type addict, there's no emotional need underlying it. It's purely pragmatic. He really can stop any time he likes.

“According to this, you were issued with a package of coded documents. Do you have them?” [...] “You already broke the seal, I see. Not that you’ll have gotten anything out of them, but it doesn’t say much for your integrity.”

I was positive this was a thing that happened ingame - if you tried to read the coded package, the game would ask if you wanted to break the seal, and Cosades would comment on it, later, if you did. But I just checked the CS, and it seems I'd got mixed up with a different coded package quest else where in the game? But it should happen. Of course he would know, if you'd meddled with it!

He read another page, nodding slowly. “Ah. Your speciality is illusion magic. I can see why they thought you might be suited to this kind of work.

Later, you get to read the decoded document. It doesn't actually mention the player's class, but I wanted to give Caius some reason to believe in Iriel's potential, and not give up on him completely, based on Ire's terrible first impression.

The document does say this, though:

"I have the honor to acquaint you with his Majesty's wishes concerning %PCName, an individual of no rank or consequence.

%PCName has been released from prison by his Majesty's authority and sent to you with this missive. %PCName is to be entered as a Novice in the Imperial Order of the Blades, and is to serve under your absolute authority as you shall see fit, except insofar as his Majesty's particular wishes are concerned.

His Majesty's particular wishes are as follows.

A local superstition holds that an orphan and outcast, a youth born on a certain day to uncertain parents, shall unite all the tribes of the Dunmer, drive out the invaders of Morrowind, and shall reestablish the ancient laws and customs of the Dark Elven nations. This orphan and outcast is called in legend the "Nerevarine," and is supposed to be a reincarnation of the long-dead Dunmer General and First Councilor, Lord Indoril Nerevar. %PCName has the appearance of meeting the conditions of this local superstition. Therefore it is his Majesty's desire that %PCName shall, insofar as is possible, satisfy the conditions of this ancient prophecy, and shall become the Nerevarine."

I'm gonna quote @profanetools here, because they put it really well:

thinking from it from a different context the basic unifying conditions of the nerevarine policy - an orphan, an outlander, and a prisoner - definitely are skewed towards someone who is isolated, disaffected, easy to manipulate, easy to indoctrinate into a cult, and easy to sell the idea of doing something harebrained and dangerous because you were given some world-saving quest as dictated by prophecy, who would likely rise to the idea that they were secretly someone special and important because someone from that background is less likely to have been told that they have worth and value in of themselves.

and all of that, all of that, is extremely sad and absolutely speaks volumes about how the differing political entities in that game sought to manipulate you

Morrowind: the only good "chosen one" narrative? We'll come back to it a lot, but this is the crux. Prophecies are words. Who invented them? Prophecies are tools. Who is saying them to whom, and why?

While Iriel isn't actually an orphan, he is an outcast, a prisoner, and definitely qualifies as "of no rank or consequence". Still, his complete allergy to heroism means he's far less susceptible to manipulation of this sort than the Empire might hope.

Caius is savvy enough not to drop all this on Iriel just yet, which is good, because if he had, Iriel might have run away a lot harder. He might have sprinted into the sea, or tried to levitate to the moons.

You do understand who the Blades are, don’t you? We’re spies. We’re the Emperor’s hidden eyes and ears in the provinces. We watch the Emperor’s enemies. We look for opportunities. We make reports. And, when the Emperor commands, we obey.

Imitating Caius' voice is easy, because it's so distinctive. I don't know for sure, but I suspect Ken Rolston wrote him. Anyway, the main feature are these very. Short. Stabby. Sentences. Clean, sharp and straight to the point, like little daggers.

Are you ready to follow my orders, Iriel?

It wasn’t the sort of question you could really say “no” to. Ire said it anyway, and teleported out.

You can carefully set up all your plot dominoes, but a character might still dodge the last one, and scuttle off through a crack. Ingame, there's nothing forcing you to agree to join the Blades and follow Cosades' orders, except for the fact that the player will know they have to, if they want to see the Morrowind main quest content. Which obviously isn't going to work on Ire, so Cosades will have to work a little bit harder to get Iriel properly entrapped into his service.

“Drive!! Drive!!!” he yelled to the surprised caravan operator.

I'm really digging the comedy clichés out of the bottom of the barrel in this chapter. And I'm not sorry. Partly because while they're the opposite of new or revolutionary, I don't see them much in fanfic, so it's fun to combine them with the fanfic staples of overly complex emotional landscapes and general angst. It's why I like using the "tragicomedy" label, which I carefully scrutinised definitions of, to ensure it meant combining comic and tragic elements, but not committing to to a particular type of ending. One of my favourite types of feedback is evidence I'm pulling this off successfully, i.e. variants on "This would be funny, if it wasn't so sad!", or alternately, "This would be sad, if it wasn't so funny!"

The caravaner’s brow creased. “Striders don’t work that way, muthsera. You got to be very precise with what you tell them to do, else you might damage their tendons, see, or worse, they might get disoriented, and start to skrell. You don’t want to be inside the carapace when they do that, sera, believe me.”

Plus, it's a precious opportunity to make up esoteric silt strider "facts". God, I love silt striders. Best part of Morrowind.

The Dunmer made a clicking noise in the back of his throat and the strider lurched away from the stand.

It's established that silt striders are operated by manipulating the exposed tendons of the bug, but I like to think the drivers also use traditional vocalisations. It doesn't do anything, it just distracts the passengers from the fact you're manipulating the exposed tendons of a bug, right in front of their salad.

A spy. Ahahahahaha haaha ahaha hahaa oh gods. Master of deception, that’s me!

When you think you're making a funny joke, but you're actually seeding yourself a new psychological complex that's going to haunt you for another couple hundred chapters.

next: 26: ashes previous: 24: lies

[thebestofoneshots]

Star please! My pronouns are she/her and I am into guys, and am open to poly!marauders!

If you know star signs: I’m a Libra sun, Aries moon, sag rising, Libra mercury, Leo Venus, and libra mars

I’m an intp, 6’1, and I play volleyball. I love listening to music and have a record collection! I’m also a huge film buff :) I’m pretty shy but make friends very easily. People often tell me to speak up but my voice is just not super loud lol. I don’t always like to, but I’m getting better at standing up for myself. My love language varies person to person, but I love physical touch, quality time, and giving gifts.

Thank you so much and congrats on the milestone!! You deserve it all and so much more, you are such a good writer :)

If you want to participate in "TBOS' 400 Followers Celebration" too, you can look at this post for all the options of prompts you can choose from <3

I definitely ship you with Sirius and James. However, Sirius was the first one to notice you. It all started during Christmas when you received a package from your Muggle family. It contained yet another record for your collection – the Diamond Dogs deluxe edition by David Bowie. You were instantlly excited by it, and youre excitment could be percived by others.

Sirius, allthought unfamiliar with the album, instantly recognized Bowie on the cover so he approached you with a playful grin, “Hey sweets, you’re in my Transfiguration class, aren’t you?”

You nodded, “You’re Sirius Black.”

He smiled, glad that you recognized him too, and casually sat next to you, leaning his head on his hand as he looked at you. Initially, you found it a bit strange how comfortable he seemed around you, but his relaxed aura eventually put you at ease.

He shared how he had stayed at school during Christmas to help his friend with some tasks, and how he didn’t really want to go home because of his less-than-pleasant family. You told him about your Muggle family and how they believed it was best for you to stay at school to avoid the Death Eaters. You admitted missing your family and being happy to receive a letter from them.

When the conversation grew somber, he skillfully changed the topic and asked about your album. Excitedly, you shared details about your collection and music preferences. He told you about the cassettes he had received from his cousin Andromeda and promised to make you a mixtape someday. He enjoyed making them for his friends. Your bond only strengthened from that point, and Sirius developed a massive crush on you, growing every time he discovered something new about you. He thought you were absolutely magical, and that, without even thinking about the fact that you were quite literally a witch. 

One day, you were in Sirius' room listening to your records since you didn't want to disturb your roommates. James Potter entered, not noticing you both resting on the floor with your backs against the bed. Assuming he was alone, he started humming along to your favorite song. Just as you were about to speak up, Sirius covered your mouth,  a cheeky grin on his face. Soon, James started his own impromptu concert, singing at the top of his lungs. Eventually, he began dancing and spotted both of you, with Sirius' hand still covering your mouth.

"Padfoot!" He said reproachfully. 

You removed Sirius’ hand from your mouth and gave James an apologetic smile “Hey James!” you said quietly “That was great conert.” 

James turned beet red upon realizing you'd seen his performance "How long did you—"

"—The whole thing," Sirius teased.

James was so distressed at that point the only thing you could think to do to ease the tension was to smile at him and say “Wanna join us?” 

You weren’t sure you’d ever seen a shy James Potter in your life, but here he was, nodding quietly and walking to seat beside you. You were sitting in the middle, with the two boys at your side. And you three just grew closer from then, it was like the boys didn’t want to be away from you. 

While in the beginning you thought Sirius was clingy, he had nothing on James Potter. Whenever they were around you, they were close, in a very literal sense. They always had to be touching you somehow, either by brushing shoulder to shoulder, an arm draped over you, or leaning their heads on your shoulders in the Great Hall, especially Sirius, who always complained about having to wake up early for flying. Those touches slowly became something more: kisses on the cheek, holding your hand, a cheeky hand on your thigh, or backhugs. And while they did sometimes fight for your affection, neither of them seemed bothered by the other pulling you onto their lap or snuggling you closer to them.

One day, you were listening to music in the common room and there was no one else around since you had skipped a class to be there. You were leaning against James’ chest while Sirius had his head resting on your lap; he’d asked you to play with his hair. It was often that you cuddled with the two at the same time, and you loved it, but it also confused you. You somehow mustered up the courage to ask, “What are we?”

“We’re Gryffindors,” James replied at the same time that Sirius said something like “The stars of the show.”

You sighed at their answer and motioned for Sirius to sit up with a light pull on his shoulders. “I meant what are we…” you said, emphasizing the last bit by pointing at the three of you.

James and Sirius exchanged a look. They’d had this conversation before, neither of them willing to give you up, so they settled on sharing. They were both okay with it; in fact, they enjoyed cuddling each other too. “Whatever you want us to be, angel,” Sirius answered earnestly, grabbing one of your hands and intertwining your fingers together.

“If you want us to pull away, or one of us to step back away, we’ll respect your wish, but–” James started.

“–Neither of us wants that,” Sirius finished.

You looked at the two of them. “Neither… neither do I.”

BONUS:

The mixtape Sirius made for you: 1. "Space Oddity" by David Bowie 2. "Dream On" by Aerosmith 3. "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin 4. "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye 5. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen 6. "Hotel California" by Eagles 7. "Imagine" by John Lennon 8. "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green 9. "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton 10. "You're My Best Friend" by Queen

A/N: Hope you like this lil thing I made for you sweets, it got out of hand, as always, but I kind of absolutely adore the result, our boys are so adorbale, it's almost impossible to handle ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

Sending you great vibes, Lilly xxx

MASTERLIST

[hellostarposts]

Episode 67 - Burning Desire

Jack Barnabas

Short-lived courtship with Agnes Montague

Is this the same Agnes. I feel like i would’ve remembered her last name being Montague.

2006. This could very well be the same Agnes.

Awe he’s lonely and I guess deformed.

Oh Agnes is not like other girls. Oders a black coffee and doesn’t drink it while stairing out the window.

Is she another one of the people who can’t be touched?

Okay, I definitely think that she’s similar to Diego.

Intimidating back tattoo. A man burning in hell. This was the short woman who had the tattoo.

Shorter woman hiring/releasing Agnes from something.

Collection?

Wednesday’s are for self deprication.

So a spider web burned up while Agnes was around. And I’m not supposed to connect her witht he other Agnes mentioned whos kiss saved the guys life from a spider monster.

Asking about destiny is not a first date question.

Omg we get to see her pov when the guy killed the tree.

Small group of people waiting at Agnes’s door. Short tattoo woman is back. A tall (possibly buff) bald man with a lantern. Speaking in what is assumed to be spanish/ portugues. Someone else has the candle bag, and the last person has a container of spiders.

Yes you should’ve minded your own business.

Awe a very painful farewell kiss. Which is how we know that he is disfigured.

Spotify comments are killing me: wouldnt we all sustain permanent injury to kiss a pretty girl | don’t kiss pretty girls Note taking emoji| are just a couple to mention.

AH Feliding. Two last names.

I was right about there being a connection between her and Diego. 

So the landlord, Arthur Nolan, could potentially be a part of this little group but who knows.

No official name but Jon is dubbing them “The Cult of the Lightless Flame”. Kinda lame but I can’t do better.

Probably responsible for the forest ritual circle in Scotland found (and messed with) by Jason North.

This is when Jon starts making a red yarn chart.

So Agnes was adopted.

Doesn’t age. Visited the cafe for over a decade.

Both be dead.

Supplemental. 

Elias put a padlock on the tunnel door.

Is very upset about finding out that Jon broke in and was exploring them. Under the guise that it was because of the traumatic injuries sustained. But we know it’s because he hadn’t been fast enough to hide whatever it is down there.

“We don’t have the budget for that”

I like the “I’ll quit!” “Oh god you know how hard it would be to replace you” “no i don’t” a true opposite to the “you’re replaceable” threat

Elias, you know that he’s going to make a b line for tunnel adventures.

How did that threat work?

So now we are getting to know more about the factions (?) i guess. This is really starting to seem like there’s multiple groups/gangs involved. I’ve got no clue as to what everyones motivations are but this is now where i think it’s going. Alice just seems kinda depressed, like her talk about destiny and stairng off into the distance. She obviously knew that her time was coming to an end. So we know that diego is involved but who is the lady with the tattoo. I can’t remember if Mary had a tattoo before her murder. I also can’t remeber if there was another person with a tattoo like this.

I am finally going to get more tunnel adventures, can’t wait.

[strawbchez]

FROM THE GANGAN JOKER TWITTER

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR MEMOIRE 59

Run through Google translate ^

Astolfo is so cute I have never wanted to hug a fictional character more than I do now JUST LOOK AT HIM!

Also is it just me or is Roland more buff. Mochizuki did confess that everytime she draws Roland he gets better physique (and fluffier hair) but wow this is wild.

He’s so cute I can’t take it I love him so much he deserves so much better, if there's any Astolfo haters out there you better keep your opinion to yourself!

We see this panel in the extra chapter from vol 9 it’s just larger this time and notably missing Olivier's glare of annoyance despite the larger space.

Roland looks so sad I need to know what happened between him and Astolfo so bad.

This scene is set up that it makes my immediate thought that it will be the last panel of the chapter or that it will be the last panel before we step away from Astolfo's past and go back to the current timeline (since we know that some panels contain stuff that seems to happen in the current timeline) but I do think it might be the opening page of the chapter since it seems to start where 58 ended.

Translations by me! Sorry if it’s botched I tried making it make sense!

Guess we’re getting more Astolfo pov this chapter and judging by the panels shown earlier (like 10 days ago) I’m guessing the first part is going to be flashbacks about him and it ends suddenly here or adds more?

Either way the characters we see in these panels seem to be from current timeline (these are the panels)

Oh shit. I mean we did get confirmation on this by Georges, once again in the extra chapter (thank you Georges and the extra chapter) but it’s nice getting it straight from Astolfo (or younger Astolfo). Seriously though what happened? Conflicting interests? A vampire attack? The churches interference/manipulation?

In this context, I guess this shows that Roland’s aware of Astolfo’s thoughts on him since it puts focus on his face in the panel. He definitely doesn’t approve of Astolfo's worship of him but I don’t see him confronting him about it though so I don’t know what happened there.

(Sorry for how off centre it is!)

The guy who I presume is Charles' vice captain from the last chapter is behind Roland once again making me believe this is directly what happened after chapter 58 ended since that was were he was when Charles called for Roland.

I do think that it's Charles saying those lines since there wasn't anyone else in the room except the scar guy who doesn't seem to be speaking and Astolfo who clearly isn't saying that.

That seems to be Astolfo going up to Roland since the feet are small and bloodied. I do think that Roland was disappointed in himself for only being able to save one person which is why Charles is getting him to look after Astolfo so he knows he at least saved one life (which is quite sweet but this guy looks like a manipulator so...)

Roland looks so traumatised though and I'm not sure why. Astolfo was in pretty bad shape but the cloak (I think it was Roland's cloak?) was covering his body last chapter and I'm not sure if he still has it on in this panel so maybe that's where all the damage is? Or some other reason, maybe he was just shocked Astolfo was still alive after what happened.

Also I do have a life outside of stalking Mochizuki's twitter page (I just check it every 3 hours every day even in class it's not a problem)

[t4kalcvr]

ARE WE BREAKING UP? — c. soobin smau

EPISODE 0 . teaser !!! this only contains screenshots and written pieces from the 7 named parts already out!! i am creating most of this in advance but probably won’t be posting this fic officially until after kita’s fic or when i feel impatient :) but i’m enjoying writing it already so i might get impatient first…..

written from episodes 4&5 ::

4 ;; Mingi hummed before completely sliding his arm out from under you and rising off the bed, he was still lifting your head up slightly, motioning to Soobin to put his arm underneath. But Soobin was so focused on Mingi's physique, he really was a Goliath.

“Put your arm under her head." Mingi snapped him out of his anxiety entranced thoughts, he walked closer and slid his arm under. He slowly and careful climbed onto the bed, making sure not to wake you.

"Are you her boyfriend?" Mingi questioned.

In Soobin's mind, he was asking because he wanted to make sure he could make his move. But in Mingi's true intentions, he just wanted to make sure he was someone to trust. You didn't call him the big friendly giant for nothing.

"Um." Soobin hummed as his eyes graced over your features, you were beautiful. How could he ever hurt someone like you? He wasn't going to mess this up.

And he's not going to lose to some big buff gym rat.

5 ;; Soobin wanted to speak about Taehyun but it was futile, honestly at this point, he was just trying to not take blame for everything. So he sighed before speaking, “Yes! I'm sorry, I freaked because l've never been in a relationship and I overthink every little thing!"

He heard a deep sigh, "but i was going to talk to her! because she seemed to be taking it really well these past few days.." at that he heard silence, and in this case, that's terrifying.

"I'm not going to tell you what's been going on for the past few days, I'm going to let you figure this out yourself." Hongjoong's voice was baritone and faint, but the words confused Soobin, what'd he mean?

“What are you—“

"What did I just say?"

"Okay!" Soobin saluted as he sat on the floor, legs crossed like a kid.

images from episodes 1-7 ::

last episode ⋆·˚ ☽ .* m.list ⋆ ˚ ♪ ｡⋆˚ next episode

S. NOTE : these are only scraps of texts and yes i keep editing the synopsis and lord knows how many more changes i’ll keep making, i am impulsive and don’t think things through so pls don’t get too excited and pls leave me and my perfectionism alone, i can feel you judging, anyways i love txt and ateez and thought this would be cool and now i miss san and seonghwa :’) ALSO STREAM ‘DO IT LIKE THAT’ TXT AND THE JONAS BROTHERS …….. SOOBINNNNNNNN.

TAG LIST ( OPEN ) : @oulspvs @goldennika @sukunasrealgf @acidicloveee

[ccborrega]

FRANKELDA AND HER GHOSTS 1. (Part 2)

Seeing how more and more english-speaking audience is apparently watched Frankelda now, I feel like it's a good moment to post the translation transcript I did of the first live event with the Ambriz brothers, 'Frankelda y sus Fantasmas'. Posting on parts for easy reading because it's over 20 pages long. These are basically Q&A of making-of aspects of the series, going from concepting and design to even edition and post-production, going through Voice-acting and even trivia. They do sometimes comment some lore, but are restricted in how much they can talk about it as it would apparently spoil upcoming things. Latter episodes have some guests, including Mireya Mendoza herself (Frankelda's VA both in english and spanish) Kevin Smithers, who composed the score and songs in the series and even the edition team in the most recent one! (It honestly gives me life to see how much Cinema Fantasma values the whole team.)

It's fair to warn you that it's probably better to have watched the entire first season before checking it out, as it contains commentary on things that might spoil you if you haven't. It's also worth noting that this one was recorded on November the 26th in 2021, back when we had no word of the film being made or the new dub and USA release. Some additional notes:

-El Coco and the Boogeyman are both used for the same character in this one because it's how they do it in the dub. -Something happens in there that I cannot describe with the screencaps alone and the transcript would feel naked without, so description is provided. It's magical, you'll see.

Arturo Ambriz: Good, let’s move to this question which is also really nice- well, we already replied to Val Guerrera’s question, which is: ‘Are you thinking about publishing a book for the show?’. Well, that one’s already settled. Let’s do… let’s move to the next one, which is: ‘Is there one puppet per character and a lot of changes, for instance, mouth, eyes, etc.? Or are there multiples and a lot of changes?’

Roy Ambriz: They’re one-of-a-kind.

Arturo Ambriz: Ah, wait. The question is by Bailey Val… Bailey Valquion.

Roy Ambriz: All the characters are unique, they’re priceless, they have a personality and that’s why there’s only one for each… no, but seriously, yes, there’s only one, because…when you watch the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ making-of and you see there’s ten Jacks or something like that, I don’t know when- sorry, how many. We… I reiterate, being a Mexican production, new, and the such, we obviously didn’t have the budget to make a thousand copies of each character. So, what we did was make them the smart way in the puppet wing, so that we could fix them, and we had a very talented and… arrrgh! Super strong and buff puppet hospital team, just constantly fixing them again and again. Frankelda… yeah, there’s two Frankeldas, which is… something we hadn’t mentioned up ‘til now. There’s two Frankeldas because she was the character who had the most animated minutes on-screen, and the cool part is, if you look really closely, you can actually tell which is which, and that’s something we love.

If you watch the original ‘King Kong’ movie, the one from the 30s, there’s like three… the King Kong puppets were hand-made, they didn’t even cast them, Ray Harryhousen made them with wet cotton on latex and built them over… over skeletons he made…

Arturo Ambriz: Willis O’Brien.

Roy Ambriz: Ah, my bad, Willis O’Brien. I said Harryhousen but it’s Willis O’Brien. And he made them by hand. So, they’re not identical and there’s like three King Kongs, but it doesn’t matter because the illusion of life is there and, and you know it’s real. But, yeah, the hardcore ones, which I think is all of you, can figure out which one’s Frankelda mark one or mark two. But really, she’s one and the same, don’t worry, she sometimes just… likes to do her hair a little bit different, or arrange her dress some other way, because Frankelda never sits still and her… her spirit can take any shape she wishes to.

Arturo Ambriz: Next question… and it’s from Noemi Juárez… I wanted this one to show up. ‘¿Did you use the same figurine for Frankelda’s grandma and Magali’s hen witch?’ Let’s see, we can answer this one very plainly.  It’s not that it’s the same figurine, it’s not that it’s the same puppet. Could it be that perhaps, perhaps, it’s the same character…? Anything you’d like to add?

Roy Ambriz: Well… Frankel- I mean. Frankelda, her stories, to write them she has to base them off her own life because, and this is a tip I’m giving you, we’re giving you, if you want to tell your own stories, write about what you know. Write about what… what you’ve learned, what you like…

Arturo Ambriz: What you’ve lived, what hurts you.

Roy Ambriz: But this doesn’t mean it has to be hyper-realistic and like… a copy, an exact replica of what is. You can tackle it from fiction, fiction can help to make-up and transform, because you can transform yourself. So you can create characters from an aunt you knew or your friend’s mom who is really interesting, and you can create… and that’s what she does, and so, ask yourselves why Frankelda drew inspiration on her grandma, right? To… to make the witch- who, by the way, her name’s Totolina.

Arturo Ambriz: Good. Next question… ‘What was the production process for the songs? Did you guys make the concepts for the lyrics?’ Alex Rosas asks.

This question is really interesting, we’re definitely inviting Kevin Smithers to one of these, he’s the composer of our songs and our orchestral pieces, and we’ll be able to talk more about this. But look, here’s a really fun little history tidbit… originally, we’d only planned for one song in the whole series, and it was El Coco's.

It was the very first one we wrote, it was the very first one that got recorded. Actually, that one… the Boogeyman’s story only exists because when we… I think it was literally the day we got greenlit to produce this, Roy and I were talking about what we wanted to see on-screen and we said: ‘Ooooff… this hobo monster, El Coco. All scruffy and ragged… in an alley in Coyoacán… playing a thousand instruments and flying ghost kids out of his hat and forming a dead kids orchestra.’  We were like: ‘Yes! That’s what we want to do for this season of ’Frankelda’’. And we started working on the story, we started creating everything and that’s when we made the lyrics for what at the time we still called ‘The Boogeyman’s Waltz’ …

...and here’s El Coco dropping by, and- hang on, let me get this out of the way… we started to work on the Boogeyman’s song. Sergio Carranza sang it, it turned out amazing, it turned out absolutely breath-taking, and, well, we realized...

[Here Hernevalito hilariously falls off Herneval's arms and Roy tries to silently non-react to it...]

...maybe it was worth it for the whole series to be a musical and have one song per episode. Why? Because we love musicals, because at the end of the day… think about this, I mean, each song… and here’s a little tip in case you like to write songs… each song is a poem.

[Roy then discreetly sits Hernevalito on El Coco's horn.]

Each song is actually a poem, that’s why Herneval tells Francisca ‘Hey, why don’t you read me that poem you just wrote?’

[Success! No one saw that, right?]

and it’s a sung poem. Well, songs are poems, right? I don’t know if it’s our way to put in a little bit of… creative, poetic and philosophical writing into the show, on top of it making it a lot flashier, making it more memorable. You listen to the song and it reaches faster. So what we worked on with Kevin was, while we worked on the lyrics…

Roy Ambriz: Specially him.

Arturo Ambriz: We kept working them, writing them, and like… turning them over, looking for… concepts, which, come entirely from the scripts, because the scripts were there first, and once we were clear on which ones they were- what it was we wanted to say and how it could have a nice ring to it- it was then that Kevin Smithers got involved and he helped us to, well, create the music proper, and there’s some… some texts that got edited, and some got longer or got shorter, and it was a very organic process where we included parts of the script, the poetry part, the conceptual and musical part, and everything got combined. And, believe us, we’re really glad to see you liked the songs, you’ve sang them, you’ve posted videos, you know the lyrics. That’s a dream come true for us.

Roy Ambriz: Besides, soon you’ll be able to sing with Frankelda or Herneval. So stay tuned to our Tik Tok channel on the next weeks.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes. Yeah, that’s right.

Next question… ah, this is a good one. ‘Will new kids inspired on your crew show up for the next episodes?’ Danitza Rivas asks us.

Roy Ambriz: Yes! We’re really excited, we have a lot if ideas, we want to see them already. I really like how… I want to clarify, just because they’re based off… as a fun little nod, from- the characters, it doesn’t mean they’re, like… exact copies, right? Of… I mean, they’re fictional characters, that should always be clear.

But yeah, we’re really, really excited about getting to include more kids. Tormenting even more characters; because a writers job is always to torment their characters, that’s how you put them to the test and depending on how they face the challenges you make for them, that’s how you discover what their nature is like. In this case, we like how… they don’t make it, and it’s something really fun to do because there’s a nice little reflection in there. But yeah, there will be many other children- but also expect to catch a glimpse of old acquaintances, of old friends in there, for sure.

Arturo Ambriz: And… I was precisely trying to look for the question to see who made it a while ago… the truth is I lost it, hope someone can help me over here…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Someone… no. Someone was asking how we got the idea to use members of the Cinema Fantasma team to be the inspiration for the kids. And yeah, that’s the reality, not everyone may know this but, all the kids that app-

Female background voice: Daniela Herrera.

Arturo Ambriz: What? Daniela Herrera? Daniela Herrera was asking this just a while ago. And we realized  we needed a bunch of kids and we didn’t want them to be generic. We wanted each one, even the ones in the background, just walking by, to have something unique to them that took a step away from cartoon stereotypes, where you always have… the chubby one, the red-haired one, the goth one. I mean, those stereotypes get on your nerves, right? So, we wanted everyone to be a combination of very particular elements, and we were like: ‘Well, people who work in Cinema Fantasma are visually fascinating, it’s like a whole new range of personalities, of shapes, of colors, of voices, everything.’

So, that was the best inspiration because it really is also an homage for our team, they do so much. I mean, this, the stop-motion, the series, the movies, it’s teamwork! And for the next seasons, we’ll keep using people from the team and new people too, people who’ve joined this crew to create more and more characters. I mean, this is part of ‘Frankelda’s DNA and will always be.

Roy Ambriz: Mm-hm.

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Let’s see… ah, this one. Go on and answer this one, Roy. It’s a question from Valeria Palacios: ‘Do people turn unto Spooks when they die or are Spooks born some other way?’

Roy Ambriz: No, a normal person doesn’t necessarily turn into a Spook when they die. It’s actually quite strange but, there’s Spooks who want to be human, like the Gnome- the Gnomes. They want to be human because they don’t like the… the place they were assigned to as Spooks. There’s Spooks who are fascinated by humans, like, from an anthropologic point of view. Like the Boogeyman, who loves to study them and has been doing it since he was… his dad used to bring him to watch him work when he was a kid.

Arturo Ambriz: Don Coco!

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco would bring him to watch him work, and he’d be gawking at them, and he loved them, and he’d say: ‘I just don’t get them. They’re so fragile and so… so stupid…’

Arturo Ambriz: ‘So temperamental!’

Roy Ambriz: So, they loved that. There’s Spooks that absolutely loathe humans, like the Mermaid, who used to have control over the territory and was worshiped as a goddess and now she hates that no one is even aware she’s there, and on top of it they polluted her world, and her pyramid lays forgotten. It’s undiscovered, it’s in Xochimilco but no one’s discovered it yet, it’s underwater.

And then there’s humans who want to be Spooks because they aren’t happy with their lives. Like Tamazola, Tochina and… which one am I missing?

Arturo Ambriz: Totolina.

Roy Ambriz: Totolina! Who are the three witches. In order to become Spooks, they had to figure out a lot of things, I can’t really give away too much because it’s a spoiler. And they had to perform a ritual which they’d been constructing for a long time before they could actually do it, and they hadn’t accomplished it until Magali came along… but there’s a reason they have so many caged animals in their kitchen, y’know?

Arturo Ambriz: You touched upon one of the questions someone… someone else made. This one’s by Alexa Casas: ‘Will we be seeing Don Coco in the next seasons?’

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco! Who can say?

Arturo Ambriz: What do you guys think? A bit of homework for you, you’ll see.

Next… ah, this one’s great: ‘Why did Herneval’s attitude change so much when he became a book?’ Picture this. You guys are maybe, I don’t know…

Roy Ambriz: No spoilers!

Arturo Ambriz: Yeah, no spoilers. You guys are… I don’t know if in middle school, high school, college or already graduates. What were you like five years ago? Picture yourselves ten years ago, the kind of personality you had, the way you spoke, OK? It’s been a hundred and fifty years. That’s all I’m saying.

Roy Ambriz: But, Herneval aged, didn’t he-? ahhh.

Arturo Ambriz: Spoiler! Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler… soc! OK, next question. Ooff, no, I’m not answering this question because it would be a huge, huge, huge spoiler…

Roy Ambriz: Let me see, what is it?

Arturo Ambriz: I’m gonna skip it.

Roy Ambriz: Read it and I won’t… they’ll just see my expression.

Arturo Ambriz: You sure?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: They’re asking, and there’s actually more than one person asking: ‘Whatever happened to Francisca’s body?’

…next question…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, yes, next question: ‘What’s Herneval’s biggest fear?’ by Meru Chan. Look how- this is a really nice question, it’s true, Spooks have fears too, right?  I mean… specially Herneval, Herneval shows himself as… fragile, vulnerable despite… he’s such a good… I was going to say ‘Good person’, but, let’s say he’s such a good Spook, and…

Roy Ambriz: A handsome lad.

Arturo Ambriz: And a handsome lad.

Roy Ambriz: The fussy book.

Arturo Ambriz: He’s gentlemanly, he’s kind, he’s passionate… but I definitely think that… not to give away to much: Herneval is very scared of loss. He’s afraid of having- people he loves and…

Roy Ambriz: Ah-ah! Erm…

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Yes. Yeah, that would have been a spoiler.

Let’s see, this question has no, no, no spoilers at all, and it’s… they’re asking… ‘What can I do if I want to learn animation but I’m already studying for a different career?’ Paulina Cortés is asking.

Roy Ambriz: I think this question might also be exemplified better along the next sessions as we get more of our friends parading here, who also created ‘Frankelda’. But in order to animate, to make an animated production, you’ll need lots and lots of different talents and abilities. It’s really funny because sometimes we get called ‘Animators’. The two of us. It’s like- that’s not true, we don’t animate. Well, I animated… a couple of things, but we’re not animators per se, we’re directors, were writers, we’re sculptors. So, an actual animator and with a big range too… I think that might be… too much, and it might be- what’s that word again? Like, overwhelming. Right? Like… too much. It’s… when, really, when you shred animation into tiny pieces, you realize you need someone who knows how to write, someone who knows how to administer a project, someone who can paint, someone who can draw well, and design. Someone…

Arturo Ambriz: Book-keeping.

Roy Ambriz: Book-keeping! You need a musician, or someone who knows about music, you need actors and voice actors. It’s endless, right? Someone who knows about tech, someone who knows about IT, someone who knows computer programming, who can do motion-controls. Who can do post-production-

Arturo Ambriz: Social-media.

Roy Ambriz: So… college is always a starting point, and this is something we always say, from experience. We graduated more or less, ten years ago, give or take. College is a starting point, it’s not that you have to stay there just because you got your degree in that area, it’s a starting point you chose for… a project. But from then on, it’s up to you and your guts, and your continued studies of many other things you didn’t really see in school, and to living, it’s up to you where you lead your life to and where you want to go, and whether you achieve that your calling is… aligning what you want to do for work, with earning money, and on top all of this, with your reason to live, because it’s your life project; and this is how you feel accomplished, and this is how you know you can do some good in the world, and if you manage to align all of that, it’s beautiful. We’re very happy we’re able to do this for a living, but it implies a lot of work and for you to move to where you want to be.

Arturo Ambriz: Next, it’s a question by Bets Chan Ching, and it’s: ‘What is the Spooks’ life cycle and is it the same as humans?’

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm…

Arturo Ambriz: This question is a really good one, such a good one, it’s something that will be gradually answered as the next seasons roll by. What we can say is, it’s definitely not exactly like a human being’s. But I think you can reflect on, I don’t know… have you realized there’s times you don’t want to do a specific homework, you’re scared of doing it because you’re convinced that you’re going to mess it up? And maybe if you’d done it immediately you would have spent half an hour doing it and then you’d be done, but because you didn’t do it during the week, well, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger in your mind, and it’s gigantic by Saturday and it’s even bigger by Sunday? And by Monday at four AM this homework, this fear of doing homework is just massively huge and it’s crushing you? And now something you could have gotten done in half an hour ruined your entire week? I think if we understand, like… fears, we can get a better idea of what the life cycle of Spooks is.

Roy Ambriz: ‘Anything? Heeheehee…’

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, exactly. It’s a very, very interesting question, but… actually, if we tried to completely explain it right now, it wouldn’t make any sense to you, you have to see it, you have to watch it happen little by little in the next seasons.

Ah, this question is really nice, Mansand Saga asks: ‘Did you have any problems with friends or family when you picked your career and to pursue your passion?’ …no. We happened to be in luck…

Roy Ambriz: In our specific case.

Arturo Ambriz: The two of us, specially, were lucky to have our parents, our friends, our family always supporting us. We specially got a lot of artistic stimulation- and corporate as well, from our parents, that’s how it’s always been. Our mom always made us draw, made us sculpt, made us get our hands dirty… I’m even exposing her a little bit here, but my mom would sometimes even let us skip school so we could go to an amusement park, or to the movies, or because- I don’t know, maybe even something like the weekend’s game got a bit too long and we wanted to finish it properly, like, we had those kinds of permissions.

So, it did help us big time to have that kind of help. In conclusion, if you see one of your friends wants to do this for a living, support them, cheer for them, because yes, there is a professional life for arts. Now, obviously, we’re aware that not everyone has this kind of family support, we have a lot of friends who experienced rejection in their homes in order to be able to make a living with this. But what we’re saying, the best message we can send about it is episode four of ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’. That’s why we created the El Coco, that’s why we created Tere, that’s why we created these ghostly children who dance and make music, it’s because we’ve watched a lot of our friends and acquaintances get their passion stolen by the Boogeyman…

Roy Ambriz: And they just settled…

Arturo Ambriz: They settled, they dedicated themselves to something they didn’t even want to do, and suddenly it’s been ten, fifteen years, and they’re like: ‘Oh, my God, I wish I could turn back time and give myself unto the things I’m passionate about.’. So to keep that from happening to you guys, we made the Boogeyman and Tere.

Roy Ambriz: Play it for your aunts and uncles, the Boogeyman episode, when they get on your case.

Arturo Ambriz: Oooh, this one’s really, really good, only detail’s that the username of the asker is JICJ2442. They’re asking in Tik Tok, and it’s… ‘Will we see…?’ ah, we’re mixing our sources for the questions from all the social media, eh? They’re asking if we will ever see the Spooks’ world.

Roy Ambriz: Tsss… it’s what we want to show you the most!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not so much the world, it’s the Kingdom of Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Herneval’s Kingdom, y’know? And that of his parents, hm? So… that’s what we want to show the most. That’s where Francisca’s headed to right now, Frankelda, and, well, we hope we get to show it to you.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright, Camicatura is also asking when they’ll get to watch the series if they’re in Spain. This is a very, very good question. Look, there’s no precedent for this kind of series made in México or Latin-America, like… a stop-motion, horror musical, and one of such a high quality. I mean, it’s like a very odd mixture of elements, and there’s definitely plans for the international launch, so it can be watched all over the world, but that’s something we’re going to achieve little by little.

For us, the ideal scenario would be to get to a point where… where season two can launch simultaneously in every country that has HBOMax. But it’s a matter that’s not really in our hands, rather, they’re completely strategic on the part of HBOMax and Warner Bros.

Roy Ambriz: Now, if you want to watch it, you can write to HBOMax’s social media about wanting it to also arrive on Europe, and that would be great help, y’know? If more people around the world start requesting it, there are more chances that it’ll be authorized for more countries.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. Herneval’s little wing is covering your face quite a bit. Let’s see, you’re going to love answering this one, Roy, I’m sure. It’s: ‘Do Spooks only haunt kids or adults too?’

Roy Ambriz: They haunt everyone. Really, I think… children can get a better grasp of what a Spook is, and humans… they look for another explanation…

Arturo Ambriz: Adults.

Roy Ambriz: Adults. Like, children will see them as Spooks, and adults will too, but the Spooks won’t… won’t allow themselves to be seen quite as easily, because Spooks live anywhere you look, but you can’t see them for lack of knowing to look.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. This question is very nice, asked by Axel Imanol and it’s: ‘What was your inspiration for making ‘Tinta Invisible’? Honestly, I love that song a lot.’ Look, the lyrics to ‘Tinta Invisible’, like we said just a while ago, are a poem. It’s literally a poem, its inspiration comes from what writing implies, what making fiction implies. For instance, this line about… it’s one of the lines we like the most, it’s: ‘Reading, you inhabit the hidden.’ Picture it, right? If I have my ‘Harry Potter’ book here, well, it’s just an object, it’s like some sort of brick, right? A paper brick, my ‘Harry Potter’ book. But within those pages lies in hiding all of Hogwarts, and all of Diagon Alley, and it conceals… I don’t know, Azkaban Prison within. And it hides… the Weasleys with all of their kids.

So, within a paper brick, there’s this whole world, hidden. So, when you read it, when you read a book, when you read a story, you inhabit the hidden. Because, I swear to you, I’ve been in Hogwarts- because when I read Harry Potter, I picture myself walking around and climbing the magic stairs, and getting into one of the rooms… I don’t know, the classroom for Potions Class with Professor Snape. I mean, I’ve lived in Hogwarts by reading fiction. That’s what ‘Frankelda’ is about, that’s what ‘Tinta Invisible’ is about. ‘Tinta Invisible’ is a song that pays homage to the art of writing and fiction. If you analyze each line, it becomes very clear… well, not all that clear but all of the… the symbolism of what writing and creating something that doesn’t exist is hidden there.

Roy Ambriz: Here’s Frankelda’s ‘Harry Potter’ collection.

Arturo Ambriz: Oh, that’s so cool!

Roy Ambriz: The books.

Arturo Ambriz: Where did that come from?

Roy Ambriz: Walmart.

Arturo Ambriz: I’d never seen it. It’s really cool! Ahh, goody. Well, let’s see… ‘Frankelda and Herneval’s personality, did you plan it in advance or did you base it off someone?’

Roy Ambriz: Yes… our task as writers is to plan out the personality of each character, it’s… when you write a character, it’s like you’re living it, it’s like you’re placing yourself in their shoes and seeing the… I mean, you’re within their perspective and looking at the world from their eyes. Counterweights start emerging, right? And Dramatic Orchestrations, as they’re known, start emerging, like… Herneval, you’ve seen it yourselves. Young Herneval with Francisca isn’t the same as…Herneval-libro with Frankelda, and it’s not the same as Herneval-libro with Procustes, right? I mean, he changes, depending on who he’s with. Why? Because that’s life, you’re not the same when you’re alone with your friends to when you’re in a Christmas dinner with like family members you rarely see, you only meet them once a year, or when you’re in class. It changes.

So yeah, each personality and each character has to be written, has to be pondered, has to be rewritten, has to be erased and… and raised again, and gradually discovered. And, obviously that process starts with writing but is run by character design, art design, animation, run by voice actors, who also permeate it, and the character is uncovered throughout all of these processes.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. Also… that’s the thing, I mean, you guys can see that so many of the characters we’ve seen in TV or movies are opposites, aren’t they? And Frankelda and Herneval-libro, spending so much time together on-screen, well they had to be opposites, right? One of them is red and the other is blue, it’s that simple, I mean, it’s a visual-psicological-narrative codification. Frankelda is an optimist, Herneval’s a pessimist. Frankelda’s cheerful, Herneval’s a grump. Frankelda always moves in circles, her hair has circular curls, her hand movements are circular; and the book is a small square, and everything about him is a square, right? So, this is a good tip for writing characters, thinking about opposites, thinking about complements, thinking about the Ying and the Yang.

Next question… this question is Meru Chan’s: ‘What made you change Herneval’s appearance from the Pilot?’

Roy Ambriz: It was a… that’s a rather interesting question. As we’ve said, when we made the season as opposed to the Pilot, we agreed that we had to improve everything. And the Pilot- we didn’t really wonder about that many things because it’s a Pilot, y’know? Obviously, we’d gotten less time, and the top priority was to show that the series could be great, so what we did when they greenlit the season was to think better about the characters. At some point, as you’ve seen in the concept art, Herneval was thought up as more of a demon, but it was way too obvious, and it could also have religious connotations we really don’t want there to be, so, we decided to ponder it. He’s not the Demon Prince, he’s the Prince of Spooks, I mean, he has to be a Spook. What’s a Spook? It’s something new.

So, we started to ponder and around this time, Ana Coronilla, who is the art director, had the idea- she was like: ‘I kind of see him as an owl.’ Because with Herneval, in order to make him princely, we kept thinking and got- we were creating with the Awesombrosos, trying to make him more reptilian, or some other thing, and when we said ‘Owl’, it was like ‘Wow, he looks amazing!’ and on top of that, he has to… like, the personality we want, and that’s when we said ‘It’s just, if this were a live-action, he’d be played by someone along the lines of Timothé Chalamet-‘ not sure I’m saying that right.

Arturo Ambriz: Timothee.

Roy Ambriz: Timothee Chalamet, so… well, we said ‘Him, plus owl, plus some other elements.’ And, well, we got hunk Herneval, and then we saw the book and the character progression made no sense anymore, the one from the Pilot, because he’s more snakelike. So it was like ‘OK, how are we going to rebuild the character so he still has Herneval’s essence that we’ve already gotten to know from the Pilot, but make it make sense that this character turned into the book?’. And that was the ruling on which we decided to make… to change the Hernevals.

Arturo Ambriz: Well, next question, by AB_8A_7: ‘If Herneval used to be the Prince of Spooks, does that mean the King will show up in a flashback?’

Roy Ambriz: Oooh…

Arturo Ambriz: You’re getting close to the… the heart of the matter. Definitely, obviously, we’re going to meet the King of Spooks, we don’t want to disclose anything else about him, but… but props to you guys for realizing it, right? If there’s a Prince, then who’s the King?

Roy Ambriz: Besides, somewhere… well. Nope. I was just about to spoil it!

Arturo Ambriz: No spoilers.

Roy Ambriz: But that’s the thing, it’s… how cool is it to think, who is Herneval’s dad? Why… why does Herneval have to go to the human realm? Why wasn’t he in the prologue? That is, why was he with Procustes and not his father? So you start to… to develop and sprout a lot of fun things…

Arturo Ambriz: Why is there an hourglass that’s close to the limit?

Roy Ambriz: No one’s talked about the hourglass, have they?

Arturo Ambriz: I haven’t really seen that much…

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm… go figure.

Arturo Ambriz: Anyway… well. This one was by La Reina Cuervo, who we’re already familiar with because we had an interview with her this week, real fun. She’s asking how much time Frankelda spent with Herneval before they got trapped. And that question, well, can’t be answered because it’s something we’re going to see in the next seasons, what happens during this process. That is, once they cross that threshold at the crypt, at the graveyard, what Herneval and Francisca had to do, how they got to where they are right now. For sure, it’s in there, this story that’s still going to develop further.

Next question… ah, well, this one’s really simple. 199501 asks: ‘I don’t know whether you already answered this one, but what are the three witches’ names?’ And, the witch who speaks the most, the one that turns into a hen, the one that sings, her name is Totolina. We just barely realized we never had them mention their names, but in production her name was always Totolina. Then, the witch that turns into a toad, her name is Tamazola, and the witch that turns into a rabbit, a hare, her name is Tochina. Yeah?

Next question… ‘Does Herneval have some sort of power?’ question by Blackroses.

Roy Ambriz: Well, you saw that already, he does, right? And… his power is used three times along the first season. We can’t say more, but he definitely has. Well, he’s the Prince of Spooks, he has to have something special to him.

Arturo Ambriz: OK, next question… ‘Why does Tere play the theremin?’. Question by Lagunas X. Look, we realized long ago that… the theremin is like, the musical instrument of ghosts. The theremin, in every B-movie in Hollywood where there’s ghosts or aliens, zombies, it’s like… a sound that doesn’t seem to belong to this world, because it’s really similar to a human voice. But at the same time it sounds like the mix between a robot and a… a howl. So, it’s like, hard to decipher. So, the theremin has this whole symbolic weight which we love, ever since we created this studio ten years ago, the bumper of the intro we had, which was the Cinema Fantasma bumper, you can hear a theremin. So, for us it’s always been like the theremin is the Cinema Fantasma musical instrument. Personally, it’s my favorite musical instrument.

So, when we started to unravel this episode which I’ve told you about a while ago, that we wanted to get to this big moment of the orchestra in the alley with the dead children and the Boogeyman dancing, we start to realize we needed, like… a character who wanted to make music in order to get to this moment, and we realized it would be very original to have her play the theremin, because we’ve seen a million boys and girls who play the violin or the guitar, even Coco and Book of Life have this, right? You can always look for something different to… to give the show a unique flavor.

Moving on, Yara Edith asks: ‘Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?’ And, get this, originally, this was only going to last one hour and we’re at, I think, an hour and a quarter. Let’s… let’s answer a few more questions and we’ll call it a day, also so you guys can have a nice Friday and not just sit there listening to us. Right, so let’s go back to Yara Edith’s question. Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?

Roy Ambriz: Because, well, something both of us really wanted to do is… make something that felt… a series that felt Mexican but by someone who actually lives in México, y’know? Like, for there to be these little elements no one else who didn’t live in México could have, and it’s mixed in with experience. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to is the Panteón Inglés. I love it. One of my best friends hails from there, from Pachuca, but she’d take us… back in college we went a lot of times, to- Hi, Rosa, if you’re watching.

Arturo Ambriz: I don’t think she is.

Roy Ambriz: I don’t think so because I didn’t even give her a heads-up, but OK. But we traveled a lot, and we made a lot of- she’s a photographer. And we did a lot of photography exercises at Panteon Inglés, and it’s just gorgeous. And… truth is that when we were framing this series, we said: ‘It just would be so cool that she was a Victorian ghost, right? In this big house.’ And back at the Pilot we couldn’t really get into it, show it, how we want to break away from that cliché, I mean, she is Victorian, and she is from that period, but it’s not in Europe, it’s in México. Because mixing in with history -which is something we also love, like, mixing in bits of truth- it’s around this time that the British arrived in there to, well… care for and extract from the silver mines, they brought in a lot of things, right? Soccer, the pasties, which turned into pastes, and whatnot. We figured it’d be really nice if Frankelda’s house is European because his dad is British, but he’s a British man who fell in love with a Mexican woman, and Frankelda’s born from that union.  Why? Because Frankelda- as you know, well, in México we’re a mixture of the European and the Mexican-origin, and, and we’re not- it doesn’t matter anymore, to us, origin doesn’t matter anymore, just that we’re Mexican, and that’s very Mexican.

And so, Frankelda is Mexican. She makes her stories up with the mixture of things, of elements within her head, and what better place than… I mean, if this beautiful place that actually exists in real life inspires us, well, we wanted to also pay homage to that place, and even though it’s not exactly identical, it is a rather latent inspiration for us.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright. Now, Emily Delgado asks us whether we’re giving some kind of courses or bachelor, and, yeah, actually yes, we’ve given several of them. Next year, we’ll reactivate our section called ‘Cinema Fantasma EDU’ which is where we give our courses, bachelor degrees, workshops, conferences on stop-motion. That’s a great way to learn. Stay tuned to our social media, cause that’s where we’re giving notice. Thing is, between COVID and all the work we had with ‘Frankelda’, we had to put this project on hold, well, this whole year. But we’re eager to get back into it and get it done. This is something we love, and we’re exploring other options, really cool ones too, with a certain… how do I put this, brand that makes online courses to make a very specific kind of thing. Really cool, we’re working really hard, I don’t want to spoil that either, because it will be announced in due time, but we’ve got more options coming up so we can talk and we can try to impart some of the knowledge we’ve been saving up all these years by making these productions.

Roy Ambriz: Good.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. And… I think this will be our last question.

Roy Ambriz: Last question!

Arturo Ambriz: Let’s see… I’m looking for one that’s real good.

Roy Ambriz: Yeah, close it up with some meat, go on.

Arturo Ambriz: Something that makes fans speculate?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: …there’s just so many good ones. Let’s see, for instance… ah, look, this one’s nice because it additionally comes all the way from Chile. Sent by Gabriel Beltrán, and it’s: ‘Are the Spooks’ stories told on the show based on real legends or inspired on something of the sort?’

Roy Ambriz: And, well… it’s a mix of everything, right? We aren’t basing them on anything specific per se. I feel like we’ve already seen so much in México, in Mexican adaptations about Mexican legends. Which is really cool, but it’s already been done, even in animation. So, we wanted to do new ones. There’s characters like, for instance- in the… originally in the pitch, back when we hadn’t thought so much about it, the witches… the original concept art is somewhere around, they were more… European, more classic, or United States-like, with the hat and the broom and the stockings. And we were like: ‘No, we want it to be…to feel more like… witches who have somehow been living around a lot of places in México or Latin-America for a while, and who, as luck would have it, right now are living around Colonia Roma maybe, or La Condesa, something to that effect. How do we make it feel specific?’

So… it obviously comes from, well, people- we can’t say ‘We invented witches, we invented mermaids.’ Or anything. But they’re more like… characters and archetypes we take and resignify to things we’ve lived through, things within our imagination, and things we want to see. Maybe the one that’s more inspired in an existing character which we felt had barely even gotten representation in Latin-America is El Coco. The Boogeyman, always-he comes from… our mom always tells us this story, we’d mentioned it a couple of times, but my grandpa used to say to her, because we collected toys, and back in the nineties they were all monsters and stuff like that, really cool stuff. And my grandpa used to tell my mom: ‘Why would they ever be afraid of the El Coco if they have that kind of toy and aren’t scared by it?’. So, this Boogeyman character, like… a bum, or, just something that’s not exactly what we have in the collective imagination, but we had that idea floating around, and, well… we decided to capture it. And I hope we can see more of the El Coco in the future.

Arturo Ambriz: Totally… well, I think we’ve reached the limit with this session. We’re obviously absolutely thankful to you, this is why we want to keep creating these opportunities to chat. We know there was a lot more questions but, think about it, we’d be here for five hours. We’d be happy to, but we also don’t want to ruin your Friday, so I think the good stuff has to be, like… like, in moderation.

We’ll also take this chance to tell you that we seriously are on the constant lookout for everything you’ve posted on social media- look, for example, I have a physical fanart right here, and it’s so cool! But trust me when I say all the digital ones, all the ones I’ve found, I’ve shared them on my Instagram account and I’ve been saving them. I feel like it’s like I’m filling up my Panini album, I’m logging in all the time to see what I can find and save it. And something we would love to do here in Cinema Fantasma, we’d just have to rearrange the space, is to print all the fanart you’ve made, print out all the fanart you’ve made and post it over a wall in Cinema Fantasma even just a small print. Because, trust me that, for both of us as well as the whole crew it’s mind-blowing to see you liked what we worked so hard on, what we toiled so much to make. Right now, we’re seeing some of the fanarts we love on screen…

Roy Ambriz: Just not Tik Tok because…

Arturo Ambriz: Uh-huh, not Tik Tok.

Roy Ambriz: Because we’re… on a different one.

Arturo Ambriz: But it’s not that…

Roy Ambriz: Look how gorgeous! Wow!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not that we’re only seeing the ones we like the most, y’know? We like all of them, it’s just that we did a quick search right now and these are the ones we had close-at-hand to show, but really, we love all of them, and all of them have their charm.

Roy Ambriz: Yes, and they’re beautiful, thank you so much. We’re very, very, very grateful with all the Fankeldos and Fankeldas…

Arturo Ambriz: Or Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Or Spooks, or…

Arturo Ambriz: The Owls.

Roy Ambriz: The Owls and the Writers.

Arturo Ambriz: The Quills.

Roy Ambriz: Anything you like, thank you so much because Frankelda is alive thanks to you. Something we can say is… ‘Frankelda’ is a celebration of fiction. So although there’s a… an official storyline which comes from us and Cinema Fantasma, Frankelda, the thing she likes the most is to be alive. So, consider the stories you make for her, when they’re in your minds, in your hearts, to be canon as well. To you, to the one reading right now, it’s real, because Frankelda is alive. So… draw her, write her, think about her. It's so nice to see it, really, we’re super thankful. It’s… this is the best possible present for us after… for the whole team, after… such difficult years in order to keep it afloat, where we had to, well… work so much, sacrifice some things in order to get it out there. So, this is super gorgeous, and we’re sending hugs to absolutely all of you guys and… an announcement. A fun one.

I think it should be up by now, a new filter that you can find, called ‘Frankeldízate’. If you want to turn into Frankelda or in… if you want to be real Fankeldos and Fankeldas, you can use that. Please, use it, it’s really fun. You can use it to sing, you can use it to write, for anything you want, it’s up. Start using it. Tag us, please, we love to see everything you make.

Arturo Ambriz: Something very important we nearly forgot is… we have a little surprise giveaway, OK? We have 5 posters, signed by the whole team. By the team who made ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’, the Cinema Fantasma team. And we’re going to give it to the first five people who answer the following question and sent it to our mail, frankeldafanart@gmail.com.  Repeating the address, frankeldafanart@gmail.com, OK? First five people to send the answer to this question, we’ll get in touch with you through the mail to see about sending it. If it’s within México City, it will be through our messenger boy, our dear Arturo, but if you’re not in México City, well, we’ll look for a way to get it to you through national or international mail. OK? So, the mail is frankeldafanart@gmail.com and here’s the question, OK? And it’s: How… where does-? We mentioned it a while ago. Where does Herneval’s name come from?

Roy Ambriz: Go!

Arturo Ambriz: There it is, we went into it in detail a while ago, so if you paid attention, you can answer that question. And we’ll look for a way to make… make some other dynamic so we can give away this kind of things. Is there anything else you want to add, Roy?

Roy Ambriz: Well… please use the #Frankelda. You can use the other ones, they’re really cool. The ‘Que Listo Sos, Herneval’ one, all the ones you’re making up, but also use the #Frankelda on its own, because that way we can get everything thrown together and it’s like evidence for us to show the producers of you wanting a second season. Be insistent. If you wish, insist at the Cartoon Network LA and HBOMax LA social media accounts in your different kinds of posts, but use… flood them with requests for ‘Frankelda’s second season because that’s the only way we’re getting it. So, if there’s a massive second season bombing, it’s way easier, I hope no one kills me for saying that, but it’s the truth and I have to ask. So, well, I think that’s all for this session. If you liked it, expect more. We’ll be announcing the date for the next one along with our guest star soon.

Arturo Ambriz: Also, believe us when we say, as Roy did a while ago, if we can talk for a bit about what ‘Frankelda’ represents, well, we highly, highly, highly recommend for you to read. It’s never too late to get close to literature. We already made it easy for you, why not start with ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t love it, truly, it’s fascinating. It’s a beautiful, philosophical, horror, science fiction book, it’s got everything, y’know? It has family drama, it has traditions, it has murder, it’s an incredible book. Read. Write. That’s something I struggle with a lot regarding my students, as we’ve mentioned, we teach in a handful of classes, and I do see sometimes how they lack… reading, and this is also why we were so insistent on the main character of the show being a writer.

So, well, we’re finishing up and, I just read a great suggestion and it’s that we should leave but first we should put Herneval and Frankelda together, and we should leave them like that for a minute, leave them like this for a minute… and leave. Thanks, goodbye.

Roy Ambriz: Goodbye!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s been great.

[greyias]

At long last...

baby girl has finally fell ass over tea kettle asleep

A non-comprehensive list of things Ari has accomplished on this longest of days:

Started investigating the Open Hand Temple murders in earnest including interviewing everyone, speaking with the dead, and generally doing 1000x better as a detective than a flying elephant

Located the crypt underneath the temple

Freed the soul of a cursed monk by personally breaking Shar's laughing curse by pure willpower

Found the hidden tunnels underneath the temple and fought a bunch of shapeshifters on the trail of the serial killer

Got drug into the middle of a turf war between two criminal factions

Gave herself the alias Daisy Dewdrop Fluffington to try and outwit a Steel Watchman.

Nearly got arrested and was saved by the Ironhand Gnomes

Found Barcus again! Whose boyfriend tried to rope them into some light domestic terrorism

Ran into some of Astarion's "siblings" who fucked off before we could talk to them

Found another victim of the serial killer, found out it was the serial killer's mama

Visited a brothel, where everyone came onto Ari, and the incest twins tried to convince her and Gale to have an orgy while Gale nearly expired on the spot

Talked to the most useless flying elephant ever and got a pass into the lower city

Accidentally wandered into fantasy!ao3, aka the Elminster's Sexy Library

Astarion kept rolling nat20s on locked doors in a brothel, one of which contained a nymph and a surprise!mindflayer

The nymph gave Ari a +d6 buff to all ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls for the rest of the day

Talked to Raphael who perved out over the Crown of Karsus

Went with Jaheira to talk to some Harpers and got jumped by more shapeshifters

Did battle with an evil blob disguised as a cow

Got invited to Gortashs's coronation where Wyll had to confont some Daddy issues, Karlach had to not do a murder, and Ari learned they have a spy at camp

Talked to Counselor Florick who we're totes def going to break out of prison any day now (but surprisingly not this day)

Got ambushed by Mizora who decided she's going to just hang around our camp now just because

Went into the Lower City and was immediately beset by a newspaper lady who let them know the National Enquirer was going to to print a smear piece on us

Got banned from the National Enquirer

The one man vampire elf wrecking crew snuck into the National Enquirer to sabotage the presses, and in a fit of petty pique, stole everything not nailed down in the basement.

And then the editor's office for further measure. We're running dangerously low on spell slots at this point.

Talked to the thus far only non-useless member of the Flaming Fists who deputized us to find the serial killer

Talked to a bunch of murdered corpses (some quite sassy) all around the city, investigate some really sketchy ritualistic murders in some basements, and warned several still living potential victims to watch the fuck out.

After all that hard work went to a wine festival to unwind (and warn another murder victim) but PSYCH -- the wine of the intended victim was poisoned and we found our serial killer who dimension doored out leaving us to fight a bunch of his shapeshifting duplicates. Astarion is nearly one hit killed with a sneak attack (now he knows how it feels). The group survives by the skin of their teeth (and burning through scrolls and potions because we REALLY should fucking sleep now), but successfully save all the civilians at the wine festival

But now they have to run across town to a very sassy tailor who we already warned to close up shop but apparently he didn't listen. We arrive literally just in time to stop him from getting his throat slit (and save our Flaming Fist partner) from the serial killer and this seemingly endless well of shapeshifting accomplices

After a long and harrowing fight where every last spell slot is burned, and Ari has to actually use that extra Tasha's Hideous Laughter I was making fun of earlier for crowd control, the serial killer and accomplices are finally defeated and it seems the victims are safe

Ari & co stumble back to the Elfsong Tavern and rent a room, ready to collapse. Ari finally hits the button to long rest

EXCEPT SURPRISE -- Mizora says it's still plot time and tries to get Wyll to sell his soul forever and ever amen in order to have a shortcut to find his dad. Ari's like "we can do this without her" and encourages Wyll to break his pact.

Everyone acts like this is somehow the absolute worst thing and that Wyll has done the absolutely unthinkable and resigned the city to flames and death, and how could you do that to your father Wyll??? Your father would totes want you banished to the hells for eternity my god where is your moral center Wyll??? -- except for fucking Jaheira who was like "I'm pretty sure Wyll's dad wouldn't want his son to sell his soul in exchange for his safety"

Ari falls face first on a pillow in an actual bed for the first time in the game, and sleeps for an eternity. Who knows what the next day will bring

[celedyn]

May DWC 2023

Day 4: Boundaries, Doubt

He stepped in close to Leon, blue eyes flitting over the other man’s face. Those keen ears could hear the way his breath was nervously deepening, and the hand that drifted up Gilnean’s neck confirmed his heartbeat quickened to match it. Celedyn gave a soft hum, fingers sinking into dark hair to massage the base of his skull. “And you remember your safe word, kitten?” 

“It’d be a hell ‘f a time t’ forget it.” Leon’s tone was sharper than he intended, his mood already on edge. He caught it immediately and sighed, slouching back into Celedyn’s touch, his softer words all the atonement needed between them. “Yes, I rememb’r it, Diva.” 

He didn’t like that they had passed straight through the red carpet on his behalf, navigating through the currents excitement that swirled around a woman in an awe inspiring black embersilk gown, slipping by too quickly to even spot her face. He knew full well that the high elf would have lingered to soak in the attention of others if not for his presence. “… D’ you think it’s too early t’ be using it and headin’ out?”

The high elf laughed, pressing a kiss that left a stamp of lipstick on Leon’s temple. “You know you can use it any time, love - but! I think you’ll regret it if we abscond off before the afterparty~” Celedyn took advantage of his height (and the heels that augmented it) looking out over the crowd and beckoning for the attention of a server, collecting a pair of fluted drinks and offering them to Leon.

He shook his head “Diva, m’ stomach’s already—”

“You need something to do with your hands, kitten. You look like you may wring your poor pocket square in half.” He smiled and pressed them insistently forward. 

Leon hadn’t even realized he’d taken it out, grinding his thumb into the fabric so hard that he seemed to be trying to buff away his fingerprint. He flexed his grip a few times, loosening his hand up before taking the pair of glasses.

Celedyn carefully untangled the pocket square from his grip, smoothing out the fabric and trying to sort out which areas had best survived the crumpling. Wordlessly he folded it and tucked it back into place with a bright smile. “There, now… Are you ready to take a little look about?”

Leon looked like a man asked to attend his own execution, but he’d be damned if he was going to let himself sink Celedyn’s evening. He nodded, offering the high elf his drink back and was rewarded with a delighted kiss.

“Perfect! Just stick by me, kitten, you’ll do marvelously.”

He didn’t feel like he was doing marvelously. He felt like he should be following after the waiter, tucking himself into the bustle of the back rooms where he could find a crusty old baking tray in need of an aggressive scrubbing to clear his head. He rolled his shoulders, trying to stretch and shrug the thought of it away. He’d made it this far along and he wasn’t going to talk himself out of it. 

Celedyn’s hand gave a gentle press at the small of his back. Blue eyes remained forward, not inviting the interruption of other as he guided the Gilnean to one of the portraits lining the walls. He positioned himself behind Leon, one hand draped across his shoulders stooping to speak softly near his lover’s ear. “What do you think of this one, kitten?”

Leon shifted uncomfortably, eyes sliding across the painting. “I ah… I like it?” He chastised himself inwardly, that was too simple. “S’pretty. She’s… beautiful… and ‘s a pretty picture.” No, that was worse. 

Celedyn gave a soft, pleased hum, resisting the urge to tease him while he was vulnerable. “She is, and it is. Take a little time with her, kitten, drink it in…Portraiture’s a unique sort of experience, you know, nothing contained in it is there by accident. Everything had to be chosen, to be placed, everything you see is there with intent.”

The high elf reached out one hand, letting his fingertips trail through the air. “See how her shirt’s been unbuttoned and rumpled up? Her hands are nowhere near it, do you think she did it herself - inviting the audience to see, or do you think you’re intended to feel that you’ve done it to her?” His voice was soft and low, private despite the crowd; an easy, soothing lull that Leon knew well from those moments he was winding the Gilnean down. “Her brow? Confident, not an ounce of doubt or worry to it. See how she stares right at the audience, chin held high… and then what’s that little gleam deep in the folds of her jacket…? The pommel of a pistol… All this iconography in the back speaks to the tidesages of Kul’Tiras, but here she is with a fire arm tucked in against her as a very last resort…”

Celedyn’s hand moved slowly, curling his arm around his lover’s waist as he carried on with his murmured stream of consciousness. “Do you think that’s why the portrait’s been hung near the doorway? In the space just between? She could take just one step back and retreat right into the next room…Or maybe she’s stepped forward, maybe she’s moved from her past into this new chapter of her life, but not quite abandoning the first?” 

The high elf reached out again, looking like he just may trickle a stream of champaign down the woman’s exposed chest. “There. And what’s that little amulet dropped down between her breasts? That’s not any Kul’Tiran craft, is it? The jewelcrafting of the Draenei is unmistakable, why did the artist choose to paint this? Do you think perhaps it tells us who that smoldering stare is aimed towards…?”

Leon’s brow creased with focus, eyes traveling over the painting as his lover pointed out a detail here, a thought there, the questions bringing new detail forward the longer he took it in. “She’s out of place. ‘S not confidence. She's uncomfortable and darin’ y’ to call ‘er on it." The words broke out on instinct, with all the ease of conversation between two lovers before his thoughts caught up to him “…how did y’ do that?”

Even tucked out of sight, Leon could hear the smile in Celedyn’s voice. “Ohh, good art is like that, kitten! It invites a sort of dialogue even if it’s just between you and the piece, and dear Annya is a dreadfully skilled artist. Always puts that meticulous sort of care into her paintings, not to mention her performances…”

That little bit of a reminder pulled a reaction from Leon and he could feel the sudden swell of breath fill the Gilnean’s lungs. Leon cast a look back over his shoulder to find the high elf grinning playfully; blatantly aware of the memory he had stirred. He gave a scoff and turned to untangle himself from the elegantly draped arm so that he could take his hand. “‘M’ guessin’ they’ve got food ‘ere too?”

Celedyn smiled brightly, giving his hand a squeeze. Leon’s blatant change of subject was its own reward. “Oh? Looking for some ideas for your upcoming wedding reception?” He broke into laughter at the Gilnean’s flat stare before starting into the crowd, casting a glance back to him. “Right this way!” 

@daily-writing-challenge @mremaknu @camliristarfallen @vixannya

[powdermelonkeg]

More assorted thoughts about my TotK rewrite because I have too many of them and have now slept:

Instead of "Come…to me…" echoing mysteriously, you're led to each dungeon by chasing a poe. Maybe the sage is the only one that can see said poe. Once you beat the boss, the poe materializes into its respective sage, then shows you to the spot in the dungeon their Secret Stone is hidden. Makes it less of an out-there-thing when Sonia's poe shows up.

Mineru's poe soul is still up in the Dragonhead Island. She watched over her niece as long as she could, but her strength was fading, so once Little Princess didn't need her any more, she sequestered herself away so she wouldn't fade by the time Zelda's plan came to fruition. Her chase quest is longer, requiring you to sail from the Sky all the way to the Depths, to the heart of Lomei territory.

Speaking of Mineru, her power isn't quite "I can detach my soul from my body." Rather, she can detach PIECES of her soul to control things around her. Namely constructs. The Lomei Scientist unlocking this power's full potential gives them full control over their mechsuit, which they're struggling with before you bring them Mineru.

It also gives LS some extra functionality—you can point at a construct, and LS can use their power to freeze it in place, making it fritz as it struggles against their power. It's like using Stasis on enemies in BotW, except you've got a multi-target limit. For example, you can freeze a Flux Construct for five seconds, but you can paralyze up to five normal constructs for double that.

When you get the Master Sword, it's fixed, but its wings are withdrawn, like how it shows up in Wind Waker and Skyward Sword.

In its current state, it doesn't glow or react to monsters, and it runs out of power. It's still a strong weapon, it can still smite Ganondorf, but its potential has to be unlocked.

There's three pedestals you can do this at, one in the Sky, one on the Surface, one in the Depths, and they correspond with where the Spring of Power/Wisdom/Courage are in the overworld. You stab the pedestal in, it activates a trial based around its core virtue. Aside from getting a power buff with each upgrade, it also gets different attributes:

Stage 1: The Master Sword regains its proper colors. It now dings and glows whenever monsters are nearby, like it did in the prologue with the Keese.

Stage 2: The wings unfold. The Master Sword can now shoot its trademark laser beams, and it functions as a weak source of light in the Depths.

Stage 3: The Triforce insignia sears itself onto the flat of the blade where it should be. The Master Sword is now truly unbreakable. (If I have to go through this much effort and you're going to imply Zelda's made it stronger than it's ever been before, it had BETTER not run outta juice). It emits a constant glow in the Depths, on par with a Bright Elixir or the Miner's Armor set.

As soon as you unlock the fully powered Master Sword, Link does the signature flourish thing. This.

(Nintendo please I'm begging you. I know breakable weapons is kind of BotW/TotK's thing, but this is an endgame weapon. It's supposed to be more rewarding than anything else you can pick up. You can even lock each pedestal behind the heart container trial it had in BotW.)

Anyways...

Regarding Sonia and Zelda having time powers AND light powers:

The light powers are the birthright of Hylia's high priestesses in Sonia's time, a sign of her favor. Really, it's Skyward Zel's power being passed down.

Sonia's is weak because she's never had to use it the way Zelda was expected to. During the war, Zelda's trying to teach her how it's done, as a parallel to how she was expected to learn it alone. A trip to Mt. Lanayru is a memory.

Time being their sage ability is more deep than that. Hylia's stated to be the Goddess of Time (ties into Skyward nicely with the whole Gate of Time thing, fills in the blank Tatl left in Majora's Mask by referencing the Goddess of Time, etc). What the Secret Stone does is unlock some of that divine power locked away in Hylia's bloodline.

Little Princess in the sky is shocked when Zelda gives you her Recall ability, and laments that she never learned how to access that power herself.

Also, when you first see Little Princess, it's she's sitting on the edge of a rock in front of the pond you land in. It's set up so you approach her from behind, and from that angle, she looks a lot like BotW Zelda. It's a fakeout, she looks over her shoulder at you and you know it's not her, then disappears until you try to open the Temple of Time.

You're big on Zelda, so I'm curious. How would you rewrite TOTK, if given the writer's room?

Fun question! *cracks knuckles* Let's answer it.

I've answered about the disconnect between BotW and TotK before, so I'm going to take some of those ideas and run with them here.

I'm taking the intended route, for the sake of keeping coherence rather than just making up an entirely new Hyrule from scratch. Link and Zelda are the same as they are in BotW.

To start off, I like the Zonai.

I like that they're an entirely new race of people in Hyrule. I love how weird-looking they are. I love that they're not human race #87.

I also love their bastard not-Zonai lovechild thing. If we saw more examples of Zonai, I would love for this funky lil dude to be part of them, kind of like how the Zora have a ton of variation between them.

So why don't we do that? Why don't we give them a kingdom?

And why don't we put some meat on the bones of what was already built?

There are Zonai-esque ruins all over the Depths, mostly in mines for Zonaite.

Their color palette matches. Rauru's braids and Sonia's earrings match brightblooms.

And the three dragons, who have Zonai features (segmented, color-edged hair, long ears, blunt muzzles, scale beard mouths), could have been a catalyst.

A catalyst for what, though?

It starts with the Depths themselves, and the dragons breaking free.

See, in TotK, the three elemental dragons all dive in and out of the Depths chasms. There's no explanation as to why, and the only explanation we have for the chasms forming is that it was like...geysers of Gloom.

However, the dragons in BotW are confirmed to have carved these canyons:

So let's go back in time a little.

The Zonai live in the Depths. They're underground, away from all the chaos that Hyrule has ever had to endure. They worship the bargainer statues as gods, they collect the souls of those above that drip down into the world below.

They have a rich mining industry, and coliseums for their greatest warriors to test their mettle against captured monsters.

They have their Secret Stones, and the one who's allowed to hang onto those is their leader.

That'd be young Prince Rauru.

The elemental dragons, Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh, are testaments to why no one can be allowed to have the Secret Stones. They were consumed by their power, literally.

One day, they break free, as if summoned by an unknown force. They tunnel through the ground and into the sky, connecting the world below to the one above.

The Hylians cautiously venture below, or the Zonai above. Prince Rauru, keeper of the Secret Stones, and Sonia, High Priestess of Hylia, meet.

They fall in love.

They marry.

Their marriage marks a unity between the Surface and the Depths.

(Maybe throw in a lil Skyward Sword continuity, mention that while Hylia sent the humans to the sky, the Zonai fled underground to avoid Demise, to keep the Secret Stones out of his grasp. You don't even have to name drop him, just say they went down to avoid destruction.)

Suddenly, Hyrule (the center part of the map, based around the Great Plateau, not the whole sub-kingdom conglomerate it exists as in BotW) undergoes a technological boom. Ganondorf, neighboring leader of the Gerudo, is interested. He talks trade with now-king Rauru, but there's the sub-plot of trying to get his secrets, which he steadily grows obsessed with.

Meanwhile, the Gerudo make their own expedition into the Depths.

There. The stage is set.

Now Zelda falls into the past.

She's found by Rauru and Sonia. Adopted as their daughter, more or less.

Also, the two of them have a small child. Nintendo, you CAN'T set them up as "they're her ancestors" and then kill them childless, descendants don't work like that. Zelda's immediately endeared to the kid, who reminds her of Link. Lil half-Zonai girl with a wooden sword who swings it at anything that moves. There are memories, it's cute.

In the past, Zelda witnesses, real time, Ganondorf going mad with power. They get along well at first, he's cordial, polite, a model diplomat. But she finds his troops in places they shouldn't be, confronts him about it and gets brushed off.

She tells Rauru, he's unwilling to throw suspicion onto Ganondorf. They're semi-friends and diplomacy is important! He's got to run this kingdom right. He can't fail, this is the biggest thing he's ever done!

(Sprinkle in a parallel to BotW Zel's fear of failure)

Some of the memories fill in gaps about Rauru's power, also. He's got what Link can do, minus Recall. Ultrahand and Fuse mainly, but Rauru's been experimenting with Ascend, excited because it'll make passage between the Depths and the Surface so much easier, and we see where Zel gets her scientific excitement from. Regardless of how different they look, they ARE family.

Ganondorf and Rauru get into a fight one day. A BAD fight. Maybe because Zelda tipped Rauru off, and despite telling her no, Rauru looked into it anyways. Regardless, they march out in opposite directions, and Zelda overheard it in the hallway. As Ganondorf leaves, he gives her the most SCATHING glare.

He then declares war on Hyrule.

Rauru makes a bid for allies, trying to get enough manpower to fight Ganondorf's impressive military. It's a struggle at first, but Zelda steps in, being the leader she's skilled at being and telling the others how crucial it is that they help. Ganondorf, meanwhile, turns to forbidden arts in his rage against Rauru, gets infected by Gloom/Malice, becomes scarily powerful. First Blood Moon. The Gerudo are kind of unnerved by him.

We see Zelda and Sonia helping with the war. Sonia's got light powers, Zelda's are stronger, together they can destroy entire ARMIES of monsters, saving their warriors on the battlefield. A few instances of Little Princess trying to be involved like the grown-ups are, getting huffy when she's told no.

In the aftermath of each fight, Rauru runs around, sealing away the monsters' latent energy with green spirals. That's where the Shrines come from, though in the past, they're Luminous Stones—it's all faded by present day, the light bled out of them.

Sonia is on the battlefield against Ganondorf one fateful night, Little Princess wanders onto the field, both the girls panic about it, and Sonia tries to run away with her while Zelda affords them cover. THAT'S when Ganondorf strikes her—he's fast like a ninja, rushes past Zelda, strikes Sonia.

She falls. Little Princess tumbles.

Zelda races to Little Princess's side, picks her up to run away with her as Ganondorf gets Sonia's stone, and he transforms into the Demon King. He raises his army. Little Princess screams, and we see an uncontrolled blast of Hylia's power, like an erratic attempt at what Zelda did at the end of BotW.

It fritzes, Zelda hugs her tight and ducks down to shield her, and the power cascades across the battlefield, affecting monsters AND people alike. The war is in shambles. Ganondorf stares at the child and her guardian, and retreats in a hurry.

Cue Rauru running to their side.

He grieves his wife. Little Princess is kept safe by Zelda. The Gerudo shun Ganondorf and join Rauru's side, and everyone involved in the war dedicates everything to one final assault against Ganondorf, one trap to finally END him, to force him into the Depths and fight him on the Zonai's own turf. The Secret Stones are distributed. Rauru knows what he has to do, and at the climax of the final battle, he uses his Secret Stone to amplify his sealing magic, knowing it'll kill him in the process and locking Ganondorf away in the Depths.

Except, it's not that simple.

Gloom bursts out of the newly trapped Ganondorf's chest, flooding the Depths, eliminating everyone in its path. That includes the Sages, the assaulting army, and the VAST majority of the Zonai. Its sole purpose is to gather enough strength over time for Ganondorf to break his shackles, because the Gloom wants OUT.

(Subtly implied that the Gloom is the first iteration of Demise's curse of hatred, maybe.)

And Zelda is alone. Trapped in the past, stuck with Little Princess, her Secret Stone, and the last of Mineru's notes.

Gloom continues to fume out of the Depths, so they're sealed off. The Blood Moon keeps spawning new monsters, so Little Princess and the remainders of the construct caretakers are sent up to the sky, for her protection. Zelda's the one that orchestrates it. Her people once hailed from the sky, and it's always been known as a place of safety for them.

Is this self-referential to the history she's building, or a Skyward Sword reference? Who knows.

They go skyward.

Then the Master Sword appears, and Zelda knows what she has to do. It's compounded, of course, by crushing guilt over the fact that Sonia's death happened on her watch. She tells Little Princess to look out for the world ahead, tells her to be strong, and brave, and everything she wishes her dad had told her. Then ends it with a final message.

"I'm leaving you something very important. Take good care of it."

Then she goes off alone to become a dragon.

Present day.

Link's not guided by Rauru, he's guided by a strange, beautiful woman who looks kind of like Zelda (albeit with Zonai hair, eyes, and long claws), who has a deep regret for the world below and who knows the lonely world above like the back of her hand. She teaches him the basics of his powers as he visits the shrines.

The Great Sky Island is otherwise normal.

You go to Hyrule. The Light Dragon's the one that breaks the cloud barrier, and as she does so, she sheds a single tear. By the time you get to the tear's location, it's spread a mural of the memory it contains around it.

Whenever you Recall a tear, the Light Dragon sheds a new one somewhere else, and it's up to you to follow.

You're chasing Zelda, twice over.

Besides that, Hyrule's Surface is...largely unchanged. I'm still upset that the pirates assaulting Lurelin weren't ACTUAL pirates, so guess what, they are now. Splinter faction of Yiga. Also, River Zora take over Lake Hylia, there's a spat between them and the Sea Zora, and Yona is the princess of the Rivers.

Then you've got the Depths.

That's where you find the ruins of the Zonai civilization, and you start piecing together the world it contains on your own. You aren't told, you're SHOWN.

Rauru's ghost finds and guides you here. He has a moment of "hey, isn't that MY arm?", upgrades your abilities or shows you how to use them more efficiently (ups your build limit, shows you how to un-Fuse, teaches you DEscend, gives you Autobuild, things like that), then DIES-dies. You escort his poe soul to a Bargainer statue.

The biggest change to the Depths, though, is that under the Gerudo Desert, you find PEOPLE.

So remember how the Gerudo launched their own expedition into the Depths in the past? How the Gloom killed almost everyone and the world below was sealed off?

There were a sparse few survivors of the Zonai, and some unfortunate Gerudo researchers that also got trapped. The people down there now are descendants of both. They're not Zonai anymore, though.

They're Lomei. They evolved like how the Rito evolved from the Zora in Wind Waker. Their tribe name comes from the Zonai word for "loneliness."

Regardless, they're initially inhospitable to Surfacers, because Surfacers are how they ended up how they did. If you sneak into their city, you're captured, like a few unfortunate Zonai Survey Team members that have wandered in, only YOU can escape via Ascend. OoT Gerudo parallel.

You can earn the Lomei's trust by doing things for them (maybe beating all three labyrinths as a rite of passage?), and then they let you into their cities. They've got their own brand of tech based off of old Zonai designs. One of the Lomei scientists is working on a mechsuit—that'll be the sage that Mineru passes her stone down to. And it fits doubly, both because the Lomei ARE the descendants of the Zonai and because the Lomei technician and Mineru are both scientists.

The Lomei people give you more pieces to the complicated Zonai-Hylian puzzle, and they're the ones that first tell you the legend of the dragons-from-Secret-Stones. So you can either learn it from them OR get it revealed in Zel's later memories.

Besides that, the present plot is pretty much as normal. Still the same bosses. Still the same sages-help-with-everything, though each sage you rescue gives you another piece of what really happened at the final fight (rather than the same cutscene over and over), telling you about how Rauru sacrificed himself and the effect it had on the rest of the Depths.

I will change where the Ganondorf's Army fight takes place, though. It's ACTUALLY very hidden, like the game was trying to imply it to be when you chase around Kohga. You do still have to do that, but he accidentally directs you to a place that's hidden in the tiniest crevice near Hyrule Castle, one that's very easy to miss and sitting in a veritable sea of Gloom. Once you finish the Kohga quest, a poe hovers outside of the crevice, which leads into an even deeper chasm that leads to the Underdepths.

The poe's your help to get through the maze there, and wherever it goes, Sundelions bloom at the corners. If you go early, before getting everything done, you have to navigate that place yourself, and it's a nightmare.

But you do it. You get to where everything started, and you beat the army, then Ganondorf, then he shoves his fist down his throat and goes dragon.

As he breaks through the ground and curls around Hyrule Castle, he SHATTERS it. The building crumbles to smithereens, crashing into the Depths below.

You beat Demon Dragon, Zelda catches you on her nose, it's over. You're in the spirit realm over sleeping Zelda.

The poe appears over your shoulder, drifts away from you, then materializes into Sonia. She says nothing, just activates Recall, turns Zelda back to normal, then cradles her in her arms. She gives her a kiss on the forehead, looks at you, then says the same line Zelda said to Little Princess ages ago, with the single change of one word.

"I'm leaving you something very important. Take good care of her."

She fades, as does the Spirit World.

You're falling.

Zelda's falling.

You catch her.

She wakes up, sees you, then hugs you and sobs into your shoulder.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Roll credits.

Bonus for the memory completionists, the True Ending has Zelda meeting the grown Little Princess up at the Great Sky Island, reconciling with her, both of them saying how proud they are of each other. Then Little Princess turns into a poe, and Zelda promises to take her to the Depths so she can be with her parents again. As they walk away, Sonia's poe tails after them.

And THAT is a way longer post than I expected to write. Whew.