#if he's not going to make lore for his transformation then i'll have to do it myself gdi

[convexicalcrow]

Love how Pharaoh Cub and Scar's relationship is in your stories. Defiantly want to see Scar being smug when he wins against the Pharaoh, only for it to vanish when he still gets dominated by that man. lol. (Side note, can I ask for some details on the Pharaoh's personality vs Cub's? And in how they differ in treating people?)

Oh yes, when I have the last chapter of the first part of the Lost Prince AU posted tomorrow tomorrow, I'll have to get back to the Pharaoh TCG fic, now that Scar's finally won. I have a few ideas brewing. >:D

As for the Pharaoh vs Cub, I have some thoughts. Here I'm talking just about them as characters and how I tend to write them. And this does touch on shippy things and D/s dynamics but more to illustrate the differences, just as a head's up for ppl not comfy with that kind of thing. <3

in the context of the Pharaoh as his own separate being, he's very... domineering, in a way. He's a god, of course he's better than everyone else. He knows his own power and how to use it. This is not to say he's just a tyrant, because he's not. He just demands respect and will punish anyone who fails to give it. In his land, in his pyramids, the Pharaoh's rule is absolute and you will obey him. But he will be sweet to those he cares about and loves. Even in submission to, say, Beef, it's a choice, a command, he's setting the rules of their engagement and their dynamic so he gets what he wants out of it.

also ofc he possesses Cub, he IS Cub, he knows what that boy likes ffs. XD

Cub isn't like that. He's more of a brat. Maybe he'll obey, but maybe he won't. He does his own thing, but it's not coming from a sense of divine authority, of being over everyone else. He's just entertaining himself. Cub's the 'seek forgiveness rather than ask permission' kind of brat (most of the time anyway). He's also not a mouthy, loud brat either. He's the quiet type, the ones you don't really notice until you realise the mess they've caused lol. Not really interested in leadership; more interested in building secret tunnels and stealing artefacts lol. He's a sneaky boy. :D But he also cares a lot too. He knows their boundaries and where to draw the line, because he's silly but he's not stupid.

Unlike the Pharaoh who is in control when he submits, for Cub, he really isn't. At least, obedience is earned (or taken) by higher powers, whether that's King Ren or Scar or the Vex or the Pharaoh, it doesn't matter. For the Pharaoh, there is no higher power than him; for Cub, that isn't the case. Lack of control is what he likes.

You can contrast this nicely with Cub and Scar and their relationship with the Vex. For Scar, there's a more business-like feel to their arrangement. He doesn't kill Vexes bc he's not allowed, and they give him all the riches he could ever want and place him in positions of power like the Mayorship. For Cub, it's totally different. It's subservience to a higher power, a possessive power, something deserving of worship and respect. It brings power too, and magic, and prosperity, as long as he gives his body to the Vex to do with as they please.

This is why Scar is the Power, and Cub is the Vessel. Scar represents the power and magic of the Vex, and Cub is what that power fills and is channelled through. Adding False as the Will gives that magic purpose and direction. She makes their work more effective, though they've done plenty on their own.

The Pharaoh would never bow to the Vex the way Cub does. He has his own magic that is just as powerful, if not moreso, than that of the Vex. He sees his Vex magic as useful, but he has better tools at his disposal, so he uses them instead. After all, he is a god. Gods do not bend their knee to silly creatures like Vex. But he does lean on it a little with Cub, because Cub is weak to it like Scar is.

The Pharaoh's magic is also very hot and fiery, whereas the Vex prefer ice and coldness. They are opposites in that regard. The Pharaoh's magic simply burns all the effectiveness of Vex magic away, which is why he doesn't really use it himself. He's the son of Ra, the sun god. Ice magic is useless against him. The Vex can't possess a god either; he's not a player, in the way Cub was a player before he was Pharaoh. I mean, he IS, but he also really isn't. The Kingly Ka, the divine soul of Horus that makes someone Pharaoh, is what makes him divine. He's no longer simply human after that point.

The Kingly Ka was never passed on to young Cub tho. It's not young Cub we see as the Pharaoh in the TCG arena, but old Cub. Pharaoh Cub. The one who is divine. It's on the card, too. Cub is not the Pharaoh, he's a separate being now. He died at the end of s7 after building a pyramid, which is traditionally the tomb for a king, and s8 is Cub's metaphorical journey through the afterlife before he returns for s9. This is me getting back on my Book of Caverns bullshit, but it is the title of a real Ancient Egyptian book of the afterlife, and what did Cub spend s8 building? A canyon filled with caverns! The moon crashing into the earth can be seen as his way of understanding his death and transformation/rebirth into his young skin in s9. bc that's how I'm dealing with the whole 's8 was a simulation' lore from RenDoc.

Anyway. I think that's enough brainrot for now. I don't want this getting any more unhinged than it already is lol. :D If you have further questions, please do ask! I'd love to ramble about this some more. <3

[sunflowerwizard]

I've seen enough people mischaracterizing Early Access Wyll, so here's the best breakdown of his original character I can give.

I'll start this off by plainly summarizing Wyll's EA backstory, some of his core personality traits, then do a bit of analysis.

BACKSTORY

EA Wyll mentions being "born and bred in the upper city" into nobility. It's unspecified what exact level of influence his family occupied.

In datamined voice lines from EA (take with a grain of salt) Wyll refers to being from House Eltan specifically. Eltan was the Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate in the first Baldur's Gate Game, and the founder of the Flaming Fist. Forgotten Realms lore states that the Eltans are no longer in charge of the Fist and have somewhat diminished in power, but again. We don't know to exactly what level.

This also means that this iteration of Wyll was not Ulder Ravengard's son. While he still spoke about his father in EA, the descriptions and characterizations do not line up with Ulder at all. Additionally, he comments about "knowing of" Ravengard during the burning inn sequence, but otherwise makes no connection.

The most damning evidence of all that Wyll being a Ravengard was not originally intended, is Wyll wanting to be like his father and thus "going thieving in the wrong shadows".

Wyll gets caught stealing, presumably as a teenager, and his father uses latent connections within the Flaming Fist to get Wyll sent there. Effectively the fantasy equivalent of sending your unruly kid to boot camp.

Wyll mentions that he didn't adjust well to life as part of the Flaming Fist, was not a very good fighter, and was generally not well liked. The goblin at the windmill calling Wyll "Captain Failure" implies he might have been given higher status despite not earning it.

The way Wyll feels about goblins is a big change between EA and full release, and is explained as part of his backstory.

We didn't get the finer details, but we can assume Wyll in his time with the Fist bore witness to a group of goblins razing a village. Horrified and enraged, he tried fighting a goblin, was overwhelmed, and had his eye torn out.

This is when Mizora showed up and offered him a pact. Considering he was left for dead and probably going to bleed out, it's pretty understandable why he took the deal.

Mizora is not nearly as present in Early Access as she is in the current game. Karlach was not involved in Wyll's story at all, there's no devil transformation.

It's also more heavily insinuated there's a sexually coercive element of Wyll and Mizora's relationship, with him speaking to how every time he wanted to leave her, she found some way to pull him back.

Additionally, Wyll wants out of that contract. Unlike full release where Mizora is randomly captured in Act 2, she starts off kidnapped, and insists she'll let Wyll go if he frees her

It kind of ended up being a plot cul de sac, but Torturer Spike was the goblin that took Wyll's eye--which was a quest item you could pickpocket/loot off his body. Wyll had commentary on it and everything.

TL;DR: -Born to a noble family with Flaming Fist connections -Caught Stealing and sent to work for the Fist as punishment -Tried to fight back during a goblin attack and was gravely injured -Mizora offers a pact -Uses his pact to become a traveling monster hunter, presumably to make up for his past failure to protect people. Antagonistic towards goblins in particular -Ultimately wants out of the pact, but Mizora won't let him go -Wyll and Mizora get abducted by Mind Flayers -Mizora agrees to let Wyll go if he frees her from the cultists

PERSONALITY

This is a bit less concrete than changed story beats, but I can say this: a lot of Wyll's core traits stayed intact between EA and full release. He's still willing to put his life on the line for the Tiefling refugees, with a whole cut line about how the kids he's training deserve to have a carefree childhood. He wants to do good in the world, probably because he spent so much time in his youth feeling like a fuck up.

There's also a much clearer divide between "Wyll" and "The Blade of Frontiers". Notably, in EA he didn't introduce himself by name. Not even a "my friends call me Wyll" quip at Shadowheart like he has currently. During his old romance scene, he has a line about being used to being the hero, and not used to needing one. He's a symbol. An emblem of something bigger than himself. The fact he's so self-aggrandizing as The Blade makes it apparent he's not confident in himself as "just Wyll"

He's also decidedly more forward and flirty in EA, with no reservations about courtship. In fact, the main obstacle to your budding relationship is Mizora herself. Wyll's trauma from her treatment interrupts your first night together. Whether you have sex or just snuggle, Wyll has a line about how he doesn't want to start a relationship until he can "give himself completely" after being freed from his pact.

THOUGHTS & COMPARISONS

I'm also not entirely sure if I'd say EA Wyll is substantially angrier than current Wyll, so much as he had more opportunities to be angry during Early Access. I can understand why the goblin stuff was cut, because it did dip into "Let's make the one black guy fantasy racist" trope. However, it did very much feel like the narrative was pointing in bright, flashing colors that this is a trait Wyll would have to grapple with, learn, and grow from. The fact EA Wyll's most glaring character flaw was scrapped and didn't get much of a replacement in full release makes his story feel less realized.

While I appreciate the overtly sexual element of Wyll and Mizora's relationship was removed, I feel like the final version is somehow even more creepy. During Early Access she existed in the background as a vague villain you only experience via Wyll. And if you do his romance scene and see the way he panics at the mere memory of her, you get the impression of oh shit. This broad is bad news and I've gotta get my boy out of there. The same principle behind not showing the big scary monster too early in the horror movie. Once you've seen it, you can't let your mind fill in the blanks. Mizora went from this intimidating figure whose motives you couldn't fully ascertain, to a mean girl that thinks she's smarter than everyone else but is really just the bumbling lackey of a bigger fish. Who pulls Wyll around with an actual metaphysical leash like a dog. And you're meant to find this sexy.

My final point, and I've said this before: current Wyll's personality seemed more suited to being a scion of house Eltan, while EA Wyll seemed more suited to being Ulder Ravengard's dissapointment son. Current Wyll speaks and carries him like someone raised in nobility despite only being elevated to such status as a teenager. Perhaps this is cynical and maybe even a bit of a conspiracy theory, but I genuinely think he's only Ravengard's son to save on time and assets. Why give Wyll a whole unique family with its own story when we can just tie him in to the "rescue the grand duke" plot, regardless of how much sense it makes!

[1-marigold-1]

An AU thingy that umm, please listen to my ramble I beg you :[

Hello!!! Had this AU in mind for a bit too long decided to dump it all here :] sorry if it's all a bit messy I'm bad at organising those stuff hghghgghg <-- delusional (explanation and story below the images)

So:

I call it the FMN AU [Forget-Me-Not] and it's set in a fantasy world of course, in a great Empire of Heremitaran.

Because of how big the Empire is, it's divided in two, with two rulers: Ren The King of the North known for his bravery, plenty of victories, feared by those outside of his Empire , and the other one in the Sout is ... well... Mumbo.. (yes he's a king because his father died, he sucks at it tho, can't help but be that wet poor cat and not knowing what to do).

And that's when we come in with Grian and Scar.

There's a crown, to be specific, called the Vacivus Halo which is safely kept in Ren's vault , away from the rest of the world. It's the most powerful thing ever known, and Watchers are ready to fight for it against Listeners, who are worshipped by most of north people and Ren himself. The war those two spiecies of angel-gods started over a crown has been going for many centuries and now when Listeners has had it for themselves for so long, Watchers start to fear that they might use it against them to finally get rid of the enemy.

The crown has been under Watchers' control for some time too, that's when they tasked Mumbo's father with protecting it, but he died at war, crown got stolen, landed in Ren's hands and now all they got is Mumbo... They quickly realized that he's definetely not... well.. worthy? So they give the task of getting it back to an orphan living near the palace. He's a poor chicken keeper until he meets one of The Watchers disguised as a snake, asking him for help, the snake promises him everything he wants. So he agrees.

He gets powers such as:

Manipulating others' minds [putting images and memories that never existed before into anyone's head ]. It's his most powerful ability that he uses by just looking into their eyes, yet there's one thing about it: he can't make people forget the things he puts in their heads.

Flight, he has a cape that turns into wings when needed.

He can see what his snake sees whenever he wants, so he can use it to spy on people.

With those abilities he fools everyone at the palace into believing he's Mumbo's new guard and personal assasin, so he can be always close to the ruler who should be visiting the North very soon... he also makes friends with the young king, they get along pretty well.

Meanwhile Scar has a simmiliar story, though he was an assasin and Ren's guard before Listeners chose him. Ren is still in a good shape and probably will still be a good protector of the crown, but they felt like they need more than one If Watchers ever plan on getting the crown back, so they chose Scar by appearing to him as a cat, they wanted to tell him that they are ready to give him anything he wishes for but he was like "KITTY!!!!!!!! HELLO YOU SO CUTE!!" and agreed right away, just to have a scarf that turns into a cat...... he likes cats alright, he's been feeling pretty lonely recently too...

Scar's powers are:

Super speed [he got it with the boots]

Sensitive Hearing

Completely silent walking

He also got his cat [he named it Jellie because it's semi-transparent like a jelly when in not-scarf form lol] that can transform into a tiger like creature sometimes.

Yeah guess what.

They meet. Grian and Scar. They. Meet.

And they uhhh kinda make friends with eachother and don't really think that they might be enemies.

Watchers don't know that Scar is Listeners' servant, and the other way around, Listeners don't know that Grian is Watchers' servant.

Things escalate from here...... and that's where the story starts!

I have plans on making short comics and stories to tell you the lore piece by piece, but be aware that updates won't be very often, I'll try tho!

ASK ABOUT ANYTHING I WILL ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

Also

Just wanted to add that I made this AU long time ago and Jellie is a fundamental thing in it, very important, as much as she was important to all of us, may she rest in peace <3

[sanflawoah]

Black Myth: Wukong ramblings because I'M GOING INSANE.

FOUR YEARS. I. DID. MY. WAITING. WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO EXPRESS MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GAME.

(Lengthy words and massive spoilers below!)

First minutes into the game I was all chill expecting the opening to be a long prologue cutscene about JTTW, explaining core things you need to understand, a helpful guide for those unfamiliar with the lore beforehand. But NOOOOO....we jump straight ahead fighting ERLANG SHEN AND THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS. We're WIDE AWAKE.

About gameplay, the devs stated repeatedly that it's not a souls-like game, and more like a God of War ish. Yet so many still questions whether it's a souls-like and then went into the game just to say "meh not souls-like". Amazing density of head.

I really don't demand much for whatever mechanic they serve, I'm really just here for the monkey smash experience and the childhood nostalgia and the fresh aesthetics.

The character design?? The environment?? The architecture?? The statues?? Soooo beautiful oh my god you really need to stop and admire these things (when you don't have a boss shredding you) up close. Look up their inspirations and concept arts, some statues and buildings exist in real life and it's really mind boggling how they incorporate it into the story. The part where you fight with Yellowbrow at Thunderclap temple, what a creative choice, the idea of "miniature fight" on the temple altar. I'm farming so many screenshots for art references. 10/10 visuals, graphics will definitely fry your PC.

Again with the character designs. I'm really loving the absurd looking bosses one, really fresh take. Then to the celestials and yaoguais, I just..... OH they're ALL hella gorgeous. I've seen some people going "WOULD" towards Wukong or The Destined One and I don't blame you. I've had my fair share of neuron activation moment.

Erlang yoo, I was stunned at first with the way they present his personality during the opening, but turns out we got the reason for it near the ending :"(((. He was helping us all along ughsjsjsjsksdsd. Also, they know EXACTLY what they're doing by casting Andrew Koji as the english VA.

White Clad Noble? Half snake man hissing at you to get off his lawn. I feel kinda bad for him lmao, dude was just minding his business and we go monkey smash all over his place.

Keeper of Flaming Mountain? Neat hat and cool makeup bro, awesome yin yang palette and battle area design. BANGER THEME I'll get to it.

The Third Prince in Pagoda realm prison, why does he looks so good, you encounter this guy in his cell just suffering, and somehow he's still serving looks.

The girlies damn, the spider sisters are gorgeous, and YES even madam violet spider, come look at spider granny serving fashion and arachnophobia.

At first I was scared that they're going to sexualise the hell out of the spider sisters or any of the female characters, since the book itself tells their trait as luring men with their beauty (to be eaten though). But actually?? They're a lot tamer than I expected? I mentally prepared myself for the worst, like racy sexualised outfit and personality, but turns out they're all very normal. Like how you would see Tang dynasty inspired ladies. I braced for GTA or cyberpunk-like explicitness but thank god it's not the case, not at all.

Rakshasi and Pingping having the relatively "sexy" look, but then both of them had a moment where they're not actually their real selves, but rather a transformation of Zhu Bajie and Red Boy LMAO. Funny boner killer.

Talk about this boi, our Destined One. To be honest I was kinda disappointed when I found out he doesn't speak at all. Banters, insults, cackles, anything you would expect a Wukong-like personality, he doesn't have it.

I tried to think of a reason, and I think the dev's choice of making The Destined One silent kinda has a root to it. Our MC is NOT the Wukong himself, we are literally just some monke, and we're tasked to gather the six relics Wukong had scattered by retracing his journey. Also, I think it's a funny thought that probably it's just their personality difference, Wukong the loud, Destined One the quiet. Wukong sometimes does chaos for shits and giggles, our Destined One does chaos because we have to.

My theory: our Destined One is just non-verbal! Zhu Bajie even acknowledged it. When we first met him after defeating Kang-Jin Loong, he bantered "A furry coat and a pinched face, luck's all you've got", and he looked confused when we don't say anything back because Wukong would've returned the favour, "Great, another mute. Let's not dally". So the game actually acknowledges it, it's not like they intentionally muted us and have the NPCs acting as if we talk back to them all the time.

Non-verbal and asexual coded? I'll take it.

THE ANIMATED CUTSCENES??? OH MY GODDD. Impossible to put ALL the epic frames here. I really don't expect this from a game at all, real time cutscenes are great, but a WHOLE 2D AND STOP MOTION ANIMATED SCENE?? No wonder the full development took SIX years. You could pause the scenes at any frame and it's worthy of analysis.

The stop motion one really surprised me, how are they that dedicated. The plot as well, it started out romantic and escalated into HORROR real quick. Batshit insane, love it.

For many players, the animated cutscenes may be confusing on the first watch. So many references to JTTW, metaphors, mix of Chinese Taoism and Buddhism. I personally encourage people to look around in forums for explanations, plenty of the Chinese words are untranslatable into English, but it's all so worth the knowledge.

Enjoying the JTTW shows and contents as a child is all about the fun and giggles, understanding the lesson of it all as an adult hits me like bricks, especially with the way they're adapted in this game.

I CRIED?? A LOT??? Of all characters I could cry for, ZHU BAJIE?? Man is literally a nasty pervert in the book, living to the pig form indeed, but in this game he's a bit better. Sure he's still his natural pervert self, but since the game took place after JTTW, he surely had some character development. His animated love story cutscene, loorddd they have no business making it so full of freshly diced onions.

Love how each character in animations have different styles. Erlang's design in particular are different in each scenes. Most of the time he has dark hair, in others he has white hair and different armor, same goes for Wukong's design. I'd imagine the devs struggled to choose for one consistent design and decided to just fuck it and put them all in lmao.

And then THE SOUNDTRACKS, THE SOUNDTRACKS YALL. Love love love it when they incorporate buddhist prayer chants flawlessly into the soundrack. The soundtrack during the chapter one ending animation caught my attention with it, I asked around what mantra is it and they say it's probably Cundi Dharani? Please correct me if I'm wrong. The track is called "I See" in the official playlist. The lyrics too, my god, the way they narate the animations.

During the fight with Keeper of Flaming Mountains, IS THE SOUNDTRACK A RENDITION OF "FISHERMAN'S SONG AT DUSK"? IS IT? Losing my mind because it's my favourite chinese traditional piece. Half expected him to pull out a guzheng and blast me with phantom blade from the strings, IYKYK.

And of course, a new rendition of the classic JTTW theme. This will be my neighbour's favourite music for a while.

Some tidbits I like, apparently if you're idle for a while and Zhu Bajie is with you, sometimes he'll start to talk about past stories or lectures you. If you push him around for a few times he'll get annoyed, if you keep pushing him then he'll struck you with his rake lmaoooo. Perhaps we weren't so different from Wukong after all.

Another insane stuff is the headless singing guy. GoW has a talking disembodied head, now BMW has a HEADLESS singing man, literally a reverse Mimir.

The rematch with The Four Heavenly Kings YOOOOO I love their design so much. They look like statues from temples jumping straight to life. The stances! Throwing hands with them is the true Monke of War experience. The East King with his Pipa literally playing the background music, excellent touch.

This has been an insane scroll of yappings, I'll stop here (for now) and take a moment to touch grass. If you've been reading ALL THE WAY to this line, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to harm your braincells.

[semisomnosres]

I'll try to throw in a little bit of lore

A mysterious disease that only the Norisu clan could resist at the cost of their lives. Unfortunately, it was not possible to completely eradicate it and it terrorizes the city to this day, and only a ninja, thanks to the mask, can fight monsters without being absorbed by this filth. The disease is called the “Sorcerer’s Curse”; in ancient Japan it was believed that all illnesses and misfortunes were the fault of demons/yokai/punishment of the gods and other evil spirits. It all started with the fact that one of the first infected was mistaken for an evil sorcerer who cast a curse on everyone, which was completely wrong, but rumors spread like wildfire, and somehow, imperceptibly, this name stuck. (The First already has a shitload of things to do, he is one of those people who, if he could, would not blink so that he could work more, but coming up with an adequate name and then accustoming people to it is clearly not what he wants to spend his time on.)

Mutated beasts appeared just as unexpectedly along with the infection. Ugly, evil, hungry creatures, wreaking chaos and eating everyone they find. They usually live and hunt in their own territory, but at the same time they have the audacity to sneak into the city to hunt. The curse had a strong impact on the environment, poisoning the land for years and changing it over so many years so that some places resemble nightmares. (For example: Trees that look like a trypophobic hell, boiling swamps where even the steam burns to the point of pain, living pieces of meat growing straight from the ground and other delights that an adequate person would not want to see in person)

It’s relatively safe within the city, except for moments of monster attacks (which a ninja can handle) and shitty weather: hail of icy needles, acid rain season, etc. This is already common and people have adapted to such conditions over so many years. But there are also truly dangerous places where only a ninja or a complete idiot would go. (the level with the swamp from Dark Souls says hello)

From time to time, Randy has to go there voluntarily (forcibly), because only there can he get ingredients for some drugs (like those cones for creating smoke bombs) Infected people - It is quite easy to distinguish from animals - by preserved human features, personal belongings, hair, and the ability to speak humanly (but usually it turns out something incoherent, or the infected person repeats the same word) Over time, their consciousness and body will change more and more: they will begin to forget about themselves, become more aggressive and experience constantly incessant pain from body deformation and insatiable hunger (The speed of development of the virus depends on the person, some can retain their sanity and control over their actions to the last, while others They immediately break down and begin to attack those around them)

Although there are difficult situations, it will be possible to reverse the transformation, but there is an exception. - if they eat a person, or simply taste blood, then they are immediately classified as beasts and belong to extermination. (there is another point of infection, which I will talk about a little later). As in the canon, they are also called Abominations, but for a slightly different reason. In origa, their breath simply stinks, here the unpleasant odor appears due to the decomposition of cells by parasites. They smell like rotten meat in swamp soil and metal.

Logically, I decided to make changes in the approach to battles. (combat medics) They also use weapons/magic, etc., but in the original the ninja has a choice of how hard and how deep he will push the nunchucks into someone’s insides, there are more choices of poisons and types of heals.

Another idea is that it depends on the character of the ninja whether the treatment will be painless or even the feeling of an injection will be the same as being hit with a knife

And I will mention a person who has an important role in the city - McFist. As a true smart-ass capitalist, he managed to make money from the epidemic. (And more precisely, selling all sorts of devices for home protection, umbrellas against acid rain, alarms, etc. And his second profitable industry is the funeral home) Not to say that he is a straight-up villain here, he rather has the vibe of an annoying neighbor. It infuriates him that a ninja, in the heat of fulfilling his duties, can (accidentally) ruin some of his stores, and the ninja is annoyed that it’s up to him to clean up the consequences of some of his awesome ideas (for example, he will build a plant right near the borders of the city, where in the end the pipeline became for monsters highway directly to the city sewer system.)

[muffin-snakes-art]

Hi. So I’m not a Layton guy and all THAT familiar with the lore, but a close friend of mine is, and as far as I understand Layton has a dead girlfriend? Can I please know who Magolor’s dead girlfriend equivalent in this AU is? I’m legitimately so curious. /pos

I have been thinking A LOT about which Kirby character would fit Claire's (dead gf) role. In the end I chose Taranza bc I feel he and Claire are the most similar in character. They're both really good at what they do (Claire: brilliant scientist - Taranza: immaculate mage), quick thinkers, humble, and have a lot of love to give.

I'll explain more under the cut (along with images of Claire and younger Layton for design ref), but Taranza could've also fit in as a couple other characters bc I made Sectonia as Descole. In this essay I will-

In Kirby there's an interesting connection between Magolor and Taranza. Primarily based on that one Magolor portrait in that haunted house in Triple Deluxe (like ok huh????) and also that one Star Allies Wave 3 illustration.

With that portrait existing, to me it implies that Magolor has met Taranza and Sectonia before the events of the game somehow. This theory is further backed up with the Old Friend mask in Merry Magoland. Magolor would HAVE to have known what Joronia looked like before her transformation, and that means he would also have met Taranza too at that time. I could be completely wrong about this HAHA but those are my thoughts on that.

When Wave 3 was announced, I didn't think much on the connection of the 3 characters other than they were from the first three core games of modern Kirby. But then they posted this art piece.

It's so cute how Magolor and Taranza combined their magic to create a shield for Kirby!! Both of their respective magic circle designs are melded together perfectly. Did they practice together on their own to perform this or was that a lucky in-the-moment occurrence? Either way, they must know and understand each other's magic abilities to a decent extent. Like how both Claire and Layton understands each other's careers and goals. Layton is a professor in archeology. Claire is a scientist researching time travel and other stuffs. Those fields go hand in hand, and the two do what they can to support and improve each other's passions.

Now onto the other characters that Taranza would've fit as and reasons why I ended up putting him as Claire.

So I put Sectonia as Descole. Descole has an extremely loyal partner/butler/henchman named Raymond. Yea Taranza would easily fit as him, but a few things made me decide not to. Descole may appear cold and not show it, but even in his madness he cares for Raymond. He does order Raymond around, but he still gives Raymond freewill to do as he pleases. Sectonia is very controlling over Taranza. If Raymond were to make mistakes, I don't see Descole punishing him for them. Sectonia would. She blasted Taranza away for mistaking Dedede as the hero of the lower world. Maybe when she was Joronia she wouldn't and wasn't as controlling but....I feel we don't have the full story on their relationship. I also focused more on Sectonia's overall in-game personality. I absolutely love seeing the two spiders enjoying each other's company and having fun, but in-game we never really got what Joronia really thought of Taranza. As Sectonia, she saw him as a disposable servant. You can say her personality was corrupted by the mirror, but I personally believe the mirror actually amplified her negative feelings and views. Negative emotions are brought up a lot in Kirby lore. I personally find that more interesting than just the mirror possessing her or something. I may be very wrong on that, but those are what I thought about.

Last reason, which is uhm, Raymond saves Descole from death FGDHSJ I don't think I need to elaborate on that. It would be so neat and ironic to have Taranza as Raymond, but I also wanna keep things in line as possible with Kirby lore canon.

Yet, who could be Raymond then? Idk fgdsj that's why I struggled so much. If Claire wasn't an option, Taranza would've been Raymond.

Now the one other character Taranza could've fit as is Descole's late wife. His wife was never mentioned by name, to my memory, and didn't have a huge role in the games. There's not enough information on who she was. I wanted to give Taranza a fitting role in personality and importance.

So in the end after all that thinking, Claire it is! I also don't know who else in the Kirby cast would fit her better and be Professor Magolor's late partner. One may think Susie would fit Claire more, but I've already decided she will be Emmy. Emmy's and Susie's personalities are very similar to me. And Emmy's lore? Fits quite well with Susie's. I'll draw that at some point.

So uh yea. Thanks for reading all that if you did! Hope you enjoyed the insanity

[redraven393]

Transformers one time? Yes, it IS

help it is so weird to see him without a face mask, it felt naked.

what are you up to OP?? uh? ah the archives! - Opp to loud- OhhHH~ Lore.

oh no time to bounce OP- wait, Orian Pax?? oh well I can still can call him OP- OMG YOU'RE A REGULAR AT THIS?

buddy you do not negotiate about this with feds- OP- PFFFT okay

HE'S A DORK!

uh? - Uhhhh???- OP???- omg-sure take the snacks- OMG WHY IS EVERYONE KNOW YOU OP???

Opp get caught- omg??? MEGSS???? I recognize that bucket head everywhere.

D-16??- aww they're BFF! - omg he is a dork- Sentinel Prime, eh? will he be a jerk this time around? - the surface?

--------------------

OP: just imagine if we have a Cog- D-16: I will transform into a shovel to hit you OP: ... I don't like how fast you answer that

YOUR HONOR THEY ARE DORKS!!

------------------

Megatronus prime is quite loved in this one huh? to still be called strong and not a tyrant? - and aww D-16 is a fan

did my eyes deceive me or is that fukin WHEELJACK & JAZZ??? YAUBSJ

to the MINES! - JETPACKS!

OHHH ELITA MY DARLING! -omg she's a manager- pfft OP please

ohh? this is a unique mining system- uh oh Wheely- oh no

JAZZ BABY NOOOO-

----------

Jazz: Just leave me! OP: ok Jazz: no wait :(

I love him

----------

THEY'RE SAFE!

aww Elita I am so sorry for you Darling- oh no OP don't- yeah kind expect that

oh, Sentinel home ~ is that Sunstriker? or am I crazy anytime I see the red and gold duo I just Twins???

wait its I-acon not La-con??? omg- huh he already sounds sketchy to me D-16

PROWL! - shut up Sentinel I knew you were a hack anyway- PROWL!!

ohh~ a competition at the 5000th birthday of Iacon?

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE He SAYS IT HE SAYS THE THING!

this version OP is so much fun btw I love him but just like D-16 I too want to shake him like a Maraca- OP dear pls don't take your only best friends to a death trap

glitch as swear words for the bots is everything-, FINALLY we are back to our roots of unique swear words

aww that is so sweet.

ARCEEE!!- IRONHIDE!

huh so Quenteson is in this mess huh? 50 years, so not a recent development but not that old either

the previous Primes are so cool!

oh? - OH- PAX PLEASE!!!- and.... they're off, okay who's planning the funeral for these idiots?

aww at least Arcee is rooting for them :) - BLURR!!!!- SKYFIRE!!!!

----------

D-16: if we live, I'll KILL you OP: okay bestie :D

dorks

-----------

Opp almost- SWINDLE- TAILGATE!! :D- JETSTORM!

NOO- oh no guys please don't be that dumb- they are that dumb omg- Fuk you darkwing

HOTROD! >:D - Mirage!!- oh wat? Magnets? - omg they might actually win this- fuking shoot for the skies next time I guess

CHROMIA! (you fukin bitch)

--------------

well, you guys did wonderful for Minerbots actually

Arachnid - oh? I didn't know we were chill like that Sentinel? are we cool? - are we cool or is he still like a douche? like not Villainy but just ya know an Ick?

is he a frat dude???/

well at least you guys are not going to the slums- Hi~ DarkWing you good buddy~?

fuk you darkwing- sorry boys guess I jinx it- uhm an empurata?

OMG BUMBLEBEE MY BABY BB!! :D :D

oh, darling what have they done to you- sheeshh Bee Honey you are not meant to be here, who is evil enough to make you stuck in here!

Orion dear, Dee darling please save this boy- STEVE! - oh honey D:

OH lore? YO?! - yeah you better watch yourself D-16- didn't the just tell you that they are going to the surface? AGAIN?

Yay you brough the boy- what is the surface anyway? are they like in an eternal lockdown inside the planet’s surface or???- Elita please! -

----------------------

omg? is the planet growing mountains? - you're in Elita? - yeah Bee you got the right idea- oh nooo-

off- ELITA Darling please- hey you were the reason we were out of the train in the first place- ohh robot animals?

Bee honey please-why is it not metal? - a city?? in the surface? rust?

omg-uhhhh tense- wtf was that -Plants? in a metal world?

HOLLY SHIT is that a dead body- is the dead Quinteson rotting body makes the plantation?

oh- omg the all there??- are they eaten or were they murdered>

oh? Alpha Trion? He LIVE!? - might want to rest up a bit old guy-

oh? - huh so AT is unfamiliar with Cog less bot? - Oh? so Sentinel is a bitch then?

oh, wait so there are multiple primes at the same time? huh

SENTINEL YOU ARE A BITCH

so, it just corroded away? - I knew them living under the planet was just fukin weird- wait, are they?? using the TFP dronecon?

OMG those bitch - yeah D-16 we need a revolution

hey now, no need to victim blames here, you all are screwed- no need to fight with each other

oh, shit ok chill my guy, I’m in for the murder but like chill

omg I say it again Sentinel is a bitch-

oh? AT what are you doing- omg is it okay to like took from the dead like this??-

Omg upgrade!!- let's go! - glad Bee is here with us btw my boy deserves this.

say it say the line AT- Nonoo he didn't say the line all I want is for some to say the line WE WERE SO CLOSE TO THE LINE!!!

Opp uh oh someone is here- well if you won't say it I will

Till All are One Alpha Trion

it’s the TFP Dronecon!!! :D where is the REAL Steve- OMG he's a MAXIMAL! a RHINO! - Airchanid, you bitch

pfft L- yeah for someone who never have cogs before having them will be quite difficult - Bee so far have the most natural ability in this

HE'S A TANK! - OH NO BB D: - oh he's okay- aww look at all these dorks

oh no D-16 have a taste in blood- hmm tension is in the air

SENTINEL YU BITCH (I’ll say when ever I see him) -god he's frat boy personality sound so fukin annoying now.

Till all are one Alpha Trion, rest in peace

SHUT UP SENTINEL- okay wait so are all of them a triple changer? is that like a more normal thing here?

the nonmetal nature in Cybertron is still messing me up tbh.

------------------

oh no is this D-16 emo era? are we getting closer to Megatron?

I mean yeah, he's right OP there is a reason it took 50 cycles for even any of you to realize this and you guys got some Hard proof

UH OH- WHOOO???- they are surface bots?? -

STARSCREAM!!! - SHOCKWAVE!!!!!- SOUNDWAVE!!!! AHUVS AGVTW

omg Bee honey- oOhhH the high guards, eh? - OP please.

where are the other members of your usual trios Star???- uhhh yeah you guys are intense

oh? go off D-16 my king??? - OoOHhh

FIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHT

uhh? Star are you a masochist? - oh shit that is some big ass gun-

oh, shit here comes the revolutions - oh no mommy is here.

Piggy bag ride let’s go!

FIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHT- part 2

well at least Star still have his cowardly persona- Yeah Go ELITA! oh no- ah shit

---------------

not my boy nooooo- where all of the positive thinking go OP??

PFFT okay ELITA- Elita my queen please I love you but please!

yeah, there's no way you guys can do this alone YOU NEED to have more bots at your cause

YEAH, QUEEN GO OFF! - I love Elita did I say that already I’ll say it again. ILOVE YOU ELITA OUR QUEEN!!

also looks like there is no empurata in this verse HURRAY

I also love Shockwave and Soundwaves btw they are my blorboos

HE SAYS THE LINE!!!!!

--------

BEE YOU OKAY :D- SHUT THE FUCK UP SENTINEL YOU BITCH

omg so that's why he has that annoying high pitch voice-

-------

D-16: you are a traitor Sentinel: NU UH! >:(

I fukin het him

---------

don’t touch him you bitch- THAT BITCH!!- that fucker- YOU"RE DRAWINGS ARE SHIT!

OP SAVE YOUR BESTIE- fucker you can fly???-

oh, hey Ironhide??- YEAH EAT SHIT DARKWING- oh hey Springer????

Smokescreen?? oh hey Prowl -

SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH SPEACH

say the line damn it- why is no one saying the LINE

------

fukin sentinel you bitch- D-16 honey please take a rest

yeah, ELITA LET'S GOO-THE MINERS LET'S GOOOOO

FIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHT - part 3

EWWWW WTF AIRACHNID- KILL IT KILL HER

Perfect landing if I do say so myself- hey you guys~

bestie we're here for you :D - okay still in that murder drive I see- what is your power exactly Soundwave

FACE MASK FOR MY BOY >:D- lmao get wrecked fuker- KNIFE HAND!

Sentinel you bitch- someone record that bitch's monolog so we can stream it to everyone later- oh yeah, we have the one who always see everything

omg the baby has a taste in blood now-

YEAH, GO OFF KING GET THAT BITCH!

someone make sure Bee is okay, he has too much fun in this

WELCOME TWICH STREAM CHATS TODAY WE ARE EXPOXING THE GOVERMENT!

okay guys maybe let's still be gentle in the mines those stuff is explosive right??

D-16 Please be chill omg- let's not destroy the whole city and like have more collateral damage

shut up sentinel you bitch - OP WHY??!!!- okay you guys let's focus on Sentinel first then-

OP! - omg fukin why!!! why can’t any of you be chill- that's why you need to be chill for once!

D-16? - D-16 buddy pull him up please don't - BITCH WHY????- THERE IS NO REASON FOR THAT!!! NO FUKIN REASON?!-

well, you make your choices, better kill that motherfucker like you said you would.

Primus if you're in there somewhere please god you better save this stupid ass mech- Primus you here?

oh, shit yeah public execution- oh yeah D-16? is this where we going to start a fukin tyranny?

oh, hey guys chilling in the afterlife? - THE MATRIX! >:D

welp boys introducing the new leaders of the two factions Megatron and Optimus prime

MEGATRON BUDDY PLEASE FUKIN CHILL - my guy please be chill

hey Optimus, will still be calling you OP- oh dear the newly Exes meet each other

guys please we do not need to see you two having a fight between the Exes here at the public- ohh fire power Ey?

everyone is just running away and you know what same I too would not want to be anywhere near this shit

THE BATTLE AXE! - you guys need to not be her this is between them only

guys please- this is just some bad break up please someone learn to communicate?

good God Primus all mighty

WHY ARE YOU GUYS SHOWING US THIS AT THIS MOMENT FUK

welp there he goes up in the surface- is the Energon still not flowing?

are you flirting with Elita Op? after just breaking up with Megs not too long ago? (/jk)

--------

Bee: I GET TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT :O?! Bee: this the greatest day of my life >:D

I love him

-------

the Energon is flowing again let’s go!!!!!- the COGS!! LET'S GOOO

IRONHIDE!!! - SIDESWIPE!! - ARCEE - JAZZ - AUTOBOTS no wait so we are not warring with the Decepticon then?

ROOOL Credits

Oh, shit I guess we are fighting the Decepticon- cool tattoo btw Megs

[val-in-the-underdark]

Grief, Pt. 2

I have a thread on Twitter talking about Astarion's grief that I will bring over here eventually, but it's something I thought of again while trying a new path last night.

I'm halfway through Act 3 with Val and I decided to see what would happen if I didn't take Astarion to Cazador's (I've done this quest like 8 times so I'm just doing separate saves to try things out).

It's a pretty rough path to go because Astarion is understandably upset. You robbed him of his choice to ascend or not, and his story is all about lack of free will (he and his siblings are enslaved after all), among several other things.

But if he doesn't break up with you, he tells you that Cazador held up a lot of space in his life and now he feels empty.

The quote before this is that Astarion thinks he would have felt differently if he had killed Cazador himself, but even if you take him with you, he says he feels numb and empty (said here if you defeat Cazador before dealing with Lorroakan).

Several characters in the game have this in common like Dame Aylin, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Karlach, and Wyll, who are all in different stages of mourning a loss. Losing a future. Losing family. Losing freedom.

Grief can be a non-linear process and not the same for everyone. The five stages often quoted are never in a straight line like you would think. You might feel angry right away and hold that for so long that you cycle through everything else later.

Astarion is angry for a lot of the game in part because he's grieving; he was young and then enslaved for centuries with nothing to call his own. He has lost everything including his sense of self, something he will have to rebuild over again after the ending of his quest, The Pale Elf. How he does that is up to you, but with Cazador gone, it's no wonder he feels lost after two centuries.

Lastly, and I find this interesting, is the conversation that Tav/Durge can have when about to kill Cazador (again, if you decide not to take Astarion).

I think that all the evidence you encounter in the palace and in the dungeon isn't there to make you feel bad for Cazador (I mean, you could but you'd be a better person than me LOL). The purpose of Vellioth's lessons and this particular dialogue, etc. is to foreshadow Astarion's potential transformation into the Vampire Ascendant.

Ascended Astarion is a new kind of vampire, yes, but he's still a full vampire. He's not 100% outside of the mentality that full vampires have. For instance, when he first tells you about Cazador in Act 1, he says that vampires are scheming and power-hungry beasts.

This is evidenced by things you find in Cazador's Palace including the fact that he was hosting a final "feast" before the ascension ritual where he was gathering information (pretty sure this person said they worked at the Counting House).

Ascended Astarion is doing something similar in the epilogue when he tells you to bring any secrets right back to him - he's scheming and biding his time just like Cazador.

While we don't know exactly is going through Astarion's mind when he ascends, I sometimes wonder if there is a layer of him trapped like Cazador. I've argued in another thread that I don't think Ascended Astarion will fully deal with his past the way Spawn Astarion has to in order to move on, but maybe I'll re-post that or revise that for another time.

Anyway, while this path is interesting for lore reasons if you really love Astarion, it does feel hollow and anti-climatic because there's a lot of emotional payoff in the final confrontation.

[kaneaken]

If requests are open,

Imagine we're secretly watching Winx Club, and diluc, kaeya, childe and zhongli (separate) barges in on us, (their s/o) to find us watching it.

how would they react? Would they tease? I would die of secondhand embarrassment

author's note; honestly, if someone walked in on me watching it, I would force them to sit with me. I had to cut out Diluc because I was getting repetitive, but I hope the other three can make up from him (⁠´⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠.̫⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠`⁠) I hope you don't mind how late this is (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠) please enjoy :)

content notes; gn!reader, short bullets, bullet format, implied modern au

CHILDE

honestly, with having so many siblings, childe most likely knows what winx club is

tonia most definitely forced her brother to sit with her and watch the entirety of winx club

he knows the lore of the show like the back of his hand

and he has a favorite character (which I'll let you guys debate)

so, when he spots you watching it, he joins in

just plops onto the couch next to you and starts watching it with you

he's definitely like a live commentator

he always finds something to say about the show

whether it's how much he likes this scene, how much he likes that transformation, how much he wants to fight every villain of the show because he totally could beat them

(if you ever get a chance, ask tonia about winx club and her brother, and she'll pull up a photo of him dressed up as one of the characters)

KAEYA

kaeya definitely knows winx club, thanks to babysitting klee

now, kaeya, kaeya might tease, not in a mean way or anything

more of a 'can't believe you're watching winx club.. without me' kinda teasing

honestly, he's the type to start a debate with you over which transformation is best

you literally have to pause to show to finish that debate

he just does it to make you ramble and talk because he likes watching you do that

but also he gets really into the debate at one point (he's defending klee's favorite, so he's gotta put in the work)

you guys end up forgetting about the show and spend about an hour debating the whole thing

he won in the end

ZHONGLI

now, zhongli, like diluc, has heard of it maybe once or twice, but he's never watched it himself

when he walks in on you watching winx, he wouldn't pay much attention to it

if you ask if he wants to join, he'll definitely take a seat next to you

he's similar to childe because he ends up talking during the show

he'll see something and ask a question

like 'why are they transforming?'

'why are there so many different versions?'

you definitely have to pause a lot to explain to him the best you could

he definitely gets invested, even ends up asking you to let him know when you'll be going on a winx watch marathon again

[speedycoffeedelight]

An Animalistic Disaster

CH-17: Mr. Cottontail

Masterlist

Summery:

Where you recollect more of your memories and open a bunch of trading cards. And a duo might have figured out the reason behind transformation, but we'll see.

A.n : There's going to be some heavy lore drop here. So just brace yourself a little. Also from now, the animal's dialogues will be in italics so it's easy to understand. I'll get to editing the previous chapters as well.

"I swear to god...one of these morning I'm going to have a heart attack."

You grumbled while sitting and held your head in your palm. You looked at Cherri who was in a makeshift cage made from a big plastic basket, trying to shake it and screeching. She had to learn her lesson some way. Your head was still pounding right now.

Then you looked at Husk who was trying his best to fit into the biggest shirt you had. The buttons on his chest were holding on for dear life. Honestly, it kinda made you jealous.

Husk was a black man who seemed to in his late 40's or 50's. He had black hair pulled back with white streaks on them as well as a small goatee. He had light yellow eyes that looked tired as hell. And the muscles in his hand, holy shit, it looked like he could easily carry you up like a feather. Husk was easily the best thing of this morning.

He of course also had feline features like before. A pair of black cat ears and tail adorned his form. He also had slitted black eyes. His nails were a bit sharper too.

And of course neither of you were prepared for him to transform in middle of sleeping, nobody was. God the embarrassment and confusion you felt when you opened your eyes to see an old handsome man staring at you with sleepy eyes, just as confused as you were.

You would have immediately swooned if not for the fact that you didn't know this guy and the fact he was shirtless, on your fucking bed, cuddling you.

So you did the first thing that came to your mind. You let out a loud scream and pushed him off the bed. He landed on the ground in front of Charlie and others with a big thud. "Oof, what the hell-" Cherri burst out laughing beside you. 'Now that's more like it!'

"Husk are you alright?" Charlie immediately kneeled down to check for injuries. "Husk??" You pulled the cover to your chest and looked down to see him properly. But you quickly averted your gaze when you saw he was shirtless with just a pant on. But that image will forever be engraved into your simp brain.

So after that was all over, you learnt what happened and caged Cherri. She was grounded till she learnt her lessons. You rubbed your head in frustration as Niffty brought you a cup of coffee.

"Here you go miss (Y/n)!"

You thanked her and took a sip. She still looked at you like she was waiting for something. Confused, you raised an eyebrow.

"...Do you need something Niffty?"

"You didn't pat my head." She said it like it was obvious and kept looking at you with wide eyes. You got surprised at this answer. 'She wants to be petted??' but then you remembered she was part dog now and that's probably the reason she was acting like this.

You reached out and patted her head making her smile happily as she wagged her tail. 'Adorable~' you thought in your mind.

Last night's memory was a bit hazy to you. You rubbed your head in frustration trying to remember it. Angel climbed onto the table grinning at you.

'Toots, didn't know ya were such a lightweight. Haha, but you gave quite a show last night, I'll give ya that." Niffty translated it, making you more worried. You asked her to recount the things to you. Pentious joined you since he wasn't there last night as well.

" I did what?"

Last night's memory came flooding back to you bit by bit as you listened. You, you finally petted Alastor's ears! You couldn't believe it.

'What's with the screaming, my dear?'

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. You grinned as you turned to face the stag. "I finally patted you, you smiling bastard!" You mentally cheered as you looked at him with a prideful smile. Alastor felt his face get hot again at that memory and he bonked you on the head with his antlers.

"OUCH what was that for!"

After you finished eating, you drove Charlie off to the cafe. Apparently Vaggie knew how to drive so she went with you two so she could memorize the roads. Once she memorizes she could drive Charlie sometimes as well.

After waving her off at the shop, you quickly departed. You let Vaggie take the wheel this time while you gave directions. Vaggie was an excellent driver. You were quite impressed.

Charlie took a deep breath as she got dropped off and watched you two drive away." This is it Charlie. You gotta make them proud. Right, let's do this!"  she entered the store after mentally cheering herself.

"Oh hi there Charlie. Good to see you back."

Adrian gave her a warm smile as he was middle of cleaning. He put the broom he was cleaning with aside and guided her to the counter. He gave her a new apron to wear that had the cafe's name on it.

"Alright, I'll show you the ropes first time. Then it'll be up to you."

Charlie nodded and took the apron.

"Also won't you take off those horns and ears? You're in middle of work now."

She gulped, right, these weren't normal. But she hadn't practiced what to say during this. She thought it would be okay since they didn't question it before.

"Uh...can they please stay on? I promise you they won't cause any trouble!"

"Huh? Oh..okay then. I just thought it might be easier if you took them off."

Just then a ring sounded out from the door, signaling someone entered the shop. Adrian flashed Charlie a quick look while smiling.

"Come on, it's showtime!"

At evening, you went to go pick up Charlie. As Charlie was about to get into the car, Adrian called out to her.

"Charlie, wait!"

You and Charlie both looked at Adrian who rushed to you guys with a small bag.

"A small gift for your first day at work." He handed Charlie the bag and grinned.

"There's a piece of strawberry cake inside. Have a safe return home."

Charlie delightfully thanked him and got back into the car. While you were driving she told you about her experience which you listened to happily. It seemed like the day went pretty well. Even though there weren't much customers, Charlie enjoyed her time there. Plus from what you heard and saw, Adrian seemed to be a good boss.

The next day, you drove Charlie again as Vaggie sat with you. Pentious joined you this time as some of his works were done. Husk came as well to buy some clothes and as well as take a look at the human world. During the drive, Husk remembered something.

"Hey kid, I forgot to ask you this before but who the hell is cottontails?"

Those words hit you like a lightning as you brain started to overwhelm with memories. It's been a long while since you heard that name.

"W-where did you hear that name?"

"When you were holding me a day ago. You whispered you missed whatever it was."

"That was my pet bunny...I lost him when I was six. That night, my parents had a huge argument after dinner and we moved to my uncles house the very next day. In the end, I never knew what happened to it."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

You weren't allowed to keep pets when you were a child. Your dad claimed it would be a waste of time and it will take your attention away from your duties. One day, while you were walking outside on your lawn, you stumbled across a small frail baby bunny. There was only one and it looked like it didn't even have the energy to move. After looking around, you found no signs of any other rabbits around.

You found yourself in a pickle. Your heart cried to take it home and care for it. But another part of you warned that if your father found out, you'd be in big trouble. You picked up the small thing, lost in thought and whispering "What am I going to do with you little bunny? "

The bunny moved a little and sniffed your hand, making your heart swoon. You decided immediately "Heck with it! Having a small bunny will be fine! Plus they won't make any noises like kitties or doggies! I can do this! I'll just need to be careful!"

The bunny again stopped moving in your arms and seemingly fell asleep. Your eyes glazed over it, trying to think of a name.

"I think I'll call you....mr.cottontails!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Several months went by after getting mr.cottontails. You kept him under your bed. You always cleaned your own room by yourself so it wasn't a problem. You would let him run around your room once you locked the door and quickly hide him when someone was coming. Your dad was quite suspicious at how you looked so cherry recently but didn't question it. On the other hand, your mom was quite happy with this change in you.

Then one day, while you were on your way to your room after finished studying with your tutor, you spotted your dad. He seemed to be amused by something. He spotted you as well and gave you a smile.

"Isn't it a nice day today? Are you doing alright (Y/n)?"

You were taken aback by his sudden change of attitude but nodded and said everything was fine. Something was clearly wrong, you could feel it in your gut.

You rushed to your room after that and looked for your rabbit. It was gone... "Cottontail? Mr.cottontail??" You called out yet you couldn't spot the familiar ball of fluff running towards you like usual.

You spent the rest of the day trying to find him but no avail. There was no sign of him anywhere. And you couldn't even ask anyone else if they've seen him cause you're not supposed to have one in the first place.

Then your mind went to your father earlier, it had to him! That's why that damn man was smiling at you.

At dinnertime, you were fighting to keep your tears from coming out. You couldn't afford to let yourself be broken in front of him. You knew that he knew about you knowing what he did. He was just waiting for you to burst so he can properly punish you for going against his rules.

While your mom was serving you the stew for that night's dinner, she could sense something was wrong.

"(Y/n) dear, is everything alright?"

"Y-yes, mom, everything's fine. Don't worry."

"Of course everything's fine with her. (Y/n), today's stew is extra delicious, go ahead and try." Your dad said from across the table, grinning at you. You couldn't bear to look at this man's face properly. The rest of the dinner was quiet with you almost crying in the middle.

After you finished eating, you went straight to your room and locked the door and started crying. Sometime later, you heard your parents fighting over something. You pulled a pillow over you head to stop hearing to those as you sobbed harder.

You hated this. You hated screaming and fighting. You hated living here. You hated your dad. You hated it, hated it, hated it.

You wanted to go out and be with your mom. But you knew better then to do that. The last time you did, you just made things worse. You don't know after how long, it could have been several minutes or several hours, but your mom knocked on your door to tell you to pack and that you're leaving. The rest of the time went down in a haze and before you knew it, you both were standing in front of your aunt's house.

.

.

.

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.

.

After dropping off Charlie, you and Pentious went around shops to try and resell those fixed products and let Vaggie show Husk around a little. You successfully managed to resell some of the products.

After that, you bought some cloths for the bartender. Husk had been nagging you nonstop to buy some booze since the beginning. So you did, but you made him use his puppy eyes first. Husk hated every second of that but he swallowed down his pride for booze. He was too far gone at that point.

After coming home, you received a delivery of the cards you ordered. You immediately got down to opening them after squealing in happiness.

"Please give me an Alastor card.. please give me an Alastor card..."

"You really want Alastor's card that badly?" Charlie said laughing and sitting next to you.

"Of course I do! He's my favourite character!" You mumbled while collecting the packs from the box. Suddenly you could feel eyes on you from the back. You sighed.

"Alastor I can feel your smugness from here, stop it." You turned around at the deer behind you.

'I didn't do anything dear. I'm just standing here and observing ' Alastor had shit eating grin in his face. 'Though I am very much charmed you consider me as your favourite.'

"Someone tell me what he's saying. I know he's enjoying this too much." You picked up a pack and finally opened it.

Niffty translated it for you. "Yeah well I liked you better when you were in a cartoon, not annoying my ass off."

The first holo card you got was of Charlie's. Charlie's face lit up seeing it and immediately showed it to Vaggie. You got Angel, tom treanch and a new character called lute in too. After opening  three more packs, you were presented with holo Angel, Vellevette and razzle and dazzle. And you also found an ultra rare card of Lilith. Yet there was no sign of Alastor.

You were lucky enough to get normal cards for most of the cast present with you though. You handed them their own cards. Sighing you picked up the final pack and looked Alastor dead in the eye.

"You better be in here deer boy."

'Oh she means business this time angie.' Cherri chuckled leaning onto the spider. 'yeah and this shits hilarious to watch.' Both of their own cards were in front of them. Angel with his holo card and Cherri with the normal one.

"Is that a fucking condom you're holding there?" Husk was leaning down looking at Angel's card while pointing at it. Angel shot him a smug grin while wriggling his eyebrows. 'Yeah, it is. You like what you see here kitty?'

Husk didn't say anything and just knocked Angel away with a flick of his fingers. The corner of his lips turned up seeing how easily he can move angel away now.

'What, hey! What the fuck Husk?!'

"You deserved it."

With your heart pounding, you opened the last pack and pulled out the holo one. Others looked at you eagerly to see your reactions.

"I fucking got Alastor! Let's go!"

You jumped up on your bed from the excitement, surprising everyone.

"Look! Look! Alastor it's you!" You practically shoved the card in front of his face, making him take a step back. Before he could see clearly you took back the card to see it again while fangirling.

"Look at my little boy with all these creepy symbols around him! He's so pretty!" You were so happy that you couldn't care less that the real Alastor was right in front of you. Until Alastor nudged you on your head with his antlers and grabbed the card with his teeth.

"Hey, give it back!" You streached your hand to grab it but he turned around and placed the card on the table before you could do anything. He finally took a good look at his card. 'Hm, not bad.' You finally went to the table and snatched it back.

After you carefully stored the cards, you began preparing dinner while humming. Angel and Cherri was lazily sitting on the counter while looking at you.

'Hey Angel, how come we didn't transform yet? It sucks being in this form..'

'You tell me toots. That snake boy and kitty cat got to transform before I did. Now that's some bullshit right there.'

'There's gotta be some kinda link somewhere right?'

'There have to be! Wait..if we think about it... when they all transformed...they were all with (Y/n) right?'

'Shit, Angie you might be onto somethin'

You gave the guys their food. You had to drag Husk to the dinner table since he was passed out drunk on the couch. You called Pentious from outside as well. Recently he took on a new task. He volunteered to fix the shitty wooden sofa set you had. You were truly grateful for that.

During dinner, Cherri climbed on top of your right shoulder and Angel on left. You paused eating to look at them with confusion.

'We decided that we want to stay as close to (Y/n) we can from now on!'  Cherri said making everyone squint their eyes at them.

"Uh, guys...can y'all tell me what they're saying?"

Charlie translated it for you making you even more confused.

"But why?"

'Because we want to!'

Everyone just shook their head thinking this pair was just being their usual chaotic self. But you realised they weren't joking when you went to sleep and they both cuddled up to you, declaring they'll sleep there. Normally you'd think this was cute, however there were two problems.

One, is that, you might move in your sleep and accidentally squish these small creatures. Especially Angel.

Two, they were laying on your chest....

"Angel..Cherri...can I ask why you decided THIS would be a good place to sleep on?"

'What? Ya got nice pair of tit's and they make a nice pillow.'

'Plus Husk slept too did't he?'

Niffty who was sitting beside you translated it making you go blush madly. You quickly shoved them both away and pulled the cover closer to yourself.

"Fuck no. Pervert! I was drunk that time! Either sleep on a pillow next to me or get out of my room!"

At last they both slept next to you after you scolded them for some time. Next two days went the same way. Angel and Cherri were with you everywhere. They even tried to sneak into your shower before you found out and kicked them out. Currently they were both sitting on top of your kitchen counter, munching on nuts and fruits lazily. Husk was making himself a burger currently.

'Nothin's working...where did we go wrong?'

'We definitely missed something. Our plan was bulletproof! We're just missing one key point...'

'We spent the whole last two days with 'er twenty four hours. I think we have seen and know everything about her already! We even know how she almost cried while editing her news'

'Or how she tilts her head when she doesn't understand something?' Cherri piped in.

'or when she sings when she thinks no one was listening.' Angel said laughing. 'Oh her face is priceless when she gets caught. She still sometimes forgets that she lives with a whole bunch of demons now.'

'Have you noticed the BL manga's of her's-'

They continued chatting like this for a while, pointing out small details that you do, things that you like or dislike and laughing amongst themselves.

'Haha...that girl really is something..'

'Yeah, She's completely my type.'

'Ya might want to confess quickly then. Otherwise I might just steal her first ' Angel said winking. Cherri scoffed and bumped him with her tail.

'Hey what gives? I thought you were gay?'

'I am, But who am I to resist a sweet thing like her. She's an exception.'

' You already have Alastor and Husk to fawn over. Leave (Y/n) to me bastard.'

'No can do sweetheart. First come, first serve'

They both looked at each others eyes for a second then burst out laughing. It might seem like they were joking from the front, but they both knew they were seriously attracted to you.

Suddenly they both got engulfed in golden light. Husk stopped in the middle of biting his burger and looked at them wide eyed. Now in place of the spider and the squirrel, there were two humans.

Angel and Cherri looked at each other, wide eyed. Angel opened his mouth first.

"Shit I think I know the key behind transforming!"

A.n: Now I know there are tons of fanarts of human Husk with White skin but I'll always headcannon Husk as a black man, the same colour as his VA. And I'll die on this hill defending that.

Plus it's refreshing to have different veraites of race and colour presented (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~

Also might go on a little break since some of my important college exams are coming up. Hope ya enjoyed the chapter ~

Tag list: @legostars @glowinthedarkbones1150 @darifes @aria-tempest @rainbowcake1212 @luxylucylou

[dead-lights]

trai-lore!

because ya know. trailers. with lore.

i'll see myself out

but! before i go - I went and compiled all of the Vampires trailers I could find! I wasn't familiar with all of the shorts and I'm not 100% sure I found them all. There are a lot of contradictions, but aside from the gameplay trailer they can mostly be stitched together.

Also, I recognize I'm trying to wring blood from a stone, reading into things that EA never intended, but ya know. That's the point of exploring lore!

this is mostly validated by werewolves - Lily's dialogue confirms that Caleb was turned by Miss Hell, and the 7 years unlucky mirror confirms that Vlad ambushed her while she was brushing her teeth.

It looks like the bar Miss Hell attacks Caleb in is supposed to be in Forgotten Hollow. There are plenty of reasons he could've been there, but to me that implies that Lilith turned first, and he was there because that's where she hangs out now.

It looks like you're supposed to be able to see the normie parts of Forgotten Hollow from that cliff with the bench, rather than just more of the mountain. There's definitely supposed to be more than just those 5 lots.

I'm not sure if the person behind Miss Hell in the bar is anyone specific? they feel slightly familiar but I might be thinking of Leila Illes from island living, which came out afterwards.

It's unclear how Caleb ended up in the bathroom or whether he asked to turn - the animation is the same either way. In game, I've had a lot of success with both bat-form bathroom ambushes and the good ol' "ask for woohoo and then cancel the order as soon as you're alone together" maneuver so either is plausible. To me, it looks like she's reenacting her transformation, with her as Vlad, so she would've wanted unwilling prey. I've generally thought that Caleb followed her into the bathroom thinking he was going to get laid, but with that in mind it does make sense that she would've just ambushed him when he got up to pee (poor humans and their bladders can't handle their nectar). @charsimsalot has a lot of interesting things to say about how being forcibly turned would have affected Miss Hell in this excellent post about the apartment they built for the rebellious vampires!

That bathroom door is on backwards. I checked - that door only has a sign on one side. Maybe they really wanted to hammer home the point that this is a bathroom? the sink and toilet do a pretty good job of that...

Caleb is not a daywalker in this trailer - since this seems to show him in his earlier days, that 100% checks out. It takes 15 skill points to become a daywalker, which... yikes.

note: I know the sims is very gay these days but do keep in mind that vampires was released January 2017. Gay marriage wasn't fully legalized in the US until June 2015. It was a big deal that Caleb suave kissed a guy in the trailer!

fun fact: the song used for this, deadly flo, seems to be either very cheap or free to license. It is used in a few episodes of the Baking Championship franchise. Y'all, that franchise got me back into baking and directly inspired GOBC. I lost my absolute shit when I heard it playing! There are also parts of Holiday Baking Championship that sound suspiciously like the sims 2 theme... I kinda wonder if there's a simmer in their sound department.

Not really that interesting - earlier versions of their outfits/vlad's dark form. Lilith cannot actually turn into a bat in-game.

vlad bloodvein can use "deprive needs" (must be a master vampire at minimum)

brandy can turn into a bat (should be a minor vampire at minimum)

based on the view outside Brandy's bedroom window, it looks like the virtuous vampires might live in an apartment in San Myshuno?

vlad uses supernatural speed to collect figurines

Not very interesting - just Brandy and Elle eating.

↓↓↓ WARNING - jumpscare below ↓↓↓

lmao what

this one doesn't even seem real, but as far as I can tell it was in fact released as a teaser for the full trailer.

This is the official trailer - it lines up reasonably well with other lore. Also the song is so fun.

Most notably: this trailer shows that Caleb is the one who turned Inna. No context is given. Other promotional material & the in-game paintings show that she was a thrall, potentially for hundreds of years before Caleb turned her.

The exterior of the house where Caleb turns Inna looks exactly like Wolfsbane Manor. However, Inna's bedroom doesn't match any room in the manor. It looks like there is a nearly identical house where Widowshild Townhouse currently is, so either Inna was in that house, or Wolfsbane Manor has since been remodeled. It would be kinda interesting if Caleb and Lilith decided to buy Inna's old house when they moved...

When Caleb turns into a bat, he's in the graveyard to the left of Vlad's house. Maybe he and Lilith lived with Vlad for a time? It kinda looks like Vlad had a lot of vampires filtering in and out of his place.

Elle real horny. I wonder what happened to that guy - he isn't a gallery vampire but he shows up in a lot of the paintings. As far as I'm aware Elle doesn't show up in any paintings.

This trailer is an absolute mess. It contradicts enough existing lore that it shouldn't be taken as any sort of canon, but it's a decent source of inspiration to fill in the gaps, and I pulled heavily from it when I was choosing powers for the gallery vampires.

Elle uses her mist form (I checked the animations) - she must be a grand master. She can use Command.

Markus Crow has supernatural speed - must be master+

Lilith is using a computer at the beginning of this, which feels weird because this is supposed to be at least 50 years ago. That said, technology doesn't advance in the sims, so, sure.

This makes it look like Vlad just broke into her house and turned her like he did with Miss Hell, but to me Lily makes it sound like Lilith was a more active participant: "I remember when my cousin, Lilith, first told me she'd met a fascinating man named Vlad. After that, she started spending a lot of time "training" with him. I thought she meant they were workout buddies. It wasn't until later that I found out she'd been lured to the dark arts."

Lilith's bed is a reward from the painter career - not sure if the implication is that she earned it herself?

I can't really see outside Lilith's windows, but it does kinda look like Forgotten Hollow? Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me - why would she and Caleb have to move to Forgotten Hollow if they already lived there? That said, that isn't Lilith. And that isn't Caleb. This was from when their names were Gina and Raylan.

Note that "Raylan" doesn't have the good vampire aspiration, and his traits are completely different. The others aren't quite the same as the gallery sims, but at least they still have the same names.

Looking out the window, it looks like the Virtuous Vampires are in Forgotten Hollow with everyone else. In one of the shorts, it looks like they live in a big city. I'm not sure which I like better!

Lilith is used as the example for supernatural strength. While she doesn't actually have that in-game, this is part of why I like to make her fitness 10 brute with vampiric might.

Elle continues to be real horny. Who is that guy? I like the implication that they had to go get it on as bats because Vlad was taking a nap and they couldn't fuck in his coffin :(

Bonus! While this isn't a trailer, exactly, it's a promotional blog post from Vlad's point of view and it is the best. Every last part of this makes me happy, from Caleb and Lilith ganging up on Vlad to Vlad referring to sparring matches as "epic duels" (or, in this particular case, what seems like a pretty good training sesh for Caleb).

Nothing about Lilith makes it seem like she doesn't feed on people except a) her household description and b) this post. That said, those two things about as primary as canon can get.

Vlad claims to own 100 gray coats

Vlad only fought Caleb. There could be so many reasons for that - was Caleb the one who made the challenge? Does Vlad not want to fight his offspring?

Vlad claims that the Encyclopedia Vampirica is mostly based on him. Make of that what you will.

Second bonus: Did you know that Vlad has a normie cousin??? There was a bit of promotional content for seasons involving the Climate family. This is that time they invited Vlad over for Harvestfest.

Please let me know if I missed anything! There's a lot of material out there, much of it no longer available on EA's site, so it's definitely possible there are things I didn't find.

[sockslikeautumn]

Please write more of yandere golden boy (Julian Peyton) and his transformation into a golden boy.

Julian Peyton

Yandere golden boy aftermath

Male original character x gender-neutral reader

SFW, 0.7k+ words, kinda angsty, addiction, trauma, reader, and OC are 18+!

Read the first chapter for more context!

Trigger warnings: Suicide, suicidal thoughts, mentions of self-harm, depression, implied turning yandere/obsessed, cigarettes addiction.

The reader has suicidal thoughts mentioned here!

You are entirely responsible for what you consume.

Thank you so much for requesting this! I literally cried when I read it because I had been struggling with writer's block for months. This isn't all that much of a chapter, but it is important so Julian's character doesn't feel rushed or out of place when becoming our yandere golden boy.

Reading the first chapter again, it does feel like I was creating one of those unique-esc OC's, like "Oh, he's also a lost child from the royal family and oh, he's also a half-dragon, half-demon mermaid!" But I rolled with it either way this time even though a part of his and YN's lore felt a bit too inspired by my own life than it should have.

If my one, and in fact, first ever fan and anon that I don't know personally wants another chapter added, I'll make it special just for you :)

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!

Walking into his house didn't feel dreadful for the first time. Sure, the familiar scent of nicotine didn't fail to hit his nose, but he didn't feel like running away instantly. 

He took off his shoes, old and worn-out. His footsteps creaked on the floorboards and he missed the feel of not being barefoot. Vulnerable. Usually, his head would snap to the living room to see if Mason was still breathing, but now that was the least of his worries. The bedroom door shut behind him. 

Trash, musty clothes, and cigarette packs brushed under his feet. It hadn't come to him that he could possibly cut himself on any glass from the empty bottles, without his will this time.

His safe haven didn't feel the best anymore. Something else felt much more inviting and more… pleasant than the feel of his dirty sheets and the darkness around him. 

You. Little ol’ sweet you from class.

What was your name again? He knew the professors often praised your name but he couldn't remember it.

It was average, you were average. Always trying to act like a know-it-all kid, blending into the group of people he never cared to look in the eyes. Though, now you couldn't seem to leave his brain.

Why... Why did you stop him?

You didn't have to, who would've even forced you to help him out? You weren't lying to him, were you?

No. It was too sincere. Too real to be fabricated.

You described yourself as worthless. You had perfect grades, friends, and a family that cared. What would you be struggling with? You weren't poor, you weren't bullied all your life and you didn't have to worry about someday living on the streets. Yet, you were so similar. 

You were suicidal, you were cutting yourself, seen on your wrist, and you were clearly going through a lot of pain. Was that why you felt inclined to help him? 

He glanced at his bed stand where his phone was, sunlight was trying to creep through his window curtains uninvited. With a groan, he went to grab it, the thing feeling like a brick in his hands. His eyes burned under his glasses at the light.

A solid 46% percent was in the corner and after a couple of minutes, he found the Facebook of his school. It didn't take long to find your face posted on the account, his starting to burn.

You weren't average-looking like he previously thought. Dorky smile, pretty eyes, and a diploma stating second place in your hands. It had your name written. 

Y/n L/n...

Blood rushed to his cheeks like never before. An unfamiliar part of him stiffened, a type of stiffness that was itching only for you. Yearning for the first time.

You were so beautiful... You had these sparkling eyes, silky hair, pearly teeth that he wished were like his, and soft lips he'd one day run his tongue over.

“Fuck..” He groaned from the bottom of his throat. He imagined his thumb was running over your cheek and not the many cracks on his phone screen.

What were you doing to him? He's never felt the need to feel someone's embrace, touch them, maybe even kiss them…

Whatever it was, he didn't want it to ever end.

Will he ever see you again? He did have school tomorrow, would you feel excited to know he hadn't killed himself when you left? Would you feel excited to see him?

He knows he shouldn't feel this way, you were just like the rest of them. Making him feel wanted, loved. But maybe now, he'd find a way to keep that love for himself. Keep you for himself.

Maybe tonight he'd finally clean his room, brush his teeth, and clean his messy hair. You'd like that for him, right? You'd want for him to not fetch his favorite razor and watch the skin roll between the blades, right?

His dry lip rolled between his teeth, your voice playing in his head like a broken record.

"Please, Julian, let me help you."

So shaky, like how the touch of your hand felt.

"Please, Julian."

Just his name alone on your tongue would have prevented his death.

"Julian..."

Just his name would do wonders for him.

Masterlist for Julian

I'm open to all constructive criticism, not bullying!

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

So You Want To Know Garu & Karu (Timeline Edition)

Very loosely inspired by Idololivine's Olivine post and Halfeti's Edmond post. Update: here's Phaerlax's post about WRITING Garu&Karu

Lore spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BSTEdunb5PwVkhcuoEkaFVXUIk02FCnsoYkhL8yB9pA/edit?gid=221633315#gid=221633315

This is also going to double as a directory of all my Garu/Karu analysis posts.

Note: I did not play every 2022/2023 event, so if Garu/Karu had a tiny cameo in other events, I might have missed it even when watching recordings of past events. Please let me know if I'm missing something or have something wrong.

Warning for many spoilers & also trauma!

This timeline was last updated when Ch 14 pt2 was released.

This is an attempt at a complete timeline of Garu & Karu's history, that we know of. I've written quite a few meta about Garu/Karu, and thought we also need a concrete "these are the canon facts of their history".

Pre-Eiden Arrival:

Assume all these dates are before from Eiden's arrival in Klein.

[25-30 years ago before Eiden arrived in Klein] Garu was born to a nomad wolf spirit pack with a gemstone in his throat (Misty Vale, Ch 14)

[20-25 years ago] Garu, still a cub (in Earth normal wolf years, that would mean 3.5~ months old, unsure about Klein wolf spirit years), is kidnapped by some humans that eventually brought him to the Council of Sorcery (Ch 14).

[20-25 years ago] Kolt and his research team force Garu to transform into a wolf yokai/human form. Karu is formed as a DID trauma protective response. (Ch 14)

[23 years ago] Huey disappears, Eiden is born

[20-23 years ago] Kolt & his team continue to torture Karu, while Garu is dormant during the experiments, Cashel takes care of their injuries. (Ch 14)

[20-23 years ago] Rei returns to Council of Sorcery, Cashel catches him up with what's going on. The church has some kind of plan for Kolt's experiment (aka Garu/Karu), so 2 scientists on Kolt's team remove Garu's gemstone, Karu kills them, Rei & Cashel escape with Karu. (Ch 14)

[10-20 years ago] Garu/Karu and Cashel/Gramps are hiding in a cabin in the Dead Zone, killing monsters, taking care of people who get lost in the Dead Zone. At one point, Cashel/Gramps nearly drowns and never recovers from the illness. (Ch 7)

[3-10 years ago] Gramps dies, leaving Garu/Karu to wander Dead Zone alone. They do also find a cave for their main hiding spot. They also meet Blade occasionally in the Dead Zone. (Ch 7, AxBxO)

[Year Eiden arrives] Eiden meets Karu 1st, then Garu in the Dead Zone. Eiden proposes the human slave plan & Karu accepts. (Ch 7)

At this point, I don't know where the timeline is, because we don't know when the events are taking place amongst the main chapters, so I'll split it into sections.

Main story timeline:

Ch 8: Garu/Karu meets the rest of the gang and moves into Aster's mansion.

Ch 13: Garu reunites with Rei & co, they travel to Wood territory to find Kuya & Quincy because the Wood territory is in danger.

Ch 14: Karu makes Rei promise not to tell Garu his history, in part 2, he does anyways.

Events/SSR timeline:

Master's Gift: revealed that Karu idolizes/occasionally visits Kuya

Mystic Banquet/Endless Banquet SSR: G/Karu are not invited to the yokai banquet because they're under 100 years old and not as powerful as Yakumo. Kuya takes them and Eiden along to be his attendants. Shenanigans happen. Note: In the lore document, it says that Garu produced purple flames during his performance. That was actually Kuya that created the flames.

Idol Fest: Karu is a fan of Blade's idol persona.

Klein Star: Karu and Dante hunt a wild animal as a birthday present for Eiden.

Eerie Escapade/Howling Cyclone: It is revealed that Yakumo reads adventure stories to them, Garu likes drawing pictures, and shenanigans happen.

Silver Miracle: Garu sticks up for Kuya when the rest of the clan assumes Kuya is endangering Eiden with Night Crane shenanigans.

AxBxO/Forgotten Fruit: Shenanigans happen inside a book AU. Garu officially asks out Eiden to be his commander/master. Karu admits that he doesn't hate Eiden in a very backhanded way.

Misty Vale/Ethereal Guardian: Garu finds how hints about his past, so we can assume this event happened before ch 14 for sure.

Frozen Echoes/Binary Starlight: Echo spirits shenanigans happen including Karu getting kidnapped for 2/3 of the event. Garu & Karu perform with Edmond & Quincy for the Festival, Aster sells merch with everyone's face. Karu is scouted and then auditions to be a model, shenanigans, he gets some fans, and then ends up being a model/promoter for one of the restaurants.

Garu/Karu make cameos in Journey to a Nu World and Fancy Capricio, but they're AU/dreamland events and therefore not happening in the real (Klein) world. The only thing that happens in the real (Klein) world is that they join the clan in the hot springs.

Desert of Dusk/Stampeding Adventurer: Garu goes with Eiden to a town outside of Solaria while Dante is investigating it. Shenanigans. We can assume this event happened before ch14 because Garu has another confusing flashback.

Dessert Island Knockout/Beguiling Windchaser: Garu wins round 1 of the sports competition, and then together with Dante & Quincy wins the final flag of the whole contest. Garu is fast enough to be able to dodge both Dante and Quincy's (paintball/fire) attacks. Karu is apparently afraid of ghosts now, and can be easily fooled by human scent tricks.

This post will be updated as future events/chapters occur!

All my Garu/Karu analysis posts:

[tehrevving]

What has been Vincent's thoughts on reader? Especially the latest date fiasco and his moody reveal turning into probably the best bj of his life

Holy crap this answer got so long and drops so much unrevealed lore lmao. Enjoy!

My general characterisation of Vincent with regards to sex is that he is very interested in giving, but not so much receiving. Most of his sexual experience was with women at 'Turk Academy', who gravitated towards him because he was great at eating out and didn't expect too much in return. Vincent is demi and bi in my fic, but has a preference for women (because they make more mess lmao), not sure if that's relevant but *shrug*.

Due to him being demi, most of his experience being casual and how Lucrecia used him (which I've hinted at a little bit). He doesn't see fingering/eating out/etc as things that are overly emotional or complicated. Especially in the 'modern' day, as he can just keep his clothes on during all of it.

Reader made a deliberate effort in the beginning to understand him and get closer to him, just as a friend of course, but I don't think it's too surprising that he 'latched on' to the first person to take an interest in actually getting to know him in a long time. I do wish I'd added an extra chapter near the beginning to make this a bit more clear lol, but oh well.

After Hojo's experiments on him, he doesn't think anyone could ever want him. He actually is that person covering the bathroom mirrors and showering in the dark lol. He interprets Reader initially showing sexual interest in him, not as her actually wanting him, but as her wanting him to pleasure her, which he has no problem with doing.

She tries to address this in chapter 9 (the one after the stargazing but before the eating out), and explicitly tells him that she wants more, but he's so in denial that while he says he'll try and be better, in his mind he doesn't believe her, and to cope with it reverts to trying to ignore all of it with sex. Which was basically his relationship with Lucrecia lol, everything is too complicated so we'll just fuck and ignore all of it.

Vincent caught feelings after the fight where he transforms and the conversation afterwards. He didn't realise that's what was happening at the time, and has been in extreme denial about it. A lot of his back and forth behaviour has been him trying to reconcile his feelings with his own self-doubt and just general trauma and issues, and that he generally didn't see sex as a big deal, until suddenly it is.

All of this then builds up to the point where he just can't handle it anymore. He hasn't tried getting off after all of the experimentation, and finds that he can't on his own. I might write this as an extra chapter one day, but I feel like he can't push himself over that metaphorical edge because of his self-loathing, hatred and fear of losing control over his own body.

When he asks her for help getting off that first time, he's actually asking for a lot of unspoken things. The fact that she doesn't shy away from him, is very enthusiastic, and works within his boundaries, is a huge deal. That interaction gives Vincent hope that all of this might work.

Which brings us to the Gold Saucer date. I love this chapter. It might not be super obvious, but almost every single interaction that the two of them have with the attractions and the other group members has narrative significance. (send me another ask and I'll do a whole analysis on that lol)

Vincent decides that he is going to use this time at the Gold Saucer as a test, to see if he thinks that he can make this work. Vincent has a lot of hangups about his body and that he's not normal. He has quite an old fashioned mentality about courting someone, dating etc (but not fucking lmao). And is very aware that he can't take her out to share a meal/drinks, or do a lot of general date things. He considers this to be a huge deal.

He starts off in a good mood but grows continually frustrated throughout the night as he is reminded of all of his perceived shortcomings, and the fact that none of them seem to bother her.

By the time the G-bike VR is finished, that frustration reaches its peak and Vincent is sort of minutes away from losing control and transforming. She tries to comfort him, but he realises that nothing she says to him will work. Like, she says it's not a big deal that he can't play VR, when that's not the problem, the problem is that he is so inhuman that even a computer is rejecting him. He tries to remove himself from the situation as fast as he can and storms off. At the beginning of the date, he had some hope that he wouldn't have to reject her, but at this point he is completely convinced that he is going to, even if he has to be forceful about it.

He just stews in his own anger and self-loathing, not noticing anything around him or how his emotions are actually physically affecting her. When she calls him out on it and he actually looks at her and sees that she is basically shaking and paralysed with fear (I think I played this down in the actual chapter, but in my first draft this shit was intense), he realises that he needs to control himself. The fact that she followed him and is still trying to help him even though he is making her feel like that dissipates a lot of his anger and just leaves him with the frustration.

He doesn't want to reveal too much about the experimentations that were done to him, and honestly I think he doesn't quite understand the implications of a lot of it either. So he tries to explain while glossing over a lot of it, which means he ends up talking about more of his general human sexual trauma instead lol.

He figured that she might not shy away from the monster arm. He had hoped that showing her that would just explain everything, but of course it doesn't. I think that Vincent's self-loathing means that he's not that good at predicting how other people will react. When he thinks through conversations in his head, he assumes everyone has a terrible opinion of him to start with. So, she catches him off guard when she talks about how she already knows he's a 'monster' and doesn't care.

He continually keeps throwing out these bullshit reasons, that ignore her feelings on the matter and she's sick of it. She realises that she needs to hold him the fuck down, make him shut up and realise that she doesn't care about his dumb excuses. But at the same time, she's also smart enough to realise that it'll just make it worse if she forces him. It's important that it's him that takes his clothes off, exposes himself, pulls her into position etc. I really like that scene and the buildup because it's clear that they're both trying to show and enforce consent while being angry and not talking about it.

As for the actual blowjob. Look, she sucked his soul out through his dick and he is now 100% ride-or-die committed. He has never had anyone treat his body with any actual care. Obviously the experiments were bad, but even before that, having had mostly one night stands and then of course Lucrecia. He hasn't ever had someone care for him like that before. The fact that Reader is showing that care for the first time on his ruined, experimented-on body, destroys him. The way that she checks in on him, reassures him, and has taken note of his own cues (The 'I'm here', is so fucking important), convinces him. All of those things are the actual, polar opposite to how Lucrecia treated him (and I do intend to write a prequel about that too lol)

I love their little sex affirmations. My fave part of the fic honestly. The way that they can bounce off each other, reassure each other and show understanding with a just a few words or hair pulls. I love it lol.

Anyway, Vincent starts acting a bit differently after the Gold Saucer date, and I am so excited to show you all. I am writing furiously, but these things can't be rushed lol.

[cyberbabyangell]

₊˚⊹☆ all my drs!!

have a list of all the drs i officially shift to (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ (in order of discovery) The ages are accurate to the moment i will shift in these drs if that makes sense..

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Better CR ⪼ Soren Minerva, 15 years old

this is where i'll permashift to 😼

Solar System ⪼ Soren Minerva, 8 years old

this dr is very similar to my bcr, but its the one with lore and history and gods etc also i shift at 8 just so i can bask in the 2010 years again because lets be honest they were the best ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

My Hero Academia ⪼ Aiden Konoike, 14 years old

i'm just a girl in this one. ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

Demon Slayer ⪼ Hoshi Tomioka, 16 years old

i'll have to figure this one out again, i just know i have cosmic breathing 🥳 zenitsu is probably my s/o •ᴗ•

Genshin Impact ⪼ Fleur, 18 years old(physically)

this one is lore heavy as well, but rn im just a court multitasker/protean at fontaine. i picked neuvillette as my found family, and kaeya & thoma as my lovers •ᴗ•

ParadoxLive ⪼ Nova Fall, 18 years old

aka one of my most hyped drs. im an idol there and a very cliche one at that. like that one barbie popstar movie where she transforms on stage, me core. i date nayuta because he's the only true one for me ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

What in HELL is bad? ⪼ Selene, 19 years old

i sort of follow the game plot, as in im the daughter of solomon. i didnt go too far in the game yet but i jst KNOW i either get close with satan or leviathan

Sonic the Hedgehog ⪼ Lune, do mobians have age..

this is the closest i currently am to being a princess, but im not royalty..sonic and shadow broke me out of my castle and brought me to green hill 😐 anyways i summon crystals with a wand weewoo! with the chaos emeralds i summon a crystal golem thing ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜

Land of the Lustrous ⪼ Opal, 400 years old

not much to say except that opal looks uncannily close to diamond in appearance. i date zircon! or idk but we're best friends! ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜

Helodon ⪼ Atria, 20 years old

this is my partner's world - he writes a lot like me so of COURSE he has his own world like me and allowed me to shift there. i dont have much info on myself either i just know im cute and i love sothoth ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

Spiderverse ⪼ Blair Fall or Minerva idk, 16 years old

my alias is haxxor bunny, because its literally bronya's haxxor bunny skin in hi3..i attack like her too! and i got beef with aiden<3 im not sure but i think i'll date a spiderman version of sero there ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

90's dr ⪼ Kami Bateman, 26 years old

im a model hehe. and i date a perfectly sane and healthy patrick bateman really i just like his looks, i scripted he was really sweet ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

AFK Journey ⪼ Merlin, 300 years old

again i lost interest in the game but im still shifting there. my alias is jinx and im a vampire, also im a dude lol. my s/o is valen<3 but soren is so close to taking the cake and i'd be so mad cause dude got the same name as the host 😨 also im dura's son!

Wuthering Waves ⪼ Orion, 20 years old

okay bare with me i still love the game but im unable to play it so i cry every day. anyways..my original plan was to be part of the fractsidus under the alias Hikaru but i dont think i wanna do that anymore. so yeah i dont much abt myself here either! i really like (male) rover i hold him 🫴 maybe i'll be like jinhsi's brother or something ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

? ⪼ Viktor, 25 years old

bare with me (bis) when i say i love viktor but i became aware of him just because i love the steampunk aesthetic and because we dont have a mechanic in this list. i'm still hesitant of him being from belobog and possibly dating luocha or jing yuan, i need to play hsr more. "( – ⌓ – )=3

Undertale ⪼ Rune, 7-8 or however old Frisk is

this is actually my first ever dr. ive had a huge undertale hyperfixation (1-3 years) and i basically made an oc which was a self insert. it was also my first ever lore which was super complicated idk how 7 year old me thought of it. when i was 9 i accidentally manifested that what happened to frisk would happen to me, i didnt know what was shifting or manifestation i just wrote down the same thing about 100 times while believing in it a lot. guess it worked with a 7 years delay because now im shifting there! i dont know how it will go but i see a happy "ending" with the monsters living with me n frisk at the surface cause WHY TF NOT.

Kaiju no.8 ⪼ haha i dont have any info on them.

i recently started watching k8 and i love it and could see myself going there, but i don't know anything about myself there ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

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[scriberye]

on wedding anniversaries, fandom, and getting older

This September, my husband and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. He has been my greatest supporter, and sometimes my greatest enemy (beside myself, lol). Recently, I shared with him that I've been writing fanfiction, and much to my surprise, he was highly encouraging of it. Although he helps me with writing issues (like does this sequence of events make sense?), his knowledge of lore within my fandoms is limited.

If I ask him about Warhammer, he can tell me about Orks. If I ask him about Transformers, he tells me it's about robots and cars. If I ask him about Star Trek, he'll ask which one and give me a blank stare.

But if I ask him about the fine art and history of medieval cooking, he's got me covered!

And this is where my challenge arises: I want fandom friends.

I'm in my late 30's, and I've noticed I'm aging out of many fandom spaces, many of which are dominated by much younger people. It's nothing new, but it feels like many have become more vocal toward older people in fandom, questioning why they're in these spaces, like aren't you too old for this?

Yet, still, I am an adult who wishes to discuss adult things in adult spaces and maintain respectful boundaries. I didn't turn 30 and start chucking plushies and Transformers in the trash cause I'm 'too old' to enjoy them.

I ended up distancing myself from actively engaging in fandom. When I do find people closer to my age, I try to connect (anxiety can make this difficult), but I'm often met with silence. I reactivated my main account in hopes of encouraging more conversation, but there's still doubts in the back of my mind.

My husband encourages me to persist, and sometimes I do, but at one point I have to consider if it's worth it to continue if it's never going to be reciprocated.

If you made it this far, hey, thank you. This doesn't mean I'll stop writing and doing what I'm doing, I just needed to vent.