#in my defense i AM effectively writing an entirely new thing. not Quite from scratch but like. enough

[daddy-socrates]

it's taken me like 3 hours but i have now bolstered the weaker paragraphs enough to hit last night's goal. now to pull 4 more pages and a transition to the next chapter out of my ass and i can. :) move on to the next chapter

[moonlit-imagines]

Keep Your Cool

Charles Xavier x student!reader (platonic)

warnings: anxiety/panic attacks

a/n: ty anon, you’re so sweet! did do a few minor changes that would keep charles true to his character but thats about it!!

prompt: anonymous: “Hi! I’m so glad your back and I hope you’ve had a great break! Can I request a Charles Xavier x student!Reader (platonic)

Charles meets this new troubled mutant teen with ice powers. They’re totally new to the school and isn’t so happy about being there. They are always pretty talkative or more like nervous chattering and isn’t doing what they’re supposed to on lessons like being absent, sleeping or talking which leads to them being sent to Charles office a lot. This time Charles can’t help but snap at them for not taking things seriously and he accidentally triggers a little panic attack which Charles notice and he tries his best to help them calm down. Later on they tell him about them having bad anxiety. He feels really bad for not noticing and tries to help the reader the best he can. A little angsty fluff?

This type of anxiety isn’t really represented that much and I think it would be good for people to know that you don’t have to be extremely introverted to have anxiety. BUT if you don’t feel like writing this I support that. I wouldn’t want you to do something you don’t wanna do. Sending all my love!😘 also don’t be shy if you wanna change something!”

“Come in!” Professor Xavier announced from behind his desk after hearing a pound on the door. Lo and behold, it was you who walked through the door. “Mx. l/n, what a surprise,” he sarcastically remarked, “what seems to be the trouble this time?”

“Well, you see, Prof,” you began while pulling up a chair and ignoring the disappointed expression on Charles’ face, “I was just so, so nervous about finals that I was tossing and turning the whole night, you know? So I got like, zero sleep, no biggie.” The Professor intently listened with his elbows propped onto the oak finished desk, fingers pressed together. “A kid needs their sleep, and how could I get any if I was like, super focused on finals? I think I should be rewarded for how dedicated I am, just saying.”

“Go on...” Charles could feel your emotions through your presence, there was a suppression of emotions from within you, but oddly enough, your mutation had been a huge help at hiding things from nosy telepaths. Seriously, you thought the ice was cool, but hiding your feelings and thoughts from someone as powerful as that was next level. It did have some downsides, though.

“Right, so,” you shifted to an improper posture and scratched the crown of your head, “I actually took a little catnap myself ‘while the lesson was in progress.’” Your air quotes were a direct mockery of your teacher, which only irked the headmaster a bit more that he already was now that he’d visited with you three times this week.

“You do realize that finals aren’t for another four months, y/n?” Professor Xavier pointed out a fact that you were well aware of, but the excuse was worth a shot.

“Can never be too prepared.” You shrugged, signifying your absolute carelessness for being a deviant student in a school that did nothing but accommodate for all your needs...well, almost all of them.

“Enough is enough, y/n!” Charles snapped, rubbing his fingers along his temples as he tried to bare with this situation that made him think his mind was playing tricks on him. Were his problems replaying? “I am growing tired of your excuses, this school was an opportunity for you and you’re so close to blowing it for yourself. Is that what you want?” As the Professor continued his rant, the temperature felt as if it’d dropped a by a few degrees.

You sat in your seat, knees now pressed against your chest as you gave Charles a menacing stare, unable to speak or reply to the Professor. Ice was beginning to glaze over the windows of his office, freezing them shut. The door was a no-go as well, no one could move that handle if they tried.

“Y/N?” An expression of concern surfaced on Charles’ face as he sat up and tried to assess the situation. “Y/N, are you alright?” You shook your head in response and noticed some ice crystals forming on yourself, some had been weighing your eyelashes down while others were poking off your arms. Defense mechanism or just a “fun” little reaction to panic?

You were observing the effects of this panic attack only with a swivel of your eyes, not any more movement than that. The Professor was still asking you questions, but you’d tuned him out entirely. He could wait for you, he’d have to.

Despite the room now about twenty degrees cooler, you were feeling quite toasty. And you were thinking about five minutes into the future. What do I do when this is over? Do I have to explain myself? How the hell am I getting out of here? Should I stop? Can I stop? What if I—

You felt a hand carefully rest itself on your shoulder, you couldn’t help but jump. “Could you take a deep breath for me?” Charles asked with more compassion in his eyes, seems that he’s realized his mistake by now. You did happen to struggle with his request for a moment, but catching your breath did eventually happen. It did take a few extra tries to control, though. Soon, you were able to stop the spread of any more ice that could prove an inconvenience.

“Panic attack.” You admitted without being asked.

“I gathered.” Professor Xavier was stationary beside you, you may have frozen his chair to the floor. “I apologize for triggering one, I’m not used to being unable to sense someone’s emotions. I would have known were to stop or how to go about that much better if...”

“If it wasn’t for my mutation?” You finished the sentence he stopped because he thought it sounded selfish, like he was placing the blame on you.

“Precisely.” Charles took a deep breath and you decided that you should do the same. The two of you sat in silence as you surveyed all the exits and realized you were in a new predicament. “I don’t suppose you can unfreeze things, can you?”

“That I cannot.” You picked at some of the eyelash icicles and flicked them away. “Any students with a warmer mutation?” You suggested with an apologetic smile.

“I’ll call Doctor McCoy.” The Professor grabbed his wheels and realized that he would not be going anywhere anytime soon. “Y/N?”

“Professor?”

“Could you dial Dr. McCoy’s lab for me? Nine-six-three.” He instructed as you reached over the desk in compliance. The speaker rang a few times and another voice was finally heard on the other side.

“Dr. McCoy! Hi, it’s y/n, your favorite kid on campus,” you greeted, peering over to Charles who was silently urging you to get to the point, “yeah, me and the Prof seem to be in...a predicament. You got like, a heat lamp or something. Maybe Scott Summers? Cool, cool. Yeah, I did! Impressive, I know. Yeah, okay, see you in a few. Or like, an hour. But we will hear you from the other side of the door! Okie doke, bye!” By the time you’d finished your conversation, Charles couldn’t help but smirk at how you handled the after-effects of your situation.

“Well, it seems we have some free time,” Professor X. pointed out, “would you care to tell me a bit more about your anxiety? If you’re comfortable, that is...”

taglist: @locke-writes // @randomawesomeperson102 // @captainshazamerica // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove //

[a-room-of-my-own]

quillette[.]2019/11/04/meet-the-gay-activists-whove-had-enough-of-britains-ultra-woke-homophobes/ 🙌

Are gay people allowed to meet and organise in defense of their interests? A hard yes, you might have thought. But some apparently disagree.

Witness the response to the London-based LGB Alliance, a newly created British group that asserts “the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people to define themselves as same-sex-attracted.” The group’s creation has sparked vitriol, not from the traditionalist Christians or social conservatives who might have opposed such groups in the 1980s or 1990s, but from the self-described progressive left.

Readers who aren’t steeped in the most fashionable iteration of identity politics might now be scratching their heads. Unless you’re taking cues from Leviticus, what could possibly be wrong with saying it’s okay to be gay?

The answer is that, in acknowledging the reality of same-sex attraction, you are indirectly acknowledging the reality and importance of biological sex as a driver of attraction. You are also indirectly acknowledging that members of the opposite sex are not members of your dating pool—even if they tell you that they share your gender identity. Which means you have effectively pled guilty to that grave modern thoughtcrime, transphobia.

If you are not on Twitter, have not set foot on a college campus in the last few years, and don’t read woke web sites such as Teen Vogue, where this sort of thing is taken very seriously, you may imagine that I am engaged in some kind of Swiftian send-up of identity politics gone amok. After all, just about every single person reading this knows quite well how sexual attraction works. But I am quite serious: Activist groups that brand themselves as mainstream representatives of the LGBT community not only preach the idea that true attraction is based on gender, they also have sought to de-platform and mob anyone within their ranks who points out that this idea is completely divorced from the way the human brain actually works. In this make-believe world, to be gay—in the way gay people actually experience being gay—is to be a transphobe.

This is not an entirely new development. As gay-rights groups pivoted to become “trans-inclusive” in recent years, this de facto homophobia has emerged in plain sight. Rather than simply combat violence, bullying and discrimination against trans people, and press for better health care and representation for them—all noble and important goals—those groups have taken on an ideological mission. One might even call it quasi-spiritual: They have replaced biological sex with gender identity—an indefinable internal essence that one demonstrates outwardly by adherence to masculine or feminine stereotypes—throughout their literature and activism.

Stonewall UK, for example, was set up in 1989 to fight Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1988, which banned schools from “promoting homosexuality” and “pretended” (i.e., gay) “family relationships.” But that same group now defines gay and lesbian people as those who are “attracted to the same gender” (my emphasis), and that evidence of transphobia shall be taken to include “the denial/refusal to accept someone else’s gender identity.” The logical consequence of these distorted definitions is to define same-sex-attraction as bigotry. In 1988, it was conservative homophobes in government claiming that homosexuality was a dangerous, counterfeit identity. Now the homophobes are the progressives running organizations that claim to champion the interests of lesbians and gay men.

Of course, doctrinaire trans-rights activists might attack straights with equal vigour—since straight men and straight women are just as focused on the reality of biological sex as gay men and lesbians. But all bullies seek out the weak and vulnerable, which is why they now rail against the LGB Alliance with more fury than they direct at society as a whole. That’s why the LGB Alliance’s launch meeting was an invitation-only affair, held at a secret location—the sort of security precaution that one might implement when moderate Muslims break away jihadists. “This is an historic moment for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual movement,” tweeted Allison Bailey, the criminal-defence barrister who chaired the event. “LGB Alliance launched in London tonight, and we mean business. Spread the word, gender extremism is about to meet its match.”

Based on the reaction from defenders of the new gender orthodoxy, you would have thought Bailey were a Cossack leader announcing a pogrom. “This is frightening and nasty. There is no LGB without the T,” tweeted Owen Jones, who is perhaps Britain’s best-known gay journalist. (This is not new behaviour for Jones, who often starts pile-ons against anyone he regards as transphobic—especially women.) Anthony Watson, an advisor to the opposition Labour Party, said he was “horrified and disgusted,” and described the Alliance as a “#hategroup.” Linda Riley, the editor of Diva, a lesbian magazine that proclaims itself “trans-inclusive,” adapted Martin Niemöller’s famous 1946 confession, First They Came, Tweeting, “First they came for the T…”—thereby suggesting that refusing to prioritize the artifice of gender ideology over inborn sexual orientation is the first step toward some kind of real or metaphorical Holocaust.

Trans activists also used a despicable tactic that now has become a common feature of these cultish campaigns: attempting to beggar those they disagree with. Gendered Intelligence, a non-profit group that works exclusively with trans people (and apparently sees no irony in attacking an organisation focused exclusively on the rest of the LGBT grouping), urged followers to write to Bailey’s law chambers in London, “expressing your concern with the barrister in question and with the new group.” This same mob also sent equally spurious complaints to JustGiving, which hosted the Alliance’s fundraising page. The company panicked and temporarily suspended the Alliance’s account.

The original mover behind the Alliance was Kate Harris, a lesbian and veteran civil-rights campaigner, who a decade ago was a Stonewall fundraiser. She had become increasingly enraged by the harassment of lesbian women that was tolerated, even encouraged, by such groups. Harris and Beverley Jackson, another veteran campaigner, had been writing to Stonewall executives for months, seeking a discussion about the malign impact of gender-identity extremism. They asked Stonewall’s chief executive at the time, Ruth Hunt, whether she was worried about the enormous increase in the number of teenage girls attending GIDS, Britain’s gender-identity clinic for under-18s, and what she would say to the growing number of “de-transitioners”—people who abandon their trans identity and return to an identity corresponding to their biological sex. Many of these girls (as most of them are) describe themselves, with hindsight, as having been motivated by internalised homophobia.

“What upsets me most is that this is all based on the legitimacy we created,” Harris told me. It was this anger that inspired her to gather a group of notables, some of whom had been involved in Stonewall during its early days, to draft an open letter to the group’s current management and board for publication in the Times of London on October 4, 2018. The signatories included Simon Fanshawe, one of Stonewall’s founders, novelist Philip Hensher, actor James Dreyfus, feminist campaigner Julie Bindel, and several trans people who regard Stonewall’s divisive approach as likely to harm the interests of the trans community in the long run.

“We urge Stonewall to acknowledge that there are a range of valid viewpoints around sex, gender and transgender politics, and to acknowledge specifically that a conflict exists between transgenderism and sex-based women’s rights,” the authors wrote. “We call on Stonewall to commit to fostering an atmosphere of respectful debate.”

In response, Ms. Hunt pretended that the letter writers were inventing some kind of non-existent tension. “The petition also asks us to acknowledge that there is a conflict between trans rights and ‘sex based women’s rights,’” she wrote. “We do not and will not acknowledge this. Doing so would imply that we do not believe that trans people deserve the same rights as others.”

A year after this fruitless exchange, it had become clear no change of direction was forthcoming. Ms. Hunt had stepped down, and Stonewall was looking for a new CEO. One potential candidate who was approached by a recruiter disclosed that exploratory questions about whether it might be possible to soften the organisation’s dogmatic position on gender were dismissed out of hand. Many of the signatories of the 2018 open letter decided it was time for a decisive break from an organization that, while pretending to represent L, G,B and T alike, had come to prioritize the most extreme T faction.

Despite all the harassment to which LGB Alliance already has been subject, the group still got off to a flying start. Its JustGiving page has been reinstated, and is on course to hit a £25,000 initial target. The attacks on Bailey sparked widespread outrage and sympathy. Gendered Intelligence deleted its outrageous tweet about her. (Such a personal and highly politicized attack is unlikely to have gone down well with the Charities Commission, which regulates non-profits). Even fans of Owen Jones think a witch hunt against Bailey—a black lesbian from a working-class background—was a low blow. Several publications have written about the LGB Alliance, painting it as everything from a saviour of left-wing politics from its own worst elements, to a front for U.S. evangelicals seeking to export America’s culture wars. The articles in praise were pleasant to read; those lambasting the group neatly underscored the urgency of its mandate. All in all, the Alliance can be said to have arrived. So what next?

Like many of us, Bailey saw parallels with the actions of an abusive spouse. “Just think about what this means LGB,” she Tweeted. “The T has said that this is a marriage that we cannot leave, even if the T becomes abusive. If we try to leave, we will be threatened. If we do manage to leave, we will be starved of cash.”

On its agenda will be protecting women’s sex-based rights—including the right to have certain services offered in spaces free of male bodies. The group will also be campaigning against legislative changes that would compromise female safety.

Stonewall and other trans groups frequently misrepresent Britain’s Equality Act of 2010, which states clearly that single-sex spaces and facilities are perfectly lawful provided they are a “proportionate means to a legitimate aim.” They insist, falsely, that separately stipulated protections against discrimination and harassment for trans-identified people ensure that they can access all spaces intended for the opposite sex. Under such false guidance, Girlguiding UK and Sport England have gone “trans-inclusive,” a euphemism used to describe policies that enable males and females to “self-identify” into spaces intended for the opposite sex. Anyone with even the faintest grasp of biological reality will see immediately why such policies impact most heavily on girls and women.

The Alliance also will lobby for a change of tack at GIDS, Britain’s gender-identity clinic for under-18s, which is under fire for being too quick to affirm children’s claims of a cross-gender identity. It will disseminate unbiased information on the risks of transition and the evidence that gender confusion in children usually resolves itself during puberty, so that young people and their parents have an alternative to a gender-identity narrative based wholly on mechanical affirmation of a child’s claims. It will also seek to give a voice to detransitioners, whom trans activists often accuse of never having been trans in the first place (a claim that completely contradicts these same activists’ insistence on a policy of unfettered self-identification, which equates thinking you are trans with being trans).

If the Alliance flourishes, it could help forge a new consensus on trans rights, one that doesn’t rely on a denial of the reality of biological sex or sexual orientation. And who knows? If sanity prevails, the LGB and T communities may one day find rapprochement.

Helen Joyce is finance editor for The Economist.

[mx-bright-sky]

The Sports Festival Tournament, but written by me

A lot of the matches in the 1v1 part of the tournament arc feel like they weren’t actually thought through well based on the character’s and their quirks, and things turned out the way they did for the sake of having some characters win just because. So I’m rewriting it. And actually taking into account people’s quirks.

Speed round for the first few ones that actually work out well;

Shinsou VS Midoriya, Todoroki VS Sero, Kaminari VS Ibara, Hatsume VS Iida, and Aoyama VS Mina all check out fairly well so I don’t really need to go over those. Some parts would probably be different just a bit, but otherwise it works out unchanged. Now then:

Tokoyami VS Yaoyorozu

Oooooh this match did Momo dirty. This fight, in canon, was just complete and utter bullshit. Momo is the top of the class, she got in on recommendation, and you wanna tell me that she loses in the first round while Todoroki, who is on the same level as her, gets second place? No. No, I call bullshit. Even if she were to lose, it would not be that fast and decisive. So, let’s think this through. 

Let’s assume it starts the same. Dark Shadow comes in with the attack, and Momo makes a shield to block first.

Momo is actually smart and so she knows to keep an eye out for the out of bounds line

Dark Shadow shouldn’t be super strong, because, they are standing in direct sunlight. Dark Shadow is weak to light. You wanna tell me that Tokoyami lost to Bakugou because of his explosions? Excuse me, but have you tried to use any kind of flashlight in broad daylight before? It does nothing! You can’t get much brighter than direct sunlight, so I am calling bullshit on having Dark Shadow be overly strong.

Tokoyami himself doesn’t seem very strong (no offense bird boy) so really the match is more between Dark Shadow and Momo

With the way their quirks work, there’s no easy to see a clear weakness that either could have towards the other, so really in the end it comes down to experience. 

Momo got in on recommendations. She can beat Tokoyami.

Momo wins.

Kirishima VS Tetsutetsu

I get it. Their quirks are nearly identical. It’s funny to have them mirror each other exactly. But that’s,,, not practical? Also the arm wrestle being the deciding factor doesn’t make sense, and why do they suddenly stop being the same- *cough* I’ll keep this one brief; given that their quirks are so similar, it comes down once again to experience. Kirishima is in 1-A and ended up being attacked by real villains. Sorry Tetsutetsu but you still lose :/

Uraraka VS Bakugou

oooh thinking about this match, in canon, fuels my rage. It really does. It’s one of the reasons that I’m here making this post, actually. Because, coming down to quirks? Holy shit, this fight in canon was a disaster.

Uraraka goes with her plan from canon, of course. It’s a good plan. 

What really matters is Bakugou’s quirk

Bakugou’s quirk isn’t that he can create explosions out of thin air- his quirk is that he has explosive sweat.

So, let’s consider it. Uraraka is constantly attacking Bakugou during this match, so Bakugou gets no reprieve. He’s constantly making explosions, and thus constantly using up his sweat.

Bakugou literally should not be able to create that giant blast that he does in canon. I don’t care if it damages him to do it and therefor is worthy of being a risky move to pull off- it flat out should not be possible

There is no way that Bakugou would have been able to have enough sweat to create that blast

You can’t just do things because you’re determined

So, Uraraka’s meteor shower thing works, she gets an opening, tags Bakugou.

Now, Bakugou could conceivably use his explosions to try and move around in the air, but for the most part, he’s under Uraraka’s control

Uraraka Wins, fools

Todoroki VS Midoriya shouldn’t really change. I feel like how it plays out really does make sense. If you have any argument, feel free to say so.

Ibara VS Iida

Now, the reason I finally sat down and started writing this out was because I happened across a post about this exact match. The post says that based on the reaction time that Ibara’s vines have when faced with Kaminari’s lightning, she should have been able to get Iida before he pushed her out of bounds. I do agree with that post. So let’s go from there, shall we?

Ibara has Iida in her vines

What are Iida’s options?

This depends on how strong Ibara’s vines are, and how strong Iida’s legs are

I want to say that Ibara would probably have very strong vines, probably strong enough that Iida would have to use Recipro Burst to break out of them.

So, Iida does that, kicks his legs and breaks through the vines, but then his engines are stalled leaving him mostly quirkless. 

Iida is strong and fast without his quirk, so he could reasonably try to go for what he does in canon,

But Ibara still has use of her vines, and would trap him once again

Ibara wins

Mina VS Yaoyorozu

Because Yaoyorozu beat Tokoyami in this version, that means that there’s an entirely different match going on here. SO I’m making this up on scratch. Yippee

I think Momo is capable of producing long range weapons such as bows and arrows, or guns, but given the nature that this is not a serious life and death fight, I don’t think she could use those with much success because she wouldn’t want to hurt her opponent

Momo produces a melee weapon like she has in the past then, likely some kind of rod

The downside is that if Mina manages to get a hold on Momo’s weapon, she could destroy it- but then Momo could still produce a new one while backing off and switching to being on guard

It seems like it would mostly come down to Mina’s hand to hand abilities vs Momo’s ability to use her improvised weapons

Correct me if I am wrong, because I could be, but I don’t believe we’ve seen any evidence that Mina would be good with hand to hand

I believe Momo would know how to use her improvised weapons

So, in a case of experience once again;

Yaoyorozu wins

Kirishima VS Uraraka

I am so sorry, but Kirishima doesn’t stand a chance against Ochako. Kirshima’s quirk is more of a defensive than offensive anyway, and Kirishima’s only option is up close, hand to hand. And Ochako would easily be able to get him with her quirk, and then she wins. There’s no telling for how long he could hold out, but I think a clear win goes to Ochako

Todoroki VS Ibara

There’s a lot to think about here. The way Ibara uses her vines to trap her enemies is a lot like what Sero did earlier. ...However, circumstances with Todoroki are different. Part of the reason Todoroki was so powerful against Sero was because he was angry with his father, who he had seen just beforehand. So, let’s assume that Todoroki isn’t quite as strong with his ice:

The match starts, and both of them move fast, so really I think that they would each trap each other at once.

Ibara is trapped in ice, and I don’t think her quirk would help her get out of it much

Todoroki is trapped in vines. I’m not sure that ice can be used to get out of that. He could use his fire. But I think he would still be hesitant and unsure of himself, and he wouldn’t use his fire at that point 

With both of them immobile, the match is at a draw

the only example we’re given of a draw is Tetsutetsu and Kirishima, and they settle that with an arm wrestle. I think that an arm wrestle is kind of lackluster and stupid, but we have nothing else to work with, and if I were to come up with any other possible events it could be seen as me picking something that might benefit one combatant over the other. So arm wrestle.

Todoroki is strong, he trains a lot even out of school, but his quirk doesn’t really have to do with physical strength 

On the other hand, neither does Ibara’s quirk

Ibara has to be strong though, because she got fourth in the entrance exam

They’re probably allowed to use their quirks, and while I don’t think hot/cold would do much for that, Ibara could use her vines to pull on Todoroki’s hand

Ibara wins

Uraraka VS Yaoyorozu 

hmm. Once again, Yaoyorozu does not have a quirk suited for long range battle. Uraraka, on the other hand, is made for hand to hand, it seems. I’m trying to think about it and keep it fair for Momo honestly, but... the way I see it, even if she’s good with her weapons, she can’t be untouchable. So, if Ochako sends her flying, it’s a matter of whether or not Momo has any way of creating something that could help pull herself back down. It depends on how complicated of an object Momo can make. There’s nothing that could be grabbed with a simple whip, so if Momo wants to get down after being anti-gravitied, she’ll need something that can pierce through the ground and grab hold. Honestly, I don’t think she could. So Momo takes the lose here, sadly.

Uraraka wins

Ibara VS Uraraka

And the grand finale. And sadly... I don’t see how Ochako could win this one. Ibara’s quirk is pretty powerful for restraint, honestly, it’s like her quirk was made for the Sports Festival tournament arc. And yet in canon she supposedly lost in the second round? Hmm.

Ibara wins

How would this change characterization?

Well, we don’t get to see Class B often, but we can say that the public would see Class A and B on equal ground now at least, given that a Class B student won the Sports Festival. Monoma is probably... just as insufferable if not more because “HAHA I THOUGHT CLASS A WAS THE BEST BUT A CLASS B STUDENT WON THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!!1!”

In Class A, I don’t think that Tokoyami, Kirishima, Iida, or Mina would feel too effected by the change. They aren’t the kind to really obsess over winning. 

Bakugou would throw an absolute shit fit. He would lose his mind over the fact that he was out the first round, and then the person who beat him didn’t even win overall. He said he would win and he failed. Hard. Best case scenario, maybe after he calms down, he tries to think more respectfully of his other classmates because he’s been knocked down off of his high horse. Worst case scenario, he goes even deeper in his “I need to be stronger, and strength is the only thing that matters” mentality. I don’t know if Jeanest would send in an internship offer or not, because he didn’t get far, but the reason he did it in the first place was because he saw Bakugou’s attitude problem.

Todoroki has to deal with the fact that he didn’t make it to the last match. He’s not even second place; he’s tied for third with Yaoyorozu (oh hey, gay bffs). Dumpsterfire man would be  i n s u f f e r a b l e  about it, and would not shut up. Because if Shoto had used his fire against Ibara, he could have won. But he didn’t. So, dumpsterfire would be worse, although I don’t think Todoroki would actually care all that much.

Yaoyorozu would have a bit of a confidence boost, because she didn’t get out in the first round. She tied with Todoroki for a respectable third place. This means the exam arc goes over smoother, because she would see herself and Todoroki as equals, and probably wouldn’t be afraid to speak her mind. Yay! Confidence for the girl!

Uraraka... hmm. It’s almost like the canon battle, but on a grander scale. She tried her hardest, she was so close to winning the whole thing, but then she didn’t stand a chance against Ibara’s vines. She would be frustrated for sure. But I think she would roll with it. She would get hella more internship offers, but I don’t know who she would pick if not Gunhead. Maybe one of the ladies in the top ten hero rankings? Because they’re definitely tough, and they would probably ask for her.

Anyway, that’s it! That’s my take! I am open to discussion, but I’m not really here to argue. Have a nice day :)

[moczothe1st]

Let’s Play Fire Emblem IV: Genealogy of the Holy War, Part 22:  The Last King of Jerkland

Part 21

Hey all! Welcome back to another exciting week of Fire Emblem IV, where we once again ignore the actual evil empire to go rough up another, smaller empire, basically because they’re louder and more annoying and invading is the only way to make them stop bitching for five minutes.  You might not think this is a priority, but you don’t have Lewyn’s strong tactical mind.  A new chapter, so let’s get right on into it.

As their headquarters, uncertain of how to next act. Beyond Meath and the engulfing maw of its peaks lies the dracoknights’ kingdom, Thracia.

(“He also just betrayed Arvis last week by letting Blume die so he could invade the north, but we’re going to pretend that didn’t happen, shut up.”)

Thracia is the only state anywhere in Jugdral regarded as an ‘ally’ by the Grannvale Empire.

(Guess which two of these quirky minibosses will not be important. Hint: it will be the two who we’ve killed before only they had different names and maybe slightly different hair colors.)

Travant has fortified his kingdom for one final, full-scale showdown with the liberators. And Thracia’s people hardly offer Seliph an eager welcome; fearing Seliph as a conqueror, they flock in droves to take up arms themselves.  How could any justice lie in this conflict? For whose sake is this war being fought?

(… For Leif, mostly?)

For the first time, these questions now shake Seliph and his army’s resolve…

(Except, again, for Leif. He’s pretty down with this whole situation.)

Travant, Eeeeew: I’ve no interest in any more excuses! Don’t you dare belittle me, Altena. You are a warrior beyond compare, and you and Arion embody my will beyond these walls. I expect no less than for you to do your duty! And what do I find instead? You’ve ignored my orders, left an entire platoon to the slaughter, and strolled home as if nothing ever happened! I’ve never been more disappointed in you.

Altena: I’m sorry, Father, but at least let me explain! I could never agree with such tactics, which enrich only us at the expense of everyone else! How could you ever expect the proud Thracian people to accept prosperity built on the bones of others? Please, Father, rethink your ways!  

Arion: Enough, Altena. There’s no place here for such meddling. Still your tongue and obey Father! Father, bear in mind Altena is still young and unseasoned. I suspect she merely found the last battle too overwhelming a prospect. Please forgive her, even just this once.

Travant: You know, Arion? If you’d just hold back on the coddling, perhaps Altena wouldn’t be so stubborn! … Look, Altena. I’ll give you one last chance. Take a dracoknight platoon and retake Meath. If you slip again, then daughter be damned, I will accept no excuses! Understood?

Altena: Yes, Father…

Travant: Phew, family resemblance indeed… it’s plainly obvious that she loathes me.

Arion: Father, you have to remember that she’s still a child. Like all children, she has yet to realize that her thoughtless words have real effects.  

(I forgot what a giant enabler Arion is.  You could try standing up to someone, sometime, pretty boy.)

Travant: Hmph, I suppose… I’m off to Kapathogia. I hear Hannibal’s found himself some funny ideas about my plans. And so it falls to me to ensure he loses them before somebody gets hurt…

(*sigh* You’re going to kidnap a baby again, huh.)

Arion: I’ve never seen Father so fearful… what could possibly have happened…?

(He’s realized he’s a shitty general and started a fight he can’t win? Because I am… I am just going to wreck him. Nothing personal. … It’s a little personal.)

Travant: Your armored knights will join her at once!

Hannibal: Your Majesty, I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again. There is no use fighting this war! We must arrange a truce with the liberators if we wish to recover the strength to endure! Bowing to the Empire was a despicable choice to start, one which left us serving our citizens to the true enemy on a gilded platter.

Travant: I did not ask for your opinion! The rebels have slaughtered my soldiers and stolen our territory. The hour is far too late for a truce!

Hannibal: I thought as much… very well. I suppose I have no choice.

Travant: What’s this, Hannibal? Do I hear traitorous rumblings coming from that mouth of yours?

(… No?)

Hannibal: Come now, your Majesty! Never would a warrior such as I consider turning my cloak. Traitor, indeed!

Travant: Really, now… then I trust you won’t object to a test of your warrior’s loyalty. Until the war reaches a victorious end, Hannibal, I’ll be taking care of your son.

(Called it!)

Hannibal: I beg your pardon, your Majesty?! Do you truly have so little faith in me?!

Travant: You have nothing to worry about, Hannibal. If you don’t intend to betray me, then I don’t intend to so much as scratch the boy.

Hannibal: …

Travant: Men! Bring me Hannibal’s son!

(Okay, not a baby, but it’s the thought that counts.)

Travant: Remember, Hannibal. You have nothing to worry about, so long as you behave yourself. As soon as this war is won, you’ll get him back. I admit I don’t understand, though… the boy isn’t even your real son. How could he have such sway over you?

(FOOOOOOOOOOORESHADOWING)

Hannibal: Cairpre has brought much joy into my life. A true family transcends simple blood…

Travant: Ohohohoho! Could it be? Does Thracia’s great statesman have a soft spot for children? Now, then. Thracia depends on you, Hannibal!

(What a dick!)

(Nobody likes a suck-up, Distler.)

Distler the Suck-up: Rest assured, milord. Luthecia is an impregnable wall! I’ve seen to it myself.

Travant: I’ll hold you to your word. Now, I’ve reason to doubt the loyalty of Hannibal at Kapathogia. I’ve taken his son hostage, just in case, and I’m leaving him to your custody.

Distler the Suck-up: Yes, sir! I’ll not let him out of my sight! But should Hannibal turn his cloak-

Travant: Then kill the son. Don’t be lulled into offering even a child any mercy.

Distler: Understood, milord.

Travant: Good. In that case, I think I’ll leave the defense of Grutia to your hands. Try not to get too cocky with the rebels, Bishop. They’re of a treacherous sort.  

(“Also, that kettle is black.  Hm…. When did I become a pot? This must be Altena’s fault.”)

(“That’s because it is meaningless. Unfortunately, it seems someone on the writing staff really digs their Thracian Peninsula D&D game setting and managed to worm it into the story here. And that, Seliph, is why you always hire an editor.”)

Lewyn: The point of a battle comes from how you conduct yourself in it, Seliph.

(That doesn’t even make sense!)

Lewyn: And we hardly have much choice at this point!

(… okay that’s a better reason.)

Seliph: But what of that dracoknight who was watching us from the Manster peaks? I’ve seldom seen such a sad look in anybody’s eyes… how could I fight somebody like her…?

(Well, I mean, not to spoil you or anything, but…)

Lewyn: That’s enough, Seliph! This is war! If you can’t handle it, then leave! Run home to Tirnanog!

(… Where the fuck did that come from?!)

Seliph: Lewyn…

Oifey: I beg your pardon, Lord Lewyn?! His Majesty is tired and stressed! Such harsh words are uncalled for.

Lewyn: Look, I know. But everyone else is just as stressed, yet they all know we can’t afford to stop. With the resurrection of Loptyr on the horizon, it’s crucial we get to Grannvale and stop the world falling to ruin while we still can.  

Seliph: Thank you, Oifey… but Lewyn speaks the truth.  An inevitable battle lies ahead, and if we see in it naught but futility, then my duty is to carve my own purpose into it. I’ll never again flinch or turn away!

(Seliph could see her eyes, apparently, so if Leif missed her entirely he’s got a lot to learn about being a chosen prince with bad hair.)

Leif: Oh, the woman? I saw her. I don’t believe it’s every day that you encounter a female dracoknight, is it? Was there something amiss about her?

Finn: It was her weapon… she was wielding Gae Bolg, Leonster’s holy lance. And I sensed an aura cloaking her… the holy aura of Nova, like your father.

Leif: What? What are you saying, Finn?!

Finn: There is only one explanation, my lord. Your sister, Altena, must not have died in the Thracian ambush seventeen years ago.  Nor was Gae Bolg lost.

Leif: Altena?! She’s… she’s still alive?! Then what in the blazes was she doing commanding a Thracian army?

(… Duh, dude.)

Finn: I’d surmise that Travant took her back to Thracia as a child, and raised her as his own.

Leif: Huh… who knew a man as cold as Travant could do something so humane?

(… Leif, for fuck’s sake, try to keep up here.)

Finn: It isn’t so simple, milord. Altena is the inheritor of your father’s holy lineage from the goddess Nova. As such, unlike you, she is capable of wielding the Gae Bolg. Power is the only reason a man like Travant would ever be so kind to his enemy’s child.  

Leif: So he’s tricked my sister just so he can use her as a weapon! Travant… what a disgusting man… … I want to help her, Finn. If we can make her see the truth, I know we can work together to avenge our parents.

Finn: My lord, I believe you’re the only one who could possibly convince her now. Even after all these years, my lord, you are still her brother. I’m certain she will open her heart to you if you try.  Please, my lord. Please save Lady Altena…

Whoo! And that’s a hell of an infodump, but time to start the map.  First, of course, it’s time to ignore the enemy for five hours while we engage in gladiatorial combat for blood money.  This time, though, I’m going to do things a liiiiittle differently. It will be pricey, but anyone… let’s who is level 15 or lower, and who has access to a solid 40K gold, will be shelling out the money to buy the Paragon Band before their run and then sell it when they’re done.  This is expensive, seriously expensive, but it will double everyone’s arena EXP gains and should shoot all our levels quite a bit. And we have cash to spare, so why not?  Catch you on the flip side!

Seliph: Seven wins, gained two levels: +3 HP, +1 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Magic, +1 Luck, +1 Defense

Julia: Seven wins, gained one level: +1 HP, +1 Strength, +1 Resistance

Shanan: Seven wins, gained two levels: +3 HP, +2 Skill, +2 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Resistance

Oifey: Six wins, gained two levels: +2 HP, +1 Strength, +1 Luck

Ulster: Seven wins, gained five levels: +5 HP, +5 Skill, +3 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Luck, +2 Defense

Larcei: Seven wins, gained five levels: +6 HP, +3 Skill, +1 Strength, +2 Speed, +3 Luck, +2 Defense

Lester: Seven wins, gained four levels: +4 HP, +2 Skill, +1 Strength, +3 Speed, +1 Magic, +2 Luck, +2 Defense

Dermott: Seven wins, gained four levels: +4 HP, +3 Skill, +2 Speed, +3 Luck, +2 Defense

Nanna: Seven wins, gained three levels: +3 HP, +2 Speed, +1 Magic!!!!!!, +1 Luck, +1 Defense, +1 Resistance

Fee: Seven wins, gained five levels: +5 HP, +2 Skill, +1 Strength, +2 Speed, +3 Magic, +3 Luck, +2 Defense, +3 Resistance

Ced: Seven wins, gained two levels: +2 HP, +1 Skill, +2 Magic, +1 Luck, +1 Defense

Arthur: Seven wins, gained five levels: +8 HP, +1 Skill, +3 Magic, +2 Luck, +3 Defense, +3 Resistance

Tinni: Seven wins, gained five levels: +5 HP, +1 Skill, +4 Magic, +4 Luck, +1 Resistance

Patty: Seven wins, gained two levels: +3 HP, +2 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Luck, +1 Resistance

Faval: Seven wins, gained two levels: +3 HP, +2 Speed, +2 Luck, +1 Defense

Leif: Seven wins, gained five levels: +7 HP, +1 Skill, +1 Strength, +3 Speed, +2 Luck, +1 Defense

Johan: Six wins, gained levels: +2 HP, +1 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Defense

Finn: Six wins, gained one level: +1 HP, +1 Skill, +1 Resistance

Ares: Seven wins, gained four levels: +4 HP, +2 Speed, +1 Magic, +2 Luck, +2 Resistance

Not bad, though it’s hard not to be a little sad at the people starting to fall behind; anyone who isn’t a kid and doesn’t have a holy weapon is going to start finding it harder to get all seven wins from now on.  Johan, Finn, and Oifey just couldn’t pull through no matter how much I screwed around with the RNG… er… I mean… no matter how… fair I was.  On the bright side, though, we do get four brand new promotions!

Larcei, Fee, Arthur, Tinni, and Dermott are also on the verge, having all hit level 19.  So basically, it’s hard to look at this as anything but a major win.  Go go combat potential! And we will need it, since shit’s about to get fucked.  

Here’s the chapter map; we start in the northeast corner, and Hannibal and Altena’s units will start moving toward us immediately.  Altena, obviously, we can just talk to with Leif, that’s no biggie. But to recruit Hannibal (of course he’s recruitable, why would you even question that) we need to go save his son from Distler in Luthecia castle. The issue comes from the fact that Hannibal and his own castle are between us and there, and he’s of course hostile.  Which means we need to get Seliph and presumably some other units for backup past Hannibal, without killing the dumb bastard, save Cairpre, and get him back to talk some sense into his dad. Again, without killing him. There’s a trick to it, but it’s not guaranteed to work. In general the whole thing is a pain in the ass and frankly it might be better for everyone’s sanity to just kill Hannibal, but that just ain’t how I roll. Let’s do this shit!  

First, though, Faval and Patty have a chat.    

(I feel like I have to mention she literally used her ability to steal money as the reason Seliph should keep her around.)

Faval: Ugh. Look, I don’t care if you’re just stealing from the enemy. I don’t like you stealing at all!  Knock if off, okay?

Patty: What, do you think I like doing this? That I steal for the fun of it?! This army needs to eat, y’know, and we need gold for that! We don’t have all that many options here!  

Faval: Yeah, but haven’t you heard what people are saying about you? I’ve caught people mocking you, like being a thief’s a walking punch line… “What else can ya expect from a pirate’s brat? Like mother, like child,” they kept saying. Of course, I wiped the floor them…

Patty: It doesn’t matter what people think, Faval!  Let them say whatever they want. Doesn’t change a thing about Mom… and it doesn’t change that she was heir of Ullur the Crusader! I was in tears when Lewyn told me about her… I’ve never been so happy!

Faval: Yeah, me too… y’know, we haven’t exactly had the easiest lives… poor orphans and all that. I never even dreamed our mother could actually be a noblewoman!  I don’t suppose you remember anything about her, Patty?

Patty: Nope, not a thing. You?

Faval: Yeah, but… only a little. She was a kind and beautiful woman…

(“And she constantly smelled of the blood of her many, many victims.”)

Patty: So is she… do you think Mom’s dead?

Faval: I can’t say for sure… but as soon as the war’s done with, Patty, we’re gonna go look for her. We’ll find our mother… Bridget… and even though we don’t know his name, maybe we’ll find our father too.

Patty gains +1 Luck from this conversation, and that must be the tipping point because canonically Bridget did survive and they eventually find her. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s canon.  Look up Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 for details, but I wouldn’t recommend actually playing it.  

Now, the majority of the army deploys in standard horde formation and getting ready to stab the crap out of every Thracian, but Fee is going to run off on her own.  See, all the map’s villages are directly to the west of the starting castle, across a mountain range, and she’s the only one who can reach it in time to kill the bandits before any of them get destroyed.

Only the one with the axe off to the side will destroy any villages, so we have time, but I don’t want to lose a single one.  Some of them have items, if I remember right, and even if they don’t I just blew like a billion gold on making everyone super buff.  End turn!

Hannibal: Wait. For the time being we should remain on the defensive. I’d prefer to avoid any  needless skirmishes with the enemy.

Lieutenant Palette-Swap: But sir, what about…

Hannibal: … My son. I know, but… for now, I would rather hold back and let the battle unfold, first. My apologies, Kanatz, but I’d like you to take charge of defending the castle.

Kanatz: As you will, sir!

Okay, I guess only Altena moves toward you on turn one. I coulda sworn they both did, but whatcha gonna do? Second verse, same as the first; no enemies are in range, so I move up toward Hannibal’s line and have Fee continue making a beeline straight west across the mountains.  Unfortunately, all of hannibal’s units are armor knights, meaning you have to get right up in their noses before they can move far enough to attack you.  I suspect next turn will look much the same as this one.  End!

Cairpre: Papa doesn’t want to fight! He’s out there risking his life all because of me…

(Cairpre has a distinct, deep misunderstanding of what a hostage is, I think.)

Distler: Silence, boy! If Thracia’s legendary Shield refuses to ply his warrior’s craft of his own will, then we’ll force him to by any means necessary!

Cairpre: Oh, papa… sorry…

Cairpre might be a bit of a loser.  Off to the southeast, Altena’s unit moves up again; they’ll be attacking us next turn, and will be intercepted by Tinni, Arthur, Julia, Leif, Nanna, and Faval. The rest of the team moves forward, pausing in the edge of Hannibal’s unit’s movement range on the forest tiles for extra sweet, sweet defense.   Oh, and Fee continues her field trip, of course. End turn, and let’s do this!

Hm. Not great. Tinni, you could stand to dodge. And two of the wyverns went off after Finn, because he was on the edge of their range and I didn’t notice. Buuuut, I think we got this. First step, I think, is to wipe out Altena’s unit so Leif can reach her.

Awesome!  Now Leif can reach Altena, and…

*twitch*  Welp, mountains fucked that one up! Hopefully Altena won’t shank someone to death or try to fight someone who’s invincible.

Okay, I may have to reset this, but for now let’s play as though it’s not a horrible issue.  Western front, rock out.  

That was not as many kills as I’d been hoping for!  This… is going to hurt. But on the plus side, I was already half-planning to reset, so… end turn.

…. Shit. Ares, please go easy on him?  Hannibal, please use Pavise! Twice, possibly!

FUCK YOU, you stupid old bastard.  Ulster should definitely have died in over the course of this encounter. Did you see how low his health got?! He should not have survived what he did here!  And yet, he did. Everything was going not merely fine but miraculously fine. And then this jackass, who I must note had a very solid chance to survive this battle thanks to his broken obnoxious special ability, runs up to commit suicide and just leaves the Pavise behind on the kitchen table, I guess.  

I should leave him dead. I should leave him dead.  

…

*sigh*

Reset.  

To the east, the people who did their fucking jobs last time repeat a smashing victory, with one difference: I don’t fuck up my movement and can get Leif close enough to chat with his sister.    

(*snerk*  “Waaaaaaait!” What a drama-prince.)  

Leif: I… I am Leif, of House Leonster.

Altena: Oh, I see… the famous Prince Leif, is it? In case it wasn’t obvious… and evidently, it wasn’t… I am Altena, daughter of Travant.

(Altena’s snark game is on-point, damn. Though I guess it’s easy to be snarky when your enemy appears to have an unkempt porcupine on his head.)

Leif: Listen to me, Altena! Your true parents are Prince Quan and Princess Ethlyn, whom Travant slew seventeen years ago. You vanished in Travant’s attack, and so too did Gae Bolg, the sacred earth lance of Leonster… the very lance resting in your hand as we speak! Only a true heir of House Leonster can wield Gae Bolg.  

Altena: What are you talking about?! Are you seriously trying to claim my true father is my king’s arch-enemy?!  That could never be… it mustn’t…

Leif: Look into my eyes.  If anything can prove the truth of my words to you, it will be my eyes. Please, sister…

Altena: Fine… What is this…?!  I know you’re lying, but… but I can’t bring myself to doubt you anymore…

(This would stretch belief quite a bit, if it wasn’t established by earlier interactions that Crusader heirs with similar bloodlines actually can instinctively sense each other. So it only looks like Leif has brainwashed her with his hypno-eyes.)  

Leif: Altena…

Altena: Wait!  I… I must speak with Father. I need to confirm this…

(Bad, bad plan, honey.)

Altena: Or was my father really Prince Quan?!

Travant: Feh… I see you’ve found out at last. Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before this day came. It’s true. Quan did indeed sire you, but what difference does that make? It doesn’t change that it was I who raised you.

(“Am I not the one who has stomped all over your spirit and morals since you were a little girl? Am I not the one who screams at you to slaughter children and the elderly while your heart rots and dies, sick with the weight of your sins? If that’s not fatherhood, what is?”)

Altena: So you… you murdered my parents?  Father…

Travant: Heh…. I suppose I did.  Quan and Ethlyn died at my hand. Do you take issue with that? War is Hell, Altena. War claims lives. Worrying now won’t change a thing.

(What a dick!)

Altena: Gah… how dare you?! How dare you mislead me all these years, Fath… no, Travant! 

Arion: I cannot allow this. If you dare to turn on Father, you’ll have to contend with me first!

Altena: W-wait! I can’t fight you, Arion! I could never-

Arion: It’s too late for you to stand down now. Farewell!

Altena: Nnnngh… Arion…

Travant: … You didn’t just kill her, did you, Arion? You know, you didn’t need to go quite so far…

(Now is when you decide to be a parent?!  What a dick!)

Travant: Eh, no matter. I’m going to join the fray, Arion. I suppose there’s little choice now. You’re in charge of defending the castle.

Arion: Understood, Father.

Travant: I’ll entrust this spear to you… and with it, the future of Thracia.  

Arion: Hold a moment, Father… this is Gungnir! What is the meaning of this? How do you intend to fight without it? Unless… Father, you can’t be-

Travant: I am. Frankly, Arion, I’ve had enough. Thracia is yours to do with as you see fit. But we don’t need to be hated by their kind…

Arion: Are you seriously suggesting I should seek a truce, Father?! No! Never! To comply with the rebels now would be unthinkable!

Travant: As I said, Thracia is yours. Do as you see fit. All I ask is that you find a way to liberate our people from their suffering. Farewell, Arion.

Arion: … Father…

Yeah, that just happened, and… I kind of hate it.  I’m going to be honest, and also going to go off on a little rant again, because this moment always makes me kind of angry.  It feels like Travant and Arion swapped personalities for this conversation. See, the thing is, like basically all FE characters, Travant is an archetype; in particular, he is the ‘Michalis.’  A smug, ambitious jackass, almost always a wyvern rider, who really thinks he is the main antagonist but who is generally more of a speed-bump you run down on your way to the real threat. And the thing that defines Michalis types is that they generally aren’t sympathetic in any way. They’re bastards and you enjoy the moment you riddle them with arrows.  

Now, there’s nothing wrong with subverting archetypes.  If they want to play around and make a character who looks like a Michalis but is actually sympathetic deep down, more power to you! But there is a different between a character being sympathetic, and the game telling us a character is sympathetic.  Because King Travant has been a giant bastard in every moment of his appearance in the entire game, a smug ambitious ass who has murdered and betrayed his way through every scene he was in, while looking down on basically everyone around him and showing zero care for any of the many, many of his own men he’s gotten killed.  Beyond occasional lip-service to ‘saving Thracia’, he’s shown nothing but bottomless ambition and a willingness to kill anyone who gets in the way of it.  And now, all of a sudden, he’s decided to nobly die in battle and leave Thracia in better hands?  This is like Sigurd revealing in chapter six that he was actually working for Manfroy all along.  It’s just such a sudden, random, and extreme shift in personality, blatantly for the purpose of building up sympathy where there just ain’t none to be found.  I generally really like the writing of this game but… wow. The Thracia arc is a hamfisted mess.  

Sorry. Angry writer moment. Back to exciting war.

A bit anticlimactic, huh? Still, we crushed the outer edges of Hannibal’s army, and nobody is in his range so there’s no chance of a rampant suicide again.  We shoooould be able to crush his entire army in one go on our next turn. Meanwhile, Fee is in the range of the bandits over in the village section, so I thiiink they’ll be attacking her? Unless they don’t move, I can’t remember. Let’s see!

Hannibal: Move in on the invaders! We’ll let them proceed no further!

… You’ve been doing that…

Okay, not bad! Now, Travant is moving up and there’s not much time to prep for that, so I’m going to try to kill Hannibal’s whole army in one go. This will be… a pain, frankly.  But if we can do that, Hannibal will go briefly non-hostile as he runs to his castle to get reinforcements. If that happens, you can surround and trap him, since he won’t attack anyone who doesn’t attack him first. Let’s�� see how this goes.

…. Almost.  I really hope that was enough to trigger Hannibal to retreat. Run away, you old bastard.  End… end turn.

Yessssssss.  Hannibal didn’t attack, he’s running back to Kapothagia to get reinforcements, and he’s old and cannot run fast.  Once our turn starts, we’re clear to surround him, and send Seliph running straight past him to the next castle.  

Meanwhile, Fee…

My God she is a tank.  How does this keep happening?  Pegasus Knights are supposed to be squishy.

Our turn starts, and I ‘recruit Hannibal.’  

He still has two soldiers alive, but one is a bow user that I can also trap so Patty might eat him, and the other is a healer with no weapon that Patty will also eat. She needs money and experience, is my point. Patty?  

Good girl! Now, Travant’s unit will be hitting us next turn, and he’s a dick, so I’m sending a few units back that way to help out.  Dermott, Lester, and Finn should be able to handle it in combination with the killers who are already there.

So here’s the King Douche himself, finally out and killable, but he’s not gonna make it easy on us. He’s a Dragonmaster, the promoted class of dracoknight, and comes with a Silver Lance and Power Ring to play off his already extremely high strength stat. All his relevant stats are pretty solid except resistance, and he comes with two skills that can make him a pain; Nihil, which nullifies all combat abilities (Luna, Astra, etc.) and in addition removes his natural weakness to arrows as a flying unit.  On top of that, he has Vantage, so once his health goes down a far enough he’ll always get the first strike. Pursuit too, but he’s not terribly fast, so it’s not as big an issue as it could be.  Most of the people who will be fighting him here can outrun him. In addition he has no way to fight at range and his Resistance isn’t great, so mages are his kryptonite in a big way. He’s dangerous, but not beyond belief.

I’mma try to have Leif kill him. You know why.

All right, the turn is mostly set, other than Fee finally getting close enough to save that poor burning village. Go, girl!

I love her so much.  End turn!

Why do people even try to fight Fee.  

…. Well, I’d like to thank Nanna for scaring the shit out of me, and like to thank every Thracian for being a dick. EVERY ONE.  

Okay. Okay. Our turn. To start off? Let’s kill some frickin’ wyverns.    

Ooooh, not great. There’s still several wyverns left, and nobody else can attack.  If the two wyverns and Travant all go for one person, they could kill them. If ooooooooonly there was some way to stooooooooooop him from LANA GO

Clerics, motherfucker. And that’s that! Travant’s group is basically done for; the two small fries will take their potshots, but the king himself is dead in the water.  Boy, that sure was a treacherous and underhanded thing of me to do, paralyzing him from half a mile away with magic. He couldn’t defend himself at all. UWEE HEE HEE HEE HEE.

And now, Fee.

Go Fee! Start flying home to promote, honey, you earned it. Patty continues plinking away at an armor knight while the cleric heals it from a distance, you know the deal; and because I’m not an idiot, I run Dermott back to our main castle and have him stand inside, because wyverns have a huge damn movement range and we’re fighting rather close to it.  End turn.

*smile*

Now then, let’s mop up.

(Syyyyympathetic Anti-Villain~)

Travant: What a pathetic fool that Blume was… how could he fail to kill a runt like you?

(SYYYYYYYYYMPATHETIC ANTI-VILLAIN, SUCH A TRAGIC GUUUUUUUUUUY~)

Leif: We meet at last, Travant… I’ve… I’ve await this day for so long. This is what kept me alive all this time… I’ve lived for this alone… to choke the life from you with my bare hands!

(… Damn, go Leif.)

Travant the Sympathetic Anti-Villain: Heh… as foolish as your father. And unlike him, you can’t even wield Gae Bolg against me! You don’t stand a chance! Now hold still! It’s time you learned the last agonies your parents felt at my hands!

Shame you can’t fight, huh dude.

Travant the Tragic Patriot: Ha! How laughable! A common soldier like you could never even scratch me! I take it you’re ready to die, then?

… No, I don’t know how he dodges while asleep. Same way he talks, I guess. Life is a complicated thing. Anyway, Travant is beaten, so with Leif waiting there to kill him slowly, I start splitting the army up. Those who can promote start heading home, while the others head west to help out Seliph as he moves on to besiege a castle by himself.  He doesn’t really need help, but they’re gonna need to go there eventually anyway. The enemy can no longer move at all; all our turns will be consecutive until we finish up Hannibal’s castle and/or kill Travant. This update is already too long and Patty is just gonna be plinking away forever, so let’s stick to the highlights of the combat:  

Nice!  And of course, now story happens.

Arion: My apologies, Altena. I had to give Father a convincing show, to ensure your survival. I had no choice but to deal such a powerful blow.

Altena: Don’t worry, Arion. But where is Fath… King Travant now?

Arion: … You won’t see him again. Father has died in battle.

Altena: He has…?  How did it happen?

Arion: You’d be better off not knowing. Father’s heart was an enigma at the best of times…

Altena: … Arion. What do you think I should do now?  

Arion: Join prince Leif, your true brother. I’m certain he is still waiting for you.

Altena: Then what will you-

Arion: Altena. This is my fate. There’s no helping it.

Altena: No! You can call for a truce, Arion! Now that Travant is dead, there’s nothing to stop you from seeking peace! And I… I could never fight you!

(Oh god dammit, this isn’t a brotherly ‘I can’t fight you,’ is it.)

Arion: I wish I could, and I would were it not for Father’s final words to me…

(…………….. HE LITERALLY TOLD YOU TO JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANTED, ASSHOLE.)

Arion: Please, Altena… Go!  However, be prepared. Our next meeting will be on the battlefield, and I will not stay my hand!

Altena: Oh… Arion…

(King Arion of Thracia: What a dick!)

And with that, Altena starts flying toward our army to sign up.  Since there’s nothing else to do but let Patty continue plinkin’ away, I think we’ll call it a week here. Seliph, do the honors!

Seliph: Who are you? What’s the matter?

Cairpre: I’m Cairpre… I’m General Hannibal’s son. And… wait… aren’t you Lord Seliph, the Liberator!?

Seliph: Indeed I am. If I may ask, Cairpre, why would Thracia imprison one of their own generals’ sons?

(“Because apparently being king of this shitty country instantly turns you into a rampaging douche.”)

Cairpre: King Travant took me hostage. Papa didn’t want to fight your army, so the king threatened my life to force him to fight… please, sir! Please take me to Papa! If he knows I’m safe, then he won’t have to keep fighting! Please, we’ve gotta save him!

Seliph: I see…. Don’t worry. I promise we’ll find him. Move out, everyone! I pray we’ll still be in time to save General Hannibal!

Spoiler for next week’s update: we will.  See you then, when we promote like seven dudes, recruit an old idiot and a young awesome princess, and just generally rock out all over whatever is left of Thracia. Go team!

Total Resets: 26. Not sure I should count this since it was Hannibal killing himself on the worst possible target in his range, not anything I did, but I’ve always has a masochistic streak.

Part 23

[roastedlizlow]

🖤💔💞

I’m gonna combine the first two! Please note that as of now, their actual names and titles are pretty interchangeable to me laughs

🖤: what are your MC names?💔: give a brief character bio of your 3-5 MCs

A lot of this is subject to change! So these are the concepts for the time being! I’ve mentioned it before, but these guys came from a dream, so it’s a miracle they’ve gotten so far… 

AND throws this under a cut it’s LONG

HEROINE

Adelia (Summoner);

“Can you hear it? The wind is unsettled here… A storm is coming. No… I cannot manage this alone. Your support helps me summon strength. Let’s not allow a dangerous rain terror a place that deserves peace.” 

A royal court summoner; currently on a journey to help improve the status of the kingdom’s towns. Years ago, she was bedridden for weeks by a particularly strong summon, and even now she feels the aftermath of it. She’s rather fond of (usually poor) word plays. (Guard-ner…). Her father is the head court summoner, and her mother is a high-ranking member of the court’s knights!

It’s said her journey begun once she feels a rather unsettling wave in the stream, with a voice calling above the masses “My friend, I summon thee… hear my plea…’

LOVE INTEREST #1

Reimund (Knight); 

“…I am right beside you, and I’ll not back down. …Correct. I’ve sworn to see this through. Do your best. I’ll charge mine.”

A royal army member, knightly in title, currently travelling alongside Adelia in behest of her mother, and the Royal Court, to ensure her safety, as tasked by the kingdom. He’s very trusted within the circles, and has known Adelia for quite some time, having trained her in spear arts, focusing on self-defense. He’s serious, but he has a soft spot for Adelia, playing into her word play with his own.

To be certain, he also rather enjoys showing up a certain town guard, but only slightly. 

LOVE INTEREST #2

Volker (Guard); 

“Oi, Dragon. If you’re concerned about here, don’t be. It’s my job. So announce your departure, loudly, and leave with that useless knight of yours. …You’re annoying. …D-Do not look at me like that!”

The town’s only guard, and one who has a rather sizable distrust of others, coming out particularly strong when it comes to Adelia (and Reimund). Both him and Adelia actively refuse to use each other’s actual names at first, with her calling him simply “Guard” and him calling her “Dragon.” He’s serious about his work, tirelessly pressing on to ensure peace remains in order. 

Deep down, it seems his love of the town and the Earth, too, flourishes in a fiery bloom…

LOVE INTEREST #3

Clement (Messenger); 

“Don’t ya worry ‘bout nothin’, Miss Adelia! I’ll be sure to patch any scratch an’ bump I can manage! You just focus on doin’ what you do best! Though I hope I won’t hafta wrap ya and Mister Reimund up much.”

The town’s messenger, as well as a doctor-in-training. He’s a family man, riding right down to following in the family footsteps – but he genuinely wants to do the best for people, in his own way. It’s often that he’s considered a younger brother to many around town. The civilians can’t help but thank him with food (or they simply tease him)!

His older sister, the town doctor, has a lot of faith in him, and that becomes the reason she entrusts the town’s new guests’ care to him. 

LOVE INTEREST #4 

Xaver (Baker) 

“My home? Why, it’s the road, and where your stomachs growl. Dearest Lady Adi, are you that famished? I’ll make sure to calm that beast in you. Haha, now, now, I do apologize, but that pout is quite cute.”

A travelling cook, who runs a cafe caravan. Friendly, and princely, in an over-dramatic description, he’s said to sparkle. He’s polite, and well-to-do with sales. Despite travelling so much, he seems to be rather welcome in the community, and they always await his seasonal return. He takes extra pride in being able to adjust his food to suit the customer, and happily accepts smiles as a sign that their appetites are quenched. 

Clement bolsters his generosity, and they’re both on friendly terms, trading food for medicine. 

Oh, btw! some notes for these profiles: 

Adelia’s quote is absolutely a play on rain vs reign. 

Adelia was trained in spear combat, as mentioned in Reimund’s profile, effectively equating her combat to that of a Dragoon. 

I’ve joked somewhere about them making the journey on foot, but her and Reimund both absolutely have horses.

Volker’s v gap, actually. But he and Adelia are extremely petty towards each other at first. 

Also he complains about Adelia being there, but actually doesn’t turn her away. On the instant that something she does might be troublesome, then he’ll be even more >:C but for the time being it’s more… >:/

Clement talks very quickly, thus his speech patterns end up more rough than the others. His family is a big one, and it’s be fast and heard in their household!

Xaver wasn’t even supposed to exist at first. He was a self-satisfying addition for my love of the idea of a traveling baker, and then he was born. Almost had wrote him as an actual prince, seemed to obvious, so he’s just a disaster boy. 

I’ll just say that… in short, emote form of descriptions it’s :), :|. >:/, :D, ;> 

and that’s it, that’s all you really need to know. 

As for physical designs, I’m slowing getting to that – for now, I just imagine Reimund with a Knight’s helm on and a surcoat tunic and it’s a fun sight (he’d show up in front of Volker like that because they’re both dumb and it would get on Volker’s nerves LOL)

💞: which future scene are you looking forward to writing?

I think collectively it’s… the entire thing! I’m still working out how to write each “route” but I think I’ve got a good feel for the little, different nuances in each character’s relationship, and how they grow! I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to get a lot about them out, and I gotta figure out when I can really start from the beginning, but I absolutely adore working with them as they are, so I’ve no doubts that I’ll love writing the rest!

[rheanimalsachikokassielynn]

Major Essay 2

Rheanne Harkness

Professor Timothy Greenup

English 112

28 November 2017

Aspects of the Self: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Over this last month, if there’s anything I’ve taken away from our rather in-depth class-wide examination of the concept of bildungsroman and how it forms the backbone of works like Mariko Tamaki’s “Skim”, it’s that the influence of external forces on transitional periods in young adult lives shapes everyone a little differently. However, the emotional upheaval such forces put us through often comes into conflict with our identities, calling who we are and what we stand for into question so much that it results in we ourselves needing to reestablish a more permanent sense of identity altogether. Sometimes though, this type of conflict can constitute a rift between how we carry ourselves in the public eye verses the private eye depending on the kinds of impressions we want to give off so that others may see us in a certain way. A lot of this is true for the character of Skim as it is for so many of us, she herself is trying to figure what kind of person she is to the point where there is a rift that was brought to my attention very clearly during group presentations between how Skim acts around others verses when she’s alone, yet her public and private selves always feed into each other. This got me thinking: if Skim’s goal as well as the audiences’ is to take stock of who she is based on how and why she carries herself at different times, then what is it we learn about Skim from her diary entries (the main manifestations of her private self) compared to her conversations with other characters (the main manifestations of her public self) and how do both sides serve to paint a picture of Skim’s true identity at its core?

It’s a bit ironic that the entire story of “Skim” is told from the main protagonist’s point of view mostly by way of her diary entries because most people who’ve never read it before would probably take this to mean that Skim is giving the audience a first-hand account of all the turmoil that’s befallen her life along with her reaction to it. (See for example, a broken arm has hindered Skim’s ability to write, her dad nearly died twice due to heart attacks, there’s a lack of any genuine support coming from her mother and supposed best friend, etc.) Now Skim does do this, but only on a very base level, summing up her thoughts and feelings with equal signs rather than full statements such as when she’s describing herself and her parents in the most dismissive black-and-white manner possible - “Mom says the heart attacks have turned my father into a cream puff...My dad says my mother is a cold cynical women who has no appreciation for a broken heart...My parents = serious issues...My dad signed my cast with an ugly happy face that I am scratching off. Me = serious issues” (Tamaki and Tamaki 10). From this and other snippets of her diary, whether paired down by shorthand or not, it’s easy to gather that Skim is feeling depressed, angry, even confused about all these sudden changes that’ve soaked up all the attention in her life and are putting a damper on who she is. The irony? Even though the whole point of having a diary in the first place is to be able to have something to bare your soul to without fear of being judged by anyone else for the way you think and feel, Skim writes about what she’s feeling but keeps vague as to the reasons why. It’s almost as if the character herself was aware that the diary would be published and read by millions in real life so here she is making a last-ditch effort to save face!

In all seriousness, Skim in a sense really is trying to save face through the act of ”self-censoring”, as put so eloquently by Margaret Lang in our first group presentation. Much of this can be cited in the comparatively detailed commentary Skim makes that is laced with more overtly irrational cynicism than usual - think of when the whole school is hung up over John Reddear’s death and Skim is treated by Mrs. Hornet and Julie Peters as a premature suicide statistic just by virtue of being associated with goth culture, to which she wrote this in response: “Truthfully, I am always a little depressed but that is because I am sixteen and everyone is stupid (ha-ha-ha). I doubt it has anything to do with being a goth” (Tamaki and Tamaki 22). Additionally, there are many times throughout the story when Skim writes a complete thought that would give everyone, including herself, some proper insight as to why she feels the way she does if it wasn’t, say, followed by a question mark or delayed with an ellipsis: “Things That Make Me Sad - Love. Things That Make Me Happy - “Love?” (Tamaki and Tamaki 67). Perhaps most striking though, are the thoughts that Skim crosses out (as Luke Langton called particular attention to in the second group presentation) and sometimes replaces with other deliberately less direct comments which at best reveal half-truths in place of whole truths: “I didn’t know what to write. Because...I’m not sure. I didn’t know what other people would think about my answer. It’s a stupid question” (Tamaki and Tamaki 61).

All the above examples to me suggest that Skim not only has trouble being honest with herself, but is also afraid of offering any outright explanations as to why she’s been so depressed, even in her diary. This is because doing so might make her appear too vulnerable on top of already being unsure of who she is as an individual. Consider Skim’s pentacle, a doodle of a star that shows up quite a few times throughout the book. We see it drawn twice on Skim’s list of things that she still needs for her altar, Skim paints a tiny star on her face (but washes it off) right before the Wiccan AA meeting, there’s even a pentacle drawn on Skim’s cast. We find out towards the end of the story through a conversation Skim has with Katie Matthews that the pentacle is meant to protect her from “everything” but “It’s mostly just symbolic” (Tamaki and Tamaki 109). I think the pentacle has held more significance to Skim than she’s actually letting on at this point. It’s shown up enough times that I can’t help but deduce it is meant to be a safeguard, a way for Skim to protect herself against obstacles she’s having a hard time overcoming or things she’s feeling uneasy about (like a casted right arm and the strange Wiccan meeting). This is especially important because up until the end of the book, anything having to do with Wicca, as the star does, is a huge part of the new identity we see Skim trying to forge for herself. It’s only after Skim talks to Katie about it and later signs her cast with a pentacle “for good luck” does the star take on a meaning for Skim that really is just symbolic and nothing more, since by then, Skim has grown confident enough in herself that she no longer needs Wicca or the star doodles to feel validated.

But while we’re on the topic of conversation, I notice a correlation between the most positive and negative interactions Skim has with other characters at the beginning of the book and the diary entries that are written about them after the fact. When Skim tries to speak her mind towards her “friend” Lisa, she is often shut down and insulted for it. In those situations, the best thing Skim can do to vent her frustration is insult Lisa back. Not surprisingly, these scenes in themselves tend to make it even more clear as to why Skim feels so dejected whenever she’s with Lisa than the diary entries do. The ramifications of such a relationship where Skim is almost never allowed to get a word in edgewise (and when she does, Lisa verbally abuses her for it) center around a lack of confidence Skim has in her ability to channel her thoughts towards other people and herself simply due to the fact that Lisa has never given Skim the option to do otherwise. However, Skim’s first meaningful conversation with Ms. Archer really puts things into perspective for the audience, as not only is she the first character in the story to let Skim speak freely without any fear of a hostile response, but she also asks why the students call the central protagonist “Skim” when her real name is “Kim”, to which the latter answers: “Because I’m not” (Tamaki and Tamaki 27). This little exchange here conveys by far the most important thing we ever learn about Skim as a person throughout the entire story - she does not think of herself as a light or superficial individual, (as two separate dictionary definitions of the term seem to allude). I dare say, that serves to make her nickname quite a contradiction to what I would claim the character of Skim is really like in spite of the confidence lapse she has to wrestle with for so long in public and private!

Yes, Skim most certainly is quite the introspective and layered character. Thus the climactic pay-off of when she is finally able to express herself, (effectively giving the GCL members a piece of her mind in defense of Katie and John Reddear without any care as to what will come of it afterwards) is made so much sweeter. Though please do not take this to mean there’s a great discrepancy between the Skim we get to know while writing diary entries and the Skim we get to know while interacting with others. Skim’s fear of appearing weak in the eyes of herself and of those around her was always present until we saw her get past that fear at the end of the story by standing her ground against unfair treatment instead of just blowing it off in the first respect, and by slowly becoming a lot more truthful and censoring less as she writes in the second respect. Neither of these public and private sides of Skim are any more in line with who she truly is by themselves because, to put it simply, you can’t fully understand one side without the other.

Works Cited

Lang, Margaret, et al. "Skim: A Social Commentary." English 112 Group Presentations, 16 November, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA. Student Presentation.

Langton, Luke, et al. “Skim.” English 112 Group Presentations, 16 November, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA. Student Presentation.

Tamaki, Mariko, and Jillian Tamaki. Skim. Groundwood Books, 2008.