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genericpuff · 9 months ago

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STAY OFF MY TERRITORY - Time Travel in Lore Olympus (feat. Springlock, our resident time traveller)

AH YES. TIME TRAVEL. BUILDING COFFEE TABLES FROM IKEA. BOTH A MESS, BOTH SOMETHING YOU SHOULD NEVER ATTEMPT EVEN AS A GAG.

THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS IN THIS ANALYTICAL DISSECTION OF LORE OLYMPUS' TIME TRAVEL !!!

Let's establish the "time travel" in LO first of all - it's briefly introduced by Hecate, who says that Hades isn't in a 'where' but a 'when' , hahahaha i so love time travel jokes /s THIS ISN'T A LAUGHING MATTER-

We had already covered this in the criticisms that Kronos' 'dream comas' would have been better allocated to his time travel abilities, and it seems now Rachel is trying to make that a reality at the last possible minute. I'm going to completely tear apart that reality to present to you why it doesn't work in LO.

Aw, Kronos' time abilities are finite? Get on my level, sir.

The caveat is the existential toll that time travel takes on the jumper, and the fact that in most cases, it's impossible to perform due to paradoxes. And Lore Olympus' time travel presents a lot of paradoxes. No wonder Kronos went crazy, I'm going crazy just thinking about everything that's wrong with this.

So Hades is trapped 'somewhere' in time. This isn't something I haven't seen before, but the issue it presents is getting someone back to their present time, as it presents the first paradox -

PARADOX #1 - There are no accidents. If someone is to jump into a timeline outside of their own, even if by 'accident', that would still have to be predestined by the timeline itself. This is in line with the grandfather paradox, which I will let the almighty Google define for us all to keep things brief:

You cannot travel back in time 'by accident'. If you were to travel back in time, it would have been written into the script of reality already, so any effects caused by your jumping would be purposeful, even if they seem like 'accidents' to you - such as becoming your own grandfather, Philip J Fry.

Moving on, in the most recent FastPass episode, Melinoe reveals that she was taken from her timeline by Kronos.

PARADOX #2 - Which version of Kronos took her? Was it the present version travelling into the future to take her from her timeline into his present? Or was it some future version of Kronos who has escaped yet again at some point in the future and then travelled back into the past to interfere with the events of the current present, possibly in an attempt to rewrite the script? If it's the latter, this means that Hera and Persephone can't feasibly stop Kronos indefinitely, as to stop Kronos would mean that he wouldn't exist in the future to take Melinoe from her future timeline and thus this present timeline of events would cease to exist. If we want to get even more granular with it, 'present' Kronos is still 'past' Kronos as it's the Kronos from ten years ago who got his hands on a deity to help him mess with people's dreams, and that deity has been revealed to be Melinoe, who would have had to be ripped from some point in their future timeline. This falls in line with a temporal paradox, or as most people know it, the 'kill baby Hitler' paradox, which designates that one cannot go back in time to kill baby Hitler, as killing baby Hitler would remove all the subsequent events that would lead up to you deciding to build a time machine and go back in time to kill baby Hitler.

Melinoe claims she's only been here a few days. That would be all well and good, as time is funny like that - I've done my fair share of jumps into the distant past only to return a few minutes later - but what doesn't line up is the present timeline of events that would only work unless she's actually been trapped for longer than a few days.

PARADOX #3 - So it's only been a few days, but Hades and Persephone have known about this child trapped in Tartarus for weeks, and we know Kronos has had her since the dream diving arc back near the end of S2. So unless Kronos is simply jumping to different points in time to cause shenanigans - which leads to even MORE paradoxes as you feasibly cannot travel to your own past to change it due to it creating a different future - then it can't have only been a 'few days' for Melinoe, it would have been at least a few weeks, giving some wiggle room to the past events of her appearing before Hades in his dreams due to her being the goddess of nightmares. Kronos escaping Tartarus after using Melinoe to put people to sleep and possess them was not something that happened in a pocket dimension, it was very real and very present.

Hades commits an even bigger sin, however, and the biggest issue with this 'time travel' plotline:

PARADOX #4 - I truly hope 'home' means 'home point in her timeline' and not their literal home. Hades and Persephone cannot take Melinoe, for two reasons: they haven't had their daughter yet, and the future timeline versions of Hades and Persephone need their daughter back. If Hades and Persephone were to adopt this version of Melinoe in their present timeline, it would create a clone paradox, as they would have a duplicate Melinoe from the future, OR it would create the grandfather paradox if they opted not to try for a child knowing they already have Melinoe which would erase the whole sequence of events that led to future Melinoe's birth in the first place.

Ultimately Lore Olympus' time travel suffers from the same issue many time travel stories suffer from - not having consistent rules. It is choosing now , near the finale of the series, to introduce time travel, rather than establishing it back in Season 1 when Kronos was first hinted at. It's also still not clear in what Hades' role is in this, as him being taken to a 'when' could still be read as a dream sequence rather than actual time travel. After all, Kronos supposedly "exhausted" his time travelling powers centuries ago - surely as a way for Rachel to have her cake and cover for the fact that she's had Kronos in the series since S1 and never actually had him do what he's known for - but now she's trying to eat it too by just giving him his time travel powers again for no reason besides rewriting the dream diving finale from S2 but with ambiguous time travel instead.

It's all a huge mess and the best thing I can do for myself is simply not let it keep me up at night. I have enough time travelling problems to worry about as it is. I will be sticking to the Austin Powers method -

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(I am not enjoying myself.)

#keep your hands OFF time travel rachel #you can't even tell a coherent LINEAR story and you think you can do TIME TRAVEL ???#she's deadass just using this as a last minute crutch to make up for her piss poor writing #it's really easy for people to just go “well yknow timey wimey stuff!!!!” to handwave away every single plothole and inconsistency #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #Youtube

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david-talks-sw · 1 year ago

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"Bring in the flamethrowers!"

The above moment from The Clone Wars gets brought up a lot to illustrate Ki-Adi Mundi or the Jedi's moral decadence, a fall from grace caused by the war.

Figured I'd point out a couple of things in support of Ki-Adi!

1) Simple answer: the situation called for it.

The Geonosians attacking Ki-Adi were:

enemy fighters

with the element of surprise

who could fly and were thus harder to hit with the clones' blasters, hence why more wide-ranging weapons like flamethrowers were called for, as the clones were getting picked off one-by-one.

Time was of the essence, men were dying, Ki-Adi made a choice.

Wanna know what Jedi choose when a Geonosian isn't actively trying to kill them? They save its life (and get praised for it by their peers).

2) In-universe, the Geonosians are assholes.

From Attack of the Clones - The Illustrated Companion, 2002:

"Geonosians are a physically intimidating race conditioned to live and work in caste-segregated hives. The vast majority of Geonosians are subservient to the ruling caste, and throughout Geonosian society, there is evidence of a biologically engineered class system. Some Geonosians have wings, while drones do not. [...] The blind obedience of menial Geonosians makes them an easily exploitable workforce for the upper classes, who have built a highly profitable business manufacturing Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, and Droideka Droids for the Trade Federation and its allies."

"For unusually intelligent Geonosians unlucky enough to be born into the lower castes, participating in the games provides the only chance they will ever get to escape the misery of their downtrodden lifestyles and the rigid social expectations of the upper classes. Triumph in the arena is often a hollow victory, however; while lower- and middle-class Geonosians may win the right to talk to their superiors, they can never earn their respect."

Okay, so the winged upper class are obviously elitist bastards, but how is that even remotely relevant--

-- oh. But hey, two of them don't have wings! Those are members of the drone caste, and they're all begotten underdogs, so--

"If there is one thing that unites Geonosians of all classes, it is their xenophobia. A traditionally isolationist species, they fear espionage attempts by rivals eager to learn the secrets behind their latest droids."

-- oh. Huh.

Bottom line: yes, they're sentient... but they're xenophobic, have an elitist caste system, and earn their living by forging weapons that melt your insides or blow up planets.

Now sure, this notion has been explored and deconstructed in Star Wars: Rebels...

... and I'm not entirely sure if the quoted info still holds true in current Disney canon (the lore is from 2002, after all), but if you ask me?

On a normal day, ol' Klik-Klak would be actively trying to murder the entirety of the Ghost crew for daring to even step their dirty non-Geonosian feet on his pure red planet.

3) Out-of-universe, the Geonosians are just "bug aliens". Nothing more.

The production team of Attack of the Clones referred to them as the "termite people". The script describes them as "winged creatures" who are heard "chuckling" once Anakin and Padmé are sentenced to a gruesome death. At some point, the storyboard artists considered introducing the Geonosian workers like you would a horror monster.

Hell, the whole Lucas decided to base them on termites is because his house was besieged by them.

They're not people, which is why they're not designed to look like people. They're purposefully dehumanized so that when one of them gets killed by our heroes, it's ethically "okay" and the audience doesn't need to stop and think "oh my God, that's murder!" or "hey! that's racist" whenever a clone calls one of them a "bug."

A similar logic is applied to the stormtroopers, who have face-covering helmets that dehumanizes them.

Functionally, a stormtrooper is a fascist goon, nothing more.

Same goes for the Geonosian. It's a bug alien, that's about it.

4) The flamethrowers were probably just added because they're cool.

Dave Filoni described how the decision to add flamethrowers came up, and it doesn't sound like George had deeper storytelling motives:

"You know, we're going through the tunnel with the Geonosians and George is like: “Yeah, well, here, we'll have the-- the tunnel and the flamethrowers. Yeah. How about that? ‘Bring in the flamethrowers!’ have Ki-Adi Mundi say ‘bring in the flame throwers!’” And it's like “flame—- What? Flamethrowers?!”" - Dave Filoni, “Return to Geonosis” Featurette, 2010

It sounds like he came up with it on the spot.

The flamethrowers aren't indicative of "the moral degradation of Ki-Adi and the Jedi Order." They're likely just in there 'cause they're cool (and if you've played Team Fortress 2, you know that's true)!

At the end of the day, when it comes to the Geonosians, I think that there's a certain irony to how their story ends.

They gleefully created the battle droids that tore the galaxy asunder and the Death Star, a weapon that enables the Empire to commit genocide... but fell victim to genocide themselves, at the hands of an even bigger monster.

They reaped what they sowed. They're not meant to be mourned.

And it's nice to see this aspect of the narrative doesn't get ignored as much as I would've expected.

I came across this video that basically rips into Ki-Adi for using flamethrowers, and I was ready to roll my eyes when I scrolled down to the comments section...

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... but then, a happy surprise!

Most of the comments disagree with the video's stance! For once, logic prevails over anti-Jedi bias.

So yeah, that put a smile on my face.

#Ki-Adi Mundi #geonosians #geonosis #the clone wars #in defense of the jedi #on the jedi's involvement in the clone wars #tcw #clone wars #star wars #jedi master #21st Nova Corps #commander bacara #for the record: I'm an engie in TF2 not some WM1 Pyro

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reel-fear · 10 months ago

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Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

#batim #batdr #bendy and the ink machine #bendy and the dark revival #seriously though we cannot let this slide #ramblez #please please keep talking about this and why its not okay #Ive already had people saying to not be too mean or disrespectful to mike over this and to put bluntly #if mike is gonna be this blatently disrespectful to his fans he deserves whatever he fucking gets #this is such a horrible situation Im just glad I got the chance to speak positively in this essay #I mean not about bendy but I got to gush about how cool it is that transformers has a nonbinary character in it so that was fun #this is what Bendy could have and refuses to... Oh well more motive to make Showtime ig #but seriously what is the point of supporting these indie devs if theyre gonna be just as horrible abt this shit #as their corporate competitors #at several points bendy just feels like every other horror game out there but worse #its so so so frustrating

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scoobydoodean · 10 months ago

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reading your metas and realizing that the reason i find sam so annoying is that hes both obsessed with being a grown up who can make his own choices and isnt a child, and absolutely committed to never taking responsibility for his choices when push comes to shove.

hes a grown up when it comes to making decisions but not when those decisions have consequences

And it's very much on purpose in the writing, is the thing. This exact dynamic is one of the only lines of dialogue between Michael and Lucifer in 5.22 that really reflects Sam and Dean's more current conflicts (Recall that the lore here is that Lucifer twisted the first human soul (Lilith) into demonhood to spite God):

MICHAEL/ADAM: Oh, you know why! I have no choice, after what you did. LUCIFER/SAM: What I did? What if it's not my fault? MICHAEL/ADAM: What is that supposed to mean? LUCIFER/SAM: Think about it. Dad made everything. Which means he made me who I am! God wanted the Devil.

"Because someone wanted me to be bad, I have no choice but to be bad." The things that happen to us give us context and create room for sympathy, but they don't make our choices everyone else's fault. (And yes—free will does exist to Chuck's great frustration, or he wouldn't have had a season long tantrum about Team Free Will not ever doing what he wanted).

What's more, in this same conversation where Lucifer excuses his own actions as outside of his control, he tells Michael to defy their father's desires—something he just finished saying wasn't possible. He just said that he had to be exactly who he was meant to be, but he doesn't apply this same logic to Michael's God-given role. He only twists the narrative of their lives when it's about him, to make himself sound uniquely powerless. He assigns Michael all the culpability and control over how this fight goes down when Lucifer actively worked to bring this moment where they battle to fruition as well (including by stocking a mass grave in 5.10). It's manipulative bullshit.

How does Michael respond to all of this a few moments later? Before anything, by expressing resetment for Lucifer's refusal to take responsibility for his own choices:

MICHAEL/ADAM: You know, you haven't changed a bit, little brother. Always blaming everybody but yourself.

We can also reflect on the last time Lucifer threw himself a pity party about how mean his family is—to justify digging a mass grave into which he had dumped hundreds of bodies for a ritual to raise Death. He said it wasn't his fault then either—that Michael made him do it by betraying him—by refusing to stand by his side supporting his every decision (which, while framed as somehow making him powerless, strongly suggest a desire to control others feelings and for everyone including his older brother to fall in line behind him and do his bidding without question). It's never his fault. It's always someone else's fault for being mean to him.

#pk rewatches spn number ?#5.22 #5.10 #mail #projecting displaced aggression and scapegoating in spn #season 5 #the flannel business #youre such a control freak

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stressedbisexualtm · 1 year ago

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i will say, one thing i really enjoy is how a lot of traffic/hermit twt and tumblr casually enjoy the qsmp. it shows up (for me) mostly in the form of people say "cubito" rather than "c!", and i like that a lot. it's fun to see big life series or hc accounts talking about todays lore on the qsmp, or who their favorite cubito is, or which egg they think is the best/most underappreciated. even the people who don't really say anything, maybe just reblog/retweet some fanart or a clip of fitmc being gay as hell absolutely make my day. i like what the qsmp has been able to do- not just merging different ethic communities, but subdivisions of the english mc community as well. during the dream smp and that little while before the qsmp was announced, there was this HUGE divide between the dsmp and all the other sub-communities and how they interacted with each other. there was some division before, as there was bound to be, but it's become a really harsh line since 2020. and im thankful the qsmp has merged that break between the two halves of the english mc community. again, it's just really awesome (and a little surreal!) to see hermit mains talking about the qsmp.

And there are qsmp fans out there who have never even heard of the life series or hermitcraft! to those of you that might see this post, I encourage you to watch a little bit of either series. they don't have the same standards on lore qsmp does, but they're all really great and fun people who love to make content. they're all youtube videos, but i promise that doesn't diminish the fun! there is lore, bits that certain creators sprinkle into the life series, and at least once per hermitcraft season (at least since season 6) they have a big lore event happen. hermitcraft is currently on it's 9th season, and they have so many massive projects and games and have had more than one lore event this season. the life series is on it's 5th season, secret life, that uploads weekly and has some really unique and fun game mechanics and player interactions. (and with both series, don't let the lack of lore deter you! both fan communities are amazing, and we have a habit of creating our own lore that is really interesting to work with).

same to life series or hermitcraft fans- they swear a lot on the qsmp, and it's all livestreamed, but they also have so many interesting characters and stories and so much more they still want to tell. it's not all completely scripted either, and there are a lot of references and cameos you can find! there's a lot to enjoy here, and I hope someone who reads this will go see it for the first time.

#trafficblr #qsmp #life series #hermitblr #hermitcraft #traffic life smp #quackity smp #generic talking tag

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zahri-melitor · 1 month ago

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Newish Comics:

Action Comics #1072: I am enjoying following the path of both of these stories, but I'm getting the vibes that I need some things to start happening soon, rather than stacking up more mystery boxes.

Still delighted by Kenan and Kon's antics though. The decision to team them up continues to pay off.

Detective Comics #1090: look, have we seen the premise of Thomas helping characters he probably shouldn't have, as a doctor, and that leading to disaster down the track before? Yes. Am I going to enjoy the parallels again anyway? Also yes. Get Leslie into this plot, Tom Taylor, for some support for Thomas' tendencies.

Nightwing #119: My first thought here is how nice it is to see a run that's picking up smoothly from the last one and where the writer is fully indoctrinated on Dick/Babs flirting from the Dixon days. It's got potential and so far I don't mind the characterisation.

Absolute Wonder Woman #1: I think this is probably going to end up my favourite title from the Absolute line. The art was beautiful and full of character, and I really loved the characterisation of Circe in this, and how she moves from indifferent to a mother. "How you fall in love with a child is by raising it." gaaaaaaah I had those words still ringing in my head last night as I was supervising bathtime and teeth brushing.

Green Arrow #17: and we finally get this book handed off from Joshua Williamson. First half was more tidying up of the Absolute Power mess (without much real resolution, but we all need to move on from that plot), but the new run with Chris Condon looks like it has some promise. I'm happy to go with it for the second.

The Flash #14: Skartaris time! I still need to actually get to the point where I understand what the current timeline of Skartaris is from Flashpoint onwards, because my personal understanding is that Travis should be DEAD DEAD DEAD but yet he's still around. I suspect this is because nobody at DC actually cares about Warlord lore enough to make this a problem, aside from Mike Grell, who at this point is in 'sure, that art proposal sounds fun to draw' life stages.

Anyway, the concept of the Wests all going to Skartaris for some family bonding time is hysterical (by both definitions) and I eagerly await to see how Spurrier handles adapting it for an audience who isn't already used to Skartaris oddities. The fact we have floating Ancient Atlantean buildings in the art is a very promising sign to me, though.

Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5: This was a good conclusion to the story. It's been very much Black Label levels of existing in its own continuity, and I respect how it was put together. I do wonder how much of Tamaki's insistence on how she characterised and centred rabbits in the run is influenced by and in opposition to that classic picture of Giovanni Zatara from The Books of Magic #3 with the dead rabbit.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #18:

I really liked the art in Doubt. It was quite effective.

The Constantine and Streaky team up remained completely unnecessary but oh well, not written for me.

Reflections was an interesting team up! I wouldn't have put M'gann and Jackson together (actually I just realised this was probably influenced by YJA, carry on), but they do both have interesting placement in their narratives of Xebel v Atlantis and White v Green Martian. Wish the story had leant a bit more into that outsider narrative from the villain to try and convince them.

Why do we have a random Harley Quinn story from nowhere in the continuity? anyway.

Robin Season is uh not particularly good Tim and Damian characterisation (in that the one-upmanship competition doesn't really feel how the two of them compete?) but it's full of interesting background detailing for indications of setting.

The Warlord #73: This week for our second trip to Lost World of Skartaris, we're starting out strong as Travis is still trapped in the bondage tree from last week.

Terrible bondage peril! Over a fire!

Only to be further attacked by flying dinosaurs of some description!

Thanks for the art, Dan Jurgens.

We spend 6 pages of this comic with Travis trying to escape from the tree vines clinging to him, while also fighting the dinosaurs. We have never been more back.

In terms of the plot that doesn't involve tying Travis up in perilous situations, we're still tracking down the plague unicorn. The unicorn dies in a swamp, the gang figure out that Scarheart, our non-Skataran speaking friend from another dimension probably drank magical healing water from a pool which is why he doesn't have Unicorn Plague, and they go off to get some to heal everyone who's sick. Shakira gets better and falls immediately for Scarheart. They decide to hang out with the group of travellers who speak to animals and leave the main story group for a bit.

Also Travis uses up all his bullets, yet again. I must assume he just has a supplier in Skartaris by now who's worked out how to make ammunition.

#z canon read throughs #newish comics

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feltcaverns · 7 months ago

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But seriously, none of you people fucking get it.

There are rules to this shit. Okay? And if you're not intuiting them, you're not doing this right.

Fuck, it shouldn't be necessary at all for me to do this. But you keep fucking up like this in front of me, the least I can do is tell you some goddamn basics.

Number one. Don't fucking try and overshadow the main man. This ain't your rodeo, it's his. If you try and jump off your horse so you can impress the crowd, you're gonna just end up eating shit. Stay in line.

Number two. If they didn't sign up for this, don't fucking target them. Should be obvious, but for some of you, it doesn't look like it is. Don't post about muppet drugs in the replies of normal fucking people.

Number three. If he says jump, do not ask how high. Just fucking jump. Have any of you even been in a cult before? Don't answer. I don't want to fucking know. The brotherhood is an embarrassment in its current state. You people need organization and a cutoff point, but that's a whole separate issue.

Number four. Lurk moar. I'm 100% serious. Know your fucking lore, kiddos. If you don't know my name, and it ain't fucking Elegy, then are you really in the right place? Read a webcomic and come back later.

Number five. This is war.

What, you think I'm joking?

Every fucking day we'd wake up and figure out new ways to make him question our sanity. We'd create events spontaneously. We'd organize shit to surprise him. Entire arcs. And you know how much contact we had with the enemy directly?

Nearly fucking nil.

You people need to shape the fuck up, study your fucking history, or don't bother participating at all.

#the croaker #plushrump arg #the muppet joker #by popular demand #sponsored post

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ourlittleuluru · 15 days ago

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Voyage Of The Outcast - My Thoughts 3/4

And this is where everything starts to hit all at once. the Feels, the callbacks and references... MORE LORE!

Notes in Chp 6 - 8

I feel like this whole part, literally also a reference to Xavier himself and how he's trying to keep up his appearances whilst working behind the scenes to protect MC :v

And this part just... got emotional. The feels T^T

Again, a little nod to something from 21 Days, even though chronologically in theory, it happens later

And again, the writers reallllllly putting it right in our faces. How much MC actually just, keeps the deeper questions to themselves. As if afraid to break this delicate balance that is their relationship. Kinda harkens back to their Lightseeker days huh...

ANECDOTE 3 REFERENCEEEEE ahhhhh 😭

And it seems like some part of MC's past, the feelings are ingrained into the very soul. This happens again later. Makes me wonder if MC will eventually remember?

There goes Xavier pulling this line back out again 🥺

Kind of feels like Xavier is trying to get MC not to think too much about what once was or unknown to them. To just face forward together with him, the current him. Maybe I'm overthinking here :v;;;

Okay and then comes in Soren... SOREN YOU LITTLE D:<

But dang kudos to the VA (in CN, I'll have to listen to the EN one another time) the HUGE change in tone from the introvereted scared vice president to a Backtracker that fears no Xavier... 👌

And this line just comes in hitting me like a damn truck

Just isekai me at this point o(--(

Literal star fall in starfall forest

AND THEN LITERALLY THE SAME LINE USED IN HIS MYTH PLEASE IMMA CRY HERE 😭😭😭 (the voice line is the exact same and I can say that 100% because I had to replay it a few times during Xavier's birthday c':)

So basically... MC... experienced a part of their past?

And now we're back. To the starting point. Where it all began.

Although I don't remember Starfall forest in LS Myth ever mentioned a mirror like lake in it... but this is definitely a reference to Anecdote 3's salt flats that they saw a meteor shower at...

Are things merging in a way? Especially since this place was created from Xavier's memories (and fears). But yes, the point of returning still stands.

Now, back to Soren... again good job VA for voicing Soren so well. I wanna slap him, acting so high and mighty >:T

OKAY

another key note here. In CN, Soren specifically calls out saying that "帮你们。帮你。" instead of EN where Soren only mentions "you" aka Xavier. 你们 is the plural for 你 (you), which is to say, Soren said something more along the lines of "I used my life's work to help you all. help you. to pass through the Deepspace Tunnel to get here. " in full.

I feel this is a bit important as perhaps, he originally felt like he was part of the group which later turned sour. (Xavier did say that to Soren, the ends always justify the means so... who knows what crazy stuff this guy got up to... and then Soren also mentioned how he was abandoned, trampled, etc)

Also the fact that he changed from "help you all" to "help you"... it's like it's referencing where they find Xavier to be a traitor, noting that Xavier has used him... manipulated might be a better word... to get to this time period and caused all of them to be stranded and betraying their original mission. There's this nuance to what Soren said in CN that feels like it's a little lost in the EN line. The point still stands though! Just a little different.

But yes, he has a grudge against Xavier specifically.

So now we have identified more Backtrackers, and Soren is one of them that's still alive.

Not sure if he's Hat Guy tho... but Soren does have tech, plus knowledge and seems like a possible work partner to Ever company... hmmm But then again Hat Guy is described to be have an old voice 🤔 Doesn't sound like Soren... Maybe there's some youth potion thing that helped Soren turned younger? IDK. Speculating here at the moment

He's still most likely Hat guy, since... it would make a lil more sense story-wise, espeically if Infold ever wants to decide to rope in more plot points from stuff like WU Also Soren will DEFINITELY be coming back. !!!! IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL WAIT HOLD UP XAVIER AND JEREMIAH TEAM UP They find Soren or what is left of Soren's residence. Finds tech to finally fix Traceback II stuff like that! The possibilitiessss

Okay ngl... this part felt... how did we know Soren's evol and he's attacking Xavier's mind with it? Or is MC just refering to the illusion, aka a trick of the light?

And then Xavier's gasping just... 🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭 Man's really suffering there

And this right here is when he breaks out of it 😭😭😭😭😭 of course it's when MC is touching and squishing his face. A gesture he knows too well

LOOK AT THE RELIEF HE FELT! IT'S WRITTEN ALL OVER HIS FACE AND 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Another part...

In CN, Xavier specifically said "不要怕", literal translation being "Don't be afraid". He's even reassuring MC at this stage even now 🥺

XAVIER YOU DO REALIZE THIS ISNT THE REAL STARFALL FOREST??? 😭 COME BACKKKKK don't sacrifice yourself over this scam!!!

Gotta love how MC wasn't lost in the moment and just be like eureka

These two are so reckless for each other 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

Love it but also "hate" it because...

These two are just gonna fulfill Mr Raincoat and his wishes... Guys please 🥺🥺🥺🥺

WHICH XAVIER ALMOST DID! I'm just... XAVIER PLS

And then you dare lecture us/MC, Xavier?! D':< SAME TO YOU PLEASE

This fking line is coming back to haunt me again... (┬┬﹏┬┬)

#love and deepspace #xavier love and deepspace #churambles #xavier #shen xinghui #love and deepspace spoilers #voyage of the outcast #voyage of the outcast spoiler

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retphienix · 4 months ago

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it still annoys me that Fawkes' "You're destiny culminates here" moment is so thoroughly memed as a sign that FO3 is terribly written, when it's honestly par for the course for the story they were telling; a very simple "Good vs Evil" RPG story that needed to end with a good or evil option because it was 2008 and we were still drooling over fable 1's 2004 depiction of those decisions.

I mean hell, Fallout 3 released only a few days after Fable 2, we were waist deep in these things, it was the style at the time.

The game was ending it's straight forward story and wanted to end with a nice big boom, and sacrificing yourself is like, still common in "good ending" stories in games right here and now- having Fawkes, the most well read companion who dwells on the deeper meaning of actions- even naming themselves based on what they deemed a thematically appropriate reference- see our story as it is written- with our father's sacrifice and the immense importance of this action- and say some bullshit artsy "Destiny" line is like- so fucking expected and normal for a video game story that it's impressive it caught anyone's attention beyond school yard "Well Akchtually, they should have done it so I could keep being a wastelander 🤓" discussions.

His dialogue in that scene is just a nudge to stay on track for the big sacrifice scene that tugs on the strings of immersion /slightly/. (not even harshly). And it was probably done to avoid adding like 15 more ending slides (3 companions are immune, good and evil variants, FEV and non FEV variants etc)- the same justification done for plenty of FO3 and NV things.

It kind of isn't a matter of "Well it doesn't make sense", and it's much more of just a narrative plot pushing video game moment- it's nowhere near high literature- it's just "what it is". Similar to how you can't actually take over the strip with your interesting charisma, speech skill, and powerful ballistic fist in NV- you have to doom the world to an upcoming robot uprising because they railroaded you into that instead.

It's legitimately so bog standard that if hating FO3 wasn't a meme in and of itself then it wouldn't come up. If anything people'd have fun little conversations about which of the 3 radiation immune companions do a worst job of maintaining immersion for that story moment.

(It's RL-3. Charon is a dickass with a vague "contract" of loyalty- the vagueness leaves plenty enough room for him to say no because we don't actually know what the limits are- it's all hearsay. Fawkes is an artsy fuck who definitely thinks they are providing a meaningful end to a meaningful life. RL-3 is a robot programmed to obey us- no amount of military lingo alters that he's given an order and says "No Sir!")

it would be a fun tidbit people bring up every handful of years and go "Hey, isn't it funny how Fawkes could have done it? Ha!'' but that isn't how the fallout community handled it.

It being the style doesn't excuse bad writing, but that's the thing, it's just "neutral/popcorn narrative" writing, with some fun ideas written here and there.

Fallout 3's writing overall isn't half bad- the worst it does is "be written by a different team than Fallout 1+2" and "Be written in the exhaustively hot epicenter of good/evil video game narratives" which is like... yeah, obviously it's that.

But even within that "sin" they take the time to explain the lore as to why factions depicted in 3 are different than 1-2 (such as the BoS we witness in 3 being an offshoot that abandoned the BoS way), and they try to explore what you can do within the standardized "good/evil" formula in a /few/ quests, about as much as you'd expect for a 2008 release still trying to fit within the current fad design.

Anyways, Fawkes' moment at the "end of the game" is thoroughly memed as a sign that the game is devoid of good writing logic or reason and is just stupid railroading- and it's not even how the game operates for 99% of players because of broken steel, a DLC that extended the end of the game into an infinite sandbox (because players wanted it) and allowed you to use Fawkes, RL-3, or Charon in the "sacrifice" scene instead, since all 3 are immune to radiation.

You know, the version of the game everyone plays today, the one where instead of the ""iconic"" immersion breaking line Fawkes says this:

Yeah.

I think in reality it bothers me mostly because what is effectively a removed voice line is treated as the smoking gun- when the exact event people "demanded" be possible and continue to claim couldn't happen- literally happens.

Fawkes goes in for you.

That's how the game has worked ever since 2009.

His fucking removed voice line is still the first thing you see on his fandom wiki page, as well as being the final "noteworthy quote" instead of including his revised lines anywhere in those areas.

Cute, I guess.

Anways, Fawkes is a neat super mutant concept- I often forget like 99% of their character (since FO3 isn't companion writing focused) but revisiting it in Tale of Two Wastelands is reminding me that as a "concept" I like them a lot. I think they do a good job of presenting it when you meet them too- it's just a shame that Fallout 3 didn't do companion quests to further explore them because I like what's presented and how it's voice acted- but then they just become the gatling laser companion who screams in combat a bunch.

#retplays #Fallout #Fallout 3 #Fallout New Vegas #tale of two wastelands

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incensuous · 8 months ago

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HSR 2.1 SUNDAY & ROBIN, AVENTURINE & SISTER

My feelings about HSR aside, I wanted to update a bit more on the siblings in the game. The current story has not completed yet, but things are getting interesting (brosis wise at least lol).

***MAJOR SPOILERS!!***

For the more obvious, Sunday (brother) and Robin (younger sister): Robin "died" in the previous update and for this update, is still seemingly dead. We barely knew her before she was killed by an apparition named "Death" in the Dreamscape. I'm unclear but from my understanding, the people who were killed by "Death" inside the Dreamscape are currently stuck in a yet unseen area.

Sunday is the head of the Oak Family, who controls the planet of Penacony, and is obviously upset from Robin's death. He vows to find her murderer. We found out through some letters Robin tipped him off on her suspicion the traitor "Death" was from within the Family. She trusts Sunday, and therefore does not suspect him, but wishes he keeps safe, as he is the only family she has left. (Cute tidbit, Robin is a huge popstar in the world of HSR, but she says her favorite performance was a play one she did with Sunday when they were kids!)

I LOVE THE BABY ARTWORK WE GET OF THE SIBLINGS IN THIS GAME!

So far, Sunday has presented a calm demeanor, but it seems like he has a secret unhinged side. When confronted by Sparkle disguised as his sister, he doesn't react the way I thought someone would, if they knew their sister had just been murdered and someone is now prancing around in her form.

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The Family as a whole is keeping the deaths, even Robin's, under wraps. There is a letter addressed to Sunday he should keep a level head, and criticizes him for being too focused on vengeance for Robin.

Again, he seems a bit strange overall. It isn't until the very end of the 2.1 quest, where we see him show his anger. ... And then dies! So I'm hoping in 2.2, Sunday and Robin are reunited in this "death" area, outside of the Dreamscape.

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I hope Sunday and Robin will keep feeding us. They aren't our first sibling duo in HSR, but Robin is already revealed as a 5* (who tend to be more relevant in the lore), and I am personally going to riot if Sunday is a 4*, which I doubt anyways, considering his place in the story.

Aside from the dead chicken wing siblings, we got a LOVELY surprise sibling relationship. Fair warning, the sister is dead, unnamed, and faceless--BUT THAT HASN'T STOPPED ME BEFORE! In fact, they feel more fleshed out to me, currently than what we've seen of Sunday and Robin.

Aventurine was the focal point of the 2.1 quest. To introduce him, he's part of the IPC, which is the Amazon of the HSR world, some nasty megacorporation that I don't understand. When we first meet him, he pulls a Karen on us, for holding up the check-in line in Penacony. But then he quickly tries to befriend us with money instead. If this were real life, it would have worked on me, but in the video game world, I have principles, dammit!

Behind his sparkly facade, Aventurine is an Avgin, an ostracized ethnic group, who were effectively massacred by an opposing group.

Aventurine is presumably the sole survivor. Following the massacre, he is captured and sold as a slave. Through a series of bets, he ends up killing his master, then ends up in his current role as a top official in the IPC.

In flashbacks, we see the Avgins worshipped a god entirely out of the main Aeon system of HSR. Aventurine, birth name Kakavasha, was presumed to be especially blessed by their god, Gaiathra Triclops. His parents died early on, and we find out he was left with only his older sister for some time.

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(In the Japanese dub, he calls her onee-chan!!)

The sweetest line is when she tells him, "I can live without the necklace, but I can't live without you, Kakavasha." They're poor orphans in an already poor clan, and I can only imagine how hard it was on the two of them.

In the final flashback with his sister, it's revealed the Katicans would plan to attack the Avgins on their sacred festival day--also Aventurine's birthday. His sister tells him they must part ways, he's the future of their clan, and that their parents are waiting for her--insinuating she's prepared to die. This reminds me of the way she'd told him, "I can't live without you".

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I wish his sister had showed up more in the actual quest outside of cutscenes (he hallucinates his younger self accompanying him). But what we do have for them makes me honestly really love them. She's literally nameless, BUT! We do actually see her face in Aventurine's teaser.

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Someone even writes in the comments how Sunday was projecting when he asked Aventurine personal questions, as they both know the loss of their sister.

#shipcest #robinday #aventurine x sister #i need 2.2 to come out so robinday can really take off #i was so pleasantly surprised by aventurine having a sister!! i really wish she had shown up as a hallucination #robin x sunday #sunrobin

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brainrotallthewaydown1312 · 1 year ago

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I've been seeing more and more people recently compare the current Good Omens/Our Flag Means Death/What We Do in the Shadows fandoms to the build up from the Superwholock days. and let me tell you, as someone who was just getting into fandom during the height Superwholock but was observing from outside those fandoms, i definitely see it.

similar amount of crossover within the fandom, similar types of crossposting. similar formats of engagement (response gifs, edits, and metas regularly breaching containment and being seen and engaged with by people outside the fandom) and similar intensity of theorizing and analysis. similar desire for comments and responses from writers and actors involved. I can even point out how they are analogous to each other as crossover fandoms.

good omens is the most obvious . it has the angels and demons and religious/mythological imagery of supernatural as well as the fandom engagement and irl stanning with the creators. it shares David tennant and several actors with doctor who. and you cannot look me in my face and honestly tell me that coffee theory and the similar theories don't have tjlc vibes and that the way we talk about and engage with Neil gaiman doesn't have the vibes of how sherlock fans engaged with Steven moffat and Mark gatiss if they weren't massively weird cunts to his fans and kind of homophobic.

our flag means death involves fictionalized and revised history as well as having several stories/arcs that feel like they are coming from different genres but that still fit together like doctor who. it also has the giffability and similar types of analysis for characters and relationships. it has both the capacity for mundane lines delivered so uniquely that they become deeply quotable like doctor who and lines that are so absurd that they are imminently quotable like Sherlock.

What We Do in the Shadows has the long running with a few different iterations thing that doctor who has. to a lesser degree, but still. it has the absurd dialogue and situations that Sherlock had but without the distain for its fans or weird homophobic subtext and queerbaiting. it has the wide representation of mythological and folkloric creatures and stories and consistent random out of context lore notes that supernatural had.

the most entertaining part of this is how deep we all seem to be falling into this. the depth of this crossover fandom hole definitely seems to go as deep as superwholock. I mean I've seen several friend groups that have a similar breakdown to what is going on in my house right now which is

me: has been a Tumblr kid since before the height of superwholock, escaped the curse of supernatural

roommate 1: was a supernatural fan on the Internet during the height of superwholock, escaped the curse of tumblr

roommate 3: was neither a supernatural nor a Tumblr kid but was in the Voltron Instagram fandom and has read more fanfic in total than the rest of us combined

roommate 3: has been busy playing Minecraft and Lego star wars the whole time all that mess was happening. knows nothing about fandom.

all of us right now: losing our collective shit about gay angels and pirates and vampires. at least one person in this house cries about them daily. there is at least one tortured wail echoing down the hall when someone gets a sad edit on their fyp/feed every day. we have regular in depth discussions of characters and head canons and different interpretations. we bribe each other to trade chores or do favors or let us win games by offering one shots of the other person's preference.

and I haven't seen this many people go this feral in this way since superwholock died down. and I'm having fun actually participating this time around

#our flag means death #ofmd #good omens #what we do in the shadows #wwdits #fandom #supernatural #doctor who #Sherlock #superwholock #our shadows mean omens

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s-creations · 4 months ago

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Excavation - Chapter 1

Now that everything's calmed down slightly, Daisy explains why she's there. Mainly looking for the heroes' help in solving a problem that's coming from deep in one of her Kingdom's temples.

The group divides into two parts: One to solve the temple issue while the other tries to convince the Desert King to join forces against Bowser.

To everyone's surprise, it doesn't quite go according to plan.

Fandom: Super Mario & Releated Fandoms Rating: Teen and UP Audiences Relationship: Mario & Luigi & Wario & Waluigi Additional Tags: Pretty Much Everyone's Here, Named OCs - Freeform, world building, lore building, sometimes in the most painful way, Treasure Hunting, another mural to worry about, Mentions of Blood, we have a lot of people opening up in this one, cursing, heavy cursing, like I haven't used this heavy of cursing for this story for quite a while.

Taking a slow, deep breath, Daisy gave a nod to encourage herself and started.

“One of our oldest temples has started to crumble. We’re unsure as to why, but there are some warning signs pointing to something powerful currently trapped inside. And that it’s trying to get out. Quickly. Causing quakes to happen more often. While we’re worried, we also don’t have anyone who can go in to figure out what’s going on. No one’s ever been trained to ever traverse such dangerous areas, and there’s a fearful thought that we don’t have time to train them before something goes wrong.”

“My father refuses to try and reach out for help, from any kingdom. But I know that my home is in danger yet I’ve been held back from trying to figure things out. That’s why I’m here. My kingdom, my home, needs your help. If whatever is trapped inside is released, I’m terrified of what could happen.”

The room was quiet after this. Peach sharing a worried look with Mario. Who gave a short nod back with a smile that caused the princess to relax.

“Of course we will help.” Peach offered, beaming as Daisy’s shoulders dropped in her own relief. “We’ll pack up and leave as soon as we can.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Wario waves his hands. Leaning on the table to stare the princess in yellow down. “If you’re not training anyone, then what has your father been doing? And how dangerous are we talking about?”

Daisy frowned softly at the question, “In order to figure out what’s really going on, he would need to send some citizens in to start digging down to where we think this problem is located. So we don’t really know how dangerous it is. As far as your first question…basically nothing? I mean, planning on figuring out ways to get in there. But, basically nothing.”

Slowly nodding, Wario eventually slammed his hand down onto the table. “I’ll go get my stuff.”

“What?” The room collectively called out. The eldest brother let out a small groan before continuing. “Need I remind you all that I have gone treasure hunting before.”

“Yeah, a century ago.” Waluigi added.

Wario glared his eyes at his younger brother before continuing. “Bottom line is that I have the skills and the knowledge to get the job done!”

“I mean…I did just come here for the heroes.” said Daisy, waving a hand over to where the twins sat.

Only for Luigi to whisper out, “I don’t want to go back underground again.”

He shrank back slightly as all eyes turned to him.

“So, Wario and I will go,” Mario quickly answered. “With his skills and my…fire ability, we’ll be fine. Figure out the issue and either report back or solve it ourselves.”

Letting out a huff, Waluigi leaned on his hand in clear boredom. “Why do I feel like this is the blind leading the blind kind of situation.”

Peach clapped her hand as she stood up from her chair. “We’ll make the best out of this situation, shall we? While Wario and Mario handle the temple, Waluigi and Luigi will help me with rebuilding the relation between the two kingdoms. Simple solution.”

Daisy bit her bottom lip, “I don’t know if a crowd arriving at the castle would be the best idea… I just came for these two.”

“If you want the heroes, you’re dealing with all of us.” Wario argued back. To which the princess in yellow just pouted as a reply.

“Happy that’s decided,” said Peach, “I would advise that we separate for now and prepare as we need to. We’ll leave tomorrow as early as possible.”

“Noon?”

There was a slightly silent scuffle as Wario was piled onto by the remaining three brothers in an attempt to keep him quiet.

Peach pointedly ignored this and continued with, “6am it is! The castle will be open for anyone if they want to sleep here tonight. To save on travel time. Make it as easy as possible.”

“Thank you, princess,” Mario replied with a smile. Which slipped away when he toppled over as Wario finally broke free.

Being the only ones who needed to leave, the brothers shuffled out of the castle and their designated homesteads. Wario and Waluigi were practically ready in no time. The younger more than used to packing part of his life away quickly. Suitcase in hand as he watched, brows raised in disbelief, as Wario just shoved whatever he could reach into a stained duffle bag. Slinging it over his shoulder once it was jammed full and giving a confidence filled wink to his brother. Who merely rolled his eyes.

“Really, you’re going like that?”

Wario snorted and shook his head, “Of course not! I have to get my tools also.”

“Oh, right.” Waluigi shifted back to allow Wario out of his room before following, “You sure you’re going to be okay? I wasn't joking when I said you haven’t done this in a while.”

“Eh, it’s like riding a green pipe! You never really forget how it goes.”

“One, that saying is for a bicycle. Two, being swooped from one end to the other is not even close to treasure hunting. Let alone treasure hunting abandoned temples!”

Placing his bag down, Wario gave a pointed look to his brother. “You’re being overly weird… Feeling nervous? Or sick?”

“Well, forgive me for realizing how bad of an idea this all was.”

“Look, this is just a part of what we do now. I guess. Daisy said no one was skilled in this sort of thing. Well, I have the knowledge and tools, while Mario is the hero.”

Waluigi gave a weak thumbs up. “What great points you make.”

“The point I’m trying to get to is that this will all be okay. Unless it literally crumbles while we’re inside it or we possibly run into someone else… But we’ll be fine! Besides, you will have the hard part. Having to please daddy and mommy dearest.”

“Meh, it’s just using colorful words to sway people. Not really the main issue of this whole story.”

“We’re just playing to our strengths. Try and keep calm, it’ll all work out.”

“Sure…calm.” Waluigi gave a small smile when Wario offered a cry of triumph as he pulled out a dusty and very old looking satchel bag. One that had clearly not seen the light of day for a long time.

Calm was not what they walked into when arriving at the twin’s household. The first floor was left unscathed, but the upper floor looked as if a bomb went off. Mainly, a clothing bomb. Outfits and articles scattered everywhere, pouring out from the open doorways leading to the bedrooms. Wario and Waluigi took tentative steps moving forward as if waiting for something else to go flying out. Only to find the twins sitting on the floor at the end of Luigi’s bed. Both leaned against each other as they stared at the wall. Clearly showing some kind of defeat.

Polterpup, who had been resting at Luigi’s feet, perked up as the other brother’s walked in. Letting out a happy bark as they trotted over to the other two.

“Alright then,” Waluigi muttered, “this is interesting. What exactly did we walk into?”

“We don’t know how to pack.” Mario replied back.

“...What do you mean?”

“We’ve never packed before,” Luigi answered weakly, “We’ve never had a reason to.”

“Never moved. Never went on a vacation. What do we bring? What are essentials?” Mario finished.

Letting out a low groan, Waluigi practically slammed his belongings into Wario. Who doubled over for a moment while the tallest of the brothers said, “Okay. Wario, you wait downstairs. I have my work cut out for me, apparently.”

“I could help.” Wario frowned.

“Absolutely not. Stay downstairs. Keep Polterpup entertained. You two, get up, we need to start packing. I would like to get back to the castle before nightfall.”

_____________________________

The next day started early with a quick and sleepy breakfast while the carriages were packed up during that time. Mario bore the brunt of holding up the rest of the brothers as they slept, waiting on the sidelines for when they could finally board. Polterpup, seeming to burst with so much energy, was rushing around. Either weaving in between the empty spaces or just phased through everything. Trying to take it all in.

Eventually, after rolling Wario into their marked transport (literally), three carriages moved out from the Mushroom Kingdom before the sun even began to rise.

It was as they passed the kingdom’s border, the sky painted a pastel pink that Mario felt Luigi shift slightly. The older twin assumed the other was starting to wake up again. He didn’t say anything as he just focused on the scenes passing the large window. Doing his best to ignore Wario and Waluigi snoring softly as they slept.

Luigi, on his part, gave a small groan as he began to wake. Sitting up to slowly work out his sore muscles while letting out a wide yawn. Resting across his lap was Polterpup. Who had apparently worn themselves out from that excited early morning. Undisturbed as their owner stretched. Eventually, Luigi slumped against the seat and looked over to Mario.

“‘Ello…” Luigi gumbled softly.

“Hey,” Mario reached over to ruffle Luigi’s hair, “extra sleep help?”

“Little sore, but yeah.” There was a nervous twitch when Waluigi gave a heavy snore. “Geez, have you been listening to that this whole time?”

“Afraid so, and now you get to join me.”

“Joy.” The unwanted noise was quickly forgotten as Luigi’s attention went to the window. Mario more than happy to let the other leaned over him to get a better look, while Polterpup let out a huff. Who was now annoyed with the constant movement. Floating over to Waluigi to rest on his lap instead while the twins took in the sights.

The large rolling meadows of the Mushroom Kingdom were replaced with mountains and heavy forests. Creatures not seen by either of the brothers scuttled along the trees or flew above the foliage. The vibrant colors of their homes were replaced with warmer ones. Arrays of reds, oranges, and yellows out weighing the brown and tan, making the twins think of autumn.

“We should move here.” Luigi teased.

Mario laughed softly, shuffling to lean against his brother, “Think they celebrate Halloween here?”

“Oh goodness, I hope not. They have actual ghosts here. Could you imagine what else we would have to face down that would relate to Halloween monsters?”

“Funny how you mention ghosts but not the giant, fire-breathing turtle.”

“Well, then, don’t remind me.”

They shared a chuckle at that.

“How about we just talk Peach into a vacation here? A chance to explore more.” Mario continued.

“Maybe? I’m sure she wouldn’t be against it. But I would love to make sure we went somewhere we wouldn’t face some kind of danger.”

“With how this place is built? Good luck.”

“Aww…”

“If you had to pick, where would you want to go? Beach or mountains?”

“Hotel.”

“That wasn’t even an option!”

“I’m selecting a luxury hotel and you can’t convince me otherwise.” Luigi held back a screech as he pulled away from Mario, trying to avoid the fingers digging into his side.

There was a brief but silent scuffle as Luigi tried to keep Mario at bay. Both pausing when Waluigi let out a large snort before shifting to lay across Wario. The twin letting out small snorts at the action, deciding to settled down to allow the other brother’s to sleep peacefully. Both content to just watch the strange world go by.

The autumn themed forest eventually gave way to dry, grassy plains, the rolling hills of golden sand. The carriages only able to traverse by remaining on the pathways of what appeared to be tightly compressed sand. The twins needing to lower the brims of their caps to the sun wouldn’t blind them as they tried to take in all they could see.

Which wasn’t much, as it was just a lot of sand. But having never seen a desert on Earth, this was still a new experience.

Waluigi began to wake at this point. Cracking his neck as he sat up, pushing away from Wario while holding Polterpup closer, quickly turning his attention to the twins. Letting out a snort seeing their squinting faces. “Enjoying yourselves?”

“Don’t mock,” Mario said, “We’re just curious.”

“So, sightseeing trumps keeping your eyes from cooking inside your skull?”

“Okay wise guy, what genius idea do you have in mind?”

Reaching forward, Wario pulled the tinted shade down over the window. Snorting when the twins looked at said item in shock.

“Oh,” Luigi said, “...To be fair, we didn’t know about that.”

“Sure, we’ll go with that.”

Mario turned to sit back down properly, focused on Waluigi as the younger twin brought down the shade for the other window. “Do you think we’re close?”

“Don’t know, it’s all just sand. No landmarks. It’s all the same to me.” Waluigi casually commented back while running a hand along Polterpup’s back.

“Haven’t you been to this kingdom before?”

“Pfft, no, what gave you that idea? New Donk was the first time out of the Mushroom Kingdom for me. All I know about this place is that it’s stupid hot. So, I hope you like the heat.”

Luigi gave a small groan in defeat, but nothing more was said.

“So, you haven’t even met the king and queen from this place?” Mario continued.

With a small hum, Waluigi settled back into his seat a little more. “I mean, King Olivine visited the Mushroom Kingdom from time to time. Guess you could say I’ve seen him. But I’ve never met the queen. And even with Olivine, it’s always been from a distance…”

“You dated Daisy, but never visited or met her parents?” Luigi frowned.

“Do you really think any of those royal bloods would be happy to hear that their only heir to the throne was dating a commoner? Even more so, dating a well known criminal?” Waluigi grumbled, “We kept our relationship as best of a secret we could. Letters were easy to hide and cheaper than trying to find passage to and from here.”

“Has anyone in this carriage been to the Desert Kingdom before?” Mario asked.

“Think that through again and look at the two of us. What do you think?”

“...Good point.”

“We’re all getting a first look at this kingdom. This’ll be interesting.”

The carriage jostled slightly as the pavement beneath suddenly changed. Tightly packed sand changed to rather bumpy cobblestone, Polterpup slightly annoyed to be woken up again. Those who were awake leaned over to see all they could out of the window. Just catching a glimpse of wide doors before stepping onto the large castle’s entrance grounds. A large pool of water greeted them first. One that stretched back towards the towering structure of the castle itself. Occupants inside the carriage noticed small pathways of water breaking away from the larger source. All flowing past the castle and into a tightly packed town that laid past the royal structure.

The carriages continued their way in approaching the castle. Only stopping when they were right in front of the grand steps leading up.

“...Anyone notice how quiet it is?” Waluigi mumbled out.

“I was about to say the same thing.” Mario replied.

Turning away from the window, Luigi looked at the other two, “Where are the guards?”

As if waiting for that cue, there was a sudden flood of cactus-like beings dressed in silver armor and carrying spears rushing towards the carriages. All becoming surrounded very quickly as said weapons were brandished towards them. Mario instantly pulled Luigi away from the window, the younger twin letting out a small yelp from the sudden change. Polterpup’s hackles raising as they let out a low growl, moving to the floor and focusing on the carriage door.

“This is really not the welcoming I was expecting,” said Waluigi with a frown, “I mean, I wasn’t waiting for a warm reception but- Would you wake up!”

As Waluigi shoved his brother off, Wario hit the wall of the carriage. Waking with a harsh snort and grunt. Looking around frantically as he searched for his ‘attacker’. “What happened?”

“We’re here.” Waluigi replied back.

“You couldn’t have woken me up normally!”

The argument was cut off when the carriage door was forcefully opened. With numerous calls of ‘Get out!’ pointed at the brothers. Mario took the lead while having a hold of Luigi’s arm and keeping the younger twin behind him. Polterpup barked as they floated between the four brothers, doing their best to keep the guards away. The twins on edge as they were led towards the castle’s front steps. Wario and Waluigi follow at a more easy pace. Keeping an eye on everything, just in case, but trying not to get too worked up over it.

When they found Peach and Toadsworth being led further on, Luigi had to grab onto Mario’s arm to keep the other from rushing forward. Daisy soon joined them, not held at spear point, but still caged in from every side. Arms crossed with a look of clear disgust on her face.

“Daisy! Oh, my dear Daisy.”

Attention was pulled to the grand golden steps. Where a slim woman, seeming to sparkle and shine in the sunlight, quickly descended. Long golden hair seemed to merge with her flowing veil when both billowed from behind her. Even her tan skin appeared to merge into her dusty golden gown. Her clear green eyes stood out further from her complexion, which were directed at Daisy. She waved her hands as a silent command for the guards to step away. Allowing her to pull Daisy into a tight hug.

“Mom,” Daisy let out a low groan, “stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

“Well, pardon me for being concerned about my daughter who just left us in the middle of the night! What were you thinking? You don’t even leave us a message?”

“I was on a rescue mission! Look! Look who I brought back.” Daisy pulled away to stand next to Peach. Who looked a little nervous when the desert Queen turned her focus.

“Oh…is that Peach?” the queen breathed out, eyes wide.

Peach offered a low bow as she quietly said, “Hello, Queen Monazite. It’s been…many years.”

Toadsworth offered a small bow of his own, “Madam, it’s good to see you again.”

Letting out a small coo, Monazite lifted Peach to stand back up. “Look at you. You’ve grown into a wonderful young woman. What a horrible greeting this is! Put those weapons away, we have guests. Goodness, we know better than to act in such a way.”

All were able to relax as the spears were lowered. Monazite gave the guards a hardened glare before her face softened to greet her guests. “Even with how sudden this visit is, we happily welcome all of you. And I believe I see some new faces among the crowd.”

The four brothers stood a little taller as the queen approached them, Polterpup hunkering down in front. Just in case. Guards parted the way quickly as their queen walked forward while Monazite offered each a warm smile.

“I welcome you all to the Desert Kingdom, and to the Sarasaland castle. Despite the rather rough opening, we are happy to have you here.”

“Mom,” Daisy stepped in, “This is Wario and Waluigi, old childhood friends.”

“I do believe those names are familiar. Your father may have had a few stories about two young rebels that interrupted some meetings. All in good fun, I would hope,” Monazite gave a small laugh, “Wonderful to finally put a face to the names. And what of-”

The smile that held strong slipped away as her attention turned to the twins. Appearing to be in stunned silence before whispering out, “Humans.”

“These are the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the main reason why I just…left. I figured they could help us! You know, with the recent issue we’ve been having?”

The surprise fell away as Monazite fixed her daughter with a pointed frown. “Daisy-”

“That temple is causing too much trouble and you know it! Dad’s being an ass for not asking for help and we can’t just keep sending random people in! So, I decided to go get the help we need. I brought the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom here to help us.” Daisy beamed as she placed her hands on her hips.

Monazite, however, did not seem to share this optimistic.

The queen turned to the small group once more, her smile a bit wary now. “While I’m happy to have you here and that you would willingly arrive with the intention to help… Our king will have the final say in this. Which will be hard to do at this moment.”

“Because he’s a stubborn ass.” Daisy mumbled.

“Don’t say such things, Daisy.”

“But-” The retort fell silent when Monazite held up her hand.

“They will not be allowed entrance unless the king grants it. Your father has the final say.”

“We’ll talk to him,” Peach said, “I’m sure if we state our caste, we’ll be able to convince him.”

“...Very well, if you believe this. Please follow me.”

The guards followed close as Monazite led the way into the large castle. Unlike the solid walls with tall windows as found in the Mushroom Castle, this building was as open as they could be. No glass covering the wide arches to allow a breeze through, the windows decorated to distinguish against the doorways. Even with the openness, the interior was in shadows that paired well with the comforting breeze.

Monazite waved her hand to one of the large rooms, one that held numerous maps and papers. Both hanging on the walls and littering the long, narrow table that stretched from one end of the room to the other. Opposite from where the group entered was Kind Olivine, surrounded by bi-pedal mouse creatures wearing robes of yellow and red. Small spectacles resting on their pointed noises as they peered over as many pieces of parchment they could grab onto.

Olivine’s gruff and very stressed demeanor that had been focused on the table melted away when he saw Daisy. Gently pushing past the group of scholars to pull his daughter closer. “Daisy! My darling flower, where did you go? What were you thinking disappearing on us like this? Are you hurt?”

“Dad, I’m fine.” Daisy’s voice was muffled by the king’s golden robes.

“I’m so happy to hear this… I suppose you’ll also be fine with being confined to your room for at least a week for this action.”

That got Daisy to push away, looking absolutely indignant with what had just been said, “You can’t be serious!”

“I should be saying that to you. Do you even know the panic you put us into? I had my top men shift focus from the ruins to trying to figure out where you could have gone.”

Daisy looked a little uneasy at that. “You haven’t sent anyone else in, have you?”

“No…but the situation has grown worse. I’m fearful of the weakened structure our excavating has done.”

At that, Peach stepped forward. Doing her best of royal control. “How much worse?”

Olivine faltered once more, a soft whisper of ‘Dahlia’ escaping him. Only to quickly push past that with a stern face and a sharp, “Princess Peach, I was not aware you were…”

“Clearly. Daisy arrived at my kingdom saying that you needed help. To which I’ve arrived with, um, our heroes.” She gestured a hand over to where Mario and Luigi stood.

Sharp eyes turned to the two humans, both faltering slightly under the cold gaze. The desert king seeming to fully take everything in. Instead of being impressed by the heroes or relieved that some kind of help had arrived, Olivine appeared furious.

“While the offer is appreciated, it won’t be needed. Thank you for bringing my daughter home. I will request that you return to your home at this time.”

“What- Dad!” Pulling away from her mother’s hold, Daisy blocked Olivine’s path as he made his way back to the group of advisors. Narrowing her eyes as she started him down. “If the situation is becoming worse, then this already stupid plan is now painfully classified as a suicide mission. It was bad enough before! But now I really have to question if you really care about our people.”

Olivine puffed out his chest, clearly angry. “Daisy, I will not be talk to as-”

“Too bad! You pulled me out of Peach’s life before with a stupid reason of having me focus on our kingdom. The very one that you’re clearly tossing aside! For what reason? Pride? I think with how the world is going, it would be best to forget about all of that. Can you please start being a decent king for our people? Can you do that?”

Taking a deep breath, Olivine lowered his raised shoulders before addressing his father once more. “I…understand where your concerns arise from. However, with the target on the Mushroom Kingdom-”

Daisy let out a noise of disgust, rolling her eyes. “I’m calling on my status to allow the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom to help us. They have my full permission to do what they need and go where they need to keep our kingdom safe.”

“Very well, if you’re so sure. I’ll allow you this overruling.”

“Oh trust me, I don’t need your ‘allowance’.”

With that, Daisy turned and made for the door. Making sure to grab Mario and Luigi’s wrists to pull them along. Peach, Wario, and Waluigi quickly followed after. Leaving Toadsworth in the room with a clearly angry Olivine and silently amused Monazite. The elder Toad tapped his cane to pull attention.

“I’m unsure where your head is at the moment, your highness. But I would advise you remove it from where it’s lodged.” With that, Toadsworth turned to Monazite. “I don’t suppose you could find accommodations for us?”

“Of course, follow me.”

Olivine was left to feel gobsmacked, the room filled with nervous tension. The advisors flinching slightly as their king turned sharply to face them. Not a word shared as they shuffled the paperwork once more.

A few hallways away, the twins were still being dragged along by a clearly furious princess. Daisy seemed to not have a plan on where to go. Just stomping around, hissing and mumbling with heated words that the brothers couldn’t really make out.

“Daisy, y-you’re going to pull o-our arms out.” Luigi whispered frantically as they stalked the hallways. Only to wince when Daisy practically threw their arms down. Both rubbing their shoulders once free.

“I can’t believe him!” Daisy let out a noise of rage as she began to pace. “What a stupid, stupid man-”

“You can’t worry about…all of that right now. You’re calling the shots at the moment, and it seems like we’re on borrowed time. We need to get to that temple. Now.” Mario said in a hopefully calm demeanor.

It did calm Daisy down enough to stop pacing. Looking past the twins as the rest of the party joined them. Luigi let out a sigh of relief as Polterpup pressed against his sore shoulder. The chill giving comfort as the heavy conversation began again.

“I can’t believe you pulled something like that.” Peach hissed, looking more than a little worried.

Daisy waved her hand, “It’s been a long time coming, to be honest.”

“Well, it’s not going to make the conversation about re-establishing our kingdoms again easier.”

“You know it was never going to be easy.”

“You didn’t exactly help.” Waluigi mumbled out.

“Pardon me for putting my foot down,” Daisy crossed her arms. “I hope you know we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation if I hadn't done anything!”

“Joy. Now this already stressful situation is 10 times worse.”

“Listen here you-”

“Okay,” Wario quickly stepped in. Actually holding onto Daisy’s arm to keep her from hitting Waluigi. “Let’s try and keep a cool head. We need a plan on how to handle each part.”

“Do you have the tools we need for this?” Mario’s question points to Wario.

“Yep.”

Luigi held out a bag with a few golden bones to his brother. “Just in case you get separated from Polterpup.”

“You sure?”

“You’ll need someone good with searching, and with going through walls.”

“That is a good bonus.” Waluigi added.

“Then we’re about as prepared as we can be without actually being there,” Wario nodded, “What about the rest of you?”

“Queen Monazite may be our best first goal.” Peach stated with Luigi nodding.

Waluigi, however, looked unsure. “She’s not very vocal.”

“Mom’s not a fighter,” Daisy weakly agreed. “But if we can get her on our side, we might have a better time convincing dad.”

“Let me try and talk with her. Maybe I’ll be able to find some even ground.” Luigi offered.

“Do you think a queen will open up to a new commoner?” Waluigi frowned.

“Would you like to talk with her?”

“...Not really. But I’ll be nearby for emotional support.”

Peach nodded with a smile, “Same.”

“Couldn’t ask for more.” Luigi beamed.

“And while you’re dealing with that,” Daisy faced Mario and Wario with a wide smile, “I’ll be with you two.”

“You’re not going to-” Mario’s worry was paused when Daisy shook her head.

“I’ll be waiting for you two outside. But I need to be there to grant you authority to enter these areas. Plue, it’ll also be nice to have someone to greet you once you get out.”

Wario slowly nodded, “That…sounds reasonable. I like that idea. I’m expecting some good food when we get this problem fixed.”

“You got it.”

Mario shook his head with a small laugh. Twitching slightly when Polterpup jumped onto his shoulder, a small chill fell over him. He looked over as Luigi drew closer.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Luigi whispered softly.

“Of course,” Mario pulled his brother close with a smile. “We’ll be back by nightfall, no doubt. You just focus on what you can while you’re here, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Luigi pulled Mario into a tight hug, who returned it. Both taking a few seconds to relax into the embrace before pulling away, their names being called.

Mario gave a small nod with a smile, turning to join Wario and Daisy. Polterpup happily resting on his shoulder. The younger twin remained rooted to the spot as he watched the other three disappear around the corner. Only turning away when Waluigi placed a hand on his shoulder.

“They’ll be okay.” The taller brother said easily.

“...I hope so.” Luigi replied back.

#s-creations #fanfiction #mario #luigi #wario #waluigi #mario & luigi #wario and waluigi #yellow purple red green #YPRG #yprg #princess peach #toadsworth #daisy #princess daisy

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kaibutsushidousha · 1 year ago

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Do you have any predictions on how Lorelei Barthomeloi's going to look like now that Dead Apostles Ancestors have gotten their buffs and Lord Trambelio has less than half of the od that Ciel has? How would you design the Aristocratic faction's big shot?

I don't have a direct answer to the question. I believe everything that was previously established about Lorelei's brand of magecraft is no longer applicable after the remake. So instead I'll use this convenient ask as a platform to write a post I've been meaning to write for a while. A commented translation of Lorelei's old profile focusing on what I believe still goes and what I believe no longer does.

Introduction: Barthomeloi Lorelei London's Clock Tower, a central institution of the Mage's Association, is the proud home of The Queen: the greatest mage in the present era. Clock Tower's assistant headmaster. The current Wizard Marshall, commanding a choir called Battalion of Clones. Her magecraft's element is wind.

This initial part I think is maintained in full. There is a huge asterisk on the Battalion of Clones, but I'll get to it when I reach the profile section that explains what the Battalion was.

She's also a vampire hunter who previously defeated 2 out of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors and handed them to the Church.

Her track record is confirmedly gone with the remake. Sorry, only Ciel is allowed to be cool now. But when Ciel is fighting Vlov, she mentions some madman who invades vampire lairs from the front door and challenges them to fair duels, and that's 100% Lorelei.

She's an orthodox mage with nothing unique about her magecraft, but since she has the highest value in every stat, she consistently produced excellent results in every situation. She believes simple is best. The archetype and perfect model of the idea that one who is strong enough doesn't need a special ability.

This part I can very confidently say is gone. I can even bring up two completely different reasons.

The point of Lorelei favoring high stats over gimmicks is to portray her as a mirror to nemesis Ortenrosse. And the point of pre-remake Ortenrosse thinking little of unique powers is that he was Brunestud's first follower and held too much respect for the moon man to devote himself to something beyond a vampire's basic kit. However, as of the remake, Principles are part of a vampire's basic kit. Having unique powers is now built into Brunestud's blueprint, so there's no reason for Ortenrosse to continue committing to being boring. Ortenrosse will have a power defined by his Idea Blood and the Barthomeloi will have a magecraft system suspiciously similar to Ortenrosse's Principle.

Nasu mentioned the Barthomeloi family once after establishing the remake lore. In Clock Tower 2015, the Barthomeloi are namedropped as the Lord family commanding the Department of Individual Fundamentals. Shortly after, Sanda established Individual Fundamentals is run by Solonea and Policies is run by Barthomeloi, with Nasu trying to clean up the retcon by saying in his blog that the Clock Tower 2015 line is just wrong. But it's very telling that at some point Lorelei was slated to Individual Fundamentals since studies to foster one's unique abilities are very much the opposite of what our beta version of the Barthomeloi family would be about (it does speak about Lorelei as an individual, but we'll get there).

In fact, her standard combat stance is to bring along 50 elite mages and slaughter the enemy by commanding and instructing them without a shred of disorder. She takes the form of a young empress conducting an orchestra. All troopers, unified by their unique lack of uniqueness, are first-class mages, with Lorelei herself being supposedly able to take on a Dead Apostle Ancestor in direct solo combat.

First, let's address the elephant in the room that with Ancestors being raised to the ballpark of gods, there's no way Lorelei can 1v1 them anymore. She could easily be stronger than McDonell and Karmaglyph, but the power gap can't be that big.

Now to the part that matters. The Battalion of Clones. I think the section above already makes my point clear enough. Lorelei taking Individual Fundamentals somewhere along her character retooling shows an abandonment of the "unique in their lack of uniqueness idea" angle.

What Lorelei ultimately got was Policies, whose most featured members are Goredolf and Hishiri. Both of them are mages who default to their unique abilities (Musik's metalized punches and Hishiri's Mystic Eyes), and Dolf is far from what anyone would call elite.

Of course, the answer could easily be that the Department is bigger than Lorelei's elite squad. You can be from Policies without being from the Battalion of Clones. In fact, you could say there's evidence for it, considering Goredolf from Policies first entered Chaldea with a group of exactly 50 mage followers. If he was part of the Battalion, it should be a group of 49 followers plus himself. Unrelated, the idea of Lorelei lending Dolf the Battalion still feels insane to me, even for an operation as big as entering another Lord's nest.

Anyways, the biggest argument against my ideas is that Fate/Labyrinth confirms that post-Remake, the Battalion of Clones still exists by this name despite the concept that names them, the idea that all 50 shared the same non-identity, being seemingly discarded. Much to think about.

Explanation: Assorted notes One of the Lords, the ruling class of London's Mage's Association. Her family has one of the oldest bloodlines in the association but their origin and style of choosing heirs is kept a secret.

This part touches the core of Lorelei's expected backstory in Tsuki 2, so I'm fully confident it stays. It's absolutely essential the Barthomeloi, this inexplicably ancient lineage of mages who carry this generational grudge against the oldest mage-turned-vampire while coincidentally sharing his core philosophies, does not want to reveal its origins. Haha, who could their originating ancestor possibly be?

They have some modicum of friendship with the fellow Lords of the Archibald family and only them.

This part says more about Kayneth than it says about Lorelei and her dad. There's not much I can say now, but I'll come back to this with a Kayneth appreciation tangent when I get to the line about Lorelei's personality so I can elaborate on the implications.

They left no written records of why their family is named Barthomeloi.

I'll say this stays as is. Nasu clearly has a really dumb wordplay 20 years in the making that connects the meaning of Barthomeloi to Ortenrosse and we know he wouldn't throw a stupid pun away.

The clan first appeared at the time of the Clock Tower's foundation, attained their Lord title through their powerful Blue Blood (noble Magic Circuits), and stood at the top for centuries since.

Changed. Case Files Material's timetable places the Clock Tower's foundation in the 500s and the introduction of the Barthomeloi in the 1000s.

Their current head sees the name Lorelei as nothing more than an appendage added to her name after she took over as the family head. They all only consider the sound "Barthomeloi" to be their name.

Lorelei growing up without her own name is a thing I'm 50/50 on. The bit seems to exist mainly as a thematic extension of the old Barthomeloi and Ortenrosse pursuit of a lack of individual identity. A Barthomeloi has to be the Barthomeloi ideal instead of their own person. Much like the instrumentalists in the Battalion of Clones were all clones of each other and therefore clones of nobody, the conductor is likewise raised to be a clone of previous conductors, tracing all the way back to the original, who in some major ways can't escape being a clone of Trhvmn Ortenrosse. And I already made clear that I consider this character trait to be dropped.

But. The purpose of the Department of Policies and the Clock Tower timetable establishing that the Barthomelois arrived laying the groundwork for the Clock Tower's aristocratic system shows that their unreasonably controlling aspects are still a core element of the Bartholomei character, meaning Lorelei being raised without a name is still a thing that can still happen even without the anti-individuality themes.

Perhaps due to the perfectionism beliefs on every generation's part, the Barthomeloi heads are raised exclusively within their manor, never appearing to others until they are fully accomplished mages. Nothing embarrasses them more the stepping into the big world without being ready for it. Consequently, at the moment they first step into the Mage's Association, they're already the commander of a department.

This part I feel like it stays at is. There's no need for it to be gone. This homeschooled ignorance can play into Lorelei's waifu side.

In a sense, they're more fervently aristocratic than the Dead Apostle Ancestors, and consider even their fellow Lords to owe obedience to a nobler, more capable blood. The only mages that the Barthomeloi heads see as their equals are the embodiers of First Magic.

This one is a bit that I absolutely need to stay as is because it's so much more interesting with newer context. The text says "embodier" rather than user, so it should refer to witches in general, and it's now established that (non-Meinster) witches in the modern era are regarded as living garbage by the world of magecraft at large. It's fascinating to me that the Bartholomei are defined by their dedication to their arbitrary social tier list and said list simply just

S: Barthomeloi, trash

D: Everyone else

F: Vampires REEEEEEEEEEE

She holds a peerless obsession for the king of the 27 Ancestors, the White-Winged Duke Ortenrosse, and is participating in an operation squad to thwart the Aylesbury Ritual that he has been arranging for the past few decades. She never engaged in early-stage sabotage for one reason: to lure out the White-Winged Duke and watch the mortified screams of the disgraced vampires as she thwarts the ritual mid-procedure.

Needless to say at this point, this is the part that needs to stay exactly as is. It's the conflict that gives her reason to be in Tsuki 2 and what the majority of her other character traits in this profile exist for.

Source: The Dark Six (title subject to change) She's the leader of the Mage's Association's Aylesbury Inspection League... except no other mages cooperate with her due to her excessively aristocratic principles, making our problem girl a solo leader. That's not how it works, dear. Due to her special upbringing, she has no interest or tolerance for domestic chores.

This is all purely Lorelei waifu points, so that will be kept intact.

Her personal principle was to measure someone's worth not by their personality, but by what makes them unique. Therefore, she's relatively interested in people with powerful talents.

I imagine this will stay, although it will be a lot less meaningful now, considering that Lorelei's innate interest in unique abilities will no longer be an antithesis to the anti-uniqueness tradition that was going to define the Barthomeloi and Ortenrosse.

This character is thoroughly aristocratic in her beliefs, however, because she believes her blood is the only noble one, she cares nothing about the other nobles. Lorelei sees no difference between the working class and the ruling class. What makes one from either category stand out is not their birth, but the individual abilities they learned.

Lorelei's most important waifu factor. Absolutely stays. But let's get to what really matters. Kayneth. The only guy who maintains a friendship with the Barthomeloi family. What does this say about him?

See, Kayneth is a genius who knows he's a genius and loves the feeling of that. He's prideful and loves boasting. He felt the need to replace a perpetual motion engine with a ball of mercury just so he could better brag about his aesthetics. His material profiles even cite his likes as "himself". His self-esteem is absolutely top-tier.

But as much as Kayneth loves praising himself, he always implies that he doesn't like being praised by others. The higher echelons of the world of magecraft are a field of equivalent exchange, where everyone only helps others for their own benefit and these kinds of deals that define Kayneth's upbringing are only worth trusting when both sides are on an even playing field. He 100% believes that he's special, but can't react positively to special treatment.

He's madly in love with Sola-Ui, a woman who treats him with cold indifference. He fails his relationship with Diarmuid because Diarmuid just wanted someone to deposit his loyalty on and Kayneth is unable to process an uneven relationship in good faith. So when Lorelei's profile tells us that Kayneth holds a major friendship with the guys who treat him the same way they treat the janitor, all I can think is "Yes!! This is so Kayneth!".

She is the typical archetype of the character who shoves away her human side as hard as she can... She is currently being considered for one of the main heroine slots, maybe...

With all the random mentions the Barthomeloi/Policies get, I feel like it's pretty much guaranteed at this point that Lorelei will be a main heroine in Tsuki 2. But with the remake being set in 2014 and Lorelei being defined as young and new at this, all the Barthomeloi mentions in Case Files and stuff should now be about her father (not that any of them said anything character-specific).

#type moon #barthomeloi lorelei #trhvmn ortenrosse #kayneth el-melloi archibald #it's a shame i didn't find room to mention dorothea coyett here #she's really made from the same skeleton as lorelei

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