#it’s so fun seeing how they were pre-crystal

[pinklemonslices]

i hope everyone knows that the little boxing scene in episode one IS probably my favorite scene in the whole show. there is so much to love about it. this scene hooked me on the show single-handedly (and it made me think they were already in love/canon, until my brother told me they weren’t).

the banter is so much fun!!! i love all their interactions throughout the series, but this one is just So good. charles is such a silly goose!!!! i love him jumping around and messing with edwin physically. i love edwin being so comfortable, smiling with his teeth and looking exasperated but it’s completely overshadowed by his amusement and obvious care for charles.

i love how edwin says he shouldn’t have to learn to hit things because charles will always be there, i love how it sets up their dynamic. i love how edwin gives in anyway and absolutely SUCKS at it. i love how niceys charles is about it. i love how close they are the whole scene. i love these boys

[adventures-in-mangaland]

Dead Boy Detectives: Fic Recs

My latest hyperfixation is Dead Boy Detectives, so oc I've been reading and commenting on a ton of fic. And it's been really nice because the response of the authors has been so warm. I don't think I've ever gotten so many replies so quickly! Also, the fandom has inspired me to actually start writing again for the first time in two years and I've got a great idea for a fanvid. (Any tips on how to make one would be appreciated! 😅)

So in tribute to the lovely fandom, here's a fic rec post (nearly all payneland):

in this city there's a thousand things I want to say to you by laiqualaurelote

Edwin has a sexual awakening and it blows Charles' mind. And other things. Very funny and well written. Also features minor Edwin/Cat King and Edwardian flirting.

I also highly recommend the saviour of the broken, the beaten, and the damned by the same author, which is a kind of multiverse!Edwin fic? Featuring Edwin dying? And Niko time travelling? Trying to save time? Anyway, interesting to see Edwin alive, ageing and in different periods of time/his life.

For the First Time Twice by LikeMmmCookies

Amnesia fic! Charles loses his memories and thinks he and Edwin are married. Very cute (tandem bike date!) and well written, though Edwin's point of view still manages to be angsty. Also, the yearning is off the charts and the most recent chapter turned up the heat.

I guess you're stuck with me by Punny_Puck

AU in which Edwin and Charles actually got married pre-show. Funny, cute with a sweet marriage proposal prequel. Instant comfort fic.

Dance the Night by Gruoch

The gang are hunting an energy-sucking vampire that targets beautiful people, so naturally Edwin MUST disguise himself as the hottest girl in London. This one starts out fun and campy then takes a hard left turn into Serious Business. Prepare yourself for emotional moments, worldbuilding and some really excellent horror.

Long Past Time by sanctuary_for_all

Charles proposes to Edwin post canon. It's a short and sweet established relationship fic with some cool worldbuilding about ghosts and their ability to shape their clothing/appearances.

lay my hands on heaven by Opossum_Subatomic

I had to include a PWP and this is a great one. Extremely well written, in character and romantic. And explicit, obviously.

Data Points by Asidian

Edwin learns to cuddle. It's a production and completely adorable. I love a fic that explores the difference between the boys' physicality and this one's really on point. The writing and characterisation are great and it's nice to see Edwin taking care of Charles.

I also recommend Lanterns In the Dark, which sets the scene for Charles and Edwin's first meeting with some gut-wrenching details about Charles' homelife and Edwin's escape from Hell.

When I Was a Young Boy by flowerbritts

A Good Omens crossover and AU in which Aziraphale is Edwin's adopted father. Family reunions and revelations abound. Also, Edwin gets to be a teenager and slam doors while shouting, as he deserves.

The author has also written Wait, I'm Coming Too, which is a very sweet post canon 'Charles Worries About Edwin and Realises His Feelings' fic inspired by that 'Edwin reading Heartstopper' fanart. Both fics deserve more love!

A Slight Miscalculation by kantigone

Idiots in Love and Didn't Know They Were Dating. Crystal and Niko are the real MVPs, for real. A treat.

Terrible at Keeping Secrets (5+1) by ASingularSadSoggyPringle

Interesting demon!Edwin AU. Charles is a precious cupcake in this fic and Edwin is mostly the same with some Darker moments. I loved the concept and the author adds in some great, creepy details.

somaesthesia by perexcri

Edwin's journey from being touch-averse to touch-starved... at least when it comes to Charles. Palmistry is involved. I loved Edwin's characterisation and the unresolved sexual/romantic tension was on point.

And possibly I like the thrill (of under me you quite so new) by Leandra

Edwin explores his sexuality and re-negotiates his relationship with Charles. Meanwhile, the gang take on the case of a ghost who wants them to matchmake his still-living lover. Crosses over with The Sandman. And Edwin gets to be confident and flirty as a treat.

Always by How You Doing (FancyMeetingYouHere)

Hurt/Comfort fic in which Edwin has a traumatic flashback to the doll-head demon spider and Charles looks after him. Charles reading Good Omens to Edwin is a nice, meta touch.

Made You Look by Baby_Spinach

The agency are hunting an incubus that decides to take on Edwin's appearance. A repression explosion ensues. Fun fic.

Shape Me by dearheartdont

This one's actually a character study of Charles and his mixed race Indian heritage (so no Edwin) and it's so well done. It's also part of a series in progress about Charles growing up in the 80s with all the racism and homophobia that that entails. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

The Most Tender Place In My Heart by coloursflyaway

Edwin shares memories of how he fell in love with Charles, who figures out his own feelings in the process. It's super sweet and involves fun pre-show flashbacks and defintely deserves more attention!

I also loved Won't Fear Love by the same author, in which Charles takes Edwin out on dates and breaks the cuteness scales. And shout out to Good Enough which is the first fic I bookmarked for this fandom! 🥳

Anyway, thank you to all these amazing writers for making this fandom so special! 🥰

[ariseur]

sephiroth w/ a little sister!reader !? I don't see many headcanons / fic / anything of Sephiroth with this type of scenario although I consider it something cute & fun x'D, specifically Seph discovering that his little and beloved (?) sister has several guys with a love interest behind her. How would Seph be in the situation, would he be a protective older brother, would he be the type that scares them away with just a deadly look? My, many possibilities! (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

sephiroth’s little sister hcs 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

sephiroth (ffvii) x reader (platonic!!)

┊ ˚➶ notes ｡˚ 🎼

THIS REQUEST WAS SOO CUTE I NEVER SEE LITTLE SISTER HCS LIKE THIS EITHERR. thank you for the request anon, hope i did it justice !! 💗

┊ ˚➶ warnings ｡˚ 🎼

intended lowercase, mentions of pre and post nibelheim, mentions of hojo (he’s a warning within itself), possessiveness but like not in a weird way.. seph’s just crazy, lmk if i missed anything!!

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄

❥ soooo.. starting off!!

❥ i think that sephiroth with a little sister would definitely be interesting; the war hero now being seen with an ultimately younger girl, it’d be amusing seeing such a difference between the two especially if you’re shorter.

❥ i’m not sure how being sephiroth’s sister would necessarily work considering he was an “experiment” of jenova, and from my knowledge after lucrecia gave birth to him she was crystallized in the crystal caves? but if we’re ignoring that and maybe that didn’t happen or something like that idk, i think it’d be pretty hectic, especially if you were also an experiment of jenova’s cells.

❥ both pre and post sephiroth would love you dearly. pre sephiroth would make it a mission to visit you as much as possible and would try to fit some time in his schedule to go and hang out with you. usually, he’d go take walks with you or if you like food then he’d be insistent on making a trip of trying a bunch of new places.

❥ he is honestly your biggest defender— although i don’t expect a lot of people to disrespect you while a close-to-six-foot first class SOLDIER is looming right behind you. i dont know if he’d let you out of his sight all that often when you’re around him, his instincts just kinda kick in so he’s following you around like a dog.

❥ if you were known by genesis and angeal crisis-core era, and genesis hits on you or even tries to flirt??? ooh sephiroth is right behind you in an instant. he is NOT letting genesis get with you at all, i’m sorry in advance to the self insert x genesis readers that had this idea in mind but i def don’t think that seph would be okay with you dating his friends. even angeal, whom he trusts very dearly and knows that he wouldn’t try anything with you, would have sephiroth feeling iffy.

❥ if you had “suitors” or if you were popular with the boys ( and maybe the ladies too if you’re just THAT suave ), ooh sephiroth would have a heart attack. he’d want you to choose who you want, of course, but be prepared for sephiroth lurking around every corner like a cat. if you bring your partner to meet him? he’s gonna look like the scariest mf regardless if he’s trying to be or not.

❥ he especially doesn’t want you to do anything with his job. if you have jenova cells or if extraordinary strength then he might feel a little better if you were to be involved with the SOLDIER program or shinra, but if you’re a civilian then he’d rather not get you involved with his duties. there’s too much on the line and he can’t risk you getting hurt, also another reason why he prefers to keep you on the down low or for him to only visit you.

❥ also another thought, but i just keep imagining zack flirting with you or meeting you and thinking you’re absolutely GORGEOUS ( because if you’re related to sephiroth.. you gotta be pretty let’s be honest that mans so beautiful ) ( we don’t talk about hojo though, there’s no way he’s related to seph. vincent gotta be the daddy ), but then once he sees that sephiroth is your brother he literally goes WHITE. starts trying to subtly be more friendly and lowkey apologize for his behavior.. spoiler alert; zack is not subtle.

❥ now whatever you do.. don’t imagine sephiroth meeting you the day before heading out to nibelheim. whatever you don’t, think imagine you guys walking at night as he talks about how worried he is for his friends, and how he thinks zack is going to do. and whatever you do, don’t imagine reminiscing after the village burns down, your mind trailing back to the last hug he gave you before he found out what he really was.

❥ if you were to still stay with post nibelheim sephiroth, he wouldn’t let you out of his sight. he can’t lose you at all, not now— not now that he knows you’re the only thing he has left. he’ll go through the motions of being very cold to you sometimes and then being very overprotective

❥ he’d come home one day from only the lord knows where, and wake you up in the middle of the night. and when you finally awake, he wouldn’t let you go. i imagine he’d feel conflicted. sephiroth was dehumanized from birth and ostracized from a normal life as he never met his true mother lucrecia and hojo had no interest in claiming him other than for his own benefit as a scientist. if you were dealt with such things as well, or maybe you were separated because sephiroth was the superior experiment, it wouldn’t matter; sephiroth contained these feelings that he didn’t know how to feel or express himself about.

❥ he wouldn’t understand why he felt this way, especially having no sort of concept of family brought to him within the early years of his life, but all he knows is that he has you

❥ he only has you— and he’s not willing to risk losing you anytime soon.

[comfortless]

syl. *grabs you and shakes you* syl. i woke up in a cold sweat thinking of like… könig. already off to a great start ik. but space opera könig. (not like star wars or anything) but think like 70s aesthetics all bright and colorful. he’s a bandit in a stolen ship, formerly part of a military group making peace with other planets but something went awry and he’s just having fun now!

reader is part of a small research group that has landed on a planet he’s camped out on and he’s just like “ok” followed by “i want that”. steals all of her supplies and then her. doesn’t care how much she protests when he just hauls her over his shoulder, pats her butt bc he thinks THATS going to calm her down and throws her into his ship.

she’s happy he’s not some creepy alien but at the same time who really knows what’s under that hood anyway hmmmm and she wants to hate him but also all that’s playing in her head is that one rah band song. messages from the stars lmao please. there is something in the way you write that is so special to me and if you were to come up with a full blown story for my dumb idea i think i would scream for 20 hours straight.

lil wisp….. you have no idea what this has done to me. i am going to be thinking about this for an eternity. let’s cook.. i see your vision and i would love nothing more than this too!!

content/warnings: implied violence, abduction, dubcon groping?

König’s been on his own, drifting through the stars for so long. Only raiding the ships he comes across for food, supplies, and when he stumbles across a mechanic he puts them to work with a silly laser rifle pointed right at their head (because let’s face it— when you’re a wanted space pirate who in the universe is going to fix your ship for you??). He’s put all of human etiquette far behind him, and now his life is quite literally just one relentless adventure. He wouldn’t have it any other way!

That is, until his ship is fucked up again, displaying about thirty bright red warnings on its silly hologram screens that he just can not make sense of. The thing is old, has been shot at more times than even he can count, and it’s finally failing him if the loud sputtering and incessant orbital beeps are anything to go by. He considers his luck has run out when he lands the damned thing on some hunk of rock out on the outskirts of a galaxy most don’t even bother with, because there’s nothing out here.

Thankfully, his frustration is short-lived because a smaller ship lands only a few days later; painted in the bright, pearlescent blues and pinks of your standard peace-keeping, research vessel. It’s the perfect craft to steal and it wouldn’t even be difficult… the three humans that exit are so much smaller than him and entirely unguarded. They’re just here to study a few minerals, maybe haul some back to their little camp a few worlds over for fuel and research. He won’t even get into too much trouble for it, he thinks, because even his trashed ship could take them back home. See!! He isn’t all that bad…

At least, until he notices her, bent over admiring some silly, little cluster of crystals in her skin-tight jumpsuit that makes him see stars. The heavy boots that rise up to her knees making her look like little more than a fauness, and she’s so pretty he just can’t help but get a closer look while her teammates are off chittering away and exploring the nothing planet.

She isn’t even afraid of him when he approaches. Just straightens up with her hands clasped in front of her and a smile on her face. She hasn’t seen the holograms of him, displaying a sizable bounty for his veiled head, doesn’t take a wary note of the massive rifle he has slung over his shoulder; she just sees another person. He hasn’t been looked at like that since long before he left home!!

This sweet woman has no sense of self-preservation either, because she immediately asks him if he needs food or water; gestures over to her brightly colored ship with that pretty smile ever-present on her face, and that’s all it takes for him to decide that not only is he taking the craft, he’s taking her too.

He doesn’t say a word when he lifts her up over his shoulder, and the poor thing must be shocked because it takes her a moment before she starts squirming in his grip. König does well to remove the little radio strapped to her hip, giving her ass a firm squeeze in the process before tossing it in the dust behind him. That’s all it takes to shut his little prinzessin up before he hauls her back into her ship and demands she turn off any tracking systems. Her knees are a bit weak when she fumbles with the control panels, and he’s unashamed of his own erection when he slides in behind her to lean over the console as the ship starts up.

She whines about leaving her friends stranded, of course, but he’s in a world of his own when he grabs her by the hips and seats her in his lap while she pilots. Never mind the others, he’ll take good care of her, honest!!

[itsthatmff]

Taking you out on a date ||| Genos, Garou, Metal bat

Appreciation post for the teen trio of opm 🤭

She/her pronouns used!

Requests are open anytime <3

Genos

“I apologize, I must have disappointed you.”

Poor boy literally spent DAYS analyzing your likes and dislikes in order to take you out to the perfect date, as you both made plans to go out on the weekend.

He spent so much time trying to sort out potential places to go that he ended up with nothing on the day you both wanted to go out.

He stood there, in front of your door about to pick you up, with the guiltiest expression on his face. (Well as guilty as a cyborg can look, ykwim)

says sorry for about 100 times before he shuts his mouth. You literally have to stop him mid sentence for his explanations to end.

“IT’S OKAY- you could have just asked me where i want to go instead of making it so hard for you. I like Aquariums, why don’t we go there?”

“Oh.”

Feels like the most stupid (person) in the world at that moment. Had he known it was this easy, he probably wouldn’t have gone through such lengths. (He would have. Cuz boy doesn’t realize that he’s in love with you.)

Usually Genos is pretty blunt and forward, i guess that’s why trying to come up with something was so hard for him. For the first time, trying to ask you directly didnt cross his mind, as he wanted to make you happy all by himself.

You both spent the rest of the day at the aquarium, with you admiring the sea animals, and him admiring you. He realized after a while that his gaze was stuck on you, and definitely made a mental note to ask dr. Kuseno if there was something wrong in his system.

EVERY TIME YOU MENTIONED THAT AN ANIMAL LOOKED CUTE, HE PAMPERED YOU WITH INFORMATION ON THAT SPECIFIC ANIMAL.

Like the tension would be all romantic, you’d be looking at glowing jellyfish, and he’d be staring at you, smiling a tinsy bit. Then you’d say something like “look Genos! That jellyfish looks so cute!” And the next second, Genos would turn into a search engine.

“That’s an Aequorea victoria, also sometimes called the crystal jelly. It’s a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa. It can be found off the west coast of North America. The species is best known as the source of aequorin, and green fluorescent protein-“

“Okay- thats enough genos.”

All in all, it would be a pretty fun date! Genos would end the day by saying “I really enjoyed going out with you, Y/N-san. Next time I will take you out to someplace even better. No mistakes allowed.”

Garou

“What are you looking at? Don’t you like it?”

Guy heard “let’s go on a date!” And rolled with it.

Though his idea of a “date” might look a bit different.

100 percent took advantage of it when you said “let’s go somewhere you like”

So of course y’all ended up in an all you can eat buffet.

And he won’t be paying for it 💀 (the fee might look a “bit” expensive, make sure you take a good amount of money with you)

Chugs down a plate after the other, so at least the money isn’t wasted.

Once he sees your kind of upset face, he stops taking bites of that real good steak and looks at you confused.

You were happy to spend time with him, you really were, But this just wasn’t what you thought it out to be. Of course you expected it to be at least a LITTLE romantic, even though he wasn’t your boyfriend yet, nor did he know that you liked him.

But sorry to disappoint you, romance is a foreign word for this oblivious man.

If you tell him how you feel about the date though, he’ll give you the widest smirk “you’re happy to spend time with me?” Completely ignoring everything else you said

Once y’all are done eating, he’ll make sure to walk you home, if you’re cold he’ll even hold you. So that’s at least something ?

You have to be REALLY forward and blunt with him, or else all he’ll do is tease you.

If you really wanna make him blush just straight up hold his hand, he won’t do nun. Yelling at you or hurting you is an absolute no for him.

Metal bat

“My sister suggested this place, ya like it?”

Metal bat pretty much has all the knowledge he needs when it comes to girls, as he has to take out and hang out with his little sister a lot.

Most of the time it’s shopping malls where his sister drags him from shop to shop for hours.

So like once they were both shopping for a cute little bag because Zenko had won a piano competition and big brother was proud asf 🤭 and ofc she had realized that he’d be mentioning this one girl from time to time.

“Big bro, why don’t you just take her out on a date?”

But like, we’re talking about a little kid here, so her advice may not be as fitting 😭 she literally only gave him tips on where SHE would like to go.

“If I were her I’d love to be taken to an amusement park, and then he should win me a big unicorn plushy !”

But Metal bat loves his sister more than anything, AND he has 2 brain cells so ofc he’d listen to her, thinking it’d be the best date idea.

A couple days later (he especially took a day off from work for you and told the HQ that they shouldnt call him even if there’s an emergency) he takes you out saying it’s a “surprise”, but once you both stand in front of the amusement park, your reaction isn’t quite what he expected.

It was an kids amusement park. ALL of the rides were fit in for children.

You were happy of course, but metal bat expected you to be fawning over him by now. (That’s what zenko at least told him. Quoting “she’ll be head over heels once you both arrive big brother!”)

“Why are we at an kids amusement park ?”

“My sister recommended it”

“…”

“…”

“Makes sense.”

Well you both already got tickets so all you could do was make the best out of it.

At least the food was good! Metal bat bought you candied apples, chocolate strawberries, cotton candy, everything you laid your eyes on.

And he got you lots of plushies, like, LOTS of plushies.

The kids there did recognize Him tho, so it took a while to get away from the crowd of children wanting autographs and photos.

Metal bat ends up feeling like he ruined your date, so you can see him being kinda upset, after cheering him up though, you both promise to go to a place that both of you could enjoy next time.

He literally has to hold himself back not to spit out the words “i love you” cuz you looked so adorable on that day. (Especially eating the cotton candy)

[thebreakfastgenie]

The memes were fun at first, but now they just feel so bleak to me.

I'm just thinking, "What will people do if the guy they're lionizing turns out to be a right-winger? Or a domestic abuser? Will they reflect on their behavior, or will they just pretend it never happened?"

If it had just stayed as "pre-existing condition" memes, maybe I wouldn't feel this way. It's like any catharsis this could have given me has gone away with how much people are idealizing the shooter.

Yeah I agree. I got some enjoyment out of the CEO down memes at first but now when I see them I'm just kinda :/

If that happens they'll either deny it, pretend it never happened, or try to make excuses. Or some combination thereof.

I think the memetic mutation of information is really significant. Narratives evolve and crystallize so fast because so many people can share things back and forth on the internet instantly. All of this before we know anything about the shooter. And stuff like this happens all the time, with everything. And then people have already made up their minds and you just can't change them when information comes to light. In the past there were ways to exercise some control over this because news networks could choose to withhold certain details until they could prevent a clear picture (they did not always choose to do this, but it was possible). Because of the internet that's no longer possible. I have no idea how we adapt to this as a society but what worries me more is most people don't even seem to recognize this is a thing that's happening or that we need to adapt to it.

[gffa]

Hello! I love your posts about the Jedi, and I was wondering if I could ask you a question: What's something you would love to see explored with the Jedi?

Hi! I'm glad you're enjoying them, I love the Jedi and I hope I can help make being in the fandom around them a little more fun for people. <3 For me, my #1 wish for things I'd love to see explored with the Jedi: TELL ME ABOUT OUR FAVE JEDI'S APPRENTICESHIPS. I want to know so much more about Mace's apprenticeship, I want to know who was Shaak's Master, I want to know if Shaak and Plo were Padawans at the same time together, I want to know just exactly how Depa was a chaos gremlin for Mace, I want to know how much trouble Kit Fisto got into, I want more stories of Obi-Wan & Siri & Bolla & Pre being "a merry band of brats" as Yaddle called them, I want more stories of Yoda training Dooku and probably forcing Dooku to let Yoda ride on his shoulders! I want more stories of Luminara's time as a Padawan, I want more stories of Adi as a Padawan and what made her take the career paths she did, I want to know if Saesee was as much of a hellion as a Padawan as I suspect he was. I want to know more about various Jedi and their time as apprentices, rather than just more about Obi-Wan or Anakin's time as Padawans. I also want more worldbuilding on everything about the Jedi, I want to know what their schooling scheduling looks like, given how well-educated every Jedi we meet is, I'd love to know just how their classes are arranged, I want to know exactly what the layout of the Jedi Temple is, I want to know what special holidays the Jedi have that are unique to them, I want to know what special rites they have around their kyber crystals, given that they become extensions of the Jedi's soul. I want to know how the Force influences their art--there's statues and Force-sculpting and murals all over the place in the Jedi Temple, but the Force is more than just lifting clay or paint, at its heart is that it's your emotions that are your connection to the Force. Mace was a theatre nerd, how did the Jedi's psychic abilities work with that, did the actors project the emotions of the characters out into their Jedi audience? I want to know how emotions soaking into the walls affects the Jedi's way of doing things--when Anakin and Ahsoka get back to the Temple and can still hear the screams of the bomb that went off days ago, because it's echoing all around the space for them, how do the Jedi approach that? How do they try to mitigate leaving behind sorrow and pain and horror, especially in a hospital area where people are often sick and wounded? I want to know exactly what kind of games the Jedi babies play in the creche, especially since they would be teaching games, as the Jedi are a teaching-centric culture. I think one of the games mentioned in a book somewhere was a Jedi version of hide-and-seek, but what about cute little treasure hunt puzzles for developing psychometric skills? They have to pick up clues from the stuffed bantha toy to tell them where to find the next stuffed nexu toy, etc. each of the toys soaked through with warm, soft, comforting feelings by the creche masters to make it fun for the babies. There's so much that's under-explored (for my tastes, I've certainly cobbled a lot together to get a general idea of some things!) specifically through how the Jedi interact with the Force and to expand outside of just Obi-Wan or Anakin's time as an apprentice that I go a little gremlin-like just thinking about all I want to see explored!

[cozzzynook]

hello! I love your writing, it’s so amazing! and I wanted to ask if you could write any hcs you may have for astrowarp (astrotrain/skywarp)? if not that’s alright! maybe any other hcs for blitzbee pre-war or post-war, however it works for you! thanks! 🫶

I’m sorry anon. I don’t know astrotrain enough or skywarp enough to make a headcanon. I will say their size difference would be incredible and they’d have fun teasing each other while fragging but thats it. Maybe some soft, silent after fragging laying next to each other.

As for Blitzbee?

Pre war I can see them as shy new spark like lovers that court each other so sweetly.

Bee at spark likes to take care of others while being able to enjoy doing his own thing with his special spark. Blitzwing is happy to be by his side enjoying the moment and this works for them. Blitzwing likes to get Bee crystal flowers and thats why Bee is so good at taking care of them. Blitzwing grew a garden full of them for Bumblebee before the war and when everything hit he was devastated it was destroyed.

The two were so different before the war.

Blitzwing had built a crib and Bee was ready to give him a sparkling or two. Bee would come home and make dinner, rub his digits along Bltizwings helm, trace the markings along his optics and kiss the sensitive platings on his cheeks before lifting his helmet to care for the sensitive mesh and tiny metallico that was easy to damage.

Once war hit, they didn’t do things like that and their crib, their garden, their berth, Blitzwings art work and Bee’s music collection.

Everything, gone.

They were conjunx during the war and Blitzwing joined the decepticons to give them a better life, safety. Bee went with him but didn’t join like many conjunxs actually. Bee stayed on the neutral grounds but eventually he had to go off planet and thats why bots didn’t know he saw it all and knew both sides wrong doings.

Bee was disappointed in many things Blitzwing did but he stayed and he loved him.

Bee came back when Blitzwing was given the surgery and he stayed.

Bee still didn’t join but he was still very well known and he took care of the sparklings around the bases. It hurt but he wouldn’t have any, not any time soon.

The two were split apart at the end of the war.

Blitzwing forced Bee onto the autobot side for safety, a home and fuel.

It hurt.

Their sparks literally tried to reach out to each other but they parted.

It was only after landing on Earth did they see each other again.

Bee joined the autobots to get a location and information on Blitzwing.

He wanted to find his conjunx and beat the mechs aft and then conjoin their sparks all over again.

The moment they met on the battlefield…the others saw Bee was a lot stronger than he led on and Ratchet recognized those moves Blitzwing used to use on the battlefield before he was a triple changer. Bee was kicking the mechs aft that wasn’t actually fighting back but apologizing in his native dialect.

Bee was dragged away by Optimus and Ratchet demanding to know what happened but he shut them out and never answered.

It was very tense but they gave up on asking eventually.

Bee didn’t want to tell anyone but he felt he owed it to Bulkhead and so he told him some of it.

Prowl was listening in but couldn’t hear them because Bee used his and Bulks private comms.

Later, Bee told Ratchet a clue that he was older and experienced the war but wasn’t in the fray. Ratchet felt more comfortable sharing stories after that. Bee would help with wounded soldiers so he knew just not seeing it first hand on the battlefield happening.

When a sparkling was brought on board Sentinels ship it was Bee who took care of them and easily too.

Ratchet knew then Bee spent a lot of time caring for sparklings and he felt saddened wondering how many Bee saw offline. It was later after getting the sparkling to recharge did Ratchet hint at it and Bee broke down crying, refusing to let go of the bitty.

The others didn’t see Bee for a long long time after that and they didn’t see Blitzwing either on the battlefield.

Sentinel wanted Bee court martialed but Bee’s team cashed in a favor from Blackarachnia and Sentinel was quiet on anything to do with the two.

Its post war and Prowl lives in this.

They see Bee for the first time a decade after the war is officially ended and a peace treaty is made.

He’s sitting comfortably on Blitzwings shoulder, arm around his helm, playing with the edges of his helm to give comfort. Both looking slightly on edge but so comfortable with each other.

Blitzwing lets Bee climb down and Bee reunites with his team and apologizes for disappearing on Bulkhead and Ratchet and Sari. He apologizes to Prowl and Optimus as well but he doesn’t get close to them until later on when Prowl has flashbacks to almost offlining and Optimus when he stresses under his new position.

Some of the past is still in Bee and Blitzwing.

Both are sweet in loving the other, that could never change, but they are different in affections and how they coexist.

More verbal communication for each others traumas and more physical touch to know the other is alive and safe.

They travel a lot and use apartments for a long time in fear of losing another home.

But eventually they do have a home and its one in Blitzwings homeland.

Both of them build it.

And both experience opening their doors to allow friends and family to visit.

For now, its more than enough.

[bannanasrus]

Halloween Special (Blake and Cecil)

I really wanted to do a Halloween Special with these two idiots so here we are, Blake and Cecil go to a Halloween party and spooky vore related shenanigans (as well as really over the top silliness) occur

Contains M/M safe vore, belching, body worship, belly worship, silliness ect. Mention of M/M fatal vore

“Blake” called Cecil from the bathroom as he fixed his cape around his bulging shoulder “We need to leave, soonish”

“I’ll follow on after you” called Blake from their bedroom “I just need to put some finishing touches on my costume”

“Are you sure you’ll be ok making your own way down there”

“I’m perfectly sure” replied Blake “I’m more worried about you catching a cold in your costume”

“I’ll be fine” Cecil replied flexing his biceps in the mirror, hell yeah he was big, bigger than he had been before, he placed a hand on his thickened abs, Blake had knocked some assholes out who’d been bothering him on his way home from work and proceeded to feed them to Cecil. Blake had then sat on his lap and rubbed his distended gut until they were sludge being pumped around his body to make him even more huge. Blake was so very, very into his boyfriends size and his boyfriends muscles, in fact when he saw the costume that Cecil had decided on for the party (Hercules), Cecil could not help but see the slight look of what might have been termed pre-emptive jealousy, in his eyes. Sure the Hercules costume didn’t exactly leave much to the imagination, but Blake didn’t need to be jealous.

“If you’re sure… I’ll see you later, at Elsie’s”

“Make sure you get there safe - Love you”

“Love you too” Blake called back, the fondness in his voice setting Cecil back at ease.

He arrived at Elsie’s House which sat in the shadow of a large and ornate building. Her house was surprisingly cheap to buy, largely owing to rumours of it being haunted. Elsie, had immediately jumped on it, and to be perfectly honest the ghosts would need to be a bit more worried about Elsie than Elsie needing to be worried about them.

Cecil went up to the door and pulled on the chain, there was the sounds of feet and Elsie opened the door “Cecil Darling” she said as Cecil pulled her into a hug

“How are you” he asked

“I’m good I’m good, halloween’s my favourite time of year you know” she said cheerily. Unsurprising Cecil thought to himself - Elsie always loved the weird and wonderful - she was also a literal witch so that definitely contributed to it. No one had anything to fear from Elsie, unless they provoked her, or happened to be low flying aircraft. If Elsie’s boyfriend wasn’t already un-dead he might possibly end up dying again from the sheer panic of how terrible she was at flying her broomstick. “And how about you” she asked “and where’s your cute little cat” she said looking over Cecil’s shoulder

“I’m great” said Cecil “and I’m assuming you’re talking about Blake - he said he’d follow along”

“Well I hope he makes it here safely” said Elsie as she lead Cecil down the hallway and into the main room “Oh and we’re having some entertainment later”

“oh what kind”

“Oh well I can’t spoil it, but it’ll be great fun” said Elsie

Cecil circulated round the couples and singletons alike at the party, there was a fairly good mix some from the university some from the gym - still in gym clothes - his attention was however drawn by the elderly lady in the corner of the drawing room.

Done up like every stereotypical fortune teller, bangles dripping from her wrists, her hair curly and grey, covered by a long veil, shawls, long and flowing draped around her arms. She looked, Cecil felt like she belonged in a novel, or on a stage, but here she was in front of him reading fortunes of those who came by her table.

“Cecil” came her voice

“Sorry” he said “wait how do you know my name”

“I know everything” she said as he approached her. “It is my business to know” she gestured to her tarot cards and her crystal ball “for instance, you have a boyfriend named Blake, who works in Wrightman and associates and Wrightman - don’t forget about Wrightman”

“How on earth do you know that” said Blake

“Like I say it’s my business to know, but in this case I must claim that I would be predisposed to have such information”

“How?”

“I used to work at Wrightman and Associates and Wrightman don’t forget about Wrightman”

“It is a bit of a mouthful” said Cecil

“It is”

“Any idea why it’s called that”

“I think it was a typo” said the fortune teller

“Can you tell that from your crystal ball” asked Cecil

The fortune teller passed her hands across the object it question

“It was” she replied

“Ha” said Cecil as he sat opposite the fortune teller he noted that her eyes studied him scrupulously

“Do you not hold true the art of Scrying?” She asked

“Well” said Cecil “I suppose that I can be persuaded, though I hardly think it is possible to gaze into a crystal ball and see the future, like it’s a movie”

“Perhaps, but it is not to see the future as a movie that I scry, rather-more it is to see what possibly might happen”

“Do you mean you can see possibly futures?”asked Cecil

“I divine information from a variety of sources, take the rune stones when one is found face up the meaning of that stone takes its course, when found lying reversed…”

“the reverse occurs”

“Yes, perhaps, or perhaps the wrong question was asked”

“Forgive me but this seems to obfuscate the truth”

“which is what”

“That you seem to be a very observant woman who observes everything about someone before spookily telling them their fortune, in a sense you are a fortune teller who can see into the future and devine information but, I can’t see you doing it through supernatural means.”

“Indeed, well I do pride myself upon observation. But how about I tell you some things that I couldn’t possibly know”

“For instance?”

“The fact that you are concerned - mildly, for you know he has no reason to be - that your boyfriend is a bit jealous of you walking around in such a revealing outfit. He also might well be a little, though he knows equally that your heart and his heart are in each-others hands - and yes, I do see that he might…”

“How on earth do you know that” asked Cecil, “are you Martha?” He said very confused

“No my dear, Martha Oldcapple is a very sceptical person” said the fortune teller, “and in any case, how would Martha Oldcapple know about you fearing Blake was a bit jealous?”

He moved backwards as the Fortune Teller continued “Nothing escapes the Great Griselda” said Griselda spreading her arms wide “she sees all she knows all” she smiled in a grandmotherly fashion “would you like me to read your tea leaves dear?”

Somewhat later Elsie had dragged Cecil from a conversation he’d been having, to bring him to a back room of the house. The room had been turned into a temporary intimate theatre, staging had been set up and various mismatched chairs had been pulled to face the stage.

“I take it this is tonight’s entertainment?” Asked Cecil

“Yes” said Elsie cheerfully as more people filed into the room

“Is it everyone at the party?” Asked Cecil

“Not quite” said Elsie

“Huh”

“Oh just wait and see” said Elsie skipping away

The lights in the room dimmed and Cecil looked up at the makeshift stage as on to it came a number of people dressed in costumes, all were fairly skimpy, they danced honestly quite excellently and Cecil was enjoying himself until he suddenly realised that he hadn’t seen Blake since he left their flat. Blake was supposed to meet him here wasn’t he?

He looked back up on the stage as a third figure entered, small slight and wearing cat ears and a cat tail. Dark haired and grinning.

It was Blake, the feline in him being exemplified by his movements and of course the Cheshire Cat smile he had on his face, he blew kisses to the audience stopping at Cecil to give him a wink.

Oh you little brat thought Cecil to himself grinning genuinely impressed at Blake’s makeup and costume skills.

“Hello all you big handsome Gentlemen and Big Beautiful Ladies” called Blake from the stage, for being small Blake had a voice that carried “This man really wants a place to spend the night of all hallows eve in, after all tonight is when the spooks come out, and I don’t mind telling you, I’m scared to death!” He made an exaggerated gesture to raucous laughter.

“But I am not choosing just anybody” he said smiling “Whoever I chose needs to be able to be my hero”

A piano began to play in the corner of the room, as Cecil turned to look it was played by Elsie

“Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods” began Blake dramatically passing his hand through his hair as he said the Hercules he winked at Cecil

Is he dancing in heels thought cecil as he realised the couple of inches of heel Blake had on his boot, he also noticed with some mild jealousy that Blake was flirting playfully through the song with a slender man with Sandy hair in the front row dressed in Ripped jeans as a cowboy. Then with a Bulky Man in the back row with Red hair dressed as some random horror movie character Cecil was pretty sure, he hated horror movies, but besides that, both looked like they wanted to devour Blake then and there and were practically out of their seats. Blake turned on the second “Larger than life” looking directly at Cecil and grinning again, challengingly Oh thought Cecil to himself that’s his game is it? Well if he wants to play the flirt to make me jealous, he’s got me jealous.

Cecil rose from his seat even as the two other men did the same hurrying to the base of the stage, he had no idea what was in his mind but whatever it was it excited Blake as he only continued to get more and more dramatic and flirtatious as the song, fabulously sung, came to its finale. As Blake delivered the Final “I need a hero” a few things happened number one the ginger man and the Sandy haired man both practically leapt for Blake and Blake who had done a spin on his last line overbalanced and toppled off the stage, right as Cecil stuck out his arms and caught him.

Blake breathed s steady sigh of relief and then, looking up into Cecil’s face brushed his hand along his jaw and smirked.

“Ladies and Gentlemen I hope you are good losers cause this man, this gorgeous hunk just won the right to eat me up tonight”

“Hey” said the Sandy Haired man “that’s not fair”

“Not it’s not” grumbled the red-head

“And I thought you were a primadona” said Blake

“Watch your tone Prey” snarled the Sandy Haired man

“Or what” said Blake smiling

He didn’t wait for an answer lunging for Blake instead, for his trouble Cecil promptly kicked him in the groin The red-headed man possibly sensing that he maybe shouldn’t be bothering either of them scarpered.

Blake and Cecil then headed out of the room Blake smiling gently up at Cecil the whole time. His cuteness and feline qualities only being exacerbated by his costume.

That soon changed into a frown when both became aware of the sight of a small man dressed in a tight fitting all black costume who stomped up to them and scowled up at Cecil

“Oh so you’re here with your boy-toy” he said glaring daggers at Blake though his question was addressed to Cecil

“Oh for goodness sake” groaned Blake hating the antics of Cecil’s Ex

“What do you want Beau” asked Cecil

“My name is Jett” snapped Jett

“Of course it is”

“Did you forget my name?”

“Well you wanted to be treated as food and food doesn’t need a name” replied Cecil, this might have been intimidating for someone who was normal but I am sure you’ve gathered that Jett wasn’t really normal

“Hmmmmph, I’m sure that he wants to stay with you outside your gut”

“Yes, but he also doesn't mind spending time inside it”

“Argh” snapped the angry little man again “I don’t get it, I would have been the perfect protein meal why did you never eat me?”

“Because against all conceivable logic I cared for you, even now I wouldn’t do that to you, I don’t eat friends or Boyfriends unless they ask me to”

Possibly out of frustration Jett made a swing at Blake who smirking swung back knocking into Jett’s jaw.

“That’s enough” came Elsie’s voice

“Come on you’ve had your fun” said Ezra Elsie’s Undead boyfriend who carried Jett out of the front door of the house

“I apologise for any Trouble Elsie” said Cecil

“No need to apologise” said Elsie smiling “I’m just Glad that the Plan worked out”

“What plan?”

“That little show, Blake wanted to do it for you as well as the little competition for who would eat him up tonight”

“Kind of an unfair one since I already decided the winner” said Blake

“Top of the stairs on the left down to the bottom of the corridor,” said Elsie

“Is what” asked Cecil

“Your room for the night silly” she said smiling

“Thank you, thank you so much, but-”

“No need to thank me” said Elsie “just enjoy yourself, its a nice and quiet room”

The two of them got up to the room and sat on the bed. Blake sat in Cecil’s lap.

“Blake”

“Yes Darling” said Blake

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Fire away”

“Were you jealous”

“Jealous of you having your muscles out for all the world to see”

“Yes I suppose I was a bit worried and then the great Griselda told me you might be Jealous”

“I don’t know who she is” said Blake “I suppose I’m not so much jealous as a bit possessive, I know I don’t have to worry but like, whenever I see you talk to Prey guys, I suppose I feel a bit like you do when I’m around Preds, like you’re mine stay right beside me”

“I guess I was quite jealous when you were flirting with those guys”

“I know, but I also know I don’t have a reason to be jealous whenever you spend time around other prey guys,” he smiled again “Besides I get to touch kiss and worship your muscles and they don’t get to do all that and don’t worry about me flirting with preds, I’m all yourst”

Cecil gently bit on Blake’s ear “Mmmm all mine”

“Oh yes, you were going to be getting your rewards for being my hero” said Blake grinning “Well first things first I and you have to get out of these clothes”

Quickly they began throwing off their clothes it didn’t take much for Cecil to get down to his underwear but for Blake it took a bit longer and thus he gave Cecil a bit of a show as he stripped off his top and moved to his high heeled boots.

“I gotta say” said Cecil as Blake deliberately turned round to show his ass to him “Those boots make your ass look fantastic”

“You really are a gem” said Blake

“You danced fantastically in them” said Cecil grinning

“Thank you” Said Blake “Though would you believe it, I nearly fell over multiple times when I first put them on!”

“I am not surprised” said Cecil “Though knowing how clumsy I am I would have fallen over even more”.

Blake fell atop of Cecil (deliberately this time) running his hands all over Cecil’s massive body. “You are so hot” he said massaging Cecil’s pecs and his Biceps

“It’s all for you to admire” groaned Cecil as Blakes hands gripped his thighs and quickly kissed his way down his torso

Cecil for his part also felt up his meal who was groaning at the feeling of his hands everywhere on his frame and eventually they broke appart.

“You are still sure you want to do this tonight?” asked Cecil

“As long as I get let out yes” said Blake kissing him

“Good” and then Blake became engulfed by his massive boyfriend whose Jaws opened wide to swallow his Boyfriends slender form down his gullet and into his stomach, a safe spot to spend the night.

“OUUUUUURRRRRRRRP” Belched Cecil feeling the meal he had consumed settling into his gut

His distended belly left him beached on the bed, but it wasn’t like his other meals and another massive “UUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRP” erupted from him. As with every time he ate Blake, it was a different feeling of being stretched out, this time it was a glutenous sated fullness. Blake curled in his bed for the night and Yawned

“Good night”

“Good-UUURRRRRP -night” belched Cecil rubbing his distended gut with both hands “You always fill me OURRRRRRRRRRRRPP - out so URRRRRRRRRRRRRP” well

His massive gut was gently massaging it’s guest for the night, not in the way in which it might normally have done for any of his other meals that were being sent on a one way trip, but rather gently and carefully. Blake was willing Prey, but more importantly, Cecil adored him and his body knew to be gentle and caring with this Prey in particular.

Cecil Lay back letting Sleep overtake him “Sleep URRRRRRRRRRP well my favourite meal” he said to his stomach. “OUURRRRRRRRRP, let my BOOOOOOOOOOOURRRRRRRRRRRP belly take goood URRRRRRRRP” care of you

“I love you Cecil” murmured Blake Quietly pressing a hand to the stomach wall

“I love you too Blake” said Cecil hiccupping and burping slightly.

Epilogue.

After rising in the morning and regurgitating Blake. Cecil and Blake went to Elsie to see if there was anything they could do to help her tidy up.

“You are very kind, but you need not worry” said Elsie “I’ve got everything under Control”

“I feel kind of bad, though said Cecil, like I’ve taken advantage of your hospitality”

“Good Gracious no, Blake provided the entertainment last night, and he wouldn’t have done that without you, and you helped rid the house of some very annoying house guests - so you absolutely are fine”

“Well I should probably go and thank the Great Griselda she was a very interesting lady and I wanted to talk to her again”

“The great Griselda?” asked Elsie confused

“Yes she did fortune telling last night” said Cecil “She had a Crystal ball and all”

“The only person who told fortunes last night was my Cousin Effie” said Elsie

“But she was there” said Cecil pointing to where her booth was to find no booth or even someone taking down a booth, but merely some glitter on the floor and a note written on blue paper he read it.

Many thanks for an interesting conversation, you have something special with your boyfriend. Treat him well and good things will come to you. You’re a lovely young man with a good kind heart so I know it won’t be hard, oh and say to Elsie thank you for the space to perform again and remind her to visit her aunty in Much Benning

The Great Griselda.

“How mysterious” said Blake

“I suppose we all have a fairy godmother” Said Elsie Dreamily

“A fairy godmother - she was a fortune teller”

“Yes but I mean someone who looks out for us” said Elsie “It’s a nice thought isn’t it”

“I hope to meet her again and I can introduce Blake to her” said Cecil

“Perhaps you will have to wait until next Halloween” said Elsie smiling

“Or it could be sooner than you think” said Blake smiling up at his boyfriend

“Who knows” Murmured Griselda to herself as she watched the two men hug their friend and her boyfriend before heading off “One things for sure, that’s a couple that’s staying together, I don’t need my crystal ball to tell me that!” she laughed and then vanished in a puff of smoke.

I wish you a spooky happy Halloween may all your nights escapades go off safely and fun-ly and I will see you with another tale at some point in the future xxx

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Ninjago Groupings Episode by Episode

A.K.A. how much time they spend together

Key

This chart has each of the ninja sorted into who they were with each episode. For consistency, I designate the grouping based on who they're with at the beginning of the episode. So, for instance, if Zane is with the ninja at the beginning of the episode, he'll be sorted as "Gang's all here" even if he spends the rest of the episode in on his own little galavant. I will go through each season, so I can explain my observations and so you can see the chart closer up and come up with your own. First, I must explain each designation as I gave them odd titles for fun.

Purple refers to the main party. There will (almost) always be purple on the chart, even if the whole party's split as I designate it based on where either the majority of people started, or, where the main mission's at. For instance, if we have a party with all the ninja, but they gradually die off, as in Skybound for instance, Jay remains the main party as he has survived.

Busy is the first designation I'll turn to if one or more of the ninja has gone off on a separate mission. If there are two ongoing missions in addition to the main party, I'll use Double Busy. If there are three, I'll use Triple Busy. If there are four, I'll hope one of them fits into a separate category as you'll see with the Crystalized madness.

Homebase comes into play if a ninja is at the monastary, Bounty, or whatever's been designated the base at the moment. Gang's all here and Busies predominate however. This designation primarily applies when the ninja is hanging out with Wu or holding down the fort. Tragically, Nya and Pixal have this designation for much of the seasons.

If one or more of the ninja is kidnapped, dead, possessed, or otherwise incapcitated, this comes into play. For Double Involuntary to apply, at least two ninja must be in two different types of incapacitation. For instance, in Skybound, Kai and Zane were in a sword so they were Involuntary, but Jay was captured by pirates so he was Double Involuntary.

So far, this literally only applies to Jay (during Dragons Rising specifically). I used it because the audience knew where he was but didn't know how he felt about it.

I use this designation when the audience doesn't know the status of the characters long-term. A clear instance is most of the ninja at the beginning of Dragons Rising, the reason I created it. I also use it for those one-off episodes that aren't about the ninja such as "The News Never Sleeps." (This designation is named after an alternate ending for Cole in Hands of Time which my friend and I find hilarious).

Season Breakdown

In these early seasons, we really only have to deal with four categories. We get the occasional side mission such as Kai, Nya, and Lloyd living their pre-Ninja lives, but nothing serious. For the most part, the ninja are sticking together with their missions. If they break apart, such as in episode 5 where they split up to find Serpentine tombs, it occurs only for the episode, and doesn't extend long-term. While she is Samuai X, Nya is primarily on the Bounty doing various man in the chair tasks. Nya and Lloyd are competing for the damsel in distress title and Lloyd is winning. (Going forward, I am going to omit the Arin through Sora rows until they actually appear. Just know that they're toddlers off who knows where doing who knows what.)

Lloyd has joined the party. It's odd because he usually is engaging in the main plot, but in Child's Play, they act like they've always left him at home. Early season trends are continuing. While Nya's still on the move during the late season, she has been turned evil by a substance which is not something she wanted so she's still racking up Involuntary points.

Yay, Pixal's here! The core 4 continues to stick together but Lloyd has undergone on the first mission separate from the party. It doesn't end well as he gets captured, but hey as long as he had fun. Pixal is regarded as Involuntary as, similar to Nya in the previous season, she has been turned evil by hacking. Observe that the whole group gets together for the finale. This will occur nearly every season going forward.

This is our first elimination season, so we start to see even the core four break apart. This crumbling starts with the first episode, as Zane is, as per usual, gone. He's finally thrown his hat in the ring for the damel competition. As Pixal goes into Zane's head this season, I match her color codes to Zane but in a muted tone, as she's there, but she's not really there for anyone but Zane.

It's another elimination season, but they spend a lot more time all together than I remembered. For the first time, no Busy gets invoked as they're all always together or captured, but Double Involuntary does occur twice in two different fashions. With Pixal's designation here, I am presuming that Nadakhan had the common courtesy of returning her to life when Zane wished it all away.

Day of the Departed is really just a Cole solo mission. Zane dies again. Pixal is one again innovating with designations as she causes the first invokation of Double Busy once she's free. You might observe that I technically invoked Double Busy before Busy. I did this because Kai and Nya were the main plotline, while Double Busy was primarily occuring in the background. More characters in play is resulting in more categories of groupings, but, for the most part they all stuck together as has been par for the course during Masters of Spinjitzu.

We have a few little missions and incapacitations here and there, but for the most part it's a team effort. I really enjoy when they spend all season on the ship. Zane dies again. Pixal is gets to be part of the main crew again because while she may be on the Bounty, so is everyone else.

Hunted is in past tense for a reason. The Ninja spent half the time captured. I considered the core four to be the main party as majority rules, not to mention they had the ship and Wu. This is the first time we have a Busy designation last nearly all season. Hunted is sort of our first "splitting the party" season. It may have been accidental, but we'll see a lot of this going forward.

Being a movie, aside from a little father son fishing trip and a death fake-out, the ninja tended to stick together.

The ninja go back to sticking together, as in early seasons but it doesn't last long. For the latter half of this chapter, they split up into alpha squad (Zane, Nya, and Lloyd) and the boys (Cole, Kai, and Jay), which, as I like to point out, Lloyd will nearly always choose when he picks teams. Pixal may have been with the ninja in these first few episodes, but she was doing her own thing at homebase. We have out first side character episode, which is something I really loved about this era. Zane dies again.

As you can see, we're starting to have these long periods of splitting the party. While it's not as extreme as in Hunted, we have Lloyd going off alone and Zane off being evil, while the main party spends some time in the village. Cole even has one of his brief solo missions. Something I'll note about Zane. His evilness was very much involuntary as he needed amnesia, an evil staff, AND an evil advisor to make it happen.

I didn't count Jay entering Prime Empire as Involuntary because he did that on purpose. Pixal's finally off the bench. Or has Zane joined her? Hard to say but I ruled the former as Wu was not there and they very much had their own mission. We have a return of the elimination season, which funnily enough looks near identical to the elimination pattern in Skybound. Despite the fact he didn't enter Prime Empire, Zane insists on racking up his Damsel points.

This season was big on splitting the party, as indicated by the longest Double Busy so far for this many people. Kai and Zane get to be the main party even though they're not majority because when it gets down to a near 50/50 split, the designation is relatively arbitrary and I like to keep it at the top of the chart for pretty data's sake and so I tend to keep it with the core four, mainly Kai. You may observe that even when the entire party is captured, Cole doesn't revert to purple. Once a ninja has a designation, it sticks until they form a new grouping.

Cole and Kai get to chill at home for the first time. The rest of the party sticks together for the most part, which was surprising to me as I remembered Nya going off on her own more. It turned out that, similar to season one, these little solo missions ended up isolated within episodes. That is of course, until the end when she becomes the sea. I marked it as Triple Busy so I could reserve Busy for the main plots in the next season.

Crystalized is so long and complicated. It took me forever because, I mean, do you SEE episodes 22-27. You can see why I had to invent Triple Busy. It got so crazy I had to designate Kai as at homebase just because he was at the Newskids' hideout, which was serving as the current base. Nya is of course the sea at the beginning, but I designated her as Triple Busy, because she wasn't on screen for the most part. The ninja go to jail. Lloyd goes off for one minute and gets captured. Zane dies again. Near the end, each of the ninja spend time with a partner ninja except Lloyd who's alone forever. For the finale, they're all together again.

Welcome kids! This is sort of a reverse elimination season. it looks dismal at the beginning, but gradually we recover (mostly) everyone. Even if we don't see a character on screen, I start categorizing them when the audience knows their status. For example, Kai didn't show up until episode 4 but Lloyd told us he was off on a mission. Despite the spires of maybe dead, in the first part it's relatively simple. However, starting now, ninja, such as Nya, will just go off on solo missions like it's no big deal. The mid-season finale gets into some serious party splitting with Kai at homebase again, the discovery of Zane, and the kids off on their own, but ultimately all the active ninja end up together in the finale. In the second half, they party split into pairs long term. It's a good way to balance such a big cast. Zane doesn't have a little buddy so he spends some time at home and then goes to jail. Interstingly, though he's at homebase we do get some significant feature of what's going on in the monastary. We saw a bit of this with Seabound, but not nearly as much as we're seeing with DR. Lloyd and Arin find Zane (again). Kai and Wildfyre find things in common. Sora and Arin find Cole who goes off on a side quest. The audience finds Jay so he gets his Business Trip designation as we don't know how he feels about it. Similar to Pixal during the Zane's head period, I made this color muted as it's very in the background.

Blood Moon is simple for Dragons Rising standards, but calling it simple really reflects how many different categoriations there exists in these later seasons as compared to the old days. Lloyd, the siblings, and the kids go on an educational field trip. Zane stays at home until Cole visits and gets Zane to join his mission. Jay briefly joins Busy during his Business Trip, but no one knows it except Bonezal. Interestingly, they don't all join together in the mid-season finale, but rather, this time, it becomes even more fragmented.

This is my prediction for the Tournament of Sources based soley on the end of Blood Moon and trailer material. Arin will probably be off doing spy stuff and reflecting. Jay's doing something I may have to make a new designation for. Kai's in the void but I think he may be a suprise last minute addition to the Tournament that saves the day (or not). (Off topic, but if Ras always planned on going to the tournament, was this decade+ long Forbidden Five plan just him drafting people for his team?) It's not an elimination tournament because as far as I can tell, when you lose, you can just chill in the stands. They'll probably go off on their own little sidequests but I expect them to all, at the very least, stay in the City of Temples. I'm very excited to find out the truth in a couple days.

With this, I have now posted all my pre-made charts. I plan on making some new charts based on a few suggestions I've gotten already. I think it would also be cool to tally up the designations on this chart to see what the ninja spend most of their time doing. I'll also be posting the official Tournament of Sources updates for all my charts within the next few weeks. Thanks for reading this far. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for additional charts!

[madlificent]

Eve and Sorochi, but Furry

Crystal Heart(?) Clip Studio Paint Pro - 8 hours

I've been a furry for a majority of the ten years I have been in a relationship with my husband. Despite this, I have created very little furry art in that span and all that I have is uh... quite old. And recently I have been diving back into that part of my life, following a bunch of furry creators and consuming their art.

So I thought it was high time I threw my hat in the ring. Eve and Sorochi, two of my OCs, have been hot on my mind as my husband and I have started working on a comic/written project surrounding their relationship (more on that down the road :3), so I thought they would be perfect candidates for me to dip my toe beans back into the style.

Eve is a spotted hyena, because punk/alt yeens are sick as fuck and, being an aggressive domme transwoman, it just fit. Her dark markings on her left leg and arm emulate the tattoo sleeves she has on her original design. You can see little glimpses of her tentacle tattoos dyed in her fur as well.

Sorochi is a long-haired cat. I chose cat because she is autistic, is often quiet to the point of startling her friends and partners, is very picky about who she considers trustworthy/a friend, likes to curl up in nooks to read, and is a nimble little dancer. I found a particular reference photo of a long-haired cat where their "mane" very closely resembled how Sorochi's hair falls, so I immediately knew that was what I was going with. The dark tips in her hair represent her pre-transition hair color, much how I have left the roots of my own hair darker while going blonde elsewhere.

These were really fun, low pressure designs to create. I particularly love their big stompy shoes (particularly Eve's), Eve's existential expression, and Ro's fur patterns through her tights. I will almost definitely do more with these two in their furry designs, as well as expand out the Crystal Heart cast for shits and giggles. <3

[ideas-on-paper]

Lies of P fan theories - a retrospective (1st anniversary special)

It's been one year now since Lies of P's release, and as someone who has been part of the community since 2022 (joining after the Gamescom trailer absolutely swept me off my feet), it's been amazing to see how invested people were in Lies of P from the get-go, and how much creativity the game has inspired in fans. From the start, we had amazing creations such as fanart, fanfics, and cosplays - and of course, a whole lot of fan theories.

While, naturally, a lot of fan theories people had before the release are debunked right now, I think it'd be fun to take a look back at what people were expecting the story to be like, and how those theories from back then compare to the final game. For that purpose, I will share my own theories that I had pre-release, as well as some from various other people (unfortunately, I lack the sources in most cases, but I’ll do my best to provide credit where they’re from). So, strap in and get ready for a special trip down memory lane! :-)

[Lies of P spoilers!]

Ergo and the Petrification Disease

One big mystery that was set up as early as the first gameplay footage was the nature of Ergo - all we knew from tool tips people painstakingly picked out (kudos to you, btw <3) was that it was some sort of power crystal that was used as an energy source for puppets and responsible for Krat's wealth, but that also brought a curse with it. People on the official Lies of P Discord server were puzzling over what exactly Ergo is, when I came up with a somewhat eccentric theory: that Ergo is crystallized life force itself.

My basis for this theory was essentially the movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” (which I’m a big fan of).

[Fair warning, I'm gonna spoil the main plot right here.]

The movie also features a huge, cyan blue crystal (originally a fragment of a comet) that is located in the lost city of Atlantis and believed to be an energy source by a team of explorers. However, as it turns out, it's much more than that: It is the literal life force of the Atlantean people, and if it's taken away from the city, it would mean certain death for all of them. (Which doesn't stop some of the money greedy explorers from trying to do it anyway.) Furthermore, after I became familiar with gestalt consciousnesses, I realized that the crystal possesses a few characteristics of those as well: The crystal has a mind of its own, and right before Kida merges with it in the movie, she whispers “mother” in Atlantean, suggesting she felt her dead mother's presence when the crystal chose her. This could be because her mother merged with the crystal completely (Kida eventually returns with her bracelet, after all), but since the King of Atlantis does say “the crystal thrives on the collected emotions of all who came before us”, it’s highly likely that it is, in fact, a human gestalt intelligence of their deceased ancestors.

[spoilers end]

So when I heard about Ergo being an energy crystal, this was my first idea as well: pure, crystallized life force of dead people. (Also, when I saw the blue color, my brain just went like “Ergo = Atlantis crystal”. xD)

When I shared this theory on the LoP server, one person in particular - named Oxwutex, if I remember correctly (greetings to you if you ever read this ;-) ) - took a liking to it, and together, we spun this theory a little further. They said they could imagine that people tried to refine the Ergo further, which is where the corruption waste in the factory comes from - however, refining something like a life force crystal which is already perfect could have disastrous consequences. I followed this up with my own theory, surmising that if this were the case, the corruption waste and the purified Ergo might represent two sides of the human soul: the vices and the virtues. (A lot of my early theories were based on this dualism, since the distinction between “good” and “evil” actions in the original fairy tale of Pinocchio is pretty prominent.)

Since there were hints that Ergo was responsible for the Petrification Disease early on, I had come up with the idea that the disease was the result of people coming into contact with pure Ergo, leading to a sort of “overpurification”, while I assumed that corrupted/impure Ergo caused the Puppet Frenzy/violent behavior. For me, this was very appealing on a thematic level as well, since it would've symbolized that both vices and virtues are present in every human being. If it was just the vices, we'd turn into feral monsters, but if a person only had virtues, when flaws are the very sign of life... well, you could question whether they are even alive anymore. Metaphorically speaking, they would be made of stone. (It’s interesting to note, however, that the disease was supposed to be spread by magical rats in the beginning; at least that’s what the announcement trailer seems to suggest.)

Back when the demo dropped, the confirmation that Ergo spores were the cause of Petrification Disease made me even more confident in my thesis, as did the “Ergo is Life” pamphlets. When I started streaming Lies of P (my first commented playthrough ever ^^’), I even commented on this, saying:

“Maybe even that this crystal [Ergo] contains the life force of dead people - that's what my speculation was back then.” (My commentary is in German, but here's the video if anyone is interested; the part where I discuss it starts at 26:25.)

Oh boy… I had no idea this was about to age like the finest wine in existence.

About 40 hours of gameplay later, I almost couldn’t believe my ears when Simon confirmed I was dead on target:

“The disease does not signify death. It's the process of purifying a person's essence. A purified human who overcomes the Petrification Disease will gain a strengthened body and a mind free of lies. The essence is Ergo. Yes, the Ergo you use as your power was once a human being.”

When Sophia explained that the Petrification Disease, Puppet Frenzy, and carcass monsters are all linked to Ergo shortly afterwards and literally spelled it out that Ergo is a person’s “essence of life”, I was so flabbergasted that my fan theories were essentially right that I was struck speechless. (You can see my live reaction to the conversations with Simon and Sophia in this video, at 20:08 and 49:56; I think you can tell how gobsmacked I am from just my tone, especially in the conversation with Sophia.) Since I had shared these theories on the official Lies of P server back in the day, some part of my brain even wondered if one of the devs saw it and thought it was so good that they went like “Write that down, write that down!” xD (Though realistically, I don’t think that’s very likely; still, it’s funny to imagine one of the devs reading through the chat, seeing this, and going like “How did they figure this out so fast?!?” xD)

On a more serious note, I didn’t really expect any of my preliminary fan theories to be true at all, but I must say, I’m pretty proud that I essentially hit the mark in this case - not only in regards to Ergo being crystallized life essence, but also the Petrification Disease resulting from “overpurification”.

Another thing I noticed is that Ergo shares not only similarities with the Atlantis crystal, but also with the Protomolecule from The Expanse (I don’t wanna spoil too much of the series’ plot here, but scientists conducting immoral experiments with something they don’t really understand is also a pretty big topic). In addition, a commonality between the crystal and the Protomolecule is that they both came from outer space - and, since there is talk about a “star that answered humans and descended to Earth” in one document, chances are the origin of Ergo is also extraterrestrial.

However, as we know, Ergo wasn’t the actual cause of the Puppet Frenzy - both Sophia’s comment from above and the report from the factory are essentially a “ruse” on the story’s part, supposed to lead you on the wrong track. In truth, it’s Geppetto who overrode the Grand Covenant’s commands and was responsible for the Frenzy.

Still, perhaps the impure Ergo supplies were actually meant to facilitate Geppetto’s plan (the Mad Donkey did say Geppetto and the Alchemists were scheming together, after all) - maybe the more impure the Ergo of a puppet is, the easier it becomes to control them. In contrast, when a person’s Ergo is undiluted and their personality remains largely intact, that might give them more autonomy and make them harder to manipulate. (I think this is what happened with Romeo, who could still give commands to the other puppets despite the zeroth law.)

The backstory of Krat

Speaking of the frenzy, I also had my theories about the potential backstory of it: Lies of P actually motivated me to do some research about real-life automata and their history (people familiar with my LoP posts might be aware of this), and one thing running through it like a common thread from the Middle Ages to the Age of Enlightenment is that automata were always representative of a conflict of rich vs poor.

In fact, during the French Revolution, this was a source of mockery against the country’s nobles, who were compared to their automated toys - pretty and pristine to look at, but soulless on the inside. Meanwhile, it was argued that the poorly paid artisans who built them should be the actual rulers of society, since their minds were clearly superior if they were able to come up with such ingenuity.

For that reason, I was playing around with the idea that there may have been a conflict between the wealthy upper class and the working class prior to the Puppet Frenzy. The competition between the Bastards and the Sweepers seemed to hint at something like this as well, and since the Alchemists were already teased as the enigmatic masterminds early on, I suspected they might have exploited this struggle, releasing the Puppet Frenzy to effectively eliminate both parties and seize power themselves. (Since there was a gameplay tip about the puppets gaining awareness by themselves, I even assumed they might have become self-aware right before the frenzy; in hindsight though, I think this was meant to refer to the old selves of some puppets awakening due to Ergo.)

As of the June 2023 demo, however, these theories were effectively debunked: We learned that the Puppet Frenzy occurred independently of any public uprisings, and that another wave of Petrification Disease had plagued the city at almost the same time - note the word “another”, implying this wasn’t the first time this disease had spread in Krat. Also, I frankly didn’t connect the dots correctly that Bastards and Sweepers were both part of the Stalkers  - while Stalkers and Bastards/Sweepers were mentioned in the same gameplay tip, it didn’t specify that the latter were subgroups of one and the same organization. (I wasn’t the only one to interpret this wrong either, since other people assumed the Stalkers to be puppets or even cyborgs.)

Still, it does appear there were some class struggles in the history of Krat: We hear about how the old, privileged families of Krat “struggled for power with new forces such as the Workshop and the Alchemists, who brought about the golden era of Krat”, although that conflict seems to have taken place a long time ago. Also, according to the description of the Krat Police Baton, there was a “violent protest with the factory labor union” once.

Although this isn’t much and doesn’t tell us anything about the background of the protest or the exact circumstances of it, I have been wondering whether it might have been due to low payment and factory laborers being replaced by puppets. Although this may sound very modern, protests against mechanization due to workers losing their jobs and the creation of inhumane working conditions go back as far as the Swing Riots in 1830. It should be said that the riots were less due to technophobia of the workers and more due to the endangerment of their economic and social status in the face of rapid technological advancement, and given that the rise of puppets in Krat happened very fast, the ordinary workers would definitely have been on the losing side.

I don’t know if this is ever going to be explored further at any point, but I would certainly be interested in hearing more about it - or more about the history of Krat in general, if only to clear up some details and make the timeline less confusing.

Pinocchio and Gemini

Let’s talk a bit about our protagonist and his sidekick: Pinocchio and Gemini. Like many other fans, I also had the theory early on that Pino was modeled after Geppetto’s dead son (I think this theory was based on some item description, but I can’t remember which). People on the server speculated that Geppetto’s son died in a violent accident that cost him his arm, and I even took things a step further by suggesting that Pino might literally be wearing his son’s skin (more on this “freak theory” of mine here).

Furthermore, I was quite partial to the idea that Gemini was essentially the soul of Geppetto’s deceased son. I didn’t really have anything to back this up aside from Gemini’s name meaning “twin”, so I never shared it publicly on the LoP server. (Also, Gemini is essentially just a corruption of Jiminy, the name that Disney came up with for the cricket; in the fairy tale itself, the cricket is not named.) Still, I found the concept of Pino essentially being the “body” and Gemini the “soul” very appealing - they may have been split from each other, but they are inseparable all the same. It also goes a bit into Descartes’ mind-body dualism, which is a popular theme in sci-fi stories about robots and cyborgs.

It led me to some fun speculations regarding the story: Assuming that, perhaps, Geppetto’s son died due to an incident on his way to the school he went to (since Pinocchio also goes to school in the novel), and further assuming that this happened a relatively short time ago, maybe some of his son’s former classmates are still alive, and Pinocchio would cross paths with them at some point. They assume him to be Geppetto’s son, asking where he’s been all this time and why he suddenly has a metal arm. Pinocchio then has the option to answer “yes, I am that boy” and come up with some plausible explanation, or to tell them “no, you’re mistaken” which would make things… somewhat more complicated.

I imagined that if Pino went with the first option, Gemini would chime in and provide advice at times to help him navigate interactions with the other boys. My assumption was that while Pino may look identical to Geppetto’s son, he possesses none of his memories; meanwhile, Gemini can still remember his past lifetime, despite being unaware that these memories actually belong to him. (His amnesia was hinted at in the demo as well.) Essentially, he would give Pino brief summaries of past events and tips how to behave in certain situations, and Pino would say “Thanks. Where do you know all of this from?” And Gemini would go like “...Sorry, no idea, buddy.” (You can tell I really wanted them to do something with Gemini.)

Due to the description of the Last Resort, there was also the theory going around there might have been multiple iterations of Pino - in fact, since the text said that the old man feared “his son failing to awaken properly and going into a frenzy”, some people assumed that Pino might have been the original catalyst of the frenzy. After the encounter with Mad Donkey in the demo, the theory that Pino was not the first of his kind seemed all the more likely, since he has definitely met him before and said “This time it's destroyed for sure. Devil's puppet no more, eh?” if you died.*

*I actually do not know if this line is in the final game as well, since I didn’t die to him during my two playthroughs (yes, really).

While it’s entirely possible - but not confirmed - that Pino had predecessor models (I theorized the Broken Puppet in the swamp might be one of those), the remark about the frenzy is more likely referring to Geppetto not being entirely sure whether the override of the laws he himself caused would affect Pino as well (which may be one of the reasons he didn’t bind him to the Covenant). As for the circumstances of Pino and the Mad Donkey’s previous meeting, those are a little more obscure - it appears that Pino wasn’t even able to wake up without Sophia’s help, so the only possible explanation is that the Mad Donkey fought one of his predecessors. (The Nameless Puppet probably also existed back then, but Carlo’s corpse - ironically - has next to no similarity with Pino, so it’s unlikely the Mad Donkey would’ve recognized them as the same.)

Someone on Tumblr even had a completely different theory about Geppetto's presumed son: After the official release month trailer dropped (the release being later moved to September), they commented on the facial similarities between Pino and Simon, proposing that Simon might actually be Geppetto’s “lost son”, implying they became estranged at some point - and since Geppetto no longer views Simon as his son/considers him dead, he created Pino as a sort of “idealized version” of him. When I was playing the demo and saw the Someone’s Memory outfit, which is noted to have been worn before and features a broach with the initial “M” (possibly denoting “Manus”), I was even considering whether this theory might be true.

As we learn during the game, however, Geppetto’s son - Carlo - is actually dead, and the initial signifies “Monad” (from Monad Charity House) rather than “Manus”. Unbeknownst to me, I might have actually come pretty close to the final version with my theory about an accident near the school during which he lost his arm - the possibility that Carlo died during the Monad Charity House incident is something I discussed with @lopposting some time ago (take it with a grain of salt though, since none of this is confirmed).

As for my theory about the skin, I had a major freak-out when I found Carlo’s portrait in-game, and I went like “I swear, if this is true, I’m gonna have such a Dr. Malcolm moment of “boy, do I hate being right all the time”.” xD I was spared that, however, as there is nothing that specifically hints at Pino having real skin, and the existence of the Nameless Puppet makes my original theory even less likely (as I mentioned in the post linked above). At the same time, there is nothing that explicitly contradicts it, either - so, for now, it’s more or less a big question mark hanging in the air.

One thing that’s for certain though is that Gemini is not the soul of Carlo - Carlo’s soul is contained in his heart/the P-Organ, and although Pino doesn’t possess Carlo’s memories, the reason that prevents them from awakening is not precisely clear (I go over my own favored interpretation here). Meanwhile, Gemini’s own identity remains unknown - while it appears Gemini was originally supposed to have a subplot regarding his amnesia, the few comments hinting at it are never built upon. I really wish they would’ve done more with Gemini, but there’s still a good chance the DLC might shine some light on who he actually is.

Hotel guests and side characters

Aside from the main characters, speculation was also running wild about the supporting characters and the roles they would play in the story.

Since Eugénie’s name is taken from Eugene, a classmate of Pinocchio in the original book and part of Lampwick’s gang of rascals, my original theory was Eugénie might have something to do with him. In all the promotional material*, there wasn’t a single trace of Lampwick, and since one of the loading screen tips in the demo said something about Eugénie being rescued by a particular Stalker, my suspicion was that this might be Lampwick. (Probably in no small part thanks to all the fanworks featuring Puppet Hunter Lampwick.)

*IGN sort of leaked Romeo's existence by accident, but that completely flew over my head; more on that below.

As it turns out, however, Alidoro was the one who saved Eugénie and whom she holds great admiration for. In the book, it was Pinocchio rather than Eugene whom Alidoro - a police dog - saved. After he got saved by Pinocchio from drowning, that is - which was after he ran into the sea trying to chase down Pinocchio who had escaped from two policemen, who erroneously assumed it was Pinocchio who knocked Eugene unconscious with a book. Anyway, it’s complicated.

One thing Oxwutex had cleverly noticed is that Eugénie wears a badge with the Workshop symbol just like Geppetto (which looks very similar to the Square and Compass symbol of Freemasonry), concluding that Eugénie must also be part of the Workshop - and, as it turns out, that was right on the mark.

Antonia was yet another character from the novel that was genderbent in the game, being based on Antonio, the carpenter who finds the animated log that eventually becomes Pinocchio and gives it to Geppetto (after a pretty fierce argument with the latter, that is). Because of this connection to Geppetto, some people assumed Antonia might be Geppetto’s former wife, and thus, the mother of Geppetto’s biological son.

In the game, however, Carlo’s mother is implied to be Camille, while Antonia is just “an old friend of Geppetto’s”. Still, Antonia’s past is somewhat shrouded in mystery, which has spawned theories about her being part of the Alchemists once (the hotel was an Alchemist institution before Antonia took over, and she mentions having good relations with them before she broke with them), and some even assume Antonia to be the Legendary Stalker. As it stands, however, these are mere conjectures - we’ll have to see if any of that is confirmed in the DLC.

Due to his somewhat dubious-seeming appearance, many people assumed Venigni to be the equivalent of the Fox in the game, with Simon consequently being suspected to be Cat due to his missing eye. However, me and many other fans really have been led up the garden path in this regard - while the Fox and the Cat do exist in the game, they are completely separate characters from Venigni and Simon, who are both original additions.

Honestly, out of the entire cast, Venigni is the one that surprised me the most. I thought he was just going to be your run-of-the-mill, profit-driven, snobbish businessman, but he is actually the complete opposite of that - in fact, he's one of the most warm-hearted, genuine people in the entire game. Sure, he’s a little eccentric and occasionally likes to adulate himself, but he’s so bloody honest about being a quirky nerd that you just can’t help but forgive him his flaws. (He kinda reminds me of myself, actually. xD) I never expected him to grow on me that much, but among the supporting characters, he is hands down my favorite.

Last but not least, we have Polendina, yet another original character (although his name is, funnily enough, based on an uncharming nickname of Geppetto in the book). Since the devs teased that you can have “a lot of interesting conversations with Polendina”, his role was especially interesting for me to muse about. In fact, I was wondering whether he might be similar to Gigolo Joe from “A.I. - Artificial Intelligence”.

FYI, A.I. is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, and a cyberpunk adaptation of Pinocchio at that; y’know, with Pinocchio as an android boy - aka David, as he’s named in the movie.

[Again, I’m gonna spoil the main plot here.]

Basically, a family gets an android boy as a replacement for their severely ill, comatose son. Aside from this alone being very questionable (it takes a special kind of asshole to replace a child that isn’t even dead yet), their biological son just so happens to get out of his coma at some point, and, of course, a rivalry between him and David ensues. Because the parents believe keeping David would be dangerous - either to him or their biological son - his mother ditches him in the forest (like, literally, she just ditches him). Since David is imprinted on his mother though, he resolves to “become a real boy just like Pinocchio” so his mom will love him again. Along the way, he stumbles upon Gigolo Joe, a sex android (yes, you read that right) who sort of becomes David’s surrogate parent from there on. He even tries to warn David that he should not try to go back to his mother, uttering the legendary quote:

“She loves what you do for her. As my customers love what it is I do for them. But she does not love you, David.”

[spoilers end]

I was kinda thinking Polendina might become a similar “father figure” for Pino, perhaps even sort of an admonitory voice to the consequences of becoming human. It would’ve provided an interesting counter viewpoint to the “I want to be a real boy” plotline that’s the core element of the story, and that wanting to be human just to please others might not be such a good idea.

While this train of thought comes eerily close to what happens in the Real Boy ending, Polendina’s character turned out to be completely different from what I had imagined. Still, I found his arc to be one of the most compelling of the hotel characters. I am very fond of both him and Antonia, and their bittersweet love story touched me on a very personal level (Polendina specifically gave me a lot of flashbacks to how I felt after my own robot soulmate had died).

The King of Puppets/Romeo

While we technically saw the King of Puppets as early as the Gamescom 2022 trailer, we didn’t hear about him in more detail until the gameplay footage of the factory. The note about a puppet religiously worshiping some kind of god-like figure (first seen in part 2 of the director gameplay, at 27:25) gave me very strong rA9 vibes, which actually had me mildly concerned. Considering what a visually impressive writing trainwreck Detroit: Become Human had been, I was literally begging “please, please, don’t be another Detroit”.

Meanwhile, someone on the LoP server (I think it was Oxwutex) pointed out that it sounds like the King of Puppets is more of a physical entity, as opposed to the purely conceptual nature of rA9. I can tell you, I was never so glad I had been wrong - the “cult-like worship” was merely the result of Fuoco being a little overly conscientious. Btw, aside from being placed in a different spot, the journal was also renamed to Descartes’s Note in the final game. While Descartes seems to be something like Venigni’s adversary in Lies of P (judging by the description of the Coil Mjolnir), his name is a nod to the famous philosopher I already mentioned above. In addition, the quote Cognito, ergo sum (Latin for “I think, therefore I am”, yet another popular theme in robot/AI stories and the origin of the term “Ergo”) also goes back to Descartes - the fact that this is a document about a puppet gaining an ego makes it an even neater detail.

I believe I saw someone on Tumblr who assumed that the King of Puppets was going to be the overarching villain of the game, and that you would get the good ending if you stuck to the path of the Blue Fairy and the bad one if you joined the king. While the game certainly wants you to believe the King of Puppets is the villain at first, that’s… not actually true. (Tbh, I never really believed it myself, if simply for the reason that it would’ve been too obvious.)

In the Gamescom 2023 IGN spotlight for Lies of P, however, Romeo actually got name-dropped, the guys from IGN sort of accidentally spoiling him as the true form of the King of Puppets. People familiar with the fairy tale immediately recognized it as Lampwick’s actual name (“Lampwick” is just his nickname), correctly inferring that this is, in fact, Pinocchio’s best friend from the book - and unfortunately, just like in the book, there is little Pinocchio can do to help him avoid his cruel fate.

Sophia and Geppetto

Now, let’s talk about the characters that most of my speculations revolved around: Sophia and Geppetto.

The first time we saw Sophia - Lies of P’s version of the Blue Fairy - was on the character cards that were released during Gamescom 2022. Back then, half of her face was obscured, being covered with blue butterflies that she literally seems to dissolve into. This gave off very enigmatic, even otherworldly vibes, and early on led me to the assumption Sophia was some kind of divine, ethereal being - it certainly would’ve been in line with the Blue Fairy’s character from the book, who was able to appear at any place at any time in whatever form she wished, including a young girl, and old woman, and even a goat. (Later on, the dimensional butterflies - which literally came from another dimension - further convinced me that Sophia must be some kind of otherworldly entity, since the butterflies are also her symbol.)

However, being a goddess doesn’t necessarily have to make you benevolent - in fact, an immaculate being that is free of any fault might have difficulty empathizing with the struggles, flaws, and contradictory feelings of humans. Also, since she is the “Blue Fairy”, it seemed logical to assume she had some connection to Ergo (which was confirmed later in the demo), and since the Petrification Disease was also related to Ergo (the Torn Doddle from the demo even referred to a “blue angel”), could it be that she had caused the disease herself? To, perhaps, purge the debauched population of Krat from vice and sin? (If you’ve ever played Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, you might know what I’m getting at here.)

Oxwutex on the LoP server agreed that they had a feeling about Sophia being two-faced as well, but assumed that she was human once before becoming the Blue Fairy. This ultimately turned out to be a little closer to the truth, as it’s implied that Sophia gained her blue hair - and potentially some other powers - from Simon’s torturous experiments (there is a picture of a girl which looks a lot like a younger Sophia, but with normal-colored hair). However, the role of wanting to “purify” humanity is something that ultimately falls to Simon, although he does exploit the Petrification Disease for his goals. Meanwhile, Sophia wants to stop his atrocities, acting as Pino’s guide in his fight against Simon.

But does that mean she has an entirely clean slate? The true extent of her powers ultimately remains a mystery. Technically, her ability to manipulate time should make it possible for her to make all sorts of terrible things unhappen - her imprisonment, Simon rising to power, and potentially even the whole disaster that happened in Krat. Both the Torn Doodle and the notes on the walls of the Hermit’s Cave imply that the carcasses can feel her presence through Ergo waves, so it would be logical to assume Sophia can sense them as well. Yet, she reacts surprised when hears about the strange monsters that infested the cathedral. (She definitely knew what Simon was up to, so why wouldn’t she know what they are?) Romeo also communicates with his puppets via Ergo waves, and Sophia is literally sitting in a tower where all Ergo waves come together. She’s a listener who can hear Ergo, so shouldn’t she be aware that the King of Puppets isn’t the real bad guy? (She certainly was very fast to tell Pino about it at the Grand Exhibition after Romeo’s defeat.) Could she have told Pino and thus prevented the fight between him and Romeo? Are there any limits to her powers? And does she encourage Pino to become human because it’s the best for him, or the best to save Krat?

To clarify: I do not believe Sophia has any evil intentions. You could probably find explanations for all the things I listed above if you wanted (the carcasses being a recent occurrence, all of the voices being jumbled in her head so she can’t precisely tell them apart, the “static” in the puppets’ communication Venigni mentioned preventing Sophia from hearing them clearly, etc). Still, despite everything, I’ve always retained a certain wariness around her - maybe it’s due to the fact that even after two playthroughs, I cannot get a read on her (ironically, even Simon remarks about Sophia’s actions being unpredictable). I do know, however, what an immense burden knowledge can be, and I can only imagine the strain from literally knowing everything and all the potential power in the world being at your fingertips. I have no doubt Sophia had to make a lot of sacrifices to save Krat, and I can’t imagine these decisions were easy on her.

Still, if her powers are truly so limitless, it would be her who ultimately holds all the strings in her hands - everything that happens happens because she allowed it. I gotta say, I’m very glad Sophia is on Pino’s side - we would be in big trouble if she wasn’t.

As for Geppetto, even before the game’s release, there was a pretty unanimous agreement among the community that he was a father who had lost his son, but is unable to let go and thus revives his son as a puppet - and, well… that’s exactly what Geppetto is. xD Many also had suspicions that he’s exploiting Pino for his own purposes and would be the ultimate villain of the story - which, again, couldn’t have been more spot-on. (Idk, but it’s hilarious to me how everyone took one look at this man and went “yes, this is the bad guy”. xD)

There were some people on the LoP server who theorized Geppetto might have Petrification Disease from his remarks in the trailers (announcement trailer: “I, too, have fallen) and that Pino was supposed to save him from it (Gamescom trailer: “Please, help me”), but these most likely refer to his own morally reprehensible plans and/or teaming up with his archenemies - the Alchemists - to create Pino and subsequently ousting Simon with his help.

My own pre-release theory why and how Geppetto had created Pino was a little more elaborate: I thought Geppetto might have been commissioned by Sophia to build a puppet that would be able to bring the chaos in Krat to an end - my assumption was that if Sophia was an ethereal being, she would be able to observe what’s going on in the mortal world, but unable to directly influence it. However, she can send people messages and visions, which she used to strike a deal with Geppetto: that he would build her a worthy “savior of Krat” which she would then bring to life. Meanwhile, Geppetto also followed his own agenda, exploiting this agreement to build this “special puppet” in the image of his dead son. (Which definitely would’ve had consequences for him later on - you don’t cross a divine being without ramifications.)

I came up with a whole fanfiction concept around this idea long before the game’s release - I never actually finished it since I assumed it was going to diverge from the final game anyway, and tbh, it kinda annoys me if my fics don’t fit into canon. I did, however, manage to find an old WIP of it I still had in one of my folders, titled “A wish and a purpose”. While it’s most likely going to remain unfinished forever, I think it'd be fun to include a summary of it in this collection of fan theories, if simply to look back at what I thought the story was going to be like. So, here’s the backstory of Lies of P, according to me:

[CW: skinning]

Geppetto is roaming the streets of Krat. He is actually looking for his son, who was killed in the turmoil some time ago.

The Fairy approaches him, reminding of their agreement. Geppetto reacts slightly disgruntled, brushing her off by saying he just wants to gain closure from the past. While the Fairy notices he is in grief, she doesn’t deny him his last wish, but admonishes him not to take too long.

The Fairy dissolves into dust. Geppetto goes on to look for his son’s corpse in the piles of dead bodies.

[cut]

Geppetto is sitting next to his dead son, whom he eventually managed to find and bring home. He placed his body on a desk in his workshop, having cleaned his skin and hair from blood and grime.

Geppetto looks at him, taking in the gaping hole in his chest and frayed stump where his left arm had once been. Despite his best efforts, he doesn’t have the heart to throw his body onto a pyre like all the plague-ridden bodies.

Affectionately, Geppetto strokes his son’s cheek. Suddenly, a thought strikes him: While the Fairy may never grant the request to revive his son outright, she only told him to build a puppet able to slay all the others, not what that puppet should look like. He considers it a fair deal: The Fairy gains the tool to quell the madness she so desires, and Geppetto would be able to hold his son in his arms again.

Geppetto goes over to his working utensils, taking up a knife. When he turns and takes another glance at his son, his last resistance breaks at the thought of his son opening his eyes and jumping into his arms.

He tenderly takes the hand of his son, kissing him on his forehead. He speaks to his unhearing son, promising he will bring him back soon.

Afterwards, Geppetto begins skinning him.

[cut]

Geppetto puts together the last pieces of the clockwork heart, admiring his work.

He goes to the back of his workshop where there’s a chair covered by a white sheet. Gently, he lifts it, saying good morning to his son as if he was rousing him out of bed.

He considers his son, dressed in the blue frock coat wardrobe that Geppetto had handed down to him.* He carefully preserved the skin and hair of his son so he looks just like the day he’d lost him.

Geppetto inserts the mechanical Ergo heart into his son’s chest, completing his masterpiece. He intertwines his fingers with his son’s. They are cold, but the texture feels real, and he imagines them growing warm after the Fairy breathed life into him. His only regret is that he won’t be able to witness his son taking his first steps.

At this point, the Fairy arrives, asking to see the result of Geppetto’s work. Geppetto leads her into the workshop, but she freezes as soon as she sees Pinocchio. With an indignant gaze, she turns to Geppetto, telling him that this was not part of the deal. Geppetto reacts unmoved, telling her that it’s take or leave and that he’s not going to build her any other puppet.

The Fairy narrows her eyes at him but says nothing, turning back to Pinocchio. After a moment, she strides towards him, lifting his limp body up in her arms.

She bids Geppetto farewell before she leaves, taking Pinocchio with her and dissolving into blue dust.

*Since the blue coat was presented as Pino’s standard outfit, I assumed it was the clothes that once belonged to Geppetto’s son (perhaps an heirloom from his father, since they are more similar to 18th century fashion).

[end of CW]

In my mind, this was followed up by a scene at the train station, from Sophia’s perspective (I thought of it as a follow-up to the first fic, but never actually worked on the concept):

The Fairy muses about the yet lifeless Pinocchio.

She considers what Geppetto did an absolute atrocity, but thinks she may yet be able to rectify this sin. After all, she is the only one who can breathe life into Pinocchio, and thus, his actions and the path he will take are her responsibility alone - and she will do everything to lead him on the path of righteousness.

She bestows the lamp containing the soul of Geppetto’s true son onto him, in the hopes that if Pinocchio proves himself virtuous, this wrongful separation of body and soul can one day be corrected.

The Fairy sits Pinocchio down on a bench, pressing a note into his hand. She gives him a gentle kiss on his forehead, starting to dissolve as she moves away.

Slowly, Pinocchio opens his eyes to a cloud of fine, blue dust. He looks down, reading the note in his hand: “Find Mr. Geppetto. He’s here in the city.”

This was supposed to be a sort of tie-in with how they originally advertised the scenario - the advertising text on Steam and other platforms originally said that Pinocchio simply wakes up with a note reading “Find Mr. Geppetto. He’s here in the city.” Don’t ask me why the Fairy gives it to him after just seeing Geppetto, though; I have no idea. xD (Still, it makes me wonder how much the introduction scene deviates from the original concept - after all, there’s no note, and Sophia talks to Pino telepathically.)

As you may have noticed, my little “AU interpretation” heavily drew from my other fan theories as well. I liked the idea of Sophia and Geppetto as two opposing “poles”: They may not like each other, but each possesses a skill the other lacks - Geppetto can build human-like puppets, but he can’t actually bring them to life, and while Sophia is the only one who can animate dead matter, she can’t interact with the world physically. Thus, they sort of become the “dual creators” of Pino.

Of course, this means that they both consider themselves to have the right to decide over the path he ultimately takes. As such, each of them is trying to influence Pino, leading to him being torn between the two. (This was sort of inspired by the Gamescom trailer, where Sophia and Geppetto are like two voices in Pino’s head.)

The endings

This also had a huge influence on my theories about the three endings. (I’m perfectly aware that nobody is going to believe me, but I swear I came up with my 3-ending concept before it was officially revealed there are going to be three endings.)

My basic assumption was that you have to make a decision at the end of the game, between Sophia and Geppetto. I thought of it as the point where the conflict between the two that was festering underneath finally escalates, and Pino is forced to side with one and battle the other. Depending on who you pick, you’d get a different ending.

Ending 1 would occur if you chose Sophia:

After battling Geppetto, she commends Pinocchio for his work, saying that thanks to his good deeds, he will finally be able to become human. Suddenly, she rips the lamp containing Gemini from Pino’s belt, and before he can ask her about the reason why, the black rabbits appear and Sophia orders them to seize him. Sophia explains that unfortunately, there is no other way to correct the wrongful separation of a soul from its body than for the body to die, but thanks to his consciousness being sufficiently cleansed, Pinocchio shall be reborn one day. Meanwhile, Pino gets quite literally buried alive - he desperately scratches at the lid from the inside of the coffin, crying for anyone to help him. However, no one comes…

If this doesn’t sound like your typical happy ending, well, that’s because it isn’t. xD My idea for this sort of came from a comment under the Gamescom 2022 trailer, in which someone remarked that the rabbits are inspired by four rabbit undertakers the Blue Fairy calls on when Pinocchio doesn’t want to take his medicine in the novel - thus, they suspected the scene where the rabbits prompt Pino to hop in the coffin was from the bad ending when you don’t listen to the Fairy’s advice. (It’s the intro for their first boss fight in the game though, and it seems like the line “Hop in the box, liar” was specifically recorded for the trailer.) I gave it a bit of a different twist though, since there’s the fact that Pinocchio quite literally dies at the end of the original fairy tale: He wakes up in his bed as a real boy, and later looks at his “dead” puppet body remarking “How ridiculous I was as a puppet! And how happy I am, now that I have become a real boy!”.

From this and the assumption that the rabbits were indeed working for her, I concluded that she literally might kill Pinocchio to “make him real”. (Some other people, however, suspected that the Black Rabbit Brotherhood was an independent organization from some of the gameplay tips about the Stalkers - ultimately, this proved to be right.)

Meanwhile, Ending 2 would happen if you side with Geppetto:

After defeating the enraged Fairy, Pinocchio runs into the arms of Geppetto, who hugs his son lovingly. As they embrace, the lamp from Pinocchio’s belt falls to the ground, forever extinguished. Geppetto and Pinocchio spend their next years happily, the very picture of father and son - until one day, Geppetto dies. Pinocchio, however, knows no other existence than being his father’s son, and since he doesn’t age, the other citizens eventually figure out he’s a puppet, shunning him and chasing him out of the city. As such, he is left to wander aimlessly, forever in search of a purpose…

What this was meant to represent is that with accepting Pinocchio as his son’s replacement, Geppetto’s actual son (Gemini, according to my assumption) dies, metaphorically and literally. I was also concerned about the very real issue of Geppetto being an old man and Pinocchio outliving him - even if Pinocchio did age regularly, his father would die long before him. Being his father’s perfect son was literally the whole purpose of his existence, and without it, he finds himself confronted with the psychological horror of his life being meaningless, on top of being subjected to the immense cruelty, hatred, and prejudice of humans.

It was really meant to show how much of a sick, misguided direction Geppetto’s “father’s love” had taken, and how detrimental it would be for Pinocchio’s self-development to comply with his wishes and play the part of his son.

Since both of these options are pretty bad, to say the least, I came up with a third variant. To get this, you’d basically have to say “nope” to both Sophia and Geppetto, and since neither takes no for an answer, you’d have to fight both of them consecutively (making it the most difficult ending to achieve):

After recovering from the strain of having to battle both Sophia and Geppetto, Pinocchio realizes that, for the first time, nobody is setting a direction for him - he is free, but having only lived to fulfill the wishes of others so far, he doesn’t really know what to do with it. However, Gemini reminds Pinocchio that they still have each other. Pinocchio agrees, laughing, and together, they go out on a journey to travel the world…

Admittedly, it’s still not roses and sunshine, but a lot more positive than the other two. Also, it’s the ending where both Pinocchio and Gemini (speak: body and soul) stay alive, and I just had so much fun imagining them say “screw it” to everyone’s expectations and go on a big adventure together. xD

Is it normal for body and soul to exist separately? Nope. Is it the “correct” way to live? Nope. Do they care? Nope, they’re just going to have the best time of their life together. xD

Of course, my versions of the endings differ significantly from those in the final game, but I’m actually kind of impressed that I managed to guess the scheme of the endings correctly: Sophia (Rise of P), Geppetto (Real Boy), and Freedom (Free from the Puppet String).

What I envisioned Geppetto’s ending to be like actually comes pretty close to the Real Boy ending, although you could say I was a bit more subtle in my approach - the overall mood was meant to be more sinister rather than downright evil, leaning more into the underlying psychological horror instead of violent slaughter. (I must say, Geppetto really surpassed my expectations right there. xD) The overall moral of the story (or at least what I’m getting from it) also seems to be that stepping in the shoes of Geppetto’s son is a very bad idea for Pino - after all, it’s heavily implied that Pino isn’t Carlo.

On the other hand, while Sophia’s ending is similar in theme to what I imagined, it significantly differs in flavor. Still, Pino does die in the Rise of P ending, giving his own Ergo/life to Sophia, who is implied to revive him afterwards. (This is actually the “reverse action” of what Pino did for Sophia when he gave her peace, so Pino is essentially giving her Ergo back to her.) In addition, Sophia and Pino do a little reenactment of the La Pietà pose, which is also a throwback to the Saintess of Mercy Statue in the Grand Exhibition.

There are actually quite a few references to the Pietà posture in media, including one in The Last Unicorn (after the Unicorn/Amalthea becomes human and Molly holds her). Thematically, the Pietà is interpreted as a symbol of mother’s love, suffering, and salvation - and, in case of The Last Unicorn, Amalthea learning what suffering is due to her time as a human is also what led her to develop compassion. The Saintess of Mercy Statue also stands for rebirth, since it’s the place where you can reset your stats.

Overall, I think they did an excellent job with this ending - retaining the theme of death from the original story, but giving it a more hopeful note through the theme of rebirth. (I also appreciate how the message of game is essentially that for things to improve, it’s sometimes best not to cling to the old and simply let it die.)

As for the Free of the Puppet String ending, it’s largely the same as Rise of P, but with a different flavor and minus the final cutscene with Sophia. (I kinda wish they would’ve done more with it, but resource limitations exist, and it was probably easier just to reuse the animation.) One interesting thing about it though is that you can still potentially get the Proof of Humanity if you trade it for the Nameless Puppet’s Ergo afterwards - despite Free from the Puppet String being the low-humanity ending.

I’ve had an interesting discussion during my playthrough, based on the quote “every living human being is a slave to something” by Askeladd from Vinland Saga. Basically, I said that, if you want to view it that way, humans are also just slaves to their emotions and desires. The man Askeladd was referring to was enslaved by his greed for gold, Geppetto is enslaved by his obsession with Carlo, and Arlecchino is enslaved by his bloodlust. I concluded that “maybe, it’s just a matter of the prison that we ourselves choose”.

The item description of the Proof of Humanity is quite intriguing in this regard:

“Puppets are tied to strings. Humans have cut their own strings. The boy made a choice and became human.”

While I wouldn’t say that all humans have cut their strings - rather that they can - what this description says is that being human means you are free to choose whether you let yourself be enslaved, be it by someone else or your own desires.

Pinocchio didn’t become human because he chose to become human - rather, he became human because he made a choice.

Conclusion

Anyway, enough of my philosophical ramblings. While, as I expected, not all of my fan theories were true, I’m kind of impressed how many good calls I actually made. ^^’ (I suppose all that research about clockwork automata, my ongoing obsession with fictional robots and AI, and checking out the original Adventures of Pinocchio did pay off after all. xD) Still, there are a lot of unanswered questions, and many fan theories remain unresolved - we’ll have to see whether any of these are confirmed in the future, be it in the DLC or any other media (director Choi did confirm they received various offers to expand the IP).

Despite the story differing quite a lot from my expectations in most places, I am extremely pleased with the treatment Round8 Studio and Neowiz gave this classic fairy tale. It’s been said that successfully subverting expectations in an engaging way isn’t simply about doing the most unpredictable thing - rather, it’s about “giving the audience what they want, just not the way they expect it”. And, in my opinion, Lies of P accomplishes this to a T.

However, I’m curious: What were your expectations when going into the game? Did you also have theories about how the story would develop, either beforehand or while playing it? And how do those compare to the actual story?

I would love to hear about all your theories - maybe, we can make something like a big fan theory anthology out of this. ^^ Because if one thing is for certain, it’s that Lies of P’s success was in no small part thanks to its community. To this day, I continue to be amazed by the love and dedication fans shower this game with, and I consider myself lucky to have been part of this journey, from before the game’s release until now.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

I am a little late so I probably won’t get the date I want (my birthday is in August) but for the prompt could I get pre botw Link being comforted? If not totally fine, just feel free to reply to this and tell me no XD

Link knew this new task would be difficult. He’d steadily been gaining more attention, feeling the increasing pressure of the world’s expectations on his shoulders. But when the king himself had appointed Link to be the princess’ personal knight…

He’d been honored to take the task. The other Champions had congratulated him (well… almost all of them. He didn’t particularly care for Revali’s approval, though). But the princess herself…

To a degree, Link felt like he sort of understood. She felt pressure too, honestly. He just wished she wouldn’t take it out on him. He just wanted to be able to do his job.

Sighing heavily, he rubbed his face tiredly. Princess Zelda was thankfully in safe hands now, as they were visiting Van Ruta and Zora’s Domain was one of the safest places in Hyrule Kingdom. It also gave him a chance to just relax somewhere familiar - Link loved exploring all of Hyrule—it was one of the benefits of this position—but he was always on edge when they were somewhere foreign. But the Domain was a second home to him.

There was so much comfort in this place. The smell of water was heavy in the air, a cool, comforting, crisp sensation. Link could taste the moisture, could see how the water played with light reflecting off its surface, patterns dancing on pillars and luminous crystals. The area glowed beautifully in the night, like a gentle light from magical creatures, protecting them from the dangers of the world.

He also knew all the best places to hide.

Zora’s Domain was deceptive in its layout. It looked like a fairly small place, but there were many nooks and crannies for children to find and disappear, and Link had found nearly all of them when he was little. It allowed him some privacy now, for which he was grateful, as he tried to find somewhere that he wasn’t perceived.

He’d had enough of that lately. He was tired. Tired of being stared at, tired of being judged, tired of constantly being on guard, tired of being yelled at for just doing his duty.

”Link?”

His eyes opened abruptly, and he felt his chest tighten a little. The voice was familiar, soft and warm, and he glanced over to see Mipha watching him.

Oh, well. At least it was just Mipha who found him, he supposed. He didn’t mind her company.

Link and Mipha had been good friends when they were little all those years ago. They’d had adventures, taught each other to fight, and had joined the Big Bad Bazz Brigade. At the time, it had been innocent fun. As Link learned more of the political climate between the Zora and Hyrule over the years, he’d realized how much he’d missed. His friendship with Mipha was still dear to him, but when they’d first seen each other years later, he’d been far more distant, far quieter. It was how he’d grown and matured anyway, but with the added knowledge…

They were trying, he thought. Mipha could talk to him, and he even occasionally replied. In solitude, the pair could rekindle that friendship from long ago. He felt comfortable around her.

“I suppose I wasn’t the only one who wanted to find somewhere quiet,” Mipha remarked with a small laugh, trying to be light about the matter. As Link looked her over, he noticed she looked a little tired too. “It can… I understand that everything can be a bit much. That you might need to go somewhere to be alone. I can leave—”

Face softening, he pat the space beside him. Mipha hesitated a moment, unsure, before she settled there.

“It… can be a lot,” she said softly, glancing at him.

Link sighed. Yeah. It could.

“I’m glad we have each other, at least,” Mipha smiled cheerily, hands clasped in her lap. “But I’ll be quiet now. I know this is a place for solace, after all.”

Link wanted to tell her she didn’t have to be quiet. But she didn’t seem particularly upset with the matter, either, and she leaned back, closing her eyes and looking at peace. And somehow… that made it better. Neither of them had to talk. Neither of them expected anything of the other. But they were there for each other, and Link… found more solace in that than he expected to.

He leaned towards her a little. Just a little. She did the same. Their shoulders never touched, but they could feel each other well enough, eyes closed, basking in the moment, taking in the peace of it.

It was nice to be in the Domain.

[sleepygenie-o]

You Guys Rest?

Sky Cotl x SAGAU again :>

Let's hop straight in!

Chrs Mentioned: The Archons (Venti, Ei, Zhongli, and Nahida), You (2nd person), unspecified Moth Skid (sky kid)

---

You are your usual Sky kid, with the new Season of AURORA out, (Where through the grapevine, heard that you get to literally meet GOD.) you've been hard at work farming for candles.

Especially Eden candles for height spells! .. Yeah you used them up trying to get taller.

On your way to the current known location of a Red Shard Event, which is in the Village of Dreams, you encounter a Moth, well, not really. They seem to understand the world enough and are apparently still getting used to seasons.

As you both converse, you're waiting for the eruption with the Sky kid as you give them advice on how to purify it since as stated, they're still getting used to it.

Once the eruptions roll in, you notice 4 gold stars rolling in too. You would assume that it's more sky kids that either are born or being re-born but..

They crash land right near you. The eruption happening at the same time. In a panic you tell the Sky Kid to move the weird dressed sky kids to a safe zone while you purified the darkness.

...

Venti is the first to wake up, instantly waking the others.

The sight was beautiful, but the situation wasn't. There were some sky kids sheltered in the stage with them, a blue person (one of the Performance Spirits) seemed to be healing a few.

A majority of them had one similar trait, simply done hair and a brown cape with 1 star at the back. Asking the spirit what's going on prompts the response of:

"Some advanced Sky kids brought a bunch of moths here to prepare for the purification of the eruption"

Excuse them as they remain confused the wHAT?!

After a good hour of finding the way out and to the village of Dreams it's.. a bit chaotic.

"CALL OVER HERE IM TRYING OT BURN S*HONK*T"

"AAAAAAAA-"

"WHO KEEPS DYING I CAN'T KEEP SAVING YOU?!"

Among the yelling children is another yelling child, you. You were flying up to get the flying dark plants, activating pre-prepared and placed shared memories to signal the mutated crabs. Even using yourself as bait while the rest continued to burn the darkness away.

What are you doing there, your grace?! You could get hurt!!

Venti and Ei were about to march over there if it weren't for Zhongli and Nahida holding them back. Don't worry Zhongli activated his shield, they're safe.

As the final act ensues (collecting the fragments of light), they watch you maneuver through the floating red crystals to get the.. glowing.. mantas??

As the final memory if collected, they all condense into one and bless the sky children.

As much as they want to approach you, it seems you're a bit occupied..

"Aiya..!! That was harder than I thought!"

"Really? It was actually kinda easy.. you all are so loud-"

"I still have to head to the stadium to see some of the spirits. Are you guys excited for the concert?"

"Pfft-! Obviously! Who wouldn't wanna meet someone who is probably our God?" Wait wHAT?!

"That IS still speculation.. we're still unsure if AURORA is Megabird and-"

"Okay okay theorists of the future we get it, let's enjoy the fun while it lasts. We have like..2 days to prepare for the concert." (psst! You can imagine yourself saying any of these dialogues)

..Congrats! You broke them.

There is a God above you?! Higher than you?! That can't be possible!!

...Well.. you do look like a child.. maybe your mother..?

They'll take this info with a grain of salt. And hopefully not freak out.

Taglist: (It's been so long- ;-;)

@karmawonders , @chocogi , @bk-4-trash-fire

[themattress]

Sailor Moon (Toei): The Top 20 Villains

Ranked using my core tenets for villains, and done countdown style for dramatic effect.

Honorable Mention: Jadeite - The definition of a stock, cheesy "Curses! Foiled again!" supervillain, Jadeite embraced this role with style and class, providing much entertainment with his oversized ego that caused him to stubbornly repeat variations of the same failed plan over and over again until it got him run over by an airplane and then cryogenically frozen as punishment for his incompetence. He was partly responsible for Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars' origins and coming into their own as superheroines, and for that he deserves respect.

20. Mimete - This bubbly, ditzy member of Witches 5 started out fun, but had the problem of coming directly off the heels of the more competent Eudial whom she had murdered to get the job. On top of that, she wears out her welcome, as much like Jadeite she tends to just repeat variations of the same scheme (target handsome celebrities) over and over again, and even Jadeite started out somewhat successful at it! In the end, after getting converted to energy and trapped in a computer, Mimete didn't seem like she ever justified how long we spent with her. But she makes the list purely due to her appealing design and personality.

19. The Four Spectre Sisters - Serving under Rubeus, these members of the Black Moon Clan had the dual tasks of capturing Chibiusa and conquering certain areas of Tokyo in order to weaken the defenses of Crystal Tokyo in the future. They were formidable opponents and also had distinct personalities that bounced off one another in a fun way. They rank low because Calaveras and Petz hogged too much limelight, their consecutive redemptions felt rushed, and despite staying on Earth we never see them again in any future story arc.

18. Fiore - The anime-exclusive antagonist of the Sailor Moon R movie, The Promise of the Rose, Fiore is a composite of Ail and En: an orphaned member of their species, not knowing how to properly express love, being male like Ail but in love with Mamoru like En, and corrupted by negative energy...in this case, that of Kissenean, a wicked alien flower being. Fiore only appeared in the movie so naturally he left no lasting impact whatsoever on the series. That and how derivative he is places him low on the list. However, he is still cool and charismatic enough to be considered one of the best, just as his movie is the best one.

17. Safir - Despite being pretty underplayed for much of his time in the show, Safir's final episode was impactful enough to make him a standout. Beneath the stiff, serious front he puts on, Safir reveals himself to be a confused and desperate young man who can see the self-destructive path Wiseman has led his older brother and his clan down and wants to stop it but doesn't know how because the natural solution - joining forces with Earth and the Sailor Senshi - doesn't cross his mind due to his pre-existing prejudices toward both. But in the end, he finally overcomes these prejudices and reclaims his humanity, even at the cost of his life.

16. Mistress 9 - While Mistress 9 sadly wasn't around for too long, she definitely made an impact with what little screentime she got. Fully overtaking Hotaru's body by sacrificing Chibiusa's heart, coldly killing off Kaolinite like it was nothing, tricking Usagi into giving her the power of the Holy Grail, gleefully summoning Pharaoh 90 to destroy Earth, and fighting against Hotaru's influence from within only to succumb to it and be painfully extinguished.

15. Black Lady - Another case of high quality in limited quantity, Black Lady maintained the childish gremlin side of Chibiusa's personality while carrying herself more like an adult (or at least what Chibiusa thinks an adult is like) and holding nothing back in trying to kill all who stood in her way and open up the Dark Gate so that Earth can be destroyed by the power of the Malefic Black Crystal. On the one hand, she has less agency than Mistress 9 since she's a fully brainwashed dupe of Wiseman. But on the other hand, brainwashed or not she still is Chibiusa, not some other entity possessing her, and that makes her a lot more interesting.

14. The Amazon Trio - Now in-universe, these guys are absolute failures in regards to my third core tenant of villainy. They didn't impact or influence jack-shit in the story, characters and world; their lengthy run as antagonists honestly is mostly filler. But out of universe, it's impossible for a viewer to forget them! They are so enjoyable in how they strike a balance between being endearingly comical with all their banter and mishaps, and legit dastardly, callously preying on victims in an allegory for sexual assault. And not only does this end up being fully justified and understandable when it's revealed what they really are, but their redemption is one of the most effective and memorable in the whole anime. They only rank lower because Tiger's Eye sadly hogs a lot of the screentime, even though he's arguably the least interesting of the three, plus the fact that the higher ranked villains accomplish more.

13. The Amazoness Quartet - Directly following the Amazon Trio is the Amazoness Quartet. Not only do they live up to how enjoyable their predecessors were, but they have a more consistently progressing character arc and they actually matter to the plot of the story arc! These girls would rank a lot higher if not for the absolutely bone-headed choice by Sailor Stars to not bring them back to continue their redemption arc all the way to becoming Sailor Senshi even when the finale of SuperS blatantly hinted at it! They can at least rest assured that they're not the only SuperS villain that Sailor Stars has screwed out of a higher rank...

12. Ail & En - Before the Amazoness Quartet, we had these goobers that went against the Sailor Senshi all while disguising as civilian frenemies to them. For anime-original creations, Ail and En are stunningly well-written, with the filler arc they star in feeling like a natural bridge between the canonical adaptations. They can feel love, but they don't know how to process and understand it since their view on everything has been warped by the "take whatever by force to survive" mentality their rough life has shaped, a mentality that also causes them to slowly kill the life-giving tree they're trying to save and infect themselves with negative energy. They are sympathetic villains you want to see redeemed and are glad when they are. They'd be Top 10 if only they hadn't left Earth at the end, never to be seen or spoken of again. They could've made great returning supporting characters had they stayed.

11. Kunzite - So close. Kunzite was SO CLOSE to being one of the Top 10 villains of the Sailor Moon anime. He had it all: charisma, menace, power, intellect, style, a softer side shown in his romance with Zoisite, a great backstory just waiting to get tapped into....but tragically, following Zoisite's death and Kunzite's subsequent battle with the Sailor Senshi for revenge, the anime's writers just lost the plot with Kunzite: pairing him with brainwashed Endymion just to have them childishly squabble, having him concoct dumbass plans utilizing utterly campy monsters in order to capture Sailor Moon, and brushing on absolutely none of his backstory before killing him off as an afterthought. God, such a waste of a great villain!

10. Eudial - The Death Busters' most efficient minion and among the most efficient minions in general, Eudial is a case of extremes balancing out. She's silly yet intimidating, hot tempered yet cool headed, clumsy yet competent, achieving some embarrassing failures but also some monumental successes, and she does it all with a unique gadgeteer genius style. She was the starring villain of the best stretch of episodes in S, which was also the last consistently good in the anime, and she deserved better than the lame-ass joke of a death she received.

9. Crimson Rubeus - Rubeus is very similar to Eudial in being an especially formidable redheaded foe for the Sailor Senshi, but he has three major differences that propel him higher. First is that through his selfishness and cowardice, he actually avoided personal setbacks and embarrassments, as he left the dirty work to the Spectre Sisters. Second is that he is far darker and crueler, possessing a sadistic attitude, being hell-bent on killing a child to earn favor with his boss, and having planned from the get-go to manipulate and sacrifice the Spectre Sisters so that he can get all of the glory. Third and finally is that he gets an epic resolution, fighting Sailor Moon in his spaceship and then having it explode with him still in it.

8. Queen Nehelenia - Now, if SuperS was all we had, then she and number 5 would have swapped places. Queen Nehelenia is a truly terrifying figure, cold-hearted and malicious even by the standards of this anime's villains, casting a dark pall over every scene she's in. And in the end, we see just how twisted and tragic she is, ultimately being a child who never wants to grow up so that she can stay young and beautiful and be worshipped for it forever, to the point where she condemns herself into an isolated existence trapped inside a mirror so long as she can keep her youth. But then....sigh....Sailor Stars came along. Because of the absolute butchery of the character it gave us, Nehelenia can't place any higher than this.

7. Prince Demande - Demande only falters for two reasons: one of which being that he's only a consistent presence in the last stretch of episodes in R, being barely seen or mentioned beforehand, and the other that the show pussies out of letting him meet his end as the villain he was in favor of a half-assed, overwrought "redemption". But that aside, Demande is still an excellent villain: threatening, cold-hearted, absolutely twisted in his rape-y desire for total control of Usagi, but also nuanced in his backstory and motivations regarding his planet and people, and tragic in how he has been misled by Wiseman for all his life.

6. Queen Beryl - It's the OG Big Bad of the anime! Beryl can't breach the top 5 only because the majority of her screentime is her sitting on her butt and waving her hands over her crystal ball while talking to her minions, making her pretty repetitive and easy to predict. But she still makes up for that by how developed her personality becomes over the course of the series: showcasing class, intelligence and dignity that soon crumbles to reveal the petty, entitled and ruthless tyrant she truly is, while toward the end we see that she is capable of a twisted sort of love as she pines for Endymion. When merged with her master Queen Metalia, she also engages in the anime's first and best Final Boss battle. What else can I say - she's a classic!

5. Zirconia - Queen Nehelenia's twisted mirror image runs the Dead Moon Circus, and she is honestly pretty terrible at her job....but that's part of what makes her so much fun! She is basically a campy sentai show lead villain; heck, Rita Repulsa herself voices her in the Viz dub! Watching her grumble and fret and rage and scream her way across SuperS never gets old. On top of this, she is still a legitimately detestable villain and a real threat when she needs to be, seen most clearly during the final episodes. I love Zirconia so much that I hold a soft spot for her nonsensically male Cloverway dub version! The character is just that good!

4. Nephrite - "The stars see all, the stars know all." Nephrite showed promise when he debuted, being charismatic and intellectual while also holding a repressed, simmering sense of anger. But it only took a few episodes before his shtick started to feel like an even less efficient version of what we'd been through with Jadeite, so his prospects dimmed. But then something funny happened - Nephrite changed and evolved. He adapted to the fact that what he was doing wasn't working and changed his strategies up accordingly to focus on hitting the Sailor Senshi's weaknesses. When that was met with failure, he switched things up again to focus on finding the Silver Crystal, and added to it a strategy of manipulating Naru's feelings for him that he'd learned from his prior strategy shift. All while trying to hold his cover as rich playboy Masato Sanjoin, competing with his rival Zoisite, and developing legitimate feelings of care for Naru that made him rediscover his humanity all while he technically remained a villain. By the time he tragically died protecting Naru, Nephrite had proven himself to be a radical game changer not just for villains in the anime, but for the whole anime itself.

3. Zoisite - As a kid, I hated Zoisite. He killed Nephrite, kept getting away with seizing Rainbow Crystals that the heroes tried to claim, and always fought as low and dirty as possible while being the smuggest, scummiest shithead about it, all while having the gall to whine and cry to Kunzite when things didn't go his way. All these years later, that's exactly why I adore Zoisite as a villain. He's an immature youth in way over his head because his mentor and lover is the highest ranked warrior in the Dark Kingdom - and he knows it too, which is why his insecurity and desire to prove himself manifests in this petty narcissism and ruthless cruelty. He's utterly loathsome, yet pitiful and ultimately tragic at the same time. And since he was the focal villain in the best stretch of episodes in the entire anime, there's no way he can't rank among the highest of villainy. He died a failure, but he exists a success.

2. Wiseman / Death Phantom - And here he is, the uncontested greatest Ultimate Evil in all of Sailor Moon. Wiseman at first appears as a royal advisor to Prince Demande, meaning that Demande is set up as the "new Beryl" who will make it to be the endgame foe. But it turns out you really should have suspected the character waving their hands around a crystal ball. Unlike Beryl, Wiseman is a manipulator, keeping to the shadows and presenting himself as unassuming so that he can better control his pawns, all of whom he looks down upon and intends on discarding once he gets what he wants. And what he wants is to reshape the universe as a place of nothingness, reigning over it as the supreme god: Death Phantom. Wiseman is scary as Hell and personally despicable more than any other villain, because he doesn't even have a relatable motive for what he does. He is simply a heartless monster.

1. Professor Tomoe - I tried. I tried to measure the villains in a way that might avoid this predictable choice for Number 1. But the math just all adds up in the professor's favor! S is a series that peaks about halfway through, when Sailor Moon obtains the Holy Grail and achieves Super mode, after which the head writer position switches hands and the writing quality rapidly drops off a cliff. And yet not only is Professor Tomoe unaffected by this...he arguably defies it! He only gets better as the show goes on! The fusion of a man and an extraterrestrial demon, Professor Tomoe starts out as the most unique and certainly most entertaining boss villains the anime has ever seen, being equally creepy and hilarious. The longer the show goes on, the more credible of a threat and the more comedic of a character he becomes, and we even get a lot of nuance and pathos in how affable and kind of a boss he is to his evil minions and how loving of a father he is to Hotaru as both herself and as the Dark Messiah. In the end, we have a great final battle against his evil side while his good side receives a heartwarming redemption and second chance with his daughter. He's perfect.

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🔮 and 🦃 for the Ask game weeee 🤸🏻‍♂️

🔮 Crystal Ball: How far into the future of your story can you see? Do you plan everything in advance or take things step by step?

🤸‍♀️It depends!!! There are some characters who I've planned pretty far into the future, and those plans are somewhat specific- others I just have a vague idea of where I'm going. For instance with Sorella, I have an age in mind for when she'll become a parent but I have no solid plans for her in the interim!! I tend to plan my story in chunks. The first chunk was pre-James reveal. After the side quest the next chunk is from April-September of the current year we're in.

🦃 Turkey: What’s the most abundant burst of inspiration you’ve ever had? Were you able to translate that into writing?

🤔The one I'm really thinking of is a spoiler- but I do have one from the last 'chunk' as it were. The Mt. Komorebi trip Sorella & Co went on originally was a lot smaller of a to do, and "Alex" was going to surprise her on the last night she was there. THEN @nilonne was so suspicious of Alex that I went 'ok he needs an old friend in Mt. K." and once I determined that and made Takuya, a much better trip came together and QUICK. Inspiration was a mooooving so much that I even built a few locations, made some personal deco sims, and decided some backstory for Takuya and ~Jimmy~ (Which I've changed since lol) Twas a fun time :DD