#it's mostly species + histories stuff i'm stuck on so !

[keeps-ache]

could be cool !!

[wereh0gz]

Me posting abt wanting a sonic lore book from sega made me want to write a lore doc for my ocs

[kinfeelings]

ask game by @princeoframs

🐲: Are you otherkin or therian?

Otherkin technically, I suppose; theriomythic in specific.

🐾: What are your kintype(s)?

I used to believe I was only a polymorph for a long time. Recently I've whittled away even more at the mystery of myself with a friend's (very useful!) help (their URL is @dawnwyrm) and discovered I can still change forms, it's just that I'm a shapeshifting eastern dragon instead of a wobbly and self-uncertain polymorph. Not hating upon polymorphs at all! It just was the closest fitting thing for a time...but ultimately wasn't the case.

☀️: What was your awakening like? When was it?

I've always felt Other and Just Not Human Enough all my childhood. I learned about the concept of "otherkin" as a teen here on Tumblr during the Superwholockvengers, and Rise Of the Tangled Dragons type stuff heydays. I initially turned my nose up at it, wary of it since so many others seemed to mock it viciously. But the idea stuck with me stubbornly, and I went through numerous phases of latching onto fave characters that were not me in the end. Bluestar from Warrior Cats, Star Catcher from MLP gen3, then I tried being fictherian and therian, in the identities of a sable working line GSD and a meowth + persian pokemon...these did not stick either.

🤝: When did you first hear about the kin community?

Like I said, I was a wee widdle teeny-bopper. 14-16?

💪: Do you experience phantom limbs?

Yes.

💐: Do you experience any other shifts?

Moving ears and antlers.

💙: What’s your favorite shift you get? Why?

Mobile tails, moving ears, and antlers on my head.

🚫: What’s your least favorite shift? Why?

Hm...I don't really have a "least favorite," I think?

✅: Can you make yourself shift?

It's kinda always, consistently happening? Pretty much?

💫: Do you have shift triggers, or do they happen randomly?

Mostly randomly, but sometimes I see an art piece or a video that triggers it.

🧠: Do you have memories?

I have noema/noemata, more like, since I am not precisely a past-lifer. Not spiritual. More like a parallel life believer + a psychological alterhuman? I can understand a multiverse type thing.

💚: What’s your favorite thing about your kintype? (The species, creature, etc)

The power! I guess. The ability to change my body on a whim and back, too. The power thing is why I believe I have a psychological kintype, because I've been so powerless and hurt for much of my life. This part of me developed exactly in response to that helplessness. And I am okay with that. It helps me a lot.

🌀: Do you think kins are spiritual or psychological in nature?

It depends on the experiences of the individual!

🗣: Does anyone know you are otherkin? Friends, family, etc? If so, how did you tell them?

Nobody offline in my life knows about me, nor do they probably have the ability to understand the concept.

👯‍♂️: Do you have any friends who are also kin?

I have a ton of altH friends who are only online.

🧘‍♂️: Do you mediate?

Not really. Not good at it.

💤: Do you get kin dreams?

Sorta. I get a lot of dreams where I fly like an eastern dragon should, usually as a method of getting away from monsters or captors in the dream.

🐯: Do you wish you were your kintype? Why or why not?

Yes. Very much so. It would be amazing. And I could always just shapeshift back into my human body whenever I wanted to!

🧝‍♀️: Do you own any gear? If so, what items do you have and do you like to wear them?

I do not own any gear yet.

👀: Give a controversial opinion/your stance on some type of discourse.

Huh. I dunno....ah. Factkin are uncomfortable for me if they identify with people still alive. Heck, identifying with real people from history is still kinda...off to me. But I respect them anyhow because, well, what can I do about it? It's how they see themselves, and so long as they are not hurting anyone, I don't have much room to speak.

🏔: What makes you feel closer to your kintype(s)?

Rivers, beaches, flying in the clouds (I've only been on a plane...3 times in my life, I think?).

✨: What are some things that validate you?

I uh...have never really been validated, I think? Sad to say. Though I did have a great dream a couple of months ago featuring my dead grandma and she told me to get an eastern dragon-y tattoo. Now I know why! Thanks Grammy!

🌈: Talk about any other kin thing!

Dunno what else to say. I'm just glad I've finally figured myself out.

🍄: Anon asks any question they want about your kin stuff!

Ask away, nonnies!!

[chimaerakitten]

well I forgot to update this post for five months

tbh I don't fully remember everything I've read since making that cake but some highlights:

Culhwch and Olwen (11th or 12th century): this one got its own thread so I won't talk a lot about it here but genuinely I liked it a lot. much more fairy tale in tone than some of the other stories I've read. great source of names for background characters, and I really like seeing the Welsh side of things. def going to dig for more welsh sources

The Once and Future King (TH White, 1958): this one also got some posts of its own and I read it mostly to get an idea of the best known modern retellings and it was good for that, (most noteworthy takeaway: featured very little Morgan, mostly because unlike a lot of modern versions, it actually keeps Morgause in) plus well written and mostly enjoyable, though some of the books were more interesting than others. TH White put in a baffling amount of unexplained blazon in and I was very much lost in places, which is nuts because it's not like I haven't done heraldry research of my own so it must be even harder to understand for people who haven't done that.

The Sword in the Stone (Disney, 1963): You know, I'd never actually seen this movie? I was a ghibli kid, what can I say. Watched while doing dishes mostly to celebrate finishing TOaFK. I found it interesting that it drops nearly all of the Overt Political Science Lectures that were the main point of the book. got the songs stuck in my head.

The Anglo-Saxons (Marc Morris, 2021): only read the intro chapter because that was the part relevant to this. great little primer on actual historical post-roman Britain. Taught me a bunch about coin clipping in buried hordes as an indicator of economic stress that will def be in anything I write because it was very cool.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (Ian Mortimer, 2008): I'm not actually done with this yet because I had to turn it back in at the library and then wait for the ThriftBooks waitlist because I realized I would want to keep it, and the order only arrived today. Really great for unpicking social attitudes at the time that a lot of the legends were codified and written down (rather than the time they were supposedly set) though so far the fact that has thrown me for the biggest loop is that apparently the trees were different back then? like, genuinely. There are a lot of species of trees that are in England now that were not there 600+ years ago, and the forests would have looked extremely different. wild.

A different first 30 pages of Le Mort D' Arthur (15th century) from the ones I read back in February: Much more readable than the last try because this one had paragraph breaks and was rendered in modern idiom. Sadly I stalled at 30 pages again because it was on ILL and then I had to return it to the library so I could go to Europe on vacation without it being overdue. like the time traveler's guide I got this edition on ThriftBooks after vacation but unfortunately the only one I could get needed some repair and upkeep work to keep it from falling apart. luckily I do have some bookbinding supplies so it's fixed now but I haven't picked it up again yet.

Speaking of European Vacation: A bunch of tourist signs at the Tower of London (year unknown): another thing thats more about the "when stuff was written down" times than the "actual history of the setting" times but the tower does feature in a number of versions of the legend even though it was like. super not there yet, guys. we all know who built this thing and if was not even a little bit pre anglo-saxons. Learned that chimneys were not invented until way later than I thought? the central white tower does not have them. also it had a great recreation of a medieval royal bedroom. I also learned that if you are going to do tourist stuff at the tower GO EARLY AND SEE THE CROWN JEWELS FIRST. seriously we were like the first people there that morning and we got right through the mostly empty jewels building and then on to the stuff we actually cared about when within half an hour of us finishing that part the line had gotten super long and everyone else was waiting hours to see stuff. the Crown Jewels were by far the least interesting part of the tower (the English monarchy should be disbanded, etc etc) and it would have sucked to wait in the hot sun for hours just to check them off the list, but breezing thru early in the morning was quite pleasant.

Vacation Continued: Many artifacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum: great for visuals of the material culture of both the post-roman and medieval period. I took so many photos that I had to delete Tumblr off my phone halfway through the day to make room.

vacation part 3: Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum (Malta, neolithic underground burial temple complex, 4000BC-1500BC): Not at all related to this project! not even a little bit! but it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my whole entire life and it's included here just so y'all know to go google it. I will probably eventually make a post about it and how it's my new mental image for the river temple in The Thief.

thats about it for stuff I remember! I have a whole stack of ThriftBooks deliveries now to read next, including Tolkien's SGatGK translation, and then a couple books about history to check back out from the library after that so hopefully I'll remember to update this post more regularly

Start of a running list of my opinions things I have read/watched/listened to for Arthur Project research (or for “research” read: entertainment)

Le Mort D' Arthur (15th century): Alternates between boring as hell and unintentionally looney toones. Sometimes both at the same time (entire page thats just a sequence of knights getting knocked off their horses and then getting new horses and then getting knocked off their horses again) I'm still only 30 pages in despite my best efforts so this will probably reappear later in the list.

Historia Brittonum (8th century): Only one relevant paragraph. Extremely informative in very few words. fucking superb.

OSP’s King Arthur and Arthur’s Knights (YouTube videos, 2018): Not very in-depth, obviously, but enjoyable and helpful for listing a bunch of the more popular sources

[thechocoboos]

last one I promise: ffxv but in space?... OK I'll admit I'm starting to run out of ideas. have a nice day and good luck with school!

holy fuck i went way more crazy with this than I planned. so have fun. Keep in mind, y’all, this is a space au–things are defo different than the actual plot. also: happy ending

FFXV IN SPACE HC

The Regalia is a small prototype ship made for small trips to and from space stations and moons

Noctis’ father is the leader of a massive space colony circling a dimming blue star

Their space colony is running out of resources and energy as a result of a longstanding war with The Empire, a corporation that grew too powerful back when space travel became big and now aims to take control of every colony, resource, and inhabitable planet in the galaxy

so Regis sends Noctis and Co out on an expedition to build alliances and find potential resources that the Empire had overlooked

Noctis is a drifter who doesn’t want to take over his dad’s colony

Gladio is a soldier, a bodyguard in training for the leaders of the space colony. His family has always worked closely with the colony’s founders, so he was raised to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and to protect Noct

Prompto is a lower level settler of their space colony

He ran into Noctis during their school days and latched himself to Noct like a leach (Noct never minded and even grew to like Prom)

Ignis is still an advisor, albeit a SPACE ADVISOR

He is well versed in most, if not all, of the known alien languages and settlements (he spent so much of his schooling learning languages that he dreams about learning them–granted they’ve become more of nightmares by this point)

He guides Noctis on their mission to find resources and build alliances, giving advice such as “Do not try to navigate that asteroid belt” and “stay far from the Black Hole of Ostenbar–many civilizations were lost there”

Granted that advice is always ignored, but hey, it’s the thought that counts!

One day on their expedition, he mentions rumors of a ship called The Oracle–a ship that opposes the Empire

Supposedly, it started out as a simple rescue ship that grew bigger and bigger and soon became a massive self sustaining ship that travels around the galaxy helping those in need

Noct and Co. realize that it may be their first step towards building alliances and aim to find The Oracle–it’s their first tangible mission

The Oracle, if you hadn’t already guessed, is run by Luna

She and her brother, Ravus, inherited it from their family

The Oracle had many run ins with the Empire as a result of its good deeds, and Ravus grew tired of the pain inflicted on both his people and his inheritance due to those assholes

He knew he could never deal with the Empire directly, especially while handling The Oracle, so he left the ship in the hands of Luna and ran off

He fell in with a group of good-natured space pirates and now raids the Empire’s smaller ships with his small, growing fleet and gives the resources he obtains from them to those who need it–kind of like a robinhood of sorts

(I’m expecting some SpacePirate!Ravus spin offs in the future–i’ll even take the transcript of pirates of the caribbean except with ravus and in space)

anyways

Ardyn is a strange deity who was once worshiped on a more primitive, jungle based planet

His planet is hot, humid, and full of bright, colorful creatures. Some of them are poisonous and deadly, and others are docile and harmless

His people made beautiful buildings of stone with carved designs and everything they made was otherworldly and beautiful, there wasn’t a single item of theirs that wasn’t art in one way or another

They made the most beautiful songs and their language was magnificent and elegant; it was as though their voices were woven from the stars

Keywords? Made. Was.

The Empire found him one day and found his immense power very beneficial

They captured him and his worshippers, turning the worshippers into slaves and science experiments while they used torture and abuse to control Ardyn before turning him into the High Commander or the Empire

They brainwashed him into thinking it was Regis’ colony that had done him wrong, and he has it out for Insomnia Space Colony ever since

It takes a metric fuckton of cycles for Noct and co to finally find The Oracle, who is very willing to join the Insomnia Space Colony cause (my god is that a mouthful or what)

Sidenote: Cor is pretty high up on commanders from Noct’s colony, so he was out conducting business with other settlers at the far end of the galaxy

After the destruction of Insomnia Space Colony, he managed to get hold of Noct on The Oracle and relay the news

It leaves Noctis and the others crushed

They end up lost for a little bit, uncertain what their goal should be from then on

One day, however, The Oracle receives an SOS call from that same dimming star that Noct’s colony had orbited

The Oracle takes them there, and they find many, many survivors

The Oracle takes those survivors on board without a single word, and as Noctis sees the remnants of his people’s suffering at the hands of The Empire, he swears to bring an end to those fuckers as long as he lives (cue his new reason for living)

ANyways

Noct and co.’s favorite pit stop is a small colony on an asteroid called Crash Comet

It’s run by Cid, an old alien friend of Regis’ and his granddaughter

It’s the nicest gas station, diner, and mechanic outside of their solar system

They visit it regularly, especially after Noct learns how to fly the Regalia (he can’t avoid those asteroid belts even when he tries)

Gladio once asked why Prompto was with them on their expedition bc he genuinely had no idea why the kid was there

Gladdy was there for protection, Ignis was their walking, talking adviceman, and Prom? He had no idea

Prom lowkey didn’t know either, but he just held up his old lil camera and said some BS about being their historian

In reality, Noct really just brought him bc he didn’t want to be stuck in a tiny spaceship with Ignis and Gladdy alone, besides, he knew that Prompto always wanted to see the galaxy outside of their colony

They have many run-ins with Ardyn and The Empire–it always ends in a massive chase scene through the stars, a disappearance in a hectic asteroid belt, and another trip to Crash Comet

Noct, Iggs, Gladdy, and Prom have a blast on their space adventures

At least, up until their colony is destroyed

Still, they meet aliens from all walks of life and eat strange alien food at strange alien gas stations on the edge of the galaxy and make friends everywhere

They make alliances as they go, building up their own army of settlers, colonists, space pirates, and aliens alike to rise up against the Empire, with The Oracle heading their fleet

Prompto takes so many pictures that he ends up with a massive database of things ranging from aliens, planets, stars, flora, fauna, selfies, weird poisonous glowing bacteria–you name it, he’s got it (after their adventures he actually finds scientists and alienologists asking him for his pictures for research and references; our boi makes bank on his pics!)

Ignis tries every single different cultured cuisine he can get his grubby lil gloved paws on and he will eat ALL OF IT. he has been poisoned by the clashing chemical makeup on more than one occasion (but he still won’t stop)

Noctis hates trying new culture foods, like he goes for some of it but if Ignis tries to feed him one more Glockinshnid’esiria throat casserole, he’s going to vomit

Gladio towers over a lot of alien species they meet, but he also looks like a penny next to some of them (he lowkey feels insecure about it)

Gladdy likes to trade work out regimens with some aliens

He once tried working out with the very gruff, muscled Kleeverprongs, a species known to eat the muscles of their dead to become stronger and who begin weightlifting at 3 months old (he threw his back out and couldn’t walk for a week)

Prompto tries to steal small alien pets but Ignis threatens to throw him out the back of their cruiser if he so much as looks at one more Puffelzingor.

He once hid a small mouse like rodent in his shirt for three weeks, but it escaped and ate through one of Ignis’ prized pots (it’s one of the more expensive ones that can handle stardust and the harshest of acids)

Ignis hasn’t forgiven him yet. And he probably never will.

Sometimes Noct and Co. cross paths with Ravus

Ravus usually screams about them being the ones who got his sister tied in even further with the bloody empire and being the biggest thorn in his ass

There was one time where Ravus was thought to be dead in the middle of space, and none other than Noct and Co. rescued him (he had lost an arm and been abandoned by accident. Space pirates aren’t very bright sometimes)

He was less aggressive towards them afterwards, especially because he was stuck with them for about 2 and a half cycles (roughly 3.67 months) because the nearest welcoming outpost was at least a good hundred stars away

ANyways plot stuff:

So, throughout their journeys and travels, Noct and Co. slowly learn about some of the Empires more hidden histories and ties with differing colonies

They learn more about Ardyn, how he was essentially a tool used by the empire

THey actually travel back to the planet that Ardyn had been worshiped on and end up learning even more

At first, they thought he had just been a leader of some strange planet, but when discovering he was essentially a god? Oh boi, they were faced with a big moral dilemma

Noctis still wants to bring down the Empire, but now, he also wants to help Ardyn and Ardyn’s people

Gladdy is against it, of course, saying that Ardyn had still done terrible things and was still a terrible person who should pay for his actions

Noct mostly disagrees. He thinks Ardyn needs to pay to a certain degree, but to him, it was more important that they at least try to free his people and attempt to get the truth out there

He argues that it really wasn’t all Ardyn’s fault, that he was nothing more than a pawn who had been manipulated and lied to for nothing but selfish reasons

He doesn’t want to help Ardyn, necessarily, but he does want to make things right

It was truly at this point that his friends began seeing the leader that Noct truly is

Noctis and Co. were never really able to convince Ardyn as much as they tried; he was past the point of simply believing things

Still, he made a deal. A snarky deal with a smirk and teasing tone to his voice, but the look in his eye had been enough to give them hope

He told them, that if they were able to find his people and set them free, he just might be willing to strike up some sort of deal that would work out for both of them

Cue montage

The space bros go through hell and back trying to find out what happened to most of the worshippers

They break through and destroy so many Empire outposts and institutes that they probably single handedly cripple part of the Empire

Even so, with how hard they work to find out where the worshippers were, they had to ask for help

They asked both Ravus and Luna for help, as well as some of the more trusted allies they had made through their journey

In the end, they find that most of the worshippers had been killed. They manage to rescue those who had survived, and bring them to Luna’s ship for safety

They’re beaten and bruised with fearful eyes and they spend most of their time praying–it’s all they can do at this point

It’s heartbreaking, and it truly reminds Noctis and his friends that they weren’t the only ones who had lost their home

Luna and Noct both promise the worshippers that they would be brought back home when it was finally safe, but no one knows when that will be

The next time Noctis crosses paths with Ardyn, there is no snark in Ardyn’s voice–only the serious tone of a man who had lost everything

He demands that Noct bring him to his people, his voice harsh and sharp as he snaps. His eyes are furious and his stance is dangerous but Noct remains calm and tall, his eyes cool as he talks Ardyn down

Ardyn agrees to go with Noctis alone, he agrees to relinquish his weapons and trickery–all he wants is to see that his people are safe

The others aren’t happy, the air is tense in their cruiser as they return to The Oracle. Gladio silently fumes and Ignis is ready to pounce any second.

But Ardyn makes no moves. He waits, his heart still, his eyes sharp–he could be walking into a trap, and he knows it, but he doesn’t care, not if his people are there

Luna is respectful when Ardyn boards her ship. She doesn’t show any ill will despite what he has done–she knows he had been tricked, and she knows that all that really matters to him are his people. She respects that.

She leads him to the worshippers, and the second his eyes fall on them, he smiles–truly smiles

He feels relief, hope–glee

They look just as stunned as he is, their eyes wide and sparkling as they drop to the floor and bow

He only tells them to stand, speaking in an old, dead language that even Ignis doesn’t know

He asks them questions, touches their cheeks, their shoulders, their hands… He’s so gentle and careful, no one else can believe it

As they finish answering, he thanks them with a warm, soft voice, promising he’ll get them home safe–that they will all go home safely and that he’ll join them, that they will rebuild their beautiful civilization once again and no one will ever hurt them again

He turns and looks at Noctis, his eyes full of cold murder as his fury burns. He asks when they’ll launch their full attack–because he wants in. He quietly vows that he will bring down the empire–every last ship, even if it kills him.

It only takes a few more cycles for everything to be ready.

There are at least a thousand ships that come forward to help fight. Their alliances hold true to their words and promises and join The Oracle, bringing their own smaller allied ships and friends with them

Ravus brings at least 200 ships full of space pirates with a new, shiny arm at his shoulder

Noctis contacts older allies that his dad had made, as well as the hundreds of new ones he’s made through his travels���and those allies bring their own, as well

Luna has age old promises that are being fulfilled, her oldest contacts coming forward from the deep recesses of space to help fight the Empire

Even Ardyn pulls some strings, pulling a few of the Empire’s allies over to their side–after all, many of them had been loyal to Ardyn alone, in the end

With the Empire spread over so much of space, it isn’t a clean, straightforward war (then again, most aren’t)

The war lasts 81.7 cycles–nearly ten years. Strategies are stretched, lives are lost, people were worn down, but Noctis never wavers

In the end, the Empire crumbles–losing far too many of its ships and colonies, especially as the civilizations it took over rebel and fight back.

Eventually, there is only the head colony left–and Noctis’ side easily corners it.

Noctis isn’t alone when he approached the leader of the Empire. Ardyn goes with him, his losses just as valid as Noctis’

The leader begs. He cries, yells in desperation, falls to his knees and simply weeps–asking for Noctis to have mercy.

Noctis is cold as he responds, simply staring down the old man. He’s gotten what he wants–the Empire’s downfall. Yes, the leader needs to pay for his crimes, but he doesn’t care much for the logistics of that–so deciding punishment falls to Ardyn.

The details don’t matter too much–the Empire fell, Noctis was able to rebuild his colony around a new star, The Oracle was free to help the civilizations that had been under the Empire’s control, Ravus and his space pirates became the police of sorts–protecting people from unsavory sorts in space, and Ardyn was able to return to his home with the remainder of his people

Space was free again, its planets and civilizations free to return to run their lives as they pleased

Edit: Things I forgot to mention™

Arenaea is space’s local lesbian space pirate whose fleet was actually hired by Ardyn somewhere down the line

She was actually notorious and was a big rival of Ravus (they crossed paths on more than one occasion)

She’s lost a couple digits and a foot, as well as an eye in her pursuits but replaced them all with cybernetic implants (her eye can actually see in infrared, very handy in space)

Her cyborg foot has a built in high heel

She’s one of the most dangerous enemies and one of the best allies to have

No one crosses her and lives to tell the tale (unless she wants them to)

Insanely good strategist and is one of the best allies Noct has in the war

You can hear her loudly walking down the metal bridges of ships when hunting down mercenaries and criminals, her cybernetic foot and high heels clanging loudly (she likes to scare them--she could move quietly with no effort at all)

Anyways so weapons right

LASERS LASERS LASERS LASERSSSS

Ignis’ weapons are duel blades ofc, however, they’re HEAT DUEL BLADESSSS

With a click of his thumbs he's got some lasers shooting down the edge of his daggers and ready to burn the guts of his enemies as he stabs them (it’s pretty good at cauterizing wounds so his slices and jabs are well placed for instant death)

Gladio??? Yes, he still uses those massive as two handed swords. No one can rip that away from him

However

They, too, have laser capabilities

He keeps two laser pistols on either side of his belt for when they’re fighting in smaller quarters  

Y’all haven’t lived until you’ve gotten a mental image of sweaty gladio with burn wounds from laser rifles and holes in his tanktop shootin a couple of laser pistols with his beautiful manbun-ponytail thing and 10-year gap hair chillin out there, mouth turned down into a scowl as his sharp eyes aim

He also has a couple of electric cybernetic gloves that stun enemies with a single punch

Now. Noctis? Listen. He doesn’t use lasers--too much of a hassle

Our boi has a few cybernetic implants, kay?

Y’all ever played mass effect? His magic is basically like the biotics of mass effect

In other words, he still has magic, it’s just sci-fi magic!

His swords are made out of the sharpest metals one can find, and they glow because 1) I say so, and 2) they were forged from radioactive materials and stardust from the heat of a dying star because that’s how we do things in S P A C E

NOW PROMPTO

HOOO BOI MY LORD SO MANY LASERS

S O  M A N Y  L A S E R S

He’s got a laser rifle, he’s got a laser sniper, he’s got bullets that electrocute, bullets that explode, bullets that burn, grenades that stun, grenades that blow up, grenades that disintegrate only organic forms (helpful in space ships tbh)

He has a good trusty ole missile launcher type of weapon that launches concentrated laser ball missiles at shit

Also he’s far sighted.

Anyways; prom is always making modifications to his weapons (and gladio’s pistols) and is always the one to repair or alter the spacebro’s weaponry

He once smacked Noct for trying to fix a sword and somehow damaging its mechanics

Prom actually makes some serious cash fixing weapons at outposts and such, he also buys cheap weapons and bulks them up before selling them for like three times his buying price

He’s actually the most well-off out of them further down the line and he’s the one who brings in the credits throughout their journey because he’s the only one with some sort of income

Also i forgot to mention

Noct loses a leg in the war and gets a cheap prosthetic to tide him over until the end; then he gets a hella cool cyborg leg like Arenaea

Ignis does NOT go blind, however, he loses an eye in a fight with some space pirates who try to raid The Oracle and ends up with an eyepatch for a while

Later on, he gets his own cybernetic implant eye--it’s a lot like Arenaea’s actually

It glows red and the metal covers the area around his eye completely, reaching around towards the side of his head and disappearing beneath part of his hair

Ravus’ right hand pirate is an android

Gentiana is also an android

Cor punches Ardyn in the face the first time they meet during the war--yes, he does know that Ardyn is on their side, now

Cor was the one who found many of Ardyn’s worshippers and brought them to The Oracle

Also Cor is a cyborg

[echodrops]

Hi, i'm curious... Can you share some of your favourite fics? What kind of stuff do you like to read?

Interesting ask; since you didn’t specify a particular fandom, I’m assuming you just mean my favorite fics in general? Of all time? Or were you looking for more recent fics? Let me know if this wasn’t what you were looking for.

Hmmm…

Well, my absolutely undisputed favorite fanfic of all time is Twigcollins’ signal to noise series, particularly the short fic “Death Takes a Holiday.” I could go into a massive analysis about what makes this series stand out to me so much, but I’ll just keep it short and say that this particular story is what I think of whenever someone asks me what my writing goals are. Everything I want to capture as a writer–wit, charm, vulnerability, grace, evocative imagery, silliness, seriousness–is all encapsulated beautifully in this series and in this short fic especially.

Some other greats that come to mind from the past are:

Quillslinger’s Deceitful Above All Things

Zeff N Company’s Gunmetal

Cygna_Hime’s i don’t need you (to worry for me)

Resmiranda’s Tales From the House of the Moon

Glassamilk’s Gutters

Nuitnovember’s Sign a New Agreement With Itunes

suncityblues’ If There Is Light (but this one appears to have been deleted, RIP)

Legete’s the sirens and the thunder

And there are probably many, many others but my memory is garbage for medical reasons and I never thought to keep a list of all my very favorites across multiple fandoms, so some great fics are probably consigned to oblivion in my search history forever. If I think of more I guess I’ll come back and add them. XD

Looking back at these fics, I think I’d say that my “type” is really aesthetically oriented, atmospheric fics. I tend to prefer strong non-romance-related plots over fics that are entirely about a ship (or, if they are only about a ship, the fics need to be genre savvy and creative in their use of tropes), and I tend to prefer canon, canon divergent, or at least canon adjacent fics over entirely AU fics. I think the “emotion” of a story is almost more important to me than the pairing or even sometimes the actual beats of the plot itself–if the writing quality is high and the storytelling is compelling, I can fall in love with a fic even if I would never have read that ship or type of plot otherwise. I like stories with melancholy vibes and even sometimes tragic endings, although I feel like stories have to earn their tragedies for such endings to be worth it. In short, I like “pretty” stories with clear, strong writing voices.

There are also certain tropes I like to read a lot. In particular, I really love Outsider POV fics and stories that look at characters’ behaviors and situations from different perspectives. I love almost scientific-tinged fics where a character–perhaps one of a different species like an alien or other worldly being–makes observations about a “normal” character and is confused and amazed by the differences. Gold. I’m a huge sucker for accidental baby acquisition, especially when it’s male characters who are uniquely unsuited to parenting who get stuck with children for both the comedy and heartwarming factors… Found family is A++… Villain redemption and reorientation into normal life stories get me EVERY TIME… Crack-treated seriously is a special interest of mine. Like, fics that take absolutely bizarre or absurd plotlines and treat them realistically and with deep thought are flawlessss. Speaking of crack, I have a soft spot for well-written rare pair fics; there are so many fun interactions that never get explored by a majority of fan writers… World-building and fics with careful action to background details are so nice!! And a special guilty pleasure: while I tend to prefer canon-based stories, I do really like dragon AUs because I really like dragons in general…

On the other hand, there are some tropes that can completely turn me off a story in seconds. Probably biggest pet peeve is fics where characters drink, do drugs, or even just smoke “for the aesthetic.” Drunk fics often feel like an excuse to write OOC to me, drugs aren’t cool kids, and like… do the people who write cigarette smoking into their fics know how absolutely unsexy it is in real life? I feel like cigarettes in fics are a 50/50 toss-up between real-life smoker authors who are projecting their habits onto their characters and authors who have never smoked a cigarette in their lives and just think it looks cool/sexy/edgy. There’s an annoying correlation between villain characters and cigarette smoking in fics and I’m just like… :/// Love triangles and will-they-or-won’t-they plot lines tend to exhaust me… Gratuitous smut without a logical plot for said smut, such as two characters who have absolutely no build up to their attraction suddenly deciding they want to fuck is just like... “Sure, Jan” to me.

It takes A LOT, A LOT to convince me to read a coffee shop, floral shop, or soulmate AU. Absolutely nothing against anyone who writes them, and I know they can be done very well, but as much as I agree with that one post here on tumblr about the two cakes, I still feel like there’s a such thing as too much cake, sometimes. XD I crave diversity in AUs, like where are the “I got hired at Hooters but I’m a dude” AUs? My “I’m a bouncer… at Costco” AUs? “My family bought a snowcone truck and now I’m forced to shave ice all summer” AUs? The “I work at a pawn shop and people keep trying to sell me really weird shit” AUs? The “I mow lawns for a living and your yard looks like hot garbage but you keep insisting you don’t need my services” AU? “I got in trouble with the law and was assigned to clean up the streets near your work as community service” AUs? I feel like there’s a lot of comfort in using a tried and true AU structure, but the most memorable AUs for me tend to be those which do things totally differently from anything I’ve seen before.

All of this makes me sound like I’m really picky but the truth is that when I get free time, I just read basically everything that’s available. I’m that “goes through the AO3 tag… then goes through the AO3 tag again with lower standards” type readers. If the summary and tags look even remotely interesting to me, I’ll definitely give it at least a shot. My tolerance range, even for things like bad grammar and OOC is really pretty high, especially for rare pairs… T____T

Currently I’ve been reading mostly BNHA fics. aloneintherain’s history has its eyes on you was very nice, and I’ve recc’d juurensha’s stuff before but their ShinIida collection is charming. I recently caught up with Ohmytheon’s Reconfigure and it is the embodiment of all my special interests so I’m especially excited to see where it goes.

Uh… I hope that answers the question???

Please send me fic recs that match my obscure personal tastes; I’ll love you forever.