#like this is probably the 2nd worst thing that has happened to me in my life lmao

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

.

[adore-gregor]

soooo

[heybrownieboy]

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: A MURDERER, A DEMON, AND AN ELEMENTAL?

POV: 2nd Person. Y/N.

— Word Count: 2K+

Author’s Note: Finally an update :). In all honesty, I’ve been struggling with getting back into writing lately— after not having time nor mental energy to in so long— but, I’ve also have felt awful going M.I.A for over two months. So, while I was working on this, I decided to break up what I do have and give you all this little update. I wanted to reassure you all that I am NOT giving up on this SMAU. At all. I will be continuing and finishing it. But for now, I hope you enjoy this. I apologize for it being short but, I promise the next chapter is much longer (once I’m able to actually put this one damn scene into words 😭).

“Do you honestly think this is a good idea?” 

You tore your eyes away from your TV—which was currently playing reruns of “Happiness”— and to the spirit siting on the couch next to you.

“What?” you asked. 

“Tonight,” Minho said. “Do you honestly think going to that shrine tonight is a good idea?” 

“Yes,” you said. 

“That caretaker is crazy, Y/N. Like completely batshit crazy."

“So I’ve heard,” you said.

“I mean it,” Minho said, exasperated. “I think he’s the one that actually killed Jisung and I.” 

Your eyes widened. “Wait what?” you asked. 

“I don’t remember a lot from that night,” he said. “Like at all. And I know you said spirits tend to forget more and more things the longer their earth bound.” 

You nodded at that. 

“But I remember some snippets of that night,” Minho said. “And I think he was there. I swear saw him for a spilt second. I was too shocked when I found…” He took a deep breath, an obvious expression of pain and grief crossing his face. “When I found Jisung’s body. So, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to my surroundings. I saw the caretaker run behind me from my peripheral vision. But, before I could react there was a rope wrapping around my throat.” 

“I thought you two were kidnapped?” you asked. 

“I think we were,” he said. “At least in a sense. Do you remember when Jeongin talked about that night he went to the mountain alone?” 

“He said he doesn’t remember the car ride there,” you said quietly. 

“Or half of his hike through the woods,” Minho finished. "Not until he heard Jisung. From what I remember, something similar happened to me.” 

“It was probably the demon controlling you,” you said. “They’re good at that. It’s like a semi-possession.” You rubbed your temples. “So I’m about to go spy on a murderer, a demon, and an elemental?”

“What do you think they’re doing up there?” Minho said.

“Honestly I don’t know. I feel like I don’t know anything. Everything for me with this whole thing has been guesses.” 

“Yet you’re still trying to help,” Minho said. 

“Of course I am,” you said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Why wouldn’t I?” 

“Because it’s dangerous and you could get hurt,” he said. “Or even die.” 

You shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve almost died.” 

“Yeah,” Minho said slowly. “What’s with that huh? How are you alive and have been to hell?” 

You winced. “It was a long time ago,” you said. “And in all honestly I don’t really like talking about it much.”

“I get that,” Minho said. “And I won’t push you to talk about something you don’t want to. Hell was the worst thing I ever experienced in my life. I mean, yeah I guess it’s Hell but, I never expected it to be like…”  He grimaced at the memories.

“Yep,” you agreed, completely understanding of what he meant. 

“I thought it was just going to be super hot.” Minho let out a humorless chuckle. “I wasn’t exactly religious before all this so, I guess I never really read up on it.”

“You could say Dante wasn’t too far off,” you said. “And I do think it’s a little different for everyone.” 

“Yeah. Sometimes Jisung and I would see different things.” 

You squinted at the spirit. “Have you seen any other spirits lately?” 

Minho tilted his head at you. “No actually,” he said. “Now that I think about it. The only one I’ve seen all week is Jisung. Why?” 

“Fucking hell,” you grumbled. You leaned against the back of your couch, head thrown back and eyes staring up at the ceiling. “I’m starting to think that’s what these rituals are for. Because in my twenty years of life, I’ve never gone a day without seeing a least four or five spirits. I’ve only seen three others— besides you and Jisung— in the last week. That’s it. And it been over a week since I’ve seen a demon.” 

“That’s not a good thing?” 

“God, I wish it was. But, no it’s not.” 

“Fuck,” Minho breathed. “So, what should we do? I knew this was complicated and dangerous but this? This seems next level.” 

“I don’t know…” You threw up your hands exasperated. “I feel like that’s all I’ve been saying lately. ‘I don’t know’. It’s so fucking frustrating.” 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Minho said softly. “You’re trying. You’re helping us even if you don’t have to. And so far you’ve done an amazing job okay?”

You have him a half hearted smile. “Thank you,” you said.

“Is there maybe any kind of research you can do on this?” he offered. “I mean, there has to be some answers out there somewhere right?” 

“Maybe,” you said. “I only have like an half an hour before Jay and Nico pick me up though. And kind of search isn’t something I have easy access too. Not to mention it’s the supernatural. Nothing is finite. There’s thousands of rituals out there. And thousands more that aren’t recorded.” You nibbled on the inside of your cheek nervously.

“You grew up in a family of Shaman right?” Minho asked. “Can’t you ask like an elder or something for help?” 

You scrunched your nose at that. “I don’t talk to most of them anymore,” you said. “But, I do have someone I could call. My aunt should be able give me some kind of advice.” 

You leaned over to grab your cell phone off the coffee table. It should be around five P.M in London right now. You scrolled to your aunt’s contact and hit call. It only took a few rings for the line to be picked up

“Y/N-ah.” 

The sound of your Aunt Bora’s gentle voice on the other side of the line immediately had you relaxing. The tension that had building up all day seemed to almost completely melt away. 

“Hi,” you said softly. “How are you?” 

“I’m doing great, honey,” your aunt said. “But what about you? It’s almost one A.M in Korea right now. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” 

“I wish I could,” you said. “But I’ve been stressed out lately and couldn’t sleep.” 

“Stressed out about school?” Bora asked. “Because you shouldn’t be. I know studying to get your nursing degree can be challenging but you’re extremely intelligent, Y/N. You’ll make an amazing nurse in the future.” 

You smiled at that. “Thank you,” you said. You let out a soft sigh. “But that’ not the reason I called you. I need advice. On the supernatural.” 

“Oh? What do you mean? What’s happening?” 

“Do you remember those two men that went missing last year?” you asked.

“Yes,” Bora said. “Lily-ah and Natty-ah knew them through friends, correct? What were their names again?” 

“Lee Minho and Han Jisung,” you said. You glanced at Minho for a second. He was the one now leaned back into the couch watching you contently. 

“Didn’t you try to help find them last year?” your aunt asked.

“I did,” you confirmed. “But I couldn’t. I didn’t find a trace of them physically or spiritually.” 

“I’ve always found that strange. It’s almost like…” 

“Someone might have been hiding them.” 

“Exactly,” Bora said. “Did you finally find them?” 

“Kind of,” you said. “It’s more like they found me. Well, technically Jeongin found me.”

“Jeongin?” 

“Their friend. Um, how do I even explain?” 

“Start from the beginning yeah?” Bora said, her voice gentle. “Tell me everything you know.” 

And so you did. You explained how Jeongin originally had come to you or ���Eris” for advice because he thought his friend was haunting him. How that turned out to be correct and that Minho was in fact trying to get through to him. You explained how you saw Minho and then had the premonition about Jisung. You explained their spiritual debt and how they were tricked by those three. How they had to escape hell and how half of their soul was stolen from them.

“So,” Bora said slowly, “you’re trying to help them break their spiritual debt and move on?” 

“Yes,” you said, with a slight wavier to your voice.

“But?” 

“But that’s not all. One of the trio he made a contract with was human. A living human. Minho is pretty sure that he’s the one that murdered them.” 

“Y/N,” your aunt said lowly. “You can’t confront a murder.” 

“Oh, I’m not done though.” 

There was a few beats of silence before your aunt asked, “What do you mean?”

“In the past week or so, I’ve seen three spirits and no demons,” you said. “Only one of those spirits talked to me. And all it did was ask for the time.” 

“Asked for the time? Spirits never ask for the time. Unless…” 

“Unless they’re being summoned somewhere,” you said. “I think they’re all being summoned to that mount Minho and Jisung went missing on. By the human.” 

“You think he’s summoning them all there for something bigger,” Bora said. 

“Exactly,” you said. “He’s been preforming rituals for about two weeks. At least that we know of. “

“He’s most likely a Shaman. A very powerful one. Rituals like that? They aren’t easy. At all.” 

“I know,” you said.

“And I’m guessing there’s more,” Bora said with a soft sigh. 

“The other two being they made this contract with are supernatural. One is a demon. But the other one, neither Minho or Jisung knew what it was. They said it was different from the demon.” 

“Don’t tell me…” 

“I’m pretty sure it’s an elemental, yeah.” 

“Y/N,” your aunt said voice now taking on a firm, cold edge. “You need to stay away from elementals. They can and will kill you if you ever get in their way. Forget the murderous shaman. Elementals are not bound to the same rules as demons. Not to mention they hate humans more than demons ever have.” 

“I know,” you said. “I do but…” You took a deep breath. “I cannot not help. There’s something seriously wrong.” 

“It doesn’t matter. This is your lif—“ 

“They have wards to keep away angels,” you said cutting your aunt off. 

“What?” she asked, utter disbelief overtaking her tone.

“Minho said that the mountain is littered in wards keeping angels out,” you said. “Namely Azrael.” 

“That’s impossible.” 

“You would think. At first he thought it was just the hellhounds being kept out. They got too close to the mountain and they were repelled, But he said that Azrael has not been able to get onto the mountain at all either. That the barrier the wards created repelled him as well.” 

The other line went silent. After a few moments you began to worry that the call had disconnected. 

“Hel—“ 

“I don’t like this Y/N,” your aunt said quietly. “At all. I understand Azrael is probably the last angel you want to see since… since all of that happened. But he’s still an angel. He’s still a protector. If you go on that mountain, you have absolutely no protection. Not against the Shaman nor the elemental.”

“I realize that,” you said. “And I completely understand that. But like I said. There’s something seriously wrong happening. I think Minho and Jisung were apart of whatever plan they have going on. Not to mention they’ve been talking about Jeongin. Another human life they most likely want to take. They’ve been planning this for at least a year now, Aunt Bora. Whatever it is, it’s huge. God know how many people will eventually be dragged into this."

Your aunt let out a heavy, defeated sigh. “Okay,” she said. “Okay. I know there’s no way to talk you out of this.” Another sigh left her lips. “ Let me think for a few minutes. Maybe I can help.” 

You smiled. “Thank you,” you said. “So much.” 

Your aunt simply hummed. After a few minutes she began speaking again. “How were those to boys killed? Do you know? I might be able to narrow down what ritual they’re trying to get ready up for.” 

“They were strangled,” you said. You peered at Minho for a second, your eyes focusing on the wound around his neck.. “Well, honestly it looks like the rope cut into their throats. They both have these huge infected gashes.” 

“Infected?” Bora asked. 

You copied her hum from a few moments ago. “Yeah.”

“Y/N, if they were dead, how could their wounds be infected?” 

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Of Chaos And Spirits Masterlist

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©️heybrownieboy 2024

[lucky-lucky-duck]

Forget You, Forget-Me-Not

A continuation based on a reply to my Vaga Snapshot post that i'm writing between cram sessions. The semester ends in 2 days and I'm dying, but it's fine. c: Everything is fine. c: I'm gonna start on the matchup in a couple days when my load lightens, this is just a late night creative outlet for stress c':

Leo Kurosagi x Vagastrom Ghoul Reader (2nd person pov and gender neutral)

Leo goes too far in an argument, and I'll fill this out tomorrow. For now, it's sad. Reader nearly gives up on braking the curse causing the people around them to slowly forget they exist. Fuck I'm tired

Morning edit - I fixed a couple of spelling mistakes, but the description made me laugh so it stays. I'm still fucking tired.

"I'm passing the phone to a No-Name NPC who is so unremarkable that the faculty evaluators actually forgot they existed."

You're ignoring him. It's been four days, and you've barely said a word to anyone, but everyone knows that Leo is somehow the culprit.

It doesn't really matter, you think with dull amusement. Sho and Alan had both been out at the time; the only witnesses to your humiliation were you, Leo, and the general students. Leo's too busy trying to bait you into argument to gloat about his win to the others, and you aren't about to tell them yourself.

The general students are a non-issue, too. Most of them struggle to remember your name most days, they're not about to suddenly start remembering gossip about you.

The thing is, you've had fights with Leo before. Hell, fighting with Leo has something of a hobby to you once you started sharing a living space with him. There's just something about him that brings out the worst in you. The vicious snake-like part, that coils up with anticipation and prepares to strike when you see Leo enter the room. You used to think of it as something that you both secretly look forward to, once the vitriol died down and your metaphorical fight-to-the-death turned into elementary-school bullying.

He's never brought up your curse like that before. It's been tit-for-tat, both of you giving just as good as you get. It's supposed to be fun.

You squash the pang of longing in your chest with snarled anger, only to be drenched in an icy kind of apathy. There are lines both of you choose not to cross these days (you were under that impression at the time, at least.), and the waning acknowledgment of your existence had definitely been one of them. Christ, you didn't exactly pour salt onto Leo's obvious abandonment wounds during these fights, did you?

"What did Leo do to you?" Sho's voice snaps you out of your thoughts.

"Nothing, why do you ask?" Your voice scrapes lifelessly as you meet his eyes with a small, strained grin.

"Really? Then what, you've been moping around the dorms the past few days because you enjoy the smell of sweat and motor oil?"

"You know me, can't get enough of the ol' sugar and spice." The attempted banner falls flat as you make to slip around him and head for your dorm at the end of the hall, only to be held in place with a single strong hand on your wrist. "You ever tried shake weights?"

"Stop," he shuts down your distraction. "You know he's a rat bastard, right? You can't take what he says personally. We're going to find a way to break the curse."

So, Leo told Sho what happened after all, has he?

Sho's words slow to a stop when he notices the dead-eyes and scowl that have overtaken your forceful nonchalance from earlier.

"I wasn't lying, I'm not angry at Leo for what he said to me," Apart from the fact that you kind of are. "He wasn't exactly wrong."

"Shut up already!" You don't turn your head to look at Leo as he appears in the corridor. Figures he would listen in on a private conversation. It's probably him who sent Sho to find you in the first place. Bastards.

In the end, the choice is made for you, and a new set of hands grip your shoulders, yanking you face-to-face with the person you wanted to see least.

"Are you telling me I've been wasting my time on someone this fucking pathetic?" The words would hurt more if the expression on Leo's face were less desperate. If anyone looks pathetic here, it's him. "Of course. You would be willing to sit back and watch as you sink into irrelevance, wouldn't you? If that's what you want, fine." It's funny how adept you've become at interpreting Leo's mannerisms after all of the fighting.

For all of the accusations and insults, the only thing you see in front of you is a hissing kitty cat desperately trying to make amends in the only way it knows how. It's a shit apology, but... Leo isn't the type to put on this type of fit unless he feels threatened and cornered, and, as far as you are aware, the only threat being posed at the moment is you walking away from him.

Your bar sure has sunk low these days, yikes.

"That would probably hurt more if you weren't still gripping my shoulders like we're in a steamy novel. Do you have fantasies of pinning me down often?" You're promptly shoved away and insulted once more, free to turn back and walk back toward your dorm without sparing either boy behind you a glance.

As you prepare yourself for bed, you notice the ache in your chest loosening just enough to let you breath deeply. If just for tonight, you'll fall asleep free from the fear that tomorrow will be the day you finally wake up as a stranger.

[akkivee]

HAPPY 7 YEARS OF HYPMIC EVERYONE 🎰🥳🎰🥳🎰🥳

to celebrate, i’m just going to list seven moments hypmic irrevocably changed the trajectory of my entire life lmao

1️⃣ buying the lives was probably the best worst thing i could have ever done to myself lmao. by the time i’d realised you could buy them, only the 2nd&3rd lives were out on dvd (they’re bundled together on one set), and though it wasn’t the first hypmic purchase i made, it kicked off the lives obsession lol. the 2nd live in particular blew my mind lol it was the first time most of the cast were on stage for hypmic and i’ll never forget the happy surprise on kijima-san’s face when the crowd screamed along to his call and response parts in drb lol. on top of that, kimura beatboxed live on stage confirming it really was ichiro beatboxing, shiraimu and nozu in lieu of souma-san’s absence gave it their all singing his parts and nozu dropped the sickest freestyle, and the samajuto cigarette kiss was born and so thoroughly rewired everyone’s brains, it just became part of samatoki’s character lmao

2️⃣ this list very easily can be just about the lives lol but i also loved getting to watch them live lol. forever and always 🖕🖕corona but getting to sidestep around abema’s booboo dookie region locks to watch the 5th live set off a precedence for needing to live watch them lmao. it’s probably the snowball that kicked off the avalanche that convinced me to try to go to japan for the first time in ten years, give or take, and bat’s 8th live day two was their most special live yet lmao

3️⃣ ITS NOT A LIVE ITS A STREAM LOL but the moment the kuukou brainrot roundhouse kicked me in the face was watching kuukou’s spirit possess hayama-san in real time lol i would have saved myself from so much heartbreak if i had stayed a matenhoe but nooooooo kuukou had to manifest in his seiyuu and i haaaaaad to watch it happen live and now i’m kuukou’s btch 🙄

4️⃣ wanna know how i became a matenrou stan lol???? jakurai’s voice introducing matenrou to the world in drb and hifumi flexing the love his women give to him makes him filthy rich lmao

5️⃣ i’ve felt a lot of frustration whilst mucking about in hypmic land, but i don’t think i have ever experienced as frustrating emotional rollercoaster ride more than the one hypstage has taken me on lmao!!!!! hypmic sneakily changing their description of the franchise from ‘voice project’ to ‘multimedia project’ when it was announced, okay actually showing a fantastic story despite hypmic’s ‘lack’ of one back in the day, nagosaka getting introduced and giving us simultaneously the best and ‘worst’ depiction of kuukou, only exclude them in the following tracks lmaooo, creating a really cool concept for mixing division pairs with an oridivi only for it to get cancelled like genuinely 🖕🖕covid but rolling up with the greatest comeback in the form of the rep lives where in the middle of the run we were given the best kuukou performance yet, shortly followed by the announcement that everyone was graduating!!!!!!!! but bop 2023 was magical; a fantastic send off to a legendary cast and closure to the pinnacle of stage production and hypmic storytelli— the stage was rebooted six months later in an absolute betrayal that was quite literally assuaged my love for hypmic, hatred for nelke and getting REAL WOMEN on stage lmao

6️⃣ and so like lemme circle back around to bat’s 8th live lmao. do you know how crazy that time was lol???? bat stans threw together a really sick flower display at a local flower shop, crowdfunded to make the lights display in this popular mall in nagoya shine purple for them, bars dedicating drinks for bat and welcoming live goers for an after party drink, day two of the live fell on bat’s 3rd anniversary and a few days prior they dropped the bright and dark mv for hypstage and the hella awesome banquet mv that bat stans ripped to shreds analysing jp bat fans my BELOVED lmao november is truly a bat month lol but anyway the 8th live was a peak time and i miss it daily!!!!!!!!

7️⃣ instead of being really gross and sappy about kuukou or the piece of merch that got me into hypmic lol shoutout to the music like actually lol. dba locked me in the moment i listened to it and i think very fondly of those days going thru the youtube for more lol. gave me a refreshed appreciation for music, esp jp music, got me to listen to more music instead of the couple hundred or so songs i’ve been listening to since i was in middle school LOL. so thanks hypmic, for giving me peak dissociation songs (like tigridia), the hypest shit that had me yelling (like moonlight shadow) and songs that had my heart racing at 3 in the morning and thoroughly unable to sleep lol (can you believe kaigen exists in this world and they let that shit drop during bat vs mtr 6th live and bc the bat seiyuu’s stage presence is just top tier they blew it out of the park frame one and she says the brainrot didn’t truly settle until live watching hayama-san get possessed but the damage was truly done listening to that calced cacophony of noise and in the ensuing silence as hayama-san’s ‘kaigen’ echoed throughout the studio OH IM GOING TO BE SICK—)

[gale-gentlepenguin]

In your opinion, what are the top three peaks of worst narrative choice in Miraculous?

An interesting question, because with Narrative choices, its not so much one episode its the impact it has throughout the series.

But because I dont want to solely be Negative. I will also pick 3 POSITIVE narrative peaks as well. (I am only talking about what has aired so far. there could be choices later on I dont like or enjoy more than before. But we will see)

3rd worst

Su Han and the Order of Guardians

me too luka, me too.

Honestly the whole thing with Feast. which i thought would make this list, but nope. Because of Su han, I think Feast did the world a f***ing favor

Su Han is still my least favorite character. He is a stick in the mud that comes to yell and does nothing. The fact that he shows up in season 4 and doesnt even help Marinette with Guardian stuff is bulls***. He should be helping by teaching Mirakungfu, or anything!

Really, he only exists to show that Fu really made the best out of a s*** situation. When the order was beaten by a 4 FOOT TALL BLUE DOG, Having met Su Han, I understand why now.

3rd Best

Marinette telling Alya she's Ladybug

So this one is something many people are on the fence about. If you like this choice, you like or tolerate Alya. If you dont, you hate alya.

I for one Love Alya and Marinette who was sinking in her new responsibility gains a confidant that wants to help and do whats best for her. (she is like 80/20 on that but still, its the thought that counts)

Alya does help flesh out somethings and helps Marinette grow as a guardian and is probably the reason Chat noir didnt f***ing ditch earlier than kuro neko.

Alya even showed to be a somewhat competent ladybug replacement. But thats out the window with the recent episodes. I still think this is one of the best choices made in season 4

2nd Worst

Sentimonsters are Sentient

The show is weird with Sentimonsters. Now I dont know if Sentiadrien is 100% confirmed. But its gross how some sentimonsters are given more respect than others. It is like "Oh only the Human looking ones are sentient" Sentinino, Sentialec, Sentigabriel, sentibubbler all got controlled like puppets with no agency and no one gave a f***.

They should just be emotion's given form and nothing more. Because basically the peacock miraculous creates slaves. And its kind of f***ed up. Id put this at number one, but its still sort of being explored and if the show finds a way to give the sentimonsters full control or a means of not getting erased on a whim, I can over look it. But yea, its pretty bad.

2nd Best

Gabriel Getting all the other Miraculous

I have wanted this since SEASON 2!

The problem with season 3 and 4 was the fact that Ladybug and Chat noir had access to so many powers, heroes and abilities that basically Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth were not even a threat anymore. That they could have taken him down at anytime if they were more active. Like no cap, why didnt Marinette give herself the snake AND horse when she went for Shadowmoth in Sentibubbler. Or the horse and Bee? Stun his butt and WIN.

With Gabriel having the miraculous, the tables and stakes are now high again. Ladybug and Chat noir are up against the wall. Thats where the tension needs to be if you want things to develop.

The Worst

Miracle Queen (The last 10 minutes)

So this may seem like cheating but this episode really did a LOT and had a massive impact on the show. Lets have a check list.

It had Fu wipe his memories (something that apparently he could do but was never mentioned)

Chloé's growth and development is completely tossed out that she ends up exactly how she was in season 1 (and eventually worse)

The love rivals start dating the heroes because Marinette read Fu's letter which just told her "Life sucks and you gotta settle"

So basically it pulled a Deus ex machina out of its butt, destroyed the potential of a redemption arc and then make no means of seeing a struggle just poof, like it didnt even happen. And then the love rivals that had hardly any screen time (maybe like 2 episodes total with the heroes) are just dating.

The last one may have gotten axed but the first two are ever present and its horse crap.

The Best

Chat Blanc

So this is gonna need some explaining. While I am not crazy about the time travel, and I am not crazy about all the things in the episode, or even how some of the trauma is handled. Chat Blanc is an excellent choice to show the viewer how things can go wrong.

Its not the scenario where Hawkmoth wins, its not the heroes winning. Its EVERYONE LOSES.

This episode took Season 3 to the darkest its been. I would have loved if it was several episodes. I would have loved if this was explored more. But the fact that the group took a concept fans have thought about and brought it to such an NTH degree

I 100% can say with certainty before this episode no one wrote Chat blanc in fanfiction as an end of world threat. Maybe a dangerous beast or feral cat. But NOT A COSMIC LEVEL THREAT.

This episode demonstrated how dangerous the powers of the miraculous are. It gave the viewer a reason on why Marinette and Adrien dont share their identities right away. Its because of the worst case scenario.

(I would have put origins, cause umbrella scene but thats not so much a narrative choice as it is the start of everything, but know its basically pseudo number one)

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 2!!!🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 2 "Summer Breakdown"

Timestamp: 21:29

Video Length: 4min. & 42sec.

Fabian goes under the Hangvan for the 2nd time! 😭 (Fabian's turn ‣pt.1 | pt.2)

Kristen and Riz trying their hardest to block out Fabian's flirting with Ecaf! 😂😂🤣🤣💀💀

Ecaf "ACCIDENTALLY" says the name of the night yorb! 💀

Emily gets mad at Brennan again for using his NPCs to say the Night Yorb's name! 😂🤣💀

I love how Fabian is telling his friends not to yell at her! 😭✋

Brennan the DUNGEON MASTER: "Sorry, there's nothing I can do. It's the rules" 😭😭😭

Just imagine a world where Kristen punches Ecaf and Fabian punches Kristen. 😭😭😭

LOU ROLLS ANOTHER NAT1 FOR TRYING TO GET ONTO THE ROOF OF THE HANGVAN!!!!! 😭😭😭

The fact that Ally IMMEDIATELY lies! 😂 "I can't believe he got a NAT20." 😂😂🤣🤣💀💀

Emily: "Don't you reroll them though, because you're Lou?"

A LOU POINT!!! 😂😂 THE LOU FEAT!! 🤣🤣 BRENNAN'S FACE! LOL! 😂

Infinite Lou Points!! For being Brennan's BEST FRIEND!! 😭✋

A HOME-LOU!!!

Lou rolls a 5 on acrobatics and ALLY THROWS LOU'S DICE!!! 😭😭✋✋

Lou adds his modifiers and the result is a 14! 😭

Brennan makes a face and Lou asks Brennan to not make that look cause that's his "I'm sorry I have to do this-" face 😭

Brennan "You know- I'm always rooting for you."

Emily: "Because you make your NPCs say the Night Yorb every single other word."

Brennan just smiling "I have to abide by the rules of the things I choose to do." (I'M CRYING AT THIS QUOTE!! 😭😭✋✋)

Brennan asks Murph to roll 5d10 cause he's the driver and the FACE THAT MURPH MAKES! HIS EXPRESSION IS SO FUNNY TO ME! 😂😂🤣🤣 The times where Murph's dice curse is ACTUALLY GOOD! When he has to roll AGAINST his own party members! 😂🤣💀😭

"the beans are due!" 😂 No more probability smashing!!

Murph laughing and telling Fabian that he needs to stay in the van and put his seatbelt on! 😂😂🤣🤣💀💀

Fabian has jumped and gone under the hangman twice! 😭✋

All Lou had to do was to roll a 2! And that's exactly what he did! He'd roll a 2 or lower! 😭✋

Brennan: "Can I just say, for anyone watching at home, don't jump out of moving vehicles. Because even if you're so agile, the risk reward-" 😂😂🤣🤣💀💀

Lou talking to his dice and telling them that they're embarrassing him on this show! Oh no! 😂🤣😭 Go get new dice Lou! Please! 😭✋

Brennan: "If you roll a Nat1, this is gonna be worse than Cody's turn in Unsleeping City." (The fact that Murph STILL holds the title for worst turn in Dimension20 history means a lot to me! And I couldn't tell or explain to you guys why that is! 😭💀)

Fabian just grabbing his face! The poor boy in so much pain from getting run over! 😭✋

I wonder how Fabian explains what happened to Gorgug later. We most likely will never get that exposition but I can imagine it in my mind! 😂😂🤣🤣💀💀

[divineerdrick]

The Warhammer Preview Show: Warhammer Day 2024

I'm once again liveblogging my reaction to a Warhammer preview, and I couldn't be happier!

Why?

Because the Preview was live again!

If you've followed my Warhammer Liveblogs you know how much I hated that they moved to prerecorded live shows. And I wasn't the only one! But once again the studio has listened to the community and it looks like we've got live shows back.

This is one thing I will constantly press about Games Workshop. Being less than a billion-dollar global company, in a niche hobby, means they still have to respond to us. If we make our displeasure known for long enough, and it impacts their sales, they have to act. If even 1% of Warhammer fans don't buy the latest and greatest product that GW releases, it hurts.

It also helps that they're under UK corporate law instead of American corporate law.

And I have a feeling from some of the things I've seen on discount retailer sites, that certain big releases have been under-performing. So hopefully this is the first in some course corrections.

Give San Guard their wings back!

I'm still wondering about what's going on with how few releases have been announced for Christmas. They do seem to be pushing War of the Rohirrim more than I was expecting, so maybe they really are trying to just let releases breathe instead of smothering them. I'm wondering how Necromunda Secondus and Mechanicum performed given how they released along side Age of Sigmar 4.0.

Honestly I think that most Warhammer fans hold GW products as being the best in the market. When they start taking a downturn, we start asking why we're paying so much for them. I think GW really should go back to a slower release cadence of higher quality products. Releasing both of their major game systems back to back in essentially a beta state should not happen. There's no excuse for 10th Edition Eldar to release one summer only for 4.0 Nighthaunt to release the next. And the less said about 4.0's Regiment system the better.

All and all, I'm still really excited for this Preview. I'm not expecting too much right now, but I'm willing to be surprised. For now, just having a live Preview is enough.

Enough rambling! Onto the Preview!

Preshow

Our hosts today are veterans of the Preview shows, Alex and Nick. This was one of the first things that got me excited when I checked in on the stream after discovering WarCom was down. After some of their traditional introduction, including asking for location shout outs, Alex tells us what we've got in store. The reveals today are for Underworlds, AoS, 40K, Kill Team, and Legions. Legions in the past hasn't gotten a lot of love in these Preview shows, so I'm hoping for a little better presentation this time around.

But then Nick slyly cuts in that those are just what was announced, and we should keep our eyes pealed. I've heard some rumors already, but let's see what they actually tease for us.

Underworlds

We're starting with GW's original Skirmish game set in the Age of Sigmar. I'm still really hoping that Warcry gets some love again soon, but I'm betting Underworlds must be just slightly outperforming it.

Oh wow! So with the new edition of AoS out and the story advancing with the Vermindoom, the team has decided to release a new edition of Underworlds. And this edition looks like it will also start with a Stormcast verses Skaven box.

They're once again pushing that accessibility factor with this new edition. I will say this much, other than a few sticking points I have I don't really feel this push to accessibility has resulted in any "dumbing down" of these editions. Probably the worst offender was Kill Team 2nd, and they've undone some of that. Admittedly they pushed the worst part even more . . . Still I feel that 40K 10th and AoS 4.0 are still very tactically deep games. And that, at the end of the day, is what really matters.

And unfortunately we're probably never going to see this push to expand the audience through accessibility ever go away. Businesses in the current corporate world live and die through growth. There's only so much money GW can wring out of their current audience. There has to come a point where GW expands their audience, or investors will leave and the company will decline.

Unfortunately that's tricky to do when you also keep raising the prices of starter products.

But Underworlds has always been relatively inexpensive compared to GW's other products. It's a perfect example of creating a stepping stone into the larger hobby. Buying a board game style starter box with only a few push-fit miniatures to assemble and paint is much easier than buying and painting something like Skaventide. And GW looks to be leaning into that.

They're really throwing a lot of long looks into the miniatures and the board. Still, no matter how much time they spend here this is never as good as the bright, close-in pictures WarCom usually has later. One advantage of the Live previews is we often get to see some of those ahead of time. Hopefully Nick and Alex will focus in on some like they used to.

Here's our box reveal.

And you're making me nervous Nick. This is very similar to a lot of those prerecorded shows. Now that the reveal trailer is done I don't want to be here having someone presenting a prerecorded message on why I should want to pick this up. I want to be back in the studio, with chat, getting live impressions and active responses to questions and feedback from you and Alex. You got me excited for a live show, Nick. Don't turn this around on me.

Uh oh! It's a reset! Normally, this would have me excited. But there are two things that make me nervous here.

The first is that this game incorporates cards and deck building. If they're completely updating the rules, does that mean previous cards won't work anymore? Will we have to get new decks for any warbands we play?

The second is Kill Team. In case you didn't know, Kill Team just introduced a Standard style rotation that means that eventually your Kill Teams won't be legal in competitive play. Many classic Kill Teams already don't have rules in the new edition. Now many of those Kill Teams are still perfectly fine for casual games . . . for as long as GW writes compatible rules for them. But eventually you won't be able to play a given Kill Team without going back to a prior edition of a game. That's fine for collectors who have lots of friends going back to previous editions. But for most LGS communities, that creates a problem.

I'm guessing Underworlds will work in a similar way. I don't know if any previous Warbands will get retired, but they'll probably introduce a cut off point and then rotate out older Warbands eventually. You'll probably have to go buy a new deck for any of the older Warbands to use them in the new rules. This is all just speculation, but it's speculation based off how GW has been running their other games.

This may be a small point to some, but it's a legitimate up-sell to me. GW has gotten considerably better at creating and designing rule books. They've gotten much easier to read in recent editions of their games and much easier to use at the table. I'm hoping they continue to refine them. Also their apps have gotten better too for looking up the latest version of any given rule.

We're also going to single boards, war scrolls, and they're defining Warbands with stat systems to help you understand their play style. One thing I'm not sure of is the replacement of card art with miniature photos. I kind of liked the way the cards added some of that great GW art into the game. I'm not sure how well the various cards will depict the action if it's just still photos.

All and all the new edition looks good, but I've got questions that are going to need answered.

Back in the studio we've got some great shots of the miniatures - not sure I'm liking the sculpt around the eyes for this one - but we're not getting any community interaction yet. There's no point in these being live shows if we don't have any response to the community feedback and questions!

Hm . . . We've got them just talking over these repeating slideshows. I'd honestly prefer to just seem them sitting their and talking to each other to gauge their live reactions. And while I'll admit that this is a new edition, and there's a lot to talk about, they're kinda just going over what the presentation showed. Yes! I'm going to harp on this! I want community interaction, dammit!

Okay, here's one point answered. The starter set is going to come with four decks in it, one based on each of the now named play-styles, Strike, Take and Hold, Flex, and Mastery. These decks will be playable with any Warband. So any of the old Warbands that receives rule updates can use these decks to start with.

It looks like with other recent new editions, we'll get our first chance to see this played at a GW event. In this case it's the Tampa Open, which is next weekend! So we'll probably learn a lot about the game in the coming days.

. . .

And now we're moving into the next part of the show. No questions taken, no feedback, not even a glance at chat. I'm not happy.

Age of Sigmar

And it's just the Warhammer Day miniature. We've already seen this. It's a pretty cool looking miniature to be sure, but why are we covering it here?

My hype is draining away.

Same thing with the Darkoath. Though this looks like it might be a box set, and that means it might have some new miniatures.

Oh! While they didn't show it, this is the announcement for the Slaves to Darkness Battletome. I did miss that this box set is the Darkoath Spearhead. So this will be our first big release for AoS 4.0 following Skaventide.

We're getting a new release for a Sorcerer Lord outside of the Warhammer Day model. This one sounds like it will have a few options for it. Hopefully we'll see these on WarCom.

And here's our Battletome reveal! It sounds like they're doubling down on how little changed between the Skaven Index and Battletomes. This is potentially bad as some of the AoS armies need some real changes.

We are getting a new Army of Renown, Be'lakor's Legion of the First Prince. So hopefully that will bring something interesting for AoS players to experiment with. It's my understanding though that Regiments of Renown aren't seeing much play right now. But we can wait and see.

Speaking of! We've got a nice rules preview here of a new Regiment of Renown that can be included in any most of the god-aligned Chaos factions. The Daemon Prince gets to keep it's Gift of Chaos that it would have claimed in an S2D army and gets the relevant faction Keyword too. However, I can't imagine spending a drop on this the way AoS 4 currently plays, unless they change how drops work in the next rules update.

Battleforces

They didn't mention any universe transition, just that big boxes are on the way soon. My guess is this is our first look at the holiday boxes, which will probably included both 40K and AoS, maybe Old World if we're lucky.

These are all themed after detachments. The Tau box is obscured, but we saw it earlier in the preview, and is the Retaliation Cadre. This means that this is probably a sneaky reveal of one of the new Imperial Knight Detachments, the Valourstrike Lance. Though that sounds suspiciously like it might be a rename for the Noble Lance.

I'll note that none of these battleforces are Chaos themed. We've got three Imperial battleforces and two Xenos. But there looks like there's a lot of value in these kits. That Tau box has a Riptide in it, the Knights have a Paladin and four Armigers, the Sisters comes with two vehicles and a pair of Penitent Engines, the Necrons get the Void Dragon, and the Dark Angels get The Lion. I'm not gonna add everything up here, since I can't see exactly what everything is, but that's over $300 worth of Knights.

And just as I suspected, we immediately go into AoS boxes.

We're only getting four here, Maggotkin, Cities, Iron Jaws, and Flesh-Eaters. One for each Grand Alliance. These don't appear to be based on any Regiments or Armies. And I'm not seeing anything popping out at me for high value items.

These are indeed our holiday boxes. As with recent years, these are designed to go along with the intro boxes. So if you get a Combat Patrol or Spearhead alongside one of these, you'll have a pretty decent collection. Whether they match well with previous Battleforce launch boxes, I'd have to check. But at the very least, I know the Dark Angels one didn't have The Lion in it.

They're saying they're supposed to match Regiments in AoS. I only checked Iron Jaws, but looking through the others they also don't match any current Regiments. So these might be renames or new Regiments coming in the Battletomes.

Hah! They even just mentioned that the Cities of Sigmar force can represent different Regiments! So maybe there wasn't any actual consideration made there at all.

They also just brought up that there's duplication with the Morbheg Knights. So not so good there for the AoS portions either.

Warhammer Armoury

They tease that no one knows about this reveal yet. But it's an Officially Licensed product, so outside of games I'm not sure how much interest there will be.

Warhammer Armory! Okay, you have my attention.

Also, gee! I wonder what's about to be revealed?

There it is! Ghal Maraz! (Subject to GW's approval.)

i haven't gotten my hands on any of these, but I really want to see if I can. I just love stuff like this. If my father's business could get them to sell, we would in a heart beat.

I still have my Slayer of Kings. It's sitting right next to me. I'd honestly love to collect more stuff like this.

Legions

So we've already had Mechanicum for Legions revealed, so they're starting off by going into the lore. I guess that's one way to try to pay more respect to the specialist game. Still I'm hoping for more news for Legions.

"Now you're probably sat at home, thinking, "Games Workshop we've already seen these." It had crossed my mind, yes.

Dark Mechanicum! While they haven't shown any traitor specific models yet, the new rules will allow you to field these models in both Loyalist and Traitor forces.

But they're not keeping us waiting for long! This is the Serperos Heavy Stalker. Looks like it's a near Titanic scale model for the Dark Mechanicum. Like most of the new Mechanicum stuff, I'm totally here for this.

I'm also still hoping to see some even larger creations hitting Titanicus and Legions. Say a certain class of Titan that hasn't had an official model for a while . . .

And book reveal! This book will apparently have the rule for playing both factions. So hopefully we'll see more force specific miniatures in the future.

A Special Surprise

Something a bit more lighthearted. A feast in the field, huh? Blood Bowl? Don't they already have halflings?

40K! I know what this is! Apparently Death Korp isn't all the Guard is getting!

"Make a pie crust from compressed cardboard and fill it with a tin of Munitorum issued nutrient paste." Yummy.

I'm so here for this!

These ratlings look fantastic and have so much life and character to them! This is a fantastic addition to the Guard range!

Oh! It's a commemorative model! Boo! I want this to be a part of the main range!

Oh well. Looks like I'm picking up at least one thing for myself this year.

Kill Team

They teased more ratlings, but look at these Boyz! More proper Orky miniatures! Yes!

And there's our new ratlings! Look at the bulldog!

So I guess the next Kill Team box is Orks verse Ratlings. So much for the idea that the next team would be Storm Boyz. Specifically this is Ratling Snipers verses Tankbustas.

All of these miniatures look pretty bespoke. The ratling kit is definitely new, but that doesn't look like an upgrade sprue on the Orks either. I'm wondering if all the Kill Teams will be new kits from now on?

This Kill Team set will include a bunker terrain piece and missions for trying to defend the bunker or storm it. Sounds like a fun time.

The holiday miniature will also have a mission for trying to steal the food for their provisions. So there's another fun detail.

Hmm. New animation or game?

Bandai Namco? Guessing game.

Oh! I was wrong! It's an animated short! Looks like a free one too!

Our next preview will apparently be in November, for the Championships and Grand Narrative Campaign. I'm hoping they do a better job there.

But as the sign off, they hit us with one more teaser.

Final Thoughts

I've apparently hit my image limit, so I'm not gonna go into more details on the miniatures. But on the whole they were fantastic. Not the biggest fan of the Stormcast models for Underworlds but the Skaven models were cool. All the other new models, especially our new Kill Team set and commemorative mini look fantastic! While this Preview was light on new models, what was shown was great!

And that's all the good I have to say.

So this did definitely need to be a Preview because they were revealing the new Underworlds. But honestly, they could have made the whole show about that and I think it would have been better. The Kill Team reveals were good, but the rest was stuff that would normally just be a WarCom article. So they may as well have just dedicated it all to an Underworlds deep dive and left the Kill Team stuff for later.

And while I think this was better than the prerecorded stuff we got before, this might as well have been prerecorded. In fact I'm sure there are gonna be people who accuse this stream of being prerecorded. There was zero interaction with chat. Yeah, they asked chat to call out where they were from like they used to, but then didn't acknowledge any responses. Chat might as well have not been there, and that means this might as well not be live.

This isn't okay! And while I appreciate the nod to the old format, this was honestly something where I wanted to see designers talking about what they were doing. I don't want to hear Nick and Alex talking about the new mechanics and design ideas of Underworlds, I want to here it from the people who made the game! While I didn't like the mock interviews, there's no reason not to have the designers on there talking about what they're excited about.

Between lack of meaningful reveals and the misuse of the live format, this is still a fail. If the last review was a student handing in a print-off from Wikipedia with his name on it, this one was two guys who threw together their paper at the last minute. This will probably be my last liveblog for these. I'm certainly not gonna do another one until I see meaningful changes in the format.

[formerlycookierunauprompts]

I'm thinking the layout of the toy box consists of 2 level maps. Bare with me, this will be long.

1st one is the main landscape of the realm. Nice and vibrant. Very colorful, but I think the main dominant color would be yellow since... Butter. Big contrast to the dolls who've gone hyperactive and are trying to kill Gingerbrave and Co. Rosemary, thankfully, shows up on time to lead them to safety, possibly a village. The dolls within the place are either dormant, passive, or docile, keeping themselves safe. We learn from Rosemary that ever since Golden Butter Cookie had fallen into an everlasting slumber, leaving them with no other purpose or task, caused a divide amongst her doll servants. So much so that the hyper focused ones even began attacking the others who didn't join them. When Gingerbrave asks if there's an exit to the toybox realm but they say that it's been shut for years, and that only Golden Butter Cookie could open it. This is what motivates the gang to go wake her up. Rosemary goes along with them to make sure they don't die. Being one of GBC's first creations, they know the realm like the back of their hand, and knows where she is. The final boss battle is probably with another doll that had been working hard to fend off people from the dollhouse not because they were protecting GBC, but because everything inside the dollhouse has gown downhill.

2nd layer is the dollhouse where Golden Butter Cookie is kept in. It looks like a normal dollhouse at first, but the further you go, the much darker.. The messier... The creepier it gets. The dolls inside, though still hyper focused on protecting Golden Butter Cookie are damaged, bent, or distorted. There's this one doll, no, a mannequin doll that looks just like a cookie constantly ambushes the group, trying to prevent them from going further. The further they go... The more the group wonders why GBC is stuck in a deep slumber, and finally, Rosemary finally explains who GBC really is, who she was before she hid away from everyone in the toy box realm, and her relations with the Beast Cookies. I'm assuming this is the part where they tell Rosemary about what really happened to Shadow Milk Cookie, and the current situation that is happening beyond the toybox realm. Realizing the urgency, they become more motivated to keep pushing forward and wake up GBC.

The moment they get there... It's a small room, with a faint light that shines through the windows. Amongst pillows, flowers, and plants, is a glass coffin, in which Golden Butter Cookie is asleep. Giving off the motivation sucking aura that is keeping the group away. However, Rosemary manages to muster up enough strength to open the glass coffin to wake her up.

They wait for a moment... It all seems hopeless... But the room goes dark, and Golden Butter Cookie awakens.

As she eyes Gingerbrave and Co. She's... Disappointed... Sad. What was she expecting for? But she sensed it... She sensed HIS soul jam. So why isn't HE here? Cowardice had led to Shame... Her shame had drove her to her eternal slumber that let her escape from her thoughts... Now they were rushing back.. She was wide awake... And she's finally snapped.

Thus, the final boss battle in the toybox realm begins, as Golden Butter Cookie commands the dolls to fight for their puppet master. Their creator. Replicating any spell or attack of their respective cookies while GBC unleashes her own spells.

Anon how the FUCK do you understand my own oc better than I do/VERYPOS

But, anyways, I don't believe that Goldie would order the puppets/dolls/pookies(plushie cookies) to fight for her. The very minute she sees Pure Vanilla she's assuming the worst and thinking that he killed Shadow Milk for his Soul Jam.

The first thing she does after she sees it is to call out Rosemary for not coming to the realization she did before rosemary could explain. She tells Rosemary to go and Rosemary cannot help but follow orders. Goldie then summons a spear and immediately rushes to attack Pure Vanilla, who quickly puts up a shield.

The fight with Golden Butter Cookie would be brutal. There's a constant de-buff affecting your team thanks to her aura of burnout, and if you have any ancients then Golden Butter Cookie will focus on attacking them.

Luckily, due to her own burnout, her hp drains over the course of the battle. As to symbolize her slowly succumbing to her emotions. After the battle is when Gingerbrave and Co actually get to explain the situation proper. And after hearing their explanation... " ... I... I see... So he's alive... and free..."

She's... depressed? Why wouldn't she be? If he had really gotten sealed, and was just now free, then why didn't he come see her? Did he... forget her? ... It was a terrible thought, one she didn't like thinking about. Soon, however, she agrees to join the Gingergang to help out with the situation.

She wondered what it was like, briefly, if she hadn't been a coward back then. Maybe if she did more to help, maybe if she fought back against the beasts when they arose, maybe none of this would have happened... but-

But what? does it really matter? It'd be better to not linger in the past too much after all.

With that, she fixes the Toy-Box, repaired the hyperfocused and dorment to their former states and creating one last thing, a crown. She gifts the Crown to Rosemary, telling her to lead the citizens of the Toy-Box in her stead this time instead of just abandoning them. Rosemary agrees, not because it's her new purpose, but because she genuinely wants to help the other residents of the Toy-Box towards a better future.

And after that, she leaves the Toy-Box with Gingerbrave and co.

It, also turns out that Rosemary lied to them. They could have just gone back the way they came, there's no way to lock the Toy-Box from the Inside after all. Rosemary really wanted to help Goldie though, and if it took lying to a few cookies? Well, that's certainly something she's willing to do.

...

But what's Golden Butter Cookie going to do after seeing Shadow Milk again? Well... Let's just say that she can be very scary when she wants to be, especially after going through the equivalent of being left on read for thousands of years.

[eyesanddragons]

Rambling incoming. People often remember the book 10 vase scene & the epilogue as poorly written (and they are), but I'd argue that what happens after the vase scene is just as badly written, if not worse.

Being told that Darkstalker not only brainwashed one of her friends, but also attempted to kill off his entire tribe with a plague, should have been the final straw for Moon. She had already experienced a SEVERE breach in trust with Darkstalker before he even emerged from the mountain, so much so that it put her into tears (end of book 8). She should have immediately realized that trying to redeem Darkstalker would necessarily put the lives of her friends, Winter's tribe, and the world at risk, as long as he still had his powers. She should have immediately started focusing on how to neutralize DS as soon as possible. Maybe neutralize him in a way where she can safely try to redeem him without gambling the world on it, but not if it requires the sacrifice of her friend's safety. She should have redirected her empathy towards the friends she KNOWS she can trust. This does not happen. Instead, she throws herself a pity-party, like she is the real victim in all of this. She stubbornly insists that he can still be redeemed much to the dismay of Winter and the questioning of Qibli, and then puts the entire world at risk by betting on him willingly eating the strawberry to find redemption. It is ONLY through the serendipitous hubris of Darkstalker that he is defeated. Yet the books do not hold Moon to task on ANY of this completely blind and genuinely selfish crusade of hers. No, it's everyone else's fault for not believing in her.

A few short pages after the vase scene, Moon outright channels suburban mom energy out of nowhere, infantilizes Winter as if he is a toddler throwing a temper tantrum over spilt milk, and basically tells him to go to his room. All because he was upset that, after being told that DS nearly wiped out the IceWings and brainwashed one of her closest friends, she wanted to go talk to the culprit. She refuses to explain why and doesn't even try to understand why Winter is so upset. Yet she calmly explains her reasons to Qibli on the very next page. This scene alone made me almost quit WoF entirely because it straight-up invalidates Winter's trauma while, somehow, framing him as the unreasonable one.

After their conversation with Darkstalker, they realize they have to tell Winter that Queen Glacier, his aunt whom he genuinely cared about and valued so much that he made it a cornerstone of his identity early in the arc, has been killed by Darkstalker's plague. So, since they are such good friends they would feel genuine empathy and sorrow for him, right? Dreading the task of telling him because it will be a genuinely difficult thing to do, to tell a close friend that a loved one of theirs died? Lmao nope. Instead, all Qibli and Moon are worried about is that he might yell at them. Moon's only response to Qibli's worry is "I've heard worse in his head." Not "he's allowed to mourn," or "he's been through a lot recently, cut him some slack." Imagine if your friends, behind your back, learned of your loved ones passing and went "Oh god, alright let's draw straws on who has to tell this guy."

The 2nd half of book 10 is, to this day, probably some of the worst, most mean-spirited writing I've ever seen in... anything really. It systematically destroyed the found family to resolve a love triangle that nobody wanted, because letting Moon and Qilbi just choose each other was apparently *not* an option.

The Vase scene and how the character's react and treat Winter in the 2nd half of Book 10 is one of the reasons why it's my least favorite WoF book. It really is unnecessarily mean spirited. Though I do wanna touch a bit on what you say here. Specifically about Moon since I think her actions her could of actually been handled in an interesting and impactful way.

This isn't to defend the Vase scene or anything...it's really bad and honestly I think it's worse with this context. I just wanna mention this since I think Moon is a really under-utilized character.

Moon's in a horrifically toxic friendship with Darkstalker, he repeatedly makes Moon feel responsible for his actions, he isolates her from her friends, he constantly pleads with her to stay with him because it'll make him better or make him stop acting horrible. It's notable that Moon is the only one Darkstalker didn't enchant because her Behavior is like someone who was enchanted. Darkstalker doesn't need to enchant Moon, he's already got his grubby in her 13 or so year old mind. Moonwatcher also has a surprisingly black-and-white worldview. Moonwatcher sorts thoughts into bad and good and judges people by them. Darkstalker exploited this by showing Moon all the good things he wants and all the good things he thinks.

If we get rid of all the magic from Darkstalker for a second what we have is a horror story where a much older teenager is manipulating a much younger one to Stay With Them so that They don't Kill Anyone. This is Deeply Horrifying and I'm not even going to touch on how he compares her to Clearsight because it becomes even creepier and I don't want to talk about stuff like that at the moment.

This is why I hate the vase scene even more! Because if we divorce it from the rest of book 10 for a bit it's actually a deeply fucking terrifying scene where Moonwatcher's sense of self is so reliant on Fixing Darkstalker that the idea of him doing something so horrible is something she can't accept because if she Does that means she's at fault.

Plus part of the worry in the vase scene is coming from how Moonwatcher trusts Darkstalker still, and how Darkstalker can read her mind. Winter is putting Moon at risk by telling her this. Could you imagine if Darkstalker Did decide to do something to Moon because of what Winter did? Moon is being put in danger by that information.

Of course we live in a world where book 10 sucks and Moonwatcher is barely a character outside of the love triangle so we don't get that. Moonwatcher's personality changes depending on what the love triangle needs to continue. The clearest example of this is Moon Wanting to Abandon waiting for Winter in Escaping Peril when SHE'S the one who wanted to wait for him in the first place!

I think one of my major problems with Book 10 is that, due to the romance plot, a lot of characters feel like there being given a script by Tui herself for the plot to go like this. So, as you mentioned, instead of acting like concerned friends who just learned that there friend's aunt was practically murdered, Qibli and Moon act really dismissive and even cruel. Complaining about being yelled at rather than the fact that Winter's Aunt is Dead. However this scene is supposed to push the romance further, to show how Winter is less attractive to Moon compared to Qibli.

Now, again, really fucked up to use his aunt's death as the backdrop here, but it is the purpose of the scene. This book is so meanspirited and horrible I Hate it god I hate Book 10-

[detective-pandaman]

Water 7 Arc: Luffy and Usopp (Manga and Anime Comparison) [Part 1]

Spoiler alert: Don't keep reading if you haven't reached Water 7 Arc (Manga Chapter 333 or Anime Episode 236)

I've decided to start with this scene in particular because it shows a lot of changes that are absolutely core in the characters personalities in my opinion.

Please let me know your opinion about it or if you wish to add anything ^^ (and remember to have mercy on my English xD)

There is a lot to unpack, so I will be going page by page and directly comparing it with the Anime. 14 pages of manga compared to Anime.

(Manga reads from right to left, but the Anime screenshots are organized to read from left to right ^^U)

Before starting the comparison, a little reminder of what we are dealing with:

Luffy was informed by Galley-La shipwrights that the Going Merry could not sail anymore, and that he has to change ships. He strongly and emotionally refused to believe it and also refused to leave Merry behind, as it would be like leaving a companion... until Iceberg cuts the conversation short by doubting his capabilities as a Captain, and Luffy takes that comment to heart. (Manga Chapter 328)

On the other side, Usopp has been beaten twice by Franky's men, one while being robbed and another one while trying to recover the money he was robbed. He feels extremely guilty and like he can not face the others.

Luffy and the others found Usopp badly hurt, and broke Franky's Lair to the ground in the rage caused by seeing the poor Usopp hurt.

Luffy ends up deciding that leaving the Merry is the most responsible thing to do to protect the others. Then they all go back home.

Of course everyone is very emotional at this moment when Usopp finally wakes up, but they are trying to lift the spirits:

Now let's start the comparisons.

Luffy wants Usopp to not feel responsible for the decision he has to make (because he is not, obviously), and tries to treat the subject with positivity and cheer Usopp up. But it's still Luffy, and he is not the best with words, even if he never has ill intention, and he is also still emotional about it. But he is trying his best to maintain the smile.

Usopp is having probably one of the worst days of his life, and he is waking up to one big fear of him being a reality.

For the first 2 or 3 panels we get this (which already doesn't feel the same):

Then suddenly, we get the reactions of the others with absolute silence. The problem is... the Anime just chooses which reactions they have, because the Manga sure didn't show them!

Everyone looks tense or displeased. Specially, Nami looks dissappointed with Luffy's way of treating the subject, and Chopper seems about to start crying.

In my opinion, these reactions of the rest of the crew are completely out of character for this moment. Let's understand that they already talked about the subject and agreed with Luffy, not only because he is the Captain, but also because it's the logical thing to do.

But we are just getting started with this page.

For some reason, they decided to show Usopp making jokes about the subject, and the others just... let him talk and talk. (the reason is filler, I know)

In the Manga, Usopp tries to understand the situation as fast as possible, because it's no joke to him. He understands that something is happening or Luffy wouldn't even think about something like that. He immediately blames himself for the problem, shaking and panicking.

Also, Luffy's expression in the Anime? Why do they make him look angry at Usopp? Why would he look at his panicking dear friend with such a severe and angry look?

Finally we can go to the 2nd page:

Things start to heat up.

As you can see, all the conversation in the Manga is fast, without them stopping to look "judgingly" at one another. What the rest is doing is trying to calm them down.

Luffy hurries and tries to explain the money has nothing to do with their problem, but is getting frustrated that Usopp is pulling his tongue to say the whole truth or he won't stop blaming himself for it.

Luffy doesn't want to say out loud that Merry can't be repaired (because for him saying something out loud is making it a reality). But he also doesn't want Usopp to feel responsible when he is not, so he has to choose... and he chooses to free Usopp from guilt.

Let's remember Luffy is a very mature guy in many ways, but is also very emotional and empathetic. He feels the pain of the others and his own, and is probably overwhelmed, so he explodes.

Also, we can see how Sanji and Chopper are physically trying to stop them from escalating the situation. Sanji holds Luffy's shoulder, not only stopping him, but also grounding him so he can calm down. Chopper tries to make Usopp sit back and rest.

You can see how they don't think any of them is wrong right now, they just want them to stop fighting and talk calmly.

Now let's look at what the Anime does with this page:

We get angry faces of Zoro and Sanji for some reason, when they are clearly not angry, just worried...

Luffy and Usopp's expressions are also way more angry and violent than what they should be.

The scene keeps escalating and none of the others is really getting in the middle...

For some reason, Usopp is disrespecting not only Luffy and his position as Captain verbally and physically, but also Choppers medical advice... completely out of character.

And then we start a really stressful and completely fabricated scene:

Usopp screaming over and over demandingly until he makes Luffy angry enough he explodes... from anger.

Luffy didn't explode from anger in the Manga. He just wanted to end the problem. He is not angry at Usopp at all, he is stressed.

And also, Usopp wouldn't do any of this to Luffy.

And we never saw Sanji and Chopper getting in the middle. Why?

3rd page:

The problem seems to have stopped. Usopp is shocked by the revelation, but seems to have calmed down.

Luffy had to recognize out loud what he didn't want to say, but he assumes the problem is going to be over. They all do.

We can still see how Sanji was trying to calm Luffy down by contact, but stops when he sees he calmed down. He is very involved in all the interaction, even if he has been silent until now.

Sanji, Nami and Chopper look shaken by how out of hand things had gone for a second (because in the Manga it is fast).

Then Usopp insists.

Zoro doesn't seem pleased that Usopp talks back again.

Going back to the Anime's adaptation:

Again, Luffy looks angry and not desperate to solve the problem they are having. He looks down on Usopp, still in a defensive position.

Actually, none of the expressions are correct. They have all gone from surprised or shaken to just frown.

Was it that difficult to respect their expressions? They fill everything else with random content, but now that they had specific panels with their expressions, they decided to not put them.

Any semblance of closeness between Sanji and Luffy is completely erased.

4th page:

Usopp starts to be clearly illogical, and he knows it. But it's not out of malice, it's just his insecurities making him talk like this.

Luffy can't understand why he won't let it go now that he has the whole information, and tries to explain the situation again, in case he didn't get it. Again: he is not mad with Usopp, he is stressed.

But Usopp is too affected by everything he experienced in that horrible day to try to be rational, and it's normal and human to do so.

In the Anime:

Again, the facial expressions are completely exaggerated in the worst way possible, or straight up wrong.

At this point I'm begging the Anime to stop making them look at each other with hate.

5th page:

They all know he is saying nonsense, and start to notice there's a lot more behind everything he is saying.

Let's remember Merry is a gift to Luffy from Kaya. Also he saw the Klabautermann of the ship and believes Merry has a soul... But not only that. Usopp feels inadequate in the group. He feels like he's not enough for them, and is probably thinking that the ship, with which he shares so much, is receiving the treatment he "deserves" to receive.

The rest of the crew just don't seem to know how to aboard the problem.

In the Anime:

Again with the expressions and positions completely wrong.

Luffy and Zoro just look angry.

Sanji has lost his concerned look for a serious one and also gives his back to the whole situation. We can't see Nami's face. Chopper is not attending Usopp as urgently...

6th Page:

Luffy has sat down and is not discussing this as a friends quarrel anymore, he is starting to act like a Captain. He is not angry, he is firm.

He points out that what Usopp is saying is illogical, in a strong tone. Nami (probably) is surprised by the change of tone of Luffy. Usopp still doesn't want to listen, starting to really disrespect his Captain by giving him his back and ignoring what he says.

Sanji calls Usopp out, with his hands on his hips, clearly showing support for his Captain and disapproval of Usopp's attitude.

This is one of the first times Luffy has to put his foot down as a Captain. He usually doesn't need to. And Usopp is practically disobeying orders.

In the Anime:

Luffy's expression is completely wrong again. They keep showing him angry, not firm.

Also he is not sitting, which adds to them completely missing the change in Luffy's attitude.

The composition is also showing a weird tension, in which Usopp looks almost like a victim of a bully.

Sanji calls Usopp even softly for what we are used to hear from him, like he is trying to support him more than scold him.

And again... Luffy's expression is a complete miss.

Not only does he look like an angry child more than an adult that is discussing something serious, they also changed his nervous sweat for angry veins.

And this are all the images I can put in a post, so this will continue in Part 2 ^^

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Ranking the Warriors of other Worlds Death Battles:

//Recently, I ran a poll asking everyone in the audience what their favourite Death Battle to come out of the Warriors of Other World's arc was, and I'm grateful to all those who voted.

//So before I get into the purpose of this poll, I wanted to quickly announce the results of said poll, and go over the community ranking of the series. These are the fights from least popular to most popular with their final percentage of the votes.

9th Place: Seiko Vs Lizard - 1.3% Tied 8th Place: Peko Vs RHM & Sakura Vs Jonathan - 2.7% Tied 7th Place: Akane Vs Chie & Narumi Vs Toga - 4% 6th Place: Komaru Vs Katie - 5.3% 5th Place: Mukuro Vs Kayano - 6.7% 4th Place: Mikan Vs Fluttershy - 9.3% TIED 3RD PLACE: Junko Vs Monika & Kaede Vs Sara - 12% 2ND PLACE: Makoto Vs Phoenix - 16% 1ST PLACE: Hajime Vs Deku - 24%

//With all that being said, while I do appreciate the feedback, I do have my own personal takes on the matchups and how they actually turned out in the end. So I imagine people actually wanted to hear my thoughts and opinions.

//This arc ended up being even more successful than I thought it would, and that makes be pretty chuffed. I was excited for this, and based on the feedback, everyone else seems to like it a fair bit as well.

//So yeah, I will probably be doing this again in the future. I won't, or rather can't, say when exactly, but if this is a concept people can get behind, then there's no reason to end it here.

//That being said, while this is definitely a new style that I'm not used to, I definitely did my best with the writing of this fight, and having my friends IRL help me with the analyses was great. But there are some battles that turned out greater than others.

//So I'm gonna be ranking them, because I know some people really wanted to hear my own personal reflections and feedback on this event, and I'm more than happy to provide it. Going into it though, these are the criteria that I will be judging the final products on, and things to keep in mind.

This will mainly be judged on quality of the analysis, how deep it goes, and how good quality the fight turns out in the end.

Considering we remain unbiased to each fighter, the verdict does not wholly matter.

A lot of this will be judged on the matchup itself, how strong the connections are, and whether or not I would want to see it happen in the actual series.

This is my own personal opinion.

//Alright, without further ado, let's get ready for a RANKIIIING!

#12: PEKO VS RHM

//I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this FUCKING SUCKED.

//So after I went back to polish and edit the original script to post on Tumblr, this fight and analysis ended up improving my opinion of it, and I don't HATE it anymore, but it still doesn't save it from being the worst matchup in this event by a long shot.

//First and foremost, the reason Right Hand Man ever ended up on Peko's list of combatants was honestly originally done as a joke. We found some loose connections, and decided that he could be a potentially interesting combatant to analyze if he DID win the vote.

//Which we were so damn wrong about.

//But he was by far the character on Peko's list of combatants that we were not only the least excited to do a battle for, but also the one that we least expected to win. But we figured out pretty quickly that he was picked due to the Henry Stickmin games being the most widely popular and well known at the time compared to Peko's other matchups.

//When I first ran the poll for people to vote for who wins this fight, it actually made me laugh to see Peko win the audience vote by a country mile, because to be perfectly frank, not only does this fight have the least amount of serious connections between the two fighters, but it's also the MOST one sided fight in the whole series.

//Sure, Mikan Vs Fluttershy was similarly one-sided against Mikan, but even Mikan Vs Fluttershy still has the benefit of the two characters being fundamentally similar in a way that gives them opportunity to interact.

//These two don't have that excuse because they have some of the most bare-bones personalities in their respective series. RHM is a one-dimensional jackass who's rude and hates everything, and there's no layers to him; not even a real name or a backstory. And while Survivor Peko definitely has grown from her canon iteration, she's still fundamentally a stone-faced warrior with little screen time to help improve upon that.

//And what makes it worse is that with that in mind, an analysis would mainly pertain to the characters unique abilities instead of their personalities and stories. But in that regard, RHM has so much to cover, and by comparison Peko has...NOTHING.

//She just has a sword, and if this was a battle between herself and another sword-user like Afro Samurai, it wouldn't be as much of a problem to cover it, since Afro also has limited weaponry. RHM however, is a machine of destruction with so many tools in his arsenal

//You'll notice that this is the shortest DB in the series because there's so little to actually cover and no way to drag it out in a way that's interesting. The saving grace is that the fight turned out to be alright in the end, but there was no way in a million years Peko was ever going to win this, and that upsets me immensely.

//I don't hold it against the voters obviously, since we were the ones who put the damn stick figure on the list in the first place, but this was not the right call in the end, and I regret it.

#11: MAKOTO VS PHOENIX

//Haha jokes on you muppets, I put your second favorite second from the bottom!

//Why? Well, no reason really! I just...kinda got bored of it?

//This fight has far more connections than Number 12, but still, it didn't turn out to be the spectacle I'd hoped it would be. It turned out to be really hard to portray Phoenix and Makoto in a hostile setting where they're at each other's throats and trying to kill each other. Upon reflection, I think this fight turned out ok, but it still could have been leagues better.

//If actual DB ever decided to do this, I imagine they'd do it better, but also they wouldn't use Survivor Makoto, so I doubt he would really win.

//The analysis was fine, but again, this being the first chapter in the series, it's really supposed to set a boundary of quality more than anything, and every episode that comes after it, save for Peko Vs RHM, just turned out to be so much better. And keeping both of them within character while also making them try to murder each other was far more difficult than it should have been.

#10: SAKURA VS JONATHAN

//The best part about this fight was that I genuinely wasn't expecting Sakura to win going into it. And the fact that she was the first actual fighter who won her battle made a lot of people very happy. Aside from that, there's not much to say here.

//It's a very standard fist fight between two beefy people. and honestly, I feel that Jonathan, as much as I love JoJo, was among the opponents I DIDN'T really want to cover.

//And while I know I said I wasn't taking the verdict into account, part of me is not wholly sure our judgement on this one was correct, and we were worried about facing backlash, but fortunately, everyone seemed to agree with our reasoning in the end.

//But other than that, while there is style, there's little substance. Analyzing both these characters was fine, but not something I remember being that exciting. Similarly to Peko Vs RHM, Jonathan is capable of so much with Hamon, and Sakura is just a regular fighter who turns out to be super duper powerful, but describing her techniques was a bit of a chore.

//What was nice was explaining how the functionalities of breathing work in a fight. That was pretty fun.

//But yeah, while I don't dislike this matchup at all, I still feel like both characters have far better matchups that can happen instead of each other.

#9: KAEDE VS SARA

//Given that she's hands down my favorite character, I was super disappointed with how Kaede's episode turned out.

//Part of it was because we were fully prepared for Kotone to end up winning the poll, but right at the VERY LAST SECOND, Sara swept it out from under her. So we ended up abandoning our planned script and instead rewrote about half of it to make up for it.

//That, and I unfortunately did not time this release well. This fight dropped IMMEDIATELY after Kaede achieved her latest and greatest feat in Survivor, and it made it clear to everybody that she had this one in the bag. Of course, that chapter and this fight were all pre-planned, so I can assure you that it's not unfair or cheating, and Kaede would have won regardless of whether she had taken down Himiko's robot or not. Even still, I do realize just how cheap it might seem from an outside perspective, and I acknowledge this, but trust me when I say that this was little more than poor planning on my part.

//But weirdly enough, what I enjoyed so much about this part wasn't analyzing Kaede. It was analyzing SARA.

//Going into it, we all knew that Kaede was going to win, because she's insanely powerful in DR Survivor, and against Sara, we never thought she was ever going to stack up.

//But our expectations were rather subverted when we started doing the analysis for her. While we were right in that Sara didn't have what it took to beat Kaede, we were pleasantly surprised by how much she DID have going for her, and how squaring up to the Ultimate Pianist turned out not to be such a pipe dream.

//One other issue I have with this part of the series is how much both characters analyses focused on their STORIES more than their capabilities in a fight, but again, like Peko, Kaede's lineup of abilities is rather straightforward and simple, and there wasn't any need to discuss the functionalities of the hacking gun, since Komaru Vs Katie already went very deep into that, and repeating it immediately afterwards was pointless.

//And as someone who loves writing Kaede, it became very difficult to have her and Sara interact in a way that was interesting without breaking character for either of them. The final result and the way they were both portrayed wasn't exactly what I wished for, even if it was...acceptable. It was just very hard to imagine how a fight would start out between them, given that both are very logical and try to assess a situation before deciding to leap into battle, so we were forced to get a little OOC.

//But while it could have been better, what we ended up putting together was pretty fun in the end, so it gets a little higher than some of the previous matchups.

#8: AKANE VS CHIE

//The reason why this fight ends up in the lower half of the countdown is because a lot of the actual fight is just Akane and Chie smacking each other. Chie uses her spells sparingly and there's not much substance to their actual duel.

//But the thing is that it's perfectly in character for both of them, so it's not really a good idea to change that aspect.

//Akane is already a character who I wasn't looking forward to analyzing, since while I don't HATE her, I certainly don't like her as much as ANYONE else in her home game. And a lot of it, for both of them, was going to pertain to their abilities more than their personality and history, since Akane is very one-dimensional, and Chie is a very standard character as well.

//But this was the first fight where I really felt like we were making something special, and again, while I said the verdict does not ultimately affect my ranking, this one is an exception, since I was VERY surprised that Akane pulled out the win.

//I'm GLAD. But surprised.

//Especially given how much people were underestimating Akane prior to the release of the fight, it was fun to see people react to Akane actually beating a character who comes from a series full of infinitely powerful magic users, since I, and everyone else, really underestimated how ridiculous Danganronpa scaling could be.

//And this was the fight that I think got a lot of people hooked on the concept, so I'm grateful that we ended up doing it. If either of these characters ever got into DB, which is quite unlikely, this is a matchup I would really like to see.

#7: MIKAN VS FLUTTERSHY

//Say hello to the thing that made me a Brony.

//Yeah, I had a LOT of fun with this one. I already knew that My Little Pony's lore ran deeper than it really should, especially with the latest DB season running Bill Cipher VS Discord, and I had guessed in advance that Fluttershy would somehow end up taking this.

//The fight is incredibly one-sided, even though neither Fluttershy, nor Mikan are really "fighters" per se. Given the fact that Fluttershy has access to so much powerful magic, there wasn't any way that Mikan could contend with it.

//Even so, the reason why this ended up being a rich man's version of Peko Vs RHM is that Mikan not only has so many more gadgets to work with, but both these characters have interesting, cute and well-made personalities that clash with each other PERFECTLY.

//Of every fight in this arc, this one is the one I feel has the most interaction potential. And in my mind, that tea party absolutely happened when Mikan broke out of that stone.

//When this fight won the poll, I wasn't particularly happy at first, and I still think Medic would have made for a more interesting fight, but I ended up falling in love with this one more than I meant to, especially with how much I learned about My Little Pony, and how much fun I had explaining the lore and scaling of Fluttershy.

#6: MUKURO VS KAYANO

//I had this one a lot lower originally, but when I went back to edit it and reread it, I fell in love with this one all over again.

//Danganronpa and Assassination Classroom have always been fundamentally similar stories, and not just because Monokuma and Korosensei are in similar positions in both.

//This fight was less of an argument between who would win between Mukuro Ikusaba and Kaede Kayano, and more of an argument between Danganronpa and Assassination Classroom, and which one has the more crazy scaling. And it was a BLAST.

//This is one of the few examples in this arc where both fighters are fundamentally similar and formidable warriors, in a way that I felt was akin to Black Widow VS Widowmaker, which to this day, is still one of my top DB episodes.

//And originally, this fight was going to be similar to that Assassin V Assassin fight, but factoring in Mukuro's Battle Trance and Kayano's tentacles, this was going to get anime as fuck at some point, and it did, and I really enjoyed it.

//Mukuro losing kind of sucked, but it didn't affect my enjoyment.

//And while I fully expected Reze to win the poll, given Chainsaw Man's popularity, I think that this is genuinely Mukuro's best potential matchup if she ever became a canon Death Battle character. And you know what? I'd actually like to see it.

#5: NARUMI VS TOGA

//So this was the first fight where I actually thought to myself, "yep, this one is my favourite."

//And as mentioned in the episode itself, we had FAR MORE trouble analyzing this fight than we thought, and we honestly didn't know if Narumi had it in her to beat Toga. It was only after hours of deliberating and getting all our facts together that we decided on a verdict.

//Toga being able to survive explosions that happened INSIDE her body as a result of her fight against Curious was the biggest outlier for us, and we read over everything that both these girls had done before we decided our final victor. And it was a fun ride throughout.

//Especially because I never quite realized just how many connections there were between Narumi and Toga, not even the fact that they're both yandere's for the main protagonist of their series.

//But the fun part was seeing how their own unique styles of fighting, which are REMARKABLY different, stacked up against each other. This fight will never happen, since Narumi Osone was never an official DR character, but if Survivor was canon, I'd love to see it. I've thought of some matchups for Narumi since, but Toga still retains her crown as the one with the most connections.

//Some of the later episodes dethroned it, obviously, but it's still one of my favourites, kicking off the top 5.

#4: JUNKO VS MONIKA

//I was really really worried that this finale was going to suck, and I'm super glad that it didn't. It was by far the most difficult matchup to write because we wanted to make it a spectacle, but were struggling on ways to do that.

//What made it so difficult was the analysis portion, not the fight, and the reason for that is because this is a composite version of Junko, which means we have to go over EVERYTHING she has across the whole series. And given the fact that Junko pops up in basically EVERY ONE of the series iterations, that's a LOT. Monika, in contrast, does not have NEARLY that much, so a lot of her analysis, at least in the beginning, details her origin story, then breaks down her powers and what she can do with it.

//And learning about the actual lore of how DDLC came to be in-universe was super fun actually.

//This was also probably the most even fight in the series, barring one particular fight that we'll get to next, for obvious reasons. Even if the setup is a little convoluted, it's not hard to imagine that someone like Monika could exist in the world of DR Survivor, especially given that there's already a chunky handful of AI characters in the main cast. And in the case of her and AI Junko, when they are at their best, they can both manipulate space and time in the digital world they live in to such an extent that stats practically mean nothing. The real fight comes down to which one of them is the more parasitic AI, just like in canon episode, Ultron VS Sigma.

//And that's what I think really sold this one for me - the fight, and the way it turned out. Junko was smarter, stronger, and generally had so many legs up on Monika that makes it almost impossible to beat her normally, but she didn't have the advantage in the ONE deciding factor that dictated this fight.

//And I think there's something really ironic about that, especially considering that's typically how Junko's plans fall apart in Danganronpa. The only reason that anyone ever beats her despite being so cartoonishly powerful is simply by never giving up, and exploiting the one weakness she has. Something that Monika does professionally.

//So while I do prefer Junko Vs Springtrap as a concept that I would like to see, this one turned out to be way more fun than I thought it would, and I'm glad we did it.

#3: KOMARU VS KATIE

//There's really not much to say about this one, it's just a fun time. But that's what you should expect when you put the goofiest protag herself against the protag of the Mitchell's Vs the Machines.

//Katie's analysis is one of the best in this series, and one of the most fun I had writing. Komaru's isn't AS good, but I still think both were solid sequences detailing the characters and their stories, even if in Komaru's case, it had to be cut a little to go over the important origin points.

//But the very obvious reason why this fight and its conclusion ended up being so good was obviously because of the verdict, and what we broke down in the conclusion. In that from the feats we see of them, Komaru and Katie are fighters on a near equal level, to the point where it's hard to know for sure which one of them could win if they did fight. Thus, it ended up as a draw.

//And I think that's a really solid way to conclude this thing. Both are (originally) gun-wielding teenage girls fighting against a robot apocalypse, with their stories throughout the entire series putting a heavy emphasis on family, and the importance of it. In a way, that makes these two perfect opponents for one another, and the way this fight ended up portraying that in the end was pretty fun to watch.

//And the interaction potential as a result leaves very little to be desired. Their personalities clash perfectly, as do their goofy little quirks and interactions, and the fight itself was also fun, especially with how it takes them across the city scape and forcing both of them to get creative, something they both excel at.

//Like I said, there's not much to say here. This one was just super fun and I like how it turned out.

#2: SEIKO VS LIZARD

//So you know how only like, one person voted this one as their favorite one? Yeah, fuck the rest of you, lol.

//This battle gets my verdict for biggest surprise of the series. Because this one turned out amazing and I didn't believe it would.

//I might have mentioned this before, but originally, the 10th battle in the original lineup was going to be Kuripa, but he was swapped out for Seiko last minute. This is because Kuripa still has some more insane feats on the way in future arcs when he makes his grand return, and I wanted to save his fight for a potential future season lineup.

//Seiko was a GREAT substitute though, especially with her fight against Kanade in the main series coming shortly before this. And weirdly, from both the analysis, to each characters similarities and stories, to how an actual fight between them would go, all of it FUCKS HARD!

//One thing you might have noticed with the lineup of this arc is I really really REALLY wanted to avoid putting any Marvel characters in the polls. The simple reason being that Marvel and DC are so drastically fucking overdone in Death Battle, and I didn't think anyone would want to see it in this because I know I certainly wouldn't.

//This however, turned out to be a GREAT exception. If Lizard ever got into Death Battle, there's quite a few opponents he could go up against; Man-Bat being his biggest contender IMO, but Seiko, I think, is an underrated alternative.

//The big thing that sells this fight for me is that it somehow succeeds at being both a Brains Vs Brawn battle, AS WELL AS a feral monster battle. As mentioned in the post-analysis, Seiko's genius with medicine is so potent, it's not impossible that she could have fashioned a cure for Connors, especially since unlike him, her bestial form still retains some of her humanity. But not only was Connors just too insanely powerful compared to her, he actually had the means to COUNTER this weakness!

//Connors winning was pretty obvious, considering Marvel scaling gets insane, and he was several hundred times more powerful than Seiko, but even so, this fight didn't feel totally lame and one-sided, likely because even though they take different forms, both characters had strikingly similar abilities and feats.

//And one thing everybody knew going into this that I'm so glad we were able to deliver for this was this fight needed to be VISCIOUS. It's basically the epitome of two mutant monsters trying to tear each other to shreds, very much like Beast VS Goliath or Sabrewulf VS Jon Talbein, and the sewer system made for an appropriate and gritty setting.

//This was certainly the most pleasant surprise of the series, and had it not been for one little thing, this would have EASILY been my favourite fight.

//That one thing being...

#1: HAJIME VS DEKU

//I mean...COME ON! How could it NOT be!?

//This is my most wanted Death Battle of all time, and it seems to be the most wanted for the voting audience as well, since it won the poll in an ABSOLUTE LANDSLIDE!

//And unlike the other top spots on the community poll, this is the one that we all actually agree on.

//Not just because Hajime would hands down be the best Danganronpa character to premiere in Death Battle (besides maybe Junko), but personally, Deku VS Asta, Deku's canon episode, left a lot to be desired. It feels like the team were trying to ham up the fact that they were finally getting Deku in Death Battle, but then put him against a super mediocre opponent with surface level connections

//The way THESE TWO contrast though? It runs a LOT DEEPER than that.

//Hajime and Deku's stories are basically the exact same. The only difference is the story beats and the outcome, with Deku's story being that of a rising hero, and Hajime's being a fallen hero. And as a massive fan of both Danganronpa and My Hero Academia, it was my duty to make certain that this one turned out the best it could be.

//Which is the reason why this is so goddamn long. In an actual Death Battle episode, a lot of this important info would be reserved for the black boxes, but since we don't have those, we went over BASICALLY EVERYTHING. And what helped with it is that both characters have deep lore, interesting personalities, awesome powers, and everything we could possibly need to rant on for ages without seeming contrived or bored.

//Essentially, it's the complete reverse of Peko VS RHM, where both characters have abundant content and character, as opposed to basically no content or character. Aside from that, there are three big reasons why this is my favourite one of the lot.

//Exhibit A: Symbol of Hope.

//Up until this point, I have never brought up the music tracks for these battles, simply because, like early DB, a lot of them aren't original music composed for the specific matchups, being either a random video game music track, fan song, or a commissioned matchup track by Brandon Yates, and some of them work better than others (personally hated the Mikan Vs Fluttershy one, but I legit had no other option when it came to a gritty, despairing track that also featured chipper-ass MLP.

//Symbol of Hope is one of the commissioned Brandon Yates tracks that wasn't made for an actual DB episode, but it's one of his best tracks ever. If I have anything to be concerned about, the lyrics of Symbol of Hope contrast quite heavily to the theme of the actual battle we presented, where in the song, Hajime and Deku seem to be at odds with one another, fighting for the same reasons, but are against each other because of their different philosophies. I think this is pretty realistic though, and it doesn't take away from the fact that I still love the track. Plus, it's pretty long, which is good because this fight is also pretty long.

//Exhibit B: Character interactions and dynamic.

//Speaking of which, in this battle, Deku and Hajime's dynamic in this episode is mainly inspired by All Might VS Might Guy, Goku VS Superman 3 and Saitama VS Popeye; kind of a mesh between the three. Throughout most of their fight, Deku's main goal isn't just to win the fight, but it's also to show Hajime the respect he deserves, and give him a battle to remember. Hajime, who doesn't take Deku seriously at first, going along with it for the sake of appealing to this kid, eventually starts to break out into a joyous sweat when Deku raises the stakes and starts fighting him on an equal level; something that Hajime has never gotten in his life since becoming an Ultimate Hope, not even from the likes of Fujimori or Komaeda, other Ultimate Hope's.

//Having Deku's optimism break through Hajime's apathy, even though it costs him the fight, turned out to be a heartwarming, fun ending, and a great way to end the semi-final match.

//And exhibit C: their powers and abilities.

//Analyzing the full potential of One For All and the full potential of the Ultimate Hope was AMAZING, especially given how much we needed to consider for the verdict. As we mentioned, and we stand by this, it's likely that Deku at his full potential is actually physically stronger than Ultimate Hope Hajime, even though his strength is supposed to be the peak of humanity.

//But even if that is the case, there's still the powers themselves to consider, Ultimate Luck being a VERY big caveat to take into account, but the fight we ended up coming up with showed off basically all their abilities and powers without being too weirdly contrived, and I absolutely dig it.

//If there are any issues with this, it's that the setting can be a little confusing, that much I am aware of. Halfway through the fight, it's revealed that Hajime and Deku are fighting in the Neo World because their power threatens to create potential world destruction if they clash, but since all these fights are taking place in a simulation already, it left a few people confused about the situation and...yeah I didn't really think that through, I'm sorry about that one.

//But yeah, that doesn't take away from how much I enjoyed this one, and it's easily my top pick for this arc.

-Mod

[yezielmoore]

20. Duel

Went with the battle of wills route, rather than actual duel because writing fight scenes is agonizing. Follows directly after the previous prompt (#19: Taken). I also tried to mesh some consecuences of introducing Honkai in XIV, but like, softcore. This is my indulgent AU, i'll leave the mass casualties to HI3.

But to give those that don't know HI3 a sense of scale and why Himeko puts herself at the same level as Hydaelyn. The 3rd Herrscher partial awakening was called an Eruption, it destroyed a bustling city and killed millions. The 2nd Herrscher awakening was called an Impact (Honkai Impact ey), she decimated Siberia and proceeded to destroy several other cities via meteors, killing around 50 million. Herrschers fuck around and everybody else finds out. Meanwhile, Himeko is the only source of honkai energy in Etherys and also sane(ish). And she hasn't awakened fully. yet.

~.~.~

In a space beyond physical reality, Himeko stood alone. Or floated. The void under her feet felt solid to her, probably because she expected it to be and not because it actually was solid.

A few paces in front of her was Thancred, floating like an abandoned ragdoll, finally free of that ascian parasite, but dying all the same. Pink geometric lines of corruption had already taken over his arms, soon the rest would follow and Thancred would be either a corpse or a zombie. Himeko knew that her presence in her current form was only killing him faster. She was also aware that he was past the point of rescue, even for the resources of her civilization.

The Himeko of before would have ended his suffering, halted the corruption before it could spread to others. The same way she had done it to dozens of others, innocent civilians, fellow valkyries… fallen students. Only death awaited the corrupted, such was the truth of her life. It was a grim duty, one she had taken upon her shoulders, much like the dying man in front of her had taken up a similar duty for their tempered.

It will only take a second. He’ll feel nothing. It will be a mercy.

The reality around her shifted, Himeko could feel the grasp of that higher being loosening. Soon they would be back… she would be back. The man in front of him would never make it there alive. He still breathed, but in truth he was already dead.

Himeko clenched her fists, the space around her distorting slightly by a wave of heat, like a mirage in a desert. No. She didn’t go to these fucking lengths, didn’t fucking lose the last of her humanity, only to fail. Himeko refused to watch helplessly as another friend lost his life, this time because of her. Her influence, her lack of control. Her sanity could not take that blow. Himeko refused to yield.

She was so, so sick of losing people.

Why though? They will die anyway. Fragile, useless things. 

So she turned around, finally facing the humongous Crystal that made up the body of the Mothercrystal. 

“Heal him.”

It wasn’t a petition. Himeko wasn’t a supplicant in front of her Goddess. She was her own worst nightmare, a nascent Herrscher, and unless this being of crystal decided to cut her investment short, before the transformation could finish, then this was the only time they would meet in such uneven ground.

Even on Earth, with all the knowledge they had, a Herrscher was a world-ending threat. Eorzea didn’t have a fraction of their technology and none of the knowledge, if the Mothercrystal said no and didn’t kill her here and now… 

…they could crush Her, melt that shiny surface into slag…

Himeko cut that thought before it could spiral into a Dark path. She wasn’t that far gone, she wasn’t.

“I know you can do it. You healed me and I was fucking dead. I know I was.”

Himeko wasn’t sure how she knew this, her memories from the period between her fight with Sirin and waking up in that boat were hazy and broken, like a fever dream, but even less clear (must be what happens when you’re brain dead, ha!). Despite her faulty memory, Himeko was absolutely certain she had met this goddess before; she had been dead or close enough. Looking back, there was only one time such a meeting could have taken place and only one reason for her to be alive now. 

“My child…”

“Don’t infantilize me!” It was only a lack of oxygen in this in-between place that prevented her surroundings from igniting into a firestorm that reflected her inner feelings. Himeko took a deep breath. Then another. “You may be older than me by orders of magnitude, but I’m not a child.”

Calm. She needed to be calm. Calm-er at least. Whether this being was a god or a God, violence wouldn’t get her the results she wanted. While setting the giant crystal on fire may satisfy her temporarily, in the end all she would have to show for that would be a dead friend, a divine enemy and the complete destruction of her humanity. Himeko knew this and she knew how to negotiate. She could be better, she would be better. 

Ever so slowly, the blaze around Himeko gentled and dimmed until it was a soft glow. Comforting campfire instead of destructive firestorm. 

“If you want-” Himeko stopped, breathed deeply one more time and cleared her throat before starting again. “If you want me to fulfill whatever deal we made, then I need you to save him. I need… I can’t do it alone…”

But you’re not alone. 

Himeko swallowed. “I can’t do it on my own,” she repeated. “Everybody knows the hero needs the power of friendship, you know,” she cracked a smile.

“You don’t… remember,” came the unexpected answer from the crystal.

“…no. I guess this is news to you too.”

There was a lull in the conversation then. Himeko shot a look at Thancred, but the man remained exactly where and how she left him. Not worse simply by virtue of existing in this half-way plane, a meeting point between reality and dream, between the physical and metaphysical. 

In all likelihood time didn’t even pass here, just like the floor didn’t exist, she perceived it because she expected it. 

She returned her attention to the Mothercrystal. Himeko could feel the weight of Her contemplation. This was a goddess that didn’t interfere with mortals, or so everybody said, and here Himeko was, half asking, half demanding Her interference. 

Everybody, she decided, was full of shit. Himeko's current situation was proof of godly meddling. 

In the end, after a long time and also no time at all, Hydaelyn’s voice echoed again.

“Bring him… closer.” She did. “You will be… the template…” 

Himeko opened her mouth. Closed it. In her urgency to find a solution that didn’t include murder, Himeko forgot to think what healing would entail. There was no HSN-46 in this world and no Schariac blood to make the god-killing spear. There was, however, Himeko, with all that entailed. 

“Just… don’t make him too much like me. We only need one ticking time bomb, yeah?” She joked weakly. Then pointed a thumb at her back. “The implants here, those should suffice. Probably,” she muttered.

“We shall… see.”

Himeko swallowed, but bravely walked into the light, Thancred safely in her arms. “Yeah, I was afraid of that.”

[blorbocedes]

Okay this is gonna be long but here are some quotes from the book:

- "Meanwhile, Lewis was very friendly and welcoming, and presumably confident enough in his status at the team that he didn't need to feel put out. At first, anyway"

- "Did he like being beaten by his Teammate? Probably not, but he's a competitor and I'm sure that like me he relished the challenge. That's why we do what we do. Personally, he was fine with me, no issues at all at this stage of the game, but you could just tell he was a little bit peeved. That thing about it being *his* team? It was right on the money. And if you ask me, he was finding ur difficult to get a handle on the fact that it was *our* team now"

- "[basically Red Bull being a party team]. Ferrari were fun then, too, and overall it was a good atmosphere in the paddock, with McLaren right in the thick of it. But like I say, I'm not sure that was to Lewis's taste. I don't think that *I* was to his taste, if I'm honest"

- "Then on the Podium there was what media called some "frosty" body language and a "muted" celebration. In fact, he came straight out and asked me about it: "Did you pass me against team orders?" He was the winner. Jesus. "No" I told him "I did not pass you against orders. I was never told not to pass you." That sent him off thinking that the team were taking my sude against his, though he bever did explain why they would want to do that [because in a 1-2 most of the team doesn't care which of them won]"(Note: He later mentions he hates when 2nd place winners are upset on the Podium cause they're basically living the dream and being a bitch about it lmao)

- "As for Lewis, I still think he was a bit freaked out by the way things at the team had changed. Again. Let's be clear about thus. He was smiley and friendly. But as everybody says about him, he's very friendly and polite and full of respect for the sport and his fellow competitors, but there's stuff going on beneath that surface - stuff you only occasionally glimpse. That scene on the Podium, for example. He can be quite unpredictable in his responses to things, gets an idea in his head and you think, /where on earth did he get that from?/ Or maybe it was simply the case that he'd had things his own way for too long."

- "We clipped and he was off into the pit wall, his race over with what they thought was broken rear suspension. 'What was he doing?' I yelled over the radio, privately wondering how Lewis would react, because like I say, he could be unpredictable that way. [More about the race] 'Mate, sorry, I didn't see you.' 'Don't worry' he said 'it's not your fault. I shouldn't have put my nose there' And that was that. Despite the fact that our collision had put him out of the face he was totally cool about it. Go figure."

- "[...] when Felipe tapped Lewis on the shoulder, made a sarcastic comment, and Lewis responded by snapping 'Don't touch me again.' /Ouch/. [Comparison to other sports] However, it did highlight a Lewis tendency, which was to let himself get rattled, and he was acquiring a bit of a reputation as a hot-head."

Okay so there's gonna be another ask, but I'm capping it here bc the next few quotes are about Lewis Twitter so it's a good cut.

Anyway I really think it's fascinating how he talks about Lewis, because while it's obviously just his opinion, compared to the drama that Jenson had with Teammates and talked about in the books as well ... Lewis just seems like a spoiled kid realising he can't always get everything. Also the fact that Jenson says that Lewis constantly assumes the worst or has like way out there theories about what happened ... obviously a lot of people were out to get Lewis but that extent? Fascinating when you think about the supposed mind games Nico played with him

Omg thank you for this! Lewis definitely used to be a hot head, and thought people and teams were out to get him. Which I don't doubt, the racism and micro aggressions as the first black driver he did face also made him see enemies where people were neutral. also his 2008 championship happened because of one overtake taking it away from Felipe, so I'm sure he wanted to prove to himself it wasn't a fluke -- and then the year at mclaren Jenson beat him. 2010's Lewis was certainly... a guy. these books, as all autobiographies ft a ghostwriter are, are Jenson's recollection of what happened so it's coloured by his perspective. Lewis is also a sore loser ahaha.

"I'm not sure I was to his taste." 🫣😵‍💫😳😳😳 go off, button

this is fascinating, thank you for sharing!!!

[a-lonely-dunedain]

if you want an additional Situation, id be curious about ethedis with #2 :D

ok well. idk why my brain decided these go together but it turned out Very Mean oops. sorry it took so long my brain just, was Not letting me write descriptions. or dialogue. also idk why this is in 2nd person but that's just what it started as and I guess we're committed now *shrug*

#2: time loop (creative liberties taken) #6: reverse amnesia (no one can remember the character)

“Sorry, Corunir, was it? I think I’m a little lost-” Ethedis sets down her cup on the coffee table between the two of you, looking at you intently. There is the sound of rain pattering outside. You search her eyes for the faintest hint of recognition -futile, you know- but still she looks at you like a total stranger. Courteous, curious, but distant. “Can you explain it one more time?” You know it won’t do any good, but you start anyway.

“I’m afflicted by a curse. You’re not going to remember this conversation, you will not remember my face, my voice, or anything I’ve ever done. Sometime between now and dawn, you and everyone else I’ve met today will forget. And the same thing will happen tomorrow.” You managed to keep your voice level explaining it this time. You’ve had practice now. 

“I was a part of Golodir's Company, then the Grey Company, and then the Conquest of Gorgoroth. I became like this after retrieving some kind of cursed artifact from Mordor. I did not realize how dangerous it was at the time. Evidently the curse had a delayed reaction, as it only took effect after I had turned it over to the Houses of Lore for study and safekeeping.”

“I see…” You remain silent and let her process your admittedly hard to believe story. She always takes it better than most you encounter, no accusations of madness or ill intent at least. 

When your brothers see someone they don’t recognize wearing one of their stars, they tend to assume the worst, that it was stolen by an imposter trying to infiltrate their ranks or something of that nature. You of course don’t blame them for it, it’s an understandable reaction. There are so few of you left now, of course a stranger in one of their uniforms would be cause for alarm, but you cannot deny how much it hurts.

So you keep your star hidden when you speak to those of them still in the city. Sometimes you still try to explain your plight, sometimes they actually believe you, but always they forget by the next dawn. 

You find it hurts less to keep your distance from them. The mistrustful look in their eyes typically reserved for strangers is almost too much to bear. 

But Ethedis has always been a little more trusting. Ok a lot more trusting, to an almost worrying degree, but at least it means you have someone to talk to. Coming here to see her has probably been the only thing keeping you sane these last few weeks, she’s one of the few people you find easy to talk to in your current predicament.

The second time you came to her, you just broke. Realizing she truly remembered nothing about you, and the hopelessness of your situation truly starting to set in, is a pain you almost wished you could forget. 

But instead of doing the reasonable thing and demanding that the sobbing madman leave her room at once, she actually attempted to comfort you. A little clumsily perhaps, but the fact that she tried at all was enough to hold you together.

Maybe some part of her could see you were telling the truth, despite how strange it was. Some elves have the power to see into people’s hearts, and though Ethedis never believed she possessed such an ability, you have your own suspicions. She’s always finding new ways to surprise you.

She rummages around her belongings for a sheet of paper and something to write with. You don’t bother telling her it’s pointless. Come morning those papers she’s hastily scribbling down your story on will be blank once again, but you don’t stop her, there’s no reason to keep her from trying.

“So, this relic then,” she says without looking up from the paper “I assume you’ve already tried simply breaking it, and that clearly didn’t work.”

“Yes, the enchantment upon it protected it from any harm I was capable of.”

“I wonder if there’s something I could do to it… maybe tomorrow, after I’ve read over these notes, I could try-”

“I do not mean to sound rude in saying this, but I know that will not work.” You say gently, “You have tried that before, and many other things.” 

She’s attempted to unravel the enchantment a few times now, but truthfully you don’t want her anywhere near it. Not until you’ve exhausted all other options. The risk of her becoming cursed herself may be small, but it is far too great for you to bear. 

You think it might have been your proximity to the relic over such a long period of time that caused you to become like this, as it was on your person all the way from Mordor to Minas Tirith. But you still think it’s too risky for anyone to get near it, even for a short amount of time. Especially Ethedis. You cannot let her fall to this fate. You cannot let her be forgotten.

The scholars in the Houses of Lore at least seem to understand that whatever enchantment is on the relic is dangerous, so it is locked away far from anyone. Ethedis had to pull a great many strings for you to be allowed near it, until you learned who you needed to talk to and exactly what to say to be let in by yourself. 

“And, besides that, I guess I should tell you those notes will not be there for you to read tomorrow.”

“Ah.” her pencil stops “I take it the words will vanish as well as my memories?” 

you nod solemnly. “Anything written by or about me, I’m afraid. Truthfully, I did not come here to try to work out a solution. Not tonight.”

“Don’t tell me you're giving up, are you?” She asks sharply. Ah, there’s that stubborn hope you remember.

“No, not yet.” you sigh “But I am tired. Tired of all the dead ends. Right now, I just wanted to talk to you, hear your voice.”

“I suppose it would get rather lonely.”

You nod sadly. ‘Lonely’ seems a bit of a tame way to describe what you became after losing all your friends overnight, but it gets the point across.

“So, how did I know you?”

“In Angmar. You were there at my lowest point, when my spirit was broken by the Watchers, you gave me hope and light I thought were long beyond my reach. I have tried to be the same for you, in our battles with the Iron Crown, through the journey south, but… it seems I have once again fallen into my original role.”

She gives a thoughtful hum and glances out the window, between the storm and the darkness of night it is pitch black out there, but Ethedis still seems to be looking at something. “...Now that you mention it, it seems a bit unbelievable that I could have done all those things alone. I had not thought much about it, but it makes much more sense if I had a strong Ranger like you there with me.”

Your face gets a little flush “I think you give me a little too much credit, it was still mostly you-”

“Nonsense! I mean, Barad Gularan? Bogbereth? All those fights with Mordirith? They hardly seem like tasks for a lone elf, I must have had someone with me, and that must have been you.”

She looks back to you, her bright demeanor dimmed ever so slightly “I wish I remembered… You and I must have been close.”

“We were. Something other than friends, we loved each other, but we were not lovers, at least, not in the traditional sense. We didn’t really care what we called it, we were just… very important to each other.” It doesn’t feel right to refer to your relationship in the past-tense, you don’t want to think of it as being ‘over’, you still love her. But, you are a stranger to her now, present-tense would be inappropriate.

She looks at you piercingly, her bright green eyes seeming to search for something in you. Then her expression softens, something like pity almost.

“...do you need a hug?” 

You’re a little taken aback, she hasn’t asked that before. “I… wasn’t going to ask… I am a stranger to you after all, but if you’re offering-” you try to swallow a lump in your throat, and you cannot look her in the eyes “Yes. I need one.”

She walks over and sits next to you, then pulls you close. Tighter than you had expected, not how you think she would embrace a total stranger such as yourself.

You hadn’t noticed how cold you were until you felt the warmth of her arms. Ice has seeped into your very bones, and you do not want to let her go. It feels like it’s been years since you felt her embrace. The loneliness and the fear and the hopelessness all claw their way to the surface of your heart, desperate to be laid bare before her. You fight with everything you have not to sob into her shoulder.

You don’t want to let go, but you know you must. Your time here runs short.

As you pull away you hastily wipe away some stray tears that had fallen unbidden from your eyes.

“You will find some way to break this curse.” she states, her eyes not filled with hope, but with certainly. 

“If anyone else had said that I would think they were lying to be kind. Not you, though. I believe you.” She always has plenty of certainty to spare when you find yourself without any. There was a time when you might have thought it was mere naivety, but you know better now.

But you’ve been here too long now. It’s late, she might forget about you at any moment.

“I should be going now.” you say reluctantly “The curse will take effect soon I think, and I doubt you will be happy to find me in your room when that happens.”

As you walk through the door, a chill suddenly runs all the way through you, your blood turns to ice and your breath freezes in your lungs, now a puff of visible vapor before you. 

It’s happening again. You mistimed this visit, you had hoped to leave before this. You don’t want to turn around, you hate watching people forget, but you turn anyway.

Ethedis sits with the blank papers in front of her, seeming a little confused. She shakes her head as if to dispel some fog in her mind.

“...What on earth was I-” She looks up at you, the stranger in her doorway, and jumps to her feet in alarm.

“Um, hello? What are- what you are doing here?”

“Oh, sorry to disturb you, I just got a little lost.” You can’t hide the sadness in your gaze, and that probably only confuses her more.

“Wait, you…” she looks you up and down, then tilts her head “You look like a Ranger, but I have not seen you before… Who are you?”

You shrug “I should be going now.” and quickly make your exit.

She probably thinks she’s seen a ghost. You guess that isn’t too far off from the truth.

—

Eventually morning comes again. You walk through the streets of the lower circles, blending into the crowds like a ghost. 

You’re not really sure what you’re doing down here, but you find it’s easier to think when you’re walking, so here you are. 

You’ve been going around in circles in your head, no closer to any possible solution. Gandalf might have the power to undo this curse, but he is far away aiding the Conquest. You doubt he would be able to fix this without the relic on hand, and removing it from the Houses of Lore only risks exposing more people to the curse, so you wouldn’t dare try stealing it unless you had no other choice. If only you could send a message to him, but nothing you try to write ever leaves a trace. You could get Ethedis to write something to him again, but you’re starting to think anything written in your presence is doomed to vanish, as the last letter she wrote mentioned nothing about you or the curse, but it was still blank the next day. 

But something more alarming has come to your attention, too. It’s hard to gauge, but you think people are starting to forget about you faster than before. You feel chilled at odd hours of the day, and sometimes people cannot seem to look directly at you or hear your voice, almost as if you aren’t wholly there to them. You might not have time to wait for Gandalf. Could this curse even have the power to fully erase someone? You hope not, you hope you’re just imagining it, and you pray you never have to find out.

You wish you had never retrieved the damn thing. You don’t know what could have possibly possessed you to go to Mordor alone, not while Ethedis had not fully recovered from her injuries. You would have hated to leave her like that. You recall it made perfect sense at the time, it seemed important.

Another new worry has been clawing in the back of your mind. Perhaps you didn’t go to Mordor alone, and perhaps you were not the only one forgotten. Your actions do not make much sense otherwise-

In your distraction, you plowed headfirst into someone on the street. A young man with a distinctive red scarf and fiery hair to match. You do not know him. 

He looks like he hasn’t slept in a week. You try to ask if he’s alright, but before you can say anything he quickly mutters an apology and slips out of sight into a nearby alleyway.

You think you should ignore him and focus on the task at hand, but, there was something else… 

When you touched him, you felt that same chill as before, when the curse takes effect every night. Smaller perhaps, but unmistakable. You still feel cold, you can see your breath.

The man with the scarf has some connection to it, and you need to get to the bottom of it.

—

(surprise! I found a way to be mean to Tossdir in this too! I am only a little sorry >:) you thought I just forgot to mention him earlier? nooo, but everyone else did! I have some vague ideas for where to go with this one actually. maybe I'll do a continuation if people are interested idk. this doesn't feel like my finest work but hey practice is practice and I think the concept is neat)

[on-my-way-to-the-woods]

Well, I have a half inch wide piece of metal through my tire so I'm probably not going to have time to write a nice post reflecting on anything tomorrow either, so I'm just going to give the bullet point version of what happened and hope I get a chance to sit and process events eventually.

TLDR: had a 'might die if alone' breathing problem, F's excellent first aid mostly resolved it, ER was as expected (lame)

Had the worst breathing attack so far. Pins & needles everywhere, wheezing on both inhale & exhale, loss of coordination, turned blue, probably was flirting with the edge of unconsciousness, etc.

I'd used the rescue inhaler before the problems started, I used it again at the beginning of problems, and again as I was trying to get myself into the shower so the steam could help

Breathing continues to worsen

F's first aid is so successful that I'm mostly okay seeming by the time we get to the ER (half-an-hour away). (Thanks, love)

Expectations were already low (1. we don't have a lot of faith in ERs based on prior experiences and 2. F knows the recommended ER procedures for asthma attacks and it is basically 'give a shit ton of albuterol until they are breathing again' and we were already doing that)

I check myself in because I have regained the ability to use full sentences, explain what happened, and let them know that I have used a shit ton of albuterol already

They call me back surprisingly fast, but it also doesn't seem to be a busy night.

Nurse: you're here for your heart rate? Me: no... Nurse: huh. She said something about your heart rate Me: well, I've used a lot of albuterol to get my breathing under control, that'd raise it Nurse: hmm...

First thing they do is give me an EKG 🤦 Which, like, I get it, shortness of breath + chest pain, but I also would have been a lot less irritated if they had done anything 2nd to look into the breathing (or at all). Especially since I've clearly said that I used more than the usual dose of a medication that has a known (and not uncommon) side effect of tachycardia

IDK, at least have a nurse check that I'm using the inhaler right since I said I was struggling with it (I was struggling to walk at that point, but, y'know) 🙄

They release me at 2am or so after my heart rate has settled. Doctor: do you feel any better? Me: no, feels about the same as when I arrived Doctor: okay, try to avoid triggers. Bye

And the most annoying thing is there isn't even a record of the EKG, it's not listed in my discharge paperwork or on the online chart, so I don't even know if they even successfully got it after readjusting several times