#lore ideas for my tribe oh no

[lyss-sketchbox]

Have you played through Natlan a little bit yet? Because I love it except for one thing. Does the Archon quest feel...off to you? At least the first act. Specifically the character introductions and character acting?

Funny thing actually i JUST finished it last night!

Well uh spoilers ahead

I think its... alright-ish? Act 1 basically sets you up with the basics, the characters, the culture, the traditions, and lore so we know whats up. Cool. We are literally being fed information because we are tourists and i can excuse that.

Idk how to feel about traveller and paimon literally going 'ah look, an opportunity has arised, its time to do our thing and help with this major event'. I mean yes thats how its always been but mentioning it doesnt... help... it just points out a flaw.

The characters are fine enough imo. I really expected Mualani to have this super hyper attitude and squeaky voice we usually get from an 'everyone loves me' character but shes suprisingly mellow and i appreciate that alot. (May change with Citlali though and im not looking forward to it)

I do not like how it is very Tell not Show. Because you know what keeps being shown? The fact that Kachina is A CHILD. Maybe she's not an actual child who knows but hyv is clearly infantilizing her. Case in point:

The chief of the tribe literally asked you for ID because you are strangers hanging out around her. He literally said 'a good feeling isnt gonna be enough for your parents to trust these people'

After the chief knew who the traveller is, he said he could trust Kachina to go to the Stadium to sign up and not get into trouble. She HAS to participate because she has an Ancient Name and you can barely trust her to go to the stadium???

Kachina mentioning how she can't keep excusing her age for being a bad warrior. So she KNOWS shes young and either she or other people in the past has excused her for her performance because of her age.

The genuine actual side by side of her first match up. You know a child vs a massive buff man. Maybe it's just me but her kit is clearly not made to DPS and hyv making us fight these opponents with only her kinda makes it feel so much like a drag.

Everyone around her keeps saying oh shes actually really good, she almost made it last time, shes super powerful just lacking confidence. Well we dont really... see it. When the tournament started and we play as mualani and kachina all i can think about it 'yeah mualani is gonna do all the fighting here' and it adds to the idea that kachina literally did the bare minimum. But then suddenly we get a really cool cutscene of her defeating a 3 times winning veteran. It is not believable to me.

Also now that she's won we are literally sending her off to fight the abyss where she has a REAL CHANCE OF DYING but we gotta be ok with it because she can get resurrected? Are we not supposed to be concerned that we are sending a child to war with a real chance of her dying?

It is such a tonal shock and the traveller or paimon barely says anything about it so WE are supposed to be fine with it too? It probably is culture shock but like... SOME people still sees Clorinde as a killer despite doing her job as a duelist, how do you think those people will think seeing THIS tradition.

As for the bit where we go with mualani while we wait for kachina to come back from war, it was... alright i think. But the manufactured 'chillness' is there, like you can tell theyre trying their hardest to potray this tribe as the chill surfers one. Its also obvious they want us to like Atea. While she looks a lil overbearing i appreciate that they were being subtle about her 'my life isnt gonna last long so i am doing this dangerous task', they had to explain it anyway for mualani but i think them not stating out right at first that 'woah you werent going here because you can use the hotsprings again!' is a good choice, that is a good show not tell i think.

For now though the entire thing simply feels off because i feel like there's no stake at all for us. If kachina loses? Then she doesn't get sent to the war, thats kind of a good thing seeing how she did ended up 'dying'. We've met the archon but for some reason hasn't asked about our siblings or anything and the only reason we are staying is because its the right thing to do. Thats it. I think it's just... alot offered to us but none with actual value to the traveller personally.

While you can argue that fontaine is exactly like that, that we only stayed to help lyney with his trial and everything else because its the right thing to do. Lyney is fatui. Neuvillette is a dragon. And furina is an absent archon. Theres an air of mystery around how fontaine works and these people have MASSIVE connections. You almost want to stay to see how it'll turn up, what information will show up.

Natlan on the other hand revealed basically everything to us in the first 2 acts. Natlan gets abyss attacks because they dont have strong leyline connections. The fatui wants the gnosis and literally will just fight the archon for it. The archon is chill and kind and is the reincarnation of the original archon because we were told that. The facking traitor from night-wind is obviously the Ororon guy lmao. So what IS left to speculate? To look out for?

Like wow she's gonna carve us an Ancient Name? Why lmao. What for? We can purify the abyss we are not dying in the Night Kingdom.

Shrugs idk feel free to fight me on this. I am just a lil jaded because i literally cannot take the archon seriously when shes literally just called 'Archon' with no special title or anything

[mrsometimes11]

Replaying DQ9, just got to Swinedimples, for the first time it's occurred to be how weird this place is.

Leaving aside the Harry Potter/Hogwarts reference that's aged terribly (but I think we can forgive a game from 2010 for not being able to forsee the future), the premise is bizarre.

Sure, it is a school, even fantasy worlds need schools, but why would you build a school in the middle of a frozen wasteland half a continent away from the nearest other settlement. We are told that the founder had a vision, that's cool lore and all, but how did he succeed?

Like seriously, why would you send your kid to a place like this? Do you just wake up one day and think, y'know what I really hate my child, I'm going to send them to a school in the Arctic Circle, on the other side of the world (okay Ivor's dad might do that). But somehow enough people decided that was a good idea, and the school survived and is intensely problematic.

As stated this school is in the middle of nowhere, the neighbours include a few hermits (including one guy who named the surrounding country after himself, and Santa) and, half a continent away, a small village belonging to a nomadic tribe, there aren't any local Kings or Mayors, as is normal for DQ locations, rather the only sort of leader is the Headmaster, and the school is basically his personal fiefdom. There's no other government, no supervising education authority, just one school teacher given the powers of a monarch, and you'd better hope he's a good guy, because that is a recipe for disaster.

Again, how much do you have to hate your kid to send them here? Not only are they going to school miles from home in a frozen wasteland, but you're trusting their wellbeing entirely to a stranger with no oversight.

And oh yeah, I said you'd better hope the headmaster is a good guy...

spoiler alert

He is not a good guy. A bunch of students go missing, kidnapped by a ghost as it transpires, and what does the headmaster and defacto king do? Does he send the remaining students home and call in his world's equivalent of the police? No, he keeps the students there, apparently not telling their parents (not that it'd do much good, as established their parents hate them), and hires a private detective with no ties to official authorities, a private detective who's identity he doesn't even verify, he assumes that the player and the thugs traveling with them are the detective and runs with it, before placing them amongst the students and letting them sleep in the students' dormitory. This is a safeguarding nightmare...

[ganondoodle]

So your took rewrite. I have a very important question regarding the Zonai. From what I hear they're supposed to be the dragon tribe I think? And that theory with Dinraal,Farosh, and Naydra. People were making theories about them being originally Zonai. Would those 3 have a important role in the rewrite??? I'm curious because I would love to see how you draw them and implement them into the lore. Also I love your demise and hylia! Love your work too so ye that's my question, apologies if I worded this wrong or seemed rude. I am not good with words ^^;;

so, with no intention to sound mean, this is a little awkward for me to answer bc i ... loathe the idea of the three dragons having been of sonau origin

i talked about it in a few rants before but i loved the dragons before bc they were something unexplained and ethereal, spirits older than time that yet still circling the skies unknown if they ever had a purpose, or if they even had to have one, just a part of this world, a mystery i loved bc it was unsolved (personally i liked the idea of them being like the last stage of evolution for the dragons from skyward sword but again thats just me) whenever i saw them i stood there and watched in awe, one of my most favorite things from botw ... or were ..

see it might have to do a little with me not liking the canon sonau at all bc of how they were handled, a big point of that being how they felt artificially shoved into every part of this hyrules history so nothing was there that hadnt been done better or touched by the sonau before already; i get that making that connection between the sonau and the dragons is very obvious and can be interesting for some but i personally hate it bc it just destroys that sense of awe i used to feel when i saw them .. they are a mystery that shouldnt ever been 'solved' or even considered as soemthing TO solve, their mystery being unsolved is what made it GOOD to me

i now have to actually work to still seem them as i once did instead of just some sonau dude eating a god damn stone, again i dont mean this to sound mean about it but i just .... it takes it all away what i once felt about them, oh ... it was just some sonau guy .. its them again .. it wasnt an ethereal ever wandering spirit of never known origins it was just some sonau guys .... oh .... oh ...no ... (good morning i am very brave and when the dragons are revealed to not have been unknown always there spirits ever wandering the world from the beginning of time which was one of my favorite aspects of botw but instead have been just some sonau dudes eating a stone destroying my feeling of awe and respect to them forever i wont cry about it ..)

so .... the dragons (Eldra, Farodra, Naydra for me as im using their german names) do play a role in my rewrite .. but not as people or having anythign revealed about them, im keeping them as i once saw them, as spirits that have always been there (they play a role to repair the mastersword as a reference to how it was forged in skyward sword)

(and the reason the stones cause someone to transform into a dragon was bc those creatures are the most magical beings to exist and the stones are made of an insane amount of spirit energy and if that all gets released all at once there is no way for it to go other than explode or if consumed to twist whatever organism is trying to take it in into a draconic form)

the sonau in my rewrite are not dragon people, tho they do worship them as they are incredibly spiritual, but an underground dwelling species (loosely based on bats and monkeys, with somethign of a deep sea vibe to them) who only appeared on the surface after their population was already beyond saving (the reason for it being that they mined the stones for their tech to such a degree it killed the land they needed to live and as they dug deeper and more intensely for more stones, now more for pure survival than anything else, they both found more of the engima stones AND the remnant of the past that warned of ganondorf, which then prompted them to breach the surface and establish contact with the ones that dwell there; they never did that before bc its hard to get there and they considered themselves to be above any other species spiritually and didnt want to messed up their structures of society - something that changed as they stood on the brink of extinction and had found the warning which then made rauru break their old rule of not breaching the surface)

(i will say that i can get behind the idea that the big skeletons you find in the underground having been of sonau that ate an enigma stone and that is how they knew it doing that for sure, it otherwise just having been part of their belief system as dragons are the most spiritual of all aside from gods)

(... i dont want to think about the reverse possibility tho .. the orignal dragons being dead and the sonau replacing them.. i dont like that even if it made sense ,,,,, ... yet another thing they replaced ... stop that ..)

im sorry if this sounds mean or dismissive but i just ... dont like the all dragons having been sonau theory at all and im kinda glad they dont seem to plan any DLC bc i was afraid it would outright confirm it, which would suck .. at least like this there is still some denialability about it (like all the clothing and dragon themed stuff being used purely for worship on their own)

thank you for otherwise liking my work tho!! i hope this isnt too disappointing for you to hear, in the end the rewrite is primarily a way for me to cope with what i dont like and implement the ideas i have had to fix it for me :C

[hizznbyte]

is there any lore about neri/neni/your sona? id like to know more about them :D

Oh heck yeah! I’d be happy to talk about it [but be warned, once I start talking I’ll never stop..]

Nerium/Neri, the weird hijabi cat you might see everywhere on my blog is my main persona/mascot and basically just an artistic representation of myself, so anything that applies to them also applies to me LOL.

Neri is genderfluid/nonbinary and fluctuates with using any pronouns! It doesn’t really care about labels and is, truthfully, just a creature. An entity if you will. He doesn’t enjoy the idea of being perceived and prefers to be a background character. Neni is what I call that stupid chibi version of him with the big ass eyes. His design is always changing cuz I’m never satisfied sighh.

She has the social, navigational, and life skills of a toddler [that is to say, she can’t really do anything right]. She’s pretty slow and clumsy, always stumbling around and losing a constant battle with the world [he is not gods strongest soldier] Also, he’s an insomniac, so I often draw him with eye bags. Neri would prefer to stay indoors and sleep until noon, but he’s got work to do and is something of a procrastinator.

One of the most important things about Nerium is that they are kind of state of like? Mental disassociation? Their mind is so fractured and split that it kind of manifests as these multiple alter egos or personalities? Typewriter/Type being one of these. I call them PersoNeris :3

Typewriter is the more serious, stoic, work oriented one and is the biggest perfectionist ever. Constant resting bitch face. A bit of an ass. I made this comparison before but he’s kinda like the Inner Critic to Nerium LOL

As for Noodle… that’s what I call the ugly tiny little doodle version of Neri. The Neri Doodle. Noodle if you will… Typewriter has a version of the Noodle called a Toodle! Their designs are meant to simple and drawn super quickly so I don’t waste time on details [Noodle specifically doesn’t have arms unless absolutely necessary, then it just appears out of thin air!]

I will say, Nerium doesn’t have much “lore” [as in, fictitious story lore] because like I said, he’s just an over exaggerated version of me. However!

[I know you probably didn’t ask but I enjoy yapping] Since maybe… four or five years I’ve been working on this original world building project called Blood Magic, and it is so dear and special to me and I could talk about the lore all day long. I’ve spent countless hours working and writing stuff for this story I’m sorry I get annoying about them. Basic rundown is that there are two gods -an author and an illustrator- called the Higherups, a council known only as the overseers, a tribe of demons and angels [typical fantasy story shtuff], a planet I dubbed Planet Nerium inhabited by humans, animals and… furries..

The two main characters are the false-protagonist/antagonist type character named Trinity -Trick- Ambrose and a furry cat protagonist named Trip Sterling. I’ve drawn and posted about Trip before! My daughter!

Blood Magic is split into two “seasons”, each with multiple acts. There’s BM: Total Anarchy and BM: The Heart Keeps Beating [TA and THKB for short]. The idea is to turn this into maybe a series of novels or some sorta indie animated series? We’ll see.

I’ll save the lore dumping for some other time, but only if yall are interested XD

Thanks for the ask anony!!

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Okay, so, I am gonna go more into my meif'wa relationship to the sun lore and how accurate you are.

So, meif'wa used to entirely worship the sun until they switched to Menphia and the other divines, but like how most religions incorporate older practices, worshipping the sun is still very prominent and part of Menphia's worship. She is the blazing fury and just like the sun.

It is very true though, that the meif'wa don't revere the moon the same or have the same belief in balance. It's due tot he fact that they don't feel the need. Yes the night is just as important as the day but the sun does far more in their eyes. It is the great neutralizer in a sense and needs no equal.

The sun provides light and growth just as much as it provides fire and death. To meif'wa, the sun is balanced in itself for it does just as much harm as it does good. In their eyes, the moon just represents a break or the restart of a cycle, but nothing really special.

The day is always the same, but the night always changes. Meif'wa tribes are stagnant to the ever moving and nomadic werewolves. Nomads need balance and change, while stationary tribes need order.

oo yeah i like this a lot

I just love all lore in general. Oh my god. such a whore for lore.

sometimes i read books just because i want the worldbuilding. DUNE is one of my favourite books, dude, I just love lore... i love it sooo much.

Anyways, i just love the idea of Werewolves not worshipping the divine in any conventional way, and downright refusing to (for multiple reasons). despite being advocates for change, for letting things adapt and develop as they should. Because things should not be forced to change, it is unnatural.

And meif'wa becoming nomadic (in a way. they're refugees) to avoid change, and Werewolves relinquishing that lifestyle, staying in one place, because they don't want to be forced into it. They have so much in common and yet are total opposites.

balance. Equal and opposites. Because i love making things balanced it's my everything.

[totalrayhem]

first king lore when

Oh boy, First King Lore eh? After taking a bit of time to brainstorm, I got some ideas inspired both by what I've observed in fanon and my own take on some things-

1- During his earlier years as the Teensy King he was an analytical and inquisitive ruler, always interested in expanding on his knowledge to better lead the tribe (and for appeasing his general curiosity).

Orderly and meticulous, he was a leader first and foremost and held the responsibility with utmost seriousness. His seemingly critical nature came from a genuine love and desire to see his people being the best they could be. Even being retired now, these sentiments still apply.

2- Some milennea after his initial retirement, he went into seclusion to delve into his own personal studies (and also for some peace and quiet as the new generations of Teenies grew increasingly boisterous and part loving). Despite seeming aloof and crotchety, he still stays connected with a few others, such as his descendant the current Grand Minimus, the Magician for their similar interest in magic and knowledge, and Betilla the fairy.

3- Due to his incredible old age and infrequent appearances, rumors have spread that he's actually a zombie from the Land of the Livid Dead that was resurrected by a spell-- his skull shaped birthmark doesn't help dissuade these whispers. He is not actually aware of this rumor and if you were to tell him he'd give you an earful.

(Credit to @captainmolasses for this idea)

4- Very skilled in magic. Meets with Magician on regularly for tea, discussing new spells, and playing cards.

5- Some question why someone of his prestige would choose to go off gallivanting around with Raymesis on occassion, especially when they seem to bicker more often than not, but he has his reasons.

One being that he's more able to indulge his curiosities about the Glade traveling with an ally, and the other being that he sees a great potential in Raymesis, volunteering himself as a mentor to guide that greatness out-- which would be much easier if he just listened. But, it doesn't matter how long it takes, he's not going anywhere.

6- And lastly, he still has an air of nobility and a traditional regard for respect- if he catches you acting out he WILL launch into lecture mode.

(Pictured below, Raymesis trapped in a lecture after a flippant comment. He will never be free.)

[cherrytimemachine]

Breakdown: Star Saber, since you got an ask about Deathsaurus :D

Oh, I have shit to say about him.

How I feel about this character: He has so much potential to be expanded on in other series and I'm upset that no one includes him in anything! He's like a little nesting doll like Magnus in MTMTE and I love him. He's the original little man. I do think he should be allowed to have a star on his armor though, just to stay on brand. :)

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Y'know, I don't really have a ship for Star Saber. I like the Deathsaurus rivalry being homoerotic as more of a joking thing, since it's so personal and Deathsaurus has a giant gun connected directly to his crotch but other than that, to me he's just a single dad trying his best.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: This one I have a few for. I'm a fan of the rivalry dynamic between him and Deathsaurus, but I also like the bromances going on with Ginrai/Victory Leo and Greatshot. There's one episode of Victory where Star Saber goes on a mission and the cons replace him with one of their crew dressed up as him in order to infiltrate their base, and Victory Leo is the only one who's like "This guy is sus. Not my Star Saber," the whole time and he was right. And Star Saber didn't give up on him, even when his new body was causing him to be really aggressive and unpredictable for a while. Because that was his friend, and Star Saber wasn't going to give up on him.

His relationship with Greatshot is so interesting to me because of who Greatshot is and how that plays into his character development. Greatshot was a former Decepticon himself (likely Sixshot but it's never confirmed in the series), and he spends his days hunting down Decepticon criminals. He's a lone wolf with a bone to pick, and Star Saber welcomes him into his family with open arms. Greatshot doesn't spend a lot of time there, but he comes around every once in a while, and Star Saber showed his trust in Greatshot by appointing him a temporary leader in place of Victory Leo (I think, it's been a while since I watched the show). Greatshot was stunned by that and wasn't sure he was fit to be a leader, but he accepted because he trusted Star Saber's judgement. Star Saber taught him that he could be soft at times, that he was allowed to care and let go of his anger once in a while. It's unfortunate that he left, never to be seen again in the end.

Last but not least, Dai Atlas. I really liked the idea of them being fencing rivals like in the Animated lore. Both him and Star Saber are leader figures with different approaches to how they run their teams. While Dai Atlas was more reserved and stoic, Star Saber was more inclined to lead with a passion. Not to say that Star Saber wasn't serious or Dai Atlas was uncaring, but their personalities were different in how they led. Star Saber was once part of the Circle of Light before the war broke out, so Dainty Atlas acted as his mentor and peer among others. It was Dai Atlas he often asked advice from. He was wise for his youth despite his cold demeanor. Star Saber felt like he let Dai Atlas down, both when he admitted to killing the Predacon tribe, and when he left the Circle of Light to join the Autobot army. He felt too ashamed to come back to Crystal City for a long time.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don't think this is an unpopular opinion by any means, but I wish Star Saber had been written with his Victory personality in mind. While I like how the comics gave more noble characters flaws that made them feel more real, I think Star Saber as a religious zealot went further than a 180° in his personality. Star Saber in Victory was a caring leader who adopted a human son and even sent him to school. Star Saber in MTMTE hates anyone he doesn't deem worthy enough in their worship of Primus. If anything, I think that would be an interesting idea for Nova Prime instead of Star Saber. There is some good potential for a character to be an entitled religious villain who weaponizes the word of Primus to suit their own desires.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He should be in more stuff. He hasn't been in hardly anything aside from Victory and MTMTE for a brief period. Other than that, there are no notable versions of his character aside from that. Let him be a good natured Autobot general who has a past he regrets. Let him be someone who once took part in the culture of elitism and actively benefited from it. In my AU, he was the captain of the Elite Guard while Sentinel was Prime, so he still took orders from the Prime despite being in charge. Because of his comfortable religious background, he considered all manners of life under the lens of Neoprimalism, and his initial reaction to the Predacon tribes was to consider them savage beasts. No one knew back then that Predacons were intelligent beings, nor did they know they could transform, so they were considered an entirely separate species. He's aware he can't make up for his mistakes, and he can't reverse the damage, but there isn't anything he can do to make it better. He's never apologized because he feels it would be even more hurtful to act as if he deserved forgiveness after he participated in violent killings. It bothers him frequently.

[crazylittlejester]

HI OKAY so I had this ideaaaaa

first of all, I’ve had plenty of LU crossover ideas with plenty of medias I’ve indulged in- but the biggest one I’ve had the most is wings of fire :D

So I made a design for warriors, and I just wanted to show you bc I think it looks pretty cool (only got the back design done so far)

For some background context- yes ik this is a jumpscare if you don’t know wings of fire, so I’ll explain

wings of fire is a series about.. basically magical dragons. I won’t delve into all of it too far, but there’s basically 7 tribes of different dragons, and they do wacky hijinks like … prophecies and summoning crazy old mythical monsters

anywho, I haven’t worked out all the logistics yet of this au, but I decided to make warriors a sandwing! Basically, sand wings are known for being strong-headed, durable dragons who live in the desert. why did I make warriors a sand wing? Well.. uhhh.. *makes strange hand gestures* he’s blonde?/j

no lol, mostly because I remembered the fact sandwings actually own pet snakes and often dawn them around their neck. Seeing warriors had a scarf I immediately had an idea.

snakes are often sported by higher-class sand wings who can typically afford them, since- no, they do not just grab them out of the sand and go “mine now” 😭

so I thought, warriors is well off… he’s got a blue scarf.. imma give him a snake

so, in this au he’s a general that protects the stronghold, under orders from princess Artemis (hw Zelda) and his snake is actually a blue racer!

these are all just concepts and silly ideas I had lol, sorry if they don’t make sense I’m not the most organized person 😞 but I just wanted to share this idea since I thought: cool character, cool dragons

(also sorry if you actually knew wof lore before I went off about it lol, it’s a very confusing series I read a long time ago- I need to reread it-)

okay I’m genuinely fucking obsessed with how much you managed to make a dragon look like Wars, even WITHOUT the blue snake. Like you coulda sent me that image with no text and I would’ve been like “That’s him. That’s Wars.”

WINGS OF FIRE AU GOES SO FUCKING HARD OH MY GOD. I haven’t read those books since fuckin middle school, what a throw back. Sand Wing was definitely a good choice for Wars, it fits his vibe

[growling]

oh wait i forgor. tribe nine beta lol

Zero my angel I'd recognize that voice maybe not anywhere but like in some places

"kuronaka got 10 gold" *EAR BLASTING 9 HOUR LONG FANFARE*

hmmmmmmmmmm.. not saying anything but narrowing my eyes thoughtfully

they're trying to fnaf pizzeria simulator my ass, unfortunately for them I am an incredibly clever smart intelligent wise boy (looked at the art on tweeter)

they put kuronaka in the generic rpg torture dungeons💔💔💔 get well soon

shut the fuck up boyyyy look at the claypot. loook at my claypot boy

jesus stop jumpscaring me if i die my grandma will sue

im calling it now. lady goddess is just zero (and if so: gender win)

$laymate

if it does end up being zero it will be so fucking funny. please. let this manifest. me when i put some random dude in the generic rpg torture dungeons and make him look at claypots forever as form of foreplay also i pretend to be a statue

its that blue hair motherfucker from the promos or whatever

this is so fucking funny im tearing up. im tearing up. also they just implied that i was right. this is so fucking funny. vidio game brainwash yaoi. zero you silly man i desire you carnally

"well its not unusual for this man to do this kind of thing" please tell me more about zero's crimes against humanity .

forgot to mention this earlier but of course the protag has amnesia. not a proper kodaka game without an amnesiac protagonist. this is not a complaint

this is so funny. this is so funny.

redguy yellowguy leave that poor fucker alone. blueguy grayguy why are you just staring tell them to leave that poor fucker alone this is probably not how you approach a dude with amnesia who has been stuck in the generic rpg brainwash torture dungeon for an unspecified period of time

3d time. fuck that boy up guards induce a panic attack in this man

and the torture dungeons were just some random medium sized platform..... help me thats so embarrassing for kuronaka!!

"the village you were saying [sic] were all just drawings on the floor and on the walls!" THAT'S SO EMBARRASSING.... KURONAKA THAT'S SO EMBARASSING......

HE WAS 2 FUCKING YEARS STUCK IN THE GAME LMAOOOOOOOOOO THAT'S SO EMBARASSING FOR HIM

ok. ill stop being mean to him. i promise i will be nice and understanding of his situation from now on. it must be very hard and traumatizing for him.

LMAOOOOOOO HE LOOKS SO FUCKING STUPID THIS IS SO FUNNY. FUCKING IDIOT XDDDDDDDDD

also buy him brown contacts pls

ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fucking look at him this shit looks biblical. look at him descending onto the mortals. this is fucking jesus imagery

nice robot hands. they're not attached yet but i will force him to become a cyborg no matter how many limbs i must detach from his body

i am not ready to hit unpause. but also im yearning.

wait look at his hand pose.... awww look at him i want him carnally

alright alright whatever im unpausing.......

so 24 city is just named like that because it's the 24th city and they ran out of ideas

24 city must be a shit place to live in, a strong breeze knocks you over and you fall one kilometer onto the pavement

"... but who would have thought that there is such a surreal area here, designed just like a video game?" zero. zero would have. that man is all about vidio game addiction i called it once and ill call it again

and he called him "the masked man" i fucking cant i need t. i need to take a breather okay i cant take this anymore

zero lore listen closely now this will be on the test (instead of listening starts imagining zero touching me in a bus and gets so hrard ii passkdf uout )

Kuronaka likes tea. +1 for Kuronaka I love tea

Zero the robot enjoyer

alright, Iroha is gonna return Kuronaka's smartphone next time and I'll end it here :] twas a pleasure. transcending experience

[starrysnowdrop]

Reintroducing…

Kore Gharl AKA: Persie! 🥀

So, for those that have been around forever, like 3-4 years ago, you might remember her! Though Yume was my first WoL OC, my second was a Xaela woman Kore, but I lovingly called her Persie. She was originally of the Mol tribe, and she had pink hair and pink eyes. But since @meepsthemiqo asked about her lore the other day, I got brainworms and decided to recreate her and change up her looks and her lore a bit. So, here we go!

First, I changed her tribe to the Gharl tribe, as I thought it was fitting for her symbolism of being connected with the earth. Here’s the wiki entry for the Gharl, with a screenshot of the Gharl tribe from the cutscene of the Naadam:

Before each migration, the Gharl will fill a sacred urn with the soil of the place they just camped. This soil is then dumped upon arriving at the next location. This tradition has been carried out for thousands of years, leading people to believe that most the steppe is now all of one soil.

When the Tsagaan Sar ends, the Steppe holds a Naadam to decide who will be the new Khagan. The location of the dispute is revealed only at sunrise when the Gharl has scattered the soil.

Anyways, the next thing I decided to change was her looks, which I ultimately didn’t change much, outside of her hair and eyes. This is because she originally had pink hair almost identical in shade to Hali, but since I love Hali too damn much, and she is my only OC that I want to have pink hair, Persie had to get a makeover. I do think the brown hair and grassy green eyes are very earthy and suit her well.

Oh, and in case you’re noticing her name and nickname, yes, her Unsundered self is Persephone, and I had shipped her with Emet. I know I know, not the most original idea ever, but I tried to be a bit unique with her backstory.

Here’s a bit of her backstory, though I’m now reworking it so this is just a very short snippet: Kore was born to Arik and Zaya of the Gharl Tribe, and was their only child. Her mother died in childbirth and was raised solely by her father until he tragically passed away during a battle with a neighboring tribe, trying to protect her and the other children of the tribe. Due to the tragic loss of both of her parents at such a young age, she wanted to become a healer, and to save as many lives as she could. Kore is not a Warrior of Light like Hali is, but she does join the Scions in the course of the events of Stormblood. Her canon job is a hybrid job that I’m calling Shaman, and it’s a mixture of White Mage and Geomancer, with perhaps some other magic thrown in. I haven’t thought that through yet.

Oh and though we may all be hyped for Fanfest right now, feel free to send me asks about her if you’d like! She is also a new alt in game, which you can find her as Persephone Kore on Seraph (Dynamis, NA)! Thank you all so much for your interest in her! I might work on her more if I get more inspiration to.

[0zzysaurus]

Oh my god did I ever talk about my father/son dynamic AU that I think G1 Wreck and TFA Wreck should have?

For this to work, you gotta adhere to my headcanon on the origins of the Junkion race, but essentially, as a quick introduction to what you need to know first — I hc that the entire planet is basically a Cybertronian war crime. Every single spark on that planet belonged to a bot who went “missing” during the first few waves of war on Cybertron. To link it to some of the TF book lore, the Junk planet only exists as a result of a failed Cybertronian space bridge project to dump a colossal amount of scrap waste into space — as a result, that space bridge became a convenient way to dump bodies of political prisoners without drawing too much attention. I also hc that the whole planet was basically embargoed and removed from maps for years and years until the events of ‘86 where it was rediscovered by accident and the planet eventually had to be acknowledged by the High Council. Awkward. I wonder if either side of the war will ever admit what they did. I sure hope that Cybertron doesn’t have any top secret documents detailing the entire dual-sided, long-term, systemic massacre against prisoners of conscience that, if released to the public, could start another catastrophic war. I’ll tell you about all that some other time.

For the Junkions themselves, all the damage from, well, the attempted murders have screwed up a lot of their processors, and those that were dumped with sober processors eventually had to replace those parts or offer functioning components to those who needed them more. They subsequently split up, shared, and lost fragments of their memories until they eventually Theseus’s Ship’d themselves into different bots. The spark is the only thing that remains. Most, if not all Junkions have little to no memory of what was done to them. It’s been so long that they’d much rather consider themselves native to planet Junk than dwell on frightening flashbacks or momentary flashes of lucidity in their processors.

I imagine that some bodies crash onto the planet in such a damaged state that you’ve essentially got a spark in a spark-chamber surrounded by shrapnel. The Junkions, of course, then take it upon themselves to hunt out sparks and build new frames for them so they can have more clanmates. This probably started as a very legitimate rescue protocol for recovering other survivors, but eventually, the practice became nothing more than an ingrained ritual. A lot of what they did for survival (I.e. extremely efficient repair, grouping together into large, cooperative tribes, and salvaging sparks) ended up becoming instinct over a few more millennia.

Does this mean every Junkion on the planet once had a totally different life on Cybertron with their own history, memories, and connection to the war? Yes. I’ll elaborate on that whenever I get around to it.

BUT, with all that cleared up, I think G1 Wreck-Gar gets a little broody watching TV and seeing sitcoms with families in them. He kind of likes the idea of having a smaller version of himself walking around who he can teach his culture to from the ground up and perhaps raise to be the next leader. The next time a body crashes into the planet, it’s while he’s out alone in the badlands. There’s another spark that needs housing, and he fixes up the frame the best he can, but the processor is absolutely fried. He remembers that he has a blank processor chip in his collection, and he’s been saving it for a moment like this. He swaps out the chips and starts to build up a frame that looks exactly like how he’d imagine his own “son” to look. He’d give it some of his features, like matching faceplate decals, but he wouldn’t make the new bot identical. He’d choose similar coloured scrap to his own frame, and perhaps even add a helm casing that reminded him of his favourite thing in the world — TV.

And BAM, you got a overly complicated father/son AU. He built his little boy outta garbage (just like he did with the rest of his kin) and he loves him sooooo much. Big Wreck and Little Wreck watchin’ telly together… out catchin’ distiller drakes in the dust bowl, stargazing, combat-training, and all the rest — I love the image of him helping TFA Wreck take his first steps in his new frame. BONUS POINTS if the sparks that inhabit both of their frames actually knew each other millions of years ago on Cybertron and the connection runs much deeper.

[elfreek]

Birth of a Wish grew out of desire to reuse elements from an earlier project after i had scrapped them (A reluctant god/Fantasy Chemical Weapons). It started life as a Fabula Ulitma Concept that bounced between several systems (including Lancer) before ultimately ending up in Numenera.

I had been reading about historical perceptions of Kami in Shinto and alot of academic stuff on Shinto in general at the time and was fascinated by the synchronicity between it and Buddhism. I wanted to capture that heian period fantasy that seems to exist in the historical record while cutting it with my own sensibilities. This really came together and got moving a few weeks after the worst moment of my life; i invested a lot in as escapism and a way to distract myself while was going through it. I'm real attached in that way, I wish i had gotten to run it. Appologies for the bad editing and scattered sentence structures in the PDF. Deeper thoughts, story beats and art below under the cut

General Commentary

It was... alot of work trying to lay the ground work for alot of the mechanical stuff that existed within setting. (as i discovered what defines a kami isn't common knowledge and how you related to an unfamiliar audience is extremely difficult)

There was alot of really wonderful synergy with the elements i wanted to write about and preexisting ideas i had such as the Shinto concept of purity and how that relates to death vs the concept of spiritual Nerve Gas. I was leaning into to the thinning of the boundary between life and death and souls not only being real but a thing to be used and harness. As I was developing the backstory it sort of... drifted into a mythical retelling of a Super Robot Anime's plot, so much so that the conflict between high heaven and the planet and the god warriors are directly inspired by EVA in both mood, aesthetics and the fact that they are vulgar expressions of humanity. I really really liked the decay of this godly power into a lesser form as a motif. All the Kami within the world of Roshana/Sadogoma can be derived from the rotting and corrupted cadavers of a pair of twins (directly mirroring Izanagi/Izanami).

The impetus for the four+one linages of species came from personal biases but the ones i wanted to point out in particular are the dregs and elves (which aren't mentioned directly) Elves first because it'll be quick, I wanted them to serve as an interest marker both for "oh fuck they're strong" as well as them being close to "divinity" which is derived from what "humans" looked like from the prior to the apocalypse as a little visual lore tidbit.

The dregs serve two purposes narratively, the first is to isolate the populations of the world by making sea travel extremely difficult thus limiting trade and other exchanges through open warfare with the chosen four. Secondary I wanted to show the primary divinities as maybe not so great, given that the dregs were the negative aspects of divinity filtered and abandoned by them. That kind of callousness and distain for the difference is an ugly thing to me and i wanted to bring it up but leave it to the player to draw their own conclusion.

The trio of divinities are pretty self explanatory except for 1) Managitu is a Kangaroo with two sets of ears and that Tsukimi isn't a product of the Brother Unit's rot. They are an alien probe that came to the planet after the war with High Heaven. Their roll is to observe and record. It's why there isn't a tribe of man modeled in their image. The early history of the trios rise to power is deliberately altered and obscured to hide Tsukimi's origin.

Plot Beats

The inital setup for the campaign was that the party was going to be part of a commercial expedition to open up a theocracy that had been silent for centuries to global trade. (haha geddit?) The first major thing to happen would be an attack of wraiths/ghouls and other undead fiends lead by a pair hulking armored figures during the parties ascent up the mountain with the goal being to trap them there and harvest their souls for an evil magus (we'll get to that).

Players would fight their way out with scattered survivors and end up at a village that would be warry of them but would open up to them after they deal with various problems for them which would double as showing the players that there's something wrong here and hint at the magus. From their they'd learn that the theocracy they were here for had suffered a catatrophic civil war that permanently scared the region. Eventually they'd link up with a shunned elven historian named Zelkova/Mizunara (depending on the draft) who turned into one 400 years ago during a academic visit to the mountain. She would serve as their guide and plot explainer/director for the over arcing narrative.

She would inform the players that there's an evil mage (Astra, never ended up having a setting appropriate name) with a vice grip on the region after helping plunge it into chaos. Astra would capture and sacrifice people from on and off mountain in a sick ritual to awaken a pre-apocalypse titan whom she and many others venerated as a new form of divinity, the same kind who's decomposition created the divinities. Following the plot the players would find out Astra is a spiritual scientist that is responsible for the soul killing chemical weapons that plague a lot of the region as well as committing atrocities in the name of awaking the titan through appeals to it's sense of mercy. The players would learn that Astra needs so many souls to not only power her magic but to serve as a spark to ignite the engine that powers the pre-apocalypse titan

Ultimately the party would sabotage Astra's efforts and defeat her. Ultimately before she could curse them with a spiteful death rattle that invoked her sunk cost fallacy of needing to kill so many for her own personal absolution the titan would wake and kill her in a gross display of it's own power. This New final boss would introduce itself as a nameless titan that was deemed unfit to serve it's original makers but was awoken by the honest pleas and appeals for salvation by Astra and her ilk. She had been awake during the civil war and saw that they did in her name, choosing to stay silent because the acts scared her. After meditating for so long she finally found her answer, accepting the calls for mercy and salvation of the people that placed their faith in her. Accepting her new mantle as an awakened being, she takes a feirce from made of fire called the Avatar of Mercy, announcing to the players that'll cleans the planet of suffering the only way she knows how. However she recognizes the hypocrisy, suffering she has caused and and the gulf of power between herself and the party. She offer the party a chance to fight her on fair terms, challenging the party to fight for their own future. Projecting her soul as a fire-y incarnation and absorbing what remains of Astra while the titan itself begins its ignition sequence.

If the players beat her, the sequence stops and the world is saved, if she wins or the players acquiesce to her ideology the world would be consumed in fire burning away the good, the evil and the in-between leaving only fertile ground for plants to take root.

That bad end is a leading for another idea I had but thats a story for another time.

Art Commentary

I did a lot stuff I was proud of from a design perspective for this project. I adore the way this landing page/title card turned out. It not only highlights the main antagonist and her motivations but also hinting at the bad end.

I did these three with the intentions of them being major NPCS in their own right, the right two being from the mountain and the leftmost being from a distant land. Personally I really think i did will capturing an overall aesthetic as well as demonstrating regionality in their clothing choices

Closing Thoughts

I am really attached to this world, not in the "i love the characters and places in it" sense but more in the fact that I find the subject matter fascinating and it was with me during the worst hours of my life. I really owe alot of my stability during that time to this world and the art i did for it. It's a shame it has to be put to bed like this but I'd rather burry it with full honors then have it fizzle on me because of circumstances beyond my control.

[wrmbug]

Is there a reason cinnamon is the only scav that cares about arti? Or were they like: hmmm yes I shall befriend the demon that wiped out 80% of the population.

Well here's my theory that I came up with in the shower.

(oh boy here we go)

Cinnamon was getting back to their shelter as the cycle was 5 ticks away from ending, it noticed a red slugcat running away from scavs with their pups, one got skewered and the other drowned. Just another day cinnamon thought, but a few cycles later it saw the corpses of those scavs. And cinnamon realized the carnage to come. Cinnamon found themself withing LTTMs structure where it lied and waited for the next few cycles. Eventually they came back and found what had happened.

The reason cinnamon is the only one that cares about arti is because they are the only scav that knows what happened. To the other scabs arti was a sadist who attacked without reason. But cinnamon knows. He knows everything that occured.

So is my goofy little theory correct or did I just throw one of the most insane ideas at you at 1000 mph that your gonna make it canon?

holy moly you guys are really interested in cinnamons lore huh

you are somewhat caught up lol probably majority actually

they were one of the scavengers of the toll patrol that arti ran away from with her pups . while the others chased them down , he was the only one that didnt want to engage . he was only expecting the scavengers to atleast scare them off , but seeing one them impale an infant without a clear conscience was something that hasnt left his mind since

he couldnt process what he saw , like at all . cinnamon was somewhat , different than most scavengers . he liked pearls , but not as much to kill somebody for it . if somebody were to steal one , he'd probably chase them down until to give it back ; not necessarily have the gut to kill somebody for it .

cinnamon tried to isolate themselves from tolls after a few cycles since the ideal of a child getting killed was not a very pleasant thing to remember--- especially since slugpups are not like most creatures or animals . once you lose them , theyre gone for GOOD .

cinnamon met arti again after witnessing his tribe get killed , and they were the only ones that got away . he remembered that slugcat--- the color , the eyes , the appearance in general . he knew what was coming . the scavengers bit first , and artificer was coming to bite back harder . cinnamon was loyal , very faithful and trust worthy even to the elites .

theyve met the third time during the battle of the chieftain , as it made their call for other scavengers to sabotage arti during the battle . he knew he stood no chance towards the beast and so he backed down too . shes nobody to mess with , especially with the obvious wrath in her eyes . he was there when she killed their king--- and he was there when they saw her slaughter his kind once more

arti noticed him for a while , and he recognized them from the first time theyve met at the toll--- she couldve killed him there , yet something stopped her from doing so.

cinnamon understood , as actions spoke louder than words . arti is somebody who was struggling . he saw the anguish , and sadness through her eyes . cinnamon couldnt forgive her for what shes done , but he wanted to show that he cared . he understood her frustration and hate , and he couldnt bare to just keep her living with the same anguish . which is why cinnamon is so loyal to her , he wants her to recover as much as she can so atleast she has some hope that somebodys actually there--- even though sometimes she wants him dead

[unnervinglyferal]

One of the most uncomfortable things my brain has done has been getting attached to Mary. Like, Mary as in Mary the mother of Jesus. Not surprising but awkward for sure.

Mary is a big deal for mexicans. Regardless of anything, she is very important to our culture. Even the most brutal cartel or gang members will lower their heads and cross themselves in humility to the holy image of her. Taxi drivers hang rosaries (long bead artifacts with an amazing amount of technical specifications behind them that are meant to guide prayers towards Mary) on their mirrors to feel protection, and it's not badly viewed for people to wear rosaries as collars either. She's on the murals. She was our first ever flag. There's even one very very specific holiday we have for her, can't say I've ever celebrated it, but here in the small town where I live, people light fireworks everywhere and it's this big ass loud and happy celebration. Originally brought by colonizers to replace the goddess Tonantzin, the image of a brown skinned Mother Mary has become a symbol of and for our people. Hell, half of our fucking female population is called Maria Guadalupe (Lupe, for short) after her local name –Santa María Guadalupe. Don't even get me started on the advocations of the Virgin Mary, because theres like, A WHOLE ass different lore for that. Over here we have one called La Virgen del Pueblito (literally "The virgin from the small town").

Having said that, of course the jewish woman who accidentally recreated the fucking Pietá with the huge catholic dude with a saviour complex, as his side bled because he had a fucking nail stuck in there, WAS GOING to get attached to the jewish woman who is a LITERAL PART OF THE PIETÁ alongside THE VERY MAN MY EXBOYFRIEND WORSHIPPED and she birthed, as he also BLED FROM HIS SIDE, with NAILS stuck in his BUTCHERED HANDS.

Like, if you think about it, Mary also got ultra crucified for the sins of humanity inside of the christian lore. I do not believe this happened at all and I am not like, going to fucking convert to catholicism, but oh man. Oh man man man. Do I think of her often, with all these statues that mostly portray her in such a state of grief, looking up at the sky with hope on her big tender eyes full of tears, begging for mercy and forgiveness. Or with that compassionate soft gaze, meant to fall over the audience at the sanctuaries and parishes, filling all of their faithful spirits with motherly joy.

I do not have a mother, Feral. There's a warmth in that woman's eyes, some type of comprehension people often grow to find on their favourite characters or their favourite shows. I wouldn't say I believe in her as the holy mother of like, the almighty Christian Messiah or all that, but all I can think is "man, she's so me. Look at her, gifting herself to the christian Gxd, hoping her son will save the world as promised, knowing she will suffer but being so willing to do so for the sake of people that couldn't care any less".

I am and will always be jewish. As insufferable as it is, jews are my people and I wouldn't change that ever, it's my pride and joy to be a part of our tribe. But if I ever had to mutter a christian prayer, maybe I'd give one to her. Maybe I'd dedicate a rosary to my non religious, secular idea of her.

This is """problematic""" as fuck but this is what trauma does to a motherfucker. You cope the way you can and stick to it.

Any way to cope with being alive that doesn't cause physical injury is among the better ones, and being attached to something that's a huge part of the world you know isn't odd. You don't get to choose who your people are - in the sense of where you come from. But you do get to choose where you're going.

I've never met a catholic in real life. The christians here are lutherans, they don't believe in martyrdom or having sanctity or grace in suffering and sacrifice. In a way I sometimes wonder if they'd be more sympathetic to the suffering of others if they saw any value in it. Or even their own suffering. Languish, acceptance and embracing grief are more or less foreign concepts to them. They don't believe in saints, in Mary, or - no matter what they say - in a loving G-d.

Grief needs an outlet, some way for it to bleed out or it will fester. And not to sound messianic (fuck those clowns), but as much as we know of Jesus of Nazareth, he was still a jew, born of a jewish mother. All things considered, who else would you reasonably turn to?

[casualjacobwrites]

FFXIV Write 2024 Prompt 04 - Reticent

Continued from previous prompt. (Reminder I'm using the prompts to tell a single story versus standalone prompts.)

I'm just going where the vibes take me. Right now I'm telling a story and setting up a crisis that will push our two boys, Emmanellain and Sicard, into each other's arms. We're still a little ways off from any smooching, but it'll get there. (It's 3:30 in the morning as I write this and I am a bit punch-drunk.)

Oh and, the nature of the challenge is to try to finish a prompt in 24 hours which means my posts are not edited and may contain grammatical and/or spelling errors (like being inconsistent with capitalization of sahagin) as well as inaccurate lore. (Once we get through FFXIV Write, I do hope I can edit this into a proper story.)

Trigger Warning: Descriptions of mutilated corpses, blood and gore.

Spoilers for Endwalker in the very first paragraph.

World Count: 1,974

Hundreds of questions swirled through Sicard's head. Chief amongst them were what were the Sahagin doing this far from shore. While the fishbacks could breathe underwater, they preferred keeping close to their colonies and places in which their matriarchs could safely lay their broods. Furthermore, since the treaty between the beast tribes and Limsa Lominsa, he hadn't heard of a single sahagin attack.

Lafotol continued to report from the crow's nest as they neared the vessel. Thus far he had yet to spy any movement or any signs of casualties aside from the sahagin. The good news was the smoke was dispersing and it appeared if there was fire, it was gone. That could be because Garlean vessels were more metal than wood and it had run out of fuel, or that someone had doused the flames. Yet, if that were the case, where were they now?

Though it was a risk, Sicard had the crew light as many lanterns as possible. He didn't care for the idea of turning the Astalicia into a veritable beacon, but they had seen no other ships in the area and with the sun setting they needed the light. It was a struggle to remain calm with each passing yalm that brought them closer to the strange ship. He offered up a silent prayer of gratitude that Emmanellain had left the quarterdeck to assist Honoroit in distributing potions to the crew. In his current state he might very well follow through on his threat to toss the elezen overboard if he so much as breathed too loud in his general direction.

The crew worked on dropping the sails and made ready to lower the anchor. It was another bad idea on the growing list of bad ideas this night, but something told him they might need to linger a bit to do some investigation. Once he handed navigation over to his second mate, he left the helm to join the boarding party he'd selected.

While the crew ready the planks to connect the two vessels, Sicard pulled his musket from his belt and gave it a once over to make sure it was ready to fire. Not a single soul stirred on the other ship, but that didn't mean other things might be lurking belowdecks.

"Shouldn't we report this?" Against his better judgment, he'd agreed to allow Emmanellain to accompany him so long as the elezen agreed not to touch anything or go off on his own. Another condition was that Honoroit stayed on the Astalicia. He might have experience, but Sicard still didn't like the idea of putting someone so young in danger.

"To who? None of our sister ships are within range of our linkshells, and we're not in Maelstrom territory." He slipped his musket into its holster. "'Sides, we don't know anything yet apart from the fact it's a stranded ship."

"A stranded Garlean ship with dead Sahagin. Maybe we should tell the Scions."

Sicard pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "There's no more Scions, remember?"

"Fine, but what about the Warrior of Light?"

"Oh, better yet, why not call the Sharlayan bloody Forum while we're at it?" Sicard shook his head and wondered if maybe he should have brought Honoroit instead. "We can call for help if we need it, but I'm not botherin' anyone until I know they need botherin'. Hells, it might be the crew ate some bad clams an' shared it with the fishbacks."

"Bad clams?! You think bad clams killed a ship full of people and Sahagin then set a fire?" Emmanellain scoffed. "How is it you were picked to lead this crew?"

"Well, I wasn't bein' literal now was I? You'd think with all your fancy book learnin' you'd know when someone is bein' facetious." Several of the crew winced at the volume of Sicard's voice and he forced himself to stop and take a breath. When he spoke again, he kept his voice quiet. "All I'm sayin' is that we can't go soundin' an alarm 'til we have all the facts, an' we aren't going to get any standin' here waggin' our tongues."

Emmanellain opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a crew member. "Captain, the planks are in place."

Grateful for an excuse to stop talking to the lordling, Sicard took a lantern from the crew member and made his starboard where the crew had laid out a series of wooden boards to serve as connecting walkways between the Astalicia and the stranded ship. Sicard took the lead on the center plank with two other crew members crossing the same moment on either side of him.

When he stepped onto the deck of the Garlean vessel, he paused to scan the immediate area. Less than one yalm in front of him was a sahagin body lying facedown. Upon directing his lanternlight towards it he saw a congealed puddle of blood beneath it. The beast still held onto the haft of a spear with one hand. Moving slow, he got close enough to use his foot to flip the body over. His regret was immediate.

The sahagin's face was intact with no visible injuries. His mouth was still open in a silent scream, and Sicard imagined it must have been from pain as the front of his torso was ripped open by three massive gashes. What remained of the intestines had spilled out of the open wounds when he'd been turned over, and Sicard realized he could see exposed rib between two of the gashes.

"Seven hells," Wastgeim swore. Sicard looked over to see her lantern illuminating a second body in a similar state to the one he had found. This sahagin had kept his innards, but his throat had been gouged out along with half his face.

Though it was the last thing he wanted to do, Sicard took a deep breath through his nose. He could smell blood and excrement, but the sickly sweet odor of decay was still faint. The weather had been considerably warm in recent days, so their deaths had to have been recent. After another inhale he realized one scent in particular was noticeably absent.

"Where's the ceruleum?" While it was open secret most pirate ships that sailed out of Limsa carried hidden ceruleum engines, they were only ever used in cases when a ship needed to make a fast getaway. Garleans, however, powered everything with ceruleum. If this was indeed a Garlean ship, then it should reek of fuel.

"What have you found--oh, Fury take me!" Emmanellain caught up to Sicard in time for his lantern to reveal the gruesome sight. He slapped a hand over his mouth and spun round to run back to the railing. The sound of violent retching followed not long after.

"If you can't stomach a bit of blood, get back to the Astalicia," Sicard called over his shoulder as he made his way toward the door leading to the cabin. Three more sagahin bodies littered the floor, all of them bearing the same sort of wounds. He turned around to put his back to the door and look back over the deck.

"Somethin' wrong, captain?" Wastgeim asked. The roegadyn's face was a bit green, but she appeared to be faring quite a bit better than Emmanellain.

"You mean apart from everythin'?" he replied in a dry voice. He gestured at the assortment of bodies. "Notice anythin' about where they died?"

Wastgeim looked at the bodies then back to Sicard. Her eyes widened slightly as she looked past him to the door. "They were tryin' to keep somethin' from gettin' inside the ship."

"Aye." He examined the door. "Question is, what's inside of a Garlean ship that's important enough a fishback would die for it?"

"An' what exactly killed 'em?" she added.

"I don't know, 'cept that it weren't magitek." Gaze still on the door, he rubbed his chin. "Whatever it was, I don't plan on stickin' 'round long enough for it to come back. We need to go belowdecks and see if we can't find out what's in here." He tried turning the metal handle that served as a knob. "Locked," he muttered.

"I can help with that." Emmanellain had recovered enough to make the journey across the deck, though he was quite reticent to look at the ground.

Sicard arched an eyebrow. "Oh, an' just how are you going to help?"

The elezen did his best to offer up a cocksure grin, but with his pale skin and red eyes it made him look more ghastly than confident. "By opening the door, of course." He held out his lantern for Sicard or Wastgeim to hold.

"This I need to see." Sicard took the lantern and watched Emmanellain reach inside his coat pocket to retrieve a set of lockpicks. "Where did you get those?"

"You'd be surprised at what you can find for sell in the Jeweled Crozier." He crouched in front of the door and set to work with the pick in the lock. "Shine the light here, old boy."

Sicard bit back a comment about being called old boy and instead watched the elezen work. He hadn't expected Emmanellain's fingers to be so nimble and capable of the delicate motions necessary for breaking a lock. When he heard the soft click of the bolt sliding free, he murmured, "Impressive."

Emmanellain beamed at the praise as he put his tools away. "I've picked up a thing or two working with the Scions."

How exactly working with the Scions translated into learning how to pick locks, Sicard wasn't sure. In fact he suspected Emmanellain might not want to admit who really taught him and under what circumstances. "Well, you saved us some time an' for that I thank you."

"It was my pleasure, old boy." He took his lantern back, his smile fading as he paused to furrow his brow. "Though I admit I'm perplexed as to why a Garlean ship isn't using a magitek lock."

Sicard blinked. Until the other man mentioned it, he hadn't considered the lock to be abnormal. The more they studied this ship, the more puzzling it became. "An' why aren't they burnin' ceruleum?"

Emmanellain cocked his head then sniffed the air, his blue eyes widening. "Are we certain this ship belongs to Garlemald?"

"It's made of metal an' flyin' their flags," Wastgeim pointed out.

"Ships fly false colors all the time," Sicard said.

"Yes, but foolish enough to use the Empire? That's like paintin' a target on your back and bein' surprised when someone lands a shot." She cast a wary glance at the door. "Nothin' about this makes any sort o' sense, Captain."

Sicard pressed his lips together in a thin line. Everything felt wrong and the longer he stayed on the ship, the more his hindbrain screamed at him to run. If he had come across something like this when he was still a pirate, he would have listened to that voice and left it for some other poor saps to deal with. Yet, now that he had a vested interest in keeping the seas safe for everyone, it seemed wrong to leave. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if there was trouble brewing and he ignored it.

"Wastgeim, tell the crew to keep searching up here. You get back to the ship and see if you can find anyone in range of our linkshells."

The roegadyn snapped her heels together and saluted. "Aye, captain."

"What are we going to do?" Emmanellain asked after she'd left.

Sicard smiled. "We're going down below to find out what sort of cargo this ship was haulin'." He pulled the door open and thrust his lantern forward to illuminate the steps leading downward. "An' we're goin' to hope whatever is down there doesn't bite."

[nicegaai]

having beautiful visions of a story idea ive had for years but from a different characters perspective (moloss!a), making it feel shiny new and worth obsessing over again

what if molossias perpetual anger and facade of a personality was because of a gigantic inferiority complex (and struggling to understand his place in the world etc etc) and then he was forced to interact with actual nations physically his own age but in like , a subserviant role, like alfreds mostly forgotten errand boy -- and they are friendly but completely out of touch with what it means to be a micronation / theyve forgot what the early stages of nationhood are like after hundreds to thousands of years and they are like omggg dont worry youll keep growing :) youll live a long life :) and he is like haha. yeah maybe. and in the end a small group of them become friendLY or at least familiar but theres a fundamental disconnect and the real nations dont have much to gain from knowing him , its very much like a class difference that molossia has very little chance of overcoming. he will never be their equal and he has a slim chance of surviving longer than a humans lifespan or two. but what matters is there was some understanding there. some connection.

i want to write the molossia POV fic so bad but i need to do some research first because i have a very specific setting where this takes place. um

this is just my 2015core hype house AU again

and i need to binge a few episodes of whatever the paul brothers were up to , i think there was a tv show ... i need to watch it for research. becuase i think it would be insane if a bunch of teen nations were like. we're going to make a House of Nation Influencers. for social media purposes. alfred can we borrow your socal beach house pwease. .. .. and hes like holy shit thats the coolest thing ive ever heard please take my keys. im too busy to live there but let me cameo and plug my socials and u can do whatever u want.

and molossia and maybe slowjamastan are alfreds little , localish ambassadors. theyre like. 11 and 15. yes it would make more sense w like a california oc but

i like the micronatio s better than statetalia i have strong opinions on statetalia. the first opinion being i dont think there is One Guy Per State nor do i ever like Well There Could Be Two Guys In A State. i think there's regionals and tribes, and statetalias will die off in regional mergers when the spirit isnt strong or specific enough. and etc. theres a lore system in my head thats pretty poorly thought thru but i get worked up about anyway

in any case the micronations are super localized super specific phenomenons and i love them. they have a atrokg sense of identity for no real reason and they become distinct ppl way quicker than naturally forming identities.... and i think alfred kind of hates them for existing (extreme jealousy over his territory) but he tries not to be a total deadbeat dad and gives them a little attention when he remembers to.... i think the drama potential is juicy. america doesnt want to be cruel to molossia but he wishes he was never born. his little bastard son

i love hetalia molossia its an insane thing wrong w my brain. im such a micronation freak i adore them

oh right also the influencer wannabe house is flcused on the Teen Nation Friend Group kind of chrs ... hong kong iceland liechten seychelles ......... and others like singapore phillipines ... "teenager" is a pretty broad category in aphws but my vision is it began as a friend group doing a bit thing and then got out of hand with way too many ppl joining. it also falls apart. Badly.

and i always thought the scale of trying to turn Hypehousetalia into a fanfic would be too convoluted. like it would just be my 6 hr vid essay on the rise and fall of something that didnt happen. but if it was a framing device and background setting for molossias teen angst instead of the story itself that would be hilarious ............