#magical number (137)

[talonabraxas]

I trow I hung on that windy Tree nine whole days and nights, stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin, myself to mine own self given, high on that Tree of which none hath heard from what roots it rises to heaven. — Hávamál (Line 137)

The Wild Hunt of Odin Talon Abraxas

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, one of the earliest and foremost histories of the Anglo-Saxons, who were descended from the same Germanic tribes as the Norse and broadly shared the same body of religious lore, records the following event as having happened in CE 1127:

Let no one be surprised at what we are about to relate, for it was common gossip up and down the countryside that after February 6th many people both saw and heard a whole pack of huntsmen in full cry. They straddled black horses and black bucks while their hounds were pitch black with staring hideous eyes. This was seen in the very deer park of Peterborough town, and in all the woods stretching from that same spot as far as Stamford. All through the night monks heard them sounding and winding their horns. Reliable witnesses who kept watch in the night declared that there might well have been twenty or even thirty of them in this wild tantivy as near as they could tell.

This spectral, nocturnal horde was the “Wild Hunt,” which was recorded in folklore all throughout ancient, medieval, and even early modern Europe, but was especially concentrated in the Germanic lands of northern Europe. In Scandinavia, it was called Oskoreia, “Terrifying Ride,”[2] or Odensjakt, “Odin’s Hunt.” In Middle High German, it was called Wuotanes Her, “Odin’s Army,” and in modern German Wütende Heer, “Furious/Inspired Army,” or Wilde Jagd, “Wild Hunt.”

It swept through the forests in midwinter, the coldest, darkest part of the year, when ferocious winds and storms howled over the land. Anyone who found him- or herself out of doors at night during this time might spot this ghostly procession – or be spotted by it, which might involve being carried away and dropped miles from where the unfortunate person had been taken up, or worse.[6] Others, practitioners of various forms of magic, joined in it voluntarily, as an intangible part of them (a “soul,” if you like) flew with the cavalcade while their bodies lay in their beds as if sleeping normally. Sometimes, the members of the Hunt entered towns and houses, causing havoc and stealing food and drink.

The Leader of the Wild Hunt

When accounts of the Wild Hunt mention a leader, the figure who filled this role varied greatly. In Germany, the leader could have been “Perchta, Berhta, Berta, Holt, Holle, Hulda, Foste, Selga, Selda, Heme, Herla, Berchtold [or] Berhtolt.”

However, as the Wild Hunt’s various names across the Germanic lands attest, one figure was especially closely associated with it: Odin, the god of the dead, inspiration, ecstatic trance, battle frenzy, knowledge, the ruling class, and creative and intellectual pursuits in general. Two of Odin’s hundreds of names further demonstrate his association with midwinter, the time of the year in which the holiday Yule (Old Norse Jól) falls: Jólnir and Jauloherra, both of which mean something like “Master of Yule.” The myths describe him frequently riding throughout the Nine Worlds on his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, on quests of a shamanic nature, another theme that connects him to the Wild Hunt. As H.R. Ellis Davidson put it, speaking of the manifestations of the Wild Hunt that continued well into the Christian era, “it was natural that the ancient god of the dead who rode through the air should keep a place in this way in the memory of the people, and it reminds us of the terror which his name must once have inspired.”

Conclusion

In the body of lore surrounding the Wild Hunt, we find a number of themes that connect it powerfully with the dead and the underworld. For one thing, there’s the ghostly character of the hunters or warriors themselves. Dogs and horses, animals that were closely associated with death (amongst a great many other things), were almost invariably present. In some accounts of the Hunt, the riders can hardly, if at all, be distinguished from land spirits, who were themselves often conflated with the dead, as if the two were thought of as being in some sense one and the same. Finally, for the ancient Germanic peoples, the worlds of the living and the dead were especially permeable during midwinter, which goes a long way toward explaining why this troop of apparitions haunted the land during that particular part of the year. In the words of Claude Lecouteux, “[T]he Wild Hunt fell into the vast complex of ancestor worship, the cult of the dead, who are the go-betweens between men and the gods.”

It was as if the very elements of midwinter – the menacing cold, the almost unrelenting darkness, the eerie, desolate silence broken only by the baying winds and galloping storms – manifested the restless dead, and the ancient northern Europeans, whose ways of life and worldviews predisposed them to sense spiritual qualities in the world around them, recorded the sometimes terrifying fruits of such an engagement with the enchanted world in their accounts of the Wild Hunt.

[wutheringmights]

please please please explain how the bullshit military death cult in Fourth Wing is unsustainable. I need more Iron Flame slander in my life lol

I may have chosen the wrong phrasing last night. It’s less about the sustainability of the magical dragon country’s military college, and more about how much Yarros’s tendency to use specific numbers riles me up. Very specifically, a graphic at the beginning of Iron Flame. 

(Note: I only got a little bit over 200 pages into Iron Flame before I had to return it to the library; if there is an universe rebuttal to any of this, I may not have reached it yet; I also do not have the book in front of my to double check specific numbers, but luckily Yarros’s Specific Numbers have rustled my jimmies so much that I have been spamming my group chats about them so I inevitably wrote them all down.)

The graphic in question is this:

It illustrates the structure of the titular Fourth Wing. As you can see, it is made out of 3 sections that are then divided into 3 squads. You will notice two important notes on this graphic:

Each squad contains 15-20 people

Each of the four wings that make up the dragon rider cadets in the military academy has the same layout

With this information, I should be able to more or less calculate the number of dragon riders attending the military academy. 

In theory, the fourth wing has 8 people in leadership positions, and 136 to 180 squad members. That’s a total of 144 to 188 people in the fourth wing. 

If the fourth wing is identical to the other three wings, that means that there are anywhere from 576 to 752 dragon rider cadets across three grade levels. That’s already a pretty small number, but this is an exclusive military program. It’s not an unreasonable.

Except it’s actually impossible for there to be 576 to 752 dragon rider cadets. Why do I know that? Because Yarros already gave us a Specific Number.

Let’s rewind. In Fourth Wing, it’s established that you cannot advance beyond your first year unless you bond with a dragon. If you do not bond with a dragon, you repeat the year until you either bond or die trying. There are also only a select few dragons who are willing to bond each year. 

Yarros, of course, told us specifically how many dragons were willing to bond not only for that current freshman class, but for the two years previous:

1st year: 100 dragons*

2nd year: 137 dragons

3rd year: 163 dragons

(*actually, it was 101 but two dragons, in a super special unprecedented move, bonded with the same person; I’m trying to count the cadets, not the dragons so this really does not matter)

That means that there are around 400 dragon rider cadets, which is way less than what the info graphic implied. You can argue that the missing 176 cadets are those who did not bond with any dragons, but I highly doubt they would make much of a difference. Why? Because dragon rider cadets keep dying. 

I kept track of how many people were dying in Fourth Wing. By the end of that book, there were less than 80 bonded cadets still alive. Yarros then contradicted herself in Iron Flame by stating that there were 89 cadets in the second year. This isn’t because a bunch of cadets suddenly bonded with dragons and advanced a year; that only happens in a one a year ceremony. Yarros is just bad with numbers, which shows how silly I am for going to this much trouble trying to prove her wrong.

All that’s to say that I’ll split the difference and say that 85 cadets were still alive at the end of the first year. That means that there is a 15% death rate between bonding with a dragon and getting to the end of the first year. 

That means that by the time each class ended their first year, this about how many dragon rider cadets there should be:

1st year 85 cadets

2nd year: 117 cadets

3rd year: 139 cadets

That’s 341 people across all four wings. That means each wing has about 85 people. 

But wait! People die beyond their first year. There’s an ever decreasing number of cadets each year. If we assume that 15% death rate is consistent each year, that means that by graduation day, each year has: 

1st year: 85 cadets

2nd year: 100 cadets

3rd year: 102 cadets

That’s 287 cadets across all four wings, or 71 people a wing. I need not remind you how that is far below our predicted 144 to 188 per a wing. 

And I haven’t even mentioned that not every dragon available to bond even bonds. So those starting numbers are already the best case scenario where every possible dragon selects a cadet. Our actual class numbers are probably 10 to 20 people smaller, and that’s before the numerous deaths. 

When I started Fourth Wing, I inferred that the incoming freshman class started with about 700 people. (Each of the freshman dorm floors hold 156 people; there are at least three but it makes more sense for there to be a floor for each wing. Sixty-seven freshman died on the parapets. That’s a total of 691 freshmen, which I rounded up to 700.) 

Xaden (terrible name) has a speech where he claims that 1/2 of the incoming class will die by the end of the first year, 1/3 by the second, and 1/3 by the third. He’s probably just trying to scare the newbies, but let’s take him at his word anyway. 

According to his estimation, by the time the freshman class graduation, 172 people should still be alive. That’s a 21% survival rate, according to Xaden. That is somehow less severe than what is actually happening in the books.

There's never a point in time in the story where we acknowledge that the class sizes are this small. Everyone is dying, and there always seems to be more nameless faces than not. Yet, as all evidence suggests, there's not even enough people in the entire dragon rider curriculum to fill up a movie theater.

Ultimately, the numbers don’t really matter. What matters is that this fantasy military system is wildly inefficient. I understand on a trope-level why it has to be deadly. New Adult, the gangly older sister of YA, loves a good deadly game of wits and wile. Yarros was commissioned to write a romantasy story, and by god she was going to write the most marketable one possible. But you would also assume that Rebecca “second generation army brat who loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to her for over twenty years” would have a better understanding of how the military works. 

On the most basic of levels, you win a war by having the most people still alive at the end. Everyone knows this. It’s not that hard. It’s in the best interest of the brass to keep your soldiers alive. When that best interest gets screwed over, it’s usually because of economic issues (like being able to afford the supplies needed to keep your troops alive), or prejudice (soldiers from persecuted demographics being less worthy of better food/ammo/missions, under qualified officials earning their jobs via privilege, etc.). 

That is in itself another gross simplification. My point is that there’s no good reason why you would kill your own troops before they can even reach the battlefield. That’s a waste of resources! I don’t care if the dragons demand a blood sacrifice, or whatever. A practical military leadership would find some way to reroute failed rider cadets to a different career track before they needlessly died in training. The training can be as dangerous as you want, but for world building sake, be practical about how wars work. At least acknowledge that the military’s favorite canon fodder aren’t soldiers, but foreign civilians. 

Believe it or not, but I actually don’t really care that the worldbuilding is nonsense. Can I write a needlessly long essay about how the numbers don’t add up? Sure, but who cares? It’s just bad in a normal way. I’m more than happy to let other people harp on it. 

What is interesting is the way that Yarros views the morality of the military. It’s one thing for something to be pro-military. It’s another when your book’s thesis comes down to “it’s morally wrong for the big, powerful, totally not American, country  to not provide military intervention to smaller, poorer foreign countries that are being viciously attacked by a seemingly unbeatable, dehumanized enemy.” Yarros doesn’t even try to cover it up; Xaden makes a giant, righteous speech about how they have a moral duty to protect citizens, to actually quote the book, “beyond our borders.”

As I said when I first read this: what the fuck? 

Rebecca “second generation army brat who loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years” Yarros claims she is writing a series about the dangers of censorship. See how callous we are for letting other people die, and then covering it up? Yet, she mindlessly reproduces that idealized justification we’ve been fed for decades. Yarros, it’s never about helping civilians. I know you’re a biased army wife, but you know about the oil and the military industrial complex. You know America is not the good guy. 

Moreso, the in-book movement to wage a war “beyond our borders” is labeled as a rebellion. According to this series, it’s counterculture to want military intervention overseas. Yes, Yarros is writing the world’s most marketable book. In a post Hunger Games society, there must be a little rebellion sprinkled in there. But to frame the desire to fight a war as any form of counterculture is downright insidious. 

Fourth Wing is a book that looks you in the eye and tells you that the government is lying to you-- the war beyond our borders is necessary, that if we do not send the army to fight our inhuman enemies, they will hurt not only our poorer, less fortunate allies but also our homeland. War is a morale imperative.

I haven’t finished Iron Flame yet. Perhaps this rant is premature. Maybe the series turns itself around. But as one can imagine, I don’t trust Rebecca “second generation army brat who loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years” Yarros to have thought it through all the way. Just a gut feeling. Who can say? If I am wrong, I would be more than happy to eat my words, though. I would love to be wrong. 

Me being wrong means that the most compelling reasons why Fourth Wing is bad really is the bad worldbuilding, prose, romance, characters, action, lore, smut, dialogue, editing, and everything else. There’s already a hundred big brained book reviewers who are making a video essay career off of telling you that in five hours or less. I respect the hustle. Personally, I never want to hear about this series again unless it’s about how Yarros built her blockbuster book series on conservative ideals of militarism and foreign policy, and then had the audacity to tell you that’s what it means to be a rebel. 

[ratethisalbum]

#137) Forever

Mystery Skulls

Suggested by: Anonymous

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Spotify ~ Youtube

(Remember to listen first, then rate!)

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Tracklist:

Forever

The Future

Paralyzed

Hellbent

Fantasy

Ghost

Magic

Number 1

When I'm With You

Body High

Every Note

[nirgilis]

SRNHNR 1 - Yozora and Noctis

Part 2 | Part 3 | Extra 1 | Extra 2

This post was sponsored by this track:

Nachtflügel helped to trace some Yozora's elements back to Noctis, despite racking the author's brains first by Batman's Nightwing.

These are theories based on unreleased stuff or similar elements from not that distant from each other games, so they might be overthoughted.

Nachtflügel is number 137 on KH3 OST tracklist, "13" and "7," aka Nomura's favorite numbers.

1) Night-part of "Nightwing" is already pretty understandable with the whole Noctis-night-theme, but together with wings it might be leading to Lucis' feature which for FF15 on different levels was either completely cut off or heavily toned doned.

With FF15's theme of Noctis becoming the King of Light it probably didn't suit anymore for his country to be even more connected to death then it was, so the scull on Lucis' emblem for almost all imaginery had to go and only eight-pointed star in circle remained.

Since countries in VS13/FF15 world tend to depict some deities/summons on their emblems, like Leviathan probably would've been and still kinda is the one for Accordo, the summon on Lucis' emblem might've supposed to be Diabolos.

In one of VS13 trailers it was said, that Lucis' crystal was the last remaining one and Solheim, Accordo and Tenebrae already lost theirs. That makes 4 crystal, which can be Wind/Fire/Water/Earth, the most common combination.

FF Type-0 in the way it was released also has 4 countries with 4 crystals, but at some point in development there was considered an idea about making 5th nation with Void crystal. It's possible that VS13 also might've had Void crystal, which would've been Lucis' one.

Diabolos might be a match for Lucis' Void crystal bc:

His skills are Void/Gravity-based. Diabolos from FF0. Lucis' powers of warping and "flying swords" of all magic are most close to be void/gravity-based.

His skills are still technically present in FF15, but in the form of Ring of Lucii. Alterna Spell.

Diabolos drains HP of enemies and throws gravity-spheres at them. Yozora likes to drain (steal) HP, other things and using Gravity-spheres very much.

These attacks with trapping/magneting enemies into spheres and then deconstructing them into data-cubes look like some sort of high-tech Diabolos.

Not even talking about Yozora making a dome with sphere, that temporarily changes gravity on the field.

Yozora's attacks and sphere he summons both remind red moon from Episode Duscae demo.

Since Diabolos is practically a humanoid bat with a tail, it's doubful that it's a coincidence that Komory Bats also have gravity-magic and drain-attack.

2.1) In VS13 trailer where Stella and Noctis talk about the Light they can see after near-death experience, Noctis might be trying to dodge questions and avoid talking about himself not to let Stella know some information he might be knowing or/and to make her reconsider her curiosity in their world's mysteries.

In Fabula Nova Crystalis Etro was tasked by Mwynn to keep the balance of Chaos between real world and unseen realm. Etro initially didn't understand what Mwynn meant, but when she started giving Chaos to humans, which became their hearts, the cycle and balance of Chaos between real world and unseen realm established.

In FF13 when Yeul was returned to life by Etro, she received Eyes of Etro, which allowed her to see the future. Noctis and Stella obtaining Eyes of Etro, in VS13 in this case Eyes that can see the light of expiring souls, throught near-death experience is close to how Yeul received them.

Turning to Nachtflügel again. It reminds Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries." It can be a coincidence, but it might've landed too accurately in mythology context, since Valkyries guide souls of the dead to Valhalla, or they might be guiding only those who they deem worthy. And Sora at the end of KH3 is sort of dead.

In VS13 Lucis line might've not only worshiped goddess of death, but served as her grim reapers in some way. Since the biggest problem of FNC's world is the balance of Chaos between real world and unseen realm, which if broken will doom the world, Lucis line' task might be to help maintain that balance.

2.2) There's a similarity between Snow's words in opening cutscene of FF13-3 and Yozora's, with "save" being taken in ditto marks.

Snow indirectly asks Lightning to kill him, despite that's being the opposite of her task, to free shacked souls by solving their troubles, so they'll be ready to be reborn in the new world.

These scenes might have the same subject, but with opposite events taking place. Yozora might've been brought to be Sora's "examinator" in a way. To test him if he still has will and strength to continue walking the road he brought upon himsef.

3) Apart from possibilty of Yozora's heterochromia coming from his appearance being a mix of 2 people, it might also be what he originally was supposed to have in VS13, but with kinda an opposite meaning and nearly devoid of its pros it was given to Ravus for FF15.

Ravus' eye turned purple from Starscourge infection from magitek arm, which he was given after the gods burned his hand in punishment for him trying to wear Ring of Lucii. Starscourge might've given him some increase in physical strength, but it was also turning him into a daemon.

In FF15 Omen trailer visual of Noctis going haywire is somewhat similar to Sora's Anti and Rage forms.

Diabolos and Yozora's red gravity spheres also recemble red spheres Darkside and Sora in Rage form have.

If in Anti and Rage forms Sora is relying on darkness or his feelings of anger, then in VS13 it might've been Chaos.

From Yeul's words about Chaos in FF13, it can give a number of abilities:

"The power to see the future. The power to travel the timeline. The power to bend monsters to your will. The power to remember in your dreams, even when the timeline has changed. They are manifestations of hidden chaos, and in a chosen few, these powers are great indeed. Such are the blessings of the goddess."

Yozora has a strange mechanic where he summons Gigases to fight for him, but as far as VR's trailer went, they weren't playing on the same team. Gigas might be VR's equivalent of magitek, so it might fit the words "The power to bend monsters to your will."

[luverofralts]

Arkhelios Adventures

"Urgh, my head. Where the hell am I?"

Theo looked around anxiously at his surroundings, but didn't recognize a single landmark. He was in a desert, he could tell that much. Probably not Arkhelios though. Anyone could see the Bellamy house from far away and it was nowhere to be found. The last thing Theo could remember had been saying goodnight to Adam and climbing into bed for the night. There weren't any memories of leaving school or arriving at any desert. This had to be a dream of some kind.

"It is a dream of sorts," a loud, somewhat familiar voice called out. "I could send you through the actual waves of time, but not as far and not as fast. Even magic has its limitations and I'd rather not fight through the currents of the Ocean unless I have to. Very few warlocks are permitted to physically cross the boundaries of time."

"You-you're that Maricourt that visited me before," Theo said, holding his throbbing head. "Evren's friend. Rio something."

"Master Reogus," the warlock corrected. "I'm one of the last Guardians of Time, and yes, a dear friend of Master Thorne. I wanted you to see something, little demon. To understand the future, one must understand the past."

"Wait, my voice is different and and hands are bigger!" Theo gasped, running his hands over himself to find that his body had changed quite a bit. While he couldn't see his reflection, he could feel the heavy weight of demon horns on his head and could feel the difference in his overall size. "I'm an adult? Is this a trick? This has to be a trick!"

Reogus smiled.

"The waves of time are fluid," he replied cryptically. "Sometimes the only method of navigating them is to change your vessel. As I've just stated, you are unable to flow with the waves to the past, only to my recreations. It it still incredibly taxing, and your natural form will adapt to the currents. The change is not permanent."

Theo audibly sighed with relief. Trying to explain to his teenage boyfriend why he had an adult body would have been a nightmare. His father would have had yet another breakdown too.

"Where are we? Why do you think I need to see something in the past? Can I call Evren?"

"We're in Strangetown," Reogus answered, ignoring all other questions. "Before its destruction. Around the year 125 or so, when times were peaceful. This family should be of interest to you."

Theo squinted against the harsh sun to try to get a better look, but he didn't know what to look for. Just because he had an adult body didn't mean that his brain had changed too.

"There's some kids hanging out in their yard. Big deal," he stated. For all the effort the warlock was supposedly going through, his presentation was awfully boring.

"That is Ripp Grunt," Reogus said sternly. "The survivor. The leader of Strangetown through the darkness. Do you not still study history in our academy?"

"Strangetown history is an elective and Adam didn't want to take it," Theo replied. "We live in Pleasantview after all."

If Theo didn't know better, he could have sworn that the ancient warlock groaned beside him.

"The Pleasantview council fought wars against insurgents who were aided by the supernatural. Those blessed with the gifts of Life fought against the darkness. The old monarch of Pleasantview fell and the demons cemented their hold on the country."

"Yeah, Life still messes around with the living," Theo said. "There's a poster in our living area with their various disguises and a number to call. They seem pretty nice though. They killed my grandma to save me and my dad."

"No, this is the old way," Reogus corrected the teen. "Lukas doesn't manifest as Life until 137."

Theo raised a skeptical eyebrow at the warlock.

"That doesn't make any sense. There's always been a deity of life to match the deity of death. It's basic magical theory. Light and dark, death and life helps bind spells and makes magic possible."

"Well, I'm glad they still teach you something in school. You may still want to think about taking more electives, child. There once was a being of Life created together with Death. Life grew greedy over the years and fell away from his purpose. As punishment, the Ocean swallowed him and his followers in its deepest, coldest depths, creating the Void as you know it and all of its demons. For a time, Death reigned alone and it was a dark time indeed."

"Young Ripp lost everything. His family, his friends, his home. For reasons that none of us mortals know, Strangetown was nearly destroyed by the newly forged demons and Pleasantview. Their entire way of life was completely destroyed in the aftermath. Limited technology, and no electricity grids to support them. The people turned to magic and their own communities to survive. If Death had destroyed their lives, the people began to call to Him in rituals to ease their suffering."

"And Ripp Grunt was there, holding the country together. The Spectors, the Smiths, they all rallied around his leadership and the old ways were born."

"The old ways?" Theo repeated, still in shock at the images before him. "Are they magic? Are they in my textbook?"

Theo watched the man before him bow before a flame, whispering a strange language rhythmically to himself. Ripp took a dagger from his side and released a small amount of blood onto some runes, something that looked very familiar to Theo.

"Oh! I know that one!" he exclaimed excitedly. "That's a spell for protection! That was on my exam last semester. This is when people practiced blood magic? This is awesome! People who actually use the same kind of magic that I do!"

"But Death was unbalanced during this time," Reogus said coldly. If Theo had to guess, this guy must have been a teacher at his school when he was alive. He talked like a teacher. "The Great Demons rose along with their blood demon brethren. The council in Pleasantview increased their attacks. It was a time of great suffering. The current Grim Reaper was born during this time. He watched the death toll rise as his father collected the many lost souls with clinical precision."

"Why are you showing me all of this?" Theo demanded. This all sounded like it was getting to the point this strange warlock wanted to make, but Theo wasn't liking the somber change in his voice or the broken look in the young Grim Reaper's eyes. "What's the point? I'll take Strangetown history 101 if that's what you want."

"You are coming of age, child," the warlock said kindly, as if he could sense Theo's discomfort. "To know the past is to know the future. To know your past is to know your future."

"No offense, but this isn't my past. This was millennia ago, I'm fourteen."

"It is the origin of your people," Reogus continued. "It is the origin of your kind. As you said, these are the people who are doing the type of magic that is in your textbooks. As you grow older, you will come into your true power. You need to see what that looks like."

"Um, I'm good now," Theo protested. "If I could just wake up from whatever dream this is, I promise that I'll take the history course. There's a lot of fire and death and creepy things here that probably look better in a history textbook."

"No, you must look closer."

Theo's stomach felt like it was being torn from his body as the warlock manipulated their reality, sending wave after wave of energy through him. A shimmering blue light enveloped him, shielding him as his entire person succumbed to the rhythm of the waves of time.

When he could open his eyes again, Theo found himself in a graveyard in the dark of night. He wasn't normally worried by gravestones, but something felt off about this place. The energy was dark and unfriendly.

When Theo moved to take a step forward, he nearly tripped. His legs were suddenly much shorter than he was used to. A quick look at his hands confirmed the change. He was no longer an adult, but still not a teenager. Had he really been this short as a child? He didn't remember the world looking this small.

"See, young apprentice, this is the result of unbalance. This is the price of an unchecked structure for your kind."

Theo stared in the direction Reogus was pointing and saw two men huddled together in the ruins of a graveyard.

"That's the Grim Reaper again," Theo noted. "At least that's who he is in my time. Victoriana says that her grandparents adore him, that he's this nice, compassionate boss who lets them get away with whatever they want."

"Well, saddled with an embarrassing name, and neglected by any parental figures will sometimes do that to a person," Reogus acknowledged. "He has lived in Strangetown for millenia and protected it as best as he could the entire time. There are limits to the abilities of reapers, though. They cannot change the flow of history unless it is their destiny or if the change has been approved by an appropriate deity. This younger Gee is still in his first lifetime, trying to protect the man he loves from his father. Without Life to balance him, Death was overpowered. All the killing that the demons did went unchallenged. Many people may have died before their time and in large quantities. All of the first Life’s powers went with the demons when he fell. Life's powers were not meant to be used for evil. The Great and blood demons were powerful beyond measure because of this. When the powers of Life are used as a weapon, people suffer. Devastating amounts of lives were lost."

"Yeah, I get it," Theo snapped, starting to realize that this whole mystical trip was really just an excuse for another adult to scold him and make him feel badly about his powers. "Murder is bad, I know."

"Father! Sir! Stop this! We can't keep letting this happen!"

Theo watched as Gee Spector pleaded with Death on behalf of the living. For all of Gee's angry words, Death seemed to be unmoved.

"Father, this can't keep happening. Ben says that they don't have the resources to survive past six months at the food dispersal center. We need to call for help. You knew Life, can't you talk to him about the demons? Why isn't the Ocean stopping this?"

"Life won't listen to me, he never has," Death replied stiffly. "All I can do is my job. It's all for the Ocean to sort out and it is too weak at the moment. I must do my duty and my duty only. I'm sorry that you've developed an attachment to the living. It's unfortunate that they suffer, but it's not my duty to deal with it."

Theo saw Gee's hands tighten into angry fists, but the reaper said nothing. The being in front of him barely looked like he cared for his son and seemed to actively despise the living humans. Theo had never thought of the current Life deity as anything other than a pest who liked to meddle in the affairs of the living, but clearly, they had changed Death for the better over the centuries.

Theo watched what he assumed was the burning energy of fallen souls dispense out of Death’s hands into the air.

"It gets better here, though, right?" he asked his magical tour guide. "Strangetown had enough food to survive? Somehow the Life deity was replaced and things got better?"

Reogus shrugged, happy to finally have the young student's attention.

"Well, since you declined the opportunity to study Strangetown history in school, I guess we'll just have to see what happens next."

[mcltiples]

{ OOC } So for an older verse, I think I would base it off when he's 35 because that seems to be the magic number in most of the Smith-Sanchez' lives. I'll put this down in an easy to understand way instead of ramblings. Just in case if anyone wants to write with him in this verse (yes, I'm gonna attach a verse tag to this, be prepared!)

Appearance: An older C-137 Morty would look exactly like this. (If you can't access the picture, sorry, I'm dumb). Swooped back hair with a lighter shade of brown in his hair. Slightly muscular in the upper torso. Stubble. He wears yellow V-Neck shirts and jeans. Sometimes wearing an un-zipped up hoodie jacket along with it! Has grown from 5'4 to 5'9!

Current Position: This will be very verse / ship dependent. I'll make separate posts about ship-specific verses. So for now, you'll get the main default verse.

After high school, barely graduating with the help of Rick, Morty moved on towards college. Where he only went for a year or two because he couldn't decide what he wanted to do with his life. Plus Rick talked him into dropping out because it would be worthless.

Instead, he decided to continue his adventures with Rick. Still going as strong as ever, the same when he was 14. Though, they've gotten worse and Morty has more responsibilities, his own side hustle in distributing weapons, making deals, shady business stuff. Though, he's more like a business partner to Rick, rather than an employee, so he gets to call some shots here and there. Depending on what he sees fit.

Which means lots of getting tied up with the wrong people, making enemies, killing those who cross him. He gets his own portal gun to travel around by himself with, but Rick monitors the activity heavily and only he can give him the portal fluid if he runs out.

Some changes: He's grown out of his awkward phase. Definitely much more confident in who he is as a person. Years of trauma and desensitization has brought him to become a colder person as well. Drinks heavily / binge drinks, but isn't quite addicted. Does drugs on occasion.

In his main verse, he's opposed to being in a committed relationship. Since he figures it'll lead right into marriage. Instead, he focuses more on hook-ups, one night stands, small flings. Usually with non-human / galactic / interdimensional beings. 'Cause it's easier that way for him. And he doesn't risk turning into his parents that way.

[33-108]

137, an exemplary number of Kabbalistic significance - tying physics, math, science and mysticism.

In mysticism, the Hebrew word קבלה (Kabbalah) has a numerical value of 137.

There's a rare, non dimensional, atomic constant in physics known as the “Fine Structure Constant”.

It's reciprocal number which is equivalent to 1/137, is related to the probability of electrons and charged particles absorbing or emitting photons, and is the ratio of the strength of electromagnetic force compared to the strong nuclear.

The number is needed in order to gage how specific wavelengths of light interact in precise ways with atomic forces/ how electromagnetic forces hold atoms together.

This number is one of the constants determining the size of the atoms, and therefore, the form and structure of the visible universe.

This number appears explicitly for the first time in the Bible in the Torah portion of Chayei Sarah: Ishmael lived 137 years.

Levi and the father of Moses, Amram, also lived 137 years. Akeidat Yitzchak/Binding of Isaac took place when Abraham was 137 years of age.

The word “opposite” – “maKBiLot” has a root K-B-L. These verses speak of a curtain separating Kodesh Hakadoshim, the Holy of Holies – from the Kodesh, the area called “Holy” immediately adjacent to it. It is viewed symbolically as the curtain separating spiritual and material worlds.

The number 137 is, therefore, seen as appearing on the cusp of the physical and the spiritual.

"It describes the “corresponding loops” which clasped together enjoin the two sections of the Tabernacle’s ceiling. These loops divided the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies — the physical dimension and the spiritual dimension — and at the boundary line of the physical world, the number 137 emerges."

- Moses’ Tabernacle, the earthly dwelling place of God, was 13.7 meters long

Just as the fine-structure constant relates to the absorption of a photon by an electron, the symbolism of the number 137 in Kabbalah is the "receiving (kabbalah) of the Infinite Light – Ohr Ein Sof (1) – into ten vessels-sephirot comprised of the three (3) sephirot of sechel (intellect, ChaBaD: Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at) and seven (7) lower sephirot-midot = 137 (1 + 23 + 27 = 137)."

Physicist Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung were both enamored with the power of certain numbers, including 137.

They were fascinated by the atom’s fine-structure constant and its Kabbalistic significance. They formed a friendship and began a study that led them through alchemy, kabbalah, dream interpretation, and the Chinese Book of Changes.

They were two people who believed 137 was at the intersection of modern science with the occult.

One of the important physicists of the 20th century, Richard Feynman, wrote about the number 137:

“It has been a mystery ever since it was discovered more than fifty years ago, and all good theoretical physicists put this number up on their wall and worry about it. It’s one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man. You might say the ‘hand of God’ wrote that number, and ‘we don’t know how He pushed his pencil.”

"The mystery about α is actually a double mystery. The first mystery – the origin of its numerical value α ≈ 1/137 has been recognized and discussed for decades. The second mystery – the range of its domain – is generally unrecognized." — Malcolm H. Mac Gregor, M.H. MacGregor (2007). The Power of Alpha. World Scientific. p. 69.

[wooltoesocks]

things i want to get answers to in the remaining episodes of four leaf: a very comprehensive list that must be missing some things i just cant remember at the moment (also soilers for up until ep 139):

just in general evrything about the bells, and more especiall like how is lina giving lupe her bells (because that is 100% gonna happen i think) gonna affect them, for example if they'll get lina's bell as like their own, and if that bell being kinda broken is gonna be any problem

will that be a permanent change, is lupe gonna give the bell back to lina after they deal with the wolf

what's gonna happen to cricket if they really do deal with the wolf? or how will tehy come to some wsolution that doesnt harm anyone

CARLA!!! is she gonna be okay? that wound looks very nasty. i hope they'll be able to cure it somehow, and if not, then chopchop there goes a leg :/

talking about carla, is she gonna give er bells to someone like she mentioned in 138? that is only in case she wont be able to continue, but it loks very bad rn, so my question is, is it gonnna be mercy? or in general, who is it gonna be?

also about the bells, i really wanna know how many bells each witch has!! it''s just something i think would be interesting to analyse. (i looked through all the episodes where a witch has their bells out buut i still now only know for certain the number of bels like 7 witches have (before 137 and emma giving up her bells): Erica 1, Emma 2, Socks 2 (most likely, unless she got mor after the prison break, that's when she at least shows only 2), Alishba 3, Linda 3 (both of whose bells were shown during the prison break), Carla 20, Lina 21.

also also (i use that word so much), the names of the witches! we now know there are 17 witches in the red hoods (+lupe +lina so maybe 19 but oh well) and of those 17 we know the names of 12 (episode 133)

what i wanna know too is like which bell belongs to which witch? we've seen some, for example in the flashback of when they first appeared, and also in the festival of roses we see some, but like i wnna knowww (ye sit's very trivial but that's what makes it fun i think)

the mom. what happened with her in the 8 months that have passed since lupe was last in their original world? did she just continue on like normal, or did she actually regret some of the things she's done? will lupe go see her again?

the inevitable. the thing i've been waiting for for like 2 years. the KISS! alvar mentioned the witch loking very mad and the also saying he's the kinda guy to ask twice before a first kiss and what i think will happen is that he is gonna ask. like he's just the kinda guy. but the thing lupe (most likely) will be "mad" about is just that al didnt tell about it (even tho he was gonna tell you lupe, you just didnt want him to). or they arent mad, but just like very confused/fristrated and Al just interpreted it wrong? i dont know. we'll see (hopefully tomorrow in 140 but at the evry least in 141?? like i dont think it will take so long that it would be 142? (i am delusional). also looking at the future chapter thumbnails (not a fast pass reader), it looks like someone is using some kind of reddish/pinkish magic / teleporting right next to him)

okay this isnt a theory or anything, i just know lupe's dad is gonna be so smug learning about lupe and al's relationship when they do get into one like judging from ep 116 and the "crush" i jut know

okay wow this is a long post but i need to get these out of my head and scream into the void and wait if it screams back

back to the bells, they'r gonna give everyone their own one back right? if they deal wit hthe wolf, there shouldnt be any need to hoard all the power, and i dont think it would be very fair to let 72 people just go on about life without really even knowing what's going no just because you wanna levitate. i know it's probably more complicated than that but yeah

also (fuck, this word again) what's gonna happen to the witchs' craving of gloom? is it gonna go away if there is no wolf (okay this is assuming that it's dealt with and they wont come to a peaceful comclusion but if that happens i just really hope cricket will be okay)

are other witches gonna wanna get rid of their bells and become human like emma?

i would like some more information about the different worlds, although i think it's unlikely tha will come up in the chapters themselves, but maybe as some bonus content somewhere?

okay so i already wrote about like if Lina's bell being broken is gonna have any effect on lupe, but will it affect Lina herself? i would assume not, but you never know

just in general, i cant wait to see how everything comes to a conclusion and how the ending is gonna be (even tho i would love for it to go on for longer). are we gonnna see another time skip?

man i just remembered there are alaso civilians in Garua at the moment too like the redhoods are gonna get the to safety right? maybe that will also help a little with the public's fear of the witches, the news that hey maybe they're not bad through and through (even tho that was never the case but most people still thought that so)

fuck this is long how many words even is this... 1005???? man that's like 2/3 of the essays we had to write in high school. yea it's easier to just put stuff from your mind into bullet points but this has taken me like maybe 45 minutes where as those essays took at least 5 hours. i bet i could make one from one of my interests in like 2 hours and i would be much better than any of those monstrocities i wrote

anyway back on track

actually those are the main ones i remember now, maybe i'll update this once more come to mind, but for now this is enough for today

pictured above is me falling for this series

wait one more thing: is it stated anywhere how much the bells weigh? i would assume they're more like incorporeal so they wouldn't hve any mass, and i fell like should know this i've read this series 5 or 6 times. but if they do infact hve mass, do the witches have to actively levitate them or are they jsut funky like that

[atlaslivesintheocean]

So the main reason i made a Tumblr was so I could rant about plot holes in the hp Universe for instance the number of wizards that excist in this ELIET socity. Hear me out:

There are 1.000 students at Hogwarts. In every year there are about 143 students (142,8 to be fair) so every year abou 143 people graduate and the average age of a wizards are 137 (why just why) witch means there are about 19.571 people with magical abilities. Which is a tiny portion of the UK only like 0,029% would be in that category.

BUT PLEASE TELL ME WHY THE HELL THE BLOOD PURIST WERE SUCH A BIG PROBLEM. There are 28 pureblood families (the secred 28) most of which are extinct or when the war were a thing there were like 2 people left. The Blacks, Rosier, Gaunt, Avery and the Crouch.

And not all of them were evil the Shacklebolt, Weasley, Prewett, Abbott, MacMillan and the Longbottoms were ALL on the others side. And there where more that just chose to not be a part of the war.

So I know that a lot of the evil people were halfbloods but were the bigger part of his army ready to murdering there own parents?? Even if we say that there were about 30 people in the pureblod lines and they ALL were on voldys side and were adults it would only be around 840 vs 18.731.

Let’s then say 560 of the rest were half bloods (we like even numbers) that 1.400 deatheaters and let’s say people under 17 can’t fight so we take 2.431 from the other side that’s 16.140 vs 1400.

Then you might argue that a big part chose not to participate in the fighting let’s 66% didn’t wanna get involved. That’s still 5.326 vs 1.400.

I know voldy were powerful but his people had problems catching 15-16 year olds in “The order of the phoenix.”

Now I have much more but this post is kinda long so I will stop for now, just wanna say I DO enjoy Harry Potter, but like maybe you could have used a calculator for like a moment before it was claimed there where 1.000 students.

Byeee ;)

[mysterycharacterbracket]

FINAL RECAP POST

Tier 1 - First 44

300. 260. Puff Puff from Your Favorite Martian

299. 160. Maxil of Gallifrey from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

298. 88. Nobody from scp foundation

297. 64. Jubei from Video Game (Blazblue)

296. 131. Nyssa from Doctor Who fused with Bulbasaur from Pokémon

295. 242. Rarity from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

294. 148. Garwin Chang from Kotlc

293. 103. William from Chad Smith: Life of a rich boy (webtoon), and more coming soon TBD

292. 244. Benrey from Half-life VR but the AI is self aware

291. 15. Flavio Who from the submitter's own memes

290. 70. Vislor Turlough from Doctor who (-_-)

289. 293. Lee Ping from Detentionaire

288. 19. Clay Puppington from Moral Orel

287. 211. The Puppeteer from Steldomo (aka an oc in a story the submitter wants to write)

286. 43. hatsune miku; colorful stage

285. 167. Hugtan / Hagumi / Cure Tomorrow from Hugtto Precure

284. 164. Dr Frankistein from Frankenstein (the book)

283. 60. Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama

282. 175. Sho Minamimoto from The World Ends With You

281. 28. Stacy Hirano from Phineas and Ferb!

280. 199. Dib Membrane from Invader Zim

279. 25. Loras Tyrell from A Song of Ice and Fire (NOT the show they fuckijgbmassacred his character)

278. 74. Candyman from Lethal League Blaze

277. 31. Kikiu from Tess of the Road

276. 191. Dazai Osamu from Bungou stray dogs

275. 185. Juta Tachibana from Otomen

274. 85. Jenny Jergens from Detentionnaire

273. 119. Theodore from The House in the Cerulean Sea

272. 95. Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night

271. 124. Puss in Boots from Shrek

270. 137. Phantom Horn from Two Best Brothers Bitch About Ponies/Slime and Punishment/RowdyFuckers CopKillers Endless War (indirectly originatined in Sonichu as well, as slime and punushment is the cannonical ending to Sonichu, TBBBAP, and while not the end, is a cannonical story in RFCK)

269. 8. Greenland from Plague, Inc.

268. 233. Link from The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap

267. 223. Scooby doo from Scooby doo

266. 156. Cricket from Wings of Fire

265. 10. Wilbur the pig from Charlotte's Web

264. 1. Cleopatra the 7th from Real life

263. 189. Colin Frazer from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

262. 79. Peter Pan from Once Upon a Time

261. 240. Shiho Kobayakawa from Private Actress

260. 277. The Human Faced Fish from Shingi: The Spirit's Playbook

259. 84. Chopfyt (The Tin Man) from Oz

258. 250. Albedo from Ben 10

257. 257. Sam Lloyd/Sergei Lubovitch from The Diviners series

Tier 2 - Round of 256

256. 254. Andrew Ryan from Buoshck

255. 216. Nyssa õf Traken from Doctor who

254. 228. Asha from Iji

253. 22. Whisper Schnee from Boldores and Boomsticks

252. 253. Chuuya Nakahara from Bungou stray dogs

251. 18. Mapleshade from warrior cats

250. 190. Andrew Eldritch from real life

249. 120. sans undertale from undertale

248. 219. T-Rex from Jurassic Park

247. 141. Karkat Vantas from Homestuck

246. 53. Rasputin IV from X-Men

245. 20. Hunter | The Golden Guard from The Owl House

244. 7. Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

243. 50. Death from Darksiders

242. 266. Dave Miller from Dsaf

241. 174. Dr. Miranda Jones from Star Trek: The Original Series

240. 274. donquixote doflamingo from one piece

239. 92. Hyakunosuke Ogata from Golden Kamuy

238. 11. Kha'Nel from Dragens Øye

237. 139. George Costanza from Seinfeld

236. 121. Rampage from Beast Wars

235. 62. ε (epsilon) from Mathematics, real life (kinda? Not sure maths qualifies as real life) ) (common phrase: Let ε>0 be any real number)

234. 134. BoJack Horseman from BoJack Horseman

233. 291. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

232. 129. Flavio Rezza (MC Flava) from real life

231. 215. Goodtimewithscar or Scar for short (the minecraft youtuber)

230. 186. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

229. 170. claude frollo from the hunchback of notre dame (specifically the stage musical)

228. 217. Grian from Life Series (3rd/Last/Double/Limited Life)

227. 168. the submitter from real life

226. 269. Mizi from Alien Stage

225. 96. Robin Stuart from Arc of Infinity (Doctor Who)

224. 172. Tessa Minsky from Imogen, Obviously

223. 267. Ea-nasir (real life copper merchant - 1750 BCE)

222. 37. Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa V3

221. 147. Rose Lavillant from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

220. 135. Fiver from Watership down

219. 251. Keith Kogane from Voltron

218. 63. Cricket from Wings of Fire

217. 146. Adric of Alzarius from Doctor Who

216. 177. Mort from the Madagascar Movies/All Hail King Julian

215. 59. Edward Elric from Fullmetal metal alchemist

214. 290. Jimmy Solidarity from The Empires smp

213. 259. rayla from the dragon prince

212. 205. Starfy from The Legendary Starfy

211. 232. Taako from The Adventure Zone

210. 188. Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid

209/208. 182. Matt Murdock from Daredevil (Netflix)

209/208. 107. Ted Kord from DC comics

207. 86. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

206. 27. Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon

205. 197. Marc Anciel from Miraculous Ladybug

204. 159. Yona from Yona of the Dawn

203. 220. David Chiem from Danganronpa: Despair Time

202. 125. Tynan from Aurora Webcomic

201. 169. Kid Blink from Newsies

200. 128. π (pi) from Mathematics (as in half a circle of radius 1)

199. 275. Zee from Total Drama 2023

198. 278. Flynn Moore from Echo (the furry vn)

197. 270. Caim Tivh from Mørkalven

196. 195. Grendel, The Grimm General from Boldores and Boomsticks

195. 280. Hermie the Unworthy from Dungeons and Daddies

194. 181. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from My Immortal

193. 247. Monkey D Luffy from One Piece

Tier 3 - Round of 192

192. 68. Jacopo Bearzatti from The House in Fata Morgana

191. 117. Pugsley Guttman from From the animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park

190. 57. Maglor from the Silmarillion

189. 203. Al-An from Subnautica: Below Zero

188. 112. Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie-verse (???)

187. 122. Rampage from Beast Wars

186. 284. Callie Cuttlefish from Splatoon 1-3

185. 61. Ranpo Edogawa from Bungou Stray Dogs

184. 123. Emil from Nier series

183. 157. vriska from homestuck

182. 213. Brainy Smurf from The Smurfs

181. 36. Doppo Kannonzaka from Hypnosis Mic

180. 38. Diane Nguyen from BoJack Horseman

179. 32. Serial Designation N from Murder Drones

178. 29. Morgrem from Pokemon

177. 17. Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki from Everything Everywhere All at Once

176. 54. Rex Salazar from Generator Rex

175. 161. Huan from The Silmarillion

174. 225. meg from megahex comic series

173. 136. [redacted] / trivia murder party host from jackbox; trivia murder party

172. 42. Toshiko Sato from Torchwood

171. 106. Veeva Dash from Stampy's Lovely World

170. 39. gaheris from arthuriana

169. 287. waylon smithers jr from the simpsons

168. 77. Nathaniel Kurtzberg from Miraculous Ladybug

167. 89. Pit from Kid Icarus

166. 82. Tsurugi Kyousuke / Victor Blade from Inazuma Eleven GO

165. 171. Danhausen from Professional wrestling

164. 3. Maia Drahzar/Edrehasivar VII from The Goblin Emperor

163. 165. Taranee Cook from W.i.t.c.h.

162. 207. Ardyn "Izunia" Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV

161. 132. Invader Zim from Invader Zim

160. 94. Mumbo Jumbo from Real Life/Mcyt

159. 208. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost Cities

158. 78. Aya Burnstein from Dancing In The Devils Auditorium, by xxangelxbl00dxx(the OP) on ao3

157. 230. Nintendo EShop Bag from Nintendo EShop

156. 234. Logan(Logic) from Sanders Sides

155. 261. Eridan Ampora from Homestuck

154. 235. Markiplier from Real Life

153. 138. Hajime Hinata from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

152. 264. Bao-Dur from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2

151. 71. Fabian Seacaster from Fantasy High (Dimension 20)

150. 283. Bruno Madrigal from Encanto

149. 13. The Fifth Doctor from Doctor Who

148. 155. Tegan Jovanka from Doctor Who

147. 273. Lynne from Ghost Trick

146. 130. Hoshina Hikaru (Cure Star) from Star Twinkle Pretty Cure

145. 81. Damon of Gallifrey from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

144. 239. "Phoenix" from iiRitW, the OP's ORIGINAL (sob) wip videogame

143. 115. Sound Saran from My School President

142. 149. data from star trek the next generation

141. 2. Iruma-kun from Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun

140. 256. Akane Kurashiki from Zero Escape

139. 104. Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon

138. 91. Kuromi from Sanrio

137. 158. Corazón de Ballena from Oxventure

136. 192. Milo Murphy from Milo Murphy's Law

135. 105. Alice Price Healy from Incryptid

134. 48. Raven Scofflaw from the submitter's OC from a wip that currently has the filler title 'Family'

133. 187. Vash the Stampede from Trigun

132. 206. Ben from the submitter's OC with almost zero information about lmao (this will change once I update artfight?)

131. 66. Natsuki Subaru from Re:Zero

130. 126. Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher

129. 255. Kevin from Ghost Host Ghost House

Tier 4 - Round of 128

128. 116. Pancho from All Hail King Julien!

127. 110. Kento from Payday 2

126. 113. Grantaire from Les Miserables

125. 65. Lexcanium from Wasteland 2

124. 297. Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars

123. 263. Chocolat Aizawa from Chocolat no Mahou

121/122. 153. Syv from Snøkattprinsen/The Snowcat Prince

121/122. 299. Adam Tyler from the Firewatching series

120. 83. Imogen Scott from Imogen, Obviously

119. 152. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost Cities

118. 198. Sylvio Sawatari from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V

117. 295. Pheonix Wright from Ace Attorney

116. 221. Prince Tarte (full name so long even he can't remember all of it) from Fresh Precure

115. 286. Ingo from Pokemon Legends Arceus

114. 279. The Collector from The Owl House

113. 227. Guildmaster Wigglytuff from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky

112. 99. Nanako Dojima from Persona 4

111. 262. Lunar from The sun and moon show

110. 143. the doctor (could just be the 10th doctor if thats too broad) from doctor who

109. 108. Don Quixote from Limbus Company

108. 46. Chiono from Steldomo (aka an oc in a story the submitter wants to write)

107. 236. the Doctor from Doctor Who

106. 45. Hao Asakura from Shaman King

105. 16. Tatsuya Suou from Persona 2

104. 194. Magic Brian from The Adventure Zone: Balance

103. 229. ronan lynch from the raven cycle

102. 58. Todd Chavez from BoJack Horseman

101. 252. Susan Sto Helit from The Discworld series

100. 12. Baljeet Tjinder from Phineas and Ferb

99. 271. Manga Fukidashi from My hero academia

98. 238. Cure Lovely/Megumi Aino from Happiness Charge Precure

97. 154. Nate Ford from Leverage

Tier 5 - Round of 96

96. 210. Melanie King from The Magnus Archives

95. 241. Vriska Serket from Homestuck

94. 93. Cure Passion from Fresh Precure

93. 44. Stanford Pines from Gravity Falls

92. 265. Otome from Video game (Gnosia)

91. 173. Lucian Lockhart from the submitter's imagination

90. 4. Pyotr 'Pierre' Bezukhov from War and Peace

89. 6. Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi from Gotham Academy/DC Comics

88. 76. Meridius from Venom

87. 268. daniil dankovsky from pathologic

86. 55. Nona from Nona the Ninth (book)

85. 24. Prince Peasely from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

84. 298. IMOGEN from stellar firma

83. 52. Jordyn Khaos from The chronicles of Destiny

82. 166. Gideon Nav from The Locked Tomb

81. 282. Obi from Snow White with the Red Hair

80. 281. Dalinar Kholin from Stormlight Archive

79. 140. Tim Drake from DC Comics, Batman Comics

78. 248. Brightheart from Warriors

77. 23. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost cities

76. 109. Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist

75. 289. Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul

74. 114. Vinnie Dakota from Milo Murphy's Law

73. 14. Jin Macchiato from Fuga: Melodies of Steel

72. 101. Hendry Lowe from All of Us Villains

71. 212. Annabel McAllistair from Dolls of new albion

70. 258. Sanji from One piece

69. 214. God from the Bible

68. 73. Kosane Kiriha from Null Magical Girl

67. 218. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit

66. 118. anakin skywalker from star wars

65. 90. Adina Astra from Lost Constellation (Night in the Woods Supplemental)

Tier 6 - Round of 64

64. 35. Larten Crepsley from The Saga of Darren Shan

63. 49. Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House

62. 26. Perona from One Piece

61. 47. Bain from Payday: the Heist and Payday 2

60. 144. Heiji Hattori from Detective Conan

59. 41. Maglor from The Silmarillion

58. 237. Carrot from The Discworld series

57. 179. John from Malevolent (podcast)

56. 226. Katarina Claes from My Next Life as a Villianess

55. 127. five hargreeves from the umbrella academy

54. 196. Dragon from Parahumans

53. 102. Vanessa Santoro from Fablehaven book series

52. 150. James Flint from Black Sails

51. 180. Sasha Rackett from Rusty Quill Gaming

50. 249. Donna Noble from Doctor Who

49. 178. Beauregard Lionett from Critical Role

Tier 7 - Second bracket

48. 151. Zisu from Pokemon Legends Arceus

47. 209. Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

46. 56. Canute from Vinland Saga

45. 183. otto octavius / doc ock from spiderman 2

44. 204. Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

43. 33. Mihashi Ren from Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup!)

42. 100. The original char aznable from Gundam

41. 51. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

40. 292. akagi shigeru from akagi

39. 202. Douglas F. Eiffel from Wolf 359

38. 80. Marty Mikalski from The Cabin in the Woods, 2011

37. 142. The Reaper from Death's door

36. 184. Thors from Vinland Saga

35. 200. Ryoma Hoshi from Danganronpa

34. 75. Darth Maul from Star Wars

33. 243. Kim Theerapanyakul from Kinnporsche The Series

Tier 8 - Round of 32

32. 34. Godzilla from Godzilla

31. 300 Baljeet Tjinder from Phineas and Ferb

30. 245. Duck Newton from The Adventure Zone: Amnesty

29. 145. Gakushuu Asano from Assassination Classroom

28. 30. Natsume Takashi from Natsume's Book of Friends

27. 276. Nona from The Locked Tomb series

26. 87. Cordelia Gallo from Gosick

25. 162. Richard Spender from Paranatural

Tier 9 - Round of 24

24. 296. Horse from Centaurworld

23. 40. charlie kelly from its always sunny in philadelphia

22. 294. Warren Peace from Sky High

21. 176. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

20. 285. Daisy Wells from Murder Most Unladylike (book series)

19. 201. zane from lego ninjago

18. 9. Tin from Triage

17. 111. Kelsier from Mistborn

Tier 10 - Sweet 16

16. 98. Fujiwara no Sai from Hikaru no Go

15. 133. Megamind from Megamind

14. 97. V from Devil May Cry

13. 69. Vegas Theerapanyakul from Kinnporsche: The Series

Tier 11 - Top Twelve

12. 193. The Obituary Writer from Death By Dying

11. 163. hollyleaf from warrior cats

10. 72. King Clawthorne from The Owl House

9. 288. Vin from Mistborn

Tier 12 - Elite Eight

8. 222. Galacta Knight from Kirby

7. 224. Metal Sonic from Sonic Series

Tier 13 - Final bracket

6. 272. Ilke from Phenomena

5. 231. Maika Halfwolf from Monstress

Tier 14 - Final Four

4. 246. Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney

Tier 15 - Thrilling Three

3. 21. Olenna Tyrell from A Song of Ice and Fire

Tier 16 - Top Two

2. 5. Parker from Leverage

Tier 17 - Only One

1. 67. Sophie Foster from Keeper of the lost cities

[senorablack]

the one where four's his lucky number

Words: 137 Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Gabriel/Sam Winchester Additional Tags: Fluff, Humor Summary: Prompt via tumblr user gabriel-horn-of-truth: Sober Sam is… Well, not a prude, but not a flirt as such either. Drunk Sam, though, is a horny bugger. (SFS)

Lucky number 4, that’s what he’d banking on and that’s what he’s murmuring on repeat now.

Oh, man, that teeny, lil nothing-to-nobody-but-him power number that always makes a night out that much more worth while.

Sam Winchester is no lightweight by any means but Sam Winchester after 4 healthy fingers of some top shelf produces some sort of magic that all of heavens grace could never. He’s a messy flirt—all hands and suggestive eyebrows, lousy with insults to Gabriel’s not-so-personhood that all sound like love sonnets and Gabriel fucking adores it.

“So, short. God, you’re insufferable,” Sam is saying, biting at Gabriel’s neck. And when he’s lifted into Sam's lap, straddling his thighs and moaning into his mouth, Gabriel makes the point to grind into him, just to show Sam just how insufferable he can be.

[sun-arson]

Unfortunately this somehow took 3 days but I did it! I made the reference sheet. I’m trying a lot of new things that seem to paying off, I’ve never never drew a tattoo before until I made this oc and tbh I’m not disappointed with how it came out!

But allow me to explain who the izila are a little, I will make a sheet about them and everything else that is important before actually starting the AU but a little early insight never hurt anyone, right?

The izila Are a tribe of people and monsters forged 253 years before the Great War, the people of the tribe believed in one god. The god that lived amongst the stars, Sun Wukong who here was The first Demi-Human. A Demi-human is a hybrid between monster and human who can have the potential the shatter the limitations of ones usual magical capacities, sun was one of those Demi humans, his magic burns with the heat of a thousand suns, his flame undying and his body eternally hot to provide his people heat when it was cold. Sun was allegedly the most powerful being to ever walk the planet, his Demi-human make up allowed for the izila monsters and humans to be more accepting of one another and therefore their tribe thrived all the way up until the Great War. By the time of the Great War sun had passed after living 137 years of a great life, as not just a divine icon but a hero and friend to his people. He’s carried them on his shoulders for years, For the next 116 years they needed to figure out life on their own. And they did. However once the war came about the izila had a great divide those who still followed the word of sun and worshipped ‘The God of the Sun’ and those who were straying away from it due to the ‘Gods’ passing.

two tribes known as the Keżzi-Kürt and Aadamei never had appreciated the existence of the monsters and would do anything to prove humans superior, this tribe would actively go out of their way to torment other tribes and especially Demi-Humans, and monsters. Anything between cutting one’s life short or forcing them to do manual labor until it becomes too unbearable. Due to the tribes constant competition for food eventually there came a era called “Starved” people were starting to starve due to the lack of food, The izila were getting ready to move on and travel to another land but during their preparations the Keżzi-Kürt tribe had corrupted the Izila who strayed away from their teachings, convincing them that the they’re only struggling because with monsters around the population was far too high, they preached that the monsters consumed a much higher volume of resources than humans and other lies and like the foolish lost sheep that they were the former izila members turned on their people to join the Keżzi-Kürt. And so the Great War started. The Keżzi-Kürt were a large tribe who were also supported by the aadamei and almost half of the Izila. These numbers easily overwhelmed the Real izila, the humans in the tribe who stood with the monsters were struck down along side them and Demi-humans. In the end the remainder of the Izila had took their kids and went into hiding in fear of extinction unfortunately leaving the monsters to fight the battle on their own, in the end they all were sealed away. Now 11 centuries later only 20 members of the izila remain along with 3 Demi-humans, one of which being nova.

because of their religious beliefs their names are often related to stars, fire, plasma in general. Such as Nova or his sister Star, their last names casaflame which means “cast a flame”. Their fathers name is Agni which means “fire”, their mothers name is Astra which means “Star” as based on the belief of their god of the sun, they still believe that even after his death Sun still watches over them.

Anyway, story time over! Reference sheet time ✨

credit to the inspirations!💛

INSPIRATIONS!!!!✨

First of all! this design for frisk comes from the design of I believe classic frisk from jackei’s underverse series, on the chance you don’t know where to find their YouTube is JackeiHazen. You should go and check it out if you haven’t already 🙃 all I did was make the shoes.

Secondly, the design for nova came from Cassynova well- really just the hair. The face, Tail, teeth, scars, body type and tattoos, those were all my ideas. I decided to give him a tail since the izila God is Sun Wukong.

LASTLY!!! The tattoo, the tattoos were inspired by Joshua Samuel Fatu, his brother Jonathan Solofa Fatu and his cousin who wear and show their tattoos to represent their culture, I like the design and I wanted to make something like it.

welp- that’s all I have to say here, I hope you guys enjoyed if you made it this far 👍

[evilwriter37]

weirdly specific artist asks: 7, 9, 30?

7. A medium of art you don’t work in but appreciate?

Sculpting! Like, holy shit, how? Sculptors are magic.

9. What are your file name conventions?

I just number it and sometimes put the subject of my drawing. I’m currently at 137 in Procreate.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated?

This one I made for my sister. It only got like, 6 notes, if I remember correctly. I love it. I think it’s beautiful.

[patricideapologist]

Since the year is almost over now here's some random stats on the books I read this year, including some recommendations (I will probably be switching between languages depending on the book)

Also if anyone wants to know know some info about a random book I've read send me an ask with a number from 1-73(?)

So, in total this year I've read 88 books (3 of those were comics but I'm not listing those separately) and 111 manga volumes. So a total of 199, 137 in English (107 manga) and 62 in German (4 manga)

The mangas were mostly One Piece (I've read through all of the main manga this year, currently only waiting on the first part of Ace's story to arrive then I'll be completely caught up) and the rest was #DRCL

Other book stats:

Top 5 longest books (based on page count):

(1. 1440 pages, Spider-Verse/Spider-Geddon Omnibus, in brackets because it's a comic but it's still massive. The book weighs about 3,6 kg and I'm certain it could be used as a murder weapon.)

985 pages, Das Niebelungenlied (Reclamedition in Mittelhochdeutsch/Neuhochdeutsch). Mittelhochdeutsch ist noch erstaunlich lesbar imo und die eine Verfilmung aus diesem Jahr hat die Story so verkackt

876 pages, Evolution der Leere/The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton. Found the book by coincidence and didn't realise it was part of a series, so I was very confused for a while. Ok scifi book, I think, but it's very heavy on technobabble.

759 pages, Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer. The pages of this book are at least twice the size of the books above and I think text-wise it's the longest book I read this year (took me 53 days to read it btw). Varney is the sopping wet cat of a vampire ever, I need to put him in a jar and shake him.

747 pages, Tintentod von Cornelia Funke. Ich hatte die Bücher vor fast 10 Jahren geschenkt bekommen & war irgendwie bis jetzt nie dazu gekommen sie zu lesen. Ich kann mich nicht für einen Charakter entscheiden aber meine Lieblinge sind Violante, der Schwarze Prinz, Basta und Staubfinger.

734 pages, Der Kreis der Dämmerung - Teil II von Ralf Isau. Istg der Autor weiß nicht wie man ein nicht religiöses Buch schreibt. Das ist die zweite Reihe die ich von ihm gelesen hab und es ist so auffällig. Der Hauptcharakter in der ganzen Reihe ging mir so auf die Nerven & vor allem der zweite Band zieht sich weil er die ersten ~600 Seiten gefühlt nichts macht.

Average page count per book: 347,86 pages

Average time to read a book: 3,78 days/ 3 days ~19 hours

Book recommendations (all book series):

(Disclaimer: I am bad at describing things in ways that make them sound interesting, but I'm trying my best

The Fallen Gods Trilogy by Hannah Kaner

(Godkiller, Sunbringer, Faithbreaker [<- releases next March])

Rare moment where I decided to read a book advertised as being from booktok, but this one is pretty good and not focused on romance. There's four POV characters: Kissen, a godkiller, who has hated the gods ever since her family was burned alive as an offering to a fire goddess and her father sacrificed himself to the ocean god to save her life. Elogast, former knight and best friend to the king, who was trying to retire after the war against the gods until the king came by to ask him for help in saving his life. Inara, the sheltered daughter of a noble who is being hunted by assassins, and Skediceth, god of white lies, who is bound to her by magic neither of them understand. Together they have to travel to the ruined city of temples, to ask for help from the wild gods that still reside there.

The Stranger Times Series by C.K. McDonnell

(The Stranger Times, This Charming Man, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Relight My Fire, series still ongoing)

Despite how the titles sound also not a romance series (the first book has the most relationship stuff out of all of them but it's not that much). After her divorce Hannah Willis starts working as an editor for The Stranger Times, a Manchester based newspaper reporting on weird and allegedly supernatural occurrences. After an incident that leads the newspaper staff to question if the things they're reporting on are actually real they start to unwillingly get involved in the supernatural world around them. To me these books feel like the exact midpoint between The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Nightvale.

The Greatcoats and Court of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell

(Traitor's Blade, Knight's Shadow, Saint's Blood, Tyrant's Throne, Tales of the Greatcoats ; Crucible of Chaos, Play of Shadows, series ongoing)

(In Deutsch wurden nur die ersten beiden Bände übersetzt, aber Band 2 wurde aufgeteilt, d.h. die Reihenfolge ist Blutrecht, Hochverrat, Sturmbogen und dann müsste man in Englisch bei Saint's Blood weitermachen)

Greatcoats: Before the king was murdered by his dukes he gave each of his greatcoats a secret mission to carry out after his death. Now Falcio, Kest and Brasti have to try to find the heir to the throne and keep them safe from assassins, knights, dukes and just about every other threat imaginable. (And save the kingdom several times)

(The author has so much world building for this kingdom that he started hiding lore bits he couldn't fit into the story in the acknowledgements. Also this world feels realistic without trying to be super edgy or anything.)

Crucible of Chaos: Estevar Borros, the Greatcoat most commonly tasked with supernatural cases, is called to the abbey said to be the birthplace of the gods, where the monks seem to have gone mad. He has to figure out the cause of this madness, as well as several other mysteries lurking on the island, before the fractions of the abbey start tearing each other apart.

Play of Shadows: Damelas, descendant of two famous Greatcoats, runs away from a duel and joins a theater company performing the city's sacred historical plays. But when Damelas inexplicably starts channeling the spirit of one of the greatest villains in the city's history he has to start unraveling a conspiracy a hundred years in the making, and trying to avoid getting murdered in the process.

Die Sieben Heere Trilogie von Tobias Meissner

Das friedliche Reich Akitanien wird von ihrem Nachbarreich übernommen. In jedem Dorf und jeder Stadt werden Soldaten postiert die Aufstände vermeiden sollen. Als jedoch in dem kleinen Dorf Hagetmau zwei dieser Soldaten erschlagen werden, müssen sich die restlichen Dorfbewohner entscheiden ob sie sich nun wirklich mit der fremden Herrschaft abfinden sollen oder zumindest versuchen sollten ihr Dorf und vielleicht sogar das Land zu befreien.

(Der Plot ist okay, aber die 4 Hauptcharaktere sind halt irgendwann an dem Punkt wo sie literally dieses "Your feelings matter. Murder is okay. Murder is okay. Murder is okay."-meme sind und dass erhöht mein Ranking von der Reihe nochmal ein bisschen)

[monsooninn]

Berakhot 12b: 15. "The Lambent."

What happens when nothing happens? This very question, static existence, which in Torahverse Terms is the same as cyclic existence, was the reason the Mishnah were given by the Archangel Metatron to the Line of Solomon.

Observe: For the final phrase, the Number is 4238, מבליח, mivlich, "to cause things to flicker, to be lambent."

=

To cause the Exodus.

All we need to start the Ex is just a taste of revenge against our captors, like US Government and the Republicans and all their freaky spooky religious friends, and the power of the Light will build:

15. What is the taste? Ilima from Shum he wrote in it: "To Moziyom from Egypt" - in Lima Parshat Rabit and Parshat Mishkelot he wrote in them the exodus from Egypt.

=

What is the taste? To the lake of total names, (the Tanakh) he wrote in it "To the museum from Egypt" a large affair from the lake and the weight difference he wrote in them from the exodus from Egypt.

=

Museums are places we go to affirm all we know rather than surmise about the past. The artifacts in a museum always tell the truth. Their true purposes cannot be hid. Compare the objects in the Egypt wing of a museum to those in the Holocaust Museum and pay attention to the halo effects which era represents in human consciousness. The Egypts were idolators and memorialized the dead, the Nazis were murderers but the Egyptians are scarier to us than the former.

Every word in the Tanakh reinforces the fact we must be able to tell the difference between the ways man used his artifacts for good which for evil.

=We do not need to salivate for the taste freedom like our ancestors yearned to taste it we should already have it. As the Gematria about the Angel says we should be in control.

"The verb λαμβανω (lambano) describes an action into the possession or control of a receiver — in short: to take. It's a close synonym of the verb δεχομαι (dechomai), and the two are employed in a graceful juxtaposition in Matthew 10:41: "He who takes in (dechomai) a prophet shall take in (lambano) a prophet's reward."

The Value in Gematria is 9531, טהל‎א, thala, "the billboards of freedom."

"The verb תלה (tala) also means to hang or display conspicuously and occurs all over the Semitic language spectrum. It's used for totems and regalia (Isaiah 22:24), common use vessels (Ezekiel 15:3), protective or ornamental armor (Song of Solomon 4:4, Ezekiel 27:10), harps on willows (Psalm 137:2) or the earth on nothing (Job 26:7).

But our verb is also quite often used for people who found themselves accursed, subsequently executed and finally publicly displayed (2 Samuel 21:12, Joshua 8:29, 10:26). This display occurred mostly on trees since trees are excellent natural bill boards, which led to the general rule that whoever hung on a tree probably did that because he was accursed (Deuteronomy 21:22-23, Galatians 3:13; and "cursed who hangs on a tree" has nothing to do with the tree or with any magical or imprecatory powers attributed to the tree; hanging from a tree was the result of being accursed, not the cause of it)."

=

I want them out of Israel and the Middle East, I want them hunted down wherever they are and permanently destroyed.

[hoghtastic]

Heyaaaaaa itsaaaaa meeeee.

Our weekly ALF report starting as well with last Monday until todays Monday.

Mon: -488

Tues: -71

Wed: -164

Thurs: -219

Fri: -355

Sat: -137

Sun: -66

Mon: +41 ( wow, that’s magic!)

The daily averages is -216 and in the last 30 days he lost -6,480 followers.

His current follower number right now is 2,066,948

Let’s see if he can gain some followers again this week

Hellooo, dear Numbers Queen! 😃👑

Thank you so much for sharing another weekly ALF report with us! 💖 And indeed, there was a little surprise this Monday! Let's see if this week's balance will be more positive! 😉

Wishing everyone an amazing week, and a good start into this new month! 🥰🎃👻