#may do a colored version in the distant future. very distant.

[noproveninterests]

Inktobertale Day 5: Camping

we're so back

ink belongs to @/comyet

blue belongs to PopcornPr1nce/AU Community

dream belongs to @/jokublog

[the-artist-fox]

I present to you Mystery, my first slugcat oc, I became very fond of her, I hope to be able to tell his story in the near future :D

por ahora su descripción estara en español, algun día hare versión ingles para los que no entienden español :]

(For now her description will be in Spanish, someday I will make an English version for those who do not understand Spanish :])

quick translations (The translation may have some errors, so sorry.)

eyes: (1. eye color) (2. blind [from birth])

gills: can hold her breath underwater for the same amount of time as the rivulet

wings: can fly :D

overseer: (1. her companion/guide) (2. it's called Leaf)

arm: (tracker on an arm: allows its iterator to know where it is and communicate with her over long distance)

clean version

conceptual art (done months ago before I made the final drawing)

[the mystery of Saint's time is still canonical of her future and "end"]

mistery is a messenger slugcat created by seven wings of the wind, an iterator from somewhat distant territories who used to be half friends with sliver of straw and seven red suns, before the disappearance of sliver of straw occurred and then some time after most of His communications will be damaged by the passage of time, leaving him almost completely isolated from being able to communicate with other iterators, He created Mistery before the collapse of Moon (starting the process during Artificer's time in the timeline) before Mistery there were many attempts faileds, he asked a close iterator friend for help and he got what for him was another failed attempt, since it was a blind slugcat, but he was curious to see what would happen if he gave the little blind creature a second chance, raising her carefully, and making some modifications to her to improve her orientation (big ears and improved sense of smell), as the cycles went by she became attached to her little creation, and mystery, being blind, thought that seven wings of the wind was a slugcat, and who was his father, being quite attached to him as well.

[iss600]

Frysta: 1946

My take on the Little Nightmares series. My A.U. takes the direction of combining The Nowhere with real-world history. Expect color-coding as there's often so much stuff that it's the best way to make things easy. One thing to note is that VLN and LN are both yellow: VLN is a lighter yellow but since Tumblr doesn't have that, it'll be the same yellow as LN. And despite TSoN happening before LN3, it will always be listed below LN3 things (so orange goes above purple) because it's a podcast. This A.U. treats it as both the prequel of LN3 and a sequel-DLC/sidequest/addition to LN3, if that makes any sense.

The Details

1946 refers to the year my A.U. takes place, one year after World War ||. The world that it takes place in is a Nowhereified version of our own with vague "countries".

The world is split into 4 locations: The Frozen North (Europe-inspired), The Blazing South (Africa-inspired), The Wild West (N.&.S.-American-inspired) and The Distant East (Asian-inspired & Oceania-inspired). Each of these areas have a very specific country that influences them with the rest of the continents having different pieces of their respective countries added in here and there.

The story is split into several parts:

Part 0: The Nest

Part 1: The Maw

Part 2: The Pale City

Part 2.5: The Nightmares

Part 3: The Spiral

Part 0 is a prolog oneshot that sets the groundwork for what happened to Raincoat and Six and Red-Scarf. The story actually starts with The Maw; since it was written prior to LN2 being a confirmed prequel, The Pale City is the sequel to Six's journey on The Maw during LN1. And because it was finished before Part 3, The Spiral will also be a sequel. Noone's story in Part 2.5 won't be written out either as it's already been told and the characters involved will be part of The Spiral instead.

Lastly, I named about near every single character there is, and I do mean nearly every single one. I have a list topping 70+ named characters, each with meaning and everything. Since the summaries and future posts will use the A.U. names, here's the guide to the main characters right off the bat. The guides with the rest of them will follow soon after

Raincoat - Raina Corinn Alv

Six - Six/Sasha Kazeko Kenshin

Runaway Kid - Sevrino Hjälte Forsstrom

Mono - Mono/Marco Martello Manson

Low - Laurent Corbeau

Alone - Ally McAonar

Noone - Ruth Oona Outis-Modie (in future posts, she will always be called "Oona")

And now, onto the details.

Part 1: The Maw

Deep within The Pale City lies The Maw, a restaurant of child slaves, orphaned and abandoned, working to survive in this cruel world. Rumors fly about workers being slain and eaten by the gluttonous Guests when they outlive their usefulness; others say they were caught and branded a member of the Nome Samhälle and only the most daring of dreamers say they escape their servitude. Regardless of these rumors, Sasha refuses to bow to the will of the Governess and will escape The Maw or die trying.

Part 2: The Pale City

The Maw may be over, but The Pale City still chokes the citizens and leaves a world destitute of morality. Viewers glue themselves to their TVs and radios as they wish to escape and ignore the bombed out buildings and sinkholes from war. While Sasha may dislike Marco, the two will need to work together if they wish to survive and shut down the infernal Signal Tower that mocks them from high above, watching and waiting. Nowhere stands no chance if it stays.

Part 3: The Spiral

Outside, deep in the deserts far out in Nowhere stands The Spiral, a desolate land of eternal energy, efficiency and suffering. Stone buildings crumble as whipping winds of sand stir up across the many cities inside of it. From the Necropolis to the Fun Fair, only evil lurks and lives here, if anything does indeed dare exist in the harsh conditions. Laurent and Ally dare challenge these ideals, scavenging and surviving as they search for a way out. Laurent holds out hope; Ally wants answers.

Raincoat: Technical and smart with a side of kindness, caring and a maturity a few years beyond her age, Raincoat is legend among the orphans. A determined survivalist, inventor, builder and escapist, she left the orphanage in a hot air balloon years ago, but was caught and enslaved by the Pretender. Her enslavement hasn’t put out her escapist fire though and people know she’s still cooking up the perfect escape plan. Now if only she could get rid of the Pretender.

Six: A lonely orphan, determined to survive, Sasha is a cheerful but jaded and brainy survivalist. She’s resolute in escaping the servitude and death in The Maw and never stops moving forward in her plans. As an orphan, she learned she had to depend on or trust only herself and she isn’t one to make friends or help others. Never one for teamwork, Sasha prefers to be a lone wolf and is capable of surviving her world just fine without anyone else. The hunger pains she gets do hinder her but she refuses to let them cripple her attempts and will satiate them with anything she can regardless of what it is. While she has no fighting skills at her disposal, her lighter and brains are more than enough for her.

RK: Never one for being confined, Sevrino made a name for himself for his hundreds of attempted escapes from servitude in The Maw and the orphanage itself. Time after time, he would escape; a determined fire in his soul fueled by cleverness and deviousness with a dash of trickery and stealth aiding him each time. Even his ankle shackle didn’t kill his spirit for escape and adventure. Eventually, he was caught by the Lady and branded a Nome; but Sevrino took it in stride, priding himself in his new status with the Nomes and now, he acts as their ambassador between the world and them.

Mono: A perceptive, hardened survivalist steadfast and resolute in surviving the horrors of Pale City, Marco isn’t one to ever give up, becoming uncommonly single-minded when he sets himself a task. Having lived his life in perpetual prosecution and forever on the run for a sin that is not his, he’s detached himself from his emotions and personality, numbing himself completely and becoming a sociopath out of survival. Purposeful and headstrong with a mysterious power in his blood, Marco is a tough and determined soul who’s always prepared to fight off any threat that comes his way. The bag on his head is worn to ensure his personality and emotions are forever hidden and to offer him traces of escapist respite in forgetting that the world hates him and wishes he fails but he knows it won’t hide him forever.

Low: The optimist to Ally’s realist, Laurent is able to hold his masked head high as he treks through a world that cannot tolerate his presence. Out in The Spiral, he’s glad to have company although some company is less wished for than others. Unlike many, his hope remains eternal as he searches for the way home, obsessive in nature and relentless in finding salvation and peace.

Alone: The incurably curious tinkerer, Ally is the realist of her friendship and keeps her head level. She’s not here to leave or simply survive, she’s here to live and find out what’s wrong with the endlessly-running underground that is The Spiral. She’s Laurent’s best friend (even nicknamed him) and she’s proud of herself, accomplishments and friendship without fail. Sometimes cocky and aggressive, she’s far from insane like those that wish her dead.

Noone: Oona is a haunted soul, plagued by nightmares and sickness of unknown origins for all. With a lot on her plate, she tries her best but the things she sees, hears and feels are less than pleased with her unwanted appearances and overstayed welcomes. Though her residency with doctors doesn’t do much for her, she’s determined to rid herself of these horrors before she dies trying or worse happens.

[ixenarcaniss]

Okay buckle up because I have opinions and theories and I figure why not shout them into the internet. We're talking about Pokémon today.

I've always been fascinated by the level of symmetry in the designs of Pokémon title legendaries. Let me explain. The obvious peak of this is in the designs of Zekrom and Reshiram from Pokémon Black and Pokémon White.

Reshiram, Pokémon's own Blue-Eyes White Dragon, is a dragon/fire type, elegantly shaped with more flowy, organic details resembling fur or feathers (i.e. its wyvern-style wings or twin plumes on its head). Its tail acts as a huge furnace, capable of emitting a red hot trail of fire as it flies.

Conversely, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Zekrom, is a dragon/electric type, slightly more anthropomorphically bulit, with more harsh, geometrically shaped details (i.e. its singular, antenna-like horn, or its muscular, almost mech-like upper body, arms, and wings). Its tail is a giant generator, capable of emitting a blue trail of crackling electricity as it flies.

By the standards of the time, these two might have been considered somewhat over-designed pokémon were it not for their stark, austere color pallets, which mirror each other excellently. Reshiram is all white with blue eyes, attacking with red fire, and often depicted with a background of black smoke. Zekrom is all black with red eyes, attacking with blue lightning, and often depicted with a background of white storm clouds.

Overall, they have this phenomenal quality of yin and yang, mirroring and opposing each other aesthetically and thematically. Other legendary duos/trios/etc. do this to varying degrees, following different strategies. Some contrast each other as much as possible (i.e. Groudon, Kyogre, & Rayquaza or Xerneas, Yveltal, & Zygarde), while others share an overall theme or aesthetic (i.e. Solgaleo & Lunala or Zamazenta & Zacian).

This brings me to my actual topic for this post, the newest title legendaries, Koraidon and Miraidon, featured in Pokémon Scarlet version and Pokémon Violet version respectively. Bear in mind I haven't actually finished my playthough of Scarlet, so there may be some details about these two that I'm missing.

There are two main ideas at play in these pokémon's designs. The first is their main theming. Koraidon and Miraidon as a duo represent a relationship between past and the future, with each one coming from either the distant past or far future. In fact, in Japanese, '"korai," or "古来," means ancient, or ancient past, while "mirai," or "未来," means future.

This theming is aesthetically apparent, as these two pokémon as a pair have something in common with Reshiram and Zekrom. Koraidon is very organic in its design, being very explicitly animal in shape, and sporting vibrant plumage reminiscent of the decorative dress of some traditional cultures. In contrast, Miraidon is very mechanical in its design, featuring modern details like metal claws, jet engine legs, and LED screen eyes. Different as these two are, representing disparate eras, they do share a similar basic shape.

That shape is the shape of a motorcycle.

Yes, the other main design tenet these two share is the strict requirement that they both function as lizard motorcycles. Unlike other entries in the series where title legendaries are only encountered around the climax of the main story, a distant promise of a powerful new pet, Scarlet and Violet introduce their respective legendaries right away as mounts. These guys each have a few different forms for running, swimming, gliding, and when powered up for battling, but apart from the same basic structure and posture, they share some convenient features which allow the player character to hop on and ride: some sort of "wheels," some curvy handlebars, and a nice comfy place to sit and steer.

It's a bit of a weird theme, slightly awkward in that animals and wheels don't generally mix, but seeing as riding either pokémon is a core mechanic central to the gameplay of the large open world, it works. And it doesn't stop at mechanics. The ability to ride these two pokémon has surprising connections to worldbulding. Introducing the non-legendary pokémon, Cyclizar:

As I understand, Cyclizar (cycle lizard, as you can imagine) is the evolutionary midpoint (evolution in the Earth science sense rather than the Pokémon world's sense which more resembles life-cycle metamorphosis) between the ancient Koraidon and the distant future Miraidon. It's significantly smaller and simpler in its design than its legendary counterparts, allowing it to fit in among the standard creatures of the Paldea region. It does however maintain the same basic motorcycle lizard shape as Koraidon and Miraidon. In fact, NPCs commonly ride on the backs of Cyclizar as a popular means of transport much like the player does with Koraidon/Miraidon. A pokédex entry mentions that this relationship between humans and Cyclizar has existed for over 10,000 years, suggesting greater continuity of connection to the two beasts of past and future.

This is a lot of consideration to go into the design of an entry's title legendaries. Details not only convey and support the game's lore, story, and world by connecting the two pokémon to each other, but also creatively support the game's mechanics and core gameplay. Namely, Koraidon and Miraidon suggest the themes of past and future, history and modernity, while giving the player the freedom to more easily traverse and explore the Paldea region. While I can only vouch for Koraidon, having played Scarlet myself (with Miraidon presumably being almost identical mechanically), it serves as an effective mount as well as companion, and I found it quite charming and endearing.

All this being said, I noticed something else interesting while examining these pokémon's designs. It always bothered me that a new main series Pokémon entry would choose Scarlet and Violet as its titles. After all, the very first games in the series were already Pokémon Red and Blue. (Technically Red and Green came first upon release in Japan but I digress.) It seemed weird to essentially title a game "Pokémon Slightly Different Red," but now I think I might have figured out what led to such a choice.

In looking for symmetry in Koraidon and Miraidon's designs, I considered their colors. Koraidon is mainly scarlet, with some black and white details, plus some accents of dark blue/violet. Miraidon is mainly violet, with minimal amounts of black and white detail, plus some accents of... yellow. Huh. Was hoping for more scarlet to better mirror Koraidon in the same way Reshiram and Zekrom mirror one another. Oh well, let's keep looking.

Koraidon is a fighting/dragon type. No obvious reason to be red there. The fighting type is generally represented by orange iconography, but fighting type pokémon aren't really any more likely to be orange or red. The dragon type is usually represented by purple iconography, but again, dragon pokémon aren't really any more likely to be blue/purple. Miraidon meanwhile is an electric/dragon type. Electric typing is much more apparent in this design than fighting is in Koraidon's. At least it might explain the presence of the yellow, as electric types are yellow a decent amount of the time. In fairness, Koraidon does have yellow eyes, but that's not exactly an even yin and yang balance.

Alright then, so if they aren't type-based, and they aren't even mirrored, what are the colors of these pokémon telling us? Are they just arbitrary? Chosen just because they look cool?

Have you considered:

I can't quite relate it back to the theme of past and future, nor to the theme of radical lizard motorcycles, but as compelling thematic opposites, you could do worse than the ends of the visible light spectrum. Maybe it's a stretch, but it could relate to the game's mechanic of terastal pokémon—that is, pokémon temporarily powered up in a way that crystalizes them, scattering light as if through a prism. Again, I haven't finished this game, so I can't say how related this phenomenon is to Koraidon and Miraidon, so for now, it's just a vague idea.

In lieu of that, let me present some more evidence that the visible light spectrum may be the intended theme. Consider Koraidon. It is mainly bright red, representing the longest wavelengths humans can see. It also has details in blue, at what I'll call ~2/3 into the the spectrum. On the other end, Miraidon is violet, representing the shortest wavelengths humans can see. It also has details in yellow, at what I'll call ~1/3 into the spectrum. Ah, so there is color mirroring, just not how we expected! Colors are grabbed from mirrored areas of the spectrum, mystery solved!

But there's one more clever detail in this clever system.

Cyclizar... is green.

Yup, this guy, temporally located smack in the middle of its two distant relatives, is also chromatically located smack in the dead center of the color spectrum. No, I can't really account for the red in its cheeks (although I realized that the detail is a neat midpoint between Koraidon's natural jaw and Miraidon's hinged one), but beyond those little spots, this guy's color perfectly captures the evolution of a species across distant eras. What a lovely little snapshot of our moment in Paldean history.

[mousetrap-if]

Mousetrap is now live on itch.io!

Well folks, it happened. Mousetrap was submitted last night to @interact-if's 2022 ranked game jam and is available to play on itch.io. The game is still a work in progress and, at this point, only a demo for the full story. Hope you enjoy it!

Click Here to Play

You're one of the many overworked interns working at Whimsey World. When it was announced that Imogen, a category three hurricane, would soon hit Orlando, Florida, your employers asked for volunteers to remain in the parks during the storm, promising triple pay for at least 24 hours. You and your friend seized the opportunity. After all, Whimsey wouldn't ask its cast members to stay behind if it was potentially dangerous.

That's what you assumed before you were knocked unconscious. Before you woke up in a costume chained to your friend and three strangers. Before Dickey the Rat informed you and your "team" that you get $250,000 for each person you kill. Before the neurotoxins pumping through the park's air system began to loosen your grip on reality. Before nightmares and the real world bled into a horrifying, broken fantasy you can't wake up from.

If you survive the storm (and the things lurking within it), you'll win riches beyond your wildest dreams. But how far are you willing to go? How committed are you to pleasing your guests and satisfying your spectators? The Show will go on. It will always go on. But what role will you play in it?

Twine Word Count: 53,625 with code (maybe like 48-50k without? idk, I write with code so I don't know how to estimate that)

Average Playthrough: 30 minutes (around 12-15k words)

And, is the game finished? Oh, no! Definitely not. This is far from the full story or the finished product (there are literally debug links that I forgot to take out in the very first passage).

Lots of content and features will be coming out in the near future alongside the patching that needs to take place. Details below.

The next update will hopefully be on March 5th (though I'm a university student dealing with midterms so that may change). Further updates will be announced on the Mousetrap blog (linked here).

Truly, from the bottom of my heart. I greatly appreciate all of the interest, support, and feedback that I've received on this project and others. If you're enjoying Mousetrap so far, please consider rating the game or leaving a comment on itch.io, reblogging this post, or sharing the game with a friend (or enemy, coworker, acquaintance, pet, stranger, distant cousin, really anyone/thing who you think might like it).

To read about some of my other projects, check out my personal game dev blog @gamesbyalbie or my project-specific blogs like @hadeskitchen or @zorlok-if.

(PS: The original extremely sleep-deprived version of this post has been preserved under the cut for posterity's sake)

Have a Magical Day!

DEMO | BLOG | INTRO POST | DEV LOG | CAST PROFILES & PORTRAITS | PLAYLIST | PINTEREST: MAIN, COSTUMES, SETS

ORIGINAL POST:

Well, I'm mentally and physically exhausted (literally falling asleep as I'm writing this so, this may be a little loopy too). BUT, Mousetrap was submitted to the game jam and is now live on the Itch.io store.

This is not the finished game (like there are debug links on the very first passage that I forgot to turn off, but I'll be updating this with plenty of fixes and a lot more content as soon as I'm allowed to).

Total word count (with code since I write with code) is over 53k words. Average playtime is about a half hour. For a game that I've conceived and written in just one already busy month, I'm pretty happy with that. (except for the debug links, those are bugging the shit out of me)

BONUS - in case you wanted to know what stress looks like:

Also, color me curious, if you want to and have the time to do so, let me know what choices you made (dream, relationships, role, route, etc.).

Tomorrow I'll be returning to Tumblr and catching up on everything I've missed. Have a great [insert your time here]! I'm falling asleep

asdlkfja kjd

( ^ imagine that was my head hitting the keyboard, that's what it feels like I'm about to do)

Okay, I'm going to sleep.

[harrenhalyuri]

for us, the wounds kissed long before the lips

23rd of Sun's Dawn, 1E 461, Alessian Empire.

During the coronation of Emperor Gorieus, the Hortator and the head of House Dagoth steal a moment for themselves.

tags: drinking & talking; angst; one-sided relationship; attempt at worldbuilding

ao3 version here

They stumbled forward laughing and shushing one another as the heavy oak doors closed behind them - the warmth and merry of the coronation feast left behind as the two stepped out into the garden.

Nerevar recalled walking the streets of Nirnbuldihr - the cyan glow of the giant mushrooms reflecting on the windows of several shops. One in particular caught his eye, and he crossed the cobblestone sidewalk to inspect it more closely. Blown glass sculptures, colorful and intricate in the way the dwemer favored.

His favorite had been a piece hidden in the back of the window, as if outshined by more complex, elaborate pieces upfront. It had been a white glass diorama, depicting a cottage surrounded by trees swaying in the breeze - the sort of simplicity the dwemer had no interest in.

The garden reminded him of that diorama - covered in a blanket of snow, completely undisturbed by the world around it.

Voryn pulled him under the arches that covered the path to the guest wing, but the Hortator held him back.

“No, let us stay for a bit.” He answered, arm still draped around the back of his friend’s neck as he stepped on the soft snow. Voryn sighed, yet allowed Nerevar to lead him.

“Frolicking amidst the cold? Do you plan on inviting the Nords to join us?” The head of House Dagoth said snidely as he crossed his arms to warm himself.

Nerevar laughed and shoved him away.

“The snow never belonged to those s’wits, you’re simply thin-blooded from living under the shadow of a volcano.”

“Perhaps, and rightly so.”

The snow softly crunched under their boots as they wandered near a tree - now completely stripped of leaves, its gnarled branches seemed to reach towards the sky.

“It always snows in Akamora.” Nerevar inhaled deeply, enjoying how his lungs burned as he took in the crisp, cool air. “In the mountains, at least. The paths are sharp and winding, and it freezes over during winter. No caravans may come or go, not until Sun’s Dawn.”  

The Hortator grabbed a handful of snow, the ice leeching the warmth of his skin through the kagouti leather gloves. Absent-mindedly he shaped it until a white sphere rested on his palm. Secunda and Masser bore down on them - the moon glow glinting on the high windows of Skingrad’s castle.

Nerevar recalled the moon glow glinting on the tip of ice spikes, sharp enough to be spears, at the highest peak of Akamora.

Azura had come to him then, for the first time, to bestow Moon-and-Star upon the captain - his fingers had been so stiff from the cold that he could barely feel them anymore, the goddess’s touch as foreign as the ring she had slipped on his finger.

When he came down from the mountain, the first ashlanders had hailed him Hortator, and it had felt just as foreign as the ring on his finger.  

“It must be rather grim.” Voryn commented, the cyrodilic brandy swirling inside the bottle as he brought it to his lips. The distaste in his face was plain to see - it couldn’t hold a candle to the Dagoth brandy.  

Nerevar smiled, his short-lived melancholia forgotten.

“How can you say that? Short-tempered caravan masters, cheap mazte and all the comforts of a straw bed...” The captain delighted at Voryn’s growing distaste as he spoke. The head of House Dagoth was a creature of comfort and status, something that had made the duo different as the sun and the moon.    

"Lovely, I'm sure." Voryn replied with a sour expression. Nerevar laughed.

"For a researcher, you spent far too much time cocooned up in Kogoruhn." The Hortator recalled several jars containing fungi species and creatures preserved in a strong alcoholic solution, one more outlandish than the other. In his curiosity, the captain had pestered Voryn with questions until he nearly dropped one of the jars. The head of House Dagoth had snapped at him to stop before he accidentally unleashed a deadly plague and got them both killed.

That had been many years ago, before the war, when Nerevar was still seeking support from the great houses. The somber, willowy lord that had greeted him in Kogoruhn had been the first to join him - his support had been won easily, but his friendship had not.  

"And due to that, couriers are eternally indebted to House Dagoth. Why would I waste my precious time wandering through mud in a thrice-damned swamp?” The councilor huffed, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

Nerevar laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement.

“And what if your Hortator commanded you to?”

The previous distaste vanished in a second as the sharp, haughty aristocratic features softened; the ruby-colored gaze meeting his, warm as the liquor sloshing inside the bottle.

“I’d wander until time itself ceased to be if Muthsera willed so.” Despite the devotion, the lord councilor had steel in his voice; unwavering as the very core of Nirn.

Nerevar let the snow sphere fall to the ground, the reverence in those words overwhelming as he broke his gaze away, before joining the councilor on the stone bench. The orange glow of a candle reflected on the windows above; a small flickering flame moving as a servant crossed the corridor. The former captain followed it until the speckle of light vanished behind stone walls.

“I miss it.” He blurted out, seized by a deep longing as the world seemed to be reduced into that snow-covered, unperturbed garden; as if its two occupants were the only souls in Nirn.

“By the Three, how I miss it! To Oblivion with those titles and thrones and crowns; I miss the road, I miss the ache after a long day’s march and falling on the straw at night too tired to think.” Nerevar leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and covering his face with his hands. Azura had blessed him with the strength to carry the title of Hortator, yet he craved the simplicity of being nothing more than a captain, with no past nor future beyond the next town.

The Hortator missed walking through the crowded streets of the bazaars; the cramped food stalls with ill-tempered merchants that served meals with enough spices to burn his tongue; the shady cornerclubs where you had to watch both your tongue and your coin purse.  

Now he signed papers, spoke with lords, and followed the proper etiquette befitting his rank; he watched the streets through the high windows of his palace, as if his brethren were tiny ants. The former captain pulled his hands away and felt a tear roll down the bridge of his nose; the liquor was truly getting to his head. He placed a hand on his councilor’s knee; the several layers of red wool soft under his glove.

“Let’s leave - just the two of us and the road ahead, like it was before the war. We’ll name ourselves whatever we wish, we’ll sleep under the stars and chew on marshmerrow pieces as we travel.”

“Where shall we go, sweet Nerevar?” The young lord played along; his voice soft as a whisper, as if afraid to disturb the stillness around them.

“Wherever you desire - do you still wonder about Hammerfell? I’ll take you to see the dunes that stretch as far as the sun, you’ll study their beetles and giant scorpions for as long as you wish, then we can drink qishr and break bread with the nomads.” Nerevar found himself smiling as he recalled the heat of the desert and the loose, colorful fabrics the natives wore.

He turned around and reached for the bottle, fingers brushing against his confidant’s. Only then, Nerevar realized his councilor had forgotten his gloves inside the hall; the golden skin contrasting against the snow, the long, elegant fingers trembling with the cold.

“Oh, Voryn.” The former captain frowned, quickly pulling his own gloves off and taking hold of the other’s wrist; the scarlet nails vanishing into the supple leather as he adjusted the glove.

“Remember when you fell sick, five days after we departed Kogoruhn? We had to-” The sentence fell on deaf ears, vanishing under the branches heavy with snow as lips met his, swallowing his words with hunger. A hand connected with his chest, closing into a fist as Voryn pulled him closer; as if it weren’t enough.

Distant and haughty Voryn, who ate sparingly and never smudged the red paint he wore on his lips, bit the Hortator’s lower lip before pulling back; eyes half-lidded as he brushed the tip of his nose against Nerevar’s in a silent plea.

The ink-colored hair contrasted against the pale golden skin; the black fur collar brushing against the captain’s chin; a pale pink blooming on his cheeks, either from cold, the brandy, or something else-

Heart hammering against his ribcage, blood drumming on his ears; it was the slightest tilt of his face that thrice-damned him as Voryn’s lips smashed against his; a devotion he was unworthy of every time their tongues met; muffled prayers in form of sighs and whimpers.  

Unworthy, unworthy, unworthy. A voice whispered in his mind, taunting him; in his mind’s eye he saw peach-colored lips curled in derision, teeth bared like a wolf’s. Almalexia’s snarl.

Somewhere, a door groaned open and the sounds of the feast reached the garden, shattering their sanctuary; the weight of being Hortator came crashing down on his shoulders. Nerevar pulled back as if he had been burned, his palm on the young lord’s shoulder firmly holding the other back. He looked down, unable to face the confusion, the longing. Too much, it was too much. His hair was disheveled, pale strands falling against his face and he felt grateful for the cover.

“Nerevar-” The head of House Dagoth began, voice hoarse and breathless.

“Forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, I’ve wanted-”

“It was a mistake.”

“Oh.” Voryn inhaled sharply as if his lungs had suddenly been emptied.

“I’ve...I drank more than I should have. We both have.” His words feel hollow, and he can no longer tell if the bitter taste on his tongue belonged to the brandy, or the shame. The silence stretched; neither dared to move.

“I see.” His voice is flat, devoid of emotion; the usual aloofness reserved for others. Out of the corner of his eye, Nerevar watched him straighten his posture; the dark hair falling like a curtain, obscuring half of his face.  

Other guests left the feast; their chatter and laughter permeated the garden as they walked down the path to the other wing of the castle. Nerevar felt the red gaze pinned to his back, yet no words left his lips. He watched the snow under his boots; watery and muddy as it mixed with the dirt below.

At last, he heard the rustling of fabric as Voryn rose to his feet; impeccable posture as he towered over the Hortator.

“May this servant be excused, Muthsera?” The words rolled easily off his tongue; the sharp formality of it made Nerevar wince.

The Hortator forced himself to lift his head and face his long-time friend; clad in red wool and black fur, the snowflakes melting on the long, inky hair; the blank expression betraying nothing, except for his lips; the red paint had been smudged, contorting their shape.

“Yes.”

From the cradle, the heir of House Dagoth had been taught the games of persuasion and deceit; a master in concealing his thoughts behind a mask.

Nerevar took a hollow, cowardly comfort in it.

Voryn Dagoth bowed before him, as etiquette mandated, before vanishing into the corridor; the sound of his footsteps hammering inside the Hortator’s head until they vanished, leaving him with nothing but a headache and the cold.

After finishing the bottle by himself, the former captain laid in bed, watching the moons slowly crossing the sky through the windows; his dreams haunted by both his closest friend and his wife; one seeming to shift into the other as they pinned him against the sheets; ever-hungry as they sought out his lips.

It was late morning when he rose; mouth dry and head throbbing like it had been split open with an axe. The hearth had been tended to recently, the fire crackling as it consumed the logs. He turned in bed, still wrapped around the sheets.

Voryn will understand, he understands the importance of duty better than anyone. He reasoned with himself.

A single kagouti glove on the floor, as if someone had pushed it under the door.

Across the hallway, a lord painted his lips red; immaculately framing the natural shape of his lips. His unbalanced emotions shattered the mirror into a thousand pieces when his fingers trembled for a second and a smudge appeared.

Duty, he’s devoted to duty, the lord repeated mentally, as he collected the shards.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-Yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 1

It’s been a while since I visited the many times Yugi should have gone to jail, AKA season Zero, and I’m excited to visit it again.

If you just got here, this is Season Zero, which is very different vibe and a different direction plotwise than the other seasons and you can read the season zero recaps from the start in chrono order here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi%20muto/chrono

So be warned, this is a 90′s anime, and it will do 90′s anime things, and I expect y’all reading this aren’t like 12.

Like I said in an earlier post, I wrote this out fully when I was going through the symptoms from my second dose--which PS, is worth it--but those symptoms knocked me out for 10 days. I was kind of a space cadet, and yo, I made some mistakes. Including writing this post out in full and then not clicking “save” on this post and then not realizing I had done that until several days later.

So long story short, I don’t remember what I originally wrote here, but lets all assume it was weird, and didn’t make sense and wasn’t funny. We’ll just assume this was for the best that it was deleted forever.

So this episode is about 2 things: Yo-yos and Jounouchi. Both get used as a tool for violence, and both need to get just a little bit cursed by Yugi to scale it the hell back. So, understandably, we start off this episode with Jounouchi, who has eagerly identified with this off brand yo-yo he apparently got out of a dumpster for being just a huge ass defect.

(more Yo-Yo crimes under the cut)

I see you dodging copyright infringement, Yugioh. Eireboy.

Also whenever I read “Eireboy” I do it in my mind in the same pacing and vocal tones that Pegasus uses to say “Kaiba boy.” Something about it’s conjunction to Yugioh, I see anything with “boy” at the end of it, and it’s voiced by a weird guy with one eye.

So I wrote these caps under the influence of my second dose, just assuming y’all understand the life I lived, but I realized writing this episode...traveling bands of yo-yo performers that go to your school and shill yo-yos with yo-yo shows in the hopes that it will get you so obsessed with yo-yos that you will not join a gang and do drugs and have sex may be just an American thing.

So when I saw a yo-yo episode I was like “Tight! Clearly, the yo-yo clowns have come to town!” and I assumed everyone in this class would be draped in yo-yos, because I just assumed that at some point at School you will get MAD OBSESSED with yo-yos for about 2 weeks.

But in this episode, everyone was like “Jounouchi, why are you playing with a random yo-yo?” and it didn’t occur to me until typing this out just now: only Jounouchi is doing this. He did this unprompted, without the encouragement of a bunch of middle aged performers doing tricks to techno music.

So instead, I have to think of Jounouchi as Ralphie in this scenario, and he just got a official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas, but he’s gonna shoot his eye out.

Because yo-yos in this episode are basically guns.

...Kind of like a duel deck was also just a gun...

...or the wands in Harry Potter...

...which honestly...I’ve probably said this before but where I’m from, we just use straight up guns in these elaborate analogies because we freakin have to make the point crystal clear. The moment Ralphie finally got his hands on a bb-gun, he very nearly shot his eye out and broke his glasses. And that scene will haunt me until my dying day...

...but fine, we can use yo-yos, I guess it works, although to me, yo-yo’s are just teachers hoping you’ll become such a dork that no gang will accept you (and then in this universe, it does the opposite? So freakin weird).

The beginning of this episode is Jounouchi trying do his best to impress with his skills, but in actuality, getting very close to clubbing Anzu with a yo-yo. And, while Anzu is the strongest person in Yugioh in the later seasons, I feel like Season Zero Anzu is another level. It’s a serious tempt of fate that Jounouchi is doing, so Honda wisely cuts him off from doing any more of that so she won’t end up strangling yet another person in broad daylight in the middle of school.

Remember your yo-yo safety, children.

Straight up, Honda’s version of yo-yo safety is to just Never Use a Yo-Yo and that’s the most gun safety thing ever that they’ve slipped into this Yugioh Episode. I almost expected Yuugi to pull a “well, actually, I use a hunting yo-yo to get enough venison to feed my family.” But youknow, he lives in a city, so while Yugioh is pretty weird and Yuugi has to worry about a lot of things--he doesn’t have to worry about that.

This is actually foreshadowing, which I only realized in hind sight, mostly because I just can’t associate a Yo-yo with crime. Joey knowing how to use a yo-yo was foreshadowing that he was absolutely part of this gang in a past life.

Yeah that one went completely over my head the first time and the second time and it really wasn’t until just now that I finally caught it. Hoo boy, sometimes I wonder why y’all let me analyze this show.

Jounouchi decides to confront the yo-yo bandits and everyone else is like “Silly Jounouchi, he’s not gonna do that. That would be stupid.” And...in S0, they don’t know him well enough yet to know that he really is that much of a well meaning dumbass.

I think a S1-5 Yugi would have been sprinting out the door to keep Joey from killing himself (again), but Season Zero Yuugi had hope that Jounouchi would just naturally tucker out and fall asleep or something.

And he was so wrong.

Anzu’s “New Tricks” line was from the dub itself and man that’s a good line. I love Anzu’s sass in Zero.

So, Honda decides to help them find Jounouchi so all of them together could give Jounouchi an intervention for skipping school. This is the same Honda that once skipped school to babysit a tomagachi and said it was because of “Maternity leave,” but don’t worry about the hypocrisy, because from this episode we learned that Jounouchi needs a very short leash.

So this episode is a great Jounouchi episode to explain stuff that still hasn’t been explained in 5 seasons of Yugioh. In S1-5, we don’t get much about his home life other than his Mom left and his Sister lives far away and is like sickly as hell. We know nothing else. But this is the episode where we finally get to find out why Yuugi and his Grandfather decided to basically adopt him from S1 onward.

Yugioh is tackling some pretty heavy territory, but I respect the show for not trying to magically change Jounouchi’s parents like they did to Dartz. Instead, the crew decide to reach out and try to find their friend who clearly didn’t go home last night (and won’t be going back for a while), by checking every alleyway in Domino.

Fun fact Yuugi drops this episode, Domino is one of the biggest cities on Earth. This makes the Battle City Tournament even more crazy when you realize Kaiba shut down several blocks but, it also makes a tiny bit more sense how we have so many Millennium items in one place. (Yet...it still doesn’t explain Bakura and Joey’s accent.) And, I guess if your city is just extra large, you get an extra large warehouse district, too.

Speaking of, they eventually find Jounouchi at his new (but also old) crime antics mugging some random stranger next to this Game store that I just realized was cropped so it looks like it says “GANG.”

Say hello to our crime clown. He’s sort of like a discount joker, and that beanie is...man it is green.

I forget this green exists sometimes, but Season Zero has it as one of their prime colors. Good ol’ Retro Kaiba green.

I’m a little tempted to swatch Season Zero a bit and figure out their full color scheme--it’s really saturated, which is interesting when you compare it to the later seasons which are a lot more muted since...the 00′s were like that, they greyed a lot of colors out. But I’ll do it later if I do, maybe another post for another day.

Jounouchi and Honda, before they moved to the school with Yuugi in it, used to go to the same school and up until now I just assumed they were close friends. But apparently they were a lot more distant than that. I’m sure they met up several times as Jounouchi destroyed stuff and Honda came along in his volunteer janitor outfit to put the stuff the hell back, and maybe that’s how they got to know eachother better?

But basically, Jounouchi was the freakin worst, and Jounouchi’s best friend was Hirotani--this 45 year old 15 year old with the blue pony and turquoise fade--and Honda has SO MUCH hot goss to say about it.

I really get the gist that Honda may not have liked anyone else at his old school, like at all. Like maybe Honda likes cleaning up trash so much because his school was just trash top to bottom.

As is tradition, Yuugi got his tar beat in by Hirotani. Another concussion to add to his list of issues to tell his future therapist that lives in that puzzle he wears around his neck.

I still expect him to do a double cross, but it seems they wanted to keep it a relatable and more realistic fall-out, where Jounouchi has just bounced on them without even a goodbye. He and his Dad had a bad fight, and Jounouchi was like “well so long to all of this and everyone that has anything to do with it.”

In later seasons, Joey is the one trying to save other people. He’s saving his Sister, he’s saving Mai, he’s saving Yugi, but in this season Jounouchi’s friends had to save Jounouchi from himself a few times now.

I like this depth to his character, I’ll be honest. I can understand why S1-5 don’t touch on it, and I don’t think it’s because they didn’t want to have an abusive Dad storyline, because they did that several times over with Seto Kaiba (man the Dad situation in Yugioh is DIRE.) Instead they probably just felt like Season Zero already did it, so why do it again?

It’s just a shame that it wasn’t talked about in the other seasons. Joey makes a lot more sense to me now because we get to see why Jounouchi is so hard set on saving people. S4 Mai Valentine, who ditched everyone and joined a gang? That’s basically a Joey move, and that was why Joey Wheeler was all over that.

Really would have added a lot to that particular arc if the show...actually talked about Joey’s history at all rather than assume I would have watched something that was never released in the States. Instead...it just looked a lot like he had only romantic motivations, which may not have been what they were going for.

Speaking of romantic, check out this sunset. Like the sun is exploding for some reason--just a wild sunset you only see for a still frame before a commercial break.

As Joey, youknow, takes on an entire rival gang single-handedly.

Hey guys, I lived near a pretty big city most of my life and I have been on a roof...once. Just the one time when I was doing an internship in SF with a painter and we needed to take a reference photo of his painting for a gallery (and it was hella sketch, and we weren’t exactly allowed up there). Who are all these people giving teens Roof Access? It’s so hard to get! Even if you live in an apartment of a tall building, I can count on zero of my fingers the amount of times I was allowed on that roof. But TV shows and movies--they freakin love roof gardens and roof hangouts and roof fights.

Am I missing out?? How did y’all get on the ROOF? I know I’m on S5 of Yugioh now and I have seen a lot of roof stuff, but like...is this normal for everyone else? I know there’s schools that have roof sport--that’s common in the city everywhere--but that’s like...specialized roofs with 30 ft chainlink fencing and really good supports to your body doesn’t fall straight through it when you jump too much. The hell is using their normal ass roof?

This gang should have their legs swinging halfway into the floor below them, is all I’m saying, if my roof couldn’t handle our solar heating, then a normal ass roof cannot support a gang fight.

But it does look really, really cool.

Anyway, Anzu does some offscreen snooping and finds out where the crime hangs out, and suggests that we step right into crime zone and just yank Jounouchi out of there. Which is something you would only do and say if you were Anzu and cannot fear death.

If it were Jay’s it would be with an ‘s. That’s how you do a plural Jay. But it’s the 90′s, so we put a “z” on the end of everything that should have been an “s” and that’s how you get the...

I mean, thank you, dubbers, for not saying “Jizz” but for reals...that be Jizz.

Please don’t flag me, Tumblr. (which, PS, I think they turned off the flagbot, Tumblr hasn’t flagged me in forever and I’m so thankful. Mods are asleep, we can talk about anime again)

So even though Honda decided that he was fed up with Jounouchi and didn’t want to save his ass, he decided to give it another go but complete with some new sash. He also did this without telling any of the others, who just kinda spectated him for a little while.

Honestly, if they weren’t laughing at him, I wouldn’t have known that this sash was any weirder than any of his other sashes. I don’t know really know what a school uniform should look like. It’s a shame, I feel like this series has a lot of jokes and puns probably soaring right over my head.

A little bit embarrased he was caught being vulnerable, Honda decides to give us a little more context to why he ever decided to give Jounouchi the time of day in the first place.

They had PE class once, and Honda apparently loves the hell out of PE. Jounouchi ran really fast in a straight line that one time, and that is why he’s trustworthy friend material. He just needs to stop joining gangs, and he’ll be solid.

I have no idea if the fandub put that in there or if that was native to the show, but Miho legit stans Honda/Jounouchi and acts as if she’s off to write some fanfiction about it. Honestly if she did, it would make her so much more interesting of a character.

And so, until next time, we shall have to wait and see exactly what Yami Yuugi is going to do with a freakin Yo-yo and I’m sure it’s all sorts of real effed up. Excited to get there, honestly. A shame it had to happen on the part that isn’t dubbed yet, but I’ve done these subbed before, it’ll be fine!

[tiptapricot]

you've probs answered this before but what's your favourite mk comic run?

Idk if I’ve mentioned it before bc I just sort of yell about it in tags but also bc idk if I have one HSHDHD I haven’t honestly read too much MK to say for sure what the best are so def do nOt come to me for suggestions, but I can talk endlessly about the three I have read which are Ellis, Lemire, and Mackay, so here’s what I love ab each.

The Ellis run I love because I’m obsessed with that version of Mr. Knight, as well as the one shot focus each issue has on different strange and supernatural cases. Shalvey’s art is also fucking fantastic and it has some of the best panel n page layouts I’ve seen to date, as well as utilizing the color white and negative space to blend MK w the surrounding gutters. I read a bit past the issues the original creative team worked on because my dad had a chunk of issues physically that went past that point, and those are good too! But I’m not exactly driven to continue at the moment, though it’s always a treat to see Smallwood MK stuff. My favorite stories were Sniper and the mushroom dreams one I’m forgetting the name of rn, as well as the ghost punks n… actually I have to stop they’re all really good they’re all so fun.

Lemire has already been praised to high heaven because it truly n honestly deserves it. This was the first MK thing I read and while def not the best place to jump in blind if you have like zero background, you still get such a good sense of the world and characters. Again, I’m in love with the art and the creative use of the genre, the way they made the need for different artists work well with and actually enhance the reading experience as tone shifts between each universe each alter is stuck in. Also again… Smallwood’s stuff alone makes my brain yell and scream and bite wood. Also ofc has my buddy my bestie Commander!! I’m still so so upset Marvel hasn’t brought him back bc I think he presents a super interesting added dynamic as well as opening things up for exploration of more distant or disconnected alters, as well as the impacts of isolated inner world lives. Lemire also handles talk of mental health n DID pretty dang well. Not perfectly, but as people have talked about before the ending of accepting where the system stands and that they need each other and that they will be alright working together is just… it’s so good. I love it so much.

And MACKAY god ok… I’ve yelled ab this, I’ve yelled ab this plenty, but this run is so fucking good and I can’t believe we get even more like we get MORE and it’s already so GOOD. It delves into Marc’s self loathing and self destructive tendencies amazingly, as well as focusing back on the strange and supernatural things that make me love comics MK so fucking much. It has some similar vibes here and there to Ellis w the occasional self-contained plots, even if many of them end up tying into the overall story, like the janitor plot, the stained glass scarlet baby god (I never see ppl talking ab this but that issue makes me UNWELL ITS SO GORGEOUS AND COOL), and the house of shadows. It also introduces some super fun new characters and dynamics and once again touches on mental health n DID in a fucking fantastic way that in a metatextual context helps to explore and undo a lot of the ableism and bad writing that’s permeated MK’s run under different writers for so long. I’ll have more to say about this one as it progresses but just… yeah. YEAH.

So… those are my favorites because those are the ones I’ve read. I’ve been keeping up with Black White and Blood as well but those end up being very hit or miss usually, often having one story I love, one that’s meh, n one I straight up hate. I want to read more MK in the future so this list may shift, but I haven’t had the brain to pick up anything solid and new and struggle my way through continuity quite yet. But… yeah… some thoughts :-) I love when comics comic hard.

[thesaltyoceanwaves]

Adrien’s Room and Memorabilia: A Sequel Post

Well, I hinted at a similar arc for Adrien in this post, so let’s brainstorm.

CW: mentions of harassment

The major difference between Adrien and Marinette in this instance is that Mari’s room is about her working through her social anxieties and developing meaningful relationships. Adrien’s focus is on his lonely nature, as well as discovering and cultivating hobbies that he really enjoys, and aren’t just forced upon him by his father.

His room starts off with very few photos of his loved ones, namely his parents, Chloe and Felix. These photos are professional in nature, clean, crisp and very much lacking in color. Even Chloe and Felix are behaving for the sake of the photos. Notably, their photos show them when they are much younger, to indicate that Adrien hasn’t spent time with them lately.

There’s a large emphasis placed on the amount of stuff that Adrien has in his room. The video games, the TV, the climbing wall, etc. Everything is completely clean and dust free, because he spends a lot of time in his room, but he doesn’t have anything he’s particularly drawn toward, so whenever he’s done with something, he puts it away and grabs something else. His room is also likely clean due to his strict father demanding he keep up appearances.

The only exception to this are video games, but they are very specific ones: simulators. Particularly, ones that focus on dating and romance. Life simulators, farming simulators, RPGs that offer a romance subplot, etc. Even if the sim only offers the option to make friends, Adrien is fine with that. Stuff like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (the ones made by Marvelous), The Sims, Undertale and so forth are right up his valley. And again, lots of dating sims.

Following his mother’s “passing,” and at the start of the show, Adrien keeps a corner of his room dedicated to her. As more time goes by and Adrien gets closer to his new friends, this will shrink down to a photo of the two of them, and most of her memorabilia will be stored away. This will show that he’s open to the possibility of his father dating someone else, as was shown in “Felix”. 

He will often turn to photos of his mother when he wants deeper, more worrying thoughts that he wants to voice and get off his chest, or if he needs advice about something and he doesn’t know who to turn to. S1 would focus more on friendship advice, because in this version, he would need to put in more time and care to make friends (Nino and him would still stay buds, Mari is still crushing on him but is hesitant to approach, and Alya is kind but cautious, with the rest of the class being wary because of his friendship with Chloe). Later on, he’s more likely to ask about plot-relevant stuff, his feelings for Ladybug and Kagami (and romance in general), his growing resentment towards his father, his meet-ups with his friends, and his discomfort with Chloe and Lila’s touchiness. Coupled with Felix’s harassment in “Felix,” this causes Adrien to realize his boundaries are being violated, and to also wonder if he has adopted similar behaviors. He goes to speak with either Sabine, Tomoe or Nino’s mom about the matter (maybe all three to get a variety of perspectives), and then with Ladybug. I would set this conversation sometime after “Frozer,” with him mentioning how he acted there, and apologizing for leaving her in the middle of battle (if the episode isn’t rewritten to include that there).

Overtime, he would start to depend less on talking to Emilie’s photo, and instead talk to whoever he asked for advice. Instead, he would talk to her prior to a larger battle or facing a bigger threat and had something he wanted to get off his chest.  

At the beginning of their superhero career, Adrien is into collecting Ladybug merch - he’s likely to even have one of those “Do it for her” boards set up. He has some Chat Noir stuff as well, but it’s not as prominent. When other heroes arrive on the scene, he’ll have stuff of them too. He would even go so far as to recreate the heroes in his games (mostly in what Sims knock-off this universe would have), and roleplay scenarios with Ladybug. He doesn’t fully get rid of his merch over time, but he does likely downsize as he spends more time getting to know Ladybug and the team.

There’s also the obligatory Ladrien scene that I hinted at in Marinette’s post. To recap, Chat Noir, during an emotional moment with Marinette, mentions that he has Ladybug memorabilia in his room, and that he ought to downsize. Sometime later, Ladybug comes to check up on Adrien for plot-related reasons, and discovers that he “too” collects Ladybug merch. Adrien is notably embarrassed by this, but Ladybug replies by saying that she’s a fan of his as well. This will allow two sides of the ship to feel closer to each other and open up about certain things.

Similar to Marinette, Adrien will start picking up little things as mementos from previous episodes to decorate his room with (a class photo from “Reflekta,” a copy of the movie from “Horrificator,” his autographed Jagged Stone CD from “Guitar Villain,” etc).  I also imagine him holding onto clothing items such as Nino’s hat or Kagami’s jacket, that get left behind after hanging out. Over time, he is eventually gifted a mannequin to display these items.

I remember seeing a post that called into question whether Adrien’s activities were something he genuinely enjoyed or if they were just foisted upon him by his father. I like the idea of a laid out arc that explores what Adrien might like to do in the future, by having him go through various hobbies (sort of like Daphne in “Be Cool, Scooby Doo”). 

One hobby I’d give him from the start is tricking. (For those not familiar, tricking combines moves from martial arts and gymnastics, usually flips and kicks, and can be used to create super cool combos, yes I am biased about this). We often see him showing off stunts in battle and would fit Chat’s tendencies to be flashy. I could also see this becoming a hobby he shares with Nino and Kagami later on, maybe with the three of them sneaking out to meet other trickers at gatherings.

(For those who need visual reference.)

However, I also want to give Adrien a more traditionally feminine hobby. There’s a couple of ideas I had for this, including, again ones that he cycles through as he explores himself a bit more. After meeting Luka and noticing that he paints his nails, Adrien might tiptoe in nail art. I could also see Adrien getting really into writing romance, starting off as a fanfic writer and eventually writing his own novel or comic. Alternatively, he becomes a poet. Maybe he spends an episode learning to sew with Marinette so he can make his own cosplays. Or he starts a cottagecore aesthetic blog, and additionally starts taking care of some plants to give his room some needed greenery.

I think for the sake of irony, it would be interesting to see Adrien eventually take up baking as a hobby. I know there’s a couple of AUs involving this concept already (I forget who it was, though I’m tempted to say @lenoreofraven​ ​ but correct me if I’m wrong), but I like this idea because it would give him something extra he and Marinette could bond over in the future, especially since he doesn’t want to do modelling long-term. It would also give him a good excuse to visit the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and grow closer to Sabine and Tom. Perhaps they take him up as an apprentice, or give him a delivery boy job alongside Luka (giving that relationship a chance to grow as well, as well as a Delivery Boy shenanigans episode).

When he’s either in between hobbies, in a tumultuous state, or growing distant from his father, his room will appear far messier. In the latter case, it may be an attempt to rebel against Gabriel, saying “it’s my room, I can do what I want!” If he’s not comfortable immediately speaking out against his father, he may rebel in more passive aggressive ways. I could also see him roleplaying scenarios in which he tells his father off or planning escape routes for hero patrol or tricking gatherings. I think he would also have padded mats stored somewhere in he case he can’t leave, and wants to practice, or have his own tricking gathering in the house.

As he collects more mementos, they start filling up the empty spaces in his room, so when his father prevents him from leaving the house, he doesn’t feel as lonely. He starts finding ways where, from the comfort of his room, he can hang out with friends (like in “Anansi” where he uses the facecam to see what everyone is up to). More friendly, casual photos give the room some life. These mementos may also cause him to start downsizing on the Ladybug and Friends merch.

He will only attempt to remove them altogether if his identity is revealed to Marinette, and she doesn’t seem to process it well (at least at first). Anything pertaining to her, as Ladybug or Marinette, he may attempt to remove, until he realizes just how present she is in his life. He would then consult his mother’s photo about what to do. 

And similarly to Marinette at the end, when they start dating, he would start to incorporate couple’s photos. I think both of them would have those photo booth strips, but I could also see Adrien commissioning posters of his OTP, LadyNoir, and bringing back some of his merch (in a teasing, well-meaning way). 

[hencethebravery]

>> first and last lines writing game <<

I’ve been writing all wknd so I’m going to take advantage of that and play these games that @eirabach has been doing. I love you, boo.

Tagging: @jump-on-winds-back @mymostimaginaryfriend @justanotherwannabeclassic @distant-rose @jadeddiva @soft-october-night

>> 01. last line(s) you’ve written

01. wip, “dearly departed,” spn, deancas: Despite all this, and perhaps in keeping with his own preference for following through on his habits, he has never once stayed for Open Mic Night. It’s not as if he has anything against it in theory, he just never felt especially compelled to do so. And he was never a big fan of crowds generally.

“You should think about staying tonight,” Meg advises, sliding his third cup back over the counter. “I’ve heard this guy before, he’s good.”

02. wip, “the apportioners,” og: Case in point: Never betray a demi-god. Particularly one so unbelievably busted. Who would go so far as to force her to watch the other demi-god she is almost certainly (and regrettably) falling in love with, commit one more atrocity. To force her to watch her son die. Again. To force her to watch him choose between her and his family. Far, far more trouble than they’re worth. And sure—sure. She is angry. She may well always be angry. And yet. There’s the kitchen. The small, warm kitchen with the cream-colored tiled floors, inlaid with red grout. Where Edie makes too much bread and Estelle stores her spelled sourdough starters. Where Greg made her a cup of chamomile tea and described the unique softness of Clemente’s thread—how it curled and straightened and existed. And so she refuses. She refuses to do what some other irreparably broken version of her friend has expected her to do.

So. She lets him go. Again.

>> 02. first lines of my last 20 10 (20 is just... so fucking many; if you wanna do 20 be my guest but i have shit to do today) fics

01. wip, “dearly departed,” spn, deancas: Creative writing is so not his forte and really, what’s there to say about The Lodge that hasn’t already been said? A revolving door of adjectives that infect the collegiate discourse every few years—when some starry-eyed freshman sees the tall, thin door frame in all its carved, unknowable glory and gets it in their sweet, sweet head that surely no one has ever thought to opine on the virtues of a local, now-legendary establishment that seems to have haunted Main Street since long before time began. So, what is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

02. complete, “untitled,” spn, deancas: The two of ‘em establish the somewhat rude habit of bailing during get-togethers without telling anyone. They stop answering their phones at any point before noon shortly after that. He’d call it a side effect of New Couple Syndrome (NCS), but it’s something they continue doing long after any reasonable person would call something “new” (and honestly, he’s not even sure you could say it was “new” when it was new, technically).

03. complete, “untitled,” spn, deancas: There’s a fucking manticore in Memphis. Seriously. Human face, body of a lion, the whole freakin’ nine.

“Certainly one of the more… imaginative of God’s creatures,” Castiel muses, “albeit, unsustainable.” 

04. complete, “herbalist’s guide to skyrim,” star wars, reylo: Rey Kenobi really needed to get in the habit of bringing dates to restaurants she had no emotional attachment to. She had already lost an unacceptable number of extremely dear favorites that had been there for her when she’d had less than nothing and now? Blighted by the memory of mediocre men who she knew she had given far too much power. She knew she had an association problem, okay? She and her mildly overpriced therapist were working on it. Had been working on it. For a while. She really missed the dumplings from Hunger Pang.

05. complete, “a grief observed,” star wars, reylo: The presumptive triumph inherent to the return of the self? Painfully short-lived. It is brief and blinding and there is a feeling akin to invincibility singing in his veins. A humming that echoes in the gruff tenor of what could only be his father’s voice. How it must have felt when the heroes made yet another daring escape—against all the odds. The euphoria that occurs when you have begun to think that maybe, just maybe, you’ve finally won. It makes the loss so much worse than he could have ever imagined. Not when you’ve gotten so close to having everything you never even knew you wanted. And that’s half the battle, isn’t it? Knowing what you want. Like it’s easy.

06. complete, “a super solid history of the “good old fashioned lover boy(s),” c. the beginning (or there about) to now-ish,” good omens, aziraphale x crowley: Perhaps one of the cruelest tricks that God has ever played (and the list was indeed long) was in allowing angels to believe they were incapable of love. There is some amount of debate as to whether or not this was entirely by accident. She was a busy woman after all━perhaps that was why it, the question of whether or not angels were truly capable of love, had slipped through one of her metaphysical cracks (of which, admittedly, there were many). Those who managed to refrain from falling had quite an easier time believing this particular theory to be very much the case. A largely unspoken, slightly offended, “She would never,” followed by an affirmation of the belief in the long held assumption that they were above such things anyway, so really, what did it even matter, and can we please return to the task at hand?

07. complete, “first family,” ouat, captain charming: If the chronically thin, awkward, and punk-ass 15 year old version of Killian Jones could have, somehow, opened a portal in time and space; a feat which might have allowed him to peer into the future in an attempt to witness what it might hold, he would have likely imbibed several ill-advised shots of cheap bloody rum, and then quite dramatically flung himself atop the rumpled sheets of his perpetually unmade bed. If the younger Jones had even an inkling of the type of life he’d be living as a 35 year old man─with a full time job, a mortgage, a husband, one wildly photogenic dog─he would have done everything in his power to steer himself off such a disturbingly clean-cut, well-behaved course.

08. complete, “untitled,” ouat, captain swan: Rather predictably (and not without a somewhat inevitable feeling of frustration), Emma Swan was one of those people who had never put much stock in the notion of “vibes.” She had a “freaking superpower,” according to Ruby, which allowed her to suss out the truth about people, but as soon as Ruby suggested that the same might be true of certain places, Emma had chuckled, as if it was some unheard of thing.

09. complete, “untitled,” ouat, captain charming: In the end, he’d chosen the place because to be quite bloody honest it was precisely where you might expect the writer of an obscure indie mag to live. It was an older building (a suitably generous designation), tucked in between the modernist monstrosities of the last 20 or 30 years. Replete with gorgeous, if not ill-kept, accoutrements framing the windows; crumbling steps and a brick exterior in varying shades of red and orange. The aesthetic was rounded out by the kind of neglectful landlord you might expect, a horrid man who frequently enjoyed reminding his tenants that he lived, “out of state,” and they’d have to, “be patient.”

10. complete,” untitled,” ouat, captain charming: There’s an old adage about assumptions that Killian Jones finds physically repulsive. It is so unerringly awful, in fact, that he won’t even deign to repeat the thing in his own head. You know what it is, it’s not as if he needs to speak the actual words. And regardless of the fact that there’s this old, tired saying about assumptions, people still do it, and he’s done it, and ya know what? It kind of worked out in his favor, so, take that.

[revlyncox]

Stone Soup 2020

This reflection was written for the Washington Ethical Society by Lyn Cox, November 22, 2020.

In the story of Stone Soup, we learn we are more powerful and resilient together than we are alone, and that however small we think our gifts are, they are a beautiful and necessary ingredient in the larger whole. Liz James makes a good point that we often miss opportunities because we haven’t noticed the beauty of our own gifts. It is also true that sometimes we hold back out of a feeling of scarcity, or because we’re not sure what else will be asked of us once we open up. We can tell by how many different versions of this folk tale are in existence that the legend of Stone Soup is rich with meaning. Just like a soup with many ingredients, a tale with many tellers has subtle notes and surprising flavors that we can keep discovering year after year. Today, I’d like to talk about appreciation and abundance.

Felix Adler knew that recognizing human worth is part of the project of moral uplift. He said, "May the humanity that is within every human being be held precious. The vice that underlies all vices is that we are held cheap by others, and far worse, that in our innermost soul we think cheaply of ourselves."

Adler exhorts us to appreciate each other and ourselves.

The Washington Ethical Society Community Relations Pact includes a commitment to “express gratitude readily and accept appreciation graciously.” You already know that appreciating one another and the staff is an act that lifts everyone up, and helps us to bring out the best in each other by reinforcing what is joyful, beautiful, and supportive of our shared mission. In a community as large as WES, especially when we’re mainly a virtual community, it can be hard to figure out how to participate, how to be part of the interactions and responses that help shape this poetry in motion. Positive feedback is an extremely effective way to do that. Appreciation increases energy and resilience. You know that. You voted on it.

What might be less obvious is the part about accepting appreciation graciously. When someone offers positive feedback, or even a simple greeting, take a moment and allow yourself to be known. We can’t always see each other face to face, even when we’re on video it’s tricky to figure out eye contact. An email, a chat message, an emoji, these small acts of kindness are worth noticing and celebrating. And when messages go out to the whole community, it may not feel personal, but the appreciation expressed for your dedication, your care, your simply being -- those sentiments are sincere. Thank you for being part of WES. Yes, I mean you.

Even less obvious is appreciating yourself. Please know that you are a precious creature of worth. Even before we get into what different people bring to this community or the world, you don’t have to earn your designation as a human being. I think it is easier to be part of something larger than ourselves when we start with the knowledge that we reach out from a place of inherent worth.

We’ve just been through Transgender Day of Remembrance, and I am reminded all over again that there are beloveds who don’t know that they are valued, who are shown by state-sanctioned violence and discrimination that they don’t matter, and the results are deadly. We have to do better at protecting our most marginalized beloveds, particularly Trans women of color, and we have to do better at building a world where every person knows that they are beautiful, valued, and loved. Here, we do our best to create a community where every person can be their whole selves, with all of who they are in terms of culture, race, gender, family shape, language, and ability.

People do not have to “contribute” to have inherent worth, and it’s still lovely to notice when people do offer gifts to the community. It is not mutually exclusive to appreciate people for simply being and to appreciate the time, talent, creativity, and resources that someone has intentionally made available to benefit others. In some retellings of Stone Soup, people bring things to the table that are unusual, things their neighbors would not have thought to add to soup. Maybe it’s some tart fruit that ends up adding tantalizing acidity to the soup, or something briny like capers that gives a surprise spark of salt, or some chickpeas to add body to the broth. Sometimes, but not often, Stone Soup retellings take place in a community where different families have different food traditions, and the resulting fusion creates a soup that is an entirely new culinary snapshot of that community in that place and time. Each person’s presence makes a difference.

Appreciation of others requires a certain amount of humility, recognizing that none of us can do and be all of the things that our communities need at the same time. We are each of us always learning, there are things we have not experienced and do not know. Humility does not necessarily mean self-deprecation. We can know that we are people of worth, and that the things we are in the process of learning are valuable talents to offer, while still admiring and appreciating others. You being your whole self, making mistakes so that you can keep learning to draw out your best talents, combines with your neighbor being their whole selves and being allowed to learn and grow in their talents, until we have a learning and growing community where works-in-progress are appreciated and encouraged.

Felix Adler spoke about how ethics is a cooperative endeavor, that we need each other in our uniqueness. He said, "People may be said to resemble not the bricks of which a house is built, but the pieces of a picture puzzle, each differing in shape, but matching the rest, and thus bringing out the picture."

Let’s go on appreciating the unique shapes of our neighbors, and the bit of the puzzle that we each bring, remembering that this puzzle is a living thing with constantly shifting pictures and shapes. Let’s find ways to affirm the shapes and pictures and flavors that are present in each fleeting moment.

Another value that Stone Soup reminds us of is abundance. In a scarcity mentality, we anticipate dividing up the resources that are apparently before us, with the expectation that it will not be enough. In an abundance mentality, we imagine what could be, and open our minds to the possibility that there may be resources we have not yet noticed. In an abundance framework, we use our time and our resources creatively, we find new applications for items and knowledge available among us, we remember what we are here to do.

Something I wonder about the village in the Stone Soup story is about their purpose for being a village. Why are their homes gathered together? Is it for convenience? Safety in numbers? Is it because political forces have pushed them together? Have they gathered to share a resource like fresh water or good soil? Are they in that area as stewards, caring for a sacred place? It is possible that part of the reason the villagers have stopped valuing their gifts and channeling them together is because they don’t know what their shared purpose might be.

The Stone Soup experience suggests that, whatever brought them together originally, the villagers might find new purpose as a result of this shift in perspective. Having a “why” can unleash energy, creativity, and unity. As the soup begins to cook, the villagers find a temporary purpose in curiosity. This is enough of a goal to help them to see their individual carrots and solitary noodles with new eyes. It is enough of a purpose to inspire action.

Abundance, coupled with purpose, helps us to overcome feelings of helplessness or despair. The people of the village didn’t seem happy at the beginning, or very active. Maybe hunger had made it more difficult to think, or maybe fear of scarcity was driving them apart. Coming together for a common goal reminds us that, even when we are individually limited, collectively we have power.

As we retell Stone Soup in these socially distant times, it is natural to long for the days when we can again safely gather in person. In a moment, we’ll see a video montage that includes photos of past celebrations. It’s OK to be happy about the memories and also sad that we can’t celebrate the same way today. But let’s also appreciate the gifts we have now, and those we have discovered as we have been forced to come up with new solutions. WES is more accessible than ever to those who live at a distance, or who have trouble with mobility. There are people who have never before been able to be part of a vibrant, humanistic congregation, and who now are just as much a part of the Platform experience as someone who lives in Shepherd Park. Let’s not lose our renewed purpose of inclusivity as we re-imagine a post-COVID future.

Given the challenges of planning a virtual Stone Soup, I wonder if one of the reasons the villagers fell into scarcity is because the world changed around them, and they weren’t sure how to adapt. They would have needed a new source of motivation when they couldn’t keep doing things the way they had always been done. They would have needed a new way to apply the talents they had developed under an old paradigm. They would have needed a way to encourage each other to try new things for this new world, to learn and grow imperfectly, with appreciation and acceptance.

Our experience of the last eight months tells us that none of that is easy. I know many of us are tired. Some of us have had economic and health challenges that need not have affected us as deeply in a society with a stronger safety net. Learning how to navigate a new world, even a temporary world when we don’t know how long it will last, is exhausting.

Yet here you are, seeking ways to practice abundance. You sent pictures of food and stones. You sent recipes, over 30 last I heard, which will be emailed to members in a PDF recipe book later today. Some of our Middle School families offered their talent for the story. Maybe there are days when you can’t focus on creating something, but you can begin with appreciating someone; that makes room for abundance, too. This community, collectively, has resources and skills and curiosity and creativity that can carry you into the future. There is abundance here, ready to be coupled with purpose.

The Washington Ethical Society is a precious and valuable community, comprised of beloved people. You are worthy just as you are. If you have gifts you want to share, skills you want to develop, a heart for caring, WES and the world will be made better by your generosity of spirit. We make room by appreciating each other as well as honoring our own gifts. We make way for the future with abundance and purpose. May it be so.

[kaypeace21]

Do you think the duffer's will ever stop being cowards and give Will powers? they've hinted at it enough and really missed some good reveal opportunities in s3. if they do do you think they'll be like El's powers or something unique to him.

It might actually be a bit of both- I talked a while back about this. But my subscribers have literally doubled in like the past week . So I might as well talk about it again. XD

El’s (unique) powers

Telekenisis- The power to move or manipulate objects with the mind.  It can evolve to the point that a Telekinetic can control anything at a subatomic, particle and universal level (like when she tore apart the demorgon cell by cell in s1).

Levitation-  To use the mind, and cause a person to rise into the air and float in apparent defiance of gravity. El’s does this at the end of s2 when closing the gate.

Remote viewing - is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target, purportedly using extrasensory perception (ESP). She does this when Kali asked her if the man (she was planning on killing was alone). It’s not foolproof, since she can only focus on one person at at time. Which is why she assumed he was alone, when his 2 daughters were simply in the other room. She seems to rely on psychometry to do this with people she doesn’t know well.

Psychometry- ability to discover facts about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them. She does this in s1 when she takes Will’s d&d wizard piece and tells the boys he’s in the upside down and his exact location. And she does this with newspaper clippings of Terri-  and uses this power to track her down and find where she lives. And she also uses a photo of Heather to find her/sense something bad happened to her.

The void- The prequel novel, “suspicious Minds” explains this ability.Terry after getting pregnant (temporarily) gains her baby Jane’s/El’s power to tap into the ‘void’. In relation to seeing normal people in the void, Terry learned they will not notice you observing and eavesdropping on them, and they generally cannot hear or see you (according to the book) … so we can probably assume they also cannot touch others without them fading away, as well (like in the show).  El uses this ability to observe Hopper, Mike, and a Russian spy (in s1/2).

But the void is different if you try this on another psychic, Terry accidentally summons a young Kali- and finds out it’s a way for other psychics and only other psychics to have a private place to talk to one another- without anyone realizing. So yep, Will is psychic- the fact Will could touch, see, hear, and talk to El in the void wasn’t a coincidence! Debate over! Also Joyce is def. clairvoyant like one of the other characters in the book (especially since she spoke to El in the void in s1, and the book confirmed having powers was hereditary.)

Powers they share (this is based on  the show/Will comic/ d&d powers)

Technopathy (ability to manipulate electronic devices) also able to use this ability to communicate through other dimensions. (El also has this power, but she used it to communicate from our world to the upside down- with the walkie talkie, and the school radio that she causes to catch fire).  When Will first calls Joyce through the phone, he actually used a walkie talkie (which is not how electronics work- it was simply his psychic abilities), also Joyce’s phone exploded because of this. After she buys a new phone, and Will tries again using their actual phone this time, it once again explodes on her end. And then Will uses the radio and the lights in the house to communicate.

And to make even more clear this is entirely because of Will, and not simply how electronics work in the upside down – When Joyce gets the Christmas lights out, she says “blink once for yes, twice for no.” And that’s literally what he does. He blinks (AND USES HIS MIND) to get lights to flicker from another dimension!

Portal manipulation/dimension travel / teleportation -. They both opened portals from the upside down to the real world. And although most of the evidence for dimension travel/teleportation is more evident in Will.  Technically El did teleport/dimension travel at the end of s1 to the upside-down. 

In the show,  2 scientists, Barb , a deer, and 2 hunters were violently dragged to the upside down, and simply died due to blood-loss. The comic showed this to be the case, showing one of the hunters bleed to death. He explained the demorgan dragged him there before he died. In both the comic and show , Will wasn’t dragged like the others. He sent himself accidentally to the upside down (the lightbulb , in both the show/comic glowed just like all the lights in Hawkins did when El closed the gate to the upside down in s2). 

This is made even more clear in the fact that the demogorgan is far away from him at this moment (in the comic). 

Biokinesis? -This is  a very broad ability. It’s the ability to psychically manipulate anatomy, physiology, internal body processes, and DNA. She caused Troy to pee himself - which is a bodily process.

However most people associate this power with the ability to alter traits of ones own physical appearance. I don’t think they’ll be a mystique or anything. But I did point out a while ago that when El and Will use their powers to their absolute limits- their eye color changes. El’s when using her powers to their limits, has her eyes turn red in both s1 and 2. And in s2 Will’s eyes slowly change from green, to brown, to black (maybe they changed color since he was fighting his possession with his powers?).

Imagination Manifestation- The ability to bring anything from one’s imagination into existence. I explained in a crazy amount of detail, here, why I believe El  made the upside down/demorgorgans and how Will created the mindflayer and demodogs… and how it’s not only an allegory for Will and El’s (cannon) ptsd, trauma, and darker intrusive thoughts (but because of their powers), became a physical manifestation (with a life of it’s own).

Will’s ( possible unique) powers

Shadow Walking-  They said in s1, Will ‘shadow walked’ . In D&D shadow walking is – “ largely illusory, but  ‘quasi-real’. characters can use this spell to travel rapidly by stepping onto the Plane of Shadow (the upside down), moving the desired distance, and then stepping back onto the Material Plane.” This quote perfectly summarizes Will’s power - which he was shown to be using in s1 & s2 (before his possession)- he can be partially-present and can physically interact with both dimensions at the same time. Although he has little control of this power- constantly flicking between both dimensions. This explains how he was standing in the real world next to Mike and later Joyce in the field,  while at the same time, the mind flayer took possession of him in the upside down version of that same field. And how on Halloween he was in the upside down calling for Mike, but was seen on camera in the real world calling for Mike ‘having an episode’.

Electro-kinesis – He has lightning come out of his hand, and this is also a power that Will drew of his wizard character (in the show) before he was sent to the upside down.

Pyro-kinesis- He drew his wizard character shooting green fireballs in s1 and in the first ep he rolled the dice and yelled fireball, he had the ‘shadow monster ‘ excorcised out of him with fire, and in the comic he shoots a demogorgan and yells “fireball”.  Will in the comic easily kills 2 demogorgans using pyrokinesis (fire) eviscerating 2 of them to dust – it’s a bit ambiguous, but he shoots fire out of the gun, and it appears the bullet wasn’t properly placed in the gun.

And in d&d lore the only previous human apprentice of the mindflayer, also had fire powers.

Scrying/clairvoyance- “ An ability the MF has, the ability to see and hear a creature at any distance…, the sensor has your full visual acuity, including sensing any magical effects-detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, detect magic, and message.” (all of which Will could do in s2-detecting the feelings/intentions of the mindflayer, seeing all those people die while in his hospital bed, knowing that the demodogs were approaching, giving the message to close the gate, and finding Hopper (a cop/’the law’) and knowing that he would die without their help). So it’s like a mix of clairvoyance/being able to see at great distances. 

-“The target (of the scrying) must make a Wisdom ( cough …’Will the Wise’) saving throw, which is modified by how well one knows the target and the sort of physical connection you have to it. If a target knows you’re casting this spell, it can fail.” (It failed in the shed, how the Mf found him)

“On a failed save, the spell creates an invisible sensor within 10 feet of the target. You can see and hear through the sensor as if you were there” (How the mindflayer found him so quickly).

Also, when Will uses scrying for tracking he always closed his eyes. So it’s interesting that in s2, before the mindflayer possessed him, he draws himself with closed eyes (in wizard garb) with a crystal ball (which according to wikipedia , “is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying”.And Will in s3 did say he sees the future.

True sight- In the show Mike says he thinks Will has “true sight” (which Mike may be mixing up with scrying as it is similar). In the show it is said to be the “power to look into the ethereal plane”. However, in D&D it’s slightly different because they can see through the eternal plane, and are immune to illusions (so theoretically Kali’s powers wouldn’t work on him), and they have the ability to see the true form of any creature that has been mutated.

Temporary super strength- Maybe it’s comic-book logic. But a small 4’11 , 12 year old  (let alone most adults) would not be able to bang a chair with such force that it would smash into pieces like this. Not to mention the way they frame it- seems to hint that it’s important and that we should notice how much he smashed the chair. And in D&D some Wizards do have spells that give them temporary super-strength? Also while possessed by the Mf (using 1 hand) he was stronger than both Joyce and Jonathan using all 4 of their hands, at full strength.

Astral projection? -Later (in the comic) he hears a television report saying they found his dead body, he freaks out and tries to prove to his mom he’s alive- and in the show (after his body was found) he does this to prove he’s alive…

They never explain how he did this in the comic but it appears that he used astral projection ( El might have this power?).

Invisibility?- In regards to invisibility, in the show multiple characters mention Will’s ability to hide.  When Hopper is looking for Will in s1, Jonathan warns Hopper that when Will is scared, he hides, so he should go to Lonnie’s instead of Hopper. “If he sees the cops, he’ll think he’s in trouble. He’ll hide! Y’know, he’s good at hiding!” The fact that Jonathan thinks Will (a literal child) has hiding abilities so great that he could stump a sheriff from finding him in Lonnie’s small house is extremely suspicious, to me.  The comic double downs on this seemingly irrelevant line, saying “Will Byers has always been very good at hiding. For games, from bullies, when he just doesn’t feel like being seen.And he’s hidden himself way in darkness so deep that he’s not sure anyone will ever find him.” Plus, teleportation and invisibility seem like something a kid who hid from his abusive father might of accidentally used  A LOT- unbeknownst to Jonathan! 

(super crazy/prob not true) but there was a weird thing in s2 , that may have been time travel? link here

[secret-engima]

Snippet of Storm-Touched

(oh look, here I am with yet another WIP. This was inspired/descended of the HCs that ran away with me from a prompt called Star Wars dumb thought by @bunny-loverxiv​. Anywho, I made a comment about Obi-Sith fitting the prompt at which point @north-peach​ dropped in with muse fuel and the rest spiraled into out of control history. Thus- this in progress fic, which is no longer Obi-Sith but still severely AU in which I take thirteen year old Obi-Wan, have him run away from the Order because he hates the thought of Agricorps that much, and yeet him headfirst into rewriting destiny via the Force, Mandalorians, and Obi-Wan Luck. Also he has what is basically a Force Fae/Kitsune/Entity for a teacher. Because Why Not™. Tagging @wolfsrainrules​ and @ravensilversea​ because this was partly the fault of Wolf’s wife and ravensilversea was interested in the HC version of this when I was doing that.)

     The claw-tipped fingers stopped just short of his clothes and she considered him with a heavy gaze. She dropped her hands with a huff, “Well. I suppose. You are strong in the Force, you just have no idea what to do with that connection do you?” She refolded her lower arms into her drooping sleeves, “Minor precognition?”

     Obi-Wan swallowed hard, nodded, “Yes. The … the instructors reminded me often to keep my mind of the present rather than letting it wander to the changing future.” Her face twisted briefly and now he was certain her eyes could change color, going from soft blue to blazing molten gold as the Force around them shivered with her anger before her expression settled and it was gone, “Yes,” she growled softly, “that sounds like them.” She shook her head, circled him with small, rapid steps, came to a stop in front of him again and nodded shortly, “Alright. I will teach you.”

     Obi-Wan’s heart jumped at the long-desired words, then dropped with dread —he didn’t even know this woman’s name—. She wasn’t finished speaking either. With a click of her tongue, she held up two fingers, “Two years. I will train you for two years, everything I know and everything you are capable of learning. But,” she added before Obi-Wan could say yes or no, “there will be a test. By the end of those two years, you must be able to tell me my true name. Will that be acceptable?”

     Obi-Wan looked over at Stars, the Wookiee dithered for a moment before rumbling, “The choice is yours, Little Soot. If you are afraid, we can leave and I will find you another teacher. But … she is the best. You will learn more from her in two years than you will learn from anyone else in a lifetime.”

     Obi-Wan wavered, glanced from the ship to the strange, alien planet around them and the nameless stranger he didn’t even know —who planned to test him by speaking her name when that didn’t relate to Force training at all as far as Obi-Wan could see—. Fear said to leave. Fear said to turn away and look for another teacher. Curiosity said to stay, learn and test himself against this woman Stars had chosen first and foremost from whatever list of potential teachers she had.

     Hope already clutched the woman’s words close —that he had potential, that she would teach him even when she didn’t yet know his name either— and thought of potential. Of new beginnings and strength and the ability to be free, finally free of the shadow of failure and disappointment and heartbreak that had followed him since fleeing Bandomeer.

     The Force whispered in the shell of his ear, for once so clear he could almost hear it in words. A flash of precognition stronger than anything he’d ever had outside of nightmares and meditation sessions in the temple as a small child. He blinked and saw himself, strong and calm, an adult that didn’t cower from anyone, didn’t hunch his shoulders in shame but instead danced through battle like the wind was his wings. He inhaled and tasted contentment so deep it felt like sunshine inside his bones. He listened, and in the space between times and spaces and lives he heard-.

     “My name is Obi-Wan, and I am not afraid of you.”

     He exhaled and the world settled back into place. Blue eyes watched him in triumph, like she already knew his answer before he bowed low and said, “I would be honored to learn from you, for however long you see fit, Master.”

     In the corner of his eye, Stars slumped just a bit —from disappointment or relief he couldn’t tell—. The woman who was now his teacher smiled, all fangs and satisfaction and danger, “Good. You may call me Noht-Ty, small one, not ‘master’ or any other nonsense title. I will be interested to see how far you can progress in two years.”

     Obi-Wan was never sure, afterward, what happened next. He thought that Noht-Ty must have insisted Stars leave, just as Stars had feared, because he remembered being hauled off his feet by a tight Wookiee hug and hearing her promise to come back, two years to the day, but everything other than that hug was … vague. Distant and blurred in his memory until the ship was gone and Obi-Wan had been left on a planet with no name and a woman who was to be his teacher.

     It was night when his senses —memory— came back to him. Huddled in his sleeping bag, staring up at the sky and the twin moons shining down from it. Noht-Ty sensed his returned attention from where she sat meditating, heedless of the cold air and the strange animal calls —Obi-Wan had never slept in a wilderness before, had only ever been to Coruscant and port towns and populated places—, “Small one.”

     “Yes, m- Noht-Ty?”

     She opened her eyes again and under the light of the twin moons he could see their gold sheen, intense and unreadable, “Since I am to be your teacher, will you give me your name, small one?”

     Obi-Wan did not think on the odd phrasing of that request at the time, riding too high on adrenaline as he was.

     Years later, Obi-Wan never did give his name away when asked by others, no matter who they were.

     He only had to learn that lesson once.

     But that was a lesson not yet learned, and so he guilelessly opened his mouth and answered, “My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

     Fangs gleamed white under the light of the moons as something in the Force jolted all around him, paralyzed him in place and ripped something clear of his very self in a way that he hadn’t known could be touched or taken. “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” she hummed, and somehow his name from her lips felt like someone taking possession of a new and rare prize rather than a greeting, “Interesting.”

     Obi-Wan sat up sharply, breathing ragged from the feeling, “W-what- what did you just do?”

     “I took what you gave to me,” she hummed easily, “if you did not want to give it away, you should have said so. But that is a moot point, I take the names of all my students. Should you pass my test at the end of two years and return to me my name, then I shall give you yours.”

     Obi-Wan gaped, closed his mouth, choked out, “Noht-Ty isn’t your name?”

     An officious tail-twitch, “No. I said that you may call me Noht-Ty, I never said it was my actual name. My name was lost to me long ago, and you will find it for me and give it back.”

     Suddenly very cold and hyper aware that he was alone with this stranger, Obi-Wan whispered, “What happens if I can’t find it for you?”

     Gold eyes watched him with something akin to amusement, “Then I keep your name, and the life that is tied to it.”

     Obi-Wan scrambled out of his sleeping bag altogether, stood braced to run even though there was nowhere to run to, “You’re going to kill me?”

     A calm ear flick, “Only if you fail. Was that not obvious when I first told you my terms?”

     “No! No, it wasn’t!”

     Her gaze cooled, “If you did not know my price, why did you agree to pay it?” Obi-Wan stood speechless and Noht-Ty shook her head, “Lesson one, Obi-Wan Kenobi, there is always a price. Every choice, every action, no matter how outwardly small or large, comes with a price. That price might be time, or energy, it might be as small as a good night’s sleep. Or it might be as heavy as your life, the life of a family, a city, a planet, a star-system.”

     She raised her gaze again and soft blue looked at him with something like pity in her eyes, “Always make sure that the price for your actions is something you are willing to pay before you make your choice.”

[heartfeltheart]

Alchemy: Magic Vs. Science

Chapters: 19/25 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter Rating: T Relationships: Edward/Winry, Lan Fan/Ling, and May/Alphonse. Primary Characters: Edward Elric, Severus Snape Additional Tags: Crossover, Teacher!Edward, BrOtp Edward/Severus. Sassy beyond measure. Series: Part 1 of 9. Summary: Magic and Science, are they the same or are they completely different? It just takes one person to point out all up and downs. Along with breaking the stereotypes that come up with being a wizard, alchemist and most of all being human. Thank you, @amynchan! D/C: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist. Discord: La Red(Mesh Mash of… stuff.): https://discord.gg/KYjmVAb Alchemy Series: https://discord.gg/DejEYNJ

“English and Edward’s accented voice.” “Amestrian or another foreign language.” “Written notes.” ‘Thoughts.’ First Name: Informal Last Name: Formal (Or used to annoy others)

"And this is... Alchemy in one of its finest points..."

The sound of hands clapping together reverberated around the room, an electric discharge the color of blue came from the hands onto a pile of metal, wires and other random items. The moment the light dispersed to reveal a functioning Cuckoo clock. The clock struck a new hour and out came the... what appears to be a young version Mr. Elric batting around a bat.

"Really...? Really...?" Edward deadpanned, he resisted the urge to facepalm at his superior's creation. Was it necessary to create the mini version of him swinging around a bat? No. Did the presentation show one of the many possibilities of Alchemy? Yes. Yes, it did. With a chuckle, remembering how he would add his own touch whenever he created something to his past creations. "Questions?"

"How the bloody hell did he create that?"

"This...this is...unbelievable."

"How does it work?"

"Remember what Mr. Elric taught us. The proper application requires a full understanding of chemistry and ancient alchemical theory, including to have a talent towards recognizing and manipulating the physical objects with energy, which require uncommon levels of intelligence and aptitude."

"... Could we do that?"

"Maybe one day... In the far distant future." Edward waved off the looks of amazement. He walked over at the front of the room and stood next to Roy. He reached over to pick up the clock that was on top of a slab of wood which rested on top of a table and rested it next to it. Now he picked up the slab of wood to show it to the class. The slab of wood contained a Transmutation Circle burned into it. "This is a Transmutation circle, the coming semester, something that is needed to create everything with...Alchemy."

"Are you going to teach us that?"

"No. None of you are at the level required to even start learning Transmutation Circles. Once classes start once more, the main topic I am going to teach all of you is...Rebound..." The way Edward said that the last word sent an ominous shiver down all his students spines. "The forces that are being manipulated when using Alchemy...are not human in origin the consequences for attempting to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange in transmutation are not merely a failure. When too much is attempted out of too little, a Rebound occurs. The alchemical forces are thrown out of balance on their side of the equation fluctuate wildly of their own accord in order stabilize themselves-taking or giving more than interned in often unpredictable and catastrophic ways such as... accidental mutation, serious injury or even death. Terrence? Question?"

"Sir... have you ever seen any of that happen before...?"

Edward put the clock back on the table with a heavy sigh. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose wondering how he could answer that. There are many ways he could answer that question or he could sweep it under the rug completely. No, they needed to see the result of trying to do something completely stupid. "...What I am going to show you must not leave this room. Understood?"

Edward thanked Truth for the fact Rolanda and Quirinus are not in the room.

Roy watched Edward with watchful eyes, suspicion filled within him seeing that familiar look in the younger man's eyes. "You sure about this?"

"I'm just going to show them my automail. Telling them the story behind it... maybe at a later time."

-.-

Silence fell over them, they ate their lunch slowly and methodically. Chewing on their food while they thought over what they saw earlier and the new tidbit of information on their teacher. Their teacher did something that was against the Law of Alchemy and he is living with that consequences every day. Are they still going to study alchemy? Yes, of course, they are. They came this far and they are not going to back out any time soon. The only problem they have is... how in Merlin's beard does that legwork? They never saw anything like it before and it wasn't like any other kind of prosthetics they've seen before.

"How do you think it works?"

"It has to be connected to his nervous system. It moves around as an actual leg does."

"The nervo what?"

"It's like this..."

With that, everything went back to a sense of normalcy.

-.-

"GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Come Now, Edward!"

"I don't need a hug from you of all people!"

"Can't we ever have a day without this happening?" Mustang facepalm into his gloved hand, he peeked through his fingers to see a shirtless Major Armstrong trying to hug the screaming Colonel Elric. He glanced over his shoulder to see Elric's class and fellow instructors to see them watching the scene with mixed expressions. The fact that a lot of them looked bored and not bothered about the scene before them... Amestris is already getting to them. "Major Armstrong! Colonel Elric!"

Elric did not stop running away from Armstrong, he changed his course to run over towards the General and hid behind him. "Get him away from me!"

Fortunately for Elric, Armstrong stopped chasing after him and saluted, sparkles surrounding him still. "It just brings me great joy to see Edward Elric being a teacher!"

"Please tell him to stop chasing me...? Please?" Elric asked with mass hysteria in his eyes, he kept tugging on Mustang's uniform pleadingly. "Please?"

"Why am I here again?" Mustang muttered under his breath, resisting the urge to facepalm. This was something he was so not looking forward to.

"You and Major Armstrong are supposed to give a live demonstration to my class..."

"...Truth..."

-.-

Flame Alchemist vs Strong Arm Alchemist

A fight that is of epic proportions to the students and two magical instructors. They have never seen anything like it, nothing compared to what is occurring in front of their eyes. Some could feel the heat emitting from the flames or the rush of air from the soaring rocks that flew towards the fire. How both combatants are able to use alchemy in such a way has their minds boggling at all the possibilities and possible future for them.

Snap.

Punch.

Snap.

Blast!

Repeat.

"Amestris State Alchemists, all candidates undergo an extensive examination process involving a written test proving a high level of aptitude in the field, a psychological evaluation to determine whether the candidate is of sound enough mind to serve in such a specialized branch of the military and a practical examination in which the candidate proves to a military board whether or not his or her skills can be used in real-world situations." Edward explained to his students the procedure of becoming a State Alchemists. He stuffed a hand into his head and gripped his silver pocket watch, remembering the time he had taken such test. "Upon acceptance into the program, they are awarded a certificate of achievement marked with a symbolic title decided upon by the Fuhrer based on the newly accepted State Alchemist unique alchemical skills as well as their personal and dispositional traits."

"Flame Alchemist?"

"General Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, is versed in standard physical transmutation, experimental theory, and biological alchemy. Fire-based combat style of alchemy, see those gloves he's wearing?" After quick nods and mummers of yes, Edward continued. "They help him manipulate the air to do what he is doing right now. If you ask him, he might answer a few questions. Don't push him about it."

"Strong Arm Alchemist?"

".... Major Armstrong, Strong Arm Alchemist, utilizes a combat alchemy that has apparently been passed down the Armstrong line for generations and mixes alchemical skill with physical prowess. He uses those metal gauntlets strapped to his fists to transmute objects by punching them. If you want to know more but end up losing your mind in the process, go ask him. I will not be held responsible if such event occurs..."

"...What is wrong with him?"

"I have been asking that question myself for years. If you think that is bad, you should meet his eldest sister, that woman is one of the most terrifying women in Amestris. Better yet...the entire world."

Pause.

"One of...?"

"The others are Captain Hawkeye and Teacher..."

"Captain Hawkeye? She did not appear to be that terrifying."

"Stick around longer then you will see."

-.-

Edward munched on his dinner as he watched his students mob, Roy and Alex, asking them question after question about the performance they did earlier. Both Alchemist soaked in the attention and answered bit and pieces. They, after all, needed to hide away the secrets of their alchemy. The experience of them watching Alchemy being done in such manner opened their minds and see what they are studying first hand.

"Mr. Elric."

Edward glanced over to see Rolanda taking a seat next to him, she kept her gaze over the students. "Yeah?"

"You said you were a former State Alchemist, could you do what they did earlier?" Rolanda asked, turning her heard to look at Edward with her hawk-like eyes.

"...I... It is a very long story. The result is me not being able to do alchemy anymore." Edward stated lightly, smiling slightly at the reason behind him no longer being able to do alchemy anymore. It was worth the exchange.

"You don't have to answer if it is too personal, what did you exchange for you to no longer being capable of using alchemy?"

"...Again...long story and this one is...a personal one."

"My Alchemy has been passed down the Armstrong Family for several generations!"

Pause.

"How in Merlin's beard did he became a State Alchemist?"

"Shhh! Not so loud, do you want him to hear you? He will go on about the Armstrong Family Line for ages."

-.-

"I'll come back and visit again before I return back to work." Edward swung Elicia around in circles around the train station platform. Mrs. Hughes stood a couple steps away holding a cloth-covered basket, watching the scene with a small smile. "Be good, stay in school and if anyone picks on you...tell your Uncle Roy or Auntie Riza. They'll take care of it."

"Don't encourage her, Ed." Mrs. Hughes shook her head at Edward's words.

"What? I won't be in the country, and I can't get any phone calls there." Edward explained as if what he said was nothing out of the norm. "Otherwise I would take care of the problem."

Mrs. Hughes only shook her head. "Of course."

The woman smiled at the young man and extended the basket out to him. "For the trip, down to Resembool."

Edward places Elicia back down on the ground, the girl giggles as she keeps a grasp on her brother's pants to no fall. The Golden Blonde reached over and took the basket and he smelled that familiar scent of apple pies filled his nose. Such a pleasant scent. "Thank you, they smell amazing!"

"Are you ready to go, Fullmetal?"

Edward, Mrs. Hughes, and Elicia turned to see Roy and his unit standing in front of them. The Sandy Blonde girl smiled brightly and ran over to Roy and hugged him. "Uncle Roy!"

Roy smiled hugely at the girl and patted her on the head. "There's my favorite Squirrel Scout."

Elicia's cheeks puff out. "It's Lion Scout! Lion Scout!"

"Gasp-Of course it is! How could I forget such detail~" Roy chastised himself for forgetting such detail. He glanced over at Riza and gave her a silent command. "Hawkeye, Havoc, why don't you two take Gracia and Elicia home. It's getting late."

"Of course, Sir!"

Both soldiers gave Edward either a salute or nod before they escorted the Hughes family back to their home.

"Bye Little Brother!" Elicia called out, waving at Edward.

Edward waved back with a small smile, the smile disappeared once she was out of sight. Glancing over at his shoulder to give his superior a bored look, the Golden Blonde could only wonder what the man is about to inform him. "What?"

"I have people stationed along the tracks, try not to get into trouble."

-.-

The train ride from Central to Resembool was filled with random games, eating pies, homework, eating pies, sleeping and once more... eating pies. This time around, Mr. Elric had fallen asleep clutching onto his suitcase. It is worth mentioning he kept muttering under his breath something about...wrench of doom...? Interesting.

"Does he live out in the country?"

"Naw, he has to live in a city or something."

"In a mansion?"

"Castle?"

"I think he lives in a small cottage in the middle of a forest and you could hear a bubbling creek nearby."

"Maybe by a river!"

"Or by a volcano."

"No. He lives in a laboratory or some sorts, him working on his alchemy."

"Mr. Elric told us he lives down the road from his fiancé, and we'll be switching our time between both homes. If not...mostly in future Mrs. Elric's home."

"I still can't believe he's getting married, he's still young!"

"...In the Magical Community... It is rather common to see a student from the more... restricted pureblood families... get married off the moment they leave Hogwarts. Do you believe that could be happening here?"

"Naw, from what Mr. Elric told us, he'd know his fiancé almost his entire life and said that she's his mechanic. Whatever that means."

"A mechanic fixes muggle machinery and everything else of that sort. Remember Mr. Elric's leg? That's a piece of machinery."

"...A mechanic? Hm..."

"What?"

"Mechanics are uneducated, dishonest, uncaring, dirty, and would purposely break parts to get more work or bulling their customers into unneeded services individuals. A mechanic...hah!" One of the students, a muggle-born Ravenclaw, huffed out in disgust. "My parents dealt with many mechanics over the years, they are all the sa-"

-.-

"Hello~" A very attractive female in her late teens waved at a group of strangely dressed schoolchildren, for Resembool, getting off a train. She has long light blonde hair tied in a high pony-tail, with long locks of hair on either side of her face and bangs, blue eyes and is wearing a short-sleeved sundress. "Hogvarts?"

The Hogwarts students and two professors wonder if this is the Alchemy Teacher's fiancé. The way said man described her to be... is not what they are seeing. She seemed...delicate, polite, and a grease monkey. Her voice is heavily accented to the point they could hardly tell what she was telling them to a point.

Suddenly, the young woman's eyes brightened at whatever was behind the group. "Edward!"

"Winry!"

Everyone turned around to see Edward stepping out of the train, grinning at the Blue-Eyed Blonde. He only took a couple of steps towards her when he was almost flung backward in a bone-wrenching hug, dropping his suitcase in the process. Edward braced himself to prevent himself to prevent himself to fall backward with Winry in his arms. Once he regained his balance, the Golden Blonde swung the Blue-Eyed Blonde around laughingly. "I thought you were going to wait at home, Winry."

"I couldn't wait, I had to see you as soon as possible. Don't worry, Granny is taking care of the pies." Winry said once Edward stopped swinging her around. "So...introduce me. I want to meet these...students of yours."

"...Don't tell me... You have no faith in me being a teacher?" Edward deadpanned.

"Hahaha. Oh, Edward... I'm just surprised you haven't killed anyone yet." Winry laughed, waving off Edward's look of despair. She reached up and grabbed hold of Edward's coat to pull him down enough to kiss him on the lips.

At that moment, everything went blank for Edward... everything just felt... perfect.

-.-

"How much longer now?"

"I can't feel my legs anymore..."

"This goes many of our ideas of his possible home..."

"At least it isn't freezing!"

"It's winter....it supposed to snow..."

"Sh! Remember, we are supposed to be camping. Camping in the snow isn't fun! Believe me... it's not fun..."

Walking up ahead of the group, Edward and Winry whispered to silently to themselves. Both all giggles and smiles but that was just a front. Pay closer attention, you could see Winry if gripping Edward's arm far too tightly and said male purposely kept his face forward to not show anyone his tears.

"Who exactly is at your house again...?" Edward asked through teary eyes.

"Your brother, Mei, Lan Fan and Ling...."

Edward stopped at a fork of a road. One road leads to the Rockbell's Residence and the other lead to his own residence. He turned over to face Winry, shoulder's tense and expression unreadable. "Who else is there?"

"You think I'm hiding something from you?" Winry questioned Edward with a frown, crossing her arms over her chest. She glared at the Golden Blonde, no once did she waver.

"It's Teacher, isn't it?"

"... I invited her and Sig. After you told me you told them we got engaged."

"How is she?"

"She's helping me with the wedding."

"Define helping...?"

-.-

Bang!

Slam!

Screams of pain!

Break!

Shouting!

The two Hogwarts professors and eight students stood in front of a two-story home with a sign in the front. It appeared to be a simple home if it weren't for the fact that Mr. Elric and Miss. Rockbell entered the home and the moment he closed the door behind himself... chaos. He had told everyone else to stay outside until he cleared whatever was inside the Rockbell residence. Apparently whatever it was... it wasn't pretty.

There was a debate about whether or not to go inside to check on the Alchemy Professor. That idea was shot down when the sounds of pain reverberated throughout the entire home.

Wait... is that silence?

SLAM!

The door was slammed open and both Mr. Elric's were thrown out of the Rockbell residence with shouts of surprise. Everyone kept their eyes on the doorway, not able to look away. It was either from fright or morbid curiosity.

Then... they saw... her?

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[heraldofzaun]

Justification

Viktor ignores the first Void attack. There’s pandemonium in the streets and minor casualties - but people die every day in Zaun and he’s long since learned that he can’t save everyone. He’ll help those that come to him, provide aid in the aftermath, but he is not a fighting man. Besides, the threat of the Void was something distant… making this attack a fluke and nothing more.

The second time a violet, violent portal opens up over Zaun, Viktor takes notice. Chittering monstrosities sweep through the streets, eating anything in their path. Those caught outside suffer if they move too slowly, Voidlings biting into them just as they bite into concrete and rebar. Once is a fluke. Twice is a coincidence.

It’s the third, the fourth, and the fifth attacks on Zaun that get his attention. They come in quick succession, with progressively bigger and bigger beasts tumbling from lightning-illuminated portals to a plane that has far too many teeth. It’s not just Zaun’s problem, too - Piltover is under siege and Demacia has lost scores of their soldiers to the fight - but Viktor can no longer stand idly by, only helping after the damage has been done. The Void is a threat to Zaun, to him, and to his own future. He’s not a man of weapons, really, but what is the point of his Evolution if he cannot adapt to new and uncertain times? Zaun’s government is doing nothing beyond the norm - pretending as if business-as-usual is something rational and achievable. If anyone in this city wants aid, they’ll have to find it themselves.

His first robots are small things, armed with machine-cut blades and lasers that are a modified version of his own. They handle smaller Voidlings just fine (he’s started to classify them - some show signs of intelligence, and he’s read on how Shurimans refer to the beasts) but are easily dispatched by the ‘Zix species or anything larger. They even have trouble with the ‘Maws, truthfully, but that’s on account of the acidic spit. Viktor has his financiers - loyal people, both to the Evolution and to him - but even they cannot pay for shipment after shipment of raw metals. And his production rates are far too slow. He needs automation. Factories. Warehouses. He casts his eyes towards the industrial district, with smog so thick that buildings loom like forsaken giants.

It’s for the greater good, taking over the industrial district. No one else has stepped up to save Zaun. No one else is making robots to fight the Void. Some people are still acting as if this is not a fight for Valoran’s very survival, and factories are still producing non-essentials. So much wasted material. He knows what to do with it. He knows what should be allocated where. So he storms the district with a swarm of his robots, “convincing” foreman after foreman and owner after owner of what their new tasks should be. The fear in their eyes hardly gives him pause. It’s what needed to be done, and he may as well be the man to do it if no one else will. Zaun must survive. The world must survive. And for that he needs to hold the reins of Zaun’s industry, steer it to create robots rather than useless baubles. There’s no time for such things in a war.

Viktor’s robots increase exponentially in number and size with the heart of Zaun in his grip. They repel the Void, slashing at tendons and burning through soft flesh, but never quite manage to bring one of the beasts down. Until they do. It’s a ‘Gath of all things, bloated and massive off of its feastings, and Viktor wastes no time in having it carried back to the industrial district. A warehouse there was set aside for such an occasion, painted a clinical white and sterilized. The floor is a fine enough substitute for an operating table. He takes a scalpel in his hand and makes the first incision, purple-black ichor oozing from the cut. The behemoth is still warm as Viktor works, trying to divine the Void’s strength from its entrails as if he were a haruspex. Each cut reveals more alien biology, more madness, and it becomes apparent far-too-quickly that the Void was far more unfamiliar than previously believed. But he can make sense of this madness, with his mismatched hand-and-glove stained the colors of victory.

The first Battlecast is a labor of logic, of untangling the confusions of biology and replicating their outputs in machinery. Speakers replace toughened larynxes, gunmetal replaces flesh. It has intelligence but not sapience. Why give a war machine the ability to reason? It’s not as if the Void gives its soldiers that luxury. Viktor watches through its optics as it - Battlecast Prime Cho’Gath, wearing the name of the subspecies that Viktor now knows every inch of - tears through Voidlings like nothing else. It’s a powerful asset, but a unique one. More are needed. He recalls it when the battle triumphantly closes, sending it to march through Zaun and proclaim victory. No one celebrates in the streets.

He’s the creator of the Battlecasts now - or, simply, the Creator - not the Machine Herald. The beasts that stand waiting in warehouses mimic subspecies after subspecies of the enemy. One of them can go toe-to-toe with approximately 3.7 of their organic counterparts, testing confirms. But it is much harder to make a machine than a beast, and the Void’s own “factories” certainly produce more than Zaun’s. But its never-closing gaze has shifted away from Zaun towards Piltover, where the oh-so-cleverly named Resistance has sprung up against him. Some people would never see him as a savior. Dictator, Jayce accused. Madman. Megalomaniac. Tyrant. It didn’t matter what others tried to label him. The Creator was Zaun’s only hope against the terrors of the Void, and anything he did was to protect them. The endless cameras to watch for Void activity. The patrols to keep peace. The dissolution of politicians, with their false promises and useless bleating. He was in control. He was saving Zaun and its people. And if they had to be brought to kneel to accept his guidance, so be it.

[kenshi-vakarian7]

Kira Ryder for the OC asks. Number 72 if you dont wanna answer all of them

This took a very long time, but I FINALLY completed this @alyssalenko !  Thank you for your patience. =)

---

1 - What is/are your OC’s nickname(s) and how did it come about?

She doesn’t have a nickname. Though there was that one and only time Luke called her ‘Ra Ra’ for no reason other than shits and giggles (and he was also tipsy). She put a stop to it right away by threatening to show his then-girlfriend pictures of him as a baby.

2 -  What is the color of your OC’s eyes/hair/skin?

Blue, dark brown, and pale peach.

3- How tall is your OC?

5'7''

4 - What is a noticeable physical attribute of your OC?

Her blue eyes, and her full lips.

5 - What does your OC normally wear? What would your OC wear on a special night?

She likes to wear her blue and black leather jacket and jeans most days.  Some days, she'll wear a cute shirt.  If it calls for it, she accessorize with earrings, necklaces, and the black scarf her mother gave her for her 18th birthday.  On special nights, she's more dressy and likes to wear a nice blouse and mini skirt.

6 - What is one word you would use to describe your OC’s appearances?

Brave

7 - Does your OC have any markings, such as a birthmark or a scar?

She has a scar on her right hip.  She got it from her time in the Alliance when she got too close to a batarian pirate while trying to help fight against a colony raid. Thankfully, it didn't go deep enough, but it did not heal right, hence the scar.

8 - How does your OC talk/what does your OC’s voice sound like?

She sounds just as she does in the game, just with a little more twinge of confidence (especially since I usually pick the logical/professional response options with her).

9 - What does your OC’s bedroom look like?  His/her living area?

On the Tempest, the room is bigger than she's used to, though she loves the panorama view of space.  Aside from a couple of personal items, she's pretty much kept the room as it was when she first boarded. The only thing she wished she had was a freakin' private bathroom!  Like, seriously, all that room and no bathroom?! Laaaaame...

10 - What does your OC keep in a special drawer?

Her old Alliance dog tags.  It was the only thing she managed to keep from her days in the Alliance.

11 - What is your OC’s relationship with his/her mother?  

She adores her mother and appreciates all the little things she's done for her and her brother over the years.  They rarely fought and she likes to think she inherited her mother's compassion.

12 - What is your OC’s relationship with his/her father?

As a little girl, she adored her father and considered him her hero.  She was close to him and wanted to be in the military just like he was once she was all grown up.  Their relationship changed when she was a teenager as he became more distant and more strict.  They fought a lot before she and her brother were sent to boarding school.  After that, there was nothing but tension between them.  After her mother died however, her father started to open up a bit more and their relationship before to slowly heal.  They were still healing their relationship when he died not long after they arrived in Andromeda.  These days, Kira tries to focus on the good memories.

She likes to think that she inherited her father’s bravery… and perhaps his stubborness.

13 - How many siblings does your OC and what is his/her relationship with them?

She has one brother, her twin Luke. Despite the fact that he could occasionally be a little annoying with his humor, they are in fact best friends who tell each other almost everything.

14 - Who is the mother and/or father figure in your OC’s life?

She actually doesn't have one… but at the very least, Drack has become more like a grandfather figure to her.  She fondly calls him 'Gramps.'

15 - What was your OC’s childhood like?

Aside from growing up on a space station and having a father who was a little bit strict, her childhood was actually pretty normal.  She had friends, went to school, went on family vacations, etc.

16 - What is your OC’s strongest childhood memory? Why and how as that impacted him/her?

There really isn’t another that was strong per se, but the ones that do stick to her were all the times she and her family would go on vacation to various places on Earth.  Her favorite trip was the time they went to Norway and saw the Northern Lights.  It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her lifetime.  She hopes to see something similar in Andromeda someday in order to re-experience that moment once more.

17 - What is your OC’s imagination like?

She normally imagines what the future would be like, like her career and even her romantic life.  She's not big on weddings, but does like to imagine herself in her dream wedding gown.

18 - How many times did your OC move as a child?  Which area was his/her favorite?

She spent the majority of her life on the Citadel, where she was born. Occasionally, she and her family would travel between there, the Sierras, Brazil (where her mother was born), and Arcturus Station where she and Luke attended the station's academy/Alliance Junior program (their version of high school). She really loves going to the Sierras more so for the view.

19 - What does your OC think of children- either in general or about having them?

She doesn't mind children, and figured that it didn't matter in the end whether or not she became a mother.  If it happens, it happens.

20 - What kind of mother/father would your OC be?

She'd like to think that she is as nurturing as a mother, and less strict than her father.

21 - Who are your OC’s closest relatives?

She adored her grandparents on both sides. otherwise, she wasn't really close with any of her aunts, uncles, or cousins.

22 - Who is/are your OC’s closest friend(s)?

Back in the Milky Way, her closest friend was Solana Vakarian, who was one of the few to stick by her till the end after the Ryder reputation got tarnished from her father’s AI experiments.

In Andromeda, she would become close to Vetra, who becomes like a sister to her, and Drack, who she fondly calls 'Gramps.'

23 - Who are the people your OC surrounds him/herself with?

Definitely her family and close friends.

24 - Who are the people your OC dislikes/hates?

Aside from those like the Archon, Kira really disliked Addison when she first met her. She could get her lack of trust in her since she was practically an unknown, but it really didn't sit well when she mentioned her 'goddamn father' while Kira was still reeling from his very recent death. The whole situation with Spender didn't help either, though once Addison stepped up, they started to get along a little better, at least professionally. Kira did appreciate the fact that Addison asked her how Luke was doing after everything he went through, but they otherwise didn't talk much unless it was about initiative business.

25 - If your OC has a soulmate, who is it?

A certain shady bastard from Kadara. 😋

26 - Why does your OC and his/her soulmate work so well together?

They relate to the fact that they're both leaders with big responsibilities (hers being more public of course).  But one key thing is the fact that they treat the other like they are normal.  Obviously it's more apparent in her case, but it's something he appreciates as well.  In other words, they see and treat each other like normal human beings rather than an enigma/very-well connected smuggler.

Also, the sex is great!  XD

27 - What are some things your OC admires about his/her soulmate?

She admires his practicality, resourcefulness (even if they came from shady dealings), and his ability to surprise her every now and then (except the High Noon mission of course - that’s one type of surprise she prefers not to experience again).  She does envy the fact that he can work anonymously.

28 - How did your OC and his/her soulmate meet?

Evfra had them meet at Kralla's Song involving a mission to find one of his men.  They were business partners at first, but the more time they spent together, the more they became infatuated with each other.  One thing led to another, and as they say, the rest is history.

29 - What is your OC’s level of education?

She has a high school diploma, and went straight to a military career after that. She considered her options of a college education after the whole thing with her career went belly-up.

30 - Did your OC participate in extracurricular activities, and if so, what were they?

She mostly was involved in junior military programs while at the academy.  She also enjoyings rock climbing.

31 - What is your OC’s opinion of school?  What kind of student was s/he?

Kira knows education is important, but like many kids growing up, she'd rather stay home all day and have fun.  She was an above-average student; never on the honor roll, but did well enough.

32 - What subjects did your OC excel at?

History and science.

33 - What subjects interested your OC?

Since she was young, Kira was always interested in military history. It helped give her insight on what life was like as a soldier, and perhaps what she could expect in our own career despite how 'results may vary.’

34 - What is your OC’s dream job and/or current profession?

Dream job: a military career, which she was able to get before her family reputation was tarnished and she was discharged.

Current profession: The Andromeda Initiative's Human Pathfinder.

In the future, she becomes an arbitrator.

35 - How is your OC working towards his/her dream job and/or achieved his/her current profession?

She attended her academy’s programs to get a head-start in her military career, which was her dream job.

As the Human Pathfinder, she was forced into the role after her father’s death and she did the best she could with it.

Becoming an Arbitrator included a very long story involving a near all-out war between the Milky Way species and Angarans living on Kadara.  In the end, while negotiating a peace treaty, the angarans wouldn’t accept anyone from the Milky Way to serve the role except Kira.  Kira accepted the responsibility because not only would it finally give her an exit from her role as Pathfinder, but she finally found a means of staying on Kadara (and Reyes) for good.  Her experience as Pathfinder would prove invaluable in her new job.

36 - What are your OC’s thoughts/opinions of his/her current profession?

She knows she's making a big difference, especially after a very rough beginning for the entire initiative. That, at the very least, fulfills her, though after a couple of years, she'll grow tired of her profession.

37 - What is your OC’s biggest dream?

It’s quite simple… A decent house with a great view, surrounded by at least two to four cats, and equipped with a mini bar.

Before that, it was joining the military and making a difference, which she got to do for a little while. At least as Pathfinder, she did get to fully make a difference as she always dreamed about.

38- How does your OC react to and handle stress?

She works very well under stress, which she knows is essential in leadership roles. She believes her father prepared her to handle stress since she was young.

39- How does your OC handle anger?

She's very good about clamping it down in public. However, if she's desperate enough, she'll march to her room, smother her face into a pillow, and then scream into it at the top of her lungs.

40- How does your OC handle grief?

She usually handles it privately and is usually very good at compartmentalizing her emotions.  Only very occasionally she loses control, and she really hates those moments.

41- What is your OC’s greatest fear?

Having everyone she loves die before her, leaving her completely alone.

42 - What makes your OC happy?

Trying new things.

43- What kind of sense of humor does your OC have?

She occasionally shows some dry sarcasm.  Every once in a while, she channels her brother’s humor, more so to someone who gives her an attitude for no reason… though she never lets Luke know that in order for him to keep his precious pride. =P

44- What are some things that greatly upset your OC?

The suffering of others, especially if she couldn’t save them.

45- What are some things that annoy your OC?

Entitled people, gatekeeping, and her brother’s humor (but only when she’s in a very bad mood).

46- If your OC has them, what are some regrets s/he has?

She had a friend she met on the Citadel named Jex who was also… a friend with benefits.  Things were fine between them for a year and Jex proved to be a very supportive friend during that time since this was all going on while her mother was ill.  However, at some point, Jex developed feelings for Kira and, one day, confessed to her.  Initially, Kira rejected him because the last thing she wanted was to get hurt again after her last serious relationship ended badly.

Not long after, Kira went to Earth to say goodbye to her mother, who was on the brink of death.  Her mother’s last words to her were, ‘Fall in love, at least once.’  Those words weighed heavy on Kira and soon, she came to realize that she couldn't be afraid to love anymore.  She decided to open her heart to Jex, sending him a message to meet up once she arrived on the Citadel… which was attacked by Sovereign while she was traveling.  Jex would die during that battle, but Kira wouldn’t find out until a few days later.

Holding back, letting herself be afraid, and not telling Jex how she felt are the things she would always regret.

47- How easily does your OC forgive?

It depends on the circumstances. She’s pretty good at detecting whether or not someone’s apology is genuine. Her gut instincts also help in these kinds of situations.

In general, Kira will forgive you depending on how sincere you are.

48- What are some of your OC’s vices?

Indulging in a little too much chocolate, having sex for stress relief, and (very, very rarely) drinking.

49- If your OC experienced trauma, what was it?

She never experienced trauma that affected her until she arrived in Andromeda. The first was when she was suffocating on Habitat 7, while adding the fact that her father sacrificed his life for hers.  She developed a fear of suffocation because of it.

The second was discovering what the kett had done to the salarians on the Archon's Ship as well as making the choice to leave Pathfinder Raeka behind. That affected her more profoundly than SAM having to revive her later in the mission.

50- What secrets does your OC have?

She doesn’t really have any huge secrets, just little insignificant stuff. There is one little secret that her brother Luke knows about - and will absolutely murder him over - if he ever said one word about it to anyone in Andromeda.  

The secret? 

That embarrassing moment from one summer, while camping with friends on Earth at the start of their adulthood, when she lost her bikini top while swimming in the lake… and didn’t realize she lost until all of her friends (and her brother…) got a *ahem* view.

51- What are some of your OC’s morals?

Her morals are pretty basic; be compassionate, understanding, and shoot people between the eyes if they try to kill you and your friends.

52- What are some of your OC’s motivations?

Simply, she wants to make a difference in making the universe a better place.

53- What is the health of your OC?

Physically, she's very healthy and in top shape.  

Considering everything she's been through, she's okay mentally, though the occasional nightmares plague her from time to time.

54- Does your OC think with his/her head or heart?

Her head, 98% of the time.

55- What are your OC’s thoughts on death?  

To her, death is an inevitability that will come sooner or later, which is why she needed to make the most of her life. The only thing that she hopes for is to not die alone and/or painfully.

56 - What are some of your OC’s strengths?

Her bravery, leadership skills, and maintaining calm and morale during stressful situations.

57- What are some of your OC’s weaknesses?

Hiding her personal feelings, even from those she’s close to.  Also chocolate.

58- How does your OC take criticism?

She’s fine with them as long as they’re constructive.  If they’re insulting, she brushes them off and moves on.  It’s not worth seething over.

59- What does your OC think of him/herself?

She likes to think of herself as responsible and braver than most.  She does worry about the morale of others under her leadership and how they perceive her.

60- If your OC could change one thing about him/herself, what would it be?

To open a little bit of her vulnerable side so that she could show others that, she too, is just human.

61- What is the general impression your OC gives other people?

Mature and brave, but still very young and learning about the universe around her.

62- How emotionally/mentally vulnerable is your OC with other people?

She's very private about her emotions and vulnerability. As a matter of fact, she'd rather not show them off at all if she can help it, even around those she is closest to.

63- How does your OC display love?

She shows rather than tells through her actions.

64- What are some habits your OC has picked up?

Hiding away when upset, and overindulging on chocolate when stressed.

65- What is your OC’s favorite drink?

Whiskey and coffee.  No, not at the same time!

66- What is your OC’s favorite foods?

Chocolate, sushi, and strawberries.

67- What is your OC’s favorite sweet?

Chocolate!

68- What is your OC’s favorite season?

Autumn

69- What is your OC’s favorite kind of weather?

Weather that is just cool enough for her to wear a sweater.  Autumn is her ideal season.

70- What is your OC’s favorite book?

She doesn’t have a particular favorite book, but her favorite genre is mystery thriller.

71- What is your OC’s favorite movie and/or TV show?

She doesn’t have a particular favorite, but she does enjoy action films and comedy shows.

72- What is your OC’s favorite kind music (and song if there is one)?

Modern synthetic music that she could dance to in a nightclub.

73- What is your OC’s favorite form of entertainment?

Nightclub dancing, concerts, and movies.

74- What is your OC’s favorite color?

Blue

75- What is your OC’s favorite scent?

Honeydew.

76- What is your OC’s favorite animal?

Cats 🐱

77- What is your OC’s favorite sound?

The crackling sound of an open fire.

78- What is your OC’s favorite time of day?

Definitely late evening. She feels most alive around this time.

79- What is your OC’s favorite kind of ice cream?

Chocolate fudge brownie.

80- What is your OC’s favorite dinosaur?

She personally finds the Saurolophus to be strangely adorable.