#mentioned made up mythology of ff7

[salternateunreality2]

It's, uh, been a hot minute (4+ months) since this saw an update, but...

New chapter of Chaos Kunsel!

Gaia:

Jenova:

Chaos:

[final-fantasy-as-literature]

The Bloomian Apophrades of Barret Wallace in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Heya, folk. SPOILERS ahead for FF7 Remake and Rebirth.

If you saw my last post about taking a basic Bloomian critical lens to Loveless, you might remember that I said I was going to write about reading the characters, locations, fiends, and events of Remake and Rebirth through the lens of adapting Xiyouji. This is one of those analyzing Barret Wallace as adaptation of Sha Wujing.

If you think even rudimentary literary analysis is academic hokum reading too far into things, this post is, as kindly as I can say, not meant for you. To the people who enjoy reading and leave kind words even on the posts I've deleted, thank you kindly again.

As this first bit cooks the goose on a silly introduction to what I've picked first, I'll dive right in by explaining why I picked Barret Wallace.

Why Barret Wallace?

Because of John Eric Bentley. I'm not sure I would have ever been confident about the lens if the voice of Remake and Rebirth's Barret Wallace wasn't the talented and kind Mr. Bentley. He's appeared in more things than I can recount, and I often don't even recognize his voice. More than that, he's got a heart for art and the way literature can become performance, and you can see his reborn desire to “value people” and to “love humanity” come through in his voice work for Remake and Rebirth.

It doesn't hurt that he has apparently been in the world of performance since high school. From there, he went on to get a BA from the University of Minnesota before getting his MFA from the same. I'm not so familiar with that world, but I can't help but feel that his theater training comes through from his silly banter as Barret with Yuffie and Cloud to his campy, almost parodistic, Edmund-like (of King Lear), and dragon-ego-like (of Joseph Campbell) delivery as Varvados. He actually attributes his entry into acting to his education outside of school, though.

In the episode “John Eric Bentley aka Barret Wallace (FFVII Remake) is Inspiring AF” of Gaming and Gabbing by Dayeanne Hutton and Amber Plaster, you can find out that his mother was a teacher that taught him to read early on and instilled in him the idea that “reading opens the door for everything,” eventually countering his questions about things with, “I taught you how to read - look it up.” He explains, “...because of that, I got into Greek mythology - Greek and Roman mythology.” This love for reading, especially of mythology and comic books, made him an insatiable reader, but it also helped him build a powerful memory that resulted in him memorizing and delivering Martin Luther King Jr's I have a Dream Speech at his kindergarten graduation. From there, he elaborates on how his love for mythology and reading pushed him towards acting:

So, years and years go by of me just reading everything I could as far as Greek mythology, and fairy tales, and Grimms’ tales - Grimms’ fairy tales - and, you know, I'm like, ‘How do I find more…’ Then I found out, oh, comic books, you can get a trade paperback. You can get all those volumes in one. So that's how I started doing it in college… and then, as far as Greek mythology goes, I found out there's Greek mythology, there's Norse mythology, there's Roman mythology, there's African mythology. As a matter of fact, in the region of Africa there's different regions of mythology… so I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, Campbell!’ So, Campbell wrote these three volumes of different mythology from different cultures. So, I was like, ‘This is great! I can read for the rest of my life!’ But, because I could read, I was that one kid in class who could memorize stuff, and any time we had a performance, they were like, ‘Hey John, we've got this for you. Do this on stage.’

While he has mentioned Campbell in other interviews, it seems most of his mentions of a fundamental piece of Campbell's monomyth, the maternal or mother goddess figure primarily based on comparing East-Asian Buddhism’s Guanyin and the Christian Mary, are in videos that are now privated or removed. Unfortunately, I didn't save a copy of any of them, but, within those, he explained that his understanding of Final Fantasy VII changed when he became a part of the Remake trilogy and compared what he was doing to the works of Campbell. He went from seeing it as a game with a black man that reminded him of Mr. T to a game making more people and ideas feel seen than just one young black man from Chicago through a loud, shaky caricature.

I don't know the man, but his passion for reading and learning about the stories that make and describe us comes through to me. I don't enjoy auter-focus when discussing works made by teams, and John Eric Bentley helps remind me of the power less acknowledged members of a project can have in its direction and impact. I can feel the fire he uses to light up Barret's eyes when he talks about reading or about Remake and Rebirth when he can't stop gushing about how much these things mean to him and who he is.

Which, speaking of Barret's eyes,

A Pair of Bright Round Eyes and Visual Adaptation

If you couldn't tell, none of the main characters of Final Fantasy VII Remake or Rebirth look quite like Chinese demons or gods. In all, they're pretty human, but that's not at all uncommon in adaptations of Journey to the West, especially modern ones, and Sha Wujing is a character that often gets reduced to human appearance in a way that others don't. It can be easy to glue hair onto an actor's face to make him more like Stone Monkey, to stick a rubber or silicone nose on a character to make him more like Pigsy, or to just rent a white horse to take the place of White Dragon Horse, but Sha Wujing is an indigo hulk with a head of fiery red hair. It can be hard to find a huge man willing to walk around in deep blue body paint, and that would have been extremely expensive for much of history. Instead, Sha Wujing often ends up being like the Sha Wujing of CCTV's Journey to the West in 1986 or that of NTV's Monkey in 1978 - just a guy from China or Japan as is, sometimes with hair dyed red; though, in the case of Monkey, they gave him a bowl cut and a shaved scalp before he even met Tripitika.

Barret Wallace in Remake and Rebirth, though, comes closer to the appearance of Sha Wujing than most actors that have ever openly portrayed him, especially with the addition of John Eric Bentley's voice that can switch from a thunderous boom of righteous fury to a soothing rumble to comfort a found family. On page 422 of Volume 1 of Anthony C Yu's wonderful Revised Edition of Journey to the West, an English speaker can find a descriptive poem of Sha Wujing that says,

A head full of tousled and flame-like hair; / A pair of bright, round eyes which shone like lamps; / An indigo face, neither black nor green; / An old dragon's voice like thunderclap or drum. / He wore a cape of light yellow goose down. / Two strands of white reeds tied around his waist. / Beneath his chin nine skulls were strung and hung; / His hands held an awesome priestly staff (Wu & Yu, 2012, 1; 422).

Image of Barret Wallace retrieved from Final Fantasy Fandom Wiki.

If one reads Remake and Rebirth as an adaptation of Journey to the West, Barret appears fairly close to the Sandy Monk. His tousled and flame-like hair is worn on his shoulder, his eyes shine so bright with amber passion that he often wears sunglasses even in the dark of Midgar to hide his light, his skin stands in contrast to those he journeys with and is neither truly black nor green, he carries a draconic voice like a resounding thunderclap or battle drum, his vest rests in browns and faint yellows like a cape on his shoulders, his two white reeds have become pairs of belts in Remake, he bears the skulls of his past beneath his neck, and no other character has more dutifully carried a righteous weapon - his becoming a part of him.

That priestly, staff, by the way, is often called the Fiend-Routing Staff, and Sha Wujing wielded it as a fierce defender of the Throne of Heaven while he was known as the Curtain-Raising Captain (Wu & Yu, 2012, 1; 425). That leads into the next point of discussion,

Who is Sha Wujing and How is Barret Connected Narratively?

Sha Wujing goes by a few names, and they can change depending on the translator into a given language. Not uncommon for Sha Wujing are Sandy, the Sand Monk or Sha Monk, and Friar Sand. He also holds titles throughout the story, from the Curtain-Raising Captain or Curtain-Raising General before his banishment from Heaven to his position as Golden-Bodied Arhat at the end of the novel. This is not unusual for any important character in the text, as they all tend to have myriad names and titles that range from nicknames and religious titles to outright insults. Pigsy is called Idiot for much of Yu's translation, for example.

Much of the personality and history a reader of Journey to the West gets of Sha Wujing, however, is actually in a poem he gives recounting most of his own history up to his fight with Pigsy and Monkey that can be found on pages 424 to 425 of Yu's Revised Edition. In that poem, he recounts how he gallantly wandered the world in search of the Way until he met a true immortal who showed him the Great Path of the Golden Light.

After this in the poem, Sha Wujing reveals to the pilgrims that he was made the Curtian-Raising Captain by the Jade Emperor, guarding the Throne of Heaven as the chief of its guardians. When the Queen Mother hosted her Festival of the Peach, a festival in which her peaches of immortality are served in Heaven, Sha Wujing accidentally broke a Jade cup. As a result of the Jade Emperor's anger, he was banished to the Earth at Flowing-Sands River. Outside of the poem, the reader will realize that he is the same Curtain-Raising General that Bodhisattva Guanyin tasked with accompanying the Tang Monk when he arrived at Flowing-Sands River (Wu & Yu, 2012, 1; 250).

This, again, reflects in our Barret Wallace as adaptation. While not all adaptations of Journey to the West from 20th Century Japan detail the Bodhisattva Guanyin's visit to Sha Wujing (Such as in the case of Enix's Gensomaden Saiyuki, which will come up when I cover the Trio of Andrea, Madame M, and Sam in relation to the Three), they do usually detail his violent past and former allegiance to some ruling figure before catching their ire.

If Barret Wallace is to be read as Sha Wujing, the breaking of the jade cup that draws the ire of the Jade Emperor of Final Fantasy VII (President Shinra), then, is the destruction of the Corel Mako Reactor. Where Sha Wujing of the 1592 text accidentally breaks a Jade cup in his service to the heavenly bureaucracy, Barret Wallace accidentally breaks his community in his eagerness to welcome the bureaucracy of Shinra when the Mako Reactor Is destroyed. Like Sha Wujing, who is ejected down from his home in Heaven to the Flowing-Sands River, Barret Wallace falls from honor in his home in the mountains to the flowing sands of the Corel Desert, bounded by an impassable river.

There, Barret Wallace begins his own history of man-eating. Where Sha Wujing eats men to sustain his immortal body as a monster cast from heaven and pierced by the swords of the Jade Emperor every seventh day (seven is one of the numbers that appears often within Xiyouji's numerical symbolism, even appearing in adaptations, such as Universe 7 from Dragon Ball), Barret Wallace consumes men through his violent rage against the powers that sent him from their home.

This change in this reading, from eating of innocent human flesh to sustain oneself to killing of innocent people in a fight against the oppressive forces of an untouchable power, reflects to some degree a modern trend in adaptations of Xiyouji. As Hongmei Sun explains in Transforming Monkey: Adaptation and Representation of a Chinese Classic, modern adaptations of Journey to the West since the mid-20th century have tended to portray Sun Wukong and his companions as heroes fighting against oppressive forces, people, and beasts. On page 60, she says of her relationship to Sun Wukong and his story,

The contemporary images of Sun Wukong have been so overwhelmingly positive that to me— and to millions of other Chinese readers—the Monkey King is a hero, a role model, and one who is not only fearless and willing to challenge authorities but also loyal to his master Tripitaka and devoted to the goal of the band of pilgrims. Although he had been a trickster figure who embodied contradictory values as portrayed in Journey to the West, or a monkey who made funny moves and demonstrated opera skills in the late Qing dynasty, the Monkey King in the new China epitomizes positive and progressive values for the proletarian revolution and socialist construction.

However, this divergence is not complete, and Barret Wallace of Remake and Rebirth, in this reading, can represent a return to a more traditional perception of the novel while giving new life to the character, as Barret's righteous fight against Shinra is not an unchanging or morally unambiguous fight. Regularly, in the retelling of Remake and Rebirth, does Barret Wallace reflect on the lives he has taken and the consequences of his agreeing to work with Shinra. However, Barret's closeness to Sha Wujing even surpasses other adapted characters, such as Yamcha from Dragon Ball, who did nothing so extreme and bloodthirsty as eco-terrorism in his life as a desert bandit.

How is Barret as Sandy Expanded in Remake and Rebirth?

Easily, one can see his adopted daughter, Marlene, as emblematic of this embodiment of contradictory values expressed across much of Xiyouji. Sha Wujing, who did not have much character background beyond his time as the Curtain-Raising General, is humanized through Barret's adoptive daughter and forced to confront his desire to provide for a generation free of oppression while being willing to tear a city full of innocent people apart to do it. Marlene, then, allows a reader of the text as adaptation to see a side of Sha Wujing that doesn't just use the memory of his man-eating to pass a narrative roadblock.

Within Xiyouji, Guanyin tells Sha Wujing upon enfolding him in the Buddhist journey that he will find use of the eight skulls around his neck, his history of man-eating that Guanyin said was evidence of his sin against himself, when he encounters Tripitaka. When he does at Flowing-Sands River, after a bit of confused fighting with Zhu Bajie and Monkey and a few showcases of his excellent swimming ability, he is tasked by Tripitaka and Mokṣa with constructing an eight-skulled dharma vessel out of those and a gourd to ferry Tripitaka across. While this isn't a series of events with clear symbolism to most English-speaking readers, a reading of Rebirth as adaptation of Xiyouji can help decipher a possible reading of it.

The parallel episode for Barret Wallace in this reading of Rebirth would be in his arc during Corel, the Gold Saucer, and in the Corel Desert. Barret Wallace, whose dog tags in Remake and Rebirth bear his own name and history as an eco-terrorist, confronts his history of man-eating when he is falsely accused of murdering Shinra guards and innocent bystanders in the Musclehead Colosseum. In a confrontation with the actual murderer, Dyne, a mirror of Barret without Marlene to remind him of why he fights and what his limits are, Barret Wallace emerges victorious and reflects on having to continue his Journey for the sake of himself, Marlene, Tifa, and the other family he found along the way. As he pleads with Dyne to value his own life and continue on to see Marlene again, Dyne takes his own life as a victim to suicide-by-Shinra guards, leaving Barret literally and metaphorically broken into pieces, sobbing over his body.

Rather shockingly and abruptly to some people, Dio comes speeding in on an eight-wheeled buggy as Barret mourns his friend. A reading of the text as adaptation of Xiyouji, however, shows how crucial it is to have this moment come immediately as Barret accepts his past and decides to continue on for those around him. Dio becomes the Mokṣa that arrives to instruct Sha Wujing to turn his past, the skulls of his past, into a dharma vessel, an eight-wheeled buggy, in order to continue on the righteous journey for the sake of all sentient beings. Marlene, then, serves as a focal-point for the reader of Remake and Rebirth to understand the importance of limits on one's nature. Without Marlene to direct his fight against Shinra towards a future guaranteeing a better world, Barret Wallace might have become another Dyne, consuming the lives of others until his own was snuffed out in his blind fury. Instead, the reader of FF7 Rebirth as Xiyouji is left with a Barret Wallace as a tool of righteousness that can be turned towards a journey of bettering things for all sentient beings with the Monk, Tifa, at the wheel of the dharma vessel on the journey to enlightenment.

As a more limited parallel, the pilgrims lose this dharma vessel as soon as they cross Flowing-Sands River, with the gourd at the center being retrieved by Mokṣa. Similarly, the narrative use of the buggy in Rebirth is restricted to crossing into the Gongaga region over an otherwise impassable river. This is distinct from the 1997 game, in which AVALANCHE uses the buggy to navigate all the way to the place of Cloud's birth, but it more closely follows the text and symbolism of Xiyouji if Rebirth is read as having the apophrades of the work later in the original authors' lives.

While there are other aspects of the narrative and symbolism of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth that mirror Sha Wujing's presence in Xiyouji, such as when the pilgrims are lost in the black pine forest without Monkey to aid them mirroring the new telling of the events of the Sleeping Forest before Cloud returns to the journey in Rebirth, this is an event in Xiyouji that would have ended the journey without Sha Wujing's presence and history being a part of it. I could go on endlessly about his limited appearances in the novel and how the Remake trilogy expands that if read as adaptation, but I want to end it with that important beat.

In the Future and a Fun Coincidence

Thank you if you've read this far.

I probably won't focus so much on the voice actors of the characters as time goes on, as John Eric Bentley is a rather unique figure in his passion for what he does flowing into passion for what others do. He also seems to be uniquely informed about mythology in general.

Even more, tracking down and listening to or watching hours of interviews adds a lot of work to reading an unfinished game trilogy with hundreds of hours of content as an adaptation of a story with nearly two thousand pages of material (I'm using Anthony C Yu's translation in his 2012 Revised Edition of Xiyouji, as it is popular with English-speakers and contains useful footnotes for context) and countless adaptations from Japan alone before 2015. The only thing I mentioned taking place outside of the first volume of Yu's translation is the black pine forest. I'm also working on another project in relation to this idea, so these just serve as a way for me to get used to writing about these ideas in my free time.

I'm still going to be posting them, though. I'll be writing about Enix's adaptations of Xiyouji influencing the Remake trilogy as adaptation next by focusing on the Trio of Remake as use of the Three from Enix's Saiyuki. That will be a much shorter write and read, as neither set of three is crucial to the story because they are additions to the original story. I don't actually like the manga or anime Saiyuki, so I'm thankful its influence can be seen as limited lol

With that said, a neat little coincidence I found while looking into Japanese portrayals of Sha Wujing is that one of the most famous actors to portray Sha Wujing, Akira Emoto, also played a detective in a 1981 cult classic movie named Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (セーラー服と機関銃) based on a novel by the same name. Other than in my reading of FF7 as adaptation of Xiyouji, the only incidence I can find of a Sha Wujing in Japan wearing a sailor suit is in the 2008 light novel series High School DxD in which Sha Wujing, a young girl descendant of the original Sha Wujing, wears a sailor suit dissimilar from much of the rest of the female characters.

Barret and the one Sha Wujing I was able to find wearing a sailor suit. Barret image from Final Fantasy VII State of Play and Sha Wujing from High School DxD Fan Wikia.

Considering that Sha Wujing is legendary for his swimming ability as a desert-dweller, able to outrun even Monkey in the water, I'm surprised more adaptations don't associate him with water. In any case, Remake as adaptation makes him a powerful swimmer in the Mythril Mines (with even John Eric Bentley highlighting his swimming on Twitter, saying, “Man that big dude sure can swim fast!!”) and plops him into a sailor suit so convincingly that a captain can't help but think he belongs on the water.

Again, thanks for reading if you did. Remember to, in the words of John Eric Bently, "love humanity" and that "reading opens the door for everything."

[kibastray]

Different Anon. You mentioned projects... How many are you working on or... maybe I should ask how many projects do you have? Could you maybe share some with us? Like a list or something?

Oh, oh boy! Did you ask me the wrong question. lol. You want to know what projects I am working on? I’m gonna show you.

Key notes: Free to use = If you like the idea you are free to use it. Just ask about my notes. (Please give credit though) Willing to Share = I would be more than willing to share my notes on the idea and partner up on it with someone if anyone is willing. Not for Sale = Fics/ideas I plan on using and writing myself if it isn’t listed as FtU or WtS then it means that is something dear to me and I want to work on it myself. (these fics/ideas will not be all listed as NfS, so if you don’t see the added tag assume it is NfS) Paragon/Renegade = means good/bad version of the story.  Spin-off = typically a one off of a story already listed and will be listed in a sub-listing of that story. Eh / Da Faq/ Competent Folders = Are all unique and original ideas that I think are either good, meddling, or just plan bad after a second look. 

Each story title will also have a small decryption to go along with it.

With that out of the way my list of projects are under the cut. Enjoy. :3

Side note: I will try and list the fandom things grouped together. I will also try and alphabetize them. 

First up BNHA:

My Hero Academia (most of these can be found in my previously posted BNHA: Fic list) 

Ash Phoenix: An Idea where I ask/answer if OFA is the only quirk that can be merged and be something else entirely. (It will be a bit dark and involve the hidden quirk Izuku and Toga’s quirk combining into something powerful)

Bedlam: A story of Izuku being a combination of Bruce Lee/ Brock Lee. Who needs a quirk when you have martial training that can’t be beat. He is shipped with Momo in this one. (Izuku’s dad is a bastard that dies early and his life insurance helps Inko give Izuku the life he deserves) 

Paragon... Fighting Bedlam: good timeline where Izuku goes to UA, with his girlfriend, Momo like cannon BNHA just without OFA and a lot more confident Izuku with some Midoriya family angst sprinkled in.

Renegade... Hoods of Bedlam: Bad timeline where Izuku and Momo are vigilantes know as Green/Red Hood. They still go to UA but not through the hero coarse. Izuku is in management/business and Momo is in General. This time it is Yaoyororozu family drama that involve Izuku being quirkless. (might also have to do with an surprise pregnancy. This one also has the pair say “f^ck society and it’s rules, we are gonna do what we want”) 

Brain over Brawn: (This one follows a head cannon of mine where Izuku is on a lot of Forms about anything hero) The day he was suppose to grab All-Might’s leg he was just a little to slow and doesn’t get OFA. instead he goes to the Forms shares his impressions of heroes and gets picked up by Nezu. After all what is better the muscle to beat up or a baddy or the knowledge how to? (Free to use)

Champion of Olympus: I give a Fem!Izuku a direct line to the Greek Gods mainly because I want to see a BA Izumi with a bow. It is like Percy Jackson but without the god parents and more Izumi being the first person in generations to interact with the gods.

Epitaph: Izuku gets the strongest and probably worst combo of his parents quirks. Simply put, on Izuku’s quirk registry he can take the heat from an object or person. In truth his quirk is so much more powerful than that. He has the ability to take the life force or soul of living beings. (Free to Use)

Eri’s Big Brother: An angsty fic where Izuku gets kidnapped at an early age, and no one knows what happens to him. That is until the first day of UA when a small white haired kid Aizawa is watching over asks Bakugou “Are you Kacchan?” (Free to use)

FF7 x BNHA No title yet: A story that finds Izuku transported from his old world into a world of heroes and villains after a bomb that should have killed him launched him across dimensions. Izuku is a member of AVALANCHE and shows the world of heroes what a freedom fighter can do. While also finding out that the world of heroes might be more familiar to him than he originally thought

Future Heroes: This one is a future fic with a whole cast of OCs of mine 

In The Name of LoV: Izuku is a villain and is the Co-leader of LoV with Tomura. Photogenic and maybe a little psychotic Izuku addresses the world in videos saying that him and his friends are villains because they ‘Lov’ the world so much.(Izuku is a sweet&charismatic kid who sees heroes as a problem because all society cares about is strong/flashy quirks) (Free to Use)

Izuku!Nomu no title yet: A fic where Izuku tries to follow Bakugou’s advice but is saved by LoV and turned into a Nomu. We follow a guilt ridden Bakugou perspective after that day all the way to the USJ where he finds and frees an Izuku who may be to damaged to ask forgiveness of. (willing to share)

Jet Set Radio x BNHA no title yet: I give Izuku confidence through the power of roller skates and the street art of graffiti in order not only become a hero, but a hero without a quirk. (I think it would be fun to see Prof. K and Present Mic be rival radio hosts where Mic is a public radio host Prof. K is an underground pirate radio dj)

Killing Bites X BNHA no title yet: (TBH I have watched maybe 10min of Killing Bites and that is it. I really like the look of the characters in the show.) Fem!Izuku is has the same power as the honey bager character from KB. She along with countless other quirkless where kidnapped and tested on. Now free Fem!Izuku isn’t quite human after all the DNA experimentations she has been put through. She along with the other test subjects are part animal and have an instinctive drive to fight. 

Persona x BNHA no title yet: Another fic where I have Izuku taking Bakugou’s advice but gaining a quirk instead of dying. Basically I give Izuku personas to summon because I liked how P3 showed the summons. I also have him move schools to Shiketsu, after winning the Sports Festival, and with his move takes UA’s place as #1 hero school with him to Shiketsu. (not gonna lie this one is a bit crazy)

Sharpening my teeth on the rays of the sun: Izuku has an OP quirk based on his parents. He can pull in and eat fire/energy. He finds inspiration from old Norse mythology as a kid and takes on the mantle of “Skoll the devourer of the sun.” He is going to befriend Tokoyami so hard.

Sheep’s Wool hiding Wolves Teeth: Izuku is smart, too smart. he uses the system to his advantage. Most people think Izuku is an angel but people like Bakugou know the truth. They see Izuku pretending and fooling everyone and see him for the manipulative demon pretending to be human he is. (Izuku lacks empathy/morality, and sees play things where humans should be. He will manipulate everyone he can just for his own amusement) (Free to Use)

Spirit Chaser: The world of heroes and spirits collide with Izuku at the epicenter. Izuku is a shrine priest or priestess if you want to do Fem!Izuku. Quirks mean little when ones faith and mantras are just as amazing. (me using all the priest/priestess powers from other anime/manga to come up with his powers and made a pretty OP quirkless teen who can seal spirits, cure villains of hatred, and fight along side the best heroes with nothing more than his families traditions) (willing to share, free to use)

Soul Resonance: A Soul Eater x BNHA fic. Inspired by Ravenclawoutcast13 fic on Ao3. Izuku is a miester and after moving to Nevada at an early age the the DWMA comes back to UA when it is time to be a hero.

Task Force: Izuku is part of a not so secret task force that deals with villains, criminals, and aggressive heroes. Most members of the task force are quirkless and are like Japan’s SWAT. The Task Force is also an internal affairs for the hero system. Because of their no nonsense way they operate most people fear the Task Force and any person reveled to be apart of it. (Willing to Share)

Web Weaver’s Betrothed: An idea came about from two writing prompts; 1. “What is so dangerous about the forest” and 2. My answer to all the Spiderman crossover fics. This fic is ambitious as it combines BNHA, Spiderman, and Yokai together. (Izuku is spiderman, but his own spiderman. and I add forest spirits in for fun)

What is in a name: My very first BNHA fic idea!! I turn the ‘BNHA name explaining someone’s powers’ up to 11 and give Izuku the power of the forest and fay like creatures. Izuku is the fairy king basically.

Paragon... (no name yet) Izuku is a kid with a powerful quirk that transcends all previous quirk types. Watch this little hero work his hardest to get the title he has longed for. (a nice fic, with Izuku/Bakugou friendship)

Renegade... (no name yet) Only a few know Izuku. No one would guess that he is the ‘Fairy King’ that has saved countless kids from harm these last ten years. (an accident puts Izuku into a coma. that won’t stop his heroic spirit from doing what he was born to do. Toga gets to go to UA, Shoto gets to be a normal kid, and Bakugou might get his butt kicked by the army of people that Izuku has helped)

Yakuza!Izuku: Izuku's dad was a big time Yakuza boss in the past. Izuku has been the head of his family for over five years controlling the underground. Which would be good for the underground world if it was what he wanted. And after a fated conversion gets him thinking more about his place in the world Izuku decides to clean house and become a force for good.

Dishonored:

The Royal Consort Series: A three part series where Jessamine lives but Emily goes missing. Emily isn’t truly missing she grows up in the Golden Cat because she was never found and eventually becomes its owner. She and the girls of the Golden Cat replace Daud and the whalers. She is has the mark of the outsider, a kill count and maybe some resentment at what happened all those years ago.

Miraculous Ladybug: 

There is quite a bit of Maribat just fyi

Bio!Family ideas: (Most of these are one-offs and once their stories are posted, will become free to use)

Bio!Dad Obadiah Stane 

Bio!Dad Zod

Bio!Mom Poison Ivy 

Bio!Sister Ace (from the wild flush gang)

Blood Orchid: Marinette’s family is very powerful on her mother’s side and when the Akumas get too powerful in her parents opinion, she is told she will be moving to China. The stress of not being able to decide thing in her own life gets to Marinette and she is akumatized. (Free to Use)

Bounts of Paris: Bleach x MLB. Truth be told I liked Bleach and even liked the filler Bount arc. This AU would be where Master Fu fled Asia after the Soul Reapers Massacred the most of the Bounts. The Kwami are the ‘half-Bounts’ with special powers. They can live on after the human they are connected to die. and can forge new connections with with new humans creating new ‘true-Bounts.’

Casse-Cou: DareDevil x MLB (the idea is a Gift for miraculous786). This is an AU where Marinette is not a seamstress. Instead she is an aspiring lawyer. This does feature a Blind!Marinette but she is makes do in her own way. With a different destiny before her Marinette gets paired with Plagg and becomes The Cat of the Devil, the DareDevil Casse-Cou 

Death of Gods and Men: WitchBlade x MLB. I stumbled across witchblade’s anime and the crossover sounded like a great idea. I mean listen to the WB intro:::  Sought by the greed of men since the dawn of human kind, but only bestowed upon the women whose fate it forever scars...the Witchblade. Is it the righteous sword of God? Or hand of the Devil himself? Now a new bearer has been chosen. And she must discover the answers for herself. As she stands on the brink of destiny, she is forced to seek the balance between ecstasy and ruin. (How could I not!?! I just need to tone down the fan service because WB is thirsty AF)

Demon Princess In Paris: Inuyasha&Yashahime x MLB. Another Fic where Marinette’s family on her mother’s side is very powerful back in China (and Asia as a whole). Lila planned to ruin Marinette when she came back to school after being gone for a week. Only to find Marinette has connections to a very powerful family in Asia. Stranger still Marinette looks nothing like what she did when she left. Little does Lila, or anyone in Paris, know that Marinette is a half-demon of her demon mother Sabine and her human father Tom, and not to forget she is granddaughter to the great Demon Lord Sesshōmaru

Flower Pot: MariBat. The Justice League have to rush to Paris because some new villain is opening time portals. When they get there the villain is already defeated by teenagers. Stranger still once they get close enough Wonder Woman rushes one of them in a hug with a shout of “Ladybug.” After a moment ‘Ladybug’ asks “Flower Pot, is that you!?!” This AU sends Marinette back in time and to the land of Themiscyra when Diana was a little girl. Chaos ensues both in the present and in the past.

Lantern’s Light: Green Lantern x MLB. Different Maribat AUs where I give Marinette a Power ring.

Star!mari: Marinette gets a ring of the Star Sapphires

Merci!mari: Marinette gets a ring of the Red Lanterns

Duty!mari: Marinette gets a ring of the Green Lanterns

Hope!mari: Marinette gets a ring of the Blue Lanterns

Let’s have fun with Miraculous: all of these are just silly ideas that I thought of late at night or early in the morning and wanted to share. All of them are Free to Use)

idea one is just a silly thing trying to figure out what Marinette might call herself after moving to Gotham as the Guardian of the Miraculous.

idea two is a Timinette ship that has Marinette using the Miraculous to heal Gotham. But because Batman is a control freak, she hides her healing as a three ring circus. (made possible by using the mouse miraculous to the max) Tim becomes smitten with the acrobatic performance.

idea three is just a random MLB idea. An entity convinces Fate to let them mess with destiny. that entity whether it is  Spirit, Demon, Devil, or God is Marinette’s new partner. And while the craziness of the Miraculous Ladybug canon is going on with a different ladybug. Marinette is having her own adventures. She is still undecided if this is a better fate than dealing with all the Miraculous stuff like she was suppose to.

Lost Valkyrie: Thor x MLB. A series covering both Miraculous Ladybug and the entire Thor movies (because my brain hats me). Marinette is a Valkyrie that through wormhole nonsense lands in Paris after their defeat by Hela. Marinette is adopted by Tom and Sabine as their daughter. Marinette has amnesia of her time as a Valkyrie. (This one is crazy too and once I get the idea fully written down I will be glad to give it to someone. Free to use- when it is done)

Miraculous Stitching:  Marinette has been getting some magic power from the natural magic radiating off of Tikki. Mari can imbue things with magic into things through her stitch work. (this one is might not be for the squimish, some body horror)

Price of Life- Purest Wish: (inspired by BAllpointbasic “The Price of Life”) A villain worse than Hawkmoth shows up and decimates Paris. Marinette uses the Miraculous wish and offers her life as payment. She is happy being able to save everyone and not cursing anyone else with the pain of losing someone they care about. With the selfish wish she gets reborn as a Kwami. 

Rise of Arachnid: After getting blinded and unable to be healed during an Akuma fight Marinette has to give up being Ladybug. Marinette ends up talk to Hawkmoth and because of her bleeding heart she offers her help after hearing his story. She becomes a very powerful recurring villain that the new Miraculous team have to deal with on top of the normal Akuma. She has the powers of Spiderman and DareDevil. (another Blind!Marinette)

The Forgetten City- Early Renaissance: (Inspired by multifandomscribette “The Forgotten City” series. It is a Young Justice x MLB crossover) The Team go to Paris following The Riddler’s spree of crime. They are helped by local heroes none of them have heard or met before. Once the villain is dealt with the team and is asked, not to kindly, to leave Paris and never come back. 

Pokémon: 

G1RBY: A silly Picachu DJ story I had. She is a talking Pokémon that I drew once and wanted to make into an ask blog. But the VA I had didn’t feel conformable with the idea of having people hear her voice so it is seelved. (Willing to Share)

Shinny Cubone: Proof that I have always had an angsty edge. This is a story of a Cubone dealing with life after their mother dies. But it is okay as their mother’s old teammates are there to help. A Gastly offering help as well. But is everything as it seems? (this was going to be a art blog. but I got lazy and did not want to redraw all my stuff from paper to comp)

RWBY: 

Grimm Masks: Bleach x RWBY... Kinda. A fic where Ruby presumably dies during a mission. She is later found wearing a grimm mask in the same forest she was killed in and seems to be able to control the grimm that share the same mask as her. (Basically got inspired by Ichigo’s hollow mask and thought to give it to Ruby. then as the story demanded it give a mask to the other girls of team RWBY. This was before the whole maiden thing was cannon)

She-Ra (netflix version)

Innocence of an Enemy Soldier: Magicatra Au idea. Catra is She-Ra and Adora is a Horde Soldier. After all the fighting is done and the Princesses have won. To bad things can’t end happily for Catra. Adora finally learns the truth about the horde being the bad guys after she is captured. With that knowledge she asks to be tried for her crimes. Catra needs to work hard to prove her once friend’s innocence otherwise Adora will be executed.

Dissonant Whispers: Catra meets Corrupted She-Ra and wants to scream to bad Corrupted Adora/She-Ra shushes her with a finger to the lips. (I just want to see Catra being small scared cat with pin-prick pupils seeing a slightly blood splattered She-Ra while being being cornered and her voice failing her when She-Ra puts a finger to her lips just as she was about to scream.)

Shadows make and Shadows break: another Magicatra au. alt title (Shadows make and Light breaks). this idea came about because I rewatched the part of She-Ra when Shadow Weaver adopts Adora. The whole “This one is different. Can’t you feel it? She has power...” “Don’t worry little one, we are going to do great things together.” thing. (I want a magic user Adora, and I only have the looses ideas of what I will do with it so far.) Why isn’t there more magic!adora AUs!?!

Original Ideas: 

/The Squad/: (A colab furry Comic/Radio drama I had planned to do with VAs and everything. Had the pilot printed out and everything. Just didn’t get enough VAs.) Crime has become a spectator sport of cops and robbers. Criminals no longer snatch purses or kill people, instead they are closer to performers robbing banks, stealing from museums, street racing and the like. Criminal and Police Officer alike vie for attention of the crowds and the attention of viewers at home. (willing to share)

Dark Skies: A small story based off a photo a friend of mine took. It won me a short story award way back when. I willing share it with artists to so how they want to draw the scene. (willing to share, if you got the willingness to draw. lol)

Competent Folder: Stories I think are good just haven’t done anything with them yet.

Olympian Noire: a 50s Noire story with Olympian characters and references. (needs some grammar edits and a good reread before it is posted again) (Willing to Share after I rework it a little)

Misgivings about Airships: A start of an actual story I was writing but lost most of the progress I made except the first page I had. (a reminder to save often. will come back to it if I ever get over how much I lost of it)

Marked and Scarred: This is my bread and butter. A short hook for a story. Tells you just enough about the characters and world to grab your attention but leaves enough for you to also add details to it if you want. (willing to share/ free to use)

Gremlins: A dream I written down once about ‘Fairy Folk’ and how much they don’t like someone like me. Probably wont ever be finished because I woke up before the dream ended and most people wont find it as unsettling as I did. 

Dragons: Short story. A warning a dragon gave to a ship and its crew about a dangerous storm, unlike any other, that would devastate their homes if they didn’t prepare for it. The dragon later became a symbol for the port town.

Danger Days: Not so much a story and more of a parody of the My Chemical Romance song “Look alive/ Sunshine” as my own type of intro of sorts. 

Badge of Babylon: A fun Colab I did with other people on Facebook a few years back. A changing POV fic involving an Older Thief, a young Page, and Sylph (fairy). The group fell apart sadly. But I saved our saved notes and could still make a decent story out of it. 

All from a Ring: An entire scene that came to mind from a ring holding a broken gem a friend of mine had. And I am pretty proud of it. (needs a little touch ups but it is complete)

Eh Folder: Stories that aren’t bad but don’t inspire anything in me anymore. They range from bland to me needing to be in a certain mindset to be able to add to them. (all of these are Free to use) 

Caterpillar: a story that takes place in older alt timeline where strange creatures exist and follows the diary/journal entries of a man trying to find one of those creatures. At first he thinks it is a dragon, but eventually finds out that it is a kaiju sized caterpillar that has terrifying Lovecraft elements added to it. 

Spider Junk: Was concocted by me after being sick, sleep deprived, or plain crazy while I wrote down this short story. I have no memory writing this but it is in my own hand writing so... It is a story about how your mind can play tricks on you if your mind is not operating properly. 

Psych session: It is a story about a character talking to his psych doctor about a dream/haunting he had about his dead sister. It is a good idea but I really don’t have any drive to continue it. (I am sure someone else could make something out of it)

Da Faq Folder: a series of stories/ideas that are not worth the light of day or the energy it would take to store in your brain. Worse than needing to be deleted. they serve as a reminder to me that not all ideas are worth it. Sometimes we just need to write them down to get over them, drop them completely, or to get out that little bit of nasty we have that needs to get out in a healthy way. 

Holy f^ck that is 65 different stories! This was a bad idea. Seeing them all listed like this is weird. Normally I have them on Microsoft word, Google Docs, or saved on my Tumblr Drafts.

[murfeelee]

My Top 10 Games of All Time

I saw this games list on my dash, but I felt it was dated, so here we are:

10. Tetris

I don’t like puzzle games and platform games and stuff. But Tetris might be one of the very first games I ever played, and to this day it’s just a ton of fun. Very nostalgic.

9. Castlevania

Vampires, medieval, bishounen, great story? Sign me up! I got into Castlevania while I was neck-deep in all things gothic and dark and creepy. It’s such a fun game! The Prince of Persia-esque mechanics with swinging from the whips and chains were freaking hard, and the dungeons were cool, and I love the out-of-place cartoony summons, that dial back the creep factor just a smidge so I don’t feel I’m trapped in Dark Souls where everything’s tryna give me a frikkin heart attack. I wanted so many more Castlevania games. But nooooo~! It’s all about effing pachinko machines now! Jim Sterling said it best: F*k Konami. >_<

8. Warriors Series

The ham and cheese of it all in this delicious sandwich of a Chinese, Japanese, and Asian mythology hack and slash series. Delicious. Tedious and predictable AF. But still delicious. Unfortunately, Koei just about tanked Dynasty Warriors with the more recent installments. U_U And it’s so hard to play the Samurai Warriors games since they bailed out on effing localizations, like thanks, that’s rude.  >_>

7. Shin Megami Tensei/Persona

I freaking luuurve how effed up and zany and twisted this dystopic cyber-ish world is. SMT and Final Fantasy have hands down the best summoning systems in games (Pokemon does NOT count), with an entire array of multicultural pantheons incorporated into the in-game universes. I swear, just researching the references they use is half the fun for me, cuz I’m that kind of nerd; sue me. :P

6. Legend of Dragoon

I never got into Final Fantasy 7 the way other folks did, cuz I was busy playing Legend of Dragoon, baby~! ^0^ The FF7 train whizzed on past me, but that was fine. I was happy right where I was. LoD’s battle mechanics were HARD, but SO good to master. I was always excited to keep progressing; the story’s one of the best I’ve EVER played (ROSE! My bish!); and the worlds and cutscenes and music were BEAUTIFUL. When TF is Legend of Dragoon getting it’s next-gen remaster with Cody Christian voice-acting Dart, Sony, huh, HUH. HUH!? >_<

5. Tomb Raider

My girl! ^0^ YES, I’m the RL archaeologist who’s never seen a single Indiana Jones movie (cuz eff ALL that racism), but you best believe I saw both the Tomb Raider movies, and played a crapton of the games! XD Gravity deaths, T-rexes, zombie samurai and all. Werk it, queen. With your double pistols. And Double-D cups.

4. Skyrim

I hate 1st-person perspective in games, in literature, everything. If they hadn’t added a 3rd person I’d’ve been like nope. But yeah, Skyrim’s freaking epic. It’s got DRAGONS, for starters, and sith lord lightning spells, and giant open worlds to explore, full of lore and magic, and one of the most amazing soundtracks of all time, and did I mention the dragons? I was so hyped for Elder Scrolls 6, but with Bethesda being frikkin INCOMPETENT lately *(*cough* Fallout 76 *cough*) I dunno about ES6 now. :\ If it stinks, I won’t be surprised. But Todd Howard KNOWS the entire community will FUS RO DAH his arse if it bombs! >_<

3. The Sims

Skyrim’s Hearthfire EP tried it, but NOTHING compares to The Sims franchise, allowing us to create our characters’ entire lives in a game. From birth, to childhood, adulthood, the elder years, death, and even afterlife, in The Sims we can control and customize every aspect of the characters’ story, to fit our own unique tastes and style. And that’s why I love TS3 the most out of the bunch, with it’s in-game Create-A-Style, open world with CAW and Edit Mode, and so much more. I wish all games had non-linear customizeable aspects where you can just sit back from the main story and quests; take a gander at your surroundings, build a house, marry that cute NPC you bumped into in the marketplace, have some babies, and let Alduin just do his thing till the next Dragonborn comes along; cuz I’m retired and living my best life in this here village; bye Felicia. 8)

2. Final Fantasy

No game franchise has ever made me cry as much and as hard as I did than while playing Final Fantasy. Holy. Crap. Their stories? THE BEST. EVER. You get seriously ATTACHED to these characters! Aerith, Angelo, Vivi, Sir Auron, Fran, Fang, the Regalia...they’re FAMILY! XD And the villains? ICONIC. Simply iconic. Eff Dark Souls; the side-bosses in FF are frikkin IMPOSSIBLE. SO dang good! And I love the touches of in-universe continuity, with Phoenix Downs, chocobos, cactuars, tonberries, airships, and the strangest fashion choices I’ve ever seen. Say what you will -- what I HAVE -- about certain polarizing entries in the series, but that’s just because we KNOW there’s a certain standard FF has, and a bar it’s classic titles have set, that you just don’t sneeze at. You just DON’T. (But FF15 was a piece of shhiiii~!)

1. THE WITCHER 3

If y’all can’t tell, I LOVE me some RPGs. Give me a set of beautiful ancient/medieval worlds to explore, full of elves and dwarves and of course MONSTERS; and protagonists with magical powers and big freaking swords, and I’m in it to win it, baby. Suffice to say: I WAS NOT READY for TW3. I STILL haven’t recovered from how good that game was! Even the MINIGAME within the actual game was legendary (Gwent had me BROKE, lemme tell you). And the Blood and Wine DLC was...like....something else; bumped it from a 10/10 to a 15/10, easy. The combat, the world building, the characters, the dialogue, the sidequests, the main plot, the MUSIC, UGH. If Netflix effs up The Witcher tv series Imma be MAAAAD.