#my discord was talking about Between the Lions

[gritpyre]

WHO IS THE BIG BLOND WHUMPEE SHAPED FIRE EMBLEM GUY??? tell me more about him!! my sign to play fire emblem just for him???

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA SO his name is dimitri alexandre blaiddyd and he's from the game fire emblem three houses and its spin off three hopes

you should totally play it in fact i had just made an elevator pitch to a friend over on discord as to why it's a hella good game i shall share it with you as well:

well i think for starters i HAVE to praise the voice acting and dialogue writing in the game, it starts solid and stays like that for the entire run you go for, it's really inspiring in that way for me particularly, but also the lessons from it are quite precious and i think ring true to many irl topics such as dealing with grief, loss, isolation and a turbulent, often hopeless environment fair thing i gotta say is fire emblem three houses was the first from the franchise i ever played and i don't know much of anything about the other games, my brother in law called the combat a mix of chess and pokemon which is hilarious but true, i felt intimidated at first because i suck at strategy games and it took a while for all the combat mechanics to sink in for me but once i got a grasp it was pretty entertaining! three houses in particular you can choose one from three routes, so far i've only played the blue lions one but i've heard marvelous things about golden deer and black eagles routes, in general they all deal with medieval time systems and they talk a lot about the oppression they perpetuate and how the church causes tension between people but it's also a support system for others, and each route has the leader want to try and reform the land in their own way

AND to add a cherry on top i think dimitri from the blue lions is up your alley as well, he gets plenty whumped and has a metric ton of angst to deal with throughout the game

also you player character acts as their teacher and it's just augh so sweet to see them as your students grow and become stronger and thank you for it

---

anyway it's got the roy 100% seal of approval and if dimitri looks whumpee shaped it's because he ABSOLUTELY is one

in my rant above i mostly talk about the game in general as i don't know how you feel about spoilers and i really can't rave about him without revealing some i fear :'x but if you want my all spoilers inclusive essay on dimitri i've also got it locked and loaded 🤘

BUT to entice you further, i shall share some screenshots i took of my run under the read more {: !

[ryin-silverfish]

JTTW Discord Summer Contest Entry: South Seas Sojourn

AO3 Mirror

-In collaboration with the amazing @ejaysstuff, who did the art!

-I'd say "This is mostly me nerding out about folklore", except that sums up all my recent one-shots.

-An LMK fanfic about Wukong going on a vacation, set between S3 and S4. 

---

"I'm going on a vacation!"

Before anyone in the noodle shop could let out a groan or a cry of "Again?!", Sun Wukong immediately added, "And you are coming too, MK. I ain't leaving my disciple out of the fun, not after, well, everything."

"But it's okay to leave me out of the fun?" Mei sulked, as she tried to make the tea inside her cup rise up, yet only created a little ripple. 

"Hey, I'm not the one who signed you up for that internship at your uncle's place." Sun Wukong said. "But maybe we can drop by once we are done! Take a break from the heat in the cool air of the North Sea."

"Yeah, the nice, cool, sub-zero-degree air of the arctic zone..." Mei sighed. "Don't wanna beat on that dead horse, but I'm so, so sick of icy stuff."

"Aw, bummers. Guess you won't be a fan of my new tea recipe, then." Sandy poked his head out from inside the kitchen. MK could hear ice cubes clinking inside a glass, and so did Mei, since she perked up within seconds and looked like she was on the verge of backflipping over the counter.

"Sandy, Sandy my man, I'll never not be a fan of your tea recipe!" 

"Uh, where are we even going?" MK asked, in between the sound of icy lemon tea being slurped through a twisty straw. "Don't get me wrong, I'm super duper up to it! But Mr. Tang had been complaining non-stop on MeChat about Pigsy's decision to drag him to Chang'e's virtual concert during summer break, where every major tourist spot is packed with kids. I hope we are going somewhere...quieter, that's all."

"Oh, no worries. It won't be deserted, but it ain't gonna be nearly as crowded." Sun Wukong paused, striking a pose. "We are going to the South Seas, bud!"

"...Where?" MK and Mei asked in unison, drowning out Sandy's faint "Wait, like, Guanyin's place?".

"Out south. In the oceans. Duh." 

"That explains nothi——"

"And no, my big blue friend, I won't be knocking on her doors at Potaloka unless someone needs saving! She's gonna be real busy in the next few weeks anyways." Sun Wukong continued. "For you less geographically gifted kids: it's where Lion City and Betel City are. Ring any bells?"

Mei made an "Oooo" noise. "You mean the place with the mermaid lion? Man, I was so disappointed when I found out it wasn't a real critter working for the South Sea Dragons." 

"I still have no idea what you are talking about!" 

"Ah well, MK, you'll be finding out soon enough." Sun Wukong said. "So go give your Dadsy a holler, and start packing up! We'll be leaving next week or the week after that, depending on when Nezha gets off work." A pause. "Yeah, he's coming too."

...

"We aren't really going on a vacation, are we?" MK asked, as he dragged his luggage up the creaky wooden walkway near the Megapolis harbor beach. 

Dangit, who knew that mosquito repellent and sunscreen could weigh so much? (Tang and Pigsy were very adamant about the importance of taking enough of these, once they heard the news over MeChat.)

"What makes you think that?" Sun Wukong replied, swishing his tail at the daring seagulls who kept trying to peck it. 

"Well, last time you said you were going on a vacation, you weren't really telling the truth." MK let out a nervous chuckle. "And Nezha's coming too. I don't know him all that well, but he doesn't sound like the kind of guy who'll, uh, join in on the fun just because?"

"Yeah. Sorry again, MK," he sighed. "But you are half-right. It's not a complete vacation, and more of a vacation-slash-summer school, slash-free exposure therapy..."

"What was that last part?"

"Nothing!" Sun Wukong exclaimed cheerfully. "Basically, you are gonna learn how to be a god, MK."

"I——WHAT?!"

"Relax, bud! It's not as serious as you think." A pause. "How do I put it...hmm, it's like being a hero, but more down-to-earth. Where, instead of people asking you to save them from big bad demons, they are asking you to solve their personal problems."

"Like?"

"Win lottery tickets. And discipline their kids for them."

"Speak for yourself."  

A familiar voice echoed through the evening air. The next second, in a blaze of pink fire, the Third Lotus Prince was standing tall on his wheels, his sash flowing in the wind. 

"Oooh, what did I just hear? Good ol' Brother Nezha, Electro-Techno Third Prince, The Other God You Go To For Lottery Tickets, acting all uppity and serious!" Sun Wukong stuck his tongue out at the new arrival. "Nice entrance, by the way. Very flashy." 

"You know very well I don't answer every desperate addict who doesn't know when to quit, nor do I play games of chance for fun! I play them to win!" Nezha retorted. "Also, thanks for the compliment, Great Sage."

"You are welcome, Laodi."

"Are we really going on a vacation to...help people gamble?" MK nervously raised a hand. "Isn't that, like, against the law?"

"Goodness, what have you been telling your disciple before my arrival? No, what have you left out?" Nezha groaned. "Well, since your mentor clearly hasn't explained our goals properly, I suppose I'll have to substitute for him. Again."

"Hey! Professor Sun is getting to it, Teaching Assistant Nezha——"

"In the next week, we shall be visiting and staying in multiple cities of the South Seas. Now that my true body isn't guarding the Samadhi Fire, I can finally start answering the more tricky prayers," Nezha sighed, "Which will only continue to pile up, since the Seventh Month is imminent."

"Seventh Month?" MK asked, reaching into his pocket with one hand. "But it's August the third already! Lemme check the calendar again..."

"Lunar Seventh Month. Also known as the Ghost Month." Nezha shot a look at Sun Wukong, his expression a mix between annoyance and slight concern. "Someone has picked a great time and place to take his student on a trip."

"What could I say? It sure is less depressing than Qingming nowadays. And they won't fine you for burning paper effigies in the South Seas, or so I've heard!"

"I…no matter." Nezha's look softened a bit, but not by much. "Back to what I was saying. Once the gates of the Underworld open, all the spirits will come out, go visit their families, enjoy the offerings as much as they can under the watch of Dashi Ye, Lady Guanyin's ghostly manifestation."

"We'll be assisting him, much like my brother and all the local gods. Keeping order, giving directions, and all that. In between these shifts, I’ll finally get to perform my duties in my actual physical body instead of the youthful manifestations mortals expect to see, and your mentor is free to monkey around with you and his worshippers at his own temples. All clear?"

"So we are gonna be, like, tour guides and security, but for dead people?" MK asked. "That doesn't…sound too bad, actually! Also, you have a brother, Nezha?"

"No, I pop out of a rock, just like your master." Nezha said flatly, then added, "Goodness, I wish. Muzha can be a bit much, but he's a lot more bearable while on the job, so no worries."

"Someone's getting jealous again, I see," Sun Wukong reached over to pat him on the head, and received an annoyed glare. "Oh, and don't let Nezha's sour attitude fool you, MK. We are still on a vacation, it ain't gonna be all work and no play! And the work won't start until several days later, so we'll have plenty of time."

…

This didn't seem like a great start for our vacation, MK thought. 

Okay, it did, for about three minutes, after they got off the somersault cloud. 

The palm trees were swaying in the wind, the two-story buildings with red-tiled roofs were glowing under the tropical sun, and Nezha reluctantly glamoured a lotus-patterned T-shirt and some baggy pants over his armor after rejecting Sun Wukong's more outlandish suggestions ("You should totally change your wheels into flaming flip-flops!"). Not a single dangerous, vacation-ruining, world-destroying threat in sight.

Then a giant rain cloud appeared out of nowhere, driving most of the crowd indoors and leaving the unfortunate ones seeking shelter under the nearest rooftops and bus stations. 

Not that it helped much——MK felt like he was standing behind the waterfall at Flower Fruit Mountain again, as raindrops slammed into the ground with a fury and created splashes of watery mists.

"Okay, Nezha, Did you anger the local dragons again?" Sun Wukong asked, holding the monkey-hair-turned-umbrella over MK's head.

"Nonsense! Not even the East Sea ones hold a grudge for this long, and I've never seen a South Sea dragon other than their king," Nezha said, then added, "and my brother's co-worker. Are you sure you have a temple nearby?"

"Eh, maybe. I saw a bunch of faith beacons up there, all clustered together." Sun Wukong shrugged. "Some of these have to be mine."

"Have to be yours? Oh, that's rich, coming from someone who hasn't visited the South Seas in person since the 19th century——"

"And they still love me, bud. Deal with it."

"Um, what's a faith beacon?" MK wiped the water droplets off his phone screen with one thumb, trying and failing to steer his luggage away from the puddles. "I'm not seeing any on CloudMap."

"Well, you won't, unless you are a patron god of IT workers or some other technology-related stuff!" Sun Wukong said. "How do I put it, hmmm…after people have prayed to you for a while, offered enough incense, you can just sense the places they are doing it at. Usually, it looks like a beam or a glowy aura, but some gods can smell or hear it too."

"Wow, that's so cool! It's like a mystical VR goggle. Is it something you can learn, though?"

"Look, I'm glad that you are doing your job as a mentor, but can we please get some actual directions?" Nezha sighed. "Temples here aren't always their own separate buildings. I've been summoned inside too many HDB flats to count, and you won't know that by looking at the beacons alone."

"We are heading in that direction right now. It'll get clearer once I get closer to the place. So be patient, will ya'?"

"Well, isn't that just the most reassuring answer I've ever heard. 'We'll get there when we get there'." Nezha muttered, as the group took a turn into a narrow side street, ducking below the swaying lanterns and multilingual shop signs. "Just so you know, if the rain doesn't stop and we don't get there in two hours, I'm dragging both of you onto a bus and to my temple instead."

"Why, you three sound like you are lost! Need a tour guide?"

Abruptly, a high-pitched, child-like voice resounded through the torrential rain, coming out of the alleyway to their left. MK turned to look at the speaker—

—and stared straight into the lifeless glowing eyes of a chalk-faced monstrosity, its red tongue hanging out of its mouth.

With a scream, his staff was out, and in a split second, connected with the thing's head and sent it flying into the nearest wall. It slid off the yellowed concrete, landed with a splash, then went completely still. 

A spiderweb crack was spreading across its porcelain mask——Oh goodness, it's a puppet, which was somehow even worse.

"Ah. The answer is 'No', it seems."

He nearly extended the staff and hit the puppet again when it spoke, had Sun Wukong not dashed forth and, in one swift motion, dragged a pale specter out of it by the robe collar.

"Glad to see you again, Xiao Xie!" He grinned in a rather dangerous way, like what Mr. Tang said non-intelligent monkeys really meant when they bore their teeth. "Is there any particular reason why you are jumpscaring my student in broad daylight, or do you just have nothing better to do?"

"Yes, because this one knows it will happen!" The specter, still in Sun Wukong's grip, said in a cheerfully oblivious voice. “The vision caught this one by surprise too. It's not every day that you see the Great Sage's golden staff approaching your face at lethal speed, especially when you have done nothing to offend him. Good thing this one did not come in his contractor's body!"

Behind them, Nezha let out a groan. "Oh joy, it's these two clowns again."

"W-W-What the heck just happened?! And what's THAT?" MK pointed at the specter. Outside of that creepy puppet, it just looked like a lanky, unnaturally pale youth in an oversized mandarin jacket and a tall hat.

Before Nezha could answer, another sullen voice cut him off.

"You knew you'd get smacked in the face if you came, so naturally, you possessed the creepiest vessel you could find and headed straight in this direction." The air suddenly got a lot colder. "I don't need precognition to know you deserve to be smacked at this point."

The water in a nearby puddle rippled. Okay, technically, it never stopped rippling because of the rain, but this one was a lot bigger, as if something was about to crawl out.

MK took a step back. Seconds later, the murky water turned inky black, rising up into the air and coalescing into the form of a short, stern-faced kid, wearing the same clothings as the pale specter, except they were all black-colored.

"Darn right, Lao—" Sun Wukong paused, as he turned and took a closer look at the newcomer. "Xiao Fan? Huh, didn't expect to see this you here. Not that I'm complaining."

"I'm absolutely complaining." The kid replied. "Our main souls have been attending one meeting after another at Fengdu since the Ivory Lady Incident, which is why I'm currently on," He shot a pointed look at his ghostly companion, "babysitting duty. You gonna smack him or not? Cause I won't mind if you do, Great Sage."

"Aww, really, Xiao Fan? You, of all people, should know that everything this one sees will happen, even if he doesn't know how or why. Since trying to avoid a future is the best way to unknowingly make it come true, this one can only try to soften the impacts and minimize the risks."

"By making sure you would, one-hundred-percent, get hit in the face by someone?" Fan snorted. "Way to go, brother."

"By making sure that staff wasn't slamming into this one's soul, or a flesh-and-blood vessel!" Xie replied. "And the mission is a success! Only a single puppet is harmed."

Nezha threw his hands up in the air. "How did you manage to be even more annoying and nonsensical than your main soul?"

"Welcome to my fucking un-life." Fan mumbled.

"Um, hello?" MK waved awkwardly. "Have you guys suddenly started speaking in some sort of secret code mid-conversation, cause I don't understand a single word you just said."

"Gosh! Sorry, bud," Sun Wukong finally let go of Xie's collars (now that MK thought about it, how did you even grab a ghost's collars? Mystic Monkey Magic at play again?) "Get a bit carried away there."

He pointed at the two specters. "Meet the Heibai Wuchang. The ghost cops, or rather, parts of them. Remember your hair clones? Xiao Xie and Xiao Fan here are kinda like that, but with their souls."

"T-The ghost cops?" MK squirmed. The downpour had become a light drizzle, but he still felt chilly, and it wasn't because his T-shirt sleeves and socks were now soaked. "Like…the ones you see when you are about to die?"

"Don't worry, bud! They aren't here to take any of us away. I think." Sun Wukong narrowed his eyes slightly, "and even if they were, I'd like to see them try."

"Nah. Not a chance. This one still values his un-life—"

"Yeah? Then apologizing to my student and stop wandering around in that thing will be a good start!"

"—so yes, he is very sorry for the distress he caused, young one. The 'wandering around in possessed objects' part, though, is perfectly legal, and this one still has to take the puppet back to his temple, so sorry, no can do."

"You have a temple now?" Sun Wukong let out a chuckle of disbelief. "You two?"

"You really haven't been around here in a while, have you, Great Sage?" Nezha said. "Yes, unfortunately. It's a new South Seas trend, and I hope it stays where it is."

"Our main altar here is still inside the City God's temple. But there are more temples dedicated to us alone, across the strait." Fan said. "And I'm obligated to inform you that all deities who visit the South Seas in their true bodies instead of using clones or astral projections must notify the local City God's temple beforehand, or submit the relevant paperwork immediately after arrival."

"Hmm, and if I don't?" Sun Wukong raised an eyebrow. "What are you gonna do?"

"Other than following you around and staring at you judgmentally? Nothing substantial." Fan said, before sighing deeply. "But if you can at least pretend to respect us and not treat Underworld officials like the complete pushovers we are, we'd really appreciate it."

Sun Wukong hollered at that. "Y'know what? I think I'll do just that, since this you are a lot cuter and not a raging jerk!"

"You know my main soul can hear you, right?"

"Exactly." Sun Wukong grinned. Unlike a few minutes ago, it was a lot less tense. "So lead the way, Xiao Fan!"

…

When MK heard the whole…ghost temple thing, he was expecting skeletons, eerie lighting, spooky stuff.

Okay, some of the statues and puppets were still creepy. Same for the possessions. 

Sure, the ghost cops had explained that they had human "contractors" who'd let them possess their bodies willingly, after signing a lengthy form where all the risks and duties are spelled out clearly.

But when he thought of possessions, the only images that came to mind was LBD's host, shaking like she was in the middle of winter again despite sitting inside the safe, cozy confines of Pigsy's Noodles. And Sun Wukong's golden eyes glowing frost blue, devoid of all warmth and emotions.

Well, better get used to it now. Gonna see a lot more ghosts once the…summer school part of the vacation-slash-summer school starts.

MK took a deep breath and began to make his way back through the corridors, a small incense burner in hand. The exterior of the temple was dated and slightly out of place, sitting beneath towering skyscrapers and surrounded by neatly trimmed park lawn.

Past the main hall and the altar room behind it, however, the place could be mistaken for any modern office building. Or the background of a Monkey Cop episode, except the cops were all ghosts and the monkey was filling in the divine equivalent of a customs form.

"There, done." Sun Wukong said, putting the pen down, "Right in the nick of time! For real, though, couldn't you ghosts just burn the paperwork together with the rest of the effigies?"

"And get them stuck beneath a mountain of sports cars, or whatever insane vehicles people decide to send to their ancestors nowadays? No thanks." 

As he handed the incense burner over to Sun Wukong, who crumpled the form into a ball and tossed it inside, MK caught a glimpse of a dark blue aura, enveloping the handle of the back door before it opened on its own. Two more uniformed ghosts hovered in, telekinetically carrying multiple pitched paper objects.

"Speak of the devil…" Fan turned towards his partner, who was leaning leisurely against a wall. "This year's bunch are already coming in, and if you bothered working with a contractor today, you better put that physical body to good use and start helping!"

"Alright, alright, This one hears you." Xie yawned, then walked over and grabbed the floating effigies. "Hmmm, no helicopters or private jets this year? That's a bit disappointing."

"Well, Mr. Chow sent a pretty big table, boss. We don't think it's gonna fit through the backdoor, so we left it in the park pavilion."

"Excuse me?" MK perked up. At last, a chance to do something instead of just standing there and watching awkwardly. "Do you need something resized? Cause I have just the power for that!"

…

"Y'know, I was wondering what's so special about a table," Sun Wukong poked his head out from behind the door frame, trying very hard to suppress the giggles, "or why they'd make a live-sized one in the first place. Now I get it." 

"Kudos for dedication, I guess?" MK shrugged. "I'm sure their loved ones would, uh, appreciate the gift down there."

With a snap of his fingers, the paper Mahjong table returned to its original size, drastically reducing the remaining space inside the storage room. 

Yeah, the "craft" part of "Arts & Crafts" wasn't really his strong suit, but a piece this detailed and lovingly crafted? It probably took weeks to make. And cost more than an actual Mahjong table.

"Are you two done admiring the beauty of that absurd object? Can we please leave and go somewhere else now?" Nezha's muffled complaint came from the corridors. “It's raining outside again, and if we don't hurry——"

"Even if you do hurry, this one doubts you will be able to get any further than the bus stop, in the two minutes it shall take for the drizzle to become a downpour once more." Xie said, then tossed the last stack of golden joss paper into the storage room.

"Great! Wonderful! Yeah, I'm just looking forward to spending more time with you and your clowns-in-training." Nezha snarked. "How will we ever get anywhere in life without your nifty short-term prophecies?"

"Hey hey, Nezha, chill out. A dash of salt is good n' all, but you are getting spicy over there." Sun Wukong said. "But, speaking of ways to pass the time during a rainy day…"

There was a mischievous glint in his eyes, as he turned to look at Xie. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Judging by what this one just saw? Yes."

"Great! Come here, bud, I have something that will make our stay a lot less boring."

Sun Wukong beckoned MK over, back into the big guest room, then pulled out a tuft of hair. Seconds later, an actual Mahjong table landed squarely on the floor with a thud, complete with chairs and Mahjong sets, followed by an "Ohoho, lovely!" and two simultaneous shouts.

"Seriously? Don't set a bad example for your student!"

"Don't you dare corrupt our guests, Xiao Xie!"

"Please, this one is just joining in on the fun. Our guests have no problem 'corrupting' themselves, so to speak!"

"Oh, c'mon, it's not gambling if you aren't betting actual money!” Sun Wukong exclaimed. "It's like poker, but…for old people. Right, MK?"

"Um, one problem: I don't know how to play Mahjong! Or poker!" MK said, scratching his head. "The only card game I know is Uno."

"Great! You can just learn it on the fly, then, under the watchful eyes of Professor Sun and Teaching Assistant Nezha!"

"No way, Great Sage. I'm not helping you lure your student astray into a potential lifetime of wasted hours and petty vices."

"Really?" Sun Wukong flashed a taunting smile. "I bet you only said that 'cause you don't wanna lose too badly to me. Again."

"Oh, you take that back right now, monkey!" Nezha jabbed a finger at him. "If we were back in the old days and in a gambling house, you'd be going home in nothing but your undershirt and breeches by the end of the day!"

MK did not miss the implication that, at some point in the past, these two had indeed been to an actual gambling house.

"A bold challenge if I've ever heard one!" Sun Wukong's grin widened. "Or is your bark worse than your bite? Brag all you like, but the only way to prove it is to get on the table yourself."

"I——Screw this, I'm in," Nezha took a deep breath, “But only because it will be quite satisfying, kicking the collective behinds of the two most annoying gods I've ever met." A glare at Sun Wukong, then, at Xie. "So. Get. Ready."

"That's the Third Prince I know!" Sun Wukong gave him a thumbs-up. "Bring it on, lad!"

MK gulped. "Yeah, sorry, I think I'm just gonna watch you guys play first. Get a feel of the game before jumping in. Is that alright?"

"No prob. Though this did put us in the most classic bind in the entire history of Mahjong…" Sun Wukong paused dramatically. "The 'Short of a Fourth' problem."

"That won't be me." Fan immediately said, before walking through the nearest wall. "Still have a job to do." He turned, poking his head out of the wall once more. "But by all means, teach Xiao Xie a lesson for me."

"Ah well." Sun Wukong shrugged, reaching towards his head. "Guess this calls for my clone——"

"No!" Nezha smacked his hand away. "That's just blatant cheating!"

"But literal future vision isn't?"

"Hey, it's not like this one can turn it off." Xie protested. He looked like he wanted to say something else, before Sun Wukong stood up, dashing out of the door and towards the altar room. 

"Guys! We are one person short of a Mahjong game here!" A pause. "Niang Niang? Ah Pek? Datuk? Hello? Anyone up to it?"

"...What's he doing?"

"The divine equivalent of spamming telephone calls." Nezha rolled his eyes. "Yelling into the ears of every deity's idol he can find, and hoping for a response."

"For your knowledge, we have a three-people variant of the game here," Xie added, unhelpfully.

…

Way after Sun Wukong had returned, sulking a little but soon jumped right into arguing with Nezha, MK heard a chime. 

Like someone had just dropped a bunch of coins onto a marble floor, but…louder. Okay, he wasn't too sure about that last part, because if the others heard it too, they did not react to the noise at all.

"It's still not gambling! Just a way to keep the score, yanno?" Sun Wukong continued, tossing a tangerine back and forth between his hands——one he probably pinched from a random altar table on his way back. "Also, the game will be pretty boring if you aren't winning something."

"That's the very definition of gambling." Nezha said, with a deadpan expression. "Wagering money or other stakes in a game of chance."

"It's only a stake if it's something of value, and outside of sentimental ones, these offerings have none." Sun Wukong turned to Xie. "Otherwise you won't give them away to folks for free before they spoil, right?"

"Indeed, for we've already eaten them." 

MK squinted at the fruit; not a single bite mark or patch of peeled skin was found on its exterior.

"Ewww." Sun Wukong grimaced. "Anyways, that just makes them even less valuable and further proves my point."

"Is that supposed to be convincing? Because I'm not taking home a bunch of ghost-eaten fruits even if you give them to me for free——"

"Greetings," someone cleared their throat, then said in a deep, magnetic voice, "Is it you who invited this Zhao to your humble temple for a game, friends?"

The door curtain jingled; in walked a dark-faced man with an impressively bushy beard, clad in gilded black armor and red-gold robes. The only thing that didn't make him as intimidating as he should was the black tiger cub, clinging onto his shoulder pauldron like an oversized housecat.

"Yep, Lao Zhao!" Sun Wukong cheered, "Didn't think you'd have the time, but here you are!" He winked at MK, "Now, ya' ever seen a God of Wealth statue in your Dadsy's store? If you did: this is your guy in the flesh, Zhao Gongming himself."

"Oh yeah! The statue," MK tried his best to recall something that looked like the man, yet the only thing that came to mind was the adorable and totally dissimilar one on the counter. "You mean he's..the cat?"

"Ha! I like your little disciple, Great Sage." Zhao Gongming laughed. "Sadly, no. The only feline here is my steed, Biandan Hua." He pointed to the tiger cub. "In her baby form, so I don't get animal control called on me again. Mortals these days are so easily startled, I swear."

"Aww, that's the cutest name I ever heard." Sun Wukong cooed, earning an unimpressed look from the tiger. "Anyways, since we have our fourth guy here, without further ado, let's begin——"

"A second. I'm here for business too. Serious business," he held up a hand. "Have any of you seen a golden scissor? It's about this size, but becomes a lot bigger when transformed," a gesture, "about the size of a city block. Ah, and it can turn into two flood dragons."

"Nope!"

"Hmm. This one doesn't think so."

"The Golden Dragon Shears?" Nezha’s eyes widened. "How did you lose *that*, Marshal Zhao?!"

"I didn't! It's probably my youngest sister again. Bixiao is still rummaging through our study, so I may as well check in the Lower Realms while she's at it." He said. "Make sure no one has 'borrowed' it without their permission."

"Why are y'all looking at me?" 

Awkward silence ensued, broken immediately by Sun Wukong's indignant huff.

"Okay, first, I'm insulted by your insinuations! You eat a few peaches, and suddenly you are THE suspect whenever something goes missing up there." He shook his head. "Second, you have sisters, Lao Zhao? Huh, never know that."

"Well, unless you are planning to have kids in the immediate future, Great Sage, your paths are unlikely to cross!" Zhao Gongming laughed, before resuming his frown. "Our scissors are far from the only missing treasure, though. Other palaces have also reported similar cases over the last hour. I'll just have to go shake down Spirit Official Ma again——wouldn't be the first time that little candlewick bugger tried to pin his thefts on someone else."

At the mention of Spirit Official Ma, Nezha mouthed something that sounded suspiciously like a swear word. Sun Wukong made a face. 

"Yeah, show that Huaguang brat who's boss! But before that, surely you still have time for a Mahjong game? It'll only be a minute up there." 

"Hmm, I suppose it won't hurt." Zhao Gongming replied, twirling his beard. "But with one condition: no one uses their godly powers."

"Define 'godly powers'?" 

"Anything that requires intent to activate." Zhao Gongming said. "Your golden vision, active divination instead of passive, uncontrollable foresights, my power over fortune..."

A sigh. "I've played enough games where that is allowed. With my disciples it always turns into a teaching session, and playing against my fellow gods of wealth feels more like a power-measuring contest than a true match of skills, especially when Bi Gan was involved." He shook his head. "For a scholarly god of wealth, the old man can be more competitive than us martial ones."

"I feel ya', Lao Zhao. It's always the old geezers who play dirty."

"Hello? Excuse me?" Nezha asked. "Am I the only one who's more concerned about the missing treasure of mass destruction than the silly Mahjong game?!"

"Yes, yes you are." Sun Wukong smirked. "It's just a tiny scissor! What mass destruction can it cause, other than to Art & Crafts materials?"

"Says the blissfully ignorant monkey who has never seen it in action," Nezha retorted, then lowered his head with a defeated look. "Whatever. I don't care anymore. Just don't mention me when the Celestial Host starts pointing fingers and your sisters come knocking, Marshal Zhao."

"You have my words, Third Prince." Zhao Gongming made a fist-and-palm salute, almost jokingly. "For I'm not one to tattle, even if it means enduring Yunxiao's scolding alone. Now, what are the stakes for this game?"

…

After a brief discussion, the four had settled on using some unopened and unoffered snacks as their stakes. Which still didn't beat the gambling allegations, according to Nezha. 

Well, it was better than betting all your belongings on a rigged game and losing them all, at least. And after watching a few rounds of their play, MK's only thought was Dang, if that goldfish demon chose this game back then, he wouldn't even need to cheat to wipe the floor with me.

"You know, if someone tells me I'll be watching the Great Sage, two celestial gods, and a ghost play Mahjong like old people at a community center during the first day of our vacation..." MK mumbled to himself, "I'll probably believe it, actually."

Despite having only the vaguest idea of the rules——whoever completed a set of certain tiles first won the game——and not getting any closer to understanding them, he was determined to keep watching. 

If only because Sun Wukong winked at him right before tossing the dice and starting the round, and he was pretty sure it meant "Watch and learn, bud!" in a way that suggested the message went beyond a simple Mahjong game.

"What you are seeing now is not a typical day for most of us, if that makes you feel less disillusioned." Fan said, without looking up from the documents he was flipping through. 

A while ago, the ghost had returned with a stack of them, and the papers were now floating around him in a ring, suspended by the dark blue glow of telekinesis. If that wasn't the most stylish way of doing paperworks, MK didn’t know what was.

"Uh, but I'm not?" MK said. "It's just…a lot less serious than I thought, this whole 'gods' business, and honestly, I'm not complaining! The Great Sage looks like he’s having a good time too."

Back on the table, Sun Wukong and Nezha yelled "Pong!" at the same time, then immediately glared at each other.

"Hey, I said that first!"

"That doesn’t matter, because you are cheating!" Nezha huffed. "It is impossible for two players to Pong at the same time unless someone has sneaked an extra tile in there while shuffling them, and we all know who that is."

"Well yeah, but I'm just evening the odds in a rigged game, Laodi." Sun Wukong said, eyeing Xie sharply. "For the sake of fairness, I'll allow you to cheat back too. How 'bout that?"

"Good grief, and I thought Master Taiyi was the most unabashed cheater I ever met on the table." Nezha took a deep breath and announced, "New battle objective: show the two cheaters who's boss, without lowering myself to their level."

"Well, this one can't blame the Great Sage for it. Two more turns, and he’ll claim the first win."

"Keep your visions to yourself, ghost!"

"Thanks a lot, Xiao Xie." Sun Wukong grinned. "That gives me even more reason to do it."

A few more turns, a few more clacks, and the monkey was left staring wordlessly at the table.

"Hey, what the heck! Your vision isn't right."

"This one's vision is always right. That, however, isn't one." Xie gave them an innocent look. "It's just the time-honored tactic of 'lying', friend."

"Serve you right for trusting him and cheating." Nezha snorted, before reaching out to claim the discarded tile.

"Why, ya' little——!"

"Credit where credit's due, that sure is a more entertaining use of precognition than the average Dipper Mansion chess game." Zhao Gongming commented, amidst the chaos. "I look forward to what you will bring to the table next, budding little wealth god."

"More bullshit, that's what he'll bring." Fan crossed his arms. "And he wonders why I don't play chess with him anymore."

"Well, I guess it could be worse." MK said. "They could be playing Monopoly."

"What's a Mono-poly?"

"A game that ruins friendships and turns family members against each other. Mei tried introducing her cousins to that during a New Year gathering." MK shuddered. "Some of them still won't talk to her."

"Sounds like it needs to be exorcized." Fan said, without a single hint that he was joking. 

"Please don't."

MK kind of got the impression that he was the "by-the-book" cop of their buddy cop pair, who sounded serious whether he meant it or not, but maybe the kiddy soul would take things just that literally.

Sadly, his clarification ended up killing the conversation. For the next few moments, they just sat side-by-side, listening to the clacking of Mahjong tiles.

And the clacking had intensified, as the game picked up speed. Sun Wukong in particular was speeding up into a blur, fidgeting in his chair, using only one hand to move the tiles while juggling the same poor tangerine with the other.

Now, he was always in motion, gesturing as he talked, grabbing something or the other wherever they went. But the fidgeting had intensified to a point well beyond what MK was used to, which was making him fidgety too.

After a loud "Would you please stop that?" from Nezha, MK finally mustered enough courage to half-prod at Fan——and immediately drew his hand back! Wow, ghosts are freezing to the touch. 

(Okay, he wasn't really touching anything solid, but it felt like reaching into a pocket of sub-zero-degree air, made even more jarring by the heat of summer.)

"Sorry sir, one question." MK asked. "I don't really have a good grip on the rules yet, but is the Great Sage in trouble now? Like, is he losing?"

"No idea. I'm not bored enough to watch and guess their sets." Fan said. "But if you are talking about his hyperactivity, that's not a result of panic."

"Then what’s he doing?"

"He's teaching you how to fight someone with precognition."

"By…acting like a wind-up toy?"

"On the surface level, yes." He answered. "How much do you know about divination?"

To pain. 

No, not that one. MK shook his head wildly. "Next to nothing, I guess."

"Good. You aren't losing out on much." Fan said, before frowning. "I'd rather know less about it, but Xiao Xie just has to be an insufferable prick, so here we are. Essentially, think of Fate like a game of cards, or Mahjong, or whatever game of chance of your liking."

MK chuckled. The idea of Fate being a Uno game was quite a funny one, not gonna lie, if only because he'd get to figuratively shout "Reverse!" at someone.

"The Way is the ruleset, what is allowed and not allowed to happen. The winning and losing conditions. The cards and tiles are the individual events and outcomes, happening to a being as they draw them, one by one."

"To the Dipper Mansion celestials in charge of Fate, divination is like having your master's golden eyes and fiery vision. They can see through the cards and tiles, know what's on them instinctively, and are thus banned from playing, only able to shuffle and deal them out on the Celestial Host's orders."

Zhao Gongming's tiger, having jumped off its master's shoulder long ago, pawed at Sun Wukong's twitching tail. This only egged the monkey on, as they promptly began a game of 'catch my tail if you can' off the table.

"For some," he looked at Nezha, his face a mask of intense concentration, "it isn't so much divination as making snap-second, highly accurate guesses, aided by superb memorization skills. To the more unfortunate mortals, however, it's like seeing recordings of multiple games playing side-by-side, with no way of knowing which one is theirs."

"Lucky for my sworn brother and almost no one else, he can see snippets of a single recording, which just happens to be ours." Fan said. "It's also random, very short-reaching, and makes the part of his soul that bears the brunt of it into a kooky brat with no self-preservation instincts. But I've complained enough. Now that you know how his precognition works, what will you do to counter it?"

"Does not playing the game count?"

"A wise choice. But suppose you don't get to choose."

"I, uh." Think, smartie kid, think! What is the relationship between ultra-hyperactive monkey behavior and beating a ghost with future vision on the Mahjong table? (Oh geez, it's like that one question about ravens and writing desks in that foreign children's book again…)

"I guess I'll make myself, well, unpredictable and even more random?" He finally said, hesitantly.

"Not very specific, but you get the gist of it." Fan nodded. "Going back to my analogy, your master knows his opponent is making a random draw too, except each card he draws allows him to see others claiming or discarding a certain tile."

"So he decides to add more useless cards into the pool. False maneuvers, feints," Fan pointed to the tiger, still pawing at Sun Wukong’s tail, "Artificially creating another game on the side to divert the visions. Nothing can be a hundred percent predictable, not even literal future vision, and if only my partner realized that, he'd be a lot less annoying and not on the way to getting absolutely destroyed in this game."

"Wow. That's very clever and all, but should you really be telling me this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't know much about the Underworld, outside of how Monkey King wrecked the place and scribbled him and his monkeys' name off the Book of Life and Death——" MK waved nervously, "No hard feelings 'bout that, ey? But if the Great Sage is teaching me how to counter you guys, does that mean you'll be going after us at some point in the future?"

"Technically, we'll be going after everyone who isn't an immortal or formally ranked celestial, sooner or later." Fan said. "Your master is firmly in the first category, and for you, that won't be in a long, long time, if it eases your worries."

"Yeah, no. Not at all. Thanks."

"You don't like ghosts very much, do you." He said, then, before MK could reply, added, "Which is fine. We don't like ourselves either."

"Uhhhh, don't be?" Oh gosh, was there really a way to word this without offending ghosts more? "It's not like I dislike you guys! Like, you and the other ghost cops seem pretty chill. It's just, y'know, a bit freaky, seeing the walking reminder of my inevitable mortality and all, ahahaha…"

"It is. And I won't tell you what to feel about that." Fan held up a finger, and the documents he had been reading were instantly sorted into neat little stacks in midair. "But if there is one thing you remember from our conversation, let it be this: no game lasts forever."

"One has to end in order for another to begin, and a game where no one wins or loses is gonna be a very boring one. We, officials of the Ten Courts, are but the keepers of scores, and you don't have to win in order to have fun while it lasts."

"Hu le." Zhao Gongming's calm voice cut through the chit-chat, followed by a light thud of him pushing the tiles over. "Four Kongs."

All eyes were immediately on him.

"By Buddha, Lao Zhao! No wonder you've been so quiet."

"Ugh!" Nezha facepalmed. "I was so close!" He shot a half-hearted glare at Sun Wukong. "This is all your fault, by the way. Without the extra tiles you snuck in there, he'd have never gotten such a rare combination."

"C'mon, maybe he's just that lucky?"

"Very enlightening." Xie hummed, handing over the bag of peach-flavored chips to Zhao. "This one knows he won't be winning the first round, but its certainly a great start!"

"And this is why you don't gamble with a literal, formally ranked, celestial god of wealth." Fan said, after a long, stunned silence. "Even when he isn't actively using his influence, for fairness's sake."

"He's not?"

"If he did, he'd just win every round, and there wouldn't be a game to speak of."

…

They stopped playing when the rain stopped, at which point the sun had already disappeared below the horizon. Zhao Gongming left halfway after getting an astral call from his sisters, shaking his head, giving MK the chance to finally join in. 

Sun Wukong had stopped cheating after that——at least not as blatantly, if Nezha's words were to be believed. To MK, he just settled back into his old laid back attitude, which, in turn, made his own palms less sweaty as he faced off against the other two.

He still lost, badly, only barely managing a win at the very end. Not that it mattered, since Nezha had soundly kicked everyone's butts like he wanted, coming out at the top by a wide margin of three bags of chips and a single Tau Sar Piah.

"Let this be your lesson, Monkie Kid," he said, with a hint of childish glee, "That hard work, knowledge of statistics, and memorization skills will always triumph over luck and a bunch of cheating clowns."

"Ah well. I'll let you have your moment, Laodi, since it's pretty much the only fight you can win against me." Sun Wukong responded with a cheeky smile, then tore open his bag of chips and started munching loudly on them. 

"Yes, keep telling yourself that. Maybe you'll actually start believing in it." Nezha smirked, before standing up from his chair. "I'll just be over here, basking in the glow of victory and trying to not run into my brother on the way back——"

As if on cue, a shout came from outside.

"GREETINGS! This Hui An pays his respect to the City God and his attendants!"

"Annnnnd there goes my good mood." Nezha muttered. A formation started glowing under his feet. "Goodbye. If anyone asks, I've never been here."

Almost immediately after he disappeared in a blaze of pink fire, the speaker outside with the loud, booming, megaphone-against-your-ears voice marched through the doorway.

"Oh. Hi there, Muzha."

"HI THERE, as the younger generation says these days!" The tall man replied cheerfully. The dangling green ties on his hair bun were swaying back and forth, as he made a bow. 

"Heard you yelling into Lady Guanyin's statue a while ago, Great Sage, so I decided to pay a visit. Is my brother here too? Longnü said she saw you two flying together, while weaving the storm clouds with her kins."

"Well, in Nezha's exact words, 'If anyone asks, I've never been here'." Sun Wukong shrugged.  "So no, he is not here." 

"Ah. Embarrassed, I see!" He exclaimed, making his way to the Mahjong table and staring down at the tiles. "He really shouldn't be, though. By my religious vows, I'm supposed to refrain from such worldly pass-times, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be preachy about it!"

Now MK was starting to have an idea of what "Too much" meant. Namely, his complete lack of volume control.

"Well, looks like I've dropped by at a rather inopportune time, so I won't keep you fellows any longer, Great Sage. Thanks for keeping my little brother company, though——"

His sight met MK's, and only then did Muzha seem to notice his presence. "And DEAR ME! Is that your new disciple I've heard so much about? A pleasure to meet you too, young one!"

He reached out for a handshake. MK made the mistake of taking it, and immediately winced. 

"Oww, owww——Nice to meet you too?!"

"Please stop crashing my disciple's hand, Muzha."

"Sorry, sorry!" He laughed, releasing his iron grip at last. "It's just so wonderful to see the juniors coming into their own, I get a bit carried away. Still, this acolyte looks forward to working with you in the days to come!"

"Man, we are busy here today, aren't we?" Xie commented, just as the overly cheerful and loud immortal made a turn and headed for the backdoor. "So many visitors. Not that this one is complaining."

"...Yeah." MK agreed, after awkwardly waving Muzha goodbye.

Well, one thing was certain: godhood internship or not, he'd sure have one hell of a story to tell once he got back home.

[karasbroken]

While I was in deep need of distraction, one of my Discord buddies asked me my thoughts on a couple of Farscape linguistic mysteries and invited me to nerd out. It's self-indulgent, but I enjoyed my on-the-fly invented head canons, and thought I'd preserve the noodlings here, cleaned up and expanded a bit. This is the first.

The question (paraphrased) is this: Explain this word choice by the writers that seem in conflict with any "rules" they might have had. Chimerical. As in-- Grayza: "Even if these chimerical wormholes of yours had some military value..."

A chimera is an Earth monster of legend. And while I've no doubt PKs have their own monsters of legend, why would an Earth monster be an adjective when one PK is talking to another? Why didn't Grayza use "mythical" wormholes?

My ramblings below the cut for your dash's protection.

So let's start with a foundational assumption. When John isn't around at all, we need to take the perspective that what we're listening to is not being translated at all in-universe. Or at least is being translated close enough to perfectly to assume no communication issues between the speakers.

(It's always possible that Grayza and Scorpius aren't speaking the same Sebacean language but there's no way to perceive a language mismatch between if they don't make it explicit with scripting or some sort of auditory cues. So we need to assume they understand each other perfectly.)

So this implies that the word chimerical is a perfect substitute in English, to use, the viewers, for a Sebacean word with the same meaning. But that word doesn't have to be based on the same root concepts to have the same meaning.

Mythical in this context would be a substitute for something from legend, probably imaginary. Chimerical comes from a mythical creature, but it has a specific connotation: something both fantastical and impossible to achieve.

Grayza isn't saying that wormholes are a myth. Peacekeepers have been trying to control them for some time, so they are a known phenomenon in at least some research circles. But Scorpius' current project, claiming he can use the brain of some random dude who knows wormhole shit to jumpstart a technology that has thus far been beyond their best scientists? That's folly, it's ridiculous (chimera are funny mixed up looking creatures), and it's impractical. A pointless flight of fancy.

Now, I don't know that the writers thought about the word choice that deeply but if I'm doing litcrit... I would claim that the word chimera is also a dig at Scorpius himself being chimerical, the word is used for people that have more than one person's DNA inside them. (I myself had a chimerical placenta--the cells that made it up were actually different from the cells of my daughter.)

Grayza seems like the kind of person to appreciate a sly insult, so I like to think that chimerical is being used in place of a Sebacean mythical creature that isn't a lion-goat-serpent, but is a mixture of different species. And so, the creature's name has transformed into a word that refers to a Sebacean concept of mixed up, ill conceived, like genetic recombination that always fails. The kind of stuff Scarrans do. Inferior to PK methods.

What do you think? Is my English degree sending me on flights of fancy? And do you have any translation questions to test my rusty linguistics and critical analysis skills?

[butchsophiewalten]

03/09/24 Twitter Space Recap

Quick recap of the twitter space from yesterday. Another one with Martin, Kyle, Coral, and eventually Eva. They tried to make this another Q&A but they mostly just talked and joked between themselves. Here's a rough recap of what they talked about:

-Martin talks about how it's always difficult for him to answer questions like, "Can I get a fun fact about [Character]?", because he doesn't just have a bunch of information pre-prepared about every character in his webseries. He specifies that it's not bad to ask those questions, just that he has a hard time answering them.

-Martin tells Kyle to give his idea for what each of the Showstoppers would dress up as for Halloween, and he says, "Boozoo is a lion, Sha is a sunflower, Banny is a horse, and Bon doesn't dress up." Martin says he agrees, but that he thinks Banny could also be a pirate.

-Someone asks for confirmation on whether Chris' last name is 'Easterday' or 'Easteryear', and Martin says that it was always supposed to be Easteryear, but after the fandom caught in calling him Easterday, some of the crew caught on to calling him that, too. But "Easteryear" is what his name is supposed to be.

-Martin mentions that just the other day he was talking about Chris with the rest of the crew, and how they've worked on polishing his character arc into something they all think is much more cool.

-Martin says that they explained some lore stuff to Coral, about something that happens "very, very later," in the series, and how they were extremely upset and heartbroken over it. They mention a drawing they had posted to Twitter a few days before, of them hunting Martin down with a knife, and how that was the context for it.

-Eva talks about how Martin was explaining the series lore to Felix's new VA in the crew discord server, and how it apparently took him an hour and a half of explaining just to get to the point of explaining the car crash.

-Martin says, "Everything that happens after Brian's death, after BunnyFarm is so much! I don't know how I'm going to write all that down!"

-Kyle asks Martin how he comes up with last names for characters, because he knows that Martin never googles to find authentic or realistic American last names, and just makes them up. Kyle says that he knows "Walten" is a portmantaeu of "Walls" and "Martin", but wants to know what some other ones are.

Martin explains how he came up with 'Easteryear', saying "Back in 2020, when I was doing research for The Walten Files, I started looking for, like, show tapes of like, 70s animatronic bands. And I came up with Chuck E. Cheese show tapes, and there was this one that was called "Broadway Yesteryear", and I kept mispronouncing it with 'Easteryear, Easteryear', and I was like, 'That would be a fun last name,' and I kept it in my pocket until it was, like, useful. And then I started coming up with all the names, and shit like that. I think Easteryear and Letterson were like, the more creative ones i did."

Kyle asks him how he came up with 'Letterson', then, and Martin says, "Letterson- Letterson is like 'Letterman', but instead of Letterman, it's just 'Letterson.'

-Martin says that he's always trying to find ways to insert Brian Stells into The Walten Files, even though he's a character with absolutely no depth, and was never intended to do more than teach the audience that Bon is dangerous, but he appreciates Brian's place in the legacy of The Walten Files, with him being the first human character to speak and the first character to die, and he likes to kind of honor that by trying to find small ways to include him.

-Martin says something vaguely about Chris in season 2, which confuses Eva. She asks him if Chris appears in Season 2, because she doesn't think he does, and Martin responds, "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

-Coral is confused about how many seasons The Walten Files is supposed to have, because last they remember, it only had two. Martin explains, "There's three seasons. Season one is like, y'know. Season two is like, shorter, and it's about Sophie and Jenny, and Season three is how everything, like, ends. What happens after."

-Martin reads a question, "What character is the community's perception of most inaccurate?" and then says, "I think we can all agree that it's Jack." Kyle then says that he thinks another good candidate answer is Sophie, saying that he thinks people tend to characterize her as much more "bubbly" than she even remotely is.

-Martin takes the time to specify that there's nothing wrong with misinterpreting these characters, because we've seen so little of them in the series and it's been so long in between episodes that people are bound to come up with their own ideas of what characters are like, but that he wants everyone to keep an open mind when we start to see more of how those characters are actually depicted, because it may not line up with that people are imagining or hoping for, and how that's not necessarily a flaw with the series.

-Martin says, "The Walten Files, when we make the series, we don't create the characters and go, 'oh, he's a villain, he's that,' we create the actions they make, and we let the viewer decide whether or not this character is a good or bad guy. The characters make good and bad decisions."

-Eva says, in reference to "Bon", "You guys have not even scratched the surface. I'm so fucking excited for his character."

-Martin says, "Here's like, a message to the audience. Do you wanna know a word that can, like, fucking destroy the crew, but to you guys, has like no fucking meaning? Y'know what fucking word it is? 'Sayonara.'" The second he says this, everyone else in the space starts groaning in agony, or shouting at him.

-Eva reads a question, "If Sophie was a cat, what kind of cat would she be?" Martin does not answer, and instead posts this drawing to twitter:

-Martin talks about how, for the upcoming episodes, Kyle & Coral recorded their lines (as Charles and Susan) separately, but their dynamic is so good, that it sounds very authentically like they could've been recording in the same room. They say that they'd love to record some audio in a call together at some point, but that it'd be difficult to coordinate around Coral's timezone.

-Eva reads a question, "Would Jenny like My Little Pony, if so, what would her favorite pony be?" Martin answers, "Uh, she would definitely like Applejack, in my opinion."

-Martin reads a question, "Will any of the episodes take place past the Relocate Project?" and answers, "Not in season one, but in season two, I think all the episodes take place after BunnyFarm."

-Martin reads a question, "Will you guys get a new band for The Walten Files after Sweet Tuesday?" and answers, "Uh, No, I don't think so. We don't talk to Sweet Tuesday."

-Martin reads a question, "How would Rosemary's sister react to hearing about Rose going missing?", and answers, "They weren't close, but I think she would be very-" and then Coral interrupts him, going "Rosemary has a sister?" to which Martin responds, "Yeah, it isn't brought up in this season, but yeah, she does have a sister. But they're very- they're not close. They don't have a very good relationship, so. Uh, it's Laura Peony."

-Eva asks, if Susan would be like a cool aunt to the Walten kids, and Martin says, "Yeah, she would be."

-Martin reads a question, "Was "Bon" planned from the start, or did you come up with him later?" and answers, "This is really good! Okay, so, Bon was always a character, but, uh, the idea of "Bon" as a ghost, it was born after episode 3. But this character always existed, just not in this way.

-Martin says, "'We know Jack used to make sandwiches for his employees, who was the one that always got sandwiches, and someone who almost every time didn't get one?' Um, the one who almost every time didn't get one was probably Richie."

-"I like the idea of Richie just being a lazy piece of shit, and he would just like, hide in the bathrooms so he can just smoke and do shit, and Jack would just ominously stand next to him until he notices, for just minutes and minutes."

-Martin says Susan is 6'2, and that Jack is "a few inches" taller than her.

-Eva reads a question asking if Sophie & Jenny would keep their relationship a secret because of the time period. Martin says, "Okay, no, I don't think they would keep it an entire secret, I don't think they'd be like, 'oh, dude, we can't say it,' I feel like they would just be, like- I feel like they would just- they don't feel the need to like, tell it to people. They don't feel the need to be like, 'oh, we're girlfriends,' y'know?"

-Martin and Coral joke that Sophie wouldn't even know what homophobia is, growing up around so many other queer and accepting people. During this conversation, Coral says, "Charles is like, the ultimate lesbian." (I assume they meant 'lesbian ally'? but this is way funnier.)

-Martin has spent much of the space repeating a joke about Jack telling Rosemary to "make [him] a sandwich", stemming from a conversation about how funny it would be if Jack in the series was just this terrible person. He jokes now, approaching the idea a little more seriously, that Jack would say that to Rosemary as a joke, and she would give him an absolutely terrifying death glare.

He says it'd be funny if Jack made the same 'make me a sandwich' joke to Rose, and she went, 'oh okay!! ^_^', to Jack's surprise, and then came back with a sandwich that is just a "gallon of salt" in between two slices of bread, and she forces him to eat it.

-Coral tries to answer a question about whether or not Richie would sell weed, and Martin interrupts them to say that he thinks Richie would try to sell weed to the BSI crew, and they would be like, 'yeah, no thank you.'

-Someone asks if Susan would like the Showbiz Pizza animatronics, and Coral says they think she would like them from a technical standpoint.

-Coral reads a question, "How did Susan find out she was a lesbian?", and says, "I feel like she never 'figured out', it was more of a case that she always felt like that and didn't care what anyone else said," to which Martin agrees.

-Martin reads a question, "Does Sarah Evelyn have a favorite animal?" and says, "How the fuck do you remember Sarah Evelyn? She was just like, an animator on Bon's Burgers, that's it. I don't know." Coral corrects him, saying that she was a writer, but agrees that it's really funny for people to remember that character at all.

-Izzsplash, Jenny's VA, joins the space! She's recovering from Covid.

-Martin reads a question he really likes and seems excited for, "Will we ever see a clip of Jenny angry?", but answers it by quoting the same "Make me a sandwich!" joke he's been quoting for the entire space.

-Martin reads a question for Izzy, "How has your perception of the character of Jenny changed from the first time you voiced her to now?" Izzy answers, "That is a good question! I think, when I first met Jenny, I was like, 'that girl looks silly,' but now that I've talked to everyone and like, really, like- after BunnyFarm, I was like, 'this is not just a silly, that's- that's an actual, like, good friend, person. Like, she's a lot- there's a lot more to Jenny than people thing. I'll put it there. She's not just a silly- she is silly! She can be '/j', but she's also '/srs'.

[seonuyang]

If this isn’t posted well forgive me, I’m still very new to tumblr lol (Cross-posted on YouTube as well)

Here’s an analysis I posted on the English translation of the song name 鬼蜘蛛ト狐ノ獅子ト (Onigumo to Kitsune no Shishi to)

I was talking to my friend Shinsei about this on Discord and I wanted to share it here, the name “The Spider and the Kitsune-Like Lion” isn’t the actual name of the song.

If we take this into context, the Romaji is Onigumo to Kitsune no Shishi to, which we know Onigumo is not meant to be translated as it refers to the clan that was sent out to kidnap the women used in perform in the Shishikusa theatre. The word Onigumo is roughly translated to Araneus ventricosus (species of orb-weaving spider), hence why we get the word Spider so frequently in the translation.

Now for the second half, we have to go into Japanese particles, the Romaji for this part is Kitsune no Shishi to. の (no) as a Japanese particle indicates possession. While the word order looks a bit different, it works like ’s (apostrophe s) or of.

Example:

Watashi no namae wa Naomi desu.

わたし の なまえ は なおみ です。

“My name is Naomi.”

So the Kitsune no in the first half of the romaji is referred to the Kitsune’s Lion-Like behaviour, contrary to the Kitsune-like Lion. We can also conclude this with the Shishi to half of the section. と (to) means “and” or “with”, and is used specifically to list nouns when you know everything on the list and are saying all the items. So if the words between those to translate to Like and Lion the To after Shishi combines those two rather than Kitsune and Like.

Using these two parts the real name of

鬼蜘蛛ト狐ノ獅子ト (Onigumo to Kitsune no Shishi to) is Onigumo and the Lion-like Kitsune, of course Japanese orders things differently so it doesn’t line up exactly with the Romaji but that’s pretty normal to see between Japanese and English translations once you actually look into the Japanese.

This translation also makes more sense considering the lore of the Onibi Series and the context of Onigumo to Kitsune no Shishi to.

If any of this is inaccurate please let me as I do not speak Japanese and this purely based on my research. Anyways, thanks for listening to my little Japanese research dive lol.

Here’s a picture of the Onibi that I drew to top this all off.

(English is not my first language so I apologise if this is worldly weirdly, my English grammar is absolute trash lol)

[echantedtoon]

Twilight Sparkle x Discord

****************

Silent. That was the way she liked it. After a long week of dealing with problems, it was nice just relaxing with a good book. She groaned just thinking about the last couple days. First she had a talk with the school fillies about the importance of friendship, then a MAJOR Spring clean up of her castle. Polishing every inch of the inside and out. Over seeing that year's Winter Wrap Up. A family dinner, and agreeing to watch her niece for a bit. Two friendship problems, a sleep over, and FINALLY a diplomatic meeting in Canterlot with Princess Celestia and Luna. It seemed she could finally relax without being interrupted as Spike agreed to help Rarity and Fluttershy with a pet fashion line, Rainbow was doing Wonderbolt training, and Pinkie was helping A.J. plain Big Mac's birthday. And she wasn't expecting any visitors. Yes. It was a quiet night. Too bad she didn't suspect a chaotic interruption. "Why....Hello there my dear little Starbutt! How are you tonight?" She groaned before face-hooving herself. Of course. Of course! He would show up after a long week of stressful events and planning. "What do you want, Discord?" She turned around and came face to face with the smiling chesire grin of the chaotic being. The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony himself was floating leisurely above her. He twisted around much like a serpent until he was in the position that resembled somepony laying on their stomach.....except he was in the air. The mismatched creature smiled wider. "I got bored and seeing as everypony else is busy at the moment except you, I figured.....Why not drop by and see how....glad you'd be to see a friend?" ".......*sigh* It's nice to see you too, Discord. But, did you really have to show up now. I wasn't prepared for any visits right now." "Well......you might as well get used to this sort of thing. Considering both of us suffer from immortal-itise. Or did you forget about your meeting with the ambassador?" "........How could you have possibly known about that?!" How could he, indeed. Yesterday's diplomatic meeting......hadn't been the worst. But it most certainly wasn't the best.

It turns out a King from a kingdom from the lands up north had come all the way to the land of Equestria to discuss a possible trading partnership or alliance. They settled on an alliance, but then the suggestion of a marriage between his son and one of the princesses to unite their kingdoms came up. It turned out that where he was from, it was quite common to seal important deals with a marriage. Both Princess Celestia and Luna could use the argument of being too old and explained that they had already been married at least four times each, and since Cadence was already married.....She had to very politely and forcefully turn down his.....nine suggestions to her. But, on his tenth try, she nearly made an outburst. "But, you will probably never know what marriage would be like anyway. Why not experience it ounce before your immortality and stubbornness makes you into an old maid mare?" She wanted to scream, 'What the hay is wrong with you?! I am perfectly capable of finding a colt friend by myself!! In MY own time!!' Celestia had placed a wing around her and sternly told him it was rude to force others into something and that no meant no. And that was that. He waved his lion paw. "I'm the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Time is no problem for me." "......*sigh* What's even the point of this talk?" "To let you know that you're not the only immortal to be faced with the problem of a spouse." She raised an eyebrow at this."......YOU have been pressured by a king to marry his son?" "No. What I meant was that we all have different versions of that problem. With a spouse and immortality." ".......I don't follow you." "Take Sun and Moonbutt for example. They've already been married.....Oh, I don't know....three or four times each and have stopped because of their age and they can't take it anymore. And your niece is going to have to learn to learn to live without Shining Armor one day like Cadence.......We all have that problem, Twilight. Even if it's different versions of it." "........And you?" "Me? Well.......I had one crush when I was really young.....but it didn't last long. But, I am currently infatuated with another mare." "........" She stood up to place a hoof on his shoulder. "Discord......I'm sorry to tell you this.....but Fluttershy is already with somepony else." "....." He stared at her.".......Pffft. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! *gasp* Hahahaha!!'' She was quite taken aback from his sudden outburst. "My dear.....I'm afraid you have the wrong mare." ".....But.....I thought..." "Fluttershy would be anyone's first guess....but she will never be more than a dear friend to me. But, I am going to keep a VERY close eye on that Iron Will fellow she's with." "......Then who? Pinkie Pie?"

"Goodness. No. That mare is too hyper. Even for me." "......Trixie?," she asked trying to think of any mares that could be that close to him. "Friend zone." "Rarity?" "Already with Fancy Overalls." "You mean Fancy Pants." "Yes. Him." "......Rainbow?" Already with Soarin, and A.J. isn't interested in a relationship. And as I've stated before, Tia and Moony are done with any hubbies." "Then that doesn't leave anyone left." He put both hands under his chin and gave her a half lidded look. "Really, Ms. Sparkle? Everyone?" "Well, of course. It's non of our friends or the Princesses-" "Who said it wasn't a princess?" He raised an eyebrow. "But, you said-" "I know what I said. I said I wasn't interested in the sisters, and obviously your niece and Cadence aren't an option. Too young and already married." "Then who could you possibly.....be...talking....about?" She slowly met his gaze....and he smiled wider if that was even possible. She raised a hoof to point at herself. "Me?" "Ding, ding, ding! Congratulation!! You won the 'I take too long to realize things' award!" She decided to ignore his obnoxious shout. "Why?" "You challenge me. Surprise me. You have magical abilities that rival the other princesses and even Star Swirl himself. You surprise me everytime I try to be......playful." She rolled her eyes. "You even saved my life ounce. Despite the awful things I did. Fluttershy is my friend, but even she would've never gave up all that magic just to save me or her friends. She would've most likely ran and went into hiding to save the Princesses' magic." ".......And what makes you think I would even consider being with you? Not that I'm trying to be rude." "Oh, come now. You can't tell me that you aren't even the bit curious about me. A chaotic being that's lived for centuries and the only surviving member of my kind. Not to mention all those lessons you would've never learnt without me." "......." She hated to admit it, but he did have a point. She had thought about those things a couple of times, but never really thought he'd actually tell her. "Besides....having a spouse that would keep me entertained, be my friend, and most of all......would be with me to the end of time. Literally.....That's a lucky find immortals rarely run into." ".......Discord.....I..." "One chance." "What?" "One chance. That's all I ask for. If it doesn't work out, no harm done. We'll still be friends and I'll never bother you with it again." "When?" "Tomorrow is Hearts and Hooves Day. Seems like a decent time. Plus, it might keep Blue Blood and the rest of those young nobles away." "Uh.....Don't remind me." "Then it's a date, I presume." ".......Ok. A date. It beats being stuck without anything to do. And who knows? It could be interesting." "Oh, good. I'm going to fly all over Canterlot and Ponyville and shout that you'll be dating an old goat more than twice your age tomorrow before retiring tonight. That way, everypony knows you'll be busy tomorrow. Chao." With a snap of his eagle claw, he vanished. "Wait! WHAT!?" But he was already gone. "DISCORD!!!"

Author's Note: Submission and regular posting wouldn't accept it so I had to post it through the ask box.

[emmathescifigal]

About the importance of names in Exodus

Since I started researching the game, I've come across a few names that seem to have much more meaning and symbolism than just being a "flavor" for the character.

(See below cut for the long post about names!)

The first one that comes to mind is Orion Aslan. Orion is the father of our main character: Jun. Orion is a distant figure that Jun has never met. A man with a vision for the future, with a mission to save Lidon, his home planet (or home moon?) He is a known Traveler, he has his own very powerful dynasty. When I first saw his name, "Orion Aslan", it made me wonder. I discovered that "Aslan" means lion, but I wondered if it might be a reference to the magical, almost god-like being that is the lion Aslan in the world of Narnia. There are many meanings or symbols that could be associated with Orion and Aslan: a renowned hunter who incurred the wrath of a goddess and found death, a noble and self-sacrificing hero trying to save his world? Or something else, simpler or more obscure? I wonder how far the developers of the game went when they named him that way.

What about Ava, Jun's mother? There are many mysteries surrounding her. She is said to be of "celestial origin. Is she a full Celestial? A Uranic? Something else? What will her role be for Jun, for all of humanity? The same as Eve: the mother of a new, surviving human race? Or the one who bites into the apple of knowledge and causes mankind to fall from grace?

There is much more we don't know about the relationship between Orion and Ava, and how these two personalities ended up choosing to have a child (an engineered child) with a heavy destiny to bear. I wonder if their names might give us a clue.

And so, following that line of thought, what about Jun? Our character inherited the gift of "neural induction" from his mother, Ava, which allows Jun to communicate with ancient technologies. But it seems that these precious genes will allow Jun to do much more. Jun is prophesied by his own father to be the salvation of mankind. This is a heavy burden to carry.... Someone on the Discord pointed out that Jun could mean "pure" in Japanese or "ruler/talented" in Chinese. Since I am not a linguist, perhaps people more familiar with those languages could verify this. Of course, Jun is the main character of the game, but when I heard the developers talking about Jun as a cross between Indiana Jones and Paul Muad'Dib? I couldn't help but wonder which path of Paul's destiny Jun will take.

I'm going to end this post with Asteria. While not really a character in the game, Asteria is mentioned in the book as the one who keeps the Gates (the ones that allow ships to travel at the edge of lightspeed). For the Traveler, Asteria is an important name, even a goddess in a sense. But while this name is not common, it does remind me of a Greek figure. Asteria means "of the stars" or "starry". She was also the daughter of two titans, and she defied Zeus and even Hera when she helped her sister against the goddess' wishes. Asteria seems to have much more depth than just a simple name thrown into the story and the game.

I don't know exactly what to make of all this, but I like the idea that the developers have left clues in these names, and symbols. That these clues could lead us to a better understanding of these characters or their importance in the story.

I should definitely keep an eye on all of them... if only to feed my wildest speculations!

[busyfish]

Okay so

eventful night. Koryne ran into Zanza tonight, by chance, after taking the tram back from Ironforge. They were winding down from experiencing the winter veil celebrations and noticed the young girl in the park in Lion's Rest. After some discussion about Zanza's instructor, at times completely singeing the girls close as a test of reflexes, Koryne offered to teach the young mage in training a spell to avoid such situations. Koryne, being an expert in chronomancy, demonstrated how to perserve oneself in a moment of safety and how to safely recall back to that moment after danger had passed.

The young mage was at first overwhelmed, as chronomancy is a younger magic and not often taught to more elementally focused mages. However Koryne took the girl by her hands and asked her to close her eyes and meditate on her true essence, allowing the girl to understand the source of her own powers. Koryne allowing Zanza to borrow some of their mana, the two conjured enough arcane energy for Zanza to alter time for a brief moment. Caught up in the moment, Zanza, typically a timid girl, was able to let go and more outwardly express her affections toward the elf. Though a romance is now budding between the two, neither is quite ready to fully embrace the courage to confess their feelings. -

After our scenes, the other writer actually reached out to me, the first time really out of character and asked if we could add each other on discord to set up things a bit more easily. She's really cool. The thought of platonically collaborating a romance storyline was a little intimidating to me at first. Though after talking with my new writing partner, we were able to communicate things to a place where i feel very comfortable. We're both kind of in this "this is my little guy and i'm excited to throw them out in the world but i want to protect them" So we're on the same page and we both quite like each other's little guy. We've even discussed having other people interact within our storylines and she want to meet Chara, which will be super cool. i've like literally only done this with Camille, where our characters were canon in each other's stories. uhhh but for the time being it seems like me and this girl are pretty comfortable like collaborating in a way that's very much canon and we're both excited to expand on what we've started. But yeah she said she loves writing this gay shit and i was like "hell yeah saaaaame". the vibes are right. i feel comfortable giving my little guy to someone in a small fashion. we both seem like we're willing to be careful with each other's creativity. We're also both very satisfied with how things have developed and everything. The pacing and all of that is comfortable for the both of us. But yeah, i dunno. i'm considering making an RP blog. Which is hilarious because when i very very first started tumblr, it was an RP blog. so we're coming around full circle. i haven't settled on it yet but it might be nicer than filling up main with all of this stuff.

we'll see

[sable-skies]

QUICK -while that Anon is incapacitated from being hit with TWO Voltron mentions- TALK EVEN MORE ABOUT VOLTRON!

Your biggest issues with the show! Wasted potential! And of course the biggest piece of Drama; SHIPS?!?!??

We will never get proper closure. We all share Voltron trauma ✌️😔

the people yearn for a five hour video essay talking about why voltron sucks. (I've literally wanted to make one for Years about it but alas, life happens)

i cant do that yet because of my schedule, but I will give you a snippet on some of my thoughts

Forgive me, for I am about to yap like I'm a fucking professor in the subject, got my master's years ago and all it did was give me fandom trauma (/lh, but there's a reason why I don't join fandom discords anymore or anything like that!) so strap in my brother (gender neutral)

I WILL ADDRESS THIS FIRST: Ships. I actually never shipped anything in VLD! No offense to Klance, but I never really got the appeal? And obviously there's that Other Super Popular one that I'm not gonna name because it's fans are gonna kill me, but I didn't like that one either.

For Klance; I think I never got it because I just. never considered them love interests? Like I would see people losing their minds over it and my (at the time, unknown) aroace ass would just slow blink at them like "yeah man i guess. what?". Could it have been good? Maybe, but it was never the horse I backed personally. I will say, some of the content that came from that ship was absolutely phenomenal though, never doubt what yaoi-obsessed teenagers can do.

I won't say much more on the fandom tbh, but trust me I saw some shit. This blog wasn't around back then but I witnessed some things. Remember the socks? I do.

Moving onto the actual show itself, I actually rewatched at least the first season (and half of the second) because a few friends and I were talking about it again and I wanted to try and get some notes for that video essay I'm totally going to do, and I realized that from the get-go the show was absolutely fucked worldbuilding wise.

I'm a big worldbuilding nerd, I never share my various insane projects but I literally make a new google document every week with ideas for various stories I would love to tell. Worldbuilding is such an essential part to telling a good story and having a believable world, and upon rewatching at least season 1, there's some loose foundation set but then completely butchered by season 3.

I will be honest, people always say that season 4 was the worst, and I will agree it did suck, but in my opinion season 3 was the worst for me. I absolutely hated that they started to switch lions, which I understand is a reference to the original 80s show, but it completely disregarded one of the lines in the FIRST EPISODE about how a bond between a lion and it's pilot is scared, cannot be forced, and is a rare thing. only for that to get thrown out the window. AUGH.

I'm a firm black paladin allura believer personally, I think that would have been so much fun seeing her step into the leadership role she pretty much had from the start alongside Shiro! (Never shipped them for anyone worried, they're just really good friends)

Speaking of friends; I don't think the show really established the team's overall bond well enough. Looking back, there's nothing in the show that promises found family friendships and all that, but the showrunners said that would be the case, and I think they were the biggest reason the show failed. (more on that later)

Sin Squad once said in one of their videos that everyone on the team felt more like co-workers and honestly? I still agree on that sentiment. I can believe that Pidge and Hunk are friends, I can believe that Keith and Shiro have a familial bond, I can believe that Hunk and Lance are friends. But Keith and Pidge? Hunk and Shiro? Hunk and Allura? There are so many potential really good friendships that are completely ignored in favor of other established bonds, and I think it makes the whole "we gotta work as a team!" message a lot weaker because of it. They're all co-workers at best, "strangers forced to be friends under the worst circumstances" at worst (shout out to keith for that line, he was actually spitting)

Additionally, and this is just because I'm still a big Keith head at heart (when I was 15 I wanted to go by that name because I was so attached to him. its funny looking back), I really dislike how they treated his character? In season 1 he didn't get much development, but we got the hints of him being half-galra, and I loved that! Season 2 really built on him and S2 E8 "Blades of Mamora" is still my favorite episode. I love that one with my whole fucking heart. Oh my god.

But then season 3 hit, forced him into a leader positions I don't think he ever grew into, and then his. mom. came back. Don't get me wrong, I love Krolia (big fan of women), but all of Keith's angst being cured by spending a few space whale years with his mom continues to completely disregard the bonds he made with his team. And Keith isn't the only one who suffers from this, everyone does.

I understand family is an important bond (despite the fact that I keep many of my personal family members at arms length, for reasons) but every character only got a "complete" arc or ending when they were reunited with their blood family, not the "found family" that the showrunners promised. Pidge's only arc was finding her family, sure there was the stuff about nature and coding being similar but that was for a single episode. Hunk only got development again post season 1 when it was about his family being enslaved. Lance only ever wanted to see his family again, and then he never got an arc past that except for his dead space girlfriend. Shiro never even got an explanation for his family past his totally-boyfriend Adam.

SPEAKING OF ADAM

I will say that I disagree with the fandom's opinion that the entire show queerbaited with Klance. I think you had to have Klance-sized glasses on to see that. The show truly did queerbait with Adam though, with promoting and hyping him up for season 7, only for him to barely get a minute of screen time. Actually such a waste of time, and such a waste of an interesting character. Voltron writers and showrunners when i GET YOU.

A final note I'll make because I'll never stop writing otherwise: there was some discussion about whether or not the show's failure was the writers, showrunners, or executives fault. I personally think it was the showrunners who were at fault here. She-Ra came out the same year VLD ended, and it soared in terms of worldbuilding, storytelling, and queer representation.

For She-Ra to come out around 2018, I imagine these shows started development around the same time (Did you ever realize VLD only had a 2 year run time? 75 episodes in 2 years? I did and it made me upset.) They were probably working with same executives, under the same people, same deadlines, etc. She-Ra succeeded (i think), and VLD fell apart and crashed at the end. Hell, in the final year it was airing they were STILL in the storyboard process. I think the showrunner's either majorly mishandled the production of this show, or they were given shit terms and didn't do anything to make something of it. Either way, Lauren Montgomery and Joaqium Dos Santos I will remember your names forever because of it

(On a serious note, I don't actually dislike or hate them. I'm just disappointed in what happened is all)

Anyways that barely like. scratches the surface of many more issues I have with the show, but those are some of the major problems I saw in it!

And for some more positive notes: I love the ost of the episode where Allura's AI-father dies, it still sticks with me even now. (i ugly sobbed at that episode I'm sensitive to parental death), and Keith is still my beloved meow meow, I love him so much I miss him. Steven Yuen the GOAT. I also loved the concept of these bio-mechanical lions, they could've gone a bit more cosmic horror eldritch with them, but it's still good regardless.

shoutout btw to my friends who sat in call with me as I typed this like a madman.

[wall-legion]

Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Author’s Note: so I was talking on Discord with some folks about an idea with one of my characters for a story idea based on the film A Monster in Paris/Un Monstre a Paris. So if you’re familiar with that, you’ll probably figure out some of the story beats. Onward!

It all started because she was in need of more fragrance for a new batch of soap. It had been a few months since Odetta had started her little soap shop in Lion’s Arch, and it had been surprisingly popular- at least, to her. She had fully expected to sell every so often to Rissia and Vezz, and maybe to someone who wandered in by accident. But somehow people had found her and she had a small, but steady customer base. She was pleasantly surprised, as well as a little startled, every day. But today she was out of the rose oil she used for one of her soaps, so she pinned a note to the door saying she would be opening later than usual due to needing to run an errand, locked the door, and turned towards the Lion’s Arch marketplace while lifting the hood of her cloak over her carefully braided hair. The sky was completely obscured with heavy and dark grey clouds that threatened the idea of rain at any moment, and the last thing she wanted was to be cold and wet because her hair was soaked. In spite of the weather, the markets were as busy as they normally were at this time of day: the fishing boats had just returned to the docks from their first trips of the day and unloaded their catches at the fishmongers, so the air smelled briny from the fresh seaweed that the fish were being unpacked from. That, however, did not hold her attention for long. At the other end of the stalls, there was what appeared to be a norn moving jerkily between stalls. The way that they were moving looked as though they were about to have some sort of medical emergency, so Odetta hurried over to see if she could assist them in any sort of way since it looked as though everyone else was either ignoring or avoiding them. The closer she drew, the more she realized that something was not quite right. For starters, this person was wearing far too many clothes for this time of year: from what she could see they had a scarf wrapped around their face, multiple shirts on under a long jacket, and long pants that hung away from their legs. She wondered what they were trying to hide. Were they stealing goods from the market sellers? She kept trailing them, her errand forgotten, finally following them into an alley where they turned around and stopped to look squarely at her. “Why are you following me?” they hissed, still moving jerkily as they spoke. “I...” She thought about fibbing for a moment, and then decided against it. “You looked like you were in trouble. From the way you were moving, I mean. You’re- you seem like you’re having some difficulties. I know some people who know healing magic, if you want me to take you to them they could look at you-” “NO!” She took a step back at being shouted at- and surprisingly, they took a step back as well. “No. No one sees us- me. Me. No one looks at me.” What is going on with you? Who talks about themself that way, like they don’t know who they even are? Odetta wondered internally, steeling herself as she ventured in closer again. “Well... maybe you would at least like to come back to my shop to sit for a while?” She paused to smile before continuing. “After all, it does look like it might rain soon.” The person looked down at the ground for a long moment. “...that... would be good, I think. We- I can do that.” “Very well. Wait here a moment, I need to pick up something first and then I’ll take you there.” “...this isn’t a trick?” Odetta alternately felt her heart break for this person and a little prickle of rage light up at whoever had played such an awful, horrible prank on them in their past. “Not at all.” She unhooked her cloak and pressed it into their hands. “Here. So you know I’ll come back. Okay?” They looked down at the cloak in their hands, then slowly their gaze lifted back up to meet hers. They were garnet red, with no sclera to speak of, only a perfectly black pupil interrupting the sea of red in each eye. “Okay,” they whispered. “Good. See you in a moment.” Odetta hurried out of the alleyway, trying to ignore her racing heart. Whatever was in that alleyway wasn’t human or the norn that she’d first assumed them to be, that much was certain. She’d heard rumors of vampires recently, but those had to be silly stories. She made her way back to the stalls and to the person she bought her fragrances from, only to find out that they were closed for the day because their child was sick and they were needed at home. She asked the woman who ran the stall next to them if they would send a bird to her the next time they were able to open up, so she would know when to come back down for the oil she needed, and started back for the alley. It had just started to rain as she got back, and she was grateful to be handed her cloak back so she could put it back on as the rain began falling harder. Thankfully this made the walk back to her shop uneventful for them, as no one wanted to be out in the downburst, so they could hurry along the streets of Lion’s Arch uninterrupted. She unlocked the door to her shop and let the stranger in, taking down her now sodden note before letting herself inside and locking the door again. She took her cloak off and hung it up so it could dry out, before turning to look at this person taking in her shop. “It smells nice in here,” they said after a moment. “Thank you,” Odetta replied. “Don’t... would you like to take off your wet things?” Their hands twitched visibly at that. “I... you have been so kind. We- I don’t want to scare you.” “You won’t scare me,” she said, hoping that she wasn’t preemptively lying. “I only want to help.” They sighed at that, reaching up to start unwinding the scarf. “...we may need help because we forced our way into many of these clothes to try and hide among normal people. We haven’t taken them off in a very long time.” “Of course.” Odetta took a deep breath and began helping. It took a while to get them out of everything- they had been hiding their body under layers of clothing for some time, it seemed from just the different styles that she helped pull from their upper body- but finally they were in just their pants. They were a Mordrem. At least, they appeared to be one, but not like one she’d seen in the art that had been sent back from the front when the Pact had gone to take on the jungle dragon. They had the thickened bark that seemed less like skin and more like armor, as well as the horn-like growths at their joints, that she had seen in the depictions of the other corrupted sylvari- but how they differed from the other corrupted sylvari was their extreme height that had made her mistake them at first for a norn, their face was not as severely changed as others had, and perhaps most notably, the extra pair of arms that grew from their shoulders and now hung behind their back. “So that’s why you were hiding your body,” she murmured aloud as she sat back down, trying to not let how overwhelmed she felt show through. “Yes. We are monstrous, even to those who were turned by him.” “I- I’m so sorry. You were saying ‘I’, but now it’s ‘we’? Which do you prefer?” She paused. “And I haven’t even asked your name, I’m such a rude-” “We- I- I lost my name. To him. It’s a very long story. And the ‘I’ and ‘we” thing comes up in that.” She gestured to the other stool behind the counter, next to her. “I think you’ll find I’m very patient.” They ventured a small smile, before moving to sit down. “We- I. I will try to focus and not trip up while I tell this,” they said, before beginning the tale. “I have no memory of who I was before I was blighted the first time. All I know is I was dragged from the pod and his voice was in my mind, calling me to him- Mordremoth. I immediately went, knowing the way like you knew the paths here. He was beautiful to me, overwhelming. Perhaps it is what it would feel like for you to meet one of your gods. He said I had such potential because I could hear him so clearly. He said he wanted to try to do more with me because I was so open to him, and I agreed on the spot. “There was another blighting tree, very close to him. Because of that, it was a place of very strong magic, and magic that was at his whims. Mordremoth wanted to be able to blight us and make us look... well, more draconic. More like him and less like sylvari. I was sealed into the second blighting for... I don’t know how long. All I know is I felt our minds becoming more and more joined together. I don’t know if that was his goal. All I know is when I left the second blighting pod, my thoughts were always joined to his... and the other Mordrem were afraid of what I had become. I stayed by his side, serving his whims and making sure no one came too close to that particular blighting tree as he sought out other worthy Mordrem to put through the second blighting as I had gone through and make into an honor guard, of sorts.” Odetta realized she had been holding her breath, and softly exhaled. “Then what?” “Soon after that, the commander killed him. With his passing my mind dissolved completely into shambles. I... I do not know what I did for quite some time. I found myself near Rata Sum, but they were afraid of me, so I fled. I wandered near the Shiverpeaks, but the cold hurt me so deeply that I left as soon as I could. I heard someone on the road say ‘everyone who doesn’t have a home comes home to Lion’s Arch’, so... I came here.” They shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant as they continued. “I do not know if this is home. I do not know if I will ever have a home again. Perhaps I am too changed to know a home in this world anymore.” “Don’t say that,” Odetta blurted. “You’re still alive, I mean. As long as you’re alive, there’s hope, right?” “I cannot say.” They looked towards the window next to the door, watching the rain outside. It had picked up since they had come into the shop and was now pouring out. Odetta studied their expression as they watched the rain come down: they looked so sad and lost, in spite of how physically intimidating they appeared at first glance. “Can I suggest something?” They looked back at her, but they didn’t say anything, so she soldiered on. “You don’t remember anything from before the first blighting, and that includes your name... maybe it would help you feel like you had a future here in a world after Mordremoth if you chose a new name for yourself.” They were quiet for a long moment, looking thoughtfully at her. “That is... not a bad idea. We- I think it might help.” “Does anything feel like a good name?” They looked back outside again, frowning a little. “...Sheridan.” They didn’t look back at her as they spoke, and their voice shook slightly as they continued. “It echoes in my heart everyday. I do not know who he or she may be, though. It might even be a memory from him that was left behind after his death.” She reached over to pat his hand. “Sheridan can be your name if it feels right,” she said softly. “And if you find something else that feels better, then you can change it to that instead.” They sighed raggedly, looking at her. “We... like that. I like that.” “Then you’re Sheridan. And if you want to stay with me, that’s fine. I have space enough for someone else to live with me, after all.” They looked startled at that, so surprisingly so that Odetta almost started giggling at how earnest they were. “Are... you sure?” “Of course I’m sure! Why would I offer if I wasn’t sure?” They looked down at the floor for a moment, before sitting up and looking at Odetta. “Yes. Of course. We- I would like that. Let’s do it.” “Good. Then it’s settled. Let’s get all these clothes picked up and pick out one shirt for you to...” She trailed off, looking up at the extra arms on his shoulders that were currently stretching as he was standing up. “Let’s pick out a shirt for me to try and fix for you, so you have sleeves for all your arms.” He crouched down, sorting through the garments for one of the shirts that was in better shape, and reached up to hand it to her. “Here. And thank you.” “You’re welcome. Now here, let’s get the spare room set up for you.” *** Dear Vezz and Rissia, Hi everyone, since I know you’ll read this to the twins! I know I haven’t been out to visit, and I haven’t written in a while, so I figured I should take a few minutes to explain what’s been keeping me so busy. I sort of adopted a Mordrem I made a new friend who was a Mordrem but is recovering now. Their name is Sheridan, and since I had that empty room in the house I’ve been renting for the soap shop I had them move in with me as a roommate. They’ve even been helping out in the soap shop since they settled in! It’s really nice to have someone else around so I can actually take breaks, and they’re a fast learner. Plus they have extra extra hands so They’ve already figured out the basic soap recipe, so they’re the one working in the back to make more soap while I work up front with customers. They’re still a little shy, though, so I don’t think they’ll be ready for me to have you visit just yet. I’ll probably talk to them about me taking a day to come out and see you in Applenook, and if they’re comfortable with the idea of running the front yet or if they’d like me to close the shop yet. (That was a terrible run-on sentence: if Rissia is reading this, I’m sorry that you had to power through that.) I’ll let you know as soon as we decided what the plan is! Miss you lots, Odetta

[mama-ships]

~ 💖 ASK GAME 💖 ~

📷 What’s set as your phone’s lockscreen? my current pfp

🍫 Cheese or chocolate? cheese

✨ Do you have any nicknames? lots. the biggest is mama and mommy (not kinky i have a child)

🎵 Last song you listened to? master of puppets by Metallica

✏️ Have you ever written fanfiction? yes. 2, they were both discontinued.

😏 Are you on discord?yes -mama_ships

 💛 Do you have any piercings? guaged my lobes, wanna get lots more tho.

🐰 What do you think says the most about a person? their goals.

🍪 If you were a cookie, what kind would you be? none. i dont eat sweets. tummy hrty.

🐶 Are you more of a dog person or a cat person? neither. trauma on both, i like birds UuU

🎧 Headphones or earbuds? depends. short term, earbuds. long, headphones.

🌼 What’s the last thing you said out loud? "g**dammit i lost my voice!" i have not spoken in 8 hours ;-; *i sing/scream heavy metal*

🙃 What’s a weird fact that you know? -not gonna put that here-

🦉 Are you a morning person or a night owl? night owl.

🧸 Favorite place to nap? in mah bed. cuddling my daughter. but i have napped in her crib on multiple occasions.

🏳️‍🌈 Are you a member of the LGBTQIA+ community? YES!!!! i am A-romantic, and Pansexual, and gender fluid!!

🦋 Describe yourself in three words. fluffy, auhd, tired

👖 Jeans or sweatpants? why not both?

🥤 What’s your go-to Starbucks order? white chocolate pepermint hot mocha

🧡 A color you can’t stand? none

💎 What’s your most prized possession? material? my tablet.

☕ Coffee or tea? tea, coffee on occasions

🦖 Favorite extinct animal? barbary lion

🌙 How long have you been on tumblr? ive had multiple accounts since 2016

🌴 Desert island item? one of them knifes that are also a flint and steel

🐸 Describe your aesthetic. chaos

🔮 What’s your dream job? either continue my career as an armed security professional, or go to college for early childhood development, and busines, run my own daycare (before fnaf sb came out)

💙 Relationship status? single. wish i had friends outside of fandoms, but alas i do nt speak to ppl cause that weird

🌿 Describe your favorite outfit. cropped sweater and high waisted jeans or hoodie and sweat pants or cropped tank, flanneland bell jeans with cowboy boots

🎤 Is there a song you know all the lyrics to? too many man.

🤎 What color is your hair? naturally, dirt brown, currently candy apple red.

💌 Do you talk to yourself? alot

💄 Do you wear makeup? sometimes

🌸 Best compliment you ever received? between "you're my unicorn client" *my family court attourny*and "you're an amazing mom" *family court judge/commissioner*

💞 @ your favorite blog. bro i cannot choose

~ 💖 ASK GAME 💖 ~

📷 What’s set as your phone’s lockscreen?

🍫 Cheese or chocolate?

✨ Do you have any nicknames?

🎵 Last song you listened to?

✏️ Have you ever written fanfiction?

😏 Are you on discord?

 💛 Do you have any piercings?

🐰 What do you think says the most about a person?

🍪 If you were a cookie, what kind would you be?

🐶 Are you more of a dog person or a cat person?

🎧 Headphones or earbuds?

🌼 What’s the last thing you said out loud?

🙃 What’s a weird fact that you know?

🦉 Are you a morning person or a night owl?

🧸 Favorite place to nap?

🏳️‍🌈 Are you a member of the LGBTQIA+ community?

🦋 Describe yourself in three words.

👖 Jeans or sweatpants?

🥤 What’s your go-to Starbucks order?

🧡 A color you can’t stand?

💎 What’s your most prized possession?

☕ Coffee or tea?

🦖 Favorite extinct animal?

🌙 How long have you been on tumblr?

🌴 Desert island item?

🐸 Describe your aesthetic.

🔮 What’s your dream job?

💙 Relationship status?

🌿 Describe your favorite outfit.

🎤 Is there a song you know all the lyrics to?

🤎 What color is your hair?

💌 Do you talk to yourself?

💄 Do you wear makeup?

🌸 Best compliment you ever received?

💞 @ your favorite blog.

Reblogs are appreciated!

[j3strr]

I just spent 4 hours yelling on a discord server about my oc. Don’t ask how I had the time and attention span to do that, I couldn’t tell you.

Anyway, during that time I made a guide on how to tell the three different versions of him apart because I draw him at different stages of his life frequently and I am insane.

The guide is under the cut if anyone cares to read it (it’s long 650ish words) also it’s not proof read and I was a mess when I wrote this so please go easy on me.

Near the end I start talking about someone named Cyn and he’s the mc of the story and the love interest.

Man, having your oc also being your favorite blorbo is weirdddd

‼️Know your Vivian ‼️

A comprehensive guide on how to identify what version of my oc Vivian you’re looking at.

Child/teen (5-19)

Appearance

⁃ has wavy black hair that reaches his jaw

⁃ Mainly wears t-shirts and hoodies

⁃ Has bandaids a lot

Personality

⁃ ambiverted

⁃ Curious in a ‘curiosity killed the cat’ kinda way

⁃ Doesn’t have many friends

⁃ Speaks out/ speaks for himself

⁃ Very confrontational

⁃ Doesn’t like his half sister (Ebony)

⁃ Few moles

Living arrangement

He lives with his ‘not so great’ dad and his golden child younger sister Ebony in hell.

His dad is the war general for hell and is (badly) training Vivian to be his heir.

Collage age (19-24)

Appearance

⁃ Unkempt light blond dyed hair that still just reaches his jaw

⁃ No moles and birthmarks on his face (he covers them with concealer) they’re still on his arms and body tho bc makeup just smudges off

⁃ Wears a white tank top and a black zip up hoodie usually.

⁃ Eye bags

⁃ Constantly looks tired

⁃ Black jeans

⁃ Black choker necklace

Personality

⁃ tired

⁃ Constantly uneasy

⁃ Insecure

⁃ Irritable

⁃ Depression, anxiety and probably unresolved issues due to his childhood

⁃ Has friends but constantly feels detached

⁃ Smokes

⁃ Education major

Living arrangement

Vivian lives with his foster mom

(Valorie Velberne) and his adopted sister (Bailey Idkherlastnameyet) and eventually his original half sister moves in (Ebony darkness). Vivian legally changes his last name to his foster mom’s.

(Vivian darkness -> Vivian Velberne)

Also they’re in Toronto

Adult (26+)

Appearance

⁃ his hair is still dyed blonde (darker) but it’s grown out to his shoulders and he has black roots

⁃ His hair is also fluffy

⁃ Wears a soft brown parka with muted purple stripes on the sleeves

⁃ White tank top underneath

⁃ Doesn’t cover his moles anymore

⁃ Still has eyebags but generally looks happier

⁃ Has pins on his coat

⁃ Black cargo pants

⁃ Tall brown hiking boots

⁃ Still wears the necklace from time to time

Personality

⁃ he’s happier because he enjoys his job and the people around him

⁃ Stern but kind

⁃ Firm with his boundaries

⁃ Enjoys life

⁃ Resting bitch face

⁃ Caring

⁃ Helpful

⁃ Reasonable

⁃ Intimidating

Living arrangement

He runs a boarding school/ orphanage that houses humanoid mystical creatures who would probably be hunted by the government if found (angels, warewolves, vampires etc). It’s directly in between a lake and a forest. He lives full time in a cabin for the councillors there.

things that stay the same throughout

⁃ He has birthmarks and moles all over his body

⁃ Right eye is dark pink/ red and he has a freckle underneath and to the right of his pupil

⁃ Left eye is light pink is usually the only one drawn with a highlight

⁃ Tall straight black horns

⁃ Black tail that resembles a lion’s or cow’s

⁃ Naturally black hair that he dyes

⁃ Pale

⁃ Gets cold easily

⁃ Never wears sweaters and coats inside (blankets instead)

⁃ Always wears a coat when he goes out

⁃ His favourite colour is light pink (bc that’s the colour I associate him with the most)

⁃ He’s a demon

⁃ He has a pretty round face

⁃ On the shorter side

⁃ Narrow eyes

- Gay

Songs

Child/teen

Teen after him and Cyn met the first time

Collage age

Adult after he met Cyn again



This part specifically goes over how he feels about Cyn as he gets used to Cyn working there. I feel it correlates with his emotions rlly well.

The song The Bird Song almost exactly parallels how he feels about Cyn. Like, exactly, it’s rlly cool how well it fits.

(Link to the playlist on yt)

[lockandkeyblade]

Ahhh the basis of how we present him in our stories so he remains a brutal bastard. Truly, there was no better way to spend a few hours of my evening.

Honestly yeah these are awesome examples! Really grilling them down to the brass tacks, at least in terms of my own works:

Whoever (would have) Saved You is (obviously) a leash based on romance. The leash becomes very blatantly there when Vanitas is prepared to go scorched earth solely because Ven had a bad dream and needs him; Sora and Roxas are, ironically, the two characters who are most aware of the leash at this point. Vanitas himself becomes aware of the leash in chapter 8, when he has the choice between the X-blade or getting Ventus to someone who can heal him.

The end of chapter 10 has Vanitas hovering The Entire Chapter and this was-- extremely distracting to me because you know I was sitting there chanting "guard dog guard dog guard dog" under my breath, you know I was. In fact I actively complained to Ini on discord about how his guard dogging was distracting me during the final scene.

Little Lion Man is ironically, a more slowburn platonic leash?

Where the story stands right now, there is a leash. In fact you can actively see the moment the leash veers into play:

“If you hadn’t made that decision for yourself, I would’ve made it for you.” Sora’s body jerks, inhale more or less a sob. He wipes at his face, leaving smudges of dirt behind. “You would’ve killed him?” “If that kept you alive, I would’ve killed him.” To keep Sora intact. To keep Ventus intact. Quite possibly, to keep himself intact. He’ll kill in the future if he has to, an unstated fact that Sora seems to pick up on regardless. Just like before, when confronted with something about his mentor that was unpleasant, the boy doesn’t recoil in horror. He takes in every unkind, merciless fact and falls into thought, troubled but considering. Little Lion Man, Chapter 5

But Vanitas has held his leashes for so long that the idea he might give that to someone else is basically dead in the water to him- in fact, he talks about leashing himself quite a few times. Restraining himself is an active focus for him, as he's had several years to learn that kind of control and extend his leash to his own liking.

Without spoiling anything, Sora won't be holding that leash for a good long while. It's been created, and Vanitas will certainly become aware of it, soon enough.

And Ash & Dust is just a super good example of the leash dynamic where you have two Feral Dogs swapping leashes and basically, no one is actually in control at all. I still mean it when I say A&D Ven happily hands his own leash over and then drags Vanitas away on it. And Vanitas is entirely blind to his own leash, but Ventus holds it anyway.

This doesn't stop either of them from doing some pretty horrific things, because again, their dynamic in this story is not based on restraining the other. If anything Ventus is actively going out of his way to encourage Vanitas to be a Feral Dog all the more, and we only get very small slices of guard dogging from either of them. They are still more than capable of turning back to the hand on their leashes and biting down. Hard.

hello i am an anonymous tumblr user in your askbox and i am here to sayyyyy that you should explain Leash Theory to the people . vanitas and the leash(es)

Well hello there most anonymous of nonnys I have ever had yes I will definitely tell the people about Leash Theory, a thing that me and one other person coined privately on Discord. c:

First to make this easier: this is not a sex thing in the slightest. This is a trope. This can be platonic, antagonistic, romantic. Whatever the heck your preference may be, with a single leash, or just- dozens. There can be dozens.

Also this totally isn't just applicable to Vanitas; if you have a character that fits the archetypes, you can easily slap this on them. Easily. In fact I can very quickly replace Vanitas with Jason Todd here and it'd be applicable. Heck replace Vanitas with Shadow the Hedgehog, Chara Dreemurr, Sephiroth- it'll work. Basically any characters that can have a dangerously leaning feral dog/living weapon archetype can run through similar themes.

And lastly, always remember this is one interpretation and it doesn't necessarily mean "this is gospel for this character or characters similar to them". It's not even gospel for the tropes and archetypes being talked about. I'm simply exploring them in a specific way.

Read more for a full goddamn essay. I will link to original tumblr posts relating to different aspects where I can.

Applicable Archetypes and Why

So as can probably be pretty effectively deduced just from the name, Leash Theory is about Vanitas and his leash(es), which come in many flavors!

This specifically relates to the concept that trope wise, Vanitas' development throughout a lot of the stories I (we) plot and write take him from being either a Feral Dog/Living Weapon archetype, to a Guard Dog (or way more specifically Knight Dog).

Again, to make stuff easier:

Feral Dog is the archetype of a character who has suffered horrifically, generally unseen or unavenged, so why shouldn't they have teeth and bite? They exhibit problematic behaviour because they are a product of abhorrent circumstances. Shelter Dog is another term that's either meant to mean the same or very close to this. [as described here]

Weapon (Living Weapon) is the archetype of a character who is pressed and shaped to have little personality or personal goals beyond being- a weapon! They are created and crafted to cut and thus they will cut. It is their essential reason for being. [tasty overview]

Guard Dog is a character who has one or more key individuals they will either die for, go full scorched earth over, or just generally defend to the absolute zenith. Protecting and guarding this person(s) from key issues or just Everything Ever is their reason for being, the code of their life. How they do this and what triggers that guard response is very... fluid. [good desc of dynamic implications] Knight Dog is a sub-archetype of Guard Dog where it is much more focused on devotion from a master/servant perspective. Less "I do this out of adoration" and more "you are on a higher level than me or anyone else and I will Serve You". They are just a sword for the king to point, and only the king can point them.

What's important to note with a lot of these tropes is that they are often explored when you're dealing with characters who have been abused or have experienced a lot of trauma. It can be quite intimate or very personal for the individual author. There's a lot that goes into this and if you look into these archetypes further you'll see the terms whump, whumpee, whumper, caretaker, etc being tossed around a lot.

Generally a Feral Dog or Living Weapon is a victim to some extent. This does not negate them from doing bad things or excuse their actions when they do, though it can explain them, even make them seem like the most reasonable or justifiable response. Often, them doing bad things can actually be the entire point; particularly with Feral Dog there's a lot of catharsis in writing a victim who is not forced to be silent, demure, or forgiving. To anyone. I'm not gonna link fic examples but see Ash & Dust.

In the wake of this, Vanitas becoming a Guard Dog is the intended healthier outcome. This can still be problematic. In fact, because it's him, we kind of veer more towards this having problematic themes. It's not about redemption rewriting his character entirely, it is taking the internal purpose this character gives himself, his obsessive tendencies, utter lack of chill, and redefining it.

Side note: this is generally very deliciously paired with characters who are Martyr coded in some way but this isn't a post about Ventus lol.

Leash On Leash On Leash On-

Leash is just a really basic way of talking about the control he gives, usually willingly though sometimes subconsciously, to others, then going into further detail about his and the recipient's awareness of that restraint.

Unnatural Leashes

The unnatural leash he's usually going to be lumped with is typically going to be the canon one with Xehanort. Xehanort's his Master, creator, handler. He points the weapon.

Another unnatural leash that comes up in redemption fics a lot is when others (usually one or all of the Wayfinder trio) have something they are holding above him that forces his compliance to some extent. You're usually going to see this as him being stuck in Land of Departure and feeling helpless to leave, or reluctantly being forced into activities he wouldn't otherwise touch.

This is usually despite relations with other characters not yet being at a place where he's going to comply for their sake. In fact, there's often a lot of pointed commentary during this arc of these stories about how much he hates everyone around him, and how stupid everything is.

The Self-Provided Leash

This is going to depend on how helpless you feel Vanitas is or just want him to be, as it is a direct response to an unnatural leash. If Vanitas is leashed against his will, he can (not has to) create a much shorter leash of his own to regain a bit of personal autonomy.

Looking at canon, you could interpret this through how he attempts to kill Ventus in the wake of their first fight. The direction that we see Xehanort give Vanitas when he states "someone's gotta break that loser in" is simply "not here you won't".

So you can say Vanitas took that as permission to interpret "break him in" however he damn well pleases. Loosening his own, self-provided leash within the boundaries of the leash Xehanort has then lets him go:

"I can just permanently break Ventus and it won't be any huge loss. I am still technically sticking to my orders."

I love this leash, personally, because you can take this as a leash of rebellion. Adding a shorter, tighter restraint, again, for personal autonomy. Creating freedom while chained.

The (Sub)Consciously Given Leash

This is the leash that's the piece de resistance. If you checked that Guard Dog reference before you probably already know where this is going, lol.

Playing off Vanitas' personality is the key to how this works, so first, these are some of the traits I typically write him having as a default if I'm trying to view him from a canon standpoint:

He has an obsessive personality. Learned or just part of his nature, he fixates. We see this with his intent to fuse with Ventus, his desire for the X-blade, even his flippant remarks about just wanting to cause chaos. Vanitas gives himself goals, and he is dogged with them. Never loses sight of them.

Violence is all he knows. He has grown up choking on his own blood. One way or another, every relationship he has with the people and environment around him will include violence.

He's not forgiving. Growing closer to one person is not going to fix his problems with everyone else. Softening around one, or a few people does not stop him from resenting the sleights, the pain. It doesn't take away that he feels the universe owes him.

He is deceitful in a way that can come back to bite him. Vanitas often comes across as someone who only provides as much information as necessary to get what he wants. The great thing about this is, if Vanitas does this to others, he's going to do it to himself. He has the capability of tricking himself.

You don't really need to align with any of these ideals. You can have something similar, something entirely different; so long as whatever traits you align to him at his absolute essence. AUs are obviously going to reshape this this as well, so again- not a gospel! Not in the slightest!

However, what this type of leash needs, is to line up with an aspect of his personality. There needs to be something there, either conditioned or part of his inherent nature, that ensures he is going to remain cold and distant from the large majority of everything. Without that, you're just writing a redemption arc (which is also perfectly wonderful, just not the point of this post).

We won't go into how the relationship develops, that's always going to be fic specific and author specific. The key, however, is that the person(s) Vanitas interacts with gain his loyalty to them, and them alone. His worldview is not changed. His proclivity for violence has not changed.

But they are important enough to give a leash. And this leash is given with love, yes, but it is not just a promise of protection, it's kind of a burden. A terrifying burden.

What the Fuck, Why is the Leash A Burden

Consider this scenario.

Vanitas gives Ventus a leash. Ventus might be aware of this. He might not. Someone hurts Ventus. Vanitas goes full blown scorched earth in response. Someone will die-- unless Ventus stops him. Stopping him is not as simple as just saying "please stop". Stopping is being able to throw himself between Vanitas and whatever hurt him, conveying calm, hiding his own fear, convincing Vanitas he is. Fine. Everything is fine. If he cannot convince Vanitas of this, Vanitas will not stop. And for Ventus, a pure Light boy who does not kill, does not share that inherent violence, he will feel responsible, despite not asking for this to happen.

This character now has the responsibility of convincing Vanitas that no, it's okay, let's just go. Because if they are not okay, if they are scared, if they are incapacitated, he will go scorched earth, and he will not stop until that action has been completed.

Providing other characters with his leash is Vanitas' way of saying he loves them, but it gives them a burden of power that can, and probably will, kill someone. Vanitas does not love the universe, he loves a singular person. That person has just been hurt. Vanitas will not stop himself if the leash goes slack. They cannot let the leash go slack.

If the other character involved is aware of the leash, they have a responsibility to warn others of it. To tell people, outright,

No. Do not relax with Vanitas. Do not fool yourself into thinking he has changed. He is here for me, he will choose me. He does not care about you. If you are in the way, he will move you. If you are in peril, he will not save you. He is still just as Dark, angry, and destructive as he always has been. I just matter a little more.

This also leads to really great potential for, in future, the character who got the first leash identifying that oh fuck, Someone Else Just Got One, and having to explain it. Having to sit them down and go:

Vanitas loves you! He loves you so much! He's also gonna kill for you. Like, he will, kill for you. If given the slightest reason. Because he adores you, and that's great. Here's a full guide on what you have to do if you don't want blood on your hands.

So In Summary

Do you see it do you see the vision? Do you see how ridiculously intense and frightening and insane Leashes can make Vanitas' dynamics with other characters? Because, again, there are other ways to write him. There's other methods of redemption that are equally valid.

But there is something so, mouth wateringly powerful, about letting the dog keep his teeth.