#nixhydra

[synergysilhouette]

My Fictif OCs

Despite needing some help with writing, Fictif being bought and ignored by Dorian was a shame and had potential. Here I'd actually like to post about all the MCs I made for each book:

I was inspired by a post where someone was asking for inspiration for their own OC for FTLOG. I make my OCs original depending on the book. While their appearence/background may change, they're always a cis man with a muscular, thicc build. Here's a bit about them, since I don't have the time to give them SUPER detailed backgrounds (especially since I may end up contradicting canon).

Heir to Love and Lies

Cyrus Yehia--a mestizo man of Colombian, Egyptian, and Spanish descent. I picture him with black hair, a nice tan that gets deeper during his time in Columbian, and hazel eyes. I imagine him as being very self-conscious due to not having been in Colombia for years and now having to be there without his abuela. He's a skilled acrobat, and frequently uses it to observe those he's suspicious of. Being of a religious background, he has an affinity with Padre Joya--but that doesn't make him turn a blind eye to suspicious activity. He has a rocky relationship with the three LIs, but admires Val's genuine commitment to her job, Chava's protective nature, and Sergio's cleverness.

Last Legacy

Capricorn Visser--actually his name is Riven, but he was talking about his zodiac sign when he was brought to the world. He's a caucasian man with blonde hair and green eyes, and usually dresses in green or pink (imagine if Barbie and your favorite male lead in a video game had a son). While he's drawn to Saaros, Florian, and Escell, he eventually (thanks to canon) becomes attatched to our LIs. Personality-wise, his self-esteem sucks despite his looks and intellect, and generally bonds with Anissa and Felix due to them being less wild than Sage--but he's still very drawn to him.

Roadkill

Sterling Alenko--In my world, he has a dream of being a screenwriter, and this helps him to bond with Poe. He's also an African-Aborignee-American man known for his cool, stylish fashion that noteably distinguishes him from the casual dress the rest of the LIs wear (though his clothes are still functional). At the end of the show, he wears a romper and tea shades with a bucket hat. He's quite exciteable and thirsts for inspiration, making him somewhat manipulative with people in order to get information. Though downplays his phenomenal skills as an artist due to being indecisive as a child and his parents pressuring him to stay focused on something. He kinda has an existential crisis when finding out supernatural creatures exist and keeps garlic and silver with him at all times (though being the cool guy he is, makes it look fashionable and doesn't arouse any suspicions). I think he tries to undercut Poe's snarkiness and prevent Howie from being objectified when he gets to Hollywood, and recently Tess has taught him how to write songs! Out of laziness, I use the same OC for Snow Falling in Love (unless I change it last minute).

For the Love of Gods

Valens--He's a muscular, curvy man, inspired by Zagreus and Thanatos from the video game Hades. I'd say he has black hair that goes past his shoulders and hot pink eyes. His clothing depends on what aspect of love he embodies: the pure, kind love that everyone wants, as well as the lust, envy, and jealousy that can be caused be love. Currently in my headspace his "love look" has a golden crown headdress (similar to "Ryoma: Supreme Samurai" in "Fire Emblem: Heroes") with a red tunic that has intricate black patterns on it, making it look like moving art, and a black choker on his throat with a picture of Astrellio. He has a silver ring with a moonstone in it and black thighbands on either of his legs. It's beautiful and a little suggestive, but not over the top. He's known for carrying his golden arrows that bring out people's love for each other. In his current "lust" look, his clothes embody a tighter, more exposed look that show off his chest and legs, as well as embodying a pink and purple aesthetic, his pink eyes taking on a glow. His hair takes on a longer, more windswept look. During this time he still uses his gold arrows, but now keeps silver arrows as well--only these ones cause repulsion. It's a reference to the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne.

Courting the Crown

Avarice Kahale--Ignoring our father's design, I made him an PI-inspired character, explaining the culture as the consequence of colonialism (probably Italian-inspired). He dresses in blues, blacks, and silvers, largely due to still being in his grieving process and still kinda mourning. This distracts him from seeing certain warning signs that occur throughout the story. He's hesitant of Theo's advances given his past, as well as initially being shocked at Maeve's feelings for him. Gwydion's magical world and Rian's mystery makes him drawn to them in particular. There is an instance where Rian seduces him and drugs him to bring him back to Cetros, but when he changes his mind, it makes Avarice jump to his defense whenever anyone speaks ill of him. Before his mourning period, he was very Shikamaru Nara: very smart, but very lazy.

Two Against the World

Florence Chisholm--originally I was gonna name him Florian, but I think Nicky would enjoy the nod to Italy (he's actually of partial Italian descent), which also inspires him to use his grandfather's surname, Angelico. He's an auburn-haired, grey-eyed young man who's the son of lawyers and his fast-talking nature draws Nicky to him. While not into crime like Nicky, he's very charismatic, cheeky, and optimistic like he is, and matches Nicky's passion.

Catch Me in Miami

Arthur Yakushi-Silva--called Arturo by Miguel, his father is an Brazilian immigrant, while his mother is of Japanese heritage (she was born in Brazil, though), he's a quick swimmer and runner, making him a good partner for Miguel. While hesitant of Miguel's criminal activity, his charm and family does eventually convince Arthur to helo get Miguel out of the game, and this sometimes brings out a darker side to his typically bubbly personality.

Hollywoodland

Rudolph Midthunder--A Native American man who I headcanon as going on to being a successful actor (though he occasionally has to get rid of his iconic glasses). He's big on not ruffling feathers, but has developed a passive-aggressive personality as a result of keeping his head down. He originally attempted to pursue a relationship with Liam and Billy, but when he realized how important he was to Celia, he discovered how much he loved her.

Ghosted

Emrys Hye-kyo--a young man and Jesse's crush. Known for his business-chic fashion, no one would've guessed they would've ended up together. Being very reasonable, he's quick to be scared off by Jesse's ghost and solving the mystery, but as his feelings for Jesse grow, he realizes he needs to solve the mystery for both of their pieces of mind.

Monster Manor

Noah Rhineheart--an experienced ghosthunter/investigator who's actually never had relationships before. Known for his distinctive green hair and grey eyes, the residents of the manor at first assume he's a new arrival. He's a quiet listener to Casamir and Rainier's troubles, which makes him worry that they don't really like him for him, so he adapts to make their relationship more equal and conversational in order for their feelings to bloom.

Into the Mist

Galilei--a young elf who falls for Fin. Hmm, there seems to be something missing. Dorian should finish the story to find out more.

Isle of Enchantment

Aeris Tyrian--a young black man yearning for adventure. Due to having several brothers, he bonds with Rogue over trying to find his sister. He is originally intimidated by Serena, but eventually warms up with her following their adventure together. His interest in fair tales makes him jump between awe and eagerness to caution and skepticism, so it was certainly a growing experience.

Lemme know if you have any questions about them!

[trappolian]

i miss felix iskandar escellun…..

[saintunhinged]

i miss the old arcana, straight from the ‘go arcana. chop up the soul arcana, set on its goals arcana. i hate the new arcana, the bad mood arcana. the always rude arcana, spaz in the news arcana.

i miss the sweet arcana, chop up the beats arcana. i gotta to say at that time i’d like to meet arcana. nixhydra invented arcana, it wasn’t any arcana

and now i look and look around and there’s so many arcanas. i used to love arcana, i used to love arcana.

i even had the pink polo, i thought i was arcana. what if arcana made a song about arcana called “i miss the old arcana” man that would be so arcana. that’s all it was arcana, we still love arcana. and i love you like arcana loves arcana

[clownattack]

Idk if this is common knowledge yet but Geby Rosetti (only remaining og dev/artist from NixHydra) quit Dorian, good for them 😌👌

[thefishermansharbor]

Requesting rules!

Hello! I’m so glad you’re interested in my posts, thank you!

I’m Shirin, a writer for the arcana made by Nixhydra. My posts are in English, Spanish, and Farsi. Although my followers are mostly english, the majority of my posts are in english. 

First of all - you need to specify what and who. For example, you need to include which character ( Muriel, Asra, Portia, etc. ) and what type of writing you want it to be ( headcanons, blurbs, oneshot, etc. ) as well as what genre it is ( angst, fluff, pre - smut, etc. ) and more specifics. 

Example request : 

“ Hii Shirin! How’s it going? I want fluff headcanons of Asra, Nadia, and Lucio with a goth partner! Thanks.” 

There are specific no goes, I won’t write for the following:

Romance with underage characters. 

Extreme blood and gore. 

Pregnancy / miscarriages. 

Extreme trauma.

Harsh language. 

Blatant racism or sexism. 

Hard non - con. 

Other than that, the sky’s the limit when it comes to my requests! Feel free to request whenever you’d like, and expect to have a piece sent back to you within the next 1 - 3 weeks. Have a lovely day and stay safe online.

[fuchsschatten]

ooooh

through wallowing in arcana nostalgia type things, i discovered that parts of nixhydra made a new indie studio and are working on a game and the pictures + text I’ve seen so far looks amazing owo

definitely keeping my eye on that

[hellothereiplaygames]

This sums up my feelings about it pretty succinctly, where I think it really comes down to the writers at this point in time. I originally played Julian's route, then Asra's, and then have now played through each of the six routes and gotten both endings for each. Having already played Julian's route when I first played Asra's, Julian accusing Asra of being his accomplice seemed very forced (not knowing yet that Valerius accuses Nadia in her own route, so all three of the original routes take more or less the same path) in order to inject drama into the narrative. They needed to draw attention back to the hanging in order to make the Justice and Hanged Man chapters make sense. I can't even remember how they did it in the other three routes. I think Portia's might have diverted from this point with the arrival of Tasya.

It's only after playing Muriel's that this scene really struck me as odd and with scary implications, because if Asra did go along with this as nonchalantly as it appears from the information provided in the game, it isn't entirely out of character for them. It's evidence of how far he's willing to go for the Apprentice, and I'm just not with dragging your friend into something so triggering.

Once again, in Asra's defense, when first encountering Muriel in their route, he seems very concerned about Muriel's well-being, asking if he's eaten and if he has any food and genuinely seems to care about him just as much as Muriel cares about Asra. He clearly cares more about the Apprentice, but Muriel is definitely right after them. Their love language and way of showing affection and care is directly analogous to the way he treats the Apprentice.

After the comments made about the writers steamrolling them into a scene that more or less made all of them act out of character and someone else mentioning they think the whole scene is fanservice, the inclusion of this scene makes sense. The fanservice theory in particular makes sense considering the three decent male love interests are in revealing clothing and they even have Asra disintegrate Muriel's chains to make his form more overtly obvious. I do think that's what happened behind the scenes and that is the real root of the problem. Pretty sure at the time I originally played this game everyone was hyped to see Julian wearing his little gladiator outfit and the thirst was insane.

Still, it is very concerning that given the themes Asra's route deals with that it isn't out of the realm of possibility that he would choose to put Muriel in such a position in order to be with the Apprentice. All-consuming obsession and avoidant coping mechanisms and all that. I certainly hope he wouldn't do such a thing, but the fact that I can't really tell is very telling. It also gives Muriel's feelings toward the Apprentice more context.

But especially with the speculation about fanservice (which clearly came into play with the game's writing, i.e. woobified Lucio) makes the scene make a lot more sense and I feel inclined to feel like it's not really canon as well... because like... what is even happening? When I look through old versions of the prologue and other aspects of the game, it seems like they didn't have a concrete direction to take everything in and the fans' desires did start to outweigh the story's integrity at a certain point. Perhaps this is the point in Asra's route where this begins. Nixhydra made a lot of questionable choices with the game, so I guess this is just another example of it that unfortunately reflects very poorly on Asra's character, if you choose to read it that way. And once again, it ends with marginalizing Muriel (who is heavily indigenous-coded) and his suffering in particular, which has me grinding my teeth.

Some thoughts on Asra's route...

Replaying Asra's route after having played Muriel's really hits different...

In one of the other routes Asra and Muriel appear to start a romantic relationship, and in Asra's route it's very clear that Muriel cares very deeply for Asra and dislikes the Apprentice. He mentions in one of the paid? dream scenes that he's worried about Asra and the Apprentice fading into their own world and leaving everyone else behind (again, apparently), and that he's determined to stop this from happening. His concern for Asra and initial hostility toward the Apprentice may be rooted in jealousy, not only because his oldest (and only) friend was more or less taken from him, but perhaps with romantic connotations as well.

In Book XI: Justice, Asra and Julian stage a mock trial by combat against Muriel. Though he apparently agreed to participate and is implied to have returned to the Coliseum of his own volition, presumably out of concern for Asra, who has been accused of being Julian's accomplice... he is still more or less backed into a corner and forced to play along with Asra and Julian's plan to stage a fight.

Now, to be fair to Asra, he states after everything goes wrong that it wasn't supposed to end this way, and it appeared that he was attempting to not only exonerate himself and Julian from their charges but somehow help Muriel overcome his past (he does disintegrate Muriel's chains during the fight no matter what choices you make). There was a point during this that I thought I could guess what Asra's plan was regarding Muriel's past, but being refreshed on how it actually pans out, I can't remember it now. Something about making the people of Vesuvia realize how barbaric the Coliseum was under Lucio.

The thing that stands out to me throughout this whole ordeal is that Asra knows about Muriel's trauma. He knows he was enslaved to Lucio and forced to fight and execute people in the Coliseum. He knows that Muriel is terrified of hurting other people, especially those he cares about. In Asra's route, the only person Muriel cares about is Asra, so hurting him is triggering for him. He literally is in a stupor after the board he was using as a weapon splinters off and hits Asra in the mouth, making him bleed. This is clearly meant to make the reader worried about Asra, but Muriel reacts as well, and appears hypnotized by the blood. I remember the first time I read this I thought he was going to have some crazy berserker-Hulk sort of reaction, but having read his route, it's way more tragic.

Though Muriel did seem to return to the Coliseum of his own volition, it does seem that Asra took this as a sign that he was coming to terms with his trauma. He was willing to exploit Muriel's care for him in order to save his own skin so he can be with the Apprentice. Though I recognize Asra's other toxic traits to some degree, I also have similar ones myself so they don't really stand out to me. This, however, where he more or less disregards Muriel's feelings on the matter, is actually really crushing. In Muriel's route, his whole thing is that he DOES NOT want to fight, he DOES NOT want to even spar with the Apprentice with blunt sticks out of fear of hurting them, so why would he willingly go along with this unless he was more or less in the same position Lucio put him in? Fight in the arena, or something bad will happen to Asra.

Asra knows this, and puts him through it regardless. During the whole fight, Julian's actions are written so as to make it seem like he's the one messing things up--he takes the "finishing blow" that Muriel was going to deal to Asra and gets knocked unconscious. Asra spends most of the entire time doing flashy, dramatic magic tricks that get the crowd cheering for him. After he "wins", he and the Apprentice are carried out of the Coliseum like heroes. Though Asra will try to soothe Muriel if the Apprentice so chooses right before the end, and he does look for Muriel in the crowd, he seems otherwise unbothered or unaware of the impact this may be having on his oldest friend. Which is pretty shitty.

Of course, Asra, Julian, and Muriel are all playing characters during their fight--Asra is the flashy magician, Julian is the rogueish BDSM dagger guy, and Muriel is the Scourge. Asra obviously can't show his concern even if he wanted to because he's supposed to be fighting Muriel. But putting his bro into this situation in the first place says a lot about his character. Though Julian is the one whose route is based around self-loathing because he believes he hurts everyone around him, Asra is the only one who gets what he wants out of this ordeal, and he even says so right before the chapter ends. Muriel was forced to relive his trauma and didn't get the resolution that was intended, and Julian gets KOed by a punch that literally sent him flying across the arena (though he probably enjoyed it tbh, he's a nasty little man like that lmao).

I wonder if this dynamic between Asra and Muriel was intentionally written this way in order to further amplify his tunnel vision when it comes to the Apprentice. Is this is how he acted in the past, causing Muriel to hate the Apprentice as he does and remark that he won't allow it to happen again? Maybe (probably) I'm reading too much into it, but as a survivor of abuse and trauma it rubs me the wrong way much more than Asra's obsessive, clingy nature. Of all of the reversed ends, Asra's is the one that actually scared me and kind of haunted me, because it hits a little too close to home.

These are all just thoughts that I wanted to spill out because I thought it was interesting and I wasn't sure if anyone else has talked about it before.

[asra-appreciation-club]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE'S FAVOURITE DOCTOR

[sonthesheep]

i’m gonna post this here instead i hate it but rime for mt tumblr babies i’ll prolly do more of him until i’m satisfied i just need some good references

[ceragondubs]

Our fandub for Nadia’s Heart Hunter interactions is out now!

[fox-daddy]

Reason #157 why I play hacked versions and refuse to give them anymore money via merchandise.

I got the tarot cards when it was still under NixHydra I got the book I have what I need.

IS THIS A GLITCH OR SMTH?

[choleraciemna]

Soooooo...

If anyone knows a good screen recorder that also captures audio please tell me. Gonna save as much as I can anyways and then share with y'all.

[whatafuckinnerd]

How was the work place in general? I feel like there has got to be a reason why the entire last legacy team + lynne all quit around the same time.

The workplace itself? Tbh, I don't know about the writers. Their work environment was VERY different from mine. I also worked from home when I was doing customer support, but I was in-office during my time in shipping/merch and honestly? It was great. Probably one of my best work experiences.

However, I think the shipping/merch department was treated differently than other departments, as we were often left alone for our entire 8-hour shifts in a conference room to fulfill as many orders as we could a day. It was busy work made better by good coworkers, but honestly? We ran ourselves. Besides our department manager, we were mostly ignored by the higher ups and the rest of the company. It was only the other employees who were friendly with us that we'd ever see.

I can't speak for Lynne and Dev, nor would I want to. They have their own stories. But I will say I never saw the LL team in the office. Whether this is because NH wanted to keep us (shipping dept) isolated or because they worked entirely from home, I don't know. I do know that everyone has their breaking limit though. And just like I reached mine, I wouldn't be surprised if they just reached theirs.

[boardboxes]

The outfits for this arcana tale are DELICIOUS 😋😋😋

we have been fed and I love them so much

My favorites are probably julian or portias I like the poofs but I like the stars on Muriels hes so fashionable

[shamylicious-blog]

my ravenboy