#probably a title holder I might change it

[dreaming-of-mossballs]

A Care Package for a Bashful Captain - (Gepard x florist!reader)

Summary: It’s been a month and a half since Gepard left for his mission to retake part of the city. You decide to send him a gift to warm his heart!

▸ Genre(s): Fluff

▸ Word Count: 4.5k

▸ Tags: Gepard x reader

▸ Warnings: Reader is short, food mention, established (platonic) relationship,

A/N: GAH IM SORRY IT’S LATE. Will reader ever sort out their feelings for Gepard? Who knows? Also reblogs are greatly appreciated. Don’t want people following the series to miss out!

MASTERLIST (MORE GEPARD HERE)

Your marker was beginning to run out of ink.

Specifically the one you had been using to cross off days on your calendar. It had been half a month since Gepard had left for his mission on the front lines— and although you weren’t exactly sobbing into your pillow every night, you did miss him.

A lot.

Probably more than the acceptable level.

Those red lines stared at you every day mockingly, reminding you that your friend was fighting tooth and nail for the safety of the city. Thinking about his job as a soldier made your stomach churn.

Was he sleeping enough? Eating enough? What would he do if he got injured?

What if he didn’t come back one day?

His track record of victories should’ve discouraged you from worrying about him, but in fact, it did the exact opposite. You feared he might be crushed by the weight of the expectations placed on him and end up disregarding his own safety for the sake of others.

Although Serval didn’t seem half as worried as you were. In fact, she seemed as cheery as ever when you met her and Molly for lunch on the weekend. She did have experience in running military campaigns, and she was Gepard’s own sister for Qlipoth’s sake! She’d dealt with his absences probably more times than she could count.

And so you came to the conclusion that this level of anxiety about Gepard must be irrational. But attempting to steel yourself and block out thoughts of him didn’t stop your hands from shaking when you handed people their change across the counter of the flower shop.

This kind of feeling was different than the ones you had experienced in the Underworld. Yes, you experienced danger often in the mines, but at least it was just you that was in danger. Not a loved one. This time you were forced to watch someone else fighting tooth and nail.

It felt so viscerally uncomfortable.

With all these thoughts constantly running through your head, it was time you found something to do instead of ruminating over his absence—

—before your head exploded, that is.

While checking out the latest gardening magazines at the library, you spotted a sleeve of periodicals you weren’t familiar with, titled Crocheter’s Weekly.

Huh. This looks fun, you thought, reaching your hand out to grab it. It had last month’s date on it, but it’s not like it mattered.

Anyone can do it! The subtitle exclaimed in garish red font. Fun for both friends and family!

You flipped open the issue curiously. The first few pages were filled with a few photographs of blankets, and a full-page advertisement for a phonograph. On the subsequent ones, you were happily surprised by the variety of works showcased by the magazine. They looked relatively simple, such as a plushie of a cat, a handbag, and a cup holder. Turning the page, you inhaled sharply when your eyes landed on a picture of a woman, who had an intricately patterned blanked sitting draped across her lap. She looked like the founding father of arts and crafts.

She sat upon on a rocking chair with her hands folded wisely, and had narrow eyes with droopy lids. What seemed to be an entire quiver of crochet needles rested at her side.

Large print at the top of the page read “Ask Bertha”. Your eyes scanned the questions asked by, presumably, the readers.

—“Dear Bertha, what is your favorite yarn to use?”

Dear reader,

My favorite yarn is mohair, size three, of course. It’s rather expensive, but has high luster and sheen. It’s quite warm too! I first came across it when my husband visited the market during one particularly cold winter. I crocheted him a pair of mittens which he wore for years! You’ll be sure to earn compliments on your pieces wherever you go!

—“Dear Bertha, will you be at the ‘Knitter’s Convention’ this year?”

Dear reader,

I wouldn’t miss it even if Belobog froze over! I look forward to seeing the creations this year. The theme is “sky”, so make sure to snap up as much blue yarn as you can!

P.S, Margaret from the Fourth District doesn’t stand a chance for first prize, although I’m sure everyone already knew that.

—“Dear Bertha, what brand of Geomarrow heater do you use?”

Huh. That didn’t seem to be a question about crocheting. Next question.

—“Dear Bertha, what should I do if I suspect my husband is cheating on me with an Underworld woman?”

Your eyebrows shot through the roof.

Dear reader,

You have my deepest condolences. The very idea is preposterous. Underworlders are the most brash and uncouth people I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. I met one the other day and he told me straight to my face that he didn’t enjoy tea! Could you believe he said that even after I asked so kindly? Something about how “it’s just leaf water”. That doctor is strange too, the one they call Natasha. I heard she used to live on the surface but chose the dirt and grime of the Underworld over the Administrative District!

Anyways, about your husband. Get him to sign a prenup and gut him for all he’s worth. Sending my thoughts your way!

Your eyes sprung open as you registered the sewage this woman was spewing.

Oh that’s fucking IT, Bertha. I’ll show you. I thought you were wise but you betrayed my trust!

You tossed the magazine aside with a snort. Yes, cheating was most definitely bad, but being from the Underworld had nothing to do with it. You decided to find a guide on crocheting that was less of a waste of ink.

You soon found a hardcover book labeled “Crocheting 101 for Beginners”.

Much better, you thought to yourself.

You shuffled to the library counter with your chosen material and left in a huff. As you were exiting the library, a thought popped into your brain.

Gepard likes growing flowers, right? Maybe he’d like crocheting too,

You felt a pang of disappointment in your chest as you remembered you couldn’t call him to ask. He was unreachable, out there in that snowy hellscape.

Your days were a little bit emptier when one of your friends was gone, but you knew that to the Silvermane Captain, work came first and foremost. You could deal with him being gone in the meantime.

When you stepped through the door of the Florists, a harsh wind snuck past you and blew some petals off the flowers. You wilted a little.

Even with the Geomarrow heaters keeping the city warm, the wind still managed to make you shiver.

You froze as if struck by lightning.

That was it! You could make Gepard something to keep him warm while he was working. It was probably a hundred times as windy in the Outlying Snow Plains where he fought, right? Plus, it would be nice to show him your appreciation for the work he did.

Your brain was positively overflowing with ideas, and you scribbled them down on a spare order form you found in the filing cabinet.

Hmm, You tapped your chin with your pen. Earmuffs might get in the way of his hearing, so I think a scarf would do, You pumped your fists to yourself in self-satisfaction. It was decided! You would stop by the knitting store first thing tomorrow morning!

❆—❆—❆

Huh. That’s strange,

You slung your shopping bag over your shoulder and tilted your head, peering at the racks of yarn in the aisle. They were sorted by colors in the order of the rainbow— and the entire section containing anything remotely close to blue was missing.

That WITCH. She definitely planned this somehow!

You reflected on the sentence you had read about the crocheting competition with a grumpy expression.

You now had a personal vendetta against her for enacting a monopoly on blue yarn. This woman had the entirety of Jarilo-VI in the palm of her hand.

It wasn’t a good idea to turn the store upside down, or else you’d be proving Bertha right about Underworlders being “uncouth”, so you acquiesced and decided to search for another color.

It was a shame though— blue really would’ve suited him. It would have especially brought out his eyes, which were the color of deep sapphire pools, more clear and resolute than anything you’d ever seen.

You had told him they were pretty a few weeks ago, you recalled, but his face went pink and he changed the subject to his work at the museum.

Half-rolling your eyes in defeat, you froze when you spotted a pile of discounted yellow yarn in the corner.

Yellow… Yellow! That’ll do! You gasped. The medals on his uniform were decently close to yellow. (Although bright purple would have been cute.)

You scooped a bunch of it into your arms, along with a single bundle of white, and sprinted to the front of the store. A shopkeeper with chestnut hair and a brown apron stood organizing a few racks of fabric.

“I’ll take these, please!” You declared triumphantly, dumping your yarn across the counter. You fished your hands into your pockets for the money.

“Oh? How unusual! We haven’t sold anything but blue yarn for the past week,” the worker at the front counter commented. “What are you making?”

Placing the coins on the counter, you replied casually, “Just a scarf for a friend. He’s been on my mind lately,”

You picked up a pair of needles with the size recommended for your yarn and slid them across the counter. “Ah, and these too, please,”

“It’s a nice color. It’ll look good on them,” they smiled at you warmly, wrinkles forming at the corners of their green eyes. Your brain flitted from image to image of Gepard wrapped up to the nose in a yellow scarf, which almost caused you to giggle out loud.

The employee bagged up your items and bade you farewell. The ring of the shopkeeper’s bell announced your departure.

While you were exiting the store, to your surprise, you spotted two very familiar faces.

“Serval! Pela! What are you guys doing down here? Isn’t it a weekday?”

“Right on the money, (Y/N)! We were actually picking up reports from the civil service department,” Serval exclaimed. “The weather’s been awfully cold, hasn’t it?”

You hummed, traipsing over to them with your bag of yarn. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about crocheting a scarf to mail to Gepard. He could use something warm while he’s fighting on the front lines, right?”

Pela paused for a moment thoughtfully before speaking. “That’s a nice gesture. I wasn’t aware you knew how to crochet,”

You smiled sheepishly. “Actually, I’ve never tried. I checked out a book on it recently and decided I should use it for something useful,”

Serval chuckled affectionately. “He’d be so happy if he knew you had him on your mind, right Pela?”

The navy-haired girl narrowed her eyes at her. She sighed.

“I’ve actually been meaning to send a letter to the Captain myself. How about we send him a care package?” Pela suggested.

The Rockstar of Belobog gasped. “That’s a great idea! I’m sure he would love to get a package from you— ahem… us!”

“We can all write letters, and I’ll send him a few more pairs of socks,” Serval twirled a pair of keys on her finger. “They go through them like crazy out there,”

Pela nodded. “Would you allow us to drop them off at your place later?”

“Without a doubt!” You rested your hand on your hip. “Whatever works best for you guys. I know work has been tough recently,”

“It’s hard, but we’ll continue doing our best!” Pela said decisively. Serval nudged her teasingly.

“Want to come with us for lunch?” Serval inquired.

You shook your head sadly. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t— I’ve got to get started on his scarf,”

“Ah, that’s alright,” Serval nodded with a lopsided grin. “We’ll see you later!”

❆—❆—❆

When you got home, you immediately opened up your book and got to work on the floor of your bedroom.

You first practiced a few stitches with the bundle of white yarn, which turned out to be way easier than you expected. The string formed an orderly pattern which was pleasing to the eye. It was easy to get a grasp on how methodical crocheting was.

When you were about halfway through the scarf with yarn was scattered everywhere, you heard someone rapping softly at your door.

“Come in!” You raised your voice slightly.

Vaska’s familiar brown hair peeped through the crack in the doorframe.

“(Y/N), Eleanor made vegetable soup if you’re hungry,” she chirped. “It has some interesting looking radish in it this time— ooh! What’s that?”

“A scarf,” you responded neatly, turning back to your project. “Want to try? It’s a good way to unwind,”

“Sure. Sounds fun!”

Your co-worker opened the creaky door up the rest of the way and stepped into the room. She sat down next to you with her legs skewed to the side, and you handed her a needle and began enthusiastically instructing her how to get started.

“Here. Let me show you how to do a beginner’s stitch. For the most part, crocheting is pretty repetitive and easy to pin down,” you grinned at her.

You gave her half of the yarn you had bought (you had bought way too much since it was on sale), and let her make whatever her heart desired. It was like when you had started working at the flower shop, just with the roles reversed this time.

The two of you sat in silence until it started to get late, and then you got up to close the blinds. When you got back, Vaska pointed excitedly at the fabric you had started, specifically the ends of your scarf where the yellow yarn had been interwoven with white triangles to form a geometric pattern.

“Your scarf is looking great so far. I like the colors you chose,” Vaska exclaimed.

You shot her a bright smile as you sat down. “Thanks! It’s a gift for someone,”

“Oh? That’s sweet of you. And who’s this ‘someone’ you’re making it for?”

“It’s for Gepard,” you said offhandedly, hoping she didn’t notice you almost dropped your needle. “I figured he could use something to keep him warm while he’s serving,”

“Cool,” she puckered her lips distractedly and raised a blob with numerous appendages. “Check out what I made!”

You stared at it for a few seconds before you chuckled.

“That’s a wonderful olm, Vaska,” you said, amused. It looked exactly like one.

“I think I’ll put it downstairs. I’ll him Daisy,”

“Okay, just make sure to let Meg know what it is so she doesn’t throw it out by accident,”

She gave you an exaggerated gasp. “Why on Jarilo-VI would she do that?? He’ll boost morale. I’m sure of it,”

“Our boss has never exactly been one for liking creatures…” You stopped. “Oh! Would you mind if I borrowed your wax seal set?”

“Go ahead. Just don’t eat them,” she snorted. You shot her a pouty expression.

❆—❆—❆

A few hours later, you had tucked the scarf securely into a cardboard box and placed a layer of packing paper over it. Long after you were sure most of your roommates had gone to sleep, a knocking could be heard at the front door.

You gave a quick call in response before taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.

You rushed over to the door and opened it, with oven mitts still on your hands.

“Hey you guys! Welcome!”

“Something smells good in here,” Serval remarked loudly. Pela shushed her with a worried look on her face.

“Ah, yep. That’s the cookies,” you explained.

Pela abandoned all subtlety and bounded over to the cooling rack. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at you wordlessly.

“I highly doubt I’ll be able to eat all of those myself,” you quipped good-naturedly. She snapped one up immediately, letting out a noise of satisfaction as she bit into the crunchy edge of the cookie and the perfectly goey inside. “Just don’t get chocolate on your letter,”

“So, this is what you’ve rounded up, huh?” Serval peered into the box on the table. “Here. I’ve got a letter from me, and one from Lynx. She set off for a research trip earlier today,”

“Sounds exciting. I hope it goes without a hitch!” You chimed in.

“I’m sure it will— ah, thanks Pela,” she turned as the smaller female tapped her on the forearm and handed her a cookie. Serval showed you the things she had brought, which were the letters, socks, and a few photographs from Lynx.

There was one of Serval, Gepard, and Lynx together, one of their entire family, one with you and Pela giggling at a cafe where you had whipped cream from a shortcake smeared across your lip.

“Wait, we aren’t seriously planning on sending this one, right??” You looked at Serval, horrified.

“We are indeed!” She took a bite of a cookie. “Mmmmm, (Y/N) these are so good! Are you planning on sending some to Gepard?”

You hesitated briefly. “Uh… no. I didn’t think that was allowed. Plus, the other soldiers might start begging him to have some or something,”

“He’s the Captain. Do you think he’d let people walk all over him?” She retorted, exasperated.

“I doubt he would want to put that much effort into protecting a container of cookies,” you said skeptically.

“YOUR cookies, maybe,” she snorted off to the side.

“What was that?” You challenged.

“Nothing. I was just mentioning he has a bit of a sweet tooth. Thinking out loud,” she closed her eyes smugly.

Pela raised her eyebrows at her friend. “Sending food via mail isn’t allowed. It’s to prevent things from spoiling,”

“Oh— fine,” Serval sighed. “Anyways, mind if I borrow a pen? I need to add something to my letter,”

You gestured to the cabinet that held the writing materials.

“…so, what’s that yellow blob on the windowsill?”Serval motioned a gloved hand over towards the olm Vaska had made.

“Oh, that? That’s Daisy,”

“Uh. Good to know,”

Pela trotted over to where the knitted creature was and picked it up by the scruff cautiously. The crocheted limbs hung limply at its sides.

“Kinda cute, right? I thought it was a bit weird at first, but it’s kind of growing on me,” you interjected.

“Urk! Y-yeah, you could say that,” The intelligence officer pressed a finger to the bridge of her glasses. “Serval and I should probably get going. We have a lot of analysis to get to tomorrow,”

“Whaaat?” Serval complained, a brand new cookie in her hand.“Come on, just a few more minutes. Say… would you happen to have any milk?”

Pela sighed.

“Ugh. Fine…. Just a few more,”

❆—❆—❆

The next day after work, you went to Manya, an administrative official, to ask when their next shipment of mail to the Outlying Snow Plains was. She was uptight as usual.

“The next mail delivery is set for today,” The mint-haired lady said stiffly. “Who do you want to address this to?”

You blinked in surprise. “Ah, I’m sorry, I’d like to address it to uhh.. Gepard Landau please?”

“The Silvermane Captain? I see. We’ll try to get this to him as soon as possible, capiche?”

Manya took the package from you and you bowed to her graciously.

I really hope he likes it…

❆—❆—❆

Meanwhile, in the freezing wastes of the Snow Plains, the young captain was working hard. He was standing in a makeshift meeting tent, pondering over a map placed over a few stray barrels.

It wasn’t often they had the luxury of furniture other than weapon racks and barbed fences, in fact, just last week Franz had gotten caught in one, and it had taken the work of three guards to get him untangled.

With a sigh, Gepard traced his armored hand over a section on the top of the map, running through plans in his mind all the while. His gaze was laser-focused on the weathered paper, anyone passing by might suspect he was trying to burn a hole in it.

“Tory, do you have a moment?” He turned his head towards an officer cleaning off their musket. They lowered it and marched toward him.

“How is progress going on the northern rampart?”

“As predicted, sir,” they answered.

“Hm. Good. We’re setting out as planned tomorrow morning if you could let everyone know it’s been finalized,”

A different Silvermane gunner turned a corner into the meeting tent and waved to get Gepard’s attention. “Cap’n! We’ve got a package for you!”

A package? What on earth is Serval sending me this time? Gepard let out a short sigh. Last time it was a glitter bomb that hit Pela by accident.

She’d spent the better part of a month shaking out the glitter from her uniform.

The Captain took the package from the officer, which wasn’t very heavy, so that was a relief. He checked it from corner to corner to make sure it hadn’t been sent to the wrong person. Yep, sure enough, it was his.

“Sir, I’ll take the night watch for tonight. Why don’t you attend to your mail?” Offered the one who had made the delivery, gesturing with her hands.

“You have my thanks, Dasha,”

The soldier gave a quick salute and picked up a rifle to take with them to the watchtower.

Gepard laid the cardboard container (which was dented on one corner) onto the slipshod table. He used his fingers to carefully pry open the flaps of the box— ready at a moments notice to cover his face in case his sister had found a new way to make lightweight bombs.

Much to his surprise, it wasn’t an explosive.

Inside the parasol was four letters, a few pairs of socks, and some photographs resting on a layer of packing paper. Normally his family waited more than half a month before mailing him something because they all had their own matters to attend to.

He raised a curious eyebrow, wondering if you had something to do with this. His suspicion was confirmed when he went through the letters and spotted your handwriting on one of them.

One from (Y/N)… One from Serval… Lynx… Pela,

Gepard pulled each of the letters out one by one, holding them up to the light he got from the dying lanterns, and set them on the supply crate table in a neat pile like the meticulous soldier he was. He rummaged around in his pockets for the Landau family letter opener he kept on him and used it to slice your envelope open first. It was held shut by a red wax seal with a gilded emblem pressed into it.

Dear Gepard,

Hope this letter finds you well. We miss you a lot! Business has been better than ever at the florists, in fact, Meg is considering me for a promotion!

I made something for you to help keep you warm while you’re on duty. They were out of blue yarn, but I hope you like it!

We’re thinking of you every day you’re gone. Stay safe and warm out there.

Sincerely, (Y/N)

He smiled gently. So it was you who had made the socks. That was very considerate of you.

Next, Gepard read through the letters the others had sent. Lynx’s was silly and made his heart feel much lighter. She was the one who had sent the photographs consisting of the Landau family, her. Pela, and you, laughing with a smudge of cream on your face. He made sure to tuck the pictures in his pocket.

Pela’s letter was professional but loaded with thinly veiled worry. Reaching for Serval’s letter next, he did his best to quell his suspicions about it, and tried to be grateful she even decided to send him something.

Hiya Geppie! It read in bold purple ink.

Is everything all right out there? I know it gets cold as all hell, so I bought a few extra pairs of socks for you. Lynx has been missing you a lot, but don’t tell her I told you that. Hope to see you again soon. Lots of love!

P.S, (Y/N) made us some awesome chocolate chip cookies. Sucks you weren’t there to try them.

Signed, Your oh so doting and loving Big Sis

Gepard snorted, followed by a smile, and tucked the letter back into the envelope. That was followed by a second of hesitation.

It wasn’t quite clicking in his brain. If Serval had sent the socks, what had you sent?

He picked up a pair of the socks just to check. Surely enough, they had the logo of a familiar Belobog department store on them, which checked out with what Serval had said. He pushed aside the layer of packing paper, and his breath died in his throat before it could become a cloud in the freezing night air.

Staring him in the face was a handmade scarf. Bright yellow, like pieces of the sun had been woven into it. White triangles accentuated the ends, and was ridiculously long, long enough to reach his knees. There was pocket on both ends of the scarf for his hands or any tchotchkes he might have.

Gepard held the scarf up to the light of the lantern. The stitchwork looked complicated and VERY time consuming. He could tell a lot of love had been poured into this gift. His face felt aglow with happiness as he imagined you all cheerfully getting together to make this for him.

He was glad everyone seemed safe and happy back at home. It made his work just a little more bearable.

Placing the box in the mail corner for safekeeping, he fastened the scarf around his neck. It was long enough to wrap around his head three times, it was warm and smelled of flowers. Truth be told, it smelled like home.

The Captain propped himself up against one of the walls, along with his guitar case, and drifted off to sleep.

❆—❆—❆

Wait… did the captain always have that yellow scarf??

Dasha snuck another glance at the sleeping Silvermane Guard Captain from her spot on the watchtower.

Gepard opted to sleep in the same spot as all the other soldiers instead of vying for his own tent— that was one of the reasons his underclassman respected him so much. He was constantly reliable, selfless, and strong. A shining beacon of hope always looking out for others.

But tonight, Dasha got to see a different side of a him.

Gepard’s nose was buried in the yellow garment as he slumbered, his chest rising and falling steadily with every breath. His brow was without a furrow, and his face was relaxed, which was definitely a sight to see.

He looked… cozy.

Dasha smiled to herself.

Well, I guess even the Captain has someone looking out for him.

2023 - Dreaming-of-Mossballs - Do not repost/translate without my permission - NO AI

Reblogs greatly appreciated! I love seeing your comments!

[flightfoot]

So I have no idea how asks work, I hope o am doing the right thing.

Sooooo any miraculous fan fiction suggestion? Maybe something chloe focused? Because I am basically running out of fic about that on ao3,butaybe maybe maybe you can help me? Thank you!!!!!!!!!!(oh and thank you even if you don't aswer oh and sorry if I am disturbing you!!!!!)

Have a nice day :)

I'm happy to help! I read a crapton of Miraculous fics so I can help. I'm glad you specified Chloe fics because well, I need something to go off of.

Oh yeah, it probably goes without saying if you know me at all, but none of these fics will demonize Alya, Adrien, the class, any of that sort. I don't tolerate those fics.

So first of all, @generalluxun really likes to write Chloe fics, so looking through his AO3 page is probably a good idea. I Won't Let You, which is a one-shot of Felix and Chloe talking at the Hawkmoth defeat party, empathizing with each other's circumstances, is a particular favorite of mine, if you want a taste.

Now onto the rest of the fic recs!

well somewhere along the way our words I must've gotten lost by @noirshitsuji

Beelya where Queen Bee visits the Césaire house after Alya writes an article about her fighting Mr. Pigeon alone. Normally Chloé would like the publicity but Alya had titled it ‘The Birds and the Bees’. After that she ends up coming back to complain about her mother. And her father. And about the fact that her oldest friend seems uncomfortable around her. Her visits becomes weekly, then almost nightly. (Don’t forget to include Chloé redemption (and some “Bee Movie” jokes).) * Alya isn’t quite sure how she ended up here, in a place where she isn’t even surprised Chloé would seek her out to talk about her dad, where she wouldn’t even mind her doing so, where she would expect it, where she would– (–thud. She might be in trouble.)

I loved seeing Alya's and Chloe's relationship grow and change through the years here, becoming closer and trusting each other more!

---

Can't Sleep Either, Huh? by EmeraldButterfly

Chloe gets up late at night. Turns out she’s not the only one who’s worried about Pollen. (AU where former Miraculous holders have an empathetic link with their kwamis)

This one's really short, but I love Zoe and Chloe comforting each other, since they can both feel what Pollen's going through at Monarch's hands over the link.

---

at our wedding by @anna-scribbles

“Chloé,” Adrien said slowly, “At our wedding, are we gonna have to…” “No!” Chloé shook her head firmly. “We don’t have to kiss. We can do whatever we want. It’s our wedding.” “Oh, good,” Adrien sighed. “You have to kiss at a wedding,” Félix argued. “I don’t have to do anything and you’re not the boss of me!” Chloé shouted. “Yeah!” Adrien grinned. He grabbed Chloé’s hand again. “Yeah, it’s our wedding.” // Adrien and Chloé, wedding planning through the years.

This one's great for seeing how Adrien's and Chloe's relationship in particular has changed over the years, though Felix is involved a lot as well.

---

Restorative Justice by @kasienda

Chloé has never been a fan of Ms. Bustier’s community building activities. In fact, she detests them. She doesn’t want to learn about the drab boring lives of her peers. And she absolutely can’t stand it when their confessions make her feel things. Feelings that she doesn’t even have names for. But when Adrien unknowingly shares his struggles with his double life, Chloé vows she will do anything to get Ladybug to set things right. Even if it means pissing off the heroine. Chloé was already mad at her anyway.

I love this, everyone sits down in a circle and talks about their feelings and problems and work on making things BETTER, on healing and fixing things.

---

This last one is a special treat, it's one of the best Miraculous fics I've ever read (and that is saying a LOT).

Hold Me By Both Hands by @angelofthequeers

“I know he said never to take you back,” Plagg mutters. “But he’d change his tune if he knew.” He looks Adrien straight in the eye and, more serious than Adrien’s ever seen him before, says, “There’s someone you gotta meet. He’s been looking for that book for ages.” How differently might the events of season 2 have gone if Adrien had also known of Master Fu from the start?

This is a rewrite of seasons 2 and 3, with Lila being active and sneakier, Adrien not being left in the dark, and everyone talking things out a lot more. I ADORE the interweaving plot threads of this fic, it's fairly episodic in nature and it packs a lot into its word count.

The single best plotline it has, and the one that shoots it up to the top of my list of best ML fics, is its Chloe Redemption plotline.

Basically, Adrien says he won't be friends with Chloe unless she starts treating people decently, and so, taking this to heart, she goes looking for help in learning how to do that because well, she doesn't want to lose Adrien. So naturally, she goes to Marinette.

Marinette helps, but there are no shortcuts here. If you've seen The Good Place, Chloe's character arc here is a lot like Eleanor's was there, with her not only needing to learn how to be nicer to people, but t find reasons to WANT to be a better person, outside of simply wanting to avoid a bad outcome. I literally wrote an essay about Chloe's character development in this fic, THAT'S how much I loved it.

Anyway, seriously, check this fic out!

[nottsukkomia]

more sketches with these batsards

I tried to redo the combat for them, since they're mobian and do not have pokemon now. And I figured that not each one of them will have the same powers like Sonic or Tails do. Most of them will probably not be able to do a basic spin attack because reasons. So I thought of possible solutions. For the Sinnoh characters, at least.

under the cut

Dia uses his tail as his everything. He hoards berries and other stuff in it and treats it like his second backpack, just like his Munchlax. That's why he's a bit more heavy. Bro is smart enough to use his tail as his third hand as well. His Mach Diamond Special Razor Leaf One and Only™ will probably also have something to do with his tail, like shooting leaves/berry spikes from it rapidly. To make his tail sturdier, he splashes special berry juice on it.

I thought that maybe the Sinnoh trio also have Super forms, so by being blessed by the lake guardians, they become powered up by their Emotions/Determination/Knowledge.

Pearl, on the other hand, is all about speed. I suppose no one will argue if I gave him a boost as a replacement for Chimhiko's fire blasted boost. And I think homing attacks would be cool too. To replace his Chahiko, I can give him a friend Flicky.

For obtaining pokemon, I'd say they'll be getting something like power ups from SA/SA2. Thus, Pastoria Marsh will be an adventure field where you need to find an upgrade, since apparently beating each other to death is a sport.

Little Miss would have some kind of psychic powers. Given that she's from a wealthy family, might as well make it so that she's from a family which has this power as a legacy. I'd say controlling ice? She has a Froslass and Empoleon, which have ice attacks. It'd be like the opposite of Blaze, kinda. I believe she would still have some kind of mount to replace Ponyta/Rapidash, but I'm not exactly sure which one I could give to her.🤔🤔

Riley has the same abilities and attacks as his Lucario.

Team Galactic uses gadgets and gizmos to help them fight.

Cynthia here is a dragon, so of course she would have somewhat similar attacks to her Garchomp. She also has a hoverboard(reference to Sonic Riders), with which she races. When the trio is in Celestic Town, she leaves them her hoverboard instead of going in by herself.

Oh, also. Pokédex holders like Crystal and Ruby will have their titles tied to Chao and other creatures from sth series. Crystal studies them and catches them, while Ruby participates in Chao cups and contests. So maybe that means that Battle Frontier is like... Chao karate? lol.

What about Pokémon puns? I'm... not sure?? You can change the comedy routine's subject into just about anything sonic universe related.

[nakanotamu]

Okay so this is the post about the Stardom stuff going on Right Now. I was gonna put my personal thoughts here too but lmao joke's on me even just this got long enough as well. Honestly I'm glad I waited to actually say anything because Rossy and Bushiroad both ended up talking about it pretty publicly so there's really not that much to speculate on any more. If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, here's the background post about the past few months/year in Stardom and my own personal thoughts about everything are here.

So, wow. I spent a lot of last year joking "Stardom fire your entire office 2k24", really was not expecting them to actually take me up on it! Bushiroad fire Kidani as well 2k24??? idk if they even can I think he might control too much of the company but I may as well keep swinging while I can

So yeah, apparently immediately after the Osaka PPV last Sunday, February 4th, Bushiroad fired Rossy. On a practical level this isn't really a big change - as I've said before, Rossy was off of booking and apparently not even being listened to since last April at least already, this isn't a huge shake up of Stardom management. What IS a huge shakeup is why.

Bushiroad said they fired Rossy because he was poaching wrestlers & staff from Stardom. Rossy denies this, but has confirmed he is starting a new promotion. Which, first and foremost from me, I'm glad we can immediately put the WWE rumours to bed. Rossy says he told Bushiroad in November that he would not re-sign his contract with them in March since he wasn't being listened to anyway and told the staff and some wrestlers this and that he was thinking of starting a new promotion. Bushiroad claims he was deliberately poaching from them. Honestly, given the state of Bushiroad management, I could absolutely see them just being completely caught off guard by how many of the roster want to leave and freaking out, but we'll probably never know the truth of the matter.

It is confirmed that some of the Stardom roster are not re-signing with Stardom and are planning to join Rossy's new promotion. Bushiroad came out and openly said that, including some top names and even current title holders. That a number of people will be leaving is for sure happening. We do know for sure Mayu is the only person definitely contracted to Bushiroad later than March, as the movie about her comes out in May, but it seems likely she leaves after that. EDIT to add that a couple days later Tam said openly that she is staying with Stardom as well but I'm not gonna keep updating this every time someone says something new. Anything beyond that about who exactly is leaving or how many is pure speculation. I've seen everything from only one or two people leaving to close to a 50/50 split to only one or two people staying. We'll know in a month or two.

I think it's also worth remembering while WON is writing about this however much and the dirtsheets run with things, their source is Literally Just Sonny, who we already know to be both unreliable and Rossy's biggest cheerleader. It doesn't even seem like the wrestlers actually talk to him about it or anything, he just Works There, and more than once he's passed on some story that's gotten out just to then pass on that so-and-so was so mad it got out, on top of the stuff he's just flat wrong about. It just seems like he has a deep need to be An Insider, the kind of guy who actually gets a job in wrestling and uses that for reddit clout, so keep in mind that that's where all of the english "scoops" are coming from. The news for the next however long it's coming solely from him is going to be sensationalized, decidedly anti-Bushiroad and pro-Rossy, and probably try and throw at least a few of the wrestlers who do stay with Stardom under the bus, because that's his MO and we've seen it all before from him. So like, just as usual take everything with the biggest grain of salt you can manage.

[furtiveseal]

Analyzing The Witch From Mercury's mechs: Gundam Aerial

Putting a title like this is probably making this seem like a bigger thing than it actually is but fuck you I'll be pretentious about my stuff if I want to

Hello hello! I've been thinking a lot about the mecha design of WFM lately, and some of these thoughts seemed interesting enough that I wanted to share them. This will probably be a series of posts to make it more digestible, since I plan to cover several characters and how the mech(s) they pilot throughout the story reflect them.

A few disclaimers: I'm going to be spoiling the entire show, so please watch it first before reading this, I'm serious, it's really good. Spidey if you read this and go further I'm gonna be mad. Also, this is just for fun, I have no formal training in character design whatsoever, I may read into things too much or not enough or miss obvious stuff, but I also don't care that much tbh it's part of the fun of making my own analysis! If you have your own thoughts to share though I'd love to hear them!

I'm also aware of The Tempest but I didn't read it, don't plan to at the moment, and people already analyzed most of the show under its angle here, so I won't be mentioning it unless I have something to add.

Analysis and spoilers under the cut :>

In order to analyze Aerial, we first need the context of knowing her pilot, Suletta Mercury.

This is what Suletta looks like for most of the show, with her Holder outfit letting her stand out from the crowd of uniforms at Asticassia but also and most importantly her tomato red hair, which is the color she's most associated with throughout the show (especially visible in the opening and endings).

And this is what her mech, the Gundam Aerial, looks like.

As far as I know (I've only seen Witch From Mercury, Iron Blooded Orphans and a few episodes of Seed, but I've seen a lot of other Gundams in passing) main character Gundams all face a specific challenge: they have to be based on some level on the original RX-78-2, especially color scheme-wise.

This is also true of Aerial, but I think she does a really good job at giving that color scheme meaning by using it to visually tie herself to her pilot. White, yellow, and the dormant Permet's black are the colours of the Holder outfit, along with the red accents that dispel any possible remaining doubt as to who this mech's pilot might be.

What about the blue, you may ask? It IS the most dominant color in her design after white, after all. Blue is usually associated with Miorine, but here, I think it's associated with Eri. Her original color, red, has been taken over by Suletta, but since this is her body, she's still there through the blue: blue like the Lfrith's Permet scars that originally took her life, and like the Permet score 6 that has Prospera shedding a tear against Shaddiq. Blue, unlike the red Permet that now belongs (mostly) to Suletta, sharing a color with her.

Beyond her colors though, Aerial's shape language also tells us something about her place in the story.

Let's look at the Demi Trainer, the most widely used mech at Asticassia, or in other words, the baseline.

This mech looks big, heavy, sturdy but not super maneuverable; it's made up of large individual parts shaped with rectangles and a few circles. It doesn't look especially complex either, and its color scheme is toned down, it doesn't stand out much beyond the chest piece.

If we look at Guel's Dilanza, the previous Holder's mech aka the status quo, we find a very similar shape language:

The color scheme pops a lot more, but it's still mostly the same huge rectangles, with just a few more spikes and triangles that don't really change just how blocky this mech is. It is CHONKY. It looks like it takes space and shakes the ground wherever it goes.

Now let's compare them to Aerial's shape language. She looks much more segmented and has a lot more triangular shapes and angles in her design, which goes completely against the shapes set up by Asticassia's established mechs.

Her bit-on form emphasizes this even more imo, and the plane-like "wings" on her lower back also increase the feeling that fitting to her name, this is a mech designed for airborne combat, unlike the Demi Trainer and Dilanza that feel very grounded in comparison. Her silhouette feels much lighter and more vertical too instead of a brick.

This all goes to make Aerial look like what she is narratively: a complete gamechanger unlike pretty much anything else. She's the resurgence of Gundams in a world that (mostly) forgot about them, and she looks the part. It's no coincidence that the only other Asticassia mech to share part of her shape language is the Pharact, which is another Gundam.

That's most of what I had to say about Aerial! I'll cover Rebuild later and hopefully leave a link to it here once I do. I currently also have thoughts about Guel's mechs and the Michaelis that I might share down the line.

[homestucksimplified]

The Sburb Aspects.

Sburb, the game that the human Homestuck characters play, has the objective of “creating a new universe to live in”, and it brings the end of the current one. Sburb is full of complex and interesting mechanisms, and one of its most interesting feature is the titles of power given to the players. Those are the Aspects.

A person’s Aspect is understood to represent what their goals and actions in life are caused by. Characters in the story and readers who are holders of Aspects guide a life ruled by what the main idea of their Aspects is.

The Sburb Aspects are Time, Breath, Doom, Blood, Heart, Space, Mind, Light, Void, Rage, Hope, and Life. All Aspects are present in the comic, but some are more represented than others, due to certain characters not appearing as much. The two Aspects with the most canon players are Time (Dave, Aradia, Damara, and Caliborn) and Space (Jade, Kanaya, Porrim, and Calliope).

Together with the Aspect, there will be a Class. A person’s Class is understood to represent the way they deal with their Aspect. You can only know your Class after you find out what your Aspect is, since each one changes greatly with the switch of Aspect. We are not going to discuss Classes in this particular post, but by the time you see this I’ll probably already have a post on each of them within each Aspect (search for the tag #classes).

Below is my speculation on how each Sburb Aspect is to each player.

1st Aspect: Time

Time is the Aspect of music, of death, of rebellion, of not accepting what comes in the way that it comes. Time is an Aspect that caused much suffering in the comic, but it is also the savior-Aspect. Time Players seem to “go against the clock”, they are usually either terrified of death or completely alright with the idea of it. They work in melodious ways, are impatient, and enjoy the destination more than the journey itself. They are hardly stable, extremely dedicated and stubborn. Time Players are fighters, sometimes even in a literal way. They also tend to be revolutionary, depending on the Class. They can be related to music, since the ticking of the clock is a reference to melody and heartbeat.

In more miscellaneous descriptions, Time Players can be enjoyers of History. Since Aspects can be literal sometimes, many Time Players struggle with the concept of Time, are bad at keeping track of time, feel like they don’t have time to do all that they want to do, like they have to catch up. Time is the opposite Aspect to “Space”, which is patient and conforming. Time is an Aspect of change.

(Time used to be considered a Derse-only Aspect, since its description is really similar to that of Derse Dreamers. Since the publication of The Extended Zodiac, that was proven to be untrue. Arist, Taurist, Gemrist, Canrist, Lerist, Virist, Librist, Scorist, Sagirist, Caprist, Aquarist and Pirists are all Time + Prospit Extended Signs).

Known Time Players are Dave Strider, Aradia Megido, Damara Megido, Caliborn, and Toby Fox.

2nd Aspect: Breath

Breath is the Aspect of freedom and flexibility, of the element of air, of going with the flow, movement. Breath Players tend to be more detached from reality, and most of them are in search for the liberty that they crave. They’re usually very positive-minded, or are just unaware of the stress they are holding. A character who reminds me of this Breath characteristic is Mr. Peanutbutter from Bojack Horseman. Breath Players’ main theme in their journey will be freedom, and often times they will be leaders or have to deal with leadership.

Breath has that “protagonist” vibe at the same time that it has the “ignored side character” one. John and Tavros holding that Aspect makes that even more true. It is a very unpredictable Aspect, and I believe the players are as well. The bad side of Breath might come from detachment from important things, from people and situations. The players might also be absent-minded, gullible, and sometimes avoidant.

Breath is the opposite Aspect to “Blood”, which shares its leadership characteristics but is about the opposite of freedom.

Known Breath Players are John Egbert, Tavros Nitram, and Rufioh Nitram.

3rd Aspect: Doom

Doom is the Aspect of inevitability, destiny, fate, conformity… Doom Players are known to be good listeners, people who understand and will empathize, even if they don’t know how to fix many issues. They seem to be okay with fate, with the way things work, with both contentment and pain. Doom Player Sollux knew that he was going to die, and he accepted it knowing nothing could be done about it. Doom can be heavily emotional.

Doom is a poetic Aspect, and it’s extremely interesting, although rarely depicted in the comic. A Doom Player’s struggle might be about acceptance, a doubt about how it all is supposed to work. It is realistic and skeptical, not always pessimistic instead. Doom can be stability, having an outlook on life that is healing in their own way. I have heard from a Doom Player that “the Life-Doom Aspect pair is the facet of a person that deals with healing. While Life heals through change and improvement, Doom heals through acceptance and adjustment”. This difference is sometimes described as “the vent friend” (Doom) and “the advice friend” (Life). Life is the opposite Aspect to Doom, and it is serving and helpful.

Known Doom Players are Sollux Captor and Mituna Captor.

4th Aspect: Blood

Blood is the Aspect of bonds, relations, friendship or relationship or hatred, anything that holds the idea of people connecting and interacting. Blood Players usually strive for community, craving the unity of people, thriving on groups of friends, families, rioters getting ready to protest, anything that ties the bloods together. They can have a hard time adjusting to freedom, preferring the value of the attachments in their life. Their view of the world is very interesting, mostly focused on the association between people, even the disharmonic ones.

Blood can be literal, in the sense of a Blood Player’s path having to do with their care or lack of care for a sibling or parent, but it can also be about friends or lovers. They can attempt to form unity whenever they can, that might be their way of dealing with the world. They have a thought that “everyone has the same blood”. Blood is the opposite Aspect to “Breath”, which is focused on freedom and detachment.

Known Blood Players are Karkat Vantas and Kankri Vantas.

5th Aspect: Heart

Heart is the Aspect of the soul, the self, of passion and impulse. Heart Players are described to be obsessed with their own identity, in both the good and bad sense (like every Aspect, it has both sides). They are doomed to struggle with their sense of self, to be focused on the improvement of their own paths. Heart Players know themselves in more intrinsic ways than most people are used to knowing themselves. They are masters of self-analysis, and to quote a Homestuck character, “drowning in [their] own dismal persona”, they “can’t escape from themselves”.

In more literal ways, Heart can have to do with relationships and the idea of love. Many Heart Players seem to have a connection with or a struggle with romantic love, though this is much more a theory. All the Homestuck characters with the Heart Aspect got their hearts broken at one point and were very interested in romance. Many Classes make a Heart Player a great helper to others, since they understand how self-improvement should work and may want to advise others on it. They may know others more than others know themselves too. Heart’s opposite Aspect is “Mind”, of course, which is more focused on rationality and justice.

Known Heart Players are Dirk Strider, Nepeta Leijon, and Meulin Leijon.

6th Aspect: Space

Space is the Aspect of creation, the big picture, the capacity to accept things as they come, adapting to them. Space Players tend to favor the journey over the destination, enjoying the time they spend creating something much more than the end result of it. It is the opposite Aspect to “Time”, which is all about rebellion and, well, time. Space seems to be the most important Aspect in all of Sburb, and a session is impossible without the Space Player, who usually accepts pretty easily what their path is meant to be. They don’t see the point in fighting against what is inevitable, so they pick their fights carefully, prefer to make something out of what they already have.

Space Players can be lonely. But Space is usually patient, and it is big, so big. It is everything, after all. It’s not a coincidence that the creator of Homestuck, the creator of all of this that I’m writing about, is a Space Player. Space gathers everything, and everything is in Space.

(Space used to be considered a Prospit-only Aspect, since its description is really similar to that of Prospit Dreamers. Since the publication of The Extended Zodiac, that was proven to be untrue. Arga, Taurga, Gemga, Canga, Lega, Virga, Liga, Scorga, Sagiga, Capriga, Aquaga and Piga are all Space + Derse Extended Signs).

Known Space Players are Jade Harley, Kanaya Maryam, Porrim Maryam, Calliope, and Andrew Hussie.

7th Aspect: Mind

Mind is the Aspect of reason, justice, logic and decision. Mind Players usually have a very black-and-white view of the world, deciding between choices by considering which path is the most fair. Their journey has to do with rationality, and most times they value facts rather than feelings. A Mind Player who’s driven by emotions might have a more rebellious Class. Mind Players are good at figuring out what choices will be better in a situation, defying the idea that libras are indecisive (The libras in Homestuck are Mind Players). I would say they have a very corrective view of the world, always seeing solution to whatever problems might exist around them, in their own way.

Mind seems to be connected to justice, and not only because of the libra thing. Being the Aspect of decisions, it refers to making choices that will be better for everyone. Mind Player Terezi Pyrope went against her best friend’s plans because she could see that they wouldn’t be fair to anyone but herself. Getting more answers than you have questions is a good way to describe the Aspect. Seeing the patterns of the world, seeing through lies.

Mind’s opposite Aspect is “Heart”, which is the Aspect of the soul and emotional world.

Known Mind Players are Terezi Pyrope and Latula Pyrope.

8th Aspect: Light

Light is the Aspect of knowledge, luck, and literal light too. It is about inviting light into a situation, usually about seeking knowledge and sometimes being obsessed with the answers to everything. Light Players can be scholars, focused on learning the most they can about what they’re interested in, or Light might come up in different ways, not academic or literally.

Light Players seek to find the reasons for what things are what they are. They are great at researching, and this can be abstract or not. They probably had curious childhoods, wanting to search for the meaning of life from a very young age, and still not letting go. They also are not very worried about rules, and like bending them to their own likes. They follow rules that they want to follow and ignore those they find useless.

This Aspect is linked to luck too, and its Players tend to believe in such. Their Classes will also dictate whether they believe they have that luck or not. Light Players don’t have to necessarily be wise; just like other Aspects a Player may show only some aspects of it. But they will always be looking for wisdom. In their own way.

Light can have to do with relevance, with awareness, and like in the comic, with sight in a way. A canon Thief of Light blinded another person, and a canon Sylph of Light fixed their eyesight. Also, Light’s opposite Aspect is “Void”, which is obviously about mystery and emptiness.

Known Light Players are Rose Lalonde, Vriska Serket, and Aranea Serket.

9th Aspect: Void

Void is the Aspect of many things, though Void Players usually describe it as the Aspect of “nothing”. It is, indeed, the Aspect of nothingness. Void is about absence and emptiness, but also potential and mystery. Void doesn’t seek knowledge, and is more interested in what is not there and can be created. Void Players would be interested in mystery, would definitely be more interested in the rising of the sun if they didn’t know how that phenomenon worked. Void’s opposite Aspect is “Light”, which is about curiosity and brightness.

Depending on the Class, Void Players may have issues with their own incompleteness, believing themselves to be empty of feeling or anything at all, irrelevant. Healthy Void Players have learned to thrive in the darkness and to understand how their potential works better in the shadows. Unhealthy Void Players may try to overcompensate by mirroring Light, pretending they are full of what they are really not. If Light is the sun, Void is the ocean, vast and full of enigmas. It is quite literally the Aspect of water in a way, and its Players may have a strong connection to it, one way or another.

Void is more a concept, an idea. It is subtle. It is where light doesn’t reach. It is starting from nothing. It is obscure. Maybe it is lack of luck, depending on the Class. Void is vague, while Light makes itself very obvious. Void is full of riddles.

Known Void Players are Roxy Lalonde, Equius Zahhak, and Horuss Zahhak, interestingly all True Sagittariuses.

10th Aspect: Rage

Rage is the Aspect of truth, doubt, and, well, rage. Rage Players cast doubt in what they dislike more than they believe what they do like. They may be negative and literally driven by fury, though that will depend on their Class. Rage values the truth over anything else, and they might search for it everywhere. It can be irrational, as most rage is. It can be chaotic in both the bad and good ways.

Rage’s opposite Aspect is “Hope”, which is like in the name, focused on belief and trust. This highlights the Rage Player’s skepticism and less naive mentality, and their complicated relationships with religion.

Known Rage Players are Gamzee Makara and Kurloz Makara.

11th Aspect: Hope

Hope is the Aspect of belief, literal hope. Hope Players have and want to have trust in a better reality, and they hope so hard that they can become naive or easy to control. They are more focused on dreaming up a better future than on doubting it can be possible, which makes them the opposite Aspect to “Rage”. Hope is one of the most interesting Aspects, and I assign the song “Imagine” by John Lennon to it.

Hope will change a lot depending on the Class, but ultimately the Players will have a long relationship with faith. In themselves, in others, in love, etc., in literally anything. Hope Player Jake English said to believe in everyone, and was pretty much the only one who had faith in one of his hopeless friends. Jake also believed things about himself that he wished were true, and he did it so well that he took long to realize it was all made up. He realized his adventure-loving self was just a hopeful way to cope. “You know how you think you know these things about yourself? You just believe them and hope that the believing is what makes them true. But then you spend so much time believing those things and taking their truth for granted that you somehow forget to MAKE them true with your words and deeds. How can I truly love adventure when I never even knew what it was?”

Hope is what is left when there is nothing else. It saves its Players from their lowest lows and carries them to their highest highs. Depending on the Class it can make players full of or lacking hope.

Known Hope Players are Jake English, Eridan Ampora, and Cronus Ampora.

12th Aspect: Life

Life is the Aspect of, obviously, life. Plants, health, energy… It is always growing. In most Classes, Life Players are about curing and auxiliating. A Life Player’s challenge can be about a number of things, some can have problems accepting death is inevitable, some can deny that there are some things they cannot fix, others may worry deeply about health in themselves and others… Like all Aspects, Life differs greatly from player to player, and it can be a very powerful Aspect to deal with. One of the most powerful characters in the comic, the Condesce, was a Life Player. She was an incredible manipulator and used her powers for evil. Another Life Player character was Feferi Peixes, who used her royalty and power for good instead, focused on kindness.

More often than not, Life tends to be about helping others and sometimes being neglectful of your own self for the sake of other people. It can extend not only to humans, but also to beings like trees, which are the symbol of Life. Life can be about growing, it is about energy and life itself, the will to exist and the aspects of existence itself. Living wants to keep living. Even the smallest fly will fight to survive.

Known Life Players are Jane Crocker, Feferi Peixes, and Meenah Peixes.

[vendily-blog]

Super Mario Wonder's Badges

So one of the new features of Super Mario Wonder is the Badges, which can create effects on the gameplay from adding new active movement options, passive abilities, or what seems to be challenge badges to add some spice to easy areas. Keeping the rest under a read more to not be obnoxiously long.

Speculating, perhaps there is 9 Active Badges (7 Confirmed), 9 Boost Badges (6 Confirmed), and 6 Challenge (speculative name) Badges (2 Confirmed). As it seems to fit nicely in the grid like that.

It also seems like there's an auto equip feature with Prince's Choice, probably picking the recommended badge for each level.

One other thing is the fact that the badge is worn by Prince Florian, and it changes his Idle animation, to show the icon of the equipped badge.

While I can't confirm this is the case in the course, in the badge menu, Florian's picture changes to show the equipped badge, or none, and those reflect the colour and shape of the badge type.

But something I am sure of is the petals that appear when a badge's effects trigger. Active Badges produce a orange petal effect, Boost Badges a blue petal effect, and the Jet Run challenge badge produces yellow-purple petals. (Invisibility does not produce any petals, but I feel that would defeat the point of the badge if it did.)

The remainder of this post is the badge icons matched up with their descriptions.

Parachute Cap – "While in midair, press [R] or shake the controller to open your hat and float slowly downward."

Wall-Jump Climb – "Jump against a wall and then press [A] to jump straight up once."

Dolphin Kick – "While underwater, press [R] or shake the controller to unleash a brief burst of speed." The Direct also reveals that this badge can smash through breakable blocks, though I'm unsure if that is still the case if you are Small Mario, as rolling into bricks in the 3D titles while small does not break them.

Floating High Jump – "Jump higher than usual and momentarily float." So like... Luigi physics with Peach's Glide? This one wasn't shown in the Direct actively, and I haven't spotted a point I can conclude is this badge equipped.

Crouching High Jump – "Crouch and charge up power to jump higher than usual." Looking at the video footage, it seems to take about 30 frames (at 60fps) to charge up the high jump, so about half a second of holding down.

Timed High Jump – "Time consecutive jumps just right to jump higher than usual. You'll even jump high on sand." The explicit wording of this has me wonder if the previous two high jump badges don't work as effectively on sand.

Grappling Vine – "While in midair, press [R] or shake the controller to launch a vine that can grab a wall." I'm not sure if there is a max range on the Grappling vine.

Coin Reward – "Earn coins for defeating enemies." Is this just regular coins? Not purple ones?

Auto Super Mushroom – "Start a course with a Super Mushroom power-up."

I don't know what this one is called, nor what effects it might have. It was never selected during the Direct, and it wasn't one of the showcased badges. It's barely visible as a badge sold in a Poplin Shop. I did notice some Wonder effects had timers on them, but I don't know if this has any relation to that.

Safety Bounce – "Bounce out of pits, lava, or poison swamps just one time per fall." During the Direct, we do see the Safety Bounce's effect. When activated, it produces a trail of blue petals, until the holder touches the ground again. It might be showing that the badge's effect is spent for this fall.

Sensor I don't have an in-game description, but the narrator says it "finds important items". It seems to be tracking the purple 10 coin, as earlier on, we see collecting it creates a small display of 10 coins in the level to collect, like Star coins in earlier entries.

Coin Magnet I don't have an in-game description, but it draws in nearby coins. We see it working on purple coins, and the icon shows regular coins, so I think it's safe to say that it works on both types of coins.

Jet Run I don't have an in-game description, but it seems to force Mario into a constant run, as well as giving him more air time after running off a platform.

Invisibility Sorry that I don't have a cleaner version of the icon, it was never shown without what appears to be a "New Badge" exclamation mark icon. It causes the player to be completely invisible. Though I can't be certain of the invisible player's position, the shelled enemy is shown to curl up and roll at Mario earlier in the direct, so it seems to prevent enemies from detecting you, sort of like the Goomba mask.

[anthurak]

As of Episode 6 of G-Witch, we’ve been introduced to two out of the three corporations and great houses at Asticassia Academy; Jeturk Heavy Machinery and Piel Technologies. That in turns leaves just one of the Benerit Group’s Big Three remaining: Grassley Defense Systems and their representative, the surprisingly enigmatic Shaddiq Zenelli.

And I have a hunch they might actually be the most dangerous opponents Suletta and Miorine have yet faced.

Now after everything we’ve seen from JHM and Peil Tech (especially Peil Tech), I’ve seen some people start throwing out theories about how Grassley could be secretly even more fucked up than the other two houses. However, I don’t think that’s quite going to be the case.

For one, it wasn’t exactly hard to guess what each of the other two houses was all about pretty early on. Just from Episode 2, I think we all pegged Vim Jeturk as the typical conniving, power-hungry asshole dad, and also that Peil Tech had to have some shady, probably fucked up shit going on under the table. The only wrinkle with Peil was that we didn’t realize just HOW fucked up their shit was. Basically, it’s been pretty easy to gauge the general vibes of each of the houses thus far.

So what kind of vibes do I think we’ve gotten from Shaddiq, his father Sarius and GDS as a whole?

Personally, I think that while they might not be brutish and conniving like JHM or shady and morally repugnant like Peil Tech, I do think GDS are cunning and devious.

Specifically, I think Shaddiq is going to be by far the smartest, and by extension, most dangerous out of the three aces/pretty-boys Suletta has faced thus far.

Going by both the title of the next episode, and his interactions with Suletta thus far, I think Shaddiq’s (and by extension Grassley’s) plan to ‘defeat’ Suletta won’t be through a duel (at least not at first), but instead by befriending her.

From what we’ve seen of them thus far, Shaddiq and his father really strike me as the types who would look at how Suletta and Aerial have more or less steamrolled over every opponent they’ve gone up against thus far and think; ‘Yeah, there is NO way we’re beating THAT in a straight-up fight. Let’s try something else…’

Meaning, I have a pretty good feeling that Shaddiq is going to try and get close to Suletta. And unlike with Elan a couple episodes back, not simply as a means to gather intel on Aerial, but as a far broader plan of possibly undermining Suletta and maybe even bring her over to his side.

So yeah, I have a feeling we might see an attempt at a seduction gambit by Saddiq, or at the very least a befriending gambit. Something aimed at bringing Suletta, and maybe even her mother and her company under Grassley’s influence.

One interesting detail we learned a couple episodes back was getting a good idea of just what Peil Tech’s original plan for having Elan securing the holder position and just why then never had Elan challenge Guel for the position prior to the start of the show: They were simply biding their time, getting the Pharact ready to the point where it could be piloted reasonably safely (no matter how many ‘enhanced persons’ they burned through in the process…) until they could simply send it out with Elan, likely the original, and curbstomp Guel with a Gundam. It was only Suletta and Aerial entering the picture that their timetable was changed.

So I have a hunch that the next couple episodes will likewise give us an indication in hindsight as to how Shaddiq and Grassley were planning on securing Holder-ship and Miorine’s hand.

(And yes, until we hear otherwise, I am absolutely thinking that the GDS game plan was basically ‘Shaddiq seduces Guel so he defects to their side and brings Miorine with him’ :D)

Which in turn brings us to Shaddiq himself, and why I think this guy is dangerous.

Part of this is simply due to the fact that friendly, seemingly easy-going blonde dudes have a history of turning out to be very dangerous adversaries in Gundam (just look at Graham Aker in 00), but also that we’ve gotten a few hints that Shaddiq occupies a rather different position compared to his peers. Particularly in his dynamic with his parent/boss.

Consider that Shaddiq actually attends the hearing in Episode 2 alongside his father, while Guel and Elen were nowhere to be seen. And in Episode 3, he’s seen discussing Lady Prospera and the upcoming duel with his father.

Whereas Miroine’s and Guel’s respective fathers clearly sees them as nothing more than pawns, and… basically everything going on with Elan and Peil Tech, it’s looking like Sarius Zenelli seems to hold his son in a rather higher regard and respect. Instead of simply giving him orders to follow, Sarius councils his son on important matters and has him present to assist him during official dealings. We even know from supplementary material that Shaddiq is already a candidate for the next-generation executives of Grassley Defense Systems.

Shaddiq doesn’t feel like just a pawn to Sarius. He feels like a protégé. Someone that Sarius has raising and mentoring to take up an important position within GDS, and likely even to one day inherit Sarius’s position. This feels particularly relevant when we remember that Shaddiq is Sarius’s adopted son, which in the kind of feudal-house society that G-Witch has set up, gives the impression that Sarius chose Shaddiq based on merit or potential that Sarius saw in him.

All of this paints Shaddiq as being someone quite intelligent and capable, as well as likely quite loyal to Sarius. Contrast that with someone like Guel, who seems to have been browbeaten into being little more than an attack dog for his father, to the point where it only took a few words of positive encouragement from Suletta to make Guel tell his father to fuck off. Or to Elan, who was somehow in an even worse state.

In other words, Shaddiq is likely NOT going to be so easily turned to Suletta’s side so easily.

[piromina]

WIP Reblog Game

I saw this going around and thought it might be fun soo...

List the titles of your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

WIP TITLES (only one of these is actually up tbh...)

a breach in the brooch – So this one is an AU idea I have had in my head for...longer than I care to admit, but basically, Adrien has been in on his father's plan to become Hawkmoth since he first came up with it. Now, on the day of the Stoneheart attack, Adrien is questioning why he went along with his father's plans so easily. I mean, becoming a supervillain isn't exactly a healthy way of grieving. And so, when he finds the cat miraculous in his room, he decides to become a superhero despite living under the same roof as his enemy.

to defy a reality – AU where when the sentikids were created, because of the broken miraculous, it accidentally gave them all magical powers, dubbing the three of them "superhumans." Unfortunately, the Order of the Guardians (which Marinette and Nino are part of) is dead set on finding and killing any known superhumans. VERY Feligami, Adrienette, and DJWifi centric.

penumbra – Sometimes I think about how Master Fu was a holder of the peacock miraculous once. Sometimes I think about how Félix has the peacock miraculous. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the two of them ever met.

identity theft – Everyone thinks Hawkmoth and Shadowmoth are two different people. Chat Noir thinks Shadowmoth killed Hawkmoth and took his miraculous. Ladybug thinks Hawkmoth actually gambles and lost a bet to Shadowmoth, and ended up handing over the miraculous.

nonexistent happiness (the name will probably change) – Gimmi is the kwami of reality, right? But everyone knows reality is just a web of lies. So when Gimmi creates a new universe, and rewrites reality, they're really making a universe that doesn't really exist. And a nonexistent universe will have to fall apart eventually...

UPCOMING

I've written most of the fic except the last two chapters, where things get very...interesting, you'll see. Not to spoil too much, but there's a really big fight scene I look forward to getting to.

There is something VERY big happening in chapter sixteen, but I really don't want to spoil it. Yes you heard me right this fic will have more than sixteen chapters. I think the very most information I can give you about it is that it's...quite a revealing conversation Master Fu has.

I'm looking forward to Master Fu's perspective on this one, I've never written that before so that should be exciting.

Félix comes in at one point. Need I say more.

The part where the universe just kinda....dies..........I mean YES thats the premise of the whole fic and should happen pretty early on but for some reason im not there yet. ANYWAYS

And for the tags....I think everyone I know has been tagged already so. if you want to do this you can just say I tagged you or something I dont know

[artwithoutblood]

I’m looking at the First Six and trying to piece it all together. *wild theories begin*

We all know Dorian /pos (bottom right).

The entity above Dorian (middle right) wears a veil so I’m wondering if that’s Delusion.

(middle left) They look like Eri with the bob, pose and clothing/silhouette but have wavy hair instead. I think I saw Aeron putting on this appearance like a mask when they said they could look like anyone. I wonder if this is the original demon of Delirium that gave up the mantle? Or maybe it’s Delirium themselves rather than the previous holder or the Eri we know. Delusion being there too might support this.

(top left) I’ve seen her face and hair before when Aeron was wearing them, switching rapidly between many who were probably these guys. I’m not sure yet who she is.

(bottom left) She looks oddly like Iris who I think will become a recurring character. Will she perhaps undergo the demon process to try and cure her of the parasight then, and take a demon mantle?

I don’t think I’ve met the Fog before, not sure which one she is. Perhaps she’s from God Is In The Radio which I still do need to check out.

Other thoughts -

I’m wondering if the actual demons are the entities with the D names/titles, and the characters we know are more like their representatives on the physical plane. Who have nicknamed and visually customised themselves to their taste. Kind of like angels do the ‘form you can understand’ thing.

This is maybe why they need to fuse their matter with human bodies, it’s material required for embodiment on the physical plane. They literally need to be made flesh. (And it’s why Genesis still needs hair conditioner. He’s a physical avatar. Or do I have this the wrong way around and Delusion, Delirium, Dissonance are the physical manifestations affecting the world? Dissonance isn’t seen when Genesis kills you but it seems it is heard - is it acting through Genesis as a vessel?)

And maybe the ones that were once human need to mesh rather than just be taken over like a shell. So it’s more complicated and painful - if it fails they are destroyed or die. They could retain a fragment of their old consciousness (Eri is still traumatized from life and so is Dorian) and prefer to retain some resemblance to their form in life.

(I wonder if I am looking at the wrong demon for Delirium? Going by the hair the demon I think is them had dark skin and a wavy bob when Aeron wore their appearance. Pre-demon Eri was pale and had long straight hair before cutting it. But Delusion does look different to Aeron.)

Maybe the form we’ve met is just chosen by Eri who kept and hates too much change from his original body. Or maybe there’s a limit on how much you can change an original human body and he just made a few adjustments to feel more comfortable in his gender, plus adopted the haircut (but he did that pre-demon?) and dressed in the archive style.

Dori does still look mostly like he did in life too, aside from the demon eyes and muzzle. (Did Delusion punish him with the muzzle in the same mocking way they pranked Eri with the snake demon eyes? Did silver tongue Dori try to manipulate or lie to them? 👀)

I can’t find the post with the timeline of when they all met though, I don’t remember it matching up like that. And Dori must be extremely forgiving if they’re besties and get intimate. But then Dori does expect forgiveness and intimacy of the murdered Fallen so… When he says he doesn’t know who has the key, is he lying? Aeron does make it look like the muzzle is off. Casanova has a key around his neck. Maybe God did it when Dori went to Hell or maybe Dori made a bargain with Aeron/Delusion during or after being killed. Do you need to still be alive to become a demon?

Idk how the demonification process works or what the rules are. I’m just busily looking for clues and grasping for the lore of the little guys.

My concepts of all this are also somewhat shaped by the Endless from ‘Sandman’. ie. Death appearing as the mortal Didi, or demi-mortal Daniel inheriting the mantle of Dream/Morpheus but slightly altering the form. Morpheus also had a supernatural accessory as keeper of his realm (helmet).

Not a comparison! AWB is its own new thing. Just saying I’m coming from some preformed understandings about archetypes/gods/angels and demons that might not be true here.

[gets out my reading glasses]

the middle-right is greed. she lives in opulence, and i based her design partially off mourners. greed, named prudence, likes her luxuries quietly. she decorates her hands in gold, but the paint melts off. she likes it that way. gilded. she doesn't flaunt it, and she prefers to keep to herself.

gluttony is the one to the middle-left. they're a hunter who likes fine things. i dont know why i gave them a long, fur coat. i think it's because it was cold. it rains with freezing rain, and he indulges. he does not discriminate in the flesh he salivates over.

top left is limbo. i wrote something about her that i can't remember now. there are lots of lost souls in her caverns. she walks with a lantern and cares where she can. there is a lively community of souls in the caves of limbo.

you are correct about what will happen to iris. bottom left is anger. he hurts himself and others in his rampages, sinks into the swamps and swims around. he just loves to fight.

top right is lust. she walks along the water, strolls through the sand in a long, white dress. references to the birth of venus. she is a virgin of eternal light.

I’m wondering if the actual demons are the entities with the D names/titles, and the characters we know are more like their representatives on the physical plane. Who have nicknamed and visually customised themselves to their taste. Kind of like angels do the ‘form you can understand’ thing.

you're more or less correct. the D names was just because having three with the same letter was satisfying on my tongue. they can change their forms at will. aeron does it more often. genesis does it when he feels he needs to. erebus refuses.

This is maybe why they need to fuse their matter with human bodies, it’s material required for embodiment on the physical plane. They literally need to be made flesh. (And it’s why Genesis still needs hair conditioner. He’s a physical avatar. Or do I have this the wrong way around and Delusion, Delirium, Dissonance are the physical manifestations affecting the world? Dissonance isn’t seen when Genesis kills you but it seems it is heard - is it acting through Genesis as a vessel?)

in ways they're vessels. due to story reasons, the only entity you see in awb is delusion. for delusion, it lives in aeron's chest. they're the same entity. they act separately but together. aeron can cut their chest open to allow "delusion" more control. they blend together when aeron spaces out. delusion observes life through the eyes of everyone it has ever come in proximity with. it is looking through your eyes right now. it lends aeron with the ability to scan for people to find them, as long as they know who the person is.

dissonance for genesis is used more as a tool. like a weapon fused with his spirit. it is in his music, in his instruments. genesis can use it to create awful sounds in certain proximities to find things or to wreak general havoc. but it's used mostly for the love of music. it's also a bit harder for me to design dissonance. i'm already redesigning delusion. delirium doesn't really need a physical form because it's in the words. you picture delirium yourselves when you read.

the entity and the body are the same, but it comes down to the love of the human world for how they present. the molding with flesh stuff i added just because i thought it was cool, but it can also be because the entities are sort of manifestations. they cannot make physical interactions. you will make a contract with something that looks human, not a ball of energy.

And maybe the ones that were once human need to mesh rather than just be taken over like a shell. So it’s more complicated and painful - if it fails they are destroyed or die. They could retain a fragment of their old consciousness (Eri is still traumatized from life and so is Dorian) and prefer to retain some resemblance to their form in life.

the ones that were once human were chosen by forces they can never hear in more than screams. it is painful. dorian cares little for his time as a human. he remembers it, but he knows that is not the person he is now. erebus is just mad at the world and how it has treated him every step of the way.

delusion and dorian look similar (in delusion's current form, which i may redesign) for other undisclosed reasons. aeron and dorian met when dorian was still alive, but aeron had no say nor any involvement over dorian becoming a demon. no one has a say unless they force it. their meeting was accidental.

genesis does mention he once tried to turn a human into a demon who ended up going insane. brutus hungers for flesh and the sinews in your shoulders like a rabid dog. if the person does not erupt into gore, they erupt into hysteria.

just as limbo must always be in gloom, just as lust may never touch another person with her skin, dorian must be chained. i have no reason for this other than "muzzle look cool" and angst. i do not know who has the key. it doesn't matter for dorian's story. he is fine as-is.

casanova shoutout btw i love cannibal sweetheart he just jumpscared me in this.

[macabre-shackles]

Awakening: Rewrite

The dark was thick like ink, full of dusty particles from years of sand. It was amazing how such darkness messed with the mind. How things faded away, such simple things like sensations, thought, all dissolved like mud swept away by the tide.

Had he seen light before? He was sure he had, but it flickered out like a match before he could grasp it. How long had he been in this void now? Surely at one point he felt cold stone, limbs restrained, but had he really? He was floating now, was he truly conscious or simply dreaming. Perhaps this was what death really was, but his mind couldn't comprehend that for long. Like rusty cogs in a clock trying to tick tick tick away the time.

It was meaningless. This existence.

It was black, weightless, nothingness, silence. Broken by cracking. No...It was more hallucinations of a brain trying to make sense of the vacuum.

The soft sound of rain. He stirred, mind sluggishly trying to pull its way out of the tar.

No. Sand shifting, falling after being disturbed after so very long.

They made their way through the old stone corridors, climbing ruin and chasms, lighting torches to chase away the shadows. Sharp eyes searched nooks, crevices, looking for clues or shimmering answers to their quest. Surely this place wouldn't have been stripped, a nameless tomb in the middle of no where.

But perhaps nameless for a reason, perhaps there were no riches to pillage in this place of a nobody. Not meaningful enough in like for a name, let alone gold in the afterlife.

Still, they busted down another wall, pulling chunks of rock out of the way and it was there that their torches caught the glint of metal. Hurriedly, they scrambled forward, spreading the light of their flames to brighten the whole room. The men looked triumphant, quickly opening their sacks and bags to fill up with anything that could possibly be of value.

It was a lavish room, for certain, but as with most of these, the lead knew where the best jewels would be. Calling over two of his men, they grunted and hefted the stone lid off to reveal the gold sarcophagus that laid within. Grinning toothily, they hastily pulled the next lid off, greedy hands groping into the linens to grasp jewelry and rip them from their resting place.

He stood, holding one up to the light of his torch to catch a satisfying shine.

Their scent slowly filled the room, their voices and happiness at their find echoing in the otherwise silent halls. Those rusty gears turned, ticking away faster, but this time unlike a clock.

This time like a bomb.

And soon as that scent hit him, once those bonds around him loosened from the hungry thieves, his own starvation was suddenly founded. There was creaking, cracking that went unnoticed by the gleeful men who were making a racket themselves.

Until a withered hand grasped a shoulder and he disappeared into the stone box, the startled yelp cut short and it was then that everyone froze. Staring at the box, they heard scuffling, a jerky movement and rasping gasps. One approached to look in for their friend...

The silence was broken once more, this time by screams as the husk of a corpse screeched, clawed hand grabbing hair and pulling the terrified man close. The others were frozen in horror as his body jerked and wilted before their very eyes. The dull thud it made when the body hit the ground is what snapped them out of their trance, making a mad dash for the exit, the banshee shriek following them.

Rotted joints groaned as the creature shuffled after them, dull red glowing in empty sockets. How unfortunate that the winding paths to get to this hidden tomb, now became a deadly maze with a monster close at their heals.

One by one, the darkness claimed them, clacking jaws and clicking teeth finding them in their hiding spots. Empty nose smelled them through the dust and murk. Until just a single man was left, how fitting for the leader to be the one cowering while his group was slaughtered and devoured.

Balled up, hands over his mouth to quiet his palpitating heart, the sudden stillness turning him cold. Was it over? Had the beast moved on or gone back to the hell it crawled out of? Dare he hope?

Bony fingers slowly curled around the opening of the crate he hid in and his eyes widened, a whimper of terror wormed its way out of his throat.

Before the devil dropped on him.

The thieves came to steal riches, thinking to find easy gain in a dead mans last resting place and instead found their own tomb as their deaths fueled an ancient relic. Leathery flesh once again became plump, straw hair grew lush and soft, and Atem stumbled his way back to the center chamber. His chest labored as he scrambled for a dagger to slice open his chest, his desperate hands smashing one of his canopic jars as he yanked off the lids.

Piece by piece, he replaced his organs. Lungs gasping for air once they were back in his chest he coughed and hacked, spatting out clots and an oily substance. The glowing light of his crimson eyes flickered, veins taking up the light as he let out a pained hiss. Legs finally gave out and the once pharaoh collapsed in his shredded linens on the floor.

Darkness took him over once more, a deep, healing unconsciousness. But this time, there were no more questions of what if's, this time when he would wake, he knew one thing for certain: He was alive.

More or less.

[prokopetz]

I haven't played a game through since Witness, but the specificity of your recs made me feel interested and safe enough to try again, and I'm really enjoying Refunct and the Pedestrian! I was wondering if you had some recs for my 11 year old. He's REALLY into games where reality/physics work oddly - Recursed (which we got because of your rec!) and Portal. Monument Valley, Eva Explores, and some phone merge games. He also loves Minecraft and Witness, though the 'it's fake' ending makes him MAD.

I can see from your follow-up message that you already found a previous post of mine on the subject, so I'm going to focus on titles mentioned neither in that post nor in your request.

The first recent game that springs to mind for that particular set of criteria is 2019's Outer Wilds. (Not to be confused with the similarly named The Outer Worlds – the two were published less than six months apart, which sometimes leads to mixups!) It's a time-loop walking sim, similar to TIMEframe (recced in the linked post), in which a solar system is caught in a 22-minute loop where each each planet undergoes its own unique form of apocalyptic destruction, followed by the star itself going supernova. Because each planet's terrain changes over time due to its ongoing apocalypse, what you can access on that planet depends on what point in the loop you visit it.

The game’s ultimate goal is to figure out what’s causing the time loop, so expect to do a lot of reading ancient alien inscriptions and such. There's some orbital physics involved in travelling from planet to planet, but don't let that intimidate you – it's a lot more forgiving than it looks, unless you're keen to try out some speedrunning tech; as the game's 100% world record holder at the time of this posting aptly put it, gameplay in a casual playthrough consists principally of picking things up and putting them down.

I’m also going to plug The Talos Principle, which was mentioned but not discussed in the linked post. With respect to your son’s criteria, the operating principles of the game’s reality are fairly straightforward, but the nature of that reality is a delved into a fair bit. It’s sort of an inversion of The Witness’ big twist in that it’s made obvious right off the bat – at least to the player – that the reality you’re presented with is in some way artificial, and the mystery is more about who set things up this way and why, with a particular emphasis on how to reason and draw conclusions about such a world when you’re looking at it from the inside. I’m not sure if eleven is too young to be engaged by long-winded philosophical maundering about the Simulation Hypothesis and related topics, so I’ll let you be the judge there!

A few other, possibly somewhat less suitable candidates off the top of my head:

Antichamber – I don’t have much to say about this one; the trailer is self-explanatory, and anyone who enjoyed Disoriented and Portal will probably love this, too. Just watch out for motion sickness; if Manifold Garden didn’t make you queasy, you’ll have nothing to worry about here.  

The Gardens Between – A short point-and-click puzzler where you have very little direct control over the player characters, instead playing and rewinding a fixed sequence of events while making small changes to each iteration and watching how things play out differently in response – sort of like coming at a puzzle platformer from the opposite direction. No content warnings to speak of, though I find that younger players often find the story a lot sadder than I think the writers intended.  

GRIS – If side-scrolling platformers aren’t a dealbreaker, this may be one to check out. Beautiful artwork paired with a textless narrative that might best be described as “gently surreal”; in spite of the threatening appearance of certain creatures you encounter, it isn’t actually possible to die (though you can get roughed up a bit, so it’s not entirely non-violent). What the story is aiming for may be somewhat obscure to anyone who’s never experienced a death in the family, so I’d recommend it for younger gamers with that qualifier in mind.  

OneShot – Sort of like an old-school JRPG with no combat, this one’s premise is that the player character is the Messiah, which means they can talk to God, who is of course the player themselves. The puzzles take that fourth wall break as far as they possibly can, with solutions that variously involve restarting your save file, manipulating the size and position of the game window, reading and editing text files the game drops in different places on your hard drive, and at one point even running two copies of the game simultaneously.  

Perfect Vermin – A short, free-to-play first person title that initially appears to be about hunting down alien creatures that mimic office furniture and killing them with a sledgehammer. I probably don’t need to tell you that Shit Gets Weird. The subject matter may not be terribly relatable to an eleven-year-old, but a. it’s free, and b. a complete playthrough only takes about 20 minutes unless you’re achievement-hunting, so it’s no big loss if it misses the mark – maybe play it yourself first before passing on the rec. Content warning for heavy (albeit stylised) gore.  

Please Don’t Touch Anything – The player character is left alone with a mysterious control panel and sternly admonished not to touch anything; shenanigans immediately ensue. This one is focused almost entirely on achievement-hunting, with no overarching story to speak of (unless you count the 100% ending where it’s jokingly revealed that the panel is actually just a fancy coffee machine, anyway). It’s a great one if you just want to click stuff and see what happens. Content warnings for jump scares, the repeated extinction of all human life, and mild gore.  

The Swapper – A side-scrolling puzzle platformer from the same writer as The Talos Principle. This one’s a bit like a 2D Portal, except instead of a portal gun you have a cloning gun that can produce copies of yourself and (apparently) swap your consciousness among the clones. Another one that leavens relatively conventional gameplay with heavy philosophy, this time with a focus on the continuity of identity. Notable for having an ending that manages to be a total brainfuck in spite of carrying the story’s premise to its obvious and rigorously logical conclusion.

(Also, based on your described preferences this one’s more of a rec for you personally than for your son, so I’m not including it on the main list, but if you got a kick out of Refunct you definitely need to check out EQI, Self-described as “synthwave parkour”, with just enough of a physics-warping puzzle element to keep things interesting!)

[yostresswritinggirl]

@butterfly-mochi​ Rewrote this freaking thing thrice because it keeps getting deleted wth tumblr agjvahkfajkvk- I enjoyed writing it a lot tho and since I’m too weak to the characters I ended up writing for all of them (except for Sucrose, im sorry bb huhu, I ran out of brain power). This is my first time writing for so many of them in one go so please excuse me for any mistakes or blandness ywy thank you for letting me write for my baby Ganyu too hhhhh

Universe Reversal 2

Genshin Impact Character Reader and Modern Players with Zhongli, Childe & Ganyu (how they simp for you) (event masterlist / Part 1 / Part 3)

Zhongli the F2P

The most relatable out of the bunch because this man is still broke and can only rely on the primogems he can farm. And he had a LOT. The one thing he doesn’t have a lot on, however, is his luck.

So how did he manage to pull you?: Well after exhausting all his primogem on your banner with nothing but weapons and other characters, he has lost his resolve. But by some weird luck, there was a character bug that was fixed and in his email was the almighty consolation primogem. Enough for ONE pull. And by the Gods he FINALLY got you.

He’d nonchalantly post his screenshot of pulling you using a single acquaint fate in his friend group without any words and everyone else just loses their shit. “You got them in one pull?!” “Yeah” A riot.

This was partnered with the fact that not only is Zhongli an F2P player, but also barely has any five star characters.

He looks calm and apathetic over the news, but behind the screen he’s exhausted and relieved, silently livid.

He has no primogems left to squeeze for a constellation so you’re instead pampered with the best weapon suitable for you (because that’s all he keeps getting).

Zhongles spends most of his time farming for materials to quickly level you up, unlocking all your stories and voiceline, but he fucked up on your build (his artifacts are messy).

He follows communities, forums and videos regarding your character to know all the things he needs to perfect your build. You can barely make a dent against normal mobs, so he knew he was doing something VERY wrong.

Is the type of person to keep refreshing the page for new content, very updated.

Ask him a question about your character and he’s gonna bring you the word vomit that is his research. He’s not gonna stop- probably accidentally developed a copypasta for you.

Also follows your VA in both Tiktok and Twitter to indulge in every bit of content. He also has that screenshot of his pull saved and locked.

On his birthday, a friend of his gifted him a chibi plushie of you and he has treasured it ever since, treating and handling it like its a figurine.

“It is merely pure luck and grace from the gacha gods that I got this character, and I will make sure that they know I am very grateful for this fortune.”

Favorite Voiceline: Birthday Message

Childe The Whaler

This lucky wealthy bastard with no remorse for his money whales for EVERY character. He’s making a collection, which is to get all the characters, especially the five stars. So when your banner finally popped up, he’s gonna square up and trigger a whole ass meteor shower.

How he pulled you: Money. His luck with this games are actually not the best so he always compensates with money, he got you halfway through the first failed pity, almost giving him a heart attack that he might actually break the bank just to get you.

And then he pulls more to raise your constellation lol.

The first thing he does is look over your character info and read through it all; constellation infos, your base stats, artifact compatibility.

At the end when he’s maximized everything, he would then focus on playing around with your character *coughs climbing noises coughs*

He thought you’d just be another part of his collection but playing with your character was very enjoyable and in-line with his playstyle- oops 100 screenshots with the Kamera-

Any and all merchandise that he fancies would be his, and he’s definitely flexing it to the other sweetie nerds who call themselves simps. He’s fighting for the simping title, and he’s currently neck and neck with this fanartist in Pixiv.

Speaking of that fanartist, he definitely commissioned an expensive and detailed portrait of you, full rights and everything. No one else was allowed to use it but him.

Was also the first one with the audacity to call out your VA to create an account on Tiktok to create more content with your voice. He was successful.

His obssession also comes in the form of self-indulgent contents, and had been keeping track of the ship wars happening. During conventions, he cosplays as the character shipped with you the most (or the character he thinks should end up with you).

Silently scrutinizing those who cosplay you, only ever taking pictures with/of the best looking one, sorry haha

Definitely flaunts that you are his waifu/husbando and will fight for best girl/best boy during debates or polls. Has mobilized the community to vote for you once. He’s very persuasive.

“Hm? Why I’m just the best collector in the game, and I am more than happy to let everyone know that I am their number one fan haha, everyone who claims otherwise is definitely wrong!”

Favorite Voiceline: More About (Y/N) I-IV, (Y/N)’s Hobbies...

Ganyu the Employed

Ganyu, our dearest overworker, is one of the players in the older stage who actually has a job but still plays Genshin for their past times. The gorgeous sceneries and the music is her main focus in playing the game, not much of a try-hard but still decent in the combat mechanics.

How she pulled you: You came home within 50 pulls! And you appeared again after another 10 pull! Ganyu was so SHOOKT and so distressed because oh goodness, what does she do? She doesn’t know anything much about you!

Will rewatch your three trailers to try and understand your skills better, ended up saving the soundtracks from them because that was such a nice trailer music! Tnbee gains a new follower!

Ganyu will take a while before she can properly play or build you up because she’s so busy with work, she only ever plays when she feels fully done with her work.

During her break she plays with your character while multi-tasking on eating, earphones plugged in and sight on the phone as she farms materials and artifacts for you.

The moment she gets more help from her player friends tho, holy shit, you just ended up being so OP. She had so many good artifacts and weapons for you because she didn’t know what they were for before.

She loves how you’re so easy to use and can easily solo the enemies and even the boss fights. A huge breather, because now Ganyu can cheese the battles that takes a while, to give her more time to focus on the storyline and lores.

Since Ganyu plays for the story and aesthetic, she’ll find you almost always in her team. Still very proud of her pull, she makes the best screenshots of your fights or in the best angle through exploration.

Treasures you so much she starts talking to her phone- “Ah, no, please don’t fall.” “There’s violetgrass up there, let’s try and get it”

Blushes everytime you produce a sound when climbing, doesn’t change you anyways tho

Hums to your trailer music while working, and if permitted, would have the song on repeat while she buries herself in work. She finds it really refreshing and the time she spends in work miraculously flies by fast when she gets lost in the sound.

At one point, when she was given a day-off or if the convention was on her free time, she attends to look for cosplayers of you and take a picture. No one rejects her because she’s so adorable and cute when asking shyly.

Had brought a decent amount of merchandise, preferably the functional/practical ones like a phone cover, mug or keychain. Also has an earphones clamp with your little chibi self as the holder.

When asked, she would shyly announce that she likes your character the most.

“Their character theme and music really soothes me during work, it feels nice to have them, and I have not once regretted ever pulling for them. They are the best.”

Favorite Voicelines: Good Night/Afternoon..., About Us, Something To Share..., Interesting Things...

so enjoyable...

@moaa @zelos-simp @legionqueensav @dandelion-dreams @snackgod @rxsalinee

[profoundtyrantharmony]

Title : Night in the Museum

Pairing : Guardians of the Galaxy x platonic!reader

Words : 1191

Warning/Notes : None. Inspired by the movie “Night at the Museum”. Italic means dialogues. 

Plot : Quill and Nebula are send to retrieve the reality stone and are met with someone out of time.

Masterlist // Request

“What are we here for already ?”

“Quill you idiot, we are here to retrieve the reality stone, you know to stop Thanos and bring back half the population of the entire universe !” Yelled Nebula while leaving the spaceship.

The two of them where chosen to go to Nowhere in order to find the Collector and gently ask him for the reality stone. Obviously that wont be this easy, lying is like a second skin for the Collector, he wont leave his precious collection for anyone even if his life is at stake. What a fool man he is. 

Since Thanos’s snap, so much things have changed. People lost their love, their family, their friends and so much more. Quill became a shell of the man he used to be, always remembering Gamora -probably the love of his life- trapped in his head.... That is until the Avengers -what’s let of them- decide on performing a time heist. Basically, returning to the past to retrieve the stones that Thanos haven’t stoled yet. Easy right ?! Not really. Everbody has a role to play, an infinity stone to retrieve, a mission to succeed. That’ how Nebula find herself trapped with Quill.

“What the hell happened here ?” Interrogates Quill. “That was not like that the last time I came here, it seems so different I don’t know how to word it.”

“Different how ?” Nebula never came here so as no idea what he is talking about.

“When I came here it was alien stuff everywhere, objects as well as living subjects... But know it looks like what we could find in those Terrannien Museum ?”

“You don’t seem that sure of yourself ! How I am suppose to trust you when you can’t even remember a fact as simple as “How is it different ?!” 

Before Quill could answer her, a sound of running as well as heavy footstep were heard by the bothh of them. They decide to hide behind and under a huge mahogany desk.

Some minutes later they both heard nothing, the get out of their hidding place to find themselves nose to nose with none other than me and a huge squeleton T-Rex.

“May we know who those lovely new companions’s are ?” I say in a seductive yet autoritative voice. “You’re not from here, especially you.” I irectly pointed at Nebula with a simatetic smile trying to lighten the ever present tension.

“Y-Y-You’ve got freaking dinosaure next to you, a squeleton’s dinosaure, and it’s moving...alone.” Quill freaks at the view an couln’t ontain his fear.

“No worries, he won’t do anything to any of you two except to protect us, that is a promise I made to you. Know if you could answers my previous question, I won’t have to waste my night time.”

“I’m Peter Quill and this is Nebula. We’re coming from the future to prevent a global extinction of half of the living being of this galaxy.”

“Your future seems rather awful, but it still not answer the reason of your mere presence here.”

“I think it’s stange that you don’t seem surprised at all or thinking that we might be lying to you, who are you and what are you doing here !,” Nebula couldn’t stand so many interrogations and so few answers.

“My name is Y/N, mistress of the Great Pharaoh Sethi the first, lover of the High priest Imhotep and holder of the Reality Tablett ! As for my pretended naivety, just know that Im way much older than you and I have a dinosaure on my side !”

Everything seems so unbelievable, how could this be. A dinosaure, pharaoh a reality tablett... They need answers from to Collector as soon as possible and get out of this place.

“Alright your majesty, would be please have the courtesy of telling us where to find the Colector ?” Ask Quill with all the good manners he could muster.

“Of course, he’s dead !”

“When ? How ?” If the man was dead they will never be able to retrieve the stone, not with y/n and here guard dog of a dinosaure thinks Nebula.”Did you kill him ?”

"It’s been some months now, and it wasn’t me sorry to dissapoint you gorgeous lady in blue. It was the Huns. Although I did nothing to stop them, I purely innocent.” I smile at them full of sarcasm but still genuine.

As I see that the death of the Collector seems to be a really bad new for the both of them I decide to explain them everything from the beginning to this day. At first he collected only aliens artefacts until he enters into possession of me -I was in Cambridge University at the time- to starts his Terrian collection. What he didn’t know was that I came with a tablett that -once at night and the moon shines on its center- allowed all the dead and inanimate thing to be alive again. Lets just say that it didn’t go well when he started to play with the Huns...

“So you’re saying that you’re dead ?” Ask Quill.

“From millenia now, but thanks to my tablett I rise again every night as well as everything damn thing in this museum, which explains the T-Rex.”

Nebula push Quill to the side so they can talk without being heard. She thinks that the tablett is probably a part of the stone that’s why the reallity is alternate but only in the museum an not elsewhere. They come to the conclusion that they need her tablett to prevent the end of half the universe. Unfortunately they also come to the conclusion that in order to do so she wont be able to rise anymore after tonight. They both come to her an explain everything, from Thanos to the snap, the other infinity stones and the consequences.

“If I give it to you, ou have to promise to find a way to bring it back to me”

“We’ll do what we can...” starts Quill.

“Promise me as I promise you ! I’m not the only stuck in here. I understand what you fight for I was by the Pharaoh’s side a ong time ago, the people are important. But understand also that in my point of view what happened or what will happened in the future is of no use for me as I’m already dead. The only importance for me are the people from your timeline, and from the museum.” I say with passion and tears prickling in my eyes.

“We promise you, we’ll find a way !”

“Thank you my gorgeous lady in blue !”.

 I aproach them while holding the tablett, lightly kiss the both of them on the lips, give up my tablett and go back to my sarcophagus. Before leaving their sight I turn around and tell them one last time “You made a Promise don’t make me regret it!”

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎●●●▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

This is the end of the fic, hope ou enjoyed reading it

Like, Comment and Reblog are highly apreciated

English is not my mother tongue

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Bloodmoon Huntress thoughts

After watching the TDP panel yesterday, I am so full of thoughts I don't even know where to start! So I'll begin with the titular character, because the Bloodmoon Huntress is AMAZING!!

LOOK AT HER, HOLY CATS

I just.

Cannot possibly wait to see what she does, okay. It's gonna be SO BADASS. Stylish evil ftw!

long post is long, I have Many Thoughts tm:

Here's my favorite headcanon/theory about her: the Bloodmoon Huntress is the same elf who proposed mercy for the humans 1000 years ago!

we learned from the panel that she extends her life unnaturally, so she could be as old as the plot wants her to be (which could be an Aaravos thing too?)

she has a thick side braid like the elf in the show/art book sketch

who seems to have become an assassin with her wardrobe change

her neckline changes from that closed collar to the cutout-heart assassin collar that probably means you've killed someone for Xadia

she's hooded up in the sketch and you can see her braid, and the BH has both of those features too

also the cheek slash markings, unless that's a scar

her long sleeves have gotten tattered over time, like Aaravos's clothing, and we know he's been wearing that outfit for at least 300 years

the sketch version of the character has started to collect some bling, and BH is rocking a lot of metal bits

When the panel told us that some of the Moonshadow elves feel that the BH is going about things all wrong by extending her life using forbidden magic, Devon helpfully mentioned that Runaan specifically thinks the BH is on the wrong path. So I thought about what objections he might personally have:

she's a Moonshadow elf who ignores the cycle of life and death, so she's a bit of a disgrace to Runaan's people, and he would take offense

if she is or once was considered an assassin, then she's a bit of a disgrace to assassin honor specifically and Runaan would take even more offense

if she was the very first assassin, the one who spoke up for mercy on behalf of humans and then Luna Tenebris tasked her with taking out the "bad humans" herself in order to maintain a balance and show dedication to her cause (is this angsty dragon politics once again, yes it is), then she was supposed to be the best example to all assassins who followed her, and she failed by tainting herself and losing her honor, and that's not a good leader, so Runaan would be angry and defensive on the part of all the assassins he'd ever trained

the pointy shapes on her arms and boot tops, and on her amulet, are the same shape that Runaan wears on his belt. It's very angular and not swirly, so maybe it represents the dark and pointy side of Moonshadow culture, the assassin side. Maybe it marks the leader of the assassins. She's wearing a lot of this shape

when we first see Aaravos, he is covered in pretty golden bling, but he loses it when he is stuck in the mirror. Maybe golden bling can mark leaders, in ceremonial situations?

and maybe, since BH never died, she never passed the bling and its associated title on to anyone else

so no one else can truly be recognized as the properly titled leader of the Moonshadow elves

and this is why Corvus and everyone else just calls Runaan "leader", because he does lead, but he cannot use any official titles as long as the original title holder still "lives" - kind of like how Denethor is the Steward of Gondor, and he can't sit on the actual throne, but also like how Aragorn goes by Strider out in the wilds

basically Runaan is salty at this undying menace who has taken all the honor that should have belonged to serving his people and turned it inside out and he would absolutely kill her if he could

because that's a mercy she denied herself almost a thousand years ago, and hesitation is torture, and some part of him truly believes that even she deserves rest, but mostly so do all the elves she terrorizes and all the creatures she kills

Further BH design thoughts just for fun:

BH wears several dark golden chains with red stones in them

being chained is a recurring theme in TDP, used on characters who are not free in the metaphorical sense as well as the physical sense. Runaan, Harrow, Viren, Ezran, Claudia, Soren, Gren, and Amaya have been chained up so far

possibly she was once captured and chained by Sunfire elves because of the golden chains

but due to forbidden magics she had already performed or that she used in captivity she escaped

and now she wears the chains as a sign of her own freedom

as a warning to those who might hunt her, perhaps: "you cannot chain me for long"

maybe her collar simply cannot be removed and so she turned it into power jewelry

those gems might not have been red when they were set in her chains and bling

is it me or does that twisted seam in her visible boot top look like she may have literally exploded out of her clothing at one time?

and then stitched herself back together, yes in the creepy way

her face has a gray shadow on it - or is her very pale skin turning gray, perhaps for dark magic reasons

her white hair has purple color in it, which we've seen Claudia wear and Lujanne copy from her

that could be a nod to moon magic which is purple in the ToX playtests

and it could be a nod to dark magic which is always purple

[RoadToElDoradoBothIsGood.gif]

long ago I spotted some various rune spell art for TDP for the different magic types and the file name for the dark magic runes was called "blood magic"

we've seen the Sun Staff go dark purple and red when it got infected with dark magic

the elf in the flashback was holding a shillelagh-shaped (very druidic!) Moon Staff with a primal stone in it, too

if she turned to dark magic to extend her life, perhaps she tainted her own primal stone with it

a fitting term for a Moonshadow assassin who uses both dark magic and primal magic is Blood (dark) Moon (primal) Huntress (assassin, ft. "ranger hunter" class)

But does this mean she has to be evil? No! Well, not inherently. Evil is a choice - and more specifically evil is a series of choosing certain choices over and over - and TDP is very very good at showing us how so many characters are genuinely just sauntering vaguely downward without meaning to become evil at all! But those choices add up and up, over the years, and undoing a single bad choice is always far easier than undoing a series of choices over time.

So maybe that applies to the Bloodmoon Huntress too:

if BH is the same elf from the beginning, she probably spoke up for the humans' lives out of genuine empathy

the decision where she had to be the one to kill evil humans is pretty cruel but somehow that was agreed upon and the first assassin took her duty very very seriously

because if she did not do it then someone else would have to for reasons, and apparently that someone was going to be another Moonshadow elf who also loved and revered life, to whom killing was a very hard thing to contemplate doing

so if the daughter of the Moonshadow leader, aka the future BH, did not take up a sword or staff to kill, then she'd have to live with the knowledge that her cowardice and weakness would force another soft elf to do it, or to die trying

and that, she could not stand to see happen, so she threw herself into her duty with all her heart, to protect those she loved

she went dark - so very very dark - so that no one else would ever have to

it's the same sentiment Runaan shares in the graphic novel

and I think I finally know what Runaan's instinct is, when he tells Rayla in S1E2, "There's an instinct, a moment of truth." It's not to kill. It's to protect those he loves from suffering. He acts swiftly because it's merciful - to his targets, and to the elves who would have to kill if he didn't.

for some reason, Runaan and the BH accept this burden of killing as if it is too big to fight against, so they just do their duty as hard as they can

Runaan's training all day every day makes angstier sense in this light - if he isn't ready at a moment's notice to take on a mission or if he is injured or busy and can't go, then another elf will have to, and when someone else goes out into the night to kill a human, sometimes they don't come home, and that really weighs on Runaan's soul - that's a life needlessly wasted, which he could've saved if he'd just gone and done the mission himself

he probably takes every single mission he possibly can, just so no one else will have to bloody their hands except rarely, despite how well he has trained them

but he does train them as well as he can, because unlike the BH, Runaan accepts his death as an inevitability, even when he thinks it has come for him on Harrow's balcony. He wants someone to be strong enough to do what he does someday

is this another reason for Runaan to tear up on the balcony, when he surrenders to its power and waits for it to claim him, because he knows someone else will have to bear his burden now? yes it is Yet he accepts it because This Is The Way, whereas the BH refused to surrender to her fate

but she may have started down that path for the softest of reasons, namely, she could not stand to see another elf suffer the burden of taking a life, and so she simply refused to die and pass that weight to another

if she had a chosen successor whom she wanted to protect, and she got injured and was dying, and she knew they were not ready, she might have acted impulsively with some very shadowy Moon magic, or gone straight to dark magic, to survive it, and then she realized how pragmatic that approach was

but once you prioritize your life over someone else's, the slope, it gets slippery and perspective, it shifts

maybe she started using dark magic to strengthen herself like Doctor Strange in What if...?, so she would be stronger against the enemy, and it made her monstrous

at some point someone had to say she'd gone too far, and she probably didn't understand why they were angry at her

bonus points if it's her loved one, her own successor, who becomes an assassin to put things right, betrays her to the Sunfire elves or somesuch, and actually tries to kill her, and then everyone learns she kind of can't die

if she was imprisoned and broke free, she may have a very altered view of her purpose in life now

does she still hunt humans? Any evildoer? Can she tell the difference between good and evil? What's her rubric?

does she feed on any life she finds? Those are some seriously impressive red stabby fingers, very red lyrium meets Lady Dimitrescu, what are they for exactly

the fact that her colors are the opposite of Moonshadow colors, as if she is a thematic negative, is amazing. Red instead of green, black instead of white, gold instead of silver. She's as unMoonshadow as a Moonshadow can get, and yet, look at her, which other elf tribe would dare to look this dramatic and gloriously dangerous, come on

Final thoughts on this amazing new character I can't wait to meet:

the red she wears has me thinking. Maybe she chose to wear this color for multiple reasons (how Moonshadow of her, or do we call her Shadowmoon at this point? :D)

if she swore a blood promise to do her dark assassin duty, then perhaps she was trying to shed enough blood - her own? everyone else's? - to fulfill the bloodthirst of a promise that had no perceivable end to its appetite

maybe the red is a magical side effect of the tainting of Moon magic with dark magic, and when she started using dark magic, the effect on her arcanum became visible

or maybe there isn't actually any dark magic in her at all and red is just the shadow magic that's part of Moon magic but it's the dark and creepy stuff that Moonshadows have collectively decided is Bad and Wrong because it can be used to interfere with the natural cycle of life and death that they revere so much, and she's a Shadow Mage, basically a necromancer (cough @random-fandom-ramble cough)

or maybe she just works in a children's hospital, where she learned about color theory

none of my ideas actually have anything to do with lunar eclipses for once and that kind of shocks me, but if I had to guess, I'd say that either a bloodmoon gives the Huntress massive power and she comes out to strike at her enemies then, or it actually negates her power, and the one time you might have the slimmest chance at taking her out is during such an event

and now for some plot ideas

Runaan seems like he's going to hunt the BH in this graphic novel

I'm not sure he will catch her though

he could, and he could defeat her and save the Moonshadow elves from her menace

and that could inspire Rayla to ask to become an assassin, to save people too

but I think the BH's influence on Runaan and Rayla's lives might be angstier and more long-term than that

consider if Runaan can't defeat her and she escapes him and just vanishes back into the shadows to pop out next bloodmoon or something

and Rayla looks at this utter badass she loves and respects and decides "this poor fool needs my help, obviously" and signs up to be an assassin to watch his back

and to help him protect those they love, together

because she's so smol and she doesn't understand sacrificing yourself for others yet, all she knows is that idea keeps hurting her

so if she can protect Runaan, then he'll never leave her (oh Rayla)

and he does teach her how to think like he does over the years, so when she meets Callum, and Runaan sacrifices himself for her, Rayla just accepts that this gesture means "love" and "protection"

and she uses it on Callum at the end of TTM

she learned how to embrace the role of scapegoat for her people, as a love language, from Runaan. They're both very good at stabby acts of service

and what about the BH still being out there? Well, if the BH still lives in the current TDP timeline, then Rayla will encounter her again, and this time she'll understand sacrifice a lot better

and if the BH can only be defeated during a lunar eclipse, then may I helpfully point once again to "this was Tiadrin's master plan all along"

where Tiadrin had Rayla on purpose during a blue moon so she'd be strong enough to take out the BH and free the Moonshadow elves from a blood promise that was as undying as she was

and she'll do it on her birthday

Anyway I love the Bloodmoon Huntress and I can't wait to read all about her and how she messes with the moonfam, is it April yet