#quote from that glorious game

[theealbatross]

Sebastian x Reader: come one, come all (One Shot)

Plot | Five years after graduating, two kindred spirits are finally getting married and their friends reminisce on their brilliant histories.

or, Lucas Brattleby interviews their friends on their memories and opinions of the future Mr. and Mrs. Sallow as a little gift for the couple.

Tags | None, fluff, overuse of the name Merlin, mentions of slight torture (hexes), lowkey bullying, lowkey codependency if you squint, obsessive behavior (but it's okay cause theyre in love), cursing, Lucas lowkey has a crush on Sebastian lol

[A/N: A line from this story is not made by me, "I would follow him to hell but I wish he wouldn't go there" so to whoever wrote that first just know your quote is the inspiration for this story!!]

“What is this again?”

The brat, Lucas Brattleby, had grown obscenely taller the last time Imelda had seen him, which was about 3 years ago when he was a rookie reporter covering her latest game. She heard he is now a publisher in his own right but didn’t seem to brush off that annoying lint in his voice back when he was still a Gryffindor matching illegal unsanctioned duels in the Clock Tower.

“A small gift of mine for the couple,” he grinned (still as irritating, she’s seen that grin enough times before she got her ass handed to her so forgive her for not being enamored), pushing the pen (recorder?) to her that she reflexively pushed him by his face. “Sorry.”

“And why should I do this?”

“Oh come on, Imelda. It’s just harmless questions to take us back down memory lane. It’ll be played at the reception and I promise I’ll send you everything before I finalize it just so you can make sure –”

“Alright!” She stopped walking, rolling her eyes when Lucas quickly assembled his camera, even quickly conjuring a chair and putting it at the center of the frame. Clearly, he knew she could change her mind at any moment.

“My lady,” he bowed dramatically, pointing a palm to the seat.

“Don’t call me that. You have 10 minutes before warm-ups start.” Lucas raised both of his hands in the air before quickly running behind the camera and clicking the button to start recording.

“I’ll be out of here in 5.” Lucas flipped a paper in front of him. “Let’s start with your name, a little something about yourself and where did you meet them.”

She took a deep breath, putting on the poker face she usually plasters on her face when talking to the media before her many games instinctively. “Imelda Reyes, Vice-Captain of Puddlemere United, and I had the misfortune of being in the same boat as Sebastian Sallow during our first year. She, however, was a little late to the party and wreaked havoc on my life when I was a fifth year.”

Lucas was meticulously writing notes in his fancy notebook.

“What’s the fondest memory you have of the couple?”

She scoffed, not even needing to think about it. “Sebastian? Definitely when he caught a bludger … with his face.” The memory of the cry he emitted pulled a real smile on Imelda’s face. “We almost lost and I would’ve killed him for it but oh was it glorious.”

He remembers this game.

“Didn’t he fall off his broom midair?”

Imelda waved a nonchalant hand in front of her face. “That girlfriend of his caught him with an Arresto Momentum so no harm done – well, except the crooked nose he sported for a week.”

Lucas chuckled with her, “And for the future Mrs. Sallow?”

“Nothing much, most conversation we’ve had was her beating me – beating me in a race, beating me in a duel, Merlin, she even beat me with the class ranking on her first year in Hogwarts. I had a five-year head start how was that possible?!”

Lucas smiled, reading that as bitter her words were she truly held no grudge over it. He was caught off guard, however, when Imelda suddenly had a small, serene smile on her face, her voice when she spoke softer. “She was … it was like I was always chasing after her. We all were, Sebastian always first in the race but … it was fun. I had fun. She made Hogwarts fun. A true competition, yknow? Didn’t have much at that point in my life.”

“Competition?”

“A friend.”

Lucas couldn’t help but be surprised – not everyone can be considered as Imelda Reyes’ friend as picky as she is, though he quickly fixed his face when she shot him a look that told him not to probe. “Did you ever think they would both get married?”

Imelda scoffed out a laugh, crossing her arms. “I knew the only way they wouldn’t get married is if Sallow got assassinated by one of her many admirers and even then I wouldn’t put it past him to somehow turn into an Inferi just so he can still be the one to marry her. I’m honestly surprised he held on for this long, pretty sure he would’ve popped the question the moment we graduated.”

“Technically, he did. They just decided to get married this year.”

That one made her laugh out loud, shaking her head at her old friend’s antics. Of course, she knew those two would get married, basically tied to the hip, always getting in and out of trouble with each other and for each other. Bloody hell, they’d been married since fifth-year and just didn’t know it.

“Typical Sallow,” she caught herself. “Well, Sallows now, Merlin help us all.”

Lucas rechecked everything on his notes, making sure to mark any and all important details of the words his enchanted pen has written for him as he spoke with his former Senior, Garreth Weasley, who was once a thorn on the side of Professor Sharp but was now a renowned Potions Master actively getting scouted by Hogwarts, his blends sought upon by the most respectable wizards and witches all over the world.

“Did I think they would get married? Mate, Sebastian almost bit my head off when I tried to ask her if she would like to be partners for one potion class. One! And we were sitting next to each other! I’m sorry if I thought I was being friendly?!”

Lucas has heard and has unfortunately been a victim of Sebastian’s … tendencies. You, despite being the top duelist in Hogwarts was always, more often than not, partnered with Sebastian in every duel. The one time Lucas had agreed in a quiet solo duel without letting Sebastian know his senior had caught him on his way to his potion's class and nailed him to the wall by his cloak while threatening him to never let it happen again or he will turn him into a pretty outline in the walls of Hogwarts with Bombarda.

He thinks that was the closest thing he had been to peeing his pants.

“Yeah, Sebastian doesn’t have the best track record with friendly males around his girlfriend.”

“They weren’t even courting by then how would I bloody know that –”

“Ready, Poppy?”

Surprisingly, the sweet woman in front of him has been the most difficult to track down. Amongst their mutual friends she was the one he had no idea where to start, especially after his only lead, her grandmother, had no other information to give him aside that the last she heard Sweet Poppy was down South Clagmar Coast ‘doing Merlin knows what’.

Thankfully, the citizens of Cragcroft were a bit more helpful and he was able to send her an owl about his little project.

“Where should we start?”

Lucas made sure she was framed perfectly in the shot before nodding to himself. “Nothing complicated Poppy, just first impressions or any memory you have of the young couple.”

She pursed her lips in thought, nodding to herself, “The two of them have always been terrifyingly intimidating, especially for someone like me. Seemed to just attract attention and trouble on their own – I mean, killing a troll in Hogsmeade on the first day – just a bunch of troublemakers they were. Brilliant troublemakers – which only made them scarier in my eyes.”

Lucas nodded in total agreement but he couldn’t help but squint at her.

“You aren’t exactly innocent, Ms. Hid-a-Hippogriff.”

Her eyes widened, blushing at the accusation. “In my defense, future Mrs. Sallow helped me take care of Highwing.”

Poppy recounted the memories with a smile on her face.  Her dainty smile grew bigger as she recapped happy memories she had with her classmates.

“But they’ve always been lovely. Lovely people and an even lovelier couple. Sebastian has always been bright and charming and surprisingly kind for a Slytherin and she … she’s always been unapologetic of who she was. It also meant she never judged anybody for who they are either.”

The woman paused, the smile on her face remained frozen as if she was in deep reflection.

“A true friend – one of the truest I had.”

Lucas was never in their circle, hell, aside from each other and maybe Ominis nobody was truly ever in their innermost circle despite their popularity. At every explosive trouble the two were always caught in he couldn’t help but wonder just what they get up to when they weren’t caught. Even back then he knew he would’ve risked his life and followed them no question asked if it meant his young self got to go to one of their death-defying adventures with them.

But being two years younger was a barrier he could never overcome.

It is refreshing to hear of stories from their friend’s perspective and not in passing in the Central Hall in Hogwarts where it’s all half-true, fabricated, or painfully hyperbolic. Maybe that’s why he had thought to do this, a reporter’s disease of needing to know the truth, the dark side of the coin they hid with their secrets and anonymities passed only in hushed whispers and clandestine meetings with each other.

“Are you excited about the wedding?”

Poppy nodded eagerly. “Oh, I’m extremely happy for my friends! It’s not every day two souls find each other and just not let go. I’m glad they didn’t. After all they’ve been through, they deserve to have each other.”

He couldn’t have agreed more.

“That they do.”

Mr. Lucas Brattleby,

I have received your owl, unfortunately, I will not be able to go back there till the night before the wedding as I still have a business to wrap up here in America. For the questions you sent, I shall send this Howler and you may record it.

I have nothing good to say about Mr. Sebastian Sallow, that boy had done nothing but torment me in my youth. It’s a bloody miracle he had managed to snag the Hero of Hogwarts as his girlfriend – terrible lack of judgment on her part I must say, we all have our flaws – much less agree to be his wife. If there’s one good thing he did do, it was willingly become a lowly servant to such a lovely witch. Least he could do, really.

However, despite their blatant differences and unfortunate similarities I, for one, knew immediately that not even Death could sever such a connection – not if Sebastian Sallow had anything to say about it, and trust me I speak from experience. They’ve fought through detentions, goblins, dark wizards, and a damned troll – I’m sure marriage will be a breeze in a park.

Well, if I’m wrong, then let the future Mrs. Sallow know I would be more than willing to offer a comforting shoulder.

Leander Prewitt Department of International Magical Cooperation

PS. To my darling wife Leonora, light of my life, the last part was a joke and If I somehow disappear it was Sebastian Sallow who did it.

“They give Sebastian too much credit when my dear friend was equally as obsessed about him. Do you remember Allia?”

Lucas snapped his fingers when he finally put a face to the name he hadn’t heard in a while but made sure to look around lest one of the younger students managed to hear such … delicate matters in the DADA classroom. “Didn’t she transfer during your 6th year? Something about personal … complications?”

Natty laughed out loud, doubling over with tears in her eyes. “Oh, that excuse was all thanks to Ominis swinging around his name. Our dear witch hexed poor Allia while she was asleep for trying to poison Sebastian with Amortentia! Sneaked straight into the Ravenclaw tower and cursed her to grow the features of a rat every time she even thought about Sebastian! The only way Ominis could convince our friend to take back the curse and avoid expulsion was at the condition of her transferring and never letting the couple see even her shadow again.”

He never even noticed that his jaw was hanging off his face.

“Oh, if everyone only knew that fights I had prevented if a Junior so much as fluttered their lashes at Sebastian,” she shook her head, still laughing to herself.

Now all the pieces he hadn’t realized were part of the same puzzle clicked on his head. The flat smile on her face that never quite reached her eyes every time they were surrounded by strangers, the grip she always held on Sebastian’s arms no matter where they were going, the ‘promise ring’ Sebastian also wore when traditionally it was just the girl who had it, and the absolute absence of Sebastian’s name when girls talked about boys they fancied in the common room when he was undoubtedly better looking than most students in Hogwarts.

“A jealous witch she was, thinks she’s good at hiding it,” Natty chuckled.

Lucas realized in horror that she had scared off the entire female student body.

“But by the gods was she better at hexes.”

When Lucas had heard that Ominis Gaunt had been working closely with the Minister for Magic and was undoubtedly being groomed to be his successor, he wasn’t exactly surprised. Everyone knew he would be someone important someday so Lucas had damn near lost all hope as he sent an owl to the man.

When he received a reply in a fortnight brought by a regal-looking owl, Lucas thought he must have some soft spot for his fellow alumni. But it would seem the man just had a lot to let out of his chest.

“Oh, the stories I could tell! If I had a knut for every time I had to rescue one of those idiots out of a horrific situation they found themselves in I would be richer than the Blacks!”

He’d never seen his hair this undone in the 7 years they had been on the same campus. Maybe Lucas was just that good of a journalist or maybe it was the half-empty bottle of expensive whiskey that was the reason for his loose lips.

“I mean, Sebastian was bad enough, but once he found someone who would willingly dive with him to whatever dangerous expeditions he found interest in and I was outnumbered it was a bloody nightmare.”

For the first time in his life, he felt pity for the man. It was never really a secret why Sebastian didn’t serve half the detention he deserved nor why neither of them had ever been expelled when a trail of evidence led to the both of them red-handed and always at the scene of the crime. But he has to give it to Ominis … a lesser man would’ve cracked at their mischiefs.

“And Sebastian … everybody knows he would’ve willing let himself be target practice for all sorts of curses if she had asked.”

Lucas can’t even defend his childhood hero. Especially, of the things he had learned from his previous subjects. It would seem even the mightiest of men would always buckle in the face of their true love.

“I-I’m sure they’ve done the same for you,” Lucas winced.

“Oh, they better, with the flaming hoops I had to jump through to make sure we graduated alive,” Ominis waved him off indifferently. “They are my best friends. I would follow them to hell but I just wish they would stop going there for one damn semester.”

Lucas snickered, unfortunately unable to hold it in with just how stressed the memory of the mischiefs his favorite couple got up to has brought Ominis. He was sure the older man would choke him but he just sighed out a laugh until the two of them were laughing to each other.

“I guess they have always been the perfect person for each other.”

Ominis nodded, leaning his head on his fist. “Yeah …”

He threw Lucas a look.

“Do you think they won’t make me their children’s godfather if I begged?”

Lucas bit his lips. “My money is on the eldest getting named after you so …”

Ominis groaned.

Lucas refilled his glass.

[jakey-beefed-it]

I'm always at least slightly irritated and sometimes get full on pissed off that white supremacist jackasses have infiltrated and changed the culture within a lot of my interests. Like, I'm interested in ancient Rome, and the US Civil War, and proto-Indo-Europeans, and Norse mythology, and Greek mythology, and wargaming, and heavy metal, and just... can you all just *fuck off* from my interests?

I love reading about the largest, longest-lasting empire in western history, and how it impacted all the cultures that came after it, but it was an EMPIRE and therefore HORRIBLE and unlike so many I actually understand that? It's just super interesting!

I am endlessly fascinated by the Civil War, particularly the cultural struggles in the North to get people lined up behind abolition before and during the war, and the heroism of people like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, but yes, I'm a war nerd, I ALSO get very interested in the battles, particularly the ones where large events hinged on seemingly small actions- Lee's scouts losing his orders leading to Antietam, Chamberlain's bayonet charge at Gettysburg, the countless blunders by generals on both sides leading to ever greater loss of life than the world had previously seen outside of the Napoleonic Wars, a foreshadowing of the mechanized slaughter war was to become.

That there was an influential culture or family of cultures whose linguistic imprint remains detectable to this very day in languages as diverse as Sanskrit, Latin, and Old Norse, is FASCINATING. Of course, ever since the Nazis decided that said culture was 'Aryan' the whole topic has become basically a minefield where you have to pick through mountains of bullshit for the honest linguistic archaeology. It wasn't 'Aryan' in the sense of some mythical super-white people and it wasn't even Aryan in the sense of the pre-Vedic Iranian/Indian peoples, it was older than that. Harrumph.

For a person who grew up reading Greek mythology, who finds it referenced in everything from Shakespeare to Modernist classics, of course it's interesting. And Norse mythology is so different from it! The gods are no less flawed and human, but in such a different way! The stories are often HILARIOUS. But of course white nationalist idiots have co-opted both as part of their grand imagined past and 'rightful' culture. Bad news for both- there are thousands of years of massive upheaval, cultural and demographic change in both Magna Graecia and Scandanavia, and NONE of you are anything like your 'ancestors.' Not that that's even a bad thing! Let people, societies, and cultures evolve! The past is interesting but it's not sacred! Fuck!

Wargaming... look even I admit this one is sus on the surface of it. It's bad enough when you're playing a fantasy game with fantasy factions, and god help you if you're into historicals, you are GOING to run into someone's Confederates or Nazis or the like. But the very concept can't help but inherently glorify war, which, you know, to quote George C. Scott as Patton 'god help me, I love it so,' because there's very little if anything glorious about mass murder for dubious goals but the heights of emotion and performance people reach is compelling, okay? It's melodrama with dice. Nobody actually gets hurt. This is a much healthier outlet for my weird fixation on quite possibly the Worst Thing that Humans Do than joining the army or (more likely in my case) an intelligence service. would have been. I was given a head for tactics and analysis and a heart for the drums of war, and I channeled it into friendly games with other nerds. I'm proud of me for this one. Fucking fascists can go die.

There's nothing inherently fascist about metal, though the blasting drums definitely evoke the same primal intensity as war drums or the like. But like punk, it became kind of a counter-culture, and when the main culture was not as openly fascistic, that drew in a lot of fash. Anarchists and commies and just plain weirdos, too, but the fash are there and if you don't kick them right the fuck out immediately they pollute the whole scene. So I'm always gratified to hear Rammstein singing things like 'my heart beats Left' to tell the nazis to fuck right off. At least I'm not into Black Metal, that scene is far far far worse than my beloved Power Metal nerd shit.

Anyway yeah as the initial reaction image indicates I do periodically take stock of why I'm interested in so many of the same things as goddamned fascists, interrogating my own assumptions and thought processes. That's healthy, we all gotta be vigilant we don't get sucked into something vile. But for the most part, I hope you'll agree if you read this far, I seem to at least enjoy similar things for very different reasons than the goddamn fash. But hey, if you read this and spotted something sus, and you're comfortable doing so, by all means send me a reply or a message (on anon if you prefer) letting me know what that is. Not as a callout, not as a game of moral one-upsmanship, but as a comrade looking out for another comrade.

[nameless-jamie]

PR Disaster

Masterlist

Jamie Tartt x fem! PA reader

TW: cursing, suggestive scenes

Jamie Tartt was a nightmare to work for on an average day. But on a day when he was desperate? He was unbearable.

Y/N had spent the last twenty minutes trying to get through her emails while Jamie sat across from her desk, relentlessly attempting to convince her to do something insane.

“Come on, love,” Jamie pleaded, drumming his fingers on her desk. “It’s just one night. Just a little thing. Barely even a date.”

She shot him an incredulous look. “You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend at a charity gala.”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

Jamie groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Y/N, you have to.”

“Oh, I have to?” She crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. "M'not getting paid for this so I don't have to do shit, Jamie."

"Don't be difficult, babe. I beg you!"

“Let me get this straight. You, a fully grown man, need a date to some fancy event, and instead of—I don’t know—asking out one of the many women who throw themselves at you, you come to me, your freaking assistant?”

He sighed dramatically. “I can’t take some random girl. That’d make it worse.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Worse than what?”

Jamie slouched lower in his chair and sighed. “Some wanker journalist wrote a whole article about how I’ve ‘lost my edge’ since I’ve been single. Said my game’s sufferin’ ‘cause I’m too ‘unfocused.’” He made air quotes, looking deeply offended. “He said I'm too horny for the pitch or some shit. Like, I can’t be single and good at football at the same time. It’s bullshit.”

“That does sound like bullshit.”

“Right?"

"Too horny for the pitch, is my favorite thing anyone has ever said about you, though." Y/N laughed, wiping a small tear out of the corner of her eye.

"Y/N be fucking for real right now. The plan is, if I show up with a girlfriend, it shuts everyone up. And if I take you, it don’t get messy. No expectations. No awkward post-date texts. Just you lookin’ dead fit in a fancy dress and me lookin’ like a man not in the middle of a public downward spiral.”

Y/N narrowed her eyes. “Why do I feel like you’ve thought way too much about this?”

Jamie grinned. “Because I have.”

She exhaled slowly, staring at him for a long moment. “This is a terrible idea.”

“Best ones usually are.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

"And if the press wants us to kiss it wouldn't be awkward because we already did that once!"

"Jamie, that is still a fucking accident. We don't talk about that!"

"I mean I want to talk about it—" Jamie couldn't finish that sentence before a pen was thrown his way.

"Pick me up at 7. Go away now!"

The night started when he picked her up for the gala, in a freaking stretch limousine.

Y/N opened her door.

Jamie’s brain short-circuited.

She stood there in a dress that was so—fuck. It was tight in all the right places, dipping low at the neckline, hugging her waist like it was personally designed to ruin his life. Her legs? Glorious. The slit in her dress? Criminal. Her makeup? Perfect.

He actually forgot how to breathe.

Y/N tilted her head. “Jamie?”

He blinked rapidly, forcing himself to speak. “Huh?”

Her lips twitched. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, voice cracking like a fucking teenager. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, uh, you look—” He gestured vaguely at her, struggling to find a word that wasn’t fuckable. “Good. Nice. Decent.”

Y/N raised an eyebrow. “Decent?”

Jamie winced. Fuckin’ idiot. “Nah, not decent. I meant, like, proper good. Like, unfairly good. Like—fuck, what’s the word—illegal?”

She laughed, and Jamie swore it was the best sound he’d ever heard.

“Well, that’s good to know,” she teased. “Considering I’m supposed to be your date.”

Right. The fake date. The one that wasn’t real. The one where he definitely wasn’t supposed to be thinking about how he wanted to keep her locked in his car all night so no one else could look at her.

Jamie exhaled sharply, dragging a hand down his face. Get it together, Tartt.

Y/N gave him a knowing smile. “You ready to go?”

Jamie didn’t trust himself to speak. Instead, he just opened the car door for her, staring straight ahead as she got in—because if he looked for even a second longer, there was a very real chance he’d be showing up to the gala with a boner.

And that was definitely not part of the plan.

Y/N soon realized that the problem wasn’t the gala.

The problem was Jamie.

Because he was apparently way too good at fake dating.

For someone who was supposedly just trying to fix his reputation, he seemed very committed to the role.

He kept his hand on the small of her back all night, his thumb moving in slow circles against the fabric of her dress like it was second nature. He leaned in close every time he spoke to her, his breath warm against her ear. And worst of all, he kept looking at her like that. Like she was the only person in the room.

He also seemed to be having the time of his life making up a fake relationship history.

“Oh, yeah,” he told an interviewer from The Athletic. “She played hard to get at first, but I wore her down.”

“She pretends to be annoyed by me,” he added later, “but really? She’s obsessed.”

Y/N had to bite her tongue multiple times to avoid strangling him.

But then came the real kicker.

“She makes me a better man. I mean fuck— have you looked at her. She is not going to her own flat tonight, am I right love?”

Y/N nearly choked on her champagne.

What the fuck was he playing at?

She was fully prepared to murder him the second they got into the car.

But before she could, the event photographer asked them to pose for a picture, and—

Jamie pulled her in, his hand sliding around her waist, fingers brushing the bare skin at her side.

Her breath hitched.

And then—

Jamie fucking winked.

The camera flashed.

And just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, a journalist called out:

“Jamie! One more shot—how about a kiss for the cameras?”

She froze.

Jamie, however, seemed thrilled by the idea.

“Oh, yeah?” He turned to her, smirking. “What d’you reckon, love? Give the people what they want?”

She stared at him, genuinely considering murder.

But the cameras were waiting. The journalists were watching. And it's not like it would be their first one...

Jamie—the absolute menace—was already leaning in, his lips curling into something dangerously close to a real smile.

She had two options: make it awkward as hell by shutting it down, or commit to the bit.

FUCK, she was his freaking assistant. And she's totally into him. But that wasn't important right now. If she did not kiss him the press would know that Jamie Tartt brought a fake date or worse they would think that his own girlfriend hates him. If she kisses him though, the PR disaster after that would fucking suck.

Fuck it. With a deep breath, she reached up, placed her hand on his chest, and let Jamie close the distance between them.

It was barely a kiss—a soft press of lips, just enough to make it convincing. But Jamie’s hand tightened on her waist, just for a second, and her fingers curled against the fabric of his suit before she forced herself to pull away.

The cameras loved it.

Jamie did too, judging by the way he looked at her afterward.

“Not bad, love,” he murmured, his lips still inches from hers. “Please tell me that one was an accident too. Or else I might have to take you home with me tonight.”

She just rolled her eyes and shoved him. Idiot.

The next morning, Y/N woke up to absolute chaos.

Her phone had exploded.

Twitter was going insane.

She clicked on the first headline that popped up.

"Jamie Tartt Goes Public With Stunning Mystery Girlfriend at Charity Gala—And We Have ALL the Details"

She scrolled down, her horror growing with every paragraph.

"From the way he looked at her to the way he kept a protective hand on her waist all night, Jamie Tartt was absolutely smitten. Sources tell us that he was completely devoted to her the entire evening, barely paying attention to anyone else. And let's not forget the viral moment when he told reporters, 'She makes me a better man.' Our hearts? Melted."

“Oh, for fuck sake. I knew it.”

She stormed into Nelson Road, phone in hand. “Jamie fucking Tartt!”

Jamie, who had been laughing with Dani, turned at the sound of her voice. “Mornin’, love.”

She marched up to him and shoved her phone in his face. “Do you know how many people think we’re actually together?”

He barely glanced at the screen before shrugging. “Yeah. Bit mad, innit?”

“Mad? Mad?” She scrolled further. “People are already speculating about a wedding! I just got an email from Vogue asking if we’d do a couples photoshoot and a fucking interview!”

Jamie grinned. “Vogue, yeah? That’s kinda sick. Let’s do it. I can tell ‘em about how you snore when you fall asleep on the couch.”

“I do not snore.” She gaped at him. “Jamie. This is not funny.”

“Babe, you do,” he said, voice dripping with amusement, "And it’s a little funny.”

She groaned. “I hate you.”

“Nah,” he said, slinging an arm around her shoulder. “You love me, remember? You make me a better man.”

“You fucking prick. You even liked a post that said, ‘Jamie Tartt and his girlfriend are the it couple of the season’!”

Jamie shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well, yeah. ‘Cause we are.”

Her jaw dropped. “We are not.”

Jamie tilted his head, a playful glint in his eye. “You sure about that, love?”

She refused to answer.

Jamie must’ve noticed her hesitation because he leaned in, dropping his voice. “Just say the word, and I’ll post a proper ‘soft launch’ photo of us on Instagram.”

She shoved him away.

But later, when she caught him scrolling through a fan edit of them kissing with that smug little smile, she had the sinking suspicion that Jamie had no intention of letting this fake relationship die anytime soon.

And worse?

She wasn’t sure she wanted him to. She had to clear the air, though...And the PR of all of it was going to be a fucking disaster.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello Miss Raven! I always enjoy reading your thoughts and explanations on various twst topics! I'm not sure if someone asked before since I'm relatively new to your blog.

Do you have any speculations or wishes for the setting in the next Helloween event? Like which movies have a higher chance to be a part of Twisted Wonderland. My personal wish event would be based on the "The Black Cauldren" from 1985 or on "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" from 1949.

I hope you have a nice day/night!

Hello and welcome to my blog~ :DD

I definitely feel like the next Halloween event (for JP) might be another Lost in the Book in order to mirror the one we just had, which was Lost in the Book with Nightmare Before Christmas. Popular speculation right now is that we might get part 2 of Nightmare due to how the event ended with "The End...?" and Boogie's boys scampering across the screen. (More details on that theory here!)

Between Nightmare and a recent Tangled inspired event in the JP server, Wish Lantern: The Road/Journey to Freedom, we know that Twst is not limited to just 2D films anymore. Stop motion and 3D animated films are also now fair game. That opens the floodgates for many more possibilities as to what could be referenced or integrated into Twst's world!

We also know from previous Halloween events that Halloween events don't necessarily need to be "Halloween-y". Glorious Masquerade, while taking place around Halloween time, had nothing to do with the holiday. Playful Land similarly didn't have anything to do with Halloween, even if it did incorporate horror vibes in its later acts. So really, I get the sense that Halloween events could be inspired by literally any movie under the Disney umbrella at this point. I don't think that one really has a higher chance than another, though there may be a bias for more "iconic" and well-known films just because we all know how Disney LOVES to capitalize on nostalgia. I recall that Yana has shared that one of her favorite Disney films is Treasure Planet and she'd love to do something with that for Twst?? (I might be misremembering the second part of that statement, so don't quote me on it.) Actually, looking at Yana's top Disney films, Twst has actually incorporated 2 of them already as Lost in the Book events (Lilo & Stitch and Nightmare Before Christmas). The other two, Treasure Planet and Beauty and the Beast, might also be strong contenders for future Lost in the Books or perhaps another story event, though not necessarily Halloween.

… On a personal note, I would really like a Monsters Inc. Halloween event :3c I think that would really fit the spirit of the holiday and allow the devs to get super creative with the designs.

[sevikas-biceps]

[TLDR: me attempting to make sense of the Arcane's eldritchness, which sounds ironic in hindsight but hear me out]

Revelation after revelation aside, there are many pieces of foreshadowing that tell us why Viktor's commune wasn't as great as it seemed.

Visually speaking, all the clues are right there.

The first thing we see of the slums of Zaun is this.

Vi, leading their little group, is astonished to find such a thing—and to think that Huck was there, serving as one of its ushers! Huck, who she immediately calls a filthy traitor; having succumbed to shimmer the last time she saw him—meaning he'd turned to Silco both literally and figuratively—what with his use of the drug and the fact that he'd ratted her and Caitlyn out to the tycoon.

Miss Ma'am is bamboozled.

How the hell did he end up there? At this...paradise? At the slums, which, only a few weeks or months ago; was still dark, dusty, violet, and violent!

Something has changed, obviously; and Huck himself admits that his past was him 'at his worst'. Simply awful. But the Herald had saved him. And because of that, he was leading a better life, now. Naturally, at this point, Vi and Jinx seem wary.

There's gotta be a catch, no?

The landscape and the characters exemplify this.

Let's start with the land itself. Look at how empty it actually looks. Yes, there's a field of flowers. Yes, there's a community, teeming with life. Yes, it's literally heaven. But the lighting. The colours. It's so...bleak. Like a dream. The mountains are green, but they're cast in grey and white; and added with the negative space, there's an eeriness to it that contrasts Piltover's version of an eutopia.

You can argue it being the vast resource difference, as Topside is the superior city for a reason, but the commune is still filled with numerous individuals with just as much creativity as their counterparts. Intelligent and sentient beings—people, with minds to set to whatever task may be at hand.

Now, let's think of the people.

The biggest difference between the two communities is this: the 'healed' of Viktor's paradise wear only one mode of dress: white. It's almost uniform—which is notable, as, previously in the episode, Viktor speaks of 'chaos'. We see how fascinated he was by the mess that Vander's psyche had become, and in an attempt at detangling that chaos, he was 'setting things right' inside the man's mind. Bringing him back to something resembling normalcy. Order.

This is particularly significant for the fact that, in the game, he's remembered for his philosophy on glorious evolution (also mentioned in the show, as we know)—which is centred on the enhancement of the human body to transcend its fleshly limits.

Piltover, in contrast—and by extension the 'unhealed' of Zaun—go against this code. We see shimmer addicts, we see corrupt individuals, we see bigoted populations, we see conflict between the cities. We see human nature at its finest. Even the episode titles, all the way from Season 1, display this.

S1E1: Welcome to the Playground S1E2: Some Mysteries are Better Left Unsolved S1E3: The Base Violence Necessary for Change S1E4: Happy Progress Day! S1E5: Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy S1E6: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down S1E7: The Boy Saviour S1E8: Oil and Water S1E9: The Monster You Created S2E1: Heavy is the Crown S2E2: Watch It All Burn S2E3: Finally Got the Name Right S2E4: Paint the Town Blue S2E5: Blisters and Bedrock S2E6: The Message Hidden Within the Pattern

Again, human nature. Colourful, tumultuous, unsynchronised. A need for knowledge. A need for violence. A need for change. A need for exploration. A need for control. Everything that we can have, we take.

That's the point of Viktor's quote:

I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right—it's inescapable. Humanity. Our very essence. Our emotions—rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil.

It's a paradox.

This is a sophisticated conjuration. A singularity, simultaneously self-replicating and self-annihilating.

He wasn't just talking about the Arcane. It wasn't just about that 'voice' he and Sky heard when gazing at Jayce through Salo's eyes. It's also about humanity.

So, how does that relate to his commune?

Here's the thing: it looks like heaven, but later on, when Viktor dies and everyone else follows, it's practically limbo. It's liminal. Initially, you only have the vague sense that there's something off about it, but you can't tell what. It's filled with people, yet at the same time, it looks like it shouldn't have any to begin with. Mysterious. Suspicious. Almost dreadful; something that makes you realise: if you think about it too hard, you'd drive yourself insane.

There's something intrinsically natural about the commune, something untouched by human hands; but there's also something intrinsically human about it, something unnatural, cultivated in a way nature itself cannot replicate. That's the catch. It should be a balance of both. An ideal community would show this.

Viktor's connection to the Hexcore tells us that he's, in part, transcended both humanity and the natural world. He's breached the ineffable and the incomprehensible, and brought it into the existence(s) of those who could know of and experience it. Bringing 'paradise' to those who were never meant to realise what it was. Forcing onto them the Arcane, even when done with the best intentions.

For the suffering Zaunites, they have everything they could possibly want: food, water, shelter, rest, belonging, peace, survival; the life that they once could only dream of having. It's perfect. They don't have to be in pain, not anymore.

But the commune is isolated. This is very much seen in the gate symbolism: all are welcome, but once inside, you'll never want to leave. You'll never have to. Because to be cured by the hands of the Herald means to bear his mark. To be saved is to bind yourself to him.

The open archway is also a taunt: the gate is open, it'll always be open, but would you ever risk going back out? Would you really trade this for anything else?

Are you truly willing to leave paradise? Are you truly willing to part with the Arcane?

The Arcane, which had given them everything they'd yearned for through Viktor.

Now, see here: Vi catches a glimpse of Singed exiting Viktor's abode. It's presumably the healing tent, as his main 'bubble' (the place where he 'recharges', so to speak) is the one in the distance.

The point is: Vi sees Singed leave the healing tent. What makes this suspicious is the fact that the man left unhealed.

Note that, prior to this point, the sisters have reconciled and were even willing to stay in this little underground haven despite their initial scepticisms. They, just like everyone else, have been lulled into the comfort the commune provided. So, to see someone else suddenly exiting Viktor's watch—someone with no traces of the Herald's touch, someone who's still bandaged and deformed—is a wake-up call.

Why else would you go into the healing tent, to the commune, if not to have yourself cured or seek respite? Why is this man, who'd obviously be easier work to deal with compared to Vander, not 'saved'?

Vi follows him. Then, Singed leaves the commune entirely.

In her eyes, someone had willingly turned away from 'paradise'.

Logically, this begs the question: Why?

Because that's where the fantasy ends.

Right as Vi comes to the gate, the camera cuts to that Noxian spear upfront. A threat to the 'perfection' that existed within the borders. A reminder that the world outside still exists; a world that Viktor hasn't touched in its entirety, a world that still begs to be saved, a world that is still human at its core brimming and simmering.

That's the reason Viktor's named a herald: he's an omen. He'd brought about a transformation to those he healed. To the slums. Providing a drastic shift in people's lives (or whatever 'life' still counted for those he'd influenced) that left many devastated when Jayce blew a hole in his chest.

By spreading the use of the Arcane through other agents (again, the 'healed'), he essentially reproduced the effects of the power that he had at his disposal, while at the same time allowed himself to better comprehend how the Arcane worked—and by extension, allowed that very power to adapt.

But at the same time, he himself is also the key to undoing it.

From Jayce and Ekko, S2E3:

Viktor hypothesised that there may be something he called 'wild runes'. Patterns that occur naturally when the border between our world and the Arcane is thin. Runes like the ones you use in Hextech. What's the difference between those and wild runes? Pass me a tome. So, I used words you understood in order to elicit your action. This is what Hextech runes are. Pass me a tome. Pass me a tome! There—you sighed. Still a kind of language. A sound, but not words. Something raw; natural. That's wild runes. In most places, the Arcane is dormant—but here and there, it's more active. Wild runes are— —sort of like its fingerprints. Exactly! ...so, you're telling me: that pattern is on my tree, because you pissed the Arcane off with all your demands?

Viktor being infused with the Hexcore—which we can reasonably assume is a wild rune, as can also be seen with its matrix—makes it so that he himself acts as what a Hextech rune would do to it (the Hexcore). Through Viktor, the Arcane is refined, and in a process that doesn't completely destabilise (compared to pure Hextech, as can be seen with the weapons). For Viktor to lose control or to be harmed means making that magic either go wild (the weapons) or make it dissipate (the commune).

That's why the fantasy 'ends' at the entrance of the commune: anything past that is out of Viktor's reach, and remains 'untouched' by the Arcane.

From Jinx, S1E5:

So, all about these runes: they form some sort of mathy, magicky gateway...to the realm of heebie-jeebies. And this turns it on!

Say it again: the runes make a gateway. The Hexcore was a rune matrix, an array of wild runes that formed a singular entity. An entity which is now 'one' with Viktor. It means being the 'Herald' is also being the 'gateway' for the Arcane. The traditional role of a herald is to proclaim and carry messages; we don't know what message the Arcane itself wants to send, but we do know for a fact that Viktor is at least doing its work in creating that commune in the slums of Zaun.

From Singed, S1E6 & S2E6:

The mutation must survive. You must survive, Viktor.

The Machine Herald himself is self-replicating and self-annihilating. He can 'cure' the afflicted, thus infusing the Arcane into other individuals and replicating its structure inside them. And at the same time, the Arcane is also what 'kills' him—with Jayce using (what looked to be a mutated version of) the hexcrystal of his hammer to blow through Viktor's chest, where we know the Hexcore was placed during Jayce's revival of him in Act 1.

This is why the commune, despite its purpose as a safe haven, also exists as a place of great danger. Why it really isn't all That™, even despite Viktor creating it as a safe space for many.

See this exchange between Vi and Jinx:

This place...do you think it could actually work? Underground utopia, run by a skinny tin Machine Herald. Maybe when Piltover slides into the Sump.

Jinx was right in calling it for what it is, despite the words being in jest. A utopia. Working 'when Piltover slides into the Sump'.

It's an impractical scheme. Too perfect. Too good to be true.

An impossibility.

Do you believe in fate, Doctor? Our paths carved before us. Guided by an invisible hand? Not fate. Evolution. Nature's greatest force, forever in flux. No. Evolution has a destination. Not to combat nature, but to supersede it. The final, glorious evolution. But he isn't a specimen—he's a man. And he needs my help. I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause. You may leave. Very well. But I assume you understand already: if you perish, this community is soon to follow.

Viktor understands. He understands. He just wasn't ready to admit it to himself when Singed said it.

I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right—it's inescapable. Humanity.

Human nature and human essence aren't self-sustaining. That's why the Arcane was so effective in 'healing' all those people. Their humanity hampered them from healing themselves; both in the sense of the human bodily condition (the limits of the physical self), and in the sense of humaneness (of empathy, of choice). The human body cannot survive its own traumas without an artificial means of a cure (case in point: Vander). And the Arcane acted as its solution.

Mere instinct doesn't let you live—you need to learn how to direct your life after survival. To adapt. To grow. Humanity, self-replicating and self-annihilating; the escape from that cycle, that's the glorious evolution Viktor speaks of.

A utopia. Impossible and impractical. Humanity: that which inspires us to our greatest good, and the cause of our greatest evil.

[lord-squiggletits]

"To Children Ardent For Some Desperate Glory": A War Story Reading of Tarn's Death

From a narrative perspective, Tarn's death in this scene as a long-running antagonist of MTMTE is extremely cathartic in that, because he's evil, his death is satisfying: the dramatic irony of how Tarn was made by Megatron and now is unmade, that he trapped himself in the means of his own death, and, most importantly for this meta post, that he talked a big game about being willing to die as a Decepticon, only to falter and panic once the moment of his death was actually upon him. As a reader, there's a sort of vindication that you get from seeing Tarn, a supposed zealot, suddenly too cowardly to die for his own ideals, and so Tarn's death is satisfying to read under this judgement of his cowardice.

Cowardice? Perhaps not. Although it's definitely valid to read Tarn's panic here as the last of many signs of hypocrisy he's demonstrated throughout MTMTE, the tragedy of his death comes when you read this scene from the lens of the war story genre: That is to say, I read Tarn's fear in the face of death not as a demonstration of cowardice/hypocrisy, but as the moment that, for him personally, "the old lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" was finally pulled from his eyes (literally, as the mask Tarn used to hide himself was ripped off by Megatron to expose his fear) and he realized that it was not, in fact, worth it to rush headlong into his own death for the sake of ideology. The Old Lie that it's glorious to die for one's ideals protected Tarn for that one moment of him declaring "At least I'll die a Decepticon," offering him that comfort/delusion that his death would have meaning... then, of course, having that ripped away as Megatron informs him, "Everything you did was for nothing."

Bringing this quote forth from War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges:

And like every recovering addict there is a part of me that remains nostalgic for war's simplicity and high, even as I cope with the scars it has left behind, mourn the deaths of those I worked with, and struggle with the bestiality I would have been better off not witnessing. There is a part of me-- maybe it is a part of many of us-- that decided at certain moments that I would rather die like this than go back to the routine of life. The chance to exist for an intense and overpowering moment, even if it meant certain oblivion, seemed worth it in the midst of war and very stupid once the war ended.

Tarn's choice to pursue revenge against Megatron was his "intense and overpowering moment" that won over choosing to retreat like Nickel and Deathsaurus did, as they, unlike him, realized that throwing away soldiers' lives in a grinder for the sake of a useless grudge was the wrong thing to do; they went "back to the routine of life" and failed to be claimed by The Old Lie.

Another interesting part of WIAF is that, throughout the book, Hedges makes comparisons between the illusions of power, meaning, and righteousness that war brings and drugs/narcotics/addiction, which brings to mind that Tarn is actually canonically an addict of multiple substances, meaning that the "drug of war" is both literal and metaphorical in his case.

So, when recognizing that Tarn was peddled The Old Lie not just as one of many generic soldiers in a lifelong war, but as a target for brainwashing Megatron personally singled out, it becomes impossible to view his death simply as a karmic death for a hypocritical jerk. The idea that Tarn is a coward for not being able to "die as a Decepticon" being brave and unafraid relies on the assumption that dying in battle for a Cause that doesn't care about you is a demonstration of bravery and sacrifice rather than a pointless destruction of life in service of propaganda.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in [...] My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

I would argue that the fact that Tarn was drawn so heavily into Decepticonism (and indeed, a smaller cult-- the DJD-- based on worship of Megatron himself) that he would choose to fight, kill, and die in a crusade of revenge against people who wronged his Cause (Megatron) is not a fault of his moral character, but rather a tragedy of his conversion into a rather common lie of war, exemplified by the poem above: It's all well and good to talk about how awesome a glorious death in battle is until you're the one dying and witnessing other people around you dying. In my mind, it's not cowardice or hypocrisy that made Tarn terrified of "dying a Decepticon": it is, and has always been, a moral fact that life is greater than death and that choosing to live in peace is better than fighting a perpetual war. His terror came from the fact that the veil-- or rather, the mask-- convincing him otherwise was ripped away from him. He did not experience a fall from principled morality into hypocritical cowardice: he experienced a revelation from propagandistic lies to hard, tragic reality.

To those who swallow the nationalist myth, life is transformed.... They can abandon even self-preservation in the desire to see themselves as players in a momentous historical drama. This vision is accepted even at the expense of self-annihilation.

Tarn's story basically follows the formula of the war story genre near-perfectly: The beginning of his life as an otherwise ordinary person (Damus/Glitch), his fall into a militant group as part of a desire for meaning and battle against an oppressor, his committing and excusing of heinous acts in the name of that false meaning-- and finally, his inability to detach from The Old Lie and the subsequent terror and futility he faced upon dying for the sake of that Lie.

All this to say that, as vindicating and fun as Tarn's death is from a pure entertainment/satisfaction perspective, I do like to look at this scene and remind myself that it's not cowardice to be afraid of dying, especially to be afraid of dying for no reason and in the service of an ideology (and in Tarn's case, person) that does not and never did care about you.

[allwaswell16]

[4 pics, 4 quotes, 4 iconic 1D fics]

Iconic Fics By ...

- momentofclarity -

[1]

“Well, yeah. So… see you tonight, Lou?” 

The way he says the nickname, all soft edges and cotton smooth, makes the heat return to Louis’ cheeks. “Yeah, sure.” 

Tonight. Harry is going to be there. Great.

Louis smiles at him because he can’t not, but the second Harry’s back disappears into the next room his smile falls and he lifts a warning finger at Niall. “ Not a word.”

Niall never listens. 

“You truly are the cutest thing this side of the river.” Niall shakes his head. “Who knew rugged men in their sixties could blush like that?”

“Shut it,” Louis says and falls into his crickety office chair. “I have work to do.” 

[2]

A few minutes into the game Harry’s phone buzzes with a text and Harry slowly pulls it out of his pocket, still keeping an eye on the game and listening to Louis’ comments. It’s a text from his best friend Niall and while he should know better, he distractedly opens it. The second he reads the words he regrets it though.

managed to score yet? ;)

His face immediately flames up and he quickly locks the screen. Fucking Niall.

The thing is – obviously Harry had to talk to someone about the absolute enigma that is Louis Tomlinson, so Niall had spent the past three months hearing all about the way Louis is basically the sun and everyone else (especially Harry) are just planets orbiting him, doing their best to catch a few of his glorious sunbeams. Niall might’ve also been forced to listen to a few drunken rambles about Louis’ spectacular thighs and how Harry would like… happily be crushed between them.

[3]

Since their interactions are restricted to empty locker rooms and gate-kept houses, his need to always be closer is that much more . If they could touch beyond slaps on the back or small smiles across rooms, he might not be so starving. 

As it is — he wants to drown himself in Louis as much as he can. Surround himself with the man who holds his heart behind smoke and mirrors.

A hand lands on his back. “No stress baby, I’ll see you in a bit.”

Harry scolds himself for getting lost in his thoughts. He scrambles to gather up his gear, even though he usually waits a few minutes before following Louis out. 

[4]

Harry nods slowly, “Yeah. Something like that,” he agrees and then he looks at Louis with those big earnest eyes, like he’s trying to make sense of something. An intimate silence settles between them and everything else just sort of falls into the background. It makes Louis’ heart race in his chest. A sign of how much is actually happening between them, even in the stillness. Their eyes holding a conversation of their own. Their cells slowly growing attached to, adapting to, the feeling of the other near by. Butterflies building colonies in the pit of their stomachs. Breaths mingling between them. It’s all happening in the quiet calm of a Sunday afternoon. Neither of them fully aware of it. Like the calm before the storm.

Of course, them being them, the moment when time seems to have stopped, doesn’t last very long at all. It starts with a tiny twitch at the corner of Harry’s mouth and it soon blends into a full on grin, dimples exploding in his cheeks, eyes sparkling like the sun reflecting on green ocean waves. “I think I want to make you come again,” Harry says and his fingers trace the line of Louis spine.

- Answers below -

[1] a garden in bloom

Louis used to live the quiet sweet life of a small business owner in the English countryside.

Then Harry Styles came along.

[2] It's halftime. Are you ready to go?

Reason #12 - Because it's halftime.

Harry would like to think that he doesn’t know how he got himself into this. Only… he’d be lying. Because he knows exactly how he got himself into this. Oh man, does he know, and it’s all because of a certain Louis Tomlinson. Alternatively - football is gay and Harry is trying to cope.

[3] sensitive to pressure 

Harry’s breath stutters on its way up his throat, his cheeks heating more with each step as Louis gets closer and Harry can’t move. Feet stuck to the carpet, heavy and unwilling, unable to shuffle away or take control, stuck in place and waiting.

[4] Them Butterflies

To sum it all up - Louis is beautiful. Breathtakingly so. And Harry can’t find it in himself to even question the fact that he thinks so. Louis is mesmerising, nearly magnetic with all the energy bouncing off of him. Harry doesn’t know what to make of it, but he knows he doesn’t want this night to end.

This is the extraordinarily ordinary AU where Harry falls in love for the first time and Louis learns how to fall in love all over again.

[sheikfangirl]

Since you're the Queen of Puppet Zelda, what are your thoughts on these possible explanations for her level of autonomy?

Is Puppet Zelda merely made of Gloom and acts as a physical extension of Gannondorf himself so he has a set of eyes, ears, and hands that can travel and exert influence outside of his perch in the Depths, but as a higher quality puppet/projection (and therefore more taxing on his power to maintain) than the Gloom Hands and Phantom Gannons? Or is she a separate being entirely, created by him, but given her own agency, mind, and will to make her own decisions, in so far as she's still a slave to doing Gannondorf's bidding? She doesn't need constant effort on his part to control or exist, but would have probably cost him a chunk of his power upfront to create.

Could she be something else?

First, let's rectify one thing: I am NOT the Queen of Puppet Zelda. Puppet Zelda IS MY QUEEN. (But thanks for the compliment, I am blushing over here 🤭)

Secondly, thank you so much for your interest in my HC. I will happily share my thoughts on this criminally underused character that has drama written all over. This is an overview okay because I feel I could write a freakin thesis paper on Puppet Zelda 

Quick note: I am not pretending to be right or to have the absolute truth. This is my headcanon, the backstory in the back of my mind when I draw my Puppet Zelda art.

All headcanons are valid, games are interactive media, and the relationship and connections one has with a game are personal.

As you might know, English is not my first language and  visual support helps me explain things... so I made a graphic. I hope this will help understand my take of this character and why I love her so much🤣🤷‍♀️

In a nutshell:

I think Puppet Zelda is an independent minion created by Ganondorf using his magic powers. He created a shell in Zelda's image from 10 000 years ago to do his bidding and re-used her 10 000 years later to distract Link to buy himself the time to regenerate to full power.

Exhibit A: Ganondorf's Magic

If Ganondorf can spawn a whole list of monsters and gloom hands, he created Puppet Zelda too. The monsters are not continually controlled by Ganondorf, right? They do his bidding, they do what they were "programmed & designed" for, we might even say. I think it's the same for Puppet Zelda. But she is definitely a more defined and complex creation.

Exhibit B: The Hot henchwoman trope

I am not gonna lie: This is one of my very favorite tropes.... EVER! I always fall for the hot henchwomen. Ganon's quote from the glorious Sanctum scene during  the "Crisis at Hyrule Castle" scene makes me absolutely think she is indeed autonomous. "Did my puppet distract you?" Ganondorf asks Link in that chilling and subtext filled scene.

Puppet Zelda had one objective: To distract Link.

Ganon was busy regenerating. Having to control or act through someone would've been too power consuming. I don't buy it's a manifestation of him. AT ALL. so...yeah. hot henchwoman trope. Also, I'm a lesbian and I have no interest whatsoever in Ganondorf.

...HOT HENCHWOMAN TROPE SUPREMACY!! Yep. Fanservice for me.

Exhibit C: Real Zelda's Angst

This is where it's getting twistingly FUN.

This is an HC I assimilated like a borg from my ZHS buddy @kazraza  Her theory is so ***** angsty and delicious and I love it! 

At the time of King Rauru and Queen Sonia, Ganondorf created a pawn with Zelda's appearance so that it could get close to them and attack.

Then, in order to distract Link 10 000 years later, Ganondorf had to "refine" his weapon. He needed "data and real Zelda knowledge" uploaded into Puppet Zelda to ensure her credibility and the success of her mission. He wanted to make sure she could distract Link and trick him. 

And where did all this personal knowledge of Real Zelda's innermost intimate thoughts and insecurities come from, you may ask?

Well from the real Zelda herself of course!!

But when and where was this data collected?

We believe all of Zelda's Angst was leached directly from her during her 100 years mystic battle containing Calamity Ganon in this Malice Cocoon in Breath of the Wild. *GASP* Puppet Zelda was there all along in Breath of the Wild....absorbing all of Zelda's angst!!!

This is why everyone was confused and tricked by Puppet Zelda in TotK. This is why Puppet Zelda asks Link if he remembers their time at Hyrule Castle: she has Zelda's pre-calamity memories and this why Link is so tortured in my art! She can REALLY mess with him big time. I really like to think there is a part of real Zelda inside Puppet Zelda. Her dark side: Her anger, her cockiness, her jealousy, her selfishness... her desire. 

She is also kind of Zelda's answer to Dark Link.

Alright I wrote enough for tonight. To whoever took precious minutes of their lives to read this well...thank you! I am now moving on with my life too 🤣

For more HC about Puppet Zelda, her powers and influences, this should be all covered in future art

(i hope)

Cheers!! And glory to Puppet Zelda ✋

[captainzigo]

so unfortunately very few entries here are going to properly be vintage. also what i consider vintage might not line up with what you do. i am not old.

also i am not wealthy. and my family isn’t wealthy. this is an expensive hobby to have. i get most of my stuff from loving it and refusing to throw it away… and digging through the trash at university. you would be surprised with the stuff people throw away. planned obsolescence has nothing on the fact that people can’t be bothered to fix a sour harddrive.

i actually fix computers as a sort of second job. it’s nice to work on computers i can’t afford and that aren’t from the trash. but i love old tech. i love breathing life in to things long dead. i’m a technonecromancer. i am not including pictures of things i haven’t finished yet for the most part. and i simply am not including most things. this is but a fraction of my power

ok so these are all my computers that work. i didn’t include ones that im still working on. they all worked but needed repairs variously. mostly they just needed new hard drives.

my game consoles. again not including ones that don’t work. i actually bought that 3ds, but the rest my parents gave me after they got them used. that gameboy has needed a screen replacement that required soldering. the ds is my little trooper and has needed nothing ever. the wii needed a new disc drive. and the 3ds came in japanese and i hacked it to english.

there’s a back view of my stickers

these are some of my various devices. again not including ones that don’t work. that nano needed a new battery which was actual hell and i’m surprised it survived. that ipad is the first ipad and she works beautifully and one time i fastened it to my tummy for a tellytubby costume. i was slutty lala and i played the old spiderman movie trilogy in glorious VHS quality. i couldn’t find my iphone 3gs for this picture :( but it will turn up. i’ll include an old picture instead of cleaning my room to find it lol

here are some novelties i just like. thats an old radio i swiped from my great grandfather. i got it working but it broke again. i dont know whats wrong with it and its so old that the parts are impossible to find. on the right is the browser for DS which is just so quaint. i love it. it barely works at all but i loaded a wikipedia page one time so xP

this is my terrible stupid tiny phone i got from aliexpress that barely works BUT IT DOES WORK and is technically loaded with all modern smartphone features. i attached a video of it barely playing roblox

this is my og imac. with the og keyboard. i didn’t include it with the working computers because it doesn’t. the harddrive died and im trying to fix it but its really hard. i’ve already sought out two different adapters that haven’t worked

and this is a commodore 64 that i also got out of the trash. it does not work but im hoping to make it work. someone clearly loved it. enough to paint it crazy colors and enough to

write some weird scifi quote on the inside of the case under the RF shield. but maybe they died, or it just became too much of an undertaking.

not included here is:

• several more apple products that i just don’t think look good. all the iphones between 6 and 11 are just so ugly. and i don’t actually like the way apple watches look

• the phone, tablet, and smart watch i actively use

• various bits and bobs like the official speakers for a imac 4, an electronic pocket dictionary, various wii peripherals and so on

• all of my audio equipment

• my iphone 3gs. i just never found it or any pictures of it. i love it tho. it was my first phone (hand me down. i’m not that old) and i have had to repair it so many times and i love taking bad photos with it

• all of my monitors

• my many videogames

• my old fridge that i love and cherish and use

• anything i have fixed and then given to someone else

• a bunch of other stuff

so if you are a beautiful trans woman, are you in love with me yet? or do i need to make a part two

[verdantwyrm]

What are your favorite quotes from mouthwashing?

Oh I have a few! Not so much quotes for all of them, but just things that has been said that I like a lot

"I like it. We’re in control here."

"How come it always seems like you’re standing on the edge of a bridge with your feet in cement?"

"But hey, hey, hey. You know I believe in you. Here. On Earth. Doesn’t matter."

"As long as I'm fit to fly in your eyes, Anya."

"At ease, ponyboy."

"That's the sound of 15 years of sobriety popping like a cyst. A glorious, magnificent, red hot cyst!"

"You never shoulda come here. Who the fuck even decided to let you board, huh? Stick the idiot with a bunch of sad sack adults and see what he learns, eh? Bootstraps and all that. What a load of horseshit. You think it’s all goin’ somewhere but every failure leaves you a little more mangled than before. Older, uglier, meaner. Smarter in a worse way."

"Decades of hauling ass for Pony Express, big mighty bruiser with all his shiny tools. This is where it got me. The good life, huh?"

"Sometimes we thrive, travel the endless reaches of space. But other times we just have to accept days like these. You taught me that, Curly. Let’s eat. Let’s survive."

"So now that we’re at the end. Takin’ inventory. Those nights spinning out of my head, sinking into the sofa. Broken glass in my palms. Bleeding dry the funniest thing ever. Old dogs laughing and snarling on a waterbed floor, mocking the moon for daring to show its face. All nausea and wreckage and vomit and ugly cruelty. The only problem in the world an empty bottle. Those were the best days of my life. Yeah.… Those were the best days of my life."

"If I could have done one thing right, I wish it had been to give him one small chance off this goddamned rock."

"No. We can both be heroes. We’re a team. Just you and me, like we used to be. What happened was an accident. We were trapped. I made a mistake, alright?! I’m sorry! I’m so fucking sorry, Curly!"

Most of it is just stuff Swansea says to be honest, he has some of the best dialogue in the entire game....

[sejianismodding]

🌸 Unique "TagValueNumbers" - Part 13 🎁 For my "CAS Filters" mod! (Patreon)

🕒 SECOND UPDATE INCOMING!

Some drama has arisen concerning my "CAS Filters" mod. If you find that I have added a filter for your content to my mod and you do not wish to allow simmers who download your content to be able to filter your content under your creator name while using my mod, you are welcomed to request that I strike your filter from the mod and it will be removed in the following update.

—

We are now in the post-release phase of this project, which means new filters will be added in "feature updates". HOWEVER, if there is a 9-digit "ID" assigned to a creator filter in my glorious spreadsheet, it can be added to content ahead of the next "feature update".

I will try to provide JSON files for all "PENDING" filters ahead of "feature updates". If I do, they will be available on the Patreon post and any mirrors that permit me to share JSON files.

As always, you are welcome to request any name added to the list, but you are also welcome to request a 9-digit "ID" if one has not been assigned yet, and also request a JSON.

Simmers can also request personalized "IDs" for personal use, similar to how I made one for "my anonymous friend".

—

Tumblr appears to have a limit for how many users I can @ in a post, but I would like to @ everyone on Tumblr when I create filters for them, as a way to notify you about what I'm doing and so simmers who see this post can find you easily.

I might come off as an egomaniacal arsehole at times (always for good reason), but it's because I care about our community.

I opted to not re-blog the Tumblr OP linked above because it is subject to lots of changes and Tumblr doesn't update the "preview" of re-blogged posts, HOWEVER, you're more than welcomed to re-blog the Tumblr OP and/or this post.

🌸 A UNIQUE 9-DIGIT "ID" FOR EVERYONE:

The 9-digit numbers following your name are to be used in the "TagValueNumber" field for the "SpecialContent" TAG.

Each 9-digit "ID" is unique to the creator it was made for - it is based on your creator name. I made them using a slightly convoluted system I devised in order to ensure that every "ID" is unique and that the filter list in CAS maintains some semblance of alphabetical order. These "numbers"IDs" can potentially be used for other things, but we'll get to that later.

🎓 HOW IT DO, PIKACHU:

If you're well-versed in creating or modifying CAS content, all you need to do is add a new TAG to your swatches - you can do just the first swatch, but you should do all swatches - and change the "CategoryNumber" to "127" (without the quotes), and change the "TagValueNumber" to the desired 9-digit "ID".

For everyone else who is new to this, there are detailed instructions in the form of easy to follow screenshots attached to the Tumblr OP and the Patreon OP, with further text-based instructions in the Patreon OP.

Individual JSON files for Sims 4 Studio for each filter TAG are also available, to make the process of adding these TAGS easier.

⚠️ LET ME KNOW ASAP IF ANY ISSUES ARISE:

@casteru / @woosteru -- 203296678

@cerberus-cc -- 203372378

@coloresurbanos -- 203656737

@emmibouquet -- 305664268

@evoxyr -- 305869970

@gigglecoffin -- 407444532

@gloomygeek -- 407566694

@grimmbats -- 407746622

@icchixxxxxx1 -- 409224474

@ikari-sims -- 409527474

@simverses -- 409643540

@jarisimcc -- 510274746

@wsyzxkw -- 510486472

@kaguya-fox -- 511248923

@kindlespice -- 511463537

@kissyck -- 511477925

@korkassims -- 511675277

@kumikya -- 511864592

Lillka (Patreon / TSR) -- 512455520

@nv-games -- 614842637

@oydis -- 615934700

@sammi-xox -- 719266496

@sewersims -- 719393774

@simulationcowboy -- 719468526

@squea -- 719783264

—

—

[ganondoodle]

(idk if anyone wants to keep hearing my opinions on totk book stuff but-)

apparently it says that rauru DID have kids, multiple even, which yeah... is kinda necessary for zelda to even be connected to them so much so that sonia can SENSE a blood connection (which, even with all the excuses with magic, is just a little too far for me to suspend my disbelief bc its over, OVER, ten thousand years worth of generations that seperate her from them that one lil touch of the hand can sense that (feels more like an attempt to make you care about them or .. see them as zeldas "better" parents just bc they exchange a few nice words, i never got the feeling they were 'better' parents and its also kinda disrespectful to her actual parents, like sure rhoam wasnt the best but i wouldnt call rauru better just bc he was polite)- i could see maybe the light power of hylia or sth but since its the coolest dude that ever lived rauru now that had it which still doesnt make sense and makes me unreasonably annoyed and she can sense BOTH of their powers in her? nah) the fact theres NOTHING about them in the game itself is just so ... no way they planned any of this

i dont think theres anything they can do or say that wont make be believe they either

are making it up alla 'fix it in post' mentality trying to hastily explain stuff the game never bothers to do to try and appease fans or let it appear as if they thought about it at all

something went really REALLY wrong during development, which kinda seems likely given how the game turned out (im sorry i cannot let go, its not just the writing, the game design too and how little was changed in the map while being so damn expensive, i dont know how people dont feel scammed q_q)

given that they (allegedly) spent the last entire year of development on polish (where??? where????? huh??? like it would make it more understandable (EXCEPT for the price) if there was alot of trouble, which was also bc it got delayed and ... turned out like this, but they dont want to say it, especially given their reputation, with that quote i have heard way too many times 'a delayed game blah blah') i just??

are they just gonna go and do it like they did with kashiwa (kass)? "they uuuh where flying around the whole time ony cool sonau tech maschines, you just dont see or hear from them ooooorrr they were uuuuh out of the country at the time" (sending invitations to other continents to join their glorious kingdom ;) )

(bet they are also gonna say they did all the stuff like ... moving the shrines around (lol?) and lifting the islands up into the sky- which is still weird bc ... didnt they also say they were living in the sky before coming to the surface?? so where?? did they park all their islands on the surface and the mystery kids had the keys so they had to repark them back into the sky after they returned off camera?? xD also why are the islands so different as an environment if they where from the surface? like even the STONE up there is different- and if they were first in the sky then on the surface and the nback in the sky .. why is there not a single yellow tree or grass in the past- you cant really argue that it changed bc they were up there so long bc .. nothing else changed, the suddendly and totally always there sonau buildings are largely in prime condition, only some slightly moldy, and what we see of the glorious past looks barely any different from the present, aside from like ... some standard trees shuffled, no castle yet and that glowy uwu filter DESPITE that stupidly long time frame between it)

[enodia-polymorphous]

The Hesiodic Portrait of Hekate

This was originally posted in the Sanctuary of the Crossroads as a Hekatogia on 14/4/25.

Today we'll be discussing Hekate's earliest literary appearance in Hesiod's Theogony!

If you've been looking into Hekate for a little while, you may notice that she doesn't get mentioned very much in literature. She doesn't have a Homeric Hymn, except for being mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. She does have an Orphic Hymn though! And she has few, short, mentions in mythology.

You can find them all here: https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html

Interestingly, many of her mentions are from C2nd A.D., much later than a lot of earlier literature about the Greek gods (Theoi). You may notice, as well, how she is charactertised as a goddess who shows grace and mercy to characters transformed into animals, these being the origins of her "familiars" that we hear of today.

Though let’s go back to Hesiod’s Theogony! The Theogony is considered Hekate’s literary origins, and this depiction of her in the epic is even more interesting, for how different she appears compared to the Chthonic, restless dead leading, night-wandering Hekate we often associated the goddess with in modern times (this is due to a variety of reasons that we can get into for another Hekatogia).

You can find Hekate’s mentions in Hesiod’s Theogony here: https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HekateGoddess.html#Hymns

Hesiod depicts Hekate as a great goddess of immense power and tîmai (honours, esteem, worship). Some scholars theorise that Hekate must have been a primary goddess from Hesiod’s home town for how he wrote about her, though this isn’t confirmed. This is to say that we don’t have strong confirmation of Hekate being worshipped in the way she is depicted in the Theogony. The closest is Hekate at the Temple of Lagina, where she was also seen as a great goddess and was a patron of Stratonikeia.

Deborah Boedeker even writes in “Hecate: A Transfunctional Goddess in the Theogony?” (which will be linked in further reading below) that the way Hekate is depicted with such honour over many functions and honours may make her a paradigm (a pattern, a model) for Zeus, King of the Gods. I suggest reading further into this article to understand what this means!

What are Hekate’s honours?

What is she depicted to have domain over in Hesiod’s Hymn to Hekate? Let’s first go over the quotes from the Theogony, and then I’ll write a list in a way that may be easier to untangle.

“He [Zeus] gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea.”

“…also in starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods.”

“whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hekate”

“Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him”

“…she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.

“Whom she will she greatly aids and advances”

“…she sits by worshipful kings in judgement”

“…and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people”

“And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will”

“Good is she also when men contend at the games”

“And she is good to stand by horsemen”

“…and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hekate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker [Poseidon], easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will.”

“She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock.”

“The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less.”

“And the son of Kronos made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Eos (the Dawn). So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young (kourotrophos)”

Our streamlined list of Hekate’s honours in Hesiod’s Theogony:

The earth

The sea

The sky/heavens (particularly “starry heavens” as well)

High honour among the gods

Ability to grant favour to mortals

Ability to award wealth to mortals

Ability to grant victory, dignity, judgement

Particularly, she honours and grants aid to:

Kings

Those “in the assembly”, perhaps a group of people, though not a particular one. Perhaps of the common people

Warriors

Athletes

Horsemen

Fisherpeople or those who work with the sea

Farmers (of livestock, particularly. Note that agriculture isn’t mentioned)

The young

Wow! Right? When we really look at how Hekate is depicted in the Theogony, she truly is a goddess of high honour and grants many boons across the board from favour, to victory, to wealth, to aid, while having domain over all the realms (note: realms “visible” to mortals - excluding, for example, Olympos and Tartarus).

And where did she get these honours?

“Hekate whom Zeus the son of Kronos honoured above all”

“The son of Kronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods”

“Also, because she is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more still, for Zeus honours her.”

Her honours existed from her origin as a Titan, being a close descendant of Gaia, Ouranos and Pontus (at least in this interpretation. There are a few regarding her family tree). She also received more honour from Zeus, when he became King of the Gods, King of the Olympians. I think this is incredible.

Does this mean anything for us, as modern worshippers?

It could! From my experience, many haven’t read Hesiod's writing on Hekate or other writings that seek to interpret it (I’ve linked two articles in further reading for your exploration. They are some of my favourite articles on Hekate). We do see, occasionally, quotes pulled from this hymn that help explain some of Hekate’s commonly mentioned domains in modern worship, such as this being her origins of having domain over all the realms, and therefore is the key-keeper between them (note: key-keeping isn’t mentioned in this hymn).

Though if we wanted, we could draw on this depiction even more, and perhaps call upon the honours written here. If you wanted, this depiction of her could transform the way you see her and the petitions you may request of her. While we have little confirmation of how this depiction of Hekate was truly worshipped in ancient worship, much of what we know of the gods these days is taken from mentions in mythology, and while cult/worship and mythology aren’t 1:1, we can still be inspired by these writings.

If Hekate is a deity you closely work with, it wouldn’t be remiss to pray to her for aid, or wealth, or for her to grant you favour in a judgement (of many sorts), or success in sports/competitions, or work at sea, or an increase of stock maybe in your pantry or freezer, or protection of your young.

Of course we do acknowledge that there are other hellenic deities who have domain over some of these things, such as Haides for wealth, or Ares, Athena and Hermes for success in sports/competitions, or Poseidon for work at sea -- though it’s not uncommon to first go to the deities you feel closest to. You may find different deities have different interpretations of your prayers! In ancient worship too, the pantheon as it was seen in Attica wasn’t the same as other cities or even in rural places -- the gods were honoured in ways that suited the lifestyles or cultures of different places. Such as how agricultural deities and nymphs were more prominent where farmers lived, though wouldn’t be elsewhere. If Hekate does happen to be a prominent deity for you and one you do feel comfortable approaching for these topics (and you’re open to her interpretation of your prayers), then this is a fine approach.

Does this depiction of her have to change your worship?

Nope! If the aspects of Hekate you resonate with exist only partially in these Hesiodic honours and mostly elsewhere, that’s okay too.

One last note to finish up, I find it so cool how connected Hesiod depicts Hekate to mortals. In an intriguing way, Hekate’s domain over the “earth”, given she isn’t connected to agriculture, and apart from her connection to livestock, (and aside from her connection to the underworld, which isn’t clear in this poem), could be interpreted as domain over the mortals and civilisations of earth with how many roles of society are mentioned in her honours, and how “whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hekate”. She may be closer to us than we think.

Prayer to Hesiod’s Hekate

Hail to the goddess of high honour, Hekate! The bard Hesiod weaves us a tale of your splendor. Gifts, awarded to you by the King of Gods and the Titans of the old generation. You have a share of the heavens, of the sea, of earth. You sit by mortals and graciously lend us your will and favour. You protect our young and vulnerable, oh merciful goddess. May you see your humble worshippers from the assembly, And distinguish us, in our worship, in our actions, in our honour. May you grant us aid, wealth, and victory! Oh goddess, who finds the games and battles of mortals pleasing, Beloved descendent of Gaia, Ouranos and Pontus, Daughter of Asteria and Perses, She honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods, And Zeus, son of Kronos, King of the Gods, Receive our prayers favourably, And if ever we have offered you rich sacrifices, May we be worthy of being granted your boons.

Further reading

https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html

https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HekateGoddess.html#Hymns

https://knotmagick101.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/hekate-at-lagina/

A Portrait of Hecate by Patricia A. Marquardt. The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 102, No. 3 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 243-260

Hecate: A Transfunctional Goddess in the Theogony? by Deborah Boedeker. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014) , 1983, Vol. 113 (1983), pp. 79-93

divider credits -> @enchanthings-a and @strangergraphics

[lunaefall]

Amphoreus is a World Long Gone: A Theory

Hardly an original theory at this point, especially for HI3 veterans, but I was thinking that by writing my own post I could bring up my own points, maybe something new to the discussion.

HSR did not shy away with the nods to HI3, bringing back the Flamechasers (a group of fallen heroes). Some characters are familiar faces and some are complete originals, but the story they're going for is a new version of the Elysian Realm.

And we know the Elysian Realm is a memory simulation, but then how is Amphoreus the same? Well, let's get into the different points that support this theory.

The Trailblazer themself is Remembrance.

This probably isn't much to go off of as a starting point, but I'd like to mention that every Path the Trailblazer unlocked since Belobog has been deeply meaningful and relevant to the story. This already means that Remembrance is a key player in the Amphoreus arc.

And what does Remembrance focus on? Memory. Amphoreus being a memory noe isn't that outlandish, but it still needs more evidence — and this brings me to the next point, one we had since 2.3.

Amphoreus can only be accessed through the Remembrance.

The Garden of Recollection being the only faction that can detect Amphoreus seems strange at first — unless you remember that the Memokeepers are tasked with finding and recording memories. They may have found Amphoreus due to it being a memory as well.

Black Swan also referred to it as the 'Eternal Land', meaning it may be preserved as a memory of a specific period of time.

This is where the similarities to Elysian Realm really show, as this simulation in HI3, based on the Elysium Fields, also preserves past memories.

And the Elysian Realm is, in fact, based conceptually on Greek mythology in how it serves as a 'sanctuary' where the memories of past heroes are located.

And now, comes my final point.

The drip marketing title is different for Aglaea.

Notice the difference in the titles for the drip marketing for 3.0? The Herta's "Extraterrestrial Satellite Communication" is pretty similar to previous marketing posts, but Aglaea's is different. "Amphoreus' Saga of Heroes".

This is almost as if no message is being communicated and we're running into the records of someone already dead. It's no wonder The Herta herself is getting involved in Amphoreus, she probably wants to research Fuli and the Remembrance more from it. And she rarely gets involved in a situation in-person so this has got to be big if she's joining in.

Speaking of Aglaea's drip marketing, we do have this quote from it.

"You shall summon the heroes of this world, and lead them to once again embark on an endless journey."

And there's the Trailblazer drip marketing description too.

The Trailblazer sets sail toward the unknown. Alongside their newest companion, Mem, they will record the adventures and stories they experience in Amphoreus — And "memories" will also flourish eternally, paving the path for the journey ahead and recording glorious sagas.

Rewriting the story of Amphoreus

I think the quill in the skills of our Remembrance TB represents that this time, the TB will rewrite the story of Amphoreus and change its fate.

Just like, in the Elysian Realm, Elysia was able to summon the remaining 12 Flamechasers and use the power (literal game mode buffs) they blessed her with to defeat the Herrscher of Corruption. Making them into real heroes that helped save the world, rather than repeating their tragic fall from the Previous Era.

That's all for my theories and thoughts on this topic. Let's see if this turns out accurate or is another one of my late night stupid imaginings again (it's literally past midnight for me).

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

I happened to be in northern Europe—Finland and Estonia—during the days of President Donald Trump’s operatic tariff gambit, from his opening announcement that the days when other nations “raped” and “looted” America were over, thanks to his semi-random assignment of duties to economies around the world, right through to his humiliating climbdown on Wednesday and the attendant relief on Wall Street. Obviously, the drama will continue; drama—as well as cruelty—is the point. But from this nearly Arctic vantage point the whole game looked especially, and painfully, bizarre. That’s because these are places that, unlike the United States, have truly felt the pain of upheaval in living memory. They are places that make you ask: Why would anyone bring this on themselves if they didn’t have to?

Everywhere you go in Finland, you meet people whose fathers or grandfathers died in the Winter War or the Continuation War or the Lapland War—the gruesome three-sided fights against and alongside the Nazis, the Soviets, and the Allies during the larger global conflagration. They ended with the Finns losing their second-largest city to the Russians, paying a vast “war debt” to Moscow, and enduring decades of “Finlandization,” a kind of low-key subservience to the Kremlin. Now, of course, they share a long border with Vladimir Putin. They are masters, at this point, of defusing—of figuring out how to calm the waters. And, in the process, they’ve built a prosperous and decent nation, with what surveys insist is the happiest population on earth. Though not, I would say, ebulliently happy—quietly happy.

Estonians had it even worse, since they were simply overrun by the Soviets. In Tallinn, you can climb the two hundred and thirty-two steps to the steeple of St. Olaf’s Church (which may have been the tallest building in the world in the sixteenth century). It was used by the K.G.B. as a watchtower and a radio antenna during the long occupation, which ended only with the fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1991. A few blocks away, cells that the K.G.B. used for interrogation and torture are carefully preserved, with displays of random testimonies from prisoners. From Guido Kutser, imprisoned there in the early years of the Soviet occupation: “They started torturing me with various items—a truncheon, a whip—and they beat me with their fists. I lost all sense of time. They had an impressive arsenal of items.” But two generations later Tallinn is prosperous and calm. I came out of a coffee shop off the main square of the Old Town to find the country’s President and his visiting counterpart from Poland reviewing (extremely cold) troops. The two men had been meeting to discuss coöperation on defense and the economy. The local newspaper account quoted the Prime Minister of Estonia’s statement to reporters: “A strong Poland means a protected and strong Estonia. . . . Poland is a crucial ally for Estonia, one we can count on.”

The United States, of course, played a role in enabling this calm, by helping win the Second World War and then by fighting the Cold War. Our mistakes in that war—Vietnam above all—are well and shamefully known, but it’s worth remembering the victories, too, which included the peace that allowed Finland to develop and the Baltics to eventually free themselves from the Soviets. The Finnish design museum is a glorious place, full of Moomin figurines and blueprints for Alvar Aalto’s sweeping modernist buildings, but there was a poignant backdrop in one exhibit: a Sports Illustrated cover showing J.F.K. on a boat with Jackie, who wears a Marimekko sleeveless dress. As for Estonia, Kaja Kallas, the country’s former Prime Minister who is now the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, expressed her sadness last week at the Trump Administration freezing the funding for Radio Free Europe. It “has been a beacon of democracy, and very valuable,” Kallas said in Brussels. “Now the question for us is, Can we come in with our funding to fill the void that U.S. is leaving?”

But my point is not nostalgia, and it’s not even really about these noble nations. It’s about our own country, which has been blessed with many decades of relative calm since the end of the war, a calm that allowed it to develop into the richest nation on earth. That calm, more or less, lasted through January: even Trump couldn’t come up with a much stronger epithet than “sleepy” for his predecessor. Obviously it’s been more prosperous for some than others, and obviously there have been upheavals—Watergate, 9/11, COVID—but nothing that permanently interrupted our historically enviable tranquility. That tranquillity, among other things, made America the economic safe haven in every crisis, our Treasury notes the rough equivalent of money under the mattress for a less lucky rest of the world.

That’s gone now, or so it seems. Trump, driven by his own bizarre demons, decided that America had somehow been unjustly treated and that it should use the power it had acquired to bully everyone else into submission—into paying tribute to, well, him. (Other nations were “bending the knee,” Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, insisted.) It didn’t work as well as he’d anticipated: plenty of other nations decided not to back down, and around the world people seemed to be fleeing the dollar amid the chaos, a new phenomenon that finally seems to have rattled even the President and forced an ignominious retreat. But it seems unlikely that we will simply repair to the status quo ante; Liberation Day may actually have ushered in a certain kind of new and largely unwelcome freedom for the rest of the world, no longer able to trust the American umbrella for protection from global weather.

Viewed one way, all the ugliness since Inauguration Day seems like a bizarre effort to uproot and destroy America’s calm. The President has declared one emergency after another—a timber emergency, an immigration emergency, a trade emergency. Elon Musk—the richest man in the world, but also maybe the most easily bored—seems to be bent on almost random destruction, lighting on one agency after another and leaving it in a shambles. All the institutions of the postwar order and prosperity—our great universities, our public-health system, our scientific-research establishment—have been damaged, perhaps beyond repair. Not because they were costing huge sums, but because of, at best, a series of resentments that arise when people have too much prosperity and ease. The conservative commentator Matthew Schmitz, for instance, told the Times on Monday that Trump had had no choice but to bring down the United States Agency for International Development, with its globe-spanning work on public health, because our Embassies had had the temerity to fly the rainbow flag during Pride Month beginning in 2011, even though “45 percent of the country opposed gay marriage at the time.” Destroying American soft power in response to that kind of mild perceived affront is a petulance only afforded the very, very secure—a category to which we may no longer belong.

And we no longer really belong to the world community, either, at least as anything other than trouble. We may not be maintaining torture cells (though our decision to deport detainees to a notorious prison in El Salvador has a K.G.B. vibe) but the U.S. certainly opted out of the one true global project—to somehow deal with climate change—immediately upon Trump’s ascension to his would-be throne. On Tuesday, his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, explained that the U.S. will pull four million dollars from Princeton’s gold-standard climate research because its findings—that the earth is overheating—were “contributing to a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety’ which has increased significantly among America’s youth.” It’s kind of the Administration to be worried about their uneasiness, but I don’t think they’ve figured out its more immediate sources. ♦

[yuurei20]

I had been wondering about this since the friend thing was brought up, but Idia says “not all of these people are our friends,” which suggests that he considers at least some or one of the people present to be a friend. Since he follows it up by stating that, “Ramshackle dorm isn’t the prefect’s house,” in response to Ortho declaring they’ve visited a ‘friend’s house’—add in the whole yobiste moment with the prefect in the Glorious Masquerade, which occurs after Book 6–could it be that Idia actually considers the prefect to be a friend?

I could be wrong about these two moments on the EN server, since I don’t think he really uses the word ‘friend’ in the Ceremonial Robes quote and even on EN I can’t be certain about whether or not he’s solely referring to Grim when the Ramshackle duo or added to the Glorious Masquerade trip and he says “AND valuable emotional support,” or if he even mentioned it in JP. But they seem to lend credence to the idea that Idia considers the prefect a friend or at least more than an acquaintance.

Hello hello!! Thank you so much for this question! 

This is a very good point!! When Ortho points out that they have "traveled to the residence of an acquaintance" Idia responds, "not all of these people are our friends," and one interpretation could be that there is at least one person who counts as a friend present at the time! 👀 (another interpretation may be, "It's not like we're all friends.")

(While Ortho does say "we've experienced hanging out at a friend's house" at first, he then corrects himself to call the prefect "an acquaintance." Referring to other students as Idia's friends despite Idia's and/or others' protests is something Ortho has done before!)

Idia himself says that he has no friends at NRC, but the characters having a less-than-accurate understanding of their own interpersonal relationships is a running theme! (Re: Idia and Azul)

As you say, one of the rare interactions between Idia and the prefect involved Idia not using an honorific during Glorious Masquerade, but this was revealed to be a proof-reading error:

The re-release of Glorious Masquerade in 2023 added "-shi" to Idia's dialogue when he is speaking with the prefect ^^ (This was actually on my posting schedule to share today! You have amazing timing!)

You are also very right about Idia's ceremonial robe's voice line! He does not use the word "friend," but he does say that he trusts the prefect as a fellow introvert!

While looking for the best way to describe the word Idia actually uses (仲間) I found an interesting explanation on the One Piece wikipedia!

(It reminded me of these screenshots from the American drama Firefly!)

The person explains, "The word simply means '(part of a) group' you use it to refer to members a group or members of a group of friends just as you would also refer to your coworkers as your 'nakama' in Japanese, even the ones you hate, because they're part of the same group as you," and I agree ^^ (EN translating the word 仲間 as "friend" is not unusual!)

Concerning Idia's comment early in Glorious Masquerade, I think you are right again and he might have been commenting on the emotional support that Grim provides as a cat!*

*We do not yet know whether or not Grim is technically a cat 👀

Overall I am not sure that we have seen enough of Idia and the prefect interacting on-screen together to be able to say that they are objectively, officially and canonically more than acquaintances, and this is likely by design: the game seems to be going to great lengths to leave as much up to interpretation as possible so that it as many different people as possible can enjoy it.

That said, up until now the pattern has largely been "the prefect teams up with the main character of the previous story in order to solve the issue of the current story," re: teaming up with Riddle in Book 2, Leona in Book 3, Azul in Book 4, Jamil (and others) in Book 5 and Vil in Book 6, so it is possible that we may see more of Idia and the prefect moving forward!

And there is of course no harm in someone going in the direction of "maybe the prefect and Idia are friends" for something like fanfic purposes, for example, if they so wish ^^ It is all a part of the fun! But I might not call it canon just yet :>