#she just thinks really hard and visualizes magic and makes it happen

[theshotsheardacrossworlds]

By Your Side

Okay so this was *supposed* to be a funny "Agi gets high and is silly with Astarion" fic but it turned out a little bit more serious with added Whatever the Fuck Sorcery Agi does lol. Mostly SFW.

“How are you doing, darling?” Astarion cooed at his well, we’re not lovers in the traditional sense perhaps…companion? Yes, my companion! He looked at Agnetha with such fondness that if he saw it in anyone else, he’d scoff. But not with her and I. No, I am that fond of her. I love her so dearly.

After taking up Halsin on his offer to give her herbs to help her relax (my poor sweet deals with so much) and smoking them, she was currently staring at Astarion, her brown eyes wide but definitely glazed over. “I am fine and dandy, love. Everything is so nice, you know?”

“It is, sweetness, especially with you.” One of his pale hands tapped her thighs, and he smiled. She’s so soft and warm. Perfect. I always need to touch her…

“Ughhhhhhhh, you silly bitch, you don’t have to use your lines on me anymore. You got me!”

Did she just…?!? He laughed, squeezing her softness. “I’m a what, darling?”

She snorted. “Silly bitch. Because you are. But it’s okay obviously!!!” Good gods, she’s giving those puppy dog eyes. “Because I love you.” He opened his mouth to speak, but she placed a finger on his lips. “I know you won’t say it to me. I know. It’s okay. I know you will someday.”

“I…” He struggled to find the words, any word, to express both the relief of her reassurance and sadness. She deserves someone better than me. Someone who will tell her every moment of every day for the rest of her life that she is loved. Someone who will make love to her whenever she wishes. For as long as she desires. Someone who isn’t me. “You know I do, right? You know how I feel?” Wait, she’s high as fuck and I’m asking her about knowing how much I love her? Idiot.

Agnetha nodded, smiling happily. “’Course I do. You say it all the time without actually saying it.” She thought for a moment and then grinned. “Like when you always watch my ass in fights.” I won’t lie I do in fact do that, but I believe she meant watching her back. “You make sure I’m okay. You never let anything near me.” Not if I can help it, no. I will slaughter anyone who tries to hurt you. “You’re always trying to touch me in some way. Don’t think I don’t notice!” She just tapped her finger on her nose. Now she’s giggling like a mad woman. Agnetha undid her ponytail and twirled a few of her long, red curls between her fingers. “You brush my hair every day. You love to bathe with me. You patch up my clothes and even…you know…” Let them out as much as I’m able. We never find anything that truly fits her, poor dear. If we manage to kill Cazador, I’ll make her whatever she wants. Everything she wants. “Help me with them…I know you love me. It’s in everything you do for me. Though,” her gaze returned to his. “There is something I need to know, okay? Just one thing.”

“A-alright. What is it?” Every muscle in his body tensed, afraid of what she was going to ask.

“Will you be there when I’m old? I could understand if that’s not what you want—oh!”

Always. He hugged so hard and so quickly that she toppled backwards, her head hitting a pillow. “I will be by your side for as long as you’ll have me. I promise.” Resting his head on her ample chest, he felt her rubbing his hair.

She let out an adorable little gasp. “Forever then, Star?”

Always. “If that’s what you want, darling, then yes. Forever it is.” It won’t be forever though. She’s a human---her life will end in the blink of an eye. She’ll be gone, and I’ll be alone…alone…all alone… Blinking back tears, he nearly began to sob when she began to rub his back.

“It’s okay. I’ll think of something. I will. Just you wait and see, love…” She whispered softly, rocking them both gently. “It’s okay. I’ll do some magic shit and make it alright.”

He shook his head, a small laugh escaping him. Oh my darling girl, not everything can be solved with you thinking very hard and making magic happen. Though if anyone can, it’s you. “Will you now?”

“Yep.”

Well, that’s definitive.

***

Ten years after their marriage, Astarion was astounded to learn that his wife did indeed “do some magic shit” to make eternity less painful for him. With spells she composed herself (using that beautiful tempest swirling inside her and…feelings, I suppose), she managed to accomplish three things: 1) that her body would remain the same with every reincarnation; 2) that she and Astarion were soul bound to each other; and 3) that they would find each other after her twenty-first nameday. “Because of the binding, we’ll be drawn to each other, seek the other out.” She took one of his hands in hers, her brown eyes full of joy. “You won’t wait too long, love.”

He leaned to her, a hand cupping her cheek. As his lips touched hers (perfect every time), he smiled. “And how will you know that I’m your husband?”

Agnetha chuckled softly. “Just trust me that I’ll know. It’s all up here,” she tapped her head. “And here.” She then tapped her chest over her heart. “After all, I haven’t failed you yet, my naughty little bat.”

Astarion kissed her again, this time with a little more passion, hands sneaking around her much thicker and more delicious waist. “The most popular tailor shop in Baldur’s Gate and seven children. I’d say you haven’t failed me yet, no.” He teased. His fangs scraped lightly over her lips, which never fails to turn her on. “Not that you could anyways, dear.”

She wrinkled her nose and giggled. “Flatterer.” The human placed an affectionate kiss on his nose and cupped his face. “Now we’ll be together forever. Just not in the way that either of us imagined.”

He knew what she meant. The ritual. I had it all planned, you see. I’d complete the ritual, become the Vampire Ascendant, and convince Agi to let me make her into a vampire spawn. There---problem solved. What a fool I was! I would not trade our lives together and the lives we created for anything. “But it is so delightfully us, isn’t it? Full of love and adoration and only slightly mad.”

“Only slightly.” She teased, pressing several kisses to his lips. Gods, I cannot get enough of her. Not now. Not ever. “My mad husband who wants a dozen little dhampirs…”

Two at play at this game, madam. He clicked his tongue as one of the hands on her waist squeezed. “My equally mad wife who wants a dozen little dhampirs and lets me spoil her rotten—”

“Daddy? Mummy?”

Someone didn’t lock the door, Agi.

With one last peck, Agnetha looked at the toddler in their doorway. Pale ginger curls framed the boy’s round face, and ruby eyes glanced between his parents. “What’s the matter, my little love?” She beckoned him over, and he scurried to his mother and soon settled in her arms. “Did you have a bad dream?”

He nodded. “Scary…”

“My poor little Sylven! You can stay with us tonight, darling.” Astarion cooed as he ruffled his son’s hair. The toddler snuggled against his mother, a sight that before his capture by the mindflayers would have disgusted him. But not anymore. Not when I have them. Emilia, Ariane, Sophie, Nessa, Helene, Thora, and Sylven.

And my darling girl.

Before long, the small boy fell asleep cuddled against his mother while his adoring father rubbed circles into his back. “Did I tell what happened earlier?”

He rolled his eyes. “Sweetness, that could be anything.”

She stuck her tongue out. “Fine. Anyways, I asked Sylven when he was playing with the blocks what he wanted to be when he grew up.”

“The suspense is killing me, dear.” Astarion deadpanned, kissing Sylven’s curls.

The look in her eyes turned dreamy. “Daddy. He said Daddy. He wants to be you, love. That was the sweetest damn thing.” She turned her head to face him. “And you thought he wouldn’t love you.” His wife teased, capturing his lips in a gentle kiss.

The second we saw that he was a boy I panicked. With the girls it’s so easy for me. I make them the prettiest outfits in Baldur’s Gate, make matching ones for their favorite dolls…have so many tea parties where we gossip like spinster aunts. But a boy. The girls are learning archery so he can too, I suppose. What was I to do with him? I was terrified. And as always, my infinitely wiser wife was correct: “Just go with the flow and listen to him.” Going with the flow has turned out to be excellent advice because he is glued to me, especially when we’re in the shop. He wants to watch me work and pretend he’s sewing too. My little boy wants to be…me. Me. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he nodded before giving her another kiss. “Happy to be proven wrong, darling.”

“I see! Well, I’ll note that for future reference.” She noted rather too smugly. Has she been learning this from me? Because I’m so flattered, dearest. For the next several minutes, they settled in a comfortable if exceedingly sleepy silence. Agnetha’s breathing became slower and deeper, and her eyes fluttered open and closed.

“Silly goose. Go to sleep.” Astarion chided his wife gently, now laying on his side. Rest. You need rest. Between the children, the shop, and ensuring I’m fed every day, you need to rest, darling. “Don’t stay awake for me. I’ll trance in a while.”

A small smile tugged on her pretty lips. “Forever…it isn’t what either of us thought but…we’ll be together…forever…” Eyes full of sleep, she held Sylven closer to her. “Love you, my shining star…”

“As I love you, my darling girl. Have the sweetest dreams for us…”

Always.

Forever.

[ennn]

Re: “Rio's goal is to kill Agatha so she can be with her forever”

My brother in Christ, if Rio's ultimate goal this series was to kill Agatha we wouldn't have gotten past the first episode.

Okay okay, I get how it can be confusing because Rio literally says she wants to see Agatha dead in episode one and tells Agatha she'll let the Salem Seven (who do want Agatha dead) know where she is.

But it is noteworthy that Rio tells Agatha what she is going to do and when the Salem Seven are expected to arrive. Rio is usually surprisingly fair in how she deals with Agatha.

Rio has always met Agatha at her power level

In episode one, even assuming Agatha was protected by Wanda's spell and Rio couldn't harm her there, once it was broken Rio went "full analog" – to quote Hahn – with her knife, the only magic she used being the wind blasts.

Guys, that's not a serious murder attempt, that's foreplay to them. Violent, bloody, sexy foreplay.

Also Rio has healing powers. That's a thing they have very clearly shown.

To be clear, my read is that Rio can't actually kill anyone before their time ("You can't kill me, it's not allowed") just hurt them really really badly until they maybe choose to die ("I can make you wish you were dead"). Which you could argue equals killing I suppose, just slower.

But this is Agatha Harkness: all she really needs to survive is a bit of time to scheme and manipulate and do her usual girlbossing, gatekeeping, and gaslighting – and I think Rio also knows this. Agatha keeps surprising her, for better and worse.

Yes, Rio gets BIG MAD in episode 8 because Agatha says possibly The Worst Thing to her but the first part of their confrontation is technically physical torture, not murder attempts.

I know it sounds like I'm splitting hairs here but my point is that having Agatha dead isn't Rio's ultimate #1 goal. It's not so clean and easy.

There's something to be said about how the wounds Rio inflicts speak to how Rio sees herself hurt by Agatha emotionally in the relationship i.e. death by a thousand cuts, the severing of her Achilles tendon.

There’s probably something also be said about the relationship a being like Rio has with physical pain. Trees feel pain. Everything living does. Rio mocks Agatha for dulling herself to it using dark magic.

But I digress.

Anyway, note: it's only after Agatha gets magic back that Rio starts throwing magic blasts – and even then she seems to be holding back.

These two are possibly the worst two witches to fight each other directly like this because Agatha can't absorb Rio's magic or she'll die. She has to actively block or avoid all hits. And I bet this isn't something Agatha is used to dealing with considering she had no issues taking Wanda's magic.

And Rio is aware of this because she’s just lobbing quick little green blasts Agatha's way. It's not a torrent of magic like what Agatha is gleefully unleashing.

It's also the Watsonian (in-universe) explanation as to why this fight is so short. Because you literally can't straight up fight Death. Rio is a hard counter to Agatha's special siphoning ability just like how Agatha was a hard counter to Wanda's magic (insert your scissors-paper-stone visual of choice).

Rio doesn't want Agatha dead, she wants Agatha to want her

It's clear that Rio is grieving when Agatha dies. This isn't the outcome she wants. They're also both crying during the kiss it's great.

Rio wants what Agatha specifically tries to deny in the deal Agatha proposes: she wants to keep pursuing Agatha, to keep seeing her, provoking her, to be shocked and surprised by her. To keep loving her but also, to keep hurting her.

Because Agatha also hurts her right back. And Agatha knows she has Rio constantly on the emotional backfoot, that Rio – despite centuries of hatred thrown her way – still humours her more often than not and what levers to push.

I don't think this can happen with Agatha dead and gone.

To be fair, we don't know what the rules are in this world's afterlife. The only insight we get into Rio's job is her scene with Alice and that still leaves a lot of things unanswered: Does Rio just escort souls to a destination or does she have more control beyond that, like a domain? Can souls refuse to go with Rio? How do ghosts happen?

I had previously assumed Rio needed to allow it but Schaeffer says that her vision in that moment has Agatha's using an evolved form of the power to take Rio's magic by touch.

And with that, it's telling that it's Agatha who ultimately ensures that she dies (with the "calculated risk" of becoming a ghost), siphoning Rio's death magic energy.

Agatha embraces death, embraces Rio, but she also doesn't – Rio's clever witch got away again.

[invaderzia1]

Horns (Wyll x Tiefling!Reader)

After breaking his promise to Mizora, Wyll navigates life as a brand new Tiefling. Luckily for him, he has support in his tiefling friends.

yes I’m aware the game isn’t out yet but I really liked that scene with Wyll and Mizora. Also this is set in act 1

Since disobeying Mizora, Wyll had been rather moody. Nobody could really blame him, not after the way she stormed into their camp and basically turned him into a tiefling, laughing about how some magic even she can’t fix. She left him with rather hefty horns on his head, leaving him to figure out how to navigate life with them by himself and laughing about how it’ll affect his reputation as the blade. So nobody was surprised when the heavy horns caused Wyll to struggle with his balance and maneuvering through his recent days, but they rather kept to themselves, all having other things to deal with then offer support to the poor man.

Except, you had been watching him. You had always found him quite charming and handsome, it honestly made you quite glad that he accepted traveling with you and the rest of your companions.

It had been a week since the incident and you’ve kept a close eye on Wyll, giving him space to process everything. But being a tiefling yourself, you couldn’t help but notice the lack of care he is giving his new horns. You knew what happened when people didn’t take care of them correctly, having suffered the consequences of failing to properly take care of your own.

Wyll is stood by the river near camp, having finished cleaning himself and getting ready to join the others for whatever food Gale decided to cook up. He barely even notices you sneak up behind him, too busy staring at himself in the reflection of the lake, still not used to his visual changes.

“You know, you gotta take care of them.” Your voice startled Wyll, causing him to jump slightly before turning to look at you. “Can’t just pretend they aren’t there or they’ll grow weird or get too brittle.” You moved closer to him, trying yo be cautious around him while assessing his new horns. “Kind of hard to tell right now what they’ll do, but I have some extra things if you need them.”

“What?” Wyll says in disbelief, almost self conscious about you having noticed how poor he’s cared for them the past couple days.

“If you don’t take care of them they might start grow weird.” You walk over, trying to get a better look at how his horns seems to be growing. “Or, they’ll become brittle and start to chip off.” Reaching up, you cautiously bring your hand to his right horn, but refusing to touch it until Wyll gave consent.

It takes Wyll a few seconds of going through his emotions before he leans his head down, letting you touch his horns. Your hands touch softly against it, standing on your top toes to get a better look at where they meld into his head. Then moving to look at the sharp tip of the horn.

“Hmmmm,” you let your feet fall flat again, letting go of Wyll, “I have an extra pad to smooth it down. They look healthy, but you are going to have to be careful of them getting over grown.”

“Like a sheep?” His voice comes out as a mix of surprise and disbelief, raising an octave.

“Yes,” you smile, finding it a little funny how that’s the only comparison he could think of, “like a sheep.”

He makes a noise of annoyance, accompanied by the sound of your laugh. As he looks up at you, he takes notice of your broken horn, recalling Karlach also has a similar situation. It feels rude to just ask, but he feels the situation permits it.

“May I ask what happened to your horn?” Wyll nods his head to your broken horn, instinctively your hand goes up to touch the nub.

“Oh this old thing,” you start, laughing a bjt to yourself as the memory surfaces in your brain, “fun story actually, when I first started traveling I didn’t have enough money to keep my usual tools with me. So I went without taking care of them. Ended up in a fight against a lone gnoll, thing got a good grip on my head and just took the rest of my horn off.” You can’t help but laugh, knowing to everyone else that seems wildly traumatic, but so much time has passed that you feel disconnected from it. “Luckily, I was able to even the score. We both left that fight pretty fucked up.” Your hand falls to the necklace around your throat, decorated with teeth that Wyll is now able to identify as gnoll.

Wyll’s mouth drops horrified for a brief second, then letting air escape his nose as he starts to laugh. It’s a weird and fucked up thing to bond over, but for the two it seems to work. As the laughter dies down, you put a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait here, I’ll go grab my bag and help you with them.” You say, then running back towards camp, leaving Wyll slightly flustered by your kindness.

You rush back, a brown bag tightly held in your hands as you come back. You gently lead Wyll to a large rock by the water, patting it for him to sit down, which he does. Placing the bag next to him, you jump onto the rock and kneel behind him, just like your parents used to do for you when you were young. Reaching into the bag, you pull a small vial of a yellowish liquid and a round brown pad.

“Alright, now this is horn polish, you can find it in most market places or you can make your own.” Your hand snakes over his shoulder, showing him the vial. “It goes on before you use this,” your other hand goes over his other shoulder, reveal the coarse rough pad of material. “This will help you buff out your horns and keep them looking smooth.”

Your hands disappear behind him, he can hear the vial open behind him and then feels your hands softly applying some of the liquid to his horns. You take great care in making sure you cover all of them, then wiping your hands off on your bag.

“This is going to feel kind of weird the first couple times, but it’ll get better, I promise,” you warn him, giving him a few seconds to brace himself.

The feeling of the rough pad against his horns is awkward and uncomfortable, almost like hearing nails on a chalk board. Wylls teeth grit together as he clenches his hand together, trying to brace himself as you go to work. He feels your body get closer to him, trying your best to comfort him while using both hands on his horns. You try your best to be both thorough while going quickly, recalling how much you hated this when you were a kid. To try and distract him, you opt to speak.

“When I was a kid, my dad used to help me with my horns. He was always better at this part than my mom,” you admit. “I used to start crying when she would do my horns for me because she was so rough with it. If I saw her with the pad in her hand I would immediately start crying and run off, trying to hide. She’d always find me though.”

“Really?” Wyll chuckles.

“Yeah. Looking back, I feel kind of bad about the trouble I gave her when she was just trying to help me. But at the time it seemed like a reasonable response.”

Wyll and your laughter blend together, the mood becoming more light as you continue to work on his horns. He starts to tell you small bits of his teen years, talking about the trouble he used to get in.

“Alright, now that we are done with this part, it’s time to move on to the finish touch,” your voice announces, slowly putting the used product back into the bag. You pull out another bottle, this one looking more clear than the polish, but a thicker consistency. Your hand rests on his shoulder, leaning over as you show him the bottle more. Wyll feels his heart rate pick up feeling you this close to him, but watches as you start to explain this product. “This is your last step, it’s a protective coating to keep your horns shiny and helps strengthen the keratin.”

“So, I just slather it on them?” Wylls face turns slightly to look at yours.

“Yeah, you don’t need much either, it spreads like crazy.” You lean back, popping the bottle open and reaching up to his horns again.

Slowly, your hands start to rub the oil onto his horns, being as gentle and smooth as possible. It grows quiet as you concentrate on keeping the oil only on his horns and making sure it’s spread as thin as it can be. Wyll, on the other hand, grows quiet as he enjoys the intimate position you are in. It’s been years since he’s felt this close to another person, having spent years to following Mizora closely. He allows himself to drift closer to your touch, feeling more at ease now than he has the past couple weeks, possibly even the past couple years.

“And that should do it,” you reach down and wipe off your hands on your bag. Wyll snaps back to reality, giving some space between you. You smile softly down at him, then gesturing from him to look at himself in the lake.

Wyll stands up and takes a few steps, looking down at his reflection and seeing how nice his horns now looked. Moonlight now illuminated them from the shine, its a small change but it makes him feel warm. It’s the first time since becoming part infernal that he’s felt content with his new appearance.

Wyll looks back up at you, still looking amazed by the work you had done. He takes a step closer, putting a hand on your shoulder as he speaks.

“Thank you.”

“No problem, I know it’s been tough for you.” You smile softly at him.

Wyll moves closer, as if he wants to lean closer. You prepare yourself for him to do so, your body leaning closer to his until a loud voice interrupts the both of you.

“Are you two done down there or should we just eat without you?” You both hear Gale ask, followed by comments from Shadowheart and Astarion that you most certainly don’t need to hear to know that its innappropriate.

Now both your cheeks flush red, flustered by being caught by the rest of the group. As you hear Astarion make one more comment, you start running up the hill and threatening to grab your a stake for him. Wyll just stands there, watching you as you start to argue with Astarion, hearing Shadowheart and Karlach laugh at the display. His heart fills with warmth as he looks back at his reflection in the lake, seeing the way his horns now shine with the moonlight. Grabbing your bag, he slowly makes his way back to camp.

[c-l-y-d-e]

Alright I had a fun time watching act 3. Ekko stole the show, and I unexpectedly loved how things came full circle for Jayce and Viktor. Mel remains the most beautiful thing in creation.

Things I wish had been treated more thoughtfully:

Ambessa got lost somewhere along the way. How could such a menacing manipulative queen have such a let down death? I see what the writers were doing with her final words to Mel, but it just felt too on-the-nose and did her no justice. I feel like the Medarda's could have their own entire show, rather than muddling up the plotline here.

Mel's emerging power was also rushed and I don't think she had a chance to grapple with it or the implications on her own - it was constantly driven by external forces (which, given her power and the overarching plot around her, I guess makes sense, but damn, give a girl a minute to marinate in what should be a fraught piece of development)

The Maddie set up was like-wise not given enough time. Like I could see her driving trait as "attracted to powerful/influential women", but she came, she fucked, she died, and there was no satisfaction in the betrayal.

Sevika??? DID THEY JUST FORGOT ABOUT HER ENTIRELY??? Like, I wanted a thousand times more things for her. LET HER RIOT

Actually I think the plot got caught up in "unifying the people against a common enemy" and forgot that classism was the real enemy all along. And because Sevika was fighting that fight, when the show decided to fight magic! and foreign invaders! her whole arc was thrown to the wayside.

I really really wanted to see the second season do something hard-hitting and thoughtful and intentional with the themes of poverty and classism and oppression between these twin cities (as they had been set up in the first season) but that didn't come about. Ekko got to see a paradise AU, but no one ever had to answer the hard questions about how they got there. I mean, I love that for them, but guys, how are you going to fix that here?

And on the theme of hard questions... I want to love CatVi. But I would way more love using them to explore the complexities and overall fucked-up-ness of such a power imbalance. Instead... we got lesbian prison sex (pleasantly fucked up, but missing any real nuance. sorry ladies, I wanted you to make each other so much worse). And I want to see Cait deal with consequences? Sure, she knows she's being manipulated by Ambessa but uh, does she really struggle with it? Grief made her a dictator who suffocated and hunted and terrorised the most disenfranchised people under her control, and... whelp, she just didn't think it'd go on so long. And now lets fight together! REALLY?

idk if I even want to mention Isha. I personally hate the trope of "a woman acquires a child, and it fixes her!" and I disliked it even more when applied to Jinx, especially as nothing more than a mechanism to delay Jinx's suicidality? I just... think they could have explored Jinx's struggle without Isha, by instead giving a lot more thought and weight to whatever the fuck was happening with the (past and current) implications of Vander and Silco, or giving proper attention to questioning how to navigate her relationship with her sister.

Vi and Jinx... after the intensity of their sibling relationship in season 1, everything between them this season felt... idk, like pandering, rather than anything truly character driven (they had their moments, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the same gut-wrenching build up/conflict/resolution that S1 set as the benchmark).

Ultimately, for all the ways I wish it had been done differently/better, I enjoyed S2? Or at least, the parts I really loved outweigh the disappointments. And there's no denying it was visually a feast. Artistically I'm obsessed. I wish I could watch it in a theatre on a fucking imax screen. I hope to feast on fanart and fic for a long time.

But I remain hungry for a show of such proportions to follow through on the hard questions it sets up for itself.

[whiteboardartstudios]

Goodbye, Gendaen

fan art for @mtqcomic

Thoughts and LONG ramble under the cut! (includes spoilers!!!)

A while ago (like last week maybe?) I realized that I've been following this comic for almost a year, and I still haven't drawn Mysta yet! I figured that with the recent end of Chapter 3 and that *huge* lore drop (I was NOT expecting that oh my goodness the theory wheels are turning in the void that is my brain) now would be a pretty good time to draw her! So that's where this came from! :D

I thought that it would be fun to draw Mysta looking sort of like a knight? Partially because it makes for cool posing and composition but also because I think that if she was in D&D she would be a paladin due to the whole "Hero sent by Destiny" thing (I considered sorcerer or warlock as well, but her moveset is mostly melee at the moment so I thought that paladin fits better. Plus this opens up the possibility of Gendaen being an Oathbreaker paladin, depending on how that whole situation with the Crimson went. (also now I kind of want to put the main cast of mtq in D&D even though I don't actually know a lot about D&D ToT. I think Eth would be a ranger maybe multiclassed into something magic-related, because rangers have a favored enemy mechanic that gives them advantages on fighting a certain type of enemy, which could be Crimson enemies for D&D Eth. Yele is (kind of obviously) a druid because of the whole dryad thing, and Zaïl is definitely giving rogue energy to me.)) Anyways, D&D-related sidetrack aside – hello??? End-of-chapter-3 lore drop? (/positive) I have SO many questions. First of all, what happened to convince Gendaen to switch sides? For someone who allegedly spent his entire life trying to cleanse the Crimson, it would've taken one heck of a worldview-upending revelation to get him to join it. With the information we currently have, it seems pretty clear that Gendaen isn't mind-controlled or corrupted or anything – not just because of the reasons Eth gave in page #169, but also because from all the interactions we've had with Nelun Soma'o/Gendaen, he seemed to be pretty chill? I pointed out in my first fan art post that it doesn't seem as if Nelun Soma'o is being built up to be a villain character and is instead more of an antagonist with a slight mentor role, and I think that still kind of holds up now. Gendaen definitely wants Mysta to help him and/or the Crimson with something, and as Yele said in that recent comic, things aren't really adding up. I'm still slightly suspicious of the Order of Learning as well (insert person pointing at conspiracy theory board meme here lol), since you would think that if Gendaen and Eth are really close then Gendaen might have told Eth about the whole Crimson situation, right? On Page #250 (which is marked as 150??? probably a typo but idk) Gendaen says that he didn't want Eth to be roped into this whole situation, which could be a reason for keeping him in the dark – though if he knew Eth really well then he might have suspected that Eth wouldn't just let him disappear and would go searching for him. Another possible reason (in my theory) if the Order is evil or something and Gendaen learned something that he shouldn't have learned, maybe he knew that Eth wouldn't believe him because of his loyalty to the Order? I may just be connecting random dots and calling it a picture here but *something* is going on and until we get more clues on what that may be, I'm sticking with this theory lol :P EDIT, I was rereading Gendaen's character sheet and it says there that he has a strong code of honor and fights for the underdogs (not the exact phrasing but it's close). 👀 does that mean the Crimson is in some sort of underdog position? 👀

Anyways back to the drawing a little, I gave both Gendaen and Mysta a sort of braid-like element in their designs to sort of tie them together a bit visually (Mysta's is on the sides of her head, which is kind of hard to see so I added a little ribbon to show that parts of her hair is tied back, and Gendaen's is in his golden hair accessory thingy). I think that there's definitely some sort of correlation between Gendaen's disappearance/switching to the Crimson and Mysta being sent to Sol Ybberia, and I also think that both of them are going to play an important role in whatever happens in the future, hence the braids (to show that their destinies are kind of intertwined, as the two Heroes of Sol Ybberia). I also thought that it would be fun to put Gendaen in a stained glass window instead of actually physically being present, because up until the Nelun Soma'o reveal, all the things we know about Gendaen are basically all from Eth's recollections of him, which for me definitely paints a bit of a "Character haunting the narrative" kind of vibe. I also think that with the Nelun Soma'o reveal, the somewhat glorified (for a lack of a better word – I think Eth might be a little biased when it comes to Gendaen, considering that Gendaen has been missing for about 5 years, if my math is correct? 5 years feels like a long time to me and I think that if a person important to me has been missing for that long then my impression of them would definitely start warping to how I want to remember them/who I wanted them to be and I might start unintentionally ignoring the things that doesn't quite match that image in my head. Speaking of/case in point, Eth's reaction to the Nelun Soma'o reveal!) image of Gendaen that we had got thrown in a metaphorical blender with our idea of the Crimson at the time, and it just makes things a whole lot more complicated in a very interesting way. (If you look at the bottom right of the image you can see Nelun Soma'o's cloak coming out of stained-glass Gendaen's cloak, which I thought would be a fun little detail to include). Hence, the stained glass is kind of the "perfect Hero who disappeared to advance the plot" Gendaen and we can see Mysta kind of splitting the glass with her Rotted Fork from a composition point of view, referencing that huge lore bomb she dropped a couple of pages ago and how that changes our (or at least my) perception of Gendaen as a character entirely. I really do like the plot twist, as I think it makes Gendaen a more 3-dimensional character with more complicated motivations and narrative significance, as before I mainly knew him as "predecessor to Mysta" and "one of Eth's sources of motivation", but now he my understanding of Gendaen also extends to things about Gendaen himself and not just about his role in relation to other characters (for example, "Gendaen is helping the Crimson for reasons currently unknown" or "Gendaen is planning something that involves Mysta??? and he's in the Void??? And apparently Mysta is supposed to jailbreak him out at some point in the future?" He definitely has something planned behind the scenes, I don't know what it is and I want to find out).

MORE THINGS about Gendaen (can you tell that he's my favorite character at the moment ToT), what's up with those last words? If I'm correct (and I think I am, I scrolled all the way back to the page where the gods were introduced just to check this ToT), Nomù is Compassion? How is compassion related to Gendaen's alliance with the Crimson? I mean, when you think of the Crimson, compassion definitely is NOT the first value that comes to mind. Right now it seems that to me, Gendaen's plan with Mysta and the Crimson and the Void is connected to Nomù somehow? (the "I won't disappoint you" is definitely interesting). I don't have a lot of thoughts or theories on where this might be going, I just thought that it was something interesting to metaphorically chew on for the next while. It definitely seems like it has some sort of narrative significance, at least.

There might be more things that I wanted to talk about, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head right now (it might be due to the fact that it's currently quite late in my time zone ToT I am sleepy) so that's all from me for now :D (Also dropping the version of the drawing with just the lineart here because I think it looks really cool)

I hope you have a really nice day and/or night! :D

*a starry rift in space opens up in front of me and I faceplant into it like it is a mattress* (gotta make that dramatic exit!) [Image ID: The first image is a colored and rendered image of Mysta from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest webcomic standing in front of a stained glass window of Gendaen. She is holding the Rotted Fork spear from Terraria, and she has a determined expression on her face. The stained glass shows Gendaen with his back turned to the audience, and one closed eye is visible. His cloak is flowing to the right of the image, where it emerges out of the stained glass as it fades from green to dark grey. Crimson vines, green trees, and white clouds surrounds Gendaen in the stained glass. Outside of the glass portrait, real crimson vines are creeping along the stone walls that the portrait is on, framing the portrait and Mysta in the middle. A red light source is shining down from the upper right corner of the drawing. End ID.] [Image ID: The second image is a work-in-progress version of the first image without any color and only some minimal shading, with all shades being in monochrome. Mysta's lineart is noticeably darker compared to the line art of the background. End ID.]

EDIT: Forgot to add image ids, they're here now TwT

[rmorde]

Trigun Manga Reaction

Now, back to Volume 1 Chapter 9!

Insurance Ladies know they are going above and beyond what is normal here. But, they still continue as consummate professionals.

THIS IS SO ADORABLE!!! SO CUTE SO CUTE SO CUUUTEE!

I like the tiny little details that hints something about the characters too.

The most obvious things are Milly's childish expression (playful) and Vash's one leg raised on the seat position (gremlin). However, "no nonsense" Meryl's feet are placed inside the table's rings! You'd expect her to put them by the side of the table but nooooo!!! They need to be IN the ring (she's not above them all!). LMAO.

Tbh... I think the Kaite & Vash relationship feels more fleshed out here in the manga than the anime. I guess it's because of the Rem conversation. It added more weight to their interactions.

Also, they're adorable! Kaite is one sharp kid calling out Vash's bullshit. Vash, like a dog with a bone, keeps deflecting.

Oh wow. This is a huge difference from '98. Kaite was totally alone when he approached the crew.

And this is just as painful and hard to see because, you can absolutely understand the crew's reaction and feelings. What Kaite did was wrong. At the same time tho, he is just a kid who didn't know better. Taking out their grief and fury on him is not right.

Gosh... It makes me think of Little Vash and The Great Fall.

I wonder what exactly went through Vash's head here. In my perspective, Kaite is reflecting Vash unknowingly in this scene. But it's so painful because he's just a kid. He should never have been put in this position. He is too young to be on this path for atonement and redemption! It's just wrong.

Hmmm. Another big difference. Interesting. The Plant was never mentioned in '98 at all.

So, Tristamp followed this manga arc more closely. Some elements are remixed such as Wolfwood replacing Kaite, the Gung-ho Guns substituting BDN as a threat, and the race is avoiding destroying a town instead of avoiding falling off a cliff. All beats are the same tho.

HOWEVER!

I think '98 has a more logical timeline personally because they are in a hurry to stop the ship right? It's a critical moment. If you think about it, there should not have been enough time for Vash to regroup with Kaite after the duel. So, '98 having these two events happen simultaneously is actually good.

Another benefit is Kaite's offer to help feels much more genuine when he was alone and away from Vash in '98. It really sells the idea that this is entirely his own decision despite the risks of retribution.

Of course, Vash didn't influence him in the manga too but by visually having him there with Kaite, it kinda undersells it imo.

Oi. Vash. That's no way to talk about your sister!

While I do appreciate the changes on the Plant design in Tristamp, I really like the '98/Manga more. They're both excellent designs for Sci-Fi but I just really like the 90's flavor of magical Angel Power Plant... which appeases my thing for magitek.

Tristamp tho is a modern flavor of alien Faerie Power Plant - not bad but not my cup of tea. However, the glowing lines feature is wonderful! It reinforces the idea of them being power plants because they have "circuits" in the body. Restraining myself from saying Magic Circuits!

Oh... This is a really fascinating set of panels that I think both '98 and Tristamp haven't adapted well.

'98 kinda skipped this. However in Tristamp, the emphasis on Plants is very clinical. Not sure if that is the best way to describe it, but, in the plants feels so much more objectified in Tristamp. I guess the horror element about the human-plant relationship is further emphasized there.

It's contrasting the manga which seems to be more focused on the awe-inspiring side of it like in the scene above. The scientist waxes poetic and is practically making a religion out of the whole thing.

I guess, to put it simply, the manga effectively shows how humans see Plants worthy of worship. Meanwhile, Tristamp displays how humans see Plants as just a life-essential battery.

So beautiful... Oh...

What if the re-design happened because animating expressive individual feathers would be a pain for Orange staff? GASP! Is that why everyone's hair were cut short?! Because hair is tedious to animate. OMFG... IS THIS WHY MILLY WAS CUT OUT IN SEASON 1 since she really really long luscious locks?!

I kid. I kid. 🤣

Oh. That's really clever remixing by Studio Madhouse. So '98 Miss Purple Avenger Episode is like a "Prototype" of this manga arc. This is where Vash having to prevent an explosion of a Plant came from.

Okay. Another great difference... I've been saying that a lot in this chapter. Sorry.

In '98, Vash dealt with this alone and the only witness was terrified. It focused more on the mystery.

However, here in the manga, Vash is not alone. Humans must work with him to save the Plant and everyone. He can only buy time but it's up to them to stop the whole thing. It's a really nice display of Vash's hopes and beliefs regarding human-plant relations. ----> BTW, the art in this page is really pretty and interesting! (1) The almost "gradient" like transition of Vash's coat to the bulb is so creative. (2) The drawing of the Plant resembling a blooming flower: feathers as ray florets, the plant/sister as the disk floret, and the wires as receptacle/stem.

These pages are so gorgeous and the way the slowing down of the heartbeat was shown through the interspersed tiny panels is just really good.

ROFL. The human instinct of "I don't know what's going on but it's helping so I won't pry anymore and I'll just roll with it!". Love to see it!

I think this arc is so good because it justifies Vash's often criticized brand of hope - his endless patience at giving humans chances to bridge the gap between their species.

Humans can work together and save themselves with just a little push. They won't rely on exploitation forever.

People can realize when they are wrong. They can atone and redeem themselves. They do not stay cruel and ignorant forever. They are capable of change. ----> Also, this art is so perfectly adapted in '98. This page, actually, all the pages relating to this collective effort of humans to save the ships (with a bit of an assist from Vash) is so heartwarming to read. ----> Oh... Kudos again to '98 because since they relegated the 'Vash prevents a Plant explosion' to an earlier episode, the episode covering this particular plot had him out of commission. So, the stakes have become higher. Humans must set aside their differences and work together to save each other and Vash too.

And finally, humans are more than what they seem. They are complicated. What could be an enemy at first could turn out to be an ally that can save you later.

This entire conclusion to the conflict is just good and very... Vash. This is what he wants for Knives to see and understand about humans.

I think '98 really did well in adapting the essence of this arc. Tristamp is complicated because now, on hindsight as I read the manga, the episodes are basically hard-carrying and working overtime telling multiple plot lines at once!

Let's see... in Tristamp's version of this arc:

Wolfwood was working double time in the narrative as "Kaite" and one half of the "Good/Hope of Humanity". Not to mention he has his own conflict going on too.

Meryl was the second half of the "Good/Hope of Humanity" that works with Vash (Plant) in saving people.

Unfortunately, with BDN being replaced by the Gung-ho Guns, there is nothing that echoes the "Hidden Depths Enemy Turned Ally"... character...No way... OMFG! WOLFWOOD WAS SUBSTITUTING FOR THAT ROLE TOO IN THIS ARC!!! Poor Woofwoof!

Roberto is a unique addition since he is a Tristamp OG, but I think he represents well the approach taken by Orange with Trigun. He is like the "Flaws/Indifference of Humanity". He is good but experience had turned him into someone that's jaded and refuses to rock the boat (unlike Meryl). His age and 100% ordinary human status prevents him from surviving long enough to change his disposition too (unlike Wolfwood). It's pretty in line with Orange's more emphasis on the "darker" aspects of the story.

WHA-?!!!

Eh? Eh? EHHH?!!

WHY WAS THIS CHANGED IN '98?!!! THIS IS ADORABLE AND COOL!!! AHHHH!!!! NOOOO!!!!

But... then there won't be Meryl and Milly supporting injured Vash. NOOOO!!! Augh. AND THERE WON'T BE TRISTAMP VERSION OF THIS! AHHHH!!!!

Oh. So, the singing is in the manga too. That's a surprise. I thought it was a '98 original scene.

Awwww. ಥ_ಥ

[nitewrighter]

Watching Disney's "Wish"--No idea what to expect but mostly here for Chris Pine. Pray for me.

-Old school storybook opening sequence which is clearly meant to be evocative of Snow White, Pinocchio, etc. But it's very hard to play it straight in a Post-Shrek world.

-Jesus the world's most painfully expositional dialogue.

-Oh god the body language and the timing of the expressions... Disney has only had one (1) Heroine Concept since they popped out Moana and none of them have been as compelling as Moana.

-Rosas has Duloc vibes. Disney really did not consider the post-Shrek implications of this writing and worldbuilding.

-TANGLED REFERENCE.

-Oh god the Seven Dwarf Besties. Like... to what end??? Who is this for??? This is too many characters for one scene??? If they aren't in the title maybe don't dump 7 on your main character???

-Every time I hear that the Queen and King were originally written to be a villain power couple I'm soooo depressed at looking at this queen. I do like this character design.

-CHRIS PINE THIS IS WHAT I'M HERE FOR.

-ANIMATION REFERNCE.

-Aw hell yeah that's actually a damn good villain turnaround.

-Goddammit yeah again making the Queen ignorant of the whole evil king thing is sooooo disappointing and boring compared to the concept arts.

-Eyvind Earle inspired backgrounds are pretty good.

-This is a really creative concept with very interesting worldbuilding implications but goddamn Disney is just falling so hard back on what it thinks is fun and poppy and marketable and also the music is being pulled in like 5 different directions.

-Why is there a raccoon in the Mediterranean.

-Snow White Wishing Well reference.

-GOD the 'Well that just happened' dialogue.

-Is that a fucking Luma from Super Mario Galaxy.

-Alan Tudyk is here now.

-Oh so this is gonna be a *heist* movie. That's why she's got 7 besties.

-...again kind of disappointed that the Star is basically just a Luma and not a heavily ADHD-coded guy like we saw in the concept art.

-Bro the music in this is SO ALL OVER THE PLACE. IT'S PAINFUL. Chris Pine's villain song was just upbeat pop. Like practically Hanson. And then there's a song that's just.. literal straight up political revolution played completely straight.

-Saba's gonna fuckin die.

-You can tell Chris Pine is having so much fun being a campy charismatic villain he deserves such a better song than the one he got.

-Mage hand!!

-Maleficent ass magic effects.

-Man the movie did *not* set up the tone shift sufficiently.

-Jesus this is a specific ass political revolution song.

-I think this is the first Disney Princess to start, like, a full-on coup.

-Okay so they had to make the queen good so that Asha wouldn't be completely obliterating the government.

-Damn there's just a guy in full Peter Pan costume I guess.

-...straight up Fairy Godmother name drop. I THOUGHT THAT CLOAK REFERENCE WAS BUILDING UP TO SOMETHING.

-This movie is like 80% visual references to previous Disney Films--JESUS ENDING WITH THE MICKEY MOUSE EARS FIREWORKS AND A WINK.

-like... I get that it's Disney's 100th anniversary but it's also like... you could have made a short celebrating that and let this like.. be an actual movie.

[letters-from-dekarios]

(I really love this idea!! I hope you'd allow me to indulge in sending my ask as my storm sorc/tempest cleric tav who gained a bit of a crush on our favorite wizard after the Weave scene!!)

To Gale,

Firstly, I am not avoiding you. It is a pure coincidence that we so happen to miss each other quite often lately, and that is why I am sending this letter. I am definitely not embarrassed by our connection in the Weave and what you could have felt from it.

Now that that matter has been dealt with, I would love to hear about your experiences growing up learning about the arcane arts. After spending that night with you, I am ashamed to admit I have never felt that same amount of fondness, passion, and understanding you have for the Weave. While I 'know' that what's flowing through my veins is raw, powerful magic, I have never really taken the time to 'understand' it - like how one can be aware of being alive, but not how to properly live. I hope that makes sense.

I would love to hear more about your thoughts and experiences with the Weave, and with your permission, I hope to learn more about the Weave from you. Perhaps by learning and understanding you and your magic, I can understand and better appreciate myself and the power I have been blessed with my whole life.

Your loyal companion,

Thalia

Dearest Thalia,

Please know it is with utmost respect that I feel honored my guidance in your manipulation of the Weave would make you feel such a way. It’s not every day that one captures the feeling the Weave brings like you did. I’m privileged that you felt so comfortable with me as to share that.

And, do know, that I take no offense to your taking time to yourself. My first interaction with the Weave and its magic, as you know, was when I was a mere child. Even then, the feeling had me almost bashful! The warmth felt within Mystra’s embrace is quite the overwhelming spirit. You have no need to apologize.

As aforementioned, my beginnings with the Weave were… complicated. I began to sense the magic as a young child, and by the time I was eight, I was beginning to practice fully-fledged spells. You may recall having mentioned a man named Elminster, both a dear friend and my mentor. Given that Mystra had a brief respite from the mortal world, it was he who guided me through the Weave, with the help of Mystra’s remnants in the magic world, and taught me much of what I know now.

I took to the teachings rather quickly. One might say I was a prodigy, and I think it’s quite a fitting title. At just ten, I had conjured my very own Tressym! Tara, my beloved feline friend, was one of my first complete conjurings who managed to stay longer than a few moments. Perhaps it was out of pure spite for my mother not allowing me to adopt a kitten, I shall never know why Tara stuck around with me.

Amidst it all, the overall feeling was one of overwhelming power. I did not start with the understanding I have of it now. I’ll be the first to admit my beginnings with the Weave were awkward. I, more than once, destroyed my mother’s fine items and was made to repair them. It was chaotic— a surge of all sorts of emotions each time I used the magic bestowed upon me. It was as if, with just a flick of the wrist or a word spoken just right, I could destroy everything around me.

It took time and quite a bit of effort to grasp the Weave by its reins and tame it to my liking. This is what drew Mystra to selecting me as one of her chosen as she grew to restoring her full power.

With growing older, entangling my soul with the magic I possessed became easier and easier. Soon enough, I needed no teacher at all. The conceptualization of the Weave and its intertwining in all magic takes getting used to. I would be more than happy to elaborate on other spells with you if you’d let me.

It’s hard to put into words how the Weave makes a person feel. You experienced it, what it’s like within the moment, trying to describe that without the visualization or the emotion behind it can become confusing. Especially for those who have not or have rarely touched the Weave.

Please, visit with me whenever you would like. I would be more than delighted to guide you as best as I can in mastering the concepts of your magic that I do understand.

From the desk of,

𝑮𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒌𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔

text reads: gale dekarios

p.s. it took me a solid hour trying to find information on gale and mystra and the timeline with elminster (and what his relationship with elminster really was like). at some point i said ‘screw it, i’m interpreting this how i like’ so while i try to be accurate, as best i can, im just doing what my little head tells me to ~ kore

[atamascolily]

The curious incident of the elephant in the night parade

The Rebellion Production Note includes a sketch of the "pumpkin carriage" that Sayaka and Nagisa ride in as emissaries of the Law of Cycles, which is good because we barely get to see it in the actual movie.

From face on, it's hard to see that there is, in fact, a pumpkin there, because it gets overshadowed by the pink circle behind it. The profile shot is not much better because Madokami's body blocks most of it.

(side note: love how the original Walpurgisncht pennants are re-imagined here, since Madokami moves under her own power instead of being towed.)

I also completely missed the cute little Pyotr (Nagisa's mouse-like familiar) on top!

The pumpkin is an obvious fairy tale reference and an allusion to Homura identifying herself as "the pumpkin" in the Cake Song. In the accompanying text, Inu Curry says that its color should be the same as the one in the Cake Song, but that changed somewhere in the animation process, because the carriage is orange and the Cake Song pumpkin is primarily green. Or is the carriage orange now because the squash has "ripened"? (for what it's worth, there are plenty of kabocha varieties that are green when ready to eat, so IDK if that's why, but it's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head).

Oh, and weirdly, there doesn't seem to be an obvious "door" to the carriage--even if it's folded up/not visible while in motion, it's striking that the window we do see is similar to the same window that has served as a symbolic representation of salvation via the Law of Cycles from the very first scene of the movie. Inu Curry's notes say that the window frame is white, just like that other window.

I had originally wondered why this carriage was necessary, since Madokami was theoretically only going to take Homura's soul away, not her physical body, but based on what happens to Sayaka in the ending of the original series, magical girls claimed by the Law of Cycles can vanish completely (body and soul), probably so they don't leave any unsightly corpses behind, although there appears to be some inconsistencies about this in Episode 12. But the carriage is such a great metaphor, I can't even bring myself to quibble about stuff like that.

So does Homura gets a carriage ride with an escort instead of flying off hand in hand with Madoka, because she's special--or does every magical girl get this treatment now? It doesn't really matter because Homura has her own ideas, but either way, it was a nice thought, I guess? Once again, Shaft goes for "what looks cool in the moment" rather than visual consistency.

In keeping with my ongoing obsession with the "peacock's tail" emblem that keeps popping up, I'll just say that the elephant's tail is the same shape and the knob on its harness has part of the same pattern... which does make sense because Walpurgisnacht uses that motif and this her repurposed elephant familiar.

However, there are some noticeable differences between the original elephant and this new version:

Walpurgisnacht's elephants from the original series and the Eternal recap movie have a different symbol on their sides - a sun-like drawing vs. the circle with cross quarters. There is a cryptic note here that I don't fully understand that says something like "emblem of the window god"--presumably Madokami?--but I'm not confident enough to say for certain what's going on here.

The ears are also different--the original elephant has a plain green ear, while the Rebellion version has a black and white series of diamonds with circles inscribed within them--another one of Homura's motifs, at least in the Rebellion Production Note.

Preliminary designs for Devil Homura's salamander motif featuring the same "diamond with inscribed circle" symbol.

Finally, both elephants' eyes are covered with "button-like" blinders, just like the horse on Homura's boat in the middle part of Rebellion.

Elephants are a symbol of wisdom, so the fact that they're blindfolded here is interesting; there's also the saying "an elephant never forgets" which seems pertinent in light of Rebellion's emphasis on memories. They are also a traditional vāhana ("mount" or "vehicle") of deities in Hindu and Buddhist iconography, which again fits with the mandalas and other symbols of divinity that Madokami and Walpurgisnacht share. However, I should point out that here that in this case, no one is directly riding on the elephant, as is usually traditional in these genres of religious art; the elephant is towing the vehicle intended for Homura's enlightenment/ascension/release and Madokami is not dependent on it for her movements. So, lots to unpack there.

(Also, if I'm reading the Japanese text right in the Rebellion Production Note, Sayaka wanted to use a helicopter instead, can you imagine?)

Another page in the Production Note shows the original design for the carriage, and I'm sad it got cut because it was rad as hell:

Sayaka, rolling up to Homura in this thing: "Get in, loser, we're going to magical girl heaven." *screeching tires*

The title of this post is an allusion to "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" from one of the Sherlock Holmes stories and the "Night Parade of 100 Demons" (Hyakki Yagyō, 百鬼夜行) from Japanese folklore, which parallels Walpurgisnacht's original circus and this smaller remixed version in Rebellion.

[comicaurora]

As a fan of D&D and animated shows, have you been keeping up with the legend of vox machina?

Yea! I haven't seen the very latest episode yet but I've watched the first five.

I continue to enjoy how it's treating the original game as a first draft and doing some rearrangements in the adaptation to improve pacing, flow, and general sense-making - like how Vax's extremely busted Boots of Speed have been integrated into the functionality of his god-champion-artifact armor, and why they changed Vex's near-death experience last season to Keyleth taking the bullet for her because Vex's actual-death experience this season was going to be very important story-wise but mechanically played out very similarly to the first one (one-shotted by dark magic in an area that suppresses magical healing) and having it happen twice would've weakened the impact. Personally I think in an ideal world we'd be getting a lot more time per season to let the characters breathe - the pacing of the original series is frankly very slow, bordering on unwatchable for certain attention spans, but the pacing of this season is kinda breakneck in comparison and characters are getting big upgrades and moments of revelation quite often, which isn't bad but feels like it could have a little more punch if they had a longer windup. Still, that's the nature of the level-based beast and it's not a complaint, just a little tickle in the back of my head.

The animation continues to be gorgeous, and while the 2D-3D blending of the visuals feels a little weird sometimes, I think it works in-story that the 3D-rendered dragons look very different to everyone around them, since it makes them feel more otherworldly and terrifying. I also like that they don't really look like their Official D&D Counterparts, and the way they've respec'd their breath weapons into things like "wings constantly leaking acid" is really neat.

I also think the way they've shifted the magic system is very interesting. D&D has extremely hard-magic rules on who can cast what spells at what time based on what they know or have prepared. The show dials that way back and treats it a little more hand-wavey, though they'll still hint at the spell slot system with casters being like "sorry I'm out of juice" or "I think I can only do it once a day" which is cute. But this shift to a softer magic system does mean the more versatile casters, mostly Keyleth, seem like they can kind of just do anything depending on the needs of the scene - which is obviously not what is mechanically happening, but because we can't see her spell list or class features it's kind of what it feels like. She has all the standard element-manipulation and druid shapeshifting/treehugging stuff, but we also see her bust out the power of the sun and turn into a giant fire monster, which doesn't feel quite as connected to the rest of her powerset - it makes sense if you squint, but in the moment there's a little lurch of "where did THAT come from?" Now that's not bad writing on the show's part, it's a holdover from the inconsistency of D&D's spell lists. It DOES feel weird that a wind magic specialist could cast Sunbeam just because they hit level 11. Narratively what this indicates is that Keyleth is frankly ridiculously reality-warpingly powerful and doesn't really know her own strength yet, which is top-notch characterization and very consistently demonstrated in-show, but it does invite that one storytelling bugaboo of "how are the heroes gonna solve this one? …………magic." It's subletting a townhouse in the suburbs of The Power Was Within You All Along.

Overall really liking it so far!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 2/6/2024

some weeks it's really hard to come up with a snappy little bon mot to put here

listening

Barbarella, by a fuck of a lot of people. yes i DID watch this movie this week! this is the single catchiest theme song i have ever heard. i cannot link the actual opening credits scene bc tumblr will censor that shit SO fast. spotify

-

reading

Rebecca Roanhorse's Tread of Angels novella. this is an urban magic old west religious fantasy novella. VERY sangfielle friendsatthetable vibes, there's an old west mining town centered around the body of the demon Abbadon, which is being mined for its powerful properties. demons and angels have sort of interbred throughout the human population. there is some deeply nerdy catholic bullshit and i say that as someone who was in catholic school for fifteen years. actually let's just take Roanhorse's explanation

the setting and premise are not where the novella bites off way more than it can chew. the main character, a cardsharp, has a chanteuse sister being held accused of a murder and she's got 48hrs to prove her innocence. the time limit and general structure is good, and it uses its side characters wisely, there's just a fuck of a lot of them.

in general, this novella does not have the emotional room to make its emotional beats really count. for example, there was a second breakup with an ex after a night of passion that mostly just left me confused. more broadly, the main character has an oldest sister's selfsacrificing nature that has twisted into utter ruthlessness with regards to her sister, and i'm both impressed Roanhorse managed to convey that in so few pages and annoyed bc i really wanted to see more of that in way more detail. due to the nature of it being a novella, the series of escalating decisions she takes feel very jagged in their escalation. i hope that makes sense.

it's got really interesting ideas! i want to know more about the ideas! i wish this was a full book instead of a novella, so the ending hits a little better instead of a Well That Just Happened way. from this interview it seems Roanhorse also wanted it to be a full book, but it was sort of a "i need something short and sweet so i don't go insane while adapting my other book for TV" (which is very exciting!!!)

-

watching

really a bizarre set of films. extremely unemployed energy in this watchlist this week. largely composed of "what's on my letterboxed watchlist and also available for free on tubi, with brief forays into hulu"

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013, dir. Chow). loved the overall visual design of the antagonists and the monsters, did not overall love this movie. it is a solid martial arts showcase and the first twenty minutes with freshwater JAWS are the most tightly plotted. it kind of flounders (lol) after that. can't find a gif i like.

INU-OH (2021, dir. Yuasa) genuinely healed my heart a little i think. queer (complimentary, not queer in the western massachusetts housing coop way) feudal anime glam rock opera. i am sooooooo picky about bad dads in movies as a driving force but this really soothed my daddy issues. stuck the landing on both storytelling and visuals.

Barbarella (1968, dir. Vadim) WOW Jane Fonda was hot. this was both sillier and less porny than i was led to believe (if we ignore the softcore porn opening credits). however horny this movie was it was not brave enough to have some girl-on-girl action with barbarella and the evil empress, even though the evil empress never seems to actually learn her name and just calls her “pretty” or “pretty-pretty”. shoutout to the one fic on ao3 that rectifies this situation. certainly a piece of scifi history, i wish modern scifi was as brave with its theatrical set dressing, i think one viewing is good enough for me bc i cannot stop thinking about how all the women on set might have been treated.

john philip law popped up and i said out loud to my cat “hey i know him from cowboys”

Flower Drum Song (1961, dir. Koster) got conned into watching this by the hotvintagemen poll bc i wanted to see what james shigeta’s deal was, and if he did have a sort of ratpack sensibility as the propaganda described. he does! however this movie is unrelentingly awful. it is so so so slow. all of its comedy is racism-based. it feels like a three and a half hour two-VHS set instead of two hours. i like to think i have a stronger stomach for older media and am able to consider things as products of their times but this is my upper limit i think. one brief fleeting moment of cool production with this triple mirror effect

Dirty Dancing (1987, dir. Ardolino). we were trying to find something to watch on either peacock or hbo max, and when i said "oh i've never seen that" out loud my my best friend said "that's insane we're watching it". i did not hate this movie, but i feel like i missed some critical window of development in which i would have had to see this movie to really love it. i had sort of an abnormal high school experience and i am a smidge too old to relate to bildungsroman any more. but it was cute! it was fine! i think patrick swayze’s jawline could cut glass. this film was made after Roe v Wade (1973) and i feel like the backstreet abortion b-plot has done this interesting 180 from sort of a historical novelty to a real threat and terror again. fun!

that’s it for the watching section i promise

-

playing

im doing the thing where i play a game for ten minutes, put it down, and then pick it back up again, which is probably not terrific for the health of my elderly switch. but whatever. what have i been up to in breath of the wild?

not a ton of progress map-wise, but did make it up to zora’s domain.

i was planning on the camel being the first divine beast, to get that over with bc i had such a devil of a time in my last playthrough, but the thing about the desert is it’s really far away.

dicked around the dueling peaks stables for a while without managing to defeat that guardian and unlock that shrine. so it goes. i think i really need an actual guardian shield from one of the minor tests of strength shrines instead of a normie shield. this line and sidequest made me laugh— it wasn’t terribly hard to find this little cache but it was a tricky bit of gliding.

didn’t realize the horses don’t have that much vertical threat perception, just like real horses. this little band walked right under me and i failed to glide down and land perfectly on someone’s back, which did freak them all out.

i think my new favorite place in a game is this little grove clinging to the side of the dueling peaks. it felt very peaceful and cozy. nothing can get me up there and there’s more than enough room to make a little campfire and cook dinner and not roll off the mountain in a sleeping bag the middle of the night.

also fully kitted out my house bc i had a very successful mining expedition along dueling peaks. EXTREMELY forgiving and generous secondary opening area imo, thanks game

-

making

i started this glitch sampler pattern by tumblr's own mathysphere (not @'d bc this is a fuck of a long post) at the beginning of the pandemic, june 2020, while thinking "eh let's give this friends at the table counterweight thing a shot" got most of the way through both counterweight and this piece, put it down bc i was so annoyed with all the confetti stitches (random one-off stitches of colors that aren't anywhere near other stitches of the same color. i think i resorted to fraychek at several points in the rover square) and then put it down so long i had to throw it out during the great moth debacle, bc it was partly eaten.

here's what it will look like finished, and a link to buy the pattern

i think this time around i am a much better technical stitcher (the first crack at this i didn't know the loop method of starting, or pin stitches, or really any alternate endings except running the tail under the last few stitches). i usually stitch with three strands bc i like the look, but i think the loop method with three strands is overly fiddly. i have not picked up cross stitch since mmmm 2021, but any mistakes or unevenness in this will simply contribute to the glitch effect. i'm going to go back and backstitch the four "frames" and key portions of the sampler to highlight portions of the glitches (eg the yellow and blue centers of the spiral galaxy, the interior of the eclipse, perhaps add an antenna to the rover).

still not my tidiest back, but hey. it's going to sit in a frame and not have any sort of friction or extra force applied to it ever

i am really looking forward to framing this in a deep shadowbox, i have an idea about how to mat it with little melty cutouts for the drips at the bottom.

[a-person-on-the-internet]

How would you expand on the Chameleon's sorcery??

Ok, I am SO glad you asked! 

I have a bit of a problem when it comes to making overpowered characters, so Chameleon!Zhen might be just… the tiniest bit overpowered but it’s okay! She gets beaten with emotional damage anyway, so I can have fun with making her a lil kickass. As a treat.

The main thing with Zhen is that she’s a sorcerer. I felt like that part was underutilized aside from the shapeshifting, and thought that I wanted her to have more Magic, so here we are! Zhen is an illusionist now! Depending on what she’s doing, it uses more energy - the main battle is less about defeating her and more about stalling until she’s too tired to fight and the aforementioned emotional damage. For example, conjuring the illusion of a wall uses less energy than making a copy of someone or herself, and the longer it exists/the more complex its movements are, the more energy it costs over time. Think like a videogame with a mana system - she’s only got so much juice before she runs out, and different skills cost different amounts.

Anyway, let’s talk about the rules of her illusion magic. There’s only one.

If you believe it’s there, then it is. An example being - Zhen conjures an illusion of a wall. If the character who runs into the wall believes it to be a wall, or believes it to be something that would be solid to the touch, they crash into it. If the character runs into the wall with the full belief that the wall is not real, that it’s an illusion and cannot be touched, then they will pass through the wall with no effort or harm coming to them. They’d be fine. Zhen’s illusions only hold so much as the people around them believe them to be true - it’s why when Po goes into the Chameleon’s base, he sees a palace because he believes it to be real, but when Zhen pulls the rug from under him, he knows it’s not a palace and sees the truth that it’s a warehouse.

As for the shapeshifting, it’s pretty much just like the movie, but she can now just shapeshift parts. Want tusks? Boar head. Need to punch really hard? Tai Lung paw. Need to sweep someone off their feet? Lord Shen tail. I like to think she’s constantly shapeshifting parts of her or wholesale when she fights, never stopping or slowing down, all erratic and off-the-wall.

Have a sketchbook page! (+a sneak peek at zhen’s redesign) Ignore the poor quality pic.

Some additional notes on visuals:

Zhen’s magic is that same teal/blue as the Chameleon in the original. It’s all over her magic. When she shapeshifts, blue magical aura surrounds her/the shapeshifted part of her body, the same way the gold aura surrounds the people that come out of the Spirit Realm in the real movie.

Her shadow is always just her fox silhouette. No matter who she’s shifted into or what changes happen.

No matter the form, her eyes are blue. No exceptions.

[dizzycloudzzz]

Beta Huntlow Headcanons

*in the "start of season 3" phase, human realm, same house and shared traumas

The two would both have the vibe "it's hard to tell if they applied eyeliner or just have dark circles under their eyes", two people who sleep late (WHEN they sleep) and wake up very early. I like to imagine them being the last ones in the house awake and arguing that the other one should go sleep, little hypocrites more concerned with the health of others than with their own

They study wild magic together and test glyphs and techniques on each other cause they need testing to learn, so it's a controlled and platonic fight (visualize, just VISUALIZE a "parallel" of Lumity scene of the Grom dance but it's Huntlow just having fun being chaotic among magic explosions OR putting into practice what they trained against some unlucky)

"You have problems with authorities and rules too? Woah, we have so much in common..." they took the expression partners in crime a little too seriously 😰 a common dialogue would be "do ya wanna rob a store today?" and the other responds "we already did that yesterday, I wanna get out of routine, let's try a bank?" not ironically

For RPG people, I think the moral alignments of them would be in the Neutral spectrum, maybe him as Lawful Neutral and she as True Neutral, I'm indecisive, maybe both Chaotic Neutral????

Aaaand for astrological people I think they would be a Virgo and a Scorpio... I just don't know who would be which lol

These two have a hospital drama/police investigation series that they watch together and they're really into it, It's TREASON to watch one episode without the other

Sometimes they pretend to be a couple to strangers 'cause they think it's so funny, and they tend to do this a lot since they hang out together frequently

Arm wrestling? Just an excuse for them to hold hands!!!! But when they start competing in anything a third person (usually Gus) has to step in to stop them from overdo. It's not about winning, it's about making the other admit defeat

There's frequent romantic tension in moments that were theoretically supposed to be threatening and it's frustrating how many times they come close to kissing but interruptions at the wrong time get in the way, that old cliché

Talking about ✨love language✨: Willow offers is acts of service and what she likes to receive/share is quality time. Hunter's love language offered is giving gifts and what he likes to receive are words of affirmation. Then it happens like:

"hey, Will! to thank you for yesterday I bought – nah, I stole – to you... industrialized cookies that you like..!"

"don't call me- wait, cookies? huh, you're the best dork ever, let's eat that while watching TV?"

"yeah, of course, let's see some tragedies in the news, it'll be fun... by the way, am I really 'the best dork'? cuz I'll brag about it later"

*plus that they are often in physical contact, without realizing it cause they are simply used to

*the headcanon OF the headcanon is that Hunter has a shirt that says "best dork" and maybe I wanna draw this a lot

I love them help me

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

top 5 romangerri moments 🫶

i am finally answering this almost one month late!!!! this is the kind of question that requires a lot of ruminating, okay. and oh, i have been ruminating!

this is more a scene than a moment, but! their whole slime puppy phone call scene. i think it's just magic. they're both chilling and having fun snarking at each other! the situation escalates in a way that clearly baffles and delights them both! and i find it really moving for roman how easy it is for him to interact with gerri and have an effortlessly sexy rapport with her, right in the wake of his failed call with tabitha that ended so miserably. not to mention that it's, to me, one of the only times we see gerri choose to do something on impulse for fun. (that's how i read her reaction, anyway, rather than something tactical. i honestly think she just had a shitty day at work and she and roman have been secretly vibing for awhile and that's hot and entertaining to her so she just leans in in the moment.) it's just so interesting to me that she makes that choice, especially knowing that this situation is going to become SO repressed and she's going to take a stance of such denial that it ever happened. they're both just really loose and free and fun with each other in this scene and i think it's a glimpse at what they would be like as a couple if they could ever actually just exist without everything keeping them apart.

gerri doing up roman's buttons in 2.03 -- specifically, if we want to pick a precise moment, when she looks up at him. it's the one moment of physical touch + realization of attraction that they ever get to share, and i think it believably lights the match for the fire that never goes out.

gerri watching roman at the funeral. just, like, getting to see her pain for him all over her face, and in maybe the most public setting we have ever seen them in. especially in the wake of everything that happened in the episodes before and how over their relationship felt. to get that proof of how deeply she still feels for him -- beautiful agony!!!

the moment where roman realizes that gerri isn't actually berating him but is engaging with him sexually in the "tern haven" scene. just, like, the face journey he goes on in that moment. jesus!!! again, i find it really poignant that in the wake of a failed sexual encounter with tabitha, gerri is just like right there totally understanding how to connect with him. they're in a dance now.

it's SO hard to definitively choose one last one when there's such a festival of riches, but i shall go with the "stone-cold killer bitch" / "who says you don't know how to flirt?" exchange, because it immediately set the tone of their dynamic. there's a little fun, a little dryly flirty energy going on there, and the visual of roman flopping awkwardly down on the couch next to her and then sitting lower than her -- it's all just so their vibe, baby. it really impresses me that that first interaction holds so much of what's to come re: their dynamic even though what's to come wasn't, at that point, planned at all. (presumably because j and kieran's chemistry and dynamic was already long-established due to their friendship and that informed the relationship a lot!) basically: meant 2 be!!!!

[scp-l4-clef-alto-001]

Hello. I’m a longtime fan and current author on the SCP wiki, and I wanted to say that your articles have been really important in shaping my headcanon and getting me to join the wiki.

I’ve been writing a Resurrection-adjacent series for a while, and while I included Sparkplug in one tale so far I want to use them more down the line. Do you have any advice when it comes to writing them or are there things you think I should have? Also, sort of related, but is Kitten augmented somehow or is she just Like That?

Watch a lot of military fiction. Band of Brothers, Generation Kill, Call of Duty, etc.

Sparkplug is kind of the opposite of those guys.

Not in the competency: they are extremely competent at what they do, but they didn't buy into the military moto hype. Bullfrog and Skunkboy both had prior military experience, and both of them quit because they couldn't stand the bullshit that comes with being in the military. Skunkboy especially, I think, couldn't fucking stand the whole Marine Corps Hoorah culture thing, which is why he uses "Semper Fi" like it's a swear word.

Do not imagine that this means that they won't fuck up your shit if they have to. But their primary mission is NOT to be the biggest badasses on the planet: their job is to go in, find out what the fuck is happening, and GET THE WORD OUT.

Now, most of the stories about Sparkplug are the times that things went bad and they went hot. Kind of like how most of the stories about Star Trek aren't about the times that the Enterprise was on a diplomatic mission and nothing bad happened. I figure 90% of Sparkplug's missions are to go into a small town, talk to some locals, do a little hiking, and call back to PHYSICS HQ saying, "False alarm, it was just some teenagers flying a drone."

I know you asked about Kitten specifically, but in my head, the four members of Sparkplug's anomalous traits are:

Bullfrog: None. He's just an experienced soldier and a respected leader.

Skunkboy: No anomalous traits confirmed, but he has a nearly supernatural talent for 3D visualization, which mostly manifests in nearly supernatural accuracy with a rifle, but probably has a lot of other uses if you really think about it.

Kitten: Has a unique series of mutations that make her fast, strong and tough, with ridiculous stamina and endurance. She's also over six feet and a half tall and built like a brick shithouse. Downside is that she gets extremely antsy if she has to sit still for very long: she finds it hard to sleep without working out to exhaustion first.

Spider: The Type Blue. Her area of specialty is ancient magic styles, particularly Celtic druidcraft. If she were a hacker, she'd be the type who uses an old style beige clicky keyboard from the 1980s because it just feels better than modern ones.

[dullweapons]

okay so since there are a few hylia’s ( i can count about four ? 2 new & 2 from mutuals on side blogs or side muses … im sure there will be more , hell i wanna write a hylia too lol ) so imma write out how ray actually feels about hylia as clear as i can . i don’t really have a problem with hylia myself ? my only problem with her is her being added late into the games but skyward sword is old like me now so im over it . ( i do dislike that we just forgot demise but imma pretend he’s still here hush— @harbingered for my demise 👀 i will pay attention to him i swear )

ray HATES hylia . perhaps the most out of the gods & deities of the world . he curses her & blames her for a lot of things even when she clearly isn’t to blame . he uses her like a scapegoat . someone to point the anger he feels at when there is no one else to blame but himself . he’ll blame her for the troubles zelda goes through , or link or even ganondorf . because he knows hylia . seen her . felt the sting of her magic . saw her bring up the humans to their safe haven in the sky & leave him down there . she didn’t care .

as a child he was taught to worship hylia, as all the children of skyloft settlement were. his family had small statues of her that they gave offerings too . he would pray to her just as his mother told him to . so he was fine with her … maybe a touch annoyed — but that was mostly towards his mother being quite religious & making him repeat hail hylia when he was naughty ( which was often af )

upon being forced into the ancient battle ; his views were forcibly shifted by his father . not by any commands but more due to his father talking about how hylia cares not for him nor any other demons . lamatar believes demise would do right by the demons & monsters ( was that true ? who knows ) . he would beat this idea into ayrin until he began to think it himself .

“ hylia doesn’t care about me. if she did, she would’ve stopped me from joining this war . she wouldn’t have me here …mama says hylia loves us all but no one loves me. she doesn’t either .”

continuing on, ayrin was stuck by the goddess blade causing a horrible scar that glows similarly to TP! ganondorf’s scar. due to it being a holy blade , it couldn’t go away as easily as death or other wounds for the demonic weapon & he was out of battle for weeks. ( visual ref of rays scar here ! ) i have been debating it be hylia who struck him , but it can just be the first link . regardless , he sat there — scared & angry , not just because he failed his father , but hylia hurt . her blade hurts so so much . hylia is pain .

further down the timeline ; he continues to see princesses & queens struggle with their magic or are forced into horrible situations of the cycle born of demise . he sees link , so young forced into battle & losing his childhood only to become a shell . he’s seen ganondorf turned into a monster of anger & greed for what was once a king has become nothing but a pig . if hylia stayed a god perhaps things would be different . perhaps not . regardless, he blames them all : the golden goddesses , hylia & demise . none of them are free from his hate .

but hylia worship has grown strong again by botw & by then — he is a tired , cynical old man . he works hard to make sure his solders are ready for the war that is coming against calamity ganon . he sees the princess struggle to awaken her powers . he scoffs at her & wonders if the blood of the goddess is finally gone from tainting the royal family.

& he prayed to hylia to save them from the calamity when the calamity came & took over all the sheikah technology & his men died trying to get to akkala .

& she did not answer .

so for the hylia rpers i totally understand if you’re like “ damn he a hater idk if i wanna interact “ because he’s never ever gonna warm up to her . also if you wish to discuss what happened between them during the ancient battle please feel free to DM me ! my default does not need to be canon minus 1: ayrin / bby ray going to the war & 2: ray being struck goddess blade . those two are the only requirements — im flexible with anything !