#sombrerokiwi

[beantothemax]

Trick or treat!

*throws bird seed at you*

hey ki- WAUGH. OW. OWIE. AUGH. OK I WAS GONNA GIVE YOU SOMETHING COOL BUT YKNOW WHAT. TRICK.

NOTHING.

[justagingerwithredhair]

Darkest Dungeon X Octopath Traveler 2 crossover fic. AKA Sarmenti witnesses the moments before Wellsgrove disaster.

TW for past suicidal thoughts, violence, some eldritch horror that’s going to happen at the end, Wingdings containing disturbing material such as death baiting (but nothing too explicit), and Sarmenti being incredibly unhinged and having some disturbing thoughts —————————————

Contrary to popular belief, Sarmenti does take things seriously. People thought that his personality was one that takes nothing seriously but really, it’s one who took everything seriously and then broke into a million tiny glass pieces afterwards. He’s already broken enough so why not have fun with it? Why not take those pieces and throw them at his enemies? Why not take those pieces and make a horrid song?

The point is, is that Sarmenti tries to make the most of life. He’s been dealt with the worst hand and maybe he should have given up there but what’s the point in that? He still has songs to play and stories to weave and annoying little eldritch horrors to stab. Perhaps not the best life but considering he wanted to kill himself before he travelled the world he’ll say this is an improvement.

Wellsgrove is a break to him right now, at least in his neck of the woods. From what he’s heard from Barristan and Baldwin, Throné was busy preparing and about to make herself an orphan, while Hikari is about to intercept a an arms trade. Meanwhile he’s here with Partitio, watching as the man essentially revived a town in under a month.

He wouldn’t be very helpful in the world of business, so he was outside singing incomplete songs stuck in his head while people quietly tipped him.

Maybe if he was with the others he would have traded sharp words and love ballads for knives but alas. He was not with their group. No blood shall be spilt today by him.

What was surprising though was the fact that all of them were here. Usually they would all go and debate with themselves on which Travelers needed their help before going off with them. Even then, not all of them truly stayed around to help the Travelers actively. Some people, like Audrey and Boudicca, only really tagged along to see the sights. He knows those types would eventually leave at some point, but he also knows that they’re aware that it’s not a good idea to leave when you have no idea where you are.

They still helped, don’t get them wrong. Some just aren’t exactly as invested as the rest of them. He knows who’s staying for a war if you put Audrey and Barristan side-by-side.

(But then again, Audrey stayed with all of them in the Hamlet and the rickety old Wagon all that time ago. Even gave some of her spoils to those poorer folk so who knows. Maybe they were all a bit kinder than they give themselves credit for.)

The fact that all of them were here was surprising. Something that Kazan even expressed surprised in when they all insisted on traveling together.

Then there’s the fact that Damien, Tardif, and Josephine were here. 

Damien was…well he was a bit of an odd ball, even by Sarmenti’s standards. He knew that flagellation was approved by the Church of the Light but he’s also pretty sure that it is not to the point of their skin peeling off and septic rot. Last he saw him, he said that he was going to travel the world to revel in this new kind of pain. Real fucking weird if you ask Sarmenti but who’s he to judge? He went and killed an entire royal court using a cursed song. At the very least though he’s polite to everyone in town, even if they found him disturbing, and thank fuck Damien has enough sense to avoid Junia lest they start stirring up old memories.

Tardif was a Bounty Hunter and well. Sarmenti supposes he wanted to get back to the business as soon as possible. The man said his farewell in Flamechurch, had a…private conversation with William, told them all that he won’t hunt bounties on them out of respect, and then left. At the very least he tried to keep contact with all of them, mostly in the form of obscure baking recipes he found. Him being here was a coincidence, one that was fueled by the simple fact that Throné’s Mother Dearest has a bounty on her but a lovely coincidence at that.

Josephine was…

She was here, lured by the promises of wealth from Partitio’s little business venture. She said she won’t cause any trouble and that was enough for him right now. Whatever quarrel she has with them doesn’t matter to him right now. The others may disagree but if she says she wants to keep the peace, she’ll keep the peace. Besides, starting a fight with the others is bad for her business.

…Sarmenti does have to admit though, having everyone here was nice. If he closed his eyes long enough, he can pretend it’s the Hamlet. He can pretend it’s the Hamlet and they were all free of the horrors that tormented them in the Darkest Dungeon. That the people tipping him were people he’s seen every day and that the people joining in were the other Bards that wandered into the Hamlet’s horrors.

This of course means that things are going to go to shit soon. He knows this. He knows that pattern.

He hears a melody.

Sarmenti blinks and sits up.

He hears it again.

(D-Low A-D-A-A flat-D-B flat)

“…Who played that.”

Sarmenti stood up and looked around. The bards all freeze and stare at him.

“Who. Played. That tune.”

It plays again.

Sarmenti jerked to the left to see a violinist, bow on strings and a blank look on their face.

(It sung to him and it sung until it was drilled into his head and nothing but that cursed song remained.)

He tackled the musician onto the ground, grabbed their throat and squeezed.

Distantly, he felt someone try to pull him off of the musician. He refuses to let go and kept squeezing.

“-menti!”

He squeezed-

“Sarmenti!”

And squeezed.

“Sarmenti let go!”

And s q u e e z e d.

Someone roughly grabbed him and pulled him off. “Sarmenti what’s gotten into you!?”

Don’t they know? Doesn’t they know that song means death? Snuffing it out is the only way to stop it from driving another mad. He has to snuff it out. He has to silence it. He has to he has to hehastohehastohe-

“How do you know that song?” Someone said. Or was that him? His voice sounds oh so far away now. An echo in the sea of madness. “That song is dead. I killed it. I made sure it was forgotten. How do you know that song?”

The musician only stared at him, keeping the blank look on their face and offering nothing but silence.

“Answer me Light damnit!”

The musician blinks and opens their mouth.

✌☠👎 🕈☟✌❄ ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆 💧✌☼💣☜☠❄✋

🕈☟✡ 👎⚐ ✡⚐🕆 💧❄✋☹☹ ☹✋✞☜ 🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☼☜💧❄ ☟✌✞☜ 👎✋☜👎

✋❄’💧 ☼🕆👎☜ ❄⚐ ☜☝☝ ❄☟☜☠ ⚐☠📬 🕈☟✡ ☠⚐❄ ☹☜❄ ✌ 💧❄☼✌✡ 💧🕈⚐☼👎 💧❄✌👌 ✡⚐🕆 ✌☹☼☜✌👎✡ ⚐☼ 👌☜❄❄☜☼ ✡☜❄📬 👎⚐ ✋❄ ✡⚐🕆☼💧☜☹☞📬

Sarmenti steps back. Several people around him start exclaiming in fear.

🕈☜☹☹ ☺☜💧❄☜☼📬 🕈☟✌❄ 🕈✋☹☹ ✡⚐🕆 👎⚐✍ ✋ ☞✋☠👎 ✡⚐🕆☼ 😐☠✋☞☜ ☹⚐⚐😐✋☠☝ ✋☠👍☼☜👎✋👌☹✡ ✋☠✞✋❄✋☠☝📬

What are they saying?

✡⚐🕆 😐✋☹☹☜👎 👌☜☞⚐☼☜📬 ✡⚐🕆 ☺🕆💧❄ ☠☜☜👎 ❄⚐ 😐✋☹☹ ❄☟☜ ☞✋☠✌☹ 💣✌👎💣✌☠ ✋☠ ❄☟✋💧 👍✋☼👍🕆💧📬

Why can he understand it?

Why does he know what its saying?

The musician grinned and grinned and grinned. Several people are running now and oh? Is that burning? What’s burning? Was it his flesh? Is it theirs? What’s burning?

“The Iron Crown will be revived.”

The musician takes out a knife and cuts themselves open, snapping Sarmenti out of trance. He looks to the left and sees Partitio recoil back and put himself in front of everyone else.

The musician falls onto the ground unceremoniously. Everyone stared, because what the hell are you supposed to do after that.

“…Well shows over for that guy,” he said awkwardly.

Alrond and Misha looked at him in horror while Partitio’s scrivener friend gives an awkward cough. Partitio only gives him a disappointed look.

“Hm. Tough crowd. Now what are we going to do with the body?”

If anything that only makes the group more appalled. “I don’t think this is a time for jokes Sarmenti,” said Partitio.

He knows that, but what else is he going to do? Look dumbly at the body and try to explain what just happened? Yeah right. Everyone is way into shock to do that right now. If he can joke then that means things aren’t as bad as it seems to be and that seems about right for him. Worked well for Dismas and Audrey, and if anyone in their little merry band of adventurers were bothered by it then they would have told the three of them by now.

Oh wait, the rest of them. They probably are freaking out right now.

And on cue, Sarmenti sees the rest of the gang come up and oh. Oh isn’t that some of Ku’s warriors? Weren’t they supposed to be getting weapons and then being stopped from getting weapons? Hm. He supposed this little stunt went and changed some things then. No one wants to do business when the town is in disarray.

“Nothing to see here folks!” He announce, much to everyone’s horror. “Just a dead body in the middle of the street! We’ll clean it up soon!” 

Dismas groans and out his head in his hands.

“What the fuck Hikari? Where did you even find this guy?” Said a Ku soldier with a bandanna tied around his head.

“Oh that’s easy fellow war criminal!” He answered. “You see Prince Hikari found us poor souls after we went and-“

A snap is heard from the ground.

Sarmenti looks down.

The musician started to contort into itself. Its skin turning grey and bones snapping out of place.

Oh.

Oh no.

“Get behind me.”

Partitio blinks. “What?”

Sarmenti took out his knife. “Get. Behind. Me.”

Muscles spasmed and grew. Bones creaked and groaned. Arms growing. Legs growing. Head contorting. Laughter. Laughter. Laughter.

(First the brain, then the lungs, then the eyes, then the hands, and then finally the body.)

(Denial, Resentment, Obsession, Ambition, Cowardice. All fought and defeated but it never is over. It’s never over. It’s never never never never over.

The musician speaks. It somehow speaks despite the distortions and it’s familiar. It’s familiar and that’s what terrifies Sarmenti.

A trumpet is heard. Someone screams in pain. He feels blood from his ears.

(Flesh upon flesh being played together. The body becoming an instrument. The body is an instrument.)

It speaks.

🕈☜ ☞✌✋☹☜👎 👌☜👍✌🕆💧☜ ✡⚐🕆 💣⚐✞☜👎 ⚐☠📬 ❄☟☜💧☜ 🏱☜⚐🏱☹☜ ☟✌✞☜ ☠⚐❄📬 ❄☟☜✋☼ 🕈⚐☜💧 🕈✋☹☹ ☜💣🏱⚐🕈☜☼ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 ☞⚐☼ 🕈☜ ✌☼☜ ✌☹🕈✌✡💧 ✌☼☜ ✌🏱✌☼❄ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 🕈☜ 🕈✋☹☹ ☠☜✞☜☼ 👌☜ 💧☜🏱☜☼✌❄☜👎 ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼

He looks around. Several of Ku’s soldiers fall in terror. Hikari pales and starts to shake. Reynauld, Barristan, Boudica, and Missandei all look at the creature what Sarmenti can only describe as pure, utter, terror.

The Scrivener took a step back. “No. Nonononono. I left you.” She took a shuddering breath in. “I left you.”

If Sarmenti closes his eyes, he can hear the Ancestor the Heir the Academic the Scholar someone tell him what it was.

(“Gaze upon the Shackled Resignation. The thing that prolongs wars and drives men to hopelessness.”)

A being of bones and flesh, all contorted and twisted in ways one can only imagine. Restraining itself using their its innards and choking itself in its misery. It could probably fix itself if it really looked and tried to untangle the spilling chain-like innards.

It wails and lunges.

Sarmenti takes a deep breath.

(There is always an encore. And unfortunately for him, the people always crave for more.)

(Well. The cosmic beings that like to end the world crave for more.)

He looks behind him and meets Dismas’ eyes. He holds up three fingers. The man nods.

He nudges Partitio back.

He takes a deep breath.

One.

(The thing about encores is that it really does depend on whether the performer wants to perform a bit more or wants to wrap it up.)

Two.

(And the thing is this.)

Three.

(Sarmenti wants to fucking wrap all of this up.)

He swings his knife.

Dismas fires his gun.

The being screams and stumbles back. Sarmenti does the one thing he can think of.

He grabs Partitio, pulls him forward and gets them to run.

OH THE HORRORS!!!

I love your writing style! You'll have to translate the wingdings for me though.

[soup-for-ghosts]

please yap about Arcanette. I too am interested in her and what her whole deal is

THANKYE KINDLY

a lot of my thoughts on arcanette are pure speculation, I mean… that’s all they really can be, we don’t exactly have a lot to go off of.

who or what is she? now that I’ve gotten through most of ot1, I understand that lyblac is the daughter of galdera… is arcanette the daughter of vide? it’s a possibilty, but I also don’t think that’s the case

she could be related to d’arqest, and that would make her and claude strange relatives… she definitely has some immortality thing going on though, similar to claude

the idea that she IS d’arqest is off the table, we’ve seen the man’s tomb… though there are a lot of questions floating around about d’arqest too

so who or what is she?? well this is where I like to, for lack of a better expression, make things up as I go… so bear with me!

throughout the story she is driven by the sole goal of resurrecting vide, influenced in part by the moonshade order’s general nihilistic beliefs… and to do so she’ll lie to and manipulate anyone she has to. she manipulated tanzy into finding the flames, manipulated kaldena into her own destruction, most-likely caused roi to become the dark entity, did… something. relating to petrichor, and so on…

she orchestrated everything, had full knowledge of the shadow and the darkblood weapons (I have even more questions about those!!) which is clearly not easy knowledge to come by

her singular driving force is bringing about eternal night and resurrecting vide… her immortality suggests a direct connection to vide in some capacity… and she has knowledge on things that are definitely not readily available to the general public at all… so what does that suggest about her identity?? not a clue really!!

there are soooo many questions about her and most are not answered by the game unfortunately…. but I do have my own ideas

the idea I have is that she is a vessel, similar to whatever claude sought to create (there’s a lot of questions about him too tbh), an empty vessel, a puppet per se, existing solely to bring about that endless night… after all, what does she do that doesn’t work to that singular goal? what actions does she take that don’t serve that greater purpose? none that we see, at least

also this makes her name not only a pun on arcane, but marionette (I know -nette is just a feminine suffix but let me have this)

is this correct? probably not, but what else do I have to go off of?

it’s just my own personal musings, if anything… but unless any new information comes to light, this is what I’m sticking with

thank you for indulging me, sorry if this isn’t the most coherent, I tried pff-

[these-detestable-hands]

I know reasonably cocomelon is referring to something else in your last original post but all I can think of is like the musical YouTube channel for kids and those little weird animations for kids.

I don’t know what fandom you’re talking about but that seems interesting

It's witch hat atelier. The main character is called Coco so that's why I went with that as an organizational tag

[aliendxde]

-1 hp

this can’t keep happening

[reshoravian]

Hey so I saw Avian in the 10 year anniversary thing and he look interesting. Can you tell us more about him?

YO YOU HAVE OPENED UP A RABBIT HOLE GO YOU

HES MY POSTER BOY!!! I don't talk much about my ocs publicly these days but when I was in middle school and early high school everyone knew this bitch. Heck he's still my main blog's icon from 2016. He is also why triangles throughout my art years have been my trademark

Originally 11 years ago he was actually my robin MC for fire emblem awakening and he ended up.... becoming a lot of things later which is why he has canonically 3 different designs depending on the universe he's put in (and more potentially but i haven't refined those designs)

All different versions of him are considered different characters in a sense. Completely different back stories and personalities with only visual similarities and a few themes that are the same that remain constants.

First was Fractals Avian which was a story the most similar to the fire emblem humble origins with a very similar setting. He's emo and a pain in the ass and his major thematics is escapism and coping with change and loss. He had the ability to create imaginary worlds in his mind. The story is a tragedy for the most part.

Next in 2016 I made Wireframe, and Wireframe Avian is a totally different personality. Kind, Curious, and sensitive. I refined magical powers for him to have thematics to a triangle wireframe model, hence the universe name. He is able to create magical triangle poly structures based on the amount of "triangle polygons" that make up his own. Eventually the story leads down to questioning the reality of the world around him and even his best friend who was a comfort for him the whole time. I solidified he had some sort of imagination powers at this point.

Last but not least the most recent story is Apotheosis which is... still undergoing main renovations. Avian here is a little older than Wireframe Avian, and he's eccentric confident and audacious. I refined that he is a character that essentially is an artistic metaphor of the thematics of creation. Avian's role is a bit fuzzy in this story as this story I decided to finally focus on fleshing out his partner in crime instead of the blue bitch himself being the only main focus

I am doing a wonderful job at being distracted though because I've been fleshing out another story that has no name where it's a cyber dystopia future setting that more in depth explores their powers in a more universal and thematic sense Avian representing an android that harnesses and understands the nature of existence, and Takashi being a forbidden project; an attempt at creating synthetic super humans able to sense the future by them able to think 4th dimensionally. (Fate) but that's me pushing off fully fleshing Apotheosis in the meantime lol

Anyway this post is damn long enough but i've had him for 11 years ongoing now! And now he's super important to my general world building as a whole :3 thanks so much for asking thank you.

Also some of this is juicy old art lol

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

Man I wish I can go and put my blorbos into situations the Magnus Archives gives but they’re so fucking specific and spoiler-y that it’s so hard to put them in there without context.

kiwi i need you to understand that i NEED you to put those blorbos in those situations because that sounds SO cool even without context

[justagingerwithredhair]

YOU DARE USE MY OWN STOLEN SPELL AGAINST ME!?!?!

[weirdmamagnet]

Something about your art style is very chewable. It is very very cool to look at

Awwww, thank you so much, haha! That's certainly a compliment. I'm glad you think so!! ^-^

[beantothemax]

....We should appreciate Benkei more. God I should appreciate Benkei more.

if YOU appreciate benkei reblog this post one thousand times to prove it

[soup-for-ghosts]

I see you're Furina fan Calc.

Hahahahaha.

*GOD SHE IS TRAGIC*

I’M SO FUCKING NORMAL ABOUT FURINA AUGH…

SHE’S A TRAGEDY! HER WHOLE LIFE A PERFORMANCE! A TRAGEDY! SHE HAS NO SEMBLANCE OF SELF, HER ENTIRE LIFE A LIE! ONLY TO BE LEFT WITH SO LITTLE CLOSURE OTHER THAN FINALLY BEING FREE FROM THAT ETERNAL STAGE!

I haven’t seen the full fontaine story but I HAD to watch the execution cutscenes cause I was deathly curious why people were comparing furina to angela from lor and oh god! they were right!

[justagingerwithredhair]

reblog to totally annihilate your friends

[these-detestable-hands]

*is trying so hard not to tell you things about Triangle Strategy*

You saying this ask right after responding to an ask where I mention the salt goddess is scary ngl

[aliendxde]

-1 hp

ow. this can’t be

[drainbangle]

May I ask what is Hikari’s team for the Pokémon au?

Of course!

From left to right: Suiren (Samurott), Aylin (Mega Sceptile), Haruto (Gallade), Chizu (Skarmory), Hazuki (Leafeon), and Shimo (Electivire)

I also have Mugen's team on hand:

Details under the cut, has endgame spoilers!

Hikari

(M) Samurott

Suiren: Japanese, "water lily"

First Pokémon alongside his Sceptile, it evolved into a Dewott when Hikari and Kura were attacked. Due to the stress of its evolution, it prematurely has some elements of its eventual Hisuian evolution.

It evolves into a Samurott during the final battle with Mugen.

(F) Sceptile

Aylin: Turkish, "light of the moon". Kura named it as a Treecko before her death. I chose a Turkish name since Kura's name works both in Japanese and Turkish + the game implies Hikari is mixed Hinoeuman and from whichever branch of the lineage of light Kura is from.

Mostly chosen because Hikari reminds me a lot of Grovyle from PMD2. Also Leaf Blade, Night Slash, etc.

Evolves into a Sceptile during the fight with Rai Mei, having the Mega Evolution + Mega Stone meant Hikari was able to counter her Electric-types with Sceptile's Lightning Rod.

(M) Gallade

Haruto: Japanese, "sunlight".

Caught during the war, has stayed by Hikari's side ever since due to his compassionate nature.

(F) Skarmory

Chizu: Japanese, "a thousand cranes"

Caught while first fleeing Ku, it saw that Hikari and his borrowed Mudsdale were lost + scared and guided them to Ryu.

Skarmory are common in Hinoeuma, but Hikari's definitely looks more like those found in Sai versus Mugen's which is probably like... purebred and very much from the Ku part of the region.

(M) Leafeon

Hazuki: Japanese, "eighth moon", August, month of leaves

Caught near Wellgrove. It found Hikari after he wandered away from the other travelers in a really bad state after the events of CH3, and stuck around and comforted him.

Hikari was really confused at the time, not to mention unconfident in taking in a new Pokémon after what happened, but he appreciates his Leafeon's kindness a lot looking back on it.

(F) Electivire

Shimo: Japanese, "frost"

Caught on the way to Stormhail, provides Hikari's team well-needed Water-type and Fighting-type coverage.

An Alpha Pokémon, Hikari calmed it down after the group accidentally angered it wandering into its territory + in an Alpha frenzy due to whatever messed up shit's going on in the world.

As an endgame spoiler note: while I don't have all of his team picked out yet, Oboro is like BW1 Ghetsis in the way that his team counters Hikari's as Ghetsis does N. Not the same relationship of course, I just really liked that gameplay storytelling.

Mugen's team is primarily Pokémon that are either very territorial/violent or in Ceruledge's case, fit his whole situation with the Darkblood Blade. I still feel like this list could use some tweaking to make the typings more balanced (though IDT there's any saving his aces from being quad weak to Fighting), but they're powerful enough to pose a challenge so I'm happy with that.

[justagingerwithredhair]

After all, grief is just love that has no where to go.

Moots I want you to know that if for whatever reason you or I leave then I will grieve for you. This isn't a bad thing. It means that you were loved. You were loved so much that you were missed. You were loved and I'll miss you. I hope one day we can see each other again despite the infinitesimal chances. I hope one day we meet again, whether it's online with a different name and identity or in real life. I hope we would one day recognize each other and find familiarity and happiness in the reunion. I hope that even if you don't, we go and focus on the good memories.

I hope you know that you are loved.