#take note that there were only 6 harbingers during this story!!

[versadies]

Hello!! Can I request a song fic of that Scaramouche concept you thought of(if that is allowed)?? Sorry if this seems messy, You can ignore this if you want. The song can be any of your choosing, but if it required to choose a song, then the song can be "Alec Benjamin - Let Me Down Slowly". Thanks in advance!!

down slowly (songfic)

penpal: omg i honestly didn’t expect someone to request this 😳😳😳 hope you like this!!

pairing/s: scaramouche x gn!reader (reader knows how to sing)

sypnosis: an au where the reader was the original 6th harbinger and the calm, intelligent scaramouche was their right hand man. a tale of how he becomes the scaramouche we know of after a tragic incident that happened to the reader.

warning/s: death, violence, ooc!scaramouche (he's not going to act like the canon one)

song: let me down slowly by alec benjamin

note: scaramouche's role for you is basically like sara to baal but there's romance between the two of you (your age in here is the same as scaramouche's). take note that anything related to scaramouche’s past here is not canon to the actual lore.

this night is cold in the kingdom i can feel you fade away

it was in inazuma when he met you, beating all the fatui agents thinking that they were going to beat you, a "helpless" person.

your cold eyes was the first thing he laid eyes on when he looks up at you.

"and who you may be?" you asked, staring at the man in disgust as you stand up from the ground and pat your outfit. "you must be bold enough to beat down ten fatui agents in front of a harbinger."

while others would've been peeing their pants at the sight of your presence alone, he stared at you as though you're the most divine thing.

you scoffed at his silence. "can't talk buddy?" you asked, causing him to blink a few times before standing up quickly and bow down. "apologies, i-i thought they were going to-"

"fight me? please, if anything they're going to be the ones getting beaten down by me." you cut him off, glancing at the unconscious agents with a sigh, not noticing how scaramouche felt his mouth twitch upward a bit from your comment.

"though i must say, the way you fought them is impressive- even without using your vision and all." you said blankly, adjusting your hat.

"....i beg your pardon?" he asks, causing you to roll your eyes. "do i have to repeat myself? it's not everyday that you have a harbinger praising your skills."

before scaramouche could say anything, you immediately interrupted again, looking at him as though you thought of an incredible idea.

"say.. why don't you join the fatui?"

from the kitchen to the bathroom sink and your steps keep me awake

the man then found himself being a part of the fatui. if there's one thing that makes the fatui less sufferable for scaramouche: it was you, the 6th harbinger of the fatui, the balladeer.

although he had to go through extreme measures to get to his position as the right-hand man, it was worth it being able to be by your side. even if he has to listen to you yelling and cursing at your subordinates all day, it was worth it.

your reputation among the fatui is truly something scaramouche looks up to, the cunning-intelligent individual who can turn the skies to purple and struck opponents down with lightning. not only were you one of the most intelligent but also one of the most powerful harbingers that teyvat has ever seen.

and no, he doesn't care about the fact that you're the most disliked harbinger. to him, you're his savior and the only person he could spend an eternity with.

besides, you brought him something worth living for.

it was the cold atmosphere he felt when you first praised him as a fatui member.

"how are the recruits while i was away?" you asked, walking around the hallways of the zapolyarny palace with scaramouche following behind, making pace with you. "they've been to their assigned positions and i assigned a few of the subordinates to supervise them."

"good." you then stood in front of the doors of where the tsaritsa resides, fixing yourself before taking a deep breath. "you may start preparing our next mission. i'll be back in my office shortly once i'm done talking to the tsaritsa."

he bows. "understood, my lord/lady."

"i'll see you then, scarmouche. keep up with the good work."

don't cut me down, throw me out, leave me here to waste i once was a man with dignity and grace

although he was living the dream of being your right-hand man, he often seen people talking about him behind his back. it doesn't bother him, really, but sometimes it gets irritating whenever one mentions your name for such a pathetic conversation.

however, he would never expect a fatui agent to push him off the cliff in the cold embrace of snezhnaya's winter with no sign of coming back. all of this because of how envy the agent is of you "favoring" scaramouche.

it was a miracle that he survived (with major injuries of course) - though, he was astounded that the fatui agent didn't think of taking him to a higher cliff to instantly kill him.

if only he had a pyro vision to keep him warm.

given the circumstances, scaramouche would most likely die from hypothermia if not blood loss. he didn't think this is how he'd died. he thought he'll die from protecting you, or even from old age. but no, he had to die in a pathetic cold way.

it felt like hours, days even. the pain was killing him slowly as he stares at the sky.

however, when he heard familiar footsteps coming nearby followed by a familiar voice calling out his name, he felt relieved, finally allowing himself to embrace the comfort of slumber.

he heard the sounds of your humming when he woke up.

you stopped humming, watching as he slowly wakes up from his slumber. "oh good, you're awake." you spoke up, a dull expression on your face was plastered. "and here i thought i was going to waste my time waiting for my right-hand man to wake up."

"how... how did i get here?" he asked, voice hoarse. you sigh in response, leaning against the chair more. "i was the one who found you. one of my cicin mages reported me that a stupid agent recklessly boasted about how he left you in the middle of nowhere while being injured and can become the next right-hand man." you answered.

his breath hitches at your response. you decided to go through snezhnaya just to look for him?

if scaramouche wasn't in love back then, he's head-over-heels for you now.

"don't think i actually had to drop my responsibilities for you. the fatui agent killed himself before we could get any information on him, so i let my most trustworthy agents to search for you but didn't find you at all. i had to find you myself instead." you said, as if you read his mind. "besides, you didn't die and you didn't deserve what you went through."

he watched as you stood up from your seat. "i'll be taking my leave given that you look okay." you then snap your fingers, gesturing the nurse behind you to treat him. "take your time in healing. just come back to my office when you're okay enough to work."

before scaramouche could say anything, you already left the room, leaving him alone with the nurse.

although he felt flattered that you went around the nation to look for him, all he could think about was how you must've been disappointed that he's weak enough to be killed by a fatui agent.

now I'm slippin' through the cracks of your cold embrace so please, please

the moment he was released from being hospitalized, he started to focus on being stronger - stronger enough to prevent himself from being pushed off on the cliff by a jealous agent, stronger enough to take down 20 agents in less than 5 minutes, stronger enough to protect you -

stronger enough to become a harbinger.

when you found out of scaramouche's new goal, he was surprised that you started helping him. teaching him how to defend himself without a vision.

"if there's one thing i can teach you about being a harbinger, it's better to have nothing to lose." you said to him one day as the both of you stroll around inazuma. "when being a harbinger, there has to be a lot of consequences that one must face. it's better to face them alone than to see someone you care for suffer because of the consequences you caused."

he felt your cold hand as he brushed his fingers against yours when passing documents to you.

"i see..." he said in understanding.

"kill my curiosity but do you not have someone who you consider as your loved one?" you asked, raising your eyebrow in confusion.

scaramouche pauses from your question. indeed he does not have one other than you- but he knows he couldn't say it's you. why would he? he's aware that you'll never look at him the same way he does to you.

you'll never love him.

"i don't, my lord/lady."

and it hurts to know.

could you find a way to let me down slowly? a little sympathy, I hope you can show me

he wonders what would happen to you and him when he becomes a harbinger.

"oh? you're planning on becoming an official harbinger once we get back?" you asked, looking at scaramouche as though he has two heads. you cackled in amusement and comment, "hah! good luck with that, i'd like to see you try."

you took note of how he's oddly silent. "you're being weird lately, what's gotten into you?" you ask.

"forgive me but may i ask.. what will happen to us when the day comes, my lord/lady?" he asks, hesitant laced in his tone.

you furrowed your eyebrows. "the day when you're a harbinger?" he nods in response, looking away from your gaze with a sigh. "i was wondering if... if we could still be together-"

suddenly he felt your cold fingers cupping his cheeks and turns him around to your direction.

he could taste the sweetness of your lips when you kissed him.

it was a short kiss, but he felt like he's on top of the world. is this a dream? please don't wake him up from this dream.

you then wipe your mouth, chuckling at his astounded reaction. "that," you breathed out. "is what will happen to you and i when you become a harbinger."

he felt his heart beating so fast, watching as you look at one of the most dangerous areas of inazuma. "this shall be your last mission, scaramouche."

if you wanna go then i'll be so lonely if you're leavin', baby, let me down slowly

he thought he finally has what he wanted.

"why?" he breathed out, staring at you with wide eyes as though you did something bad. "why did you do it?"

you shakily look up at him, trying to ignore the overwhelming exhaustion from your body. you overestimated yourself in using your foul legacy but you didn't care, all that was in your thoughts was making sure scaramouche isn't in danger.

you will not let the only person who doesn't hate you die.

"i had to." you said weakly. "go, leave this nation. report to the tsaritsa of my passing and take my position."

he shook his head, kneeling beside you. "i refuse to leave you, my lord/lady."

you chuckle lightly. "idiot. the agents will take my body back to snezhnaya, of course you won't leave me." you then look down at your vision, watching its light flickering.

"take my vision with you too."

he felt a part of his soul disappear as the light of your eyes fades away, leaving nothing but your fatigued corpse on his arms.

from that day, he stopped shedding tears.

let me down, down, let me down, down, let me down let me down, down, let me down, down, let me down

he stares at your.. his vision.

as soon as he was announced as the new 6th harbinger of the fatui, your vision glowed under his palm, showing a familiar color of purple.

was this the electro archon's way of mocking him for what happened?

he grits his teeth. out of all the times he could've earned his vision, it had to be weeks after suffering the things he endured to have this position,

and it had to be in the vision you once used before you pass.

"i'll live on for your legacy, my lord/lady." scaramouche mumbled to himself, staring down at your hat on his desk. not only did the tsaritsa appointed him as the 6th harbinger but she also assigned everything you own as his. your title, your office, your unit, everything you once owned was now his.

it was clear to him that he's no longer the weak scaramouche that always follows the balladeer's footsteps. he's now the vengeful balladeer that yearns for the screams of his victims in inazuma, living in your name.

he’s now devoted to the tsaritsa, unknown to her majesty that it was all an act just because you taught him so.

he treats his subordinates the way you treat them, making everyone being weirded out by how he's so much like you. although he despises the gossip that runs through the organization, he really can’t deny that he does act like you,

he has nothing to lose after all.

if you wanna go then i'll be so lonely if you're leavin', baby, let me down slowly

[cloudenthusiast2]

To be a human - Scaramouche x reader - Part 7 (Final)

You knew committing to a relationship with Scaramouche would be no easy task but you loved him dearly and unlike others, you believed he wasn't evil. But as a mortal and the devoted protector of your village you were too much of a good person, too much of a human compared to him and your differences slowly start to show.

Previous: Part 6

Length: 4000 words

Trigger warnings: blood, mentions of loss

A. note: Scaramouche is my favourite character in the game and I really love him. But I couldn't help and feel awful when he said those words in Inazuma. Look, I don't think that Mihoyo is gonna let the huge opportunity slip and not make him playable (for which we need to have at least a tiny bit of friendship with him and well, right now mc straight up hates him) but in case that does happen, in case he doesn't get a redemption arc, I made one myself. I wrote this to redeem him in my own, and hopefully your eyes as well. I hope you enjoyed reading this story of that little bastard as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It was fair to say that Scaramouche was stunned by the sight of the local people.

Certainly not because he suddenly grew fond of them. It was rather because the way they appeared out of blue when little Yu gave them a sign. She let out three short whistles and the forest came to life in front of the harbinger.

Old men and woman, little children and whole families walked towards them. It was clear even for Scaramouche that they looked uneasy and hostile. They surely wouldn’t have appeared in front of the fatui if it wasn’t for Yu.

The sixth harbinger was astonished.

Because they would trust someone, especially a child so much.

Because there were so many of them.

He counted the people walking towards Yu. Way more than he’d thought there would be.

These people were injured, dirty and exhausted. But they were alive. And all because of one person.

‘Impressive’ he thought to himself.

Yu talked to them, explaining why the fatui was there and promising that they’re not in danger any more. The people seemed less at ease in his presence now but the harbinger still felt the piercing gazes. If looks could’ve killed he would have been dead in an instant.

He knew they all blamed him for the things that had happened. Maybe they even thought he was the one who made the abbys attack their village.

But Scaramouche got used to these types of glances during the years and he did not care about them any more. All that mattered was that they were able to help.

He stood behind little Yu who was still clinging onto her doll. Scaramouche stared at the bloodstains on the toy as she asked the people of Qingce to help find you.

The thought to promise them money crossed his mind but the instantly threw it away. He just somehow felt that it would be very wrong.

These people won’t help him because he can pay them. They won’t help because Yu asked them to either. They will help because you had been guarding them for years.

Mentioning your name caused them to stir up, to get loud and the all of a sudden the whole crowd was ready to go and search in the mountains.

It was obvious how much they loved and respected you. Maybe even more than Scaramouche used to, he realized.

Yu turned to him and nodded.

‘I think we can go now.’

‘How are you going to search everything?’ the harbinger asked as he crouched down to the child. It wasn’t needed since he wasn’t much taller than her but it felt like the right thing to do.

Yu’s eyes wandered to the hat. She reached out and gently touched it.

Scaramouche normally would’ve ended the person who messed with his hat but when the child did it, he somehow felt no urge to do so.

‘It’s because so many people are watching’ he explained to himself. But it still felt a bit weird not being annoyed.

He cleared his throat so Yu would focus on him again.

‘We know this place well’ she answered, letting her arms fall back to her side. ‘We will split up and warn each other if we find something.’

‘My people are out too.’

‘Then call them back.’

The harbinger glared at the child. She really was fearless, wasn’t she, huh. First touching his hat and now disrespecting the fatui.

‘You know…’ he crossed his brows as he began to speak but Yu quickly cut him off.

‘Everyone is afraid of them. And they’ll just be in the way. They don’t know the mountains, do they?’

Scaramouche clenched his teeth together. But he had to admit that the girl was right.

He stood up and walked towards the agents standing by a nearby bridge. They were there since the people appeared to make sure they don’t try to do anything to their harbinger.

He gestured to bring them closer then stood and crossed his arms.

‘First, I want to know how a big group of fatui agents were unable to find anyone when there was a whole village hiding in the forest’ he questioned them with a glare.

The agents were bowing already but now they bowed even deeper.

‘F-forgive us, our lord!’ a pyro agent answered. ‘They’re locals and we…’

‘Spare your apologies, I don’t care.’

Scaramouche closed his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. He really didn’t care, he only snapped at them to let out a little frustration.

‘Call back everyone from the mountains. And let these people do what they want. Anyone who disturbs them in any way shall be punished.’

‘But my lord…’

‘Do as I say!’

Scaramouche turned his back to them and the agents hurried away. He watched as the people of Qingce split up and began their search in the forest, around the destroyed village.

He looked up to the mountains. Clouds hid the most of them, they were so huge, so high. And there were so many places you could be.

Was is it even possible that you were alive?

Scaramouche never lied to himself and this was the first time he wanted to. He simply just didn’t want to accept the small chances of finding you. He wanted to feel hope.

‘You better be alive, Y/n’ he muttered to himself. ‘For your own sake.’

For his sake.

*

‘Have you taken a look around in that cave too?’

‘I haven’t but I can go if…’

‘Stay.’

Scaramouche climbed to the cave and looked into the hole. It was smaller than it seemed from below and inside it there was absolutely nothing.

He quietly let himself down. He jumped on a bigger stone on the path under him, the bells violently jingling on his hat.

Little Yu asked nothing. It was obvious from the harbinger’s expression that he found nothing.

The air began to feel a little chilly in the mountains. The sun was getting ready to go down and let the moon take its place.

They’ve spent their whole day with searching. They’ve found absolutely nothing so far.

There were a lot of traces left behind the abbys order and the monsters. It was also clear that the fight continued outside of the village as well. Corpses of dead monsters bordered the narrow paths.

But your body was nowhere to be find.

Scaramouche looked up to the sky. The first star had already appeared. And with that, their last piece of hope started to slip away.

‘We haven’t looked there yet.’

The harbinger snapped out of his dark thoughts and glanced at the child in front of him. She pointed at a smaller mountain nearby.

‘That’s very far away from the village’ Scaramouche claimed. ‘We’d be just wasting our time.’

‘Then where do you want me to go?’ Yu asked.

The man let out a sigh. She was right, they’ve already looked through every bush and searched every rock on this mountain.

He started walking towards the other one without saying anything, and Yu silently followed him.

In the valley below them, lots of figures were moving and changing places. The locals still haven’t given up even though it was getting colder and darker with every passing moment.

A red dot appeared. Then another. They started lighting torches.

Scaramouche felt like choking. He touched his throat and fastened his steps.

He tried to banish the horrifying thoughts from his head but his desperate tries were unsuccessful.

You’re dead. They’re only going to find a cold body and not you. You’re dead and it is his fault.

He shook his head to quiet the voices and to get back into focusing on his search.

This made him realize that he hadn’t seen little Yu in a while. Scaramouche stopped and turned his head to check on the girl.

She was behind him a few meters away. Her movements were too slow to keep up with the harbinger’s.

‘Are you coming or not?’ The man growled at her. ‘Hurry up.’

‘Sorry…’ She was out of breath, quietly panting. ‘You can leave me behind. I know I’m just slowing you down.’

Scaramouche rose his brows at the young child who was not even tall enough to reach the ground from a bigger rock. Was she really that aware? What should he do now? Just leave her here? He was willing to do that, to be honest. The sun was about to completely disappear.

Yu grabbed the side of the rock. She let her feet down, trying to get down safely but she was too tired – the little girl stumbled and fell.

Scaramouche didn’t even realize he was reaching out – but a moment later he found himself holding the child in his own arms.

They stared at each other, the sixth Fatui Harbinger and the kid from Liyue. It was impossible to tell who was more surprised, the one holding or the one being held.

But it was the man who found his voice first.

‘Don’t think I’m gonna carry you like this to the other mountain.’

‘I didn’t think that’ she answered quietly.

Scaramouche cleared his throat and opened his lips. But before any other words could’ve come out of his mouth, a sharp whistle cut through the air.

They both jerked their heads up.

The sound was coming from below, south to the village.

The whistle was repeated – two short, two long ones.

‘They’ve found her’ Yu said.

*

Scaramouche had no memories of how he got down from the top of the mountain.

All he remembered was the crazy pace of his heartbeat. The darkness invading his head. That terrific feeling clenching his heart, incredible, deep fear he’s never experienced before.

There were many people standing in his way in front of a big cave. He pushed them away as he rushed to get closer.

It was dark. Everyone stood with a torch in their hands. He heard the whispers but the words were incomprehensiblenext to the loud beating of his own heart. There were figures but they were blurry, everything was blurry…

Until he saw you.

You were laying on the ground. Your body completely still, your chest not rising nor sinking. Your clothes torn, bloody.

There was so much blood.

He stumbled and fell on his knees in front of you. A local turned to him and spoke but he understood nothing. His hand was shaking as he reached out to touch you.

You were… cold.

He forgot how to breathe and just stared down at your body. Your messy hair hid your face and that just didn’t feel right.

Why was this happening?!

Everything was supposed to become alright after they’ve found you!

How dare you be dead, how dare you not wake up to his touch, to his wishes, to all wishes around you…!

‘Balladeer!’

He snapped out of the blurriness when someone grabbed his arm. An old lady with a serious look tried to pull him back.

‘Let go of me!’ he hissed, pushing her away. He groaned when the grip became stronger instead on his arm. Pain in his heart and body blinded him as he shouted. ‘I said, let go of me or else…’

‘Please stay out of the way of my people’ the lady asked in a calm tone. ‘She needs serious help.’

‘What help can you provide when she’s dead?!’ he screamed at her in a hoarse voice. ‘You stay away from her!’

‘Please calm down. Y/n is not dead… yet.’

Scaramouche slowly closed his eyes. The words echoed in his head.

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s not dead. Yet.

He took a deep, shaking breath. The cold air in his lungs cooled him off a little.

You were alive. But also, only barely. He finally understood what that meant. But he couldn’t let himself feel any relief nor fear…

He was a harbinger, he was part of the Fatui under the rule of the almighty Tsaritsa. He was Scaramouche, the Balladeer who simply could not allow himself to show any vulnerability in front of mere mortals.

Even if it was about you.

Even if he wasn’t the same person any more.

‘Bring a healer’ he said in a lower tone.

‘We don’t have any vision bearers among us’ the lady answered. ‘But we’ll do everything to keep her alive.’

Scaramouche nodded and stood up. It took a lot of strength to tear his eyes from you but he forced himself to do it and turned around.

‘Alert my people and tell them to give you all that you need’ he told the locals as he fixed his hat. ‘Tents, medicine, food, everything.’

The people stood there in silence for a few seconds, not knowing whether to obey him. They only moved when the old lady from before thanked him. Then they finally set off towards the village.

Scaramouche wanted to turn back and take a glance at you one more time to make sure you’re really there and not just a hallucination. But suddenly little Yu appeared in his sight and that made him stay.

‘She’s alive’ the girl whispered. The mask she had worn so far finally broke and her expression was an expression of a little child. She seemed tired, sad and a little happy. ‘I’m so glad… Scara.’

The harbinger nodded and closed his eyes for a moment. His heart was still beating fast with fear but those heavy weights on his shoulders finally started getting lighter.

He felt something touching his hand and he opened his eyes to the sight of Yu holding onto him.

This type of physical connection was very far away from what Scaramouche would tolerate coming from a human but he felt way too tired to resist. He just let the little girl clench his pinkie and they both watched silently as some helpers grabbed your body and moved it to a safer place.

*

You felt like something that had been sitting on your chest for a while finally moved. Something even bigger, a huge, scary type of darkness slowly left your body.

It left you with the first breath you were aware of taking in a long time.

You let out a small sigh. And opened your eyes.

There was a fabric cover above you.

You were in a tent, safe and sound. Alive.

The first thing you noticed was the temperature. It was warm, welcoming and comforting. Lot of soft blankets covered your body which hurt badly but the pain was dim.

You tried to look around but your head was too heavy. You could barely tip your head to the side.

But the sight was worth it.

Your breath was taken away one more time. You just stared in silence and you could feel your eyes widen in shock.

‘You’re awake.’

Scaramouche closed the book he was reading and looked at you with a straight face.

‘Finally.’

He put the book down with a slow movement.

Mixed emotions invaded you. You fell from relief to happiness to fright in a span of a few seconds. You were alive and Scaramouche was here with you, but – why did he seem so distant? Was he still angry at you even after everything that had happened?

You almost let fear overrun you. Almost.

But your gaze fell on his hands and he couldn’t hide his true feelings from you any more. His hands were visibly trembling as he still held onto his book.

Little did you know he could have not read a single word written in the last couple of hours. He just sat there and watched over your sleep, not dozing off for even a second himself.

The shaking of his hands became even more obvious and he couldn’t hold himself back any more.

He moved closer and placed his trembling palms next to the sides of your body. He looked down on you from above and as you stared back at him, you could clearly see something that wasn’t there before.

The usual cold, emotionless blur was nowhere to be found in his dark eyes. Instead, there was pain. And a lot of it.

‘How dare you do this to me?’

During the years of your relationship, he’s grown to be comfortable in your presence but he never ever showed any signs of vulnerability in front of you and you just accepted that it’s probably never going to happen.

It was shocking, almost scary seeing him like this.

The desperate expression on his face softened and he let his head plop on your shoulders.

‘Scara’ you whispered. Your voice was hoarse and dry but it was your voice. You were able to speak.

The realization of how unlikely your survival was suddenly hit you and your eyes teared up.

‘Scara, I… I really thought I was gonna die…’

‘Then you’re stupid’ he answered, speaking into the blankets covering your shoulder. ‘You should know that you can’t die without my permission.’

You laughed through your tears. They streamed down on your face, straight into your ears. But even that felt so good. Crying was a sign of being alive from the very beginning of life and you never understood that so much than at that time.

‘Don’t… leave me ever again.’

You didn’t event think, the words just left your mouth.

‘Don’t worry.’ Scaramouche finally got himself together enough to sit up and at least pretend that he was alright. ‘You have successfully proved you’re not capable of taking after yourself so now I’m definitely stuck babysitting you till the rest of our lives.’

His movements said otherwise though. The way he caressed your cheek to dry the tears up showed that he’s not just stuck. He wantsto stay.

Just what kind of thinks did he go through in the past days? – the question occurred to you.

To think about it… why did he even come back? How did he hear what happened? And your people?! Were they safe?

So many questions echoed in your head and you couldn’t even put most of them into words that made sense. So opened your mouth and quietly asked:

‘What happened?’

‘I want to know the same’ he said. ‘What happened? How did you get so far away from the village? How are you alive in the first place?’

You thought back to the night. Pain stabbed you instantly and you had to close your eyes for a moment to calm it.

‘I don’t remember much. But I think the abbys wanted to take me with them. Is that… possible?’

‘I heard all kinds of things about them’ Scaramouche nodded. ‘It is very possible. Continue.’

‘There isn’t much to say… Obviously I tried to resist but there were too many of them. They probably realized I would be just a burden. I remember a mage knocking me out. But they didn’t kill me…’

‘Well, given your injuries, they must’ve thought there’s not a lot of time left for you. It really is a miracle that you’re alive.’ Scara stated. ‘And you were in that wet cave for an entire day too. You were nearly dead when we found you.’

‘We?’

You stared at him and your heartbeat dropped.

‘You mean…’

‘Yes’ he sighed. ‘That people of yours.’

He went silent for a moment then rolled his eyes.

‘They helped me out… I guess.’

‘So they’re all alive and safe?’ you asked and couldn’t help but laugh in relief. ‘That is so amazing! Thank you, Scara!’

‘Thank yourself, idiot’ he snorted. ‘You were the one who kept a whole abbys army away from them after all.’

The harbinger shook his head.

‘I hate that you were so reckless to do that… but I have to say I’m impressed. We should spar again sometimes.’

‘Aren’t you afraid you’re getting your ass kicked?’ you grinned.

‘I compliment you one time and you get this cocky?’ he crossed his eyebrows. ‘I have to put you back into your place, I see.’

You laughed and as you were finally strong enough to move a little, you grabbed his hand. He had to oppress his smile with force.

‘And how did you know… we were going to be attacked?’

The question made his task much easier. The harbinger’s face turned back to being serious once again.

‘I have my connections’ he answered briefly. ‘But you don’t have to worry, the fatui had nothing to do with the attack.’

‘I would never think that’ you rushed to make your words clear. ‘I just… hope that my people feel the same.’

Scara shrugged. Then averted his eyes as he thought of someone.

‘I don’t know about the others but there’s one person who clearly does.’

‘Who?’

‘That girl… Yu or whatever her name is.’

You stared at him in surprise. You’d never thought the day would come where he mentions a child and doesn’t frown. And to think that it’s Yu as well! Yu who was normally wary of strangers and such a gentle child…

Just what happened to him? – you asked yourself again.

You searched for answers in his eyes but it seemed like there were things that even this new type of Scaramouche, this more vulnerable and open one wouldn’t tell.

But it was alright. Maybe you didn’t need to know. You were just happy to be there and experience it yourself.

‘How is Yu?’ you asked.

‘Alright’ Scara muttered.

‘Her mother?’

‘Oh, her… Well…’

He hesitated for a moment and that was enough. Every good and warm feeling was instantly replaced by cold ones and you found yourself sitting up in dread.

‘Please tell me… She’s not…’

‘Hey, don’t sit up! Lie back right now!’

When you didn’t obey, Scaramouche pushed you back with his own hands. He was right, your body started aching terribly from moving and the physical pain almost outgrew the pain in your heart.

‘Is she…’

‘Yu’s fine. Don’t worry.’

‘No! I need to talk to her!’

‘You won’t.’

You clenched your teeth together in despair and Scara flinched. He saw himself in you when you did that. Earlier this day his expression was still this full of pain.

‘Scaramouche!’ you said, calling him by his first name which he suddenly realized, he hated more than that stupid nickname. ‘I will go and talk to her and you can’t stop me!’

‘I…’

‘Just think about everything you felt while I was missing! I know you don’t want me to go away again but you need to understand.’

‘All I’m trying…’

‘Maybe I really am cocky to think that it was painful to you but if I’m not and it really was, then just imagine that Yu feels like that too right now. And on top of that, she has no hope whatsoever. She knows that her mother is dead and there’s no…’

‘Oh, to Celestia, can you shut up for a moment?’ Scara interrupted you harshly. Then he frowned and quickly continued. ‘What I was about to say is that under no circumstances should you get up with these injuries. But you can talk to Yu.’

‘I can…?’

‘Yes, idiot. I’ll call her over.’

You stared at him in silence.

‘You’d… do that?’

‘Yes.’

‘So… you won’t mind if she stays with us?’

‘I guess not?’

‘Not even for a long time?’

‘I said no, stop asking these stupid questions.’

You were speechless and just gazed at him without saying anything for a long time.

You had mixed feelings about the Scara you woke up to so far. But this had finally convinced you that he really has changed into something better.

A slow smile formed on your lips. It grew bigger and bigger and it completely lit your face up.

‘You’re grinning like an idiot’ Scara claimed but nothing, not even his salty remarks could take away your happiness any more.

‘Scara, I really love you.’

‘You better do.’

He stood up and turned away as quickly as he could to try and hide the blush on his face. He knew if you saw that, you’d be teasing him about it till the rest of your lives together.

You were still grinning “like an idiot” as he was rushing to leave the tent. But even though he was in hurry, before he’d stepped out, he made sure to turn back and say:

‘I’ll be back.’

[chaeshosie]

What’s Happening with Legacies Season 3 and How do all the Theories Fit?

hello quick disclaimer i am very confused with tumblr and i haven’t used this in years i’m just lazy to summarize the essay so i’m putting it here

also this is a 6-page essay i just think i should warn people beforehand

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Season 3 focusing a lot on consequences and obsession

As we’ve seen through most of what season 3 has been released so far, a lot of the character arcs and plot developments that the writers are trying to pull off have something to do with consequences. Some of the observable ones are the consequences of Hope’s actions from the recent episodes, Josie trying to find a sense of normalcy at MFHS after dealing with the consequences of Dark Josie during the earlier parts of season 3, the consequences of Lizzie kinda betraying MG in 3x08 being MG leaving the school, etc. I think that the “big bad” of the season isn’t really a creature, Malivore, or the artifact, but rather the antagonist of the season considerably be the consequences that the characters deal with as a result of their actions. If we take into thought the Puck theory and how his character in the Shakespearean play mismatched the couples, the dynamics between the characters and the ship of the show (mostly Handon-Hosie) in the episodes after the 3x03 can be considered the consequences of Puck matching the wrong people together. The most noticeable of these consequences are Hope and Josie’s lack of interactions and Hope’s obsession with Landon.

While we’re on the topic of obsession in relation to consequences, let’s tackle how 2x11 can possibly be foreshadowing to Hope’s character arc in season 3. Hope and Alyssa Chang are essentially reflections of the same character. They’re both considerably reckless with magic and both come from tragedies in their families (parents’ deaths) that they at least partially blame themselves for. In 2x11, the audience watches as Alyssa tries to kill Kym and MG while under the influence of the Obsession arrow. What we can consider the consequences that Alyssa faces here is not only Kym leaving, but also MG (who she had a crush on) distancing himself from her. Now we can see parts of that being reflected in Hope’s arc throughout season 3, most noticeably starting by around 3x04. Hope has been obsessed with Landon and even just protecting him in general (but let’s be honest, it’s been like that partially in season 2 also) that she’s going through such lengths just to make sure that Landon’s safe. This reaches to the point that she’s already hurting the people she loves like Josie and Lizzie while her obsessive love for Landon seems to be her driving force this season. This very much reflects how Alyssa willing to hurt MG, whom she had a crush on, just to get what she wanted. I think it’s good to note also that in this episode, it was Pothos that was pulling the strings and not Cupid. In mythology, Cupid or Eros is the god of attraction, affection, and passionate desire while Pothos is the god of longing, yearning, desire. Seeing as to how obsession is quite linked to one’s desire we can see how this plays out for Hope’s arc involving her desire to keep Landon alive while balancing her relationships with the other characters. In relation to Hope and Josie or rather Hosie in general, longing and yearning can be referenced to how they’ve been slowburn for most of season 3 with their very small amount of interactions and how their ship has always been mostly about longing and yearning, even stemming from Josie’s crush on Hope when she was younger.

Even the references they make throughout 3x09 have something to do with consequences and/or obsession. Let’s start with the monster references they’ve made. In fact, the first monster Hope references, which is a cherub, is very often mixed together with imagery of Cupid. Cherubs are known for helping people deal with sin that separates them from God (Judaism) and also said to keep record of everything that happens in the universe (Christianity), but more on that will be expounded later on. On the other hand, pixies grant wishes in exchange for favors, which can fit to the kitsune!Hope theory with its similarity to how kitsune grants supernatural wishes in exchange for kindness. The Jinni reference can be related to how Lizzie was “obsessed” with trying to find the perfect reality; we’ll go back to this reference in a while. We also have a reference to an artifact similar to the Inari wishing pot which is the Monkey’s Paw. The Monkey’s Paw is said to be a story that acts also as a cautionary tale which reminds us that unintended consequences often accompany the best intentions.

Now that we’re on the topic of artifacts, let’s talk about what the artifact, which is believed to be an Inari wishing pot, is connected to the whole plotline of season 3. We see three different historical figures connected to it, namely Einstein, Rasputin, and Napoleon. In relation to consequences, these three people have all experienced some kind of consequences that may or may not be related to the artifact. But with the fact that the writers take the effort to acknowledge that they owned the artifact, it can be assumed that these consequences have something to do with the wishing pot. We’ll focus on Einstein more compared to the other two because he was seen having a direct relation to Clarke in the flashback scene in 3x09. Considering that in the scene where Einstein and Elsa were seen, it looked to be like they were leaving their house so I assume this is when they left Berlin to go to the United States. Based on what I researched on this history, before they reached the train station, Einstein and Elsa had to close up their house at Caputh. In the scene, we saw them about to leave their house right before Clarke and the guys he was with (I’m guessing Triad at the time) raided the place looking for what I assume would be the artifact. Clarke also mentioned that they had to find it before “der Fuhrer” got there. “Der Fuhrer” was actually a term used to refer to Hitler at the time, which lines up well with history given Einstein’s historic distrust of the German political body especially with Hitler’s sudden rush to prominence. This line suggests two things, either Clarke meant that Hitler and/or the military was going after Einstein or that Hitler knew about the artifact’s existence. Moving later on to history, Einstein was said to indirectly have caused the atomic bomb due to a letter he wrote to the U.S. President Roosevelt about the Germans possibly making an atomic bomb, which then led to the death of thousands with the bombing of Hiroshima. In fact, if we look at the history of these three historical figures, their “consequences” have something to do with death. Einstein with the deaths caused by the bomb, Rasputin having been said to predict that if he died because of a Russian nobility, their whole family would be assassinated (which did end up happening), and the deaths associated with Napoleon due to his persistence towards victory with the French Revolution. Given that we’re going to see a banshee in 3x10, a supernatural creature which is said to literally be the “harbinger of death”, I’m thinking that we get to see these consequences to Hope’s wish of bringing Landon back finally coming into play, seeing as to how the consequences of the past three historical figures had something to do with death. Aside from that, as observed by some people, the wishing pot can be seen in the background of the season 3 poster as some kind of window of sorts.Interestingly, windows are often associated with symbolism for opportunities, fresh starts, beginnings, protection, views or opinions or perceptions. I think the opportunities part could be attributed to “opportunities” that would come depending on what wish you made with the Inari wishing pot while the “fresh start” could not really be fresh but more in the sense of Hope starting to finally have something to her character or possibly even a fresh start as a tribrid (??). Windows can also mean that one is too quick to judge, which can be applied to how Hope’s obsession over Landon has made her too quick to judge everything around her thus affecting her relationships with the other characters in the Super Squad.

Hope’s Character Arc and How the Theories Affect It; The relation of Kitsune to Sprites in the context of the Puck and Kitsune!Hope Theories

Now that we’ve covered most of what 3x09 really adds to the theories, let’s go to the theories themselves. So for this, we’ll be covering the Puck theory, possessed!Hope or kitsune!Hope theory, and the “the Landon that came back is actually MaliLandon” theory. Let’s go over the Puck theory real quick first. So in short, a sprite named Puck Goodfellow was the MOTW in 3x03 aka the musical episode and was sort of a “good” monster in the sense that he didn’t really directly affect the plot or try to kill the students but then he was more of a psychological monster that influenced the relationships of the characters with one another (Hope and Landon in particular). Seeing as to how he was able to control or implant memories/thoughts into the students’ minds makes me assume that he has some kind of telepathy powers. In fact, in some folklore it is said that some sprites have telepathic powers, specifically to project thoughts in the sense of psychic persuasion and confusion inducement/misdirection which I think is what we see Puck actually practice a lot in that whole sequence with MG trying to figure out his identity. Although they actually did tackle three celtic supernatural creatures in season 3 alone, I think Puck is the one with the most important role. Several stories describe sprites as mystical beings that either help humankind or trick some unsuspecting human into a sad tragedy of sorts. I think we would be able to watch Puck do both of that as seen in the earlier episode and later on in season 3 if/when he does come back. 

So how does the Puck theory relate to the kitsune!Hope theory? Well in Japanese folklore, sprites exist as yosei. They’re said to more or less have the same powers as yosei are simply the Japanese counterparts for sprites and the difference is mostly just in the term used to call them. Yōsei or Yousei, are small magical creatures (specifically fairies or sprites) which can regularly attract ghosts to them. What differs Yōsei from their European counterparts is that they can learn the human spoken language, and they also have mastered sign language. The one thing that actually directly links Puck (as a yosei/sprite) to the whole theme of consequences surrounding death is that many folklore actually included beliefs that yosei could bring the dead back to life. The thing is though, that there’s this thin line between yosei and yokai, the latter being where kitsune usually falls under. In fact, some kitsune are often mistaken by several folklore to yosei (depending on which story you read). One example would be Hakuzōsu, a kitsune that takes over the place of a monk it killed, who is often mistaken as a yosei in some stories. The essential difference between yosei and yokai is that yosei are shape shifting animals and water-spirits and city ghouls (if you know spirited away, those are practically yokais). Meanwhile, yokai are, yes, demons, but are the embodiment of a moment: a feeling of dread and bewilderment, or even awe and wonder of an event; OR a strange sound or peculiar scent. This doesn’t necessarily mean that yokai are automatically evil, it’s just the strong association of a specific distinction to them such as emotions or a scent. This is the reason why some kitsune are often mistaken for yosei, as they are also shape shifting animals with a strong connection to nature. Some yosei can also be mistaken for yokai, one example being tsukumogami which are spirits that haunt household objects. This is why some stories have both kitsune and yosei interacting with one another or at the very least acknowledging each other’s existence, a favorite reference yosei make about kitsune being the Tamamo No Mae. Another thing that helps connect kitsune to the whole theme of consequences involving death is that kitsune can be consumed by negative emotions easily, especially when it comes to seeking vengeance, to the point that it can lead to death. 

How I think the rest of s3 will play out if these theories do end up happening, esp with artifact

Now that we’ve established the connections between the Puck theory and the kitsune!Hope theory, this is how I think these two theories would play out in season 3 alongside the Inari wishing pot (the artifact) and the possible MaliLandon theory. 

First of all, let's connect the theories to the episodes of season 3 that have already aired, basically 3x01 to 3x09. In connection to what Clarke said in 2x01 about Hope being Malivore opening the gates which would most likely end up allowing other monsters including the kitsune to escape at some point during season 2. While Hope was in a coma from 2x16 to 3x01, it's assumed that the kitsune possessed her, which would be easier for the kitsune since it's easier for them to possess people who are asleep or in a comatose state. From late 3x01 to early 3x03, this is the closest we get to Hope's actual personality outside of being obsessively in love with Landon. We even get to see Hope being critical of Landon and upfront with him in the end of 3x02 and for the first three-fourths of 3x03. In fact, we can actually connect Hope starting to become more attached and we could say obsessed with Landon after her interaction with Puck. For most of 3x03, we see Puck mess with the minds of the students, making them believe that he was always a faculty at the school. This could obviously be taken as a form of psychic persuasion as part of the telepathic powers that several sprites have. Then we see Puck talk to Hope right before she goes on stage to sing Always and Tomorrow. Interestingly, their conversation hardly has anything to do with Hope and Landon's relationship entirely. In fact, it was more focused on her legacy as a Mikaelson and how opening herself to feel that heartbreak that came with the loss of her parents is what allows her to grow. It would've been the perfect chance to see Hope grow as an individual character outside being Landon's girlfriend and finally see her live out the Mikaelson legacy along with the build up of her character in The Originals. But instead we see her sing a song directed towards Landon, get back together with him, and proceed to become more and more obsessively in love with him in the future episodes. I think that Puck didn't exactly put any kind of love spell/potion on Hope, but rather he mostly used psychic persuasion. The fact that we've already seen him do it throughout the episode might as well be the writers priming us to consider the possibility of Puck telepathically messing with Hope's brain. But if you take Puck's lines about losing people and feeling that heartbreak and think of it from the kitsune's perspective. Many kitsune usually travel in packs (similar to werewolves) so imagine what it would feel to the kitsune who's been consumed by Malivore thousands of years ago, having lost the rest of her pack at this point and as alone as Hope probably does. I honestly think that the kitsune might have even possessed Hope not purely out of spite or for revenge against Malivore, but because it was still weakened from being stuck in Malivore for so long without being able to feed that it relied on a powerful body she could find. And honestly, what's more powerful than a tribrid? So I think Puck's words spoke not only to Hope, but to the kitsune as well. But along with these words, Puck did some kind of telepathic psychic persuasion that allowed the kitsune to surface more with Hope and have more control. Considering how both Puck and the kitsune know what it's like to be stuck in Malivore, it would be understandable for Puck to take the kitsune's side. This is also putting into consideration that by the time of the musical, the kitsune must have spent a few weeks to at least a month in Hope's body which would allow them to have enough strength to gain control. In the episodes after 3x03, this is when Hope begins to use her "wolf eyes" more. The noticeable difference though with her eyes is that they are more gold-toned compared to the usual yellow color of the other werewolves' eyes. This along with gold lighting from the previous season 3 episodes can be attributed to the connection kitsune has to the color gold. Aside from this, kitsune often flash their eyes as a sign that they're in control (this was also utilized in a korean show centered on kitsune/gumiho so I'm taking reference from that also). Then we reach 3x04 where it's very possible that the kitsune killed MaliLandon/Landon by having sex with him, taking his life force, and reducing him to his original goo form. The catch that the writers included here is that he took Hope's Mikaelson necklace with him, which can also possibly be the kitsune's life orb in its jewelry form. Then we move to 3x05 where the artifact is first introduced. Seeing as to how the artifact is an Inari wishing pot based on the jewels, structure, and the fact that it opens, it makes sense for Hope to be the only one able to open it considering that she's possessed by a kitsune. Here we get the wish that Hope makes which is to bring Landon back. But then we also put into consideration the kitsune's wish which is to get back their life orb. I believe that the artifact mixed these two wishes together, bringing back MaliLandon and creating a mirror version of Landon that's the more "idealized, perfect" version of him. This is in the sense that a new malivore portal appeared (which would give the kitsune a way to get the necklace back and a way for MaliLandon to come back) and hope got her idealized version of landon (which was missing the necklace because he's not really Landon or MaliLandon). By 3x08, Hope starts to work to get Landon back which ends up with her putting Lizzie and Josie in danger. Considering how the Malivore portal can be assumed to have opened somewhere around 3x07 and Hope getting Landon back the episode right after, this could be the artifact granting their wishes. But then to get her idealized version of Landon, the wishing pot can only grant wishes involving material things. This is where the dark magic in 3x08 comes in which gives the artifact something tangible to form into that idealized version of Landon that we see in 3x09 and possibly the later episodes as well.

Focusing now on 3x09, the lines "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" vs. "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" are very easily applicable to the situation with the artifact and with Hope's character arc. We see that Hope has already seen firsthand what obsession does to a person yet she still hasn't "learned" from it which is why she's repeating it in season 3. Aside from this, we can also take into consideration that Puck matching the two people together and being wrong could also mean that he does end up fixing it later on. The line is also a reference to Handon and how they’ve broken up and gotten back together way more than the number of k-pop albums I have. And that they also need to learn from the history of the artifact and the consequences that come with using it. The line about not remembering the past can be a direct nod to how those who are consumed by Malivore are forgotten by everyone. This could be in reference to how the kitsune was forgotten by the world because of being consumed by Malivore, and this is also considering that kitsune existed mostly in the Edo period (1603-1867) which is also near the time Puck must have existed (if we take into Shakespeare’s years of being alive which were 1564-1616). This allows us to consider the possibility of Puck and the kitsune having at least aware of the existence of the other considering the close relations between a lot of the supernatural creatures. That being said, this could have a factor in the psychic persuasion that Puck did in 3x03. To address what other people are saying that “Puck’s dead why are you still making theories you’re just desperate” whatever, remember that sprites/yosei are literally shape-shifting animals and/or spirits. Puck could’ve easily just shapeshifted when the Necromancer stabbed him, especially since the original form of sprites are usually depicted as small creatures that are often not easily noticeable by the human eye. In relation to the kitsune, the color of Hope’s wolf eyes have become more similar to the common yellow color of other werewolves as compared to the gold color earlier in the season. This is most likely because of the kitsune spending too much time away from her life orb (in the form of the Mikaelson necklace) which caused it to lose its control over Hope over the episodes.

Given that Hope/kitsune has already used the artifact, certain consequences which would most likely involve death would follow in the next episodes; explaining why we get a banshee in the 3x10. I think that there’s three possible options to how this would go: mirror version Landon would die which would cause Hope to go crazy obsessed over protecting him again, the kitsune would die because of being separated from her fox marble/life orb for too long, or Alaric would die since they’ve been hinting at it already with the sphinx which would allow for Josie to enter the storyline and back into the SBS drama. Given that the mirror version of Landon is bound to die anyways since it’s not really Landon but something that the artifact conjured from dark magic, he has to die at some point. Given how Hope feels this need to protect Landon, I think that there would be some kind of conflict with Hope’s character in that context when it comes to the two versions of Landon (mirror version Landon and MaliLandon). On the other hand, if they go through with the kitsune dying, I think it would end up being anticlimactic in the sense that they never really had to deal with the kitsune in the beforehand. Lastly, if they do kill off Alaric as part of one of the consequences  from Hope’s wish would obviously cause something to come up between Josie and Hope’s relationship, especially given that Hope had guilt tripped Josie to help her in 3x08. This would also cause another rift between Hope and Lizzie given how Lizzie reacted for the most part of 3x09. This would allow the audience to see Hope finally go through the consequences of everything she’s done in 3A just to get what she wants.

On how Puck and the kitsune can come into play in 3B, I think that Puck would most likely come back after the death to sort of patch things up in a sense which works with his “putting people back together.” I also think the part of his plan to “break people apart” would be pertaining to separating Hope and the kitsune so that Hope wouldn’t be possessed by the kitsune anymore. Once the two are separated, this would allow Puck to “put them back together” by suggesting a sort of team up between Puck, the kitsune, and the Super Squad to get MaliLandon and the kitsune’s life orb back. This would serve the goals of the kitsune and Hope so it also seems likely that they’ll reach that agreement some point in time. Lastly, Lizzie saying people get hurt whenever Hope gets in the way and that she’s only there when she needs something could be some sort of foreshadowing towards Hope needing something from the artifact which was her wish, even if it is very OOC for this line to describe Hope’s character in the earlier seasons, but it also hints on the possible consequences being that someone gets hurt, possibly leading to the death of someone that majority of the characters have a direct relationship to. Oh and also, Emma being in Shanghai seems to be either intentional or coincidental considering one of the most popular kitsune figures, Tamamo no Mae, was born in China.

~ END ~

i have no idea what tags to put lmao

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 27 of 26

Title: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Short Story Collection, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Magical Realism, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, Female Protagonist(s), LGBT Protagonist(s).

Rating: 8/10 (Note: This is an average of all the stories -- see below the cut for individual story blurbs/ratings).

Date Began: 9/27/2020

Date Finished: 10/4/2020

I really liked this collection! Jemisin wrote my favorite fanstasy/scifi series ever with The Broken Earth trilogy, and I really enjoyed her recent novel The City We Became. I was in the mindset for shorter fiction so decided to read this collection of short stories. Of these 22 stories, my absolute favorites (9/10 or higher) were:

The City Born Great - 10/10

The Effluent Engine - 9/10

Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

The Trojan Girl -10/10

Valedictorian - 9/10

The Evaluators - 10/10

Stone Hunger - 9/10

The Narcomancer - 9/10

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A more detailed summary/reaction to each story under the cut. WARNING: IT’S LONG.

1. Those Who Stay and Fight - 8/10  

Describes a utopia called Um-Helat that exists solely because no one is seen as superior or inferior to anyone else. Over time we learn it's a future, or potential future, of America. But America today is pure anathema to it due to rampant structural inequality. In order to achieve its utopian ideal, Um-Helatians have to root out and destroy people corrupted by the past.

This story was apparently written as a tribute/response to the Ursula K. Le Guin story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. I first read this without context, then went and read the Le Guin story. I definitely see the parallels. Both feature a narrator describing a wonderful utopia in the midst of festival, trying to convince the reader of the place's existence, before introducing something dark that is the price of the utopia. In the Le Guin story, the utopia exists at the price of the horrible misery and suffering of one child, and everyone is aware of it. Most live with it, but a few leave for the unknown rather than continue to live there (hence the title). In Jemisin's story, the price is instead the annihilation of those tainted by exposure to the evils of the past. The choice, instead of leaving, is for those tainted yet capable to become protectors of the new world, or die.

The thesis is pretty clear: that only by abandoning horrible ideologies and refusing to give them any ground or quarter can a utopian society truly exist. I will say that rings clear, especially when one considers Naziism and fascism. Not all ideologies deserve the light of day or debate, and even entertaining them as valid allows it to take hold. I liked this story, though it comes off as a social justice essay more than a story in and of itself.

2. The City Born Great - 10/10

This one is told from the perspective of a homeless young black man who feels a strange resonance with New York City. He meets a mysterious figure named Paulo, who tells him the city is about to be born as a full-fledged entity, and the man has been chosen to assist with its birth. However, there’s an eldritch force known simply as The Enemy that seeks to prevent this from happening.

I've read this one before since it's the prologue to The City We Became. And honestly it was one of my favorite parts of that book. New York City is a phenomenal character. I love that the proto-avatar of NYC is a young homeless black man, one of the most denigrated groups out there. Cops being the harbingers of eldritch destruction is... yeah. It was fun to reread this. The ending is a little different, because in the novel, something goes terribly wrong that doesn't happen in this short story. There is also a flash forward where he is, apparently, about to awaken the avatar of Los Angeles. Makes me wonder if that is ultimately the endgame of the series. But otherwise it's the same thing with absolutely phenomenal character voice and creativity regarding cities as living creatures. I'm glad Jemisin expanded this idea into a full series.

3. Red Dirt Witch - 7/10

Takes place before the (1960s) Civil Rights Movement in Pratt City, AL. The main character is Emmaline, a witch with three kids. A creepy figure called The White Lady comes to visit and steal one of her children.

I love the little twist that The White Lady is a faerie. And the different take on rowan/ash/thorn instead being rosemary/sage/sycamore fig. There is a lot of touching bits about the horrible trials and human rights abuses during the Civil Rights marches (which are unfortunately all too relevant still), but ultimately a hopeful glimpse of the future of black people in America, though hard-won.

4. L'Alchimista - 6/10

Stars a Milanese master chef named Franca, who fell from glory for Reasons, who now works as head chef at a run-down inn. She feeds a mysterious stranger, who then challenges her to fix a seemingly impossible recipe.

This one was fun and charming. I thought the food (and magical food) descriptions were very vibrant and interesting, especially the last meal. I can tell this is an earlier story and it's pretty light hearted, but I enjoyed it. It felt like it needed a little more of.. something.  

5. The Effluent Engine - 9/10

In an interesting steampunk take, Haitian spy Jessaline comes to the city of New Orleans to meet one of its foremost scientists. Her goal is to find a viable, unique energy source to strengthen Haiti in a world that wants to see her nation dead.

I really liked this; it's one of the longer stories so there's more time for character development and worldbuilding. And it's gay. I'm not hugely into pure steampunk because a lot of it comes off as very... samey (hyper Eurocentric/Victorian, etc) but I thought this take was fresh.

Like much of Jemisin's work, there is a lot of racial under and overtones; this one specifically goes into the terrible atrocities committed against the Haitians during their Revolution, and the varied social classes of black/Creole people in New Orleans at the time. A lot of this is stuff I was unaware of or knew very little about. I thought it was interesting to bring all of these to the forefront in a steampunk story in addition to the dirigibles, clockwork, action, and subterfuge. Also, everything tries together in a very satisfying way by the end (the rum bottle!), which I love in short fiction.

6. Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

Takes place in a post-apoc future where some humans evacuated to space while others stayed behind and took on more indigenous traditions to heal the Earth. The sky has suddenly turned red on Earth, and some representatives from the "sky-people" come to study it and figure out why.

I really enjoyed this little story; fantasy/scifi fusions are my jam, but science fiction specifically told through a fantasy lens is just so cool to me. The cloud dragons were very interesting and imaginative. Also, I love how the opening statement's meaning isn't particularly clear until you read the whole thing.

7. The Trojan Girl - 10/10

This one is about sentient computer programs/viruses that struggle to survive in something called the Amorph, which is basically a more advanced, omnipresent version of the Internet.

Holy fucking shit was this a cool story. Probably the coolest take on cyberpunk I've ever read. The main character Moroe has formed a messed up little family of creatures like him who live and hunt in Amorph's code, but can upload to "the Static" (real life) if needed by hijacking human hosts. The way this is described is so damn creepy and unsettling. I love that while they're anthropomorphized, the characters are mostly feral and compared to a pack of wolves. Soooo much wolf pack imagery. And the ending is so fucking good and imaginative.

This was apparently a proof of concept story that Jemisin decided not to adapt to a longer series, which I'm kind of sad about, but it was REALLY cool nevertheless. The next story is apparently in the same universe and serves as the "conclusion".

8. Valedictorian - 9/10

This one is about a girl who is, well, top of her class in high school, and the stresses that mount as graduation approaches. But while it seems like a familiar setup, there is something decidedly Off about everything, which is revealed gradually over the course of the story.

I originally gave this an 8, but honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it so I boosted it to a 9. It doesn’t become clear how this connects to the previous story until the midpoint. I liked this one because it functions as a nice dystopian science fiction story but also biting social commentary on the modern American education system. I'm not going go say more on it because spoilers. While I personally like the first story more I think this is an interesting followup/conclusion with a more cerebral approach.  

9. The Storyteller's Replacement - 6/10

This one's presented as a traditional "once upon a time" fable told by a storyteller narrator, about a shitty despotic king named Paramenter. Desperate to prove his virility, he eats the heart of a dragon, which is said to be a cure-all for impotence. It's successful, but the six strange daughters that result seem to have plans of their own.

Not really my cup of tea-- it's pretty fucked up. But it's definitely cathartic by the end, which I appreciate, and I do like how creepy the daughters are.

10. The Brides of Heaven - 5/10

Framed as an interrogation in an offworld colony called Illiyin, in which a terrible accident occurred on the way that left all the adult men dead. Dihya, who lost her only son to an alien parasite, is caught trying to sabotage the colony's water supply for reasons unknown.

I like some things in this story. I love the trope of alien biology affecting human biology in unexpected ways. I'm not terribly familiar with Islam but thought it added an interesting faith vs practicality vs tradition element to the science fiction. However I found the sexual body horror REALLY squicky which turned me off the story as a whole.

11. The Evaluators - 10/10

Stylized as a collection of logs and excerpts from a First Contact team of humans visiting and studying a sapient alien species to potentially set up trade relations. There's a focus on one team member named Aihua and her conversations with one of the aliens, but there's miscellaneous important hints/excerpts from the survey that hint Something Creepy Is Going On.

This one was BIZARRE and took me two reads to fully appreciate, but it’s a great work of nontraditional science fiction horror. Just... the epitome of "*nervous laughter* 'what the fuck'". I can't say more without spoiling but dear lord. That whole Jesus bit hits different on a second read. Fucking hell.

12. Walking Awake - 7/10

Takes place in a dystopian society in which parasitic creatures known as Masters keep a small number of humans alive to be flesh suits for them, which they take over and trade around at will. The main character Sadie is a human "caretaker" responsible for propagandizing and raising well-bred human children that eventually become the Masters' hosts. She starts to have disturbing dreams when one takes over the body of a teenage boy she was particularly attached to.

This is apparently a response to Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, which I have never read. It's a full damn novel so I probably won't. Google tells me it's about parasitic aliens, but was obviously also Red Scare paranoia about communist Russia. The argument in the Jemisin story is that the parasites are a result of human folly in an attempt to punish/control people their creators didn't like. This went poorly and resulted in the whole world being taken over.

The story itself is disturbing since the victims are innocent children, but it's ultimately about standing up and taking the first step toward revolution. I felt pretty neutral about the story itself; perhaps I would have liked it more if it was longer and I had more time with the world and protagonist. I wanted to connect to Sadie and her maternal relationship the boy who got killed more. Or maybe it's more impactful if you're familiar with the Heinlein novel and can see the nods/digs.

13. The Elevator Dancer - 7/10

A very short story that takes place in a Christian fundamentalist surveillance state. The protagonist is an unnamed security guard who occasionally sees a woman dancing alone in the elevator and obsesses over her.

I like this one but I'm not sure if I really get it. It's heavily implied the dancer is a hallucination, and the narrator gets "re-educated" but it's all a little ambiguous. I think it's about the struggle to find meaning and inspiration in an oppressive world.  

14. Cuisine des Mémoires - 8/10

This one's about a man named Harold who visits a strange restaurant that claims it can replicate any meal from any point in history. He orders a meal which his ex-wife, whom he still loves very much, fixed for him years ago.

This one was certainly different, but I really like the idea of food-as-memory, especially because that's an actual thing. This story just takes it to an extra level. Honestly this story made me feel things... the longing of memory and missed connections/opportunities. Jemisin did a great job with emotion on this one.

15. Stone Hunger - 9/10

Stars a girl in with the ability to manipulate the earth who's tracking down a man she senses in an unfamiliar city. It's heavily implied the world is in a perpetual post-apocalyptic state. When she's caught damaging the outer wall of the city to break in and injured/imprisoned, she's aided by a mysterious, humanoid statue creature with motives of its own.

I have to say it's really interesting to see an early beta concept of The Broken Earth. Orogeny is a little different (and not named)-- there's some kind of taste component to it? Though that's possibly unique to the main character? While hatred of orogenes exists I don't think it's a structural exploitation allegory at this point. Ykka + proto-Castrima existing this early is pretty funny to me. People also use metal, which is VERY funny if you’ve read the series. But I was thrilled to see stone eaters were Very Much A Thing this early and almost exactly how they appear in the series (a little more sinister I guess. At least the one in this story is. I think he basically gets integrated into the Steel/Gray character in the final version).

Anyway as a huge fan of The Broken Earth it's inspiring to see these early ideas and just how much got changed. It's hard for me to look at this as an independent story without the context of the series. I think I'd like it due to the creative setting and strange concepts, but I appreciate the final changes to narrative style and worldbuilding, which really made the series for me.

16. On The Banks of the River Lex - 8/10

Death explores a decaying, post-human version of New York City. He and various deities/ideas created by humans are all that survives in the future and they struggle to exist in the crumbling infrastructure of the city. But Death gradually observes new and different creatures developing amid the wreckage.

I liked this! Despite a typically bleak premise the story is very optimistic and hopeful for the future of the world post-humanity. I like anthropomorphized concepts/deities/etc in general. I thought the imagery of decay and life was gorgeous. Also octopuses are cool.

17. The Narcomancer - 9/10

Told from the perspective of Cet, a priest known as a Gatherer, who can take the life of someone through their dreams in order to bring them peace. When a village petitions his order to investigate a series of raids conducted by brigands using forbidden magic, Cet joins the party. However, he is troubled by his growing attraction to a strong-willed woman of the village.

This apparently takes place in the Dreamblood universe, which I have not read and know nothing about. However, I really enjoyed this story. It's the longest in the collection so I felt I really got to know the characters. The dream-based religion and fantasy was captivating to learn about. It was also romantic as hell, but not in the typical way you’d expect. I thought the central conflict of a priest struggling between an oath of celibacy and his duty to do the right thing (bring peace to someone who needs it) was fascinating.

18. Henosis - 4/10

A short piece, told anachronistically, about a lauded, award winning author on the way to an award ceremony. He gets kidnapped, but there's Something Else going on.

Honestly I get the sense this one is personal, lol. I will say I like the disturbing play on expectations, but I didn't connect much with it otherwise.  

19. Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Follows a group of bloggers who have found themselves caught in isolated quantum loops. Their only human contact is through tenuous online conversations with each other. Styled as various chat logs and emails interspersed with the thoughts and perspectives of Helen, a young black woman who before the loop was teaching English in Japan.

This one is real depressing and definitely Social Commentary (TM). The central thesis about loneliness and disconnect at the end made me pretty dang sad. Good stuff in an ouch kind of way and made me think.

20. The You Train - 6/10

Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator talking (presumably on the phone) to a friend about her struggles adjusting to life in New York City. She regularly mentions seeing train lines that either don't exist or retired a long time ago.

This is the kind of story I'd normally really like. I think trains are interesting and like vaguely supernatural, inexplicable shit. The one-sided phone call is also an interesting narrative device. But I'm not sure I really got this one. It comes off as vaguely horror-y but also optimistic? I couldn't really figure this one out, and it was too short to feel much investment on top of that.

21. Non-Zero Probabilities - 7/10

Luck has gone completely out of whack in New York City. Highly improbable events suddenly become way more likely, both good and bad. This story follows a woman named Adele and coming to grips with the new ways of life this brings.

I liked this one well enough but I don't have a lot to say about it. I liked how the story looks at how people would adapt to a life where probability doesn't mean anything anymore.  

22. Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A magical realism story about a man named Tookie struggling to survive in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He meets a talking, winged lizard and the two help each other out. But it soon becomes clear there is something sinister lurking in the flooded ruins of the city.

This story was very imaginative and a great cap to the collection. I thought it was an intriguing time period to set a magical realism story in. I love the little details, especially those of omission -- the "lizard" is never called a dragon, for example. I can see echoes of this story in The City We Became, especially the themes of cities as powerful entities, vague eldritch fuckery centered around hatred, and certain people being guardians of the city.  

[thegeneralsnotebook]

July Feature: History of Colours Part 3 -- Purple

One of the things that I was a little afraid of going into this series about the histories of each of the main colours was that after the first few entries, the series would start to get a bit dry. I would have already talked about the big decks and so the later colours wouldn’t have a whole lot left to mention that hadn’t already been said. So far at least, I’m glad to say that this hasn’t happened, and now it looks like maybe it’ll be okay. After all, we’ve got a lot of important cards to mention when we get to Pink, and again when we get to Orange, and again when we get to Blue. So I don’t think that we’re going to run into any problems on that front at all. In any case, this month is about Purple, and it’s a colour that has its own narrative to tell.

That, by the way, is another thing which has surprised me so far in my research. Each of the colours so far has had a relatively nice theme emerge around their history as I pulled it together. Yellow’s was a tale of a brilliant beginning, a long period of loss, and then a slow but strong rebirth. White’s was a surprisingly thematic tale of a colour that, while it had given up the spotlight, had never given up the stage. For Purple, things are a little different, but no less appropriate, especially given the colour’s new royal connotations. Purple, I’ve found, has been a colour all about establishing dynasties, lines of decks passing a torch from one generation to the next, traceable back to a touchstone concept from older times. It was impressive how far back some of these lines reached, and indeed a few decks that I had thought emerged from whole cloth were actually perched on the shoulders of past giants that I had never even heard of before. 

Before we get started, I want to again extend heartfelt thanks to my source on all matters of the predate my experience with the game’s competitive scene: the one and only Emperor Bugle. This time I really would have been up the creek if not for him, though we’ll get to that particular event in its due time.

For now, come along with me, as we unveil the saga of the Dynasties of Purple.

Two big cards with big effects, but generally used for slightly different things.

Formative Days

As with all of the colours, the story of Purple has to begin at the beginning, at the dawn of Premier. There were three major decks featuring Purple at the time, but I have covered Royal Guidance and Taxes in the Yellow and White articles respectively, and I won’t be going into further detail on them here. Instead, let’s focus on our first touchstone, though in this case the torch first lit by Big Bombs was not to be picked up by Purple, and instead was eventually passed to a different colour, which we’ll talk about in its due time.

Now, I would not be surprised by a slight sense of deja vu encountered when first clicking on that link, because indeed this early deck does bear a striking resemblance to some Harmony Purple Farming decks that have been active as recently as this year’s Winter Store Championships. The modern versions have significantly less Friends, different Epics, and some useful Resources in them, but the basic idea is absolutely still the same. PR Twilight contributes well to fighting Epics when paired with a lot of extra flip Events and a high-flipping deck in general. In addition the deck features a good host of what Purple control tools existed at the time, capped off by the brilliant Ursa Vanquisher, a card which may or may not be showing up again in this article a little ways down the page. Indeed, this was Farming before the term “Farming” was even part of the CCG vernacular. And, your eyes do not deceive you where that Full Steam in the upper left is considered. Once upon a time, a 4/0/4 vanilla actually did deserve to be a Rare, and especially in a deck so focused on its flips it was an excellent card to have.

As we move along into Canterlot Nights, we come to a deck that I’ve mentioned before, in the moment that it came during White’s article. I gave it little more than a footnote at that time, but I don’t believe that this time I can get by without giving it a full treatment. Unfortunately, I am also not qualified to properly discuss the minutiae of its construction, so for that I will defer to my source, who has written rather extensively on the topic. I refer of course to One Pace (and seriously do block some time from your schedule if you intend on clicking that link; when I said Bugle had written extensively I wasn’t kidding). One Pace is an important deck for a lot of reasons, and probably could serve as the basis for a whole article all on its own. From my research I can confidently enough say that what you see in there is the foundation upon which combo was built, a formulation of reduced-cost Events and deck-thinning that rings eerily recognizable even today. History may not repeat itself, as Mark Twain said, but it sure does often rhyme.

Finally, we close off these early days with a little list that may not have ever captured much in the way of tournament success, but certainly captured a fair few hearts and minds in its time in the public eye. This being the Antisocial Luna Farming deck that first came at the concept of building a deck with no Friends, and was a popular-enough topic of discussion.

The times, they were a’changin, and Purple was finding its stride.

The Great Realignment

Every one of these articles, I’ve realized, is going to contain a section that could plausibly be headlined by DJ and Maud, even in the colours other than Orange and Pink. Simply put, Rock & Rave was such a momentous and seminal event in the history of the game that the time before and the time after it must be kept separate from each other.

In Purple’s case, however, there was at least a small amount of time before the Great Pink & Orange War fully took hold where one new dynasty was able to be laid down, and what an important dynasty it wound up being. At this point, we have advanced to the 2014 NA Continental Championships, and within the Top 8 of that event there were two important Purple decks.

The first was the winner of the whole thing, a deck named Maudlike, notable for being one of the very first competitively successful tri-colour lists, and itself a harbinger of things to come with its relatively slow, Farming/Control oriented playstyle. Indeed, while Maud was to become best-known in a pure Farming context, her strengths in a Control deck willing to use her Power to consistently confront Problems have also been broadly recognized throughout history. And yes, here we see Ursa Vanquisher again, still devastatingly effective at defending Troublemakers in a world so lacking in other ways of dealing with them.

But in actuality I think that it is the other Purple list that appears in the Top 8 that is the more important one to take note of. It’s a deck that I personally had never heard of before doing this research, but it appears that it may be the progenitor of the Vinyl/Purple control dynasty, which as we all know eventually led to brilliant success. Unfortunately the original primer for the deck has since been removed from Reddit, but here again Bugle saved me, and so I can present to you Charlotte’s Tower. The key theme that I would pull from this deck is repeatability, as so many of its key control features are repeatable, and especially difficult to deal with in an era where Resource removal was not always considered quite so essential as it is today. It’s easy to see the hallmarks of features that we would come to expect in a modern control deck, with targeted answers against opposing Troublemakers, limited but effective removal, and so much value generation, whether it be AT with All Team Organizer, or cards with DJ. It’s an important piece of history, so I was very happy when this decklist surfaced.

Now, as we move on to the Absolute Discord era, it is true that Purple’s fortunes fade somewhat. Pink and Orange rose to the fore, and there will be more to write about this time as we get to those colours. But I do want to make two important notes here.

The first concerns Princess Luna, The Setting Moon, a card which entered the game in Celestial Solstice and left an indelible impression, particularly in the field of combo. I don’t believe that I’ve managed to avoid mentioning Dragon Express in any of the previous articles, but I’ll save the full writeup for one of the most infamous decks in history for the Orange article.

The second is about a deck that I discovered while hunting around for decklists of the other items on this list. It hadn’t come up in my discussion with Bugle, but the contemporary sources mentioned it as a “meta” deck of the time period, so I thought it was probably worth including. It went by the name of Dusk Radiance Mastery, and is mostly closely viewed as an evolution of the ideas first expressed in Royal Guidance, though with a few key updates. Most notable at the time was the inclusion of Twilight Sparkle, Friendship is Magic as the Mane. It also included some fine tech to deal with the meta, like Critter Stampede to crush One Pace’s needed 6 AT to play its Element of Magic. A fine inheritor of what was at the time a flickering flame. Not to fear, though. Unlike Yellow, Purple’s time in the shadows turned out to be very brief.

Stride found.

EO Block: The Age of Legends

EO Block is where the modern Purple story really starts. All at once, the colour got a lot of amazing cards. And then it got even more in HM. And then even more in MT. The result was a colour that was a juggernaut in competitive play, with multiple viable archetypes, and a foundation for a dynasty that was set to last a long time.

Before we talk about decklists, there are a number of individual cards that need to be mentioned. The first is the new Mane Character that the colour received in EO: Princess Twilight Sparkle, Ambassador of Friendship. It didn’t take long for people to realize that Purple’s new keyword in the set, Meticulous, was an excellent ability for Control, and this card’s ability to start making it happen on Turn 2 when paired with Ancient Research as a starting Problem was a great starting point for any Control deck. Plus, Twilight got you extra AT too, a theme that was going to keep building as more sets came out. HM granted the colour Princess Twilight Sparkle, Cover to Cover, an absurd value generator that quickly earned a reputation as an automatic inclusion in virtually any Purple deck. And finally, there is the Purple EO Event suite, backstopped by the card that eventually got banned, Interdimensional Portal.

Portal, by the way, was already doing unfortunate things as soon as EO released, though at the time everyone was blaming the new Pink/White Bulk Biceps. All Tied Up, which made a strong impression on the scene before being quite swiftly banned, offered only a taste of what was to come. In addition to using Portal for its more traditional Control roles, that deck was able to take advantage of a fortuitous interaction with Bulk to create an infinite supply of 2-AT Immediate speed removal.

HM and MT were where the colour really hit its stride though, with HM offering us another touchstone, Zipporwhil and the dynasty of classical Purple/X control that followed it. By the time MT hit and gave us Purple/White multicolour cards for the first time, White was cemented as the dominant secondary colour for Purple, and the combination became a mainstay in tournaments all over the world. The two colours admittedly suffered somewhat from being incredibly slow when paired together, and often failed to win within the allotted time limit even if they would have theoretically pulled ahead if given infinite time. But Purple had established one of its most successful dynasties, and one that would continue right up to the establishment of Core.

However, Purple/White was not the only important multicolour combination that we got from MT. Indeed yet another dynasty was going to be founded, this one utilizing Orange, and blazing a trail for classical Chaos Control, best typified by Grand Pause’s Waking Nightmare, here depicted in its 2016 NA Continentals T8 form. Similar to how archetypal Purple/White control relied on Eff Stop to replay control-oriented Events, so too could these make use of cycled Chaos effects to frustrate an opponent’s attempts to break down its walls. This also maintained its form for quite a while and inspired many successors, including (one assumes) the Chaos Control that New Dawn seems likely to bring us.

Oh, by the way, Tantabuse was somewhere in here too, and included some Purple, but I will get to it in its own due time.

Finally, rounding off the EO Block, there was another entry in the 2016 NA Continentals worth mentioning, Too Spoopy, placing in the T16. This Blue/Purple combination was something of an oddity for its time, playing Purple at an extremely anomalous speed. Even so, its combination of large amounts of frighten synergy and strong Events from both of its colours proved potent.

Some dynasties are built to last.

The Modern Era

The start of Defenders of Equestria, even though it wasn’t actually the beginning of the Core format, is still the point I use as the beginning of the current “Modern Era” of the CCG. And from this point forward, most of the decks being covered here should be relatively familiar to most of the readership. Essentially through this era Purple remained the King (or should I perhaps say Princess) of value, though Ambassador began to fall off somewhat in favour of a resurgent DJ Mane. While DE may be remembered generally as the era of Hot Wings, and of Pink in general, Purple still managed to feature on both sides of the 2017 NA Continental Final.

Bugle’s eventual winning deck Vinyl’s Bag of Tricks was already mentioned in the White article, and will get its full credit in the Pink article. Instead, I want to dedicate this space to discussion of the deck that got 2nd, the one simply and poetically called Butts.

In some senses, as a DJ/Purple control deck, Butts appeared superficially similar to the broad direction that Purple was going in around this time. Indeed, watching the Finals match between these two offered a… qualified form of thrills, but I can personally attest that it was a grand thing to watch. When we dig closer into Butts though, it becomes plain that this is a deck absolutely going its own way. Most obvious is the 53 card total, even now an extreme anomaly, and quite a bit more so in an era where consistency was absolutely everything when playing control. But probably even more important than that is the fact the deck is only playing two colours, and bucked the by-then nearly-universal trend of splashing White for Eff Stop and point acceleration. Instead, eminently_sensible committed to making it work with only two colours, and it’s a testament to his own skill that he was able to make it work so well. Per usual on these important and highly-technical decks, I defer to the author himself, in the link above.

Now, that brings us to the Beyond Block, and, thankfully for me, brings the end of this article into clear sight. Not so quickly though, because no sooner did Seaquestria get started than we saw another dynasty laid down, its echoes and heirs still making themselves felt in the present day. That deck was BRB, here depicted in its 2018 NA Continentals incarnation, reaching second as piloted by George Z. Purple and Pink yet again come together, but in the new Core format and so decidedly changed from their past allegiance. BRB was a cornerstone deck in the realignment of the Control playstyle that was happening in the aftermath of the first Core rotation, and while honest debate persists as to whether it can be correctly referred to as a Control deck, I personally fall on the side that says it is. This simply was what Control had become in the new era, no longer so reliant on Troublemakers but much more keen on removal and taking its points from confronts and faceoffs when they were available. It’s even perhaps somewhat fitting that it passed its torch on to the same three colours that Bugle had won with in 2017, completing a thematic loop as Tempest Pink/White emerged as the Control standard-bearer in a meta that was getting swamped by the resurgent Yellow. Notably, there was a Blue variant as well that managed to reach 2nd Place at the 2019 EFNW tournament.

Finally, rounding out the notable modern decks, we do have one more that could form a dynasty all its own, that being Alicorn Tribal as popularized by i8Pages in an Everfree Northwest T4 from 2019. Certainly it’s an open question for the future to see if that style of deck will see any heirs, but in a world where tri-corns are going to keep being a thing it’s a reasonable guess to make that there exists some potential for it.

New Dawn: Looking Ahead

Purple has enjoyed an amazingly storied history over the course of the development of the game’s meta. Many trends and larger arcs owe their beginning to an idea that was originally expressed with a Purple deck, and in the present day the colour has a well-earned reputation for being very good at the things it does: control, Troublemakers, and value through AT generation. What this means though, is that New Dawn is shaping up to offer an exciting, if uncertain future. Current signs point to some novel directions to the colour, with a firmer eye toward farming, and some legitimate arrows pointing in the direction of aggro. And if there should be any theme that jumps out about the history of Purple, it should be the relative lack of effective aggro. Thus the onset of New Dawn appears to be precisely that where Purple is concerned, and who knows if next year we will even recognize the colour that it has become. Yet even then, I think we can rest assured when we look back on this era, we’ll be able to trace a line of decks owing their inspiration and substance to an important foundation that emerged somewhere in the mists of the new set.

[sebeth]

Crisis On Infinite Earths #1

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

  I loathe reboots. That said, Crisis on Infinite Earths is my all-time favorite “big event” comic book series. The art, the writing, the character moments, the long term-impact - no other “big event” from any company has come close to achieving the levels of success of Crisis.

I re-read this series annually.  And I continue to love it.  Each re-read seems to add more detail to the story.

Let’s dive into DC’s original Multiverse.

We begin with a recap of the creation of the Mutliverse: “In the beginning there was only one. A single black infinitude. But the light grew, and the infinitude shuddered and the darkness finally screamed, as much in pain as in relief. For in that instant, a Multiverse was born. A Multiverse of worlds vibrating and replicating…and a Multiverse that should have been one, became many.”

We switch to Pariah - possibly the most emo, pessimistic character in comics.

“How longer must I suffer for my sins…before I may be spared the witnessing of these horrors?”  - You were an extremely naughty boy if your punishment is to witness death and destruction over and over.

Earth-3, the home of the Crime Syndicate, is in its final death throes.  The Crime Syndicate, despite being villains, are doing their best to halt the destruction.  

Ultraman is fierce in these pages: “I’ve changed the course of mighty oceans, don’t tell me my super-strength can’t save my adopted planet.”

The above-quote proves that while Ultraman may be a villain, he is still a Superman.

Alexander Luthor, the sole super hero on this planet, is also attempting to save the planet.  Alexander witnesses the death of Superwoman. Luthor heads home to spend his final moments with Lois Lane.  

Lois: “Alexander, I think I can die peacefully, knowing I’m with you. But our son is so young. He’s been cheated of living and knowing love. Alex, must he perish too?”

Luthor and Lois send their infant son to Earth-1.   The Luthor baby’s ship is very similar in appearance to the rocket that transported baby Kal-El to earth.

“This is a prototype, large enough for only one. We will die, but our son shall live.”

Power Ring and Ultraman are the final remaining members of the Crime Syndicate. The duo realizes there is nothing left to do.  

Ultraman goes out like a boss: “What I have done all my life.  I fight to the very end!”

Once again proof that, at his core, Ultraman was a Superman.

Lois and Alexander share a final embrace: “Lois, our time together has been all too brief, but you’ve given me a love this old scientist never thought he’d know.”

“And you’ve given me more love than I had any right to expect. My husband. I love you!”

 Luthor’s son lands on the abandoned satellite headquarters of the Justice League.

The Monitor wants the Luthor child.  Good thing Alexander sent him to Earth-1 instead of letting him die on Earth-3.

The Monitor sends the Harbinger to assemble his team:  King Solovar of Earth-1′s Gorilla City, Dawnstar from the 30th century, Firebrand from 1940′s Earth 2, Blue Beetle from the Charlton Earth, Psycho-Pirate from present day Earth 2, Arion of Atlantis from 45,000 years ago, and Firestorm and Killer Frost from present day Earth 1.    

An few notes during the search:

The Harbinger duplicate searching for Arion is possessed by a shadowy figure.

Harbinger approaches Roger Hayden, the current Psycho-Pirate, in an asylum: Hayden urges Harbinger to “Find Halstead – the first Psycho-Pirate. He was better’n me. He knew how to handle all those emotions…Why don’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want to. You’ll give me those headaches all over again. You don’t know what it’s like, do you? The psycho-pirate affects emotions in others but those emotions hurt me. Please, go away…I’m not well.”

Harbinger slaps the Medusa Mask on Hayden and spirits him out of the institution.

All of Harbinger’s “recruitment” scenes were essentially abductions but the Psycho-Pirate’s is noteworthy because you have a mentally ill man being kidnapped over his protests.

One last note of the recruitment scenes – Firestorm and Killer Frost are enemies. The Psycho-Pirate uses his abilities to cause Killer Frost to fall in love with Firestorm so she will accompany the group: “You feel love now, Killer Frost, don’t you? Love for man, love for earth, and especially love for your enemy.”

Firestorm is uncomfortable with the situation. Me too.

We go to the Monitor’s headquarters where the above-mentioned figures are waiting.  Also in residence are Earth 1′s Geo-Force, Cyborg, Psimon, Doctor Polaris, Green Lantern (John Stewart) along with present day Earth-2′s Superman and Obsidian.  I’m assuming these guys were recruited during “Crisis” tie-in issues.

This is a very odd group. It’s easy to see why some were chosen - Arion, Superman, Green Lantern, and Firestorm are obvious for their power levels, Dawnstar is the best tracker in the DC Universe, and Obsidian’s abilities give him an edge against the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons.  The others are not so obvious at first glance.  

Monitor ruminates to himself: “Already another Earth has perished and five heroes I needed are gone. Thus I’ve dispatched your replicants to seek out others as replacements.”

We’re never told the name of the Earth or of the five deceased heroes.  There is no editor’s footnote telling us to check out “issue #” so I don’t think it happened in a tie-in.  Crisis happened in the 1980’s and editors were all over footnotes urging you to buy “Issue # of Title X” to discover the full details of an event.

The five deceased heroes remain a mystery – who died and who were the replacements?

I’m fairly confident in stating Dawnstar was an original intended recipient – the depth and scope of her tracking abilities is unique in the DC universe. As for the others…who knows?

The heroes and villains await on the station.  Most are keeping to themselves with a few exceptions. Killer Frost is lovey-dovey with Firestorm much to his dismay. Geo-Force and Cyborg are standing next to each other.

Superman and Obsidian are conversing. Both heroes are from the same Earth. Firebrand is also from Earth 2 but originates in the World War II era: “I know Obsidian. The Squadron recently met him and his friends but Superman looks so old, hardly the Man of Steel I know so well. Well, I guess everybody ages.”

I love Obsidian staying close to Superman. Not only is Clark from Obsidian’s home planet, but Clark began his heroic career shortly before World War II and has worked for decades with Obsidian’s father, the original Green Lantern. It makes logical sense for Obsidian to be glued to Superman’s side.

Psimon attempts a truce with his “dear friends” Cyborg and Geo-Force. Cyborg tells him to shove it.

King Solivar keeps to himself: “The humans stare at me then turn away. My presence here is uncomforting to them. Unlike us apes, they have not yet learned to look beyond the form to the soul that lives inside.”

Solivar’s must be feeling insecure. Dawnstar is from the 31st century and John Stewart is a Green Lantern – diverse life forms are nothing new to them. Superman’s been around the block and seen many unusual life forms. Cyborg has a teammate that can turn into any alien form so I don’t see Victor being phased by a sentient ape.

Psimon warns of an impending attack – cue the shadow demons and a big fight at the Monitor’s base.  A few heroes have a bit of luck against the demons but are on the ropes until the Monitor releases an extremely intense light burst.  

Solivar saves Dawnstar and Dawny responds with “You’re an ape, but you can talk!”

This is the one bit that felt out of character.  Dawnstar wouldn’t be fazed by a talking ape. 31st Century people – she’s seen way more unusual things than a talking ape.

“And now, let me properly introduce myself.  I am…the Monitor.  And I have summoned you here because your universes are about to die!” - What a drama queen!

Final thoughts:

Nice set-up issue.  It achieved what would take 3 to 6 issues in modern times.

Gorgeous art by George Perez.

Pariah is annoying.

I loved that the Crime Syndicate (of all people) went out as heroes.

Harbinger was much more powerful in her debut.  Compare this to the Superman/Batman issue where she’s killed off-panel by a Doomsday clone.

Considering light is the Shadow Demon’s main weakness, I’m surprised the Monitor didn’t recruit the first Dr. Light.  Light is scum but that didn’t stop the Monitor from recruiting Psimon, Killer Frost, the Psycho-Pirate and Doctor Polaris.

I really miss pre-New 52 DC. Firebrand!  All-Star Squadron!  Obsidian!  Older Earth-2 Superman!\

Rest In Peace:

Earth-3

The Crime Syndicate

Alexander Luthor

Lois Lane Luthor