#then it's the destiny trio again

[fmab]

shit ive been thinking about since season of the witch + europa stasis trio sleeping arrangements

[nebulousbren]

Keyblade quotes!

[mrfroag]

*snapcube eggman voice* I miss my guys tails

[dizzybevvie]

obligatory kh1 Paopu tree scene redraw

og under cut <3

[glassedplanets]

i cannot believe it's taken me this long to do a destiny AU but wow better late than never

playing very fast and loose with both canons here - pirate crews = renegade clans, marines/world gov't = vanguard (sorry actual vanguard whomst i love). the one piece is the traveler??? who knows. anyways:

luffy, human lightbearer

subclass: yippee!

loadout: wahoo!

ghost: mugi, one-of-a-kind shell given to him by shanks as a kinderguardian. the shell seems to change when he supers. What's Up With That!

all prismatic all the time, basically a dark age guardian. zero boundaries between class and subclass. just does whatever is fun. doesn't care until he Does and then you're fucked.

regularly wears (steals) class items from clanmates, it was a little alarming at first but they all feel whatever about it now

should not be trusted with raid mechanics.

zoro, awoken titan

subclass: strand

primary: breakneck (OG roll)

secondary: ergo sum (void/caster/wolfpack)

heavy: falling guillotine (OG godroll, WWB/relentless)

exotic: stoicism (inmost/star-eater or inmost/synthos)

ghost: wado, received from kuina after her death (don't think about this too hard. jaren ward/shin malphur situation. whatever). wado's shell was cloven by mihawk in a duel.

wears sanji's old bond looped into his mark, will not answer questions about this

specced hard into banner for a fuckoff insane melee loop, rotates melee buffs with luffy and sanji

mostly DPS/add clear, uses that ergo roll so that sanji/luffy/franky (haz prop) can get wolfpack, if the boss can't be meleed then Why Is He Even Here

flat-out banned from participating in the mechanics of several raid encounters on account of going to the wrong fucking place (vault, gatekeeper, sol inherent, totems, etc.), if he gets torn between dimensions or anything but first in queenswalk then everyone just has to desperately pray for the best.

ran vanguard bounties regularly until he eventually refused to cooperate with the then-head of the cosmodrome's operations; luffy found him with kuina's ghost bound and freed them both. The Rest Is History.

distributary-born but doesn't know (or care), kept being greeted weirdly by people in the dreaming city (which i guess is where we have wano's events......... kaido is literally a dragon, so)

VJ-G-66-03 sanji, human (?) warlock

subclass: prismatic, solar super

primary: fatebringer (OG fatebringer roll™)

secondary: tarrabah

heavy: apex predator (recon/B&S)

exotic: solipsism (assassin/synthos)

ghost: mignon, received from zeff after voluntarily giving up his light for sanji

wears zoro's old mark tied below his bond, will not answer questions about this

specced into Burn Motherfucker Burn, solar buddy + snaps, frontline add clear alongside luffy and zoro, also part of the "if the boss can't be meleed/snapped then why am i even here" gang

CAN be trusted with raid mechanics but is often better utilized keeping adds off the other half of the fireteam

sanji's body is riddled with vintech implants that don't seem to do anything. they're most definitely new, and sanji wasn't rezzed that long ago, but vintech was lost in the collapse along with everything else and the only thing that really survived is a bunch of muddled records found at old vega collective sites.

sanji was the vintech patriarch's one failed experiment; his consciousness refused transfer to an exo body and after many attempts, he was discarded but managed to survive through the kindness of dark-age guardians until he was taken in by zeff.

he has three vertical black facial markings; each experiment has a number of markings corresponding to their order (and color) in the sequence.

and other straw hats! i have a little less about them, but:

nami, human hunter

subclass: arcstaff (Throw Stick/well of bad/i don't remember its actual name)

primary: patron of lost causes

secondary: riskrunner

heavy: stormchaser

exotic: liar's handshake

ghost: zeus, stolen from big mom (tangerine shell)

(was tempted to do stormcaller unlimited power but arcstaff is... you know)

usopp, human hunter

subclass: solar, precision goldie

primary: succession

secondary: trinity ghoul

heavy: scintillation

exotic: nighthawk

ghost: merry (sheepshead shell)

can and should be trusted with raid mechanics along w/ nami

and the rest of the crew i'm not 100% set on buuuuut:

chopper: exo warlock (well of radiance)

robin: awoken warlock (strand? void?)

franky: exo titan (thundercrash)

brook: exo hunter (stasis)

jinbei: awoken titan (stasis? arc?)

misc others:

law: awoken prismatic hunter, blinky knife

reiju-0: exo void hunter, tether + smoke bomb, le monarque

ichiji-1: exo solar hunter, blade barrage

niji-2: exo arc titan, striker, ACD/0

yonji-4: exo strand titan

and textless, glow-less versions if you got this far!

[goldensunset]

if kh4 wants to be good it’s gotta have like sora excitedly telling strelitzia all about his best friends and how great they are but then it cuts to them acting insane

like ‘my buddy riku is really cool and heroic!’ he’s always got a clear rational head’ ((cuts to riku flipping over cars and/or threatening ppl in quadratum screaming ‘WHERE IS SORA’))

‘oh oh oh and kairi is so kind and brave… her pure and strong heart never falters!’ ((cuts to kairi having a full-on mental breakdown blubbering and sobbing in aqua’s arms))

[yoroshiu]

Some time ago, I had a discussion with a friend about how there should be a scene in KH4 where Riku and Kairi pull up on a motorcycle. There's a whole battle-chase sequence prior where Riku's driving and Kairi has to fight a lot of heartless.

So they find Sora and are like "Sora!!! :D" and he has an inkling that they might've broken traffic laws so he's mostly ecstatic to see them but also now sweating at the potential consequences that might have. Lo and behold, there are news headlines about them so now Sora and Strel have to worry about hiding fugitives in their expensive apartment.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Right, sooo.

I might have gotten dragged back kicking and screaming into Secret Trio. After reading the most gut-wrenching fanfic, and then remembering my own in-the-works series, I’ve considered making a server for it.

Unfortunately, I know it’s a dying breed but if anyone’s willing to join me in my nonsense- if you’d like to see Secret Trio revived, I’ll have the server up soon!

[van-skmugen]

Adventures ~ Fairytale

(Children's stories style)

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Aventurine.

[cq-studios]

What's "There's an Empty Space Where He Once Sat?" The title has me curious!

(For this)

Post Re:mind/Pre-Limit Cut fic where Riku and Kairi talk at the Paupou tree.

I haven’t written a lot yet (and what I do have written I’m not super confident about the characterization in) so I’ll just explain it instead.

Basically Kairi has been back for a bit but Riku has kinda been avoiding her.

Kairi thinks it’s because Riku blames her for Sora’s disappearance (mostly projection because she blames herself), but really Riku just doesn’t know how to talk to her anymore (at least not without Sora to bridge the gap) and he still feels bad about stuff he did pre-KH1/KH1 (specifically putting her in the middle of his insecurity driven competition with Sora and, you know, the whole killing her with the fall of Destiny Islands lol). He figures that she wouldn’t really want to talk to him because of that.

One day, Riku’s leaning against the Paupou tree and Kairi sees him there. She joins him at the tree, muttering a quick greeting before sitting on it, just like old times. Except it’s not, not without Sora.

They kinda just exist in each other’s presence for a bit until Kairi cracks, and starts apologizing, and spouting if onlys. Riku’s a bit taken aback, and tries to counter her points and make it clear that he doesn’t blame her. That it’s not her fault.

He explains that Sora’s heart and mind was made up, and Kairi quips something along the lines of “there really was nothing we could do then”, with a bit of a halfhearted laugh. Riku nods his head and they sit with that.

After a moment Riku kinda pipes up again and says that he should really be the one apologizing. Kairi begins to say that Sora being missing isn’t his fault either but Riku cuts her off and clarifies that it’s not about that —he believes in Sora (but he wishes he didn’t have to. He’s wishes he was here and safe). He apologizes for all the stuff he did pre-KH1 and in KH1.

Kairi accepts his apology. Yeah, he was kinda a jerk back then, but he’s changed, and for the better this time.

They fall back to silence. It’s awkward and Sora’s absence is still heavy. They still have work to do to properly rebuild their friendship, but at least for now, for this, they know they have each other.

(You know until Kairi decides to sleep for a year lol)

[randomszzz]

divide is SOOOOO underrated when i actually looked at the lyrics i was like :(((( feels like a song from shoka to ayano

Is it really that underrated? I kinda feel like it's the definitive neo song. When I was thinking about which songs might be remixed in a hypothetical neo kh cameo, this and shibuya survivor were the prime contenders. Maybe last call? Your Ocean? Glaring slightly at neo's last day being dominated by someday/calling/twister (I mean twister gets a pass but at least one of the songs should've been neo original, come on game (worst someday remix too! Go away!).

Granted it's mostly in japanese, and I was a little surprised when I actually looked at the lyrics. Shoka-Ayano does seem like the best fit, though I'm not huge on character/song association. Gosh, thinking about it more though, the only english in it is the 'divided again' it closes on... There's so many ways to read it, but in light of shoka and ayano... Like, they were inseparable, for it to be 'divided again' it's referencing the division she probably had experienced in the rg, oof. And really given how icy Ayano is it's highly likely she's had her share of harsh partings as well. The reapers rg lives barely get any focus (for good reason, I guess) but then I start thinking about it and oh it's rough.

[tenuuchlegch]

❝Wow! Who would’ve thought lighting could hurt a robot? ❞ (From Lyse, because why not? XD)

AVALANCHE TIME MOTHER****ER!

❃ Upon Lyse's statement, an amused snort could not help but escape from the xaela's mouth. She had to admit, despite the gravity of war, despair from various, suppressed peoples and her being so close towards home au ra was actually having a little bit of fun. Not only was she getting to re-know the woman who helped introduced her towards Scions, but Alisaie came along as well. It was nice seeing her after all the events which transpired in Bahamut's coils. She certainly had matured a little more, since that time.

- Additionally, Odtsetseg's adventures in the east also had an unexpected twist of bringing along Oda, her twin brother as well. Granted he was probably the grumpiest out of the group, but xaela actually felt like they were beginning to really connect after being apart for over fifteen years. She even saw raen man crack a smile on some occasion. Putting her chakrams away, dancer gave pugilist one of her own in turn.

- "I know, right? You would think with all the innovation Garleans proclaim they would make their technology less susceptible to it." Did she truly think that, or was warrior of light merely jesting? Either way it prompted a face palm from her dark knight twin standing near by.

[teganberry]

Destiny Trio | Summer Matsuri

The Trio are together once again! I'm so happy with how these designs turned out!

This print is available now in my Etsy store as well as individual prints of the Sora, Kairi and Riku, plus an extra special holographic version. Visit my store here

[thankskenpenders]

Amy's fortune cards

The Sonic fandom has long been the kind of fandom that takes minor details very seriously, for better or worse. On the one hand, this means fans will really dig for the diamonds in the rough, latching onto fun character interactions, animations, bits of background worldbuilding, and more in pieces of Sonic media that many would write off as "the bad ones." But it also feels like every week another needlessly hostile debate over Sonic minutia erupts on Twitter, whether it's over individual lines of dialogue, fanart that makes Tails' shoes blue, or the ideal length and volume for Sonic's quills.

So it was probably inevitable that a fandom-wide debate would erupt upon seeing Amy's new gameplay style in the DLC for Sonic Frontiers, which takes the once-obscure fact that she enjoys reading tarot and shines a spotlight on it like never before.

I mean:

The thing is, while I basically always try to tune out Sonic fandom bickering... for once, I kind of sympathize with the detractors? Don't get me wrong, I like Amy's tarot stuff, and people on all sides of the discussion are being overly nasty about their opinions, as usual. (Sonic Twitter remains my personal hell.) But when I set aside the hyperbole and zoom out, I do think I understand why some fans are put off by the sudden shift in focus for the character, even if I think it's cool.

It's complicated. Let me attempt to present the cases for and against Amy's fortune cards

For years, I was always one of those fans who thought it could be fun if they played with Amy's tarot reading, or even leaned into some kind of magic with her. Part of that is my own biases showing, but there's just something that makes sense there, especially when you look at Sonic, Tails, and Amy as a trio. (I would argue that's the real "Team Sonic" these days, especially in the comics where Knuckles is more likely to be stuck on Angel Island or otherwise doing his own thing.)

You could argue that Tails is all about logic, relying on science and technology and deductive reasoning to solve problems. But Amy is all about emotion. She wears her heart on her sleeve, is extremely empathetic, and is very prone to magical thinking - both figuratively and sometimes literally. Her origin story has always been that her tarot cards told her it was her destiny to meet Sonic on Little Planet. She's claimed to be able to "sense" peoples' presences - particularly Sonic's. She's the type to believe that The Power of Love is a literal magical force. So, on some level, it makes sense to mirror Tails's science by having Sonic's other best friend believe in magic. And then Sonic is somewhere in the middle, primarily following his own gut instincts but taking advice from both of them as needed. This isn't totally accurate to how their dynamics actually function in canon stories, but I think it's a mode that could work for them.

Going off of that, it's fun to lean all the way into Amy being a magical girl, or even a witch, using her fortune telling as a foundation. Take, for example, this version of Amy from Diana Skelly's old Sonic cast redesigns from before she freelanced for Archie and IDW. This is one of MANY such redesigns for Amy.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and Amy's tarot cards are, in fact, finally getting brought up again in canon. Which is fun! I like seeing that. I like all of the individual stories involving Amy's fortune cards. This is a fun character trait for Amy, a fun nod to old lore, AND a fun storytelling device, all in one. It's really cool that the Sonic universe has its own thematically appropriate arcana, and that the cards are getting made as physical merch. And sure enough, the official card backs and borders were designed by none other than Diana Skelly, in yet another cool example of an ascendant fan leaving their mark on the series.

BUT... when you step back and look at the big picture, I get why some fans find this shift in focus jarring. At the moment, it's starting to feel like every new story about Amy involves her fortune cards to some degree.

The most recent mainline comic arc to feature Amy as the lead character, 2021's Trial by Fire arc, prominently features a sequence where she reads fortunes while camping with the girls. The Origins version of Sonic CD now bookends the game with scenes of Amy and her tarot cards. Sonic randomly mentioned it in a scene in Frontiers. And now, just this week, we got the (very cute, gorgeously illustrated) Amy's 30th Anniversary comic with a story revolving around Amy's tarot cards, followed the very next day by the Frontiers DLC in which she gets a brand new tarot-based moveset. Even her base melee attack now has her throwing tarot cards instead of swinging her hammer. Again, I like all of these individual things, but after years of it almost never coming up at all, it's VERY noticeable that Amy's tarot cards are suddenly everywhere.

To be fair, I'm looking at this from the perspective of a superfan who's actively following ALL Sonic media. Casual fans - especially kids - aren't necessarily going to be reading the comics every month, buying the thousandth rerelease of the Genesis games, or playing the ultra-hard new alternate ending DLC for a game that came out last year. Each of these stories is going to be someone's introduction to the idea that Amy can read tarot, and that's probably part of the idea behind this unified push.

But to play devil's advocate, for my fellow superfans, I understand why it feels like a very minor footnote of Amy's character is suddenly becoming the entire focus of her personality. While Amy has always been said to enjoy fortune telling, that wasn't really a character trait in and of itself, but rather an example of her being a typical girl who hopes she'll be able to find true love one day. It's less that Amy can literally predict the future and more like her using a cootie catcher or going "he loves me, he loves me not" while picking the petals off of a flower. So I get not vibing with this stuff, or feeling like it's being pushed very hard out of nowhere.

What I don't agree with are comparisons like "it's like if they made Knuckles' moveset revolve around him liking grapes." Like, I get it. Ian Flynn loves shoehorning in his little winking references for us nerds, and mentions of Amy's tarot cards were previously on the same level as other random bullet points from old Japanese manuals. But a multifaceted hobby like fortune telling that opens up so many narrative and aesthetic possibilities is obviously very different from having a favorite food. It's ALWAYS been a part of her story, not just a random fact, and there's no reason why the fortune telling can't be elevated to something more.

And, hell, even if it wasn't an established character trait, there's nothing inherently wrong with injecting new ideas into a character. One of the best Amy stories in recent years, the Free Comic Book Day special "Amy's New Hobby" written by Gale Galligan, came up with the idea that Amy's secretly been drawing little comics about her and her friends. Is this based on Lore? No. But it's cute, and helps tell the story of a younger Amy who's still coming out of her shell as both a hero and a friend.

Certain fans are also looking at Amy's Frontiers moveset and using it as evidence that once again the Vile American Contributors like Ian are CORRUPTING Sonic Team's perfect vision of Sonic with their misinterpretations. And like. Come on. Ian does not control the gameplay. He's a freelance writer. The tarot stuff is clearly something that Sonic Team likes if they made it the basis of Amy's new moveset - and, you know, if they keep approving comics and animations about Amy's fortune telling. None of this gets made without their blessing, and lord knows how much they can micromanage shit and shoot down ideas over the most minor of details.

Like, yeah, Amy's fortune telling was probably conceived less as a sign that she Knows Magic and more as a pretty mundane hobby for a lovesick young Japanese girl to have. But you're gonna sit there and tell me that using Amy's tarot cards for more than that could only be the result of a cultural misunderstanding? That nobody in Japan uses tarot card theming and aesthetics (or the general idea of magical cards) for the cool factor? Stardust Crusaders? Persona? The Astrologian class in FFXIV? Cardcaptor Sakura?? Hello??? Do you think Capcom put Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom ironically because they thought using magic to throw cards at people was stupid? There's tons of precedent for this! It's nothing like Knuckles throwing grapes at people, be for real.

Giving Amy a very magical girl-esque moveset also just makes a lot of sense. For decades her hammer attacks have literally made sparkly heart shapes appear around her. Leaning into both that and her tarot cards in her new moveset makes a lot of sense to me.

But, admittedly... I do think it's very odd that her hammer is treated as a secondary element here, rather than having her primarily use her hammer and adding the cards for extra flair. If hitting the attack button made her swing her hammer instead of throwing cards, I'm not sure we'd even be having this discussion right now.

But the tarot-cycle and Amy riding her hammer like a witch's broom are fucking SICK and I will not concede on this point

The thing is, this whole fortune card discourse is but a small piece of a bigger problem. Amy's been a character who needed some work for ages, but there's basically nothing you can do with her without pissing SOMEONE off.

Years of stories where Amy's crush was her primary motivator and Sonic went "Ew, cooties!" have lead many casual fans to believe that being Sonic's obsessive fangirl is Amy's entire personality. At best people might call her Sonic's Minnie Mouse. This isn't just a matter of Amy having haters within the fandom - venture outside of that bubble and you'll realize that this is how MOST video game playing people seem to see her to this day. I don't feel like this is a fair assessment of the character, but this idea didn't come from nowhere. No matter how much good deeply entrenched Sonic fans may see in their old dynamic where Amy perpetually chases Sonic, this is a very real problem that Sonic Team has to contend with for their leading girl. Of course all those games where the way-past-cool protagonist thought Amy was annoyingly clingy and tried to get away from her made people think less of her.

If new stories were to go back to emphasizing Amy's crush on Sonic a little more, they'd probably be taken as confirmation that Amy's just the girl with a crush on Sonic and that this is her entire personality. Conversely, when the crush is played down, you piss off the hardcore SonAmy fans who don't seem to understand that they're Charlie Brown and Sega is Lucy holding the football. You can't win.

And so here we are. In the absence of what was once her defining trait, now reduced to an occasional blush or wink in Sonic's direction, new stories are trying to mine Amy's past for additional material to work with. Having been a thing fans wanted to see for years, right now we're getting a lot of tarot, but we're also getting reminders of her compassionate nature and her desire to go out of her way to help the little guy. This is an ongoing process. I continue to hope that her bubbly, exuberant demeanor can shine more in future stories. Now, I also hope that the tarot stuff gets balanced out a little better with other traits of hers. But I don't want it to go away. I think it's fun.

This course correcting is far from exclusive to Amy. Knuckles is getting stories that remind us that he's a competent fighter, an experienced treasure hunter, and even a self-taught archaeologist after years of him being perceived as either the dumb one or just the guy who stands in front of the Master Emerald all day. And Tails has been getting some stories reminding folks that he's a capable hero in his own right and not just Sonic's timid kid sidekick.

But no supporting character will ever compete with the sheer number of new ideas Sega has tried with Sonic himself. Like Amy, his Frontiers moveset has also given him half a dozen new superpowers that he never had before, from the Cyloop to air-slicing projectile attacks to his own take on Shadow Clone Jutsu and beyond. He's also been a hoverboarder, a swordsman, a time traveler, an Olympic athlete, a racecar driver, cursed with a Flame of Judgment, imbued with alien power, a fucking Werehog with stretchy powers, and on and on and on.

If Sonic can do all that, Amy can try out using a tarot-cycle.

Anyway TL;DR the REAL problem with Amy's current characterization... is where the FUCK is Amy's bestie, Honey the Cat???????

[dailyadventureprompts]

Monsterhunt: Wreck, Wrack, & Ruin

Artsource

Adventure Hook: The party are hired to put a stop to the undead rising from the old cemetary, and to determine whether it is some forboding sign or a curse brought down by some graverobber, as the town authorities are split on the matter. While investigating they will discover signs of dark rituals taking place, though they will have to be very clever to realize that the infact not at all humanoid.

Background: While most crows are content with petty mischief (and three occasional murder), these three arcane avians have no respect for mortal or godly law, and spend their days sowing curses and petty blasphemies wherever their dark wings take them.

The three carry with them an unrotting eye, the last remnant of a witch by the name of Hemani Lokryn, who used the birds as familiars for years and nurtured them to sentiance with a diet of dead men's brains. When the magehunters finally caught up to Hemani, the three were unable to save her from her cell or execution, so she commanded them to gore out her eye and carry it with them that her spirit might escape her body's fate.

Further Adventures:

When challenged or interrupted the crows make to scatter , as any one of them that survives an encounter and makes it back to where they've hidden Hemani's eye they'll be able to resummon the other two. Generally they always keep one in reserve, but this limits the force of magic they're able to bring to bear in any confrontation. If the party is clever, they'll poof two of the familiars to smoke and feathers and then track the straggler back to their roost.

If they weren't discovered in their earlier capers, the trio may try to bait the party into exploring some obviously haunted dungeon in the hopes of having them dig up some important artifact necessary for their latest scheme. This "bait" might come in the form of one of the crows pretending to be some kind of omen, or a barely legible letter pleading for help delivered in the dead of night. They might even try a breadcrumb trail of golden coins if they get desperate.

A girl has disapeared from her home after a series of strange occurrences, leaving her parents in a state of absolute panic and in need of the adventurers' aid. Always a little odd and shunned by other children for her morbid fancies, Cordelia was overjoyed when a trio of spooky birds decended on her usual sulking spot and told her that she had a great destiny ahead of her. Her new friends weren't exactly lying: Cordelia has a spark of sorcery about her, being the distant scion of the now forgotten Lokryn line after the family moved and changed their name to avoid their then infamous reputation. This makes her the perfect vessel for Hemani's resurrection ritual, as she aims to possess her descendant's body in a twisted "inheritence" ritual. The party will need to act fast to find Cordelia's motivations and trail, the crows have been gaining her trust for weeks with games and magic lessons, and now they lead her to a place of power where they'll take her eye and place their mistress's in its stead.

The story will not end should the party be too late and find the witch ascendant or completely gone. Hemani or "Cordelia Lokryn" as she now calls herself seeks to reclaim the power and influence she once wielded as not all of it fit into the childish body she's stolen. Vaults must be plundered, old servants called up from their resting places, a lair established, all of which may provide the party opportunities to challenge her once again and save Cordelia from her awful "destiny".

All this mucking about with eyes and resurrection has given Hemani a connection to the god of whispered secrets, who now drives the witch to seek out his own long-hidden eye of power. Cordelia's soul barely survived the first grisly grafting, and may be forever lost should she suffer another.