#tides and flames

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Mercury: Misty Breaths

Designer's Reflection: Misty Breaths

Obtained: top-up for Tides and Flames event

Rarity: SSR

Attribute: Gold/Elegant

Awakened Suit: Dark Contracts

Story - transcripts from Designer's Reflection

Chapter 1 - Beneath the Ice

Chapter 2 - Spirit in the Lake

Chapter 3 - Forgotten Sagas

Chapter 4 - Black Tide Rising

Story - summarized

Mercury and his group finally found the Altar of Arionus, located at the bottom of Lake Bovaly. With the assistance of the Water Elf King's gem, he followed the path into the lake and down a dark passage.

And there, still preserved after all this time, was the stone altar. A misty wraith guarded it, emitting shrieks and screams. But Mercury was not deterred. Instead, he approached the spirit and declared himself a friend of the Water Elves.

The dark mist revealed itself to be Flo, one of the earliest and most devout followers of Arionus. He was there to witness the scorn of the other Elf Gods, as well as how Hephaes led to his great god's demise. Indignant and vindictive, Flo would do anything to restore the great God of Water.

Mercury announced that he had a plan to awaken the long-lost god, but he needed help revitalizing the New Moon gem. Flo readily agreed, and the last of his ghost faded into vapor as he transferred power into the gem.

Now, Mercury could uphold his end of the deal struck with the Water Elf King: he would awaken Arionus, break the oath binding the Water Elves to the deep sea, and assist in the downfall of Pigeon Kingdom and the Light Elves.

But he wouldn't do this for altruism. All he wanted was a glimpse of the power of the Abyss, and he needed Arionus back to do that.

Connections

-Mercury made a deal with the Water Elf King in Startide Dream. Now, he's fulfilling that deal by triggering the events of the Tides and Flames hell event.

-While Mercury craves the power of the Abyss, he still knew the risk of the Goddess of Desire's presence in Miraland and worked alongside the rest of the Shining Nikki cast during the Angel and Demon hell event. He provided resources to the other three factions.

-Flo has met Hephaes, but in Arionus' Reflection for Lost Tides, Flo didn't trust Hephaes one bit, and the moment the other Elf Gods ambushed Arionus, Flo was quick to pin the blame on Hephaes as a betrayal.

-This is not the first time Mercury wasn't the narrator of his own story: the first half of Startide Dream, the full story for Nightmist Aria, Daybreak Overture, Snow Song, and Reminiscence of Flower (to name a few) either feature another character narrating the story or none at all.

Fun Facts

-Even though we've seen Mercury make the deal with the Water Elf King before, this is the first time a mark or emblem has been mentioned.

-This Reflection is a prologue to the hell event, even to the Moon Memories.

-It's never clear if the New Moon gem is the same blue gem the Water Elf King gave to Mercury the day the young boy left the Pigeon palace. But it fits the description.

-While Mercury knows that gods exist, he doesn't worship any and sees them merely as pawns, like the mortals he meets.

[elionwriter]

These are sooooooo pretty!!!! I loved the new story and event. Also, Hestia is Mercury's aunt?!?!?! She's the old Queen?!?! Can someone help me here? What the heck is Mercury's end goal again? I mean I get it build a new empire, but why?!?!! I can never really understand also if he loves his sister or is trying to go against her....

[coconut530]

RELIGIOUS TRAUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[spotsandsocks]

🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♂️

😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈

Hello my dear thanks for inspiring me, this is a lot of sentences and things may change but here we go…

🧜‍♂️ merman pirate au (the other one under cut) tagging those who also chose at least one of these @tizniz @jesuisici33 @eddiebabygirldiaz @dangerpronebuddie @sunflowerwemadeit also @dr-shortsighted-owl cos I think the mer title prompt was yours ‘time and tide’

Rules are not for him. Not anymore.

There’s nothing of him visible apart from the bridge of his nose, his eyes, the wet curls on his head.

The effect of him is more visible, but isn’t that always the way with him; the ripples on the surface of the ocean circle outwards from his body, caused by the slow but powerful movement of the muscles in his tail as it moves in circles. It’s a good tail, strong, powerful. Usually it keeps him moving, moving further and further away from there which is the best decision he ever made. Today it’s keeping him in one spot because he likes the view.

The ripples are a tiny risk, they wouldn’t even be visible if the sea wasn’t so calm and still today, but it is.

It doesn’t matter, there’s no one to see any part of him anyway. Unless of course there’s someone in the house that nestled on the side of the cliff top. Someone in that small, warm looking building, looking out in exactly the right direction at exact the right moment to see something small and inconsequential bobbing around in the middle of the sea, almost impossible to spot but there all the same.

Buck sometimes wonders if he wants to be spotted. Is that why he keeps coming back to this particular cove? He tells himself it’s because he likes the fresh air on his face, the wind in his hair. He tells himself he just likes the view. The cliffs are tall and majestic, they call to him, bobbing just under the waterline Buck wonders what it would be like to climb them. Maybe one day he might try. He’d like to look in the window of that house one day, see who lives there. One day, not today though. Not today. The eyes and the curls vanish, leaving only ripples behind and then not even them anymore.

*

The ripples are back. Eddie watches from the window. He’s seen them before, only on calm days like this it’s true but he thinks that maybe whatever causes them is there on stormy days too. He hopes so. Once he thinks he saw something more than ripples, a splash, a flash of blue, the light catching on something that shimmered. It must have been made by something large. Larger than a fish, maybe a seal, maybe a shark. Ta

😈 demon!Prince Eddie

He’s been petitioning for an early intervention programme up top. Try and improve things before it was too late, helping before the rot sunk in too deep. Try and do some good. The pilot project he wanted got approved a few centuries ago. He’d been allowed to visit an author in the early 19th century, England he thinks it was, he’d given him an idea for a book. Ghosts and the similar, a cautionary tale about hoarding wealth and miserly habits. He’d had high hopes for it. He’s heard It’s still quite popular, gets talked about in schools and then swiftly forgotten once people start earning money. Shame, but still there’s always hope, even after all this time. Who knows maybe he’ll get the approval to take it into the next stage at some point but he’s still waiting for approval to get through the right departments. Bureaucracy is something down here and up there have in common.

Feels like he’s been waiting forever. Maybe he has, but recently he’s been feeling it more. There’s a restlessness inside him and it’s growing. The last few days have been particularly peculiar, it’s like he’s forgotten something or lost it. He keeps looking over his shoulder expecting to see someone watching him. There’s never anyone there. Except that’s not quite true, once he thought he saw a figure, shimmering at the edge of his vision. He’d talked to Lena about it, thought maybe she’d sent one of the subdemons to keep an eye on him. She scowled back at him and said she was worried about him but not worried enough to waste a spy. He’d believed her, and he’d noted that she now looked even more worried than she had at the start of conversations. Admitting to seeing things that aren’t there is never a particularly comforting thing to hear, especially in Hell, where the line between bad and worse things is thin.

He’d claimed that he was probably just tired. There’d been an influx of ‘guests’ to his department recently, a super yacht had sunk in a (possibly) freak storm. After that a private jet had crashed, the pilot survived but the multi mega millionaire using the jet to pop back home for a party (a round trip of 70k ) had not. Before that some submarine had imploded. Weird times.

He keeps meaning to go check with the weather team. Apparently they have two new member of staff, in the natural disasters department. One of them appears to be called Chimney but Eddie’s not at all sure that can be right.

[sadghostgirl14]

[fallenrazziel]

Rosfield Bros #80

[variouspolltournaments]

Propaganda

Arokh: Arokh is the bonded dragon of Rynn whose brother was kidnapped. The two of them go on a quest to save Rynn's brother.

[shiroi---kumo]

❤️‍🔥 The Flares and The Flare Prince ❤️‍🔥

💚Smaragdin Syksy || Emerald Fall 🧡Sitriini Sinfonia || Citrine Symphony 💚Opaali Liekki || Opal Flames ❤️👑Puinanen Usva || Red Mist 💙Safiirin Hehku || Sapphire Glow 💛Topaasi Vuorovesi || Topaz Tides 🩷Timantti Unelma || Diamond Dream

[grimark]

i always forget how obsessed australians are with planting jacarandas everywhere until it’s that time of year and suddenly everything is Purple

[jtl-fics]

What can I bribe you with for a full fic of the old lovers au? (Or literally any of the time travel aus you keep teasing???)

I do plan on writing the Math Nerd AU next in all honesty. (It was gonna be what I wrote after You and Me, just us, and Y(Our) friend Kevin fic but then....Fluent Freshman tripped into my life as an idea I had while waiting around at work for my computer to finish updating lol)

The Old Flames AU was an ask that slipped into my inbox today so I don't really have anything for it in terms of planning / outline (I only really have a solid outline on Math Nerd, New Kings, and Andrew First and Andrew first is honestly the one that is the most nebulous). A lot of things I write that people request like that (here's an idea etc.) are me just thinking something up on the spot. (It is easy for shit like Amazing Race and GBBO because well.........it's just a season of the show but Andreil's there)

It's kind of a fun thing to write about when people ask for it but not something I have more solidly planned.

For me I gotta focus on one thing at a time or else something gets dropped (Looking at my poor Beware fic that I just...can't get ungoofy enough to write because of FF or worse I keep having FF show up and HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THEEERE)

I'm really enjoying WIP Wednesday kind of being the clusterfuck of requests for snippets since I actually end up writing a lot during it. So

I guess the only thing you can bribe me with is your patience and continued support? I am really having a hoot writing this stuff but also I've met me, I know that I gotta finish Fluent Freshman first or it just won't get finished.

[infinit8ion]

This is fucking with me again you guys see it too right?

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Hephaes: Flames of Dawn

Designer's Reflection: Flames of Dawn

Obtained: Tides and Flames hell event

Rarity: UR

Attribute: Green/Fresh

Awakened Suit: Silence of Twilight

Story - transcripts from Designer's Reflection

Chapter 1 - Birth of Starfire

Chapter 2 - Lakelight Mirage

Chapter 3 - A Time of Trial

Chapter 4 - A Moon of Change

Chapter 5 - To Ashes

Story - summarized

Hephaes was the youngest of the Elf Gods to be born. Materializing at the Tree of Life, They were greeted and blessed by all the other Elf Gods.

One stood off to the side. It was obvious that the other elves would not let this one join the ceremony. "Arionus was not born at the Tree of Life," they all said. "They are an outsider."

That didn't stop Hephaes from approaching Arionus the Water Elf. No one had ever reached out to Arionus, so this was a shock to the older Elf God. Nonetheless, They blessed Hephaes in Their own way.

As Hephaes grew in age and power, They noticed strange things surrounding Arionus - mainly that the Water Elf always disappeared during the New Moon. Determined to find the truth, Hephaes searched the depths of Lake Bovaly, where Arionus had hidden. Hephaes' power still wasn't strong enough to fight back the tides, and They almost drowned.

Arionus saved Them, scared and concerned that someone had followed Them. It turned out that Arionus was cursed with pain and darkness from the Abyss, and They were trying to deal with the curse and break it by Themself. Above all, Arionus did not want to hurt anyone.

Hephaes promised to always be there to help. Even when it came time to design the Elf Gods' Holy Instruments, Hephaes was adamant that the Holy Grail would never be used as a weapon, and instead serve like a lighthouse: it would guide the lost back home.

With their Holy Instruments in hand, Hephaes and Arionus returned to the Tree of Life, eager to start their new lives as guardians of the holy tree - Hephaes became a guardian, while the other elves still disregarded and abused Arionus as a curse and an outsider.

That didn't stop the two friends from working hard to protect the elven forest and all the creatures. But the Abyssal Power was getting worse and racking Arionus with intense, excruciating pain. Hephaes opened the pathway to the holy tree's Source Spring, where Arionus could find Their Seed of power and use it to close off the Abyss; while the Tree of Life was connected to the Ocean of Memories, it meant it was also connected to the Abyss.

But the Wind Elf saw Hephaes open the passage, and They immediately summoned the other Elf Gods. Hephaes was trapped far away from the holy tree, and by the time They broke free and rushed back to the Tree of Life, it was too late. The Elf Gods had confronted Arionus, and now Arionus was in deeper pain.

The Elf Gods blamed Hephaes for everything and tried to convince Them to kill Arionus. But They would never kill Their friend. Instead, Hephaes summoned Arionus back to the Altar of Fire, where They used the power and strength of a sun to seal both Themself and Arionus away in the Holy Grail.

Connections

-During the Moon Memories leading up to the hell event, Ophelia finds the Altar of Fire, where not just fire emits from the Holy Grail. When the young queen disappears into the Holy Grail, Arionus is released.

-The Elf Gods never let go of their bigotry. When Nikki, Momo, you, and Loen enter the meadow leading to the Tree of Life, the Wind Elf accuses you all of serving the "traitors" and tries to root you in place, just like with Hephaes.

-Neither Arionus nor Hephaes betrayed the other. Hephaes' Reflection and Arionus' Reflection Lost Tides work together to show the duplicity of the other Elf Gods: forcing the Fire Elf away, ambushing the Water Elf and telling Them they were sold out, antagonizing the issue of the Abyss, and trying to get one friend to kill the other.

-Hephaes ends Their story by deciding to share Arionus' fate, to keep Them from being alone. One of the turning points in the hell event is Hephaes deciding to use up Their Fire Seed. As the two Reflections explain, giving up one's Seed meant one would eventually become mortal. And at the end of the Tides and Flames event, both Hephaes and Arionus fade away.

-Even though the Fire and Water gods are dead, they aren't truly gone. First, Leonid's Prophecy explains that all gods go through a cycle of death and rebirth. And second, their powers and colors intertwined to create the Flower of Eberne, an important item in Love Nikki in one of Orlando's memories.

Fun Facts

-Hephaes' name is taken from the Greek god Hephaestus, who was the God of Fire and Crafting.

-The Wind Elf called Hephaes' friendship with Arionus "self-righteous" and "blind trust." If anything, Fire Elf Hephaes is the only one who saw clearly: understanding Arionus' plight, learning as much as They could about the forest, seeking solutions beyond just violence. The other elves were self-righteous, arrogant, and blindly hateful.

-Only Hephaes and Arionus get names. The other Elf Gods are just referred to by their nature element, like Rock or Wind.

-In the Reflection and event, Hephaes is presented as gender-neutral, but Their voice actor is masculine.

-The other Elf Gods claimed that Arionus was an outsider and didn't belong at the Tree of Life... but Arionus' Seed was already at the Source Spring. The Tree of Life already recognized Them as an Elf God and a guardian.

[domina-luna-lune]

Remember when vol 1 chapter 12 was released at the same time as the first run of Dawn Duel? That's when I gave up on catching up with the story...

But with the recent rerun, I finally finished chapter 12 and reread Dawn Duel's story! I am ready for volume 2!

Anyway, what are some important things I should know before starting the current hell?

Things I have an idea of from events and/or have seen mentioned:

Somehow the player gets their body

Aeon and Marina are free to travel Miraland

Read half of Arionus/Hephaes event... sad end?

Nikki/Glow event fits somewhere around chapt 11 or 12?

Aloysius betrayal? To be continued

Envoys? Nikki's magic assistants/friends?

Mercury probably fished back what Zoey threw back into the sea?

Rien, the new boss

We're working with Savior? As in we're agents now?

[avreni]

Too broke for this hell, luckily my other account had saved enough.

[bittergrin]

Tales of Sand, Tide, & Flame by Bittergrin