#try to find as many hidden references as possible hehe

[foxssie]

Heisenberg and Jesse playing chess november 2023 an appropriation of 19th century German school painting Mephistopheles and Faust playing chess

[bvg-arcade]

Ok I just gotta talk about how interesting I find this au (and concept in general). First, if you haven’t read this, then go shoo read it instead and then come back if you want. (Also I will be referring to the characters as cookies.)

But anyways, I find the concept of PV slowly descending into madness while trying to revive Lily very interesting, and I absolutely love it. There’s not a lot of AU’s out there that people have where PV is considered the bad guy. 

I imagine that PV’s physical health would also begin to slowly deteriorate with this, since healing so many cookies can be very draining. And I just know that his mental health has been ruined forever. 

Not exactly sure how bad DE is in your au, but I’m guessing she murdered many cookies, or at least injured a lot of them. Imagining PV not only descending into madness, but also slowly realising he is just as bad as the person everyone in the kingdom was trying to destroy for so long must ruin him.  

Also, the idea of Lily slowly molding while PV is desperately trying to save her, killing many i the process, is really heartbreaking. The concept that Lily’s body is so close to getting bad enough that it begins to mold that PV takes the risk of trying to revive her can go one (1) of two (2) ways. 

One (1): PV takes the risk and it works! Lily is back, but now we have some other issues. 1st, cookies would definitely notice is Lily was back, since so many of them saw her die as DE, how exactly would PV explain this? Or would he keep her hidden? 2nd, how would Lily react? Not just to being revived, but to finding out how PV was able to bring her back/what his practice was. Assuming she remembers anything, who knows, maybe she’s forgotten everything since being turned into DE. 

Two (2): PV fails, and now Lily is nothing but crumbs. I think this would be the breaking point for PV, which can lead him to doing a number of things (that I won’t say but you can probably guess). Now, I’m curious to how this would affect his mental state, I believe that this happening to PV would cause him to feel a indescribable amount of misery. I think that’d he’d lock himself in his room/castle and stay in there for a very long time (not sure if Crepe would also stay with PV? But Crepe in this whole situation is just a whole other thing). There’s also a possibility that the guilt of this situation would be so heavy on PV that he turns himself in, but how would the kingdom/s react to this? I can’t imagine there’s any good end to this.

Anyways anyways uhh neurodivergent ramblings done hehe,, this au is very cool :> /gen /srs

soooo I've never talked about any of my cr aus on here before... but today that changes! finally sharing my horrors with the world in a very long tumblr post that probably nobody will read! yay!

tw for a lot of murder crimes and also a mention or two of self harm. also just a lot of generally Mentally unwell behaviour that I'm not going to fully list here but. if you think there's a chance u might not be okay with stuff falling under the category of 'mentally unwell behaviour' then u should probably leave because. this au contains many horrors. you have been warned!

soooo the au is actually the one my blogs named after! I think before I get into explaining all the lore I should explain the name first, since it doesn't really relate to anything in the au specifically so I wanna explain why it's named. that. me n my friend beep (who also is the one who made this au with me! yay!) made an au of a similar name for another fandom like wayyy before either of us got into cookie run, and the name actually fit that one! we named this au the vanillaverse au as like a kindof homage to the other older au since the vanillaverse au was out first cookierun au and the other one is just like. extremely iconic to us and Only us so it felt right to name it after that. so the vanillaverse was born! and with it the pv in that au and his many diseases! hooray!

so the actual plot of the au goes like this. In the final final battle with everyone vs dark enchantress, pv gives the finishing blow to her and kills her, along with lily. you just have to trust me that in this act of de murder exploding it like reverts her body back to lily so that's what they're left with. lily corpse. which isn't fun especially pv because to me purelily is REAL and that's the dead body of his wife he's currently looking at. not a fun time for old peepaw...

both lily's burial and the victory celebrations for winning the war against de are held in the vanilla kingdom, and it probably gives pv so much whiplash to have to go between mourning his dead wifey and like. celebrating happily woo hooray victory party!! and he just really misses lily. like a lot. an overwhelming an amount. and so he comes to the conclusion that with magic as strong as his, just as he was the one tasked with dealing the final blow to and killing de/lily... he's also the only one who can bring her back. so in the dead of the night, he sneaks out of his castle, shovel in hand, and goes to lily's grave to steal her body away for his lily reviving scheme.

because of how recently the grave was actually dug, I doubt that anyone would notice the fact that the soil had been freshly tampered with, assuming pv did a good enough job at putting everything back in place. so he now had lily's corpse, the rest of the kingdom none the wiser to it's disappearance. which he kept in a secret room I've decided is accessible through somewhere in like. his study or something. someplace he would normally be a lot but also not be disturbed so he can sneak away and do various. things.

you see, the way I imagine it, healing magic of all forms generally speaking is something that needs to be actually practiced. and through pv's many years of helping and healing others whenever someone gets hurt, he's gotten extremely good at it. but it still stands that he's never revived someone before, and would need some way to practice in order to obtain the skills needed to revive lily. and as much as he can do various things to preserve lily's body as long as possible, he's still on a timer, having only a relatively short window of time before lily's body starts to rot (or mold?). and he can't practice on lily's body itself, since if he messed up in any way (which is bound to happen on first attempt), then lily's body would be ruined and he wouldn't be able to revive her! so he needs other avenues to practice his magic. and he doesn't have very many options with the time constraints considered.

at first, he tries to hurt himself in order to heal his own wounds as a form of practice. but it becomes clear very very fast that he'd need to do more than just healing his own wounds to gain the skills needed to achieve his goal. he can only hurt himself so much, even with the power of his soul jam, there's a limit still to how much he can hurt himself before it ends up being fatal. and it's just so incredibly draining, and well, painful to have to continuously receive and heal all of these wounds... so he concludes there's only one other option. if hurting himself isn't an option... maybe... just maaaaybe... a few other people hurt wouldn't be such a terrible cost. as long as in the end he has the love of his life back, it's worth it, right? he'd do anything for her, which also extends to... this. and since there's so many people in the vanilla kingdom right now, both citizens and people visiting just for the celebrations... it wouldn't be too hard to just pin it on someone else if the situation requires it!

so, he kidnaps his first victim, feeling extremely guilty, but still carrying out the act out of pure desperation for any chance to see lily again. he brings them to his secret room I mentioned earlier, and carries out his plan. hurting them, healing them, hurting them, healing them... until their body can't take the torture anymore, and the cookie passes away. pv tries, and fails to revive them until their body breaks and crumbles beyond any sense of repair, making the revival impossible. it seems like his plan has failed... but as they say, if you fail the first time, try, try again.

as pv continues to downwards spiral into complete madness, he starts loosing track of how many peoples lives he's ended, how many peoples lives he's unrightfully spent for nothing more than the chance to see lily again. he's already gone this far, he'll see it out until the very end. if he can't revive lily, then what were all these deaths even for? he needs to get his lily back. not only to see her again, to feel her loving embrace... but to give all the lives he's stolen in his massacre some sense of meaning, to give all these deaths a reason for happening. despite pv trying to target the cookies that the least number of people would notice missing, after a while people start to take note of the disappearances. soon the kingdom goes into lockdown, not letting anyone, including the visitors leave until this kidnapper and potential serial killer is caught. what this means for pv is more people to use for his lily reviving schemes. what this means for the rest of the kingdom though is what soon starts to spiral into what could soon surely be a mass panic.

pv has no choice but to go out and comment on the ordeal publicly, in an attempt to calm the kingdom down. with his status as a beloved figure of peace, love and hope, and his just generally calming nature, he manages to calm the kingdom down to an extent, though people are still uneasy. an unknown killer on the loose... people needed someone to blame, and because of... well, almost everything about pv and how people perceive him really, he wasn't going to be the person taking the blame. on the other hand, there's a cookie a lot of vanillians know to be dangerous and willing to hurt people, with an entire warehouse/hangar/lab almost entirely to themselves that they know the ins and outs of more than any other cookie...

strawberry crepe. even with espresso there to testify for their innocence, it wasn't enough to stop people from suspecting them. even with no evidence and therefore no justifiable reason to act on these suspicions in any reasonable way, it still stand that they are one of the main suspects. and it does change how people treat them, especially the raisin villagers. just as them and black raisin was starting to get on friendly terms, this happens, and now she's back to feeling uneasy being even around them. this angers crepe, so they decided they now only have only one choice: to find the real kidnapper/killer and prove their innocence one and for all. it is at this point I should note that in this au, pv is crepe's adoptive father, which makes things all the more all the more terrible for crepe as they start to realize that their dad is in fact! the person behind all of this. betrayed by now both people they've chosen put their trust in to... oh god.

I haven't really decided on how things play out after crepe decides to go detective mode and try to solve the case, but that's basically the au concept as it is right now. im sorry for this being so long but!! if you got here I just wanna say: thank you for reading!! I would draw art of this au but it's hard because pv just looks like. normal pv here. and so does anyone else. the au doesn't call for funky cool au designs so there's just none to be found. but I really hope people enjoy hearing about this au :] also I might've forgotten some things but I'm not reading through this all again to check so um. sorryyy about that also sorry about any typos I'm not going back to fix them sorry not sorry!

but yeah. pv accidentally cancels purelily and then spams the undo button so much and so hard that everything explodes and the horrors take over/JOKE

[nad-zeta]

match-up request?

hi! i hope this finds you in good health and i hope you are having a wonderful day so far! i would like an ikemen sengoku match-up, if that is okay? if not, then i apologise and ignore me, haha… this might get long, i don’t know?

alright, so i am a female gemini with isfp personality. in terms of appearance, i am pretty average — brown hair, brown eyes, average height, so i wouldn’t put much attention into that, haha.

now, in terms of personality… well, it gets kind of tricky. it really depends on who i am with — some people could describe me as a silent, straightforward type who doesn’t say much and acts pretty mature ( which is usually in formal situations or when i am feeling threatened by someone ) while others can describe as total opposite; playful, loud and outspoken ( usually in front of friends and family ).

in any way, most of the time i give off this very confident and ‘i don’t give a damn’ vibe, and as such, many would say i am very chill and don’t bother myself with problems and stress, which is very wrong but that’s the impression i leave. i do tend to behave like that, though, as i am not a fan of opening up to everyone and anyone about my true emotions. that being said, i will probably tease people and behave superior in terms of 'not feeling anything’, as i dislike appearing 'weak’ and giving others the advantage. either that, or i just really have something i’d call 'trust issues’. it’s not that serious though — honestly, i am just really playful, sarcastic, playfully flirty and throwing around dark humour and philosophical tales about conspiracy theories. or i am playfully ( or seriously, if i am riled up ) argumentative and up for debates!

though, i do like openness in relationships! be it platonic or romantic. i am a communicative type, and no matter how passive i might be at times, i always prefer to talk things out or am willing to hear people out. i may not be the best listener and comforter ( awkward person alert ), but i do try to give advice and be there for someone as i feel satisfied with my own existence if i feel useful. one of the ways i weigh my self-worth actually is in being capable of making people smile or laugh, or just feel better. i’d say my love language is a mix of physical touch and giving gifts?

i have many interests, going from medicine to botany, astrology, astronomy, writing, art, photography, languages, spirituality — honestly anything that sparks curiosity within me. though, i am also very likely to procrastinate and leave all those interests on hold. though i like to consider myself open-minded, i am also extremely stubborn. my opinion is right ( i am very well aware that it may not be, but that’s just how stubborn i am 😂 ) and it takes a lot of convincing to make me change my mind ( remember when i said debates? ). though, lately i have been tending not to get so riled up over everything, and will not argue unless it really ticks the nerve.

i am, however, willing to apologise if i feel or notice i was at wrong. my sense of guilt is rather big and if i feel guilty or bad, i will seek to fix it. forgiveness is a big thing for me.

along with stubbornness, i’d say some of my flaws could be that hidden sensitivity and lack of emotion towards people or situations, at times — for i can behave rather coldly. i also have minor mood-swings — i had late night situations where i cried my heart out after laughing at stuff, or when i was pretty cheery at school but then just got quiet. oh, yeah, if i am mad, i will probably be silent and not talk to someone! i am a walking contradictory.

i am very affectionate, though. even if one may never guess, i adore hugs and physical contact and am very likely to annoy someone with either giving attention or seeking attention. honestly, it just takes to become a bit closer to me and i will be silly, affectionate and fluffy.

not going to try to describe any of the ikemen sengoku characters, i don’t want anything to be biased, haha, but i will say that i don’t like people who don’t know what they want and who are not serious about things that require seriousness and maturity. and honestly, that goes in both platonic and romantic waters.

ah, that ended up being long and messy, i wonder if it is even understandable? it’s pretty hard to describe yourself as objectively and as shortly as possible, at least for me…

i hope that this is alright with you? again, i sincerely, really apologise if you aren’t taking these requests at the moment or just aren’t feeling up for these, which i understand completely! i hope you will have a wonderful day or night nevertheless, and i pray you are or soon will be in a good mood and with happy thoughts! stay safe!!

Hi, there love! Thank you so much @viaervi​ for the request! You are always more than welcome to submit a request for anything, lol! <3 I hope you enjoy it! hehe, don’t forget I’m new to writing so it might be shit ^0^

So I match you with............... Masamune

The first interaction the two of you have, you realized Masamune has absolutely no boundaries. He just waltzes into your room while you were writing, looked down at your journal, smiled, and plucked it away from you. You tried to grab the book back because you had your whole life there, art, writing, doodles, and your photos. He was wearing that daring grin of his while holding the book above your head, ever so out of reach. He was definitely taking advantage of your average height, you jumped up and down trying to grab it to but to no avail. Eventually, Masa placed his elbow on your head to keep you from moving and started going through your book. He found a particularly lovely photograph that you had taken a while back. You dabbled in photography, and the photo he now held was one of the first pictures you ever took, so it held a significant amount of sentimental value. He was absolutely amazed at the beauty of it. “did you paint this lass”. “No, obviously not, it’s called a photograph”. You had to explain your whole backstory for the second time with the hopes that he wouldn't think you crazy like Nobunaga and Mitsunari did. Then you proceeded to explain the concept of photography best you could. He just gave you the brightest smile you had ever seen and said he believed you. He then welcomed you to the past, and before you could say another word, he left with the photo. You were shocked. Felt like you were just hit by a hurricane.

You were a pretty quiet person more so cause everything was so unfamiliar, but that seemed to have lasted all but 1-minute cause Masamune would just appear out of nowhere and start pestering you. He would poke your cheek continually until you would say something to him. He knew there was more to you than the quiet straightforward expression you wore. You felt that you could truly let your guard down with him, so you showed him your loud, playful side, which he loved btw. Both of you became instant besties for the resties. Flinging playful jokes and comments at each other. Physical contact wasn’t a problem for any of you, so you guys would playfully nudge each other and occasionally roughhouse a little. Especially if Masamune was being a bit cheeky.

Masa enjoyed the fact that you had so many different freaken hobbies. Every day with you was like an adventure on its own, and you were so knowledgeable about the most random things. One night you were chilling in the garden looking at a super moon when Masamune appeared out of nowhere with his hands covering your eyes “guess who?”. “Could it be a pirate? or captain hook?” He couldn’t help but smile at your strange references. He didn’t understand, just what it was about him that reminded you of a pirate. What a strange little kitten you were. He just chuckled and announced himself. The two of you laid on the grass, looking up at the clear night sky. You told Masamune all about astronomy, and then to his surprise, you told him about astrology. He was so amused by the sheer amount of knowledge you had about this vast universe. He was amazed at the concept of astrology and how it could give you a glimpse of a person’s basic characteristics, preferences, and flaws. You even managed to tell him his star signs and the personality traits that went with it. He was shook, darn that is so accurate. Since then, the two of you made it a kind of inside joke. Like how whenever Nobunaga was super extra and dramatic the two of you would look at each other with a knowing smile and say, “wow Nobunaga is being such a Leo right now” “Classic”, followed by a fit of laughter.

Not only that but Masa also loved hearing his kitten’s conspiracy theories! You had even made up a few about Mitsuhide and what he could be up to when he would sneak out during the day. One day the two of you also placed bet to see whose conspiracy theory of Mitsuhide’s whereabouts was more accurate. The bet was on! The two of you trailed him all afternoon, watching him to figure out what his deal was. Unfortunately, the two of you couldn’t prove any of your theories correct, cause the sneaky snek could sense the two of you following him from a mile away and just lead you around in circles all day. After a while, the two of you lost interest and decided to visit a new teahouse for some tea and dumplings instead.

To your surprise you discovered Masa could actually cook. He insisted on giving you a cooking lesson to repay you for all the random little things you had taught him. He decided the easiest thing to teach you would be, bread. So, both of you started by making a sourdough starter and leaving it to proof while you drank some tea. Then you continued to make the bread dough. When it came to kneading the bread, you were so lost in thought that, when you threw the flour down to flour the workbench, you threw a bit too much a little too hard, and it went *poof* all over your face and body. Masa turned to see how you were coming along when he saw you covered in flour. Cue masa howling in laughter while teasing you about looking like a ghost. Oh, he thinks this is funny does he, let’s see how funny it is when he is covered in flour. You grabbed a handful of flour and playfully flung it at him. Within a few minutes, the kitchen was covered top to toe in flour. Hideyoshi went to the kitchen to get a drink of water at just the wrong moment cause just as the last of the flour was being thrown, it landed straight in his face. The two of you looked at each other for a moment in silence and then bust out laughing once more and started teasing Hideyoshi. Both of you had no regrets when, after a long scolding, you had to clean the kitchen.

The two of you had been besties for quite some time, and Masa was starting to get serious about you. He spent no time confessing his feelings for you. The both of you were a very affectionate, physical couple. You would run up to him when he would come back from the war and give him the tightest hug. He would pick you up, kiss you all over your face, and twirl you around in circles.

Good thing you dabbled in medicine cause after that very war, you discovered that Masa had gotten hurt. You carefully cleaned and redressed his shoulder wound. You were a little mad cause he just shrugged of his injury like it was no big deal. You were also feeling extra sensitive cause on that day, you had crazy mood swings. Everything was so overwhelming that u suddenly just burst out into tears. He felt a sharp pain in his chest from seeing his beloved kitten cry. He held you tight in his arms, whispering reassuring words in your ears. He even threw in a few dark jokes about the war, just to bring that smile back on his face. Darn, your dark sense of humor. And darn Masamune for having hilarious jokes. You couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. Gosh, you loved this big idiot, and his ability to put a big smile on your face even in the midst of one of your crying fits. This had become a kind of a tradition for whenever he would find you upset or mad.

You and Masa are two chilled peas in a pod. Just having fun, living in the moment, and not stressing about minor things you can’t control. And like I said before, you two are all over each other lol. Masa will have no shame in pulling you in for a quick make-out session right in the middle of the hallway. One-time, Ieyasu caught the two of you exchanging a quick kiss, and man, this boy, was as red as a tomato. You could have sworn he had never seen someone kiss before. Ieyasu dropped his books in shock and just turned around and walked away. Guess who teased the porcupine since that day! Your favorite is, after a long day to just come home and cuddle with Masa. He will just sit there with you in his arms and listen to you vent about everything and anything. The two of you can often be found snuggled up together under a fluffy blankie looking at the stars in the night sky.

Other potential matches……………Ieyasu

I hope you enjoyed! Also, it seems the more of these I write the longer they get ^o^

[revelingrexan]

Flug thoughts before the ep

[inconsistent time stamps for links and stuff at bottom of post]

For fun, I want to share some ideas I’ve had centering around Dr. Flug before tonight’s episode airs. (Probably nothing of this will be touched on in the ep, but eh.) I want to learn more about what Dr. Flug’s deal is. He’s a terrifying villain but doesn’t seem to want to be at Black Hat Organization.

My main guess is Dr. Flug crashed into Black Hat Organization HQ — whether by Dr. Flug’s fault or by Black Hat’s intervention, who knows — and Black Hat threatened Dr. Flug to stay and pay off the expenses. But, instead of letting Dr. Flug leave after making the money for repairs, Black Hat is instead keeping him indefinitely, constantly threatening him with death. The “deadlines,” or most of them, all over Dr. Flug’s calendars might be written literally, although this may never be solidly confirmed and will have to just stay head canon.

However, Black Hat gives Dr. Flug access to many resources and probably indirectly offers protection, too, just by reputation, so Dr. Flug might be making the best of his situation.

How I came to this conclusion:

The airplane in the roof of Black Hat Organization and Dr. Flug saying he came to the organization “by plane”

In one episode, there’s a still image of Dr. Flug hastily throwing a bunch of books into a carnivorous plant to get rid of them. One of the books is labeled something like “The Complete Guide to Hijacking Planes.” (I unfortunately can’t find it now — I thought it was in the Q&A ep for some reason — and I’ve already spent much longer on this post than I intended, haha. I’ll edit and link if I find it.)

Dr. Flug’s changing motivational animal posters (“Hang in there,” “Hope is lost,” “Hope is restored”) plus the yellow “Don’t try to run -BH” sign in both the “worst nightmares” machine short and around the end of A Guide for an Evil Conquest

Obviously Dr. Flug doesn’t want to be working for Black Hat. Or, at least it’s hard for him to be there.

Dr. Flug’s diploma

He graduated as a mad scientist from an institution run by Black Hat. So, we know he went out of his way to basically be a certified villain. (I’m interested in what Black Hat teaching villainy in an organized fashion, such as an actual school, means for the dynamic of this show’s underworld. But I doubt that will ever be touched upon, haha. I’m probably thinking too sociologically for a Cartoon Network show, but jeeeeez I’d like to see some sociology student or someone write a fic with this thought at least in the background.)

Another side note, I wonder if we’ll ever find out who the other person who signed the diploma is. You can vaguely see “Dr. Flug” under Dr. Flug’s circular signature, but I can’t decipher the other one. (“President Dr. Black Hatter”? Hahahaha no the first name has too few symbols where's the double strikethrough when you need it)

Dr. Flug’s delight in the more evil aspects of his job

He seemed too smug and happy threatening the Delightful Kids from Down the Lane, and he got really into threatening the Kids Next Door. And we can’t forget his often-fanarted threat to Mojo Jojo, even if it doesn’t seem like the injection had the desired effect.

I genuinely wonder if 5.0.5.’s name is intended as a low-key S.O.S. cry for help since one of my friends pointed out that adding periods between the numbers changes the name to nonsense. It doesn’t stand for the number 505 anymore.

I really don’t know what to make of the 1921 photo, hahahaha, (Other than it being a reference to The Shining) and to what extent it works into the series’s lore. If it’s supposed to mean Demencia, Dr. Flug, and 5.0.5. have been with Black Hat for that long, then my idea falls apart because the plane in the roof of BHO isn’t of a design from that era. (But, then again, it wouldn’t be the first time a cartoon mismatches era designs for the sake of visual clarity or other reasons.) It really could be just a for-fun reference, but a lot of the “flashed for only one or a few frame” images seem to be important. Basically, I just don’t know, although it's so specific it seems most likely to just be a shout-out reference.

This was all just stuff I mentally put together and decided to finally write up in an organized manner. It will be fun to see what gets confirmed or disproven as I watch or read more theory stuff and more of the show is aired. I know I haven't caught everything from the show. (Like there's stuff about ones and zeroes from flag signals in the Boxmore episode, possibly a binary message, but I haven't looked into it. And Demencia's hidden message from Elmore doesn't seem directly relevant to this post, so I haven't discussed it here.)

Calendar with "DEADLINE"s at 0:27 above 5.0.5.'s drawing of him and everyone. There's also a still image of Dr. Flug in one episode panicking with his calendar in the background, also covered in deadlines.

"Don't try to run" sign at 9:15

Dr. Flug's diploma is in more than one episode, but I found it first in The Lost Cases of Elmore while making this post, first clearly visible at 1:56

Dr. Flug threatening the Delightful Children from Down the Lane at 10:05 and then the Kids Next Door at 11:35 Bonus, Black Hat's newspaper talking about the Kids Next Door going missing at 8:35 of the Q&A. WHAT DID YOU DO, DR. FLUG

Mojo Jojo trapped and getting threatened at 10:29, and someone asking about the effects of the injection at 4:36

The 1921 picture shows up around 0:58 during the static, after Black Hat pushes the Hat Bot back down and before the Cartoon Network logo shows up. It's only there for one frame or so.

The stuff with the ones and zeroes flags I've been too lazy to delve into is mentioned starting at 9:26 of this English fan video by Cartoon Universe

And one last thing lol: Dr. Flug is a mass kidnapper and I will not forget. (6:29 and confirmation that everyone is still inside at 10:48)

[fireeaglespirit]

beyond-far-horizons

This is awesome and because *hangs head in shame* I dont play the games (i'm a noob with no money and my parents never let me have video games so I just like the story okay?) I have never seen this bit.

I ADORE multiverse/underworld stuff as you know or perhaps you don't as I don't know how far I got explaining Aeq and Midnight Palace but it is FULL of that stuff. I love the symbolism and it is very Jungian (I am the Priest of Jung okay, welcome to the New Testament of Jess!) But I need to sleep rn so we can get to it later.

Thank you for showing me because then I can reference it if I have time but I have so many other things going on right now and dunno I love fanfic and these stories but then I get down because I get virtually no response and I need that interaction to continue. It is my luck to always like dead fandoms with minor prequel characters I guess...still I do feel the fanfic has improved my writing and vice versa

I was thinking alot about hell and demons and what 'heaven' would be as I had a very detailed review on FF.net asking me all this questions, like why Sparda would long for the light if he is a demon and dunno, it always comes back to my pet theories of light and dark and the union of opposites. Sparda is so interesting because I feel he came to 'justice' on his own but probably also cemented by this mysterious priestess who he had to sacrifice. At least that is the way

the way I would go if I was developing the lore or a prequel game. It seems the most juicy option. Anyways this 'light' ties into my feelings about the transcendent, this higher power/reality urging all to grow and develop. I guess I would see demons as base and vicious aspects of reality and sources of wild and violent energy - very much as both Jung and early cultures saw them or primal gods or 'titans'.

It's also why I have a headcanon Sparda a)is fascinated by humans - they have the same struggles as him and b)he has a huge library on religions of the world, history, philosophy and science because he is still trying to discover the nature of reality just like Eva and this is what really brings them together.  I wrote this line last night when Eva looks at all the books 'So you devour our souls metaphorically instead of physically now?'

I debated on making Sparda saintly, like he has already has his struggle and is now secure in himself but that isn't interesting to me plus you know our shared love of fighting with the feral nature to ultimately make the person better. Plus I kinda like the romantic angst that way like with MadaMito hehe

Okay I need to go to bed now.

Ok, prepare for huge contrived reply incoming...

First of all. What??

I hate when parents do this. I’m so sorry, I never knew about it... I really hate this.

Video games are just another media, I never understood why people would pick on that and forbid their child from having some fun. FFS. 

If you want to play something some day I’ll always be there to help you installing, finding them, etc.. whatever you might need. Or even just finding anything related to games, etc.. I don’t play much these days as you know the multiple reasons but it was such an important part of my life I can barely imagine being cut out from this, even thought we always had old consoles this was very important.

About Sparda and the fic. I need to be sincere and say I’m taking so long to reply for two reasons. First because I LOVE the way you wrote Sparda but I was afraid of being too simplistic with my reply so I delved a lot on things...

But... tah-dah : I lost the huge reply I had wrote before. My note has 0 battery so its glued to the wall and it just turns off sometimes suddenly and I’m dumb and don’t save things so yeah. I kinda lost myself and got angry about that. 

Anyway, I understand what you said here, especially your feelings about the fic, in many ways I can see how my fandom views reflect in the original world I’m making, and the inverse is contrary. There are many parallels. It really helps and fandom work is as worthy as original, imo, I’ve been thinking about this. Our obsession with prequels and obscure characters has a reason and that is exactly because we want to explore what is hidden behind the veil... exploring the possibilities.

Sometimes it comes to shipping speculation, and this too has a reason.

Thinking about your views on Sparda and Eva, I thought a lot on what it truly means to write or develop an obscure ship and why we are so interested in that (think about that, many of our common favorite characters from prequels, etc..)

I came to the conclusion that in Eva/Sparda just like in many of our other ships, has the common theme of the heroin facing her ‘dark reflection’, her ‘animus’ as Jung would say (OH BOY I’m entering that with you), and she, at first rejects it like she reflects her own darker aspects, her unconscious… its abhorrent for her so she seeks to destroy it as rapidly as possible as seen by Eva’s renewed determination after learning Sparda’s true nature in chapter 1. The animus represents her doubts and unconscious... However what we see in your story is much more interesting. 

Most stories of this kind focus solely in the female aspect changing from her interactions with the male, who is already developed, but here we have Eva being able to re-awaken some viciousness in Sparda when it seems he has been quite restrained from quite some time (centuries) but also, something that is much more interesting.. it calls to his own determination and his own personal story and sacrifice, for some reason his ‘lust’ and brush with the dark side makes it all more important and more powerful than if he simply had been saintly at that point, like you said. It makes he revisit it all and ponder.

I love how you added lines of ‘temptation’ from Mundus, part of Sparda seeks to surrender to his ‘nature’ as its just so easy, like slip in a pair of old shoes... while the priestess memory, albeit silently, fights it and reminds him of his struggle and his ideals and ultimately her sacrifice which was also his own sacrifice (of his old ways). I think his darker side has been neglected and I think you will use this to develop Sparda into greater heights. Its great we get to see this in the actual story and he is not perfect, but he certainly is incredible. 

Also, just as a side-note I loved how you described his hunger as mostly non-carnal as he glimpses her spirit and its light... when we see Sparda’s POV we get reminded every time of his non-human nature and his non-human perception of things which is clearly different. A demon’s prey is not flesh but spirit and this makes a lot of sense and a lot of potential.

To sum it up, you snatched the best of both worlds and is about to develop both characters under a relationship, as they have a lot to learn and gain from each other. I think this is the way your narrative is going, more or less.

These developments are unique aspects which I find extremely interesting and you are doing this in such a genial way and I can see already by the end of the latest chapter the strings of the themes I mentioned are pulled and ready to be followed.

So yeah, they’re in for a journey of development together. Neither of them starts the story as a ‘perfect’ entity either way... This was shown in a very nice way as you pointed out misconceptions regarding both sides involving the duo of protagonists.

“I was thinking alot about hell and demons and what 'heaven' would be as I had a very detailed review on FF.net asking me all this questions, like why Sparda would long for the light if he is a demon and dunno, it always comes back to my pet theories of light and dark and the union of opposites. Sparda is so interesting because I feel he came to 'justice' on his own but probably also cemented by this mysterious priestess who he had to sacrifice. At least that is the way I would go if I was developing the lore or a prequel game. It seems the most juicy option. Anyways this 'light' ties into my feelings about the transcendent, this higher power/reality urging all to grow and develop. I guess I would see demons as base and vicious aspects of reality and sources of wild and violent energy - very much as both Jung and early cultures saw them or primal gods or 'titans'.”

I abstained a bit from the conversation earlier as I feared my careless/godless (lmao) perception was too disturbing for you or anyone but I also pondered on concepts such as heaven and hell, salvation, damnation, etc.. when considering Sparda’s tale. I know DMC isn't Christianity but its imagery is somewhat based on Abrahamic religion/mythos so I’m bound to take in consideration some of my ideas regarding biblical mythology, as in... 

When I started reading the bible so long ago it always puzzled me to imagine what exactly were angels/demons. I mean, are they even able to think in the same way as us?? Or are them more like ‘robots’, AI following orders (especially angels sometimes strikes me as that) and perhaps demons are those ‘robots’ that rebelled against their determined function, idk.

Something I wondered more than a decade ago was if demons in the bible are truly lost in every way so I started thinking within the dmc setting. I’m interested in that all and those things I mentioned. The interesting part is that I once asked that to my catechist if demons could be redeemed (lmao I was crazy, I know, but bored above all). She was at first very mad with me (she was always) but she reluctantly told me that demons had known god up close and felt his power so their sin in not following him is much bigger than a human’s, something of the sorts. So it sounded like they are also able to choose their way and I sort of apply this to dmc, lol. I’m weird, I know...

Are they capable or ‘worthy’ of forgiveness, because demons in dmc clearly have free will and thought like us, or at least similar to us. Some of them, like Sparda have clearly a lot of intellect, but like you said... others are very ‘primal’. Perhaps this is the key. The ‘evolved’ demon develops intellect and power... perhaps you are in the right track and it goes hand in hand? Does this make any sense?? The more powerful and developed they are, the more they develop ‘higher brain functions’ and star resembling a human more, idk because the lower demons in dmc are clearly more animal-like and primal while Sparda has a human-like shape and intellect.

I think I know where we are going and this looks like both angels and demons are actually a ‘reflection’ of human psyche. So, demons are the primal ancient aspects of the brain are somehow walking around hell just like that, while heaven and its inhabitants are mysterious. I really like the way you described hell and its inhabitants, it makes a lot of sense to imagine it as a part of human psyche embodied, in a way. I imagine Heaven as the exact inverse of Hell so it has its own creatures and they’re born from ‘order’ instead of chaos as stated above.

We have Bayonetta as a source of inspiration and I think its very valid to use that in order to understand Sparda. Heaven isn’t exactly good there, is it? In fact it appears like a very controlling environment.    

Hell: Primal, violent, survival of the fittest anyone? Hell inhabitants embodied  the most basic aspects of the brain, as you said.

Heaven: It might stem from higher planes of thinking and represent the more ‘sublime’ or ‘newer’ aspects of the evolving mammal brain.

It might make an easy choice for heaven but also such tight atmosphere is bound to become stagnant, it is no longer permitting flaws and strong emotions (thus angels look apathetic af in Bayonetta). 

It might seem at first glance that heaven is good, hell is bad, however I think, if you delve into heaven you might realize the beings born there might be too ‘disembodied’ as they represent exactly those parts of human psyche which are the most sublime. Let me explain, I always felt like too much spirituality tends to make people leave behind the reality of things, it might make them lack empathy for living beings who have to commit difficult decisions on a living basis, basic survival, starvation, the struggle for life, etc..

Think about enlightenment and Bodhisattva, also the rituals of mortification which are legit scary and reminds me of this concept as only those who leave behind all that is ‘mortal’ and are detached to an extreme, can reach Nirvana. I know this has not much to do with Christianity but even in this religion we find analogous associations regarding detachment as divine and saintly. Its also harmful in a way, or am I reaching? While too much focus on the primal/carnal leads to obvious horrible things: vice and chaos; too much detachment leads to apathy.

I do think some level of detachment is necessary to reach happiness but too much of it makes people forget the reality of life and makes them not able to relate anymore to the ones around them, as the focus becomes solely spiritual it kind of deafens them to the ‘real world’ and ignore it.

This is all about reaching a balance as its is our favorite theme, too much light is bad, too much darkness is bad, etc.. or else the story would fall into itself as the reality of the three settings (heaven, hell, earth) would be rigid.

So here we have a darker aspect of heaven, imo, to balance things out.

Heaven is clearly ‘order’ and hell is ‘chaos’ so we might as well find a balance... our favorite theme as always. The fact that one being like Sparda, born amidst ultimate chaos would gaze upward in delight and desire something else doesn't surprise me. The fact is he could be bitter about it, you even gave away the line on your fic where Sparda mentions he has been denied ‘light’. I wonder what exactly that means and this is one of my favorite aspects of your Sparda is that he is aware of his condition and even thought he worked against it its still lingering to him.. like his own flickering appearance.

But he hasn’t made his way up to heaven, huh? 

So its not a far reach to believe in it (that he desired ‘light’, whatever it is) but my personal belief is that too much ‘light’ is not good either and Sparda realized the beauty in flawed humanity, which sits right in the middle of light and darkness, order and chaos... that’s why he became enamored by the concept of humanity and all the struggle our own condition imposes upon us.

For me this is an archetypal theme.

Just food for thought.

The matter is... how? What exactly awakened him to justice? 

This makes stuff much more interesting. This was a huge ramble, I know but I needed to develop this and see if it works,

It's also why I have a headcanon Sparda a)is fascinated by humans - they have the same struggles as him and b)he has a huge library on religions of the world, history, philosophy and science because he is still trying to discover the nature of reality just like Eva and this is what really brings them together.  I wrote this line last night when Eva looks at all the books 'So you devour our souls metaphorically instead of physically now?'

So yeah, about a) I’m totally with you and I can see why Sparda would empathize with humans, as I talked earlier and I think my explanation on why Sparda would be fascinated by humans instead of ‘angels’ is made up above and I hope this doesn't sound too weird, just my line of thought.

As a demon, he’s born from a very ‘imperfect’ reality. He knows how shitty things can be... Now I really wonder how his life was before he ‘awakened to justice’ he must have witnessed some remarkably horrible things in his life..

Under the setting I mentioned, it would be I think its kinda easier for a demon to do this since angels would be too stuck up in their haven, idk so this is how Sparda, the unlikely hero is the first of these beings to take arms and defend humanity. Sparda is so special as he was the one to side with humans by his own decision and free will. What a guy!

I debated on making Sparda saintly, like he has already has his struggle and is now secure in himself but that isn't interesting to me plus you know our shared love of fighting with the feral nature to ultimately make the person better. Plus I kinda like the romantic angst that way like with MadaMito hehe

I’m glad you didn't! This is probably a gradual process even thought they say he ‘awakened to justice’ which makes it seem like he suddenly just did so I believe he had brewing feelings from his life as a demon in hell... 

He must have been such an unique individual to perceive truths his peers where not ready to learn and truly, an act of rebellion against the system itself coming from someone who is ‘supposed’ to do only harm is really something we want to see on screen and I’m so glad you didn't simplify it as being a single event in his life.

I’m really in love with this theme because it shows these beings are able to change their own destinies, even someone with such dark origins.

[nageki-yuki-blog]

TsukiPara Event Drama – Escape from the Egg Castle - Translation

エッグキャスルからの脱出

Escape from the Egg Castle

1章1話

Chapter 1 - Part 1

In a certain place in a metropolitan area…… For the purpose of recording a variety program, Six Gravity and Procellarum have come to the studio.

 It seems that for some reason, a large-scale production set has been prepared but……?

 Six Gravity:  Six Gravity and!

 Procellarum:  Procellarum’s!

 Everyone:  “Escape from the Egg Castle!”  Starting now~!

 Kakeru:  ……So that’s how it is!  We have gotten trapped in this egg castle but…….

 Rui:  Yeah. We’ve suddenly been trapped. ……We’re in a pinch?

 Iku:  That’s right. We absolutely must get out of this pinch!

 Koi:  The rules for that will be from the two leaders!  Please take it away!

 Hajime:  Roger. First, in this egg castle, it seems that various stages have been prepared.

 Shun:  And in those stages it appears that there are precious treasures known as “Tsukino Eggs” hidden within.

 Hajime:  While searching for those treasures, we will aim to escape from the castle…… That’s how it is.

 Hajime:  However, it appears that they won’t let us escape that easily.

 Arata:  What do you mean?

 Hajime:  In order to find Tsukino Eggs, and reach the goals, it seems that there will be various tests and questions that we must clear.

 Shun:  That’s how it is.  By the way, it seems that there will be a wonderful reward for the unit that successfully escapes before the other ♪  Sounds like fun ♪

 Haru:  In other words, it’s like an immersive escape game.  Leave the riddle-solving to me?

 Aoi:  Hehe! Sounds like fun!

 Yoru:  So that means the unit that reaches the goal first is the winner.

 Hajime:  Yeah.

 Hajime:  But, it’s not just being faster, the “Number of Tsukino Eggs” will also be important.

 Shun:  By finding the proportion of the number of Tsukino Eggs that we have obtained, it seems that there will be an upgrade for the reward.

 Shun:  Even if you escape first, if you have obtained 0 Tsukino Eggs…… It seems that you won’t get a reward!

 Rui:  That would be disappointing.

 Iku:  Rui, let’s do our best to gather a bunch!

 Hajime:  In other words, for a true victory we need to gather a lot of Tsukino Eggs, and, we must quickly aim for the goal.  Understood?

 Kai:  I see!

 Kakeru:  Hajime-san, Shun-san, thank you very much for the extremely easy to understand rule explanation!

 You:  So this would mean it’s Gravi and Procella’s, real battle right?  Hehe…… I’m fired up ♪

 Kai:  Right!

 Koi:  During the athletic meet we regrettably lost to Procella after all.  This time Gravi will take the win!

 You:  We definitely won’t lose just like last time!

 Arata:  No no, that’s our line.  We definitely won’t lose.

 Kakeru:  Both teams have gotten fired up!

 Hajime:  Yeah. Well then, let’s begin.  Game…… Start!

 Shun:  Hehe…… Let’s have fun aiming for the goal ♪

 (To be Continued)

[Read parts 2-6 under the cut ^^]

1章2話

Chapter 1 - Part 2

Hajime:  Our first stage is…… Here.

 Aoi:  This is…… A big kitchen isn’t it?

 Haru:  Seems like it.

 Kakeru:  So there is a key to get to the next stage and Tsukino Eggs hidden somewhere in here right?

 Haru:  That should be right but…… There are so many things in here, that it seems searching will take a while.

 Kakeru:  Oh! Look over there!  Near the ceiling!

 Aoi:  That is…… a balloon?  I can’t read from here but there’s a card attached with something written on it.

 Kakeru:  Perhaps, there may be some hint for the key on that card!

 Haru:  Yeah, but at that height, I don’t think I could reach even if I jumped.

 Aoi:  Is there anything we could use as a stand…….

 Arata:  Hehehe…… Seems like our time has come!

 Arata:  Koi!

 Koi:  Huh? Me?

 Arata:  Ah, it’s a mission that can only be accomplished by us, the chosen ones!  Let’s go!

Koi:  Y-Yeah! I don’t really understand but being chosen, I only get a bad feeling about this!

 Arata:  Come, the chosen one Koi!  First you’ll head to underneath the balloon!

 Koi:  Roger!

 Arata:  And then…… Bend over!

 Koi:  Roger!!!

 Arata:  That’s it! That is the best position!  Stay like that and don’t move~!  ……Go!

 Koi:  O-Ouch!?

 Koi:  You’re using me as a step-stool?!!

 Arata:  Heh! I’ve got it!

 Koi:  You shouldn’t be saying “I’ve got it!”!  Arata! Suddenly stepping on me is mean you know!?

 Arata:  Ahaha. Sorry, sorry.  But thanks to you, we have safely gotten the balloon!

 Koi:  ……That’s great but, why did you make me into a step-stool.

 Arata:  That’s…… Because you were the chosen one.

 Koi:  I see…… Well I guess if I am the chosen one then there is no helping it!  ……No, don’t think you can get away with it from just that?!

 Kakeru:  More importantly than that, what is written on the message card attached to the balloon?

 Koi:  More importantly……?  Ka-Kakeru-san?!

 Arata:  Don’t mind, Koi-kun.  Umm what do we have here?  “The key is beside the purple.  The precious stone is beside Rui”?

 Koi:  ……What does that mean?

 Kakeru:  Purple? If you’re talking about purple…… It’s Hajime-san’s image color?

 Koi:  Moreover if it’s “Rui” then he should be in Procella’s team right now!?

 Hajime:  ……I see.

 Haru:  Ah, do you understand it too Hajime?

 Koi:  Huh? Hajime-san and Haru-san, you already know the answer!?

 Haru:  Yeah. Most likely the purple they are talking about, is referring to soy sauce.

 Kakeru:  Huh!?

 Aoi:  Oh, now that you mention it I think I’ve heard of that before.  At sushi restaurants they call soy sauce “purple”.

 Haru:  Aoi, you know a lot.  It means just that.  Also “precious stone*” is referring to “eggs”.  In other words, fried eggs.

[*this word has both meanings of precious stone or gem, and egg]

 Haru:  By the way, the reading for “Rui” shouldn’t be “Rui”, but actually “tears”.

 Hajime:  This is also a word used in sushi restaurants, “tears” refers to wasabi.

 Koi:  So that’s how it is!

 Aoi:  ……Which means that, the key is beside the soy sauce, the egg…… meaning a Tsukino Egg is beside the wasabi, is that right?

 Koi:  Alright! Let’s search!

 Kakeru:  Yeah!

Koi:  ……Found them! They are there!  It’s a key and a Tsukino Egg!

 Haru:  Yay.

 Hajime:  Yeah. With this we should be able to proceed to the next stage.

 (To be Continued)

[I’m sorry but the part between Arata and Koi in this chapter gives me an entirely different image xD

And it’s funny how the others say nothing about it xD]

1章3話

Chapter 1 - Part 3

Kai:  ……Now then, we must find the key needed to continue to the next stage and find Tsukino Eggs however…….

 Yoru:  There is a large treasure chest that seems to have a lot of meaning……

 You:  Makes you feel that it could actually be a trap…….

 Rui:  But, this treasure chest, won’t open.  Oh, there’s something attached.

 Kai:  This is…… An electronic lock.  On the keypad there is the alphabet instead on numbers.

 Iku:  So I guess that means that this treasure chest will open if you input some kind of keyword?

 Shun:  It must definitely be that ♪

 You:  So the problem is what is that keyword…… Hm?

 Yoru:  What’s the matter?  You?

 You:  No, in that corner there, I feel like I saw something move…….

 Rabbit:  (Hop!)

 Iku:  What!? A-A rabbit!?

 Yoru:  So cute~! They’re just a bit bigger than our Shiroda!

 Rui:  Oh, there’s some kind of message card attached to their neck.

 Kai:  Perhaps, that could possibly be the keyword!

 Rabbit:  (Running--!)

 Yoru:  Ah! The rabbit is escaping!  Such incredible speed!

 Iku:  If it’s speed, then I won’t lose either!  ……Let’s go! Rui!  Let’s capture the rabbit together!

 Rui:  Y-Yeah!

 You:  We’re counting on you!  Both of you!

 Yoru:  Do your best!

 Shun:  Hehe…… Ikkun and him chasing after the rabbit like that, is adorable like Alice ♪

 Kai:  Hahaha! They are!

 Iku:  Rui, wait there.  I’ll chase after the rabbit from over there, and I’ll lead him towards you so I want you to grab him.  Do you think you can do it?

 Rui:  Yeah, I’ll do my best.

 Iku:  Thank you. I’ll do my best too so I can guide him well!  Well then I’m going!

 Rui:  (Heart-pounding)

 Iku:  Rui-! He’s going-!

 Rabbit:  (Running--!)

 Rui:  H-Here!

 Rabbit:  (Hop)

 Rui:  Hah…… Hah……. I’ve caught, the rabbit!

Kai:  You both did wonderful!  Thank you!

 Iku:  Rui did his best!  That was great, Rui.

 Rui:  Yeah, thanks to Ikkun…….  Thank you.

 Shun:  Hehe, our juniors seem to have found another type of treasure as well.

 Shun:  ……Now then, rabbit-kun, I wonder what kind of message you have brought?...... Hmmm.

 Kai:  What’s written on there?

 Shun:  “A record has it but a CD does not.  Baseball has it but soccer does not.  Shogi has it but chess does not.”

 Shun:  “Paper* has it but hair* does not.  ……Furthermore, the keyword is 8 characters.”

[*both of these words are read as “kami” but use different kanji]

 You:  ……What is this?  A quiz?

 Shun:  So it’s a “Right or Wrong Quiz” then.  ……Hehe. It’s a question that’s a bit too easy though.

 Iku:  Huh!? Shu-Shun-san, do you already know the answer!?

 Shun:  Hehe…… If I add another hint, it’s something that Procella “doesn’t have”.

 Rui:  Huh…… It’s something we don’t have?

 You:  Oh-!  I’ll try to think of it without trying to show off!

 Shun:  Hehehe. Well then, I’ll give just another hint. ……“A coin has it but a parakeet doesn’t”.

 Yoru:  ……Oh! I know it!  It’s “uraomote*”!

[*this means something has two sides or is double-faced]

 Shun:  Correct! You’ve done well ♪

 Kai:  A record, baseball, shogi…… I see!  Certainly for all the ones that “have it”, they have two sides!

 Iku:  It’s true!

 You:  If you write it using the alphabet it is “URAOMOTE” ……It’s definitely 8 characters!

 Iku:  Alright! Then let’s quickly input it!

 Rui:  Exciting.

 Iku:  Ah!  It opened!

 Iku:  Inside the treasure chest, there is a key along with Tsukino Eggs!

 Kai:  Alright! Well then, let’s keep it this way and continue ahead!

 Everyone:  Yeah!

 (To be Continued)

1章4話

Chapter 1 - Part 4

Kakeru:  ……So far, we have gathered quite a lot of Tsukino Eggs!

 Koi:  After solving various questions, my head and body are exhausted-!

 Hajime:  Yeah…… But, it appears that the gathering of Tsukino Eggs has finally come to the end.

 Haru:  You’re right…… Somehow, compared to the stages we’ve had up until now, this stage has a different atmosphere.

 Aoi:  So I guess that means this is the final stage?

 Kakeru:  ……Oh! Look at that!  Over there!  There are a bunch of treasure chests lined up!

 Arata:  In front of the treasure chests, there is a message card with a question on it. ……What do we have here?

 Arata:  “Child = 1. Insufficient = 8.  Gyuudon* = 2.  Soybean pulp = ?  If it’s correct, the number of ? will open the treasure chest.”

[*a rice dish topped with beef and vegetables]

 Arata:  “However, the key to the goal is in the red box.”

 Arata:  ……Since they mention the goal, this seems like it must be the final question after all.

 Koi:  Looks like you can enter a number but…….  If it’s incorrect, you won’t be able to open the treasure chest.

 Arata:  A number huh…… I would think the maximum is the number of treasure chests here but…….

 Aoi:  Rather than counting, thinking of the precise answer seems faster.

 Hajime:  If that’s the case then no problem.  First of all I know the answer.

 Kakeru:  Huh? A-Already!?

 Hajime:  Yeah…… “Child” “Insufficient” “Gyuudon” “Soybean pulp” ……In these words, there is a common feature.

 Haru:  They all have kanji from the “chines zodiac”.

 Kakeru:  Y-You’re right!

 Hajime:  If you follow the pattern of “Child = 1”* with these words……?

[*Since the kanji for the 1st sign of the Chinese zodiac is in the word for child, and the pattern is the same for the rest of the words.]

 Aoi:  “Soybean pulp” is “4”!

 Hajime:  That’s it…… Up until now has been easy though.

 Koi:  ……For me, it may not have been that easy.

 Arata:  Me too…….

 Aoi:  Ahaha…….

 Hajime:  ……The problem here is, we can only choose 4 from this enormous treasure chest.  It will be which ones we decide to choose.

 Haru:  Since we must choose the 1 treasure chest that contains the key…….  In reality, we only get to choose 3 freely.

 Kakeru:  Yeah, this is troubling!

 Arata:  How about we decide 3 people to choose with rock, paper, scissors?

 Haru:  I see. Well then…… Rock, paper, scissors!

 Hajime:  ……So, the ones who get to choose treasure chests, are me and Kakeru and Koi huh.

 Koi:  Alright! Then, first is me!  The officer of surprises, Koi-kun will choose! ……Open!

 Koi:  Oh, there’s some message card inside!

 Koi:  Let’s see here?  “You must forfeit 10 of the Tsukino Eggs you have gathered so far” ……Whaaaat--!?

 Arata:  Hey--!?

 Koi:  Th-That’s just…….

 Aoi:  D-Don’t worry!  The next one, will be a good treasure chest for sure!  Okay?  Kakeru?

 Kakeru:  Y-Yes! ……Good treasure chest come!  Good treasure chest come!  ……Then, I’m going with this one!  ……Here!

 Kakeru:  Let’s see? “You must forfeit 20 of the Tsukino Eggs you have gathered so far” ……Woaaah--!?

 Haru:  Ahaha…… Those were some wonderful choices you two.

 Kakeru:  Waa-h! It’s because of my unluckiness--! I’m very sorry--!

 Koi:  In even this crucial time my disappointment skill--!?

 Hajime:  It’s fine, you two.  Don’t worry about it.

 Haru:  Since this is a game, these kinds of things also happen.

 Aoi:  That’s right. Don’t let it get you down?

 Arata:  It’s fi-ne! It’s deliciously fitting for a TV program!

 Kakeru:  Errr…… Everyone…….

 Koi:  Thank you…….

 Hajime:  Well, now then for the finale I guess I’ll choose.  ……Okay, I’ll go with this.

 Hajime:  Hm? What?  “Big hit!  You will acquire 50 more Tsukino Eggs than what you have left!” ……Is what it says.

 Koi:  A-Amazing!

 Arata:  Hajime-san, you’ve really got it~!

 Aoi:  Out of this mountain of treasure chests, choosing the big hit is unbelievable!

 Haru:  As expected, Hajime.

 Kakeru:  Hajime-sa~n!!

 Hajime:  It’s still too early to be pleased.  Let’s hurry to the goal?

 Everyone:  Yeah-!

 (To be continued)

1章5話

Chapter 1 - Part 5

Shun:  ……Well then, it seems that this is the final stage.

 Iku:  Huh? How do you know that?

 Shun:  Hehe. The demon lord’s sixth sense!

 You:  So in other words, intuition.  ……Although, it certainly has a different atmosphere from what we’ve had so far.

 Kai:  Yeah…… So, this time we also have a treasure chest with an electronic lock and a question left for us.

 Yoru:  This time it looks like the electronic lock is the type that allows numeral inputs.

 Yoru:  For the crucial question…… Umm.

 Rui:  “T = 1. D = 1.  F = 2.  K = ?” ……It says.

 Iku:  Hmm?  I wonder what that is?

 Shun:  You don’t understand?  Well then, I’ll give you a hint.

 Iku:  Or rather, Shun-san, you understand already!?

 Rui:  Even though not even 10 seconds have passed?

 You:  ……Even though you forget things so easily, Shun’s mind is amazing.

 Kai:  Yeah, although he quickly forgets everything else.

 Shun:  Hehehe…… You see, if you think if it in terms of the question’s rules, Kai’s birthplace is “2” of something?

 Kai:  My birthplace?  ……Osaka is “2”?  ……Oh!

 Yoru:  I’ve got it! “T = To” “D = Dou” “F = Fu” “K = Ken”* is it!

[*This is referring to the administrative divisions of Japan, called Todoufuken, of which Osaka is a part.  The numbers refer to how many of each kanji there are: 1 metropolis, 1 territory, 2 urban prefectures, and 43 prefectures]

 You:  ……Which means, the answer is “43”!

 Shun:  Completely correct ♪

 Rui:  Then, I’ll input the answer.  …… “43” ……Oh, it opened!

 Iku:  Inside it…… Is a key that has “the key to the door leading to the goal” written on it!

 Kai:  And also….. There’s a weird button along with it inside.

 You:  Yeah, clearly suspicious.  ……We need to be especially careful about this.

 Shun:  Hm? What’s this?  This button?  (Press!)

 Iku:  Shu-Shun-san!?

 You:  Ah!? Hey, so there’s someone that will press suspicious buttons immediately!

 Shun:  Huh-? But, when there’s a button, isn’t it human nature to want to press it?

 Kai:  Well, I understand what you mean but…….

 Yoru:  ……Huh? The bottom of the treasure chest opened, and a paper came out from within?

 Yoru:  ……What do we have here?  “Trap activation!  You must take a 30-minute break!” is what it says!

 You:  So it was a trap after all-!

 Iku:  Well, that button clearly was though…….

 Shun:  Hehehe, but it’s fine.  I was just wanting to take a rest.

 Shun:  Conveniently, there’s a tea drinking space over there.  So that means, we should take a tea break.

 Rui:  Yeah. I walked a lot, so I might be a little tired.

 Kai:  Well, we might as well use the 30-minutes anyways.

 Shun:  So it’s decided ♪

 Kai:  ……Well then, I guess I’ll prepare some tea.

 Iku:  Oh, I’ll help too!

 Yoru:  Me too, I’ve found some sweets, so I’ll serve them.

 Shun:  Thank you. Everyone, do your best ♪

 You:  ……You, do you not care that we have to take a 30-minute break at all-.  Well, it’s like you though.

 Shun:  Hehehe. In the world it’s Que Sera Sera. ……Plus, in this world, everything has a meaning.

 Shun:  Even with this tea party, we are certainly being guided by something unseen.

 You:  I wonder if that’s how it is?

 Kai:  ……Hm? What’s this!?

 Rui:  What’s wrong? Kai?

 Kai:  Inside the can of tea, there’s a Tsukino Egg!

 Iku:  O-Over here in the tea pot too there are a bunch of Tsukino Eggs!

 Yoru:  In the box of cookies over here too there are Tsukino Eggs!

 Rui:  Amazing. There are so many Tsukino Eggs here.

 You:  ……Are you serious.

 Shun:  They say “More haste, less speed” although…… It seems like this tea party also had great significance after all?

 Shun:  Well, with that, shall we have some tranquility for a moment?  ……After that, we can focus on reaching the goal!

 Everyone:  Yeah-!

 (To be Continued)

1章6話

Chapter 1 - Part 6

Kakeru:  ……Oh! Everyone!  There, it’s the goal!

 Iku:  Ah! It’s Gravi!

 Koi:  Huh? Procella is coming from that kind of place……

 Shun:  Hehe, seems like we took a different route, and reached here at the same time.

 Arata:  Oh-, that’s it.  Even though it’s a competition, suddenly I was thinking that you weren’t visible in front or behind us.

 Hajime:  So, both teams got here at the same time right now, so how do we decide who wins?

 Haru:  Since we are all carrying Tsukino Eggs, sprinting to the goal as fast as we can……isn’t really something we can do.

 You:  Then, should each unit choose a representative?

 Shun:  I have an idea if anyone wants to hear?

 Shun:  In this game, the speed that Gravi and Procella cleared it is equal.  Which leads to, the other thing that we can compete with.

 Hajime:  The amount of Tsukino Eggs we acquired, right?

 Shun:  Correct ☆

 Yoru:  I see!

 Kakeru:  If that’s the case then let’s quickly count!  Ready……

 Kakeru & Yoru:  1, 2, 3……

 Kakeru & Yoru:  ……49, 50

 Kakeru:  51! Gravi has more by just one!

 Aoi:  Th……That really was a close battle.

 Shun:  Hehe, everyone in Gravi, congratulations ♪

 Hajime:  ……Thank you.

 Koi:  ……Hm?  For some reason, there’s a really good scent……!

 Kakeru:  Th-This is!

 Yoru:  Amazing…… Piping hot lamb steaks, fluffy omelets, crisp quiches, and freshly baked cross-patterned bread!

 Aoi:  Plus, bunny-shaped chocolate sweets and even cute cakes topped with marzipan!

 Iku:  Amazing! It’s the reward!

 Rui:  There’s also pudding!

 Arata:  It appears that, this must be the reward.

 Aoi:  Moreover, it seems that the amount of Tsukino Eggs we gathered was close to the MAX…….

 Aoi:  ……What was prepared, seems like a meal prepared with high grade ingredients!

 Kakeru:  Ooooooh…… It’s the good smell of meat being grilled……!  Hurray-!  Our reward~! I’m starved~!

 Haru:  ……What’s the matter? Hajime.

 Hajime:  ……This feast, is a reward that us as Gravi earned.  We can do with it as we like right?

 Haru:  Hehe, that’s right.

 Hajime:  Let’s eat together with Procella.

 Rui:  Huh?

 Iku:  Is that okay!?  Even though we lost the competition!?

 Aoi:  Of course.

 Koi:  We have this much in the feast too!

 Kakeru:  Eating together with everyone, would make it more delicious.

 Yoru:  Thank you very much!

 You:  Thank you- ♪  But next time we definitely won’t lose-!

 Shun:  Hehe…… Well then, I guess we’ll accept your offer so let’s enjoy it together.

 Kai:  Right!

 Hajime:  Then, everyone?  As thanks for the wonderful day known as today…….

 Everyone:  Thank you for the meal!

 Everyone:  Thank you for the meal!

 ~END~

[we-can-all-wakeup]

Blurred Lines

Pairing: Charoix Word Count:1740 Link: AO3 - 7 CHAPTERS OF ONESHOTS Summary:  Rigid lines were never meant to last forever - and certainly not when it concerned Chariot. A small exploration as to how she might have to manage when the lines she had drawn are taken apart.

Ursula was timid, she was uncertain about many things, and treated confrontation like a disease. Regret, duty and responsibility were the heavy chains that kept her a prisoner to her own guilt - rendering her unable to form connections that would have otherwise added meaningful purpose into her life. Until of course, the unthinkable did happen. As her shackles had been torn apart by acceptance and validation, she was soon freed from the punishment she inflicted upon herself a lifetime ago … but had she truly been freed? Ursula was only one part of her that had remained when Chariot had done her best to cut herself out from the world when she had committed crimes and wrongs too horrible to properly be forgiven for. If Ursula had been freed, what was the rest of Chariot supposed to do?

“You’ve been staring for a while … do I have something on my face?” Croix asked, gently stirring Chariot from her thoughts. The redhead blinked once, coming back to her senses before she reeled herself back, confusing the lilac haired witch. “Are you ok? You haven’t been skipping your meals have you, I thought only I had the privilege to do so,” the older witch joked with a light laugh, and though the redhead returned with a chuckle, her inner thoughts had taken a new direction.

Skipping meals … now that brought up a whole slew of fond memories Chariot had - the few that helped her through sleepless nights. Even at a young age, Croix had an unhealthy habit of staying up late, missing meal times and resorting to crappy, instant food that lacked any kind of nutrients. A symptom of being a genius, the taller witch had deadpanned, and from that point on Chariot had made it her personal mission to limit the intake of fake food as much as possible. One part to make sure her best friend made it past the age of 20 and the other, to keep her inflated ego in check. She remembered the unlimited number of complaints she had every time she snuck food into Croix’s room, laughing as she did so - remarking that she felt more like her mother, or sister, than an underclassmen.

Now though? A decade later, and Croix still admitted to living with fake food as a essential part of her diet, but she didn’t need Chariot - or anyone - to coddle and try and regulate her meals. The older witch had grown up - had long since needed, or even wanted perhaps, the redhead to hover over her shoulder. Croix was old enough, smart enough, to make proper decisions, or at least know where and when to seek help if she needed it. That was part of growing up.

So it thoroughly terrified the redhead when it began to dawn on her that perhaps Chariot no longer had a place - in the present, in Croix’s life, in place of Ursula whom many had begun to, or wholeheartedly, accepted - omission of truth and all. Chariot du Nord had been killed - cut away - a decade ago, and Ursula had been meant to take her place however best she could. Where was Chariot du Nord supposed to fit in now, when all that she had known, knew, loved and hated seemed to have moved on without her?

The entire table shook in Chariot’s haste to remove herself from her chair. Croix immediately placed her book down, concerned, but hesitant. Good. Flashing … an expression, anything that wasn’t completely breaking down in front of the older witch, Chariot spilled something that sounded like ‘I need to go’ - she’d later learn that she had in fact said ‘i’m going to blow up’ - and left the library with acrobatic ingenuity.

For the next few weeks, Chariot had been unconsolable. Many had begun to refer to the sudden change as her reverting back to her Ursula facade, which only drove the wedge between the two distinctively difficult identities apart even further through the chasm of confusion. In Chariot’s mind she had gradually began to accept that there never really was two people - it was only ever Chariot who grew cowardly enough to shed her name and face when the going got too tough, and now struggled to brave through this new world that had forgotten or no longer cared for her. It was a slow process, albeit a steady one, had a student not mistakenly called out “Professor Ursula” and unintentionally drove a critical point home.

There was no need for Chariot to exist in this world.

…

“Croix-Sensei … why do you never call ... Chariot-Sensei as ‘Ursula’?” Akko asked innocently, and Chariot who had been lurking through supposedly less frequented hallways had to pause. A long war waged within her, because she had to truly decide whether or not she could live with knowing what the two arguably most important people had to say about her, about Chariot. Was she strong enough to hear what Croix had to share - what the lilac haired witch may say, the good and bad, of Chariot? Strong enough to suffer through another decade of self inflicted punishment if Akko’s morale compass pointed away from her?

“Because,” Croix replied in a light tone, “Chariot is Chariot.”

“I don’t get it!”

“Mm …” Croix pondered for a moment, and Chariot could hear her heart hammer louder with every second that passed by, tapping in time with the impatient foot-taps Akko had taken to performing. “I guess the Chariot you remember was … hyper, bubbly, strong … just like you, I suppose,” a giggle, “but you also know ‘Ursula’ - that just means that you also know that Chariot can cry and mess up sometimes, too.” Akko made a hum of … something, confusion likely but Croix was quick to add in. “Maybe it’s easier to think of her heart.”

“What do you mean?”

“Chariot has a heart that is capable of believing, loving, caring, and remembering … and like any human being, it is also capable … or susceptible, to despair, guilt, fear and the whole package,” Croix explained, “as far I see, none of that has changed. Chariot still has a heart that is forgiving, optimistic, and very precious to me. Even if she decided to call herself Ursula, her heart never changed, right? At the end of the day, it’s still Chariot who finds the book you need at two in the morning, the same Chariot who always spends her time with me in the library even if I’m not really paying attention to her.”

“Hehe. I guess it was obvious to you, Croix-Sensei, if you loved her heart, it wouldn’t matter what name she took, as long as you remember why you loved her.”

“That’s right,” Croix replied, tenderly, “Chariot is Chariot - nothing in the world could come between us if I’m looking for that precious heart of hers.”

Sniff

Eh?

Turning to the source of the distressing noise, Croix’s heart dropped when she saw the sight of Chariot, crying - bawling really - and desperately trying to stop her tears with an already soaked sleeve. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, some more serious than others, but the lilac haired witch found that she could really do nothing of note, except for panicking and trying to get a proper look at Chariot’s face - fighting stronger arms that had come up to cover a tear stained face.

Good god why did the redhead always become such an adorable turtled up shy mess when tears were involved? Croix had half the mind to leave her be, knowing that the redhead would eventually get sleepy and demand to be carried back to her room - if they had still been children, that is. As of right now, Croix was dealing with a complete unknown, and the idea of leaving Chariot who was still crying just seemed all sorts of wrong.

Eventually, quickly enough, Croix was able to convince the redhead to lower her arms, revealing a rather red face - but god damn if the years hadn’t been generous to the redhead. Croix had seen references and heard of people who were supposedly ‘beautiful criers’ but she had a feeling that none of them could ever hold a candle to Chariot. Lashes fluttered quickly, determined to hold any further tears at bay, her breaths were short, likely still trying to even out the pace of her heart. The most gorgeous detail of all, that captivated and deprived Croix of her ability to speak, was the glistening that had taken over the red wines of Chariot’s eyes when the redhead finally dared to flicker her gaze to meet Croix’s. They weren’t merely pools of sorrow, or helplessness - it was life that she saw within those charming eyes, a glitter of hope and uncensored joy.

If only she could have been blessed with years to simply burn the image into her head …

Sadly though, their moment was quickly ruined by whispers and jeers that had begun to increase in volume.

“She made her cry~” A taunt broke through clearly, and though Croix tried to glare at whoever insinuated that, Chariot let out a incriminating sniff once again, setting panic off in Croix’s heart once more, prompting the older witch to grip down firmly on the arms she had taken ahold of. “Croix-Sensei is a bully~”

The smallest of smiles broke through on Chariot’s face - and while Croix was relieved, she could certainly do without the lies that were being shouted overhead. “Croix-Sensei is breaking her heart~”

Before Croix actually snapped and dispatched her roombas, arms slipped by her sides and pulled her into a tight embrace - the kind that left you breathless when you realized that it wasn’t a dream or apparition that had touched upon you. Slender, toned arms rested at her waist, a face was pressed comfortably against her shoulder, the welcomed weight of a desired companion, feminine form of her would-be lover … it took Croix a few seconds to properly return the embrace, intimate, but shy of scandalous. It was definitely everything she had dreamed of - and more. Never would she have been able to imagine how warm, how full, how fulfilling a simple embrace could be. It must’ve been the “Chariot Effect” - the redhead’s hidden ability to make sure whatever she did, whatever she touched upon, received every bit of her love.

And Croix definitely felt it.

“Thank you, Croix.”

“...Always, Chariot.”

[mirkwoodshewolf]

A Brother’s promise pt. 2

I told you guys I would post this up as soon as the first one got posted, now some intense feels are in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed this mini-series and look forward to the next two 2 parter fics that I’m gonna be posting up here in a few :) Now I wrote this before Civil war came out so just imagine a bit of an AU Civil War where they didn’t go into hiding but did have the fight at the airport. 

Taglist:

@evyiione

_______________________________________________________

*2016*

I have indeed lived a full life. Ever since I was told about my brother's death that day, Peggy and Mr. Stark offered me a full nursing scholarship to help them build an organization known as SHIELD.  I worked with them my entire life right up to Howard's sudden death, Peggy and I still kept in touch every now and then to talk about our lives and about Steve and Bucky, but it wasn't until 2011 that they found Steve in the ice and when he woke up, I was actually there shortly after he woke up to greet him.  We embraced and caught up on everything. 

I told him about my life with a wonderful man named Joseph and how we married in 63 and had two beautiful daughters. I told him about my four grandchildren and recently at that time my oldest Grandson had just had a boy with his wife my first great-grandchild. He was so proud of how I managed to live my life in the present even after losing him and my brother at the same time.  

Now that it's 2016, I've been moved to a retirement home the same one as Peggy and just lay there on my bed looking at all the pictures of my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Steve comes to visit me every once in awhile after he sees Peggy because I knew how Peg felt about him during our time in SHIELD *even when she has a hard-core bad ass shell around her, I knew she loved my other big brother VERY much*.

But lately Steve hasn't been visiting either me or Peggy and that began to worry me a bit, but I found out the reason why when I heard on the news that HYDRA, the organization I had found out was responsible for my brother Bucky's death when I first joined SHIELD, had been working within SHIELD ever since the beginning when we hired Zola as one of the scientists to help build the technology for SHIELD, and now the whole secret of both organizations has gone to the public for over a couple of years now. I try to keep up on the news of everything that happens with the Avengers mainly with Steve since I can't bare to lose him a second time for he truly is the only real family I've got left from my childhood. 

I just couldn't.

But I guess this old girl's getting ahead of herself discussing matters not really concerning her since all she does is just lay in bed all day because of my elderly legs now barely able to keep me standing up right.

It was late one night and my grandchild Bethany and her children came by to visit me and the nurse then had to shoo them out since visiting hours were over.  I kissed my grand-daughter and my great grandchildren Ross and Monica *A/N see the hint reference there?* and waved goodbye to them as they left. My nurse helped me take my final pill for the day and turned off my light before shutting the door softly leaving me to sleep.

It was then my window began to open as a shadow came inside my room.  The figure walked close to me and gently reached out their hand to stroke my pure snow white hair away from my face.  I moaned quietly and began to open my eyes and nearly had a heart attack there seeing someone just standing over me but when my lamp came on I saw Steve standing over me.

"(Y/n) it's okay, it's okay!"

"Goddamn it Steve you could've killed me doing that! I'm not as young as I use to be yah know!"

"Kinda glad to see that fiery temper of yours hasn't gone away with your age". He muttered.

"Boy if I still had my strength I would kick you right now". We smiled at each other and he hugged me gently.  "It is good to see you though Stevie, but what are you doing here so late?"

"Well it's not really me that wanted to come and see you, and I wasn't the one you saw just now in the dark" Steve said as he separated from me as I looked at him confused.  He was the only one outside my family that knows where I am, and there was no other man I knew outside my family that could climb up four stories other than Steve and get up to my room successfully. That was when Steve stepped aside and coming into the light of my lamp was my brother.

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.

Still as young as the day he left for war, but his hair was longer and he had grown a bit of a scruffy looking beard, and he also had a metal arm.

My eyes widened in shock at the sight of my brother standing before me.  I couldn't believe that he was here right now.

"(Y/n)....... hehe look at you baby sis," he knelt down by my bedside and i slowly reached up to touch his cheek but I paused in fear thinking that this is was all some sick hallucination made by my elderly mind.  There was no way he could be here. Could he?  Bucky taking notice of my fear smiled warmly and took my elderly hand gently in his metal one and placed it on his cheek.  I felt warmth and he didn't disappear at my touch.

He was real.

Tears formed in my eyes as he leaned up against me with an arm gently wrapped around me as I cried into his neck just like that night before he left for Europe back in 43.  My BBBFF was alive and he was here with me.  I smiled as I wrapped my arms around him as tight almost as if I didn't hold onto him with all my strength, he would disappear.  Steve smiled in the background at the sight of the Barnes siblings back together again after over 70 years of being apart then he snuck out leaving the two of us to catch up.

After awhile we separated from our hug and I said.

"Oh Bucky, I--I never thought I would see you again. When Peggy, Howard, and the other Howling Commandos came at my door just as the war was over and they told me what happened I--"

"Shhhh, don't think about that anymore. I'm here now. Let's just focus on that".

"But--but how is this possible? How are you alive?" It was then Bucky began to regretfully explain everything that happened to him.  When he fell down from the train after saving Steve, the Russians found him and HYDRA began experimenting on him giving him his metal arm.  His time in cryo-freeze only coming out as a ruthless assassin known as the Winter Soldier, killing Howard and his wife, along with other SHIELD agents that HYDRA gave him.  His abuse and memory erase after every mission or when he began to remember who he was, always his first memory before being wiped were of me. He told me how he and Steve fought against each other until Steve managed to make him remember and how he went into hiding after both secrets from SHIELD and HYDRA were exposed to the public before being found by Steve and Sam Wilson aka Falcon on the Avengers.

Now that he was starting to freely remember who he once was, though he doesn't have all his memories back yet, he did however remembered who I was and had all his memories of me back.  It became so much for him that he just had to find out where I was and that's when Steve told him where I was and that it was my brother's idea to sneak into the nursing home just so he could see me.

After his whole story, I couldn't help but feel my heart break at all that my poor brother had to go through, all the torture and blood he had to spill and the fact that he wasn't in control of what he was doing probably made him feel so guilty and depressed knowing it was still him who had done it.  I reached out for his metal hand but Bucky being so ashamed of how many people he had killed with this arm flinched away from me but I looked at him with a determined look and he relaxed and allowed my to take his metal arm and I held it with both my hands and kissed it, even though I knew he probably couldn't feel it, I had a feeling it still gave him warmth knowing that I still loved him as my Big brother even with this war injury.

"Never be ashamed Buck, I still love you my BBBFF, you'll always be the jerk-face I've always loved".

"And you will always be the hot-headed, tempered baby sister I've always loved, and speaking of which,".  He removed my blanket and gently picked me up bridal style.  Scared, I wrapped my arms around his neck and said.

"James, what are you doing!?"

"I believe I made a promise to you, and as I remember I never break a Big Brother's promise".  He then went to the window and looked down. "Close your eyes," I buried my face into his neck and felt my stomach drop as he jumped from my window down to the ground below four stories.  Bucky then placed me on a motorcycle and got in front of me and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Bucky where are we going?"

"It's a surprise, now hang onto me baby sis". He revved the cycle and took off riding into the streets.  It was several hours later, the retirement home probably knows I'm missing and is probably going frantic about finding me, but just being with Bucky seemed to make all those thoughts just disappear.  It was then I began to notice we were finally out of the city and were now driving through country terrain.  It must be my old mind but something was telling me that this trail was familiar from somewhere.  

After a couple of more hours of driving we came to a hidden trail that went up a hill.  Bucky parked the bike in the woods and said.

"Okay, you're gonna have to close your eyes again,"

"Bucky where are we?"

"I told you it's a surprise, now come on just close your eyes for me please?" He then pulled the bunny face on with with additional nose twitch.

"Okay, okay". As he picked me up bridal style I closed my eyes and I could feel Bucky beginning to walk the trail.  As he walked, every now and then I would ask him if I could open my eyes yet but he would say no.  This game continued on for a couple more minutes and then Bucky placed me down but helped me stand straight by keeping hold of my hand and said.

"Okay, now you can open them". I opened my eyes and to my surprise I saw the one thing I thought I would never see again.

It was our vacation cabin in the woods.

But this time it was rebuilt all the way from the ground up.  But last I ever heard of this cabin it was destroyed back in 93 for being a waste of space and with it being so old and the wood rotting the rangers decided to tear it down and just leave it as an empty space for campers.

"But--How......Buck this was......."

"I know Steve told me. but he, Sam, Clint and I rebuilt the cabin from the ground up just a few months ago after our last big deal with Stark and the government. Everything inside is the same furniture, same texture, same design, everything. It's almost as if it never left". I looked up at him and he smiled at me and continued as he stroked my cheek gingerly, "I made you a promise to take you here when I returned from war. Well even if it's over 70 years overdue, I think you deserve one last camping trip with your awesome Big bro".  I smiled with tears spilling down my face. I kissed his cheek as I hugged him crying happily.

Bucky then helped me walk towards the cabin by allowing me to hold his metal hand for balance and his human arm wrapped around my waist to keep me from falling over.  And true to his word as we stepped inside, everything was the same, from the design itself to the furniture and the carpets, they even built the same fireplace where Bucky and I would once roast marshmallows when it would rain and we couldn't do it outside.  So many memories came back to me as Bucky placed me down on the rocking chair by the fireplace and knelt down beside me.  He smiled up at me and took my hand in his and gently kissed it and I stroked his scruffy cheek making me softly giggle cause it slightly tickled my hand.

"Thank you Buck"

"You deserved it sis, after everything you've been through. What we've both been through," it was then he took me from the living room up to the bedroom where the large see-through window was and as we laid together on the bed Bucky then began to make shapes of the stars and even make up stories about what they're doing.

This moment right here felt like a beautiful dream but I knew it wasn't.  My brother was here alive, we were finally doing our cabin in the woods camping trip now that he was back from war.  Even 70 years couldn't change the fact that my brother had managed to come back to me and even though he is still as young as he was back in 43, he still saw me as his precious wittle baby-waby sister.

I leaned against his chest listening to his heartbeat as my eyes closed and I exhaled a soft breath and a smile came across my face.

[bublp0pr]

OKAY I AM DAMN ANNOYED RIGHT NOW. So I’ve been re-doing genoicde lately because why the hell not. And i was doing the up-down alt-tab trick to save a bit of time. I figured it does a lot more to boost the role-playing ego of Frisk to enjoy the sensation of knowing the ins and outs of everything within world and taking the most efficient step at every turn. So while Frisk is strolling around meticulously hunting the halls of the Underground in search for any monster stupid enough to get in their way, i was looking around trying to find some recommendations on rooms with the highest encounter rates. Makes sense right? RIGHT? 

WEelllllll, all i could find is stuff saying ‘oh yeah, this room’s got a higher encounter rate than this one’, with all the good tips scattered across multiple sites and i was flabbergasted. WHERE’S THE NUMERICAL VALUES??? Where’s the obsessive data mining to discover the encounter rates of every room in the game as well as a list of conditional encounters that require presence in certain rooms??? I NEED THIS LIST. I WANT THIS LIST. WHY DOES THIS LIST NOT EXIST? Threads that claim to be ‘genocide walkthroughs’ don’t provide a player with detailed explanation and assurance towards the best rooms for encounter farming O_O 

Someone needs to waste a week or two of their life searching through the code, or atleast timing/counting the steps of their genocide run and recording the data as a non-specific general reference point towards how long someone is expected to wait between encounters. They should include a reference list of all save points that occur within each stage (e.g. ruins, snowdin, waterfall etc.) describing how far a player can explore without accidentally triggering the boss fight. It needs to include all the shortcutting you can do in the game like rooms you shouldn’t even bother entering, ways to solve ruin puzzles quickly and detailed navigation of the large maze-like rooms like the lantern and mushroom ones. Could i also get a description of all the weapons, how their mechanics can be used most effectively and the comparative results of hitting different points on that weird FIGHT metric? OH! And while i’m at it, how about a short list of the different food items categorised by stage and ordered by HP so that people can be 100% confident that they’re stocking up on the best possible food items going into boss battles!

If people want a genoicde walkthrough, THIS is what i expect. ESPECIALLY from a community that’s been fanning over this game for ALMOST TWO YEARS. Pfft, i mean, look what people put out for Pokemon games only like 6 months after every game’s release. 

This being said, i know this is a game where the satisfaction is figuring most of this out for yourself. BUT STILL. If people are already going to the internet for help about it ANYWAY, atleast do it right!

If i’m ranting about things i want, then I’d also be curious to see a detailed list of all the unique encounters, organised by when you can encounter them. I just really want the satisfaction of having a list, it’s so much more personal than just a kill count. Just imagine it... a table with all their shocked little faces immortalised to in that point just before they turn to dust. So thrilling! = ) 

I also know there’s some hidden strategies for fights like group encounters when you’re still starting off and weak. Like killing dogaressa first instead of dogamy. (Ahhh the look on his face when you kill her... it makes him so depressed he won’t even fight you. His dog literally just spits out a lonely heart that falls to the floor every turn after it. And he refuses to even follow along with the ACT options. It’s SO SATISFYING to watch hehe.) But some tips on who to take down first on group encounters like the Aaron+Woshua duo and stuff would also be interesting.

It’s not so much i’m incapable. Believe me, i’ve finished this route before. It’s just a matter of wanting the efficiency in it. 

I can just imagine Sans watching from the distance and knowing that the sadistic human freak has done this game so many times, seen every room, every path, every secret, every encounter so many times that nothing surprises them. I can imagine his horror looking on as the human does everything perfectly. Flawlessly. Like every step was planned out a long long time ago in advance. That feeling of helplessness knowing that whatever they’re up against, it is an all-powerful creature that knows perfectly how exploit whatever is thrown against it. I want to imagine Sans truly being too scared, too intimidated, that he honestly holds no hope - not even a trace of revenge - in his eyes watching us murder all his friends. That when he faces us in the judgement hall he already knows he’s about to die. I want to imagine every word and action he takes in that room to be the ones of someone who believes that they’ve already lost. 

= )

[kaialone]

Yokai Watch 3 ver. 3.0 Translation

(Masterpost for my Yokai Watch translations can be found here)

This will contain spoilers for a sidequest of Yokai Watch 3 (ver. 3.0), so proceed with caution.

This will be a little different from usual, as it’s a bonus to my translation of the “The Lonely King” sidequest.

Okay so, like I said above, this is an extra to my translation of another quest, which I really recommend you read before you read any of this, because you'll just be confused.

You can find it here.

So, in this post I will basically list all the differences in dialouge and the like between the three different God Enmas.

Now most of the their dialouge is very similar, with only very slight differences, sometimes they say kinda different stuff, or two of them say the same thing and just one says something different.

And another thing, they also sometimes have different expressions, so their text might be the same, but the expression conveys a different mood anyway.

So I'm gonna have all the dialouge that's different, text box by text box, with each of these guys being represented by a letter, Darkness, Sun, and Time, yes? And I will also include pictures of the expressions they made, and if they all say the same but the expressions are different, that will be listed, too.

(Though because of differences in video quality, I didn’t take each expression from the exact moment it was made, but they’re still accurate.)

So, I hope this will make sense to all of you, and again, check out the original translation post for context of these pieces of dialouge.

(also here’s links to all the videos that helped me put all this together: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Bolded is original japanese; for reference and in case someone who is better at japanese than I reads this, and feels like correcting something.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

(Number) Indicates I got a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

Please keep in mind that I´m a beginner when it comes to japanese, so it’s possible that I make mistakes, too.

First meeting him:

D: フン… フフフフフ… Heh... Huhuhuhuhu...

S: フフン…！ ハッハハハハ…！！ Heheh...! Hah hahahaha...!!

T: フフフ… ハッハハハハ…！ Huhuhu... Hah hahahaha...!

-

D: 我がの名はエンマ… 「暗黒神エンマ」だ……！ My name is Enma... "God of Darkness Enma"...!

S: 我がの名はエンマ…… 「太陽神エンマ」だ……！ My name is Enma... "God of The Sun Enma"...!

T: 我がの名はエンマ…… 「時空神エンマ」だ……。 My name is Enma... "God of Time and Space Enma"...!

-

D: ククク… 「神」に対して無礼な連中だ… Kukuku... It's people that are disrespectful to "god"...

S: 「神」に対して無礼な連中だ…! It's people that are disrespectful to "god"... !

T: フッ… 「神」に対して無礼な連中だ……。 Hmph... It's people that are disrespectful to "god"......

-

しかも 妖怪でありながら 人間どもと なれ合うとはな��…。 And on top of that, even though they're yōkai, they're conspiring with humans...

-

…だが ちょうどいい。 ...But, that's just fine.

-

D: この地に住まう者の力… 試させてもらおうか！ Let me test... the power of those who live in this land!

S: この地に住まう者の力… 試させてもらおうか！ Let me test... the power of those who live in this land!

T: この地に住まう者の力… 試させてもらう。 Let me test... the power of those who live in this land.

-

After Battle:

D: ククククク……。 Kukukukuku...

S: クックックック……。 Ku ku ku ku...

T: フフフフフ……。 Huhuhuhuhu...

-

D: ククク…… 「こんなものか」とでも思ったか？ Kukuku... Did you think "such a thing"?

S: クハハハハ！ 「こんなものか」 とでも思ったか？ Kuhahahaha! Did you think "such a thing"?

T: 「こんなものか」 …とでも思ったか？ Did you think... "such a thing"?

-

D: オレには死などない…… それが暗黒神の力だ…！ I do not die... Such is the power of the God of Darkness...!

S: オレには死などない…… それが太陽神の力だ…！ I do not die... Such is the power of the God of The Sun...!

T: オレには死などない…… それが時空神の力だ…！ I do not die... Such is the power of the God of Time and Space...!

-

D: オレは闇の力を手に入れ…… 「神」となった！ I have obtained the power of darkness... And become a "god"!

S: オレは太陽力を手に入れ…… 「神」となった！ I have obtained the power of the sun... And become a "god"!

T: オレは時を操る力を手に入れ…… 「神」となった。 I have obtained the power of time... And become a "god".

-

D: そして つに次元の狭間に隠された 「幻の大陸」に たどりついたのだ！ And finally I reached the“Phantom Continent” that's hidden in the Dimensional Gap!

S: そして つに次元の狭間に隠された 「幻の大陸」に たどりついたのだ！ And finally I reached the“Phantom Continent” that's hidden in the Dimensional Gap!

T: そして つに次元の狭間に隠された 「幻の大陸」に たどりついたのだ。 And finally I reached the“Phantom Continent” that's hidden in the Dimensional Gap.

-

D: ククククク……。 お前たち知る必要はない。 Kukukukuku... You don't need to know.

S: お前たち知る必要はない…。 You don't need to know...

T: フフフ…… お前たち知る必要はない…。 Huhuhu... You don't need to know...

-

この大陸… 神であるオレが支配する…！！ I who has become a god... will rule this continent...!!

-

そう… 支配するのだ…… オレひとるの力で……。 Yes... I will rule... Through my power alone...

-

Facing him again:

D: ククク…… この世界のエンマ大王か…。 Kukuku... This world's Enma, I see...

S: ほう… この世界のエンマ大王か…！ Ohh... This world's Enma, I see...!

T: ほう… この世界のエンマ大王か…。 Ohh... This world's Enma, I see...

-

オレ自身がジャマしに現れるとはな。 To think that I would appear to get in my own way.

-

D: ククク… だったら どうと言うのだ。 Kukuku... So what if I did?

S: クハハハハ！ だったら どうと言うのだ…！ Kuhahahaha! So what if I did...!?

T: フフフ… だったら どうと言うのだ…。 Huhuhu... So what if I did...?

-

D: 暗黒神となった今… この大陸を 支配するなど たやすいことだ……。 Now that I have become the God of Darkness... ruling over this continent is going to be easy...

S: 太陽神となった今… この大陸を 支配するなど たやすいこと……！ Now that I have become the God of The Sun... ruling over this continent will be easy...!

T: 時空神となった今… この大陸を 支配するなど たやすいこと……。 Now that I have become the God of Time and Space... ruling over this continent will be easy...

-

その姿で… 神にかなうと思っているのか？ In this form... Do you think you'll be a match for a god?

-

D: ならば 思い知らせてやろう…。 In that case, I will let you know...

S: ならば 思い知らせてやろう…！ In that case, I will let you know...!

T: ならば 思い知らせてやるだけ…。 In that case, I will just try to let you know...

-

After Battle with Enma:

D: クックック… 「閻魔大王」ならば オレにも対抗できると思ったのか？ Kukuku... Did you think you could stand up to me because you're "The Great King Enma"?

S: クハハハハ！  「閻魔大王」なら オレにも対抗できると思ったか？ Kuhahaha! Thought you could stand up to me cause you're "The Great King Enma"?

T: フフ… 「閻魔大王」ならば オレにも対抗できると思ったのか？ Hehe... Did you think you could stand up to me because you're "The Great King Enma"?

-

D: なんの力も得ていない閻魔大王など 所詮はその程度…。 A Great King Enma that doesn't have an ounce of power, can only do so much, after all...

S: なんの力も得ていない閻魔大王など 恐るるに足らんわ！ A Great King Enma that doesn't have an ounce of power, is not worth fearing!

T: なんの力も得ていない閻魔大王など 所詮はその程度だ…。 A Great King Enma that doesn't have an ounce of power, can only do so much, after all...

-

D: この世界はオレが支配する。 「閻魔大王」は オレ一人で充分だ…！！ I will rule this world. I alone will suffice as "Great King Enma"...!!

S: この世界はオレが支配する… これで 終わりだ…！！ I will rule this world... It's over...!!

T: この世界はオレが支配する… さあ… 始末してやろう。 I will rule this world... Now... let's get rid of you.

-

ほう？ 部下の命を盾にし 生きながらえたか…。 Oh? So you survived, shielded by your subordinate's life...

-

D: クックック… 安心しろ。 すぐに同じ場所に送ってやるさ。 Kukuku... Don't worry. I will send you to the same place soon.

S: だが 状況は変わらん！ お前の部下の行動はムダだったな。 But that changes nothing! Your subordinate's action was in vain.

T: だが 逃げることもしないとは… お前の部下の行動はムダだったな。 But you're not getting away... Your subordinate's action was in vain.

-

D: 次の一撃は避けられまい！ You won't avoid the next blow!

S: 次の一撃で決めてやる！ The next blow will decide!

T: 次が本当の最後だ…。 With the next one it will truly be over...

-

今度こそ息の根を止めてやろう！ This time I will end you!

-

After Battle with Awakened Enma:

D: 闇の力で支配することでしか 争いは止まらなかった…。 Through ruling using the power of darkness alone, I couldn't end the disputes...

S: すべての争いを終わらせるには 強大な力が必要だったんだ！ To end all the disputes, I needed great power!

T: 自分の欲のために戦い妖怪たち… 争いを治めるには 力が必要だった。 The yōkai, fighting for their own desires... In order to settle their disputes, I needed power.

-

D: フン… そんな情けはいらん。 Hmph... I don't need such pity.

S: クハハハ… 断る！ Kuhahaha... I refuse!

T: おもしろい冗談だな。 That's a funny joke.

-

D: クックック… 他にやることができたのでな。 もう ここに用はない。 Kukuku... There are things I can do elsewhere. There's nothing to do here anymore.

S: クハハハ！ やることができたのでな。 もう ここに用はない…！ Kuhahaha! There's something I can do. There's nothing to do here anymore...!

T: フフ… 他にやることができたのでな。 もう ここに用はない。 Hehe... There are things I can do elsewhere. There's nothing to do here anymore.

-

When he returns:

フハハハハハハハハ！ 久し振りだな！ Fuhahahahahahahaha! Long time no see!

-

優秀なしもべたち…… いや 「ともだち」をな！！ My outstanding servants... No, "friends"!!

-

オレの「ともだち」は 貴様らの何倍も強いぞ！！ My "friends"  are many times stronger than you lot!!

-

我が 「エンマ宮殿」で貴様らの挑戦を待つ！ フハハハハハ！！！ We will be waiting for your challenge at our "Enma Palace"! Fuhahahahaha!!!

-

Facing him at the Palace:

D: クックック… なかなかやるようだな。 Kukuku... You're pretty good.

S: ほう… なかなかやるようだな…！ Huh... You're pretty good...!

T: ほう… なかなかやるようだな。 Huh... You're pretty good.

-

D: だが まだまだだ…。 そんなものではないだろう？ But, it's not enough yet... Don't you think so?

S: だが まだまだだ…！ もっと「お前」を見せてみろ！！ But, it's not enough yet...! Show me more of "you"!!

T: だが まだまだだ。 もっと「お前」を見せてもらわねば。 But, it's not enough yet. You'll have to show me more of "you".

-

D: 何度でも挑戦し もっと 「お前」を見せてみろ。 You can challenge me any number of times, let me see more of "you".

S: オレを熱くさせるまで 何度でも挑戦してみるんだな！ Until I get fired up, you can take on the challenge any number of times!

T: 何度でも挑戦し オレを満足させることだな。 You can take on the challenge any number of times, to try and satisfy me.

-

D: もし オレが満足できることがあれば… その時は オレの力を貸してやろう。 If you do manage to satisfy me... Once that time comes, I will lend you my power.

S: もし オレを熱くさせられたら 力を貸してやろうじゃないか…！ If you can get me fired up, I guess I'll lend you my power...!

T: もし オレが満足できることがあれば… その時は オレの力を貸してやろう。 If you do manage to satisfy me... Once that time comes, I will lend you my power.

-

Befriending him:

D: クックック… やるな。 Kukuku... Well done.

S: クハハハ…！ やるではないか！ Kuhahaha...! Way to go!

T: フフ… おもしろいやつだ。 Hehe... You're an interesting fellow.

-

D: よかろう。 オレの力を貸してやろうではないか。 Very well. Let me lend my power to you.

S: いいだろう。 これからは力を貸してやる！ Alright. From now on, I'll lend you my power!

T: いいだろう。 これからは力を貸してやろう。 Alright. Let me lend you my power from now.

-

D: オレをダンジョンに連れて行くと 様々なイイコトがあるらしいぞ。 It seems there will be various good things, when you take me to a dungeon.

S: オレをダンジョンに連れて行けば 様々なイイコトがあるらしいぞ！ It seems there will be various good things, if you take me to a dungeon!

T: オレをダンジョンに連れて行くと 様々なイイコトがあるらしいぞ。 It seems there will be various good things, when you take me to a dungeon.

-

ああ それから… Ah, and...

-

D: オレと オレの「ともだち」に 再び挑戦したくなったら いつでも来い。 Feel free to come whenever you want to challenge me and my "friends" again.

S: オレと オレの「ともだち」に 再び挑戦したくなったら いつでも来い…！ Feel free to come whenever you want to challenge me and my "friends" again...!

T: オレと オレの「ともだち」に 再び挑戦したくなったら いつでも来い。 Feel free to come whenever you want to challenge me and my "friends" again.

-

D: まあ お前にやれるものなど もう何もないがな。 Well, there is probably no one left who can take you on.

T: フフ… まあ お前にやれるものなど もう何もないんだがな。 Hehe... Well, there is probably no one left who can take you on.

S: まあ お前にやれるものなど もう何もないがな！ クハハハハ！ Well, there is probably no one left who can take you on! Kuhahahaha!

-

[snickiebear]

OHMYGOD SNICKIE I—

so i just finished going through your index and OH MY GOD??? i wish i’d done that earlier *facepalms*

thanks for the tip, i kinda see now who the shadows were referring to… 😉😉😉 (but not all because im slightly stupid)

BUT ALSO akdjbshdj im so glad ur open to the prequel idea and if it does happen i’ll be in the front row seat with hearts in my eyes 😍 what’s even crazier was that i was reading the war chapter in the index and i had to take maybe seven pauses because my imagination was considering the many possibilities!!! and i know i said prequel but oh my god this whole world you’ve built can be like whole series on its own — and im not yet even thinking about what’s going to happen post-OL&W!!! it’s just me thinking about the characters’ stories during the violent era, the first guild war, and the second guild war!!! i-

i seriously can’t even—

i’m gonna try to articulate my thoughts but if you can imagine smoke bombs exploding into vague plot lines, that’s what’s happening in my head right now so apologies in advance for the mess (also im going backwards lol):

Second guild war — hypothetically,,,, if there were an itasakushi era sometime in the history of men falling on their feet for sakura, i believe the itasakushi would have developed in the course of this war, although they may have been acquainted with each other earlier. common enemy: danzo, and what better way to wreak havoc and violence than to have him die by the hands of this (im calling it) legendary trio (but that’s also because im quite invested in them). the five-year captivity is also a huge plus because i imagine shisui and itachi running around like headless chickens looking for the apple of their cursed uchiha eyes

quick question (if it’s not a spoiler) - which naruto characters would fall under thundersins? ibiki is the guildmaster, so does that mean his guild is composed of t&i people? im not quite sure who (in the naruto-verse) can get fooled by danzo into waging this war…

First guild war — can u tell us who was the mage who killed a witch? who was the witch? what were they fighting about??? was it a serious badass battle? were they secretly friends?? lovers??? did danzo have anything to do with this??? or maybe hanzo??? HOLY SHIT WOULD THE AME CHARACTERS BE INVOLVED HERE??? AKATSUKI??? but it’s ok if it’s still a secret… we can go detective on this one

speaking of ame and the other nations in the canonverse — will they also be part of this au? i mean we’ve already seen suna folks in OL&W but maybe like chojuro from kiri and other notable characters from the other hidden villages?

And to the violent era — using canonverse as basis, this would most likely be the counterpart of the hashirama-madara founding a village arc and/or the period before that, since they were also just fighting to death and using child soldiers. but actually im more curious about the guild wars than this era unless something dramatic happened lol other than the self-indulging satisfaction of blood thirst 🤣🤣🤣 im just really more invested when sakura is around. i would say tho, the lore is still interesting because im quite curious as to why the beginning is violent? was it because the gods had a fallout and all they really knew was to be violent about it? if it’s something similar, i’m getting a little bit of mythology-percy jackson vibes (which i LOVE) so Y A Y

ok so that’s basically me vomitting my smoke bomb thoughts *deep breaths* P H E W thank you AGAIN for the brain workout 🥰 it feels nice to lose myself in this world hahaha! you don’t really have to answer my questions; i literally just typed what’s on my mind 😂 INDEX WAS AWESOME! it’s like super clues to the mystery that lead to MORE mystery so yeahp you have just seen the effects on my mind

so sorry to hear about how your day was faring! i’m grateful my ask came to you at the right time. 🥰 i was actually worried about not sliding in your inbox earlier because i already saw that there was a new chapter but it was only then that i had time to check it out. i’m glad i was able to uplift your spirits even just for a little while 💕💕💕

i hope you have a better rest of the week ahead! ❤️❤️❤️

P.S. i cant believe u think my joke was top tier, im seriously bad at cracking jokes irl so thank you for believing in my limited-to-no-successful-experience in joke making

🐱

🐱🐱🐱🐱!!!!!!

LMFAOOOO don’t worry if you don’t figure it out now :) it’ll all be revealed in due time!! Honestly?? Since you brought up the prequel thing i have been thinking not-fucking-stop about how else the world coud be explored. Like?? There is SO MUCH GOING ON!!!

we have the whole Inuzuka tribe, the different temples, so many different characters... there is so many rocks to turn over!!!

OKAY SECOND GUILD WAR ITASAKUSHI YES. we are on the same wavelength 🐱, bc i was thinking the same thing. They would probably meet during GW2 and hit it off pretty well. 1) because Shisui is one charming motherfucker, and 2) Itachi would def draw Sakura in with his smooth humor. Plus, as reclusive as Sakura is in this, she does enjoy being friends with them.

“shisui and itachi running around like headless chickens looking for the apple of their cursed uchiha eyes” this imagery fucking killed me. Oh my god. THATS SO FUNNY WTF

(okay so in the OG draft of OM&G it starts with saku not knowing any of the boys and meeting them for the first time. she knew sakumo [who was dead in this one] and itachi + shisui [they were close friends].

and sasuke was being a total asshole [as usual] and sakura shuts him up with telling him that she's slept with both itachi and shisui. and then all three of them together. to which sasuke has an ANEURYSM LMFAO

but in this one, ItaSakuShi DEF goes on missions together after GW2 and totally fuck and get drunk and hang out. its verified, it has happened, i am comfirming this.)

Ok so!!!! Thundersins would consist mainly of non clan people in Nart. So, Lee, Tenten, Gai, Anko, Genma, ect. Though, we won’t be seeing Gai, Genma, or Anko until much, much later :) Though, Shisui is a part of the Thundersins guild, because he’s just more suited for assassinations rather than wizarding.

so basically, i'm just kind of putting people wherever i think they'd be suited best!

Danzo himself is a tricky bastard and at the time of GW2, Thundersins is still a relatively “new” guild, and they’re mainly human at this point, meaning that they were the weakest guild. It mostly comes down to the fact that Danzo, the manipulative asshole, was able to get their aid. He kept the entire kidnapping a secret for years (i’m estimating at least fifty or so) because the war and then it came to light by some spies or sum

As for the first guild war LMFAO i have absolutely no idea at all which mage killed what witch, i didn’t really think about it tbh! Maybe it was one of sakura’s bullies,,, LMAO honestly? I’ll leave all of that lore to you!!! I like keeping some details vague just so readers can take it and RUN AHAHAHHA. So yeah! Maybe they were lovers! And the entire killing was an accident! Who knows!

OKAY SO! This is going to make sound TERRIBLE. But i hadn’t even thought of Mist or Ame or any of the other villages until you said something LMAOOO

Well… the akatsuki plays a HUGE role in the next two fics,, so i can’t really say much about them hehe…

I do love chojuro and mei and haku and just LKSMDANFKSLD yeah. Going to be honest: they totally slipped my mind which is awful. Head in hands frfr. But i can tell you this:

Mei would be a mage, Chojuro would be either an assassin or a mage… one of the two… haku and zabuza are assassins. Ao would probably be a wizard too.

As for the other Jinchūrikis,,,, you’ll have to wait for the next two (if i have...write them… haha..)!

THE VIOLENT ERA! And yes! So, this is basically the time where the Living are the most… animalistic? Especially since the gods’ “fallout” as you call it! Thepheria served as a balance to both Peace and War, she is Balance in the very sense of the word so… if something happens to her, the entire world goes into cause and it can take a long time for it to find equilibrium!

Nothing huge happened here, this was like the “stone age” of this world and very self indulgent with the whole savagery of it, but also highlighting that deep, deep down these Living (and humans) are angry and violent at their cores. Its their roots and no matter how they progress, it will always come back to war and bloodshed.

AND OMG!! A FELLOW CAMP HALF BLOOD CAMPER HELLO!!!! I love pjo so much!!!! My first series that got me loving fiction and the worlds we can build!!!

I’m so glad you liked the index!!! Its both for you and me because half the time i can’t keep track of what information i want to use/verified so… it keeps me consistent (because i am horrible at it LMAO)

Please don’t ever worry about sliding in here “late”!!! Life is busy and the chapters are a little long, plus time will always keep marching on (omg that rhymed)! And! Please don’t feel obligated to come scream with me! Just knowing that you’re enjoying my work is enough to fuel me!!! :))))))

I feel you on the jokes 🐱, i am not funny irl at all HAHAAHA but your joke was hilarious, im crackin up just thinking about it LMFAOOO

Have a great week 🐱!!!!!! <33333333

[blaperile]

Hiveswap Episode 1 Reaction Part 5: Hallway to attic + Retrieving flashlight!

Day 5 of playing Hiveswap!

Last time we just finished examining the hallway just outside Joey's room and were planning on moving on, let's see what exciting new places we find today! I wonder if we're going to find some more interesting tidbits about what happened to Ms. Claire, and more information about Grandpa and Mom! Also maybe something about who Jude's mother is (seeing as I assume Ms. Claire died before he was born).

Starting at 7:20 PM now.

Heh, is it just me or did the animation of the jewelery chest opening play again when our game loaded?

Let's first try going to the attic, because we know we can't advance there yet prior to having the flashlight.

Oooh, that's a prety small hallway! A big difference from the two previous rooms, hehe.

I like that we can now see the crutches and those other things from a different perspective. I wonder what will happen if we try examining it.

Also, there's a light switch button there, but looks like we can't switch this one off, unlike the one in Joey's room, hehe.

Aha, so that's what that mess is! Just a bunch of stuff that needs to be moved to the attic but hasn't ben moved yet.

Oh dear... we can befriend the caterpillar doll? Do I even want to know what that does. 0_0

Ah, so it's a doll related to her veteriniarian interests! Makes sense. But yeah, there's not much practicing you can do on a plush toy like that. :P

Okay, "befriending" it doesn't do much special, other than walking us over to it, hehe.

Cherub Key && Caterpillar doll ==> Ahahaha, yeah this isn't a doll appropriate for storing an item in it (though the Puppy Surprise is creepy enough to be holding items too :o ).

Pffff, both the caterpillar AND the slinky are sitting comfortably in a pretty awkward position and not moving anywhere, haha.

Cherub Key && slinky ==> Oh??? That's pretty weird. Does the key attract metal for some reason? Hmmm... mysterious.

What the frick are all those things at the top of the stairs? What's that weird giant pillar thingy in the corner? And what's with that white doll with the green and red eye? I find that pretty suspicious, considering what the pairing of red and green means in Homestuck and Hiveswap...

It also kind of reminds me of that very early concept art of a First Guardian-like axolotl that I haven't thought about in ages. Does it have anything to do with that, for some reason?

And what's that pink thing? Is that another Puppy Surprise? 0_0

Also, looks like there's some old cleaning material there. Someone probably made the noble intention at some point to clean there, and then decided not to or forgot about it. :P

...Maybe Mom did that. Considering her odd cleaning behaviour in Homestuck, that wouldn't surprise me, haha.

Ha, okay. The description for that pile of junk is exactly the same as for the junk downstairs.

So, I bet we're probably not capable of entering the attic door yet, as long as we don't have the flashlight. Let's see...

Huh, so Grandpa spends a lot of time up here (when he's home), tending to his artifacts. I guess it's kind of like the attic in Jade's home, keeping his most valuable and weird possessions up there?

The question is where he got the mysterious portal from that Joey will be using to go to Alternia though. Did he find it on his travels somewhere?

That thing just brings up so many questions to my mind. I mean, Dammek's probably got a similar portal in his hive, and where did he get it from? Is it the same portal, brought to Earth by The Condesce centuries later? And did The Condesce then make sure it ended up with Grandpa for Joey to use?

Is it all part of some grand scheme of Doc Scratch and Lord English? If so, why? What big importance would it have for Joey to go to Alternia and for Dammek to go to Earth?

This is all clearly taking place after the Summoner's rebellion, which was, as far as we know, the last event in Alternia's history to have a major impact on the rest of its timeline, so what other important thing could Joey's presence on Alternia possibly influence?

Same thing with Dammek, there's not really anything important that needs to happen on Earth before Sburb takes place, right? Skaianet is already founded, and Grandpa will soon find the technology in the Frog Temple to start developing Sburb, so I'm not sure what importance Dammek could play on Earth.

That's all some really big questions, and I'm curious to see if we'll find answers to them in this game!

Oh jeez I kind of went on a tangent, didn't I? xD

Let's get back to the situation at hand.

Okay, so the attic door is locked. Which means we'll have to find a key somewhere! God what is it with all the keys in this house. :mspa:

Uh oh, we're peering through the keyhole.

OOOOOOOOOH, it's this little sequence that we've seen in trailers! With some mysterious music to accompany it. Our first glance at the mysterious portal!

But... what I find really curious is Joey's reaction! It looks like she doesn't recognize the portal! What's up with that?? Has she never been up there before? Or is the portal a recent addition to the attic (but like plainWonder says, that would be weird seeing as the Cherub Key has been here for years).

Also, how the fuck did this giant portal get up in the attic?!

Wait... this is Grandpa we're talking about, the person who also got a giant spaceship into the Medium and who is an alternate version of Jake who had a Fetch Modus that allowed him to captchalogue humongous things. Nevermind. xD

Oh boy, Joey's talking to Jude again! I guess she'll probably ask him if he knows where the key is. But I wonder if she's also going to ask something about what that thing is in there? And more interestingly, if Jude knows something more about it?

Haha, so Jude knew the attic door was locked. I love Joey's deadpan comment about it.

Oooooooooooooooh, nice! So there's some specific dialog of Jude because we don't have the flashlight yet! Hahaha, so he'll only tell us where the key is after we retrieve the flashlight.

The question is though, is it technically possible to already find the key and enter the attic (and by extension the Cherub portal) before we even retrieve the flashlight?

I wonder if it's perhaps in the basement? That would be the perfect excuse to have us go all the way through the entire house, haha.

....Or wait, maybe the key is in the tree hut! And then Jude could send the key to Joey with that pidgeon we've seen in trailers and concept art! I could see that happening too.

Cherub Key && Attic Door => WELP. We quickly closed that narration because it looks like we weren't supposed to read that yet, 'cause it gave away something about the location of the attic key. :(

Alright, let's try to forget that and move on.

Moving back to the previous hallway (again that animation of the jewelery box opening. Maybe the hallway really is spooky and the jewelery chest is haunted! :mspa:).

And now, moving to the T-junction and see what's there!

Ooooooh, we're looking at the hallway from a different perspective! It gives a different view at the statue and the Sufferer doll, plus some new things! Apparently Jude's room was right there, very close to Joey's, haha.

But... that Lord English castle though. Grandpa/Jake, why do you always need to have this stuff that so creepily resembles Lord English things. 0_0

I like that you can see more of those monsters flying through that window outside.

And oh hey, there are the stairs to go down, along with the infamous family portraits we've seen a lot of teases of!

I wonder if we can enter Jude's room and/or the door next to it? It could be that we can't go into certain rooms of their house, like the bathroom. Seeing as the bathroom always seems to be a room we can't enter in the homes of Homestuck, while we can only enter them in the homes of Homestuck boys.

Well, I guess both a boy and a girl live here, but seeing as Joey's the main character I'm betting we can't enter the bathroom. :mspa:

Other than that, oh god, plainWonder has a point! There are a few pink turtle figures there, as a reference to the Turtle consorts in Homestuck! Plus they also seem to be some sort of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, hahahahaha.

...

I wonder if it's a coincidence that such a turtle figure is lying down just outside the Lord English castle, what with how Caliborn once killed a Turtle consort in Homestuck. :P

I find it interesting how there seems to be a crown on top of Lord English's head, even though he's never been depicted with a crown before. Though I guess he IS a lord, haha.

Oh man plainWonder just made an amazing remark: it seems like the two pillars on this castle were first coloured in gold, but it largely wore off on one of the sides, so that there's only one truely gold coloured pillar left. Just like Lord English's golden tooth.

And what's with that box with colourful... pins? For a second I thought they were just the B1 Kid colours, but it seems like there's more colours there, haha.

Finally, that dragon painting between the two doors. It looks awfully familiar to me? Could it be that something like that appeared in The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven? Or am I thinking of something else here...

Huh, strangely we've now got TWO options when examining the statue! On the other side of the hallway we had only one option. Now we can also "use", but apparently that just triggers another comment about how Joey doesn't like using the darts as ammo seeing as she doesn't like guns, hehe.

Pfffff, welp. We can't even examine the Lord English castle. I was actually hoping she'd give a funny remark about that, haha.

Let's examine the weird dragon painting.

So okay, according to plainWonder we've seen it before in concept art and there were some theories about a hidden meaning to it? I don't remember that.

But in any case, he does have a point that the lowest one looks a little bit like an axolotl, and that the right one kind of looks like it has antlers!

Also, the left one kind of looks like it has a Lord English-like scarf plus green wings? The plot thickens. :P

...Huh. It's kind of weird that Joey specifically remarks the eye of the lowest dragon as seemingly following her. To me, it looks like the eyes of the upper two dragons also seem to be staring in the same direction.

Does it have a symbolic meaning?

Or... maybe Jude's room is right behind this painting and it turns out that Jude carved a hole in the wall so he could remove that eye and peek through it to keep an eye on the hallway for suspicious things, and whenever Joey feels like that eye is following her it's actually just Jude looking through it. xD

Huh, when we zoomed back out on the rest of the room, those colorful pins seemed to flicker for a second? I wonder what their deal is?

Also, that closet to the left of the door seems to have a kind of weird S-like shape, haha.

And uh, what's with that shark figure and skull onthat shelf? Especially, what's with that eyepatch on the skull. xD

I'm suddenly thinking of all those one-eyed people in Homestuck. Though I believe Vriska's the only one to have ever worn an eyepatch? I doubt this is supposed to be a reference to any of them. :mspa:

plainWonder's got a good point that this door, right next to Jude's room, might be the hall closet where Joey's flashlight is! So let's wait a bit before we examine that and let's first examine everything else we can before opening it (also, I bet we probably can't go downstairs before we retrieve the flashlight?).

A... lite brite? I've literally never heard about that before. But it [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lite-Brite"]IS real[/url] and looks like something fun!

OOOOOOOOOOH, by using the "Lite" option we can let Joey make her symbol on the lite brite! I wonder if we try it again if she can also make some other symbols?

Also, cue "you waste exactly four minutes on this tomfoolery". :mspa:

Pressing Lite again, she makes a Tesseract symbol!!! :O I love how it's exactly like the Bec symbol we all know, except with eyes and a mouth, haha. That's so cool. I wonder if she'll also make Jude's symbol and Mom's symbol? :O

N'AWWWWWWWW, she made herself, Jude and Tesseract. That is incredibly cute.

Also, I should mention that I really like how you can slowly see the board change as she makes a new design, and how the pins on the floor also change when she makes a new design.

Ahahaha, next up is the Cherub spiral symbol! She obviously made it because of the pattern on her key, but I can't help but feel nervous with that Lord English castle right there. :P

Also, this just helped me to notice that that Lord English castle doesn't have any red cheeks.

Okay, looks like that's all for the patterns on this lite brite!

Cherub Key && Lite Brite ==> HMMMMMMMMM, that's really mysterious. I find it strange that she "knows" she's seen it before, but can't exactly say when it has happened. Could it have been in her dreams? Like, has she been having some mysterious dreams (no, I'm not necessarily suggesting she's a Sburb player just yet :P). Also, her "in your mind's eye" immediately made me think of Terezi.

JOEY CONFIRMED FOR HERO OF MIND. :mspa:

Tap shoes && Lite Brite ==> PFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, I love how it suddenly seems to be turning into a running gag that if Joey tapdances she'd fall off stairs, just like it already was in the stairway to the attic.

Huh, interestingly the only thing we can examine in the left corner of the hallway is the cabinet! I actually thought it would have been those other items, haha.

Are we going to look at the contents of this cabinet?

Ahahaha, okay no, we're just examining the lamp on top of it. Never mind what I said. :mspa:

Cherub Key && Lamp cabinet ==> Pffff, so now Joey's trying out the Cherub Key on this. Yes Joey, I highly doubt it fits there. xD

plainWonder does have a good point that this seems to suggest those drawers on the cabinet are locked. HMMMMMM :p

Alright, let's examine Jude's door now!

Oh, we're zooming in on the door, and the Lord English castle is still in good view! Can we NOW click on that castle? :O

...Nope, we cant'. xD

Looking at his door more closely, my eye is mostly drawn to that drawing of a black ball with wings and sharp teeth. Other than the red eyes and legs, doesn't this look suspiciously like the monsters flying around outside? I wonder if that's a coincidence or not.

Oh??? The narration is really interesting here. Jude's got a pet in there!!! My first thought was a hamster, to go with the hamster tube that seems to be exiting his room, but I find it weird that it's an animal Joey DOESN'T wants to deal with! Which is pretty remarkable, seeing as she likes animals so much!

Whatever it is, I assume it can get around with that hamster tube? So that would mean it's at least something relatively small.

Looks like the identity of this pet and the contents of Jude's room will remain a mystery for now. Perhaps until Hauntswitch?

Joey's mention of traps in Jude's room reminds me of John and Nanna's habits of putting buckets on top of the door to fall on whoever opens the door, and also of course Bro's traps for Dave in their appartment.

And there's another mention of Joey wanting to avoid an encounter with Jude's pet. Mysterious. :o

Tap shoes && Jude's door ==> So, Joey especially wants to avoid setting off the pet by tapping! Sounds like it's a pet that could be a real nuisance or even dangerous if it gets upset...

Haha, alright! We can't go downstairs without our flashlight, like I thought. I like how there's a mention about how we've already been to the attic.

Well then, let's see what's behind that door which is presumably the hallway closet (I mean, it's not like there are anymore options :P)

Okay, so it is indeed the hallway closet.

Huh, apparently it contains old belongings of Joey? I wonder what else is in there, other than the flashlight (if anything special)?

Oooooooooh, looks like the ballet shoes are in there! I kinda forgot we hadn't retrieved those yet, makes sense that they're in there! Along with some other old stuff and some clothes, it seems.

Ahhhhh, apparently we need to use our tap shoes to make that box fall! Finally we can use our tapping skills to actually make something fall, haha. xD

Also, who even put that box up there?

Tap shoes && Box ==> Ooooh, cool animation as the box falls down! So, looks like there's only 3 things in there: the flashlight, the ballet shoes, and... a bag of chips? Why is that in there? Or does it perhaps have something inside (other than chips) that is of importance to her?

HOLY MOTHER OF BATMAN we suddenly gain a lot of new items: the ballet shoes, the flashlight (without batteries GOD DANG IT so that's why I remember seeing more batteries in the concept art, haha), a bag of pet treats (oh man... are we going to use that to get Tesseract out of the dog house), and also a bunch of flippos!

Goddang that is a preposterous amount of new items and also new combinations on all the items in the rooms we've visited so far!

New conversation with Jude incoming! He's probably going to mention the location of the attic key, and maybe he'll also have an idea where we can find more batteries (my bet right now is that we'll have to take batteries out of that radio we've seen in concept art).

Pfff, so much is going on and Jude is concerned about his pogs being kept safe. xD

Kind of reminds me of the Pokémon anime where James has a ridiculous concern for keeping his crown corks safe.

Now that I'm thinking about it, Jude's formal way of speaking and talking in upper caps reminds me a bit of WV's manner of talking to John, haha!

Huh, so Jude wants Joey to head over to "the trophy room". Probably a room similar to the Grand Foyer in Jade's room, with all those trophies he had on the wall?

Alright, we're calling it a day here, at 9:35 PM.

Tomorrow, the first thing we'll do is start examining all the combinations of the pet treats, pogs, ballet shoes and powerless flashlight on the items we have encountered so far! That'll probably take up enough of our playtime tomorrow, haha.