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やったねタヱちゃん！SAIが初期化してるの忘れてたよ！！なタヱちゃん

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I swear i spent like 4 hours trying to figure out how to draw and render this. I like this one a lot tho

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palico lore will always be funny to me. They get paid to hunt just like a human hunter. But since they're small anthropomorphic cats you always treat them like pets or babies. like your palico is grown ass man....cat

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Neo 3 💛

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to be fair...

That Ace Attorney courthouses are designed to release confetti everywhere if a defendant is exonerated but not upon conviction will never stop being funny to me.

Like.

When the defense wins in court, the entire courtroom's like OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THIS SHIT OH MY GOD IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT PARTY TIME MOTHERFUCKERS

But when the prosecution wins, the court's like, "Yup. Anyways."

And if that's not a profound statement on the nature of justice within this setting then I don't know what is.

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2024 SLAYERS SECRET SANTA INFO AND SIGNUP FORM:

Hello! Please read over the following before signing up. Thank you!

What ‘Secret Santa’ Means: You create a fanwork, and you’ll receive one in return. Everyone who wishes to participate will provide prompts that they’d like to see completed, and another participant will be assigned their prompts and will complete one of those prompts (which one is completed is up to the person they’re assigned to).

When you submit your prompts, you are welcome (and encouraged) to tell me anything you are uncomfortable with or don’t wish to do (pairings, genre, rating, etc), that way the prompts you’re given are something you’re comfortable writing/drawing.

Rules and Regulations:

1) Watch this tumblr!  If you do not have a tumblr yourself, please put it in your bookmarks and remind yourself to check it often.

2) Can I ask for ____?  You can ask for whatever you want- rating, genre, etc. However, please keep in mind that if you’re asking for something super unusual, you might want to provide some broader prompts as well.

3) How long do I have to signup?  Signups will end on Saturday, November 30, 2024. That is all month to sign up!!

4) When is the deadline?  Please have your piece completed and posted by Friday, January 31, 2025. You can post your gift anytime starting from Wednesday, December 25, 2024.

5) How do I post it?  Post it in your own tumblr and link it to us or tag us (@slayersweek) so we can reblog it over here. You may link to where your fanwork is posted off tumblr (to livejournal, dreamwidth, ff.net, ao3, deviantart, etc) in your post.

6) How long does fic have to be?  At least eight hundred words. It doesn’t need to be super-long of course, but we want everyone to get something that’s more than drabble length.

7) Are there any extra requirements for the art?  It can be done in any medium (digital, colored pencil, copic, sketch, etc). Just remember that this is a gift for someone, so make sure it’s a completed piece!

8) Can I do fancomics?  Yes. Absolutely.

9) What if I need to drop out?  Then I would ask you to please let me know as soon as possible (and before the December 25th deadline) so we can arrange a pitch hitter for you. Failure to notify me will ban you from future events.

10) What is a pitch hitter?  If someone has to drop out, I’d still like their giftee to get a gift. A pitch hitter is someone who is willing to do a second fanwork in order to make sure no one goes without a gift.

11) What type of prompts should I give?  Prompts can be anything from something vague like “Lina, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis exchange gifts,” “Sylphiel and Martina go to the beach” to something specific like “I’d like to see a fic where Lina and Gourry are pulled into an undersea world. The two end up facing an ancient source of magic, and they must team up with many witch and wizard allies. I’d like if it featured Lina/Gourry and Zelgadis/Amelia, and if possible… some Filia/Valgaav? A happy ending, please!” You must submit a minimum of three prompts or I cannot fairly give your requests to your Santa.

Please make them more than a characters name. It does not have to be Christmas themed and you do not have to be detailed, but give people something to work with!

12) I have another question!  Then please ask it via our askbox (anon asks are enabled).

Okay, I’m ready to signup! Please copy and paste the below form and submit it to the SlayersWeek inbox to sign up.

GIVING: Tumblr Username: Email or Alternate Contact:   Specialty (Fanfic or Fanart- If you can do both, you may list both): Highest Rating You’ll Work With: Will Not Work With (Any characters, pairings, genres, scenarios, you won’t do): RECEIVING: Do Not Want (Any characters, pairings, ratings, genres, scenarios, etc you don’t want to receive): Do You Prefer fic, art, or no preference?: Three Prompts: 1) 2) 3) Can you pitch hit if someone drops out?:

Please SUBMIT your completed form HERE. If you have any further questions, you can direct them to this blog HERE, or to my personal HERE.

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I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Post

I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Thread/Post

So Nintendo revealed its Alarmo alarm clock a while back, and like. Nintendo could have EASILY contracted a third party to make a normal alarm clock, slap some Nintendo branding on it, and sell it for much cheaper, because that's what any other big media company would have done, but no, they had to be extra. And reactions ranged from "i want one" to "what the fuck, this isn't the switch 2, this is so weird and stupid". 

I was initially in the latter camp. But there was always a twinge of. Morbid curiosity to it. And a desire to fix something about myself. 

See, I am AWFUL at getting up in the morning. I'm not a morning person. Most alarms on my phone and such I just hit snooze or stop endlessly even when I set a billion of them. But Alamo is different. Alarmo bugs you to get out of bed if you try to lie back down. So since I had extra money from my job, I was like, "maybe it's worth a shot I GUESS" and despite my reservations bought one. 

It arrived in a package a few days later. I was surprised by how small it was.

I knew it needed to be right next to my bed, so I moved a dog crate next to it and stacked a bunh of books on top for the Alarmo to sit on. 

I got it all set up...

And went to bed relatively soon after because I needed w to get up early the next morning. 

And you know what? The thing works. 

...Mostly.

I was awakened to loud Salmon Run noises, which were what I chose the night prior. (I later switched to other noises, especially Pikmin noises, I felt were even more intense.) They did in fact stop when I got out of bed. The motion sensors do their job very well. Sometimes too well. 

The box mentioned pets can throw it off and my dog DOES sleep with me but she's small and sleeps away from the sensor and gets out of bed when I do so she doesn't mess with it much. 

(Okay, not entirely true, she DOES mess with it sometimes...)

You know what potentially messes with it? The body pillow I sleep with. Maybe. Possibly.I toss it out of the bed to make sure but also it's kinda inconsistent if it triggers it or not.

 So maybe I should probably add a disclaimer about body pillows? Maybe not? Unsure.

I also kinda threw it off sitting on the edge of the bed putting new clothes on - that made it think I was still in bed. 

But the thing is it is actually succeeding at getting me out of bed. The fact it just goes off again if you lie back down is really helpful for me specifically. There was one time where I set it really early to get up for work and I fell back asleep on the couch to thwart the alarm and had to be woken up by my staff but the next day I set the alarm for slightly later and woke up for work fine. 

Even with the regular mode there IS a button to forcibly turn the alarm off which is dangerous for me specifically because that's my entire problem with normal alarms. But I gotta work on the discipline to not use it and find good timing so I'm less tempted to. 

Also! There are bedtime noises!But they're always the same volume as the alarm so mine ended up a bit loud to be sleepy bedtime music. 

Oh! And a summary of the alarms I've tried: 

-The rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrandomizer -The aforementioned Salmon Run noises

-The rousing noises of Pikmin night expeditions -GROOVY LONGLEGS DISCO

-Pikmin just straight up drowning -Zelda telling me to wake the fuck up

-Barking chain chomps to go with my barking doggo

So like. It's definitely still kind of a novelty item and I still rather not have paid 100 bucks for it. But the specific features it has are helpful for someone like me who is ass at getting up in the morning, so it's worth a shot if you fall into that specific category. Now if you'll excuse me I'm setting it to Pikmin drowning again because I'm a sick freak.

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the reason so many people are quick to act like edgeworth and gumshoe are close friends despite that so clearly not being what the dynamic is is because they're afraid to embrace the deep bond of intimacy and trust you need to be someone's goon. gumshoe is edgeworth's most devoted and trusty henchman. nothing more nothing less.

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Grima is down! Time for an All-Out Attack!

A Persona 5 themed Chrobin family art commission I got from @ArayaEjiri on Twitter

Absolutely stunning😊

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Dunkaccino, but Eggman.

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She's going to hit Ganon with a chair

Haven't got Echoes of Wisdom yet but will definitely play it when I have time (and money lol). This is a somewhat experimental drawing but I like how it turned out :)

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More updates to Vaespar's lore thread: 

-He/she has multiple new alter egos: 

--A Dark Crystal guise with a matching one for Gliar: 

--The Fell Wizard, an alternate but still more mage-y guise: 

--Modern Casual Vaespar - what it says on the tin, a more casual guise

--The Diabolic Knight - a dark knight version of Vaespar: 

--Princess Voidswallow: A Mario universe variant for Fem!Vaespar: 

--A lesser monster form known as Prowler Form, a vicious ambush predator: 

--Proto Vaespar, aka Vaespar just starting his villanous career: 

-Vaespar has an airship, which he/she commandeered from the great Prime Minister Yllgaine:

-His/her Final Fantasy XIV adventure has continued, with many twists and turns:

-And finally, a new form chart

Vaespar Lore Dump

@gay-werewolves inspired me, I'm going to do a lore dump about my special boi(/gurl), my fave OC and secondary sona, Vaespar. (READ BELOW)

The setting I invented that Vaespar is from is a fantasy setting that is both post-apocalyptic and post-human; 

in the near future, a goddess of a forgotten religion, The Midnight Lady, reawakens. She sees the state of the world, which has become even more fucked by cryptocurrency among other things, and is fucking pissed.

She promptly reintroduces magic to the world at an explosive rate, mutating all life on earth (except dogs, cats, and corvids, whom she favors) into strange new forms via a magical blight known as the Raven Plauge, and causing the collapse of civilization. 

(This also wakes up the other gods in the Midnight Lady's pantheon, who advise her that there were probably better ways but are too late to actually stop or undo her actions. They're important later.)

Most humans end up mutating into funky fantasy races, but the worst of the worst get reduced into some kind of shadow sludge. From this sludge the demons were born.

Demons in this setting are basically like the Venom symbiote. They're ineffectual small shadow blobs on their own, but they bond with other beings and give them enhanced magical power in exchange for sustenance. Now, most demons don't require much in the way of sustenance (though what that is tbd) and aren't particularly harmful, but a rarer, more powerful, and more malignant strain exists, known as archdemons. 

Archdemons are much more powerful than normal demons and use their hosts to devour the bodies and souls of others, turning into darkness to engulf and digest them. And one of them manages to find the last human.

Now exactly how one human survived has been lost to time to the point not even the gods know, but this human was once a great hero before being tempted into bonding with an archdemon. And it turns out an archdemon with a human host is EXTREMELY powerful. 

Eventually over time the archdemon and human basically merge into one being. And that being... Is Vaespar.

He's a cruel, prideful, sorcerous evil overlord type who has ruined countless lives and devoured countless people. He's immortal and nigh unkillable at this point, so many have attempted to seal him away, but he always breaks free eventually. 

His magical powers are incredibly strong, and include some degree of shapechanging ability. However, he can only perfectly *mimic* another being if it's one he's eaten.

He CAN turn into a floating face, or a snake man, or, most importantly, trans his gender. (He's genderfluid babyeeeeee! he/him or she/her pronouns, though leans former, as I've been using)

And when he absorbs enough magical power at once he transforms into his monstrous Ascending Form, which is powerful enough to devour and kill the local gods.

And he did in fact do that once!

See, Vaespar's goal in life is to transform into an eldritch god dragon and rule the world, and he attempted to devour a god (exact identity of said god pending) in order to attain that. But he just kind of... Hemorrhages all the power. And also in this setting killing a god has DRASTIC CONSEQUENCES based around whatever the god was a god of, so it fucks things up big time. HOW is again undecided but.

Vaespar eventually learns in order to get the results he wants and have them stick he needs to devour one particular god specifically: Gliar, the god of light, who's sort of a nega-him. This is around when he gets his signature outfit - it matches Gliar's and is Vaespar's most petty way of messing with him.

He does try to get to Gliar in more significant ways, however. 

See, there's this forest spirit goddess lady (name TBD) who is good friends with Gliar. She also has a girlfriend who's a flower goddess named Iuzurva. Vaespar ends up seducing and magically corrupting her to give himself more advantage against the gods and have someone to try and get him to Gliar. 

Gliar is despondent and terrified and goes into hiding. Iuzurva is even MORE despondent and falls into a despair that makes her more malevolent and eldritch. 

(Also said goddess being corrupted does a fucky to the world's forests, making them even more dangerous places. Not as bad as if Vaespar has killed/eaten her but. She has remained an ally of Vaespar ever since)

There is one person who got oh so close to defeating Vaespar. And that was Evithyan Zerdali. 

She was a powerful mage (of one of the more humanlike post-human species) and also a good friend of Gliar, who tried to figure out the secret to killing Vaespar. She was very close to uncovering the secret to killing Vaespar before he ultimately devoured her during a major confrontation, but she got him sealed away again in the process. After her death Gliar became even more reclusive and even started spreading rumors he was a false god. 

It is said something of Evithyan still lingers, however...

Vaespar is assisted in his endeavors by various minions and henchmen, and in the "present day" of the story is most closely aided by Loveland, a member of a race of frog people, who resembles a firebelly toad (and thus is Vaespar's literal toady). While not particularly malevolent in and of himself, he is fiercely loyal to Vaespar and the two work closely together. 

Vaespar also has the power to access other universes, though he hasn't bothered conquering any... Yet. (This is how I explain interactions with characters and species that wouldn't exist in his home universe.) Some notable jaunts:

-Vaespar once visited a CERTAIN Pokemon universe briefly, and even had a child named Seigbert there. However he has yet to engage in Trainer shenanigans in any other Pokemon universes. Yet...

-He has also become a Summoner in the world of Fire Emblem Heroes, and commands a cabal of fucked up and evil heroes, and had a child with one of them too, Arvis. Their daughter is named Igol. 

-He has also ventured into the world of Final Fantasy XIV, having transformed into a Viera, and is doing Typical WOL Shenanigans there

Other Vaespar Facts: 

-He has ink blot like markings on his body that reflect his nature as a human/demon fusion, though the exact pattern changes often.

-His height depends on his current form but defaults to 7'6 

-In addition to being genderfluid he's pansexual and autistic

-He does still consume normal food and drink, but the urge to consume those is different from his urge to consume other beings (though can overlap if he transforms someone into food)

-His hood has a long "tail" to it, very important

-Those things on his robe are tassels, not cravats, including the one on his neck

-Here's a chart of how his major forms all link to each other

-And a slightly outdated size chart of them next to my other sonas

And finally, because people asked: Even though he's partially a sona I don't mind if people say he's hot. I'm FLATTERED, he's meant to be. (This goes for my other sonas too.)

I tried to keep the images in this thread limited to my own art, but plenty of other people have drawn Vaespar, either because I paid them to or of their own volition. You can see them here! (remove spaces): https :// toyhou.se/ 5157929 .vaespar

This was really fun to write up and do! Feel free to ask any questions. Maybe I'll do my main sona Umbra next.

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More updates to Umbra's lore thread: 

-He/she has multiple new alter egos: 

--A Butch Fem!Umbra for a different form of gender expression: 

--A Jedi version for Star Wars shenanigans:

--Brought back a Great Fairy version of Umbra for Zelda stuff (second image by goblinstrashpile): 

--Fem!Umbra now has her own human guise to go with Masc!Umbra's: 

--A kemonomimi/hybrid version of Anthro-Penumbra called Hybrid Penumbra: 

-I've given him/her a cool staff: 

-He/she has a phantom mode to turn invisible to most beings and observe events without being seen:

-Oh and he/she is the parent of one of my other OCs, Xerlyn, thanks to this Oglaf parody:

The Umbra Lore Post

OK I did this for Vaespar, one of my other sonas, so I'm going to do a lore thread for what is arguably my main sona, Umbra.

This will have more Meta Context than the Vaespar thread did (there is meta context to Vaespar and I will get to it eventually but it is best saved for... elsewhere) so I'm gonna be starting with said meta context. 

To start off... the entity now known as Umbra was once two separate characters. 

For the first... I have a story setting I call Multiverse Warriors. It started when I was 12 as a really stupid idea for a fanfic series that essentially crossed Pokemon over with everything else I'm into but slowly evolved into an original fiction superhero-y science fantasy thing. 

When it started, I decided to give the Multiverse Warriors, the titular main characters, a boss, simply referred to as The Boss. The Boss was basically me but cooler and sexier, as one does, and gave the Multiverse Warriors their missions. The Boss remained a constant fixture of my mental theater adventures of the Multiverse Warriors. 

Cut to the tail end of me being 19. I joined a certain RP called We Are All Pokemon Trainers, or WAAPT for short. I whipped up a character that was by all means unusual (for the time) - an immortal (this was pre-AZ) priest of Giratina who holed himself up on an island for 600 years until finally venturing back into the outside world. As my representative in this RP he was dubbed Umbramatic, or Umbra for short, and he went on many, many adventures with a gaggle of other characters, both my other characters I made for the RP and the characters of my fellow RPers. 

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

These two characters existed alongside each other as entirely different yet vaguely conceptually related entities for years. But then at one point I thought "heh, wouldn't it be funny if The Boss looked like Umbra as sort of a continuity joke" and that was a thing for a while. 

But then it got to "hey what if they were the same character just at different points in time" (with the plan being to broad strokes the Pokemon bits in a copyright-friendly way in any "official" Multiverse Warriors material) and that's where things got WEIRD. That decision led to Umbra becoming my sona, an extension and representation of myself - and around the time of that decision was when my idea of who I was was starting to change wildly. 

So now let's get into the (current, post-WAAPT stuff is subject to change) in-universe timeline shall we? It starts with the WAAPT stuff. 

Umbra was born Joseph Nox on April 10, 1353 (WAAPT uses a Pokemonified pseudo-Gregorian calendar) on Shadedrake Island, an island not far from Hoenn that was settled by Sinnoh natives fleeing calamity long ago. Unbeknownst to him, he had been experimented on before birth, by Giratina cultists that spun off  from an ancient civilization of Alakazam and Metagross, and stole a special formula from Nicolas Flamel, who in this continuity happens to be an Infernape. This formula gave Umbra immortality (again this was pre-AZ) that prevented him from dying of old age, disease, and such, as well as the ability to use Obscura (the existing WAAPT Dark/Ghost counterpart to Aura and psychic powers). He did not realize this at first and had a normal childhood with his sister Marie. He grew up to be a high priest of the Giratina religion, gaining the title "Umbramatic," and got some Ghost-type partner Pokemon. Things were going great.

Then a plague struck and every human on the island died except for Umbra. 

Umbra still had his Ghost type companions (one of which was the Sableye ghost of his dead sister, who wouldn't be the last literal ghost from his past to haunt him) but after a few years he did what seemed like the wise thing and took said ghost companions and left. He ended up in a land familiar to those who have played the best Pokemon spinoff - Ransei. 

In Ransei he worked his way up the ranks of the nation Spectra. While he was doing so, he met a lovely lady named Duolis, who he eventually married.

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

Eventually he succeeded Nō as the leader of Spectra and became known as The Ghost Lord, after which Giratina loaned him part of their power. 

This is where things turned sour. 

Umbra quickly grew mad with power. He started to rule Spectra with an iron fist. Soon all knew and feared the name of the Ghost Lord.

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart) He got into various shenanigans with the other residents of the new generation of Ransei (read: my fellow RPers in that particular side arc) before someone finally put his reign to an end. That someone was... his girlfriend from the future, transformed into a white Arcanine for a ridiculous Okami homage I am still weirdly proud of all these years later. 

We'll get back to her later, obviously. 

(Art by Katie Tiedrich)

But even though she gave him an ass beating, despite him turning into a powerful Giratina-Black Kyurem hybrid ghost dragon named Penumbra, she did not in fact kill him, because she did not want to even with the evil overlord phase and also this is a stable time loop. So Umbra, oblivious to the true nature of his assailant, was wracked with guilt over his deeds. He dropped everything, said goodbye to his wife (more on her later), then went right back to Shadedrake Island where he and his Pokemon remained holed up for the next six hundred years. 

(Art by Augdgreen on Deviantart)

Eventually, however, (partially due to Giratina pulling a Mufasa) he and his mons mustered up the courage to leave. And that's where things really got started. 

He, eventually, found his way to Fortree City. There he met a particular group of Pokemon trainers: the J-Team. They are a group of champion-level vigilante Trainers who go about adventuring together. They promptly did the sensible thing and adopted Umbra and his Pokemon as their own. 

From there Umbra had a Wailordload of adventures with the J-Team including but not limited to (take notes kids some of these are important later): 

-Gaining a whole bunch of Pokemon friends

-Discovering  another immortal named Lina, who was created as his backup by the Giratina cult and was his unseen rival in the Ransei days

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

-Finding the truth about his Sableye sister

-Finding out the truth about his origins

-Finding a girlfriend named Amaterasu or Ammy for short who can change between human and Volcarona at will

-Getting into a deconstruction of love triangles with Ammy and Lina 

-Being the Grumpy of a Seven who is also a Hydregion with false memories and also The Beast in a Kingdom Hearts/Epic Mickey-esqe plot

-Having more of his past confront him vis a Waka-esqe Latios who knew him back then -Dealing with Ammy having a short-lived affair (they make up)

-Dealing with Ammy going back in time and becoming his arch-nemesis as a white Arcanine, thus finding the truth about his past and turning their relationship to enemies to lovers retroactively (they make up)

-Finding out one of his colleagues, Pent, is his and Duolis' descendant

-Finding out one of his friends is the human avatar of the Xerneas-created artifact of power he sought in his Ghost Lord days

-Switching bodies with that friend

-Finding his ex-wife is now a Doublade with her own story and issues

-Coming out as having a crush on ANOTHER archnemesis

-Becoming Luke Skywalker

-Creating a universe with the help of his friends in a ridiculous Homestuck homage (that would become the Yangverse, hence Yangverse!Arceus' human form looking like him)

-Being sent to a dimension where he never stopped being the Ghost Lord, and where he and Lina had a son

-Him and his friends having to be broken out of a different dimension by said son

-Making up with that one archnemesis crush from earlier

-Him and Ammy finally getting married and riding off with their friends into the sunset

That last bit was mostly the end of Umbra's story in WAAPT, as I moved on to focus on other, newer characters. 

...But as for his story overall it was only the beginning. Now we enter the post-WAAPT-canon bit which is a transition to... something else. 

See, long after the events of WAAPT, bad things start happening for Umbra as the immortality monkey's paw starts curling. Most of his human friends and Pokemon companions alike start dying off one by one of old age or other factors. Even some of his Ghost pokemon passed on for real, their purpose in the mortal realm done. 

And then it happened. 

After her long Volcarona-demigoddess-based lifespan kept her going for well over a millennium, Ammy finally died of old age.

Umbra, naturally, was devastated. However he was devastated enough to take drastic measures. 

See, he had close connections with a WAAPT organization called PEFE, which had a super secret advanced island base. He used their technology to isolate himself to an alternate timeline of the WAAPTverse that had all human and Pokemon life raptured in an unknown incident, and isolated himself in the remains of PEFE there, cutting himself from almost everyone else. The only surviving companion that came with him was Xion the Porygon-Z, and she kind of forced herself along. 

Umbra stayed alone with Xion in this facility for a long, long time. Sure, he kept himself busy, like with repairing the facility, but he never actually left. Xion meanwhile had much of her programming altered to the point she wasn't a Porygon-Z or even a Pokemon anymore, and came to be known as X. 

Eventually, however, X convinced Umbra to go out just a little. So while he had no intention of ever going back to his home timeline due to all the trauma he did use the multiverse-traveling tech that got him here in the first place to start visiting entirely different timelines. 

The timelines and his little vacations to them were varied. Many of them were very different worlds than the Pokemon-based one he had left behind (leading him to discover to his initial shock and horror what "animals" were), though he visited plenty of other Pokemon worlds too. Eventually during these visits, he started opening up again. He started, you know, actually making friends. Some of them even became new lovers, though none filled the hole Ammy left behind.

It was then he met The Shimmerweaver.

The Shimmerweaver is an archfey entity of immense magical power. Umbra met and befriended them in his travels, and they had a fling or two. But while The Shimmerweaver is not malevolent they are mischievous. Prone to fucking around with their powers to see what happens. 

So one day, they gave Umbra a "gift," that gift being irradiating him with an obscene amount of fey magic. 

After this Umbra found he was no longer a human, but an elf. And not just any old Tolkien-style elf but an elf that was one of the olden fair folk, with all the urges, strengths, and weaknesses. His magical powers expanded widely beyond just his original latent ability to use Obscura, including the ability to shapeshift into other beings via stealing small snippets of their metaphysical identities, but he became vulnerable to silver and prone to dark urges to do awful things to mortals. Also pointy ears and longer hair of course. He could better control his Penumbra dragon form - including making it more anthropomorphic as well -but would also lapse into an eldritch elf form not unlike the Shimmerweaver under pressure.

(Art by Shorah_Art)

But the most pronounced effect this had on Umbra... was the ability for him/her to trans his/her gender.

Umbra was horrified at first. Asked The Shimmerweaver to change him/her back, only to get a "this will be good for you I swear". And. Indeed he/she started getting used to it. In particular started using his/her shapechanging and genderchanging abilities to present and feel euphoria in ways he/she had never before. On one hand it caused him/her to be more ambitious in his/her multiversal adventures. On the other he/she felt the need to keep his/her new nature a secret from most, using his/her powers to make it look like nothing had changed. 

And ultimately, even with his/her many multiversal excursions and newfound powers to toy with, aside from the presence of X he/she led a very lonely life at home. 

(Art by lilsmolfoxdraws on Twitter)

Then the second shakeup happened. 

One morning over his/her morning coffee Umbra found a gaggle of strange children - named Otto, Giselle, Minalli, and Darrin - in one of his lair's modules.

Art by @drrandombear

Said children were child experiments with multiple superpowers, who had escaped their lab via a multiverse-traveling machine. This, however, caused them to crash-land in Umbra's facility. Initially not trusting each other, Umbra nevertheless provided food and shelter for the children. Over time they learned to, in fact, trust each other, aside from Umbra withholding his/her fey, gender-changing, and draconic secrets out of Anxiety, and after a point Umbra had basically adopted the children. Another child named Trina, from yet another universe, eventually joined them as well after one of their adventures, Umbra adopting her as well. 

It was Trina's story - being rescued from a race of crystalline demons that gave her strange powers - that gave Umbra an idea. 

See, he/she had seen a lot of things across the multiverse. A lot of amazing things, but also a lot of terrible things. Many, many people who for whatever reason needed help. 

So he trained the children in rescue, and combat, and deflecting and circumventing disaster. Those children eventually started putting their training into action across the multiverse, saving lives. They referred to Umbra as The Boss. And he/she gave them a name too: The Multiverse Warriors. 

They went on many adventures with Umbra, or The Boss, at their command. But will Umbra ever open up to them about his/her secrets? We'll find out eventually. 

And here is where we loop back to the meta stuff. Because through all this bullshit, in-universe and out, Umbra has become an extension of my identity. Sure, Umbra's not *literally* me. Sure, Umbra-as-a-character vs. Umbrra-as-a-representation-of-me is kind of fuzzy, and what's canon in that regard is a little messy. But Umbra, *spiritually*, is me... or at least one form of me, along with my other sonas. He/she got me out of my shell with my writing and character development. He/she helped me explore my gender identity. Umbra is very special to who I am as a person...  and while I've tried to document as much as his/her story as possible here, it's sure to gain new wrinkles from here on out.

[umbramatic]

hooray

[umbramatic]

ファイアーエムブレム蒼炎の軌跡

ティアマト

[umbramatic]

local man dissociates so hard during work meetings he has failed to notice entire board of company was composed of cartoon villains.