#with a shiny new tag:

[asheanon]

🤠 So, among the Starlight/FFIX tangents I want to tan and gent over the coming week, I figured I'd start off with this one. (Since it has some more spooky elements, apt for spooky season.~)

TL;DR: It's more or less just another tangent on me realizing how Sal or any other Ethereal may interact with respective parts of a world. Instead of Dissidia's, however, today, it's Gaia/Terra/the general universe and planetary systems of FFIX! Has to do with mist. Has to do with Memoria. I'll be referencing bits of FFVII's Lifestream during this spiel as well, though, because there are connections and similarities.

💭

I've really been driving this point home lately: how Sal and all Ethereals are considered spectral entities; they can interact with incorporeal things (such as ghosts) and things like that. That being said, that brings up some interesting things to think about... (Some things I've thought about for The Anomaly - FFVII fanfic - that would 110% apply to Starlight - FFIX fanfic - too, I realized.)

Mako and mist are very similar, yeah? Similar enough given the fact that: they're comprised of souls, bear mutagenic properties and they're disorienting. Additionally, they are both an energy source, as well. Something an Ethereal could consume.

Anytime Sal came into contact with the Lifestream, it was a double-edged sword; fantastic Ethereal "food" source, albeit, the presence of souls - a spectral sort of existence one can still communicate with - actually make it more like a drug trip! Like, feels great. Also makes you feel insane, though. Scares you. The "sound"/feeling of all those different entities and their voices inside the "mind" is truly maddening! In game terms, it's like boosting up your stats while simultaneously inflicting confusion. God speed, basically. Hahaha!

Given that theory, I imagine Sal would absolutely react similarly to mist. The Ethereal instinct to consume it as an energy source would be there, but the idea of it bearing some level of sentience as well as the noise would put her off - and the similar drug-like trip she'd experience if she did did "ingest" it would very much make that a one time experience (if she could help it,) I'm sure! Consumption stuff aside, though, I imagine she hears that noise no matter what... hears a few little whispers in the mist, when in its presence... It's so spooky and I love it. Of course I would...!

Going back to FFVII and mako, think of it being a bit like Aerith and how she's able to communicate with ghosts and souls in the Lifestream as well. The only difference is I like to imagine Sal can't really single out voices in the Lifestream, still leaving that type of communication unique to the Cetra. She can hear them, but she can't distinguish them (not often or all that well, anyway.) A vast majority of the time, it's this overwhelming torrent of whispers and voices she can't pinpoint like Aerith can. And I'd like to theorize the mist "sounds"/feels the same. For FFIX and mist in particular, you have confirmation that those souls can be "heard"/felt in what may or may not be a somewhat similar way, thanks to Kuja and whatnot. I don't see why Sal couldn't "hear" them even without consuming them, given the mako and mist parallels along with Anon's (Sal's own respective story lore) evidence laid out.

So... in that regard: The Iifa Tree would be a headache for her. Haha! Memoria would be one too! While I don't know if she and the other main party members will be there to experience the FFIX version of it in any capacity, if they are (or they experience any rendition of such a thing) I sense it being a particular disadvantage of sorts for Sal to face. Though... there could also be some manner of appropriate advantage she could develop or find to be able to better tolerate it through the story... maybe... 🤔 (Similar to her getting a bit of a feel for magic, even though her ability to use it is often improbable if not outright impossible, depending on how the magic works; another disadvantage I have sadly cursed her with - in ALL stories. It's always a struggle. Custom Ashe curse. She's OP by default with all those cool Ethereal pros - I have to toss in the cons somewhere, you know?)

And I focus on Sal here (as I often do) but, spoiler alert: she's not the only Ethereal present in this story! I think it'll be pretty neat to see how any Ethereal character's experience with the mist might go. See how it might... tell on who they are, despite them trying to keep it a secret or how it might open the door to some pretty spooky scary situations and things like that.~

[barghest-land]

fieldbook (mostly this year): expedition sketches. different places and seasons

[mawguai]

I want to go back and talk to you

[skydrynn]

Late nights in the lab~

[macaroonkitti]

New Year in Ecruteak!!

[the-pigeon]

she shiny on my duo til i

[froganni]

Shiny Duo Soul Eater AU, anyone? :D Scarlet Pearl just really matches the vibe with the anime tbh

Reblogs appreciated!

[princessmo]

My Sunburn #MySunburn

[dustykneed]

saw a post about making zines... so i decided to try my hand at it. and i'm actually so in love with this format!!

if anyone actually does want to print this out (i doubt it but it wouldn't be a zine otherwise heh) here you go! xDD

sorry it looks a bit trippy! i'd print it to see how it looks but i can't afford to waste the ink if i mess up TwT. but i had SO much fun making this!! if i ever go to a con i'll definitely make some fandom zines 🤭💖💖💖

[moonyistired]

Hate the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies slander. Yeah you don't get a free special item or a big friendship boost with any of the villagers but have you considered that it's really pretty??

[ninadove]

SO I thought you might wanna be able to share them here ❤️❤️❤️

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE

And the fic !!!!!! >=D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/59092222/chapters/150662908

I love you ❤️❤️❤️

I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE THEM AND I LOVE YOUR AMAZING ART AND I LOVE YOUR WONDERFUL WRITING AND have I mentioned I love you? 💜❤️💜❤️

[aeriona]

hitting the slay button

(time: 5 hours, 36 minutes.)

[foxalotlposts]

SHINYDUO!!!!

this is actually a drawing for the fic I wrote! And I figured out how to add drawing to Ao3 so I'm happy :3

Anyways, if you want to read it's linked here!

[utilitycaster]

I think it's gotten better as of late but I must admit. unbelievably validating to, after months of being like "I feel so much discussion of TTRPGs and actual play rests on the idea of novelty rather than skillful execution and I disagree" to turn on the Sam Reich episode of Adventuring Academy and for Sam and Brennan to say "I would watch any well-executed premise the creators were passionate about, no matter how many times I've seen the same concept."

[princessmo]

it's a beautiful afternoon to smoke a joint in rural ohio

[blazingauraheartworld]

Does anyone know why the Kazumi Magica artist went AWOL like you said to dreamerwitches?

That’s the fascinating thing, right? I can’t seem to find anything about them deciding to. I feel like someone would have likely noticed if the artist had put out a ‘I’m deleting everything.’ or any sort of similar vibe before it happened. 

The Cuddly Despairs event ran in October, 2021. The artist did the CG art as well as art for the newly unlocked *5 stars + new Kazumi. Sometime between that event and potentially July/August ish of 2024 ( since there was no ‘goodbye’ art piece made featuring Kazumi characters when Magia Record EOS when everyone Else did one) is when the artist seemingly deleted their online presence. 

Now, the rest is under a read more just because I find this situation fascinating, but is really just pure speculation on my end.

Kazumi Magica is such an interesting existence in the catalog of madoka spin-offs, precisely because it seems as if both the creators ( writer and artist) of the manga aren’t very interested in involving themselves further in the Madoka Magica series as a whole than the story they made. I can’t tell if it’s because there’s two people who worked on it vs the other spin-offs, where the artist And writer were the same person, that’s created this sort of vibe where Kazumi keeps getting excluded from the cool magical girl club. Tart also was a two party team with Masugitsune & Kawazuku (under Golden Pe Done), but Masu alone was plenty active in helping with designing new characters and doing multiple Tart events.

I had a whole thing here getting into it the thick of it, but very much every spin-off artist that had their story shown off in the Exedra trailer (GAN, Masugitsune, Kuroe Mura) have all given some form of contribution to Magia Record during the game’s run, if not still doing artwork for the main series, like the MagiReco anime end cards and other miscellaneous works. 

I’m not expecting Masaki Hiramatsu( Kazumi Writer, still around) to have picked up a tablet pen and done something in place of no longer having an artist for his series. He seems to be plenty busy writing for the Bleach anime right now by the looks of things. I want to make it clear : I do not think he does not care for Kazumi. He clearly does with how he didn’t like how the first Magia Record Kazumi event was written, and then seemingly assisted with it on the second go. I feel as if the same would likely happen for Exedra too to ensure the story is properly retold. 

anywhos!

Simply put, I believe the artist of Kazumi Magica, for one reason or another, retired from being an artist or does not want their art to be available online. 

This is slightly unrelated, but to give you an idea where I’m going with this, I occasionally buy adopts and customs from other artists, and if I had a nickel for every artist I’ve worked with that has scrapped their existence from the Internet entirely due to AI concerns, I would have eight nickels. Again, I cannot confirm nor deny that is why the Kazumi artist decided to scrub everything, as we do not have an official confirmation. However, it would not surprise me if that was the case.

Even if unlikely at this point, the artist could always make a comeback to work on Exedra! I feel like they might leave Kazumi as the last spin-off they'll add, just to sorta see if they could maybe Find said artist. I’m just…not holding my breath for it as of now.

Which comes to another question: When Kazumi inevitably gets added to Exedra, who is going to do the art? I know there’s someone on the f4 team that can do a good impression of Ume Aoki’s art style, but I’m not sure if they can do the same with Kazumi…? I feel like there are many artists around and involved in the series now that there’d be someone who wouldn’t mind picking up the task…