littlest-salomon

[littlest-salomon]

spending all my event currency on divorce flowers to undo the crack ships i set up to get stones to roll for MC 5-star.

i didn't get them btw. i got 4-star Toji. like, nice to see you man but now isn't a good time.

[littlest-salomon]

Thoughts on Chapter 14

(spoilers)

I love the new and expanded characters so much that I'm still able to enjoy this chapter. There's always something good to focus on in TAS.

Like Barguest! Most of the returning characters got some good development, but seeing the big man in action takes the cake. The perfect teddy bear, he's clever, brave, kind, and cuddly, cradling both our severed arm and our actual body. His ability to capitalize on his own misfortune turns him from a liability to a star player.

The new cast in this chapter is also among the best, with Yuma, Barong, Pazuzu, Horus, Loki, Oscar... really, almost everyone showing unique personality traits that set them apart from preexisting characters, something that's hard to do with a catalogue of over 100 individual names. We don't get to do much, but for the most part, just watching them is engaging enough.

Seeing Solomon in-person is a little underwhelming, and IMO detracts from the search for Mr Mononobe's memories. It's still fascinating to learn that Mononobe is actually a descendant of Solomon, not just an avatar.

(I still suspect that this appearance, as well as Overlord's, was one of Oscar's tricks. It's telling that the final battle is against Kirito instead of them)

The writing is unfortunately pretty repetitive and I felt like a lot of the content is just filler, which a story with this many characters does not need. Too much time is spent checking in on people to watch them repeat themselves or advance their conversations by two sentences.

This makes the main plot really hard to follow. So, Solomon cuts off our arm and sends it to the past, where Mononobe frames Kirito for our murder? There's so much time spent tiptoeing around this great sin that I'm not sure they ever say what exactly happens/ed or why it's so bad for Mononobe to get off his ass and do something.

Honestly, the biggest sin in this chapter is forcing the romance with Bigfoot.

I don't find him compelling at all. I think his co-opted love for the Protagonist is even creepier than most characters' obsession with them, and I don't like having speech "options" where the only choice offered is how to kiss Bigfoot or wonder where he is in the morning or check him out or tell him I love him. I don't love him.

I love Toji, whose image graces every issue of this chapter in which he only shows up three times and only speaks once.

His one in-person appearance promises more to come in both his dungeon quest and the next chapter, also featuring him as the mascot, but it's disappointing that he just isn't relevant here.

Gripes aside, it certainly wasn't the worst chapter and I had a good time. The most important quality for a fictional character is to be interesting enough to make me want to read about them in the first place, and they deliver in spades here. I'll probably like the chapter more next time I read it, when I'll know to pretend Bigfoot isn't there and won't get my hopes up for Toji in every issue.

[littlest-salomon]

CHAPTER 14

(spoilers)

[littlest-salomon]

🩶

Hepha has such a lovely side profile, i love drawing his + Talos' side profiles <3

twitter post (link)

[littlest-salomon]

Temushin

[littlest-salomon]

NIGHTGLOWS OF THE STARLIT SKY

I really ended up enjoying this event.

[littlest-salomon]

FREE SOURCES

All I know about either Nodens or Nuadha is from "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," an unfinished Lovecraft project published posthumously. Nodens rules beyond deep space, but only in the Dreamlands, where he can overpower the nigh-omnipotent Nyarlathotep.

He is indeed the ruler of the nightgaunts, creatures with smooth black skin "like whales" who abduct people and... tickle them horrendously... this is one of those parts where it's obvious the story needed a little more work.

The nightgaunts in turn are allied with Lovecraft's ghoul species: humans transformed into cannibalistic dogmen with rubbery skin, famously featured in "Pickman's Model." I think these two creatures were combined in TAS.

The transformation/corruption, rubber skin, and smooth, featureless black bodies are all found in "Dream-Quest;" it came as a surprise to me, but what seems like obvious fetish content is from the source material, and the nightgaunts match their original description pretty closely.

I don't want to spoil too much of what I see as the best part of the story, but the protagonist travels on a nightgaunt to find his own memories but is then dumped into deep space with Azathoth instead, where he experiences endless time loops before remembering to wake up--with a cute, fuzzy sidekick from the dream world reincarnated with him into the new universe he unknowingly inhabits.

It's an unexpectedly touching story and the ending is really worth struggling through Lovecraft's rough drafts.

[littlest-salomon]

NIGHTGLOWS OF THE STARLIT SKY

Cthugha originally debuted in "The Dweller in Darkness" (August Derleth, 1944) and his absence from any literature up until then forms an important part of the story: the protagonists repeatedly question who he is and if he actually exists, He immediately crosses space when they call for his aid.

His eternal loneliness in TAS likely references this complete lack of interaction with other Lovecraftian deities; Derleth chooses to explain his original character's place in Cthulhu's world by defining him as an isolated being, whose only connection to the rest of creation is his intense hatred for Nyarlathotep.

Maybe Nodens is transgender

Duo is one of my favorite characters and it was heartbreaking to see him fall apart like this. I didn't choose the "hug him" options because I respect his dignity as a commanding officer but good Lord I wanted to.

It really shows how important his pet big brother Shuichi is for his well-being--no wonder he rescues him in every Loop.

[littlest-salomon]

NIGHTGLOWS OF THE STARLIT SKY

More than any other, this event exemplifies the idea that Tokyo Afterschool Summoners is practically made for fanfic writers. Virtually everything, from Rules to the role of Lil' Salomon, is reimagined from the ground up, and Tokyo itself is destroyed in the prologue--just to show us how little of "normality" or "consistency" is needed in any given Loop. It's like the writers are taunting us to be more creative.

It also exemplifies how good characters like Lil' Salomon and Duo are at lying, with Duo's whole charade of pretending we might be an enemy spy and Salamon's dedication to method acting as a simplistic robot.

And it features my favorite trope--disputing military propaganda!

This is probably also inherited from Ender's Game and it's a sore relief. Leave it to TAS to give us a reality check in the middle of a power fantasy.

(Yes he ends up rejoining but the fact that Breke didn't make a rug out of him for being a deserter already proves that this is a "softer" version of real-world armies)

[littlest-salomon]

NIGHTGLOWS OF THE STARLIT SKY

Finally getting around to it! Though as of the first chapter I'm a little disappointed that it seems more "Ender's Game" than "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath."

I want to know more about Nyarlathotep and I'm not enthused by supergenius child soldiers fighting Buggers in space.

Important note: The Protagonist is officially diagnosed with DID:

...sort of. DID and general amnesia are two separate diagnoses but the Protagonist probably has both of them anyway.

[littlest-salomon]

ughhh I want 5* Protagonist so bad.

if I do all the dailies and ship... every single character I have...

I may just earn enough stones for another multiroll (watch me get 4* Musashi again T_T)

[littlest-salomon]

new unit

[littlest-salomon]

April Fools 2025

[littlest-salomon]

[littlest-salomon]

Anon ask: From memory:

What would happen if Ryota had no emotions, like Duo? As far as I know, Duo has emotions, he's just really jaded. When Ryota has just had enough, in a similar way, and gives up on the world, he uses his Sacred Artifact to kill someone (in a canon AU).

Truly emotionless Ryota would probably get even more into food and flirting, since physical pleasures like eating can be enjoyed without emotion; he'd develop a pretty unhealthy relationship with food. Depression is not an emotion, though, so that would really suck for him!

What if Azathoth's soul fused with a little girl's? Probably the same thing that happened to the little boy in canon. Azathoth isn't really a person: H. P. Lovecraft's original works refer to him as "the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth" ("The Whisperer in Darkness").

In Housamo, a little gamer boy got Azathoth as his first summon and his mind was obliterated. This kid is what we see, and the shreds of his personality allow Azathoth to perceive and interact with the world like a person.

So, if Azathoth fused with a little girl instead, she would be sort of the same as she was before, with some of the same interests and habits, but... aimless. Dissociated. Prone to random caprice or languidity. She would live as though in a dream, and act without regard for consequences--you can do anything you want in a dream! She couldn't plan for the future or learn from the past. Without someone like Babalon to take care of her, she would probably starve to death.

What if Bertro looked human again? How would the Warmongers react? I don't think they'd take it well. It's easy to pretend you're not being bossed around by a little boy when he looks like a cyber goblin, and I think the grown ass men in the Guild have gotten used to his bizarre appearance.

Alternatively, they wouldn't care at all. They barely notice each other. I wouldn't be surprised if they forget Bertro exists whenever he leaves the room. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a loop where Balor starved in prison because no one remembered to feed him. They're all too self-absorbed.

How would the Missionaries react if Maria formed a relationship with a songstress from another World? I think the Angel mobs would be upset because they're upset about everything (and I bet a lot of them are homophobic/anti-romance), Arslan and Jacob would be too happy for her to the point that they became annoying, Nyarlathotep would interfere (whether he tries to make them closer or break them up depends on how he woke up that day), Gabriel would pretend not to cry every night, and the rest would be either happy for her or not really care.

If the songstress is Gabriel, Hati would probably start stalking Maria and it could get scary. But Gabriel would be happy!

Real-world clone of AIsaac: Cloning is surprisingly realistic in Housamo. The clone would have their own soul and personality, like Isaac and his siblings have unique personalities from their genetic source, and this new clone's DNA would be even more degraded than Isaac's, making them even sicker. This could be a fascinating plotline in a past loop because I can definitely see someone trying this.

Would Daikoku hunt down people who killed in previous loops? Man, Daikoku wouldn't hunt down people who killed someone in front of him unless he could get something out of it.

In general, I think events in previous loops are forgiven and no one cares anymore unless they somehow access past memories, which I don't think Daikoku can do.

What if MC (and/or other characters) showed up "different"? In a new loop? I don't think anyone would really notice. In the same loop? That's another story. MC would probably get some active attention from the Game's higher ups because a sudden change in behavior may indicate that the spirit fusion is breaking down, allowing one personality to take unilateral control.

Canonically, most characters' friends and family immediately notice and try to fix any change in their personality, like when Cu Sith and Shiro are possessed (in Volos Halloween and the MQ, respectively). In past loops, though, anything could happen. Maybe the character has no friends or family. For example, maybe Barghest didn't adopt Kenta in time, so no one could see or stop Inugami from possessing him.

[littlest-salomon]

well. I accidentally deleted your ask and now I can't find it. whoops!

@Anon you sure got a lot of questions on your mind but don't you worry, I'm on it

[littlest-salomon]

@Anon you sure got a lot of questions on your mind but don't you worry, I'm on it