spacehamsterboo-blog

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

all for any kind of ship with this energy

Franziska's ready to clear her schedule

And just for fun, fake alternate suplex ending, again:

My FranMAYa Zine is still available for preorder until July 7th!

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

–"You don't pay attention to templars, Qunari or politics, but you notice kittens?"

–"Templars, Qunari, and politics don't meow and attack your feet when you're buying food."

wanted to illustrate one of my favorite banters in da2!! merrill, my beloved<33

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Custom Cards I made based off the Blood of Kings series from Goblets and Gays. Spoilers for late seasons.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Anna and the Onakke Ruins

The scattered notes strewn across the ruin floors surely made some kind of picture if all looked at from the right angle, not a picture per se but the contents must have held some kind of revelation. Though if they did, the blonde 20 something in dusty minimalist clothing couldn't see it. “Am I missing something?” She asked herself, rearranging the notes she had taken in her time at the Onakke ruins. By connecting each piece of paper to surrounding pages by the most tangential of common elements, she hoped that she would gain inspiration but no such relief came. She looked around the chamber itself, only to be reminded of the etchings that she had done when she had been running out of paper before the last delivery by Symon had come. Anna stepped outside of the room she was in to take in the scenery of the ruins, stone buildings once homes and businesses before whatever ruination had befallen the Onakke, and now she was here trying to find out about them for clues to the location of one of their artifacts.

A few weeks back she had been in a rush to get out of a bad situation on Innistrad and found herself splayed on the floor of some ruins in Shandalar. It had taken going into a nearby town and pretending she was a traveler, not entirely false, to learn that they belong to an ancient race called Onakke. Initially the idea of poking around dust and monster filled ruins did not seem appealing to her, but rumors of artifacts that could summon up memories from forgotten recesses got her attention. Since then, Anna had been delving through ruins and going through the trouble of finding old scrolls detailing the Onakke. They seemed to be the vile sort of race, weaving their black magics in with their artifice, it wouldn't have surprised Anna to learn that their hubris was their undoing but she had not found any evidence to confirm or deny that assertion. One of the things she did learn however, was that there was some kind of riddle hidden in the Onakke ruins that led to what was supposed to be a trove of artifacts.

Now riddles only worked within the context of the cultures, and it got much harder to decipher the riddles of dead cultures. But luckily for Anna, riddles worked much like summoning the platonic ideals of creatures whether they were Onakke or crow. That's where she was now, learning about their culture as best she could so she could strive to understand them and solve their riddle through that understanding. Anna looked up towards the sun, letting her skin soak in the heat after cloistering herself in the dark rooms she found for who knows how long. “Anna,” a voice called out, one she recognized and scanned the area for its owner, “there you are.” the man approached from the shadows carrying a bag on his back. She took him in, from his slicked back hair and signs of stubble to the brown clothes designed for long hikes.

“Symon,” she walked towards him, “did you run into trouble? It took you longer for the delivery than normal.”

He gave her a confused look “No, I mean yes, but the only real trouble is you running off without telling me beforehand.”

“I left you a note.”

“In the back of a building being nested in by baloths.” Symon added on.

“I trust it wasn't a problem for you.”

“Of course not,” he said with a laugh and took off his backpack, fishing through it for her food.

Anna took the food he handed her and cracked off a piece of the bread “Well, I'm glad you're here since I've got a puzzle for you.” She began heading back into the room when Symon cleared his throat. “Yes?”

“Are you saying, that you can't figure something out?” He asked in a leading fashion.

“No. It's just that I'm too close to it now, so an outsider's perspective could be helpful.” She excused and continued walking, if he wanted to follow her, he would.

“Outsider's perspective,” he said following her in, “of course that's what it is.”

“Like I wouldn't be able to figure it out.” She showed him her display of notes and he moved past her.

“More like you wouldn't admit if you couldn't.” He responded while studying the notes she laid out, and he started rearranging some of the notes.

“Maybe it's just part of an elaborate trap on my part,” She said, looking over his shoulder as he put the notes together in varied combinations, “for me to keep you here instead of hiking across the planes.” Anna wore a faint smile as she watched him work.

“Then I'd say that I've been in worse cages,” He finally stood up and stepped back from the notes, prompting Anna to do the same, “besides I can't go hiking until this is done.”

She looked at the notes, recognizing where he was going with his train of thought, but sure that she had already dismissed it. “Of course you can,” she told him, not looking away from the notes.

“Not with you,” He grinned and Anna looked him in the face for a brief moment before looking away.

“Anyway,” she said, eager to change the subject, “I recognize where you are going with this, but the only river that would fit that would have been around during the Onakke times is around Lesh, and that's too far outside of Onakke territory for a vault full of their precious artifacts.”

“Yes, it's the only river that exists that fits the description.”Symon confirmed, Anna was about to say something then she stopped as the light went off in her head.

“Oh,” she exclaimed and went to get her maps, “ a dried up river the runs through the ruins.” She took her pencil and and began to mark places on the map. “Unfortunately they don't show dried up rivers on maps.”

“And forests grow over thousands of years,” Symon reminded her.

“Do I look like an amateur?” She asked circling mountains on the map.

“No, noooo, not at all,” he shook his head innocently before adding in quickly, “amateurs don't often miss dried up rivers.”

“Anyway,” she huffed and showed him the map, “we find the most likely places based on the information.”

“Then find the ruins that look like they would have been heavily guarded.”

“Or just burst into the ruins and go through every room until we find the vault.” She responded looking at the map. “But your way is nice too.” She rolled up the map and put it under her arm before walking out of the room.

“And the notes?” He asked her as he followed. “Are you just going to leave them behind?”

“I don't have a use for them,” she looked back and conjured a flame to consume her research and a wind to swipe the ash away, “and I need to get rid of them somehow.”

“And if you want other people to find the vault after you get what you want?”

“Map,” She tapped the map, “I'll just circle it and done.”

After an hour or two of walking through the woods, the pair came upon the ruins her notes and Symon's help had pointed to. “So clear every building?” Symon asked her rather smugly as the ruins they'd come to were expansive but had what appeared to be a temple further in at the center.

“Of course,” Anna said and pointed at the temple, “of course we'll start with the building most likely to contain it.” With that, she walked forward towards the temple

“Are you sure?” Symon asked while bringing up the rear, “I believe I see at least three buildings with more than one room uncollapsed, those seem like perfect candidates for ancient ogre treasure trove.” He pointed to overgrown structures as she just kept walking.

“You can search them if you want, I'm not stopping you.” She waved her hand at him as she went into the temple. The inside of the temple was lined with iconography of the Onakke and what she assumed were their gods and the floors were littered with the bodies of what she assumed were ex-adventurers. “No need to panic,” she told herself as she stepped over some fresher bones, “they most likely stumbled upon this, I should be able to get through this.” She reached her magic to feel for any traps and a ball of fire began to turn in her hand. Scanning the room, her foot stepped down on a skeleton's arm. Anna took a deep breath to calm down and felt a cold hand touching her shoulder.

A second or two later the screaming, mostly on Anna's part, stopped but Symon hadn't stopped laughing. He was slapping the skeleton's hand against his knee as he was working on regaining his breath. “Have you found anything yet?”

“A massive asshole,” she said, punching Symon in the shoulder. She moved further into the temple, kicking a skeleton to the side. She couldn't sense any traps which disquieted her given the amount of skeletons on the ground. “I suppose there would be no one to reset the traps, or they could have been killed by a source outside of the temple.”

“Like a baloth?” Symon asked her “Do you think someone left a note in the back of the temple?”

“You said it wasn't a problem, but you seem sore,” she told him as the reached the back, a stone door blocked their way. She dusted off the runes on the door and began reading what she could understand. “It looks like it was locked by magic, needs a password.”

“Do you know the password?” Symon asked her, keeping his distance.

“I have a guess,” she said and began to draw red mana to herself. “Shatter,” she called out and her spell blew the ancient door off of its hinges. She pointed to the inside of the room and look at Symon with a satisfied expression. Dropping her arms, Anna turned around to enter the room.

“....Defiler....”

Anna turned back to Symon “Yes?” She asked with an annoyed tone.

“Hey,” he held up his hands, “that was not me.”

“....trespasser....” Anna looked back towards where she was heading as the voice seemed to decide one place it was coming from and an Onakke decided to manifest itself.

“That's me,” Anna said, “want to talk about it?”

“...you will be punished.” Anna threw up a counterspell to block a sudden attack. “Trespassers will be punished.”

“Onakke ghosts will certainly try,” Anna said with a smile as she pulled on the memory of thaumaturges she met on Theros and manifested one near Symon to help her channel her spells. She took a blast to the chest though because she wasn't able to keep enough mana open and make her summon.

“Are you alright?” Symon asked her, stepping up beside Anna to face the ghost.

“I..I could be better,” she said with a cringe, the pain was sharp but wasn't going to keep her down. She saw Symon weaving a spell “Hold up, seems he likes being more hands off,” she said quietly and pointed to her thaumaturge “attack him!” It was somewhat goofy she had to admit to see the thaumaturge run past her in his robes and smack the Onakke across the face before running to a position in front of her and sitting to regain his breath.

“Trespassers.” The Onakke lumbered towards them but Anna was able to stop him with another smack from her thaumaturge. “Trespassers!” A red bolt of energy flew out at both Anna and Symon, Anna was the first two throw a counter spell at it but the Onakke cast a spell which caused the counter spell to split in half and then hit itself. With the energy still hurtling towards them, Symon launched his own counterspell but a ball of fire from the Onakke intercepted his spell and countered it. The energy wrapped around both of their necks. Anna began to draw on mana and resisted crying out in pain as the energy began to dig into her skin, blood seeping from the cuts.

“Do you have a way to deal with this?” She asked Symon, she kept making mana bonds but wanted to save her energy to counterspells until Symon could help out.

“Maybe.” he said and some blood dripped from his arms as two wolves came into existance. “The magic's affecting it too,” he told her and pointed to the lines of mana coursing across the Onakke's bodies, “so it'll probably hold off on spells and be more physical.” Symon sent both of his wolves at the ogre which shot a bolt of lightning from its finger tips which forked off to his both of the creatures. Anna could see the lines visibly digging into the Onakke, causing it to flicker.

“Seems like it doesn't care too much,” she said, she could feel the mana at her finger tips and the power lurking in her mind from what she learned on Zendikar. That said, Anna didn't know if she could access it and survive what ever assault the Onakke launched against her once the barbs digging into her neck weakened her.

“We could always run,” Symon suggested, “maybe get far enough away and the enchantment will end.”

“Or we could re-kill it, enchantments usually end when you kill their controller, right?” She said and reflected another blast from the Onakke using her counter magic. “Symon if you can deal with this, do it!” she yelled “I don't plan on being a skeleton anytime soon.”

“I don't know if I'll be in a position to fight after this,” he told her as he gathered mana, blood being produced by the exertion dripped from his hands. He let out a shout and green mana pulsed through the room, shattering the enchantments dissuading the two planeswalkers from casting spells. “Anna, do whatever you're going to do.”

Right, now time to tap into the eldritch power she encountered on Zendikar. She had gone there on rumors of its wild mana to see what it could do for her, and she found it being ravaged by a bunch of monsters called the Eldrazi. She had gone underground briefly to try and avoid the worst of them but she encountered some rather nasty ones underground including one that seemed fond of changing the rules to better suit its needs. She had tried to fight it only to find her spells not even casting as she willed them. It was that power she was drawing on now as she grabbed whatever mana she could to will the platonic ideal of that Eldrazi into existance. Ruins of the door began to float up around them.

“Anna,” Symon asked as the space around them was contorting with the summoning, “what are you doing?”

“Concentrating.” She responded as the monster came into existence. She barely escaped her first encounter with the Void Winnower with her sanity and didn't wish to take her chances with the Eldrazi, but she didn't want to die even more.

“Anna stop.” He said but she ignored her as the Eldrazi put itself between the Onakke and two planeswalkers at Anna's command.

“No can do,” She sort of apologized , the Onakke's efforts to cast a spell were thwarted as her summon warped reality around them and the ghost decided to attack physically but was repelled. She willed the Void Winnower to slam its tentacles into the Onakke along with the thaumaturge and the ghost faded out of existence. Anna let her concentration on her summons lapse so they ceased to exist and looked to Symon “See, we had it under control.”

“Was that an, eldrazi?” Symon asked as she examined the contents of the room.

“Pretty much.”

“Why do you know how to do that?”

“Long story,” she told him and picked up a large jar she found. “Looks like the descriptions, I guess I found my treasure.” She said with a smile before taking the lid off and looking inside.

Falling through an empty space, only islands of deformed land to mark the passage of time. Fear and regret rushed through her mind as the islands became images of memories foreign to her. Anna tried to pull out but she couldn't bring herself upright and kept falling until she heard a crashing and she was leaning against Symon, with the man holding her. “Are you alright?” He asked jokingly though the concern was clear in his voice. “Better than the jar,” she said looking at the artifact's remains splayed across the floor. She steadied herself with Symon's help as she tried to move away. “Thanks for your help, Symon. Anywhere you want to go in particular?”

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Anna

Nikita walked into the meeting room with her bag under her arms, most everyone on the Student Council was already present and she knew the only reason that she was here was because the usual representative was sick. Nikita adjusted the blue cuffs that signified her proficiency with the color and adjusted the rank symbols on her collar as she took her seat at the round table. “Nikita Morov,” a voice spoke, “I'm honored to have the head of Student Affairs grace us with her presence.” Aleksander Volaiv, a student a month or two older than Nikita at most and layered under so much formal clothing that the only clear feature was his striking face and expertly trimmed brown hair. He was the head of the student council, known formally as the President since he presided over all meetings of students.

“As you know,” She took out her papers while explaining, “my vice-captain has been sick for the past few days. It wouldn't do to have her attending meetings when she won't attend class.” Nikita had been giving herself a once over the whole time she had been talking to make sure every piece of formality she had to wear was where it was supposed to be. She brushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face as a balding man with wild red hair in the dull uniform of the Arbitrators stood up to call the meeting.

“Everyone settle down,” the older man said in a gravely voice, “We're starting this meeting of the one hundred and twentieth student council.”

“Thank you, Ubul,” Aleksander said and beckoned for the man to be seated as he looked to the dozen other students sitting around the table, “Now, does anyone have a topic of discussion or should we move onto the voting for the monthly calendar.”

“Excuse me,” A brown haired girl raised her hand, “My name is Phula and I'm here on behalf of the gardening club.”

“Go on,” Aleksander prompted.

“As you know, there have been attacks on students by some kind of mind mage and my club members are scared to leave their rooms.”

A younger man, at least a year Nikita and Aleksander's junior and dressed in much the same way as Aleksander, turned to the president of the council. “May I?” He asked of his superior who nodded. “Phula, my name is Purono and I'm a law-mage with the enforcement division of the student council.”

“Sir.” the brown hair girl said in acknowledgment.

“Thank you, I assure you that the members of your club are in no danger. In fact, criminal activities have dropped to near zero in the past few months.”

“But the students who were attacked,” the girl started before Purono held up his hand to stop her.

“They were involved in illegal activities on school grounds, neither I or anyone in the enforcement division have any reason to believe the attacker would target innocent people.”

“But they are still attacking students,” Nikita said bluntly, leaning in as she looked him in the eyes, “as a member of the enforcement division, you cannot by condoning such actions.”

“As a member, I need to know how to prioritize, and looking for whoever is taking care of scumbags is not a priority.” Purono responded very curtly.

“Ubul,” Nikita's gaze turned towards the Arbitrator and her former mentor, “What do you think? You're an Arbitrator, right?”

“Woah,” he held up his withered hand as in defense,“I'm just here to call the meeting and make sure you don't stab each other.” Nikita just sat back in her chair. “You all are in charge of the goings on of the campus, you want the Arbitrators to get involved, take a vote and I'll pass it on.”

“We don't need the Arbitrators,” Purono stood up from his seat, “there is nothing wrong, Phula, your club members are safe.” Nikita packed up the belongings she had bothered to put out and pushed out from the table to leave. “We still need to vote.” Purono told her, like he had a right to give her an order.

She looked to the student council president and he nodded, they both knew that she took any matters concerning the Affairs committee privately. “Good day, Mr. President, Student Council, Ubul.” She let some derision slip in with the last name as she left the room.

Outside of the room she saw her assistant waiting with a notebook, a short little brunette who was two years younger than Nikita. “Captain, I have some news.” She said and started walking when it was clear Nikita wasn't slowing down. “As of ten minutes ago, I am the acting vice-captain of Student Affairs and-”

Nikita stopped her mid sentence “Bali's only been absent for two days, I appreciate enthusiasm but don't loot the house before it burns.”

“Uh..” The young girl paused, trying to refocus after that expression. “No, I mean, as of ten minutes ago, Miss Bali officially resigned.” She started walking again and Nikita followed suite.

“I know she sounded depressed, but that's not like her.” Nikita mumbled, “and if it was ten minutes ago, you should have gone to that blasted meeting instead. Are we sure she wasn't coerced to quit, I need to check in on that. So why didn't-”

This time the young girl cut her off. “Ma'am, I, well I tried to find you but a goblin held me up. Apparently her club captain was attacked by the mind mage and broke down a rig he'd been working on all year.”

“For what?” She asked, snapping her fingers for the girl to hurry up, “goblins breaking down half finished projects to start something new isn't unusual.”

“Scrap, Miss Hidecrawler said he just broke it down and threw the scrap away one day.”

Nikita massaged her temples, surely if she said something about it to the student enforcers, they would find some way to present any goblin as a sort of criminal. “So Bali, how do we know she wasn't coerced?”

“Mr. Ubul was there to witness it, he said she was doing it of her own free will.”

'Sometimes' Nikita thought to herself, 'sometimes I was innocent enough to believe that' She took in a breath and began speaking as if her thoughts were fleeting and would vanish if she didn't get them out. “I'll go check on Bali, see how she's feeling and then go ask Ubul some questions. I know he's an arbitrator, but he's hardly a role model for the ages. Hina,” she pointed to her assistant “prepare a formal complaint with the enforcement division for when I get back. I find proof that Bali was attacked, they'll have to start investigating, unless of course skipping classes is a criminal act... Hina, look up the statutes on skipping classes while you're at it.”

“Y-yes Ma'am”

“Also!” Nikita was waving her finger to recall what she was going to say. “Get Miss Hidecrawler to the Student Affairs Office: good sources are hard to keep.”

“Yes Ma'am” Hina was still following her as she walked as though they were on a stroll.

“Hina?” She asked with slight annoyance.

“Ma'am?”

“Dismissed.” She held up her hand and the assistant immediately scampered away.

Nikita arrived at the girls' dormitories as it was getting dark and showed her rank to the guard standing watch outside to be let in, from there it was one flight of stairs and a hard right before she reached the room of her ex-vice-captain. “Bali,” She asked to the door, “are you in? I just want to make sure you're alright.”

“Go away,” a voice said, it sounded like Nikita's friend without the enthusiasm or joy that usually pervaded her speech.

“Bali, what happened Bali, why did you quit?”

“Does it even matter?” The girl asked from the other side of the door.

“Yes, yes it does” Nikita said, feeling somewhat frustrated by this conversation. “Now open the door before I open it with force.” The door clicked and standing on the otherside was a black haired girl just a year Nikita's junior with unkempt hair and a tired look. “That was easier than I thought.” She commented and walked past Bali who didn't do anything to stop her. “You need to do some cleaning, Bali,” she commented after turning on the lights and seeing clothes and food wrappers strewn across the floor.

“I'm sorry,” she said numbly and began going to picked up the discarded items like a golem with a worn down power source. Nikita knocked the garbage out of her hands when she got close. “I'm sorry,” she moved to pick it up but was grabbed by the upper-classman

Nikita had Bali by the wrists as she tried to look the girl in the eyes. “Not getting mad when I barged in or turned on the lights is believable,” she twisted her head to try and keep Bali's eyes in sight, “even when I started ordering you, being your senior and all. But you didn't even raise your voice when I knocked it out of your hands.” She ended up freeing one of Bali's arms to grab her face and hold it in place. “I'm sorry, Bali, but I have to do this, I have to figure this out.” Nikita's eyes began to glow as she channeled mana and dove into her friend's mind. Not a moment later did she shove herself out of Bali's mind and stumble over to a seat. “What happened to you.” She breathed heavily as she sat in the cluttered chair, she had pushed into minds before but never had she found one like Bali's, falling through a void the moment she entered with only ruins floating in mid air to mark the passage of space. She recovered, well, she needed to have recovered, and put both of her hands on Bali's shoulders. “Bali, get your toiletries and make your way to the Student Affairs Office, stay there until I get back.”

“Alright,” she said in the same tone she said every word of their conversation.

“We're going to make this right, I'm going to fix you, Bali.” She swore to the girl, though Nikita knew it was more for herself than Bali. She let go and exited the room, only calling “Lock the door behind you!” when she left, she needed to find Ubul and see what he knew

Even at night the Arbitrators' campus office was open in case students had a problem that needed addressing, and that night Nikita had a problem with one of the Arbitrators. “Ubul,” she called as she entered the empty office, a little sign on the wooden desk in the lobby said he would be back shortly. “Ubul, I need to talk with you.” She called out again, walking around the lobby.

“Nikita?” His gravelly voice called out. “I'm in the armory, come on down!” She followed the sound of his voice down the stairs past the door and into a dark room just lit enough to see Ubul tending to golems affectionately called 'Judges'. “Nikita, my friend, what can I do for you?

“It smells like corpses down here, Ubul,” she said covering her mouth and nose, looking at the judges as if one of them was going to leap at her with a sword.

“That's my hand and the dust mostly,” he said, “You wouldn't believe how much cologne I need for it to go outside.”

“You got it in the Catoblepas Swamps, right?” She asked, still scanning for any threats that the shadows concealed. She couldn't put feelers out for magic, but just using magic to try and detect living creatures would be enough for her purposes.

“Yeah, got into a fight with a Necromancer trying to dig up secrets. I like to to say he got my hand, and I got his head.” He laughed at his comment.

She didn't pick up anyone hiding in the shadows with what magic she knew for that and looked towards Ubul. “Did you pick up any secrets while you were there?” He didn't respond so she figured it was all the permission she needed to keep pushing. “You know, like erasing minds?”

“What exactly are you accusing me of?” He asked her with some indignation. “After everything I did for you? You've got quite a nerve.” He pointed his withered hand at her and she grabbed it, twisting the appendage back to his pain.

“I know what you've done for me, Ubul, and we agreed to part ways; But one of my friends had her mind wiped, and you are the one that took her resignation form.” She twisted his hand back as she talked to him before releasing it. “I'm sorry, Ubul, but you must have known she wasn't in any state of mind to resign. You should have reported it.”

“Listen,” he rubbed his hand, “I didn't tell anyone because I was cornered by one of the enforcement division law-mages. He told me if I told anyone, he'd turn me into a vegetable.”

“I know you can use magic, Ulub, you're an arbitrator, you taught me how to use-” Nikita stopped herself, yeah he taught her but then she suppressed all that knowledge to advance in the school.

“Not anymore, Nik, not anymore. I like to joke about my hand, but that necromancer took more than my hand, haven't been able cast properly since I got back.” He said, sitting down on the ground. “Why do you think I'm stuck here? I'm waiting on brats, present company included, until I get old enough to get my pension and move somewhere nicer.”

“Do you know who it was?”

“No, he had his hood down, probably had a knife just in case I had a spell ready.” He said from his sitting position. “But he said he was going to watch the correspondence if I tried anything funny so you might be able to lure him out like that.”

“A trap using myself as the bait,” She extended a hand and helped Ulub get up, “that sounds insane. But I think this is enough to go to the Arbitrators directly if you'll tell them the same thing you told me.” She scratched the back of her head as Ulub dusted himself off. “Sorry about the torture thing that was happening there,” she added as a side note.

“Listen, Nikita,” He put his hand on her shoulder as she began to turn away and she brushed it off, “I know you want to get revenge for your friend, but don't do anything reckless. I don't want you to go and use yourself as bait to get it, wouldn't want you to get hurt.”

“Thank you, but I need to go,” She told him and left the room as she rubbed the shoulder where he touched her, a strange tingling coming across her skin.

As Nikita walked up the stairs, a smile spread across Ulub's features and he called to her with a laugh “Don't do anything I wouldn't!”

As she was walking back to the Student Affairs office, an idea festered in her mind: if she wrote an emergency letter to the arbitrators to be sent through the enforcement division as was procedure instead of delivering it herself like she planned, whoever was behind the attacks would see it and come to silence her so she could catch them and drag them to the proper authorities herself. She showed her rank to the late night guard at the student offices to get in and made her way to the Student Affairs office. “Hina!” She called as she entered through the front door, seeing the brunette sleeping on the couch. “Are Miss Hidecrawler and Bali still here?”

“Hm?” The young girl rubbed her eyes and yawned as she was still waking up.

“Hidecrawler and Bali, are they here?” Nikita snapped at her less than a day old vice-captain, she had been going nearly all day and it felt like it was wearing on her self restraint.

“Yes, yes Ma'am,” Hina saluted, “I- I got that letter ready for you.”

“That's good, but lets send it through the enforcement division.” She said to Hina, grabbing a pen and filling in the blanks before adding her own information in, “This is a formal request for Arbitrator Intervention as I believe a member of the enforcement division of the student council is responsible for the recent attacks.” She said aloud as she wrote on the paper. “Please come to the Offices of the Student Affairs Council two hours after noon, I will explain in person since the information is very sensitive.” She folded up the letter and put it in an envelope before marking it as a high priority letter.

“Requesting permission to speak, Ma'am,” Hina said, trying to look straight ahead.

“Go on, I know what you're going to say.” Nikita grabbed the letter and walked out the door.

“This seems like a bad idea, I mean it is a bad idea. Why don't we just take it to the Arbitrators so they can root through the enforcement division and no one has to get hurt.”

“I'm not going to get hurt, Hina,” Nikita tried to comfort her. “From what I heard, he relies on surprise, and guess what he won't have.”

“But what if you do? What if he gets hurt? Then all you have is your word and his, what if you-”

Nikita put her hand on Hina's shoulder “Listen,” she said, “I know it sounds like a terrible idea, but just this feeling I've got, like it's the only way I can do this so they won't be able to spin it.” It was easy for her to see that Hina wasn't sold on the plan. “If something does happen, you'll still be there to tell them what's going on. Just get yourself, Bali, and Hidecrawler out of the office before sunrise tomorrow and then I'll get you dinner. Ok?” Hina finally relented with a non committal sigh. “It will be fine.”

When Nikita woke up in the morning, she was alone in the office with a note from Hina waiting at her bedside. She had taken Bali and Hidecrawler to the shopping district and would wait for her in one of the cafes until five. After processing the contents of the note, Nikita tore it up into small enough pieces before throwing half into a waste bin and dumping the rest into a water pitcher after getting a drink. Using the time she had, Nikita set about filling out paperwork she had on backlog from when she thought she'd have tomorrow to do it. She didn't know why she was thinking like she wouldn't have tomorrow to do these, especially after she spent that time trying to convince Hina. She went over the plan briefly in her mind, she sent the note so the person threatening Ulub would intercept it and would attack her in an attempt to shut her up; after she beat him she would turn him in and.

“Wait.” Nikita pushed away from her desk “Ulub told me about the monitoring, and then told me not to do it, and then the tingling.” She shook her head, he told her he couldn't use magic... “he told me, he also said he used cologne but I don't remember smelling it yesterday, and I should have if it was as strong as he said.” She knew that he wasn't a trustworthy person, but why would he lie about the stench, unless he was hiding a body or bodies “Jorge take him,” she swore and pulled her coat on, she couldn't believe that he was able to trick her like that.

Opening the front door of the office brought Nikita face to face with a law-mage wearing the customary blue and white garbs in a hood. “I'm going to ask you to come with me.” Nikita gritted her teeth, picking up on the voice.

“Why?” She didn't pass beyond the threshold of the door and didn't make any move to escape.

“Conspiracy,” the mage said, “just come peacefully and you won't be harmed.”

“Is that what Ulub told Bali?” Nikita asked, and saw the mage's hand twitch. “Or were you the one, Purono.” She accused and had only enough time for the first spell that came to mind to counteract a bolt of blue energy. “Get out of my way, I need to talk to the old man.” Her eyes began to glow as she gathered mana to her. Purono pulled his hood down and she could see energy crackling in his hands. “This isn't a spar, stand down.” She commanded him as she brought into existence the platonic ideal of a crow.

“No,” he said and buffeted her with mental energies, Nikita gritted her teeth, she didn't know quite what happened but knew she couldn't handle too much more if it was what she thought it was. With that information, Nikita sicced her crow on Purono and pushed past him, readying to create a wall between them so she could escape when he called out to her “Your friends are at a cafe in the shopping area. How long would it take me to find them?” Nikita stopped in her tracks and turned around just in time to counter another of his psychic assaults. She held onto the mana she was going to use to separate them and instead used it to create the wall behind Purono.

“Nowhere left to run you son of bitch,” She said and sicced the crow once more on him but he used his power to return it to the aether and sent another spell to hit Nikita. She grunted and ran at him, intent on hitting the mage right in the face, but she stepped back to have enough time to turn the spell into harmless vapor.

Unfortunately, Purono had her on the defense, she didn't know what spells he used so she was left blindly using her magic to counter his and trying to get the occasional strike. Maybe it was her running out of spells or energy or him succeeding, but more spells were getting through as her head began to pound. “Who's on the run now?” He asked her with a laugh. “I'll wipe your mind and then tell everyone you were the one attacking people. Afterall, who are they going to believe?” he kept hitting her with spells, eroding her memories until she could just remember her earlier training before she was focused on becoming the head of clubs or whatever she was now. Golden shackles burst from the ground to bind her as she was expending her last few spells, she could feel the training she went through with Ulub for those years, when he took her to the mountains to boost her abilities. He launched a volley of magic at her, most likely like all the other magic intent on stripping her identity.

“NO!” She yelled and her rage manifested itself, cutting the magic in half. She would have said she was surprised by that but she hardly remembered what she was capable of anymore.

“A red mage too,” Purono moved closer and his hands began to glow, “looks like I'm doing a service to the world, getting rid of another dissident.” Purono put his hands on her head and she could feel the burning as her memories slipped away, she remembered falling into the void when she touched Bali's mind, both rage and fear built up in her and burst forth as she refused to have that happen to her. As she could feel herself being pulled away from reality, she gathered all the mana she could to unleash one last spell, and watched as her flames consumed the law mage.

On another world, a girl woke up, rubbing her head. "W-where am I?" She pushed herself out of the bed and stumbled out to see an old man approaching her to steer her back to the bed.

"Easy now, found you crashed in the garden." He told her "What's your name girl?"

She thought about it long and hard before giving him a shrug "I don't know..."

"Do you know where you're from?"

She tried to focus on where she was from, she got only blackness. "I, nowhere. I don't know where I'm from." The old man sat her down on the bed.

"Listen, the wife and I talked while you were asleep, if you don't cause trouble and help out on the farm you can stay with us as long as you need to." He told her quite frankly. "I'm not as strong as I used to be and she can't bend over like before, so we need some help and putting you up might be cheaper than hiring labor."

"If you would have me," she responded, she didn't know why she said it in such a way, was it something about formality with her? The three of them discussed the details over dinner that night and the woman set to work on the farm while her body recovered even though her memories didn't. She was eventually named Anna by the old couple because she looked like one to them, and she grew to enjoy her time on the farm. But one day a mage came to the farm to extort food from them, Anna rediscovered some of her magical talents as she stood in the couple's defense. They parted way amicably with Anna vowing to return once she remembered where she came from, and so the young woman set out to find her past.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Talo

Birds chirped, bugs buzzed, goblins gobbed, and Talo sat. As the professor in charge of her classroom went on with his lesson, she sat and watched out the window at all of the activity she was being excluded from. She had stopped paying attention once their last assignment had been returned to them, the professor had most likely said everything vital to the lesson and she would get the rest from her friends after school, right now she was watching out the window and nursing her empty stomach. Everything seemed to know it was time for food, the bugs got nectar, the birds got bugs, the goblins got whatever birds weren't fast enough, and all she had to look forward to was cold noodles; everything knew it was food time, everything but her teacher who kept talking and talking and there was the bell ringing that she waited for all day. She shoved her books into her bag, with the unextraordinary paper with them, going at the same pace as all of the other students so as to not betray her haste to eat. She was nearly the last in the room by virtue of her seat placement, her friends dawdling so they could walk to the benches and eat together, but the professor called out to her before she could safely pretend she hadn't heard him. "Miss Biali," Talo stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him, "yes, you are the Miss Biali I was talking to. Take a seat, we need to talk." She looked to her friends.

"I'll meet you out there," Talo apologized to them.

"It's alright, we can wait a little bit," Riaka, the sweetest one among the group, responded and they left Talo behind in the classroom.

"Talo'ara," the professor, Mr. Sturmhun, began, "may I call you Talo?" Silence from her, implicit permission to him. "What's wrong with you, Talo?" He asked, causing her to flinch at the tone. "I see this wonderful young woman, so much potential, walk into my classroom and just sit there like a wart on an Ogre's back. How much time did you actually spend on the last assignment?"

"uh...."

"Be honest, Talo, law magic can discover the truth but I want to hear it from your own lips." He said, tapping the side of his desk in a rhythmic fashion. His military uniform with blue and white cuffs confirmed his assertion, and Talo had seen the head master who wore the same garb draw the truth from an unruly student with magic so she had little cause to lie.

"A....night?" She asked, seeing if he would accept that answer and his tapping stopped with a smile spreading across his face.

"A night," He stood up to his full height, he had the frame of a former warrior who spent all his time reading, "and you spend all your time on your carvings, don't you?" It was rhetorical , he didn't need her to answer since she had sold him one of her carvings at the festival earlier in the year. "Talo, it befuddles me how much time you devote towards crafting, and it amazes me to think how much you would accomplish if you put that energy towards something worthwhile like magic."

"It's worthwhile," she objected quietly, "my dad taught me how to do it."

"Ah, yes, you're from the flatlands, a very earthy people." He sat down once more, the smile gone. "Do you know where my name is from? I was born in highmount, once I was a lot like you Talo, I thought I would go back to Highmount and be a miner like my father, and his father. You can see I chose to aspire to something more than my lineage , I followed the path of Admistrum to learn magic and be better than I was." Talo was fidgeting uncomfortably by that point, the professor either didn't notice or didn't care. "I'm sure you have the aptitude to use magic, it doesn't even have to be blue or white, try red or green for example."

"I.. don't know," she looked nervously to her friends who were waiting outside the room, as if they could support her somehow.

"Look," he sighed and polished his glasses," I'm sorry, I'm sure I came on too forcefully, but that's only because I think you're wasting literally limitless potential. You can go, but I want you to think about what I told you, Talo'ara: this is the spring of your life and it's called that because the seeds you plant now will be what you live with for the rest of your life. Go, be a kid out there, doing kid things." With that, Talo did a quick bow to him and went out of the door before her could change his mind.

Outside she repeated what had happened to her friends and they offered platitudes about how he was being a jerk, and then conversation moved onto gossip and news from among the clubs but Talo dwelled on what Professor Sturmhun had said to her. "What do you think," Raban, the leonin among the group asked her as she too was left behind by the conversation, "people are saying the goblins burned down their dormitories again." It was a prompt to some of the news, since it seemed obvious Talo wasn't paying attention.

"Well," she thought back to what she knew of goblins, "that is sort of what goblins do, right?"

"I'unno," Raban leaned back in the seat, "goblins party and fight, but I didin hear anything that would start a fire last night, Goblin fires are loud," she emphasized.

"Doesn't Jorge's Pact prevent us from going to war?" Talo asked, she did not pay attention in history class but she thought Jorge, the millennial ruler who was said to return from something something eternity, laid down a magical pact across the world that something something stopped the fighting.

"As long as the city of Asimdean stands, yeah," Raban yawned, infecting Talo with her own drowsiness or perhaps just being the catalyst for her own realization. "Probably nothing big, just keep an eye out, yeah?"

Asimdean, she was told it was the at the center of Asimdea as laid out by Jorge to something something, Talo wondered how a city could fall if no one could war but those thoughts were pushed out of her mind with her friends starting to disperse. "Yeah," she finally responded to Raban, "you too." She bid farewell to her friends and set off down the mesa towards her dormitory since her parents couldn't afford to set her up in apartments.

Reaching the road that would take her down from the academy section of the city, a malicious breeze picked up and scooped the hat off her head only to deposit it on a branch overlooking the river that run through the city below. "...." She looked in horror as the cap, not that nice, and the button her mom bought her, the object of real value, dangled over the city threatening to be lost forever. "You can do this," she pumped herself up and moved towards the ledge, putting down her bookbag before reaching out and trying to grab the hat from the road. Almost there, if she had a few more inches, and she leaned on the branch as her hand creeped closer to the hat. Not quite, Talo could practically feel the fabric on the hat and she just needed to edge a little closer to rescue her beloved button and the hat it was attached to, and she put a leg on the branch. Most of her body was on the branch when she grabbed the hat finally "Yes!" She cheered and everything seemed to slow for a second as the branch gave way from under her and the hat slipped from her loose grasp as the hands of gravity pulled her down. The thoughts that went through her head were, in said order, 'Oh no, the hat' 'I'm falling' 'oh shit, I'm falling' and 'I'm going to die here!'. As her mortality and how it was about to end occurred to her, the world beneath her peeled away plummeting Talo into an inky darkness and a sudden jolt knocked her out.

The next thing she knew, she was immobile in a bed and staring up at a rather plain ceiling. She cried out in pain when she tried to move her arm and the limb remained at her side. "Ah," She could hear a door open and plodding footsteps, "you yet live." An old and tired voice, one she couldn't place. "I was worried, that the fates crashed you into my garden as a cruel joke." a chair squeaked as weight was put on it.

"Wher- where am I?" She mustered, breathing was painful.

"Jukai Forest, of course," the wilting voice said.

"I-I want to go home," she vocalized in a crying voice, not the dormitory but to the farmstead she grew up on where no one pushed you to learn magic. She wanted the smell of bread in her nostrils and a day filled with hard work being paid by supper, she wanted to see the elves from the gladelands come to trade their trinkets in the town market. Talo could feel her homesickness taking its grip on her but the pain shattered her thoughts long enough for the grip to fade

"Home is a long way off," the crinkling voice responded, "and I can show you how to get there in time, but as it is you are lucky to be alive." She heard the chair being relieved of weight and shuffling over to her bed. A man with a face like a prune looked over the young girl, was this the old man the voice belonged to? His features did not soften at her apparent pain. "Let me teach you, and I will heal your body and show you the way home when the time is right."

"please," she muttered, she wanted to go home and she wanted to stop hurting. With her consent, the old man placed his hands on her chest and the pain that caused was overcome by white mana knitting her broken body back together. Talo gasped for breath as he removed his hands, every part of her body feeling like she had woken up from a pleasant nap. "Where am I?" She asked still frightened, she knew enough forests around her home and Asimdean to know Jukai Forest wasn't one of them.

A tired old chuckle came from the old man. "Kamigawa and my name is Tendo Jubei," he stepped away and motioned for her to get out of bed, "You had the good fortune to fall into another world instead of wherever you would have fallen. Come now, you have much to learn if you want to go home again." He exited the room without another word and Talo managed to stand up and follow him. For a few weeks, he assigned her chores around the house, as a means to repay him for saving her life according to the Jubei. Talo was confused when he would tell her not to rely on magic for completing tasks but never brought the fact that it would be hard for her to rely on magic because hey, no need to lower expectations.

Weeks passed and he called Talo out to the garden, she had on garb he had told her to make from supplies given. "Talo'ara, I told you that I would show you how to go home, and I am a man of my word." He was sitting on a stone bench built on one side of the garden, holding his cane in his lap. "Stand up, and reach out to the mana in the land."

"...." She looked at him, spreading her arms to see if that would help. All those times she hadn't told him she couldn't use magic, maybe it would have been actually helpful to tell him. "Um...." her arms shook as she tried to force herself to form connections with the ground, but to no avail."I...can't" she admitted, defeated by the instructions so simply dispensed by Jubei.

A moment of silence followed by a smile spreading across the old man's face, a hoarse chorus of laughter, and Talo's face reddening. "I've been praising your inability it seems," another round of laughter, Talo buried her face in her sleeves, "countless mages I have known, try to breach the fabric between worlds with no success and yet here you are, accomplishing more through coincidence and luck than lifetimes of research." He was slapping his knee at that point and Talo was wishing she could drop dead in front of this one man audience. "Ah," he caught his breath, "looks like I will have to teach you more fully before I can fulfill my promise. Calm yourself, young lady, if this is the worst embarrassment you suffer then consider yourself lucky." He pushed himself up with his cane and began making his way towards the house "Come now, Talo'ara, you still have much to learn."

It started with him teaching her how to tap into the land around her for mana and form bonds with the lands, then harnessing that mana and converting it into spells. A mouse beset by a small dragon grew to meet its foe through Talo's magic, and a devoted warrior born from white mana answered when she reached out for it. Jubei taught her of Kamigawa and its history throughout her training, weaving lessons of bushido from each story to help her in her journey. He told her of the Kami War, ignited through hubris and good intentions of an ultimately foolish man, so that she must act towards the natural world only through wisdom and humility. Through the teachings and lessons in swordplay, Talo learned the way of the samurai and how to act with honor. Among his final lessons were the Champions, Betrayers, and Saviors of Kamigawa along with the battles they fought and their fates.

Many years later, She entered the same room she woke up in with a tray of tea in hand. Jubei had fallen the previous week and taken ill, and the old man had rebuffed any of her attempts to heal him using her magic. "You're still here," he chuckled hoarsely as he sat up in bed," what happened to the little girl who wanted to go home?"

She placed the tray into his lap and took her place on the chair. "You never taught me how to, and every time I asked, you went off on another Lesson." She had wanted desperately to go home many times during the years, and felt the pull of her home on her heart but remained confident that Jubei would fulfill his promise and that thought kept her at his side long enough for loyalty to replace it. "Master," a word she hardly ever used anymore, he insisted on it early on but as time went by it was a titles that fell by the wayside, "why won't you let me heal you? I know how."

He laughed some which drew coughing, and he placed the tea he was holding back onto the tray to avoid spilling it. "I have lived a long time, and without magic I would have passed long ago. Here is my final lesson; we are beings known as planeswalkers, you and I, and there are many more like us. Once upon a time, before you were born, before the rifts threatened to consume every world, we were comparable to gods and many acted as such but we've since been cast back to being mortals as it should be." He took a sip of tea, possibly waiting to see if she would react but she didn't. "When I found you crashed in my garden, I took you in so I could pass my teachings on and so the lessons I learned from the Kami War wouldn't die with me. Now I can die without regrets, Talo'ara, and you can in time find your own students and teach them as I have taught you." Talo had steeled her expression, not wanting to look up at him for fear that she might cry if she looked upon his face. "Speak, my student."

"I- I don't want you to die, Jubei," she told him with a crack in her voice," I don't know what to do."

"You will travel the planes on the multiverse, following your own heart. You are a good person, Talo'ara, that much I know of you; if you weren't I might have just mended your bones and sent you on your way." He coughed more after the laughter but Talo looked at him nervously.

"You would have taught me how to go home right away?" A slight pain down in her heart resonated with those words.

"Or I would have taken you to one of Kamigawa's cities and left you there, but I believe having a spark ties us each to something greater and that something brought you to me." He set the tray aside and shifted so his entire body as facing her. "Reach out to your home, Talo, conjure the memory and give it shape in your mind, then will yourself there using mana; that's how you planeswalk."

"Thank you Master," she stood and bowed to him.

"Not, yet." he held up his hand to her. "I have one last gift for you, a gift for graduation as it were." He coughed once more, his body wracking. "My armor and my house, while we had gone into town a month back, I had the armor fitted for you and the estate put in your name. Once I pass, they'll be yours to do with as you wish."

"You shouldn't have," she said with a reddening face.

"But I did, now calm yourself girl." He laughed and shifted himself back into bed. "Now go on, I want to see my one successful student in their armor, should do my old heart some good." Talo collected the tray and its contents before leaving the room as she had for the past week. She debated whether she should don the armor as he wished, or hope that not doing it would keep him alive for a few more days; but quickly admonished herself for such thoughts. When she entered the room again, Talo was clad in the refitted and cleaned armor. "Hah, such a butch woman." Jubei's laugh was cut short by another coughing fit. "I would have no other person carry on my legacy."

"You never taught me how to pretty up, so you are the only one to blame for having a butch woman as a student." She replied to him, he had made fun of her enough over the years she figured she should get at least one barb in.

"So it is, I will teach you in the morning I suppose, but now I rest. Go, my student, you still have much to learn." With that, Jubei waved her out of the room and closed his eyes, Talo closed the door behind her.

He passed during the night and when she found him at first sunrise, Talo took it upon herself to clean him, dress him in formal garb, and wrap him clean sheets before burying him in the garden he loved so much. By mid-afternoon, Jubei was buried in the ground and Talo's eyes were red, but she had accomplished the task by hand as he would have liked. The rest of the day was spent getting everything in order, cleaning pans and the sheets Jubei had died in, donning the armor he gave her, and finally locking all of the doors to the estate. Evening had come and surrounded by the blackening forest, Talo reached out to her home and the farmstead, the tall fields of golden wheat, and she felt herself being swirled up before being deposited on a country road.

It was early evening, everything had a golden feel to it, and Talo tried to recognize and find where her house was but the instinct that she had hoped would lead her home wasn't there anymore. She resolved to find her parents once more and approached the door of the nearest house with boldness, hoping that the inhabitants would point her in the right direction, and wrapped on the door three times. Seconds passed and Talo considered knocking again, but an older woman with a nervous look about her opened the door slightly "Yes?" Talo could feel the fear in her voice and decided it wasn't uncalled for due to her strange armor.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you this evening, but I have traveled a long way and I am looking for the Biali household. I remember they lived in this area when I visited last." She said in her softest tone. The door opened more and she could see more of the old woman.

"Oh, they haven't been here in many years, young lady." As the words left her mouth, Talo's face must have dropped. "They moved about a year after their daughter died going to school."

"Do you know where they are?" Desperation entered her voice with these words, how much the world had changed since she had left.

"Holeste," the old woman responded, "I saw them a few weeks ago during the festival." She moved to the side and motioned for Talo to come in "Come in, I'll put some tea on and you can rest."

"I mustn't, I need to find them soon as possible."

"Nonsense," She took the samurai by the hand and led her into the house, "you said you had traveled a long ways and they'll still be there in the morning. You'll eat and you'll rest for now, the road's dangerous for young women at night you know." The old woman left Talo behind in the main room to go fix some food and she took that time to look around at all the memories displayed in trinkets and carvings along the wall. Her eyes lit up on a carved figure, poorly done with plenty of rough edges, she had given this to Riaka before they had gone to the city to learn. Talo picked it up, turning it over in her gloved hands to find the inscription on the bottom they had done. "My daughter gave that to me, it was a memento from little Talo'ara, the Biali's daughter." A pain gripped Talo's heart as she put the figure where she found it and sat down at the table.

"You're Riaka's mother?" She asked and took the tea she was offered.

"You know her?"

"I did, she was always such a sweet girl," Talo replied, putting the cup down after a sip.

The old woman, Mrs. Poleen sat down with a heavy look in her eyes and a sad smile. "She is a good girl, it's good to find someone who remembers her before she became an Officiate." She looked back to the figurine and took a drink from her tea. "It becomes hard for people to remember how sweet she was when they see her now."

"I'm sure she's still a good person," Talo responded, trying to cheer her old friend's mother up with a smile.

"She is, but she isn't surrounded by good people and when you spend your days fighting, people don't see the sweet girl inside." Tears ran down her cheek as she kept speaking and Talo put her gloved hand over the old woman's hand. "I'm sorry, you didn't come to hear my tales of sadness."

"Don't be, you invited a stranger into your house as a guest and gave her food. Nothing you've done requires apology." She said, squeezing her hand lightly.

"I would never let a stranger into my home," Mrs. Poleen said and Talo removed her hand out of instinct and shock, "you look just like your mother, Talo'ara." At least it wasn't a trap, or at least Talo didn't get that sense. "It's been how long?"

"Years," she said, leaning back in the chair. A deep guilt ran over her, feeling like she could have returned sooner and seen her parents all those times but some sense of duty kept her on Kamigawa too long. "I'm sorry about Riaka, if I'd been there for her..."

"You would have been in the same position, or similar," Mrs. Poleen told her, "I still love Riaka very much, and part of that is knowing that she chose her own future." The rest of the tea time passed in silence and after it was done, Mrs. Poleen made a bed for Talo in one of the unused rooms before bidding her a good night.

Talo sat up on the bed looking out the window, wondering what else changed while she was training with Jubei and scolding herself for thinking that going home would be as simple as showing up on her parent's doorstep and being like 'surprise, I'm not dead! I would have written but you know, being on another plane complicated that... oh there are multiple worlds out there by the way, just thought you should know!" Once many years and another life ago, she would have been home and content to work the farm and live a simple life; but now, her home was in the Jukai forest on Kamigawa and she was but a visitor to this world. She quieted her despair, knowing that no good could come from dwelling on what could have been, and drifted off to sleep.

In the morning, Talo woke and had breakfast with Mrs. Poleen where she learned of the events of the plane since her ignition. In exchange for the hospitality, Talo told her of the planes and her time on Kamigawa, of Tendo Jubei and the lessons he taught her over the years when she was absent from Asimdea. "I don't know if I can believe that," the old woman said after Talo finished recounting her tale and the samurai stood up.

"You don't have to, I suppose," Talo said as she gathered the plates, "but that is my story as I have seen it." She accompanied Mrs. Poleen to the kitchen where she helped clean. "Do you know how to use magic, Mrs. Poleen?" She asked off hand.

"Oh, Riaka tried to teach me a year or two after you left, but I've never been good beyond a few tricks." She said with a slight laugh. "She wanted to teach me, but the only lands I could ever feel are the forests and plains around the farmstead." She put a plate up after drying it off. "Even then, I doubt you could call it real magic."

"I have a spell you might try," She said and helped finish the cleaning, when that was done Talo led Mrs. Poleen into the main room much as she had done the night before. There she tried to condense the spell into its most basic form of how to convey it, she told much the same story Jubei told her, recounting the details of the beginning of the Battle of Silk. By the end of the story, she had hopefully conveyed how Mrs. Poleen might use magic to summon her from wherver she wandered and that Talo would come quickly as possible.

"Thank you, though I don't know if I'll ever be able to cast like you and I hope I won't need to." Mrs. Poleen said, slightly happier than she had been the previous night.

"Then try," Talo told her, "you never accomplish anything if you don't think you can." The old woman said her words and pulled from the lands around her and Talo felt a brief tugging at her being like she did when she was walking. "I hope you won't have to use it Mrs. Poleen, but if you do: I will come." She went into the room she had slept to don her armor and set off.

"Are you going to Holeste?" Mrs. Poleen asked, following her to the door. "They would be overjoyed to see you."

Guilt gnawed at Talo as she thought of her parents and then her plans. "One day I'll go," she responded, "but I don't know how the world or the Council would react to the Multiverse if they found out. Please, do not tell them if you see them before I do, do not tell anyone of me or what I told you lest I put you in danger."

"What will you being doing then?" Mrs. Poleen posed the final question of their meeting. "I...I need to go, there is still much I need to learn before I return home." Talo told the old woman before anchoring herself to the blind eternities, just feeling for anywhere to go but here, she was through the door and in a flurry of petals made from the aether she was gone.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

A Word with my American Question Marks

We have an election coming up soon with all sorts of serious consequences for our country, so I strongly urge everyone 18 years or older to vote in the upcoming election. If you’re not already registered, it will require registering and the deadlines for doing so are coming up in a lot of states, so please check your local state and make sure you’re meeting the deadlines.

I also urge that people do their homework, so that they understand the issues at hand. There’s a lot of misinformation on social media, so it’s important that you do your due diligence to properly understand the truth behind the issues that matter to you.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Sorry for the late announcement but the first part of our For the Honor game set on Eldraine is now up! As the grand ball commences, four attendees from across the multiverse converge, share some moments, and the Angrath disrespect is unfortunately real...

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Can't believe 57% of all reality has been AI generated

A news site called WindowsCentral just posted a headline: "57% of all content on the web is AI-generated."

They're misquoting a Forbes article that said, "57% of all text-based content on the web is AI-generated."

Which itself was also a misquote of a study saying "57% of all text translations on the web are machine generated."

Figured I should give everyone a heads up

for all the "OMG dead Internet theory is real!" posting coming up.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Good on @dimestoretajic for not doing Cabralin dirty like Wotc did, those fuckers are capable of incredible amounts of violence.

April of the Automaton - March Madness Winners

Three winners emerge in this week’s clash of flesh and steel: @dimestoretajic, @snugz, and @spooky-bard!

Invasion of Cabralin // Alerted Populace - @dimestoretajic While I am somewhat reticent to believe that “create three Unruly Mobs” is the kind of text that would fit on the front half of a Siege, we don’t exactly have proper templates for those yet, so I’m going to let you off the hook for that one this week. As for the battle itself, hot gosh is this thing worth the effort. Of the battles submitted this week, I feel that this one best understands how much all of its component pieces should cost. Three Unruly Mobs for five is definitely worthwhile and makes attacking into the battle the turn it comes down a bit more enticing. And then the back half is impressively powerful and plays very well with backup, Incubators, and especially the disgruntled commonfolk you get on the front end. Cabralin is also a delightfully ancient callback, and while official lore is sparse I appreciate this interpretation of it as a plane of otherwise ordinary individuals who are alarmingly capable of dispensing violence when threatened by extra-planar porcelain robots. Excellent work here.

Overwhelming Assault - @snugz A few people noticed the lack of an uncommon red enchantment that Incubates and gives your Phyrexians some benefit and I appreciate how this one approaches the whole situation. Trample is potentially a very powerful ability to give to sufficiently sizable Incubator tokens, and there’s little enough deathtouch (probably due to backup tbh) in the set that I don’t think that particular rules interaction will come up all that often. The cost definitely looks steep but that ability plus the two bodies you get with it feel significant enough to justify it even if you don’t have any other especially enormous Phyrexians lying around. Overall a very solid uncommon I think.

Segovian Artillery Squad - @spooky-bard As a big fan of both Night Market Lookout and Segovia, and as someone who definitely agrees that the red half of the convoke deck could use some additional love, I adore this card. I appreciate that you’ve found a way to concept Humans from the plane of 3/3 Leviathans and 1/1 Angels as something with a calculable amount of power and toughness, I love that you’ve taken “pings when tapped” out of a context where the creature in question is being used to crew Vehicles and into a context where it’s being used to cast spells. As much as this is a card whose components I have seen before, you’ve put them together in such a way that rather delightfully reconceptualizes what this 1/1 is doing, and I have to commend you for that. Absolutely fantastic common design.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

He deconstructed her ass bit by bit, you cannot tell me Karn didn’t want her to suffer for what she’s done.

THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Self-Made Man: Jace Beleren and Representation for Transgender Men in MTG

INTRO:

A few days before I started writing this, I received a message on Tumblr asking me to talk about my personal interpretation of Jace Beleren as a trans man. Not an unusual request, since Jace Beleren is my favorite character and I mention that I think he's trans all the time. I thought my response would be easy to write, but I started typing and couldn't stop. I realized I couldn't keep it short and simple. My thoughts grew into something much bigger, and much more meaningful to me. (Word count: ~9260)

In this post, I'll explore my analysis of Jace Beleren as a transgender man, why I think it enriches Jace as a character, and how it relates to the topic of transgender representation in Magic.

Disclaimer 1: As far as I know, WOTC and the authors who wrote Jace's lore did not originally set out with the intention of portraying a transgender character in Jace. Everything I'm presenting as evidence that Jace is trans is just part of my analysis. The purpose of this post is not to prove that Jace was always intended to be trans, but to show how my personal interpretation of Jace as a trans man is inspired by and supported by the text.

Disclaimer 2: All transgender people are different and have unique lives and feelings and experiences, so the things I say in this post won't apply to every single trans person. The examples I give here are mainly based on my own experience, as well as those of other trans men I know personally.

(General content warning for discussions of bullying and transphobia.)

PART 1: ORIGINS

There's an inherent transness about Jace Beleren.

Insecurity is one of Jace's most visible and defining traits. From Origins to Ixalan, his long-term character arc is all about his struggle to let go of his insecurities in order to become a better version of himself. There are parallels to the experiences of transgender men in the way those insecurities came about, how he expresses them, and how he eventually overcomes them.

It's easy to see why Jace would be insecure. As a telepath, he can hear all the negative thoughts other people have about him.

=========

Sure enough, there was his father, sitting at the kitchen table, frowning. Gav Beleren, grubby and balding, regarded Jace with little more than weariness.

I wish he was normal.

His father’s thoughts traced a familiar path.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

Lack-witted idiot.

A big lug shoved past him from behind.

Jace couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.

I swear, that Beleren kid…

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

There’s the freak.

The biting thought was the only warning Jace got.

He scrambled to his feet and spun, but he was too late. Three of his schoolmates stood between him and the access hatch.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

Jace's own father, despite caring for his son and wanting a better life for him, felt little warmth for him. He wished Jace were "normal" and often became frustrated with him. Jace was a victim of brutal bullying that started in early childhood and continued all through his school years. Even complete strangers disliked Jace, and they made it known.

It was difficult for Jace to tell which thoughts were or weren't his own. Jace's constant awareness of others disliking him caused him to internalize that negativity, and as a result, he developed a sense of insecurity at an early age.

Jace's insecurity manifests as self-hatred, feelings of inadequacy, and discomfort in his body and physical appearance. I think his insecurities manifested in these specific ways because one of his most significant personal struggles was gender dysphoria. In an R&D video about Jace's story in Origins, Kelly Digges spoke about Jace's insecurity, and unintentionally gave the most transgender-sounding response possible.

=========

"Not everybody likes Jace. They see the arrogant self-assured kid wearing the hoodie, and something about that doesn't sit well with them. But I think you've got to have sympathy for the guy. I mean, imagine being a teenager with all the awkwardness that comes with that, and actually knowing that the person behind you thinks your hair looks stupid! You'd put on a hood too!"

[Kelly Digges - Magic: The Gathering - Inside R&D Magic Origins: Jace]

=========

The thing is, I don't have to imagine that situation. That was literally my lived experience as a trans teenager.

I had known I was trans since I was very little, but I didn't decide to start living life as an openly transgender boy until I was 13 years old– right before I started high school. The day before my freshman orientation, my mom took me to a hair salon and I asked the stylist to give me a typical boy's haircut. My hair was waist-length, and the stylist was shocked that a 'girl' could ask her to cut off that much hair. She was scared to ruin my appearance by making me "look like a boy" (even though that's exactly what I wanted.)

My freshman photo was the ugliest school picture I've ever taken. My friends jokingly called me 'Gohan' (from Dragon Ball Z). I started wearing jackets with my hood up, even though I never liked to before, and I wore hats despite it being against the school dress code. I knew other people thought my hair looked stupid, and I knew this without having telepathic abilities like Jace.

But my troubles didn't start with that haircut. Long before I started openly living as a boy, I was told I was a 'tomboy' and that I didn't act like other little girls did. Even in early childhood, I was very aware of the fact that some people hated me for who I was and how I expressed myself. I was just like Jace in that way– knowing who was judging me; knowing they didn't respect me; and knowing that in their eyes I was ugly, a weirdo, or worse.

I had always known I was different, and Jace had always known he was different, too. But it's not for the reason you would think. People mistreated Jace long before anyone knew or even began to suspect his true nature as a telepath. Nobody knew Jace was a mage, but everyone knew something was weird about him. There was something outwardly unusual about Jace that people noticed and thought was strange and undesirable.

Something interesting I noticed while re-reading Jace's origin story is that he appears to be wearing girls' clothing in the art. He and the girl, Jill, are both wearing the same long tunic / dress and shawl; while the two other boys are wearing vests and tucked-in shirts.

I know that wasn't necessarily the intention with this art, but it got me thinking about other aspects of Jace's origin story that just felt trans to me.

Interestingly, nobody in Jace's origin story actually calls him "Jace" except for his mother, the only person who truly loved and accepted him for who he was; and Alhammarret, another telepath and therefore the only person who could see Jace the way Jace saw himself. Everyone else refers to him as "Beleren" or "that Beleren kid" or "freak". His own dad doesn't call him anything at all.

It reminded me of the way my family never got into the habit of calling me my chosen name, even after I came out. They would call me my childhood nickname, "BooBoo", to avoid saying my chosen name or my birth name. To them, I was boyish enough it was weird to call me a girl's name, but not loved or respected enough to be called what I wanted.

Being a trans teenager is hard. It's hard to control your style when you're dependent on your parents to buy clothing. It's hard to control your identity when other people constantly call you the wrong name. And it's pretty much impossible to control your body.

Puberty is a source of insecurity for all teenagers, but it's the ultimate hell for trans teenagers. When the effects of hormones become visible and you see how your body has changed compared to your peers, the difference can be emotionally devastating.

While puberty made me wider and heavier; my male friends, who were going through the other puberty, got taller and more muscular. They got bigger and stronger every year while I was doomed to stay 5'0 (152cm) forever. It felt like I could never catch up– they looked the way I wanted to without even trying. Sure, I could pass for a boy, but they were going to grow up to be men. It infuriated me.

Similarly, Jace's lack of stereotypically masculine physical characteristics was a major source of self-hatred.

=========

“Hey, Beleren,” said the largest of the three, his booming voice overpowering the wind. His name was Tuck. At fourteen, he was a year older than Jace, a head taller, and built like a loading dock.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

How small he looked, hanging desperately above the crackling stream of mana. How vulnerable he looked. He hated it.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

Jace's male peers are described as being significantly taller and more muscular than him. This difference in size and strength made it easy for other boys to bully and physically abuse Jace, which caused him to associate their masculinity with the power they held over him. In Jace's mind, being a victim meant he was weak, and being weak meant he was less of a man. Hating yourself for things you can't control is extraordinarily painful.

When Jace discovered his true nature as a telepath, he realized it was the one way he held power over others. He tried to feel tougher and more masculine by emulating the way his bullies demonstrated their power over him– through intimidation, cruelty, and threats of violence.

=========

He looked Tuck in the eyes. “And if you harm my family, I’ll take your mind apart, one squalid little memory at a time.”

Tuck flinched.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

Having grown up without any positive male role models in his life, Jace's idea of masculinity was primarily influenced by the mistreatment he endured. He simply imitated what he saw and he didn't have the emotional support or life experience needed to grow out of that mindset.

As a young trans man reading Jace's origin story, I found the way he resented his bullies and retaliated against them to be very relatable. It's scary how easily gender dysphoria can turn into toxic masculinity. When you need to try a million times harder than your cisgender peers to be acknowledged as a man, taking masculinity to a harmful extreme can seem like the logical thing to do, especially if you're a younger trans man.

Despite expressing myself exactly the same as any other little boy would (wearing the same clothes, liking the same cartoons, playing the same sports), I was bullied by both kids and adults for daring to think I could be a boy. Once, when I was 8 years old, I stepped up to bat for my Little League baseball team. When the announcer said my feminine name and everyone noticed the long hair sticking out from underneath my helmet, the opposing team's volunteer coaches (the fathers of kids my age!) shouted from their dugout: "There's no way they'll win! They have a girl on their team!" Their players laughed and cheered in response.

That absolutely broke me. Their words taught me that being myself wasn't enough. And if being the same as other boys wasn't enough, then I needed to be more than them. I intentionally became a bully. Picking every fight I could was my way of proving I was more masculine than people thought.

Intentional toxic masculinity in pursuit of gender-affirmation is a very common experience for young trans men. Jace and my younger self acted the way we did because we were trying to mask our insecurity. We wanted to kill the weakness we saw in ourselves, so we lashed out in an attempt to feel stronger than the people who hurt us.

Starting middle school let me get away from most of the people who bullied me. It was the fresh start I needed to stop being such a terror. But a clean slate wouldn't prove to be so helpful for young Jace.

PART 2: PLANESWALKER

At age 15, Jace's Planeswalker spark ignited. He arrived on Ravnica with no memories of his life on Vryn. 

In theory, Jace's amnesia would have allowed him to start becoming the person he wanted to be, but he couldn't begin to heal because the scars on his subconscious mind were immediately opened. Being lost and alone made Jace feel vulnerable– the feeling he hated most.

=========

Came out of nowhere. Some poor Izzet experimental subject, probably.

He scrambled to his feet. People were staring at him. He looked as bad as he felt, sweaty and pale and filthy. He pulled his scarf up around his face and dashed to the side of the road.

I’m not an experimental subject. I’m…I’m…

I’m in trouble.

Fine. Table that.

He walked as fast as he could without seeming to hurry. He reached out, carefully, into the minds around him. It was a cacophony, a mad tangle of voices, and half of them weren’t even human.

Vagrant. Thief. Poor kid. Wretch.

His headache was getting worse.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

On Ravnica, Jace had no idea where he was or who he was, and he was suddenly surrounded by more people than he'd ever been near before. After losing the ability to control his telepathy, he was overwhelmed with their thoughts. He didn't know any of the people around him, but he knew they thought he was strange and pitiful.

When Jace noticed people staring at him, he hid his face with his scarf and ran away from them. Jace's first instinctual concern was not that he was possibly in danger, but that people were perceiving him in a way that made him feel embarrassed about himself. Even without memories of being bullied, a part of Jace's mind was still constantly worried about his appearance.

Jace's anxiety in public reminded me of the extreme paranoia I suffered from as a trans teenager. Being seen and perceived was so unbearable to me that I went to extremes to avoid people. I'd stay home or hide whenever possible, and sometimes I became so anxious I would literally run away if I noticed someone looking at me. I've gotten a lot better in the past few years, but I still worry when I'm out in public. I often notice strangers staring at me, and I hate knowing when people are questioning my gender. In certain situations, I'm even worried that someone might hurt me if they notice I'm trans. When you're trans and you've been bullied, just being perceived is dangerous.

That initial experience on Ravnica did instant damage to his self esteem. Jace's discomfort in his body and physical appearance was such a pressing issue that he immediately sought gender-affirming body modifications.

=========

The Jace in front of her was pathetically young.

[...]

The teenage Jace seated in the chair had the look about him of someone who wanted to disappear and wish someone more imposing into his place. His outfit was disheveled, the cut of it unfamiliar. Vraska sensed in the fabric of the memory that this version of Jace had arrived in Ravnica for the first time only days before.

The Gruul shaman's hand was glowing brilliant white. "This your first?" he grunted.

It took Jace a moment too long to answer. "Yes," he said timidly.

Vraska couldn't help but smile at this memory. He was the wimpiest teenager she had ever seen—no wonder he wanted a cool tattoo.

[...]

The shaman leaned over the teenager and drew a line with his finger down Jace's cheek, leaving a brilliant white tattoo in its place. He continued on his chin and arm, and Vraska watched as the shaman diligently painted a braver face on the nervous teenager's own.

[The Flood - Alison Luhrs]

=========

Tattoos probably aren't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of gender-affirming body modifications, but that was the purpose they served for Jace. Getting tattoos made him feel braver and more grown up, and they made him look cooler and more intimidating to others. All of these were stereotypically masculine traits he desired in the way he presented himself.

In addition to the way they changed him outwardly, Jace's tattoos were a personal declaration of his identity. His tattoos were drawn from one of the few things he could remember after arriving on Ravnica: a set of mysterious shapes and symbols. He didn't know what meaning they held, if any at all, but he decided that they were important to him because they were his.The decision to have them permanently inked on his skin gave him a sense of control and ownership over his body and appearance, which is one of the most important aspects of forming an identity as a trans person.

In his young adult years on Ravnica, Jace made a living as a criminal extorting the rich and famous. For the first time in his life, he could afford to choose his own wardrobe instead of depending on a guardian to provide clothes for him. Jace used this opportunity to exercise more control over his appearance, having clothing designed and tailored specifically to his desires.

The patterns Jace had tattooed on his body would be incorporated into his signature blue cloak. Jace's cloak is the most iconic element of his visual design, and it's important to this interpretation of his character because it's his dysphoria hoodie.

A dysphoria hoodie is a hooded clothing item intended to relieve gender dysphoria by obscuring the shape of a person's body. They're oversized, loose, and usually black or another dark color. Wearing a dysphoria hoodie hides a person's body from others' judging eyes, and allows them to forget about the parts of their body that they don't like.

It's undeniable that Jace's cloak fits this description perfectly.

Jace was extremely attached to his blue cloak. It didn't matter how hot the weather was, or how dirty or damaged his cloak had gotten– he always wore it anyway. And judging by the fact that he canonically had numerous duplicates made, he didn't want to ever stop wearing it. The ability to look and feel mysterious was very comforting to him.

Jace tried to hide his insecurities for as long as he could, but as he grew into adulthood, his problems would grow and change with him.

The novel Agents of Artifice follows Jace's life on Ravnica from ages 19 to 22. Growing up meant the gender role Jace desired to fill evolved from 'boy' to 'man', but Jace had no positive male role models or examples in this formative time.

As Jace's employer and teacher, Tezzeret forced him to use his powers for violence by psychologically abusing him. Tezzeret had an explosive temper and brutally tortured Jace when he failed assignments or hesitated to comply.

Jace's best friend / partner, Kallist Rhoka, showed a sense of entitlement after the two met Liliana Vess. Kallist felt like Liliana owed him attention and sex, despite the fact that she wasn't interested in him because she was already dating Jace.

=========

“You’re a hypocrite, Jace. It’s fine. My own fault, really. I should’ve known better than to take you at your word, when it came to getting something you wanted—the one thing I might’ve found to make this damned place a little better!”

“She was never yours!” Jace shot to his feet, fists clenched. “Never!”

“Because you wouldn’t give us the chance!” Kallist shot back. “It’s not enough that you took away everything I had?”

“Took away … Damn it, Kallist, I saved your life!”

[Agents of Artifice - Ari Marmell]

=========

Kallist wasn't the only man who felt this way. Throughout the book, several complete strangers made it clear that they thought Jace was inferior and undeserving of Liliana's affection, and that Liliana should be with them instead. Other men openly insulted Jace because they didn't see him as a "real man".

=========

“I couldn’t help but notice,” he slurred in a voice heavy with beer, “that you finally sent your scrawny friend packing. That mean you interested in spending some time with a real man?”

[Agents of Artifice - Ari Marmell]

=========

At that point in his life, Jace was still surrounded by men who had very toxic expressions of masculinity, but unlike his teenage self, he had no desire to imitate them. Jace feared and resisted Tezzeret's violent teachings, he disapproved of Kallist's misogyny towards Liliana, and he avoided confrontation with the random strangers who threatened him.

I think Jace's distaste for their attitudes and behaviors shows that his insecurity is truly gender dysphoria and not just toxic masculinity. If Jace disapproved of their toxic masculinity and didn't want to express himself that way, why would he care if he wasn't a "real man" to them? Why did he still feel incomplete as a man? What does being a man mean to Jace Beleren?

Jace wanted to do all the things typically expected of adult men. He wanted to be self-reliant, to be a protector and leader to others. He made himself a protector and financial provider to his romantic partners. He wanted to protect Ravnica and accepted his duty as the Living Guildpact when the role was magically forced upon him. He worked with the Gatewatch to defend other planes and invited them to live in his home. Despite all his efforts, nobody seemed to see that Jace was trying his best.

One of the most common difficulties trans men experience is being infantilized because they're perceived as younger. Trans men often look younger than their cisgender male peers of the same age due to the difference in hormones. Less testosterone means trans men tend to be shorter, less muscular, and have less body hair (not accounting for individual genetic factors).

When trans men lack stereotypically masculine physical characteristics, especially those associated with age and maturity, such as facial hair, they don't get treated with the same respect as other men. (For example, adult trans men are often referred to as 'boys' no matter how old they actually are.)

When Jace's appearance is described in stories, his lack of stereotypically masculine physical characteristics is always noted. He's always described as being smaller and less muscular than other men, and it's repeatedly remarked upon that he's unable to grow a beard.

=========

Rulan was clad much like Jace himself, though he preferred deep reds and purples to Jace’s unrelenting blue and black. And unlike Jace, Rulan boasted a full, tidily trimmed beard.

[Agents of Artifice - Ari Marmell]

=========

She cast a critical eye up and down his form. Firm, fit, alert, hair combed. She mentally called bull on it. "You can drop the glamour, dear. No one cares."

He sighed, and shimmered as his illusion dropped. There was the real Jace; paler, hair rumpled, eyes sunken from late nights, and his chin tinted by the adorable peach fuzz that almost counted as a someday-maybe beard.

[Homesick - Chris L'Etoile]

=========

The text shows that Jace experienced infantilization as a trans man. His sparse facial hair is enough to visibly darken his face, but it's referred to as "adorable peach fuzz" rather than a more mature-sounding alternative. In the story Catching Up, Liliana tells Jace that him looking older is "an unambiguous compliment."

=========

"You look older," she said.

"I'm not sure how to take that."

"At your age, dear, it's an unambiguous compliment." She cocked her head. "Have you started combing your hair?"

He smoothed his hair self-consciously, just for a moment, then withdrew his hand. He had, in fact, started combing it. Not that his hair was any of her business. He scowled.

[Catching Up - Kelly Digges]

=========

This aspect of Jace's trans experience caused him to be disrespected in several areas of his adult life. As an adult navigating dating and relationships, people saw him as unattractive and less desirable. As the Living Guildpact, people saw him as unqualified and irresponsible. As a member of the Gatewatch, people saw him as weak and incapable of leadership. Because he was infantilized as a trans man, he was perceived as inherently less masculine, less competent, and less mature. This negative perception reinforced his feelings of inadequacy.

For this reason, Jace was more self-conscious about his appearance as an adult than he'd ever been as a youth. In order for people to treat him with more respect, Jace found it necessary to hide his body with his cloak and to change his appearance with illusions. Jace felt the need to 'pass', and thought being himself was unsatisfactory, especially after he met Gideon.

Meeting Gideon was a major turning point in Jace's emotional development as a trans man.

Gideon was a great example of stereotypical but positive masculinity. He was self-reliant but not afraid to ask for help. He was a leader but tried to uplift others. He fought as a defender, not an aggressor.

Jace saw Gideon as an upstanding person and a good friend. For the first time in his life, Jace had a positive male role model to look up to. It made him furious.

=========

"I'd rather stand," said Gideon.

Jace stood up. It was an error. He still had to crane his neck to look Gideon in the eye, and now the size difference between them was glaringly obvious. He hated feeling small. Hated it.

[Catching Up - Kelly Digges]

=========

Gideon made Jace feel hopelessly insecure about himself.

He was everything Jace wanted to be, and seemed to be perfect in all the ways Jace wasn't. Gideon was super tall while Jace was average height. Gideon was athletic and muscular while Jace was thin and out-of-shape. Gideon was charismatic and a natural leader while people tended to automatically distrust Jace.

Jace both admired and envied Gideon. He tried his best to emulate Gideon's positive qualities, but found it difficult because it was clear to himself and others that it didn't come naturally to him. Jace's presence just didn't inspire others or make them feel safe like Gideon's presence did.

=========

What would Gideon say?

Jace smiled. Of course.

"For Zendikar," he said, raising one fist in the air. It felt thin to him, lacking Gideon's armored fist, his baritone war cry, his iron conviction.

[Brink of Extinction - Kelly Digges]

=========

"Vanity?" she said. "That's not like you."

He raked a hand back through his hair, which did nothing to calm its random angles. "I should be at my best for team meetings. Project leadership. Confidence. The idea that I know what the hell I'm doing. And why am I telling you this?" He looked annoyed at himself.

She raised one ivory shoulder in a careless shrug. "Who else knows you well enough to understand?"

[Homesick - Chris L'Etoile]

=========

Seeing the differences between himself and Gideon aggravated his gender dysphoria and reinforced all the manifestations of his insecurity– self-hatred, feelings of inadequacy, and discomfort in his body and physical appearance.

In his time with the Gatewatch, Jace's vision of masculinity had changed to be much more positive, but he was still miserable because he kept measuring his self-worth against an ideal he couldn't seem to reach.

This stage in socially transitioning is emotionally difficult for trans people. It takes time and effort to overcome.

PART 3: CASTAWAY

At age 26, after the Gatewatch's defeat on Amonkhet, Jace involuntarily planeswalked to Ixalan. He awoke on a tropical island with no recollection of who he was or where he came from.

For the second time in his life, Jace had complete amnesia. Just like when he sparked at age 15, his insecurities lingered despite being unable to remember what caused them. He hallucinated illusions of people from his past life, and his subconscious mind projected his insecurities through them.

=========

"You've really done it this time, haven't you?"

This vision appeared whenever the man was struggling at a task.

His shoulders were broad, and his olive skin had a sheen of sweat underneath the shine of his armor. The hallucination was looking over the man's shoulder as he tried to carve a fishing hook.

"Listen, you aren't really suited to this task. Let me handle it." The vision's voice was gruff but friendly.

It came off as condescending.

The man was annoyed.

"I can do it myself."

The hallucination sighed. "You and I both know you're not suited to this. Let me handle it, you go philosophize on the other end of the beach."

"I said I can do it myself." The man let his irritation reach his voice.

"No, you can't. I call the shots and execute, you stand to the side. That's how this works."

The man responded by throwing his hook at the hallucination. It went straight through the figure's eye and landed behind him on the sand.

[Jace, Alone - Alison Luhrs]

=========

An illusion of Gideon represented Jace's frustration due to low confidence in his skills and abilities. No one ever seemed to think Jace was good enough. His intellect, social skills, and physical dexterity were all constantly questioned throughout his entire life. As a result, Jace never got the chance to prove to the people around him what he was truly capable of.

On Useless Island, Jace was utterly alone and could rely only on himself. Jace succeeded in teaching himself to hunt, fish, and build in order to survive. He was not inept at stereotypically masculine tasks, as people had believed him to be. Over time, he grew a thick beard and gained a significant amount of muscle mass.

=========

"You look terrible," purred a voice from above.

The man moved his hands. An illusion of a woman stood above him. She had raven hair, tired eyes, and a disdainful expression. Her arms were gloved in violet satin and crossed in front of her.

"The muscles are a nice change, but you look awful with facial hair." Her lips curled in a disdainful sneer.

The man shook his head, tears building in the corner of his eyes.

"I don't know who you are."

"Of course you don't, boy."

She looked him over. "You didn't know who I was then, and you don't now. Hard to build trust when neither of us trusts each other."

The man decided to stop caring that this illusion wasn't real. He desperately needed someone to talk to.

"Who was I, before here?"

"You weren't who you thought you were, that's for sure. No one else saw through you, but I did. You were never a leader or a detective or a scholar; you were a frightened child playing pretend."

The man swallowed a lump in his throat.

"You can fool the rest of the world with your magic and illusions, but you could never fool me."

The man wanted to sob. Wanted to go back and sleep. Wanted to starve until all of this went away.

[Jace, Alone - Alison Luhrs]

=========

An illusion of Liliana represented Jace's gender dysphoria and impostor syndrome.

Despite everything he had achieved so far on Useless Island, his subconscious mind still held feelings of self-doubt. Part of Jace's mind wondered whether or not he was ever truly suited to being a man, telling himself he "looks terrible" and "awful with facial hair". Again, Jace's maturity and experience are denied when the illusion infantilizes him by calling him a "boy" and "a frightened child playing pretend". This vision was an expression of Jace's fear that he was inherently unfit for masculinity and the roles he wanted to fill as a man.

Unlike the first time Jace had amnesia, though, there were no real people around to reinforce his insecurities. Being alone meant Jace had no one to compare himself to. This gave him the opportunity to truly have faith in himself. Rather than trying to copy someone else's example of masculinity, he was creating his own.

=========

The man opened his eyes, and saw a vision of himself standing on top of the water in front of him.

The image had a blank expression on its face, but was otherwise identical to the man himself, standing calmly—impossibly—on the surface of the water.

The man's jaw fell open in shock.

The illusion appeared solid as flesh, and its detail was astonishingly accurate. The man was amused he did not remember his name but remembered the exact details of his own body: muscles toned, stubble on its face, blistered sunburn on its bare shoulders. He even saw its scars—his scars—the little bookmarks of a life well-lived.

[Jace, Alone - Alison Luhrs]

=========

All the effort he had taken to change himself showed outwardly on his body, and it was very gender-affirming. He was happy to see his muscles and facial hair and sunburn. I don't know how else to say this, but Jace being proud of "his scars" just has super transgender connotations. When Jace saw his scars, he appreciated them as proof of his ability to change and adapt– proof of his survival.

One of the most meaningful and symbolic moments in Jace's story is his decision to leave Useless Island. He built a raft and sailed away, uncertain of his future but determined and unafraid. Among the items he packed for his journey was his old blue cloak, unaware of the meaning it previously held for him. Jace encountered a storm soon after leaving, and all the items he brought with him were lost or destroyed, including his cloak. But he wasn't upset. He didn't miss it. To the Jace of Useless Island, it was nothing more than a piece of fabric. The Jace of Useless Island was comfortable in his body, and had no need for a dysphoria hoodie to hide from himself or anyone else. By letting his cloak be destroyed, Jace let go of his insecurities.

Vraska found Jace washed up on a rocky island and accepted him into her pirate crew. Jace was eager to help, using his tinkering ability to fix telescopes and compasses. He also used his illusion magic to make The Belligerent invisible during a raid, and even fought vampires with the crew.

People need to have loved ones in their lives who make them feel accepted and respected. It's absolutely critical for a person's emotional health, and especially for trans people, whose close support networks are often insufficiently small or entirely absent. When you feel ashamed of yourself because you're constantly being criticized, when you live in fear of the world around you because you're hated, it's difficult even to simply exist. Having just one person who truly makes you feel safe makes a world of difference.

This is why it was so important that Vraska, the only person on Ixalan who knew Jace before his amnesia, didn't judge him based on his past. She didn't try to tell Jace who he used to be or who he should be. The crew of The Belligerent allowed Jace to be himself, and they cared about the qualities he had, not the ones he lacked. This key difference in how people treated Jace on Ixalan is what allowed him to thrive.

In The Flood, Jace fell down a waterfall and hit his head on a rock. The injury triggered a reversal of his amnesia. After Jace got his memories back, he reflected on the difference between his past and present selves.

=========

"I wouldn't have had the strength to climb this a year ago," Jace said with a little bit of pride. "Or if I did, I probably would have passed out halfway up."

"You weren't that out of shape when I last saw you," Vraska teased.

"You're ignoring how often I used to use illusions to make myself look like I was in shape."

Her brows shot up. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah," Jace acknowledged. His expression was unguarded, eyes still red from emotion, a lighthearted tilt to his lips. Unapologetically human. He grinned. "I used to be a coward."

He let Not anymore hang unspoken in the air between them, and Vraska caught his smile as he turned to ascend the golden staircase toward Orazca, one strong step after another.

[The Flood - Alison Luhrs]

=========

The old Jace was always being compared to others. That Jace hated himself because he could only see himself as an inferior version of other men. He wanted to hide because he felt like he would never be enough. He wanted to be anyone but Jace.

The new Jace unlearned that mindset. He realized the only 'right' way to be a man was to try to be the best Jace he could be. Having room to improve meant he had the opportunity to find joy in growing and changing. He was proud of himself for taking control of his identity and putting in all the effort necessary to transition. On Ixalan, Jace cultivated the strongest body he ever had. That new body made him braver and more confident than ever before. And that new confidence made him happier than he'd ever felt in his entire life.

The resolution of Jace's arc came from his transition. All his life, Jace had wanted people to understand and accept his true self. For people to see his true self, he needed to be able to show them. Jace was able to start healing from his trauma on Ixalan because for the first time in his life, he felt like it was safe and good to be himself, so he lost his fear of judgment and embarrassment. Through that acceptance, he learned to be himself, and to love himself, and to love his transness. On Ixalan, Jace finally became the man he wanted to be.

=========

Jace looked down at himself.

The tan was real. The scrapes, the newly callused hands, the muscles (the muscles!) were all his. Jace felt proud of his body for the first time in his life. He must not lose track of it now.

[Wool Over the Eyes - Alison Luhrs]

=========

PART 4: DEEP BLUE

Jace being a transgender man is not just a headcanon to me. It's a textual interpretation that I believe adds meaning to the story and enriches Jace as a character.

My interpretation of Jace as a trans man is rooted in the way his personal philosophy guides him as a Blue character.

Blue's central theme is "Perfection through knowledge." Blue sees the world and everything in it as a blank slate waiting to be transformed. With the right knowledge, all possibilities can become reality. Jace's expression of "Perfection through knowledge" is his journey to become a better person by understanding himself.

=========

Jace chose his words carefully.

"Existence is adaptation to changing circumstances. The self is an accumulation of what one has learned from those changing circumstances . . . Our agency gives us the means to alter our own path. You are who you decide to be. And who you will become depends only on how you choose to adapt."

[Something Else Entirely - Alison Luhrs]

=========

Jace's personal philosophy as a Blue character is "You are who you choose to be''. He believes that people are defined by the choices they make with their free will, and rejects the idea that the self has immutable qualities. To Jace, there is no pre-determined path or destiny for him to follow. Rather, he continually seeks to cultivate his own identity through change. 

In my interpretation of Jace as a trans man, Jace holds these beliefs because they're lessons he's had to learn in order to overcome his struggles and accept himself.

As a Blue character, Jace's core struggle is his desire to understand himself. Jace's life has been a constant quest to figure out who he is. Above all, Jace's thirst for knowledge is a need to understand his potential and his place in the Multiverse.

=========

Jace.

My name is Jace Beleren.

So there was something in there, waiting for him to dig it out.

And who is Jace Beleren? Is he a good man? Is he kind?

He willed away the shape and sat, alone, farther from home than he’d even known was possible.

He’d have to wait and see.

[Jace's Origin: Absent Minds - Kelly Digges]

=========

Having lost so much of his life to amnesia, Jace has often been unsure of who he is or who he should be.

I've always seen the divide in Jace's life caused by his amnesia as a parallel to the 'before' and 'after' periods in my life as a trans person.

When I decided to start openly living as a trans boy in high school, it was like I was being haunted by my own ghost. I didn't know who I was or how to act anymore because everyone around me seemed to see and speak to a version of myself that no longer existed. But I hadn't died, I was just different. I wanted people to see that I was alive and well. I wanted to make myself feel real again.

Like Jace, I was a teenage boy with no past. I needed to rebuild myself, and I had to start from scratch. I wasn't sure what to do with myself, but the one thing I was sure of was that I couldn't look back. I didn't want to. And neither did Jace.

Jace is known for his love of investigation, puzzles, and research, but his past seems to be the one thing he's not curious about. While he does occasionally wonder what his life used to be like, he's never shown a desire to return to that past. He's never put any time or energy into re-discovering old memories or trying to restore some previous state.

When Jace asks himself, "Who am I?", he's not asking who he was before. He's asking who he can be. What matters to Jace is not who you were, but who you can become.

The past is unimportant to Jace, and this belief gives him strength. He expressed this on Ixalan when he vowed the illusions of his past would no longer bother him.

=========

"No more involuntary illusions!" he said, and something in the back of his mind rung with magical affirmation. It would not happen again.

He had control over his mind. He was the wielder of his talents.

[...]

Then a thought occurred to the man.

"Who I was doesn't matter . . . because I get to learn who I am now."

Saying it out loud made it feel real.

"Whoever I was is irrelevant, for I will become whoever I want to become."

He believed that with all his heart.

The man realized what he must do.

He was going to prove to himself that he deserved to live.

The man got to work.

[Jace, Alone - Alison Luhrs]

=========

Jace understood that in order to progress, he had to keep moving forward. Letting go of the past is what allowed Jace to live in the present and to have hope for his future.

This aspect of Jace's philosophy is also an important aspect of trans acceptance. Many trans people struggle with making the decision to transition because they fear it's too late. They may feel that way because of their age, because of their circumstances in life, or because other people will remember them differently. But Jace believes that the person you were yesterday doesn't have to be the person you are today, or will be tomorrow. When you understand this, you understand that it is never too late for anyone to change.

It's in our nature as thinking, feeling beings to want to explore and discover new things about ourselves, but transphobes want us to repress our curiosity. My whole life, I've had to fight back against people who disrespect my identity and want me to submit to their idea of who I should be. Jace shares this experience.

=========

Baan regarded him coolly. "You were bullied as a child."

Jace coughed on his first mouthful of food and struggled to swallow. "I, uh, don't remember my childhood." A dozen unvoiced thoughts flickered behind his eyes.

The Kaladeshi raised his brows. "One need not consciously recollect an event to fall into habitual behaviors determined by the experience. It is not inconceivable that one could forget their entire life. I would safely wager that were that the case, the subject would still tend to make similar lapses of judgement, and would be drawn to associate with the same sorts of people." He waved a hand, the swish of an ox's tail dismissing flies. "The nature of mortals is not so malleable as some would naively suppose. A person of religious inclination will always find something greater than themselves to place their faith in. A criminal will forever remain a criminal."

Jace put his fork down. "That's a very...deterministic point of view, Minister."

[Homesick - Chris L'Etoile]

=========

Dovin Baan expressed beliefs about identity and human nature similar to those of the transphobes I've dealt with. People like them think, "You were born a certain way and you will always be that way. You will never be anything else. No matter what you do, you can never truly change."

But Jace lives in defiance of that idea. Jace knows he's capable of change because he actively chose to become someone new. What he once was, he no longer is. Jace's disagreement with Dovin Baan isn't just a difference in opinion; it's a defense of his existence. When transphobes deny our identities, they deny our reality.

If Dovin believes our identities are set in stone, Jace believes we each hold a sculptor's tools. Whether or not you will change is your choice. But you alone have the power to make that choice, and no one can take that away from you.

=========

She sighed. "I don't know how the Golgari will see me when I return."

Jace shrugged. "You get to decide how they see you."

She looked at him with uncertainty. Jace continued. "How we engage with the world is dependent on how we present ourselves to it. We are continuously adjusting to change because if we fail to change, we fail to survive. By nature of you surviving the hell you did, you have changed into someone wiser than before. By nature of you commanding this ship, you've transformed yourself into the leader you always knew you could be.

"What makes you you isn't your circumstance or your past, but the choices you make in the future. Your ability to learn and adapt is what makes you who you are today, and that is what dictates who you will continue to become."

[Something Else Entirely - Alison Luhrs]

=========

Jace's focus on adaptation and self-improvement reminds me of the theory of gender euphoria; the idea that gender identity is defined by positive feelings and what feels right to a person, not negative feelings and what feels wrong (gender dysphoria). You can't be happy if you only focus on things that cause you discomfort and pain. You need to find things that give you comfort and bring joy to your life.

As a teenager, Jace hated himself for his weakness. He felt like being tough would make him more masculine. But when he grew up and gained more life experience and new role models, he realized that was no longer what he wanted. It may take some time to figure out what you want, and you may even find that what you want will change, but the end goal will always be to become the best version of you.

This process of trial-and-error is integral to Jace's philosophy.

We ourselves must constantly change in order to survive in an ever-changing world. Jace believes we are defined by the lessons we choose to absorb from these experiences. Every time you change, you have the opportunity to learn something new about yourself. You have the opportunity to see how you've become stronger and see what inspires you to live. That is adaptation. That is growth.

Even if you feel like you're not where you want to be yet, in Jace's eyes, you have already proven your identity just by choosing to walk that path. You can't just wish to love yourself. You have to choose to see yourself as someone worthy of love.

Jace wants us to see and appreciate ourselves for who we are and who we want to be, not what we aren't. You're a glass half full, not a glass half empty. Your potential is infinite, not wasted. If you learn to see yourself this way, it's easier to be a happier, more authentic self.

Jace's philosophy is what makes his character development a beautifully resonant trans story worthy of being true trans representation in my eyes.

=========

In that moment, Jace noticed a change within himself. The Jace of Zendikar and Innistrad and Ravnica had a nervous energy about him, persistently bored and disastrously introspective, constantly aware of the chasm of absent memory that was always on his mind's horizon. The Jace without a past was present, alert, comfortable no matter the circumstance and ready to face whatever might come his way. He remembered what it was like to be both, but recognized how much more natural it was to be the latter. In the span of a moment, Jace was surprised at himself, and then realized his earnestness of late, of Ixalan, was not manufactured, nor was his mindfulness something he could only access in a state of amnesia. That was who he had always been. He had just forgotten.

[Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun - Alison Luhrs]

=========

PART 5: REPRESENTATION FOR TRANS MEN IN MAGIC

If that all seems like an excessive amount of explaining for why I believe Jace is trans, that's because it is.

My interpretation of Jace as a trans man means so much to me because there is no actual representation for trans men in Magic. Which is, frankly, really wack.

In 2015, Magic's first ever transgender character, a trans woman named Alesha, was introduced in the beloved Khans of Tarkir story, "The Truth of Names."

In 2018, a nonbinary elf Legend named Hallar was printed in Dominaria.

In 2020, a nonbinary human Legend named Alharu was printed in Commander Legends.

The introduction of trans characters in Magic really ramped up in 2021. Kaldheim introduced an angel who uses Xe/Xer pronouns in the story Know Which Way the Wind Blows; as well as Niko Aris, Magic's first nonbinary Planeswalker. Strixhaven introduced Dean Nassari of Prismari College, a nonbinary efreet Legend. And Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, the set's accompanying Dungeons & Dragons book, introduced a nonbinary loxodon NPC named Bhedum 'Rampart' Soovij, and a human NPC named Nora Ann Wu, a transgender girl who counsels other transgender students at Strixhaven. The Innistrad: Midnight Hunt story His Eyes, All of Them featured an elderly transgender woman named Malynn.

Early 2022 saw the printing of another nonbinary character, an elf chef named Rocco, in Streets of New Capenna. And a nonbinary soldier named Myrel was printed in The Brothers' War.

Seven years after the introduction of Alesha, Magic acknowledged that trans men exist for the first time ever in May 2022, when the 'Pride Across the Multiverse' Secret Lair Drop was announced, just a few days after I began writing this article. 

This Secret Lair Drop had eight cards featuring art, all by LGBTQ+ artists, that showcase the strength of the LGBTQ+ community in the Magic Multiverse. This celebration of diversity was beautiful, heartwarming, and inspiring in its entirety. Notably, it also featured two trans men in its art. In the new art for "Bearscape'', one of the men is depicted with scars from top surgery (gender-affirming surgery to flatten his chest). And in the new art for "Alesha, Who Smiles at Death", Alesha reaches out to support a young transgender man wearing a chest binder.

As a transgender man myself, I'd been waiting forever to see representation for trans men in Magic. I was happy… and then I wasn't. Two nameless transgender men with no lore appearing in the art for a Secret Lair Drop is just not meaningful representation.

The first named trans man to ever appear on a Magic card was Klement, a tiefling introduced in the summer 2022 set, Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate. Don't get me wrong, I like Klement a lot– he's a very cute character and I'm glad he exists. But it's frustrating that he doesn't even exist in the Magic Multiverse because he's a Baldur's Gate character, and you can't actually own a real Klement card because he's a digital Alchemy card exclusive to Magic Arena.

Now that we're in early 2023, Magic is set to have been around for 30 years without ever featuring a named trans man character on a printed card or in a story.

Trans men have remained painfully invisible in popular media, even as the mainstream has gotten a lot better about representing a wide variety of people in the past few years. Magic in particular has done a very good job of increasing representation for marginalized groups. Magic clearly isn't afraid of including trans characters, which is why the lack of representation for trans men is so disappointing and so baffling to me.

Not having any representation for trans men in Magic hurts because meaningful representation for marginalized groups helps tremendously to promote inclusion in the community. Magic has a wonderful community and I feel like its members genuinely try to welcome all kinds of people, but others can't learn to become more accepting of you if they don't even know you exist.

When people talk about making the community welcoming for people of marginalized genders, trans men are often forgotten and left out of the conversation. When I see people discussing matters of marginalized genders in the community, they don't acknowledge that trans men are just as affected by gender discrimination as other marginalized genders. And I often see people (even other trans people) use the phrase "women and nonbinary" when talking about creating safe community spaces, seemingly not realizing that phrase categorically excludes trans men.

If the intention is to be inclusive, I don't know why we'd be excluded. It hurts to think that people say these things because they either don't know we exist or actually don't want to be friends with us.

I'm genuinely glad I've seen so many other trans people and allies connect with each other through the Magic fandom. But it's sad to not feel that same sense of solidarity and friendship. When I talk with other trans men in the Magic fandom, we're often lamenting the fact that there are no canon characters or prominent Magic creators / community members who are trans men. We have nothing to celebrate.

I think Magic's story and characters should reflect its diverse fanbase. The trans men in the Magic community deserve to have our stories told. Not only so others will understand our struggles, but so they can learn to share our joy. I want to show others who I am, and that I'm happy to be me.

Jace's character shows that people are receptive to these stories, and that in some cases, we have secretly been there all along. I'm just hoping for the day we can step proudly into the spotlight.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

It’s a blast playing with these lovely people and exploring the MTG multiverse together.

Hello! Welcome to the Our Sparks Ignited podcast!

This is the official Tumblr account for our actual play podcast, set in the Magic the Gathering multiverse, using the Interstitial: Our Hearts Entwined RPG system created by the wonderful Riley Hopkins, aka @revryebread!

Our players are:

Niklas, who's Just A Normal Dude from Innistrad, played by @kwizatshaderac

Zayfa, a centaur biomancer from Ravnica, played by @sparkyyoungupstart

Teapot, a junk-collecting mage from Tarkir, played by @esperixis

Una, a time-displaced samurai from Kamigawa played by yours truly, @dimestoretajic

And our DM is the wonderful @spacehamsterboo-blog!

Expect to find links to our latest episodes, reblogs of things we care about or want you to see, and your questions about our game!

You can find our feed here, or you can search for Our Sparks Ignited on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever your preferred podcatcher is!

We can't wait to share what we've been making! Thanks! See you in the Multiverse!

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Hello! Welcome to the Our Sparks Ignited podcast!

This is the official Tumblr account for our actual play podcast, set in the Magic the Gathering multiverse, using the Interstitial: Our Hearts Entwined RPG system created by the wonderful Riley Hopkins, aka @revryebread!

Our players are:

Niklas, who's Just A Normal Dude from Innistrad, played by @kwizatshaderac

Zayfa, a centaur biomancer from Ravnica, played by @sparkyyoungupstart

Teapot, a junk-collecting mage from Tarkir, played by @esperixis

Una, a time-displaced samurai from Kamigawa played by yours truly, @dimestoretajic

And our DM is the wonderful @spacehamsterboo-blog!

Expect to find links to our latest episodes, reblogs of things we care about or want you to see, and your questions about our game!

You can find our feed here, or you can search for Our Sparks Ignited on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever your preferred podcatcher is!

We can't wait to share what we've been making! Thanks! See you in the Multiverse!

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

No one is going to disrespect my perfect boy Zell

Welcome to... THE MOST PATHETIC FINAL FANTASY CHARACTER BRACKET!

Hello everybody! I thought I'd get in on some more of this hot hot poll action and run a poll on who the most pathetic of all FF characters is. Just... if you would find them in a gutter, utterly defeated, you could not help but take pity on their poor soul. Of course, if you have a different definition, vote accordingly! Let's get this twerp-a-thon going!

Round 1: Cid vs. Sarah

Round 2: Nero vs. Mewt

Round 3: Arc vs. Vaan

Round 4: Ultros vs. Gilgamesh

Round 5: Steiner vs. Leblanc

Round 6: Biggs and Wedge vs. Reno and Rude

Round 7: Snow vs. Zell

Round 8: Edward vs. Gordon

Have fun, gang!

[spacehamsterboo-blog]

Every time I see an alien or fantasy character celebrating Christmas, I’m reblogging Baby Yoda in a yarmulke and tallis.

[spacehamsterboo-blog]