#(also like vague spoilers under the cut i guess? but nothing that would really mess with your enjoyment of Pyre tbh)

[shallliveoninsong]

「Verse added for The Reader, HSR au!」

An Ambassador from a faraway small planet that no one paid much heed to with no stars in its galaxy. An exploration ship that got blown off course made first contact with the planet and the citizens of the Sahrian Union, a civilization very behind in technological advancement in comparison to the rest of the galaxy, yet had many fantastical and seemingly magical aspects the exploration ship had never even fathomed before.

The Sahrian Union was still a budding new country and the other countries on the planet were still in an unstable state. They did not wish for many visitors or outside interference while the planet was still healing from the tyrannical reign of the Commonwealth. However, a cultural exchange and exchange of knowledge and history was permitted. Though the prospect of space exploration was much too daunting for the citizens of the Sahrian Union. The one only known as The Reader whose thirst for knowledge and continual learning knows no bounds volunteered to go and learn all they could about the faraway places the people of the exploration ship spoke of.

While much of this space-faring world still confuses the Reader they wish to learn all they can so their home may one day become allies with as many galactic civilizations as possible, for they will certainly need as many friends as they can get when they do eventually start reaching out to these new stars. They often act as a translator for their homeworld as many still only speak Sahrian and are illiterate. The Synesthesia Beacon system does not work with the spoken Sahrian language yet so the Reader is also working and seeking to work with as many cultures as possible so they can develop a module to be added for the language.

[atlantis-just-drowned]

Guess who just read chapter 18 of Love, Death and Rollerskates and have a new theory to share

Beware: major spoilers under the cut

Okay, so, remember when I said Sun could maybe find his way out of Afton's psychological hold and save the reader along with Moon?

Yeah yeah yeah, and now new elements have been added and they're rather big ones. So, does this theory still stand?

Well, the answer is: it could. We did see that Sun is also badly affected by his actions, and shows regrets from killing his friends, to the point of lying to himself and rewriting his files, feeding the vicious circle of hopes, despair and frustration.

But there's a stain to the picture: Moon and Sun haven't been built by the same person.

Now, let me voice out the obvious: as long as we believed that Moon was also a creation of Afton, we could easily imagine Sun somehow following his counterpart's path to freedom, which placed the solar bot as a desperate soul needing to be saved just as much as his lunar coworker. Moon could be held as a proof that Afton's conditioning was flawed. He was the testimony of a past occurrence.

Except he isn't anymore.

Moon isn't Afton's creation. His main directive isn't the same as Sun. Which means him defying Afton's authority means nothing in regards to Sun's situation. He's not a "past occurrence". There is no past occurrence. No proof.

We no longer have the certainty that Sun can break out of his mental prison.

Of course, we could argue that Sun's feeling for the reader are also a "first occurrence", that the mechanism at work is slightly different than what it was the previous times, and that sentience is a tricky thing that makes disobedience possible. But the fact that Moon doesn't have the same main directive as Sun also raises another concern: we're not sure anymore that being sentient is a strong enough thing to make them able to mess with their code.

We could think otherwise before because we were taking for a fact that Moon has the same main directive as Sun and that he was therefore able to break the rules, or at least bend them enough to stop being as loyal to Afton as he should. But he doesn't have the same directives. Which means we might have never seen him disobey or twist his main directive. Which means he might not be able to do so either.

I feel like this fact might be important in the future. The way this problem will be addressed might be crucial to the story and I can't wait to see it developed, and to discover how Sun, Moon and y/n will deal with it in the future.

But wait, I'm not done.

You know, while we're on the subject of sentience...

What if Sun and Moon were not the only sentient bots?

Yeah, you got it, I'm talking about Space Cadet.

I won't lie, I really feel like an idiot voicing out the most obvious thing here but listen. I need to fucking say it out loud. So let's say the obvious.

The way Spadillelicious phrased the latest interaction with the little guy literally pushes us to question his sentience, and I strongly believe it's not because of some weird type of habit the reader might be starting to develop, to consider any vaguely humanoid bot as sentient.

Space Cadet is sentient. He has been since the beginning: when he tried to warn the reader with a cautionary tale of a woodsman (the reader, but who truly killed them? I'd say the hunter, but are we really sure about that?), a wolf (Moon, stalking y/n in the shadows? But what did Space Cadet mean when he said the wolf would feed on the corpse out of hunger? Is Moon more of an opportunist than we'd think?) and a hunter (Sun, preying for new hires every time the precedent employee gets killed, pulling the trigger when commended to do so?), just before the reader discovers Afton's shady business.

And now, as y/n desperately tries to hide from Moon, Space Cadet wakes up without an invitation to tell them that Moon wasn't designed to be bad, he used to work for a good guy, and found himself in those desperate circumstances against his will, but he's still good.

Space Cadet is sentient. He just cannot show it too much for some reasons. Probably because Afton would get rid of him if he learnt about it. So the little bot tries and tries and tries to warn people that something is very wrong.

Of course, he doesn't portray the two other animatronics greatly either. But we have to admit: both Sun and Moon aren't exactly good people. And if Cadet is sentient, it means he has his own opinion on both of them: two bots he's seen partaking more or less actively in Afton's activities, while he was a simple, miserable, passive witness of the horrors William committed behind closed curtains.

So of course, he isn't very fond of either of them. But he's also very much aware that out of the two, Moon might be the best pick that the reader could make.

[casualotptrash]

Sorry, but [REDACTED] Doesn’t Matter

Spoilers for Persona 3 after October and the ending, and for P4 and P5 “choice moments” or endings

I’m keeping this intro very vague just in case this pops up for someone who hasn’t gotten to this point in the game, or beaten it, but I will go into full spoilers mode under the cut. To give the most basic overview of what this is, it pertains to the loss of a party member in Persona 3.

Now with that over with, welcome to me complaining about a really big issue I have with the whole debate between saving Shinji or letting him die.

Whenever this debate comes up, the number one complaint against the option to let him live is that it “goes against the meaning of the game.” Personally, I find this claim to be untrue for two major reasons. One is that I don’t think it really goes against the meaning of the game in the first place, and also that the game does a very bad job at...making any difference between the two at all?

For my first point, I’ll clarify what I believe the meaning of the game to be. Obviously there are tones of death, and moving past death. However, I don’t believe the message is just “Everyone will die one day, and we need to accept that.” The message is “Everyone will die one day, so we need to make the most of our lives.” This is why Akihiko and Ken find their resolve, because Shinji is gone but they can still continue living their lives for him. This is why SEES continues to live their life to the fullest, because it is what the MC allowed for when they sacrificed themselves. I’m not sure how some people seemed to miss this, or maybe they just didn’t make the same connection, but it seems like it would be hard to miss.

The reason that saving Shinji’s life does not go against this message is because he will still one day die, probably still young because of the drugs, so he still has time to live his life to the fullest. Perhaps you could connect it in a certain way that he is also living for the MC, because they saved his life. The fact that he didn’t die does not take away from the weight that he was willing to die, and thought he would, by saving Ken. It could even go to show that even if you are ready to die, and you somehow get a second chance, that second chance should not be squandered.

That being said, I find the second reason to be a bigger issue for me personally. Before I played P3P, I knew it was possible to save Shinji. I played the Male route first where you cannot save him, so I experienced his death. While I liked the impact, I decided to see the other side of the coin and saved him in my FeMC playthrough. When I actually got to the point where this happened, I was legitimately shocked by how....meaningless it all was?

What I mean by meaningless is that outside of the different scene with Akihiko mourning over his hospital bed instead of the tribute, and the very end of the game where one person who is optional to talk to who says Shinji woke up from his coma (also the NG+ scene but that’s only if it’s NG+ and you romanced him), all of the dialogue is the absolute same. Don’t get me wrong, the two mourning scenes do have a different “feel” to them and are both executed well, but legitimately there are no difference outside of those 2/3 instances, and 2 of those 3 are completely miss-able. Everyone else acts like he is dead. I don’t know how Atlus messed up so bad with not changing any of the dialogue (which is not even voice acted most of the time), but I’m guessing that they just didn’t want to spend the time on it. Even after one quick search on google, I found another person who asked if they actually saved him because everyone was talking the same.

As I mentioned earlier, I knew it was possible to save him and I also knew it was kind of a divisive topic in the fandom, so after figuring out the real “impact” of saving him I was....so confused. I thought “All of that discourse, over nothing?” I at least suspected that maybe the group would visit him, or he would show up in the base game at the end (not NG+ scene), or at the very least Akihiko or Ken would talk about him as if he was still alive, but nah there’s nothing like that. Obviously the player knows he survived and can imagine maybe what the rest of his life will be, but the game does a shit job at actually making the choice mean anything. Both scenes with Akihiko talking to him are sad and impactful, and the dialogue with Ken’s resolution doesn’t change in the slightest. Honestly, like I said outside of those 2/3 possible scenes, I see absolutely nothing to gain in doing one over the other unless you want to see Akihiko cry in an auditorium or in a hospital room.

On top of all of this, there is also the sentiment that this person wrote, and I believe many others also agree with (in relation to FeMC and P3P. I took out the rest of the post because it wasn’t relevant to this topic at all).

Now, they didn’t elaborate much on this, but after what I just said about how the game doesn’t really make any changes at all and sorting out the “meaning of the game” I’d be really interested to see what their reasoning is. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine how this “literally ruins Akihiko and Ken” when their dialogue, cutscenes, and growth are 99.9% the same. That part alone is a bit frustrating, but what really gets me is how they don’t like the FeMC at all (or p3p, which was said earlier in another comment by them) because she can do this optional choice?

Obviously, anyone can dislike choices that are optional in a game. That’s just how it goes if you have multiple ways of doing things. Some you’ll like, and some you wont. However, why is it that basically every time I see someone say they don’t like the FeMC it’s because of a choice in the game and not something about her actual character? I really can’t stress enough how insane it is (to me) that people cannot disconnect what you as the player can choose in a game from the actual character. Because, do you know....believe it or not...there are people who play the FeMC route and don’t save Shinji? Or don’t romance Ken? Baffling, I know!

Is the FeMC somehow a better character if Shinji still dies or Ken isn’t romanced? Not to these people, I suppose. Somehow she’s still just as disliked, because the option was there in the first place. I honestly don’t know why this happens, but it’s also complete hypocrisy on their parts. Do they not like Yu for being able to murder Namatame? Or how about Joker, who can enslave all of Tokyo (the world? I don’t know if it’s made clear) if he accepts Yaldy’s deal? It’s very likely they still love those two, or at least one of them.

“But Casual, those don’t matter because they’re not canon!”

Neither is saving Shinji or romancing Ken, so kiss my ass :)

.

.

Anyway.

Just to make this clear, this post isn’t meant to bash people who dislike saving Shinji (or perhaps the implications of doing so) or dislike FeMC, but to point out how the game really takes none of this into consideration and that it’s a bit ridiculous for people to dislike FeMC for reasons that they seemingly don’t take into consideration for the other protagonists.

It’s kind of hard to put into words, but I’m just utterly baffled on how much trouble this causes when it’s really worth nothing. I can understand how people who only experienced his death could be affected, but only in the sense that they either think it goes against the “everyone will die” message and/or comprehend Shinji’s impact even after the game/story is over (which is done by their own volition and the game does not hint to at all).

However, at least as far as the game is concerned, both choices result in essentially the same outcome. Sorry, but Shinji’s death doesn’t matter (to the game).

[shimmershae]

So.  Thanks to my new anonymous friend, this is going to become a thing.

Shae’s thinky thoughts about the latest episode--Acheron:  Part 2--beneath a cut. 

Because spoilers, however vague they might be.  

Let’s be real here.  This is more a stream of consciousness than anything else so if that’s not your thing, you are most welcome to nope right on out of this post.  Trust me.  I’ll completely understand, lol.  Sometimes?  I wish I could nope right on out of my own brain and the way it operates.  

That said?  Without further ado--

Episode 2′s opening, though.  Maggie trapped with hungry Walkers converging?  It totally gives me Glenn under the dumpster vibes.  I don’t know if that was intentional or just happy coincidence but way to link Maggie to her dearly departed better half, show.  

Is it just me or has Father G had more OOMPH to him these last few seasons?  Again, I have to ask--Rosita’s influence or no?  Regardless, I bet Seth Gilliam is loving the job these days.  

Side note:  am I gonna have to go to bed early every Saturday night from now until the end just so I that I might be able to SEE?  Something?  Anything?  My curtains are flimsy-ass.  I admit it.  But this is more frustrating than TXF.  Angela, WTF?  

No, seriously.  It’s like complete guess work who’s in these subway scenes.  Some of that has to do with them being overly populated by redshirts and the rest of it has to do with me having to squint and turn sideways to make out their facial features. 

Look at Daryl busting through concrete walls!  Should I call him the Kool-Aid Man considering NR has once again allowed himself to be led right into a biased, shipper trap?  Hmm.  I might.  

Imagine seeking refuge in those dark, filthy subways.  Any second now I expect to hear the skittering of rats.  Will Dog lose his effing mind a la Divergence?  He’s been shown to go off half-cocked that way, lol.  Oh well.  Guess it’ll be in character if he does.  

Impressive graffiti storyboards.  Does it mean something that it immediately cuts to the Commonwealth storm troopers afterward?  Maybe.  Who really knows at this point?  They been trying to gaslight us forever.  

LOL at Princess yet again.  Yumiko is just like da fuq is this person?  

No, really.  LMAO.  “That was her.  From last night.  Did you see how she was looking at us?”  

Then you have Eugene, hahaha.  “Oh God.  Why did he tell off the big guy?”  Like the man is totally me in this type of situation.  Not even gonna lie.  

“That’s right.  We want to talk to the manager.”  

I literally cannot wait ‘til Carol and Daryl meet Princess.  Can.  Not.  Wait.  

How sad is that note on that $100 bill?  Small moment but it totally gives me Season 4 vibes when they were on their way to Terminus seeking sanctuary.  

Hmm.  Remember how that place wasn’t what they thought it was?  I’m sure neither is the Commonwealth.  But I feel like what’s left of Team Family is totally going to do Rick proud, lol, and prove they’re messing with the wrong people if they try something.  

Daryl, Man.  You gonna have to get a better handle on your headstrong Fur Son.  I wonder if Dog would listen better to his mama?  Things to ponder.  

Sounds like Miko has this group’s number.  Or does she?  

Princess and Eugene totally look like they’re waiting their turn for the Principal’s office, LOL.  

“Stop moving!  You’re taking my nerves over the edge to a proverbial 11 on a scale of 10.”  I feel you, Eugene.  I do.  Also you, Princess.  Two of the most relatable TWD characters right there, I’m telling you.  

Princess is me when I really, really, really have to pee.  TMI?  Sorry, lovelies.  LOL.  I just...she’s so relatable.  

LMAO.  “If that fine ass dude in the orange suit...”  Princess and Mercer incoming in 3-2-----

Princess’s excitement over the toilet paper=PRICELESS.  

Eugene, Man.  You desperately need to develop a poker face.  

There’s Daryl getting another cool camera shot.  Angela?  You playing favorites again?  

Carol’s claustrophobia could have never.  I bet that’s in the back of Pookie’s mind.  You can’t tell me it’s not because Carol lives in there rent-free.  

Ohhh.  Back to the subway car.  Looks like we got the Maggie redshirts leading the way.  First sacrificial “lambs”?  

Maggie pistol-whipping Negan was kinda deserved, but he wasn’t all wrong so.  

Damn.  I’m no Gage fan.  He can fuck all the way off for what he did to my baby Lydia.  But Maggie over there with ice in her veins.  

Yep.  I think the dude just got one of the most gruesome deaths in a while.  Yuck.  

I think Alden’s faith in Maggie definitely took several hits.  I feel like he kind of had her on some sort of pedestal dating back to Hilltop times.  Father G, though?  The man is continuing to show himself a SAVAGE MFer.  

Josh gives Eugene such believable tics and mannerisms.  He IS Eugene.  

Thank you, Maggie, for lighting that flare.  I could not see a damn thing.  

What are these bad memories Negan alludes to?  Hmm?  Him being a shit husband to Lucille back when he was still taking her for granted?  

Father G on Gage’s Walker--”All that is, is a shell of a man, who died a coward.”  Kind of ironic considering Father G’s own origins, huh?  Has he any warmth in there for anybody but Rosita and Coco?  Does he equate it with weakness?  

“There are worse ways.”  And Maggie proceeds to paint us a horror story with mere words.  

Dark Maggie really surpasses anything certain fans have ever accused Carol of being.  Is she too far gone?  Who the hell knows?  I think it’s clear that she and Carol are both on a sliding scale of sorts when it comes to being able to compartmentalize shit to survive.  Personally?  I feel like Maggie might have leap-frogged Carol in this episode but it matters none because of the double standards so deeply entrenched in this fandom.  Both women have endured and had to do some horrific things.  It’s not a contest.  But it’s probably going to be turned into a season-long one.  

It’s almost like Kang was like, “Ya’ll bitches think Carol’s dark?  I’ll show you DARK.  Check and mate.”  

Whatever the reasoning, Maggie just got exponentially more interesting to me if not likable.  And before anybody out there comes at me, it’s entirely possible to be on a character’s side in some things and not be all up their ass in love with them, lol.  Like I’m attached to her because she’s family and Glenn loved her.  There’s a loyalty there and she absolutely is justified in her hatred of Negan.  But I’m not going to pretend her shit don’t stink like everybody else’s.  

Speaking of my baby Glenn.  What would he think of this version of Maggie?  I think he would be gutted and heart stricken that events led to her being like this but he’d understand because he’s pure like that.  Don’t mean he’d be A-OK with it all.  

Dog must be protected at all costs.  

Confession.  I know not the fuck who Pony Boy is, but I know him because all my fandom friends have pointed him out to me, lol.  RIP, Man.  I think you’re number’s up or close to it.  

Okay, though.  I admit it.  I am kinda LOVING Badass Father G.  

That scene in the subway car with all of them working to take all the Walkers out was already badass.  Then Daryl arrived and made it, in @freefromthecocoon’s words, HAWT.  LOL.  

Eugene staring at that little black book like it contains torture tools, hehehe.  

“Processed?  As in administratively?  Processed as in bologna or other meat stuffs?  This inquiring (enquiring?) mind needs to know.”  OMG, Eugene.  I admit it.  Even if it makes me look like a lunatic, LOL.  I straight up LMAO at that one.  I mean, ten years later and Terminus still fresh on the man’s mind.  

“You like feeling nervous?”  Well, no.  None of us that do, Mercer?  Do.  

Then he proceeds to make me howl with his “You can’t lie for shit” to Eugene.  

Josh McDermitt?  I love you, Man.  40 year old virgin, LOL.  

All this talk over the seasons of Daryl’s virginity and we have Eugene, hahaha.  But was he telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?  

Finally.  Some daylight.  Where I can see.  

Eugene’s relief at seeing his friends safe and sound was such a beautiful thing to see.  I loved those hugs.  

Mercer’s face when he snarled “beat cop” in disdain to Ezekiel.  I think I’m gonna love this dude.  

“I went to West Point.  Asshole.”  Yeah.  I am.  

I know they probably catfishing Eugene right here because spoilers tell us that ain’t Stephanie.  But my heart still did a little d’aww.  Angela.  Don’t play with his poor heart like that.  

What’s got Daryl so pensive, huh?  Is it that the note reminds him of kids being lost or taken from their family? Or separated from their family?  Is he thinking of those Grimes babies and wondering if Michonne will ever make it back and why and how she was able to leave them behind?  Tell me it ain’t that Find Me nonsense.  

“This place sure has gone to shit since the last time I was here.”  LMAO, JDM.  I mean Negan.  Sorry.  Sorry.  I still hate Negan, but JDM has me entertained at least since they gave the asshole some shades of gray.  And speaking of shades of gray.  I’m loving the gray beard.  JDM’s looking GOOD (hear that NR?  Embrace the gray).  Negan can still kick rocks, lol.  

Anyway.  That scene was CREEPY AF.  Not even gonna lie.  

The Reapers strutting right on up to our group like it’s The Purge:  ZA.  

My bad, Pony Boy. Now RIP.  

Dark, dark episode with loads of tension broken up by some welcome humor by Princess.  The girl is fast becoming a fave of mine.  

My baby’s back next week!!!

I’m just going to plug my ears and pretend they’re trying to capture/recapture the horses because they’re pets.  Not because they’re starving so bad they feel the need to eat them.  La la la la la.  I can’t hear you.  

[daantaat]

twu s2 thoughts even though nobody asked <3 just a brain dump and it’s quite long so I tried to separate my commentary by categories but it’s still a mess unfortunately. Spoilers under the cut!

General

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2. I’ve watched season 2 three times now, and I do think it had some good parts that I definitely overlooked during my first watch (probably because I was preoccupied with Charlotte x Shona 😶😅). My initial reaction to this season was like ‘hmm so that happened and I’m not sure what to think’ but then I rewatched it and tbh I think my complaints are mostly to do with the time jump between seasons and the pacing...

Like yeah there’s only so much to touch on in six 25-minute episodes but!!! I finished the season wanting a bit more, because I thought that some of the things that were introduced were either not explained fully/well or they just dropped off completely and didn’t really have an effect other than me asking questions after the season was over, like it felt as though there were missing scenes— more on that later (though maybe they will be addressed in season 3??? If there is one? How soon do shows get renewed? Idk). Though I guess the audience does have to do some interpretation of their own but still... Idk! Idk. And the assumption that certain events/plot points mentioned in a character’s dialogue would be enough for context had me kinda “:///” y’know? Like don’t tell me, show me?? I’d like the full course please!!

Charlotte x Shona (+ Vish I guess)

I think it was really jarring to see their relationship grow from colleague/business partners to friends and then finally to something more in season 1 only to see them awkwardly handle their unresolved feelings in the workplace with nothing to show for their actual relationship besides a mention of “a week-long gay safari” + the brief flashes of a sex scene that was intermingled with Shona and Vish’s cyber sex session, which in itself is 😐😐😐 like yes it shows that Shona still thinks about/fancies Charlotte in some capacity, but if I were to choose between that sex fantasy/flashback or a flashback of Charlotte and Shona together (like Charlotte telling Shona she was falling for her!!!!)... I think I’d choose the latter? I was just disappointed that we didn’t really get to see Charlotte and Shona being all cute and romantic with each other this season :(

ALSO I wished we got to see more of jealous!Shona; I was super hyped to see that since that scene was included in the trailer. It was nice to see her want the best for Charlotte because she’s “great” but the jealousy part of knowing Charlotte is dating someone great got settled pretty quickly and instead we got Shona evaluating her commitment to Vish and considering the idea of having kids after learning she has a womb of a 39-year-old (😐) and it felt.... like a lot!! It was definitely different from season 1 Shona (”I actually don’t want kids” “I genuinely, I genuinely don’t, you know, it’s not a big deal. Just never have” in 1x04) but if this was to show her dealing with comphet or internalized homophobia or just simply running away from her feelings then... idk what to think of it! I really don’t. I think this is where things could have been written differently because using an affair with Charlotte like that (an affair that we didn’t even get to see besides the stolen kisses at the finance event) was so... ugh, I’m suffering here

Anyway, I think their office scenes were definitely highlights of the season, like Indira and Sharon really gave those scenes their all!! Even though it hurts to see Charlotte so heartbroken and Shona running away from her feelings and hurting Charlotte in the process, I live for the angst lol. I will say though, the 180 that happened after their convo outside Charlotte’s office was a bit “🤔” considering Charlotte had talked to her therapist about Shona for 4 months. Like one hungover feeling dump from Shona and they can move on? Hmm communication is connection, huh. And I guess they were just excited that the article got good results? But how cute that they got each other gifts of their picture in the article??? Wtffff I love my “unfunny and obvious” gal pals even though I’m in pain

As for the voice note... omg, so many questions. Like did Charlotte try to reach out to Shona after she abruptly ended their call to check if she sent the voice note to Vish?? Was that gonna be the first time Charlotte heard Shona say “I love you” to her? What was the reason Shona said “I love you” anyway??? Is she, you know 👀 Also do y’all think Vish will listen to the entire voice note since it was clear it was meant for Charlotte? And who knows maybe Vish’s phone died and he can’t turn it back on or check his WhatsApp or whatever. I’m in denial lmao. But also I think he's a pretty good guy, like when he sent biscuits over to the house when Shona wanted some and him saying what’s the point of having fun in New York when she's not there with him... :/ but he was also a bit weird about her putting a nail in a wall or leaving out the egg duck or whatever as a display item in their house though I suppose that’s not a huge problem so like idk man idk!!! I'm just saying season 3 better not have a time jump I need to see what happens and not just in exposition

Shona and Aine

Love them :) I wish they had more scenes together (if that's possible??) but I liked the somewhat change in dynamic seeing Aine a bit worried about Shona (asking her if she’s okay when she mentions she’s thinking of getting a fringe lmao and again asking if she’s okay when they’re unpacking in Vish’s house). And of course Shona is still very protective and worrisome but seeing Aine just miserably lounging around her apartment over the weekend and getting in her bike accident after Shona wasn’t too supportive of her and James’s business idea made me so sad :( like Shona was so shitty about her not typing up everything in the notes for the meeting! And not even reading James's CV... big yikes. Anyway I thought it was odd that we didn’t get a follow up on the voice note Aine left Shona after getting into the bike accident... like she sounded soooo shaky and out of it :((( what luck Shona was sick and didn’t see Aine with a missing tooth before she got it fixed

Anyhow, Aine was right when she said Shona needs to talk to her and talk about her feelings more!! AND this is part of where my complaint about the pacing and the missing scenes comes into play! I think we should have seen Aine and Shona fighting about Shona’s affair and leaving Vish the voice note. The audience knows Aine cares about Vish and I’m not entirely sure where her relationship with Charlotte stands since Charlotte told Freddie about her being in rehab (on the assumption that he knew, as Aine’s ex-boyfriend) but!!! Just cutting to them on the floor waiting for Vish’s flight to land was not as hard hitting as it could have been

Aine x Bradley (+ Richard)

OKAYYY. Cute!!! I definitely overlooked the signs during my first watch here but yeah they were definitely there during my rewatch(es)!! I quite liked seeing Bradley try to get Aine to stop talking negatively about herself and just try to treat herself better in general like exercising and actually eating off of a plate :’) and the comparisons between Bradley and Richard have me like 👀📝 Bradley saying he likes how much Aine talks vs. Richard’s friend Mark saying she talks a lot and how he wasn’t expecting a whole show to which Richard replies he thought that at first too but she “calms down” like brooo... alright. Anyway Bradley going with her to Tom’s funeral/service made sense since he actually met Tom (though Aine did vaguely talk about him and his drinking problem to Richard in 1x05) and the fact that she told Bradley about PACT and her time there but she didn’t tell Richard (to be fair she was thinking about telling him) hmm 👀 Also Bradley saying “Sometimes it would just be nice to be with someone you could just relax with as yourself” yeah I’m on board with them

Loneliness, COVID, Communication is Connection

Initially I thought these themes could have come across a little stronger but after rewatching... hmm. Yes, Shona was lonely in the house by herself; she even asked Anil to stay for dinner, had her own “pile of shit” boyfriend on her bed (which she did clear off), and told Vish that nobody had time for her. Also after the business meeting she asked Aine what she was doing during the weekend (which Aine also spent alone anyway), but I dunno... oh yeah her hen/bachelorette party was a bit lonely since places were starting to go into lockdown and not everybody could attend, but I think the COVID element entered a bit too late into this season? I’m not sure it really added much in terms of the loneliness. Maybe it did add to the uncertainty of things though

“Communication is Connection” was there but I thought it kind of fell flat as well, but maybe that was the intention— to highlight the mess that a lack of communication can cause? Shona apparently writing off Charlotte’s feelings and them not necessarily talking about their relationship/feelings until their convo outside Charlotte’s office... Shona talking to Seema saying she’s never really asked what Vish wanted (regarding kids) and Seema saying that’s a convo for her and Vish to have... Aine not telling Richard she overheard him and Mark talking about her... Richard not consulting Aine about telling Etienne about them and just getting a new tutor for him... hmm. What does it mean. What does it all mean

Other stuff I’m still thinking about/have questions about

Shona mentioning it’s “annoying” how Aine talks like she’s the only person to ever get sad in episode 1 but still telling Aine she’s fine and then in episode 6 Shona saying she only has two emotions or whatever so she doesn’t need to talk to Aine about her feelings as much -____- istg we need to get Shona to talk to a therapist in season 3!!!

I also liked that Shona, Aine, and Eileen talked more. I’m still a little disappointed that the fact Eileen leaving Shona for three months when she was a baby was not mentioned at all. Yeah it was a secret but when Eileen said “well, you should never lie. You’ll always get caught out.” I— HELLO? If anything, that secret seeing daylight could have had something to do with Shona's sadness + loneliness this season. Also could you imagine that becoming a fear of Shona’s, like what if she doesn’t want kids because she’s afraid of doing the same thing to hers if she has any??

Jim asking Charlotte if she’s straight and Shona immediately going “what does that have to do with anything” or something like that and apologizing to Charlotte after Jim left— I’m not sure how I should have read that??? Did Shona mention to Jim that Charlotte is a lesbian?? When he started to ask, he was still looking at Shona (yeah I’m reading too much into this I know)

Marcia figuring out that Aine and Richard were seeing each other (after he touched her hand on his way out to get a taxi)— what was the purpose? Other than Marcia obviously feeling bad for Etienne, whom I assume she sees as a son of her own (based on the Mom Instinct™ snooping when she was doing housekeeping + her convo with Aine when he came back from France). She didn’t talk to either Aine or Richard about it, just told Aine to have a good time when they were leaving the house to go to their “separate” events. I guess it wasn't her place to say anything, but hm. Speaking of Etienne, it was obvious he had a schoolboy crush on Aine (or at least he was vying for her attention) in season 1 and it’s really too bad we didn’t get to see his reaction to suddenly getting a new tutor or dealing with Aine and Richard’s relationship other than him looking at them hugging while the new tutor was teaching him. He deserved some more screen time this season :(

Hmm so that was all very incoherent but if you made it this far thank youuu <3 here are some last silly comments:

Absolutely loved Julie!! I want to know what she knows about Charlotte and Shona 👀 girl give me the scoop on the last 4 months at the office

Super sad we didn’t get to see Charlotte’s cat (I’m always gonna be vocal about this 🗣🗣🗣) or know who her new girlfriend was but at the very least we were introduced to one of the most important side characters of all: Charlotte’s stompy boots <33333 she really wore those around the office with a blazer/blouse/leather skirt! We love that lesbian attire

[canvas-the-florist]

Communication (BomBARDed)

Warnings: Possible second hand embarrassment, stupid decisions, brief all caps, vague episode 25 spoilers(?)

Word Count: 1.5K

Summary: Raz’ul and Neous reunite after years, working through emotional and communication issues one step at a time. I wrote a fic before this that correlates that might be nice for context: here. Enjoy!

-

Raz’ul was singing a song with Yashee and Randy. It was an upbeat song in some town they were attempting to help. He was trying to focus but couldn’t help searching the crowd as he sang along to the chorus. Raz’ul strummed quickly, unsure what he was searching for until he found it. Them. A fire genasi with a leather jacket. They were watching him with hands in their pockets. Raz’ul smiled as they made eye contact and turned back to the others to focus on the song once more. It finished and he immediately ran to climb off the stage.

“Where you going, Raz’ul?” Yashee asked. Raz’ul looked to her and back to where he was sure they were standing quickly. But they were gone. He sighed and sat on the edge of the stage.

    “I… Nowhere I guess.” Randy and Yashee sat next to him on either side. He leaned his face on his cheek. Yashee looked over at Randy who shrugged as if to say ‘why do you think I’d know what to do here?’ before looking back to Raz’ul. “What would you do if you hypothetically saw someone you maybe sort of liked from your home when you haven’t seen them in years?”

    Randy hummed. “And you… hypothetically miss this person?” Raz’ul nodded. “Well if you’re asking me I would probably avoid any possible chance of talking to them in case of messing up what we had in the past just in case they’ve decided to kill me over any mistakes. Obviously.”

    “Or, you could say hi?” Yashee added.

    Raz’ul hid his face in his hands and sighed. “Never mind, forget I asked, it’s fin-” He looked up and that’s when he saw them again. They had a judgemental smile on their face, that was lit up with the light of their hair. Without, thinking he jumped off of the stage and ran to them, stopped a few feet away. “I… hey Neous… What’s up?”

    Neous laughed lightly. “Well I didn’t imagine that to be how this goes but I’m doing wonderfully, My Prince.” They bowed and Raz’ul shoved them back up playfully.

    “You’ve never cared about that stuff, you don’t have to pretend now.”

    “Oh, but pretending is so much more fun.” Raz’ul stuck out his tongue as Randy and Yashee walked up behind him. Neous looked at them. “Who are these folks? Never seen them around before.”

“I’m Yashee!” Neous nodded. 

“Randy. Are you the bard that Dank’ul and Donk’ul oh so lovingly mentioned?” Raz’ul sent a nervous look at Randy, darting between Randy and Neous. “We’ve heard a bit about you.”

“You have?” Neous seemed genuinely surprised before getting their composure back. “I mean, naturally. Not sure any of the royalty could ever stop talking about me, I leave quite the impression on people, after all.” They leaned on top of Raz’ul dramatically, who froze up but didn’t move. “Mind telling me what people have said.”

Yashee nodded. “Sure! We were playing truth or dare and Raz’ul chose truth against Randy who asked him to-”

“It’s nothing!” Raz’ul cut in, getting out from under Neous’s embrace. His face was hot and he crossed his arms stubbornly. “Don’t worry about it. What have you been, up to really? I heard you didn’t… you don’t play at the castle anymore.”

Neous rubbed the back of their neck. “The vibes weren’t right, not sure what to tell you.”

“Should we be here?” Randy whispered to Yashee off the side.

“I mean we weren’t told to so I don’t know why we would.” She responded.

“Yeah, fair enough I guess.” So the two sat on the ground as Raz’ul and Neous had whatever heart to heart they needed to have. Randy got out a deck of cards and started shuffling.

The two left standing were avoiding eye contact, like that could save them from emotional honesty. Raz’ul took a deep breath to start talking but Neous broke in. “Look, Raz’ul. I don’t know why you left and I don’t really feel like asking. But I do know that I care about you enough to say that I missed you. Your decisions are your own and I’m proud of you for doing things for yourself. Just, maybe call me on the IRa glass or something sometime you know?”

Raz’ul nodded. “Yeah that’d be… cool.” He looked up to finally make eye contact with Neous. “Can, can we hug?” Neous gave a smile and opened their arms.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been emotionally vulnerable in my life.” Neous mumbled into Raz’ul’s hair. Raz’ul tightened his grip around them. “I hated it and I’m never doing it again.”

He gave a small laugh, burying his head in the hug. “You get used to it after a while. I… missed you, Neous. I care about you.”

“Yeah, I missed you too Raz’ul.”

They broke from the hug and looked down at Yashee and Randy playing Go Fish on the ground. Raz’ul wasn’t sure how, but he was pretty sure that Randy was cheating somehow. There was no way he could be “just good at the game”. So without much else to do, Neous and Raz’ul sat down on the ground to join the game. Raz’ul quietly held Neous’s hand, pretending that no one else could see it at all. They played until the sun set. Randy sat up and stretched.

“We should probably go back to the wagon now, right?” Randy asked. 

Neous frowned as they stood up too. “Are y’all leaving soon?”

Yashee shrugged. “It kind of depends on what happens next on the podcast, we aren’t really sure the timeline of events here.” The others looked at her blankly and she continued. “But yeah, probably. We have a lot to get to, y’know?”

“Oh.” They looked down but smiled. “Well, that’s fine! Have fun on your travels!”

The three could tell that it was not indeed “fine”. Randy pushed Raz’ul forward to Neous and started walking away with Yashee. She didn’t really protest but she did seem confused at what was happening. “Well, we’ll leave you two to your goodbyes!”

Neous and Raz’ul looked at each other, once again Neous made the first move. “Your friends seem nice.”

“Thanks, they drive me crazy sometimes but I love them a lot.” Raz’ul replied, honestly. He grabbed his arm, stepping closer to Neous. “I, thank you for hanging out with us, and watching us perform. I’m going to miss you, but I guess we have a way to communicate now, right? That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool, huh?” Neous teased lightly. 

“Shut up, I’m trying my best here!” Raz’ul fussed, but he wasn’t actually that angry. He was happy to see Neous and glad to be talking to them again. “You’re a really cool person and it’s a little intimidating sometimes, okay?”

“Okay I know you have a crush on me but I’m also intimidating? A bit of a mixed signal here to be honest.” Neous joked, but Raz’ul did not get the memo that it was a joke, immediately thinking of his very real crush on this person. His mind went through all possible ways that Neous would KNOW, he had been trying to be subtle about it… How did they know?

“How did you find out I have a crush on you?!” 

“YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON ME?!” Neous exclaimed, extremely shocked. 

Raz’ul looked at the wagon, Randy and Yashee seemed just about done getting it ready. And while they probably wouldn’t leave until morning but Raz’ul turned around dramatically and started towards it quickly. “Oh! Would you look at that, I should really get going to the wagon! It’s important to get a goodnight’s sleep before travel, you probably get that-”

“Raz’ul!” Neous yelled out, grabbing his arm lightly. “We should talk about this, right?”

He turned back. “Yeah, but do we have to right now?”

Neous shrugged, letting go of Raz’ul. “I mean, I guess not. Do you have a time you think we’ll see each other in person anytime soon? Like, I could make it happen but I don’t think it’s that likely.”

“No,” Raz’ul sighed. “It’s not. But I’m not sure if I’m ready to talk about it quite yet. We have a lot to do and as much as I’d like to be even more emotionally vulnerable… Well you should know that it is really difficult.”

“Yeah, I understand Raz’ul.” Neous thought for a moment. “Maybe I could come with you guys! Help you on your thing, and we can work on this emotional stuff together!”

“I…” Raz’ul felt the rebuttal die on his lips, not thinking of a single excuse. That it could be dangerous? He knew that wouldn’t deter them if not make them more motivated. It seemed pretty smart. And Randy would absolutely love to make fun of them over it and Yashee would be supportive. Raz’ul wanted this to happen, so maybe he should let it. “Okay. We’re leaving in the morning, do you have a place to sleep?”

[madokasoratsugu]

cinderella au meta notes

or: the plotline that never happened because i was so caught up in the euphoria of writing Fritz/Lucette Cinderella AU, i forgot that i had to have a plot

also: a bunch of bonus facts i guess !

this basically spoils the whole fic (that you can read here) which contains Fritz and Rumpel route spoilers, so read with caution ! under the cut bc it got Long :”))

this meta was initially written on a tumblr post bc it was meant to be a short ~2k thing (HAHAHA). then it got so long my computer started crashing and i had to move to google docs. 

i wrote this with disney live action remake osts AND six the musical in the background. it was a wildin’ experience listening to ‘dont lost ur head’ while writing Fritz be a chaotic mess in the beginning, then listening to ‘how does a moment last forever’ when writing the Fritz/Lucette garden scenes.

Karma and Fritz are childhood friends ! both boys who were more interested in being a knight than inheriting a kingdom, but learnt their responsibilities along the way.

on that note: none of the characters were exactly...planned to appear. the initial tweet thread idea only had Fritz, Lucette and Alcaster casted - the other characters just kinda wrote themselves in this meta. 

im pretty sure it started with Karma barging his way into the fic in act one, then i had to have someone balance him (Waltz), then i needed someone to play the music for their waltz (obvs that had to be Rod), and then i got sad thinking Rumpel would be left out, but Lucette’s broken glass slipper scene conveniently needed someone. the Widdensovs just kinda came into the picture by virtue of Lucette just needing someone to interact with when she wasnt at the ball LMAO 

everyone else just didnt make it in the natural progression of the fic, and i didnt want to shoehorn them in just for the sake of having them appear.

however: Parfait was initially going to make an appearance as a duchess who snuck Lucette out to her father when she came to the castle for help when her manor burnt down. here’s a lil snippet of her scene:

(no one had, the last time she came; the smell of smoke still clinging on her, her head slamming a cacophony - surviving only thanks to the bravery of a certain court lady now disappeared, who heralded her to a servant’s exit, gave her gold and directions to her father, told her, run, told her im sorry, and cried, tears dripping endlessly from her pale pink lashes.)

Parfait is well and alive in this AU btw ! she’s just ‘disappeared’ bc she’s living somewhere secret with her goth wife Delora.

(side note: i realise Rumpel seems a lot like Lucette’s fairy godmother in the act thirteen. not intended, but i liked the imagery enough to let it stand :”)) bippity boppoty chevalier ! )

Varg and Lilja are both Swedish words. ancient Angiellian is partially Swedish. there’s probably ikea in this AU. let that sink in.

the swan mask Lucette was wearing was meant to allude to Odette and Odile from Swan Lake (because Fritz and Varg, white and black, swans are pretty yadda yadda), and i was going to write some really neat symbolism about that but i forgot lol ! 

(also the idea just never worked for me bc Odette and Odile aren’t the same people like Fritz/Varg but i wanted to reference Barbie Swan Lake (2003) ok let me live)

pour one out for our man Fritz who got rejected on his birthday. f. 

Emelaigne is the MVP. older sisters, no matter how truly Head Empty they are, always pull through when you need them. 

“isn’t the moon beautiful tonight” is a direct reference to an anecdote (which may or may not be true) about Natsume Souseki, a famous japanese writer, who translated ‘i love you’ to that phrase in order to account for the indirect characteristics of japanese speech.

Rumpel is the royal doctor, and has been apprenticing in the castle since Fritz was a child, before taking over the position as an adult ! so yes, Rumpel definitely rubbed off on Fritz in terms of values and morals.

with regards to Fritz and Lucette’s curses: i never really gave it much thought, but the vague idea i had was Lucette being cursed by Hildyr for disobedience (manipulative parenting say eye), then Hildyr dies lol and Lucette breaks her curse eventually.

with Fritz, he was likely cursed out of political reasons/jealousy and Varg was the result. works bc either way the curse meant for Fritz to be 1) inconvenienced or 2) dead/taken out of consideration for succession so like...a pain in the ass replacement who behaves the exact opposite of a prince works too.

this was hinted at vaguely in the fic, but Fritz became very secluded and hid himself in the castle for the years it took him to come to terms with his curse and break it. even then, because there was no one around him to really affirm his identity or accept him, he remained very withdrawn and a shell of his former self. 

i reckon it took him about 5-6 years to break the curse. so that’s a lot of time alone. Fritz was basically a NEET.

all jokes aside: Lucette and Fritz each broke their curses with their own willpower and effort, but remain the mostly the same because there was no one around them to truly understand or accept them for who they were, or who they became.

(until they met each other, of course)

also, idk if it was hinted well enough but Lucette and Fritz actually were in an engagement once, when they were children/early teens ! i intended to allude to this more with Hildyr giving Fritz Lucette’s portrait, which results in him recognising her, but it just never fit in anywhere. so yeah ! that’s another reason how/why Fritz knew who Lucette was at first glance. 

i figured the previous engagement would also help ease the court into their eventual marriage despite the whole ~*disgraced noble*~ thing. idk. i know nothing about western history and how it worked except for ALEXANDER HAMILTON (america sings for yooouuu) and divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

however, Alcaster broke the engagement, as stated in act thirteen. the reason was basically: Angielle in this AU works not by a hereditary monarchy, but rather the previous monarch getting to choose whomever the fuck the want to succeed them. Hildyr and Alcaster were both in line for the throne, and Hildyr wanted to ensure that even if she couldn’t get the throne now, she still had a chance in the future if her daughter married Alcaster’s (who would then be king) son. Alcaster was like lol fuck off because he wanted power all to his family and took things into his own hands to ensure that would never happen (which involved: inciting public hatred against witches/Hildyr, breaking Lucette and Fritz’s engagement, and generally being a dick.

that’s about as plot heavy as it gets yall. the rest is just dumb idiots falling in love !

...............except for the political usurp that happens later, with Fritz’s faction forcefully taking the throne away from Alcaster’s tyrannical rule, which leads to a dramatic sway of public favour to Fritz and Lucette.

and then they live happily ever, ever after. 

(carrie underwood. yes i am planning an Enchanted AU dont look at me.)

the end !

[alternativewinxcontinuity]

What are you planning to do with the Winx earning Enchantix in your rewrite? Will the Omega arc be included?

The fine details are subject to change until the season is finished being written but I can give you a vaguer outline of what's happening, the Enchantix are pretty entwined with the plot but for the most part, there are similarities from the canon. The one I've changed the most is Bloom, who is actually earning her Enchatix rather than 'Main Character privileging' her way to a half assed form.

Season three (The very abridged edition) spoilers below (the plot points mentioned are the ones that affect the Winx and their Enchantix

Enchantix Master list:AishaGuest FairiesStellaMusa + Guest FairyFloraTecnaBloomWinx's B-teamFinal Word

Life or death situations and discussions there of:

Aisha gets her Enchantix is a similar way to canon, but the context is changed by the fact that when she set out to rescue her aunt, she set out to rescue her aunt and the other survivors, there was no intention of finding the Coral Sceptre to restore her eyes.

The chance to heal herself is a there and dismissed moment, part of a larger “I'm doing what I have to for my people, I'll worry about myself later” moment. It's a more quiet sacrifice, and one that can easily be passed by, but it felt more true to the girl that climbed Darkar's fortress by herself and tried to punch a magical force field down.

It's also less... I don't know if forced or contrived would suit better, but the fact that in the show she went specifically for the thing that she had to give up only to get what she was after all along... it doesn't sit quite right in my head sometimes?

-

Nova got her Enchantix when she agreed to stay behind despite the obvious danger to herself, but I didn't say so explicitly in the text.

Next to get her Enchantix is actually the first to get her Enchantix, special guest star 'princess' Varanda of Callisto. (She'll be joining the team on Solaria for a bit.) Her earning is left at a vague 'I made the right choice to stay on Callisto instead of attending Alfea, some shit went down, now I'm Enchantix.' (off screen back in season 1)

-

Stella is up next, and her Enchantix is a little more than canon, but also some of the same focus. With the ritual interrupted, Solaria is suffering an instability, and while some people are doing what they can, it hasn't been enough because Valtor was using the instability to make a play for the Second Sun of Solaria. To do that he needed to weaken it to the point where it was itself becoming unstable.

So someone has to fix it, and as the Heir of the Sun, that someone is king Radius, freshly freed from Cassandra's grasp. Stella steps in with a screw that, because more than her duty to her people, is her love for her family and she's not going to let her father die, even if it kills her. She makes the potential sacrifice so her father won't have to. Unlike the show in which Stella 'ran out of magic' and desperate-act! threw herself in front of her father, this is a deliberate choice she considered to be the best option. (This is also where Stella picks up her extra Transformation (Cosmix/Astralix) which will come into play later.)

At About this time, the Winx split their party further as they realise that Valtor is trying to collect powerful artefacts and spells and go to warn various people.

-

Musa travels home to Melody to speak with the royal family, expecting more resistance, only to find princess Galatea recognises her from the concert several weeks prior. Having been at the concert and having seen Musa in action, the princess is prepared to give Musa the benefit of the doubt and the duo set of to ensure the Magical McGuffin of Melody is secured. When they arrive they find suspicious activity and discover Valtor inside. Both Galatea and Musa give their all, Galatea thinking of her people, and Musa thinking of her friends and all those she'd seen suffering as a result of Valtor's return, both know they cannot back down, and both decide their lives are nothing compared to what they're trying to protect. (It is one of only a few very rare instances of multiple fairies earning their Enchantix at the same time.)

Since the girls are still on break, it didn't make sense to send them back to Alfea just for the Enchantix, and given that Galatea was prepared to die to protect a legacy (the Alfea Library), that pays off this time. Musa refusing to back down in the face of danger though is very her, so I just adapted that to the new location.

-

Flora on the other hand has called Helia, whom she recalls mentioning during a double group hang out knows princess Krystal. Helia is with Saladin when the call arrives, so he understands that Flora's not messing around, and agrees to make introductions. With Helia by her side, Flora is able to convince princess Krystal that things are dire, and she in turn tells her parents. Then while the adults are taking care of things, Krystal and Flora perform a convergence type spell to vibe with the planet and locate any trouble that might be Valtor. They locate the Trix by an Ancient Tree known as the Black Willow, this is bad but it will take time for a task force to get mobilised, so Flora and Krystal head out to scout the situation. On the way they meet up with Miele who has noticed the plants feeling troubled and gone to investigate. Flora tries to play the big sister card, but Miele gets her way, so the trio go on. Obviously they end up fighting with the Trix and Miele goes into the water which has Temporal properties. And Miele can't swim. The Trix realise they won't be getting what they're after and take off.

Flora's Earning is more personal than combative, her sacrifice isn't some greater good, it's her sister. Her sister will drown if she does nothing, but if she jumps in the water it will cause a reversal of time in her, stripping her of everything she has become and she still might not make it to Miele which Krystal reminds her of before Flora can dive in.

But it's her sister so of course she's going to try, Flora shoves Krystal away and dives after Miele.

In canon Flora went to save her sister and then... chose to stay behind and drown? Maybe? It felt a little unclear what she thought she was doing, but it seemed a little dumb and completely avoidable, so I'm making the stakes a little more clear cut and relevant to Flora's character arc. Alt Con Flora's sacrifice is the willingness to give up everything she has become, every piece of character growth, every memory she's made in order to save her sister. Unlike the other Winx, Flora's sacrifice is about one single person, no added bonus of saving the world. (“Besides, if I can't save one of my most important people, if I'm not willing to even try, what the hell good am I as a Fairy?!”)

Flora's Enchantix happens, mystical Tree shenanigans ensue and everything is fine, Flora finishes at Lynphea and heads back to Andros to regroup.

-

While on Andros a few b-plots happen and the Winx get a call from the Magix guard who questioned them after the big wave, just to touch base and see if they had any more information on the situation. Through her, the Winx realise the Museum of Magix might be a target and split the party once more to go see about some security measures.

Tecna stays on Andros with Musa and Flora, while Aisha goes with Stella and Bloom to Magix. Aisha's just been told about the engagement and is pissed because the middle of a crisis is neither the time nor the place and it's not okay - even if it was the time or place - for them to engage her without asking, so she wants some breathing space.

The reason the girls split is because Tecna has been working with some other folks to see if they can fix the problem with the Tidal Gate (the forced connection to Omega) which has been warping the energies of the area and making combating the bad guys way harder than it needs to be.

You can probably guess what happens now.

-

Tecna leads a team out to the Tidal Gate to close it, the way the Gate was forced open from Omega damaged the Gate. Omega doesn't have an Ocean Gate, it is completely cut off from the system, and more, Omega devours magical energy not native to it, which is basically everything. The Trix show up as the team begins to close the portal to screw things up.

They manage to take out most of the team, leaving Tecna to try to finish closing the portal by herself or release the half completed spell. They ran the numbers, they hypothesised the risks, logic tells her to stop and try again under better circumstances, but Tecna feels the energy flow.

She knows that the numbers and calculations of risk were wrong, if she stops now, if the portal isn't closed, the damage to the Tidal Gate caused by the backlash of this attempt will ensure the forced connection becomes irreversible. The natural protections around Omega that make it the perfect prison also protect the rest of the Magical Dimension from the world's effects, and the portal has none of them. The Tidal Gate will effectively become a black hole.

Logic tells her one thing, her instincts tell her another. Tecna trusts herself and calculates the best way to close the portal alone, able to see that the Trix aren't going to let up. She realises she'll have to close it all the way back along the path, back to the other end on Omega. Tecna sends a goodbye message to her friends over the comm bracelets and dives into the portal, fully expecting to come out the other side dead.

In a way Tecna's Enchantix is the closest to canon, and again there's more of a deliberate choice even though there's no choice at all. The only issues I really had with the canon version was that it called into question the die hard rules the canon set for Enchantix, and it took so long for the gate to act up that it was obviously contrived, the girls have had enough time in canon to go back to school and do several other side quests things. It felt like it only happened so Tecna could get her Enchantix, "the Enchantix is the cause the portal is the result" rather than "the portal is the cause and the Enchantix is the result".

In the Alt Con the whole season takes not very long at all, it's very much an on going issue, very much a crisis. So the biggest change here was just trying to make it more natural.

Since Tecna left a message, the Winx know exactly what she's doing, understand why she's doing. They also know this means she'll be popping out on Omega (potentially dead) and they decide “bugger that for a joke, let's go get our girl”, and make plans to take The Sparx to Omega to find Tecna.

(Seriously everyone but Timmy giving her up for dead/lost when they knew where the portal lead and how to get there was DUMB!!! and done only so Timmy could score shipping points I s2g.)

-

The Team on Magix were joined by Ophir and they discovered the Museum had already been robbed, and Bloom is getting 'proximity sick' because Valtor is still on planet, Aisha discovers Ophir is Nabu (her surprise fiancé) who explains “parents will parent” and they get over it and decide to try dating once the crisis is over.

Shortly after Tecna's message, Bloom gets the very strong sense that something is wrong with Daphne.

Bloom tells the others to go get Tecna while she goes to check on Daphne, the Winx try to argue but Bloom reminds them that Tecna will need all possible help if she's going to stand any kind of chance of surviving (if she's managed to survive the portal).

(Bonds of friendship mentions re:finding a single fairy on a hell planet is why they don't call recovery experts who may already be busy with the Valtor Crisis, and no one is crazy enough to willingly go to Omega. Also Stella's new Space Form is the only thing that's going to get them back out of Omega.)

Bloom puts in a call to Alfea on her way to Roccaluce, and finds Griselda and Faragonda are there trying to organise help for Andros and a way to find and stop Valtor. Bloom tells them what she's been sensing, and they promise to meet her at Lake Roccaluce.

Bloom Arrives first to find Valtor has summoned some kind of freaky ass shrine and has Daphne somehow pinned to it. Valtor seems confused by Bloom's presence, but determined to finish what he's doing, so Bloom tries to free Daphne who's in intense pain.

Daphne explains that Valtor is trying to pull Daphne back into the corporeal world, that he's using a device that will keep her alive if he succeeds in returning her... but he'll also try to take the Vault of Domino which Daphne has in a subspace pocket, and worse, he'll have the Crystal of Power Kiko had accidentally stolen form Relix. There's some back and forth and light, almost combat, and Daphne says that Valtor is way more insane than last time they met, and Valtor reveals that if Bloom wants to free Daphne, she'll have to destroy the device holding the spectral fairy, which would kill her super dead, like no more ghost dead.

If Daphne dies the vault will be locked, lost forever, out of Valtor's hands. But Daphne will be Dead.

If Daphne is restored to life, the vault can be forced open and its contents taken. But Daphne will be Alive.

Daphne and Bloom have a heart to heart and Bloom sees not just her big sister who loves her more than anything, she sees Crown Princess Daphne, Leader of the Nymphs of Magix.

Faragonda and Griselda arrive just in time to shield Bloom as the young fairy destroys the device.

Bloom's canon Enchantix gain was dumb, the idea that it had to be a person from one's own home-world was dumb, especially when Tecna saved hers by proxy of saving the universe. It was done to show what a special princess Bloom was, it wasn't even a “the Dragon Fire Privileges” thing, it was an "MC privilege" thing. Let's Be Honest.

Alt Con Bloom manages to earn her Enchantix fully, in the most horrific way of all the Winx, because Bloom's sacrifice was Daphne. The chance to get her back, to save her, to hold her, the chance to ever learn anything from her again.

It mirrors her interactions in Stella's Enchantix, where Bloom had to let Stella sacrifice herself to save solaria, but in that instance all Bloom had to do was stand aside and do nothing (except hold back bad guys), and she never truly believed that Stella wouldn't come back.

In Bloom's Enchantix she takes an active role with hard line consequences she has no reason to doubt. There are two horrible options before her, one of which could have turned out good maybe if they were implausibly lucky, but Bloom has to weigh the options and do whatever has the best outcome for the most people, even if it sucks for her. (It's what Daphne wanted, but that doesn't make it easier.)

-

Diaspro and Mirta won't be getting their Enchantix this season. Diaspro is going to be facing a “die or be used to hurt your people again” situation and “would rather die thanks”, and Mirta... I would like for her to have a similar scene to episode 311, where she tried to shield Lucy (only it was an illusion) because I feel like she got robbed in canon when that didn't earn her an Enchantix (because on noes, fake!Lucy! so it doesn't count).

-

The thing I think is the most different between the Alt Con and the Canon Enchantix is that the Alt Con isn't something you can luck into. Canon felt very “I reacted and luckily my Enchantix”, where as I'm trying to add an insinuation in the Alt Con that the sacrifice needed to earn the Enchantix is... not necessarily deliberate, but definitely a choice. Fairies, by nature of who and what they are often making sacrifices and give of themselves for others, typically as a reflex ie. jump in front of someone with a shield to try and catch a spell. Not every selfless act of sacrifice earns an Enchantix or there would be far more of them. Enchantix is earned when the stakes are high and a fairy has to face how far they would go, deliberately make the choice.

One other note: Fairy Dust and Miniaturisation, once earned can be used from any form, it's just trickier.

[owletstarlet]

Relationship Asks: “Who’s the first to blame themselves?” (tanunatsu)

@5amidare​ requested #30 from the angsty relationship ask meme, and it so happens I had a lot to say on the matter–

30: Who’s the first to blame themselves?

Contains non-spoiler references to chapters 97-98.

So clearly this would very much depend on the situation, but I think in general they’re both all too prone to being hard on themselves, albeit for different reasons. We get a crystal-clear example in canon of how each of their respective self-blame functions when they’re both involved in a youkai situation that’s gone to absolute shit, within the Omibashira arc— for Natsume, it’s a matter of “Bad things follow me anywhere I go, I should’ve known better than to think it would be different here, and now someone precious to me is hurt because of it,” in addition to the instinctual long-ingrained fear that now that someone’s been hurt he’ll be forced to move on to some other home in some other town, when he’s got so much more to lose now by doing so. And that part may not specifically have to do with Tanuma but it just exacerbates every Bad Thing going through his head in that moment. For Tanuma, he very clearly states it at the end of the arc, that his ineptitude/bad decisions/lack of power made it so that Natsume had to rescue him instead of the other way around, and just made everything a lot more difficult and dangerous for Natsume. And I think he’s carried that with him into the canon present, because in his arc in chapter 97-98 he’s so reticent to tell Natsume anything at all that’s not confirmed to absolutely be a youkai situation that he can’t handle on his own; obviously in part because of his self-esteem being in the negatives, but also because he never ever wants any kind of repeat performance of Omibashira.

I think as time goes on they’d both get better about it, in large part owing to one another, but that’s not to say either of them wouldn’t have a really difficult time not reflexively beating themselves up for it if the other got hurt. It’d be an exercise in beating back the endless mental loop of I should’ve stopped this, what should I have done differently, even if there was literally nothing they could’ve done. The only thing that’d pull them out of it would be the realization that in the present moment that’s not a productive mode of thinking, and they need to be there for the other person (read: squish it down and deal with it later when there’s not an audience).

As to self-blame tendencies lessening over time, I think it would happen somewhat quicker for Natsume than it would for Tanuma, and that’s because of the key difference in where those tendencies originate. For Natsume, it’s come from outside himself, years’ and years’ worth of being conditioned to believe that every bad thing that happens is somehow his fault, and until moving in with the Fujiwaras he never had any evidence to the contrary, so of course he internalized it. It’d take work, and a lot of unlearning and fighting his own very real fears and insecurities caused by past traumas, but he’s got the best support system anyone could ask for to help him heal, and it’s arduous process when there’s so much to heal from but I think he’d eventually realize not every Terrible Thing is his own fault. With Tanuma, though, it’d take…longer…given that that voice telling him that he’s making a mess of everything is coming from inside himself, and always has been, because anxiety disorders are a bitch like that. And Natsume obviously can’t be the one to fix that because that’s not how psychiatric issues work, but I think it would help for him to realize how much Natsume values him (case in point, at the end of chapter 98 when Natsume essentially says “You need to tell me things because we’re friends and I care,” right on the heels of a situation where Natsume had to intervene because Tanuma did in fact mess up and endanger himself by withholding important information…the look on Tanuma’s face is Very Important To Me, gah.)

This is an interesting question to consider if you remove the youkai element from it, and just imagine that they’re having a more or less regular argument while in an established relationship, in which they’re both a little bit in the wrong, because they’re both really stubborn. But I still think Tanuma would be the one who’d back off first and try to apologize for everything even when he has a valid reason to be upset, which doesn’t really resolve anything. Because the second he hears Natsume go in with “Well you did [this this and this],” his Anxiety-Brain would be all but insidious about it when he’s still trying to convince himself on a semi-regular basis that Natsume wouldn’t just be better off without him. Which would make Natsume crazy, I think, like why will you not just GET MAD at me, I fucked up too, you’re supposed to be mad at me, but it’d take a lot of patience and attentiveness and practice at communication for them to be able to have a healthy resolution to their serious arguments because of that.

[Incidentally, I was trying to imagine a hypothetical situation for this kind of half-aborted argument, and the best I could come up with would be some time in the future circa university or shortly thereafter when they’re living on their own together…Natsume happens to be neck-deep in about five different complicated and irritating Youkai Situations, and even though Sensei’s assuring Tanuma it’s nothing he needs to worry about and that Natsume’s got it more or less under control, Natsume’s coming home every night dead-on-his-feet and fairly uncommunicative about any of the specifics of what’s going on because he just goes right to sleep. Meanwhile, over the span of what I’d guess is about a month, they’ve gotten in the mail a rent hike notice, some late bill notification, and to top it off, the annual formal and vaguely blackmail-flavored clan invitation letter from the Matobas (because when it rains it pours; why not all three of those shitty things at once). And he doesn’t say a thing about any of this to Natsume, figuring he’s got too much on his plate already, and just surreptitiously picking up extra work shifts to deal with it on his own until he literally makes himself sick from exhaustion/stress/overwork. And Natsume’s probably fairly pissed that Tanuma had lied by omission at the expense of his health, but also fully aware and guilty over the fact that he himself didn’t notice there was a problem or really ask how he was doing, or tell Tanuma much about any of the messes he’s been dealing with himself. And of course Tanuma doesn’t bring any of that up, even if he was going to it’s cut short by Natsume’s pissed-because-he’s-worried outburst of “why would you not just SAY something,” then the backwards little voice in the back of his head takes over telling him that if Natsume’s upset because of something he did then he has no real right to be mad in turn. It more or less ends with “You really need to let yourself get angry when someone’s hurt you.” “…I’m not…angry, though?” *sigh* “Yeah, I know. You should get some sleep now, okay?” Lord help them both.]

[qelizhus]

11/11/11

thank you @typewrxter for the tag! ((thank you to everyone who has tagged me lately, i know i haven’t responded to a tag game in so long...)) putting the game under the cut! 

1. What’s the first thing you think about when you write? [Plot? OC?] characters, definitely. no wonder my plot never seem to work; i get maybe a name, and a quote, and a vague idea of their ambitions, and then i set off! 

2. What’s your favourite genre to write? fantasy, probably, simply because I don’t think I’ve written much other original fiction that wasn’t in some way fantasy. 

3. What’s your least favourite genre to write? Anything romance-based. Reading it is fine, but when it comes to writing it.... oof. 

4. What other platforms do you use to publish your writing other than Tumblr? hmm. I don’t think I do! I used to use Wattpad, but I quit for a variety of reasons. 

5. What/who inspired you to start a writeblr blog? Good question. I don’t remember, actually. I think it might’ve been @/inkstay for posting prompts, and then I found the ‘writeblr’ tag through others like ‘writing’. 

6. What’s the favourite line you’ve ever written? you cant just ask that ahhhhhh I don’t think I have a lot of specific one-liners? OK i looked thru some stuff and here’s three (3) sentences: 

Frostbite can kill, just like fire can. It can shut your very soul down, until you are reduced to nothing more than a teeth-chattering, finger-twitching mess of a human. Your fingers and toes will go first, then it will slowly creep up your body like a swarm of ants searching for food. 

:))

7. Out of all your OCs, who would you like to meet the most? Tyren. Tyren, because they’d be a cool person to chill with, I think. Also the rest of my OCs are. very high-energy and I don’t have that much energy lmfao

8. Angst or fluff? Both? Both is good. It depends on how I’m feeling, I guess. The best is probably angst w a happy ending. 

9. What do you use to write? Google Docs. Sometimes a notebook, but not very often. 

10. What inspired you to write in general? I have no idea. I’ve been writing since I could read, I think, so it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly made me want to write. I think media I’ve consumed was definitely a big part, though--I remember writing fanfiction when I was really young, and seeing things like cartoons and whatnot definitely helped me realize that, y’know, things could be created and imagined. 

11 bc I missed one earlier: What are the most important elements in writing? Little-me would hate this answer, but motivation. Whether it’s fluff for the sake of making yourself happy, or something you dislike, or whatever, there’s gotta be a reason why you’re writing it (and if you’re sharing it, why you’re sharing it). I think so long as there’s something you’re writing for, or something you want to write about, it’s Cool and you can do it. I guess? Is that a cop-out answer? 

Anyway, story time: I was like, seven, or something, and my family just watched Coraline. Spoiler: I hated it. I was terrified (and rightly so!). So my mom asked me & my brother what was the moral of that movie? and I was like, I dunno ‘cause I was probably going to have nightmares for the next month, and was pretty bad at critical thinking. My brother gives some sort of answer that was better than mine--and I don’t remember it, oops--and my mom said something along the lines of everything has a moral or something referring to media like books and movies or whatever. And little-me was like nooooo that sucks I’m gonna write a cool book with NO message at ALL >:( so. 

Obviously, you can tell how that went. 

tagging some people who’ve been in my activity this past week: @livvywrites @omniawrites @aloonycynic @inexorableblob @commasinsidequotes. feel free to do it, or to not do it! if you’d rather I don’t tag you in tag games in the future, please let me know :^) if you weren’t tagged and want to play, please do so & tag me in your answers!

some questions you can answer (in addition to the ones I just answered, ‘cause I have Bad Imagination): 

What inspired your current (main) WIP? 

What are themes you enjoy reading? 

What are themes you enjoy writing? 

If they are different, please explain why, and if they’re the same, then please explain why you like these themes? 

Is there something you’d like to see more of in literature? 

How do you come up with your OCs? 

How often do you (try to) write, and why? 

What are character archetypes/tropes that you are drawn to, whether writing or reading/watching? 

Is there someone who has been particularly impactful towards your writing, and if so, what have they done? 

Describe your writing style!

Why do you continue to write? 

[dovahgarbage]

Thots on Far Cry New Dawn

ok so. imma put some of this under the cut because i dont want to spoil it for you’s who are still playing through it. but uhhhh gotta say. i was a bit underwhelmed by it over all.

ok so firstly i try not to judge a series of games based on previous installments because it doesnt feel fair to compare apples and oranges. but... this game was so obsessed with what happened in fc5 that it only feels fair that i’m allowed to look back as well.

So first and foremost, the game has a large emotional disconnect between Cap and citizens of hope county. All we really know about cap is that they are working for Thomas Rush to rebuild settlements across America.  So they aren’t even from hope county and they have no context for anything that waits for them there. I was excited to see an outside perspective on the events of fc5, hear stories about the deputy that brought on the end of the world. I learned v quickly that this was a fool’s dream. See the problem with relaying the events of fc5 to a character like cap is they have next to no reason to be invested in the past of this area except “hey there’s fresh water here” or “hey this is a defensible position right”. Any emotional weight is shrugged off by Cap having no context of the history of these people or their struggles with each other. WE as players know everything. We’ve seen the horrors of Eden’s gate, we’ve seen the destruction the Seeds brought to hope county. We know what the fuck is going on. But cap has NO idea. And honestly isn’t really given a reason to try and find out more about it. Everything cap is doing is in an effort to bring down the highway men and build up settlements. (well. Settlement. All we have are outposts) why the hell would they care about who was who. What the fuck is a boomer. Who is this deputy everyone vaguely mentions and why do I give a shit?

And this gets to be a more noticeable problem as we interact with Joseph Seed. Big Daddy Greasy Jesus himself. I hate joseph as a person, love him as a villain. But… seeing him in this game, being forced to work with him as a player (KNOWING what he’s done and the countless lives he’s ruined) and the whole while the only person cap sees is some yoda motherfucker with meth apples that help you hulk out like… once.

That moment when joseph asks you to kill him? It made No Sense as to why cap would shoot him?? In their eyes, joseph has done nothing wrong. Ok maybe he wasn’t an A+ parent but nothing worth killing him over. This moment that is supposed to hold so much weight and meant to be a sort of catharsis for us as players and it just feels… hollow.

Lets discuss the Deputy. Because I have. Many feelings.

I honestly don’t understand why they weren’t the player character again. The narrative wouldn’t have had this huge emotional canyon to be filled between the county and cap. Coming across old guns for hire and friends would actually have… meant something. Revisiting old locations only to see them crumbled and over grown. Any interaction between them and joseph seed would have been charged with tension and held more water. Not to mention it would have made that decision in killing him potentially rewarding and not just “ehh I guess, you dick.”

Instead, the Judge is just kinda… there. In fact everyone is just kinda… there. But I got a laundry list of how Ubisoft did our baby Rook dirty.

[if !supportLists]1.     [endif]Your efforts in the first game feel invalidated. Not just because you “lost” but because of how brushed under the rug the Deputy is. Only a few companions from the first game even Address the Judge. And even then, its no where near the emotional closure we would have liked.

[if !supportLists]2.     [endif]Sharky doesn’t even speak to the judge. Nor does Grace. Nick has one throw away line. 0/10

[if !supportLists]3.     [endif]Only Jerome and Carmina come close to giving any validation as far as showing a connection to Judge. Even then Jerome was more on the side of “I’m disappointed in you for having changed into this.” Hurk just makes jokes. Albeit funny jokes but still.

[if !supportLists]4.     [endif]Also wasn’t the identity of the judge supposed to be a secret? Why the hell does everyone else know and new eden doesn’t?

[if !supportLists]5.     [endif]The judge has NO reaction to either ending. None. Joseph lives or dies, it is the same. Silence.

[if !supportLists]6.     [endif]Also why the hell does Cap get to kill him when the Deputy has suffered infinitely more at the hands of that lunatic? How am I supposed to feel like this is a rewarding decision to make?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was very attached to my deputy. She wasn’t just a shell I inhabited as I played fc5. I wanted to know what happened to her after she escaped the bunker with joseph and I wanted her to find peace and closure after all she had sacrificed and suffered. The Junior Deputy deserved better!

Ok, so I’m moving on to the Twins. Honestly, they should have had their own game. Their potential as well rounded and fun far cry villains is wasted here.

The actresses did a wonderful job in making them charismatic and I loved the way their actions synced up and how one would finish the sentence of the other. It was very unified and the connection between them was very clear.  

But I couldn’t connect with them as far as feeling threatened on screen. You could say it’s because we inherently don’t find women as scary as men in media and that’s entirely possible but narratively speaking, the Twins aren’t as threatening to me as villains because they lack something very vital – direction and purpose.

Mind you, all the far cry villains are so over the top and their motives don’t always make sense but I cannot wrap my head around the Twins motives? They’re here to have a good time and I guess they like to party but?? Why the hell would they want hurk’s baby, yknow? Why do they talk about problem solvers and problem makers when objectively, they HAVE to know they create more problems than they solve.

They TRY to give Mickey some depth with their mother and her making mickey promise to be better. But like… there’s not a lot of indication of growth or change or even regret in the end. After Lou’s death is only when mickey acknowledges that they only tore things down and never bothered making the world better but… lol where the hell did that conclusion come from? Why now? Why are you bringing this up now? (again cap has no context as to the significance of Mickey’s promise to her mother about protecting lou or trying to be better) At least with the Seeds they had a very clear purpose (prepare for the end of the world and horde as much shit as possible). Pagan Min had a purpose (crush the resistance that threatened his rule). Even Vaas as crazy and chaotic as he was still had a purpose in furthering Hoyt’s empire of drugs and slavery.

Also, the Twins are sort of in the backseat because of Joseph’s presence. It’s like ubisoft didn’t trust them to carry the series forward and instead chose to try and get a previous villain to anchor on. It diminishes their presence and importance and really just adds to the jumbled mess that is this game.

I personally blame rushed writing. Far Cry has a problem with putting out games fast and half baked. Far cry primal received a lot of flack for being a reused map of fc4. And I think given enough time and drafts this game could have been something better. Not perfect by any means. But definitely its own game.

All in all, I probably wont play it again. It doesn’t appeal to me anymore and has too many shortcomings for me to actually enjoy it. Day two of me playing it felt like just a confused slogging mess and I just zoomed through so I wouldn’t see spoilers on tumblr.

[dailybestiary]

Patch Has Issues: Dungeon #1

Issue: Dungeon #1

Date: September/October 1986. (I was just entering 3rd grade—a dismal year for me—and hadn’t yet discovered D&D at this point. I had just watched Optimus Prime pass away on the operating table during The Transformers: The Movie, though.)

The Cover:

(Use of cover for review purposes only and should not be taken as a challenge to status. Credit and copyright remain with their respective holders.)

One of the notable things about Dungeon was that the covers were actually commissioned for the magazine, instead of just vaguely connected to the issue’s theme like Dragon’s were. The late Keith Parkinson’s “Into the Flame” shows off the star of the issue, the red dragon Flame. Its very humanoid posture recalls Parkinson’s time doing draconians for the Dragonlance line. I’m guessing he was very proud of being picked to launch the magazine—this image is the first that comes up on his website to this day. (If you’re curious, Parkinson’s work in general is great if you like knights in bad weather and big humanoids, but he definitely leans hard into the all-women-in-fantasy-are-bikini-wearing-sorceresses trope, a habit that—like many ex-TSR artists—only got more pronounced as his career progressed. It’s no wonder he moved into video games.)

The Adventures:

“The Dark Tower of Cabilar” by Michael Ashton & Lee Sperry, AD&D, Levels 4–7

Our very first Dungeon Adventure is...*drum roll*...a converted tournament module that is pretty rudimentary: Defeat the vampire in his stalagmite tower-and-dungeon combo (I’m already thinking a stalactite would have had more cinematic appeal), and retrieve the crown that can prove your employer’s godson’s noble lineage.

Right off the bat, this adventure features encounters with fire drakes and lava children! Yep, you read that right—lava children. (Pathfinder fans will remember them from Misfit Monsters Redeemed.) Clearly Dungeon is not afraid of Fiend Folio weirdness.

Beyond that, the module screams “I was written for a tournament” with the number of traps and cursed items and red herrings involved, and not in a good way. Once we get to to the dungeon levels, as a reader I’m just listlessly going room by room till we get to the Big Bad. Overall, a disappointing start.

“Assault on Eddistone Point” by Patricia Nead Elrod, AD&D, Levels 1–3

Our first adventure by a woman author is only our second adventure out of the gate! This bodes well for the rest of the series—wait. Hold on. Is that Patricia Nead as in P. N. Elrod? I’ve never read her work, but she’s helmed some anthologies that Jim Butcher’s short stories have appeared in. I’m guessing this is an early cut from her? And frankly the hand of an experienced author is all over these pages—a vast step up from the previous article (whose authors, to be fair, seem like they were still in college, according to their bios).

So first off, this is a tidy little adventure: Check out why the team sent to repair a signal tower hasn’t reported back. (Even Bryce likes it! We’ll talk about Bryce below.) The NPCs aren’t locked to one location (except the hostages), so once PCs get to the tower, it’s up to the GM to position them and assign reactions. But the cast is small enough this doesn’t seem daunting, even for new GMs, and you could run this thing in a single night.

But where it really shines, as I said, is the deft authorship. Elrod very quickly delivers a tight sketch of the location: two city-states vying for market advantage, dwarves under the mountain range in between minting the gold that moves said markets, some signal towers that exist as a compromise to keep the peace, and what the heck, also some elves in the valley between.

Now, this is basic stuff. And not even pumpkin-spice-latte basic...this is “I’ve only read The Hobbit” basic. Dwarves minting gold and elves in the woods and most of the villains are half-orcs? Even for 1986, this ought to be chucked in the bin as trite.

And yet...it’s not, because of Elrod’s deft pen. I suddenly want to find out more about these cities in the course of play—maybe one could be a good home base for the party? The interplay of politics and markets and signal fires and dwarf relations is just specific enough to feel real, while being sketchy enough it could be dropped into most game worlds. The clever chief antagonist is distinctive enough I don’t mind her stereotypical brute sidekicks, and trying to uncover her employer could lead to the next session’s adventure. It’s basic sure, but it’s Basic Rules-red-box basic. In other words, it feels classic. I wouldn’t put this in front of my grad school gaming group, necessarily, but if I got asked to run an afterschool session for some middle-schoolers wanting to learn the game? Hell yes!

At this point, I’ve probably oversold this adventure, so forgive me if you are underwhelmed by it. But I’m willing to risk a little overhyping to celebrate what can be constructed with such simple meat-and-potatoes ingredients.

And that’s not even counting the not-meat-and-potatoes elements, like the white raven who is already one of my favorite familiars ever, and the ticking clocking scenario the weather sets up (you need to beat the mercenaries before they can mess with the signals), and the names of the other watchtower peaks, each one slyly suggesting another adventure, and…yeah, I dig this.

“Grakhirt’s Lair” by John Nephew, AD&D, Levels 1–3

John Nephew wrote one of my favorite D&D supplements of all time, Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, which I won’t shut up about—I’ve even told him so on Twitter—so I don’t feel bad in saying that this entry is a total dud for me. Pretty much the only interesting thing about this adventure is that the humanoid antagonists are the Fiend Folio’s norkers, and they get the classic 1e AD&D humanoid treatment: that is, absolutely nothing sets them apart from any other humanoid out there aside from their stat blocks. You can skip this one without guilt.

(Admittedly, Nephew was also shockingly young when he did both this and TTotWF. Looking back, I really wish I’d made some different decisions re: my writing growing up—I was disengaging with the hobby just at the age when other people were hammering down the door to get published. Sigh. But hey, none of them held a Run-DMC concert or hung out with Rahzel at age 21, right? We all have our journeys.)

“The Elven Home,” by Anne Gray McReady, D&D, Levels 1–3

Our first D&D adventure! D&D, specifically BECMI D&D, was the neglected stepchild of the late ’80s and early ’90s, despite the earnest efforts of line champion Bruce Heard, Dungeon editors Roger Moore and Barbara Young, and a lot of talented freelancers. But I was a fierce D&D partisan, because it was what I was first introduced to and what I could afford, and because I loved the variety of classes and cultures the Known World allowed. For a line that often felt overlooked in terms of marketing and support, the love and talent put into the books that did exist were evident on almost every page.

So I wish I could find more to recommend “The Elven Home,” but it’s not even really an adventure or even a side trek—instead it’s a thoroughly fleshed-out NPC encounter that should lead to combat only if the PCs are particularly boorish. Like Bryce (again, see below) I could have used more whimsy and more weirdness to make these elves stand out just a bit more, though their twee personalities (more faerie than Tolkien) at least set them apart from most elves PCs run across these days. So your mileage may vary—some of you may be utterly charmed by this (I lean at least somewhat charmed), others of you very much not.

“Into the Fire,” by Grant & David Boucher, AD&D, Levels 6–10

I was expecting a lot out of this adventure—the cover dragon, Flame, was the closest thing Dungeon had to a mascot till the Adventure Path years under Paizo, and he wound up appearing in at least one or two more sequel adventures, if I recall correctly.

While I wasn’t blown away, I can see where the fondness comes from. The adventure isn’t particularly special at first. A necklace shows up that may hint at the fate of a lost prince, but following that lead means following the trail of a recently deceased knight, and—spoilers!—that trail leads back to a dragon. But then the combat with Flame is presented, and the brothers Boucher serve up a number of round-by-round tactics and dirty tricks for Flame to employ that wouldn’t feel out of place in 3.5...and I’m guessing were thrilling in 1986.

Remember, this is before dragons had varying power levels according to age—and were often asleep in their lairs to boot—so if DMs weren’t careful high-level characters would carve through them like butter. (Seriously, it was such an issue that every June Dragon Magazine would churn out articles about how to keep your dragons alive longer. They did this for decades.) It’s easy to ding the Bouchers—Bryce (see below) certainly does—for coming up with too many reasons why Flame is immune to PC powers and abilities throughout the adventure. But to me it just feels like an experienced red wyrm doing what an experienced red wyrm who wants to live would do. Flame is smart, more interested in survival than winning, and while he plans to ruin the PCs’ lives as thoroughly as possible, he’ll run if he has to. PCs who survive will be stoked to tell the tale, and that feeling will only be magnified by a massive treasure haul with a number of flavorful items and future adventure seeds of its own.

Other things to note: There’s a slanty tower that’s okay (I’m a sucker for slanty towers), but where it’s placed in the adventure, it will likely be an anticlimax. There are also some big wandering monster encounters—a score of ogres with an ogre magi, two dozen ghouls and ghasts, etc.—that I’d be interested to see how they rebalanced for Pathfinder/5e D&D. I think shows like Game of Thrones have put the fear back into random encounters with large groups of humanoids, so it would be fun to play that out even if the math says the PCs shouldn’t break a sweat.

Is this my favorite adventure? Not by a long shot. But I can see why readers were fond of it and why Flame’s legend persisted.

“Guardians of the Tomb,” by Carl Smith, AD&D, Levels 3–5

That...is some very boring architecture for a shrine. Also, why would a master thief even have a shrine? Especially in a swamp? And while I’m vague on the relative power levels of 3rd–5th-level characters in 1e AD&D, I feel like 2(x PCs+ y retainers) shadows+1d12 even more shadows = a whole damn lot of shadows to trap the PCs with behind an 18th-level wall of stone! Apparently Smith even worked for TSR at some point—did no one pull him aside and say, “Dude! Game balance!”?

I have questions.

Not only does this seem a bit extreme, at least for an unlucky 3rd-level party, it feels personal. This feels like Carl Smith had some players he wanted to teach a lesson. The bio says Carl Smith’s first love is Westerns; I’m guessing he likes the ones about the Alamo or Butch Cassidy or Unforgiven where pretty much everyone dies at the end.

Who hurt you, Carl Smith? Who hurt you?

Best Read: “Assault on Eddistone Point.”

Best Adventure I Could Actually Run with Minimal Prep: All but “Into the Fire” could probably be run after only a second read-through. But I actually want to run “Assault on Eddistone Point.”

Best Concept: As dungeon locations go, a leaning tower that’s leaning because a dragon decided the best way to kill the wizard inside was just to land on the dang thing and knock it over is a pretty good concept.

Best Monster: You always remember your first dragon. So of course, we have to give this accolade to the always-two-steps-ahead Flame.

Best NPC: I’m a fan of the crafty Vorona in “Assault on Eddistone Point,” but the tie goes to the titular elves of “The Elven Home,” who literally want to chat so badly that the party might get attacked by stirges for lingering too long. Don’t overlook the wolfwere in “Into the Flame” though— he sounds like a real a$$#ole.

Best Map: “Into the Flame”’s Lake Haven kinda-isometric hex map, though I also do like seeing the dragon’s volcano lair map with a boat right in the middle.

Best Thing Worth Stealing: A dragon’s volcano lair with a boat right in the middle.

Worst Aged: The magazine’s first adventure hadn’t even started yet and the text was reminding us to look up climbing rules and calculate the PCs’ weights. Yikes. I don’t miss 1e AD&D. Also, the term “magic-user.” Oy. So glad that’s gone. Oh, and alignment tongues! Ye gods, remember alignment tongues? No, you don’t, because they made no sense and no one over the age of 11 ever used one in their game.

What Bryce Thinks: “Wow. I had no idea that 1e adventures sucked ass so much.”

One of the only people who has done in-depth online reviews of old Dungeon issues is a dude named Bryce Lynch over at tenfootpole.org—which is hilarious, because Bryce hates old Dungeon adventures. An OSR (old-school renaissance) fan through and through, Bryce is super particular about what he considers an acceptable adventure. To his credit, he wants adventures able to be easily run at the table, but he also loathes boxed read-aloud text, long backstory, and pretty much anything he regards as fluff. Which means Dungeon, even at this primordial stage of the game, drives him around the twist (as our Brit readers might say)—and it’s only going to get worse. Even so, I’m going to check in on his reviews as we go along, because his laser focus on the GM’s experience at the table is a good yin to my all-about-the-fluff/inspiration yang.

But for what it’s worth...we pretty much line up on our faves for this issue. Go us! Ditto Adam Perdona, whose tastes also seem to line up with mine and who also liked “The Elven Home.”

So, Is It Worth It?: Okay so let’s say you play Pathfinder, 5e D&D, or some other contemporary system. Should you run out and try to find a physical copy of Dungeon #1?

Well...aside from the collector’s value (it is a #1 after all)...probably not. There’s nothing here that screams “Pull me off the shelf”—what pleasures are inside will also be in the PDF.

What this issue does offer is a back-to-basics approach to adventure construction and worldbuilding that I think we sometimes need. Sometimes all you need is some dwarves, some elves, and a dragon. Sometimes we need to forget secret societies and trade disputes and just help a king who’s lost his prince. Think of Dungeon #1—specifically “Assault on Eddistone Point” and “Into the Flame”—like one of those articles you sometimes see in GQ or Esquire: “How to Grill a Steak. No, put down the pesto, put down the chutney, put down the coffee dry rub and remoulade. You’re going to grab some salt and pepper and maaaybe some butter and We Are Going to Grill a Goddamn STEAK.”

If you want fusion sushi, look elsewhere. Are you in the mood for steak? Look for these two adventures.

Random Thoughts:

Editor Roger Moore’s voice in the intro is so stiff—he would be way more assured and relaxed in the ’90s.

It’s a huge nostalgia trip seeing maps in “1 square = 10’” after years of 5’ squares in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder.

Speaking of maps, they’re still pretty rudimentary here—it is 1986, after all. But I’m pleased that we are immediately getting side or isometric views of some of these locations (especially the towers) to give us a better sense of what these structures look like. I’m a big fan of that.

One of the weird things about published D&D, AD&D, and Pathfinder settings is that, for an ostensibly Middle Ages-inspired hobby, most show surprisingly little interest in the standard medieval trappings. Kings and princes are rare, city-states are the norm rather than feudal kingdoms, and even knights and castles have largely given way to mercenaries and manor houses. I think there are tons of reasons for this—questing knight tropes feeling stale or immature, the gradual shift of the hobby’s default assumptions to early Renaissance and the Mediterranean rather than medieval England, more opportunities for political conflict but with more manageable stakes... (And let’s face it: high-level PCs just love regicide. Oligarchs don’t have targets on their backs the way kings do.) Anyway, I bring all this up because early Dungeon is clearly not afraid of kings, queens, princes, or knights. If your tastes are more King Arthur & Prince Hal than Diplomats & Doges, you might want to check these early issues out.

Comfy rooms that make you sleepy are an overdone trope in this era.

Leaning/slanty towers also get a lot of love in Dungeon—perhaps too much—but I will never not love them.

If a description, even if just meant for the GM, is going to use a simile that takes me out of the game world such as “like Spanish bayonet,” I’d prefer it walled off in parentheses.

A lot of the art inside this issue (especially James Holloway’s) would be reused again and again in the pages of Dragon, including for subscription cards, the No-SASE Ogre, and even “The Voyage of the Princess Ark.”

Notable Ads: An ad for Lankhmar, City of Adventure, for you classic sword & sorcery fans, and the Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide for AD&D.

(Any fans of the DSG out there? I’ve always heard it, like, laid the groundwork for what we think of as the Underdark. But every time I’ve seen a used copy on the shelf I’ve opened to pages and pages of rules about mining and smelting and I’ve closed it in horror.)

This Month in Dragon: Dragon #113 offers a cardboard dragon (assuming you have a physical copy or can get creative with the PDF), a tour of Hades, fiction by Harry Turtledove, and some nasty Gamma World robots. Dragon #114 serves up the witch NPC, the elven cavalier class, and Marvel’s Inhumans.

[weakzen]

Inexorable

The Watcher attempts to mitigate the effects of Vatnir's chime with a cipher spell. Rymrgand has opinions on her efforts.

Pairing: Aloth x Watcher Rating: T Spoilers: Beast of Winter DLC & Pallegina's Deadfire quest

AO3 version

She began to strip before the door latched shut behind her.

First, her jerkin and boots dropped to the floor. Then her tunic. Her trousers. Her socks and her smallclothes. All of them fell in a trail behind her as she shambled forward, until she stood nude before the bed.

He snapped his book shut as she approached, inhaling and leaning back as she climbed atop him, but even he didn't stop her momentum. She continued over him, rolling ungracefully to the side, and toppled facedown into the mattress.

A satisfied, muffled sigh escaped her lips as she lay there and finally closed her eyes.

The bed was comfortable, as was the cool air drifting in through the window. And the linen sheets were deliciously soft against her skin. Her body felt so… heavy, amidst it all. Every part of her. Like she could sink through the mattress, pierce the sheets, and fall into something wonderful, maybe—if it weren't for the headache pinning her in place.

Somewhere in the past half-decade, she'd actually acclimated to the dull and chronic malaise that came with focus deprivation, but she'd never experienced it this acutely. The throbbing ache, the fatigue, the vague dizziness and nausea, all of it felt more like the crash that followed ascension, except her crashes never lasted longer than a few moments.

Or, at least, they hadn't before.

She heard the book gently thump onto the side table, then felt Aloth shift next to her. His hand settled onto her back and rubbed circles in the curve of her lower spine.

“Busy evening again?”

“Not really,” she muttered into the sheets. After a moment, she summoned the strength to flop herself over and stretch out her limbs, yawning deeply as her joints cracked. She exhaled, then collapsed into a heap. “I'm just… tired.”

“So I've noticed.”

A weak grin pulled at her lips as she glanced at him.

“Oh yeah? What else have you been noticing?”

“Only the obvious,” he said flatly, giving her a ticklish pinch that made her squirm. The corners of his mouth curled upwards briefly before pressing into a frown. “This isn't the first time this week I've seen you like this. I'm becoming a bit concerned.”

“And here I always thought you liked it when I slept naked.”

“I was speaking of your exhaustion,” he said, rolling his eyes. He gave her a pointed look, though color still bloomed across his cheeks. “You've seemed… off, lately, ever since we set sail from the iceberg. When you're not above deck staring at the ocean for hours, you're collapsing into bed, too tired to talk or keep up with your meditations.”

“Amongst other things,” she added, her grin widening.

“Well, yes, but—” His flush deepened. “That's not really what I'm worried about.”

Seraphina chuckled and rolled on her side to face him. “Then what are you worried about? Besides my obvious exhaustion.”

He glanced away.

“Nothing really, just…” he began, then trailed off. A sigh of resignation sounded in his throat and he looked back to her. “Well, I've noticed you holding Vatnir's hands a lot lately, too.”

She raised her eyebrows, then her torso began to quiver with silent laughter.

“What, are you jealous, Aloth?”

“I'm not sure.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Should I be?”

“I don't know. You tell me.” She smiled herself then, biting her lip as she slid her hand to his jaw and caressed his cheek with her thumb. “Who, exactly, am I in bed with again—even if I am too tired to show my appreciation and give him a proper tumble?”

He rolled his eyes again, this time in fondness, amusement pulling at his mouth and softening his features. Then, he cupped her face and pressed his lips to hers, rolling her onto her back as he leaned over her. Her arms curled around him and her hand twined in his hair. She pulled him closer and, for a long moment, they kissed each other softly, until he broke away to nuzzle his face against her own.

“…Is everything okay, at least?” he asked quietly.

“As okay as it ever is,” she whispered back, tugging at the sheet between them. “Would be better, though, if I were under there with you.”

He smiled against her, then pulled back, enough so that she could slip under the sheets and cuddle into him. To her delight and amusement, he wasn't wearing anything either.

“Feeling a little warm tonight or something?” she teased, offering him a mischievous grin as she ran her hands over him.

“Only when you're around.”

He gave her a sly, knowing smile and she chuckled, then settled her head in the crook of his shoulder. Her eyes fell shut and she sighed contentedly as they lay together.

“…Nothing's wrong, Aloth,” she said softly, after a few moments. “I've just been… trying something new. A cipher experiment, I guess.”

“Oh?” His breath tickled against her forehead.

“Yeah. Ever since we left the Void, I've been wondering if there was anything I could do about Vatnir's chime. Not removing it or severing it, I mean, but I thought it might be possible to mitigate its effects and give him some relief, at least.”

He inclined his head. “How so?”

“An extensive, modified pain block, essentially. I've been testing different variations on him almost every evening.” She pursed her lips, her mind briefly wandering to the variables she hadn't yet implemented. “…I'm still tweaking it right now, though. But, I figure once I get it just right, it'll be easy to apply when I'm ascended and it should last for quite a while from there, a few days if I can manage it. Long enough, anyway, that I shouldn't need to pull from my own reserves anymore to apply it.”

“Given the frequency of which we seem to find ourselves imperiled, I suspect that won't be an issue,” he said dryly. “Has it been effective, in any case?”

“I think so?” She shrugged. “His essence hasn't changed, unsurprisingly, but he says he can actually sleep through the night now, and that it hurts less when he coughs and moves around. He thinks some of his wounds might've begun to heal, too.”

Aloth hummed quietly. “He has seemed a bit livelier as of late, come to think of it. I even saw him eating at the table with everyone in the mess the other day, rather than sitting in the corner.”

She smiled. “That's good to hear.”

“Well, it's good of you to help him.”

Heat flushed across her face and she fidgeted uncomfortably.

“I suppose. I know I'm not really fixing anything, not permanently.” She paused for a moment, biting her lip. “…Pallegina and I also talked to him about what she did to her chime. And I've offered to take him to Giacolo's new lab, more than once, but… he's ambivalent about going that far. He said I shouldn't be pushing him to do it either, when I haven't even had it done myself.

“I know it wasn't kind of me,” she continued, “but I laughed in his face when he said that. I asked him why I would need to cut my chime before he does, when the worst thing I have to suffer is that stupid joke people make about whether or not I can actually see anything. I told him that my body wasn't the one decaying alive, that my chime wasn't causing me constant pain—and that he didn't have to accept or endure a lifetime of that either, regardless of what his so-called father said.”

She sighed again, long and wearily as her temples continued to throb.

“Rymrgand's 'gift' is nothing but abusive fucking cruelty.”

Aloth pressed his cheek against her head and rubbed her back. “I don't think there are many kith, alive or dead, who would disagree. But I doubt that would sway him from ensnaring any more mortals with his chime.”

“Yeah, well—why would it?” She huffed in disgust. “After all, we mortals are nothing more than pointless dust, right? Hard to care about dust, I guess, especially when it refuses to wipe away cleanly, and insists that it has an important purpose—”

A sharp crack whipped across the cabin from behind them.

They both startled upright, her lethargy and pain forgotten as she reached for the knife beneath her pillow. She turned to locate the source of the noise, only to find a few splintering, jagged lines spreading across a pane of glass, like something had struck the window. A second fracture snapped loudly a few panes over. Then a third, then more, until violent, sonorous crackling overwhelmed the cabin and the temperature began to rapidly plummet.

Pocks of frozen crystal burst from the walls and ceiling and floor. Rime surged from them, coating the timber and carpet in ice. Her knife burned frigidly hot in her hand and she tossed it away. Next to her, Aloth barely managed to abandon his grimoire before smoking frost encased it whole. She scrambled for the covers then, pulling them up and around her body. But even the blankets weren't spared the incessant freeze, and they soon became a prison of stiff, crusted folds trapping the both of them against an even colder mattress.

Across the room, she caught a glimpse of ghostly, sparkling hoar coating everything before their lantern, too, succumbed to the cold and guttered out.

In the darkness, she and Aloth gasped next to each other. His arms snaked around her and pulled her roughly against him, and hers followed in turn, wrapping around his waist and under the shelter of hair covering his neck. She twined her legs between his and he squeezed back tightly. Plumes of fleeting warmth billowed past their lips as they breathed heavily and shivered into one another.

The snap of ice slowed to intermittent popping and, beneath it, something rumbled almost imperceptibly. The vibration increased rapidly, intensifying to a shrill and piercing wail that lanced into her skull like a needle. Pain exploded across her temples and a burst of white flooded her vision. Distantly, she heard Aloth call her name as she cried out, but she couldn't form the words to speak in response. Her eyes scrunched shut around the feel of knife blades and her head pounded so violently even her teeth and horns hurt. Sweat began to prickle across her skin and her stomach lurched with sickness. In desperation, she scraped at her meager focus reserves and scrambled to subdue her panic, pushing her mind into a rough flatness to ready her powers.

But, to her horror, as she blinked open her mind's eye to use them, something overwhelming and impossibly sharp rushed forward to stab it shut.

Should I wipe you away now, Watcher?

Fresh agony seared her mind while Rymrgand's unmistakable voice cracked across her consciousness. It resonated deeply, shuddering and groaning like a colossal sheet of ice straining to keep its hold on a glacier. Aloth squeezed her tighter and she knew he heard it too. The noise rumbled through her for a long, excruciating moment until it eventually calved. As it splintered and fell away, so too did some of her pain, enough that she could speak again.

“Well,” she gasped, her heart thumping wildly. “Think I could probably clump into one of Eora's weirder-looking dust bunnies, if you let me roll around a while longer.” She briefly clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, then swallowed hard. “I meant what I said too. Your gift is cruelty.”

And your efforts with my progeny are a misguided act of futility. You expend your limited energy and hasten your decline in exchange for nothing, as you readily admit yourself. Yet, you persist, knowing the only place your exertion truly leads is to your own gradual destruction.

Your self-diminution in this regard is… exquisite.

Something shifted in her then, a sense of blinding sunlight on the snow mingled with pleasure.

She blinked.

“Uh, thanks?”

I will permit you to continue your endeavor, to your end or to those you would wrest essence from instead. But you will do so with the knowledge that I will reclaim what is mine from Vatnir should he ever attempt to sever my chime.

The pounding in her head increased, pressing into one continuous ache as the implication hit her.

“You'll kill him? Is that what you mean?”

No.

His death would only be an incidental effect.

Aloth exhaled against her neck. “So either Vatnir lives with the pain or somebody else does,” he mumbled.

Entropy is inexorable. Any fleeting reprieve from it demands a sacrifice. To stave off pain, you must invoke the suffering of something else.

That is your entire existence.

“What's your existence, then?” she rasped. “What are you staving off through his suffering? You're a god. Nothing forced you to put your chime in him. You could have spared him the pain you know it causes, but you didn't.”

I will spare him. Eventually. In the meantime, who will receive temporary reprieve and whose suffering will provide it is a concern I leave you to decide.

Ultimately, it matters not.

She whimpered as the pain cinched around her head and began to crush inward. Her eyes watered and every breath of dry, cold air she took scraped her throat and lungs. It was becoming hard to move, hard to speak, or even think, but it was more difficult than anything else to remain silent.

“…Okay, entropy will claim everything someday. Fine. So what? We're still here, until then, alive before the Wheel turns again. This flash of existence is all we'll ever have, all we'll ever know, and that makes what we choose to do during it the only thing that matters. On our scale, your ending is just as meaningless and unimportant to us as our mortal lives are to you.”

Something shifted in her again, vague contempt while a gale blasted at a mountainside.

You are, undoubtedly, Berath's spawn. Only one of their brats could possess such a shackled understanding of life and death.

“And only a god made from the souls of the most nihilistic Engwithans could think his view of impermanency is the only one that's valid.”

It is the only one that will endure, and even I can appreciate that irony.

An amused snort escaped her nose.

“Well, I hope your ending is the everything and the nothing you want it to be, when it finally comes.” She closed her eyes and buried her face in Aloth's neck. He hugged her tighter and she did her best to return it with her numbing hands. “I'm gonna use my scrap of time to keep helping the people around me,” she muttered. “I don't care if it doesn't last, or if I don't benefit from it myself—it's still always worth it to do right by others and slowly build towards a better world.”

Something shifted in her once more, an avalanche of laughter tumbling free to roar destructively down a slope.

Your better world is littered with the corpses of kith who professed similar sentiments, whose proud words failed to survive even the meager duration of their individual lives. I look forward to seeing how quickly time will erode those same lofty ideals in you as well, Watcher.

Until then, I will be keeping an eye on you.

Seraphina and Aloth flinched as a soul-piercing crack sliced across the room. Their lantern flickered back to life and the ice covering everything splintered, shattered, then disintegrated into powdery vapor, filling the cabin with a fine mist that smelled of ozone and decay. The temperature steadily climbed as it dissipated, until the air returned to that of balmy, tropical night. Cold still lingered in the sheets, however, and in their trembling bodies, the last, deteriorating evidence that something had ever been amiss.

Aloth sighed, then slumped against her. She absently rubbed his back while he shook his head and stroked hers in turn. As warmth prickled painfully back into her hands and feet, whatever sharpness had lodged into her mind's eye melted away too, rolling a sense of frigid wetness across the crown of her head. Only when she shivered from it, and let loose the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, did she notice that all of her pain and fatigue had vanished as well.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

“So… just the one eye then, huh? Not all five?”

“Seraphina…”

“Bet he always will be watching, too,” she muttered. “You know, just to satisfy his obsession with length and duration, not 'cause he's a pervert or anything.”

“Please,” Aloth said against her skin. “What is the one thing I asked you not to do anymore?”

She sighed and leaned away to look at him.

“Sass the gods.”

“And what are you doing right now?”

“Sassing the gods, I know. I'm sorry. I'll stop.”

“Thank you.”

Aloth pulled her back to him and nuzzled his face into her neck as they held each other.

“…He's still a jerk, though,” she added a moment later. “And don't give me that look, 'cause even he admits—”

She yelped loudly and suddenly then, squirming against him while he trapped her with one of his arms.

“Admits what?” he asked innocently.

“Your hand is— So! Cold!”

“Not for long, it isn't.” He gave her a sly smile. “I'm only warm when you're around, remember?”

She laughed, shook her head, and kissed him.

Notes:

Thank you to @alwaysashroomsman for the idea of a cipher using the Pain Block spell on Vatnir <3

[luxicorde]

Prompt 3: Adytum

(Minor RDM quest spoilers.)

The voidsent of Mach were the only drawbacks to the city, in Era’s opinion.

The weeping city was quiet, and under the smell of death and rot that followed many of the voidsent, Era could pick out the smell of earth and water. Yafaem and Mach really were beautiful, underneath all of the decay and destruction and vicious creatures.

“Era, please be careful! I don’t want to have to find X’ruhn just to tell him you broke your neck!” Era gave a heavy sigh. He wouldn’t fall, he wanted to yell back, but he knew that Arya would just say that he could. They’d been in a back and forth argument about it when they first arrived in the moor. 

“You know, you didn’t have to come Arya. I can make sure my neck doesn’t break, and if it does-”

“And if it does you aren’t going to feel it and scare everyone in Ishgard when you walk through the streets looking for Leveva!” Era hauled her up onto the cracked stone. If he had to guess, they were in the right area, but this section of the city was mostly destroyed. Just piles upon piles of broken up buildings. There was supposed to be a library, or a temple, something for summoning voidsent. “Hey, Era, do you think we’re going to find anything when we get there?”

“Hmm?“

“Voidsent. Are we walking into a fight?“

“Oh. Hmm...“ Era walked forward, kicking a few stones as he went. “If I had to guess, we’re going to find a few things. This place was crawling with voidsent when I first ran through, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there were still some remaining.“

He could feel Arya’s worry, and he could hear her shifting about. She had every right to be worried, after that mess with Lilith. He kicked another rock out of his way, but held his hand up as he did. Arya stopped behind him, and it was a good thing she did. Era almost missed the faint scratching of claws on brick.

It slipped his mind to tell Arya what he’d heard, and without thinking he was off, chasing after whatever he’d startled. He was vaguely aware of Arya yelling for him to be careful again, but he couldn’t be bothered to stop and listen. Whatever this creature was, it was determined to throw him off, turning this way and that and scrabbling under the rubble.

After a solid minute of chasing this thing down, Era had to skid to a stop. He’d seen the very end of it slip out of sight, down into what looked like a crater. If he hadn’t stopped, he wouldn’t have heard the end of it from Arya.

Within a matter of moments, she caught up with him, panting and doubled over when she finally stopped. “You...you can’t just run off like that! What did you even...”

Era pointed down to the crater, and Arya’s eyes followed. They weren’t given a description of the place they were looking for, just told that it was a treasure trove of knowledge on voidsent. Arya only watched as Era slid down the wall of the crater, making his way towards the massive temple. Compared to the rubble around it, it looked untouched, a beautiful mesh of stone and metal. And one that reeked of rot.

Era held his nose as he got closer, drawing his sword with his free hand. Normally he was thankful for his scent, but it made places like this even more revolting than they were. He couldn’t help the agitated swish of his tail as he passed through the arch that must’ve been the doorway. The smell was only stronger inside. 

He could hear more of the scuttling creatures now. They were irritating, and if he had the luxury of worrying about small fry, he’d get rid of them. But they retreated as he pressed on, and compared to what he felt from deeper within, they were nothing more than insects. 

Era uncovered his nose, nearly gagging at the stench. Pulling out his dagger, he mumbled the incantation for fire, letting his aether flow into the shorter blade. The blade ignited easily, working as his source of light in the gloom. He could make out the walls of this place now, and this was definitely what he’d been sent to find. It was almost like the Ossuary, rows upon rows of books and a tall ceiling held up by massive stone pillars. But there wasn’t any sort of warmth, or peace. The Ossuary was a place of knowledge and rest. This place was more like a tomb, dark and cold and holding secrets it didn’t seem likely to relinquish.

As he went deeper, the temple got colder, and his light reached less and less of the masonry. There was a low buzzing at the back of his mind, but it was no surprise. He knew that he, Arya, and all the little scuttling creatures weren’t the only things here. 

The temple had been mostly empty up until Era saw the door at the back. He moved closer, and the buzzing grew louder. He saw now that the door was stone, no hinges or locks. But there were cracks all across the surface. He mumbled another incantation, and the warm glow from his dagger died out, replaced by a faint cold light. Era wedged it into one of the larger cracks, letting his aether flow into the stone. It didn’t take long for the ice to form and slowly force the stone out of place. Within a matter of a few moments, the stone was falling in towards the room.

The moment the door was open, the stench of death hit Era like a charging aurochs. The buzzing was almost overwhelming now, and Era knew damn well this was the supposed treasure trove.

He also knew that he should not be there.

It was rare for things to come across the echo so specifically for him. Unless there was a vision, it was all just feelings and faint noises. But here, it was as if someone was screaming at him, saying he shouldn’t be there even when he knew there was no noise outside of the echo. 

Era dispelled the enchantment on his dagger, the faint light disappearing and being replaced with the crackling of electricity. He raised his sword, and held his dagger like a shield as he walked forward. Even with the light from his enchantment, the darkness of this room was suffocating, threatening to crush him.

He saw the faintest signs of movement, and lashed out.

Lightning arced with his sword, dancing across the blade and cutting through the darkness. But Era saw nothing.

In the next moment, he heard the shuffle of something big, and turned just in time to sink his dagger into flesh. His aether surged through the connection, sending sparks racing up whatever was attacking him. There was an unholy shriek, but before Era could get a good look at this monster, he was slammed into a nearby wall, all the air knocked from his lungs. 

There was a grunt, and Era threw himself out of the way as something slammed right where he’d been sitting. Gasping he got to his feet. His ribs felt off, but he wasn’t given time to recover.

There was another grunt, and Era stood his ground, lashing out again and sending sparks flying as he brought his sword down. There was another shriek, and the monster retreated, but to where Era couldn’t say. He could hear footsteps coming from the main hall, and the faintest sound of fighting, but he had no time to retreat and help Arya.

The monster was back, swiping at him with what he could now see were vicious-looking claws. It was all he could do to move out of the way, narrowly avoiding both the claws and the walls of the tiny room. Era lashed out again, this time bringing his blade up to try and lop off a hand as the monster brought it down to rake him.

The hand fell to the floor, but the monster didn’t even flinch as lightning raced through its black blood. era very quickly found himself pinned against the stone floor, his blades knocked from his grasp from the force of the blow. Era clawed at the hand pinning him down. It was easily as big as his torso, and the room suddenly felt more claustrophobic now that he knew just how little space he had. 

From the darkness, monster lowered its face to Era’s, the stench of its breath nearly knocking him out then and there. He could hardly move his head without it spinning, but he was only given a few seconds to realize what that particular issue meant.

He watched as the face changed before his eyes, shifting from a mess of matted black hair and rotting skin to something more refined. Era’s breath caught in his throat as the skin reformed, now a deathly pale hue, and the hair lightened to a silvery shade of grey. 

The face lowered further as the eyes shifted as well, from tiny black points to cold and grey. Its mouth was stretched in a twisted grin, and Era was too caught up in his own stuttering thoughts to notice the scratching of a claw at his throat.

“Did you really think you’d be safe forever?“

He was frozen in place, the voice dragging him back to painful memories. He couldn’t be here, not in Mhach, not in this place so far away.

Era was suddenly pulled out of his trance by a shriek of pain. When had his vision gone dark?

He felt empty and numb as he watched Arya charge into the room, slinging spells as if her life depended on it. The numbness was slowly replaced by cold, and the next thing Era knew, Arya was shaking him. 

“Era! Era, wake up dammit!“ She was shaking him again, and slowly his senses were starting to come back to him. The rot was there, but it wasn’t so powerful anymore. Now the strong scent was coppery. He looked down, seeing the bloom of red across Arya’s side. He didn’t say much as he reached out, wanting to heal her before she bled out.

His vision swam as he tried to use his magic. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Before he knew it, Arya was shaking him again, yelling at him, but he was having trouble making out the words now. 

“...stand...“

It was like his ears just weren’t working. Whatever Arya was saying just sounded like senseless noise.

“...stand...up...!“

Era could feel himself being pulled up now. He wanted to move, wanted to help her before she made her wound worse, but it felt like his limbs were made from lead. He could barely help with sitting up, and helping stand was-

Oh.

Arya had managed to get herself under one of his arms, hauling him up with a strained grunt. It was more like she was dragging him along instead of helping him walk, and once they were out of the back room she could only do her best to lower him to the ground. 

Era could tell she was using magic, but he didn’t get to see the end result. Everything seemed to drift away from him after he was put down.

[blacknovelist]

Destiny Bond (PMD/BNHA Fic)

This one was also in my drafts, tho less finished than Future Sight was, haha. Chronologically it’s the first in the series, and although there’s some Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky spoilers, since it’s a crossover AU, you’re probably okay as long as you’re real careful.

I wanted to do a bunch of dramatic things with the storytelling but then my brain decided nah, let’s just go so I guess I’m here! Though, now I’m also out of ficlet ideas outside of some vague antic thoughts and things, and I still have pokemon to pick for characters, so it’s back to the board for now, I suppose.

[ffnet] [AO3]

the start of an end

the end of a beginning

The first thing he heard was the ocean beside him.

It's rumbling louder than anything he's ever heard before, like he's lying in the surf itself as it washed over the sand. For a moment he wondered if the waves would sweep over him too, to whisk him off where no one would see him again... but it never came. Instead he remained perfectly dry and the sea continued as it was, at peace and much further than he thought. Why was it so loud if it was far away?

Through the dull ache in his body and the fog of his thoughts, he took stock. He was lying on a beach, probably. Something warm and bright and utterly alien sank into his bones from... somewhere, and it made the ground much more comfortable than it has any right to be. There wasn't really a reason to get up, and so he didn't - he simply basked in that warmth, listened to the roll of the ocean as it drowned out the ringing in his ears and gradually replaced it with the caw of birds above and crash of water on rock. Something about all this felt so special somehow, like a fragile illusion of something he'd never experienced, only dreamed of.

His careful grip on consciousness slipped, and he faded away to the vibrant and unfamiliar rhythm of the world around him.

.

.

It's warm here, is the first thing he thinks of when he wakes up, followed by, if it stays this warm can I stay here forever?

Drifting in through a haze of strange noise are voices, unfamiliar to Izuku. There's two people talking around and over each other, one a girl and one a boy, barely audible over the soft rumble beside him and the cawing high above.

"Do you think he's okay?" The girl asks.

"I'm not sure," says the boy, "nothing's happened yet." A beat. "Ochako, shouldn't we get the doctor, instead of crouching over him like this? What if he really is hurt-"

"No, wait. I think he's waking up." There's the crunch of rock underfoot. Warmth is replaced by something cooler.

"Excuse me, are you alright? Can you open your eyes?"

Izuku does as the voice asks, and immediately focuses on the ground underneath him. It's all gritty, and made of little brown rocks that he's pretty sure he's never seen before. Or at least, not this many in one place, he thinks. Who knew rocks could be more colors than grey and gray?

"Oh good!" Something fuzzy and brown is next to him, with long twitching ears and a swaying tail and the lightest voice he's ever heard. He touches the aura that she exudes and thinks, it's so kind. "You aren't hurt, right?"

"Uh." His voice cracks, and he tries again. "No, I don't think so."

The eevee nods, and steps back. "That's good. Do you think you can sit up?"

"Mm, maybe?" Izuku squeaks. His arms shake as he pushes at the soft ground, and a taller shape moves towards him.

"Are you in need of assistance?" A mouth full of teeth asks, short arms waving, and he can't help but nod automatically at the force. The stranger's arms are a lighter blue than Izuku's fur, which he'd never thought possible before. But this newcomer doesn't even have fur - only hard scales and red spikes and claws that wrap around his arms and tug him upright, gentle as can be. This one's aura is kind, too, and Izuku relaxes.

"Thanks."

"My pleasure." The totodile pauses, watching Izuku as he steadies, then lets go. "You truly are unhurt, yes? You weren't just saying so to put us at ease?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure. I feel fine." He looks at them both, then up. The sky is awash with bright pinks and oranges and the faintest strips of blue, bubbles drifting through the last rays of sun. For a moment, Izuku is dazzled. His head feels faded, but he's never seen or felt the world so sharply in his life.

"I'm glad you're okay," the eevee girl says, and he looks back at her. "We just found you lying here, not moving at all, and we didn't know what to do. I don't recognize you from around town, though, and riolu don't usually visit these parts. What's your name?"

"Oh, um... I'm Izuku," he mumbles.

Ochako frowns. "Deku?"

"No, Izuku," he repeats. "Izuku M-Midoriya. But you can call me Deku if you want, I don't mind!" Izuku quickly adds as she apologizes. It surprises him that he means it. "I don't think I've had a nickname before. It's okay."

"If you're sure," she says slowly. Then, when he doesn't take it back, she beams. "It's nice to meet you then, Deku! I'm Ochako, and this is Tenya!"

"Indeed, it is nice to meet you Izuku!" Tenya booms, arms waving. Izuku is glad the totodile doesn't seem to be in the habit of swinging his tail too. Ochako doesn't even seem to notice her friend's exuberance, ducking under flailing limbs with a practiced ease. "Though, I must ask - how did you end up on the beach in the first place? This is no place to be taking a nap."

"Right! Right, that's true, it really isn't. A good place to sleep, I mean." Izuku nods, watching the sea for a moment before dragging his eyes away. He doesn't mention that lying there had been quite comfortable. "I was just... um." He blinks. "I was... I wanted to... What did I want? I was going to do... something."

"...Deku?" Ochako calls. "Is something wrong?"

He waves a paw. "I just, I know I came here- I'm here to- there was... something I'm supposed to..." Izuku blinks again, and his shoulders drop. "Oh," he breathes. "I really can't. I just, don't remember."

"You... don't remember why you came here?" Tenya asks.

"No! Well, yes, yes I don't remember why I came here, but it isn't just that." Izuku frowns, patting his cheek a few times. "I can't... I don't remember anything. At all. I know who I am and what I am. I know that's called the sea, and this is what's called a beach, but I've never seen anything like it in my life, and that doesn't really make sense, but it kind of does to me, even though I don't remember. And I've never seen rocks that were red before either, which I don't entirely understand since clearly many rocks here are red, so I have to have seen rocks like them before, and yet I can only think this is my first time seeing them. Plus, I don't know where I came from, or why I'm here, and I know by shape that those things are trees-" he waved vaguely towards the path up the beach- "but I feel like they don't look like trees I've ever seen - or at least, I wasn't used to seeing these trees before I lost my memory - because they look so weird to me but nothing else comes to mind as far as what they could be and who knows what else I don't recognize. I'm not hurt right now, I would know, but I don't know anything other than who I am and what my name is, and that leads me to believe something happened to me that caused this and there's only so many things that could have caused this kind of memory loss, but I don't even know what they'd be because I can't remember anything..."

Tenya and Ochako look at each other, startled, as Izuku mumbles in circles about all the things he doesn't remember and what could have happened to drop him here, foot tapping in the sand and paw muffling his words.

"Excuse me," Tenya says eventually, and Izuku startles hard. He almost falls over, if not for Ochako pushing at his back and Tenya snagging his arms. "I'm sorry, Izuku, I didn't mean to scare you so badly!"

"I-It's okay," Izuku says once he's back on two feet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to go on for so long..."

"That's not a problem, I simply thought I should speak up before the sun goes down." He clears his throat. "What we're hearing, though, is that you have no clue how you've gotten here, yes?"

A nod. Something brushes against Izuku's senses briefly before Ochako brings his attention back.

"And you don't remember anything else about yourself, either?"

"Pretty much."

They both squint, studying him. Then Ochako and Tenya nod, and Izuku tries not to look relieved when they stop staring quite so hard.

"You seem like you're telling the truth," Ochako says. "Sorry, but we just need to be sure - there's been an awful lot of bad pokemon out there lately." She pauses. "Though I guess it's kind of silly to be wondering whether or not a riolu is good or bad. You and lucario do have a reputation for being trustworthy."

"It never hurts to be cautious!" Tenya declares. "But nonetheless. Izuku, I think I am right when I say you don't have a place to go or stay, correct?"

"Even if I did, I don't exactly remember it right now."

"Well! As it happens, Ochako and I are-" He yelps, cut off and pinwheeling as he tries to keep his balance.

Things move quickly, but Izuku figures it goes something like this:

From behind, two dark figures (the ones he'd sensed?) ram into Ochako and Tenya, sending their things flying as they fall on Izuku. One of them snatches the bags, cackling, before darting after their companion and disappearing into the caves nearby.

Then a bright and burning blur streaks after them, howling curses and swearing revenge. Still sitting on the sand, the three pokemon blink.

"Was that Katsuki?" Ochako stares, then jolts, and looks down. "Wait, our stuff! Those guys took our stuff!"

"Let's hurry!" Tenya jumps to his feet. Then he bows. "Izuku, please wait here."

With more speed than Izuku would've expected, he dashes into the cave. Ochako hurries after him.

"We'll be back in a minute!" She throws over her shoulder, and now it's Izuku's turn to yelp as he scrambles up.

"A-ah, wait, wait for me!"

.

.

"Well, this is a bit of a mess, isn't it?" the heliolisk grumbled. He prodded at the bandages, eliciting winces from the pokemon in front of him. "Your partner, who is apparently a child because for some reason Nana thought it would be fine, is currently missing in action, and Arceus-only-knows where he is now. Meanwhile, you've ended up several decades ahead of schedule, making everyone's jobs that much harder in a timeline sense, thank you very much, and you can barely use Dimensionall properly. Do you realize the mess this is gonna make and how hard it's gonna be to cover things up? What in the world were you and Nana thinking, kid?"

"I don't even know anymore," the lucario moaned, shifting position and regretting it immediately. An oran berry was promptly offered to him. "It wasn't even our fault. One moment everything is fine, the next we're somehow under attack, and I wasn't about to let him get hit when I had no clue what that would do to him."

"He probably would've taken those hits better than you did, blondie. You're lucky the only thing that got scrambled was your species," Gran Torino said. He gave the taller pokemon a look. "You're also lucky Nana did the smart thing and called in, or you would still be wandering on the beach, bleeding out and delirious."

"Yes, yes, I'm making terrible life decisions, I've realized that. At this point I'm pretty sure that all this-" one paw waved vaguely at the trees surrounding them- "has made me go into shock and that's the only reason I'm still conscious." He sighed, taking a bite of the berry. "But honestly, what am I going to do now? I can barely walk in this form, let alone go asking around if anyone has met a very specific pokemon in their lifetimes. We don't even know if he'll be dropped in this era!"

"Oh, relax. There's entire jobs focused on rescuing people and exploring new places, I'll help you get your leg up in them. If your partner is around here, there'll be reports, no doubt. And even if he isn't, you won't be sitting on your ass being useless this way. Explorers hear all sorts of things out there."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But before that..." Torino grinned. "You're of no use to anyone if you can't even move. Soon as you're in good enough condition, we're doing training."

He thought, how hard could it be?

Quite difficult, apparently.

.

.

"Be careful," Tenya whispers as Ochako peers around a corner. The mystery dungeon swarms with hostile pokemon, which makes keeping up much harder than it needs to be. Izuku tries to look for the auras of the thieves and the one who was chasing them, pointing them in the right direction while Tenya and Ochako run him through a crash course in exploring and fighting.

"It's clear," Ochako says after a moment, and they dart into the room before the wandering shellos decides to turn back. "They're this way, right Deku?"

"Yeah," Izuku says. "Ka- uh, Katsuki? He has a really distinct aura."

"I suppose that's a good thing, in this case. Thank you for helping us, Izuku." Tenya bows again. "You certainly didn't have to become involved, but your help right now is absolutely invaluable!"

"Um, you're welcome. I just, didn't think I could stay there knowing you were in here trying to get your things back when you've already done a lot to help me, too."

"Well, thank you," Ochako repeats, smiling. "This would me way harder without you, you know!" She nudges Izuku, then bounds deeper into the caves. The two hurry after her, and they arrive at the large cavern that marks the end just in time to see a very angry quilava plow right through the koffing and zubat hovering in front of him. Several bags and trinkets soar through the air and sink into the sand.

"You thought you could get away from ME, huh?!" Katsuki snarls, flames bursting from his back. "I'll show you!"

"Katsuki!" Tenya calls, and all of them turn to look at him.

"The hell are you two doing here, snaggletooth, furball? Who's the dumb blue standing back there?"

"This is Deku, he's a friend of ours," Ochako says. Izuku gives a small wave.

"You two!" Tenya stares down the thieves. "What do you think you're doing, running into people and taking their things?"

"Uh, you know, stealing?" Koffing replies. "That's the point."

"We figured you guild kids might have some good stuff to sell," zubat adds. "Didn't expect fireball to come rushin' after us like that."

"Well when you run around stealing, you better be ready for the damn consequences," Katsuki growls. "So just DIE ALREADY!"

He springs forward full-tilt, tackles zubat to the ground, and launches a flamethrower that koffing only barely manages to avoid by diving to the side. Then Tenya follows with a water gun that strikes home, and Izuku and Ochako jump in so as to not be left out.

Despite being outnumbered the two are quick and tricky, easily floating out of reach and zipping through the air. Fangs scrape across Tenya's scales and disappear before he can even blink. A swift attack grazes zubat when a quick attack misses, and in response koffing puffs out a massive smog that catches Izuku in the middle. Katsuki only scoffs, flames burning hotter as he lets loose another flamethrower, and the resulting drafts disperse the smoky air in seconds. Ochako and Tenya move in immediately, smacking koffing away. Izuku coughs, shaking off what little poison made its way into his system, and instinctively allows his senses to reach outward.

The image that blooms in his eyes and mind is almost overwhelming. Everything glimmers with an inner light, drowning the soft reds and yellows of the seaside cave in the same shades as the sky. He looks ahead, and watches rich blue-silver and bright light-dark pink spark against the sickly purple-yellow. Then he looks to the side and sees twisting orange-red preparing for the perfect blow against their target, a sly indigo-green creeping behind him.

Izuku isn't aware of the world around him dimming back into the shades and colors he's used to, nor the pump of his legs and the glow of power in his paws. There's only Katsuki and the pokemon he doesn't notice, it's wings drawn back as it prepares to strike, the beat of his own heart as he draws one arm back and springs up with a battle cry.

"RRRAGGH!"

His brick break sends zubat tumbling, and he crashes into the sand with a squawk. Without missing a beat Katsuki whirls, his flamethrower blistering, and it's only the rage in his eyes that tells Izuku how little he appreciates the attempted sneak attack. Koffing startles when his partner falls, allowing Ochako and Tenya to bring him down with a devastating swift-water gun combo.

When koffing floats back up, it's clear he can barely manage. Katsuki stalks over to the fluttering zubat, and lightly plants a paw on his head.

"Get up and I'll roast your ears off," he says. Zubat squeaks, and carefully goes still.

"Don't resist, and we won't have any reason to keep fighting," Tenya says, harsh gaze locked on koffing.

"M-man, you goody-two-shoes' are tougher than you look," koffing says, wilting under the stare. He looks over the four and his downed comrade several times, then sinks even lower and comes without a word.

Izuku walks behind Katsuki and keeps an eye on the bat, having been rebuked when he offered to help. He carries the recovered goods, doing his best to keep them from dragging in the sand. It's still bright out when they make it back to the beach, and Izuku can't help but be amazed again by the vibrant sky.

Then Izuku looks back at the others, just in time to see koffing use a burst of gas to launch himself out of Tenya and Ochako's grips like a ballistic rocket. He smashes straight into Katsuki and zubat, before erratically floating up and over the cliffs to freedom. Zubat swoops after him and barely dodges everyone's grasping hands, cackling as he darts away.

"See you next time, losers!"

Katsuki explodes, both literally and figuratively, screaming and spitting curses as they all back away. The sky is half dark before he stops, declares his intent to head back, and stalks away, still giving off enough heat to be felt halfway across the beach.

It's silent, save for the crash of the waves. Then Ochako snorts, and none of them can keep from collapsing in laughter, struck senseless by the whole situation. Tenya reclaims their things from Izuku, who is more than happy to share his load with the two of them, and it doesn't take long to return the rest of the stolen belongings because the rest of the victims have all gathered in the crossroads, attracted by Katsuki's yelling.

"So," Ochako says, once the sun is almost gone and everyone else has left. "Any thoughts on what you're gonna do now, Deku?"

Izuku thinks for a moment. "Well, joining the guild is likely my best bet. Do they let in any random pokemon their students advocate for?"

"Only if a team is cleared for recruitment," Tenya says. "But don't worry, this is different. After all you've done to help, and considering the issue with your memory, there's no way they wouldn't let you become a student if we ask, I'm sure of it!"

"And if they don't, I'll sneak you in anyway, don't worry." Ochako winks.

Izuku just laughs.

.

.

The sun was blinding, even as it sank further down the horizon.

The lucario sat behind the sage-like psychic type, patiently awaiting council. He swept a particularly irritating bit of fur out of his face and behind him, Gran Torino flopped to the ground.

"Call me when something interesting starts happening," he grumbled, leaning back.

"You need to work on your patience," the lucario said. He started to turn, only to remind himself of why exactly that was a terrible idea. (Why is it always my middle?) "Nighteye's foresight into our next course of action is vital."

"Doesn't make it any less boring. Besides, I'm pretty sure you could've come up here all by your lonesome even with that stupid hole in your gut. Why'd you need an old biddy like me coming along?"

"You would have yelled at me if I left you behind!"

"No I wouldn't."

"The knowledge I have for one of you is just as well off being heard by both of you, so please stop arguing about it."

The two snapped to attention as Sir Nighteye spread one wing, eyes locked on the setting sun. "The one you're looking for hasn't arrived yet," he said without further preamble. "I cannot pinpoint when exactly he will land, but when he does, he'll be lost. He needs a teacher."

"Does it matter who?" Torino asked. The lucario twitched. "Because if I'm going to get roped into teaching another brat, count me out."

"No," Nighteye said. "All will be as it must. You don't no need to worry about what fate requires from you, Gran Torino. But you..." He turned. "You're the sole member of an exceptional rescue team, the greatest explorer the world has ever seen, hiding from your enemies in plain sight. The future is too chaotic to see into deeply, but I know that you're destined to do much more than wander around, waiting to act. You know that too, even if your current options are quite limited."

"What if I do some research, then?" The lucario asked. "I don't know when the paralysis is going to begin, but the more we know about where to start the better our chances become, even if the lack of disturbances makes it difficult to pinpoint anything. Rescues and expeditions don't need to be my life - there's so many young pokemon out there with the potential to be better than I ever was. I'm just an old bag of bones, and I'm not worried for our future with them on the case."

"If you're old, what am I?" Torino snorted. "If Nana could see you now, ready to keel over any second."

"That's a good start." Nighteye nodded slowly, pointedly ignoring Gran Torino. "Most of it, at least. For now, though, you will be the first."

"The... first?"

"Of many." He stared the lucario in the eye, unblinking and unflinching. "You will be the benchmark against which everyone will be seen. Your influence will spread far beyond what you anticipated, with your humble goals and beginnings. You needn't to worry about where the world will take you. Everything will fall into place with time."

And with that Sir Nighteye shooed them away, leaving them to camp among the cliffs below. As Torino dozed off, the lucario looked up at the stars, and not for the first time marveled at how different this view was from the one back home. He wondered if his missing friend has seen this same sky yet, and if he was just as amazed by the world that used to be as he was.

Morning found Torino opening his eyes and seeing his companion, who was still gazing at the ever-fading night. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"A little," he replied absently, one paw running over fresh bandages and the rough scar-patched fur peeking out from underneath. "But that's not important right now. Listen, I have an idea."

.

.

"Woah..." Izuku swivels, eyes tracing over the rough stone walls and wooden beams. To support all the weight, he thinks, along with who in the world designed this? "I knew the cliffs we're tall, but I didn't realize they were this big underneath. How many floors are there?"

"Between you and me, I haven't got a clue - I never bothered counting," their noivern guide, Hizashi, says. "It's really something though, isn't it kid?" He stops at one of the doorways in the hall before Izuku can think of answering. "This here is what we call the rec room. If you're asking whether the 'rec' stands for recreation or recruitment, my answer is yes. Inko's the one in charge here - you won't meet a nicer pokemon, but when you make her angry she's scary as heck. So, you know, make sure you don't."

"Um, okay?"

"He means that this is where non-guild team members are registered for exploration and other guild duties, without being made part of the guild itself," Tenya explains, pushing past them to stand inside the room and gesture. "Some pokemon may wish to lend you their expertise without being bound by the heavy rules and regulations of being part of the guild - that's why we have recruitment systems."

"As succinct an explanation as ever, Tenya! Well done!" Hizashi turns back to Izuku. "All exploration and rescue teams must have at least one guild-trained member among their ranks, for safety reasons," he says. "It's a fairly new regulation compared to how long explorers have been a thing, but they're pretty strict on enforcing it. That way, not just anyone can declare themselves rescuers and start getting request mail - it prevents anyone who is under-experienced from heading out and getting themselves hurt, got it?"

"I think so."

"Then let's move on with his tour!" Hizashi whirls around and flutters down the hall, leaving the three scrambling to keep up. "There's only a few more rooms I need to show you, and knowing Shouta like I do, he's probably already done clearing you with the big guy anyway."

"H-he is?" Izuku twitches. "Are you sure it's okay for me to be here and looking around if we don't know if I'm part of the guild yet?"

"Of course it is, kid, relax." Hizashi waves. "We let people come see the facilities without joining all the time - it's not some exclusive club, you know. Besides, I'll never hear the end of it from these two if you don't become a student."

"That's not true!" Tenya says.

"There's no way Deku won't be let in, anyway," Ochako says.

Hizashi chuckles, sweeping them onward. "Come on, come on, we don't have all night."

.

.

"Are you sure about this?" Gran Torino asked. "Seems like a pretty big step."

"I'm sure," he said. "To pave the way for the children that are our future... I can't think of anything better. And it puts me in the best place to keep watch over things and look for him, wouldn't you say?"

The building was an innocuous thing from the outside, a tall golden-black tent framed by torches and totems on either side. Under their feet, a grate kept them from falling into the tunnels below. A sign hung proudly over the entryway, several words emblazoned in bright blue;

                                 ALL MIGHT GUILD                 TEACHING THE HEROES OF TOMORROW                                    PLUS ULTRA!

"Well, it's your life." Torino shrugged, and headed inside. "I plan on headed for the caves over westward. I hear there's some great hot springs nearby and I don't know about you, but I plan on going on a very long and well-deserved vacation."

The lucario followed, laughing. "Don't think that's gonna keep anyone from coming to see you. All they'll need to hear is that an old explorer lives up there and you'll have whole groups waiting to hear some stories."

"They better not. No one's hearing any stories unless I approve of them, and the day I let some whippersnapper get the best of me is the day I'll dive off the bluff." He eyed the other pokemon. "Speaking of whippersnappers, you do have some help, right? If you expect to run this place all by yourself, I don't plan on sticking around for your incredible guild's just as incredible collapse."

"Of course I hired help!" He spluttered. "I'm not that stupid. Some of them are already here, something about not wanting to get lost later, I believe? The others will be here soon."

"That's my cue to get going, then. I'd hate to have to say hello." Torino shook himself. "Don't be a stranger, alright?"

"I won't if you won't." The lucario sobered. "And, thank you. For everything."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Torino rolled his eyes, but didn't hide the smile on his face as he turned away. "Trust me when I say you'll find your boy one day, so don't stress about it too much. And make sure you take care of yourself, for his sake as much as your own."

"I will."

.

.

"That there is the kitchen." Hizashi points. "Beside it is the dining hall - technically dinner ended a little while ago, but food'll be served for a while longer. That's just in case anyone comes back late and missed their meal because of a mission, or if they get held up during their free time like you three. The guild's technically closed to all non-students after a certain hour, to keep any shady characters from getting in and finding things they shouldn't."

"There's enough space inside, so we all try to eat together, usually," Ochako says, standing beside Izuku. "Even All Might comes out and joins us, even though it's hard for him sometimes."

"Yeeahh, but he likes coming out to see all you kids anyway," Hizashi says. "He's always going on about how you're the future and it's nice to see how good you're all getting and all that, it's all kinds of adorable." He shakes himself. "Anyway, there's those rooms. Any questions this time?"

"Just one." Izuku fidgets.

"Sure thing, kid. What is it?"

"Who is ''All Might''? The name was on the sign outside, but I forgot to ask earlier."

Tenya, on Izuku's other side, raises a claw before pausing. "Ah.."

"He's the one who runs the guild," A luxray says, startling everyone as he slips past and sits down. "It's the name of his team, technically, but since he's the only one on it everyone just uses it like another name."

"Shouutaa, don't do that!" Hizashi whines. "You nearly gave us a heart attack!"

"Sorry," Shouta says, entirely unrepentant. "I just finished talking to him, by the way. He wants to see you, kid." He nods towards the trio.

"Us too?" Ochako asks.

"No, but you might as well come along." Shouta stands. "Come on, I'll show you the way from here. You've pretty much wrapped up the tour, right?"

"Yes, sir!" Tenya nods vigorously.

"Good. Let's go."

.

.

He's staring at one of the tapestries hanging on the walls, psyching himself up for the conversation he knows is going to happen. One ear is trained on the conversation just outside his door.

Nighteye's words still ring in his ears, and weigh down on his own shoulders like the world itself.

"-e's an amazing explorer, and incredibly kind." The exuberant tones of young Tenya filter through the crack in the door. "You have nothing to worry about."

"I-I know, but I'm just a little nervous. Are you sure this is okay?" This voice is so quiet, and so distantly familiar it makes his heart ache.

"Of course it is," he hears Shouta say. "He's the one who asked for you. We already put you in the rosters as a student, and he's aware of the issue with your memory. Relax."

The guildmaster closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, peeking through the thick wood. Three of the auras are familiar, crackling in distinct blues and pinks and grays. One aura is unfamiliar, but it glimmers with such a lively deep green that he has a feeling he would've known exactly who it is, even without the forewarning. He stops looking and sighs.

(Just another student, just another student...)

Shouta pokes his head in. "I've brought the kid."

"Thank you, Shouta," he says. "Send him in, please."

Despite anything he said and thought before, he isn't ready for the one who walks through that door, lost and nervous and looking just the same as he remembers. It hurts so much more than he expected it to.

"Good evening!" He says, bowing and beaming and carefully avoiding the riolu's eyes so he doesn't have to see the blank look in his eyes. "You don't need to look so worried, my boy, you are hardly in trouble. My name is Toshinori Yagi-" (You already know that, but you don't, do you?)- "and I am the guildmaster here. It is wonderful to meet you, young Izuku!"

"T-thank you, sir!" Izuku yelps, bowing low. Toshinori focuses on ignoring the pang in his chest. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, b-but you knew that already, I guess. Thank you for allowing me into your guild!"

"Just Toshinori is fine," he replies, half on reflex. He places a paw on Izuku's shoulder, and decidedly pretends he isn't thinking about how small he still is compared to him. "Shouta has already explained the circumstances to me. We are more than happy to have you here with us, so please, consider this guild your home for as long as you'll have us, my boy."

Izuku beams, and Toshinori can hear relieved and excited squeaking from the other side of the door. That Izuku has already found good friends in the form of the other students warms his heart.

"Thank you so much," Izuku repeats, shuffling his feet.

"You will always be welcome - it's our pleasure, truly!" Toshinori grins, and lets his paw slip off Izuku's shoulder. "Now that we have our pleasantries out of the way - young Ochako and young Tenya, you can stop hovering by the door and come in as well."

They can't quite keep from smiling when they come in, though their bashful stances tell him all he needs to know.

"Sorry," Ochako says. "We just wanted to make sure Deku would be okay, I promise we didn't hear anything important."

"I believe you," Toshinori says. "You aren't in trouble either. I simply felt that since you were here, I might as well tell you all at once. Izuku will be rooming with you two for now, since you have the extra space, and I've already asked Ken to set up a new bed. Could you also show Izuku around, and partner up with him until he's gotten used to life here?"

"Absoutely!" Tenya salutes. "We will do our utmost to help him, and do everything in our power to make sure he adjusts well to life here at the guild!" Ochako nods eagerly.

"You needn't be so formal, young Tenya. But thank you, both of you." Toshinori says. "We'll introduce you to everyone in the morning, Izuku. Once you're more used to the other students and going on missions, we'll likely start pairing you up with others as well. Whether you go on any requests alone is entirely up to you, but not until Shouta clears you as ready, alright?"

Izuku nods.

"Excellent! That's everything I wanted to speak with you three about, so you're free to grab some dinner and go to bed." He put one paw on his hip and pumped the other in the air. "Make sure you get plenty of rest for tomorrow, so you can do your absolute best! PLUS ULTRA!!"

"Yes, sir!"

Toshinori beams at their enthusiasm. They file back out, gently shutting the door behind them, and after double-checking that no one is watching, he finally allows himself to slump to the floor.

"This is so much harder than we thought it would be." He shut his eyes. Izuku had smiled so brightly, with his friends by his side - there was more joy on his face than Toshinori had seen in years. If he tells Izuku now, if he doesn't give him a chance to decide or live life when Toshinori has had years to live his…

He won't tell him, not yet. He will not add to the burden of a child that is already so, so heavy.

"Oh, Nana" Toshinori sighs, "give me strength. What am I supposed to do now?"

.

.

Izuku pressed a paw on the bed closest to the window and furthest from the entry way - the one Tenya and Ochako had indicated as his. The material was softer than it looked, and for the millionth time today he marveled at the unfamiliar textures.

"What do you think, Deku?" Ochako asked. "I know all this is probably a lot, since you're missing a lot of memories and things."

"It's... nice." Izuku said. "There's a lot of things I don't know, but, I'll have time for that later. Right now, I think I'm good." He lay down. Moon and starlight filtered into the room, casting everything in faint shadows. As he stared out into the night, he couldn't help but be amazed by the deep sky and twinkling lights, so different from the sky he'd witnessed earlier.

"Don't be afraid to ask us or anyone about something," Tenya said, to his left. "I can't imagine what it must be like for you, barely knowing the world around you."

"I'm sure things will come back to you eventually. It does mean you get to experience a bunch of cool things for the first time, though!" Ochako added. "Maybe even for the second time!"

Tenya and Izuku both paused, then laughed. "It sounds kind of funny when you put it like that," Izuku snickered, rolling over to look at them better. "I'm doing things for the first time again. That doesn't even make sense!"

"It's not wrong, though," Tenya said, trying to keep his voice down. "Nonetheless, if you don't know what something is, you can always count on us."

"Really?"

"Of course!" Ochako flopped onto her bed. "That's what friends and partners and teammates are for, right?"

"Those are all the same thing," Tenya noted. Ochako stuck her tongue out. "But you're still right. Of course we mean it." Then he turned away. "Now, we have a long day ahead of us, so we'd best go to sleep. Goodnight, you two!"

"Goodnight, Tenya, goodnight, Deku."

"G-goodnight!"

Izuku rolled onto his back and shut his eyes. He listened to the low breathing of his friends and the faint and yet unfamiliar noises of the outside world, and and fell asleep.

[luucarii]

Persona 5 Ramblings

this shit is long. like really long.

and I sound like a crazed fangirl so....

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT. IM TALKING ABOUT LIKE ALMOST EVERYTHING BUD!!!

also, i curse way too much in this... apologies in advance 

also, happy father’s day even though this has nothing to do with it :)

THIS IS ALL BACKGROUND ON ME BEFORE I GOT THE GAME SKIP TO THE NEXT BOLD PART IF YOU WANT TO HEAR MY OPINION ON THE GAME ITSELF.

Okay, so I’ve mentioned vaguely how Persona 5 is my first encounter with the Persona series. I’d heard bits and pieces about the series but I never really understood the concept of Persona until maybe mid April of this year. I was on spring break from school and I don’t remember how exactly how I stumbled across it but i found this playthrough of Persona 5 on youtube and I was mildly interested. So I clicked on it, and into the emotional rollercoaster that is this game i went.

At the time, there was only about 11 episodes of the play through (each around an hour long) so I binged watched each episode ending up with me staying up past 2 am. I was just so invested. The opening drew me in the minute the camera showed off that smug little bastard Joker’s smirk over the casino (I’ll get into why I love this kid and the rest of the cast later). I was confused since I was going into Persona 5 with no knowledge of the whole concept of Personas at all. I was kinda just like “wow this looks badass. What is he doing? Oh my god, this game is so pretty.”

I ended up skipping around once I got tired of waiting for a new episode and watched this long ass livestream. I got to about Okumura’s Palace before there was nothing left for me to watch but the boss battles uploaded, which did spoil me a little bit and got me a bit confused but I was so interested that I honestly didn’t care. I was so surprised at Niijima’s Palace and her boss battle as a whole and was like “SHIT THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME!!!! OH MY GOD EVERYTHINGS BACK”

From there, I skipped straight to the traitor - aka Akechi’s battle - and can I just say, I was not surprised that he had a Persona but I was surprised that he betrayed the group considering all the story shit I skipped. Shido’s fight was fairly interesting to me but again, I skipped a bunch of story shit so I was really just rooting for the Phantom Thieves because this was THE ASSHOLE WHO GAVE MY POOR LITTLE AKIRA A CRIMINAL RECORD.

Skipped a bunch of shit again and onto the fight with Yaldobaoth. At this point I was drawing a lot of similarities to Xenoblade Chronicles, fighting a God for freedom and then THEY PULLED THE WHOLE BELIEF THINGY (which they did at the end of Okami as well) AT THE END WITH MISHIMA AND THE REST OF TOKYO BELIEVING IN THE THIEVES AND I WAS SOBBING LIKE A LITTLE BITCH AT 2 AM.

And after that, I made it a point that one day I’d play this game for myself. And it was maybe a few days after that I finally got the game.

Now at the time (and still now) I didn’t own a PS4 and was forced to use my brother’s when he was at work. Adding to the fact that school was beginning to start up again, I had at most maybe 6 hours to play a day if homework didn’t take up all my time. So what might’ve taken me a few weeks to beat took me almost 2 months to beat because of timing. 

BUT OH WELL, I HAD THE GAME, I PLAYED THE GAME, I LOVED THE GAME AND NOW IM GOING TO SQUEAL LIKE A FANGIRL OVER EVERY ASPECT OF THIS GAME THAT I ADORED.

GAMEPLAY

Okay, so I’ve played my fair share of JRPGs and Persona 5 was a nice familiarity. All the dungeon crawling, the fighting, turn-base combat, ya’ll get it.

BUT UM THESE DUNGEONS (Palaces if you would) ARE FREAKING GORGEOUS, HELL THE GAME ITSELF IS GORGEOUS.

Each Palace and their respective Shadow ruler has their own design, personality and each are based on the seven deadly sins which (after finishing FullMetal Alchemist a few months earlier) I thought was clever and interesting.

Kamoshida’s castle was a nice balance of a first dungeon and “hey we’re not gonna hold your hand, this is fairly simply kill some Shadows, find the infiltration route and don’t get kicked out.” ALSO RYUJI AND ANN’S AWAKENINGS. JUST THAT. INCREDIBLE.

Madarame’s museum had a little bit more difficulty but was still fairly easy. The security bars kinda gave me a little anxiety considering I was still getting used to all the controls (I had just finished an Xbox One game before playing this so my buttons were mixed up) and the little painting guessing game was a bit dumb considering each Sayuri looked EXACTLY THE SAME TO ME (except the color swapped ones) ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING YUSUKE WAS THERE AND COULD HAVE EASILY TOLD US BUT NO HE WANTED TO TEST AKIRA’S ART SKILL. ARE YOU APART OF THE PHANTOM THIEVES OR NOT YUSUKE??????????

but i digress…

Kaneshiro’s bank was fun but GOD SEND THOSE FREAKING SECURITY CAMERAS AND THOSE SHADOW DOGS TO HELL OH MY GOD I HATED THOSE. See my thing is, I’m not exactly a stealthy person. Which is why I love hiding because you can sneak up on Shadows and ambush them easily. I hate raising security level and those damn dogs were so annoying and just ugh. Those dogs are honestly one of the few grips I have with the game. Also, MAKOTO IS THE ACTUAL QUEEN.

Futaba’s temple was by far the longest one for me in terms of gameplay hours (in game time took me about 2-3 days) but it was still fun nonetheless and I’m glad Futaba (who is one of my favorite female characters) got some closure on her story with her mother and was able to rise above that. I’m a sucker for tragic backstories when their well executed. (i still to this day do not know how to pronounce her Persona…)

Okumura’s spaceship was my favorite aesthetically because I’ve always been interested in space and the stars and the little puzzle at the end with the space pockets was a nice bit of challenging and flying through Metaverse space. ALSO HARU HAS FLUFFY FLUFF HAIR AND HAS MY SECOND FAVORITE PHANTOM THIEF OUTFIT 

hmm, i wonder who has my favorite Phantom Thief outfit... Joker... It’s Joker... god damn those red gloves

Niijima’s casino, which OH MY GOD WERE BACK TO THE BEGINNING AND AKECHI’S WITH US AHH, and WHIMS OF FATE IS BEST PALACE THEME.

It was my favorite palace, no questions asked.

Shido’s ship was another long one but finally getting revenge on this dick was incredible. Also, AKECHI AND RYUJI PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS.

Mementos was a good idea as a whole but the way it was executed everything just sort of blended together for me and there were only a few requests that stood out to me. The music was bland (one of the blandest on the soundtrack, especially compared to the other Palace themes casually mentions Whims of Fates again) and during the late floors of Mementos, everything got so dark and it was really hard to see.

CHARACTERS

expect this to be me screaming a lot.

Akira Kurusu (Protagonist)

okay, um, i love this boy. like a lot. LIKE I WOULD DIE FOR HIM.

For a silent protagonist this guy sure has a lot of character. The rare times he speaks in cutscenes, specifically the ones where he’s Joker, he has this sort of cocky arrogance yet when he’s little Akira in his Shujin uniform he’s a quiet little curious boy. He’s incredible under pressure, like there’s only a few things that make him crack and his dialogue options are priceless.

I especially love Joker because I’m an honest to god mess when it comes to smug bastards and I have an unhealthy love for those crimson gloves of his.

But honestly he doesn’t deserve half the shit he gets in game. Besides the whole “game” set up by Yaldobaoth, he was sent away from his family and presumedly the friends he had back in his hometown all because of his probation, literally no one treats him with any sort of respect when he gets to Shibuya. Sojiro reminds him countless times the first what 3-4 months that he’ll be kicked out if he breaks his probation which (besides doing all that illegal shit as Phantom Thieves) he honestly just goes to school (a place where he gets even more shit from teachers and students), hangs out a little after and comes straight home. I know Akira’s been established to have a bad reputation because of his record but don’t these people have eyes??? Can’t they see that he’s obviously not a bad guy based on what he’s doing in school and not getting involved with the police??? Sojiro's exempt from this because he at least grows to like having Akira around and trusts him enough to go out at night, work in the store alone and lock up from him when he leaves.

AKIRA IS A GOOD BOY WHO DIDN’T DESERVE ALL THE SHIT GIVEN TO HIM

Also, Xander Mobus did a good ass job with his voice

Ryuji Sakamoto

see this post that basically sums up my feelings on this boy.

Also, Max Mittelman.

Ann Takamaki

CAN I JUST SAY ANN IS ONE OF THE BESTEST FRIENDS IVE EVER SEEN???????

Like she went through all that shit with Kamoshida, the harassment, possibly rape, all for freaking Shiho’s sake. Just… wow. That’s some freaking loyalty there. Shiho's the closest friend she has at Shujin (at least before the events of the game) and God knows how long she went along with Kamoshida’s bullshit all for Shiho. I mean I may sound a bit repetitive but holy shit that just amazes  me. SHE. ENDURED. SEXUAL. HARASSMENT. ALL. FOR. HER. BEST. FRIEND. And the minute she watched Shiho’s suicide attempt that was it. Any last bit of restraint she had left broke and she went full on at Kamoshida all for revenge for her best friend. My god.

Onto her confidant ranks, Ann is just a charismatic bundle of joy who just wants to make people happy. Yeah she butted heads with that girl (forgot her name…) and did fall down a little in terms of confidence but Akira and Shiho helped her through it and brought her back on her path of what she wants to do… Just ugh, I love Ann so much.

Yusuke Kitagawa

Yusuke’s a fan favorite and for good reason.

His backstory about how Madarame took him in after his mom died and overlooked his painting which led to the later plagiarism is an interesting one and I love how the Sayuri, the only thing left to connect him to his mother, is an important factor that leads to his realization of “oh shit this guy’s a dick who watched my mom die without helping her and he used me for money and fame.”

As a character though, Yusuke’s freaking weird. But i love him because of it. He has his formal tongue but that formal tongue casually overlooks any weird shit that comes out of his mouth. He doesn’t give any flying fucks about what people think of him and he speaks his mind like there’s no tomorrow. I still crack up at the nude painting scene with him and Ann because his mix of awkwardness and passion to paint a nice ass picture is just incredible. Also, another thing. He’s. So. Damn. Passionate. Like he ties art into everything, even fighting Shadows and he’s always looking for new ideas for paintings.

Also, Matt Mercer

Makoto Niijima

MAKOTO IS QUEEN.

She’s not my favorite female, that role goes to Futaba but she’s definitely number 2.

I genuinely have a love for the Niijima sisters because they complement each other so well. Sae’s the head of the house who also works tirelessly just to support her younger sister and it’s clear to see why Makoto would feel useless. She’s a high school student and as a student you really can’t do much that’ll pay the bills and keep food on the table unless you have a job which Makoto’s student council president and (i’m assuming) is in everything so it’d probably be hard as is to get a job and be of some sort of use to her sister. Then Kaneshiro comes around threatening her and Thieves and her sister and she just doesn’t want to feel useless anymore. She wants to do something after being forced to sit back and watch other people be counted on. And just, ugh, her awakening is by far my favorite out of all of them just because of everything behind it and just MAKOTO IS AMAZING, CASE CLOSED.

Also, Cherami Leigh.

Futaba Sakura

By far my favorite female as I feel our personalities are pretty damn similar. Besides her being a hacker and me not knowing anything about possibly illegal things like that, I relate to Futaba as she’s an introvert. She and I value our alone time and (although for different reasons) like being shut in. Now I’m not going to say Futaba and I share the same backstory because my God I’m honestly baffled how this girl went through years in solitude after her mother’s death thinking it was her fault. For one, she WATCHED HER MOTHER DIE IN FRONT OF HER. HOLY SHIT HOW DID THIS GIRL MANAGE TO FUNCTION WITH THAT MENTAL IMAGE IMPRINTED IN HER BRAIN???? AND THEN FOR YEARS ON END SHE LOCKED HERSELF UP AWAY FROM THE WORLD AND BEGAN HAVING ACTUAL PHYSICAL AND VERBAL HALLUCINATIONS AND IF IT WASNT FOR THE PHANTOM THIEVES SHE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ENDED UP KILLING HERSELF AND I DONT WANT TO THINK OF A WORLD WITHOUT THIS ADORABLE LITTLE OTAKU.

also, i really ship her and Yusuke Inari

Haru Okumura

For one, Haru is freaking adorable, I mean look at her. She has the short little fluffy fluff hair and her voice is so light and feathery and polite and WHY DOES SHE COME SO LATE IN THE DAMN GAME????

I was lucky enough to manage to finish her confidant before the end of the game but when her confidant first opened up to me (getting rank 5 Proficiency was a bitch) at that point I was planning on not doing her confidant at all, I was just planning on getting Baton Pass and ditching her because I didn’t think I’d finish it. I did (at the cost of not finishing Makoto’s, still extremely disappointed on that) and I have to say Haru’s confidant was by far my favorite one out of the ones I maxed out.

Her whole thing is now that her father’s dead, she’s basically the one inheriting everything from Okumura Foods and she never really understood anything to begin with and she thinks everyone who’s trying to help her is just doing it for their own self-gain.  Okumura Foods, at this point, is attempting to rise back up after all the shit her father put the company through and all the current bad reputation it has. Haru’s never had a chance in her life to make things for herself. She’s always been told what to do and has been very obedient (even agreeing to marry a literal dickhead all for her father’s company) and suddenly she’s given all control and doesn’t know what to do with it. All these happy smiling faces offering their help just seem like people attempting to take advantage of her incompetence. Akira helps her through it like the amazing boy that he is and Haru ends up finally being able to speak her mind about the company and what SHE wants to do. She gives the company up to someone who she believes is trustworthy and decides that she’ll one day open a small little cafe like Leblanc in the future after college. And honestly, just her overcoming her distrust and her previous shell of being obedient to rising up and making her own decisions it makes me so happy and proud to see her grow and change and just UGGH I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS DAMN CAST.

Morgana

This cat, literally this cat. HE BELONGS WITH AKIRA AND THE REST OF THE THIEVES NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.

Loud-mouthed, a little bit arrogant, Morgana is just an amazing character in general for me. I know Ryuji’s technically supposed to be the comic relief (and he does fulfill this role, don’t get me wrong) but I feel Morgana takes this spot too, especially the two bickering like an old married couple. I know some people hate on Morgana because of how he treats Ryuji and the amount of “go to bed” memes on Tumblr but all around Morgana is just a cat who was just looking for a place to call home. He was just looking for people to accept him.

And a part of me honestly hopes if there’s an add on for this game in the future, Morgana gets a human form because I’d love to see that.

Also, please tell me I’m not the only one who still mixes up Morgana’s gender. I still sometimes call him a her just out of habit because I can’t hear Cassandra Lee Morris as anything but a girl.

Also, Cassandra Lee Morris.

Goro Akechi

OKAY SO CONTROVERSY??? MAYBE??

I LIKE AKECHI

NO FUCK THAT

I LOVE AKECHI

LIKE HONEST TO GOD THIS BOY DESERVED BETTER.

Don’t misunderstand, I know he killed people. I know he caused all those shutdowns and was planning on killing the Thieves and eventually Shido himself (which now begs the question, say he did kill Shido, what next?)

I’m not denying anything he did. And yes, his backstory (although extremely saddening) does not justify his actions. He knew what he was doing and he still did it.

Akechi took the wrong path in his life. If anything you can sort of compare his story to Futaba’s in the sense that they both lost family members and were left with nothing. In Futaba’s case however, she still had people trying to help her. She had Sojiro who took her in after her uncle was abusing her or something and she had the Thieves who literally changed her heart and made her see the truth.

Akechi had absolutely nobody.

His mom died (suicide if I remember correctly), he was thrown into foster care, his own father (seriously, fuck Shido. Not just because of how he was with Akechi but everything in this damn game) didn’t even knew he existed. He had no acknowledgement, no affection, nothing. He was forced to make do with what little scraps he could find and make a life for himself.

Again, don’t misunderstand me. I know he killed people and his backstory does not justify his actions because he knew what he was doing was wrong. I’m just saying maybe if he had someone, anyone who was there to help him out, to pull him out of his misery he most likely would have been a different person. He wouldn’t have had his revenge for Shido be his only reason for living and he wouldn’t have gone out the way he did. It’s hard not to feel bad for him. He’s been alone all his damn life and all this guy really wanted was a friend, some teammates, people who wanted him around. I just wish Akechi had gotten a way to repent. I hate the fact that he died. One because we lost a good character and two because I genuinely believe that he wanted to change at the end. Akira changed him. The Thieves changed him. I wish he had gotten an ending where he could own up to his mistakes and be able to make up for lost time.

Just… ugh.

I’m apart of the “Akechi deserved better” group.

And I also ship Akeshu really really really hard.

Also, Robbie Daymond was freaking fantastic.

VERDICT

THIS IS LONG ENOUGH SO LET ME SUM IT UP IN A SENTENCE.

PERSONA 5 IS AMAZING, I LOVED IT.